Chapter 10: Intergang s Weapon
This was the worst possible time to be unemployed. Finding a job in these hard, economic times was a struggle, at best; it also did not help if your former employer was Lex Luthor. Mercy Graves had it all under the employment of Lexcorp. Lex Luthor was an unrealized genius before his time, and did not deserve the ending fate had given him. Because of Superman, Luthor was dead, and now she was on the verge of becoming homeless. This 'hero' took away the man whom she loved.
Yes, Lex never actually reciprocated her love for him, but given more time, she was sure that he would have. It was the story of her life; she falls for a man with power, and she ends up losing him due to some unforeseen circumstances. Life was often cruel towards her, but she was not the type to complain about it. She was willing to adjust to whatever life had to throw at her, but Superman was a different story all together. There was something about him that filled her with hate.
How dare this so called 'hero' steal the genius mind of Lex Luthor away from the world. The alien took away a better future for Earth, all in his own name. Superman wanted to hog the glory for himself, and make himself ruler of the planet. He had to be stopped. Somewhere out there, there had to be another powerful man who would step up to him. She was determined to be there and supporting this new 'savior' when he brought Superman to his knees. After all, she knew how to defeat the Man of Steel, but she just needed to find the one to do it.
Yesterday's attemptto retrieve the first piece of the 'weapon' turned out to be a dismal failure. It appeared the government was taken better precautionary measures than anyone had thought. It appears that they were disguising the whereabouts of the first piece of the weapon by feeding several false scenarios, and the Intergang had followed the wrong one.
The punk kids could not care less if the mission was a failure or not. They were more interested in causing chaos and anarchy. They were the perfect cover up for the underground criminal empire that was slowing coming to power underneath Metropolis. Metropolis had no idea that a crime syndicate had taken root into the heart of Metropolis; they were too focused on trying to stop the uprising of rebelling teenagers. It was a masterfully crafted plan, yet some members in the crime syndicate were not happy about it. They were only going along with the idea because of the high-tech weapons that their leader, Bruno Mannheim, could get them. Little did Bruno know, that as soon as he outlived his usefulness, he would end up at the bottom of a lake somewhere.
Another meeting had been called, but none of the crime lords were excited about it. They all knew that this was about another attempt at finding this 'weapon' , but they were all growing tired of spending their resources and money in another fool's hardy quest. What weapon was Bruno searching for, that was so important? Instead of growing this crime syndicate to become as powerful as the one in Gotham, they were searching for some weapon that none of them knew about. Time was of an essence in growing this little crime syndicate; Superman could be fooled for only so long.
When Bruno entered the room, there were a lot of displeased looks on their faced. He knew the opinions of his fellow crime lords, and he hoped that this meeting will put their fears to rest. "Greeting's gentlemen, I won't take much of your time."
"You betta' not!"An overweight man, who went by the name of Chains, said while taking a puff of his cigarettes. "Enough of my time's been wasted as is."
"Okay, granted, our search for the first piece of the weapon has not panned out, but all of that has changed. I know for certain, where the first piece is, and we're about to make a bold move to retrieve it."
An oriental woman, who appeared more like an accountant and not a crime Lord, made her objection noted in her broken English. "You say that before, and we end up with nothing."
"This time I guarantee you that I've found it. I'm so confident, that I will be leading several of my own men to acquire it while our kids provide another distraction." Bruno replied with a grin on his face. He rubbed his black mustache with his right thumb and index finger. There was no doubt that Bruno Mannheim was a criminal. He had the appearance of a fifties gangster, with an awkward looking maroon stripped business suit with a black button down shirt and a yellow tie. His black hair made no attempts to hide the gel that he used to keep less wavy. He also sported a gold chain around his neck, and some gold and silver rings on several of his fingers.
"Don't we have enough weapons as it is? What makes this one any different?"
"This weapon is meant to destroy Superman. Once he's gone, there will be no stopping us from taking the city!
"Gimme a break," Another member at the table laughed."Superman's virtually invincible. Nothing can kill him."
"That's where you're wrong. I know what everyone here is thinking, I'm no fool. You all hate hiding behind these punk kids, and want to begin your rules in your perspective sections of Metropolis. Cash is what you want, and lots of it. Well, with this weapon, all of this will be able to come to pass sooner rather than later, and without the threat of a superhero to swoop down and destroy your hard work. If there's even a remote chance of that, isn't that worth the extra work and wait?"
Everyone around the table looked at each other, and all came to an agreement through their eye. "Very well, but ya betta be right, this time!"Chains snarled, cracking his knuckles of his giant hands. Everyone who knew Chains knew that when he cracked his knuckles, that was his way of intimidating and threatening. The message could not be any clearer to Bruno. If he was wrong about the locationof the first piece to the weapon, then he was going to be a dead man.
As promised, Lois had gotten Jimmy and Lucy back in time for their dinner date. Lucy barely had enough time to freshen up at Lois's apartment before Jimmy arrived. When he did arrive, he was the perfect gentlemen, almost from straight out of the old black-and-white movies. At first, she found it cute and refreshing in comparison to some other men she had dated. Soon, though, it was getting to be a little annoying.
For dinner, they did not go anywhere fancy, nor was she expecting to do so. A local pizza shop was perfectly fine for her. She held no delusions that Jimmy should bewealthy at this young of an age. Truthfully speaking, she was not one for traditional dating rituals anyway. That was why his constant courteousness was slowly starting to grate on her nerves. Jimmy was a very sweet boy, and his boyish looks were very cute. There was enough there, howerver, for her to be willing to get over this one flaw.
They were enjoying a medium pepperoni pizza and some pleasant conversation. "So, is it true that my sister has a thing for Superman?"
Jimmy shrugged to buy himself some time to swallow the food that was in his mouth. "Myself and everyone at the Planet thinks there is, but you know you're sister; she won't admit it even if her life depended on it."
Lucy laughed. "Yea, she has more in common with our father than she cares to admit."
"So where do you stand? Lois and your father seem to be at extreme odds about Superman."
"Are you asking me whose side am I on?" Lucy was afraid he was going to ask her that. "I'm on both of their sides."
"Ah, gotcha," Jimmy smiled. He picked up on her cue that she was not going to go any deeper into that topic.
"It's not easy being the youngest child and trying to hold their relationship together. Both of them are heard headed and stubborn. I'm glad to be going off to college and getting away from it all. "
"I guess I can understand where you're coming from. I—" Jimmy was distracted by the commotion that was taking place at the front of the store.
"Is something wrong?" Lucy asked, not noticing the gathering of people going on behind her.
"Something's going on outside," Jimmy said standing up from the table. He fought his way to the window to take a look outside the front window. It was like a war zone outside with explosions, and people running for their lives. Parallel parked cards were on fire, street lamps were toppled, and chunks of debris were scattered everywhere.
A police officer came into their line of site, shooting their gun diagonally upward. From their angle, no one looking out the window could see who the officer was shooting at. After taking a couple shots, the office leaped out of sight as if he was jumping out-of-the-way of something. A sudden feeling swept over him that told him to do the same, and it appeared that everyone else standing at the window got the same feeling. Everyone scattered from the window just as an explosion outside caused the window to shatter into the pizzeria.
Jimmy could feel his medium-sized red hair wave as shards of glass sprayed past him. As he fell forward to the ground, he could only pray that no large shard of glass would stab him in the back of his neck or his back. After a deafening moment of silence, he was unsure if his hearing was impaired from the blast, or if there actually was moment of complete silence. He fought against the weight of other people who landed partially on top of him before Lucy had come to help him up. "Jimmy, are you alright?"
Before he had the chance to answer, two young men and one young woman, all with unnaturally colored hair and facial piercings entered the pizzeria; the glass cracked underneath their weight. "Bring one of them. That'll get the Supes here in a hurry!"
For whatever reason, all of their eyes were drawn right to Lucy.
This was the most secure and hidden military base in the world. Few were privileged with the knowledge of its existence. The base was unassumingly located in Wyoming, a state no one would ever think of finding a tiny military hideout. The U.S. Government bought an entire multilayered apartment complex right in the heart of the city of Casper. No one would ever think that this apartment complex was a hidden military base.
This base was brand new, and was designated for one purpose alone: to protect the contents in one of the most top of the line safes available. The contents of the safe were so dangerous, that the government created this small base, just to make sure that it stayed lost. On the outside, the apartment complex was nothing more than just that: an old, run down, rat infested building. On the inside, however, there were some of the most high-tech security features available to the U.S. Military. On top of that, just over a dozen soldiers were always hidden somewhere in the complex, and at least five guarding the safe itself. There could be no chance for Newton's law to play a factor.
Unfortunately, no one could imagine the capabilities and determination of the Intergang. The five military soldiers were stunned by a blinding, bright light that engulfed the entire room. When their eyes readjusted themselves, they found five adult men in business suits standing in the center of the room. All five officers prepped their automatic weapons, positioned themselves around the intruders, and pointed their weapons at them. "Hold it right there, or we'll shoot!" The captain of the group shouted.
Bruno smirked at the threat that was supposed to intimidate him. "Boys, deal with them!"
One of the men behind Bruno spun towards the closest Military officer and pointed a strange metal wand towards him. A streak of lightning fired from the wand, and hit the officer in the heart, killing him instantly.
"Fire!"
The four remaining military soldiers open fired, only to have their bullets bounce off a thin, green electrical shield surrounding each of them. The rest of Bruno's men whipped out their weapons and took out the four remaining military soldiers.
Upon the death of the last soldier, all the lights in the room turned on. "Good, I would have been disappointed if that was the extent of their security," Bruno laughed.
Panels of wood vanished on both walls, and sticking out of each empty space was a barrel of an automatic machine gun. There were ten machine guns pointing at them in total, and all ten unleashed all of their power at the intruders. Again, their shielding protected them from the guns, allowing two of Bruno's men to place a glowing device at the base of both walls. As soon as they were clear, the devices let out a giant explosion. Both walls were shattered, and all the men hiding behind them were killed instantly.
The security did not end there. Apparently, before one of the hidden soldiers was killed, they activated the next line of defense. There could be no more doubt that they had found what they were looking for. The room began to fill with gas. "Gas masks on," Bruno ordered, glad that he had anticipated the need for them.
All of his men deactivated their personal shields and raced to put on their gas masks. As his men did, Bruno could have sworn he heard a high pitch bleep. It was already getting difficult to see through the gas, but when the barely noticeable beeping continued, he knew that he had to look hard and fast around the room. He followed his ears to the far corner of the building when he could make out a round object with a timer on it. It was on ten and counting down. Bruno had to be impressed; the government was willing to kill before asking questions to keep the contents safe. It was too bad, that for all the security measures they were taking, they had not anticipated anyone having the alien technology that he had been able to acquire.
Bruno quickly pulled out a mechanical box from his jacket pocket and pointed it towards the bomb that was getting ready to explode. With the press of a button, a bright beam of light came out of the box and engulfed the bomb. After two seconds, he deactivated his device, and the beam of light vanished as quickly as it appeared. The bomb had vanished with the light.
"Where did you send it?" One of his men asked.
Bruno smiled as he looked back at him. "Call this my gift to Lieutenant Inspector Dan Turpin. That man has been a thorn in my side for a long time. Now, back to the matter at hand."
Bruno waved a puff of white gas from his masked face as he returned to the safe. Another one of his men had begun to investigate the safe, but the second his hand touched it, it sent out an electric shock so intense, that it sent him flying half way across the room, and leaving him temporarily paralyzed. "Idiot! After all of this, you really didn't think the safe would not be booby trapped?" Bruno growled angrily. "Get out of my way!"
Bruno calculated his standing position in front of the safe and then adjusted the settings on his boom tunnel controller. He pointed the end of the remote at the safe. "Nothing shall stop me from getting what I want."
He pressed the button, and a bright beam of light shone onto three-quarters of the door of the safe. After a few seconds, he turned the remote off, and the beam vanished. A large hole was left in the safe door; it was so big, that what remained of the door collapsed onto the floor in pieces. There, in the safe was the first piece of the treasure. He stepped closer to it and marveled at his new prize. "There it is. Isn't it a beauty?"
Inside the safe, was what looked like a headless android with a missing chest plate. The metal was showed some heavy dents as if it had gone through a massive battle. In the center of the chest was a glowing green rock, which he had learned was known as Kryptonite. "There it is gentlemen, Metallo!"