“Your proposal intrigues me, tell me more…” Trish had set her trap and now all she had to do was patiently await her prey.

Trish had contacted Saber Base to have a new identity delivered to her in Barcelona. Now she was winging her way east on a very plush corporate jet belonging to Ravensclaw Incorporated under the assumed name of Sachi Watanabi. Before she revealed herself to St. John, she had altered her features to a Japanese cast and created her identity anew. Lindquist had accepted this at face value and attributed her powers to skill and her battlesuit. He had been so impressed with her and her incredible abilities that he had telephoned New York directly and ordered Ravensclaw to arrange transportation for a newly acquired ‘asset’. They were somewhere over the Atlantic when Greg finally spoke up,

he queried her.

she confessed.

Greg paused,

She didn’t answer right away and there was a moment or two of silence as she mulled over what he’d said.

she finally managed to articulate her thoughts.

He probed,

she asserted.

Trish sniffled, then giggled weakly.

Trish smiled inwardly,

Her lover’s humour had returned and Trish managed a small smile.

Greg became more serious about their prospects.

She rejoindered,

Greg encouraged her.

They spent the next hour just enjoying each other’s company and if anyone was watching, they would simply have seen a young Japanese woman meditating. The plane landed at JFK and was met in the hangar by a black stretch limo. Sachi Watanabi exited the aircraft and seated herself in the rear compartment of the car but she soon discovered she was not alone. The big enforcer from Bonn, the one who went by the name Sammy, was seated there as well. He made no attempt at small talk as the driver took The Van Wyck Expressway to Flushing and transferred to the Long Island Expressway heading for Manhattan. They preferred this silence and spent the next 20 minutes looking out the window until the car approached the Queens-Midtown Tunnel.

“Ms. Watanabi?” the large man broke the silence.

“Yes?” she replied without looking at him.

“Uh, traffic permitting, we’ll be at the offices in about a half hour…”

“And?” she prompted coolly.

“Uh, the boss just wanted me to see if you needed anything, you know, before you got there. Uh, like booze, smokes, clothes, whatever,” he offered.

“Arigato,” she replied. “I am fine for now. I am sure that I can get whatever I need later. I was given the impression by Lindquist-sama that Ravensclaw-san would want to see me as soon as possible,” Trish spoke in an affected Japanese accent.

“OK Miss… we’ll be there soon,” Sam shrugged.

The traffic on the FDR drive south was relatively light as the sun slowly rose over the towers of southern Manhattan. It was 7:30am when the limo pulled up in front of The New World’s Trade Centre and they took the elevator up into the spire. The elevator doors soon opened onto a darkly panelled reception area with exotic plants and indirect lighting.

“Please wait here Ms. Watanabi,” Sam directed her towards a chair. “I’ll just let Mr. Ravensclaw know you’ve arrived.” He lumbered off in the direction of an oak door and knocked quietly. Trish stood still and stretched their hearing to listen in as she memorized the layout of the reception area.

“The Japanese broad is waiting Mr. R…” Sam announced gruffly.

“Japanese Woman, Sam, according to Lindquist, she’s hell on wheels.” The door opened and Nathanial Ravensclaw walked across the thick pile of carpet. Trish bowed deeply and waited.

“Welcome to New York, Ms. Watanabi. St. John has told me that you managed to save us a tidy sum of money,” Nathanial smiled and extended his hand. Trish made no move to shake it.

“In the course of my duties to the late Doctor Howard, I’ve eliminated 3 assassins,” she replied dryly. “Unfortunately, the 3rd succeeded in his mission before I could remove him. I am now ronin, without honour. If this is what you refer to, I suppose I did save you your blood payment.” Nathanial slowly drew his hand back.

“Um… yes… indeed. St. John also mentioned you would be willing to work for us now,” he continued more coolly.

“Given the other option offered, yes,” Trish responded humourlessly.

“You are somewhat of an enigma to me Watanabi Sachi. We can find no record of you anywhere,” Nathanial proceeded, probing for a crack in her armour that he could exploit.

“The person you know as Watanabi Sachi does not exist…” she spoke mysteriously.

Greg chuckled.

“I see, so you change identities regularly?” Ravensclaw feinted.

“Hai!” Trish burst out.

“I believe then, that we do have some use for one such as you… you and that remarkable suit of yours. Did you create it?” Once again, Nathanial searched for information.

“The secret of the suit’s design went to the grave with its creator. I have never been able to duplicate it,” Trish lied magnificently.

“Nevertheless, I have a man who might be able to help you with that. But enough of this idle chatter,” Nathaniel smiled crookedly. “Samuel will show you to your temporary quarters. 113 Sam, and make it nice for our guest. Again… welcome.”

Trish bowed once more as Ravensclaw retreated into his office. Sam escorted them to a small elevator some distance away from the rest of the cars. They arrived on the 113th floor and Sam entered a code on a keypad to allow them entrance. He walked her to a sliding panel and keyed another code. The panel snapped out of the way and opened onto a small apartment that was pleasant enough, but there was no mistaking the fact it was a cell.

Hestia, back at Saber Base, fielded the calls from AERIE telling Betina that Doctor Howard was recovering from an illness and was unavailable. The crew at the Biel location sent their best wishes and hopes for a quick recovery and pursued the inquiries no further. Hestia was getting worried. Since Greg and Trish had gone to Spain there had been no contact with them except for the document request. The data feed on their vital signs was steady, but placed them now in lower Manhattan and not Barcelona.

Interlude: Island SIX:

Cossack was growing increasingly worried about Dreamwalker’s actions. The greening of Africa and food distribution projects were fine, but David seemed to be more and more focussed on governments and corporations and less on the people they had been helping.

“David?” he cleared his throat.

“Yes Nikoli…” Dreamwalker answered.

“I wanted to know what you were planning to do next. You’ve been getting more secretive lately and it’s starting to concern me,” the larger man paused.

“I’ve been weighing our options Niki, The democracy riots in Kowloon and their subsequent subduing by the Chinese Government disturbs me,” David fiddled with his pen. “There have been fifteen pro-democracy demonstrations in the last seven months alone and the so-called Peoples Democratic Republic of China has been more brutal each time. I was considering how we might take on the Dragon…” he mused.

“I’m sorry… but are you mad? Even the USA and the former USSR knew enough to leave that sleeping giant alone!” Niki overrode him loudly. “The PDRC is unpredictable at the best of times and it’s also enormous! There are six of us versus a standing army of five million soldiers… and atomic weapons. I have no doubt that the central powers wouldn’t hesitate to go nuclear if we started messing with them,” Niki stated his concerns openly and emotionally.

“Nonsense Nikoli, the Government of China wouldn’t nuke its own citizens…” David started to defend his position.

“The Government of China would nuke its citizens if they thought they were going to get us…” Niki continued pointedly. “The USSR was paranoid, but the PDRC is worse than we ever were. They have one point five billion citizens… a few million deaths would be but a small matter to them.”

“Nikoli, I’ll take your comments under advisement…” David answered dismissively, “but for now, I wish to be left alone!” He turned back to his research and Nikoli strode out of the council room, now more worried than ever.

End interlude.

Professor Julian Saber had managed to defeat most of the lab monitoring systems by feeding them false data, but to this point in time, he hadn’t been able to defeat the locking system on the door here or in his living quarters. The quiet time he gained was put to use finding ways to sabotage the systems’ upgrades and designs he was being forced to create for Ravensclaw. He still hadn’t found a way to get the trigger codes that he’d implanted into the anti-SIX, as he’d nicknamed them, out of his prison to anyone that could possibly use them and since the anti-heroes had been relocated to a base away from Manhattan, he had no way to activate them himself. His only hope lay in the fact that there were really no fail-safes in the bonds. These units could definitely be pushed beyond their limits, which would probably destroy their hosts and the nanomechs. The only problem with that situation was that it could conceivably kill innocent people and he had more than enough weighing on his conscience right now.

Trish laid her hand on the wall of her room and found the security functions that had been built into the room. As expected, they were simple audio and video, nothing fancy. She traced and absorbed the command pathways and settled into a lotus position on the floor in the middle of the room. From here, she could monitor all of the floors’ security cameras, studying their layout. She quickly discovered that someone else was spoofing the security systems as well. She traced the signal and found that it was coming from a laboratory about three rooms away.

she roused him.

He was slightly alarmed.

Trish was more than excited.

Greg interrogated her.

she responded

Greg was fully awake and back in planning mode now.

Trish suggested.

She was over the moon that they had discovered her long suffering father with such relative ease. Hopefully the rescue mission would prove to be just as painless.

Trish sent a command to the cameras to record a 30-second loop and instructed the audio to do likewise. With the loops recorded and in playback mode, she pulled the hood of the ACM into place and activated full electronic camouflage. Effectively invisible, she lowered her body temperature to the ambient atmospheric levels and stood up. Opening the door proved easy enough and she slid it gently out of her way, making as little noise as possible. There were no guards around physically because they completely depended upon the security systems to alert them to any possible trouble. From the doorway, she scanned the corridor for electronic eyes or lasers and the floor for pressure sensors. Finding nothing, she stepped from the room and walked down the corridor to the lab that held Professor Saber. The keypad was standard and was a snap for her to scan and absorb the correct key sequence. The door moved silently aside and Trish stepped in to see her father for the first time in over two years.

The Professor looked up startled and opened his mouth to speak but Trish held up a warning hand and pointed to her ears and the walls. The Professor nodded and remained silent. Trish let the door close behind her and tapped the security system to deaden the microphones in the lab. She filed Sachi Watanabi and allowed herself to become Trish Saber-Howard again before removing the ACM’s hood.

“Is it possible?” Julian Saber blinked. “Is that you Tricia?”

“Yes Daddy, it’s me,” she chuckled and slowly turned around for him to take in all of her, “in the borrowed flesh. So much has happened in the past two years… I’m so glad we finally found you…” her words tumbled out in a rush of emotion and with tears in her eyes, she ran to the Professor and embraced him.

The base for the Hammers was now complete and as Ravensclaw had promised, held everything that six villains could possibly ever need. Nathanial met his daughter in their ready room to get a final update on the team’s status before sending them out to engage The SIX for the first time.

“All I want to know is if they are ready to take on those irritants,” he snarled.

“They’re as ready as they can be Father. They are trained, confident with their abilities and raring to go…” Natalia began enthusiastically but Nathanial held up a finger to caution her.

“Just remember Natalia, these freaks you’re going up against have two years of experience on your team, so don’t be afraid to distract them with collateral damage,” he smirked. “They’ll be so busy dealing with saving lives that you and our team will be able to hurt them badly.”

“I understand completely Father, do we have a target yet?” Natalia asked.
“
Washington DC,” Nathanial divulged. “Take out a few monuments, some tourists and threaten the Government. Terrorist tactics will bring The SIX to you.” Nathanial’s smile chilled Natalia’s blood.

The Ravensclaws summoned the team into the staging area where a sleek VTOL jet transport awaited them. Although they could have physically flown on their own, this would definitely add to the element of surprise. Nathanial addressed the group.

“I have given you a mission that will draw The SIX into a trap. You will be heading to Washington DC to cause a little mayhem and to humiliate The SIX. Create as much damage and as many casualties as you wish, as long as The SIX are defeated before the eyes of the world. Do your worst… do what you were created for... be The Hammer,” he admonished them, a satisfied smile on his lips.

The Hammers boarded the jet and took off for Washington. Nathanial watched the plane leave and then went to the monitor centre to view the anticipated carnage.

To Be Continued