This Is Us - Chapter 81: Chapter 81
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*3rd person Pov*
The floors of the great Grayson Mansion creaked as Jaydean and her grandfather, Pierce Grayson, took their first steps into the home where Pierce had grow up with his nine siblings. Including his twin brother, the great Peter Grayson.
"¿dónde estamos abuello?" Jaydean asked her grandfather in her fluent Spanish where they were as he tightly gripped her little hand when they crossed the large marble pillars into the main ballroom where his parents had often hosted charity events and galas.
If he stood here and closed his eyes combining his senses with the walk-in balcony open to their personal cliff looking over the ocean, he could almost imagine the trouble his seven brothers and two sisters had gotten into.
"This is where I grew up Jaydean," He told her honestly and let go of the little girls hand as she slowly looked around the massive ballroom with two stone staircases on either side leading to the second floor where he and his sibling's old bedrooms were located.
"You grew up here? In this super big house?" Jaydean asked in awe as she slowly walked towards the center of the room, with each step she took in this house it was almost a reminder to the generations of ancestors that had come before her, including his own.
He had done this walk before with his first grandchild, Mahina Grayson, when she was just five years old.
And he would do this walk again in five years when his four beautiful newborn grandbabies, Novalee, Rumi, Nakoa, and Mika-Ji were old enough.
"Who are those people?" Jaydean pointed up to the large family portrait hanging above the staircase, standing in front of the stone and staring up. Pierce slowly approached her from behind and rested his hand on her shoulder, looking into the beautiful faces of his family's last portrait. Taken when he was just twenty-seven.
Seeing his father standing with his broad shoulders and silver gray eyes in a black tux gave him chills as he remembered the day they burried him, just two years ago.
His mother stood with her arm wrapped around her husband's waist in a brilliant light blue gown with vibrant brown eyes and long silky brown hair as she had another arm around a very small Finley, trying to keep him from running like he usually did when he was forced into doing something.
"These are your aunts and uncles, but see these two people at the top. That's your great grandmother and grandfather," Pierce pointed out before trailing at the different clusters of people standing on the stairs. He pushed a small button hidden from view on the railing and they appeared before him on the stairs. His entire family's holographic form waved hello.
Once the ten children had gone their separate ways, their parents had decided to turn the mansion into a museum for the people of Bridgeport who had been left in the dark about the trillionaire family's personal life inside these walls. They would never know the full history but his mother and father had dedicated their final years to making sure each child's history was well documented and their ancestral heritage found.
A replica of the book containing each of their names in a vast family tree going back to the creation of Bridgeport lay upstairs in the library which once belonged to Peter.
The actual book was now kept by the firstborn member of the generation. Now being held by Ashley Jr, his eldest brother Jonathan's firstborn son.
Well, the boy who was now his surviving firstborn son.
At the staircase where the holographic figures of his family was standing, there was a single space left for the firstborn grandchild, Kaleb Grayson, who passed on the day he turned five from terminal brain cancer.
Pierce's own granddaughter would have followed the same path if it hadn't been for Kaleb's sacrifice, which inspired Pierce's brother Peter to cure cancer with the Project Kaleb Implant.
Pierce swiped a small patch of dust from the railing after Jaydean met her entire family's holographic form, including the younger version of himself and Mika just a year after they married.
The museum was closed for the month, as it did once a year when it was undergoing maintenance and while it was collecting dust he had decided to sneak in and show her a small bit of her past.
"You had a really big family Abuello, just like me. I have a lot of siblings too," Jaydean points out as he takes her hand and the two walk to the staircase on the opposite side where Pierce tapped his chip to one of the marble pillars. The stone staircase slowly splitting into two to reveal the entrance he had been looking for.
"Yeah, I did. But it's nice to be in a big family. It might not seem so nice now because your siblings are still babies, just learning about the world surrounding them. But it will be when you're older because you'll learn to rely on them as they will on you," Pierce reminded her as they walked into the secret entrance to one exhibit never included in the museum. It wasn't even on the blueprints.
"What is this?" Jaydean asked as we traveled into the bit to show the central cavern that had once held the central operations of the most elite trained militia squadron in the world, vigilantes that worked in the cover of covert darkness.
The headquarters of the Next Generation.
The lights sensed their approached and turned on one by one revealing walls covered from floor to ceiling in weapons of mass destruction, snipers, blades, lightsaber type blades that were so hot they could cut a large rock in two. Vehicles, hoverboards, drones, the entire arsenal was still here.
Glass cases containing suits of armor which they wore while on duty. Black, bulletproof armor and shock absorbing padding covered all the sensitive areas on the black spandex suit of armor with a long black hooded cape and black face mask covering just the mouth were displayed.
Each suit had the symbol of Next Generation, an odd looking star with a dot underneath it in different colors representing each branch of their secret militia.
Green for Hunter, the sniper team trained to shoot to kill.
Orange for Saber, the close combat team trained to wield the sabers.
Blue for Delta, the mid-range combat team trained to specialize in tech as well as intel.
And Red for Alpha, the elite team of soldiers deployed for special missions and close secretive combat only.
"Abuelo, this is so cool. What is all of this? It looks like the set of a super hero movie," Jayde commented and Pierce laughed aloud.
"This is your honor Jaydean. You're family name,"
Their family's greatest legacy and honor which would forever stay secret to the rest of the world.
Everything was just as they had left it.
Pierce walked to the large center console and slowly pulled out a drawer containing the dog tags of the soldiers trained here. The innocence of Graysons were taken here as they became child soldiers, trained to protect Bridgeport from evil. The elite squadron called Next Generation, made of the literal next generation of Grayson's had thousand's of lives in their hands at the sacrifice of the Grayson's youth.
Rows of dog tags rested in the foam of the drawer as Pierce found his own dog tag which once belonged to Taehyung, but had since then been returned. Taehyung's dog tag had been given to his daughter but there was just one more dog tag under his name, waiting to be given to their first born child.
And that was the dog tag belonging to what once was Matthias Piers Grayson.
.
.
.
Matthias Piers Grayson
Age: 14
NG Status: Active
Humanoids.
Definition: Mutant androids whose programming had been destroyed and rewritten to kill humans in hopes of becoming the last remaining humans on the island and taking their place.
The mission for the night was simple.
Stop the convoy secretly carrying the humanoids to the center of the downtown Bridgeport before they're given the opportunity to disburse into the community.
But Matthias Grayson had other plans.
"Matthias you have to focus or-"
"Yeah yeah, do me a favor and shut the fuck up then would you? Your voice distracts me," Matthias muttered into his coms as he sat on the very edge of the tall apartment complex, his night vision kicking in as he looked for the truck he was supposed to find.
His hooded cape flowed behind him as he let out a long sigh. He hated being the only member of his division on call and would rather be anywhere but here on this rooftop. Then again, getting out of the dorms at the stupid boarding school was a perk too rare to give up.
Finally, the truck came into view, matching the description he was provided from Intel and Matthias popped out his communicator. Placing it in the pocket of his utility belt and replacing it with his new airpods which were already blaring his latest favorites as he also popped a strip of sweet mint chewing gum into his mouth before opening his arms and letting the wind push him off the roof.
Free falling to the ground below him to Jumpsuit by Twenty One Pilots, he had exactly six seconds to catch himself before he would be nothing but a splattered body on the ground.
In the reflection of the windows rushing past him, the Next Generation symbol on his chest blared red as he spread his fingers and enjoyed the feeling of the breeze passing through them before kicking his feet up. Letting the hoverboard catch him but he was so close to the ground that sparks flashed and he scraped the bottom on the concrete before blasting off into the city.
Matthias couldn't hear anything other than the guitar and the drums in his ears as he sped at full speed until he finally hit the back of the truck he was looking for. Hovering just above it as it passed a red light at a stop sign to avoid him but it was of no use.
He shifted his long hoverboard to the side of the van in an elegant spin, catching the humanoid driver off guard before popping off a double shot to the man, sending the van speeding towards the edge of the city with a headless driver and he cursed under his breath. He jumped off his hoverboard, reaching into the driver's side window and steering the van around, towards the woods.
Matthias then jumped off the van as it smashed into a tree, sending him flying towards the ground at full speed. But with the shock absorbing suit, he recovers pretty quickly only to find one of his earbuds had been smashed in the process.
"Mother fuckers," He grunted as he dusted himself off before approaching the back of the truck and unlocking the back door to find ten or so disorented, military suited enemy androids.
"You busted my new airpods! Do you know how long it took me to get my parents to send me a Christmas present?!" He whined as he shot the first two through the head, scaring the other nine.
"Fuck guys, I mean come on now. Clearly you won't be paying for it since you'll be long dead,"
With an acuracy that could only be achieved after forcefully dedicating three years of his life to an intense training regime, Matthias took just one shot of his magnetically charged hand gun shot 4 in a row. Three of them attempted to charge th caped crusader but he jumps just in time, keeping himself well above their reach as he narrowed it down to just one humanoid.
The humanoid, knowing he was alone and unlike regular androids he was left without emotion as he carelessly looked into the eyes of his killer and stood still, letting his final breath come slowly as he took the single shot to the head.
Matthias blew the smoke off the edge of his gun with his laugh as he flicked his watch signaling for his hoverboard to come and replaced the broken earbud with his coms.
Letting the darkness of Bridgeport cover his tracks as he took on the next mission without complaint and waited for the sun to rise.
.
.
.
.
Pierce held the dog tag in his hand and sighed, knowing what this meant.
After he sent his own son away to Bridgeport for intense training in hopes of a culture shock and change in personality, there was a small part of him that would never forgive himself.
Matty reminded Pierce a little too much of a younger brash himself, so he punished him.
"This once belonged to your mother Jaydean. Do you know what this symbol stands for?" He asked his granddaughter and pointed at the star shaped symbol.
She took the dog tag in her small hands and examined it before shaking her head.
"This means you are the Next Generation,"
The floors of the great Grayson Mansion creaked as Jaydean and her grandfather, Pierce Grayson, took their first steps into the home where Pierce had grow up with his nine siblings. Including his twin brother, the great Peter Grayson.
"¿dónde estamos abuello?" Jaydean asked her grandfather in her fluent Spanish where they were as he tightly gripped her little hand when they crossed the large marble pillars into the main ballroom where his parents had often hosted charity events and galas.
If he stood here and closed his eyes combining his senses with the walk-in balcony open to their personal cliff looking over the ocean, he could almost imagine the trouble his seven brothers and two sisters had gotten into.
"This is where I grew up Jaydean," He told her honestly and let go of the little girls hand as she slowly looked around the massive ballroom with two stone staircases on either side leading to the second floor where he and his sibling's old bedrooms were located.
"You grew up here? In this super big house?" Jaydean asked in awe as she slowly walked towards the center of the room, with each step she took in this house it was almost a reminder to the generations of ancestors that had come before her, including his own.
He had done this walk before with his first grandchild, Mahina Grayson, when she was just five years old.
And he would do this walk again in five years when his four beautiful newborn grandbabies, Novalee, Rumi, Nakoa, and Mika-Ji were old enough.
"Who are those people?" Jaydean pointed up to the large family portrait hanging above the staircase, standing in front of the stone and staring up. Pierce slowly approached her from behind and rested his hand on her shoulder, looking into the beautiful faces of his family's last portrait. Taken when he was just twenty-seven.
Seeing his father standing with his broad shoulders and silver gray eyes in a black tux gave him chills as he remembered the day they burried him, just two years ago.
His mother stood with her arm wrapped around her husband's waist in a brilliant light blue gown with vibrant brown eyes and long silky brown hair as she had another arm around a very small Finley, trying to keep him from running like he usually did when he was forced into doing something.
"These are your aunts and uncles, but see these two people at the top. That's your great grandmother and grandfather," Pierce pointed out before trailing at the different clusters of people standing on the stairs. He pushed a small button hidden from view on the railing and they appeared before him on the stairs. His entire family's holographic form waved hello.
Once the ten children had gone their separate ways, their parents had decided to turn the mansion into a museum for the people of Bridgeport who had been left in the dark about the trillionaire family's personal life inside these walls. They would never know the full history but his mother and father had dedicated their final years to making sure each child's history was well documented and their ancestral heritage found.
A replica of the book containing each of their names in a vast family tree going back to the creation of Bridgeport lay upstairs in the library which once belonged to Peter.
The actual book was now kept by the firstborn member of the generation. Now being held by Ashley Jr, his eldest brother Jonathan's firstborn son.
Well, the boy who was now his surviving firstborn son.
At the staircase where the holographic figures of his family was standing, there was a single space left for the firstborn grandchild, Kaleb Grayson, who passed on the day he turned five from terminal brain cancer.
Pierce's own granddaughter would have followed the same path if it hadn't been for Kaleb's sacrifice, which inspired Pierce's brother Peter to cure cancer with the Project Kaleb Implant.
Pierce swiped a small patch of dust from the railing after Jaydean met her entire family's holographic form, including the younger version of himself and Mika just a year after they married.
The museum was closed for the month, as it did once a year when it was undergoing maintenance and while it was collecting dust he had decided to sneak in and show her a small bit of her past.
"You had a really big family Abuello, just like me. I have a lot of siblings too," Jaydean points out as he takes her hand and the two walk to the staircase on the opposite side where Pierce tapped his chip to one of the marble pillars. The stone staircase slowly splitting into two to reveal the entrance he had been looking for.
"Yeah, I did. But it's nice to be in a big family. It might not seem so nice now because your siblings are still babies, just learning about the world surrounding them. But it will be when you're older because you'll learn to rely on them as they will on you," Pierce reminded her as they walked into the secret entrance to one exhibit never included in the museum. It wasn't even on the blueprints.
"What is this?" Jaydean asked as we traveled into the bit to show the central cavern that had once held the central operations of the most elite trained militia squadron in the world, vigilantes that worked in the cover of covert darkness.
The headquarters of the Next Generation.
The lights sensed their approached and turned on one by one revealing walls covered from floor to ceiling in weapons of mass destruction, snipers, blades, lightsaber type blades that were so hot they could cut a large rock in two. Vehicles, hoverboards, drones, the entire arsenal was still here.
Glass cases containing suits of armor which they wore while on duty. Black, bulletproof armor and shock absorbing padding covered all the sensitive areas on the black spandex suit of armor with a long black hooded cape and black face mask covering just the mouth were displayed.
Each suit had the symbol of Next Generation, an odd looking star with a dot underneath it in different colors representing each branch of their secret militia.
Green for Hunter, the sniper team trained to shoot to kill.
Orange for Saber, the close combat team trained to wield the sabers.
Blue for Delta, the mid-range combat team trained to specialize in tech as well as intel.
And Red for Alpha, the elite team of soldiers deployed for special missions and close secretive combat only.
"Abuelo, this is so cool. What is all of this? It looks like the set of a super hero movie," Jayde commented and Pierce laughed aloud.
"This is your honor Jaydean. You're family name,"
Their family's greatest legacy and honor which would forever stay secret to the rest of the world.
Everything was just as they had left it.
Pierce walked to the large center console and slowly pulled out a drawer containing the dog tags of the soldiers trained here. The innocence of Graysons were taken here as they became child soldiers, trained to protect Bridgeport from evil. The elite squadron called Next Generation, made of the literal next generation of Grayson's had thousand's of lives in their hands at the sacrifice of the Grayson's youth.
Rows of dog tags rested in the foam of the drawer as Pierce found his own dog tag which once belonged to Taehyung, but had since then been returned. Taehyung's dog tag had been given to his daughter but there was just one more dog tag under his name, waiting to be given to their first born child.
And that was the dog tag belonging to what once was Matthias Piers Grayson.
.
.
.
Matthias Piers Grayson
Age: 14
NG Status: Active
Humanoids.
Definition: Mutant androids whose programming had been destroyed and rewritten to kill humans in hopes of becoming the last remaining humans on the island and taking their place.
The mission for the night was simple.
Stop the convoy secretly carrying the humanoids to the center of the downtown Bridgeport before they're given the opportunity to disburse into the community.
But Matthias Grayson had other plans.
"Matthias you have to focus or-"
"Yeah yeah, do me a favor and shut the fuck up then would you? Your voice distracts me," Matthias muttered into his coms as he sat on the very edge of the tall apartment complex, his night vision kicking in as he looked for the truck he was supposed to find.
His hooded cape flowed behind him as he let out a long sigh. He hated being the only member of his division on call and would rather be anywhere but here on this rooftop. Then again, getting out of the dorms at the stupid boarding school was a perk too rare to give up.
Finally, the truck came into view, matching the description he was provided from Intel and Matthias popped out his communicator. Placing it in the pocket of his utility belt and replacing it with his new airpods which were already blaring his latest favorites as he also popped a strip of sweet mint chewing gum into his mouth before opening his arms and letting the wind push him off the roof.
Free falling to the ground below him to Jumpsuit by Twenty One Pilots, he had exactly six seconds to catch himself before he would be nothing but a splattered body on the ground.
In the reflection of the windows rushing past him, the Next Generation symbol on his chest blared red as he spread his fingers and enjoyed the feeling of the breeze passing through them before kicking his feet up. Letting the hoverboard catch him but he was so close to the ground that sparks flashed and he scraped the bottom on the concrete before blasting off into the city.
Matthias couldn't hear anything other than the guitar and the drums in his ears as he sped at full speed until he finally hit the back of the truck he was looking for. Hovering just above it as it passed a red light at a stop sign to avoid him but it was of no use.
He shifted his long hoverboard to the side of the van in an elegant spin, catching the humanoid driver off guard before popping off a double shot to the man, sending the van speeding towards the edge of the city with a headless driver and he cursed under his breath. He jumped off his hoverboard, reaching into the driver's side window and steering the van around, towards the woods.
Matthias then jumped off the van as it smashed into a tree, sending him flying towards the ground at full speed. But with the shock absorbing suit, he recovers pretty quickly only to find one of his earbuds had been smashed in the process.
"Mother fuckers," He grunted as he dusted himself off before approaching the back of the truck and unlocking the back door to find ten or so disorented, military suited enemy androids.
"You busted my new airpods! Do you know how long it took me to get my parents to send me a Christmas present?!" He whined as he shot the first two through the head, scaring the other nine.
"Fuck guys, I mean come on now. Clearly you won't be paying for it since you'll be long dead,"
With an acuracy that could only be achieved after forcefully dedicating three years of his life to an intense training regime, Matthias took just one shot of his magnetically charged hand gun shot 4 in a row. Three of them attempted to charge th caped crusader but he jumps just in time, keeping himself well above their reach as he narrowed it down to just one humanoid.
The humanoid, knowing he was alone and unlike regular androids he was left without emotion as he carelessly looked into the eyes of his killer and stood still, letting his final breath come slowly as he took the single shot to the head.
Matthias blew the smoke off the edge of his gun with his laugh as he flicked his watch signaling for his hoverboard to come and replaced the broken earbud with his coms.
Letting the darkness of Bridgeport cover his tracks as he took on the next mission without complaint and waited for the sun to rise.
.
.
.
.
Pierce held the dog tag in his hand and sighed, knowing what this meant.
After he sent his own son away to Bridgeport for intense training in hopes of a culture shock and change in personality, there was a small part of him that would never forgive himself.
Matty reminded Pierce a little too much of a younger brash himself, so he punished him.
"This once belonged to your mother Jaydean. Do you know what this symbol stands for?" He asked his granddaughter and pointed at the star shaped symbol.
She took the dog tag in her small hands and examined it before shaking her head.
"This means you are the Next Generation,"
End of This Is Us Chapter 81. Continue reading Chapter 82 or return to This Is Us book page.