Chapter 12: Chapter 12- Old Friend
While packing his stuff, Aiden was deep in thought, he had to digest all the knowledge he just acquired, and Nightwing presence at the gala meant that this meta-human trafficking business run even deeper than he knew of.
From the stupid showman AKA, the son of the local drug boss, he learnt that all the meta-humans that they caught were shipped toward the United States as they were sold to several shell companies. Once back in his home country, he'll have to track the traffic to the root to find the buyer.
"Hey creepy guy, you're leaving?" His door wasn't locked, and that boy came in with that stupid nickname still on his lips. But his tone for once wasn't playful.
"Yes, I'm leaving, I go back home to settle some private business." He said to the boy, he saw that the prankster was sad, he'll lose his bantering partner. "Sorry kid but I can't do otherwise."
The boy didn't respond, he was looking at his shoes while holding back his tears.
"Don't worry. I may come back, if I miss you." The boy raises his head and when Aiden saw it, he wanted to prank him "But it's highly unlikely."
Seeing that the boy would cry, he reassured him "Tch, you're not a prankster boy anymore?" The boy answer was a dark glare and a kick in Aiden left leg.
"Why would I miss you, creepy guy. Without you in the neighborhood, I can finally sleep without worrying." With that said he stuck out his tongue and ran out.
"I'll miss you stupid brat."
Aiden personal stuff where few, a laptop, headphone an outdated phone and a necklace he bought at the local market. Anything else could be left here, furthermore, he was millionaire; it didn't bother him to lose some crap bought second-handed.
Once everything packed, he visited Daniel parents to give them everything in his house and say his farewell to the boy.
Several hours later
Oakland, California
"Let's see, I'm at the good place, but no shipping is planned anytime soon." He just arrived on site and was hovering invisible in midair searching for suspicious activities but found nothing except arms trafficking, but it wasn't what he came for.
From the memories extracted from the guy back there, he only obtained a location and information about the past deliveries. So, he chose to wait, and finally found something interesting, a docker was taking a bribe for a lot of deliveries. The man was counting his money happily, when he was suddenly raised in the air and didn't stop before being over a sea of white clouds.
In front of him was a young man maybe in his early twenties, wearing a jean, a white shirt, a dark jacket and with headphones around his neck.
"First and foremost, you won't ask me a stupid question like who I am, what I want or threaten me, otherwise I'll ripe out your tongue and then let you make a free fall. Understood?!"
The young said to him in a tone that said that he was fed up and that if he didn't comply, he would suffer a grievous fate. Frighten by the man that was holding him above the clouds, he nodded his head, too afraid to speak.
"Good, finally someone who can understand. If you knew how many people dare to threaten me, whereas I literally hold their life in my hands," the young man sighed, seemingly annoyed by these person behaviors. "Now, tell me who is going to receive the meta humans coming from Honduras. Don't try to lie. I know you're accepting bribes."
"I don't know" he answered and when he saw the expression of the young man darken, he knew he screwed up. All at once, he wasn't hovering in the sky anymore, he was free-falling, and the young man stayed here as he watched him fall to his death.
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!"
It was nerve cracking, he was falling. The floor was approaching fast, no he was coming fast toward it, as his altitude lowered, he saw that he would fall in the port water but at this speed, water or not he would die. When he finally reached the floor level, his nose stopped just five centimeters from the water, as he was stunned by what happened, a slight wave came and water entered inside his nose. When he was rejoicing, he was pulled upward just as fast as he fell and, in a few seconds, he was facing the young man again.
"Tell me, and no isn't an acceptable answer." He told him evenly.
"I swear, I know nothing, they pay me to let them do their deal on my dock, that's it. I have to look elsewhere and take care of my colleagues."
"Do you know their names?"
"No, but they have other business with me, they have other business here. They should come in a few hours. I swear I won't tell a word. Please let me go."
Aiden was contemplating whether on not comply, ever since his mind enter in contact with others, he had to separate what was part of the true him and the information's that came from others.
"Okay, but you'll stay with me until then, and if they don't come, I'll have to make you pay for lying to me." Taking hold of the docker, he headed toward the ground and landed on a roof overlooking the docks.
Several hours passed, night fell, Aiden, and the docker were watching over the docks.
"If they don't come soon, you'll regret it Mike." Aiden said to mike who was sitting on the roof while brooding over his lack of luck. Looking at him while drinking a soda can, he chuckled "Stop weeping, you're grown up, don't act like a kid."
Mike wanted to cry and howled but Aiden made him shut up because he heard several engine's sounds coming toward the dock Mike was responsible for.
Five black vans soon appeared in their visual field and parked at the dock. More than twenty persons stepped out of the cars as the drivers stayed put with the engine still working, ready to flee.
"Let's work. Want to come with or watch the show from up there?"
"Non… I'm good… I'll stay here." Mike's voice was trembling, seemingly terrified by the idea.
Leaving Mike here, Aiden floated down the ground and telekinetically slapped the vans that were sent rolling several hundred meters away, as for their weapons they were floating three meters above ground.
Aiden was ready to start a short speech to make them talk, but among the men, he saw someone he recognized, Trent, that sweet giants was among the criminals. Not losing even a second he knocked all of them out and rise Trent and himself in the air.
After a short flight, they flew through the window of an old factory on the outskirts of the town and landed inside that old complex abandoned for years.
"What are you doing out of New-York with a bunch of criminals linked to meta-human traffic?" Aiden asked his old friend without even saying a hello.
"Hello to you too, I'm doing my job, and what are you doing here? You're a wanted criminal." Trent responded him on a tone that didn't correspond to his old playful attitude. Seeing his old friend's strange attitude, Aiden rise an eyebrow.
"I can count on a hand the individuals able to stop me. Now give me details about your job, you rarely leave New-York while investigating, and you usually avoid taking risk."
Sigh.
A sigh escaped Trent lips, and he sat on the ground with his back to the wall and took a cigarette that he lit before explaining his problem.
"They took my daughter, Alice. I'm trying to find her, she awoken some power related to water and some days later, hooded men raided my home, surely retired special forces." Sadness was leaking in his voice and tears were rolling on his face. "My wife died that night; I was severely injured and learnt about her death when I woke up in the hospital."
Aiden was flabbergasted, he knew Trent family, his wife was someone good and his daughter was a lively newborn.
"Once I left the hospital, I started to investigate to find Alice, but every clue I found a lead to mafia families, gangs, shell companies, this network is huge. I need help to find her and get her back." Trent raised his hand for Aiden to take it.
Taking hold of him by the hand, he raised him on his feet and said in a tone that would make everyone who hear him shudder: "Don't worry, we will find her, as for those behind this, those who touch my family don't have the right to live anymore."
"I see that you have changed, and not only mentally, your look is really painful to look at."
It was encouraging to see that he didn't lose hope after losing his wife and the kidnapping of his daughter.
"Tell me, do you have a name, some sort of clue? From now on, we stop sneaking around, we'll go by the front door and give them what they deserve." His bright smile didn't mix well with his statement, but he succeeded in making Trent smile.
"Yes, I found several leads. We have to take care of them and find the root."
Once that said, Aiden rise with Trent that was leading the way while keeping his fear of height in check.
"Sure you're okay, you won't throw up on someone from up there?" Aiden was amused as he watched Aiden that was afraid and had a hand on his mouth.
"Just fly and shut up!"
"AHAHAH!" Seeing the always relaxed Trent so stressed made him laugh.
"Stop laughing and fly down, we arrived. I found several leads, it's one of the few. I hope you're good at making people talk." Looking downward, they saw what seemed a logistical platform where several trucks were departing.
"Don't worry, and if it come to the worst, i have another way." That company seemed totally legit, all looks clean, but after scanning the whole place, he found something strange. More precisely, he found absolutely nothing out of place, no hidden rooms, no cages, no guns, no frightened children.
"You're sure Trent? Everything seems fine to me."
"Lets wait, I'm sure i learn it while i was undercover with those guys you sent flying. They no reason to lie to me, if they knew who I was they would have simply killed me."
"Okay, let's do it the private detective way, sitting all day and watching peoples like stalkers." He lowered Trent down and waited in the courtyard where the camion were parked.
"What are you doing? I said wait, hide us fast!" Trent panicked after seeing himself exposed to the CCTV and the eyes of the workers.
"Don't worry, we're invisible, we can do everything we want." Aiden reassured him while shrugging.
Trent was stunned when he learnt about this and said, "I see you learnt new tricks, hope you didn't use it for other use, little pervert."
"Oh Trent, what a nasty mind of yours, I'm a pure minded young man, this idea never ever came to my mind." Listening to Aiden exaggerated tirade, a smile came to his lips.
"I missed you, kid."
"I know." He said with a smirk which Trent answered with a nudge.
They waited for an hour while discussing about what happened during the past six months.
"I have to tell you something. Your girlfriend Jessica disappeared. I kept an eye on her after your fight with the league in New-York. Some time ago, she left the city, but she reappeared nowhere, I don't know where she may be." Trent told him while being somewhat wary of his reaction.
"I'll take care of it later, for the moment we will focus on your daughter."
Finally, Aiden detected something fishy about an incoming truck.
"Trent, the truck that just arrived as a secret compartment filled to the brim with children."
Approaching the truck, they saw the driver opening his truck door and park to the dock to unload the merchandises.
Entering the building, they saw the workers lifting the merchandises to access to the secret compartment.
Soon, the secret door was opened and eight boys and six collared girls walked out under the threat of their kidnappers. None of them were Trent daughter.
"These collars are made to inhibit their powers. Trent I have to warn you to keep your calm, our goal is to find your daughter and who is behind that, helping those who were kidnapped is secondary."
"Mmmm." Trent complied but clenched his fist, it was clear as the day that he wanted to blow off some steam using these bastards as punching bags.
"Your daughter isn't among them, It's really early to awaken your meta-human powers as a toddler. They may keep her elsewhere."
They followed those leading the child's in the warehouse until one of the men took out a device out of his jacket and pushed a button on it. Just after, the wall opened in two revealing a secret a freight elevator.
"You didn't detect it?"
"No, maybe some type of power or magic, I'm not almighty."
Stepping in the elevator while invisible they were lead to a secret room, but except cages, this room was nothing special.
"Now that our quota is filled, we can send the due delivery." The man in the lead announced to the others, "Regroup the kids, I'll take out the Motherbox from the safe to send them."
His underlings started to regroup the childs, maybe the collars were injecting some type of drugs to the kids because they acted like mindless zombies.
The leader opened a safe hidden in a wall and opened it using a drop of his blood, a key and his fingerprints and took out the same box he saw in the hands of Luthor's assistant.
(Luthor? Maybe I'm not sure but it wouldn't be surprising, but others could have access to this technology.)
"Let's join the kids, that thing is a teleportation device. Let's find where they will send the kids."
Trent nodded, and they positioned themselves among the group of kids.
With a flash of yellow lights, they were sent thousands of kilometers away.
The place where they were sent looked like a laboratory similar to the one Aiden awaken in after his fight, with the difference that a lot of people going from child to adults unconscious in what look like a coffin of metal with an opening showing the person inside through a red force field.
Several men wearing doctor clothes were coming toward them with syringes in their hands and hurried expression on their faces.
"There is something up there." Trent remarked.
"I know, don't need superpowers to feel the floor quake, maybe meta humans are fighting each other, it wouldn't be surprising to see them fight in an arena, or a superhero discovered this place, they seem in a hurry."
Taking hold of the scientists, he Brock their necks and let them fall limp on the floor.
"You've changed your methods."
"I told you those who touch those I care about die, you can ask to the Joker." Aiden responded with a hint of pride.
"It was you?! I always thought it was strange that a simple cop could kill the prince of crime." He told as he lower to the kids height to free them of the collars.
"Wait! Let their collar on, or we will have a bunch of weeping kids with uncontrollable superpowers."
"We can't let them here alone, unable to protect themselves."
"Stay with them, I'll clean the place. I hope you can take of yourself in the meantime."
As an answer Trent simply showed him his gun.
The complex he was in wasn't huge, after traversing a few corridors, the fighting sounds and quakes amplified.
As he was nearing the origin of the sound, he sensed a projectile coming toward him but the shape was strangely human.
Stopping it midair before it collided with him, he recognized who it was.
"Superboy."
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