章 34: Chapter 33 - What Lies Beneath
---French Alps, Undisclosed Location---
Stepping inside the room we were greeted by a single cargo elevator. Boarding the elevator we descended into the mountain. One hundred feet down the complex opened up into a massive storage facility complete with robots who appeared to be doing inventory.
"Clark...we are sure this isn't an active Oblivion Group base, right?", Sonico asked.
"There aren't any people here.", I said looking through the walls, "It's just us, and..."
Stopping when I looked into the northern section, I became sickened by what I saw. Picking her up, I flew us over to the laboratory I had seen. Walking inside, hundreds of large pods lined the walls all containing what appeared to be clones of some woman. Seeing the wall of people Sonico gripped my arm tightly out of fear.
"Clark what is this place?", she asked.
"I assume Succulus' mother was a scientist.", I replied, "Her childhood memories are pretty foggy so I can't be sure. Personally I think her mother messed with her memories so she wouldn't come here."
"Alright...still what is going on here?", Sonico asked, "Who are these women?!"
"Clones...", I said looking them over, "Each of them is a clone of the same woman, but...they are all slightly different."
"What do you mean? If they are clones shouldn't they be identical?", she asked.
"Unless you were modifying DNA to create different Quirks.", I said looking to a small terminal on a desk.
Walking over to the terminal, I had Kelex brute force the terminal password so I could get in. Flipping through gigabytes of data to uncover what was going on here, it appeared that her mother was try to achieve two different goals here. First she was looking to uncover a method for unlocking mutant Quirks, like Eri's, second was a method for having a back up body should something happen to the active one. I had no idea what she was doing that made her afraid she'd die though. Reading from over my shoulder Sonico looked back to the clones.
"She used her own DNA for this?", she asked.
"It makes sense, she could have easily run hundreds of tests on herself without any issues.", I stated looking to the capsules, "Her notes say that they are programmed with all her memories up till the last time she came here."
"Does it say what her Quirk was?", she inquired.
"Energy Manipulation.", I said, "She could absorb a persons natural energy which would cause them to die. In addition, she could release the energy in the form of lightning from her hands. Her problem was she couldn't control it very well when exposed to any large amounts of water. The notes say she had to take special showers to bathe, and couldn't enter bodies of water without discharging the electricity. It would fry her alive as she can't absorb her own energy."
"What did Succulus' father have?", she said interested in that.
"According to the records...he had the ability touch someone, and steal their vitality to heal wounds, injuries, and extend his life for a short time. Those penalties would transfer to the target leaving him uninjured and slightly younger.", I stated.
"Damn...", she gulped.
"As for why she would go to this extent, I am unsure.", I said flipping through the documents.
Standing next to me, Sonico was focused on the women in the capsules. The moment she thought she saw one move, she shrieked, and leapt into my arms. Apparently she wasn't good with this science stuff to say the least. Glancing over to the pods, sure enough a handful of them were awake and staring at us.
"Clark I don't like this one bit!! I hate horror movies, and this is giving me the chills!", Sonico shrieked.
"Calm down, they aren't zombies or anything.", I chuckled, "No need to worry about them."
"While I trust you, I am not about to trust them. We have no idea what Quirks they have, and I don't want to die down-"
"Sonico, I won't let them hurt you.", I said calmly, "Now stand beside me, I am almost done skimming these documents."
Flipping through the documentation, I uncovered something rather startling. Succulus' mother was an undercover operative for Section 13. During her time working for them she had uncovered a group of people within Section 13 who were related to Project Genesis. According to her notes the people were related to the making of Nova, and had simply changed faces and identities to cover their tracks. Before her death she wrote that she found a base in Canada where they were trying to replicate the original process they made Nova with, but were brainwashing people first before empowering them. Showing this to Sonico, her expression hardened quickly.
"Clark...if this is true that means they have access to a lot of dangerous weapons throughout the world. Why would they risk the safety of millions to recreate another Nova?!", she inquired, "The first one is already dangerous enough as it is!"
"Only one way to find out.", I said hitting the release button on one of the pods.
Flopping onto the ground, a clone of her mother slowly got up to her feet. Hiding behind me, Sonico was afraid the woman was going to attack us immediately.
"Be careful she might suck our brains out or something!!", she shouted.
"You have seen too many horror movies.", the woman and I said.
"Wait...she can talk?!", Sonico gasped.
"I am a complete clone with all of my memories.", she replied, "Allow me to take a shower, and then we can talk."
Since she was covered in a mucus like substance I wasn't about to tell her no. Waiting twenty minutes for her to get cleaned up, she walked out in a skirt and lab coat. Asking us to follow her, she led us to a kitchen where she prepared a meal for herself. She apparently was on liquid food for the time being so it didn't take too long.
"Thank you for freeing me. My original body must have been killed before she could return to free another one of us.", the clone said, "Are you my daughter's boyfriend or husband? How is my angel doing?"
"Well...", I said looking at Sonico with a smirk, "Your daughter is a villain."
"I know, I brainwashed her to be. If she joined Section 13, several people would have tortured her for information...", she replied, "If you aren't her significant other...please don't tell me you handed her over to them!"
"No, she is in my base.", I responded, "No need to worry about that. Going through your notes I found that you believe there are members of Project Genesis among the people at Section 13?"
"Correct, I was a Deep Cover agent for Section 13. My duty was to infiltrate Oblivion Group, and take them out from within. While it is true all of them are evil people, I found out through Nova's information database that several people from Section 13 were scientists in Project Genesis. Both groups want the information, but the project lead encrypted it before he died. Any attempts to decode the encryption have failed. He didn't leave a key or anything so breaking the encryption he used is extremely difficult.", she sighed, "That's why it's locked in Moscow at the moment."
"Not anymore, a villain stole it along with other equipment.", I stated.
"Great...", she groaned.
"They are currently trying to recover that information.", I said.
"You can't let Section 13 or Oblivion Group get there hands on it!", she said grabbing my costume, "If either group gets ahold of it, they will start attempting to decode it again. I was close to getting their names, the last mission I went on I would have uncovered them, but I think I was caught with the information. The only memories I have was that I needed elevated access to see the people's names, but I definitely remember that they were in Section 13!"
"I get it!", I said shaking her grip, "I will take it before they do."
"Good...now can you give me my daughter back?", she asked, "I have a lot to take to her about."
"Yeah...", I sighed, "Kelex send them to my location."
Sending them down the women were sobbing, and saying they didn't want to be eaten. Looking at her daughter then to me, it appeared she wasn't happy with me. Rolling her eyes she told Succulus to stop acting like a baby, and that she shouldn't be acting so cowardly. Opening her eyes she looked at her mother, and leapt into her arms.
"You are alive!?", she cried, "Where have you-"
"I don't think I raised a crybaby!!", her mother snapped, "I...I am grateful you missed me, but you shouldn't be acting like a baby. You were supposed to take after me, not your father!"
"Sorry...it's just...I thought you died.", Succulus said.
"I did, I am a clone.", her mother admitted.
"A...clone?", Succulus asked.
"Ugh...Violet Rose Fields.", her mother said.
Immediately Succulus clutched her head as the brainwashing lifted. Groaning from the massive headache she was having memories came flooding back to her about her real childhood. The fond memories her parents made with her made her weak in the knees as she held her mother.
"I am sorry I had to do it dear, but your father and I didn't want you to die following our path.", she said holding her daughter, "There is a lot I want to talk to you about, and many things I want to hear from you."
"Of course!", Succulus said, "These are my subordinates Mary and Amy."
"Lady Succulus!", her subordinates shrieked.
Evidentially that was their normal names so I decided to ignore it. Now that I knew there were criminals in Section 13, it made much more sense how the breach in Moscow would go unnoticed. Problem was I couldn't just use her mother's testimony in a court, as far as the world was concerned she was a villain. Even then without any names I couldn't really take people to court or kill them.
"One thing is bothering me...why do you have all those clones of yourself?", I asked.
"Back ups of myself, I was going into literal Hell so if I died I would release a clone before my death. When my original died she likely couldn't release one of us.", she said.
"And the different Quirks?", I asked.
"They would look for someone exactly like me so I have a different DNA sequence and Quirk to cover my tracks. This base is considered to be an old Nazi base so no one really comes out here.", she chuckled.
"Alright, well we are going to need your help to bring them down.", I said, "They have covered their tracks well so I can't locate information on their servers. Where is the facility they are continuing the experiments at?"
"Northern Canada.", she said, "I would be extremely careful. They keep failed test subjects there, and not all of them are human anymore."
"Thanks for the heads up.", I chuckled, "Come on Sonico, we have some more investigation work to do."
---Wayne Manor---
Having a chance to think about it, it made perfect sense they would use Section 13 as cover. World Governments wouldn't think to look inward for villains so it would be perfect cover. My only concern was how they were keeping themselves looking young, but that could be addressed later. I was having Kelex look for satellite imaging of Northern Canada as me doing fly by passes would probably alert them that I was on to them. With Section 13 having their forces in Japan I wasn't going to poke them with so many of them in my backyard. First thing I needed to do was figure out who the good people were, and who the bad ones were. Charles team was clear, I had checked them previously and found no fault there. Ivan was good, just a bit of an overexcited, bloodthirsty Hero.
'That leaves five continent heads, and a lot of branch chiefs.', I thought, 'I will have Kelex look into all of them as well.'
"Why is she here!?", Nejire asked glaring at Sonico, "You also have her perfume on you...you didn't sleep with her did you!?"
"No, I took her on a flight to look for an Oblivion Group base.", I said, "We haven't done anything like that."
"I swear I haven't done anything either!", Sonico said.
"Likely story, you going to start bombarding his phone again!?", Mina shouted.
"Give her a chance to talk, she did just get rescued...", Ochaco stated.
"I apologize for cutting in...", Sonico said bowing her head, "I realize now that I was causing more trouble than I wanted, and I ask for your forgiveness. If you want I will stop talking to Clark all together if that makes you happy."
"Well...if you are apologizing sincerely...", Melissa said looking at the others, "I guess we can let them talk, but she has to respect when it's our time with him."
"Fine, just no more interrupting our nightly routine!", Rumi snapped.
"I understand...", Sonico sighed with relief.
She had expected them to beat the shit out of her. Apologizing to each of them again, I let them talk a bit before getting the others up to speed. Informing them that there were criminals within Section 13, I advised them to all be careful since we didn't know who they were.
"So you are going to Canada to look for this base?", Rumi asked.
"Yes.", I stated.
"Northern Canada is quite remote so there is likely not a lot of people, right?", Nemuri asked.
"Well yes...", I said not liking where this was going.
"Why don't we all go looking?", Mina asked, "It would be quicker if we all go."
"Well yes, but we don't know what to expect.", I said.
"Come on, you will be there with us!", Toru and Toga said.
"It's a bit disappointing you get to have all the fun without us.", Dorothy said.
Looking at Eri who was giving me her puppy dog eyes, I sighed. Taking them to my lab, I gave them equipment to wear on their wrists. Explaining that in the event we encounter anything material that was lethal to them, it would deploy a barrier and alert them of danger. Making it clear that they weren't to stray far from me, they agreed to my terms. Stating that Kelex was still looking for the base, I promised to wait for them before infiltrating.
---Sonico's Apartment---
After the discussion I dropped Sonico off with her parents, and made sure she had two methods to contact me if there was trouble. Promising to keep an eye on her for a while she gave me a pleasant smile before I left.
"He is quite a nice boy.", her mother teased, "You going to ask him out, or are you going to tie the knot? I want several grandchild to spoil rotten!"
"Mother!", Sonico huffed, "Things are professional between us!"
"Uh huh, just like they were between your father and I.", her mother giggled.
"Stop it mother, I don't want to hear that!", Sonico sighed.
"You should really consider settling down.", her father said, "He is a nice boy, and you would be well taken care of."
"I...I know.", she said rubbing her arm, "Right now...right now I don't think I am fit to stand beside him. I have a lot of work to do on myself before I can ask him. We have a lot of mending to do, and I owe a lot of people apologies for things I did. I can't ask Clark to be beside me when I am carrying all this baggage, it's my job to make amends."
"That's my girl.", her mother said, "We will be right beside you."
"It's our fault things got this bad.", her father said, "We wanted to give you a life we never had. You know that both of our families were dirt poor, and we fought tooth and nail for everything we have now. We wanted you to have a good life, but...we took ourselves out of your life to do that."
"We are sorry dear!", both of her parents said bowing their heads.
"It's...it's okay.", Sonico sniffled, "I...I am just thankful you are alive!"
Embracing them she started crying.
"Clark told me the apartment was rigged to kill you when you showed up. I am so sorry!! I never wanted you to be in danger!!", she cried, "I am sorry I was such a horrible daughter!! All I wanted was to have the happiness I saw other people had!! Every year I sat alone on parent's day, and people laughed at me!! They said my parents didn't love me, or that I was an illegitimate child and that was why you never came!! When I started maturing people started treating me nicer, and I felt the love I thought I wanted!! Everyone fawned over me, and it went to my head!! I hurt so many people, but I never realize it till now!!"
"It's our fault too.", they said holding her, "You are the most important thing in our lives, and we neglected you. We are so sorry we never went to those events leaving you all alone."
Hearing them crying, and speaking with each other I wished her the best of luck getting the peace she wanted.
---Next Day, U.A High School---
"You aren't going on patrol today?", Nezu asked in shock.
"I have some things to attend to so I will be staying here.", I said.
"There something going on?", he asked with a suspicious look.
"Haha no, I am just hoping taking a day off will keep the media off my back.", I lied.
"Haha you really don't like them, do you?", he laughed, "Well that's fine, everyone should take a day off now and then. Just make sure you remember to keep the PDA in check."
"I know.", I laughed.
Once he was gone I sighed. Ochaco and Mina had let it slip this morning that they would be doing Rescue Training today, and I knew that was the same time they were attacked in the storyline. Since I knew that I wanted to stick around to fight when they showed up. Sitting up in the rafters of the USJ building, I waited for Class 1-A to come in with All Might and Thirteen. Watching her go through the explanation of the facility the portal opened right on queue.
Wanting to give them all a chance to have some actual combat experience, I opted to only step in when Nomu got involved. Looking over to where he should be, I noticed that he looked quite different from what I remembered. It looked like he had some sort of metal plated skin, and looked a lot beefier than I remembered.
'Go figure, they upgraded him...', I thought.
Asking Kelex to deploy Vision to Eri, Amazo to my parents, and Red Tornado to Sonico's location I quickly notified Nemuri of the situation. Replying that the teachers would head that way soon, it looked like things were changing further. Two more identical Nomu came out from behind the man-child and Kurogiri. Listening to his small introduction, I watched All Might rush towards the mob of villains. Barreling at him the Nomu threw a series of punches with a significant amount of force behind them.
'Shit!', I thought.
Intercepting the Nomu inches before it struck All Might, I punched it back into the group of villains. Looking at me with confusion, I said that I had struck around the campus today to avoid the media. Sighing he shook his head, and thanked me as he looked at the other Villains.
"Well well, the Guardian Angel came sooner than expected.", Shigaraki said with a hint of irritation, "You were supposed to be off on patrol!!"
"Clark!", my girlfriend's said running down to me.
"It's dangerous!", All Might shouted, "Get back!"
Immediately charging forward the Nomu ran straight for them. Catching them halfway to the girls, I held them by their necks with an angry look on my face.
"That's was bad move...", I said snapping their necks, "I suggest you remember whom your fighting here. If you have a death wish try that yourselves..."
Dropping them to the ground the villains saw that they weren't moving, and back pedaled since they didn't want any part of a fight involving me. They hadn't been told I would be here, if they had none of them would have shown up.
"Nomu stop playing dead!", Shigaraki snapped, "Now isn't the time to play. Take All Might and Superman out!"
On that command the Nomu started moving again like I hadn't snapped their necks. Intrigued by this, I was surprised they quickly recovered from the the neck snapping. Diving at me the Nomu passed right through me as I vibrated my cells to make myself intangible. As soon as they were past I turned around with my Heat Vision ready to go.
"Let's see you recover from this.", I shouted.
Spreading the beam out, I vaporized the two in seconds. Seeing that many of the villains went to flee. Behind them a massive wall off ice cut off their escape as Shoto prevented them from fleeing into the campus.
"You aren't getting away that easily.", Shoto said.
"You villains have a lot of guts showing up here!", Bakugo shouted.
"Let's kick their ass!", Kirishima said with a grin.
"You can handle the thugs, the Nomu is mine.", I told them, "All Might, back your students up!"
"I think it is time we left.", Kurogiri said, "Superman wasn't supposed to be here. We aren't ready for a fight with him."
"No, I am not leaving without doing something about him!", Shigaraki snapped, "Damn you!! You were supposed to be on patrol! This isn't fair, you cheated me out of an easy victory!! Why can't you just disappear!!"
"Since you don't want to see me, I can fix that.", I said with a grin.
Using a newly developed power of mine I used my Quirk, Electromagnetic Manipulation, to emit a barrier around me that made me invisible. Seeing that happen the villains screamed as this meant that I could be anywhere, and they didn't want to be on the receiving end of a punch from me.
"I didn't mean like this!", Shigaraki snapped.
"Too bad!", I shouted.
Flying at him, he ordered the last Nomu to protect him but the Nomu couldn't see me to do anything. Jumping in front of Shigaraki the Nomu hardened himself into some sort of metal alloy. Blasting the Nomu with nearly two thousand punches in a single second, the air pressure in the area blasted the villains in every direction as they screamed out in pain from the air pressure change. Nomu's top portion exploded from the punches, and Shigaraki flew back into the water with Kurogiri.
"He can turn invisible!!", Toru shouted jumping up with excitement, "He is like me now!!"
"Wait...you didn't know this?", Izuku asked.
"No!", the girls laughed.
Removing the barrier around myself, I vaporized the last Nomu before turning to Shigaraki. Scanning his brain for the location of the weapons and information I found that AFO wasn't sharing this information with him so he didn't even know about it. That said I did see that they were holding people in the base, and using them in experiments of some sort.
"I suggest you surrender peacefully, this will get ugly if you don't.", I said heating up the water with microwaves I was releasing from my hands.
"Kurogiri, we are leaving!", Shigaraki screamed feeling the microwaves boiling the water.
Letting them leave, I looked back to see Class 1-A handling the remaining villains. Watching them to make sure they weren't endangering themselves, I made sure Thirteen and All Might were alright as they fought.
"Young Clark aren't going to jump in to help?", All Might asked.
"They have this under control, and you already know these are just street thugs.", I chuckled, "No need to be concerned with them. The students can handle the villains without interference from us."
Watching the students mop up the thugs, Sero got them tied up for the police who arrive a short time after the teachers. With no serious injuries the teachers were relieved that nothing bad happened. After the cops got our statements, they let us go though Nezu pulled me into his office.
"Clark, did you know this attack was coming?", Nezu asked.
"No, I came after my girlfriend's wrist bracelets stopped sending their locations.", I said, "I knew something was wrong so I went to see what was wrong. Nezu, I take their safety seriously and will do anything to ensure they live to see tomorrow."
"I see.", he replied not wanting clarification on that.
"That said sir, I think they had help coordinating this. They knew All Might's class was supposed to be there today. Not only that, they knew I wouldn't be there.", I stated, "When I arrive Shigaraki mentioned that I wasn't supposed to be there because I should have been off on patrol. The only way they would have known that is if someone told them."
"Aren't you usually traveling the world though?", Nezu asked.
"Think about that statement, the public doesn't know how long I stay on campus everyday. All they know is when I usually am out on patrol.", I said, "Someone assured them I wasn't going to be here."
"Okay...I can see your point.", Nezu said rubbing his chin, "Any clue who it might be?"
"I haven't really interacted with others or the public.", I sighed, "Being in a class by myself doesn't really allow me to intermingle with others."
"True, but you have mind reading powers right?", he asked.
"We don't know if they are an outsider, student, or staff member. We did have those reporters break in the other day, they could have gotten the information then.", I said, "Then there is always the chance the person is brainwashed."
"I see...you don't suspect anyone at all?", he asked.
"I don't think the leak is from within 1-A...at least I assume not. The villains they came with, they weren't really equipped to counter the students just keep them busy.", I said, "The spy would have been able to learn about the Quirks of others during the entrance exam."
"That's right...they would have had some understanding of a few students Quirks at the least.", he said.
"It's very unlikely that any of the teachers are double agents.", I stated, "Aside from All Might, they have been here for years without incident."
"Again another valid point.", he sighed.
"That leaves a disgruntled student that didn't make it in, a reporter, or someone that hacked into the system.", I stated, "I can start looking into it if you want."
"Please do.", Nezu said.
Thanking me, Nezu sat back in his chair thinking about how to address this moving forward. The public was going to want to know how they got in, and what steps they were taking to ensure student safety moving forward.
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