Deep below the surface of the Atlantic, the escape pod-turned-submarine weaved its way toward the European mainland. It was quiet for a good few minutes, nothing but the sound of me and Mirage's breathing and the rhythmic beeping of the radar. We were both still recovering from the shock.
"Why didn't you just tell me there was an emergency escape submarine?" she asked, suddenly breaking the silence.
I turned to look at her."What? And ruin a perfectly good opportunity to slap you?"
She scowled, but had no comeback. I glanced at the radar. It was clear. "All systems are in the green. I think we're undetected so far."
"But someone obviously knows we're coming," she stated matter-of-factly.
I nodded. "Not someone. Xerex. And if he really wanted us dead, we'd be dead."
"Meaning?"
I looked back at her. She was obviously confused.
"That was just his way of rolling out the welcome mat."
A look of concern flitted across her face. "Then maybe we should contact the agency. If our mission has been compromised - "
"NO…" I cut in. "We're in too deep to turn back now." Figuratively… and literally.
About an hour later, we surfaced along a little dock along the coast of France. It was here that our contact was supposed to meet with us, helping to provide us with the additional resources we needed to continue the mission appropriately. Only the warehouse that was here seemed… off. I turned to Mirage.
"Sooo, is this it?"
She nodded, double-checking her communicator. "According to my sources, yes. They should be waiting right inside in fact."
Yeah. Right. The look on her face was less than convincing. Combine that with all the unidentified lifeforms that the radar indicated were inside the building, and I'm pretty certain she wasn't being entirely honest with me. So I did what I had to. With no hesitation, I pressed the red button on the dashboard. Mirage noticed.
"What are you doing?" she asked wearily.
"All right, look, it's not that I don't trust you…." Buuuut, I don't trust you.
With a kerr-chunk, the sides of the pod opened up and ejected a set of missiles. They flew high into the air, arcing around before landing on the warehouse building with a loud BA-DOOM!
Mirage grimaced, covering her ears from the second explosion of that day. I threw open the pod and began climbing out to assess the damage. She was not far behind.
"Are you INSANE?!" she screeched, flailing her arms. "Our contact was in there! The mission - "
"Look at it!" I interrupted sharply, gesturing to the smoking rubble. "This warehouse was a deathtrap!"
Mirage stopped, looking at the damage wide-eyed. It was here that we could both make out the dozens of battered shapes of robots littered all over the ground. My gaze landed on her suspiciously. "Did you… know about this?"
She whipped around with fury in her eyes. "What?! Are you insane? I was in that plane with you, remember? Why would you think I'm involved?"
I raised my hand, counting off the points on my fingers as I spoke. "Oh, let's see, you have a history of trying to kill me and my family, you're known to work with super villains, and someone obviously knows we're coming. These European contacts… they're your contribution to the mission, and look how that's working out!" I pointed at her. "Add it all up!"
She glared at me and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Whatever. If you really thought I was involved, you wouldn't just be talking to me, am I right?"
I sighed. "I suppose. The truth is I'd prefer it if it was you behind all this. It would make things much easier."
She looked up at me, curiously. "And why's that?"
I grabbed her by the shoulders and directed her attention to the sky. "Because then you could call off the armada of sky soldiers descending on us!"
Right then, a flock of new robotic soldiers were zooming through the sky with jetpacks, their arms equipped with guns of all shapes and sizes. And they were all pointing directly at us.
"Ah," she said after what seemed like a long moment. "I could see how that might be preferable… particularly for me…."
A fiery red laser shot out from one of the robot's arms, the beam coming straight for the pod. "Look out!" I shouted, and we both ducked out and away from it just in time. The ray missed her head by a fraction, grazing the water's surface and probably frying some helpless fish below the waves. But my concern was not longer on that first bot - instead, I started to take down its dozens of identical pals that descended on the dock, my elastic body making it quite easy to avoid their clamping claws and absorb their heavy metallic blows they attempted to throw. And, from what I could see between the fight, Mirage was fairing well enough too. Brandishing two sleek handguns, I could hear the popping ka-POW of the weapon each time it blasted against the droids. I backflipped, knocking two out with a double-combo of a punch and kick. Mirage fleeted between them, shooting her ray gun at a robot that was charging right towards me from behind. It spazzed in a mess of circuitry for a minute, before roughly collapsing in a steaming pile of battered steel. Quickly, Mirage reached in for what I assumed to be another weapon on her utility belt. From the look of the small round shape, it heavily resembled a miniature time bomb. I grinned, hoping to soon hear the sound of robotic parts blasting to high heaven - but, as I reached to land one more punch, a red-filmed barrier prevented me from following through. I blinked, confused for a moment as the robots closed in and tried, but failed, to break the impenetrable dome around the two of us. I whirled around to face Mirage.
"What did you do?" I demanded.
"It's a portable force field generator," she began to explain, "It's similar to your daughter's pow - "
"I know what a force field is!" I said, growling impatiently. "Why did you activate it?!"
She frowned and answered with a hard voice. "Oh, I don't know… maybe because thirty or so armed soldiers with jetpacks were trying to kill us?"
Obviously! "Is this force field portable?"
"No," she said.
"Sooo, how long will the battery last?"
"Um…." she looked down at the device, and then at her wrist communicator that had a watch. Scrunched her face as she tried to estimate. "About… ten minutes… more or less…"
Ten minutes… ho boy. With the look she was wearing now, it must have dawned on her too just how little a time it was. "I take it you see the problem now," I commented.
Mirage fumbled with her utility belt, the presence of the robots unnerving her even more. "Hold on, I can fix this... " she mumbled.
Tsk, tsk, tsk. "Why am I not comforted?"
Angry, she looked up from her task at me. "Oh yeah? Well, why don't you just threaten to stretch at them? I'm sure that will strike terror into their hearts."
I forced back an obscenity that wanted to slide past my lips and settled for something milder. "Shut up."
Pointing at the nearest bot from outside the force field, I raised my voice to an authoritative shout. "You! Who is in charge here? I want answers!"
The robot stared blankly at me with his glowing red eyes. Then he leaned toward his closest companion, whispering something indistinctly to him.
"What's happening?" Mirage asked.
I rolled my eyes. "I'd like to think they're doing what I asked," I began, "but as super-hearing is unfortunately not on my list of abilities, I'm as in the dark as you are right about now."
Suddenly, the robots started to clear a path, scooting aside in a couple of neater looking rows. At the end, a shadow of a person started to make its way forward. I squinted my eyes, trying to get a look at him. And then, a distinct French-accented voice spoke.
"Excellent… it has been soooo long."
I gasped. Mirage raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"Is that?"
"It is…"
And right there, approaching the dome with a heavy gut, thinning black hair, a painted white face, and bandoliers filled to the brim with bombs, was Bomb Voyage!
He cackled. "Ah yes, Elastigirl. It certainly has been a loooong time…"
Yep. Over fifteen years to be exact.
