Avenging

Act 5

Chapter 8

Whip It Good

Any and all C+C appreciated. You can contact me at:

tsommer

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Standard disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

Here's a great reference guide for many characters and objects in the Marvel Universe.

www marvunapp com /Appendix /index. htm

Last Chapter: Ryouga cemented his relationship with Jarella and learned the identity of his attacker in Limbo, She Hulk aka the Warlordess of K'ai. Kerberos is now working with the police to correlate data to take on super powered beings in Japan. Kodachi hired the Chameleon to track down her brother, the Silver Samurai. And Captain Japan hallucinated he was Lord of the Savage Land. But he's all better now.

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It was like someone had actually shouted, 'Avengers Assemble' in their headquarters as the entire roster now filled the room. Of late nearly the entire team showed up for meetings, giving it a more crowded feeling than before, but also an undercurrent of them operating more as a group as well. Quarrels were fewer, personalities more inclined to get along despite how diverse they were. No one was trying to empty out the open bar any longer. It was a stark contrast to the early days when dealing with the likes of Commander Kraken or the Serpent Society would have the team sniping at each other like rivals, or worse, long time married couples.

At the moment one of the members was soliciting another one for a favor, which was keeping most of the group's attention.

"So, you have a girlfriend who's a model?" Iron Rose asked.

"Yes," Ryouga said. "Anyway you know how when there's an Avengers emergency my ID card beeps with a homing signal? Well I'm better at following progressively faster beeps with my ears than I am at visual orientation with my eyes. So I was hoping you could make one just for Jarella. Not an Avengers card, since I don't want her trying to go on missions with us. I mean something like that so she can call me with it. Then when she wants to meet me she can activate it, and I can locate her way faster than walking around and eventually stumbling on her."

"So, you have a girlfriend who's a model?" Iron Rose repeated.

"I've been through this with him already," Bucky sighed in exasperation "Yes, he does and she is hot and they are really dating, not just hanging out together. It's like Beauty and the Beast, except he didn't kidnap her to get her to like him. She has some weird thing for guys that get lost."

"Our connection is based on more than that," Ryouga insisted.

Before things deteriorated further, Daredevil interjected himself into the conversation. "I think it's nice Ryouga's dating. I think he's a… swell guy." Sometimes well meaning, accurate adjectives were hard to come by, even when one had no issue with the person being described. At least he hadn't had to resort to, 'he breathes really well and makes lots of carbon dioxide, which is great for plants.' That was near as bottom of the barrel as one could get on the compliments scale.

Hawkeye chimed in as well. "Yeah, getting a girlfriend is really awesome." She and Daredevil shared a sidelong glance.

Tigra rolled her eyes at the display. They were being way too obvious, nearly transparent. Even as dense as most of the crew were they were going to figure out something was going on, and she doubted the pair were ready to come forward with Ukyou's actual gender at the moment.

Almost as if on cue, Iron Rose said, "By the way, you two have been teaming up a lot lately."

Both grew nervous. Daredevil hid his emotions slightly better and acted as spokesperson. "What do you mean?"

"When you were on monitor duty the other day you only alerted Hawkeye to aid you."

"I determined the two of us would be enough to handle the situation."

"I'm trying to figure out why you even bothered handling it at all."

"It was a super villain," Daredevil offered.

"It was the Masked Matador," Iron Rose countered. "He's one of your highly embarrassing Rogue's Gallery. His abilities are going around in a mask and a cape, trying to goad people into charging him so he can step aside with the cape. Even the police treat him like a minor nuisance, which is why he keeps getting released. You hate your Rogue's Gallery and never want anything to do with them if you can help it."

Daredevil became hesitant. "I thought it was wrong to keep sticking the police with super villains, so I decided to be nice and take care of the matter myself. Public image and everything."

Tigra decided it was time to run some interference. "Could have had real super villain backing him this time. Might have had mechanical bull that shoots missiles."

Now Bucky joined in. "Yeah, super villain mastermind types do that all the time. You take a weaker guy to agree to be your lackey in exchange for a power upgrade. The Owl's pretty idiotic until you give him a fancy jet pack and titanium claws, then watch out."

"I suppose that makes some sense." Iron Rose thought it was insipid, really. Who was stupid enough to give an idiot like the Owl expensive gear?"

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[Allies of Evil Headquarters: basement of a converted McDonalds that was abandoned due to illegal toxic waste having been dumped there and sold for next to nothing.]

Master Vamp looked at the barrels that had been delivered to their headquarters. One of the reasons they had chosen the McDonalds was the loading dock, which made large scale deliveries convenient. And there had been a leftover industrial sized fryer, which was a godsend since they could fry anything in large quantities. Had to feed the troops, after all. There was also a place for a few old style standing arcade games, which the members liked since they didn't have to put quarters in them.

"Those don't look like barrels fruit is typically delivered in," he said.

A minion, who looked like a human squid, read the packing label. "It's adamantium steel. Not as indestructible as the real thing, but far more durable than anything else. I guess Amazon messed up the delivery. Do you want me to send it back? Return label's right here." He waved it at his boss.

"No, I have a better idea. A lot of super villains are coming to the party Saturday, right?"

"Yes. None of the big names, like the Leader or Imperial Hydra, are coming, but others like Stilt Man and Steeplejack have already RSVP'd for it."

That made Master Vamp nod his head. "Here's what we'll do. Instead of giving them fruit baskets like we planned, why not make their trademark weapons out of the adamantium steel? I mean we have things so hard with heroes and the authorities, why not give them a real 'thank you' for coming to the party?'

"Brilliant idea, sir. I'll talk to the Tinkerer about getting a special rush order done. It'll definitely be the hit of the party, along with the karaoke machine."

"That's always everyone's favorite." Master Vamp agreed. Everyone always seemed to have a good time at Allies of Evil get-togethers, but he was a bit insecure since the membership of the costumed villain set could be a fussy lot. Why, an argument had nearly come to blows last time about which was more dangerous: the Death Throws juggling or Leap Frog and Toad's jumping. Fortunately it had reached a peaceful resolution when Master Vamp suggested the parties try out each other's weapons. It turned out frogs couldn't juggle, and jugglers would jump into the ceiling and knock themselves out when they put springs in their feet. Once everyone recovered from their injuries, each side admitted there was more to juggling and jumping than they thought and they made peace with one another.

He always loved it when parties brought people closer together.

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Iron Rose finished entering information into the computer. "At least now we know who it was that attacked the Hulk at Kang's behest." She looked over the list. "That reminds me, I have good news for you, Daredevil. I've located this Mr. Fear who confronted you. It appears he's dead. He was killed in a fight against some other villain named Scarecrow."

"He was dead when I fought him," Daredevil pointed out.

"Oh. In any case of the foes Kang rounded up, we've determined four are dead, one changed sides, one hasn't been born yet, one is off world and not likely to come back soon. One is… I have no idea how to categorize this 'flesh golem'."

"Put it under 'Terrifying'." Thor shuddered.

Iron Rose sort of gave up. "Which means the only one we are unaware of is this Super Patriot fellow. I've looked everywhere, but there is nothing on him. Tell Captain Japan I'm sorry," she said to Bucky.

She shrugged. "It happens. He'll pop up at some point, and Cap will be ready since it'll be the second time he's met Super Patriot, but the first time Super Patriot meets him."

With that matter settled, Iron Rose switched her attention to another teammate. "By the way, Thor, I looked into the matter of a telepath for you. Are you technically human?"

"I am Asgardian. While we are genetically compatible with humanity, I am probably not technically human. Why dost thou inquire?"

"Some telepaths are only capable of reading human minds. Animals and aliens are beyond their ability to read. They'll probably need someone who can read anyone's mind to do it," she explained. "There will be documents you'll have to sign, but the cost will be covered by Kunou Enterprises."

"My thanks," Thor said.

Wasp piped in at that point. "And since we're on the subject of our foes, we need to start tracking down some of the ones that got away. The female Serpent Society members are still at large. Mesmero still has to pay for messing with our minds. We've never figured out who killed the Shinsengumi. I know they were our foes, but whoever was really pulling the strings and eliminated them is still out there and needs to pay for his crimes."

Underneath her helmet, Kodachi smiled. "You've raised a valid point. Perhaps we'll be able to dig up some information on one of our more annoying foes and go after them." She hadn't heard from Chameleon yet, but he had warned her it would take a while to gather all the information she requested. Kodachi simply had to be patient. Once her brother's location was discovered, they could go after Silver Samurai and whomever he was working for. And he had to be working for someone since he was too big a twit to pull off the schemes he'd been a part of to date.

Wasp would get her wish, it would simply take time.

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[Stane-Daitokuji's 'Dark Projects' wing]

It was time, Kozo Fuyutsuki decided. He had worked up the nerve to ask Yui Ikari out. As senior administrator of her project, he had interacted with her on numerous occasions, and the pair were familiar enough they talked about personal matters, as well as professional, casually. In the time he had gotten to know her, he found her intriguing in a way he rarely found in a woman, and none of them younger as she was. True, she was quite attractive, and not many women in this branch of the company were going to be referred to as that, but it really was her intellect that drew him.

So he had invited her to lunch in the cafeteria. He had to work up to asking her out on a date, of course. They were not so close he could just do it. Luckily, while Biko officially frowned upon interpersonal relationships among the staff, they were relatively isolated enough with the dark projects that she accepted that staff members would draw from the pool closest to them for acceptable mates. She also made damn sure everyone involved knew having a relationship, or break up if it occurred, could not be afforded to affect any of the projects. Anyone allowing personal feelings to influence their work would be dealt with in severe terms. Very severe. But since everyone knew what they were doing wasn't exactly legal in the first place, and that they were highly paid for it, the conditions were acceptable. And that a couple of troublemakers had already disappeared off the face of the planet had served as a reminder of the cost of not doing business in the correct manner.

Either she was going to say yes or no, and while he found himself drawn to her, he was not risking his life for her. If no he would get over it, and if yes, he'd keep it under control.

He had gotten his food from the cafeteria and saw Yui waving at him to join her. He walked over and sat his tray down at the table. He was so nervous he had no appetite. Really, he was acting like some silly school boy over this.

As the pair began eating, with Kozo mostly picking at his food, they exchanged the same pleasantries they always did. Fuyutsuki decided to not fiddle around and began directing the course of the discussion toward eventually asking her out. "So, did I hear you're seeing someone?"

Yui's eyebrows shot up. "Yes. I'm surprised the gossipmongers found out already. And that word traveled that fast. We thought we were being discreet."

Well, that ended things before they began. At least he had saved himself the embarrassment of getting shot down instantly. And maybe her interest in this guy was a passing fancy. Fuyutsuki maintained a neutral voice, despite his disappointment. "Who is it?"

"One of your new hires. Dr. Rokubungi. The guy was giving me puppy dog eyes from the first time we met. I actually found him sort of annoying, so I figured going out once and having a terrible time would dissuade his little infatuation. To my surprise he was a bit charming, enough for a second date. That went even better than the first, so we're officially dating. I doubt if it will be anything serious, though. At least not until Project Wideawake is finally completed."

Mood soured, Fuyutsuki jumped on the opportunity to change the subject. "How is the project going?"

"Thanks to Rokubungi and the other new hires, we're making a little more headway. It's like moving through molasses sometimes, but we're going to get it done. It's all trial and error at this point, so it'll just take time."

"I thought Dr. Akagi said you made a breakthrough in the neural net of the Master Mold." The words had barely left his mouth when a flash of anger crossed Yui's features. That was a first.

"That was premature. She should have waited to inform you until we had confirmation on the viability of it."

To someone who paid less attention to her, they would have thought she had gone back to normal, but Fuyutsuki noted there was still a touch of the anger by the lilt of her voice. Curious, since there was nothing in what had happened that should have caused it. "What do you mean?"

And she started to give him a runaround heavy with double speak. Before today he would have cut her the slack and not pressed, but with the way events had transpired he wasn't in the mood for it and pressed the issue. "You're going to have to be more specific. Our employer does not like imprecise details." Watching her reaction, he was under the impression she realized she was cornered.

"We've improved the neural net by a factor of four. It will be far more adaptive to new stimuli, react more quickly, and draw on far more information to reach long range conclusions on how to best execute its command directives. Basically we've made it nearly identical to a human brain, except its processing speed is faster."

"That sounds impressive," Kozo admitted.

"There's only one consideration, and preliminary tests indicate we won't be able to get around it. In order to initiate the Master Mold's neural net, we're going to require a human mind to activate it. That means hooking someone up directly to it."

"Like power armor?"

"No, it has to be a total immersion. It doesn't have to be for long, but it has to be complete synchronization."

Fuyutsuki wasn't up on the technical jargon, but he got the gist of it. "But the person won't be in direct control of it, correct? It's supposed to be an automaton and operate without direct human guidance. We have power armor for that."

"Not in control, but more like a jumpstart. Think of it as a human battery causing the engine to turn over. Your car will run fine once that happens, but won't until you do."

This was not part of the plan, but if they had made Master Mold better, well it wasn't like plans couldn't be modified. He doubted their boss would object, once they got the hard data of the improvement in her hands. "Is there some sort of risk involved to the person hooked up to it?"

Yui shook her head emphatically. "Not at all. In fact I'm so certain it'll be fine, I should be the one to do it. I'm the head of the project and, no offence to Akagi, I am more brilliant than her and this is my baby. I want to launch it personally."

"I'll mention it to our employer. I somehow doubt she'll want to be the one to do it, and if you've made it functionally better that will offset the delays in getting it to work."

"Oh, we still have a lot of work to do," Yui assured him. "But this breakthrough was definitely worth the wait. We're finally getting the bugs worked out on the power flow issues. We'll probably finalize the neural net design before that, but not by much. We'll have the Master Mold up and running."

"Good news then." At least for her, though he was still confused as to why she had been angry in the first place. He also found himself hoping something heavy would fall on Rokubungi. Like maybe the Master Mold's head.

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Councilwoman Arjuna Ariyoshi was enraged as she left the meeting of the Diet. Outwardly, she wasn't calm, and inwardly, well if people could see that they would run away in the opposite direction. There was no way to keep it entirely professional, not when everyone wanted to derail everything you'd been working toward.

While she knew damn well events in government rarely went according to your plans, normally they didn't spiral out of control this fast. She blamed Councilman Yashida. His district had been at ground zero of the Red Rajah event, and every member of his district, including himself, had fallen under the sway of what they were unofficially labeling a super telepath. He had originally been aligned with Ariyoshi, albeit somewhat loosely, before the incident. But now he was a full-fledged member of the Organization of the Single Spirit, which was for all intents and purpose a cult. Worse, he was practically in charge of it, though he insisted he was nothing more than a spokesperson for the movement since 'all were equal' in the cult's eyes. And he wasn't just cashing in on using the movement for his own ends, as he might have beforehand. He hadn't exactly been the most scrupulous of people, though nothing had ever been proven officially. But since the event she had talked with him often enough to see he had been brainwashed into believing the nonsense he was spewing.

Ariyoshi was firmly convinced they were still under mind control, or at least suffered brain damage thanks to the Red Rajah, but a number of 'licensed' telepaths swore this was not the case. They had simply enjoyed being united under the Red Rajah's domination. Ariyoshi was never more relieved at being outside the zone of influence when she saw what it did to otherwise normal people. She also considered that the telepaths might be lying in order for them to take control of others. There were telepathic. They could communicate directly to each other's brain without anyone knowing about it. No one could know what they were up to.

That was worrisome in its own right. You could get any information from internet communication easily enough. Especially with a court document, or if you were on good terms with most of the heads of tech companies like she was. Even meeting people clandestinely in the real world, you could track them with cameras and facial recognition technology easily enough, since cameras were everywhere. But direct mind to mind communication? They could be planning anything and no one would ever know. Or worse, reading her mind and she'd never know.

At some point she'd have to introduce legislation making psionic inhibitors mandatory for telepaths. Or at least some type of mechanism that would allow normal people to know when these mental peeping toms tried using their abilities. They wielded the ultimate tool for invasion of privacy, and the public had to be protected from it. More proof that she was right about super powers needing government regulations.

She turned back to the matter of Yashida. Because he was the loudest voice championing for his little cult, and it was both widespread and large in number, he had become the most popular man in Japan overnight. That was how many of those mind-raped unfortunates had gone over to the lunacy. Luckily, far more people were repelled by the mindless drivel the cult spewed, meaning he'd never be popular outside of his base. But that many people in his back pocket meant he wielded tremendous power. And worse, he was using it against her and Kerberos. Now he was some kind of super power sympathizer thanks to his brainwashing, and against the measures that needed to be taken to keep such individuals in line and ensure they didn't keep menacing society. And she had to take care of that before moving on to the other changes that would be necessary to make their terribly flawed society better. The government, or more specifically the right kind of people in government, needed more power to get the job done. Once the public saw the beneficial results, they would embrace change.

There were also issues on other fronts, though Yashida's efforts were speeding them up. Too many that had become part of her bloc were not visionaries like her, and only saw it as a stepping stone to increase their personal power through the government. Which it would do, but was not the end goal. That meant they'd abandon her for an offer of more power from another quarter, or if it looked like she'd fail. As long as they followed her lead, everything would be fine. She had to find a way to show them they needed to stay with her no matter what.

Another issue was some of the people originally backing Kerberos were starting to get cold feet, largely because there had been no large scale incidents involving super powered beings. The media wisely made any such incidents lead stories to help hammer home the danger these beings represented toward everyone, but since the damage was minimal and affected hardly anyone it was largely falling on deaf ears. Relying more heavily on firsthand experiences, rather than putting trust in more aware, proper disseminators of information for guidance, would lead people to come to erroneous conclusions. It took people like Ariyoshi to see the big picture. Sadly too few people understood what had to be done to benefit society as a whole. But that was what leadership was for: making good decisions for people they were incapable of making for themselves. People needed to trust her more. Everything would be fine if they just did what they were told.

What she needed was Kerberos to prove its usefulness. She returned to her offices and contacted Irie. As usual, he was quick to return her call.

"What can I do for you, Councilwoman?" he asked.

"You've been given all the data law enforcement has on super powered beings. Who's currently on your radar as a threat?"

She swore could hear the gears in Irie's mind grinding. "We've been focusing on what appears to be a group of homeless SPBs operating out of Tokyo. The name 'Tokyo Underground' has been floated around, however we have been unable to determine if it's their actual name, or just a label people have affixed to them. We are investigating the matter ourselves, but are still uncertain if it's just some random homeless SPBs committing these crimes, or if it's an actual organization."

She ordered him to send all the records on them, as well as other SPBs to her. When she received them and realized the sheer volume of information, it angered her more. Something had to be done about this lot.

It took the better part of several hours before she found a particular piece of information that fit what she was looking for. She contacted Irie again. "Good news. I've found the links we need to label this Tokyo Underground a terrorist organization. That means you can deal with them immediately, and harshly if necessary."

"Oh? What information would that be?"

On one level she didn't like being questioned, on the other she realized the question would be asked and an answer needed. She really didn't care for Irie, but he was doing the correct thing. He was the best choice for Kerberos. "A homeless super villain by the name of Gamble hijacked a subway car and tried to hold it for ransom. He was killed by police snipers while in the car. Hijacking the car is an act of terrorism, and by extension his organization can be treated as such."

"One second, Ma'am. I need to double-check the information myself." After a few minutes, Irie spoke again. "Kaiji Ito. Had the ability to see the odds of potential outcomes. Origin of power unknown. Compulsive gambler that was constantly in debt. It appears that while he was indeed homeless, it was a recent condition due to his being evicted for failure to pay his rent. In fact it seems likely his attempt to hijack the train was to get funds to acquire a new apartment and pay off the criminals he had been borrowing money from."

Arjuna's voice grew firm. "There is no evidence indicating this homeless SPB was not connected with the other homeless SPBs of this Tokyo Underground. Even his crime occurred below the ground and in the location the group operates out of. There is more than reasonable cause to believe he is part of the group, and thus we would be remiss not to attribute his actions to them. Make official documentation to this effect. It's good enough to stand up to an oversight committee. We need to stop these menaces before they hijack another subway car, or worse."

"Understood." And Irie hung up the phone.

Arjuna relaxed for the first time in a while. She considered the best way to frame the matter to her contemporaries in the Diet. Super powered terrorists living underneath their very feet, committing every crime imaginable, and it took Kerberos to handle them. That had a nice ring to it. Perfect in fact.

It was all coming together again.

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Lieutenant Ayumi Narusawa was standing next to Irie as he hung up the phone. He had left it on speaker to keep her abreast of the situation.

"Terrorist group my ass," she stated bluntly. "I think they probably are operating as a group, the thefts are somewhat systemic, but all they steal are basic necessities. Food, toiletries. They don't steal money or hijack crap. That guy had nothing to do with them. He was trying to keep his legs from being broken by loan sharks."

Irie's attitude remained placid. "The Councilwoman is correct in that there is no information contradicting her claim or backing yours. Technically all the information, while speculative, is possibly true. And by your own admission this Tokyo Underground has been engaged in a long term, large scale criminal enterprise in the theft of millions of yen from the area. They are criminals, super powered ones, and thus fall under our purview. Our troops need more than training; they need practical experience in dealing with super powered criminals. A group like this is ideal for a field test, which is why I was focusing on them in the first place."

"Of course we have to stop them no matter what," Narusawa agreed. "But the whole labeling them terrorists is BS. She's looking for an excuse to use us, and make it seem we're stopping the worst people possible."

"We are working directly for a politician. I'm afraid they tend to see things through political terms at all times. As I explained, technically everything she said is plausible, and whether our conclusions with the intelligence we've been provided are correct or not remains to be seen. Officially we are intending to stop a terrorist network operating under Tokyo itself. We need to prepare accordingly."

Narusawa saluted. "I'll get on it and brief the men. Whatever powers they're using are sketchy, so we'll be going in blind to a degree. At least we can get maps of the area we'll be hitting. I'll make the arrangements." And she departed.

Irie began making up official paperwork. Government bureaucracies in action.

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Mousse walked down the street, making sure to keep his cane in front and tapping the ground periodically so no one figured out why a blind man walked so well with no sight. He had done it for so long it was reflex as much as anything. When he was with other blind people, he always felt a touch guilty since he was more aware of his environment than they were. Hell, he was more aware of things than most people with vision.

But he still couldn't tell the color of Ukyou's hair for certain.

That assuaged the tiny bit of guilt he felt. He still had limitations. Everyone had them, they simply varied from person to person.

He'd been poring over legal cases all day. New laws popping up, new interpretations of old laws, boning up on how the new ones affected the old ones and vice versa. The legal system changed and grew almost like a living thing, and he had to keep up.

But now he was finished and on his way to see Ukyou before she closed her restaurant for the evening. There were times when he worried about suffocating her in attention since they saw each other as often as they could, but neither of them ever grew tired of being in each other's presence. It was like an addiction with no negative side-effects. And it made him fly higher than any drug, because it wasn't some chemical interacting with his body producing a physical effect, this one came from the heart, and was real.

Now he sounded like some kind of goofy love song. Though he was quickly discovering some of these musicians knew what they were talking about, since more than one romantic ballad described the emotions Mousse felt perfectly.

Life was good.

Mousse was so caught up in his thoughts that he nearly missed them. Two familiar heartbeats. He had only heard them once, but the circumstances surrounding them made the pair unforgettable.

Whiplash and Blacklash were walking past him.

He focused on them and determined they were wearing long jackets to hide their identities. Given they were wanted and the gear they wore, it was no surprise. As they passed he made a production of feeling in a pocket, then another, as though searching for something and not finding it. He felt the pair focus on him for a second, then move on, dismissing him the way everyone else was.

He let them get a bit of a lead, then turned around and went in the same direction they did. If they noticed him, hopefully they would assume he had turned back the way he came because he forgot something. Moreover no one felt threatened by a blind man following them, especially a pair of super villains.

Continuing to tap his cane with one hand, Mousse reached into his pocket with the other and began using his braille communicard to text a message to Ukyou about his discovery and to join him. He could have alerted the other Avengers, but saw no need to. These were a pair of weapons users, ones who had fled rather than fight during the Mandrill incident. He'd wager his and Hawkeye's skill with their weapons were superior to a couple of dominatrixes with a whip fetish. Besides, Ukyou had always been bothered by Mandrill nearly blowing her cover. While the ape in question had been captured, that had been all Captain Japan's doing, denying Daredevil the privilege of beating the man up for his girl. Settling for a couple of his henchwomen would have to do.

Their path was direct. These two weren't window shopping or enjoying the view. Mousse continued following at a discreet distance, wondering what they were up to. They were traveling along a less frequented route when both of them turned around and headed in his direction until they stopped right in front of him.

This was bad. Had they pierced his disguise, or were they simply shaking down a blind man? He'd have to give up his identity if they tried attacking him. Keeping it was not worth having a pair of whips flay the flesh from his bones.

"Excuse me, buddy." Blacklash said, making him stop, since that was what a normal blind man would do when accosted by a stranger in this fashion.

"Yes?"

And she whipped open her long jacket.

Which he didn't react to, mostly because he was confused since he had no idea what he was supposed to be reacting to. She wasn't attacking, just waiting there as if expecting something. Then he remembered what her normal attire was supposed to be. Why was she near flashing a blind man? It would be like holding up Rorschach inkblots to him.

Whiplash said, "See? I told you he was really blind."

"He moves like he doesn't need that cane," Blacklash countered as she thrust her attributes in his direction.

"He's probably walked this way so many times he knows where everything is supposed to be. We've got a job to do. Sorry, buddy." And she turned to go, followed by her sister who closed her jacket and walked away.

Mousse felt his heart skip a beat. That was close. Far too close. For a moment he considered going in the opposite direction, then realized that would imply he had been following them, or if he was avoiding them because of the incident, he'd know which why they went. Instead he continued walking as he had, then at the first split in the path he changed directions from the pair, though he made sure to walk with determination as though it had always been his goal.

Once out of their line of sight, he darted into a small alley between buildings where he sensed no one present. He did a quick change of clothing into his hero garb, then hurried in the direction they had taken.

At first he couldn't find them, there was a limit on the distance of his radar sense, and they could have set off in another direction once out of range of it. He was about to give up when he caught them at the edge of his radar sense. Luckily they were very distinct, given their superior athleticism, and stood out from a crowd. This time when he followed them, he made certain there were multiple objects between them so there was no chance they could see him. He continued following until they stopped in front of some store, then went around back. After a short amount of time, he heard something break. Perhaps a lock, then the pair slipped inside. He was about to follow when Hawkeye showed. He brought her up to date on the situation.

"Let's wait for them to grab whatever it was they wanted then catch them red-handed," the archer suggested. "They'll be in prison for even longer if we nab them with stolen goods."

That sounded like a plan, and he'd rather ambush them when they came outside, instead of going inside and possibly walking into one. The pair waited for a sign that someone was aware of the break in, but there was nothing. No alarms, no cries of distress. Daredevil with his enhanced senses would have been aware of them, but there was nothing. So they remained in their positions and waited.

Finally he heard the pair approach the back door, and warned his partner. She drew back an arrow, ready to fire.

The instant one of the women emerged, Hawkeye released the string. The arrow was on target, but somehow Blacklash, whom having come into the open she could now identify, sensed the attack. With a flick of her wrist a whip appeared in her hand from out of nowhere, extending forward and shattering the shaft out of mid-air.

While she did that Whiplash, who had determined the point of origin of the attack, made a similar wrist flick producing a whip of her own. She lashed it in Hawkeye's direction. Despite what should have been a safe distance, the whip extended itself until it struck her, knocking the archer backward, unconscious.

Daredevil was already moving to strike his lover's attacker by throwing a set of weighted chains upon her. Even as the whip coiled back, the chains struck, burying Whiplash under their mass and pinning her to the ground. She was momentarily helpless.

Blacklash saw the new attacker, but rather than employ her whip a second time, she grabbed at two metal discs that were attached to the leather choker around her neck and hurled them at Daredevil. The discs were connected by a small wire which extended, causing the discs to spin around like a bola.

Perceiving the nature of the attacking weapon, Daredevil had just enough time to produce a staff from his billowing sleeve and used it to intercept the thrown discs. They wrapped themselves around the shaft.

And suddenly the staff seemed to weigh two hundred pounds. The shift in weight made it slip out of Daredevil's hands, since he was unable to deal quickly enough with the sudden change. It fell against his body, knocking him to the ground. The staff pinned one of his legs under it.

He was just starting to grasp it when Blacklash ran at full speed and managed to connect with a savage kick of the boot to his jaw. Seeing he still had some of his wits about him, she unleashed a second one that impacted so hard had anyone else been present, they might have worried Daredevil had broken his neck with how fast it snapped back. The second blow sent him to dreamland.

She double-checked him, then examined Hawkeye, who remained in a likewise unconscious state. By that time Whiplash had freed herself from her own pinning predicament and rejoined her sister at her side.

"Let's finish this." Blacklash brought her whip back and aimed it at Hawkeye's skull.

"You don't want to do that."

Blacklash looked at her sister in curiosity rather than anger. "Why?"

"Killing two Avengers will have the rest of the team hunt us to the ends of the earth to 'avenge' them, and I don't relish the opportunity to tangle with either Thor or Hulk."

"That is a good point." Blacklash held her arm out and the whip concealed itself again. As she went to retrieve her gravity increasing 'bo-lash', she said, "We got the jewels we wanted. Fence them and we'll be set up for a while. Maybe we should put word out we dropped two Avengers. With a resume like that a Big Bad might want to hire us, and we can get some proper direction in our lives."

"Yeah, small time crime is boring," Whiplash agreed. "I want to hook up with someone for something big. It doesn't even have to be taking over the world. Just a country. A small one would be fine."

"I'd settle for a city, or even large township by this point, though nothing too rural," Blacklash lamented.

The pair departed, leaving their unconscious foes behind.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[End chapter]

I know this is a smaller one, but I needed to move the subplots along and this was the best way to do it without throwing them in randomly in some chapter that would make it bigger than I would like. And I assure you we are getting closer to the climax of the story.