I was woken by a heavy knocking at my door. 

I waited a few moments. 

There was no one that should have been knocking on that door. 

My mother was… not around anymore, and my sister wasn’t someone who would ever reach out to me. Not for any reason. 

The knocking happened again, louder this time, and much more urgent. 

Was there a chance that someone had followed me home after my escapades in my suit the day before?

It was certainly a possibility. 

I hadn’t exactly been subtle when I’d come sprinting down the street in my heavy armour as fast as I could, high off of a win against two other superpowered individuals. 

I stood, activating my suit at the same time so that the liquid metal sprung out of its place around my heart and seeped out through my skin. 

If someone had come to try and hurt me there was no reason to give them an easy go of it. 

That might have sounded a little bit paranoid, but I wasn’t willing to take any chances considering how crazy the world had become. 

I slipped out of the livingroom and walked as silently as I could down the hall, which considering I was now outfitted in battle armour probably wasn’t all that quiet at all. 

“My sensors detect one person in the immediate vicinity outside of your door,” The AI of my suit said, “There does not seem to be any traces of mutagenic material in their body, though considering the many ways that mutagens present themselves my metrics may be off in this regard so caution is still advised.” 

Way to make me feel safe only to completely get rid of that safety a few minutes later, AI. 

I took a breath and opened the door, slowly and calmly. 

Part of me had been expecting my sister to have shown up after all. Another part had been expecting an angry mutant looking for revenge. I wasn’t sure which of the two options would have been scarier. 

Instead what I was greeted with was a man in khaki trousers and a khaki top with a green beret on his head. 

It was… a soldier?

“Ah, so our intelligence was correct after all,” The solider said, surprisingly calm at the fact a man in a giant mecha exosuit had just opened the door to him, “Xander, my name is Daniel Blake and I am a recruitment officer from the army. Do you mind if I come in? We need to have a chat.” 

I was a little bit dumbfounded at how natural the officer sounded, as if talking to a guy in a mech suit like mine was just a daily occurrence. 

Hell, what did I know, at this point with the world crumbling down around our heads this very well could have been a completely natural occurrence these days. 

“I uh… Sure,” I replied, “Yeah, come on in.” 

I stepped back from the door to make space for the officer to enter the room. 

My suit had claimed that the officer had no mutagens in his system, and that he was the only person in the immediate area. It was risky, but I was willing to believe that threat analysis. 

I decided to let the suit creep back into my body, the hard exterior of the suit retaking its liquid metal form to seep back through the pores in my skin. 

The officer blinked and cocked his head to the side as my true form was revealed. That was the first bit of shock I had seen from him. Either he hadn’t been expecting a twenty-something to be under the suit, or he’d been expecting me to have to take it off normally. 

With the suit off there was more room to maneuver in the tight hallway of my flat, so I was able to shut the door behind him. 

“Can I offer you a cup of tea or water?” I asked, my mum had always raised me to be a good host to any guests, no matter how unexpected they may have been. 

“No, that’s quite alright,” the officer replied, “I won’t keep you for very long, though the talk we have to have now is of the utmost importance.” 

That sounded ominously serious. I could only assume that the thing he wanted to talk to me about was my efforts in apprehending the criminals that I had apprehended over the course of the previous day, especially the first two considering they had been involved in the deaths of several police officers and soldiers. 

“Of course,” I replied, “My living room is just through the door there if you’d like to take a seat?” 

He gave me a curt nod and entered the room that I had indicated and then took a seat on one of the armchairs in the corner of the room. 

I followed and sat on the sofa opposite. 

“You have no doubt already guessed that I have come to talk to you today due to the actions that you took yesterday across the city,” The officer said. 

“Uh… Yeah, I figured that was the case,” I replied, “I hope I’m not in any kind of trouble, officer.”

“Trouble?” He replied, “No, not in any trouble at all, I can assure you of that. If nothing else I’ve come to offer you the thanks of the British Armed Forces.” 

I was only a little bit surprised at that. 

It wasn’t as if they would be able to hold me to any charges even if they did try to charge me with something. My mecha suit was incredibly powerful in comparison to mundane technology, and it was an intrinsic part of my body at this point so it wasn’t like they could separate me from it either. 

“And what do the thanks of the British Armed Forces look like these days?” I asked, only half-joking to try and add some levity to the situation. 

“Well Xander, to put it briefly and succinctly, I’ve been sent here today to try and recruit you,” The officer said, “Because, simply enough… We need your help.” 

It was my turn to blink. 

That was not something I had been expecting.