Arc 13 Battle of Bronson City

Chapter 11 Interlude: Intrusion

Around them, the cabin jostled and jarred from the explosions outside the craft. The windows flared on occasions, an errant laser beam. Below, the war-tattered streets were clogged with collapsed buildings. Blocks over in the next designated area, close-quarters fighting raged as more buildings collapsed. Blackened silhouettes struggle against the varied color palettes of the heroes. All manner of super powers on display, from arcs of lightning to raging fireballs and waves of water collapsing between the two sides. It is a free-for-all topped with explosives.

Distantly, the gangly form of Nitro explosively skipped across rooftops as she rapidly approached the pitched battle. That did not bode well for that push. In best case scenario, the casualties won't be too high, and Nitro will be defeated. That was unlikely, to say the least. Still, there was no sight of the wasp, which meant that the tracker was most likely still attached to her as it was situated deep in the installation.

To distract from this offensive, the Hero League forces had pushed hard and deep into the villain-controlled sectors of the city, causing violent retaliation. Much like an immune system's response to an invasion of the body, the attack was met with an equal if not overpowering presence from the villains. Many of the sectors were pushed too far forward by design and would soon be collapsing back. They need to keep them busy for a little while.

Armadillo pointed at the hologram hovering in the middle of the seated and strapped-in heroes. "This operation will be simple, at least on paper it was. Quick strike in to probe the defenses and assess how strong the base is, as well as who is holed up in there with luck there won't be any major villains due to the distraction at work. Rescuing the prisoners is the primary object, a close second being the capture of the Vespidian, Hubris has decreed that it will come willingly or unwillingly. Next on the agenda is the capture of the base for investigation into any and all records that can be used to pin point interests and operatives, after that any villains dealt with was all bonus. Medavac will drop us in and hide his transport before joining us. Is this understood?"

There were several new additions to the team; they had taken a few losses on the last mission; well, to be more accurate, half the team died. The battle nuns and the priest were not here as they had been assigned to the front, Retro was less than pleased by this. Of the original team, it was just her and Armadillo, but perhaps the newcomers were useful. She gazed them up and down, assessing the new hodge podge.

There was a total of five new members. She recognized the rusted diving suit across from her as Hydronic; a man or maybe a woman was made of goop and used the suit to keep their form. Said goop was bubbling up in the viewport of the helmet. As for power, it could change shape on command, though growing beyond human size needed additional moisture. Also, it was more or less made of acid. Or was it that they could change to be acidic?

Negation was a white whole body suited man; he was a bit hard to look at since the light distorted around him, which made his features nonexistent. He absorbed energy-based powers and things like electricity. He is an A-list hero from New York City, ranks 7, if memory serves. Things were looking up with that caliber of hero on the team.

A masked man in a fancy black and white striped dress suit idly sat one leg over the other, apparently very relaxed. The mask was blank, devoid of any distinguishing features, wasn't even eye holes. Encore. A master of disguise and perhaps a shapeshifter, apparently, they had mastered just about every type of weapon. They were not Omega level of infiltration, rank 6, but Encore was undoubtedly an excellent addition to the team.

Lock Out is the shady-looking guy next to Retro. He looked a bit like an old detective from a crime noir complete with beat up tench coat and grizzled stubble, his brimmed hat was tilted down covering the top half of his face. His power was to lock and unlock just about anything. Vaguely, he reminded Retro of a different hero in Bronson, Crimson Sweeper. Though no one had seen Sweeper since all hell broke loose.

Last was their pilot, Medavac. An old veteran super soldier who had managed to survive in this lawless place after the hammer strike. He used to be a premier hero in the city, leading the enhanced paramedic squads. After Neon Nurse turned, most of the cybernetically augmented supers switched sides with her, including the paramedics and other varied personnel, not just the cyber swat teams. As for powers, well, he was a super soldier; strength, and toughness had the better serum back in the day, so he was a cut above the vat-grown minions of Kraken.

"This old girl has got a cloaking device won't need to hide it much; just remember where I land it." Laughed Medavac, patting his ship affectionately.

The team was, well, built for infiltration, not confrontation. None of the new additions struck Retro Robo as being an anti-giant angry wasp woman in power set. Which was a problem considering their objectives. Maybe Hydronic could keep her busy, or maybe the Evening Star might hold up to the pounding that wasp would dish out.

Retro Robo glanced out the window to the back, where her large multi-armed mech suit was strapped onto the back of the craft. It seemed a little precarious as every large jolt from the transport made it shift ever so slightly. Still, this was preferred over attempting to trek through the blocked streets. If it did happen to fall off then it could auto pilot over to her.

She replied leaning back, "You make it sound so easy. But each of those objectives is a mission all its own. I think we are spreading too thin on this. Especially if we split up, that is not going to end well."

"If done properly each objective can be tackled one at a time, making the rest easier."

"So you say but plans never survive contact." Reminded Medavac from the cockpit. "Keep your heads on straight and don't take chances. Worst comes to worst we can blow up the lair on the way out. Top priority is our lives, so don't do stupid shit; unlike the villains, we are not disposable pawns grown in vats."

"How likely do you think it will be that the wasp will confront us?" asked Retro.

"Depends on if she's home or not." Armadillo replied, "She seemed very territorial so a fight is assured."

Medavac called back from his jolting cockpit. Some flack burst to the side of the transport as it veered down b-lining for the rooftop of the hospital. "You just leave Vesper to me and we'll deal with this. She's not a bad girl, she just has bad influences all around her. She can probably be convinced to turn on the villains, though that depends on how deep Neon Nurse has her claws into the poor girl as well as other factors."

Armadillo growled back, "You get one chance to talk that bitch down. When that fails we are taking her by force."

Medavac chewed his cigar as his visor flipped down, "If it comes to that. Ready or not boys and girls we have arrived. Keep your cool and don't do anything stupid."

As the military ambulance hovercraft made the final descent, the Evening Star detached, clunking down with a thunderous thud, which might have attracted more attention if the city was not burning to the ground nearby. Luckily, this building was particularly sturdy, likely secretly reinforced when it was renovated. If it had not been, the twenty-some-odd-foot tall mech would have gone right through the roof.

The wind kicked and gusted as the shuttle landed with a much more graceful motion; the back hatch lowered, and Retro Robo quickly darted into the waiting cockpit of her mech. The hatch was sealed, and the towering machine assessed the surroundings. The roof was clear of guards or any defensive measure. It was odd; there weren't even visible cameras, but it could very well be a case of trying not to stick out.

The others had exited the ship as it vanished from view. The only thing that revealed it was a slight distortion, the air wiggling similar to when it is too hot out. If you were not looking for it, it was very easily missed.

Lock Out waved his hand, and unsurprisingly, the door opened. However, the first predicament arose. There is no way in hell the Evening Star would fit in that door and most likely the rest of the upper building. Yet the wasp had come here, which meant that there was another more spacious entrance. Retro reviewed the map, watching where exactly the dot had gone. Sure enough, the parking garage is attached to the side of the building.

"I am not fighting a giant wasp monster without my mech, so I will be looking into the entrance that she used. I would prefer not to split up, but I am pretty sure they will be heavily monitoring an entrance that is that large." Said Retro Robo.

Armadillo and the others thought about it. "Alright, we will split up, Lock Out you and Encore will infiltrate the base from here. The rest of us will go in through the other entrance. I fully expect to make a lot of noise so that should help you two slip in. I will leave data collection and rescuing of prisoners to you two. Get the data first, hopefully by then we will have broken in and made our way to the prisoners and meet up with you. The wasp will be dealt with when we find it. If you two find it first, do not engage."

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"Got it. Shouldn't be too hard. Encore, I believe the old fake prisoner ploy will work well for this." Said Lock Out, looking at the faceless man beside him.

Encore nodded and waved his hand in front of him. His image shuddered and shifted, warping into that of a Kraken super soldier. The heavy armor grated between plates, an insignia of a snake coiled on the shoulder. The helmet distorted his voice, and it copied the tone and pitch of one of the operatives: "On it, boss man. Get a move on prisoner, we got places to go and torture to see. Nitro is going to love seeing you squirm."

Lock Out walked in front of him, being gently prodded by the gun to his back. The duo disappeared into the hospital to find their own way into the evil lair below.

"Retro, lead the way." Said Armadillo, looking away from the opened door.

They climbed into the waiting arms of the mech, and it jumped over the ledge, dropping down to ground level; the jet pack flared for a moment to divert momentum and soften the landing. The slight shake that occurred from the impact was negligible. Before them was the parking garage; the area, once filled and brimming with emergency response vehicles, was empty and still. It was clearly not abandoned from the lack of dust or debris anywhere in the expansive concrete labyrinth of ramps that ascended to floors above.

Stepping tentatively in the eerie silence was broken by the sounds of machines whirring. Immediately to the left, towards the hospital proper, stood several robots. They had four legs that were thin yet robust and acted as a stable firing platform. The torsos were bulky, with four arms protruding, two on each side. Each arm was equipped with a weapon of some sort, ranging from what appeared to be some kind of energy cannon to shoulder-mounted chain guns. The four legs moved rhythmically, and each of the machines took up defensive stances.

The energy cannons fired, and Negation stepped forward, his blinding white hand scooped and threw the beams back, destroying the attack drones with their own weapons. Metal melted into slag piles where the blast hit differently, and what was not hit toppled to the floor, shorting out.

"It is a good thing they shot lasers rather than bullets at you." Said Armadillo, stepping towards the elevator that they had been guarding.

Negation's voice was distorted, sounding like he was talking from the other end of a long tunnel, "If it was bullets, I would not have stepped up. That is your department."

The doors were oddly substantial. It stuck out as they were far too large to be for normal response vehicles. It was… sloppy, out of character for the maniacal robo enthusiast who supposedly resided below. The entrance wasn't hidden elaborately it felt, too easy, like a trap.

A familiar sound rose, the chiming of an elevator ascending floors. All at once everyone retreated getting away from the doors. They circled around to the back side of the dividing wall, out of sight from the entranceway. Retro stuck a little camera around the corner to see what was happening. The gates opened, revealing a massive cargo lift; centered in it, a jet black tank shifted, the turret adjusting as it scoured the empty garage. The machine rumbled as a blackened helmet emerged from the top hatch to operate the smaller mounted weapon atop the turret.

Staying back, the hero party watched and waited as the tank switched into gear. After a few tense moments, it rolled out of the bay and veered to the exit. Thick, polluted smoke guzzled from the exhaust as it accelerated. It sped off into the city to wreak havoc. The doors closed once more, leaving the building in a still, calm.

Either the villains were less organized than was originally believed, or there was disharmony between the varied groups. Destroying those attack robots should have alerted Neon Nurse or Vira, especially their pet evil AI, Overseer. Yet the base was not on full alert. Retro Robo thought on it. It wasn't so much destroying the machines before they could send a signal or feed, the absence of their feeds would be a red flag all on its own. It wasn't adding up from what Retro had researched. Things were too sloppy, which was very unlike the meticulous cyborg. Either this was a trap, or the distraction was working, and all eyes were on the offensive. It could even be both. Neon Nurse might be exceedingly confident in the defense systems in the base that she wasn't worried even if they did attack.

"I don't like this." Said Retro Robo.

"It does seem a little odd, there should have been some kind of response." Agreed Medavac, "Knowing Neon Nurse, she knows we are here."

Armadillo nodded, "Be that as it may, we can't waste too much time the offensive will be retreating soon."

"The door didn't close, so perhaps she is welcoming us?" Medavac said, observing the still gaping doors of that massive lift.

"That is suspicious as fuck." Gurgled Hydronic. "We came this far, though, and people have died getting us here. If we turn back now their deaths will have been for nothing."

Armadillo began walking towards the elevator, "The longer we wait, the more time they have to prepare. They are probably on full alert in the base setting up defenses."

Retro held her head, "Fine. If nothing else we need to get Lock Out and Encore out of there."

Cautiously, they entered the cargo lift; it was spacious, more than large enough for the Evening Star to fit. They were not alone so to speak, there was a camera observing them from the shadowed corner of the lift. The Evening Star lifted Retro Robo up and she attached a device to the camera. A little loading bar appeared on her tablet as she tapped in numbers. The moment that the bar filled a variety of systems were accessible. The cameras accessed she disabled the one observing them, scrubbing the footage and setting it to repeat before they had arrived.

Tapping along she brought up feeds from the rest of the installation. Lock Out appeared to be being escorted by Encore in his Kraken disguise and several actual Kraken soldiers. They were in a different elevator, the panel looked quite different. There were a lot more numbers on it, the subtle yellow glow of the elevator button that they had selected floor 20 from the looks of it. That must be where the prisoners are held. Just to make sure she tapped through the camera feeds, sure enough there were glass cells with people in them on floor twenty.

Each cell had an observing device, she filtered through them, there were two of the missing heroes from some of the scouting missions, Black Jack, and Blue Jay. They appeared to be unconscious sprawled in the center of their respective cells. In the deepest cell Light Fly appeared on the monitor, she was huddled in a corner of the empty room, rocking back and forth. Her outfit shredded leaving her mostly naked.

Observing for a moment more, she accessed the subservience network. The cameras throughout the installation were disabled and set to loop old footage for the next four hours. That should give them time to do what they need to and get out. Even if the hack was detected it would conceal their movements for a time making the Villain’s response less coordinated.

Retro left the device attached to the camera and lowered back down to the floor out of the Evening Star’s hands. The others watched her expectantly.

“How are things looking?” asked Armadillo looking over the panel of buttons.

“As planned for the moment. I have disabled the security cameras and scrubbed footage of us. The prisoners, including Light Fly are on floor twenty. Lock Out and Encore on their way down there as we speak.”

“Good that leaves the wasp and creating a distraction to us.” Replied Armadillo, motioning to the glowing elevator display, “Odd though there is no floor twenty on this.”

The panel with buttons showed floors b1 to f5. This was obviously fake as it did not go down into the depths of the installation. Retro gazed at it up and down, shining a colored light that revealed fingerprints and the like. Certain buttons were more worn than others. 2, 3, and 5 had been pressed far more than the rest. The simple solution being that it was some sort of code to punch in. Though Retro felt that was too obvious. Or perhaps she was just over-thinking it?

Retro punched in the numbers and waited. There was nothing for 2 3 5 out of the ordinary as the elevator moved to floor 2 then 3 and arrived at the top floor. Luckily, each floor in the hospital appeared to be abandoned and they had not been greeted by a face full of guns when the doors opened each time. They might have questioned if this was even the right building if they had not seen the tank. 3 5 2. The sequence jolted the elevator for a moment, and a different panel appeared. Numbers scrolled down the side. Retro Robo grew apprehensive; there were 25 floors below the surface, and those were just what this elevator went to.

"Deepest? Or is that too simple?" as Retro.

"Where is the wasp at?" asked Armadillo.

"According to the signal, roughly floor 23."

"Then that is where we go."

Retro paused for a long moment before pressing the 23. She hurriedly got back into her machine, pulling the hatch closed. The lift doors sealed shut as usual, but the horizontal shift was not expected. The elevator had shifted into a secondary shaft and began its descent. That certainly changed things. If they had brute forced it and broken into the downward tunnel, they would have missed the alternate path down, or at the very least would have had to make a lot of noise breaking down walls to find it.

The lift descended into the depths of the earth. Every floor that passed by with a blip and beep from the consul and a slight jolt from the otherwise eerily smooth elevator, they tensed, expecting a brutal fight to break out as the doors opened. Yet the elevator never stopped. It kept going and going… it had sped up. The blips were resounding faster as the light flashed with each passing floor.

Rapidly the floors flew by. Everything felt weightless as the realization that they were in free fall hit everyone. Gravity surged, sucking them onto the ceiling as the elevator arrived at floor 23. Contrary to every thought and worry, it stopped. Gravity hit full force, slamming them into the floor. Retro had hardly been bothered by this as her mech had little room to move to begin with. The others were a bit jarred and jumbled from the sudden shifts. Everyone got their feet, no significant injuries. The doors opened with a happy jingle and ding.

Beyond the doors, a massive corridor stretched out, fading beyond sight. It was long to say the least. The walls and ceiling spacious to a startling degree. Everyone tentatively stepped out into the white-washed hallway. For such a large area, it was very… empty. No furniture, furnishing, not even side doors leading to other rooms. Only floor vents broke the monotony of the symmetrical walls, they were spaced out every three or so panels. The doors behind them slid shut and the elevator lifted away.

Medavac pressed the call button, yet it didn't even light up. The system appeared to be locked. "For a welcome this is awfully rude, Neon Nurse."

"Medavac… You should have left when you had the chance. But now that you are here, can't have you running away now can I?" Replied a hologram of Neon Nurse's face projected from the panel; it flickered momentarily. The fake face smiled; there was not an ounce of warmth or comfort, let alone goodwill, in that smirk. "I do hope you enjoy your stay in my installation. I have so many projects that require test subjects; thank you for so... selflessly volunteering. Don't worry, it will all be over soon."

The vents rattled all around them. The clean air shifted into a rank acrid stench, a thick green smokey gas poured in from the openings at floor level. The skitter of little robotic claws clambered from every direction spilling out like a wave, a swarm of robo scorpions and spiders descended upon them.