Back to GatefoldIssue #2 by Ben Jolly
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Mac Gargan, better known in some circles as The Scorpion, was sleeping hard. Only 20 hours had passed since he had been abruptly woken in the middle of the night at a high-security correctional institute in Texas, and dragged into an armored van by several thugs with body armor and laser rifles. He had been strapped onto a cold metal stretcher, a crate containing his Scorpion costume thrown in after him, then left in the darkness while the van drove who-knows-where. They stopped once, somewhere in the middle of the desert, to feed him and let him use a restroom. Then they continued onward. He had wondered, was this some new kind of torture: being trapped in a small, dark steel room, rocking steadily back and forth, for hours on end. It would drive anyone crazy. Including him, if he weren't already.
At last they stopped. They were in a desert again, but it was a different desert. As he was lifted, still on the metal stretcher, inside a colossal concrete building, he saw a coffin-like box that glowed yellow being carried inside. He heard muffled screaming eminating from the box, as they were carried through a large door and into what looked like a receptionist's office. The door was made of a dull metal, darker than steel. Adamantium? He'd heard stories of the unbreakable metal before, but such an immense quantity was unbelievable.
He and the box, still somehow glowing with energy, were presented to a short man in a black suit. The short man introduced himself as Dr. Dudley, chief psychiatrist of "The Vault," said the short man, "is completely impenetrable. Once you're in, you don't get out. And you gentlemen are now in." He pointed first at the box then down a dark hall. "Take the 'Living Laser' up to block A, cell 24." The guards carrying the box lifted it once more with a series of grunts, and walked down the hall. Two patrolling guards walked through the office as the doctor pointed at the Scorpion. "Take this gentleman over to block C, cell 1."
He was lifted off of the stretcher and practically dragged down another hall. They took him through another door, even thicker than the first and walked past cell after cell. Many of these were empty, but others had inhabitants, none of them looking very pleased with the situation. They walked down to the very end of the hall, passing hundreds of super-powered felons. The Scorpion was dumped into an empty cell, the farthest from the door, and immediately, thick bars slid out of the ceiling while a guard lifted a lever and turned on the electricity. The guards walked over to the end of the hall, which was a wall of concrete with several racks of weapons at its base. Each guard picked up a large weapon, probably particle-accelerating laser cannons.
One of the guards walked over to him and patted his weapon lovingly. "You try anything, and I blast your brains out. Please, try something." He smiled viciously at the Scorpion. The guard and his buddy roared with laughter as he staggered over to a small cot in the far corner and went immediately to sleep. And so it happened that the Scorpion was asleep when it all started. He woke with a start when the guard shouted "What the hell?" and noticed that the bars in front of his cell were gone. He was free. And he wasn't the only one to realize it.
In less than a second, the prisoner across from him had leapt out and turned one of the guards to stone. This power and his thick, black beard marked him as the Gray Gargoyle. The other guard was turning to fire when a yellow spark hit his gun. The weapon exploded and the man screamed as Electro shocked him hard. The guard collapsed in pain while another man rushed up and grabbed a weapon. He fired up at another guard one level away. "Get down!" shouted the Gargoyle, stooping beside the frozen guard, "remember the boss's plan!" Electro and the other escapee, whom he now recognized as the second Blizzard, hurried a little ways down the hall.
Just as the Scorpion was about to join in the fierce battle between the inmates and their guards, there was a tremendous explosion. Chunks of burning concrete flew everywhere, the air was thick with dust, and there were small fires all over. From amidst the inferno, the Gray Gargoyle rose, his face turned to granite, and his voice booming, audible even above the screams of pain and panic: "This way!" He pointed towards the gaping hole in the wall. The inmates, including Scorpion, rushed out into the cool desert night.
Sirens blared and spotlights flashed as the guards attempted to bring reason to the chaos. Scorpion stood to one side as the crowd rushed out into the sand. Laser gattling guns fired into the mob, taking many of them down. He watched as the Gargoyle, now followed by Electro, Blizzard, the Constrictor, and two people he didn't recognize creep away from the crowd of inmates. He saw Mr. Hyde slamming the short man, Dudley, into a scorched pile of concrete while Whirlwind and Speed Demon attacked the guards up above. Behind him, the Spot and Hydro-Man were looting the room filled with confiscated costumes and weapons. He grabbed his own costume and noticed several blinking lights, like a low-flying 747 heading North, the same direction as the Gargoyle and his associates. The Scorpion decided to follow them into the rocky hills they were approaching rather than stay and be recaptured by the guards.
He kept hidden from them behind boulders and in the shadows. It was so dark that he lost sight of the small party several times, despite all the light Electro was putting off. They made their way up the hill and then disappeared on the other side. He walked cautiously to where he had last seen them, but they were nowhere to be seen. Then he heard voices, whispering something. He could see nothing in the pitch-black night; even the moon seemed to be eluding him. The Scorpion tiptoed closer and the whispers became more audible.
"Yes, Zola, all accounted for. Along with myself, you may recognize Electro, the Blizzard, Mr. Hyde, Whirlwind, the Molten Man, the Constrictor, and the lovely Coachwhip, formerly of the Serpent Society."
"Fools," said a voice with a strange, unfamiliar accent, "Got what was coming to them, thanks to your master."
"Indeed," said the first voice, which must have been that of the Gargoyle. "The master has begun the cleansing. Tomorrow night, the Secret Empire will fall, as have the Zodiac, the Serpent Society, and AIM. And the Thunderbolts?"
"Their base of operations is gone, two of them dead. I will return tomorrow to finish the job."
"Excellent. The master will be pleased with you, Zola. Now, let us-" The voice stopped all of a sudden. "Did you hear something?" The Scorpion stopped dead in his tracks. There was silence for a moment.
"It was nothing," said the second voice -Arnim Zola, apparently- "Let us depart. I have several 'experiments' I must check on." He laughed, a dry, wheezing chuckle.
There was a sound of footsteps, and the cloaking device turned off long enough for the Scorpion to see Mr. Hyde bringing up the rear, as the villains stepped into an immense metal craft. He heard engines hum, and as soon as Hyde was in, the hovercraft launched into the air and rose out of site.
The Scorpion was stunned. After all that he'd heard, it was apparent to him that someone had orchestrated the escape from the vault, not to mention destroyed several powerful organizations. As he was contemplating what exactly this could mean to himself, he heard the sound of footsteps behind him and a cold voice: "That was... interesting, was it not?"
He turned and saw a man dressed in a black costume, with white stripes around his neck and the top of his head. "Who are you?" asked the Scorpion, spinning around and preparing his costume's tail for attack.
"My nom-du-jeur is Bullseye, master of the pitch. And I would advise you to not do anything you may regret later," he said, as Scorpion moved a few steps towards him. "I assure you, I can kill you quite easily," he said, tossing a small rock up in the air, and then catching it in his palm.
"What do you want?" the Scorpion asked suspiciously.
"What I want to know is why Arnim Zola and a band of super-powered thugs are working for some mysterious 'master'. I was in a remote penitentiary in Montana before moving to the Vault. I've heard some strange things. For instance, the Zodiac's base in Washington State is a crater. And that half the Serpent Society died last week, the other half are running for their lives. And do you know who sent the Gray Gargoyle here?" He nodded at the Vault, where prisoners were still rioting. "The Grizzly and the Gibbon, who're now acting like Thunderbolt-wannabes. And those two morons couldn't take on Frog-man. No, he went to the Vault because he was ordered to. But who is this master?"
Bullseye became so distracted by his ponderings that he didn't seem to notice a small metallic object zooming towards them. But the Scorpion did notice, and Bullseye followed his gaze. The object was becoming much larger now, but the echo of a large explosion below them distracted the two villains. The Vault was gone, a smoldering crater with smoke billowing upwards.
"You see, my friend? Zodiac, the Serpents, now this... Someone is killing us off, and not just the organizations like AIM and the Secret Empire, but the super-powered villains and thugs. Someone, perhaps who wishes to kill us, too." He glanced at the craft that had been approaching them.
The craft had landed, only a dozen feet away from them. He could see that it was much smaller than Zola's hovercraft. A small door appeared in the front of it, and a voice, a soft yet dangerous voice, with a hint of a German accent came out of it. "You, the one called Bullseye, will come with me." A masked head appeared which was easily recognizable as that of Baron Zemo. The man was like a celebrity to the super-villain community. He had no powers save for his mind, yet had easily defeated the avengers, even taken over the world, and he was still alive and able to do it again.
Scorpion's knees were knocking, yet Bullseye didn't even flinch. "Ah, so the great Zemo has need of my services?" He said sarcastically. "How the mighty have fallen."
Zemo remained calm, yet it was obvious that under his mask he was fuming. In fact, his mask showed his emotions remarkably well. "Might I suggest that in the future you do not mock me. I am not a man you want as your enemy. And I don't have need of your services, I have them." He smiled smugly at Bullseye's look of confusion. "Techno."
It was then that Scorpion realized that the craft had a face on it. He looked in astonishment for a split second before raising his tail. But it was too late.
"We have no need of this cretin, right Zemo?" Queried the smiling metallic face. Two shotguns appeared on either side of it while a tentacle of circuitry reached out and grabbed Bullseye, sucking him into the craft.
"Actually, the new Thunderbolt, Charcoal, may be a problem. Water would douse his flames, or a lack of oxygen, but neither would kill him. Perhaps this pitiful cretin's venomous blade would do the job." Zemo looked perplexed for a moment, deciding whether the Scorpion would live or die. Then, he said decisively, "Come, Scorpion, I will run some simulations to decide your worthless fate." They entered the small craft, and it soared up into the heavens.
# # # # # # # # # #
Several hours later, at the Thunderbolt's base (or what was left of it)...
"Man-o-man," Atlas muttered, "I still can't believe this." He and Songbird were wandering around the charred remains of their living quarters. From what they could tell, everything above the hanger was gone, and everything below was scorched, and they had no idea who had done it. Or, for that matter, what became of their teammates Jolt and Charcoal. Atlas was gazing upwards, through a hole in the ceiling that extended five stories, "we leave the kids alone and they burn down the house..."
"Erik!" Songbird shouted, "how can you go on making jokes like that? We don't even know if they're alive!"
"Sorry," he mumbled, "I guess Hawkeye's idea of leadership skills is rubbing off on me."
Songbird was about to reply, but a green hand punching through the wall distracted her. She-Hulk appeared, crushing the wall like an eggshell. "So this is this glorious, swank home of the Thunderbolts?"
"It wasn't always like this," said Moonstone, floating through the wall. "But where do we go from here? I'm starting to wish Hawkeye hadn't run off with the Avengers."
"Who needs Hawkeye when I'm here? One Avenger's as good as another, right?" said She-Hulk. Nobody laughed. "Tough audience," she muttered under her breath.
"We need to find a new base of operations," Atlas suggested. "Remember that Dominus place?"*
(* The T-bolts considered claiming an old hideaway of Dominus's as their base in Marvel's Avengers vol. 3 #12 - Russ)
"Erik, we need a place that doesn't have any old villains or-" Songbird was interrupted by a noise from under a pile of debris. There was a low, raspy cough from under the wreckage, and then a man appeared. He stood up and brushed some charred debris off his shoulder. With an incredibly long, white beard and a pink and purple costume, the stranger had an uncanny appearance. The Thunderbolts stared at him in amazement for a split second before reacting. "Who are you?" Songbird demanded, "did you do this?" A giant, pink hand sprang from her sonic carapace and seized the stranger. However, he pressed a button on his glove and the sonic hand dissipated.
"I," he said, arming some sort of weapon attached to his arm, "am the Ogre, engineer supreme and caretaker of this mountain."
"Caretaker?" Atlas said incredulously, "what happened, did you fall asleep on the job?"
"Atlas!" Shouted Moonstone, at the same time thinking: something's... different about him, but I'll have to deal with it later. She turned to the Ogre. "So you're the 'elf' who's been fixing our costumes and creating hovercrafts?"
"Elf?" Asked She-Hulk. "Riiiiight. I don't think I want to know."
"Guilty as charged," Ogre replied, ignoring She-Hulk. "I use my expertise to aid whoever lives here. Although now, I believe you may be the last inhabitants of the mountain." He looked around the scorched mess surrounding them.
All of a sudden, a red light flashed above their heads. A garbled klaxon started sounding as well, and Ogre raced over to the remains of a video screen. "What is it?" demanded Moonstone. "Are our attackers back?"
"No," the Ogre shouted over the blaring alarm, "it's a proximity alarm. Something's headed right towards the mountain at an enormous speed."
"Well what is it?" Songbird asked frantically.
"I don't know. But it's either a very small meteorite, or it's a human. Whatever, or possibly whoever it is, it's falling at an alarming rate." He brushed debris off a small monitor and turned it on. It was very broken up and full of static, but the image clearly showed a ball of fire rocketing downwards. "The object is travelling faster than the speed of sound, and should reach us within 5 seconds. Brace yourselves." The screen flickered for a moment, then switched to an image of Mt. Charteris. "3... 2... 1..."
She-Hulk closed her eyes, then opened them a moment later. "That wasn't so bad," she said, still firmly clutching a charred I-beam. Suddenly, there was an incredible 'boom' that rocked the entire mountain.
Atlas fell to his feet. "Did it hit?" he asked nervously.
"If it had, sonny," Ogre replied, sounding somewhat relieved, "I doubt we would still be standing here. No, that explosion we just felt was an immense sonic boom, created by the object --perhaps we could call it a UFO-- which changed course a thousandth of a second before landing. As you can see," he said, turning once again to the monitor, "It is now heading southwest... directly toward Los Angeles!"
"Can we stop it?" asked Moonstone, not sure whether the Ogre was truly trustworthy.
"I'm afraid the best you can do is help clean up. It was traveling so fast that it hit several seconds ago." He turned a dial on the monitor to a commercial channel. After a few minutes, a local reporter looking somewhat grim interrupted the rerun of 'Secret Hospital' to report:
"We're sorry to interrupt the scheduled program for this breaking news bulletin. A large fireball, reported zooming over parts of Colorado, Nevada, and Southern California has hit LA. As you can see from their shocking footage-" a building, with several of its top floors covered in ash, smoke floating eerily out of the top in the late morning sun, was apparently missing it's top half. Far above the building, there was a large ball of fire, and what looked like a man inside it-" downtown LA has been devastated. The perpetrator of this attack has not been identified, but we will keep you informed as the situation continues."
The Thunderbolts didn't need a minute to race to the Champion's old hover-car and take off for LA. Moonstone, Songbird, Atlas and She-Hulk set off, while the Ogre stayed behind in a last-ditch effort to clean up and save his beloved base.
# # # # # # # # # #
Meanwhile - well really more like 5 minutes ago - only a few miles away in the small town of Burton, the newest addition to the Thunderbolts was about to wake up. He had been asleep for 16 hours, after being shot out of the sky by the mad scientist extraordinaire, Arnim Zola. When he did wake up, it was with a start. His eyes were blurred, he had a horrible headache, and he had no idea where he was. Worst of all was what woke him: an earsplitting explosion rocked the room he was in. The windows shattered, the empty bed next to him split in half, and a cabinet of medical supplies fell over and spilled its contents.
He leaped out of the bed he had been in and looked out the window. He recognized that he was in the small town near the T-bolts's base; he was apparently on the second floor of a hospital building. On the ground outside the building, a mob of people was panicking, running all over the street, looking for cover. He was trying to read the signs they had dropped; they seemed to have been protesting something. The door to his right creaked a little bit, and he spun around to see a woman in a dark blue costume and a silver mask enter. He recognized the costume immediately: Citizen V, Baron Zemo's old disguise! From what Jolt had told him he knew the guy was bad news, so he transformed into his burning form.
"Wait!" she whispered, "I'm not here to fight you."
"So what do you want?" he asked, although something in her voice told him she was telling the truth.
"Your friends need you." She pointed out the window, past the small hamlet and up towards the mountain itself. Charcoal gasped with astonishment. Part of the mountain was gone, other parts were scarred with ash.
"What happened?" he asked softly, beginning to think he was dreaming.
"That I don't know, but I think you have bigger problems at the moment."
"That explosion?"
She held out a miniature TV concealed in her cloak. "... shocking footage, downtown LA has been devastated. The perpetrator..."
"Los Angeles?"
"Yes. You should go now. If this is who I think it is, the Thunderbolts are in a lot of trouble." Charcoal climbed out the window. He turned to say 'thanks' but Citizen V was already gone. He soared up into the wild, blue yonder despite shrieks of protest from the people below.
# # # # # # # # # #
And, 5 minutes before that, outside a UCLA dormitory building, specifically where Carl Richman and Miguel Santos resided...
"Miguel!" Richman watched as a plump Hispanic woman got out of the car and practically strangled Santos while hugging him. Today they graduated, after four long years of guarding Santos's secret, a secret that only he, the faculty, and some of Miguel's closest friends were aware of. Richman led Santo's mother, now accompanied by his father, a gray haired man with a long mustache, into their dorm while Santos hauled two suitcases out of the trunk. He and Richman both wore their graduation robes, getting ready for the ceremony in a few hours. Miguel and his mother sat down on the couch, talking rapidly about something in Spanish.
"So, son. Have you finally decided what you are going to do?" asked Mr. Santos in an exasperated voice.
"I've told you, father," Miguel replied smoothly, "I want to be a superhero."
"Miguel, you need to get a real job," his mother said, a look of concern on her face. "And what if you're killed?"
"But imagine $1,000 a day with the Avengers!" Richman piped in. Miguel's parents glared at him while Miguel smiled a 'thanks'. Deciding not to start a family feud, Richman turned and walked over to the sliding glass door adjacent to their balcony. The sky was lit by a strange orange glow, as if the sun was just rising. He glanced at his watch. 9:35. The sun shouldn't still be rising, he thought, just as a wave of intense heat suddenly hit his face. He looked up and saw an immense band of fire spreading rapidly to the East. Miguel saw it, too, and had jumped up, slammed the door open, and leaped off the balcony so fast nobody could react.
Then his mother shouted "No, Miguel! Your graduation is-" She was cut off by a crackling sound as Miguel turned into his lightning form and the Living Lightning soared up into the sky.
He was high enough then, to see the entire city. Several blocks downtown were burning, and rings of fire were spreading outwards like ripples in a puddle. And high above ground zero was a small fireball.
The Living Lightning flew towards the fireball, and once he was close enough, he heard a loud voice. "Send out your champions, Terrans. And I, Firelord, former herald of Galactus, shall defeat them all!"
Miguel flung himself down at the fireball, and he could now see a vague human outline amidst the flames. He stopped just as he unleashed a furious bolt of electricity that struck the figure in the fire. The flames abated, and he could see a man turned away from him. The figure turned, apparently unaffected by the lightning blast. He was a very strange human, if he was human at all. His head was still on fire, he was wearing dark red and yellow body armor, and he was holding a burning staff; which he then pointed at Miguel.
A focused stream of fiery energy hit the Living Lightning like a freight train, knocking him forcefully onto the top of a nearby office building. His graduation robe had been burnt off, revealing his yellow costume/armor. He had taken to wearing this more and more often, planning to rejoin the Avengers, or at least join some superhero team after college. Now he was glad he had, as it had probably saved his life.
"This pitiful stripling is now Earth's most powerful defender?" Firelord asked angrily. "Ha! I laugh at your foolishness. Now, either bring me the one called Captain Marvel, or suffer the consequences." He pointed his staff at the Living Lightning, but then lifted it, and fired past him. The shot hit a skyscraper a few blocks away, knocking the top off, and sending debris rocketing down to the streets. Firelord began to laugh, but was stopped when an enormous hand punched him from above.
The Living Lightning looked up to see an impossibly huge man kneeling on a pink translucent platform. In his hand was a green-skinned woman he recognized as She-Hulk. Suddenly, a pink baseball mitt, the same color as the platform, was lifting him towards a short woman with pink wings coming from a large, golden mechanical device attached to her chest. "Are you all right?" She asked, pushing him to his feet.
He was feeling pretty dizzy, but he answered, "Yes," and transformed back into energy.
"Then let's go nail this guy," she said confidently.
The rest of the team was having a bit of trouble accomplishing this. Firelord hit She-Hulk across the face with his staff, at the same time launching a wave of flames with his other hand through Moonstone, and kicking Atlas in the stomach. He was much stronger than he looked, too, knocking Atlas off the sonic platform and down towards Songbird and the Living Lightning.
Atlas hit the building, then jumped back up at Firelord as he shouted: "Oh, no. Don't tell me Galactus is coming."
"No, foolhardy human," Firelord replied casually as he hit the back of Atlas's neck with his staff, sending the Thunderbolt plunging once more. "I'm a free agent now. I was sent to retrieve the one you call Captain Marvel for my formidable employer. I don't much like my new boss, but look at the power he's given me. I'm completely unstoppable now!" He laughed wickedly for a moment.
Moonstone dropped after Atlas, shouting: "Atlas! Shrink, so I can carry you back up!"
Meanwhile, She-Hulk had lifted a small water tower off of a nearby building and threw it towards Firelord. "Maybe this'll dampen your spirits."
Firelord aimed his staff and shot an intense beam of fire at the tower, vaporizing it into steam. He aimed again and hit She-Hulk, knocking her out of the Lightning's view. He watched Songbird hit Firelord with the catcher's mitt, now turned into a giant boxing glove, and followed up with a series of small electrical shocks.
"You put up a good fight," Firelord said, sending several fireballs towards them with a snap of his fingers. "For humans." Songbird and the Living Lightning were hit hard by the fireballs, despite the hard-sound shield.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a burst of fire hit Firelord. He seemed stunned for a minute, but then turned to see Charcoal soaring towards him. "Ah, so there is a worthwhile fight here on Earth, eh? Let's see." He pointed his staff up at Charcoal and fired. But, both to his surprise, and Charcoals, nothing happened. The shot hit him dead-on, but he just seemed to absorb it.
"Charcoal!" Songbird shouted, "you're alive! Where's Jolt?"
"I don't know, I got put in a hospital, she didn't."
By now, Moonstone, Atlas, and She-Hulk had all joined Songbird and the Lightning, along with Charcoal and were about to confront Firelord as a team. But he reacted first, launching a wave of fire that KO'd the entire team... except for Charcoal, who just floated in mid-air for a minute, then muttered something about 'the power' and collapsed.
Firelord floated over their unconscious bodies and pointed his staff down at them, preparing for the kill. Then, out of nowhere, a bolt of energy hit Firelord dead-on, throwing him down to the Thunderbolts. He hit the Living Lightning, who rolled onto his back and woke up. "Who dares?!?" Firelord demanded. Looking up, he saw a small man hovering above them.
"And, it's Captain Marvel to the rescue," he said, waving his hand at the Thunderbolts. All of them woke up, looking rejuvenated.
"You! You're the one my master must have!" Firelord shouted angrily. He seemed to be having trouble breathing, and the flames eminating from his body had died down substantially. He jumped up at Marvel, waving his staff, but Marvel dodged him easily, sending him careening into the sky. Firelord stopped himself, just as the Thunderbolts looked ready to fight, and said: "Well, I suppose it's time for Plan B." He held a small device that looked a lot like a cell-phone and pressed a button on it.
The next thing Marvel knew, there was a splitting pain in the back of his head and he was falling, past the Thunderbolts, down to the street.
"My master's neural destabilizer should take care of Captain Marvel," said Firelord. He took a few seconds to catch his breath, then turned on the approaching Thunderbolts. "And now for you pesky humans."
Atlas threw She-Hulk up towards Firelord's back, while Moonstone shot bolts of energy from below, the Living Lightning electrocuted him from above, and Songbird's gigantic hard-sound hammer hit his stomach. However, Firelord elbowed She-Hulk's face before she could reach him, and shrugged off the other attacks.
And although his power seemed to be fading rapidly, Firelord still packed a mean punch. He spun his staff around in his hands, incredibly fast, creating a cyclone of fiery energy, then launched it at the Thunderbolts. The Lightning and Songbird dodged it, but Moonstone, Atlas, and She-Hulk weren't so lucky. Moonstone didn't make her body intangible in time, and the building that Atlas and She-Hulk had been standing on was blown apart when the fiery cyclone hit it.
Firelord threw another barrage of fireballs at Songbird and the Living Lightning, thus ending the Thunderbolt's chances of defeating him. Moonstone, still conscious, watched him point his staff at the roof she and the other two had managed to land. But then, for no apparent reason, Firelord started to scream. Then Moonstone noticed Charcoal, clinging to Firelord's leg; and an immense amount of fire was travelling down Firelord's leg and, somehow, into Charcoal.
Then Charcoal let go, and began to burn brighter and more intensely than ever before. He punched Firelord with a flaming fist, and sent him flying backwards into a skyscraper. Firelord got up, as if to fight Charcoal again, but changed his mind, using his last bit of strength to boost himself up, over the city, and out towards the ocean.
Moonstone glided over to Charcoal and asked, "What just happened?"
"I-I don't know," Charcoal replied, trying hard to turn down his heat output, "I think I somehow absorbed Firelord's power. In fact, I feel like I could take on a hundred Firelords!"
"Hmm..." Moonstone replied warily, "we'd better see if the medical facilities in Mt. Charteris are still working, and run some tests."
They glided down to the street, and she could see She-Hulk was pulling Atlas out of a pile of burnt debris, and Songbird was floating over to them, along with the Living Lightning. "Hey guess what, guys. I've just been talking to the Living Lightning here, and he's agreed to join us!"
"What??" asked Moonstone, astounded. "You can't just go around making everyone we meet a member of our team!"
"But he used to be an Avenger! And the more the merrier, right? In fact..." She looked over at Captain Marvel, who was walking towards them, still rubbing the back of his neck. "Hey Captain Marvel, you're not a member of any team, right?"
"Well, no, I'm not, but-" He was still clutching his neck, and now looked even more uncomfortable. Unbeknownst to the Thunderbolts, a small voice in Marvel's head was telling him what to do.
"It's crazy!" Shouted the voice of Rick Jones, stuck inside Captain Marvel's head. "These guys are the Masters of Evil, for God's sake!"
"I know that. But Hawkeye's leading them. And now She-Hulk and the Living Lightning-"
"Hawkeye can be pretty dang thick-headed sometimes, the Lightning's just a kid, probably been brainwashed, and She-Hulk... well, she's always been kinda weird."
"Well," he said out loud, to the Thunderbolts, "I'm afraid I can't accept your offer." He turned away, and floated up into the sky, still feeling that he'd known Songbird from somewhere.
The Thunderbolts went on their way, too, Atlas and She-hulk boarding Songbird's sonic platform. They headed back to their base at Mt. Charteris in time for lunch.
# # # # # # # # # #
Meanwhile, in a hidden base several hundred feet below a small city in southern Oregon...
"I did it, boss," said a tall, heavyset man. "I blew open the Vault. You have my paycheck?"
"Of course," said the person in front of him, still obscured by shadows. He had yet to learn the person's identity. "I never go back on my promises," the shadowed person told him, handing him an envelope. He opened it, and counted out the $500,000 he was due.
It was all there, so he said, "Then I'll be on my way. I need to get back to the Kingpin."
"I'm afraid you won't be returning to your former employer, my dear 'Ox'" The person said. The large man, Ox, could now see other figures amongst the shadows. They were moving around him in a circle.
"B-but you said," he stuttered, a look of fear in his eyes.
"I promised I'd pay you well. I didn't promise you I'd let you live to enjoy it."
"N-no!" he screamed, but it was too late. Ox was thrown against a steel wall, his eardrums shattered, every bone in his body broken. The strange, invisible force coming from the shadowed person had killed him instantaneously.
"Now, somebody clean up this mess," the shadowed figure said, walking out of the steel room.
# # # # # # # # # #
Meanwhile, somewhere over Montana...
While they were still soaring up into the sky, and somewhat to the North, the Scorpion got up his nerve to ask Zemo a single question. "Uh, Baron, Sir..." He paused at Zemo's icy glare. "Ahem, what I mean to ask is, uh, have you noticed this... series of events? Y'know, the Serpent Society and all that?"
Zemo stood up, walked silently over to the Scorpion, and hit his face with the back of his hand. The Scorpion fell to the floor in pain. The man was even stronger than he appeared. "You, peon, are trying my patience!" he roared, a German accent definitely showing in his angered voice. "I have spies and allies within every criminal organization in the world! Agents and double agents, everywhere! There is nothing I do not know." He stormed around the tiny room, waving his arms furiously. Techno was smiling sinisterly, but Bullseye looked ready to kill someone. Half his body was still stuck in the wall of the capsule, and he was none to happy about it. "I should have killed you... In fact, I think I will." He pulled a Glock out of his pocket and aimed it at the Scorpion.
"No! No, please, Baron, I didn't mean anything." He pleaded, still on the floor. Techno's smile grew.
"Begging for your life?" Zemo said, disgusted. "What kind of man are you?"
"He's more a man than you are, Zemo." Said Bullseye, glaring at him with contempt. "More a man than your father ever was-" He stopped over the roar of Zemo's gun.
"Blam! Blam! Blam!" Bullseye winced, then opened his eyes. There were two small holes on either side of his face, and one above his head. "Insult my father, or myself one more time, and you will die a very painful death, regardless of your worth to my plan."
"If I might ask," said Bullseye, showing little fear of Zemo, " exactly what is that plan? I can only assume it involves your former comrades the Thunderbolts."
"Your impeccable skill," said Zemo, lowering his still-smoking gun, "could be very useful in distracting the Thunderbolt's leader, Hawkeye. Without a leader, the Thunderbolts are like fish in a barrel. Your aim is easily better than the archer's. If you can defeat him in battle, my forces can deal with the rest."
"Hmm..." Bullseye pondered as Techno released him from the wall. "An interesting prospect. You will, of course, be able to give me more benefits than the Kingpin?"
"Of course," said Zemo.
"And, if you will, may I ask a question?" Zemo nodded 'yes', so Bullseye continued. "What exactly do you know about these mysterious happenings? Or the numerous villains that left the Vault along with Arnim Zola?"
Zemo took a moment to think, and then answered: "I know nothing. And that disturbs me. However, I will soon."
"Oh?" asked Bullseye, obviously curious.
"Yes," Zemo responded, "you see, there is a wolf amongst their flock, one who owes allegiance to me."
# # # # # # # # # #
And at that moment, hundreds of miles away, standing separated from the Gray Gargoyle and the rest of the villains, the Molten Man began to smile.
# # # # # # # # # #
At about that time, the Thunderbolts returned to their base at Mount Charteris. The Ogre, caretaker of the mountain, had been trying to clean it up, and it actually looked a lot better. But, as they neared the hanger, the wall was suddenly blown apart, and the Ogre flew out of it. Ogre's chest was smoking, and he cringed in pain as the Thunderbolts hurried into the hangar to help him. They looked in shock as they turned into the hangar and could see a strange hovercraft inside. And, standing in front of it, two smoking energy weapons in his hands, was Arnim Zola...
At last they stopped. They were in a desert again, but it was a different desert. As he was lifted, still on the metal stretcher, inside a colossal concrete building, he saw a coffin-like box that glowed yellow being carried inside. He heard muffled screaming eminating from the box, as they were carried through a large door and into what looked like a receptionist's office. The door was made of a dull metal, darker than steel. Adamantium? He'd heard stories of the unbreakable metal before, but such an immense quantity was unbelievable.
He and the box, still somehow glowing with energy, were presented to a short man in a black suit. The short man introduced himself as Dr. Dudley, chief psychiatrist of "The Vault," said the short man, "is completely impenetrable. Once you're in, you don't get out. And you gentlemen are now in." He pointed first at the box then down a dark hall. "Take the 'Living Laser' up to block A, cell 24." The guards carrying the box lifted it once more with a series of grunts, and walked down the hall. Two patrolling guards walked through the office as the doctor pointed at the Scorpion. "Take this gentleman over to block C, cell 1."
He was lifted off of the stretcher and practically dragged down another hall. They took him through another door, even thicker than the first and walked past cell after cell. Many of these were empty, but others had inhabitants, none of them looking very pleased with the situation. They walked down to the very end of the hall, passing hundreds of super-powered felons. The Scorpion was dumped into an empty cell, the farthest from the door, and immediately, thick bars slid out of the ceiling while a guard lifted a lever and turned on the electricity. The guards walked over to the end of the hall, which was a wall of concrete with several racks of weapons at its base. Each guard picked up a large weapon, probably particle-accelerating laser cannons.
One of the guards walked over to him and patted his weapon lovingly. "You try anything, and I blast your brains out. Please, try something." He smiled viciously at the Scorpion. The guard and his buddy roared with laughter as he staggered over to a small cot in the far corner and went immediately to sleep. And so it happened that the Scorpion was asleep when it all started. He woke with a start when the guard shouted "What the hell?" and noticed that the bars in front of his cell were gone. He was free. And he wasn't the only one to realize it.
In less than a second, the prisoner across from him had leapt out and turned one of the guards to stone. This power and his thick, black beard marked him as the Gray Gargoyle. The other guard was turning to fire when a yellow spark hit his gun. The weapon exploded and the man screamed as Electro shocked him hard. The guard collapsed in pain while another man rushed up and grabbed a weapon. He fired up at another guard one level away. "Get down!" shouted the Gargoyle, stooping beside the frozen guard, "remember the boss's plan!" Electro and the other escapee, whom he now recognized as the second Blizzard, hurried a little ways down the hall.
Just as the Scorpion was about to join in the fierce battle between the inmates and their guards, there was a tremendous explosion. Chunks of burning concrete flew everywhere, the air was thick with dust, and there were small fires all over. From amidst the inferno, the Gray Gargoyle rose, his face turned to granite, and his voice booming, audible even above the screams of pain and panic: "This way!" He pointed towards the gaping hole in the wall. The inmates, including Scorpion, rushed out into the cool desert night.
Sirens blared and spotlights flashed as the guards attempted to bring reason to the chaos. Scorpion stood to one side as the crowd rushed out into the sand. Laser gattling guns fired into the mob, taking many of them down. He watched as the Gargoyle, now followed by Electro, Blizzard, the Constrictor, and two people he didn't recognize creep away from the crowd of inmates. He saw Mr. Hyde slamming the short man, Dudley, into a scorched pile of concrete while Whirlwind and Speed Demon attacked the guards up above. Behind him, the Spot and Hydro-Man were looting the room filled with confiscated costumes and weapons. He grabbed his own costume and noticed several blinking lights, like a low-flying 747 heading North, the same direction as the Gargoyle and his associates. The Scorpion decided to follow them into the rocky hills they were approaching rather than stay and be recaptured by the guards.
He kept hidden from them behind boulders and in the shadows. It was so dark that he lost sight of the small party several times, despite all the light Electro was putting off. They made their way up the hill and then disappeared on the other side. He walked cautiously to where he had last seen them, but they were nowhere to be seen. Then he heard voices, whispering something. He could see nothing in the pitch-black night; even the moon seemed to be eluding him. The Scorpion tiptoed closer and the whispers became more audible.
"Yes, Zola, all accounted for. Along with myself, you may recognize Electro, the Blizzard, Mr. Hyde, Whirlwind, the Molten Man, the Constrictor, and the lovely Coachwhip, formerly of the Serpent Society."
"Fools," said a voice with a strange, unfamiliar accent, "Got what was coming to them, thanks to your master."
"Indeed," said the first voice, which must have been that of the Gargoyle. "The master has begun the cleansing. Tomorrow night, the Secret Empire will fall, as have the Zodiac, the Serpent Society, and AIM. And the Thunderbolts?"
"Their base of operations is gone, two of them dead. I will return tomorrow to finish the job."
"Excellent. The master will be pleased with you, Zola. Now, let us-" The voice stopped all of a sudden. "Did you hear something?" The Scorpion stopped dead in his tracks. There was silence for a moment.
"It was nothing," said the second voice -Arnim Zola, apparently- "Let us depart. I have several 'experiments' I must check on." He laughed, a dry, wheezing chuckle.
There was a sound of footsteps, and the cloaking device turned off long enough for the Scorpion to see Mr. Hyde bringing up the rear, as the villains stepped into an immense metal craft. He heard engines hum, and as soon as Hyde was in, the hovercraft launched into the air and rose out of site.
The Scorpion was stunned. After all that he'd heard, it was apparent to him that someone had orchestrated the escape from the vault, not to mention destroyed several powerful organizations. As he was contemplating what exactly this could mean to himself, he heard the sound of footsteps behind him and a cold voice: "That was... interesting, was it not?"
He turned and saw a man dressed in a black costume, with white stripes around his neck and the top of his head. "Who are you?" asked the Scorpion, spinning around and preparing his costume's tail for attack.
"My nom-du-jeur is Bullseye, master of the pitch. And I would advise you to not do anything you may regret later," he said, as Scorpion moved a few steps towards him. "I assure you, I can kill you quite easily," he said, tossing a small rock up in the air, and then catching it in his palm.
"What do you want?" the Scorpion asked suspiciously.
"What I want to know is why Arnim Zola and a band of super-powered thugs are working for some mysterious 'master'. I was in a remote penitentiary in Montana before moving to the Vault. I've heard some strange things. For instance, the Zodiac's base in Washington State is a crater. And that half the Serpent Society died last week, the other half are running for their lives. And do you know who sent the Gray Gargoyle here?" He nodded at the Vault, where prisoners were still rioting. "The Grizzly and the Gibbon, who're now acting like Thunderbolt-wannabes. And those two morons couldn't take on Frog-man. No, he went to the Vault because he was ordered to. But who is this master?"
Bullseye became so distracted by his ponderings that he didn't seem to notice a small metallic object zooming towards them. But the Scorpion did notice, and Bullseye followed his gaze. The object was becoming much larger now, but the echo of a large explosion below them distracted the two villains. The Vault was gone, a smoldering crater with smoke billowing upwards.
"You see, my friend? Zodiac, the Serpents, now this... Someone is killing us off, and not just the organizations like AIM and the Secret Empire, but the super-powered villains and thugs. Someone, perhaps who wishes to kill us, too." He glanced at the craft that had been approaching them.
The craft had landed, only a dozen feet away from them. He could see that it was much smaller than Zola's hovercraft. A small door appeared in the front of it, and a voice, a soft yet dangerous voice, with a hint of a German accent came out of it. "You, the one called Bullseye, will come with me." A masked head appeared which was easily recognizable as that of Baron Zemo. The man was like a celebrity to the super-villain community. He had no powers save for his mind, yet had easily defeated the avengers, even taken over the world, and he was still alive and able to do it again.
Scorpion's knees were knocking, yet Bullseye didn't even flinch. "Ah, so the great Zemo has need of my services?" He said sarcastically. "How the mighty have fallen."
Zemo remained calm, yet it was obvious that under his mask he was fuming. In fact, his mask showed his emotions remarkably well. "Might I suggest that in the future you do not mock me. I am not a man you want as your enemy. And I don't have need of your services, I have them." He smiled smugly at Bullseye's look of confusion. "Techno."
It was then that Scorpion realized that the craft had a face on it. He looked in astonishment for a split second before raising his tail. But it was too late.
"We have no need of this cretin, right Zemo?" Queried the smiling metallic face. Two shotguns appeared on either side of it while a tentacle of circuitry reached out and grabbed Bullseye, sucking him into the craft.
"Actually, the new Thunderbolt, Charcoal, may be a problem. Water would douse his flames, or a lack of oxygen, but neither would kill him. Perhaps this pitiful cretin's venomous blade would do the job." Zemo looked perplexed for a moment, deciding whether the Scorpion would live or die. Then, he said decisively, "Come, Scorpion, I will run some simulations to decide your worthless fate." They entered the small craft, and it soared up into the heavens.
# # # # # # # # # #
Several hours later, at the Thunderbolt's base (or what was left of it)...
"Man-o-man," Atlas muttered, "I still can't believe this." He and Songbird were wandering around the charred remains of their living quarters. From what they could tell, everything above the hanger was gone, and everything below was scorched, and they had no idea who had done it. Or, for that matter, what became of their teammates Jolt and Charcoal. Atlas was gazing upwards, through a hole in the ceiling that extended five stories, "we leave the kids alone and they burn down the house..."
"Erik!" Songbird shouted, "how can you go on making jokes like that? We don't even know if they're alive!"
"Sorry," he mumbled, "I guess Hawkeye's idea of leadership skills is rubbing off on me."
Songbird was about to reply, but a green hand punching through the wall distracted her. She-Hulk appeared, crushing the wall like an eggshell. "So this is this glorious, swank home of the Thunderbolts?"
"It wasn't always like this," said Moonstone, floating through the wall. "But where do we go from here? I'm starting to wish Hawkeye hadn't run off with the Avengers."
"Who needs Hawkeye when I'm here? One Avenger's as good as another, right?" said She-Hulk. Nobody laughed. "Tough audience," she muttered under her breath.
"We need to find a new base of operations," Atlas suggested. "Remember that Dominus place?"*
(* The T-bolts considered claiming an old hideaway of Dominus's as their base in Marvel's Avengers vol. 3 #12 - Russ)
"Erik, we need a place that doesn't have any old villains or-" Songbird was interrupted by a noise from under a pile of debris. There was a low, raspy cough from under the wreckage, and then a man appeared. He stood up and brushed some charred debris off his shoulder. With an incredibly long, white beard and a pink and purple costume, the stranger had an uncanny appearance. The Thunderbolts stared at him in amazement for a split second before reacting. "Who are you?" Songbird demanded, "did you do this?" A giant, pink hand sprang from her sonic carapace and seized the stranger. However, he pressed a button on his glove and the sonic hand dissipated.
"I," he said, arming some sort of weapon attached to his arm, "am the Ogre, engineer supreme and caretaker of this mountain."
"Caretaker?" Atlas said incredulously, "what happened, did you fall asleep on the job?"
"Atlas!" Shouted Moonstone, at the same time thinking: something's... different about him, but I'll have to deal with it later. She turned to the Ogre. "So you're the 'elf' who's been fixing our costumes and creating hovercrafts?"
"Elf?" Asked She-Hulk. "Riiiiight. I don't think I want to know."
"Guilty as charged," Ogre replied, ignoring She-Hulk. "I use my expertise to aid whoever lives here. Although now, I believe you may be the last inhabitants of the mountain." He looked around the scorched mess surrounding them.
All of a sudden, a red light flashed above their heads. A garbled klaxon started sounding as well, and Ogre raced over to the remains of a video screen. "What is it?" demanded Moonstone. "Are our attackers back?"
"No," the Ogre shouted over the blaring alarm, "it's a proximity alarm. Something's headed right towards the mountain at an enormous speed."
"Well what is it?" Songbird asked frantically.
"I don't know. But it's either a very small meteorite, or it's a human. Whatever, or possibly whoever it is, it's falling at an alarming rate." He brushed debris off a small monitor and turned it on. It was very broken up and full of static, but the image clearly showed a ball of fire rocketing downwards. "The object is travelling faster than the speed of sound, and should reach us within 5 seconds. Brace yourselves." The screen flickered for a moment, then switched to an image of Mt. Charteris. "3... 2... 1..."
She-Hulk closed her eyes, then opened them a moment later. "That wasn't so bad," she said, still firmly clutching a charred I-beam. Suddenly, there was an incredible 'boom' that rocked the entire mountain.
Atlas fell to his feet. "Did it hit?" he asked nervously.
"If it had, sonny," Ogre replied, sounding somewhat relieved, "I doubt we would still be standing here. No, that explosion we just felt was an immense sonic boom, created by the object --perhaps we could call it a UFO-- which changed course a thousandth of a second before landing. As you can see," he said, turning once again to the monitor, "It is now heading southwest... directly toward Los Angeles!"
"Can we stop it?" asked Moonstone, not sure whether the Ogre was truly trustworthy.
"I'm afraid the best you can do is help clean up. It was traveling so fast that it hit several seconds ago." He turned a dial on the monitor to a commercial channel. After a few minutes, a local reporter looking somewhat grim interrupted the rerun of 'Secret Hospital' to report:
"We're sorry to interrupt the scheduled program for this breaking news bulletin. A large fireball, reported zooming over parts of Colorado, Nevada, and Southern California has hit LA. As you can see from their shocking footage-" a building, with several of its top floors covered in ash, smoke floating eerily out of the top in the late morning sun, was apparently missing it's top half. Far above the building, there was a large ball of fire, and what looked like a man inside it-" downtown LA has been devastated. The perpetrator of this attack has not been identified, but we will keep you informed as the situation continues."
The Thunderbolts didn't need a minute to race to the Champion's old hover-car and take off for LA. Moonstone, Songbird, Atlas and She-Hulk set off, while the Ogre stayed behind in a last-ditch effort to clean up and save his beloved base.
# # # # # # # # # #
Meanwhile - well really more like 5 minutes ago - only a few miles away in the small town of Burton, the newest addition to the Thunderbolts was about to wake up. He had been asleep for 16 hours, after being shot out of the sky by the mad scientist extraordinaire, Arnim Zola. When he did wake up, it was with a start. His eyes were blurred, he had a horrible headache, and he had no idea where he was. Worst of all was what woke him: an earsplitting explosion rocked the room he was in. The windows shattered, the empty bed next to him split in half, and a cabinet of medical supplies fell over and spilled its contents.
He leaped out of the bed he had been in and looked out the window. He recognized that he was in the small town near the T-bolts's base; he was apparently on the second floor of a hospital building. On the ground outside the building, a mob of people was panicking, running all over the street, looking for cover. He was trying to read the signs they had dropped; they seemed to have been protesting something. The door to his right creaked a little bit, and he spun around to see a woman in a dark blue costume and a silver mask enter. He recognized the costume immediately: Citizen V, Baron Zemo's old disguise! From what Jolt had told him he knew the guy was bad news, so he transformed into his burning form.
"Wait!" she whispered, "I'm not here to fight you."
"So what do you want?" he asked, although something in her voice told him she was telling the truth.
"Your friends need you." She pointed out the window, past the small hamlet and up towards the mountain itself. Charcoal gasped with astonishment. Part of the mountain was gone, other parts were scarred with ash.
"What happened?" he asked softly, beginning to think he was dreaming.
"That I don't know, but I think you have bigger problems at the moment."
"That explosion?"
She held out a miniature TV concealed in her cloak. "... shocking footage, downtown LA has been devastated. The perpetrator..."
"Los Angeles?"
"Yes. You should go now. If this is who I think it is, the Thunderbolts are in a lot of trouble." Charcoal climbed out the window. He turned to say 'thanks' but Citizen V was already gone. He soared up into the wild, blue yonder despite shrieks of protest from the people below.
# # # # # # # # # #
And, 5 minutes before that, outside a UCLA dormitory building, specifically where Carl Richman and Miguel Santos resided...
"Miguel!" Richman watched as a plump Hispanic woman got out of the car and practically strangled Santos while hugging him. Today they graduated, after four long years of guarding Santos's secret, a secret that only he, the faculty, and some of Miguel's closest friends were aware of. Richman led Santo's mother, now accompanied by his father, a gray haired man with a long mustache, into their dorm while Santos hauled two suitcases out of the trunk. He and Richman both wore their graduation robes, getting ready for the ceremony in a few hours. Miguel and his mother sat down on the couch, talking rapidly about something in Spanish.
"So, son. Have you finally decided what you are going to do?" asked Mr. Santos in an exasperated voice.
"I've told you, father," Miguel replied smoothly, "I want to be a superhero."
"Miguel, you need to get a real job," his mother said, a look of concern on her face. "And what if you're killed?"
"But imagine $1,000 a day with the Avengers!" Richman piped in. Miguel's parents glared at him while Miguel smiled a 'thanks'. Deciding not to start a family feud, Richman turned and walked over to the sliding glass door adjacent to their balcony. The sky was lit by a strange orange glow, as if the sun was just rising. He glanced at his watch. 9:35. The sun shouldn't still be rising, he thought, just as a wave of intense heat suddenly hit his face. He looked up and saw an immense band of fire spreading rapidly to the East. Miguel saw it, too, and had jumped up, slammed the door open, and leaped off the balcony so fast nobody could react.
Then his mother shouted "No, Miguel! Your graduation is-" She was cut off by a crackling sound as Miguel turned into his lightning form and the Living Lightning soared up into the sky.
He was high enough then, to see the entire city. Several blocks downtown were burning, and rings of fire were spreading outwards like ripples in a puddle. And high above ground zero was a small fireball.
The Living Lightning flew towards the fireball, and once he was close enough, he heard a loud voice. "Send out your champions, Terrans. And I, Firelord, former herald of Galactus, shall defeat them all!"
Miguel flung himself down at the fireball, and he could now see a vague human outline amidst the flames. He stopped just as he unleashed a furious bolt of electricity that struck the figure in the fire. The flames abated, and he could see a man turned away from him. The figure turned, apparently unaffected by the lightning blast. He was a very strange human, if he was human at all. His head was still on fire, he was wearing dark red and yellow body armor, and he was holding a burning staff; which he then pointed at Miguel.
A focused stream of fiery energy hit the Living Lightning like a freight train, knocking him forcefully onto the top of a nearby office building. His graduation robe had been burnt off, revealing his yellow costume/armor. He had taken to wearing this more and more often, planning to rejoin the Avengers, or at least join some superhero team after college. Now he was glad he had, as it had probably saved his life.
"This pitiful stripling is now Earth's most powerful defender?" Firelord asked angrily. "Ha! I laugh at your foolishness. Now, either bring me the one called Captain Marvel, or suffer the consequences." He pointed his staff at the Living Lightning, but then lifted it, and fired past him. The shot hit a skyscraper a few blocks away, knocking the top off, and sending debris rocketing down to the streets. Firelord began to laugh, but was stopped when an enormous hand punched him from above.
The Living Lightning looked up to see an impossibly huge man kneeling on a pink translucent platform. In his hand was a green-skinned woman he recognized as She-Hulk. Suddenly, a pink baseball mitt, the same color as the platform, was lifting him towards a short woman with pink wings coming from a large, golden mechanical device attached to her chest. "Are you all right?" She asked, pushing him to his feet.
He was feeling pretty dizzy, but he answered, "Yes," and transformed back into energy.
"Then let's go nail this guy," she said confidently.
The rest of the team was having a bit of trouble accomplishing this. Firelord hit She-Hulk across the face with his staff, at the same time launching a wave of flames with his other hand through Moonstone, and kicking Atlas in the stomach. He was much stronger than he looked, too, knocking Atlas off the sonic platform and down towards Songbird and the Living Lightning.
Atlas hit the building, then jumped back up at Firelord as he shouted: "Oh, no. Don't tell me Galactus is coming."
"No, foolhardy human," Firelord replied casually as he hit the back of Atlas's neck with his staff, sending the Thunderbolt plunging once more. "I'm a free agent now. I was sent to retrieve the one you call Captain Marvel for my formidable employer. I don't much like my new boss, but look at the power he's given me. I'm completely unstoppable now!" He laughed wickedly for a moment.
Moonstone dropped after Atlas, shouting: "Atlas! Shrink, so I can carry you back up!"
Meanwhile, She-Hulk had lifted a small water tower off of a nearby building and threw it towards Firelord. "Maybe this'll dampen your spirits."
Firelord aimed his staff and shot an intense beam of fire at the tower, vaporizing it into steam. He aimed again and hit She-Hulk, knocking her out of the Lightning's view. He watched Songbird hit Firelord with the catcher's mitt, now turned into a giant boxing glove, and followed up with a series of small electrical shocks.
"You put up a good fight," Firelord said, sending several fireballs towards them with a snap of his fingers. "For humans." Songbird and the Living Lightning were hit hard by the fireballs, despite the hard-sound shield.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a burst of fire hit Firelord. He seemed stunned for a minute, but then turned to see Charcoal soaring towards him. "Ah, so there is a worthwhile fight here on Earth, eh? Let's see." He pointed his staff up at Charcoal and fired. But, both to his surprise, and Charcoals, nothing happened. The shot hit him dead-on, but he just seemed to absorb it.
"Charcoal!" Songbird shouted, "you're alive! Where's Jolt?"
"I don't know, I got put in a hospital, she didn't."
By now, Moonstone, Atlas, and She-Hulk had all joined Songbird and the Lightning, along with Charcoal and were about to confront Firelord as a team. But he reacted first, launching a wave of fire that KO'd the entire team... except for Charcoal, who just floated in mid-air for a minute, then muttered something about 'the power' and collapsed.
Firelord floated over their unconscious bodies and pointed his staff down at them, preparing for the kill. Then, out of nowhere, a bolt of energy hit Firelord dead-on, throwing him down to the Thunderbolts. He hit the Living Lightning, who rolled onto his back and woke up. "Who dares?!?" Firelord demanded. Looking up, he saw a small man hovering above them.
"And, it's Captain Marvel to the rescue," he said, waving his hand at the Thunderbolts. All of them woke up, looking rejuvenated.
"You! You're the one my master must have!" Firelord shouted angrily. He seemed to be having trouble breathing, and the flames eminating from his body had died down substantially. He jumped up at Marvel, waving his staff, but Marvel dodged him easily, sending him careening into the sky. Firelord stopped himself, just as the Thunderbolts looked ready to fight, and said: "Well, I suppose it's time for Plan B." He held a small device that looked a lot like a cell-phone and pressed a button on it.
The next thing Marvel knew, there was a splitting pain in the back of his head and he was falling, past the Thunderbolts, down to the street.
"My master's neural destabilizer should take care of Captain Marvel," said Firelord. He took a few seconds to catch his breath, then turned on the approaching Thunderbolts. "And now for you pesky humans."
Atlas threw She-Hulk up towards Firelord's back, while Moonstone shot bolts of energy from below, the Living Lightning electrocuted him from above, and Songbird's gigantic hard-sound hammer hit his stomach. However, Firelord elbowed She-Hulk's face before she could reach him, and shrugged off the other attacks.
And although his power seemed to be fading rapidly, Firelord still packed a mean punch. He spun his staff around in his hands, incredibly fast, creating a cyclone of fiery energy, then launched it at the Thunderbolts. The Lightning and Songbird dodged it, but Moonstone, Atlas, and She-Hulk weren't so lucky. Moonstone didn't make her body intangible in time, and the building that Atlas and She-Hulk had been standing on was blown apart when the fiery cyclone hit it.
Firelord threw another barrage of fireballs at Songbird and the Living Lightning, thus ending the Thunderbolt's chances of defeating him. Moonstone, still conscious, watched him point his staff at the roof she and the other two had managed to land. But then, for no apparent reason, Firelord started to scream. Then Moonstone noticed Charcoal, clinging to Firelord's leg; and an immense amount of fire was travelling down Firelord's leg and, somehow, into Charcoal.
Then Charcoal let go, and began to burn brighter and more intensely than ever before. He punched Firelord with a flaming fist, and sent him flying backwards into a skyscraper. Firelord got up, as if to fight Charcoal again, but changed his mind, using his last bit of strength to boost himself up, over the city, and out towards the ocean.
Moonstone glided over to Charcoal and asked, "What just happened?"
"I-I don't know," Charcoal replied, trying hard to turn down his heat output, "I think I somehow absorbed Firelord's power. In fact, I feel like I could take on a hundred Firelords!"
"Hmm..." Moonstone replied warily, "we'd better see if the medical facilities in Mt. Charteris are still working, and run some tests."
They glided down to the street, and she could see She-Hulk was pulling Atlas out of a pile of burnt debris, and Songbird was floating over to them, along with the Living Lightning. "Hey guess what, guys. I've just been talking to the Living Lightning here, and he's agreed to join us!"
"What??" asked Moonstone, astounded. "You can't just go around making everyone we meet a member of our team!"
"But he used to be an Avenger! And the more the merrier, right? In fact..." She looked over at Captain Marvel, who was walking towards them, still rubbing the back of his neck. "Hey Captain Marvel, you're not a member of any team, right?"
"Well, no, I'm not, but-" He was still clutching his neck, and now looked even more uncomfortable. Unbeknownst to the Thunderbolts, a small voice in Marvel's head was telling him what to do.
"It's crazy!" Shouted the voice of Rick Jones, stuck inside Captain Marvel's head. "These guys are the Masters of Evil, for God's sake!"
"I know that. But Hawkeye's leading them. And now She-Hulk and the Living Lightning-"
"Hawkeye can be pretty dang thick-headed sometimes, the Lightning's just a kid, probably been brainwashed, and She-Hulk... well, she's always been kinda weird."
"Well," he said out loud, to the Thunderbolts, "I'm afraid I can't accept your offer." He turned away, and floated up into the sky, still feeling that he'd known Songbird from somewhere.
The Thunderbolts went on their way, too, Atlas and She-hulk boarding Songbird's sonic platform. They headed back to their base at Mt. Charteris in time for lunch.
# # # # # # # # # #
Meanwhile, in a hidden base several hundred feet below a small city in southern Oregon...
"I did it, boss," said a tall, heavyset man. "I blew open the Vault. You have my paycheck?"
"Of course," said the person in front of him, still obscured by shadows. He had yet to learn the person's identity. "I never go back on my promises," the shadowed person told him, handing him an envelope. He opened it, and counted out the $500,000 he was due.
It was all there, so he said, "Then I'll be on my way. I need to get back to the Kingpin."
"I'm afraid you won't be returning to your former employer, my dear 'Ox'" The person said. The large man, Ox, could now see other figures amongst the shadows. They were moving around him in a circle.
"B-but you said," he stuttered, a look of fear in his eyes.
"I promised I'd pay you well. I didn't promise you I'd let you live to enjoy it."
"N-no!" he screamed, but it was too late. Ox was thrown against a steel wall, his eardrums shattered, every bone in his body broken. The strange, invisible force coming from the shadowed person had killed him instantaneously.
"Now, somebody clean up this mess," the shadowed figure said, walking out of the steel room.
# # # # # # # # # #
Meanwhile, somewhere over Montana...
While they were still soaring up into the sky, and somewhat to the North, the Scorpion got up his nerve to ask Zemo a single question. "Uh, Baron, Sir..." He paused at Zemo's icy glare. "Ahem, what I mean to ask is, uh, have you noticed this... series of events? Y'know, the Serpent Society and all that?"
Zemo stood up, walked silently over to the Scorpion, and hit his face with the back of his hand. The Scorpion fell to the floor in pain. The man was even stronger than he appeared. "You, peon, are trying my patience!" he roared, a German accent definitely showing in his angered voice. "I have spies and allies within every criminal organization in the world! Agents and double agents, everywhere! There is nothing I do not know." He stormed around the tiny room, waving his arms furiously. Techno was smiling sinisterly, but Bullseye looked ready to kill someone. Half his body was still stuck in the wall of the capsule, and he was none to happy about it. "I should have killed you... In fact, I think I will." He pulled a Glock out of his pocket and aimed it at the Scorpion.
"No! No, please, Baron, I didn't mean anything." He pleaded, still on the floor. Techno's smile grew.
"Begging for your life?" Zemo said, disgusted. "What kind of man are you?"
"He's more a man than you are, Zemo." Said Bullseye, glaring at him with contempt. "More a man than your father ever was-" He stopped over the roar of Zemo's gun.
"Blam! Blam! Blam!" Bullseye winced, then opened his eyes. There were two small holes on either side of his face, and one above his head. "Insult my father, or myself one more time, and you will die a very painful death, regardless of your worth to my plan."
"If I might ask," said Bullseye, showing little fear of Zemo, " exactly what is that plan? I can only assume it involves your former comrades the Thunderbolts."
"Your impeccable skill," said Zemo, lowering his still-smoking gun, "could be very useful in distracting the Thunderbolt's leader, Hawkeye. Without a leader, the Thunderbolts are like fish in a barrel. Your aim is easily better than the archer's. If you can defeat him in battle, my forces can deal with the rest."
"Hmm..." Bullseye pondered as Techno released him from the wall. "An interesting prospect. You will, of course, be able to give me more benefits than the Kingpin?"
"Of course," said Zemo.
"And, if you will, may I ask a question?" Zemo nodded 'yes', so Bullseye continued. "What exactly do you know about these mysterious happenings? Or the numerous villains that left the Vault along with Arnim Zola?"
Zemo took a moment to think, and then answered: "I know nothing. And that disturbs me. However, I will soon."
"Oh?" asked Bullseye, obviously curious.
"Yes," Zemo responded, "you see, there is a wolf amongst their flock, one who owes allegiance to me."
# # # # # # # # # #
And at that moment, hundreds of miles away, standing separated from the Gray Gargoyle and the rest of the villains, the Molten Man began to smile.
# # # # # # # # # #
At about that time, the Thunderbolts returned to their base at Mount Charteris. The Ogre, caretaker of the mountain, had been trying to clean it up, and it actually looked a lot better. But, as they neared the hanger, the wall was suddenly blown apart, and the Ogre flew out of it. Ogre's chest was smoking, and he cringed in pain as the Thunderbolts hurried into the hangar to help him. They looked in shock as they turned into the hangar and could see a strange hovercraft inside. And, standing in front of it, two smoking energy weapons in his hands, was Arnim Zola...