Metro City
Cripes, I didn't think it would take me that long. Robert Gregs, Bobby to
his friends and better known to the world as Arsenal, thought to himself as
he flew over the Metro City skyline towards the Work Place. He knew he was
expected by two, and it was now three thirty. As he approached the twenty-
story building that served as Force Work's base, he felt a slight chill
down his spine. That was because he knew for a fact a half dozen weapon
systems capable of destroying a city block were trained on him now. It took
the computers a split second for recognition before it opened a window for
him to land in.
"Hey, anyone here?" he called out, as he started to search the halls.
"Mr. Bobby!" a voice shouted. Arsenal turned, and saw a young girl with light gray skin and red hair running towards him. She leaped up into his arms, almost knocking him over.
"Hey, kiddo, where's your mommy?"
"Katie, you get back here this instant!" a voice ordered. A second later, Edie Sawyer, burst out into the hall after her daughter followed by Force Work's funder, Donald Parvenue.
"Never mind," he said as he set her down. Bobby, even after all this time, was amazed at how Katie looked so much like her mother. It went beyond normal family resemblance; Katie looked more like a younger clone of her mother.
"Ms. Sawyer, what brings you and Katie here?"
"We just stopped by to pick up Dani's reports," she answered as picked her daughter up into her arms. "You know better than to run off like that young lady," she scolded.
"I've a meeting in France and I thought Katie would like to see the city," Parvenue explained.
"Are you sure that France is a good place for such an impressionable young lady?" Arsenal joked.
"I hadn't thought about that. Tell me, Arsenal, how have you been holding up lately?" Parvenue asked, his voice laced with concern.
"I'm holding up just fine, sir. I've talked to Dani about Sublime, and he's next on our agenda. I would feel a lot better though if you stopped blaming yourself, sir."
"Well, always us rich men our guilt, eh? It's what lets us be so damn generous at times."
"Sir," Sawyer interrupted. "We have to be going. You're expected in France ten minutes."
"Ah, women," Parvenue sighed. "They're the only reason we men are on time. I'm afraid the rest of Force Works isn't here. Tarene is on monitor duty, and the rest of are at Columbia Pike, waiting for you. I'll see you later, Bobby," Parvenue said moments before he vanished in Ms. Sawyer's teleportation effect.
Arsenal made his way to a nearby window and opened it. He glanced down for a moment, observing the large crowd at the entrance of the Work Tower, most carrying pickets with one racist slogan or another. Roughly half of the men and women down there were members of the Friends of Humanity. They were down there protesting, what exactly Bobby wasn't sure. The other half were counter protestors, those who supported what Force Works represented. Arsenal jumped up on the perch, spread his wings and took to the air. Within seconds, he was over Columbia Pike street. Although he knew where they were supposed to be, Arsenal still had to search for hard for Force Works. Columbia Pike stretched thru seven city blocks, ending in front of an old high school. It used to be a joke in Metro City that Columbia Pike was the only thing that was straight and narrow in entire city. That was, until Force works set up shop.
He scanned the area, and saw Adam Sol, otherwise known as X-Treme standing on the ledge of a building over looking the street, watching the crowd below like a hawk and sitting out of place a few feet away from him was a bucket of baseballs. Arsenal set down beside him.
"You're late," X-Treme stated without ever taking his eyes off of the crowd.
"Yeah well, some kids needed some extra help with their history homework, and I have a heart. Sue me."
"Hey, I understand Bobby, but Dani might not. You told her that being a substitute teacher wouldn't get in the way of your duties as a member of Force Works."
"We're hardly saving the world today," he said defensively. He looked over the edge at the block party below. From what Arsenal had been told, the block party was to raise money for computer labs in several local schools. Force Works was on hand to help and assure everyone who lived in Metro City that Force Works was here to help the community as well as making a difference in the world. There were dozens of stands and tents set up, offering everything from corn dogs to ring tosses to amateur weight guessing.
"So, where is everyone and what have we got?"
"Rider, 'Nita, and Taki are giving personal tours of Metro City's Skyline, Rahne and Dani are reading fairy tales to some kids while you and I are delegated to security."
"And Spazball?" Adam pointed at the end of the block. Speedball was sitting inside of a dunk tank, shooting his mouth off as people tried to hit the bullseye.
"He's about to get a bath," X-Treme explained as he picked up a baseball. Taking a second to aim, Adam threw the ball towards Speedball. The baseball flew thru the air, hit the concrete, bounced into the dunk tank and from there ricocheted and hit the bulls eye before Speedball had even registered the fact that anything was thrown.
"You're evil, you know that?" Arsenal chuckled as he watched Speedball climb out of the water, loudly complaining about the malfunctioning seat and divine intervention acting against him.
"Don't say that," X-Treme scowled. Arsenal just rolled his eyes,
"Cripes, Adam. So your biological Dad, whom you never knew, was ass hole, but that doesn't make you one. Get over it already."
"My father, D'Ken, was like Hitler, Stalin, and Ahab rolled into one on crack. And given my father's known sadism, I doubt my mother, who ever she was, was given a choice in my creation! So forgive me if I'm a little sensitive about the subject!"
"Okay, okay!" Arsenal responded as he slightly back pedaled. "Point taken."
X-Treme noted how Arsenal was backing away and put his head in his hand, "Roosha, I'm sorry, Bobby. I'm almost beginning wish that Dr. Russell hadn't restored my memories."
"No sweat Adam, everyone's got a pet peeve. Though I should remind you, you were the one who chose to hack the Crystal Claw's data base after you and Captain Marvel blew it out of the sky*."
* (Captain Marvel and X-Treme blew the Crystal Claw's base up in Captain Marvel Volume 2 issue 3)
"And I regret it everyday, thank you. I wish Shi'ar computers weren't so tough."
"I doubt that," Arsenal muttered. "So, he said changing the subject, nice day isn't it?" "Excuse me?"
"That was me being overtly subtle, thus changing the subject of discussion from one that makes you uncomfortable to one that makes you comfortable. It's just something we Earthiers do every now and then."
Adam looked at him, puzzled. "Oh. O...kay...I guess the weather's fine..."
"See? You're getting the hang of it!" ***
"...And they lived happily ever after," Rahne finished. Behind her, an illusion of Cinderella and her dashing prince stepping into a carriage began to fade. The children, squatting in front of Rahne were completely enthralled by her reading, began clapping and demanding another story before Rahne even closed her book
" Yay, dat was great!"
"Awesome! Read 'nother one!"
"More! Read 'nother one! Pleeze!"
"Harry Potter, next!"
"Pokemon!"
"I need tae get somethin' tae drink first, wee ones," Rahne explained, "I'll be back in a moment."
Danielle Moonstar, otherwise known as the mutant hero Mirage, and leader of Force Works, watched Rahne leave the room that was currently serving as the day care center. While Rahne read to the children, Dani had used her power to project illusions of the story, bringing it to life for the children. Combined with Rahne's passion for story telling, it made for some very happy children.
"I'll bet you never expected a scene like this, eh?" a voice asked. Dani looked to her side and saw a short, African American man wearing a Homer Simpson shirt and carpenter jeans. The man's name was Malcolm Hearte, and though he hardly looked the part, he was Force Work's Public Relations consultant. He had dressed down so as not to stand out in this lower income area.
"What scene would that be, Mr. Hearte?"
"You know exactly what I mean, Mirage. Two mutant heroes alone with a room full of children with their parent's consent. NOT something that happens everyday, you know." Mirage shrugged, "I could care less. I'm more concerned about putting racist scum out of commission than being allowed to baby sit a bunch of kids."
"Love that 'devil may care' attitude, Mirage. That really wins the people over."
"Please excuse me, are you Mirage?" an elderly Asian woman asked as she approached Dani. Behind her were several other men and women, of various racial back grounds "That's what they tell me," Dani stated. Though she didn't show it, she began to tense, ready for anything. In her life as a mutant hero, she had learned that when someone sought you out, you were already in trouble. "Can I help you?"
"You already have," The woman replied as reached out her hand to greet her.
"Nightshade, she bleed my family dry for protection money. Her thugs steal from our grocery store all the time, and she do nothing. When we complain, she sick her men on my husband. Send him to hospital for three weeks. You stop her. Thank you very, very much."
By now, the woman had broken down in tears in appreciation, and was vigorously shaking Dani's hand.
Another person, this time a white, middle-aged man stepped forward. "Ms. Mirage, I'm not all that good with words, so I'll be blunt. I thought mutants were no good, and I said so loudly and often. But after seeing how ya helped clean up this city inside o' a day, well, ya made me eat every damn word. Thanks fer everythin'."
"Umm, thanks, I guess," Dani replied. As more and more people came forward to thank her, Dani glanced at Mr. Hearte.
"Wipe that damn smirk off your face," Dani muttered
***
"I'll take a ginger ale, please," Rahne ordered. The man behind the booth gave her her drink, and Rahne started to make her way back to the day care center. "I guess my favorite bitch has to watch her figure, huh?" a hand grabbed Rahne by the shoulder and spun her around. Before Rahne even had a chance to realize who it was, a young man then pressed his lips to hers and kissed her forcefully for several seconds before releasing,
"Doug!" Rahne exclaimed as she caught her breath, "What are ye doin' here?"
"My patrol took me by here, I figured I'd stop by and see how my favorite bitch's doing. Are we still on for tonight?"
"Umm, I...I'm nae sure," Rahne replied as she brushed her long red hair out of her face,
"I hoped... t' spend some time wit' Dani."
"What? Watching some kiddy movie? Come on, Rahne, I think we're the only ones who still like that stuff anymore. And it's not like she has time for you anymore. Besides, it'll be romantic!"
"I...alright. I'll see ye aboot seven o' clock?"
"Great. I'll see you tonight." He gave Rahne a kiss on the cheek and slapped her rear as hard as a parent might strike a disobedient child before he left. And as he left, Rahne bit her lip and looked longingly at Dani while she was conversing with Mr. Hearte.
***
United Front Office Building, Metro City
Gabriel Thorn, sitting at his oak desk, quietly studied the reports about Force Works compiled by his followers. Thanks in large part to Force Work's high profile nature; studying them was as easy as studying Michael Jackson, only more rewarding and less disturbing.
"Sir?"
Thorn looked up to see his young female assistant, Karen Starr, standing in the doorway.
"Your one o' clock appointment is here."
"Excellent. I trust no one saw him?"
"Only myself and Mr. Mackie who contacted him, sir."
"Thank you. See him in, would you please?"
Ms. Starr left for a second, and then ushered in a large, heavyset man covered in a heavy trench coat that barely disguised his bulk. The man was easily six and a half feet tall, and the boards beneath his feet complained loudly.
"Greetings, my young doctor. How are you?"
"Alive. Skip the small talk. You said that you could help me with my condition. I've been around long enough to know that means you want something."
"That's correct." Thorn slid the pictures of Force Works forward. "I believe you are familiar with several members, and I trust you recognize Force Works."
"And you want them dead?" the 'doctor' asked.
"No, no," Thorn chuckled, "I simply wish the people to see force Works for who they really are."
"What do you mean?"
"These, young beautiful men and women, strutting around, the center of attention, are dangerous," Thorn explained. "They don't deserve what they have, do they? Like you once, they are the center of attention, but they haven't sacrificed for what they have, have they?"
"No," the 'doctor' hissed, "they haven't."
"But you have, haven't you?"
"More than you could ever know."
"You would be surprised. And they haven't had their family turn away from them in disgust, but you have, haven't you?"
"Yes," the young man muttered, "and it's not fair..."
Thorn smiled at that. Unknown to the other man, Thorn was a low level telepath. Though now where near as powerful as the likes of Professor X or Marcus Raven, Thorn was very skilled with his telepathy. His telepathy let him know exactly what buttons to push, and how to react to anything the young man said, and as he did so, he slowly wormed his way into the man's mind, implanting certain thoughts and ideas, "They need to be exposed, don't they?"
"Yes, they do," the 'doctor' agreed. He turned to leave. "And they will be. Thank you Mr. Thorn."
Thorn clucked his tongue is disappointment. He had hoped that brainwashing the 'doctor' would have been a little more challenging. He hadn't expected the man to be so weak willed, but these things happened. The doctor would perform his mission with no memory of remembering their conversation about Force Works or even meeting Thorn.
But I guess living the rest of your life as a freak because of one mistake will do that to some men, he mused. He then pulled out his cell phone from his jacket and dialed a untraceable number,
"Mr. Hans, I have a job for you. I need a one Ms. Starr and Mr. Mackie eliminated. I'll meet your normal fee." Thorn rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Mr. Mackie was a loyal man who had been with him from the start. What's more, he was a family man with three children. "Correction. I need the Mackie family eliminated."
Tarene struggled with the Herculean task in front of her. Staying awake while on monitor duty.
"So...boring," she whined. Unknown to her, of course, was the fact that Dani only assigned her to monitor to keep her out of trouble. Tarene yawned, and began to lay her head down on the consul in front of her before it let up like a Christmas tree. Tarene read the read out intently.
{{Energy abnormalities detected in Aegis Park.}} The screen read out.
Tarene considered what to do. The consul simply said that there were abnormal energies detected in Aegis Park, nothing more. Dani had ordered her to contact her if something came up, but as far as Tarene knew, nothing had really come up. After all, abnormalities doesn't mean danger. After a minute of thought, she decided that she would check out Aegis Park personally, and contact the others if something was indeed happening.
As she walked out of the monitor room, Tarene began to hope that the anomaly that had been detected was actually something dangerous. For reasons she herself couldn't grasp, Tarene craved battle. To have the intoxicating adrenaline pumping thru her veins while she unleashed her incredible power against those unfortunate enough to stand against her. Truthfully, that was all she wanted from her life. Battle. The fact that she had no memories of who or what she was before being freed by Force Works didn't concern her in the least.
Once she was at the window, she threw her mallet into the air, and was flying towards Aegis Park. As she glimpsed the park from the air, nothing seemed amiss. The park filled with dozens of granite statues, but otherwise empty. Tarene set down in front of a statue resembling an elderly woman walking her dog.
"Wow, what attention to detail," Tarene remarked, as she looked the statue over. "I wonder where the artist is."
To Tarene's rather inexperienced eyes, nothing seemed wrong. The only time she had ever seen Aegis Park was from high above in the sky, and as far as she knew, statues in parks were a common occurrence. The thought that there were far too many statues oddly situated in the park also hadn't occurred to her.
"Right behind you," a menacing voice said seconds before Tarene felt a cold hand on her shoulder.
***
"And from here you can see the Mayor's office, and the museum of natural history." Takeshi Matsuya, otherwise known as Wiz Kid pointed out to the four people riding along with him on a hover platform created by his (newly renamed) tech-pack.
"That's Aegis Park, right?" one man asked.
"Yes, unless someone's changed it," Taki replied sardonically.
"Then why does it have a thousand statues when the city has refused for years to repair the three in it?"
Taki looked towards Aegis Park, and saw what the man was referring too. Even though they were two blocks away and over seventy feet in the air, dozens of stone statues could be seen.
"I'm afraid I'll have to cut this tour short."
Taki quickly returned his passengers to the block party, and alerted Force Works. Within a few minutes, the team was assembled at the south entrance to the park.
"Well, there's something you don't see everyday," Speedball commented as he looked at the dozens of stone statues that looked like otherwise ordinary citizens. "Unless you're freaks or, you know, us."
"What's the difference?" a gruff voice asked. Force Works turned around and saw Police Commissioner Stone, standing together with several other uniform officers.
"What can you tell us about what's going on?" Mirage asked.
"About half an hour ago, we got a call about to many statues in the park. I sent a few uniform officers in to investigate, and haven't heard from them since. I was about to call you guys before you got here."
"Any idea who's doing this?"
"Nope, though off the record and whoever he is, he's most like here because of you," Stone said bluntly.
"Gee, I guess we make for great scapegoats, huh?" Speedball asked.
" We're blocking off the park now. You guys go do what you have to, and do it quick, eh?" Stone said, choosing to ignore Speedball. He then walked away, issuing orders to his officers.
"Well, whatever's happening, I'm glad I don't have to play tour guide anymore. I've lost count how many times someone explained to me how I was betraying the human race by working with mutants," Nova grumbled.
"You should have threatened to drop them," Kymaera said nonchalantly, "I found that to be very effective method to ending debate."
"Should we call Tarene?" Arsenal asked.
"I'd rather not. She's still too inexperienced at the moment," Mirage replied. "She'd likely endanger more innocent bystanders with her power."
"She's never going to get any better if you keep her locked away in the Work Tower."
"True, but that's a matter for another day, X-Treme. Wolfsbane, scout ahead and see what you can find, we'll be right behind you." Mirage ordered, "Nova, Kymaera, stay close, we don't know what we're dealing with yet."
Rahne nodded and dashed into the interior, quickly followed by Force Works.
"Are you sure it's a good idea for Rahney to take point? She's not the most durable member, you know," Nova stated as they followed the young werewolf.
"I know her better than anyone else here. Trust me, she'll be fine."
Dani, I ken smell somethin' queer ahead. It smells like the other statues, not nae at the same time Rahne informed Dani over their shared psi-link.
Force Works soon saw what Rahne had detected. Standing next to the pond feeding the ducks was another gray male statue. But unlike the others that filled the park, it was both moving, and was far larger than all the others. The stone man stood seven feet tall, with broad shoulders wearing a gray cape that reached down to the back of his ankles.
"Gray Gargoyle, to what do we owe the displeasure?" Wiz Kid inquired.
Gray Gargoyle leisurely finished feeding the ducks the few crumbs he had in his hands and turned around to face Force Works.
"Metro City is, as I'm sure you are well aware, a prime piece of real- estate, and I'd like a slice," he explained, his fists glowing with power, "but something tells me that I would need to remove you youngsters first before I could get a taste."
"Blunt, and to the point. I like that it a man," Kymaera commented. "Overconfidence and greed, however..."
"By yourself? No offense, or even if you are offended, you're not even a morning workout for all of us," Speedball stated.
"Spread out team, I want to keep ourselves between him and any more innocent victims," Mirage ordered. Force Works quickly flanked the Grey Gargoyle, who didn't seem to care.
"A question, do you think I would come here alone? I'm not stupid, despite what you may wish to believe about me."
"Poor bluff," Wiz Kid retorted, "I scanned the park for any other superhumans before we entered. You're alone."
"I may be the only supervillain here, but I am far from alone!" Gray Gargoyle declared. He snapped his fingers, and the statues that littered the park came to life and looked at the members of Force Works. Moving slowly and mechanically, they began to advance on Force Works.
"Uh, did you guys know he could do that?" X-Treme asked as he unsheathed his sword.
"It's news to me," Arsenal answered as he spread his metal wings and took flight. "What do we do? We can't hurt them, they're innocent victims!"
"But we can hurt their boss!" Mirage shouted. Her took aim and unleashed one of her psychic arrows at Gray Gargoyle. The arrow flew thru the air, but moments before it struck the Gargoyle, it was intercepted by another energy blast. Mirage looked to see who had blocked her arrow.
"Taki! The hell?!" She asked just as she began dodging the Gray Gargoyle's stone army.
Thankfully, Dani was as quick as they were slow, even with her barely healed ribs. * (Dani broke her ribs last issue, Doctor David)
"We don't what effect it'll have on his victims," he calmly explained as he went about defending himself from the horde. "While I doubt there will be any ill effect if you unleashed your arrows on his army, if you strike the Gargoyle, the feedback may hurt his victims."
"Spirits, never the easy way," Dani muttered. "Arsenal, Kymaera, Nova, take him down, if that's okay with Wiz Kid."
"Crude but effective," Taki replied.
"I'll take point!" Arsenal offered. The three heroes flew towards the Gargoyle, but stopped dead when a golden mallet struck Arsenal square in the chest and set him flying into the trees. Both Kymaera and Nova stared in disbelief as the mallet returned from whence it was thrown.
"Your newest member is somewhat lacking in common sense, did you know that?" Gray Gargoyle said smugly as Tarene, cackling with power and transformed into stone like all of the Gargoyle's other victims, emerged from the heavens. "But that's alright. I'll take any convert to my cause that I can get. She's pretty powerful, no wonder the...want her back."
Gray Gargoyle paused for a moment. He had intended to say Everlasting, but didn't. He attempted to vocalize the word again, only to fail again. For a moment, he was overcome with rage about how his mind was violated. But he put those thoughts out of his mind for now. He was in the middle of a battle, after all.
Nova and Kymaera, for their part, hadn't even noticed.
"Once more with feeling, huh, babe?" Richard Rider asked his lover as they flew towards Tarene.
"Seems so," she answered. They struck as one, Nova hitting Tarene's face while Kymaera struck her square in the stomach. Despite the fact that they both cared for Tarene a great deal, neither pulled their punch. They knew exactly how dangerous she was, and knew it was up to them to put her down. Tarene was flung a few feet back thru the air before stopping. She lashed out with a right, connecting with Nova's face.
Boom!
Kymaera ducked another shot and tried not to think about the fact that Tarene had just hit her boyfriend so hard that he broke the sound barrier.
***
"For the record, there are about a thousand jokes I could me making, here," Speedball commented as he bounced over the dozens of stoned citizens. "But I'm not. And that's because I'm a little preoccupied with the thought of how exactly we are going to get out of this mess!"
"I'm working on it!" Mirage answered as she too dodged the moving statues. She unleashed two psychic arrows at them, disrupting their connection with the Gargoyle and stopping them for a few minutes. "Taki, any ideas?"
"If I could get one of these things to my lab, I might be able to come up with a solution, but I'm afraid I simply don't have the tools here," he said. To fight the onslaught, Taki had chosen to morph his tech-pak into a red make shift body armor. It looked mostly like an escapee from a bad manga cartoon.
"Then go, we'll hold the fort here!"
"I would rather not leave..."
"Get!" Dani snarled.
"Fine. Have a good time dying." Taki activated his boot jets, picked up a small dog that Gargoyle had turned, and flew towards the Work Tower. "Looks like it's a good thing I'm in favor of animal testing."
Dani turned towards her left, where Wolfsbane and X-Treme both avoiding the Gargoyle's victims. "Speedball, Wolfsbane, form on me! X-Treme, I need you to keep Gargoyle busy!"
"Understood." X-Treme broke off from the group he was dodging and charged at the villain. A half dozen turned citizens immediately sought to bar his way, but X-Treme leaped over and landed in a crouch directly in front of the Gargoyle without breaking stride.
"You must have really angered your leader if she ordered you to take me on," he remarked as he threw a right cross at X-Treme, "I've held my own against Thor, Hulk and countless other powerhouses. What chance do you have?"
"We'll see, won't we?" Adam replied with no bravo as he easily sidestepped the blow. He took a step back, and brought his sword forward. Without saying a work, X-Treme leaped forward, flipping over the villain. He twisted in midair, so that his stomach was over the villains' head and then brought the butt of the handle down directly into the Gargoyle's right eye.
"Arrgh! You blond bastard!" he screamed his clutched his eye. He swung around and lunged for X-Treme, infuriated by the injury. X-Treme easily sidestepped his lunge, and did a round house kick, connecting with the back of the Gargoyle's left knee, knocking it out from under him and sending him sprawling to the ground.
"I strongly suggest you surrender, I don't want to hurt you."
"I doubt that, you likely get off on fighting, you little punk!" Gargoyle hissed as he got up and swung at X-Treme.
"Actually, I take no joy in combat..."Adam explained as he ducked under the blow. X-Treme then leaped twenty feet into the air, tucking himself into a ball as he fell back towards the earth. Seconds before he would have him the Gargoyle, he straightened out, the heels of his feet slamming into the Gargoyle's face.
-Crack!-
With the twist of his right heel, the Gargoyle's stone nose was broken under X-Treme's foot. Faster than the eye could follow, X-Treme flipped back into a standing position on the balls of his feet while the Gargoyle clutched his face and broken nose
"...I'm just..." He paused for a moment, and sighed. "Extremely good at it."
"So, did you call us together just to watch X-Treme, or are we going to actually do something?"
Dani glanced at Gargoyle's stone army. Like she suspected, they slowed down even further. "Speedball, start expanding your field outwards and push Gray Gargoyle's army back. Rahne and I will start herding them together."
"What aboot Adam?"
"He'll be fine." Mirage answered, "Hell, It'll probably take a year for the Gargoyle to touch him." *** -Thoom!-
Nova and Kymaera crashed thru two office buildings before coming to a hard stop on the roof of an apartment building.
"This isn't going well," Nova said thru gritted teeth as he picked himself up.
"We...just...need to hold her off until the others stop the Gargoyle," Kymaera gasped. A lightning bolt struck the ground right in front of the two heroes, throwing them back. The stone form of Tarene emerged from the steam, ready for battle. She raised her mallet, and then paused. Both heroes tensed for an attack, but after a few long moments, realized that she had stopped.
"What's going on?"
"Maybe the Gargoyle's been defeated?" Kymaera suggested. That hope was quickly dashed, as Tarene started moving again.
"We're getting nowhere with this," Nova stated as they both flew into the air, barely avoiding another blow. "Hold the fort here babe, I got an idea."
Once Nova said that, he disappeared in a super sonic blur of blue and gold.
"Richie?" Kymaera looked around to find her lover gone, and her still stuck with Tarene.
"Suffering shad..."
***
"The hell with this!" The Gray Gargoyle declared as he backed away from X- Treme. All he had to show for his effort was a half dozen pains throughout his stone body. His form made him largely immune to nerve strikes and such, but not invulnerable, and X-Treme was very persistent. He looked towards the other members of Force Works, and saw them lying on the ground, broken and bleeding.
"Looks like my army has defeated your friends, just like they will you!" he shouted. A dozen stoned citizens came towards him, and quickly overwhelmed him. The Gray Gargoyle laughed as his puppets began to brutally beat X- Treme.
"Six down, and three to go! And then this city will be mine!" he shouted triumphantly. Standing behind the illusion of Force Works' defeat, the actual members of Force Works, with a recovered Arsenal, watched the Gray Gargoyle celebrating a faux victory.
"Nice work, X-Treme. I didn't even have to you to play along," Dani whispered.
"I try to keep an eye on everything going on in a fight," X-Treme explained
"What do we do aboot him now?" Rahne asked. "We cannae deceive him forever, an' Rich and Nita need our help!"
"We just have to hold out long enough for Taki to find a way to break his hold over his victims," Dani said confidently. "X-Treme, Wolfsbane..."
Before Mirage could finish giving her order, a blue and gold blue streaked by, and the Gargoyle vanished.
Gray Gargoyle blinked. A split second ago, he was bashing in victory over Force Works, and now he was looking at the North and South American continent. He looked up to see Nova holding onto his cape, dangling him like a fish on a hook.
"Like the view?" Nova asked, his face plate on his helmet closed. "Because it's the last time you'll see it if you don't stop your attack, and change your victims back."
"Again, do you think me stupid? You don't have the, pardon the pun, stones to kill me. And dropping me from even this height will hurt the earth more than it will hurt me!" he shouted to make himself heard.
"Who said anything about killing you?"
"Excuse me?"
"We're thousands of feet up, where the atmosphere is almost non existent, and you're not even breathing hard. I guessed that a man of stone didn't need to breath, and it looks like I was right."
"Oh?" Gargoyle realized his threat instantly, but started to stall for time. He still had one trump card left. "What does that matter?"
"It means that if I toss you out into space, I'll only be giving you a life sentence, not killing you."
"And what of my victims? They'll stay stone forever, you realize."
"Maybe. But we'll have plenty of time to find a cure for them," Nova replied in a calm tone that almost made the Gargoyle believe that he would in fact throw him into space.
"And what makes you think anything other than my power can reverse the process?" As he asked that, he glanced to the side and sighed in relief. Nova caught the glance, and saw what he was looking at.
Emerging from beneath the clouds was Tarene, rocketing towards them
"Call her off, or I'll use you as a human shield," Nova warned. Gargoyle simply smiled as Tarene swung her mallet and let it fly at Nova. True to his word, Nova brought the Gargoyle up and into the path of Tarene's mallet.
-Wham!-
The mallet hit the Gray Gargoyle directly in the chest, and knocked him over the continent of Africa before Nova caught him by the cape again, careful to stay out of arms length.
"Still doubt me?" he asked. "To be honest, I would love to use you for a baseball again, 'cause I'm not gonna get laid for the next three weeks because of you. You up for another round?"
For his part, the Gargoyle couldn't answer, he was simply in to much pain. Tarene came at them again, and the Gargoyle lashed out instinctively, transforming Tarene back to flesh and blood.
"You're just full of surprises today, aren't you?"
"Nova, where are we, what happened?" Tarene asked.
"We're at the outer edge of the atmosphere, and I'm guessing that you violated orders when we told you to call us if anything weird happened," Nova said bluntly, "but we'll talk about that later. We need to get back to Metro City, and see about returning some people to normal, right?" He glared at Gargoyle.
"Oh, yes," he said weakly, "Most certainly."
***
The Workplace, later Thankfully, the Gargoyle surrendered and freed his hostages without incident. That said, the day was far from over for Force Works.
"Okay, Tarene, we're going to take this slowly," Arsenal explained as he started the Training Room programming. "This exercise is designed to promote team work and control."
"Also, the point of this program is to get across the room doing the minimum amount of damage to the opposition," Kymaera added. She was a walking bruise from her battle with Tarene, but had volunteered to help train her so that it wouldn't happen again.
"Why?"
"Because if we cause to much damage during a real mission, Dani may have a heart attack," Namorita said flippantly. Tarene looked as her apprehensively. "I was kidding, dear. You simply need to learn some control, and this is one way to do it."
***
Rahne adjusted her light green dress one final time and looked at herself in the mirror. She was ready to meet Doug for dinner. She looked at her watch and saw that she still had time to have a talk with Dani before she left to meet Doug. Rahne for a moment considered her options. She already knew what Moira's reaction would be, she was afraid of what 'Nita would do and Kitty and Theresa were simply to far away (and then it might get back to Wisdom and then get really ugly).
No, as far as Rahne was concerned, Dani was the only person she could talk to about something like this. She exited her room, and shifted slightly to her wolf form, and searched for Dani's scent. Not surprisingly, Rahne found Dani walking alongside Edie Sawyer on their way to the pressroom on the lower level preparing to address the national media. Dani was so engrossed reading several reports given to her by other members of Force Works that she hadn't even noticed Rahne until she called out to her,
"Dani!"
"Huh? Oh, hi Rahne, what's up?"
"I'm aboot tae go in a date wit' Doug," She explained. Rahne rubbed the back of her head and bit her lip nervously, "I jus' wanted t' talk tae ye aboot somethin' first..."
She glanced towards Sawyer. "Privately," she added.
"She's a little too busy to be giving tips about dating," Ms. Sawyer remarked sharply.
"I'll see you in the press room in a moment, Ms. Sawyer," Dani said thru gritted teeth, her eyes locked on Sawyer. Edie got the message and quickly left. Dani waited until she was out of sight before turning to Rahne.
"Not that I like agreeing with that bitch, Rahne, but can it wait? I've got to explain why a member of Force Works threatened to throw someone into space, clarify and defend our position on mutant registration and give our opinion on the recent civil unrest in Genosha."
"Umm, I'm nae sure..."
"Please? I'm kinda overwhelmed at the moment."
"I guess it... ken wait."
"Thanks, Rahney." Dani gave her a quick hug and turned towards the media room. Rahne began walking towards one the elevators,
"Rahne! Hold up a sec!" Dani called out.
Rahne turned around, relieved, "Yes?"
"When you see Doug tonight, can you ask him if the Gargoyle's let slip who powered him up and sent him after us?"
That question hit Rahne like a sledgehammer, but Dani didn't even notice. "Aye," she stammered.
"Thanks, have a great time!" And with that, Dani turned her back on Rahne and entered the Press Room.
Rahne entered the elevator, and a single tear rolled down her cheek.
***
Later that night, in a run down hotel in Metro City
Jonathan Turner is a man currently loved by few. For a time, he was a member of the United States Congress. He ran on a virulent anti-mutant platform and was swept into office. In time, his electorate recognized that his racism was a symptom of his lack of ethics. He only barely escaped a bribery charge until he turned State's evidence, and his defeat in the next election was certain.
So not many will be moved to tears when he is found dead in a cheap hotel that charges by the hour tomorrow. Many will feel that he had it coming. Investigators will be swamped with hundreds of possible suspects. But they will be curious about one thing. Why, they wonder, was Mr. Turner's blood temperature over one hundred and fifty degrees for twelve hours after his death?
-The End-
"Hey, anyone here?" he called out, as he started to search the halls.
"Mr. Bobby!" a voice shouted. Arsenal turned, and saw a young girl with light gray skin and red hair running towards him. She leaped up into his arms, almost knocking him over.
"Hey, kiddo, where's your mommy?"
"Katie, you get back here this instant!" a voice ordered. A second later, Edie Sawyer, burst out into the hall after her daughter followed by Force Work's funder, Donald Parvenue.
"Never mind," he said as he set her down. Bobby, even after all this time, was amazed at how Katie looked so much like her mother. It went beyond normal family resemblance; Katie looked more like a younger clone of her mother.
"Ms. Sawyer, what brings you and Katie here?"
"We just stopped by to pick up Dani's reports," she answered as picked her daughter up into her arms. "You know better than to run off like that young lady," she scolded.
"I've a meeting in France and I thought Katie would like to see the city," Parvenue explained.
"Are you sure that France is a good place for such an impressionable young lady?" Arsenal joked.
"I hadn't thought about that. Tell me, Arsenal, how have you been holding up lately?" Parvenue asked, his voice laced with concern.
"I'm holding up just fine, sir. I've talked to Dani about Sublime, and he's next on our agenda. I would feel a lot better though if you stopped blaming yourself, sir."
"Well, always us rich men our guilt, eh? It's what lets us be so damn generous at times."
"Sir," Sawyer interrupted. "We have to be going. You're expected in France ten minutes."
"Ah, women," Parvenue sighed. "They're the only reason we men are on time. I'm afraid the rest of Force Works isn't here. Tarene is on monitor duty, and the rest of are at Columbia Pike, waiting for you. I'll see you later, Bobby," Parvenue said moments before he vanished in Ms. Sawyer's teleportation effect.
Arsenal made his way to a nearby window and opened it. He glanced down for a moment, observing the large crowd at the entrance of the Work Tower, most carrying pickets with one racist slogan or another. Roughly half of the men and women down there were members of the Friends of Humanity. They were down there protesting, what exactly Bobby wasn't sure. The other half were counter protestors, those who supported what Force Works represented. Arsenal jumped up on the perch, spread his wings and took to the air. Within seconds, he was over Columbia Pike street. Although he knew where they were supposed to be, Arsenal still had to search for hard for Force Works. Columbia Pike stretched thru seven city blocks, ending in front of an old high school. It used to be a joke in Metro City that Columbia Pike was the only thing that was straight and narrow in entire city. That was, until Force works set up shop.
He scanned the area, and saw Adam Sol, otherwise known as X-Treme standing on the ledge of a building over looking the street, watching the crowd below like a hawk and sitting out of place a few feet away from him was a bucket of baseballs. Arsenal set down beside him.
"You're late," X-Treme stated without ever taking his eyes off of the crowd.
"Yeah well, some kids needed some extra help with their history homework, and I have a heart. Sue me."
"Hey, I understand Bobby, but Dani might not. You told her that being a substitute teacher wouldn't get in the way of your duties as a member of Force Works."
"We're hardly saving the world today," he said defensively. He looked over the edge at the block party below. From what Arsenal had been told, the block party was to raise money for computer labs in several local schools. Force Works was on hand to help and assure everyone who lived in Metro City that Force Works was here to help the community as well as making a difference in the world. There were dozens of stands and tents set up, offering everything from corn dogs to ring tosses to amateur weight guessing.
"So, where is everyone and what have we got?"
"Rider, 'Nita, and Taki are giving personal tours of Metro City's Skyline, Rahne and Dani are reading fairy tales to some kids while you and I are delegated to security."
"And Spazball?" Adam pointed at the end of the block. Speedball was sitting inside of a dunk tank, shooting his mouth off as people tried to hit the bullseye.
"He's about to get a bath," X-Treme explained as he picked up a baseball. Taking a second to aim, Adam threw the ball towards Speedball. The baseball flew thru the air, hit the concrete, bounced into the dunk tank and from there ricocheted and hit the bulls eye before Speedball had even registered the fact that anything was thrown.
"You're evil, you know that?" Arsenal chuckled as he watched Speedball climb out of the water, loudly complaining about the malfunctioning seat and divine intervention acting against him.
"Don't say that," X-Treme scowled. Arsenal just rolled his eyes,
"Cripes, Adam. So your biological Dad, whom you never knew, was ass hole, but that doesn't make you one. Get over it already."
"My father, D'Ken, was like Hitler, Stalin, and Ahab rolled into one on crack. And given my father's known sadism, I doubt my mother, who ever she was, was given a choice in my creation! So forgive me if I'm a little sensitive about the subject!"
"Okay, okay!" Arsenal responded as he slightly back pedaled. "Point taken."
X-Treme noted how Arsenal was backing away and put his head in his hand, "Roosha, I'm sorry, Bobby. I'm almost beginning wish that Dr. Russell hadn't restored my memories."
"No sweat Adam, everyone's got a pet peeve. Though I should remind you, you were the one who chose to hack the Crystal Claw's data base after you and Captain Marvel blew it out of the sky*."
* (Captain Marvel and X-Treme blew the Crystal Claw's base up in Captain Marvel Volume 2 issue 3)
"And I regret it everyday, thank you. I wish Shi'ar computers weren't so tough."
"I doubt that," Arsenal muttered. "So, he said changing the subject, nice day isn't it?" "Excuse me?"
"That was me being overtly subtle, thus changing the subject of discussion from one that makes you uncomfortable to one that makes you comfortable. It's just something we Earthiers do every now and then."
Adam looked at him, puzzled. "Oh. O...kay...I guess the weather's fine..."
"See? You're getting the hang of it!" ***
"...And they lived happily ever after," Rahne finished. Behind her, an illusion of Cinderella and her dashing prince stepping into a carriage began to fade. The children, squatting in front of Rahne were completely enthralled by her reading, began clapping and demanding another story before Rahne even closed her book
" Yay, dat was great!"
"Awesome! Read 'nother one!"
"More! Read 'nother one! Pleeze!"
"Harry Potter, next!"
"Pokemon!"
"I need tae get somethin' tae drink first, wee ones," Rahne explained, "I'll be back in a moment."
Danielle Moonstar, otherwise known as the mutant hero Mirage, and leader of Force Works, watched Rahne leave the room that was currently serving as the day care center. While Rahne read to the children, Dani had used her power to project illusions of the story, bringing it to life for the children. Combined with Rahne's passion for story telling, it made for some very happy children.
"I'll bet you never expected a scene like this, eh?" a voice asked. Dani looked to her side and saw a short, African American man wearing a Homer Simpson shirt and carpenter jeans. The man's name was Malcolm Hearte, and though he hardly looked the part, he was Force Work's Public Relations consultant. He had dressed down so as not to stand out in this lower income area.
"What scene would that be, Mr. Hearte?"
"You know exactly what I mean, Mirage. Two mutant heroes alone with a room full of children with their parent's consent. NOT something that happens everyday, you know." Mirage shrugged, "I could care less. I'm more concerned about putting racist scum out of commission than being allowed to baby sit a bunch of kids."
"Love that 'devil may care' attitude, Mirage. That really wins the people over."
"Please excuse me, are you Mirage?" an elderly Asian woman asked as she approached Dani. Behind her were several other men and women, of various racial back grounds "That's what they tell me," Dani stated. Though she didn't show it, she began to tense, ready for anything. In her life as a mutant hero, she had learned that when someone sought you out, you were already in trouble. "Can I help you?"
"You already have," The woman replied as reached out her hand to greet her.
"Nightshade, she bleed my family dry for protection money. Her thugs steal from our grocery store all the time, and she do nothing. When we complain, she sick her men on my husband. Send him to hospital for three weeks. You stop her. Thank you very, very much."
By now, the woman had broken down in tears in appreciation, and was vigorously shaking Dani's hand.
Another person, this time a white, middle-aged man stepped forward. "Ms. Mirage, I'm not all that good with words, so I'll be blunt. I thought mutants were no good, and I said so loudly and often. But after seeing how ya helped clean up this city inside o' a day, well, ya made me eat every damn word. Thanks fer everythin'."
"Umm, thanks, I guess," Dani replied. As more and more people came forward to thank her, Dani glanced at Mr. Hearte.
"Wipe that damn smirk off your face," Dani muttered
***
"I'll take a ginger ale, please," Rahne ordered. The man behind the booth gave her her drink, and Rahne started to make her way back to the day care center. "I guess my favorite bitch has to watch her figure, huh?" a hand grabbed Rahne by the shoulder and spun her around. Before Rahne even had a chance to realize who it was, a young man then pressed his lips to hers and kissed her forcefully for several seconds before releasing,
"Doug!" Rahne exclaimed as she caught her breath, "What are ye doin' here?"
"My patrol took me by here, I figured I'd stop by and see how my favorite bitch's doing. Are we still on for tonight?"
"Umm, I...I'm nae sure," Rahne replied as she brushed her long red hair out of her face,
"I hoped... t' spend some time wit' Dani."
"What? Watching some kiddy movie? Come on, Rahne, I think we're the only ones who still like that stuff anymore. And it's not like she has time for you anymore. Besides, it'll be romantic!"
"I...alright. I'll see ye aboot seven o' clock?"
"Great. I'll see you tonight." He gave Rahne a kiss on the cheek and slapped her rear as hard as a parent might strike a disobedient child before he left. And as he left, Rahne bit her lip and looked longingly at Dani while she was conversing with Mr. Hearte.
***
United Front Office Building, Metro City
Gabriel Thorn, sitting at his oak desk, quietly studied the reports about Force Works compiled by his followers. Thanks in large part to Force Work's high profile nature; studying them was as easy as studying Michael Jackson, only more rewarding and less disturbing.
"Sir?"
Thorn looked up to see his young female assistant, Karen Starr, standing in the doorway.
"Your one o' clock appointment is here."
"Excellent. I trust no one saw him?"
"Only myself and Mr. Mackie who contacted him, sir."
"Thank you. See him in, would you please?"
Ms. Starr left for a second, and then ushered in a large, heavyset man covered in a heavy trench coat that barely disguised his bulk. The man was easily six and a half feet tall, and the boards beneath his feet complained loudly.
"Greetings, my young doctor. How are you?"
"Alive. Skip the small talk. You said that you could help me with my condition. I've been around long enough to know that means you want something."
"That's correct." Thorn slid the pictures of Force Works forward. "I believe you are familiar with several members, and I trust you recognize Force Works."
"And you want them dead?" the 'doctor' asked.
"No, no," Thorn chuckled, "I simply wish the people to see force Works for who they really are."
"What do you mean?"
"These, young beautiful men and women, strutting around, the center of attention, are dangerous," Thorn explained. "They don't deserve what they have, do they? Like you once, they are the center of attention, but they haven't sacrificed for what they have, have they?"
"No," the 'doctor' hissed, "they haven't."
"But you have, haven't you?"
"More than you could ever know."
"You would be surprised. And they haven't had their family turn away from them in disgust, but you have, haven't you?"
"Yes," the young man muttered, "and it's not fair..."
Thorn smiled at that. Unknown to the other man, Thorn was a low level telepath. Though now where near as powerful as the likes of Professor X or Marcus Raven, Thorn was very skilled with his telepathy. His telepathy let him know exactly what buttons to push, and how to react to anything the young man said, and as he did so, he slowly wormed his way into the man's mind, implanting certain thoughts and ideas, "They need to be exposed, don't they?"
"Yes, they do," the 'doctor' agreed. He turned to leave. "And they will be. Thank you Mr. Thorn."
Thorn clucked his tongue is disappointment. He had hoped that brainwashing the 'doctor' would have been a little more challenging. He hadn't expected the man to be so weak willed, but these things happened. The doctor would perform his mission with no memory of remembering their conversation about Force Works or even meeting Thorn.
But I guess living the rest of your life as a freak because of one mistake will do that to some men, he mused. He then pulled out his cell phone from his jacket and dialed a untraceable number,
"Mr. Hans, I have a job for you. I need a one Ms. Starr and Mr. Mackie eliminated. I'll meet your normal fee." Thorn rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Mr. Mackie was a loyal man who had been with him from the start. What's more, he was a family man with three children. "Correction. I need the Mackie family eliminated."
Tarene struggled with the Herculean task in front of her. Staying awake while on monitor duty.
"So...boring," she whined. Unknown to her, of course, was the fact that Dani only assigned her to monitor to keep her out of trouble. Tarene yawned, and began to lay her head down on the consul in front of her before it let up like a Christmas tree. Tarene read the read out intently.
{{Energy abnormalities detected in Aegis Park.}} The screen read out.
Tarene considered what to do. The consul simply said that there were abnormal energies detected in Aegis Park, nothing more. Dani had ordered her to contact her if something came up, but as far as Tarene knew, nothing had really come up. After all, abnormalities doesn't mean danger. After a minute of thought, she decided that she would check out Aegis Park personally, and contact the others if something was indeed happening.
As she walked out of the monitor room, Tarene began to hope that the anomaly that had been detected was actually something dangerous. For reasons she herself couldn't grasp, Tarene craved battle. To have the intoxicating adrenaline pumping thru her veins while she unleashed her incredible power against those unfortunate enough to stand against her. Truthfully, that was all she wanted from her life. Battle. The fact that she had no memories of who or what she was before being freed by Force Works didn't concern her in the least.
Once she was at the window, she threw her mallet into the air, and was flying towards Aegis Park. As she glimpsed the park from the air, nothing seemed amiss. The park filled with dozens of granite statues, but otherwise empty. Tarene set down in front of a statue resembling an elderly woman walking her dog.
"Wow, what attention to detail," Tarene remarked, as she looked the statue over. "I wonder where the artist is."
To Tarene's rather inexperienced eyes, nothing seemed wrong. The only time she had ever seen Aegis Park was from high above in the sky, and as far as she knew, statues in parks were a common occurrence. The thought that there were far too many statues oddly situated in the park also hadn't occurred to her.
"Right behind you," a menacing voice said seconds before Tarene felt a cold hand on her shoulder.
***
"And from here you can see the Mayor's office, and the museum of natural history." Takeshi Matsuya, otherwise known as Wiz Kid pointed out to the four people riding along with him on a hover platform created by his (newly renamed) tech-pack.
"That's Aegis Park, right?" one man asked.
"Yes, unless someone's changed it," Taki replied sardonically.
"Then why does it have a thousand statues when the city has refused for years to repair the three in it?"
Taki looked towards Aegis Park, and saw what the man was referring too. Even though they were two blocks away and over seventy feet in the air, dozens of stone statues could be seen.
"I'm afraid I'll have to cut this tour short."
Taki quickly returned his passengers to the block party, and alerted Force Works. Within a few minutes, the team was assembled at the south entrance to the park.
"Well, there's something you don't see everyday," Speedball commented as he looked at the dozens of stone statues that looked like otherwise ordinary citizens. "Unless you're freaks or, you know, us."
"What's the difference?" a gruff voice asked. Force Works turned around and saw Police Commissioner Stone, standing together with several other uniform officers.
"What can you tell us about what's going on?" Mirage asked.
"About half an hour ago, we got a call about to many statues in the park. I sent a few uniform officers in to investigate, and haven't heard from them since. I was about to call you guys before you got here."
"Any idea who's doing this?"
"Nope, though off the record and whoever he is, he's most like here because of you," Stone said bluntly.
"Gee, I guess we make for great scapegoats, huh?" Speedball asked.
" We're blocking off the park now. You guys go do what you have to, and do it quick, eh?" Stone said, choosing to ignore Speedball. He then walked away, issuing orders to his officers.
"Well, whatever's happening, I'm glad I don't have to play tour guide anymore. I've lost count how many times someone explained to me how I was betraying the human race by working with mutants," Nova grumbled.
"You should have threatened to drop them," Kymaera said nonchalantly, "I found that to be very effective method to ending debate."
"Should we call Tarene?" Arsenal asked.
"I'd rather not. She's still too inexperienced at the moment," Mirage replied. "She'd likely endanger more innocent bystanders with her power."
"She's never going to get any better if you keep her locked away in the Work Tower."
"True, but that's a matter for another day, X-Treme. Wolfsbane, scout ahead and see what you can find, we'll be right behind you." Mirage ordered, "Nova, Kymaera, stay close, we don't know what we're dealing with yet."
Rahne nodded and dashed into the interior, quickly followed by Force Works.
"Are you sure it's a good idea for Rahney to take point? She's not the most durable member, you know," Nova stated as they followed the young werewolf.
"I know her better than anyone else here. Trust me, she'll be fine."
Dani, I ken smell somethin' queer ahead. It smells like the other statues, not nae at the same time Rahne informed Dani over their shared psi-link.
Force Works soon saw what Rahne had detected. Standing next to the pond feeding the ducks was another gray male statue. But unlike the others that filled the park, it was both moving, and was far larger than all the others. The stone man stood seven feet tall, with broad shoulders wearing a gray cape that reached down to the back of his ankles.
"Gray Gargoyle, to what do we owe the displeasure?" Wiz Kid inquired.
Gray Gargoyle leisurely finished feeding the ducks the few crumbs he had in his hands and turned around to face Force Works.
"Metro City is, as I'm sure you are well aware, a prime piece of real- estate, and I'd like a slice," he explained, his fists glowing with power, "but something tells me that I would need to remove you youngsters first before I could get a taste."
"Blunt, and to the point. I like that it a man," Kymaera commented. "Overconfidence and greed, however..."
"By yourself? No offense, or even if you are offended, you're not even a morning workout for all of us," Speedball stated.
"Spread out team, I want to keep ourselves between him and any more innocent victims," Mirage ordered. Force Works quickly flanked the Grey Gargoyle, who didn't seem to care.
"A question, do you think I would come here alone? I'm not stupid, despite what you may wish to believe about me."
"Poor bluff," Wiz Kid retorted, "I scanned the park for any other superhumans before we entered. You're alone."
"I may be the only supervillain here, but I am far from alone!" Gray Gargoyle declared. He snapped his fingers, and the statues that littered the park came to life and looked at the members of Force Works. Moving slowly and mechanically, they began to advance on Force Works.
"Uh, did you guys know he could do that?" X-Treme asked as he unsheathed his sword.
"It's news to me," Arsenal answered as he spread his metal wings and took flight. "What do we do? We can't hurt them, they're innocent victims!"
"But we can hurt their boss!" Mirage shouted. Her took aim and unleashed one of her psychic arrows at Gray Gargoyle. The arrow flew thru the air, but moments before it struck the Gargoyle, it was intercepted by another energy blast. Mirage looked to see who had blocked her arrow.
"Taki! The hell?!" She asked just as she began dodging the Gray Gargoyle's stone army.
Thankfully, Dani was as quick as they were slow, even with her barely healed ribs. * (Dani broke her ribs last issue, Doctor David)
"We don't what effect it'll have on his victims," he calmly explained as he went about defending himself from the horde. "While I doubt there will be any ill effect if you unleashed your arrows on his army, if you strike the Gargoyle, the feedback may hurt his victims."
"Spirits, never the easy way," Dani muttered. "Arsenal, Kymaera, Nova, take him down, if that's okay with Wiz Kid."
"Crude but effective," Taki replied.
"I'll take point!" Arsenal offered. The three heroes flew towards the Gargoyle, but stopped dead when a golden mallet struck Arsenal square in the chest and set him flying into the trees. Both Kymaera and Nova stared in disbelief as the mallet returned from whence it was thrown.
"Your newest member is somewhat lacking in common sense, did you know that?" Gray Gargoyle said smugly as Tarene, cackling with power and transformed into stone like all of the Gargoyle's other victims, emerged from the heavens. "But that's alright. I'll take any convert to my cause that I can get. She's pretty powerful, no wonder the...want her back."
Gray Gargoyle paused for a moment. He had intended to say Everlasting, but didn't. He attempted to vocalize the word again, only to fail again. For a moment, he was overcome with rage about how his mind was violated. But he put those thoughts out of his mind for now. He was in the middle of a battle, after all.
Nova and Kymaera, for their part, hadn't even noticed.
"Once more with feeling, huh, babe?" Richard Rider asked his lover as they flew towards Tarene.
"Seems so," she answered. They struck as one, Nova hitting Tarene's face while Kymaera struck her square in the stomach. Despite the fact that they both cared for Tarene a great deal, neither pulled their punch. They knew exactly how dangerous she was, and knew it was up to them to put her down. Tarene was flung a few feet back thru the air before stopping. She lashed out with a right, connecting with Nova's face.
Boom!
Kymaera ducked another shot and tried not to think about the fact that Tarene had just hit her boyfriend so hard that he broke the sound barrier.
***
"For the record, there are about a thousand jokes I could me making, here," Speedball commented as he bounced over the dozens of stoned citizens. "But I'm not. And that's because I'm a little preoccupied with the thought of how exactly we are going to get out of this mess!"
"I'm working on it!" Mirage answered as she too dodged the moving statues. She unleashed two psychic arrows at them, disrupting their connection with the Gargoyle and stopping them for a few minutes. "Taki, any ideas?"
"If I could get one of these things to my lab, I might be able to come up with a solution, but I'm afraid I simply don't have the tools here," he said. To fight the onslaught, Taki had chosen to morph his tech-pak into a red make shift body armor. It looked mostly like an escapee from a bad manga cartoon.
"Then go, we'll hold the fort here!"
"I would rather not leave..."
"Get!" Dani snarled.
"Fine. Have a good time dying." Taki activated his boot jets, picked up a small dog that Gargoyle had turned, and flew towards the Work Tower. "Looks like it's a good thing I'm in favor of animal testing."
Dani turned towards her left, where Wolfsbane and X-Treme both avoiding the Gargoyle's victims. "Speedball, Wolfsbane, form on me! X-Treme, I need you to keep Gargoyle busy!"
"Understood." X-Treme broke off from the group he was dodging and charged at the villain. A half dozen turned citizens immediately sought to bar his way, but X-Treme leaped over and landed in a crouch directly in front of the Gargoyle without breaking stride.
"You must have really angered your leader if she ordered you to take me on," he remarked as he threw a right cross at X-Treme, "I've held my own against Thor, Hulk and countless other powerhouses. What chance do you have?"
"We'll see, won't we?" Adam replied with no bravo as he easily sidestepped the blow. He took a step back, and brought his sword forward. Without saying a work, X-Treme leaped forward, flipping over the villain. He twisted in midair, so that his stomach was over the villains' head and then brought the butt of the handle down directly into the Gargoyle's right eye.
"Arrgh! You blond bastard!" he screamed his clutched his eye. He swung around and lunged for X-Treme, infuriated by the injury. X-Treme easily sidestepped his lunge, and did a round house kick, connecting with the back of the Gargoyle's left knee, knocking it out from under him and sending him sprawling to the ground.
"I strongly suggest you surrender, I don't want to hurt you."
"I doubt that, you likely get off on fighting, you little punk!" Gargoyle hissed as he got up and swung at X-Treme.
"Actually, I take no joy in combat..."Adam explained as he ducked under the blow. X-Treme then leaped twenty feet into the air, tucking himself into a ball as he fell back towards the earth. Seconds before he would have him the Gargoyle, he straightened out, the heels of his feet slamming into the Gargoyle's face.
-Crack!-
With the twist of his right heel, the Gargoyle's stone nose was broken under X-Treme's foot. Faster than the eye could follow, X-Treme flipped back into a standing position on the balls of his feet while the Gargoyle clutched his face and broken nose
"...I'm just..." He paused for a moment, and sighed. "Extremely good at it."
"So, did you call us together just to watch X-Treme, or are we going to actually do something?"
Dani glanced at Gargoyle's stone army. Like she suspected, they slowed down even further. "Speedball, start expanding your field outwards and push Gray Gargoyle's army back. Rahne and I will start herding them together."
"What aboot Adam?"
"He'll be fine." Mirage answered, "Hell, It'll probably take a year for the Gargoyle to touch him." *** -Thoom!-
Nova and Kymaera crashed thru two office buildings before coming to a hard stop on the roof of an apartment building.
"This isn't going well," Nova said thru gritted teeth as he picked himself up.
"We...just...need to hold her off until the others stop the Gargoyle," Kymaera gasped. A lightning bolt struck the ground right in front of the two heroes, throwing them back. The stone form of Tarene emerged from the steam, ready for battle. She raised her mallet, and then paused. Both heroes tensed for an attack, but after a few long moments, realized that she had stopped.
"What's going on?"
"Maybe the Gargoyle's been defeated?" Kymaera suggested. That hope was quickly dashed, as Tarene started moving again.
"We're getting nowhere with this," Nova stated as they both flew into the air, barely avoiding another blow. "Hold the fort here babe, I got an idea."
Once Nova said that, he disappeared in a super sonic blur of blue and gold.
"Richie?" Kymaera looked around to find her lover gone, and her still stuck with Tarene.
"Suffering shad..."
***
"The hell with this!" The Gray Gargoyle declared as he backed away from X- Treme. All he had to show for his effort was a half dozen pains throughout his stone body. His form made him largely immune to nerve strikes and such, but not invulnerable, and X-Treme was very persistent. He looked towards the other members of Force Works, and saw them lying on the ground, broken and bleeding.
"Looks like my army has defeated your friends, just like they will you!" he shouted. A dozen stoned citizens came towards him, and quickly overwhelmed him. The Gray Gargoyle laughed as his puppets began to brutally beat X- Treme.
"Six down, and three to go! And then this city will be mine!" he shouted triumphantly. Standing behind the illusion of Force Works' defeat, the actual members of Force Works, with a recovered Arsenal, watched the Gray Gargoyle celebrating a faux victory.
"Nice work, X-Treme. I didn't even have to you to play along," Dani whispered.
"I try to keep an eye on everything going on in a fight," X-Treme explained
"What do we do aboot him now?" Rahne asked. "We cannae deceive him forever, an' Rich and Nita need our help!"
"We just have to hold out long enough for Taki to find a way to break his hold over his victims," Dani said confidently. "X-Treme, Wolfsbane..."
Before Mirage could finish giving her order, a blue and gold blue streaked by, and the Gargoyle vanished.
Gray Gargoyle blinked. A split second ago, he was bashing in victory over Force Works, and now he was looking at the North and South American continent. He looked up to see Nova holding onto his cape, dangling him like a fish on a hook.
"Like the view?" Nova asked, his face plate on his helmet closed. "Because it's the last time you'll see it if you don't stop your attack, and change your victims back."
"Again, do you think me stupid? You don't have the, pardon the pun, stones to kill me. And dropping me from even this height will hurt the earth more than it will hurt me!" he shouted to make himself heard.
"Who said anything about killing you?"
"Excuse me?"
"We're thousands of feet up, where the atmosphere is almost non existent, and you're not even breathing hard. I guessed that a man of stone didn't need to breath, and it looks like I was right."
"Oh?" Gargoyle realized his threat instantly, but started to stall for time. He still had one trump card left. "What does that matter?"
"It means that if I toss you out into space, I'll only be giving you a life sentence, not killing you."
"And what of my victims? They'll stay stone forever, you realize."
"Maybe. But we'll have plenty of time to find a cure for them," Nova replied in a calm tone that almost made the Gargoyle believe that he would in fact throw him into space.
"And what makes you think anything other than my power can reverse the process?" As he asked that, he glanced to the side and sighed in relief. Nova caught the glance, and saw what he was looking at.
Emerging from beneath the clouds was Tarene, rocketing towards them
"Call her off, or I'll use you as a human shield," Nova warned. Gargoyle simply smiled as Tarene swung her mallet and let it fly at Nova. True to his word, Nova brought the Gargoyle up and into the path of Tarene's mallet.
-Wham!-
The mallet hit the Gray Gargoyle directly in the chest, and knocked him over the continent of Africa before Nova caught him by the cape again, careful to stay out of arms length.
"Still doubt me?" he asked. "To be honest, I would love to use you for a baseball again, 'cause I'm not gonna get laid for the next three weeks because of you. You up for another round?"
For his part, the Gargoyle couldn't answer, he was simply in to much pain. Tarene came at them again, and the Gargoyle lashed out instinctively, transforming Tarene back to flesh and blood.
"You're just full of surprises today, aren't you?"
"Nova, where are we, what happened?" Tarene asked.
"We're at the outer edge of the atmosphere, and I'm guessing that you violated orders when we told you to call us if anything weird happened," Nova said bluntly, "but we'll talk about that later. We need to get back to Metro City, and see about returning some people to normal, right?" He glared at Gargoyle.
"Oh, yes," he said weakly, "Most certainly."
***
The Workplace, later Thankfully, the Gargoyle surrendered and freed his hostages without incident. That said, the day was far from over for Force Works.
"Okay, Tarene, we're going to take this slowly," Arsenal explained as he started the Training Room programming. "This exercise is designed to promote team work and control."
"Also, the point of this program is to get across the room doing the minimum amount of damage to the opposition," Kymaera added. She was a walking bruise from her battle with Tarene, but had volunteered to help train her so that it wouldn't happen again.
"Why?"
"Because if we cause to much damage during a real mission, Dani may have a heart attack," Namorita said flippantly. Tarene looked as her apprehensively. "I was kidding, dear. You simply need to learn some control, and this is one way to do it."
***
Rahne adjusted her light green dress one final time and looked at herself in the mirror. She was ready to meet Doug for dinner. She looked at her watch and saw that she still had time to have a talk with Dani before she left to meet Doug. Rahne for a moment considered her options. She already knew what Moira's reaction would be, she was afraid of what 'Nita would do and Kitty and Theresa were simply to far away (and then it might get back to Wisdom and then get really ugly).
No, as far as Rahne was concerned, Dani was the only person she could talk to about something like this. She exited her room, and shifted slightly to her wolf form, and searched for Dani's scent. Not surprisingly, Rahne found Dani walking alongside Edie Sawyer on their way to the pressroom on the lower level preparing to address the national media. Dani was so engrossed reading several reports given to her by other members of Force Works that she hadn't even noticed Rahne until she called out to her,
"Dani!"
"Huh? Oh, hi Rahne, what's up?"
"I'm aboot tae go in a date wit' Doug," She explained. Rahne rubbed the back of her head and bit her lip nervously, "I jus' wanted t' talk tae ye aboot somethin' first..."
She glanced towards Sawyer. "Privately," she added.
"She's a little too busy to be giving tips about dating," Ms. Sawyer remarked sharply.
"I'll see you in the press room in a moment, Ms. Sawyer," Dani said thru gritted teeth, her eyes locked on Sawyer. Edie got the message and quickly left. Dani waited until she was out of sight before turning to Rahne.
"Not that I like agreeing with that bitch, Rahne, but can it wait? I've got to explain why a member of Force Works threatened to throw someone into space, clarify and defend our position on mutant registration and give our opinion on the recent civil unrest in Genosha."
"Umm, I'm nae sure..."
"Please? I'm kinda overwhelmed at the moment."
"I guess it... ken wait."
"Thanks, Rahney." Dani gave her a quick hug and turned towards the media room. Rahne began walking towards one the elevators,
"Rahne! Hold up a sec!" Dani called out.
Rahne turned around, relieved, "Yes?"
"When you see Doug tonight, can you ask him if the Gargoyle's let slip who powered him up and sent him after us?"
That question hit Rahne like a sledgehammer, but Dani didn't even notice. "Aye," she stammered.
"Thanks, have a great time!" And with that, Dani turned her back on Rahne and entered the Press Room.
Rahne entered the elevator, and a single tear rolled down her cheek.
***
Later that night, in a run down hotel in Metro City
Jonathan Turner is a man currently loved by few. For a time, he was a member of the United States Congress. He ran on a virulent anti-mutant platform and was swept into office. In time, his electorate recognized that his racism was a symptom of his lack of ethics. He only barely escaped a bribery charge until he turned State's evidence, and his defeat in the next election was certain.
So not many will be moved to tears when he is found dead in a cheap hotel that charges by the hour tomorrow. Many will feel that he had it coming. Investigators will be swamped with hundreds of possible suspects. But they will be curious about one thing. Why, they wonder, was Mr. Turner's blood temperature over one hundred and fifty degrees for twelve hours after his death?
-The End-