Stranger From the Sky, chapter 15

Attack

"I think my sense of taste must be deficient, for I can determine no significant difference between the spicy mustard and the standard yellow." Athena took another big bite out of her pretzel. Apparently, Osirans don't do the ladylike-bite thing: this bite was easily half the pretzal.

"Well, with your ability to just absorb biomass directly, it wouldn't shock me to learn that such a sense as a sense of taste has atrophied, over the years. How-*" Kitten's T-cell crackled. "-*itten, Athena. *Crackle* *-under attack," Starfire's voice came over the communicator.

Kitten grabbed her T-cell. "Star! What's going on? Who's attacking-*"

"No time. *Crackle* Can't talk. Robin's down! Don't come back by any above ground entrance…..they are watching. Use another way-*Crackle*" And communication ended.

Kitten turned to Athena. "Athena, what can your senses tell us? What's going on back there?"

The Osiran girl turned and looked hard in the direction of the tower. "I see no sign of any attack. And…correct me if I'm wrong, but that did not sound like Starfire to me."

Kitten was grim. "Me, neither. She used contractions, and was unusually insistent that we return by a certain route. That has 'trap' written all over it." She turned to Athena. "But what can you tell me about what's going on back there? Raven and Hank were supposed to be there…."

"I see no sign of them. Nor of Starfire, Robin, or any of the others. Might I suggest an alternative course of action?"

…

By means of a special boom-tube they'd set up in advance for just this very sort of thing, the two returned to the Kindred's Hive. "Alpha," Athena said, "unless I'm very mistaken, your systems are probably under attack, even as we speak."

"Indeed they are. Something seems very insistent upon acquiring access to our systems. We are, so far, holding firm, but…"

Athena spoke up. "Perhaps….perhaps that is not the way to approach this. If you will allow me, I'll build a subroutine that will give the attacker or attackers the illusion of entry, but without actually allowing access. And, in the process, give us some insight as to who our assailant is. " Alpha gestured to a corner of their systems operation; so closely linked were the Kindred with their own computer systems, that an attack upon one constituted an attack upon the other. Athena got to work, reconfiguring a part of the Kindred's own systems to mimic the whole…."Where is Angelique? Or Missy?"

"Maria is here, in her room. All this started after her return. And yes, we are sure it is her; standard security protocol. As for Missy, I cannot say."

The three gathered around the terminal Athena had essentially built, in the space of seconds. "See here," Athena pointed out, "enhanced power beings from all over the globe have been disappearing. To me, this indicates a specific strategic approach. You will note that many of these beings have run afoul of the being known as Brainiac. They were the ones to disappear first."

Alpha looked at her. "Have you a tactical proposal? As it is, we are basically under siege from this Brainiac."

A glimmer of one was coming to Athena, when Omega appeared from around the corner. "Omega! You—you should not be out of bed!" But he just nodded.

Kitten ran to him. "But, honey, you can't see! You, you need to take it easy until the Kindred can-*"

"But I can see, Kitten. I, I don't know how, but I can. Though not the same way as before…"

Kitten looked to Alpha, who shrugged. "It seems he…healed on his own. We do not understand it, not at all."

Omega came over and sat on his heels before them. "So fill me in. What's been happening?"

….

"So…..it would seem that our first order of business is finding Brainiac."

Alpha spoke up, via his voder, so Kitten could hear as well. "Incorrect. We already know approximately where he is…by means of where he is not."

Brainiac observed his captives, some twisting and writhing in the pain induced by the tests he was running. He was particularly interested in the one called Superman and the ones known as Green Lanterns. The workings of the power rings interested him greatly, but it seemed to involve the human will, and, as such, was really beyond his ability to reproduce. However, the actual mechanism was still fascinating.

The enhanced power beings known as the Teen Titans had not completely eluded him, but he could not account for the whereabouts of the ones known as Raven and Haywire. And there were others missing from his collection, as well. Plus, the anomaly in one of the rooms at Titans' Tower disturbed him, to some degree…..

But no matter. He knew where they were based, and knew they had to return to it sooner or later. So it was only a matter of time…

His shields were rocked as an unexpected energy surge struck them. He checked his external sensors…and his internal ones reported another surge of energy. The captives were gone. But how? And where?

There was an unfamiliar black box precisely where the captives had been. If Brainiac had been human enough, he would have smiled at the childish maneuver. Obviously, the box was some sort of destructive device. How the humans had found him here really no longer mattered. This cybership was compromised…

…..but Brainiac had not become the menace he had by not making preparations. This was one cybership. He had plenty more, scattered throughout the galaxy.

So he simply digitized his own ship, and deleted the original, after saving the information from the first one, of course.

If Brainiac had had the concept of ultimate sin, it would have been to deliberately or through negligence, allow loss of information.

To be continued…