West Coast Avengers/Force Works
The Evil Men do, part 3
Rocky Explanations
The story thus far: Force Works has been informed that Captain Marvel may be a traitor within the ranks of the West Coast Avengers. After a prolonged battle with the Avengers, the team managed to convince them that they may be right, and together, the two super teams confronted Captain Marvel.
Blackhawk Airbase
"We've got some questions, Marv," Hawkeye growled, an explosive arrow notched and ready to go, "and if we don't get some answers, over a dozen heroes are gonna tap dance on your head and freakin' enjoy it."
Genis-Vell carefully considered his options before answering. The entirety of the West Coast Avengers and Force Works was now staring him down, and he didn't need his cosmic awareness to sense their hostility. As much confidence as he had in his powers, he still hesitated to do anything that might piss them both off, "What are your questions, Hawkeye?"
"Are you or are you not working with the Supreme Intelligence?"
One second passed, then another, while collective weapons and powers of the two teams were trained at the young Kree.
"Well?" Demanded Vagabond.
"It's…complicated," the Cosmic Protector answered truthfully.
"Many things are that needn't be," Wiz Kid commented.
"Then why don't ya make it easy on us, kid?" Two-Gun Kid asked.
"Genis, no one's looking for a fight here," X-Treme stated. Captain Marvel barely gave a nod towards the young hero with whom he shared a life changing adventure, "we just want answers."
With an angry sigh, Captain Marvel raised his hands towards the collected, "Fine. You want the truth? Then here it is!"
With speed that would make Quicksilver look twice, Captain Marvel expanded his cosmic awareness outwards so that it encompassed virtually all the heroes present. And what they saw came in snippets, flashes like a waking dream that they could somehow sense in the core of their being was the absolute truth.
The heroes saw flashes of a powerful towering enemy.
"Well...?"
A painful sacrifice, obscured by overwhelming emotions of failure.
"WHAT YOU DID WAS..."
"Impressive?"
"So we have a deal?" Marv asks.
"YES...THE RU'UL WILL PROTECT EARTH FROM EXTRA-GALACTIC THREATS. IF A THREAT EVEN THINKS ABOUT CROSSING INTO THE MILKY WAY, THEY WILL BE ELIMINATED."
All told, the heroes saw everything and nothing at all, so overwhelming was the information overload to their mental systems. The only lasting impressions were those which Marvel felt best suited him, need, necessity and duty with just a sliver of information regarding how the young Captain had formed his alliance with the Supreme Intelligence.
"That's enough Marvel!" Iron Man barked as he aimed a repulsar at his cosmic teammate as the collected heroes were brought to their knees by the information Captain Marvel was forcing on their senses.
"So your armor can stop my cosmic awareness," Genis noted, "Impressive."
The Golden Avenger diverted even more power into his repulsars, "I meant what I said, Marvel. That's enough!"
"You really should get a gun or some such, the visuals of you pointing the palm of your hand are just lacking."
"I'm warning you…!"
"Cool it Shell-head," A voice croaked weakly, "we're okay."
Iron Man looked to see the two teams had come to their senses, although somewhat disheveled.
"Man," Speedball coughed, "that gives whole new meaning to cramming! Is he always this way?"
Darkhawk rubbed his sore, cyborg head, "No, this is one of his more social days."
"Tell me, Nova Prime," Captain Marvel stared at the Human Rocket dispassionately, "are you now satisfied that you know the extent of my alliance with the Kree? I'm certain Adora will be adamant about a full report."
Nova rubbed the back of his neck, trying to clear the fog of his mind, "Yeah, I guess we're good."
"But we're not," Iron Man snapped, now that things had settled just a little bit more, "just what the hell do you think you're doing barging in on one of our missions!"
"It's not like we came looking for a fight!" Mirage yelled back, "it was your boy who fired on us, remember?"
"Boy?" Captain Marvel looked offended, though no one much cared.
"You people didn't come here to talk," Iron Man snapped back as he marched towards Force Works' leader, "you charged in here full force with battle tactics and weapons specifically designed to take us down! I doubt peaceful discussion was the first thing on your agenda. I never should have let your have the name Force Works if I knew you were prone to such violence!"
Mirage stepped forward so that the two heroes were within inches of one another, face to face but hardly eye to eye, "You didn't let us have the name, Avenger. We took it. We're keeping it. Get used to it. And what the hell did you expect us to do? You're the freakin' Avengers! If your teammate was compromised, what would you have us do? Smash your fists with our face? Seems like you guys trusted Cap as much as us!"
"Is that stick always that far up her ass?" Darkhawk whispered to Speedball.
"Has the sky always been blue?"
Iron Man pointed an accusing finger at Moonstar like a gun, "Now you see here…!"
"Okay, okay, that's enough, both of ya!" Hawkeye put himself between the two heroes and pushed them apart, "time out, both of you!"
Hawkeye pointed towards Iron Man, "Chill, Shell head. They're right, they didn't fire the first shot and we shouldn't hold it against them if they came prepared. That's just common sense."
Hawkeye then pointed towards Mirage, "Don't look too smug. You guys were a little too quick to throw down, even if Cap threw the first punch. And you shouldn't have tried to confront us during a mission. That's just asking for trouble, and that's common sense."
Both Iron Man and Mirage wanted to say something, but Hawkeye's glare discouraged them both.
"We clear?"
The two muttered something unintelligible.
"Good. Now, if you kids don't mind…"
"Kids?" Nova snorted.
"Brats, punks, whatever," Hawkeye continued, "we were about to go after some losers named Shadow Force. If we have your permission…"
"Shadow Force?" Wolfsbane asked incredulously.
Unnoticed by all in the background, Wiz Kid scanned a palm pilot like devise to Nova, who then silently took to the air.
"Yeah, they politely told us their names before trying to kill us," Vagabond answered.
"I fought them wit' X-Factor," Rahne began, "they were created by a black-ops government program. When we exposed an' shut them down, they were all given treatments ta' remove their powers."
"So? People get their powers back all the time," Warbird observed.
"So when this was all revealed, the government got Forge, Hank Pym and Reed Richards ta cure them," Wolfsbane continued, "ye think jus' any mad scientist can do that?"
"Translated, there's more going on than what we can see," Warbird commented, "per usual."
"Is it usual that villains signal the Avengers for a fight after a successful theft?"
The West Coast Avengers gave Wiz Kid, who held what looked like hi-tech metal basketball in his hands, wires and electrodes hanging out of it.
"Min' jus' tell us what the Sam Hill's you're talkin' about Kid?" Two-Gun asked. The Western Legend tipped his hat back, "you sayin' those buzzards wanted us to kick their backsides?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying," Wiz Kid answered, "Look around you. We're at a military base, but where are the civilians and personnel?"
The Avengers, along with a few members of Force Works, looked around and then at one another.
"Okay, now just how did we miss that?" Speedball said aloud.
"They carefully shut down the base with this," The young genius tossed the metal ball he'd been holding to Iron Man. It was roughly the size of a medicine ball. "I had Nova find that when I realized no one had reacted to all the destruction we caused. I hacked the communications of the base, and discovered that the call to your headquarters was placed after the base was subdued, and I presume, they took what they wanted."
The Iron Avenger glared at Wiz Kid, "Hacked?"
"Open that sphere, Avengers, and you'll see that we have much bigger concerns than my lack of tact."
Stark activated a small but powerful welding laser and began slicing through the outer layer like a knife through a birthday cake. Once he'd cut a handhold, he slipped his armored fingers in and peeled the top half back.
Those who didn't gasp almost vomited. Those who didn't almost vomit muttered a prayer or two. Wiz Kid and Iron Man were the only exceptions.
Inside the metal ball, pierced with all kinds of syringes and wires, was a human head. The face was caked with blood and any layman could see the man didn't die painlessly.
"He was a telepath most likely," Wiz Kid stated, "killed so that they should shut this base down while they lured you here."
Iron Man closed the metal globe and placed it on the ground, anything to get it out of his hands, "I trust you have a point?"
"I think I speak for my team when I say when I say that we don't want this misunderstanding to affect our reputation. We'd like to help."
Iron Man glared at the young hero, and then spun around, "No. Your reputation will survive one misunderstanding fight."
A blunt arrow ricocheted off the back of the Golden Avenger's head.
"Hawkeye…"
The purple archer shrugged, "Hey, they wanna help. You know as well as I do that if we screwed up one of their missions…"
"We wouldn't have," Iron Man said sharply.
"If we screwed up one of their missions, we would want to make it right." Hawkeye finished. He then looked towards Mirage, "And I'll bet my best bow you guys still don't trust Cap."
Mirage crossed her arms across her chest, "You better believe it. If we're going to give a report to an alien ruler, I'd like to be absolutely certain we're right."
"Sounds fair to me," Hawkeye observed, "Besides, I seem to recall you saying something about two teleport signals. We both know these guys want us to follow them. They may be prepared to fight a divided West Coast Avengers, but not a united Avengers Force Works combo."
"Man, that was almost inspirational," Speedball murmured to Darkhawk, "interested in a trade?"
"I'm more than willing to help, but I'll be damned if I take orders from someone who doesn't respect me and my team!" Mirage snapped.
"Not on your life."
Hawkeye put his hands up in a placating gesture, "Easy there chief. You'll lead one team, Shell head leads the other. I don't have a problem following a good looking woman."
Mirage smiled despite herself. The archer had the worst lines, but his straight forward honesty and bluntness was disarming, to say the least. It wasn't hard to see why he led the Avengers.
"How are we dividing the teams?" Mirage asked.
Hawkeye, Mirage, Iron Man and Nova held a quick huddle as they conferred on information and deployment. After several minutes, they turned to face their team.
"Okay, here's the situation," Hawkeye started, "the two signals lead to France and Africa. Me, Mirage, X-Treme, Captain Marvel, Wiz Kid, Vagabond, Tarene, and Wolfsbane will take the African one. Iron Man, Kymaera, Two Gun Kid, Darkhawk, Nova, Speedball, Arsenal and Warbird will take France. We'll beat up whoever we find and compare notes afterwards. Any questions?"
Speedball's hand shot up, "Who gets dibs on the Quinjet?"
"From what I remember, last time three of you took a ride in a Quinjet, it ended up stolen," Hawkeye said matter of factly.
"To be fair, we stole it to save the world from an evil sorceress," Kymaera defended.
"Yeah, and Darkhawk was there too!" added Speedball.
"Hey! Leave me out of this!" the Dark Vigilant snapped.
"Hell, it was his idea!" Speedball continued, "He was all 'lets teach that fascist overlord bastards a lesson! They can afford it'!"
"Okay, that's it! You're going down!" Darkhawk tackled the Masked Marvel, and the two began wrestling with one another as their team went about their business.
"Leader gets cool ride, end of discussion."
"And you like the idea of making Iron Man ride second class," Vagabond prodded.
"And I like making Iron Man ride second class."
"Now that we've had our quips, what are we going to do about the base?" Warbird demanded her hands on her hips. Former Air force, she loathed the idea of leaving a base defenseless.
"I already contacted Hank and Jan," Hawkeye explained, "they'll be here in ten minutes, and hopefully they'll be able to figure out what was stolen. I don't wanna wait, though. My gut tells me something big is going down, and I don't want to waste another minute. So lets roll out!"
As the two teams made their way to their respective aircrafts, X-Treme took a moment to pull Genis aside.
"Hey, we still cool Legacy?"
Captain Marvel looked at X-Treme like he'd just grown another head, "I was a different man compared to what I am now. As are you. That should answer your question."
That stopped Adam dead in his tracks. The Shi'ar warrior was a loner by circumstance, who valued every friend. The dismissal was like a slap in the gut.
"Don' mind him none," Two-Gun Kid slapped his arm across Adam's back, "he's like that with everyone."
Dwight Alders, known to Federal law-enforcement officials as Hardtime, watched the two super-teams file into their respective planes upon a special satellite feed their employer had hijacked.
"What on earth was Force Works doing there?" the animalistic Ambushed demanded, "we just wanted the Avengers!"
"What does it matter?" Airborne answered, "it's obvious they don't know anything about our real plans. They shouldn't be too much extra trouble."
"Airborne is correct," their employer stated from his position in the shadows, "our benefactors have been informed, and it's their opinion that Force Works' involvement will be to our advantage considering their high profile."
The man smiled like an expert Card Shark who knew his hand was a winner, "After all, it's not like we're trying to hide anything."
Hawkeye opened the cooler marked in bright red letters 'Emergency Rations' and pulled out a fresh club sandwich. Being the leader had its fringe benefits (even if he wasn't technically in charge right now). With half his team on another plane running off to face some unknown danger with the other half of his team under the leadership of a personally unknown leader, well, that made him a little nervous. But that was nothing a good sandwich couldn't cure.
"So just how'd you guys end up with the name 'Force Works' anyways?" Hawkeye took a bite and continued with a full mouth, "Ain't exactly a name with peaceful implications."
Mirage rubbed her sore back. Her mask was done and her bow and arrows laying in the corner as she tried to work a kink out of her back, "Ugh, it wasn't our first choice, at least that's what I hear. Parvenue wanted Champions, but Erik Williams and some Welsh guy were both trying to get it at the time. Force Works was just gathering dust with Stark-Fugi whatever, so…"
"You okay?"
"No," Dani groaned, "I think I took that fall wrong. Something feels outta wack."
"Really?" Hawkeye set his snack down, "Lemme see, I know a few things about getting thrown on your back. It was a Cap training past time almost."
"Have at it." Mirage unzipped the back of her uniform, and felt Hawkeye's rough hand exploring her back. Clint, well versed in battle injury, found the problem almost instantly. Just a pulled muscle. Carefully running the palm of his hand across her back, he relaxed the tension in no time flat.
"Damn, those are some magic hands," Mirage moaned as she zipped her uniform back up, "thanks."
"No prob. When you've gotten into as many fights as I have, you learn a thing or two."
There was a faint cough, and the two leaders noticed their teammates staring at them.
"What?" they asked as one.
"I thought ye and Arsenal…"
"I thought you and Warbird…"
Hawkeye and Mirage looked deep into one another's eyes, and felt a deep, powerful connection.
"I say we kill them, hide the bodies."
"Better, we order them on a suicide mission. They survive, they get court-martialed."
"Hey boss people," Vagabond called from the front, "we're approaching the site of the teleport signal."
"So where exactly are we?" X-Treme asked.
"We're in Ethiopia, inside the Great Rift Valley," Wiz Kid replied, "based on our course; we're going to be miles from local… 'Authorities', which may prove helpful."
"Their camp should be in site within a few seconds," X-Treme informed their from the co-pilot's seat.
The two teams of heroes watched the jungle speed by under them, expecting to see a small camp soon, where their foes would be laying in wait. They never expected to see what they actually saw.
Sitting in the middle of an open area, was a gray metal square, with all types of weapons sticking out of it. To say it clashed with the surrounds was an understatement.
"Why is there a castle in Africa?" Tarene was first with the obvious question.
"Shadow Force isn't below," Captain Marvel informed them, "My cosmic awareness is still hazy, but I don't sense them here at all. This is, however, where their teleportation signal leads."
"Hold on tight!" Vagabond snapped. She pulled the Quinjet to the right as several plasma blasts went flying by, "they know we're here!"
"Marvel, Tarene, get down there!" Dani snapped, "Vagabond, set us down, we're going in hard!"
"Marry me," was all Hawkeye could think to say.
Captain Marvel and Tarene dropped out of the Quinjet like depth charges. Plasma bursts were as painful as strobe lights as they descended on their targets. Tarene decided to use brute force, dropping onto the metal roof and ripping herself an opening. Captain Marvel hung back, listening to his cosmic awareness to select the best targets. He didn't need his cosmic awareness to sense that, figuratively, this was going to be a slaughter.
A metal wall exploded outwards to reveal Hawkeye and X-Treme, weapons drawn and ready. After such a dramatic entrance, they knew to expect trouble. When they saw the people rushing towards them, they did a double take.
Their foes were all males, dressed in all black robes that revealed only their face, all of had foot long beards, brandishing katana swords in each hand and a yarmulke atop their heads.
"Ninja Rabbi?" Hawkeye ducked underneath a throwing Star of David, "Ninja Rabbi!"
X-Treme charged his enemies as arrow shafts flew over his shoulder. He found to his surprise his foes were quite skilled. A quick block here, a punch there, they would be a real threat if it weren't for his strength, X-Treme concluded.
"Dozen for you, dozen for me!" Hawkeye shouted. Adam couldn't break his concentration to answer, these guys were too good. He fought back and forth with them for several minutes until,
"Gah! Damn it!" Hawkeye cried out. X-Treme realized his ally was in trouble, and pulled out all the stops. A chop to the back of the neck to one foe, a snap kick to the face of another and Adam spun around…to see Hawkeye at his teeth. The dozen he'd chosen were all subdued on the floor
"It's always one seed that ruins a sandwich," He muttered. The Avenging Archer saw X-Treme staring at him "what?"
Wiz Kid fired his personally created laser gun liberally as he strode down the hall, Vagabond following behind. Their foes fled beneath
"Are we taking a leisurely stroll, or are we actually going somewhere?" Vagabond asked.
"SOP, we secure enemy database in the hopes of greater intelligence to lead to bigger fish," Wiz Kid explained, "isn't that SOP with the Avengers?"
"I don't even know what SOP is!"
Wiz Kid spied a computer consul and made his way towards it, "Hmm. I'd bet they were scraping bottom barrel with you."
"Hey!"
Taki waved her away as he plugged a devise into the computer, "Yes, yes. I'm sure the merits of your membership are awe inspiring. I'll need you to cover me for a moment. Try not to need rescue for a few minutes, okay?"
Vagabond eyed the pairs of swords in front of her.
"Why your teammates haven't killed you yet, I have no idea."
Resistance for fierce, but brief. The combined team of heroes had little trouble overcoming their foes, but knew that was most likely only the beginning. As such, Hawkeye, Mirage and Wiz Kid left their teammates to clean up while they conferred.
"So these guys are a fringe faction of Kach, eh?" Hawkeye rubbed the back of his head, "And they are…?"
"An extremely radical Jewish faction dedicated to meeting Arab terror blow for blow," Wiz Kid stated, "this sect is particularly radical. And that's where the logic ends."
"When did it start?" Hawkeye muttered
"What do you mean?" asked Dani.
"Well, this base is well beyond their means," Wiz Kid began, "the cloaking technology alone costs ten million. Furthermore, who's kept the regional authorities and troubles from disturbing them? Who's kept SHIELD or Shen Bet from discovering them?"
Hawkeye's narrowed, "We're being played."
"Hawkeye, excuse me, do you have a comment?"
The three heroes looked towards the brush curiously, where a news crew began disembarking from a Hummer.
"And add to that list, who alerted the media…" Hawkeye droned, "We need to get SHIELD out here yesterday."
"I…I think I found out their target," Wiz Kid's face paled. The two leaders took notice of this, and listened attentively as he explained the implications of his discovery.
"Well, that's one way to start a world war for the next twenty years…"
"So just why aren't you in New York?"
"'Rent trouble," Darkhawk answered miserably, "it just peaked. I thought a different coast might make things better, ya know? Though looking back, it was a little drastic."
"Yeah, I know the joys of teenage superpoweredness combined with parents of doom," Speedball replied.
"Besides, it's not like you guys are in New York. Don't you have your own city now?"
"Oh yeah," Speedball smirked, "we traded up man! You think you wanna ditch the geriatric league and sign on? We're younger and therefore cooler than them."
"Hey, we got our own coast as turf, Speedy!" defended Darkhawk.
"Seriously though, we're always open to new talent," Speedball explained, "why not join up with the guys who're trying to make the world a better place, not keep it as is?"
"Dude, that's so not fair!" Darkhawk shot back, "at least we don't go all Rodney King on guys!"
"Is he always that annoying?" Warbird asked as she reclined in the co-pilot's seat.
"Usually," Arsenal answered.
"We're getting a call from the French head of Extra Normal Affairs," Arsenal informed his ad-hoc team.
"Quick, somebody grab a letter opener and we'll force our way in!"
"You're being absurd, Speedy," Nova shot back, "all we'd need is a tooth pick. You'd work fine."
"Is there any particular reason why the French government has an axe to grind with you?" growled Iron Man.
"Don't you people have operating agreements with all U.N. Nations?" Warbird asked, "hell, the Avengers have emergency agreements with every nation on Earth."
"They're probably still angry about our comments about their human rights record and mutant issues," Kymaera explained, "On Meet The Press, I criticized their plans for mutant registration plans and attempts to force similar legislation through the E.U."
"You criticized a major European government on National television?" Iron Man sounded as if he couldn't believe the words that came out of his own speakers.
"After their record? Of course!" Kymaera defended, "what, would you rather I just shake my head in disappointment and silent disagreement?"
"No, I'd rather you just did your job and protect people like you're supposed to! Not grind some political axe!"
"Umm, guys?" Arsenal pointed to a blank screen, "we've still got this guy on hold."
"Put him through."
A man in a French Army General's uniform appeared onto the small screen, "Force Works. Ve demand you turn your craft around thiz instant."
"We're on hot pursuit of several terrorist suspects," Kymaera stated diplomatically, "we'd like… permission to finish our pursuit."
"Non. You can give us your intelligence to us and we will investigate the matter."
"I'm afraid that's unacceptable. That amount of time they'd lose…"
"That iz not your concern." The man said simply.
"Allow me." Iron Man stepped up into sight of the screen.
"Julian."
"Iron Man."
"Force Works and the Avengers are working a joint operation. We'd be grateful if we could continue our mission. I give you my word that this mission will be conducted like every other we've completed in your country."
The General appeared visibly more relaxed, "Very well. You may continue, I vill clear everything on our end. Ve are at your disposal, Avenger."
Iron Man glared at Kymaera, "And now we can do our job."
The Stealthwing eventually settled over a dilapidated twenty story apartment building, to the surprise of some.
"That's where the signal's coming from?"
"That's what both your and my sensors indicate."
"So…a bunch of paramilitary super soldiers are hiding out in an Algerian Muslim ghetto," Kymaera stated, "am I the only one who sees that as odd?"
Warbird and Iron Man stared at the Atlantean in confusion.
"Do you just randomly memorize French city blocks?" asked Warbird.
"We've tied our plane's computers into the GPS," Kymaera explained, "it took a hell of a lot of work and complaining on Wiz Kid's part, but it's helpful when in unfamiliar territory."
"Anybody want to explain jus' what in the hell that means?"
"It means Two-Gun, that Shadow Force probably isn't below and we're headed into a trap," Warbird explained.
"Yeah, like that's new," observed Speedball.
"Well, we're not going to learn anything just standing here. Arsenal, open the drop hatch. I'll take the lead. With my sensors, I should be able to keep us from interrupting a prayer vigil or activating a bomb they may have left for us. Nova and Warbird follow second with the rest of you bringing up the rear. Any questions?"
The drop hatch slip open with no comments.
"Good."
"Lordy," Two-Gun Kid pressed his hat to his head to keep it from flying off as Kymaera grabbed underneath his arms, "why can't we never jus' land an' storm the castle that way?"
Iron Man remained silent and stoic as his patchwork team flew towards their target. For a day that started out so simple, it'd certainly gotten annoying faster than it took to tell. He preferred Force Works in their own city, not in New York or the West Coast, where he might actually encounter them. He knew he shouldn't be annoyed that they'd taken an old name for their team that he'd once used, but he was. And their cavalier attitude and actions didn't lessen his anger one bit.
And almost as if fate wanted to make a point, Nova pulled away at breakneck speeds. The Golden Avengers looked towards his teammates for some sort of explanation, who could only shrug in ignorance. Iron Man had no choice but to let the matter slide, as his scanners began blaring warnings.
Iron Man touched down on the French street with a thud and gripped the stone ground with both stands, his steel gauntlets digging into metal that shouldn't have lain underneath the street. With the smallest amount of his armor's power, Iron Man threw the section of the street aside to reveal over three dozen men, dressed it all kinds of different manners. Some as policemen, some looking as tourists and others. They looked nothing like the average might on the street might expect them to, which Stark knew was the point.
A dozen energy beams of a dozen different colors struck Iron Man at once. The pure power of the blasts were enough to level three square blocks, but to Tony Stark they felt like the playful punches of a child. His armor soaked up the power like a sponge so that ricochets wouldn't threaten the nearby buildings.
The terrorists realized too late that Iron Man wasn't alone. Warbird, Kymaera, Speedball, Two-Gun Kid, Arsenal and Darkhawk fell upon them like tactical missiles. Confronted with such awesome power, defeat could be the only outcome.
Iron Man looked over the fallen extremists and then towards Warbird, "Find Nova. I want to know what the hell he thought was so interesting that he couldn't join us."
Warbird took off in the direction of Nova. She flew for several long minutes before the Human Rocket came into sight. She observed a deep scowl on his face.
"Where'd you take off to?"
"French society lately's been increasing the alienation of the immigrant population they depend on for cheap labor, like banning all religious dress in public schools," Nova explained, "being surrounded by a hostile culture, kinda creates something of a breeding for extremism."
Warbird almost didn't want to know the answer when she asked, "So…?"
Nova glared at Warbird, "So I saw a bunch of teenagers attacking a girl 'cause she was wearing makeup. I guess I shoulda done the Avenger thing, an' just shake my head."
Iron Man ran his scanners across the full length of the secret bunker, just to be careful. He wasn't exactly expecting to find anything per say, but it never hurt to be careful. And he never expected to find what he found secreted in one wall of the bunker. Releasing a low level electro magnetic pulse, he discovered a metal safe embedded in the wall that had been hidden by a sophisticated hologram.
"What'd you find, Tin-Man?"
"I'm not sure yet, Superball," Iron Man looked over the material. Inside were six uniforms with Israeli military insignia, a light blue copy of what looked like some security plans for a Mosque, some explosives that his sensors revealed were too impure to do too much damage and a few separate devises that looked like palm pilots, but Tony Stark recognized as disguised passive sensor jammers. If the men wore the devices, only a few of the most advanced detectors (two of which Stark held the patent to) would find something amiss. Running at a cost of five million each, they were worth a hundred times their weight in gold, especially for clan destine missions.
Iron Man looked over the material for several seconds before his helmet radio went off, "Yo Shell head, you there?"
"Go ahead Hawk."
"Hope you're sitting down, because what I've got for you is going to blow your mind."
Hawkeye quickly recapped his information. With that, Iron Man looked over the objects laid out before him with new eyes, and felt his blood run cold. Like Hawkeye's team, he'd found the perfect ingredients to World War 3.
When Hawkeye finished, he asked the senior Avenger for recommendations.
"Get your team there as fast as possible. We'll meet you there once we've finished mopping up."
"Uh, just where are we going?" asked Arsenal as he tied together a handful of the fundamentalists.
"Where else? To the holy land."
Carol Danvers, known to the world currently as Warbird, had seen many oddities in her life of a heroine. Defecting Kree captains, spaceships that put the greatest special effects of Hollywood to shame, monsters from beneath the crust of the earth and a million more things besides. Such was the life she led.
So when she did a flyover of The Dome of the Rock, she naturally found herself under-whelmed. She'd seen dozens of mosques in her life for various reasons, and this one didn't look too much different from any other. Golden dome, octagon design, etc. The building was stone and glass as opposed to the more modern and less historic ones she'd seen in passing, but other than that it looked fairly normal.
Hardly something that threatened to spark another World War.
Darkhawk and Speedball stood side by side, the once night stalking hero looking at the stone building in equal confusion.
"So, what's so special about this 'Dome of the Rock' place again?"
"Just the cliff notes?" Speedball asked.
"Sure."
"Third most holy site in Islam. Where the prophet Mohammed ascended into Heaven. Built atop a demolished Jewish temple way back when."
"…damn."
"Yeah. This site will be the most holy site in Judaism, when the Jewish prophet comes to earth and restores the temple, according to some. There are those who wanna speed up the time table though, and demolish the Dome now."
"So basically, there are two really, really holy sites that people want to be here, and obviously only one can be."
"Yup."
"Man, I sure hope they fired the Real Estate agent on that one."
The people of Israel, Jewish, Muslim, Christian and everything in between gathered around the Dome. Israel and PLO security forces, along side a few spare members of both teams tried to convince them to stay back, in the case of attack, but these people felt almost compelled to try to get a glimpse of the legendary Avengers. The Israeli military successfully kept them from the Dome, but the citizens could see the Avengers, just as the Avengers could see them.
And for one Avenger, the sight of these men and women of this war torn land threatened to tear his heart apart.
By the standards of his time, Mathew Hawke was an educated man. He was a lawyer in a time when it was a respected profession filled with respectable men. He attended Church at times, before he became a famous gunslinger, and actually knew about 'The Good Book'. Unlike others of his era, he knew the significance of Jerusalem.
Birth place of Christ, son of God and one third of the Holy Trinity, Lord of creation.
He didn't expect the streets to be lined with gold. He didn't expect weather that equaled perfection. He knew that the holy city of Christ's birth wasn't run by angels, after all.
But he never once expected it to be so much worse than the home he left behind. The weathered faces, the bullet holes that riddled almost every building he could see, holes in the ground made by modern dynamite and the occasional burst of weapons fire plainly demonstrated that law and order had little reign here.
Two-Gun Kid wasn't a religious man by any means, but he wanted to believe in Heaven more than words could say. He wanted to believe that his wife and daughter, taken by ailments that would be trivial in this era, were waiting somewhere out there for him. At times, it was the only thing that kept him going. But seeing the violence and hatred that permeated this Holiest of cities, he found that belief tested to the point of breaking.
It was then he felt someone gently take his hand, and give it a reassuring squeeze. When he looked to his side, he expected to see Vagabond, or perhaps even Warbird. But instead he saw Wolfsbane.
The young woman was in her human form, and had one of the warmest smile's the man had seen in two era. She said nothing, but seeing the cross that hung from her neck no words were needed. Her silent strength was enough for Hawke to know Nancy and his little girl were indeed waiting for him.
Warbird landed a few feet away from where Hawkeye, Mirage, Wiz Kid, Iron Man and Nova were convened.
"I can't sense any unusual energy patterns within a five mile radius. Add that to our scans and the Israel security sweeps, and I'd say this place is one of the most secure places of worship on the planet." Warbird informed them.
"That doesn't make sense though," stated Hawkeye, "we found almost the same thing at both locations, indicating an attack on the Dome. But why lead us here unless they were waiting for us? I thought for sure those Shadow Force losers were gonna try to ambush us here."
"But why would they even care about a Muslim Holy site?" Nova asked.
"Who's to say they do?" Wiz Kid added, "maybe it was just bait for another trap? Perhaps they realized our team had suddenly become involved, and decided against it?"
"That wouldn't make sense though. Shadow Force could have chosen to pick off one team when they divided us," Iron Man explained, "those terrorists we fought had no idea we were coming and had no idea who Shadow Force was. They were being played."
"Just like us," Warbird muttered under her breath.
"We're missing something," Mirage explained, "we need to start at the beginning and work from there. Shadow Force attacked a U.S. military base and stole a powerful generator according to Wasp and Pym. Could that generator be transformed into a bomb?"
"No," answered both Wiz Kid and Iron Man.
"Okay. Then, they signaled the Avengers and threw the fight, leaving behind two forged teleport signals that led to two different radical groups, both of whom wanted to destroy the Dome. They wanted us to find these groups, as well as the media whom they alerted before hand."
"Actually, now that I think about it, that's not completely correct."
"What do you mean, Shell head?"
"The explosives I found in France were rendered chemically inactive. They would have exploded like a fire cracker or bottle rocket. Combine that with the fake Israeli uniforms…"
"Frame up," Hawkeye concluded.
"The effect's the same though. If Israel was implicated in an attack on The Dome…"
"Shit meet fan," Nova grimaced, "so The Dome's the center of this, but what role does everyone else play? Add it up, and we have three fingers in the 'destroy the dome' pie, Jewish radicals, Islamic radicals and the United States. But why implicate three parties?"
"Plausible deniability?" was the first thought that came to Warbird mouth.
"What about plain ol' plausibility?" Hawkeye asked, "think about it. Whoever set this up involved the Avengers because they wanted it to be high profile. If things go their way, people'll be able to blame whoever it suits them."
Wiz Kid rubbed his chin in thought, "Hmm, I hadn't thought of that. I guess the question that faces us now is how do our foes intend to get to the Dome? They must have expected the Avengers at least to reach Israel unscathed. And it wouldn't surprise me if they were observing the Airforce base after they left, so they know of our involvement. So, now's the time for their big guns."
"This thing's like an onion," sighed Mirage, "the more we peel off, the more it stinks."
It was then Kymaera hailed her teammates, "Umm, guys? I'm at the beach, and we've got a problem. We've got a Sentinel bearing down on us."
Nova, Mirage and Wiz Kid exchanged glances, and then burst into laughter.
"Care to tell us what's so funny?"
"It's just a Sentinel," Nova chuckled, "that's their great big plan. A single Sentinel."
Hawkeye, Iron Man and Warbird all sighed in relief. The robotic monstrosities known as Sentinels were certainly dangerous, especially in large groups, but they were confident that between the two powerful groups that they could handle one single robot.
"Just hold on babe, we'll be there to swat it out of the sky in a few." Nova radioed back.
"Better hurry up. It's just one Sentinel, but it's a big one."
Kymaera looked at the robotic juggernaut that lumbering towards the beach. With her enhanced eye sight, she could see the thing almost as if she were standing right in front of it. It's chest was wider than two city blocks and taller than a four story building. Its head was the size of a mansion with three different faces on each side, which complimented the three large arms on each side. The young woman recognized the robot as at least a replica of the Tri-Sentinel that Nova had fought once, although it was supposedly destroyed. Its shadow was a terrifying length and Kymaera craned her neck up higher than she ever had before, even though she was hovering ten feet in the air. The vibrations of its footsteps were like small earthquakes. Buildings miles from the beach and approaching metal behemoth were rattled to their foundations.
"Did I say big? Because what I really meant was God like."
To be continued…