After Liam messaged me the location on his phone, he got up and said, "Finn, lunch is over. Remember to come to that location tomorrow morning."
Liam then left to head back to the association.
I began to process what had just happened: Liam having powers and being an A-class superhero was just so overwhelming.
I decided that I needed some time to think about everything that had just happened, so I called Kathrine and told her that I wouldn't be able to come into work for the rest of the day.
"Why?" she asked curiously.
"The food I had for lunch doesn't agree with my stomach," I quickly replied.
"Okay, I will make sure to tell the boss if he asks," she said confidently.
"Thanks," I responded, then immediately hung up the phone.
I finally got up from the park bench and walked home slowly, lost in thought about what to do.
I decided it would be best to go home and sleep to clear my head and be prepared for tomorrow morning.
As I entered my room, I immediately jumped into bed and fell asleep, but not before setting an alarm for 6 a.m. so I would wake up on time to meet with Liam.
After sleeping soundly, I woke up, even though my alarm hadn't gone off yet. It was 5:30 a.m., so I decided to get up and get ready—the earlier, the better, right?
I brushed my teeth, got dressed, and left the apartment, checking my phone to see where Liam had messaged me to meet up.
The message said to meet at an abandoned warehouse about 5 miles outside of London, so I walked to the train station, bought a ticket, and got on. At this point, it was 6 a.m., so I looked up how long it would take to reach my destination and saw that it was a 30-minute train ride. I decided to have a quick nap and set an alarm for 25 minutes—not 30, just to make sure I woke up on time.
I began to drift off to the sound of the train until, after what felt like a second, I woke up to an annoying beeping sound. I looked around to turn it off and go back to sleep, but it turned out to be my phone alarm waking me up. It had already been 25 minutes, so I unhappily got up and played games on my phone for the remaining 5 minutes.
After what felt like hours, the train finally arrived at my destination. I happily got off the train and looked at the maps app on my phone to see the directions to the abandoned warehouse. It turned out to be only 3 minutes away, so I quickly started walking, following the directions. As I was walking and looking at my phone, I bumped straight into a lamp post and dropped my phone. I picked it up, but it was all smashed and unusable. I figured I would just have to get a new one later in the day. Luckily, I was only a couple of turns away from the warehouse and didn't need the maps app anymore.
After a few minutes, I arrived at the warehouse and saw two figures—one I recognized as Liam, but the other I didn't recognize. Even so, knowing that Liam would not harm me, I walked over to them.
After a couple of seconds, I could see the other person more clearly. He seemed to be a guy with long, spiky red hair and a punk-like aesthetic.
Liam noticed me and said, "Hi, come over here."
I walked over to him and asked, "Hi, why did you want to talk here?"
Liam replied, "Oh, I didn't want anyone to hear this conversation, nor for it to be found out by anyone, because what we're going to talk about is top secret."
"Oh, okay," I quickly responded.
I wondered what he wanted to talk about and pondered for a minute.
Liam then tapped me on the shoulder and introduced the other guy, saying, "The other guy is called Jack, and he's my computer guy. He knows all about that kind of stuff and is really good. He helps me out with my superhero work. He also works for the association, but in the IT department for security threats."
"Jack, this is Finn," Liam said to Jack. He looked over at me and then went back to whatever he was doing, seemingly zoning out.
"Hi," I said to Jack.
"Yo," Jack responded.
I didn't really trust this Jack guy to know about my secret powers, but if Liam trusted him, it should be okay.
"I've already told Jack about your situation," Liam said.
He continued, "At the moment, the association isn't a good place. Its use is more for making money than for keeping people safe. That's why we're not going to tell them about your powers."
I looked at Liam, shocked, but after a couple of seconds of thinking it over, I understood. It all made sense. After all, I had worked there for a while, and something did seem off. I have just never cared because it's none of my business and not part of my job.
"Now, to the reason why Jack is here," Liam said seriously.