Marvel 2000 Presents

Force Works 37

"National Sanity."

Part 3

The Work Place, Metro City

"So the bad guy's holed up in a prison?" Nova rubbed his chin, "that's certainly different. Usually we have to punt their ass there first."

For the past several days, Force Works had been fighting a new villain who identified himself as Pulsar, and his small team of superhumans. In two battles, the villain taunted the heroes with his location, explaining with a mocking smile that he was holed up in a state asylum. Now that they learned he was actually using a California prison as his hideout, Nova had to admit he was impressed, and a little confused.

The entire team was gathered in their main conference room, as they tried to brainstorm a way to invade a prison without warning possibly the most powerful enemy they'd ever fought.

"Thought he said he was in a loony bin," Charcoal stated.

"Because villains never lie," Sabre quipped as she rolled her eyes.

"The number of people in the state prisons with mental illness has quadrupled in the last several years," Technocrat explained, "it keeps in his stated assault on the United States mental health care system."

"Or lack thereof," Namorita supplied bitterly.

"Why can't we have regular villains who just leave like, riddles or something?" Charcoal asked.

"The real question is how is he doing this?" X-Treme stated, "I think the authorities would know if one of their prisons was just taken over by someone."

"That's a good question," Technocrat said, "one I have no idea how to answer. I called the prison pretending to be a reporter interested in setting up an interview with one of the more famous prisoners. I was given the run around for a bit, but they agreed to let me visit next week."

"So whatever they're planning, it'll happen soon," Arsenal sighed, "great."

"So lets hit the bastards hard and fast!" Sabre snapped.

"Agreed, we should charge the front gates and put an end to his insanity!" Vibraxis slammed his fist on the table, "I volunteer to lead the charge!"

Moonstar and Nova gave the Wakandian Warrior a simultaneous 'Are you serious' look.

"Yeah well, the light brigade is currently unavailable," Mirage deadpanned, "I'd rather approach this more carefully. There are too many ways this can go wrong."

"Should we contact the West Coast Avengers?" Wolfsbane asked, "we worked well wit' them before."

"Probably not a good idea," Nova replied, "we need a soft approach with this, and bringing in another team might screw that up. And if…"

"More like when," Sabre muttered.

"If," Nova repeated, with emphasize, "it goes wrong, we need coordination if we're going to stand a chance."

"And they're on another mission," Charcoal deadpanned.

"And they're on another mission."

"Anyways," Mirage continued, "we're going to try to hit them early. So I'm going to have to ask everyone to turn in early tonight. There's a three hour time difference between us and Pulsar that we can use to our advantage. We'll go in light, see if we can't catch them napping."

"Let me guess, I get stuck with the stealth part," X-Treme sighed. It wasn't that he didn't respect the wisdom of such a decision, he was the best trained at infiltration, after all. But at the same time, he didn't relish leading a small team against someone who effortlessly commanded the full power of a star.

"Oh, that's going to be a surprise," Mirage smiled, "anyways, that's the plan as it stands now. Nova, Hoffman and I will come up with something more detailed. You guys get dinner and please, try to be in bed early. I want to get the jump on them, and I can't do that if we just as tired as them."

"Man, I bet Spider-Man gets to stay up past eleven," Charcoal grumbled as the meeting broke up, "a bed time, school, homework, what is this, real life?"

Rahne swallowed nervously as the meeting broke up. She walked over to Adam, and wrapped her arm around his.

"Adam, uhh…still up for dinner tonight?" Rahne asked, trying to sound innocent as possible, of which of course made her sound as anything but. Adam gave her a curious look.

"Yeah, of course. Why, did you want to go some place different ?" Adam asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Actually," Rahne lowered her voice, even though the closest teammate was fifteen feet down the hall, "tonight, would it be alright if we…slept together?"

Adam tried to keep the surprise off his face. His relationship with Rahne hadn't progressed much into the physical arena.

"Just sleep!" Rahne snapped quickly, her face quickly racing to match her red hair, "in the same bed. Not sex…not yet. Would that be…okay?"

"You're not going to find many men who'd say no."

Quickly leaving Japanese Airspace

Akemi Ito shook like a madman in his bonds, terror pushing his exhausted body past its limits.

Ironically, the young boy thought he'd already experienced the most terrifying moment of his life, that of coming out to his parents that he was a mutant. That was a nerve wracking experience, like a test that was impossible to study for, and to his shock and relief passed with little fanfare. His parents quietly assured him that they loved him regardless, they had dinner and that was that. In the end, revealing himself to his parents caused less drama than his last exam.

Akemi couldn't believe how easily he dodged most issues associated with being a mutant. He was certain that his ancestors were somehow smiling down on him.

At least, up until five hours ago.

W hole team of black clad men ambushed him as he was walking home, listening to his music while sipping soda. With clockwork efficiency, they pulled the teenager into an alley, slapped metal cuffs on him that rendered his mutant ability to control plastics useless, and threw him into a van before Akemi even worked out that he was being kidnapped. The young teenager tried to fight, but as when he felt a slight jab in his arm, he was out like a light.

When Akemi awoke, he felt a vibration that he immediately recognized as that of a plane engine. Not only that, but the young mutant could hear several people casually conversing in a language he couldn't understand, but recognized as Korean. Their conversation couldn't have been more terrifying, as Akemi remembered dozens of news reports over the years about how North Korea would kidnap Japanese citizens to train their spies. It didn't take much imagination to know what they wanted him for.

When he heard the start of a jet engine, Akemi began to struggle manically, as if he was about to thrown into the mouth of hell itself. People from other countries saw the impoverished nation as just another dictatorship, no worse than any other that dotted the Asian continent.

But growing up in Japan, it was impossible not to hear about the whispers, the dark truth. Mass famine, the labor camps, summary executions were no secret to anyone who discussed North Korea. The country was like a deep, dark hole, and he was about to be thrown off the edge.

The Next Day

Tarene yawned, and struggled to remain upright in her seat. The entire team had woken up at seven in the morning and then flown to the other side of the country and by the time they'd arrived at Pulsar's hideout, it was five o'clock local time. The jet lag hit the young Goddess hard, and having to listen to her teammates argue didn't help much.

"I still say this is a bad idea," Arsenal said, "splitting the team like this is too risky, at least bring me along!"

"This mission requires stealth," X-Treme replied. He flexed his wrist, and three blades slid into his hand, "hmm, weight's not too bad. Should work out for this mission."

"Hey, stop playing with your new toys and listen," Arsenal snapped, "we'll only get one shot at this, and…!"

"And you need to be our back-up if we miss," X-Treme replied, "suck it up Bobby, somebody has to stand on the bench…"

"Warm the bench," Arsenal corrected.

"…whatever. Anyways, we need someone to bail us out if this plan doesn't work, and you're the best choice," X-Treme explained. He turned and began walking down the ramp, "just hold down the fort, Bobby, and pray we don't need you."

Arsenal snorted at the comment, and crossed his arms in annoyance. With a huff, he turned around and headed back towards the cock-pit. As he went by, Arsenal kicked Tarene's chair as he saw her nodding off.

"At attention, Tarene. We're trying to catch them sleeping, remember?"

It took X-Treme all of fifteen minutes to break into the prison, thanks in large due to the local time. It was too late to be considered morning, yet too early to be considered night. The guards in the tower were barely focused, the cameras weren't positioned to deal with someone who could leap ten feet into the air or let alone handle his speed, and the locks weren't even electronic.

Within three minutes, the Hybrid Warrior managed to comfortably make his way to the prison laundry room, and signal his teammates. Less than a moment later, Blink, Wolfsbane and Vibraxis were in the room with him.

"Anyone order some back-up?" Blink smiled.

"Always glad to have it," X-Treme replied as Vibraxis and Wolfsbane stepped forward, "just remember, I take you. You guys stay frosty, give us two minutes and be ready to move when we get an opening."

X-Treme lead the way, with Wolfsbane close behind and Vibraxis bringing up the rear. They stalked through the jail carefully. X-Treme and Wolfsbane were light of foot, while Vibraxis could absorb any sound created as he shuffled down the long halls.

"Anything, Rahne?" Adam asked, as he watched his girlfriend sniff the air.

"There's something…odd 'bout the air," Wolfsbane explained, "can't place it, but it's making me jus' a little tired. Up ahead, maybe thirty meters or so."

"According to the layout, that should be the cafeteria," X-Treme explained, "I'll take point. Vibraxis, don't do anything I don't tell you to."

"Understood," Vibraxis knew that if he used his powers in a confined space like this, it would announce their presence like an air-siren. The only reason why he was a part of this mission at all was because his powers also enabled him to phase and become invisible.

"X-Treme, if you don't mind, I have a question," Vibraxis said, "I took the liberty of reading your file. It indicated that you had the ability to incapacitate an enemy simply by drawing blood."

"It's a little more complicated than that. I could electrify certain parts of a person's blood, basically boiling them alive," X-Treme replied, "I never liked doing it, to be honest. Too sadistic. If your next question is why I don't use it more often, it's because Taki found that I'd been using it incorrectly, and ran the risk of inflicting serious damage."

"Incorrectly? And if you used your 'burning' powers correctly?"

X-Treme gave both Wolfsbane and Vibraxis a cocky smirk.

"That's for me to know, and you to discover."

Wolfsbane smirked, "Adam, it goes 'That's for me to know, and you to find out'."

"Uhh, that's how it's said in Shi'ar," Adam defended quickly. He then nodded towards the cafeteria doors, "I'll go first, then Wolfsbane, and Vibraxis bring up the rear. No surprises until things look tight."

His teammates nodded, and X-Treme pushed the door open and stepped through. Though he was on guard, X-Treme didn't expect any trouble. He couldn't hear anyone inside, or see anyone through the windows of the food. There were more than a few odd scents that refused to be sorted, but that was to be expected from a large room where hundreds ate daily.

So when he threw open the door, the last thing he expected to see a skinny young man with large rimmed glasses, in a black bodysuit, laced with silver circuits across the top and sleeveless trench coat, supervising a half dozen felons as they loaded boxes through a portal.

"Hello," the young man said calmly, as if the three had just walked into a used book store, "my name is Ninjato. Can I help you?"

Tarene paced back and forth inside Force Works' aircraft, arms crossed. She kicked some imaginary can every now and then in frustration, but otherwise she simply went back and forth in the small craft.

Charcoal tried to ignore at first, focusing on his reading assignment. Mr. Anderson was a scary guy when he wanted to be, and Charlie was pretty sure that Dani would forgive him for using his powers to defend against a High School English teacher. Everyone else could ignore Tarene, so why couldn't he?

Because she's my friend, Charcoal finally told himself as he closed his book.

"So you wanna talk, or continue the cliché?" Charcoal asked.

"…do you know what it's like not to trust your own mind?" Tarene asked softly.

"Not really."

"I do," Tarene confessed, "when the team first rescued me, I couldn't remember anything about my past. I didn't think about it much, because it was just too scary. What if I was some wacko they just gave powers to, or some machine? Dani, Richie, the only thing that helped me keep sane was the fact that even if I couldn't trust my mind, I could trust my friends."

"How does that relate to this Pulsar jerk?"

"Because all he wants to do is call attention to mental health issues? So why does he have to go about it in the stupidest way possible!" Tarene asked rhetorically, "it's like he wants people to ignore him!"

"It's probably 'cause he's so swept up in his own power," Charcoal answered, "I mean, this guy's in a weight class all his own. I guess he thinks that peaceful protests would be a waste."

"Probably doesn't even care that he's dragging down his friends along with his cause," Tarene grumbled, "I think…"

"Tarene, Charcoal," Arsenal said quickly, "we got trouble."

Several minutes earlier

"Hold," X-Treme said as he held up a clenched fist, and looked towards his teammates. He looked at Ninjato, "who are you, and what are you doing here?"

"You know my name already," the young man adjusted his glasses, pushing them up the bridge of his nose, "and I'm simply here acting as an expert consultant. You would be surprised how difficult it is to assume complete control of a prison without raising suspicion. But my employer was interested in Pulsar's little experiment, and bade me to assist him. Now that his mission is reaching its climax, I will be taking my leave."

"You talk too much," Vibraxis remarked, "for this Wakandian warrior has no intention of allowing you to simply leave unmolested!"

Vibraxis raised his hands with the intention of releasing the frightening power contained within his body, only for the world to suddenly increase in weight all around him. X-Treme and Wolfsbane were brought low only moments later, by heavy gravity that laughed at their super strength.

"Now now, I'm afraid you don't have time for bit players," Pulsar smirked as he strode into the room, "not when we're approaching the reveal of this little drama."

"He loves the sound of his own voice more than Taki and Vibraxis combined," Wolfsbane growled.

Pulsar stood in front of the heroes, arms folded behind his back. Neutron Bum and Max Hampton were on his left, and the sole female member of his little group, Reflection, was on his right.

"Ninjato, thank you for your assistance. Best be on your way," Pulsar remarked. The mysterious man bowed politely, and the moment he was through the portal, it disappeared, "Good help is so hard to find, but when it find you, it's amazing."

"We're very happy for you," X-Treme grunted. With a tremendous amount of willpower, he forced himself into a kneeing position, only to have the weight pressing down on his shoulders to double.

"It appears that I'm not the only drama fan here," Pulsar rolled his eyes as he increased the pressure, "I'm sure you are very bad ass, but gravity simply isn't something you can kung fu to death."

"No," X-Treme forced out through clenched teeth, "but it's pretty easy to distract the idiot controlling it."

Pulsar's eyes went wide, as Kymaera, Mirage, Technocrat appeared out of nowhere. Mirage struck Reflection with one of her psychic arrows, while Technocrat blasted both Max and Neutron Bum into submission.

Pulsar readied a blast of electromagnetic energy, powerful enough to render them all unconscious within seconds, when he felted his automated alarms blaring.

In the blink of an eye, Nova was behind him, with some sort of circuit covered spike in hand. The Human Rocket brought it crashing down, but moments before it pierced Pulsar's harness, his hand stopped.

"Clever," Pulsar smiled, "let me guess, Wittman anti-gravity mixed in with preprogrammed nanites for automatic shutdown."

"And misdirection."

Pulsar didn't have time to so much as raise his eyebrow at X-Treme before the alien warrior unleashed six throwing blades. The EM powered villain instinctively tried to bring up a shield, only to see the blades effortlessly pass through his defenses and slice into his harness, just as Nova took advantage of his distraction, and drove the spike into Pulsar's harness.

The effects were almost instantaneous. Pulsar had designed his harness to allow him to control the power of a miniature sun contained in a pocket dimension, and with such finesse that he could play a game of chess by manipulating gravity from three blocks away.

Though he shielded his body from the radiation his invention produced, it never occurred to him to shield the devise itself from that same energy. While manipulating all that energy, his star-harness lit was lit up like a neon sign for anyone with advanced enough sensors and intelligence.

And as it so happened, Technocrat had both.

The harness shut down within seconds, and Nova tore it of off Pulsar like it was wrapping paper.

"Hope you have a spare, because this one is toast," Nova commented as he dropped the now useless pieces of circuits and metal to the floor.

"I do, actually," Pulsar said with a silly grin, before Nova grabbed him by the back of his neck, and reminded the young genius of his super strength.

"It's over, John," Kymaera said, her voice laced with pain and regret, "if you surrender, we may be able to convince the authorities to offer a reduced sentence."

"Start with talking about who the hell that guy who just left was," Nova demanded.

"Oh, this is rich," Pulsar's smile just refused to fade, "I planned on a scorched earth policy, and you deliver yourselves to me with no effort on my part. God, that's symmetry! No wonder there are so many villains!"

"Damn it John, this isn't funny!" Namorita snapped. She scooped her former Classmate up by his chin, "you've endangered hundreds and done Neptune only knows what! If you don't start cooperating, I will tear you limb from limb myself!"

"I doubt that," Pulsar said smugly.

"Save your breath," Mirage sighed, "I've seen that look before, though it was on someone a little more dignified. Self righteous bastard called Magneto."

For the first time since they'd met him, Pulsar's arrogant façade disappeared, replaced with a scowl of disgust.

"I am nothing, nothing like that madman! What I'm doing is meant…"

"…to show the world the error of their way," Mirage finished, "and of course, the use of force is justified by the immediate need for action. Heard it before, not impressed."

"Well, if we had more time, I'd debate that," John huffed, "but your time, as cliché as it sounds, has run out."

"What are you tal…" Kymaera suddenly felt dizzy, and began seeing two of John. Without realizing it, she dropped Pulsar, and covered her ears as she began to hear a terrible, screeching noise.

"Boy, I'd like to take credit for the perfect timing, but…"

Pulsar brushed some small specks of metal off his shoulders, as his smirked returned to his face. The members of Force works were all struggling to stand, barely able to think a coherent thought, let alone raise a hand to stop him. In just minutes, they'd…

"Oh Holy crap."

Pulsar's eyes became like saucers. In just minutes, he wouldn't want to be alone, unarmed in the same room as these people. He ran towards his spare equipment like his life depended on it.

Which, coincidentally, it did.

"That's…not a good picture," Blink remarked.

Blink, Arsenal, Sabre, Tarene and Charcoal watched as hundreds of former inmates began to pour out the front door of the building, and began tearing at the first fence that kept them safely locked away from the world. There were at least two more between them and freedom, but it was obvious to anyone watching that those meager defenses wouldn't last long. Especially given the fact that several guards were part of the mob, all equally eager to spill out into the world and do God only knew what.

"It's like something out of 28 Days Later," Charcoal said, his voice trembling despite the fact he was shifted into his super dense form. Zombies still invoked a primal fear inside his heart, even though he was currently inedible.

"I contacted the State police, but it will be a while before they get here," Arsenal said.

"So what do we do, Bobby?" Tarene asked.

"We…we should wait for word from Dani," Arsenal replied nervously, "for all we know, these people are escaping a dangerous situation."

"If that were true, they would have radioed us!" Blink snapped, "if you won't do something, I will! Charcoal, light a small fire in front of those prisoners! If they're still scared of fire, we can use that to contain them. Sabre! Circle the prison and see if people are trying to get out some other way! Tarene, get ready to whip up a downpour if these guys don't fear fire enough! Move it people!"

Charcoal ignited, and was preparing to blast into the air when something slammed into him, hard. The former Thunderbolt was hit with such force he dug a three foot deep trench for twenty feet before coming to a halt. Charcoal shook his head, attempting to clear the cobwebs. Because when he thought he'd been nailed by blue and gold missile.

"Oh man," Charlie looked up, and saw a very pissed Nova hovering over him.

"Oh, this is not good."

Blink, Arsenal and the rest saw their teammates, standing on the wrong side of the fence, with looks of blood thirsty rage etched onto their face, as they raced to close the distance between them, all but baying for blood.

"Well," Tarene said, "at least it's not me this time."

Next Issue: Pulsar's plan comes to a climax as Force Works goes to war with itself!