As they boarded the train to King’s Row Jessica began to get curious about the new recruit.

“Who is she?” Jessica asked.

“Her name is Miranda, she owns the “Capes and Collars” brothel in King’s Row.” Arson explained.

“What powers does she have?” Jessica asked, sounding like an inquisitive child.

“She creates fantasies from what people desire.” Arson said.

“And if you ask me if we’re there yet, you’ll get no ice cream,” she added with a smile and mussing of Jesseca’s hair.

Jessica glared at her and sat quietly for the rest of the train ride.

 

Jessica and Arson walked a few blocks from the train station and stopped at a large mansion’s great iron gate.

Arson pressed the call button on the gate to get someone inside to let them in.

“Name?” a woman’s voice asked.

“Brianna Cobb,

I’m here to see Ms. Adams.” she said politely.

The gate opened and Brianna and Jesseca made their way up the driveway to the porch of the mansion.

A large man opened the door and beckoned them inside.

“Brianna, it’s lovely to see you.” an elderly gray-haired woman said as she hugged Brianna.

“It’s good to see you too Miranda.” Arson said with a smile as she returned the woman’s hug.

“That’s her?” Jessica asked.

“Brianna, I thought you were a crime fighter, not a babysitter.” the old woman said as she pinched Jesseca’s cheek.

“She’s adorable, how old is she?” the woman asked.

“I’m twenty-four you old bat,” Jesseca growled.

“This is Jessica, she’s my teammate.” Arson clarified as she stifled a chuckle.

The old woman closed her eyes and morphed into an attractive young brunette.

“Sorry about that hon, I’m Miranda, and I’m only twenty-five, far from an old bat,” she said.

Jessica looked confused.

“I just use that illusion of an old woman to help business,

makes people more inclined to be here if it looks like a long-running business.” she said upon seeing Jesseca’s expression.

“So, you ready to go?” Arson asked as she looked at her watch.

“Just gotta get my bags,” Miranda said and went to the other room to get her things.

“Why does it not surprise me that I dislike your friend as much as I dislike you?” Jessica said.

“Aww, don’t be that way, you know you love me.” Arson said as she too pinched Jesseca’s cheek.

Miranda came running into the room after hearing a crash

and saw Brianna getting up off the ground outside after apparently flying through the front door.

“Just put that on my tab,” she said as she came back into the house,

dusting herself off and glaring at Jessica.

 

On the train ride back to the base Jesseca sat in silence,

completely ignoring Miranda and Brianna.

“Why’s she so cranky?” Miranda asked.

“She doesn’t like being talked down to,” Brianna said.

“Kind of hard not to be when you’re so short and cute,” Miranda said with a giggle.

As the train neared the station it began to shake violently startling all the passengers.

“What’s going on?” Jessica asked.

Her answer came when the roof of the train was torn off above their heads,

and a large robot loomed above them.

“Freedom Phalanx Reserve members Arson and Diapered Dandy found.

Commencing termination.” the robot said and reached into the train for Jessica and Brianna.

 

The ten-foot-tall robot reached for Brianna and Jesseca and got a jet of flame to the face for its trouble.

“We have to lead it away from these people,” Jessica said,

Arson nodded and the pair flew out of the train and away from the station.

The robot used its jets on its back to follow behind them.

Arson and Jesseca turned to face the robot and saw a blast of blue energy hurtling at them from the robot’s wrist cannon.

The pair dodged the blast and Arson sent a fireball back in reply,

striking the robot in the chest.

“This thing is tough,” Arson called to Jesseca.

“The bigger they are,” Jessica said and flew back toward the robot.

“The flatter they smash you.” Arson finished as she followed Jesseca into the fray.

Jessica dodged the robot as it punched at her and flew behind it,

giving it an energy punch to the back of the head.

The robot turned and backhanded Jesseca, knocking her from the air.

“Dandy!” Arson shouted as she flew to her teammate’s aid.

She caught her in midair and flew back up and away from the robot.

“Anyone get the license plate number off that truck?” Jessica asked.

“No, but I can kind of make some of it out from the indentation on your forehead.” Arson said with a smile.

“Why are we running?” Jessica asked.

“It’s this crazy fear I have of dying.” Arson said.

Jessica squirmed from Arson’s arms and flew back at the robot.

“I’m not done yet,” she said.

Arson sighed and followed Jessica again.

As they neared the robot Arson shot several fireballs at it,

each impacting it with a small explosion.

Jessica followed these up with a battering ram from her energy-charged fists as she flew into the robot’s face.

The robot spiraled toward the ground and exploded in the riverbed as it hit the ground.

“Nice work partner.” Arson said as she held her hand up for a high five from Jesseca.

“Ditto, partner.” Jessica agreed with a smile.

“Diapered Dandy and Arson spotted, termination sequence initiated.” another robot said.

Arson saw a robot approaching from behind Jesseca, and Jesseca saw the two approaching from behind Arson.

“Bail?” Arson asked.

“Bail.” Jessica agreed and the pair flew back to the train to get Miranda.

Arson held Miranda around the waist and flew off with her from the train.

“Get her back to the base, I’ll be there soon,” Jessica said as she flew toward the robots.

“No!” Arson shouted.

“They’ll follow me, I’ll give them the slip and meet you at the base,” Jesseca yelled back.

Arson reluctantly took off with Miranda while Jesseca went back into the lion’s den.

Jessica flew in between the three robots and continued away from them.

Laser blasts grazed by her as the robots followed behind.

Jessica heard the roar of one of the robot’s jets close behind her and veered sharply to her right just in time to avoid it grabbing her.

She flew backward, keeping the robot between her and the others in an attempt to avoid a laser blast,

her plan worked until her robot shield exploded after getting blasted in the back by one of its partners.

“Wow, the robot world is a dog eat dog,” Jessica said as the other two robots rocketed at her.

Jessica again flew at one of the robots and rammed it with her energy-charged fists,

the robot recovered after a moment and blasted at her again.

The blast barely missed her,

and she hit it again with a charged attack,

this time standing on its chest as it fell to the ground with her stone feet kicking it in the face as it tried to recover.

Just before it hit the ground Jesseca flew back up,

the flames from the wreckage licking at her heels as she ascended.

“Where’d it go?” she asked as she scanned the sky for her remaining attacker.

She got her answer when she was struck from behind by the robot,

sending her hurtling into a skyscraper,

smashing the window and the cubicles inside as she crashed through the building smashing through the opposite window upon exiting.

The precious seconds she had to recover weren’t enough to prepare for another attack from the robot,

and as she plummeted to the Earth after the smashing blow the robot had hit her with she wondered if this was the end of her.

“Gotchya cutie,” Electro-Cute said as she caught Jesseca in midair and carried her to safety.

“Elysa, you ready to take this thing down?” Hannah asked her sister as they neared the robot.

“Just try and stop me, sis.” Elysa replied as she hurled a barrage of icicles at the metallic attacker,

piercing its hide,

and getting it’s attention.

“Freedom Phalanx members Winter Flare and Half-Life Hannah identified,

proceed with termination.” the robot said, and launched several missiles at it’s opponents.

Hannah spread her fingers out and fired radiation blasts from all ten digits creating a web of lasers that stopped the missiles in their path,

each exploding before they could get into lethal range.

Several laser blasts came from the ground at the pair,

and they looked down to see five more robots ascending to meet them.

“Back down we go,” Knight said as he teleported onto one of the robots and teleported it back to the ground to fight it.

Ataris leaped from a nearby roof and buried his ax into the robot as it flew by him.

Severe used her telekinesis to grab a large steel pipe and smash the other three back down to the ground.

Sue flew with Premiere in tow toward the ground battle and hovered overhead.

“I love you,” she said as she dropped him into the fight.

Premiere blew her a kiss as he fell and then transformed into his stone form in time to smash down onto one of the robots Severe had been fighting.

Sue blasted another one with white energy knocking it into a large scaffold in a nearby construction site.

Flower Child ensnared it in a tangle of roots and ripped it limb from limb as it tried to get up.

Hannah and Elysa brought down their opponent with a merged blast of ice and radiation that blew the robot into small pieces.

The pair flew down to aid their teammates only to find them mopping up the last of them.

“Excellent work everyone, let’s head back before more show up,” Knight said, and made his way back to the base with the others.

 

“She’s gonna be fine, just a few minor cuts.” Severe informed Knight when he asked her about Jessica’s condition.

Knight stood in his lab examining one of the robot’s CPUs he’d taken after the battle.

”These are Malta Hercules Class Titans.

Knight said to the group that was gathered in the lab.

“So they’re hunting us,” Sue said.

“Maybe, or maybe this was a distraction to get us away from the base so that the assassins could escape,” Knight said.

“You find anything useful in the memory banks?” Ataris asked.

“An address, it’s a Malta shell corporation.

If the rumors are true, this place is where Malta manufactures these things in addition to genetic testing and generally illegal acts.” Knight explained.

“When do we hit it?” Arson asked.

“We don’t. It’d be a suicide mission.” Knight said.

“Then bring on the Kamikaze,” Arson said.

“These guys have tried to kill us twice now, and they won’t stop until they succeed.

I say we bring the fight to them.” Arson said.

“And that’s why you’re not in charge of this team,” Knight said.

“Brianna is right, it’s better to die with honor,

on our feet than it is to die on our knees like cowards,” Hanako said.

“All right, how about you guys head back to the kid’s table until you learn some sense,” Sue said.

“Knight’s right, we can’t just rush in there and expect to win,” she said.

“I thought this was a team, not a dictatorship.” Arson said.

“This is a team, it’s not a “go off half-cocked because you’re angry and get killed,” Premiere said.

“I have a plan,” Jessica said weakly from the doorway.

“It’ll take all of us to pull it off, but it’ll work,” she said.

 

“All right, everyone set?” Knight asked into the communicator on his wrist.

The team gave their agreements from their positions.

“Samantha will need heavy cover after we go in,

so you’ll all need to move in quickly once you get the signal,” Knight said.

The rest of the team agreed and readied themselves.

Knight held onto Samantha who smiled at him.

“Let’s hope this works,” she said.

Inside the factory, several guards paced the floors as well as several Titan robots.

The factory contained no less than a thousand Titan robots,

most active,

but some still being assembled.

With a dark cloud of energy Knight teleported into the factory with Samantha

who immediately created a large EMP blast with her powers

that took down several hundred robots that were near them,

and weakened her to the point of passing out.

Sue dropped Ataris and Premiere through a skylight on the roof and followed them into the building through the smashed window.

Ataris began hacking his way through soldiers while Premiere smashed several robots with his stone mallet.

Sue flew in and grabbed Electro-Cute and flew her out of the building to safety.

Sue left Samantha with Jesseca on a rooftop a few blocks away and returned to the battle.

“You did well,” Jessica said to Samantha with a smile.

“Thanks, cutie.” the pink-haired hero said with a smile before passing out again.

Arson blasted the front entrance open with a fireball and followed Fantasy and Flower Child in.

The fantasy created an illusion in the soldier’s minds that a fleet of Longbow soldiers was storming the factory,

sending a few of them running,

and making the rest attack intruders that weren’t there.

Flower Child snatched the runners up in some roots and kept them immobilized.

Arson melted any equipment that was being used to create the robots.

Severe scattered a group of soldiers with a psychic blast and formed protective bubbles around the team.

Hannah and Winter Flare flew in through the skylight.

Winter Flare dropped the temperature in the factory to below freezing and Hannah blasted the freezing soldiers and robots that she could see.

“Room clear,” Knight said.

“I’ll be damned, she was right.” Arson said.

“We’re not done yet, we still have to check out the lower level.”

Knight said as he led the group to the elevators down to the R & D department.

 

“Is anyone else concerned with the lack of security down here?”

Fantasy asked as she looked around at the empty corridor of the stark metallic facility.

Several soldiers emerged from around a corner and opened fire on the group.

Severe stopped the bullets and Winter Flare blasted them back, freezing them to the wall behind them.

“Happy now?” Arson asked Fantasy.

The illusionist shook her head as she shook with fear.

Arson laughed at her and hugged her tightly.

“It’s alright, you’re perfectly safe as long as you stay with us,” she said to her friend.

The team made their way to the end of the corridor and a door marked with a biohazard label and a medical chart.

Knight picked up the chart and looked over it.

“They’re keeping a captive hero in here and doing tests on him,” Knight said, his tone clearly disgusted.

Severe opened the door and went to the large metallic tank in the center.

The group followed and looked inside at a young man sitting on the floor of the tank.

Clearly heavily sedated, the man could only look up at the strangers with pleading eyes.

“Stand back.” Severe said as she focused her powers on the door of the tank and ripped it from it’s frame with her mind.

She cautiously entered the tank and crouched in front of the man.

“We’re here to rescue you Adam,” she said to the man.

“Drool.” the man muttered as he nodded.

“Drool?” Elysa asked as she poked her head into the tank.

“It’s his codename.” Severe answered as she helped the man to his feet and passed him to Sue so that she could take him out of the building.

“That’s a gross name,” Elysa said as they moved on further into the building.

 

The group came to a room with a large computer in it after clearing a few more floors’ worths of guards.

“This is what we came for, the Malta mainframe,” Knight said and took a seat at the large console.

“What are you doing?” a voice asked from the shadows.

The group looked up to see a man in a wheelchair approaching them.

“We’re here to get information regarding Ernesto Hess’ involvement with Malta.” Knight explained to the man.

“Ernesto Hess.” the man said and closed his eyes for a moment.

“Mr. Hess was in the business of delivering heroes to Malta for genetic testing.

He also gave Malta a back door into the Freedom Phalanx which led to the enslavement of several of it’s members.” the man said.

“How do you know that?” Hannah asked.

“I am Keyword,

Thomas Kinson actually.

I have the ability to search everything I’ve ever read for a given word or phrase,

I can do the same with conversations.

If anyone in the world is using the word or phrase I can give exact coordinates for that person.” Thomas explained.

“You work for Malta?” Hanako asked.

“Work, no. I am a slave to them. They are exploiting my powers to make a living backup drive for all of their files.” Thomas said.

“Well, we’re trying to bring them down,

will you come with us and tell the authorities everything you know?” Knight asked.

Keyword smiled at the group.

“It’d be my pleasure to bring these bastards down,” he said.

With Keyword in tow,

the group left the complex and went to the Longbow headquarters to give them the truth behind Ernesto Hess and Malta.

 

The man in the office smiled when his head bodyguard informed him of the prior night’s events.

“Sir, did you hear what I said?

The Freedom Phalanx Reserve destroyed your Titan facility last night.

They escaped with two of our highest level test subjects, and went to Longbow with incriminating evidence that implicates this company in dozens of illegal acts.” the bodyguard said.

“I heard what you said James.” the gray-haired man said.

“Then why are you smiling sir?” the bodyguard asked.

“Because my boy, this means war.” the gray-haired man said with a sinister chuckle.