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Issue #42 by Daniel Ingram
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“SUMMER OF TERROR – PART FOUR”
North Korea
Danielle Moonstar, AKA Mirage, leader of Force Works, had already seen so much in her young life already that what might leave others awesome was standard fair to her. A man crushing a tank with their bare hands? A half dozen names came to mind. Aliens from another planet? That was an average Monday.
But watching someone single-handily destroy a cybernetically augmented clone of The Hulk?
Mirage didn’t think she’d forget that anytime soon.
“I am here for one reason only and I do not care how many of you I have to kill to accomplish it. Do not think you’ll pose any greater challenge to me than the toy robot did.”
“Prove it,” Mirage said without a second thought.
“Ask you wish,” Gorgon brought his sword up, “I’ll be quick.”
The mystery mutant was like a blur to Mirage as he rocketed towards her. She had barely notched an arrow before Gorgon’s sword was slicing through the air towards her neck.
“So will I.”
To Mirage, it was as if X-Treme appeared out of thin air. She hadn’t even blinked in the span of time it took him to place his double bladed sword in-between Gorgon’s blade, and her neck.
X-Treme dug his heels in, and swung his blade with every ounce of hybrid strength he had in his muscles, flinging Gorgon back through the air like a shuttlecock. The mutant warrior landed on his feet, skidding to a halt.
“Oh, I misjudged you alien,” Gorgon smiled like a shark, “if only I had the time…”
“You’re going to make time,” X-Treme hissed.
“Sadly no. You see, I have to cull the weak, and you are about to die at the hands of my Omega Guard.”
The gathered heroes and villains barely had a moment to react before they felt a slight rumble, and looked to see a ball of solid, seamless metal ball racing towards them like an avalanche.
“Nova!” Mirage snapped, and the Human Rocket didn’t hesitate. He slammed into sphere, stopping four tons of steel instantly with a resounding –thoom!- could be heard for miles.
“This isn’t the temple of doom,” Nova pulled his fist back, “and I ain’t Harrison Ford.”
Nova swung his fist, but instead of connecting with hard steel, his fist sank into the metal like it was water.
“But you’re just as useless, flatscan scum,” the metal sphere transformed into the shape of a man, and its eyes and mouth glowed white hot. Nova tried to pull his hands free, but the grip was unrelenting. Beads of sweat began to trickle down the Human Rocket’s face, as the temperature jumped over a thousand degrees in seconds, “Nova, is it? Time to learn what real heat is!”
The Dawn member called Boiler Plate opened his mouth and roared, releasing a white hot flame that washed over the young hero like a tidal wave.
“Nova!” Mirage screamed in horror. To her amazement, Nova wasn’t vaporized, but he was down on one knee, with half his uniformed burned from his chest, and his skin was as bright as a lobster.
“That…all you got?”
“Tarene…” Mirage was about to shout an order, when suddenly her head felt as if someone had driven a rail road spike into it. She gripped her head, and the gathered young heroes and villainous snakes watched in horror as the ground seemed to erupt with molten lava, demons rose from the ground and fire seemed to burst from the air.
“What’s going on!?” Puff Adder began to sweat as the intense heat began to pierce even his tough hide, “all hell’s breaking loose!”
“It’s an illusion!” X-Treme shouted, though he couldn’t help but instinctively leap out of the way of a ball of fire, “someone’s hijacked Mirage’s powers, fight it!”
“Trying!” Mirage growled.
X-Treme squeezed his eyes shut, and in his mind’s eye made a map of where every member of his team was or would, and did the same for the snakes, as his hand went to his belt. He removed two discs and hurled then seemingly at random.
They flew through the air like hornets on crack, ricocheting off Arsenal’s wing, sweeping past Sidewinder’s ear or off the barracks. They were almost impossible for the eye to track, especially in the onslaught of illusions, and when X-Treme saw one disc hit thin air, he sent a blade flying.
“Arrgh!” the blade stopped in thin air, and blood began to trickle out of a wound. Within seconds, the barrage of illusion disappeared, and a single man with olive green skin, wearing a black gi, with an omega symbol on his belt.
“Surrender,” Mirage growled as she tried to ignore her throbbing headache.
“Why should I?” asked the man, “I call myself Remote for a reason. I can control anyone else’s powers, and you people seem to have acquired a few cuts…”
X-Treme was already in motion, but he was three feet away from being close enough. Dagger in land, he lunged at Remote, just as the Dawn member seized control of his power to ignite blood. Remote’s last breath went into trying to the blood of anyone and everyone he could.
“Adam!” Arsenal watched as X-Treme and Remote became entangled in swirl of energy, before both fell go the ground. Tarene and Arsenal were a step away from rushing to his side, when another teammate demanded their attention.
“Some help, please?!” The Human Rocket had managed to free his left arm, his free fist pounding Boiler Plate’s putty like face. It warped and contorted, but somehow kept changing back.
“I got it,” Mirage aimed one of the most powerful psychic arrows she’d created yet, and struck Boiler Plate perfectly in the head. The Iron Giant didn’t immediately slump over, but Nova pulled himself free effortlessly. Boiler Plate seemed as if he were about to say something as his mouth opened, but his jaw fell off, and his skin began to bubble. Then, all at once, Boiler Plate fell to the ground as if he were made of water, becoming nothing more than a puddle of molten steel.
“Daaaamn,” Puff Adder grimaced as he saw Boiler Plate’s remains, “did we know she could do that?”
“Since she’s on our side now, I’ll say yes,” replied Sidewinder.
“Chief, remind me not to get on your bad side,” Nova brushed some specks of Boiler Plate off his wrist, “hate to state the obvious, but we got a new player in a game that’s already too crowded. We have to change plans before this somehow gets worse.”
“Read my mind, Nova,” replied Mirage, “Arsenal, check on X-Treme. The rest of us…”
“I’m good,” X-Treme’s voice was shaky, and Mirage regarded him carefully for a moment.
“You sure?”
The alien warrior rolled his shoulder, trying to work the kinks out, “Do I have a choice?”
“No, no you don’t,” sighed the mutant leader, “get Gorgon. Stop him by any means necessary and then tell Blink to be ready. The rest of us are going to see what we can do about bringing down whatever is keeping us from teleporting out.”
“And how’s you plan on that?” Anaconda asked, with a raised eyebrow.
“According to our pre-mission intel, there’s an entire complex beneath our feet of illegal technology with damn near everything under the sun,” explained Mirage, “that Hulk clone was just the tip of a very nasty iceberg. We’re going down there and smashing anything and everything more advanced than a sundial.”
“Well, that is an intricate plan,” Sidewinder rolled his eyes, “well, lets get on with it. This entire affair has become far too bloated for my tastes. It was bad enough before the mutant fanatics showed up.”
“Nova, make us a tunnel,” Mirage ordered, “Arsenal, Puff Adder, Anaconda, you guys are follow-up. Anything that doesn’t have a bio warning, we break it. Sidewinder, the second you feel able to teleport, you get us all out. Any questions?”
“Um, Mirage?”
Mirage craned her head towards Tarene. Of course.
“Yes?”
Tarene pointed north, “I don’t think we’ll be able to get that far.”
The two teams turned their heads towards where Tarene was pointing, and despite everything they had seen in their long careers as either hero or villain, like vampires, technological aliens, demons from other realities and even the dead rising, what they saw was almost beyond belief.
Black Brigade, surrounded by robotic drones and Panzer, was surrounded by what could only be described as a sideshow of super-horrors. One man stood twelve feet tall wearing the saggy skin of a man who should be fourteen feet tall, a failed experiment with Pym particles. Another man was bulging at the seams with muscles, but his head was too small for his body. Next to that were at least a dozen men and woman with a variety of cybernetic implants, arms, legs or both. Only these implants weren’t sleek and silver seamlessly connected to their bodies, but yellow and red, rusted and worn connected to blades and automatic weapons, and where steel met flesh was angry red and dripping with yellow puss.
Though The Serpent Society couldn’t know what exactly they were facing, Force Works didn’t enjoy that ignorance. According to pre-mission intelligence, North Korea experimented with anything and everything that might give them a tactical edge. But their success rate was abysmal, and the subjects who survived wished they didn’t.
“Attention criminals!” Black Brigade snarled, “surrender and you will be shown mercy!”
“This again? Mercy, is that a bad joke?” Sidewinder didn’t need to read classified DOD files to recognized medical experiments. If they did that to their own people to get superhumans, what would they do to foreign superhumans?
“As expected,” Black Brigade shrugged. He turned to the dozens of failed experiments who weren’t regarded as human by their government, and said, “anyone who brings me a piece of American flesh will have families freed from the labor camps.”
However, Force Works, thanks to translators in their radios, heard the offer as clear as day. And before their minds could even absorb the implications of what it meant, a wave of human atrocities washed towards them, intent on tearing them into bits.
# # # # #
Elsewhere
Gorgon dispatched Sabre with a casual backhand, and flung her into right Black Racer. He ignored Black Mamba’s attempt to get into his mind, and swatted aside Asp’s poison bursts, and with an almost lazy swing of his sword, sliced Wolfsbane across the back when she got too close.
In fact, the only time Gorgon acted as if he were in a fight was when Blink teleported above him and brought two javelins down intending to decapitate him. He deflected both javelins with one stroke, and would have bisected Blink if she was a split second slower.
Blink reappeared behind Gorgon, and the sociopathic mutant moved into a defensive position. But the attack never came, as Blink willed her fallen teammates away along with the Serpent, before reappearing by her remaining allies.
“Finally, a challenge,” Gorgon allowed a smile to come across his lips as Blink reappeared next to Vibraxis, Asp, Black Mamba and Coachwhip.
Blink ran the odd in her head. Black Mamba, Coachwhip and Asp were useless against Gorgon. Vibraxis was powerful enough, but Blink didn’t think he was quick enough to actually hit the mutant fanatic and friendly fire was anything but. In her judgment, Blink came to the conclusion that she was the only one who could handle Gorgon.
Almost unwillingly, Blink glanced backwards, where she had deposited her incapacitated allies.
Yes, she might be able to take this maniac. But she was the only one who could possibly get everyone out of here safely. And every bit of strength she used to take him down would be energy she needed save everyone else.
“Lets kill this long hair freak already!” Coachwhip lashed out with her signature weapon, and wrapped it around his wrist. Gorgon snorted with contempt and before anyone could react, he yanked the Serpent forward.
Almost lazily, Gorgon leveled his sword to impale the snake. But inches before flesh met steel, there was a flash of purple and green, and Coachwhip was gone.
Gorgon’s eye went wide, and then he just barely brought his sword up in time before twin blades took his head off. He grunted, as he instinctively realized that while he’d blocked the double blades of X-Treme’s sword, he hadn’t braced himself against the force, the sheer strength, still behind it.
The alien warrior swung outwards with all his strength, and Gorgon found himself pitched backwards. He landed effortlessly, and sneered at X-Treme.
“You swing your sword like a bat.”
“I swing it like a weapon,” X-Treme smiled. He nodded to Blink, “Mirage is going to try to take down whatever’s screwing up your powers. Link up with Hardcastle and the rest. Defend the kids, and be ready to go.”
Death Adder and X-Treme stood side by side, across from Gorgon. Hero, villain and zealot took a moment to size one another up, and then charged.
Death Adder slashed towards Gorgon’s chest, missing by inches but Gorgon, used to fighting enemies of human shape, didn’t notice Death Adder’s tail until it was wrapped around his ankle. The Serpent yanked his tail, but Gorgon was able to brace himself, and only came forward a single step.
But just that single foot was enough for his enemies. Death Adder swiped his hand backwards and his venom soaked claws cut through half an inch of muscle, as X-Treme brought the pummel of his sword down on Gorgon’s sword hand, forcing him to drop his weapon and then rammed his spiked hand guard into his enemy’s face, while Death Adder stamped his foot on Gorgan’s blade, and swept it behind him across the tarmac.
His face a mess of blood and torn muscle, Gorgon swung his left elbow into X-Treme’s knee, with such strength that Adam couldn’t help but to fall to one leg. Fueled by pure loathing, Gorgon pulled his leg free of Death Adder’s tail and kicked X-Treme upside the head with enough force to kill ten men.
Death Adder braced himself for attack, but he couldn’t have anticipated what happened next.
Gorgon threw himself into the Snake’s arms, and grabbed his shoulders in a steel grip. Not as tall as his enemy, Death Adder grabbed Gorgon below the shoulder, and sank his poison dipped talons into nerves and muscles as if they were clay.
Gorgon swung his knee into Death Adder’s gut, and the first blow had the Mercenary seeing stars. And Gorgon did it again and again, as Death Adder slowly dragged his claws down his enemy’s arms.
After five hits, Gorgon tossed Death Adder aside like a crushed soda can.
With both of his enemies laid out on the tarmac, struggling to stand, Gorgon strolled towards where his sword had come to rest, and picked it up, turning his back to his enemies.
“And here I was hoping for a challenge.”
Gorgon turned just in time to see Death Adder ram his claws into his upper body, while X-Treme pushed his sword through Gorgon’s kidney.
“And here you got it.”
# # # # #
“Friendlies incoming!” Blink shouted as she arrived with teammates and Snakes in tow. A dozen automatics were leveled at her, but thankfully no one fired.
“I was beginning to think you guys had forgotten about us,” Hardcastle remarked.
“We’ve had our hands full,” Blink replied, wiping the sweat from her brow.
“So what’s the deal with her?” Hardcastle aimed his rifle at Black Mamba, and his soldiers leveled theirs at the other members of the Serpent Society, “you charmed those snakes?”
“She and the other worthless mercenaries have seen the error of their ways and have joined us in our righteous cause!” Vibraxis explained.
Hardcastle’s men looked among one another.
“They’re cool,” Blink clarified.
“Good,” Hardcastle lowered his weapon, “Vibraxis, take the main hangar. Everyone else, back him up. Blink, a word?”
“God, what did we step in?” Black Mamba looked around, horrified to see the dozens of children hunkered down, bawling like babies in fear.
“This isn’t good news, is it?” asked Blink.
Hardcastle motioned for the mutant to follow him, and led her to a window. He handed her a pair of infrared binoculars, and Blink took a look outside.
All she could see was a wall of red.
“We’re surrounded by at least twenty thousand soldiers,” Hardcastle explained, “and hundreds more by the minute. I don’t care how good you kids think you are, but we can’t fight our way out. We couldn’t bring that helicarrier here if we wanted to, now You were supposed to be our back-up plan, elf.”
“I can’t do more than a few blocks,” Blink replied, “X-Treme said they were going to take down whatever’s blocking me, but until then…”
“All we can do is pray.”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
# # # # #
“This is insane!” Arsenal slashed one cyborg with his bone claws, and blasted a second before he could get close, “I didn’t agree to this!”
“Keep it together, Arsenal!” Mirage ordered as she let her arrows fly, “just hold on!”
Mirage heard a sonic boom, and watched as Black Brigade flew over her head like a shuttlecock, followed closely by a gold and blue blur.
“Come on, tin man!” Nova smashed his fist into the cyborg’s face, “stand down already, asshole!”
“Never!” Black Brigade swung wildly, and his giant fist slammed into the Human Rocket’s gut, and sent him flying backwards. Nova landed in a heap with a grunt, and then shot up into the air seconds before the ground he crashed into was turned to glass by Black Brigade’s weapons systems.
“That was a rib,” Nova grunted, holding his side. His hands flared with power and his lip curled in anger, “you’re slag.”
“Nova, stop!”
“Mirage?” Nova tapped his radio, “what’s up?”
“I need you here,” Mirage ordered.
“Got it,” Nova looked around until he saw Puff Adder and Anaconda, fighting side by side, “hey lovebirds! Take out the tin can!”
“We don’t take orders from you!” Puff Adder snarled, “I’m Serpent Society, punk, and…!”
“Hey honey!” Anaconda had her elongated arms wrapped around Black Brigade. They tightened, and Nova could hear reinforced titanium steel groan, “help me crack open this lobster!”
“American whore!” Black Brigade strained against the Serpent’s grip, “I kill you!”
“What did you call my old lady?” Puff Adder’s eyes went wide, and he swung his oversized fist into Black Brigade’s stomach, “no one talks that way to her! Not Captain America, not Iron Man and not you, grease stain!”
With Black Brigade occupied, Nova made a beeline towards Mirage. He swept down from the sky, and bulldozed at least a dozen abominations of science before landing, skidding to a stop a few feet away from his team leader.
“Hate to state the obvious, but we’re in freefall here,” Nova raised his hands, energy lancing from them. The Human Rocket was certain that he’d blasted at least two dozen…targets (enemies felt harsh for them, and calling them victims was too hard for him), yet they kept coming, “we’re surrounded, our ways out are blocked and we barely have no contact with Technocrat.”
“That’s not entirely true, actually,” Technocrat replied over their radio. From across the border, Technocrat sat in front of a high definition screen, watching the battle unfold. Namorita watched over his shoulder, fists clenched with worry, “but two out of three is still lousy odds.”
“Such thrilling information is why you’re our resident genius,” Nova unleashed a blast of pure force that slammed into one cyborg. The man fell backwards, and Nova watched with growing dread as another cyborg, this time a woman with steel claws where her wrists should be, ran to the man’s side, and tried to shake him awake. Nova had seen tears like that before.
“Don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it,” Nova half muttered, half prayed.
“You killed him!” the woman shouted, her claw fingers shaking in grief. But before she took two steps, a blast of energy slammed into her, and sent her into the arms of her lover.
“Damn it,” guilt flowed over Nova like water. For a second, it covered his person entirely, and he felt an ache, a weariness he’d thought he had forgotten. And just as quickly, it evaporated. This was war, and there was no time for regrets. He couldn’t afford to look back, only forward, “do we have an actual plan here, or are we just going to let them whittle away at us?”
“Technocrat proposed one,” Mirage answered. She created an illusion of a wall of fire, and three men with yellow skin and scales across their chest, ran in the opposite direction, “I don’t agree with it. You’re the tie breaker.”
“You got an alternative?”
“…I don’t,” Mirage admitted.
“Alright,” Nova put his hand to his ear, “lets hear your plan, Taki. And make it quick.”
Technocrat did so. Nova’s eyes grew wide, he thought of at least a half dozen ways it could go wrong, but in the end…
“Well?” asked Technocrat.
“We have to do it,” Nova answered, “we’re spread too thin.”
“It’s a scorched earth plan!” Mirage snapped, throwing her hands up in disbelief, even though they were in the middle of a pitched battle.
Nova sent a burst of energy flying past Mirage’s shoulder, disabling a dissident who’d been shoved into a cloned suit of The Rhino. The man, covered with flabs of skin, fell backwards with a heavy –thoom!- and kicked up a cloud of dust.
“Yeah, and? It’s still a plan,” Nova replied, “I’m second in command of this team, right? So unless you’re going to pull rank, I suggest you get the team ready, because all hell’s already broken loose, and I’m about to dump some gas.”
# # # # #
Technocrat leaned back in his chair, and breathed a sigh of relief, though most wouldn’t in his situation.
“I didn’t think he’d agree,” Namorita said.
“I didn’t either,” Taki admitted, “this will either be our best plan ever, or our greatest disaster.”
“Or both.”
“Very true. Now, if I could have some time alone?”
“Gladly,” Namorita turned and walked out of the situation room. She had barely stepped outside the door before she was approached by two guards.
“Ma’am, we’ve been told to keep you inside for the duration of this operation,” the first man said.
“I just need some air,” Namorita explained.
“Be that as it may, I have my orders.”
“Well, things change. Like how that helicarrier outside was our second means of extraction, but now is just an oversized paperweight. So lets compromise, soldier,” Namorita smiled politely, “You have a scanner wand on you that costs as much as my watch. You can scan me for communication devises, and in return, I won’t show you how much of my cousin’s temperament I inherited.”
The two soldiers looked at one another, and silently agreed on the compromise. Namorita held her arms out to the side, and when they found nothing, the guards allowed her to leave, both silently praying their superior wouldn’t find out.
When she was outside, Namorita took to the air, and glided over the helicarrier as it sat there uselessly.What was to be their second method of getting out of North Korea was now denied to them on the fear that it would be shot down, and the technology on it taken. Namorita undid her watch, allowing it to fall. It landed near the cockpit, and beeped once.
# # # # #
“Time to do my Bugs impression.”
Nova flew away from the battlefield, and towards the wall of soldiers and machines that surrounded them. He was met with a hail of bullets that were no more threatening to him than a morning mist, and then plowed through a good three dozen soldiers and into three tanks, for good measure.
From there, Nova rose into the air some fifty feet, then rocketed back down like a meteor. He pushed through solid rock, eyes on his helmet’s GPS to guide him. Eventually, after tearing through reinforced steel and concrete like an Olympian swimmer cutting through water, he reached his destination.
He came out in a room the size of an opera hall. In the center was a large, transparent glass tube containing a yellow, shapeshifting alien member of the techno-organic species known as the phalanx.
Nova didn’t have much firsthand experience with them, but the Nova Corps’ intel was pretty clear. They were an Omega level threat, to be exterminated with extreme prejudice regardless of who was infected. There were at least twelve standing orders or regulations against what the Human Rocket planned to do next.
He released a beam of pure heat, and began severing cables around the tube. The creature screamed with a mouth that would frighten a shark, and lashed out with a dozen tentacles. They lanced into the computers that surrounded it like harpoons, and pulled them into its body, doubling its mass.
“The pens are open!” Nova heard someone shout. All around the complex, devises began to spark and lights flutter as the phalanx grew angry.
“This is a bad idea,” Nova muttered. According to their intelligence, the phalanx had been mostly neutered, completely unable to infect living flesh with its transmode virus and kept mostly docile running the complex’s security system. The operating system was considered infantile for its species, and it probably would have remained peaceful had Nova not thrust it into freedom.
In layman’s terms, Nova had done nothing more than poke a sleeping bear. And now it was pissed.
Nova watched the creature grow in size, and felt a gnawing in his gut. The plan was deceptively simple on its face. As long as they were surrounded by the North Korean army, they couldn’t hope to win. It became a battle of attrition that favored an army one million strong against two dozen superhumans. They needed a game changer, and this was all they had.
“Raagh!”
Nova lashed out instinctively, vaporizing the head of a blood starved vampire. He watched in horror as dozens of them spilled into the room, tearing apart the scientists that had held them captive for so long.
“Okay, time for follow the leader.”
Nova unleashed a gravity pulse, slamming the phalanx into the far wall. The creature roared at him with a dozen mouths, and Nova shot back out the hole he’d created, monster hot on his heels.
No sooner had he emerged from the rabbit hole, than he was met with a barrage of bullets. There were enough to wipe out a city block, but they didn’t even scratch his helmet.
“Hey guys,” Nova said, even though he knew they couldn’t understand him, “you might want to stop shouting at me, and ask yourself, ‘What could I be running from?’”
The ground underneath the soldiers exploded outwards. Metal tentacles lashed out, slicing men in two, smashing vehicles like cardboard, and sent the soldiers scrambling.
Nova watched as the phalanx began tearing into the army with a rage and ruthlessness The Hulk would respect, and swallowed.
“Yeah, this is not the best plan ever.”
TO BE CONTINUED...
NEXT ISSUE: The chaos reaches fever pitch, as Force Works and their allies scramble to save their mission and themselves! Things can’t be worse, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to get any better!
Danielle Moonstar, AKA Mirage, leader of Force Works, had already seen so much in her young life already that what might leave others awesome was standard fair to her. A man crushing a tank with their bare hands? A half dozen names came to mind. Aliens from another planet? That was an average Monday.
But watching someone single-handily destroy a cybernetically augmented clone of The Hulk?
Mirage didn’t think she’d forget that anytime soon.
“I am here for one reason only and I do not care how many of you I have to kill to accomplish it. Do not think you’ll pose any greater challenge to me than the toy robot did.”
“Prove it,” Mirage said without a second thought.
“Ask you wish,” Gorgon brought his sword up, “I’ll be quick.”
The mystery mutant was like a blur to Mirage as he rocketed towards her. She had barely notched an arrow before Gorgon’s sword was slicing through the air towards her neck.
“So will I.”
To Mirage, it was as if X-Treme appeared out of thin air. She hadn’t even blinked in the span of time it took him to place his double bladed sword in-between Gorgon’s blade, and her neck.
X-Treme dug his heels in, and swung his blade with every ounce of hybrid strength he had in his muscles, flinging Gorgon back through the air like a shuttlecock. The mutant warrior landed on his feet, skidding to a halt.
“Oh, I misjudged you alien,” Gorgon smiled like a shark, “if only I had the time…”
“You’re going to make time,” X-Treme hissed.
“Sadly no. You see, I have to cull the weak, and you are about to die at the hands of my Omega Guard.”
The gathered heroes and villains barely had a moment to react before they felt a slight rumble, and looked to see a ball of solid, seamless metal ball racing towards them like an avalanche.
“Nova!” Mirage snapped, and the Human Rocket didn’t hesitate. He slammed into sphere, stopping four tons of steel instantly with a resounding –thoom!- could be heard for miles.
“This isn’t the temple of doom,” Nova pulled his fist back, “and I ain’t Harrison Ford.”
Nova swung his fist, but instead of connecting with hard steel, his fist sank into the metal like it was water.
“But you’re just as useless, flatscan scum,” the metal sphere transformed into the shape of a man, and its eyes and mouth glowed white hot. Nova tried to pull his hands free, but the grip was unrelenting. Beads of sweat began to trickle down the Human Rocket’s face, as the temperature jumped over a thousand degrees in seconds, “Nova, is it? Time to learn what real heat is!”
The Dawn member called Boiler Plate opened his mouth and roared, releasing a white hot flame that washed over the young hero like a tidal wave.
“Nova!” Mirage screamed in horror. To her amazement, Nova wasn’t vaporized, but he was down on one knee, with half his uniformed burned from his chest, and his skin was as bright as a lobster.
“That…all you got?”
“Tarene…” Mirage was about to shout an order, when suddenly her head felt as if someone had driven a rail road spike into it. She gripped her head, and the gathered young heroes and villainous snakes watched in horror as the ground seemed to erupt with molten lava, demons rose from the ground and fire seemed to burst from the air.
“What’s going on!?” Puff Adder began to sweat as the intense heat began to pierce even his tough hide, “all hell’s breaking loose!”
“It’s an illusion!” X-Treme shouted, though he couldn’t help but instinctively leap out of the way of a ball of fire, “someone’s hijacked Mirage’s powers, fight it!”
“Trying!” Mirage growled.
X-Treme squeezed his eyes shut, and in his mind’s eye made a map of where every member of his team was or would, and did the same for the snakes, as his hand went to his belt. He removed two discs and hurled then seemingly at random.
They flew through the air like hornets on crack, ricocheting off Arsenal’s wing, sweeping past Sidewinder’s ear or off the barracks. They were almost impossible for the eye to track, especially in the onslaught of illusions, and when X-Treme saw one disc hit thin air, he sent a blade flying.
“Arrgh!” the blade stopped in thin air, and blood began to trickle out of a wound. Within seconds, the barrage of illusion disappeared, and a single man with olive green skin, wearing a black gi, with an omega symbol on his belt.
“Surrender,” Mirage growled as she tried to ignore her throbbing headache.
“Why should I?” asked the man, “I call myself Remote for a reason. I can control anyone else’s powers, and you people seem to have acquired a few cuts…”
X-Treme was already in motion, but he was three feet away from being close enough. Dagger in land, he lunged at Remote, just as the Dawn member seized control of his power to ignite blood. Remote’s last breath went into trying to the blood of anyone and everyone he could.
“Adam!” Arsenal watched as X-Treme and Remote became entangled in swirl of energy, before both fell go the ground. Tarene and Arsenal were a step away from rushing to his side, when another teammate demanded their attention.
“Some help, please?!” The Human Rocket had managed to free his left arm, his free fist pounding Boiler Plate’s putty like face. It warped and contorted, but somehow kept changing back.
“I got it,” Mirage aimed one of the most powerful psychic arrows she’d created yet, and struck Boiler Plate perfectly in the head. The Iron Giant didn’t immediately slump over, but Nova pulled himself free effortlessly. Boiler Plate seemed as if he were about to say something as his mouth opened, but his jaw fell off, and his skin began to bubble. Then, all at once, Boiler Plate fell to the ground as if he were made of water, becoming nothing more than a puddle of molten steel.
“Daaaamn,” Puff Adder grimaced as he saw Boiler Plate’s remains, “did we know she could do that?”
“Since she’s on our side now, I’ll say yes,” replied Sidewinder.
“Chief, remind me not to get on your bad side,” Nova brushed some specks of Boiler Plate off his wrist, “hate to state the obvious, but we got a new player in a game that’s already too crowded. We have to change plans before this somehow gets worse.”
“Read my mind, Nova,” replied Mirage, “Arsenal, check on X-Treme. The rest of us…”
“I’m good,” X-Treme’s voice was shaky, and Mirage regarded him carefully for a moment.
“You sure?”
The alien warrior rolled his shoulder, trying to work the kinks out, “Do I have a choice?”
“No, no you don’t,” sighed the mutant leader, “get Gorgon. Stop him by any means necessary and then tell Blink to be ready. The rest of us are going to see what we can do about bringing down whatever is keeping us from teleporting out.”
“And how’s you plan on that?” Anaconda asked, with a raised eyebrow.
“According to our pre-mission intel, there’s an entire complex beneath our feet of illegal technology with damn near everything under the sun,” explained Mirage, “that Hulk clone was just the tip of a very nasty iceberg. We’re going down there and smashing anything and everything more advanced than a sundial.”
“Well, that is an intricate plan,” Sidewinder rolled his eyes, “well, lets get on with it. This entire affair has become far too bloated for my tastes. It was bad enough before the mutant fanatics showed up.”
“Nova, make us a tunnel,” Mirage ordered, “Arsenal, Puff Adder, Anaconda, you guys are follow-up. Anything that doesn’t have a bio warning, we break it. Sidewinder, the second you feel able to teleport, you get us all out. Any questions?”
“Um, Mirage?”
Mirage craned her head towards Tarene. Of course.
“Yes?”
Tarene pointed north, “I don’t think we’ll be able to get that far.”
The two teams turned their heads towards where Tarene was pointing, and despite everything they had seen in their long careers as either hero or villain, like vampires, technological aliens, demons from other realities and even the dead rising, what they saw was almost beyond belief.
Black Brigade, surrounded by robotic drones and Panzer, was surrounded by what could only be described as a sideshow of super-horrors. One man stood twelve feet tall wearing the saggy skin of a man who should be fourteen feet tall, a failed experiment with Pym particles. Another man was bulging at the seams with muscles, but his head was too small for his body. Next to that were at least a dozen men and woman with a variety of cybernetic implants, arms, legs or both. Only these implants weren’t sleek and silver seamlessly connected to their bodies, but yellow and red, rusted and worn connected to blades and automatic weapons, and where steel met flesh was angry red and dripping with yellow puss.
Though The Serpent Society couldn’t know what exactly they were facing, Force Works didn’t enjoy that ignorance. According to pre-mission intelligence, North Korea experimented with anything and everything that might give them a tactical edge. But their success rate was abysmal, and the subjects who survived wished they didn’t.
“Attention criminals!” Black Brigade snarled, “surrender and you will be shown mercy!”
“This again? Mercy, is that a bad joke?” Sidewinder didn’t need to read classified DOD files to recognized medical experiments. If they did that to their own people to get superhumans, what would they do to foreign superhumans?
“As expected,” Black Brigade shrugged. He turned to the dozens of failed experiments who weren’t regarded as human by their government, and said, “anyone who brings me a piece of American flesh will have families freed from the labor camps.”
However, Force Works, thanks to translators in their radios, heard the offer as clear as day. And before their minds could even absorb the implications of what it meant, a wave of human atrocities washed towards them, intent on tearing them into bits.
# # # # #
Elsewhere
Gorgon dispatched Sabre with a casual backhand, and flung her into right Black Racer. He ignored Black Mamba’s attempt to get into his mind, and swatted aside Asp’s poison bursts, and with an almost lazy swing of his sword, sliced Wolfsbane across the back when she got too close.
In fact, the only time Gorgon acted as if he were in a fight was when Blink teleported above him and brought two javelins down intending to decapitate him. He deflected both javelins with one stroke, and would have bisected Blink if she was a split second slower.
Blink reappeared behind Gorgon, and the sociopathic mutant moved into a defensive position. But the attack never came, as Blink willed her fallen teammates away along with the Serpent, before reappearing by her remaining allies.
“Finally, a challenge,” Gorgon allowed a smile to come across his lips as Blink reappeared next to Vibraxis, Asp, Black Mamba and Coachwhip.
Blink ran the odd in her head. Black Mamba, Coachwhip and Asp were useless against Gorgon. Vibraxis was powerful enough, but Blink didn’t think he was quick enough to actually hit the mutant fanatic and friendly fire was anything but. In her judgment, Blink came to the conclusion that she was the only one who could handle Gorgon.
Almost unwillingly, Blink glanced backwards, where she had deposited her incapacitated allies.
Yes, she might be able to take this maniac. But she was the only one who could possibly get everyone out of here safely. And every bit of strength she used to take him down would be energy she needed save everyone else.
“Lets kill this long hair freak already!” Coachwhip lashed out with her signature weapon, and wrapped it around his wrist. Gorgon snorted with contempt and before anyone could react, he yanked the Serpent forward.
Almost lazily, Gorgon leveled his sword to impale the snake. But inches before flesh met steel, there was a flash of purple and green, and Coachwhip was gone.
Gorgon’s eye went wide, and then he just barely brought his sword up in time before twin blades took his head off. He grunted, as he instinctively realized that while he’d blocked the double blades of X-Treme’s sword, he hadn’t braced himself against the force, the sheer strength, still behind it.
The alien warrior swung outwards with all his strength, and Gorgon found himself pitched backwards. He landed effortlessly, and sneered at X-Treme.
“You swing your sword like a bat.”
“I swing it like a weapon,” X-Treme smiled. He nodded to Blink, “Mirage is going to try to take down whatever’s screwing up your powers. Link up with Hardcastle and the rest. Defend the kids, and be ready to go.”
Death Adder and X-Treme stood side by side, across from Gorgon. Hero, villain and zealot took a moment to size one another up, and then charged.
Death Adder slashed towards Gorgon’s chest, missing by inches but Gorgon, used to fighting enemies of human shape, didn’t notice Death Adder’s tail until it was wrapped around his ankle. The Serpent yanked his tail, but Gorgon was able to brace himself, and only came forward a single step.
But just that single foot was enough for his enemies. Death Adder swiped his hand backwards and his venom soaked claws cut through half an inch of muscle, as X-Treme brought the pummel of his sword down on Gorgon’s sword hand, forcing him to drop his weapon and then rammed his spiked hand guard into his enemy’s face, while Death Adder stamped his foot on Gorgan’s blade, and swept it behind him across the tarmac.
His face a mess of blood and torn muscle, Gorgon swung his left elbow into X-Treme’s knee, with such strength that Adam couldn’t help but to fall to one leg. Fueled by pure loathing, Gorgon pulled his leg free of Death Adder’s tail and kicked X-Treme upside the head with enough force to kill ten men.
Death Adder braced himself for attack, but he couldn’t have anticipated what happened next.
Gorgon threw himself into the Snake’s arms, and grabbed his shoulders in a steel grip. Not as tall as his enemy, Death Adder grabbed Gorgon below the shoulder, and sank his poison dipped talons into nerves and muscles as if they were clay.
Gorgon swung his knee into Death Adder’s gut, and the first blow had the Mercenary seeing stars. And Gorgon did it again and again, as Death Adder slowly dragged his claws down his enemy’s arms.
After five hits, Gorgon tossed Death Adder aside like a crushed soda can.
With both of his enemies laid out on the tarmac, struggling to stand, Gorgon strolled towards where his sword had come to rest, and picked it up, turning his back to his enemies.
“And here I was hoping for a challenge.”
Gorgon turned just in time to see Death Adder ram his claws into his upper body, while X-Treme pushed his sword through Gorgon’s kidney.
“And here you got it.”
# # # # #
“Friendlies incoming!” Blink shouted as she arrived with teammates and Snakes in tow. A dozen automatics were leveled at her, but thankfully no one fired.
“I was beginning to think you guys had forgotten about us,” Hardcastle remarked.
“We’ve had our hands full,” Blink replied, wiping the sweat from her brow.
“So what’s the deal with her?” Hardcastle aimed his rifle at Black Mamba, and his soldiers leveled theirs at the other members of the Serpent Society, “you charmed those snakes?”
“She and the other worthless mercenaries have seen the error of their ways and have joined us in our righteous cause!” Vibraxis explained.
Hardcastle’s men looked among one another.
“They’re cool,” Blink clarified.
“Good,” Hardcastle lowered his weapon, “Vibraxis, take the main hangar. Everyone else, back him up. Blink, a word?”
“God, what did we step in?” Black Mamba looked around, horrified to see the dozens of children hunkered down, bawling like babies in fear.
“This isn’t good news, is it?” asked Blink.
Hardcastle motioned for the mutant to follow him, and led her to a window. He handed her a pair of infrared binoculars, and Blink took a look outside.
All she could see was a wall of red.
“We’re surrounded by at least twenty thousand soldiers,” Hardcastle explained, “and hundreds more by the minute. I don’t care how good you kids think you are, but we can’t fight our way out. We couldn’t bring that helicarrier here if we wanted to, now You were supposed to be our back-up plan, elf.”
“I can’t do more than a few blocks,” Blink replied, “X-Treme said they were going to take down whatever’s blocking me, but until then…”
“All we can do is pray.”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
# # # # #
“This is insane!” Arsenal slashed one cyborg with his bone claws, and blasted a second before he could get close, “I didn’t agree to this!”
“Keep it together, Arsenal!” Mirage ordered as she let her arrows fly, “just hold on!”
Mirage heard a sonic boom, and watched as Black Brigade flew over her head like a shuttlecock, followed closely by a gold and blue blur.
“Come on, tin man!” Nova smashed his fist into the cyborg’s face, “stand down already, asshole!”
“Never!” Black Brigade swung wildly, and his giant fist slammed into the Human Rocket’s gut, and sent him flying backwards. Nova landed in a heap with a grunt, and then shot up into the air seconds before the ground he crashed into was turned to glass by Black Brigade’s weapons systems.
“That was a rib,” Nova grunted, holding his side. His hands flared with power and his lip curled in anger, “you’re slag.”
“Nova, stop!”
“Mirage?” Nova tapped his radio, “what’s up?”
“I need you here,” Mirage ordered.
“Got it,” Nova looked around until he saw Puff Adder and Anaconda, fighting side by side, “hey lovebirds! Take out the tin can!”
“We don’t take orders from you!” Puff Adder snarled, “I’m Serpent Society, punk, and…!”
“Hey honey!” Anaconda had her elongated arms wrapped around Black Brigade. They tightened, and Nova could hear reinforced titanium steel groan, “help me crack open this lobster!”
“American whore!” Black Brigade strained against the Serpent’s grip, “I kill you!”
“What did you call my old lady?” Puff Adder’s eyes went wide, and he swung his oversized fist into Black Brigade’s stomach, “no one talks that way to her! Not Captain America, not Iron Man and not you, grease stain!”
With Black Brigade occupied, Nova made a beeline towards Mirage. He swept down from the sky, and bulldozed at least a dozen abominations of science before landing, skidding to a stop a few feet away from his team leader.
“Hate to state the obvious, but we’re in freefall here,” Nova raised his hands, energy lancing from them. The Human Rocket was certain that he’d blasted at least two dozen…targets (enemies felt harsh for them, and calling them victims was too hard for him), yet they kept coming, “we’re surrounded, our ways out are blocked and we barely have no contact with Technocrat.”
“That’s not entirely true, actually,” Technocrat replied over their radio. From across the border, Technocrat sat in front of a high definition screen, watching the battle unfold. Namorita watched over his shoulder, fists clenched with worry, “but two out of three is still lousy odds.”
“Such thrilling information is why you’re our resident genius,” Nova unleashed a blast of pure force that slammed into one cyborg. The man fell backwards, and Nova watched with growing dread as another cyborg, this time a woman with steel claws where her wrists should be, ran to the man’s side, and tried to shake him awake. Nova had seen tears like that before.
“Don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it,” Nova half muttered, half prayed.
“You killed him!” the woman shouted, her claw fingers shaking in grief. But before she took two steps, a blast of energy slammed into her, and sent her into the arms of her lover.
“Damn it,” guilt flowed over Nova like water. For a second, it covered his person entirely, and he felt an ache, a weariness he’d thought he had forgotten. And just as quickly, it evaporated. This was war, and there was no time for regrets. He couldn’t afford to look back, only forward, “do we have an actual plan here, or are we just going to let them whittle away at us?”
“Technocrat proposed one,” Mirage answered. She created an illusion of a wall of fire, and three men with yellow skin and scales across their chest, ran in the opposite direction, “I don’t agree with it. You’re the tie breaker.”
“You got an alternative?”
“…I don’t,” Mirage admitted.
“Alright,” Nova put his hand to his ear, “lets hear your plan, Taki. And make it quick.”
Technocrat did so. Nova’s eyes grew wide, he thought of at least a half dozen ways it could go wrong, but in the end…
“Well?” asked Technocrat.
“We have to do it,” Nova answered, “we’re spread too thin.”
“It’s a scorched earth plan!” Mirage snapped, throwing her hands up in disbelief, even though they were in the middle of a pitched battle.
Nova sent a burst of energy flying past Mirage’s shoulder, disabling a dissident who’d been shoved into a cloned suit of The Rhino. The man, covered with flabs of skin, fell backwards with a heavy –thoom!- and kicked up a cloud of dust.
“Yeah, and? It’s still a plan,” Nova replied, “I’m second in command of this team, right? So unless you’re going to pull rank, I suggest you get the team ready, because all hell’s already broken loose, and I’m about to dump some gas.”
# # # # #
Technocrat leaned back in his chair, and breathed a sigh of relief, though most wouldn’t in his situation.
“I didn’t think he’d agree,” Namorita said.
“I didn’t either,” Taki admitted, “this will either be our best plan ever, or our greatest disaster.”
“Or both.”
“Very true. Now, if I could have some time alone?”
“Gladly,” Namorita turned and walked out of the situation room. She had barely stepped outside the door before she was approached by two guards.
“Ma’am, we’ve been told to keep you inside for the duration of this operation,” the first man said.
“I just need some air,” Namorita explained.
“Be that as it may, I have my orders.”
“Well, things change. Like how that helicarrier outside was our second means of extraction, but now is just an oversized paperweight. So lets compromise, soldier,” Namorita smiled politely, “You have a scanner wand on you that costs as much as my watch. You can scan me for communication devises, and in return, I won’t show you how much of my cousin’s temperament I inherited.”
The two soldiers looked at one another, and silently agreed on the compromise. Namorita held her arms out to the side, and when they found nothing, the guards allowed her to leave, both silently praying their superior wouldn’t find out.
When she was outside, Namorita took to the air, and glided over the helicarrier as it sat there uselessly.What was to be their second method of getting out of North Korea was now denied to them on the fear that it would be shot down, and the technology on it taken. Namorita undid her watch, allowing it to fall. It landed near the cockpit, and beeped once.
# # # # #
“Time to do my Bugs impression.”
Nova flew away from the battlefield, and towards the wall of soldiers and machines that surrounded them. He was met with a hail of bullets that were no more threatening to him than a morning mist, and then plowed through a good three dozen soldiers and into three tanks, for good measure.
From there, Nova rose into the air some fifty feet, then rocketed back down like a meteor. He pushed through solid rock, eyes on his helmet’s GPS to guide him. Eventually, after tearing through reinforced steel and concrete like an Olympian swimmer cutting through water, he reached his destination.
He came out in a room the size of an opera hall. In the center was a large, transparent glass tube containing a yellow, shapeshifting alien member of the techno-organic species known as the phalanx.
Nova didn’t have much firsthand experience with them, but the Nova Corps’ intel was pretty clear. They were an Omega level threat, to be exterminated with extreme prejudice regardless of who was infected. There were at least twelve standing orders or regulations against what the Human Rocket planned to do next.
He released a beam of pure heat, and began severing cables around the tube. The creature screamed with a mouth that would frighten a shark, and lashed out with a dozen tentacles. They lanced into the computers that surrounded it like harpoons, and pulled them into its body, doubling its mass.
“The pens are open!” Nova heard someone shout. All around the complex, devises began to spark and lights flutter as the phalanx grew angry.
“This is a bad idea,” Nova muttered. According to their intelligence, the phalanx had been mostly neutered, completely unable to infect living flesh with its transmode virus and kept mostly docile running the complex’s security system. The operating system was considered infantile for its species, and it probably would have remained peaceful had Nova not thrust it into freedom.
In layman’s terms, Nova had done nothing more than poke a sleeping bear. And now it was pissed.
Nova watched the creature grow in size, and felt a gnawing in his gut. The plan was deceptively simple on its face. As long as they were surrounded by the North Korean army, they couldn’t hope to win. It became a battle of attrition that favored an army one million strong against two dozen superhumans. They needed a game changer, and this was all they had.
“Raagh!”
Nova lashed out instinctively, vaporizing the head of a blood starved vampire. He watched in horror as dozens of them spilled into the room, tearing apart the scientists that had held them captive for so long.
“Okay, time for follow the leader.”
Nova unleashed a gravity pulse, slamming the phalanx into the far wall. The creature roared at him with a dozen mouths, and Nova shot back out the hole he’d created, monster hot on his heels.
No sooner had he emerged from the rabbit hole, than he was met with a barrage of bullets. There were enough to wipe out a city block, but they didn’t even scratch his helmet.
“Hey guys,” Nova said, even though he knew they couldn’t understand him, “you might want to stop shouting at me, and ask yourself, ‘What could I be running from?’”
The ground underneath the soldiers exploded outwards. Metal tentacles lashed out, slicing men in two, smashing vehicles like cardboard, and sent the soldiers scrambling.
Nova watched as the phalanx began tearing into the army with a rage and ruthlessness The Hulk would respect, and swallowed.
“Yeah, this is not the best plan ever.”
TO BE CONTINUED...
NEXT ISSUE: The chaos reaches fever pitch, as Force Works and their allies scramble to save their mission and themselves! Things can’t be worse, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to get any better!