She kept feeding him until he had regained most of his health, the gels losing efficacy as more and more were eaten. Aurora then helped him walk to the elevator, hitting the level to his room. By the time they reached the floor with living quarters, he was standing on his own.
“Make sure you get some rest, you’ve been through a lot,” she advised, evaluating him leaning against the wall of the elevator as she stepped out.
“No. I can’t sleep; I’ve absorbed too many abilities. Don’t look at me like that, I’ll be fine. I just need some time to recuperate. Trust me.” Gus smiled weakly then hit the button to the control room.
Aurora surveyed Gus’ haggard appearance, biting the inside of her cheek. She was exhausted herself, and felt guilty she was going to sleep.
“Okay, but keep the comm open. If you need anything, let me know right away. Nick, don’t let him sleep, okay?” Aurora asked.
“That will be difficult for this lazy boy.”
Gus groaned. Chiun was back. He waved wearily as the doors started to close.
“Take care of yourself,” she urged.
Gus just nodded and shooed her away and the doors closed, cutting her off.
She stood staring for a moment after the doors closed, then shrugged and made her way to her room, the strain of the day and captivity hitting her more fully. Despite her concerns, when she reached her room and laid down, she fell asleep almost instantly, and slept more deeply than she had in a while.
“Aurora, come meet me in the control room, I have more good news.”
“Whizza-what?” Aurora exclaimed, sitting up in bed with her hair sticking up on one side. She blinked and coughed, trying to make her thoughts coherent.
“You sound like hammered heck. Get ready for the day and meet me in the control room when you’re ready. I should do the same, meet in a little bit, then?”
“Okay, I might be a bit, though,” she murmured in affirmation, and rubbed her eyes. One thing Aurora liked and was unwilling to compromise was her long showers. She didn’t allow herself a lot of indulgences but this was incontrovertible. It was one of the first things that separated her old childhood from her new life as a super.
When her mom had been around, she only got an occasional shower, and it was always cold. Later, when she stayed with Auntie, the large shower head that heated the water as it came out only worked intermittently. So once again cold showers more often than not.
Plus she had the added fun of possibly shocking herself to death if she reached up and touched the bare wiring that fed into the contraption if she forgot while washing under her arms. She had earned her hot showers. Gus sounded back to normal, he could wait.
Half an hour later, she rolled into the control room, hair still wet. “Okay, what was this good news?”
Gus was excitedly looking through the facility’s console. Gone was the tired, rough appearance she had seen just a few hours ago.
“When Basileus and crew took over the manor, they unlocked a ton of things. They must have used over a hundred-thousand legacy FP!” he exulted, like a kid on Christmas day.
“Did they get anything good?”
“Take a look.” He slid his chair to the side to show the list of recent upgrades.
A siren sounded and they both looked at each other, Gus eyes shifting from jubilant to a harder stare she hadn’t seen on his usually placid face.
“You think that’s more of Manticorps’ men?” Gus snarled as he checked the monitors.
“Maybe. It could be Purple Faction, if they happened to get my distress message.”
Gus’ heart tensed a little as he wondered which way Aurora would go if it came to a choice between him and Purple Faction. He had a pretty good idea where her loyalties would lie.
“This island is getting as busy as Grand Central Station. Let’s go see who’s here now, I’m getting tired of this,” Gus growled.
He pushed his chair away, clearly upset about another intrusion and stomped out of the room. He made a beeline to the beach and they stood ready to meet the next challengers.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Father Figure
Gus stood watching with his arms folded across his chest as they approached. He zoomed in his display, as he noticed the color of their uniforms. “You were right, it’s Purple Faction. Wait, is that Tempest?”
They awaited the group of ten supers who landed on the beach, all having the ability to fly on their own. As Tempest landed, he raised his hands up in a placating gesture. Recognizing Aurora, he turned and addressed her.
“Aurora, I’m so glad you’re okay. I got your message right before… changes happened within the Faction. I came as soon as I could, and brought a few of the supers loyal to me to come assist you. I would have been here sooner, but the message was corrupted and I had to work on it a while to recompile. Then there was the hassle of requisitioning a transport. I was getting stonewalled until Rory helped with that when he found out you were in trouble. How can I help? I seem to have a lot of extra time on my hands as of late,” Tempest said, a little edge in his voice.
Aurora looked at Tempest, then at Gus, confused that he had not recognized his own son. “Um, we’re fine, we defeated Manticorps yesterday. Are you here to let us know you’re taking the island?” She put her hands on her hips in a way that Gus wondered if she was being defiant.
“Hmm. That sounds like something I would do, doesn’t it?” Tempest rubbed his chin, and Gus
