“It looks like I made it in time,” said John.

He looked down at me and then around to the other two he had ensnared with his powers. I felt the release of his power and was relieved. The breath that I didn’t know I was holding in was released. He looked over me with concern. He bent over and confirmed that my injuries wouldn’t kill me immediately. He returned to Wesley and Bull-man. He held the other two with his stasis and I was able to speak again. I began to speak but he hushed me.

“That isn’t necessary. We need to get you some healing and out of here. You have done well. We’ll get you out of here soon.”

“We? I haven’t done much. He is bleeding sure, but I was about to die.”

“You did everything you could and survived for longer than anyone would have thought and…”

“He’s in here,” said Rachel’s voice from down the hallway. “I knew we should have chosen this route instead.”

Rachel and Emma’s suits were dirtied with soot and the white gloves of her costume were now tinted gray and would require cleaning.

“And yet if you had it would have made for a messier fight and more clean-up,” said John turning to the group of three heroes coming down the hall.

“You look like shit,” said Caleb as he entered the room with Rachel and Emma.

“You guys also came. That’s great,” I said weakly. “How are you all here?”

“The full story doesn’t matter, and we can go over it once Frey sees you. What matters is that we were all alerted to Wesley’s actions with his two accomplices at the warehouse,” said John.

“So, he was right to say he destroyed it,” I said.

“Yes. It was burned down which sent me an SOS.”

“You said two accomplices. Where is the other person?”

“Unconscious now. He was guarding the outside of the building. Badly I might add,” said Rachel.

“Sadly, these injuries have become a regular occurrence,” I said. “I should get help walking out of here while I’m still a bit conscious. My escape attempt didn’t go as great as I would have hoped, and I wasted a lot of energy.”

“Just relax what you can. We don’t have a stretcher so it won’t be as straightforward as I would like,” said Caleb, “Emma can you cuff those two and take care of them with Rachel?”

“Sure.”

Emma slipped two cuffs from her belt and snapped the cuffs onto Wesley and Bull-man. John released some of his hold on them so they could move with her help. Wesley still had blood over his face and other injuries. The limited movements allowed him to scowl while slowing the process of moving him out of the location as slowly as possible.

John took hold of me with the help of Caleb, and I was brought outside into the open air. From the scenery outside I could tell that we weren’t in the city anymore. Surrounding us and the cement bunker we had left were rolling hills with a few trees.

“Where are we?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Ten miles outside the city by the river. This is part of the extended property attached to one of the Rodriguez family homes.”

Rachel brought out a part of the bed that I had been strapped down onto once the two prisoners were out. She had me lay down on it so that I could be airlifted back to the hospital. I felt weird returning to it so soon after trying to escape its restraints. They were questions I could ponder later among many others but my will to stay awake left me shortly after getting into the air. The next thing I remembered was when I awoke back in a hospital for the third time in what had been a short month.

When I awoke the only person in the room with me was Frey. He was in his work outfit waiting in a chair for me.

“Welcome back Jason. I occasionally have to give the talk to superhumans about healing, but I have never had to remind someone like you about this. It is all very new to me.”

“’ The talk’?”

He motioned to my body, and I saw what he meant after looking down and seeing what I had done to my body. My left arm had been wrapped up and had a complete cast on it to hold it in place while it healed.

“It isn’t often that I have patients come in so regularly as to be out of commission for days at a time. For them, my healing accelerates the timetable by which their natural healing rebuilds their body. My healing while powerful enough to regrow bodies and remove scars the healing is only a supplementary drug to the process. Use it too much in the same timeframe then it is less effective. This usually happens a few times a year with the rookie hotheads, but they get the message pretty quick or improve their skills fast enough to avoid the injuries. I suspect because you do not have the superhuman genes that my healing’s ineffectiveness has taken hold a bit quicker than normal for you. That is why the smaller injuries have been taken care of already while some will have to be healed with a bit more time and care than I am used to. Though from my estimates the healing process overall will take place quickly. With that said I am sure you have many questions so please ask away.”

“Where are the others? I thought they would be here and what will happen regarding Wesley and the others?”

“Your friends are waiting outside until you and I are ready to call them in. I thought it would be best because of the shared item between Wesley, you, and I.”

“The ARGO,” I responded.

“Precisely. I had had it in my office for some time occasionally turning it on. but it recently was reactivated with the expectation of staying online indefinitely.”

“Why did you have it? And why is it connected to me now?”

“I did it because the old Jason requested it. One of his last creations was to connect the ARGO more directly to the head. Something I did to you.”

“And something that saved my life.”

“The old Jason gave it to me so that I could prepare some medical information for it to store both for him and me to store. While you came in for surgery I had it implanted because that was his last request. After I confirmed it to be safe I did so.”

“So, you did this before knowing I wasn’t the Jason you knew?”

“That was a difficult choice for me. Something that has ultimately proven correct for me to do. When you arrived at my hospital I used my abilities to perform a health scan of sort on you and it provided interesting results. Despite being biologically the same your accumulated injuries were unique and there were just some inconsistencies from you overall.”

“And you continued despite that.”

“Yes. Whatever strange power brought you here was not anyone I know of. Tearing through dimensional barriers is something I would not have fathomed possible by current technology. If someone has it or if it is part of a power set then they have kept it hidden for a long time. I did not wish to interfere with either a technological or dimensional superhuman on that level of power. Whatever goals this being has for you is beyond me.”

“So where do we go from here? The being that brought me here didn’t give me any instructions. No superpowers. I was thrown out on my own to what? Replace the Jason that died. Did he know this powerful master? Was this his plan or someone else’s?”

“I don’t know but you can hope to know in the future and search for the answers now that you are free from Wesley and now that Jason’s old shop is destroyed maybe it is time to build something new.”

I looked down at the bedsheets and at my broken arm. I was reminded of my time spent in the warehouse shop and everything I had done there. I had jumped into the work and like the old Jason taken up a liking to it. The place had become my place to be. Looking back at my time in this world so far I had spent more of it inside there surrounded by all of the tools and machines than anything else.

“I don’t need something new. There isn’t much left of the old Jason left in this world, but I want to preserve what I can and help continue it. I can’t say why he wanted to work in the business of superheroes and why he continued to, but I know why I want to. It may take some time to rebuild but I want to see his designs and creations to be continued to be viewed and for as long as possible.”

“That is a noble goal and one I would like to help you continue with the effort I can bring. Other than my continued support with hope, and occasional healing services, you can improve your skills with this. An old friend of my mother’s contacted me when your visit was first registered in our system. It was part of the reason I decided to go through with trusting you. Rachel’s grandmother is a telepath and has offered to help you by transferring memories of the old Jason to you.”

“Transferring memories? How does that work? I thought she was just a telepath. How powerful is she?”

“The strongest telepath alive to my and her knowledge. Power though is hard to quantify. Transferring memories is a multi-step process if you chose to go through with it. First is the reading of the memories from the left-over brain matter. Then she will have to disassociate the memories while she collects the useable ones. Once that is done she can give them to you to use.”

“What are the side effects of this? What will it do to me?”

“She usually does this to living subjects where they are taken unwillingly. I expect most of the memories will be strange to you because they will be fragmented. Like watching a movie with a mix of the audio, video, or both removed at any given time. It will be especially unique for you because you are viewing your memories in a sense with a natural connection to them. If anything goes wrong she will remove them from your mind and the entire experience if need be, but I don’t expect that to be a problem.”

“Um, I do want to know more about the old Jason, and I trust you that it will be fine.”

“Good. I will have her visit you tomorrow at home. For now, I expect that you’ll be wanting to see your friends?”

“Yes, you can bring them in. I’m ready for them.”

Frey got up from his chair and stepped out of the room. A minute later, Rachel, Caleb, and John entered the room.

“How are you feeling?” asked Rachel.

I wasn’t really sure how to answer. A lot had happened in the last… however long it had taken for me to get captured and then wake. And now I was back in the hospital, again.

“Nothing hurts. It sucks I can’t be instantly healed again throughout an afternoon but I’m fine. Though I don’t want to make visiting here a recurring thing.”

“No one does. I’m glad your safe now and Wesley’s been dealt with,” said Caleb.

“What happened to him? You took him away and now what?”

“His father is mad but is taking charge of the situation and has been quite helpful in uncovering his hidden operations once he knew where to look,” said John, “The other members of the family claim no responsibility, and their non-involvement was confirmed. Some of their assets were seized or are in the process of being seized but the majority are being returned to the ownership of their company. Their stock has dropped a bit with the news of a dynasty son going to jail but they will get through it with time. Wesley is going to trial in a week where you three will testify. Once that is taken care of for the sake of wrapping everything up he will be sent to a special part of the federal prison south of here for super-geniuses and other troubling superhumans like him.”

“He didn’t seem like much like a super-genius in the end. He seemed rushed and manic while I was around him.”

“Sadly, that is a commonality for many ‘mad scientist’ types. His need to take over the company and take the projects Jason worked on was his downfall as he tried to get what he wanted at all costs without worrying about what others were doing.”

“Then I guess you know now. That my recent changes aren’t just the difference in memory with Jason,” I said after he emphasized the name.

“Yes. It was hard to deny when we all saw what was left of the body at the coroner’s office.”

“Then what will happen to me? I didn’t outright lie to you, but I left out the information I knew and could have helped you.”

“What is done is done,” said Rachel, “Wesley was keen on killing you as soon as you appeared and sought to kill you with whatever justification he could despite already doing it once. The knowledge we know now wouldn’t have changed much about how we conducted the investigation. Just be glad it didn’t cause any problems. Now for what to do with you. That was a harder decision to make while you slept and recovered. The short version is that you deserve a second chance.”

“What does that mean for me?”

“Some work with memory alteration but you will take the place of Jason and his body will disappear,” said Caleb, “I’ve talked to Dan, Nate, Quinn, and a few others that used to be in more regular contact and they agreed to keep it secret and support you in the future. You were thrust into this position and were given no say in it. You may not be their mask maker anymore, but we will support you in getting you where you want to be.”

I looked to the door where Frey had left through and back to Caleb and the others. I sighed.

“I talked to Frey about this and have come to a decision. The old Jason built up that shop and despite it being destroyed at the moment I want to continue working on it and building up my skills. Other than spending time with you all I had the most fun spending time there. I don’t want to see the end of the shop be now with it burnt to the ground. And I know that that means I will probably need your help,” I said turning to John, “getting back into college and learning what I need to so I can properly run the place.”

“As long as you don’t use that AI to cheat I’ll see what I can do.”

“Can you actually tell that it's a part of me now? I didn’t even notice the change with it now embedded in my head,” I said to Caleb.

“It is hard to see. Even when I am actively looking for it. It is probably because the parts are mostly made up of biological material from you so only a few pieces of it are technological in nature.”

“That is interesting to know.”

The conversation continued for a while longer, but Frey ultimately came in and got them out of the room so that I could sleep for the night. The next day I was discharged and went home to an empty house. It still felt weird to me as I walked around that this place was mine. I had very little planned or had stuff required of me. I had the trial sure, but other than that I was waiting. Construction and shipment of new supplies would take some time as everything came in. The upside of the damage was that the older machines I had had in the shop were now going to be replaced by a brand-new model of the same tools.

The ARGO hadn’t spoken to me since I left the bunker, but I also hadn’t tried to contact it since. Its main ‘body’ was now in my office downstairs. I had brought it home with me from the hospital along with my few other things. It was something I needed to protect. I knew that now and I also knew how powerful it was in the limited use case that I had tried it out in. It had saved my life and I was excited to see what it could do once I was back in the warehouse shop.

The next day there was a knock at my door early in the morning. I got up from the couch and opened the door for my visit. In strolled Linda, Rachel’s grandmother.

“Surprised to see me?” she said, “I guess I never did introduce myself fully at the party.”

“Did you…”

“Yes, and I knew after you started talking to some of the guests and your thoughts went to some topics you should’ve already known about. That and the old Jason had built up mental defenses. Something you are sorely lacking.”

“Why didn’t you say anything to me? It would have been suspicious to see me there.”

“Again, it had to do with your mental defenses. It was easy to see that you were untrained and extremely unlikely to be a spy. Then when I was able to get closer to you and you were an open book. I was able to see you like the awkward boy you are.”

“Thanks for that I guess,” I said sheepishly.

“Now let us begin. Come lay down on the couch. This process will take some time for everything to sink in and stick in your head.”

I laid down on the couch and rested my head on a pillow. She brought over a chair and sat down before putting her hands on my head.

“Just relax. Close your eyes and I’m going to count down. Don’t resist and let everything go. It should feel like going to sleep and entering a lucid dream.”

She took a deep breath and then began counting. Though I don’t want to ma

“10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4…”

I was out before the countdown ended. I felt myself relax and then everything went black. The next sensations were confusing and if I hadn’t prepared for them I would have freaked out. A million thoughts and ideas entered my head at once and I felt sluggish and slow. My brain started trying to process it all and I felt like I was wading through mud. As I started to make sense of the fragments of memories they became more tangible and real to me. Memories of creating items came first and were the most powerful. Next were interactions with people in school and with superheroes. It was like a hundred new contacts were added to my brain. References on the news to superheroes and famous people were made clearer and I suddenly made millions of connections with different topics at the same time. All of them felt like they came from me directly and had a sense of familiarity but had a strangeness to them at the same time.

As the stream of consciousness ended and I began to feel a sense of stability within my mind, I felt exhausted. Even though I hadn’t done much before Linda arrived I was ready to sleep for another eight hours. Once it ended I heard her voice.

“Rest Jason. It went well. Take your time to sleep and dream. I will visit you again soon.”

Linda relaxed her powers holding me. I never opened my eyes throughout the entire process and once done I followed her instructions. Only a few hours after waking, I returned to sleep filled with dreams of superheroes, super suits, and a few of my adventures so far in between.