Abe watched as Boomerang clicked his knuckles; it was obvious that the man felt nervous being around Iron Man and for once Myers was bang on the money, if Tony Stark discovered who they were the Death Squad would not be the only enemy hunting them today. The site that Stark had chosen for their own ambush was a gentle slopping hill, the mound of rock the only high ground around for several miles. Smokescreen and Rocket Launcher would be the bait to lure Nuke and his forces in, from what the former had told them about Firefight's execution the Death Squad would be looking for a chance to slink away and abandon Nuke. With this information Abe had come up with a plan, once Nuke was diverted the two hostages would be released; from there it was up to Smokescreen to convince the others to get out ASAP. From what Melissa had told him after eavesdropping on their captives it wouldn't take much.
"Anything on radar?" he yelled up at Melissa as she hovered above the battlefield next to Iron Man.
"Nada, since Smokescreen is effectively working for us I can assume we are not being jammed."
"I just hope that you realize what you arranged with the Death Squad is something that I am not comfortable with." Iron Man stated, "These guys are professional killers, any lives that they take are on you're heads."
"Think of them as the hot-girl you bring to the party to make the hotter babes jealous and want to sleep with you." Boomer snorted, "Of course you can just throw hundreds at them and then they just fall over backwards for you Stark."
"Tell me again why you are here?" Iron Man replied.
"Good question." Chris mumbled, "I'm sure I've asked them that before."
"It's because it ain't a P-A-R-T-Y without me here." Boomerang joked, "Hey just a quick question of my own, can anybody smell kerosene."
Chris sniffed the air before getting to his feet, "He's right it's almost as if a jet exploded around here." he stated before looking over at Rocket Launcher. The man was unusually still and there appeared to be a red dot on his forehead before his cranium exploded. "Shit there here." he yelled as he pushed Smokescreen down to the earth and behind the rock. "Can anybody see them?"
"Negative." Iron Man answered getting some altitude followed by Sky Lark, "No sign of the shooter or any kind of attack."
"This is crazy." Abe yelled, "Smokescreen must be jamming us."
"No this isn't me; my powers only work on electronics." Smokescreen replied straining to break the cable ties wrapped around her arms.
"I'm on it mates." Boomerang stated springing onto the top of the rock and throwing one of his weapons along the path the round had taken. Abe blinked Myers must have attached one of the recon orbs to the projectile because he was suddenly getting the video of spinning ground as the weapon flew across the bullet trajectory before returning to it's thrower.
"Myers you are a genius." Abe stated, "Lark get down here and send a sonic pulse through the ground, from what recon just showed our sniper is buried in the ground." Melissa nodded before slamming down onto the ground next to Rocket Launcher's corpse and sent a wave of sound across the surface of the ground. As she did the earth erupted and a whole cluster of land mines erupted up and detonated in a flash of light blinding the heros.
"They knew we were here." Iron Man announced as he tinted his visor in an attempt to dim the flash, "Boobytrap got here first. Whoa heads up Airborne is inbound." he added as the armoured death squad member opened fire with laser blasts and a pair of shoulder mounted missiles. Firing a set of flares from his armor the missiles flew past and detonated over where Sky Lark was standing, a hail of shrapnel showering her and creating painful gashes across her body.
"Hey Iron Man not all of us have armor." Melissa yelled squinting up at the sound of thrusters above her. From behind her somebody moved and she lashed out sending the shadowy figure falling onto the floor with a thump as a second sniper round rangout, the bullet embedding somewhere behind her. Stumbling she dropped and listened to the fumbling Thunderbolts and was relieved to here that her three teammates were still alive blindly avoiding sniper shots and laser blasts as Airborne thundered past overhead.
Chris rubbed his eyes in an attempt to remove the blur; he had heard the shot but was unaware if Smokescreen was still in the line of fire or if the sniper was targeting one of his friends. Tripping he fell flat onto a prone body and panicked blasting the part he had made contact with and felt something melt between his fingers as the mystery figure wriggled free.
"Thanks for freeing me." a female voice announced, Chris bowed his head, he had accidently let Smokescreen go and while she had promised to help them he always had doubts about more serious criminals using the Thunderbolts for their own ends. Up above he heard thrusters flare and saw a figure firing flashes of light, desperately he reached up and concentrated on the ariel attacker before seeing his target swivel around and fire a rocket at his position. Clumsily he rolled away but knew that the rocket's splash damage would likely do more damage then the actual impact. Blinking he reached out with his powers again hoping to melt enough of the projectile away to reduce the missile's payload but it was too late, the rocket was moving to fast and he was barley able to focus. Dropping down onto the floor he watched as the rocket adjusted its course following his movements before darting off course and landing in the desert. "Get up soldier." Smokescreen's voice ordered, "Those rockets work on an osculating system, next time I might not get a good enough scrambler lock."
"You helped us?" Chris asked as he wobbled to his feet, "Why?"
"Because my guys denied the offer I sent through on a private channel." Smokescreen answered, "I need you and you're comrades to take out Airborne, Boobytrap and Nuke so I can slip away. It's why they killed Rocket Launcher; Nuke must have ordered that all deserters are to be executed. Personally out of all of us only Firefight had real balls but there is no way that I am taking orders from that Cyborg freak."
"I can't see." Chris moaned tripping over Rocket Launcher's corpse. Smokescreen grimaced before running to where Iridium and Skylark had stashed her kit when they though she wasn't looking. Reaching inside her hand closed on a set of grenades arranged on a bandolier, removing the first she flung it up at Airborne, the explosive shattering on her armor and staining it jet black. "There that should help you find the target." she told Oxide before pulling out a flesh coloured ear-piece. "The sniper is a remote gun positioned half a click to the west, operator is 90 degrees to the left hidden in the sand." she added as a red dot snaked over the rock onto her chest.
"Traitors are to be executed." a voice called through the comm. unit. Smokescreen dived to a prone position as the remote operated gun fired the round passing through her shoulder. Jetting to the top of the rock Boomerang threw a pair of weapons at the point that the downed member of the Death Squad had indicated, a few seconds later the projectiles hit home causing Boobytrap to erupt from the sand. Tightening his focus on the sound of falling sand and the smell of sweat Boomerang released a third projectile that slammed into the attacking mercenaries chest causing him to topple over backwards slamming back into the pit he had just emerged from. Slipping off the stone he rubbed his eyes, looking up he saw Airborne being bound by a sonic chain as Iron Man blasted her with his Repulsors, the first couple of shots cracking her thruster pack and sending her whizzing off like a released cork out of a champagne bottle deep into the desert.
"That's two down." Iridium commented, "But where is Nuke."
"Beats me but I'm not willing to leave Airborne and Boobytrap out in the open like we did Smokescreen and Rocket Launcher." Iron Man stated as he dropped down, "I'm patching a priority 3 alert to the local national guard, while SHIELD is occupying Utopia they are responsible for transporting criminals, once there here we will hand over the three prisoners and look for Nuke before his meds run out and he massacres a Chinese Restaurant or something."
"Good idea except I want to keep Smokescreen around." Abe replied, "She decided to help us and I don't feel like sending her back to the Raft just to get slaughtered."
"She will be sent to the Raft no excuses, she has several outstanding charges." Iron Man stated.
"Maybe we could compromise." Melissa said landing between the two. "We are not saying that Smokescreen should go free but she also shouldn't go to the Raft. Maybe sending her to protective custody would be better, if we can get some kind of plea bargain where she gives us more Intel on the Death Squad and FACT for her freedom, albeit under supervision."
"You're a lawyer aren't you?" Iron Man spat, "I'm sure Stark Industries can whip something up" Melissa smiled and brushed her hair, feeling where some of the shrapnel cuts on her forehead, walking away Iron Man focused on the ground and knelt down to pick up a slither of pink hair. Opening a compartment on his armor he placed the hair on a sensor plate as Boomerang and Oxide supported Smokescreen between them back to the rock.
"Scan complete the hair's DNA matches Gold, Melissa Joan AKA Songbird AKA Screaming Mimi. Currently Miss Gold is a member of SHIELD's 20 most wanted individuals alongside her paramour Jenkins, Abner Roland AKA MACH V AKA the Beetle. The pair is wanted for mass homicide, destruction of property, theft, aggravated assault and resisting arrest. They are both considered dangerous although the Federal Advisory Committee to the Thunderbolts has placed a bounty of 500,000$ on each of their heads to be granted on positive identification." The armour's computers chirped.
"Well I don't need the money." Iron Man announced as he fired up his Repulsors and got some altitude on the group of heros, "But at least I can get them off the streets and back to the RAFT where they belong." Locking onto Sky Lark he opened fire with a set of radar guided rockets, the missiles streaking towards the Highway Patrol and detonating in the midst of them, earth and shrapnel flying up around the fallen bodies. Crawling up out of the tomb of sand Melissa looked up to see Iron Man levelling his Repulsors at them.
"What the hell?" she screamed.
"Melissa Gold, Abner Jenkins you are under arrest." Stark bellowed down at them, "Oxide, Fredrick Myers you are under arrest for aiding and abetting known criminals." he added as the other four poked their heads up over the edge of the crater.
"Are you insane?" Abe yelled up at him, "We are not Songbird and the Beetle."
"Nice act but Sky Lark not only has the same powers but also the same DNA." Stark told them, "You are about to pay for you're actions in Burton Canyon." he added firing down at them with his Repulsors, blasts of blue light meeting a hastily erected sonic shield.
"Well this broke down real quickly." Chris hissed, "I blame Boomerang."
"Oh blame you're self." Boomerang snapped back, "We just went up a shit stream and all we have to paddle is our hands."
"We're not out yet." Abe told them, "Smokescreen if we fail you will head back to the Raft and into the arms of FACT. Come with us and we will protect you for as long as we can."
"Maybe I should surrender." Smokescreen replied, "See if Stark is willing to be lenient, maybe if I will get some cash for helping to bring you in." Melissa rolled her eyes before letting a section of the shield above Smokescreen collapse just as Repulsor beam streaked in, the electro-magnetic blast striking Smokescreen and pinning her into the sand. "Or maybe you should help us." Melissa stated as she put the section of shield back up. "If I synch everyone up then we can communicate without speaking." Iron Man fired a few more blasts of his Repulsors before charging up his Uni-Beam. Releasing the blast he waited for the dust to settle only to find his targets were missing although a tunnel charred in the glassy sand suggested that they hadn't gone far. Landing next to the tunnel he scanned the construct, calculating the strength and heat. After calculating a hundred variables he began to take off and selected a tear gas round to be fired from his shoulder launcher and got ready to fire just as a boomerang flew up out of the hole and bounced off his shields.
"You will have to do better then that Myers." he stated as the projectile flew back around towards him before exploding and showering him with ink from the grenade attached to the projectile. Activating the armor cleansing mode from the HUD Stark landed and watched as the Iron Man suit showed a radar picture of the desert and the Thunderbolts fleeing into the distance. Taking off he pursued after them unaware of Melissa pulling herself out of the sand followed by the others.
"How long is that ink good for?" Abe asked Smokescreen as she emerged last from the hole.
"A few minutes." Smokescreen answered, "We should have stayed in the hole."
"No" Abe replied, "We need to immobilize him long enough to escape. Melissa you used that sonic beam thing to erase Luke Cage's memories for a few hours, will it work on Stark inside his armor."
(As seen in Persona Non Grata - Part III)
"It should but we will need to pacify him first, if he struggles I might wipe out everything or even end up lobotomizing him." Melissa answered.
"I'm okay with that." Boomerang snidely hissed. "So now you guys fight the 'good guys' too."
"Don't get used to it Myers." Abe growled, "First we need to get him to land. Myers that sniper rifle Boobytrap was using, find it and target the boot Repulsors until they go offline. From there Smokescreen and I will keep him pinned down with overlapping fields of fire." he added passing Smokescreen his Tech 9 and a clip of mercy rounds. "While we do that Chris will focus on cooling a patch of sand so it becomes sticky. We get Stark in the trap and Mel does her mind mojo on him and we get out of dodge before he remembers what has happened."
"I have a problem." Chris stated causing Boomerang to arc one of his eyebrows. "My powers melt they don't cool."
"Well let's see if you can." Abe told him. "Any other problems?" he asked. No one replied and Abe smiled behind his faceplate. "The Highway Patrol is dead and the Thunderbolts are back, lets show this Avenger why they have always been afraid of us."
Iron Man opened fire with Repulsors and rockets as he chased the fleeing fugitives away from the road into the heart of the Texas wilderness. Suddenly he stopped as the last blobs of ink leaked off his visor to reveal a wild open space with nothing around for miles. Cursing he realized what had happened, thanks to Smokescreen he had been chasing phantom radar constructs away from where the Thunderbolts really where. Silently he added Juno Shepherd to the list of names that he would be arresting for aiding and abetting and turned back towards the Thunderbolts last known position. Personally he was amazed at how gullible everyone had been about the Highway Patrol; the armed forces, local law enforcement and even SHIELD had fallen for Melissa and Abe's bluff; even he had been convinced until he had found Songbird's trade mark pink streaks on the desert floor. He cursed again of course everyone had believed them, Songbird and MACH I had been fooling people for years, had everyone convinced that they were heros while all the while claiming to help the down trodden villain. As far as he knew none of the Thunderbolts had reformed unless they had been double agents or spies like Clint or Natasha. Returning to the spot he had started the chase from Iron Man surveyed the desert only to see that nothing was left of the hole or his targets.
"Come out and surrender Thunderbolts." Iron Man yelled, "You can't run and you can't hide so just make this easy on everybody involved."
"We can't run or hide." a voice echoed, "But we can fight." Tony span round to pin-point the sound only to see the muzzle flash of a rifle glisten among the sand, rounds heading his way leaving blue contrails behind them, the bullets tracking him as he dodged before slamming into his right boot jet. At the other end of the Cheytech Intervention Sniper Rifle Myers punched the air in triumph before loading a new clip while Melissa squatted next to him propelling the bullets with sonic contrails so they hit their evading target. His hands slamming the trigger Melissa watched as Boomerang cheered as he scored a few direct hits, the villain was having fun at taking pot-shots at Iron Man and while Myers was sticking to the plan he wasn't sure if that would have been the case if he had been on his own.
"Abe target is on the deck." Melissa told him as Iron Man collapsed onto the ground, pulling himself up and walking towards Boomerang and herself stiffly, his legs apparently locked up from the fall. Looking around Repulsors charged he fired a few shots at the sand as a stream of particles erupted in-front of him and Abe emerged firing the commandeered Tech 9 at Iron Man, the bullets bouncing off his armor and shields.
"Give it up Jenkins you may as well throw rocks at me." Tony yelled as he returned fire, Repulsor blasts knocking Abe backwards. Behind him a second stream of sand exploded and Smokescreen jumped out and opened fire causing Iron Man to stagger round to face her as Abe got back to his feet and rejoined the attack. Keeping an eye on his shields Tony saw a third sand explosion as Oxide emerged, the unknown Thunderbolt keeping low to the ground his hand brushing the sand. Shutting his eyes and concentrating Chris though about the sand cooling down, making the moisture in the air condense until the ground was saturated and the heavy Iron Man armor began to work against its creator. Concentrating even harder Chris felt as if his body was on fire, as if he was about to erupt into flame as the ground cooled around him. Looking up he saw Abe and Smokescreen keeping up the pressure as Iron Man walked towards him, panicking Chris removed his hand and focused on the Avenger's armor heating up the surface and watching as it slowly sank with every step the sand entombing it turning to glass trapping the suit and its pilot.
"You did it kid." Chris turned round to see Boomerang walking up to him, "Now melt the evidence I don't want to stir up any unwanted memories when they do the full CSI on this." he added handing Chris the rifle as Melissa removed Stark's helmet and bent down to look him in the eye.
"This is for your own good." Melissa announced removing her ID mask and placing her hands either side of his head. As she closed her eyes pink energy coursed from her hands causing Stark's eyes to roll before his head drooped onto the glassed sand he was trapped in. Grabbing Iron Man by the arms Melissa ripped him out and laid him in the shade of the rock before watching as Abe removed a module from his Iridium armor and placed it in a tactical hard case on Iron Man's thigh.
"What's that?" Chris asked as he walked over with Boomerang, the pair dragging a bound and gagged Airborne into position next to Stark.
"Black Box uplink." Abe explained, "It will reveal the truth about Burton Canyon once he finds it. Until he does we are felons and we can assume that FACT knows who we really are now. No more luxuries people, we are now officially no longer heros in the strictest sense of the word."
"So what are we going to do?" Chris asked.
"Melissa and I have a contingency plan. As soon as it's put in action all we have to do is wait." Abe explained, "The Thunderbolts still have some friends out in the big wide world." he added looking west towards the highway and the setting sun, "Until then we just survive."
Epilogue
Tony Stark rubbed his head as he sat down in his office in the New York headquarters of Stark International. He couldn't remember a damm thing about the day he just had and even his armor was less then co-operative about the events that had happened. Rubbing his temple he brought up his e-mail and saw that FACT had sent him another message about new prisons. Opening the tab he quickly scanned through it and typed a response agreeing to letting them run the new facility when it was completed. Checking up on the progress in Utopia he yawned, so far the mutants hadn't retaliated and there was no evidence that the Phoenix had arrived yet. Satisfied he sent the message and decided that tonight was a good time to do some armor maintenance, the compromised black box of his suit was a concern to say the least and hopefully he would find what the problem was and fix it.
Nuke collapsed, his body dehydrated while his mind played tricks on him as phantom Vietcong waltzed past cursing at him in their cruel tongue and poking him with bayonets. Waving his arms in an attempt to fling the nearest away he hit something hard, something real that towered over him, its cruel face glowering down at him.
"Frank Simpson?" a German accented voice asked, "Can you hear me?"
"Give me a red." Nuke ordered reaching at the figure before withdrawing his hand, his skin crawling from the mere touch of the individual as a second and third figure swam into view.
"Yes we will help you but first you must help us." the first voice asked, the purple coloured source striding towards him. "You're squad is captured by the enemy thanks to a traitor. How do you feel about that?"
"Give me a red?" Nuke growled.
"An appropriate answer." the voice replied, "You will have you're 'reds' as long as you serve you're country."
"Who are you?" Nuke snarled getting to his feet only for the third figure to walk forward and place a foot on his back forcing him back down.
"I am General John Watkins also know as Citizen V." the purple figure announced, "I need you to help me free America, the traitors are attempting to destroy everything."
"I will serve you sir." Nuke answered his tone now respectful.
"Good." the voice announced, "Puff Adder help me evac our friend he needs medical attention."
"Give me a Red." Nuke whimpered. Zemo smiled and showed him a blue pill before the first figure helped hold him down as Nuke was force fed the blue tablet, his struggling ceasing as he simply lay down on the sand looking up at his opressers.
"You will get you're reds." Zemo told him as the others released Nuke, his eyes watching the area around his neck crawl. "For now welcome to the Masters of Evil."
Thunderbolts #22
The Thunderbolts are counting down the clock to salvation but survival was never an option. A clash with the Dark Avengers was inevitable but with our heros outgunned and outnumbered will any of them escape a return to the Raft?