Disclaimer: I do not own the DC heroes Hawk and Dove, whom I loosely based my characters on.
The piano was slightly out of tune. Dan supposed he shouldn't complain; it wasn't that bad and it looked like this room hadn't been used in ages anyway. It probably hadn't, considering he never once heard tell of being able to take a music class. The only time it was mentioned was when Jenna showed him around his very day. He was surprised he even found it again.
The piano's tone had gone flat. It was normal for the strings to loosen over time even if it was practiced on regularly. He told himself not to care, but the sound did hurt Dan's ears a bit while he played Canon in D. His piano teacher always told him he had perfect pitch and now he really believed her. But on he played anyway. Dan missed music and this piano looked a little sad, having been covered in dust. Besides, just sitting and mindlessly switching in between piano tunes was a good way to get his thoughts in order.
Tomorrow was the day. At least, most likely. Louise informed them all on the top tier that the Prime Minister's office had gotten back to her, as she had been contacting them under the guise of a software developer coming in to fortify their computers. All they were waiting for now were the forged documents of Marcus and Zoe's pretend identities. Transportation was ready to go (they decided pretty quickly the bus would be too weird), maps of the labs were downloaded, and comm devices were set up. They even had the combat suits.
The suits. They really excited Dan. Everyone on the team had one now, even Dodie. And Dan's fit properly; he had tried it on a second time after the sprinkler incident. Not only was that the first time Dan had got to use his powers uninhabited, but Phil as well. And it was a sight to behold.
Once Dan had dried himself off and put his jeans and t-shirt back on, it was Phil's turn to go into the gym. He stood in the center like Dan had while the latter leaned on a window beside PJ, watching. "Right, Phil, so you're going to do just what Dan did. Except keep it a little more under control," PJ said into the microphone.
Phil gave them thumbs up. His suit fit almost perfectly and didn't cover half his hand. "Okay!"
"For the record, I was completely in control," Dan added indignantly.
"Just not listening," Louise grumbled.
Dan shrugged and then shifted his focus back into the sunken gym, looking down at Phil. He seemed to do exactly what Dan did; close his eyes and breathe. Phil turned his palms up, and fog started to roll off of his hands and spill out towards the floor. Soon, the cement around Phil's feet started to ice over, probably helped by the water left over from the sprinklers.
"Temperature dropping," PJ said, his eyes darting from his tablet to the gym.
Then almost everything started to coat over with frost. Dan and PJ eventually had to wipe away the fogged up windows with their sleeves, and what they saw inside made Dan nearly stop breathing. Phil looked amazing. He stood in the center of the room completely in awe, looking around at what he was capable of doing. He was obviously in his element and was really excited about it, just like Dan had been. He walked over to a wall and touched it with his fingers. A ribbon of ice spread out from the tips.
"How does the fabric feel, Phil?" Louise prompted.
"Great. It hasn't reacted at all to the cold," he replied, dragging his fingers across the wall and leaving a trail of more ice ribbons. Dan was really glad he got to witness Phil let loose like this. It was like seeing something very intimate. He knew Phil, better than anyone at this point, but there was a difference when they were allowed to be who they are. Dan wished he could see this Phil a little more often.
He felt like it was over too quickly. "Alright, Phil, warm up a bit. You're approaching dangerously cold temperatures. Well, dangerous for your surroundings," PJ said. Phil pouted for a moment and nodded anyway. PJ and Louise deliberated while they waited, and soon Phil appeared around the corner with the combat suit over his arm.
PJ walked over and took it from him. "Well done, Phil. Although it may take a while to thaw out that gym," he said.
Phil smiled and shrugged, but Dan could see how Phil remained a distance away and didn't make any contact with PJ's skin. His temperature wasn't climbing fast enough. Dan nonchalantly walked over while PJ headed back towards Louise. Phil lit up and reached for Dan, but once their hands connected they didn't stop. Warm hands ghosted over cold skin all the way to the elbow. Dan could feel the temperature start to rise.
"Better?" he asked quietly.
"Much," Phil replied after a deep breath. Dan looked up and met his eyes, and their gaze remained trained on each other for much longer than it had in the past.
Louise paused while she walked by, looking at the pair. "Hey, you didn't steam," she said. Dan and Phil broke away for a moment to look at her, and then back at each other, sharing identical looks of surprise. Neither of them had noticed. "Progress," she added, looking quite smug before walking away.
Dan hit a wrong note, which made him cringe out of his reverie. Even at that point, added to all the excitement from the combat suits, he was looking forward to infiltrating the MI5 labs. But now that he had had time to think about it, he was actually terrified. What if their plan went wrong? So many things could happen and become problems; triggering an alarm, Zoe or Marcus getting recognized, and anything of that sort really. It gave Dan serious anxiety thinking about it. So here he was, at the piano, trying not to think about it.
Then someone knocked on the door. It was already open, and soon Carrie peeked her head in. "I thought I heard a piano," she said.
Dan shrugged. "Yeah. It's helping to clear my head," he said.
"May I?" Carrie asked, gesturing to the piano bench. Dan shifted to one end and Carrie sat beside him. She reached over and played a few notes, which he recognized as the melody of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow'. He looked over and gave her a little smile, and she smiled back and joined in singing, "Way up high," very quietly. Then her expression grew sour. "I think this piano is out of tune," she added.
"It is," Dan said with a nod, "And your voice is very pretty."
Carrie smiled and looked down at her lap, folding her hands on top of her skirt. She often wore skirts and dresses; Dan didn't understand how she went to training in them. "Thanks. Singing was actually part of me originally learning to control my power, you know. I couldn't talk at all without hurting people's ears. Jenna was the one who came up with the idea to have me practice singing -behind shatterproof glass of course- to try and play with the sound waves. And it worked. Obviously."
"That's actually brilliant. Singing is just an extension of speech. If you can control it while singing, then just talking is easy," Dan said.
"Exactly. So even though all that time we were technically doing nothing, some of us still got a better quality of life," Carrie said and sighed, "I just want to tell you, Dan, that I believe in you. And Phil, too. I know the two of you are breaking in to save people and that's really admirable."
Dan smiled a little and looked down at the keys. "Thanks. I have confidence in us, but that's not stopping me from freaking out," he said.
Carrie reached over and put her hand over Dan's, giving it a squeeze. "It'll be okay. I think we all agree around here that you were meant to save people's lives."
Even so, before he was ready, Dan was standing at the front of the facility (where he had never been before) while Louise wedged a comm device in his ear. Phil already had his in, and was standing near the dirt road with Zoe and Marcus, adjusting his disguise. Both boys were wearing full suits trying to pass as security guards. Dan was pulling farther and farther away from her, and Louise kept grabbing his shoulder and yanking him back. "Lou, Lou I can do it!" he said, finally swatting her hand away.
Louise huffed. "I just want everything to go according to plan. And that means you need to be able to hear me at all times," she said.
While Dan adjusted the tiny device in his ear, Phil inspected the new piping on his combat suit, and then Dan's as well. If they pulled up their shirtsleeves, it was just visible. The suits were identical, except the piping on Phil's was blue and Dan's was orange. "What is the purpose of this?" he asked Louise, showing her his wrist and pointing to the accent.
"Oh! I nearly forgot," said Louise, "I added tubes to both of your suits that are filled with liquid. Dan's is coolant, just in case you ever get too hot. Phil's has cellulose and carbon that will react and warm up when exposed to oxygen, sort of like a hand warmer. Just break the tubes and they'll work almost instantly." She took Dan's shoulder and moved him so that the group could see. She pointed to a small spot there. "Here is a tracking device. Each of you has one. I put them in-"
"Just in case," Dan and Phil teased in unison.
Louise narrowed her eyes at them. "Well. You can never be too prepared!" she defended.
"Okay," PJ said pointedly, "Marcus is going to drive you into the city. He and Zoe are meeting with Ronald Edwards, a tech rep from the prime minister's office. Zoe's going to plug in this flash drive-" he paused and held it up in his hand, "-into a computer. It will shut down the system, including the computerized alarms, but only for a few minutes. Less than ten, probably. That will be Dan and Phil's chance to get into the labs undetected. From there, Louise will tell you what to do. But your main objective is to plug in this drive-" he produced a second flash drive, this one on a lanyard, "-into a computer in the lab. The virus in it will delete all the data on mutant experiments and the enzyme. So there will be no more making it."
There were nods all around. The front double doors swung open and then Dodie rushed out to join them. She wore a suit similar to the boys, but her piping was white, and she was zipping up a black hoodie over it. And she looked pale. "What are you doing here?" PJ asked her.
"I asked her to join the mission," Phil piped up, "She could be very useful. She can shrink small enough to crawl under doors and such."
Louise groaned. "Dammit, Phil, now she needs a comm too! You needed to leave like two minutes ago," she said.
"She can have mine, I can just listen through Zoe's head," Marcus interjected, reaching into his ear and pulling out the little device. He handed it Dodie, and Dan watched her anxiously fix it into her ear. Dodie was young and new. He wasn't sure bringing her on their first and very important mission was a good idea. But he wasn't about to kick her out now. Even if she did look like she was going to be sick.
PJ presented Zoe with one of his tablets and her flash drive, and dropped a pair of keys in Marcus's hand. "Not a scratch," he warned. He and Louise had fixed up a BMW from the junkyard. It almost looked gently used. If Dan was into cars he also probably would have been possessive over it. The second flash drive was handed to Phil and he put it around his neck under his button up.
"Right," Louise said, bouncing on the balls of her feet, "Of you go, then. Good luck. We'll be ready as soon as you get there. Don't die."
Zoe pursed her lips. "Excellent, thanks," she muttered. If it were possible, Dodie got even paler. Dan swallowed and walked over to the car. He got there soon enough to sit by the window, and Phil ended up in the center. Good thing Dodie was so small, or there would be no room to breathe in the back seat. Still, Dan's knee jiggled nervously. Some time into the ride Phil reached over and stilled it, giving Dan a look. He gave him a sheepish smile back, then boldly reached up and laced his fingers with Phil's. Phil smiled back and didn't make any moved to let go.
Just like weeks ago, it still took hours to drive to London. When they were almost there, Zoe turned around in her seat. "Right, let's go over the plan. And catch up Dodie," she said, "So we're going to walk into the reception area and we'll give the receptionist our names. You guys, our bodyguards, will be asked to wait in the lobby and instead we'll tell you to just wait in the car. That's when you go outside, Louise will tell you where the lab entrance is, and then you wait until she says go. Everyone set?"
Dan and Phil nodded and then looked over at Dodie. She cleared her throat and looked down at her attire, which was not much of a disguise compared to the boys. "Maybe I should just stay outside to begin with," she muttered, playing with the end of her ponytail.
"That's probably best," Zoe said, smiling warmly. She made eye contact with Dan and her expression fell a little, mirroring Dan's nervousness. He tried to look strong, nodding as if he knew exactly what he was doing.
He didn't, spoiler alert.
Marcus pulled the car into the driveway and flashed his forged pass at the guard. Looking bored, the guard pressed a button and lifted the gate to let them in. "Phase one, complete!" Phil stated, no doubt trying to lighten the mood. When Marcus found a parking spot, all five of them were quiet as they walked from the parking lot to the front of the Thames Building. Dan's heart started to flutter nervously as they left Dodie to sit on the stairs, and then passed under the large archway and into the reception area. He tried his best to look indifferent and imposing like he supposed a bodyguard should look like.
Marcus and Zoe stood in the front as they approached the desk. "Excuse me" Zoe said, "We have an appointment with Ronald Edwards."
The receptionist took a moment to move his glare between all four of them. Perhaps he could detect that they all looked a little too young for this. But it was official; he couldn't question it. Right? "Names?" he said.
"I'm Barbara Prince," Zoe said breezily. Dan caught Marcus sneak a peek at his nametag.
"And I'm Bruce Queen," he said.
Phil looked over at Dan, raising a brow. He knew he was asking who picked those names because they were crap. Dan shrugged a shoulder. Louise must have just googled searched for random names.
The receptionist's fingers tapped over his keyboard. "Right. Mr. Edwards should be right out to meet you," he said. He eyed Dan and Phil behind them. "However, those two will not be permitted to join. It only says your names on the file, they will have to wait in the lobby," he added.
Marcus nodded once. "That's fine, they're just here because of protocol anyway," he said, his tone light as if her were joking.
As expected, Zoe turned to look over her shoulder at them. "Why don't you just wait in the car after all? I'm sure we won't be long," she said.
Dan and Phil both nodded and turned to leave the hall. They managed to stay in character until they got down the steps and saw Dodie. She sprung to her feet and Dan pressed a finger into his earpiece. "Alright, Louise, they're in. Tell us where to go," he said as they walked down the stairs as a group.
"Perfect," Louise said, "You're going to take a left and walk the entire length of the building. Try not to look suspicious. It's a bit of a walk so be prepared."
Dan took a breath and nodded his head at the others. In accordance to Louise's directions, he turned to the left. Phil and Dodie were only a few steps behind. When they reached the corner of the building Phil asked Louise what was next.
There was a pause before she spoke. "Alright, now you want to go down the alley adjacent to the building," The three of them started moving while Louise continued. "Towards the middle is a metal door with a card scanner beside it." They paused outside it. It didn't look all that imposing. "Once Zoe plugs the flash drive into the system I'll be able to open it from here. From there you'll have to follow my instructions to a T to find the right lab," Louise finished, "Oh, and leave your disguises in a dumpster. They're knock-offs anyway."
Both boys shed their suit jackets right away. "Right. What if there are scientists in there?" Phil said.
"There won't be," she said, "Today they're all out, distributing the enzyme and finding more mutants. But other labs will be occupied, so that's why it is imperative that you listen carefully."
Dan got to work on the buttons of his shirt. "When will we know when the door is unlocked?" he asked. Dodie stood on her toes to toss her black hoodie into the dumpster with a sour expression.
"The little red light on the scanner will turn green. It might take a few seconds," Louise said.
Dan finally rid himself of his trousers and tossed them into the pile he made on the ground before picking them up. He and Phil both dropped their piles into the dumpster and turned to each other. They looked nearly identical in their combat suits and matching haircuts. "Those were nice, I hope we can get them back afterwards," Phil said.
"I'll make a mental note," teased Dan, which earned him a soft punch in the arm. He turned to Dodie, who was bouncing on the balls of her feet. "You alright there?" he asked.
She took a visible deep breath, her chest heaving, and nodded. "Yeah. Just… jittery, you know? But I'm ready," she promised.
Phil nodded once. "I believe-"
The light on the card scanner turned green. "Door's open, go!" Louise shouted in their ears. Dodie wasted no time, which was good as she was closest, and rushed over to pull the door open. Dan and Phil filed in and she closed the door behind them. They were all quiet as they waited for Louise's instructions. Dan quickly took in their surroundings. A hallway made of concrete, dimly lit. It wasn't all that impressive. There was a camera behind them in the corner. Dan waved at it.
"Not the time, Daniel," Louise barked. Phil gave him a look and he shrugged. She continued. "Right, so you need to head down the corridor until you find an orange door. That'll be the stairwell down to the labs." Phil was already jogging down the corridor as Louise spoke. Dan brought up the rear of their little team and looked over his shoulder nervously, fearing at any moment someone would find them. They raced down the stairs and Phil nearly tripped at the bottom, but he easily pushed open the door that opened into a stark white hallway. It reminded Dan a lot of the lowest levels of The School as well.
"And now?" Dan said, his voice echoed even though he was practically whispering.
Louise continued. "Near the very end of the hall you'll find the research labs. Two doors in, I believe. I'm working on getting the door open right now, turns out they have a fingerprint scanner on there now. Is the hallway completely open until the end? No doors?"
They walked down the corridor. Dan's toe caught on something on the floor, and he noticed it was a receiver for a deadbolt lock there. "No doors. But we found out that they're here… somewhere," he said.
"The ceiling," Louise supplied and all three of them looked up, "They've been in place since I worked there. They're another security measure; they come down as a very last resort. Now, keep going! You have six minutes before the camera system resets!"
"Well, shit," Dan mumbled and took off with the others down the corridor, "Is the door open, Louise?"
"Working on it."
Dan impatiently tapped his fingers on the wall. Suddenly Dodie was gone, shrinking down to almost too small to see properly. In the next few seconds the door was open, a full sized Dodie standing behind it and smiling proudly.
The boys stared a moment. "Well done," they said in unison.
Dan didn't know what he was expecting before he saw it. Maybe Dr. Frankenstein's lab out of the Frankenstein movie from 1931. This was nothing like that; it was more like a university laboratory. Phil was the first one to step into the room and look around. "I'm plugging this drive into any computer?" he said, looking at the flash drive on the lanyard around his neck.
PJ answered for the first time since they left. "Yes. Be quick about it, we're running out of time," he said. Phil nodded and took a moment to locate a computer in the corner of the room. He jogged over to it and leaned over to turn it on. "In the meantime, Dan and Dodie, you need to destroy all traces of the enzyme that's already there."
"Right, okay. Destroy," Dan echoed, looking around. He approached a cabinet and pulled it open. The beakers were empty. He heard Dodie going through other cabinets on the other side of the room. There were three walls of them. The next cabinet, and the next as well only had empty containers or unused tools. What if the research wasn't in this lab? What if they were wrong?
"Four minutes," said Louise in their ears.
Dan slammed a cabinet shut. "Fuck," he hissed, "How are we doing, Dove?" This was a good place to use the codenames, as Louise had previously pointed out. Just in case someone was watching or listening, they wouldn't have any definite indication of their identities. It just occurred to him that Dodie didn't have one.
"It's working. Well, at least I think so," Phil replied, "Code screens are moving by really fast and disappearing at the bottom."
"That means it's working," PJ added, which gave Dan a little piece of mind. Which was something he needed, because another wall of cabinets proved to be empty.
And then, "Hawk!" Dan spun around to try and see Dodie, but she wasn't there. He made eye contact with Phil, and he nodded to his left. Dan jogged over and peeked around a row of kilns. There was Dodie, standing in front of a door that neither of the other two would have noticed.
Dan pressed a finger to his ear, which he didn't need to do now, but it sure looked cool. "Louise, there's a door in here. Where does it go?"
A pause. "It's not on this map."
Dodie tried the handle. "It's locked," she said. Dan approached and also tried the handle, then tried to shoulder it open.
"It's not going to budge," Dan said, stepping back, "We need to get in there."
"Dan, you're running out of time," Louise said quickly.
Dan thought quickly on his feet. "Doesn't matter. If this is the only mutant research lab, then there must be people behind this door. They need help. And we have to destroy the stores of the enzyme, which was the mission, right?" he said.
"You'll set off the alarm!" PJ argued.
Dodie tapped Dan's shoulder and held up her hand. Then she shrunk down, and Dan assumed she was going to try and get under the door again. Moments later, however, she was back. "It's air tight," she said, frowning.
Phil walked over then, placing his hand on Dan's shoulder for a moment, pulling him backwards ever so slightly. "I got it," he said. The others, confused, took a few steps back. Phil squared his shoulders and wrapped both his hands around the handle. Soon fog started to fall from Phil's hands and dissipate on the floor, and when he pulled them away the knob was encased in ice. Then Phil reared back and brought his elbow down hard on the doorknob. Dan and Dodie winced at the loud sound of ice breaking and metal clanging to the ground, but then the door was ajar.
Dan stared at him. "That was amazing-," he said before a blaring alarm started to echo through the room. They were detected, they were toast. Might as well do what they can now. Phil was holding his elbow, grimacing, but when he met Dan's eye he nodded once. With the opposite shoulder he pushed the door all the way open.
The room was gruesome. And once again, dimly lit. This was obviously where they performed the experiments. There was a table with straps on it, machinery lining the walls, and a mirror on another. It must have been two-way. There was a row of… tanks, Dan supposed, on the other end. There were six, and three of them had people occupying them. They were all asleep, and there was one woman, a teenage boy around their age, and just as Dan was afraid of happening: a kid. He might have been twelve. "Come on," he said to Phil and Dodie, approaching the tanks.
"The enzyme," Phil said, pointing to the corner of the room. There was a stack of palettes with tiny bottles of clear liquid in them.
As Phil and Dodie tried to force open a tank, Dan took on the enzyme bottles. The alarm still blared, but it was so constant now he doubted any of them noticed. What could he do in ten seconds to get rid of them all? Well, there was no point in being quiet now; security would be on them at any second now. So, Dan did the only thing he could think of. He wedged himself between the stack and the wall and pushed.
It all crashed to the floor, the vials spilling all over. "Dan!" It was Louise, screaming in his ear. He hadn't been hearing her over the alarm. "You have to cook the liquid, they can still salvage it from the floor. Change the molecular structure," she said.
"You got it," Dan muttered and dropped to his knees beside the puddle, then braced himself. He placed his hands in the growing puddle of serum and closed his eyes. The liquid started to bubble and smoke around his hands, and even change in color. The darkening color spread throughout the puddle, but not fast enough.
"Don't breath the gas, it's chloroform!" Louise shouted. Confused, Dan looked over at Phil and Dodie. They had opened two of the tanks, which had broken a strange tube at the top. That's how the scientists were keeping people asleep, by pumping them with chloroform gas.
That was lethal. In large doses, anyway.
Frustration taking over, Dan finished his job of destroying the enzyme. Now the whole puddle was a murky brown color as opposed to clear. He figured that was enough to ruin it. He stood and rushed over to Phil and Dodie. Phil had the woman, who was completely unconscious, in his arms with her head resting on his shoulder. Dodie was gently patting the face of the boy, trying to get him to wake up faster. The boy stumbled into her, but he seemed okay otherwise. The third tank was still closed with the male in it.
"We need to leave and get these people out of here," Phil said.
"What do we do?" Dodie said, putting her arm over the boy's shoulder when he threatened to topple over.
"Zoe and Marcus are getting the car. Five minutes until they're in front of the building," Louise said, "I have no idea how long I can scramble the security system. This is the only way to keep you guys from being sealed in there forever, and to keep the guards away."
Dan took the edge of the third tank door and pulled, using all his body weight. It screeched in protest, but he managed to get it open. Both Phil and Dodie each had their mouths open in shock while Dan helped the man out of the tank. Thankfully he was awake and coughing.
"Not… again," he rasped.
Dan's heart lurched. "Hey, hey man, it's going to be okay. We're busting you out," he told him, "What's your name?"
He coughed again. "Jack."
"Jack. I'm Dan," he said, "My friends and I are going to help. But you need to walk, alright? We have to hurry."
Phil nodded towards the door and started to run. Dan and Dodie followed as quickly as they could with their struggling captives. Jack was coughing more and more as they rushed through the lab and to the hallway, and Dan felt horrible for making him move so quickly but they didn't have a choice.
"Guys!" Louise shrieked in their ears, "The security doors are closing, I can't stop them! There must be a backup of some sort."
The first door banged shut near the end of the hall. "Fuck," Dan hissed again and looked at his companions, "Let's go, we need to move!"
As they ran the doors shut periodically until it was right on their heels. Phil and Dodie were ahead and about to clear the last one. Dan couldn't… no. Jack couldn't get stuck here. Dan could take care of himself. With a burst of strength, Dan lifted Jack off his feet and ran forward, shouting "Phil!"
Phil turned and sized up the situation. He placed the woman down rather roughly on the floor near the exit and hurried back towards Dan. Something clicked above Dan's head and he quickly shoved Jack towards Phil, over the deadbolt. Surprised, Phil caught him, but then looked wildly at his friend. He opened his mouth to say something when the door dropped and slammed shut between them.
As soon as it happened, Dan's heart plummeted. There was no window in the door. There was no way to open it. He was alone. Not a second after it closed he could hear Phil banging on it. "Dan! Dan, I'm going to get you out!" he shouted.
"You need to get to the car!" Dan argued back, "You have a mission to finish."
"I'm not leaving without you!"
His eyes started to sting with tears, mostly from fear of the unknown. "You have to go, there are people to save!" he stated firmly.
"We're going to get you out, Dan, don't freak out," PJ said. Too late. "The rest of you need to listen to him, get out of there-"
"Dammit, I'm not leaving Dan here alone!" Phil argued on the other side of the door.
Dan suddenly heard a faint hissing noise coming from somewhere. He spun wildly around, looking for the source, but there was nothing to see. Nothing to smell either. He started to feel lightheaded. It was gas; they were gassing him. "I'm going to pass out," he said, his voice shaky.
"Smash your comm. Now," PJ said, resigned.
He knocked it out of his ear and crunched it under his foot just as Phil understood what was happening. He started to bang on the door again, pleading with Dan to hold on and just yelling his name over and over mixed with 'no'. Dan's eyelids suddenly became too heavy and he closed his eyes just as his legs couldn't hold him up anymore. He didn't know if Phil, Dodie, and the others got out okay before the chloroform knocked out his senses and he passed out.
