Entering the hallway he paused at the elevators and turned to head for the mess hall. He found Chase sitting at a table enjoying a hot cup of coffee while looking over documents.
“Good afternoon, sir. Back from the arena.” She greeted him.
He sat down and waved at a robot server. “Just finished the cleanup after League Wars. The heroes are all back on Earth and we mothballed the arena for another few months.”
The robot server stopped by and titled its featureless head. “May I help you, sir?”
“Bring me a French dip sandwich, fries, and a tall root beer.”
“Right away, sir.” It hurried off.
“Root beer?”
Nova grinned, “I’m treating myself. I feel like it. Everything seems to be on the smooth side for the moment. Villain activity is at an all-time low on Earth, BADGE is running just fine, and Spirit of Halloween has had his fun for the season.” He waited a moment while the server returned with his meal. “Speaking of Halloween, is EB finished yet?”
Chase had an uncontrollable smile on her face that held back a deeper laughter. “Oh, he should be here in a moment.”
“What?”
waiting for you to return to the operations center. You always come up there first and check on things before you do anything else when you get back from a trip away. But, no, I am walking around up there while you are down here chatting away with Chase. There, all ten thousand. I hope you’re happy. I have writer’s cramp. Might have permanently damaged my paws. Easter will never be the same again.” He flopped down on his rear and held his paws like he was about to lose them.
Nova took the top sheet and looked at the writing. It read, repeatedly, ‘I will never try to take over another holiday again.’
“Good work.”
“I’ll have you know that even though I did that with great speed, I didn’t use any magic. I wanted to, but I knew better...”
“Like heck you knew better.” Chase said. “You tried to use magic, but I caught you and made you tear up all those you fabricated.”
“Stool pigeon.” EB stuck his tongue out at Chase.
She put her hand on the stack and concentrated on her powers. After a moment, she smiled and gave a brief nod. “Everything was done correctly. No magic this time.”
“Good.” Nova looked at EB. “You have to learn your lesson. You can’t mess around with things like Halloween. It caused a big problem. We were getting ready for League Wars and suddenly we had spirit pumpkins everywhere.”
“It was kinda cool.” EB smiled, but then glared at Nova. “Yeah, well, Spirit started it. He possessed me last year and pretended like I was attempting to steal the holiday. Remember? Sure, blame me for trying, but don’t say anything about him. That big, stupid, ugly...” He stopped and looked around in fear.
Chase asked, “What is it? You hear something?”
“Uh...no. I just... you know... Spirit could still be lurking around. I don’t want to piss him off again.”
Nova dipped his sandwich in the au jus. “Remember that the next time you want to mess with him. Besides, what he did last year was a trick that would have always ended with candy and releasing you. Spirit is just a playful trickster. You were trying to steal his holiday.”
“I still say ten thousand lines was cruel and unusual. I missed League Wars.”
Nova changed the subject. “Have you seen Agent Justin? He said he had a special project to work on and then left before League Wars started. I haven’t seen him since.”
“He’s been down in the labs for two weeks. I thought you assigned him some special work.”
“Nope. He had this idea he wanted to flesh out and had the time so I told him he could work on it.” Nova had the sandwich up to his mouth when the whole station shook. He nearly fell out of his chair.
Sirens blared, and the power flickered off for half the room.
EB sat up. “I’m sorry Spirit I didn’t mean...”
“That wasn’t the Spirit of Halloween.” Chase got up and looked around.
Nova wiped his lunch off his shirt and tapped his arm. “Report!”
A robot answered from Operations. “Large power fluctuation in the Laboratories. Reports of system failures. No reported hull breeches.”
Chase said, “The labs...Justin!”
“Get as many security bots down to the labs as possible. Now!” He yelled into his arm comm and then ran with Chase and EB.
They raced through the station as it rocked and rolled several more times. The closer they got to the labs, the louder the sounds came. A roaring cry called out and then explosions followed. When they got near the computer labs, all three skidded to a stop when Gar smashed through a door and crashed into a wall.
“GAR!” EB raced over.
Gar pulled himself up. “I’m okay.”
“What’s happening?” Chase asked.
“It’s Skelanimal!”
“Skelanimal?” Nova asked. “I just watched him leave for Earth two days ago. He can’t be up here.”
Nova pulled out his gun while Chase prepared her throwing stars. All three raced in to the hole so they could rescue Gar.
To their surprise, and dismay, there stood a ninety foot tall Skelanimal with glowing eyes. He threw Gar against another wall and then tried to stomp Chase flat. She dodged his giant foot and threw her blades at his face. EB produced exploding eggs and nailed Skelanimal in the chest, stumbling him back.
Nova slapped his wrist comm, “Heroes, we have...” he looked down. “What! The comm’s down! This isn’t good.” He was hit in the side by Skelanimal’s tail and then had to roll so a giant fist did not crush him.
Two dozen security bots arrived and fired lasers at Skelanimal. Nova watched in astonishment as the giant monster flickered and buzzed, then finally came to a frozen stop.
“What’s going on!?”
Agent Justin rushed in at that moment with a computer tablet in his hands. “Oh, thank goodness. The kill code finally worked.”
Nova controlled his rage. “What is the meaning of this?”
Justin smiled as he saw the unmitigated rage behind Nova’s one good eye. “Uh, you see, I had this idea. Really, a lot of heroes have asked about this. It is a special training program that helps prepare people for large-scale battles. We have gathered mountains of data on many of the biggest foes we’ve had to face. I designed the new ARTS, Augmented Reality Training Simulator. In it, we can create entire settings and re-enact some of the worst battles. We can also craft some new, difficult villains to face. Through this, the heroes can gain valuable experience and grow stronger. I just accidentally set off the Skelanimal simulation and the kill-code wasn’t working.”
Nova gestured around him. “This isn’t a simulator, this is the laboratories. That hole in the wall and all the damage...”
“All not real. I had the bots rebuild this entire wing. I combined all the old training simulators and moved the computer labs to sector seven. Now...” he pressed a button and the labs, hallways, and Skelanimal all vanished. They were in a massive holographic simulation room. “Welcome to ARTS.”
EB hopped around in the huge open room. “This is amazing, totally amazing. It’s fantastic...you should call it the Fantastic Augmented Reality Training Simulator. EVERYONE IS GOING TO LOOOOVE THIS!” He yelled to hear his own voice echo.
Chase rolled her eyes. “We are not going to call it FARTS!” This drew a giggle from EB. Chase asked Justin, “Is there another title?”
Justin flipped through pages on his tablet. “Let’s see...the original working name was Regulated Augmented Instructional Department. I thought that sounded too clinical.”
Chase smiled, “RAID, that sounds much better and will keep the more juvenile...” she glared at the still giggling bunny, “from making a joke out of it.”
“R.A.I.D. it is. So, Director, do you like it?”
Nova grabbed the tablet and looked at Justin. There was a long pause, where no one knew what Nova would say next. Finally, he smiled. “Good work. This is going to be an incredible benefit. Next time you have an idea this big...let me in on it more. You scared the crap outta me. The comm was down...”
“Oh, yeah, sorry. The comms aren’t down. The system shut off outgoing comm traffic to enhance the danger level.”
Nova shook his head. “Never do that. I don’t want heroes going so hard that they are in danger and can’t call for help.”
“Got it.”
Nova asked, “Is it ready?”
“Should be. The kill code malfunction was the last major glitch. I was just about to call you to demonstrate it.”
“I had enough demonstration. If you’re ready to launch, let the heroes know. Chase, help him get the booking system ready. I have a feeling we’re going to get a lot of interest in this.”
“Be glad to help.” She walked away with Justin.
EB hopped around the room. “I bet we could simulate other things. There’s this really nice resort in the ALPs that has the cutest babes. And, there is this place in Bangkok where you...”
Nova walked out while EB barraged him with ideas for using this room for vacations.
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