Oracle and the Network
9.0
The status of Intergang took some searching, even for someone as effective as Oracle. The Question was a big help, providing names from her run ins with the gang, including Miss Whisper A'Daire and Mr. Kyle Abbot. Kyle appeared to have gone straight, the former wolf-man now powerless, but Whisper was still in the organization. Tailing her lead then to Frank Sixty, a criminal cyberneticist who had been behind a recent incarnation of Intergang.
"So he's running a cyborg chop-shop?" Charlie asked, dressed in her Misfit gear as the redhead perched on the Metropolis rooftop, watching the run down building. "Don't sound like he's the head of Intergang, anymore," she frowned.
"Agreed," Huntress nodded, the purple clad heroine sitting nearby while sweeping he building with her binoculars, "but he's still a connection we can trace." She activated her radio and reported in, "We're in position."
Oracle nodded, Barbara Gordon sitting in the high tech control center of the Aerie. She was in Metropolis too, to cut down on communication lag as well as to be on hand in case of trouble. On the screen before her was the badly run-down building, as well as the official floor plan and a projection based on further data she had gathered.
"Cass, are you ready?" Oracle asked.
"Yes," the asian girl answered calmly from a doorway, standing on street level with the Question. She was dressed all in black, a long sleeved shirt, pants and light boots.
"As my eloquent partner put it, we're ready to move," Renee Montoya noted, not wearing her usual faceless mask yet, instead wearing jeans, a t-shirt and a weathered jacket. "But I'm not sure about just going in the front door," she noted, "do we have a cover story in place?"
"What, you don't want to be posing as a possible client?" Oracle joked.
"Hell no," Renee said dryly.
There was a soft chuckle then Oracle continued, "You're a private eye, investigating one Horace Yoks. He went into Sixty's shop and didn't come out."
"I'm not licensed as a PI here, only in Gotham," Renee had to note.
"You are now," Oracle answered calmly, "I filed the paperwork and cleared it this morning."
"Sometimes you scare me," Renee sighed.
"So it's just us four?" Helena asked curiously.
"Hey!" an indignant Zinda yelped from the cloaked helicopter that was hovering over the building nearly silently.
"Sorry," Helena chuckled, "but you know what I mean, us four on the ground."
"Yes, but I have backup on call," Oracle said, "and to be honest I don't expect too much trouble. Sixty is clearly on the outs with his former allies."
"So we'll bust in from the top while the others distract them," Charlie nodded eagerly, "it'll be a piece of cake!"
"Don't underestimate them," Cass cautioned quietly, "overconfidence leads to defeat."
"Yes, Mr. Miyagi," Charlie sighed.
Renee saw the look of blank confusion on Cass' face and bit back a chuckle. "I'll explain it later," she quietly promised the young woman. She checked her watch and noted it was time as she loudly said, "We're going in."
Frank Sixty wasn't terribly impressive on first glance. He was a older man, with white hair, but he wasn't stooped and seemed reasonably muscled. There were hints he'd gone under the knife before, so Renee wasn't sure if her impressions were correct.
"Frank Sixty?" Renee asked as they went in the small curiosity shop, a cover for the surgical office their target maintained in the back.
"Don't use that name!" the man hissed. He glared at the two of them as he said, "I'm just old Frank, running his little shop."
"Don't screw with me," Renee strode forward as Cass quietly loomed in the background, "I know your rep, old man." She flipped out her PI's licence, then put it away as he wilted visibly.
"What so you want?" he asked flatly, Frank keeping a wary eye on Cass too.
Renee knew that Huntress and Misfit were already covertly entering from above, searching the building while they kept Sixty occupied. 'Better not underestimate him,' she reminded herself, 'he did attack the city with a giant robot crab.' Clearing her voice she gruffly said, "I'm searching for a missing person, one Horace Yoks,"
"That poseur?" Frank blinked. He barked a laugh as he said, "He chickened out! He refused to go through with it..."
Renee put a hand on a dusty counter and leaned towards him, "And THEN what happened?"
"Nothing to do with me," Frank answered bluntly.
"Wanna bet?" Renee demanded even as they began to hear sounds coming from upstairs, including the distinctive sound of energy weapons.
Frank looked up, alarmed as he demanded, "What is that!"
Frank back away, and his arms began to bulge, as if something was trying to burst out. "Cass, now!" Renee barked, even as she drew a pistol from under her jacket.
Cass moved like a shot, vaulting over the counter as she kicked the old man in the chest, driving him backwards. He hot the wall with a metallic clang, even as she delivered precise blows to the face and neck. "Nerve strikes don't work," she noted calmly as Frank's arms extended to tentacles and tried to grab her.
"Look out!" Renee said as she fired, bullets clanging into the writhing metal tubes. "He's like some kind of squid," she muttered.
Just then a shaped charge exploded the wall between the 'shop' and the labs, and Huntress and Misfit exploded in, fighting what looked like a mob of b-movie robots. Squat bodied and with tentacles or pincer claws the robots looked foolish, but they fought with a angry desperation.
"Dark Vengeance!" Misfit yelled as she kicked one to pieces, then grabbed another that was lunging at Renee.
"Get off me!" Huntress growled, using her bo staff to bash another robot to pieces. Thankfully the sheer number of robots were dropping off as the four women bashed, clobbered and blew them up, while Cass pummeled Frank Sixty.
"Get away, damn it!" Frank yelped as he tried to pluck Cass off with a robot arm, and failed. "What are you, some kind of monkey?"
"Oook," Cass grinned as she hit him again.
Renee calmly shot a robot trying to crawl towards them, then looked around at the fallen robots. "That's it?" she asked.
"Damn it, we were fighting these damn things from the top floor down!" Huntress ranted as she kicked a robot repeatedly, "They may be made of junk, but there's a LOT of them!"
"Right," Renee briskly walked over to where Cass was restraining Frank, more or less. "Now," she smiled as she put her pistol under his chin, "where were we?"
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"You didn't need to threaten him with a gun," Oracle noted disapprovingly some time later as Zinda ferried the team back to base.
Renee was sitting back, relaxing in her seat. "He was about half cyborg, I think," she pointed out, "I really doubt anything else would have done it."
"Did we get any good data from the thingy we stuck into the computers upstairs?" Misfit asked eagerly.
"It's a zip drive," Oracle sighed, "and yes, it introduced a Trojan Horse into his system. I'm reading everything he's doing, including some frantic calls to Intergang."
"Nice, Chief!" Zinda cheered as they soared along the skyline.
"So he was still working for Intergang?" Huntress asked, leaning forward in her seat.
"Yes, but apparently merely as a cybernetics sub-contractor," Oracle noted. "Once I parse the data, I should know more."
"Sub-contractor?" Misfit griped, "Since when did supercrooks go corporate?"
"I blame Lex Luthor, usually," Oracle joked.
Even Cass got that one, chuckling quietly. "So what's next?" she asked calmly.
"The boss sorts files, we get back to our daily lives," Huntress shrugged slightly. She looked over at Cass, "Did you finish the assignments I left for you?"
Cass nodded as she said, "I completed the whole workbook."
Huntress winced slightly, "You didn't have to do ALL of it..."
"Huh?" Renee looked curiously at the two women.
"Cass' education has been somewhat spotty," Huntress shrugged as she explained, "Babs asked me if I wanted to help out a bit."
"Ah," Renee nodded, and took a moment to quietly explain the 'Mr. Miyagi' comment to Cass too. Cass looked quite cute, trying to 'get' pop culture.
The helicopter came in low and fast, then slowed to a stop as they landed at the concealed helipad on their Metropolis base. The women unbuckled and headed in, still talking away with each other cheerfully.
"Do you need any help?" Misfit asked as they went down the hall into the apartments. "I'm pretty good at the whole school thing."
"Math and then Algebra," Cass shrugged.
"Eww, no," Misfit winced as she took her mask off. "If you need help with English or History, call," Charlie offered with a smile.
Renee hid a smile as she went through the apartments and living room, then opened the hidden door to Oracle's chambers. "Babs?" she called cautiously, having once walked in on her in a towel, sitting in front of the computers. Not that Renee minded the view, but...
"Come in," Babs said cheerfully, wheeling out from behind the computers in slacks and a t-shirt. As the others came in she smiled warmly, "Good work, everyone."
"Thanks," Helena grinned, having ditched her Huntress cowl. "You need us to run around beating people up some more? Because I'd kill for a shower right now."
"I'll wash your back," Renee volunteered cheerfully.
To be continued...
Notes: Frank Sixty is in fact a REAL DC character who tried to attack the city with a giant cybernetic crab. Seriously.
