Android Assault - part 1
by Ben Nettleship

Two months after the defeat of the Timemaster

It was a quiet week at the Freedom Fortress. The crimes taking place in the city were nothing that the Patriot City police couldn't take care of. Since there weren't any current crises, most of the team was elsewhere, attending to their own business and leaving just a skeleton crew at the Fortress.

However, this period of calm was about to change suddenly and violently. When one was a superhero, most changes tended to be such.

Deep within the Fortress, a portal appeared, and then closed. During the time it was open, a being stepped out. This being was tall, and it would quickly become apparent to any observer that it wasn't human, but in fact, a highly advanced robot, or an android.

"Temporal era: 1962," it intoned in a monotone, "Location: Structure known as Freedom Fortress. Error: Freedom Fortress should not exist in timeline. Conclusion one: Timeline has been altered. Note: Ultimate end remains the same. Conclusion two: Destruction of Freedom Fortress is therefore not necessary. Primary objective: Find and capture rogue unit; terminate if capture not possible."

The android turned and walked down a corridor. After it had traveled ten meters or so, a voice called out from behind.

"Microwave, I thought you were recharging at the nuclear power plant," Minuteman said, walking into the hallway from a door a few meters behind.

"Query: Directions to unit titled Microwave?" the android said, as it turned around, running through every possibility in what the human meant, and determining that the highest probability was that the biological organism was referring to the rogue unit.

"What are you talking about? You are Microwave, aren't you?" said Minuteman, quizzically, stepping forward.

The android pointed its hands at Minuteman and then shot a golden beam into his chest at point-blank range. Minuteman staggered back a pace, stared at the android in shock, and then brought Patriot around in a vicious swing, the end of the staff smashing right into the android's chest. The android took one step back, part of its chest plate dented, and then fired another beam into Minuteman.

Minuteman tried to raise his staff for another strike, but his strength gave out, and Patriot slipped from his fingers and dropped the floor. Then he fell to his knees, and finally collapsed, unconscious and badly injured.

The android was about to fire another beam, but halted, as its mission objective took precedence, and determined that the radiation burns were fatal and well beyond the medical treatment of this day and age.

It then continued down the corridor, and watched and waited near a door that it detected would lead to an area where it could exit the building, though it detected that there was a single human life form in the room. It stood in a position where it determined that it would not be visible to the casual onlooker exiting through the door. Soon, its patience was rewarded, as a human came through the door, moving at a high velocity. The android slipped through the opening and exited the Freedom Fortress into Patriot City.

An hour later

"He has suffered severe radiation burns," Mentor said to Bullet and Man-o-War, who were the only other heroes present, as he looked up form the examination table, "He will survive, with no ill-effects, but he'll be unconscious for about a week. It was fortunate that you found him when you did, or it could have been much worse. And it is a good thing that I have access to the medical technology of my species, rather than the primitive apparatuses that you have here on Earth."

"How'd this happen, anyway?" Bullet asked, "Did one of those things that you and that android got down in the labs malfunction?"

"No, there are no experiments involving radioactive devices down there at the present moment," Mentor responded as he checked some more readouts on Minuteman's condition. "This was no accident; somebody attacked him with a focused beam of radiation. And judging from the intensity of the burns, the beam entered his body at point-blank range. Somebody either 'got the drop on him', as you humans say, or Minuteman trusted whoever attacked him."

"How come those sensors you're so proud of didn't detect anything?" Man-o-War demanded angrily, slamming his fist onto a metal table, denting it slightly. "If they could get Minuteman like that, in the middle of our base, then they could get any of us. Who's going to be next?"

"Calm yourself-" Mentor started to say.

"Calm? You expect me to be calm when somebody goes through our defenses as if they weren't there, nearly killed Minuteman and then vanished? We don't even know what he looks like, where he came from or what he wants. And you expect me to be calm."

"Minuteman was injured because he wasn't expecting the attack," Mentor replied. "It will be much harder for the attacker to accomplish this again."

"That's right," Bullet interjected. "If y'all have got surprise on your side, the battle's half won."

"Be that as it may, we still don't know who's responsible," Man-o-War continued. "And you still haven't explained why didn't the alarms sound? God knows that you've got enough of ‘em."

"I do not know," Mentor said. "But it does narrow down the possibilities. The attacker was not imbued with Energy X, and he was capable of overriding the intruder alerts on the central computer."

"How does that intruder detection thingy work anyway?" asked Bullet.

"A genetic scan," Mentor stated, "The DNA of all the Freedom Force members is logged in the computer. Anybody who enters the restricted area of the base without permission from one of us will trigger the alarm, though not the entrance area. Whoever came in must have come through the entrance, and overridden the security commands."

"Well, I've got news for you," Bullet said, "I was in the entrance area all day long, and not one single person came in. Hell, the door didn't even open. I only left for a minute, about an hour ago, and from what you've said, MM had already been attacked at that point. Looks like there's a flaw in your theory."

"Aye, any other ideas then?" said Man-o-War. "While we talk here, the attacker is getting farther away."

"Most curious," Mentor mused, "The sensors should have been able to detect a standard teleportation portal, though perhaps not a temporal one," Mentor looked up, as inspiration struck, "Perhaps we are approaching this the wrong way. Minuteman was injured by a radiation attack. Microwave knows the most about radiation among all of us, it may be that he could determine something from Minuteman's injuries that I cannot. Bullet, could you go tell Microwave we need him back here, he is at the Patriot City Nuclear Power Plant."

"Why can't y'all just use that telepathy of yours?" Bullet asked.

"Because Microwave is an android. I cannot telepathically communicate with a person who does not have an organic brain. And the radiation in Microwave interferes with our normal communicators that we use."

"Right, I'll be back in a sec," Bullet said, and then ran out the door at a relatively normal speed for him, and a relatively extreme speed for a race car. A few seconds later and he was several blocks away, dodging pedestrians and occasionally running up and over a car at an intersection.

"Now what are you going to do?" Man-o-War asked. "Bullet may be fast, but Microwave certainly isn't. It's going to be a while before that circuit box gets back here."

"I am going to analyze the situation some more," Mentor said, "Perhaps I can find something that I did not see before. I will also alert the rest of the team to be cautious. I see no need to bring them here, since we do not know who we are going to be fighting."

"Right, you do that," Man-o-War said, and started to swim through the air towards the exit.

"Where are you going?" Mentor asked.

"Where do you think?" he responded, pausing briefly and turning his head. "To go get Sea Urchin. I'm not going to risk having the wee lass attacked in the same way and me not being around to help her," and then swam out of the room.

Meanwhile, another being was also headed towards the nuclear power plant. In order to avoid detection, and delay, it traveled through the sewer system until it reached the outskirts of the city.

"Information accessed: Patriot City Nuclear Power Plant," it said, as it emerged from a manhole. "Important research center into nuclear technology during twentieth century. Current project is vital to timeline integrity. New mission requirements: Avoid damaging Patriot City Nuclear Power Plant."

And the android continued on its steady course, leaving deep footprints in the dirt once it left the city.

To be continued...