Days passed as Marks fed intel to Aqua and Quickness. Prime kept asking him about Quick's whereabouts and he always bluffed that he didn't know where.


While this was happening, villainous activity had greatly declined because of the story the media kept pushing. They showed Dadals1 being used and Switch using his ability to save Alex. Brief mentions of Aqua and Barria's deaths while cutting out the important parts for context. The news ticker on the bottom of the screen said that hero registration exponentially increased.


The news anchors talked yet again of Alex's path to villainy.

"What a fall this young man has gone through. He had such a bright future and for him to be another villain is really sad", the male anchor rubbed his eyes to express his disappointment.

"Now, we all know that he was brainwashed by Switch and his crew", his female partner pretended to argue.

"Yet Prime couldn't snap him out of it. He manipulated a research satellite into a powerful ungodly weapon. He's too far gone at this point. Good news is that hero registration has spiked to help combat him in the future. If any of you would like to call and voice your opinion, call the number at the bottom of your screen."

Someone was patched through.

"Hello?", Tiffany asked.

"Hello, there. What is your name?", the male anchor asked.

"My name is Tiffany."

"Tell us what is on your mind about this."

"I knew Techno before this point, and I find it hard to believe that he would perform actions like this. Something isn't right."

"Is it a gut instinct?"

"That and his neighborhood loved him. I heard about how he would help those in need and how kind he was to everyone. This isn't like him. If he's brainwashed, someone can undo that and bring him back! Stop calling him a villain!", her voice rose with anger.

"But he attacked Prime and was seen removing criminal data from the hero and govt database. You do understand how that looks?"

"I am not stupid! He's a good man who has lost so much. He lost plenty of loved ones and Switch used that against him. He's a victim who needs help and yet you keep cutting him down at every opportunity."

Anchor 2 was speechless. Anchor 1 was told on his earpiece what to say.

"He is a victim of mental control and we do wish that he would come back to his senses sooner rather than later. Still, he committed a terrible crime by removing villain information from the database. He will have to answer for that in-

"You dumbasses!", she cursed.

"I ask that you refrain from profanity, Ms. Tiffany", the woman chimed in.

"He needs help, not punishment. If someone snaps him out of it, he's going to feel awful about what he has done. I urge everyone and the court system to show him compassion, just like how they did for Quickness."

"Ahem, the case of Quickness is a lot different than Techno's case. Although Quickness attacked his friends, they kept him under control before he committed any crimes. Techno has killed both Barria and Aqua during their fight."

"I know, but he wasn't in his right mind. Never mind. What's the point of talking with you if you don't understand?"

She angrily hung up and her lover holds her.

"Hey, I'm proud of you for cursing them out", Miguel supported.

Tiffany's eyes softened from hearing his words. "If I could, I would let them have it. Still, something doesn't feel right about all of this."

"I feel the same way. What do you want to do?"

Tiffany goes to her laptop. She researched starting with the day of Alex's betrayal and working backwards from that point. Her fiancé joined in to do the same. They will expose the truth even if they get punished for it.

Meanwhile, Quickness was watching the segment on his burner phone.

"Alex, at least you still have friends who are fighting for you. We will help you when you come back."

"Yes, indeed!", Aqua added on with a newly formed torso and solidified arms. Her stomach grumbled.

"That's a good sign. Let me heat up those fries", he rubbed his hands to re-crispify the food. He handed her a big bag of fries which she scarved down.

"Mmm. I missed these so much."

"If you want more, let me know", while splitting an orange for her. She ate it all in one go.

Quick went back to rubbing his hands to store the static charges in his body. His body vibrated from all the energy he stored. Anymore and he would have to release it all. He imagined what that could do and stopped himself from pushing it.

"You look ready to go", Aqua stated.

Quick refrained from touching her so he wouldn't accidentally shock her.

"I just hope it's enough to take Prime down. I...never killed anyone before."

"I know. If it comes down to it, I will deal the final blow. I am a living weapon after all."

"I won't let him bring you to that level. Let me handle him. I have a plan if it comes down to a fight. If Alex is there, focus on protecting him as much as you can."

"I won't let you fight him alone. Let me help", she argued.

"Aqua, if it is too soon, protect Alex. Don't worry. I won't be stupid."

She saw the focus in his eyes. He's determined to end things once and for all. A text from Marks vibrated his phone.

            "There's some information I found, but it's on paper and not online. I'm still looking into it. I think it's a government project, but someone helping me is researching on their end."

                                                                "With some relation to this?"

                                                                "I think so. How is she?"

                                           "She's almost there. Eating fries as we speak."

                                                                          "That's good."

                                          "Be extra careful. If it's bad, get out of there."

                                                                           "Will do."

Marks erased the messages and his trail of information. He found an unusual name that he had never seen before from a subsection of a government database. Project Squared.

On his return back home, he felt a pair of eyes on him. He made several detours before diving his jet into the water. He entered his secret hideout without a problem. He replaced his suit with civilian clothes to be with his lover. Denise was safely embraced by his muscular arms while cutting vegetables.

"You almost scared me", she laughed.

"Sorry. I will be louder next time."

They shared a kiss and ate together.

"Honey, I will be away. I don't know how long, but-

"I know. Just be safe, okay? If you need backup, I'm here for you."

Another reason why he loved her.

"I promise. Keep up with your training until we need you."

"You got it."

After dinner, he ran a search for anything about Project Squared. He also looked into the satellite Alex used as well. Nothing pulled up. He then remembered Prime's battle with the experimental soldier and combed through numerous articles. He got the address of that base and packed.

The next day, Marks flew out to Washington DC in civilian clothes to check the base out. Nothing was there. His report showed it was closed down after the experiment went awry. But he had his suspicions.


His cloaked jet picked up some weird energy readings as he flew over the back of a certain building. It indicated it's from the J Edgar Hoover building.


That place was supposed to be closed down since parts of it were netted up to catch the eventual debris that would fall from the unstable foundation. His gut told him to land his jet on the nearby rooftop to monitor the building. He pushed a button to make it invisible before he landed. He got out of his jet and crouched while getting his binoculars out.

He saw a hidden door open up on the ground from the back of the building and some people walking out of it. He monitored from his position. He did a stakeout to see if the same people would come back tomorrow morning and they did. He saw an employee waving a badge on a device that lets him in. The door closed after him. He knew what to do.

He found an employee with a similar look to him and made him his target after monitoring his behavior for the next few days. He followed him home and knocked him out. He took his badge and memorized the information needed. He saw it's marked yellow and wondered what that means. He had to be extra careful once he's inside because he didn't know what he would witness.

After tying up and gagging the worker in the closet, he applied some blonde hair dye to match the ID. He went to the secret door and got access through. He stayed clear of the other workers, but fortunately everyone was quiet as they were all focused on their goal.


He went to the Engineering floor. He saw something that shocked him, but he stopped his face from expressing an emotion. He used his watch to secretly take pictures of the data and he left right away. He left the vehicle at a gas station and put on a new disguise before taking off in his invisible jet that followed him.

He sent the pictures to a private server just in case something happened to him. The server revealed that he had kept the papers that Alex had sent. His habits as a former detective haven't died out. He stayed at a camping site for his cover since he enjoyed that activity before returning back to the hero base.

"Hey, Marks! Where have you been?", Prime asked.

"Camping to clear my mind. You?"

"Nothing. Really nothing has happened so far. Not even petty theft. It's really peaceful at this time, but I can't let my guard down. Have you heard from Quick yet?"

"Not yet. But once I see him, I will ask him to contact you back."

"Okay. Thanks. How have you been holding up?"

Marks was silent, but his face showed the sadness that's eating him up. Prime embraced him.

"We will always have them in here", he assured while pointing at his own heart.

The Marksman nodded. He walked away to the training room where he unloaded his anger on the dummy, destroying it to pieces with a couple of concentrated hits.

"Whoa! Are you alright?", Reader asked with concern under his mask.

Marks kept his mind occupied while being silent. He walked to the person in charge and paid for a new dummy with the tap of his card.

"Thank you! Hope it doesn't happen again", the host stated.

"It won't."

After work, he went back home where Denise almost tackled him in the kitchen. He lifted her up as he was happy to see her. They locked lips before letting go.

"How is my secret agent?", her brown eyes softened.

"I may have found something. I need to do something first."

"Go ahead. You're cooking tonight anyway so don't be too long."

"Got it. We're having salmon, right?"

"Yep! I will get the vegetables ready", while slicing the carrots and tomatoes with precise and deliberate cuts.

He went to the lab and sent out a private signal hoping to get someone's attention.

--

Back at the underwater lair, Gizmo received a peculiar signal on a server he frequented to keep up to date on current events. He's looking for any talks about the leaked documents. A link then appeared that caught his attention. It's a large attachment that said Proof and the generic user claimed it contained all of the leaked documents.


He was hesitant to open it, so he "peeked" into it without exposing their location. No sign of malware or tracking systems. The contents inside were valid. There was also a message at the very end that's a question to unlock the rest. It's directed to Alex.

"Alex, can you come down here?", he asked through the intercom.

"Sure."

He walked through Exodus's portal to meet with him. He saw the leaked documents on screen from a private server. The question on the screen made him grin.


"It's from Marks", he correctly inferred.

"Huh. Never expected that from him. What's the answer to this question?"

                                                           "Alex, what made our fight a draw?"

The answer key was limited to five characters.

"I hit him with a metal plate on the back. Let's try plate."

Gizmo typed it in and pressed enter. The rest of the attachment was unlocked. They were disturbed by the mounting evidence Marks had sent them. But there was something useful.

A possible weakness for Prime.

They downloaded the information. Gizmo decided to respond back, but it had to be something that Marks didn't have. He sent the backup copy of Dadals1 to reveal that it was a government weapon to begin with. At least someone else will know the truth.

"This will work. I'm going to tell the others", Alex told him.

"Don't", the veteran sternly warned.

"Why not? We don't know what else is in there, but we may have an advantage over Prime."

"You don't know what else is in there. Marks only got a few photos but couldn't get deeper to confirm what else they are hiding. What if something goes wrong? Do you want to risk their safety?"

"You know damn well that their safety matters to me. It's best that they know about this. I will protect them", he stepped up to him in defiance.

"Like how you did Barria and Aqua?"

"Don't you ever disrespect their names like that. I will take them with me", he said through his teeth.

"It will be a suicide mission."

"Then help me master technopathy so I can help them."

"I'm not helping you when it comes to this. If you tell them, I will stop you."

With a pointed index finger, a metal spike popped up from the floor that was within inches of cutting Gizmo's throat.

"You got me beat."

He went to activate the nanobots that were with Alex to subdue him, but they didn't work.

"I hacked them to my side in advance. They will only listen to my commands and will not hurt me."

"Bravo. That was all a test and you passed."

Alex raised his eyebrows from the sudden casualness.

"What do you want? A cookie? You have what it takes, kid. But let me show you a few more tricks to use."

He brought out blueprints and showed Alex how to control different types of machines to ready himself for the final mission.

"Any questions?"

"No. Thanks a lot."

"You also need this."

He was handed a vial of blood. Something shined in it. He didn't know what this was.

"That is for the metal armor that I will be creating for you."


He told him the capabilities which shock him. "Can it really do that?"

"Thanks to Enthrall's power gene, you may even survive it along with what you find at the base. He actually requested it to be done."

"But how? He couldn't talk", as he sensed something was off.

"I thought so too. But he spoke."

Gizmo played it on the screen.

—-----------

He was attending to Enthrall's medical equipment when the skeleton-like body spoke with a raspy voice.

"Help....him"

The Level 5 technopath thought someone else was in the room. He got out his knife but Enthrall spoke again.

"Take...my gene."

"You can talk?! Wait. Let's try to save you now."

"No! I can't...go on like this. Take...my gene."

"But why?"

"Help....Alex beat Prime. Give him my power to use."

"You heard?"

"I'm always...listening. Do it."

Gizmo was sad because he understood the implication.

"Let...me do...one good thing."

The conversation was over as the cameras were turned off.

--------

"What happened to him?"

"Removing someone's power gene ultimately kills the powered individual."

Alex's eyes widened. Enthrall entrusted Alex to use his powers to complete the task he failed at. With everything he knows now, he wouldn't let any of that go to waste.

"I won't let either of you down. Prime will fall and everyone will be free. Would you like me to wipe out your file they have on you?"

"Not needed."

"Don't you have dreams of a normal life after Prime is gone?"

"A vacation from all of this, for sure. But not until everyone is safe. If Prime is defeated, you still have the government to deal with. Erasing the backup files of the others helps, but they will find them in time. Once that has been dealt with, I can finally relax."

"I didn't think about that. There has to be a way."

"Let me think about that. Focus on your mission at hand."

"Yes, sir."

Alex rejoined his group and told them everything.

"That is insane! That's what the lab is hiding?", Shrink asked.

Brooke held Alex's hand out of nervousness, but excited they found a weakness. Exodus wrapped her arms around herself.

"I w-want to go, but-

"It's okay. I understand. Just make sure you get us out of there. I can't tell if I can contact you from underground, but it's our best shot."

"What should I do?", the minimize villain asked.

"You and Exodus will get us inside and I will turn off all the cameras in the facility. I will also shut down the support systems that they have. We can't let any one of them escape."

"You're right", Brooke affirmed.

"Should we wreak havoc in the other areas?"

"If you find more of those things, yes. Get chaotic with it."

"That's what I like to hear", Shrink grinned.

"What about outside?", the teleporter asked.

"You will be the lookout. If something is wrong, send a scream bomb down. We will know to get out at this spot", as he pointed at a photo.

"When do you want to do this?"

"I say 5 days. If we're not ready by that time, we will keep extending the time until we are."

They agreed with his idea. They continued to talk about the intricacies of the plan and what could go wrong. They kept training to work out any kinks in their maneuvers.

Exodus saw noticeable progress in herself with creating multiple portals at once. She could almost hop with excitement but pulled the feeling back. She had to be serious.

"Great job! Feel proud of yourself for that!", Alex patted her on the back.

"But I need to be serious. If I relax too much then-

"You can't be too serious either. Your gift is creative. You can't hold back from that part of yourself", Shrink encouraged.

"I will master this in time", she grinned with a new fire in her belly.

----

The next day, Alex fell in a depressive state. He felt he didn't have the energy to get up and face Prime no matter how much he wanted to. He kept thinking about Kayla and all the lives that Prime killed. His failure at beating him.

"What if I can't stop him? If I can't save you or the others?", he asked Brooke. She embraced him while in bed. "I think we need to postpone for now. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. We will go when everyone is at 100%", before pecking at his cheek. The day after that, Alex's mind was still a little foggy as he trained with Gizmo. The veteran stops him.

"I can keep going", he reassured.

"Not like this. Come back when you're better. I know how you're feeling in some way. You will get better in time."

Alex walked away with anger towards himself. Gizmo pulled him back and suckerpunched him in the face! He recoiled from the heavy punch.

"Get up, idiot!", as Gizmo cracked his knuckles.

Alex got back up to attack the grizzled technopath. Gizmo swept his leg and Alex lifted up the metal floor behind him to catch and push him back into the fight.

Gizmo got dazed by a wild haymaker, but he gave a back kick to his stomach. Alex actually caught it and flipped him, but the technopath regained himself to go for a tackle. Alex trapped him into an enclosed metal room and shrunk it down.

"Alright, you win!"

Alex pulled the metal apart, but he was relying on that. He thrusted with a knife and Alex backed up while doing a swiping motion. Gizmo's knife arm got numb and he dropped the knife from losing sensation in his fingers. He deduced he used nanobots on him and Alex used his power to turn them off.

Gizmo put his knife away and he offered his hand. Alex thinks it's another trick as he analyzed his hand.

"I'm serious this time. Good job."

Alex shook his hand in appreciation before returning to his team. He sat back and watched as they improvised team building techniques. Cama and Arma came by and were amazed at what they could do.

"You can do it, Brooke!", Arma cheered.

Brooke smiled from the encouragement.

"Keep kicking ass, Shrink!", the lizard boy shouted.

"Hey, you can only curse in this area. If you do it elsewhere, I will tell your dad", Shrink lightly warned.

The children saw Alex sitting against the wall, and they felt he's not his normal self. They came over to him.

"Are you okay, Alex?", Arma asked.

"I'm okay. Just tired."

"Do you need a night light to sleep? You can have mine", she offered.

"I will make one. Keep yours", he cracked a grin. The children hugged him. "Aww, thanks."

"Can we play later?"

"Sure", as he regained himself. He and the others did play with them to lighten the mood.

----

The 3rd day, he was in a clearer mindset, but not fully there. He took a hot shower with Brooke. She rubbed her body against his and his arms wrap around the small of her back.

"You are such a tease."

"You are too. When do you want us to leave?"

"In four more days, I think."

"Perfect", she replied.

They kissed each other deeply as some of his passion came back.

Marks in the meantime was collecting information as he got a call from Denise. He went outside to answer it. 

"I've sought out a norm who might like to help.  They want information you found and to bring it to light", her voice came out distorted to hide her identity.

"Do they understand what that would mean?"

"Yes and they accept the consequences. They were very adamant about it."

"So be it. I wish them well."

Tiffany choked on some coffee from his response. It was several attachments sent from a private server with an ever-changing IP address. She opened the first document which was ownership over the supervillain prison system. Her jaw dropped as the hero organization owned that prison along with the article of the day after that incident.

Tiffany kept opening the rest of the links and took notes. Long, detailed notes as her body shivered.

How far does this go? How long were they hiding this?

Miguel wrapped a blanket around her and saw the information.

"I will go by your decision, Tiff. If you want to go through with it, I will be by your side. If not, that's okay."

"A fine and possibly prison. We don't have the money saved up for that. Our accounts will take a big hit."

"I rather use that money for a cause. I can't relax knowing the truth is hidden from everyone."

Tiffany pulled him in for a deep kiss. She enjoyed that she took a second chance on love.

"And what is that for?"

"For being the best future husband."

She exhaled as she set up the files to be sent to any agency, journalist, and even organizations outside the US. She hits send. Miguel took her hand and gently squeezed it. They expected the worst, but they will support each other through that.

Meanwhile, the man Marks had tied up found his way out and called the facility on a hidden phone he had.

                                                                  "Input your employee code."

He entered the code and got patched through to his supervisor. "Sir! We have been compromised!"

"What?!"

"Someone knocked me out and took my information to get inside. Who knows what they have taken?"

"Did you get a good look at the person?"

"No. Whoever it was did it at night and I didn't get the chance to see the face."

"Damn it! We may need to move everything right away."

"I understand."

"Or...we can beef up our security with what we have."

"B-But they aren't fully ready to be used like that", his voice trembled.

"What matters is their presence. One look could be all we need to gain an advantage. If they attack, so be it. We will do this option instead."

"What should I do?"

"Come to the facility after you verify your identity."

The supervisor hung up. His assistant was close by who overheard their conversation.

"Well, we will actually employ a bit of both. We do need to move the actual project for future leverage."

"I will get on that, sir", the female assistant insisted. She walked away and gripped her clipboard as she departed to the secret part of the facility.

----

That same day, Quick was with Aqua who managed to get some of her lower body back. She had also managed to form some solid skin as she's wearing clothes that Quick had gotten her.

"Almost there."

"I'm glad. Have some food."

She took the bag of fries and ate them along with fresh fruits and veggies to aid her growth.

"Once I'm fully there, what should we do?"

"I don't know. We have your testimony, but they could always spin that into saying that you were brainwashed."

"I hate that."

"Me too. We also don't know why Alex did what he did at the base or what he saw to make him attack Prime. I think we should wait."

"But you hate waiting."

"I still do, but I can't risk losing anyone again. If we lose Alex, we will never know the truth. He will be happy to know that you're alive."

Aqua warmly smiled at this possibility.