Origin of Power

Chapter 8

It had been roughly twenty minutes when the van pulled to a stop and I heard the grating creak of a garage door. Mia pulled the van forward and it closed behind us. This was it, I had arrived.

I gulped and tried not to show my nervousness, which wasn't easy. I was tired, my face and neck still hurt from the fight with Pocket Rocket, and I was trapped.

The engine stopped, and Mia turned around, eyes shadowed beneath her blue mask. "I'll need some sort of ID."

I shook my head. "I don't have anything."

"Convenient," Binder snorted.

"It's fine," Mia said, reaching over Lightshow and opening the glovebox. She rummaged around inside then pulled out a piece of folded paper and pen. "Here, write down your full name and date of birth. I'll be able to find you."

I took it and hesitated. There was no going back after this. She would know my name, how I looked and where I lived. I would be risking everything. It was odd, I had been so focused on finding the Nighthawks I hadn't thought about what I was risking once I did. After all, they were strangers.

No, I resolved myself. They are heroes. If I couldn't trust them how could I expect them to trust me. It made sense to be cautious, I would be too; it was as much a risk for them as it was for me. They must by targets on many Tyrants lists, of course they would worry I was a spy.

I wrote down my details and handed them back to Mia. She glanced at it, tucked it into her inner coat pocket and nodded. That was it, she knew my full name and soon she would know more.

"Is there anything you want to say," Mia said. "This is your last chance to back out of this.

My eyes widened, and I gulped. Or what? I thought, but found I didn't want to know the answer. I opened my mouth to speak, then coughed as I realised it had gone dry.

"No, nothing like that," I said. "Oh, actually, a couple of days ago I was cornered by a bunch of thugs and used my power to get away."

Snapshot clapped. "You're the rogue Titan we've been hearing about! I thought he had lightning powers though."

"Yeah, that's probably me."

"You can use lightning?" Snapshot asked.

"No, my powers don't have anything to do with lightning."

"Shame. A power as destructive as lightning would really make us a threat," Snapshot said.

I shrugged.

"Was it near where you live?" Lightshow asked.

I paused for a moment. "Yes."

"You're lucky then, if they got a better look, someone might have guessed you live nearby," Mia said. "It happens. Best not to use your power too close to home."

"Yeah, it was careless."

"It really was," Snapshot said. "Especially now you took Pocket Rocket out."

"You think he will come after me?"

"Him? Nah. He'll be locked up in the Facility within the hour. Unless he gets out, you're good. I doubt he got a good enough look at your face in the dark anyway."

"It's not Pocket Rocket you need to worry about," Mia said. "He was one of the Drug Den's key members. Their stockpile, their mobile arsenal. Now that the heroes have him, they also had the millions of pounds worth of drugs and weapons he stored with his power."