Travelers

Chapter 33 - The Quilt of Worlds

Jacob was certain that soon they would have visitors from other worlds, but for now it was time that they finished up whatever their mission was in this world. Ryan had been stopped, Adrian and Nova finally were together without secrets, and The Sentinel had a new team. Granted, as soon as they left it would shrink to just him and Nova. He didn't know what they should be doing at this point, and he wasn't at all certain how they should leave. Richard left them to tend to whatever business they had, and Nova and Adrian walked into the Watchtower about an hour later holding hands and smiling. Jacob noticed Mal smiling when she saw they were clearly understanding each other. He sat in the lobby with the others in silence. Cat fell asleep and Mal read a book on the history of prodigies. He walked into his apartment, laid down, and fell into a dreamless sleep.

Jacob woke in the morning finally feeling the sore muscles from their time yesterday fighting and running. He groaned rolled out of bed, hitting the floor with a thud. This was a technique he had utilized in the past. As he hit the floor, his body went into a danger mode and he was wide awake in seconds. He stood, not necessarily refreshed, but definitely awake. He went out into the lobby, still not awake enough to remember to get dressed. He wore only a casual V-cut tee and sweatpants. He was met by a person he recognized instantly. Hugh Everhart sat in the lobby, clearly waiting for him.

"Rough day yesterday?" the captain asked as Jacob stretched his aching shoulders and back. "You mind telling me why Adrian was out so late last night on a day he didn't even have an assignment? Not to mention the fact that The Sentinel left us a little gift last night. Pyromancer was found unconscious outside of HQ last night with this on him." He held up the small banner they had put on him with the symbol he had designed for the Watchers. Jacob took it, pretending to be curious about the small flag. "How'd you do it?" Hugh asked. Jacob looked up, actually confused this time.

"What do you mean how'd I do it? I don't understand what you're getting at," Jacob told him.

"So, you don't want to admit to it, eh? At least tell me how you managed to make artificial prodigy type powers in the suit," Hugh requested. Jacob thought for a moment, then he realized what the captain was getting at.

"You think I'm The Sentinel! Are you kidding me?" Jacob said defensively, "I can assure you that I am not The Sentinel. Just ask Nova or Adrian, or any of that patrol team for that matter. They will all tell you I'm not The Sentinel. Adrian will tell you. Would you doubt your own son, Captain?" The captain rose, knowing he had no evidence of his suspicion, and walked out the door, shutting it behind him.

______________

Cat heard the door slam in the lobby, Cat picked up her small bowl of cereal and hobbled out into the lobby. She found Jacob in his loose tee and sweatpants sitting in one of the chairs with his elbows on his knees, leaning forward to rub his head in clear frustration.

"Hey, are you doing alright?" She asked, sitting in one of the other chairs. He glanced up and smiled for a second.

After a moment of holding the smile he said, "Yeah, I'll be good. It's just all this traveling. Can I be honest with you for a second?"

"Of course you can. I'm listening," She said, curious what was on his mind.

"As excited as I am every time we manage to travel somewhere, I am actually super stressed about it," he started, "I mean, how am I supposed to enjoy an adventure while at every turn there is the danger of one of my friends getting hurt? Seeing Richard again after these past few weeks here... I don't know. You probably have no clue what I'm trying to get at here.

"I think you are forgetting something Jacob," Cat pointed out, "You are forgetting what happened at the Black Gate. I know exactly what you are saying, because while the worst you have had to deal with is my leg. Jacob, you were next to dead after your fight with Ryan the first time. If you don't think that every time we face some sort of danger the sight of you laying on the ground dying, then you are very wrong. The reason why we do this isn't just for some fun adventure. These characters live out these stories, and they face that death. Our goal is to help stop the disasters throughout these stories. The ones that aren't written. Maybe there is danger there, but we just have to trust each other. In Middle Earth, you faced Ryan alone. If you had fought with Mal and myself you would have possibly been fine in that world." Jacob nodded, understanding what she was saying. "But there is one thing that comes back to my mind, now that I'm thinking of that battle."

Jacob winced as he clearly knew what she was going to say. While he was lying there, he had mentioned wanting to tell her something, but he wasn't planning on telling her unless they made it out of the battle alive. He still hadn't told her. He wasn't sure he wanted to tell her. She saw it in his face. Luckily, he was saved when both of their watches dinged signaling a disaster that required more than one team. He took off to get into his uniform, and she was left with her question unanswered.

__________________

Mal rolled out of bed as her wristband dinged repeatedly on her bedside table. She was certain it was earlier than she had set her alarm. She looked at the watch through her squinted eyes and read an alert. She heard the bang as the front door shut, and she moved to start getting ready. The message had mentioned an immensely powerful and violent prodigy tearing up a city block, so Mal moved as quickly as she could. She was out the door moments later, jetting down the street to catch up to Jacob, who couldn't move any faster than a regular person. He was jogging toward the area mentioned in the notice as she came up behind him. She continued at the same pace that he was keeping. They arrived at the scene moments later, and the path of destruction wasn't hard to start following. Several buildings had been blown to pieces, looking like they had been melted by blasts of energy. As they continued, the rest of their team joined them, Kate landing with a thud as she reinforced her skeleton with steel. A sense of dread filled Mal as she saw the melted skeletons of the innocent people that had been destroyed. Tony zipped up to them as Karen walked through one of the few windows still intact and at ground level. Their team progressed now at the fastest they could.

Suddenly, all their wristbands dinged in unison. They all checked the message, and only Mal and Jacob didn't stand stunned. Captain Chromium had engaged the prodigy, and neither seemed to be able to do anything to the other. Mal thought that Hugh would have been able to handle them, but evidently he had met his match. Their watches dinged again letting them know the rest of the council was en route. This thought disturbed more than one of the team's members. It had been years since the last battle with the Anarchist, where all of the council had fought in the same battle. They pressed forward, turning the corner and finding themselves in an impromptu clearing that made up the battlefield. Hugh stood his ground as he was blasted by a wave of energy. Jacob looked up at the prodigy that fought with the captain, and his jaw dropped.

"That isn't a prodigy," he said in awe, "That is an epic. That is Steelheart."

________________

Rose had been following the group up until she saw how dangerous the threat was. Jacob was explaining to the rest of his team what he knew about the threat, and from what Rose could make out, it seemed like this threat was not from this story. He was immensely powerful, and cared nothing for human life, as he considered himself above others. It seemed like this foe was completely impervious, could fly, had immense strength, could fire energy blasts from his hand, and could release power that turned non-living things to steel. He was a ruthless dictator where he came from, and he no doubt was trying to defeat the leaders of Gatlon city to take power. Rose wasn't sure how they were going to defeat such a powerful enemy, especially if the strongest heroes of this age couldn't scratch him in the least.

When Mal brought that same point up, Jacob told them, "I've got a plan, I just need to get close enough to hit him."

"What good would that do?" Kate asked, "You said he couldn't be injured."

"By all of you now, yeah," Jacob said confidently, "but I had my friend Adrian whip me up something special." he drew the sword which was slung over his back, and explained to Mal as the rest of the team mobilized. "I had Adrian draw up Excalibur, detail for detail. His power works based on intention, so I told him to draw Excalibur and now it has the power of the original Excalibur. It can't be broken. The other reason why I should be the one doing this is I know Steelheart's weakness," he said with an overconfident smile. He turned to execute his plan, but he never got a chance. Another figure appeared out of nowhere, flying at high speed, and slammed into Steelheart. Rose watched as he recovered, and Rose could swear she was seeing double. Both men wore light white shirt and silver cape, but then one of them fired a blast of energy that launched the other into the air.

Rose glanced to Jacob, who seemed to be in even greater shock now. The men fought with the same powers, trading blows, neither ever harming the other. Jacob approached, and Rose dropped her guard, lowering her power, and Jacob jumped a little. Jacob knew that a battle between these two would undoubtedly destroy the city, and he needed to find some way to stop them.