The group made their way around the mountain, locating the metal doors hidden in an alcove. Pink Star used some small insects to scout it out. So far it seemed completely solid.

Voidspeaker quietly disabled any cameras the team could find and they made their way to the door.

Captain Hot Devil turned to Wonder Knight.

“Can you pull these open?”

Wonder Knight nodded and moved to the center of the door. He thrust his hands into the center, intent on opening the gap and prying them open.

The door flashed purple and the boy was blown back into the dirt.

Captain Hot Devil frowned.

“Looks like some kind of gravity barrier…guess this is the right place.”

He heaved a sigh.

“Elise was it? Can you do something about this?”

“Affirmative. Warning: Voidspeaker will need to drop barrier for this unit to interface with facility. Capabilities will be reduced due to resumed intrusion. Please anticipate delays.”

Captain Hot Devil crossed his arms and hummed. Alternatively, Voidspeaker could disable the barrier over the door while Wonder Knight pried it open. But that method would also take time and was not very subtle.

And if he knew the Director…there were more tricks prepared than just a barrier on the door.

In that case…having two members of Aurora Legion occupied might be a bad idea.

He nodded.

“Get started, the rest of us will cover her.”

Voidspeaker nodded and dropped the void prison around Elise. Yellow light flashed from inside her helmet once more, but she slowly dragged herself to a panel on the side of the wall. One of her fingers opened up and extended a wire, squeezing its way into the panel…

Alarms started blaring and a full force barrier appeared over the door.

“...Warning: This unit’s intrusion may have been detected.”

“Yeah, we got that!”

Two panels opened up on either side of the door, glowing purple spheres extending out of them. The heroes and Elise were surrounded by purple barriers. Voidspeaker held out his hands, black beams piercing the barriers around him and continuing into the spheres. The light faded from them and the rest of the barriers vanished.

The team heard a door open somewhere and the hum of dozens of engines.

A swarm of drones descended from the mountain, blocking the exit to the alcove. Captain Hot Devil quickly extended his hands, putting up a wall of fire.

Gravity bolts blasted from the wall towards the group, the wall of fire preventing accurate aim.

But there were a great many bolts.

Chronolock blurred, yellow flashes zipping this way and that as she dodged the bolts. Voidspeaker put up a black wall in front of himself, Pink Star, Icy Rose, and Captain Hot Devil. Wonder Knight rushed to cover Elise.

Wonder Knight grit his teeth as he stood in front of the cyborg and took a bolt to the chest. He could feel the strain on his muscles grow as the force of gravity increased on him.

“You have gravity tech too, right? Can’t you do anything about this?!”

“Response: This unit is devoting all resources to resisting intrusion and opening door.”

“Ugh, right.”

Captain Hot Devil spun his hands around and thrust them forward. The wall of fire condensed and then blasted out in a whirling cone. Several of the drones switched from firing bolts to creating a barrier, catching the blaze.

Meanwhile a pink rhinoceros rushed out into the open. The beast immediately began to slow as bolt after bolt crashed into it.

But it had gone far enough.

Chronolock ran for the rhino in stopped time, ducking under the bolts hanging in the air. She climbed on top of the rhino and leapt off it into the air. She sped up her time slightly, still slow enough the drones couldn’t respond, but moving enough for her to interact with the world.

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And she slammed stun batons into any drones she could reach.

She activated a pair of grav boots and boosted through the air, slamming into the drones.

From the perspective of the team, a yellow flash shot into the air and past the drones. And then lighting surged over them, dropping them to the ground.

The team didn’t miss that chance.

Fireballs slammed into downed drones and exploded. Icicles rained down on them, ice growing around the machines and trapping them on the ground. A second Captain Hot Devil appeared, adding pink fireballs to the barrage.

But more drones continued to arrive.

“How much longer?!”

“Response: Expected time to completion currently unknown.”

“Can’t you hurry it up?! We’re sitting ducks out here!”

“Irritated Response: It is not that easy. This unit will go faster if Aurora Legion stops requesting updates.”

But just then, the yellow lights around Elise’s head suddenly died down.

She found her mind clear as more of her processing resources were suddenly freed.

“Status Report: Intrusion intensity diminished. Activating countermeasures. Recommendation: Chronolock should return to team.”

Elise devoted a bit more attention to the hack. The rest she used to activate her Mass-Energy Manipulator Array.

She did not have the resources at present to perform the complex equations of the Array’s energy transfers. But she didn’t have to. Elise, of course, had cached her most commonly used techniques so she wouldn't need to perform calculations from scratch. So she had plenty of methods to choose from that wouldn’t require new calculations on the spot.

As such, Elise’s arms lit up with purple light and a large gravity barrier covered the entrance, blocking the bolts from the new drones.

Aurora Legion stared at the barrier blocking all the bolts, their faces scrunching up. Wonder Knight sighed as Voidspeaker sent a surge of black light over him, removing the effects of the gravity bolts. He, too, looked up at the barrier, crossing his arms.

“Well…it’s nice for this to be on our side, but this still feels kind of weird.”

“Sarcastic Suggestion: This unit could deactivate the barrier if that would make Aurora Legion more comfortable. This unit would, in fact, prefer not to do all the work on this operation.”

“Oh come on! You definitely needed us to fight these things! We’re doing a ton to help you!”

“Request: Please look this unit in the eye and repeat assertion.”

Voidspeaker looked away. Chronolock heaved a sigh at her courageous romantic partner.

The door panel chimed and the doors opened up. As the team ran inside, Elise turned to the drones, her resources now free for a slightly more intensive countermeasure. She brought her hands together as her core glowed purple.

“Activating Singularity Protocol.”

One purple bolt back at the drones…

A singularity exploded into being midair, sucking the drones in. The drones were forced to use their grav-projectors to reinforce their internal structure and avoid being crushed by the massive forces.

Which meant they weren't protecting themselves with external barriers anymore.

And were all pulled into one place.

Cold mist surrounded Icy Rose as she raised her hands. A handful of massive ice spikes shot from the ground up into the cluster of drones, smashing through them all at once.

Aurora Legion stared at Elise as she turned to enter the facility.

“Command: Please proceed with rescue operation. This unit hopes Aurora Legion will find something to do.”

Aurora Legion didn’t respond to that. Captain Hot Devil sighed and walked over to Elise. He put a hand on her shoulder.

“We’re going to rescue them, Elise. We won’t stop until we do.”

“...affirmative.”

----------------------------------------

The handful of security staff Londyn had brought onboard typed furiously at their monitors, activating some traps while specifically deactivating others.

They jumped when the door opened behind them. The Director entered the room and crossed her arms.

“What’s going here?”

“We have intruders, Director!”

“We’re prepared for this, haven’t we?”

“Yes but…”

“But…?”

“It’s…the heroes, ma’am. Captain Hot Devil and Aurora Legion! We’re not supposed to use the lethal traps on them…right?”

I need to stop them…whatever it…

Londyn pinched the bridge of her nose as she heaved a sigh, shaking her head.

“…no, you’re right. We’ll have to think of something else.”

“Ma’am…I know we’re supposed to hold off any intruders but…it’s the heroes, you know? Do we really need to stop them?”

“…it’s not just the heroes though. See that robot there? That’s a Nemesis asset. I’m guessing some Nemesis allies managed to get to Aurora Legion, give them the wrong idea about what’s going on. It’s better for their sake that they don’t get involved here.”

“I see…”

“…in any case, try to stop them.”

“I can stop them.”

Londyn turned around and heaved another sigh.

“PSI Omega, there are five of the most experienced heroes in the league down there. Are you saying you can take them all alone?”

PSI Omega puffed her cheeks and crossed her arms.

“If I could use the device, I could handle all of them.”

“No.”

“Well I figured. I’m not going alone though?”

Londyn’s eyes narrowed.

“Roxanne, what did you do?”

PSI Omega walked over to one of the computers and used it to change one of the screens.

“…Roxanne, we’re going to talk about this.”

“Why? We need them, don’t we?”

“We are NOT relying on monsters and villains.”

“But intruders were en-route and you didn’t want any heroes here, right? That means we needed someone else. So I brought some.”

Londyn glared at the little girl for a bit but PSI Omega held her gaze.

“…This isn’t still about Bob, is it?”

PSI Omega shrugged.

“It’s not the time to ask that, is it?”

Londyn heaved another sigh.

“I suppose it’s not. Can you control them? Prevent any casualties?”

PSI Omega nodded her head.

“…fine. Drive them off then. Do NOT hurt them, understand?”

“I got it.”

With that PSI Omega left the room. Londyn heaved another sigh.

“Keep track of her and support as you can.”

“Yes, Director.”

With that, Londyn left the room.

And headed for the superweapon chamber.

Because if the Nemesis warbot was here after somehow allying with Aurora Legion…

Well, she had a feeling she shouldn’t leave the key to this unattended.

You never know who might show up while everyone else is distracted.