A.R.G.U.S. Comes Knocking

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The ringtone from Laurel's bag interrupted Damon's thoughts.

He drew the electricity back, bent down, and found her phone.

An unknown number.

Damon thought for a moment, then answered.

Felicity's urgent voice came through at once.

"Is that you?"

"Felicity?"

Damon was a little surprised she had called Laurel's phone.

Hearing his voice, Felicity breathed out in relief, then hurried on.

"There are seven or eight heavily armed people outside. They are definitely not police, and they are going in. You need to leave."

"Can you identify them?"

Damon glanced at Laurel lying unconscious on the floor, the corner of his mouth lifting.

"I can, but..."

"Find out and tell me."

Damon did not hang up. He simply slipped the phone into his pocket, then picked up two pieces of rebar from the floor.

With a light bend of his hands, the bars, each at least two fingers thick, folded into U shapes.

Then he dragged Laurel up from the ground and brought her to the wall. He straightened her body and stretched out her arms. One U-shaped piece of rebar wrapped around her arm and punched straight into the wall.

The solid wall gave way as if it were cheap plaster.

He did the same on the other side.

In a few seconds, Laurel was fixed to the wall.

Poor Laurel had only met Damon twice. Both times, she had fainted. Both times, she had been pinned in place with rebar.

Last time on the floor.

This time on the wall.

At least this time, Damon had not stripped her.

Not yet.

"I found something."

Felicity's voice came from the phone.

Damon took it out and hummed in answer.

"Most of them are wearing masks, so faces and identifying features are hard to get. But one person looks like their leader. Dinah Lance. Quentin Lance's ex-wife. Laurel's mother. I tried pulling more detailed information on her, but the clearance level is as high as yours. She does not have some connection to you, does she?"

"Nothing to do with me," Damon said with a soft laugh. "You did well. I'll reward you when I get back. Hanging up."

"Be careful."

Damon ended the call, deleted the record from Laurel's phone, and aimed Laurel's flashlight at her.

The bright beam fell over her body.

Damon stood beside her.

At the factory entrance, the door opened a narrow crack.

Clink.

A flashbang rolled inside.

Light exploded and filled the entire factory.

The door was yanked open, and masked people in tactical gear rushed in one after another. They moved with order and experience. The moment they entered, they spotted the target and aimed their weapons.

Only...

The target did not seem blinded by the flashbang.

He was watching them with a calm smile.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

The sound of high heels came from the doorway.

A middle-aged woman with a nearly expressionless face walked in.

She glanced at Damon and at Laurel pinned to the wall, then frowned slightly and opened her mouth.

Before she could speak, Damon moved.

Crackle.

Electricity lit up around him.

Damon lifted a hand and pointed toward the team.

"Boom."

The current expanded countless times and shot forward. In midair, it twisted into a massive blue python with jaws wide open and swallowed the agents in an instant.

Inside the serpent of lightning, their guns exploded in their hands. Screams and muffled groans rang out as the team collapsed one after another.

The electric python roared forward, then stopped abruptly in front of the woman.

Slowly, it coiled around her. Its blue body circled her in the air, its huge head floating beside her. A tongue-like arc of electricity flickered constantly near her face. The current in the air made her hair rise strand by strand.

She did not move.

She looked straight at Damon as he approached and appeared remarkably calm.

"Surprised?" Damon asked with a smile. "Did not see that coming?"

Thud.

The woman suddenly dropped to the floor.

The steady eyes from a moment earlier now shook with shock and terror.

"I thought you were calm because you had seen everything."

The contrast caught Damon off guard for a second before he laughed.

"All right. Tell me who you are."

Dinah Lance looked at the electric python beside her, then at her daughter pinned to the wall, then at the agents lying motionless on the ground. Her throat moved involuntarily.

The intelligence report had not said he had a power like this.

"Have you heard of A.R.G.U.S.?"

She looked at Damon, still shaken, and spoke slowly.

"A.R.G.U.S. is a special department under the U.S. government. We handle superhuman incidents. What you did in Gotham has threatened the safety and peace of human society. So we need to talk."

Government organizations in DC did not have the same presence as their Marvel counterparts, but Damon had heard of A.R.G.U.S.

He simply had not expected Laurel's mother, Dinah Lance, to be one of their people.

So A.R.G.U.S. was the reason his file had been classified?

"This is how you talk?"

Damon glanced at the agents sprawled behind him and smiled.

Dinah said, "Until we understood your attitude, it was a necessary protective measure. They did not fire first, did they? Besides, you appear to have kidnapped an innocent person. I cannot judge what you intend to do. If you let her go, I am willing to apologize formally and have a proper conversation."

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