LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 24.1
Hey, it's an update, finally.
My PC is well and trully dead, I'll have to buy a new one and I don't know where to get the money for it right now so, my phone writting will continue for the moment. I also lost all the work I had done to rewrite my own original novel, which SUCKS SO, SO MUCH!
Yeah, I don't think I'll be doing that again. Fuc**
Still, I hope you guys like this chapter.
Just a picture of some of my Notebook, at the moment of it's demise, the rest of it isn't much better, and I had to use something to support the screen because it was only connected to the rest of the device by some wires.
Kara looked at all the members of her little team. Her armor made it so she towered over everyone present. She had to look down to do it, but it also made her feel safe so she wasn’t complaining.
The Green Arrow group still wore their basic costumes, with Red Arrow and Speedy wearing almost the same outfit and, by their way they were avoiding even looking at each other, not feeling very comfortable about it.
The Shade wore a black trench coat over antiquated formal clothes, with a large top hat on his head. He carried around a dark cane, with a raven head for a handle, and had smoked glass spectacles in his face. His back was perfectly straight and he seemed to be enjoying the heroes’ unease at his very presence.
Bobo was wearing his old Sherlock Holmes costume, complete with his plaid coat and detective cap. He sat on top of an empty crate and smoked from a pipe, but still made sure he wasn’t puffing up smoke towards Speedy.
“Very well, let’s start then.” She said, the armor’s speaker masking her voice and making it impossible to know her gender. Detaching a large backpack from her armor, she threw it towards the archers. “If you guys are gonna tag along, we can’t have anyone recognizing you, its best if our enemies remain ignorant of the League’s involvement. Also, we’re probably gonna be infringing on the League’s UN charter. Someday.”
Kara had prepared all three costumes. They were all a variation of dark tactical gear with metal plates for protection and sleek black helmets. Green Arrow and Red Arrow costumes had small compound bows and a simple sword, while Speedy’s had a rifle and two laser pistols.
Green Arrow pulled out his costume and lowered his head in shame. “Great, we’re playing disposable minion now.”
“You’re not disposable minions, you’re super soldiers.” Kara said in an annoyed voice. “Green Arrow, I designed the outfits myself, they probably provide more protection than anything you ever wore, and have better mobility.”
“Nope, that’s not how it works.” Green Arrow shook his head sadly. “One guy wearing this armor is a badass super soldier. Three guys wearing the same armor are just faceless minions. That’s just how it works. I can already feel my accuracy dropping just by looking at them.”
Kara decided to ignore the man from now on. Turning to Bobo, she asked. “Have you truly located Prof. Morrow?” The chimp had informed her he had a major breakthrough in his case, but gave no details on the phone.
“Possibly, what I do have is the location of his newest workshop.” The chimpanzee said while puffing out another cloud of smoke. “Usually, finding a new super scientist is just a question of following the money, or the materials. They use money to gather equipment, materials, minions and all that. Tomas Oscar Morrow was an old hand at this, and a good enough polymath to overcome some of those needs but, even he couldn’t produce some of his higher end devices completely by himself.”
“He revealed himself then?”
“Maybe, if you don’t interrupt me, you’ll find out.” Bobo grumbled, causing Green Arrow to snort in amusement. Kara just shook her head and motioned for him to continue. “As I said, Prof. Morrow can produce most of his tech alone, but some of his equipment requires rare materials, Equipments like the devices he uses to give his robots their elemental control.”
“Now, when our boys in the capes defeated him for the last time, back when they were still the JSA, they cracked down on his operations like mad. Raided half a dozen of his bases and apprehended all of his gear.” Bobo continued his lesson, but got up from his position and stretched his back. “I managed to get my hands on the list of apprehended materials, particularly the more exotic ones and, only a few weeks ago, there was a break in at one of STAR labs subsidiaries, one that stored quite a bit of an element that matched those on the list.”
Finished stretching, Bobo pushed the crate he had been sitting on to the front of the group and opened a blueprint on top of it.
“After that, it was a simple case of solving the theft, easy.” Lifting his cap, he scratched at his fur. “Everything points to this building. It’s been empty for the last two decades but, somehow, it’s maintained in stellar condition. I also found some complains of strange noises and tremors made by its neighbors back then, I’d bet anything there’s some kind of underground facility there too. There’s always one of those.”
Both Kara and Green Arrow studied the blueprint with attention. It was a large, four storey building with many smaller rooms.
“Say, how exactly is this Prof. Morrow? I mean, the League never had to deal with him, and Red Tornado is an okay guy.”
“My old companion was an arrogant man.” The Shade opened his mouth for the first time. “Arrogant, narcissistic, perfectionist and obsessed, he took particular pride in his programming skills. His androids tended to be a little too human, but he refused to lower their intelligence or make them any less sophisticated, no matter how many times they grew a conscience and betrayed him. I doubt he has changed too much.”
“Shade, can you take us there?” Kara asked.
“But of course, do you prefer to land inside the building or close by?” He asked as he pushed away from the wall.
Kara looked around, everyone seemed ready to move. “The later, I’d like to have a chance of gathering more information before attacking.”
“Wait.” Green Arrow shouted. “What do I call myself? Also, what do you call yourself?”
“You can call me Forge while in this armor.” Kara said, she really hadn’t thought a lot about her superhero name in this costume. Hopefully, nobody would ever need to use it. “As for you, I think you’re right, you’re minion C from now on.”
“Hey!”
“I guess that make me ‘B’ then?” Red arrow asked. “I can live with that.”
“I was gonna use Arsenal, but I guess I can save that for when I’m acting openly.” Speedy nodded.
“Do prepare yourselves.” The Shade said with a smile. “This will only take a moment.”
In a second, every shadow in the room converged on them, stretching unnaturally, their tips curving as if becoming thin arms that grasped towards their bodies. Kara had to stop herself from moving as the darkness enveloped her, a weight settled over her shoulders and she completely lost her vision.
It felt suffocating, as if the weight of the world was pressing down on her, the darkness stretched endlessly and, for a second, she lost any sense of direction, then the shadows were gone and they were all left standing on top of a building.
Red Arrow stumbled, almost falling to his knees, Bobo shook himself and even Kara would have swayed in place had she not locked her armor before the trip. The Shade stood in front of them looking amused. His own shadow far larger than it should be.
“Was that entirely necessary?” Bobo asked when he finally recovered.
“It seems not everyone can face the weight of the shadowlands with the same ubiquitous aplomb as me. My apologies.” The Shade lifted his cane and laid it against his shoulder. With his free hand he pointed towards a building two blocks from where they had appeared. “I’ll attempt to tone down its presence next time. There’s our target.”
“Thanks.” Kara told him when she fully recovered. With a motion of her arm, a compartment at her back opened up and released thousands of little devices. Two millimeters in size, they spread in the air and soon disappeared from view.
Every single one of the devices could transmit sound and sight towards her receptor, but they could also connect to each other, creating different equipment on the field.
Kara laid down a holographic projector and all six of them watched, in real time, as her devices mapped the entire building, managed to infiltrate the underground facility and continued to map everything inside it.
The little things mapped four underground floors before something on the fifth finally managed to block their signal.
Finding a connecting port, Kara ordered a dozen of her drones to reconfigure themselves. They fused together into a hacking tool and attempted to enter Prof. Morrow’s systems.
Eventually, Kara shook her head. “Such bullshit.”
“What, having trouble?” Green Arrow, now minion C, asked.
“Earth tech should NOT be able to do shit like this.” She complained. In front of them stood the nearly complete map of Morrow’s hideout, as well as recorded images of Morrow and his associates. “Something in the fifth floor is completely blocking my signal. The entire floor is also fully isolated from the rest of Morrow’s systems. I just can’t fully subvert his programming. I can disable it, and even take over some of his equipment, but not only is he gonna know we’re coming as soon as I do it, the fifth floor’s defenses will also stay active.”
“Can’t the Shade just teleport us down?” Arsenal asked.
“Certainly, it would be simple. However, without an image of the fifth floor, I fear the trip would be much longer, and far less pleasant to you.”
“Yeah, I think I speak for all of us, I’ll pass.” Green Arrow said and shuddered.
“Minions.” Kara called Green Arrow and his protégées. “Your arrows and bullets are all filled with small EMP’s, they should be able to disable any of Prof. Morrow’s creations in an area around themselves, but he could have shielded them, so try to pierce their armor anyway.” She pointed at his subordinates one by one. “This is Brom Stikk, Prof. Morrow’s human assistant, he’s not really a fighter, but he could be wearing a second Mr. Twister suit. This is Red…”
Kara laid out all she knew about Morrow’s resources and abilities, including the possibility of a new geokinetic android. It didn’t take her more than half an hour. Then they attacked.
With a command, Kara disabled all surveillance on the first four floors and The Shade teleported them all down, dropping the entire team in front of the fifth floor entrance. This time he made an effort to keep the terrifying effects of the shadowlands back.
Finally, it was time to get Firebrand's activation code from her mad creator.