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This article was written by DoodadGuy. Please do not add to this fiction without the writer's permission.
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| Forbidden Search | |
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| Story | |
| Setting | Makuhero City, Videon |
| Date | 1985 |
| Timeline | |
| Previous | None |
| Next | Betrayal |
Story[]
03:50 Makuhero Standard Time, January 2, 1985[]
Not much activity was transpiring in Hero Factory Mission Control. Although most of the mission managers had gone home for the night, a few remained to keep tabs on ongoing missions. But when they heard the sound of footsteps entering the otherwise quiet Assembly Tower, they all turned and looked to see who it was. It was two young, but distinguished members of Hero Factory, Preston Stormer and Francis Stealth, returning from another mission. Neither of them said a word, but they walked straight to their mission manager.
“I’m guessing you’re here to upload your mission logs,” said the mission manager.
Again, they both remained silent, but Stormer lightly nodded his head.
After the mission manager plugged their Hero Cores into the computer, he said, “I would like to offer my sincerest condolences for what happened during that mission. I know neither of you had anything to do with it, but that moment will forever be remembered as a great loss for Hero Factory.”
Once the computer indicated that all the data was transferred successfully, Stormer and Stealth unplugged themselves and went straight to their room, not even bothering to recharge their cores. The room was for all of Alpha Team; it felt empty without team leader Thresher and the two new rookies, Drew Swift and Mike Power. Stormer and Stealth just sat down and stared at each other for several minutes.
Finally, Stealth had the courage to speak. “Why did that mission have to go the way it did?”
“It was those rookies!” shouted Stormer as he stood up. “They had never been on a real mission before. And Thresher! Why did he let himself be killed?”
Stealth quickly interjected, “He didn’t let himself be killed; he was shot by—”
“Shut up and cut the attitude! If you don’t think that it was because he wasn’t giving 110%, then you’re part of the problem. If you don’t want to be part of the problem, then you need to step up your game! You don’t take the job of being a Hero seriously, like I do. That’s why I’m going to be the next Alpha Leader.”
“What are you talking about? I’m the serious one here. I’m definitely more qualified to be the next Alpha Leader than you and your enormous ego.”
“You’re kidding, right? You need intelligence to be the leader of Hero Factory’s top team. And that’s something you don’t have! You’re just a dumb brute who can’t even think his way out of a cardboard box!”
Stealth stood up and made a fist. “You’re going mad, Stormer. You need me to beat some sense into you?” He then punched Stormer in the face, knocking him down.
Stormer was done talking. When he got back on his feet, he leaped onto Stealth and tackled him. On the floor, the two Heroes began wrestling and fighting each other with no particular goal in mind, and they continued for about a minute until they heard a female voice saying, “Is everything all right?”
Both Heroes froze and looked at who was standing in the doorway. “Who are you?” asked Stormer.
“Oh, I’m Emily Wise. I was with Delta 9 Team a few years ago when we stopped Captain Dark Horrendous—what a name!—and his crew on the Antrosia Space Station. The team disbanded a couple months ago, and Hero Factory Management still hasn’t assigned a new team to me yet.”
“Stealth and I just got back from a terrible mission on Tallos V. We were so frustrated about it that we didn’t talk to each other until we got back here. Then, all the rage I had bottled up came out, I lashed out at Stealth, and we started fighting. I shouldn’t have done that. Real Heroes always keep their cool.”
“So, I’m guessing it’s just you two left in Alpha Team?” asked Wise.
“Yeah. Thresher is dead, and Swift and Power are both missing,” said Stealth. “We really need an experienced Hero who can help us out.”
Wise placed one hand on her hip. “I’d say I’m an experienced Hero. And I think I could show you boys a thing or two, as well.”
The trio decided the best place to hang out would be the bowling alley a few blocks from the Assembly Tower. It should have been closed that late at night, but there was one Hero still bowling there. Stormer chose to go to one of the “hard mode” lanes on the other side of the building, which were fifty percent longer than the regular lanes and had an additional row of pins.
Going first, Stealth took a bowling ball that was the same color as him and rolled it down the lane.
“That’s going to be a split,” Stormer predicted.
Stormer was right. The ball knocked down all the pins in the middle, leaving one set of pins on each side of the lane. With no other choice, Stealth had to choose which set of pins to knock down with his next ball.
Instead of focusing on Stormer and Stealth, Wise was watching the one other bowler in the building. He seemed to be quite an accomplished bowler, rolling strike after strike. It also seemed he didn’t even notice the Heroes walking in. So, she turned back around to her two teammates.
“So, what was the deal with that mission on Tallos V?” she asked quietly.
Stormer was preparing to take his turn, so he didn’t respond. Neither did Stealth, who was watching Stormer. Finally, Stormer rolled his bowling ball down the lane.
Before it reached the pins, he looked at Wise and said, “As I said to Stealth, it was those two rookies, Power and Swift. They had no idea what they were doing, and they just ended up wrecking the whole mission. Hero Factory Management thinks the solution to every problem is ‘throw more Heroes at it.’ They’re wrong. The solution is better Heroes.”
Since Stormer got a strike, Wise stood up and took her bowling ball. “I agree. Do you know of Mr. Akiyama Makuro?”
“How could I forget him?” said Stormer. “Right after I finished my initial training, he came up to me with Thresher and introduced himself as Hero Factory’s leader. He said, ‘I hope you save the galaxy someday,’ and told me I would get to join his new Alpha Team.”
Wise threw her ball onto the lane. It landed hard but continued rolling at a high speed toward the pins. “Shortly after the Von Ness incident, he publicly announced he would be going on a vacation, visiting several systems around the galaxy. On his way back to Makuhero City, his transport pod stopped at Tavus Station, and, well, he hasn’t been heard from since. And this should go without saying, but the people who have been in charge since he left haven’t been doing a very good job.”
“Sounds like you’re saying we should go on a mission to find him,” said Stealth.
“Hey, if there’s any team capable of completing such a mission, it’s us,” said Stormer.
Once the three Heroes were done playing, they walked past the other bowler, who was still going, and went back to the Assembly Tower to recharge their cores.
09:00 Makuhero Standard Time, January 2, 1985[]
At sunrise, the three Heroes prepared for a day of fighting crime.
“Now that I’ve had a few hours to think about what we talked about last night, I have to say, what’s the point in looking for Mr. Makuro when we have no idea where he might be, or even if he’s still alive?” said Stormer, who was polishing his freeze pistol.
Wise had already brought her sword and automatic pistol from her room. “Well, that’s why we need to investigate what happened!”
“I don’t think Mission Control would authorize such a crazy mission, but I think it would be worth a shot,” said Stealth as he took his powered double crossbow off its wall mount.
When Alpha Team’s mission manager saw them coming into Mission Control, he said, “I see you found a new member to join your team.”
“Yeah,” said Stormer. “Anyway, we have an idea. We would like to go on a mission to determine what happened to Mr. Makuro after his transport pod arrived at Tavus Station.”
“Stormer, you know that your primary responsibility is defending the galaxy from current threats, not going off on fruitless investigations. Go back to your quarters and wait for an emergency call.”
When they went back to their quarters, they saw another Hero waiting there, holding a three-ring binder.
“Hey, you’re the one who was at the bowling alley last night!” said Wise, pointing her finger at him.
“Yes. We need to talk.” The bowler entered their room and motioned them to follow him. As the bowler stood in the middle of the room, he opened his binder and began flipping through the pages.
“A binder?” commented Wise. “Aren’t those a little old fashioned by this point?”
The bowler looked up at Wise. “Yes, they are, but for certain purposes, they are the best choice. You can’t track paper, after all.” He then looked back down at his binder. “I heard you three talking about Mr. Makuro while you were at the bowling alley. You didn’t think I could hear you, but I heard you. We at Hero Recon Team have been alarmed at Hero Factory Management’s lack of willingness to investigate his disappearance, so we have taken it upon ourselves to do so. We have a pretty good idea of Mr. Makuro’s general location by this point, but we need a group of Heroes with more public recognition to actually execute the rescue. Like you three. But here’s the thing. If Hero Factory Management learns about this mission, they will do whatever they can to stop you. Do you understand?”
“I’m used to facing opposition,” said Stormer, “especially from Stealth here.”
“So, what do you want us to do?” asked Stealth.
The bowler closed his binder and looked up again. “Okay, I have an idea. I’m going to head to our secret meeting location. All you will have to do is wait.”
Without giving the other Heroes any time to ask questions for further clarification, the bowler immediately left the room. All Stormer, Stealth, and Wise could do was wait in their room, as their mission manager told them to.
23:30 Makuhero Standard Time, January 2, 1985[]
It had been a long day of work for Alpha Team in Makuhero City. First, they busted a villain who was trying to set up a base in the basement of the nearby Makuhero Observatory, then they spent a couple hours guarding a cross-town shipment of Palomino diamonds. Shortly after that, they easily stopped an armed carjacking. But now, they were back to waiting in their room.
“It’s been all day, and we haven’t heard back from that Hero Recon Team agent who happens to like bowling,” said Wise, who was lying on her back on the floor.
Stormer mounted his freeze pistol on the wall. “He never even told us what we were supposed to wait for.”
The three Heroes were about to go to sleep for the night when the light in their room started flashing red.
The voice coming out of the speaker was so loud that it sounded distorted. “This is an emergency. A rogue Hero is attacking the Dalhart Hills Spaceport. Alpha 1 Team, report to Hero Launch immediately. I repeat, this is an emergency requiring immediate response from Alpha 1 Team!”
Stormer, followed by Stealth and Wise, ran with their weapons to the lift, which went up to the launch area. They took off in their Hero Pods, which, about two minutes later, landed at the Dalhart Hills Spaceport. It was a small facility in the outer suburbs of Makuhero City, where the ultra-rich kept their personal spacecraft in climate-controlled hangars.
As the three Heroes stepped out of their Hero Pods, they looked around to find the “rogue Hero.” Then, Stealth noticed smoke rising from one of the hangars on the other side of the spaceport. They ran as fast as they could across the runway, only to find the bowler holding an incendiary grenade and standing next to a burning hangar. While Stormer and Wise kept their weapons aimed at the bowler, Stealth charged and tackled the bowler with great force, then slapped on a pair of Hero Cuffs.
Stormer saw a Hero Factory drop ship on a nearby landing pad and got an idea. He contacted Mission Control. “This is Stormer. We have apprehended the rogue Hero, and we are preparing to transport him to a secure facility.”
Stealth and Stormer loaded the bowler into the drop ship; Wise hopped into the pilot’s seat and took off for outer space.
“That was a good one, wasn’t it?” said the bowler, excitedly.
“No, that was a terrible one!” shouted Stealth. “Why would you set a spaceport on fire‽”
“I don’t think you understand. I was simply creating a diversion so we could get to Videon without them trying to stop us.”
“Videon? You’re saying that’s where Mr. Makuro is?” asked Stormer as he removed the bowler’s cuffs.
“Since Tavus Station was Mr. Makuro’s last known location, Hero Recon Team started its investigation by obtaining Tavus Station’s sensor data and tracking every ship that left. The data took over a month to analyze, but eventually, we found one ship, without a manifest, that went to the planet Videon, in the Cuatrillo system. More specifically, that ship landed at the spaceport facility of Complex 7B, an abandoned coal mine. Beyond that, we aren’t sure what happened next.”
12:20 local time, February 27, 1985[]
Descending through the thick canopy of Videon’s jungle, Alpha Team’s drop ship landed near a small, simple building.
“Huh? This isn’t Complex 7B,” said the bowler.
“I know that,” said Wise. “What I don’t know is where Complex 7B is, so we’re hoping these guys can give us a map or something.”
Exiting via the drop ship’s rear ramp, the Heroes made their way through the mist to the building’s front door, which had a fading and scratched up “H” logo on it.
“I can’t believe this is a Hero Factory facility,” whispered Stormer.
Inside the building, there were three rows of cubicles, each with an old computer terminal and several additional video monitors. Standing next to one of the desks was a Hero Factory mission manager aiming a pistol directly at the four Heroes. In response, they drew their own weapons.
The mission manager dropped her weapon onto the floor and raised her hands. “I’m so sorry! Please forgive me. No one ever comes here, so when I heard the door opening, I assumed you were intruders. Again, plase forgive me for my hasty judgement.”
“Hang on a minute. Are you actually a Hero Factory employee?” said Stealth.
“Of course. My name is Vi Ethernet, and I’m the senior mission manager for this planet,” she said as picked up her pistol and laid it on her desk next to her keyboard and a heaping stack of yellowing papers.
“Well, if you’re the senior, where are the other mission managers?” asked Wise.
“Hero Factory Management has been steadily downsizing my department ever since the oil boom ended a couple decades ago. I’m the only mission manager left at this location, but there are a couple others who work up in the orbiting space station,” said Vi. “So, what are you Heroes doing in a backwater like Videon?”
“We’re searching for a person whom we believe to be kidnapped. According to intelligence provided by this guy,” said Stormer, pointing to the bowler, “the first place to start looking is a place called ‘Complex 7B.’ We don’t know where that is, so we were hoping you could provide us with the coordinates to that location.”
“Yes, I could provide you with the coordinates to that location. I assume you want them?”
“Of course we do,” said Stealth. “Why else would we be here?”
On the back wall of the room, there was a stack of drawers that were all labeled, “Maps.” Vi opened the middle drawer, which was filled with folded up paper maps. Running her finger across the tops of the maps to get a quick glance at each one, she identified the correct one and pulled it out. Instead of taking the map, the four Heroes just stared at her.
“What’s the problem? You only know how to navigate with a GPS?” Vi put the map back in the drawer. “You can just look for Complex 7B yourself, if that’s what you prefer.”
“No, wait!” shouted Stealth. “We need that map!”
Vi was just about to close the drawer, but she took the map back out and handed it to Stealth. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
“Thank you for your help,” said Stormer. “We’ll be going on our way now.”
The four Heroes slowly made their way to the entrance of the building, with the bowler walking behind the others. Stormer whispered something to Stealth, then they both stopped.
“Huh? What were you saying?” said the bowler.
Stormer, Stealth, and Wise turned around. “So, you said you needed a group of higher profile Heroes to complete the mission,” said Stealth. “We were thinking you could just stay here.”
Then, Stormer stepped forward, whipped out his Hero Cuffs, and once again put them around the bowler’s wrists. “I’m sorry, but we didn’t have a choice. You have been a great help to us, but setting the Dalhart Hills Spaceport on fire was something we could not let you get away with.”
“You’re not going to extend even a little bit of professional courtesy to me?” asked the bowler.
“Nope. I don’t know how things work over in Hero Recon Team, but we ‘normal’ Heroes have principles, and you definitely violated them.” Stormer looked at Stealth and said, “You and Wise go and get the drop ship ready for takeoff. I’ll bring this guy down to the basement.”
In the drop ship’s cockpit, Stealth and Wise unfolded their map, showing the area around Complex 7B. The map only had a few features: blue contour lines to show the shape of the terrain, a faint coordiate grid, an X to mark the landing pad, and a black line in the direction of the Hero Factory facility. In the corner of the page, there was a hand written message, “Access Code: 9D03C5.”
Stormer walked up behind them. “There were several jail cells in the basement of that building. None of them were occupied, so I locked that bowler guy in one of them. I’ll let Vi decide what to do with him.”
“Do you think he was actually a Hero Recon Team agent, or was he a rogue Hero or villain trying to mislead us?” said Stealth.
“I don’t know, but without any other leads, heading to Complex 7B is our only shot. Wise, fire up the engines.”
Just before Wise was able to start the engines, another Hero Factory drop ship landed in front of them, kicking up enough dust to completely block their view out of the windshield. When the dust settled, about a minute later, they didn’t see any Heroes, but they heard a heavy knock on the back of their drop ship, and a voice shouting, “This is Hero Factory; open up!”
“I recognize that voice! It sounds like Lucas Valor, my team leader back when I was on Delta 9,” whispered Wise.
“You have ten seconds to comply! Ten! Nine!”
“We better head out,” said Stormer.
Taking their weapons, the three Heroes opened the rear ramp just before the countdown finished. Behold, Lucas Valor, Wise’s former team leader, was standing there.
“Put down your weapons,” said Valor. “You know that assaulting another Hero is a serious violation.”
“What’s the matter? We brought the rogue Hero to a secure facility, just like we said,” said Stormer.
“Don’t act smart with me, kid. We knew what you were up to as soon as you went into space. Now, you’re going to follow my drop ship back to Hero Factory.”
Wise stepped forward. “There’s nothing you can do to stop us. Get out of our way and let us complete our mission, and we won’t hurt you.”
Valor stared at them in bewilderment. “What mission could possibly be so important that you would violate both Mission Control’s orders and Hero Factory policy in order to go on it?”
“The ‘rogue Hero’ claimed to be working for Hero Recon Team,” Stealth began to explain. “After we took him into our drop ship, he told us that they had traced the location of a ship that had kidnapped Mr. Makuro. We’re heading to Complex 7B to look for him, and you can join us if you want.”
“I hope you understand that if you continue, you will face severe consequences when you get back to the Assembly Tower.”
Instead of responding, the members of Alpha Team closed the ramp and went back to the cockpit of their drop ship. Upon taking off, they set a course for Complex 7B and turned the afterburners up to max.
08:10 local time, February 27, 1985[]
Once the drop ship landed in front of Complex 7B, it recalibrated its internal clock to match Cuatrillo’s position in the sky at this new longitude. It had gone back a few hours. Constructed at the base of a soaring cliff, the entrance to Complex 7B was nearly completely overgrown by various kinds of plants. However, the massive front door, with a huge “7B” printed on it, was completely free of overgrowth. Before exiting the drop ship, the Heroes scanned the surrounding area for any other robots, but all they found was Valor’s drop ship, which landed right next to them.
“Ugh, let’s just ignore him and get inside Complex 7B,” said Stormer.
The three Heroes grabbed their weapons, exited the drop ship, and walked to the front door of Complex 7B. Valor walked up behind them.
“Emily Wise, why are you following Stormer? This whole thing is probably just a trap to get you all killed,” said Valor. “I remembered you to be more sensible than this.”
“We aren’t afraid of villains,” responded Wise, “and we think it’s time to clean this place up. I’m glad you’re here to help us out, by the way.”
“I’m only here because I have a responsibility to keep you from getting hurt. Which means that if things start to go south, then you will follow my orders and retreat to your drop ship, understood?”
“Understood,” said Wise. “Now, there was an ‘access code’ written on the map we had. Where do we put that in?”
Stealth walked twenty feet to the side of the door, where there was a small keypad with the digits 0 through 9, the letters A through F, and an Enter key. When he typed 9, the first digit of the code, the button lit green for a second. I’m surprised this place still has electricity, he thought. He typed in the rest of the code and pressed Enter. The keypad made a beep, as if the code was entered successfully, but nothing else happened.
“Are you dumb?” asked Stormer. “If there are villains hiding here, then of course they would make it so that a Hero couldn’t just walk in. Now they know we’re here.”
“Well, you said you weren’t afraid of villains, so get your weapons ready and prepare to fight them,” said Valor.
Priming his powered double crossbow, Stealth said, “I think we should bring the fight to them. Everybody stand back.”
Too late. With a loud, metallic creaking sound, the door to Complex 7B began to slide open, like a giant garage door. The four Heroes pointed their weapons through the opening, ready to fire. Once the door was open wide enough to walk through, they saw a tightly packed squad of X-Series Flamethrower Robots, their unpainted armor in various stages of rusting. As soon as they identified the Heroes, they all activated their flamethrowers simultaneously, creating a colossal stream of fire. Without saying a word, the Heroes got into combat formation, with Wise and Stealth holding the line and Stormer and Valor firing from behind them.
“How are you holding up?” Stormer asked.
Stealth, being nearly completely engulfed in the flamethrower bots’ flamethrower flames, was hard to hear. “We’re doing fine. I’m worried about overheating, though,” he said as he blasted another three of them with a single shot from his crossbow.
Stormer began to realize that his freeze pistol was completely neutralized by the flamethrowers, so he holstered his weapon and, like the headstrong Hero he was, ran straight into the blazing hot flame stream and started punching the X-Series robots in the face.
“What are you doing‽” screamed Valor, who was firing away with his two-handed particle cannon.
Stormer smacked down another flamethrower bot. “There’s just a few left!”
Shortly thereafter, the last flamethrower went out. A pile of twenty X-Series Flamethrower Robots lay at the feet of the four victorious Heroes. Valor, the only one not grilled by the flamethrowers, asked for a damage report.
Unable to stand up anymore, Wise fell onto one of her knees. “I’m overheating. I’ll need to cool down before we continue.”
“I don’t have a lot of ammo left,” said Stealth. “I hope we don’t have to fight any more of those things.”
“What about you, Stormer? Do you really think Mr. Makuro is down here?” asked Valor.
“Why would there have been so many flamethrower bots if they weren’t trying to guard something important here?” said Stormer.
“Then there must be several actual villains here as well. We need to be careful. And I’ll be in the front from now on, understood?”
Wise and Stealth both replied, “Understood!” but Stormer said nothing.
“Stormer, do you understand? I’m going to be leading you and your team for the rest of this mission.”
Stormer walked right up to Valor. “Who made you the leader of us?”
Before Valor could answer, a ball of energy whizzed past them. The Heroes looked into the dark cavern and saw three glowing pairs of eyes. Instead of saying anything, they just started firing their Meteor Blasters. The Heroes responded by returning fire, even Wise, who was lying on her belly to make herself as small a target as possible.
“At least they were nice enough to give us a warning shot,” said Stealth.
Wise loaded another magazine into her automatic pistol and continued firing. “That, or they just have terrible aim.”
Successfully evading the villain’s shots, Valor, Stormer, and Stealth kept the pressure on with their own weapons, but they too were unable to score any hits. After a bit of fighting, the villains whispered among themselves and, one at a time, retreated deeper into the tunnels.
“They just ran away,” said Stealth. “What’s the deal with that?”
“We can’t lose ’em! Come on, team!” said Stormer, who immediately began chasing after them.
Valor mounted his particle cannon on his back and ran after Stormer. Stealth stayed with Wise and helped her onto her feet.
“Are you all right?” asked Stealth.
“Yeah, my core temperature is stabilizing,” said Wise. “Now, we need to make sure we don’t lose Stormer and Valor.”
Stormer and Valor reached a rickety looking elevator just as it began descending. Since the shaft was completely open, they jumped down on top of the elevator car. Next, Stormer pointed his freeze pistol down at the top of the elevator car. He almost pulled the trigger.
“Stop! Not now,” said Valor.
“Why?”
“An elevator shaft is not a good place to fight. If we end up breaking one of these cables, we could easily get hurt or killed. Wait until the elevator stops.”
A few moments later, the elevator slowed down and came to a stop, followed by the sound of footsteps. Stormer fired his freeze pistol several times at the top of the elevator car, cooling it to the point where it shattered upon being given a good stomp. The two Heroes jumped down and tiptoed out of the elevator car into a long and straight tunnel. Besides for a dim light bulb in the elevator car and the Heroes’ helmet lights, there was nothing illuminating the tunnel.
“Those villains know we’re down here,” said Stormer. “No point in trying to be sneaky.”
“But if they know we’re following them, why aren’t they trying to fight us?” wondered Valor.
“There must be something they want to get to before us. Like Mr. Makuro!”
Silently agreeing that they didn’t have time to wait for Stealth and Wise to catch up, Valor and Stormer continued running after the three villains. As hard as they tried, they couldn’t catch up.
Valor had an idea. “Can’t you—”
“‘use your freeze pistol to slow ’em down’?” Stormer interrupted. “Yeah, I was just about to try that.”
While still running, Stormer fired his freeze pistol several times, but couldn’t get a hit.
“Patience, kid. Give yourself some time to set up a better shot,” suggested Valor.
Stormer wanted to say, “We don’t have time,” but he decided to follow Valor’s advice. Holding the freeze pistol with both arms, he lined up his next shot and pulled the trigger. One of the villains, the one with green armor, was hit in the leg, and he tripped and fell.
“I’ll cuff that one. You keep the chase on the other two,” said Valor.
As Stormer continued running as fast as he could, he hurdled over the villain he shot. A moment later, the other two, colored blue and gray, stopped by a door in the tunnel wall, giving Stormer an opportunity to catch up to them. While the gray villain hurriedly unlocked the door, the blue one fired his Meteor Blaster at Stormer. Stormer hopped to the side just in time to dodge it, then kicked the blue villain down as soon as he was close enough. Looking to the side and through the doorway, he saw a small room with several box-shaped storage pods. The gray villain was about to shoot one of them, but suddenly he turned around and shot Stormer instead, knocking him down to the ground.
“A rookie Hero will never be a match for a veteran villain,” he gloated as he turned back around.
“There’s two more Heroes coming!” said the blue villain.
“You hold ’em off. I’ll make sure they never get an opportunity to rescue Mr. Makuro.”
Just before the gray villain pulled the trigger, he was tackled by Stormer, part of whose chestplate was gone.
“You should’ve shot me again; I wasn’t dead yet,” said Stormer, who was firmly on top of the villain. “And by the way, I’m not a rookie.”
The villain, with his superior strength, simply shoved Stormer away from himself. They both got back up on their feet and aimed their weapons at each other. The villain shot first. Stormer ducked and rolled out of the way, then fired his freeze pistol. As if it was a shield, the villain’s Meteor Blaster was used to block the shot. The villain then threw his weapon aside, as it was frozen and no longer functional. Executing a move he had practiced many times before, Stormer dropped his weapon and jumped at the villain, grabbing his Hero Cuffs off his belt while in midair. Instead of standing there and taking it, the villain leaned forward and headbutted Stormer, knocking him back to the ground. Before Stormer could get back up, the villain stomped one foot on Stormer’s chest and pinned him to the ground.
“I’ve heard so much about you Heroes,” the villain said. “I thought fighting you would be more of a challenge.”
“You think you’ve won, don’t you?” said Stormer.
Just then, the villain was shot in the side by an explosive bolt, knocking him down. Entering the room, Stealth quickly cuffed the villain, then he helped Stormer to his feet.
“You came just in time,” said Stormer.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve saved your life,” said Stealth. “And it probably won’t be the last, either.”
Valor entered the room behind Stealth. Wise entered after him and said, “Before we celebrate, let’s make sure Mr. Makuro is in one of these pods.”
Wise effortlessly sliced through all the locks on the storage pods with her sword. Then, they started opening the pods, starting by the entrance to the room and going clockwise. After checking three empty pods, they opened the fourth one, which was completely filled with packing peanuts. As the packing peanuts poured out onto the floor, an old robot was revealed.
“Looks an awful lot like Mr. Makuro to me,” said Valor. “We better move him to a safer location before turning him back on.”
Valor pulled Mr. Makuro’s body out of the packing peanuts and carried him back to the drop ships. Stormer, Wise, and Stealth escorted the three Hero Cuffed villains.
18:30 local time, February 27, 1985[]
Stormer and Valor descended the stairs into the basement of the Hero Factory facility, along with the three villains. There was a row of jail cells on the left and right sides of the room, with the bowler locked up in one of them.
“So that’s the guy who started this whole mission,” said Valor.
“Yeah. He burned down that spaceport as a distraction so we could get away without Mission Control getting suspicious,” said Stormer.
“Which, again, didn’t work very well.”
Stormer opened one of the jail cells to lock up the green villain. “Vi assured me that these jail bars are made of the strongest materials that were available . . . when this was built back in 1950.”
Herding the blue and gray villains into their own cells, Valor commented, “Not as good as laser bars, but this should do until a ship comes by to take them to an actual jail.”
The Heroes began heading back up the stairs, but Stormer decided to turn around. He walked up to the cell of the gray villain, whom he assumed to be the leader of the three, and said, “We were about to leave, but there’s something I’m curious to know. I would never have expected a small time thug like you to be behind the kidnapping of the most famous person in the galaxy. Why didn’t you try to put him up for ransom or something? You could have made a lot of money.”
The gray villain sat down on the floor of his jail cell. “Why would I tell you anything?”
“You’re stuck in a jail cell. Don’t act like you have something better to be doing right now.”
“Fine, I’ll tell you. Ransoming Mr. Makuro is exactly what we wanted to do. But we knew he was a very high profile figure. We were so worried about getting caught that we decided to just hold on to him.”
“That plan really worked out for you, didn’t it?” Stormer laughed. “Yeah, you’re probably going to be in jail for ten years at least, probably more.”
While Stormer was thinking of something else to say, Valor called out from the stairwell, “Come on, Stormer. Let’s head back to Makuhero City and get this ordeal over with.”
Stormer looked at Valor, then back at the villain. “Sorry I can’t stay and chat, but I hope you enjoy your new home,” he said.
He then followed Valor up the staircase, leaving the three villains alone with the bowler in the dark basement.
As Valor and Stormer made their way to the front door of the building, Vi stopped them. “Hey! Since I’ve been helpful to you on your mission, I would just like to ask you to help me in return. When you get back to Hero Factory, could you please ask them to buy some new computers for this facility? It would mean a lot to me to know that Hero Factory actually cares about my job.”
“I can certainly ask,” said Valor, “but I can’t guarantee that your situation is going to change at all.”
Vi sat back down at her desk. “I know. Have a safe trip back to Makuhero City!”
14:50 Makuhero Standard Time, April 24, 1985[]
In Hero Factory’s med wing, the doctors were hard at work repairing a couple Heroes who were severely damaged from their last mission. Stormer and Stealth barged into the room, carrying a stretcher with Mr. Makuro lying on it.
Most of the doctors were too busy to divert their attention from what they were doing, but one turned around and said, “You’re in rough shape, Stormer. Looks like a Meteor Blaster hit you in the chest.”
Stormer looked down at his chest. “Oh yeah. I forgot about that. Anyway, that’s not what we’re here for. We found Mr. Makuro on Videon, but he was disabled, and we don’t know how to turn him back on.”
The doctor was so focused on Stormer’s wound that he didn’t realize who was on the stretcher. “Wait, what? Is this for real? Are you sure this is the real Mr. Makuro?”
“We think so,” said Stealth. “How hard can it be to check a robot’s ID?”
“Not very hard. Let’s just get him on the table and see if anything’s wrong with him.”
With Stealth’s help, the doctor lifted Mr. Makuro onto an empty operating table. Then, he grabbed a power cable dangling from the ceiling and plugged it into a charging port on Mr. Makuro’s side. Next to the operating table, a screen began displaying a data readout.
Reading the screen, the doctor said, “It looks like there may be some minor memory loss, but besides that, Mr. Makuro seems to be completely undamaged from whatever he went through. I just need to charge him up, which will take a few hours. After that, I can send a control code through the cable that will reactivate him. First, let’s get you repaired, Stormer.”
12:00 Makuhero Standard Time, April 27, 1985[]
On a bright and clear day, Mr. Makuro exited the Assembly Tower and slowly walked, with the help of his cane, across to the edge of the expansive plaza. Valor and the three members of Alpha Team followed behind the old robot and stood next to him. A swarming and anxious crowd of civilians and journalists stood below, as every radio station in Makuhero City had broadcast that Mr. Makuro was going to give a speech at this time.
Taking a microphone from Valor, Mr. Makuro began, “Greetings, citizens of Makuhero City! Several months ago, on my way back from a galaxy-spanning vacation, I stopped at Tavus Station and was kidnapped by a small gang of villains. I was then taken to the remote planet of Videon. These three brave Heroes,” he pointed to Stormer, Stealth, and Wise as he said their names, “set off on a daring mission to rescue me, defying the orders of Mission Control and Hero Factory Management.
“This fourth Hero, Lucas Valor, was sent to stop them, but he begrudgingly joined them instead. Without the contribution of his experience, skill, and knowledge, the entire mission could have ended in failure. I am extremely grateful for their actions, and I can think of only one way to properly recognize them for their bravery.”
Mr. Makuro took the medals that were draped over his left arm and placed them around the necks of the four Heroes. “I present to you Preston Stormer, Francis Stealth, Emily Wise, and Lucas Valor, the first four Heroes to be inducted into the Hero Factory Hall of Valor!”
After several minutes, the crowd’s applause and cheering finally quieted down. The four Heroes spent the rest of the day taking questions from the media, being careful not to mention Hero Recon Team or the bowler, and hanging out with their fans. It wasn’t until well after sunset that the crowd had finally dissipated and the Heroes could head back into the Assembly Tower.
Just before they entered the building, Wise stopped Valor. “Are you sure that—”
“Yes!” shouted Valor.
Wise jumped back a little bit. “How do you know what I was going to ask?”
“I was just guessing. I’ve spent the last ten hours explaining to people that I’m not joining Alpha Team, and I’m tired of people asking about it. But if you were going to ask something different, then I apologize for assuming.”
“I was going to ask if you wanted to join Alpha Team. I guess that leaves me with a different question, though. Why not? Is it because you’re still upset that Mr. Makuro picked Thresher instead of you to be the first Alpha Leader?”
Valor stepped closer to Wise. “No, that’s not why. Here’s why: I’m not going to spend the rest of my life babysitting Stormer and Stealth. They think they know better than me, so I’ll let them make their own decisions. They’ll probably fail a bunch of missions, and Mr. Makuro will end up disbanding the team, but at least I won’t have any part in that. If you know what’s good for you, you won’t, either.”
While Valor turned around and went on his way back to his quarters, Wise continued standing where she was, making her decision. Valor could have been right about Stormer, but the opportunity of gaining galaxy-wide fame and recognition was too great for Wise to pass up. Right there and then, she made up her mind; she was a member of Alpha Team.
Characters[]
In order of appearance
- Preston Stormer
- Francis Stealth
- Unidentified mission manager
- Emily Wise
- Unidentified Hero Recon Team agent (“the bowler”)
- Vi Ethernet
- Lucas Valor
- Green villain
- Blue villain
- Gray villain
- Akiyama Makuro
- Unidentified medibot
| DoodadGuy | |
|---|---|
| Characters | |
| Alpha 1 Team (Α1) | William Furno (L) • Jimi Stringer (S) • Dunkan Bulk • Julius Nex • Rachael Woolf |
| Theta 4 Team (Θ4) | Francis Stealth (L) • Mike Power (S) • Jack Raven • Mary Force |
| Kappa 5 Team (Κ5) | Hannah Dash (L) • Adam Sandstorm (S) • Keith Cyclone • Jake Radon • Rick Shockwave |
| Phi 7 Team (Φ7) | David Stryker (L) • Natalie Breez (S) • Mark Surge • Richard Pike • Susan Oculus |
| Other Heroes | Thomas Blaze (Ψ20-L) • Smith Matrix (HRT) • Sarah Vortex (Ο5) |
| Villains | Backstab • Brutillus • Drew Swift • Hawkwing • Pyrocide • Yasukiro • Zapsta |
| Vehicles | |
| Velocity, Inc. | XV • 4S • AH • 8S • IV |
| Stories | |
| Forbidden Search • Betrayal • Two Conquerors • Operation: Vortex | |