Darion walked down the stairs and went into this special elevator near the fire chief's office. Two uniformed men guard the elevator and Jared once told him that the guards are former SAS or SEALs now working as the private army for ISSUE.

He wasn't sure if Jared is jerking his chain but they do look dangerous and efficient. So when Darion got near them, and they asked for his ID, Darion showed them what they want without any preamble.

They looked at his ID, Checked their datapad, and nodded. One of the guards typed a ten-digit code before the door of the elevator opened. Darion walked in and he noticed quickly that the buttons are a bit different. There are only 8 buttons available. B1 to B6, HQ, and R1. Darion and the others were already instructed before that the B1 to B6 represent the stations where the street heroes are based (his fire station is B6), HQ is the state headquarters for ISSUE, and R1 is talking about the massive research station at the edge of the state border.

But the one Darion is looking for is the button that will lead him to the state headquarters so he pushed the button titled HQ. The elevator started moving with a soft rumble and Darion could feel that it moved downward for a moment, then stopped, and then accelerated parallel to the ground. The elevator becomes a kind of transport vehicle and the elevator box moved somewhere towards the east in high acceleration.

It took the elevator a minute to reach its destination. Darion felt the elevator slowed, then stopped. And then started to rise up again. The entire process took barely a minute or two. Darion knew immediately he was in a different part of the city. He was in some sort of building when the elevator opened again. Two more guards are waiting for him. Both stared at him suspiciously, but none of them made a moved to stop Darion.

So Darion walked hesitatingly moved onward into a dark corridor that reminds the young man of a clean but boring school hallway.

Darion was lost for a while but he finally found the right department. Darion reported to the assignment room in the opposite wing of the building.

He knocked on the door and silently entered the room. Darion felt vaguely disappointed. The entire room has 6 old desks filled to the brim with paperwork. The desktop computer is at least the sleek top-of-the-line version, but on one or two desks also sits old-style typewriters. The place reminds Darion of the teacher room office back in middle school, and it was depressing as hell.

Each desk is manned by surly middle-aged men and women who look both harassed and bored all at the same time. Their crumpled suits showed how tired they all are but at least they are still functioning.

Darion almost gagged since most people inside are also smoking a piece of cigarette or tobacco. The room was hazy because of the smoke accumulating in the room. With his supersenses, he felt doubly uncomfortable.

Darion gave his name to the nearest person and the man directed him to a woman deeper inside. When Darion presented himself in front of the lady's desk, he already knew that the unknown woman is going to be a bitch to work with.

"Darion Libinski, reporting for duty, ma'am," Darion said.

"You call me Ma'am one more time, I'll smack you in the head with my heavy purse," the woman said sourly, as she continued to type in her typewriter. "And stop giving your real name, it's bad in our kind of business. From now on, while you are at work, we will call each other by our designated codenames. You may call me handler Stella, and you are?"

Darion cleared his throat, aware of the beginning of a blush in his cheeks. "I'm... I'm Dorkman."

Someone behind Darion was barely able to swallow his giggles.

Handler Stella at least didn't react. "Well, Dorkman," she began. "As you might now know I have a mission I accepted on your behalf. You are to go to the hangar bay and place this card in the slot available inside the transport drone. You will be transported to the address that needed your service and you will meet the person who paid for your mission."

Darion thought about it. "So that is how it works?" he asked.

Handler Stella understood his question. "Not all of the time. About 70 to 80 percent of your work will be assigned to patrolling the streets. But yes, that is how the system works. As your assigned handler, I am going to be the one who will evaluate your strength and weaknesses. And then I choose the mission I deem appropriate for your power level. Our clients will then submit mission forms available in the net for us which are then evaluated by a different department. Those that passed their scrutiny will place the mission in our mission board database.

There I will choose a mission for you, and once you finish your mission, then you get the full reward money offered- minus, of course, the 25 percent cut for ISSUE, my own 5 percent, and lastly the 2 percent for the building maintenance."

Darion stared darkly at the older woman. "That will leave me barely 75 percent of the total gross."

Handler Stella smiled brightly at Darion. "Look at you flexing your tinkerer's brainpower. Good for ya!"

Reluctantly, Darion accepted the official-looking paper and a card. He nodded respectfully to his handler and proceeded to walk outside. He opened the paper, read it quickly, and stopped in his tracks. He slowly turned back to his handler and stared at her in disbelief. "A missing dog?" Darion asked incredulously. "You want me to deal with a fucking missing dog?!"

Again, there was some snickering in the background. His handler just raised an eyebrow. "Are you too good for this mission? What were you expecting? Assassinating an African warlord? Destroying a terrorist group that just got hold of a nuke? Don't be too much of an eager beaver. Everyone starts with the training wheels."

Darion wanted to say something else but he just can't think of anything as the smug woman stared him down. In frustration, he turned around and simply walked away.

*****

Darion arrived at the hangar bay. At least this is a place he knows the location of.

The first time he entered the special elevator as part of his orientation, the government official gave them a tour of the place, including the hangar. At the very start of their stay in the building, all the newbies at least had the time to explore the facilities of the building and many of them choose to look at the 2 stories massive sophisticated hangar bay on the top floor of the building complex.

Darion presented his papers and an on-duty traffic controller directed him to hangar C. He jogged towards that location and at least his ride is something to be impressed about.

It was a flying craft that reminded Darion of the troop carrier of the clone army in Star Wars. A crossbreed between a helicopter and a plane but using a kind of a revolutionary maglev design to hover. It has an open hangar door on each side of the craft, two anti-personnel guns in the belly, and an even bigger anti-ship or antitank gun on top.

The entire craft has an aerodynamic beauty embedded in its frame, with its sleek angles and curves. It is painted in shiny blue with the giant ISSUE logo displayed prominently on its sides.

Darion was impressed and awed by it all. His dad had already explained that during his 3-year absence, the world had experienced several technological leaps that many now enjoy due to the awakened tinkerers that are introduced in this world. Unfortunately, nothing close to policies of world cooperation emerged from it. Many techs are copyrighted immediately and the government is reluctant to share their technology for fear that the other side will have more technological breakthroughs than them and leave their country in the dust.

That is why when he woke up, there are no visible changes in the world he knew. In reality, the changes are mixed and have not reached mainstream consumption.

There are no flying cars or transporter technology available yet. But Darion found out later that there are dedicated drone superhighways across America for the now millions of flying delivery drones existing and crisscrossing the country and the continent beyond.

There are no interstellar spaceships made yet but Darion was shocked to find out that 8 to 10 feet tall battlemechs are starting to replace the main tanks of the world.

Humanoid robots already existed, but for now, they remain confined in labs and research facilities. factories are run by supercomputers. The police and army units are now armed with far better armor protection including energy shields, and satellites both facing the earth and outward, almost tripled in number and quality these past 3 years now in orbit

There are also massive improvements in medicine, mining, heavy industries, and computer software designs. Internet connection is far cheaper than it used to and is now achieving almost global coverage.

Even so, coal and gas are still the primary energy sources, although there are experimental or at least "unheard of in his time" forms of power plants. One that particularly grabbed Darion's notice was one he heard in China of a "Super carbon dioxide" power plant. Basically, instead of coal and nuclear to power the thermal turbine, it is replaced by CO2 in a supercritical state, which made it far more efficient and safe to power the turbines and therefore give it more power with less effort.

This is achieved by subjecting CO2 to pressure above 7 megapascals and a temperature above 30 degrees Celsius, which turns it into this magical form that neither liquid nor gas, yet provides high fluid density, thermal conductivity, and heat capacity. More importantly, its heated content lasts far longer and is used to heat the next batch, so no need to use another form of heat to galvanize the steam. According to the Chinese, it is 70 percent more efficient in energy production and even reverses environmental damage since its main by-product is clean purified oxygen.

His dad may still be driving an old Buick, but now, he couldn't help being aware that he is riding a futuristic hovercraft that is neither a helicopter nor a plane.

Sometimes, Darion mused as he felt the cold air buffeting him from the open door of the craft, life is interesting.