Axis Environmental had their headquarters based here in National City. Yet it proved very challenging arranging an appointment with the management when Kara tried to call ahead. The receptionist was polite enough before Kara suggested paying them a visit in person, then she became cagey and fed her a line about visiting hours being suspended. So while they made their trek across the city both Kara and Nia did some initial research on their phones whilst weaving through the streets and riding the bus.
It was on their bus ride they both got a call from Alex and Brainy in response to their queries. They confirmed Axis had a contract with the DEO to dispose of dangerous technology. They were currently double checking if Axis was given the Metallo body, promising to open their own investigation. Kara offered to give them a head start, leading Nia off the bus to approach the large disposal plant on the edge of the city.
"Huh" Nia muses, scrolling through the information page on their website. "According to this the company was facing some major financial complications due to the bad publicity the fraudulent accusations generated. Investors were pulling out and contracts were being cancelled."
"I remember that" Kara nodded, recalling the new coverage. It was getting so bad Axis was looking at foreclosure. "But I though they cleared that up once their name had been cleared."
"Not without some serious backing it seems" Nia replied, reading out how the website claimed "without the loyalty and trust of our investors, our work would never have continued." "Apparently the effects were severe enough they had to let go a large portion of their staff" she continued.
"They seem to be doing well for themselves now" Kara noted, scanning the large number of workers behind the fences operating forklifts and machines going in and out of the silos. On their right was a massive warehouse, a line of company trucks parked nearby awaiting deliveries. Kara looked at the trucks. They looked just like the one the armed robbers were chasing. If it did indeed come from Axis's fleet, it will be tough to prove.
The moved on along the fence, following the signs to their main office sitting in a small building at the front of the site. They walked through the reception area and straight to their front desk. "Hello, came I help you?" a tired middle aged woman asked, a headset on her head over her greying auburn hair.
"We're here to see Carl Carlton?" Kara said, recalling his name as the manager of the site and CEO of the company.
"Who's asking?" the woman asked.
"Kara Danvers from Cacto Worldwide Media. I called earlier?"
The woman soured, returning to her book on her lap. "As I said on the phone, Mr Carlton is a busy man. Nobody can see him without an appointment."
Kara and Nia exchanged a glance as Kara decided to play the reporter card. "I thought, as the manager of Axis Environmental, that Mr Carlton would appreciate the opportunity to do an exclusive article with a prominent and respected network such as Cacto. We know of the good work his company has done and would love to give our readers an in depth interview with him. Maybe it would even help with some of his… PR troubles. After so much bad press, some good press would go a long way."
The woman looked at her with disinterest making Kara doubt her argument was useful. But someone listening must've liked it because the receptionist sudden got a call through her headset that made her put her book down. "Wait here a moment" she said, turning to her computer to arrange some appointments.
The reporters shared a smirk before taking a seat in the waiting area, silently running over the plan should they get an audience with the man in charge.
Ten minutes later they were shown into his office by the receptionist. Carl Carlton stood up from behind his desk to greet the two reporters warmly, dressed in his business suit with a high visibility vest draped over the jacket, apologising for their wait. "Forgive my receptionist but it's been a busy time for all of us here. When I heard two reporters from Cacto wanted to see me I thought it'd be prudent to be welcoming rather than elusive. After all, it was Cat Grant's expose that helped clear Axis reputation. Her networks the only news source I have left to trust."
"We understand" Kara said, taking a seat across from his desk. Nia took the other available seat, putting their bags down and bringing out their notepads. "We know this has been a difficult time for you company" Kara told him. "We read about the workers you had to let go."
He shook his head glumly, explaining "it was a truly sad day telling those men that I couldn't afford to keep their jobs. I don't claim to be a family business but I have always strived to ensure the security of my employees. Unfortunately those accusations broke a lot of bridges. Losing investors as one thing. But it was the loss of viable contracts that truly started to hurt us."
"You seem to be doing well now?" Nia commented, looking out the window at the men and women moving about.
Carlton followed her gaze and scoffed. "All a façade, I assure you" he told her sadly. "We're recovering thanks to fresh investment, that's true, but we're still a long way from what we was. We've been relying on the few contracts who haven't turned us down."
"Like from the DEO?" Kara asked.
"Government business is lucrative. But they'd limited their involvement, as have the city council. So if your network can provide any good PR for the company, we'll take what we can get" he said.
Kara nodded, making a few motes while carefully considering what questions to ask. She couldn't just come out and ask him about Metallo, a civilian isn't supposed to know about government contracts. But his talk about fresh investors did open one avenue. "Have Axis had to take on new contracts to make up the loss?"
"Some" he nodded. "Many of our investors signed on because of our reliable work, their partnership opening a few doors for added revenue."
"What kind of doors?" Nia queried.
"The kind that I'm afraid must remain confidential" he said. "I hope you understand. "Otherwise, it's just been a matter of trimming the fat, cutting costs…" he caught himself and added "legally, of course. The one thing I've maintain throughout all of this is our practice. Our disposal methods are just as safe and clean and they've always been."
"That's good to hear" Kara smiled, admiring the way he heftily dodged compromising his company's image there.
Nia looked around the cramped office, asking "was one of those corners your office space?"
"Where you expecting to be interviewing me in a high rise overlooking the city?" he asked. She shrugged while he chuckled. "Benefits were mostly the first to go. But this…" he gestured to the office, "this was the first thing I asked for when I became CEO. I used to work in offices like that, sitting above the city looking down. I never liked it, made me feel like I wasn't connected to the people. So when I came here I made sure I had an office on the ground floor. Helps remind me we all serve the same goal, the same purpose."
"That's a commendable attitude" she noted.
"I like to keep my ear to the ground" he smiled.
Their talk was interrupted when the receptionist knocked on the door, poking her head into the office. "Excuse me, Mr Carlton, but there's a call for you."
"Can it wait?" he asked her, apologising to his guests.
"They're very insistent" she told him.
Carlton sighed, climbing out of his chair asking them to excuse him a moment. The girls nodded, watching him left and close the door behind him to speak to the receptionist.
Once he was gone, Nia turned to Kara and said "He seems on the level. I don't think he'd be involved in anything illegal."
"Maybe" Kara replied, focusing her hearing to find his voice as he took the call the receptionist informed him about. Everything drowned out as her ears tunnelled onto the man as he spoke into the phone in reception.
"Yes, I understand the situation…no, the deadline won't be missed. Everything is on schedule. Tell your boss he will get his consignment once we've refilled the order."
The call ended and she heard his footsteps returning. She straightened in her seat as the man opened the office door and smiled at them. "I'm terribly sorry about that. One of my investors still a little skittish about operations." He checked his watch, apologising again. "I'm afraid I have other business I need to attend to. If there's no more I can tell you…"
"Yes, there is one thing Mr Carlton" Kara said, rising from her seat to face the man and read his reaction. "I was wondering if you'd had a break in recently."
"A break in?" he asked, putting his hands in his pockets. "I don't understand."
"Once of my sources seem to believe you had one of your trucks stolen" she explained. "It was impounded by the police during an armed robbery this morning. Do you have a comment about that?"
Carlton's face never wavered from confusion as he told them "I'm afraid your source is mistake. All of our trucks are accounted for. And there's been no break in." he looked at Kara and then at Nia, who both looked back neutrally. "If there's nothing else, I really must be going" he said, opening the door for them to see themselves out. "Thank you for stopping by. I'll try and set a future appointment to discuss your article in more detail."
"We appreciate you taking the time" Kara smiled, shaking his hand walking out the door. Nia did the same, following her into the corridor where the receptionist was waiting to lead them back to the entrance. The reporters left without complaint while Carlton walked in the opposite direction towards the warehouse.
Outside, Kara and Nia waited until they were out of view before ducking around a corner to peer through the fence. Tipping her glasses down her nose Kara used her x-ray vision to track the CEO as he strode purposely into the lead-lined warehouse out of sight. Lead in the walls wasn't unheard off, especially in a facility full of toxic materials like this. But it meant they'd have to get back inside to see what was behind closed doors.
She turned to Nia, who was completely on board and ready to sneak back inside. She got the same vibe off Carlton when they asked about the truck. He hid it well, but his body language screamed he was hiding something. So once they were ready, Kara put her arm around Nia's waist and held her tight as she jumped into the air and zipped them like a bullet into the facility landing in an obscured area behind the warehouse. Nia swayed feeling a little dizzy from the momentum, but otherwise she was fine. Fortunately their intrusion went unnoticed, as did the subtle act of breaking the lock on the fire exit into the warehouse when Kara broke open the door.
"So what are we looking for?" Nia whispered as she followed Kara through the dark and packed interior, keeping out of sight of the workers and security.
"I don't know. Anything that sheds some light on what they might be up to" Kara replied keeping her voice low. She wasn't used to sneaking around like this. Usually her powers let her get around without much need for subterfuge. But when her reporter's nose finds her story she is compelled to follow it to the truth no matter what.
The inside of the warehouse was a maze, which made finding their way around difficult but also gave the reporters plenty of hiding spots from security. Kara's enhanced senses made tracking their movements easy, enabling them both to avoid detection long enough to duck into a storage room filled with crates and shelves.
Kara pulled her glasses down her nose to look over the lead frame, using her x-ray vision to peer inside the boxes. But they were all lined with lead similar to the crate in the truck, which filled the woman with a familiar sense of dread. Swallowing her fear, she opened the nearest crate prepared for whatever she might find. To her relief, the box was empty.
The crate Nia opened was not, however. "Kara! Look at this" she whispered.
Kara crept over and looked over her shoulder to find a large power pack nestled inside a pile of straw. Nia took out her phone and snapped a picture of the device, wondering what it was. "It looks like a battery?" Kara guessed.
"A battery for what?" she asked.
They heard clattering from within the warehouse, drawing their attention to a small window overlooking the floor below. Moving silently, the pair of them crept over and peered down into the lower levels from their storeroom. They were shocked to find it wasn't storage filling the wide open space but an assembly line, workers in hard hats and masks operating blow torches and welders as conveyer belts transported metal and machines to and fro between harnesses and pistons. Unlike what their website reported, Axis appeared to also be building equipment rather than destroying it.
What was more alarming was Kara recognised what this assembly line was constructing as dozens of Metallo bodies were put together before her very eyes, with even more folded into crates and boxes carried by forklifts and cranes. "They rebuilt him" she wheezed. "They made an army."
Nia took several photos of the workshop, getting close ups of the workers and robots. "Why would Axis go into manufacturing if their business model is disposal?" she wondered. None of it made sense. They clearly kept Metallo to reverse engineer the robot and mass produce it. But why would they do that? It went against everything Carlton was trying to do. "Why reproduce a killer robot?"
"Hush" Kara whispered, her hearing finding Carlton's voice again. Nia fell silent as Kara closed her eyes to focus.
"What seems to be the problem?" he was saying, her ears placing himself somewhere below them talking to his foreman.
"The last attempt to construct a substitute power source failed" a gravely man replied, presumably talking about the batteries the reporters found. "They just aren't compatible with the specifications."
"I told you to disregard the power situation" Carlton said. "Our investors are aware of the problem and they want to look into it themselves. We just need to focus on finishing the assembly order. How many units are we up to?"
"With all the material from the disposal orders we held back, we've exceeded expectations by twenty percent. That puts us up to sixty-five proposed units. Forty two are already constructed and in storage."
"Good. I want one of those finished units packaged into another consignment. After this morning's debacle we have to finish the delivery. If they can crack the problem with the power source we'll have more than enough to work with."
"Carlton was behind the delivery truck that was robbed" Kara told Nia. "They were sending that body to one of their investors."
"Why?" Nia asked.
"It sounds like they haven't found an alternative to kryptonite. They must be looking to sell all of this to make up the losses the company suffered."
Nia looked at the workshop and sighed. "I can't believe it. Axis Environmental was helping clean up the planet. Now they're mass producing weapons?"
"I don't think it's about greed more than desperation" Kara commented, recalling how passionate Carlton sounded talking about his company and the work they did, how he saw his employees. She got the feeling this was more his investors idea than his.
"So what now?" Nia asked, standing nearby continuing to snap photos of the evidence they uncovered.
Kara thought about it, weighing the odds between staying and leaving. If they stayed, they could gather evidence and find out who Carlton was sending these Metallo robots to. But if they stayed too long they risked getting caught and tipping their hand. If they left without being seen though, they could take what they have to Alex and let her use DEO resources to investigate the company. Metallo had been sent here to be destroyed. Finding out they made more would raise a lot of awkward questions. It would also most likely destroy all the credibility Axis Environmental had left. Either way, the company was looking at complete ruin.
Before Kara could make a decision, the warehouse was rocked by a sudden onslaught of activity as the large roller shutters they used for large deliveries was flung open. Kara and Nia looked down in shock as a small army of armed men in masks and body armour stormed into the facility carrying machine guns and pistols. They began barking at the startled workers bringing production to a halt as they gathered the men and women bringing them out of the way of several trucks pulling out outside. "EVERYBODY STAY DOWN!" one of the gunmen shouted, ordering the workers to their knees and on the floor. More masked men spilled out of the corridors, more staff members dragged with them with their hands on their heads.
One of these men was Carl Carlton, the man looking around frantically at the men with guns. "What is the meaning of this? Who are you people?"
"Shut up!" a masked man ordered, shoving the man to the ground pointing his rifle at him.
"Well this is unexpected" Nia whispered, both of them ducking low so they couldn't be seen as they watched the gunmen bring their trucks into the warehouse and opened the back. More men spilled out and began taking the crates holding the robots, much to Carlton's horror. "They're taking the robots!" she said.
"They look like the men who robbed the delivery truck" Kara noted, whipping off her glasses scanning the gunmen. She couldn't see any alien weapons in this crowd, just ordinary machine guns, rifles and handguns. Nothing she couldn't handle. "Do you have your costume?" she asked Nia, already unbuttoning her blouse.
"Of course" Nia replied, reaching into her bag to pull out her mask and belt.
Kara got changed in a blink of an eye, rocketing out of her civilian clothes and speeding through the corridors to appear behind the gunmen. She didn't want it to seem like she had arrived from inside the warehouse in case it raised suspicions, sprinting out of the building before turning around and running back to startle the masked men.
"Sorry guys, but I'm afraid this is private property" she said, drawing the attention of everyone in the building as she stood prominently in her costume, her cape falling behind her catching the breeze perfectly. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave" she told them, knowing full well she couldn't let them go.
They knew it too because the gunmen barked the order to fire. Only a few followed, their bullets bouncing off her chest harmlessly.
She looked at them with disappointment. "You should've brought better weapons like the other guys" she commented, bending her knees and dashing forward seeking to disarm everyone as fast as possible.
Before she could grab the first set of guns, another blur raced into the warehouse and intercepted her, catching her mid-sprint before throwing her over its hip sending her barrelling into the warehouse and crashing into a forklift. Supergirl gasped in surprise as she landed on her backside, the forklift tipping over from the impact knocking into the conveyer sending up a shower of sparks and the metal ground together. She picked herself up and looked back at the thing that collided with her. Her chest tightened when she saw the chrome face staring back at her.
Or rather half of it.
"They don't need weapons why I'm here" Hank Henshaw, also known as Cyborg Superman, said in his monotone voice as he glared at the Girl of Steel, his glowing red eye burning hot with energy as he squared up to her.