Initiative 2028
Six Pack
The woman called Hope Summers hefted the pulse canon calmly, peering around a corner as her red hair flowed around her. This raid into Latveria was turning out to be a mess, but to be honest the professional mercenary was almost expecting it.
Alex Hayden, known as Agent X, followed her closely as the badly scarred man hefted his matching pistols. Possessed of a limited healing factor he was a effective fighter, though nothing spectacular. "More Doom-bots?" he asked, his yellow visor giving him a odd look.
"What do you think?" Grizzly asked gruffly, the big, heavily muscled man following close behind. He was built like a Mac Truck in muscle, but was also a pretty fair tactician. Tellingly he had been against this plan from the start.
The team was advancing through the rubble of Doomstadt, the capital city having been hit several months ago by American anti-terrorist forces. Bombs and selective strikes had supposedly crippled the city's defenses, but from what they could see it just gave the Doom-bots more cover. And there seemed to be more and more robots emerging, all hefting heavy weapons.
This was supposed to be just a simple snatch and grab. A customer in the states wanted what was left of Doom's time platform, presumably to try to reverse-engineer the technology. Receiving half the pay in advance the Six Pack started reviewing everything they could find on the country, then planned out their attack.
"Hammer," Hope activated the communicator clipped to her ear, "what's up ahead of us?"
High above them, the mini Helicarrier the group purchased as scrap and rebuilt hovered above the city, hopefully out of range from any surface to air missiles. Within the old man of the team, Hammer, monitored the fight as well as tracking their progress.
"Looks like the Bots are emerging from a underground bunker ahead of you," Hammer reported, the battered old man held in his life support chair. "Want me to fire a missile into it?" he offered with a shark-like grin.
"Hell no," Hope yelped, "our target might be in there. No, it looks like we'll have to bust in the old fashioned way. "
"Messing shit up?" Copycat asked, the blue skinned metamorph smiling faintly as she hefted her usual rocket launcher.
"Pretty much," Hope admitted wryly. She checked the bunker using a heads up display on her contact lens, then asked, "Do you think you can just crack the armor?"
"It's worth a try," Copycat nodded before adding, "but you'd better get Tank ready to rush them, though."
"I'm ready," the heavily armored man said, his gray armor making it hard to shuffle forward through the rubble. The suit he wore resembled that of the original Iron Man, but bigger and even bulkier. It also had been upgraded with various weapons systems, practically bristling with fire power.
"All right," Hope nodded. "Me, Agent X and Grizzly will lay down defensive fire, while you line up the shot Copycat. Once you fire, Tank advances with the rest of us using him for cover. Got it?"
"Got it," Agent X nodded as the others agreed.
"On three," Hope ordered, "one, two... THREE!"
Almost as one Hope, Agent X and Grizzly stood, weapons blazing as they tried to saturate the Doombots with pure firepower. It worked, too, staggering the robots enough for Copycat to rise, aim her rocket launcher and fire. The missile howled through the air then splashed down just past the Doombots and hit the bunker, exploding and sending cement flying everywhere.
"Follow me," Tank rumbled as he charged forward, arm mounted guns blazing as he blasted any surviving Doombots.
Scrambling behind him the team picked off any survivors even as they ran for the hole blasted in the bunker. "Look out for hot edges," Grizzly cautioned even as they descended into the earth.
As they descended they came across a set of stairs, not far from where they had blasted open the roof. "Think we hit an access?" Copycat asked, slinging her rocket launcher over her back and switching to a lighter pistol.
"Who knows?" Tank said as he carefully navigated the small stairwell.
"Hammer, you there?" Agent X asked, but the team only received static in reply.
The underground base looked much cleaner than the blasted out surface, and nearly reeked of high technology. The walls were humming faintly, etched with circuitry, and the air nearly crackled with contained energies. They passed a room with stacks of idle Doombots, and another with monitors that showed news coverage around the world.
"There is no way in hell this is a abandoned base," Hope muttered, frowning. With the seeming disappearance of Doctor Doom it had been assumed no one was minding the store, but from the looks of this place that would be wrong.
"No," Grizzly agreed, frowning. He sniffed the air slightly, "Fresh scents, at least two people. And within hours of us arriving."
"Great," Copycat muttered. They walked down a long passage, their footsteps the only sound in the now eerily quiet bunker. "How far does this damn tunnel go?" she muttered.
"I don't know," Tank said, "but my GPS system says we're nearing Doom's castle."
Hope tried to reach Hammer again for a update, but apparently there was too much material between them. "Damn it," Hope cursed softly, used to having the older man as a guide.
The passage finally ended in a heavy armored door, one that almost looked to be designed to stop them. "I bet this accesses the castle itself," Agent X said, tapping the door with a gloved hand. There was a flash of light and he went flying backward, yelping in alarm.
"Alex!" Copycat cried as he hit the wall with a crash.
"Oww," Agent X groaned, his hand blasted to a gory ruin, his healing factor already kicking in to knit together the shattered flesh.
"Idiot," Hope growled, "of course it's booby trapped."
"Gee, your kindness is just overwhelming," Copycat muttered as she helped the still shaken Agent X up.
"Sorry," Hope smiled at them wryly.
Tank lumbered up to the door, the armored figure bending forward slightly as he studied the barrier. "I think my suit is compatable with the energies involved," he noted then asked, "can I use this to recharge the suit?"
"Go to it," Hope smiled grimly.
The heavy armor placed it's hands on the door, and electricity danced around it as it sucked the charge from the metal. A few moments later and it was safe for Tank to rip the door from it's hinges, revealing darkness within.
"I'm getting the same scents as in the bunker itself," Grizzly noted with a frown.
"Then I guess we'd better explore," Hope said. "Tank, how about some light?" she asked briskly, the armor firing up it's chest lamp to light their way.
"Love the decorating," Agent X noted as they passed medieval style wall hangings and suits of armor lining the halls. They searched the floor, determining it was a sub-basement before going up a set of stone stairs.
The com links crackled, then Hammer's voice came through again. "..are you? I'm finally picking you up again," his frustrated voice said.
"We're in the lower levels of Doom's castle I think," Hope reported, "we still need to find the labs and the platform."
"Glad you're all fine," Hammer added quietly, "I was worried about you."
"I didn't know you cared," Agent X quipped.
"Shut up, Alex," Copycat sighed as they checked more rooms and walked the halls, not finding much of anything.
"The maps our contact provided us don't seem to be much help," Hammer admitted after a moment, "my scans don't match up."
"So the client lied to us?" Hope noted dryly, "Wow, what a change of pace."
Everyone chuckled at that. The group advanced through the castle, finding it strangely intact compared to the intelligence reports they had seen. "This doesn't make sense," Grizzly finally muttered as they advanced through another doorway, "we saw the side of the castle, it was blown right out."
The large chamber they entered lit up suddenly, disorienting them, even as a booming voice said, "Well, it seems the holographic cloak is still working."
"Oh crap," Hope muttered once her eyes cleared, blinking away tears of pain as she saw the figure dressed in what looked like medieval armor, a green cloak thrown over his shoulders and the hood hiding his face.
"Doom," Tank muttered, firing up his targeting systems and preparing to fire.
"Not quite," the armored figure said, flipping back his hood to reveal a blonde haired man, not wearing the traditional Doom faceplate. In fact he looked quite handsome, and fairly young compared to the Six Pack. Maybe early to mid twenties?
"What the hell?" Copycat blurted.
"Wait a minute," Hope blinked, suddenly recognizing the man from when she had been running with the X-Men. "Frank?" she asked.
Franklin Richards nodded slightly, looking at her warily. "Hope Summers," he noted, "Cable's daughter? What are you doing here?"
"Well, crap," Hope muttered, shaking her head ruefully as everyone watched.
"Frank Richards," Copycat echoed, "as in, the brother of President Richards? What the hell is he doing here?"
"Hiding out, I'd guess," Hammer noted flatly, listening in to the conversation over the communications network.
"Pretty much," Franklin conceded, studying the group of mercenaries thoughtfully. "I repeat: What are you doing here?"
"Ezekiel Stane hired us to look for Doom's Time Platform," Hope said casually. "I guess it's not here?" she asked.
Franklin shook his head, "Doom used it to escape after I took over the castle from him, then it self destructed." His expression went hard as he continued, "And there's no way in hell I am giving the bits to a nut like Stane."
"Boss?" Agent X asked, gesturing meaningfully with his pistol.
"No way in hell," Hope hissed at him. "Frank is a OMEGA level esper, dumb ass. He could turn you into vapor with a thought."
"Not to mention the power levels I'm reading off that armor," Tank rumbled softly.
Frank grinned, a surprisingly casual smile as he said, "Honestly, I could use a hand if Valeria tries hitting Doomstadt again. How much is Zeke paying you? I'll double it."
"Now you're talking," Hope grinned as she put her gun down.
To be continued...
Notes: In this canon Hope Summers got sick of being the supposed 'Mutant Savior' and took off, instead reforming the mercenary team Six Pack.
