Axel went as fasts as his wheels would take him to his father's study. On the bottom of his father's desk, there was a button. You had to press that button once, then wait four seconds, press the button, then wait for another five seconds and quickly press the button twice. John had done this in half the years his children were born; Axel was seven years apart from Lola and ten years apart from Zander and Zaria.
The bookcase slid back to reveal the entrance to one of Glitch's bases.
Glitch had many bases all over New York, some in the Cooper Industry buildings or the sewers. This one was his home base. It had all his prototype suits and the whole medical kit, for both John and the suit.
"Can you hear me?" Lola asked, speaking into the headset.
"Static has fried his communicators. He's offline." Axel said as he glanced at the multiple screens. "So are his vital signs."
"This is all my fault! I shouldn't have gone on that date! I should have been here." Lola fretted.
"What would you have done, Lola? It's not your fault." Axel reasoned.
"You're right." She sighed.
"Have you tried contacting Kintaro?" Axel questioned.
"Yes, but she moved to St. Louis. She's in China now dealing with a case." Lola said.
Kintaro was another hero. She used her wide range of hand to hand combat to fight. Aikido, Tae Kwon Do, Jujutsu, Kali, general boxing you name it, she knows it.
"Magus is still missing," Lola added.
Magus was a hero who called himself a wizard, but he had otherworldly characteristics.
"No one else will make it in time to..." Lola trailed.
"He'll figure something out."
Would he? The suit was offline; it had shut down, John couldn't move a finger.
Had it come to this? Axel finally wanted to try and make amends with his father, and to only have him about to die?
No.
He wasn't going to let that happen.
He had a prototype suit fused to his spine. It had had to be activated.
Axel went to the other side room and opened one of the computers. He knew the layout of the computers. Even though his father had banned him from associating with Glitch, that didn't stop Axel from secretly studying John's technology and computers. He had memorized all the access codes. Axel brought up the file that had the information on the prototype suit.
Did he want to do this?
What if it failed? What if the suit malfunctioned and killed him instead? What if it fully paralyzed him?
What if he didn't activate it?
He didn't want to think about that.
A photograph next to the computer caught Axel's attention. It was of when they went to the beach for the twin's birthday. Both Axel and Lola were soaked from a water fight, Zaria beamed out from under Sophie's hat, which she had stolen. Zander had somehow gotten hold of the zinc and had smeared it all over John and him.
Axel smiled and typed in the code.
3-8-7-3.
Then he pressed enter.
YOU ARE READING
Fuse ✔
ActionA horrific accident leaves Axel Cooper both mentally and physically damaged. If one was his father's tech suits weren't fused to his spine, he would have died at the hands of a madman. As he tries to adapt to this new way of life, disaster is trying...
