Prologue (Part 1)

Two figures drove a single motorcycle down the lakeside street under the cover of night. The road was pitch black. Even the piercing light of stars couldn't break through the light pollution produced by a dying city. 

The darkness didn't bother the driver as he smoothly sped past broken street lamps, the hood of his jacket whipping in the wind. Mysteriously, neither the bike nor rider made a sound as they slowed down, the figure already able to see their destination in the distance.

It was a beacon of light compared to the dark and gloom surrounding it.

The driver pulled off the main road and moved more carefully toward his destination. Eventually, he pulled to a stop where they both got off and carefully parked his motorcycle, preparing it for a quick departure.

He anticipated having to leave in a hurry. 

"Sense anything wrong, Alex?" The bike passenger asked as she pulled her helmet off, letting blonde hair cascade down her shoulders. 

The driver, now identified as Alex, shot his partner a disappointed look before sighing. 

"It's Echo when we're in the field, Cass." He ignored himself, making the same mistake, and pressed a button on the device he wore on his wrist. 

The small but powerful speaker released a barely audible high-pitched sound that Alex carefully imbued with his power. For a few seconds the audiokinetic focused on the sound waves and how they interacted with his surroundings, using the interactions to form a sort of map of the area in his head. 

Cass, or as he should call her for the mission Delta, at least waited until he was done to answer his reproach. 

"What, are you afraid someone will hear your real name?" The young woman said jokingly. "Isn't making sure nobody can hear us like the entire reason you're here?" 

Alex rolled his eyes but conceded she was somewhat correct. Even now, he was carefully using his power to keep any sound they made from traveling far enough for anybody else to hear.

But that wasn't the entire reason. "You're half right, but you forget that I'm the only person in the group with half a chance of getting inside undetected." 

Their little Chicago chapter had no one who could turn invisible, so he was the next best thing. Alex's sonar trick could tell him where everyone was, and he could absorb any sound he made. That just left trying to get around the other defenses the building had. 

"And you forget that you only have half a chance because of me." Cass shot back as she purposely looked at his gloves. "But whatever, I'm going to assume the area is clear because you think we can waste time arguing about this."

"Yeah, everything is clear," Alex muttered as he decided to refocus on the mission. Turning around, he focused on the target in the distance. 

It served to educate and inspire in the past, but now the Museum of Science and Industry stands out as a beacon of Empire control in the Chicagoland area. Not that it was any better before the Empire came in and took the city out from the former king. 

Chicago had been a shitshow ever since the Awakening, where people all across the world were randomly empowered with supernatural abilities. Alex hadn't been around for it, and nobody knew why, but it happened in 2020 and completely destroyed the world.

It turns out that when random citizens could cause earthquakes and run faster than sound, keeping them under government control was difficult. As far as he knew, pretty much the whole world devolved into feudal states where only the powerful could rule. Leaving those with lesser or no powers to survive on the whims of tyrants. 

But that was almost 30 years ago, practically ancient history.

More recently, the source of this area's problems came from Robert Drummond, who styled himself the King of Chicago when Alex was younger, though he was now a Marquees in the Empire. 

"I suppose this is where I wish you luck?" Cass's voice jolted Alex out of his depressing thoughts, and he turned to see that she was ready to go. The dark gray pants and hoodie combination looked better on her than it did on him. Especially with her belt and the countless gadgets she usually kept close to compliment her power. 

"If you don't mess up, I won't need it." He smirked and started going to the main gate, pulling up his mask and hood.

The perimeter of the building was surrounded by an electric fence monitored by video cameras. Luckily for them, the only manned protection was the gate guard, who would let people in and out of the complex. 

Alex waited outside the range of the cameras and watched the guard station. Unfortunately, the guard seemed alert and actively looked through the windows, so he had to be quick. 

Reaching up, Alex activated his communication earbud and spoke into it. "The guard is alert. We'll need to do this quickly."

"Got it." The tinny voice of Cass echoed back through what sounded like static. "I've disabled one camera with my drone. I'll be able to disable the rest once I get my hands on that one. Wait for the signal."

Alex answered affirmatively and prepared to distract the guard when the cameras went out. Fortunately, none of the defenses here stood a chance against Cass and her power. While she was a relatively weak Electrokinetic, her knowledge of machines allowed her to control them in useful ways.

"Go!" That was the signal. The fence and cameras should be disabled for a short time.

Alex reached out with his power, cataloging all the sounds inside the guard station. Reaching into his stored sound, he boosted an almost inaudible creak in the structure while twisting the pitch to sound like someone was knocking on the back door. 

Just as he noticed the guard look away, he burst out from the museum's foliage and ran for the gate. Activating the electrostatic gloves Cass gave him, he silently climbed the gated fence with ease. 

By the time the guard returned to his seat, he was already well out of sight in the complex. 

"I'm in," Alex whispered into his communicator as he tried to regain his breath. "No indication the guard noticed anything." 

*Bzzzzzt*

"Delta, do you copy?" Alex tried again.

Only static answered back. 

"Shit." He cursed and stopped trying to use the communicator. Something was obviously blocking any communications outside the compound. Their communicators were supposed to work around that sort of thing, but obviously, that hadn't worked this time. 

Alex looked back at the gate and considered if this mission was a wash before shaking his head. Reports from the higher-ups across the border make it clear that one of the Empire's top scientists had been seen entering this location. That, along with the increased security, meant something important was happening here. 

It wasn't that Alex cared about the little border war in the Great Lakes region, but any chance to mess with the Empire was good in his book. With any luck, it might even help him get closer to his goal. 

Clenching his fist at the painful memories of the past, Alex shoved those thoughts down and started to make his way into the building. 

He would need to trust Cass to do her part even if communications were down. And while he only joined the group 6 months ago and doesn't trust any of them personally, he does trust that they all hated the Empire. He also trusted the woman's competence specifically, at least when it came to breaking things.

As Alex carefully made his way into the building, he used the sonar trick to dodge past guards and his electrostatic gloves to briefly climb up the walls like Spiderman. Unfortunately, it was rather tiring when you didn't have the proportional strength of a spider, so that trick was somewhat limited. 

One more time, he activated the high-pitched device on his wrist, though this time, he boosted the sound as high as he could into the ultrasonic range. It was harder to control sound in the ranges too high for him to hear personally, but it was still possible. It also made for a much more subtle way to map the area.

"What the?" There was a massive complex under the building that wasn't in the original plan we could get from our research. Even worse, Alex was almost sure that whatever project this was had been going on long before they got wind of it based on the sheer size of what he was sensing.

"This will take a while," Alex complained before climbing a wall to avoid a passing guard.

Alex watched the rather large man with trepidation. In contrast to the gate guard, he was wearing the signature armor of the Empire's Legion. Which meant he wasn't powered but did pack some serious weaponry.

It wasn't power armor, but the suit's material is supernaturally durable and good at absorbing energy. Alex had considered taking some for himself, but the gaudy Roman cosplay didn't mesh well with his sense of style or powers. Alex made a mental note to put more oomph into his sonic blasts if he had to engage these guys. 

Also, in addition to the regular guns they usually toted around, some legionnaires carried high-powered plasma weaponry to deal with the occasional hard target. 

Not that it mattered too much to him. Unfortunately, Alex hadn't figured out how to form a sonic shield yet capable of reliably blocking bullets. If he got caught, his only option would be to strike hard and fast. 

As the guard passed around the corner, Alex continued on. His scan of the building revealed plenty of ways to get to the basement, but most were only feasible by contacting Cass. Though there was one...

Minutes of tense stealth later, Alex stood in front of large metal doors in the back of the complex. He could tell that a massive elevator shaft went right down to the basement behind these doors. He guessed this was the area used to get the larger machinery down. Unlike the other doors, it didn't seem like this one was in use. 

Now, he just needed to get down.