Back to GatefoldIssue #1 by Dan Ingram
"The New Old Crew" February 2024 |
Metro City, Town Hall
Nova, the Human Rocket, glanced at his teammate with a resigned sigh.
“So, you ready to meet the new police chief?” said Nova, “I know you were looking forward to date night.”
“Jess will understand,” Mirage replied, “it should be at least two of us, and I know things are still weird between you and ‘Nita.”
“Tactful as always, chief,” said Nova. He grabbed the doorknob and opened the door, “let’s get this over with.”
Waiting for them in the office was the newest chief of police, James Largo.
He was as broad-shouldered as three quarterbacks, dark skinned with a smooth, bald head. His muscles were taut and thick, to the point that one might have thought him a bodybuilder. He looked like an almost impossible ideal of physical perfection.
It helped that it was all artificial. Police Chief Largo was a cyborg of considerable power, having once tussled with the Hulk, of all people. Since it had become apparent that Force Works was a permanent fixture in the city and Stone had returned to New York, it was decided they needed a police chief who wouldn’t be intimidated by superhumans.
“Nova, Mirage, thank you for meeting me,” Chief Largo said. He was leaning over a desk a size too small for him. Whether it was an oversight or meant to emphasize the cyborg’s size, neither of them knew.
Nor did they much care. Nova and Mirage had long grown accustomed to tearing down those bigger than themselves. They took a seat without a care in the world.
“So, we’re here today to discuss your raid on the freighter Taurus,” Chief Largo began, “while the city is grateful for your help, it’s important to understand the entire situation. Your raid could have done a lot more damage than it ultimately did.”
“Could have,” Mirage repeated, “but didn’t. We have been at this a while, Chief Largo.”
“Then lets not waste time. How did you first approach the situation?”
“We had reason to suspect that the cargo hold was rife with illegal toys,” Nova said, half repeating Namorita’s coaching, half his own words, “but we were mindful of the danger, so we sent in a small team in first to evaluate the situation.”
“And how did you know that there might be anything illegal onboard?”
“Trade secret.”
Metro City, then.
Several members of Force Works waited anxiously in their VTO jet, as their teammates below began their infiltration. Between the stress that was always present at the start of a mission and the stealth abilities of their jet that left the interior of the plane as silent as a summer breeze, a tension hung in the air.
The team was divided, at the moment. Nova, Technocrat, Tarene, Charcoal and Wolfsbane hung back in the jet, while their teammates handled the mission’s
“So…,” Charlie Burlingame, Charcoal, started, “are we ever going to tell anyone that Technocrat is scanning all of Metro City on a regular basis? That kinda feels like Big Brother.”
Charcoal glanced towards his teammate, Takeshi Matsuya. The young man looked far different from his usual fare, wearing a crisp white suit instead of his traditional red and blue jumpsuit, equipped with a backpack that could transform into any weapon he needed. He stood perfectly still, patiently waiting, though he did raise an eyebrow in annoyance.
“That reference would carry more weight if you hadn’t used Wikipedia on your book report on ‘1984’ instead of reading it like you were supposed to,” Technocrat countered, “also, random scans by private drones in public areas is neither illegal nor invasive. Our ports could stand some better security.”
Nova paced back and forth, clenching his fists.
“Relax Rich,” Wolfsbane said, “we’ve done this a million bloody times. Dani is down there, wit’ Adam.”
“Yeah, and both are saddled with two rookies,” replied Nova, “I used to have a CO who told me, that the longer everything went according to plan, the bigger the impending disaster.”
“Must have been a blast to serve with,” Charcoal observed.
“Whatever comes, we handle it,” Tarene said, as she rapped her mallet in her hand, “it is what we do.”
“Mirage is due to report in,” Technocrat said.
“And still no ETA on Sabre?” said Nova.
Technocrat paused, and his eyes glowed for a moment.
“Still in Florida,” he replied, “reviewing a friendly youth shelter, if you were wondering.”
“I knew this influencer idea was a bad idea from the start,” Nova muttered, “let her know we need her ASAP, again. Until then, lets see what the others find on this damn thing.”
Daniell Moonstar, Mirage, heard footsteps, and snapped her fist up. She and her teammate stopped dead in their tracks, and then pressed themselves up against the wall of the ship.
Mirage concentrated, and an illusion fell over the both of them, making it look as if there was nothing but painted metal where they stood.
One of the workers walked by, and Mirage was prepared to keep searching, when her teammate tapped her on the shoulder.
“Dani, I don’t think that guy is human,” he whispered.
“Mirage in the field,” she corrected quickly, “why do you say that, Wyldflower?”
“I don’t sense any bacteria in him at all,” Wyldflower replied, “I can sense it in everyone who’s organic, even Tarene. But I don’t get any from him.”
Mirage mulled over the information for a moment. So far, their search of the ship hadn’t turned up anything suspicious. But it also wasn’t as if they had enough time to go through every shipping container, search every inch of the ship while remaining concealed.
So she looked at the worker, and made a snap decision.
“Okay, Wyldflower,” Mirage said, “grab him, and let’s interrogate him.”
“Are you serious?” Wyldflower replied, hoping that it was just rookie hazing.
“Completely, I’ll take full responsibility,” Mirage said, “get ready, I’m about to drop the illusion.”
Wyldflower nodded, and stepped forward.
Mirage saw the nervous tension in his body, and reflected on her teammate.
Jerome Marks was only a few months older than Dani, but he was a reminder of her less than normal upbringing. A resident of their adopted city, he had begun his career as a superhero only a year before Force Works was formed.
Jerome had told them that he intended to apply to the team when he felt he had enough experience, but in the end it had been Namorita who reached out. She felt that a local hero would lend the team more legitimacy in the eyes of the city, and that Wyldflower was African American only increased his PR value.
Wyldflower’s costume, refined through Technocrat’s oversight, still had traces of his original, DYI costume. His chest was covered in a tough, Kevlar micro-weave while his arms were bare. Strapped to his back was a small green house molded into a small, customized backpack.
Unlike most of the team, Wyldflower had taken to carrying extra weapons, in addition to his powers. Several kunai tied to a thin rope on his waist, and a baseball bat holstered next to his mini-green house.
He wore a Japanese Oni plastic facemask over his jaw. He had explained that he thought it intimidating, but Moonstar knew him well enough now to know that he was simply living out a small fantasy of dressing like a ninja from Mortal Kombat.
Wyldflower concentrated, and several vines grew behind his back, before they lashed out, and entangled that man, wrapping themselves around his wrists and ankles.
“Umm, excuse me sir,” Wyldflower said, “we need to ask you a few questions.”
The man crooked his head to the side, regarding Wyldflower for a moment.
Then, the man tore the vines from his wrists and ankles as if they were nothing more than wrapping paper, and glared at the hero.
“Uhh, you’re not supposed to be able to do that,” Wildflower observed.
“He did it, rookie,” Moonstar said, “now what are you going to do?”
Wyldflower knew Mirage well enough to know that she wasn’t (just) hazing him, and was smart enough to realize that didn’t matter at the moment.
So as the man stalked forward at Wyldflower with hostile intend, he responded by focusing on his powers, wrapping his fists in stiff bark.
The man swung a right hook at Wyldflower’s head that he ducked effortlessly, and Wyldflower replied with an uppercut that clipped the man’s jaw.
The floral hero had pulled his punch, hoping to stun the man enough to convince him to back off.
But when he looked at his foe, who had barely stumbled, Wyldflower found himself baffled by what he saw.
The flesh had torn away from the man’s chin, but there was no blood whatsoever. Only seamless metal.
“Umm, Mirage?” Wyldflower took a step back, trying to process what he was seeing, “what’s going on?”
“Pretty simple,” an arrow pierced the head of Wyldflower’s foe. There was a flurry of sparks, before it went limp, “that’s an LMD. Illegal to use in industries like this because of how easily they can be compromised.”
Wyldflower fidgeted, “So, umm, what does that mean?”
“It means we’re on the right track,” Mirage said. She tapped her radio, “X-Treme, we have LMDs confirmed. I think we’re on the right track. Care to engage the officers and see what else turns up?”
Above the ship’s bridge
X-Treme hesitated after he heard Mirage’s words. The intel they had was good, but he was still reluctant to unleash his teammate on the people down below without ironclad certainty.
“Mirage reports that they found an LMD,” X-Treme said, “so at least some of the intel is good.”
“That tracks. The people on the deck below haven’t so much as blinked in the last three minutes,” replied his partner. She stood up, and the smile that crossed her face just doubled Adam’s anxiety.
“They could be hostages,” X-Treme countered.
“Well, there’s only one way to find out, Mr. Sinclair.”
Before X-Treme could fully process what his partner had said, she had land leaped off the top of the bridge, and landed on the deck a few yards away from the men.
“Hey boys,” Camilla Black, Scorpion, smirked, “I need a favor.”
The once spy concentrated, and then tensed as hundreds of nano-bots came to life. They spilled out of her hands, and out of her spine. Within seconds, her fingers had been replaced with razor sharp, metal claws, and a long, thin silver tail swished back and forth behind her.
“I’m a little lost, care to point me to the visitor’s center?”
Four men attacked as one, and Scorpion’s smile only grew.
She swept her claws at the first attacker, and artificial blood and viscera was sent flying.
The second attacker barely had time to attack before Scorpion channeled a venom bolt through its head.
The third attacker managed to push its brothers aside, and swing a right cross that struck Scorpion’s jaw, knocking her back slightly.
Tasting blood, Scorpion smiled. She then crooked her head to the side, revealing a metallic, cybernetic tail with a very pointy end.
With a single thought, the stinger plunged into the attacker’s skull, oil and synthetic blood flying.
The fourth man saw what happened to the others, and scrambled backwards, quacking in utter fear.
“I surrender, I surrender!” he shouted, “I’m not a robot, I’m real!”
Scorpion chuckled, “You know, I probably have as much metal in me as those things I just put down, do you mean to say I’m not real?”
Scorpion took a step forward, wiggling her sharp nails, “Is that it?”
“Scorpion…,” X-Treme grabbed his teammate by the shoulder, and yanked her backwards.
“Look out!”
A trail of flame scorched the deck where Scorpion had been standing only moments before.
The two looked up, and saw four men and one women, all wearing advanced armor, hovering above them. They looked down at the two members of Force Works with contempt.
“You’re trespassing, mutants!” spat the leader, who wore a green armor, “and The Jury is more than willing to make you pay for it!”
Scorpion chuckled, ready for violence.
“I’m the only mutant present,” X-Treme tapped his earpiece, “still, this might all be a misunderstanding. How about when we get to port, we contact the police and get this sorted, yeah?”
X-Treme wasn’t much surprised when they responded in a flurry of energy blasts.
The Shi’ar warrior dove right, Scorpion dove left, as they darted for cover.
“Nova, anytime now!”
“That’s our cue,” Nova said. He picked up Wolfsbane, and leapt through the floor hatch, his powers catching him before he fell more than a few feet.
“Wolfsbane, I want you to secure the bridge,” Nova ordered, “Technocrat, join her. We need this boat as evidence. Tarene, Charcoal, we’re going to tackle these Iron Man knock offs.”
“Hey, I know these guys!” Charcoal forced more thrust from his feet, and he smirked when he saw that his green plated foe was too busy focusing on X-Treme to see him coming, “they’re called The Jury!”
“Hey, Sentry!”
Charcoal flew into their green armored foe, smashing him to the deck. Armored steel and superhuman rock tore through a seam of steel as if it were paper.
“I almost feel nostalgic,” Charcoal picked his foe up by the head, “I’d barely joined the Thunderbolts when you guys came knocking, feels like it’s been decades. What you been up to, tin can?”
“Turning the Jury from a team, to an ideal,” replied Sentry. He then pressed his boot-jets up against Charcoal’s chest, and activated them.
The thrust slammed into Charcoal, and his grip on Sentry vanished as he was thrown backwards.
“Jury! We can’t let them stop this shipment!” Sentry shouted over his radio, “no matter what!”
“You got it, boss!”
“Bring me your worse!” Tarene shouted, as Firearm bathed her body in plasma flames. She swung her mallet at him, but the armored warrior was smart enough to keep his distance.
“…but we may not have much choice in the matter.”
Wolfsbane stalked about the bridge, nose alert for any sense of danger.
Meanwhile, in the corner, Technocrat simply stood, a bored expression on his face.
“I cannae smell anyone,” Wolfsbane reported, “I think the human crew left jus’ before they got to port. What do ye think?”
Technocrat said nothing. Wolfsbane sighed, and then walked over to her teammate. She waved her hand in front of his face several times, before he even blinked.
“Bored?”
“Immensely,” replied Technocrat.
“Well, maybe ye can overcome it by bein’ useful,” Wolfsbane said, “can ye hack the manifest, and tell me what they were hidin’?”
Technocrat rolled his eyes, “Even if I hacked the system, I very much doubt they would have politely labeled their contraband in their systems, with a full list of illegal details.”
Wolfsbane gritted her teeth. She swore that Technocrat was becoming more annoying as he grew more useless.
“Then, how exactly do ye plan on contributing?”
“With simple logic,” Technocrat replied, “passive scans detected a massive power source. Where would one try to conceal such a thing?”
Just ignore him, Rahne, Mirage said, through their shared psi-link, Wyldflower and I are in the hull, and we think we may have found something.
Mirage stood only a few feet away from a massive forcefield that was nearly thirty yards long, and nearly reached the top of the interior of the ship.
“What do you think it is?” Wyldflower asked.
“Unless we get very lucky, a boss fight,” replied Mirage.
Nova took a moment to watch as his team fought with the Jury, and felt a small sense of pride.
Tarene was holding off two of the members, Wysper and Ramshot, while Charcoal was trading blows with Sentry. Meanwhile, X-Treme and Scorpion were evading Screech and Bomblast, energy blasts being thrown like softballs, and dodged just as easily.
As much as Nova wanted to dive into the thick of the action, he held back, and tried to take stock.
“Technocrat, Wolfsbane, can you guys tell if any of the human crew is still here?”
“The ship’s crew has completely evacuated,” Technocrat reported.
Nova winced, “Then that means the Jury is fighting a delaying action.”
“Highly probably,” Technocrat reported, “do you want assistance in subduing them?”
“No, go help Mirage and Wyldflower,” Nova ordered, “whatever they found, it’s definitely more trouble than these idiots. Wolfsbane, stay up here, I may need you to act as a lie detector.”
Nova then flew into Sentry, slamming his shoulder into the armored foe.
“Lets go to work!”
“I don’t even know what’s under there, and I’m scared,” Wyldflower said, “does that make me a bad hero?”
“No, but it might mean you have too much common sense to be one,” replied Mirage, “okay, spread out. We need to look for a control panel, something Technocrat can use to control whatever this thing is.”
“So many unknowns in that sentence,” Wyldflower sighed.
Mirage went left and Wyldflower went right. Though he didn’t want to admit it out loud, Wyldflower had no idea what he was supposed to be looking for. Would it be shaped like a cell phone, Ipad, what?
He almost felt relieved when he heard metal gears behind him.
The floral hero spun around, and found an eight foot metal giant glaring down at him. Having only had access to Force Works’ database for seven months, Wyldflower didn’t know that the machine a few yards away was known as a Dreadnaught, a favored metal enforcer of the Maggia, though not exclusive to them.
That said, he didn’t need to know the type of robot leveling its weapons at him to know that it was bad news.
Wyldflower dove to the side, seconds before an energy would have punched a hole in his stomach.
The Dreadnaught moved slowly, walking through the crates and boxes that had concealed it with no emotion or urgency.
In contrast, Wyldflower was on the verge of panic as he struggled to think how his plant powers might allow him to overcome a robot.
The cannon fodder of the superhero world, and I got nothing! Wyldflower thought to himself.
But before a solution came to mind, a burst of blue energy lanced through the Dreadnaught, disabling it.
“Sorry for running late,” Techocrat said, as he strolled past Wyldflower, his right hand in the shape of a plasma caster, “I got a distracted with my scans.”
“Sorry to pull your attention away from things like the life of your teammates,” Mirage said as she approached, “at any rate, would you care to explain what’s behind the curtain?”
“It’s a stasis field of…some… ssssort,” Technocrat paused.
“Technocrat, you okay?” Wyldflower crooked his head at his frozen teammate.
Technocrat shook his head, “Sorry, feedback. But you needn’t worry, luck is on our side. See…”
Before Technocrat could finish his sentence, a giant purple smashed through the forcefield, and crushed him between its fingers.
“Technocrat!” Wyldflower shouted.
“Crap,” Mirage grabbed Wyldflower by the shoulder, and began pulling him away, as the field began to flicker and fade, “we need to get out of here, rookie!”
Wyldflower tried to control his panic, as he glanced towards the giant metal golem that was slowly rising up, tearing through the metal of the ship’s deck as if it were paper.
And not for the first time, he wondered if he was in the right place.
Several minutes earlier
Sentry, the designated leader of The Jury, tried to force his armor to allow him to stand, but he was easily stopped by Tarene’s boot pressing him down onto the deck.
“Stand and I won’t strike you down,” Tarene hissed, “I will simply break you.”
Sentry relented.
“Easy now,” said Nova, “we need these guys to talk. What exactly are you guys protecting here?”
“The American way of life!” Sentry snapped, “freedom from an oppressive…!”
Tarene pressed down a little harder on her foot, causing cracks to spider-web in Sentry’s green armor.
“I meant on this damn ship,” Nova rolled his eyes, and sighed, “I don’t give a damn about your manifesto, just whatever weapon you’re trying to smuggle into my city.”
Sentry sent a silent radio signal via his helmet before responding, “You want it? You’ll have it. Say hello to my alien big brother.”
Two giant hands smashed through the deck several yards away, and a giant, purple robot slowly rose up from the tear.
“Oh, sparks,” X-Treme said, his voice laced with fear, “…that’s a Kree Sentry…”
The alien warrior felt a surge of air brush past him, and then heard, “That bad boy is what’s known as a Kree Sentry, loyal subscribers. A robot enforcer for a fascist empire, and tough enough to tangle with the Fantastic Four and the Avengers.”
X-Treme glared at Sabre, who had just appeared beside him.
“Nova, we have a problem!” X-Treme shouted over comms.
The Human Rocket flew at the alien machine, swinging his fist into its giant chin. The machine staggered, but didn’t fall.
“No kidding!” Nova snapped.
“No, you don’t understand!” X-Treme said, “the Kree Sentry has safeguards against getting hacked that include chemical weapons! If they weren’t safely bypassed, they could wipe out Metro City in a blink!”
Nova went pale, and regarded the Sentry as he examined its surroundings. It was slow and sluggish, as if it were trying to understand what was happening.
“…and how hard is that to do?” asked Nova.
“For a trained agent of any empire? Like hotwiring a car,” X-Treme replied, “for humans, who are still stuck in their own star system?”
“Unit compromised,” boomed the Sentry. A panel slid open on its chest, “initiating purge cycle…”
“That’s not good, is it?” Scorpion asked.
“Nope, but we may be able to use it,” X-Treme said, “I need you to trust me.”
“Oh crap,” Scorpion muttered, “nothing good has ever happened after someone is asked that.”
“Nova!” X-Treme shouted, “you need to throw Scorpion at that port that just opened, now!”
“See?!” Scorpion braced herself, and in the blink of an eye found herself rocketing through the air.
“Good luck,” Nova said
Scorpion threw her arms out wide and smirked, “good luck, that would be a first.”
She landed on the Sentry, and sunk her claws into the metal. The port smelled like ozone, and Scorpion barely had any time to assess her situation before a blue gas began spilling out.
Scorpion barely realized what was happening before her powers began metabolizing the alien toxins.
It was as if someone had poured lighting into her veins, as her powers transformed poison into her power. Scorpion struggled to focus, and it took all her concentration to force the unimaginable power out through her hands.
Her venom bolts smashed through the alien metal as if it were tissue, but releasing so much energy at once left her exhausted, and her grip on the machine slipped, and Scorpion found herself falling.
“I got ye, Camilla!”
Wolfsbane leapt some ten feet into the air, and caught the cyborg before she struck the deck.
“…you sure do,” Scorpion muttered.
“Charcoal, Tarene, focus your attacks on the head!” Nova ordered, before he landed next to X-Treme, “care to tell me what’s happening with this thing?”
“The Kree Sentry has some basic defense protocols,” X-Treme said, “most would translate into war crimes here. We need to destroy it before it can get to stage two.”
“Do you know how to do that?”
X-Treme shook his head, “I’m afraid not. I knew how to bypass them. That was the whole point of my training!”
“Alright,” Nova grimaced, “Sabre, stop the commentary and get back to base. Haul Technocrat’s butt back here. And I mean the real one, not that damn drone he likes to use.”
“On it!” Sabre replied, and by the time Nova heard the words, the mutant speedster had already disappeared.
In two heartbeats, she was back in the Work Place, and was standing in his private lab in another.
The room was covered with debris and scattered papers. There were several white boards, tracking the movement of suspected members of ‘The Corporation’, servants of Nero Blood.
Nero Blood had seemingly vanished since strolling into the Work Place two years ago, and tearing the place apart.
Looking at all the scribblings and red string, Sabre wondered if Nero had taken Taki’s sanity along with him when he left.
“I asked you not to casually use the private entrance to my room.”
Sabre stifled an ‘Eep!’, and spun towards Technocrat. He was sitting in his hover chair, wearing sweatpants that hadn’t been changed in days, and a shirt that looked like it had seen far too many days and meals.
“Yeah, well, we got an emergency,” Sabre said, “you should have been moving your butt the second you lost signal to your love-bot.”
“For the last time,” Taki growled, “I do not have sex with my LMDs. They are for use in the field, to allow me to focus on intelligence gathering. They don’t even have genitals!”
“I’m sure that’s a great hurdle for you,” Sabre snickered, “look, I know we have an understanding, but I think alien robot intent on self-destruction preempts those, yeah?”
Technocrat pinched the bridge of his nose, “Very well, give me a moment to pull up some information on xeno-technologies. I swear, I don’t know what this team would do without me.”
The Kree Sentry froze, as it struggled to process what its sensors were telling it.
There were half a dozen Kree officers standing on the ship deck. They gave no orders, and the Sentry was struggling to decide what to do. If Kree officers were here, then that meant self-destruction could damage the Empire.
But they gave no orders, and its sensors kept returning conflicting information. The Sentry was designed to be just below the threshold of sentience, to avoid the possibility of ever rebelling against the Kree Empire but as a consequence, it struggled to reach a decision on how to proceed tactically.
“Good work, Mirage,” Nova said, “that should buy us a few seconds, at least.”
“Do we have a plan for afterwards?” Mirage said, while trying to maintain her focus. Her illusions were quantum enforced (which simply meant they could fool the best sensors), but they couldn’t project information she herself didn’t actually have.
“I think we can try a brute force solution,” X-Treme said, “hey, Wyldflower, ready to pitch in?”
Wyldflower looked at his alien teammate in disbelief, “Me? What the hell do you expect me to do against something like that?”
“Those plant growth pellets you keep in your belt, hand me a few,” X-Treme said.
“Heck no, I got this,” Wyldflower replied, with confidence he didn’t exactly have.
“Wait until me and Tarene get into position,” said Nova, before shooting off into the air, “we’re going to do the diamond piledriver.”
Wyldflower removed one of the special botanical pellets he had designed, and popped up the sling built into his left armguard.
“What is this going to do against an alien war machine?” Wyldflower asked, in utter disbelief as he took aim.
“I imagine that David asked the same thing,” Wolfsbane offered, “jus’ trust yuir teammates.”
Wyldflower took aim, focusing on one of the holes that Scorpion had blown in the Sentry, “Got the shot. Boss man?”
“We’re in position,” Nova said, “lets get this done.”
Wyldflower released the sling, sending a green pellet about the size of a quarter flying. It sailed through the air, and landed a few inches inside the hole in the Kree Sentry.
A green liquid spilled out of the sphere, and a second later green vines began growing like wildfire, wrapping themselves around metal and circuit boards.
“Error! Error!” the Sentry boomed, “foreign flora detected! Initiating purge!”
The Sentry stopped, and began focusing all its energy inward, attempting to burn the plants from its systems.
Focused on that, the Sentry hadn’t noticed Nova, Tarene and Charcoal hovering several hundred feet above it.
“This our only plan?” Charcoal growled, “Tarene picks me up, and you use me as a bullet?”
“Pretty much, Charlie,” Nova replied, “or, ya know, we just let the Sentry blow up and wreck the Eastern seaboard.”
“Next time, I should have the right to throw a teammate,” Charcoal said bitterly.
He focused on his powers, and shifted his form, altering the charbon of his form until he was as tough as a diamond.
Doing so meant he could no longer generate the flame that kept his in the air. So Nova grabbed Charcoal around the waist.
“Ready for the world’s most epic piledriver?”
“See, now that’s how you sell this shit!” Charcoal said, “lets do this!”
Nova sent a warning to his teammates down below, and then shot down towards the earth at mach-two.
“Everyone hit the deck!” X-Treme shouted, as he threw himself over Wolfsbane.
The team-up of Nova and Charcoal slammed into the Sentry’s head, and tore through his body like a blunt knife, metal ripping and rending loudly.
And when they hit the deck, the wrecking ball duo simply kept going, until they reached ocean.
“That’s not good,” Wolfsbane muttered, as she heard water pouring in through the hole.
“Don’t worry about it, carrot top,” Mirage said, “modern ships are designed to keep afloat with a hole or two. We got time.”
“What was that?” Wyldflower looked at the Kree Sentry, torn in two uneven halfs, as it lay sparking on the deck of the ship.
“The Kree are pretty picky about their eoc-system,” X-Treme said, “when the Sentry recognized an invasive, weaponized plant species in its system, it prioritized their destruction over all else, leaving it vulnerable.”
“And they just teach this stuff in alien high school?” Wyldflower said, incredulous.
“After a fashion,” replied X-Treme.
“He’s not jus’ a pretty face,” Wolfsbane smiled, as she leaned against X-Treme.
“Looks like the Jury got away when we were handling their alien WMD,” Mirage sighed, “I guess we might as well start securing the place. Where are Nova and Charcoal?”
“Hell yeah! That’s how you do it!”
Nova dropped Charcoal onto the deck. Even in his large, transformed state, Charcoal was shaking with energy.
“Where’s Sabre? Tell me we got that on tape!”
“Sorry, she went to go grab Technocrat,” Mirage reported. She pointed towards the horizon, where a white platform was racing towards the boat, with three of their teammates on it, “look, here comes our savior now.”
“Hmm, a brute force solution,” Technocrat observed, as he maneuvered his hover-chair onto the deck, “I’m not too surprised. That’s why I took the liberty of asking Namorita to join us.”
“Days like this, I miss being in the field,” Namorita looked around at the smoldering ship slash battlefield, “so, weapons smuggling, including an alien weapon? Neptune, this is going to be at least two news cycles.”
Metro City, Town Hall now
“And that’s the gist of it,” said Nova, “anything else you’d like us to clear up?”
“Just one thing,” Chief Largo said, “why didn’t you see fit to inform my department what you were doing? Your little firefight could have cost this city millions if it went the wrong way.”
“We thought about that,” Mirage said, “but when we looked at the records, we saw that this was the fourth shipment by this shell company.”
Chief Largo’s eyes went wide.
“Maybe you should look into that, when you get a chance.”
Mirage and Nova stood up.
“We’ll see you around, Chief Largo.”
Epilogue 1
Cessily Kincaid pulled the cardboard box tighter around her body, and prayed that the light from the streets wouldn’t reflect off her silver skin.
She turned her eyes towards The Work Place, and tried to summon her courage.
Soon, she told herself.
Soon.
Epilogue 2
“Touching this stuff is probably gonna give me cancer,” Peter Higgins groused, as he loaded a second crate into the disposal van.
Peter was a subcontractor of Damage Control, one that had the unfortunate job of transporting minor but dangerous items for disposal. He and his partner, Frank Wood, were trained technicians.
They were well compensated for their job, but it always summoned them at the worst hours for the most tedious of tasks.
“And if it does, you can sue for millions,” Frank said, “look, it’s stable and powered down. All we have to do is make the three-hour trip to the disposal site. Save some complaining for the road, eh?”
The two heard something heavy land atop their van, and they scrambled backwards in shock.
Standing atop the van was a man in an ebony trench coat, their body covered in black from head to toe, and crimson eyes that glared down on them.
“I’m sorry, gentlemen,” the figure said, “my name is Mr. Raven, and I’m afraid I need to claim these toys for private use.”
Next issue: The Force of Nature return!
Nova, the Human Rocket, glanced at his teammate with a resigned sigh.
“So, you ready to meet the new police chief?” said Nova, “I know you were looking forward to date night.”
“Jess will understand,” Mirage replied, “it should be at least two of us, and I know things are still weird between you and ‘Nita.”
“Tactful as always, chief,” said Nova. He grabbed the doorknob and opened the door, “let’s get this over with.”
Waiting for them in the office was the newest chief of police, James Largo.
He was as broad-shouldered as three quarterbacks, dark skinned with a smooth, bald head. His muscles were taut and thick, to the point that one might have thought him a bodybuilder. He looked like an almost impossible ideal of physical perfection.
It helped that it was all artificial. Police Chief Largo was a cyborg of considerable power, having once tussled with the Hulk, of all people. Since it had become apparent that Force Works was a permanent fixture in the city and Stone had returned to New York, it was decided they needed a police chief who wouldn’t be intimidated by superhumans.
“Nova, Mirage, thank you for meeting me,” Chief Largo said. He was leaning over a desk a size too small for him. Whether it was an oversight or meant to emphasize the cyborg’s size, neither of them knew.
Nor did they much care. Nova and Mirage had long grown accustomed to tearing down those bigger than themselves. They took a seat without a care in the world.
“So, we’re here today to discuss your raid on the freighter Taurus,” Chief Largo began, “while the city is grateful for your help, it’s important to understand the entire situation. Your raid could have done a lot more damage than it ultimately did.”
“Could have,” Mirage repeated, “but didn’t. We have been at this a while, Chief Largo.”
“Then lets not waste time. How did you first approach the situation?”
“We had reason to suspect that the cargo hold was rife with illegal toys,” Nova said, half repeating Namorita’s coaching, half his own words, “but we were mindful of the danger, so we sent in a small team in first to evaluate the situation.”
“And how did you know that there might be anything illegal onboard?”
“Trade secret.”
Metro City, then.
Several members of Force Works waited anxiously in their VTO jet, as their teammates below began their infiltration. Between the stress that was always present at the start of a mission and the stealth abilities of their jet that left the interior of the plane as silent as a summer breeze, a tension hung in the air.
The team was divided, at the moment. Nova, Technocrat, Tarene, Charcoal and Wolfsbane hung back in the jet, while their teammates handled the mission’s
“So…,” Charlie Burlingame, Charcoal, started, “are we ever going to tell anyone that Technocrat is scanning all of Metro City on a regular basis? That kinda feels like Big Brother.”
Charcoal glanced towards his teammate, Takeshi Matsuya. The young man looked far different from his usual fare, wearing a crisp white suit instead of his traditional red and blue jumpsuit, equipped with a backpack that could transform into any weapon he needed. He stood perfectly still, patiently waiting, though he did raise an eyebrow in annoyance.
“That reference would carry more weight if you hadn’t used Wikipedia on your book report on ‘1984’ instead of reading it like you were supposed to,” Technocrat countered, “also, random scans by private drones in public areas is neither illegal nor invasive. Our ports could stand some better security.”
Nova paced back and forth, clenching his fists.
“Relax Rich,” Wolfsbane said, “we’ve done this a million bloody times. Dani is down there, wit’ Adam.”
“Yeah, and both are saddled with two rookies,” replied Nova, “I used to have a CO who told me, that the longer everything went according to plan, the bigger the impending disaster.”
“Must have been a blast to serve with,” Charcoal observed.
“Whatever comes, we handle it,” Tarene said, as she rapped her mallet in her hand, “it is what we do.”
“Mirage is due to report in,” Technocrat said.
“And still no ETA on Sabre?” said Nova.
Technocrat paused, and his eyes glowed for a moment.
“Still in Florida,” he replied, “reviewing a friendly youth shelter, if you were wondering.”
“I knew this influencer idea was a bad idea from the start,” Nova muttered, “let her know we need her ASAP, again. Until then, lets see what the others find on this damn thing.”
Daniell Moonstar, Mirage, heard footsteps, and snapped her fist up. She and her teammate stopped dead in their tracks, and then pressed themselves up against the wall of the ship.
Mirage concentrated, and an illusion fell over the both of them, making it look as if there was nothing but painted metal where they stood.
One of the workers walked by, and Mirage was prepared to keep searching, when her teammate tapped her on the shoulder.
“Dani, I don’t think that guy is human,” he whispered.
“Mirage in the field,” she corrected quickly, “why do you say that, Wyldflower?”
“I don’t sense any bacteria in him at all,” Wyldflower replied, “I can sense it in everyone who’s organic, even Tarene. But I don’t get any from him.”
Mirage mulled over the information for a moment. So far, their search of the ship hadn’t turned up anything suspicious. But it also wasn’t as if they had enough time to go through every shipping container, search every inch of the ship while remaining concealed.
So she looked at the worker, and made a snap decision.
“Okay, Wyldflower,” Mirage said, “grab him, and let’s interrogate him.”
“Are you serious?” Wyldflower replied, hoping that it was just rookie hazing.
“Completely, I’ll take full responsibility,” Mirage said, “get ready, I’m about to drop the illusion.”
Wyldflower nodded, and stepped forward.
Mirage saw the nervous tension in his body, and reflected on her teammate.
Jerome Marks was only a few months older than Dani, but he was a reminder of her less than normal upbringing. A resident of their adopted city, he had begun his career as a superhero only a year before Force Works was formed.
Jerome had told them that he intended to apply to the team when he felt he had enough experience, but in the end it had been Namorita who reached out. She felt that a local hero would lend the team more legitimacy in the eyes of the city, and that Wyldflower was African American only increased his PR value.
Wyldflower’s costume, refined through Technocrat’s oversight, still had traces of his original, DYI costume. His chest was covered in a tough, Kevlar micro-weave while his arms were bare. Strapped to his back was a small green house molded into a small, customized backpack.
Unlike most of the team, Wyldflower had taken to carrying extra weapons, in addition to his powers. Several kunai tied to a thin rope on his waist, and a baseball bat holstered next to his mini-green house.
He wore a Japanese Oni plastic facemask over his jaw. He had explained that he thought it intimidating, but Moonstar knew him well enough now to know that he was simply living out a small fantasy of dressing like a ninja from Mortal Kombat.
Wyldflower concentrated, and several vines grew behind his back, before they lashed out, and entangled that man, wrapping themselves around his wrists and ankles.
“Umm, excuse me sir,” Wyldflower said, “we need to ask you a few questions.”
The man crooked his head to the side, regarding Wyldflower for a moment.
Then, the man tore the vines from his wrists and ankles as if they were nothing more than wrapping paper, and glared at the hero.
“Uhh, you’re not supposed to be able to do that,” Wildflower observed.
“He did it, rookie,” Moonstar said, “now what are you going to do?”
Wyldflower knew Mirage well enough to know that she wasn’t (just) hazing him, and was smart enough to realize that didn’t matter at the moment.
So as the man stalked forward at Wyldflower with hostile intend, he responded by focusing on his powers, wrapping his fists in stiff bark.
The man swung a right hook at Wyldflower’s head that he ducked effortlessly, and Wyldflower replied with an uppercut that clipped the man’s jaw.
The floral hero had pulled his punch, hoping to stun the man enough to convince him to back off.
But when he looked at his foe, who had barely stumbled, Wyldflower found himself baffled by what he saw.
The flesh had torn away from the man’s chin, but there was no blood whatsoever. Only seamless metal.
“Umm, Mirage?” Wyldflower took a step back, trying to process what he was seeing, “what’s going on?”
“Pretty simple,” an arrow pierced the head of Wyldflower’s foe. There was a flurry of sparks, before it went limp, “that’s an LMD. Illegal to use in industries like this because of how easily they can be compromised.”
Wyldflower fidgeted, “So, umm, what does that mean?”
“It means we’re on the right track,” Mirage said. She tapped her radio, “X-Treme, we have LMDs confirmed. I think we’re on the right track. Care to engage the officers and see what else turns up?”
Above the ship’s bridge
X-Treme hesitated after he heard Mirage’s words. The intel they had was good, but he was still reluctant to unleash his teammate on the people down below without ironclad certainty.
“Mirage reports that they found an LMD,” X-Treme said, “so at least some of the intel is good.”
“That tracks. The people on the deck below haven’t so much as blinked in the last three minutes,” replied his partner. She stood up, and the smile that crossed her face just doubled Adam’s anxiety.
“They could be hostages,” X-Treme countered.
“Well, there’s only one way to find out, Mr. Sinclair.”
Before X-Treme could fully process what his partner had said, she had land leaped off the top of the bridge, and landed on the deck a few yards away from the men.
“Hey boys,” Camilla Black, Scorpion, smirked, “I need a favor.”
The once spy concentrated, and then tensed as hundreds of nano-bots came to life. They spilled out of her hands, and out of her spine. Within seconds, her fingers had been replaced with razor sharp, metal claws, and a long, thin silver tail swished back and forth behind her.
“I’m a little lost, care to point me to the visitor’s center?”
Four men attacked as one, and Scorpion’s smile only grew.
She swept her claws at the first attacker, and artificial blood and viscera was sent flying.
The second attacker barely had time to attack before Scorpion channeled a venom bolt through its head.
The third attacker managed to push its brothers aside, and swing a right cross that struck Scorpion’s jaw, knocking her back slightly.
Tasting blood, Scorpion smiled. She then crooked her head to the side, revealing a metallic, cybernetic tail with a very pointy end.
With a single thought, the stinger plunged into the attacker’s skull, oil and synthetic blood flying.
The fourth man saw what happened to the others, and scrambled backwards, quacking in utter fear.
“I surrender, I surrender!” he shouted, “I’m not a robot, I’m real!”
Scorpion chuckled, “You know, I probably have as much metal in me as those things I just put down, do you mean to say I’m not real?”
Scorpion took a step forward, wiggling her sharp nails, “Is that it?”
“Scorpion…,” X-Treme grabbed his teammate by the shoulder, and yanked her backwards.
“Look out!”
A trail of flame scorched the deck where Scorpion had been standing only moments before.
The two looked up, and saw four men and one women, all wearing advanced armor, hovering above them. They looked down at the two members of Force Works with contempt.
“You’re trespassing, mutants!” spat the leader, who wore a green armor, “and The Jury is more than willing to make you pay for it!”
Scorpion chuckled, ready for violence.
“I’m the only mutant present,” X-Treme tapped his earpiece, “still, this might all be a misunderstanding. How about when we get to port, we contact the police and get this sorted, yeah?”
X-Treme wasn’t much surprised when they responded in a flurry of energy blasts.
The Shi’ar warrior dove right, Scorpion dove left, as they darted for cover.
“Nova, anytime now!”
“That’s our cue,” Nova said. He picked up Wolfsbane, and leapt through the floor hatch, his powers catching him before he fell more than a few feet.
“Wolfsbane, I want you to secure the bridge,” Nova ordered, “Technocrat, join her. We need this boat as evidence. Tarene, Charcoal, we’re going to tackle these Iron Man knock offs.”
“Hey, I know these guys!” Charcoal forced more thrust from his feet, and he smirked when he saw that his green plated foe was too busy focusing on X-Treme to see him coming, “they’re called The Jury!”
“Hey, Sentry!”
Charcoal flew into their green armored foe, smashing him to the deck. Armored steel and superhuman rock tore through a seam of steel as if it were paper.
“I almost feel nostalgic,” Charcoal picked his foe up by the head, “I’d barely joined the Thunderbolts when you guys came knocking, feels like it’s been decades. What you been up to, tin can?”
“Turning the Jury from a team, to an ideal,” replied Sentry. He then pressed his boot-jets up against Charcoal’s chest, and activated them.
The thrust slammed into Charcoal, and his grip on Sentry vanished as he was thrown backwards.
“Jury! We can’t let them stop this shipment!” Sentry shouted over his radio, “no matter what!”
“You got it, boss!”
“Bring me your worse!” Tarene shouted, as Firearm bathed her body in plasma flames. She swung her mallet at him, but the armored warrior was smart enough to keep his distance.
“…but we may not have much choice in the matter.”
Wolfsbane stalked about the bridge, nose alert for any sense of danger.
Meanwhile, in the corner, Technocrat simply stood, a bored expression on his face.
“I cannae smell anyone,” Wolfsbane reported, “I think the human crew left jus’ before they got to port. What do ye think?”
Technocrat said nothing. Wolfsbane sighed, and then walked over to her teammate. She waved her hand in front of his face several times, before he even blinked.
“Bored?”
“Immensely,” replied Technocrat.
“Well, maybe ye can overcome it by bein’ useful,” Wolfsbane said, “can ye hack the manifest, and tell me what they were hidin’?”
Technocrat rolled his eyes, “Even if I hacked the system, I very much doubt they would have politely labeled their contraband in their systems, with a full list of illegal details.”
Wolfsbane gritted her teeth. She swore that Technocrat was becoming more annoying as he grew more useless.
“Then, how exactly do ye plan on contributing?”
“With simple logic,” Technocrat replied, “passive scans detected a massive power source. Where would one try to conceal such a thing?”
Just ignore him, Rahne, Mirage said, through their shared psi-link, Wyldflower and I are in the hull, and we think we may have found something.
Mirage stood only a few feet away from a massive forcefield that was nearly thirty yards long, and nearly reached the top of the interior of the ship.
“What do you think it is?” Wyldflower asked.
“Unless we get very lucky, a boss fight,” replied Mirage.
Nova took a moment to watch as his team fought with the Jury, and felt a small sense of pride.
Tarene was holding off two of the members, Wysper and Ramshot, while Charcoal was trading blows with Sentry. Meanwhile, X-Treme and Scorpion were evading Screech and Bomblast, energy blasts being thrown like softballs, and dodged just as easily.
As much as Nova wanted to dive into the thick of the action, he held back, and tried to take stock.
“Technocrat, Wolfsbane, can you guys tell if any of the human crew is still here?”
“The ship’s crew has completely evacuated,” Technocrat reported.
Nova winced, “Then that means the Jury is fighting a delaying action.”
“Highly probably,” Technocrat reported, “do you want assistance in subduing them?”
“No, go help Mirage and Wyldflower,” Nova ordered, “whatever they found, it’s definitely more trouble than these idiots. Wolfsbane, stay up here, I may need you to act as a lie detector.”
Nova then flew into Sentry, slamming his shoulder into the armored foe.
“Lets go to work!”
“I don’t even know what’s under there, and I’m scared,” Wyldflower said, “does that make me a bad hero?”
“No, but it might mean you have too much common sense to be one,” replied Mirage, “okay, spread out. We need to look for a control panel, something Technocrat can use to control whatever this thing is.”
“So many unknowns in that sentence,” Wyldflower sighed.
Mirage went left and Wyldflower went right. Though he didn’t want to admit it out loud, Wyldflower had no idea what he was supposed to be looking for. Would it be shaped like a cell phone, Ipad, what?
He almost felt relieved when he heard metal gears behind him.
The floral hero spun around, and found an eight foot metal giant glaring down at him. Having only had access to Force Works’ database for seven months, Wyldflower didn’t know that the machine a few yards away was known as a Dreadnaught, a favored metal enforcer of the Maggia, though not exclusive to them.
That said, he didn’t need to know the type of robot leveling its weapons at him to know that it was bad news.
Wyldflower dove to the side, seconds before an energy would have punched a hole in his stomach.
The Dreadnaught moved slowly, walking through the crates and boxes that had concealed it with no emotion or urgency.
In contrast, Wyldflower was on the verge of panic as he struggled to think how his plant powers might allow him to overcome a robot.
The cannon fodder of the superhero world, and I got nothing! Wyldflower thought to himself.
But before a solution came to mind, a burst of blue energy lanced through the Dreadnaught, disabling it.
“Sorry for running late,” Techocrat said, as he strolled past Wyldflower, his right hand in the shape of a plasma caster, “I got a distracted with my scans.”
“Sorry to pull your attention away from things like the life of your teammates,” Mirage said as she approached, “at any rate, would you care to explain what’s behind the curtain?”
“It’s a stasis field of…some… ssssort,” Technocrat paused.
“Technocrat, you okay?” Wyldflower crooked his head at his frozen teammate.
Technocrat shook his head, “Sorry, feedback. But you needn’t worry, luck is on our side. See…”
Before Technocrat could finish his sentence, a giant purple smashed through the forcefield, and crushed him between its fingers.
“Technocrat!” Wyldflower shouted.
“Crap,” Mirage grabbed Wyldflower by the shoulder, and began pulling him away, as the field began to flicker and fade, “we need to get out of here, rookie!”
Wyldflower tried to control his panic, as he glanced towards the giant metal golem that was slowly rising up, tearing through the metal of the ship’s deck as if it were paper.
And not for the first time, he wondered if he was in the right place.
Several minutes earlier
Sentry, the designated leader of The Jury, tried to force his armor to allow him to stand, but he was easily stopped by Tarene’s boot pressing him down onto the deck.
“Stand and I won’t strike you down,” Tarene hissed, “I will simply break you.”
Sentry relented.
“Easy now,” said Nova, “we need these guys to talk. What exactly are you guys protecting here?”
“The American way of life!” Sentry snapped, “freedom from an oppressive…!”
Tarene pressed down a little harder on her foot, causing cracks to spider-web in Sentry’s green armor.
“I meant on this damn ship,” Nova rolled his eyes, and sighed, “I don’t give a damn about your manifesto, just whatever weapon you’re trying to smuggle into my city.”
Sentry sent a silent radio signal via his helmet before responding, “You want it? You’ll have it. Say hello to my alien big brother.”
Two giant hands smashed through the deck several yards away, and a giant, purple robot slowly rose up from the tear.
“Oh, sparks,” X-Treme said, his voice laced with fear, “…that’s a Kree Sentry…”
The alien warrior felt a surge of air brush past him, and then heard, “That bad boy is what’s known as a Kree Sentry, loyal subscribers. A robot enforcer for a fascist empire, and tough enough to tangle with the Fantastic Four and the Avengers.”
X-Treme glared at Sabre, who had just appeared beside him.
“Nova, we have a problem!” X-Treme shouted over comms.
The Human Rocket flew at the alien machine, swinging his fist into its giant chin. The machine staggered, but didn’t fall.
“No kidding!” Nova snapped.
“No, you don’t understand!” X-Treme said, “the Kree Sentry has safeguards against getting hacked that include chemical weapons! If they weren’t safely bypassed, they could wipe out Metro City in a blink!”
Nova went pale, and regarded the Sentry as he examined its surroundings. It was slow and sluggish, as if it were trying to understand what was happening.
“…and how hard is that to do?” asked Nova.
“For a trained agent of any empire? Like hotwiring a car,” X-Treme replied, “for humans, who are still stuck in their own star system?”
“Unit compromised,” boomed the Sentry. A panel slid open on its chest, “initiating purge cycle…”
“That’s not good, is it?” Scorpion asked.
“Nope, but we may be able to use it,” X-Treme said, “I need you to trust me.”
“Oh crap,” Scorpion muttered, “nothing good has ever happened after someone is asked that.”
“Nova!” X-Treme shouted, “you need to throw Scorpion at that port that just opened, now!”
“See?!” Scorpion braced herself, and in the blink of an eye found herself rocketing through the air.
“Good luck,” Nova said
Scorpion threw her arms out wide and smirked, “good luck, that would be a first.”
She landed on the Sentry, and sunk her claws into the metal. The port smelled like ozone, and Scorpion barely had any time to assess her situation before a blue gas began spilling out.
Scorpion barely realized what was happening before her powers began metabolizing the alien toxins.
It was as if someone had poured lighting into her veins, as her powers transformed poison into her power. Scorpion struggled to focus, and it took all her concentration to force the unimaginable power out through her hands.
Her venom bolts smashed through the alien metal as if it were tissue, but releasing so much energy at once left her exhausted, and her grip on the machine slipped, and Scorpion found herself falling.
“I got ye, Camilla!”
Wolfsbane leapt some ten feet into the air, and caught the cyborg before she struck the deck.
“…you sure do,” Scorpion muttered.
“Charcoal, Tarene, focus your attacks on the head!” Nova ordered, before he landed next to X-Treme, “care to tell me what’s happening with this thing?”
“The Kree Sentry has some basic defense protocols,” X-Treme said, “most would translate into war crimes here. We need to destroy it before it can get to stage two.”
“Do you know how to do that?”
X-Treme shook his head, “I’m afraid not. I knew how to bypass them. That was the whole point of my training!”
“Alright,” Nova grimaced, “Sabre, stop the commentary and get back to base. Haul Technocrat’s butt back here. And I mean the real one, not that damn drone he likes to use.”
“On it!” Sabre replied, and by the time Nova heard the words, the mutant speedster had already disappeared.
In two heartbeats, she was back in the Work Place, and was standing in his private lab in another.
The room was covered with debris and scattered papers. There were several white boards, tracking the movement of suspected members of ‘The Corporation’, servants of Nero Blood.
Nero Blood had seemingly vanished since strolling into the Work Place two years ago, and tearing the place apart.
Looking at all the scribblings and red string, Sabre wondered if Nero had taken Taki’s sanity along with him when he left.
“I asked you not to casually use the private entrance to my room.”
Sabre stifled an ‘Eep!’, and spun towards Technocrat. He was sitting in his hover chair, wearing sweatpants that hadn’t been changed in days, and a shirt that looked like it had seen far too many days and meals.
“Yeah, well, we got an emergency,” Sabre said, “you should have been moving your butt the second you lost signal to your love-bot.”
“For the last time,” Taki growled, “I do not have sex with my LMDs. They are for use in the field, to allow me to focus on intelligence gathering. They don’t even have genitals!”
“I’m sure that’s a great hurdle for you,” Sabre snickered, “look, I know we have an understanding, but I think alien robot intent on self-destruction preempts those, yeah?”
Technocrat pinched the bridge of his nose, “Very well, give me a moment to pull up some information on xeno-technologies. I swear, I don’t know what this team would do without me.”
The Kree Sentry froze, as it struggled to process what its sensors were telling it.
There were half a dozen Kree officers standing on the ship deck. They gave no orders, and the Sentry was struggling to decide what to do. If Kree officers were here, then that meant self-destruction could damage the Empire.
But they gave no orders, and its sensors kept returning conflicting information. The Sentry was designed to be just below the threshold of sentience, to avoid the possibility of ever rebelling against the Kree Empire but as a consequence, it struggled to reach a decision on how to proceed tactically.
“Good work, Mirage,” Nova said, “that should buy us a few seconds, at least.”
“Do we have a plan for afterwards?” Mirage said, while trying to maintain her focus. Her illusions were quantum enforced (which simply meant they could fool the best sensors), but they couldn’t project information she herself didn’t actually have.
“I think we can try a brute force solution,” X-Treme said, “hey, Wyldflower, ready to pitch in?”
Wyldflower looked at his alien teammate in disbelief, “Me? What the hell do you expect me to do against something like that?”
“Those plant growth pellets you keep in your belt, hand me a few,” X-Treme said.
“Heck no, I got this,” Wyldflower replied, with confidence he didn’t exactly have.
“Wait until me and Tarene get into position,” said Nova, before shooting off into the air, “we’re going to do the diamond piledriver.”
Wyldflower removed one of the special botanical pellets he had designed, and popped up the sling built into his left armguard.
“What is this going to do against an alien war machine?” Wyldflower asked, in utter disbelief as he took aim.
“I imagine that David asked the same thing,” Wolfsbane offered, “jus’ trust yuir teammates.”
Wyldflower took aim, focusing on one of the holes that Scorpion had blown in the Sentry, “Got the shot. Boss man?”
“We’re in position,” Nova said, “lets get this done.”
Wyldflower released the sling, sending a green pellet about the size of a quarter flying. It sailed through the air, and landed a few inches inside the hole in the Kree Sentry.
A green liquid spilled out of the sphere, and a second later green vines began growing like wildfire, wrapping themselves around metal and circuit boards.
“Error! Error!” the Sentry boomed, “foreign flora detected! Initiating purge!”
The Sentry stopped, and began focusing all its energy inward, attempting to burn the plants from its systems.
Focused on that, the Sentry hadn’t noticed Nova, Tarene and Charcoal hovering several hundred feet above it.
“This our only plan?” Charcoal growled, “Tarene picks me up, and you use me as a bullet?”
“Pretty much, Charlie,” Nova replied, “or, ya know, we just let the Sentry blow up and wreck the Eastern seaboard.”
“Next time, I should have the right to throw a teammate,” Charcoal said bitterly.
He focused on his powers, and shifted his form, altering the charbon of his form until he was as tough as a diamond.
Doing so meant he could no longer generate the flame that kept his in the air. So Nova grabbed Charcoal around the waist.
“Ready for the world’s most epic piledriver?”
“See, now that’s how you sell this shit!” Charcoal said, “lets do this!”
Nova sent a warning to his teammates down below, and then shot down towards the earth at mach-two.
“Everyone hit the deck!” X-Treme shouted, as he threw himself over Wolfsbane.
The team-up of Nova and Charcoal slammed into the Sentry’s head, and tore through his body like a blunt knife, metal ripping and rending loudly.
And when they hit the deck, the wrecking ball duo simply kept going, until they reached ocean.
“That’s not good,” Wolfsbane muttered, as she heard water pouring in through the hole.
“Don’t worry about it, carrot top,” Mirage said, “modern ships are designed to keep afloat with a hole or two. We got time.”
“What was that?” Wyldflower looked at the Kree Sentry, torn in two uneven halfs, as it lay sparking on the deck of the ship.
“The Kree are pretty picky about their eoc-system,” X-Treme said, “when the Sentry recognized an invasive, weaponized plant species in its system, it prioritized their destruction over all else, leaving it vulnerable.”
“And they just teach this stuff in alien high school?” Wyldflower said, incredulous.
“After a fashion,” replied X-Treme.
“He’s not jus’ a pretty face,” Wolfsbane smiled, as she leaned against X-Treme.
“Looks like the Jury got away when we were handling their alien WMD,” Mirage sighed, “I guess we might as well start securing the place. Where are Nova and Charcoal?”
“Hell yeah! That’s how you do it!”
Nova dropped Charcoal onto the deck. Even in his large, transformed state, Charcoal was shaking with energy.
“Where’s Sabre? Tell me we got that on tape!”
“Sorry, she went to go grab Technocrat,” Mirage reported. She pointed towards the horizon, where a white platform was racing towards the boat, with three of their teammates on it, “look, here comes our savior now.”
“Hmm, a brute force solution,” Technocrat observed, as he maneuvered his hover-chair onto the deck, “I’m not too surprised. That’s why I took the liberty of asking Namorita to join us.”
“Days like this, I miss being in the field,” Namorita looked around at the smoldering ship slash battlefield, “so, weapons smuggling, including an alien weapon? Neptune, this is going to be at least two news cycles.”
Metro City, Town Hall now
“And that’s the gist of it,” said Nova, “anything else you’d like us to clear up?”
“Just one thing,” Chief Largo said, “why didn’t you see fit to inform my department what you were doing? Your little firefight could have cost this city millions if it went the wrong way.”
“We thought about that,” Mirage said, “but when we looked at the records, we saw that this was the fourth shipment by this shell company.”
Chief Largo’s eyes went wide.
“Maybe you should look into that, when you get a chance.”
Mirage and Nova stood up.
“We’ll see you around, Chief Largo.”
Epilogue 1
Cessily Kincaid pulled the cardboard box tighter around her body, and prayed that the light from the streets wouldn’t reflect off her silver skin.
She turned her eyes towards The Work Place, and tried to summon her courage.
Soon, she told herself.
Soon.
Epilogue 2
“Touching this stuff is probably gonna give me cancer,” Peter Higgins groused, as he loaded a second crate into the disposal van.
Peter was a subcontractor of Damage Control, one that had the unfortunate job of transporting minor but dangerous items for disposal. He and his partner, Frank Wood, were trained technicians.
They were well compensated for their job, but it always summoned them at the worst hours for the most tedious of tasks.
“And if it does, you can sue for millions,” Frank said, “look, it’s stable and powered down. All we have to do is make the three-hour trip to the disposal site. Save some complaining for the road, eh?”
The two heard something heavy land atop their van, and they scrambled backwards in shock.
Standing atop the van was a man in an ebony trench coat, their body covered in black from head to toe, and crimson eyes that glared down on them.
“I’m sorry, gentlemen,” the figure said, “my name is Mr. Raven, and I’m afraid I need to claim these toys for private use.”
Next issue: The Force of Nature return!