30,000 feet above Italy
"You don't expect to carry that whole thing into battle, do you?" Slade asked, acknowledging the large trunk the Flash had dragged onto the jet with him.
"Of course not," Barry replied. "When we meet the bad guy, I'll assess the situation, then come back for what I need." As he had explained when he first brought it onboard, the trunk contained various weapons and tools that Barry had "confiscated" from Central City's colorful array of criminals over the last three years. "I've got some pretty neat stuff in here," he said, opening the trunk to show off some of his prizes.
"What's that?" Rio asked, looking at the small, shiny item taped to the inside of the lid.
"That's just a microchip. I'm not actually sure what it does."
"If you give it to me, I can probably read it and tell you," said Victor.
"Sure, whatever," Barry agreed, tossing Victor the chip. "Now these," he said, taking out and twirling a pair of advanced looking pistols, "are what I'm really hoping to get to use." He turned the safety off on one of them and fired it at the floor of the jet, creating a small patch of ice.
"Weapons like that should really be stored in a safer place," noted Slade.
"Ah, you're just jealous," Barry scoffed. "Want to try one out?"
"I'll stick with what I know, thank you very much," Slade answered, reaching back and patting the sword and AR-15 that were strapped to his back. If those weren't intimidating enough, Slade's custom orange and black combat armor was also adorned with several smaller weapons, including knives, pistols, and grenades. "What about you, Mister Superior Man? Where are your weapons? Weren't you supposedly raised by warriors?"
"I was trained to use several different kinds of weapons, yes," answered Kal, "but when you have abilities like mine, carrying a sword and shield around seems a bit redundant, I think."
Slade smirked. "He's humble too."
"I wouldn't mind having a shield," said Rio. "I know that I'm strong, but I don't know if I'm bulletproof."
"New to the scene, huh?" asked Barry.
"Captain Lightning has only been an active crimefighter for about a year," said Victor, who had plugged Barry's microchip into his arm in an attempt to read it. "If you ask me, she's not ready for this type of thing."
"Well then it's a good thing you're not the only one in charge here, isn't it?" Slade taunted. "From what I heard about the Project: Platinum attack, our bad guy incapacitated the whole building in under two minutes. I think we'll need all the help we can get to take him down."
"I'm going to have to agree with Mister Wilson," said Kal. "Besides, if it gets to be too much for you, we can protect you," he said to Rio, his smile causing her to blush.
"That's Major Wilson, by the way" Slade corrected Kal.
"Not for long, it's not," said Victor. "You've been on thin ice with the government for years. If this mission is a bust, you can count on finally being officially stripped of your rank. I'm surprised they've kept you around this long."
"What's your story anyway, Wilson?" asked Barry "I bet it's interesting."
"I really think it's best that you not know," Slade said, twirling a knife in his hand and giving Victor a dirty look.
"Look alive," Mercy called to them from the pilot's seat. "You jump in sixty seconds."
The five members of the Justice Alliance stood, preparing themselves for their first and possibly last mission as a team. Victor, Slade, and Barry each took a parachute, while Rio and Kal stood by. As they counted down the seconds, Mercy opened the loading ramp. On her signal, Slade shouted, "Okay, GO!"
One by one, they all jumped, and one by one, they all eventually landed.
"That was such a rush!" cried Rio. "I've never flown that high before!"
"Well, you were right, Vic. This place is certainly isolated," Barry noted, looking back and forth between the surprisingly large farmhouse in front of them and the almost out-of-sight jet.
"The homing signal is really strong," said Victor. "Platinum is definitely inside."
"Magnus and the target too. I can hear them," said Kal, "but I can't see them. Something is interfering with my x-ray vision."
"You have x-ray vision? No fair," said Rio.
Slade took the AR-15 from his back. "It's very likely that this is a trap."
"Want me to go in and see what we're up against?" offered Barry.
"No, Flash. We need to go in together, just in case we do still have the element of surprise," said Victor, converting his right arm into a small cannon.
"We don't," said Slade.
"We might," Victor asserted. "Now let's move."
Victor entered the house first, paying close attention to the strength of the tracking signal. Slade insisted on bringing up the rear.
"Guys," whispered Rio, "I don't know if I can do this. I'm not used to this kind of thing."
"You've been doing the hero thing for a year, right?" Barry responded.
"California has criminals like any other place," Rio defended herself, "but my neighborhood does not have mysterious kidnappers that hide in abandoned houses and attack you with robots."
"If we play this right, there won't be any robot attack," Slade whispered angrily. "Now-"
"Oh, but there will be an attack," came a deep, distorted voice that seemed to echo through the house, "and you will be defeated, like every other foe I have faced."
"Show yourself!" shouted Victor.
"There," said Kal, looking in the direction of a staircase.
"On it," said Barry, zipping up the stairs before Victor or Slade could stop him. Seconds later, he was back. "There's nobody up there."
"Must be down here, then," said Slade, pointing his rifle at a door under the staircase.
"Flash, don't" said Victor sharply, before Barry put himself in danger again. "We go down together."
"Or we stay up here and fight that thing," said Rio, pointing to the kitchen. Standing in the doorway was Project: Platinum, looking decidedly more threatening than her picture in yesterday's debriefing.
"Directive, protect Magnus," the robot said in an artificial but distinctly feminine sounding voice.
"That's our cue," said Slade, firing at Platinum, who quickly morphed her arm into a full body shield, deflecting the bullets.
"She can shapeshift!?" cried Rio, dodging Platinum, who had lunged at her.
"Platinum is an incredibly malleable material," said Barry, who rushed in alongside Victor and started throwing punches. "I also happen to know that it has a melting point of about three thousand degrees."
"How do you know that?" asked Rio, dodging an attack that took out part of a wall.
"Not the point. My point is I bet Superior Man could top that. You've got heat vision, right?" Barry looked at Kal, who unlike everyone else, was just standing there.
"I… I don't feel…" he stammered.
"Whatever was affecting his x-ray vision seems to have gotten worse," said Slade.
"I got this," said Barry, running outside and heading in the direction the jet had gone in.
"Team, watch for weak points," called out Victor. "Whenever she extends or grows part of her platinum cover, it gets thinner. See if we can attack her endoskeleton."
Sure enough, when Platinum extended her arm to grab Victor, Slade watched as the "skin" on her torso got visibly thinner. "Watch out, Lightning," he said to Rio as he pulled his sword out and swung it at Platinum's back.
Finally, Platinum fell, but she didn't stay down long. She darted around to look at Slade, who got an almost frightened look on his face.
"I'm back!" said Barry, who had returned carrying a weapon that looked stylistically similar to his freeze pistols, but was almost the size of Slade's assault rifle. "Watch out, folks."
Barry pointed the weapon at Platinum, blasting fire directly into her face.
"Flash, don't stop!" Victor commanded, running to hold Platinum in place. Once enough of her face had melted away, revealing her much less appealing makeshift skull, Victor yelled, "Lightning!"
"Right," Rio said, aiming a fist at the robot's exposed circuits and giving her a taste of the Living Lightning.
Barry turned off the barrage of fire, and all were silent, waiting to see what would happen.
"Direct…iv… protec… Mag…"
"Enemy down," Slade said proudly, kicking the android to the ground. "This old house is in even worse shape than when we arrived, but now we can get back to locating our main target."
"Um, I think there's someone else we should locate," said Rio, looking to where Kal had been standing. "Superior Man is gone."
