Heroes Legion Clubhouse/Silicon's Lab, November 30th, 2013: 11:10 AM
Silicon was in his lab at this time, doing what he usually did to pass time....tinkering.
Coming up with gadgets, technology and weapons to use in their secret lives as the world's first superhero team to combat supervillians and or The Dark Elite if ever they should rise.
After what had happened with the Mansion being taken over by their enemies The Dark Elite, leaving them all out gunned and held captive in their own headquarters, Silicon had made the effort to make some countermeasures and technology for the Heroes Legion to better defend themselves with.
This latest project was one of those "Anti-Supervillain" countermeasure devices.
Silicon was just installing one of the cryo-fluid canisters that he had been given by S.L.E.E.T's TechNet division for his little experiment when Velocity entered the Lab.
"Now THAT was a much needed rest!" Velocity said stretching out his arms, and then he saw what Silicon had been working on.
It looked like one of those "Proton Packs" from the "Ghostbusters" movies, only there was cold mist coming out of the pack and the front of the "Gun" section at the other end of the connecting hose line.
"I know I'm going to regret asking, but what's this?" Velocity asked as he looked at the device Silicon was working on.
"It's a Cryo-Pack" Silicon answered, "or at least it's supposed to be. It designed to dispense a stream of cryogenic fluid that induces cryogenic freezing, putting the target in an immobile state susceptible for capture"
"A "what" that does what?" Velocity asked, not understanding Silicon's "geek Speak" term for his invention.
"It's a freeze gun" Silicon said rolling his eyes, "it fires a cryo-fluid Jetstream that once combined with an chemical cocktail of my own making, pumped through the nozzle of the gun at high pressure, should render someone like one of the Dark Elite immobile and able for us to pick up and ship to Ryker's Island's "Special cases" wing"
"So it freezes supervillians...." Velocity said with a disbelieving look on his face.
"That's the basic idea" Silicon said finishing loading the Cryogenic fluid canister into the Pack itself, "Juts need to run some more tests first, then I can give it its first test run".
"Man, little buddy! You have way too much time on your hands" Velocity said shaking his head, "this is WAY to sci-fi to actually work..."
Velocity then foolishly pressed the "Fire" button on the top of the Nozzle gun.
The Pack whirred to life, and suddenly a Stream of Cryogenic fluid shot out from the Gun itself, the Stream of icy blue fluid shot out across the room and the Gun began to spin wildly around from its test stands, sending its stream of icy blue colored liquid flying around the Lab itself.
Silicon ducked before the Gun fired its wild stream of cryo-fluid in his direction, taking cover bellow the work station table the gun was positioned on, while Velocity dove out of the way and joined him underneath the table...both of them watching as the Cryo-Gun froze everything it touched with its stream of Cryo-fluid.
The doors to his lab opened up at the last few seconds before Silicon managed to shapeshift his two fingers in their liquid metal form around from underneath the table and shut his invention down, but the familiar sound of a woman's voice giving off a surprised gasp sounded off before he managed to shut the Cryo-Gun down.
Both Silicon and Velocity crawled out from underneath the operating table that the Cryo-Gun rested on, and both of their mouths dropped in shock at what they saw.
There was Atlanta, frozen up to her neck in cryogenic ice, glaring at the two of them.
"What the hell are you two DOING in here!?" she bellowed at the two of them.
Silicon glared at Velocity who just chuckled sheepishly, "oops!" he said.
It didn't take too long for Atlanta to put two and two together, and realise that Velocity had something to do with her current and awkward predicament.
Silicon examined the ice she was encased in, "Sorry Atlanta....this wasn't exactly the test I was planning to run with my Cryo-Pack invention."
"Next time when I come down here with orders to get you and Velocity, to tell you that M-Leader wants to see all of us up in the common room....I'm going to knock first! Why did you even have that thing pointed at the entrance way anyway Silicon!?"
Silicon was about to say something in his defence, But Velocity beat him to the punch.
"Hey don't blame the kid Atlanta..." Velocity said owning up to his hand in Atlanta's predicament, "I was the one who fooled around with the thing"
"You know Velocity...." Atlanta said with a calm look on her face, "I'm not going to get mad at you and hurt you for this"
"Because you know it was an accident, right Angel Fish?" Velocity asked hopefully.
"No. Because right now I can't move!" Atlanta glared at him, "Am I in trouble Silicon?"
"No...No your fine" Silicon said, "But you're going to have to thaw the ice off the usual way, and that will take hours!"
"Oh great!" Atlanta groaned, "I'm now frozen sushi, and I am expected to be up there at the meeting with the rest of you, how I am going to get up there now?"
"She's right Silicon. She's literally stuck in a block of ice right now so how are we going to move her to the meeting upstairs?" Velocity asked the young Metahuman inventor.
Silicon took this question of Velocity's into consideration.
A few minutes later they were wheeling a fuming and still frozen Atlanta out of his lab and up to the Mansion above on a dolly jack.
Heroes Legion Mansion Common Room, November 30th, 2013: 11:17 AM
"What happened?" Raven asked from the couch of the common room when she saw Velocity and Silicon roll Atlanta in on the dolly jack, dripping water everywhere as the ice she was encased in began to melt.
"Don't ask..." Atlanta said abruptly.
"Okay, what's the problem you called us all here for M-Leader?" Robo-Warrior asked the leader of the Heroes Legion.
"Last night, Agent Smith gave me information on certain people that might be Metahumans that have been located outside of the New York area" M-Leader began.
"How is that possible?" Robo-Warrior asked, "The M-Ray Radiation is strongest here due to the M-50 crystals going off after being dropped over New York."
"it appears Robo-Warrior that the same M-Radiation Fallout that gave Silicon, and Shadow Knight's M-Genes what they needed to awaken might very well be the cause of these new Metahumans showing up, the same Radiation that now covers the U.S.A and parts of southern Canada."
"If that's true..." Shadow Knight said from his corner of the Common Room, "Why are they showing up now? Why did they not show up all at once from the initial first year of M-Ray exposure?"
"Different genetics, M-Gene's might have some kind of pre-selected unknown differentials that allow these bearers to activate without needing much exposure to Fallout M-Rays....or maybe they've all been Made-Men levels these past two years, and are just now getting 100% activated." M-Leader shrugged," I'm not entirely sure of that myself Shadow Knight....that is why I have to go and investigate"
"You have to investigate?" asked Atlanta surprised, "not "We" have to investigate?"
"Not this time" M-Leader shook his head, "these are few and divided far and might be nothing more than urban myths, people trying to get attention and tabloid fodder than actual Metahumans. We can't all go out and search for these individuals and leave New York defenceless. If were over on the other side of the country looking for these people S.L.E.E.T has identified, and The Dark Elite or any other supervillain Meta's that will emerged from the M-Ray hotspot around Manhattan show up. We can't abandon this post...so I'll need you all to hold down the fort until I get back"
"You think we all can handle something like that?" Silicon asked surprised, "you trust us enough to keep an eye on everything until you get back? I don't know if you forgot, but the last time the Dark Elite attacked they took us all for suckers in our own Headquarters"
"Only because they had help Silicon" M-Leader pointed out, "they won't have any such advantage over us the next time. Trust me, I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't have absolute certainty that you all could handle things until I came back."
"So how long do you think you'll be?" Raven Ducard asked.
"I don't know..." M-Leader said, "But I will be back as quickly as I can. But though I trust you all to handle it, it won't leave you here if you're not comfortable with holding down the fort till I return. So if you all aren't fine with that, just say the word and we'll all go as a unit"
The Heroes Legion looked around at one another, and then they gave their answer.
So M-Leader was now in the Nighthawk with Agent Smith and General Arcane (Whom of which they had picked up from the HMS Damocles via the "Remora Function" that had been used by the Legion before to access a flying vessel in mid-air), and were now flying off to the states where these potential Meta-Humans were located.
M-Leader hoped that his faith in his young charges would be rewarded in the end, and also hoped that leaving them to be in charge of the New York City post without his presence wouldn't turn out to be a folly in the end.
Unlike his father, M-Leader didn't see the Legion as pawns in some sick game of chess.
They weren't soldiers, they were children...and they were his responsibility, whether they really were or not...he felt responsible for them.
He kind of wondered if this was how his father had felt when he left him in charge of his baby sister Jessie when he had to be away on S.L.E.E.T business.
Now here he was getting the same kind of fatherly worries....for teenagers that weren't his children.
He wished he knew that what he was doing was the right thing, but then again...nobody could ever be able to tell him what the right thing to do was. Especially when it was regarding teenagers with powers.
He would have to use his judgement, and hope it was good in the end.
"Winging it" as the kids called it.
"They'll be fine..." M-leader assured himself again, "I trained them well....they'll be fine"
And with that M-Leader put the engines of the Night Hawk into supersonic mode, and the plane vanished into the distance of the vast open sky over the equally vast open country bellow.
Channel 5 News Building, November 30th, 2013: 12:00 noon
Stephanie Walker was walking down the hallway to her office, she had a bag of takeout food from the Chinese dim sum down the block from the building in her hand.
She had been reflecting on the story she had been working on, "Vigilantes bust Human Trafficking ring?"
She had received the information on the story from a "Reliable source", and was now working on the story after getting witness statements from the rescued women and the very bruised and beaten Boss Barton...who was on his way to getting just what scum like him deserved.
They didn't see anything, but the statements were enough to make a story with.
The fact that someone stopped it all, freed those poor girls and then fled into the night before the cops showed up...acts of heroism like these were another gold mark on the Heroes Legion's reputation.
Of course Chief Burns and Beatrice Fuller would say otherwise, what really mattered was the lives that those kids and Marcus saved...who cared what idiots like them thought.
Those people would only see freaks and monsters, not the heroes they really were...no matter what they did.
But Stephanie would know, and when the time came she would be the one to reveal to the world all the things that they had done for this city and countless others....someday.
Boy had this been a crazy summer and a fall when all of this started, Mutations, underwater kingdoms, Flying battleships, A Nightmare inducing serial killer, A Mansion turned into a cage match, and now this bringing down a Human trafficking ring....part of her jokingly wondered what was in store for all of them come the winter portion of this year and the following one.
A new Year was just a month away, but the Heroes Legion's first year since their inception wouldn't be complete until next July sometime.
She thought about the Metahumans, she wondered about if and when anymore would show up in places outside of the New York Area.
If there weren't already anymore already active out there already.
It made her head hurt thinking about this, genetic mutations was more Marcus's thing.
Marcus.
Now that was a good man.
After the Mansion was well and underway at being repaired from the damage done to it during its occupation by The Dark Elite, she and Marcus finally went on their first date.
With his mental illusion powers, he was able to take her to dinner, around town, do the things that they wanted to do....and no, despite Velocity's cheekiness to the contrary, and she did not sleep with him afterward.
After what happened with Morpheus, she was a little more in control of her...desires about the opposite sex.
But she would be lying if she said she hadn't still thought about it and wondered what the real deal with Marcus would be like.
But she was respectable, she could wait.
Besides...She was more curious about just how far this relationship with Marcus really was going, not just as really good friends....but perhaps it was spiraling down into something a little bit more simple yet complex.
Maybe she had actually found someone, the man she had been searching for.
"Don't get ahead of yourself girl..." Stephanie Walker chastised herself, "just think of how the meeting of the parents would go like, you and Marcus aren't going steady yet...if ever."
She was about to enter her office door, but she paused as she heard a rustling sound coming from inside her office...someone was inside!
Stephanie Walker scowled furiously, and placed her bag of Chinese takeout food on the ground for now.
She then opened the door and confronted whoever was inside, although she had a good suspicion on exactly who it was in her office....that lady just never knew when to quit!
"Fuller! Get out of here! I'm warning you "Top Anchor-woman in the News Building" you may be, but I'm not taking this crap from you anymore...." Stephanie Walker laid down the law....but found to her surprise that no one was in her office at all.
She did a double take upon seeing this and then entered the office itself to examine to see if she was wrong and was hearing things.
She saw nobody and nothing in the room to indicate anyone had been in the room.
That was odd, she was certain that it was Beatrice Fuller, she usually tried to steal her Vigilante stories in order to Slander or libel the Heroes Legion in a petty ego driving one woman lead smear campaign against the heroes legion for "Humiliating" her.
The only humiliation they ever did to her was posting that prank video of her on live television, but they had only done that in retaliation to her trying to use the video of the Heroes Legion (that she had stolen from Stephanie Walkers apartment the same day) to expose the Heroes Legion as "Dangerous freaks in our city"...not caring that by exposing them, what they could do and who they were placed them and their loved ones in the crosshairs of multimedia scrutiny....and in the corsairs of the Dark Elite as well.
She shuddered to think how that unscrupulous woman who was her rival almost put the existence of Metahumans in and completely intended negative light.
That's why Stephanie had taken care to do the "Vigilantes of New York" related stories in the one place that Beatrice Fuller could never get to them at, the Heroes Legion Mansion.
Then when they were finished, she'd bring them back here for them to be produced onto the "T.V News Room at whatever time" floor of the Channel 5 News building.
But that didn't stop Beatrice Fuller from trying.
This whole thing was a vendetta....of captain Ahab proportions, and when Beatrice Fuller finnaly drug herself and her "distinguished career" down to the gutter in pursuit of this Vendetta, Stephanie juts hoped she didn't drag the Heroes Legion or any other good minded Metahumans down into the dirt with her.
She could have sworn it sounded like someone was in here, and if there was it would have more than likely to have been that woman.
But for once, there was no Beatrice Fuller.
Stephanie Walker picked up her lunch, and sat down at the desk where her computer was stationed.
She was halfway through eating her lunch when she felt something that felt like snakes wrap around her ankles underneath the desk.
She was about to look down under the desk at her legs to see what it was that she felt on her legs down there, when suddenly four tentacle like protrusions shot out of the area underneath the desk!
These oil black "tentacles" quickly wrapped themselves around her neck, her chest, pinning her arms to the armrest of her revolving chair before binding her legs together.
Stephanie Walker barely managed to let out a scream before the mass of Black Tar like tentacles pushed her on her revolving chair across the floor of her office and slammed her against the wall.
More and more Tentacles flew out, until Stephanie Walker looked like she was wrapped up in Black Licorice!
That's when she emerged from underneath Stephanie Walkers desk, Beatrice Fuller.
Stephanie Walker instantly realised something was seriously wrong with the woman...in more ways that usual!
Beatrice Fullers eyes were clouded over and ink black like a sharks eyes....and the mass of Black oil like tentacles was coming right out from Beatrice's open mouth.
But what matters even more frightening, like something out of a Ridely Scott film, a larger more "Fleshy" looking Tar like tentacle protrusion emerged from within the mass of Tentacles that was wound around her body and her char.
While the tar like substance spewing out of Beatrice's mouth stopped, the protrusion made its way towards Stephanie Walker's face, before it split itself open like a flower....and attached itself to her face.
Stephanie Walker looked at the unmoving and uncaring Beatrice fuller who was still spouting ink black eyes as she watched this monster she had "Vomited" onto Stephanie Walker pump the tar like substance its body was made off into her stomach....then it made its way into her body through her pores, her sweat glands, the paper cut she had on her palm, her "Business areas"...anywhere the creature could enter itself into her body with it used.
As this was happening Stephanie Walker began to feel strangely calm, as if this didn't matter anymore, that all that mattered....was to let this thing....become one with her.....to make her one with The Queen, one with the Hive.
Mind and body.
Beatrice Fuller, or whatever it was that was "Wearing" Beatrice Fuller smiled in triumph as it saw the tell-tale signs of Assimilation begin to show in Stephanie Walkers eyes...just like the seventy five others and animals that had gone through the same thing before her.
Soon the "Suspicions" that had been "learned" from Beatrice Fuller when The Hive Absorbed her would be confirmed, because when it was done with Stephanie...all her secrets would belong to the queen of the Hive.
As Stephanie Walker was being assimilated by this tar like creature, similar things were happening to other people all over the building....and in certain places through New York City.
The Hive was growing.
Heroes Legion Mansion/The Clubhouse, November 30th, 2013: 1:05 PM
Raven Ducard came down the stairs leading up to the higher levels of the Mansion, and sat down on her spot on the couch as Velocity, Silicon and Andrew Griffin were busy trying to see if any news about their exploits last night on the tube....before seeing if Ellen was on.
"Well I drew Atlanta a warm bath, but don't ask me how I got her into the tub with all that ice!" Raven Ducard said with an exhausted tone in her voice.
"She's not still mad at me and Velocity...is she?" Silicon asked concerned.
"No..." Raven Ducard said, "But I'd give her a pretty wide berth for the rest of the day"
"Well on the plus side, my Cryo-gun works" Silicon sighed, "So now we got another working gadget to use against Supervillians besides the Inhibitor collars"
"Yeah" Andrew Griffin chuckled, "Harmlessly freezing someone would definitely make it easier to put the collar over them if they are supervillain or criminal Meta-Humans"
"Exactly!" Silicon said pointing a finger in the air in response.
"Still...." Shadow Knight said as he read one of his books in the chair in the corner by the T.V couch, "I think we should have a flashing red light installed on the outside of your Labs door silicon....so none of us end up like Atlanta did a few hours ago, don't you think?"
"I'll put that on my "to do" list, Shadow Knight" Silicon gave the Dark Avenger a thumbs up.
"I don't believe this" Velocity said disappointed, "all that hard work, and all these news channels aren't talking about us kicking the tails of those human Trafficking losers last night"
"Well Stephanie said she would be reporting on it at the scene of the crime being cleaned up by the N.Y.C.P.D tonight, so that would be the explanation. Even "Hot on the topic" news from Street Reporters take a while....because they by definition of being "Street Reporters" have to be there at the scene to report it" Andrew Griffin shrugged.
"I know THAT...." Velocity said looking at his teammate with an annoyed look on his face, "I just figured it would go quicker than this. I thought this was the age of media glut regarding terrible things like Human Trafficking being exposed and taken down by "mysterious Vigilantes" and whatnot?"
"You would hate it Lunar City then...." Shadow Knight said rolling his eyes at Velocity's eagerness for some "publicity" on the T.V News, "The News media there is worse than the "O Reilly factor" at night. The truth isn't something they care to talk about, because if they did....they'd start thinking about what's wrong with their city"
"Yeah I've heard about Lunar City" Andrew Griffin said to Shadow Knight, "I hear its got crime so bad, Detroit looks safe"
"That may be a bit of an an exaggeration Andrew" Shadow Knight's left eye looked at Robo-Warrior in response, "but an accurate exaggeration none the less"
"Well it doesn't look like there's any of us "Vigilantes" on the tube" Murdoch the gaurdemon said from his Cat box near the Couch, "so let's see what else is on...."
"What a drag!" Velocity groaned before pulling up the T.V guide on the satellite.
Just at that moment, the phone in the common room began to ring.
"I've got it" Velocity said, and in a flash he was standing beside the table that held the Phone, with the receiver in his hand "Zander Grayman's Institute for Disadvantaged and wayward Teens, Wayward teen speaking".
Velocity had just used the "Cover-up Name" of the Mansion which was used just in case it was city officials or utilities calling the place instead of one of the few who knew what the "Institute" really was.
At this point in their secret identities as disadvantaged teens now reformed and attending school in George Washington High school in Washington Heights, Velocity/Trevor Tanner was starting to get a kick out of using that cover up name to fool city officials and utilities with whenever they came a calling them at the Mansion for whatever reason.
Velocity's jovial trickster look on his face faded and was replaced with confusion, "Its Stephanie, she wants to talk to M-Leader about something important she has to tell him"
"I'll handle this..." Shadow Knight said tacking the receiver of the phone from Velocity, and then spoke into it "good afternoon Miss Walker.....no I'm sorry, M-Leader isn't here right now....he away on business, were not sure when he's coming back....what's that? You say that you have information....about the Dark Elite?"
The Heroes Legion looked at one another in worry, M-Leader had only been gone for two hours and already a Dark Elite related incursion was happening?
Shadow Knight continued the conversation, "Yes....Yes....No, I'm sorry Stephanie, but were in charge of the post until he returns. Yes....Yes of course I'll come and get you, just be at the Janitors closet in five minutes....okay, goodbye"
Shadow Knight hung up the receiver of the Common Rooms phone and looked at the rest of the Heroes Legion who were awaiting eagerly to hear what Stephanie Walker had to tell shadow Knight.
"Well....That didn't take too long for things to get crazy around here" Shadow Knight said in exasperation, "according to Stephanie Walker, a video was sent to the Channel 5 News room. Meta-Master made some kind of videotaped threat against the city....but he left a message on her personal computer's email account...some kind of "Code" that she wants M-Leader to see...."
"It might have been that Technopath Techne again" Silicon hypothesized, "She might have used her powers to hack into Stephanie's P.C Email account and sent the message to her"
"It's Possible" Atlanta said, "if she could take control of Heroes Links: One before its new safeguards were installed, getting into a reporters P.C would be Childs play compared to that"
"So what do we do now guys?" Velocity asked the others, "were in charge, no M-Leader."
"We'll handle it" Raven Ducard said, "we get Stephanie to safety, analyze the code and if we have to we'll contact M-Leader and ask what he thinks about this...simple right?"
"It's a plan" Silicon agreed.
"I will go and get Stephanie Walker" Shadow Knight said, vanishing within a flash of light and a puff of purple smoke.
"The rest of you, follow me down to the Clubhouse" Silicon said, "With the Dark Elite up to no good again, were now at Deafcon 2 on the Supervillain Threat and response Red Alert level system! We must exercise caution and assess the situation before we engage the enemy again"
"This is what happens when a techno-geek watches "Hunt for Red October" to many times" Velocity said rolling his eyes at the militaristic terms and choices of words of Silicon as they made their way to the elevator leading to the Clubhouse Bunker deep underneath the Mansion.
First stop would be the war room where they would discuss whatever information that Stephanie Walker would have for them, and how to best approach this new situation once they had deciphered this "Secret code" that Meta-Master had sent her....to deliver to the absent M-Leader.
However, as they retreated to the safest part of the Mansion, their stronghold, their secret headquarters.
Little did they all know or suspect, that an enemy...the real enemy, was already inside with them...hidden in plain sight among the group of young heroes.
One of them was false.
Channel 5 News Building/Janitors Closet, November 30th, 2013: 1:14 PM
Shadow Knight re-appeared in the middle of the Janitors closet where he had told Stephanie Walker to rendezvous with him at earlier.
It wasn't too hard to do in one trip, Stephanie's workplace fell within his mile radius limit with how far he could Shadow Walk with, if one went from the Mansion in the direction to this spot across the bay in a straight line.
The shortest distances between two points after all.
Now if he was picking her up at her Apartment, that would be a whole different story entirely in regards to doing this pickup in one trip only.
That was too far away out of bounds from the starting point in the mansion to get her in one trip and be done with it.
As Shadow Knight waited, he had time to think about the current situation.
So now sooner than a week and a half later, The Dark Elite had risen up from wherever they were hiding at, and were now issuing another threat to the city....and by extension the Heroes Legion and the "Normal" humans and neutral Metahumans they had sworn to protect from them.
This time in the form of a code?
Shadow Knight didn't buy that, it had to be something more.
Even the tiniest bit of Dark Elite related chaos that they had endured in the past had always in some form or another been a part of a large complex plan being set up by the Dark Elite.
The Theft of the Demeter and its cargo, the forming of the Dark Elite, and the theft of a fragment of the "City of Air" district of Atlantis's force gem....had all been part of a plot to dump M-50 bombs onto Washington DC.
There was No doubt in any of the Heroes Legions minds currently that this incident and the Takeover of the Mansion a week and a half ago were all part of a grander master plan as well...Shadow Knight just hoped that he and the rest of the Heroes Legion figured it out in order to stop it in time like they did the last one.
What could Meta-Master and The Dark Elite be up to this time.
Then Shadow Knight noticed that it was strangely quiet for a busy News Building, almost like it had been during the incident with Morpheus.
Shadow Knight drew his Shadow Guns as a precaution if that was the same case here, a trap.
But he couldn't sense anyone, and that made him worry.
With his Dark Sense power he could usually sense anyone in any given spot in a building via the different forms of darkness found present in the place.
But as he tried to find people, Stephanie Walker, her boss...hell even that annoying Paparazzi of a Anchor-woman Beatrice Fuller.
Nothing.
It was almost like he was the only one in the building.
But Shadow Knight knew this couldn't be the case, because he could hear footsteps approaching his current position.
But the fact he couldn't sense who it was caused him to keep his Shadow Guns at the ready at the door into the Janitors closet.
When the door opened, he expected it to be either Stephanie Walker or the janitor to be there on the other side looking in.
Instead to Shadow Knight's surprise, it was Beatrice Fuller!
Before Shadow Knight tried to react accordingly to Beatrice Fuller of all people catching him at the rendezvous point he had set up for Stephanie to meet him at with the Information to give to the others back at the Clubhouse, he paused when he noticed her eyes.
Ink Black.
Soulless.
Evil.
"Right on time....Shadow Knight" Beatrice Fuller spoke with a grin, and then she opened her mouth wide.
Shadow Knight instinctively retreated through the darkness of the unlit Janitors closet into the Safety of the Shadow Realm before Beatrice Fullers tar like "tentacles" could shoot out and envelope Shadow knight in their grip.
From Beatrice Fuller's point of view, Shadow Knight disappeared in a flash of white light and a puff of purple smoke...just like she knew he'd try.
The Hive had absorbed this knowledge earlier, and was ready for him if he tried anything against her/Them.
Beatrice Fuller then left the area Shadow Knight had once been, and walked down the hall towards the cafeteria.
She passed by several of her co-workers on the way down, they all had ink black eyes like hers.
She had been a busy woman, helping in assimilating other people into The Hive...while all the others did the same around New York City,
But as important as her mission was to find more and Infect, she needed to get some water, the thing she was now bonded with and the whole assimilation thing dehydrated her.
She was disappointed that she hadn't managed to get the Shadow Knight, but it didn't matter.
Whether by her, or by the others set up In the Heroes Legion's own base....the Heroes Legion would all inevitably become one with The Hive and by extension The Hive Queen sooner or later.
The Freak was portably already back at their headquarters now, telling all of them what he had seen, while confirming to The Hive's "Inside men" that everything was going swimmingly according to the Hive Queens designs.
She entered the now empty cafeteria, and mused that it was nice to have the whole place and its contents to herself for once.
Beatrice Fuller opened the freezer portion of the fridge and reached in to get one of the cold water bottles that Jason S. Harris (Her boss) always made sure was in the Fridges of every lunch room in his News Building.
When her hands went through the cool vapor coming from the now open freezer portion of the Fridge and brushed the ice, while grabbing one of the cold water bottle, she screeched in pain and drew her hand away from the freezer.
The cold....it....did something to them both.
Touching the ice felt like touching burning coals or acid!
The odd reaction she had with contact with the cold almost caused them both to vomit.
Before either of them could react, Beatrice fuller felt a strong hand grab her from the back of her head and shove her head into the inside of the Freezer, while another hand pinned her against the front of the fridge.
Sticking her head in there, her whole head felt like it was on fire only there was no heat.
She felt the sensation of throwing up come upon her again, but no matter what "They" did, the "two" of them couldn't break free from the grip of whoever and whatever had "them" both pinned against the fridge.
Eventually Beatrice Fuller began gaging and retching.
The unknown person or thing that had her pinned against the fridge watched as Beatrice Fuller began expelling a black ink, or Tar Like substance from her body through her mouth.
This substance wriggle and squirmed like it was alive....and the figure guess that that very well might be the truth.
When the substance landed on the ice cubes in the freezer section of the fridge, it screeched in pain in almost perfect unison with Beatrice Fuller until the last of the substance exited from her, and she slumped down on the floor in front of the Fridge in a stunned half-awake stupor.
The unknown figure, who happened to be Shadow Knight who had silently followed Beatrice Fuller from the Shadow Realm, watching her from the shadow she cast onto the floor, waiting to see what was going on and for an opening to attack to appear.
He had seen Beatrice Fuller react in pain to the cold temperatures of the freezer section of the staff cafeteria's fridge, a temperature that was only 30 degrees below zero, and yet she had reacted like she had just put her hand into the middle of a roaring fire.
He had also seen her also in response to this strange reaction to cold almost begin vomiting up that tar like gunk that she had tried to spew onto Shadow Knight a minute ago.
Realising that this might be the way to dispel whatever it was that was controlling, possession or affecting Beatrice Fuller and how he might get some answers to how she knew he would be there in the janitors closet and how she knew his codename, he had leapt out of the Shadow Realm through her shadow and pinned her to the fridge....while stuffing her head into the freezer section of the fridge and awaited to see the results.
Now he had seen his hypothesis was right.
Something was affecting her, and it didn't like the cold, and from the surprised reaction on Beatrice Fullers face earlier...whatever this tar like stuff really was, it or whatever/whomever was controlling it had no knowledge of its severe reaction to cold until this moment.
He watched as the Tar like substance, now that it was completely out of Beatrice Fullers body, wiggled and writhed before freezing completely solid....and disintegrating into billions of frozen pieces.
As Shadow Knight scooped the pieces of the creature up into one of the "evidence beakers" for further examination later that he had handy in his Trench coat's gear pocket, he reflected on the facts of the matter at hand he had so far.
Something had possessed Beatrice Fuller, and by some unknown reason it was "invisible" to his Dark Sense power.
Something that shouldn't have been possible.
He should have been able to sense this hostile things presence AND Beatrice Fuller....but with the creature bonded with her, he couldn't.
This was very worrying information to say the least.
It also seemed to have a positively negative aversion to ice cold temperature so there was one weakness found in this substance, creature or whatever it was.
And he knew that Beatrice Fuller was completely purged of the controlling substance because he could now sense her in the room on the floor with his Dark Sense power.
Whatever this stuff was, it was definitely dangerous.
And since he couldn't sense anybody in the building, did that mean that they were infected as well with this stuff?
Shadow Knight took precautions and used his shadow manipulation power to lock himself in the room with the stunned Beatrice fuller, creating walls of shadows within the doors that leaded into and out of the staff cafeteria.
He didn't want any more shark eyed "Zombies" coming in here, especially when he wouldn't see or "Feel" them coming.
Now he got down to business.
He couldn't sense Stephanie Walker anywhere in the building, now that either meant that Stephanie wasn't in the building anymore....or she was now one of the infected....or both.
But if this creature knew Shadow Knight, then Stephanie Walker might very well be one of the infected because Beatrice Fuller knew about the Metahumans....but she knew not their codenames.
Whatever this stuff was, it caused its victims to share information between minds like drones.... Like a hive mind.
So if Stephanie Walker was one of the infected, he had to find her and put her under quarantine before anymore were infected by her, and then get a handle on this bizarre "outbreak" that was now on his and the Legions hands today.
Now, if this was indeed a hive minded information sharing thing going on between infected victims like Shadow Knight theorised it was....then maybe there would be some information left behind by the creature before its apparent demise in the recesses of Beatrice Fullers mind.
Shadow Knight "helped" Beatrice Fuller onto one of the cafeteria chairs, and then looked her in the eyes and induced her into a trance with his hypnotic stare ability.
When the telltale signs of a Hypnotic state of mind showed on Beatrice Fullers face (relaxed breathing, dilated pupils, and blank and emotionless facial features) Shadow Knight began interrogating the subconscious mind of the no longer possessed Beatrice Fuller.
"I know you weren't at the controls" Shadow Knights voiced hissed softly in Beatrice Fuller's ear, "but as much of an empty headed individual as I know you are, an empty space is a nice place for "junk" to take root where the conscious mind can't reach them....can you tell me what happened to you, where you attacked?"
"Yes...." Beatrice Fuller answered in a trance, "at the "Auction", outside one of the "Date" rooms....something grabbed me....forced itself into my body....and then I became one with "The Hive", my thoughts became the thoughts of The Hive....and The Queens"
"The Queen?" Shadow Knight repeated, "So this....substance is being controlled by someone. The Queen, the one who controls "The Hive", who is she, where can I find her?"
"I don't know...." Beatrice Fuller answered, "None of us knew"
"How many others are infected" Shadow Knight demanded, "Where are they?"
"Don't know...." Beatrice said with a subconscious shrug, "only the Queen of The Hive knows where all of us linked to The Hive are at any present moment"
"What about Stephanie Walker?" Shadow Knight pressed, "Is she one of the infected?"
"Yes...." Beatrice Fuller nodded, "I infected her myself, and then she called you....and we waited for you to show up here to bring you into The Hive before we went after the rest of you"
"The Heroes Legion..." Shadow Knights eyes narrowed, he started to see that the whole "Secret Code" from Meta-Master thing that Stephanie had called The Heroes Legion about was indeed a trap, one that was meant for him or whoever had agreed to go and pick Stephanie Walker up at the News Building, but that meant that Stephanie Walker was out doing who knew what on an unsuspecting city among who knew how many were still infected.
So where did Stephanie Walker go to after she had called Shadow Knight to come and meet her here in the news building at the rendezvous point in the janitors closet?
"Where is Stephanie Walker and the thing inside her that is controlling her? Tell me where she went to!" Shadow Knight snapped.
"To visit some close friends...." Beatrice Fuller answered.
Shadow Knights eyes flashed with horrified realization when he realised what "to visit some close friends" could possibly mean, it meant The Heroes Legion.
But that meant that the others...Shadow Knight didn't waste any more time and vanished within a shadow portal heading back to the mansion.
He prayed that he wasn't too late to keep the others from being infected by this "Hive" as Beatrice Fuller called it.
The flash of Light the preceded Shadow Knights trademark puff of purple smoke that followed after Shadow Knight entered the Shadow Realm dimension and used it to teleport himself was enough to snap Beatrice Fuller out her trance.
But Shadow Knight wasn't a fool, he left behind some of his Knock-out gas mixed in with the Puff of Purple colored smoke....and Beatrice breathed it all in.
As much as he didn't like the Anchor-woman, he didn't wish for her to be assimilated back into this "Hive Mind" or whatever it was again.
But he also knew that if he let her stay there and walk around free ranged in a building that might still have infected people in it looking for people to infect and possess into becoming some kind of worker bee-esque drones serving "The Hive" and it's supposed Queen that controlled it all, would be highly irresponsible of him.
So he decided instead to knock her out with the gas as he left.
The Shadows he had currently barring the doors into the cafeteria would keep anyone from escaping or coming in out for a good while.
So the Slandering Anchor-Woman was safe....for now.
But before Beatrice Fuller fell out cold due to the effects of the gas, she had time to wonder what had happened to her, how she ended up back here in the lunchroom of the Channel 5 News building with no recollection of anything...and how she could lay the blame on the Heroes Legion somehow for the six o clock news.