Hero: Revenge of the Gods!

Chapter 9 Reunion

All of the strike teams gathered in the airplane hangar of C.O.R.E headquarters. They were ready to depart to their mission sites immediately. The hangar was filled with old and new aircraft; Airplanes,helicopters and hovercraft were all docked one by one next to each other in an assortative fashion. The hangar bay itself was quite large, about 1400 square meters! It could comfortably hold a lot of c.o.r.e agents and their air equipment.

"Ned...." Kiana said as she looked at the young man in front of them.

Ned was a quaint young man, he was average height with an average build. He wasn't strong or muscular but definitely not weak.He had blue eyes and dark black hair that stretched forward, nearly covering his left eye. He was considerably taller than the last time they had met him, about 5'10 instead of his previous shorter height. Him, Kiana and Rodney had been on a mission some time a while ago. They had bonded during that experience and had become good friends. Unfortunately they had fallen out of contact for a while.

"Nice to you both again." Ned replied while smiling.
"Heh.... Its nice to see you too, kid." Rodney said.
"You know I'm not a kid, anymore I'm 21 now." He sighed.
"-though I wasn't a kid back then either." He quipped.
"Heh. Time really does fly, doesn't it?" Kiana replied.
" I suppose it does and to lady times credit, you too have aged like fine wine." He complimented.
"Aw gee. Don't flatter me." Kiana blushed.

"What have you been doing all this time?" Rodney asked.
"Going on c.o.r.e missions like you!" Ned enthusiastically replied.
"Though I was in a secret ops Corp. So,my work was kept a secret." He continued on to say.
" Ah, The higher ups sure know how to keep everything from us." Rodney sighed.
"Hey, Tell me about it. They wouldn't tell us if we had shit on our face or not." He sighed.
"Oof. Its weird to hear you curse now, Ned." Kiana sighed.
"Like I said, I'm not a kid anymore." Ned reiterated.
Kiana had to readjust her eyes. Even hearing Ned say that twice, she couldn't believe it. This kid that she had gone on a grand adventure with was now an adult. While it did make her feel old, she was proud and seeing how much he had grown. She smiled at him and giggled to himself.

"Is everything alright with your father?" Rodney asked.
"Yeah. He's at this organization. Though only in an advisory role. He's thinking about retiring after we clean up this mess." Ned admonished.
"Ah. I'll be sad to see the old man go." Rodney sighed.
"Me too. I'm 21 years and old and I still think he's the coolest. Losing him will be a blow to the force.." Ned commented.

"Aye. Losing this battle will be an even bigger blow to the world." Rodney exclaimed.
"Yep. It was angels two months and now this month, fantasy monsters? What's next aliens in november?" Ned joked.
"Don't jinx it!" Kiana said, Half jokingly.
"Hahaha." Ned responded.
"Regardless, I wish we could've had a more proper reunion. Fighting some monsters from another dimension isn't how I visualized seeing you again, Ned." Rodney sighed.

All of their faces looked somber that they reunited under such dire circumstances. Nonetheless they had a job to do and they were willing to do it. All three of them turned to the aircraft in the hangar. They knew where the next adventure lie and where their destiny lay - saving the world from this dark threat.

"Let's go." Rodney ordered.

The three went forward towards their destiny.