It wouldn't be till the following night that everything was set. Deborah had to double check her sources as well as ensure that the local patrols were in the wrong place at just the right time. The venue for Jacob's debut was an old junk lot in Midtown where it and Lowtown were joined. It was remote, quiet, and the owner was a good friend of Lance's who often gave him spare parts for his projects. They would have the whole place to themselves. Jacob still had his doubts...scratch that, this was a terrible idea! But, as everyone else stated, he didn't really have any better prospects. After Howard dropped him off, he made his way into the heart of the scrapyard. There, Lance was setting up one final trio pod, and Jacob could count at least five more spaced around the area, though there were likely several more. Lance looked like a kid in a candy store, and, worse yet, he had more of those weird memorabilia doodads he had made.
"If I have to do a single advertisement, I swear I'm leaving." Jacob muttered grumpily before clearing his throat.
Lance looked up, beaming like a spotlight.
"Oh, you're here! Come on over, we're just about ready to start. Where's Merrick and Nina?"
Right on cue, the two lumino sapiens appeared, Merrick stretching a bit and breathing in deeply.
"Ah, about time we got out of that stuffy apartment. A man needs more than four walls and a cot to truly feel alive."
"Was doing just fine for me." Jacob grumbled, though he was ignored.
Nina surveyed the junkyard, her eyes darting around as she took in the scene. She then gave Lance an approving glance.
"Quite the showman, aren't you? It's certainly a dump, but I can see you've put a lot of thought into this. Have you got the equipment I recommended?"
Lance nodded, gesturing towards several tennis and baseball launchers systematically placed around the junk yard while certain vehicles and other heavy pieces of junk had been marked with spray paint.
"It's all been arranged, right down to the pose shot points. Tonight, we're just shooting action scenes and poster shots for the website. Soon as the Midknight train starts picking up steam, we'll be ready for the big leagues."
"Speaking of that," Jacob interjected. "What the heck is with that name?"
"It's short for Midtown Knight." Lance explained.
"Yeah, but that's the 'shoot-me-I'm-guilty' name everyone the commissioner gave me!" Jacob retorted. "Why condense it into something smaller."
"Because it's easier to say." Lance said dismissively, already absorbed in setting up his laptop. "Two syllables instead of three. Easier for brand recognition."
Jacob rolled his eyes and palmed his face.
"Fine, whatever! Let's just get this circus over with already."
He took the star pendant out from his shirt, the last rays of sunshine catching the citrine color radiantly.
"Ok, here we go again," he muttered. "Tele-..."
"HOLD IT!!!"
Jacob jumped back, tripping on a puddle and landing square on his seat.
"What?!" he exclaimed. "What's the problem?"
Lance quickly helped him up, and he brought him over to another part of the yard. To Jacob's astonishment, there was a green screen fastened to a tall part of the fence surrounding the yard as well as more cameras. Lance quickly turned them on, and he motioned for Jacob to stand by the screen.
"This is vital," Lance said urgently. "Every superhero needs a killer transformation sequence! It gets people hyped up and sets the tone, so we really need to nail this."
Once more, Jacob rolled his eyes.
"Lance, I feel silly enough. Don't you think you're making..."
"I'm not making a mountain out of a molehill," Lance said curtly, cutting him off. "If we're doing this, we're doing it right. Don't forget that we need to create a heroic image to counteract all the bad press. The right level of cheese will draw in the most mice, see? More eyes on your coolness means more people will ignore the shameless slander and false news. It's like how some rappers have stayed out of prison-perception is everything."
He finished adjusting the cameras and turned to Jacob, Nina appearing at his side.
"We've been working on the routine," Lance said, pointing at Nina. "I have to say, it was smart putting her in charge of choreography. She's quite gifted."
"Flatterer," Nina giggled. "I just know what looks good and how to sell it. It's a lady thing. Now, Jacob, pay close attention to my movements and try to mimic them to the best of your ability, ok?"
Jacob breathed a defeated sigh, and he gave her his undivided attention. Nina took a moment to center herself, then she mimed grabbing something from her throat, tossing it high into the air while spinning before catching it. She then brought her arm down to about her hip, and then raised it high over her head.
"TELE-TO!" she declared dramatically.
She then turned back to Jacob, who continued to stare at her blankly.
"You have got to be kidding," he said. "You want me to do all of that?"
"It's a simple little routine," Nina insisted. "You're catching a shooting star, holding its power, and then releasing its light. It represents the Sterling Star in its purest form."
"I've seen grade school plays with better moves, and I didn't even go to school!"
Nina's nose wiggled irritably, and she turned her back to him.
"Philistine, just like your father," she huffed. "Men truly don't appreciate art."
"It is a simple routine, though," Lance posited. "You only have to do it once, Jacob. After that, it's pure movie magic. Please?"
He put on a demure, puppy-like face while letting the broken lenses of his glasses enlarge his soulful eyes. Jacob did his best to look away, to not get absorbed in the child's attempt to sway him. But an image of his broken neck at the hands of Blazer flashed across his mind and shattered the rest of his resolve.
"Fine," he conceded, much to Lance and Nina's jubilation. "Let's just get this over with."
It would take a few tries to get the routine down, Jacob even dropped the Sterling Star once or twice, but in time he had managed to mimic Nina's little dance, right down to raising the star over his head.
"TELE-TO!" he declared, even mustering a bit of boldness for effect.
In a flash of stardust, Jacob was once more garbed in the blue chainmail, silver armor, and scarlet cape. Likewise, his eyes were glowing gold as his hair turned silver. Oddly, he felt comfortable. It was like putting on an old pair of shoes that were comfortable to walk in. In fact, the entire armor was remarkably breathable and unrestrictive, almost like a second skin. Given its shape and bulk, Jacob thought it should have been heavier, but it might as well have been made of tin foil.
"Marvelous design, eh?" Nina chuckled admirably. "I must say, I do make some delightful pieces of art."
Jacob flashed her a befuddled look.
"I thought Merrick made the armor," he said.
A wrinkle formed in Nina's brow, as well as a number of large veins on her forehead. Her shoulders were also twitching, as though she were fighting the urge to jump Jacob.
"Yes, technically he reshaped my masterpieces into what you now where," she said evenly. "But all he did was take my hard work, changed it around a bit, and claimed it was all his doing. Trust me, boy, when it comes to molding luminous silver and cobalt, there is no greater master than I. Capiche?"
With that nerve touched, Jacob offered a friendly smile as well as a step back.
"Yes, well, let's get started. Alright, Merrick, bring on the invisibility."
He waited, and he waited, but the old man had disappeared. He looked around the yard for the old man, but there was no sign of him. Lance cocked his head to the side.
"He already left," he said. "Like the moment you guys arrived."
"What!?" Jacob exclaimed. "Why the heck did he leave? He's supposed to be my combat instructor!"
"I'd imagine he's looking for your uncle," Lance said pointedly. "That was the deal, don't forget. Besides, it's not like you're actually fighting, anyway."
"Agreed," Nina chimed in. "I'm more than able to fill in any blanks, and Merrick probably thought you needed a stronger grasp on your powers anyway. Baby steps, dear."
Jacob rolled his and groaned.
"Not even started yet, and I already hate everything about this. Ok, what's the plan?"
Lance grinned, gesturing to the ball launchers.
"I've rigged these babies with motion sensors. You so much as sneeze in front of them, they're gonna be shooting you relentlessly."
"Huh?" Jacob asked, surprise evident.
"The goal is to get from the starting point-see the little X over there?-to the finish line marked with a checkered flag in as few hits. Simple."
"Huh?" Jacob repeated, his apprehension rising.
"Oh, don't be like that," Nina said soothingly. "This should be easy for someone that jumped a two story building in a single bound."
"Spoken like someone that has no worry of personal injury," Jacob growled. "A baseball to the skull can still give a guy a nasty concussion, you know! Seriously, why didn't you give me a helmet? You gave me a cape that turns into a shield, but not a helmet?"
Nina frowned.
"Merrick explained the material shortage, I'm sure. I had only what was left of your father's old equipment to make the armor, but Merrick insisted he had a better idea. More of his grandstanding, but, at the time, let's just say that I wasn't feeling my most creative. As for the helmet, from what I understand, that was a deliberate omission. A "functional flaw", from what I understand."
"I knew he wasn't telling me everything!" Jacob snapped.
"Merrick keeping secrets? What a shocker," Nina muttered sarcastically. "But it's really not that bad. Like I said, we aren't out looking for trouble, and, even without a helmet, you should be able to make this trek without injury. That's the whole point of the exercise."
She guided him over to the starting point, and she pointed ahead where the small flag waved.
"It's just like when you were fighting that Blazer bully or those Legion fiends. Focus your mind on the point ahead, and your perception will slow to allow you to anticipate oncoming danger. As for what's behind you..."
A prickling sensation alerted Jacob, and he spun around in time for a tennis ball to slam into his face. There was a hidden launcher in the trunk of a derelict Chevy, which Lance had controlled by remote.
"Did you feel that?" Nina asked.
"Of course I felt it!" Jacob spat while rubbing his nose. "It hit me in the face!"
"No, not that!" Nina shook her head. "Before the ball was launched, you sensed it coming, yes? I took the liberty of enhancing your emotional resonance. It is a sort of danger sense, amplifying your situational awareness of approaching threats."
Jacob glared at her, but that did bring up a thought.
"Wait a second...ack at the bazaar, that feeling I got before the motorcycles showed up..."
Nina beamed with pride.
"I'm genuinely impressed you felt them out at such a range. It's an innate ability you humans have-your situational awareness. The way the hairs on your neck will stand up when you feel you're in danger or the way your skin pimples with excitement. It's a perfect complement to a Lumino Sapien's natural empathy. Thanks to my fine tuning, you can sense those of malicious intent or things that mean you harm. It's not without guess work, mind you, as you still have to avoid such threats. However, with your enhanced perception, that shouldn't be an issue."
She gestured again to the shooting range.
"The floor is yours, dear. You need remember only three things: focus your mind, open your heart, and make the power yours."
Jacob scowled, kicking aside the offending tennis ball and shooting Nina a pointed look. She simply offered a kind smile and motioned towards the track. Jacob blew a lock of hair out of his face, and he took a starting position. He took a careful breath, deciding-much as it annoyed him-to take her words to heart.
"Open your mind," he muttered, focusing intently flag in front of him as the world around him slowed. "Open your heart," he whispered as he became aware of every machine arrayed before him, poised to fire; he counted almost fifty. "Make the power yours."
At his chest, the Sterling Star began to hum, surging with energy and channeling it throughout his body. With a sharp kick, he started down the track. To a casual observer like Lance, Jacob's movements registered as little more than a silver blur—an effortless flash weaving through a storm of flying spheres . But for Jacob himself, it was a much different experience. With his enhanced perception, he could see each ball the moment it fired, though their velocity was reduced to a tenth of their actual speed. This allowed him to easily duck, weave, and twist under them as he kept his focus on the flag, though on occasion his thought strayed to when the launchers would be behind him. This was where his "danger sense" kicked in, alerting him to oncoming projectiles and prompting him to duck and sidestep when they came. It was as though he had full awareness of his surroundings, right down to the cockroaches that scurried out of their homes at the sounds of the chaos, and even those Jacob found he could easily avoid just so long as he kept his direction. It was like being guided by magic; he had the forward momentum, he just had to compensate for variables. It was no different than the math his uncle had drilled into him. He subconsciously measured the angles of the launchers and broke down their rate of fire. Eventually, he didn't even need to actively watch for the shots, rather timing his movements for the brief moments the balls weren't flying. It had become less an obstacle course and more like he had become a rubber hose cartoon, literally bending and wobbling through the course. Before he knew it, Jacob had cleared the course and passed the flag.
However, this was when reality caught up to him. Though the world around him had been going slow, he had been moving fast. So fast, in fact, that he found he couldn't stop. He barely managed to let out a yelp in surprise before finally crashing into a stack of old car chassis, followed by them all toppling on top of him and effectively burying him.
"Jacob!" Lance and Nina cried in unison as they ran to the mound.
Lance started digging in a fever pitch, grabbing whatever he had the strength to lift. Nina phased her body into the pile to look for Jacob's body, only for the entire pile to suddenly erupt in an upheaval. The force sent Lance flying onto his back, and now Jacob was standing over him, holding a ruined green Sedan Desoto over his head. Lance could only look up in absolute awe as Jacob shifted his wait to hold the car aloft.
"Lance!" he grunted. "Move!"
The boy quickly scrambled to his feet and moved out of the way as Jacob slammed the car chassis against the ground. Jacob gasped for breath, thankful for the loss of the weight, but then he realized what he had just done. Lance ran over to him, looking him over.
"That was incredible!" he gushed. "That had to be at least four thousand pounds, and you dead lifted it while being buried under garbage."
"I did?" Jacob squeaked, his adrenaline ebbing. "I mean...yeah, I guess I did. Wowsers bowsers, that was insane. How fast was I even going?"
"The one time I didn't pack my radar gun." Lance lamented. "You were just barely trackable by the human eye, and I don't think you were even pushing it. If we had used real gun turrets I wonder..."
Jacob pushed his head down.
"Don't...even...think about it."
"It really was rather remarkable." Nina said. "You can thank Gloria later n as your enhanced strength and speed are her contribution. While you have Lumino Sapien genetics, your command over the Light is a bit more limited, plus it wouldn't be good if you tried to use it raw."
"Kaboom, right?" Jacob asked flatly.
"I wouldn't put it so gauchely, but sort of." Nina replied. "This is why the armor is so important. It doesn't just provide you with protection, it also allows you to freely call to the Light. Gloria is the one that controls the flow from the Sterling Star and into your body. This augements your strength, speed, and agility immensely."
"You're like an unstoppable dreadnaught!" Lance affirmed. "We gotta get some shots of you doing more muscle stuff! Let's see how strong you are!"
Maybe it was the heat of the moment, but Jacob actually liked that idea. He flexed his arms, testing the armor, and he grinned.
"Bring it."
For the next couple of hours, Jacob ran the course. From dodging tennis balls to lifting cars like dumbbells, Lance and Nina put him through the paces. At present, his top speed clocked at a respectable sixty miles an hour, though a more open area was needed for further testing. As for strength, the largest object to test was an old school bus that, according to Lance, weighed at least twenty tons, but the biggest challenge was finding the best place to get a hold. Once he had it, Jacob effortlessly held the entire vehicle over his head. He even spun it on his palm for good measure.
"Ok, I take it back!" he chirped. "This is pretty cool."
"Cool nothing!" Lance cheered as he snapped a picture. "You're a superhero. A literal, genuine, no joke superhero! Oh! Can you fly? Please tell me you can fly!"
Jacob looked to Nina, who offered a sad smile.
"You're not going to sprout wings if that's what you think. Be thankful with what you got."
Jacob shrugged his shoulders.
"Fair enough, I guess. So, Lance, how're those pictures looking?"
Lance fetched his computer and plugged in each of the flash drives from his various cameras. After a proper period of downloading, a deluge of PNGs filled the screen. A few were too blurry to use, but the rest depicted several of Jacob's highlights from demonstrations of strength to high frame rate shots depicting his speed. Lance had to stop at one showing Jacob as he ran while holding up a piece sign and sticking out his tongue.
"Show off!" Lance laughed.
"I couldn't help myself." Jacob chuckled sheepishly.
Lance continued to giggle until something wet fell on his hand. He looked up, and he could see the start of tears dribbling down Jacob's face. Nina floated over, peering over his shoulder.
"What's wrong, sweetie?" she asked.
"I guess I just wish my uncle was here," Jacob said with an air of melancholy. "I wish he could see all these things I can do. He always told me I was destined for greatness. That I would do things nobody else could do."
He looked up at her, his eyes searching.
"Did he know? About the star, you, and all of this?"
Nina shook her head.
"He may have suspected, but, no, we never interacted. The only reason we revealed ourselves now was because you needed protection. Much as it pains me to admit it, we probably should have revealed ourselves sooner, then maybe much of this could have been avoided. Nevertheless, there is always hope. Merrick bothers me—actually I loathe him with every fiber of my being—but he is not undependable. I truly believe that he will find your uncle."
"Well it's nice of you to say so, my dear."
Nina squealed in terror as Merrick materialized in front of her, causing her to jump into Lance's arms only to phase through them.
"Merrick!" she snarled. "You know I hate it when you do that!"
"Now you know why I do it." Merrick said cheekily. "I have news."
"You found my uncle?!" Jacob asked hopefully.
"No," Merrick said flatly, making Jacob sag. "Who I did find, though, might be the man that took him."
He raised a hand and the mirror on a derelict car began to glow. It revealed the face of a gaunt looking man dressed in a puce colored suit. Jacob had to squint, but then he had a flash of memory. He had seen this man before. It had been brief, barely within the space of a blink, but he had seen this man.
"Back at the diner." he gasped. "I passed this man before my uncle took off."
"That's Vinny the Skinny!" Lance piped in. "I've seen him a few times around town. He's a local loan shark and something of a go between for the local crime lords. He's normally pretty small potatoes."
"Well the boys he was palling with seemed like big potatoes," Merrick said. "I spotted them at the edge of Lowtown going into some sort of building. Jacob, it's a longshot, but maybe your uncle is there."
Jacob was already running for the junkyard exit.
"What're we waiting for?! Let's go!"