Origin of Power

Chapter 11

We arrived at their base in less than an hour. It surprised me that we were still within the HA's territory, I wondered what the heroes would think if they realised the vigilante group was right under their noses.

From the outside it looked like any other house. It was at the end of a terrace, and the only one of the houses to have an attached garage. It was three stories high and judging from its location, I guess it wasn't cheap. Whoever this employer was, he was certainly taking care of them.

Amelia approached the front door, keys jingling as she pulled a chain stacked with them from her pocket, so many I wondered how she remembered what any of them were for.

"You all live here?"

"Not all of us," Mia said. "Everyone has rooms, but Jack and Ryan also have a place of their own. It's just us girls staying here permanently."

"Neat."

She smiled. "There's a room for you too."

"Seriously? I can stay here?"

She nodded. "It's important everyone has a place here. If you ever get injured, we can't have you going back to stay with your mum can we."

I thought of her face as I returned home, covered in blood or bandages. "No, that wouldn't go over very well."

Mia laughed loudly, she had a nice laugh. "No, I'm sure it wouldn't."

I followed the girls into the vestibule, closing the door behind me while Amelia worked on opening the second. I added my shoes to the pile of them on the left, listening as Amelia unlocked the three locks, far more secure than the outer door. She then peered through the peephole and I heard a click.

A retina scanner, I guessed. From the outside the door looked like ordinary wood, there was nothing unusual about it.

"That's cool," I said. "But what if someone tries to get in through a window?"

"Bullet proof glass," Mia said. "They would have better luck taking an axe to the door."

"No one's tried that yet," Amelia said, cracking a smile as she walked inside.

I breathed the warm air in deeply and followed into the hallway. There was an open door on the left, light flooding into the small hall. At the end was a narrow staircase that ascended a few steps before spiralling the other direction.

The left room opened up into a living room, a large wooden table in its centre sprawled with all sorts of papers in organised chaos. There was an old fireplace in the centre of the opposite wall, covered in dust and ash that made it look desperate for a clean.

Mia walked over to one of the computers on the left and took a seat, turning on a lamp at her side. No natural light reached the room, the window was patched over with black plastic sheets, taped down at the edges of the windowsill, leaving no chance for prying eyes.

"This is it. All the magic happens here," Amelia said, gesturing to the right. "That's Jack watching TV, also known as Snapshot."

"Welcome to our humble abode," he called, slouched on the central of three sofas, formed into a U around the TV. His eyes didn't leave it.

He was Chinese, it was clear from his accent—though slight—he must have lived there when he was younger. His hair was black as coal, cut short and spiked up at the front. He wore stained grey jeans and a black leather jacket, nothing like the Titan hunting expert I had seen last night.

"Your rooms upstairs, first floor," Amelia said.

"I hope you know we've sacrificed a lot for you," Jack said. "That was our dumping room."