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Issue #46 by Daniel Ingram
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"FALLING SIDEWAYS – PART TWO”
Mandipoor
The mercenary known as The Duchess swept her sword towards Blink’s midsection with enough strength to slice a tank in two.
Acting on pure instinct, Blink summoned enough energy to teleport half way around the world, and yet reappeared only a few yards. Blink tried to ignore the pain in her shoulder, but every time she teleported it felt like a knife twisting in her back.
Several feet away, the mercenary known as Hallowpoint, found himself surrounded by a dozen illusions of the same woman. The leader of Force Works, Mirage, had her bow drawn and had Hallowpoint dead to rights.
The merc considered teleporting, but at the same time, knew he had to remain in place to draw her out. He circled around, weapon in each hand and his body coiled for action.
All around him, men and women stopped to gawk. Some thought it was nothing more than an elaborate act for tourists, while others recognized it for a superhuman battle and simply wanted a closer look. The few that possessed enough common sense to want to leave the area, were trapped by those who refused to leave.
Several long seconds passed, and when Hallowpoint saw Duchess impale Blink out of the corner of his eye, he knew something was up.
“Duchess!” Hallowpoint saw the illusions disappear, “they’ve slipped away!”
“…you have a gift for the obvious,” Duchess said, as she saw her kill disappear, “can you teleport us to them?”
“No,” Hallowpoint said, “but it doesn’t matter. That bullet inside the teleporter has a tracker. Lets run them down and get gone.”
# # # # #
Elsewhere
“Just for the record,” Mirage said, “this isn’t running, it’s choosing our battleground.”
The two mutants moved as swiftly as they could through the back-alleys of Mandipoor, of which the country had no shortage of. Mirage wasn’t so deluded as to think that the two of them would be able to actually lose their pursuers, no one was that lucky in their line of work, but every second mattered now.
“Whatever you say,” Blink coughed, “but lets find it soon. I need this thing out of my shoulder, the sooner the better.”
“Keep your eyes out for a bar,” Mirage said.
“A bar?”
Mirage didn’t reply. She pressed her hand to her ear, activating her radio, “Technocrat! I need a sit-rep!”
# # # # #
Half a world away
“We’re currently in freefall,” Technocrat replied, “the entire city is under a cyber attack, and the rest of the team is trying to contain a breakout. If you’re looking for back-up, the best I can promise is that it’ll be there only five minutes after it’s too late.”
Mirage gritted her teeth, “Any chance we could swallow some pride and call the Avengers or X-Men? I’m willing to eat some crow if it means acting being alive to eat it.”
“Our communications are scrambled,” Technocrat replied, “if we were able to make contact, by the time they knew it was really us, it’d be…”
“Too late,” Mirage finished, “that seems to be a repeating theme.”
“Best of luck,” Technocrat said softly.
“Same to you.”
Technocrat turned his attention away from the radio, and to his screens.
The entire city was under attack, from a hundred different points. Traffic lights were being diverted, power stations were flicking on and off because of remote commands, 911 operators were being overwhelmed and Technocrat didn’t even want to think what else.
But all the same, Technocrat knew this day would come. And he didn’t just have pre-written programs at his disposal. He had an army.
With the single push of a button, a single message went out. It was received in fourteen different countries, and by over a hundred different people of all different ages and sex. It said simply.
This is Technocrat. My city needs you. Be a hero hacker.
# # # # #
Singapore
“This is a good way to kill an afternoon,” said Rudy Norris chuckled. He had no illusions that helping would do anything about the six arrest warrants out for him, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t do a little work for a good cause.
# # # # #
Arlington, VA
Jason Newton read the email, and rubbed his chin in thought.
“Kim?” Jason called out to his assistant, “hold my calls for the next hour. I’m going to…busy.”
All over the world, dozens upon dozens of hackers answered Technocrat’s call for aid. Most did it for the challenge, some did it for the glory and a few even did it because it was the right thing. But force was met with force, and Technocrat began to believe he might actually get this all under control.
# # # # #
New York, The Offices of Krake & Poole
Allen Krake whistled as he packed up for the day. He filled his suitcase with the depositions, witness statements and everything in between. Tomorrow’s trial was fairly perfunctory, the Rhino being charged with grand theft, but to a good lawyer, preparation was like brushing your teeth in the morning. Even if you didn’t need it, you needed it.
And Allen Krake was an exceptional lawyer. Just ask any super-villain who committed a crime in the tri-state area. At one time, he’d represented Dr. Octopus, the Kingpin , to say nothing of the lesser criminals like Electro, Eight Ball and Bullseye.
Allen hadn’t won every single case, but he did better than he had any right to. And because of that, he was owed favors from men of power, in every sense of the word.
“Peter!” Allen called out to his bodyguard, “have the car brought around.”
Peter, Allen’s bodyguard of six years, said nothing. That instantly raised Allen’s suspicions. Peter was an easy going guy, but was still a professional. He always acknowledged orders, a habit from his army days, he used to say.
“Peter…?”
“Peter’s indisposed at the moment,” said an unfamiliar voice. Allen looked towards the threshold, and saw a woman in a tight skin suit, and her face had Eurasian features, “I prefer to keep this between the two of us.”
“Who are you?” Allen wasn’t naïve, he knew where this was heading. But some part of him needed to know the name his killer, “and may I ask why?”
“The name is Yurike,” she said, “and honestly, I’m just a cutout. They didn’t tell me why. But if I had to guess, from the chatter going around, I’d say they’re interested in your business.”
A diamond dagger lodged itself in Allen’s chest.
“Big things are in the wings…”
# # # # #
Docks
Nova The Human Rocket grabbed Griffin’s tail, pulled him off his teammate Charcoal and then whipped him through the air like a curling iron. Nova turned to his teammate, not bothering to watch where the beastman landed.
“Charcoal, you okay?” said Nova.
Charcoal shivered in disgust, “Man, I hate animals. I mean…look out!”
Charcoal pushed Nova aside, a split second before Grey Gargoyle would have turned him into a statue. Grey Gargoyle’s fingers sank into Charcoal’s arm, and he smiled.
“Well, not the one I wanted,” smiled the Grey Gargoyle. “but a start is still a start,”
Charcoal smirked, “Yeah, it is.”
Charcoal backhanded Grey Gargoyle across the mouth.
Before Charcoal could press his advantage, Quicksand came up from behind and slammed him into the ground like a railroad spike.
“Hey sandtrap!” A blue blur zipped around Quicksand. The wind kicked up, and Quicksand found herself swept up into a cyclone, pulled apart by the gale force winds, “think fast!”
“Yeah,” Sabre had the smirk plastered on her face wiped off her face when another cyclone smashed into her. She was thrown off her feet and through the air, where she was finally brought to a sudden stop by the metal wall of the prison transports, “think fast.”
The mutant Whirlwind, riding his namesake, smiled like the Cheshire cat as he hovered over the speedster, “Quicksilver, you ain’t.”
“Well, he…has me beat on Daddy issues, but I…have something better,” Sabre coughed.
“Is that so?”
“Oh yeah,” Sabre removed one of her brass knuckles from her belt, and without hesitation threw it at the villain with all the speed her body allowed.
“I’m a lot meaner.”
The blunt metal object hit Whirlwind like a runaway car, and if David Cannon hadn’t had so many years experience in dealing with powerful hits, he might’ve blacked out.
But Whirlwind knew how to take a blow on instinct now. He backed off and gained some altitude, but by the time his vision cleared, Sabre was back on her feet.
“Alright, that’s the way you want to play it?” Whirlwind lunged towards Sabre, “get ready to run!”
# # # # #
X-Treme saw the attack out of the corner of his eye, and barely brought his weapons up in enough time to defend himself. He brought his axe and sword up and crossed them across his chest a split second before Crule smashed into him
“Die!”
Spittle splashed across Adam’s face. Crule was like a rabid dog, and if he could have torn Adam’s throat out with his teeth, he would have. As it stood, Crule pushed his flesh against X-Treme’s weapons heedless of the fact of how they sliced his flesh.
“Hold on!”
A blast of energy struck Crule from behind like lightning, and it gave X-Treme just enough reprieve to sweep his weapons outwards and dislodge the man, throwing him back.
“I’ll not be…!”
Arsenal came crashing down on Crule like the hand of god.
“Thanks,” X-Treme said.
“No problem,” Arsenal looked around, and saw Blookstryke, Icemaster and Unicorn stalking towards them. Behind him, X-Treme could sense Smiling Tiger and Bison moving into place behind him.
“So…” The two stood back to back, and braced themselves, “care to do that a few more times?”
# # # # #
Nova the Human Rocket struggled to split his attention between his team, and the powerhouse known as the Griffin. Of all the freed villains, this mythological abomination was the most dangerous, in the opinion of the Human Rocket.
The Griffin had gone toe to toe with Hercules, Namor and more than a few superteams by himself. Nova had only taken a few glancing blows, but he knew instinctively that he was a little out of his weight class. Tarene might be able to take him, but the winged villain fought like an animal, and Nova wasn’t about to subject her to that alone.
Better she take out the chaff and then take out Griffin. Not much of a plan, Nova admitted, but in the limited space it was the best he could do.
“Gonna tear out your throat, and use your head as a soda bottle!” Griffin snarled.
Nova flinted around Griffin like a mosquito in summer. The one advantage he had over Griffin was that, for all the villain’s strength and power, he didn’t really fly. The bestial villain depended on his wings for flight, which meant he might as well be statue for Nova.
The Corpsman slammed into Griffin from behind like a missile. When Griffin turned, Nova came up from under him, and connected with an uppercut that would have destroyed a fleet of tanks.
Griffin just wiped a speck of blood from his cheek.
Nova flexed his sore hands, and wondered how much longer he could keep this up. Sure, he was faster than Griffin, but a force-field now surrounded the entire dock, which limited his movement. More than that, his team was occupied with all the villains below, so even if they did win, and it was looking iffy at this point, they might be too exhausted to help him put down Griffin.
“Someone better think of somethin’,” Nova muttered to himself.
# # # # #
“Tell me,” Blink gasped, allowing herself to feel the pain of the bullet in her shoulder, “…why did we have to find a bar?”
The two heroines hugged the shadows just outside of one of Mandipoor’s more infamous bars, ‘The Dragon’s Breath’. Mirage lived up to her namesake, as besides the blaring music and hustle of the crowd, no one noticed the two in all of it.
“Just trust me,” Mirage replied, as she swept her head from side to side, “see them yet?”
“There!” Blink pointed north, “I can feel that guy’s teleport signature like needles on my spine.”
“Okay, get ready…”
# # # # #
“Okay, get ready…” Hallowpoint looked at his tracker, and then glanced up. Before he or Duchess could react, Mirage and Blink stepped into the middle of the street, and let loose with their powers.
The two mercenaries dove to separate sides of the street, as psychic arrows and teleport javelins came raining down. The onslaught lasted only a second, and then both mercs were on their feet, and saw Mirage and Blink run into The Dragon’s Breath.
“After them!” Duchess shouted. She took off after the two in a dead run, passing through the car as if they were made of air.
“Wait!”
Hallowpoint teleported behind Duchess, and grabbed her by the collar. It was enough to draw Duchess’ attention, and get her to stop.
“What are you doing?” Duchess demanded, “they’re getting away!”
“Doesn’t it strike you as odd they ran into a club with a million possible innocent bystanders?” asked Hallowpoint.
“I…”
“One of them is a master of illusions, and they’re both pros at this,” Hallowpoint said, “we have a tracker, and we’ll use it. We should be wary of anything else.”
“You’re absolutely right, I see that now,” Duchess glanced down, “but that won’t help us with what comes next.”
Hallowpoint looked at himself, and found he was suddenly wearing a Shield uniform.
The patrons of the Dragon’s Breath took notice.
Weapons were drawn.
Hallowpoint sighed.
“Well played.”
A short distance away, Blink and Mirage stood in the shadows as violence spilled over the mercenaries.
“I so love turn about,” said Mirage.
# # # # #
The Workplace
Technocrat felt as if his fingers were bleeding as they pounded at his keyboard.
The enemy had an army of hackers at their command. Technocrat had an army at well, if not his command than on his side.
“I’ve isolated their remote servers!” reported Nerd_Guardian.
“Nice job noob,” said Internet_Hero 189, “only three dozen more to find and shut down.”
And on it went. Technocrat was fairly certain he could weed out the hostile hackers, return Metro City’s automated systems, power, traffic lights and what have you, to normal. Technocrat had anticipated something like this almost the day after Force Works was founded, so he was well prepared. He had prewritten programs, backdoors installed in all the local utilities and a dozen other precautions.
Technocrat’s attention was entirely focused on protecting Metro City’s infrastructure, it’s power supply and it’s hospitals, so much so that he missed the odd power surges that were coming from the training room.
# # # # #
Metro City
“Okay,” Whirlwind glared at Sabre, who was always just out of reach, “you’re fast. I’ll grant you that.”
Whirlwind nodded towards Vibraxis, and Sabre’s eyes went wide.
“But what about your teammates?”
“Vib-o, move!” Sabre rocketed towards Vibraxis just as Whirlwind unleashed a cyclone at the young warrior.
Sabre reached her teammate just as the cyclone hit him like a runaway truck, and the two of them were smashed into the dock’s steel walls.
“Shit!” Nova saw it all unfold out of the corner of his eye, and he was at their side in a blink.
“Sabre, get up!” Nova tried to shake the speedster awake. He glanced up, energy lancing from his eyes and struck Bloodstryke with enough force to send him flying.
Flying, Nova noted, but not out. His teammates were unconscious, and in this environment that was like blood in the water for hungry sharks.
“Now I’ve got you, you little bastard!”
Nova saw the Griffin falling towards him like an animal, and he could have gotten away, but he hesitated. Because Nova knew that if he dodged the villain, his teammates wouldn’t have lasted a second.
But the moment those clawed, oversized hands wrapped around his waist, Nova lived up to his namesake ‘The Human Rocket’, and both he and Griffin slammed into the forcefield that surrounded the dock at nearly mach-three.
The Griffin grunted, and then smiled.
“That stung. Not as bad as when Hercules laid me out, though,” The Griffin twisted his waist, and smashed Nova into the energy shield with all his strength.
Nova felt his vision blur, and then suddenly felt as if he had enough power to crack the earth itself. The energy of the forcefield flowed into him like a river, and soon Griffin felt his hands beginning to smolder.
“Not bad,” Nova concentrated, and a flood of energy lashed out from behind him, striking Griffin in the face, and sending him crashing to the earth, “when you wake up, you’ll have to tell me how this compares to Herc!”
Griffin tried to right himself in midair, but Nova slammed into his midsection with every ounce of speed his body could give him, and then unleashed a blast of sheer energy that slammed the man-beast into the ground where he created a three foot crater.
Nova hovered over the fallen villain, energy still flaring off his body. He shined like a fallen star, and his sheer power instinctively drew the attention of all the villains like a magnet.
“Force Works!” Nova called out, “form on me, and lets go to work!”
# # # # #
“Well,” Hallowpoint loaded a magazine into his sidearm and sighed. The body was littered with blood and bodies, and not a single one of them were the people he was hired to kill, “that was a waste of time.”
“They lured us into a trap,” Duchess hissed. She whipped her sword to the side, removing the blood, “they could be anywhere by now.”
A hand slapped down on Hallowpoint’s shoulder.
“Or right here,” Blink said, and punched Hallowpoint in the face.
To his credit, the hired killer recovered easily enough, and kicked Blink in the stomach. The mutant teleporter grabbed Hallowpoint by his left wrist, slapped the gun away in his other hand, and decked him again.
“You can only teleport yourself,” Blink said, “otherwise you would have been giving Duchess a free commute.”
“Correct,” Hallowpoint replied with a head-butt, and to his chagrin found that Blink still had the discipline to retain her grip on his wrist. So instead, he removed a combat knife from his belt, “but I have other skills.”
Hallowpoint was faster than Blink expected, and the knife scored Blink’s wrist before she could deflect the blade and grab his other wrist. Hallowpoint pulled back instinctively, and Blink stepped forward and swept her left foot behind Hallowpoint’s heel.
The killer fell backwards, but with a surge of strength he pulled and spun, and Blink found herself landing on the bottom.
When she hit the street, light exploded behind Blink’s eyes, and her vision doubled. She pushed past the pain, to see Hallowpoint holding the knife with both hands, over his head and ready to bury it in her skull.
Blink knew she couldn’t stop him, so as Hallowpoint brought the knife down, Blink caught his wrist with her left hand and pulled, redirecting the blade downwards where it struck the street, an inch from her head.
With Hallowpoint now on top of her, Blink rolled towards him, bringing her elbow slamming down on his head.
Blink tried to repeat the attack, but it began to feel as if something was trying to burn through her shoulder with a blowtorch.
Hallowpoint sensed Blink’s hesitation more than he was consciously aware of it. He’d lost the knife in the struggle, but he was still a trained commando.
He chopped Blink’s neck, and connected with a solid punch as he rolled towards her.
Blink took it like the pro she was, and scrambled to get her knees under her, while she held contact with Hallowpoint. She didn’t know if she could take him hand to hand, but she knew how deadly he could be if he was free to teleport.
# # # # #
Mirage concentrated and created a powerful psychic arrow, and unleashed it on The Duchess with barely a blink.
The mercenary staggered, but she didn’t fall. Mirage suspected she had some form of telepathic protection, but in the end it didn’t matter. What did matter was that her main offensive weapon was useless against a powerful foe.
Duchess lashed out with her sword, with quick cuts that Mirage was hard pressed to dodge. Each thrust of the sword forced Dani back, until dumped into a car.
“Crap,” Mirage muttered. She removed a hunting knife as she threw herself back and rolled over the car, trying to put some distance between her and Duchess.
The Duchess phased through the car, and was shocked as Mirage stepped forward to meet her, knife in hand. Duchess had barely taken one step out of the car, and willed her mass to become that of diamond, but she was a split second too late.
Mirage jammed the hunting knife into Duchess’ shoulder just as her mass changed, and split muscle and tissue like wet paper. The mercenary screamed, and swept her fist at Mirage, who nimbly danced back.
“You…” Duchess placed a hand over the wound, blood seeping past her fingers, “will die painfully.”
“Probably,” Mirage observed. She reversed the knife in her hand, and moved in close. She knew that with Duchess’ sword hand disabled, she only have a split second to turn the fight in her favor, “but not today, tomorrow, or anytime soon.”
Mirage saw the hesitation in Duchess’ eyes, and capitalized on it. The merc didn’t want to phase through the car and risk a similar wound, but at the same time her weapon arm was disabled. Hand to hand combat clearly wasn’t her thing, and now she had a wound to defend.
Someone more experienced would have known that movement was life, but The Duchess wasn’t there yet.
So Mirage ducked in quickly, and slammed the pummel of her knife into the wound.
Duchess hissed, but she remained upright, and swung her elbow into Dani’s stomach.
The special microweave Kevlar was all that saved Mirage’s life, as she was thrown backwards. Mirage remembered once taking an accidental hit from her old teammate Sunspot, and how it ached for days.
Today, she would have found herself yearning for that pain.
“I’m not so easily beaten,” Duchess hissed. As she limped over to Dani’s prone form, she transferred her sword to her left hand, “and I’m equally skilled with both hands.”
“You have good training,” Mirage groaned, as she tipped herself on her back, “just one problem. You were trained by a man.”
“Taskmaster, if you must know,” said Duchess. She stood over Mirage, sword ready to come slicing down, “how is that a problem?”
Mirage kicked Duchess in the crotch, and then rolled to the side as the mercenary gasped in agony.
“Because only a man would think we have no feeling down there,” Mirage forced herself to her feet, “called a cup, you might want to look into it.”
Mirage kicked Duchess in the face, and punched the villain’s wound again, nearly breaking her hand.
# # # # #
“Give! Up!” Blink growled.
Blink had Hallowpoint down on his knees, his left hand pressing against the street, and his right arm pulled backwards, in between Blink’s legs. She had both hands on his wrist, and all she had to do to break his wrist was lean back just an inch.
“No,” Hallowpoint said softly. He removed a grenade from his belt, pulled the pin with his teeth, released the catch, and then gently set it down in front of him.
“Pin can’t be replaced. See you on the other side.”
“Damn it!”
# # # # #
Mirage snapped her head to the side when she heard the explosion, and when she turned her head back to Duchess, she saw Hallowpoint standing over her, gun leveled at her head.
“Just got a call,” Hallowpoint said, “your people are still alive. That makes killing you a bad career investment. Let us walk, and I’ll let you walk.”
“…deal,” Mirage said, though it went against every bone in her body. She wanted to finish this fight, return every ounce of pain one hundred fold and then beat the name of their employers out of them.
But Mirage knew that would come at too high a price. Both she and Blink were exhausted, and even if they won, they’d still be in enemy territory. Mandipoor wasn’t the friend of anyone with morals.
The two mercenaries backed away slowly, and when they were gone, Blink appeared at Mirage’s side.
“You sure about this?” Blink said, “don’t worry about me, I’ll back you up no matter what, but…”
“Honestly, I’m impressed you’re still standing with all the blood you lost,” Mirage said, “besides, something more important’s come up, and it can’t wait a second longer.”
# # # # #
Later, The Work Place
It longer than Mirage would have preferred to get her entire team together, but after a day like this, herding cats would have been easier.
There were bones that had to be set, ribs to be taped, bullets to remove and everyone was hungry enough to eat a horse. They were all three steps past exhaustion.
Mirage gathered her team into their recreation, and they were sprawled out in exhaustion. Nova and Namorita leaned against one another on the couch, as did X-Treme and Wolfsbane.
Blink took up an entire section of the couch, her back covered in bandages. Technocrat was sitting in his wheelchair, hands steepled together. Arsenal, Charcoal and Tarene were clustered toether on the couch opposite of Blink, while Sabre was sprawled out on the floor, and Vibraxis stood in the corner, like a soldier at attention.
“I dunno about you, but I think we can save the debrief for tomorrow,” Nova said, “I got bruises on bruises, and I feel like I could sleep for a week.”
“I’m in the same boat, Nova, believe me,” Mirage said, “but what I have to say can’t wait.”
Mirage pressed a button on her belt.
Emergency lockdown initiated, bellowed a recording that echoed through the building.
Metal panels fell across every window, and then a wave of electricity splashed down from each and every one.
“What the bloody hell?” X-Treme stood up, sword in one hand.
“Sorry for the theatrics,” Mirage said, “but we have a traitor here. And no one is going anywhere until we’ve smoked the bastard out.”
TO BE CONTINUED...
NEXT ISSUE: Two unlikely members are forced to play detective as they struggle to find the traitor who nearly killed them all!
The mercenary known as The Duchess swept her sword towards Blink’s midsection with enough strength to slice a tank in two.
Acting on pure instinct, Blink summoned enough energy to teleport half way around the world, and yet reappeared only a few yards. Blink tried to ignore the pain in her shoulder, but every time she teleported it felt like a knife twisting in her back.
Several feet away, the mercenary known as Hallowpoint, found himself surrounded by a dozen illusions of the same woman. The leader of Force Works, Mirage, had her bow drawn and had Hallowpoint dead to rights.
The merc considered teleporting, but at the same time, knew he had to remain in place to draw her out. He circled around, weapon in each hand and his body coiled for action.
All around him, men and women stopped to gawk. Some thought it was nothing more than an elaborate act for tourists, while others recognized it for a superhuman battle and simply wanted a closer look. The few that possessed enough common sense to want to leave the area, were trapped by those who refused to leave.
Several long seconds passed, and when Hallowpoint saw Duchess impale Blink out of the corner of his eye, he knew something was up.
“Duchess!” Hallowpoint saw the illusions disappear, “they’ve slipped away!”
“…you have a gift for the obvious,” Duchess said, as she saw her kill disappear, “can you teleport us to them?”
“No,” Hallowpoint said, “but it doesn’t matter. That bullet inside the teleporter has a tracker. Lets run them down and get gone.”
# # # # #
Elsewhere
“Just for the record,” Mirage said, “this isn’t running, it’s choosing our battleground.”
The two mutants moved as swiftly as they could through the back-alleys of Mandipoor, of which the country had no shortage of. Mirage wasn’t so deluded as to think that the two of them would be able to actually lose their pursuers, no one was that lucky in their line of work, but every second mattered now.
“Whatever you say,” Blink coughed, “but lets find it soon. I need this thing out of my shoulder, the sooner the better.”
“Keep your eyes out for a bar,” Mirage said.
“A bar?”
Mirage didn’t reply. She pressed her hand to her ear, activating her radio, “Technocrat! I need a sit-rep!”
# # # # #
Half a world away
“We’re currently in freefall,” Technocrat replied, “the entire city is under a cyber attack, and the rest of the team is trying to contain a breakout. If you’re looking for back-up, the best I can promise is that it’ll be there only five minutes after it’s too late.”
Mirage gritted her teeth, “Any chance we could swallow some pride and call the Avengers or X-Men? I’m willing to eat some crow if it means acting being alive to eat it.”
“Our communications are scrambled,” Technocrat replied, “if we were able to make contact, by the time they knew it was really us, it’d be…”
“Too late,” Mirage finished, “that seems to be a repeating theme.”
“Best of luck,” Technocrat said softly.
“Same to you.”
Technocrat turned his attention away from the radio, and to his screens.
The entire city was under attack, from a hundred different points. Traffic lights were being diverted, power stations were flicking on and off because of remote commands, 911 operators were being overwhelmed and Technocrat didn’t even want to think what else.
But all the same, Technocrat knew this day would come. And he didn’t just have pre-written programs at his disposal. He had an army.
With the single push of a button, a single message went out. It was received in fourteen different countries, and by over a hundred different people of all different ages and sex. It said simply.
This is Technocrat. My city needs you. Be a hero hacker.
# # # # #
Singapore
“This is a good way to kill an afternoon,” said Rudy Norris chuckled. He had no illusions that helping would do anything about the six arrest warrants out for him, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t do a little work for a good cause.
# # # # #
Arlington, VA
Jason Newton read the email, and rubbed his chin in thought.
“Kim?” Jason called out to his assistant, “hold my calls for the next hour. I’m going to…busy.”
All over the world, dozens upon dozens of hackers answered Technocrat’s call for aid. Most did it for the challenge, some did it for the glory and a few even did it because it was the right thing. But force was met with force, and Technocrat began to believe he might actually get this all under control.
# # # # #
New York, The Offices of Krake & Poole
Allen Krake whistled as he packed up for the day. He filled his suitcase with the depositions, witness statements and everything in between. Tomorrow’s trial was fairly perfunctory, the Rhino being charged with grand theft, but to a good lawyer, preparation was like brushing your teeth in the morning. Even if you didn’t need it, you needed it.
And Allen Krake was an exceptional lawyer. Just ask any super-villain who committed a crime in the tri-state area. At one time, he’d represented Dr. Octopus, the Kingpin , to say nothing of the lesser criminals like Electro, Eight Ball and Bullseye.
Allen hadn’t won every single case, but he did better than he had any right to. And because of that, he was owed favors from men of power, in every sense of the word.
“Peter!” Allen called out to his bodyguard, “have the car brought around.”
Peter, Allen’s bodyguard of six years, said nothing. That instantly raised Allen’s suspicions. Peter was an easy going guy, but was still a professional. He always acknowledged orders, a habit from his army days, he used to say.
“Peter…?”
“Peter’s indisposed at the moment,” said an unfamiliar voice. Allen looked towards the threshold, and saw a woman in a tight skin suit, and her face had Eurasian features, “I prefer to keep this between the two of us.”
“Who are you?” Allen wasn’t naïve, he knew where this was heading. But some part of him needed to know the name his killer, “and may I ask why?”
“The name is Yurike,” she said, “and honestly, I’m just a cutout. They didn’t tell me why. But if I had to guess, from the chatter going around, I’d say they’re interested in your business.”
A diamond dagger lodged itself in Allen’s chest.
“Big things are in the wings…”
# # # # #
Docks
Nova The Human Rocket grabbed Griffin’s tail, pulled him off his teammate Charcoal and then whipped him through the air like a curling iron. Nova turned to his teammate, not bothering to watch where the beastman landed.
“Charcoal, you okay?” said Nova.
Charcoal shivered in disgust, “Man, I hate animals. I mean…look out!”
Charcoal pushed Nova aside, a split second before Grey Gargoyle would have turned him into a statue. Grey Gargoyle’s fingers sank into Charcoal’s arm, and he smiled.
“Well, not the one I wanted,” smiled the Grey Gargoyle. “but a start is still a start,”
Charcoal smirked, “Yeah, it is.”
Charcoal backhanded Grey Gargoyle across the mouth.
Before Charcoal could press his advantage, Quicksand came up from behind and slammed him into the ground like a railroad spike.
“Hey sandtrap!” A blue blur zipped around Quicksand. The wind kicked up, and Quicksand found herself swept up into a cyclone, pulled apart by the gale force winds, “think fast!”
“Yeah,” Sabre had the smirk plastered on her face wiped off her face when another cyclone smashed into her. She was thrown off her feet and through the air, where she was finally brought to a sudden stop by the metal wall of the prison transports, “think fast.”
The mutant Whirlwind, riding his namesake, smiled like the Cheshire cat as he hovered over the speedster, “Quicksilver, you ain’t.”
“Well, he…has me beat on Daddy issues, but I…have something better,” Sabre coughed.
“Is that so?”
“Oh yeah,” Sabre removed one of her brass knuckles from her belt, and without hesitation threw it at the villain with all the speed her body allowed.
“I’m a lot meaner.”
The blunt metal object hit Whirlwind like a runaway car, and if David Cannon hadn’t had so many years experience in dealing with powerful hits, he might’ve blacked out.
But Whirlwind knew how to take a blow on instinct now. He backed off and gained some altitude, but by the time his vision cleared, Sabre was back on her feet.
“Alright, that’s the way you want to play it?” Whirlwind lunged towards Sabre, “get ready to run!”
# # # # #
X-Treme saw the attack out of the corner of his eye, and barely brought his weapons up in enough time to defend himself. He brought his axe and sword up and crossed them across his chest a split second before Crule smashed into him
“Die!”
Spittle splashed across Adam’s face. Crule was like a rabid dog, and if he could have torn Adam’s throat out with his teeth, he would have. As it stood, Crule pushed his flesh against X-Treme’s weapons heedless of the fact of how they sliced his flesh.
“Hold on!”
A blast of energy struck Crule from behind like lightning, and it gave X-Treme just enough reprieve to sweep his weapons outwards and dislodge the man, throwing him back.
“I’ll not be…!”
Arsenal came crashing down on Crule like the hand of god.
“Thanks,” X-Treme said.
“No problem,” Arsenal looked around, and saw Blookstryke, Icemaster and Unicorn stalking towards them. Behind him, X-Treme could sense Smiling Tiger and Bison moving into place behind him.
“So…” The two stood back to back, and braced themselves, “care to do that a few more times?”
# # # # #
Nova the Human Rocket struggled to split his attention between his team, and the powerhouse known as the Griffin. Of all the freed villains, this mythological abomination was the most dangerous, in the opinion of the Human Rocket.
The Griffin had gone toe to toe with Hercules, Namor and more than a few superteams by himself. Nova had only taken a few glancing blows, but he knew instinctively that he was a little out of his weight class. Tarene might be able to take him, but the winged villain fought like an animal, and Nova wasn’t about to subject her to that alone.
Better she take out the chaff and then take out Griffin. Not much of a plan, Nova admitted, but in the limited space it was the best he could do.
“Gonna tear out your throat, and use your head as a soda bottle!” Griffin snarled.
Nova flinted around Griffin like a mosquito in summer. The one advantage he had over Griffin was that, for all the villain’s strength and power, he didn’t really fly. The bestial villain depended on his wings for flight, which meant he might as well be statue for Nova.
The Corpsman slammed into Griffin from behind like a missile. When Griffin turned, Nova came up from under him, and connected with an uppercut that would have destroyed a fleet of tanks.
Griffin just wiped a speck of blood from his cheek.
Nova flexed his sore hands, and wondered how much longer he could keep this up. Sure, he was faster than Griffin, but a force-field now surrounded the entire dock, which limited his movement. More than that, his team was occupied with all the villains below, so even if they did win, and it was looking iffy at this point, they might be too exhausted to help him put down Griffin.
“Someone better think of somethin’,” Nova muttered to himself.
# # # # #
“Tell me,” Blink gasped, allowing herself to feel the pain of the bullet in her shoulder, “…why did we have to find a bar?”
The two heroines hugged the shadows just outside of one of Mandipoor’s more infamous bars, ‘The Dragon’s Breath’. Mirage lived up to her namesake, as besides the blaring music and hustle of the crowd, no one noticed the two in all of it.
“Just trust me,” Mirage replied, as she swept her head from side to side, “see them yet?”
“There!” Blink pointed north, “I can feel that guy’s teleport signature like needles on my spine.”
“Okay, get ready…”
# # # # #
“Okay, get ready…” Hallowpoint looked at his tracker, and then glanced up. Before he or Duchess could react, Mirage and Blink stepped into the middle of the street, and let loose with their powers.
The two mercenaries dove to separate sides of the street, as psychic arrows and teleport javelins came raining down. The onslaught lasted only a second, and then both mercs were on their feet, and saw Mirage and Blink run into The Dragon’s Breath.
“After them!” Duchess shouted. She took off after the two in a dead run, passing through the car as if they were made of air.
“Wait!”
Hallowpoint teleported behind Duchess, and grabbed her by the collar. It was enough to draw Duchess’ attention, and get her to stop.
“What are you doing?” Duchess demanded, “they’re getting away!”
“Doesn’t it strike you as odd they ran into a club with a million possible innocent bystanders?” asked Hallowpoint.
“I…”
“One of them is a master of illusions, and they’re both pros at this,” Hallowpoint said, “we have a tracker, and we’ll use it. We should be wary of anything else.”
“You’re absolutely right, I see that now,” Duchess glanced down, “but that won’t help us with what comes next.”
Hallowpoint looked at himself, and found he was suddenly wearing a Shield uniform.
The patrons of the Dragon’s Breath took notice.
Weapons were drawn.
Hallowpoint sighed.
“Well played.”
A short distance away, Blink and Mirage stood in the shadows as violence spilled over the mercenaries.
“I so love turn about,” said Mirage.
# # # # #
The Workplace
Technocrat felt as if his fingers were bleeding as they pounded at his keyboard.
The enemy had an army of hackers at their command. Technocrat had an army at well, if not his command than on his side.
“I’ve isolated their remote servers!” reported Nerd_Guardian.
“Nice job noob,” said Internet_Hero 189, “only three dozen more to find and shut down.”
And on it went. Technocrat was fairly certain he could weed out the hostile hackers, return Metro City’s automated systems, power, traffic lights and what have you, to normal. Technocrat had anticipated something like this almost the day after Force Works was founded, so he was well prepared. He had prewritten programs, backdoors installed in all the local utilities and a dozen other precautions.
Technocrat’s attention was entirely focused on protecting Metro City’s infrastructure, it’s power supply and it’s hospitals, so much so that he missed the odd power surges that were coming from the training room.
# # # # #
Metro City
“Okay,” Whirlwind glared at Sabre, who was always just out of reach, “you’re fast. I’ll grant you that.”
Whirlwind nodded towards Vibraxis, and Sabre’s eyes went wide.
“But what about your teammates?”
“Vib-o, move!” Sabre rocketed towards Vibraxis just as Whirlwind unleashed a cyclone at the young warrior.
Sabre reached her teammate just as the cyclone hit him like a runaway truck, and the two of them were smashed into the dock’s steel walls.
“Shit!” Nova saw it all unfold out of the corner of his eye, and he was at their side in a blink.
“Sabre, get up!” Nova tried to shake the speedster awake. He glanced up, energy lancing from his eyes and struck Bloodstryke with enough force to send him flying.
Flying, Nova noted, but not out. His teammates were unconscious, and in this environment that was like blood in the water for hungry sharks.
“Now I’ve got you, you little bastard!”
Nova saw the Griffin falling towards him like an animal, and he could have gotten away, but he hesitated. Because Nova knew that if he dodged the villain, his teammates wouldn’t have lasted a second.
But the moment those clawed, oversized hands wrapped around his waist, Nova lived up to his namesake ‘The Human Rocket’, and both he and Griffin slammed into the forcefield that surrounded the dock at nearly mach-three.
The Griffin grunted, and then smiled.
“That stung. Not as bad as when Hercules laid me out, though,” The Griffin twisted his waist, and smashed Nova into the energy shield with all his strength.
Nova felt his vision blur, and then suddenly felt as if he had enough power to crack the earth itself. The energy of the forcefield flowed into him like a river, and soon Griffin felt his hands beginning to smolder.
“Not bad,” Nova concentrated, and a flood of energy lashed out from behind him, striking Griffin in the face, and sending him crashing to the earth, “when you wake up, you’ll have to tell me how this compares to Herc!”
Griffin tried to right himself in midair, but Nova slammed into his midsection with every ounce of speed his body could give him, and then unleashed a blast of sheer energy that slammed the man-beast into the ground where he created a three foot crater.
Nova hovered over the fallen villain, energy still flaring off his body. He shined like a fallen star, and his sheer power instinctively drew the attention of all the villains like a magnet.
“Force Works!” Nova called out, “form on me, and lets go to work!”
# # # # #
“Well,” Hallowpoint loaded a magazine into his sidearm and sighed. The body was littered with blood and bodies, and not a single one of them were the people he was hired to kill, “that was a waste of time.”
“They lured us into a trap,” Duchess hissed. She whipped her sword to the side, removing the blood, “they could be anywhere by now.”
A hand slapped down on Hallowpoint’s shoulder.
“Or right here,” Blink said, and punched Hallowpoint in the face.
To his credit, the hired killer recovered easily enough, and kicked Blink in the stomach. The mutant teleporter grabbed Hallowpoint by his left wrist, slapped the gun away in his other hand, and decked him again.
“You can only teleport yourself,” Blink said, “otherwise you would have been giving Duchess a free commute.”
“Correct,” Hallowpoint replied with a head-butt, and to his chagrin found that Blink still had the discipline to retain her grip on his wrist. So instead, he removed a combat knife from his belt, “but I have other skills.”
Hallowpoint was faster than Blink expected, and the knife scored Blink’s wrist before she could deflect the blade and grab his other wrist. Hallowpoint pulled back instinctively, and Blink stepped forward and swept her left foot behind Hallowpoint’s heel.
The killer fell backwards, but with a surge of strength he pulled and spun, and Blink found herself landing on the bottom.
When she hit the street, light exploded behind Blink’s eyes, and her vision doubled. She pushed past the pain, to see Hallowpoint holding the knife with both hands, over his head and ready to bury it in her skull.
Blink knew she couldn’t stop him, so as Hallowpoint brought the knife down, Blink caught his wrist with her left hand and pulled, redirecting the blade downwards where it struck the street, an inch from her head.
With Hallowpoint now on top of her, Blink rolled towards him, bringing her elbow slamming down on his head.
Blink tried to repeat the attack, but it began to feel as if something was trying to burn through her shoulder with a blowtorch.
Hallowpoint sensed Blink’s hesitation more than he was consciously aware of it. He’d lost the knife in the struggle, but he was still a trained commando.
He chopped Blink’s neck, and connected with a solid punch as he rolled towards her.
Blink took it like the pro she was, and scrambled to get her knees under her, while she held contact with Hallowpoint. She didn’t know if she could take him hand to hand, but she knew how deadly he could be if he was free to teleport.
# # # # #
Mirage concentrated and created a powerful psychic arrow, and unleashed it on The Duchess with barely a blink.
The mercenary staggered, but she didn’t fall. Mirage suspected she had some form of telepathic protection, but in the end it didn’t matter. What did matter was that her main offensive weapon was useless against a powerful foe.
Duchess lashed out with her sword, with quick cuts that Mirage was hard pressed to dodge. Each thrust of the sword forced Dani back, until dumped into a car.
“Crap,” Mirage muttered. She removed a hunting knife as she threw herself back and rolled over the car, trying to put some distance between her and Duchess.
The Duchess phased through the car, and was shocked as Mirage stepped forward to meet her, knife in hand. Duchess had barely taken one step out of the car, and willed her mass to become that of diamond, but she was a split second too late.
Mirage jammed the hunting knife into Duchess’ shoulder just as her mass changed, and split muscle and tissue like wet paper. The mercenary screamed, and swept her fist at Mirage, who nimbly danced back.
“You…” Duchess placed a hand over the wound, blood seeping past her fingers, “will die painfully.”
“Probably,” Mirage observed. She reversed the knife in her hand, and moved in close. She knew that with Duchess’ sword hand disabled, she only have a split second to turn the fight in her favor, “but not today, tomorrow, or anytime soon.”
Mirage saw the hesitation in Duchess’ eyes, and capitalized on it. The merc didn’t want to phase through the car and risk a similar wound, but at the same time her weapon arm was disabled. Hand to hand combat clearly wasn’t her thing, and now she had a wound to defend.
Someone more experienced would have known that movement was life, but The Duchess wasn’t there yet.
So Mirage ducked in quickly, and slammed the pummel of her knife into the wound.
Duchess hissed, but she remained upright, and swung her elbow into Dani’s stomach.
The special microweave Kevlar was all that saved Mirage’s life, as she was thrown backwards. Mirage remembered once taking an accidental hit from her old teammate Sunspot, and how it ached for days.
Today, she would have found herself yearning for that pain.
“I’m not so easily beaten,” Duchess hissed. As she limped over to Dani’s prone form, she transferred her sword to her left hand, “and I’m equally skilled with both hands.”
“You have good training,” Mirage groaned, as she tipped herself on her back, “just one problem. You were trained by a man.”
“Taskmaster, if you must know,” said Duchess. She stood over Mirage, sword ready to come slicing down, “how is that a problem?”
Mirage kicked Duchess in the crotch, and then rolled to the side as the mercenary gasped in agony.
“Because only a man would think we have no feeling down there,” Mirage forced herself to her feet, “called a cup, you might want to look into it.”
Mirage kicked Duchess in the face, and punched the villain’s wound again, nearly breaking her hand.
# # # # #
“Give! Up!” Blink growled.
Blink had Hallowpoint down on his knees, his left hand pressing against the street, and his right arm pulled backwards, in between Blink’s legs. She had both hands on his wrist, and all she had to do to break his wrist was lean back just an inch.
“No,” Hallowpoint said softly. He removed a grenade from his belt, pulled the pin with his teeth, released the catch, and then gently set it down in front of him.
“Pin can’t be replaced. See you on the other side.”
“Damn it!”
# # # # #
Mirage snapped her head to the side when she heard the explosion, and when she turned her head back to Duchess, she saw Hallowpoint standing over her, gun leveled at her head.
“Just got a call,” Hallowpoint said, “your people are still alive. That makes killing you a bad career investment. Let us walk, and I’ll let you walk.”
“…deal,” Mirage said, though it went against every bone in her body. She wanted to finish this fight, return every ounce of pain one hundred fold and then beat the name of their employers out of them.
But Mirage knew that would come at too high a price. Both she and Blink were exhausted, and even if they won, they’d still be in enemy territory. Mandipoor wasn’t the friend of anyone with morals.
The two mercenaries backed away slowly, and when they were gone, Blink appeared at Mirage’s side.
“You sure about this?” Blink said, “don’t worry about me, I’ll back you up no matter what, but…”
“Honestly, I’m impressed you’re still standing with all the blood you lost,” Mirage said, “besides, something more important’s come up, and it can’t wait a second longer.”
# # # # #
Later, The Work Place
It longer than Mirage would have preferred to get her entire team together, but after a day like this, herding cats would have been easier.
There were bones that had to be set, ribs to be taped, bullets to remove and everyone was hungry enough to eat a horse. They were all three steps past exhaustion.
Mirage gathered her team into their recreation, and they were sprawled out in exhaustion. Nova and Namorita leaned against one another on the couch, as did X-Treme and Wolfsbane.
Blink took up an entire section of the couch, her back covered in bandages. Technocrat was sitting in his wheelchair, hands steepled together. Arsenal, Charcoal and Tarene were clustered toether on the couch opposite of Blink, while Sabre was sprawled out on the floor, and Vibraxis stood in the corner, like a soldier at attention.
“I dunno about you, but I think we can save the debrief for tomorrow,” Nova said, “I got bruises on bruises, and I feel like I could sleep for a week.”
“I’m in the same boat, Nova, believe me,” Mirage said, “but what I have to say can’t wait.”
Mirage pressed a button on her belt.
Emergency lockdown initiated, bellowed a recording that echoed through the building.
Metal panels fell across every window, and then a wave of electricity splashed down from each and every one.
“What the bloody hell?” X-Treme stood up, sword in one hand.
“Sorry for the theatrics,” Mirage said, “but we have a traitor here. And no one is going anywhere until we’ve smoked the bastard out.”
TO BE CONTINUED...
NEXT ISSUE: Two unlikely members are forced to play detective as they struggle to find the traitor who nearly killed them all!