Revenant
Chapter Sixteen
Batcave
Gotham
"Abandon the watchtower Flash, it's the only way" J'ohn said as together with Batman tried to free the watchtower's boosters from a program or virus that had locked almost all of the watchtower's systems so that the missles would hit and destroy the watchtower.
"How? Everything is locked down!" Flash said trying to keep calm but was obviously scared stiff.
"The escape pods can be activated manually, don't worry about anything else! Just get out of there!" J'ohn ordered the youngest member of the Justice League.
"Ok! I'lll get there now, I guess that the communicators would still work once I loose this channel" Flash said as the screen flickered and another alarm went off.
"The virus has locked down the prison wing! But I can't get through to the security cameras..." Batman muttered darkly as he worked hard around the computer's systems to find the source of what was causing the tower to lock up.
"Just follow the instructions and training that you have had, we'll come and pick you up at the set co-ordinates" J'ohn ordered Flash.
"Ok J'ohn! Let me get going as these alarms are driving me crazy" Flash joked lightly before the communication channel closed.
"We've lost communications" Batman said with a groan, "What is going on up there?" He muttered before rubbing his eyes tiredly.
J'ohn sighed, "We better get ready to track the escape pods when they jettison" He said as he moved back away from the computer.
"You're right" Batman said with a slight stretch of his fingers, rotated his shoulders and got to work on the large computer.
Prison Wing
Justice League Watchtower
"Who are you?" Hotstreak asked as the glass like door opened, releasing him from his cell.
"Someone who can get you out of here! Let's go, both of you" The shadowed man spoke up and looked over at Ebon then back to Hotstreak.
"I don't know who you are! But we don't follow ordered from anyone" Ebon glared with his arms crossed against his chest tightly.
"You want to get out of here or not? I believe that there is someone down there you can hardly wait to meet!" The shadowed man said with a smile, that glowed out from under his hood before nodding back at the airlock he had created.
Hotstreak glared at the back of the caped man then over at Ebon, who shrugged. "We got rid of one hero! So why not get rid of the others? Then we will rule the city!" Ebon said, his shadowy aura grew out.
"Sounds like a plan! Let's go!" Hotstreak said with a grin.
"Let's go! They're going to be at the docks just like when you had your last battle" The shadowy figure said as he unlocked the airlock and led the way back into the shuttle.
Dakota Docks
Dakota
"Rubberband Man? Shebang? Can you hear me?" Gear called across the channel and heard the familiar tone of static fill the channel.
Frowning he silently ran a diagnostic along his equipment while walking along the alleyway of the warehouses. His hands itched close to where he retrieved the zap caps from Backpack as he walked and waited for the program to finish.
'I don't like this... its too quiet' Gear throught as Backpack finished the diagnostic on the shock vox system but found nothing wrong with it.
'Now that's just great! Backpack can't find what is wrong with the shock voxes so it must be blocked!' He thought as a zap cap appeared in his hand, which he almost threw at a stray cat.
Gear cursed and muttered something under his break, which made Backpack glow black. Its normal silver metal covering turned black, while its normal red light turned dark. Gear's costume changed itself, the green parts turned darker while the white stripes on his helmet and on his sides turned black, this was all known as his stealth mode.
He had only used this style of costume a few times, Gear had designed it along with Batman shortly after Static's death using experimental nanotechnology to transform his costume and Backpack so that he could move in the shadows more easily.
'Now let's try this little hunting game again...' Gear thought and returned the zap cap into Backpack before disappearing into the shadows.
Freeman Community Center
Robert sighed and helped himself to the coffee that sat on the desk in front of him, he was going through the financial records for the center.
"Should really get someone else to do this... can't always ask Richie to help with it" He muttered tiredly, looking over his cup at the reports laid out in front of him.
"In other news, strange crimes all across the city and the world has baffled the police when they met together yesterday" The news reporter said catching Robert's attention away from the coffee and finance reports.
"Superman was also at the police discussions revealing that the league are hard at work along with the police and any other law enforcers that are willing to work.." The reporter went on before the television was shut off.
Robert put the t.v remote down with a sigh, seeing in between the lines of the reporter's story, and could see that the Justice League was just as baffled as the police.
"Wonder if Richie was asked to help now that he has completed his studies" He thought quietly to himself. Richie had burried himself into two things over the past few years, first it was his studies revealing how truly smart he was to his fellow students and teachers but they just believed that Richie was suffering but hid it by studying instead of sleeping. Robert knew different, when Richie had completed high school he was busy at work in the gas station which had transformed over the past two years.
The once abandoned gas station of solitude with its beaten up couch, a couple of office accessories that had seen better days and a rough bathroom complete with laundrette had transformed into a well hidden complex laboratory with a experiments always on the go, the walls covered in plans and designs for any ideas that Richie thought would be useful. Some of the other paper hanging on the wall was instructions for either Rubberband Man and Shebang if they ever run out of zap caps, he had taught them how to make the basic caps and capture devices.
Robert took his glasses off and dug his palms into his eyes, hoping that the headache that had built up would fade allowing him to get back to work on the finance records.
"The Justice League had jettisoned their escape pods, they are just entering the atmosphere now" The shadowed man reported across the radio.
"I can see tham, we have got control on their systems so they will be kept busy...Rubberband Man and Shebang are being kept busy along with the police force" The doctor reported looking at his laptop and grinned in seeing eight different signals being sent out, all showing the landing co-ordinates by only one of them contained the Justice League member, who he had sealed in.
A different program ran in the background to track the two heroes and the police force, creating bugs in the alarm systems across the city causing the police to split up and weaken their forces.
"I will head to the meeting place once clear of the atmosphere, I will then deliever the cargo there. Do you wish me to handle the other problem?" The shadowed man spoke, moving his back against the back of the seat getting comfortable, ready for the shuttle to re-enter earth's atmosphere.
"He won't be a problem after all you are stronger than he is" The doctor said earning a s mile from the shadowed man.
"Right Doctor, I will see you soon" The shadowed man said before ending the transmission before entering earth's atmosphere.
"Hold on tight" He called back to his passengers.
Hotstreak frowned hearing that voice from their mysterious rescuerer, 'Why does he sound so familiar to me?' He thought as he closed his eyes and focused on his control of his powers to contain them as the shuttle started to shake slightly.
Gear rolled aside as an explosion knocked him off his feet, coming from a dumpster nearby, 'What is it with bad guys and dumpsters?' He thought to himself as he brushed the garbage off.
Backpack alerted him allowing Gear to backflip out of the way of another explosion causing him to swear quietly. 'Why do I have a feeling that I'm getting closer to whatever is hunting me' Gear thought to himself as he ran out of the alleyway.
As he ran, he jumped past another dumpster as it blew up, "Ok enough already! How many times do you need to cover me in garbage?" Gear yelled as he stopped in front of an abandoned warehouse.
"Aww thought at least once more just for kicks!" A voice called out with a laugh.
Gear looked around trying to find the source of the voice while trying to push away all of the feelings he was feeling being in front of the warehouse, which had transformed his life into a depressing and a now chaotic life that Gear led. He could make out the faded crime scene tape attached to the open doorway, blowing in the wind.
"Why not come out and play like the crazy loonatic you are!" Gear called keeping his voice calm and emotionless.
"Hm... let me think, come out and play in the open or copy you and play in the shadows?" The voice called with a laugh and threw some bombs at Gear, who jumped back using the gymnastics that he had learnt from Batman.
"How about blowing yourself up with those bombs you love so much!" Gear called back realising who he was now fighting. He had come across this bomb maniac just over a year after spending five months in Gotham with Bruce, learning the dark knight's techniques so that he wouldn't have to realy on his gadgets.
"Aww come on G! You know how much I love covering you in garbage or dust and rubble" The voice said with a laugh, Backpack flashed the location of the voice pointing to Gear's left.
Gear grinned and felt Backpack give him a modified zap cap, he felt the engraved symbol on the side of the cap and threw it down hard at the ground filling the whole area with a bright light. He leaped up onto a nearby fire escape and up onto the roof, finding the bomb wielding maniac dazed from the light.
"Liked that? I created them just over five months ago!" Gear said with his voice sounding stern and hidden of all emotion, and threw a capture device at the villian.
Managing to get the spots out of his eyes, he managed to backflip out of the way from the capture device. "What's the matter? Getting slow?" He taunted with a laughand thew a small bomb, which blew a small hole in the roof of the building on which they were standing on.
"How about you? Had enough of Arkham Assylum so decided to come back here and cause more havoc?" Gear asked noticing that Backpack was keeping an eye on the stabability of the building on which they were standing on.
"Oh not only here, I needed to bring chaos elsewhere! Just like at the mall... are you happy with your gift?" The man taunted jumping back onto the roof's edge.
Gear's eyes narrowed, "It has its ups and downs like all powers but I'll manage with it!" He muttered clearly to the maniac in front of him. "Or do you like being named after a apricot?" He said with a grin and laughter in his voice.
"Its plum! plum! Dr Plum to you Brain boy!" Dr Plum yelled and threw a handful of cherry-like bombs exploding on contact with the roof, causing the rest of the roof to collapse in.
Gear only managed to activate his jets for them to fail causing him to fall along with the rest of the roof, he swore under his breath while telling Backpack to jump clear and tore off the pendant-like computer chip from around his neck causing his powers to come into full effect.
Gear strained to control his powers without them being dampened down by the computer chip but soon got hold of the extra strength and held himself up in the air without his jet skates. "Like I said! I'm getting use to it, so want to try this again?" He asked with a grin, feeling the sweat being absorbed by the special pads he had added into his helmet.
"Why won't you die? Its not fair! I got the Bat and his friends kept busy as well as your backup and the police so I could have your all to myself" Dr Plum said keeping his balance on the rooftop's edge, playing with the things on his belt ready to throw at the now psychic super genius.
"What have you done to the league?" Gear asked seeing Backpack was sneaking up the side of the building but ignored the robot making sure that he kept the maniac's attention to himself.
"Just thought that I would keep them busy! Just like I am with you!" Dr Plum said with a grin and pressed a button on his belt.
Gear covered his face as another explosion rocked the building under his feet, it destroyed the foundations causing the building to collapse on in itself. Covering the hero and his sight in dust, he felt Backpack jump away to safety before feeling hands grab him around the middle but the next thing he knew was the darkness pure darkness with no sign of light.
Ebon flexed and looked around their settings, he had been allowed out of the shuttle along with Hotstreak. He could see that they were in an abandoned warehouse that had seen better days but a lot of the warehouses had fallen like this after the big bang.
They had been ordered to stay in the warehouse until their rescurer returned but soon they had realised where they were and wondered what crazy scheme they had got themselves dragged into this time.
Hotsteak was leaning against a wall nearby lost in thought with his arms crossed tightly against his chest going over what had happened in the last few hours. Even though he was partly happy about being out of prison and that he was going to work with Ebon to get rid of Gear, but he was confused to who rescued the from the watch tower. "It is impossible" He muttered, but due to the quietness of the warehouse it sounded louder.
Ebon turned around to face the pyro-maniac, wondering what had got the metahuman thinking so deeply. "What is?" He spoke up with his own arms crossed tightly against his chest.
Hotstreak looked up from where he had been staring at the floor although he was lost in thought. "Nothing! Just can't stand being stuck in this dump!" He said firing up his hands and clenched them tightly into fists allowing the flames to ride along them.
Ebon narrowed his eyes and looked around their surroundings before blending with the shadows of the warehouse. "I don't like it too! But he or whoever that being is said that he would be back soon" He said and soon a creaking filled the quiet warehouse as the door opened but nothing appeared in the doorway.
Instead a black portal appeared and Gear came flying out of it, to Ebon the portal reminded him of his own portals that could create but his unlike this one had a purple tinge from the big bang gas.
The portal closed and disappeared leaving three dazed metahumans, who all jumped when something hit the large double doors smashing them to pieces from an unknown force letting the natural light fill the warehouse.
"You have your second chance! So take it!" Dr Plum's voice echoed throughout the warehouse.
To be continued...