MAU: INFINITE CRISIS, part 8

Written by: Set3

Everyone had quickly boarded the helicopter from the Canadian frigate which then took them inland to Vancouver island. As they waited while it continued to the airport in Victoria, Jeffrey turned to Noel who was seated beside him.

"Are you okay?" he asked as he put a hand on Noel's shoulder in concern.

"Yeah I'm..," Noel's voice broke. It was then that the past weeks of imprisonment caught up to him. He pulled his arms around his armored body as he let his head droop. Not wanting anyone to hear him as he began to sob, he turned off his external speakers. Even though no one could hear him anymore the shuddering of his shoulders betrayed his emotional state.

Jeffrey then put an arm around Noel's back and shoulders and did his best to pull Noel into a hug as best he could with being strapped to his seat. Noel leaned into it. He didn't feel very masculine right now and didn't care. Maybe he just tried to think of himself as still being a guy at heart as a way of coping with what he went through, the thought of still being a guy in mind was quickly eroding. She was a girl, a girl that looked 17 or 18, and grabbed hold of Jeff's arm that went around her front for comfort. After what she had gone through, she desperately needed some kindness and Jeffrey was the closest person giving it and she clung to his arm for the rest of the helicopter trip to the airport in silence.

Major, for her part, was lost in herself. What Henry had said to her during their brief encounter stirred something in her. She knew Henry was bad, what he did to her personally was proof enough, but what he hinted about Jeffrey not telling her everything got to her. When she thought about it, Jeffrey really didn't say a lot about himself. Not even what he did when he was working for the Agency before the rest of the team came along. With that in mind, she adjusted herself in her seat to get comfortable and remote hack into the net through her dummy plug. Flying through the vast net she began looking up records of Jeffrey, his bother, sister and family. His parents were unfortunately killed in a car crash forcing Jeffrey and Henry to take care of their sister when she was just 5 years old. It was several years later that the Agency reports showed that they encountered the alien device. According to the report, soon after Jeffrey and Henry used the device and quickly afterwards got into an argument. The report didn't show what it was about but Haley, their sister, was put in a coma due to the altercation and Henry ran off with the box.

Major sighed mentally as she felt dirty looking behind Jeffrey's back like this. There was nothing out of the ordinary, the tragic deaths of their parents aside, that stood out as anything odd. So far, nothing supported Henry's claim of Jeffrey keeping secrets from them. As she was about to close up her search, she looked at a school photo of Hayley and stopped. It was a yearbook photo of Hayley, perfectly ordinary, but what struck her was the style of dress she and several other kids had. Major looked for other pictures of Hayley to double check her suspicion. According to Hayley's birth records, she was 12 years old now but according to the pictures and when she cross-checked the identities of the other children she came to the discovery that the school pictures of Hayley were taken in the early 90's. The 12 year old girl that was Jeffrey and Henry's sister should be just entering her thirty's. Major then began checking both the history of Jeffrey and Henry and was surprised that the two had nearly the same records. And stranger still, there weren't any pictures of them from before the Agency's arrival. As Major delved deeper, she came to the conclusion that the brothers records were forged by the Agency itself.

"Why would they cover this up?" Major thought to herself as she glanced over to Jeffrey who had his cowl off and was comforting Noel as she seemed to be silently crying judging from the periodic shakes. Henry knew what Jeffrey and the Agency were hiding.

Before she could think anymore on this, the helicopter bounce suddenly as they finally landed at the airport. As the combined teams got out of their seats and checked their gear before leaving. Major stayed back making sure that she and Jeffrey were the last to leave so they could have a moment alone to talk.

"Hey," she called out to Jeffrey just as he was about to step out. He turned back to look at her expectantly, "How long do you think it'll be until we finally get Henry?" she asked as she came up and stepped out the door with him.

Jeffrey didn't respond until they cleared the still rotating blades of the helicopter that lifted off once they were far enough away. "Who knows," he said bluntly, "Assuming he doesn't detect it, it won't send out a signal until he stops moving for a time. If all goes well, we should get a signal within a few days or so," he said as he replaced his cowl as they walked on to the Hercules transport they arrived in.

"On another note," Major started, "How was your sister? I was going to ask when you got back, but with us searching for Henry, it slipped my mind," she prodded.

Jeffrey stiffened, "...She's... Still the same. Still in a coma," he answered grimly. His voice shook a little.

Major almost stopped herself right there. She already knew that the subject of Jeffrey's sister was a sore subject, and his reaction to her question nearly convinced her to abandon her query. But with what Henry told her about Jeffrey not telling them everything and what she was able to find out on her own, she had to know and asked one more question.

"How old is she now?" she asked.

Jeffrey started to answer but stopped himself, Major was sure she heard him say "th-" before he stopped himself.

"She's twelve now," he said finally, "She spent four years asleep," he said as he then stared straight forward as his pace quickened as he walked on to the transport.

Major stopped in her tracks before continuing on. She felt like crap, she didn't like the way she made Jeffrey felt just now. Even if she was certain what he said proved her theory and what even Henry hinted at, she still felt dirty. With the doubts firmly seeded in her mind conflicting with her emotions she boarded the plane.

As Noel waited for everyone to board the transport she found herself feeling anxious. She would be tapping her foot impatiently if her lower legs weren't currently encased solid boots. Somehow, the compartment they were sitting in didn't feel right. It just seemed a little too small and she kept looking to the ramp to the outside. It wouldn't be until later that during her counselling sessions that she would discover that she developed a minor case of claustrophobia brought on from when she was held prisoner in the cage at the Tonoan headquarters. She cringed slightly when the ramp finally closed before the plane taxied to the runway and took off in the direction of the military base where they picked up Chris and the CSOR team. Although the CSOR team stayed behind leaving Chris as the only returning resident.

The flight back was incredibly uneventful compared to the excitement they had gone through with the search and rescue. This was further accentuated by Andria's claims of how bored she was as she was once again left with nothing to do compared to everyone else reading or filling out reports on the finished operation.

After touching down at the hidden airbase and on entering the barracks Chris was immediately set upon by the previously shy boy who leapt into her arms with a chorus of giggles and began asking her random questions. He didn't seemed to care about receiving any answers and was more than happy just to talk his head off (not literally of course). Chris answered what she could and just smiled and nodded as she continued to carry him off down the hallway. John watched the whole thing with a huge grin on his face and looked after them as they disappeared down the hall.

"You're not straying away are you?" Major teased as she slipped in beside him and gave him a playful squeeze of his butt.

John jumped a little, much to Major's amusement, and turned to her, "Of course not," he replied returning her gesture, "It's just that I can only imagine how rough that little boy had it until just yesterday. I'm not sure if I completely fixed him but I'm happy to see that he is."

Major smiled at that thinking of that being on of the many reasons she loved him before her mood turned sour, "Listen," she started in a serious tone," You've known Jeffrey the longest out of all of us right?"

"Yeees?" he answered with a cocked eyebrow, not sure where she was going with this.

"Well I was just wondering, with the way he acted storming out on his own when we found out Henry was with Noel," she paused not sure how to word it, "I mean, he just ran off without us, and it occurred to me that we don't know what happened back then between him and Henry." Major looked down at her feet, "I know Henry's bad, no one knows that more than I do. It's just," she paused again looking up into John's eyes, "Back on that ship when we were looking for Noel and I ran into Henry, he told me something."

"What did he say?" John asked, a concerned look in his eyes.

Major looked around, checking to see if Jeffrey was still outside with Noel before turning back to John, "He told me that Jeffrey hasn't told us everything."

John just looked at her while he processed what she said before he let out a scoff, "Well, you can't really expect a guy like Henry to actually tell the truth. He's the guy that stole your memories. He probably couldn't do it this time so he came up with that to buy time to escape," he reasoned.

Major shook her head, "I thought so at first too, but it kept getting at me so I went online and researched Jeffrey's family. Jeffrey's sister is supposed to be twelve and the official records reflect that but all the school pictures I was able to find suggests that they were taken in the 90's. When I asked Jeffrey how old she was I could have sworn that he was about to say thirty. Admittingly, he probably was going to say thirteen, but still, It's just too much of a coincidence to ignore," Major said with a worried look on her face. "It scares me that a man like Henry could be right about something like this."

John drew her into a tight hug, "Shh, shh. It's ok, we'll figure out what he meant by that. We'll catch him and then we'll find out what's going on," he said reassuringly.

Major responded with a kiss and a swat on the shoulder.

Outside, at one end of the runway, Noel was enjoying the sunrise with her helmet off while Jeffrey stood further off keeping her company. As she stood towards the rising sun with her arms outstretched gulping in lung fills of air.

"You know," Noel started, "I can't believe it took me getting kidnapped and caged for weeks to realise how sweet and precious fresh air is," she said as she lowered her arms.

Jeffrey just smiled at her, "I'm sorry I wasn't there to rescue you," he apologised. While his batsuit was thermalized against the cold, he left his cowl on as it was a little too cold for his tastes.

"It's not your fault Jeff. There's no way that you could have known that I'd get kidnapped, let alone that Henry was going to be there," Noel consoled him.

"Did Henry do anything to you?" Jeffrey asked suddenly, taking a few steps over to her.

Noel crossed her arms, "No, he never touched me. I only saw him the once. I think I overheard someone say that he was looking over my hardsuits," she answered.

Even though Noel couldn't see Jeffrey's face under the mask of his cowl, she could see the relief roll over him.

"That's the best news I've ever heard about him in a long time," Jeffrey said finally.

They stood there in silence for several minutes with only the soft wind rolling through to break it.

With a cleansing sigh, Noel turned to Jeffrey, "So, have you thought about what you're going to do after you catch Henry and put him away?" she asked.

Jeffrey was taken aback, "I... I haven't really thought about it to be honest," he looked down at his feet. Some snow had blown over his toes, but thanks to the insulation of his suit, he didn't feel any chill. He kicked his feet to clear the snow off. "I guess I'd do what I can to make sure my sister gets what she needs. I suppose I'll stop in to make sure that Henry is held responsible for everything that he's done," he paused at that staring off down the end of the runway, "And I suppose if I can't continue to work for the Agency then I'll have to find a real job." He let out a short laugh, "Unfortunately, I don't think the pay will be as good this," he said with a thin smile.

Noel laughed, "Yeah, I don't think that there's much call for an actual superhero. Although, you could probably make a lot of little kids dreams come true at their birthday party."

Jeffrey smiled in earnest, "Maybe if I looked like the Christopher Nolen version, I don't think that many kids nowadays know about the Batman Beyond version."

A soft series beeps sounded in Jeffrey's earpiece causing him to jerk. He then put his hand to his cowl activating the comm unit, "Major, I need you to link up with our satellite. The tracker I put on Henry activated and I need you to find out where he is before we lose the signal."

There was a brief pause before the cyber-echoed voice of Major replied, "Will do."

On hearing that, Jeffrey practically ran back inside, only sparing enough time to tell Noel that they found Henry. Noel only taking enough time to grab her helmet before following after him. As Jeffrey entered with Noel right behind, John and Andria were on either side of Major, who herself seemed to be looking off into space.

"Did you get it?" Jeffrey asked her impatiently.

"Almost," Major replied with a dazed look still on her face before she blinked a few times and turned to Jeffrey, "I've got it. He's in Detroit."

"Great," Jeffrey growled as he turned for the door before John stopped him by grabbing his arm.

"Wait. Where do you think you're going on your own?"

"I have to go now," Jeffrey nearly shouted. "If we wait much longer, he'll either move on or find the tracker and get rid of it. Then we'll have lost him again!"

"Going off by yourself isn't going to help any," John told him flatly, "You think you have enough thrust in your Bat boots to make it all the way down to Detroit from here? And even if you do by some long shot miracle get there first before the rest of us, you'll be exhausted when you get there, and you'll be on your own with no one watching your back." John gestured to the rest of the team. "We are all in this together Jeffrey. He's done something to pretty much all of us, so you're not alone in this."

Jeffrey looked as if he were to launch into a tirade. He opened his mouth, then closed it. He then looked to the floor as he balled his fists tightly. After a moment, his fists went slack, and he looked up to John with a half-hearted smile.

"You're right," he said plainly, "Lets go get him," he added as he turned and headed for the door, his team following behind him.

As they were boarding the plane, Jeffrey looked back to see Noel approaching them. "I can't let you come with us," he called out to her.

"And why not?" she asked defiantly only stopping at the ramp in front of Jeffrey.

Jeffrey was aghast, "H-he nearly killed you when you first ran into him," he stammered. "And even though he didn't do anything to you on the ship, who knows what he might've done had time gone on. I'm sorry, but I'm not letting you on this plane," he said with an air of finality.

Noel furrowed her brow, clearly insulted and angry with what Jeffrey had decreed. "Fine!" she answered, "It would've been too cramped in there for me anyways," she said as she put her helmet on. "I'll just fly circles around you until you take off," she said as she back up a few steps before jumping into the air, a flare from her hip-thrusters sending her up high. There, she deployed her flight wings for the first time in awhile, and true to her word, began flying in circles above the base.

Jeffrey could only stare up at her in stark disbelief as John came back out beside him.

John only looked up where Jeffrey was looking once before, with a smirk, turned back to Jeffrey giving him a pat on the back, "Best not to keep her waiting or she'll get impatient and get there before us," he quiped as he walked back to the planes hold.

Jeffrey couldn't form any reply and just walked into the plane where they then sealed the ramp and took off.

It was a five hour flight to the Detroit airport and the team had steeled in anticipation of Andria's string of complaints of boredom but were pleasantly surprised and relieved when she revealed that she had taken a few magazines from the base before they left. There was an instant when an air traffic control officer contacted the pilot to check their starboard side for a ghost radar echo. When they looked off the right wing they saw Noel flying beside them. A quick word from John over the radio to her and she disappeared from radar as the colour of her hardsuit switched from white and red to the two-tone olive green. After that, the flight was quiet aside from Jeffrey discussing with his team how they were going to deal with Henry.

After touching down at the airport they quickly made their way to the outskirts to a previously abandoned car factory. As they gathered in front, they noticed that the ten foot brick wall was recently added along with the thick metal gate in comparison with the rest of the crumbling architecture.

Andria was about to push on the heavy gate when John pulled her back. When she asked why he stopped her he pointed out that there wasn't any snow on the perimeter wall and gate. There was a faint hum in the air near the wall. John quickly made a snowball and tossed is at the gate which then sparked angrily as the snowball hit it causing the team, with the exception of John, to jump in surprise. John pulled out his screwdriver and aimed it at the gate. It sparked as if in defiance to John as he used his screwdriver to melt the lock in the gate. After he finished, he replaced his tool in his pocket while telling them that the electricity was still on though. Noel shrugged as she went ahead and kicked the gate open, strings of electricity danced harmlessly over her boot as the gate swung open, bouncing off the inside of the wall, with a loud clang.

They redied their weapons as they passed through the gate. The worn asphalt of the empty parking lot was peppered by large numerous dull metal rectangles in the ground. Everyone kept a careful eye around them as they approached the factory building, Henry walk out through the main doors of the building still in the armor he wore in his escape.

"Hello everyone, I've been expecting you," he said with a sense of cavalier about him.

In an instant, everyone had their weapons trained on him and fired. Only a few bullets ricochet off his armor before the metal rectangle he was standing behind erupted into an eight foot tall pillar of metal blocking the further onslaught of weapon fire as well as one of Jeffrey's exploding batarangs. Soon after, everyone stopped shooting.

Henry then casually stepped out from behind the pillar and leaned up beside it. "Well, if you all have that much energy left, then I'll have to do something about it," he said as he knocked on the side of the pillar.

As he knocked, the front of the pillar swung down revealing a robot armed with a sawed-off shotgun. Over a dozen more pillars erupted around them and opened, each revealing another robot armed with pistols, machine guns, chains, and aluminum bats. The ones with guns began shooting while the ones with the melee weapons ran towards them.

The team scattered, taking out three of the closest robots while running to the pillars for cover. John, Andria and Major fired behind the pillars while Jeffrey and Noel ran headfirst into the mass of artificial bodies. Jeffrey used his agility to weave in and out between the robots using two batarangs as makeshift knives using them to block the robots armed with bats, chains, and knives themselves and cut at their joints tearing them apart slowly letting the others have a clean shot without being shot back at. Noel on the other hand relied on the armor of her hardsuit as she plowed through the robots straight to Henry who flew up and began firing down with his repulsors.

Soon enough, the robots with firearms were dispatched and Major and Andria left their cover behind the pillars and closed to the robots. Major with her pistol and combat knife and Andria with her gunblade in sword-mode.

As Henry touched down, Noel used the jump jets in her hips and back causing her to shoot through the robot guards Henry standing behind. Just as Noel reached Henry, she swiped at him with her katar blades. Before they connected, Henry used his repulsors to push himself backwards out of her immediate range and adjusted himself before flying up again. Noel took only a second to adjust her own thrusters as she chased after him into the sky.

The rest of the team had quickly mopped up the remaining robots and were waiting for Henry to come back down. Jeffrey cursed himself. While his batsuit was capable of flying, it was little more than powered gliding and he wouldn't be able to move like Henry and Noel does. As much as he hated it, he had to wait on the ground until an opportunity to present itself.

Noel and Henry meanwhile dived and looped around each other. Noel was thankful that Henry wasn't changing his armor like in their fist encounter. As they looped around each other in a death wheel, Noel was getting fed up as she couldn't get an angle to hit him yet. With quick thinking she rotated her hip thrusters at 90 degrees forcing her to spin before cutting across the circle they were flying in hitting Henry in the back. Having a greater thrust, she forced him down into the ground hard.

As Henry started getting up, Noel stomped down on his back leaving a noticeable dent where she put her armored boot down, "That's for what you put me through when we first met!" Noel spat. After that Henry seemed to take the hint and stop moving. That, or Noel damaged something.

Jeffrey rushed over and turned Henry over practically ripping the faceplate off, "Ok Henry, you're coming with-," he stopped as he pulled the faceplate away and was surprised to see that Henry wasn't in the suit. The suit was completely empty with exception for a note at the back of the helmet kept there by the tracker Jeffrey placed on him earlier. Jeffrey reached in and pulled the note, "It's about time you found me Jeffrey. I'll be waiting downstairs for you. I have something to show you," it read. Jeffrey crumpled the note in his hand as he growled. He turned to the rest as he stood up, "Everyone spread out! I'll take the south end, Major take the east end, and Andria can enter from the west end. John, keep the north end here locked down. And Noel," he added as if he just remembered her, "You keep an eye on the roof to make sure Henry doesn't take off while we're looking for him. If he does," he said with a grim look, "Take him out." With that, he flew off into the air flying over the factory landing at the back end while Major and Andria ran to their respective assigned entries.

Once the three were out of sight, the front door exploded outward in a shower of glass, metal, and concrete. Once the debris died down, Noel and John could see a robot three or four times larger than the ones they just fought. The duo could see that it looked somewhat like the Iron Monger from the first Iron Man movie, although much more crude looking. It lumbered towards them like a gorilla using all its limbs to move.

Noel turned to John, "Get out of here, I'll take care of this," she told him as she turned back to the big robot adjusting her stance redying herself.

John gave her a look, "You don't have to tell me twice," he said as he ran back to the gate.

As the gorilla-like robot approached Noel, it pushed over a pillar in front of it which groaned in a sickening metallic screech. After which, it seemed to observe Noel for a moment, staring at her with its six eyes.

"What's a little girl in dress up going to do against me?" It asked revealing that someone was inside it.

Noel tilted her head, slightly dumbfounded, "I've got a lot of pent up anger that says you're going to regret saying that little man," she told him flatly.

The man in the robot laughed, "Girl, I've got a seven plus ton mech of Detroit steel. What do you have?"

"A hardsuit and me, a really pissed off girl," Noel growled as she ran flat out towards the mech.

The mech brought its arms up and swung them in to crush Noel between it massive hands. He was beyond surprised when Noel easily stop his hands with her own.

"How the hell did you stop me?" he asked incredulously.

"With what I based my hardsuit off of," Noel started as she made a show of pushing his arms further apart, "I can take on a guy like you in my sleep!" she cried as she ducked down only to jump up, giving the gorilla mech an uppercut into its torso that was able to lift the whole mecha off the ground where it fell onto its back.

The mecha then seemed to suffer the worst case of turtle plight. Being unable, despite its best efforts, was unable to right itself. Its arms flailed as it tried to gain momentum to get back on its feet. Noel climbed on top of it and pulled her fist back before thrusting it into the mecha's torso, literally punching a hole in it. After pulling her fist out she then ripped the hole wider exposing the pilot inside. As the man brought his arms up in defense, he actually pissed himself. Noel ripped off the pilots harness belts before pulling him out of his torn up mecha.

"Don't kill me, please!" he whimpered.

Noel only tossed him to the ground where John approached again now that the fight was over. "Keep an eye on him," she told John.

He nodded as he produced a pair of handcuffs from his tactical vest and cuffed the man behind his back before escorting him to the back of the van they used to drive from the airport. Before Noel jumped up onto the roof of the factory she thought she heard John making fun of the "man's" masculinity. Once she was on the roof, she made sure she could see the front just in case any more surprises came out. As much as she hated it, she waited. While she didn't have as much experience against Henry as the others it was clear to her that she would be the best person to catch up to him and take him out if he really does try to escape.

Meanwhile Andria was entering the west end of the factory. The section seemed to have originally used as an office area. She walk by empty cubicles with her gunblade in hand, currently in gun-mode as she walked through the aisles. Suddenly, she heard the sound of footsteps. With a smirk, she snapped her fingers causing a ghostly blue aura to form over her.

"About time I get to use this," she muttered to herself as she stepped off the ground and floated up where she stood on the ceiling upside down by a corner and waited.

She watched as a pair of robots came walking down the main aisle, possibly checking a security alarm when she opened the door to enter the building. With her gunblade in rifle-mode she fired at one of the robots, dropping it, as she jumped towards them landing on a wall of a cubicle. Standing sideways, she switched her gunblade to sword-mode as she ran to the remaining robot. Before it could react, she swung her gunblade through its midsection, bisecting it. As the pieces of the robot fell, three more entered from the other end. Andria jumped to the ceiling and began running upside down again towards them shooting at them with her gunblade keeping them behind some fortunate cover. As Andria ran between support columns, when she was close enough, she kicked off a column. As she sailed through the air she twisted around so she could kick one robot in the chest and ran her gunblade through the back of the one behind her. The third one was able to bring its gun on her and fired as Andria pulled her gunblade out. The bullet bounced off the hilt of her gunblade as she kicked the robot getting it off balance as she fired several shots into its chest. As the third one dropped, Andria trained her gunblade on the door they came through waiting just in case any more were going to show up. After a long drawn out minute, she felt that it was safe to move on, and got up and move on.

Major had taken out four robots by surprise after activating her therm-optic camouflage. Practically invisible, it was easy to get behind them as she walked through this section of the factory. The area she walked through seemed to have used for storage. She walked by various half empty shelves, the few materials on the shelves had looked worn and decrepit, none of which interested her in the least. As she looked around, still invisible, she accidentally knocked over a stack of old paint cans which caused a load crash which made her jump. Swearing to herself, she was about to move on when she heard the unmistakable whine of a repulsor charging up. Major instantly dropped to the floor as the white ball of energy flew through where her head had been, having instead hit an object on the shelf behind her sending it flying off.

Major turned to the direction of where she thought it came from, she saw a female type Iron Man suit that flew at her. As they collided, Major's camouflage flashed and she became fully visible again as she was pushed through several shelves until the "Iron Woman" let Major go sending her with a smack into a wall. Not wasting any time, Major got up and checked to make sure her rifle was still clipped to her vest, it was, and she fired HV bullets at her opponent as she advanced on her. Her opponent seemed surprised that the bullets seemed to be doing some damage to it and flew up again and away. Major didn't have to wonder what it was doing when she heard a crashing sound. The Iron Woman had knock over the shelves at the other end creating a domino effect as each shelf in turn knocked the next over. Unfortunately, Even though Major was close to the wall, the shelves were tall enough to catch her and fall on her where she was. As she turned, the last shelf was already falling over, the Iron Woman following close behind. Major ran back to the wall and as she reached it, she jumped off it turning around and aiming for one of its repulsors and let go of her rifle to stab the other one with her combat knife. She was successful in disabling both as they again collided in the air. As the grappled in the air Major was using her combat knife to try and get at the Iron Woman's joints while it was hitting her back in her stomach and kicking at her legs. Eventually they fell to the ground on top of the fallen shelves. Major had landed on top of her opponent and she used the advantage to punch it in the face before pulling her rifle in hand and shooting at its joints where the armor seem to be weakest.

When she was sure that it wasn't able to move anymore Major got up and continued searching for Henry. She hadn't got very far when Andria came rushing in after hearing gunfire and the crashing of the shelves. Major waved at Andria as she walked over to her unaware that the Iron Woman suit was opening up revealing a blond woman with short hair and was wearing a slim body suit who climbed out. Andria, saw this but when she happened to see a halo of light sitting just above the back of her neck and was wearing a thin glove that ran up her entire right arm, she quickly recognised what the woman represented and cried out to Major to get down.

As Andria switched her gunblade to gun-mode to shoot, Major stopped in her tracks and started to turn around but the woman was already behind her and stuck two fingers of her right hand to the ports on the back of Majors neck. Instant, the halo of white light on the back of the woman's neck exploded into a ribbon that traveled down her arm into the back of Majors neck. Major stood there convulsing as her eyes rolled to the back of her head. Andria threw down her gunblade as she ran in a dead sprint, knocking the woman over breaking her connection with Major. As the woman fell to the floor, Andria got on top of her and began hurling punches on either side of the woman's face screaming at her.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MAJOR?!" she demanded.

During this, beating for lack of a better word, Major had slowly stopped shaking and the life returned to her face as she turned to Andria wailing on the woman. Memories flooded her mind. Major knew who she was now. She knew her name was Caleb Brown. And she now knew who the woman was that Andria was pummeling.

"Stop!" she told Andria as she pulled her off and checked on the woman who now had an understandably bruised face and a split lip.

"What are you doing?" Andria cried as she got back to her feet, "She just gave you a seizure and who knows what else!"

Tears were flowing from Major's eyes, "She was fixing me," she told her, "She was giving my memories back to me," she stated as she turned back to the woman and pulled out some gauze from her small med kit. "And she's my sister," she placed the gauze on her split lip to absorb the blood, "It is you isn't it sis?"

The woman winced as she smiled, one hand holding the gauze while the other was on Major's, Caleb's, shoulder reassuringly, "Hey Cay-Cay. Sorry for leaving you on your own all this time."

Caleb sniffed before pulling her sister into a tight hug continuing to sniffle into her shoulder, "Why didn't you find me? I didn't know who I was and..." she trailed off.

The woman, who's name Caleb later told was Lisa, gave Caleb a warm hug, "I'm sorry, but up until recently, I didn't have an actual body. That suit I was in was my body for the last three months. Before that, I was a computer chip stuck in Henry's computers," She explained apologetically.

Caleb wiped the stream of tears from her face, "But I saw you blow up."

"I did... I'm sorry, but at the time, it was all I could think to do to save you. As it turned out, Henry was going to help you," she said with a laugh but quickly stopped as she held the side of her face with her free hand.

Caleb was taken aback, "How can you say that? He stole my memories from me and you say he was going to save me? Do you know how it feels living all this time with a hole in your mind? He stole my soul from me."

Lisa had a sad look on her face as she looked on, "Henry, Is quick to anger I'll give you that. Believe me, I spent the last two years reigning his emotions in and it wasn't easy when you're stuck in a computer," she explained, "He's made a lot of mistakes but he does own up to them and does his best to fix them. Not the best way, but he does. He was able to find one of those boxes and get my body back and he saved your memories to give to me so I can hold on to them until now."

Caleb just stared at her, "Why didn't he tell me or any of us this? If he had my memories the whole time then why didn't he give them back?"

Lisa gave a weak smile, "In a round about way, he's a bit of a romantic. He wanted me to give them back to you. Not him, me, your sister. I know, it doesn't make sense but he's been busy trying to find a way to save his own sister, to help her wake up again," she said as she pushed Caleb back so she can get up, "And now he's finally figured out a way to do that too now. So long as he can convince Jeffrey."

"Wait," Andria interjected, "That's why we were able to track him here? Because he let us find him?"

Lisa gave her a slightly bemused look, "Well, if all it took to track him down was sticking a tag on him then he would have been caught by the Agency you work for years ago. Anyways, we gotta get down to the basement. According to Henry, he and Jeffrey aren't the best of brothers, so we'll need to play referee," she said as she started to walk off.

"Hold on," Andria called out, "How do we know that you just aren't going to lead us into a trap?" she accused.

Lisa just sighed and pointed to the ruined suit, "That's the only thing I could've used against you and Cay-cay wreck it. And Henry isn't a Bond villain, he doesn't have deathtraps, you coming?"

Andria was about to protest some more but Caleb, Major got up and began to follow behind her without question but Andria grabbed her arm to stop her.

"How can you trust someone you just met? For all we know, they really do have a deathtrap waiting for us. You only just met her," she told her.

Caleb shook her arm free, "Because I know that she is my sister," she told her flatly, "My memories are real!" she stated with resolve, "If it makes you feel any better, if she's really luring us into a deathtrap then you have my blessing to kick the crap out of her. So can we go now?"

Andria had a look of defeat about her as she grumbled over to her dropped gunblade and picked it up muttering under her breath as she followed the two down to the basement of the factory.

Jeffrey had snuck past the robots that were patrolling in the actual factory part of the building and sealed the door behind himself. He could've taken them out quite easily but they were just a waste of time to him so he left them behind. Henry was the one he was after. And after four years of chasing him down, he wasn't going to let him slip away. One way or the other, today was the day he was going to take Henry down. As he descended the stairs thoughts of what he might do ran through his mind. He still wasn't sure what he was going to actually do.

When he got to the bottom of the stairs he came to a thick slab of a metal door. He placed two fingers on the door using the built in microphones to see if he can hear anything. As he listened, he could hear something moving around inside. He strained to hear more but the sound of gunfire followed by crashing sounds from up the stairs steeled his resolve. Jeffrey stepped back from the door and with two tries, he kicked the door in and walked into an overly large room that seemed to be set up like a make-shift lab. On the right were several beds with straps and wires strewn about them tied to a machine between them, the left side had several robots that were currently deactivated as well as a work table that had some robot parts on it. And at the very back of the room was an alien box.

In working condition and fully deployed.

This was a secondary to Jeffrey however as standing in the middle of the room was his "brother", Henry looking at him with an expectant look on his face. Seeing that Henry wasn't in his armor, Jeffrey wasted no time an jumped forward, assisted with the jets in his boots, he plowed into Henry till they hit the floor several feet on. Jeffrey kept Henry pinned to the ground by straddling him. He checked to make sure he was pinned and threw a punch into the right side of Henry's ribs. Henry coughed up blood as three of his ribs were broken.

Jeffrey then pulled off his cowl to look Henry in the eyes, "How does that feel?" Jeffrey demanded before smacking him across the face, "How many people have you hurt besides Hayley?" he back handed him again, "And John?" and again, "And Noel?!" He punched him across the face where he felt the satisfying crack of Henry's cheek bone.

Henry coughed and spat up some blood, "You have to stop," he wheezed.

"WHY SHOULD I?!" Jeffrey screamed, "WHY IN THE WORLD SHOULD I STOP?!" he demanded as he pulled back for another swing.

"Cause without me, Hayley will never wake up," he replied.

Jeffrey stopped just before cracking him across the face again, "What?"

" I found a way to bring her back using the device," he explained, "But, you're going to have to bring her here for me to do it."

Jeffrey fell back and pushed himself away, before he could ask anymore a woman came in followed by Major and Andria. The woman ran over to help Henry who shooed her away.

"You're going to have to get her here soon though," Henry told him, "The device will only work for two more hours I think and then it'll shut down. It took me four years to find this."

"But Hayley's hospital is hours away, I'll never make it in time," Jeffrey said, the hope he felt quickly fading.

Henry spat up some more blood before he mumbled something to the woman who then got up and ran to the work table.

"Stop, what are you doing?" Jeffrey called out as he redied a batarang.

Major put a hand on his shoulder, "It's ok Jeffrey, she's my sister Lisa," she told him.

"What?" Jeffrey asked, obviously surprised.

"I remember who I am," Major told him with a small hint of joy, "My name is Caleb," she said enjoying introducing herself by her actual name.

Lisa came back with a remote and pressed a button on it. There was a hum above them up in the factory.

"I made something for you," Henry said, "It should help you get there and back with her safely."

Jeffrey looked at him for a long minute, "I can't leave you," he told him defensively.

Henry just smiled back, "I won't be going anywhere, not after the number you did on me. Besides, I need to be here in order to help Hayley."

Jeffrey looked to, Caleb now, and Andria who both nodded indicating that they'll stay and watch him. Without a second thought, Jeffrey grabbed his cowl before running upstairs. As he ran the stairs, he radioed John and Noel explaining the situation. Reaching the main floor of the factory section, the pair of robots that he passed were standing beside a large mecha like an honour guard. When he approached the mecha it opened up revealing it to be a suit. Jeffrey hesitated before climbing in. As the suit closed around him he called up agent G through his cowl. He had to wait four seconds before Agent G picked up, Jeffrey didn't waste time saying hello.

"Agent G, I need you to go to Hayley's hospital and get her to the helipad on the roof. I'm coming to get her," he told him.

"Wait, what's going on?" Agent G asked, clearly confused.

"I don't have time to explain. Just have her ready for me when I arrive."

"Jeffrey, I just can't take a comatose girl from her room without a reason," Agent G explained.

Jeffrey then took off into the air crashing through a skylight and turned for his sisters hospital, "Henry said he can help Hayley, now get to that damn hospital and get her ready," he shouted.

There was silence on the other end for a moment, "Is Henry secure?"

"My team is watching him now," Jeffrey said quickly.

There was some grumbling on the other end before Agent G replied, "I'll have her ready, just make sure you know what you're doing," he told him flatly.

Jeffrey cut the connection and boosted his speed. He was already breaking multiple Mach speeds. He marveled slightly of how he wasn't feeling any g's but pushed that out of his head as he continued on.

Forty-five minutes later he arrived at Hayley's hospital. Agent G ran up to the helipad with some orderlies behind him pushing a gurney with Hayley on it. Jeffrey turned around and kneeled down, the pack on his back separated lowering a bed. The orderlies lifted the girl onto the bed and Jeffrey closed the pack firmly securing Hayley in the pack.

The orderlies moved away with the now empty gurney while Agent G walked in front of Jeffrey, "Are you sure that Henry can be trusted with her? We both know the reason he ran off in the first place."

"Hayley's the only person neither of us will ever joke about," Jeffrey replied sternly. Agent G nodded then cleared the helipad. Jeffrey blasted off going as fast as he can back to Detroit.

It was another forty-five minutes later when he returned to the factory. As he made his way to the basement. He checked the clock. With the flight out to the hospital and back plus the time it took to load Hayley and talking to Agent G, It was cutting it close. There wasn't much time left till the box deactivated.

On entering the lab Lisa was helping Henry stand by the alien box. He had his hand on the panel redying it. Jeffrey opened the pack, the bed folded down and a robot he hadn't noticed picked Hayley up from the bed and carried her over to the box. Jeffrey quickly opened up the suit and quickly made his way after her.

"You almost didn't make it," Henry said as he stepped aside to let the robot carry the girl into the box, as the doorway of the box disappeared another robot came up and stood there patiently.

As Jeffrey waited he turned to Henry who was still being held up by Lisa, "So, how're you going to fix her?"

"I'm going to put her mind back together," he said simply.

"You can do that without killing us?" Jeffrey asked surprised. The door to the box opened and a thirty-year old woman fell out into the arms of the robot that then carried her to one of the beds. The box collapsed a moment later.

"Why did Henry turn your sister into a woman?" Andria asked, Caleb echoing her curiosity.

As Henry, helped by Lisa still, walked over to another bed and slowly laid down. On hearing Andria's question he gave a short laugh which quickly turned into a series of coughs, there were only a few drops of blood on his hand as he stop, "Jeffrey never did tell you guys did he?" he said as he gestured for Jeffrey to lay down in the last bed.

Jeffrey looked at Andria and Caleb who just looked back expectantly, Caleb a little more so as if she got confirmation on something. Jeffrey just sighed as he began to tell them, "Four years ago, before Hayley found the box, she was a thirty-two year old woman. She was a classic nerd, she liked comic books and sci-fi. However, she developed a psychosis from the trauma of losing her parents in a car crash. Because of that, she developed a split personality. Needless to say it played havoc in her life and nothing seemed to work. So, when she found the box and discovered what it could do she tried to use it to get rid of her other personalities. After some trial and errors she came up with Henry and I. That's why I was wearing a Batman suit while he was wearing an Iron Man one. However, because we were a part of her mind there was nothing left for her. So when we came out of the box she was already unconscious Henry and I were surprised that we had our own bodies. We were so happy for the first bit until we realised what it did to Hayley. We wanted to help her but we didn't want to go back. We argued back and forth until, not used to our powers, blew up half the apartment. Henry ran off with the box and I stayed behind. The rest you know," he finished. He had a shameful look on his face as he laid down on the bed.

Lisa then placed helmets with wire leads on their heads and attached a set of wires to the back of Hayley's neck. Caleb realised that Henry had made Hayley like her. Lisa then went over to the machine all the wires were connected to and turned it on. She explained that the machine was copying Henry and Jeffrey's memories and personalities while downloading it into Hayley's mind. After fifteen minutes the machine stopped and Henry and Jeffrey were dislodged from the wire leads. Lisa then detached most of the wires from Hayley's neck and placed the fingers from her right hand on her neck. The halo from the back of Lisa's neck ran down her arm and into Hayley. After three minutes the light stopped flowing and returned to the floating halo on her neck.

"I was able to fuse her mind back together," Lisa explained, "As well as fix her psychosis so she shouldn't have a personality disorder anymore. The only thing we can do is wait for her to wake up," she check the read outs on the machine, "Her vitals look good, so it shouldn't be too long now."

While they waited, Caleb called for a private ambulance used by the Agency for Henry's injuries.

After what seemed like an eternity to Jeffrey, Hayley's eyes fluttered causing him to gasp as he took her hand in his. Slowly she opened her eyes and looked around, "Where am I?" she asked, her voice was dry. She was able to spy the collapsed box, after which turned to Jeffrey, "I don't hear the voices anymore so did the machine work? Are they out"

Jeffrey let out his breath before he'd been holding and shook his head in the affirmative, "Yes, the voices are out of your head now, no more black outs."

This put her at ease as her head fell back to her pillow. She didn't have much time to rest as Jeffrey pulled her up to get out of the bed. She got up on shaky legs to which she gave an equally shaky laugh to excuse her unsteadiness. Jeffrey lent his support as they began their trek up and out of the basement of the factory. Caleb made sure to retrieve the alien device as she left taking up the rear. Between Henry's injuries and Hayley not use to moving her body in so long, it was slow going as they climbed the stairs. When they exited the front of the building Jeffrey remarked about the gorilla shaped mecha which caused the waiting Noel and John to laugh. Henry was taken to the waiting ambulance. As it drove away, a black SUV from the Agency followed as it drove away.

Once Jeffrey helped Hayley into the van and shut her door he collapsed to the ground. After all that happened over the last four years, it was finally over. Henry was in custody things went even better than he could have hoped for with Hayley having finally woken up after all this time. For the first time since this all started the shadows that hung over him had lifted and he breathed in the air as if it were cleansing his soul. Noel came over to him.

"Are you ok?"

Jeffrey looked up at her and smiled, "I am now."

EPILOGUE:

A week afterwards, Agent G had debriefed Jeffrey and his team, they were relieved of all their equipment such as the batsuit, and weapons the others used. John was allowed to keep his sonic screwdriver for the occasional maintenance of Caleb's body Noel, not being part of Jeffrey's team kept her hardsuit. A short time after that, Jeffrey's team was disbanded having finally captured Henry. A month later John and Caleb had gotten married after a very short engagement, Jeffrey attending as the Best Man while Caleb's sister Lisa served as the Maid of Honour. Jeffrey had began dating Noel and hit it off swimmingly. Hayley had gone back to her life from before it all started.

Meanwhile at an undisclosed detention center, Henry sat in his cell. His ribs were still tender as well as his broken cheekbone but they were on the mend. Looking at the clock in the hall, he stood up and walked to the bars.

"I think I've waited long enough," he said to himself as he flexed his left hand and arm four times a certain way and waited.

An hour later the outside wall to his cell was torn out revealing his armor it stepped in and opened for him to climb in. He wasted no time in flew off into the night sky to parts unknown. He wasn't going to let anyone cage him anymore. He was free, now and forever.

Author's Note: I would like to personally thank Civilmage and Leo Lightstar for their own MAU stories that inspired me to write my own. Their respective stories can be found over on fictionmania and I highly recommend reading them.