Issue #11: SHIELD Smackdown

New York City, Avengers Tower

The heroes got done giving a tour of Avengers Tower to May and Mary Jane, their luggage already in the guest rooms. They were conversing in the living area now. Peter said, "Got any questions just say so, and if we're not here then JARVIS is always online to do that for us."

"Not a bad living spot. Why haven't you done this before, Tiger?" MJ asked her husband.

Spider-Man said, "Even if I am a member of a team, I feel like I'd be freeloading if I relied on my Avengers push to live."

"That's surprisingly humble of you, Peter." May complimented.

"Oh, that's fair." MJ agreed.

"Can't say I blame Pete. I've been offered places to stay too, but I like to live things my own way." Sonic said.

"Offer still stands, Sonic." Tails jokingly reminded him, knowing the answer.

"Nah. I like ya, bro, but I'm only staying unless I have to. Less of a burden for ya." Sonic declared.

"How old are you, young fox?" May asked.

Tails scratched his head, "Uh… eight."

"Eight and living alone? That's… odd." May said.

"To be honest Mrs. Parker, all of us are still technically kids. We've been doing our own things for as long as we can remember. But don't worry, Tails may be the youngest here, but he can more than handle himself." Sonic said to ease the older woman's worries.

"Kid heroes, huh? Been there, done that." Peter quipped.

May nodded, "As strange as that sounds, I suppose I can't judge too much. You three do seem like capable kids."

"Yeah, I'll just chalk it up to their world having different ideals than ours." MJ added.

Peter agreed, "Yep. Trust me, honey, it's just different enough from this world to be noticed. You two will probably like it there."

"I believe ya." MJ shrugged.

Sonic sat down, saying, "We'd take ya for a visit now, but we're not leaving until this whole mess gets cleaned up."

At that moment, Nick Fury walked in, "And speaking of messes…"

"Is perfect timing just your thing?" Knuckles asked.

Fury scowled while pressing a button, showing a picture of the Triskelion. He gestured to it, "I just got reports that the Triskelion is under attack. There's already a defense squad keeping the intruders back, but we can't waste anymore time. Logan's already got a Quinjet ready. Its speed should get you there in the next two hours."

"Who's attacking?" Sonic asked.

"A group called the Jackal Squad alongside what we believe to be robots of Eggman's design. We don't know what the plan is, but if they're attacking SHIELD, it's not good." Fury revealed.

"Yeah, they're probably after one of your top secret dangerous weapons. Ugh… we'll save that for later. Let's just go." Peter said, putting his mask over his head. Team Sonic followed after the web-head, ready for their first mission.

Washington DC, The Triskelion

SHIELD's most notable base of operations, the Triskelion, was currently under attack by an army of anthropomorphic jackals, all led by Zero, who ordered his squad around. "Cause some mayhem, men! It's time we showed them what we're capable of!"

A SHIELD agent yelled out, "Don't let them get near the lab!" he held his gun out, aiming at one of the mercenaries. The mercenary caught what he was doing and threw a dagger at his weapon' destroying it. "What the hell?" he asked. The jackal leaped to him and kicked him, knocking him into the line of other soldiers, causing them to get sent flying with him and lose their concentration.

Zero walked up to one of the agents and raised his blade, ready to stab one of them. Before he could, a thrown baton struck his wrist and made him flinch in pain. "Who dares?!" he watched as the baton bounced off the wall and landed into the hands of a female agent. The agent named Mockingbird.

"You messed with the wrong agent." she declared, running towards Zero.

"Hmph." Zero chuckled, "Another piece of fodder. How would you like to fall?"

"Not sure. I was gonna ask you the same thing."

Mockingbird struck the jackal leader in the face, getting countered with a kick to the stomach. The agent growled, then held out her batons to hold up Zero's sword. She pushed forward and lowered his guard, prompting him to hiss at her. The Ultimate Mercenary punched Mockingbird, making her head reel down in pain. "This is what happens when you trifle with the Jackal Squad." he mocked.

"Just like all the other assassins…" Mockingbird groaned. She got up once more and continued the fight, standing her ground.

Spider-Man, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Wolverine finally arrived at the scene. The first thing that caught their attention was the army of jackals and robots attacking, and the defense being the Winter Soldier and Falcon. "About time backup arrived, the animals with you?" Falcon asked.

"Uh yeah, we are." Sonic said.

Wolverine revealed his claws and slashed through the robots, "Finally some punchin' bags!"

Spider-Man webbed up some of the jackals trying to attack and stuck them to a wall. "So what are these guys after?"

"Based on their movement patterns, we believe them to be getting the V-252!" Winter Soldier revealed. "Go inside and help Bobbi, Sam and I can handle this!"

"Hm… Sonic and I will head in. Tails, Knuckles, Logan, think you three can handle things out here and help Winter Soldier and Falcon?" Peter inquired. Tails and Knuckles nodded while Logan spoke.

"You ain't the boss'a me kid. But if ya think you can handle what's in there, I ain't gonna stop you." Wolverine said.

Sonic said, "Alright, let's bust some mercenaries!"

Sonic and Spider-Man charged in, Peter breaking a window and kicking down a few jackals with a powerful swing kick. "Booyah!" Peter yelled, landing in the building. "Okay, so we gotta find our way around and try to figure out what these guys want."

The hedgehog nodded, "Got it. Just lead the way and I'll keep up!"

The duo tried to navigate the large headquarters, passing by a few jackals along the way. Peter stuck to the ceiling, letting Sonic hold onto a loose web strand so they can sneak around and figure out where they were heading for. Sonic clung onto the strand as tight as he could, raising his legs so that he could remain unseen with Peter.

"Did you find it?" one of the jackals asked.

"Not yet. This place is huge." another jackal said.

"Freeze!" yelled more SHIELD agents, appearing from their cover in an attempt to ambush. The mercenaries saw this coming and went after the agents, avoiding their gunfire and ready to strike them down without hesitation. The agents got put down but not killed yet, however the jackals were ready to deliver the finishing blow.

The heroic duo jumped down, Spider-Man webbing up the jackals and yanking them back, "Ooh sorry, this isn't a tour! Come back another day!" he declared. The assassins growled and dashed after the heroes on all fours.

"Come on, dudes. Do you not know who I am?" Sonic asked, casually dodging each of their attacks. "Sonic the Hedgehog? Fastest Thing Alive? You mercenaries should know better by now." he quipped, elbowing the jackal that was attacking him.

"Don't care." the other jackal replied, trying to hit Spider-Man.

Spidey yawned and kneed the mercenary in the chest, making him lose his breath. While he was dazed, Spider-Man webbed him up to a wall along with his friend. "Well that should keep you both busy." he looked to the unconscious goons before looking at Sonic, "Got that taken care of, but that still doesn't explain anything."

"Yeah, we need to know where the V-252 is. Those guys said something about someone named Bobbi being in here, right?" Sonic questioned.

Peter nodded, "Yep. Mockingbird is one of the elite SHIELD agents, and by that I mean she's a vigilante I meet dealing with superhero stuff a lot. We find her, maybe she can tell us what the big deal is."

Falcon shot at more Flappers, blowing them up in the sky. Tails joined him, taking charge alongside the Flying Avenger. "So you can fly? Wasn't expecting that." he admitted.

"Yep! I couldn't leave all this to you!" Tails insisted, referring to being the sky defense. He then showed off his Energy Ball Blaster in an effort to convince him to help.

Sam grinned, "Thanks for the assist then! Just watch my back and I'll watch yours, kid!"

"Got it!" Tails responded. He dove after more drones heading their way, bashing through them with a mid-air Spin-Dash. Falcon swerved around the pellets being shot at him, using his wing blades to slash through the metallic creations with ease, watching them combust upon contact.

On the ground, Knuckles, Wolverine and Winter Soldier took to fighting the larger robots that seeked to get in. Bucky punched an Egg Hammer in the torso and threw a bomb into the hole, blowing them up. Wolverine slashed through another with his claws, ripping them in half with a single move.

Knuckles yelled, jamming his fist on the head of an Egg Pawn. Unknown to him however, an Egg Hammer was about to hit him. Without thinking, Winter Soldier leaped over and used his metal arm to hold the hammer up, "What the…?" Knuckles asked.

"Don't question it, just take the shot!" Bucky yelled at him. Knuckles nodded and leaped, driving his fist down onto the head of the Egg Hammer, causing it to combust. Bucky dove out of the way and slid on the ground to get his bearings. "Not bad."

Knuckles smirked, "Heh. Thanks, you were pretty cool yourself." he turned around and uppercutted an Egg Pawn. He threw its head, prompting the Winter Soldier to throw it so hard that it tore right through multiple robots standing in a line.

Tails blasted down another drone and said, "Everything's almost clear!"

Falcon tossed a wing blade and struck through another Flapper. He stepped on a drone and pushed it down. "Almost! We just got a few more up here, and from the looks of it, everything's clearing down there!"

"Got it!" Tails said, shooting down the last drone.

Slashing through the last of the ground bots, Wolverine grunted, "Damn bots. They're as much of a pain in the ass as Sentinels…"

Falcon and Tails landed on the ground, the former saying, "Well it looks like it's over. The last of the bots are gone."

"Good. Now we should head in and help Sonic and Spider-Man." Knuckles said.

"My claws could use some more target practice." Wolverine replied with a malicious smirk.

"Man there's a lot of jackals here!" Sonic quipped, kicking back another jackal that got in their way. Spider-Man flipped over the hedgehog and performed a web-strike on another surprised mercenary, kicking them down to the ground and webbing them up.

Peter sighed, "You're telling me. It's pretty annoying."

The hedgehog Spin-Dashed through a lab door, breaking it apart. "So where's this Mockingbird person at?"

"I dunno. Heck I barely know my way around here." Peter told him.

They ran through the door, seeing Mockingbird still fighting Zero. The jackal dealt another punch, but Bobbi caught his fist, allowing her an easy hit. "Stop…" he hissed. He tried to counter, but Peter webbed up his arms and Sonic kicked him while in the confusion.

"About time someone showed up." Mockingbird quipped.

Spider-Man replied, "Making an entrance is what I do best. So who's this clown?"

"Calls himself Zero. He's the leader of this squad." Mockingbird explained, "That's all I got…" she looked at Sonic. "Friend of yours?" she asked, earning a nod from Peter.

"Oh yeah, Shadow told me about this dude once." Sonic revealed, "He always got away before getting captured. Funny how I never met these guys until now."

Zero smirked, "Well well, we meet at last Sonic the Hedgehog. It's about time."

Sonic knelt down to talk to the jackal, "Yeah, it's a huge honor I know. Listen…" he pointed to Mockingbird who cracked her knuckles, "Tell us why Eggman and Osborn want this V-252 thing or I'll see if my new friend here can show me how secret agents do things here."

"Hehehe… As if that scares me. I faced so much worse." Zero quietly chuckled.

"Listen pal, I'm not in a good mood right now. Just spill the beans so we can take you to jail and call it a day." Spider-Man groaned.

"Let me ask you a question, heroes… Did ya really think I'd let a squad like mine pull such a heist if we knew we were gonna be outnumbered like this?"

Sonic shrugged, "You bad guys can be pretty stupid so yeah."

Zero smirked, "Please. The Jackal Squad isn't stupid, while you all were distracted we already had it stolen."

"...What?" Spider-Man questioned, clearly confused.

Mockingbird growled, "You were decoys… meant to keep us away from the real thief…"

"Ding ding. Bird lady gets it." Zero laughed.

Clearly upset, Spider-Man held up Zero and pinned him to a wall, "You better start talking right now! Who took it? Where are they?!"

The jackal said, "He should be here right about…"

A yellow blur boosted in and hit Spider-Man, forcing him to let go of Zero. He landed on his back painfully. Sonic tried to fight off the blur, but was also struck down. Mockingbird was then knocked down as well, having no idea what was happening.

"...Now."

Sonic rubbed his head, seeing the culprit, "Shadow…" he gasped, now even more upset.

Shadow glared at Sonic with his glowing eyes, signaling he was still under mind-controlled. Spider-Man also got up and tried to shoot a web-line at the black hedgehog right as Sonic started boosting, but Shadow knew he was gonna be assaulted on the spot so he said two simple words.

"Chaos Control!"

And with that, he vanished in a white light alongside Zero. The web-line missed and Sonic ran past where Shadow once stood. "Damn it!" Peter cursed out.

Mockingbird groaned, standing up, "They got the V-252…" she realized.

"Yeah, and that's bad news for us." Sonic said, stating the obvious.

"Bobbi, what is the V-252?" Peter asked, "We gotta know what we're up against if Eggman and Osborn plan to use it as a weapon."

Mockingbird was silent, refusing to answer. Spider-Man growled, "Do not pull this secret SHIELD stuff on us now. We need to know what the hell SHIELD was cooking up in here."

"...I'll tell you, but I know you're not gonna like the answer." Bobbi decided.

Sonic and Peter slowly nodded, "Try us."

Goblin Castle

Shadow returned to the lair with Zero in tow, dropping the jackal down. "The plan worked." Zero said.

Eggman stopped his repairs on Metal Sonic and smiled, "Excellent. It's all coming together."

"I had to leave my men behind to be imprisoned so whatever this stuff is better be worth it." Zero bemoaned.

The doctor raised a finger, "Ohohoho! Do not fret, Zero. We'll free them pretty soon, especially now that we have what we were looking for." Eggman raised the closed capsule and looked inside, spotting a moving black goo trying to break free from its prison.