Fully Amped, Gigabyte is able to hack the Bat computer with old school typing. He is able to locate the programs that process the Cave's defensive routines, and to interrogate the Bat's files to find out where the Martians are hidden, which was the point of this whole endeavor in the first place.
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"Hey! Great work guys! So, you wanna blow this pop stand? It looks like the master of the house is either too much of a coward, or just to unsociable to come out and meet us, so there's not much point in hanging around," she says as her LexSec seem to be just randomly beating things.
"Hey! That looked important!" Wolfhound says as something metallic falls heavily to the ground.
William groans while palming his face, "If you've found the right information we need, can we just copy it and get out of here? I don't want to be around for when the real deal shows up. ...God, he's going to tell my dad about this isn't he?"
Once Gigabyte gives a nod that the information is copied, Fate concentrates, but the teleportation won't function. Looking deeper within himself, Az tries again, but all he finds is the Lord of Order Nabu looking directly into his soul.
"It is obvious now you are too weak to perform the duties required of you. You need more training. In the meantime, I shall take full control of this form."
"No, wait!..."the teen host of Dr Fate tries to protest, but it is too late. As the group teleports to safety, Az feels himself subsumed into the place where the Lords of Order reside. He is trapped!
William looks to Doctor Fate with concern as he momentarily calls out, before seemingly regaining his wits and completing his spell. Once back on the transport they were using he approaches the man, "Are you alright?"
"All is well, Unhuman," Fate says in a cold, emotionless voice.
William remains very aware that this is not the Doctor Fate that he'd been interacting with since the start of this come-together a few days ago. He retreats back several paces, holding up his fists defensively while hardening his skin to Kryptonian levels.
"You're not Fate, who are you and what have you done with him?"
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"Hm? We got a problem with our local resident...whatever he is?
[b]"Hmmmm," says Imagine as she peers at Dr. Fate. "Yep, he's not his normal kinda-odd self. Let's try this again, shall we?"
Again the silver mercurial wave rushes toward the intellectual fortress of the Lord's possession. Again a massive tidal force crests impossibly tall as it probes against his mental defenses, searching for the truth of the matter.
'Helloooooooooo in theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere'
"You know nothing of this, mortals. I AM Fate! This host needs retraining."
Kara would probably detect incredibly complex but well organized surface thoughts from Nabu. He certainly seems to be telling the truth, or at least his version of it, and he's 100% confident that version is correct. He also doesn't seem hostile in the least toward the League. In fact, Nabu seems a little confused by your reaction to what is obviously a necessary "time out" for "the host" (Az).
"Mortals? Host? What the hell is going on here?"
Ah, I understand your confusion now. I reread:
Fate weaves his spell of transportation and the world seems to bend around you. As the helicopter vanishes, you find yourselves in an underground lair. No, you find yourselves in The underground lair. The ceiling soars above you.
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"Eazy peazy" Gigabyte simply comments, obviously joking, as he copies the info from the mainframe.
"Now, how the hell are we going to get o-" he is about to say when Fate teleports them outside.
-ut of here... I need to reverse engineer that. I really need."
Kyle removes his helmet and swipes the sweat off, sitting in the ground as the others fend words with Nabu. "Now, unless totally-not-Fate is going to turn into an angry Martian or something, I need some time to recover and clean myself of nanobots. Unless you guys have any objection, my crib has space to house us all. And a swimming pool. Okay, I don't have a swimming pool there, but I do have a minibar and the best entertainment system you can build with a MIT doctorate."
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A smile creeps along Imagine's face like a lithe kitten taking a long, languish stretch. 'My crib -does- have a swimming pool. And a MEGAbar. And the best entertainment system you can get when cost isn't an issue. And strippers. You guys like strippers? I know this place that does good work with Japanese girls that dress like maids...'
Imagine's phone hovers out of its pocket and starts texting away. There's no doubt that some of its words contain inquiries about price and availability of Japanese maid-girls.
'Don't knock 'em. Kami-chan is working her way through med school and she'd commit murder and throw in a vivisection if it meant she could graduate without debt. Also her body massages are -EPIC-.'
"Mortals? Host? What the hell is going on here?"
The being you've come to know as Dr Fate is a composite entity. The host is selected and willingly accepts the mantle and, after extensive training, bonds with myself, Nabu, to become Dr Fate. The current host, Az, obviously needs some work; his abilities without my aid are lackluster.
William looses confidence with himself as he sees how easily the other two are dismissing this. "Are... are we supposed to be okay with this? IS there something I'm missing here?"
Harry Tully is a bio-chemist who works for Powers Technology in Gotham. His work involves munitions development, more specifically gas weapons. He works in a lab at a facility isolated on an island near Gotham.
Bryan McCoy is a reporter with Planet Global Network. He is the son of the elder William McCoy, and has taken on his Real McCoy broadcast. He is known for his fiery dislike of Metas and super heroes. Planet Global is based in Metropolis, which is where McCoy lives.
Fate, ignoring Unhuman's continued protests, moves over to the console and begins reviewing the information Gigabyte has retrieved.
No one of consequence, Nabu thinks, and prepares to turn back.
Wait! Az tries to pipe up from deep in Fate's subconscious. But his mental voice is drowned out as Fate further seals off the psychic wall.
Fate stays near Gigabyte, hoping Unhuman will simply forget his pretty mortal issue and get back to important matters. But as he does, Az struggles to communicate yet again.
Nabu, hear me! It's important! I know one of those people! Well, I've seen her, anyway. Around campus in California!
The entry reads: Anita Perez; literature student at UCLA; lives in off-campus housing and keeps to herself.
Nabu relaxes his control on Az a little.
This had best not be a deception. Remember the cafeteria incident...
No, just, look, I know I need to work on my skills a little, but let me help them, Az pleads.
Very well; but I will retain control of the Fate entity for the time being. You are now free to remove your helmet and act independently until you next don it.
Unhuman and the others watch as Az removes the Fate helmet to reveal his blond locks and youthful face once more.
"Third one down! I know where to find her!" Az says excitedly.
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Imagine sits at ease in an overstuffed recliner that looks both ostentatious and small in the massive Chinook-class helicopter that is her personal transport. Glassware on the sideboard dances like some adult version of an animated movie as lime and gin tango and shake and mix together.
'Nah, it's cool, Gigs, if we need to go to your place to cleanse the nanos. But you have to share with the dudes,' she says, flinging a hand back toward her minions. 'To return the favor I can have the maid-girls come to your place. Ooo! Saku-chan is free. She an ex-personal trainer that is completing her masters in Nano-engineering. I'll see if I can get her friend Misa-chan. I think she's off tonight, but they like to work together and Misa just finished her doctorate in IT. I'm sure you two will have a lot to...talk...about. ;-)
Anyway, Bill, yeah, we're not doin' cartwheels that Dr. Fate is doin' his bipolar thing right now, but he's mostly harmless, from what my data has shown. Also, we need his help. We just got in'n'out of the Batcave because of him.
Also, I just scanned him. Since he doesn't currently want to eat our brains, lets give him the benefit of the doubt. Besides, he ever does get KILLALLHUMANS upity, we can see how he does against LexCorp ultimate legal objection - the Warhammer.'
Captain Attero turns and gives the group a quick reassuring wink.
'So, we're settled that we somehow gotta get all these people from point A, where they are now, to point B, which is the Phantom Zone, yeses? Preferably by their own free will, yeah?'
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William floats there dumbly for a moment longer, only paying attention to about the first quarter of what Kara projected before he started filtering it into white noise. With her around, Dr. Fate's sudden changes of personality seem positively sane. He did manage to catch that last line at the end however, as he briefly lifted his mental defenses during her lapse of thought.
"What? No- I can't just abuse the projector like that and send innocent people into the Phantom Zone, I feel terrible for J'ohn as is. We can-"
His attention is broken when Az removed his helmet and pointed at one of the people on file, having recognized them. Realizing he was being grossly incompetent by not even reading the information himself he approached. Only to find himself filled with dread.
"Dr. Santori is- No! That's my dad's doctor, she- she knows about who he is! How could the JLA let one of them get so close? Kara, we have to get back to Metropolis right now, my father could be in real danger."
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"Ummmmmm..." Kara starts Unhuman throws a monkey in the wrench. "But, but, but, Gigabyte, and the dudes, and the little robots, and I ALREADY SAID MISA-CHAN SHOULD MEET US THERE DO HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT ONA-SAMA IS GOING TO CHARGE ME FOR BOOMERANGING LIKE THIS!?!?!?!?
Ugh. Fine! Gigabyte, can you clean the nanos in transit? Not sure what we have around here, since doing the Science! isn't really high on my supply list."
The helicopter turns toward Metropolis and the rest of the world fades to grey as Kara starts typing on her phone rapidly.
Az is...a little confused that his pleading with Nabu didn't result in something more...noticeable. Ah, well. At least he was free. And he wasn't about to put that helmet on again any time soon. Probably best to find some sort of mask or something though; Fate's costume remained, but without the helmet, his identity could be very easily deduced.
The Imagine Copter races toward Metropolis, giving Kyle plenty of time to get his various bits back in working order. Imagine's escorts will have to wait for another time.
A short time later, the chopper hovers above Metropolis General Hospital. There are no obvious signs of trouble, either visual or through unusual radio or computer communications traffic. If the Martian is here, he must not have accomplished anything yet.
"So, uh, how do you want to approach this?" Az asked Unhuman. Az still wore the costume of Dr. Fate, but had sent the helmet back to its dimensional pocket, and instead wore a golden mask. He'd reach in and grab the helmet if he needed Nabu's help, but Az was still feeling pretty nervous about being sent to a dimensional prison, even temporarily.
William stood up, looking out the window towards the hospital. "Luthorcorp's tower is near here, right? Take the helicopter and land it it there. I'm going to walk in through the front door. "
Without waiting for anyone else to acknowledge his very very rough and not well thought out plan, he opens one of the helicopter doors and jumps out, letting his natural ability to fly guide him down intot he alleyways. It was there, hidden from the world that he transformed from monstrous alien hybrid into a nerdy red haired teenager.
Completing his look with a pair of glasses he actually needed unlike his legacy when going around human, he approached the hospital on foot.
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"Oh hell," Kara bursts. "I'll have to just pay for them. At this point it'll be cheaper than cancelling."
Hanse sprouts a little grin and spread it around to the rest of the squad. The LexSec can't help but notice his infectious giddyness. "Oh-ho! Ya hear that lads? It looks like there are some merry maids what be all paid for but yet remain lonely! As we poor humans are unpowered, we shall have to take one for the team and find some way to keep them...employed."
Then Kyle comes through and gets their suits working, and they all seem a bit deflated, but a few choice words from Attero gets the squad back in form.
Surprisingly, a second helicopter comes along, and 2nd squad jumps into it. Imagine looks ready to turn it into molten lava, but again Attero intercedes. "Sorry, Imagine. Due to the recently discovered threat, they need to be reassigned. This...comes from your father."
Anger passes to resignation and she makes no mention of it. In her brooding she doesn't notice something transferred from the second 'copter to the remaining LexSec. Axeman attaches some sort of add-on unit to his suit and smiles an evil smile. The rest of the squad follows suit.
That done, 1st squad takes to the air, circling a protective perimeter, yet trying to stay out of the way.
'Mind if I tag along?' Kara clandestinely asks William, falling into step a few paces behind him. "I tend to have a calming effect on biological-based obstacles. ;-)'
William had no outward indication he'd noticed Kara in the least, but his mental self was abuzz with frustration. 'I do, actually, but I know how futile it'd be to try and dissuade you. And I'm not even going to comment on... whatever that last part meant.'
He quickly made his way up to the male receptionist at the front desk. "Hi, William Kent. I'm here to see my father, is he available?"
It'd only been just yesterday since he last visited, but it wasn't so unusual for him stop by multiple days in a row.
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Kyle looks around for a comfy spot to sit. "While does two infiltrate, I'll access the Hospital's intranet and security channel." he says as he leans under a shadow "I've spent a rather long time in those and know for a fact they like to install cameras, not forgetting I can get Connor's medical records and visit logs... And let's simply forget how much of a federal crime that is, pretty please."
"Heh... You know, this reminds me of a game I made a couple years ago: Shadetrekker. Some cyberpunk and fantasy urban RPG. Greats one, I tell you, totally should buy it." the cyborg stops to look at the datafiles his augmented memory has on the game. "I'm the hacker, Kara's the face and Will is... Well, a powergamer judging by his powers. Should have nerfed metahuman adepts."
Kyle taps into the various hospital systems, all top notch but no match for his skills. He is able to see the halls of the hospital and William and Kara making there way to the East tower (the green one). It is a long walk from the front entrance, into a secure wing. William has to show ID and a retinal scan to get in, and signs Kara in as a visitor, though she is well known to the staff through her family's generous contributions. Her dad paid for the whole wing, after all.
Scanning through the entry logs, Kyle finds an anomaly. Dr. Santori scanned into the wing at 6:22 AM, then logged into her tablet at 6:48. It wouldn't be usual to think that she went to lunch at some point, but she didn't scan out, and she scanned in again at 12:14, only a few minutes ago. Could be harmless, but it could be that there are two copies of the Dr. in the building.
He stopped shortly after passing the retinal scan, taking a deep breath to help calm his nerves. There was a vague feeling of some kind in the back of his throat when he realized just how easy it would've been for him to pass the scan if he wasn't who he claimed to be. Normal humans would have a lot more difficulty then one who could shapeshift.
But that was the thing that worried him the most.
Taking a moment to manually adjust his outward appearance by straightening his clothes, William addressed Kara mentally. 'Keep in mind, that even after all this... recent stuff, my Dad still really doesn't like your father. Probably way more now since the cloning process that made him has failed his aging process so much. Just... just a fair warning. Try not to be your usual self.'
With that done, he continued on his way.
Az/Fate asks Kyle to throw the vid feed to a monitor so he can view it as well. He tries to stay involved in what's going on, but all the while, he's beginning to feel a little out of his depth without Nabu there to guide him.
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Captain Attero throws a final **Acknowledged** back at Kyle. The video feed hand't been initially compatible with their HUDs, but a quick conference with LexSec IT and a hurriedly downloaded converter patch solved the issue.
Kara replies, 'Nobody really likes daddy. But that's how he prefers it. Working with someone you like always has the danger of keeping the relationship going after it's no longer profitable. But working with someone you hate? Then you -know- that it's good for the business. ;-3
And we're, like, totally sorry about that. Something something omelet, blah blah breaking eggs. Advancement of the human knowledge base isn't safe. He should think of all the people that he's helping...after the process is perfected, of course.'
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"Interesting..." mutters Kyle as he sends the feed to Attero's HUD. A window shows Kara and William making their way and another one shows Dr. Santori Profile.
"Attero, that's the doctor in charge of our target." Gigabyte stops for a moment to also broadcast to Kara "**Fun part: either she can be in two places at the same time or someone is using her ID and possibly appearance. Doctor Santori has logged in the wing twice within six hours of difference, no log out recorded and last one only a couple minutes ago. You may want to check on her... hers... her and it? I'll let you two judge it, Gigabyte over.**"
Almost an afterthought, Kyle adds "**Oh, and in the remote case that the first Santori to have appeared is the imposter, check her tablet because she definitely logged into it. If you activate the wifi I may be able to access it from here.**"
"I'll go on ahead to see my dad, think you could find his doctor for me?" He spoke aloud.
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'Of cou-- Kara starts replying out of habit. Then she stops, realizing that they're playing a role of deception here as much as anything. After all, Kara Luthor doesn't just visit friends' old parents out of the kindness of her heart.
"Of course, Honey. I'll just look around. I'm sure -someone- is going to know."
She stops and leans in to William, patiently waiting for a goodbye kiss.
'What? Do you think that Kara Luthor is known to just visit friend's old parents? If we're not a couple, things will look suspicious.
Your play, of course,' she thinks, smiling as she puckers.
Kara receives a curious lack of rebuttal of any sort as William cheerfully leans in to give her a quick peck on the lips before leaning back and preparing to leave.
"I'll see you soon, love you." says, before turning away and walking towards his father's room. Yet while he'd easily fool her of his act, internally he finds himself both revolted and angered that she'd put him on the spot like that. As the son of a white martian, he knew that putting on facades like this was only natural, but that didn't translate him into liking it.
'Keep me informed when you spot the infiltrator and I'll be right over. I'll be doing the same on my end.' he communed, his mental voice not giving away a single ounce of his true feelings on her stunt. To Kara, all she could feasibly conclude is that he's too focused on his father to give her the rise she was obviously craving for.
William steps up to Connor's room and slips through the door as it slides open silently. He is surprised to find Dr. Santori standing at his father's side. Connor's face is half covered in something like an oxygen mask into which is flowing a green gas.
"William, good to see you. We have an exciting development in your father's treatment. Of course, like most of his meds, we have to deliver it through respiration, as the Kryptonite needles are draining to him. We are attempting a new gene therapy that could repair your father's genetic degradation."
Her familiar face beams at him.
William senses a real eagerness from Dr. Santori, she really does seem to have something to offer.
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Kara smiles inwardly as she moves off in the opposite direction that William went, glowing about the win-win situation. He either had to comply with her, or hurt his own mission. That's how a Luthor do. She totally had to tell daddy about that soon.
Not one to simply ask a question when she get the answer in a more certain way, she stands a ways off from a nurses' station, pretending to look at her L-phone, and scans one of their minds.
'Found at least one of them, if there really is two of them here. She... says she's giving my dad some sort of 'gene therapy.' I'm not getting a deceptive vibe from her, but try to find out more on your end.'
He gives her a lopsided smile, "Are gene therapy treatments supposed to look dark and foreboding?"
As he approached, his smile became muted as he looked over at his father who was aged far beyond his years. Part of him really hoped that this woman who claimed to be Dr. Santori was being honest in her endeavor, but... at the same time he knew that underneath that face was the form of an unabashed White Martian. He dearly hoped that she would become like his mother did if she came into her heritage, but he knew from the stories how terrifying his maternal race could be.
The gas really was ominous. Would it draw too much suspicion from her if he dropped his human guise to enhance his senses? The staff tending Corner were trusted with his secret identity, as they sort've had to be, but one could never be too sure. He had to try anyway.
"Could you explain what it's supposed to do? I'm not really clued in on the field that much. And... would it be alright if I were to be myself in this room? I don't want to change without warning and alarm you."