The Legion of Nothing

I couldn’t rule out the possibility that some were literally in our basement or one of our storage rooms. The original team confiscated a lot of technology from supervillains that they didn’t feel comfortable handing over to the government.

I also hadn’t forgotten that Yoselin’s father and Russian Victory had also brought some home from the Moon.

I’d always assumed it had been Abominator tech, but seeing the room, it could have been Artificer tech. There were enough empty spots to be nervous about.

“Hey,” Cassie pointed her gun at one of the clusters, “there’s one of the psycho monkey boxes.”

From the example my implant showed me, she wasn’t wrong. The box was roughly three feet tall and had rounded edges and no rivets or hinges. The only part of it that wasn’t completely smooth was an indented line that ran around the front.

Pressing it might let out what was inside, but given the alien tech, those of us with implants might be able to open it with a thought.

As that idea came into my head, my implant dumped data into my brain indicating that yes there was a publicly accessible “open” command and that I could use it any time I wanted. There weren’t any other publicly accessible commands especially not the ones I wanted, such as telling the monkey to go back inside and shut the door or self-destruct.

Jaclyn, who must have gone through the same infodump, waved her hand to get our attention, “Anyone can open the box. Check your implant and don’t do it. Don’t touch them.”

Touch them? I'd checked with my implant and I must have missed it, but they opened automatically with any kind of touch.

“That’s not all,” Marcus said, “I see at least five more.”

Cassie shook her head, “There are 33. Remember the Citizen’s Mark? Between my built-in Abominator ID card and Mr. Sparkles’ direct-to-my-brain HUD, I’ve got access to almost everything in this place.”

Rachel floated upward, likely for a better view, asking, “Almost everything? What are we looking at? I know it’s a lab, but is it more than lab equipment and 33 psycho monkeys?”

Nodding, Cassie said, “It isn’t much more than that. Do you want me to run over everything? I forgot for a second that you don’t have an implant.”

Rachel shook her head, “I don’t have a Xiniti implant, but the Cosmic Ghosts have their own tools. I don’t need a list, but do you know when the missing objects went missing?”

Cassie frowned, “I’ll check.”

Her expression went blank as she concentrated, but then she opened her eyes and looked up, “That wasn’t what I expected. I assumed that most of the Artificer devices had been taken by the original League or the Russians, but they weren’t. The Abominators took most of them when they evacuated. The Russians got a few. The League didn’t take much at all.”

“Oh,” I said, “that’s good. I was half expecting to discover that dozens of species killing traps had been placed deep in the Kremlin’s vaults, but I guess there are only a few.”

Cassie laughed, “It’s better than that. The Abominators only left the stuff they’d already investigated, disarmed, and understood. So the Russians didn’t get any traps at all--unless the Abominators missed them.”

“That’s good news, maybe,” I said.

Rachel continued to look over the room as we talked, “Cap, your gun said that we might be able to detect the device from something in this room. Where do we go next?”

“Duh,” Cassie shook her head, “Maybe we should be working on the entire point of being here? I’ll ask Mr. Sparkles.”

While Cassie concentrated, Rachel turned to me, “Do you sense anything? The Ghosts have been trying to teach me their way of sensing things which I can kind of do, but not like they can—just like I’m beginning to get the hang of interstellar flight, but I still need help. They say I’ll get it in a thousand years.”

I laughed, “I’ve heard the same line. I’ll take a shot at it.”

Pulling energy from whatever source the Artificers used, I applied it to sensing around myself, not knowing what I was looking for, and hoping the Abominators didn’t have any defenses that would be triggered.

In return, I saw more than I’d ever seen in the real world using Artificer senses—which in the grand scheme of things still wasn’t much.

It was the same scene as before: a big room with clusters of equipment circled different spots, most of which were empty. Using the sense that I’d been learning from Kee, I saw shadows in the empty spots. In some cases, I could almost see devices, none of which I recognized.

In the spots where the Artificer device hadn’t been taken, the shadows held a hint of light, the smallest of glows. They were spiderwebs hit by light that made it through a crack under the door.

One, however, held more than that.

It was more of a medium-small glow, but it came from the middle of a cluster. The shadows obscured whatever was there, so I dropped Artificer sight and zoomed in with the Rocket suit’s sensors.

I recognized the artifact. It was a silver and black disc that was ten feet wide. I had one just like it sitting in HQ. I’d jokingly called it the Starplate because it was flat and could send someone to other worlds or even universes provided I had the coordinates.

Between my grandfather’s notes and my guesses, I’d figured out how to use it. Beyond that, I could see a figure on the Starplate, but not well. Roughly the shape of a man, it didn’t move. Moon dust had settled on it, helping outline the transparent shape.