Capekillers #11

Separation Anxiety, Part Two of Two:

"The Procedure"

By Tim Veselka

Fort Raymond – 07:38

The guard standing outside Crowne's office, agent Moore, was wide-eyed and sweating. Through the crack under the door, he could hear Crowne and Harrison, shouting at each other. Why did he have to be the one to guard the door right now? He did not want to be here when Crowne ended the argument. Either of the men would be in a foul mood and neither were men that agents wanted to mess with. There had to be a way for him to get out of here.

"How can you, in all seriousness, even entertain the idea of separating Mulligan from that symbiote?"

"I think it is Shield's best option given the choices at our disposal," Crowne looked down his nose at the gruff Harrison.

"You do know that to prevent the symbiote from traveling host to host we made it dependent on the first soldier it bonded to. If it left the host it would die. As a side effect, that we were still trying to fix, the host might die as well. You could be killing both of them!"

"We don't know the effect that the most recent modifications we made might have on them," Crowne looked bored. "We might be able to save both or one of them."

"We already have an agent in the symbiote, there is no need to risk either of their lives!"

"Agent Mulligan is not the agent I chose to wear the symbiote."

"So you would rather they both die than you not get your way?"

"I made the best choice for Shield and it was not Agent Mulligan."

"I don't think any of your superiors would support this decision."

"They do. I have autonomy which means I have their support in whatever choices that I make."

"That is not what that means."

"Harrison, I am the director of this division, that means whatever I say is an order that you must follow. The decision has already been made, this argument is pointless. Go do your job and have your men escort Mulligan to the operating room."

"When Fury finds out about this he will have your ass on a plate!"

"It will be too late. Now go. Do your job, follow my orders to the letter or I will find someone who will"

"Crowne!" Harrison leaned over the boss's desk and glared him in the eye. Crowne surprisingly didn't flinch. "There's a special place in hell for people like you." With that Harrison spun on his heel and marched out the door, slamming it behind him.

"Sentimental idiot," Crowne sneered and turned back to his computer as if nothing had happened.

"Moore!" Harrison shouted. The guard jumped.

"Yes, sir!"

"Take three of your men and escort agent Mulligan to the operating room."

The agent stared at him for a moment in surprise then, "Yes, sir!"

As soon as Moore left Harrison punched the wall with a deep growl. He had to do something, but what? He didn't have a direct line to Fury, by the time he got in contact with him, it would be too late. He sighed in frustration, trying to think but a damn headache kept him from focusing. He had to do something.

Elsewhere in Fort Raymond Mimic and Constrictor watched as Moore and three of his men headed toward Mulligan's quarters. After the attack, they had been given new quarters, closer to the agents' quarters. It was larger and actually had a window that allowed them to see out of. They gave each other a knowing look. They knew what that meant. Mimic shook his head in disgust.

"How can they do that to one of their own?"

"I thought we were supposed to be the villains," Constrictor agreed.

"Seriously, this freaks me out," Mimic continued. "If they can do something like this to one of their own then what's to stop them from doing even worse to us."

"Nothing." Constrictor replied, grimly.

"Maybe we should do something."

"What? Why? He's a Shield agent, not one of us."

"It's inhumane!" Mimic sounded shocked at Constrictor's attitude.

"What part of Shield makes you think it is humane?"

They quieted down as now Mulligan was walking by, surrounded by four very serious looking Shield guards. Across the hall from their prison cell sat the newest member of their crew, Black Ant. None of them knew anything about him. Where he had come from, who he was, how the Capekillers had acquired him. He was a complete mystery. Even now as he stood behind his barred window and watched Mulligan get escorted to his likely death he seemed to have no reaction to what was going on around him, not a trace of emotion crossed his face. Well, maybe boredom. He hadn't spoken a word since being placed in his cell.

Just down the hall from them sat another member of their little crew, one who had yet to join them in the field, the Red Hulk. No one knew anything about him either, other than the fact that he was a prick, everyone knew that about him already.

Unlike Black Ant, the crimson-colored behemoth was definitely having a reaction to what was happening. He glared at the Shield agents that were escorting Mulligan with his glowing yellow eyes. If they had been paying attention then it would have unnerved them, but they had already learned not to look at the Hulk as they passed by. A sneer slowly traced its way onto Red Hulk's face and a growl started to rumble deep in his chest. One of the Shield guards made the mistake of glancing at the sound.

"You would do that to one of your brothers in arms?" Red Hulk asked. The Shield agent struggled to answer. The Hulk faked a lunge at him. The guard flinched and stumbled sideways. Red Hulk growled again, in disgust this time.

"Ignore him, Meyer," his commanding officer barked.

"You better hope you are never sent on a mission with me," the Red Hulk threatened, slashing a thumb across his throat. "That goes for all four of you."

"Wh-what do you care?" Meyer asked as he started walking out of earshot.

"If you aren't loyal to your brothers in arms then you aren't loyal to anything. You are nothing!" Hulk roared after them.

"He's military," Constrictor observed.

"He's right, come on guys, you know what Crowne is going to do to me. You know it isn't right!" Mulligan began pleading.

"The prisoner will be silent!" the leader of the guards barked louder than necessary.

"I will not! You may not care but these might be the last words I ever say and so you will hear them!"

"The prisoner-"

"Shut up, Moore!" Meyer shouted back. The other two guards stopped and repeatedly glanced at the two arguing agents. "He is a Shield agent, one of us. He should be able to say his final words, we owe him that much!"

Moore tried to stare Meyer down, but the novice agent was unusually courageous today and didn't back down. Moore rolled his eyes but turned around and started walking again without saying another word.

"I am a loyal Shield agent. I didn't ask for this symbiote; the criminals that invaded Fort Raymond are responsible. I don't deserve to die for this. It isn't my fault and I came back of my own free will, I trusted that Shield would be just, that everyone would have my back! Please! You can't do this!"

Tears welled up in Meyer's eyes and his chin trembled but not a tear was shed as they continued marching down the hall, energy pistols at the ready. Mulligan looked at all of them, searching for a sympathetic eye, none of them would make eye contact. If he didn't stay calm then the symbiote would take over, and likely kill these agents. It wasn't their fault, they were only doing their duty, following orders. What could he do? If he didn't do something he might be dead in the next ten minutes. By the hand of his employer. The worst part of it was, there was some small part of him that believed he deserved it. As much as he protested otherwise he hadn't tried to stay on the base. He had let the symbiote's fear and confusion roll over him, he could have gained control and didn't even try. It felt good for once to let go of control, let someone else be responsible for what happened. It was so freeing, so relaxing, something blissful about losing control but having someone to take control of you. What was he thinking? Was it him or the symbiote?

"Please!" he pleaded, having lost track of what he was saying before. His mind was an adrenaline-fueled mess right now. So many emotions coursed through his veins that he felt supercharged like he could run in all directions at once. As he felt his heart palpitate a familiar feeling oozed up out of his dark recesses.

They will kill us.

No, they won't. He thought desperately back. I've got this. He didn't even believe himself, how could the symbiote?

Not for much longer.

What did it mean by that? Mulligan didn't know how he knew it but the symbiote was emerging, panicked and enraged.

Either Cooperate and help me save us or fight me and help us die. Your choice.

That's not much of a choice!

You brought us here!

Okay, okay, this is my fault, I get it. Let's do this.

Finally!

Moore was glad that Mulligan had finally gone quiet, at least he was at first. Then he started to think of the reasons why he had gone quiet. Several times he glanced over his shoulder to make sure the rest of his men were still there. Then he noticed how Mulligan's eyes had glazed over, he was staring into space. That couldn't be good. They hadn't drugged him yet. Before he could voice his thoughts to his men Mulligan exploded in red and black.

The symbiote launched itself from his pores, his nostrils, just about any opening it could find in his body. It was excruciating and yet the symbiote somehow combatted this for him with a rush of ecstasy. It needed the element of surprise. If these agents had been armed with regular guns it wouldn't have been such an issue, Toxin could easily deflect bullets, but energy weapons were completely different. Moore started to scream out but Toxin launched a fat tendril that slammed into Moore's mouth and choked the air out of him.

The other three scrambled to recover but Toxin already had plans for them. More tendrils shot out at each one of them. Meyer was the slowest to respond, just as Toxin had suspected he would be due to his emotional response to Mulligan's pleas. Toxin's tendril snatched the gun Meyer had a loose grip on and sucked it into his waiting palm. The others found they had to contend with their own tendrils as the symbiote grabbed them by the wrists and with one quick twist snapped their scaphoid bones.

Meyer had been shoved aside, his weapon in Toxin's hands. He desperately scrambled for his radio and screamed into it. "The symbiote is loose! We need backup immediately in hall seven! Everybody get down here!" That was all he was able to say before Toxin hissed and grabbed him by the ankle and threw him bodily down the long tiled hall. Meyer went silent when he bounced loudly against the tiled floor.

No! Don't kill anyone! Mulligan screamed in his own mind at Toxin.

They would have killed you.

They are just doing their jobs, what they're trained to do.

So am I.

Mulligan gulped. What had he gotten himself into? Just then they could hear numerous footsteps thundering down the hall. There was no way this was going to end well for anyone involved.

Back in his cell that he shared with Constrictor Mimic stood with a far off look on his face. Constrictor watched him in silence for a moment but soon began to get restless.

"What's going on?"

"Hold on, Frank," Mimic clenched his eyes shut. "Oh wow, he's fighting them! He isn't doing too bad either."

"Really?" Constrictor didn't know why he cared what happened to Agent Mulligan, maybe it was that he really just wanted to see Shield agents get what was coming to them. That must be it.

"He's fighting for his life and he knows it," Cal said, sounding surprisingly sympathetic. "We should do something!"

"What are we supposed to do from here?"

Constrictor wasn't the only prisoner to hear what Mimic was saying, down the hall the Red Hulk was staring in anticipation, waiting to hear what was coming next.

"Oh no!" Mimic frowned. "He's nearly won but there are like twenty agents, armed to their teeth, heading his way."

"These Shield idiots think they can treat me like a lab rat?" Red Hulk suddenly growled, startling everyone near him. Black Ant stood up, his eye on the Hulk. "I'm stronger now, they can't do this to me or anyone else!" Slowly, Red Hulk's voice was growing louder with every word, he punctuated his sentence with a loud booming kick to his 12-inch thick steel door.

"It didn't break." Constrictor told Mimic, whose eyes were still clamped shut, in awe. "It got kicked by a Hulk and his door didn't break."

"He knows they're coming, he's trying to find an escape route," Mimic continued as if nothing else was happening.

Hulk heard Mimic and kicked his door once again. With a great screeching groan the buckled slightly under the massive power of Red Hulk's assault. Everyone held their ears and groaned at the sound.

"I've lost contact!"Mimic said as he let go of his pained ears.

Hulk backed up to the far edge of his cell and then launched himself at the steel door, his massive shoulder ready to take the impact. All the local guards had fled to help subdue Toxin no one but the other prisoners witnessed the door flying off its hinges and slamming into the far wall. They must have heard it.

Instead of leaping away the Red Hulk walked toward Constrictor and Mimic's cell. Both the criminals backed away from their door. It wasn't nearly as thick as Hulk's door, it wouldn't protect them. Hulk grabbed the bars of their window and yanked hard. With another metallic screech, the door ripped from the wall and went flying.

Mimic stood watching everything, unable to move, frozen from fear. He didn't think the Hulk liked him very much. Constrictor was beside him, ready to unleash a coil.

Down the hall poor Toxin had been completely surrounded. He hissed as more than twenty Shield agents advanced on him with energy weapons at the ready. He couldn't keep an eye on them all.

"Don't make us do this Mulligan!" one of the agents shouted at him.

"At least this way you can kill me face to face instead of when I'm on an operating table," Toxin said in a voice that was a mix of its own shriek and Mulligan's own voice.

"It's not like that!"

"Oh but it is."

"Take him down!"

"I don't think so!" a huge voice boomed from behind Toxin. "Not unless you wanna take us down with him!"

That gave the agents pause. Red Hulk, Mimic, and Constrictor came walking confidently toward them all, fists and coils at the ready.

"Everyone halt!" said the commanding agent. This situation had just escalated way out of his control. Red Hulk, Mimic, and Constrictor joined Toxin, standing side by side with the symbiote bonded Shield agent. Hulk growled. The tension in the air was electric, Toxin could feel it emanating from every person in the wide hall.

"What is going on here?" an annoying voice called out. "I thought I told you people to get Mulligan-" It was Crowne, he had stopped mid-sentence because the crowd of agents had finally parted enough for him to see what they were up against. Coming in behind him was an agitated Harrison followed by agents Castillo, Hunter, and Cancino. They looked just angry as Harrison did.

"What are you three doing out of your cells?" Crowne asked, his voice going flat. "You do remember I can kill all of you with a push of a button."

"If this is what you are going to do to us anyway, might as well get it over with right now," Red Hulk snorted, leaning down to look Crowne in the face.

"You know," Constrictor interrupted. "It's pretty fun that us 'criminals' had the balls to stand up against you for our teammate when his so-called fellow Shield agents wouldn't lift a finger to help him."

"Shut up!" Crowne redirected his anger at Constrictor, a much less scary target than the Red Hulk.

"So I noticed," Toxin agreed, narrowing his eyes at the Shield agents that had them surrounded. Some of them couldn't look him in the eyes, no matter how alien they now were. They were looking anywhere but at him.

"It's not like that!" Castillo declared. "We are just in Crowne's office trying to get him to stop the procedure."

"A fat lot of good that did." Constrictor noted.

"All of you, shut up!" Crowne shouted, losing his cool completely. "I am taking Mulligan here and separating the symbiote from him, and if they survive they can continue to work on the base. You can all complain all you want but I am the director of the Capekillers, you will follow my orders!" He glared at the assembled Capekillers both criminal and not.

"I don't think I can do that, sir," Agent Moore stepped forward, lowering his weapon.

"I will throw you in the brig!"

"Then you'll have to throw me in as well," agent Meyer stepped forward as well. The rest of the Shield agents looked at each other, uncertain of what to do.

"You can't just condemn a Shield Agent to death for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, he only got infected by that symbiote because he was doing his duty," Moore stated.

"Infected?" Toxin hissed.

"If you do it to him then what is to stop you from doing it to us?" Meyer backed up Moore.

"He's right," the commanding Shield agent stepped forward. "You may be our commanding officer but there is nothing that gives you the power or the right to condemn an innocent man to die, especially not another Shield agent!"

"He's right." One of the waiting agents whispered. Soon the whole group of them were murmuring angrily and turning their eyes on Crowne.

Crowne looked like he was going to shout at them again but then stopped. Every single eye in the hall was on him, every one of those eyes seemed filled with murderous intent. How had he lost control? Damn them, this was mutiny! He couldn't let this slide, they could not get away with this. How? He swore to himself that he would make sure they didn't get away with it, but perhaps now was not the time to make his point.

"I suppose Mulligan has proven that he is proficient with the alien suit," Crowne said between firmly clenched teeth.

"He was able to take out his entire guard," Harrison pointed out, hoping that it would go in Toxin's favor. When Crowne had been called down to take care of this situation it was true that the human Capekillers had been in Crowne's office that very moment pleading for Mulligan's life. But Constrictor was right, it hadn't done any good. Still, Harrison never thought he could have gotten all of these Shield agents to refuse Crowne. Perhaps they all had more sense than he had given them credit for.

"Fine. Mulligan, you are hereby put on probation, as long as you follow orders and don't lose control of the symbiote you can continue to wear it." Everyone was silent, all eyes were still on him, suspicious.

"Would I lie with all of you witnesses present?" Crowne seemed to read their minds. "Mulligan is officially a member of the Capekillers, and wearer of the Toxin suit."

"And you won't lock me up anymore," Red Hulk growled before anyone could breathe a sigh of relief. "I'm not a criminal."

"Fine."

"Me and Constrictor too!"

"Don't push it, Rankin, unlike Hulk you are both criminals."

The crowd cheered. Crowne's face flushed an ugly red, they were celebrating a victory of him. Let them. It wouldn't last. He stayed still until the crowd started to disperse. He motioned Toxin over to him.

"You've pissed me off, Mulligan, don't think you've won today," Crowne said just loud enough for Toxin to hear. "Since you are now part of the superhuman Capekillers team then you can sleep down here, with the criminals."

"But I'm not-"

"Shut up! If you push me, Mulligan, I'll send you on a mission that even the symbiote can't survive."

"As for the rest of you," Mulligan growled, looking at the Constrictor in particular. "Get back to your cells and don't leave them unless I say so, or I'll make sure you regret everything you have done today. Harrison, lock them up, if I hear a word from any of you Capekillers, human or not, I'll let Goddard experiment on you."

Red Hulk glowered at that threat. He knew Goddard all too well. There was only one man he hated more than Crowne and it was Goddard.

"You heard the man, come on," Constrictor said in his rough voice. "That means you too, Mulligan, you're one of us now."

"I-" Mulligan didn't know what to say, his alien suit retreated into his body. Toxin had gotten what it wanted. He was not one of the criminals. They didn't care about right or wrong or have any loyalty to anyone but themselves. Well, at least that is what he had always been told, but Constrictor was right. It was the criminals who had come to his rescue, it was they who actually put their lives on the line for him. Crowne could have killed any one of them to make an example, Mulligan was confused. His worldview seemed to suddenly have gained lots of shades of gray.

"Cheer up, Ginger," Constrictor jabbed him in the ribs with an elbow. "It ain't so bad down here with us villainous scum. At least we know how to have fun."

"He's right, we're not so bad once you get used to us," Mimic echoed.

"Thanks," Mulligan said. "That means you too, Hulk."

The Red Hulk merely grunted and walked faster to get away from them.

"That little display back there was the most I've ever heard him say," Mimic nodded at the back of the Red Hulk.

"I wonder what made him come save me."

"I think he doesn't like being treated like a lab rat," Mimic suggested. "For once he had empathy for someone else."

"Hmm" was all Mulligan managed as he watched the Red Hulk disappear around a corner toward their cells. Twenty feet or so behind them came Harrison and his crew, their eyes on the floor.

"How is it that the villains did better by Mulligan than we did?" Cancino asked. "What the hell is wrong with us?"

"It's Crowne," Hunter suggested. "He has us all scared for our jobs and full of so much suspicion that we don't even know who our friends are anymore."

"That's no excuse," Cancino insisted. "He has those guys scared for their lives and they still stood up to him."

"When you can't trust your commanding officer then you don't know who to trust," Harrison said. "We should have done more. We are to blame for our inaction but Hunter is right about Crowne, he has done nothing but tear this team apart."

The Superhuman Capekillers all walked into their cells without a struggle. Mulligan stood in the hallway, an unreadable expression on his face.

"Go ahead and choose whichever one you want," Harrison was barely able to manage to get out, his throat seemed constricted for some reason.

Silently Toxin took a cell across the hall from Mimic and Constrictor, they had seemed to welcome him in. Harrison hesitated then closed the door behind the agent and keyed in the lock pad.

"Sorry," he choked out.

"Sure."

The word was swimming in sarcasm. Harrison wanted to yell, to tell Mulligan that they had done all they could. No, he couldn't blame Mulligan for resenting them for not coming to his aide. They had known it was wrong, deadly wrong. Harrison sighed and turned back to Mimic and Constrictor's cell to join the rest of his team there so they could walk back together. There was a hard rock sitting in his stomach and only action could rid him of it.

"I might have an idea about what to do about our little problem," Harrison suddenly declared, his shoulders just slightly lighter.

A few moments later Crowne sat in his office with a disappointed Goddard. They were drinking a bit of whiskey, even Crowne indulged himself this time.

"I was so looking forward to doing the procedure," Goddard eventually said after a few moments of silence. Crowne was in such a foul mood that the scientist didn't know how to handle it.

"So was I," Crowne grunted without looking at him. There was another moment of silence as Crowne stared into space. Goddard finished his whiskey. "Leave me."

"Sir?"

"Are you deaf, I said leave me!"

Goddard put down his small glass and quickly rushed out the door without another word. This situation was dangerous, Crowne had lost control of his men and that means soon he would lose control of the base itself. Crowne was his only ally in Fort Raymond. However, he wasn't Goddard's only ally.

Goddard quickly made his way back to his lab, the wait to get down to the basement felt like an eternity. He made it to his lab and glanced around to make sure that he was truly alone. There was no one. He picked up the phone. It was only supposed to work for calls on the base's internal system. Goddard had seen to it that had been fixed. He fumbled as he dialed in the familiar number.

"Hello, Hood?" Goddard said when he heard the other line get picked up. "Yes, it's me, Goddard. Look, the situation is quickly going downhill here. Crowne is going to take a fall and I don't want to go with him."

"Does that mean what I think it does, Goddard?" Hood's voice was barely masking his excitement.

"Yes, it does. I am ready to deliver the goods."

"Good, call me back when you have a plan."

"I will!"

Far away Hood couldn't conceal a large smile spreading across his face. No one was ever going to challenge him again.

Next:

"Heroes and Villains" Crowne's sins come back to bite him, but will the slippery Shield agent get away with his manipulations once more? Also, a strange addition to the team causes a shift in the team's dynamics.