"Please don't tell me you're thinking of going," Virgil pleaded.
The silence over the line was all the answer he needed.
Once word had come in about the 'message' Adam had been sent, all the search attempts for Robert and Sharon had immediately ceased. The police had been informed, but it had been quickly decided to let the heroes take point on the operation while they were back up. If whoever was responsible for the attack at the community center was willing to send a threat to a newly-empowered Rubberband Man, while he was being visited by Static no less, that had to mean they were either arrogantly stupid or perfectly capable of taking on two of the strongest superheroes in Dakota City.
And well, it was becoming increasingly unlikely that Intergang, which had been operating in Dakota City on some level for the past several months, just happened to attack Alva Industries on the same day of the attack on the community center. It was too much of a coincidence — and any decent superhero didn't believe in coincidences. With their possible involvement, the police were hopefully outgunned; even with the Bang Baby crisis upping the standards considerably, their equipment and training didn't hold a candle to the most powerful crime syndicate in the country.
So that left them here: all the superheroes currently present in Dakota City (sans Rubberband Man), standing in Static and Gear's gas station. In the center of their loose circle was a Shock Box, which was connected to another one that Static had snuck into Adam's hospital room before visiting hours had ceased for the day. As he was at the center of the proceedings, Adam was present over the line to make his own opinions on the plan to rescue Sharon and Robert.
Understandably, no one liked his opinions.
"Adam!" Virgil cried out.
"He's right, Rubberband Man," Kaldur added, addressing the younger man by his codename in adherence to their lack of familiarity with each other. "You've only just regained your powers and healed from the attack. You're out of practice."
"To say nothing of the fact that the meeting is clearly a trap," Augustus pointed out. "I understand your frustration, Adam, but it is not worth the risk. We have no idea what you will be facing when you get there. You will be going in blind."
The others remained silent, but their distaste for Adam's decision was also clear.
"What other choices do we have, then?" Adam asked back, frustration evident. "If we don't comply with their demands, or if they find you snooping around the meeting place, they might kill Sharon and Robert. We can't afford to let that happen."
"Look, man, I want them back just as much as you do. Probably even more than that, to be honest," Virgil admitted. "But not at the cost of you. You're my friend and Sharon's boyfriend. You're family."
There was another beat of silence over the line. Adam was clearly touched by the admission. "…You guys are my family too, Virgil," Adam replied back, a small choke to his voice. "The only real family I have anymore. Which is why I have to do this. I can't afford to lose my family again."
Virgil adopted a helpless look at that, and he looked around to see if anyone had any alternatives. Everyone began exchanging looks, checking to see if anyone had any other ideas.
"It's like I said before. We don't have any more options. Either they get me, or we lose our last chance to get them back."
Once the meeting finished, everyone turned in for the night to preparing for the upcoming day. No one slept easy that night, least of all Virgil and Adam. Everything was riding on this meeting; if this didn't work, they risked losing everything.
In the late morning, Adam arrived to the address that had been given to him: an abandoned junkyard well outside the city limits. It was so far off, in fact, that even with his fastest car, it took at least two hours of commute. Clearly deliberate — if Adam wanted help, only the Flash would've been able to get there in any reasonable amount of time. He was all on his own here.
He managed to make it there just in time, and was now loitering around, awaiting for whoever had called him out to arrive, probably from behind one of the stacks of abandoned cars surrounding him. He was dressed in his Rubberband Man suit, the cowl-less one he had adopted before the antidote had forced retirement on him. There was no need to hide his identity; everyone knew who he was.
Finally, noon hit — and the ground opened up beneath him. Before Adam could react, he was dropping into an entirely new world below.
Landing was easy — his powers basically nullified all blunt-force trauma. He landed with nary a sound, just a brief moment of form-instability before he returned to his original form. He dusted himself and looked around. It was dark.
And then, his arms were bound.
It was quick. The mechanical arms darted forward, using the lack of light as as their camouflage and and clasped the cuffs around his wrists before he could react. Already, Adam could feel his powers being suppressed, his body losing its elasticity. The lights began to flicker on as another pair of binds snapped around his legs, essentially paralyzing him.
He closed his eyes for a moment at the sudden onset of bright light, before slowly opening them once the brief flash of pain ceased. As he did so, he noticed dozens, potentially over a hundred men, each armed with Apokoliptan technology, all aiming their weapons at him. So their assumption was correct. It had been Intergang all along.
Slowly, they parted like the Red Sea, revealing a tall, metallic platform. Standing on that platform was a tall, stocky man with a dark hair, moustache, and plain features that were only made more unattractive by the nasty look on his face. He radiated an unpleasant disposition. Adam narrowed his eyes. Bruno Mannheim.
"Glad you could make it, Adam Evans!" Bruno "Ugly" Mannheim boomed. "It's a good things you followed my instructions to the letter. Otherwise these two would've suffered some really awful stuff." He gestured to the empty area of the platform.
Adam watched in horror as the platform split in two, allowing another platform from below to rise up and reveal a bound Robert and Sharon. They too were stuck in metal bonds, their hair and clothes heavily mussed, with dirt and bruises covering their skin. They were weary as the came into awareness, but that changed when they saw Adam. Immediately, both hostages perked up and began struggling and screaming, their voices muffled by their metal gags.
"Sharon! Robert!" Adam shouted back, struggling to get out of his bonds. However, his movements suddenly and forcibly stilled, some unknown force seizing control of his body. It was a strange experience.
From behind Bruno appeared a young, pretty girl with dark hair and light green eyes with an air of nastiness around her. Her eyes glowed, her arm stretched out towards Adam, making it all too clear that she was the source of the sudden loss of control over his body. A psionic, he realized.
"You got that right!" the girl said as she floated into the air. It took another moment for Adam to recognize that she had read his mind. So, she had the full set: telekinesis and telepathy. "Name's Madelyn Spaulding, but you can call me Control."
"And I am Bruno Mannheim," Bruno introduced himself. "The leader of Intergang and disciple of the Great Darkseid — not that I expect a wannabe rapper C-lister like you to know that, Rubberband Man."
Adam clicked his teeth and scowled. "What's a Metropolis bigwig doing all the way here in Dakota? And why the hell did you attack the community center, turn me back into a Bang Baby and kidnap Sharon and Robert?"
The older man chuckled. "See, the super community, both sides of it, was recently upended by a bunch of time travelers coming in and making a right mess of things," Bruno revealed. "One of those time travelers — the one responsible for this mess, in fact — is some immortal caveman named Vandal Savage. My boss made a deal with him to help him out with this little plot in exchange for future access to something he's been after for a long time now."
The Anti-Life Equation, Adam thought. Out loud, he said, "And what does this have to do with me?"
Bruno jabbed his thumb towards Madelyn. "For whatever reason, Savage wants these 'Bang Babies' under his umbrella; but most of them lost their powers after the city government spread that 'antidote' of theirs. So, he gave us the formula for the Bang Baby gas that activated their metagenes so we could reproduce and supply the gas back to them in exchange for their services. Of course, your other hero pals put a damper on that, but it allowed us to at least collect this one," he put a hand on Madelyn's shoulder. "Savage really wanted this one."
Adam scowled. "Then why give me my powers back? I might've started out as a criminal, but I reformed. I was a solid superhero before I was cured. Bringing me back into the game would've only hindered your plans, not helped them."
"On the contrary, Adam," and here, Bruno stepped forward, letting go of Madelyn's shoulder. He clapped his hands once, smirking. "You're the most important piece of all."
There was a sound of gears grinding, as another platform began to rise next to Sharon and Robert. The two leaned away as far as they could, staring in horror as a strange chamber began to rise up. But it wasn't the device itself that scared them, but rather what was in it that did.
It was a being of some sort, massive and dark, with a jagged mouth. A shadow, wreathed in burning hot flames. It didn't speak, just roared and threw fire against the glass. Adam stared at it in disbelief, muttering one name: "Ebon."
"You wish to know what we stole from Alva Industries too, yes?" Bruno asked, grinning. "See, what we stole was a quantum splicing chamber. It uses Quantum Energy, not unlike that used by Captain Atom, to split things apart on the molecular level. This thing inside right here? It used to be two particular Bang Babies, whom Savage wanted to have at all cost." His grin widened. "I think you know one of them really well, right?"
Adam glared at him. "That's why you turned me back into a metahuman, isn't it? You needed my DNA to get him back!"
"Got it in one. You really are not as dumb as you look, are you?"
"This coming from a man who's nicknamed 'Ugly'?"
"Heh, and some bite too." Bruno glanced back at Ebon-Streak, eyes alight with madness. "Savage ordered us to recruit as many Bang Babies as we could, but also mandated that we recruit three in particular no matter what. One was Madelyn, the other was these two — but when we found them, they were wandering the wilds outside Dakota, feral and confused and bonded together on almost every level."
He shrugged. "I was almost tempted to leave them as is, but word came from the top to separate 'em. So I had my eggheads take a look, and they figured out a procedure using this Quantum Splicer right here. The only thing they were missing was a DNA sample. We couldn't find anything for these two, but they theorized that the DNA of a blood relative would work just as well, especially if they had an active metagene." The gang leader leered at Adam. "And you, boy, more than fit the bill."
The Bang Baby glowered at him, but said nothing.
"Now, are you ready to meet your big brother again?"
He didn't bother waiting for an answer. Instead, he reached inside his coat jacket and took out a vial of blood — Adam's blood. He approached the machine and inserted the vial inside the control panel, before typing in a few commands. The vial whirled in place, draining the blood, and then… light.
Blinding light. Adam tried to shield his eyes, but his bonds stopped him, and he watched as the feral monster inside the chamber slowly began to split into two human beings, separated particle by particle. It felt like it lasted forever but Adam knew, in his heart of hearts, it only could've lasted for a few minutes.
Eventually, the process ceased. The light dimmed. And in the chamber were two young men. One had fire-red hair with yellow highlights, and a small soulpatch on his chin, while the other was completely blanketed in a black silhouette that made him look like a living, breathing shadow. Only his clothes and piercings looked completely normal.
Bruno typed in another command, the glass of the chamber lifted, allowing both men drop to the floor, to be caught by a few grunts. They both made audible groans. "What the hell…" Hotstreak moaned, rubbing his head.
"Never doing that again…" Ebon commented, rolling his neck.
With a gesture, a few of Bruno's men helped the boys to their feet. They blinked repeatedly as they got used to the sensation of being two different people again; and then their eyes widened as they finally recognized their situation. Ebon noticed Adam immediately, and glared at him, before Hotstreak tapped his shoulder and pointed at Bruno. One look at the older man had Ebon wide-eyed. "You're…" He stuttered out.
"You've heard of me, I presume?"
"Dog, every criminal that wants to make it has heard of you," Ebon claimed. "You're the boss of the biggest crime syndicate in the country! You go toe-to-toe with Superman!"
Bruno scoffed. "And of course, it's the goddamned boy scout that gives me legitimacy," he muttered resentfully. He shook his head and regained his composure, before smirking. "Whatever. Anyway, I've got a proposition for you two, one that Control over here has already accepted."
"Control?" Ebon glanced at Madelyn, and scowled, not that anyone could see it. "Oh. You."
Madelyn flipped him off, causing Ebon to tense and fist his hands. Before it could escalate, Bruno stepped between the two. "Now, now. We're all friends here."
"Yeah, fight later!" Hotstreak said, inserting himself into the conversation. "I wanna hear what this guy has to say!"
After a moment, the two belligerents nodded and backed down. Bruno's smirk deepened. "Good. Now, as I was saying, you two have caught the attention of some big names, who all think you have potential. They're making you an offer to join them in their plans exchange for helping you take your game to the next level once they accomplish their goals. Are you up for it?"
The two newly-separated metahumans exchanged a look. "Ah, what the hell!" Hotstreak grinned. "I'm in."
"I am too," Ebon accepted, rolling his shoulders. "I ain't gonna be a nobody ever again."
"Good, good — except one thing."
Both men frowned.
"See, before you," Bruno pointed at Ebon, "can officially join, the boss needs you to do one last thing to prove your commitment."
"And that would be?"
Bruno hummed, before pointing — directly at Adam. "Kill him."
There was a moment of silence as the words sinked in. Everyone openly stared at Bruno, even Control and Hotstreak, in shock. Once the realization set in, Sharon renewed her struggling, shouting and screaming. Bruno sighed and snapped his fingers; Sharon's resistance immediately ceased as a small current of electricity shocked her into submission.
"Make one more sound, and the next one will kill you," her captor offhandedly threatened. Sharon had tears in her eyes, but remained mute.
"Why?"
Bruno glanced at Ebon, who was standing still. His eyes, whatever the older man could see of him, had conflict within them. "Why kill your brother?" He scoffed, not allowing Ebon to answer. "The answer is obvious: he's a hero." The word was said with a sneer, making it all too clear what Bruno's opinion was of the people who bore such titles.
"He's a hero who has his powers back, and if there's anything life in this business has taught me, it's that when 'villains' like us have heroic relatives, we tend to waver when it really matters." Bruno glanced at Ebon, a serious expression on his face. "You're one of our newest and most important recruits, but we can't afford you to have such a disadvantage. If you want in, you need to get rid of the last of your baggage. And you can only do that…" And here, he jabbed his thumb at Adam, "by killing him."
Ebon said nothing.
"What's it going to be, Ebon?"
The room had fallen dead silent as everyone waited for Ebon's answer. Every eye in the room was staring at him, but it was impossible to interpret his expression due to the shadow cast over his features. But Adam could read him, could read how his features were hardening. Ebon had made his choice.
The shadow-man approached his brother with deliberate slowness, his right arm slowly morphing into a sharp sword-like appendage. Adam breathed in, and then out. "Ivan…" he said, using his brother's real name.
"Sorry, little bro. But you and I both know you'll never stay out of my way. You don't care about the blood between us, you won't honor it." Ebon's eyes narrowed. "So I see no reason to do the same."
He approached Adam — and then he stabbed him. There was a sharp look of pain on Adam's face, as he slowly looked down at the black pike skewering his torso and the blood soaking his suit, before he slumped over. Dead.
Despite Ugly's warning, Sharon couldn't help the complete cry of despair that escaped her as she watched the man she loved die in front of her eyes. She sobbed and sobbed, and her father could only watch her in turn, his own eyes shining with tears. Bruno smiled, and decided to allow it — her pain was entertainment enough.
Ebon released the spike from Adam's chest and turned around to walk back to Ugly, when a voiced stopped him.
A woman's voice.
"So disappointing, Ebon."
The man in question whirled around, and like everyone else in the room, stared in shock as 'Adam's' corpse slowly got back to his feet, dusting himself off, before smirking directly at him. The blood had ceased to spill from the hole in his chest, which slowly began to mend itself. The moment it closed, further shock was to be had as his body slowly began to change color and shape.
"How will you explain this to your brother," 'he' asked as he slowly began to morph into a tall, bald alien woman with chalk white skin and red eyes, "when he gets here?"
Bruno stepped forward, shaking. "You're…"
Miss Martian shook her head, making mocking disappointed noises. "Sloppy, Bruno, sloppy. You knew we working with them, knew exactly what I could do, and yet you didn't bother to check if I was him?" Her scarlet eyes glowed ominously. "Such incompetency. If Darkseid were here, he'd be greatly disappointed you fell for such an obvious trick."
Suddenly, the stupor broke, and now every gun in the room was leveled directly at M'gann. She didn't look an inch worried.
Probably because of how the roof caved in a second later.
"I'm sorry, Adam," Virgil told his friend as they all watched Back-Pack's holographic feed of the scene going down in Intergang's secret underground bunker. It came from a tiny surveillance drone that Gear had snuck onto M'gann right before she was dropped into the bunker, and had been recording everything that had gone on inside for the report they would have to make to the JLA once the mission was over.
Adam looked grim and steely-eyed, but not broken. "Don't be," he said with determination, "it's like I said before: you're my family." He stared at all the other Dakota heroes. "All of you."
Despite the situation, his friends couldn't help but smile at that.
Kaldur only kept one ear on the moment going on next to him, his eyes completely focused on the feed. Wallace was doing the same. Finally, as the ruse was revealed and M'gann morphed back into her usual form, he straightened his back. "It's time. Icon, would you like to do the honors?"
Icon smiled. "Aquaman, it would be my honor."
With those words, he burst into the sky, getting some distance for his dynamic entry. The other heroes immediately backed away as far as possible so they wouldn't get hit with the backlash, each waiting eagerly and with anticipation. Even with the high stakes of the situation, they couldn't help but enjoy it. Awesome entrances were one of the best parts of the job, after all.
Once he had covered enough distance, Icon made a U-turn and aimed directly for the ground in a classic flight pose, plunging down with all his might. The sheer force of his attack punched through the false ground over Intergang's bunker, before breaking through every metal scaffolding beneath. When the dust settled, the other heroes followed, Rocket and Gear via flight while Static used his powers to lift a large, flat piece of metal to carry him along with Aquaman, Flash, and Rubberband Man.
The six of them followed Icon, descending from above like angels from the heavens as the man himself made a three-point landing behind M'gann, creating a shockwave that sent several of Bruno's lackeys flying from the sheer force. Bruno was hardly able to react, too stunned like everyone else at the sudden reversal of fortunes.
Static landed the platform on the floor at the same time as Rocket and Gear. Kaldur quickly stepped off it and drew a water-bearer, which formed a sword near-instantly, and pointed it at Mannheim. "Bruno 'Ugly' Mannheim," he said with a line of steel and satisfaction in his tone. "Superman would very much like to have a word with you. He would love to know why Intergang has been quiet for these past few months, operating far and away from Metropolis."
That broke through Bruno's daze, and he snarled in hatred. "You tell that self-righteous alien freak," M'gann scoffed while Icon clicked his teeth, "that I ain't telling him shit!"
"So I guess you're not up for a peaceful resolution?" Kaldur assumed.
"You're damn right!" Bruno glanced at his men, along with his new Bang Baby recruits, "What are y'all standing around for? Get 'em!"
His words were the final push. The room tensed, and then the battlefield erupted into chaos.
"Flash! Grab the hostages and get them out of here! Gear, go with him and fly them out!" Kaldur ordered, taking charge. "Miss Martian, you got Control! Static, Rubberband Man, Ebon! I'll handle Hotstreak, while Icon and Rocket take on the grunts! Try to capture Mannheim if you can!"
With the commands issued, the group broke apart. Those with a set opponent zeroed in on them immediately, while Icon and Rocket stayed behind to deal with the small-fry and their far too powerful technology. One of them had managed to bring out a particular potent (and large) ray gun, which was beginning to light up the place with numerous energy blasts. Rocket blocked one such blast with her forcefield, before encasing the gun with it and making a grasping motion. The forcefield shrunk rapidly, crushing the machine inside, which she then tossed at another grunt.
Meanwhile, several of the grunts were firing everything they had at Icon, trying to catch the Terminian. He tried to dodge, but the lack of space was hampering him. Luckily, they weren't too strong. Every attack was more like a graze than anything else, easily brushed off thanks to his healing factor. He worked to pick them off one-by-one, tossing the blaster of one particularly zealous grunt at another ray that the army had managed to bring out. It caused an explosion which rained debris everywhere. In response, more grunts filed in from other parts of the bunker to press the attack.
"You!" Control shrieked as her eyes glowed, flying up to meet M'gann for battle. She lifted her hands, various machines flying upwards and floating around her. "How did you fool me! How!?"
M'gann gave her a flat look. Baby psionic, she scoffed, before making a back-handing motion. Her telekinetic blow sent Madelyn flying, smacking the wall and causing her to lose her focus. The machines dropped with a metallic clang!
As Madelyn regained her bearings, she found her entire body seized, much like how she had seized 'Adam's' body a scant few minutes ago. As she was unwillingly lifted into the air, fear gripped her heart.
You're a hundred years too early to challenge the likes of me, child.
That was the last thing she heard, before the pain and nothingness.
M'gann dropped her opponent gently to the floor, careful to keep her in a relaxing position, away from all the fighting. She had not killed the girl nor broken her mind, but she had ended the fight decisively. Madelyn Spaulding wouldn't be awakening from this particular sleep for a few hours, and by that point she would hopefully be in a holding cell that could suppress her powers.
She lifted a nearby beam with the intention of bending it around Madelyn to further restrain her, only to feel a familiar haze of heat. Fire. M'gann dodged the attack, flying up in the air to avoid it, and looked down to see her attacker. Hotstreak.
"Sorry, lady, but the boss says we need her!" He shouted, before throwing several more fireballs. M'gann dodged them all with ease, but didn't dare to get close, frowning heavily. Fire was such an inconvenient weakness to have.
The moment the fighting started, Ebon headed directly for Static, who met him head on. He weaved through the electrical attacks, trying to reach Static so he could smother the little shit. That brat had been a thorn in his side for far too long, and it was about time he got rid of him for good.
But before he could even reach Static, Ebon found himself blindsided by a giant mallet, formed from his younger's brother arm. He was sent flying and rolling, before sinking back into the shadows and appearing in the shadow of one of the machines nearby Adam. For a moment, the two brothers just stared at each other.
"Adam—"
"Don't," Adam cut him off, forming both his hands into mallets. "You've made your choice, and I've made mine."
Ebon glared at him, before darting forward, his body stretching like a shadow. A blast of electricity stopped him, and he was thrown back with a sound of pain. Static descended from above on his discus, standing side-by-side with Rubberband Man.
"You know, I almost feel sorry for ganging up on him like this," the teen quipped.
Adam smirked. "Almost?"
Static smirked back, and then shot Ebon with another blast of electricity. "Almost."
"How's it going, Gear?" Flash asked as he kicked away another grunt, dismantling his gun and slamming the butt of it on his head, knocking him out. He then whirled around at supersonic speed, grabbing a knife from the holster of said grunt and tossing it at the direction of another grunt that had just been about to blast his companion. It sliced through the grunt's wrist, causing him to screech in pain as he dropped his weapon in favor of trying to stem the blood flow. Wallace quickly took advantage and knocked him out, offhandedly tearing off a strip of the grunt's shirt so he could make an impromptu bandage around the wound. He was unlikely to bleed out, but better safe than sorry.
Gear grunted as Back-Pack and he continued worked on the metallic restraints around Robert and Sharon. They had briefly considered having Wallace break the restraints, before quickly deciding that it would be inadvisable, as they didn't want to risk harming Robert or Sharon. That left doing it the old-fashioned way. "Almost there! We've got this one last firewall to reroute and then we're good to—got it!"
The restraints released their captains and began to recede into the ground. The gags around their mouths snapped open, dropping to the floor now that they no longer had something to hold onto. Both Hawkins inhaled deep breaths and began rubbing wherever they had bare skin showing. The bonds that had kept them hostage had not been comfortable.
Sharon glanced around at the battlefield, almost letting out tears of relief when she saw Adam alive and well. Robert sighed, and smiled at Gear. "Thanks, Ric—"
Wallace clapped a hand over his mouth. "Names, Mr. Hawkins." He then took it off and glanced over the battlefield, and frowned. "This isn't good. I can't take them out of here without a clear path to the outside."
"Aren't you fast enough to dodge them all?" Gear asked.
"I am, but speed isn't everything. All it takes is one lucky shot and these two," Wallace jabbed his thumb towards Robert and Sharon, "will be sitting ducks out there."
Gear couldn't disagree with that. He looked around to see if there was anything he could do to help, and spotted something — or rather, someone — that caused him to lit up. "Would having a hostage of our own, help?"
Wallace turned around to stare at him, following his line-of-sight to see who he was looking at.
Bruno Mannheim.
The speedster's accompanying grin was sharp and foreboding.
"That's enough of that."
Hotstreak scowled as Kaldur came into view, both water-bearers in hand. Behind the superhero was a trail of moaning grunts, each hurt and wounded. "You think you can quench my fire?" the younger man boasted.
Kaldur gave him a flat look. "The fact you used an expression like that tells me that yes, yes I can," he deadpanned.
It took a moment for Hotstreak to realize he was being insulted, but the moment he did he grew enraged and began to 'flare up', throwing a medium-sized fireball at his new opponent's face. Kaldur banked right and water-whipped the attack, creating a cloud of steam that blanketed the area around both combatants. Hotstreak, panicking over the lack of visibility, started throwing fireballs everywhere to compensate.
The third Aquaman blocked the attacks with a water shield formed by one of his water-bearers, before spotting a nearby water pipe, probably used for one of the experiments that Intergang had been conducting during their time in Dakota City. With a flick of his wrist, he transformed his other water-bearer into a sword and slashed the pipe, creating an impromptu spout. Not enough to flood the bunker, but enough to douse Hotstreak.
Using hydrokinesis, he directed the spout toward the direction of the center of the steam, increasing the pressure of the stream. Sure enough, it hit Hotstreak, who let out a yelp as he was completely drenched in water. Before he could use his powers to dry himself up, Kaldur dashed up to him with incredibly speed, placing a hand on his shoulder and giving him a powerful shock to knock him out. He dropped like a sack of potatoes.
Nice. The Xebelian blinked, glancing up to see his Martian friend floating towards him with a bound and unconscious Control in tow. Over at another area of the bunker, Static was delivering one last shock to a Rubberband Man-restrained Ebon, while Gear was tugging along a bound Bruno Mannheim over to where his former hostages were being guarded by Wallace. Rocket and Icon, meanwhile, were finishing off the grunts.
"I guess we don't need a hostage after all," Wallace commented as the last grunt went down. He then sped through the room and started gathering all their enemies up into a pile for easy transport. Once all the grunts were collected, everyone else started bringing in the elites.
"It's over, Mannheim," Kaldur said to the bound man once that was done.
But Ugly didn't look defeated. Oh, no, instead he was grinning.
"Hey, Atlantean," he said, "Do you know why I killed Whisper?"
Kaldur frowned, fingering his still unsheathed water-bearer.
"It wasn't because of this little shindig," Bruno continued. "But rather because I didn't want you to know I had this."
Then, he shouted: "ACTIVATE, ETERNITY!"
Everyone blinked at the non-sequitur, but whatever questions they had at the tip of their tongues were lost as the bunker began to rumble. Over at the platform where Bruno had made his grand show before the battle started, the shaking grew as the platfom, the entire platform began to shrink and part. A large opening was made, where another platform began to rise.
Standing on that platform was an impossibly-tall man that dwarfed every person present, even Icon. He wore blue armor that covered his torso and almost all of his face, with glowing red lines running along him. Even his visor glowed red, a forbidding sight. He glared down at the heroes silently, the power radiating off from him enough to rival, if not surpass Icon himself.
"That's…" M'gann gasped, her chalk white skin growing even more pale.
"…the Infinity-Man," Wallace finished for her, equally stunned.
Kaldur didn't say anything, simply gripping his water-bearers tighter as he met the Infinity-Man's glare.
Of course it couldn't be that easy.
Woo! What a rush that was? We've got about one more chapter or so before this arc is finished, everyone!
Next chapter: the Infinity-Man.
