The alarm was one of those loud, obnoxious horns movie people liked to use to show there was an emergency of some sort. It came complete with flashing red lights. Most of the time when the alarms sounded at Wielders HQ they were a lot less obnoxiously loud and definitely didn’t have flashing red lights. Most of the time when the alarms sounded at Wielders HQ, they were letting the team know it was time to get ready to go into action, the team was leaving for to go into action, or the team was coming back from action. In short, most of the alarms were team-related. The loud obnoxious alarm with the red lights was reserved for major threats.
John Tinker had just laid down in his bunk for his normal three hours of sleep when the major threat alarm started blasting. Without complaint, he sat up. He reached on the night stand for his glasses. As soon as he put them on his face, he immediately got dressed. There were times when he wondered why he even bothered undressing in the first place, it might be quicker to just sleep in his clothes. He opened the door to his room and stepped immediately into the Communications Room, the heart of the Wielders HQ.
There were people sitting at the seven banks of ten monitors each. Each bank reported to one team leader. Each leader analyzed the data they were given and relayed that information to the person in the main chair, Operator One, who answered directly to Tinker. When Tinker entered he saw Fitzgerald was sitting in the main chair. He had the most seniority of all the leaders and when things were especially bad, he took over as Operator One, regardless of which leader had been in the position previously. Under most situations, his behavior may had alienated his coworkers, but everyone in the facility knew that when things were bad you wanted Fitzgerald in the main chair. There were times when he even impressed Tinker with his quick grasp of the situation.
Tinker walked up behind Operator One. Without turning his head or even being asked, Fitzgerald started talking. “Mister Tinker, our drones have spotted this man.”
The main monitor zoomed in on the fuzzy image of a dark haired man who appeared to be dressed in black rags. Operator One continued. “Our threat assessment program gives a 75% possibility this is…”
Before Fitzgerald could finish, Tinker spoke. “His name is Dragen. Some times called The Darkstar. He usually faces off with Universal. Contact them to come fetch him off the planet.”
Universal was a group of super-powered heroes who were from Earth but were based on the planet Altior. They were Earth’s ambassadors to Altior, as well as being Earth’s contribution to the overall security in the galaxy. Individually, they were strong enough to tear through most of the armies on the planet; Collectively, they could be Earth’s new masters almost at a whim. For that reason, Tinker liked to keep them off planet.
Fitzgerald shook his head slowly. “Unfortunately, sir, they’re indisposed at the moment.”
Tinker frowned slightly. In his sleepy state, he forgot they had contacted him before leaving their base on Altior. “Oh yeah,” Tinker said through pursed lips. “The Space Crocodile thing.”
There were rumors of a giant crocodile like creature roaming the shipping lanes of Laniakea Supercluster. Tinker thought it was a snipe hunt, but felt that normally it was better to have them away and occupied than on Earth making him nervous. He wasn’t exactly sure his people would be able to stop Universal and didn’t want to have to find out.