Central City, Farano Enterprises, 7:34 PM.
July 9th, 2010.
“This still seems like a pretty bad idea,” Aiden said honestly.
Selena snorted.
“You said to watch out for ploys that would end up with me doing something out of the ordinary; I left my USB at work in my rush to get home; it isn’t a ploy, nobody knows about it except me,” Selena explained, bemusedly. “I just need to sync it up, and then we can leave.”
Aiden just shook his head.
“I know it’s not a scheme,” Aiden rolled his eyes behind his mask, “You’ve already explained as much; the problem is people will be looking for you here.”
“Luckily, I have my new bodyguard to protect me,” Selena said smugly. “This is my office.”
Aiden gave up again; he was at least a thousand percent sure they were going to get attacked at this point. It was indeed her office, judging by the nameplate on the door.
“Wait here for a minute,” Aiden said seriously, before stepping in front of her.
He spent a moment scanning the area with his Ki sense, but there was nobody around, he opened the door, keeping himself between it and Selena, but there was no explosion or anything. He stepped inside and investigated for a moment before giving her the all-clear.
“Looks clear to me, stay within a couple of meters of me regardless, in case I need to protect you,” Aiden said evenly.
“Thanks,” Selena strode into the room and sat down at her desk.
Aiden watched as she rifled around with her drawers for a moment before finding what she was looking for. Then she plugged it into the computer, and he stared at her dryly as a long loading bar popped up on the screen.
“It hasn’t been synced in like three days,” Selena said defensively. “It will only take a couple of minutes.”
If this were a movie, this would be the exact time-
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Aiden said in disbelief, stepping up to stand directly behind her. “Don’t move; there are three people rapidly moving towards the building.”
Selena looked gobsmacked.
“It wasn’t a ploy!” Selena said defensively.
“I know; they must have seen us arrive somehow,” Aiden said seriously. “It doesn’t matter, how long until it’s done?”
“Two minutes,” Selena said worriedly.
Aiden was close enough to her that he could lay his hand on her shoulder in an instant, so he wasn’t worried about that. He was trying to figure out who the three villains would be; there was a really small one, which might have been the ninja chick?
“They're in the vents now; one of them at least.” Aiden frowned; they were sneaky little assassins. “The others are moving directly here via the stairs; we will probably have to leave the USB unless you want to wait for them to arrive.”
“It’s almost done.” Selena said bravely, “You can stop them for a minute?”
“If they come in here, I will,” Aiden said easily, “I’m not going to leave you on your own; I’ve seen far too many horror movies to make that mistake, Selena.”
She snorted quietly.
“Stay in the chair,” Aiden said seriously, placing his finger against her back. “They’re here.”
Aiden focused, and everything seemed to slow down around him; Two of them were outside of the door, crouched at the frame, the third was inside the vent in the corner of the room. He could hear their breathing before he heard a male voice speak.
“They are already here; we're out of time.” The largest one crouched outside the door murmured. “KF, take him down.”
The door slammed open at the same time as the vent in the corner of the room fell inwards, and Aiden watched it all as if in slow motion, his Ki ready to envelop them both.
He paused; these obviously weren’t the assassins.
Kid Flash blurred into the room, and he snapped his head around as the kid circled the desk in an instant, coming straight for him. He braced himself as the blurring kid smashed into him, attempting to tackle him away from Selena.
The floor cracked as he held his ground, and Kid Flash let out a grunt of pain, hands still wrapped around his torso as he tried to lift him off his feet.
Aiden grabbed him by the shoulder and lifted him off the floor before tossing him straight at where his teammate was barreling towards the desk; Aqualad caught him, sending them skidding back several feet from the force. Robin swung into the room from the vent, taking in the scene for a moment.
Aiden made no move to follow them, keeping his vigil behind Selena with his hand resting on her shoulder.
“You’re not an assassin,” Robin said belatedly.
“He’s my bodyguard,” Selena said hesitantly, “Aren’t you Batman's sidekick, Robin? What are you doing here?”
“We have intel that suggests that you would be attacked,” Aqualad said calmly as he stood back up. “We came to monitor the situation and intervene; we were unaware that you had employed a bodyguard and mistook him for an assassin about to kill you.”
It was pretty much what Aiden had assumed once he had spotted Kid Flash coming through the door.
“A metahuman bodyguard,” Kid Flash added groaned, standing upright. “That was like trying to tackle a brick wall.”
“Who are you?” Aqualad interjected.
“Bubbles, a superpowered bodyguard for hire; tell your friends,” Aiden said, amused.
“What kind of name is Bubbles?” Robin said, bewildered.
“I don’t want to hear that from the kid named after a bird,” Aiden returned, “Mind sharing who you think was after her? Our best guess was the League of Shadows.”
“You are most likely correct; we believe the League of Shadows is involved in this.” Aqualad said steadily, “Ms. Gonzalez, are you aware of why they are after you?”
Selena spent a moment thinking over her answer before sighing.
“I’ve had dealings with Cadmus Labs in the past,” Selena said simply. “The League of Shadow has some kind of connection to Cadmus; I don’t know what it is. I assume they were hired to remove anyone who might know anything that could get them into more legal trouble after everything that happened recently.”
Another three presences appeared at the edge of his range, moving swiftly towards the building. Most likely, the rest of their team, which would mean that it was Superboy, Ms. Martian, and- The last one could be either Artemis or Power Girl; he wasn’t sure if the first had joined the team yet, which meant that one of them was missing.
The problem was that two of them were much larger then what he would peg either of those girls as. The signatures almost felt like grown men.
“Aqualad,” Aiden interrupted, “Did you come here alone?”
Aqualad eyed him for a moment, silently.
“Is this where you turn out to be the assassin after all and try to kill us all?” Robin said curiously.
The tension in the room ratcheted up at the flippant comment.
“There are three people who just entered the building,” Aiden clarified, “Are they your teammates?”
Aqualad stilled, before shaking his head.
“No, we came alone,” Aqualad said firmly, “Robin, KF, three hostiles incoming, get ready. How far away are they?”
“They are two floors below us,” Aiden didn’t move from his place behind Selena. “One floor now.”
Robin ducked out of the room and vanished, moving down the hallway and then somehow getting up into a corner of a room and staying there out of sight. Kid Flash stepped out into the hall and stood before the doorway, pulling his goggles down over his face in preparation.
“Can we count on your assistance?” Aqualad asked seriously.
“I’ll be protecting Selena,” Aiden said simply. “I won’t be fighting.”
Strangely enough, he felt a little upset at the idea of missing out on fighting, but he stamped down on the feeling. He was here for business; he wasn’t going to do something stupid like leave his client alone.
“Very well,” Aqualad said evenly.
“Incoming!” Kid Flash called, and Aqualad stepped out into the hall.
The sound of shattering glass followed from down the hall, and the sound of something heavy and metal smashing into wood.
“How long?” Aiden said idly. “I can get you out now.”
Selena had been completely quiet, no doubt scared that there were actually people coming to kill her after all, but she managed to get herself together enough to answer a moment later.
“Let’s wait,” Selena said hurriedly. “There's only twenty seconds left.”
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Robin had joined in on the fighting, attacking the three from behind the second they had passed him by; the sneaky little guy. Kid Flash was dashing around the room, and Aqualad was in close range to one of the three.
The problem was that the three signatures of the assassins were now in between the heroes and the room, and one of them had broken off towards the room.
“Incoming,” Aiden murmured, “Three, two, one-”
“It's finished!” Selena called and snatched the USB from the computer.
The door opened, and three small metal objects crossed the distance with unerring accuracy, straight towards Selena’s face. Aiden instantly brought the Ki Sheild forth; he had been preparing to use for almost five minutes now, and it flashed into existence around them both.
The spinning metal objects tinked off the shield and fell to the floor as a short woman with a green costume, white mask and a massive amount of black hair slipped into the room.
“Shuriken?” Aiden scoffed, “Do you think you’re a ninja or something?”
Aiden scooped Selena up into a bridal carry, and the ninja lunged forward before stabbing her weapon into the shield. The attack landed with an audible crack as the tip of her blade snapped off, and he slowly lifted off the floor.
“Lame,” Aiden said, amused, heading for the window. “Samurai are much cooler.”
“Running away?” The ninja taunted coyly, “From little old me?”
“I’m worried that your cringe might be contagious; I’m not taking any chances,” Aiden called over his shoulder and flew straight through the window frame.
“Whoa!” Selena yelped.
The walled shattered outwards as the shield came into contact with it, completely unyielding, and then they were outside, four stories off the ground and flying away from the building. He could feel the two assassin’s break off from inside the hallway, leaving the fight entirely.
The ninja girl swung outside of the building somehow and gave chase, coming after them.
“Huh,” Aiden said, surprised, “The ninja girl is coming after us; we have a couple of options here; would you like to hear them, or should I just take us to another city?”
“Um,” Selena said, startled, “I always like to hear my options.”
Aiden simply nodded.
“Option number one, we can string out the chase for a little while, try and tire her out; then I can capture her.” Aiden offered, “The downside is that she might not get tired, I don’t know if shes got powers, and she might try to escape whatever I use to tie her up because, well, she's a ninja.”
The ninja was still following them, and Aiden was deliberately staying in visual distance until Selena had made her choice. That strange urge to go back and fight the ninja was sitting at the back of his mind, itching.
“Option number two, I just pour on the speed and get us across the city.” Aiden said easily, “The downside to that they might not stop trying to find us tonight, and we would have to move again when they found us.”
“Option number three would be to just go to another city?” Selena guessed correctly, “Hm. Could you beat them in a fight?”
That feeling was growing by the second.
“Easily,” Aiden forced the feeling down, “But if I’m fighting them, there's a chance something could go wrong and endanger you, so I would suggest that we just evacuate..”
Saying the words was a lot harder then he anticipated. He was starting to feel distinctly off, and he didn’t like the feeling. He’d never been one to be overcome with an impulse like this before, not that he had noticed anyway; it was exceedingly jarring.
“Let's evacuate then,” Selena said firmly.
“Do you have any friends in other cities?” Aiden asked, already speeding up.
“How fast can you get us to Philadelphia?” Selena said curiously.
Aiden blinked; why did she pick there? Was this some kind of attempt to tell him that she knew who he was?
“Less than an hour, why?” Aiden said calmly.
“I have a friend that we can stay with there for a little while,” Selena explained, “She has a pretty good computer as well, so I can keep on working from there.”
Alright, maybe he was being a little paranoid.
“Philadelphia is it,” Aiden said easily, “Hold on tight.”
Selena leaned in and wrapped her arms around his neck, and he made sure the shield was still holding strong before zipping off to the east.
----------------------------------------
Philadelphia, West Ritner Street, 8:27 PM.
July 9th, 2010.
“Well, that’s West Ritner,” Aiden said, shrugging. “You can’t remember the number?”
“I haven’t been to her place since I was like six,” Selena said dryly, “I’ll send her a message.”
Aiden just nodded; two decades was a long time, but he could still remember the exact street and number his best friend had lived at back then.
“Does she own the place?” Aiden asked idly.
“No, her parents were renting it, some deal with the owner.” Selena said distractedly, “I spoke to her, uh, a month ago? She was still living there then, she was having some difficulty with the new owners though, thought she might have to move soon.”
Aiden listened to the string of random information he really didn’t care about. Selena’s phone dinged as she received a return message, and she looked around for a moment before spotting whatever she was looking for.
“It's like another block that way,” Selena pointed and started walking.
Aiden fell in step beside her, staying close.
“Any chance she is secretly one of the ninja’s?” Aiden asked seriously. “What does she do for work? “
“There's absolutely no way,” Selena laughed, “She’s a school teacher, I can’t think of anyone less likely to be a ninja in secret.”
“Which is exactly the kind of person who would secretly be a ninja,” Aiden commented dryly, “I’ll take your word for it, though.”
They stopped in front of a small single-story building, and Aiden followed her up to the door. Selena knocked on the door, and Aiden kept his hand on her shoulder in case the building exploded or something, but nothing happened for a moment. He could hear footsteps stumbling for a moment before they approached the door and opened it.
A woman with shoulder-length brown fuzzy hair, blue eyes, and a shapely figure appeared, blinking at them.
“Selena, what are you doing here?” The woman said hesitantly, “I got your message, but I thought you’d still be in Central City.”
“Byrna,” Selena said awkwardly, “Can we come in? I don’t want to get shot standing around outside.”
Byrna’s eyes went wide at the comment and opened the door to let them both in. Aiden narrowed his eyes at the woman; her voice was too familiar, her name was a strange one as well.
“What’s your last name?” Aiden said calmly, staring at the woman.
He shut the door behind him, and she bit her lip for a moment before speaking.
“I’m Byrna Brilyant, nice to meet you?” Byrna said nervously. “Who are you exactly?”
That was a supervillain name if he’d ever heard one, and that was definitely the high-pitched voice he’d heard on the phone when he had called The Blue Snowman, the one without the digitizer.
Aiden stared at her for several moments, and the woman laughed nervously.
“Chill out, Byrna,” Aiden said wryly, “I will remain as unobtrusive as I can whilst here; please go about your life as if I’m not here.”
“O-oh, okay.” Byrna squeaked before turning around and striding into the kitchen.
Selena followed her a moment later, confused.
Aiden calmly followed them, trying to put it all together. Selena clearly didn’t know that Byrna was the Blue Snowman because that reference had gone straight over the sharp woman's head. So they weren’t hiding in a secret ninja’s house, they were hiding out in a secret supervillains house.
Surprisingly enough, it would be safer here.
Blue was the one who had contacted him about protecting her, to begin with, and she obviously hadn’t expected to have to host them only a day later. So he had discovered her identity by accident, this would give him some leverage when it came to any further deals.
Judging by the powered Snowman armor, she obviously knew something about engineering and the design and repair of advanced technology. He could probably get her to make him a proper mask, so he could get rid of this damn balaclava and ceramic oval.
He was entirely sick of his face itching.