A large unit of World Corps mercs set up camp near the WMD HQ. A grey skinned augment hovered around the area, keeping a close eye on things.
The commanding officer asked a subordinate, “can we get inside yet?”
The junior officer shook his head. “The security system is still keeping us out.”
“They want us to get into their computer system and we can’t do this standing on the front lawn. Get me in there. I don’t care what explosives we have to employ.”
The subordinate said, “sir, we already tried most of the explosives with us and the super has even attempted to gain access. Something is keeping us out.”
They both jerked at the sound of rumbling beneath them. “Where is that noise coming from?”
“I don’t know, sir. Our sensors cannot give us much information, other than a large life form is registering. It…well…uh..it looks like a dragon on our heat sensors.”
“Nonsense. We’re dealing with advanced tech, not mythical creatures.”
A bright flash of light appeared, and The Wizard said, “oh, but you are. In fact, you are dealing with my dragon, and she isn’t too happy right now.”
The mercs quickly mobilized and pulled out their weapons. The commander said, “halt, surrender...hero.”
The Wizard laughed at them. “I don’t think so. I’m upset, my dragon is enraged, and my team, well, my team is ticked off. Trust me, you don’t want to mess with us.”
Large green hands pulled aside the trees as Midgard came through with the rest of WMD. Midgard bellowed, “HAND OVER THE GUNS, PUNY HUMANS!”
The super came closer, hovering over the line of mercs with their weapons out. She said, “good, you’ve returned. Turn yourselves in for questioning and this can be over quickly. We have you outnumbered and outgunned.”
ick their sorry butts outta here.”
The commander yelled, “fire!”
The mercs blasted away with their AMAs. The energy hit the heroes and nothing happened. Hotwings and The Wizard distracted the mercs, battling with them. Midgard grabbed their flying augment and spiked her right into the ground, leaving a pretty good-sized hole.
Shadows grew darker around the feet of the mercs, and suddenly Shadowwalker reached up and nabbed the guns out of their hands. Skelanimal jumped up and plowed right into the mercs one by one, also taking guns away.
Hotwings punched a soldier and then yelled, “Midgard! No killing! We’re only after the guns!” Midgard had a merc halfway to his mouth, ready to bite him in half. With a growl of disapproval, the giant serpent tossed the man aside and then smacked another merc against a tree.
“RETREAT!” the commander finally ordered, and the team rushed away.
“Let them go. We have their guns.” DaMon said.
Hotwings clicked his comm unit, “BADGE, we have guns.”
Nova came through, “good, deposit them at the nearest BADGE drop and keep going. I want all their guns before they turn them on the innocent.”
“Understood.”
***
Nova watched the monitor as many visual feeds came through. Heroes were all over the planet, confiscating weapons and sending the World Corps units retreating.
“Good work, Madam Marvelous. Check in with your League and make sure all the soldiers in the city are gone.”
“Yes, sir!” Madam Marvelous dashed through Tokyo with five guns in her arms, ready to drop them off.
Krystal Fae looked at him from her location. “Director, the World Corps soldiers have five of their augments with them. It’ll be a big fight if we go after them.”
“Where are they?”
“They have created a base camp in the middle of Hyde Park.”
“Don’t engage. I’ll send Quark with some speedsters. They’ll take care of the weapons. Just make sure those mercs stay put.”
“Understood.” Krystal Fae’s feed cut off.
Nova watched all the heroes working hard, a tally on the side of the screen showing the amount of guns they had already confiscated.
Furious Squirrel appeared on a screen from within the station. “Sir, we have been using the dismantled parts to make gear for the heroes.”
“Good, recycling is always welcome. Keep it up.”
“Aye sir.”
Robot 10915 announced, “message from Dr. Henderson. Please, report to medical bay five.”
“Tell her I’m on my way. If I’m needed, patch me through there.”
Nova left the Operations center with 10915 in charge. He walked through the station to the medical wing. Inside the standard med unit, Nova found Dr. Henderson checking data on a computer next to Arx, or Craig as he calls himself now. He was still wearing that Greek outfit with a distraught look on his face.
“Doctor?”
Dr. Henderson spoke softly, “Craig, Director Nova is here.”
Craig looked up like a child to his parent. “Oh, you’re here.”
Nova asked, “why did you need to see me?”
Craig said, “you were the first person I saw when I got out of that lab. You have been nice to me. I feel like I can trust you.”
“You can.”
“I saw the news reports from when I attacked. I hurt so many people. I destroyed Poseidon Island, murdered people in Hollywood…I…I can’t get the images out of my head!.” His words became a mumbled mixture of crying.
Nova calmly said, “I wish you hadn’t learned your unfortunate past alone. I had hoped to give you much more time before you knew anything about that.”
“I’m a monster. The world must hate me and they are right to.”
Nova pulled over a small chair and sat next to the bed. “The man who did that was not you. He was a creation of evil science and festering ego. Listen, you have an opportunity that no one else has ever had that I know of. You are the man you were before you made a string of decisions that led to that act of evil. You know what this path of ego leads to and now you can take a different path. The Arx the world feared and now hates is dead and gone. You can become someone else, someone better. You can learn from your own mistakes.”
“Even so. I know what I did. It will haunt me forever.”
Nova smiled, “you don’t know all of it. In the end, when you came to realize your mistakes, you offered your life to give us a fighting chance. Because of you, we have the information to contend against a threat greater than you ever were. Fate was kind. You survived the process and have a second chance. Don’t use this second chance to mire in self pity and regrets. The Arx you were died a hero in the end, now Craig can rise from the ashes.”
“And I’ll help you.” Nova’s wrist comm beeped. “But we have an ongoing situation and I'm needed in Operations.”
“Wait.” Craig stopped him.
“What?”
“I remember some things, flashes of my life before. There is a man in my memories named Delta.”
This grabbed Nova’s attention. “What about him?”
“I know where he is.”
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