It was the dead of night, clouds obscuring the stars over the E.H.O.D. facility, the same facility the Silent Wraith had scoped out earlier.   Silent’s bodysuit blended in with the environment, making him nearly visible.  As he moved, one could see the translucent outline of his body.  It was still difficult to see from a distance and in the dark, so his approach was mostly unmolested.  Even so, he hadn’t mastered a suit with true invisibility.

            As he ran, he made no sound, his belt emitting an invisible field that nullified all sonic waves within a small radius.  This was a useful tool for one such as him, and the origin of his name.

            His first obstacle was a fence that surrounded the facility.  Cameras watched the entire perimeter, but it was hard to see Silent on cameras when his suit was turned on.  He came up to the fence and began climbing.  There was razor wire at the top, but Silent pulled his legs up and kicked off, letting go of the fence at the last second as he flipped over the wire.  If one looked, they might see the fence quivering, but otherwise, no one was close enough to see Silent’s outline as he fell.  He rolled to break his fall, making no sound as he did and then scoped out his surroundings.

            A few guards patrolled, and their black uniforms and big guns would intimidate the bravest individual.  They didn’t intimidate Silent.  Using the night vision in his mask, he watched for those guards, staying perfectly still.  He was only perfectly invisible when he stood still, so when a nearby guard looked, that guard saw nothing.  When the guard looked away, Silent ran, the outline of his suit distorting the air even as his footsteps remained noiseless. 

            Silent made his way to a door, occasionally stopping to turn completely invisible when a guard wandered near.  Soon Silent reached the door and pulled out a special ID card he used.  This, when placed next to a real electronic ID card, could instantly duplicate the electronic signature of that card, allowing him to access whatever that card could access.  Silent had stolen a card from an upper ranked E.H.O.D. official, scanned the card with his own and returned the original, the official being none the wiser.  He scanned his card at the door and entered the facility.

            Inside he used a personal radar built into his mask that revealed the layout of the surrounding area.  Each radar ping revealed walls, objects, and even people through walls, showing up as wireframes in his mask.  Moving quickly through hallways filled with offices, he avoided the guards, still stopping to the side when someone passed by.  While he could be hard to spot on cameras, he made sure to move slowly around them just in case.

            After a few minutes, he found the head office.  Checking for the camera that covered that door, he pressed a button on his wrist and activated adhesive pads on his gloves and boots, allowing him to climb the wall.  Once he was high enough, he placed a device on the side of the camera.  The device made a soft, barely audible whir for a moment before it activated.  In the security room, where a guard watched all the cameras, this particular camera now played a loop that would stop the guard from seeing the door open mysteriously.

             With the camera disabled, Silent watched for any passing guards, went to the room, used his hacking ID card, and went inside.

            Silent immediately went to some file cabinets and started looking through them.  He found the files listing superheroes under the E.H.O.D.’s superhero funding program called the safeguard program.  Any hero funded directly by the E.H.O.D. was here, and Silent eventually found the file on Morphic Man.

            He looked through it, finding simple information on his powers.  They included shapeshifting into any animal, both the full forms and partial transformations between human and animal.  That was to be expected, though morphic man could also grow hair with impunity, using that to make his costume.  An atypical power for a shapeshifter, but Silent wasn’t interested in that.  Silent was looking for something to prove Morphic Man was in Redwell City that night.  He found something, but it was inconclusive.  The file did show that Morphic Man was there that day.  That was useful enough for Silent to take pictures with his mask, but ultimately the file was about the efforts taken to hide this fact from the public.  It said nothing about why he was there.  It also mentioned that Elementus was there that day and that Morphic Man even met with him.  For all this information, Silent still couldn’t answer one burning question.

            What were Elementus and Morphic Man doing in Redwell City that day?

***

In a different city, miles away, the stars twinkled above as Morphic Man stood atop a rooftop, a cellphone to his ear.  He looked agitated, his demeanor defensive.

            “Yes,” said Morphic Man reluctantly. “I messed up.  I know.”

            He listened for a moment.

            “I thought I could handle him,” said Morphic Man. “I mean, I didn’t destroy Redwell.  I figured his lie detection would read that, and he’d be forced to…”

            The person on the phone cut him off.

            “Yes,” said Morphic Man. “Yes, I understand.  No, I intend to stay as far away from Passion as possible.  I was just taunting him.  I figured if I set off his anger and caused another Rocky Mountain incident, they’d be forced to deal with that.  Which, I would add worked perfectly.  No one is talking about Elementus and Me, and a scapegoat just dropped into our hands with this SteelStar character.  Talk about a lucky break.”

            Another interruption.

            “Oh, please,” said Morphic Man. “Of course I knew about the Rocky Mountain incident.  I’m a shapeshifter.  I can get anywhere.  Just because I’m barred from the United Heroes of Earth’s headquarters, it doesn’t mean I haven’t been there.  I could have saved your spies the trouble if you’d come to me first.”

            He waited for the answer.

            “Oh, no sir,” said Morphic Man. “I would never steal secrets from an E.H.O.D. facility.  On my honor.  Anyway, do you have any assignments for me?”

            He listened to the answer.

            “Lay low, stick to normal hero work,” said Morphic Man. “Got it.  I’ll be in touch.”

            Morphic Man hung up, then stepped over to the edge of the roof and looked out over the city.  Street lights, car headlights, and business windows illuminated the night.   Morphic Man stretched his arms and looked out over the city, a big grin on his face.

            Well, thought Morphic Man, that could have gone better, but I handled it in the end.

End of Episode One

Author's note:  This episode, as I call it, was originally posted as a single upload.  In hindsight, it is a bit long for a single upload, so I have decided to separate it into parts, hopefully making the reading experience more fluid.  I apologize for any confusion, but hope you enjoy the story.