Author's Note:

Console commands
'Direct console communication'
"Thoughts and/or telepathy"

Watching idly as the landscape zoomed by through the window, Victoria could only bring herself to think; no amount of money in the world could get her to enjoy train rides.

The scene seemed to exude boredom and she fit right in; she leaned back into her seat, rested her cheek against her palm and allowed her vision to go unfocused. At least there wasn't anyone sitting next to her. Thankfully, her benefactor was kind in that regard. The seat that had been chosen for her put her in the lap of luxury, with sumptuous cushioning, very few people around to crowd her, and even a complementary dining plan.

At first Victoria had been excited by this prospect. "At first," however, had been more than seven hours ago. She was tired, so, so tired, despite having done nothing for half a day. At least, she thought, the ride was almost over. The torturous trip was coming to a close, and she'd finally be allowed back on her feet.

Granted she'd immediately be going to work, but work was better than train-ride hell.

Just as she started to close her eyes, hoping to drift through the last portion of the trip in peaceful unawares, she was interrupted, thoroughly ripped from her musings and grounded back into harsh reality, by a sudden, deafening ping in her earpiece.

Victoria sighed. To work, then.

She adjusted her wide-rimmed glasses on the bridge of her nose, subtly running the pad of her index finger over the top of the rims; to everyone else Victoria appeared to be a very tired student attempting to accommodate for poor vision. What they couldn't see was the text that lit up on her lenses— an entire miniature computer built into her glasses.

Extracting coordinates…

Coordinates received.

Calculating estimated time of arrival…

Appx. 14:36 EDT. This arrival time is insufficient. Recalculating course.

Victoria's face fell from a neutral mask into a light scowl. She was aware of her benefactor's… eccentricities, to put it lightly, and knew that any kink in the plan would only be remedied in the least convenient way possible; for Victoria, anyways. Everything always made perfect sense to the boss.

With an ungodly screech the train lurched, and Victoria was nearly thrown out of her seat.

"Of course…" she thought to herself. "Why not shut down every train in the city while we're at it? Scramble the local traffic signals, maybe, nothing's too much for one simple job!"

While the other passengers were still recovering from the sudden stop, and the conductor was hastily trying to explain and reassure over the PA system, Victoria was already standing, removing her backpack from the luggage compartment, and walking towards the exit of the train car.

She felt around in the pocket of her jeans as she walked until she found the tool she needed, a handful of dark orbs, really just looking like marbles. Without breaking stride she dropped them in front of her and immediately stepped on them, filling the train car with a thick, but harmless, smoke. Maybe it wasn't the most professional method of dealing with obstacles, but what could she say? She was annoyed, and she needed to cover her getaway.

As she reached the door, Victoria adjusted her backpack on her shoulder so that she could unzip the primary pocket. She fumbled around, feeling for the one of the gloves she knew was in there. Once she found it she flattened it between her fingers, checking quickly to make sure it wasn't inside-out and that it was facing the right way. She didn't feel the need to put the glove on just yet; she knew how to activate it without wearing it, and she was in a hurry anyways.

Pointing the index finger of the glove at the seam of the locked door, she felt for a very subtle switch in the palm; the tip of the index finger lit up white, and a beam of hot light shot out towards the train door, thoroughly melting the locking mechanism and causing the door to swing open.

Incoming message…

'cut west'

…

'haul ass'

Victoria rolled her eyes— what did they think she was doing?— before walking lightly down the steps, pausing at the last one. She tapped her heels together twice and jumped off the final step; before she could hit the ground, her shoes— they had originally looked like black Converse— had transformed into dark boots, the soles widening to form a platform resembling a skateboard with no wheels, that kept her hovering about half a foot off the ground.

With a grace only attained through years of practice Victoria swiveled, turning to face the blinking dot in her vision that acted as a compass, before leaning forward just slightly and zooming off into the distance.

She had a job to finish and a schedule to keep, and she intended to fulfill her contract.

Victoria arrived two minutes early instead of twenty minutes late.

She'd ditched the hoverboard upon reaching the city limits, opting instead for slower but less conspicuous roller skates. She skated comfortably for several blocks, following the directions programmed into her glasses, until her destination was in sight; the Hall of Justice.

The amphitheater-shaped building stood proudly in the center of a grand pavilion, framed by large reflecting pools in front of it and curated trees around the back; everything about the building was gleaming and pristine. The headquarters of the world's greatest superheroes was expected to be nothing less than spectacular. Victoria supposed that it was, though she couldn't help but wonder, if the Justice League put this much effort into the Hall, which was little more than a pit stop in the grand scheme of things, what did their real base look like?

For the last stretch to the Hall Victoria decided to walk normally; if she wore her skates to the ceremony she'd have to wear them the entire time, and she found the idea frankly tedious. She tapped her heels together three times before crossing the street, her boots shifting from the roller-skate attachment back to their default Converse disguise as she walked.

She knew she wasn't going to be the only one at the ceremony, and she most certainly hadn't expected to be the only one who was early, but she found the exact scale of the crowd to be somewhat alarming. People were enthusiastic about their superheroes, she guessed. At least it made her job easier, she wouldn't have any trouble blending in with a crowd this massive.

Making her way through the throng Victoria smiled, putting on a facade of someone who actually wanted to be there. She looked young, bubbly, ecstatic even, over the idea of coming within a thirty foot radius of the superheroes people just couldn't seem to get enough of; in reality, she was numb to it all. She couldn't bring herself to care much at all outside of factoring their very presence into her risk calculations, and, of course, the job itself.

She was drawn out of her thoughts by a ping in her ear, another message from her benefactor.

Extracting coordinates…

Coordinates received.

Good work.

Victoria couldn't help the pride that washed over her. She was good at what she did and she knew it, but hearing it from someone as stuck-up and unpredictable as her boss was always a reassurance.

Software test commencing in 3…

2…

1…

The lenses of her glasses lit up suddenly with colorful rectangles, all of which focused around the faces of the people in the crowd. Numbers flashed and data on each individual was collected and displayed, all but blocking her vision from anything useful.

Victoria blinked, and it was all gone.

Incoming message…

'ignore that'

'entirely'

'disregard'

She could only laugh quietly at that. There was a pause in communications, presumably as her boss worked out the bugs in the program from their side of the operation. Victoria noticed that none of the actual heroes had arrived yet, but people on the very far edges of the still-growing crowd were becoming excited, so she assumed that was about to change.

Software test commencing in 3…

2…

1…

The rectangles were back but significantly less obtrusive, and the data that had originally been displayed was no longer a problem. The program ran for about thirty seconds, collecting information on every face that Victoria could clearly see, until her boss was satisfied with the results and the rectangles tapered off.

Just in time too, the esteemed heroes began to arrive on the scene. It would be a shame if they were late to their own event, and they sure were cutting it close.

First was Batman and Robin. Victoria herself couldn't be sure how they arrived— they seemed to have appeared out of thin air— but she wasn't particularly bothered by it. Batman looked over the crowd with a critical eye, tense with caution that was clear to her. Robin wasn't so much like his mentor, waving and smiling at the distant civilians as if he was born to soak up the attention.

Next came Green Arrow and his partner, Speedy. Their dynamic seemed to be the reverse; the elder of the pair was the one with the friendly air about him, while the younger exuded impatience.

There was only a short moment before the next pair of heroes arrived, Aquaman and Aqualad. They carried themselves professionally and regally, backs straight and smiles genuine, if a tad practiced. Victoria supposed she shouldn't expect otherwise from a king.

And finally, just barely on time, came Flash and Kid Flash. Flash, despite being very nearly late to his own party, was very relaxed, smiling and joking with his partners. Kid Flash, however, was very clearly impatient with excitement. He almost looked like he was vibrating. Considering his skillset, Victoria wouldn't be surprised if he was.

They all congregated across the water, a safe distance from the crowds so that all bystanders could be appropriately wrangled before the ceremony.

Software initialized…

Targets in position…

Operation commencing.

Victoria barely payed attention to the opening speech, given by some woman affiliated with the public-side of the Hall, instead maintaining near-constant eye contact with the Justice League and their proteges. The rectangles were back, but this time only focused on the heroes and ignoring the bystanders in the crowd.

While Victoria couldn't see it herself, she was aware through her briefing that photographs, thousands of them, were being taken by her glasses and uploaded to a remote server for further analysis.

That was her mission; gather a sufficient amount of pictures of the Justice League, so rarely all in one place in public, so that her boss could incorporate them into… something. She hadn't been briefed on what exactly the photos were being used for, and frankly, she didn't care.

The speech ended. The ceremony began. The heroes walked down a metaphorical red carpet and were accosted by their adoring fans. Victoria grinned and waved and stared, pretending to be one of them. She didn't stop until the heroes disappeared through the doors of the Hall, and Victoria, already having met her quota and not interesting in a tour, dropped out of the now-thinning crowd.

Software shutting down…

Commence 'Phase 2'.

Cadmus had expanded since last time she'd been there, both on the surface and beneath it.

It had taken surprisingly little effort to infiltrate the ground floor of the building, and only slightly more to access what was supposed to be top secret; the fifty-something basement level laboratories.

She'd long since changed into her work uniform, a black bodysuit, built and enhanced by her benefactor, and a reflective helmet that covered her entire head. The operation at the Hall had been a job, yes, but this is where the real work was.

Victoria, or Agent, as she was known by while in uniform, was plugged into a computer terminal twenty-two stories below ground. Technology of unknown function lined every wall in sight, what wasn't chrome glowing an ominous shade of red. The floors and ceilings were tinted red as well, otherwise hard, dark, and lined by metal pipes that lead throughout the facility. Everything was just as Agent remembered from her last visit, except, she thought that everything was a little bit more.

It was time for a routine checkup of Cadmus's activities, always the most dangerous jobs she'd taken throughout her career. If she was caught here, there was no getting out.

She watched the screen that lit up on the inside of her helmet, as every file in the facility was dug up, copied, and then exported to the same remote server as the photographs she'd taken earlier. Everything was going according to plan, and hopefully she would be able to get out without a hitch.

Hitches were meant to happen, she supposed, as only a second after she'd thought that an error message popped up in the corner of her screen. A few select files, all about very recent projects from what she could see, were heavily encrypted, and she was unable to copy them.

Kr, HRH, Blockbuster… The names meant little to her, but they were new, and she needed to investigate. Unfortunately this meant going deeper, either to the projects themselves or to a computer with special access, one of the doctors' personal terminals. The former would be less dangerous, but would take significantly more time. The latter wouldn't take nearly as long, but would risk direct confrontation with Cadmus employees.

"You do not have much time." A deep voice rang out in her ear and Agent leapt back from the terminal, arms outstretched and primed to fire. The room was empty aside from her, and there was nowhere for anyone to hide. She scowled.

"You do not have much time," the voice repeated, and Agent's scowl deepened. "You must hurry, to sub-level fifty-two. There you will find the answers."

As if on cue, the building's alarm started going off, red lights flashing and a near deafening drone blaring.

"Great, just great," Agent thought to herself, running to the stairwell. Not only had the genomorphs advanced since her last visit, they knew she was here, too. Fantastic.

Upon reaching the stairwell she launched herself over the railing and into the abyss below; she tapped her heels together mid-fall and her hoverboard formed, slowing her descent enough to not be deadly.

Deadly or not another obstacle presented itself at the end of her fall; the stairwell stopped at sub-level forty-two, a full ten stories above where she needed to be. "Clearly nobody here has any regard for employee safety," Agent thought wryly, as she forced open the way to the rest of the floor.

The hallways this deep were more ominous, monstrous, and all around disgusting. Red flesh-like material covered the walls, bulbous red pods protruding and twitching, as if they had a pulse. Dormant genomorphs floated in some translucent liquid within them, kept at bay by telepathically induced sleep. By some stroke of luck there was no actual staff in sight, only monsters.

Agent raced down the hallway on her hoverboard, braking just before she could slam into the elevator door. The board deactivated as she stepped down and shoved her fingers into the seam of the door, heels braced against the floor as she pulled with every ounce of strength she had; the door was steadily forced open, just as the elevator itself rocketed past, heading downwards.

She jumped after it, hoverboard activating midair once again, and it was only as she was falling that she realized, she was guaranteed to encounter someone now.

The elevator came to a halt and so did she. There were muffled voices, probably whispering from within the elevator, before they faded into silence. Agent was alone, and now that she was alone, she used the laser in her glove to force open the hatch on top of the elevator door.

She made it down and then out just in time; the doors almost closed on her, and the elevator zoomed upwards immediately after she left. There'd be company very soon.

"Another!" Agent whipped around in time to dodge the metal barrel that was flying at her, thrown by a man with grey skin and horns. She activated her hoverboard and flew at the monster— some sort of genomorph? She could only guess— but was frozen in her tracks. The horns were glowing, she was fighting to even move her own arms; telekinesis.

As fast as she'd been frozen Agent was launched down the hallway, powered both by the mind of the genomorph and the thrust of her own hoverboard.

"You are wasting time, you must get to project K-R!" Her eyes widened in realization; the genomorph that had thrown her was the same voice she'd heard thirty floors up, the same one that had warned her of the alarm. But why would he be helping her and fighting her?

"Who's that?"

"Who cares, hurry up!" Two voices and three bodies tore her from her thoughts. She wasn't alone, she wasn't the only one running.

There was a scientist on the ground in front of her, and behind that was a giant metal door, embossed with "Project Kr." Agent could only assume this is what the genomorph had been talking about, this is what he wanted her to see, for some reason.

She didn't have long to think; she was out of range of his telekinesis and able to move on her own, and there were only two options. She could either try and fly back where she'd come from, or follow the voices through the rapidly closing door. The pattering of rapid footsteps coming from the elevator made the decision for her.

Quick as she could she propelled herself forward, through the propped-open door. She nearly crashed into whoever had entered the room before her but managed to right herself in time, and before their pursuers could reach the door she shot a beam of energy from her palm, dislodging whatever had been keeping it open.

The door slammed shut. Agent was trapped.

Trapped with three people she had seen only hours ago, but had hoped to never encounter in close quarters.

Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash, three of the most prominent young heroes throughout the world, were staring her down, caught by surprise but still primed to attack. It was then that Agent knew, she was in much deeper than she ever could have anticipated.

Author's Note:

Hey everyone!

So, that's chapter one. I've been out of the writing game for a while now, honestly, so I'm hoping it's up to scratch. Found an old (bad) draft of this from a few years ago and was inspired to try and write it better? So let me know how I did, any feedback would be appreciated!

Chapter two is on the way soon, I'm almost all the way through it, but after that I can't really guarantee. There's not going to be any sort of schedule with this fic, unfortunately.

Anyways, feedback is appreciated! Thanks for reading!