I didn't have to wait too much longer before the rest of the Team arrived at our position, carried by Moya. As they disembarked onto the rooftop, I asked the group "Any problems on your end?"
"Not really," Robin said, looking past me towards the building we were staking out before looking back at me. "It was a bit of a mess over there, everyone scrambling to deal with what happened at the hotel. Easy enough for us to slip in and out without being noticed."
"That feels like more of an accomplishment than it should be," I muttered. "Well, things have been quiet here so far. Far as I can tell the place is dead, save for the technomany-repelling field."
Kid Flash pushed himself off the wall he had been leaning against. "So, what's the plan?"
Starfire, who had moved over to my roof when the team got here, looked at Aqualad. "Can you use your magic to determine what exactly is interfering with Machina's abilities?"
"Perhaps," he replied. "I have had enough basic sorcery training that I can do a simple divination. Though I can't promise it can give much detail, however."
"Whatever you can tell us." Aqualad nodded at the confirmation, and pulled out his water bearers. His tattoos began to softly glow, and he slowly walked to the edge of the roof. While he did this, Starfire looked at Troia. "Your powers are magical, Like Wonder Woman's? Do you have any resistance to magic?"
Troia made a waving gesture. "More than average, but I'm far from immune if that's what you're wondering."
When Aqualad reached the edge he sat cross legged, his water bearers held out in front of him. The streams of water that came out from the hilts were thin and wove together into a helix. Aqualad made a slow gesture and the steams moved forward before stopping just after they entered the edge of the boundary. They then continued further until they touched the building itself.
After a few moments, Aqualad withdrew the water and got to his feet. "I detect no magic."
My brow furrowed."What? How? Whatever's here completely canceled out my technomancy."
"I do not know, I can only tell you there is no magical presence. Maybe it's being blocked by technological means?"
"Not impossible… at the moment I do need effector fields as a medium to use it at range, and those can be blocked. But none of my other sensors picked up anything that can do that."
"No offense Mach, but that gives me all kinds of bad feelings." Everyone looked at Kid Flash, and he frowned. "What? Yeah, he's usually right, but when he hits a blind spot things go sideways fast."
That… was unfortunately accurate.
Starfire turned to Miss Martian with a meaningful look, who nodded in response. Miss Martian's eyes glowed white for a moment before they faded and she shook her head. "No minds are in the building. At least, none that I can sense."
Our leader grunted in frustration. "This is getting us nowhere. It seems the only way to find out what's inside is to go in ourselves. Here is what we'll do..."
We spent the next several minutes going over the plan of attack, what our teams would be, points of ingress/egress, contingencies, ect. Miss Martian and Kid Flash would be staying outside with me, to help keep an eye out for anyone trying to leave or enter. The others would head in and try to clear the building.
We split up into our respective goals, Miss Martian and Kid Flash moving out to different vantage points. With a thought I called down several of my stealth drones from Moya, positioning them so that I had all angles of the building covered but keeping them out of the radius. "By the way, did you guys find anything interesting at the estate?"
Robin commed back "The docs I found detailed how they got the artifacts; where, when, things like that. They didn't just stumble on them though, they were commissioned to find them. By one Blake White, which is an alias if I ever heard one, though the money was good enough the Takashima didn't care."
My brow furrowed. "Wait, if someone commissioned them, why did they then turn around and try to sell them at an auction?"
"Seems like negotiations fell through at the last minute. Didn't get the details but it seems the buyer got cagey. So, they just threw them in with the auction they had coming up. Which… is a little too convenient if you ask me."
"What do you mean?"
"It's a hunch, but I think this was White's intention from the start. Get a third party to get what you're looking for, then steal it from them when it's vulnerable, like during an auction. If you do it right, minimal cost, and no one knows you were ever involved."
I mulled on that for a moment, but then Starfire commed "We're in position, be ready on my mark."
From my drones I saw Robin move up to a side door on the ground floor, pulling some wires from his wrist computer and keeping them ready. Troia and Starfire were behind him, pressed up against the wall. On the other side of the building Aqualad, Artemis and Superboy stood ready, looking up at a window on the second floor.
"Go."
Robin plugged the wires into the electronic lock and started typing. However, he didn't get very far before he slapped a switch and retracted the wires, quickly shaking his head. A no go. On cue, Troia stepped up and 'opened' the door, the thing simply wrenching out of it's frame as she tossed it aside. She moved into the doorway, followed by Robin and Starfire.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Aqualad lashed out with his water bearers to latch onto the window frame. He then pulled himself up and launched through the window in one smooth motion. Superboy picked up Artemis and threw her, the girl gracefully tumbling through the now open window. Superboy flew up to follow and disappeared from sight.
I sent a ping out to their comms but, as predicted, I got nothing back. Either the field I had sensed earlier was cutting it off, or the building was simply EM shielded. I looked in the direction Miss Martian was hanging, and a moment later she commed to me "The psychic link's intact, they're moving through the building. No contacts."
And all that was left for those of us on the outside was to wait. We didn't have to wait too long though, as a minute or so later, Miss Martian spoke up again. "They've swept most of the building, and there doesn't seem to be anyone there. No creatures, no traps, no resistance of any kind."
Somehow that didn't put me at ease. I paced a little as I tried to figure out what was going to go wrong. Another magical attack originating from outside the building? This being a diversion for something worse? The building just exploding on us? Argh, I was driving myself in circles, to the point where it felt a little difficult to focus on any one thing.
After another minute or so of silence, Miss Martian spoke up again. "They've found something, in the basement. The rest of the building is empty, but the basement has been renovated. Looks recently used."
"Well, what exactly is it?"
"There's a high end computer terminal built into a wall, a few crates of preserved food stuff, and several beds. Robin thinks it's a safe house."
"An empty one," I muttered. "We'll have to tear it apart and see if we can find anything."
"Robin says he's doing that right now," Miss Martian confirmed. "Seems like the computer takes up the entire wall it's built into. Very advanced… and possibly alien?"
That… what? "Alien? Does he know what kind?"
A pause. "No, he doesn't know how to identify it, just that it doesn't look Earth made."
I let out something between a growl and a grumble. I had no idea how alien tech fit into this puzzle. Why would someone who had a safe house full of the stuff be after a magical artifact? I suppose whoever this belonged to could have diverse interests, but there was a very short list of people who did that in the comics. Ra's was the only one I could think of off the top of my head.
The only other one that was close, and in recent memory, would be-
Motion behind me caused me to turn, and I saw Justice Rider pulling herself up onto the opposite side of the roof. "I'm back," she said flaty, striding towards me. "What did I miss?"
Guess whatever it was got resolved quickly, I thought. "Starfire is investigating the building as we speak, along with… some drones of mine." We had talked around the fact that the rest of the team was here with us, but I was pretty sure Rider had read between the lines. Either way, I looked back towards the building, my agitation growing. Something about this whole situation didn't feel right, a twinge in my metaphorical gut. If only I could focus on the right thing…
Wait. This wasn't like me. I've never actually felt this agitated since becoming post-human. Something wasn't just wrong with the situation, something was wrong with me. And the low level Core-Loop Reinforcement I always had running agreed, now that I was paying attention to it. I didn't know what, but something was intentionally distracting me. So, what was the thing I wasn't paying enough attention to-
I spun and grabbed Rider's wrist just before she plunged some kind of black spike into my back. The moment my hand touched her arm, Core-Loop Reinforcement spiked in intensity. The mandala spread over my hand and the other person's figure… wavered. No, not that, more like she became hard to look at, my eyes just slipping off of her as all the details of her person just blurred together. Even as the protections on my mind increased, My mind raced as I tried to figure out what I was looking at, just what the hell was going on-
Stop. I scowled. Every time I've come up against something that I didn't understand, something that affected me when it really shouldn't, I've gotten screwed over. To hell with that.
I shifted to flight form and blasted wind and lightning in every direction, throwing the woman back from me. An instant later I shot into the air, the elements still raging around me. "Team, I'm under attack by someone impersonating Justice Rider!" I commed. It wouldn't reach most of the team, but Miss Martian should be able to relay it.
Several loud bangs suddenly came from the building my team was in. Looking towards it I didn't see any fire or wreckage, but I could guess they had their own problems to deal with. Shit.
I then caught a faint distortion in the air right before it rushed me. Just like 'Rider' I couldn't get a good look at it, but I threw up an arm with a hard shield just before it rammed into me. The distorted thing was only the size of a beach ball, but it had a surprising amount of force behind it, knocking me back in the air.
Invisible drones? Seems familiar, I thought, forming a sonic cannon with my free hand. As this one pressed close though, I could feel the pressure scraping against my mind increase. I did not want that thing touching me. I forced it away with my shield arm and blasted it with a mix of thunder and lightning with the other. The distortion cleared when the metal pieces rained down to the ground.
More out of instinct than anything else, I formed shield mechadendrites in a shell around me, just before several more of the things tried to get close. These things must have been in the safe house and managed to sneak out somehow. I could focus on that later though, as at the moment I wanted to avoid getting hugged to mind-death.
The next dozen seconds were clumsy and frantic, with me trying to open gaps in my shields and blast them faster than they could slip in or push me around. I could only see their vague impression in the air when they were close, so I couldn't see where they were coming from. Even as I destroyed one after the other they smashed me through the air, down lower and lower. Before I knew it the last one rammed me from above, forcing me down onto a roof with enough force that my feet buried into the asphalt.
I destroyed it, but out of the corner of my eye I saw the vague shape of 'Rider' launching at me from the side, fast enough that I didn't have time to pull away. But not so fast I couldn't regain my footing to meet her. I turned, my cannon arm stretching out to blast her back-
Suddenly, the distortion around her disappeared, and I got my first clear look at the person. It was actually a slight man, middle eastern and with some noticeable cybernetics embedded in the side of his head. He was dressed in military gear.
He was a Bialyan soldier.
I hesitated.
The man's dead expression didn't change as he slipped past the gap in my shield and he drove the spike into my chest. It didn't change as the now point blank cannon fired into his face an instant later, his head snapping back with a sickening crunch. He was flung away from me, but I soon found I had other things to worry about.
My body spasmed from the point of impact, trying to remove the spike but failing as the damned thing unfolded into tendrils and started digging into my body. The nanites it came in contact with turned… cold and foul, for lack of a better term. A 'taste' I was familiar with., and now that it was this close and clear I could see the New God circuitry. Apokolipian tech. And it felt like this particular bit was specifically made with me in mind.
I grit my teeth and forced my magic down to the area, and then twitched as my nanites actually started to burn. I didn't normally ascribe emotions to the Algorithm, but it didn't like the energy the spike was pouring into me. Functions and data were rapidly deployed, processed and evolved as it did everything to shunt and destroy the invading energy. Slowly but surely, I started pushing the infection back.
And then I got hit with something else, a crushing pain that felt separate from cold burn. More than that though, this sensation was a different kind of familiar. A sort of overwhelming pressure on my mind that had nearly killed me before. "I guess it was too much to hope," I ground out. "That you'd just disappear."
As if he was standing right next to me, I heard his voice again. "You cost me a great deal of money and reputation the last time we met. And I don't ever let something like that go without retribution."
The Calculator was just as unpleasant as I remembered. Still I managed a smirk, "Would you say your revenge is… calculated?"
The pressure spiked again. "Oh do shut up." He snapped. He did not appreciate that.
My body went completely still as I focused all of my attention inward, my personal datascape showing just what was happening. I saw the Apokolpian spike as a slow red flame, branching out and burning into my body yet somehow cold to the touch. At the same time there was something else twisting in those flames, familiar dark tendrils that used it like vines growing on a tree. The first time I had seen the Calculator's power they had looked like solid mist but now… they looked more like folds of space, with something hiding just beneath the surface.
At some point I'm going to have to analyze the metaphors I use for this thing, I thought, pushing back on the two separate invading forces. Even if my comm signal had been blocked, I let out a pretty big light show, so some of my team must have noticed. And if Kid Flash has noticed, he could be here any second. Whether or not anyone could do anything when they got here was a different matter.
So I wasn't going to take this lying down… but how the hell could he lock me down like this? I was able to fight him off the last time, and I was considerably stronger now than I used to be. Was the Apokoliptian tech really enhancing him that much? Such as it was, even if he didn't have control, he had a 'grip' on almost my entire mass. I didn't have enough physical coordination to dislodge the spike, and it was taking a lot of effort and power to hold him at bay. "So, you set this whole heist just to drag me out? Thought you'd have better things to do." I remarked with some strain, trying to draw whatever I could out of my assailant.
"Not everything is about you." I could feel the sneer. "I was fortunate enough that I finished business even after you started nipping at my heels, even if you made it less of a success than I wanted. Getting to test the toys I made to kill you is just a happy little coincidence."
I tried to focus on overpowering him like I did last time, but as I did I lost focus on the Apokolipian spike and lost more of my mass to it. I wasn't getting anywhere just by pushing back, not while fighting on two fronts. How exactly did his power work? My study of New God tech had some massive holes in it (even with Rommie's help), but maybe I could figure out a way to undermine the Calculator's ability and give me an advantage. While I continued to hold the twin invading forces at bay, I used what little processing power I had left to run a diagnostic check. I had a lot more insight into my nanites and systems than I used to, maybe there was an answer there.
I scroll through my systems, trying to figure out which things were malfunctioning directly due to his power rather than a second order effect… and I found it in an unexpected place. My Bleed managing systems are registering interference? And it's affecting the quantum space between my nanites. So that means...
He was using quantum waveform manipulation. That… was surprisingly close to how my nanites communicated. What did that- no, focus. How do I use this? I knew from when he controlled me that the connection wasn't one way, he got stimulus back. And if he's using quantum waveforms as a signal, that means if I interfere with it… it can suffer feedback. The communication function of my nanites normally couldn't be used like that.
But my magic, as it does, lets me cheat.
So, I analyzed the wavelengths as fast as I could and loaded up my Interface script with as many destructive patterns as I could and launched it at the dark tendrils. It wasn't as clean as I would have liked, but it certainly did it's job as the things started waving erratically.
I heard the Calculator hiss, and the pressure lessened. I started tuning the wave patterns, tweaking them so that the tendrils started to twist and distort in shape, straining against themselves. The pressure lessened, and the man made more sounds of pain. "What is- err! How?! This is your doing isn't it?!"
I chucked as I gained enough ground to start forcing the spike out of my chest. "Even with alien super-tech giving you a leg up, you still can't get-"
At that moment the waveforms I was making reached a sort of resonance, and something… changed. The waveform tendrils stretched so much they tore, and suddenly I was seeing into the space they hid. I saw into that hollow space where Dominion was bound, but the black threads which cut into the dead god's flesh were starting to fray. They tore apart at the stress I put them under, several snapping entirely.
This time, when the head looked at me, there weren't any strings pulling it.
I felt something akin to a distant roar, like a wave building up in the distance. As it came towards me, the Calculator spoke, but I swore that something else spoke with him. "Y-you are no-not beyond my reach!"
Suddenly a new pain blossomed in my abdomen, but this was almost welcome. Because I recognized it as high energy plasma, and as my nanites burned away so did the spike. I felt a massive shock to my system as the connection was broken, and the remaining infection was burned away by my own power.
I collapsed to the ground, unmoving for a few seconds as I regained control of my body. I was left staring up at Kid Flash and Starfire standing over me, the latter looking at me in concern and the former looking rapidly from my chest to Starfire. "What- you- why would that be your first solution?!"
"Because we've talked about this," I answered, propping myself up to look at the hole in my sternum. It went clear all the way through. "If I ever get incapacitated or taken over by something attached to me, she can remove it by any means necessary. After all," The hole started to fill in as I pulled on my reserve mass. "I can rebuild."
"Machina, are you stable?" Starfire asked.
"I'm clear," I stood. "Seems the Calculator has been making friends. He tried to take me over again. I fought him off, but he implied he's the one who arranged for the artifact to be stolen." Assuming he was telling the truth, though I couldn't take that at face value.
I looked over at where I had knocked aside my assailant, and saw only a charred mess. Starfire followed my gaze and said "We found them burning when we reached you. Was that the person who attacked you? Did you..."
I shook my head, not taking my eyes off the body. "No. I shot him in the head, that shouldn't have burned the rest of him. I guess… his cybernetics were wired up to burn." It would fit the bastard's M.O., after all. I looked back at her. "I heard explosions in the building. Is everyone alright?"
"Everyone's fine. It seems the terminal and much of the room was also made to destroy themselves. No one sustained much damage, fortunately." She glanced at the burnt corpse and scowled. "The Calculator is detestable as ever. Did he say where he had taken the artifact to?"
I shook my head. "No. Honestly, if it's not here, I don't know where he could have taken it."
She held her scowl for a moment longer before it changed to resignation. "I see. I am afraid that means this mission is over."
There wasn't much else to be done after that. We tore the safe room (what was left) apart, but everything of worth had been burned out. The less said about the person who attacked me, the better. When the real Justice Rider returned and we explained what happened she was… less than pleased. I'm not sure how much she blamed us, but she did say that we had to leave immediately if we didn't want to get involved with the authorities. And made it very clear she would be contacting the League about this.
Shortly thereafter, we got on Moya and left. With the destruction of pretty much all evidence and leads, plus how much of a ruckus we had caused since we got here, we couldn't stay in Japan. Not to mention everyone biological was starting to feel the jet lag from being up for so long. So we headed home, and none of us felt happy about it.
Everyone else was asleep in their seats while I piloted Moya. Well, she could fly herself well enough, I just needed to keep an eye on things. At that moment though, I was at one of the windows looking down at the planet pass below. I had a lot to think about… and a lot I didn't want to think about.
Motion behind me caused me to turn. "Shouldn't you be resting?" I asked quietly.
"I don't need that much sleep," Donna replied as she stepped up next to me. "Not since my abilities awakened."
I hummed. "So, what do you need?"
She gave me an odd look. "Why would you assume I needed something from you?"
I paused… and found I had a hard time answering that. "I, uh, guess it's a bit of a habit."
She hummed. "You looked deep in thought. I was curious about what."
I huffed. "What else? How things went wrong." I looked back at the planet helplessly. "I don't know how many more times this can happen. Hell, at this point I'm not sure it's possible to even do this 'covert superhero' thing right. One missed detail and… you get this mission."
"Batman seems to manage it."
"No he doesn't." I shot back. "Not against supervillains. Gotham knows anytime he goes up against the Scarecrow or Mister Freeze." I sighed and looked back. "Somethings going to give, and I'm worried if we don't find a different way it's going to be us. I can't let that happen to these guys, but I feel like I'm barely keeping ahead myself."
She stared at me for a moment before she leaned against the wall, folding her arms over her chest while her expression softened. "Are you doing alright?"
"What? Yeah, I'm fine. I mean, aside screwing up, causing a bunch of destruction to a hotel and losing one of the artifacts."
She frowned and looked downward. "Yeah, that got a bit messy… but I was talking more about you personally. After the whole getting 'hacked' thing."
"Oh, that. Well, it's not exactly the first time."
She looked at me in alarm. "Wait, what? This has happened more than once?"
"Frustratingly, yes." I muttered. "There's a very short list of things that can affect me like that, and I seem to run over all of them. This last one was a mix of alien super technology and a techopath that treats people like pawns." Thinking back, I wondered what happened to Abra. As far as I knew he was still in that dimension we fought in. I would have a lot of pointed questions for him about just what he did to me… and why it resembled my current abilities so much. "I think he showed me the face of the man he was puppeting just to twist the knife."
"That sounds… awful."
I kept my face neutral. "It's… not good. To be honest though, it's kinda par for the course at this point. Hell, I'm pretty sure I've legitimately died twice in the past four months."
Donna looked at me for several, long moments. "...I'm going to re-ask my question: Are you ok?"
I stared back for a long moment before I joined her in leaning against the wall. "...I think so. I'm not sure I know what that even means for me anymore. But there's people to look after, so I just keep moving forward."
Her blue eyes shifted from me to the world below us. "This life takes its toll, doesn't it?"
I made a small gesture. "Mine's been even more eventful than average. Don't worry about it too much, I'll be f-"
I quickly cut myself off and glanced at Kori, the woman suddenly stirring in her seat. I watched carefully as she murmured unhappily before turning over and drifting off again. I let out a small breath and looked back at Donna. "Anyway… thanks. For asking."
She smiled softly. "Don't worry about it. After all," She looked from the assembled team back to me. "There's people to look after."