Author's Note: Italics signify thought, emphasis or telepathic communication.
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"Wasn't Gamma supposed to show up for this mission?" Alpha asked with an edge to his voice.
Omega frowned, keeping her eyes on the third member of their unit, Upsilon, who was now scouting the perimeter of the building they needed to break into.
"I don't know. The three of us can handle this. Beta isn't here either."
"She wasn't scheduled," Alpha reminded her unnecessarily.
Omega sighed heavily and her voice turned cold, "If you really want him here, I can always summon him."
Alpha gave her an apologetic look from behind the black mask that hid the upper half of his face. "No, it's fine. You're right; we've always been a complete unit without him. I think they're just using him to spy on us anyway."
Omega grunted noncommittally and smiled as Upsilon approached. The two women also had masks that covered their noses and eyes, effectively hiding their identities if anyone had known where to look for them. But not many humans would think to look for three figures floating somewhat above the tree line two hundred feet from the warehouse. The only light part of them was the area of skin around their mouths and their necks. Their clothing was black and formfitting, made of a material that hugged everywhere and still allowed complete range of motion. Even their hair was dark, all three had hair that was somewhere between brown and black in color.
"The laptop's set up," Upsilon reported. "I was able to loop enough feed that the two guards will appear to be making their entire rounds. Inside the building has been taken care of, too."
"And you're sure there's just the two of them, no one inside?" Omega asked for confirmation.
Upsilon nodded, tapping one gloved finger next to her right eye. "I double checked."
Omega sighed with relief. "Alright, phase one complete, let's move on to phase two."
Alpha flew quickly to a nearby tree where he had put a black duffle that carried their smaller supplies. He pulled out two tranquilizer guns, handing one to Omega. Putting the two humans to sleep with drugs would be much safer than knocking them out physically. This way, other humans could be blamed, and they didn't have to worry about hitting the men too hard and injuring them permanently.
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The unit split up again, Upsilon following Omega to the far side of the building to take care of that section's security guard. He was down in seconds, and less than a ten count after, Alpha rejoined them.
"Phase two complete," he said.
Alpha held up a security card he had pulled from his victim's pocket and grinned.
Omega laughed softly at his enthusiasm, "Commence phase three."
Was he complaining about Gamma again? Upsilon asked her team leader as they landed on the forest floor to pick up the thick sheets of lead they had brought with them. There were six sheets, each cut specially so when put together they would form a cube five feet long on each side. Upsilon had kept her mouth shut, allowing Omega to pluck the thought from her head.
Heard that, did you? Omega sent back. I think he's afraid the Council will blame me for Gamma's disregard for orders.
Upsilon rolled her eyes. She shared Omega's intense dislike for the man who was the unwanted member of their unit. He had never done more than the absolute minimum, and lately he had been pestering Omega every moment he was with them. Omega was a lot more patient with him than Upsilon would have been in her place, but even Omega's patience had started to fray recently. Unfortunately, Gamma was just as invulnerable as they were, otherwise Upsilon would have torn his head off a long time ago. She was pretty sure much more from the other man would push even Alpha to take action, and he was the one who was always most concerned with staying on the Council's good side.
The two young women followed Alpha into the warehouse. Upsilon helped Omega set up the lead cube; the two squinting at the lined-up pieces of metal and watching them weld together. They left the top off for Alpha to put their cargo in. He, meanwhile, opened the sliding door at the back of the warehouse. The door they had entered through would not be big enough to take the cube back out. Alpha then went to the safe in the far corner of the warehouse. Putting his ear on the large door to listen to the tumblers inside, he opened the safe the no thrills way.
When the door swung open revealing the green glowing rocks inside, Omega paled and backed as far as possible away from the safe. Of the three of them, she was the most susceptible to the meteorite rocks' effects. Upsilon nodded to Alpha and moved to join the other woman. Alpha brought the open-topped cube to the area in front of the safe, transferring the pieces as quickly as possible. He had to stop and move away from the glowing rocks every three minutes, which they had discovered some time ago was his limit for contact without it affecting him.
Alpha's immunity, though temporary, is what had gotten him the second position on the team. Omega was unit leader due to her leadership abilities and the length of time she had been serving the Council. Upsilon was the technology whiz of the group, and Beta and Gamma were extra muscle for when they needed a larger team. They had two other emergency members, Theta and Omikron, but so far they had not been necessary.
Fifteen minutes later, Alpha had transferred the last of the meteorite rocks into the lead cube and put the lid on. Omega and Upsilon moved cautiously closer and the three sealed the lid together.
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One last sweep, Omega asked of Upsilon.
The other woman nodded and pivoted in a circle, paling slightly when her gaze came to rest on the company name plaque near the door.
"No more kryptonite," she reported, "but there is something interesting under the company name."
Omega's attention turned toward the plaque. It did look thicker than it needed to be. When they had done a quick background check on the place after learning what was stored inside, it had been obvious that it had been a dummy corporation. But they hadn't had the permission to dig deeper. Could the company who really owned the building have been remiss enough to leave a clue to their identity behind?
"What does it say?"
Upsilon bit her lip and answered, "LuthorCorp."
"LuthorCorp? I thought Lex Luthor's company name was LexCorp."
"It is," Alpha confirmed. "But his father, Lionel Luthor, had a company called LuthorCorp when he was alive. Mr. Luthor the younger took it over and renamed it."
Omega frowned. "I wonder if Mr. Luthor has any more stores of meteorite rocks we should know about."
"We can bring the information to the Council, but it will be up to them whether we can investigate him," Upsilon reminded them.
Omega sighed. "Right. Phase three is now complete, let's get going."
Phase four was to erase all evidence of their actions. The safe was closed, and the sliding door returned to its original state after the lead cube was safely clear of the building. Alpha put the security card back in the still unconscious guard's pocket and Upsilon programmed the security system to return to normal after two minutes before detaching her laptop from the power box she had used as a back door. With their duffle over Alpha's shoulder and Omega flying with the cube in one hand, the trio flew straight up into the atmosphere.
No one saw a thing.
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Clark grumbled under his breath when the shrilly ringing phone woke him up. He peered with one one eye at his alarm clock. He cursed when he saw that it was only a few minutes after four in the morning.
This had better be good, he thought, snatching the receiver from the cradle before it could ring again and wake the rest of his family.
"Wha?" He said incoherently into the phone.
"Clark, sorry to wake you, but I thought you might be interested to know that a warehouse that once belonged to Lionel Luthor was broken into earlier this morning."
"Chloe," Clark sighed. "Why would I care about that? I'm sure Lex had whatever was there insured."
"I don't think so," she answered.
Chloe rarely called, and hardly ever mentioned the late Luthor now that she had gotten past his pre-death blacklisting of her and was working in Metropolis at the Daily Planet. If Clark had been fully awake, he would have remembered this sooner, but he was quickly catching up.
"I think it might have been meteorite rocks, Clark."
At this, Clark came fully awake. "What would make you think that?"
"Haven't you heard? No, I guess you wouldn't have in Smallville. Meteorite rocks have been disappearing under mysterious circumstances all over the world. This is the first time I've heard about it near Smallville, though. I just thought I'd give you the heads up. Uh, Clark, I have to go, my editor is calling me. We'll catch up soon, okay?"
"Okay, and thanks Chlo."
"Sure, Clark."
Sighing, Clark put the telephone back on its base. Why would someone be stealing meteorite rocks? In the past, he would have suspected Lex, who had a penchant for getting mixed up with people who wanted to enhance themselves with the green glowing rocks, but he wouldn't steal from himself. And what had Chloe meant by 'mysterious circumstances'? Clark sighed again. It appeared he had some research to do.