Heroes Chapter 9

When we got to the hallway, there was no one there. I saw Dexter walk by and the Oracle called out after him. "Dexter, honey!" Dexter back-pedaled a bit and looked up from his workbook. She said, "Could you get this young man here set up?" He nodded. The Oracle turned to me and said in a low whisper, "Your destiny is tied with theirs. They need you Alex, whether or not they believe it." Dexter came up before I could explain to her that what I did was a fluke. Dexter escorted me back to the lab. The Oracle stayed behind in her room.

When we got to the lab, Dexter pulled up a little questionnaire. He said, "Okay. What do you want to go by?" He said it so quietly I could barely hear him. I looked at the screen. It had a bunch of white boxes. The address box was already filled out. I said, "Alexander, uh, Smith."

Dexter started typing and said, "Are you sure? Smith is a pretty common name. I mean, I'm only suggesting...." He acted like I was going to snap at him. I said, "You're right. Too obvious. What would you suggest?" He didn't say anything. Then he said, "Rhodes?" I asked. "That's a last name?" He nodded. "I met a Mr. Rhodes once. He was one of those road-trip-family-fathers. It's a fine name, if you ask me." He muttered that last part.

I said, "Okay, Alex Rhodes it is."

After about thirty minutes of filling in stuff, Ares came in. He saw the screen and said, "So, you staying after all?" I said, "Yeah, I guess." He gave a cocky grin and said, "Just stay away from my girl, city boy. And you should be okay, for the most part." I smiled and laughed a little. He left and I let out a sigh of relief. "He scares you too?"

I looked at Dexter. "No idea what you mean." I responded. He didn't make eye contact. He said, "Its okay. He has this thing for intimidation. Most people are scared of him. He's a pretty cool guy, sometimes." A thought came to me. "Is he a bully?" He didn't say anything. I think that pretty much covers it.

He printed out a bunch of federal looking papers. He picked them up and said, "This is all of your stuff. Jessie or Kenny will show you to your room." I took the papers. I said, "Where do you guys live? Down here?" He shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much. You'd be surprised on how many people don't notice the secret passages leading to the Punk Yard."

I had one more question. "Did you build this place?" Dexter sighed. "Well, sort of. This was a secret facility of some kind. I just added on to what was here. I think it was government stuff, like, from World War I."