Content Warning: Minor Character Death, Gore
Ray Palmer
deBroglie Institute for Dynamic Engineering, Scarsdale, New York
Friday, September 21st, 2012
"Working late again? Thought you had a hot date tonight."
"Turns out, Jean's a little crazy even for me, Carol," Ray laughed. He glanced up from the prototype sonic mesh to check his computer screen. Even without seeing the Ferris Industries logo on the wall, Carol's messy workspace would have told him that he wasn't the only one pulling a late night at the lab.
"And here I thought crazy was your type, All-Night-and-Day Ray."
"Really? You just had to bring that up? College was a looooong time ago."
His friend laughed and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.
"What about you? Thought you and Hal were hitting the town," Ray asked.
Carol rolled her eyes, "Hal said something about a giant space cockroach and then blasted off into the galaxy unknown. Between the two of us, I'd so much rather be in the machine shop."
Ray held up his soldering iron in solidarity.
"Here's to late nights."
"Here's to sending the interns and techs home so they don't call the union about overtime," she grinned back.
"How's that ultralight paneling coming?" Ray asked, positioning the magnifying glass to get a better angle to solder a particularly tricky joint.
"We gave up on the carbon-aluminum weave. It gave me the mass I wanted, but there was just too much drag. I can't waste twenty percent of my pilots' fuel just to maintain speed."
"Just when you think you solved one problem, there's always a dozen more," Ray agreed.
"One sec, this is going to be loud," Carol said, and Ray turned the volume down out of habit. He could still hear the earsplitting screech of heavy machinery crushing a piece of metal. After a few seconds, Carol waved at him and he turned the volume back up.
"All done," she sat back at her desk, hefting a newly compressed chunk of metal, "That's the part I hate about my job. We've been working on this weave for three years and now we just have to scrap it and start over. Ugh! We'll look for other places to use it, but I really thought it was going to work."
"At least you're the one who gets to call it. When I worked in industry, I spent eighteen months working on a tachyon particle emitter. My boss calls me up one day, says the board is moving in a new direction and the project is cancelled. Gone, just like that," Ray snapped his fingers.
"That's the problem with R&D. You gotta have the funding for it and getting funding is just.." Carol winced. Ray nodded sympathetically.
"Grant season coming up?"
"When is it not? My top team is working on a batch of proposals, but there's a few I'm overseeing myself. I possibly shouldn't tell you this, but we have a project in the works for a new fuel-injection system for the VF-616 engine. Complete redesign that, fingers crossed, could give us a ridiculous increase in terms of fuel efficiency."
"That's great! I remember when you were talking about the problems with the current version. I take it you're the one writing the grant?"
"I haven't finished the proposal yet. We've still got a few weeks, but I'm pretty confident we'll get the funding. I spoke to Senator Donovan at a conference in Tulsa last month and he was actually so enthusiastic about the project. He's been pushing more funding towards research grants since his appointment to the Appropriations Committee."
"Nice to see the government spending on something besides defense."
"Says the guy working on a top-secret project for the government as we speak."
Ray laughed, "I don't have the clearance to be working on anything like that anymore. We just got lucky when the NSF reached out."
"Sure," Carol winked, "And none of my test pilots are reporting to some higher-up that would have to kill me if I ever heard their name."
"Seriously?"
"Of course not. This isn't the Cold Wa-"
The video cut out for a second, but returned a second later.
"Sorry, I lost you for a second there. The wifi's been spotty all day," Ray apologized.
"Don't worry. It wasn't anything important," Carol grinned. Her stomach let out a growl loud enough for Ray to hear, "God, I would kill for some takeout right now."
"Is anything even open this late?"
"Closest thing would take an hour to get here. Ugh, I would pay all the money in the world for some sweet-and-sour chicken right this second."
Ray's stomach let out a rumble in response.
"You're going to make me hungry," he joked.
"Kung pao chicken."
"Carol!"
"Fried rice with vegetables."
"You're the worst."
"Egg rolls with dipping sauce."
"Beef lo mein," Ray gave in.
"Mu shu pork."
"That's not Kosher," Ray shook his head.
"Wonton soup?"
"Now you're talking."
"Are you working tomorrow night? You should pop over, I'll take you to this awesome hole-in-the-wall in Oakland."
"Do you know how much a plane ticket from Scarsdale to Oakland is?"
"So, save yourself the ticket. Or if you'd prefer, I can have Hal fly you."
"I'll see how much I can get done tonight. Not all of us can be the CEO of an aircraft company who's dating a test pilot."
"You're really committed to that cover, aren't you? Hal doesn't care anywhere near as much who knows."
"Well, as much as I respect Hal, I'm not dating my boss. There's no guarantee of job security if I get a little too talkative about my side job."
Carol snorted.
"Like they'd ever fire you. You could do this project by yourself in your basement if-"
The image stalled, but this time the screen turned gray and informed him the connectivity had been lost.
"Stupid wifi router," Ray mumbled.
Setting down his solder and flux, he pulled out his phone.
"Sorry I lost you. I'll text tomorrow about dinner if it'll work."
He hit send, but the message timed out. He tried switching to cellular data, but his phone still didn't have any signal. Ray groaned, but set it aside. He'd call tech support tomorrow if the wifi still wasn't working but there was no point dealing with it tonight. He picked up the soldering iron again and kept working on the mid-section of the paneling. Attaching the mesh to the base was the easiest part of the project, but also the most time-consuming. It didn't require a lot of attention to detail and after about fifteen minutes of working in silence, Ray gave up.
The thought of beef lo mein with egg rolls was driving him crazy and listening to the air conditioning unit wasn't particularly interesting. Time to call it a night.
Ray set down his tools and pulled the storage case from under the work table. He carefully shoved the prototype into its box, making sure that there wasn't too much pressure on any of the newly-soldered joints. The sections of the base that hadn't been attached yet went into a separate compartment, and then everything was sealed. Following NSF protocol, he slid a combination lock through the latch and turned the dial to reset it.
It usually took a lot of maneuvering to get the case loaded onto the cart so it could be brought into the basement for storage but Ray was in the habit of cheating. It was a job for a bigger guy, which was lucky because the Atom could be a bigger guy.
"Dr. Palmer," a man said from directly behind him.
Ray jumped, whipping around while thanking G-d that he hadn't just blown his secret identity in front of the intruder. His heart pounded wildly at the sight of a man wearing black-and-orange armor… and the very large gun in his hands. There was a similarly dressed man standing behind him, but he was unarmed and so much smaller that Ray's instincts dismissed him to focus on the much bigger threat.
"Who the hell are you?!" Ray shouted.
"I'm very sorry we have to meet under these circumstances, but you need to do as I say," the armed intruder said, "Your life is in danger."
"I can see that!" Ray snapped, hands tightening into fists. He took a second to notice that the man's gun was carefully aimed at the ground, fingers far from the trigger. That didn't make him a whole lot better, but it did give him a little more time to size up the situation, "What do you want?"
"Dr. Palmer, I was hired by an interested party in the United States' Army to ensure that both the anti-surveillance device and the technicians working on it stayed safe. I'm sorry to have alarmed you, but you will be in far greater danger if you don't evacuate right now."
Two possibilities from that. Either the man was lying and this was a very strange kidnapping slash theft, or the man was telling the truth and the situation was about to get a whole lot messier. Either way…
"Bullshit. I'm not going anywhere with you."
"Then you will make it very easy for the squad of NIDP agents that just infiltrated the building to steal government property and abduct you in the process."
"What? NIDP like… like Pokolistan?" Ray frowned, mostly because it was scarily probable. He was still convinced this was a trap, but the NIDP was one of the obscure foreign intelligence agencies that had led his military contracts to insist on complete secrecy from everyone involved in the project. It didn't necessarily mean anything other than the fact that the intruder had done his homework, but if it was true, then this was a job for the Atom.
"Correct. Dr. Palmer, we need to get moving before they find you."
"There's other people in the building. Cleaning staff are on the third floor by now, and the night shift is in the main office."
"We'll evacuate anyone we come across, but this device is their priority. We need to go, now."
Ray shook his head. He'd been in the business long enough to figure out that the man in front of him was extremely dangerous and there was no way he was going to follow him blindly and undefended into a hostile situation. Before he could insist that they evacuate the rest of the building so he could slip away and transform, all hell broke loose.
"Get down!" the larger man shouted, grabbing Ray by the shoulders and ramming him into the ground behind the workbench. The sound of shattering glass exploded around them, accompanied by a spray of gunfire. Ray couldn't see around the bench but he heard the shouts and heavy footsteps as a full team of hostiles burst into the lab. By the pattern of gunfire, Ray counted at least three snipers outside the windows. His self-appointed "protector" had him pinned between the wall and the bench with his body shielding Ray from any of the new intruders, and Ray sourly conceded the fact that it was very good defensive positioning.
There was no sign of the smaller man, but before Ray could wonder what happened, there was a hiss as the room filled with dense smoke. A string of curses, shouts, electrified buzzing, and wet thumps emerged from the darkness for a few seconds, along with more gunfire.
"Don't move," the man standing over him ordered, before unfolding himself out of a crouch to look around the side of the bench. Ray saw his chance to slip out of the room and transform but he'd barely taken three steps before there was a deafening crash from the far side of the room. He stumbled mid-step before he was dragged backwards. He spun with the motion, bringing up his fist to punch his attacker, but it was just the Black-and-Orange man pulling him back behind the bench.
"What the hell are you doing?!" he hissed, shoving him down so he was fully out of the line of fire, "Stay put!"
There was more gunfire and the man swore, disappearing again. Ray touched his stomach, fingers closing over the size manipulation belt at his waist. He could shrink down right now and get himself clear, but there was no way to do it without blowing his cover. The man was paying too much attention, he'd put two and two together if Ray just vanished. Especially if the Atom appeared on-scene immediately afterwards.
Long before he'd accepted this contract, Ray had resolved to make sure the government never got their hands on his shrinking tech. If the man had really been hired to protect him, he'd report to one of Ray's military contacts and it wouldn't be long before they'd be insisting on a "collaboration." Even though it made his skin crawl to stay crouched behind the bench while other people fought the threat, it wasn't worth the risk.
There was a final loud thump, then silence punctuated by heavy breathing. Ray stood up slowly, moving to where the man was standing over an unconscious agent dressed from head to toe in black. Using his foot, he pushed the agents head to the side to get a better look at his face.
It matched most of the profiles he'd seen of Pokolistani features, and he admitted that it was looking more likely that the intruder had been telling the truth.
Ray looked up to see the shorter man frowning at him. He stood in the middle of a pile of bodies, and Ray counted nine men, all at least twice his size, lying unconscious while he was barely winded. Ray couldn't hide his surprise, realizing that he'd miscalculated badly. The man would have been a short eighteen-year-old, if he was even that old, but he was just as dangerous as his partner. Ray moved him up several places in his danger estimation while the taller man said, "They're alive. There's three more outside the window, and at least another two teams attempting to secure the building. Expect four more teams at the most, not counting surveillance around the building. Secure them all. We want them alive and in one piece."
The man didn't even turn to look before ordering, "Palmer! Don't move."
Rather than argue, Ray turned to grab the handles of the storage case. The mesh was still sitting innocuously on the bench, untouched by the disaster of a lab around them. Ray flinched at the thought of replacing the equipment but that was quite literally the last of his worries. He was done playing around, and if he couldn't punch someone soon then he was going to lose whatever calm he'd managed to hang on to.
Four teams of five to eight was too many for two people to handle alone, no matter how dangerous either of them were. There were too many lives at risk if one of those heavily armed teams decided to take the civilians in the building hostage. They needed backup, whether from the Atom or from the Justice League, and they needed it fast.
"We need to draw the rest of them out. Make them think they still have a shot at the device that justifies sending the full team in."
"Or we can call for help," Ray countered, "As a government building, there's a direct line to the Justice League in the main office. While you're drawing them out, I'll go."
"Absolutely not. You're not leaving my sight, Dr. Palmer. If anything happens to you, I lose out on a very large paycheck and I will not be pleased if that happens. Besides, the entire building is in a dead-zone. No electronic signals can get in or out," the man glanced at the door before looking back at Ray, "How many people are on this floor right now?"
"Nobody. Berger and Tisch are the only other labs on the floor and they're all out by seven. Other than that, the cleaning crews start on the top floor and work down. They won't get to this floor until eleven-thirty at the earliest. Anyone else is in the main office on the ground floor."
The man nodded, but before he could answer, Ray demanded, "The other people in the building, are they still alive?"
"The hostiles came in through the loading dock in the back and came straight up. As long as we give them a target, everyone else is low priority."
Ray breathed out in relief as his chest unclenched.
"We'll go down the-"
The thought hit him like a freight train.
"Aakshi! She's a post-doc in Ron's group! She's been staying late across the hall."
"Renegade," the man said, and his partner sprinted for the door before he finished saying the word. Ray tried to follow, but the man caught him by the shoulder with an iron grip.
"Let me go!"
"No. If she's there, Renegade will get her out safely. You are their primary target and I will not allow you to commit suicide in the name of heroics."
He spat the last word and Ray shivered, stepping back so the man would let go.
"Who are you?" Ray finally asked.
"The name's Wilson," he answered gruffly.
"Really?" Ray blinked, looking at the man's bright orange and black mask and the uniform that was almost a costume. He'd been expecting another codename, not a real name. If that even was his name at all.
"This isn't my usual gig. I'm here because I owed Agent Waters a favor."
"Waters sent you?"
"Your prototype is one piece of a pet project of his, one that could tear his career apart if it gets compromised. There's a reason he sent me."
Ray chose not to read too deeply into any of that, instead making a note the he needed to have an unpleasant conversation with Waters the next time he saw him. He turned around, returning to the storage case. He unlocked it and flipped open the latches, matching a big show of checking the device for damages.
With his other hand, he reached for the emergency Justice League communicator attached to the belt hidden under his shirt. He pushed the emergency beacon, but nothing happened. The red light didn't go off and there was no indication that the signal had gone out at all.
Shit. The building was under a signal lockdown. It wouldn't have mattered if Ray had a real League comm, but this was the low-tech version they gave to reserve members and affiliates. The League wouldn't get the distress signal as long as it was within the dead zone.
Although… the comm had a GPS unit. If the NIDP got their hands on his prototype, it would be easier for the League to find it if they already knew where it was.
Using his left hand, Ray broke one of the support wires off the top layer of the mesh and wrapped it around the comm so that it was holding the emergency button down. He tucked it inside the body of the device and pressed the metal back together behind it before straightening.
"Any damage?" Wilson asked.
"Not too bad. I'll need to repair the breaks along the seams, but it's mostly cosmetic."
Wilson nodded as the door opened again and Aakshi ran inside, followed by his partner.
"Thank god," Ray said, grabbing Aakshi in a hug, "Are you okay?"
"Ray, what the hell is going on here?!"
"Active hostiles in the building. It's going to be okay, I promise," he answered.
"No! What's going on?!" Aakshi snapped in the voice that reminded him exactly why she was the one who Ron sent to bully the lab safety manager whenever he started poking his head around, "Who are they?"
She pointed at the mercenaries, who were discussing the logistics of splitting up verses staying with the device. Ray opened his mouth to answer but decided that any answer he gave would just infuriate her. Wilson answered for him.
"We're independent contractors hired by the US government. There are foreign agents attempting to steal Dr. Palmer's prototype and abduct any project members that may be useful. My job is to make sure that doesn't happen."
Aakshi whipped around to glare at Ray, "What the hell are you working on? Your project is short-range soundwave depletion."
"Yes… for, ahem, counter-intelligence," Ray coughed. He knew Aakshi had no particular love for the US military, or really any military in general.
"So, we're trapped in the building with these two versus however many people trying to kill the rest of us because the government has you playing Q?!"
"Dr. Girish," Wilson interrupted, "I am very good at my job. You are going to make it out of this in one piece."
"And what about everyone else in the building?" she shot back, "These men are armed and trigger happy. How are you going to keep everyone safe?"
"By dealing with the threat as efficiently as possible."
"How? Do you know how many of them are in the building? Where they are?"
Renegade whispered something to Wilson before grabbing Ray's upturned desktop computer.
"You're not going to be able to get anything off that. Any sensitive material is password protected and encrypted. Only the terminals in the main office can access security systems!" Ray tried to stop him, but his protests went ignored, and it didn't take long before the teen straightened.
"I've got eyes on them. Us too."
"How did you do that?" Ray demanded.
"Put us on a loop," Wilson ordered. Ray and Aakshi exchanged glances as the two began discussing the video feeds, shooting ideas back and forth in coded two- or three-word phrases.
"Clear on BSL. H1-5, E1-3 wide open."
"It's a trap. Check BSL-rear."
"No coverage."
Ray couldn't follow it, not when all the screens looked the same. But he tuned back in just in time to hear, "We take the device down to storage and let them ambush us."
"What?!"
"They're expecting us to go down, so the device will remain upstairs. We'll load the container with a decoy. Palmer, do any of the cabinets in here lock?"
Stunned, Ray nodded and scrambled to think of the best hiding place, "All the flammables cabinets and chem hoods lock. They're mostly empty, we just have IPA to clean the RF-melter and compressed butane refills for the torches."
Aakshi caught on immediately and began clearing space. Ray helped her, moving the flammable chemicals to the alternate storage cabinet. Normally, he wouldn't have worried about leaving them out for a night, but with his recent horrible luck, it wasn't worth the risk.
Once they carried the prototype from the storage box to the empty hood and locked the doors, Wilson nodded.
"Now we go down."
Dick Grayson
It's a short elevator ride to the basement, but it's the longest minute of my life. I spend the whole-time watching Slade, looking for some clue that he's got a plan besides "spring the trap."
When the doors open, Slade is out first.
"Clear," he says. Palmer and Girish are out next, pushing the cart with the decoy between them. Slade holds up a fist and I hit the elevator stop button, causing the doors to freeze halfway closed. Anyone else who comes downstairs will have to come through the staircase and that gives us some control over access points. Worst case, we can retreat to the elevator and strategically run away.
The scientists lead us to the entrance to the storage block, and the door should be protected by an eight-digit passcode with thumbprint recognition. Instead, the locks are disengaged and the door is already open. Slade goes in first, but it's still quiet.
They wheel the cart through next, and I take a deep breath before following inside. Goosebumps run down my arms when I follow Dr. Girish into the room and it turns into an echo chamber. Our footsteps bounce off the concrete, giving our position away to the twenty-something agents who are waiting to ambush us.
"Stay with them. Secure the device and meet at the back stairs," Slade orders. We nod and he disappears into the rows of storage lockers, making us look like an easier target while getting into a better position to hit back.
"Come on," Dr. Palmer nods his head. He and Dr. Girish push the cart down one of the long corridors lined with storage lockers. The fluorescent lights cast an artificial glow over the room, leaving long shadows. The sound of the air conditioner chugging away is only broken by the cart's squeaky wheel.
In the light, I can see that Aakshi's hands are shaking and her face is pale. Palmer keeps looking over his shoulders, trying to find the people he knows are watching us.
"Just a little further," he mutters, not even bothering to check the locker numbers we pass. Thirty rows later, he stops and scrambles at a large combination lock on one of the huge bottom lockers. His fingers slip off suddenly and he lets out an angry, "Dammit!"
I jump back, hands on my bo staff. He looks back at me and shakes his head.
"Sorry. I'm… sorry."
The last words come out as a growl, but he's looking down as he says it. Dr. Girish's lips narrow, but she doesn't look any happier than he does. They're both still dealing with this way better than most civilians would. The locker swings open. Palmer picks up one end of the box and Girish takes the other side. They've managed to transfer it off the cart and into the air when the ambush starts.
"Stay behind me!" I kick the cart on its side, giving them a tiny bit more cover. It's not good but it's better than nothing when a crowd of armed agents start shooting at you.
I flip and dodge, batting out with my bo staff, but I'm ridiculously outnumbered. My only advantage is that they're clearly trying not to hit the scientists or the box right behind me, but even bullets hitting armor still hurt.
Slade appears behind a group of five and takes them down with brutal efficiency before they even realize he's there.
The first round of bullets runs out, and half the group reloads while the other half pull out knives and decide to take their chances. Four on one isn't fair, but I take them down with only a few more cuts and scrapes than I had before, plus one throbbing ankle. Palmer lets out a shout, and Aakshi reaches for him from behind the upturned cart. A group of agents is keeping Slade busy while another team decided to take Palmer instead of making another attempt at the device.
I sprint after them, turning the corner and crossing into the next corridor, quickly closing the distance. I hurl a projectile into the wrist of the guy holding Palmer's arm, who swears as the doctor wrenches himself free. He punches the agent on his other side in the face and knocks him to the ground. I charge forwards, slamming the first agent in the helmet with my bo staff. Palmer tackles the third guy and the numbers four through eight come after me with knives and guns blazing.
Fighting five against one is harder when they all come at you in synch and they've clearly been watching how you fight. The only good thing is that they're too close to each other to risk firing a shot. The charge in my staff is running low and blocking a strike from the left and the middle is hard enough without the guy on the right trying to take my head off. I duck under a fist swinging at my head and follow it with a back-kick in the chest that knocks the guy off his feet. His friend takes his place and I dodge another knife strike, swinging my bo staff around to make a barrier. I realize they have me surrounded too late to do anything but react to the onslaught. I can't see Palmer over the tops of their heads and fear runs down my back.
One of them kicks me in the back of the kneecap and my leg buckles. I go down, curling to land on my side instead of my wrists. One of them tries to kick me and I catch his knee on both sides, tugging forwards to throw him as hard as I can at the two guys on the other side.
Two left.
I roll onto my feet in time for one of them to charge at me, and when he gets close enough, I flip into the air, vaulting off his shoulders and nailing him in the back of the head with my heel. I land on both feet and turn.
My heart pounds. The last agent has one arm wrapped around Palmer's neck and the other aiming a gun at me. Dr. Palmer is barely conscious, his head lolling forwards in the agent's grip while he tugs at his arm.
"Let him go," I say, lowering myself into a fighting stance with my bo staff at ready position.
"Not an option," the agent frowns before he opens fire.
I charge forwards, staff swinging. He dodges and retreats but I keep pressing. He gets another shot off and it nails me in the shoulder. Pain explodes through the bulletproof armor and I fall flat onto my back. The next thing I know, his foot slams into my face and there's a crack as my nose breaks. Bloods runs down and I shout as the pain burns across my face, trying to get out of the way but my head spins and he draws his foot back again.
There's a squelching sound like a knife being dragged across a squishy rock.
His whole body freezes. A choked sound escapes his throat and his eyes go wider than I've ever seen a person's eyes go.
The tip of a sword pokes through the left side of his chest, right where his heart is. Blood spills out of the cut, first a little and then more and more and then dark red blood gushes out of the hole, running down his shirt and pooling on the floor. He goes limp slowly, like his body didn't realize he was dying at first.
"NO!" I scream, pushing myself up but it's too late. Slade pulls the swords out in one smooth motion and the man drops to the ground with a hollow thud. The color is bleaching from his skin and he gurgles on the blood and spit spilling over his lips. It stains his chin crimson as it drips down.
I throw myself onto my knees and press my hands over the hole in his chest as hard as I can, desperately trying to stop the bleeding even though it's too late. The sword went all the way through his heart. Blood soaks through my gloves and warm, thick ooze covers my hands and there's so much blood.
Tears run down my face and the puddle around us is just getting bigger but the man is still alive. His eyes lock onto mine. They're a deep hazel with flecks of green and gold and there's a hardness to his gaze that pins me in place. He knows he's about to die. His lips move, stained with blood and cracked, and a hollow wheezing comes out. He's trying to say something but there's too much blood and he gurgles again, bubbles of spit pooling at the corners of his mouth.
I can't tell when he dies. The look in his eyes changes slowly; the hardness doesn't soften, but it shifts. All the muscles that were strained and taut relax and a new smell joins the stench of iron. A few seconds ago, he was alive. Now there's just a body covered in blood and feces and hazel eyes staring at nothing for the rest of eternity.
Slade grabs the back of my shirt and drags me to my feet. I look up at him, horrified and numb, thick blood congealing on my hands and caking into the legs of my pants and staining my shoes.
"You… you…"
"Your mask fell off," Slade holds it out, paying no attention to the corpse on the floor behind me.
"You killed him."
"To save your life," Slade answers slowly.
I open my mouth to say something, to yell, to scream, to take back the blood covering the floor and drying on my skin, but nothing comes out.
"He was about to shoot you," he drops to one knee, putting his hands on my shoulders and leaning forwards until I have no choice but to look at him, "If I hadn't stopped him, you would be dead."
"No," I shake my head, numbness spreading down my body like someone dumped a bucket of cold water on me, "No. You killed him! You didn't have to… you could've…"
"Breathe. You're okay."
"No! No, no, no, no, no…"
"Dammit," I hear Slade growl, before he's back in my space again, "You're bleeding."
He reaches forwards but I jerk back, slapping his hands away.
"Don't touch me," I growl.
"Renegade—"
"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" I scream, pushing myself to my feet. Tears slide down my face, dissolving the lines of dried blood, "You're a murderer! You killed him! You could have taken him out instead of…"
My voice cuts off, throat closing as a wave of grief crashes into me.
"I've had enough of this," Slade shakes his head.
"Stay away from me!" I spit, pulling out my bo staff and lowering to a defensive position.
Shit, he's fast. I dodge, parrying with the bo staff but every strike just makes my arms hurt and he just keeps pressing me back towards the row of lockers. If he corners me, that's it.
I barely jump out of the way of his foot, landing in time to block a punch with my staff. I pull back and change directions, swinging through the slam the weapon into his temple. Then I drop the staff, turn, and sprint the other way.
I get two steps before he grabs the back of my neck. A stabbing pain erupts under his hand, but it's gone in a second. It only takes another two seconds before everything goes numb.
But it's not just numb. It's fuzzy.
Everything is fuzzy.
My eyes start to close and everything is fuzzy and dark.
Except the lights.
They're light.
Really light.
Too light.
My eyes close.
Ray Palmer
"Easy, doctor, take it easy," Ray heard. There were people on either side of him, hands trying to help prop him up, "You're alright."
He blinked his eyes open slowly, finding himself on the ground surrounded by paramedics.
"What happened?" he asked.
"Heart rate one forty-five, bp one thirty over eighty. Appropriate pupil dilation in response to stimuli," one paramedic rambled off, poking and prodding Ray until he almost shoved the woman away. A man in a dark suit approached, gesturing for them to stop.
"Give him some room to breathe, and someone get that mask off him," the man ordered. A paramedic pulled the oxygen mask off of Ray's face and he exhaled in relief as the claustrophobia faded, "You gave us a scare, Dr. Palmer."
"Yeah, well that's going around lately. Maybe something that should have been mentioned in any of the security runs," Ray snarled.
"Easy, doc. We're not as all-knowing as the movies make us look. We briefed you on all the possible threats we knew about, but the NIDP is barely on our radar. Hell, they're barely on anyone's radar."
"Then do you care to explain to me why they tried to drag me and my prototype out of the building if they're so harmless, Agent?"
"Ray-"
"It's Dr. Palmer. You and I are not friends."
"Fine. Dr. Palmer, we had the situation handled. Head bumps aside, you made it out in one piece along with everyone else who worked in the building. If you want to be angry that you don't have top level clearance, if you want to be angry that I left out some details so you and your team could sleep at night, fine. As long as you understand that we took all necessary precautions."
"So you're hiring ninjas instead of STRIKE teams now?" Ray seethed.
"Special circumstances."
"Agent Waters, everyone in this building was at risk tonight. Anyone could have been killed if the wrong person got pissed off. You had better give me a damn good reason why I shouldn't hand in my two weeks right this second."
"We didn't know this would happen," Waters admitted after a pause, "This is a high priority project, and we treated it with the same precautions and considerations we give our most important projects. We've heard rumors from the beginning that various groups would like to get their hands on it, but until two days ago we had absolutely nothing to suspect there would be a real attempt. We had every precaution in place. My only regret is that our response time was so long. We're not omniscient, but I promise your, Dr. Palmer, we didn't leave you undefended."
Ray closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, trying to calm himself down.
"What happened to my prototype?"
Agent Waters looked a tiny bit sheepish.
"We aren't sure where it is, but all the invaders have been neutralized. They didn't get their hands on it."
Ray stood up and headed back for the building. Waters followed him silently, waving off the paramedics that tried to tag along. The agent didn't try to make any conversation which saved him a punch in the face as far as Ray was concerned. For now.
"Smart," Waters said when Ray unlocked the flammables cabinet to reveal the mostly intact prototype.
Ray ground his teeth together and turned to face the man.
"How many casualties?"
"I told you, everyone made it out of the building."
"No. You told me that everyone who worked in the building made it out. So you have one more chance to give me a real answer."
Agent Waters shook his head.
"Just one. Ray, he knew what he was doing and what the stakes were."
"He knew the stakes? That's your excuse?! Your 'necessary precautions' got people killed, and it was almost a hell of a lot worse," Ray seethed.
The man didn't respond.
Ray turned around so he didn't have to look at him, and also to extract the hidden communicator out from where he'd stuffed it inside the mesh. The red light was on now, which meant he didn't have to wait much longer for the Justice League to respond.
"Well, you got your prototype. I hope it was worth it. You don't need me to finish it from here."
"You're making a mistake, Ray."
"If you think so, then I know it's the right choice," Ray nodded at him firmly, "Agent."
"Atom, are you alright? We got your distress signal, but it looks like everything is under control now," Superman asked, touching down on the roof of the building.
The Atom frowned, leaning forwards to watch the agents move around on the ground. From seven stories up, they looked like ants, which was ironic given the fact that the Atom was currently an inch tall.
"Does the League have any info on the NIDP? Specifically, what they want with counter-intelligence gear?"
Superman held out his hand and the Atom jumped, easily generating enough force to propel himself up.
"Let's find out."
Martian Manhunter, Black Canary and Green Lantern were waiting in the conference room when they arrived. Superman put the Atom on the ground and he returned to his normal size.
"What happened?" Green Lantern demanded.
"A group of foreign intelligence agents tried to kill me tonight," the Atom took the seat next to him. Superman sat on his other side, completing the circle.
"What?" Canary asked.
"Long story short, they took the building hostage."
He recounted the whole story, beginning with the late-night call with Carol all the way up to possibly temporarily terminating his contract and possibly costing his parent university hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"And you couldn't get to your suit?" Green Lantern demanded.
"That's the thing; I had it on the whole time! At least, the belt. But it didn't matter, Hal. There can't be any records connecting me to the Atom. A lot of the work my research group does is for military contracts, and the size-shifting technology I've developed cannot become government property. I don't make weapons, and if the CIA or the Army found out, they could take it all and commit atrocities. Biological warfare on a microscopic scale or nukes big enough to take out an entire country. I will do everything in my power to keep my technology out of the wrong hands."
The heroes stayed silent, but Manhunter nodded his agreement and Canary pursed her lips grimly.
"They brought in two mercenaries to fight a squad of thirty-five trained combatants and they were scary as hell. I…" Ray swallowed, not feeling particularly heroic, "They didn't let Aakshi or me out of their sight for even a second. I know how it sounds, but the guy was terrifying. It just knew somehow that if I did anything, if I used any of my powers or slipped away, he would know my ID and that would be it. That's not to say… if things really went sideways, and Aakshi's life was in danger, I would've done whatever I had to, but god I…"
"It is alright," Manhunter stopped him.
"How could I have made the choice between saving lives and keeping my secrets safe? If I'd done something, nobody would've died."
"Atom, none of us blame you for that," Black Canary put a hand on his shoulder.
Superman nodded, "Ultimately, the League has chosen to protect our members' identities and technologies rather than share them with the world at large for the exact reasons you said."
"And for god's sakes, Ray, these guys were actively trying to kill you. Sometimes there's only so much you can do!" Green Lantern threw his hands in the air.
"Particularly when you are in a compromised position," Martian Manhunter nodded.
"Honestly, it just… it didn't even feel real. I knew when we got the proposal that the project was coming through the NSF on behalf of the CIA, but that was it. I have no idea why the Pokolistanis would want it, or how they even found out we were working on the project in the first place. Everything that happened tonight came out of absolutely nowhere."
"You have my word, the League will look into this," Superman promised, "We can also outfit your building with breach alarms, similar to the setups at STAR Labs, WayneTech and Ferris Industries. If there's an emergency, we'll get the signal no matter what."
"Thank you," he nodded, "That's all I came to ask for."
"Speaking of requests, have you changed your mind about ours?" Green Lantern asked. The Atom frowned before sighing.
"Before tonight, the answer was still no. But… I didn't act tonight when I could've saved a life. I think it might be time to stop playing it so safe."
"There's no pressure," Black Canary raised her hands, "We won't kick you off the reserve roster if you say no."
"No. I've made up my mind. I want to become a full member of the Justice League."