Chapter 8: Super Heroes?

What a close call… I still couldn’t get that rumble out of my head. I should have checked her stats to see what we were up against, but I was more worried about keeping Dessi safe. I had to wonder though what they would do to that girl. She had already proven to be dangerous, and may not be super hero material.

After TBC contained the rookie, we were told to brush it off and stay on schedule. Our Inauguration. The auditorium Dessi and I stepped into was massive, the inside of it resembling that of a scientific conference hall with geometric diamond cutouts for walls. The space was bleach white, but with purple overhead lightings, the interior of the room was on the slightly darker side. That didn’t stop me from making out the features of America’s rookie supes though, a wave of new comers pouring in just as we reached west wing.

The variants were interesting to say the least. Some phenotypes were tame while others were out-wordly or downright mythical. I noticed the gender ratio favored women, all types taking a seat in front of the center stage down the sloped audience area. Grey women, blue, purple with tusks, scales, gills, furry tails, and um, ooze? There was one in particular that had me seriously staring, a praying mantis with the head of who I assumed was her mate on her shoulder.

I guess Rynn was going to make it her mission to stay clear of her.

The overflow of women would explain why my team was gender biased, as well as others I’d assume, clusters of four taking their seats before the elevated stage. If I were to take a wild guess, there was at least over eighty supes here currently, and I'd expect more to come in the next few minutes.

"We should sit in the middle," Dessi suggested, before Rynn and Aster strolled in behind us.

"Liam," Aster purred, joining Dessi and I on the sidelines scoping our seats. "Looks like you found our fourth."

"My name is Dessi," she introduced, her delightful voice complimenting her friendly personality. "It's a pleasure to meet you both!"

"Aster."

"Rynn."

"Well, it seems like we're all here then," I said with a smile on my face. "The other teams are sitting together, so should we."

The girls went with my suggestion, and I went with Dessi's, sitting in the middle where another team sat in the same row. There was a seat in between us, but I noticed another male supe, a guy with red dragon-like scales fading down his arms, with three other girls sitting to his right. They couldn’t take their eyes off me, except for the dragon guy with the black claws, who hadn’t even given me eye contact. I could tell on his face though, he was ticked off, probably by the situation we found ourselves in with The Brother’s Code, or the general chaos that had swept the nation.

The blond kept with the dark look, his eyes forward and his arms crossed while the rest of his team remained quiet. I might have been caught staring longer than I should, Dessi prodding me with a sudden question, “Liam, is everything all right?”

I turned to her with my mouth agape, before shaking that look of confusion off my face. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I said to her warmly, noticing she had taken a seat to my left. Aster sat by her, and then Rynn. And before I knew it, the hall had a spread of supes ready to be inaugurated.

Pamela took the stage up the short flight of steps, followed by a few businessmen and women, and then an elderly guy in a dark blue suit. Caucasian, no taller than six feet, with a stocky gut, and a clean shaven grey hairline. He almost looked like Rachel’s dad if he were about twenty years older, his droopy but sharp eyes scanning his audience.

He took to Pamela’s side as she approached the podium, with his hands folded behind his back, and his stance professional. The room went quiet once they noticed the overseer prepared to give us her speech.

“Greetings, newly assigned members of The Brother’s Code. I welcome you all to Serva, a training campus and institution where you will be serving during your stay with us. It is with a warm heart I begin this meeting by expressing my deepest thanks, to all of you who accepted a contract with us, in purging the world of a common threat, Dracier-Tech. So that we may better not only the livelihood of ourselves, but of our families and neighbors as well. Your courage and commitment will not be overlooked, for it isn’t everyday our nation endures such devastating circumstances. And for that, I stand here with you all today, pledging my allegiance to you, The Brother’s Code, and will do everything in my power to steer us all to victory.”

“Smph, what a load of bullshit,” the blond guy sitting near me mouthed under his quiet breath, sucking his teeth at Pamela’s words.

Only a light applause found the crowd, and it seemed like this guy wasn’t the only supe bitter about this agreement. I didn’t blame them, nor did I try understanding where they were coming from. They’d recently been transformed, super powers or not. Stripped from their families and friends, their livelihood, their homes. Whereas for me, I’d been an alien to this world all of my life, having been experimented on with the powers I’ve had for as long as I could remember. While I still missed my family in Roe City, nothing could compare to how all of these victims felt, displaced in a world turned upside down because of my DNA.

“Now, I would like to give the floor over to the embodiment of our mission here in The Brother’s Code, founder and chairman, Doctor Richmond Walter Sr.”

He took the microphone, his walk almost robotic. That face of his still looked at the audience with indifference, the guy appearing absolutely hollow inside. I tried keeping the judgments for after his speech, but I couldn’t help it. He might as well have been talking to a bunch of programmed robots with how unsympathetic he looked.

“Good afternoon, and thank you Miss Zuchek and staff for coordinating our itinerary for today.”

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Cold, pitiless, a voice of a true tycoon.

“My name is Doctor Richmond Walter Senior, founder and head of The Brother’s Code. As you may know, we have fallen as a nation, and it is up to us to mend our shattered society as a collective whole. This effort requires all participants to put in their fair share, day in and day out, until the threat is neutralized. I designed this institute and training facility to facilitate our main goal, prioritizing excellence within the scope of your superhuman strengths, while encouraging the preservation of mankind. I will not stand here and lie to you today, and tell you that this journey will be easy. It is anything but. Many are still in the medical wards from injuries sustained from their own powers, others are in rehab cells coping with self-control. The changes you have all undergone reach further than the microscopic level, and we here at The Brother’s Code are well aware of the many trials and errors it will take to perfect super heroes.”

“Teh, asshole is talkin’ like he is running a supe factory. Tight collared prick,” my neighbor whispered, making my head turn to him. “If you ask me, we are the ones who should be runnin’ this show, not a bunch of regs, who have no idea what they are getting themselves into.”

“That’s what they are trying to figure out,” I defended, speaking quietly under my voice while the founder continued his speech.

“Oh yeah?” he said, finally turning his eyes at me. “With drug tests? Sounds like regulation to me. All they are really trying to do is control us, period. Sure, they want to clean up the trash too, but what do you think they are going to do once this is all over? Why do you think they rammed chips in the back of our necks? This is all a façade, a show to cover the real plan here. But don’t you mind me.” He chuckled. “I’m going to play along and get all the help I can get. I mean, a free apartment, free food, free training. A chance to get out there and see what these powers can do? I’ll milk the shit out of this, and then take on my own with no strings attached. And if you were smart, you’d do the same thing. Unless you want to stay a slave to these people. The way I see it, TBC and Dracier Bio-Tech are one in the fucking same.”

Conspiracy theories weren’t what I needed to hear right now. He was putting thoughts in my head, because I remembered the first impression I had of Pamela, and now he was saying the same thing. I didn’t want to turn around and abuse the system, become a vigilante, especially so early in the process. Hell, we were still being inaugurated—not the wisest time to be a rebel.

I tuned out the bad grape in the cluster and turned my focus to the founder, listening to what he had to say.

“Serva is a dense campus designed to accommodate various elemental conditions, and some unprocessed variables. We are still expanding, aware that there is no cookie cutter answer to a few of your undomesticated abilities. While we are rapidly growing, we ask that you are patient with us while we work on catering our training sectors to your needs.”

I was right, they couldn’t have expected this spread of super powers. How this all laid out was literally in the air, but at least they were determined to make this work for everyone.

“The Brother’s Code’s ability to adapt and change is fundamental to our mission here. Now, more than ever, we need to answer the calling, to help our nation rebuild, beginning with tearing down the towers of oppression. And on the bottom tower are supes just like you, who had either been taken by the enemy, or had wandered astray. In both scenarios, it is up to us to bring them back, on our side. And when resistance is evident, you must snuff out the threat.”

Gasps, whispers and grunts floated through the crowd.

“Perhaps that is the hardest mental change that needs conditioning—I understand, we are all human, but some humans can’t be saved. Here in TBC, we are training super heroes to the extreme factor. And that means, no loose ends. I believe you are all smart and knowledgeable, and understand in doing this, we prevent further expansion of bad blood.”

“Are you seriously asking us to kill?” a girl the color of Pepto-Bismol spoke, jumping up from her seat in the crowd and addressed him.

“What about the Superman code? And I’m not talking about the Superman from Earth-22. No supe kills. Ever!”

“We are not living in a fantasy world, Blaze,” the doc retorted to the guy with his head on fire.

“But they didn’t ask for this!”

“This is not open for discussion. You have all been contracted to follow the rules of The Brother’s Code, and on that contract, our rules have been made clear; that we are to decide freely how to carry out our acts of humankind preservation. I have not opened the floor for remarks, and I kindly ask that you hold your questions for the end of our meeting.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk, already setting bad vibes, don’t you think?” dragon boy said, tossing his arms behind his head and leaning back in his seat. “I don’t give a rat’s ass how we take care of the waste, just as long as it’s gone.”

The ruthless doctor went on to discuss what was expected of us, and recapped everything we had to do on our first day here. Right after the meeting, everyone would rotate through being fitted for suits, drug tests, psych tests and physicals. Tomorrow, training would start, and for the juvies still in high school, a curriculum covering education of both academic and combative proportions.

Still, no one gave us a timeline, so I continued thinking this would all clear itself out in a few weeks or so.

By the end of the meeting, my thoughts about The Brother’s Code hadn’t really changed. We’d just heard the same message given in another voice; Pamela was a kinder type of straight forward, while the doctor had a no bullshit approach. He didn’t want to sugar coat it, and that rubbed people the wrong way. As for me though, I was going to do my part regardless, so that I could shut down that research lab for good, and find my Rachel.

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