ONE
"Just a simple stake out, you said! Oh, this should be wrapped up in five minutes, you said! Why did you have to jinx it?!" Shockwave glared at his teammates. All around them, a swarm of robots continued to pour from every nook and cranny of the warehouse, where what was supposed to be a simple drug sale bust had evolved into a superhero versus robot cluster fuck. And not the fun kind.
Max Out rolled his eyes as he socked another robot hard enough to knock the five behind it aside like bowling pins. "Says the guy who jumped the gun and decided he couldn't wait two more minutes for everyone to get into position." With a burst of super speed, he dismantled a dozen more.
"How was I supposed to know this place was a storage facility for the Robot Master's old clunkers?" Shockwave held out his hands and fired a wide beam of pure force to plow through another wave of robots. The humanoid machines struggled to get back up, apparently heedless of the fact that half their bodies were currently bent out of shape, and a few were missing limbs. Like zombies, they continued to march toward the superheroes in their midst with no care to their own safety; their broken and worn-down parts protested this activity with loud, metallic shrieks and sparks, but the robots heedlessly advanced forward.
"This is getting us no where," said Growl, his weretiger form looming over his teammates as he hurled two more robots into the oncoming horde. The three men backed up forming a circle as the robots made an ever-tightening ring around them.
"Agreed," said Max Out. He scanned the horde to see where the thinnest part appeared to be. Then he shifted his internal energies to "max out" his durability. "Growl! Pick me up and start charging that way! Shockwave, follow in our wake and keep the path from closing up!"
Growl complied, and picked up Max Out, using his body as a battering ram to smash through the robots. Shockwave was right behind him, using his force blasts to keep the robots from reaching and grabbing them as they passed. Within a few moments, the trio had made it to the edge of the horde, and continued straight ahead, smashing through the warehouse wall and into the dark streets.
Outside, several large shipping containers were stacked up in the lot. Max-Out realigned his energies to grant himself moderate super strength, picked up several of the containers, and slammed them against the hole in the wall. The clanking of metal fists sounded against the metal wall, but the makeshift blockade held.
As Shockwave and Growl caught their breaths, Max Out said, "I'm going to try to catch up to the truck. You two make sure none of those things get out." With that, he took off at sonic speeds to race after their escaped quarry.
He got three blocks before he saw the truck already stopped, the driver and movers sprawled out on the street. As he came up to the vehicle, still idling where it stood, a lithe young woman stepped out from the front of it. "Tsk-tsk, boys," Zero-G said. "How'd you let a bunch of mooks like these get away?"
"Shockwave jumped the gun and decided he would try to take the dealers and their buyers right off. He ended up knocking over a crate on the far wall with his first shot. Turned out that whole warehouse was a storage facility for some of the Robot Master's outdated robot soldiers, and Shockwave's stray shot triggered some kind of activation protocol."
Zero-G looked down the street, an eyebrow raised. She caught glints of metal in the moonlight as a few of the robots came around the sides of the warehouse down the street to try and attack their quarry. Shockwave and Growl were currently smashing them apart easily enough, until the whole swarm had the bright idea to circle around and come out several of the other exits. Soon, the two were swamped again. Max Out and Zero-G were about to run over to help, when suddenly, lightning bolts lashed out from above, striking the robots and creating a domino effect of electrocution; electrical arcs leaped from robot to robot, frying them all in one fell swoop.
"Friggin' show off," muttered Max as Dynamo floated down to the ground, making a show of dusting his hands off.
"There, there," said Zero-G, patting Max on the shoulder. "Now, I'll tie up these guys, how about you see what they were hauling? Might give us a clue as to their source." She set about using zip ties to bind the unconscious men's hands behind their backs and using her gravity power to shift them over to the sidewalk.
Max leaped up onto the truck bed, where two pallets worth of metal cases were strapped down. He was joined by Dynamo, who landed on the truck bed next to him. "Real mess you guys made, huh?" said the electrokinetic with a cocky smirk, jerking a thumb back towards the warehouse. Max Out just glowered at him.
"Jesus, I said I was sorry," grumbled Shockwave as he and Growl joined the group.
"Well, at least that's one more stash of loose tech we don't have to worry about," said Max. "Now, let's see what this stash consists of." He fiddled with the combination lock on one of the cases for a moment, then sighed and simply ripped the top off. He and Dynamo's eyes both widened at what they saw. Dynamo held out a hand and ran an arc of electricity between his fingers to better illuminate the contents of the case and make sure they were seeing what they thought they were seeing.
"So, what is it?" said Growl, returning to his smaller near-human form, which still stood an impressive seven feet tall. "Coke? Meth? That new super steroid stuff?"
Max picked up a small silvery egg shaped device, bagged with a small remote. He glanced at the others. Then he pressed a button on the remote, and the silvery egg started vibrating in the bag.
"What the hell?" said Shockwave, looking confused.
"Is that what I think it is?" said Zero-G, cocking an eyebrow again.
Max turned the device off and sifted through the case. He pulled out a couple other vibrating devices that were a lot less vague as to their purpose.
"Oh, gross!" said Shockwave, looking away as Max tossed a sizable dildo towards Zero-G.
"Holy crap, really?" she said, catching the dildo one-handed and looking the thing over. It was a simple, flesh colored dildo, perfectly shaped like a thick, veiny penis. A shifting lever on the bottom set it to vibrate at various speeds. "Ha! Really?" She tossed the dildo back to Max, who set it back in the case. Setting the case aside, he ripped the top off of another one. This time, he came up with a handful of various sized rings, some of which were connected together by a leather strap to form a harness.
"Wow," said Dynamo. "I thought this was a drug bust. You're telling me we stopped a bunch of guys from selling sex toys?"
"Man, what is with these people?" said Shockwave.
"I think the more pertinent question is, why are sex toys being sold black market style like this? I mean, none of this stuff is illegal. Unless it was stolen, but come on." Dynamo picked up a simple metal cock ring. "A whole set of these are like, what, ten bucks at the shop?"
"Maybe they got the wrong cargo and didn't realize it?" said Shockwave.
"I kind of doubt the guys running this show wouldn't actually check the cargo before shipping it off," said Zero-G. She paused. "Maybe they're modified?"
"Like how?" said Max. "What kind of modifications to a sex toy could make it illegal?" He started sifting though the case deeper. "Unless there's something hidden in this stuff and this is just the cover."
"Well, we should just let the cops deal with, I guess," said Dynamo. "This is more small time than we thought."
"Small time? I think I'm insulted." The five heroes whirled around, looking this way and that. The voice had come from seemingly no where. There was a sudden rush of wind, and a bolt of sickening green light flashed in the middle of the street a dozen feet away. A moment later, a gaunt, pale figure in a ragged cloak, leaning heavily on a crooked staff, glowered at them with glowing red eyes. "Stupid kids. No respect, I tell you."
Growl growled low, his form shifting back to his full hybrid form, stepping menacingly towards the man. "Voodoo Master," he snarled. "Didn't know you were such a dirty old man. Let me guess, the toys are rigged with some kind of spell? People suddenly fall under your thrall after using them?"
"You would be surprised at how vulnerable sex makes people. Heck, even I hadn't considered it, until I heard about the Epsilon team's little run in with that nude tart, what was her name... Feel Girl?" He waved dismissively. "Peh. What kind of a name is that for a villain, anyway?"
"This coming from the guy who calls himself Voodoo Master," said Dynamo, raising a hand towards him, lightning crackling along his fingers.
"My name is perfectly acceptable for what I am! A Master of Voodoo! And you idiots are not going to screw up my plans this time!" He raised one fist and shook it menacingly at the five heroes. A moment later, he was blasted with a bolt of lightning that knocked him clean onto his ass.
"You know, you could have totally avoided this if you just hadn't shown up and tried to grab some glory for yourself," said Dynamo. He floated down towards the old man, who was coughing as he struggled back to his feet.
"Careful," warned Growl. "He's not the idiot he seems."
Dynamo rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on, he may be a warlock or whatever, but he's an old geezer. Just don't give him time to cast anything, and he's not a threat."
Max Out zoomed over to Voodoo Master just as he was about to raise his hands. With a quick swipe, he knocked the staff out of the villain's hand, and had his arms locked behind his back in a pair of zip-tie cuffs. Another moment later, and Max had ripped a strip of cloth from Voodoo Master's robe and gagged him with it. "Let's just get this taken care of," he said, tapping the small comlink hooked to his ear. "I'll call in Mist. We'll need her magic to analyze the toys and properly dispose them."
