CHAPTER 1
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If he was anyone else, he'd be terrified. Fortunately, Android 7's programming wasn't capable of processing fear. He could access definitions of the word from hundreds of dictionaries and translate it into thousands of languages--even rare and extinct dialects no one on Earth could understand--but he could not experience it.
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The security measures upstairs were no match for Technein. The villain's ability to disrupt any electronic system could have gained him access on his own, but his band of thugs were celebrating their inevitable victory by smashing everything in their way. Nothing was left unbroken or unvandalized.
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Of course, the longer they took to destroy things, the longer Android 7 had to finish his last heroic act. If he was programmed for gratitude, he would have been thankful.
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Android 7 reached behind his ear and tugged at the connector cable affixed to the base of his skull. With a few keystrokes, he shut down the computer that took up an entire wall of the underground cavern. As the screen faded into darkness, Android 7's visual input devices switched to an infrared mode so he could find his way safely back to the surface.
He didn’t have time to waste. As he barreled up the narrow passageway, small explosives detonated behind him, collapsing the tunnel on itself and sealing off the computer – and more importantly, it’s data – from the villains above. Finally, he stepped out onto a balcony overseeing the grand hall of the Global Defenders headquarters... or at least what was left of it.
Smoke and dust filled the air, but Android 7 could see perfectly as he scanned the room in every spectrum, cross-referencing the visuals with an ultrasonic sonar-like detection system. Walls crumbled, video monitors shattered, and the villain Napalm leapt on the splintered remains of the Global Defenders' meeting table with great delight.
Android 7 understood that humans attached emotional meaning to objects, even if he couldn't comprehend why. Even though he didn't feel anything, he suspected his teammates would had they been alive to witness the scene.
The table had been the most enduring feature of the headquarters. The team roster changed, the uniforms got redesigned, and technology improved, but the meeting table had been the same since the team was formed in 1957. Archer claimed the wood had been cut from the tree that was used to make King Arthur's round table at Camelot.
"Toss that over here," Napalm demanded with a squeal of laughter, pointing at a glass case near the wall. One of the dozen henchmen snatched an old uniform that Liberty Torch's sidekick, Freedom Girl, had worn back in the 1970's. He pitched it to Napalm, who gripped it in his fist.
Napalm's entire forearm exploded, destroying the keepsake in a blaze of yellow and orange. The supervillain cheered and dropped the smoking threads of the uniform while his arm slowly reformed at the elbow.
There was a commotion as more henchmen stormed into view while Napalm laughed again. A wall-sized glass case shattered across the marble floor, Android 7 made his move. Leaping over the balcony railing, he transferred power to the impactor arrays on his forearms. Before he landed, he fired his first shot, hitting one of the hired thugs squarely in the chest and hurling him into another with enough force to send them both sliding twenty feet across the marble floor.
Three other confused thugs caught rapid-fire blasts before they could comprehend what was happening. Android 7's analysis told him Technein was relying on regular, non-superpowered henchmen with the exception of Napalm. That made sense. While Android 7 would have an easier time fighting off street-level hoods, the outcome was inevitable, so why pay the super-powered muscle? Android 7 would lose this fight. He
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