Sorry for the wait.
I don't own Marvel or it's characters.
Chapter 4: The Rebels are born
Location: Time Square, New York City
Time: 3:25 a.m.
There were several gasps of shock, even cheers, from the people as they saw Captain America. He still looked the same, in his blue outfit with the red and white stripes across his abdomen. The white star was still on his chest, as was the white A on his helmet. His expression was also firm and unrelenting.
"Captain America. By the laws of the land, I charge you with high treason." The Leader said.
"Your laws are corrupt and unjust." Captain America said. "I stand for the true America, the one whose spirit lives on despite your attempts to destroy it."
"Destroy it? I saved it from itself." The Leader said. "Just look back on what happened. Political parties were corrupting America at its very core. People were interpreting the laws to suit their own ends. I did away with all that."
"And placed yourself upon a throne." With that Captain America held his shield up. Then, from among the crowd, men and women struck back at the Iron Legion. There was no common uniform, just whatever they had on at the time. Mainly street clothes. None carried guns, but several of them had lead pipes, clubs, and knives.
"The Freedom Fighters!" Baron Zemo said. Holding his sword up, he ordered, "HYDRA, attack!" The soldiers then moved, firing their weapons at the ragtag group that Captain America now led. To my surprise, one of the fighters raised her arms and a barrier formed, blocking the attacks of the soldiers.
"A million dollars to anyone who brings me a Freedom Fighter." The Leader said. "Two million for Captain America's head." Sadly, I fought that that was a price people were willing to pay. Several men and women surged forward, trying to grab any of the Freedom Fighters. The barrier was made to keep the civilians out.
MODOK had other plans. "Attack the people!" He ordered the Iron Legion. The suits began to fire into the crowd, ensuing mass panic. People began trampling each other, either to get away or to try to break through the barrier before they were taken down.
I looked at my team. "We moving in. Now." There was no argument from anyone. Iron Man flew down and began to blast the Iron Legion out of the sky. Cries of surprise came from the crowd as they saw him.
"Iron Man? Impossible!" MODOK said. "AIM took everything! All the armor!"
"Well, you missed one." Iron Man then blasted MODOK back with one of his repulsors. He then went back to blasting his former armors. Unfortunately, he didn't see Absorbing Man touch one of the fallen drones, and gain a metallic skin.
Hawkeye stepped in. He fired a grabbling arrow at a nearby building. Black Widow, Hawkeye, and I grabbed on as we swung down over the crowd and landed on the stand.
"Hi. Are we late for the party?" Hawkeye asked as he fired an arrow at the Controller's head. It then shocked him, knocking him to the ground. Well, we won't have to worry about him during this fight.
I had to roll out of the way to avoid being sliced by Baron Zemo's sword. "SHIELD? Here? I was certain that freak MODOK took you out."
"You thought wrong." I said as I tried to kick his legs out from underneath him. Unfortunately for me, he leapt out of the way and pulled out a gun. Black Widow and Hawkeye joined me in moving out of the way.
"Black Widow. I've got a score to settle with you." Abomination said as he stomped over to her. She just fired her Widow's Bites at the gamma villain. It didn't look like something that would do a lot of damage to him, but it did. Abomination roared in pain.
Heading over to the other heroes, I pulled out my bowie knife to cut them free. Iron Fist and Cyclops had regular ropes tying their wrists together. She-Hulk, however, had some sort of device on each of her wrists. Probably some sort of gamma inhibitor.
Once Cyclops got the ropes off his wrists I looked at him. "We need She-Hulk to stop Abomination and Absorbing Man. Blast the inhibitors off her wrists."
"Why are you helping us?" He asked me.
"It's the right thing to do." He seemed surprise at my response, but looked at her wrists. He fired a light optic blast at her wrists, frying the gamma inhibitors. Immediately she broke her ropes and stood, looking at me.
"You want help smashing bad guys? I'm in." With that She-Hulk leapt over to the Iron Legion and pulled two of them out of the sky. She then smashed their heads together, effectively shutting them down. She then leapt to two more.
Something wrapped itself around my neck and pull me back. I gagged as I fell onto the street, landing on some can something didn't throw in the garbage. My back really complained as I tried to see who was attacking me. I found myself staring into the gun of Viper.
"Finally caught up with you." She said. "No one makes a fool of me, especially not some pathetic SHIELD agent." I couldn't answer her because the whip was crushing my windpipe. She smiled at my pain and prepared to pull the trigger.
However, a glowing fist knocked the gun out of her hand. We looked to see Iron Fist was standing there. "I am against striking a lady," He drew his fist back, "but you are no lady." Focusing his chi into his fist, Iron Fist struck Viper and sent her back. The blow forced her to let go of her whip, which was still tight around my throat. I struggled to get it off, but my fingers felt funny. My vision was blurring. What the…?
"Don't move." Iron Fist told me. "She put poisonous barbs along her whip."
Now he tells me.
"Let me heal you." He then started focusing his chi energy. At least that's what I think he was doing. My knowledge of martial arts was limited to the old kung fu movies I used to watch. If he is using his chi couldn't he do it quicker? Dying by poison is low on my list of ways to go.
Two things then happened. First, he ripped the whip off my neck. Then, my entire body was racked with pain. I'm not kidding. It felt like someone stuck hot metal rods into every corner of my nervous system. I couldn't help but scream in pain at the sensation. After a few agonizing moments, it passed. I looked at him, but before I could say anything he told me, "The poison has been removed from your body?"
"I think I'd rather get a shot than go through that again." I said. "Thanks though."
"What's going on down there?" I heard Fury call me on my comm.
I answered, "The mysterious package contained something called Infinium. We're also fighting HYDRA and AIM while trying to rescue three heroes."
"Three heroes? Agent, get them back to the Helicarrier now. That's an order!"
"Yes, sir."
"Sounds like that's our cue." Black Widow said on her comm. I saw her leap over Abomination before striking him in several spots. The gamma monster fell over as she disappeared into the crowd.
Iron Fist sensed something. "Duck!" He forced me to the ground as he punched the air while gunshots rang out. Viper came up pulling the trigger on her gun. Light clinking on the pavement filled me in on the details. He was stopping her bullets with his fists.
"Out of my way, Iron Fist." Viper ordered.
His response was to assume his kung fu pose. "Never."
"Then die." Before she could fire she was blasted back by a unibeam. I looked to see Iron Man was descending form the sky.
"Viper, you know that attitude isn't very fitting for a diplomat." He said as he aimed his repulsors at her.
She just wiped some blood from the corner of her mouth. "Says the one who's now a terrorist?" She then flipped back to avoid getting hit by a wrecked car.
She-Hulk then leapt to us. "We've got some company." We looked to see Absorbing Man had absorbed something made of iron and was coming our way swinging his ball and chain, and looking eager to hurt us. An arrow latched itself onto his ball and exploded, covering him in foam that quickly hardened.
Hawkeye spoke into his comm. "If someone's got a plan, now's a good time."
"Hawkeye, get Cyclops over with us." I said.
"No problem." After he finished speaking members of the Iron Legion began to circle us. She-Hulk tore any that came close apart. I fired at some, but the most that did was put holes in the armor. Iron Man blasted them out of the sky while Iron Fist used his iron fist to punch several back.
There was a bright flash and I heard someone screaming. I turned to see Cyclops blast Grim Reaper into a dumpster. It was kind of amusing to see that, but we were getting outnumbered. More HYDRA and AIM soldiers were joining the Iron Legion in fighting us.
Lights then shone down on us. I looked to see Black Widow had arrived in her flying car. Finally. She did fire her Widow's Bites at several soldiers before telling us, "Time to go."
She-Hulk and Iron Fist leapt into her car. Hawkeye finally got to Cyclops and used a sonic arrow to clear a path for them. The two of them caught up with us and got into Widow's car. She then took off with Iron Man flying behind to blast any Iron Legion away from us.
Location: Classified
Time: 6:00 a.m.
Back on the SHIELD Helicarrier we were watching the news as the Leader was making it. He was twisting several facts to make it seem like this was an unprovoked attack on New York City and its people. TO make things worse the speaker was none other than J. Jonah Jameson himself.
"As if these mutant menaces and gamma monsters weren't bad enough, the terrorist organization known as SHIELD sent agents to attack the good people of New York. Former Avengers like Black Widow and Hawkeye were among the criminals. It's my professional opinion that Spider-Man is in cahoots with these villains, and is plotting to strike at the people again.
"In this footage we have Baron Zemo standing against the star-spangled traitor Captain America. Captain America and his Freedom Fighters may be claiming to be fighting for the freedom of America, but all they want is to push us back into anarchy! Don't you worry, folks. We were able to get a few words from Baron Zemo shortly after this attack."
I walked away. I felt so sick in my stomach because of how he was selling these lies to those people. Sometimes I wish that Jameson had perished in the war. What that man has against any hero is beyond me. Still he sometimes made me want to knock his teeth out.
"Sad, isn't it?" Coulson asked me. "To see that some people buy into the rule of people like the Leader."
"He's a moron." I said.
Coulson nodded in agreement. "I agree."
"Regardless of what you agree on, the fact remains that your first mission was a failure." Fury told us. "HYDRA and AIM got their hands on that Infinium substance and who knows how they'll use it to make deadly weapons. What's more you brought unwanted attention to yourselves and now the world knows Iron Man is alive and well."
"It was going to happen sooner or later." I responded. "You knew that when Iron Man was put on the team."
"Well it looks like your team might be splitting up." Fury said as he led me to the debriefing room. Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Iron Man were arguing with each other. Geez, leave them alone and they start bickering.
"Your reckless stunts are why we lost the Infinium!" Hawkeye told him.
"Hey, at least I was trying to keep it from getting away." Iron Man said, "And the only reason why I agreed to help you was to get Stark Industries back. Where is it? Oh yeah. Still in MODOK's greedy hands."
"We're working on getting it back." Black Widow said. "But you know that's going to take a while, with all the power AIM has now."
"Well do things faster!"
"Hey, you're not the leader here. We're not the Avengers."
"No wonder, considering how things go just as bad as when we were part of that team."
She-Hulk, Iron Fist, and Cylops were watching from the side. I got the impression that they weren't impressed with how the team was handling itself. Frankly, I wasn't too impressed either.
"If you can't handle how I do things, maybe I should go solo." Iron Man said.
Hawkeye gestured to the door. "Go. And I hope I never help you again."
"That's enough." I said. "We're supposed to be a team."
"And think about what you accomplished. You rescued three heroes from certain death. You struck a blow against the Leader, and showed the people he was vulnerable. And you gave people hope." Coulson pulled up the news report on the screen. "They may be saying otherwise, but that doesn't change the facts. You gave not only the Leader, but HYDRA and AIM reason to be afraid."
"The Avengers broke up for a reason." Hawkeye said. "We're not going to reform the team."
"That's the problem." Fury said. "You think that you're becoming Avengers, but you're not. You're right, Barton. That chapter has closed. You are not the Avengers, so all of you stop acting like them."
"Then what are we?" Cylcops asked.
I listened to the news. Jameson was still ranting about how we were menaces, and that the Leader was promising at a speech to take care of all rebels to… wait a minute. That last one. That's it. "Play back the report."
"Why?" Hill asked me.
"I think I just found something."
Maria played back the news to where the Leader was saying, "…but there's no need to worry. Your Leader will take care of all threats. These rebels will be dealt with—"
I then paused the screen. "There. What he said. "That's our name."
Black Widow looked at me. "Rebels?"
"Just be glad I'm not suggesting we call ourselves the Rebel Alliance."
She-Hulk nodded. "It makes sense. In his eyes we are rebelling against his rule."
I looked at the three heroes we rescued. "If you do not wish to join, you don't have to. We can take you somewhere where you'll be safe."
"Nowhere will be safe while the Leader remains in power." Iron Fist said. "And while we hide the people will suffer. This is our chance to strike back at him."
"And I've got some punches saved for that melon head." She-Hulk added. "I'm in."
"Mutants are persecuted worse now than they were before." Cyclops said. "He took people I care about. I'm not going to let him continue with this."
I then looked at the former Avengers. "Iron Man, you were reckless, but you still managed to save our lives. There's still a place on the team for you, and we promised to help get Stark Industries back. One thing I never do is break a promise." I then looked at Black Widow. "You know more than I do at how to infiltrate the enemy. If we do this, we need your help." I then turned to Hawkeye. "You've been a SHIELD agent longer than I have. And the Rebels will need your experience…"
"I'll help." Hawkeye said. "Spare me the mushy stuff."
I nodded. I then looked at the new team. Iron Man. Hawkeye. Black Widow. Cyclops. Iron Fist. She-Hulk. Not a bad roster. I think the Rebels might actually have a chance against the Leader and his forces.
I'm still not sure the chapter is the best. I'm feeling like something's missing, but I don't know what.
I do have an important announcement: I've been hired recently and will start work soon. For now, I may need to put all my stories on hiatus. Sorry.
