Metro City
Death.
It had been a part of Danielle Moonstar's life since she was sixteen years old. Her parent's near death sent her down the dark path that led Charles Xavier to her, and her to the New Mutants.
It was with the New Mutants that Danielle became the most acquainted with death. She was chosen to become a member of the Valkyrior, choosers of the slain. And as an unforeseen side-effect, she could sense death coming. Sometimes she could fight it, sometimes she couldn't. But she could always, always sense it lurking about.
And unsurprisingly, she sensed it now. She and her team, using the omega teleporter Edie Sawyer, had just sprung their trap, King Bedlam's Cabal easily caught within the dimensional envelope the mutant assistant created.
Usually, the brief few seconds of such a teleport were a blur to those unaccustomed to it. But Mirage had flown shotgun with teleporters dozens of times. The short downtime allowed Mirage to reflect on what her supernatural sense was screaming at her.
Someone was going to die.
Setting her jaw, the young Cheyenne vowed that it wouldn't be a member of her team. Mirage was sick to death of death. No matter what burden she would have to carry later, she would see all her people home.
The light at the end of the tunnel showed itself quickly enough, and the cocky bastard Hodge hasn't even noticed their approach, preferring to gloat over the wounded Wolfsbane and X-Treme. Danielle laughed bitterly when she heard Hodge boast how it was over as they emerged from Sawyer's wormhole.
"Over?" Mirage demanded as she landed with the grace of a cat. Behind her both teams spilled outwards. Some were still disorientated, others, like Warhead and Nova were already going head to head in savage combat, "Hodge, it hasn't even started!"
&&&
Marvel 2000 Presents
Force Works 25
The siege of Metro City
Finale
"As I lay me down to Die."
&&&
The Work Place
It took Cameron Hodge a second to recover from the surprise of seeing Force Works, Edie Sawyer and their current enemy, The Cabal decked out before him. The bigot turned computer virus was certain that the young heroes would have defeated the other team before moving on to confront him. It never occurred to him that they'd attempt to do both at once!
Still, Hodge thought with a mental sneer, it wasn't that much of a problem. He still had access to Wiz Kid's full technological archive first and foremost among the hundreds of weapons designs he'd compiled from various sources, secretly or otherwise.
The Cabal and Force Works found themselves frozen in place and an odd, tingly feeling wash over their bodies. Hodge's soldiers swarmed towards them, weapons at the ready.
"Your Wiz Kid has some interesting weapons stored in his computer, did you know that?" Hodge mocked as he regarded his foes. The look upon King Bedlam's face was especially gratifying. The young man pain an almost pained look upon his face as he realized he no longer controlled the situation, "with but a thought and with the help of his rather ingenious tech packs I can turn those weapons against you."
"Oh please,' Taki rolled his eyes expressively, "you think you understand my weapons, but you certainly don't comprehend them."
Turning a single dial on his wrist controls, the force field protectors holding them in place exploded and the team moved into action without regard for the power dampeners.
Hodge, so smug in his own power, could only stand there dumbstruck as Force Works jumped into action.
Warhead and Nova locked horns again, and no one dared come between them. Warhead wrapped his gigantic paws around the Human Rocket's neck. Nova responded likewise, and the two powerhouses grappled for advantage, like two super charged and super powerful sumos.
But with few exceptions, it was decided that the army of robots surrounding them was the far greater threat. Tarene slammed her mallet onto the ground and lightning sprang forth, destroying a host of enemies. Speedball swept his hand outwards, taking out another wave. Lodestone lashed out blindly with her magnetic abilities, finding no shortage of enemies her powers gave her absolute control over.
"Sabre, get Rahne out of here!" Mirage snapped.
The Vietnamese mutant scooped up Wolfsbane in her arms and rocketed out of the Tower at twice the speed of sound. Her powers created a cone of air pressure around her (and thankfully anyone she was carrying) that served as an effective battering ram. Robots, walls and razor nets were smashed like glass.
Down the emergency stairs, through specially reinforced doors like a bullet through butter, the young heroine made it to the street with little trouble.
Zigzagging down the block and towards the hospital, Kim observed overturned cars, shattered store windows, fires burning freely and people doing a sickening imitation of wild animals. It reminded Kim of the war-zones she used to photograph, and she made a personal note to at least try to kick Hodge's ass if she ever got the chance.
Unsurprisingly, the emergency room of the local hospital was overwhelmed. People and doctors were rushing about, and with so many people Sabre had to slow down to normal, human speed. Unfortunately, that also meant she had to carry Rahne's full weight, who was barely conscious and a lot heavier than she appeared.
Gently setting the young woman down on her feet and slinging one of her arms across her shoulder, Sabre made her way inside, pushing EMTs and orderlies.
"We got injured here! Someone bring a damn gurney!" Kim shouted. In the chaos and pandemonium only one elderly doctor seemed to take notice.
"In case you hadn't noticed, we have injured everywhere! It's a war zone out there!" the doctor snapped, "find another E.R before your friends show up!"
Sabre could feel the blood sliding down Wolfsbane's back as she supported the young metamorph. Diplomacy needed to be quick, Kim decided.
"How many of these injured can tear apart your emergency room at two hundred miles per hour?" Kim asked in a hushed voice, "care to tell me that?"
The doctor's face became as white as a ghost, "You wouldn't dare. The people here…!"
"I would, because I'm more concerned about the hero right here! A two hundred mile per hour temper tantrum is a morning jog to me. No one would ever see me and my alibi would be that I was hundreds of miles away. Get her a gurney and into surgery now!"
"Harry!" yelled the Doctor quickly, "get me a gurney and find an open O.R. now!"
After that, the staff moved pretty damn fast, even by Sabre's standards. Unfortunately, now that that was accomplished, Sabre was no useless, at least by her own standards. Mirage had ordered her to stand guard. The logic was two fold. First, it would prevent a hostage situation if Hodge tried to send his soldiers out to collect Rahne as a bargaining chip and second, it kept what Mirage saw as a random element (Sabre herself) out of the battle and our of their hair.
"Mirage, I hope you know what you're doing…" muttered the speedster.
&&&
"Do you idiots know what the hell you're doing?" Edie Sawyer screeched as energy, missiles and bullets flew over her head. The executive assistant tried to teleport out the second she's deposited the two battling teams, but she found some force held her in place. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't form a teleport tether, and without that there was no telling where she's end up. So Edie wisely chose to stick close to Wiz Kid, the team genius and probably the only person who could help her escape.
"Of course," answered Taki as she strolled casually towards Hodge's doomsday devise, "you needn't worry about stray shots, by the way. My tech pack is generating a transformative energy field. Anything Hodge directs at us will miss by a large margin."
That was when of course a miniature missile began careening towards them. Unable to teleport away, Edie instinctively covered her face and as such, didn't see the deadly weapon change course in mid air and continue to fly past where it careened with a wall and exploded harmlessly.
"Is that why I can't get the hell out of here?" snapped Edie, fear quickly curdling into anger.
"I doubt it," Wiz Kid answered, though his tone was unconvincing, "consider it karmic justice for when you dropped us into the middle of Factor X's battle not too long ago. I suspect Hodge accessed one of my uncorrupted files about devises that could anchor you here. I build flaws into most of the devises in my files as a failsafe should they fall into enemy hands. Most, but not all."
"Should I worry that weapons you created against me weren't on that list?" Sawyer's accusation was dripping with venom.
"Teleporters are always a security concern," answered Wiz Kid, "besides, none of this would have happened without your help."
Sawyer's heart stopped. The memory was clear as day, handing over her files on Force Works, their abilities, weaknesses and even favorite actors to King Bedlam. She had done so because she felt Force Works was a threat to her employer and honestly believed King Bedlam's plan had the potential of succeeding. Never in her wildest dreams did she think things would escalate into this debacle, "…I have no idea what you're talking about!"
"I constantly police and manipulate all information in any data base outside our own has on Force Works," Wiz Kid explained. He and Sawyer were now standing only ten feet away from Hodge's weapon, about as close as Taki wanted to get, "you downloaded information about us and allowed King Bedlam's people to steal it. Your poor judgment led us all too where we are now."
Wiz Kid's tone revealed nothing about what he really thought about his accusation, but Edie was already in full blown defensive mode, "Don't you scapegoat me for this…!"
"Shut up. Please," Taki said quickly, removing several devises from his oversized pockets and placing them on the floor. With a mental command, the small square devises sprouted three pairs of spider-like legs and began scurrying towards the devise, "I need to concentrate. I shudder to think what might happen if this weapon were improperly disarmed, and once I've done that I still have to see to Hodge. Now, don't distract me…this will need to be a delicate operation."
"Arrggghhh!" Nova and Warhead roared like angry lions, grappling with one another with little concern for where they were heading, slammed into Hodge's weapon and shattered it into dozens of high tech junk without ever realizing what they'd done.
"Or we could just smash it," Wiz Kid sighed.
"God damn it why won't you go down?" the Human Rocket snarled as he activated his powers, hovering above Warhead so that he was looking down upon the giant human shaped reactor he was pummeling, "I never did nothing to you you didn't deserve Warhead!"
Warhead reached out and grabbed Nova around the waist with his monstrous hands and slammed him down harshly on the metal floor. Warhead began pounding on his foe like a drunken brawler, relying on his greater size to give him the advantage, "When you took down my employers, you might have well taken my life! I have nothing now, because of you!"
Energy from Hodge's weapons coursed through Nova's veins now, and he directed it towards Warhead via his eyes. The villain stepped back and Nova tackled the man and activated his flight powers. The two flew outwards with the speed of a cruise missile, tearing through steel and concrete until they reached open air. Releasing his grip on his old foe, Nova blasted his enemy with a gravity pulse, giving himself some breathing room.
Warhead quickly righted himself in midair and came barreling back. Nova easily flew over the attack.
"I'm about done with talking to you Warhead. Last chance, walk away. We keep this up, one of is gonna die."
"Fine by me," Warhead growled.
&&&
Hodge, by his nature, was an organizer, a consummate planner. He thought well in advance, examined the possibilities and covered as many contingencies as possible. But he was far from perfect, as this FUBAR situation proved. The collected heroes and villains were tearing his regular soldiers to pieces.
Thinking quickly, Hodge came up with the most practical solution he could think of.
"Attention, members of the Cabal," Hodge's voiced echoed loudly through out the building, "kill Force Works, and I will see fit to give you leniency and allow you to leave unharmed. Continue to battle me, and I'll hang your bloated corpses in the street. I thank you in advance for your cooperation."
"Ha!" Conquest snorted as she cleaved one robot in two, "and if we kill them and you, shade? What be our reward then?"
Unfortunately, not all members of the Cabal were as wary of Hodge as Conquest was, as X-Treme discovered when Delilah's foot collided with his back. Normally that alone was painful enough, but X-Treme had already endured a series of injuries breaking into the Work Place and so he fell forward, dropping his sword and fighting to stay conscious.
Delilah wasn't one to waste an opportunity. She brought her foot straight up and brought it crashing down like a sledgehammer. Adam crossed his arms across one another to blow the blow, but even blocked the blow was enough to sink him down into the metal of the floor and nearly break his wrists, and Delilah was ready to do it again.
Removing two nine inch daggers from his belt, X-Treme sliced into her calf muscle perfectly, neatly slicing tissue while missing bone and vital arteries by a (relatively) wide margin.
The super strong woman screamed something loud and unladylike. X-Treme scrambled up and was quick to put a little distance between himself and his foe.
Removing the blades from her leg with a grunt, Delilah eyed the alien warrior. At this juncture, threats were useless and declarations empty at best and a distraction at worst. Delilah charged with the intent kill X-Treme with his own weapons while the Shi'ar warrior struggled just to stay conscious, let alone alive.
&&&
"This all you got, Hodge?" Mirage stood back to back with Kymaera. Nearby Charcoal melted the automations to slag while Mad Cap and Smiling Tiger moved like true animals of prey.
"Not hardly," smirked the villain. He motioned dramatically thumbs down towards the collected heroes and villains, and the floor beneath them began to rumble and shake.
"Hold on!" Wiz Kid stopped his preparation, grabbing Edie with one hand and forming an energy blade in the other and plunging it into the wall. No sooner had he done that than almost the entire floor beneath them collapsed into what looked like a giant steel sink hole. Only Taki and Edie escaped the fearsome plunge, spared because of their proximity to Hodge's weapon.
&&&
Tarene felt the ground beneath her move, and was about to cast her mallet into the air when she felt a whip wrap around her neck. Clutching at her throat desperately, she barely heard Conquest's proclamation.
"We have tallied with the mortals too long, sister dear."
Conquest snapped her whip, and the young Thunder Goddess was pitched to the floor with such force she created her own metal crater. Not giving her sister a moment's respite, Conquest landed squarely upon Tarene's stomach, the force of the blow carrying them both to the floors beneath.
"Our matters of family simply cannot wait."
&&&
"Better?" smiled Hodge. He'd abandoned his robotic form in favor of a holographic projection. It would be less trouble that way, the bigot reasoned.
Danielle, on her hands and knees, coughed and mentally tried to organize all the pain signals she was getting from her body. Everything hurt, pain am bad and nothing was broken was what she finally came up with.
"Just a little bit," groaned Mirage. The entire floor was poorly lit, but thanks to a few hanging power cables and a small fire or two. As far as she could see, both teams were fine, which was a blessing as far as her team went, but a damned pain in the ass as far as the Cabal was concerned.
"Get away from her Hodge!"
A familiar energy blast struck the ground between Mirage and Hodge, and for a moment the leader of Force Works thought her teammate Arsenal had come to assist her, but what she actually saw disabused her of that notion.
"We got your distress call!" Cyclops, leader of the X-Men announced as he strode forward alongside Iceman, Beast, Gambit and Domino, "we came as quickly as we could!"
Mirage took only a second to process the situation. Removing her grandfather's knife hunting knife from her belt, she threw it with expert aim where it embedded itself right between Iceman's eyes. While the X-Men were still processing this information, Mirage dove behind an upturned piece of flooring, and not a moment too soon. Gambit threw his charged cards; Cyclops unleashed his optic blasts while Domino began firing her sidearms with abandon.
"My, that was quick. How did you know they were really LMDs?" Hodge once again appeared before her like some ever present spirit and worse, he was annoyingly conversational.
Keep him talking, keep him focused on the battle, Danielle had to remind herself. She reached into her belt for another weapon, one made for emergencies. Her telepathic arrows would be useless against the LMDs (Shield had tested that before sending her undercover), but Force Works was nothing if not prepared. She pulled out a small, half foot long pole with a spear shaped head. With the flick of a button, it expended to a length of six feet and began channeling the power she normally used for her psychic arrows into telekinetic force. With any luck, it would allow her to scrap these pieces of junk.
"Two things," behind her mask Mirage closed her eyes and listened, mentally placing her four foes. Instead of spreading out and catching her in the crossfire, they were bunched together, using their simulated powers to chip away at the chunk that Mirage was hiding behind, "one, you screwed up our verification codes. It's not like any idiot can call up the X-Men or anyone else and get an actual response. Second, a knife to the head wouldn't have hurt Iceman. Hell, the real X-Men would have killed me by now."
Mirage shot out of her hiding place like a rabbit out of its hole. Using her spear to vault towards the group, she nailed the Gambit LMD perfectly in the face, disabling it as she came down with the robot Cajun's face underneath her feet.
Aiming her spear at the Cyclops LMD, Mirage prayed she's practiced enough with Taki's damn experimental weapon. It fired like it was supposed to, leaving a giant smoking hole in the faux X-Man's chest.
The young Cheyenne warrior looked up to see a monstrous form descending on her and raised her spear just in time to impale the fake Beast, with considerable effort and quick thinking, Mirage slung the non functional Beast towards the robotic Domino, who couldn't move fast enough to dodge the 400 pounds of artificial robotic mutant.
The albino LMD was knocked flat on her ass and her guns clattered away, but she wasn't finished yet, producing two long knives from behind her back.
"There a point to this, Hodge?" Mirage blocked one blade with her spear and sidestepped the other. Dani instantly recognized the fighting style from her days in SHIELD and felt confident she could handle both this pathetic copy of her old teammate and Hodge at once, "these things aren't fit to lick the boots of the X-Men. Am I supposed to feel conflicted about destroying them?"
Surprisingly, the bigot was silent.
Mirage landed a snap kick on Domino's left kidney, disrupting vital systems within the robot (as revealed by her SHIELD instructor) and for a moment, turned away from the thing to address only Hodge, "And you know what? You're just a pale shadow of a man. You're not even fit to lick the boots of these…things."
Aiming her energy spear towards the (vaguely insulting) LMD of a past teammate, Mirage hesitated for a moment when she saw her current teammate Kymaera streaking towards her.
"I'm good 'Nita, help someone…Nita?"
Mirage went limp and threw herself backwards just as the blow landed. It was the only thing that saved her from an instant death. The blow was still more than enough to send the young mutant flying through the air like a golf ball. The collusion with the wall barely registered, but that was because Danielle was already a big ball of pain. Again.
"The point, young mutie, was bait and switch," Hodge coolly explained as both the Domino and Kymaera LMDs smugly strode to where Dani was propped up against the wall, the world spinning madly around her.
"Do you honestly think that this rag tag team could really make a difference?" scoffed Hodge, "has it ever occurred to you why people like the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Thor and all the others are so well loved while mutants are loathed so fiercely?"
"The thought crossed my mind," Mirage managed to force out through gritted teeth. 'Keep the bastard talking' was now both a battle tactics and her sole chance of staying alive.
"Because they capture the imagination," Hodge explained, "A family transformed by cosmic rays, a 98-pound weakling into the greatest fighting machine in the world, a God walking among mortals…people look at heroes like the FF and see what they hope to be, what they think they might be."
Hodge regarded Mirage carefully, "But when they see mutants, they just see the flaws and imperfections. They see themselves. Ironic, isn't it? Super heroes are loved for being different, and mutants…are hated for being human."
"And what do you see us as?" Danielle snapped angrily.
"I know you as freaks of nature. God created man equal, ergo mutants are not men. Good bye, Moonstar."
The fake Domino and Kymaera hadn't taken a step before a large plume of flame reduced to two automations to molten slag. The ebony form of Charcoal stepped forward, and Mirage never thought the saying 'out of the frying pan and into the fire' was more apt.
Thankfully, violence wasn't on Charlie Burlingame's mind. At least, not towards Force Works.
"I know it sounds cheesy, but I wanna switch sides. Got room for a brutha?" Charcoal extended his ebony carbon hands, helping Mirage to her feet.
"Depends, why the switch?"
"Traitor!" A single jagged metal pylon burst through Charcoal's chest like the baby from Aliens. If it hurt too much, Charcoal didn't show it, his arms igniting as he turned to face Lodestone.
"Because these guys woulda done that to me once they finished you guys off," Charcoal unleashed a wave of flame directed at Lodestone. The magnetic villainess reached out with her powers and pulled up an entire section of the floor to protect herself.
"They promised to help me find a friends killer. Promise to help me with that, and I'm all yours."
Charcoal's voice sounded like two boulders rubbing together, but underneath it Danielle could easily sense the young boy underneath that artificial body. Life as both a hero and mutant taught her not to judge by appearances.
"Deal."
&&&
"I will not be brushed aside like this!" raged King Bedlam as he courageously stood behind his girl friend and her tarot card creations. The Ace of Swords, Death and Knight of Pentacles fought back against Hodge's shock troops, King Bedlam's telepathic powers were about as useful as a dry sponge in the desert.
"I fear you have little choice, my love," Tarot observed. The two fated lovers were cornered, boxed in by Hodge's storm troopers. For now at least, Tarot's powers were enough to hold them off, but who knew how long that would last?
"Fight harder, damn you! We can still win this if we rally our team!"
"What team?" snapped Tarot. Bedlam fumed, but couldn't deny the truth. Warhead was nowhere to be seen, neither was Conquest. Charcoal had broken his conditioning somehow, and the rest were fighting for their lives.
"I won't leave! I refuse! We can still win this!"
Tarot eyed her card intently, a reverse Queen of Swords, "As you wish, Cherie."
King Bedlam never saw the Queen that rendered him unconscious with the butt of her sword. A Knight took picked up Bedlam's senseless form and Tarot withdrew her Satan card, adding all the power she could spare into it. The winged, foul smelling and looking beast ploughed through its opposition with his comrades and Tarot close behind and didn't stop when it reached the far wall. Parting the metal wall like tissue, Tarot fled upon the back of her creation with her unconscious lover. As she suspected, Hodge did nothing to stop her. Why would he?
It was the heroes he hated.
"Bedlam you asshole!" roared Lodestone as she watched her 'esteemed' leader flee, "get back here!"
"Hey, 'Stoney!" Charcoal's carbon face became a twisted smile, "guess what I learned on the 'net?"
A ring of scorching fire surrounded the magnetic villainess, the wall of flame so hot she could feel it through her metal armor. But what was more worrying than the wall of flame was the fact Lodestone could feel her power draining away
"Heat a magnet, and it'll lose its charge. Ain't google great?"
Lodestone dove deeper into her power than she ever had before, rage at both Charcoal for betraying them and Bedlam for deserting them was perhaps the only thing that sustained her powers now. Reaching out and grabbing a loose pylon, she was about to expend all her strength to hurl it at Charcoal when she felt the oddest burning sensation around her wrist accompanied by the smell of burnt meat. Numbly, she looked at where her right wrist had once been and screamed when she saw it was no longer there.
"Oh my god!"
Lodestone's anger had, unfortunately, blinded her to the fact that Hodge's tin soldiers were still very much active. Charcoal didn't hesitate to leap into the air, tackling the Egg soldiers who'd snuck up upon his former teammate.
Mirage close behind, jumping the wall of flames to grab the stunned (to put it mildly as hell) Lodestone before she fell face first into the flames
Charlie swung his arm outwards, uncoiling it like some giant snake. The Egg Soldiers, a dozen in all, were cleaved in two. They hadn't hit the ground before the former Thunderbolt spun around to face Mirage.
"Is she alright? God, I swear I didn't mean to…!"
"She's fine," Mirage reassured him, "she just passed out from shock. She'll live."
"Arrgh!" Charcoal roared as his back became inflamed with pain. Weapons that seemed to be natural extensions of the floor and walls themselves were spewing forth energy like a hydrant expelled water.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Am I interrupting?" Hodge
The former Thunderbolt pushed past the pain and shifted his body's molecules until they were as hard as a diamond, and began a forward march to destroy the cannons while Mirage covered his back. Even if he'd switched sides and eased the weight on his conscience, but Charcoal realized he was still far from safe.
&&&
"He's forgotten about us."
Edie Sawyer stared as Wiz Kid with complete disbelief, "And that's a bad thing?"
The two mutants were sitting on what remained of the upper floor. The perch was little under two feet, enough to sit comfortably on (if one could really be comfortable in the middle of a pitched battle) but not much else. Edie hugged her knees close to her chest while Taki actually had the tenacity to stand up.
"…just an observation." Wiz Kid said hastily.
"Shouldn't you be helping your teammates instead of just standing there!" she accused.
Wiz Kid simply to the cables and wires that ran from his tech pack and into the wall, "I am helping. In fact, I intend to give Hodge everything he wants."
&&&
How did it come to this?
Speedball asked himself that question over and over as he and X-Treme fought off Smiling Tiger, Delilah and Madcap. The trio had finally decided that killing Force Works was the only way to survive the battle (at least Smiling Tiger and Delilah had. Madcap was just bat-shit insane). Cut off from their teammates, the unlikely duo fought side by side just to stay alive.
A blast of kinetic energy threw Madcap backwards while X-Treme's boot connected with Smiling Tiger's face. The blow was glancing, and Smiling Tiger simply reeled from it at best, Adam observed.
The two heroes then dove to the side as Delilah came barreling forward. X-Treme pitched a grenade at her back while Speedball tossed his own personally bubble bombs. Both exploded with enough force that Delilah was lifted off her feet and thrown into the air like an errant golf ball, coming down atop a pile of rubble.
Speedball and X-Treme didn't have a second to savor their victory, though. Capture cables, Egg soldiers and LMDs of the original New Warriors sprang up around them. Almost mechanically Speedball lashed out at the robotic doubles. He was smart enough not to equate these things with his friends who'd he'd fought alongside.
X-Treme decapitated the Night Thrasher and Firestar robots in one fluid motion while dodging the machine gun fire of the Egg soldiers. At first, Speedball thought it was cool to watch X-Treme do his mojo (it was like watching Bruce Lee on crack), but now he was just numb to it.
Worse, Robbie found that no matter how hard he fought, he couldn't banish the fear gnawing in his gut. It wasn't the usual 'I might not be able to save the world/someone' fear that he was long accustomed to, not it was the unusual and powerful fear of 'are we doing the right thing?'
It wasn't a completely new fear, of course. He'd felt it a few times working with the New Warriors, but the feeling became stronger and stronger the longer he stayed with Force Works. He knew at least half the problem they faced now was because of their heavy handed manner in which they dealt with the local drug trade. Speedball knew they couldn't ignore it, and perhaps he couldn't think of another solution right this second, but he knew without a doubt they'd screwed up royally, and it had come back to bite them in the ass at the worst possible time.
Speedball was about to finish off the last LMD impersonator when he felt himself overcome with a terrifying realization. Speedball was so stunned by the personal revelation that he'd forgotten about the Kid Nova LMD that was trying to kill him.
The faux Nova grabbed Speedball around the throat and began to squeeze, hard. In less than ten seconds Speedball was close to blacking out and another five from death when a sword burst through the thing's chest, deactivating it.
"You okay?" X-Treme caught Speedball before he could fall on his ass choking, seemingly oblivious to how Speedball really resented the alien warrior of late (which of course only made Speedball resent him more. Even heroes are allowed to be petty), "you seemed to zone out there for a second."
Speedball coughed roughly for several seconds, taking a few deep breathes before his throat felt like making anything resembling human noises. Looking around quickly, Speedball observed the a half dozen destroyed Egg soldiers plus the demolished LMDs of Marvel Boy and Namorita he'd personally scrapped.
"I sorta shocked myself," Speedball explained, "is it a good thing when you're so good at violence you don't even think about it?"
Adam felt a chill run down his spine at the thought before he answered from the heart, "Never."
&&&
-Wham!-
Tarene felt time slow almost to a crawl as her battered body soared across the empty room, coming down upon spare equipment Wiz Kid just didn't feel like shipping into warehouse storage.
"Isn't it sad, sister?" Conquest mocked, looking entirely too fresh considering the fact the entire city resembled a war zone, "by criminal companions desert me, and your so called friends desert you just as easily. Our friends aren't so different, Tarene, nor are we."
"Except my friends save lives!" Tarene hissed as she struggled to her feet.
"It appears they can't be bothered to save yours," Conquest dashed forward almost casually. Tarene swung her mace towards her twin sister, but the armored goddess jumped over it as easily as one might walk down the street, drew her legs back and then lashed outwards. Tarene skid across the floor like a hockey puck.
Planting her feet, Tarene came to a screeching stop and aimed her war mallet towards her foe.
"I can save myself!"
Dozens of bolts of lightning flowed out of her hammer like some deadly light show. Conquest, no matter how skilled couldn't hope to dodge and was struck with enough electricity to kill a herd of elephants.
"I know you think I'm stupid and naïve," Tarene strode to her sister's side. Grabbing her about the throat, Tarene lifted her up and then slammed her against the floor as if Conquest were just some stuffed animal, "but I don't care. I know we're different! I try to help build things, all you can do is tear them down!"
This time, it was Conquest who went sailing into the air.
"You think you're better than me? Pul-leeze! Anyone can abuse power. You're weak. I'm strong, because I strive to make something better than myself!"
"How inspiring," Conquest twisted in mid air and landed on her feet easily, "perhaps you're right. Perhaps you're stronger than me in some ways."
Conquest produced a knife from her belt and threw it with expert aim. The dagger sunk into Tarene's hand, forcing her to drop her war hammer. Tarene instinctively tried to snatch it back up, but a whip tightened around her legs and yanked her away from the golden weapon.
"But your killing instinct is as dull as a rock," Tarene skidded to a stop at the feet of her twin sister. It wasn't until then, when Conquest held her sword her head ready to crack Tarene's skull open like a watermelon, that the young Thunder Goddess finally saw the terrifying resemblance they shared, "it's a pity too. I so wanted a sister."
"Well, get your ass away from mine!"
Conquest, so smug in her victory, was shocked speechless. She spun around and a steel fist smashed into her jaw, dislodging a tooth or two.
"I got held up by some cannon fodder," Arsenal followed up with a left hook that snapped Conquest's head to the side, "looks like I got here just in time."
"Foolish mortal," Conquest caught the next punch within her palm easily, "if anyone has to fight me, it's already too late."
Conquest quickly head-butted Arsenal right between the eyes, bending his steel nose into a misshapen form. Almost immediately Bobby could feel his eyes beginning to swell as two black eyes developed. His healing factor was diminished when he used his steel form, and changing back to human simply was not an option. Arsenal was smart enough to know that with a single move, Conquest had taken away nearly half his abilities. If he had trouble seeing, he couldn't fly or shoot his optic blasts, and if he changed back to human form to allow quicker healing he'd be dead in seconds.
Conquest kicked Arsenal across the stomach and brought her fist down across his face. Bobby stumbled, but didn't go down. He released his bone claws and thrust them towards Conquest's gut where they shattered like tooth picks.
Arsenal's world then exploded in a blur of lights, colors and pain. His body seemingly bounced back and forth from Conquest's fists, knees or foot, but each and every time the faux mutant got back up.
"How many times do I have to keep stepping on you, mortal bug?" Conquest demanded as she ground the hero's skull underneath her boot heel.
Arsenal replied with something witty and insightful, but it between the nearly fractured jaw, his face pinned to the floor and enough blood to fill a soda bottle in his mouth, well…it was lost to history.
"Hey, sister!" Conquest spun around to see Tarene spinning her hammer over her head with a righteous fury that was terrifying to behold. Tarene released her hammer, and Conquest watched in careen towards her like a deer caught in headlights. The War Goddess didn't even register the impact at first. One moment she was frozen in fear, the next she was miles in the air, hurtling towards the ocean from some twenty stories up, and falling fast.
"You broke your own rule. You left your back wide open," Tarene sneered as she caught her returning hammer.
"Way… to go kiddo," Arsenal used the last of his strength to roll over onto his back, his face an ugly picture of twisted metal, "showed that… bitch."
"Oh god, your face…" Tarene knelt down beside him.
"I'll heal," Bobby reassured her as returned to flesh and blood. Tarene could see the bone and tissue of Arsenal's swollen already knitting back together into its Sublime intended form.
Tarene had to admit, it looked kinda gross. How could healing be called a cool power?
"I'm just glad I made it in time. You alright, Tarene?"
Tarene cradled her wounded hand to her stomach, "Nothing's broken. You meant what you said right? That we're family?"
"'Course. Always have been, always will be. Give me a few seconds to heal, and we'll even have a family reunion on Hodge's head, just for you!"
&&&
When people of Metro City looked up into early morning sky above the city docks, their first thought was that there was somehow a second miniature errant sun in the sky. A globe of pure energy and yellow light simply hung in the sky perfectly, like some perfect magic ornament. But the truth was far uglier.
The nuclear powered Warhead was directing every last once of radioactive power towards the Man Called Nova, hoping desperately to kill him. The Human Rocket answered with his own energy blasts, fueled by the Nova Force.
There was little doubt in Nova's mind who would win this contest. Richard had come out on top nearly every time he fought. But out here, in the open, Nova hoped that he could safely dispatch Warhead without making his entire team sterile, and it seemed to be working.
Warhead disregarded every last HUD and warning light built into his bulky frame. After all, he didn't get where he was by intelligence. Warhead had been once a normal man, a sociopath who'd killed a family while seeking refuge from the police for yet another murder. Soon after that, Nova had caught him while he was in a stand off with police, ignoring his bullets and handing him over to the police.
They executed Warhead for his crimes. But his story didn't end there. A powerful organization, looking for the perfect weapon against the Human Rocket resurrected him. As if handing Warhead over to be executed wasn't enough reason for the man to want to see the hero dead, they implanted the thought that Nova had killed his brother. Even though Warhead now knew that to be a lie, he hated Nova with a passion. Nova and Nova alone was responsible for getting Warhead killed.
It, his energy projectors just one inch away from overloading, that warhead finally realized the truth his brain was too stupid to grasp earlier. True, Nova handed him over to the police where he was executed. But it was because of Nova that he'd been resurrected. It was because of Nova that he had a second chance at life with power he never even imagined.
"Nova, wait…!" Warhead's next few words were drowned out by explosions in both his arms, the coils that moved power from his chest generator to his wrists finally throwing up their hands in defeat. But Warhead didn't fall far.
"I gave you a chance, Warhead," Rider looked his enemy straight up and down, and quickly determined he was beyond saving. Warhead's arms were now melted stumped, but Nova could see steam still rising from inside the villain's cracked innards. There was little doubt Warhead was about to live up to his namesake, "not that you ever deserved it."
With a soldier's mindset, Richard Rider pitched Warhead out to sea. The man's impending death didn't trouble Rider as much as he thought it might. Nova had tried everything he could think of to prevent things from ending like this, but in the end the responsibility rested upon Warhead's shoulders. The man was a killer. Nova was a protector.
Sometimes, the world really was that simple.
&&&
Conquest was paddling back to shore, an impressive feat considering the number of ruptured internal organs she currently had, when she noticed a source of light descending down upon her. Looking up, she could just barely make out the form of her teammate Warhead.
"Oh Hel…"
Warhead's explosion covered some two and a half miles and would have leveled several city blocks had it happened within city boundaries, and could be seen for miles in every direction. Once the light faded, the only thing within the blast radius that moved was the ocean itself.
&&&
Growing up, Hodge always hated watching boxing. It wasn't that the boxers possessed the physical ability that Hodge lacked, making the scrawny book worm feel physically inferior like always. Well, that was one reason. But the main one was that the fights just lasted too blasted long.
Hodge liked his fights quick and clean, full of energy. Two sweaty, tired men pounding on each other wore out its welcome after about ten minutes, in Hodge's opinion. And that was exactly what had happened here.
Force Works has destroyed every last piece of weaponry Hodge had managed to co-opt, beat down all present members of the Cabal and to his surprise, remained standing, though limping was a little more accurate. Kymaera's webbed hands were ripped and torn, crimson blood dripping on the floor. Each breath caused Mirage pain but she refused to clutch her side in pain. Arsenal looked as if he'd gone ten rounds against Mike Tyson. Nova resembled a man just off the front lines, his face covered with black and soot marks. Speedball was perhaps about the only member of the team who wasn't sporting serious bruises, a few broken bones, deep cuts or all three. It was as if each and every battle these youngsters had ever fought had caught up with them at this exact moment.
Almost the entire team was gathered around Hodge now, like jackals surrounding a lion, the mad man thought. Even Charcoal stood side by side with the youngsters, as if they would count him amongst their number. Cameron Hodge had no means to hurt them left, but that didn't mean he was the least bit fearful. After all, he was literally a ghost in the machine. A man who was essentially a hologram had no reason to fear Force Works anymore than a man might fear a morning breeze.
"It's over Hodge."
"Maybe, maybe not Danielle," Hodge shrugged., "I still retain control over this building and all things electronic. I can come and go as I want. I chose your headquarters because I found your agenda so appalling. There are other places for me. The NSA emergency Sentinel stockpiles, or the Shield helicarrier, or maybe even Tony Stark's Iron Man armors." Hodge strode forward until he was right in Mirage's face, "in this form, technology is mine to use whenever and however I see fit. I need no food, nor air and never sleep. So enjoy this pyrrhic victory, Dani, because you can rest assured I will be back and I will personally end you."
"You keep thinking that," Mirage looked over Hodge's shoulder smugly, "Taki?"
Hodge felt a shift within the computers he possessed, and then let loose the most pathetic of screams as he felt his very essence being torn in two. Pain raged in every fiber of his being, and each thought was like a bomb exploding in his skull.
"Remember the Y2K bug?" Taki asked casually, "if you'll remember, it was a potentially devastating computer problem all because a computer might be a little bit confused. Computers don't handle contradictions well. In fact, they can't really handle them at all unless someone tells them what to do."
Hodge never stopped screaming, something Wiz Kid found very satisfying.
"And humans are full of contradictions, aren't they? People we love and hate. Fear and admire, anyone come to mind Hodge? Normally, most artificial intelligences have programs to work around that. Your mind even formed blocks to protect yourself subconsciously, until I ordered our computers to let you in. And right now, your very sense of self is tearing you apart."
"We're…we're not going to leave him like this, are we?" asked Speedball as Hodge writhed on the floor.
"I dunno, serves him right you ask me," Nova opinioned.
"Can we get him out?" Tarene asked, "I mean, all Taki's done is make him more grounded to the system!"
"I've got that covered…" Mirage reassured them.
Hodge felt the pain that had been ripping his very sense of self disappear, only to be replaced by a cold fear in his gut when he felt Danielle Moonstar's hands around his throat. It had been so very long since Hodge had felt anything remotely resembling actual tactical contact that the sensation was almost welcome. But he felt his body run cold as his brain actually processed the fact that she could touch him at all.
"You've read the files, right Hodge? Shame you skimmed over the part about my membership in the Sisterhood of the Valkyrior, Asgard's chooser's of the slain."
Cameron's face paled.
"That's right. I may not be a full member, but still channel a little bit of the power I had back then. You sold your soul for immortality, remember? So I'm not even talking to a real person, I'm talking to a shade, a thing…"
"No, no please…!" Hodge's eyes were red and puffy with phantom tears, but it didn't move Dani's heart for one second. The knowledge that this little shit had invaded their home and used it as a weapon against them was reason enough to hate him in her book.
"On behalf of my team Hodge, go…to…Hel!"
The lights on the entire floor began to flicker and die, the room was awash in a sudden, bone chilling cold and then…nothing. Hodge was gone, leaving no evidence of his passing whatsoever.
"…asshole," Muttered Mirage. She then fell backwards, almost completely spent. The Human Rocket was there for her when she came down, thankfully.
"You okay there Dani?"
"Just…a little bushed,' she confessed, "wasn't easy banishing Hodge. My connection to the Valkyrior is rusty as hell. If Taki hadn't have grounded him…"
"Did he go where I think he went?"
"No, he went to a place much, much worse."
There was a loud –blink!- sound effect, and in the center of the room the team saw Commissioner Stone emerge from a circular portal, followed by a full assault team and a young woman with lavender skin. Mirage recognized Blink immediately.
"Guess we're too late to be the reinforcements, huh?" remarked Stone.
"Not like we didn't do our part, putting out the fires on the street," Blink protested as the SWAT team began spreading out.
"Commissioner Stone, Blink, not that your assistance is unwelcome, but you can stand down. The situation's under control." Wiz Kid assured them.
Taking a glance around the gutted facility, one member of the SWAT team had to wonder what constituted 'out of control' for these youngsters.
"Sit rep?" Stone asked, politely but quickly. He was anxious to get this entire matter settled and over with. The clean-up alone threatened to last weeks.
In the exchange, no one heard Edie Sawyer's phone ring. She answered it and wandered off to the side so that she had an actual chance of hearing what was being said on the other end.
"Force Works' headquarters was co-opted by an outside intelligence that in turn made my research lab into a weapons factory," explained Wiz Kid, "at the same time, we were assaulted by King Bedlam's Cabal. Long story short, the intelligence has been destroyed, and we have Smiling Tiger, Madcap, Delilah and Lodestone captured, though Lodestone will need medical treatment."
"There anything we need to know about your lab, 'Kid?" Stone asked harshly, "awful lot of hurtful stuff there, it seems."
"There's nothing in my lab you wouldn't find in the likes of Tony Stark's lab or Hank Pym," Wiz Kid said dismissively.
"Well, if that's the case I guess everything's settled…"
"So it's over?" Tarene asked.
"Oh my God!" cried out someone hysterically.
Everyone gathered looked towards Edie Sawyer. Normally, she was the image of control, of fortitude. Not now. Tears streamed down her face, ruining her makeup.
"Parvenue's plane went down in the Atlantic…they can barely find the wreckage…"
"Hodge…" hissed Kymaera, voicing everyone's suspicions, for all the good it did them now.
"Yeah Tarene," Danielle answered, her heart in her throat,
"…it's definitely over."
The End…and the Beginning.