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Chapter 4: Whirlwind

Las Vegas, Nevada - 11 AM

The city of Las Vegas was full of life, even as the day neared noon. Inside one of its many 24 hour casinos was Charles Cannon, in a normal civilian disguise, having the time of his life at one of the slot machines. He was rather inconspicuous, wearing a leather jacket and a baseball cap on his head.

Also in the casino was Josh Hammond, who simply wore a hoodie over his uniform. He tried his best to blend in to appear like a normal human being, which was partly the purpose of his creation. He was about 30 feet behind Charles, leaning against a wall with his hands in his jacket pockets, mirroring another man a bit ahead of him. Right as Charles moved away from the slot machine, James' voice came through Josh's earpiece.

"Agent Hammond, do you copy?"

Josh tilted his head to the side as he watched Charles.

"I copy, Captain Rogers," he responded in his usual monotone voice.

"I'm on the rooftop of the building across from you, do you have eyes on Cannon?"

Josh allowed Charles to move a few more feet ahead, before starting his slow tailing of him.

"I do, he's currently on the move. To where I have yet to see," he said.

"Just get him away from civilians. With his powers, the collateral damage he could cause would be over the moon."

Josh furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and would come to a stop.

"Over the moon? Is that how far the force of his winds could throw something?" Josh asked, having been thrown off by the expression.

James paused for a moment.

"No, no, that's just an expression. Don't worry, you'll learn more like that."

Josh nodded and continued after Charles, who had made his way into the bathroom. Josh came to a stop outside of the bathroom door and would look around.

"He's made his way into the restroom. Should I follow him?" Josh asked.

"If you're gonna engage, you need to get him out of there and fast."

Josh blinked a few times and would adjust the position of his hood before walking into the bathroom. Once he was inside, he stopped upon seeing Charles at the sink, washing his hands. Charles looked up to see Josh in the mirror but didn't make much of it.

"Charles Cannon?"

At the mention of his full name, Charles paused and would slowly look up into the mirror at Josh. He was confused, but there was a hint of aggravation on his face.

"Who the hell are you, and how do you know my name?" he asked.

Josh took his hands out of his coat pockets and would place them behind his back.

"Who I am is of no importance to you, just know that I am an agent of SHIELD, and I have come to arrest you for crimes against us. You can either come willingly or not, but if you choose the second option I ask that you leave the premises first," Josh with calmness throughout his voice.

Charles didn't say anything for a moment. He simply stared at Josh through the mirror with wide eyes. On the roof across from the casino, James facepalmed from what he had heard through the earpiece.

Charles slowly turned the water off and would grab a paper towel to dry his hands. After throwing the paper in the garbage, he turned to Josh with a smug grin on his face.

"I guess I'll take what's behind door number two, but with a slight change-"

He began rapidly rotating his arms in order to create a powerful gust of wind that he shot out at Josh, sending him crashing through a wall and back out to the casino. Josh slid across the floor and would dust himself off as he came to a stop. As everyone in the casino gasped in shock, Charles walked through the hole in the wall, now wearing his green camouflaged armored Whirlwind suit.

"Fury is some kind of idiot to send some normal agent after me," Whirlwind said with a confident smirk on his face.

Josh stood up, continuing to dust himself off.

"You're incorrect in your assumption. He didn't send a normal agent," Josh said. Smoke would arise from his shoulders. The jacket he wore started to burn away little by little until he was fully engulfed as the Human Torch.

Meanwhile, on the rooftop of the building across from the casino, James was standing on the edge listening to the entire situation going south. He took a few steps back away from the edge and would let out a sigh.

"Couldn't be easy, could it?" He said under his breath. James took a running start and would leap off of the roof. He landed in the middle of the street and rolled forward before charging forward into the casino.

Whirlwind tilted his head to the side as Josh changed into his fire form. He began rolling his shoulders before jumping up and down a bit.

"SHIELD has people that can turn on fire, huh? Good, at least this should be some kind of a challenge," Whirlwind said before spinning around much like the Tasmanian Devil. The force of the wind he was creating would cause various objects in the casino to go flying. As most of the casino-goers began running away, Josh stood his ground and launched a stream of fire towards Whirlwind.

The fire itself surrounded Whirlwind in what appeared almost like a fire tornado of sorts. This didn't seem to stop Whirlwind, instead, he continued towards Josh with no intention of slowing down.

"That is…an unexpected result," Josh said, assessing the situation at hand. He dashed to the left to avoid Whirlwind and would hold out his hand towards him. "Time to fix it."

The fire would peel off of Whirlwind and flow back into Josh's hand, where it was absorbed back into his body. Once all of the fire had been removed from Whirlwind, Captain America's shield flew right into Whirlwind, sending him flying off to the side. The shield bounced off of Whirlwind and returned to James' hand, who was now standing near the entrance.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I don't think this guy is going down alone," he said to Josh.

The Human Torch nodded in agreement before returning his attention to Whirlwind, who stood back up to his feet, groaning. Once his eyes landed on Captain America, he chuckled at the sight of the super-soldier.

"A human flamethrower and Captain America himself, Fury rolled out the red carpet for me didn't he?" He said with confidence.

"I'm the Human Torch, not the Human Flamethrower…though I suppose I could see where you came to such a conclusion," Josh said while walking over to stand a few feet next to James.

"You're not gonna win this, Cannon. You're going exactly where Machete is right now," James said.

Josh built up a flame in his hand but stopped to turn to James.

"Well, it wouldn't be exactly where Machete is. She's to be a prisoner in Ryker's Island, a super-powered being like Cannon would be sent to The Raft," he pointed out.

James closed his eyes and sighed before turning to Josh.

"Right, thanks, Josh," he said, remaining kind to the android.

"The Raft? I don't think so, fire boy," Whirlwind said. Two buzzsaws would slide partially out of the gauntlets on both arms. He crossed them over his chest in an X position and would begin spinning around like a tornado once again.

"Hammond, you go left, I'll take the right," James directed.

The buzzsaws would fly out of the spinning top that was Whirlwind, aimed at both Josh and James. Josh jumped to the left, while James moved right to knock the buzzsaw out of the air. A few more buzzsaws flew out towards the two at almost blinding speed. While Josh threw small blasts of fire at those that came his way, James continued to block the ones that flew towards him.

With both Josh and James on either side of Whirlwind, the two coordinated a double-team maneuver. James threw his shield at Whirlwind, knocking him out of his rotation and sending him towards Josh. The Human Torch threw a fireball at him, which blasted Whirlwind back towards James, who jumped in the air to land a downwards shield strike onto his head. The blow sent Whirlwind down headfirst onto the ground, disorientating him.

Due to his armored suit, the attack kept Whirlwind conscious, albeit off balance as he stood up to his feet again. James dashed towards Whirlwind to attempt another shield strike but missed as Whirlwind ducked under, grabbed James around the waist from behind, and spun around. After several rotations, he lifted James over his head for a German suplex, slamming the super-soldier nearly onto his neck. Whirlwind stood up, grabbed ahold of James once more, and would spin again to throw him into a row of slot machines.

Upon turning around, another fireball was thrown at Whirlwind. Through the use of his powers, Whirlwind rapidly spun his hands to create miniature tornadoes, one of which he sent to intercept and disperse the flame, while the other flew towards Josh directly. Josh glowed a brighter shade of orange and would fly up over the tornado to launch a stream of fire at Whirlwind.

Cannon rolled out of the way of the fire stream and would spin around to create a partial whirlwind at the lower half of his body, leaving his upper half exposed. He used this to levitate off the ground and up to level with Josh, where he would shoot out several buzzsaws towards him.

Josh held his hands together for a few seconds, and after pulling them apart, would form a large fire sphere that intercepted the saws. The saws themselves fell towards the ground, completely melted from the heat. Whirlwind looked up, completely dumbfounded.

"How the hell did you do that?" he asked.

"My flames are generally around 2,800 ℉, the melting point of steel as I correctly projected your saws to be," Josh said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Predict this-"

Two blades would protrude from Whirlwind's gauntlets instead of the usual buzzsaws. He closed the distance between himself and Josh, where he would begin slashing wildly at the Human Torch. Josh flew backward while narrowly avoiding every slash and stab attempt that came his way.

"I do not believe this is your smartest plan of attack-"

Right as a blade came inches away from his face, Josh grabbed the middle of it to halt the momentum. Whirlwind quickly pushed his other blade forward to try and stab Josh in the stomach, but the android caught that blade as well with his other hand.

"As I was attempting to tell you, these weapons are ineffective against me," Josh said.

His hands glowed a brighter orange than the rest of him. The swords that he held began to melt away from the heat rising through his hands. After melting them entirely, Josh launched a punch at Whirlwind's face that sent him careening towards the ground.

Out of the rubble of broken slot machines came James, who launched himself in the air with his shield as a battering ram. The full force of his weight, as well as the shield, collided with Whirlwind, knocking the criminal off to the side. Upon landing on the ground, James looked up to Josh, who slowly descended beside him.

"Can't let you have all the fun, now can I?" he asked with a slight smile.

"I'm not quite sure I'm capable of experiencing fun, not yet anyway," Josh responded.

James couldn't help but smile at how the android viewed and spoke about himself.

"Fair enough. Here-" James would hold his arm out towards Josh horizontally, along with the shield that he wore it on.

Josh looked down at his arm with a confused expression.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked.

"Light it up. Don't worry, it can take much more than 2,800 ℉," James said with confidence. He looked at Whirlwind out of the corner of his eye, who was stirring about and attempting to stand up after such a brutal collision.

Josh contemplated the notion for a moment but would trust Rogers' judgment. He took a step back and would shoot out a small stream of fire onto the patriotic shield, setting it ablaze. James launched the shield directly at Whirlwind right as he stood up, sending the shield right into his chest and sending him flying back.

Whirlwind hit a wall and slumped to the ground, incapacitated. The shield flew back towards James, but Josh intercepted it, grabbing it with his hand. This caused James to look at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Don't worry Captain Rogers, just handling the fire," Josh said.

The flames from the shield seeped back into Josh's body until the shield was back to its normal state. Josh brought himself out of his plasma form and would adjust the collar to his jumpsuit.

Whirlwind stirred a bit and would gaze up at the two with weak eyes.

"What the hell…what the hell was that?" he asked with a weak voice.

James placed the shield onto his back harness and crossed his arms while looking down at Whirlwind.

"Teamwork. That's what you call teamwork. Perhaps you and your friends should've learned a thing or two about that. This probably would've worked out better for you," he said.

Whirlwind chuckled, which brought out a hard cough as well.

"You think you can stop all of us? You won't even get past Zaran, much less Batroc," he said with a slight smirk on his face.

James looked over at Josh for a brief moment, before looking back at Whirlwind. His gaze lingered for a moment, but he would end up nodding.

"We'll see about that."

Next Chapter 5: Zaran