The road heading towards the city itself was strangely deserted, save for the three vans on the road that practically screamed, "something's up".
This was the plan, of course. The last transport which was as low profile as possible didn't work out so well. In that case, then while being covert, make it as secure as possible.
This was what Waller said. And she meant every single word of it.
Aside from the standard fully armored truck, every single member of the wolf Unit was equipped with state-of-the-art laser blasters.
Alongside other weapons like pulse grenades, Meta-human dampeners, RPG's, electrical dischargers .... They wore a special Kevlar combat suit capable of tanking bullets and resisting electric discharges.
It was no exaggeration to say that they were armed to the teeth.
However, Rick doubted whether their "secure arrangements" could be better than the Justice League's.
The escort caravan drove on the empty streets.
"Turning left now, exiting St. Park Avenue and heading into the highway".
A squad member responsible for handling communications and navigation stated.
"How long before we get to the airport?" Flag asked, a little anxious.
The sooner they got to the drop zone, the sooner they could get out of this van that honestly, at this point, felt much like a containment cell for him.
By that time, he could dump the package at whichever agent was at the airport, ensuring this whole thing had nothing to do with him.
It wasn't the armored tank itself. It had nothing to do with the tank.
"We're four miles out. With no traffic, ETA is precisely three minutes".
The road had already been cleared of traffic to give them a clear route. That, however, wouldn't last forever.
Five minutes. They had five minutes to arrive at the airport before operations returned to normal.
"Tighten up ladies". Rick said as he powered up the laser blaster within his grasp.
Everyone else with a weapon in their hands basically did the same. If there were one thing years of experience had taught them to take note of when it came to escort missions, it was that the final few minutes before arriving at their destination was the point at which the storm would break out.
If an enemy was going to attack, then this was the best time to do it.
The driver smoothly made the turn out of St. Park and headed into the open highway that was basically devoid of cars. The other vans coming behind had followed. Less than a minute later, the driver spotted something from afar.
With his eyesight, he could barely make out the features from his current distance.
It looked like..... Some kind of humanoid machine... Aiming some kind of giant cannon in their direction.
Wait... What?
"Shit!" The driver exclaimed.
KAN!
Meanwhile, Rick was still speaking….
"We all know what's at stake here...."
BANG!
Everything went haywire as a sonic pulse wide enough to cover an area of several meters hit the moving forefront convoy head on.
The van made of armored steel, ballistic glass, and synthetic fibers such as Kevlar and aramid visibly deformed the moment it made contact with the sonic attack.
Everyone within the transport vehicle was caught unprepared and was pushed out of their origin positions due to sonic force.
The armored vehicles were compressed as if squeezed together by invisible hands before spiraling out of control.
The convoy tumbled and performed a flip in the air before crashing against the sturdy asphalt. Some sliding forwards while leaving clear scratch marks on the road.
....
"Not good!" The analyst in charge of communications at the secret facility suddenly exclaimed. His face changed drastically as he began to type words on the keyboard furiously.
"What's going on?" Waller snapped her head in his direction and asked with a frown on her face. Seeing his reaction, a bad premonition surged in her heart.
"Something's wrong. Communications are down with AV 1".
"... All personnel on AV 1 have lost contact".
"The Drone shows the convoy is under attack".
Waller immediately put her hand on the intercom. Her voice urgent as she yelled.
"Flag! Tell me what's going on over there".
"....." Unfortunately, what greeted her was static.
"Flag?"
"..... Mi…. ene....."
"Flag!" Amanda roared in frustration.
"...." Unfortunately, what greeted her was the static tone on the other end.
"We've lost contact with AV 2 mam".
"AV 3 is not responding".
"Something's blocking communications. We can't get through".
"What about their vital signals". Waller's eyes seemed like they were about to spit fire. Gazing at the monitoring screen, her tone was nervous and filled with anxiety.
"Haywire Mam. Looks like they're under attack, their vital signs are…." The analyst's words paused for a second as his eyes.
"We've lost all vital signs on all soldiers in AV 1".
"Fuck! Fuck! Goddamn nit!". The loud voice cursed incessantly.
"Get support down there right this instant. Get the military on the scene, call the local police department, FBI, any nearby government security you can find".
"But Mam, I don't think..."
"Are you questioning me?"
"Um... No mam".
"Then fucking do as I tell you".
"Mam.....".
"What is it!" Waller yelled in fury.
"... We lost visual through the drone".
Waller: "...."
....
"Enemy attack!" Seeing the first Armored Van in the convoy getting attacked, Rick yelled at the top of his lungs.
"AV 1 is down, sir". The soldier in charge of communications yelled.
"I can see that. Someone tell me where the hell these motherfuckers are".
"We got 'em spotted, sir. On the bridge".
"Then what the hell are you sitting for? Aim and open fire".
The Armored van at the back pulled out a turret from the roof, in which a soldier was already mounted.
The other two vans did the same. Unfortunately, someone else was faster than them.
KAN!
Another sonic pulse fired, heading straight for the second vehicle in the convoy. Its fate was no different from the first, as the vehicle deformed and bounced off the ground, performing a somersault and crashing into the distance.
Pieces of shattered glass flew all over the road.
"Fuck! Take that thing down now!" Rick exclaimed with fright at what he was seeing from the monitor.
A heavily armored vehicle had been compressed in such a way, what would be the situation of those inside it? If that thing were to hit a human being, there would nothing left but meat paste.
"Yes sir!" The soldier on the roof was no less frightened than his commander.
Without so much as a word, he aimed straight at the pedestrian bridge, locked onto the humanoid machine and pulled the trigger.
An energy beam was blasted straight towards the target on the pedestrian bridge.
BOOM!
The impact caused a small explosion as half the bridge went up in flames. Countless shattered blocks fell on the road, blocking the original path they meant to go through.
That wasn't enough though.
"Fire again". Rick didn't feel at ease one bit, and order for both convoys to take another shot.
The soldiers did just that without any extra thought.
BOOM!
BOOM!
The pedestrian bridge over the highway was smashed to smithereens.
"Everyone retreat immediately". Rick gave the order to double back the way they came from.
As for waiting to see if their enemies had been blown apart? Why would he wait to confirm such a thing?
After being in the force for so may years, Rick was no fool. He immediately chose to double back without hesitation.
Their job was to deliver the package, not engage with definite hostiles.
The armored van behind quickly put everything in reverse, wanting to drive backwards.
The pedestrian bridge that had been reduced to nothing but rubble and burning slag ushered in the loud sounds and hissing noises of the hydraulics associated with machinery.
BANG.
A figure broke out from underneath the rubble, causing stones to fly in every direction.
Taking several steps forward, the machine's footsteps were loud yet left no footprints on the asphalt.
"Target in site". The words uttered were heavily distorted. Making it impossible to deduce the gender of the one within.
"Reduce the intensity of the sonic cannon. The Android case will be heavily encrypted. We need to obtain the deactivation code from the one in command".
Inside the mechanical suit, a man with a scruffy beard, brown hair and an untrimmed mustache heard the orders given to him through his intercom and nodded.
"Whatever you say, boss".
Then, he raised the sonic cannon and aimed at the fleeing, slightly taking the intensity down a notch to make sure all those within wouldn't get bleed out to death from all their offrices, and fired.
KAN!!
The sonic pulse had a heavy impact as it hit the back of the vehicle, causing it to somersault into the air before falling to the ground, tumbling over on its sides continuously.
Until finally, it laid on the floor, wrecked. Unlike the previous two, this one looked like it had been hit by a trailer, while the others seemed to be hit with sledgehammers.
"Four Armored vehicles, filled with dozens of elite soldiers, all solved with a few blasts. Haha, I'm so going to ask to keep this".
"It's done". The man said with a wild grin on his face.
"Good, open the portal".
"Will do".
The man in a robotic suit pressed a button and opened a secret compartment within the suit. Putting his hands near, a piece of machinery extended from the suit before falling into his palm.
A cube shaped machine with a circular red diagram in the middle. Downgraded motherbox. That's what the cube was, but he didn't know that.
Tapping the red circle that gave off a red light, two portals suddenly opened on his left and right sides.
Less than a second later, two figures appeared in green mechanical armor similar to himself.
"Boss Mannheim". The man called out in a respectful tone.
"You have done well". The 6'2 (1.88 meters)male with black hair, black eyes and a rather gangster like expression uttered.
He didn't bother to spare a glance at the person he was talking to, his gaze completely fixed on the wrecked armored vehicles in the distance.
"Let's move. We need to secure the asset before they receive reinforcements".
Mannheim said, as he began to move forward, the hissing noises and occasional whirr could be heard from a distance.
....
Dark....
Everything was dark.
His head was pounding, and a heavy feeling assaulted his senses in every way possible.
Headache, body ache, pain.... So much pain.
Opening his mouth, the first thing he uttered was a loud, painful, uncontrollable groan.
Hiss..... It literally hurt, everywhere.
From his several years of experience, Rick knew he had a few broke bones. Maybe a rib or two, definitely a concussion.
And blood, the side of his face felt sticky and a lot of blood was rushing out.
He probably hit his head and suffered a large cut due to the impact.
"Huh..... Huh..... Is... Is everyone..... Ugh…. Ok?"
The light within the vehicle was dim and flickering. Barely giving any light to the surrounding space.
Rick couldn't see clearly either. His head let out an occasional buzz and his vision was blurry and disoriented.
If he could compose himself and take a good look in a mirror, he wouldn't be too surprised to discover that he had blood flowing from his nose, mouth, and ears.
"Ugh….!"
Rick heard a painful groan close by.
"Hey.....".
"Com….mander?"
"Sanchez…. You..... You are ok". Rick said as he struggled to push himself up.
"I... I don't know. Agghhhhh..... Huh... Huh... Nope. Definitely not ok". The male voice replied to him.
"... I think my arm's broken. And… My organs feel pretty shaken up".
Sanchez was young. Barely twenty-five. Joined the army, graduated the best of his class. After serving in a few battles, was recruited to join Rick's squadron.
Fell into a forbidden love with an enemy agent when performing a mission two years ago, had a passionate night....
"Stay strong soldier. We're going to get through this".
"Yeah right commander....." He coughed out a little blood as he spoke.
"Doesn't matter, I've always been prepared to die".
"Don't say that, son".
Bang!
A mechanical hand went through the "tougher than steel" walls and pulled.
Following which, the backdoor was ripped right off the van and thrown to the far side.
"Die motherfuckers!" Flag quickly took out his modified military grade blaster and opened fire.
The lasers slammed into the body of the special armor Mannheim wore, but did no damage. Not even as much as a scratch.
"Tickles". Bruno said with a mocking smirk.
Opening his hands, metal-like whips elongated from the palm of the suit.
"Hah". Mannheim performed a swinging motion and the whip swung out, cleanly slicing the gun in Flag's hand in two.
He swung again, and the whip coiled around Rick's neck, pulling him out of the vehicle and raising him into the air.
The evening moon shone on the figure of Rick Flag getting strangled by a metal whip.
"Hello Colonel Flag. A lovely evening". Mannheim said cockily before turning his gaze to the side.
"Boys! Secure the package".
Both men wearing power armors walked into the armored van.
"You know, I thought you'd be knocked out from that blast, leaving me on having to jolt you awake. Who would have thought you'd still be conscious".
"Manheim!" Rick called out through gritted teeth.
"Oh! You recognize me".
"Very few people involved don't know about you. Criminal filth".
"That's good. Saves me the trouble of having to introduce myself".
As he spoke, Mannheim's lackeys walked out of the van with five different cases. Seeing this, Rick's eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
"Now Colonel, would you please save me a lot of trouble and give me the codes for the cases".
"Go to hell, you son of a bitch". Rick said with a ferocious expression before spitting on Mannheim.
The snot filled spit landed on the suit's see through helmet area.
Mannheim's face turned unsightly for a second before returning to normal.
"Very well, let's try this again". The metallic whip strangling his throat suddenly tightened by several notches.
Rick choked and gagged for a few seconds, nearly suffocating, before the death rope around his neck loosened.
"... Hah... Hah... Go ahead… Kill me. I'm not telling you anything".
"Are you sure about that?" Mannheim asked with an ugly grin.
"Bastards like you should have died a long time ago. I might die today, but it gives me a bit of joy knowing that sooner or later, you'll accompany me in hell".
"Oh! Well, someone will be accompanying you in hell, but it won't be me".
He said with a smile. Then he shifted his gaze and gave a nod.
"Go on, boys, let our Colonel here one again experience the brutality of the battlefield".
"Yes boss!" One replied with a wicked grin before walking back into the van and picking an unconscious body.
"You... What are you doing?"
"Oh nothing, just sending your teammates on a vacation". He said as he gripped the throat with the mechanical hand and twisted to the side.
Crack!
"Nooooo!" A wail of pain and sadness sounded in the night of Los Angeles.
"A permanent one that is".
"I'll kill you". Rick roared like a wounded wolf, kicking desperately with red eyes.
"The Colonel is rather loud. The cops will be here any minute, let's speed this up, boy's". Mannheim smiled sinisterly, and so did his crew.
"With pleasure". The henchman responded as he stretched forward his hand and aimed at another unconscious body.
Blast!
A laser beam was fired from the palm of his hand, penetrating the brain of the target.
"No."
"Another one".
Blast!
Blood splattered everywhere. Flesh, blood, the pieces of meat that flew in all directions was enough to make someone sick.
"Let's kill one more to see if we can help the Colonel make up his mind".
"Hehehe". The henchmen charged up, preparing to fire another one….
Pui! Pui! Pui!
"Stay Back". Presently, Sanchez, who had regained mobility grabbed hold of a Laser blaster and fired at the henchman.
Two beams hit the henchmen on the Armor's chest, carrying no effect while the last one hit the palm area.
BANG!
"Argh!" He wailed in pain as the laser hit, causing the beam he was about to fire to rebound, blowing up the henchmen's arm.
Seeing this, Sanchez's face changed drastically.
"You little shit!" Mannheim, seeing this scene, let out a roar of fury.
Henchman number two swung his mechanical arm as a whip flew out, slapping the weapon in Sanchez's arm away before recoiling back and grabbing him by the neck.
The metal whip retracted, and the soldier was pulled alongside it.
"Fine, you can be the next to die. But I'll let this one die slowly". Mannheim said viciously.
"Let him go, you monster".
Flag struggled anxiously.
"It's ok commander". Sanchez said while being strangled.
"I told, you... Ugh..... I'm not afraid". His eyes seemed to light up with determination.
"Just find my family. Tell em I love them".
"Not now soldier! Not tonight. I promised you that you'd go back to see your girls".
Hearing his words, Sanchez let out a smile as tears welled up in his eyes.
Flag felt despair.
Looking at Sanchez who had followed him these past few years and had a family..... He didn't want to come on this trip, but Rick coerced him saying it would be the last Job they ever had to do....
"Alright!" He yelled.
"What did you say, Colonel?' Mannheim smiled even more.
"I'll give you the codes, just let him go". He voiced out at the top of his lungs.
".... Put the kid down".
The henchman nodded and released Sanchez, who fell to the ground and gasped for air greedily.
"You alright kid?" Rick asked with worry.
"I have very limited time, Colonel Flag, so let's get this over with. The codes… Now. Or I will blast every single remaining member of your team". The coldness in his eyes validated perfectly this threat.
Flag struggled for a split second before deciding.
"The first one's 5842969910". The Henchmen punched in the numbers, which then showed the green light".
"Continue". Mannheim said with a smirk.
Flag looked at him with hatred. If looks could kill, Mannheim would probably be deader than dead with no possibility of resurrection even if a true God took action.
However, his rationality led him to continue.
".....6724445..."
".....87509…"
"..... 99124.... 000000222".
Click!
A clicking sound could be heard as the cases opened up.
Mannheim peered into them to inspect his target.
Inside each case was a robotic part. Two held the legs, two held the arms, and one held the head and body.
AMAZO. Possibly, the most dangerous weapon in the world.
"Wonderful". Mannheim nodded. "Put them all together and place a teleporter on them".
Henchmen number two nodded, looking at number one who was suffering from severe blood loss and shivered.
Mannheim didn't even mention anything concerning his injury, and Henchman number one didn't dare to voice his thoughts.
He could only watch as his face grew pale due to the excessive blood loss, hoping that they would finish from here as fast as possible so he could get medical treatment.
"You have what you want". Seeing number two put a box on the case's put together, Rick who was still being held by the neck, his legs dangling midair said coldly.
"Let my men go".
"Do you think I'd break my word". Mannheim chuckled.
"You worry too much. Your men will live. You however....."
Mannheim smiled sinisterly.
"... I never said anything about letting you live now, did I?"
Flag's expression changed.
"Say goodbye, Colonel Flag....."
The metal whip suddenly tightened, aiming to kill him in one go. However.....
Two beams of scalding hot lasers appeared out of nowhere, cutting the metal whip in two.
"What the hell….". Mannheim yelled in shock as Flag fell to the floor. His eyes darted from left to right, trying to find who attacked.
"No. Not hell….". The voice came from behind Mannheim as he felt someone tap the back of his armor.
He turned around and stretched out his hand, with the intent to fire a laser beam.
At least he tried. The mechanical palm glowing green had two fingers inserted into it before it could release, effectively disabling it.
"..... Me". Mannheim's arm was twisted, making him yell out in pain, before he found himself raised off the ground and slammed downward at rapid speed.
BOOM.
The ground cracked due to the impact.
"Ugh... Agh..... Superman". He uttered through gritted teeth.
Raising his head slightly, the figure floated on air, his feet staying three inches off the ground.
Blue tights, Red cape, iconic "S" symbol. Mannheim cursed under his breath.
The last person he wanted to meet tonight.
"That's right Mannheim. Miss me?" He asked lightly, but his face remained stern, not showing an ounce of a smile.
"Get it out of here". Mannheim yelled at Henchmen number two, who turned towards the cases and wanted to beam them away with the box in his hands.
A red and blue blur flashed before his eyes, and he quickly discovered his hands were empty.
"Not tonight boy's".
Superman moved at Super speed, flying around Henchmen number two, causing a small whirlwind.
The goon was lifted off the ground before being slammed right back down with a punch.
Clark raised his head and looked at Bruno Mannheim who was slowly getting off the cracked ground.
"No need to consider trying to leave. There's only one place you're going. And it's got three meals a day, and lights out at eight".
"What the hell are you doing here? You haven't shown your darn ass around for a month. Besides, this isn't your turf".
"Just got back on duty". Clark folded his arms in the air.
"Flying around the world, trying to fix some of the chaos it's experiencing, and just happened to be flying nearby, and my ears picked something. Thank God it did, though, or you would have gotten away with it". Clark said with a frown on his face.
Although he knew that the government was against them, he didn't think it would be this big.
Something as important as the Android, they took action in transporting it without alerting the league at all.
What if he didn't just happen to be close by? AMAZO would be out running amok again.
What the hell was Lane doing?
"Just my bad luck, huh?"
"I guess you could say that". Clark said nonchalantly. His gaze drifted to Henchmen number one who was bleeding out and his frown intensified.
"He's bleeding out".
"So? What do you care?"
"You'd just watch your man die?" Clark asked with a growl.
"Oh?" Mannheim was stunned for a moment before.....
"Hahahaha!" He laughed loudly.
"Someone once told me that someone could try to kill you, fail and almost have himself killed, and you'd still take them to the hospital if need be. Haha... Guess he was right".
Mannheim sneered.
Clark frowned.
"Ok, I've had enough of you". Clark said, and followed up with a punch.
Mannheim was sent flying into the distance.
"That should shut him up". Clark said, dusting his hands. His gaze turned towards one of the few two people conscious at the scene.
"Superman..." Rick looked at the man in red and blue tights, hesitated for a few seconds, and said.
"Thank you".
Clark raised an eyebrow.
"Don't worry about it, but now's not the time. I'll speak with your superiors about this later. For now, I'm taking the Android and the prisoners into custody....."
Hearing his words, Rick frowned and refused without hesitation.
"Sorry Superman, I can't let you do that".
"You do know you were almost killed, right?" Clark asked weirdly.
"And I doubt you have the capacity to protect the Android parts in the event that you experience another attack".
"We're expecting reinforcements". Rick said blankly.
Clark remained silent. Flag was right, he could hear the sounds of many forces gathering in this direction.
"Fine". Clark said with a slight frown before throwing the teleportation box towards Rick.
The latter grabbed it firmly with both hands and remained silent.
"Commander". Rick turned around as he heard someone call him.
"Sanchez!" Rick exclaimed and walked forward to the 25-year-old who was leaning against the cases of AMAZO'S parts.
"Did... Is it over?"
"Yep. Thanks to Superman. Without this box, they won't be able to take the package anywhere".
Rick said as he held up the box in his hands and let out a slight smile.
Sanchez was silent.
"What's wrong kid?" Rick asked with worry.
"It's nothing..... Just a little banged up". He said with a slight wince.
"It's alright son". Flag smiled. "Once reinforcements get here, we'll have you patched up".
"Thank you.... Commander. You gave up the mission to make sure we didn't all die". He said, his gaze turning to the dead bodies within the van.
Flag fell silent. The pain of losing several comrades hit him.
"Which makes me feel a lot worse when I do this…"
However, when Flag was still processing the tragedy that had happened tonight, the next sentence left him stunned.
"What are you..."
Flag asked in bewilderment, but he was shocked when Sanchez suddenly swung his fist, accurately hitting him right on his jawline.
POW!
Rick was caught off guard and fell to the floor, the box in his hand also left his grasp.
Superman standing afar was also shocked by the sudden turn of events.
Sanchez quickly grabbed the box hat had fallen and pushed the red area.
"No!" Clark exclaimed and dashed forward, surpassing the speed of sound instantly.
Unfortunately, he was one step too late.
The cases holding Amazo's parts shone with orange light and disappeared.
"You... What have you done". Clark shouted.
However, a yellow flash caught Superman's attention.
Clark turned around, shocked to find that Bruno Mannheim, taking advantage of his momentary distraction, had taken out a teleporter box similar to the one Sanchez held and pressed it.
Once again, The Man Of Steel rushed forward, once again he was a step behind.
"See you later, blue".
The voice fell in Clark's ears as Bruno Mannheim disappeared in place.
All that was left was Superman, sporting a very unsightly expression.
.....
Hi Everybody. Very long chapter here. At least longer than what I usually write.
So Be honest with me here. You didn't see that coming, did you?
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