Polaris: Origins

Chapter 10

We locked the house and walked out into the yard towards the dock and Grandpa placed the keys in his pocket.

Were we going for a swim? Why would he lock the house?

We walked straight down the dock.

"Dad, you know there is a bend here right?"

He chuckled. "I built that bend to make it even harder to find this place."

He bent down and pressed something near the base of the corner pole. He stood back up and looked at me smiling.

"Remember when I told you my name was Guardian?" he asked.

"Yeah?"

"Well let me show you what my job was."

No sooner had he said that I heard a swooshing sound. Out of the water in front of us, a glass ball was pushed out and sat on the water and a piece of its face retracted inside and moved aside creating an opening.

Grandpa climbed in and signaled for me to come in as well. He pulled the piece of glass across and pushed it back into place with a click.

A few moments later, the glass ball started descending back into the water.

I was excited at this new prospect. This was unexpected and cool. Although I constantly looking around, maybe expecting to see a crack or two, I wanted to see where we were going.

But we just kept going down until suddenly, a dark structure started surrounding the ball and then the glass ball stopped.

Then water started draining around the ball. "We're here" Grandpa announced as the door sucked in and slid around, leaving an open entryway once more.

The room was then illuminated with lights. I looked up to see that the roof had been sealed from the lake.

Grandpa walked up to a wall that had a screen and keypad in it. Some sort of console. He pressed a button and the metal post attached by a clamp to the bottom of the ball, disengaged and slid into the floor.

Grandpa then typed a few numbers into the console and the wall next to him slid in and then into the wall.

He smiled with a wink and motioned me to follow him in. When I walked through the doorway, my jaw dropped at the sight.

A large room filled with gadgets, weapons, and various superhero gear and tech.

Along one wall was a huge screen with two smaller screens at the side of it and a huge console underneath.

The wall on the other side contained a built-in glass casing with about 20 "power" globes in them.

Along another wall had 3 suits in capsules and on the side of it a large tube thing, with a stand next to it.

"Welcome to my base, son" Grandpa said.

"It's amazing" I whispered in awe. "Did you build this"

"No, no" he chuckled. "It was designed and built for me by another hero. It has stood the test of time and is one of the three superhero bases in existence"

I was still in awe of the magnificence of the structure.

"Only three?"

"Yes. The others have either been infiltrated and destroyed by villains or have been taken over by the government"

"Why do they hate us,Dad?"

"Who are the they that you speak of?"

"The normal people, the government, the police"

"Well, son. There is no easy explanation for that." He started walking around the room.

"The human mind is very hard to control. We all know this. What humans have is this predisposition to control, and what they cannot control they seek to destroy.

They cannot control the supers. In their mind, the divide between being a hero and a villain is so thin, that at any time, we can go across to the other side.

They have no way of controlling us, the decisions we make nor our powers. So they try to destroy us, shut us down."

"But aren't we humans too? Don't we have rights?"

"They don't want to hear about rights. All they see is an uncontrollable threat. But mark my words, a day will come when they will put us out and try to take us out, and when they do, they will destroy any hopes of controlling the villains of this world.

In that effort, they may create more of them. That's why you must not show anyone your power. The more unknown you are to the system, the less knowledge they will have of you."

I nodded my head. My parents had been keeping me is a safe zone for years. The threat had now become more real than expected, and it had hit too close to home for my liking.

"What about mom and dad?" I asked, I barely recognized my voice. All I could hear was fear.

"Your dad is doing what he can. I raised a brilliant man. He is already handling it, but it can only last so long."