Chapter 13: 『Mannheim』
The Visit to the University was interesting, her presence made Winn rather popular with the ladies. She was treated and seen as his odd little sister, who not only corrected his much older computer science professor, but also made friends with the old man.
At the end of the visit Lockwood came across them again as they were leaving and informed Hekate that he had talked with the Dean, and proposed that she dual enroll with the University. In essence taking High School through literal college courses, which she didn't mind. High School itself was too easy, College was presumably harder, but that was also unlikely.
University classes were lecture halls, portfolio development courses and work studies. She didn't generally know what she would want to do. While she enjoyed writing, it was mainly fiction she enjoyed, or romance, rather than Journalism. However what she liked even more was photography, graphics and the fine arts.
She had told him she'd get back to him at some point, she knew where he lived.
After that she ended up going home with Winn, it was around six in the evening, so it was rush hour traffic all the way back. By the time they got home, it had been a three hour bus ride which would have only been about an hour's walk.
At least she had her music to keep her preoccupied, they quickly ran out of things to do or talk about on the bus. She didn't seem all that interested in eye spie or any of the childish games to pass the time.
It was around ten o'clock when the two of them were sitting on the living room floor. Winn was flicking the Uno Cards out. He had invited some of his friends over to meet his new roommate. The guy who had met her before was there.
"So she's your little foster sister, huh?" The man chuckled, scratching the back of his head. "Didn't know you bonded with someone like that." He shook his head as he was teasing Winn.
It seemed to be something that the group did together, teasing him that is. Winn always seemed to just go along with it though which peeved Hekate.
About a half hour later one of the older gents that came along revealed that they had indeed brought beer, non-alcoholic ginger beer. He was about twenty-three, prematurely balding with dark brown hair and icy blue eyes, he had a complete goatee and a waxed mustache. Physically he was inapt, he was scrawny and didn't even look as if he could lift a seventy inch television screen. Though it was rather clear that the guy hadn't worked a day in his life and was obsessed with Japanese animation. Not that she could blame him, she found herself enamoured by the varying art styles.
"So you ready for a sugar high?" The guy spoke with a childish giggle, handing her a few cans. It appeared he wanted to see her hyper.
She stared at the cans for a few moments before shrugging to herself and popping open one of the cans. She sniffed it, she could smell the ginger, but the sugar cane was the most prominent scent.
The bubbles tickled her nose and she coughed slightly as she inhaled some of them. "Hmm..."
"Never had soda before?" Winn asked as he snickered at her antics.
She shook her head slightly before taking a sip from the can. She took a relatively relaxed posture as she sat there on the floor with the boys. Her eyes gazed over the cards which were in her free hand.
Just as she looked up at the others, her eyes narrowed on the nearest open window. A strange color in the distance. She could hear panic, then suddenly all the sound vanished at once around the area of the City Bank.
BOOM.
The loft shook, everyone losing their balance and falling over as they sat there on their legs. The lights even flickered and in that brief darkness she used her power to launch herself out the open window.
Her elastic supersuit activated the moment she did. It had changed a bit since last time, having a hood now that complimented the tube mask. It better hid her identity. It even had additional skirting, it seemed it had upgraded itself while it was in her inventory.
What the heck had caused that explosion? The question rung in her mind. She landed on a nearby building across the near completely demolitioned bank. She was crouched down as she looked lower towards the streets. There were overturned cars, plenty of people hurt by debris. Her eyes narrowed on a handful of humanoid forms walking about, armed with pulse rifles.
"Humans don't have that kind of technology..." Was the first thing she noticed about them before using her xray vision. They weren't human. She could see they had blaring red mechanical optic lenses for eyes and their entire interior was that of machinery.
The police and fire fighters were on the way. She could hear the sirens, she could only assume the machines did as well.
Hearing the murmur of someone trying to call for help, she looked over towards a man who was caught beneath a large chunk of concrete wall. She went to stand up, only for one of the machines to turn towards the man and begin to close in on the poor lad.
Frowning at this, she leapt down and using her own strength smashed her fist into the ground. The asphalt beneath her fist cracking. She took the typical hero stance before standing up and lunging forward.
However this only took the machine's attention for one mere minute. All of the machines, a total of twelve of them, turned around and looked in her direction. The one closest took aim and pulled the trigger.
The moment her fist was about to make contact with the droid targeting the human, she was thrown backward and smashed into an overturned car. She found herself face first in the concrete.
As she slowly regained her barings, she heard the man scream before being turned apart by a single blast from the pulse rifle.
Her eyes looked over the droids in black. Their red eyes were ominous. Just what were they?
That's when her Guardian-1 began to feed her information on these beings, their assumed origins.
『These Machines were manufactured secretly at an unknown LuthorCorp Blacksite somewhere in Northern California, possibly Oregon. The machines are not of human design, but they do hold a brand signature within its hardware. They belong to a group called Intergang, a terrorist organization. They're linked to a man named Bruno Mannheim, an associate of Lex Luthor.』
Tilting her head slightly at this information, she moved out from behind the car, quickly rolling forward to avoid a singular pulse. Only one of the machines seemed to give her the time of day.
Charging up her heat vision, they all turned towards her and took aim. "Oh crap..." She uttered under her breath as she released her vision upon one of the robots.
The beam ripped through the crumby bullet proof exterior and destroyed the CPU she located with her X-ray vision. Just as she was about to cut through a second droid, she was thrown into the nearby department store by another pulse blast from about three bots at once.
At that moment the police pulled up, some of the skidding to a stop and pulling to the side. A handful of them moved behind their vehicles seeing that there were hostiles present.
The first car had witnessed the heroine being blasted away like a piece of paper, thrown into a nearby building. They could see the body of a human male, torn open by a single close range blast from the pulse. It didn't sit well.
"Agent!" One of the called out, "Agent Cadmus, are you alright!?" There was no answer, the girl wasn't emerging from the store.
Suddenly a handful of black SUVs pulled up. Men in FBI swat armor came pouring out of them, at least five of them per vehicle. The Director of the DEO himself came over to the front car, and knelt down by the two officers taking cover.
For the time being, the robots were taking a defensive position, waiting for the human reinforcements to make their next move. That or they were waiting for further orders.
"Where's Agent Cadmus?" Hank, aka J'onn J'onzz, asked the police officer currently in charge of the operation. He looked over the hood of the car and saw the trashed from of the department store. The police officer was pointing to it. "Good work. Pull your people out slowly, we'll take it from here."
"Shouldn't we be calling in the army or something?" The Officer asked all panicky, he looked like he was going to go awol even though he had already been ordered to retreat.
"With Cadmus, we should be fine." He smiled hopefully towards the officer as he patted him on the shoulder. "Now go!"
Nodding the Police Officers currently present all moved back, attempting to get out of range of the enemy weapons as well as away from the impending fire fight.
Hekate rested on the broken table that cushioned her when she had been thrown back by the weapons. Despite having some minor bruising from the weapons, it was clear that she needed to get better at this. Those villains she fought earlier were nothing compared to these machines. She had only taken down one before being gunned down.
She groaned slightly and burped, filling the air with the aroma of ginger and sugarcane.
Hearing the burp, Hank looked up towards the department store and raised a brow. Crouched, he had two other DEO officers follow behind him. They all were armed with standard US military issue submachine guns.
After a few seconds, seeing that they weren't noticed right away by the machines, they crept into the store to find Hekate laid out on a crushed table. The only thing visible beneath her hood was the luminescent eyes. It made her out to be some sort of creepy creature of some kind since they couldn't make out her face in the dark.
"Hello Hanky," She raised a hand and waved it painfully. Her voice sounded like she was in pain, minor pain, but she didn't at all look like she wanted to be moving.
"Agent Cadmus, what are we dealing with?" He asked as he knelt beside her and checked her ribs, followed by her appendages. "Nothing seems out of place."
Looking over at him and the other officers of the DEO, she let out a sigh. "They have bullet proof armor, they're machines built with LuthorCorp assets based on the architecture, but there's an Intergang signature on the hardware."
Hank nodded as she gave him this information, "Intergang is a terrorist group funded by an unknown extraterrestrial presence here on earth. However we still haven't learned their true motive, but we know they're armed with weapons capable of hurting superman, and in turn, you."
She groaned in annoyance hearing this, aliens were funding a terrorist group? That didn't sound like fun, especially since there was a human behind the manufacturing, though she didn't give that part of the information.
"If you join the DEO, we can arm you against them and help defeat them. You will become a much valued asset to our team." Hank stated, though one of the officers made a face, he completely dismissed it.
She stared at him for a few seconds before shrugging, "No contract." She said as she'd sit up slowly with the guide of his left hand on her back. "Off the books and help setting up a bank account."
"You're making demands now?" The woman, the third wing, asked with a hushed cackle. "We offered our help, you should be thankful."
She looked over at the gir land lowered her hood, revealing the upper part of her teenage face. "I will not be a child soldier," the moment Hekate said this the woman took a step back, for the first time noting her actual age.
Hank just stared at her for a few moments, he was trying to access her mind covertly, yet he couldn't break through some invisible barrier around her mind. It was the Guardian-1, it made sure nothing could mess with her head on a psychic or telepathic scale.
"Understandable for someone who wants to be independent," he sneered and helped her up to her feet. "The deal has been struck, welcome to the DEO, Agent Cadmus." He held out a hand for her to shake.
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