1.
It wasn't until the sun peaked up on over the horizon of that Sunday morning that John headed for home. Well, it was a good a home as any. He supposed he should call it school, but no school he had been too had been so nice to him, or had a bed as nice as his room had.
"Autopilot, on. Take me home." John spoke with a sense of disbelief. He felt like a fighter pilot on his way back to base after accomplishing a daring mission. It wasn't but a few hours ago that John had saved those hostages' lives, well the suit had done a lot of the work on its own, but he had delivered the final blow.
On the radio, and the few news stations John could pick up on his HUD, they had been talking about a daring rescue attempt by an certain officer Brown of the Sol Police Department. He was a rookie with a big heart and a gut of steel, the news casters kept saying. They said he stormed in and took down three armed guards without injuring the hostages. He was 'modest' of course. He kept repeating that if it weren't for his partner he wouldn't have gotten out alive. His partner wasn't available for comment.
John merely smiled at it all. His mind went the possibility that someone might have seen him and the repercussions that would have. Who knows what they would do to him? So he was unbelievably relieved when he found out that he had gotten away without being noticed (or so he thought).
"Predestination set as home was deleted. New destination must be set." John thought for a moment before setting a destination.
"Sol academy," he said. "Room 117."
"Rodger, [INSERT NAME]." The robot's voice went low toward the end. John noticed that whenever something was missing, the robot's voice went from mimicking human speech, to just becoming a metallic hum from some subroutine deep in the suits coded system.
"John. My name is John."
"Rodger, John. All routes leading to [INSERT NAME] will redirect to John." The voice sounded as cheery as it had when John first stepped into the suit. "Nice to meet you. You can call me [COMPUTER], [FRIEND], [BUDDY], [PAL], and if you happen to be of Latino decent, [AMIGO] is also acceptable."
"Nice to meet you too, Computer."
Together they glided through the crisp morning air, the Sol academy appearing as several large buildings all interconnected by sidewalks and roads that spread over a four cubic block area. It grew larger as they got closer and closer. The detail and sheer size of the school made John think back to the Janus military academy. It was there that he had learned what he knew about protection and integrity. Mainly he learned how to take care of himself. But those thoughts quickly disappeared as he noticed he wasn't slowing down as they got closer and closer to his dorm room.
"Computer, why aren't we slowing down?"
"We have yet to reach our destination."
"I don't care, we need to slow down or we're gonna…" Then there was a crash as they flew through the window opposite the door. John tumbled onto the carpeted floor, rolled forwards and slammed into the wall with a resounding thud. He didn't feel injured but his head was immediately filled with worries. What if someone came in? What if they saw me? What about…John turned to look at the top bunk. Miraculously, Linda was not present. He breathed a sigh of relief.
"Computer, what do we do? How do I take this armor off."
"Not to worry, John. Whenever the Mjolnir Powered Assault armor is no longer needed you simply activate command [POWEROFF]." The voice was still peppy and happy. Well it obviously had no idea that John was on the verge of taking a dump in his pants.
"Ok, ok, ok. Activate command, power off!" There was a high pitched hum that entered John's ears as the HUD died, rendering his vision useless once again. But then he could see again, and this time without a screen in between him and the world. The helmet seemed to fold downwards into the chest piece, as did the arms. The boots folded up and went to the shins then the thighs, and then they too folded up into the chest. Then it all folded up into a spherical shape on John's chest.
The shape glowed as the black under-suit that coated all of John's body (excluding his head) rolled back off of his skin. It look like scales that retracted into more scales until he was standing in the boxers he went to bed in. The spherical shape stopped glowing and dropped from his chest to the floor.
John stared at it. It looked like a green belt buckle, in the shape of a half-orb, no bigger than his fist. It's surface was clean and polished, shining and emerald color that John found absolutely beautiful. He began to bend down and touch it when there was a knock at the door. His gut instinct kicked the object under the bunk-bed and out of sight.
"Uh," John stammered. "Come in?" It was more of a question, but the person on the other side of the door didn't seem to notice, for they pushed open the door with a look of confusion and frustration on their face. It was a male, looked to be middle aged with thinning hair and dressed for bed. John knew that somehow he had been woken up because of him and he felt cornered.
"What the hell is going on in here?" The man asked, his eyes going from John to the window, back to John then back to the window. John thought quick and replied.
"What do you mean, sir?" The man seemed to like being called sir, but it didn't stop him from looking pissed.
"What do you mean, 'what do I mean'? I was called up here, at five thirty in the morning because someone was complaining about a racket!" There was a pause before he added, "And your damn window's busted!"
"Sir, I can explain. The storm last night, it busted out our window."
"What? How? There was no hail or anything."
"It was a twig, a branch really. Linda, my roommate, was taking it outside to dispose of it."
"Uh huh, likely story. What was all the noise then?"
"Well it was me, waking up to the surprise that the window had been broken. I tripped trying to avoid stepping on all of the glass." The man's expression was perplexed as he studied John, then the window, then John again.
"Alright young man, we'll just have to ask your roommate about this!"
"Ask me about what?" Linda was there, in the door way, her eyes followed the same path as the middle aged man's had. They went to John, then to the window (a hint of shock appearing on her face) then back to John.
"This man says that a twig,"
"A branch, sir."
"A branch came through your window last night. Is that true, Linda?" The way the man said her name made John think that he knew her. He felt even more cornered than he did before.
"It's the truth." Her eyes averted from John to the man.
"Now, don't lie to me, Linda. I know your father as you very well know. One call and I can have you sent home for the semester. You don't want to be behind all of your classmates do you?" Linda eyed John again, not even seeming to hear what the mad had to say.
"I wouldn't lie, sir. It's the truth."
"Then what were you doing, just now that is before you came in?"
"I was getting rid of the branch of course." John held back his relief and merely stared at the girl he had only met yesterday. She looked the man firm in the eyes as she spoke, something that John might have found difficult.
"Alright, Linda. I'll take your word." The man's face went from anger to reprieve and he turned to exit the room. "Just stay out of trouble and clean up that glass." The door shut leaving Linda and John standing in the room. John's face pulled back into a smile and Linda's as well.
"Thank you, ma'am." John said. Linda shot him a look that said 'what'd you call me'.
"I'm no ma'am, Mister."
"Ok, then thank you miss." Linda laughed and slapped John on the back.
"No problem. It's all in a days work. Now, are you gonna tell me what actually happened in here?"
"It was a twig…a branch really." John gave her a smirk before turning away and going to clean up the glass. All of a sudden it all hit him; he had gotten away with it.
2.
"What happened?"
"Well, sir, uh ma'am, you see…"
"I don't want your damn excuses! Just tell me what happened!"
"He was tricky, he tricked me, he, uh, uh…"
"You underestimated him." The voice was quiet but fierce. "You stupid sunovabitch! He was chosen for a reason! And now, guess what? Can you guess, Ackerson?"
"Well, ma'am…"
"He's got the suit and we don't have clearance to go after it. Do you know why? Don't even answer, of course you don't. You're a damn nitwit." Ackerson flinched, trying to hold his ground. "Because, in the records, it's reported that he isn't fit to be part of the program. And even though I'm the boss, certain protocols have to be followed to insure discrepancy. Do you understand you little shit?"
"Yes, ma'm."
"No. No you don't." A long gap of silence stretched out before them, as the female shifted in her leather chair. "It means we're going to have to find a way around protocol. And I know just the way."
"I'm sure you do, ma'am."
"Of course I do. I should have known you would screw it up, and that's my fault. I won't take your word again."
"But, sir, uh, I mean, ma'am."
"Silence." The voice was calm, cool, collected. "Now here's what we're going to do…"
James Ackerson listened intently, making little mental notes whenever something important came up, and it was all important. When 'the boss' was done telling her plan, James exited the building and got in his government marked vehicle and headed south down Drew Avenue. He had a stop to make; he had several stops to make.
Thanks for reading and reviewing! This concludes the introduction of this story. Think of it as the one hour season opener of a T.V show. I'm going to write the story in episodes, every two (sometimes three) chapters will be an episode, and I plan on making this work like a super hero cartoon (like the ones we used to watch on Saturday mornings). I hope you like it!