Invaded

Chapter Thirteen: The Fix

Author's Note: Enjoy!

Queen Manor, Star City
April 9
09:32 AM PDT

"Green Beetle checks out," Nightwing revealed.

"That's good," I admitted, relieved, "I'm sorry I couldn't be there. I know you'd rather me lead the investigation."

Nightwing sighed, rubbing his neck tiredly, saying, "I know, but what you're doing is just as important. We need Harmony Sato on our side. Any updates?"

"Not yet, but I'm following up on a lead today," I answered.

"I spoke to Harmony," Nightwing admitted, pausing, "She still doesn't want to speak to you."

I exhaled deeply, leaning back tiredly in my seat, muttering, "I figured."

"Well, keep me updated. Nightwing out." The transmission ended before returning to my previous screen of Harmony Sato's files.

After I accused Harmony's father of orchestrating her abduction, Harmony had refused to speak to me. Although, she had agreed to stay in the STAR Labs facility, which brought me a sense of relief.

"Was 'Wing able to get through to Harmony?" Hunter questioned; he entered the main room of the Arrow Cave, loading his crossbow.

"No," I answered, "She's still refusing to speak to me."

"Well, to be fair, you are accusing her father of working for an evil criminal organization and orchestrating her abduction, so…" Hunter trailed off with a slight shrug.

I rolled my eyes, returning my attention to my screen.

"Aren't we supposed to be following up on a lead today?" Hunter questioned as he took a seat beside me.

I nodded, "We are. When Nightwing and I first responded to the first abduction, it didn't seem strange that Deathstroke and Hiroshi Sato were in Hiroshi's home office."

Hunter nodded as well, suggesting, "They could've been going over the contract or exchanging information. You think you'll find evidence of that?"

"Yes," I paused, elaborating, "Sato's a businessman. If I've learned anything from Ollie, it's that a businessman always leaves a paper trail."

Hunter furrowed his brow, "How do you expect to find a paper trail of a verbal conversation?"

"I'm expecting to find a paper trail of his involvement with the Light. Anything that links Sato to the Light will prove that Sato orchestrated his daughter's kidnapping and allowed for her to be experimented on by the Reach," I concluded.

Hunter paused, absorbing my words before asking, "Why do you care so much about Harmony? I mean, she wasn't the only abductee the Team rescued."

I knew eventually Hunter would ask me this question. He was very observant when he wanted to be.

"Truthfully…" I trailed off, "Hiroshi was one of us—he fought alongside my grandmother, and for him to just be a sellout…"

Again, Hunter paused, "So, this is personal."

It wasn't a question. The statement was soft, almost understanding, but I could hear the faint edge of worry in it.

"He sold out his daughter to the Reach," I muttered, "There's no excuse in the world that will justify that to me."

A pregnant silence fell between us as Hunter scanned through the file. It was odd to consider him my partner. Even during his official tenure, we had rarely been paired together during missions. Usually, I was paired with Kid Flash (surprisingly, our powers complimented each other well) or Artemis. He usually favored Superboy or Rocket.

"Wait, if we're investigating at Sato's home, who's investigating Sato office?" Hunter questioned, exiting the case file.

The zeta-tube began whirring loudly as a figure materialized in the glowing white light.

"Sorry I'm late," the Question apologized, exiting the zeta-tube, "I was investigating how many flavors of ice-cream Baskin and Robbins has."

Hunter glanced at me, unsure, before asking the Question, "I thought there were thirty-one?"

"Thirty-two, actually," the Question corrected.

Sato Residence, Star City
April 9
10:48 AM PDT

Hunter typed on his wrist computer, ever so often glancing at the computer monitor.

Slowly, I fingered through a pile of mail left discarded on the large, wooden desk.

"When you said Sato Industries wasn't doing so well," Hunter paused, motioning me closer, "you weren't kidding."

I leaned over Hunter's shoulder, quickly scanning the computer screens. A series of spreadsheets littered the screen; many numbers were in bold, red letters.

"He recently wired money to an offshore account," Hunter revealed.

"Can we track it?" I asked, opening the filing cabinets built into his desk.

"Working on it," Hunter assured me as I rummaged through, careful to restore everything to its original location.

"Q's been sending us what he's been finding. It looks like Sato's been skimming money from his company's budget," Hunter revealed.

"He's going bankrupt—he's behind on house payments, car payments, credit card payments. You name it, he's behind on it," Hunter continued.

"What has Q found?" I asked, eyeing the bookcase.

"Just email correspondences between Luthor and Sato. Lucrative business deals, promises to help with Sato's debt," Hunter explained.

"Luthor doesn't do anything that won't benefit him," I noted.

"Q says Sato Industries was developing some nanotech," Hunter paused, "They've also been researching hyper-speed traveling by using cosmic forces centered around velocity, movement, and time."

I hesitated, returning a leather bound book to its designated place.

"Could it be the same nanotech that was used to develop the new inhibitor collars?" I asked.

"Could be," Hunter answered, unsure, "Q's sending us all the files."

"And hyper-speed travel using cosmic forces centered around velocity, movement and time?" I repeated.

Wally had once explained a theory how the Speed Force could essentially be used for time traveling.

"They're trying to time travel?" I wondered out loud.

Taos
April 9
2:01 PM MST

The security guard shut the door loudly behind Hunter and I. Harmony looked away from the television screen, momentarily surprised before glaring at me.

Hunter cleared his throat, introducing himself, "I'm Hunter."

"I know you don't want to speak to me right now," I began, taking a cautionary step forward, "but I brought evidence—"

"Are you serious?" Harmony asked, seething. "You actually brought evidence? I told you my father is innocent."

Again, I took another step forward; I softened my body language.

"Harmony," I stated, tone soft, "There's a substantial amount of evidence of your father being a corrupt businessman."

"That doesn't make him a bad person," Harmony argued, "He just wanted to give me a good life."

"It makes him a bad person when he sets you up to be kidnapped," I countered.

There was a brief moment of silence as Harmony absorbed my words. She clenched her fists tightly, glaring at me. For a moment, I thought she was going to cross the remaining space between us and attempt to hit me.

"Listen, kid," Hunter interjected, suddenly standing in front of me. His six foot two figure easily towered over my own five foot seven.

"You said you wouldn't speak to her unless she presented some sort of evidence. Do you want us to show you or not because we have more important shit to do than to sit here and deal with your daddy issues," Hunter barked.

Harmony closed her mouth, eyes wide with shock.

"Fine," Harmony finally gave in, "Let me see the evidence."

Harmony exhaled loudly as she finished reading through her father's criminal file.

"I knew he was a bad businessman," Harmony admitted in a whisper, "The kids at my school… they would say these mean things. I didn't think he was a bad guy. Why did he do this to me?"

I placed a hand on her shoulder, answering her, "I know it's hard to understand right now, but we believe your father gave you to the Reach to prove himself to the Light."

Harmony leaned back, shrugging my hand off her shoulder, "The Light?"

"The Light is a criminal organization that strives to control the world and take out the Justice League," Hunter said, "We defeated them once before, or so we thought. They have a new partner, the Reach, who are the aliens who were torturing you and those other kids."

Harmony seemed to respond well to Hunter.

"Why were they torturing us?"

"Well, we believe they want to weaponize the meta-gene and use it to bring on an apocalypse," Hunter responded.

"Meta-gene?" Harmony echoed.

"It's the biological component that gives people superpowers. From what we've gathered, it seems to be activated under extremely stressful situations. Your family has a long, genetic history of possessing the gene," Hunter concluded.

Harmony had begun handling the situation well after Hunter's initial response to her outburst. She was obviously more comfortable around him than she was with me.

"I'll let you process all this," I stated, rising from my seat.

Harmony gripped my forearm, pleading, "Please, I want to speak to my father."