II
Ben Grant soared high above the Steel Canyon district of Paragon City, his red, white, and blue armor glistening in the sun as his red cape fluttered in the wake of his flight. He scanned the streets below with the magnified vision of his helmet's eye screen. He dipped low for a closer look at a pair of Outcast gang members attempting to rob a hapless woman of her purse. Even as Ben brought his armor's energy beams on line, a costumed hero sped onto the scene at super speed and engaged the Outcasts. The unknown hero, one of many in Paragon, seemed to have control of the situation, and Ben began to ascend.
He cleared a monorail track of the Paragon City Transit Authority and climbed at a steeper angle. As he soared over one of Steel Canyon's many towering skyscrapers he eased up on his antigravity field and touched down lightly on the building's roof. He flipped up the protective cover of his forearm communicator and punched in a code.
"Hey, Ben," said Richard's voice through his helmet receiver. "How's the patrol on your end?"
"Just an Outcast robbing, but another hero got to it first. No sign of Dave or his green friend. You?"
"Nothing over here in Skyway except a few drugged up Trolls rampaging around. Lyta and I are gonna stop and lend a hand."
"Be careful."
"You know we will."
Kari joined in the conference call. "I'm up here in the northern part of Steel Canyon. No sign of Dave or the Eco-Activist up here."
"Derek's at the university," Ben said. "I think I'm going to head there."
"Wait up, honey, I'll go with you."
"You have my locator beacon on your wayfinder. I'll be up here enjoying the view of the city until you arrive."
---
"It's me, Sarah," Dave said into the microphone beside the door.
"Voice print recognized," said the alluring feminine voice of the lab's central computer. "Welcome back, Dr. Grant. It has been too long since you were home last."
"Far too long."
The thick door slid to one side, allowing Dave entry into the underground bunker that housed his laboratory. As he passed through the foyer, the door slid closed and sealed itself with a hiss. He strode between racks and stands of robotic parts until he arrived at the landing pad under the overhead doors. Joshua stood waiting on the pad, alone.
Dave turned sharply and headed into one of the adjacent storage rooms. A dozen or so battle drones standing cold and lifeless within. Dave removed his armor's helmet and set it aside on one the workbenches, then fished Hal's memory chip from his belt's EM-shielded container. He knelt before one of the waiting drones and inserted the chip. As he stepped back, the drone came back to life in a whirr of servos.
Hal was reborn.
"Come, my friend," Dave said. "We have to do something so you and your brother are not quite so susceptible to anyone who might want to impede my justice against Crey."
He picked up his helmet and went into another storage room, where he divested himself of his armor. Throwing a lab coat on over the sweat pants and sweat shirt he'd worn under his armor, he headed to his desk. He sat behind it and peered at the desktop terminal. Sarah's air filtration system and maintenance drones had kept his lab meticulously clean even after sitting unattended since his incarceration.
He booted up his desktop computer and sat back to cast his gaze at the one adornment he kept on his desk. It was the wedding photo of Ben and Kari, which included Dave as best man.
Ben was a lucky man to have ensnared a beauty like Kari. Imagine that, his older brother had been able to settle down with a woman who'd been a finalist in the Miss America pageant.
Dave logged onto the Internet and surfed various technology sites.
"Sarah, could you do something for me?"
"Name it, Dr. Grant."
"I need you to infiltrate the central core of D.A.T.A. Technology System's computer."
"As you wish, Dr. Grant. Anything else?"
"Yes, actually. I planted a tracking device on someone. Can you tell me where he's at?"
"He is currently heading in the direction of Paragon University."
"You're kidding. I told that numbskull to lay low."
---
Woody Lawless, a.k.a. the Eco-Activist, strode the campus grounds of Paragon University, looking inconspicuous in his ratty jeans, tie-dyed t-shirt, and sandals. His greenish-brown hair, dyed dark brown, was tied back in a ponytail. He offered friendly smiles to passing co-eds, but few reciprocated.
He stopped at a drinking fountain and bent to take a drink. As he sucked in water from the arcing stream, he let his eyes wonder to a pair of co-eds talking beside a tree. He fixated on the girl wearing the skirt.
With a slight gesture of his hand, one of the tree's branches dipped down and snagged itself on the co-ed's skirt. As the branch rose, it brought the skirt up well above her waist to reveal a pair of lacy pink panties. The girl shrieked and yanked her skirt free of the offending branch, smoothing the garment down to hide her unmentionables.
Several young men who'd witnessed the incident stared in appreciative disbelief at the angered girl.
"Who did this!" she bellowed. "I'm suing! This school will hear from my lawyer!"
Woody chuckled to himself and moved away from the drinking fountain. This was a win-win, he thought. He got to see a pretty girl's underwear, and the girl could make a small fortune from the litigation lottery.
He headed into the campus library and seated himself behind one of the many Internet-connected computers contained therein. He took a student card from his jeans pocket, a card belonging to one Henry Potsdam. Poor clueless Henry probably hadn't yet realized that as he was stuffing his face in an outdoor café some nearby rosebushes had picked his pocket.
Woody used the card's name and student ID number to gain access to the library computer, and as soon as he was logged on he accessed the Internet search engine. Surfing through several environmentalist websites, he complied a list of corporate offenders who would feel his wrath.
Doctor Robotico had wanted him to lay low, but Woody had decided that he preferred another course of action. If that techno-geek wrapped in that metallic technological monstrosity wasn't going to strike out at corporate giant Crey right away, then Woody figured he had a little time to seek out additional targets.
---
Ben and Kari touched down on the campus grounds, and as soon as they landed they received the briefest of glances from students and faculty alike. Costumed heroes were frequent enough in Paragon City that the arrival of the American Crusader and Miss Michigan warranted little attention. Aside from the male eyes latched onto Kari's skimpy blue and yellow outfit, that is.
They entered the section of the campus that housed the literary department, and they wove through passing students and faculty as they found their way to Professor Derek Nox's private office. When the couple entered, they found Derek at his desk, his feet propped up on its surface. Clad in his white vest over a dress shirt and khaki pants, and still wearing his sunglasses, he read a copy of Sun-Tzu's Art of War in its native Mandarin. On the desk under his crossed ankles was a leather-bound tome whose script Ben didn't recognize.
"Greetings," Derek said. "What brings two of Paragon's heroes to my humble office?"
Ben closed the office door, and Derek reached under his desk to depress a toggle. The perimeter of the office shimmered briefly as a Grant Technologies patented sound-buffering field, jointly designed by Ben and Richard, ensured their privacy. Ben doffed his helmet, and Kari pulled her mask down to hang loosely around her neck.
Derek snapped the book closed and took his feet down off his desk to sit up straight. As he stood, his shoulders squared in the manner he normally assumed while wearing the gold and blue hero costume that he usually donned as the human aspect of Shadow Vision.
Kari pointed to the tome on Derek's desk, the one with the unintelligible script. "What have you got there?"
"Something recovered from the wreckage of a Rikti ship. It tells the tales of another plane of reality, another Earth, where costumed heroes also protect humanity. In this particular tale, a man from another world with incredible powers and a man in a dark cowl join forces to combat two villains, a man with no hair and vast intellect pairing with a white faced maniac assuming a persona from a playing card."
"Always the story collector," Ben remarked.
"It is who I am," Derek said. "I have further information from one of my contacts inside Crey Biotech."
"I'm listening."
"According to my contact, Dave was on but one team of many working on a compartmentalized project for Crey. It's unknown yet what that project was, but Dave wasn't lying when he testified at his trial that he'd started learning some of the details of the other project teams. To you or me or most people, the teams would appear to be working on entirely unrelated projects."
"But Dave saw the relationship between the teams' work," Kari said.
"Dave sometimes was too smart for his own good," Ben said. "So the Crey board of directors found out that Dave knew more than he should have, and they discredited him with an embezzling charge."
"It may not have even been the entire board of directors," Derek said. "Only those members overseeing the project. And possibly Countess Crey herself, though I imagine she'll have arranged for herself to have plausible deniability."
The warshade looked out of the corner of his eye at his computer monitor. He gestured to his visitors before reaching down to deactivate his sound buffer field. Ben and Kari donned their headgear just as a knock sounded on the door.
"Enter," Derek said.
A middle-aged man in a suit walked in. "Dr. Nox, I'd heard you had some hero-types in here...oh, hi."
Ben dipped his head in greeting. "Hello, citizen," he said in his altered voice.
"We had an incident in the student square, if you could lend us a hand."
Ben looked at Kari, and she nodded. The two heroes left Derek in his office as they followed the university administrator outside to the student square. Several faculty and students were huddled around a park bench, and they parted to form a path for the approaching heroes. Two girls sat on the bench, one of whom whose lovely face was livid with rage.
Ben held back a pace or two as Kari knelt before the seated girls.
"What happened here?" she asked.
The calmer of the two girls pointed to a tree across the way from the bench. "That tree attacked her."
Ben looked over his shoulder at the offending vegetation. "How long ago?"
"Ten minutes."
"What did it do?" Kari asked gently.
"One of its branches lifted her skirt up and showed the whole campus her underwear."
The angry girl fired a glare at her friend.
"She asked," the friend said.
"What do you think?" the administrator asked. "Super powers?"
"Plant control," Ben said. "We've seen this before."
Kari stood to face her husband.
"That's Celia Clarkson," she whispered. "She's one of my Anthropology 101 students. She's had a chip on her shoulder since her first day of class."
In addition to helping Ben with Grant Technologies, Kari worked part time at Paragon University as an anthropology professor.
Ben flipped up his forearm communicator's cover and tapped a code. "American Crusader to Blue Wolf."
"Blue Wolf here," Richard responded.
"Are you still in Skyway?"
"Affirmative."
"American Crusader to Shadow Vision."
"Shadow Vision here," said Derek, apparently still up in his office.
"Are you anywhere close to Paragon University?"
"I am."
"We need you ASAP."
"I'll be there."
In less than two minutes, Derek descended to land near Ben and Kari. Dressed in his dark gold costume trimmed in blue with a white eye symbol on his chest, a gold-trimmed blue cape flowing from his shoulders, and a high-tech set of goggles over his eyes, he moved to stand with his fellow supergroup teammates.
"Oh wow," a young man commented. "These guys take a frat prank way too seriously."
Ben ignored the remark. "Thanks for coming so quickly, Shadow."
"What's the situation, A.C.?" Derek asked.
"A familiar friend showed up on campus. Someone who can control plants."
"The gentleman who attacked that armored car with Robotico."
"Indeed."
"I think that's him coming out of the library," Kari said, pointing.
A thirty-ish man in jeans and a tie-dyed shirt sauntered down the sidewalk. As soon as he saw the trio of heroes watching him, he froze in mid-step. He raised his arms above him, and vegetation immediately thickened and grew around the civilians huddled around the girls on the bench. As students and faculty were ensnared by the writhing vines, the Eco-Activist bolted.
Derek immediately pelted the attacking vines at the roots with bolts of dark energy, withering the vegetation to free some of the imprisoned civilians.
Ben and Kari advanced on the Eco-Activist, Ben arming the energy emitters on his armor. He extended his arms and canted his fists downward as the emitters extended from his gauntlets. He unleashed a torrent of stunning energy at the villain. As the bolts of energy slammed into the Eco-Activist, the blasts slammed him to the ground.
The Eco-Activist catapulted to his feet and flung a barrage of thorns at Ben. The unnaturally hard missiles struck Ben in the chest, more than one punching through his armor. Ben pulled the thorns free, and Kari aimed a hand toward her husband to pour her own magical energy into him, closing his wounds.
Ben opened fire again, throwing the villain to the ground with a barrage of energy bursts. The Eco-Activist attempted to rise, but Kari hurled a bolt of lightning at him. As electric blue arcs swirled around him, the Eco-Activist fought to regain his footing. Ben and Kari simultaneously launched attacks at the villain, slamming him with energy blasts and lightning bolts.
The Eco-Activist slumped unconscious to the ground. Ben stepped forward to take the villain into custody.
"A.C.! Look out!" Derek cried. "Three o'clock high!"
Ben looked to his right and above just as a pair of robotic drones soared overhead. They landed and centered their weapons at him.
Laser fire raked Ben full in the armored chest, and he stumbled backward.
"No!" Kari cried, only to be transfixed by an energy pulse striking her from behind. She drew upon her amulet's power and surrounded both herself and Ben with a healing aura.
Derek, abandoning his work on freeing the entangled civilians, launched a salvo of dark bolts at the red-and-blue-armored figure with the rifle who'd just hit Kari with a stun blast.
Ben turned around to face Dave, who hovered six feet above the sidewalk. The elder Grant sighted down his armored forearm, preparing to fire.
"I just came for him," Dave said, nodding his helmeted head toward the downed Eco-Activist.
"He's our prisoner," Ben said.
Dave saluted and soared skyward. Ben leaped into the air to follow. He activated his electrical fence emitter, firing at Dave. Arcs of electrical energy surrounded Dave, snaring him and keeping him in place. Dave tapped his belt buckle, and with a brief flash of light he winked out of sight.
Ben came to a stop and pivoted around to look back toward Dave's drones. Both robots rocketed skyward, and in mid-flight they winked out of sight one by one.
Ben activated his communicator. "He has a teleporter device. See if he put a locator beacon on the Eco-Activist."
Derek, still on the ground, knelt beside the unconscious villain. Just as he began his examination, the Eco-Activist vanished.
Ben descended and came to a landing between Kari and Derek.
"Are you all right?" he asked her.
Kari nodded. "I'm fine. He only had it set to stun."
"It will be harder to capture him now that he has a teleportation device and an antigravity generator in his armor," Derek commented.
Ben activated his communicator. "American Crusader to Blue Wolf."
"Go for Blue Wolf."
"The situation at the university is secure. Continue your patrol."
"Ten-four," Richard said. "Wolf out."
"Crusader out." Ben closed down the communicator. "Let's get back to base."
---
"That was stupid," Dave said. "You reveal your presence just to look up a girl's skirt?"
The Eco-Activist, still blindfolded, lifted pleading hands. "Come on, I've been in prison since whenever."
"You had to know that using your powers would raise suspicions, especially so soon after your vines were used to help in our attack on that armored car."
"Oh come on, how could that attack be linked to a sneak peak at some pink panties?"
"A tree would not move on its own like that, and that is Paragon University. Someone there would recognize that tree's assault as the result of super powers, and a report would be sent out."
"But—"
"Silence."
Dave whipped the blindfold off the Eco-Activist now that they were safely ensconced within Dave's bunker lab.
"Watch him, Sarah," Dave said.
"As you wish, Dr. Grant."
A pair of internal security cannons zeroed in on where the Eco-Activist sat. Satisfied that his companion would now stay out of mischief, Dave returned to his work.
He stooped down behind the drone before him. He attached a standardized force field generator he had copied from D.A.T.A. Systems plans and stood back from the newest addition to his cadre of drones. He tapped the control pad on his forearm.
"Wake up, Sonny."
The drone whirred to life.
"Another battle drone?" the Eco-Activist asked.
"A protector drone," Dave said. "Observe."
He tapped an order into his control pad, and Sonny shuffled across the lab to stand before Hal and Joshua. A port opened in Sonny's face plate, and an emitter emerged.
A force field bubble appeared around Hal first, then Joshua.
"Nice," the Eco-Activist said. "Will he be able to put a bubble around me, too? I didn't like getting hit by the American Crusader's energy bolts."
Dave directed at hard look at the Activist. "This modification is for the drones only. Now, what were you doing at that university?"
"Surfing the web in the campus library."
"Just some innocent surfing?"
"Of course."
"I can have my lab's A.I. log into the library's network and track the sites you searched."
"All right, all right, Doc, I looked up some environmentalist sites. Okay?"
Dave grunted. The Eco-Activist was probably going to be a problem for him.