Taking Liberties
Benjamin Lockwood was standing by the window in his New York hotel room, looking down on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. As a marching band passed by, playing the Liberty Bell March, his mind went back several months to when he'd left the Sons of Liberty behind, burning his costume. It had seemed like there was no turning back, he'd needed that costume like he needed a hole in the head. Since then, he'd been on his own, no longer Agent Liberty, but rather a free agent. Still, he missed those days.
Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by the TV in the corner of the room; breaking news was coming in about some guerrillas who'd taken over the Statue of Liberty. He wanted to don his costume and head straight on over there, but he resisted; there were metahumans who could handle it. This wasn't the first time he'd been tempted to return to being Agent Liberty; he wanted to return to it every day, his life seemed empty without it. Being an ex-superhero was a lot like being an alcoholic, he just had to take it a day at a time.
Suddenly, a big Superman balloon floated past his window, and he realized that rather than try to forget those days in Metropolis, he should learn from them, forget about the corruption and aspire to be a real hero. He just couldn't turn his back on crime.
He looked at the TV and the longshot of Liberty Island, and rushed for the door. Superman was only here in balloon form, but there was another hero here today - one who could also fly and whom bullets would bounce off.
This was a job for Agent Liberty.
Fortunately, he had some spare costumes scattered around the country, stashed away in some of the many hiding places he'd learned about while working with the CIA. One such costume was behind a secret panel in a nearby abandoned subway tunnel (a favorite of the CIA; they hid everything there from futuristic weapons to ancient wizards if the stories were to be believed). Along with his white-and-yellow battle suit was an array of weaponry. He donned the suit, grabbed his favorite pistol and some time-activated grenades, and then ran out of the tunnel, activating his jet pack, and soared up, up and away.
It was good to be flying again, the wind rushing past his face. He flew over the parade, zigzagging around the balloons, the people down below pointing at him, but though he waved at them, he wasn't interested in adulation; he had a lady to take care of.
He zoomed over the New York buildings and activated his force field as he reached the bay, drawing closer to the statue. Suddenly, a muscular soldier perched on top of her crown started firing at him with his M16A2 rifle, the bullets flashing in front of him as they went bouncing off his force field. That didn't slow him down, he just carried on and ploughed into the soldier, fists first, knocking him off his feet and towards the edge of the statue's head. However, as the soldier fell over the side, he somehow managed to grab hold of the edge, clinging on tightly with one arm.
Agent Liberty dropped his force field and landed. He looked at the soldier's gloved hand and its precarious grip, but was then surprised to see the soldier swing effortlessly back up onto the statue and then run at him. He saw the soldier's face and gasped, just as a fist smashed into him, knocking him down onto the statue's green copper surface.
As he lay there, thinking about what he'd just seen, Agent Liberty suddenly realized he'd misheard the TV over the sound of the Liberty Bell March.
"Gorillas!" he said, as a giant foot came down on his head.
Agent Liberty was thankful for the armor built into his headwear; otherwise his skull would have no doubt been crushed by the simian soldier, who now had his hairy hand wrapped tightly around Agent Liberty's throat, crushing his windpipe while lifting him high in the air, ready to fling him down into the Hudson.
Normally he would have had no compunction about killing an enemy there and then, but he knew from the M.O. that this must be the work of Gorilla Grodd, and that this henchman was merely mind-controlled, on a mission from Grodd, so instead he activated his jet pack, sending them both into the air, the gorilla hanging onto his throat, dangling below him.
Agent Liberty kicked the gorilla, hoping to send him falling into the water below, but the ape refused to budge. With his air running out, his face turning red beneath his mask, the hero lifted his gun and pointed it straight at the gorilla's face, hoping Grodd would have the decency to let the gorilla relax his grip and plummet into the water below rather than face certain death. The gorilla's grip just tightened; he was just a pawn to Grodd, a pawn to be sacrificed.
Agent Liberty pulled the trigger, and saw the hurt, confused look on the ape's face just before the bullet hit.
He'd make Grodd pay for this.
Ten minutes had passed since he'd had to kill that first ape. Since then he'd infiltrated the statue's crown and had to silence five more. It was then that he heard Grodd's telepathic command in his head, so loud that he thought Grodd was next to him.
Bring me Agent Liberty!
Grodd must have wanted him to know that he was after him. Try to scare him into making a mistake, but he was used to intense situations, he relished them. It was then that he had his idea, a way to end the killing, a way to get to Grodd quickly. If Grodd wanted him that badly, then Grodd would have him.
It didn't take him long to find the next set of apes, situated on the stairs leading down from the crown.
"The name's Agent Liberty," he said nonchalantly, as their bullets bounced off his force field. "You can call me AL."
The apes stopped shooting and looked at him blankly.
"Grodd wants me, so I'm surrendering."
The apes smiled as he put down his force field, and then they attacked with all their wild fury. Agent Liberty smiled, he was hoping this would happen; it was just part of his plan. He was used to combat, so he fought against them, took their punishment, and finally, when he could take no more, played dead. Of course, Grodd might know of his pretense, he was a telepath after all, but that was a chance he'd have to take.
He felt one of the gorillas pick him up and then he was being carried down the stairs. At the bottom, the two gorillas took him by his arms and hauled him, his feet dragging along the floor, to their leader.
Agent Liberty was glad his mask hid his eyes as he looked at Grodd, standing in front of a large machine, with technology more advanced than he'd ever seen. It had a tripod as its base, with a gleaming obelisk mounted on top. Agent Liberty didn't know what it was for, but he knew it couldn't be good.
"So, you've brought me Liberty," said Grodd, stepping away from the machine.
"They've brought you death!" said Agent Liberty, springing back to life, shrugging off the gorillas, and pulling out his gun. He raised it, and aimed it at Grodd, only to find his finger couldn't pull the trigger.
"How melodramatic you humans are," said Grodd. "And how easily controlled."
Sweat gathered under Agent Liberty's mask as he struggled to pull the trigger. "So, are you going to make me your slave now?"
"Why would I do that?" asked Grodd. "If I thought you had any worth, I'd have read your mind, taken you over, but you're just a human, not even a metahuman. Soon your kind will be relics." He turned his attention back to the large machine.
"You plan to destroy the whole human race?"
"No, I plan to upgrade them, to evolve them, to alter the morphogenic field so that they will become apes."
"You're crazy."
"And after that we'll destroy this statue. I'm sure the cinematic allusion isn't wasted on you."
"You damn dirty ape," said Agent Liberty, dropping his gun, as Grodd's mind control brought him to his knees.
"Kneel before almighty Grodd."
Agent Liberty watched in horror as Grodd flicked a switch, and the machine sprang into life, making a humming sound as electricity crackled around it, and then he felt himself transforming.
He was losing his humanity, but some would say he'd lost that a long time ago, on many a battlefield. He'd done terrible things, and that was just today, and maybe sacrificing apes made him just as bad as Grodd, but sometimes the end justified the means.
While he couldn't shoot at Grodd, thankfully Grodd hadn't stopped him using his force field. As he felt his face mutating, he activated his force field, realizing it was time for the time-activated grenades that he'd secretly planted earlier to detonate. That was when the two gorilla soldiers on either side of him exploded.
That shocked Gorilla Grodd enough to drop his mind control on Agent Liberty.
"You can take my humanity," snarled Agent Liberty, rising to his feet, "but you'll never take my freedom." He charged toward Grodd.
Grodd bared his teeth as the heroic ape leapt on him. A violent struggle ensued, but Grodd was just too strong. Agent Liberty needed to stop that machine now, before things went too far, but it was behind him, while Grodd was on top of him, slamming his fists down hard.
He activated his jet pack, propelling both him and Grodd towards the machine, and while he went under the tripod base, his now-huge frame getting jammed in there, Grodd smashed straight into the obelisk, head-first, shattering it. As smoke began to rise from the machine above him, Agent Liberty turned the jet pack off, and activated his force field once more. If the machine was going to explode, he hoped the force field would contain the debris. He'd make sure at least one person called Liberty wouldn't be destroyed by the blast.
Then there was an explosion and everything went black.
Agent Liberty awoke to find himself lying on the ground, under the machine's tripod base. He was covered in debris, not to mention the lower half of Grodd, whose head was still trapped in the remains of the machine. The hero's body was aching all over, but at least he was still alive... and human once again. It was definitely a day to give thanks.
He pushed the debris away, got to his feet, and hobbled out of the Statue of Liberty, towards a silent crowd, the flash of photography and the waiting news crews on Liberty Island, their clothes torn due to their recent transformations.
"Tell us what happened?" asked a newspaper reporter he remembered from back in Metropolis, his bright blue underwear peeking out from beneath his tattered suit.
"It was a war, Clark, between Gorilla Grodd and humanity, and there were casualties."
"And are you okay?" asked the concerned reporter, looking at the battered Agent Liberty.
"Well, I think my left leg's broken, and a couple of ribs, and I suspect I'm going to collapse soon. Also, I'm having to lip-read what you say because that explosion seems to have made me temporarily deaf."
"Does this mean you'll be disappearing again?" Clark said.
"No, I'm back," said Agent Liberty, "for as long as America needs me." And with that, he activated his jet pack and soared into the sky, noticing that the crowds below were cheering him.
Despite all of his pain, he smiled. He'd sure missed being a superhero. He turned away from the Statue of Liberty and zoomed away, towards a brighter tomorrow.
The End