The Hand takes stock of the situation. What seemed like a trap before has turned into a much larger and better-coordinated trap now.
Motormouth, Veneer, and Glom aren’t responding. She’s no technologist, but she’s pretty sure it’s more likely they were captured than their radios all ceased to work at once.
She’s busy fending off the heroes trying to surround Khyrrsz. She calls to D-SOL-8, himself busy engaging with the Gale family but never too busy for a friendly chat.
“It might be time for a nanoport to recover our colleagues. I’ll provide you cover like before, if you let me know once you’re ready.”
The answer surprises and actually frightens her. “Negative on nanoportation. Opposing factors are at play.”
“Well how do we murder those ‘opposing factors’?” she asks. A flock of doves emerges from her hat, obscuring everyone’s vision and letting her relocate.
“Negative on nanoportation,” the cyborg repeats.
Well that’s frustrating.
The Hand makes an executive decision. “Friends and comrades, it might be time to execute Broken Crown. D-SOL-8, can you do that much, or are you permanently grounded?”
“Broken Crown is possible.”
She calls back to Gnosis, aka Dr. Ken Wissen the psychologist. “Chief, we’ve just lost three of our group. It’s Broken Crown, unless you got a better idea.”
The voice over the radio sounds calm; the seething anger is masked by the static of the connection. “Broken Crown approved. I’ll notify Khyrrsz.”
The surviving Seven Wonders have retreated in good order. The park is clear, civilians are being accounted for, and photos and video are being taken by pretty much everyone still on the scene.
Back at Q-Base, everyone is ready to party.
“We fuckin’ did it!” Trace shouts.
Fuko is far more reserved. “We have done well, but we have not done enough,” she cautions.
Andi isn’t having it. “Yeah but listen. We took down like, fuckin’ half of that master supervillain team in one day! That’s gotta count for something.”
“It counts for a lot,” Mercury agrees with a smile. “But as Fuko says, we’re not done.”
“I concur.” This from Mirage, who hasn’t given up monitoring the status of the city despite the generally upbeat mood. “Furthermore, we should see the capture of three villains as a motive for the remainder to escalate their attack. Motormouth was already willing to take control of vehicles with passengers, something she’d previously avoided doing.”
“That’s because of us,” Blackbird says quietly. “The plan was to use HHL members as bait. Well, it worked, but they went hard. As long as the team that defeated them once is still in town, it’ll drive them to bigger and bigger acts.”
She turns to her companions, Guardian and the Gale family. “I think the kids show they have what it takes. Isn’t it time to make the city safer, the one way we still can?”
The other HHL members look at each other. They know what Blackbird means. Give the Seven Wonders what they want, and leave the city.
James Swift thinks about it, and whispers something to his wife and to Matt. The three of them nod, and turn back to face their son Mercury and his team.
“She’s right. It may be time. But I think there’s something we can do to help you out with your problems too.”
The broadcast undeniably comes from Minneapolis, MN. But it’s broadcast via the Halcyon City networks.
“This is Silver Streak, Tempest, Comet, Blackbird, and Guardian of the former Halcyon Heroes League. In the interest of the safety of our home city, we’re leaving it.”
“This message is for the Seven Wonders. We aren’t leaving because you ran us out. Tell yourselves that if you wish. What we want is to avoid further civilians becoming endangered.”
“Maybe we would have stayed, if not for one other thing. There’s new heroes protecting the city. Mercury, the son of Silver Streak and Tempest. A10, another hero with a strong Halcyon legacy. Stingray, son of an HHL hero who helped us beat back the rogue Atlantis faction who invaded the world. And Ninjess, an Atlantean reformist whose strongest loyalty is to the people of Halcyon. These four have proven themselves over and over. To the people, and to us, their predecessors.”
“They aren’t alone. Other teams exist. The Chosen. The Irregulators. Halcyon is full of people who love it and want to keep it safe, against any threat.”
“We would never leave Halcyon undefended. We leave Halcyon because it is defended. We trust our children, our successors, to be the ones who rise above us and make this era their own. We ask the people of Halcyon to extend their trust to these heroes as well.”
That declaration is quickly tested.
Another broadcast follows within half an hour. This one comes courtesy of the Seven Wonders. The Hand is front and center, with nothing else in the picture to hint at her location.
“Glad to know the HHL has seen reason. Unfortunately by bestowing your mantle on your kids, you’ve put them in the crosshairs too. We claim control over Halcyon City. Restore to us what’s ours. If you fail to comply within 24 hours, the city will be utterly destroyed. You are then welcome to rule the ashes, if you wish.”
The call shuts off.
Mirage is the first to speak. “Clearly, ‘restore to us what is ours’ is code to release the captured Seven Wonders.”
“Can they really destroy a whole city at half strength?” Trace asks, nervously.
“Gnosis has had a decade to prepare. We were able to devise counters for them. Their team had as much time to formulate and enact their own plans.” Mirage paces, hands behind her holographic back, hand patting against hand as though keeping a beat for her brain.
She turns to the group. “We leveraged a combination of technology and cooperation to hinder the Seven Wonders. We can hardly deny them the ability to do the same.”
Trace sighs. “There’s probably a million ways to destroy the city, right? Every inventor out there has some kinda new particle or alternate dimension or whatever.”
“It was the job of AEGIS to monitor such things,” Mercury explains. “They worked with HHL to assess individual cases. AEGIS Department 42 would study the most interesting ones, and other groups would figure out what to do with the inventors themselves.”
Fuko now speaks up, raising her voice louder than her normal to get the group’s attention. “It is time to reveal what I learned about Veneer. I attached a tracking tag to her during the television-station incident. I followed up. I couldn’t get a line on their base - but I found a cache of supplies her team had prepared.”
This happened during “409 - The Soul of the Hero” – Ed.
“Certain of those supplies were unique hyper-tech innovations. They had AEGIS tracking identifiers still on them.”
“Why did you keep this from us?” Trace demands loudly.
Fuko shrinks back, looking worried. “I- it was so unthinkable. I wanted to be sure–”
A light goes on in Mirage’s eyes. “Accept the following as a hypothesis. Tyran Enterprises took control of AEGIS Department 42. Perhaps long before the Seven Wonders. There were always anomalies, things that didn’t make sense or fit together about Tyran. This would explain it.”
Andi shakes her head. “Hold on. AEGIS is supposed to be super strict about vetting their guys. How could an outside force just do that?”
Mirage turns to look at Andi, and smiles. “Human nature. The one vulnerability no security system can remove. Imagine being qualified to work with hyper-tech but forbidden to really do so.”
She looks to Trace. “Those inventors of yours - what do you suppose happens to them? AEGIS denied them their experiments, then perhaps tasked them to evaluate others’ work for danger. And all of it would simply go into a vault somewhere, to be forgotten. I’m sure you understand how vexing it is to see your own life’s ambitions suborned to someone else’s.”
The son of Nautilus does not need to be told this. He just nods grimly, and casts an apologetic glance at Fuko.
Mirage taps her own head. “Byron Quill remembered some of this. He too worked with AEGIS. His warehouse plays host to the most dangerous of the devices we’re talking about. And I have thoroughly accounted for its contents. The warehouse protocols always included offline records to avoid the possibility of digital modification.”
She turns back to the others. “Tyran Enterprises loves its robotics and has not shown itself to be so cautious in their security. Between Motormouth and D-SOL-8, I’m certain the Seven Wonders could have tracelessly taken control of the assets necessary to achieve this goal.”
Harry thinks and thinks. “But that’s good for us. It narrows down what it could be. What they could have taken - what they most likely did take.”
He looks back at Mirage. “It’s asking a lot. But the one HHL member nobody talked about today is Vigil. Do you think between you and him, you could make a list of ways the Seven Wonders could bomb the city?”
Mirage nods. “Few know the Vigil’s true nature. I feel we can perform a suitably subtle investigation.”
Harry accompanies Mirage on her check-in of their two prisoners.
Mirage explains the security protocols out loud within earshot of both villains, both for Harry’s benefit and to ensure the prisoners understand their position. “We’re using Stingray’s quantum-acoustic tech for short-term incarceration. This is to forestall the well-understood ways of breaking out of existing force fields, and is balanced with the newness of this technology.”
“In the case of an escape, the pair would find themselves exposed to the power-suppression gas flooding the larger chamber. We prefer not to use the gas as a first-line measure because the body will build up an immunity over time. This is one of the reason power suppression remains an active and volatile field of research.”
“Tell 'em the part how we’re not being fed,” says Veneer in a loud, sarcastic voice.
Mirage continues without acknowledging the snark. “Food and waste elimination are provided via a long-wear spacesuit design.”
Harry takes a second peek into the force field chambers. There are indeed Park Tech space suits in each chamber.
Mirage continues in a flat tone. “The prisoners may tamper with those suits at the risk of losing their sole source of life support. The air filtration systems have been removed to keep them from bypassing the gas.”
“And we’re gonna live here forever, being villainous astronauts and competing to see who can be the snarkiest?” Glom asks.
Harry turns to Mirage. “She has a point. We’re not jailers. The only jailer in town is also the biggest bad guy in town. But we aren’t the only town with a supervillain problem. It’s a big planet, right? Have you started reaching out to other–”
“They don’t want them,” Mirage answers bluntly. “I’m not done exploring options. But the early signs are not encouraging.”
Harry feels his stomach knotting up. “Wait. Why?”
Mirage ticks off items, as behind her, Glom and Veneer both begin to smirk.
“First. ‘Not In My Back Yard’, or NIMBY. Nobody really wishes to play host to super-powered prisoners. The cost, the risk of release, and other factors make it a job with no reward. The only potential payoff is the emotional catharsis of locking up a villain who has harmed your city. Only Halcyon City itself values that payoff.”
Harry reaches verbally for some rescue. “But - the government–”
Mirage continues in an almost robotic voice. “Second. The government trusted AEGIS, which not only had Alycia Chin, but was apparently letting her operate as a free agent without much supervision. This wasn’t their only sin, of course, but Tyran saw to it that they lost credibility in Washington. Before you bring up the Stellar Six, please realize that to some people, ‘repurposing’ villains into heroes has a certain poetic quality and may be regarded as a good use of resources. Thus, the revelation of the Stellar Six ironically makes Tyran more appealing as super-jailers to these people in power.”
Harry can finish the third point himself. “If those of us with powers turn into judge, jury, and executioner, we lose the public’s faith in heroes, probably forever. The Seven Wonders got due process for their crimes and they were still sentenced to stasis. If we decide it’s just easier to dispose of them, we become the criminals.”
Mirage nods. “To be sure, the sentencing was influenced by coldly practical desires, such as that of AEGIS to study the physiology of powers rather than some morally upstanding position against the death penalty. In addition, it has been proven to motivate other villains to escalate. If the ultimate penalty awaits a villain, why not go big?”
Glom chuckles from her cell. “Sucks to be heroes, don’t it.”
Harry finally loses his patience and turns. “I ain’t in a bubble, am I! Sure, I gotta spend time chasing down jerks like you people who are fine with hurting folks. But that’s time well spent because I get something out of it! People feel good! When they feel good, I feel good!”
“But you aren’t free. Are you.”
Veneer says this, and something about her intonation, something about the way she emphasizes the word, tells Harry she means something special by it.
When Harry doesn’t reply immediately, she says more. “You might say being a hero’s your choice. Is it? Both parents, heroes. Raised around heroes. What’s young Harry gonna do? Rebel against all that?”
She smiles out at him. “You’re in a bubble you don’t acknowledge.”
The conversation is interrupted by a call from Ninjess. “Mirage. Mercury. Incoming transmission of interest.”
The video feed looks like someone’s camera phone. There’s a device, with D-SOL-8 standing next to it, and a man. The man is speaking.
“My name is Herminio Silva. I work as a high-energy researcher for Tyran Enterprises.”
He glances at D-SOL-8, who makes the slightest of gestures at the device.
“I am here to confirm that the-- the Seven Wonders – they have possession of several devices. These are…”
A series of technical descriptions follow. The rest of the team turn to Stingray and Mirage to translate. Stingray just mouths, “big boom” and mimes an explosion with his hands. Mirage just nods in affirmation.
Herminio Silva is still talking. “I can confirm that these devices were previously in Tyran custody. They are armed and ready for use.”
The video shifts, as the Hand aims the camera phone back to her own face. “I’m really unhappy that we have to resort to such measures, folks. All we need is for the HHL’s successors - Mercury and his friends - to submit. The HHL set them a great example. Maybe you can ask them why they aren’t following that example.”
The video comes to an end.
Andi rolls her eyes. “‘Stop making me hit you.’ That’s bullshit abusers say.”
Mirage is next up. “Our search for candidate devices was longer than I’d like, but the technology they described was near the top of that list.”
Harry nods, then turns to the group at large. “Alright. Then that’s where we’re at. It’s us and the Irregulators. Stop the remaining Seven Wonders. Save the city from annihilation. And retain enough moral authority in our handling of those villains to win the city’s faith away from Tyran.”
“Now’s the time when we learn if we’re real heroes or not.”
Harry looks from face to face, seeing worry there, but also commitment. “And I sure hope we are. Because right now there’s nobody else.”