Safe Harbor’s fusion power plant catastrophically fails, early one morning.
Alarms wake everyone up. Otto, Mo, and Bill are out of their beds immediately.
Leo and Aria, who’ve been awake for awhile owing to Fez’s peculiar sleep schedule, nod to each other. Aria transfers Fez into her internal Nursery - a holographic world she’s built to keep her baby safe in the one place she trusts the most, herself. And they head out.
Summer, who’s been napping after a long session of design work, bolts upright in her room. She hears and understands the alarm, and moves out.
The actual fusion plant is in its own sphere attached to the ocean’s surface a good distance away. Cables run across the sea floor and connect the output of the plant to the rest of the city.
The team piles into City Ops one or two at a time. The big room is the control center for the experiments Safe Harbor has been doing in things like power distribution and manufacturing. Monitors show the status of everything, and there’s a reinforced airlock on one side that leads to a viewing room - if the monitors are down, you can still go physically look through the watery depths and see the physical power plant. If necessary, you can even walk across the sea floor to get there.
Otto wordlessly directs Big Bill to the airlock to make a visual check, while Mo gets on the monitors. He turns as Leo and Aria arrive.
“What happened?” Aria demands immediately.
“Plant failed,” Mo answers. “Why - dunno yet,” he adds, anticipating Aria’s next question.
There’s a loud, solid thunk through the walls as electrical switching happens. “System went to the backup plant. Backup’s also failing,” Mo explains.
“We have reserve power in the graphene batteries,” Aria says urgently. “Cut over to that, forget the backup plant.”
Mo makes the adjustments.
Meanwhile, Big Bill comes back from the viewing chamber. “Sphere’s there, nothin’ on fire I can see. Cables look intact. Want me to head over?”
Otto shakes his head. “Not yet. Let’s stabilize the–”
Another, very different alarm begins going off. City Ops and the Launch System are deliberately kept separate, but each one can monitor the other if necessary. And this alarm should never be happening when the Newmen are all together.
“Who the hell is activating the Launch System?!” Otto demands of the world at large.
Aria gestures to Otto and Leo. “Can you two go check it out?”
As Summer rushes in, still in PJs, Aria’s gesture includes her too. “You three. Check the Launch System. Assume a security breach.”
She turns to Leo. “You should have a Link Suit ready in–”
Leo’s already on the way to the door. “Don’t need it,” he calls back.
Aria feels a combination of pride and worry. He can’t really be okay just as he is, can he? And if he is - what has he become?
She turns her attention back to the situation she controls - the fate of her city. “Mo, call Dr. Panya. If he’s not awake, call until he is. Then stay on the console unless Otto or I call you off. Bill, go escort Panya down here. If we have a security problem, he could be in danger. I want him safe.”
There’s one thing she doesn’t say aloud, not yet. The plant could have been sabotaged by whoever just activated the Launch System. She trusts her fellow Newmen with her life, and knows they have no possible motive here.
That just leaves one other person who she knows could have done it - Somsak Panya, the nuclear physicist sent to them by Jeff Arbogast.
Leo is leading the way to the Launch System. Through corridors and across bridges he jogs. Otto and Summer are right behind him.
Around them, the lights are flickering. The new possibilities of the fusion power plant got everyone excited, and more and more electrically-driven stuff has been installed in the city. Lights, elevators, neon signs, whatever folks could fabricate using Mo’s new process. But the graphene system, while reliable, just can’t carry the new load.
Leo can hear Mo’s voice over the city-wide PA. “City Ops. Mo here. Shutting down non-essential systems. Problem with the power plant.”
He hears Aria take over. “Folks, something happened. We’re investigating. There’s a possible source of danger. Stay in your quarters. If you’re in a public space, return to your quarters if they’re close. Go to an emergency station otherwise. Look for the red-and-black signals.”
Several of the emergency station signals start lighting up as the trio pass.
The team had done disaster recovery drills before. Everyone knows the systems will work.
What worries everyone is why they’re necessary now.
The Launch System door is sealed shut.
“We’re too secure sometimes,” Otto jokes.
Leo isn’t smiling. “What about other ways in? Maintenance tunnels?”
Otto nods. “Yeah, we can probably finagle something. Sure does smell like sabotage now, though.”
Summer has placed a hand on the walls. She turns to the others, looking distressed. “It’s not just sabotage. Feel it? The vibration? The Launch System is open. It’s still running.”
After a moment, they can also hear the faint hum of the machinery in operation.
“They sending something out or bringing something in?” Otto asks.
“Bringing something in,” Leo says immediately, intuitively.
“Bulk Access, then,” says Summer. “Unless they’re piling stuff up on the Launch System deck, that has to be open for them to get to the rest of the city.”
The trio head down a nearby staircase, toward Bulk Access.
They hear the sounds of booted footsteps before they see the soldiers.
Leo stops at a corner, then holds up a hand for caution as his friends follow closely behind.
He listens, then holds up five fingers, makes a cross with two hands, then four fingers - about twenty guys. The others nod.
Then he charges out, which they honestly didn’t expect but really should have.
This is Leo Newman who charges, not the armored superhero Link. It’s just him, and a belt-mounted pack of knives. They don’t even have proper grips or handles. It’s like he’s got a pack of oversized razor blades that can be thrown like shuriken. And as the soldiers raise their guns, he throws them.
Some of the blades embed themselves in plexiglass helmets. Others hit gun hands.
Several soldiers open fire. Leo dodges and twists, as his combat sense guides him through the motions of survival. He crouches as though to leap, and the gunmen follow their training and try to anticipate it. Then he drops, and more knives are thrown. These hit kneecaps, or the lightly armored inner thighs.
Otto and Summer charge out, more concerned about their friend than about bullets. Otto, at least, has the sense to do what Aria will expect him to do - call it in. “City Ops! Heads up. Hostiles confirmed - repeat - hostiles coming through the Launch System!”
He hears Mo’s voice. “Kick their ass,” is all the laconic engineer says.
Otto rolls his eyes - thanks, buddy, didn’t think of that one.
Summer knows that Aria would want the confirmation of hostiles. She’s just too busy following her much deeper, more powerful instinct - don’t let anyone harm Leo. She jets into the pack of soldiers, all punches and kicks and shin strikes and elbows. Soldier after soldier falls. Though unwilling to kill, she’s not going to be gentle to these assholes.
As twenty men lie unconscious on the ground outside the Launch System, the other two look back to assess Leo’s physical condition, fearing he might have taken a bullet.
To their considerable surprise, he’s untouched, and collecting his knives.
“You okay, boss?” Otto asks uncertainly.
Leo doesn’t say anything. That, Otto knows, is a big red flag.
He looks down at the watch Leo has started wearing, the one that monitors his neurochip and will signal an alarm when the berserker state is close.
Right now the watch is showing a vibrant yellow.
Summer stays behind with Leo, while Otto checks out the Launch System.
He reports back to Aria. “System’s running on accumulated plasma pressure. Looks like it’s got another four minutes before it runs outta steam. I’m gonna close the Bulk Access hatch and hang out in case any other clown decides to poke his head in here.”
He calls back to Summer. “Yo! Star child! Can you head up to Launch Control, see who’s up there if anyone?”
Summer looks worriedly back to Leo, who’s busy tying up soldiers with spare cable from the Launch System’s supplies.
Otto knows she’s conflicted. He can’t tell her it’ll be fine, or say not to worry. It won’t be fine. And he’s worried. But he has to know what’s going on up there.
Finally Summer, anguish on her face, rests a brief comforting hand on Leo’s shoulder. He doesn’t acknowledge, and she glances back to Otto with a combination of worry - he’s not okay - and resentment - why are you pulling me away from him? - on her face. But she heads for Launch Control.
Otto spares a glance at Leo as well. Then he pulls the lever, and the Bulk Access door slides closed, cutting the two men off from each other.
Otto sighs, and heads toward his personal launch bay, where his car-sized shell awaits. If these dickheads are gonna invade his city, he wants to give them a right proper welcome.
Summer enters the room overlooking the Launch Facility. She finds Minato on the ground, with a pool of blood next to her.
“Oh god–”
A quick check tells her Minato is alive, but probably concussed. She’s bleeding from a hit to the head. She’s got all this extra squiddy mass up there, which Summer thinks probably cushioned her from the worst of the impact, and which is responsible for the bleeding.
She applies a bandage from the first aid kit as best she can, then unlocks the sealed door to the control room.
Back on comms, she reports what she found.
“Shut down the Launch System,” Aria directs. “I’ll try to get some medics up there.”
Summer tries, and finds that the control circuits from the board have been physically ripped out. Whoever activated the Launch System wanted it to stay on.
“Negative on shutdown,” she reports. “Otto’s downstairs waiting for anyone else to come through.”
She hears Aria’s hesitation. The stress on her is slowly building up, Summer knows.
“Okay. Fine. Launch System is Otto’s business, I’m not giving you any more orders about it. But don’t leave Minato alone.”
Summer asks what she’s most worried about.
“Is Leo gonna be okay out there?”
She hears Aria’s worry now, very clearly. “He’s gonna go red soon. Unfortunately, I think right now, that’s exactly where we need him.”
“Can we bring him back from it?” Summer asks, nervously.
“We will. We all will,” Aria promises.