Part Ten

Setting things up to test the trap took more time than any of them were comfortable with, but given the risks that had to be done right. While Gadgetive worked, Blue Impact and Vic moved all the personnel they had captured to the airport, using "liberated" electric vehicles. They even helped with the people the Bay Area Guardians contingent discovered in the VIP quarters. Those individuals - mostly wealthy men, some with younger female "escorts" - were being entertained in fine style and didn't want to leave. They didn't seem to understand that they were being held pending arrest and some had to be literally picked up and carried. (More than once Tiger was heard to mutter "The entitlement is strong in this one.") Once in the hangar the prisoners were hopefully out of danger, as well as out of the way and out of sight. Meanwhile Gadgetive worked with a technology which was far different from what she was used to, though the material involved was familiar to her. Finally, she came backing carefully out the front door of the administration building, unwinding a thread behind her.

She made her way diagonally across the street, moving slowly, until she rounded the corner to where the two who had entered the administration building with her waited. The rest of the "angels" as Maciste had put it were at the airport with the recently arrived Planetary Guardians contingent, keeping watch on the plethora of prisoners.

"That's it. The other end is tied to the door handle. The line is then carefully threaded over the handrail, down the stairwell, under the handrail, out the ground floor stairway door then across to here. All the surfaces it passes over are hardened steel and low friction. Just give it a tug."

"You sure that's strong enough?" said Vic, eying the thin thread as Gadgetive carefully handed the spool to Blue Impact.

"It's braided buckytubes," said the gadgeteer, glaring at her. She turned to her team leader. "Be sure to only pull on the spool. This stuff would cut even you."

"Okay," said Blue Impact. She took up the slack. "In three, two, one, go."

The magnitude of the resulting explosion took all the heroes by surprise, and not just those at the admin building. As the dust began to clear, the trio closest to the blast could see that most of the building was gone. As were large parts of the upper portions of all the surrounding buildings.

"Holy shit," squeaked Gadgetive.

"You folks still with us?" said Steel Lace, over their coms.

"Uh, yeah," said Blue Impact, shaking her head. "Thank Bombardier for the warning. Now, does anyone see any reaction?"

"Not yet. However, Energia says the building where the VIPs were housed also went up."

"Whoah," said Mesa, startled. "Someone must have wanted any attackers blamed for all those deaths. I'm surprised the fighters' barracks didn't go up, too."

"They could be blamed for the destruction," said Steel Lace, dryly. "Why get rid of them?"

Bombardier hadn't known which other island the top bosses were on. He did know that aside from the cameras in the cage match area, the only security cameras were inside the barracks and the VIP quarters. Presumably the last was more for blackmail use than maintaining security. The hope was that there would be some response from the facility's masters after the explosions supposedly took out at least some of any attacking force.

"Oh, yeah," said Energia, still on high cover. "Several helicopters being accompanied by a few flying types are on the way from the island southwest of here. The one with the little volcano."

"Good. You stay out of this fight. Fly high over that island and keep watch."

"Roger."

She sounded disappointed, but knew her role was important.

"Okay, time for everybody to play dead until the bad guys get here. Then we ambush them."

* * *

The arriving helicopters and flying supers headed for the airport. Did they know that was where the VIP prisoners and the captured supers and security guards were? Or were they headed there simply because it was the best place for their force to land?

The flying supers landed first, and looked around. The heroes held back, keeping quiet and still. Seeing nothing immediately threatening, the newly arrived supers called the helicopters down.

Bombardier jumped the gun, though fortunately not by much. He charged out of the hangar screaming what might have been his idea of a Rebel yell. He leapt for one of the just-landed helicopters. Given that its blades were still turning at a good clip it was probably fortunate for him that one of the mercenary flyers intercepted him, swatting Bombardier to the ground. However, by that time multiple hero masks were swarming out of the hangar.

The subsequent battle was a confused mess. Later, even with testimony from many parties - including Cumulous, who was still in the tower, watching it all from above - a detailed recreation was impossible. It lasted long enough that Blue Impact, Gadgetive and Vic were not only able to arrive before it ended, but all three were able to make contributions to the conflict. Fortunately, though the battle was hard fought, the "angels" won.

A few of the mercenary supers managed to flee. Most were caught later, during the clean-up of the island, and the rest had warrants put out on them. All five of the helicopters were damaged beyond repair.

"Whew!" said Mesa, as they began the task of putting restraints on the defeated supers. "That was some fight."

He was, very unusually for someone as tough as him, bleeding from his nose and mouth. His outfit was also in serious need of repair. He was far from the only one on either side experiencing those conditions.

Vic was about to say something, but they were all half-deafened by Cumulous yelling over their coms.

"Monsters! Monsters from the east!"

That cry was unexpected enough and vague enough that some of those on the ground were left confused instead of being warned. However, several of the heroes - especially those on the east side of the battlefield - saw what was coming.

"Badgerbears!"

"Oh, yeah," said Bombardier, coming around but still a bit groggy. "Some of the illegal cage fights are against monsters. Even whole packs of badgerbears."

"Badgerbears run in packs?!" said Gadgetive, who wasn't the only one alarmed to hear this.

"Unfortunately," said Tiger. "It's just that most people can't afford - or survive - more than one."

As large as brown bears and with physical and behavioral characteristics of both those and badgers, the massive creatures had long been a bane to many people, including supers.

"Ahhhh!" said one of the captured super mercenaries. He began struggling against his bonds. "Get me out of here! Those things are dangerous!"

"No kidding," muttered Vic.

"Heavyweights to the east!" Steel Lace called out. "Hurry! Those with ranged attacks get behind them and start firing! Cumulous, keep watch in other directions!"

There wasn't enough time. The line of heavies was still forming and only a few ranged shots were made before the nearly two dozen badgerbears were on them. The fight quickly became another messy melee. While the arcing line of defenders - which included Blue Impact - intercepted most of the animals, a few got through. These were left to people like America's Guardsman and Andrea. More injuries occurred to the heroes, as well as a couple of the most recent set of prisoners, but for the most part the creatures were dispatched quickly.

Even while this was happening, Steel Lace was directing others to defend the rest of the perimeter, all around the the landing area and the nearby hangar. Fortunately, by now they had plenty of heroes for the task. Cumulous called out a few more hostile creatures approaching, mostly individual mad biology creations, and they were intercepted before reaching the airport. None of these were natural animals, inclined to avoid obviously superior opponents even if they were potential food. These were all creatures designed for aggression without regard to their own safety. In a way this was fortunate; they were all sent by the unseen masters of this island against the heroes, and they were all destroyed in short order. Which meant there was little worry of surviving creatures wandering around the island, menacing staff or lone heroes.

"Was that a sharoction I saw Tiger and Mesa fighting?" said Blue Impact, once the monster part of the battle was over and they were again in cleanup mode. "These people are crazy!"

The group had just finished packing the defeated and captured airborne attackers - super and agent - into the hangar when Cumulous sent word of more arrivals. These, it turned out, were helicopters from the US and Canadian Coast Guards, on a joint mission. Fortunately, in support of the heroes.

"Get the landing area cleared!" Steel Lace ordered, quickly. "Shove the debris and animal bodies well clear! I don't care if something is still burning, move it out of the way!"

Several clearly marked helicopters soon approached. There was some worry expressed about hidden antiaircraft defenses which might be deployed against these craft, which were much more conventional than those the masks had used and therefore more vulnerable to such measures. However, they landed without incident. The troops on board quickly fanned out, and high-ranking officers - one each Canadian and US - debarked. They asked for and were quickly directed to the person in charge. Steel Lace met them at the landing area, with America's Guardsman and several other respected heroes in support.

"Ma'am," said Rear-admiral LaSalle, the ranking officer of the combined task force and a French Canadian, after a quick salute. "What can you tell us about what happened here?"

"One of the members of the Bay Area Guardians stole a hopper and came here for his own reasons," said Steel Lace. "I formed a small team and took another hopper to stop him. I didn't want an international incident. However, as we approached the island we could not get any acknowledgement from the control tower. As we drew closer we saw that the rogue team member was on the ground, surrounded by obvious hostiles. With no contact, we landed and exited our vehicle and were immediately attacked. One of our team destroyed a mad science device used to attack us - that's it, on the ground over there, at the base of the control tower - and as we recovered we saw the hostiles advancing on us. We were engaged by them, and things escalated from there.

"I want to emphasize that we - the team as a whole - were waiting for a go-ahead from the US and Canadian governments when all this started. Our intent in coming here was to stop a rogue member. However, the locals were hostile and attacked without determining our intent or regard for our intent. We were forced to defend ourselves."

"Understood," said the Vice-admiral, nodding. "Ironically, our joint task force was already on its way here. The justification being that the island's waste treatment plant is producing effluent well below the standards required by both the United States and Canada and releasing it into the ocean."

That he realized this was simply a justification for the "investigation in force" the two governments had planned was obvious.

"I see you have, well, many prisoners," said Rear Admiral Lower Half Harney, senior officer present from the US Coast Guard. "Did you capture those in charge here?"

"No. Our information is that they're on another island," said Steel Lace, pointing. "However, even in the short time we've been here we have found strong evidence of multiple illegal activities."

"We are prepared to take the prisoners off your hands," said LaSalle. "Some of our ships are already approaching the docks for this island. There are both portable neutralizers on board, and brigs with neutralizers installed. If you could show us the prisoners?"

"They're in the hangar," said Steel Lace.

The captured people had been separated into four groups. These were the costumed mercenaries, the uniformed guards, the civilian workers, and the VIP guests. The latter group had raised the biggest fuss; still were, in fact. They saw the combined Coast Guard forces and thought those personnel were there to rescue them from this assault by American supers. Ignoring them for the moment, Steel Lace went to the closest group first; the costumed mercenaries.

"Let's see..." said Steel Lace. "I recognize Daisy Eta... Kart Bizak... Titania... Altan... Wait, isn't Altan supposed to be dead?!"

"That's an android," said Tiger. He looked around. "I think several of these are androids."

"I can verify that," said Andrea.

"Androids?!" said Steel Lace. "Hold on."

"That complicates things," said LaSalle, as the super thought. "Any artificial life forms will need to be verified as sapient, before they can be held responsible for their actions. If not, they can simply be deactivated for later examination."

"I can help with that," said Andrea, definitely smugly. Whether the members of the combined military task force would take her seriously - since she was still in her "cheerleader" phase - was another matter.

"All right, quick check!" said Steel Lace, loudly. "How many of these are androids?"

The answer was: All those previously thought to be dead, plus a few more. That is, about a third of the costumed defenders of the island. Which was apparently a surprise to both the other costumed defenders and the uniformed security guards.

"I'm surprised some of the VIP guests weren't duplicated," said Tiger, scowling. "That's something we need to check on for former guests, if we ever get the records of who they were."

"We thought the imposters were just other supers with similar powers," said Steel Lace. She shook her head. "We have a lot of rethinking..."

She froze. Then turned to look at Tiger.

"That island you went to, with the basement lab. It was the first Mordecai's."

"Yeah," said Tiger, nodding slowly. "We know at least someone is still paying attention to that place, too. It could very well be the current Mordecai. Though a lot of other people are into androids these days. There's also the mind control guy who appeared there, and the signs we've seen here of mind control. It fits..."

"We should have guessed!" said Steel Lace, suddenly angry. "We should have known that the costumed substitutes for the dead supers we learned about were androids!"

"We didn't know there was a connection between the two islands," said Mesa, with a scowl. "That's still not certain. It's hundreds of kilometers away! I'm willing to bet, though, now that we know about this, that the mind-controlling man on the island in Silver Lake is an android."

"No," said Tiger, flatly. "That was a human. He had a definite human scent, and that's one of the things even Andrea can't fake."

"Which I am very glad of," said Andrea, again smugly. "Who wants to be stinky?"

"Well, regardless, we have more Coast Guard personnel on the way," said LaSalle. "We will remove the prisoners, secure this island, then move on to the other islands. That could take a while, though. With the complications of determining which if any of the androids are legally sapient, the process will of necessity be slow. Moving on to the other islands probably will not occur until tomorrow. For now, I need your forces to scout and get us more information about the situation on this island. There might be more of those monsters around, as well as other costumed mercenaries. Your people are far better suited to dealing with both those than mine are."

"Right," said Steel Lace.

"Meanwhile, we'll set up a camp, here at the airport. We will feed and house your people and those of us who are staying ashore for the night."

"Excellent," said Tiger, grinning and looking hungry. Which made him more than a bit frightening.

With the two sets of Coast Guard vessels now monitoring the air traffic, Energia was finally allowed to land. Cumulous was also relieved of his tower duties, as properly trained military personnel took over for him.

"I love flying, but hovering or making slow circuits over the same group of islands for hours at a time is not my idea of fun," she said, when she was finally debriefed by Steel Lace.

"You go rest and recharge," said the leader of the super contingent. "We'll let you know if we need you."

Once the prisoners were gone, the combined Coast Guard task force set up a full camp inside the hangar. This had sleeping quarters and a kitchen, which enough capacity to handle those supers left after the prisoners - including the still-dazed combatants, who were finally removed from their barracks - were taken to various ships. The food prepared at the small airport was all US B-rations, but those working were too hungry to care about the lack of fresh ingredients. Active duty soldiers of any stripe - whether land, sea or air - were among the few groups of people who had nutrition needs similar to those of masked heroes, so the cooks had a good idea of what needed to be done to satisfy the appetites they would soon face. Meanwhile, the heroes were busy with cleanup. Steel Lace quickly organized people in pairs to head out in commandeered vehicles to do a quick search of the parts of the island the supers hadn't been to yet. They would start just by taking quick turns around the buildings and beach, warning those who may not have found out yet about what was going on to take cover, while also looking for suspicious activities.