I was only half surprised to find that the warehouse was perfectly mundane. It wasn't even abandoned or unused, it was fully active and used by the local railroad company to store freight before it was shipped out. It was actually adjacent to the rail yard, the two only a hundred meters apart and connected via a railway.
As we arrived late in the evening, the warehouse was devoid of people when we got there. This worked out fine for us, as it allowed us to slip in and investigate without anyone asking awkward questions. A quick check of the building's floor and computer catalog showed that not only were the metamaterials that had been ordered not there, but there wasn't any log of them showing up in the first place. However, digging a little deeper digitally showed clear signs that the data had been tampered with.
"So, now what?" Superboy asked, folding his arms across his chest. He was dressed in an updated version of his solar suit, one I had managed to tint black without sacrificing their functionality. There was a wide belt around his waist I had made which worked as a sort of blue solar radiation battery, and a button press would flood his suit with it. "Do we just wait here for Ivo to show up?" Behind him, Miss Martian and Starfire were drifting slowly through the rows of boxes, looking for clues.
Walking out of the small administration room, I shook my head. "We have no idea how long that would take, or what his needs are. It could be this last shipment was all he needed to finish his latest project, and I'm not waiting around for another Amazo."
Over the radio, I head Robin speak up. "I agree, but I'm not finding any solid clues out here either. There are car tracks everywhere, but this is an active warehouse. Picking out a suspicious one is like finding a needle in a haystack."
I bowed my head in thought, assessing what we had to work with. The Team was limited to the five of us at the moment; We were the ones ready to go as soon as I had put the data together, and Starfire decided that it was enough for a recon squad. The rest were on their way or holding in reserve for the time being. Beyond that, Red Tornado and the Hawks were looking into the warehouse and railway personnel, seeing if they had any connection to the pair of scientists we were after.
I had also called Serling, but it went to her voice mail. I… may not have tried much harder than that to contact her. Part of me hoped we could get this resolved without getting her involved at all.
In any case, if we wanted a solid lead, we would need to narrow the possibilities. "Ivo is a creature of convenience," I reasoned out loud. "He liked having little robots attend to him while he worked at the university. And he barely ever went further than a few miles from his home. It's possible he would have sent a robotic minion to pick his materials up, but then someone might have noticed. Then again if he's able to make fully human androids..." I trailed off before I shook my head. I couldn't be distracted by what ifs.
"So, what's the easiest way to get things out of the warehouse without anyone noticing?" Robin mused. "If I were doing it, and spoofing logs like he's doing, I would have the stuff loaded in with another shipment and pick it up somewhere convenient."
"These rail lines do not lead to places average people pick up goods though. It is all for commercial enterprises." Starfire countered. "Picking it up from here would be less effort and fewer steps. Maybe he simply walked in and took it."
A dumb thought then popped into my head. "What if… he's right here?" I mused out loud.
"What, in the building?" Robin said skeptically.
I shook my head. "No, not literally here. I meant the train yard. What if he had a lab set up right next to here?"
As she floated nearby, I saw Miss Martian cup her chin. "It would make getting materials back to his lab easier. He'd only have to move it a few dozen meters."
"That's a pretty big assumption..." Robin said, but after a pause he continued "Then again, we're already here. Might as well do some poking around."
The rail yard seemed typical, not that I was an expert on such things. There were just over two dozen railways with trains on them, with several hangers at the far end of the yard. A river lined the southern side, and a good distance north was nearest town. So while there was a decent area to search, it was relatively contained. Superboy and Starfire searched the train cars, making use of Superboy's X-ray vision to speed things along. Miss Martian and Robin went to the hangars instead.
Meanwhile, I was hanging back, my optical cloak engaged while I stood atop one of the train engines. Considering that Ivo potentially had made the nano-disassemblers, it was decided that I should be on overwatch. A pair of knife missiles followed my companions cloaked, while I had another pair circling the perimeter of the yard.
My first mission back on the team, and I'm running support again, I mused. Not that I minded. I felt like I had been thrown into the thick of things enough on my last mission that I could stand to hang back for a bit. And besides, I had the feeling that my staying in the back wouldn't last very long.
From the view of the drone following Robin and Miss Martian, I saw the pair creeping past a number of large cranes and maintenance machinery, moving towards the back of their current hangar. They had gone over the last two without a trace of anything suspicious, and this one was shaping up to look the same.
Or at least it was until Miss Martian walked across the large circular platform used to rotate train engines. As she crossed the edge of the turntable, I saw a brief flash of infrared light cross over her legs. I wasn't completely sure what that was, but I trusted my instincts and said "Robin, Miss Martian, hide now!"
The two didn't move quickly enough, as a moment later there was a rattling from the floor grating, and a second later out popped...
Robot monkeys. Black with glowing green accents, the things flew in every direction using tiny jetpacks. Each emitted a high pitched cackle, and in a few seconds the entire hangar was filled with synthetic, discordant laughter.
...I don't know why I'm surprised, I thought, watching as my teammates pulled back. Over the radio I said "Guys we have robot monkeys coming from the south-most hangar. I repeat, robot monkeys. I'm pretty sure they know we're here." There were a series of pops and bright lights as Robin threw out some flash bombs, and he and Miss Martian got some breathing room to run out the hangar doors. The monkeys were not far behind, however.
"Then there is no reason for us to skulk any longer." Starfire declared, and immediately after she launched herself into the air and towards the oncoming swarm. Superboy was not far behind, and soon starbolts and heat rays flashed through the air.
While the two started tearing into the robots I contacted my other teammates, whom I lost sight of in the sudden chaos. "You guys alight?"
"Yeah, Star and SB are drawing all the attention." Robin replied. "Moving in to assist."
"Wait," I said, as I assessed our options. I did have a trump card I could play… but no, I needed to save that in case I really need it. If I had to use it, I wanted to give Ivo as little chance as he could to adapt to it. Besides which, I had a different option available to me, one which fit the situation nicely. "I can handle this. You guys should sneak back in and check out where all those monkeys came from. "
"You sure you'll be enough?"
"Don't worry. I'm sending in the cavalry."I sent a signal up to Moya floating above the rail yard, and a hole opened upon her underbelly. A dozen more knife missiles floated down towards the battle, but these weren't the recon models I had already fielded. They were the same arrowhead shape, but with heavier armor, and equipped with lightning generators and a spinal laser. The Mk. II was designed for combat, and while they weren't as fast or stealthy as my recon drones, made up for it in firepower.
A few enemy drones responded quickly, veering off from fighting my teammates to engage the new threat. However, as soon as they got within a dozen meters my leading drone lanced out with a laser beam. The foremost monkey was blown apart and dropped out of the sky, and the rest scattered.
My drones then spaced out into small squadrons and moved around the swarm of robot monkeys, targeting ones at the edges of the group. Ivo's still out numbered mine considerably, and I didn't want to risk getting flanked and outmatched. But, while they were a bit faster and more agile than my Mk IIs, the monkeys were pretty disorganized. Any one that broke off from the group to attack my drones was quickly targeted, and even when one managed to get close it was zapped by a defensive lightning bolt.
It took a lot of my focus to stay on top of the chaos that was spilling out over the rail yard. I wasn't manually controlling my drones, but I had a lot of different cameras to watch, and I also had to make sure I didn't accidentally shoot my teammates. Still, even playing it conservative, we were whittling their numbers at a steady rate. The robot monkeys had eye lasers, but they couldn't get within range of my drones, and they didn't seem to do significant damage to Starfire or Superboy. It was clear that we would come out on top… so why were they still attacking?
The answer came when Robin commed us "Guys, it's a diversion! Ivo's getting away on a train!"
I paused before I focused my attention on my hearing, and sure enough there was the telltale sound of metal wheels on rails. I kicked up into the air, and a few seconds later spotted a train moving along the river at the south end of the yard. Combat with the monkeys had dragged northward without any of us noticing. Clever.
The train was short, only one cargo container pulled by an engine, so it was picking up speed quickly. I took stock of everyone's position and situation before flying towards it. "He's getting away. I'm going to intercept."
"Acknowledged, but be careful." Starfire said. "If Ivo has nano-disassemblers-"
"I know, I'll pull back at the first sign." I replied, and three of the Mk IIs broke off to join me. I didn't want to get separated from the rest of my team, so stopping the train was the first thing I had to do. In short order I landed on the top of the engine, and the moment I did more robot monkeys poured out of it. Must have sensors all over this thing, I thought, seeing as how the small robots were heading straight for me and not my drones. If my optical camo wasn't doing me much good, I had other options.
I faded back into view and made a few adjustments, shield emitters forming on my arms along with another pair at the ends of mechadendrite limbs from my back. Two more mechadendrite limbs mounted laser cannons, and by the time the monkeys reached me I had formed a defensive wall with my cannons poking out of the gaps. With my drones flanking me, I stalked forward, pushing and blasting my way through the cackling mess. It was less graceful than I would have liked, but I kept my footing and blocked everything that was coming at me.
Though it seems I may not have needed to bother. The monkeys tried to get at me with their claws or eye lasers, but nothing more than that. I was still cautious as I bashed and blasted them to pieces, but quickly enough their numbers thinned. When only one remained, I let it slip through my shield and grabbed it by the head, crushing it in an instant. I took a moment to scan the little robot, and confirmed that it didn't have any weapons that were a threat to me.
So, does that mean it wasn't Ivo that attacked us then? I wondered as I ducked inside the train engine. The space was cramped so it was just me and the front control panel. Along with several more robot monkeys crawling at me. "Oh to hell with this." I muttered, and my surface shifted into a Faraday mesh just before lightning tore outward from me. In the cramped space there was nowhere for my targets to dodge to, so all of them burned with electricity. A few moments later the cabin was filled with sizzling and scorched electronics.
Including the main console of the train engine, but luckily engineers have the sense to install a manual override for these kinds of situations. I reached for the emergency brake lever next to the console and pulled, the whole train lurching as the wheels locked up and a horrible grinding sound filled the air. It would take a bit for it to come to a complete stop, but it was only a few cars and it hadn't built up that much speed, so it wouldn't take too long.
In the meantime, I made my way back through the engine's back door and towards the connecting car. My fingers dug into the metal and I wrenched the door open, light spilling into the dimly lit cargo car. There was a mess of crates and equipment, along with the man I was looking for.
Anthony Ivo was a short, slightly portly man with curly auburn hair, dressed in a sweater vest and slacks. He stumbled back from my entrance, his expression a mix of anger and fear. "Oh, you." He said in a high voice, before looking to the side. "Amazo, initialize and activate protocol alpha!"
In the dark corner of cargo car, I saw movement. Pulling itself out of a maintenance frame was a familiar shape, if much rougher than I remembered. This Amazo had many of its external plates missing, and I could tell that several of its innards were still under construction. "Initialized. Begin combat-"
That was as far as I got before I cleared the distance, my hand placed on its chest. "No." With a thought I accessed it's power supply and shut it down, and the android crumpled to the floor.
"...learned some new tricks, I see." Ivo said sullenly. "Well, I suppose that-" he was cut off as I grabbed him and roughly hauled him out of the cargo car. The train had stopped moving by this points, and I didn't want him around any of his toys.
"Hey now, that's uncalled for!" he said as I jumped down to the ground with him in tow. "You-" The rest of his rant was cut off as my hand clamped around his throat and lifted him up in the air. Most people don't appreciate just how much it hurts to be lifted clear off the ground by the neck. It's essentially being hanged in reverse. I held him there for a few seconds before I slammed him against the side of the cargo car, stunning him slightly but also taking some of the pressure off of his neck.
After a few moments for him to recover, I asked "Why? Why did you do any of this?"
He coughed and sputtered. "Wh-what? What are you talking about?! You can't treat me like this, there are laws-!"
He cut off as my hand tightened ever so slightly around his throat. "Superhero brutality is almost expected," I said calmly. "If I told everyone that I broke your leg as you were trying to escape, no one would question it. Now answer me. Going after superheroes, the death and destruction you caused, what was it for?"
I felt the low growl built in his throat beneath my fingers, and his anger seemed to override his fear. "Why?! This is why! All my life I had been pushed around by those stronger than me! I thought that once I showed people my genius I would finally get respect, but all of my 'peers' were jealous! They kicked me out of the University because I made them all look bad! And when I tried to show them the mistake they made, the so called 'heroes' stopped me!"
He squirmed in my grasp, but stared at me with hate filled eyes. "They had the gall to lecture me, the morons who get to do anything they want because they have power! You don't know what I've had to do, all the work I've put in! I'm not going to bother with a society that exalts the likes of you!"
I stared at him for a long few seconds after his rant wound down, waiting to see if he had any more to say. When he didn't I said "That's it? You had a hard life, so now you kill people?"
Ivo sneered back at me. "Even with an artificial brain, you're too stupid think beyond what's right in front of you. I don't have to justify myself to a piece of scrap whose greatest achievement was ruining a far superior machine. Not to you, or anyone else."
"...Then I suppose there's nothing else then." I said, and my fingers tightened around his throat again. He flailed impotently in my grip, and his thrashing slowly got weaker and weaker.
Then, I felt a hand come to rest on my arm. I tilted my head to face Starfire, who was looking back at me. The sounds of fighting had stopped, the rest team now standing behind me, "Machina, I think he's done." She said. "Are you?"
I released Ivo from my grip, and he fell to the ground, desperately gasping for breath. I took a look at the small, pathetic man before I turned and walked away. "Yeah, I'm done."
"You wouldn't have actually killed him, would you?" I was broken out of my thoughts and looked to my side, Robin staring back at me with an unusually serious look on his face. "You were just intimidating him to soften him up for questioning, right?"
I didn't answer him immediately, instead looking towards the man in question. Ivo was sitting on the ground with his hands bound behind his back, scowling up at Hawkman and Hawkwoman, the two space cops grilling him. The Leaguers had opted to be the ones to question the scientist as he had proven resistant to Miss Martian's telepathy (apparently the man could think about circuit board schematics hard enough to block a mind reader). I had been... politely encouraged to stay away for a bit.
I hesitated for a moment longer before I replied. "We did need answers from him, so no, I wasn't going to kill him. Probably."
"Probably? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
I waved him off. "I'm just being ornery. Don't worry about it."
Rather than back off though, Robin surprised me by saying "Don't joke about this. If Star hadn't stopped you, would you have killed Ivo?"
I drew back a little at how serious Robin had gotten. It wasn't a mood I was used to seeing him in… then again, I hadn't seen him much at all lately. Robin (and Kid Flash for that matter) had been kind of absent from the Mountain since Bialya, unless there was official Team business. The bank robbery had been the most I had interacted with him in weeks. And before that, I couldn't really say I interacted with him that much more.
The simple fact was… Robin was a kid.
Yes, he wasn't a normal kid, but he still acted like one. He was highly intelligent and competent, but often times that just made him kind of a little shit. Not to say he was a bad person or anything, but it didn't really endear me to hang out with him. Plus the fact that I was literally more than twice his age made the whole thing weird. (Well, weirder than it was for me and the rest of the team anyway).
But back in the present, it seemed he had a bone to pick with me. I could guess why, but I decided to answer him as directly as I could. "No, I wouldn't have killed him. I was going to choke him out so that he would be easier to deal with until the rest of you arrived. I'm not going to comprise a mission by killing a source of information, not to mention the bad president it would set." I folded my arms across my chest. "Though if you're asking what I personally feel, I wouldn't shed a tear if the man happened to break his neck falling down a flight of stairs."
"How can you be so calm about it?!" He suddenly snapped. He got control of himself and lowered his voice a little. "How can you be a superhero and talk about killing someone like that?"
Ah, there it is. "I wasn't trying to make a threat, just stating my antipathy for the man. I have no intention of killing Ivo unless I absolutely have to. I just… like to use hypotheticals to get my point across. Even for things I don't seriously entertain."
"You seriously entertained it at least once." He said flatly. "You crossed a line in Bialya, man. You just… you can't do things like that!"
"Alright."
The was a long expectant pause before Robin realised I wasn't going to say anything else. "What, that's it? That's all you have to say?"
"Pretty much. You're a smart kid, and you know that the League has already decided my actions were justifiable. And I'm sure you also know all the reasons I would give to justify what I did and why. If you still don't approve… well there's not much I can do about that."
Robin's face twisted in frustration, but he was completely at a loss with how to respond. Eventually he just huffed and walked away, fading into the dark between two nearby train cars. I held in a sigh before moving towards the group interrogating Ivo. I had probably been gone long enough the Ivo was more focused on the others, and I didn't want to hang around a sullen Robin.
As I approached though, I spotted something in the night sky getting closer. It quickly resolved itself into Troia,, who settled down next to me. "Guess I'm late to the party," she said as she looked over at the assembled group.
"Yeah, but we weren't expecting you to come. Is the rest of the Team not at the Mountain?"
"They're there. I just… didn't feel like waiting."
I wondered how long it had taken her to fly from the nearest Zeta Tube, but I didn't dwell on that too much, instead refocusing on the current exchange between Hawkman and Ivo. "-don't know what you're talking about." Ivo snapped, looking up at his interrogator. "I've spent the past few months trying to rebuild my magnum opus, why would I jeopardize that by provoking you lot early?"
"He's probably telling the truth," I said, and everyone looked towards me. "We've swept the area pretty thoroughly, and while we've found a bunch of interesting stuff, there were no signs of any nano-disassemblers. I don't think it was him."
"Nano-what?" Ivo perked up. "Oh, that sounds fun. I had my own ideas of how I was going to deal with you, but it seems someone beat me to the punch."
Hawkman returned the man's attention to him as he said "And on that note, we come to the other matter at hand. Tell us about Dr. Morrow."
Immediately, what little mirth Ivo had disappeared. "Oh, him. Don't tell me that he's the one that's been causing you trouble."
"Just tell us what you know. Where would he be hiding? What does he want? Anything you could tell us about him."
Ivo seemed annoyed by the questions more than anything else. "He was a self righteous prick who couldn't stand being proven wrong. Just because something worked in the forties doesn't mean it can't change. Anyway, I haven't seen him in decades, and even if I did know something about what he's currently doing, I have no inclination to tell you."
I frowned. It looked like we were going to have to get Wonder Woman again. I hated to keep bothering the woman, but the Lasso of Truth was just so damn useful.
However, Troia stepped up. "I got this."she said as she reached for a lasso on her hip. She tossed one end over Ivo, and the rope glowed silver. Troia's expression settled into "You will tell us what you know about what Dr. Morrow in currently doing."
Ivo's face went through a number of expressions before he started talking, almost surprised by what was coming out of his mouth. "He's been in hiding ever since the two of us split up, so the fact that he's been active in the past few months is out of character for him. Blasting a radio signal across the half country is not something I expected him to do, let alone attack you lot again." He blinked and looked around in confusion. "Wait, what was that? What just happened?!"
I glanced at the lasso and back at Troia. "Yeah, what did just happen? Because I know that's not the Lasso of Truth."
"No, it's the Lasso of Persuasion." She said with a smirk. "Anyone bound by is is compelled to do what I ask of them, so long as my willpower is greater. It's not quite as good as the other Lasso for getting answers, but it gets the job done." She turned back to our captive. "You will tell us about this radio signal."
Ivo seemed to resist for a moment before he gave up and said. "I have a lot of work to keep me occupied, but I do keep tabs on things. A few days ago I noticed a signal transmission hidden among AM radio waves. It was encrypted, so I don't know what it was about, but I recognized it as Morrow's work. I was also able to triangulate the source: Montreal. And if I had to guess, I would wager it's coming from Notre Dame island."
"Why?" Hawkwoman asked.
"Because the man has an aesthetic he just can't let go of. " He replied cryptically.
A quick internet search on the location shed on light though, and I said "The 1967 World's Fair?"
Ivo nodded. "He would just go on and on about how nothing there matched what he could make. He was so sore about how he couldn't show off his genius to the masses, on account of being a fugitive and all."
I grunted, trying to piece it together. We would of course have to verify all this, but if it was true, then Morrow was up to something. But what it was… I had no idea. "I have a feeling we're going to need the whole Team for this." I said half to myself.
"Hold up." I looked at Troia, who looked back at me in concern. "The guy who went out of his way to try and kill you is broadcasting a giant signal you likely would have noticed at some point. You realize this is probably a trap, right?"
I gave a grim smile. "Yep. And it'd be a mighty shame if we let all that effort go to waste."