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With the address of GrantCo's lab , extracted from Harrison, the heroes set about devising a plan to raid it. Once they had hacked the floor plans from City Hall and remotely disabled the alarm system, they plumbed for teleporting in and winging it.
Before leaving they realised that Hephaestus had gone back to his own lab; not wanting to be part of another questionable interrogation. Bloodthirst meanwhile was feeling unwell. Now that he was no longer ablaze, the elementals' essence, he had consumed, was not sitting well with him. He too excused himself.
With a flash of electricity the remaining four heroes appeared in one of the ten laboratories housed in the building. This one had a lot of chemistry equipment and the refrigerated storage was full of mud samples; no drugs. Nano-man scouted into the atrium, where a security guard sat at the reception desk. Aiming to neutralise him as gently as possible, Blaise stealthily moved into range with a canister of knockout gas. Meanwhile Nano-man, in swarm form, hovered overhead. The canister rattled at the guards feet and the grey smoke plume enveloped him. Coughing but conscious he attempted to activate the disabled alarm and spun round gun in hand. Reforming, Nano-man let gravity do its job managing to disintegrate his gun before landing on top of him. Blue Bolt appeared firing a blast. Narrowly missing the prone guard and Nano-man the screens behind them shattered in a shower of sparks. The guard rolled Nano-man off him and scrambled for something under the desk. Darting forward Blaise's gauntlet fist knocked him into unconsciousness.
They then set about searching the labs. Magni found that the doors were not only locked but opened the wrong way. He almost had to exert himself to make the doors open the way he preferred. Four buckled doors later Blaise found a pass key on the unconscious security guard. After dismissing an X-Ray spectrometer, a gas chromatographer, unknown biological samples and a couple of empty labs the next door did not open with the pass key. Magni "bypassed" the lock and found a short steel lined corridor ending in a steel door. It appeared to be air tight, which prevented Nano-man from swarming through it, so Blue Bolt passed through the door alone. On the other side was a small room. In one corner stood a two sided cubicle with thin vents and metal mesh covering its sides, top and floor. In the other corner was a bank of screens with what appeared to be cctv footage. Crowded around the screens were a three women and two men. All appeared to be dressed unusually for a lab at three o'clock in the morning. One of the men was dressed in a skin tight green suit with a black T, the height of his torso, on the front. The other man was dressed in a casual black t-shirt which showed off his cybernetic arm. Two of the women were dressed in dark combat gear but the third was in a grey skin tight suit with the left leg and right arm cut out. This lady was starring straight at Blue Bolt. As the hero decided on his next action he realised these people were doing no harm. In fact it suddenly seemed like a really bad idea for the team to come in here and he should do his utmost to stop that from happening. Passing back through the door Dybbuk maintained her mental control on Blue Bolt.
Re-appearing, Blue Bolt explained that the room just contained a set of networked computers running some kind of AI experiment. Slightly confused by this information, which didn't justify the steel door, they pressed him for more information. After some more inconclusive answers Magni smelled a rat. Storming passed Blue Bolt he went to access the room via the wall. Before he could, and in a flash of blue light, he found himself outside the building with his electric team mate. Storming back into the building, Blue Bolt followed but was having second thoughts about about his decisions. When they both got back to the steel door he was not so sure of why they shouldn't go in; which was just as well as Nano-man had just corroded a large hole in it. The mixed group, revealed by the hole, stood ready surrounding the door.
Targette, one of the other women, attempted to blast Nano-man's mind but his nano-machine "upgraded" brain resisted the attempt. The man in green, Tamper, gestured so instead he found a large proportion of his nano-machines stopped responding; limiting the powers he could use. Blaise fired a shot of flame at Targette. The blast shrank as it hit her but when it had almost disappeared she suddenly cried out falling backwards. At this point Magni arrived. Slapping his hands together a powerful pressure wave reverberated around the small room. Everyone seemed to be pained by the blast, Tamper lost his concentration so Nano-man regained his powers and Targette fell prone to the floor. Blue Bolt appeared through a wall and disappeared in a flash, taking Payback, the man with the cybernetic arm, with him. Arriving on the Scottish isle, where his own laboratory used to be, Payback dropped the fifteen feet to the ground and was knocked unconscious. Sidetrack leaped to Targette's defense lashing at Blaise with her own gauntlets. Tamper regained his composure and toyed with Nano-man again. Out of his control the hero found himself in swarm form and unable to turn back.
Sidetrack ignited a brilliant flash towards Magni.The quick reactions of the god saved his sight but he immeditaely felt a probing force of will in his head. Shrugging it off he struck the staring Dybbuk, knocking her back into the cubicle. A flash appeared filling the space. When it was gone so was Dybbuk. Recovering herself, Targette stood up and moved towards the cubicle. Staring at Magni he felt a terrific pressure on his mind. Struggling to resist he fell to the floor unconscious. Seeing things could start to go bad, Blaise leaped into action. Landing next to Targette his left hook knocked her unconscious. Not satisfied he flipped round sending a stream of fire into Tamper, who was also knocked unconscious. Sidetrack found herself the only one left standing. Darting to Tamper she bent to touch him. As she did so they both disappeared. Blue Bolt reappeared into a less crowded room. As he looked at the only foe, lying at the base of the cubicle, a flash appeared again and she was gone.
Nano-man moved to heal the fallen Magni. As the team looked on a hissing could be heard and the smell of mains fed gas smelled. The rest of the team left the room, Magni following momentarily when healed to consciousness. Nano-man stood to see his team mates escaping when the room exploded. A ball of flame filled the room. In frustration Magni landed on one of the mezzanine gantries with a destructive force that caused it to collapse. Nano-man appeared from the smoke his clothes still on fire. He had an unhinged look about him. In recent times he had been shot, crushed, stepped on, burnt and frozen. This explosion seemed the final straw. Jumping down to the atrium floor he marched up to the ex-marine. Noting his stern expression, Blaise patted Nano-man's still burning clothes until extinguished. After a few calming words Nano-man's face soften.
The inter-team dispute avoided, Blue Bolt first teleported the unconscious security guard to the hospital and then himself back to Scotland. Payback was still lying unconscious and there was no sign of the power suit he'd stranded earlier. Blaise checked the room which had exploded and confirmed that no useful remains were left. Bringing Payback with him, Blue Bolt then took them all back to Freedom Hall cells.
Magni was plainly agitated and keen to start an interrogation. The appearance and suggestion from Lady Liberty convinced them to wait until morning.
All, except Blaise, rose early and were net by Johnny Rocket. Showing them into the cell Nano-man noted some of his powers stopped working; the nullifying aspects of the security system taking effect.
Magni took the lead on the interrogation. He succeeded in baffling everyone present with his circuitous questioning but Payback was hesitant to ask any questions. Resorting to threats this did appear to worry the man but he admitted that anything the team could do did not match what would happen to him if he spilled the beans.
Deciding they need more experienced hands Blue Bolt went to get Blaise out of bed.
Will the ex-marine get results ?
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