Zooming in with the Rocket suit’s sensors, I realized something. I knew this guy. I’d last seen him while fighting Rook and other operatives of the Nine at another lab analyzing alien technology, that one on Earth.
I’d worked for a company called Higher Ground and this guy, Victor, had been my co-worker, mentor, and semi-supervisor in an internship that was an undercover mission. Victor had seemed nice enough at first.
After a little bit though, I realized he was harassing the administrative assistant. By the (explosive) end of the internship, he’d not only used her DNA (without her consent) to create Earth’s version of the True, but also used the Abominator birthing chambers to give himself an Abominator Citizen’s Mark, and a transformation into a nine-foot-tall guy with purple-tinged skin and teleportation powers.
I’m sure there’s a universe where that seems like a reasonable series of choices, but in mine, it seemed creepy and weird.
He showed up in superhero news now and then. Superfans and the press referred to him as the Purple Legionnaire which might be clever in the same universe where making that transformation seemed reasonable.
The Legionnaire name came from how he wore a breastplate and metal skirt resembling Roman soldiers.
Cassie sighed over the comm, “Hey this is weird, but Mr. Sparkles says that everything in this room is off limits. He can’t get into any of the research equipment. He says there’s someone else here with a Citizen’s Mark and whoever that is outranks him and I’ve got to turn access on again.”
Jaclyn twitched, moving her gaze around the room, taking it in more quickly than I could, “I don’t see anyone in here but us. There isn’t a leftover command from the Abominators is there?”
“I think it’s Victor,” I said. “He’s got a Citizen’s Mark and I don’t know how, but he’s here.”
“Where?” Cassie turned toward me, “Show me where.”
I send pictures to everyone. The first showed the room except with an arrow that pointed down toward the Starplate. The second showed the zoomed-in version of Victor as a dust-covered outline of himself.
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“Crap,” Cassie peered in his direction, “I remember that guy. Why isn’t he moving?”
“I don’t know,” I said, watching in case he did.
He didn’t.
“Weirder yet,” Marcus said, “did you notice what he’s on? We’ve got one of those and it’s in the middle of a cluster. Do you think it’s an Artificer relic?”
“I don’t know,” I said, “but that would be bad.”
Rachel dropped to be closer to the rest of us, “I’ve seen a few of them over the past year. They might not be an Artificer thing, but they’re spread out all over the galaxy.”
“Look,” Jaclyn said, “I don’t know how it would work, but my gut feeling is that he’s trapped there. I don’t like this idea, but should we get him out if it means he can help us find the device?”
Still watching Victor, I said, “I don’t like that idea. He teleported half the team into the middle of Lake Michigan the last we fought him. Plus, Rook can force Victor to do anything he wants courtesy of the Dominators. So I don’t know what he’s doing here, but he’s got to have a mission.”
Peering in Victor’s direction, Jaclyn nodded, “I remember the teleports. I knew it couldn’t be simple, but I thought we needed to ask the question because we might not have another option.”
Marcus started floating in not only Victor’s direction but over the clusters of equipment, “We need to do something. I’m not going to go up to the guy, but my implant has directions for hacking into Abominator computers. I’m thinking I might get something out of the first cluster.”
“Worth a shot,” Cassie pointed her gun in Victor’s direction.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Jaclyn dropped to the ground where her speed and strength would help, landing a few feet from the first cluster. “Think about it. How did the moon dust get on Victor? There’s no wind. What blew it into the air?”
She had a point. I didn’t have an answer, but there shouldn’t have been dust on Victor unless someone kicked it up. And who’d know how to trap Victor with a Starplate? I had theories, but I’d never used it for something like that.
Even more confusing, we’d only seen evidence of Rook’s people in addition to the visits by the original League in the 60s or the Russians in the 80s. In theory, Rook’s people should be allies to Victor. If they trapped him, something had to be very wrong. But could they operate the Starplate? I doubted it.
As all that rolled through my brain, I noticed a new thing. Victor moved. Dust fell and he turned to look at us. Then he started shouting—or so I assumed. His mouth opened and closed with the kind of regularity you expect to see when someone’s chewing you out. Plus, his eyes were wide open and staring at us, veins popping, bits of glowing energy sparking on his skin.
Thanks to the atmosphere, I could hear him making noise, but I couldn’t understand it. Though I might have understood him better if I opened my helmet, I did not plan to do that.