Kaldur slowly paced in between the shelves. In the distance, he could hear the others talking, though he was too far away to be able to discern exactly what they were saying. He busied himself with searching for the shelf. Row after row of identical shelves blended into one, and none held any earth-shattering discoveries.
He had probably heard the shouts from Conner and Dick, ordering everyone to move, escape. But he wasn't listening. Though it hadn't been his own idea to search for the… well… whatever they were looking for, the more he thought about it, the more Kaldur felt he needed to find what was in that file.
It was the silence that shook him from his thoughts. The unnerving lack of any noise apart from his own breathing. The sudden quiet was foreboding, like the calm before the storm. He stopped and looked around, trying to catch sight of something, whether it be a flash of blonde hair, a brief sighting of Wally as he ran, a glimpse of green, but there was nothing.
And then, he heard the gunshot. He froze.
There was no sign of bullet impact near him, though this thought held no comfort. That meant that they weren't shooting at him…
All thoughts of the mysterious file vanished as Kaldur realized that the lives of his friends were worth more than some slight piece of information in some stupid file. He sprinted to the end of the aisle, carefully looking around the corner to see if the guards were anywhere near him. Once he noted that all was clear, he ventured down the next aisle. He went as quickly as he could without attracting attention, since it would defeat the purpose of his rescue mission, yes, he decided that's what it was, to be caught before he could actually rescue anyone.
He halted just before the end of the next aisle, once again slowly peeking around the corner. Now, he could see the guards, and, even better, the guards could not see him. Slowly, he eased his way down the side of the shelves, trying to catch a glimpse of who the guards had cornered. From his observations, he found that there were six guards, one for each escapee, and three of them had caught Artemis, M'gann, and Conner. The other three guards were trying to sneak around and catch the others, but their bulky armor clanged with each step.
Wait, make that two. The fourth guard had actually managed to catch Dick, and held a gun to the boy's back.
"Walk. Now." The guard barked, shoving the barrel of the gun in between Dick's shoulder blades. The two walked past the aisle where Kaldur stood. The Atlantean ducked behind another shelf, still managing to keep them in his line of vision. Dick cut his eyes over to where he saw a flash of movement. Kaldur placed a finger to his lips, willing the younger to keep quiet. Dick nodded. As soon as he passed the aisle, guard at his back, Kaldur quickly walked to the next aisle. A flash of bright orange told him that Wally was doing the same, tailing the guard until an opportunity presented itself to incapacitate the lone guard.
That opportunity arose when Dick "tripped", and the guard bent over to help him up. In an instant, Wally was on the guard's back, wrenching the gun from his grasp and covering his mouth. The guard threw Wally off, preparing to shout for help, but was silenced by a swift, hard jab to the back of the neck from Kaldur. Once the three were sure that the guard was unconscious, Dick pointed towards the other shelf, indicating the other two guards. Silently, they nodded, and creeped down the aisles to take out the two guards.
The first guard didn't stand a chance. Wally sped to him and kicked him in the throat, reducing him to a gasping, coughing mess. Application of pressure points forced the guard unconscious. The second guard had a slight premonition of danger when he didn't see his comrade passing through the aisles, and proceeded with caution. When Kaldur approached from behind, the guard was quick to counter with a duck-and-blow technique, landing a punch to Kaldur's gut. The dark teen doubled over for a second, but before the guard could deliver a more fatal blow, Dick appeared from behind. With a few quick hits, he managed to knock the gun from the guard's hand and dislocate his shoulder. The guard barely managed to push Dick off-balance, but his minor victory was short lived. A blow to the head left him seeing stars before he gave into unconsciousness. Kaldur stood behind the now-unconscious guard, holding his gun like a baseball bat.
Now, they needed to free their friends. Quickly and quietly, they approached the spot where the three guards should have been standing with their captives. Kaldur, Dick, and Wally arrived just in time to see Conner throw his guard higher than seemed humanly possible into one of the shelves. M'gann was fighting off her guard using some foreign sort of martial arts. Interestingly, half of the time, she wasn't even touching the guard, and he still buckled like he had been hit. Artemis already had her guard on the ground, arms twisted behind him in a way that wasn't natural, and secured his wrists with his own handcuffs. It took less than a minute for their guards to give up, and quick pressure point applications left them in the same states as the other half of their crew.
After everyone was sure that everyone was sure that everyone else was still in one piece, the issues at hand were addressed. The attention was immediately drawn to a dent in the shelves, nearly halfway to the ceiling, a good twenty-five feet up. The dent itself showed significant force used. Dick turned to Conner.
"You know that's not natural, right?"
Conner just shrugged. "What here is natural?"
Wally concurred. "Hey, I can run faster than most vehicles, M'gann's green-no offense-, and you can hear really well. Apparently, you also have super strength. What else?" This brought another thought to Wally's mind. "Hey, did anyone ever find the file?"
Nobody had. Kaldur sighed. "It is no use. We should escape now, while we have the chance."
Everyone started for the door, but Conner paused. He narrowed his eyes at the dent made by the impact of the guard, and the files that were jarred due to the bent metal. "No."
The others paused. "What?" Wally said.
Conner motioned for them to come back. "Don't go yet."
Everyone followed his gaze. "What are you looking at…" Dick said. Though no one else could see it, Conner had caught sight of the file. "M'gann," he called to the Martian, "Can you get that box?" he pointed to one file that was sticking halfway out of the shelf. Though she was confused, she hesitantly agreed, and raised her hand above her. Everyone else watched in wonder as the box shook and jerked, until finally, it was pulled from its spot. At that time, M'gann stopped, and the box clattered to the floor.
"It's the file!" Artemis said, noting the thick black label printed on the front. M'gann picked up the box and handed it to Kaldur. Everyone crowded around to see what the box held. Slowly, Kaldur opened it, revealing a strange contraption. He reached for one of the strange devices. Upon contact, the black marks along his arm glowed, a light that was passed into the device. He quickly dropped the contraption, confusion and wonder alighting his features.
After the initial shock wore off, Dick smiled. "Cool."
In the next few minutes, everyone started walking down the hallway that they all hoped led to freedom. Small conversations dotted the air around them.
"Hey, what was that gunshot, anyway?" Dick asked.
"Oh, yeah," Wally shrugged. "One of those guys tried to shoot at me when I ran. Honestly, what did he expect to happen? I'm-"
"Faster than a speeding bullet?" Dick cut in.
Wally smiled. "Yeah."
