Chapter 2:
Gathering Part 2
April 2, 2008 16:02 -5 GMT
North District: Blüdhaven, South Carolina
The sun sets, the moon arrises, four young people stood on the city's roofs, overlooking the factories and laboratories of Blüdhaven. One of them, a costume wearing man of black with a blue bird on his chest called Nightwing, observed through his binoculars, one of the two-story laboratories named Cadmus Labs. Nightwing asked the teenage Japanese boy who is with them, "Are you sure your robot is in there?"
"Yo corse ." the Japanese teenager named Hiro replied, "Took me three months to hack-n-track Monarch so yeah, I know where he is."
"Are you positive? That's Cadmus Labs."
"So?"
"Hiro, Cadmus Labs..."
"Toyman." Hiro interrupted Nightwing.
"S'cuse me?"
"The names Toyman, I don't want anyone know who I am."
"Your not wearing a mask?" the full-body covered, blue armored hero; Blue Beetle pointing out.
"It's a codename when yo dudes talk over the radio when yo in there. So I don't have to wear masks."
"That reminds me!" a young, teenage blonde woman named Jesse Quick said, "Why do you guys wear masks and have codenames?"
"Can everyone shut up!" yelled Nightwing, "No one cares Jesse, only the fact we're calling you Quick for now on and no buts about it."
"But I..."
"What did I just say?" Nightwing yelling at the skin-tight, red and yellow wearing Jesse.
Everyone stood in silent, with Jesse breaking the silence, "Sorry."
"Now...Toyman, the reason I ask you if your sure your suit is in there, because Cadmus is a genetics research laboratory I don't know how genetics as got to do with anything with robotics."
Hearing Nightwing's words, the Blue Beetle morphed his arm into a blue satellite device. With his satellite arm, he pointed his device at the Cadmus Labs building. Jesse looking at the Beetle's arm in amazement, like a kid in a candy store. Oblivious to the two, Hiro tells Nightwing, "Look here, It took me forever who did tis and even longer to find what they did with Monarch. And I saying that Monarch is in there."
"Your both right." the Blue Beetle said, "My...suit just scanned the building and found that there's are tons of underground floors. Like a secret laboratory of something like that."
"See? Nightwing?" Toyman passingly said.
"So, what do we do now?" asked Quick.
"Go in, find Monarch, and get out." said Toyman.
"Understood! Leave it to me." Jesse said when she covered her eyes with her goggles.
"Hold on..." Nightwing shouted at her, however she ran off in lighting speed, "theirs..." than the sirens across the street in Cadmus went off, "...alarms in the place."
"Should we go in after her?" Blue Beetle asked while he turn his satellite back into an arm.
"Might as well." said Nightwing.
"Good luck!" Toyman said, pulling out his tablet and playing with it, "I'll be here when yo get out!"
"Your not coming?" Blue Beetle asked.
"I can't fight. And I gotta keep an eye on Mister Twister. Gotta make sure no steals another one of my toys."
"Mio Dios! Can you believe this guy Nig..." finally the armored man notice that the masked hero disappeared, "Nightwing? How did he do that...hombre?"
16:12 -5 GMT
Lower Levels of Cadmus Laboratories
The open floor lab, aisles of glass tanks filled with liquid and mutated forms of created beings. A lab-coat assistant searches the open, red light lilted dark room for her boss. At the end of the room, the redhead woman found her ridiculously huge mustache boss near some keycard locked, bulletproof glass cages. "Doctor Donovan." the redhead Doctor Fairchild calling out at her boss's backside.
"Hello, hello, hello Miss Fairchild!" the lab-coat wearing man gleefully said, turning towards her giggling, "Look at our newest test animals, straight from Af-ri-ca!"
"Sir I..." suddenly, Fairchild saw one of the animals in the glass cages, "Wait, is that a green gorilla?"
Instead of a black gorilla found in the African jungles, she see's an unconscious green colored gorilla instead of black one. "Yes sir ey!" Donovan happily shouted, "Been waiting for this guy for months to arrive. Aren't you excited to understand what makes this gorilla green?"
"Well, yes. But shouldn't we be doing something about the alarms?"
"Nah!" the short Donovan said while putting his arm around her waist, "Most likely a burglar or two robber-ing the top floors. Let the guards take care of them, we have work to do." both left the lab, leaving the animals and test subjects alone.
16:16 -5 GMT
Top Floors of Cadmus Laboratories
Hard, breathing, puffing, Jesse and Nightwing exhausted themselves surrendered by guards laying on the ground defeated from the weapons used by Nightwing and the Blue Beetle whereas Jesse avoid every confrontation. Annoyed, Nightwing looked at the blond woman and asked her, "Why couldn't you wait for us?"
"Sorry." Quick replied, "I just thought you guys go charging in with guns a blazing."
"If I was bulletproof and even then I still wouldn't use a gun."
"Can we move on please?" the armored man asking the other two, "More guards are coming this way."
"Follow me, the elevator is forty feet this way." Jesse said.
Both guys followed her down the hall toward the elevator. She pushed the elevator button which made the black suited questioning her, "What are doing?"
Confused, Jesse questioned him, "Using the elevator?"
"If we use this, we'll be trapped and ambushed."
Quick understood now, so she asked, "So what do we do then?"
Nightwing turn towards the armored man, asking him, "Blue, how many people can you carry?"
"Well, hold on a sec..." there was a moment of silence before he said anything, "How much?" the Blue Beetle said to himself, "...um, a lot, why?"
Nightwing pulled out one of his metal batons, sliding it in-between the elevator door's crack. He forcefully opens the elevators door with the baton. Now open, Nightwing looked down the mile deep elevator shaft. Nightwing then tells the Blue Beetle, "We need you to carry the both of us."
The armored man nodded his head, he grabbed both Jesse's and Nightwing's hand. A rocket and four bug-like wings merged out of Blue's back, then the armored man tells them, "Hold on tight los dos."
Just their hands, Nightwing and Quick held on to the hovering bug suited man, drifting down the elevator's shaft. Descending into Cadmus underground, unsure what to expect, afraid of the worst possibilities, no one said anything. The Blue Beetle decided to say, "So, where are too?"
"Bottom floor." Nightwing answered.
"Is Monarch down there?" Jesse asked.
"No idea, but we got to start somewhere."
They held on too each other in silence again, despite the agony of the muscleless Jesse. Contempt with the pain, Jesse integrate the two, "So...while we wait...mind telling me why you two wear...oh...customs?"
"Identity reasons." Nightwing replied.
Beetle had to think of his answer, "If I told you, my suit will kill you.".
This shocked the young blonde, with widen eyes she did not continue her questions. Just in a few seconds, they reached the bottom floor; with the Blue Beetle dropping the two on the floor. Like before, Nightwing uses his metal baton to open the elevator door and then let everyone view the large empty corridor leading into other empty hallways colored by red, blinking siren lights. The trio enter the red corridor, seeing no resistance; Blue Beetle stated, "No security."
Examining the empty hallways, Nightwing tells the two, "We need a layout of this place."
"Leave it to me." Jesse says as she runs ahead of the group, disappearing in a second.
Nightwing, put his hand on his face and sigh. He then tells the armored man, "I was hoping you could hack into their systems. Now, let's just go get her."
Immediately, after Nightwing talk to Blue, Jesse returned, telling them, "I..guys ,I think we're in trouble."
She pointed her finger down one of the halls. Listening in, Nightwing hears the many footsteps of body-armored guards holding machine-guns running down the hall. Nightwing then ordered, "Listen you two, Quick when they turn around the corner go take their weapons while Blue and I deal with them."
"I'm not sur..."
The guards turn around the corner with their guns ready to fire. "No time to talk, go!"
Quick than ran, without blinking, the guard's weapons disappeared. The guards questioned what happen, taking advantage in their confusion, both Nightwing and Blue Beetle attack the unarmed guards. With his metal baton, Nightwing attack the guards' heads while with his sonic cannon, Blue Beetle attack many guards at once with a single attack. They knocked everyone out, Quick return looking at the unconscious guards. Nightwing looks at the blonde woman with a keen eye. Worried, she asked him, "What is it, Nightwing?"
"Don't leave without us, like never."
"Understood." Jesse replied and then noticing the Blue Beetle messing around at a computer terminal, "Hey, what are you doing over there?"
"Hacking into their computers." Beetle answered.
"Found anything?" Nightwing asked.
"Maybe...found something called Project Unite..."
"What's that?"
"It's well...an area on the floor above us. Monarch might be there."
"How do we get there?"
Immediately, Quick point her finder down another hall and said, "We take the stairs one-hundred, sixty-five point four feet that way."
In silence, Nightwing and Blue Beetle just stared at Jesse from hearing her idea. Shocked, the blonde just said, "I'm good with numbers."
Elsewhere
16:32 -5 GMT
Kr Department, Cadmus Labs
In his tank, filled with water, attach by tubes, wires connected too his brain; the subject known as Project Superboy, float motionless in his liquid, glass tank. In the same room, Doctor Fairchild worked on the computer, adding and pouring in knowledge and memories into Project Superboy's mind. "You'll know everything soon." the redhead said to herself.
"He'll know what, Miss Fairchild?" the arrived Donovan asked.
"Forgive me Doctor Donovan, I was just talking to myself about the information transfer and how it will be completed soon."
"Ex-cell-ent!" Donovan yelled in excitement, "Now send him out to duty."
"Wha-what? Why?"
"It appears that the burglars were in reality, are some custom freaks that decided to infiltrate our operations thus slowing down our work. So where going to send out Project Superboy to handle this situation."
"But sir, he's not ready. We haven't done any final tests yet!"
Donovan took over computer work, he then said, "Considered this the final test, Miss Fairchild."
16:40 -5 GMT
Outside of Project Unite Room
The trio stood outside of wall-sized metal door, three feet thick of steel, capable in stopping any missile with only a keypad to operate. Seeing the door of the unknown room, the Blue Beetle asks, "So any ideas?"
"You blow down the door." Nightwing replied.
"Are you loco? What if there's bombs in there or something?"
"Why would they keep that in there?"
"I don't know! Maybe there's sensitive stuff in there."
"Then how do you recommend we get in there?"
In an instant, Quick stood in front of the keypad with fingers rapidly pushing in the number keys. About few seconds, the armored door slid open, accessing them into the open floor room. In reminder, Jesse told the boys, "I'm good with numbers." the two just enter the room without saying a word, "Seriously? No thank you or good job?"
"Good job, now come already." Nightwing demanding the red and yellow suited woman.
She then followed the two into the open floored lab. Filled with aisles of floor to ceiling tanks filled with water; the trio walked down the room, searching the area for the mechanical suit however the armored man instead found himself trance with the organic blobs inside the glass tubes. "Mio Dios. What's going on here?"
"Hard to say." Nightwing said, "If you don't mind answering, what do you mean earlier when you said your suit would kill us? Who or what exactly is your suit."
"Well...I..."
"Wow!" Jesse suddenly shouted, "Look at that!" she swiftly ran next to glass cages up against the walls, " I have never seen a green gorilla before! It's so cute! How is it green? Why is it here?"
The Blue Beetle went up to Nightwing, whispering, "How did you two meet?"
The masked man took a big sigh, then answered, "She wanted to know why where hero's for her college paper."
The Blue Beetle said nothing else, until he release something, "Espera! She's in college? She's younger than I am!"
In a second, the same woman appeared next to the two, "We should save those animals!"
"No." Nightwing telling her.
"Why not?"
"We're not an animal shelter, we can't handle animals shoot ourselves. Besides we should go, it doesn't look like it's here anyway."
Suddenly, the Blue Beetle altered his right arm into a blue cannon and turning around with the same cannon at ready. Both Nightwing and Quick turn in the same direction thus seeing a man walking towards them. Unlike the other people they come across before, he wore a white, full-body, skin-tight clothes with only his hands and his blue-eyed, trim black hair, head revealed. All three of them also notice a symbol on the man's chest, one familiar to all of them. Jesse then question, "Super...man?"
"Nada, Quick." the Blue Beetle answered.
The man in white than ran towards them, charging at them. Provoked, the armored man fired his weapon at the charging man with the blue ball of energy. Unfazed, the man continue to charge straight towards the three. The armored began to fire his weapon again, however the white suited man rammed into the young man; sending him flying with a massive force at the wall. Boom, crack, the concrete wall shattered, the Blue Beetle's impact rippled the wall with many of bones cracked but miraculously alive.
Surprised, Nightwing and Quick witnessing the monstrous strength of the man throwing one of their comrades about fifty yards into a concrete wall. The same man turned his attention towards the two, then charges right at them. Quick scattered, Nightwing rolled, the two moved out of the man's path then both attack the same man from behind. With his metal baton, Nightwing swung his bar at the man's face while Quick closed her fist and threw a running punch at the man's chest. Crack, the metal bar broke in two in the collision of his face and Quick's fist broke many of her own bones. Swiftly, the two moved away from the man's fist counterattack. Again, Nightwing jumped away from the man's fist, instead leaving him punching the floor. The masked man witnesses a small crater left behind when the man lifted his arm and fist off the ground.
On the other side of the room, next to the cracked wall, the Blue Beetle rubbed his sore parts and crying, "Ay, Dios mio" the Blue Beetle watch the three fight, then asking himself, "How do we stop this guy?...final measures?...Dios...Nightwing! Quick! Run!"
To Be Continued...
October 18th