Page 05
I, and I know many of you, who call Fides home, have come to accept this hero as one of ours since she became a fixture with The Sovereign Crusaders. I know all of us, myself included, will miss her and thank her for all that she has done for Fides and the world at large. I know her death will affect a great many people." Aron felt a little odd when they listened to the man cry on air. He didn't understand why people assumed she was dead; he knew most likely she was only knocked unconscious due to the impact, but he knew she wasn't dead. "What's that?! What do you mean there's movement where Nightshade fell?!" A smirk rose at the corner of his mouth; he knew she wouldn't be down for long.
"You give them hell, Stacy," Aron whispered into his mind as he listened to the joyous man as he detailed what they saw on the ground. Turning back around to finish his meal, listening to the man going on and on about how lucky she was and they were to still have a fine hero among them.
"Nightshade! Nightshade!" Aron's ears perked up at the man's frantic voice to get her attention.
"Yes, go ahead, Jim."
"Tell us, we all saw you getting shot; how can you be here standing there, talking to us?" Jim asked, holding out his microphone to her.
"Well, Jim, as you and the rest of this city knows how my last suit was destroyed over six weeks ago. So I spoke to a friend of mine; I think you have heard of him, haven't you?" Nightshade asked with a coy smile on her lips.
"You mean this Void character?"
"The very same," Nightshade nodded. "You see, my friend is really shy until you get him talking, and he just rambles on and on about things." A round of chuckles and giggles circled the Carter's kitchen table at that. "Anyway, I asked him about who made his suit, and well, I'm very thankful for Mist Manufacturing and Technology Corporation," lifting up the left cuff of her sleeve, showing off Aron's makers mark to the news crews there that day, "without him and the people who traveled with him to make this new suit so quickly for me. I've been on the sidelines long enough I wasn't about to allow these villains to think I was out of the game for good. If you're listening, Mr. Carter, thank you very much. Without this suit, I know I would have been killed today. Oh, I hurt; it felt like a horse kicking me in the gut," Nightshade spoke before the woman to her left could ask her question. "But without this suit, I would be lying dead back there," she said, jutting her thumb over her shoulder at the spot where she fell. "Void if you're listening to this or watching; I also thank you for introducing me to your friend. I know we,
The Sovereign Crusaders and Mist Manufacturing and Technology Corporation, as our new donors, will have a very fruitful relationship." Aron felt the eyes of his family on him as the reporters called out to Nightshade as she and her group walked away towards their hover car. "If you want more information on our new donor, please see Newman at the base; he will answer any and all questions you might have about this new partnership we have with Mist Manufacturing and Technology Corporation."
"Why are you all looking at me like that?" Aron asked, getting a little freaked out by their hard staring. Rising from his seat, plucking his plate off the table and walked over to the sink.
"You best not be sneaking off and playing hero with another group of superheroes," Vera pouted from her seat as she crossed her arms below her breasts.
"Yeah, Dad, you just can't see another team; that's just wrong," Jill teased, joining in with her niece.
"Whoever said I played hero?" Aron asked from over his shoulder as he placed the plate into the sink.
"We did," Tazia spoke up. "Remember Bosnia? Remember the battle we had with Cestron? Or you're trip to space?"
"Yeah, kind of hard to forget Bosnia and that device exploding in my face Tazia," Aron retorted as he spun around.
"Well, you're my hero, grandpa," Tazia uttered, seeing everyone at the table fighting back their laughter. "You know you're the wind beneath my wings?!" Belting out a crackle as Aron tossed his head back and groaned loudly as he walked out of the kitchen.
"Don't you dare go down into that lab of yours!" Vera shouted out. "We have to visit the site in an hour so we can discuss the planning of the complex, then we have to run over to the factory and see how the contractors are faring," she said in a motherly voice. "And we're taking the babies with us!" Seeing the wide smiles on her sisters' lips, knowing that would give them at least three hours without Henry underfoot or Nettie wanting attention from either one of them. Not that they weren't good parents, they were, at least Vera thought they were. No. Every parent needs a break every now and again, especially with Henry starting his terrible twos.
"Then I best get you ready for your daddy, shouldn't I?" Aminah cooed down at her daughter, who held out her little arms to her once Nettie had made a complete and sticky mess of her highchair. Smiling down at her daughter as Nettie sucked her left hand clean of the syrup they had with their breakfast that morning.
"No, mine!" Henry shouted as Tazia moved to clean Henry's highchair off.
"Henry!" Tazia yelled, holding her left wrist against her chest when Henry squeezed a tad too hard that she had to activate her powers just to keep her son from breaking anything.
"Bad boy?!" Vera hissed in a disapproving grandmotherly voice, slapping his wrist as she did. "You do not put your hands on your mother?! What if you hurt her, huh? Do you want to injure your mother to the point she can't take care of you?" she asked, peering down at her grandson as she placed her hands on her hips. Only to turn as Aron instantly appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. She noticed how Henry instantly got quiet and sunk back into his highchair as his father's gaze burned into his son.
"Henry, what did you do?" Aron asked in that stern fatherly voice. "Did you hurt your mother?" His tone was devoid of emotion, so Vera knew her son was not pleased. "Seems you did," he said when his son shook his head. "You didn't then; why is your mother holding her wrist like that, huh?" Pointing over to Tazia as she rubbed her wrist, hoping Henry didn't break anything. "Everyone out, my son and I need to have a talk, alone," Aron spoke in a not too pleased tone.
"Go easy on him; he's only two, son," Noah whispered into Aron's ear before lightly patting his son's back so he could speak to Henry alone.
"You okay?" Aron asked low in a loving tone as Tazia came up to his side, still cradling her wrist.
"Yeah, you should have warned me that you'd spread out your strength to your children," Tazia cooed, leaning in, placing a loving kiss on Aron's lips. "Don't be too hard on him; I know he didn't mean to."
"I know, but he needs to learn how to control his strength just like I had to," Aron stated, rubbing Tazia's back as she leaned into him.
"Whatever you're going to do, as long as it's not too oppressive to Henry, he is only two, after all, I will go along with your punishment," Tazia whispered into Aron's left ear, her hot breath played along the fine, nearly invisible, hairs that lined his ear.
"Veil!" Aron called out, knowing she was never too far away from him or the kids.
"Yes, father," Veil replied, appearing in the doorway.
"Go and fetch E3 from the vault," Aron directed, seeing Veil nod, knowing what he meant by E3.
"What's E3?" Tazia asked worryingly.
"Nothing harmful, I assure you," Aron stated, running his hand down Tazia's arm as she nodded in understanding, looking back at their son and seeing the fear of his punishment in her son's eyes. Aron watched Tazia leave the room; he couldn't help it; his eyes did dip down towards her ass. What could he say? He did enjoy holding onto it greatly. The smirk on Tazia's lips wasn't lost on him as he caught a glance of it before Tazia disappeared behind the wall. Aron had assumed she knew he was staring at her ass. What could he say? It was an obsession. "Now, Henry, what are we going to do about you?"
"Nothing," Henry spoke in his best cute voice to get out of trouble.
"Yeah, that's not going to happen; you've already injured Aminah and now your mother, son," pulling out a chair, stopping himself when he realized he sounded like his father, "I get it, it's very hard to control your strength every second of the day, yet you're going to have to learn how to. What if you had really hurt your mother just then? How would you feel knowing you broke your own mother's wrist?" Aron asked; he knew Henry wouldn't understand most of what he was saying, but his son understood enough to know he was in trouble and what he had done was a bad thing. "What will happen if you can't control yourself around normal people? You know you will have to interact with them here in a few years," trying not to smile as his son just shook his head vehemently, "it's going to happen, Henry; your mother wants only the best schooling for you," seeing the fear of the unknown playing across his son's eyes, "so I developed something thinking this might happen when you were born," he said as the sound of the elevator doors rolled open.
"Father? I have retrieved E3 as you've asked," Veil stated, appearing in the doorway, holding the two-piece garment in her left hand.
"Good," Aron spoke as he turned his gaze towards her. "You can put Henry in it while I hold him still," he directed, knowing Henry wasn't going to stay still long enough for them to put the suit on him. At least not when Henry learned that the suit was inhibiting the use of his powers for the time being until they could be sure Henry knew when and where to use his vast strength and not when he was trying to get his way. "Relax, Henry, it's not going to hurt you," Aron said in a fatherly voice as Henry cried and squirmed on the kitchen table as his legs kicked, trying to keep Veil from pulling off his pajamas. "What? Did you think you were the strongest one here?" he asked, smiling down at his son when Henry tried and failed to push his hand off his chest that was keeping him in place. "Oh, no, you don't,"
Aron uttered, tickling his son's stomach; it was amusing watching his son's face go from straining to budge his hand and the uncontrollable laughter that overwhelmed his son. "Now, Henry," sitting his son up and pulling off the t-shirt he had slept in, handing it to Veil, who in turn handed him the top portion of the suit, "this is your punishment for not only hurting your mother but your aunt as well. This will also teach you when you should use your powers and when you shouldn't because if you keep using your powers just to get what you want, you'll turn into a villain, and you know what I do to villains?" Looking down as Henry's light green - with blue flakes scattered about his iris' - stared up at him. Watching how his head slowly nodded, knowing Tazia only told him that he just put away villains and not what he truly did to them. Noting how Henry jumped when his right fist struck the palm of his left hand, causing the room to shake, and oddly enough, the windows didn't shatter at the same time.
"Henry, I know you're young, and I know you may not understand what I'm saying, yet until you can control yourself, you will have to wear this until you can keep from using your power when you're fussy," Aron said in a loving fatherly tone as he plucked his son off the table. Noticing how Henry looked rather confusing down at his chest when he felt rather weak for the first time in his two years of life. "Veil?"
"Yes, father?" Veil answered, following after him towards the bedroom he shared with Aminah and Tazia.
"While we're gone, help Neil if he needs it when he goes down to level one," Aron said, noting how his son had a furious look on him when he couldn't use his powers as his tiny hand struck his chest.
"Wouldn't you rather I travel along with you since I know you'll be a tad busy," Veil stated with hope in her voice.
"Hmm... good point, but you'll have to look the part of a nanny," Aron said, glancing over his left shoulder at her.
"Father, are you referring to a naughty outfit?" Veil asked innocently as dozens of porn videos that fell under the lusty nanny category played along her mainframe.
"What?! What have you and Jill been watching?!" Aron asked, rather startled that she would think of that. Although, he couldn't deny Veil wouldn't fill that role rather nicely.
"Father, are you saying you wouldn't want to find me bent over in a very embarrassing position?" Veil flirted. "Where I'd have to do some very, very, very naughty things to keep the master of the house from forcing me out of a job?" Aron's eyebrow inched higher; he had no idea Veil was into roleplaying.
"That might happen," Aron uttered, playing along, continuing on with his trek. Not seeing the wide grin on Veil's face as he continued down the hall.
"Veil, what are you doing?!" Aminah's voice filled the air as Veil pushed him out of their bedroom so she could help Veil pick out the best outfit to entice her father with while looking professional at the same time.
"We all set?" Vera asked, walking down the stairs in her best business attire, with Jill following behind fifteen minutes later.
"We are. Veil's getting the kids settled in the SUV as we speak," Aron stated, not taking his eyes off of how red Tazia's cheeks were getting as he gently probed around her wrist.
"Aron, I'm fine; stop babying me," Tazia uttered in a bashful voice. Only to have her face grow red hot at the smile on his lips, knowing he was doing it for that reason.
"Oh? Don't want me to baby you, huh?" Aron teased.
"Well... maybe," her fingers lightly picked and tugged at the suit jacket he was wearing as she stepped up to him, "later, tonight, I might go for a little babying," Tazia cooed, pressing her 32B breasts against Aron's chest.
"That so," Aron mused with a coy smirk.
"Mmmhmm, and I may let you kiss it all you want," Tazia said, referring to her mound, not her wrist. "Now you best get going; you shouldn't keep them waiting," she whispered as her lips pulled away from his.
"Veil, what is this?" Aron asked after spending a few hours down in his counterpart's, now his, sanctuary after lunch when they got home a little past noon. Looking down at a rather large, round, one-inch-thick metal container.
"A film canister, my maker, took that from the OSS when he broke in to steal the files they had on him," Veil said informatively as she stood by the desk, still wearing the tight-fitting skirt and white blouse Aminah had picked out for her before she left with Aron to view the site that morning.
"Can I ask why he thought it wise to break into a government building?" Aron asked, peering over at her.
"Hoover, as you would have put it, had a hard-on about finding out heroes' secret identities so they could blackmail them into helping them with difficult tasks without a care for their safety. Moreso when it came to you," Veil said in a deadpan voice.
"Why?"
"He was secretly running the OSS after the war alongside the FBI before they renamed the organization the CIA. When you broke in, you were nearing your time, so to keep you and the timeline secure or as secure as he could, my maker stole those. Also, he didn't believe he had finished off the Collector. At least not all of him; your other self started to spot the little signs that he or something was keeping the organization alive. However, due to his... condition, in the later months, my maker couldn't keep track of everything as he once did, so he tried to find out where the Collector came from in the first place. If he found anything about it, he never told me. So I do not have the information that would allow me to tell you what you're likely to find in that file cabinet," Veil stated, nodding towards it.
"We'll just set this aside for the moment," Aron said, laying the container onto the desk. "Veil, did I leave any audio files behind relating to what's in there?"
"Bottom drawer, far back," Veil answered quickly.
"Veil, do we have something that can play these?" Aron asked, looking through the stack of mini reels in his hands with names on them that he had no clue who they were about. He was equally confused when the label for a Dr. Sikke Hahn appeared once he had set the small reel down on top of the others.
"Do you have anything in your data banks about whoever this was?" Aron asked, showing her the label as he held it out to her.
"He was a Nazi," Veil stated truthfully.
"Really?"
"Mmmhmm," Veil nodded.
"Okay, I'm kind of proud of myself going off and fighting Nazis," Aron mused down at the reel.
"As you should be, that man was one of the vilest people to have ever existed in that war."
"Even more so than Mengele, Hitler, Goebbels?" Aron asked, rattling the names off the top of his head.
"Even more so," Veil nodded once again. Her eyes glanced down when she heard the scraping of the feet of the chair as Aron pulled the chair out from beneath the desk and spun it around towards her.
"Okay, Veil, tell me everything you know about this man," Aron said, gesturing for her to continue.
"I have to take you back to '39," seeing his nod, taking that as her cue to continue, "three months had passed since my maker had created my physical form," referring to her mainframe and Aron's original suit, "when one night while conducting field tests on the suit, you were approached in a sense..."
"I take it in the form of being surrounded with guns pointing at me," Aron cut in to this Veil agreed.
"Not that you were worried about them; you knew I would protect you," Veil said proudly, puffing out her chest. "So there you stood, pointing your guns at them, them pointing their guns at you. It continued for some time; I was quite amused with myself; he was like you, allowing me to talk to the authorities while my maker would play some word game with himself." Seeing how Aron was thinking back to how he played bejeweled whenever he interacted with the police. "While at the time the US wasn't in the war at the moment, yet they have been keeping watch on heroes, super and non-super alike. So they could use them for their own means without regard for the heros' safety or families. This wasn't the first time the OSS had tried to get you to work with them, yet that night was when you actually gave it some thought when the man in charge stepped out of the car that had you ringed in."
"And just what did this man say to get me to work with them?"
"He didn't necessarily say anything, father, all he did was pull out a picture," Veil said, wondering how he would react.
"Of whom?"
"Henry." Noting the scowl on Aron's face when she said that.
"In or out of costume?"
"Both."
"So I take it they threatened my son, to out him or something if I didn't work with them?" Aron asked, keeping his temper in check.
"More or less," Veil nodded.
"Go on," Aron rolled his hand. Thinking to himself that government agencies hadn't changed in eighty-plus years. Also, thinking of how they could use those with superpowers to their advantage.
"It was in November of that year that you were parachuted into France. You didn't trust them enough to put your life in their hands, so you made your own parachute. The gadgets they gave you, you left those behind. You surmised, and rightly so, that they were subpar and liable to fail. You put your trust in me, and I have never once let you down," Veil stated with pride.
"True, you haven't," Aron agreed, seeing the happiness, which was odd to see in an AI, in Veil's eyes as he said that.
"The Allies at the time were getting reports that Germany was preparing for an invasion on France. You were sent in to verify if those reports were true or not. The SSM, the metahuman team that worked for the SS division of the Nazi party, were starting to soften up the major installations in France for their big invasion. At the time, no one truly knew of the existence of this team. Reports were scattered about, too circumstantial to give any credence to. Yet they did exist. You faced them on the field of battle. Granted not at first, you watched; you waited until you were prepared to make your move against them."
"Why?"
"As my maker put it, they seemed unnatural."
"How so?" Aron asked, intrigued.
"At least to you, it felt like they weren't born with the powers they possessed. The way you hypothesized from your observations of the team was that they were given their powers with the way they handled them. It wasn't like watching Isabel use her flame mutation. Where she moves fluidly with her powers. These five acted reserved, controlled, unsure how the powers given to them would act." He's never once heard of giving a non-metahuman metahuman powers. Yes, there have been government experiments with gene therapy that would produce metahuman powers that were dormant in their own DNA. Not this, not what Veil was telling him; it seemed so... inhuman. "One by one, you picked them off. Seeing how their powers were unnatural, they tended to fail as often as they worked. So you made quick work of them. You tried to interrogate the first four when you had them dead to rights, but they opted for suicide instead of answering your questions. Luckily the last one you knocked out long enough to remove the false tooth, so when you started your interrogation on the man, he couldn't get out of it like the other four.
During that time, you learned a great deal about the Nazi's secret project. One of many they had going on, more so at the beginning of the war than towards the end. Where you learned the Nazis, the SS, in particular, were rounding up people with orders to send the metahumans in their custody or those suspected with metahuman traits to a secret base in Northern Germany. A base lead by no other than Dr. Sikke Hahn."
"I don't see him on the list during the Nuremberg trials," Aron muttered, checking the net for any information on the name.
"And you won't; he escaped before you could capture him."
"Well, that just pisses me off," Aron grumbled.
"As it did, my maker," Veil informed him.
"So continue..." Holding up a hand when he heard his name being called out. "We will continue to discuss this later."
"Of course, father," Veil nodded, following him out of the room and resealing it.
"Thank you for coming in, Void." General Hastings spoke as Aron and Sara stood in the SCIF when Sara had contacted Aron that they had a mission.
"Not a problem; who is the target?" Aron asked, getting down to business.
"You're mission is to take out the world's second most wanted woman on the planet. As you see here," gesturing to the left side of the screen, "her crimes are numerous not just in the States but in fifty other countries we could verify. So far, she has elluded authorities, and those working for her fear her more than they do us. She has a habit of killing those that have turned informants while in custody. Some time ago, our people picked up chatter about a meeting taking place - Where? - we couldn't find out in time to move on the place," noting how Aron looked to Sara, who nodded that it was true, "in that chatter, our target's name was spoken."
Aron watched the footage they had; however, limited it was on the person as it played on the left side of the screen. Arching an eyebrow as Veil was putting up warnings all over his HUD. Knowing he would have to talk to her about that once he was out of that room.
"The name she goes by is Banshee, and she isn't a person to take lightly. She has at least two hundred kills to her name that we can verify. Her age is unknown. As you can see, she has lived for a very long time." Displaying all the reports on her that went back to the early fifties. Which he knew had to be impossible. "We have no idea if this is the same person, a look-alike, clone, robot, or a descendant of the woman we have from the fifties. All we know is she uses the same powers and the monikers as the one from years ago.
We know she is just as deadly as the woman from the fifties. Given her powers and where we have tracked her to." Watching as a satellite image appeared on the screen showing a very well guarded and highly fortified compound in what is now the last stronghold of the Chazr kingdom of their once-great empire that had stretched all across Eurasia that was formed after the war that they had conquered from the Germans. Now all that remained of that vast empire was the dying embers of their kingdom that had shrank back to the borders it once held before the industrial age. A place that wasn't too friendly with the western world and very suspicious of outsiders. Aron knew it would be a perfect place to hide if one was trying to keep out of sight of the global powers since the Chazrians had an isolation policy that kept out all foreigners - at least the non-villainous kind.
"Given how the Chazr kingdom has vast radar stations all long their border to keep track of who enters their air space and surface to air missiles that are prepared to shoot down any who doesn't have their transponder codes. We'll be inserting you at ninety thousand feet, so their radar won't be able to pick you up. I know you like to use your own transportation. I would too if I had that kind of tech at my fingertips," General Hastings said, smirking at Aron. "Yet we can't take the chance that you or your vehicle could be picked up by their radar and have the Chazrians alerting the compound before your arrival, and she flees to ground. This is the best chance we have at taking her out in over five years. I know this mission will be dangerous on your own. Can we count on you to see that Banshee's days are at an end?"
"Consider it done?!" Aron stated with a firm nod.
"Excellent! I'm glad to hear it. Agent Honeybell will brief you on what we know as limited as that is to what you'll be likely to face down there and how you will egress from their kingdom. Your flight will be ready in an hour; Agent Honeybell will escort you to the military airport where your transport is waiting for your arrival. I wish you Godspeed and luck on this mission, Void, and pray you to come back in one piece."
Once the screen was off, no one could see inside the SCIF due to the closed blinds. Sara couldn't help herself as she leapt into Aron's arms. While she knew he was invulnerable to harm. She knew; they all knew about the person Aron was going after; even his mutation wouldn't be able to protect him from that woman's powers. Pouring everything she had, her love, her wants, her desires, into that one kiss, knowing they couldn't be like this once they left the SCIF. How it was going to pain her having to wait and watch from the sidelines. Yet she knew going in there without any powers of her own would only hinder Aron in his mission. Pressing her forehead against his, rubbing her lips together just to imprint the sensation to her mind in case something went terribly wrong.
"I'm going to be okay; you know this, right?" Aron said, seeing the worry in Sara's eyes.
"You can't know that, not when you're going up against her," Sara whispered; her fear was etched onto her words. "Heroes and villains with greater powers than you have fallen to her; scores of agents have been cut down because of her. I fear you'll be the same as all the rest," she said, hugging him tightly once again.
"We won't know that until I face her," Aron said, lightly rubbing her back, trying not to demean her worry. "We best get going," he uttered softly into her ear. Pulling down his mask when Sara backed away. Seeing how she wiped her tears away and put all her emotions behind a mask as she steeled herself for her part in this mission.
"Let's go; we have a car waiting to take us to the airport," Sara said, getting into her agent mentality. All was silent as the two of them walked out of the SCIF. All knew if Aron was there alone, something was about to happen that required his skills. "I want you all to be prepared to lend Void assistance at 1000 Zulu hours. We are taking Banshee down. So I want only the best you all can provide. That means I want detailed reports on what's on the ground and air, any chatter you pick up, sent to the German base outside of Berlin," seeing the shock playing along her agent's faces as they walked through the center of the command room towards the secret elevator that leads down to where they stored their vehicles, "we don't have a lot of time, so get to work people," Sara commanded as she and Aron stood in the cab, nodding to her people as she pressed the button as the doors rolled closed.
"Okay, Veil, what's the problem?" Aron asked once he had turned his voice dampeners on.
"Banshee."
"What about her?" Aron inquired curiously.
"She is one of Dr. Sikke Hahn's experiments," Veil stated, piping in the film footage when his counterpart had raided the man's base. Then the only fight his past self had with her before his death. Arching an eyebrow when he watched himself decapitate her with his original laser pistols.
"Then how is she alive still after that?" Aron asked as he slid into the rear of the tinted-out SUV.
"She steals life. I have extrapolated that with it; she is essentially immortal. Whatever Dr. Sikke Hahn did to her, we could never find out before the base exploded due to the doctor setting the base's self-destruct in the event of it being raided."
"Well... damn," Aron muttered beneath his breath. How was he to kill a villain that was basically immortal? Dropping his chin into his hand as he began to ponder on the problem.
"Please be careful, father; she is extremely dangerous even for you."
"Yeah, I got that," Aron muttered, noting how Sara was slyly glancing at him when she knew he was speaking, yet no sound was coming from him.
"I will try to formulate a plan on dealing with her with the armaments you have on you."
"Is something wrong, Void?" Sara asked in a whisper as she reached over and lightly laid her hand on his forearm.
"No," Aron replied, yet he could see Sara didn't believe it. Seeing the look in her eyes, telling they would talk later once they got onboard the supersonic aircraft that would have them in Germany in five hours. Then Aron would enter a converted fuel pod that the U3 plane would drop once they were over the target to make anyone watching think the aircraft had a mechanical failure. Where the fuel pod would break apart when it reached an altitude where Aron could breathe without the aid of an oxygen mask.
"What are you doing?" Sara asked, noting the driver's eyesglancing back at them.
"Having equipment I need sent to me," Aron answered as his fingers moved over the holographic display that appeared over the sleeve of his left forearm. He had a hunch that Banshee's powers worked on sound vibrations. Which meant if he couldn't hear it, or if it was negated, her life-stealing powers wouldn't affect him. Plus, he would need far more firepower than he had on him to take on that kind of compound on his own. He just hoped the augments he had created for his suit wouldn't drain it too quickly. "Pull over here," he directed when the beacon for his wing appeared on his screen, indicating it was close. Aron was smirking when their voices were speaking over each other as he ensured that Veil had sent the right equipment he needed. "Relax, I'll be back in a few days," Aron said calmly.
"Relax! Relax! You had Veil send you enough weapons to take on an army! How can you tell me to relax!" Vera shouted in worry over his com line.
"Well, you wouldn't like the truth, so... best you don't know about it."
"Dad, who are you fighting?!" Aron was touched by Jill's concerned tone.
"Banshee."
"Oh, God, no. Not her; please tell me you aren't fighting her?!"
"Afraid so," Aron admitted as he checked over the high-powered laser rifle and bazooka that he would need to take out the sentry towers.
"You can't, Dad! She nearly killed you once!" Hearing the gasps of his family members coming over the line.
"Aron, you come home right now!" Aminah stated heatedly. "I forbid you to fight this woman."
"Sorry, but she has to die; she's already taken far too many innocent lives to stay among the living. This is going to happen, whether or not you all like it. This isn't up for debate," Aron said as the shoulder strap for the bag that contained his sound nullifiers, plasma grenades, four bundles of pin missiles, along with his counterpart's original laser pistols in case his new ones got damaged during the battle.
"You listen here, Aron, you will listen to us, or so help me, you will never leave this house again!" Tazia's stern voice filled his ears.
"Well, I guess I just won't come home then," Aron said, cutting off the link as he plucked the two cases off the wing and sent it back to his base. Nodding to Sara as he laid the two cases and his bag of ammo into the back of the SUV.
"So, what did you bring me?" Sara asked, flashing Aron a coy smile to lower the tension she felt in the air.
"Oh, just some party favors, is all," Aron mused beneath his mask as his door closed.
"God! I hate it when he does that?!" Jill spoke in a very controlled, if you count holding it in by a hair's breadth, controlled, voice as the line went dead.
"You're not the only one," Vera grumbled with her sisters nodding along.
"Jill, you said, this Banshee, whoever that is, nearly killed him once; what happened?" Aminah asked, turning to look at her aunt. So she could learn more about this villain her husband was sent off to face all so she could lend aid to him should Aron need it.
"She did until Dad figured out her trick..."
"I know," Veil spoke up, interrupting Jill. "That is why I offered my advice on the matter and why Aron requested the sound dampeners. With some modifications to the overall design of them."
"Oh?!" Jill brightened up at that. "Then, he'll be alright then." A weight lifted off her heart at that moment.
"Would you care to enlighten us, please?" Vera asked again, getting nodding support from her sisters.
"This happened when I was twelve. The Collector wasn't even on the scene. Dad was still working for the OSS at the time."
"Okay, I have to ask, why was he working for them in the first place?" Tazia cut in, noting how Jill's eyes weren't on her but Vera instead when she asked that question.
"Because they had pictures of Henry masked and unmasked," Jill answered, wondering why it appeared to her that Vera knew the answer to that question. "And one or two times of Dad wearing his original suit, checking in on Henry. Given Dad's height and build, they hypothesized that they were related, or that is what he told me when he came home the night he was recruited into the OSS. So they sent him off on missions in Europe during the war. They mostly used him to hunt down the Nazi's super-teams they were trying to make after he had dismantled the SSM in '39."
"The who?" Everyone but Vera and Noah spoke as they asked as one.
"This team they were using at the time to soften France for the invasion they were planning at the time. Dad only delayed it. Still, he did bring to light the people they were using. Given what they did to the SSM members," Jill spoke, remembering like it was yesterday. "Back then, we didn't have these jet cars; heroes were pretty much in the shadows back in those days, at least for those that wore a mask. The citizens at the time thought if you were good and righteous, you had to show your face to prove that you were. You don't want to know what the villains back then did to those who did reveal their faces'. Anyway, so when Dad was gone on his first mission, it was weeks before he came home. So you can imagine how elated Mom was when he came home. Then Dad told us something very disturbing. The truth about what one doctor did to them."
"Jill, don't be a tease like your father," Aminah huffed, crossing her arms, seeing that smile of hers lifting at that.
"What this man did was take the powers of those like us, who were just peaceful people, and implant them into voluntary non-super soldiers of theirs. Mom and Henry had the same look you do when Dad told us that. I don't know for sure if Banshee was one of his experiments or if she was already born with her powers; given Dad's first encounter with her, she was floating in a tube filled with some substance before the base he raided exploded when the man tripped the bases self-destruct. The next time they met was after the Nazis surrendered, yet the secret projects that the Nazis commissioned were still going. So on one of them, he was sent into China when we were Allies when Japan invaded their homeland. When hints of a unit in their country were conducting similar experiments. However, upon arriving at Unit 731 base, he did learn they were running experiments. She was there in the good doctor's stead," Jill said sarcastically in a spat. "Since no one knew what her power was until that moment, Dad was pretty outgunned given the range of her power. For you see, in that fight, Dad figured out how her power worked, but he nearly died doing so."
They looked oddly at Neil, saying he had to look in on something upstairs. Soon after, it was just Jill, Chery, and Carl standing by the mainframe. Jill slyly watched Vera from out the corner of her eye. The few expressions she had seen when she was telling that story had her curious. Tazia had gone off to entertain the kids to keep her mind off of Aron being on his own. Aminah had left ten minutes ago, recounting how she appeared to be thinking behind her eyes like her father did when he was brainstorming.
Excusing herself, once she had noticed where Vera and Noah were going. Stepping out of the elevator just in time to catch them slipping around a corner. Arching an eyebrow, wondering why they were in that section of the first floor. Then recognition set in; she knew why they were there when she could walk on her own after being awakened; she had come down here looking for that display only to find it sealed up. Veil wouldn't open it for her, she had to have the key, something she didn't have at the time. Her heart began to race as she followed after them. Her mind raced about why her father had closed it up when she knew that wasn't how it was.
"You sure this was Aron's suit?" Noah's question stopped her in her tracks. Wondering why... shaking her head, she knew this was her father... her husband after all. She didn't have to ask the reason; she already knew for who it was hidden away for.
"I know?! To imagine Aron in a suit like this makes me think... somewhere out there, in this multiverse, Aron explained to me, there is an Aron that is a hero, I kind of think this is what they would look like."
"You know Dad once told me, when I knew the truth about him, that the two of you from his timeline weren't all that dissimilar to one another. So when I got into that pod, I knew there would be some disparages between my father and the Aron of this time when Dad brought me out of it. I'll tell you now, this Aron is him. But I know the man I called father is gone..."
"Knew you would show up." The prerecorded words Aron had left behind startled them all. "You do take after me, you know."
