TOC Part 5 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
JOURNAL ENTRY #6
MARCH 26, 1994
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Everything started out fine. Bureau 39 had chosen a Saturday night to make their move. In that, their goals were the same as ours. They didn't want to be noticed or disturbed. We got into place early with no problems. Karen and Dudley came armed with squirt guns filled with immobilization goo. We set up a few remotely controlled nozzles, too. Not only would the remote stations help with the fight, but their presence would help mask the existence of the kids.
What we hadn't expected, though, was that a few of the Planet's staff were in the newsroom. Jimmy was helping Perry clean out his office. Clark was, oddly enough, working on his taxes. He'd probably chosen to do them at the office in order to keep Perry and Jimmy company. Jack, the new guy, had chosen to hang around, too, though he looked to be bored. Then, to make things worse, Lois came in with Lex Luthor, saying something about needing to rewrite a story.
We were worried about having so many people unexpectedly in the building, but the distraction team arrived right on time. Phillip was disturbed to note that they had guns, but there wasn't much we could do about that. Fortunately, they didn't seem to be using them, other than to gain the attention of the Planet's staff. Clark and the others were herded into Perry's office and put under guard. The team leader claimed to have a bomb, but, knowing Willie, we were fairly sure he was bluffing.
Overall, the situation seemed okay, but we couldn't be sure. The newsroom camera didn't have a good angle on Perry's office. Phillip called Cat and asked her to check things out, just in case. Hopefully, if there was something wrong, Clark would be able to handle it. We were going to need everyone we had to deal with Bureau 39.
I waited for them in a darkened tunnel, hiding in the shadows. After talking things over with the team, I'd decided to leave my invisibility suit behind. We were giving away enough just showing up to stop them. If they knew that we could become invisible, they'd be a lot more prepared for us in the future. Thanks to Alan, my arms were in top shape, and I'd had plenty of practice fighting while out on patrol. I was confident in my abilities, and figured that with the support of the kids, I wouldn't need the extra advantage of the suit.
The wait started to become intolerable. It got worse when Phillip relayed the news that someone in the newsroom had been shot. Bureau 39's goons showed up while we were still trying to figure out what to do about the situation upstairs. There were four of them. One carried welding equipment. Another had the tank of liquid Kryptonite. Attached to the tank, inside a protective (but not lead-lined) case, was a small sample of Kryptonite in its natural crystal shape, presumably intended as insurance. The other two soldiers were carrying pipes and pumping equipment. All were dressed in black fatigues, making them almost impossible to see in the darkness of the tunnel.
I went for the welder first. I didn't want to have to worry about him turning his blowtorch on me. Surprised by my presence and overwhelmed by the force of my punch, he went down quickly. The other three, however, reacted a lot more quickly than I'd expected. Almost immediately after taking down the first soldier, I found myself being attacked from two sides by pipe-wielding enemies. I realized my mistake too late — these weren't street thugs, they were professional soldiers.
The kids opened up with their immobilization goo, but their aim was a little off. They told me later that they'd felt shaken and off-balance. Like me, they hadn't been as prepared as they'd thought. They did manage to slow down one of my attackers, though, and that gave me enough of an edge that I could at least hold my own.
"Situation upstairs is stabilizing," Phillip said into my ear.
"Great," I muttered, dodging a punch. "Just what I needed to know." Didn't he realize I was fighting for my life? Distractions were the last thing I needed.
"Luthor's getting better. I think Clark had something to do with it."
"That's wonderf — oof ." I staggered back from a kick to the stomach.
"Oh. Sorry. I guess you didn't need to know that just yet..."
"Really?" I responded tersely, as I lashed out with a couple of quick jabs.
"I'll just —"
"OW!"
Phillip thankfully lapsed into silence. With Dudley and Karen's help and some superhuman punches, I eventually managed to knock out one of my attackers. That took it down to one on one, but I still took a few hits before taking care of the other. I caught my breath, then blearily looked around. It took me a minute to realize that there were only three soldiers on the ground but that four had come in. The one carrying the Kryptonite had run away, presumably under orders to safeguard his rare cargo and bring it back for another attempt.
Luckily, Phillip had managed to tag him with a stream from one of the remote controlled nozzles. He was running, but slowly, hampered by the thin layer of rapidly hardening goo. I chased after him, but with the aches and bruises I'd gotten from being hit with the pipes, I wasn't going too fast, either.
I was still chasing him when Cat called Phillip back. She somewhat reluctantly agreed to leave her date to go check on the situation in the newsroom, but was understandably nervous about the guns. Still, she was willing to at least look in on things. She told her date that she was going to pick up something a little more "comfortable" and headed back across town.
When I finally caught up to my quarry, he turned around and started to fight. Battered and somewhat winded, I wasn't at my best. He was somewhat hindered by the goo, but had the advantage of better training. I managed to get a good shot in and take him down, but the tank of Kryptonite got lost in the scuffle. I looked around as carefully as I could, but it had rolled completely out of sight.
I dragged the fourth soldier back to where the kids were watching over the other three. Soon, all four were firmly encased in goo. That's when we realized we didn't know what to do with them. I wasn't going to just kill them, but it's not like we had a place to keep them. Finally, we decided to leave them there with their equipment, and let them try to explain to the authorities what they'd been doing.
Soon after, Cat checked in to let us know that she made it in and out of the newsroom. She'd seen the others, and while they'd been worried, they'd all seemed to be pretty much unharmed. They'd waved to her in distress, but she'd pretended to misunderstand the signal. Then she'd hurried back out to give us the report.
We felt like we should check for ourselves, but I was in no shape to do so. In fact, I soon found that I needed the kids' help to get back to base. Phillip finally realized that he could have Alan call the police, but by the time they arrived, Clark had already managed to save the day.
Wearily, we took stock of the situation. We'd messed up. Badly. It was our first real operation, and our lack of experience had clearly shown through. The only good thing that had come out of the whole thing was that, amidst all the chaos, we'd actually somehow stopped the soldiers from carrying out their plan and gotten the Kryptonite out of Bureau 39's hands. In that sense, it was a victory, of sorts. I comforted myself with that knowledge as best I could and slowly, carefully, and painfully eased myself into bed.
Comments Part 7
