“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.