CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-FOUR

Training Day, Part 1

“There’s no need to be anxious,” Thunder insisted. “He’s nice.”

There was no way Sam wouldn’t be anxious though. He wasn’t very good at meeting new people, and this person they were about to meet was an important man in the industry.

“I still can’t believe you got us a meeting with him.” Sam shook his head. “Just how well connected are you?”

“Oh, you’d be surprised,” Thunder chuckled.

She brushed the back of her hand against his, which helped to keep his mind off some of his anxiety. Although the thought that someone passing by might notice their little gesture of affection was another cause for worry.

Whenever you’re feeling nervous, all you gotta do is remember lesson number eight, kid, Chiron reminded him.

I’m calm enough, Sam protested.

Sure, you are, Chiron chuckled. Nerves of steel, New York’s newest alpha…

Only an hour ago, Sam and Thunder had gone from making out in his dressing room to stopping a robbery in downtown Manhattan while suppressing the super-powered robbers who were quite heavy-handed with firing large quantities of bullets at the pair of heroes. The seven o’clock news called it a harrowing first adventure for the new alpha partnership of Herculean and Thunder—a notion Sophie Salinger had tactfully leaked to the press. Right now, however, Sam wished he was back to fighting criminals rather than waiting on a comfy couch inside the VIP lounge of one of the most respected institutions in New York while waiting to meet a man considered to be a pioneer of the modern hero support industry. Sam might have even preferred shooting the Hunka-Herc commercial again. No. Probably not that. Anything but another ad.

“Aren’t we dressed too casually?” he asked.

After they were done cleaning up downtown, Sam and Thunder had snuck into a changing booth—stalls set up around Manhattan for the heroes’ convenience—and switched their gear for the civilian clothes they kept in their dimensional storage devices. Yes, Thunder’s lightning-shaped armbands had a similar function to Sam’s utility but with less storage space. They were each wearing jackets over casual shirts and jeans now. They’d even gone twinsies with their Yankees baseball caps, black sunglasses, and a pair of white sneakers emblazoned with twin gold lightning bolts—the Air Thunders II.

“We’re fine,” Thunder assured Sam. “He won’t care and we won’t be in these clothes long.”

She was right. It didn’t take long for the receptionist who’d ushered them into the building’s VIP lounge to return, and she wasn’t alone. The African American man at her side was tall with a well-built body that even his finely tailored three-piece suit couldn’t completely hide.

He had short, brushed-back curly dark hair framing a clean-shaven chiseled face, with thick eyebrows and caramel-colored eyes. His nose was long and wide. He had thick lips too, which Sam couldn’t help thinking he’d seen somewhere before.

“Thunder, it’s been a while,” the man said in a low but pleasant tone.

“Yes, it has,” Thunder smirked. She got up from the couch and shook his hand. “Thanks for seeing us on such short notice, Mr. Flint.”

Marcus Flint, the genius who’d built Flint Consolidated from a ‘big ideas’ startup to one of America’s top fortune five-hundred companies was now standing only a few feet away, and Sam couldn’t believe his luck or how weird his life’s gotten since receiving Triple-A from Thunder.

He didn’t want to interrupt them as Thunder and Marcus Flint seemed rather chummy, but as soon as Sam stood up to greet their host too, Marcus Flint’s curious gaze slid over to New York’s newest alpha.

“Herculean, it’s nice to finally meet you,” Marcus Flint said.

He offered his hand, which Sam took and shook a little too eagerly.

“It’s an honor to meet you, sir,” he said. “I’m a big fan of the work your company does for the industry.”

From the corner of his eye, Sam could see Thunder resisting the urge to laugh, but he couldn’t understand why she was being so glib when they were face-to-face with the genius engineer that many heroes thought to be on par with the seven legendary support specialists in terms of his efforts to modernize and advance the hero profession.

Marcus Flint seemed not to mind that Thunder was being weird though. Sam could even see a smile on his lips, which again, Sam thought he’d seen once before.

“To be honest, I’ve been wanting to meet you for a while now,” Marcus Flint admitted.

“You have?” Sam asked.

“Crow-Man’s told me a lot about you,” the older man replied.

“He has?” Sam asked in surprise.

He knew that Marcus Flint was a staunch ally of Crow-Man’s as Crow-Man had been known to save Flint Consolidated from supervillain attacks and corporate espionage pretty often. There was even speculation on the hero forums about Crow-Man’s custom-made equipment being personally designed by Marcus Flint himself.

“Only good things, I assure you,” Marcus Flint promised.

Once again, Sam caught Thunder trying hard not to laugh.

What is wrong with her? he wondered.

Chiron sighed into Sam’s brain. You’re going to need to brush up on Lesson Number Twenty-Three.

You want me to practice my observation skills? Sam asked. Why?

The whole point of Lesson Twenty-Three is so you can figure it out for yourself, lame-brain, Chiron chuckled.

To be fair to Sam, Chiron was possibly the only being on the mortal plane who wasn’t among the very small group of people Marcus Flint himself had shared his secret with.

“Well, now that introductions are done, how about we take this conversation somewhere more private,” Marcus Flint suggested.

To Sam’s surprise, Thunder linked her arms around his as if Marcus Flint wasn’t standing right in front of them.

“Um, what’re you—”

“Come on, fanboy,” she chuckled, “You’re going to love Mr. Flint’s toys.”

After a short ride on Marcus Flint’s private elevator, Sam and Thunder arrived at the Flint Consolidated Tower’s Sub-Level Five, which their host explained was his “Special workshop.”

Marcus Flint’s workshop was nothing like Mr. Moonday’s workshop though. There were no shelves upon shelves of newly-developed gear or anvils exuding hot temperatures. Nope. Flint’s workshop was just a large clean space with gray paneled flooring and walls that were quite similar to the Wardens’ assessment hall Sam took his last test in. There were two exceptions though. First, there were no raised seats along the walls for observers. Instead, a portion of the back wall was made of reinforced glass that Marcus Flint explained was where the control room was located. Second, at the four corners of each panel on the floor was a softly-glowing blue dot.

“Hold on… Is this an adaptive augmented reality and virtual environment mapping floor?” Sam asked with wide eyes.

“Yes, it is,” Marcus Flint nodded.

Sam noticed that the walls had the same softly-glowing blue dots at the corner of each panel too.

“Holy Zeus,” Sam whistled. “This is cutting-edge stuff.”

From what Sam had read on Hero-Tech Weekly, this kind of playroom was what the A-list heroes used for virtually recreating crime scenes, developing new equipment, solving arcane and scientific mysteries, stay-at-home vacations, as well as training in gifts, tactics, and martial skills too.

Hoho, this place is pretty sweet, kid, Chiron said approvingly.

As if echoing Chiron’s thoughts, Marcus Flint said, “Crow-Man said you guys needed a space to train while you wait for the Argo VII’s refits to finish. Well, you can train in here as much as you want.”

Sam and Thunder had indeed discussed working on their teamwork with Crow-Man, and Chiron was insistent that Sam had things to learn before they went off galivanting in the underworld. It’s why Thunder had reached out to Marcus Flint—at Crow-Man’s suggestion—because she didn’t think a regular training hall could handle Chiron’s new training menu.

“So, can you make this place look like anything?” Sam asked.

“What did you have in mind?” Marcus Flint asked.

“Surprise me,” Sam replied.

“Minerva?” Marcus Flint called.

“Yes, Marcus,” answered a British-sounding female voice from speakers that Sam couldn’t see.

“Let’s go with Tolkein,” Marcus Flint ordered.

“Overlaying ‘Tolkein’ environment into the map,” Minerva answered.

Sam watched in awe as blue lights on the floor and walls began to emit a stronger glow, ushering in a virtual environment around them that made him feel like they’d been teleported into a world of fantasy.

Snow-capped peaks rose over the horizon of a golden plain of autumn grass and craggy rock formations. The ceiling had vanished too, replaced by a clear blue sky with few clouds in sight. The sound of chirping birds and crickets reached his ears, and he could even smell the earth underneath his feet.

“Holy Zeus, this is amazing,” Sam insisted.

“Hey, I’ve been here before,” Thunder said.

“You have?” Sam asked, bewildered.

“We’re in New Zealand,” Thunder explained as she glanced over at Marcus Flint who seemed to be enjoying Sam’s reactions. “Is that why this place is called Tolkein?”

“It’s where they filmed the movie,” Marcus Flint answered.

“It’s beautiful,” Thunder conceded, “but I don’t know if this is the vibe we need.”

“It’s not?” Sam asked.

He could see himself training extra-hard in a place like this, especially since it reminded him of his time in the Ozark Mountain Range.

“You got any martial arts halls?” Thunder asked.

Marcus Flint grinned. “Minerva, let’s go with Dragon.”

“Switching virtual environment to ‘Dragon’ map,” Minerva answered.

Sam, who’d heard ghostly voices before, asked, “Is Minerva real or is she—”

“Mr. Flint’s personal V.I., I think,” Thunder replied.

Virtual Intelligence was the next stage of supercomputing. A virtual intelligence was usually governed by rules that kept them from becoming a true artificial intelligence like the Talos automaton that Hephaestus had once brought to life, or the ‘Icarus’ of Daedalus because people were always wary that a perfect thinking machine might eventually decide to rebel against its flawed creators. Of course, only a very few people knew that Chiron had also achieved a true artificial intelligence with Triple-A.

Anyway, per Marcus Flint’s command, Minerva removed the scene of the New Zealand countryside from the room and replaced it with a stone courtyard surrounded by castle walls on three sides with a Shaolin temple towering over them from the south. Several yellow flags with the Chinese kanji for dragon rose at intervals along the walls.

“Oh, yeah, this will do,” Thunder nodded approvingly. “This will do nicely.”