2.22.2 – Interview for membership

2.0 - Edited by: Rellawing, AlliterativeArts - 11/26/2020

Midnight Avenger led them into a room that seemed to be where the Society held their most important meetings. It looked official, just like the leaked pictures so Aurora knew it fairly well.

Each chair had the insignia of a different hero on their backs, so when the Avenger stepped into the room first and pulled out a chair, Aurora was able to tell that it was the Redline Racer’s.

“Sit.”

Bombshell flew over to her own seat and kicked her feet up onto the polished table. The insignia of the Society was lacquered on top, beneath a layer of glass that entirely defied the glare of the room’s lighting. The Society of Sentinels’ seal depicted a shield with crossed fists bound by bands on the wrists. Around the edges of the seal were the depictions of superhero-types.

One was of Mercury’s sandals, another was a set of airplane wings inlaid behind a domino mask. Yet another was a clock. Other symbols indicated the elements, interspacing at each side; fire, earth, wind, ice, water, electricity, metal, and wood. There was a heater-style shield for the tougher heroes like Vanguard, crossed guns laid over a grenade, as well as a generic-looking atomic mushroom-cloud. The circular borders were a design suggesting joined hands, forming endless lines, symbolizing humanity joining hands working towards the greater good.

Aurora sat in the indicated chair after a long spell of staring at the fabled and fateful room.  Meanwhile Avenger took his seat emblazoned with a clock to her right and Mistral took a seat on Aurora's other side with a cutlass and pistol emblazoned on its back, that was most likely Privateer’s.

“All right, let’s begin.” the Avenger said after everyone was seated. He looked thoughtful as he shifted his seat to face the angel more directly, but his eyes angled past her to Mistral. “Introduce her.”

Mistral spoke after a moment. “Bombshell, Midnight Avenger, this is Aurora, a new heroine from San Isidro. She was empowered by the remnants of Black Angel’s essence, so that’s why she looks like this.” She patted Aurora’s shoulder from behind. “However, I would like to assure you both that I have used my magic already to confirm her intent and claims.”

“Your non-weather related powers are considered to be weak,” the Midnight Avenger said bluntly. “You’ll understand if I’m skeptical.”

Aurora suppressed a glare. That sounded like an attack on Mistral. Well, sort of… it wasn’t quite.

“Why don’t we call Dee-Emm?” Bombshell suggested. “He can verify these claims without trouble.”

“You don’t trust me either, Shelly?” Mistral asked.

“I do,” Bombshell shrugged, “But you know ol’ clock-top here doesn’t trust anyone.” She grinned.

“Excuse me,” Aurora couldn’t hold back any longer. “Mistral is my hero. I don’t know whether it’s her flair, how she fights, the backstory people I follow have theorized about her. There are a million little reasons why I like her… but more than that, I trust her implicitly. It’s in who she is. I opened everything up to her, and hid nothing. She would know if I fought her in any way, wouldn’t she? Even if she’s supposed to be weak outside elemental magics she should have been able to tell that much.” She looked over her shoulder warmly and hopefully at Mistral.

“She’s seen all of me, literally. She now knows me as well as my family, which I won’t talk about for the moment. If I was Black Angel returned, playing games, Mistral would know I was holding out. Anyhow, I’m really comfortable with her and yeah, I know Black Angel hurt her in the past. I doubt she’d look and act naturally if it was…”

Mistral put her hand on Aurora’s shoulder and squeezed gently. “Leave it to me. You can trust me, Avenger. Since we’ve worked together, you know that I can look into souls and communicate on a deep mental level. I’m sure she’s on the level,” she said flatly.

The Midnight Avenger crossed his arms. “Assuming I trust this, why bring her here?”

“Duh… she wants to join us, Clockhead,” Bombshell said suddenly, throwing her arms up. “You should try uncovering your ears,” she chuckled.

“We’re not taking any new recruits at this time,” the Avenger shot back.

“How would you know? You’re ‘detached’, aren'tcha? Maybe we held a meeting and are having open try-outs today, you wouldn’t know,” Bombshell teased.

“We’re not. And you didn’t,” the Avenger replied tersely. He looked from Bombshell to Aurora. “Let’s move on. Drop your force field and let me ask you some questions. If you pass, then we’ll move on.”

“I don’t have a forcefield up. I don’t need to use one here in the Society’s Headquarters, do I?” Aurora smiled, but spoke seriously. “I hope this won’t compromise my personal information to yet another person tonight.” She tilted her head and sighed. “I’m going to trust you. You’re a fighter for justice. It’s not even a question that I’d need to defend myself.”

The Avenger didn’t respond, for a long moment his flat expression unchanged. “Are you Black Angel?” Out from nowhere after staring her down, he fired this question point blank.

“No.” Aurora mirrored his expression, answering just as flatly.

“Are you intending harm to any of us or the Society in general?”

“No.” Flat again, but she did smile a little.

“Is Mistral your idol?”

Oh, damn right… she was. “N-Yes,” Aurora stuttered and blushed, losing her imitation of him. She was expecting yet another silly question and was ready to say no.

“All right, then. You’re clear for now.” Midnight Avenger reached over and shook Aurora’s hand.

Aurora was surprised by how quickly things changed. Even stunned, she took his hand and shook it earnestly. “Thank you,” she murmured.

Avenger sat back after. “I hope you understand my caution. You are a fairly close physical match for Black Angel as I said. And even without you potentially being her, you’re of the Empyrean race. There’s a global quarantine for Empyreans due to their current planetary issues.”

“But she’s different,” Mistral said quickly.

Midnight Avenger nodded slowly. “I see. So I assume you brought her to at least join the Society’s basic level?”

“I think it would help her to have a communicator and access to the Society, yes, especially given the situation in San Isidro with El Aguila,” Mistral continued, arguing for Aurora’s sake.

Bombshell laughed. “She’s got us there. That guy... what a problem.” She shrugged.

Aurora smiled. “I did think it was probably too lofty a dream to expect that I’d be a full member so quickly. I’ll take what help I can get. I don’t have many resources on my own. Just my powers.”

“Let me tell you how this works then,” the Midnight Avenger smoothly interjected. “First, the Society of Sentinels exists to provide support for Superhumans all over the world. Our goal is to have every Superhero in communication in case we need to talk to them, or on hand to be able to consult in times of need. Second, if you truly want to be a member of the Society, you must obey the Three Laws of Superheroics. Finally, you will be granted basic access to our facilities in exchange for information on your cases. We pledge to try not to pry into your personal life, but will investigate your cases as we feel necessary.”

“Uuuugh… not the three laws,” Bombshell complained loudly, pretending to fall asleep.

Aurora giggled softly. She was familiar with all the established Three Laws; basically, you are to protect the lives of bystanders to the best of your ability, you are to protect the lives of yourself and your allies unless it conflicts with the first law, and finally you are to protect the lives of any opponents you might face unless it conflicts with the first two laws.

Midnight Avenger went from detailing the laws on to lecturing her on the laws. She smiled and nodded repeatedly as he recited them with a moderately impassioned tone, for him. This angel knew them well and already abided by them so all she could do was wait patiently for Midnight Avenger to wind down. When he did finally finish, she took some of the wind out from his sails. “I already know the laws. I’ve been doing my best to live by them in my outings, but I will improve as I gain more experience.” She nodded.

Midnight Avenger’s expression somehow turned extra flat. “All right. I’m going to examine any mention of you in the news, but based on the strength of Mistral’s recommendation and my own cursory examination, I’m going to vote to grant you Basic membership. If Bombshell agrees--”

“Anything to move this along, I’m bored to tears… Good--ness, it’ll be nice to have someone who’s not a jerk from San Isidro. Of course she can join!” Bombshell gave Aurora her vote of confidence.

Midnight Avenger nodded. “In that case, I’ll requisition you a communicator. You’re limited to visitor’s areas unless escorted by a full member. It’ll take about twenty to thirty minutes,” he enumerated. “Feel free to use our other available facilities in the meantime.” He stood and left briskly.

Aurora couldn’t help but stare at his back as he went too quickly. The guy was really terse.

Bombshell got up and walked over, offering her hand to shake. “To be serious for a moment: Welcome to the Society.”

Aurora took her hand and grinned, shaking it happily. “I’m really happy to be part of the Society. I’ve always daydreamed about it.” She looked at Mistal, shining some of her huge grin at her role model. “Thanks, both of you for vouching for me.” Even though she was caught up with the idea of becoming a member of the Society of Sentinels like she always wished she could, a face flashed in her mind.  Ohhh.. Goonie… how long has this taken? She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and stared at the clock, gaping. It was way later than it should be. She hadn’t looked at her phone back in Canada, but somehow she’d lost three hours! “I need to make a quick call. Do you two mind? It’s gotten really late. Um… can I finally find out where we are now? Is there some kind of a time factor with that teleportation technology?”

Mistra smiled dryly and slipped her card from her robes, not answering her questions.  Bombshell gestured to Mistral when her heroine laid her card on the table near Aurora.

“Tap the screen and you can use the touch interface or give verbal commands.  It’s not tuned to you, so it’d be best to type. Use my communicator to call out. Don’t use your phone.” Bombshell clapped Mistral on her shoulder and Mistral rushed on to say, “Shelly and I have to talk about something quickly. Sit on those questions of yours for now. I’ll be right back, promise.” She winked and Bombshell tugged her away, leaving Aurora alone in the austere and brightly-lit meeting room.

Aurora stared blankly, still feeling a little abandoned, but it was probably done to give her the privacy she asked for. Not wanting to be alone in this important place, she was half-way wanting to follow them out, but she took herself in hand because this call was important.

But don’t think she didn’t notice the deflection and evasion, none of her questions were answered still. Maybe it was still too early in the relationship. She wasn’t even officially signed up yet. She wasn’t about to act entitled or spoiled.

Getting a Sentinel communicator sounded exactly like what she needed. Of course she would follow their rules and policies and navigate them without fail.

She lifted the communicator Mistral left on the table and played with it a little, finding that it was very much like a cellphone, but more on the side of a true ultra-thin computer in reality. She bent it and it easily folded in half. She was worried that there’d be a crack, scratch, some sign of weakening of the material, but afterwards it went right back to its natural perfectly flat form. This was some serious technology. There was no bezel, no material. The whole thing was the screen! It was even a bit see-through. When she played with it and activated it like Mistral had shown her, it projected three dimensional images like a holograms with crisp, clean colors no matter how you looked at it.

After a bit of digging around, she found the phone function and was able to dial home while sweating as she saw the minutes ticking on its clock. Through whatever technical wizardry powered the thing, it rang despite her not seeing any speaker anywhere on the thing. When the screen’s text said the call had connected, she put it to her head and gaped.

“It’s almost curfew, thanks for calling, honey. I’m very excited for you and I know you’re in good hands at the moment so don’t let me keep you, I imagine you’re busy.” It was almost freaky to hear Goonie’s voice coming more from inside her head than through her ears.

With technology like this, conversations over calls really would be private except for what you said. Reacting on reflex, she tried to respond in her head, but Goonie remained silent, waiting for a response. Nearly curfew? Aurora blinked with a raised eyebrow. The clock said that it was nearly 1AM!  Where was she right now? Even her phone had confirmed this time!

Relieved, she turned her thoughts back to the gizmo in her hand.  She wondered if it was reading her mind or something? Apparently there was a good old fashioned microphone hidden in it. Mistral had said it wasn’t tuned for her, but it worked perfectly!

Aurora giggled at how enthusiastic her Goonie was for her. “Thanks, Mom. I knew you’d understand about the curfew under the circumstances.” She was extremely relieved to find that it wouldn’t have been a problem if it truly was nearly 1 AM. “There isn’t any better place for me to be except for home. Anyhow, I got to see Canada. It was amazing! Did you know there are castles and things like that in Quebec?”

Remembering where she was, she tamped down on the full retelling for the time being, so she moved on to talk about where she was and what she was doing, “So I’m kinda busy right now, but I wanted to tell you what’s up before anyone got worried. Right now, I was sort of inducted into the Society of Sentinels. I’ll keep you up to date as much as I can on all this. There are some secrets I have to be very careful with, I think.” Aurora smiled.

Goonie seemed to get the message and after a few stock goodbyes, the line disconnected.

The heroine had only to wait a moment before Mistral walked back in. “Okay, so we are currently in Virginia.”

Leona’s jaw dropped. It was okay for her to say that? It explained the three hour difference!

“This building is located in Alexandria and it’s disguised as the National Guardian building. It has a number of secret entrances and exits, as well as a concealed underground hangar nearby.”

“You’re now a Basic member of the Society like me. We’re not on the big hitter’s team of the Sentinel team members, but we do have access to their information network, their labs, and other such facilities, including access to the Clubhouse buildings around the world. They’re first-come first-served though, so if someone is already using them, you have to wait your turn or go elsewhere. You’ll get daily codes on your communicator to allow entry.”

“There are about five levels of membership. After Basic, you get into official membership and into the Sentinel’s team itself. Then you have the Junior members, who are officially in-training. This requires a commitment to sharing personal information with them. Then there’s Regular membership, which you can only achieve by invitation. That doesn’t usually happen unless the team has fewer than seven or eight members. You hold that level until you’re voted out or leave the team of your own volition. They typically offer Regular membership to the Junior members first, or so I’m told. If you retire from Regular membership, you’re automatically enrolled in the Reserves. Finally, there is a special membership called ‘Legacy.’ It’s not really clear what the benefits they get or the requirements.”

Moving over, Mistral picked up her card. “As you’ve probably guessed, this card is essentially equivalent to a smartphone. If you have a non-Basic membership, it acts as a bank card as well. You will find several apps have been pre-installed which will connect you to your own supposedly untraceable email and communications suite,” Mistral explained. “You can still buy regular commercial apps on it as well, but unless you use your Sentinels account that can be tracked so it’s recommended to not do that.”

Mistral smiled and slipped her card back into the confines of her costume. “I know your costume is part of the magic of your powers, but you also have access to the Sentinels’ costume sources, if you were to ever need a new real costume. The ‘wardrobe department’ also provides fashion consultation and many good premade options.”

Mistral sat back down in the chair she’d taken before and gestured for Aurora to seat herself as well.

With a sigh, she seemed to build herself up for what looked like a tricky subject, “I need to talk to you privately now. While this room is as private as it gets, I don’t want anyone walking in on us. After you get your communicator, do you want to come back to my sanctum for a little while?”

Aurora smiled happily. “I’d love to, Mistral!” She bounced at the invitation. “I’m so glad it was you who introduced me! It’s all a dream come true. Um… is there a reason why you’ve been a bit melancholy?” she asked, laying a soft hand on Mistral’s shoulder.

Mistral’s expression lightened and became a broad smile again. “It’s just been a long day, Aurora. Up to today, I had been watching you for a long while in between my personal business. It hasn’t exactly been easy. I’m sure you know that I halfway expected to discover another menace unleashed on the world.” She laughed at her own accumulated nervousness. “Anyhow, it’s time. I’ve been thinking about taking a day off for a while. For people like us, it’s hard to find time to take a break and harder still to not feel guilty about doing it. While we wait, do you have any questions left over?”

Before Aurora could think of anything to ask, the great door slid open again and the Midnight Avenger strode in. He crossed the room back to his seat and seated himself with little care for what the two might have been discussing.

Once seated, he slid a card over to Aurora on the table. “Here’s your communicator. Welcome, officially, to the Society. I’ll explain the basic functions and then let you go about your business.”

Leona nearly blinked. And just like that she had a shiny alien-tech device free of charge?

Even though Midnight Avenger seemed friendlier relatively speaking she couldn’t think too much about that. He went on to give Leona a full tour and dissection of every single function the communicator could be used for. He covered the help functions, stealth features, the credit card mode. Well, it was slightly too wide and long to be a real credit card but it was just as thin and far more flexible.

“There are several ID modes as well, but those are locked to Basic members and mainly pertain to official clearances.”

The Midnight Avenger got up and laid a hand on Aurora’s shoulder. “Don’t forget that we’re a Society standing together. If you need help, we will be happy to assist, that depends on our availability.” Aurora’s jaw nearly dropped yet again.

She could half-swear the dour and serious Midnight Avenger was actually smiling behind his social mask!

“Thank you!” An overwhelmed fangirl and novel superheroine grinned gratefully. “It’s truly an honor to serve with you, sir. I won’t let you all down.”

With everything that had happened tonight, she really wanted to put it on her display shelf, but couldn’t. She bounced as she picked up her very own membership card. In that moment her wings spread out and started to flutter as she hugged the card like a teddy bear.

Midnight Avenger didn’t comment and continued his dispassionate dissertation on the functions of the card. She was overawed and fell silent as she cuddled her new favorite object and listened.

She peeked at the screen and saw that there was already a picture of her on it with her official id information written in clear lettering. It looked like Mistral’s but it was her very own membercard! She wondered how they got such a good picture of her out of nowhere. Even so, she was squeeing endlessly on the inside.

“I’ll do my best not to need that help, but I’m really proud and glad to have it!”

The Midnight Avenger nodded seriously to Aurora and once again walked out, still a heck of an enigma.

Once the hero had left, Mistral smiled. “Come on. Ready to go?” she asked, “Or do you want to play with the communicator a bit or look around the headquarters?” An easygoing grin canvassed her face.

“I’d love to look around a little while I’m here,” Aurora said, smiling but went on, “But since you’re feeling tired, I understand if you want to go to your lodge instead. There will be another opportunity, I’m sure.” She couldn’t keep the goofy grin off her face and didn’t really want to either.