Victor Stone had resigned himself to the fact that he was completely alone in the world. He had comrades, but they were completely organic. He had people he'd consider calling 'friend', but they were organic as well. They had secret identities. They...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Victor Stone wasn't usually one for playing well with others, despite being an important member of two of the biggest metahuman teams in the world. Those teams felt more like families to him. He never went home from his work; he didn't have a secret ID to hide behind. Because of that, he had plenty of alone time once everyone else went home. Now though, he found himself scanning local transmission streams for any irregular energy patterns. In other words, he was expecting someone.
He had selected this vantage point overlooking the H.I.V.E outpost in the clearing ahead. The position provided adequate visual cover, and Victor's own electronic countermeasures would ensure that he wouldn't be detected by any instruments in the area. This was meant to be a low-profile infiltration job. Data retrieval from an isolated server. What was different however, was that this was a joint operation with an Australian special forces splinter, designated 'Group 6'.
Vic hated the code names and secrecy, but the intel and resources behind this operation were made apparent when he was contacted by the Pentagon. The coordinates and bearing of this place were withheld until Vic agreed to the mission...so he had little choice in the matter. He said yes to this joint proposal because H.I.V.E had somehow managed to obtain a piece of technological data known as the Amazo Algorithm. If someone didn't relieve them of that layout, they'd be able to use the data to encode androids with the ability to replicate any super-powers they came into contact with, and anyone could tell you how dangerous that would be.
The other reason was because his partner was described as 'someone of similar talents and personal circumstances'. The most he managed to mine from the encrypted files on the Group 6 servers was a data packet about an asset called 'Hyperion'. Again, Vic wanted to scrub the stupid codename and replace it with 'Nonsensical Bullshit' for laughs.
This 'Hyperion' was noted as being an experimental chassis that contained organic material, but apart from that was entirely mechanical in nature. Some part of Victor, buried deep within the grim, jaded shell, hoped that this would be a person who would understand. He knew it was a stupid hope to have...but he had it, nonetheless.
Suddenly, his scans spiked. He grimaced. Whoever this was, they didn't seem to care about being detected. Their energy signature was immense. Vic did his best to wipe the signature and mask it with background emissions from radio and cell phone signals, expecting to get a thank you later from whatever this was.
Before too long, he began to hear, and feel, immense footsteps shaking the ground. He turned to the rock pass behind him and sifted through various spectral filters to see what was coming. Whatever it was...it was massive and incredibly dense. It must have been the source of the energy spike.
It soon came into visual contact and Victor found himself sighing in disbelief. "I was informed that this was an infiltration op..."
His partner was an eight-foot-tall mechanical being, lined with glowing purple inlets and exposed circuitry. Its head bore a pair of matching purple optical sensors, which gazed up and down at Victor's cybernetic body. "What makes you think that I need to be small to infiltrate? Isn't that sort of narrow-minded?" The Australian accented voice of a young woman responded sharply. It was slightly digitized, but possessed human emotion.
