The two girls waited, each of them on either side of the large door. As they bided their time, waiting for back up, to arrive, Kate held up a hand, and placed it on the door.
"What are you doing?" Morgan asked the other girl, who now had her eyes closed.
"I'm sensing the aura in the room, trying to see what it can tell me about those, people in there." Kate said to her.
As she began to feel the aura coming from the subjects, Kate's legs began to shake, and her teeth started to chatter, causing Morgan to become concerned for her.
Her condition appeared to worsen, as Kate began to take rapid breaths of air, at which point Morgan decided to no longer stand by, and pulled Kate from the door.
Kate's eyes opened, almost as if in shock, and she took a deep breath of air, before seeming to calm down.
"What was that!?" Morgan asked in an exasperated, and clearly worried tone of voice.
"I think,..." Kate paused as she took another deep breath, "I think, it's something everyone needs to know." She told the Atlantean.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Shade, and Emerald were the first of the other team mates to arrive on the scene. Shade's phasing power was utilized, to simply go straight to the girls, rather than having to take any stairs, or turns, or any other thing in their path.
The next two to arrive were Tay, and M, having used their strength to tear a path to Kate, and Morgan.
They were shortly followed by the arrival of Strix, Thomas, Alicia, and Leeann.
"Did anything new happen?" Thomas asked the group as a whole, but the question was mostly directed at Kate, and Morgan.
"Yes, I scanned their aura's in the room, all of those people in there, those mutated beings, they're scared." Kate told him.
"Scared? Like response scared to danger?" Thomas asked her.
"No I mean, they are, as far as I can tell, going through a phobia, it's as if all of them are under a mass hallucination of their worst fears." Kate explained to the group.
"So then maybe whatever they were exposed to, doesn't harm them, the heart attacks could be brought on, by their elevated stress levels." Thomas pointed out to the group.
"They were exposed to something called M99, but there was some crazy guy, he may have added something else. Shade, and I located a computer, it shows everything." Emerald said to Thomas, displaying a calmer, more serious side to his personality.
Thomas paused for a moment, as he thought over what to do. "Alright, we go in there, take them down as fast as possible, and try to avoid any serious damage. When we get back to the base, we can go over what's in them." He told the group, at which point, Strix spoke up to the group.
"I did that, my goggles, have a lot of scan features, still I think we should take care of the problem first." She said to Thomas, who nodded at her information.
The team got ready, and then Thomas opened the door.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
The team had ten members, the mutated, test subjects, numbered at about 50, leaving about five, for each of them to take care of.
They stench of urine, and fecal matter was almost overpowering.
The bestial, people attacked first, rushing at what they seemed to perceive as a threat with animalistic fury.
Thomas met one of them head on, ducking under a swipe at his head, and then ramming his elbow in the mutant's midsection, knocking the wind out of it.
Thomas took the time, to use his bat, gripping it like a staff, and smacking the mutant under the chin with it, knocking it to the ground.
Thomas then turned, and gave a swing to another mutant, the sound of it's ribs cracking under the blow could be heard.
Thomas performed a pivot, and then with a downwards thrust, he took out the leg of another.
When another mutant struck at him, Thomas blocked with the bat, causing the mutant to break two of it's fingers, at which point, Thomas kicked it in the stomach, and then grabbed the mutant's head to ram his knee into it's face.
Another mutant rushed at him, Thomas held his bat in front of himself to absorb the impact, however the mutant was stronger, and still knocked Thomas backwards, though he only stumbled.
When the mutant came at him again, Thomas performed an underhanded swing, going upwards diagonally, and hitting the mutant in it's jaw.
Morgan was using her water powers to fight, along with other magical abilities picked up from her training.
She formed an orb of water around the head of a mutant, cutting off it's air supply. The mutant struggled for a few moments, before being rendered comatose.
When another mutant rushed her from the side, Morgan, directed water to push it down to the ground, and then zapped the experiment.
A blast of water, laced with electricity, was sent into the torso of another mutant, causing the creature to fall.
A mutant appeared to have attacked Morgan, slashing through her body, only for Morgan to disperse into water.
The real Morgan then wrapped water around it's legs, and slammed it into the ground.
Morgan's final mutant was taken care of, when she knocked a high speed ball of water into the mutant.
Out of all of the members of the team, Shade seemed to be the least involved over the combat.
Having the power to phase through solid matter, meant that he did not have to care as much, about getting injured.
Shade took out two mutants at once, when they both charged, and he phased, causing them to knock their heads into each other.
Shade ran at a third mutant, jumping at it's waist, and phasing it into the ground. Shade then ran a phased hand through it's skull, rendering it unconscious.
Shade phased his arm through the chest of another, causing the creature to fall from the attack.
Shade let another mutant, that was charging, phase through him, and it smashed it's head into the floor.
Kate, cart wheeled out of the way of a mutant's downward punch. The ground cracked under the force of the blow. She then retaliated, by stabbing it in the leg with a knife. The mutant howled in pain, but it went down.
She was able to hear the approach of another, and a purple energy engulfed her hands, as she turned, and dealt a double fisted blow, sending the mutant sprawling.
Kate then back flipped, to avoid, a mutant that was taking a swipe at her. Kate concentrated for a moment, and then shut down the mind of the beast.
A frown came across her face, as Kate felt a little bad for using such a tactic.
Kate mind controlled another mutant, and used it to attack another one, before shutting down the mind controlled one.
Emerald, and Leeann proved to make a good tag team, as they were both able to effortlessly blend their powers into their fighting styles.
Leeann jumped backwards, to avoid the claws of a mutant. As she did so, she transformed her arm into a long tentacle, which wrapped itself around the mutant's arm.
Leeann pulled, the creature, slingshotting it forward. Emerald who was waiting for the mutant, had created a large mallet and gave it a blow to the chest.
When another mutant came at her, Leeann jumped up, her legs transforming into springs, which she used to deliver a powerful kick, staggering the mutant.
She then followed up by morphing tendrils out of her arms, to wrap around the mutant's legs, and then slam it into the ground.
Emerald fought off two mutants at once, one of them came from the side, and he created a hard shield, and then quickly making a step, Emerald used it to go upwards, jumped, and then twisted while reinforcing his shin with emerald, and laying a kick to the head of the mutant.
Immediately afterwards, before even hitting the ground, he shot out shards at an approaching mutant. This tactic, temporarily blinded the creature, and Emerald, followed up by creating a disc, and throwing it at a different mutant, getting a head shot, and downing it.
He then returned to the stunned one, and charged the creature, his shoulder becoming covered, and ramming into it.
Leeann meanwhile morphed a pair of wings, and after flying up dive bombed on one of the mutants.
When another mutant grabbed at her wings, she made them disappear, and instead grew a tail with a hard club at the end, and whacked the mutant in it's head.
Leeann then jumped onto the back of a mutant, her hands becoming covered in bone like studs. She boxed the mutant's ears, and then gave a hard punch to the back of it's head.
During her combat, Strix made use of multi-purpose discs, along with hand to hand combat.
She jumped up, turning her body, horizontally, her legs putting a mutant into a pair of head scissors. Strix twisted, using the momentum to bring the beast down.
As the mutant fell, she leapt off, throwing a disc in mid-air, that hit another mutant with a surge of electricity.
When another mutant attacked from behind, Strix, ducked under the arm, and then from behind the creature, she swept its' legs out, with one of her own, and then using her other leg, brought her knee into the mutant's chest.
A mutant attempted to ram, at her, and at first she stood her ground. Just as the behemoth came close, however Strix bobbed to the side, and grabbed it's arm.
After doing so, she swung her torso, connecting her boots to the mutant's face.
She was then almost grabbed from behind. Strix, heard the attack though, she leapt to the side, and then threw a disc at the abdomen of the mutant, causing it to stumble.
Strix finished the creature, by jumping up, putting it into a headlock, and then slamming it into the ground.
Out of all of the fighters, Alicia could have been called the most pragmatic.
She never considered herself a goody two-shoes, or even a hero for that matter. She simply won by any means necessary.
While she did have skills in hand to hand combat, which she displayed, from dodging a mutant claw, and then chopping that mutant in the throat, and kicking it's kneecap out, she seemed to prefer the stand by method.
Alicia held out her hands, and then made a squeezing gesture, breaking the ribs of one of the mutants.
She then used her telekinesis to casually lift another, and then slam it into a wall several times. Her expression was almost a bored one.
Alicia then used her powers on another, she controlled the mutant as if it were a puppet. A puppet which she used to fight the others with.
The controlled mutant, put another into a full nelson, and then jumped down, smashing it to the floor.
Alicia then hit the controlled one with a blast of telekinetic energy.
Tay, and M, the two powerhouses of the team. While they were both powerful, the way they displayed that power was in full opposite.
Tay embraced his power, and seemed to have a good amount of control over it. M on the other hand seemed to fear his, and so while Tay was open, M was reclusive during the battle.
Tay blasted one mutant with an energy beam, and then gave a hard uppercut to one that was trying to ram into him.
M meanwhile stood in one spot, and then zapped a mutant by snapping his fingers, and sending out an arc of electrcity.
Another mutant appeared to punch M, who super heated the air, causing the mutant's arm to burn before the contact was able to be made. M then backhanded the mutant sending it flying.
Tay stopped a mutant with ice beams, causing the creature to fall from it's drastically lowered body temperature.
He then flew at another, tackling the mutant, and going into the wall with it.
M caught the hand of a mutant who tried to claw him, and in retaliation, M punched it in the stomach, the mutant coughed up blood as it fell over.
M then teleported to another, a charging one, where it charged right into his fist.
Tay side stepped, another attack, and then downed the mutant with a hard punch to the jaw.
M meanwhile took care of the last one, by blasting it with electricity.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
The battle was over, and the team stood proudly in victory. The fight had not been a hard one by any means. They were basically fighting animals. The mutants were strong, but they were not unstoppable, rampage strong, and they had animal level intelligence, combined with low coordination. "We did it!" Tay said taking joy in their triumph, and getting a hi-five from Emerald. "Yeah, now we have to perform clean up." Alicia pointed out to them.
(And now a little time skip, our heroes are back at the base.)
The team sat down in the living room, going over their first mission, considering what went well, and things that could have gone better.
They had all watched the video that Emerald and Shade had found on the laptop. Thomas after viewing it turned to Strix to ask her a nearly forgotten question.
"Strix, you said you were able to scan them, what did you find?" Thomas asked of her.
"It was a mix of different serums. However I've never seen any like them. The first one was similar to the venom serum, the one that created that Bane guy. However this strain was more potent, not only pumping the muscle, but also the bones, and skin tissue as well, which is why they, have deformities such as random spikes of bones, or oversized, foreheads, and jaws. The second one however is the one I found more interesting. The other serum present, is a neurotoxin. One that produces hallucinations of what one fears the most. In small doses, I'd say it would last for maybe a few minuets, but these guys here, they had a lot of it pumped in, meaning they were basically in a never ending nightmare."
Thomas thought things over for a moment before asking her another question. "I only know of one person who deals with trying to use fear to commit crimes,...Scarecrow. However before we jump here, I need to ask if you know of any possible cures?"
"Creating a cure is easy, tracking down those responsible, and preventing this from happening again is the hard part." She told him.
"But, I thought that we knew it was this Milo person, and the Scarecrow man?" Morgan asked the team.
"We know Milo worked on the serum, but we don't have proof that he screwed it up, or plotted to turn innocent people into monsters, also while Scarecrow does work through fear, that does not automatically mean it was him. He may be operating behind the scenes, or it's possible that someone else is aware of his M.O., and framing him." Thomas said to the Atlantean girl.
"Still there is good that came of the video. We can try and track down this Milo, and since the recorder took date times, we could give the North Team a call, see if Nightwing knows what the good doctor was up to on the nights in question, between one month before the video's start, and then the end date of the experiment's." Thomas said to the others, who nodded in agreement with him.
"Alright, Emerald since you're our computer guy, see if you can get anything on this Milo character." Thomas said to him.
"Not a problem." Emerald said giving a playful salute.
"And Strix work on a cure if you can. I meanwhile will give Nightwing a call and find out what I can." Thomas said to the group.