The eighty foot yacht rocked gently from side to side, massaged by the Southern Ocean supporting it. Sun shone brightly off the white and silver hull and Payson squinted her eyes as she strained to look off in the distance; they were stranded and despite Steven and James's presence she had never felt more alone. Less than a week ago her son had been shot with automatic weapons and her loving boyfriend had been literally dismantled and torn to pieces by an unknown assailant. Payson knew that Steven was trying his best to protect their family but she couldn't help feeling lost and out of control. She didn't know whose boat they were on or why they avoided any kind of mainland like their lives depended upon it.
In reality, Stalphos's defeat at the hands of Sin was known in lay-mans terms as a 'game changer'. Payson began to lose her faith in Steven and doubted his ability to protect her or their son. Steven was losing confidence in his own abilities and coupled with the abduction of his father, Steven was experiencing tribulations similar to what he felt when his mother was murdered.
Payson wasn't the only person watching the satellite images of Stalphos and Sins battle. Steven's old mentor, Sergeant Eugene Cutter witnessed the entire confrontation and after seeing Sin drop a building on Steven he decided it was time to reach out to his old protégé. Eugene was hesitant to do so; since the feud between Dawson Industries and Freedom Industries had been resolved, Eugene had spent his life living off the grid and protecting the last living scientist known to have worked with the REP-X drug. Dr. Sherise Wellington.
While Dr. Wellington examined James, no one was allowed to interrupt her work. Steven was busy with Eugene trying to track down his abducted father. Sergeant Cutter didn't allow anyone else on the boat because he was protecting Dr. Wellington; all of these contributing factors just compounded the lonely feeling that plagued Payson.
Inside of the yacht, below deck Steven found himself sitting beside his old mentor and studying hours of old Stalphos suit recording. The two men were reviewing the battle and hours upon hours of prior footage, looking for something that could lead to a break through. Right now any clue would be considered a breakthrough. Steven leaned back in his seat and rubbed his eyes with both fists. "I can't keep watching this crap. I lived it, I should have picked up on whatever was wrong."
"Stop blaming yourself Steven, you're only going to make the situation worse." Eugene's voice lacked emotion. Steven knew the Sergeant well enough to understand that a lack of emotion was a positive thing; at least Steven wasn't being put down directly. "I'm sure you picked up on something, you realized something was amiss you just picked up on the wrong thing. If this Sin used some kind of misdirection it's possible you didn't even realize when your father was being abducted or when your family was being attacked or when you were being ambushed."
Steven bowed his head and his shoulders sank as he relaxed his posture. Before he opened his mouth to speak he realized that a sense of negativity was creeping over him and this needed to be corrected before he could address Eugene. "All of those things happened." He raised his head and looked to the monitor once again.
Eugene was watching footage of the home invasion now. Steven was ready to take a break when the flash he needed appeared. "What was that?" Steven asked, confusing Eugene. The image appeared and disappeared faster than the former Sergeant could comprehend; the only reason Steven recognized what he saw was because he had lived what they were watching. Steven took control of the replay system and rewound the digital images until he could examine what he was referring to.
Looking closely at the body armour and uniform of one of the home invaders, Sergeant Cutter understood what Steven was referring to. "Okay, we can compare that to..." Sergeant Cutter replaced Steven at the replay controls once more; this time a second screen was used to play through previous images. On the first screen, a frozen image of an assailant appeared suspended in mid-air; this man had been struck by Stalphos and was on his way out of the house the hard way, through a brick wall. On the screen to the left, Eugene was fast forwarding the recording. Past the highway chase, past the battle in the streets with the helicopter. "They're wearing the same armour; it could be a coincidence." Sergeant Cutter said quietly.
أنت تقرأ
Stalphos Saga (Book Two)
حركة (أكشن)Four years after the fall of Freedom Industries and Arthur Granite's death, Steven Dawson has established himself as Stalphos; a superhero. Steven has a son of his own, a second generation REP-X drug patient and complications abound as he grows. I...
