QuickShot:
Firing rockets at the ground, Silent blankets himself in a cloud of smoke. Despite not being able to see Silent or his giant robot suit, I can still clearly hear the sound of rockets.
I pull back my bowstring and scan the sky. I expect rockets to be shooting out and heading toward us any second now, but I'm wrong. Instead of rockets, Silent himself shoots out from the smoke cloud. He flies into the night sky before disappearing from sight.
"He's escaping," I say, lowering my bow. "Come on, we can--"
Before I can finish, I stop when I see the smoke clearing away. There, laying on the ground right in front of us, hidden at first because of the smoke, is a man.
The man appears to be wearing some sort of weird, black and brown armor, with a large belt with a dozen pouches. He also is wearing a white mask with red eyes.
"A white mask," I think, "Red eyes? Guys, this is Silent!"
"Silent," SpeedBlade repeats, looking at the downed man. Silent isn't unconscious but he seems to be hurt. He's holding his arm.
"This is Silent," JumpStart asks, pointing at him with his stun batons. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah," I say with a nod of my head. "This is Silent alright. I'd recognize that white mask anyway."
"Okay," JumpStart says, "Okay. Okay. Quick question. If this is Silent right here, then who is driving the giant robot suit?"
"Doctor," Silent says, his sudden voice scarring JumpStart. "Doctor Cho. She took over the Iron Fist Armor."
"Dr. Cho," JumpStart repeats, holding his hand over his chest. "Dr. Kolohe Cho?"
"Yes," Silent pants. "Dr. Kolohe Cho. She had the power to control machines. She tricked me. She took over the armor."
Silent stops talking and rolls over. He's trying to hold it in, but I can clearly see him in pain.
"What are you guys doing," Ms. Justice shouts. I turn around and see Justice running toward us. She walks past us and kneels down to help Silent.
"What are you doing," SpeedBlade says, reaching to grab Justice but she slaps his hand again. "Justice, that is Silent. You must be careful."
"Yeah," Justice says, "I'll remember that. Meanwhile, help me move him."
"What," I say, "Justice, that's Silent. You know, the villain that broke into the OutPost. Also, the same villain that hired Unstoppable, Lighting Laser, Nitro, and Heavy Metal to steal things to build that giant robot suit. The same giant robot suit that almost destroyed us."
"Silent may be a villain but that doesn't mean we can leave him here."
"We're not leaving him here," I say, "We're leaving him for the authority. They can take him to a hospital after they arrest him."
"No," Silent says while limping over Justice's shoulder. "No. This is not how I go down. I will not be arrested."
"You don't have a choice in the matter," I say, "You committed a series of crimes, the latest being destruction to that building over there. It's a miracle it's still standing despite all the rockets you fired at it."
"I didn't do that," Silent says, "Dr. Cho did. This was where she worked. She came here to get revenge on those who destroyed her friends. Her robotic friends."
"Okay. So was it you or her who attacked that crowd of innocent people?"
"That was me. I'll confess, that was me, but I never intended to hurt them."
"If you didn't intend to hurt them," Justice says, "Then why built a giant suit of armor with a thousand weapons on it?"
"To rule this city," Silent answers.
"I'm from a different world," JumpStart interrupts, "And even I know that's a bad answer."
"Let him go," I say, grabbing Justice's hand. "We leave him with the authority and go find Dr. Cho before she can use that armor again."
"No need to search," Silent says, pushing himself off of Justice. He's still holding his arm and he stumbles a little but he manages to stand on his own. "Chances are Dr. Cho is still hiding at my base. I will lead the four of you right to her, but only on two conditions."
"And what are those exactly," SpeedBlade asks.
"Get me some medicine," Silent starts, "And then, allow me to join you."
Ms. Justice:
"This is a bad idea," QuickShot shouts while leaning against the wall with crossed arms.
"I know you think this is a bad idea," I say, returning from the OutPost with some medicine. "You said those exact words the whole time we carry Silent here."
"And the whole time you've been gone," JumpStart adds.
"I agree fully with QuickShot," SpeedBlade says who is playing with his sword. He slides it back into his sheath the second he sees me. "We should've just left this villain to the authority. I do not understand why we had to carry him all the way to this alleyway."
"Because he had the information we need and can really use," I answer. "And also, he agrees to help us."
"He's going to help us," QuickShot says. "You believe that. No way. He's lying."
"I am not lying," Silent moans. As Justice offers him a bottle, he practically snatches the bottle right out of her hand and opens it. A white cream pours out and Silent rubs it all over his hand. "Thank you. Now, I am not lying."
"You already said that," QuickShot says.
"And I will keep on saying it. I am not lying. The reason I had both Unstoppable and Lighting Laser break Dr. Cho out of IronWall was so she could build the armor. With her unique technology power and engineering skills, it would take her almost no time to finish it. All she needed was the metals and plans on that thumb drive."
"Heavy Metal delivered the metals," SpeedBlade says.
"But we stopped Nitro from delivering the plan," JumpStart adds.
"Hence why I send Burning Ice out. To distract all of you while I was breaking into your base. Never would have guessed the archer was left behind."
"I was tired," QuickShot says. "Anyway, why are you telling us all of this now? We already know all of this. We figured it out already."
"So you don't need me to tell you where my hidden base is," Silent screams back. "Or how to defeat the Iron Fist Armor?"
"How to defeat the Iron Fist Armor," I repeat. I clap my hands together and lower them, signaling for everyone to be quiet.
"What do you mean by how to defeat the Iron Fist Armor," I ask. "You said you built it from reinforcement metals and specifically to counter us. How do we defeat that?"
"From within," Silent answers. "I never trusted Dr. Cho to begin with. That is why shortly before Unstoppable delivered her to my base, I install a secret program onto the computer in her lab. When the Iron Fist Armor was near completion, I download the program from the computer onto the Armor. It's disguised as an anti-virus software so Dr. Cho shouldn't know about it.."
"This program," I say, "It sort of like a shut-off switch."
"It's exactly a shut-off switch," Silent says. "All we need to do to shut down the Iron Fist Armor is to break into my base and activate the program. I imagine the job will be no problem for you."
He points past me and we all turn our heads toward JumpStart.
"Oh," JumpStart says, realizing we're all looking at him. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess. I mean, assuming we can reach the computer, I can easily shut it down with the program Silent made."
"So that's the plan," QuickShot says, standing up. "The four of us will go to Silent's hidden base to access the program and shut down the armor and stop Dr. Cho."
"Five of us," Silent says. "The deal was I come with you.
"We're not coming with us," QuickShot says. "We're turning you over to the authority."
"If you do, then our deal is off. Best of luck finding my base without me."
Silent turns around to walk away but I grab his shoulder and stop him.
"No," I say, looking back to eye QuickShot. "The deal is on. You tell us where your base is and the five of us will go and take down Dr. Cho."