Sky High After Dark: Siren's song

"No one knows about this room except for you, right?" Aron asked, his eyes falling on the file cabinets, wondering if they contained any information on the Collector that wasn't stored in Veil's memory banks.

"No, father, I kept this hidden, so I could have a little piece of you all to myself. Is that bad?" Veil asked, dropping her chin in shame. Glancing up when she felt the warm, gentle touch of his hand on her left shoulder. Feeling her android body heating as Aron brushed his thumb along her skin.

"No, Veil, that isn't bad; it's quite human to want to hang onto something you cherish," Aron said in a fatherly voice. "Would you mind keeping this room hidden until you and I can suss out everything in this room?"

"Of course," Veil nodded, joy filled her protonic brain at the thought of spending time alone with him in that room, however long it took him to look through everything.

"Okay, we best be getting up there; you had Mom really worried about you," Aron said, leading her out of the room.

"I will apologize to her; it was not my intention to cause her to become upset," Veil said, feeling that sadness creeping back in, knowing her maker would never speak to her like he always would. Glancing over at Aron, feeling the comfort of his hand on her back as the partition rolled closed behind them. "Father?"

"Hmm?"

"Are... are you proud of me?" Veil asked in a shy tone. Sensing the receptors in her cheeks to color her skin in a nice red hue.

"Proud? I'm amazed at what you are?! Do you know the probability of someone like you just even being here, talking to me like you were a biological human?"

"Of course I do, father, you know that," Veil spoke, a small smile formed on her lips at Aron's kind words.

"While I can't say what caused you to become sentient in the first place, since I wasn't there, and I think my counterpart wanted to keep that out of the hands of anyone who managed to infiltrate the base. You are far too important to be lost or used," Aron said affectionately, laying his hand on Veil's left shoulder as he moved past her.

"Aron?!" Aminah's soft voice filled the air, and the flowery scent of her perfume filled the room as she watched curiously at what was happening before her. "I came down because you were gone for so long; I take it you handled the problem?" she asked, wondering why the back of Veil's head was open.

"Hello, Aminah; I am sorry if my unnatural departure startled you; I swear it will not happen again," Veil said in a humble tone. "You look very lovely."

"Thank you, Veil. Might I ask, what caused this change in you?" Aminah asked; it wasn't hard for her to notice Veil's change in her cadence.

"My father left me something; I took it very hard. I never knew how debilitating sadness was until right then," Veil stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Oh?" Aminah mused, her scientific mind perking up at what Veil had just displayed before her. Stepping up to Veil, sharing a look with Aron as he continued with his task, slipping her hand into Veil's. "You know you can come to me if you need to talk. You know I would never hurt you," she said in a motherly voice.

"Yes, that would be wise," Veil stated with a smile.

"Would you like to talk about what was in that video?" Aminah asked, brushing her thumb along Veil's.

"Not yet, but I will when I have digested it," Veil said in a small voice.

"Then may I ask what are you having Aron work on?"

"I wish to experience crying, so as wise and forethoughtful as my father of this time is," Aminah kept from rolling her eyes at Aron's smug look he shot her as Veil continued, "Void already built in the tear ducts needed for such an emotion. So he is activating the subprogram at the moment," Veil said, her eyes glancing up at Aminah.

"There, that should do it," Aron spoke, closing the back of Veil's head.

"Now," smiling down at Veil as she held her hands in her own, "do you feel up to joining us upstairs?" Aminah asked in a motherly voice. "I know how much Nettie enjoys it when you're around."

"She does?" Veil's mood brightened up

"She does, and it's not hard to see Henry likes it when you're there, too," Aminah said, squeezing Veil into her as they walked out of the room. "You better be following Aron," she warned, causing Aron to smirk as he flipped out the lights of the lab.

******

Vera had slipped upstairs earlier than normal when she wasn't out fighting crime. Locking her bedroom door, lifting the board, and taking out the journal past-Aron had left behind for her. Fluffing up her pillows, stacking them against the headboard, wiggling her ass into the mattress, unwrapping the leather strip that held the journal closed. Steeling herself for what she was about to read.

July 16, 1920

Well, fuck me sideways?! There's no longer any doubt that I am getting weaker as the days pass. I have estimated I only have two years before I join the ranks of the powerless. Not that I mind; I've never truly relied on my powers to begin with. However, that's not all; given the limited technology of this time, I was able to discover that how I was sent back has altered my cells to gradually disintegrate. It was the reason my powers are slowly fading away. I can't say when the end will come; I just know it will. I would try to stabilize my cells, yet given the era, I'm not hopeful.

July 24, 1920

I have finally decided what I'm going to do, it's obvious, really; when I arrived in this time, after awakening in a field miles outside of the town, I stumbled into a rather remarkable diner that, at the time, I thought was a replica. That was the day I came to realize I had not been sent somewhere else on the planet in my time but sent back eighty years. So I knew there was no way to get back. God. This is going to be hell.

August 6, 1920

Okay, Carol has been hanging around a lot. Not that I mind, she was very kind when I came stumbling into that diner covered in muck and wearing a supersuit. Well, that wasn't a welcome I advise ever making. Anywho, Carol has been a great help to me in getting acquainted with this time. Yet, what am I to do now? I can't go home. I can't alter the timeline, so I resist the urge to ensure that part of our history I know is approaching isn't altered. You know Carol might not be a hero, yet there's something familiar about how she displays her flame mutation. It reminds me of Isabel. Could that be possible? Or was this just coincidence? Given what I've had to admit to myself, yes, it could be possible. With Carol's help, we were able to determine that there is no family that has or does live within the city and its surrounding areas that held the same family name. So that meant only one thing to me. I was my own great-grandfather. Huh... okay, even that's just too much for me; I wonder how my future self will take that when he finds out the truth. Well, that means I have a house to build... now how will I do that?

Vera's fingers ran down the yellowed pages. Her eyes savoring every syllable, vowel, and word that lined the page. Reading about the beginning months of her son's new life. Biting her lip as Carol's name kept appearing more and more. Pondering just how their courtship was like, she had her grandmother's side of it, and now she wanted to see it from her son's point of view. The journal nearly went flying when a knock came on her bedroom door.

"Vera, why is the door locked?" Noah asked from behind the door as he twisted the knob.

"Just a second?!" Vera called back hastily, throwing open her nightstand drawer and tossing the journal into it, and shoving it closed.

"What's going on in here?" Noah asked, looking around his wife when she was blocking his entry.

"Nothing; why?" Vera stated in a hurried tone that she didn't want to share this with anyone. She knew that was selfish, yet she just wanted to have this for herself.

"Well, I would like to get into our bedroom," Noah said, gesturing how she was standing.

"Right, sorry," Vera uttered red-faced as she backed away.

"Umm, honey, what has you flustered?" Noah asked curiously as he shut the door behind him.

"Nothing; what gave you that idea?" Vera responded nervously. Falling down onto their bed, swallowing hard as her husband's face filled her view.

"Spill it, Vera; you're hiding something, I know it."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Vera stated, looking away. Feeling Noah's fingers on her chin, turning it towards him.

"Out with it, Vera; what are you hiding?" Noah pressed; it was always a risk arguing with a woman with superstrength. Still, there were times that strength betrayed her.

"I don't..."

"You said something about our baby left you something. Given what we know, it had to be Aron; what did our boy leave behind?" Noah asked in a curious but harsh tone. "And you found this under our floor?" he inquired when Vera stated what had transpired so far.

"Mmmhmm," Vera hummed, "I was reading it when you..." Her thought trailed off as she leaned against her husband. Her right hand lightly rubbed her husband's right arm as they rested on their bed.

"And you found a suit, a suit like ours?" Noah enquired, peering at his wife, who nodded that she had. "Okay, where did you stop at?" he stated, eager to enjoy this alongside his wife.

"There?!" Vera spoke, her finger tapping the entry she had stopped at.

Chapter Four

Aminah darted quickly and silently down the corridor. Making sure she wasn't being followed since she was on the first floor of their base, seeking out a lab that Veil had said would work for the project she had been thinking about for some time. She didn't want to be in her old age when their daughter would be in her twenties. She wanted to experience life alongside Nettie and any other children she and Aron would have. The hissing of the rolling doors filled the air as she shot into the lab. Turning as the room sealed itself due to the nature of the work that would be performed in said lab.

Her eyes moved over the equipment the past-Aron had made singlehandedly. In awe of how intelligent he had to be to make the items needed with parts from the pre-chip age. She wasn't faulting the Aron of the present; the current Aron was just as brilliant, given the android she had helped him build for Veil.

"Veil?" Aminah called out as her fingers dragged along the edges of the electron microscope. Something that was going to be needed given the scale she would be working at.

"Yes, Aminah?" Veil's voice came over the speaker as her camera followed after Aminah.

"Would you mind keeping what I work on in here from Aron?"

"Are you asking me to lie, Aminah?"

"No, no, nothing like that, just to keep this project as secret as we can, like how we kept your body a secret. Can you do that for me?" Aminah asked sweetly, looking up at Veil's camera.

"Oh, I see; yes, I can make sure father doesn't find out about this. Might I inquire what are you planning that needs to be kept from my father? It isn't anything that would endanger this base or those within it?"

"No, nothing like that, just a little experiment that I think Aron will like the results of," Aminah said with a smile on her lips as she stared at Veil's camera.

"Like a... present?"

"Yes, just like that," Aminah nodded vehemently.

"Oh, yes, I'll make sure father doesn't find out." Aminah's heart warmed at how excited Veil sounded.

******

Vera and Noah awoke the next morning lying on top of their bed as past-Aron's journal slid down Vera's chest as she rose from her spot. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes in confusion, only for her head to snap over at the clock. "Noah, you're going to be late?!" Vera uttered urgently as she pushed his slumbering body up off the bed.

"Damn," Noah cursed, knowing he had that big court appearance in little over an hour. "Sorry, honey."

Vera could only smile as she watched her husband dashing into their bathroom. Her mind wondered how Carol saw Aron when he, too, used the same room. Granted, it had been remodeled a few times, so she knew it didn't look the way the past-Aron had first built the place. Her hand moved along the surface of the journal, smiling down at it. Recounting the words Aron wrote when he described Carol, even though she knew what her grandmother looked like in her youth. She could see why Carol caught her son's eye. Yet to read the words he wrote, seeing the progression of how important Carol came to be in his life stuck in the past. Rolling out of bed, her step was light, and her mood was bright as she walked down the hall towards the stairs to get her morning cup in before she too had her own shower.

Stopping in her tracks when her brothers and sisters, along with Aron and Jill were in the kitchen going over how the presentation was going to go. Feeling her face heating as their eyes lingered on her.

"Was wondering when you were going to come down," Aron mused in that same voice she had used on him all his life. "I wonder what you and Dad were doing to still have the clothes on from last night," he teased, hearing Aminah and Tazia giggling behind him as he turned in his seat to face his mother. Feeling Jill's light touch on his shoulder as she moved past him to make Vera her cup.

"Here, you go, Vera," Jill said, holding out the hot steaming cup to her niece.

"Thank you," her eyes ran down Jill's new attire, wondering why it gave off an office feel to it, "Jill, what's with the getup?" Vera asked, bringing her cup to her lips.

"Well, I'm hoping you don't say no, but Aminah had inferred that you might need an assistant, just to manage the small things for you while you get Dad's company off the ground," Jill stated in a warm tone as her hands were folded out before her. "Isabel and Lyla helped me to pick this and a few other outfits out; I hope this isn't too forward," she said in a shy tone, eager to make a good impression and show her father that she could make it in this time.

"You sure you can work under me? This won't be like when we're doing hero work," Vera spoke, resting the but end of the cup on the palm of her left hand.

"I know," her black hair bounced against her chest as she nodded, "but I want to bring this dream of dad's to life," Jill said with conviction.

"Then I hope you took very good notes while I was upstairs," Vera stated with a warm smile.

"Mmmhmm, Dad said he likes my handwriting and said it was pretty," Jill whispered as she leaned into Vera.

"Oh? I'm glad; I remember the time when Aron was two, and he would waddle into the kitchen holding up this sheet of paper, asking me to see if the sentence he had just written meant what he thought it did. It was so cute," Vera sighed, lightly pressing her right hand against her cheek as she reminisced back to Aron's early childhood.

"Oh, I bet he was so cute," Jill said, shooting her father a sultry look.

"Oh, he was; I did, after all, teach him algebra at the age of four," Aminah stated proudly.

"Can we continue?" Aron said bashfully, eager to get them off of the subject of him. "Veil, can you kindly remind us where we left off," he stated, trying to steer it back to what they were working on, not enjoying the chuckles from his uncles.

"Of course, father," Veil responded happily, going over everything they had covered up until that point. All turned their heads when Aron's cell phone rang from within his pocket.

"Veil, make sure you take down everything," Aron spoke, rising from his seat as Sovereign Crusaders appeared on the screen of his phone.

"Yes, father," Veil nodded.

"Hello?" Aron answered once he had stepped into the living room, remembering how he had given Nightshade the number to the phone he was currently on.

"Am I speaking to a Mr. Carter?"

"Yes, and who is this?" Aron asked, playing up his ploy that he didn't already know the sound of her voice.

"I don't know if you know of me, yet I know a friend of yours."

"That so, and if this friend of yours knows me, then he would know how I like to keep my life private," Aron spoke, keeping aware of how he was speaking to her so she wouldn't suspect he was Void.

"I get that, Mr. Carter, I really do, and I don't mean to pry into your own. Yet, I'm in need of a new supersuit. The one I normally wear was badly damaged, and the tailor was caught up in one of his client's rivals' plans. I wouldn't have called if it wasn't necessary. However, there are lives in the balance if I'm stuck here because I can't be seen maskless; it's just too risky to those..."

"Ah. I understand. I assume you have a way to pay for this suit?"

"I don't have much; I'm sure we can work something out."

"Hmm... I'm not in the habit of handing out my gear, nor am I in the habit of sidelining heroes, as I assume you are if you got this number from who I think it is."

"I am."

"How does a thousand sound?" Aron quoted.

"Really?!" Aron knew supersuits weren't cheap. A decent costume maker charges five grand; for good ones, you add five more. So he knew why she was surprised at his offer.

"Really. Only because you called this number, so who might I be speaking to if I'm going to make the best suit you've ever worn," Aron spoke in a cocky tone to play off the differences in his egos.

"This is Nightshade. I hope my hero name will suffice?"

"Certainly. Now, Mrs. Nightshade, how soon do you want your suit?"

"As early as possible, I'm willing to have you flown to our base, along with whatever you will need."

"Oh? Your base, you say?"

"Of course, you'll be restricted to the public areas of the base while you're here."

"Naturally. Hmm... very well, and when can I expect to see your people?" Aron asked, arching an eyebrow when he heard the sound of a hover engine.

"As I can assume, Mr. Carter, they are already there. I'm sorry for this, yet we tracked your cell to your location. Please know it was not meant as something sinister."

"If we do business again, you never do this again, understand?"

"I understand, Mr. Carter, and I'm sorry I have upset you. That was not my intention, and I'll make sure this does not happen again."

"Very well; I need a few minutes to gather the equipment. I'll be bringing some people with me, to help with such a request under a tight time frame. I hope you understand," Aron said, getting Nightshade off balance.

"Of course, Mr. Carter, I'll inform them."

"Aminah, Carl, you're with me. Dress in something... business-like," Aron said, startling his family when he stuck his head into the door.

"What?! Why?" Vera asked, wondering what he was getting into.

"Have to make a suit for a superhero, shouldn't take long, be back tonight sometime, so you two are coming with me," Aron directed, lightly tapping the doorframe before heading off to the base.

"Aron, why aren't I going?" Tazia asked in a pout.

"Well, can you name a single thing on this device?" Aron asked, waving down to his portable scanner and weaver that he had created when the idea of his company popped into his mind. He had also thought about making supersuits for the heroes visiting them once word about his body armor got out. Hence why, he created the scanner and weaver. "It's okay if you can't," he whispered softly, placing his left hand on her right shoulder. "That's why Aminah is going, and for Carl, well, he can be seen without being seen if the need arose."

"But... I'm your head of security, and shouldn't I be with you when you visit some other city?" Tazia asked, shyly tapping the tips of her fingers together.

"Okay, you got me there, but sorry, there's no time to wait for you; plus, I need you to stay with the kids. You know how Henry gets when we're both gone for a long time," Aron said in a fatherly voice.