Hiro leaned against the tiny windows, drinking in the pale, yellow moonlight. The aircraft wasn’t exactly spacious, but that was a necessary feature. After all, Hiro’s first mission was a stealth one. Small and light enough to remain motionless in the air, the strategic stealth carrier was practically invisible in the cover of the night sky.
Below, a faint outline of something that resembled a military installation showed itself sporadically as wispy clouds drifted past like idle fish. The aircraft’s heating system kept out most of the cold, but when he rested his forehead against the glass, Hiro could almost smell the dry air outside.
“Are you ready?” Miles called to him from behind.
Hiro turned around and nodded. The inventor certainly did not waste time making good on his promise.
After only one day, Miles contacted Hiro in the middle of his patrol, informing him that his new support gear was ready. Of course, the eager hero cut his daily prowl short and made his way to Cooper Incorporated, where Miles invited him into this high-tech aircraft.
He was still reeling in awe at how the plane literally turned invisible and flew off in broad daylight without so much as a light rumble.
“Your equipment is remarkably light,” Hiro commented. “Are you sure they can do everything you said they could?”
The vigilante rubbed his brand-new gloves hesitantly. They certainly didn’t draw any additional attention. Hell, they looked like ordinary combat gloves even to him. Its simplistic design did nothing to inspire confidence either.
A series of silver buckles ran up his suit all the way to his cuffs, although they looked nothing more than mere accessories. The only equipment he felt slightly more secure in was a new helmet that could retract or extend with a simple thought.
“Your new support items are made out of programmable nano-matter, son. They’re designed to be lightweight,” Miles reassured him as the floor at the cargo bay rear began to slide away. “If you’re ready, let’s see how they function in a real mission, shall we?”
Goosebumps spread across Hiro’s skin as cold air rushed in. It’s showtime.
The hero leapt out of the aircraft with a performative twirl and dived down headfirst. He could feel the air whipping against his suit, but his helmet protected his face perfectly. Miles’ voice crackled in his earpiece.
“You’ll be coming up on the drop zone soon. Deploy cloaking now.”
Hiro felt a slight rumble as something poured out of the silver buckles on his suit. It covered his entire body in less than a second, and his outstretched hands were no longer visible. His visor turned a dull green as he mentally commanded his helmet to switch to Reconnaissance Mode.
“Good thinking. Now you can see yourself again. Alright, you’re reaching critical altitude. Deploy wingsuit.”
He straightened his arms in a T-pose, and flaps made of some unknown material popped up, making him look like an oversized flying fox. Weightlessness seized him as his speed dropped drastically. Hiro focused hard, inconspicuously gliding his way to the top of the building under the dark sky’s cover.
The flaps retracted into his suit as his feet touched the tiled floor.
“I’m in,” he whispered as though he were a hacker in a heist movie.
“Technically, you’re still outside. There’s a vent to your right; that’s your way in. Oh, and disable your cloaking if you intend to generate weapons. You can only use so many nanobots at a time.”
Hiro nodded as though Miles could see him and grappled to the air vent.
After a few minutes of crawling around in the remarkably clean and spacious inlets, Hiro landed in an empty storeroom without a sound. He switched on Reconnaissance Mode again, scanning the level for the room he needed.
According to Miles, his mission tonight was a relatively simple one. Break in, copy the data from the mainframe, and get out without anyone noticing. To make things easier, this building was just one of Doctor Ujiko’s old Nomu manufacturing laboratories, which meant that it probably didn’t have as much security as a proper Yakuza base.
Ever since that criminal scientist was put behind bars for helping the supervillain, All For One, create those monstrosities, most of his laboratories have been seized by the government. The few that they could not find were left behind since those genetically engineered monsters were dormant without a command anyway.
Unfortunately, this particular lab had been taken over by a Yakuza faction, according to Miles’ intel. They had somehow figured out a way to make the Nomus act as watchdogs for them, although they dared not use these monsters for anything else. After all, these gangsters still had bosses to obey. So thankfully, they didn’t get any other ambitious ideas.
“Found it,” Hiro muttered to himself, spotting a skeletal outline of a server room with a suspicious amount of network activity buzzing outwards. “Miles, are you seeing this?”
“Sure am. Think that’s the command centre?”
“Let’s find out.”
The vigilante made his way down to the second level by simply taking the stairs. There were practically no cameras around, and he still hadn’t seen a single soul in this building. It was by design; Miles had chosen to infiltrate this base at a time when the Yakuza would be out doing their crimes.
But this mission was going so boringly well that he was beginning to think he wouldn’t even get a chance to use the rest of his equipment. Security was piss poor in this secluded base, although Hiro was mighty thankful for that.
He opened the exit doors to a man wandering past the hallway ahead of him. The unarmed gangster had his head buried in his phone, and he was gripping a mug of coffee like his life depended on it. A set of keys dangled carelessly from the hem of his jeans.
Hiro turned on his cloaking and stole the keys with a casual swipe of his hand. He waited patiently as the man hobbled away to do something else, none the wiser. With the help of Miles’ technology, everything was hilariously easy now.
The vigilante pushed the doors open, taking in the view of a command centre for the first time. It looked almost exactly like the movies. Well, except that this one looked a lot less well-maintained.
Hiro plugged in a thumb drive and began accessing the mainframe. He didn’t have to type long before the cursor began moving by itself.
“Aww, they forgot the latest Kernel patch update. Sloppy, sloppy…” Miles laughed in his earpiece. “That looks interesting. Yoink! Mine now… And that one, and this one…”
“Are you doing all that from the sky?” Hiro asked incredulously. “Your technopathic range is insane!”
“Not really, but I’m a little busy at the moment. I’ll explain more to you when I’m done.”
The vigilante took up a sentry position at the door while Miles fiddled with the data. Nanobots poured out of his gloves, forming a metallic riot shield and a baton. Hiro marvelled once again at how well the equipment responded to his thoughts.
“You’re ex-military, Hiro?”
“Y— Yes,” he answered hesitantly. “How’d you know?”
“I can tell from the way you hold your weapons. I’m ex-military too.”
Hiro raised an eyebrow. That was news. Miles Cooper— entrepreneur and all-around rich CEO— used to be a soldier?
“What unit were you in?” he asked.
“British Royal Air Force. I used to be a fast jet pilot. But anyway, that’s old news. I’m done copying over the data. Make your way back to the roof, and we’ll RTB.”
“Yes, sir.” Hiro raised his hand in a half-hearted salute to the air, smirking slightly. He pulled the thumb drive from the huge machine and pushed open the door, getting ready to head to the roof.
Something vibrated in his suit.
Hiro pulled out Kanna’s tracker, staring at it intently. It didn’t make sense. If he had recalled correctly, this tracker was supposed to lead him to one of Yamato Gouma’s men. Why was it reacting now?
Unless… this laboratory belonged to Yamato as well.
Green flooded his visor again as he turned on Reconnaissance Mode, scanning around for the transmitting signal. He narrowed his eyes with focus, trying to locate anything out of the ordinary—
There.
“What are you doing? Hey, where are you going?”
Hiro ignored the voice in his ear, leaping out of an open window and gliding to the ground floor. It was significantly darker out in the open, where there wasn’t enough light pollution to illuminate everything, but he could still spot the silhouette of a human body slumped against a car.
He scurried over.
“Hey… Hey!” The hero leaned over the bloodied mess of a man, who was barely breathing on the floor. “Oh hell, what happened? Hang in there, I’ll get help—”
A pale hand seized his wrist weakly as Hiro creased his eyebrows in recognition. This was the same thief that he had chased down just the previous day. What was this guy doing in a place like this?
“Don’t… bother, it’s… too late for me. Yamato Gouma… Check the map in his… office…” The man gurgled on his own blood, his face already going grey. “Catch him… hero…”
The thief’s hand dropped to the ground, his lifeless eyes staring into nothingness. Hiro picked up a tiny circular disk from the ground and plugged it back into a small indentation in Kanna’s transmitter. The tracker stopped vibrating.
Hiro cast his gaze back to the roof. There’d be plenty of time to muse over what happened after he got out of this place. Those Yakuza members could be back any moment. He raised his palm, aiming a grappling hook at the nearest parapet—
Something else is here.
There wasn’t enough time to react.
Something slammed into him as the world turned into a blur. Hiro rolled on the floor with a loud wheeze, trying to catch his breath. What the hell was that?
The air shuddered with an ear-piercing screech.
A nightmarish creature stood before Hiro, flexing its eagle-like talons aggressively. It had pale yellow skin and two bat-like wings that jutted from its back. Its face was curved into something that resembled a bird’s beak, while its brain was completely exposed. And as if it didn’t look grotesque enough, two glowing eyes sat squarely on each side of its brain.
Hiro inhaled sharply. There was no doubt it was a Nomu, one of Ujiko’s Frankenstein creations. That thief must have broken into this base for some reason and gotten himself killed by this monster.
And by the looks of it, Hiro was going to be next.
Inertia crashed into his body as the vigilante grappled hurriedly to the highest parapet he could see. Given his relative unfamiliarity with his equipment, fighting this monster head-on was suicide. And there was no guarantee that other similar monsters weren’t prowling around nearby as well. He had to get the hell out of here right now.
Hiro leaned back, narrowly avoiding a flash of claws. Talons scraped the brick wall, leaving behind a huge gash. Wind buffeted his clothes as the Nomu landed on the parapet like a giant bat, folding its wings behind its back.
The vigilante glanced upwards. The roof was already in sight; all he needed was a proper boost to reach it. But that damn monster was still in the way.
An idea formed in his mind.
Hiro charged towards it, metal coating his fists in the shape of armoured gauntlets. He flipped to the side, pushing against the wall before throwing a full-powered punch at the Nomu. The punch glanced off its rock-hard skin, although he succeeded in pushing it slightly backwards.
Focus possessed the hero’s gaze as he unleashed a barrage of blows, refusing to let the monster think. Fortunately, this Nomu didn’t seem like the sentient type either. It simply protected itself with its hands and dug its clawed feet into the floor as Hiro slowly pushed it backwards.
He ducked underneath the wings unfurling from the Nomu’s back and reformed his gauntlets into a full-height shield. With a burst of energy, he threw his body forward and sent the monster staggering a few more steps back.
Hiro’s eyes shifted up again; the hook that he had spotted earlier was within reach now. All he needed was one final push to reach the roof.
For a brief moment, he remained motionless, waiting for the Nomu to recover. And then he shot a grapple at the hook in an attempt to escape again. The Nomu screeched in indignation, preparing to leap after him.
Which was exactly what he needed.
Hiro released his grapple prematurely, allowing himself to fall back to the ground. He spread his arms, deploying his wingsuit right as the Nomu flapped its wings to propel itself upwards. The timing was perfect.
The powerful updraft caught the flaps around the side of his body, sending him flying several metres upward before the monster could rake his head off. The familiar tiled floor greeted him more as Hiro executed a perfect side flip, landing squarely on the roof.
“Alright, Miles. I’m on the roof now,” he whispered urgently; the Nomu would be up here any moment as well. “I could really use a quick exit.”
Terrifying silence greeted him for a few seconds as talons gripped the side of the roof like a monster in a horror movie.
Oh crap—
Hiro’s body froze. No, not out of fear. He literally could not move; an invisible force had him in an iron grip. He watched helplessly as the Nomu climbed over the parapet and leapt towards him—
His stomach lurched as something dragged him into the sky. He barely had time to scream before the roof disappeared from view.
And he found himself in the comfort of Miles’ aircraft again.
ns216.73.216.134da2
and then Add to home screen.