Part Eight

"You just know they're gonna ambush us," said Energia, as the four of them entered the flyer. "That note with the address was left there for us to find. These are all professionals; they're not likely to make such a mistake."

"Then let's turn it around and ambush them," said Blue Impact. "I think we'll also bring help."

* * *

Carefully, the colorfully costumed champions approached the officially obsolete warehouse, using all available cover. They scouted from a hopefully safe distance. The front was heavily guarded, though those on watch were carefully keeping out of sight. The heroes by their various means quickly spotted them, anyway. The sides had no entrances. That left the rear, which appeared to be thoroughly secured but not guarded.

The heroes crept into position. Their fastest member then launched himself at the door and quickly disarmed the alarm. The other members hurried up. Only a moment was needed to force the door, and then...

The entire building and quite a bit of property around it went up in a devastating explosion.

"Holy shit!" screamed Salamander, peeking over the low wall behind which the heroes - the actual ones - had ducked for cover. They had been watching their doubles from the top level of a nearby parking garage when the warehouse went up. Some of it was actually still falling...

"That... Was not what I was expecting," said Blue Impact, stunned.

"I have to admit," said Energia, also very surprised, "that was more... energetic than I expected, too."

Between Gadgetive, Energia and Tone they had faked the members of Tricorne entering the place. Expecting that once the New Breed attacked the illusory heroes the larger group of real heroes would easily take them out. This, though...

"Okay," said Ma, over their coms, "were they even actually in there?"

"We'll have to check," said Energia, with a shudder.

"I'd swear those guards were real," said Tone, scowling. "Though I'm now thinking they were real robots, or whatever."

"Filter masks on, those who don't already have them," said Sircada, following his own advice. "Also, be quick. First responders should be here pretty quickly."

Carefully, checking both for the expected hazards after such an explosion and for additional traps, the combined team made their way through the debris. They were just about finished when they heard the first sirens in the distance.

"Yeah, I think we better go," said Salamander.

"Why?" said Sircada. He grinned. "We didn't do anything wrong. We were just responding to a large and mysterious explosion."

"He's right," said Blue Impact, nodding. "We stay and help the first responders look the place over."

As it turned out, while they did find fragments of a few incongruous tech items - some from what the team had sent in and some other things - there were no signs that any people had been inside. Though they did find several pieces of now very ex-rats.

* * *

"Well, that was a dead end," said Sircada, sourly, once they were back at the headquarters of The FX.

"Almost literally," said Ma. She sighed. "For now, the Adirondack Anomaly facility is boarded up and off limits to everyone. The trap was sprung, but in the process destroyed all evidence it might have contained. We can't even prove it was a trap, since the explosive was natural gas. We need to find a new lead."

"I hate to say it," said Blue Impact, "but we may have to wait until the New Breed make another move. So far we've been playing catchup and that may have to continue for a while."

"For now, keep our eyes and ears open and our guard up," said Ma, nodding.

* * *

Meanwhile, another team was discussing a seemingly unrelated matter.

"Abraham Stone is back," said the Bowman, as the members of the Intrepids settled themselves around the table in the briefing room of their rebuilt base. "He had some henchmen kidnap apparently random people. ICE raided a building looking for illegal aliens, and found instead several victims - some of them still alive - and signs that a bizarre experiment had been performed on them. As well as that the equipment used on the victims had been removed hastily."

"Who is this?" said Solange, concerned.

"He claims to be the last Neanderthal," said the Black Mask. "According to DNA testing, he's actually a Neanderthal/Cro-Magnon hybrid. I guess he was just using what seemed like the appropriate term when he was asked to label himself in the late Nineteenth Century. It's not like they had any of those words in his original language."

"Whatever he did altered the DNA of the victims," said Bowman, looking angry. "Nearly a third died immediately, with about another third dying later. The remaining third seem healthy, at least short term. The details are still being teased out. Though for some reason, several of the men are now women. The survivors say that he experimented on them one at a time, and even at the end was definitely not satisfied. That there was something missing."

"Whatever he's attempting," said the Black Mask, "it won't be good. Get the alert out."

* * *

"Where's Vic?" said Blue Impact. "I just got some important information and need to tell everyone."

"Vic's girlfriend came for a weekend visit," said Gadgetive, sourly. "I bet they're in her room right now, fornicating."

"Wait... that's this weekend?!"

"Vic didn't bring Michelle to the lair, Gadge," said Energia, tiredly. "We all - including you - agreed that wouldn't be prudent. They rented a motel room on the outskirts of town in her name. They're going clubbing tonight."

"Uh..." said the gadgeteer. "I thought Vic would just go ahead, anyway..."

"She respects our rules," said Blue Impact, firmly. "In some ways better than you do."

"Might as well go ahead and tell us, then," said Energia, smirking. "I doubt Vic will have much on her mind except Michelle for the next couple of days."

"Right. My contacts in the police department tell me that apparently the people at the office for the Adirondack Anomaly facility were killed one by one, with no alarm on the part of those not yet killed. That included the security guards. Who were likely killed last, as whoever did the deed exited the facility."

"That does not sound like the New Breed," said Energia, startled.

"No. It sounds more like the mastermind we have suspected to be behind this and several other things hired a super assassin. To get rid of the researchers with as little fuss as possible."

"God..." said Energia, tiredly.

"It gets worse. The Intrepids relayed a report to us that Abraham Stone has been active in this region. Not in this area specifically, but I'm starting to get the feeling that he's the mastermind behind the museum and Anomaly facility troubles, and maybe that artifact theft. He's also quite capable - psychologically and physically - of calmly and competently killing several members of what he considers an inferior species."

* * *

The FX agreed to meet with Tricorne within the hour, despite the lateness. As the trio walked into the meeting room the entire super membership of the team was there, along with three of their security team.

"Where's Vic?" said Sircada, frowning.

"She had some personal business to take care of," said Blue Impact. "She left before we got the information I need to share with you."

Blue Impact related what others had discovered about Abraham Stone. Then told them her own speculations.

"I'm not familiar with him," said Tone, frowning.

"I am," said Ma, scowling. "He claims he's the last Neanderthal, and looks - and behaves - the part."

"According to the surviving Subterrans - who are descended from the Neanderthals - and their records, the image of Neanderthals as brutes is generally incorrect," said Blue Impact. "They were strong and intelligent and lived in harsh environmental conditions. Only a few survived, moving underground and adapting to that new environment to become the Subterrans."

"He's still dangerous and ruthless," said Ma, flatly.

"No argument there."

* * *

The meeting at the Assembly's headquarters at roughly the same time was routine, but the opening salvo was not. Neither did it have anything to do - at first - with Abraham Stone.

"Well, looks like it's happening," said Thunderer, tiredly. "Some pundits and politicians are already using the activities of the New Breed to justify cracking down on all supers."

"That's like Great Britain's reaction to the demon invasion," said Sharma, sourly, such an extreme display of emotion unusual for her. "They placed additional restrictions on the activities of supers. Specifically and by name including those who fought the demons. Yet they did nothing to restrict the political enforcers who also fought them. Despite the blatantly illegal activities of the enforcers."

"We can't blame everything on politicians," said Champion, trying to steer them into talking about the main topic of the gathering. "The New Breed and a few others like them are causing a backlash which is affecting all supers."

"Of course not," said Dr. Gorgeous. "However, given the current social situation in much of the world, influencing someone in authority to speak or act against supers - as well as supporting many other things which are very much not in the general best interest of humanity - is relatively easy. Mostly because anti-super politicians have been frustrated so often in previous attempts to crack down on us. After being repeatedly proven wrong, they're redoubling their efforts to spite reality."

"Remember, no matter who wins the election," said Sharma, sagely, "you get a politician in the office."

"Is there any new information on Stone?" said Rebound, deciding to change the topic.

"Noting from any of my contacts," said Jade Eagle.

The others gave similarly negative results.

"All right," said Champion, sighing. "Either he's keeping the same low profile he usually does or he's up to something but is being extra careful. With Stone it's hard to tell."

"On a personal note," said Rebound, looking tired but satisfied, "my family troubles seem to finally be over. So, good Lord willing and the creek don't rise, I'll be available for the next few weeks."

There were a number of congratulatory comments on this. As the meeting broke up the team members who knew Rebound best took time to do this on a more personal level. There were even a few congratulatory shoulder slaps. Which, of course, affected the slapper rather than Rebound.

* * *

"Can I help you?" said the woman.

Vic held out her ID. The bartender looked a bit skeptical, and made a point of running the card under a scanner. She seemed mildly surprised when it was verified. Vic took her card back and placed her order, voice raised a bit to be heard over the music and crowd noise but tone still conversational

"My God," said the frazzled woman, who looked astounded. "You are the first person tonight to just politely hand over their ID and then clearly say what they wanted and end with 'please'!"

"Rough shift?" said Vic, with a sympathetic smile. A quick look around showed that the other people behind the bar also appeared rather harried.

"Let me just say that you're my best customer of the night. Here, have a candy bar as my thanks."

"Want a candy bar?" said Vic, with a grin, as she returned to their table.

Michelle took the packaged sweet and examined it.

"I'll save it for later, if that's all right. I want to dance as soon as we get done with our drinks and don't want to be weighed down."

"After our 'reunion' at the motel I'm a bit surprised you can walk, much less dance," said Vic, with a satisfied smile. Michelle rolled her eyes.

However, they had barely started on the beverages when the voice of someone who was definitely not the DJ came over the PA. The speaker sounded both matter-of-fact and a bit tired.

"May I have your attention, please. Someone has called in another bomb threat. This is almost certainly a hoax call from some hater, but regulations require that we evacuate the building while the bomb squad checks. Please move to the nearest exit in a calm an orderly fashion."

"'Another' bomb threat?" said Michelle, alarmed.

"I've heard about this," said Vic, as they picked up their drinks and joined the flow towards the fire door. "Because this place is queer friendly they keep getting threats. Look at how relaxed everyone is, though."

In truth, the crowd was far more annoyed than panicked. Some were even joking. Still, most people were taking the situation seriously enough that only a few needed to be urged by the staff to leave.

Outside, Michelle and Vic moved to the parking lot, on the far side, well away from the building, ushered there by nightclub staff. Emergency vehicles soon arrived.

"I'll be right back," said Vic, tossing her empty plastic cup into the trash. "I'm just going to go check whether they need any help."

"You really can't help yourself, can you?" said Michelle, smiling fondly at her. "Go. I'll wait right here."

The wait turned out to be a long one. Then turned worrying when Vic didn't answer her phone. It turned very worrying when Michelle checked with the police and learned that Vic had been sprayed in the face with something by "a large man" and carried off.

* * *

"We have an emergency," said Blue Impact, over the bakery's PA, waking the others. "Come down to the common area as soon as you can."

"Do you ever sleep?" asked Energia, groggily, as she flew downstairs in pajamas and mask.

"I have a phone extension in my room," said Blue Impact. Instead of waiting for Gadgetive as she usually would, she plunged ahead. "Michelle just called here to report that Vic has been kidnapped."

"What?!" said Energia, suddenly more alert.

"She was obviously targeted, too."

Blue Impact told her what she had been told over the phone.

"She has keys to Vic's car, but is unsure about where to go. Energia, you know her pretty well. I want you to dress and fly there. You talk with her and the police and figure out what to do. If you think she needs to come here, bring her here."

"I don't have a license, but I know Michelle does," said Energia, nodding. She flew up the stairs, passing Gadgetive who was finally on her way down. She was also quickly briefed.

"Gadgetive, you work with me to notify teams and single masks in the area. Alert them to this and find out if anyone else has been kidnapped. I'll start with The FX."