(Everyone I am very sorry for taking so much time. I am also sorry for giving so little for such a long wait. I was honestly just out of it. Anyway's say thank you to Reven228, who if he had not talked with me, I probably would not have gotten this up.)
The question on everyone's mind was trying to figure out just what was going on. Now that they knew, they were dealing with alien technology, it only made things more difficult.
Thomas had ordered the rest of the team, to contact a list of alien heroes to see what they could come up with. They had found nothing. It was not; Martian, Kryptonian, Daxamite, Apokaliptian, no one who was an alien, identified the technology as being of their home planet.
The team had a movie going in the background, it was supposed to be relaxing them, and yet all they could think about was work.
"Oh hold up guys, the killer is about to off the promiscuous, alcoholic, pot smoking, cheerleader, with an attitude problem." Tay said to the rest of the team, a that exact scene played out.
"You know considering the girl who lives in these movies is always a virgin, who never smokes or drinks, it's kind of surprising that the killer doesn't just take a break, and then explain directly to the camera about the dangers of drug use. Which I'm sure ends with; "And remember if you do any drugs, I'll filet you, and stick your head on a pike." Tay said to the others.
"I think it comes down to a challenge thing. Serial killers expect fear, they expect to take on those they can prey on. The instant they go up against someone who can, and will fight back, and even more so actually knows how to, that's when they start losing their edge. It's why even hardened murderers, get uneasy when they see a giant bat shadow overhead." Thomas said to Tay.
As they continued their work a new assignment became available to them. Thomas however was reluctant to stop working on their find.
"Alright, Strix, Emerald, you two are our tech guys, so you sit this one out, M you stay behind to, just in case they need anything, everyone else suit up." Thomas said to the team.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Those who were going boarded the ship. "So what is it this time?" Alicia asked of their leader. Thomas brought up a holographic feed of their enemies.
"Gang bangers outfitted with cybernetics. They've been running rough shed over the Turchin Area."
"What sort of them?" Kate asked Thomas.
"What do you mean?" Thomas asked her in return.
"Are these racial supremacist gang members, such as Neo Nazi's? Are they typical one's like every gang that comes out of a neighborhood with low income and social-economic pressure? Do they actually speak English, or just communicate in slang and hand signs? What are their colors and other identifying factors?" Kate rambled off all of her questions to him.
"Alright, all of those are fair questions. I'll do my best to answer them. Given that the gang employs various people of different ethnicity, I'm fairly certain it isn't a supremacist group, unless they advocate violence to a group that is not based on skin color. They are fairly typical, the Turchin area, is notoriously poor, with a lot of housing projects. They appear to speak English well enough, though like all gangs they have their gang signs, as well as the majority of them being uneducated, and so while they know the words, they are unable to put them together in a coherent fashion. Their primary colors are black and orange, and their common symbol is a demonic, rat looking thing."
"Why the interest gangs?" Thomas asked her, finding the whole thing a bit curious.
"I had a bad run in with a gang once, it's in the past now, and all of them were lined up an executed by a cop who went off the deep end." Kate explained to the group aboard the ship.
"The King, he often speaks highly of this land, but in Atlantis we do not have these gangs, just terrorists like Black Manta. I also thought there was some form of wage check in balance to ensure that everyone had enough." Morgan said to her surface companions.
"Unfortunately it's not that simple. See in your world, dictatorship, and by all technicality it is, it works for you. Aquaman is a great guy, I had the privilege of working with him a few times. Here on the surface however, when one man gets a lot of power, we humans tend to go drunk with it. You see Aquaman is your king, but he does not place himself above you, the way human kings, and dictators often put themselves above those in their land. Now as for the phrase enough to get by, that's the problem. It's just enough to get by, not enough to live comfortably." Thomas explained to the Atlantean.
"Alright we're touching down a hot spot, everyone be selective, and be quick." Thomas said as the ship began to touch down, on a building overlooking gang warfare.
"So you mean disable one, and then try to get the rest before they most likely run off." Alicia said to Thomas.
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"The structure of the DNA is a hybrid, it's like something found in plants, and microscopic organisms, thoughts?" Emerald asked of Strix who was working across from him.
"Perhaps a viral strain?" Strix suggested to him.
"Could be, it does seem to target host body cells, but the genetic make up seems off." Emerald replied to her.
"Hold on, we've got a message, odd it's on the emergency frequency, do we listen or wait for Thomas?...Alright it's an emergency apparently we'll listen and save the message." Emerald said asking, and then answering his own question.
The message brought up a holographic display of William Von Hammer.
"Thomas, anyone, I don't know if you'll get this in time. I've had to go into hiding. I needed a safe place, because they came looking for me." Whatever "they" were seemed to have made William frightened.
The hologram of him pulled out a vial of blue liquid from his jacket.
"This is..." William was unable to finish before a large, spine pierced through his body.
"Ker...ker...
"Sorry Leute, aber es ist zu spät" The message then ended after that. After a moment of silence, Emerald spoke up.
"What was it too late for?" He asked. "Either way, I'm sure everyone else will find this to be interesting, I'll upload a link to the others, and the League." He said to Strix.
AAAAAAAAAAAAA
The others who were on the mission were in the middle of a battle, when Thomas received the message. A thug had tried to strike him with brass knuckles, only for Thomas to grab his arm, break it, and then partially burn the metal into his hand.
He then thrusted his bat into the stomach of another thug, while at the same time answering his comm-link.
"What is it?" Thomas asked, while dodging a burst of heat and metal. Thomas then returned fire, with a literal fireball.
"Damn!,...Okay, I suppose it is a start. I can't believe it got the detective killed though, especially since he's apparently the only one who knew what we were looking for."
Thomas used his bat to deflect a projectile. "I'll get back to you later." Thomas said before hanging up.
Thomas then returned to helping the rest of the team in their battle. A stray shot, nearly hit Morgan. Shade however, grabbed onto her, and extended his ability to phase, allowing the shot to pass through.
Tay meanwhile, blasted a force of energy into three thugs, knocking them into a wall. Thomas was almost hit, though Alicia used her telekinetic energy to push him to the side. Thomas nodded at her, to silently show his gratitude.
The battle continued on, for the next several minuets, until the heroes managed to emerge in victory.
"Alright, team let's,..." Thomas noticed a green flashing light on one of the pulse lasers, he felt fairly certain that it was not a bomb, it was reading like a phone did when it had a message. Walking over to the fallen thug, Thomas bent down, and pressed the button on the red weapon. It loaded a holographic image of Professor Hugo Strange.
"Ah I was hoping you would answer this message. By now I assume that all of you are quite worn out. I can assure you that I am doing quite pleasantly. Did you really think you had won? However now's not the time, you have other matters to be concerned with, I've studied your group, let's see how the prototype does, I look forward to watching, you fall. "
The message then ended, just as the door of a warehouse slid up. Emerging from the shadows, came to be either a cyborg, or an advanced android, it was one of those two, but it clearly was not human. The being was humanoid, with gray skin, though in some places it did not have skin, and instead appeared to have tightly, packed, tentacles, and scales.
These areas seemed random, such as two patches on the left arm, a patch of the right shoulders, the right side of the face, and a portion of the stomach. It's chest was barrel chested, and it's legs seemed to bend back at the knees, giving it a slightly hunched stance.
It's feet were similar to those of animals more than humans, being that it was tip-toed with the rest of the foot being upwards, and behind the leg.
Alicia went first, she attempted to use her telekinesis on it, but it seemed to have some form of barrier, to prevent that.
Thomas made flames burst from his hands, and then went for a strike with his bat. The robot proved to be flame proof, and then stopped the attack by grabbing his arm, to avoid the bat strike, and then throwing Thomas into a nearby wall.
Thomas grunted in pain, as he got back up, just in time to see the creature backhanding Tay, who had just avoided an attack.
"Guys, we have to coordinate, we can't attack by ourselves. Everyone center on me." Thomas said to the others.
The robot fired a beam of energy, that the others managed to avoid, and then group on Thomas. The robot turned and began to advance towards them.
"Alright, it can deal with us individually, but all of us at once should be a problem. I noticed that it froze up for it's barrier against Alicia. Alicia use your telekinesis again, Tay, you and I will do a double attack."
The others acted, out Thomas's plan, with Alicia hitting the robot with a blast of telekinetic energy, to which it's barrier rose again.
As this happened, Alicia kept the pressure on, and this allowed Thomas to first get in a hard swing with his bat, against the hard exterior of the robot, while Tay then, flew in with a double fisted, uppercut, and followed it with an energy beam.
The robot decided to switch to them, which was it's mistake as it allowed Alicia to easily rip it in half.
"Well,...he did say it was a prototype." Tay pointed out to the others.
"Which is not good news." Alicia said to him.
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Everyone was back at base, and they all had a lot to discuss.
"So how much of a threat is Strange? Is he behind everything going on? Or is he more or less informed by some alien species but not the true threat?" Tay wondered aloud to the others.
"I don't know, but for those of who were on the mission today, we need to get checked for injuries, I'm pretty sure, I tore some arm muscles, and I feel like I injured my shoulder blade, when I got tossed into the wall." Thomas stood up, and he seemed to have trouble standing up erectly, most likely as a result of his wounds.
"So are we just taking a breather?" Emerald asked him.
"No, we need to be on the field, but for now, I'd like to focus more on reconnaissance missions, rather than one's which involve direct contact." Thomas explained to the group, who all seemed to be alright with that.
"Also tech squad. We salvaged parts of our robot that we fought for you two to analyze." Thomas said to Emerald and Strix, as he handed them the salvaged parts.
Thomas then left in order to go to the medical wing of the base.