The Story thus far: Force Works has targeted the mercenary group named The Soldiers of Misfortune after a particularly heinous attack on a relief camp. After some searching, the Soldiers were spotted in Rocinha, Brazil. But unknown to Force Works, the Soldiers are the least of their concerns…
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Marvel 2000 Presents
Force Works 31
Soldiers of Misfortune
Part 2
Atop the Mountain
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Several weeks ago
Location: Secret.
"Magnus Detective, are you ready to give your report?"
"One moment," Arthur Mycroft, information trader and secret adviser to some of the most influential men in the world, organized the papers on his desk and took a calming breath before he began. He wore a personally tailored grey Italian suit that cost more than most cars and his bright red hair was freshly groomed at the cost of three hundred dollars. He sat with his arms crossed atop his fifty million dollar desk, fine oak expertly lain over bleeding edge technology that wasn't even due to hit the market for five years.
Though he had delivered briefings like this before, those were more consultations meant to guide and enlighten wealthy clients. It didn't matter to him if they acted on his advice or ignored it outright so long as he was paid. But here, he was guiding the course of an organization that he had an equal stake in. His future and fortunes were directly tied to theirs, and even after all this time it was a novel experience for him, almost enough to bring back the stage fright that died in his teens. Almost.
Mycroft was in his private room, surrounded by four monitors. Though the faces on all of them were scrambled, he knew who each monitor represented. Use of code names were in full effect, the internet signal was triple encrypted as it was run through several servers Mycroft personally created and secured and the cameras used for this conference were literally incapable of producing anything other than an un-blurred image. While no security system was perfect, Mycroft felt that his at least approached it.
Mycroft, as a way of steadying his nerves, mentally reviewed his conspirators profile within their organization.
First, there was The Colonel, their arm in Russia and Europe. His extensive spy network spanned Europe, to say nothing of the former KGB members he employed as his foot soldiers.
Next was Baron O, their arm in the United States. His influence over the oil industry was as legendary as it was shrouded in secrecy. A security company staffed by the best former Special Forces commandos saw to that.
Third was Airforce C, a super-villain who secretly acted as their agent in the public eye, when there wasn't time for subtlety or stealth. After all, few looked too closely at the motives of a ranting super-villain these days. If he screamed his motivation to the public, people simply took that on face value.
And last but not least was Lady Blade, the head of their research department. Any discovery made by the other four was funneled to her, which in turn resulted in billions net profit. Combined, the five of them complimented the power of the other. Between that and her amazingly old money connections, she was every bit the heavyweight the other members were.
Combined, they were known to only a select few as The Corporation and were well on their way to carving out an empire for themselves, on both sides of the law.
"I am ready to begin."
"Then please deliver your report. In your professional opinion, what risks do our various enterprises face from the American hero community?"
"It is my opinion that only one super hero team poses any foreseeable threat to our operations," Mycroft reported.
"Only one?"
He watched the other four members of chew over this information.
"How can you be certain? The Avengers…"
"Deal almost exclusively with world menaces," answered Mycroft, "they have fought lesser threats, true. But those actively targeted them like the Triune Understanding, or were careless with their operations, like the Sons of the Serpent."
"Are you certain?"
"The West Coast branch still haven't discovered that we were the ones responsible for the plot to destroy the Dome of the Rock in an effort to provoke what would have been a profitable war," replied Mycroft, "saving the world takes more effort than you'd think. To be blunt, most teams out there do not have the time, focus or resources to investigate new threats while still dealing with their current enemies."
"What about X-Force? They're all experienced investigators and damn good at it too. And I've heard Excalibur recently added some new members who…"
"Excalibur is a UN organization and can be easily blocked," Mycroft interrupted, "as for X-Force, they are no threat for two reasons. First, they owe us a favor for helping them stopping out competition, the Byron Agency and second, given how little we dabble with mutants in our operations, we simply don't fall under their jurisdiction. If we do not cross them, they will not cross us."
"So who is this great threat?"
"Force Works," he said simply.
"Those liberal minded children?"
"They're just kids, are you serious?"
For a full minute, Mycroft said nothing as his fellow Corporation leaders expressed their disbelief.
"They are not children, nor are they adults," Mycroft finally said, "and that is the problem."
"Feel free to enlighten us."
"Force Works is primarily composed of well trained, experienced and worst of all, idealistic youths," Mycroft began, "according to Shield reports, the one known as Nova fought in an alien war for a year. Their leader, Mirage, was trained by Shield itself. The alien on their team appears to be a highly trained operative and he's not even the greatest threat. And this was before their numbers swelled!"
"So they're powerful. So what?" Baron O said dismissively, "it'll take more than power to put a dent in our battleship."
"It's not just power!" Mycroft hissed, "They're completely unpredictable! One week they're cleaning out drug gangs from some unimportant city, the next traveling to Africa to kidnap a Diamond executive and then targeting illegal genetic programs! Their agenda is whatever happens to catch their fancy. We still don't know why they became involved in our efforts to destroy the Dome!"
"So they're unpredictable, so what?" asked The Colonel.
"You mean besides the fact that we would never see them coming? That they may decide to target our operations on a whim?" answered Mycroft, "what's worse is that they're thorough. Their leaders Mirage and Nova both have contacts with Shield, and their technologies expert, Technocrat, is an extraordinary computer hacker. He almost managed to back trace the shell companies we used to create the Tri-Sentinel back to us!"
That seemed to gather the attention of the entire board. Mycroft could almost feel them standing up from their chairs, as they finally realized the truth to his report.
"That's impossible, why weren't we notified?!"
"Because I managed to contain the damage. I had key people eliminated, data that would lead to false trails planted and cut outs at the ready," Mycroft reassured them, "but we may not be so lucky next time."
"You may have a point," conceded Airforce C, "I've fought one of their members before. To dismiss them as just children would be foolish. Magnus Detective, you have convinced me."
"I am not entirely convinced," said the Colonel, "but in situations like these, I feel it best to be careful. Let us deal with them, because they decide to deal with us."
"By attacking them, aren't we making them the threat we imagine them to be?" asked Lady Blade.
"They will come for us, make no mistake," Mycroft insisted, "yes, they are random and unfocused. But a bullet that hits you by accidentally is no less dangerous than one aimed at you. I simply propose that we strike first, so that we may control the confrontation and better guide the outcome."
"I disagree," stated Lady Blade, "but I can already tell that the board has decided. My interests will not be taking part, for the record."
"Understood," Mycroft has already anticipated Lady Blade's objections. But even without her, their resources were considerable.
"How do you propose to deal with them, then?" asked the Colonel, "not something as cliché as simply sending Airforce C after them, I hope. No offense meant."
"And none taken," replied Airforce C, "The Colonel is correct. I've dealt with heroes. A frontal assault would gain us nothing but unnecessary attention."
"I agree," replied Mycroft, "even if we were successful, we would only garner the attention of the X-Men, or Avengers. No, what we need is a complex, and well executed plan to overcome their strengths and exploit their weaknesses. To just send a collection of thugs after them would be worse than useless…"
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Rocinha, Brazil
Force Works stood less than twelve feet away from the Soldiers of Misfortune, muscles tensed, a look of grim determination etched into their face. Nova's hands smoldered with energy ready to tear loose, the air around Tarene grew ice cold while X-Treme's blades seemed to gleam, ready for blood.
In contrast, the Soldiers of Misfortune just stood there casually, almost in disbelief at the idea that anyone would bother stand up to them.
"It's over now, but we're more than ready to make mess!"
"Can you kids even find this place on a map?" asked Cerberus, "I bet you wouldn't even care about these dirt caked spics if we weren't here."
"If we didn't care, we wouldn't be here at all," Tarene snarled.
Nova replied curtly with a burst of energy that slammed into the center of Cerberus's chest, and sent him flying like a leaf caught in a hurricane.
Without another word, the two teams rushed at one another like opposing football teams. The Soldier of Misfortune pointed his hands at the Human Rocket, and unleashed a torrent of energy. Nova instinctively retaliated with a pulse of pure force.
The two opposing energies met in midair, and the result was nothing short of a disaster. The two forces interacted instantly, creating a massive explosion of light and force tore through the air, and pitched members of both teams all across the mountain side.
"Oh, damn…!" Nova felt his blood run cold as he witnessed what he'd done. One of Force Works' greatest strengths was their teamwork. Now that was gone, and even worse, he'd accidentally pushed the battle deeper into a highly populated area.
"Nice one, meat wad!" Flashpoint shot upwards and his fist slammed into Nova's jaw. Richard's head snapped back as he tasted blood and his vision swam. The Man Called Nova let loose a burst of nova-force from his eyes, but watched as it harmlessly splashed off Flashpoint's armor. Suddenly Nova realized that simply staying afloat was harder now than it had ever been in years.
"Your energy…" Flashpoint's hands were surrounded by a halo of energy so bright that Nova could barely see his enemy, "…it's really something else. But tell me, what do you think will happen if you experience it from the outside?"
Nova shot upwards, but wasn't nearly fast enough to escape the flood of pure power, enough to vaporize three city blocks, that washed over him and sent him flying.
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If there was any power better than enhanced reflexes, Adam Sol honestly didn't couldn't think what it might be.
He saw that the two energy blasts would connect, and sprang into action. He pushed his girlfriend Wolfsbane to the ground, and then leapt backwards just as the explosion tore through the block.
The explosion pitched him backwards like a leap caught in a tornado. One of X-Treme's saving graves was that the entire city was built on a downwards sloped hill. The full three extra seconds of unobstructed travel gave X-Treme just enough time to regain his wits.
In a smooth, unhurried fashion, he twisted in midair, positioning his feet underneath him, ready and waiting. He saw the roof of the building that his trajectory was taking him, and subconsciously calculated his rate of descent.
He slammed into a gravel rooftop exactly as anticipated. He bent his knees and rolled forward, bleeding off some of the momentum, but it wasn't nearly enough to stop him. Adam rolled off one roof, and caught the ledge of another before he finally stopped.
He pulled himself up instantly, and began evaluated his options. He heard a blood curdling roar, and snapped his head in the direction of the war cry. He saw a man leaping down the mountain, from one roof to another, like a frog on speed.
"X-Treme! You are mine!"
To others, the man might have been nothing but a blur, but everything about the Shi'ar warrior was enhanced, including his perspection. He saw a dark skinned man in Navy green pants, fat claws on the tips of his fingers and fur that ran down the length of his wrist.
"Mongoose…" breathed Adam, a cold shiver shooting down his spine
The two had fought during a short prison stint. Adam had been framed and the guards wanted to see a fight. X-Treme had one, largely thanks to rage and power dampeners that made the two rough equals.
Now, watching Mongoose speed towards him like a jackrabbit on steroids, Adam wasn't so sure that was the case anymore. He glanced behind him, at the houses farther down the mountain, their distance from his position and what material they were likely constructed out of.
"My honor will be avenged!"
What happened next only took four full seconds, but felt like an eternity to Adam. Mongoose landed less than a dozen yards away, and lunged through the air at the alien warrior, hands reaching for his neck. X-Treme, unwilling to risk civilians by dodging, tipped himself backwards, and went limp while he grabbed two short daggers from his belt.
Mongoose slammed into the hero like a freight train, and wrapped his hands around Adam's neck, knocking them both off the ledge of the roof. X-Treme chopped the sides of Mongoose's elbows with surgical precision, triggering a pressure point.
Almost instantly, Mongoose's hands went slack. X-Treme yanked the clawed hands off his throat and while keeping a firm grip on Mongoose's wrists, swung his legs up and smashed the villain in the stomach, flipping them over one hundred and eighty degrees in mid-air. Mongoose glanced down just in time for his body to slam into the cement roof, and then crash through it.
The impact was bone jarring and made Adam's ears ring, while white powder filled the air, making it nearly impossible to see or breathe. But X-Treme ignored it all the second their fall stopped. He began pummeling the villain's face like it was a training bag with all his strength.
Several adrenaline charged seconds passed as X-Treme, holding nothing back, tried to pound his enemy into submission. He pushed past the pain of broken fingers, tried to blink the plaster in the air away from his eyes and ignored the screaming…
Screaming?
X-Treme stopped dead and glanced to his right, where a young woman was screaming in pure terror, tears rolling down her cheek and clutching a squealing infant to her chest.
Adam looked at the ground, and to his horror saw splinters of wood, small pillows and a sheet that had once been a crib. Ten seconds later and they might have…
"Arrgh!" X-Treme stumbled back as he felt four slashes of pain tear down his side. Adam clutched the wound, blood trickling past his fingers while he glared at his enemy. Mongoose neither knew nor cared about the tragedy they'd narrowly avoided. All he saw was X-Treme's hesitation.
Adam back pedaled, hand still on his side. He scanned the room quickly, and placed himself in front of a narrow window. Regardless of the danger of his plan, staying simply wasn't an option for him now.
Mongoose dove forward as if he'd been catapulted. X-Treme drew two punch daggers from his belt and slashed Mongoose across the chest as the beast man collided into him, but it wasn't nearly enough to counter the villain's momentum. The two crashed through the apartment window and X-Treme found himself in the familiar position of having a villain's hands on his throat.
Only this time, Adam had no idea where he might land.
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Arsenal landed hard in the middle of a basketball, his steel skull cracking the pavement and leaving a small crater. Arsenal grunted as he picked himself, and had barely brushed himself off when he felt something slam into so hard, he felt his metal skin ring.
Thick, scarred hands grabbed him by the back of his head and pitched him face first into the nearby brick wall. Arsenal spun around on instinct, just in time a size fifteen pair of combat boots to smash into his face.
"This all you punks got?"
Arsenal responded eloquently with an unrestrained optic that hit dead his enemy dead in the chest.
"I got all you can handle," growled Arsenal. He took a moment to take stock of his enemy. Tall, heavy build with gang tattoos that ran the length of his arms. He wore torn carpenters pants with a sleeveless leather jacket.
He looked every bit the thug, something Arsenal found he was almost thankful for. This wasn't some misunderstood kid or extremist taking a good cause too far. No, he was something Arsenal scrapped off his boot after a bad day.
"Name," snarled Arsenal, "I need it for when I'm turning your ass whupping into a free beer."
"It's Cerberus, after the biggest, toughest dog there is," answered the villain, "and don't worry, I'll school you as to why."
Arsenal heard what could only be described as the combination of a growl and an engine revving. He looked up as two mechanical beasts that could only vaguely be described as dogs. Arsenal could see their jaws shuttering, and realized that their mouths weren't just armed with metal teeth, but actually functioned as chainsaws.
"That's one," Cerberus smirked, with a shrug, fire burst forth from his hands, "and that's two."
"Well, I'll give you one thing," Arsenal said, a grim smirk plastered on his face, "that is higher than I thought you could count."
"I'll be counting your teeth too, boy!" Cerberus let loose a torrent of flame that washed over Arsenal's body and though he braced himself, Arsenal screamed as the flame managed to eat through his steel skin, burning him as if it wasn't even there.
The two mechanical dogs leapt down from the rooftops, and clamped their jaws on his wrist. Bobby barely felt the pain of their teeth grinding down on his steel skin as they sent sparks flying.
Cerberus, watching in pleasure as Arsenal tried to fight off both the flames and his metal pets, strode forward and smashed his fist into the faux mutant's face, pitching him back against the stone wall.
Arsenal brought his wrists up and held them up in front of him, the only defense his mind could manage under this searing barrage.
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In an alley less than fifteen feet blow, Wolfsbane fought tooth and claw against the snake-like Solder of Misfortune Serpentina.
The alley was little wider than five feet across, with debris and old, discarded crates making the already narrow alleyway even worse.
Wolfsbane, using her enhanced senses, had tracked Serpentina to the alley and found herself under attack before she could find a better battleground.
Serpentina was exactly what her name suggested, a five foot five human woman overlain with the physical attributes of a snake, with green, scaly skin, a forked tongue and head that substituted snakes for hair, while her fingers were sharp claws that didn't look like they'd have anymore trouble rending bone than flesh.
The serpent soldier lashed out with her claws, and Wolfsbane stepped to the side only to smash into a pile of crates. Rahne stumbled backwards as her foe laughed at her misstep.
"You should watch your step little girl."
Wolfsbane replied by drop kicking Serpentina on the side of the head and driving her face first into the wall. Wolfsbane watched in amazement as Serpentina's face seemed to almost pancake against the wall, but return to its original shape with barely a scratch.
"You'll have to do better than that, little girl. My skull, my body, is just like a snake's, disjointed to better absorb impact."
"I just need to hit ye harder then," Worfsbane snarled, "not a problem."
Serpentina hissed loudly, and literally spit globs of venom at Wolfsbane. Rahne , unable to backtrack because of all the boxes, used her left arm to protect her face. As the venom struck her wrist, Rahne felt the arm become numb, as if it had fallen asleep.
"Your problem," Serpentina grinned as venom slid down her lips, "is that unlike you, I'm not a one trick pony."
Wolfsbane ignored the jibe and swung her right arm, which still worked perfectly, only to see her claws almost slide across Serpentina's leathery hide.
"Natural armor," grinned the serpent-woman as she swung her hand again and slashed the top of Rahne's shoulder, "and that's not even the best part..."
"What are…"
Wolfsbane watched as Serpentina's legs began to merge into one, thick lower body exactly like her namesake. The villainess' tail flickered, and Rahne barely leapt over the giant muscled appendage in time to avoid being crushed. The tail smashed into the wall of the alley, and cheap brick and mortar crumbled underneath its strength.
"You were barely keeping up with me before," Serpentina coiled her tail underneath her body, "think you can handle the next level?"
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Sabre watched as the explosion sent her teammates flying through the air, and raced into action. With skill that belied her age, Kim navigated through the back allies and the dozens of people, Sabre tracked the paths of her teammates, and provided a soft landing for Vibraxis and Wolfsbane in the form up a miniature updraft in the span of only three seconds. She was still looking for Blink when she saw what looked like a charred, burning corpse careening helplessly through the air.
"Oh God…"
Terrified that it might be a teammate, Sabre sped after it, but in the maze that was hillside Rocinha and the body was flying too fast and too high and Kim, desperate to keep tracking what might be a teammate, tripped over a discarded bike.
Her concentration broken, Sabre slipped into real time almost instantly. It was as if someone had un-paused a movie, and to Kim, it was as if a city of statues had just come to life.
Of course, Sabre barely noticed as she tumbled head over heels down the roughly paved street. Kim just barely managed to get her feet underneath her, skidding to a grinding halt, when she heard the first scream.
Sabre blurred into action, and it took all her concentration to stay subsonic. In her head she knew that if she broke the sound barrier, she might never find the source of the screams in this maze of back alleys, and apartments but her heart didn't give a damn about physics. All it heard were kids screaming for their parents.
Though it seemed like an eternity, Sabre found the source of the screams within seconds. Kim thought she was ready for anything.
But she was wrong.
Sabre saw what had once been a vibrant community garden, lush with fruits and vegetables destined for family tables was now awash in rust brown weeds that reached some five feet in the air, while others reached out and begun to strangle nearby civilians.
Standing at the center of this travesty of nature, was a wooden figure that only barely resembled that of a woman, with dry, rotten reeds for hair, and hollow holes in her wooden head where her eyes and mouth should be.
"What do you think of my garden, hero?"
Sabre didn't bother with witty repartee. She saw two children, a young man and an elderly woman; all bound by cords of weeds with wicked looking thorns on them that were slowly crushing them.
The four never saw who rescued them. Instead, one moment they felt thick thorny cords relentlessly slicing through their flesh, the next second, the pressure ceased, and by the third the vines were removed and they'd somehow been carried two blocks away.
"Alright," Sabre skidded to a halt in front of the plant woman, "you surrender right now, I don't turn you into mulch. I'm not kidding, tree thing, my grandfather hunted people for sport, and he was a lot nicer than me."
"My name is Colony," the villainess corrected, "and I was simply getting a bite to eat before our big fight."
"Wrong answer!"
Sabre shot forward, and Colony just smiled. Sabre smashed her fist into, and then through her enemy's skull, her sheer speed allowing her to cut through the vines Colony erected as if they were made of paper.
"Damn it!" Kim came to a grinding halt on the other side, and examined her hand. It was covered in a slick, green fluid, with splinters embedded in the flesh and small insects that she'd never seen before. Kim shook the stuff off her hand as her accelerated healing expelled the splinters from her flesh, "didn't think I hit her that hard."
Kim looked over her shoulder, and saw that Colony's body hadn't fallen, "I guess not…oww!"
Sabre slapped a mosquito that had taken a lucky sip of her arm. She looked at the creature in surprise, curious how it could penetrate both the frictionless force-field her body generated and the bullet proof material of her costume.
Examining the smashed bug, Sabre felt a chill run down her spine as she realized why the tiny creature had such a big bite. This was no ordinary bug, its body was an unnatural blue, with no eyes to see, four mandibles and a stinger on its tail that looked as if it belonged on a scorpion.
"Did you know that some trees in the Amazon can sustain up to a hundred different species of insects?" Colony's regrown mouth smiled sickly, "I don't have nearly as many, but those that I have carry a sting."
For a split second, Kim felt her arm become numb and unresponsive. But thanks to her metabolism, the moment was fleeting.
"Neat bag of tricks," Kim smiled, "but not nearly enough!"
Kim sped forward, and Colony raised a thick tangle of weeds in every direction to ward her off. Sabre tore through them at mach-2, but there were always more and more. Sabre tore at the weeds with such blind fury she didn't even notice the tangle of vines that had sprung up behind her until they lashed her back, slicing through the material of her uniform, cutting thin lines in her flesh.
"Arrgh!" Sabre dashed to the side, tearing through the wall of vines with sheer momentum.
"You're a fast one," Colony summoned several vines the size of trees out of the earth, "but I cast a wide net, girl. You don't stand a chance."
Kim flashed a smile, "Prove it."
Sabre spun her arms in a wide circle, and within seconds hurricane force winds sprang from her wrists and slammed into Colony. The plant villainess responded by raising giant vines the size of power-lines from the earth and sent them crashing down towards Sabre.
They missed by a mile, and Sabre helped herself to the debris, and then pitched it at Colony. Wooden skin was torn off in heavy, uneven chunks, but if it hurt, Colony never flinched.
Kim wanted nothing more than to rush the thing and pummel her into toothpicks, but she hung back. She knew enough about plants to know that the bitch was likely producing some kind of poison pollen and until she wore Colony down, Sabre didn't want to risk getting too close. After all, her superfast metabolism burned through most toxins, but that also meant that lethal ones could kill her that much quicker. Without her teammates, she couldn't take that chance.
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The ground shook beneath Vibraxis, Master of Vibration, and for the first time he could remember, it terrified him. Cracks appeared in the roughly paved street while the ground underneath him continued to rumble despite the very small amount of vibrations he was currently creating.
Vibraxis had the misfortune of stumbling across the Soldier of Misfortune who identified himself as C-10 (though Vibraxis didn't care about the man's name). He was a fat, chubby man wearing plus size jeans and a sweat ridden T-shirt that said 'Da Bomb!' on it.
But while creativity obviously wasn't the obese man's power, discharging explosive energy was. Purple streams of energy flew from his hands and the Master of Vibration had already seen the devastating damage it could unleash. Vibraxis had phased just seconds before C-10 tried to blast him and the energy passed harmlessly through him and struck a two story residential apartment.
Vibraxis had no idea how many people were killed when the building exploded, because it was literally vaporized, replaced by a thirty foot crater. Shrapnel had gone flying every which direction. The walls of houses were scarred from shrapnel and at least a half dozen people already on the street were knocked. Vibraxis knew that they might even be dead, the pressure wave from the explosion might have ruptured their lungs, but there was nothing he could do to help them. It took all his concentration to create a small, vibrational field that shielded him from C-10's energy blasts.
"Why don't you fight like a man, punk?" C-10 threw another energy blast that shattered off Vibraxis' shield like all the others, "'fraid you might lose?"
"I fear nothing!" shouted Vibraxis. He literally had to bite his lip about the civilians in the area, he didn't want to give his enemy any ideas.
"Is that so?" C-10 pointed his hand at a middle aged woman sprawled out on the street. Vibraxis had seen her fall when the building exploded and from his position four yards uphill, he could see no signs of life. She might already be dead, she might not even feel a thing, hell, she might even deserve it.
But Vibraxis wasn't going to take that chance.
Seismic energy tore free from the African Warrior and slammed into C-10, pitching him ten feet back. Though he could move mountains, Vibraxis still held his full strength back, pulling his shot as much as humanly possible. He didn't know if it was his imagination or not, but the neighboring buildings didn't look the least bit sturdy, and the cracks he saw in the aged cement looked especially ominous.
A poor barrio made out of second hand material and cheap cement was not a place to be unleashing forces designed to move the mountains themselves.
Vibraxis rushed to close the gap between him and C-10, but the bastard recovered too soon. The young warrior was only teen feet away when C-10 regained enough of his senses to let loose another stream of energy.
Vibraxis brought up another wall of vibrational energy just to time to save his own life. The young Wakandian Warrior cursed, because while he was closer to his enemy he was no closer to victory.
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Tarene fought to contain the raging thunderstorm that burned in her heart, knowing that if she failed to control her power, would utterly demolish the hillside.
The young goddess had the misfortune of facing Strong Arm, a four armed beast of a man. The two had found one another in a small market place, twenty meters across and six meters wide, packed with fruits, hand-made booths and too damn many people for her to safely unleash her power.
Hell, Tarene didn't even need a teammate to remind her to be careful. The people hiding behind the doorways, under the carts or any nook they could find was all the incentive the young goddess needed.
But there were two bulls in this china shop…
"Stupid girl, not even smart enough to hit me!" Strong Arm bounded off the street, ricocheted off a nearby wall and came down in front of Tarene, two fists smashing into her face. The young Goddess saw stars and instinctively brought her war mallet down on the ground.
Strong Arm deftly stepped aside, and the fearsome weapon connected with the ground. She pulled back at the last minute, and that was why the crater was only four feet wide instead of being five times that. Tarene watched in teror as cracks spider webbed out and the ground beneath her feet shook for ten seconds too long.
"Too dumb, too slow!" Strong Arm came hurtling at Tarene again, but this time he came at her head first, and she swung her mallet like a baseball bat. She connected perfectly, and Strong Arm was sent sailing backwards, his body sheering out a shallow trench along the way. The villain came to a sudden stop
Tarene flew after him. She was naïve, but not so much as to think that her enemy could be put down with a single punch.
She approached carefully, her nerves on edge. Strong Arm was sprawled on his back, half way through a concrete wall. Tarene knew that she'd hit him pretty damn good, but had no idea how tough her enemy was and how much punishment he could actually take.
The young Goddess got within a foot of her opponent, still trying to see if he was playing possum or not, when she felt someone grab her by the belt. Tarene looked down, and saw to her shock that where there was supposed to be a foot, Strong Arm actually had a hand!
The six armed monster slammed his upper arms into the ground , digging his fingers into the ground like stakes, and then swung his legs to the side, pitching Tarene through the air like a Frisbee.
"Ha!" Strong Arm leapt upright, and bounded after Tarene, "see? Didn't see that coming huh? That's why I'm smarter than you! I'm! Smarter!"
A bolt of lightning smashed into Strong Arm's chest.
"So is that why you lead with your head?"
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Clarice Ferguson, AKA Blink teleported mere seconds before two feet would have smashed into her rib cage. She rematerialized three yards away, but her enemy moved like a snake, lunging for her instantly. Blink teleported again, this time eight feet in the air. Blink charged three javelins and flung them at her foe, but once again he was too fast, leaping out of the way without a hint of grace. The javelins landed with a –thunk!-, and Blink touched down a second later. With two javelins in each hand, she gritted her teeth, hoping to look fearsome enough to ward off another attack, if only for a few seconds.
She tried to remember her lessons with Mister Creed, how he emphasized studying your foe for any potential weakness, for anything you might turn to your advantage. But when Blink looked towards her enemy, combat instincts fought with her common sense.
The man was dressed simply in torn jeans, with an Indian headdress and war paint taken straight out of Peter Pan. He held two stone knives that first glance barely looked sharp enough to cut anyone, but the slashes on her special Kevlar weave told her otherwise.
As if his appearance wasn't enough, his demeanor made Blink shiver. He introduced himself as Wild Jack, and just attacked as if it were the most natural thing to do. Unlike X-Treme or her old teammate Psylocke, he moved with no grace, no elegance, nothing to indicate anything that resembled a fighting style, which was a blessing. Her experienced eye could easily predict when he was attacking. His appearance screamed 'little boy', yet his actions were that of a complete sociopath, a contradiction that baffled Blink.
The former X-Woman saw Wild Jack lurch forward, and she spun on her heel, dashing away as fast as her legs would carry her. One definite advantage to running downhill was that it was easy to pick up speed.
Unfortunately, the same held true of her foe. Blink had started a good four yards away, but still had barely gone five steps before she could feel her foe almost on top of her. As fortune would have it, that was all the distance she needed.
-Blink!-
Clarice reappeared behind her foe and lashed out with both feet, pitching the man off his feet while he ran at superhuman speeds. Reality folded again, and Blink was in front of the man just in time for her knee to collide with his face.
-Crunch!-
The small amount of muscle and bone in the nose were crushed instantly, but that wasn't enough for Blink. She willed herself to appear in front of her enemy, and dug her feet into the ground. He slammed into her back hard, but Clarice dug her feet in and was ready for it.
In one fluid motion, she grabbed his flailing arm and pitched him over her shoulder in a perfect judo. Only instead of letting go of his arm, Blink concentrated and teleported just a few more feet downhill, directly in front of a brick wall.
Wild Jack went soaring through the air and slammed into the brick wall so hard the impact sent a spider web of cracks through the entire wall. Blink wasn't anywhere near done, though, and the second the man touched the ground she smashed her foot into his face.
Wild Jack fell to his knees, and Blink was ready to keep up her attack when, out of nowhere, her foe began crying.
Blink looked in disbelief as Wild Jack fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face as sobs wracked his entire body, "That…that really hurt! You're not playing fair!"
Clarice was baffled, and her warrior instincts fought with her human compassion. The man before her was crying like a child, wracked with sobs that not even the best actor could fake.
"I'm sorry…" Blink reached out tentatively, unable to ignore her heart, "I didn't mean to hurt you…"
"Liar!"
Years of experience, earned in an alternate reality war zone, was all that saved Blink's life. Wild Jack lashed out like an impudent child, but with speed that put a cheetah to shame. A knife tore through the space where Clarice's neck had been only a split second before.
Blink teleported ten yards away, and cursed her mistake. Her foe was little more than a full grown child. He had no idea of the consequences of his actions with no conscience or hesitation.
Just his own form of twisted, evil innocence.
Blink growled, angry that s he had to fight a child, outraged at those who would exploit someone like him and angry because of what she knew she had to do to win this fight.
&&&
Nova flew through the air randomly, trying to evade energy blasts that literally curved in midair after him. Flashpoint's aim was lacking, but he made up for it in quantity and control. With all the energy that was being thrown around, Rider imagined that the sky looked like England during the blitz.
"Human rocket? Lets see if we can't make you go boom, meat bag," Flashpoint had no face, but Nova couldn't help but think the smug bastard was smiling.
Richard Rider growled silently. No stranger to aerial combat, he shot up into the air, disappearing into the clouds and leaving a sonic boom in his wake.
Flashpoint scanned the skyline frantically. He was expecting Nova to come back down from the sky like a meteor at any moment, and the wait was beginning to jangle his newly created nerves.
And Flashpoint wore pants, he would have needed new ones after Nova slammed into him from behind.
The two powerhouses slammed into the ground, creating a crater where there had been an open market place. Shrapnel and dust flew into the air as the whole neighborhood rocked from the impact.
Nova began pummeling Flashpoint's head. He felt a little foolish relying on physical force to overcome someone made of pure energy, but reasoned that if Flashpoint could control his suit, then the connection went both ways.
The Human Rocket pounded his enemy with dozens of haymakers for a full minute. When he finally stopped, Flashpoint's chest plate was cracked, and the Soldier was limp, unmoving.
After a second or two, he looked at Nova, and crooked his head, "Who are…"
Nova smirked, flew several feet into the air, and then came down on Flashpoint's head, hard.
"Memory skips, like a CD…" Nova chuckled at the thought. He then turned his attention towards Rocinha and felt a pit form in his stomach. He could hear children screaming, explosions and even earthquakes but nothing that told him the status of his team.
"Damn it," Nova tapped his communicator, and didn't notice Flashpoint beginning to move behind him, "This is Nova to anyone who can respond, I need to knowaarrggh!"
In the blink of an eye, Nova's radio exploded in loud' ear-piercing static. Rider staggered for a second, the noise cutting through his brain like a knife before he crushed the radio in his fingers.
"You think that was funny, you disgusting bag of fluid?!"
A wave of energy slammed Nova's body, and the Human Rocket fell to his knees in agony. Deadly energy tore from Flashpoint's hands into Nova like water of a fire hydrant
"Yeah, you can't absorb this, can you! I'm going to turn you into ash for what you did to me, you sick sack of cells!"
Richard Rider had no witty reply, no snappy comeback. Barely any conscious thought was possible under the onslaught of energy. He felt as if a thousand burning blades were tearing the flesh from his body, and Nova knew that if he opened his mouth, it would only be to scream.
Nova forced himself to his feet, cross his arms in front of his face, and marched towards his enemy.
"No…" Flashpoint simply couldn't believe that someone could simply walk through the torrent of energy he was expelling, "…no!"
Nova stomped forward, each step leaving a deep outline street below. Wave after wave of energy washed over Richard Rider, burning the uniform designed to withstand reentry into ash, but he didn't stop. Not until he was within a foot of his foe.
"Oh no…" Nova grabbed Flashpoint by the faceplate, and slammed him into the ground. Once, twice and one last time, with all his strength.
Flashpoint, his armor half cracked, went limp, and Nova tossed him aside like an empty beer bottle.
"Always wanted to see someone take sparky down a peg. After what I do next, you may not believe it, but I am thankful."
Nova turned around slowly, and saw that he was surrounded by the Soldiers of Misfortune. His teammates, his friends, were piled up like cordwood.
"A minute of ear piecing static sure can be distracting," Cerberus observed with a wicked grin.
"Just means I'm going to have to pick up the slack a little, is all," Nova shrugged. He was too experienced to feel any fear.
Mongoose came at Nova from the back, as silent as any beast. He leapt through the air, claws first and raked them over Nova's bare chest, drawing blood. Rider ground his teeth, and reacted instantly, grabbing Mongoose by the ankle as he passed, and swung him into the ground like a sledge hammer.
Strong-Arm came at him next. The four armed tackled the Centurion and while one set of arms pinned Nova's to his side, the other set furiously pounded Nova's upper chest. The Human Rocket responded by unleashed a thin beam of energy from his eyes that sliced through Strong Arm's right shoulder.
The villain roared in pain and shock, his grip slipping. Nova activated his flight powers, and gave Strong-Arm a mach-3 head-butt, breaking his nose. The villain still refused to let go, so the Human Rocket activated his flight powers again, and the two of them went soaring into the air. Nova managed to slip out of Strong-Arm's grip (who was now holding on because of a fear of heights), and scanned the battlefield. He spotted Cerberus, and grinned.
The leader of the Soldiers of Misfortune, and his teammates, barely saw what happened next. One moment they and their leader were looking at the sky, thinking of ways to bring Nova back to earth. The next, there was a sonic boom, a thick cloud of dust, and Cerberus just disappeared in the span of a second.
Wild Jack, C-10, Serpentina and Colony looked around frantically for their leader, their fear growing with every second. Up until now, everything had gone their way and now, so close to victory, things had begun to slip away…
"Serpentina, Colony…look…look at the street!" C-10 sputtered.
The remaining Soldiers of Misfortune looked towards the ground, and saw a deep scar that had been carved in the bed rock, starting from where Cerberus had been standing only moments before. They followed it with their eyes up the hill, and saw The Man called Nova sitting at the end of the trench, the limp, bloody bodies of Cerberus and Strong Arm underneath him.
"We can take him…" Serpentina growled, for the sake of her teammates as much as herself. She then glanced towards the pile of unconscious heroes that she and her team had gathered.
"No."
In the blink of an eye, Nova was within inches of her face. Nova slapped the tree-like woman into a nearby wall, "No hostages. You stand down right now, or I start to get nasty."
"And if you'd done that from the start, you might have won," a cloud of green alien spores exploded from Colony's wooden arm and crashed into Nova's chest.
His helmet detected the airborne threat and sealed shut instantly, but the wound Mongoose inflicted on his chest was still raw, and the spores attacked it without mercy.
"Yeearghhh!" Nova's roar of pain could be heard for miles. It was as if someone had poured boiling oil on his wounds, and the pain refused to stop. But even though his vision was beginning to blur, the Human Rocket knew what he had to do.
He gathered an enormous another of energy in his hand, until it glowed like a star. Rider threw his head back in a silent scream he dragged his hand across his chest, the extreme heat both purged the spores from the wound, and seared the flesh shut.
It took only a few seconds, but when Nova was finished, his body was covered in sweat and he staggered from side to side. He looked towards the remaining Soldiers of Misfortune, but his vision was cloudy, blurred and each breathe he took felt as if he was breathing through mud.
"Very impressive handsome, but my toxins are already in your blood," Colony smirked.
Nova tried to concentrate, to draw more energy into his body to purge the poison, but before he could even try the ground underneath him exploded.
C-10 let loose every iota of power his body could generate. Each explosion was more powerful than the next. Nova fell to his hands and knees by the third blast, but by the sixth he was limp on the ground.
"Bastard just wouldn't go down!" C-10 wiped a layer of sweat from his face.
"He went down, that's all that matters," Colony stated.
"That was awesome!" Wild Jack declared, "lets see it again!"
"Wake the boys up, Colony," Serpentina depressed a sub-dermal implant on her left wrist, and the air around her began to ripple like water of a disturbed lake, opening a hole in reality, "it's time to go home."
"I need a regen. for the rest of the week," Strong Arm muttered as he rose to his feet. He brushed a pile of dirt from his shoulders, "did we win?"
"Of course we did!" Wild Jack smiled, "because we're the bestest team ever!"
"Worthless meat bag," Flashpoint muttered.
"You look like a damn chew toy," Serpentina observed with a smug smirk.
"Easily fixed," Flashpoint growled, "are we going to deal with that other flesh bag? The one we came here to kill?"
"Oh right," Cerberus rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "C-10, Flaspoint? See what you can do, okay?"
The two turned towards the city block below, and unleashed all the energy their bodies could spare. The explosions shook the entire mountain as houses were vaporized and rubble was sent tumbling down the hill in a deadly avalanche. When the two were done, there was an eight block scar running down the mountain.
"Hopefully we got the bastard. But that's not important anymore," Cerberus grabbed the unconscious Arsenal by the back of his neck, "gather up these wastes. We'll take them back to the ship and see what Antithesis wants done with them."
"Allow me," With the simple wave of his hand, Flashpoint surrounded the unconscious heroes in a sphere of magnetic energy, and lifted them into the air effortlessly.
"Don't get so cocky," Mongoose growled as he stalked forward, "it was agreed that when the time came, X-Treme was mine and mine alone! You broke out deal!"
"Then you should have moved faster, meat bag," Flashpoint said dismissively, "now, unless you want to stay here, get in the shift tunnel. If we linger too long, more self righteous meat-bags might come along."
Mongoose growled under his breath, but stepped through the portal, followed by Cerberus and Strong-Arm. Flashpoint made up the middle, levitating Force Works by himself. The rest of the Soldiers of Misfortune brought up the rear.
The team stepped through a hole in reality, and their feet came down on a metal catwalk. They were surrounded on all sides by alien plastic only two inches thick. Outside the transparent walls, seeming clouds of indigo, purple and black mixed together.
The tube ran the length of a city block, and led into the Soldier of Misfortune's base of operations, a piece of alien technology that their benefactor had somehow acquired. Serpentina didn't know if it counted as a spaceship given that it only functioned as a base in-between missions and gave them access to anywhere in the world.
Aptly named the 'Smash and Grab', it served as a de-facto home for the Soldiers of Misfortune. Even before the team was brought together, the majority of its members had death warrants issued for them. This was the closest any of them could come to sanctuary.
"Lets get these chumps secured and then get some rest," Cerberus ordered.
"There's just one issue," Colony stated, "the blond, Tarene, is too powerful for any restraints, remember?"
"Easily solved," Flashpoint shrugged. He casually encased the unconscious Goddess in a forcefield. He sent a signal to the far wall, and the door they had just entered slid open again, a thin forcefield all that stood between them and the raw nothingness that existed outside of space and time. Without a second thought, Flashpoint threw Tarene out of the ship, and closed the hatch.
Several Soldiers stared at Flashpoint, dumbstruck.
"What? I've always called you meat bags garbage, remember?"
&&&
Wolfsbane groaned as she regained consciousness. Her ears were still ringing from when her comm. went crazy, and her head was still ringing from when Serpentina smashed it into a stone wall. That bitch certainly how to take advantage of an opening.
She blinked several times, trying to clear the fog. She caught Blink and Sabre's scent long before she actually saw them, but knew they were likely as out of it as she was.
Wolfsbane moved to rub her aching head, but her arms refused to respond. It took several seconds for the lupine mutant to realize that her arms were bound behind her back. She could feel that they were held together by metal restraints that ran the length of her wrists. She could hear a slight hum, and tugged at it slightly with her strength, enough to convince her that the restraints were anything but normal. Wolfsbane glanced towards her teammates, and saw that they were likewise bound.
All three moved slowly, their bodies demanding rest while their minds demanded action. Blink and Wolfsbane were no strangers to captivity, but they knew it meant that they were in even greater danger.
With that in mind, Wolfsbane took stock of the cell they were in, eying every inch for anything that might lend itself to an escape. The floor was a smooth gray metal, perfectly seamless. But the wall looked like someone had boarded it up in preparation for a hurricane. A dozen metal panes were nailed or seared into the wall, coving God only knew what.
"Kim, Clarice, are ye alright?"
"Fine," Blink answered.
"Kim?"
"I heard you, I heard you," croaked the speedster, "that tree thing just hit me with some kind of weird pollen. Throat hurts."
"Be glad to be alive," Wolfsbane replied
"Why didn't they kill us?" Blink asked, "these guys are thugs. They've never taken hostages before, why start now?"
At the far wall, a panel slid open. Mongoose stood at the threshold with a sneer on his face that revealed his many jagged teeth.
"Think we're about to find out," Sabre whispered.
"You…" Mongoose locked his eyes on Wolfsbane with before anyone could even blink, crossed the length of the room and hoisted her into the air by her neck.
"Your boyfriend stole my honor," Mongoose hissed, his voice barely above that of a growl. He slammed her into the wall so hard Wolfsbane saw stars. With his free hand, he took a claw and began dragging it her front, tearing uniform and flesh both, "and since I'm forbidden to touch him, I'll have to settle for taking yours."
Next issue: Soldiers of Misforune vs. Force Works, Round Two. And when the dust has settled, nothing will ever be the same…