A Hero's Song (Darkest Secrets Volume 1)

Chapter 22 - Insubordination

The world morphed until they stood on a rooftop across the street from a dark four-story warehouse. Seagull's cries, waves crashing, and the smell of brine filled their senses. A long pier extended a mile into the choppy bay nearby. It was a hyper-port for giant cruise liners and battleships.

Looking down to the street, Gabriel saw two long hover Transports - huge armored things. The metal around its thrusters still glowed red hot. They had just parked.

The warehouse lights were on, and he could see that a scaffold ran the length of the building - high above the ground floor. From the angle, he managed to catch a flash of the group walking across the floor before they were out of sight.

"Alright, team, form up." Mystery said in a loud whisper.

The Supers clustered around her, but Libra lagged behind and eventually stopped at the railing - just looking at the building. When she noticed her team's stares just shrugged and said, "I'm listening."

Quite rude.

Alfred speaking up almost made Gabriel jump, but he stopped the reflex.

Mystery took the slight in stride and just made a silly face. "Well, fine. Look, we need to get in there and get this data drive of those robots, right? First, we need the drive. Second, we need to apprehend or eliminate the criminals. Is lethal force authorized?" Mystery asked.

Rey answered. "Ms. Liberty called them serial criminals. That legally means they have either escaped incarceration or fought free of arrest more than once. Either way, they forfeited the right of the benefit of the doubt. We are clear to go in hot, and we may spare them - should they lay down their arms within eight seconds of the encounter."

Mystery blinked, surprised. "Thank you, Rey. Alright, so they are all inside with no guards. We can either sneak in somehow and take them out or charge in guns blazing. Either way, it's us surprising them. We need to get as many as we can in the first engagement. Which way in has a better chance of that?"

Gabriel spoke next. "Could your magic let you control the earth?" He asked.

Mystery nodded. "Yeah, it can; you want to tunnel in?"

Gabriel nodded, smiling in his helmet. "Yes. But not just that, I want you to make a wall dividing the room - and the enemy. We can deal with them in smaller numbers. I've seen Plasma Lances and grenades. We could die quickly fighting eight Class 4s."

Mystery nodded slowly. "I... could do that, yeah. I need to know where they are in the room, though."

Rey raised his hand and said. "Worry not, beautiful, because I KNOW WHERE THEY ARE." His voice came from everywhere at once, and the air even wobbled a bit.

Gabriel ventured a guess Rey had just decreed a rule.

Mystery shook her head a little. "Warn me when you're going to do that again." She said icily, narrowing her eyes. "I guess that solves that. So I'll divide the room, and we fight them separately.

When we get in there, I want Gabriel shielding us from plasma. Rey, can you deal with a Class 4 in one hit? I know this might not be either of your strong suits, but you are Offense and Defense today."

The tall man laughed and smacked his hand onto Gabriel's shoulder. "You ask about my strong suit? I have many. For example, I'm WAY STRONGER THAN THIS GUY'S SUIT."

Rey suddenly shot upwards and outwards. He grew a full foot, the combat armor expanding alongside him. Rey finished beefing up and shook his head. "Phew! That's it, no more rules for today." He said as he flexed.