She rested in the back of Whisper's van and stared out the window. "We're heroes. Won't they just let us in?" She asked quietly.
They had set off once Battery explained the situation. Her mom had parted ways with her, heading back to work, while team Pantheon piled into Whisper's van, which was now parked in an alleyway on Fly Street. Fly Street was the total opposite of Spider Street. Fly Street was where people like the mayor lived. The buildings here were straight-up manors, even bigger than Kyle's or Armin's houses. It was where the rich of the rich lived.
Massive skyscrapers loomed over them, reaching well past the clouds, and the road was constantly busy. In front of them, one massive building stood out above the others. Ward Tower was a massive hotel, each floor being its own manner, where the richest rich folks of Oleander could blow through their money. At least they normally would be able to, but now the entire building was closed off, with hundreds of police patrolling around.
Water poured out of every window, and the streets were flooded. The entire building had been turned into some sort of aquarium, filled with various fish and sharks that swam around inside of it. All caused by Cybercroc. He was living up to his name still, it seemed.
"We could try and walk up to the front door and demand they let us in, but it won't be as fun or nearly as cool." Myth said, rubbing his chin. "We're going to do this stealthy."
"That's my specialty!" Whisper bragged. The woman was already gone, turning invisible.
"The issue is the building itself." Myth explained. "Cybercroc's power caused it to stay flooded even after every window has been opened. It's like an infinite amount of water is in it. Until we can find the thing creating it, we won't be able to properly look for clues. Even if we do get into the building quietly, we'd all drown."
"Not all of us." Battery pointed at himself. "I can create a skin-tight barrier around myself. It'll allow me to not have to worry about getting wet. Plus, I've sort of been to the bottom of the ocean before, and even space at one point; don't even think about asking me how, so I'm pretty sure I'll be fine."
She raised her own arm up. "I got super endurance and super lungs! I can hold my breath for nearly an hour straight now!"
"How'd you learn how to do that?" Snowdawn asked.
"Battery kept trying to drown me."
"It was for training," Battery said, shrugging casually.
Myth nodded his head. "In that case, I have a plan. Battery, you and Cinder will enter the building through the top and work your way down. Whisper, once they find what is causing this building to be flooded, you'll enter unseen and use the Paths to see if you can find any trace of where Cybercroc could have gone. Snowdawn and I will remain down here on standby and watch in case anything else happens."
"Aw man, I don't get to do anything cool." Snowdawn said, letting out a sigh. "Get it? Cool? 'Cause ice? See, not even my puns are that good anymore because of how bored I'm going to be! I just got my new ice armor and everything! Plus, I got this cool new ability I've been working on!"
"You'll get your turn, Snowdawn." Myth nodded. "We still need to take the bad guys out after all."
"I guess." Snowdawn said, letting out a sigh. "That doesn't mean I have to like it, though."
She gave a small grin and folded her arms. "So how do we get into the building exactly?"
Myth smirked. "I have an idea."
"Oh no…"
She'd have to seriously learn how to fly soon. It took Myth only a few moments to lift her and Battery up and carry them into the sky. They made sure they traveled in the shadows, made easier since it was night, and Myth easily flew above the many towers hovering over them. Battery carried her bridal style, while Myth, who was in his large eagle form, carried Battery by digging his claws into the man's shoulders.
Myth took them above the large, flooded building. They were so high up that they were able to hide in a cloud in order to avoid being seen. She had super durability, so she was confident she could survive a fall from this height, but it still made her clutch onto Battery.
"Don't worry, Kid." Battery held onto her and let off a soft snort. "I know my arms aren't the ones you'd like to be in, but you got nothing to worry about. I won't drop you-"
Myth let go of Battery, causing the man to lose focus and drop her. She let out a yelp falling out of his arms as she began to rapidly spin toward the fast-approaching building. Battery dropped down from the sky and managed to grab onto her. She held onto him so tight she made him grunt as her fingers dug into him.
Right before they rammed into the skyscraper's roof, Battery's golden barrier formed around them both, and it vibrated so fast and so quickly that they literally phased through the roof, using one of his speedster tricks.
As soon as they were through the roof, she let go of him and moved away. Instantly, she felt herself be surrounded by water as they came out of the roof and reached the top floor of the Ward tower. It was of course flooded. She kept her mouth closed tight and tried to calm her nerves. Her eyes were able to see in the darkness of the room, due to her enhanced senses.
No one had been hurt when the building had been flooded. Everyone had managed to thankfully escape in time. The Wet Bandits had done their damage, though. The room she was in was a fancy hotel room at one point, and now it was a mess. Water reached all the way up to the roof, and inside the room, several fish swam around.
A shark lazily moved over to her, and she reached out to pet the thing's nose, giving it a gentle boop. Battery didn't swim and instead stood on the bottom of the room they were in, casually walking around as if the water wasn't there. He was totally dry and gave off a bright golden glow as he looked around.
She wasn't the best swimmer, and unlike her mentor, she had a time limit. She pulled out some rope she had from her trusty backpack and tied it around Battery's waist. She used him as a sort of anchor to keep herself grounded and swam next to him slowly as he moved around the room.
All the electronics were a mess, and judging by the weird feeling she had through her skin, she was likely being constantly shocked with massive volts, though they didn't have anything remotely close to the lightning she had been hit with by Battery. This stuff barely tickled.
Battery made his way over to a wall and created a sword of light. He made use not to make his Imaginary energy have any electricity in it, only using solar. With his sword, he sliced through the door in one clean motion. That allowed them to step out into the hallway.
It was also filled with water, and dozens of fish swam back and forth. She wondered how the villains could have gotten all the sea animals into the building. Why did they even bother? Was it for some prank? They normally went after wealthy people and would rob them, but jewels and pearls still floated around her in the water.
If she were to take a gamble, she'd bet that whatever was causing this water to appear would be somewhere on the top floor that they were on, in one of the hotel rooms. After all, it would have to be in order to cause the rest of the building to be flooded since the water would flow down.
Battery seemed to have the same idea as her, because he began to go to the different rooms and cut his way into them, looking around.
She let go of the rope she had and swam over to a different room. It was listed as room sixty-C. There were sixty floors in the tower, and each room was A to Z. The rooms weren't small either. Each one would be worth ten times as much as her apartment.
She pulled her fist back and awkwardly punched the door. Despite being under water, her strength was able to easily force it open, nearly snapping it. She entered the room slowly and looked around. The first thing she noticed was the fact that it was swimming with crocodiles. Each one was fully grown and looked mean. Some were even the enhanced white versions that Red Ape had made.
Those ones glared at her and rapidly darted through the water toward her. She wasn't that helpless little girl anymore, though. She side-swimmed the bite and punched up with her fist, ramming it into the mutated animal's mouth. Some of its teeth snapped out, and it seemed to howl, turning over in the water. It smashed its tail into her side, which shoved her into the wall, but it barely hurt.
She tried to speak but couldn't since she was underwater. She really didn't want to beat up a punch of animals, but these ones were mean. She grabbed it by the tail and dug her fingers into it, shattering its scales. The animal whimpered and finally swam away.
There were two more mutated crocs that glared at her and slowly circled, but they didn't attack. She folded her arms and swam past them, kicking out with her legs. They could sense that she was the alpha in this situation and wouldn't bother her anymore. At least that's what she hoped.
Something on the roof caught her eye, and she slowly swam up. The Wet Bandits normally didn't bother to hide the thing they used to flood buildings. Due to all the sea animals, most humans wouldn't be able to explore the building in time to find the cause of the issue. Especially when mutant sea creatures roamed around. Only Supers could explore a place like this safely, and among them, not many could survive under the water. Pretty much only Ocean Empress's group was made to handle something like this.
Because of that act, Cybercroc hadn't bothered to hide his device again. It rested on the roof above her. It was a Mental-based tech. She was sure of that. It was some sort of metal cube, around the size of a basketball. It clung to the roof and was opened, showing an inky black void on the other side of it.
The room filled with a golden light, and she looked down, finding Battery had entered. The man lazily swatted and knocked out the two large crocodiles that tried to attack him, and then he stared up at the box she had spotted. He nodded at her. She nodded back and did her best to swim up to the box.
When she reached it, she looked into it and stared into the black void that was past it. It creeped her. She knew what it was. It was a realm. One way too small to fit a person though. The realm on the other side was one that had no land or anything inside of it. The main reason Avalon gave up on the realm idea fifteen years ago was Max Lightning couldn't control the realm he got. Some powers could create realms like Paragon's, but they were also random and could be very deadly to live in. In this case, this one was connected to an endless ocean.
She wrapped her hands around the box and simply squeezed down on it. The cube crumbled to bits in her hand as she easily shattered it. Instantly, the stream of never-ending water stopped. That wasn't a good thing though, as all the windows in the entire building were open. All at once, the water began to rapidly drain from the building and flow out of it, taking the fish along with it. She hadn't considered that fact.
She felt herself collide back first with the floor, and she spat up a lot of the water that was in her lungs, gasping as air hit her. "No! The fish are in trouble! You have to help them, Mr. Larison!"
"Kid-"
"Please!"
Battery sighed and waved his hand, creating several barriers around many of the fish. He began to run through the hotel, using his powers to move through the parts that still hadn't fully drained. As he ran, he made more and more barriers around the fish, forming bubbles around them. Hundreds of the bubbles followed him, connected to golden lines that came from his fingers. Once he was sure he got all the fish in the building, he appeared outside and did the same to all the fish that had been dragged out of the building. He was moving so fast that not a single one had hit the ground yet. Over a hundred golden bubbles filled the air behind him as he took off running to the ocean.
"The things I do." The man grumbled as he reached the ocean and ran across it, dumping all the fish.
While he was busy doing that, Cinder slowly stood back up and caused a wave of fire to go over herself, instantly drying herself off and filling the room with steam.
"I take it you cleared the water?" Myth asked, speaking into her ear. The man was outside, back in the van with Snowdawn and Whisper. Dozens of cops were going into the building to check it out now that the water had stopped flowing out. Battery had moved so fast that none of them had noticed the golden blur.
"It's my time to shine." Whisper announced turning invisible.
"Wait!" She said over the earpiece she had. She held the cube in her hand, looking down at it with a soft frown. "I might not need Whisper's help to come look for clues."
"If you're going to look for them yourself, do it fast." Myth urged. "Battery and you need to get out of there quickly; you're about to be surrounded by people."
She nodded her head and brought the cube closer to her face. She tilted her helmet up a bit, letting her nose out. It twitched softly as she smelled the metal. She had never used her enhanced senses through her nose before. Mostly because the stench would be bad. Even now, all she smelled was a wave of salt, but there wasn't something else.
Whatever Cybercroc's power was, it had something to do with this metal. Even after being dunked in an ocean amount of water, it still held this strange scent to it. Like a dog, her enhanced senses were picking up on it. She could almost see a trail. One leading her to a certain path.
She felt a little stupid if she was being honest. Dog-like senses were not something she would be bragging about any time soon. Still, she had to admit this power was useful. If she ran into someone like Green Wolf or Wish again and got close enough to smell them or got something that belonged to them, she might be able to track them down with her nose, like some sort of bloodhound or something.
The air crackled as a golden light appeared and Battery stopped. He stared at her oddly for a moment as her nose was pressed to the cube. "I'm… Not even going to ask, kid... Ready to go?"
"Yeah." She gave a small grin and pulled her helmet back down. "I think I have an idea where we need to go."
"Seriously?" Whisper asked over their shared line. "So now I'm just as useless as Snowdawn?"
"Hey!" The boy whined. "Not cool!"
Battery picked her up, and the two of them left the building, moving faster than any of the officers could keep up with. They appeared back in the van, and Whisper drove them out of the alleyway, leaving Ward Tower behind.
She still held the shattered cube and smelled it, using her enhanced senses to filter through all the other scents that were across the city. "What is it, girl?" Snowdawn asked when he saw what she was doing. "Is Timmy stuck in a hole?"
She flicked him in the forehead, the same way Mr. Larison would flick her, and kept focusing on the scent. She didn't even need to tell Whisper what to do; the girl was way ahead of her, likely using the Paths to map out the destination. Whisper drove them through the city and slowly pulled the van into a parking position in front of a large building that had very loud music coming out of it. It was some sort of nightclub, the kind that had a bouncer out in front of it, and only adults would be allowed in.
"Is this the place?" Myth asked, frowning.
"Are we going to ignore the fact Cinder took us here through the power of her nose?" Snowdawn questioned.
"Yes." Everyone said flatly.
She nodded her head and finished crumbling up the strange cube. "I've always been able to see and hear things better than normal, so naturally my powers would also include an enhanced sense of smell. My super senses are well beyond anything a normal animal has, so my sense of smell would also have to be pretty good. At least that's the conclusion I came to with the cube. It has this weird smell to it. One that I feel like I've smelled before, if that makes any sense?"
Myth rubbed his chin and nodded. "Ward tower was heavily monitored at all times due to the guests that were in it. No one was able to spot any of the Wet Bandits arriving. The flooding just suddenly happened. I wonder if the weird smell you're talking about is connected to how the cube got there."
"How did it get there?" Whisper wondered. "I guess it doesn't matter though right now. I'm going in!"
"Wait-" Myth began, but it was too late. Whisper turned invisible and left the van, likely heading into the building. Myth grumbled under his breath. "There's a good chance this place is a normal nightclub that is just owned or controlled by villains. If they spot any heroes running around, they could grab the hostages or even escape. We'll need to find Cybercroc. There's a good chance he's trying to rebuild his villain group."
"How do we get in?" She asked.
"We go undercover." The man pressed the button on his watch, and his costume faded, leaving him dressed in his usual librarian outfit. Thaddeus adjusted his glasses. "I sure am looking forward to this night out." He said in a flat, unheroic voice.
Battery pressed his own watch, and his clothes switched to his stained funeral wear, which he still hadn't gotten out of. Instantly, she regretted having her enhanced senses on. Mr. Larion hadn't bathed in over three days now.
"You kids stay here." Jack said, exiting the van with Myth. "Even as civilians, you guys wouldn't be allowed in this place. We'll radio you if we need backup."
Snowdawn grumbled and slouched down in his chair. "I never get to do cool things. See. Another boring ice pun."
Jack and Thaddeus headed for the building. It wasn't a tower, but it was still pretty big. It had no windows, but the sound of music still exploded out of it. A bouncer stood waiting for them. Thaddeus pulled his ID out, but Jack just strolled forward. "He's with me." Jack said, pointing a thumb at Thaddeus.
The bouncer nodded. "It's good to see you again, Mr. Larison."
Thaddeus shot a look at Jack as they entered the building. "Oh, don't judge me; I used to party my ass off at this place ten years ago." Jack said, rolling his eyes.
The inside of the building was filled with massive, colorful lights. Dozens of people were on the dance floor, and there were several bars set up as well. A DJ was up top, some man in a dinosaur mask who was going crazy on the music. Thaddeus made a face and wrinkled his nose. "This place sure is something."
"It was way better back in the day." Jack shrugged. "There used to be these tables where you could do lines of- You know what, nevermind. Let's just find where this Cyber bastard is and get this over with."
Thaddeus went to say something but felt a hand grip his wrist. Whisper stood behind him, and she spoke softly in his ear. "Upstairs. VIP room. Something interesting is up there. Think that could be our guy."
Thaddeus nodded, and his eyes darted around the room. In the back was a large set of stairs leading up to other floors, which were also crowded with people. There were many doors along the walls likely leading into back rooms, where mob bosses would hang out. Thaddeus went to take a step but stopped when he noticed Jack wasn't moving.
"Is something wrong?" He asked.
Jack looked around, frowning softly. "I just felt a pair of eyes on me. I think someone here recognized me."
"Well, apparently you've been here enough." Thaddeus said snarkily.
"Not that kind of recognize." Jack rolled his eyes. "Just keep your eyes out, okay?"
"Right."
Whisper stuck close to them both as they made their way to the stairs. Battery lazily flicked his finger out, and faster than anyone could even follow, several jars exploded on a nearby bar, raining the liquor out and causing a commotion. The bouncer who had been guarding the stairs moved away to check what was happening, allowing the three of them to easily slip past him and head upstairs.
"Can't you use your barrier thingy to hide from people?" Whisper questioned.
"Can't." Jack said, shaking his head. "Sure, it'd work on normal people like this, but if a Super sees it, then it'll be a dead give-away that we're here. It doesn't work on them after all."
"Guess you're not as stealthy as me-" Whisper grunted suddenly when the red-haired man elbowed her.
"You'd be more stealthy if you shut up."
They reached the room Whisper had discovered earlier. It was all the way in the back, on the second floor, with the words 'RR Private Office' written across it.
Thaddeus looked it up and down, frowning softly. "As soon as you kick that door down, the guy inside will be ready for you both." Whisper said. "I'm seeing him with my Paths. He's a Super, though I'm not sure what his powers are. He can take one of your attacks. Be ready."
Thaddues nodded. Jack flicked his hand out, putting up a barrier for a second that caused any human looking at them to be unable to see. It didn't matter if a Super saw them or not anymore. They both pressed their watches, putting their outfits on, and kicked the door down, storming in now as Battery and Myth.
It was a large office room with fine walls and a carpeted floor. A desk was in the middle where a man in a suit rested, and behind the man a large fish tank resided with a crocodile in it. The man looked average and gave a sly grin.
"Ah. It seems E was telling the truth when he radio'd me. I knew you'd be here-"
Battery fired his golden laser directly into the man's head, causing the man to jerk. Despite that though, the villain stood strong and slowly stood up, kicking the desk over.
"Fine." The man snarled, and his body began to change. His suit started to rip, and feathers jutted out of his flesh as his face expanded out and acid started to drip down his chin. "You want to be that way? I'll just tear you to shreds!"
"RR." Myth hummed. "Red Raptor."
Red Raptor stood before them, grinning ear to ear as his tail slammed into the ground. "Time to die, heroes!"
Meanwhile outside, Cinder and Snowdawn rested in the van, lazily watching the club. That was until Cinder's nose twitched once more.
She reached up, grabbing at it. "That smell is back." She hummed. "Actually, it's getting closer-"
An inky black orb appeared beneath them and rapidly expanded. It grew to full size, and then the next thing she knew, she and Snowdawn were falling through it. She suddenly realized what that weird smell was. The reason she recognized it and the way the Wet Bandit gang were able to get the device into Ward Tower without actually entering the building. She knew who Cybercroc had hired.
She tumbled into the ground, no longer in the van. Snowdawn crashed down next to her, and before she could stand up, a wave of yellow acid poured onto her, causing her to yell out in pain.
"You!" A voice hissed. "It's you! The one who killed Polaron!"
She forced her head up and stared at the man in the cloak. One covered in hundreds of small holes. Ears, former member of the Bad Timers, glared down at her.