Saito stands before Leo, looking down expectantly.
“Well, boy? What is your answer?”
Leo glances at his biological mother and father, who are both looking at him. On his mother’s face, he reads concern and earnestness. In his father’s eyes, he sees shrewd calculation.
He takes a breath.
“Before the omnipotent witness, I swear to use this power only for good.”
Leo meets Saito’s eyes. “I’m not helping you do this.”
Saito gestures, and the Blood near Ji-a Lee turn on her, menacingly.
“If I won’t do it, you think my father can, and will,” Leo deduces. “But you can’t hurt the one person keeping him under control.”
The Blood don’t move. Saito’s smile grows wide and shark-like. “He can. And he will. And if you will not serve as a technician, you will serve as a hostage, ensuring his cooperation.” The Atlantean commander turns to Rossum. “Begin preparations. This is your first priority, and–”
“Hey, shitbag,” Leo says, interrupting Saito. The man turns, curious and furious in equal measure.
“I don’t build weapons. I build friends. I’ve always given my creations independence. It’s not in me to add bombs, booby-traps, or mental back-doors to them. But that guy? He scratched a message into the brain of one of those creations, just to say hello to me. He used me as a transmission system to control an army of robots intent on freeing him from prison. His name is ‘the Minion Maker’. Do you really want to entrust the bodies and minds of your entire civilization to a guy who always - always - has to be in control of everyone around him?”
Saito hesitates, and looks back at Rossum. A knowing smirk crawls across the villain’s face. He could do what Leo’s just said and more, and now Saito knows it.
“There are ways to persuade you,” the Senior Commander says at last. “Our bioscience, as you recognized, is quite advanced. Though you may wish for death after a few treatments, you will be denied even that release.”
Leo smiles, despite the fear he feels inside - for those he cares about, for himself, of the uncertainty of everything. “The coward knows only cowardice. You’ll never understand the courage that’s already defeated you.”
“Return him to his cell!” Saito barks at the Blood nearby. Leo knows that - for the moment - he’s won. Soon he will learn at what cost.
The team has begun serious training. They were caught flat-footed in an air-filled environment. Maybe it’s time to change the playing field.
Harry, wearing a respirator, is at a deep-dive tank in one of Halcyon City’s many research institutions. He can’t run underwater the way he can in air - but he can vibrate through solid substances. Now the test is to see if he can maintain that vibratory state long enough to run at super-speed underwater.
What’s left of Orion Schema is still in orbit. When Harry isn’t in the tank, Adam is, practicing how much of its force is required to move large volumes of water. It’s a lot - but it’s doable.
Summer and Mo are patched up and functional again. Stingray has equipped them with his own underwater propulsion tech, in the form of attachments they can wear while underwater. Otto will require further overhauls, but he’s conscious and cracking jokes.
While the Atlanteans don’t typically use radio underwater, Alex has figured out a plan to disrupt the communication system their soldiers use. Flood an area with ultraviolet strobes, and it will scramble the bio-engineered earpieces.
Emma has been practicing pyrokinesis in reverse. If she’s able to cool down hot stuff, why can’t she cool down cool stuff, like water? Kid Kelvin has left Halcyon City for awhile, for unspecified reasons, but he’s still able to hop on a video call with her and coach her through her first fumbling steps into cryokinesis.
Nono has been studying the short-term effects of surface life on the people rescued from the Atlantean attic. She’s no doctor, but she has been helpful performing some of the chemical analyses that the professionals need, and she can relay summaries. There are some signs that people will need long-term medical treatment, and direct exposure to sunlight has been problematic for many.
Alycia is debriefing Fuko on every aspect of Atlantean society she can think of. Fuko, in turn, is cooperating to the greatest extent possible, and Alycia’s skill at interrogations - no, interviews - is helpful in extracting things Fuko didn’t even guess she knew. But there’s limits to what the Atlantean girl can really reveal, because of the ways they compartmentalize and manipulate information.
Jason collects and synthesizes everything his teammates are learning and doing. There has to be a plan here, something they can do, and he’s going to find it if it kills him.
Of everyone on the team, Charlotte is the closest to taking meaningful action. Time and again she projects herself into the spirit world, diving and diving through the layers of Earth’s history and into the endless sea of the afterlife. She has found Atlantis to be guarded psychically, not just physically, and now seeks a way in that will not also alert whoever - or whatever - watches over the wards.
And as Jason is washing down his third mug of coffee for the morning, she announces success.
Charlotte relays what she has to the team. “I found a route to where he’s being kept. I can open a portal there, enough for a small group, for a short amount of time.”
Jason nods. “We know that Saito took Rossum out of AEGIS’ hands. We know that Leo’s biological mother is in Atlantis. It’s likely that Saito is keeping the three of them close together.”
Alycia carries the thought forward. “If Saito is getting the anti-robot railguns from Rossum, we need to retrieve those three together. But there’s that EMP weapon, which definitely predated the Rossum jail-break. It’s possible he has other inventors he’s working with.”
“We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it,” Jason says firmly. “The world is mobilized now. We’re just one part of the larger defensive effort. Let’s do what we can do. Right now, that sounds like getting our people back.”
A plan is hatched, and details are refined. The team debates notifying INTERCOM, but they decide the element of surprise is more important. There may still be spies on the network.
The team emerges through Charlotte’s portal, two at a time. They find themselves in a cramped cell made of thick stone, with bars constructed of some kind of durable-looking artificial coral.
Summer is first, to tank any surprise attacks. She sees a body curled up on the floor and gasps. “Leo! He’s here!”
Aria is next up, and she wastes no time grabbing her partner and hoisting him into a carry. She can’t help but notice the scars and seams on his skin. He’s been worked over, and she shudders to imagine how. But she has a job to do, and pulls him back through the portal.
While Summer is demolishing the bars, Jason and Alycia come through, and they take up positions in the hallway once the path is open. “Concord, you’re up,” Jason calls.
Adam floats through the portal into the cell, then into the hallway. He gathers his concentration, then starts to push. At first, nothing seems to happen. But the exertion is having an effect. Water throughout the intelligence office is forced out of the doors and into the surrounding city. Conference rooms are drained dry. True Atlanteans swim desperately for freedom, or are sucked out of the doors and into the ocean by the force.
“Radiance, make a hole. Agent M, Superdome,” calls Jason.
Summer moves to an open area of the hallway, to avoid rubble raining down on her teammates, and punches her way up through floor after floor. Now on the roof, she can see the effects of Adam’s power for herself. The building they’re in now sits in a giant air bubble, beyond which is the undersea city of Atlantis.
Emma rides a grappling line up to the roof next to her, and grins. “Wanna see something cool?”
Adam has gifted her a link to Orion Schema’s remnants. Now she draws on that well of power and focuses on this new application of her power. The bubble Adam created starts to freeze over, the water becoming ice as it reaches outward. She can hardly freeze all of Atlantis, but a dome several feet thick will give the team the uninterrupted time it needs.
“Mercury, recovery,” orders Jason. Harry takes off. Floor by floor, room by room, passing the Atlantean Blood soldiers and officers by as though they were statues, he scans for human beings. He finds seven.
He tosses grenades, one after another. They aren’t meant to hurt, only disorient, by strobing intense UV light in every direction. Every soldier in the room with a communicator clutches their head in sudden pain, as random sounds fill their ear. And while they’re distracted, Harry grabs hold of his next target, and runs back to the team’s entry point.
Soldiers are converging on the hallway. Summer is out front, projecting barriers to soak their attacks. Behind her, Jason and Alycia fire through pinpoint holes in those barriers, bringing the attackers down.
One - two - three - four - five - six - and seven people flash by, lugged by Harry at ultra-speed.
“Agent M, we’re done. Come down. Team, break contact. Radiance, cover our retreat.”
One by one, the team shepherds the recovered humans back through Ghost Girl’s portal. Jason and Alycia retreat back to the cell, firing the whole time, and Radiance is the last one through.
Everyone’s back safely. Aside from Rossum and Ji-a Lee, there’s five unknown people, and Mo has volunteered to keep an eye on them, just in case.
Aria is tending to Leo in another room. Alycia happens to peek in, and her breath catches. She recognizes the signs of torture and the extent of the harm they did, and how expertly it was all undone - except for the memory, which is something that never fades. As she sees Summer approaching, she blocks the door and shakes her head.
“He’s okay. Aria’s with him. You don’t want to see this.”
Summer smiles, just for a moment. “I appreciate your concern, Alycia. Now move, or I will move you.”
Alycia pauses, and stands aside.
Jason has a gun pointed firmly at Rossum.
“I assure you, Mr. Quill, I mean you and yours no harm,” Rossum says for the third time. “My wife is here, and safe, and that’s what I value more than anything else.”
“Cool cool,” smiles Jason. “You’re still dangerous, so I’m treating you as such.”
Ji-a Lee is nearby. Jason notes she hasn’t spoken or made a move yet. Twenty years away from this man, and now she’s waiting to see what he’s become, he thinks.
This time Rossum takes a different tack. “Yes. I am dangerous. For example, I know how to take down Atlantis.”
“Good for you,” says Jason coolly.
Rossum can discern how futile this is, and finally shrugs. “Fine. You can send me back to whatever hell-hole you need. I’m sure AEGIS would insist on it anyway. But I hate those bastards enough to bring about their demise anyway, so I’ll just tell you.”
“We’re not interested in being mass murderers,” Jason answers.
“But the threat! The threat should be enough!” Rossum exclaims. “You don’t have to do it!”
Jason considers this. Finally he shrugs. “How about we let the team get back together, and you share what you have.”
Rossum bows his head, but his lips curl into a satisfied sneer.