The Pentagon
Washington DC
In a room, at the Pentagon, a meeting was being held over the Task Force X Project. The table was filled with generals of the military and respected people of the government. At the seats on the side were Agent Maryse Lightwood, her son, Colonel Alec Lightwood, and Dr. Magnus Bane.
A man then starts his speech, "What if Superman had decided to fly down, rip off the roof of the white house . . . and grab the President of the United States right out of the overall office? Who would've stopped him? We got contingency plans for nukes in North Korea . . . Anthrax in our mail. We got fluoride in our water. But what happens if the next Superman . . . becomes a terrorist? Maryse Lightwood has a plan. Maryse."
The women in the dark blue and white business suit walks up to the front. Her hair was half up and she had no jewelry. She wasn't here for a simple presentation. She was here for business.
Maryse places a metal suitcase on the table and pulls up mugshots of each criminal she has recruited. They were the faces of many metahumans and killers, such as Clary Fray, Luke Garroway, Jace Wayland, Simon Lewis, Raphael Santiago, and Catarina Loss.
"I wanna build a team of some very bad people who I think could do some good," she announces. "Like fight the next war, defeat the next Superman."
"Not on my watch," General Victor Aldertree disagrees with her. "You're not putting those monsters back out on the street in our name."
Not willing to give up, Maryse then reasons with him. "General, we run them covertly non-attributed. Strictly need to know. And if they get caught, we throw them under the bus. The next war will be fought with these metahumans. Ours, or theirs. We're not the only ones kicking up rocks looking for them."
"You know we can't control these people."
Maryse then opens the suitcase. "Actually, I can. Dr. Bane?"
In the side seats, Magnus Bane had his hand gripping Alec's as he knows what was about to happen.
"Stay strong, Magnus." Alec whispers to him.
Magnus Bane clears his throat and walks up to the front of the presentation. Unlike his usual appearance, Magnus had no makeup on his face and he wore a dark grey suit with a pale purple button-up shirt. His hair was parted to the side and he had on his prescribed glasses.
"This is one of my recruits, Dr. Magnus Bane." Maryse introduces him to the whole room.
"Dr. Bane, what do you do for a living?" Aldertree asks him.
"I'm an archaeologist," Magnus calmly answers his question.
Victor Aldertree studies the man in front of the table. "Have you been arrested or to prison?"
The man nods his head. "No, sir. Just parking tickets and accidentally walked out of a store with a pair of sunshades on my head."
For one thing, General Aldertree was confused by this. He had heard of Maryse's project to consists of known criminals and killers, but Dr. Bane was nowhere near the description of a criminal. "So what exactly qualifies you to be on the Task Force X?"
Magnus pushes his glasses closer and explains, "During my exhibition in Peru, I stumbled into a cave and found something I shouldn't have."
"How about you show them what you found in that cave?" Maryse suggests.
Her request made Alec's heart drop into his stomach. He already knew what they were going to show these people and he didn't like it at all. Dr. Magnus Bane informs them, "I'm gonna invite someone here and they are gonna come into this room without opening the door or even going through security." Even though he sounded confident, Magnus was quite terrified. He nervously takes off his glasses and puts them in his pocket. At first, he didn't want to do it, but he knew eventually what had to be done. "Enchantress," he whispers the name under his breath.
Suddenly, black smoke began to form around Magnus as he placed his hand on the table. While the smoke covered him, a dirty black hand comes up underneath his and interlocks it. Then, Magnus's hand disappears into the other hand and the smoke is gone.
In front of the table was a horrific meta human known as the Enchantress. She still looked like Magnus except her whole dirty sorceress style made him look unrecognizable.
His messy black hair was to his shoulders and was pulled back with a moon crescent head piece above the forehead. Magnus's built body was filthy covered in what looked like charcoal and his hands were nearly pitch black. Basically, he was naked with nothing but a long dark green cloth wrapped tightly around his waist. His arms and chest were decorated with chains and ancient jewelry, and there were strange tattoos and an unidentified language written on certain parts of his body. Dark circles were underneath his eyes as they began glowing red.
"What the hell is that?" One of the generals mumbles, while a lady crosses her heart.
Enchantress gazes at the unfamiliar people and asks Maryse, "Are these the rulers of the world?" Her voice was still like Magnus, except it was more spine-tingling and creepy.
"Some of them are respected generals of our military. I can assure you that they will not harm you." Maryse Lightwood assures the wicked sorceress. She turns to the table and introduces them to the witch. "Meet the Enchantress. Everything we know about her is in your briefing packs. She's walked this earth for a very long time and will likely be here when we're long gone."
Aldertree clears his throat. "She's a she?"
His question made the Enchantress snap her head back at him. Her eyes were wide and she answers, "Yes, I am."
"Enchantress needed a human body to walk the earth," Maryse explains. "She can take anyone as her host, man, woman, child, teenager, senior citizen. But she chose the one person who brought her to America. The person who accidentally knocked over her statue and released her. And the person was none other than Magnus Bane."
Now that everything was explained, Aldertree still wasn't convinced to allow this witch to roam free. "This meeting is-is now a magic show?" He asked.
"Magic or not, this girl can dosome pretty incredible things."
Enchantress looks back at Maryse and grins. "I know exactly what to get them."
The government agent carefully opened the briefcase. Inside of the case was none other than the heart of the Enchantress. The only way Maryse could control her was her heart. "Go get it, girl," Maryse encouraged her.
The sorceress gazes down at her heart and disappears. Once she was gone, the lights start flickering and the whole room began rumbling. Moments later, Enchantress appears next to Aldertree casually reading a large binder. "How about a little something from the Weapons ministry vault in Tehran?" She smirks. "Great stuff. Like what you see?" She places it in front of him.
Stunned by her magic show, the general flips through the pages of the binder. It was filled with notes, drawings, and blueprints of weapons. "We've been chasing these plans for years," he mumbles. "How did you get these?"
"I popped in and out in only three seconds. I can get you more of these if you want."
"That won't be necessary." Enchantress then caresses his face, making Victor Aldertree very uncomfortable. "Please don't touch me. Please stop touching me." She grins at him and stops what she's doing.
"And that's just a little bit of what she's capable of," Maryse added.
As she continues to present her plan, the metahuman looks back at the side chairs and spots Alec Lightwood. Since they've gotten together, Alec has had some encounters with the Enchantress. She saw him as a soldier with mommy issues and does whatever she says to bring back Magnus. For him, she was the one thing that stands between him and the man he loves. "Hello, Alec." Her voice sends chills down his spine. "I've missed you."
Alec sighs, "I wish I could say the same."
Before anything else could happen, Maryse interrupts, "Thank you very much, Enchantress. I appreciate it. We'd like Dr. Bane back now."
It was the one request that made her blood boil. Every time she is summoned, she is told what to do for everyone else. After she does, Maryse or Alec commands that she bring Magnus back. "Who, Magnus?" She chortles. "No, it's been awhile since I've been out. Let's do something fun."
"Sure, why not." The agent takes out a scalpel and gently slices a cut in the Enchantress's heart.
The witch grunts, "Ugh!" She totters as she feels the pain of her heart.
Maryse pulls the scalpel back and says, "There's your fun. I'm only gonna repeat myself once and if you don't do as I say, we're gonna have a lot more fun. Now bring back Magnus Bane."
Instead of doing what she says, Enchantress cackles, "It's been a long time since I've felt real pain. I just love it. Come on, Maryse. Do you worse."
"Alright then."
At that moment, Maryse Lightwood forcefully stabs the scalpel in the witch's heart. A bright light shines through the Enchantress's chest and she lets out an inhuman shriek of pain. "AHHHH!"
Her scream startles everyone in the room and Alec stands up, worrying of what will happened next. The lights begin flickering as Enchantress covers herself in black smoke.
"Magnus!" She screams at the top of her lungs. The smoke quickly covers her and disappears, revealing the real yet startled Magnus Bane.
Once the lights return to normal, Magnus leans on the table holding in his chest. Alec steps toward him and puts his hand on his shoulder. "Mags, you okay?" He asked him.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Magnus breathes as he squints his eyes for a second. "Just give me a minute."
The whole table watches as Magnus slowly recovers, but some were concerned of what just happened. "Did that hurt you?" Someone asked him.
"Yes, sometimes I can feel her pain." Magnus answers them.
"Dr. Bane, where do you go when she takes over?" Chairman Aldertree questions him.
Magnus stands up straight and sighs, "When this happens, I can sometimes see what she's doing or I black out. It's like a dream and I have no control of my body. I'd rather black out then watch her because her using her magic feels like I'm handcuffed to an asteroid."
"I'm sorry, Magnus, but she wasn't cooperating with me." Maryse informs him of the incident.
He turns to her and smirks, "Well, I can't exactly control her, Maryse. By the way, ow. That kind of hurt."
"It wasn't supposed to tickle," Agent Lightwood responds as she closes the case with the heart. "She's been getting feisty lately, don't you think?"
It was one thing to drag him into the Task Force X project, but to tease him with the witch inside his body was too much for Magnus to handle. "You would be too if someone was stabbing your heart."
"Alec, get him out of here," she commands her son.
As Alec leads his boyfriend out the door, a man turns to Aldertree and says, "I move to . . . authorize Maryse Lifgtwood to establish Task Force X under the Argus program."
Everyone at the table exchanges looks. Some of them like the idea, but others weren't entirely in love with it. With a couple of nodding heads, Victor Aldertree reluctantly agrees, "All right."
"Thank you, Mr. Chairman." Maryse tells him.