The man dressed in blue and purple armour complete with a helmet, its visor decorated to look like a skull shot around the corner of the alleyway, bailing through the crowd and the fruit stalls set up there. Behind him, his pursuer dressed in a black sexton and cowboy leathers closed, not enough to catch him but enough to remove a bola from his belt. The running man got another good five foot before the chain and weighted balls wrapped round his legs, sending him slamming down onto the pavement.
"Senor, I only asked if you were a member of the Steel Skulls," His pursuer asked in a Hispanic accent, wheezing slightly between words, "I take it from your flight that's a yes."
"The Reaper taught us not to shoot our mouths off when on mission." The bound Steelskull merc hissed as he tried to break his way out of the bolas wire.
"Is he the only one who taught you?" The Hispanic man asked. "You see I have no interest in the Williams brothers or their family spat. I'm looking for someone else."
"You're that Ramon Dantes guy right, yeah teach said you might be a problem." The Steelskull sneered as he looked up at the greying hair and lined face of his inquisitor. "He told us to be ready for you in the last alumni newsletter."
"Oh, and what did he suggest?" Ramon asked as a skull like face loomed out of the darkness behind him.
"To always have some back-up." A second Steelskull hissed as he slammed the butt of his rifle into the back of Ramon's head, the blow staggering him. "And to always watch our back."
"I didn't think that our life would be farmer's markets and interior decorating." The black-haired woman dressed in dungarees stated as she and the man she was walking with struggled home with a bag full of pots of paint.
"But oddly it feels right."
"Told you Elanor, just because it feels different doesn't mean it’s wrong." The man, slightly older than his female companion and dressed in a shirt, brown chinos and jacket stated. "Besides we have a good handle on life at the moment, all those night school classes and hard work are finally paying off."
"Okay Matt." Elanor stated as she rolled her eyes. Passing by the end of an alleyway the pair heard shouting and looked down to see a pair of armoured soldiers beating an old man.
"Keep walking Elle, it's not our problem." Matt stated as Elanor's hand began to tremble, the heavy paint cans seemingly no longer a problem.
"We should help..." Elanor began to say, only for her voice to trail off.
"Call the police than, we both wanted a life away from this." Matt stated as he reached for his phone. "Besides it’s been three years, I know I'm rusty at doing this. And you’re already doing it aren't you." He sighed as Elanor removed a pot of magenta paint and swung it round like a hammer before releasing it, the improvised weapon slamming into the side of one of the Steelskulls, knocking him to the floor.
"I think that colour looks good on him, what about you Matt?" Elanor stated with a devil may care smile on her face. Matt responded by grabbing Elanor by the straps of her dungarees and dragging her behind cover just as the remaining Steelskull opened fire.
"I think maybe that phone call would be a good thing right now." Matt stated as he stuck his hands up in submission, the laser fire stopping. "Now would be good!" He ordered as the Steelskull moved out of the alleyway, weapon trained on the two bystanders.
"Who the hell do you two think you are?!" The gunman asked as he eyed the remaining cans of paint with suspicion. "Paint Girl and Yuppie Boi?"
"You wish, no we're your superiors, I suspect you don't recognise us out of costume." Matt hissed his voice taking a threatening hissing tone. "But Shriek down there isn't who you have to worry about, that would be 'us'."
"Us?" The Steelskull gulped.
"We are Carnage." Matt hissed, the gunman's eyes going wide behind his mask.
"I didn't know, the Taskmaster never told us what you looked like out of costume." The Steelskull sobbed as Matt grinned a terrifying grin.
"Nah not really, I'm just Yuppie Boi." Matt snorted as he punched the gunman, electricity sparking from his wrists and stunning his opponent long enough for him to be tackled to the floor.
"You kept your 'electro-bite' gauntlets, and you wanted me to call the police." Elanor spat as she walked over to the old man the mercenaries had been beating.
"I took a calculated risk; besides they were for muggers not super mercs." Matt answered as he fished a pair of handcuffs off the stunned skull and cuffed his hands round a lamppost.
"Regardless I am grateful, Ramon Dantes at your service." Ramon announced as he bent down next to the gunman knocked out by the flying paint pot. "I am at your service."
"These must be real jerks to pick on an old man." Elanor stated as she looked at the stained pink villain, a strange feeling of battle lust crawling over her. "I'm Elanor Silvers and that's my fiancé Matt Davis."
"To be fair to the Steelskulls, I was hunting them and while one I could handle, the second ambushed me."
Ramon answered as he picked up a dropped bola. "And unfortunately, there are another twelve of them active in the city."
"That's your problem, not ours." Matt snorted as he picked up the remaining paint cans. "Come on Elle, we have a life outside this now, let's not throw it away."
"Good luck." Elanor sighed as she shook her head, the battle lust fading, at least for now.
"Wait, my number for when it comes time to repay my debt." Ramon announced as he handed Elanor a scrap of paper. As the couple walked away in complete silence, Ramon bent down next to the cuffed Steelskull and slipped a bulky module out the back of his helmet into his jacket pocket.
"Your brothers can run but they can't hide." Ramon whispered as he walked back down the alleyway.
Elanor pulled the dust cloth off the closet before sitting down and staring at the locked doors. Walking in behind her, two mugs of coffee in his hands, Matt sat down next to her.
"I know what you're thinking." Matt stated as he handed his fiancé a mug.
"And?" Elanor asked, as silently both parties braced themselves for the brewing argument, they both knew was looming on the horizon.
"It's a bad idea Elle, going back to the old life that was nothing but hard work and tragedy just doesn't feel appealing to me." Matt stated as Elanor placed her mug down and took a deep breath, her fiancé had a point.
"I don't miss those days Matt, but I do miss the days we flew over the city and people cheered, I miss not hiding who I was, I miss you, the real you." Elanor stated, her New York accent slipping into a mid-western drawl as her passions rose.
"I'm still here." Matt replied, his anger kept in check for now.
"No, you're not Abe, and I'm not going to scream at you for it, I haven't been here either." Elanor announced as she got to her feet and ran her hand across the front of the closet. "I love Matt but I'm in love with Abe."
"Elle I..." Matt spluttered as Elanor broke open the lock of the closet to reveal a blue unitard with white accents across the legs and chest, the later shaped like a bird. "This is dangerous, we have enemies out there, we still have active arrest warrants."
"The only enemy I see, I feel right now is the masks we put on. " Elanor hissed, as she removed her former costume. "I've been feeling this way for a while. I even queued up when the New Warriors were recruiting, ended up standing three people behind the girls they actually chose. I want people to see me, know what I can do! I want to remind everyone that I, we are still here!"
"I just want you to be safe Mel." Abe sighed as he walked over and looked at the old costume. "And I want you to be happy, but you're looking back on things with rose tinted glasses."
"Perhaps, but perhaps not, I wanted to chart my own course when Zemo's operation imploded, but ever since then Elanor has been in control and while I can't deny that there were some benefits, she's not me." Melissa explained as she bent down and removed a gold harness covered in dust, before placing it over her shoulders.
Seconds later pink sparks engulfed her hair vibrating the hair dye off her locks to reveal a platinum white mane streaked with red.
"If this makes you happy." Abe sighed as he drained the tea from his mug. "But at the very least let me keep you safe." He added with a grim smile as he closed the closet.
"I don't know whether to be mad at you or awed at the sheer underhandedness of you keeping this from me." Melissa said from behind the curtain.
"Be both, and consider it to be an 'I'm sorry gift'." Abe stated as he ran a swift diagnostic on the laptop plugged into the helmet of his old Beetle armour.
"What are the veins on the back for?" Melissa asked as Abe brought up a holographic map of the city. "And what's it doing to my throat?"
"Massaging it, any construct you make will have increased stability and durability." Abe answered as he zeroed in on a point on the map. "The veins are endurance stabilisers for your wings. Once you've created them, those puppies will maintain them, freeing your powers up for other duties." He added as he placed the helmet down on the desk and unplugged it from the laptop. "Well let's see her?"
After a second Melissa stepped out, clad in a black bodysuit with white accents on the legs, pink sonic wings hanging down from a pair of three-inch stubs projecting from the back of the suit. "Well she's beautiful in a utilitarian way." Melissa stated as she rolled the helmet she'd been given over in her hands.
"The Nightingale Mk. 1 was designed for function not flair, that you add in yourself." Abe announced as he got up and took the helmet from her and slipped a digital card into the cheek armour. "Locations locked in, and should we need to do some high altitude flying, the helmet should form a vacuum seal to keep you from passing out." He added before lifting the helmet over Melissa's hair, only for her to stop and kiss him.
"Thank you." She whispered as she pulled away.
"No thank you Mel, this feels right, terrifying but right." Abe replied as Melissa walked to the window, took one deep breath and jumped, pink angelic wings flaring as she took to the skies.
The first Steelskull hit the ground hard, his legs entangled with the steel cable and weighted bolas. Slipping out of the shadows Ramon dragged the body out of view before heading towards the stairs. At one time there had been eighteen Steelskulls, but with the two taken out earlier and the four killed during a three-way fight with the Avengers and Madame Masque there were only twelve members occupying the top three floors of the Bainstow Telecom Tower. Half way up Ramon saw another Steelskull, this one vaping an E - cigarette with his back to the stairs. Pressing home his advantage Ramon threw another bola, this one causing the merc to stumble back down the stairs.
Almost immediately a third Steelskull emerged before shouting, his cries muffled as he too was taken out, his head smacking against the guard rail. At that point Ramon knew he was rumbled and fished a vicious looking rope dart from his coat, just as the first salvo of laser flashed above him...in completely the wrong direction.
Ramon couldn't believe his eyes when he reached the top floor as pink hard sound daggers and cobalt blue laser fire was exchanged between a solo figure and five Steelskulls, the others lying on the floor bloodied and broken on the floor.
"Buenas Noche Señorita." Ramon announced as he flung the rope dart out disarming one of the Steelskulls of his weapon. "What is a lovely lady like you doing here."
"Kicking butt mostly." Melissa answered as a sonic claw grabbed one of the Steelskulls and slammed him into a wall. "What are you doing here Ramon?" She asked as a sonic lasso wrapped around the laser rifles dragging them away from their owners.
"You know who I am?" Ramon gasped in surprise as he rope-darted one of the Steelskulls through the hand as he reached for his sidearm. " Then you have heard about my campaign against the Taskmasters operation, these men were trained by him, my aim is to use their defeat to embarrass him. And how about you? Why are you here young lady?"
"I'm being true to myself I guess." Melissa answered as she sonically chained the last Steelskull to a column. "I thought you were doing something noble but it sounds like you're just out for revenge."
"Nobility is a notion I never decided to embrace." Ramon replied as he bent down over one of the unconscious skulls and removed one of the helmets. "I am a mere henchman after all, at least according to the Taskmaster."
"You're following orders, even if they are your own orders." Melissa replied bitterly as she walked over to the balcony she flown to and entered. "You're not embarrassing the Taskmaster; you're just reverting to the very thing he thinks you...ARGH!" She screamed as a hologram of Abe wearing his old beetle helmet appeared in the room.
"Discuss morality later, I'm picking up EX residue on the Nightingale's sensors." Abe announced as a luminous outline appeared a large briefcase laid in the middle of the room. "Analysis suggests it’s a Fuel-Air bomb."
"How bad is that?" Melissa asked.
"The entire building will be gutted; the top five floors will likely be sterilised in seconds." Abe replied as Ramon tucked his rope-dart back in his jacket. "It'll be bad wherever it detonates but I'm sending you a point where it will do the least damage."
"This is at 30,000 feet; I've never gone so high." Melissa gulped.
"You need to hit the mark at the right time and place to avoid an incident with an airliner. This is where your flair comes in Melissa, I know you can do it." Abe added as he placed a holographic hand on Melissa's shoulder. Nodding Melissa grabbed the bomb and took off.
"I'll be making my exit then." Ramon announced only for Abe to cross his arms and shake his head.
"You want to be better than people's expectations of you yes?" Abe asked as Ramon began to untie a bola from one of the unconscious Steelskull. "Better yourself, show Taskmaster that you are better than him, that you care about more than just your revenge."
"Matt Davis yes, I owe you but doing this right here cleans the slate." Ramon growled as he retrieved his bolas and slipped it onto his belt. "What can I do?"
"The bomb has a digital timer set to go off to inflict maximum casualties, but these guys also have sequence detonators for triggering smaller charges attached to the bomb, in case the main timer failed. When I give you your mark, I want you to prematurely detonate the bomb." Abe announced as Ramon found one of the pen sized triggers. "Once the bomb is released Melissa will have ten seconds to climb out of range."
"What is the range?" Ramon asked as holo Abe flickered as the pair of them walked out onto the balcony to watch a pink speck on the horizon.
"In open air, its half a mile." Abe replied. "For now, just worry about hitting your cue."
Melissa scythed through the clouds, the exhilaration of flight outweighing the fear of carrying a bomb. More than anything, it was flying that she missed most about having been Songbird. Part of her missed that name, far more than she'd missed Screaming Mimi but ultimately both had been shot down in flames by her actions.
"Mel you're coming up to the drop point." Abe announced over the helmet's commlink. "On my mark release it and start climbing." He added as Melissa closed her eyes' focusing on the quickest sonic sound construct, she could think of. "Mark!" Abe yelled, in a voice so suddenly aggressive that Melissa dropped the bomb and shot upwards.
Time seemed to slow as two things happened almost at once, the first was the pressure wave of the thermobaric bomb detonating shattering her hard-sound wings, the second was the high-altitude vacuum seal shaking apart, the helmet she was wearing flying off. Wheezing and coughing Melissa plummeted towards earth, the G-Force and burning air causing her to black-out.
"Melissa, open your wings!" Abe called as he checked the Nightingale's diagnostic of his fiancé’s health. "Shit, switching to remote!" He cursed as he placed a joystick on his desk and watched the feed through the armour's cameras. After what seemed an age the remote access triggered and Abe activated the sonic generator in Melissa's armour, shaky sonic wings forming to slow the descent.
With a thud Melissa landed on the deck, her breathing normalised. With a sigh of relief Abe watched as his partners vitals came back online, her body stirring just as the sound of weapons cocking sounded. Checking the cameras Abe suddenly realised that the sound was in his apartment seconds before a bag went over his head and a butt of a gun slammed into his neck, Melissa's stirring body the last thing he saw before he was knocked unconscious.
"Senor, I only asked if you were a member of the Steel Skulls," His pursuer asked in a Hispanic accent, wheezing slightly between words, "I take it from your flight that's a yes."
"The Reaper taught us not to shoot our mouths off when on mission." The bound Steelskull merc hissed as he tried to break his way out of the bolas wire.
"Is he the only one who taught you?" The Hispanic man asked. "You see I have no interest in the Williams brothers or their family spat. I'm looking for someone else."
"You're that Ramon Dantes guy right, yeah teach said you might be a problem." The Steelskull sneered as he looked up at the greying hair and lined face of his inquisitor. "He told us to be ready for you in the last alumni newsletter."
"Oh, and what did he suggest?" Ramon asked as a skull like face loomed out of the darkness behind him.
"To always have some back-up." A second Steelskull hissed as he slammed the butt of his rifle into the back of Ramon's head, the blow staggering him. "And to always watch our back."
"I didn't think that our life would be farmer's markets and interior decorating." The black-haired woman dressed in dungarees stated as she and the man she was walking with struggled home with a bag full of pots of paint.
"But oddly it feels right."
"Told you Elanor, just because it feels different doesn't mean it’s wrong." The man, slightly older than his female companion and dressed in a shirt, brown chinos and jacket stated. "Besides we have a good handle on life at the moment, all those night school classes and hard work are finally paying off."
"Okay Matt." Elanor stated as she rolled her eyes. Passing by the end of an alleyway the pair heard shouting and looked down to see a pair of armoured soldiers beating an old man.
"Keep walking Elle, it's not our problem." Matt stated as Elanor's hand began to tremble, the heavy paint cans seemingly no longer a problem.
"We should help..." Elanor began to say, only for her voice to trail off.
"Call the police than, we both wanted a life away from this." Matt stated as he reached for his phone. "Besides it’s been three years, I know I'm rusty at doing this. And you’re already doing it aren't you." He sighed as Elanor removed a pot of magenta paint and swung it round like a hammer before releasing it, the improvised weapon slamming into the side of one of the Steelskulls, knocking him to the floor.
"I think that colour looks good on him, what about you Matt?" Elanor stated with a devil may care smile on her face. Matt responded by grabbing Elanor by the straps of her dungarees and dragging her behind cover just as the remaining Steelskull opened fire.
"I think maybe that phone call would be a good thing right now." Matt stated as he stuck his hands up in submission, the laser fire stopping. "Now would be good!" He ordered as the Steelskull moved out of the alleyway, weapon trained on the two bystanders.
"Who the hell do you two think you are?!" The gunman asked as he eyed the remaining cans of paint with suspicion. "Paint Girl and Yuppie Boi?"
"You wish, no we're your superiors, I suspect you don't recognise us out of costume." Matt hissed his voice taking a threatening hissing tone. "But Shriek down there isn't who you have to worry about, that would be 'us'."
"Us?" The Steelskull gulped.
"We are Carnage." Matt hissed, the gunman's eyes going wide behind his mask.
"I didn't know, the Taskmaster never told us what you looked like out of costume." The Steelskull sobbed as Matt grinned a terrifying grin.
"Nah not really, I'm just Yuppie Boi." Matt snorted as he punched the gunman, electricity sparking from his wrists and stunning his opponent long enough for him to be tackled to the floor.
"You kept your 'electro-bite' gauntlets, and you wanted me to call the police." Elanor spat as she walked over to the old man the mercenaries had been beating.
"I took a calculated risk; besides they were for muggers not super mercs." Matt answered as he fished a pair of handcuffs off the stunned skull and cuffed his hands round a lamppost.
"Regardless I am grateful, Ramon Dantes at your service." Ramon announced as he bent down next to the gunman knocked out by the flying paint pot. "I am at your service."
"These must be real jerks to pick on an old man." Elanor stated as she looked at the stained pink villain, a strange feeling of battle lust crawling over her. "I'm Elanor Silvers and that's my fiancé Matt Davis."
"To be fair to the Steelskulls, I was hunting them and while one I could handle, the second ambushed me."
Ramon answered as he picked up a dropped bola. "And unfortunately, there are another twelve of them active in the city."
"That's your problem, not ours." Matt snorted as he picked up the remaining paint cans. "Come on Elle, we have a life outside this now, let's not throw it away."
"Good luck." Elanor sighed as she shook her head, the battle lust fading, at least for now.
"Wait, my number for when it comes time to repay my debt." Ramon announced as he handed Elanor a scrap of paper. As the couple walked away in complete silence, Ramon bent down next to the cuffed Steelskull and slipped a bulky module out the back of his helmet into his jacket pocket.
"Your brothers can run but they can't hide." Ramon whispered as he walked back down the alleyway.
Elanor pulled the dust cloth off the closet before sitting down and staring at the locked doors. Walking in behind her, two mugs of coffee in his hands, Matt sat down next to her.
"I know what you're thinking." Matt stated as he handed his fiancé a mug.
"And?" Elanor asked, as silently both parties braced themselves for the brewing argument, they both knew was looming on the horizon.
"It's a bad idea Elle, going back to the old life that was nothing but hard work and tragedy just doesn't feel appealing to me." Matt stated as Elanor placed her mug down and took a deep breath, her fiancé had a point.
"I don't miss those days Matt, but I do miss the days we flew over the city and people cheered, I miss not hiding who I was, I miss you, the real you." Elanor stated, her New York accent slipping into a mid-western drawl as her passions rose.
"I'm still here." Matt replied, his anger kept in check for now.
"No, you're not Abe, and I'm not going to scream at you for it, I haven't been here either." Elanor announced as she got to her feet and ran her hand across the front of the closet. "I love Matt but I'm in love with Abe."
"Elle I..." Matt spluttered as Elanor broke open the lock of the closet to reveal a blue unitard with white accents across the legs and chest, the later shaped like a bird. "This is dangerous, we have enemies out there, we still have active arrest warrants."
"The only enemy I see, I feel right now is the masks we put on. " Elanor hissed, as she removed her former costume. "I've been feeling this way for a while. I even queued up when the New Warriors were recruiting, ended up standing three people behind the girls they actually chose. I want people to see me, know what I can do! I want to remind everyone that I, we are still here!"
"I just want you to be safe Mel." Abe sighed as he walked over and looked at the old costume. "And I want you to be happy, but you're looking back on things with rose tinted glasses."
"Perhaps, but perhaps not, I wanted to chart my own course when Zemo's operation imploded, but ever since then Elanor has been in control and while I can't deny that there were some benefits, she's not me." Melissa explained as she bent down and removed a gold harness covered in dust, before placing it over her shoulders.
Seconds later pink sparks engulfed her hair vibrating the hair dye off her locks to reveal a platinum white mane streaked with red.
"If this makes you happy." Abe sighed as he drained the tea from his mug. "But at the very least let me keep you safe." He added with a grim smile as he closed the closet.
"I don't know whether to be mad at you or awed at the sheer underhandedness of you keeping this from me." Melissa said from behind the curtain.
"Be both, and consider it to be an 'I'm sorry gift'." Abe stated as he ran a swift diagnostic on the laptop plugged into the helmet of his old Beetle armour.
"What are the veins on the back for?" Melissa asked as Abe brought up a holographic map of the city. "And what's it doing to my throat?"
"Massaging it, any construct you make will have increased stability and durability." Abe answered as he zeroed in on a point on the map. "The veins are endurance stabilisers for your wings. Once you've created them, those puppies will maintain them, freeing your powers up for other duties." He added as he placed the helmet down on the desk and unplugged it from the laptop. "Well let's see her?"
After a second Melissa stepped out, clad in a black bodysuit with white accents on the legs, pink sonic wings hanging down from a pair of three-inch stubs projecting from the back of the suit. "Well she's beautiful in a utilitarian way." Melissa stated as she rolled the helmet she'd been given over in her hands.
"The Nightingale Mk. 1 was designed for function not flair, that you add in yourself." Abe announced as he got up and took the helmet from her and slipped a digital card into the cheek armour. "Locations locked in, and should we need to do some high altitude flying, the helmet should form a vacuum seal to keep you from passing out." He added before lifting the helmet over Melissa's hair, only for her to stop and kiss him.
"Thank you." She whispered as she pulled away.
"No thank you Mel, this feels right, terrifying but right." Abe replied as Melissa walked to the window, took one deep breath and jumped, pink angelic wings flaring as she took to the skies.
The first Steelskull hit the ground hard, his legs entangled with the steel cable and weighted bolas. Slipping out of the shadows Ramon dragged the body out of view before heading towards the stairs. At one time there had been eighteen Steelskulls, but with the two taken out earlier and the four killed during a three-way fight with the Avengers and Madame Masque there were only twelve members occupying the top three floors of the Bainstow Telecom Tower. Half way up Ramon saw another Steelskull, this one vaping an E - cigarette with his back to the stairs. Pressing home his advantage Ramon threw another bola, this one causing the merc to stumble back down the stairs.
Almost immediately a third Steelskull emerged before shouting, his cries muffled as he too was taken out, his head smacking against the guard rail. At that point Ramon knew he was rumbled and fished a vicious looking rope dart from his coat, just as the first salvo of laser flashed above him...in completely the wrong direction.
Ramon couldn't believe his eyes when he reached the top floor as pink hard sound daggers and cobalt blue laser fire was exchanged between a solo figure and five Steelskulls, the others lying on the floor bloodied and broken on the floor.
"Buenas Noche Señorita." Ramon announced as he flung the rope dart out disarming one of the Steelskulls of his weapon. "What is a lovely lady like you doing here."
"Kicking butt mostly." Melissa answered as a sonic claw grabbed one of the Steelskulls and slammed him into a wall. "What are you doing here Ramon?" She asked as a sonic lasso wrapped around the laser rifles dragging them away from their owners.
"You know who I am?" Ramon gasped in surprise as he rope-darted one of the Steelskulls through the hand as he reached for his sidearm. " Then you have heard about my campaign against the Taskmasters operation, these men were trained by him, my aim is to use their defeat to embarrass him. And how about you? Why are you here young lady?"
"I'm being true to myself I guess." Melissa answered as she sonically chained the last Steelskull to a column. "I thought you were doing something noble but it sounds like you're just out for revenge."
"Nobility is a notion I never decided to embrace." Ramon replied as he bent down over one of the unconscious skulls and removed one of the helmets. "I am a mere henchman after all, at least according to the Taskmaster."
"You're following orders, even if they are your own orders." Melissa replied bitterly as she walked over to the balcony she flown to and entered. "You're not embarrassing the Taskmaster; you're just reverting to the very thing he thinks you...ARGH!" She screamed as a hologram of Abe wearing his old beetle helmet appeared in the room.
"Discuss morality later, I'm picking up EX residue on the Nightingale's sensors." Abe announced as a luminous outline appeared a large briefcase laid in the middle of the room. "Analysis suggests it’s a Fuel-Air bomb."
"How bad is that?" Melissa asked.
"The entire building will be gutted; the top five floors will likely be sterilised in seconds." Abe replied as Ramon tucked his rope-dart back in his jacket. "It'll be bad wherever it detonates but I'm sending you a point where it will do the least damage."
"This is at 30,000 feet; I've never gone so high." Melissa gulped.
"You need to hit the mark at the right time and place to avoid an incident with an airliner. This is where your flair comes in Melissa, I know you can do it." Abe added as he placed a holographic hand on Melissa's shoulder. Nodding Melissa grabbed the bomb and took off.
"I'll be making my exit then." Ramon announced only for Abe to cross his arms and shake his head.
"You want to be better than people's expectations of you yes?" Abe asked as Ramon began to untie a bola from one of the unconscious Steelskull. "Better yourself, show Taskmaster that you are better than him, that you care about more than just your revenge."
"Matt Davis yes, I owe you but doing this right here cleans the slate." Ramon growled as he retrieved his bolas and slipped it onto his belt. "What can I do?"
"The bomb has a digital timer set to go off to inflict maximum casualties, but these guys also have sequence detonators for triggering smaller charges attached to the bomb, in case the main timer failed. When I give you your mark, I want you to prematurely detonate the bomb." Abe announced as Ramon found one of the pen sized triggers. "Once the bomb is released Melissa will have ten seconds to climb out of range."
"What is the range?" Ramon asked as holo Abe flickered as the pair of them walked out onto the balcony to watch a pink speck on the horizon.
"In open air, its half a mile." Abe replied. "For now, just worry about hitting your cue."
Melissa scythed through the clouds, the exhilaration of flight outweighing the fear of carrying a bomb. More than anything, it was flying that she missed most about having been Songbird. Part of her missed that name, far more than she'd missed Screaming Mimi but ultimately both had been shot down in flames by her actions.
"Mel you're coming up to the drop point." Abe announced over the helmet's commlink. "On my mark release it and start climbing." He added as Melissa closed her eyes' focusing on the quickest sonic sound construct, she could think of. "Mark!" Abe yelled, in a voice so suddenly aggressive that Melissa dropped the bomb and shot upwards.
Time seemed to slow as two things happened almost at once, the first was the pressure wave of the thermobaric bomb detonating shattering her hard-sound wings, the second was the high-altitude vacuum seal shaking apart, the helmet she was wearing flying off. Wheezing and coughing Melissa plummeted towards earth, the G-Force and burning air causing her to black-out.
"Melissa, open your wings!" Abe called as he checked the Nightingale's diagnostic of his fiancé’s health. "Shit, switching to remote!" He cursed as he placed a joystick on his desk and watched the feed through the armour's cameras. After what seemed an age the remote access triggered and Abe activated the sonic generator in Melissa's armour, shaky sonic wings forming to slow the descent.
With a thud Melissa landed on the deck, her breathing normalised. With a sigh of relief Abe watched as his partners vitals came back online, her body stirring just as the sound of weapons cocking sounded. Checking the cameras Abe suddenly realised that the sound was in his apartment seconds before a bag went over his head and a butt of a gun slammed into his neck, Melissa's stirring body the last thing he saw before he was knocked unconscious.