The Suns of Liberty: Legion: A Superhero Novel Read Free

Lantern was relieved by the response he got back.
         “Good work,” the Revolution’s voice said on the
other end of the line. “Let me know what else you see.”
         Lantern just smiled. Seeing was his thing.
          
     
    BOSTON ,
MASSACHUSETTS .
    09:45AM
     
    The
Revolution and Sophia Linh sat in the cockpit of the U.S. Air Force’s latest
marvel: a Sikorsky UH-1200 Stealth Hawk helicopter, dubbed StealthHawk-1 .
Dark, sleek, and angular. Invisible to radar. One half of a generous gift from
sympathetic officers at Hanscom Air Force base in the days just after the
Council’s evacuation of Boston ( StealthHawk-2 still sat in a hangar bay
on standby). No doubt a group loyal to John Bailey’s far-reaching Special Division
S-1of the CIA, better known as SHADOW. Bailey had been the second-in-command of
the Suns of Liberty, behind the Revolution, and had gone by the call sign Saratoga .
He was one of the many who had given his life to free Boston.
         A scarlet cape was draped across the Revolution’s
back. Body armor of bold blue. Sleek metal snug tightly to his body, with
grooves and curves built into the steel. Prominent shoulder plates lay under
the spots where the cloak attached. A red star on the chest, covering his solar
plexus, and another across his forehead. Boots, forearms, gloves shining royal
red in the dancing afternoon sunlight. A silver-white belt with a blue star on
the buckle was clamped around his waist. The only part of his body that was
visible was his eyes, protected by thick, clear eye shields. Over the mouth and
nose section of his helmet was a vented system that both allowed air in freely
and filtered it. All of it made of a nearly indestructible titanium alloy called
TO-4.
         No one knew his true identity. The last man to know
had been the man who had created him. And he had died long ago.
         At first, the symbolism of the armor, the costume, had
been a hard sell for the man who would become the Revolution. He'd needed convincing.
But the Freedom Council was a creature of media birth. So must be its
adversary.
         It would take something that would make an immediate impact
to compete with the twenty-four-seven power of the Media Corp propaganda
machine. A superhero would make that immediate impact. People had always
yearned for a superhero. So he had become one.
         He had chosen to end his personal life. He had given
up being a normal human being a long time ago.
         One life ends, another begins.
           He had no friends, no family left. He devoted himself to
the cause. There was only one catch. To be the Revolution, he knew he would
have to be willing to die…and to kill. Had to be ready to make the decisions
few could ever make. The decisions of a perpetual soldier.
         The only thing he had left that meant anything to him
was his country. His duty. And he would see them through to the bitter end, no
matter the cost. The ancients had believed that the greatest life lived was
that which ended in a glorious death. He could only hope that his glory would
be the restoration of the Republic.  
         Other Americans had paid with their lives to secure
freedom. Was it really so strange, the choice he had made?  To be a
soldier, a public servant? That’s all he was.
         And now he had enlisted help for his one-man war. The
Suns of Liberty were born. If a war was to be waged in the name of the people,
they would have to wage it. If the Republic was to be saved, it would fall to
them to do the saving.
         Sophia banked the Sikorsky hard right and the duo
descended from the cloud bank in a steep dive. They dropped down to the
rooftops of Boston’s skyscrapers. Down into the steel canyon of the streets.
         Sophia’s code name was Helius . She wore a shiny,
rounded, black glider's helmet that came to a point in the back; a face shield
covered her down to the chin and was bright-blue reflective. She could see