The five young heroes stood inside their new headquarters underneath Langley Hall, examining the potential. And, aside from a place to go without being seen or heard, that's about all it was right now. Potential. There was no furniture aside from the folding table and chairs they'd brought in using Rick's portal. Tim and
Cazmonster had cut open an electrical conduit and were looking at ways to tap into the power without a noticable drain on Langley's own power. White Diamond was providing the light, magnifying that presented by the group's flashlights so that the ambient light lit the entire main area.
Meanwhile, Aaron had flown to the top of the shaft leading up into Langley itself to see if he could figure out where it let out. The shaft was really narrow, so he had to go extra slow to ensure he didn't damage his wings. Once at the top of the shaft, he held up the small drill he'd taken. His night vision contacts allowed
Aaron to see in even this darkness fairly well. Putting the drill to the wall, he set it on a slow speed and began cutting a small hole in the stone surface.
Surprisingly, the stone here was only an inch or so thick, and the drip cut right
through. Aaron then placed a tiny bluetooth camera through the hole, and called Cazmonster on his cell phone.
"You getting this feed, Caz?"
"Just a...second. There." Caz said, pulling the cables from the now-open conduit.
"Yeah, I got it. Looks like...a closet?" Caz said, surprised.
"Looks the same way to me," Aaron answered. "Why would a shaft in an underground chamber lead to a closet in a dorm?"
"Sure seems convenient," Caz concurred. "Still, it's the best place we've been able to find. I've scanned from bugs and only found the mundate, insect variety. No one's watching us."
"True. Hey, can you detect my signal and tell me about how high I am off ground level?"
Caz took a moment. "About seventy feet or so."
Aaron thought for a second. "That would make this the seventh floor. That's a
men's floor, isn't it? I wonder what room I'm in. It would have to be on the west face of the building. Hey, get Rick and have him port to my room with a phone and switch GPS on. Then see if you can triangulate my position relative to Rick in my room."
After a few moments, the system was set up. "Looks like you're in the southwest corner of the 7th floor. That's a triple," Cazmonster said to Aaron.
"Interesting..." Aaron said, considering. If they could somehow get assigned to
that room, they'd have free access to the shaft leading down to the HQ.
"Aaron, this is run and all," Emily said sarcastically, "but I need to take off; we
have a track meet in an hour."
Aaron flew back down to the floor of the chamber and joined the others. Rick opened a portal and returned from Aaron's room about the same time. "Caz, you about done with that thing?"
"It's good," Caz said, terminating the now available wires in plastic caps. "We can start wiring up devices next time we come down."
"Okay, that's enough for one day. Let's head up and get some lunch."
Over the next couple weeks, the team brought down a few pieces of equipment, as they could afford or gather in secret. Caz had asked about moving into the triple on the 7th floor, which he found was vacant. He'd been given a provisional okay, provided he could find two other roommates. That was proving difficult, as Rick was the only CIU student who was also a known hero. Caz could probably find just about anyone to move in, but then he would have to hide their secret entrance into the HQ. So for now, the triple, and the shaft that lead into their new HQ, were both slightly out reach.
As the days grew colder and early fall lead into November, the team continued their normal routine of canvasing campus at night, looking for any trouble that needed their special type of attention. Aaron had reignited his investigation into the Nex dealers, but so far the trail had proven cold. Indeed, the amount of Nex around Stevenson was seemingly diminished as well.
While Rick, White Diamond, Cazmonster and Tim patrolled around campus one
particularly cold, sleeting November day, Aaron was downtown, flying among the buildings and hoping to catch any sign of the Nex dealers.
He caught a break as he flew by one of the higher-end apartment complexes and noticed several well-dressed, larger men getting into a stretch hummer. Switching to magnification on his contacts, Dragonfly was able to recognize the dealer he'd seen at the beginning of the semester, the night he met White Diamond for the first time. Moving like his insectoid namesake, Dragonfly darted behind the building in reverse. He stayed high to make sure to keep out of the streetlights. As soon as the hummer pulled out of the roundabout and onto Moulton street, Dragonfly zipped along behind and high above. He kept his eyes glued on the hummer as it made for the ramp to the highway that lead to Stevenson's small local airport.
Not for the first time, Aaron regretted not outfitting Dragonfly's costume with a
jacket for winter duty. By the time he got to the airport, Dragonfly was pretty
sure he had at least minor frostbite on his shoulders and cheeks.
Dragonfly was pretty sure he was too small to appear on the airport's radar, but nevertheless, he decided it was time to fly in low. Unfortunately, that put him inside the range of ground-based lights, which meant he was easier to spot by people. Dragonfly decided it was better safe than sorry, and landed just on the other side of the external runway fence near the highway. He'd have to stay on foot from here on out.
Fortunately, there were only two planes set to depart on the terminal's six runways. Dragonfly moved as quickly and stealthily as he could across the tarmac.
Using his contact lenses, he focused in on the closest plane; flight 104. Moving across the runway, darting between the loading vehicles, Dragonfly made his way to the shadow of an out building. The second flight had call-sign 606.
The second plane was smaller, a private jet. Aaron stood back and watched that plane especially. He didn't have long to wait. Soon, the men he'd followed crossed the small portion of runway between the terminal and the plane. A de-icer had been out earlier, spraying the plane so it didn't freeze up in the frigid weather. It wouldn't be long before they had clearance to fly.
Aaron checked his cell phone. Out of power. Figures. Sizing up the small plane, he figured it must be a local flight, midwest somewhere. There was no way he could keep up with the jet, nor could he fly far in this weather. But planes had cargo holds, and small planes flew lower than big commercial types. He'd be safe, if a little cold, inside. Once the plane got to its location, he could call the others, and Rick could port them to where he was.
Aaron waited until the plane was moving, and then bolted straight upwards until he was out of the lights. As soon as that happened, he changed direction to directly toward the jet, and poured on all the speed he could.
Inside the traffic tower, an man with graying hair and a mustache called out. "Is that a missile!" The supervisor quickly joined the control person at his console. A blip on the control monitor moved quickly toward the accelerating plane.
"Oh my heaven!" the supervisor said. Pulling a walkie talkie, he prepared to call the National Guard, but it was too late. The blip hit the rear of the plane. Only nothing happened. The two men looked at each other in shock.
The flight controller picked up his radio. "Six-Oh-Six, are you experiencing any issues?"
"Negative, control. We have a clean liftoff, over."
Perplexed, the supervisor called a technician. "I need a full diagnostic on this console, right away. Clifford, you're relieved."
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