Of Ancient Kings

Chapter 9

A few hours passed and Robin stood in the stance he had been taught and thrust his palm forwards, sending a blast of white fire from his thrust. It was a much tighter steam than before he had begun his training. He then quickly slid his foot into another stance and brought a few large boulders from the ground. He flexed the muscles in his legs and the rocks smashed into the ground about fifty metres away.

"Good," Caderyn said as he observed Robin from his throne. "It's getting late. We should head back."

Robin stood up from his stance and stamped his foot to drop his chair back into the ground. They both then leapt into the air and soared off into the night.

Robin landed in his room at half past three in the morning and yawned.

"I need to sleep," Robin said as he pulled off his shirt and slid down his trousers. Caderyn quietly disappeared without another word as Robin got into bed.

The light shone on his face from the open window as Robin awoke. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and pulled on the same clothes he wore on his little trip with Caderyn.

"Morning," Caderyn said from within his head.

"Morning," Robin replied in his head as he rushed downstairs. He walked into the kitchen to find his mum sitting there reading a book at the kitchen table.

"Ah, What do you want for breakfast my little metahuman." His mum said as she marked her page and closed the book.

"Mum..." Robin said, embarrassed, "Can I have some cereal?"

"Of course." She smiled and he sat down as she made a bowl of cereal.

"How was your sleep?" Robin asked between mouthfuls of cereal.

"I slept like a baby." His mum replied as she stretched to accentuate her point.

"Yeah, so did I." Robin lied as he finished the bowl. As he put the spoon down the doorbell went.

Robin's mum got up and walked over to a glass sheet on the wall beside the door. It lit up with a live feed from the peephole camera in the door. Two men stood there wearing green jackets with epaulettes and many medals adorning one breast. They both had a peaked military cap under one arm. She walked around the dividing wall and opened the door. Robin could see them step forwards in the viewing screen.

"Can we please speak with your son?" The man standing closer to the door said.

"Who are you?" She replied.

"Representatives from the US and UK militaries," he answered with a tone of authority "we need to speak to your son."

At this moment Robin peaked his head into the hallway. "Who is it?" He asked, quizzically, although he could hear and see everything they were saying.

"It's the army, they want to speak with you." Robin's mother said quite clearly taken aback by the situation.

"Ok," Robin walked out of the kitchen and down the corridor, "yes?"

"Robin Vassel, we congratulate your test scores in the rank test on behalf of the militaries of our two nations. They are nothing short of exceptional." He began, "Now we will need to continue this talk at our base, it is too sensitive to have in public. If you would like to follow us."

"Why?" Robins Mother protested, "You can talk inside."

"Ma'am if you knew what we know about surveillance, you wouldn't be saying that," the closest officer said, "if you would like to follow us to the car."

Both men turned on their heels and walked carefully to the large black car sitting on the roadside. Robin shrugged and walked after them. His mum had a worried look plastered across her pale face. As soon as the door to the car had shut she went inside and got out the record player. She plugged it into the wall and gently placed the black disc on the turntable. She set up the arm and the speakers inside the player started to play a very 80's pop track.

Meanwhile, in the car, Robin was sat opposite the two men. Their caps were placed neatly on the seats beside them. The interior of the car was all plush leather and Robin caught the site of several gun storage racks in the boot when he was sitting down.

"So, I'm sure you know why we have asked for you?" The man who hadn't spoken at the door said in a thick Boston accent.

"Yeah, because I am S rank. And I'm meant to be on call for the government to use me as a WMD." Robin said with a note of black humour.

"Pretty much, but also where did you think you were going to get the extra training, ok let's start from the basics," the British officer answered, "S class is the civilian designation for your ability level, the military one is Strategic Level Metahuman Operative, the use of someone like you is the equivalent of using tactical nuclear bombs or other last resort weapons, although it's not unheard of to deploy SLMO's to regular war zones to 'clean up'. One of you could do the job of a large army, and given that metahumans are very rare outside of the UK, there is no other country with any kind of sizeable force of regular metahuman operatives let alone any SLMO's. There is no arms race. It's frightfully difficult to even make a metahuman serum let alone one that will not kill everything it touches. Anyway I've waffled on for too long."

Robin was taken aback by the trove of information they had just dropped on him. "So.... Hang on a second I'm to be dropped into a warzone?" He asked, excitedly.

The British officer smirked, "after the induction test you will have a briefing on the correct practises and an hour of basic training. Which is pretty much just telling you the laws that you should follow, although it's not like any prison can hold you. It just looks bad on us if you go AWOL and blow up a few peaceful villages." He said and Robin's face lit up as he heard this. The car pulled into the base and stopped alongside a large armoured truck. A Metahuman wearing a light green army uniform opened the door of the car and saluted to Robin and the generals.

"At ease soldier." The British general commanded and the soldier stood shoulder width apart, hands held behind his back, "Can you escort Robin here to the test room please?"

"Yes sir," the soldier said in a slight brummy accent, "if you would follow me Special Officer Robin."

Robin couldn't help but smile. He was excited about all of this, the rank, the designation as an SLMO and last but not least his metarisation. He could barely stop himself from doing a small dance as he was led over to what appeared to be a large aircraft hangar, but it had no large doors and its walls were concrete not sheet steel. Inside was a large open space and a small bunker like object, with very thick steel reinforced windows. Inside the bunker, three people wearing very neat suits sat with their faces in shadow, Robin could tell however that one of them was a women by her body shape.

The soldier told him to stand on a large 'X' on the floor directly in front of the bunker. Promptly, the soldier briskly walked out of the large room and out the door. Almost like he did not want to be in there much longer.

A tannoy crackled into life. "Robin, if you would give us a brief demonstration of your pyrokinesis."

"Don't forget what I showed you" Caderyn said in his head. Robin dropped into a stance and summoned forth his power.

There was a snap like somebody clicking their fingers and then the entire interior of hanger was immolated with blazing inferno. Pulses of fire emanated from Robin, his eyes glowing very strongly. The fire rolled around him, forming shapes according to his whim.

Robin smiled playfully as he pointed towards the ceiling and the fire rushed upwards, the concrete rapidly began to melt. Chunks of concrete fell around him, one was going to fall on his head but with a swipe it flew into the side wall at speed.

"That's enough." The tannoy crackled through the roars of the fire.

Robin brought his arms towards him and the fire around him extinguished immediately. The concrete slowly cooled in a large swirled shape, the once smooth floor now ridged and full of bubbles.

"Thank you. Can you leave by the door you came in." The voice came over the tannoy. Robin used the air to cool the ground in a path to the door and looked up at the hole in the ceiling he had made, as he walked out of the partially melted hanger.