Laurence Barnes put down his telephone slowly. There was no way that this could be possible. Firstly, he was surprised that anyone knew how to contact him. He had only kept the one phone in case HE needed to get someone, not vice versa. Secondly, and more worrying, these "nations" (which he had never heard of up till now) were telling him that the Ceph threat had once again resurfaced, and they needed him to once again take up arms. Laurence had been through enough wars for multiple lifetimes.
Laurence weighed his options. He could ignore the call and risk possible extinction of the human race, or he could go and check on the situation to stay on the safe side. Choosing the latter for obvious reasons, he picked up the phone and hit the redial button. As soon as the other line picked up he said "I'm in." "Great! Hold on just a sec. PROPHET'S COMING!" Laurence winced as the abnormally energetic shout rang in his ears. "Awesome, dude! We're sending a plane to get you now. Actually, it's already halfway there. We kinda expected you would say yes." Laurence rolled his eyes and asked "Should I bring anything?" The response came with a loud, overconfident laugh, "The nanosuit of course, and any other stuff you think you should need." The phone dropped from Laurence's hand. "Hello? Dude, Prophet, you still there bro?" America turned to the other nations, who were all sitting on the edge of their seats. He shrugged. "I guess we got disconnected."
Laurence sat down on his creaky bed with shaking hands. Do they have any idea what that damn suit did to me? He thought to himself as memories danced before his eyes, remembering falling to the Manhattan Virus and how he put a bullet in his head to free himself. Remembering how the Alpha Ceph used the Ceph DNA in his body that entered via the nanosuit to hold him down as Rasch had killed Claire Fontanelli before his very eyes. Remembering the countless voices "You may as well be a fucking machine, because you sure as hell ain't no human being anymore.""Is it Ceph? Is it human?" "You don't have a name. People have names. You have a call sign.". No, if they knew they wouldn't ask. Laurence hadn't felt regret when fighting the Alpha Ceph because he was mad with rage. But after the fight ended, he was filled with a void. He knew he couldn't regain his humanity. Even after all her had sacrificed, all he had done to preserve the human race, there was no reward. Not even a pat on the back. He had long since abandoned thoughts of pride, that he was a hero. Pushing these thoughts aside, he came to the conclusion that served both his refusal and their request. He would bring the suit, but not wear it.
Laurence walked to the corner of his rugged home towards a long wooden shipping crate and pried it open with a crowbar. After a moment of hesitation, he threw off the lid. He looked down into the box, and his gaze was met by that of a red visor.
"I'm tellin' you, he's not going to willingly put on that suit again!" Michael Sykes yelled into the receiver. "But he has to! Can't he see that this is a matter of life and death?" America said insistently. "I don't know if you realize this mate, but he did die, then came back to life to continue doin' what he thought was right. No man should have to do that at all, 'specially not twice!" The nation persisted on. "But he said he would bring the suit-""Did he now? Because I got plenty reason to believe you're lyin' to me. If you want my opinion, I would get your scientists together, and start buildin' new suits because, as I've stated a thousand fuckin' times already, it's not happenin' mate." America paused. "That's actually not a bad idea…" He began thinking of the possibilities. "I wasn't serious mate, are you seriously going to build more suits?" America started writing a note to go directly to the copier, then to be sent to all the nations' scientist teams. "Yeah Michael, we are. And if I'm not mistaken, you were one of the original nanosuit wearers." Michael choked up, thinking of how he had been skinned of his nanosuit, and not thirty minutes after he had forgiven Claire, who was responsible for it, she was killed by the Ceph. "Yeah, I was. Key word 'was'. I lost my suit." America let out a small grin. "I think that we can solve that. How would you like to be part of the new team of supersoldiers?" Michael's jaw literally dropped. It took him several moments to compose himself. "Is that even a fuckin' question? I would be honored to continue kicking squid ass on a whole new level! Of course, if you're lyin to me, I will kill you with a smile on my face." America smiled "Believe me dude; I wouldn't lie at a time like this. I'll get you to HQ as soon as possible." After the call was ended, America muttered to himself "These aliens won't know what hit them"