My Supers Online Chapter 11_My Supers Online

Chapter 11

Alex opened the rear lift gate for their truck and tossed in their bag of swag that they’d looted from their enemies. Before he closed the back, he grabbed one each of the serums and shoved the into the pocket on his pants. Respec and Kandace got into the back seat of the SUV while Alex climbed into the driver’s side and Obsidian got into her own seat.

The sun fell as night approached when the pulled out of the small parking lot. Driving out of town they noticed that there was a massive storm brewing that was moving in towards the north. They were driving back towards Winter’s Garden just in time to miss the white.

“Will you ship be safe if we leave it up there unattended?” Alex asked keeping his eyes on the road, but he glanced up into the mirror to look at Respec.

“No one should be able to breach my ship.” She said shaking her head.

“I got in.” Kandace said smugly.

“I’m sorry if this offends your sense of pride, but you did nothing. I opened the door because I sensed to ill will from you. I kept the ship sealed when there was one large source of negative mind space. His thoughts were to dismantle and replicate any advance technologies found as well as any species inside.” Respec said with a solemn look.

“I didn’t open the door?” She replied in surprise.

“No, I am sorry.” Respec said shaking her head.

“Well damn.” Kandace said and she looked down.

“Have you gotten ahold of Calson?” Obsidian asked after a few moments of awkward silence.

“No, I should probably call him and get an update.” Alex said shaking his head, “Function could you connected me with Calson?”

“Yes sir.” Function said connecting the call.

“Hello.” Calson said answering his line.

“What is up Calson. How’s things?” Alex said cheerfully.

“To be honest I’m just a little terrified as of late, but otherwise things are good.” Calson said matching Alex’s sarcasm.

“Well, we are on our way back. Have they figured out who is taking credit for the bombing?” Alex asked.

“No one is taking credit.” Calson said solemnly, “The workers are nervous, but I’ve managed to convince many of them that it was an isolated event. So far that has been the case.”

“Try to keep a lid on things, we will be back soon.” Alex said.

“Yes sir.” Calson said but quickly added, “There has been a complication with the Advanced Electronic Components, but we can go over it when you get here.”

“Understood, over and out.” Alex said awkwardly.

“Why are you so weird?” Obsidian asked giving him an odd look.

“I never know how to end a phone call. That is why I prefer to text.” Alex said with a shrug.

Alex pulled into town late in the night their midnight notification was right around the corner. His destination was the factory, but traffic was almost completely impassable. Several times he just put the car into park as they slowly made their way through town.

“What the hell is going on?” Kandace asked leaning up to look out of the window.

“I don’t know. This place doesn’t ever have this kind of traffic and with the recent,” He cleared his throat slightly, “event, I would think that most people would be leaving the city not coming into it.” Alex said.

“The midnight notification has arrived. I have kept it from your vision in order to keep you from being distracted while driving.” Function said into Alex’s ear.

“I don’t know how I ever lived without you Function.” He said making a left turn.

Alex had unknowingly turned onto the street where the attack had taken place. The street, which had normally been six lanes wide no including the turning lane had been reduced to three and the middle lane was being used as a turning lane. They drove past the blast zone which was a massive crater in the ground where the building had been. The road had crumbled in towards the center of the blast.

There had not been much clean up after the incident. There were no bodies, but the rubble looked relatively untouched and was surrounded by police tape. There were a couple of guards posted at entrances to the property, but they were uninterested at best. Alex sped up and headed towards their own factory.

The truck pulled into the parking lot outside of their building and to Alex it felt like he had been driving on autopilot zoned out for most of the trip. He was in a hurry to get out of the truck and stretch as well as find a place to lay down a take a break. There was one thing that worried him. Now that he was back in Winter’s Garden, he was going to have to do something about the Priestess and her Knight otherwise they wouldn’t get peace.

All four doors opened, and they clamber out of the truck. They all stretched and walked around fighting the knots that they had gotten by spending most of the even traveling.

“I want Chippy chops.” Obsidian said as she stretched out her back.

“Oh god that sounds so good! It feels like forever since I’ve had some!” Alex said vigorously nodding his head in agreement.

“What is Chippy Chops?” Respec said. She returned from zooming around the lot checking out several items around including a concrete block.

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“I think you’ll like it.” Alex said with an enthusiastic grin.

“I hope that you are correct.” Respec nodded.

“Are you going to catch the train back to where you belong?” Alex asked turning to Kandace.

“Well, see, that’s the thing.” She said with a deep sigh, “I kind of don’t have anywhere to go back to. Those assholes kind of blew up my apartment and lab looking for me. All I’ve got in this world is what you see on my back.” She motioned to her clothes.

“That’s messed up.” Alex said shaking his head, “Well, you can stay with us. At least until you figure out what you are going to do.”

“Thank you! Thank you!” She said running over to Alex and grabbed him in a tight hug.

“Yes, it’s a factory.” Obsidian said with her phone pressed to her ear as she walked around the front of the truck, “I promise someone will be here to pay for it.” She assured who she was talking to.

“What was that?” Alex asked when she hung up the phone.

“Food is on the way.” She said with a smile.

“Excellent!” Alex said and motioned for the group to enter the building.

As late in the night that it was there wasn’t anyone working in the factory, but it wasn’t empty. Calson was standing in front of a machine that Alex didn’t recognize from the last time that he had been in the facility. The manager had a pair of goggles on and he was tweaking the settings. He pressed a green button on the touch screen and took a step back while the machine began to work. Small arms unfolded inside of a glass protected area and started to weld on a light blue piece of material.

“What you got going on here?” Alex asked walking up behind the manager.

Calson held up a finger indicating for him to wait. The arms on the machine folded back up into the machine and the word Testing appeared flashing on the screen. A few tense moments passed before the word Failed appeared taking up the whole screen.

“DAMNIT!!” Calson yelled taking off his goggles and threw them at the machine. They pinged off the side and skidded across the floor.

“Calm down there, killer!” Alex said acting like he needed to protect himself.

“I’m sorry for my outburst.” Calson said hanging his head.

“Dude, I’m screwing with you. What’s going on?” Alex said and held up his hands.

“We discussed upgrading part of the factory to advanced Electronic components. After investing in the machines, I am unable to get the damn thing to work. I’ve been at it all day!” Calson admitted dropping down on a short stack of crates.

“What seems to be the problem?” Alex asked poking buttons on the machine’s screen.

“I have configured the machine based on the instructions, but I don’t have an advanced electronic component so that it can properly learn the recipe. I basically have to keep trying until the machine gets it right. It’s time consuming, frustrating, and costly. I was under the impression that a colleague was going to sell me a sample, but that fell through.” Calson explained in a defeated tone.

“That sounds awful.” Alex said with a smile.

“It is. I understand if you see fit to give me my dismissal papers.” Calson said looking down at the concrete.

“If I did that,” Alex said grabbing the duffle bag from Obsidian and dug for one of the components that they had picked up the fray, “Who would configure this new fancy machine. I sure as hell can’t do it.” He held out the component.

“You have one!” Calson said in amazement jumping up from the crates.

“Picked it up on the last mission. No big deal.” Alex said with a sniff and flicked the end of his nose.

Calson rushed to the machine and opened a panel on the side. There was a small compartment inside where he placed the component. He closed the door and returned to the screen ordering a scan of the sample product. There was a bright blue light from inside the small compartment before the word Accepted flashed on the screen.

He tapped on the screen for a few seconds until he pressed the green button again. The small arms unfolded just as they had done the first time. They cut the board and began to weld in rapid motions that were hard to follow with the eye. The arms folded back into the top of the work area and what remained looked like an exact copy of what Alex had given Calson. But to be fair so had the first one that failed.

The machine began its test which plunged the room into an apprehensive silence. Finally, they all breathed a sigh of relief when the word Passed flashed across the whole screen. Calson removed the item and held it up between his pointer and thumb to examine it in the light.

“My scan ability is reporting that it is of rare quality. I think I could turn the machine up and get three times the output with a small drop in quality.” He said with a wide grin on his face.

“Whatever you’ve got to do man.” Alex said with a nod, “We’ve ordered some food from Chippy Chops, why don’t you come up and join us. There will be plenty.”

“I could eat.” Calson said with a smile.

They took a few moments for introductions around the group. They left out the part about Respec being an alien. Alex figured it would be best if they broached that subject at a later date.

The five of them sat around the table for a few hours eating and enjoying the company of the group. They seem to fit well together and there was a lot of common ground with the group.

“I want to work on acquiring the factories all around us. Does your skills allow you to move into a higher ranked position of management?” Alex asked Calson while the girls were talking.

“With my current ranks I can manage ten simultaneously, but at the rate that I’ve been ranking here that number should go up.” Calson said.

“Excellent then we need to work towards that goal. All decisions should build towards that.” Alex said with a nod standing up from the table. He wanted to step out onto the deck and get some fresh air.

Before going outside however he decided to quickly run through his midnight notifications.

-It’s Midnight!

- It looks like you are starting to get the hang of things.

-You defeated 37 Villains or those who wish to do harm.

-You’ve earned a total of 30,913xp!

-Congrats! You’ve leveled up! You are now level 15!