Snippets, Omakes and Short Stories

[AntonioCC]

"So, you met this Shannon, and then what?" Lynch asked.

"She... helped me to focus myself, and gave me a purpose." Cole said, reminiscing, "I infiltrated the PMC on her behalf, she had info that their next job would make them cross Slade's path, and wanted to keep an eye on him. We helped Slade against some African guerrillas... nasty stuff, those guys were crazy... The thing is that afterwards, it happened more or less as I told you."

"And where is that 'Shannon', right now?" Lynch asked, interested.

"No idea." Cash said with a shrug, "Last thing I got from her was that something had come up, but she didn't specify what it was."

"Interesting, but..." Lynch started to say, before being interrupted by a communication from Jones and Lane.

Apparently, if they knocked down a plaster wall they would find a door to a maintenance access that would give then a way to reach both the communications node that the attacker would be using and the helipad in the roof, three levels over the director's office.

"Just how many secret passages there are in this goddamned building?" one of the Rangers said, in a low voice, when the new orders were announced.

Triskelion. Office of the Director of SHIELD.​

King Faraday was alone. Some of the Security people had wanted to do some kind of fighting retreat, but he couldn't stomach more innocent deaths because of this clusterfuck, so he had tricked them, locking them into an out of the way store room before all the exits from this level had been blocked.

And all this mess, all the suffering he had caused to his people, just because he listened to Priest, who had regaled his ear with what he wanted to hear. And too many good people, like Chandler, had paid the price of his foolishness.

Priest, as Deputy Chief of Internal Security, would probably try to paint his actions as the ones of a deranged lunatic, a Miles Craven in the making, who had only been stopped by his, meaning Priest, prompt action in taking command of "loyal" security forces, as well as subverting elements of the PMCs. And of course all people who could refute this would be unfortunate casualties. Diabolic in its simplicity.

He looked at the heavily reinforced door. Six inches of heavily reinforced steel, locked in place by bars of the same steel that were inside walls 20 inches thick of high quality reinforced concrete. He was sure that they would be able to penetrate his office, but it would take time. Maybe time enough to leave some metaphorical time bomb to screw over Priest and his shadowy backers.

 

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Door to the office of the Director of SHIELD​

"How long?" Priest asked. He was wearing a helmet and armor over his three-pieces suit, which made for a somewhat incongruous image.

"Twenty minutes, to half an hour. I have to check that there aren't other security systems in place in case somebody would try to do exactly what I'm doing." said the electronics expert from the false ceiling, where he could access the gate mechanism, before he went back to manipulate it while he was mumbling about cheapskate beancounters and old fossils that would still be using an abacus if it depended on them.

Priest rolled his eyes and tried again to contact the team in the third level. Static, just as before. He was tempted to sent a team to investigate, but the doomed resistance of the security elements loyal to Faraday had left him dangerously understrength, so he decided to stay the course, consolidating his troops in the upper levels, and leaving alone the paperpushers. That team had probably fallen afoul of remaining elements of Faraday's loyalists, but once he had dealt with Faraday, he could afford to mop the resistance.

He walked a bit apart of the group to sit in an chair and think about the situation. He should have protested more and try to stage a home invasion gone bad or a car bomb on Faraday when he started to plan his clean sweep or better, when he started to suspect, but no, his bosses had to overreach with this grandiose clusterfuck.

"Yeah, a real clusterfuck." his number two for this operation said besides him, "Don't be surprised, is written all over your face."

"Did something like this happened in yourtime in IO, Dean?" Priest asked.

"Not really. The Covert Action Teams sometimes got fucked over without lube, but it was usually because Craven had some big plan that usually succeeded or wanted to test some of his guinea pigs on field conditions, not because some high ranking officer that had never been in the field got visited by the good idea fairy." Dean answered, rolling his eyes as he said the last phrase, "And somebody has already noticed the situation. There is a concealed encampment on the otehr side on the river. Rangers and HRT, would be my guess."

"Fuuuck." he said, "We have to finish this before the mount an assault."

"Yeah, especially as I revisited the roster of the PMCs that we hired as cannon fodder and got a familiar name in them. Cole Cash." Upon seeing Priest confused expression, he added, "One of the members of Team 7, and guess where he was before we started our sweep?"

"Third Level?" he said with a sinking feeling, remembering the lost contact.

"Exactly. So we have a, let's not mince words, a fucking supersoldier running around in the building, and he has no reason to trust us."

"What do you suggest?"

"Start the mopping up now, and don't engage him directly." Dean said, "Use stun and smoke grenades to soften him and then normal grenades to cripple him, and only then go for the kill with overwhelming force. I would love to have heavier weapons or more people against him."

"And if wishes were horses..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

"Take your best people, we should have enough to finish with an old man."

"I'm going, then." Dean said, and put his hand on his old friend shoulder, while saying low so that only he could hear him, "Hail Hydra."

"Hail Hydra." he answered in kind.

 

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SHIELD director office​

A light in his desk changed from red to green, signaling that his time was up. He hoped that he had done enough to give his successor a fighting chance against the cabal that had orchestrated this mess. The desk was solid oak, reinforced with inserts of ironwood and steel, where he could get away with it. If he took refuge behind it, he could make their attack a nightmare if he played well his cards. That, of course provided that they didn't brought an anti-vehicle weapon.

But what purpose would it serve? He only had nine bullets in his pistol, and the armor they were wearing was good enough to stop them. After all he had ordered buying them, and knew its specs. He was weighing what to do in the final seconds before they stormed his office, when he heard a noise that only could come from the upper level, and noticed a small fiberglass camera in the window. He looked at it, waved and smiled, before throwing himself behind the desk as the door started to open with a hiss of compressed air..

A hail of bullets rained over the desk before several men entered the room clad in tactical gear. They looked around, and gave the all clear signal to somebody in the back, without stopping aiming at the desk.

"Well, well, well." Priest said as he entered the office, "You can get up, Faraday. Or do you want to die hiding like a rat?"

The only answer of Faraday was laughter, something that puzzled Priest.

"Have you finally gone mad, old fossil?" he said, more bothered than he wanted to admit.

"Actually, I'm waiting for the cavalry." Faraday said, as several figures rappelled down, broke the windows by shooting at them and entered the office, securing it quickly.

"Director?" one of them said, removing the helmet that obscured the face of John Lynch.

 

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"I have told them," Dawn said when they came back, "About the Waynes."

"Then, you already know." Buffy said, "We still don't know what we are going to do about that."

"Yeah, that's right. Silas Wayne is coming..."

"Silas Wayne, great-uncle to Bruce, I presume." Professor Xavier said, earning a look from Buffy, "I know him. Thomas presented us, shortly before his death. A pretty interesting man, but, it has to be said, more than a bit cranky and opinionated. "

"Wonderful." Buffy commented sarcastically, just as the buzzer rang.

She went to open the door, showing a frail white haired man riding a motorized wheelchair. The man stopped when he saw the people gathered there, and smiled wryly before addressing the other man in a wheelchair.

"Hi, Charles, and these must be students on your school." the old man said, talking in a snobbish tone, belied by the smile in his face.

"Actually Ororo, whom you have already meet, is faculty now." Charles said, unfazed by the tone in the other man's voice, "As well as my right hand, as you well know. That was good imitation of your brother, by the way."

"Yes, Patrick grated on everybody nerves." the man answered in a more normal tone, "Anyway; I came to visit my grandnieces... You don't seem all that surprised."

"I just told them... Ahm... How do I call you?"

"Uncle would be nice, but I would settle for a simple Silas." Silas Wayne said, "And can you introduce me to your visitors?"

After introducing everybody, Silas looked at Scott with special attention.

"Scott Summers? Any relation with Hank Summers?" he asked with a frown.

"My uncle. But I haven't seen or heard of him since two years ago, and even then it was because I was looking for him." Scott said, and then looked down, "It went... poorly." He gathered himself quickly, and looking to the old man eye to eye... well, eye to sunglasses, rather, he added in a challenging tone, "Whatever the blood relation, to me, Buffy and Dawn are family."

"Good." Silas said with a smile and then turned to look at Xavier; "You have a good one here, Charles." he turned back to Scott and said, "In that case, I hope that will forgive this old coot if he considers you family too."

"Ah... Thanks?" Scott said.

"Don't thank me yet, kid." Silas said, with a smile "I can be a terrible nag at times, as Bruce can probably tell you." He took a deep breath, and turned to Buffy, "As a said, I came to visit you two. I didn't expect a full delegation of Xavier to be present."

"We were discussing Dawn enrollment in Xavier's school, actually." Buffy said, "They have an opening, and Dawn isn't happy in her current High School."

"Interesting. Do you need any help with tuition, or...?"

"No, even before we knew about the money that Thomas and Martha left us, we had enough." Buffy said.

 

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"And you, Buffy? What are your plans for the future?" Silas asked.

"...I don't really know." Buffy said, "The last years in Sunnydale were so much of a nightmare, that I never had time to think about what I wanted to do with my life."

"That bad?"

"You have no idea." Dawn said, her hand, unconsciously, going to her abdomen.

Silas noticed the gesture, but decided to leave it for the moment. Instead he focused his gaze on both Summers sisters and he didn't like what he saw. He prided himself in knowing what made people tick, even if his grandnephew baffled him on occasions, and there were hints of things he had only seen in war veterans.

He decided that he had to research Sunnydale in depth as soon as he could, because if things were as bad as he suspected from the sisters demeanor the city destruction had been a blessing in disguise, for everybody involved.

"What do you think?" Dawn said, which brought him back to the present, realizing that in his introspection, he had missed a chunk of the conversation.

"Sorry, what were you saying? I was woolgathering" Silas said with a sheepy expression.

"Scott had suggested that Buffy could go back to college here in Gotham..."

"Yes, Gotham University has a great reputation. The Psychology School in particular is one of the best of the country." Silas said.

"Really? I studied Psychology on UC Sunnydale." Buffy said, interested, "But with my work in the NGO, I don't know how much could I go to class."

"I could always talk with Hugo to see what can be done."

"Hugo?" Buffy said, "Sounds like a fashion designer."

"Maybe, but I'm talking about professor Hugo Strange. A good friend, and he is the dean of the School." Silas explained, missing Xavier's frown upon hearing the name, "I'm pretty sure we can hammer an arrangement about your classes."

 

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Kent farm​

Nick got out of the pick-up and took a deep breath. No, despite what his instincts were telling him, he wasn't going to write the report right away. With things as they were right now in the Triskelion, he wasn't even sure that at the end there would be a SHIELD to report to. He shook his head, and focused in the here and now.

Returning home would have to wait, at least until the situation with SHIELD becomes clearer. Jonathan was already getting some things down from the attic, while Martha and Jack were taking care of the baby. But something was telling him that it hadn't finished yet.

To his death bed, he couldn't say what made him look at the road. Maybe he had in consciously glimpsed the dirt moving out of the corner of his eye, or maybe it was just coincidence, but he was looking in the right direction to see something crystalline emerging from the ground, some distance from the house.

"That damned thing is still after the kid!" he said running into the house.

"But we saw it be destroyed." Jonathan said, as he looked out of the window and saw the thing prowl toward their home. Yes that was the word, prowl like some kind of beast. He looked at Martha who had already taken the baby, and all of them started to ran toward the back of the house.

"How vulnerable is that thing?" Jack asked.

"No idea. Why?" Nick asked.

"I have some explosives in the old barn." Jack said, and then explained, "There is a big stump in the middle of one of the new fields. We were going to blow it up next week. And don't worry; I have my certification up to date."

"And how do we make it explode without us getting blasted in the explosion?" Nick asked.

 

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"Don't worry about that." Jack said, looking back, "I have an idea."

"Let's hear it, then." Nick said, looking back and seeing that the thing had appreciably sped up, though not as much as he would expect. Maybe this... whatever it was had been damaged in the explosion, "But do it quickly."

"Jonathan, when I finish explaining, get the kid and run toward the barn. And, this is what we are going to do..."

Triskelion. Lower levels.

"So, this is the great 'Grifter'," Mr. Deacon, the former IO agent turned mercenary, said as he threw Cole Cash toward the wall, beside a window, "I hoped more of a member of Team 7."

"Life is full of little disappointments." Cash said as he ostensibly cradled an injured side, while hiding a .50 Desert Eagle loaded with Armor Piercing bullets, "What the fuck are you, by the way, Dean? Another of Craven's little experiments?."

"It's Deacon now, and that's for me to know and for you to wonder about... at least until your death." Deacon said as he tried to pick-up Cash.

"Surprise!" Cash said, as he produced his gun and shot him on the face twice, before shooting the glass of the window, and throw Deacon's body through the now broken glass. With metahumans better safe than sorry. If he was dead, they would fish his body from the Potomac later, if not, well, he would need time to come back, and then it would be John's problem.

Unknown to him, Deacon didn't intend at all to return. As he fell into the Potomac, half his face blown up to reveal the alien metal underneath, he received a transmission from his superiors, recalling him to base. As he settled on the bottom, and before he started to swim downriver to surface somewhere in Virginia, he briefly wondered what had happened. He surmised that while the diversion had been a success, the capture operation had failed. It didn't matter, Priest was the only loose end, and he wouldn't be that for long.

Kent farm​

The drone could perceive its objective. One of the natives was carrying it and taken refuge in a structurally compromised building made of dead vegetable matter. The Infiltration unit was not ready to act independently for prolonged periods, and it was already experiencing a serious degradation in performance, especially in sensor coverage, even before taking in to account the damage suffered in the reentry and the impact on the planet surface. But even a diminished performance should be enough to fulfill its objective.

The first news the infiltration unit had of the plans of the natives was the roaring noise of an engine coming to life. It ignored the noise at first, but as the vehicle started to go near, it decided to destroy it before continuing to finish the objective, only to find itself scooped by a ground material collector attached to the front part of a farming vehicle, full of a slippery substance that made the task of getting upright again more difficult.

It had finally managed to reach an upright position and it was about to rip the vehicle to pieces, when the vehicle stopped, the combination of inertia and the slippery surface throwing it into the ground, just as both the native carrying the objective and the vehicle driver ran out. It did barely had time to consider this new development when something exploded inside the building, very close to the gate, before everything went black.

 

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Triskelion. SHIELD Director's office.​

James Priest was lying on the floor very quietly. Just as the loyalist assault had started, he knew that everything was lost, so he did the only thing an inveterate opportunist like him could do, throw himself to the ground while the assault forces mowed down his soldiers like the chaff they were. Down on the ground, he reviewed his options, and they weren't good. He was going to jail, and he knew too much about HYDRA infiltration in SHIELD to be allowed to live, so his only option was to spill the beans as soon as possible, specially given that he was HYDRA's highest ranked infiltrator in SHIELD, and hence he knew who were most of the others. But all his planning was interrupted when he felt his entire body growing numb.

'What!?' he thought as his body started to move of his own accord.

His hands stealthily grabbed a pistol from a nearby fallen soldier, and his head moved slightly so whatever entity was controlling his body had a better field of view of Faraday. He tried to stop himself, but his body was no longer answering his commands,

The hand with the gun moved slowly, aiming it very carefully, and shot, hitting Faraday in the back of the head, just before his body jumped behind the desk and put the gun in his mouth, carefully aiming to a particular part of the head. The last thing that passed through Priest's head before the 9 mm bullet that killed him was a perverse consideration of how at the end he had been just another pawn like the dead soldiers around him.

Kent farm​

While Jonathan and Martha carried John, who didn't look very well right now, and the kid to the house, Nick neared the flaming wreck of the barn carefully, the gun still in his hand. He wanted to be sure that that thing was dead once and for all.

He could see that the tractor was pretty much untouched, having been protected by the backhoe, but the granary, while the structure looked more or less intact, would need a lot of work to be usable. Given how it looked he wouldn't blame the Kents if they demolished it and built a new one in its place.

He had barely cleared the tractor when he saw movement to his left, just where the explosion had taken place. He had barely had time to react when something full of soot and ashes threw him to the ground, and the left side of his face exploded in pain.

Blindly he tried to hit it with the gun, only to get the cannon jammed inside a gash on its outer cover. Whatever it was chose that moment to hit his right arm, causing it to close the grip on reflex. The shot sounded dimmer than it should to his ears, but before he lost consciousness he felt the thing fall off him, its limbs suddenly immobile, and heard people running toward him and an ambulance getting closer.

 

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Somewhere​

Nick awoke slowly, in an unfamiliar bed, with something covering like half of his face. As he wondered about that, the events of the last 24 day came back to him.

"Ah, you are awake." a woman's voice said from his blind side. He turned his head to look at a middle aged woman in a doctor's coat, while a nurse left the room, "I'm Doctor Gannet, and you are in Smallville Medical Center. What do you remember?"

"Not much, really." he stalled, before remembering the cover story he had agreed with the Kents before going to inspect the barn, "The Kents were carrying me back to town, when we saw those meteors coming." He frowned as in deep concentration, and proceeded to tell a very sanitized version of the events of the day, "...and I was going to examine the barn for damage, and I don't remember anything else."

"...We heard another, much smaller, explosion and Martha went to see what had happened." Jonathan Kent said from the door, "You were lucky that we had already called an ambulance to tend my father."

"Yes, now that I remember he didn't look well." Nick said, "Wait, how he is?"

"Chest pains, the doctor used a fancy name for it, it was not as bad as we feared, but his doctor decided that he had to remain here a few days." Jonathan explained, and then sat down, "For a moment there, we thought he was having a stroke."

"But he is well, right?"

"As well as a seventy-six year old man with a bad heart can be." Jonathan said, "We'll keep a better eye on what he is doing, that he takes his medications, and all of that."

"Giving my experiences with my father, that's the best you can do." Nick said, "But eventually..."

"Yeah..." Jonathan said, looking at the floor.

They kept in silence for a while, until the doctor broke the silence.

"Jonathan, I heard that you found a kid." the doctor said, trying to put their mind out of so heavy matters.

"Ah, yes. Your husband..."

"He is a pediatric specialist."

"...says that he is well. We have decided to name him Clark, for Martha's maiden name." Jonathan said, "A bit of a peace offering to Martha's family."

"Clark Kent? A bit alliterative, perhaps." Nick said, while thinking, 'At least is not as bad as Richard and Mary wanting to call his first son Peter.'

"Better than every Kent in Lowell County." the doctor said.

"We are all called John, Jonathan or Joseph, or some combo of them." Jonathan explained, "It makes family reunions a bit awkward."

"I can imagine." Nick said, with a smile.

"Mr. Kent, I have to remind you, that these aren't visiting hours." The doctor said, while looking at a wall clock meaningfully.

"Sorry, I'm going, I'm going." Jonathan said, "We'll come back later, me and Martha."

Jonathan left and the doctor started to check his responses to stimuli.

"Doctor, how bad it is?" Nick asked, pointing to his face, "And how much time do I have to remain here, in the hospital?"

"...Bad. We could save the eye, but it's heavily scarred." the doctor said, "And about your stance in the hospital, well..."

Lowell County. SHIELD encampment​

A man with long, auburn hair and a short beard, wearing an expensive suit, was examining the pieces of the drone that SHIELD had collected over the last two days.

"Interesting. Is this all?" he asked, speaking with a German accent.

"No, there is another warehouse with more pieces and the inactive thing that attacked one of our agents, Mr. Luthor." the SHIELD agent said, "And we are still collecting pieces from the countryside."

"And there was also something interesting in the meteorites, ja?" Alexander "Lex" Luthor Senior asked, "Some kind of radioactive crystal?"

"Yes, sir." the agent said, pointing to a lead-lined box.

"Wunderbar." he said, his smile turned predatory, "In fact..."

"Mister Luthor, you'll have time to examine the alien tech later." said a voice from the door of the tent.

"Of course, General Jones." Luthor said, getting out of the tent to talk with the general.

"Your opinion?"

"Crystal based tech, and that is all what I can tell you for now." Luthor said, dropping the jovial facade, he and the general had disliked each other for too long for those tricks to work, "That doesn't mean that I don't have a few ideas about how can it work, or how to use that radioactive mineral that came with the meteorites. But SHIELD has pretty good scientists working for them, why bring an external consultant like me?"

"Sorry, I can't tell you. It's classified." Jones said.

"Very well." Luthor said, noticing how uncomfortable Gabe Jones seemed. 'It seems that what I heard about what happened in the Triskelion is true. Interesting.' "Are you going to stay here?"

"No, Director Carter and me are going to Smallville for a couple hours. Anything you need, ask Doctor Caulder."

 

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Smallville Medical Center. Fury's room​

Fury was surprised when Gabriel Jones and Peggy Carter came to visit him on his room, and he was even more surprised as after they closed the door, they started to produce a series of devices, and placing them on the window, the door and the walls, as well as closing the curtain, that would guarantee they weren't eavesdropped.

"Why all the secrecy?" he asked.

"An informal debriefing to prepare the formal one in a couple weeks, as well as to inform you of a few developments." Jones said.

"Or in more simple terms, to tell you the news, and see how many lies we are going to write on the official report." Carter said, referencing an old joke that was as old as SHIELD itself, or maybe older, dating back to the SSR.

"What do you mean with developments?" Fury asked.

"We'll explain later." Carter answered, "From what we have discovered, Faraday thought that SHIELD had been heavily infiltrated by an organization he had called in his notes the Secret Empire. This belief was fed by spurious reports created by the Deputy Chief of Internal Security, James Priest."

"I have met him, an ambitious bastard." Fury commented.

"Yeah, he was. Faraday and Priest planned to supplement the security troopers with a few PMCs that Priest had hired off the books, in order to clean house, so to speak." Carter continued, "Priest was hoping to use the crisis to appear as a hero, but Faraday caught up earlier than he thought and he was forced to improvise, starting a massacre and hoping to hang everything on Faraday's head. Fortunately, your warning allowed us to frustrate their plans, but not before Priest put a bullet on Faraday's head before killing himself."

"That's what happened?" Fury asked, having noted Carter's expression as she told the story.

"That's what is going to be official version. Faraday is in a coma, so he can't dispute any of that, and any of the survivors were too low in the totem pole to know anything about it." Carter said with more than a bit of bitterness on her voice, "And, of course, the Council is using this to increase their control of SHIELD, in the name of oversight."

"And I gather that the official version has no great relationship with the truth." Fury guessed.

"Not exactly. The sequence of events is roughly as described, but there are some things that are making us think that Faraday's suspicions weren't completely unfounded." Jones said, eliciting a nod from Carter.

"And those things are?" Fury asked.

"Nothing that I can put a finger on." Carter said, "Basically some of the events have a timing a bit too convenient, and one of the mercenaries turned out to be a metahuman."

"Nothing else?" Nick said.

"Afraid not. As an interim Director, I'm trying to shed some light on it, but with the Council breathing down on my neck, I have to be careful, or be accused of being another paranoid nutcase like Faraday. " Carter explained, "And by the time a more in depth investigation can be done, the candidate to director that was voted by the Council will have recovered from his wounds."

"And who is...? Oh." Nick said, the pieces finally fitting in place, "Why me?"

"Because you are the highest ranked agent that is alive and hasn't been splashed by this clusterfuck, and more important in the eyes of the Council, Pierce likes you." Peggy said, and sat back on her chair, "Look, I know that it's not precisely what you would like to be faced while you are recovering, but given what you are going to be saddled as soon as you recover, better to start as soon as you can."

"And to let you go back to retirement." Fury said, with a smirk.

"I'm old, Nick, tired, and my head is starting to go." Carter said, "I'll do what I can, but it will fall to you to build SHIELD into the next generation. But if you want my advice, you should build a cadre of loyal agents and have contingency plans for your contingency plans. Gabriel should help you in the beginning."

"I'll try to delay my definite retirement as long as I can, but don't expect me to last in the Pentagon beyond a couple years more." Gabriel said.

"I'll take that into consideration." Fury said, and then he said, snapping his fingers, "But, there is something you could help me with, the Kents have a child under their care and want to adopt him and..."

"SHIELD could help to expedite the paperwork." Carter said with a smile, "Consider it done. And now that you mention it, I should go to visit Jack now that we are here."

A secret base somewhere in North America​

The android formerly known as Randolph Dean and Robert Deacon examined its new appearance in the mirror. A middle aged man with a fatherly appearance and a deep resonant voice with a mid-west accent. Another one of its brethren had entered the room, this one using the disguise of a middle aged woman with a no-nonsense look, his partner in the current mission: keep the last known Kryptonian under constant watch and build a network of human acolytes, willing or otherwise, between the population of Smallville, Kansas.

The High Master relayed the last instructions, they would be deployed to Smallville by one of their stealth craft and they would replace two of the medical practitioners in town, a married couple of doctors named Gannet. They didn't have any doubt that they would have success on their mission, because nobody escapes the Manhunters.

THE END... for now.

The story will continue on "Kids from Smallville", when 'Flight from the Rogue' finishes.

 

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A small cabin, close to Gotham​

The redhead parked her car, a robust SUV with good off-road capabilities, in a clearing of the woods. She could already see the cars of the other members of the circle parked here, and a short distance away, the cabin she had come to visit stood under the shadow of the trees. She shivered for a moment, thinking of the proximity to Slaughter Swamp and all the legends that came with it, and not for the first time, she desired that the Monk had chosen a different place for the meeting of the meditation circle.

She took a deep breath and walked resolutely toward the cabin and knocked on the door.

"Ah, Miss Madison, we were expecting you." said Dala, the Monk assistant, who was the one who opened the door.

"Sorry about being late." Madison said.

"Actually, we hadn't started yet." Dala said with a close smile, "Enter, please, out of your own will."

Julie rolled her eyes at Dala's dramatic invitation as she stepped into a big room with a tarps engraved with mystical designs covering the floor. Her fellow members of the circle, socialites, a couple college professors and a curator of the Gotham museum were already there, all of them sitting on the tarp on a circle, with their legs crossed. Dala went to the back and returned almost immediately with the Monk in tow.

"Greeting, my pupils." he said in an affable tone, speaking with an unidentifiable accent, before he sat down, Dala to his side. "We'll start with the meditation exercise we practiced last time. Close your eyes, breathe deeply and void your mind of all thought." He said after a pause, an odd cadence to his voice, "Now, hear my voice, and follow my words, empty your mind. Hear my voice, follow my words, and empty your mind." he repeated this she felt herself fall into trance.

Nicholas Dubois lowered the hood of his habit when every one of the fools they had bamboozled into this, had fallen into his thrall. He quickly removed it, it was heavy and it still smelled weird, even after several washings.

'Suck it up, Wallachian dandy.' he thought, surveying the empty faces of the "meditation circle", now his thralls.

 

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He then turned to the curator of the Museum.

"Did you bring it?" he asked.

"Yes, Master." he said, using a subservient tone, "They were in storage, so nobody will notice that I replace them with fakes."

The curator opened his suitcase and produced a small statue of some kind of hooded demon with bat wings, and a clay tablet enclosed in plastic, with several inscriptions on an unknown ideographic alphabet.

"Excellent, give them to me." the Monk said, taking them carefully from the hands of the man and handing them to Dala who placed in a shelf.

He repeated the action with each one of the members of the Circle, each one of them bringing some artifact or information where it could be, until he reached Julie.

"I looked through the ruins of Kyle Manor, Master, even in the basement, and I couldn't find any of the objects you tasked me with." she said, "They may have been sold out when the Kyle fortune was lost in 1929."

"You are a friend of Bruce Wayne, aren't you?" the Monk said, lost in thought.

"Yes, Master." she said, vaguely puzzled by the Monk's sudden topic change.

"Kenneth Wayne's wife was a Kyle. He was also a collector of antiques." he said, more talking to himself than to the young socialite, and then he turned his gaze to her, "You are going to visit Wayne Manor, and ask about the old Kyle collection. Do a bit of research on your own, so it sounds more authentic."

"Yes, Master." she answered, obediently.

After that, he gave instructions to all of them, some of them about more artifacts they had to retrieve, in another cases he gave some of the artifacts in the shelf, pointedly excluding the statue and the tablet delivered by the curator, to others, as well as instructions to place them in specific places inside the city, always out of the way places like basements, abandoned sewers, and other similar places.

"Focus in my voice. Hear my commands. Feel my will." he said, "You won't remember what happened here until the next time I impose my will on you. But you will follow my commands as if they were your own ideas."

"Yes, Master." they said as if they were a chorus.



Julie Madison awoke from the trance feeling at peace with herself. Her mind was clearer, and she felt well rested.

The Monk retreated into the back room, while Dala said goodbye to everybody. She walked back to her car thinking back to her exploration of Kyle Manor ruins. Stephen Kyle, the last Kyle of Kyle Manor, had been an avid collector of both antiques and curios. She wondered what had happened to his collection…

 

[AntonioCC]

Ma Hunkle safehouse, noon​

Ma Hunkle put the groceries in the table. She had just bought enough for the two of them, as well to collect a couple items she had asked from Rex last night, and then she would sent her underway, after a bit of preparation of the disguise. It wouldn't be good if some of those people recognized her at the bus station.

Rogue was reading at the table, still immersed in "Under the Hood". John would be proud of being able to attract the attention of younger generations, although she still thought Jonathan was right on decking him for what he told about the fictionalized versions of Libby and him.

A couple hours later, after they had eaten, she broached the matter to her.

"Marie, I doubt that they had stopped looking for you. If you are going to take that bus, you will need to disguise your appearance." Ma said.

"I know, I'm pretty distinctive, aren't I?" Rogue said with an ironic smile, "What do you have in mind?"

"Makeup, clothes and either hair dye or a wig." Ma said.

STAR Labs​

He saw as the security personnel carried away Henry Rathaway, or as he had known him, the Pied Piper. He had tracked a few of the future rogues, and he had subtly encouraged them to be away from Central City for the next two years, he calculated. Enough time to enact his plan without undue interference, and in case some of them came earlier... well, as much as it irked him, the Flash would be here to stop them.

Now, about other possible interferences... most of them were too young or too far. Even Stark was focused mostly in cleaning the messes his family had left behind right now. And while Rogue had managed to escape...

Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by a message warning from his phone. He frowned, the few people who knew this number, knew better than to send a message. He took the phone and looked at the message, and a chill ran down his spine.

'You have been a naughty boy, Eobard, sending the FoH after Rogue.'

The sender was hidden, and his attempts to identify whoever had send him were met with failure. He was about to start a heuristic search on Gideon's files when he received another message.

'Don't worry about your little scheme about Flash, I have no interest in foiling that. But X-Men and Brotherhood members, present and future, are off-limits for the Reverse Flash. After all, you are not the only time traveller with plans.'

Just after he stopped reading the message, he received a call from a hidden number. With trepidation, he answered the call.

"Harrison Wells speaking, who is it?" he said, with the more normal voice he could muster.

"I hope that you received my message, Doctor Wells, or should I call you Eobard Thawne?" a digitized voice said.

"What do you want?"

"Many things, but what is important right now is that I have plans for some of the mutants in the X-Men and the Brotherhood, and your little stunt would have cost me one of my pawns if I hadn't reacted quickly." the voice said, "On the other hand, Flash may prove a nuisance in a few months, so I have a..."

Somewhere in the Midwest​

"...little proposal for you." the voice in the computer said, "I'll try to steer any mutants clear from Central City or Keystone City, and in exchange..."

"I keep Flash focused in Central City for the time being." Wells answered, "That may be a bit difficult since he seems to have befriended Oliver Queen."

"Let me worry about that." the voice said, a sneer evident in its voice.

"No skin off my nose, but I agree to your terms. I intended to do so anyway." and Wells cut the call.

"Do you think he has bought it?" another voice, belonging to a man wearing a hooded robe, answered.

"Probably, if not, we'll know soon enough."

"My time grows short, Adrian." the robed man said, "And we'll need the three of them when my greatest failure returns."

Ma Hunkle Safehouse.​

"Are you sure about this?" Rogue said, looking at herself on the mirror, "I look..."

"Absolutely unlike you." Ma said, "People see what they expect to see, so a young redhead dressed like a hippy won't attract the attention like a goth teenager, or a preppy blonde."

"Still..." Rogue drifted off, not having a counter for that, " I suppose that I can change back later." she said with a sigh.

"Not until you have reached Topeka." Ma cautioned, "In the meantime, I can give you the two-dollars tour of Keystone City and Central City."

"Are you sure we'll have time?" Rogue said, "The ticket is for the last bus of the day, but still..."

 

[AntonioCC]

Hemery High School. A week after the Great Storm​

"What do you want, A?" Deedee, one of the banes of her existence, said, using the nickname she hated.

"First, D, don't call me A," she answered in kind, "Second, Marcy wanted a copy of my material for the essay on English Lit, but I haven't seen her today."

"Give it..." she said, a bit too eagerly.

"...to you? No, thanks." she said, leaving 'you lazy bimbo' unsaid, but the blonde heard it anyway, "You'll have to ask Marcy if she wants to share." Her eyes went down to the other girl hand, where she was holding a bucket, and then looked in the direction Deedee had been walking when she had asked her about Marcy, and she understood, "Really? That's the best thing you want to do with your time?"

"I don't know what the hell are you talking about." Dee answered airily.

"Sure thing, now go and put that bucket back where it was, what were you doing with it, anyway?" she said, implying without saying it that she should make herself scarce.

For a moment it looked as if DeeDee was gong to dispute this, but she visibly deflated and walked down the corridor without saying anything. She kept eyes on her just in case, but she left the bucket in a corner before going into a classroom, probably to bitch about her. She shrugged and went towards the two girls that Deedee had been walking to. One was a Asian girl freshman, and the other was...

'Ah.' she thought,'The new girl, Jenny something, from Wisconsin, I think?'

"Yo, Rica." the Asian girl said as soon she noticed her, using her preferred nickname.

"Yo, Jubes." America 'Rica' Chavez answered, "So, who is your friend?"

"I'm Jenny Hayden, from Milwaukee" the other girl said, holding her hand, covered by a fingerless glove, that clashed badly with her 'my mom still chooses my clothes' style.

"America Chavez, but call me Rica." Rica said, shaking her hand carefully, "And you already know Jubilee."

"Jubilee? Weren't you..?" Jenny said, a slightly confused expression in her face.

"Jubilation Lee. Jubilee. Got it?" the Asian girl said with a smile, "But my friends call me Jubes. So, Rica, what does brings you here, with the plebs?"

"Deedee..." Rica started to say.

"Hemery's wannabe alpha bitch." Jubes explained to Jenny.

"...was going for the old bucket routine with either of you." Rica explained, "Marcy..."

"Hemery's current queen bee." Jubes supplied.

"...usually keeps her under her thumb." America continued, ignoring Jubes running commentary, "But now that I think about it, I haven't seen her since yesterday."

"I saw her yesterday, in the evening." Jubilee said, thoughtfully, "She was boarding a minibus marked with a big G with Rox."

"Rox?" Rica asked.

"A girl that I know from the mall." Jubilee explained, aand then turned to Jenny, "And now you are completely lost."

"A bit." Jenny acknowledged.

 

[AntonioCC]

"Before the inn took off, I worked part time as a tour guide." Ma said with a smile, "Believe me, I know what I'm doing."

STAR Labs. Gideon's room. A few hours later​

Harrison Wells had managed to get his nerves under control. To hear that, despite his precautions, he had been observed the whole time, had been unnerving, to say the least. But nonetheless, the show must go on.

He then noticed a pop-up appearing on the screen, showing a shooting star crossing the darkening sky. He breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. Just in time. Nonetheless, he checked the weather. And as the history books said, an enormous storm front was starting to form following the path of the shooting star, covering the entire coast. One of the biggest storms of the Century.

'A fitting welcome for the arrival of the God of Thunder.' he thought.

He had considered for a long time when to set the opening of the Accelerator, but in the end, he had pushed for the opening being tonight. There had been... would have been other storms that would affect Central City and could have been used to ensure that Barry Allen would become the Flash, but he ended choosing this, as it didn't depend on fickle weather patterns that could be easily disrupted by a careless time traveler, but on events that could not be easily disrupted.

Not too long afterwards. Central City.​

"Okay, I forgot that tonight was the inauguration of STAR Labs particle accelerator." Ma said, having parked some distance from the CCPD headquarters. "I'll talk with Joe about the incident and then we'll be going back to Keystone City."

"Hopefully before the rain starts to get worse." Rogue said, looking at the cloudy sky and the drizzle that was starting to fall.

Rogue looked down at the city, finding the view strangely familiar, and then it hit her. One of her first visions. She started to look for the phone where she had been noting the visions and saw the description, as the image came back to her:

…She was in another place, a city bordering a river and saw an… explosion from downtown, that prompted the clouds to unleash a storm over the city. A lightning fell in a close building…​

​

She realized now that the explosion of her vision... came from STAR Labs.

'The particle accelerator.' she thought, as she started to run toward the police building. But it was too late, she could already see the wave of whatever it was expanding from the lab, reaching the clouds and unleashing the storm.

 

[AntonioCC]

Wayne Manor​

Bruce Wayne awoke suddenly, and sat on his bed. His dreams had been... unsettling, even more than usual. His nightmares always came to the alley, but this time, it wasn't just his parents, Buffy and Dawn were lying there in apool of their own blood.

He shook his head, before getingt up from the bed, and putting on a robe. As always, he hadn't given a single step after putting on the robe, when Alfred opened the door with a tray carrying an steaming cup of coffee, and the morning paper.

"Thank you, Alfred." he said before taking the cup and and the paper. As expected the storm and the explosion were today's breaking news.

'Godammit.' He said mentally, when he read that Blackout had escaped. 'Jim must be furious.'

"I presume you have read about the escape of that criminal, Master Bruce." Alfred said.

"Yes, I have the feeling we will meet him again." Bruce answered, "Did Buffy or Dawn call?"

"No, but Master Silas did call, he was going to meet them at the Tower." Alfred answered, "He apparently knew about their real relationship with you before."

"Interesting. I should be surprised, but I have always suspected he knew more about our family history that he let on." he looked at the time, knowing his uncle, he probably had invited them to his favorite restaurant, and cast aspersions on the playboy image he had been cultivating. Thinking about that, he had an idea. He asked Alfred about which of the italian sports cars was available.

"Perfect." he said, already sliding into the playboy persona.

A top of the line restaurant​

Vicky Vale had gotten a call from one of her sources. She hated having being exiled to the society pages after her failure to gather enough evidence of foul play in the Dixon case, but she was determined to do the best job she could to go back to real journalism.

That was why she was in a table of the restaurant wearing a power suit, sunglasses and using a brown dye, studying the people that Silas Wayne had invited to dinner from some distance. She had recognized one immediately as Doctor Charles Xavier, a retired geneticist with some past connection with the Waynes, who now was the headmaster of some exclusive school in upstate New York. From that it had been easy to identify most of the rest as school staff and some students. It was the blonde and the brunette teen that puzzled her.

 

[AntonioCC]

While Jubes told Jenny about the intricacies of Hemery cliques, Rica thought back to her last talk with Marcy yesterday morning. She had said something about some private school being interested in her, but she hadn't said much more, and she had not pried. Maybe she should visit her family later today.

"...and be careful at the prom with the Security guards, they tend to be a bit overzealous, and they're armed."

"Why would a prom need armed security guards?" Jennifer asked in a puzzled tone.

"Buffy Summers." Rica said, "She was the captain of the cheerleaders, eight or nine years ago, I don't remember the exact date. From what Marcy older sister told me, she started to frequent bad people, and some of them ended chasing her to the prom. Nobody knows how, but the gym caught fire. Nobody could prove she had been responsible though."

"That sounds something straight from a bad movie." Jennifer said, shaking her head.

"You'd be surprised." Jubes commented, "We're not too far from Hollywood, after all."

"Good point." Jenny said.

"Yeah, LA is a bit crazy sometimes."

"Hey!" Jubilee said.

"Jubes, I'm from San Francisco, remember?" Rica said.

"And what happened to that girl after the fire?" Jenny asked.

"She moved out not too long after the fire, her parents divorced or something, I think." Rica said with a shrug.

Somewhere in the Rockies. Genesis Institute compound​

Marcy Monroe stepped out of her quarters, a nice, but somewhat spartan room, to meet the members of her group or "pod" as the bosses seemed to call them. They were Pod 7, who were supposed to train, study and be subject to tests together.

She looked around but didn't see anybody. Well, there were other quarters past the corner, so she went and almost collided with a mousy redhead with glasses, that was turning the corner at the same time, and both fell on their asses.

"Ouch, sorry, I wasn't looking." Marcy said, as she was getting up.

"I wasn't, either." the redhead said, getting up, "Pod 7, too?"

"Yeah." she extended her hand, "Marcy Monroe, from LA."

"Caitlin Fairchild, from Portland... uh, the one in Oregon, not the one in Maine." the redhead said, shaking Marcy's hand, "I was hoping to meet the others."

"Hey, you go to Hemery, don't cha?" another voice said from one of the doors, revealing a brunette with a dyed purple bang falling over her face, "I'm Roxy Spaulding, I think that we were in the same bus here."

 

[AntonioCC]

She turned to run toward the police building, as she had realized that it was the one from her vision, where the lightning...

"Crap!" she said as the lightning struck the top floor, exactly like in her vision, and exactly like in her vision she saw a flash from the upper floor.

She ran toward the building, only to find Ma and a young woman exiting it.

"What the Hell has happened?" Ma asked, alarmed by Rogue's expression.

"Lightning struck the top floor, and STAR labs..." Rogue started to say.

"Oh, God, Barry!" the woman said, running back to the building.

"...exploded." Rogue finished, and then turned to Ma "Should we go to help?"

"Yes, we still have time to go to the station." Ma said after looking at her watch.

CCPD Stairs​

Iris ran up the stairs, as the emergency generators hadn't kicked in yet, followed closely by the teen who was with Ma Hunkle. The older woman was following them at a more sedate pace. After several flight of stairs she finally reached the door... that was closed.

"Barry! Godammit, Barry, answer!" Iris said, hitting the door with her fist.

"Get out of the way." Rogue said, taking a fire extinguisher and using it to bash the lock with all her strength.

The lock gave way and they both burst into the lab. It was dark, the only illumination came from some emergency lights, but it was enough to see a body lying on the floor.

"Barry! Oh, my God!" she said running toward the body. After checking he was alive she got her phone, "Dead, damn it." She then turned to Rogue, who had followed her, "Can you...?"

"Yes, of course." Rogue said, checking her phone. Fortunately she had service and called 911. After calling two times, as the lines seemed to be a bit overwhelmed, both by the explosion and the storm that was being unleashed over the city, she managed to connect with the call center and appraise them of the situation.

Outside the Central City PD​

After the paramedics loaded Barry into the ambulance, Iris boarded it, leaving Ma and Rogue behind in the stairs to the building.

"I hope he is alright, he such a good boy..." Ma said, shaking her head. She composed herself and started to walk toward their car, when she caught sight of the time, "Dammit, we're gonna be late. Come on, get running"

They quickly boarded the car and Ma used her knowledge of both cities' street layout to arrive in just the nick of time, not noticing the man who was following them as they entered the station.

"Take care of yourself, and don't forget to write. My email is in the card I gave you." Ma said as Rogue boarded the train.

"I'll do it, thanks for everything, Ma." Rogue said, hugging the older woman just before she entered the train.

She sat in a window seat and waved to Ma as the train started to get in the way not too long afterwards. She leaned back, thinking that the most dangerous part of the journey was already behind, and hoping to catch some sleep on the way.

Keystone City Grand Station​

Sid Jefferson was looking at the people in the station going toward their buses. So far, she hadn't seen the girl that that fucking asshole Trent had sent her to look for. Just his luck that of all the possible FoH operatives, he had to work for him.

'Hmmm... nothing.' he thought as he walked past a group that just had entered the station, and then he stopped. A teen and an older woman had entered just behind the group.

At first sight, the teen looked nothing like the mutie they were following, but one of the reasons he was here was because he never forgot a face. As he looked at her with more attention, taking care of looking like he was doing something else, he realized that the girl was who she was looking for. Her hair color was different, and she wasn't using makeup, but it was clearly her.

He followed discretely, mindful of his instructions and that he didn't have any backup, and took note of the bus she was taking, and where it stopped. Then he went back and called Trent, informing him of the development. He got orders to go to one of the stops, and he figured that the other agents here would go elsewhere.

"So, I'm going to Topeka, boss?" he asked to confirm his orders.

"Yes, I'll meet you there." Trent answered on the phone.

 

[AntonioCC]

She furtively made pictures of both women to identify them later, and then went back to watch the group.

It seemed like a friendly occasion with Silas showing, despite his infirmity, that he hadn't lost anything of the charm he had made him such a ladies' man in his youth. The contrast with his grandnephew Bruce was staggering.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the roar of a black Italian sport car, a Lamborghini Murcielago if she remembered correctly, passing before the restaurant and going into the restaurant underground parking lot. There were damn few Lamborghinis in Gotham, who could...?

'Oh!' she thought, realizing who probably was in that car. The phone she was about to get back in her handbag went to the table, propped up so it would have a good view of the table, and she activated the app that projected the view of the camera into the special Bluetooth-equipped sunglasses she was wearing.

She kept eating, slowly enough so she would be there for the whole situation, although she didn't have to wait for long as a side door opened, the one that gave access to the lifts and Bruce Wayne stepped in. He was wearing a relatively informal getup, without a tie and with an open neck, as well as wearing sunglasses. Given the wince he gave once he stepped into the full light of the restaurant, last night party must have been one to remember. She'd have to look where he went last night, now that she thought about it, one of her contacts told her that one of his cars was seen downtown, close to a rave that was held last night.

Bruce went to the table and presented himself. Hmmm..., he seemed to be more subdued than usual; he usually could give Tony Stark a run for his money to in the bombast. Even Silas Wayne seemed puzzled to his demeanor... one moment, the blonde's reaction, she knows Bruce...

'I wonder on their exact relationship. She doesn't seem his type...' Vicky thought as he kept recording the scene.

Down at Silas' table​

Once the presentations had been made, and Bruce had sat on the table, they started to talk.

"Talking with Buffy yesterday, I got the impression that the prospects of Dawn being invited to your school were not good." Bruce said.

"You have to be always that blunt, Bruce?" Silas said with a wince, "Although now that he has raised the issue..."

 

[AntonioCC]

"I'm Roxy Spaulding, I think that we were in the same bus here."

"Sorry, I don't think that I know you." Marcy said, weirded because this girl that she hasn't seen in her life knew her name.

"Ah, sorry, I'm a friend of Jubes." Roxy said, apologetically, "She pointed you to me one day that we were in the mall."

"Who?" Marcy asked, not knowing anybody with that name.

"Jubes, don't you know her?" Roxy said, "Ah, wait, of course. Jubes is her nickname. She is Jubilation Lee, she goes to Hemery too, a first year student."

"Ahm yes, her." Marcy said, vaguely remembering that girl, "So, who else is in Pod 7?"

"Well, there is Grant and Bobby." Roxy said, "And I think that I hear mention Kleinman that there was another guy, but he haven't arrived yet."

"Grant Wilson and Bobby Lane." Caitlin supplied, "Bobby is in his room, taking a nap."

"And Mister Wilson?" Marcy said.

"Grant, please. Mr. Wilson is my father, and please spare me the 'Dennis the Menace' jokes, I have heard them all." a male voice said behind them.

When they turned , they saw that the voice belonged to a tall and athletic young man with curly blonde hair and a serious expression.

"Sorry that I wasn't here when you came, Miss Monroe, I was called away by Director Baiul." he said, offering his hand, "Welcome to Pod 7, I'm Grant Wilson, the team leader."

"Err, thanks." she said, shaking Grant's hand. She didn't know what it was, but there was something she didn't like about him.

"I would like to give you the whole welcoming tour, something a bit more in depth that what Ms. Kleinman has given you, but unfortunately, we have training in ten minutes,and can't wait for our last member to get his medical exams finished." he said, "Get changed into your athletic clothes, and get ready."

"Hmmm, Grant..." Caitlin said timidly, "Bobby is taking a nap."

"Don't worry I'll deal with him." he said.

Genesis Institute Command Center​

The entire sequence had been watched by Director Ivana Baiul and two blonde teens.

"See, Matthew, Nicole, that's why I put Grant on Pod 7 and not any of you." she said, looking at the two teenagers. "Now go down and play your part."

 

[AntonioCC]

Next morning. Topeka, Kansas. Train Station​

Rogue stepped down from the train, having used the train washroom to change her aspect once more, to something closer to her usual appearance, although without makeup and keeping the red dye on her hair, that was now collected in a short ponytail, and to further the disguise she was wearing sunglasses.

As she was walking, she thought back to the night on the train. It had been quite peaceful actually, as Irene's power seemed to have already faded almost completely, as the only thing she remembered from her dreams was seeing the blue-eyed guy from last night again. Well, now she had to see the instructions that Irene had left for her in the P.O. Box.

As she walked through the station she didn't notice a guy taking note of her, and starting to follow her unobtrusively, as well as how the guy called somebody with his cellphone.

"Answer the damn phone, you goddamned jackass." he said between clenched teeth as the phone rang for the tenth time.

As if he had heard it, an sleepy voice answered the phone.

"What the fuck do you want, Sid?" Alex Trent answered.

"I've found her." Sid said.

"Good, follow her, and keep me advised of where does she go." Trent answered on the phone, "I'll get there with some of the boys."

"I'll warn my own crew, too." Sid said.

"There is no need for that, my people..." Trent protested

"...stick out like a sore thumb in Kansas." Sid interrupted, "While my own men are local, or close enough."

"...Very well, you win." 'For now.' was left unsaid, and Trent closed the line.

Sid followed Rogue, as he sent a message to his people, to the parking lot and saw her take a taxi and heard her destination, a Post Office. He sent Trent and his people a message with the address, and took another taxi to that address.

Post Office​

The P.O. Box opened without a hitch and as she expected, there was a letter inside addressed to her, written in Irene's neat handwriting, including a note to open it right in that moment.

'Okay, this is seriously weird.' she thought, before shrugging, opening the envelope and star to read.

After a brief salutation, Irene went right to the heart of the matter.

'Crap!' she thought as she read the letter and looked around. From where the box was she could see the parking lot and there were a group of people seemingly hanging around, but in a way that effectively cut her escape. She went back to reading the letter, and upon reading the next paragraph she smiled.

 

[AntonioCC]

"There was a sudden opening. I would give a more detailed explanation, but we are being watched." Xavier said.

"Yes, a woman in the upper level has not stopped looking at us since we arrived." Buffy said, without looking up, "She is pretty good, though."

"You mean Miss Vale? She probably got notice of Uncle Silas coming here." Bruce said, in a casual tone, "No offense, uncle, but you have become enough of a hermit in your old age that any outing of you would attract attention." and then he added to the benefit of the non-gothamites, "Miss Vale is a journalist of the Gotham Gazette. From what I know, she is currently covering society pages."

"A paparazzi? Wonderful." Buffy said with distaste.

"Not at all. She is not covering society events because she likes it. Her last article couldn't be published because it stepped on the toes of some 'honest'..." he airquoted, "...businessmen without enough proof, and she has been exiled to the society pages until things calm somewhat."

"By honest businessman you mean Carmine Falcone, don't you?" Silas said with evident distaste.

"Unfortunately." Bruce said with a grimace, and then explained, "Carmine Falcone is supposed to be the big man in the Gotham's underworld, but nobody has ever managed to get enough proof to put him behind bars."

"Mostly because the proof disappears, witnesses suffer sudden bouts of amnesia or die on suspicious accidents and things like that." Dawn said, "What? I have seen enough movies to know where it was heading."

"Yes, that's pretty much correct, Dawn." Silas said.

The Monk's lair. Blackout's room​

Dala entered the room, a glorified storeroom with a cot, and asked point-blank.

"You know people in organized crime here in Gotham, do you?"

"Not many. Apart from the Red Hoods, who are probably now all dead or behind bars, there is the Middleman."

"The Middleman?"

"Yeah, do you want something? Weapons, drugs, antiquities, hitmen, exotic animals, or any other thing? He has contacts that can provide them, and he only collects a fee." Blackout said.

"Interesting. Could you put us in contact with him?"

"I don't see why not, but what is in that for me?"

 

[AntonioCC]

Both teens nodded before leaving, though it was obvious that Matthew was not happy. Frankly, she didn't give a damn about his hurt feelings as long as he did what he was ordered to, and in case he wanted to protest...

"I assume that the control measures on our terrible trio has been implemented." she asked Kleinman, who had been staying in the back of the room while she talked with the twins.

"Ja, when they got their last medical exam." Kleinman, a burly, black-haired woman in her fifties answered, but before she could add anything, she received a message through her earpiece, "Excuse me, Frau Direktor, but it seem that Mister Chang is proving... difficult, during the exam."

"Go ahead; I'll keep watch on our new recruits." Baiul said.

Kleinman nodded, and went through one of the doors, meeting on it the security chief of the complex.

"I have increased the security on the corridors, and the exits." he said without preamble, "Electronic locks and movement detectors are nice to have, as well as the automated armed platforms, but few things replace trained guards on... containing unruly 'students', without killing them."

"Good thinking, Colonel Law." Ivana said approvingly, "We don't want to lose an investment because of a temper tantrum, the budget is under tighter constrains than in the old times." She then turned to watch one of the monitors, where Pod 7 was being led through the corridors by Wilson, "Let's see how our newer group fares in the physical training."

Genesis Institute Gym​

The group entered the gym, and almost collided with another group that had, given the fact that they looked as if they had just showered, finished their training. A native-American girl around her age that was massaging her temples caught Caitlin's eye, as she looked vaguely familiar for some reason.

"Hey, Fairchild, you are falling behind." Bobby said, interrupting her woolgathering.

"Sorry." Caitlin said, walking briskly toward the group. Bobby Lane had turned to be a slim guy with spiked blonde hair and a soul patch, and according to him the only person that remained was somebody called 'Grunge'. When asked if that was his name, Bobby smiled and said that she'll see.

Grant had stopped before a boy and a girl that looked like brother and sister, but before he could say anything, the attention of everybody was grabbed by a commotion on the opposite side of the gym, as a long haired Asian teen, clad on an hospital robe, ran from a burly woman in the staff uniform of the Institute and a couple guards.

 

[AntonioCC]

Outside a Post Office. Topeka, Kansas​

"Are you sure she hasn't give us the slip?" Trent asked.

"Positive, she has retrieved something from a PO Box, and she is now reading it." Sid answered, with an eye roll.

"Hmm..." Trent said as only answer. As much as he hated work with the likes of Jefferson, he had to admit that he was competent. He turned his gaze to the office, or more properly, to the armed guard outside.

They couldn't enter to pick her up, but she only had one way to exit the office and she couldn't stay there forever. He was tempted to send somebody out to call for reinforcements, as the cell coverage in the area was still down after last night's storm, but he dismissed it instantly, twelve people, not including Sid and himself, should be enough to keep a teenage girl controlled.

"She's making a call." Sid said. Trent looked and, effectively, she was making a call through a payphone on the outside of the office. "Good luck in calling the cops, with last night's storm, they are probably..."

His words were interrupted by the coming of a delivery van, which parked just before the doors, blocking the view of the doors and the pay phone.

"Just our luck." Sid commented, "I can't believe she gave you the slip in Central City."

"It doesn't change anything, actually. She can't get out of the parking without us seeing her." Trent said, choosing to ignore Jefferson jape, as difficult as it was for him, as a taxi went and parked just inside the blind spot caused by the delivery van, and got out like a bat out of hell just after a moment, "Fuuuck! Get back to the cars and chase that taxi!"

As they ran to their cars and started to chase the taxi, nobody noticed how Rogue started to walk down the street, having sent the taxi to the other end of the city. She was hoping that the distraction would give her enough time to shake her pursuers.

Unfortunately for her, Trent's rental car had ignition problems and chose that moment to refuse to start. He was about to open the hood to see if he could fix it, while a couple of his men waited inside, ready to start the car at his signal, when he noticed a girl walking down the street.

"It's the mutie bitch." he said as he recognized her, just loud enough for the others to hear it, "Come on, let's go, before we lose her."

"Shouldn't we tell...?" one of his men said as he got out of the car.

"That uppity bastard of Jefferson? Come on, we have to show that we are better than thrash like him." Trent said with a sneer, before he started to walk briskly in the same direction Rogue was going.

 

[AntonioCC]

At first they were gaining ground quickly, until the girl noticed them, he supposed, becasue she was walking at a quicker pace after they turned a corner. Thank God that that there was no alleys where the bitch could hide until they passed. They sped up to catch up with her, but she sped up her pace again.

When they started to run, Rogue started to do the same. It was not that long before both Rogue and her pursuers were running as fast as they could, and unfortunately, Trent and his minions longer legs and greater fitness meant that Rogue's advantage was quickly eroding, even after she threw her backpack in a dumpster.

/\​

Rogue looked back, and it didn't look good, those creeps were quickly gaining on her, even after throwing away the backpack. Maybe if she turned right in the next intersection, and tried to hide in a porch, they would pass and shge could go back to the dumpster.

As she reached the corner, she looked back at her pursuers, so she couldn't see what was on her way. A moment she was looking back, trying to gauge how much time she had, and the next she found herself sitting on the ground, her front hurting as if she had collided with a steel wall.

"Are you well, miss? I didn't saw you." a kind voice with a midwest accent asked, at the same time that a hand appeared on her field of vision, she looked up as she took the hand and used it as leverage to get up, and saw the same unearthly blue eyes she had been seeing in her dreams since she left Caldecott County. The guy they belonged to had messy black hair that fell in a boyish curl over his forehead, a red leather jacket slightly open over a blue t-shirt, jeans and workboots.

"Ah wasn't looking either. Sorry, Ah gotta.." she started to say when a voice interrupted her, as somebody gripper her arm and pulled her back.

"Found you, bitch."

/\​

Trent had left behind his two minions by a good margin when he turned a corner and saw the girl there. Without thinking it twice, he took a grip on her arm, checking in the last moment that it was covered by a sleeve, and pulled her to him.

"Found you, bitch." he said, smiling cruelly.

"Who the Hell are you?" a voice said, and he looked up, surprised, and cursing his luck. But he relaxed a bit when he saw that it was a farmboy trying to play tough guy, what with the leather jacket and all of that. But, as he looked again, there was something about him that set his teeth on edge, maybe it was the eyes, how somebody could have eyes so fucking blue?. Anyway, he had the bitch and teh farmboy better to piss off or else.

"Get off, kid, and nobody will get hurt." he said, producing his gun from the back, "Do you understand?"

 

[AntonioCC]

Threatening him with a gun didn't have the effect Trent wanted as before he could do anything, he felt the gun being removed from his hand. He looked only to see the kid crunching it on his hand.

"Another freak." he said, taking a step back, but not letting Rogue go, just as his two minions appeared in the corner, "Finish him, guys, while I secure the bitch."

Both guys nodded as he started to run back to the Post Office. He didn't think that those two would stop the freak for long, but by now, even somebody like Jefferson should have realized that the taxi was a ruse and come back as fast as he could.

He snickered when he heard the boom of a shotgun from behind him; Martin must have gotten out the sawed-off shotgun before the freak could do anything. But then, to his surprise, he felt the air move, like an errant breath of wind, and, suddenly, the freak was standing before him.

'How the Hell?' Trent thought, before looking back and seeing one of his minions passed out.

At least the freak hadn't escaped completely unscathed, as his red jacket was done for, barely covering a completely unharmed blue t-shirt underneath with an strange red and yellow symbol, like an S inside a diamond.

"Let her go." he said.

"Don't think so." Trent said, producing a knife from his pocket, "Now you'll turn..." he started to say before he felt a bare hand closing over the hand where he had the knife, and a general feeling of weakness overtaking him. He had enough time to realize that the bitch must have removed a glove, before falling unconscious.

/\​

Clark looked at the fleeing man for a moment, but that moment of distraction was all that one of the thugs needed to get a sawed off shotgun from his clothes and shoot him in the chest.

The impact made him stagger a bit, and silently cursed the... thing that had been awakened by last night storm, as he wasn't fully recovered of the fight yet.

He looked down for a microsecond, seeing that the jacket was ruined, but the shirt where Ma Kent had serigraphied the symbol on the pod was still intact. It wasn't the first time something like this happened, but it always looked strange to him.

He decided not to take any more risks, and he used his super-speed to disarm the thugs, before bopping them on the head very softly. After examining them with his x-ray vision and noting that he hadn't made any permanent damage, he ran to intercept the first man.

Standing before him, he tried to make him drop the weapon, but to no avail as he threatened the girl with a knife.

It was in that moment, when he received a surprise as the girl, who seemed to have removed one of her gloves somehow, put a hand on the other man hand, and the man dropped down after a moment, unconscious. He looked at the fallen man, while the girl put back the glove she had removed.

"Will he...?" he asked, wary of the girl.

"Recover? Ah think so, Ah only drained him for a few seconds." she said, before starting to massage her temples, "Let me guess, you received a note telling you to come to this area."

"...Pretty much. Did you...?" he asked, her wariness not receding.

"...Send it? No, but the person who probably did it was the one who directed me to go to this area of Topeka." she said, "I'm a bit tired of being played like a pawn on a chessboard." she opened her eyes and winced immediately, before talking again, "I suppose that you don't have Tylenol or Aspirin, right?"

"No, I don't have anything on me, why?" he asked.

"I should have let you deal with him, Ah got a look at his mind when Ah drained him." she said, "Because of that, I have a killer headache; his head is not a pretty place."

Clark looked at her, she looked sincere, and he was still smarting after Lana gave him a wholly deserved dressing down last night. His mistrust had almost get Pete killed.

"Do you live somewhere near here?" he asked, an idea starting to take shape in his mind.

"No. I have been fleeing since my powers... activated. They are always on, you know." she said, "I have nowhere to go, and I have been keeping just barely ahead these... bastards since Central City."

"You can stay at my home, if you want." he said, having decided to follow his instincts.

She looked at him, suspicion evident in her face, before sighing.

"Okay." she said, "It's not like I have another place to go... but before, can we go to recover my backpack? I have all my things there."

/\​

While Rogue retrieved her backpack from the dumpster, neither her nor Clark noticed a trio of teens observing them from the roof of a nearby building.

"Brainy's aim is getting better, we arrived within a few days and only a few hundred klicks of our target this time." one of them commented, a blond guy with a blue and white shirt decorated with lightning motifs.

"Yeah, and now the great decision, we wait or risk another jump?" the only girl of the trio, a short haired blonde with a red and white shirt, with a ringed planet symbol on it, said, "Rokk, Garth, what do you think?"

"I think we should wait, Imra. The Sphere can cloak and travel under its own power, and we can use those days to contact him." Rokk, the leader of the trio, a black haired teen, slightly older than the other two, and dressed in black except for a purple band on his shoulders, said, "What's your opinion?."

"I agree." Garth said.

"So do I. Brainy may disagree, but he isn't here, right?" Imra said, "Besides, that would give us time to do some historical research. What we have about the pre-Great Disaster era is spotty at best."

"Yeah, okay." Garth said with a handwave, "By the way, that girl is one of the X-Men, right?"

"Not yet, if memory serves." Imra answered, "And yes, I would like to meet my ancestors too."

"I don't." Rokk said, "Braalians have enough bad reputation in the United Planets without reminding them of what Magneto did."

 

[AntonioCC]

The coast of Greenland. Close to the Arctic Circle​

Irene smiled, as her powers warned her that Rogue has made contact with the Starchild, and with that the worst of the possible futures had been averted Unfortunately, time resists change and some possibilities remained open that were almost as bad. That is why she was here, to redirect somebody's search elsewhere.

She left the sleigh and its driver behind, not that he had wanted to get nearer, as she followed the sounds of heavy machinery excavating on the ice.

She stopped when she reached the fence that surrounded the whole hollow where the machines were excavating. Although she couldn't see it, she knew that he had started to unearth a vehicle that crashed here decades ago.

Before she had even managed to touch the fence, she felt it, even through the layers of clothes she was wearing, the displacement of the air caused by the moving of the magnetic field that meant he was there.

"Hello, Erik." she said at the man standing before her.

"Irene, what brings you here?" Magneto said, "Have you decided to join my Acolytes, despite what you said a couple days ago?"

"My answer is the same than then. I only came to warn you that the wreck you have located is not what you are looking for.... And that you have attracted SHIELD attention with your excavation."

"Why would SHIELD...?" Magneto started to say, and then he realized how wrong had been, "It's HYDRA's ultimate weapon, the Valkyrie."

"Exactly. The alien derelict is somewhere else, and it won't be discovered by you in any future that I can see." Irene said. "I'm sorry, Erik, but that's the truth."

"But the Vakyrie may still contain the Tesseract..." Magneto said, thinking back to what he knew of HYDRA, "And with it..."

"No, it's not. It dropped to the sea during the fight between Captain America and Red Skull." Irene said, shaking her head, and letting Magneto come to his own conclusions about the fate of the First Avenger, "SHIELD found it, though it has been inert since." 'Though not for long, if my visions are right.'

Magneto didn't answer immediately. Irene could almost see him in her mind's eye, his shoulders slumping when he realized that most of his plans had vanished in smoke. 'Now, if it was so easy for him to abandon his other plans...'

"Very well, Irene. Do you need a lift?"

"No, I have a sleigh waiting for me behind that rock." she said, shaking her head, "I suggest you hurry, SHIELD will be here in less than an hour."

Friends of Humanity HQ. The next day​

Trent looked down as Trask and Creed left the briefing room, leaving only the white haired man behind. Creed had given him a savage dressing down, while Trask had icily informed him he was confined to HQ until further notice.

"You know, they are right, you goofed up." the man said, stepping into the light, allowing him a good look at him. He hadn't noticed before he had a goatee, or that he had golden eyes.

"Tell me something that I don't know." Trent said, "I should have told Martin or Garrison to call Jefferson through the payphone, while trying to keep my distance from the mutie bitch."

"Pretty much. But I'm not here to talk about your failure." the other man said, "It's about the a... about who stopped you."

"What about him? Just another freak, birds of a feather and all that jazz." Trent said with a shrug, although he was interested, he had been about to say something else, but he had stopped himself.

"Do you know that we have already a dossier on him?" the other man said.

"I had no idea," Trent answered.

"Yes, not providing you with the info was an oversight." he said, "Come with me and I'll told you what we have."

"Okay," Trent said, following the other man through the door."

"He is somewhat of an urban legend, the 'Kansas Super-Boy', they call him. He started to act around five years ago, or so, saving people, getting kittens down from trees, the usual."

"I sense a but incoming." Trent said.

"And you'll be right. His actions are centered on a small town called Smallville." the other man continued.

"Why does that name sound familiar?" Trent asked.

"A meteor storm almost eighteen years ago wrecked parts of the town and the county." the other man informed him, "And apparently the meteorites carried a mutagenic substance..."

He explained to him how exposition to the meteorites gave powers to some people in some circumstances, and how the Super-Boy had stopped a lot of them and how SHIELD had been trying to dispose of the mutagenic mineral for years.

"That's why our people have to act very carefully in that town." the man said, stopping before a vault-like door, with a number keypad on it,

"I suppose that this is my cue to go back to my quarters." Trent said, knowing that the area beyond the door was restricted.

"Actually, I want to make you an offer," He said, keying the code to open the door, "Our ultimate weapon to deal with those... things lies beyond this door. If you step inside, you will be a part of this project, under my direct command in the special projects section."

"Are you kidding me?" Trent said, with a smirk, "Of course I'm in."

"Good." the man said with a matching smirk in his face, "In that case, I'm Sebastion Gilberti, or as the people of the project is calling me, Bastion."

"Thank you, Bastion." Trent said as he stepped inside the door, and saw the giant robotic shapes being assembled inside.

"Welcome to Project Sentinel, Mr. Trent."

 

[AntonioCC]

Somewhere in the Midwest​

If he could still breathe, Adrian would had done so in relief when he got the news that Rogue had arrived to Smallville with Kal-El, through his hacking of traffic cameras. Thawne's and Allen's careless temporal bungling promised to be one of his greatest headaches in the next few years, as this incident showed. At least Garrick would prove to be an stabilizing influence in the young speedster.

At least he had the Wizard out of his metaphorical hair, as the time when he'll have to pass his powers to a new Champion approached. And with it, the return of the Wizard's former pupil.

But that was still some time from now. He quickly checked on his earlier self, still blissfully unaware of his true nature, and then on his old friends, who had started to gather... and in fact, they were going to recruit Priscilla right now. He quickly checked his databanks, and he would have frowned if he had still a face. It was a bit earlier than he remembered, although well within the margins of acceptable butterflies.

He dug a bit further in the data stream, nonetheless, and his worry deepened a bit more, IO had moved against her earlier for no discernible reason. He would have to do an analysis in depth of the causes, in case there was another time traveller around he didn't notice, but before that, he did a quick check of other places and saw that things were mostly still on their rails, though Lynch and his combat gynoid sidekick seemed to have vanished from the face of the Earth.

Interesting... he had almost missed it, but apparently the Legion had made an appearance. By their apparent youth and the group composition, it was very early in their career, so they were probably after Kal-El. He would keep an eye on them, just in case, although they tended to be more careful in their time travels than the Flash family. Now, what were the Doctor and Jenny doing right now?

Central City. Ma Hunkle's Bed and Breakfast Inn​

Ma tsked as she surveyed the damage. The storm had been unusually strong for this time of the year, even before the particle accelerator exploded. As such, the damage to the place had been substantial. She started to put things order, aided by her family, when the phone rang.

"Ma Hunkle's Inn. We're currently closed, but if..." she started to say the usual spiel that she had been repeating since she came to the Inn to any call.

"Abigail?" a voice that she knew quite well interrupted her.

"Rex!" she exclaimed delighted in hearing from her old friend, "How are you? And Wendy and Rick?"

"I'm fine, and so are they, but listen, do you have Ted Grant's contact info?."

"Yes, I have it, but why me? Johnny Chambers was the one with the Society rolodex." Ma said.

"Apparently it got torn out during one of their... discussions." Rex said.

"Oh." she said. Libby and Johnny's relationship had always been tempestuous, and she was not really surprised that some things would have broken in one of them. Their divorce a couple years ago hadn't come out as a surprise, being the third time that it had happened. "Okay, let me search in my agenda." She finally said, starting to rummage in her handbag for the small booklet where she kept the phone numbers, "What's so urgent, by the way?"

"Not by phone. But, are you free two weeks from now?" Rex said.

"I think so." she said, producing the booklet, "Hang on, I have the number."

"One moment," Rex said, probably to grab a pen, "Go ahead." The sound of a pen against paper could be heard while Ma gave him the number, "Thanks, Abigail. Al will be there in a couple days to explain things in person."

Smallville, Kansas​

A lone biker stopped just before the "Welcome to Smallville" sign and looked at it, and specifically to the two smaller signs after it: "Meteor capital of the Midwest" and "Home of the Superboy". He shook his head, and was about to start the bike again when he sniffed the air lazily, and looked around startled.

"What the fucking Hell?" Logan said, his claws slipping out in reflex. When nothing got out to attack him, and his brain had time to process that the smell he had caught was a few days old, he relaxed slightly, "Things got a lot more complicated, if some of those... things are around here."

He took a deep breath, starte dthe bike again and rode into the town.

---

Clark and Rogue further adventures, as well as their meeting with Logan, will be chronicled in "Kids of Tomorrow", the final part of "Last Son of Krypton". And Ma Hunkle and the Society will be part of a two-parter in the near future.

 

[AntonioCC]

"I don't see why not, but what is in that for me?" Blackout said, looking straight at the vampiress.

"Do you mind settling in New Orleans?" she answered.

"Not at all, why?' he asked, thinking about what he knew about New Orleans, and guessing the answer.

"We have an... understanding with the New Orleans authorities." Dala said, confirming his guess.

"Oh?" Blackout said, interested.

"Yes, you would be one of our security people in the docks, once we finish our things here." Dala said, obviously not wanting to elaborate further.

"Okay, it will be a change, holding a steady job for a change, even if it is as a legbreaker." Blackout said, "What do you want for the Middleman?"

"Why you don't give us...?" Dala asked.

"...the means to contact him? Sorry, lady, but the man is very careful in exposing himself." Blackout said, his steel fangs gleaming in a not quite smile, "I don't think I ever met him personally, actually, all the talk was done through phone or e-mail, or through one of his minions, and even then I wouldn't swear that I could recognize the guy, the minion, I mean, if I saw him walking down the street."

"Merde..." she said under her breath, before continuing, "There are certain... antiques our agents bought abroad, and we need them in Gotham soon without too many questions."

"And...?" Blackout asked.

"And the Batman and that Slayer just disposed of the people we were going to use for that." she said.

"And they need to be moved here, right?" he guessed.

"No, we have them in another place." Dala said, smiling for the first time since they had started to talk, "No use in having all eggs in the same basket, right?"

A top of the line restaurant in Gotham​

Vicky observed the Wayne group as they finished the meals, and went their way, while she was paying, including a generous tip for the waiter. She then ran through the stairs to the underground parking lot, to arrive fast enough to be able to follow them. It was touch and go, but she managed to tail the cars, that didn't separate until they reached Silas Wayne residence, a relatively modest, for a Wayne, two-story house, with a small garden, in one of the better parts of the city.

Paparazzi would try to get photos by climbing a lamppost or something, but she was not willing to stoop so low, so she turned around and went back to the Gazette, and there she went directly to the IT guy in the basement.

"Hi, Ed." she said, giving him the memory card, "I have several pictures and a video recording..."

"Shhh..." the red-haired guy at the computer said lifting a finger, without even looking at her, "I want to see it for myself, Victoria, and see who is there and what and who are they doing."

Vicky refrained herself from rolling her eyes. If Nashton wasn't that good in this stuff, his little quirks, like trying to turn everything into solving some kind of puzzle, enigma or riddle, would had him fired long ago. At least he wasn't Day, the other IT guy, with his scheduling mania.

 

[AntonioCC]

"Herr Chang, stop running. We only need a bit of your blut for analytics." the woman said, with a German accent.

"No, no, no, you're not going to stick a needle on me." he said, panic clear in his face. He ran wildly, not noticing that the blonde guy had put his foot in the way, making him fall to the ground.

"Danke, Herr Callahan." the woman said as she expertly immobilized the teen, before the guards took him back to the infirmary.

"Well, that was our missing podmate, Percival Edmund Chang." Grant said, with an apologetic tone.

"Although he prefers to be called Grunge." Bobby supplied.

"Because he likes that kind of music?" Caitlin guessed.

"That too." Bobby said.

"Really?" Roxy said, wrinkling her nose, as she realized what Bobby was implying.

"Yeah, he is not all that fond of bathing." Bobby confirmed with a shrug.

"What a pig." Caitlin commented.

Meanwhile, Kleinman had taken the blood from the restrained teen while he was squealing like a pig, and then she gave the signal to the guards to let him go.

"Auf wiedersehen, kinder." she said, as she left with the guards, while leaving Grunge in the ground, who was rubbing his arm, where she had taken blood.

"Well, Mr. Chang, now that you are here, I can make the presentations." he then turned to face the other members of Pod 7, and pointing to the boy and girl that were expecting them, "People, these are Matthew and Nicole Callahan, they have been through the same training you are going to receive, and now they had been tasked to help the rookies like us, any question?"

East Los Angeles​

The taxi left them before a warehouse that had seen better days.

"This place doesn't look like the office of a Foundation like those guys are supposed to be." Jenny observed, looking to the general estate of the area, "I'm starting to think that this was not a good idea."

"We warned you that a good part of this area is gang territory." Rica said, "Why do you think I didn't want to come in my car?"

"Yeah, just our luck that the listed address in LA for that 'Genesis Foundation' is in the midst of Diablos' territory." Jubilee said, "And it looks abandoned, to boot."

"Yeah, let's give a look around the building to see if there is some way to enter." Rica said.

"And if we find some gangbangers?" Jenny asked apprehensively looking around, as some young men loitering in the streets were starting to look at them.

"Let me talk to them, okay?" Rica said.

"Bueno, linda, puedes empezar a hablar ahora mismito." a voice to their back said.

"What?" Jenny said, looking around.

As if called by a signal, other people, mostly young men, but also a few tough-looking girls also, appeared from the other warehouses, while the people loitering either got closer, blocking completely any way to escape or started to run.

"He said that you can start to talk now." another voice said, behind the main group, revealing another guy, a skinny guy with a shaved head and tattoos in his face to make it look like a skull, "I am Diablo, and this is my territory."