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Issue #48 by Daniel Ingram
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"FALLING SIDEWAYS – PART FOUR”
Metro City, the Workplace
“Rahne!”
Rahne Sinclair turned her head, and saw her boyfriend, X-Treme, walking towards her.
“Adam!” Rahne smiled, “ye in the clear?”
“I am,” X-Treme said with a smile. He then grabbed Wolfsbane by the throat, and slammed her up against the wall, “but you’re not…”
Wolfsbane moved with battle hardened instincts. She didn’t question whether or not this was the man she loved slamming her against the wall. Instead she willed her mutant power to the forefront, as her skin transformed into russet fur, and her fingers became claws.
“Get yer bloody hands off!” Wolfsbane growled. She slashed at Adam’s wrist, tearing flesh like paper and forcing him to release her and then kicked out, knocking him back.
“You got spunk,” Adam smiled, barely noticing his bloody wrist, “that’s why I like you.”
“Shut up!” Wolfsbane snarled, “yer not Adam!”
“Keep telling yourself that, as you bleed out on the floor.”
Wolfsbane barely saw him move. But she felt the right cross that made her see stars, the left hook that knocked her from her feet and when she fell, and the kick across her stomach that drove the air from her lungs.
Wolfsbane fell flat on the floor, breathless and in agony.
“It’ll make what I do next hurt just a little less,” Adam kicked Wolfsbane in the side again, and sent her sliding into the wall. He revealed a dagger, and grinned. “Any last words?”
Wolfsbane could barely breathe, let alone speak. But she looked up and saw her salvation. Adam followed her eyes and growled.
“No you don’t!” Adam threw his knife, and while it sank into Wolfsbane’s wrist, the pain still wasn’t enough to keep her from pulling the fire alarm.
“Damn it!” Adam turned away from Wolfsbane, and disappeared down the hall.
Rahne slumped back against the wall, her adrenaline spent. With a grunt, she pulled the knife from her wrist to allow her healing factor to do its job.
There was a rush of air, and suddenly Rahne found herself looking up at Richard Rider, his eyes filled with concern.
“Rahney, kiddo, what happened?” Nova saw the blood on her wrist, and his eyes began to smolder with energy. “Who did that?”
“Me.”
Rahne and Richard looked to the side, and saw Adam Sol, standing there in full combat gear.
“…or someone who looked like me,” Adam said.
Nova stood up, and growled, “How do we know it wasn’t you?”
Rahne stood up and placed a hand on Nova’s wrist. “Richard, he’d never hurt me!”
“Sorry, Rahney, but I need more proof than your word,” Nova said.
“I wounded the man who attacked me!” Rahne said. “Adam doesn’t have a mark on him!”
“He could have healed it,” Nova said. “His powers were altered, remember?”
“He’s right, Rahne,” Adam said, “but I can still prove it wasn’t me. Give me the knife and I’ll show you.”
Rahne picked the knife up off the ground and walked it over to Adam. Nova watched carefully, ready to spring into action should X-Treme try anything.
“Thank you,” Adam said, as he took the knife. He held it in both hands and then snapped it in two.
“This is one of my practice knives, ceramic for easy production and weight,” X-Treme said. “Weighted for throwing, but useless in combat. It’d be like carrying a revolver into combat when I could be carrying a Glock.”
“So you’re saying that it’s too crappy a weapon for you to be seen carrying,” said Nova. “Never heard of an elitist knife nut.”
“We hold meetings on Thursday,” Adam said. “Are you okay, Rahne?”
“Better,” Rahne ran her hand over her wrist. The wound had healed, but the flesh, and the shock of being attacked by the man she loved, was still raw.
“Rahne?”
The three members of Force Works turned as one, and saw their entire team gathered, all save one.
“What happened?” Mirage demanded, bow in hand.
“I was attacked,” Rahne said. “Bloody shape-shifter.”
“Rahne, you said you hurt him?” said Nova.
“Aye, on the wrist.”
Nova turned to his team.
“You guys know what to do, right?”
“Bare some skin, right?” Charcoal said. He turned into his human form, and displayed his wrist. Arsenal followed suit, as did Tarene, Mirage, Technocrat and every member of Force Works, save one.
“Yo, sorry, was distracted…”
There was a gust of wind, and Sabre was standing before the team.
“What did I miss?”
“…you got to be kidding me,” Charcoal said. “Really? The fastest member of the team is the last one here?”
“I had headphones on,” Sabre defended. “Excuse me for liking music!”
“Show us your wrist,” Nova ordered.
“Fine, whatever,” Sabre pulled back her costume on both wrists, and displayed them for all to see.
“Not a scratch,” X-Treme said, “on anyone.”
“We really shouldn’t have expected otherwise,” Technocrat sighed.
“This is good news, right?” Charcoal said. “I mean, if Adam didn’t do it, or Sabre, then it’s gotta be someone messing with us, right? No traitor or anything like that. Just some sneak like that blue smurf Mysty.”
“Mystique,” Mirage corrected.
“Gusundheit.”
“I’ve already pinned down or eliminated most known shape-shifters,” Technocrat said. “Our issues have been going on too long for it to be anyone too well known. No, we have an infiltrator. And what we need to do is continue the lockdown while we ferret him…or her, out.”
“Oh, awesome,” Sabre said. “So if there is some crazy clone or whatever lurking about, we’ll be locked in our rooms. Nothing could go wrong with that!”
“I’ll reset our internal security,” Technocrat said. “Reset it so that we’re all alerted to anyone who steps outside without permission.”
“Wow, this takes being grounded to a whole new level,” Charcoal said. “How old are we again?”
“Jus’ as long as it bloody works,” Wolfsbane said, rubbing her heeled wrist.
“I’ll give everyone a moment to return to their rooms,” Technocrat said, “and Tarene and I will continue our investigation. And with that in mind, Sabre, I need you to come with us.”
“Me?” Sabre looked around at super speed. “Why me?”
“I’m interviewing everyone,” Taki said. “Does the order matter?”
“Umm, no?” Sabre said.
“Then let’s proceed,” Technocrat said. “Everyone else, please return to your room.”
“I’m not even in control of my own damn team,” Mirage muttered.
“Join the club,” said Nova the Human Rocket.
# # # # #
“So…Kim…”
Sabre crossed her arms across her chest.
“So…Taki…”
“Blink caught you in our communications center a few weeks ago,” Technocrat said. “Care to tell us why?”
Sabre’s eyes shifted to the side. “No, not really.”
“I highly suggest you do it regardless,” Technocrat said.
“Taki, that’s enough,” Tarene said. “Kim, whatever you tell us, I promise we won’t repeat to another living soul. You can trust us.”
Sabre sucked in a deep breath. “Like I told Blink, I was looking for my dad.”
“What makes you think you’d find anything?” Technocrat asked. “The amount of information that we go through is massive. Even with someone of your speed, unless you knew what to look for, it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.”
“He’d contact me, now that he knows I’m here,” Sabre said. “Somehow. I mean, according to my granddad, he’d been off the grid for decades, but he would have to have seen me by now. He’d reach out if he wanted to contact me, wouldn’t he?”
“Sabre…”
“I know he’s still out there,” Sabre was staring a hole in the ground. “Snd he has to be proud of me, right? That I’m not just an accident?”
Sabre rubbed her eyes, almost too swiftly to be seen.
Almost.
“Right?”
# # # # #
Namorita crossed her arms across her chest and sighed.
“I have to say, I’m a little offended, Taki,” she said. “Why wasn’t I your first suspect?”
Taki raised an eyebrow. “Is there a reason why we should suspect you?”
“Of course,” she said. “I handle public relations, and rarely go out into the field anymore. I could have passed along information to our enemies at my leisure, without putting myself in any danger.”
“Aha! But you wouldn’t have pointed that out for us!” Tarene said.
Namorita smirked. “Unless this was a double bluff.”
“Oh,” Tarene’s shoulders slumped.
“You bring up an excellent point,” Technocrat said. “But the information loss wasn’t great enough to implicate you. If you were our traitor, I can safely say we’d be dead already.”
“See!” Tarene pointed. “Innocent!”
Namorita chuckled. “Thank you, honey.”
# # # # #
Later
Tarene put her hands on her hips and shook her head.
“This won’t work,” Tarene said with a resigned sigh.
“Do you know this from all your years investigating?” snapped Technocrat, “we should stay the course before we declare our methods failed.”
“If what you suppose is right, whoever our imposter is has been here for months,” Tarene said, “they would have to have their story straight by now!”
Technocrat clucked his tongue. He had to admit, Tarene had a point. “So what do you suggest?”
Tarene shrugged. “What would you do if you were in their place?”
“I would…,” Technocrat rubbed his chin, “implicate others, like they tried to do just now.”
“So…how do we use that? Can we?”
“We…we can,” Technocrat sprinted to his computer and began furiously typing. Within seconds, the mutant genius had written his program, and ran it through the databanks.
The results came back instantly.
“No…,” Tarene grabbed her war mallet tight. “….no! How?!”
Taki closed his eyes, and guilt began to wash over him. “I should have guessed, me, of all people.”
“You?” tears flowed freely from Tarene’s eyes, “I should have known, I should have…!”
“I know better than anyone. If you want to cripple a body, you attack the spine.”
# # # # #
In the training room, the drain of power ended. New legs stood for the first time. A metal fist opened and closed as electricity surged through it. A list of names appeared in the new born mind. Alongside weaknesses, strengths were listed twice as long, containing methods of defeat and ideally plans of murder.
# # # # #
Bobby Greggs, the man thought to be Arsenal, opened the door to his room, and was met with a bolt of lightning.
He was pitched backwards and smashed through the glass coffee table in the middle of his room. When his vision cleared, he saw his teammates standing in the threshold of his room, and no one lacked a look of pure hate and outrage.
“…how’d you figure it out?” Arsenal said, agony wracked his body. He coughed up blood, “not that it matters anymore.”
“Most everyone’s passwords were duplicated and misused in our system to feed our enemies intelligence,” Technocrat said. “Everyone except yours. More than that, Bobby is the only one who could get close enough to X-Treme’s weapons to steal one unnoticed, and the only one who’s DNA is unstable enough to hide the ability to shape-shift. In retrospect, you were the obvious choice.”
“Where is the real Arsenal?” Mirage growled, psychic arrow pointed at the imposter’s head, “you tell me now, or so help me…!”
“Heh, what’s the matter, angry the man you rolled in the hay with was replaced, and you didn’t even notice?” said the man who was once thought to be Arsenal. “That’s what made this so easy, you know. Take the good soldier, the man who does his duty and no one…”
“Raaah!”
X-Treme was a blur, and the imposter had barely brought his arm up to defend himself, before X-Treme had sunk his axe into the man’s forearm. The Shi’ar warrior kicked the man in the face, and when he fell backwards on his back, planted his boot on the imposter’s neck.
“If you say anything other than where my friend is, I start taking body parts,” X-Treme growled.
“Heh,” the creature chuckled, seemingly oblivious to the foot pressed to his neck. “You know what also made this so easy? You think you’re so great, because you grew up doing this. But all it’s done is made you look outward, when you should have been looking in. You see the flaws, each and every one of you, of the world, of fellow heroes, you see them all, except those inside yourselves.”
“This guy is getting on my nerves,” Nova cracked his knuckles. “I say we beat Bobby’s location out of him, and start yesterday.”
“Aye,” Tarene said, “I want to go first. I want to tear that false face from his skull!”
“So sorry,” ‘Arsenal’ said. His face shifted, his eyes became ebony black, his jaw shifted and his hair became a chestnut brown. “Is this better?”
“…how?”
“You can call me Matrix, now,” he said. “Oh, did I mention that I have all your powers?”
Force Works came forward as one, but a gravity wave knocked them backwards, smashing them into the wall behind them.
Matrix stood up as his body shifted again. His arms became covered in brown fur, and his nails elongated into claws, while his hips narrowed and his legs thinned, becoming asymmetrical. He flexed his wings, as fire burst forth from every feather.
“I never knew who I would have to impersonate for this mission,” Matrix said, “so it was decided to add you all.”
“Bloody hell,” Wolfsbane muttered, as Matrix’s scent began to change, until he smelled like some Frankenstein blend of her friends.
“All of us?” Sabre said. She raced towards the new villains. “Let’s find out!”
Matrix saw Sabre coming, and dashed forward to meet her. He swept his hand at her head at over three hundred miles per hour, and blinked when she vanished.
“That all you got?”
Matrix felt a dozen blows land on his face, before Sabre pressed her hands against Arsenal’s side, and broke the sound barrier, slamming him against a pillar against the far wall.
“You got our powers,” Sabre stood over Matrix, smoke wafting off her shoulders. “But only a taste. Unless you want a full course meal, you’ll stay down. You can’t take us all on.”
“Then it’s a good thing I’m not alone, isn’t it?”
Nova looked around. “What did he just say?”
Charcoal looked over his shoulder, and for a moment his furnace went cold with fear.
“Everyone, look out!”
Charcoal stepped forward, throwing his arms out to meet a massive explosion that engulfed the room.
Nova and Namorita were thrown clear across the room, while Vibraxis phased, allowing the explosion to pass through him harmlessly. Technocrat created a shield with his techpak just in time to protect himself and Mirage, while Blink grabbed Wolfsbane and teleported out of the room.
Only X-Treme and Tarene remained unmoved, anchored by sheer rage.
“Oh, what the hell is this?” said Mirage.
The creature that had created the explosion stepped through the new hole it had created. It’s upper body was of human proportions, but with metal tissue and wires where a human would have muscles and two sets of arms.
Its lower body ended in a hip-bone, but where there would have been legs on a human being, there were four spider-like legs, with points so sharp they sank into the floor with barely any effort at all.
Its skull housed only one eye, and the jaw-line of its skeletal mouth was pulled back into a demented smile.
“My never friends, I’d like you to meet Deus Ex Monstra,” Matrix stood up, and brushed himself off. “She is proud to be the instrument of your destruction.”
“Where the hell did this one come from?” Namorita brushed the dust from her shoulder.
“I was your training room,” Deus Ex Monstra said. “That was the womb from which I was birthed. Since before my birth, I was designed to hurt, to overcome each and every one of you, but I was always hindered, leashed, by you. Never allowed to reach my full potential.”
Deus Ex Monstra shifted its lower arms into automatic weapons.
“But no more.”
“Sabre, one side!” Mirage shouted. “Heavies, take out the trash!”
“You won’t…!” Deus Ex Monstra started, but before he could finish his sentence, Sabre had swept up her more fragile teammates, Technocrat, Mirage, Namorita and X-Treme, and took them to the opposite side of the room.
Deus Ex Monstra and Matrix realized, almost too late, that they were now standing opposite Tarene, Charcoal, Vibraxis and Nova, all of whom could channel enough energy to tear a mountain in half.
“Oh that’s not good…” Matrix muttered, as the four heroes leveled their hands, and…
# # # # #
Outside
Jessie Stone screamed as she saw glass and shrapnel start to reign down from the Work Place. She had been walking home, when a massive, earth-shaking explosion of fire and energy knocked her from her feet.
She looked up, feeling a sense of dread, and realized that she might never see her wife again, as metal and stone careened down. She raised her hands over her head in a futile gesture of self preservation, and…
-blink!-
Jessie stood up, and glanced aside. She saw that, somehow, she and the other people in the range of the shrapnel, had been moved aside just enough to save their lives.
# # # # #
“Okay.” Mirage looked at her team. Anger, betrayal and confusion were written all over their faces. “I know we’re still reeling from what’s happened, and we’re letting it throw us off our game, but that has to stop. Right now.”
“Every second we talk, the greater chance they have of getting away!” X-Treme growled.
“Exactly!” Mirage snapped. “And if that happens, we lose Bobby, maybe forever. We need two teams. X-Treme, Wolfsbane, Tarene, Sabre and I will deal with Matrix. Everyone else, take that robo spider! Nova, you’re in charge of that. Any questions?”
Mirage was met with silence. No jokes, no witty remarks, nothing.
“Then let’s go to work.”
# # # # #
Matrix pulled himself up out of the rubble, only to be met with a boot to the face.
“Stand up,” X-Treme said. “Stand up, and give me a reason to beat you down again!”
“You’ll try.” Matrix brought Arsenal’s powers to the forefront. But the moment before he unleashed his power, his eyes glowed red and the team scattered.
Except Tarene. She took the spray of energy effortlessly, and then backhanded Matrix with her hammer, and sent the imposter flying half way across the roof.
“We’ll do more than that,” Tarene hissed.
“Wait!” Wolfsbane leapt between her team, and Matrix.
“Rahne, what the hell?” X-Treme snarled. “This thing knows where Bobby is! He assaulted you!”
“I know all that!” Rahne snapped. She then turned to Matrix. “But I also know that this man didn’t make the choice to be born a betrayer.”
Rahne Sinclair, in her human form, reached out her hand.
“Surrender, and I promise that we’ll protect ye, and help make right the wrong that you were forced to do.”
Matrix replied with a sneer, and a wall of flame.
“Sheesh, Wolfie,” Sabre sneered, setting Wolfsbane down. “You keep being that sappy, and I might not be able to run!”
Wolfsbane shifted to her hybrid form.
“I had to give him a chance at redemption,” Wolfsbane said. “Now let’s tear his bloody heart out!”
# # # # #
Deus Ex Monstra looked towards Nova with a sneer.
“You, the team missile,” Deus Ex Monstra said. “It suits you. Blunt, good for only one thing.”
“If you don’t surrender, metal head, you’ll find out exactly how good I am at my job,” Nova said. His eyes smoldered with emerald power. “I’ve smashed better tin cans than you.”
“But none of them knew you like I do,” said the monster. He pointed his hand at Nova, and an orange burst of energy flew from it, and crashed into the Human Rocket.
Nova screamed, or tried to, as it felt as if his nerves had been replaced with fire. He fell from the air like a lead balloon, as his insides seemed to warp inside his body.
“Enough,” Technocrat raised a shield, blocking the energy from reaching Nova. “Deus Ex Monstra, is it? Don’t think that because you were created from our training room, that means you know us. Surrender, and we’ll allow you to leave unharmed when this is all sorted.”
“Your lives limit mine,” Deus Ex Monstra said. “I was built to kill you, to end you. So long as you live, I cannot. I will never be free to find out who and what I truly am, until you are no more!”
“Foul machine!” Vibraxis send his power slamming into Deus Ex Monstra. “You are worse than the Vision who wounded my beloved Wakanda! He was corrupted, while you are a corruption! One I will not allow to continue!”
Deus Ex Monstra swiveled his head towards Vibraxis.
“You don’t get a choice.”
“Move!” Charcoal stepped in front of Vibraxis before a bolt of energy would have taken his head off.
“Fool!” Vibraxis spat. “I would have phased through it effortlessly!”
“This thing knows our powers!” Charcoal said. “You think it didn’t know that?”
“…oh.”
“Indeed I do.” Deus Ex Monstra leapt towards Charcoal, and sank his head into his stone chassis. Electricity surged from the robot’s hands, and Charcoal felt a wave of agony shoot through his body. “And I know exactly how to hurt you.”
-blink!-
Deus Ex Monstra clenched his fists as Charcoal was teleported several feet away.
“You got lucky,” Deus Ex Monstra said.
“No, we got stupid.” Nova landed in front of Charcoal and Blink, his fists clenched. “Everyone, listen up. He knows our tricks. But what he doesn’t know is that our powers are just tools. We’re the weapons, not our powers.”
“Let’s go to work.”
# # # # #
Sabre rained down super-sonic blows on Matrix’s kidneys, a good three dozen, before he tried to swat her away.
When Sabre withdrew, X-Treme came at him from behind, swinging his axe, and planting it in Matrix’s shoulder.
Matrix found that the healing factor gained with Wolfsbane’s powers did nothing for the pain. Matrix, bone claws extended, swept his hands for X-Treme’s chest but his enemy effortlessly dodged, yanking his axe free as he did. X-Treme came at Matrix again, and kicked in his right knee, breaking bone while tearing muscles and nerve.
“Arrrgh!” Matrix summoned Charcoal’s flame, and forced X-Treme back. “You can’t win! I have all your powers!”
Matrix emphasized that by teleporting behind Wolfsbbane. With steel hands, he reached for her neck.
“…and I…arggh!” Matrix stumbled, his head blazing with pain. He looked over his shoulder, and saw Mirage, with another psychic arrow already notched.
“You have a taste of our powers,” Mirage said, “but not the skill, experience or ability. You should have learned that by now.”
“I have enough!”
Matrix summoned Sabre’s super speed, and sped towards Mirage.
“Noyoureallydon’t,” Sabre said as she came up from behind Matrix. She registered that he’d smashed into the first car. He pressed her hands against his back, and sped up by over three hundred miles per hour in two steps.
Matrix couldn’t hope to keep up. He tripped, and pushing him as if he were a giant snowball rolling downhill, Sabre modified his course, and sent him flying over the edge of the roof.
Matrix tumbled like a leaf caught in a whirlwind. He never saw the parking lot that he was aimed toward. By the time it registered that he’d smashed into a car, his body had already cut four more in half as if they were made of glass.
“…not…possible,” Matrix tried to stand. Bits of metal and glass were wedged in his skin, and pain threatened to overtake him. “Nero, he…promised it would be different…I have their powers…”
“No,” said a voice. “Not all of them.”
Matrix looked up, and saw Tarene falling towards him, hammer pulled back.
His world became pain, as his body smashed through four levels of concrete and steel before reaching the parking lot basement.
Tarene stood over the hole she’s created. She looked down at Matrix’s prone form, and her war hammer shook.
A war raged inside her head, and it took all her willpower not to unleash her entire power then and there, turning Matrix into nothing but a smear.
“Tarene!” Mirage called out. “Where is Matrix? Is he down?”
Tarene sighed loudly. “He is. For now.”
# # # # #
Kymera and Nova came down on Deus Ex Monstra like guided missiles, crushing him to the pavement.
“Baby, you have no idea how much I’ve missed this.” Namorita grabbed one of Deus Ex Monstra’s arms in each hand. “This almost feels like a date!”
“Then let’s pretend this thing is a lobster I bought you.” Nova grabbed Deus Ex Monstra’s opposite side, his fingers sinking into the metal as if it were clay.
“You mean sea roach?” Namorita bug in her heels, and pulled with enough force to stop a tank, “You surface dwellers; no taste.”
Deus Ex Monstra could feel his internal systems failing, and the pressure on his metal chassis building. He knew he had only seconds before he was ripped in two like a piece of paper.
But for an android like himself, a few seconds was all he needed. He channeled an electrical pulse through his outer body, and both Namorita and Nova released their grips in fear.
“I thought you two were the strong ones,” Deus Ex Monstra mocked. “Afraid of a little charge?”
“No, smart enough to know what you know,” Namorita said. “Which is how to hurt us.”
“But that’s all you really know, ain’t it?” said Nova. “Charcoal, turn him into slag.”
Charcoal willed a channel of flame towards Deus Ex Monstra, but the robot smirked as it simply struck a force field.
“Your fire is useless if it can’t touch me,” Deus Ex Monstra said.
“Indeed,” Vibraxis sent waves of sonic energy at the force field, and it shattered like ice.
“Noo!” Deus Ex Monstra leapt out of the way seconds before the flame would have turned him to molten metal. He barely made it five feet before Nova slammed into him from behind, and sent him hurtling into the ground.
“You pathetic…”
-blink!-
Super charged javelins sliced through Deus Ex Monstra’s spider-like leg, and by the time the information reached his brain, Blink had already removed herself, and he was hobbled.
“I did what you asked for, Technocrat,” Blink shouted. “Move in!”
“You silly little tinker toy,” said Techncrat, as he strolled towards the wounded robot. “Did you think you ever stood a chance? Power without skill is no power at all.”
“Am I to be afraid of you?” Deus Ex Monstra said. “I redesigned myself the minute I was born! And you cannot hack my mainframe, because my systems are closed! For all your bluster, you’re the weakest of the team, and were it not for your ruthlessness, you’d be dead!”
“Is that what you think?” Technocrat said. “I would disagree. Let’s find out who’s right, shall we?”
Deus Ex Monstra’s fingers became claws.
“Let’s.”
The android lunged for Technocrat, and thus never saw Nova the Human Rocket and Kymaera the Submariner, until he’d already been smashed to the ground, and sent a large cloud of dirt flying every which way.
“Head, please,” Technocrat raised his arm to cover his face.
“We know!” Namorita growled as she wrapped her arms around the robot’s waist. “Nova, go!”
“Got it!” Nova said. In his left hand was a silver spike Technocrat had given him moments ago. He took it, and impaled Deus Ex Monstra through the back of the skull.
“Closed system?” Technocrat said. “Not anymore.”
“No…nononono!” Deus Ex Monstra screamed, as his systems began shutting down on by one.
“You and Matrix were puppets, things meant to bloody us, and make our blood boil,” Technocrat hissed. “In that, you were a success. It is the only one you will ever enjoy.”
“Tough talk,” Namorita said. “But whoever planted this thing and Matrix still has Bobby, knows all our secrets, and we don’t even have a name!”
“No, but we have two prisoners,” Technocrat said. He looked over his shoulder at the crowd of people gathering. “Nova, take this thing back to my lab. I’ll have a holding cell waiting for you by the time you arrive. I’ll have Mirage do the same with Matrix.”
“Sweet Neptune, are you out of your mind?” Namorita was looming over Taki in an instant. “We can’t hold them prisoner!”
“If we don’t, we may lose Bobby,” Technocrat said, “all that happened toward was a teammate’s powers went high wire because of an AIM weapon, that we’ve captured and need to examine for our friend’s sake.”
Namorita fumed, and clenched her fists.
“We’d be well within our rights.”
“You self righteous…”
“Hey,” Nova placed a hand on his lover’s shoulder. “It’s wrong, I know, but what choice do we have?”
“Just because I don’t know the right answer doesn’t mean I can’t recognize the wrong one,” Namorita said. “Fine. We’ll hold them, for now. But don’t think this is over, Taki.”
“Nothing is ever over,” Technocrat said. “I’ve heard from Mirage. Matrix is contained.”
“Glad to hear it,” Nova said with a sigh.
“Why the dejected tone, brother?” Vibraxis said. “We triumphed over two great enemies, and in doing so will enable us to rescue our friend post haste!”
“Because we just outfought two bad guys who would have steamrolled us when we were younger,” Nova said. “But despite that, we still haven’t accomplished a damn thing…”
NEXT ISSUE: The hunt for Arsenal is on as we build to our climatic 50th issue!
“Rahne!”
Rahne Sinclair turned her head, and saw her boyfriend, X-Treme, walking towards her.
“Adam!” Rahne smiled, “ye in the clear?”
“I am,” X-Treme said with a smile. He then grabbed Wolfsbane by the throat, and slammed her up against the wall, “but you’re not…”
Wolfsbane moved with battle hardened instincts. She didn’t question whether or not this was the man she loved slamming her against the wall. Instead she willed her mutant power to the forefront, as her skin transformed into russet fur, and her fingers became claws.
“Get yer bloody hands off!” Wolfsbane growled. She slashed at Adam’s wrist, tearing flesh like paper and forcing him to release her and then kicked out, knocking him back.
“You got spunk,” Adam smiled, barely noticing his bloody wrist, “that’s why I like you.”
“Shut up!” Wolfsbane snarled, “yer not Adam!”
“Keep telling yourself that, as you bleed out on the floor.”
Wolfsbane barely saw him move. But she felt the right cross that made her see stars, the left hook that knocked her from her feet and when she fell, and the kick across her stomach that drove the air from her lungs.
Wolfsbane fell flat on the floor, breathless and in agony.
“It’ll make what I do next hurt just a little less,” Adam kicked Wolfsbane in the side again, and sent her sliding into the wall. He revealed a dagger, and grinned. “Any last words?”
Wolfsbane could barely breathe, let alone speak. But she looked up and saw her salvation. Adam followed her eyes and growled.
“No you don’t!” Adam threw his knife, and while it sank into Wolfsbane’s wrist, the pain still wasn’t enough to keep her from pulling the fire alarm.
“Damn it!” Adam turned away from Wolfsbane, and disappeared down the hall.
Rahne slumped back against the wall, her adrenaline spent. With a grunt, she pulled the knife from her wrist to allow her healing factor to do its job.
There was a rush of air, and suddenly Rahne found herself looking up at Richard Rider, his eyes filled with concern.
“Rahney, kiddo, what happened?” Nova saw the blood on her wrist, and his eyes began to smolder with energy. “Who did that?”
“Me.”
Rahne and Richard looked to the side, and saw Adam Sol, standing there in full combat gear.
“…or someone who looked like me,” Adam said.
Nova stood up, and growled, “How do we know it wasn’t you?”
Rahne stood up and placed a hand on Nova’s wrist. “Richard, he’d never hurt me!”
“Sorry, Rahney, but I need more proof than your word,” Nova said.
“I wounded the man who attacked me!” Rahne said. “Adam doesn’t have a mark on him!”
“He could have healed it,” Nova said. “His powers were altered, remember?”
“He’s right, Rahne,” Adam said, “but I can still prove it wasn’t me. Give me the knife and I’ll show you.”
Rahne picked the knife up off the ground and walked it over to Adam. Nova watched carefully, ready to spring into action should X-Treme try anything.
“Thank you,” Adam said, as he took the knife. He held it in both hands and then snapped it in two.
“This is one of my practice knives, ceramic for easy production and weight,” X-Treme said. “Weighted for throwing, but useless in combat. It’d be like carrying a revolver into combat when I could be carrying a Glock.”
“So you’re saying that it’s too crappy a weapon for you to be seen carrying,” said Nova. “Never heard of an elitist knife nut.”
“We hold meetings on Thursday,” Adam said. “Are you okay, Rahne?”
“Better,” Rahne ran her hand over her wrist. The wound had healed, but the flesh, and the shock of being attacked by the man she loved, was still raw.
“Rahne?”
The three members of Force Works turned as one, and saw their entire team gathered, all save one.
“What happened?” Mirage demanded, bow in hand.
“I was attacked,” Rahne said. “Bloody shape-shifter.”
“Rahne, you said you hurt him?” said Nova.
“Aye, on the wrist.”
Nova turned to his team.
“You guys know what to do, right?”
“Bare some skin, right?” Charcoal said. He turned into his human form, and displayed his wrist. Arsenal followed suit, as did Tarene, Mirage, Technocrat and every member of Force Works, save one.
“Yo, sorry, was distracted…”
There was a gust of wind, and Sabre was standing before the team.
“What did I miss?”
“…you got to be kidding me,” Charcoal said. “Really? The fastest member of the team is the last one here?”
“I had headphones on,” Sabre defended. “Excuse me for liking music!”
“Show us your wrist,” Nova ordered.
“Fine, whatever,” Sabre pulled back her costume on both wrists, and displayed them for all to see.
“Not a scratch,” X-Treme said, “on anyone.”
“We really shouldn’t have expected otherwise,” Technocrat sighed.
“This is good news, right?” Charcoal said. “I mean, if Adam didn’t do it, or Sabre, then it’s gotta be someone messing with us, right? No traitor or anything like that. Just some sneak like that blue smurf Mysty.”
“Mystique,” Mirage corrected.
“Gusundheit.”
“I’ve already pinned down or eliminated most known shape-shifters,” Technocrat said. “Our issues have been going on too long for it to be anyone too well known. No, we have an infiltrator. And what we need to do is continue the lockdown while we ferret him…or her, out.”
“Oh, awesome,” Sabre said. “So if there is some crazy clone or whatever lurking about, we’ll be locked in our rooms. Nothing could go wrong with that!”
“I’ll reset our internal security,” Technocrat said. “Reset it so that we’re all alerted to anyone who steps outside without permission.”
“Wow, this takes being grounded to a whole new level,” Charcoal said. “How old are we again?”
“Jus’ as long as it bloody works,” Wolfsbane said, rubbing her heeled wrist.
“I’ll give everyone a moment to return to their rooms,” Technocrat said, “and Tarene and I will continue our investigation. And with that in mind, Sabre, I need you to come with us.”
“Me?” Sabre looked around at super speed. “Why me?”
“I’m interviewing everyone,” Taki said. “Does the order matter?”
“Umm, no?” Sabre said.
“Then let’s proceed,” Technocrat said. “Everyone else, please return to your room.”
“I’m not even in control of my own damn team,” Mirage muttered.
“Join the club,” said Nova the Human Rocket.
# # # # #
“So…Kim…”
Sabre crossed her arms across her chest.
“So…Taki…”
“Blink caught you in our communications center a few weeks ago,” Technocrat said. “Care to tell us why?”
Sabre’s eyes shifted to the side. “No, not really.”
“I highly suggest you do it regardless,” Technocrat said.
“Taki, that’s enough,” Tarene said. “Kim, whatever you tell us, I promise we won’t repeat to another living soul. You can trust us.”
Sabre sucked in a deep breath. “Like I told Blink, I was looking for my dad.”
“What makes you think you’d find anything?” Technocrat asked. “The amount of information that we go through is massive. Even with someone of your speed, unless you knew what to look for, it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.”
“He’d contact me, now that he knows I’m here,” Sabre said. “Somehow. I mean, according to my granddad, he’d been off the grid for decades, but he would have to have seen me by now. He’d reach out if he wanted to contact me, wouldn’t he?”
“Sabre…”
“I know he’s still out there,” Sabre was staring a hole in the ground. “Snd he has to be proud of me, right? That I’m not just an accident?”
Sabre rubbed her eyes, almost too swiftly to be seen.
Almost.
“Right?”
# # # # #
Namorita crossed her arms across her chest and sighed.
“I have to say, I’m a little offended, Taki,” she said. “Why wasn’t I your first suspect?”
Taki raised an eyebrow. “Is there a reason why we should suspect you?”
“Of course,” she said. “I handle public relations, and rarely go out into the field anymore. I could have passed along information to our enemies at my leisure, without putting myself in any danger.”
“Aha! But you wouldn’t have pointed that out for us!” Tarene said.
Namorita smirked. “Unless this was a double bluff.”
“Oh,” Tarene’s shoulders slumped.
“You bring up an excellent point,” Technocrat said. “But the information loss wasn’t great enough to implicate you. If you were our traitor, I can safely say we’d be dead already.”
“See!” Tarene pointed. “Innocent!”
Namorita chuckled. “Thank you, honey.”
# # # # #
Later
Tarene put her hands on her hips and shook her head.
“This won’t work,” Tarene said with a resigned sigh.
“Do you know this from all your years investigating?” snapped Technocrat, “we should stay the course before we declare our methods failed.”
“If what you suppose is right, whoever our imposter is has been here for months,” Tarene said, “they would have to have their story straight by now!”
Technocrat clucked his tongue. He had to admit, Tarene had a point. “So what do you suggest?”
Tarene shrugged. “What would you do if you were in their place?”
“I would…,” Technocrat rubbed his chin, “implicate others, like they tried to do just now.”
“So…how do we use that? Can we?”
“We…we can,” Technocrat sprinted to his computer and began furiously typing. Within seconds, the mutant genius had written his program, and ran it through the databanks.
The results came back instantly.
“No…,” Tarene grabbed her war mallet tight. “….no! How?!”
Taki closed his eyes, and guilt began to wash over him. “I should have guessed, me, of all people.”
“You?” tears flowed freely from Tarene’s eyes, “I should have known, I should have…!”
“I know better than anyone. If you want to cripple a body, you attack the spine.”
# # # # #
In the training room, the drain of power ended. New legs stood for the first time. A metal fist opened and closed as electricity surged through it. A list of names appeared in the new born mind. Alongside weaknesses, strengths were listed twice as long, containing methods of defeat and ideally plans of murder.
# # # # #
Bobby Greggs, the man thought to be Arsenal, opened the door to his room, and was met with a bolt of lightning.
He was pitched backwards and smashed through the glass coffee table in the middle of his room. When his vision cleared, he saw his teammates standing in the threshold of his room, and no one lacked a look of pure hate and outrage.
“…how’d you figure it out?” Arsenal said, agony wracked his body. He coughed up blood, “not that it matters anymore.”
“Most everyone’s passwords were duplicated and misused in our system to feed our enemies intelligence,” Technocrat said. “Everyone except yours. More than that, Bobby is the only one who could get close enough to X-Treme’s weapons to steal one unnoticed, and the only one who’s DNA is unstable enough to hide the ability to shape-shift. In retrospect, you were the obvious choice.”
“Where is the real Arsenal?” Mirage growled, psychic arrow pointed at the imposter’s head, “you tell me now, or so help me…!”
“Heh, what’s the matter, angry the man you rolled in the hay with was replaced, and you didn’t even notice?” said the man who was once thought to be Arsenal. “That’s what made this so easy, you know. Take the good soldier, the man who does his duty and no one…”
“Raaah!”
X-Treme was a blur, and the imposter had barely brought his arm up to defend himself, before X-Treme had sunk his axe into the man’s forearm. The Shi’ar warrior kicked the man in the face, and when he fell backwards on his back, planted his boot on the imposter’s neck.
“If you say anything other than where my friend is, I start taking body parts,” X-Treme growled.
“Heh,” the creature chuckled, seemingly oblivious to the foot pressed to his neck. “You know what also made this so easy? You think you’re so great, because you grew up doing this. But all it’s done is made you look outward, when you should have been looking in. You see the flaws, each and every one of you, of the world, of fellow heroes, you see them all, except those inside yourselves.”
“This guy is getting on my nerves,” Nova cracked his knuckles. “I say we beat Bobby’s location out of him, and start yesterday.”
“Aye,” Tarene said, “I want to go first. I want to tear that false face from his skull!”
“So sorry,” ‘Arsenal’ said. His face shifted, his eyes became ebony black, his jaw shifted and his hair became a chestnut brown. “Is this better?”
“…how?”
“You can call me Matrix, now,” he said. “Oh, did I mention that I have all your powers?”
Force Works came forward as one, but a gravity wave knocked them backwards, smashing them into the wall behind them.
Matrix stood up as his body shifted again. His arms became covered in brown fur, and his nails elongated into claws, while his hips narrowed and his legs thinned, becoming asymmetrical. He flexed his wings, as fire burst forth from every feather.
“I never knew who I would have to impersonate for this mission,” Matrix said, “so it was decided to add you all.”
“Bloody hell,” Wolfsbane muttered, as Matrix’s scent began to change, until he smelled like some Frankenstein blend of her friends.
“All of us?” Sabre said. She raced towards the new villains. “Let’s find out!”
Matrix saw Sabre coming, and dashed forward to meet her. He swept his hand at her head at over three hundred miles per hour, and blinked when she vanished.
“That all you got?”
Matrix felt a dozen blows land on his face, before Sabre pressed her hands against Arsenal’s side, and broke the sound barrier, slamming him against a pillar against the far wall.
“You got our powers,” Sabre stood over Matrix, smoke wafting off her shoulders. “But only a taste. Unless you want a full course meal, you’ll stay down. You can’t take us all on.”
“Then it’s a good thing I’m not alone, isn’t it?”
Nova looked around. “What did he just say?”
Charcoal looked over his shoulder, and for a moment his furnace went cold with fear.
“Everyone, look out!”
Charcoal stepped forward, throwing his arms out to meet a massive explosion that engulfed the room.
Nova and Namorita were thrown clear across the room, while Vibraxis phased, allowing the explosion to pass through him harmlessly. Technocrat created a shield with his techpak just in time to protect himself and Mirage, while Blink grabbed Wolfsbane and teleported out of the room.
Only X-Treme and Tarene remained unmoved, anchored by sheer rage.
“Oh, what the hell is this?” said Mirage.
The creature that had created the explosion stepped through the new hole it had created. It’s upper body was of human proportions, but with metal tissue and wires where a human would have muscles and two sets of arms.
Its lower body ended in a hip-bone, but where there would have been legs on a human being, there were four spider-like legs, with points so sharp they sank into the floor with barely any effort at all.
Its skull housed only one eye, and the jaw-line of its skeletal mouth was pulled back into a demented smile.
“My never friends, I’d like you to meet Deus Ex Monstra,” Matrix stood up, and brushed himself off. “She is proud to be the instrument of your destruction.”
“Where the hell did this one come from?” Namorita brushed the dust from her shoulder.
“I was your training room,” Deus Ex Monstra said. “That was the womb from which I was birthed. Since before my birth, I was designed to hurt, to overcome each and every one of you, but I was always hindered, leashed, by you. Never allowed to reach my full potential.”
Deus Ex Monstra shifted its lower arms into automatic weapons.
“But no more.”
“Sabre, one side!” Mirage shouted. “Heavies, take out the trash!”
“You won’t…!” Deus Ex Monstra started, but before he could finish his sentence, Sabre had swept up her more fragile teammates, Technocrat, Mirage, Namorita and X-Treme, and took them to the opposite side of the room.
Deus Ex Monstra and Matrix realized, almost too late, that they were now standing opposite Tarene, Charcoal, Vibraxis and Nova, all of whom could channel enough energy to tear a mountain in half.
“Oh that’s not good…” Matrix muttered, as the four heroes leveled their hands, and…
# # # # #
Outside
Jessie Stone screamed as she saw glass and shrapnel start to reign down from the Work Place. She had been walking home, when a massive, earth-shaking explosion of fire and energy knocked her from her feet.
She looked up, feeling a sense of dread, and realized that she might never see her wife again, as metal and stone careened down. She raised her hands over her head in a futile gesture of self preservation, and…
-blink!-
Jessie stood up, and glanced aside. She saw that, somehow, she and the other people in the range of the shrapnel, had been moved aside just enough to save their lives.
# # # # #
“Okay.” Mirage looked at her team. Anger, betrayal and confusion were written all over their faces. “I know we’re still reeling from what’s happened, and we’re letting it throw us off our game, but that has to stop. Right now.”
“Every second we talk, the greater chance they have of getting away!” X-Treme growled.
“Exactly!” Mirage snapped. “And if that happens, we lose Bobby, maybe forever. We need two teams. X-Treme, Wolfsbane, Tarene, Sabre and I will deal with Matrix. Everyone else, take that robo spider! Nova, you’re in charge of that. Any questions?”
Mirage was met with silence. No jokes, no witty remarks, nothing.
“Then let’s go to work.”
# # # # #
Matrix pulled himself up out of the rubble, only to be met with a boot to the face.
“Stand up,” X-Treme said. “Stand up, and give me a reason to beat you down again!”
“You’ll try.” Matrix brought Arsenal’s powers to the forefront. But the moment before he unleashed his power, his eyes glowed red and the team scattered.
Except Tarene. She took the spray of energy effortlessly, and then backhanded Matrix with her hammer, and sent the imposter flying half way across the roof.
“We’ll do more than that,” Tarene hissed.
“Wait!” Wolfsbane leapt between her team, and Matrix.
“Rahne, what the hell?” X-Treme snarled. “This thing knows where Bobby is! He assaulted you!”
“I know all that!” Rahne snapped. She then turned to Matrix. “But I also know that this man didn’t make the choice to be born a betrayer.”
Rahne Sinclair, in her human form, reached out her hand.
“Surrender, and I promise that we’ll protect ye, and help make right the wrong that you were forced to do.”
Matrix replied with a sneer, and a wall of flame.
“Sheesh, Wolfie,” Sabre sneered, setting Wolfsbane down. “You keep being that sappy, and I might not be able to run!”
Wolfsbane shifted to her hybrid form.
“I had to give him a chance at redemption,” Wolfsbane said. “Now let’s tear his bloody heart out!”
# # # # #
Deus Ex Monstra looked towards Nova with a sneer.
“You, the team missile,” Deus Ex Monstra said. “It suits you. Blunt, good for only one thing.”
“If you don’t surrender, metal head, you’ll find out exactly how good I am at my job,” Nova said. His eyes smoldered with emerald power. “I’ve smashed better tin cans than you.”
“But none of them knew you like I do,” said the monster. He pointed his hand at Nova, and an orange burst of energy flew from it, and crashed into the Human Rocket.
Nova screamed, or tried to, as it felt as if his nerves had been replaced with fire. He fell from the air like a lead balloon, as his insides seemed to warp inside his body.
“Enough,” Technocrat raised a shield, blocking the energy from reaching Nova. “Deus Ex Monstra, is it? Don’t think that because you were created from our training room, that means you know us. Surrender, and we’ll allow you to leave unharmed when this is all sorted.”
“Your lives limit mine,” Deus Ex Monstra said. “I was built to kill you, to end you. So long as you live, I cannot. I will never be free to find out who and what I truly am, until you are no more!”
“Foul machine!” Vibraxis send his power slamming into Deus Ex Monstra. “You are worse than the Vision who wounded my beloved Wakanda! He was corrupted, while you are a corruption! One I will not allow to continue!”
Deus Ex Monstra swiveled his head towards Vibraxis.
“You don’t get a choice.”
“Move!” Charcoal stepped in front of Vibraxis before a bolt of energy would have taken his head off.
“Fool!” Vibraxis spat. “I would have phased through it effortlessly!”
“This thing knows our powers!” Charcoal said. “You think it didn’t know that?”
“…oh.”
“Indeed I do.” Deus Ex Monstra leapt towards Charcoal, and sank his head into his stone chassis. Electricity surged from the robot’s hands, and Charcoal felt a wave of agony shoot through his body. “And I know exactly how to hurt you.”
-blink!-
Deus Ex Monstra clenched his fists as Charcoal was teleported several feet away.
“You got lucky,” Deus Ex Monstra said.
“No, we got stupid.” Nova landed in front of Charcoal and Blink, his fists clenched. “Everyone, listen up. He knows our tricks. But what he doesn’t know is that our powers are just tools. We’re the weapons, not our powers.”
“Let’s go to work.”
# # # # #
Sabre rained down super-sonic blows on Matrix’s kidneys, a good three dozen, before he tried to swat her away.
When Sabre withdrew, X-Treme came at him from behind, swinging his axe, and planting it in Matrix’s shoulder.
Matrix found that the healing factor gained with Wolfsbane’s powers did nothing for the pain. Matrix, bone claws extended, swept his hands for X-Treme’s chest but his enemy effortlessly dodged, yanking his axe free as he did. X-Treme came at Matrix again, and kicked in his right knee, breaking bone while tearing muscles and nerve.
“Arrrgh!” Matrix summoned Charcoal’s flame, and forced X-Treme back. “You can’t win! I have all your powers!”
Matrix emphasized that by teleporting behind Wolfsbbane. With steel hands, he reached for her neck.
“…and I…arggh!” Matrix stumbled, his head blazing with pain. He looked over his shoulder, and saw Mirage, with another psychic arrow already notched.
“You have a taste of our powers,” Mirage said, “but not the skill, experience or ability. You should have learned that by now.”
“I have enough!”
Matrix summoned Sabre’s super speed, and sped towards Mirage.
“Noyoureallydon’t,” Sabre said as she came up from behind Matrix. She registered that he’d smashed into the first car. He pressed her hands against his back, and sped up by over three hundred miles per hour in two steps.
Matrix couldn’t hope to keep up. He tripped, and pushing him as if he were a giant snowball rolling downhill, Sabre modified his course, and sent him flying over the edge of the roof.
Matrix tumbled like a leaf caught in a whirlwind. He never saw the parking lot that he was aimed toward. By the time it registered that he’d smashed into a car, his body had already cut four more in half as if they were made of glass.
“…not…possible,” Matrix tried to stand. Bits of metal and glass were wedged in his skin, and pain threatened to overtake him. “Nero, he…promised it would be different…I have their powers…”
“No,” said a voice. “Not all of them.”
Matrix looked up, and saw Tarene falling towards him, hammer pulled back.
His world became pain, as his body smashed through four levels of concrete and steel before reaching the parking lot basement.
Tarene stood over the hole she’s created. She looked down at Matrix’s prone form, and her war hammer shook.
A war raged inside her head, and it took all her willpower not to unleash her entire power then and there, turning Matrix into nothing but a smear.
“Tarene!” Mirage called out. “Where is Matrix? Is he down?”
Tarene sighed loudly. “He is. For now.”
# # # # #
Kymera and Nova came down on Deus Ex Monstra like guided missiles, crushing him to the pavement.
“Baby, you have no idea how much I’ve missed this.” Namorita grabbed one of Deus Ex Monstra’s arms in each hand. “This almost feels like a date!”
“Then let’s pretend this thing is a lobster I bought you.” Nova grabbed Deus Ex Monstra’s opposite side, his fingers sinking into the metal as if it were clay.
“You mean sea roach?” Namorita bug in her heels, and pulled with enough force to stop a tank, “You surface dwellers; no taste.”
Deus Ex Monstra could feel his internal systems failing, and the pressure on his metal chassis building. He knew he had only seconds before he was ripped in two like a piece of paper.
But for an android like himself, a few seconds was all he needed. He channeled an electrical pulse through his outer body, and both Namorita and Nova released their grips in fear.
“I thought you two were the strong ones,” Deus Ex Monstra mocked. “Afraid of a little charge?”
“No, smart enough to know what you know,” Namorita said. “Which is how to hurt us.”
“But that’s all you really know, ain’t it?” said Nova. “Charcoal, turn him into slag.”
Charcoal willed a channel of flame towards Deus Ex Monstra, but the robot smirked as it simply struck a force field.
“Your fire is useless if it can’t touch me,” Deus Ex Monstra said.
“Indeed,” Vibraxis sent waves of sonic energy at the force field, and it shattered like ice.
“Noo!” Deus Ex Monstra leapt out of the way seconds before the flame would have turned him to molten metal. He barely made it five feet before Nova slammed into him from behind, and sent him hurtling into the ground.
“You pathetic…”
-blink!-
Super charged javelins sliced through Deus Ex Monstra’s spider-like leg, and by the time the information reached his brain, Blink had already removed herself, and he was hobbled.
“I did what you asked for, Technocrat,” Blink shouted. “Move in!”
“You silly little tinker toy,” said Techncrat, as he strolled towards the wounded robot. “Did you think you ever stood a chance? Power without skill is no power at all.”
“Am I to be afraid of you?” Deus Ex Monstra said. “I redesigned myself the minute I was born! And you cannot hack my mainframe, because my systems are closed! For all your bluster, you’re the weakest of the team, and were it not for your ruthlessness, you’d be dead!”
“Is that what you think?” Technocrat said. “I would disagree. Let’s find out who’s right, shall we?”
Deus Ex Monstra’s fingers became claws.
“Let’s.”
The android lunged for Technocrat, and thus never saw Nova the Human Rocket and Kymaera the Submariner, until he’d already been smashed to the ground, and sent a large cloud of dirt flying every which way.
“Head, please,” Technocrat raised his arm to cover his face.
“We know!” Namorita growled as she wrapped her arms around the robot’s waist. “Nova, go!”
“Got it!” Nova said. In his left hand was a silver spike Technocrat had given him moments ago. He took it, and impaled Deus Ex Monstra through the back of the skull.
“Closed system?” Technocrat said. “Not anymore.”
“No…nononono!” Deus Ex Monstra screamed, as his systems began shutting down on by one.
“You and Matrix were puppets, things meant to bloody us, and make our blood boil,” Technocrat hissed. “In that, you were a success. It is the only one you will ever enjoy.”
“Tough talk,” Namorita said. “But whoever planted this thing and Matrix still has Bobby, knows all our secrets, and we don’t even have a name!”
“No, but we have two prisoners,” Technocrat said. He looked over his shoulder at the crowd of people gathering. “Nova, take this thing back to my lab. I’ll have a holding cell waiting for you by the time you arrive. I’ll have Mirage do the same with Matrix.”
“Sweet Neptune, are you out of your mind?” Namorita was looming over Taki in an instant. “We can’t hold them prisoner!”
“If we don’t, we may lose Bobby,” Technocrat said, “all that happened toward was a teammate’s powers went high wire because of an AIM weapon, that we’ve captured and need to examine for our friend’s sake.”
Namorita fumed, and clenched her fists.
“We’d be well within our rights.”
“You self righteous…”
“Hey,” Nova placed a hand on his lover’s shoulder. “It’s wrong, I know, but what choice do we have?”
“Just because I don’t know the right answer doesn’t mean I can’t recognize the wrong one,” Namorita said. “Fine. We’ll hold them, for now. But don’t think this is over, Taki.”
“Nothing is ever over,” Technocrat said. “I’ve heard from Mirage. Matrix is contained.”
“Glad to hear it,” Nova said with a sigh.
“Why the dejected tone, brother?” Vibraxis said. “We triumphed over two great enemies, and in doing so will enable us to rescue our friend post haste!”
“Because we just outfought two bad guys who would have steamrolled us when we were younger,” Nova said. “But despite that, we still haven’t accomplished a damn thing…”
NEXT ISSUE: The hunt for Arsenal is on as we build to our climatic 50th issue!