oooOOooo

Marvel 2000 Presents

Force Works 39

"Summer of Terror."

Part 1

oooOOooo

North Korea, Science City One

Jin Dae Kim felt like his legs were made of jelly, and though he knew the consequences, he couldn't stop himself from falling forward in sheer exhaustion. His body refused to work, his lungs burned, and he only realized that he had tripped after he crashed face first into the dirt.

"Get up, you worm!" Jin heard his 'Sergeant', an angry white man with a strange accent when he spoke Korean. All Jin knew was that the man wasn't American, and hated to be called 'Panzer', "this is no time to relax. You have another three miles to go, on your feet soldiers!"

By now all the other kids in his 'unit' were gathering around. If challenged, they'd insist that they were waiting orders on what to do, but in truth they had only a little more strength than Jin, and

"No I don't, you pig faced son of a whore!" Jin didn't know what it was that snapped inside of him, but something did. He was tired of this monster, tired of marching in an army he didn't belong in and tired of answering to a taskmaster who cared more about the dirt underneath his boots than any of the children (not soldiers, Jin thought, but children), "I don't want to be here, I want to go home!"

"I didn't ask what you wanted, maggot!"

Jin didn't know where he'd found the strength, but he lashed out with his mutant powers, and hit Panzer in the face with a ball of flame. All the other trainees gasped, and held their breath, that their CO had finally been killed, or at the very least, injured.

But the smoke cleared, Panzer stood there unharmed, like always. His shirt wasn't even scorched.

"So, it looks like you have a little too much fight in you," Panzer grabbed Jin by his neck, and began to drag him off.

The children took the brief respite, but felt a shiver of terror as they heard the roar of rockets, and looked up.

"Back to base!" shouted a monstrosity of steel. Black Brigade, a cyborg standing eight feet tall while looking like a muscle bound hunchback, was their second taskmaster. Between him and Panzer, even just the thought of rebellion was a distant dream to the children, "time double! Weakness is to be tolerated!"

Though they were just as exhausted as Jin, none of the children failed to make it back with time to spare. Only one thought occupied their minds as they watched Panzer drag Jin away.

Thank God it wasn't them.

oooOOooo

Jin couldn't see much past his tears when Panzer, but then, there wasn't much to see. The room was as wide as the average parking lot, with a small cage in the center, and a single chair in the center of that.

"Perhaps this time will teach you the importance of discipline," Panzer mused as he opened the cage, and pushed Jin into the chair, "you earned one hour for weakness, and two hours for striking a superior officer. Do you understand?"

Jin shook his head no, terrified out of his mind but still unwilling to recognize the authority of the man standing before him.

"That's too bad," Panzer locked the cage, and strolled out, "enjoy, and hope they don't get lucky."

Panzer strolled out of the room, and Jin almost jumped when he heard the heavy door come crashing down.

Then, darkness. Jin almost wished it would never end.

But a few seconds later, a powerful light shined down from above, cutting the darkness like a knife.

Then, limping like wounded animals, they came.

To the untrained eye, they merely looked like starved prisoners. Men and women that were little more than flesh draped over bones, wearing scraps and tatters of prison uniforms. Pathetic, sympathetic and harmless. But closer inspection revealed how their finger nails ended in claws, the protruding fangs from their mouths and pulsating red eyes.

Vampires.

Though blood starved, weakened and descending from poor stock, Jin knew that the vampires surrounding him were still more deadly than any animal on earth. He'd seen just two of them rip a careless guard in half and feast on his flesh like wild animals. If anything, their weakened state only made them more dangerous, more willing to take risks. They didn't feed like the vampires in the movies, but more like piranhas, devouring every strip of flesh just for just a single drop of blood more.

They crowded the cage's bars, and Jin watched the first vampire lunge for his throat, only to watch as the arm crumble when it touched the ultra-violet that was blasting down from above. The creature pulled its now stump back, wailing in pain, but another replaced him quickly enough.

Starved creatures were hardly known for their reason.

Intellectually, Jin tried to tell himself that he was safe. So long as he was in the chair, they couldn't reach him even if the lights were turned off. And while the light remained on, all they could do was spit and hiss at him.

But emotionally, he'd already voided his bowels. The young mutant pulled his knees up to his chest, and just wept. In the last month, he'd been kidnapped, conscripted into a foreign army and was now surrounded by hungry monsters who'd eat him alive if given half a chance.

And he didn't think there were any heroes coming to save him.

oooOOooo

Location, Secret

Namorita Prentiss, 'Nita to her friends and Kymaera, clutched her bleeding side and limped down the street. Her left eye was swollen, her ankle wings were crushed, and she could feel at least two of her ribs were pushing into her lungs, but she refused to stay still. Every step was a step for survival, to escape the fate of her teammates.

Her body adapted for life underwater, Kymaera was gifted with exception hearing and eye-sight, better than any human and on par with most predator animals, yet not even her senses were keen enough to detect the scaly, green and purple tailed killer above her on the rooftops. To the world he was known as Death Adder of the Serpent Society, and was respected as one of the most fearsome superhuman killers in the world.

Namorita never heard him, never saw him. She'd barely begun to turn around when Death Adder leapt towards her, and…

"Jesus!"

Black Mamba ripped off her virtual reality goggles, rubbed her sore eyes, and wished she could forget what she'd just seen as easily she'd removed the goggles.

Black Mamba rubbed her sore eyes, as the other members of the Serpent Society removed their Virtual Reality goggles, and took a moment to come back to reality. Though the Serpent Society boasted an impressive roster, the virtual reality goggles they used for training were limited to ten. Right now, the Serpents inside the room were Sidewinder, Black Mamba, Asp, Bushmaster, Anaconda, Black Racer, Puff Adder, Coachwhip, Rattler and Death Adder, who would be heading up their next mission.

"…really wish we could have used Arcade for mission training," Puff Adder sighed as he rubbed his sore eyes, "feel like I've been staring at the sun."

"This is more cost effective," Sidewinder defended.

"Lets argue costs later," Black Mamba snapped. She pointed an accusing finger at Death Adder, "I get that we have to be killers sometimes, but that was over the line!"

Death Adder glanced aside with a slight, guilty shrug.

"It was a clean kill," Bushmaster defended, "death was instant, but he was simply being thorough."

"I know, but…"

"They are warriors, not children," Bushmaster reminded her, "the majority of Force Works are in their twenties, they can drink, serve in the army. Namorita is a high priority target, and this is what our contract is about."

"You're right," Black Mamba sighed, "sorry, Death Adder, I overreacted."

The silent killer nodded in acknowledgement.

For a moment, the small contingent of snakes stood silent.

"I think this virtual reality training is just beginning to fray our nerves," Asp ran her hand through her hair, "we've won as many as we've lost, but nothing can really compare to the reality. I say we call it a day. We've been training for a week, and we're not ready by now, we never will be."

"Come on! I'd rather be beaten up in virtual reality than actual reality," Puff Adder replied.

"Well, you can keep playing with the new toy," Black Mamba said, "but we're making this more complicated than it needs to be. We get Force Works' location, we get the drop on them and then we fulfill our contract. It's not that hard, but these sessions are giving me a migraine."

"Should we really hit them mid mission?" Coachwhip asked, "sees like it's asking for trouble."

"I think it's the best choice," Sidewinder replied, "hit them from behind while their attention is focused on something else. It's the very definition of a sneak attack."

"Just as long as we don't get caught up in whatever mess they start," Black Racer smirked, "shouldn't be too hard."

oooOOooo

Location, secret

"Ladies and gentlemen, let me start by saying that this mission will likely be your most difficult mission yet."

Charlie Burlingame, AKA Charcoal, slumped in his chair as Lt. Commander Jackson Hardcastle began the briefing for their next mission. Technically, the mission was supposed to be a 'jointed op.' according to Nova and Mirage, but Charlie didn't care much about the technicalities. All he wanted to know was who to hit and how hard. After all, he was one of the team heavy lifters.

"We're going to try to extract some thirty to forty young mutants, teenagers or slightly older, from a prison slash army camp in North Korea," Hardcastle clicked his remote, and a small collection of barracks came up, surrounded by barren mountains, "if these photos fail to impress, it's because all of North Korea's super science is conducted in labs below ground. According to reports, they have everything from vampires, to prime sentinels to we can only guess what else. While it's not part of our mission objective, but we are going to have to factor it into our mission planning."

Clarice Ferguson, AKA Blink, did her best to pay attention to the briefings, but her instincts would let her relax. Sitting across from the team were twenty members of a Special Forces unit nick named 'Able Squad'. According to Hoffman, to even be considered for the team, they had to have defeated a superhuman in combat. Having been trained by some of the best herself, Blink couldn't help but see their every glance as them sizing her up, and asking themselves 'could they take her?'.

"The good news is that North Korea's little army isn't meeting with much success. According to intercepts, the kidnapped kids have resisted traditional brainwashing methods. Teenagers, huh?"

Richard Rider, Nova, allowed himself a small chuckle, as did a few of Able Squad. Anyone who served in an army knew that gallows' humor was the grease that kept the military machine running smoothly as possible. And it was a welcome distraction from the voice in his head that said to just blast into North Korea, and take the kids out by himself. Nova could think of a dozen reasons why that would be a stupid course of action, but the impulse sat there, like an itch that refused to go away.

"North Korea doesn't have the budget for large scale mutant nullifiers, so they hired themselves two mercenaries, both nasty bastards. You'll get the full dossiers later, but I can still give you the cliff-notes. The man responsible for training the kids is a mercenary who goes by the name of Rheinhardt, but has gained the nickname Panzer in most circles. It comes from his complete invulnerability and powerful optic blasts. Obviously, dealing with him will require some special equipment."

Takashi 'Taki' Matsuya, AKA Technocrat, scoffed when he heard the word 'special equipment'. So far, both Mirage and Hardcastle had given him a dozen special orders for weapons or devises vital to this mission's success, and that was just the prep work., to say nothing of how they expected him to overcome North Korea's many defenses. Sometimes, Technocrat thought he should change his name to 'Atlas' and be done with it.

"The second is a nasty cyborg piece of work by the name Black Brigade. Iron Man class armor, doesn't mind ethnic cleansing and is fond of robot drones. Major threat, and we'll need several plans to deal with this bastard, just to be sure."

Adam Sol, X-Treme, relaxed in his chair as he listened to the review. Unlike Blink, Adam found the presence of military professionals to be relaxing. Though he liked everyone on his team, they had their rough edges, and as a result Adam was always wary of them on some level. But these soldiers had their rough edges turned into sharpened edges. He knew the self control required of Special Forces operators, regardless of the planet. Unless he made a threatening move towards them, X-Treme knew he didn't have to feel threatened in the slightest.

"We'll be launching a few recon missions with the help of our spandex friends, and hopefully we'll be able to give you something other than the big picture. But our window for this operation is three weeks. The brass is getting itchy. Nothing official, but we have to do this sooner rather than later. So now that we got the big picture covered, I'm going to start handing out the smaller assignments and lets all pray that Murphy decides to overlook us."

That drew a cynical laugh from Hardcastle's people.

"Hey, it has to happen eventually. Or at least not be too bad."

oooOOooo

Secret base of the Dawn of the Apocalypse

"I do not understand why we have not acted yet to save our brethren!"

The man known simply as Alastaire, leader of the Dawn of Apocalypse, a cult dedicated to the simple premise of the survival of the fittest, rolled his eyes at the comment. As leader of the Dawn of Apocalypse, it was hard for him not to turn every annoyance into so much nuclear waste and justify it as a simple act of deciding who was fit, as per their creed.

But in the time since Alastaire's death and resurrection, the Dawn had fallen in both strength and resources. Upon reassuming control, Alastaire convinced high ranking members of the Dawn to reach out to sympathetic mutants, fringe groups that had been seen before as too unstable before, and to everyone's surprise, their ranks swelled. Being a part of an organization that fought the X-Men was the closest many of them would ever come to being relevant, and they were content to follow orders, to know their place.

And there a few like Gorgon.

He looked like an escapee from an Anime show, six feet tall, chalk pale, long black hair and wearing a Gi with red tipped ends. He carried a samurai sword with expert skill, and gifted with telepathy, in addition to super strength, speed, a healing factor and most dangerous of all, the ability to turn living flesh to stone with just a glance.

Gorgon's power was undeniable, but in his darker moods, Alastaire wondered if some idiot God were in charge of evolution, to give that many powers to such an undeserving mutant.

"Save them? Our coda is survival of the fittest," Alastaire replied as he moved a few files on his desk, "have you forgotten?"

"I forget nothing!" Gorgon snapped, "but even the mightiest of us can be crushed underneath a wave of the weak!"

Alastaire rolled his eyes, but remained silent. In truth, he was on the fence about the entire mission. He didn't think that a bunch of children who allowed themselves to be captured or held in a North Korean army base, was worth the Dawn's time. Why rescue dozens of children when you might have to kill all but a handful later?

Even the strong had to be pragmatic sometimes.

Gorgon, of course, thought otherwise. But Alastaire was prepared for that, and thought he might kill two birds with one stone.

"Fine, Gorgon. You want to know the real reason? Logistics."

Alastaire enjoyed the baffled look that came across Gorgon's face.

"You would leave our ranks depleted for such a petty reason?" Gorgon snapped instantly.

"Even the mightiest can be crushed underneath a wave of the weak," Alastaire countered, "I am leader of the Dawn, and that meets more than you could possibly imagine. Bringing back dozens of mutants means we need food for them, barracks to sleep in, cloaks to keep Xavier's dogs from sensing us, the list goes on!"

"The Dawn once held an army!" Gorgon snarled, "where has all that gone!"

"Nowhere, everywhere," Alastaire replied, "during my death, the Dawn fell into disarray, and we lost important bases that our Lord gifted to us. As a matter of fact, I'm in the middle of planning to take back one such base, held by flatscan scum known as RAID."

"Do you have any information about them, or the base?"

"Right here," Alastaire tried not to smile as Gorgon snatched the file from his hand, "it's still in the planning stages. We need to be quick and lethal, to avoid drawing attention, but once we have the base, we'll be able to…audition…the children."

"Don't bother assembling a team," Gorgon flipped through the pages, memorizing each with little more than a glance.

"Two hundred humans with advanced technology? I could use a good laugh."

oooOOooo

North Korea

"Gah, it's like a ghost highway," Sabre muttered.

For the last several hours, the mutant speedster had been traveling hundreds of miles of North Korea's highway, and in that time, she'd seen nothing but a few scattered military vehicles. No cars packed with families on vacation, no commuters, nothing like that. Even the high ways themselves were almost pristine, with no trash on the edges or skid marks anywhere to be found. They looked as if they were never used, and looked almost surreal.

Still, Sabre pressed on. She reached into the backpack Technocrat had goven her, pulled out what looked like a metal stake, and drove it into the nearby dirt. She'd done the exact same thing maybe two dozen times now all over North, though this was her last one.

"Ace to ass, ace to ass," Sabre said into her radio, "seeds planted. Move onto soil now?"

Some hundred miles away, Technocrat rolled his eyes at the codename, and replied, "Correct. Be careful, or we may not weed."

"Yeah yeah," Sabre muttered.

Kim Mai took a calming breath, and then shot off like a bullet towards her target.

Sabre raced down a solitary military road at a little under the speed of sound, careful to avoid any tell-tale sonic booms. As much as this was the perfect opportunity to cut loose, both Nova and Mirage said in no uncertain terms that they'd break her legs if she screwed this mission up.

Besides that, more than the average mission, this was one that she wanted to do right. She couldn't help but think that if her powers emerged later, she would have found herself ambushed by a North Korean commando squad, and hauled away.

Luckily though, they weren't relying on just her speed for stealth. Technocrat whipped up a suit that camouflaged her when she stopped and was supposed to prevent scanners from detecting her (though Technocrat helpfully pointed out that if they failed, Sabre wouldn't know it until it was too late).

"Looking good," Nova radioed in her ear. Some three miles above the base, the Human Rocket was floating in place, a large scanner custom made by their resident genius in his hands. Special lenses in his helmet allowed him to see Sabre as easily as he saw the moon in the sky, "there's only a skeleton crew out tonight. To your right are the barracks, no one's around. Stop there."

"Got it!"

Sabre darted through the base, and came to a stop just alongside a dumpster.

"No wonder no one's around," Sabre gagged. She then unstrapped the backpack Technocrat had given her, and pulled out three disks. She pressed a button on top, and four legs shot out of the sides. Like little crabs, the discs then began digging themselves into the ground, "okay, mission accomplished. Whatever it was."

oooOOooo

A half mile away

"I just cannae believe some of the things we've read," Wolfsbane said as she glared at the far away prison camp, "how kin anyone be so cruel?"

"If this mutant prison camp is the worst thing you see in your life, count yourself lucky," Blink replied.

The two young mutants were in the woods surrounding the North Korean prison camp, tasked with assisting with reconnaissance. Though mindful to keep themselves out of sight, the tedium of marching through the forest to assist their military partners was getting to them.

"Every time I see something like this, I hope it's the last," Wolfsbane sighed, "and it never is."

"Oh God, you two sound like a bad version of 'The View'."

Corporal Jack O'Hare dropped down from the tree above them, and gave the two a look that could melt ice.

"Does noise discipline mean anything to you?" O'Hare snapped, his voice little above a hushed whisper, "need I remind you, we are in enemy territory and if they even catch even the slightest hint of…"

"Wolf ears and nose," Wolfsbane replied in a conversational tone, "good enough to know that ye've slept with three different women in the last week, had steak fer dinner an' never use conditioner."

"If Wolfsbane says we're clear, then we can sing and shout if we want," Blink replied, "we're not rookies here, Corporal. Hell, Rahne here was trained by Wolverine himself."

Blink watched in amusement as the soldier did a double take. She was tempted to mention that she'd been trained by Sabretooth, but knew that wouldn't be a sterling reference on her resume in this reality.

"Well, could you ladies please try to humor us professionals?" O'Hare took out a special case of spray paint, and aimed it at the tree. He sprayed it, though to the naked eye the tree remained unchanged. He took out a pair of special goggles and used them to examine the tree "mission prep is what makes or breaks us in the field. And I want to have at least twenty trees marked for our snipers."

"We're only bringing two!" Blink replied.

"And we'll never know where they'll need to be until they need to be there," O'Hare replied, "never underestimate just how dangerously chaotic a battle can get. In a mission, the greatest danger is never what you expect."

"Ye may want to choose a different tree," Wolfsbane said softly, "the scent jus' changed."

Wolfsbane knelt down, and slashed her claws across, tearing away bark to reveal gold, pulsating wires.

"Damn it!" Blink and O'Hare both took a step back. Blink clenched her teeth, "That's…"

"Phalanx," O'Hare interrupted, "alien techno organic residue that was used in a campaign against the X-Men."

Both young women gave O'Hare a curious look.

"Hey, we have to be prepared for anything," the sniper shrugged, "but what's it doing here?"

"No idea, and I'm not eager to find out," Blink said, "Wolfsbane, anyone coming?"

The lupine mutant shook her head negative.

"Maybe we ought to just teleport out," O'Hare suggested.

"Can't," Blink replied, "I can feel them sweeping teleport jammer over us. Been doing it for three hours now. We leave now, we won't be able to get back in."

"We should head to the extraction point then."

"Agreed," replied Wolfsbane, "and maybe we should be a little bit more quieter."

oooOOooo

Elsewhere

"Oh sweet proven Gods of science save us!"

Gorgon beheaded the RAID scientist with a casual swing, and barely bothered to watch as his head rolled away.

The halls behind him were burning, the floor between his feet covered in blood, and yet Gorgon had to stifle a yawn. Thus far, the mutant samurai had ended some fifty lives thus far, but still felt as if he'd barely strained a muscle.

"Weak," Gorgon sliced through two dreadnoughts, "pathetic!"

"Enough of us!" If only to make this whole affair more interesting, Gorgon decided on a new tactic, "Attention, flat scan scum! In the hopes that you might actually provide some decent sport, I am willing to give you a thirty minute reprieve to muster your forces. Try to escape, and I will stop you. If you give me a worthy battle, you have my word your death will be quick."

Gorgon then sheathed his sword, and then sat down on the floor, feet crossed in a lotus position.

The six person security team that had been only seconds away from death took an involuntary step backwards. Their weapons were still drawn, still hot, but that hadn't done a thing for the men before them. And now their enemy wasn't even acknowledging their presence!

"His eyes are closed, we can do this!" whispered one man.

"He's not even breathing hard," countered the highest ranked guard, "we have thirty minutes to come up with a better plan. Lets go!"

"Yes, run along, little distractions," Gorgon chuckled softly, "see you soon."

The six member security team took off in a dead run, Gorgon's soft chuckle thundering in their heads. They all knew that they'd only been granted a stay of execution, not salvation.

oooOOooo

"That arrogant mistake of nature, how dare he!"

Theo Batton slammed his fist down on his work station in equal parts fear and frustration. He was part of the team that had discovered this base some about eight weeks ago. It was the Holy Grail of super-science, a base created by the mad mutant Apocalypse, brimming with technology older than human civilization itself. The previous owners, the Dawn of the Apocalypse were thugs who only used it for a barracks, but Theo's genius IQ could see at least ten ways for RAID to assume control of the planet, but now that was slipping away like water in a clenched fist.

"He can do anything he wants!" replied Robert Maggio, the base second in command, "we only have a skeleton crew here! Did you see how he ripped through our Dreadnoughts! He's unstoppable!"

"No," Theo smiled, "we have one trump card. My Super Adaptoid cloning project. We managed to get a copy of his hard drive. With just the push of a button, we'll have the power of the earth's mightiest heroes at our finger tips!"

"But according to simulations, those things have only half the power and ability of the originals!" Robert protested, "and they only last for three hours!"

"That's still twice the powers we have now!" Theo snapped, "and what's more…"

oooOOooo

"…that filthy mutant will never see it coming!"

Gorgon smirked at the arrogance of it all. Was he not one of the most powerful members of homo superior in the world? These ants had no secrets from him.

The self styled master of death stood up, as the ground beneath his feet began to rumble and shake. Gorgon watched as an onslaught of dozens of Marvels came rushing down the hall towards him. There were over a dozen copies of Captain America, the Thing, Hawkeye and even more. Some were sporting their classic costumes while others were wearing their classic uniforms, but all were solid green, and looked at Gorgon through cold, dead eyes.

Gorgon saw this army of heroes, all the people the real Super Adaptoid had ever copied, and wept.

"Thank you," Gorgon whispered as he held his sword before him, "for this glorious battle, I will keep my word. Your deaths will be swift."

Gorgon leapt towards the wave of faux heroes, and with a grim smile decapitated a copy of Captain America. With his free hand, Gorgon grabbed the Captain's fake shield, and pitched it with all his strength. The metal disc decapitated two Hawkeyes and one Iron Man before coming to a stop inside the chest of a Thing.

"Now this…" Gorgon spun his sword behind him, and sliced a Quicksilver in two, "this is a challenge! This is proof of why I…why we are superior!"

Gorgon then activated his stony glare, and over a dozen false heroes transformed into stone. Gorgon then ploughed through them as if they were made of flour. With every swing of his sword, Gorgon brought down another two enemies.

Theo and Robert, section leaders of RAID, watched in horror was Gorgon sliced through their greatest weapons to date. They saw how blood, weapons and limbs flew in every direction, but when Gorgon finally reached the two, they observed that he only had the slightest scratch on his shoulder.

"Gentlemen," Gorgon pointed his sword at the two, "the two of you have earned my most rarest gift, and for that you should be grateful. Mercy."

With an effortless shrug, Gorgon was the only man left alive in the entire base.

"Though I understand why you might feel differently."

oooOOooo

"This is killing me!" Cottonmouth whined.

"Oh, come on! Casablanca is a classic!" replied Rock Python, with mild disgust, "it's not that bad!"

The two members of the Serpent Society were lounging on a couch, in front of a sixty inch television and for the past several days, had been burning through countless hours of movies, DVDs and video games.

"Not that!" Cottonmouth snapped, "we've been on monitor duty for three days, waiting for a single call! How'd we get stuck with this job?"

"Because we're not joining the mission," Rock Python answered, "seems like the least we could do."

"We have a base in another dimension, but we don't have a stinking answering machine?" Cottonmouth spat, "and that's another thing, why aren't I on the main team? Back up squad my… Asp!"

Cleo Nefertiti, better known as Asp, strolled into the with a smirk on her face.

"Don't stop because of me," she smiled, "we could hear your whining down the hall. I have to say, it worries me how eager you are to put strange things in your mouth."

"Ha ha," Cottonmouth just crossed his arms and muttered darkly.

"So nothing yet?" Asp inquired.

"Nope," Rock Python replied, "look, I gotta ask, why are we on monitor duty? I became a bad guy so I wouldn't have to do boring crap like this!"

"Because we want to make the most of our advantages," Asp replied, "we might only have ten minutes to get the drop on them, or a week. Only fools rush in and all that."

Asp then turned to Cottonmouth.

"And don't be so eager to be on the main team. We may be facing kids, but they're both trained and experienced. And it will get ugly. Mark my words, no sane person would want in on a mission like this."

oooOOooo

"Mirage, do not understand your rational for leaving me behind at all!"

Mirage rubbed her temple, as an annoying super genius was the last thing she wanted to deal with now. She'd just returned from doing some reconnaissance with Blink and several members of Able Squad, when Technocrat 'ambushed' her on a way to their final command briefing.

"I thought my orders were clear," Mirage replied as the two hurried down the hall. They were quickly approaching the scheduled time for their final briefing, and everyone on Force Works soon learned that 'On Time' was the same thing as being late in the military, "you're running communications during the mission, end of discussion."

"Yes, but why me?" Technocrat demanded, "I'm sure we can find a competent radio operator somewhere in this army, and…"

"Fine," Mirage stopped dead in her tracks, "you want to know why? Because it's North Korea. They put entire families, three generations for every one traitor, in concentration camps, they kidnap people off the street to train their spies or direct their movies and barb wire their beaches in case of invasion.

I'm leaving you behind because I'm scared of what might happen if things go wrong. I'm terrified of what might happen if we got stuck behind enemy lines. But at the same time, I need every last ounce of muscle to pull this off. So leaving you here is my compromise. If things go wrong, you, 'Nita and Charcoal are our safety net. Satisfied?"

Technocrat said nothing at first. Of all the times he'd fought alongside Mirage, he'd never once seen his leader flinch. But hearing her openly admit her fear of what might happen to them if they failed this mission, well…it was sobering.

"I am now," Technocrat said in a neutral tone, "alright, lets get to Hardcastle's briefing. We should have everything we need."

When the two entered the room, they saw Hardcastle and his second in Command, Warrant Officer Jacob Barnes, chatting it up with Nova.

"…so there we were, the skrulls bearing down on us but those green bastards forgot about…"

Mirage closed the door a little louder than usual.

"Ladies, thank you for joining us!" Hardcastle said with a sarcastic smile.

"Sorry we're late, sir," Mirage let that last word hang in the air for a moment, "I just got back from our last dry run. Didn't find anything we didn't expect."

"That's something, at least," Hardcastle replied, "alright, Technocrat, start us off."

"According to the head counts we performed, the North Koreans have kidnapped forty four mutant teenagers. Some were taken from Burma, a few from Japan and a good portion from China."

"That might be an issue," Warrant Officer Barnes stated, "we're going to be busting in with guns drawn. These kids might be more scared of us than of the North Koreans if we can't communicate with them."

"We can provide universal translators," Nova stated, "old Shi'ar tech, but workable."

"That's one minor hurdle," Hardcastle said, "but I wanna hear about the big stuff. What's their security look like?"

"A contradiction," Technocrat replied, "as a precaution, I had Nova bounce sensor scans off Sabre while she was doing recon and inserting our communications gear. It was able to give me a clear picture of what's underground, without raising any alarms. It was a gamble, but it paid off big. We know everything we could ever want to know, but were afraid to ask. We know where they create counterfeit cigarettes, process cocaine…"

"Cocaine?" Mirage asked.

"North Korea isn't what comes to mind when you think narco state, is it?" Hardcastle replied, "they also do counterfeiting of American currency, usually one hundred dollar bills. And the bastards are still living hand to mouth."

"Good to see crime doesn't pay," Nova smirked.

"So what's the big picture?" Mirage asked, "what's their total security look like?"

"After reviewing what Blink and O'Hare found, I believe that the entire base's security is run by a slaved phalanx drone," Technocrat stated, "cut out the core program and you could get it to run all systems as fast as any supercomputer on earth."

"And that's good how?" Mirage asked. She had her fair share of experience with the phalanax, and 'good' rarely entered the equation.

"Imagine the most sophisticated security system in the world, controlled by a dog," Technocrat explained, "yes, it has ever vigilant sensors, yes it cannot be hacked and if done right it will never turn on you. But it's dumb, can be fooled and if you know what you're doing, misdirected to your hearts content. The reason why it didn't sound an alarm when Wolfsbane and Blink stumbled over it, I believe, is because it thought new mutant signatures were camp additions. As no mutants have yet attacked the camp, none are seen as a threat."

"So they have a system as sophisticated as it is stupid," Hardcastle chuckled, "I like that."

"The bad news is that it's impossible to hack or turn off," Technocrat replied, "but we can fool it. I had Sabre litter North Korea with devises that can give false positives and have some tools for our people that should block passive scans. And as a weapon of last, if we can find alternate targets for it to focus on defending, we can keep it from focusing on us."

"What, it can't multi-task?" Barnes asked.

"Not well, according to scans. Sophisticated yet stupid."

"Simple plans are often the best," Hardcastle opinioned, "okay, here's how we do it. We'll have your girl Blink insert the teams. Your heavy hitters hold back, while the rest of you assist Able Squad. We herd the kids back to the hangar and Blink evacs everyone. Is she gonna be able to do that?"

"Blink is confident she can pull it off," Mirage replied, "but I'd still like a back-up plan."

"I managed to secure a mini hellicarrier," Hardcastle replied, "it'll be stationed in the waters off North Korea. If something goes wrong, we can dial it up and ride out that way."

"What's the name, the USS International Incident?" asked Nova.

"It's that or try to make it twenty miles to the most heavily defended border in the world," Hardcastle answered, "this goes wrong, it'll go wrong big."

"Then we'll have to do it right the first time," Mirage said, "Sabre's building a copy of the camp now. We should be able to run a few drills before we leave, fine tune everything. But I think we got us a plan."

"Good," Nova cracked his knuckles, "all this waiting is making me twitchy. About time we were ready. This is gonna be fun."

oooOOooo

Elsewhere

Anaconda and Black Mamba were halfway through a 'Sex in the City' rerun when their television switched off, and the screen began flashing blue.

"We under attack?" Anaconda never bothered to memorize any of the automated alarms.

"Not at all," Black Mamba replied, "we just got an email from our insider. Now we know where and when Force Works is going to be."

Anaconda cracked her knuckles, "About time we were ready. It's been way too boring around here."

oooOOooo

Reclaimed base of Dawn of the Apocalypse

Gorgon sat lotus in front of a burning pile of bodies, meditating peacefully as Alastaire and his men approached. Even though Gorgon was downwind, Alastaire could smell the blood and death that radiated off his person, like a heat from a flame.

"…impressive," Alastaire conceded through clenched teeth.

"This base is now ours," Gorgon didn't bother to look up at the leader of the Dawn, "now that the trash has been swept clean, we need to continue our crusade. And that starts in North Korea. Those pigs cannot be allowed to build an arm on the backs of our enslaved brothers. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Alastaire sighed, "we need to prepare, first. A week or two at most. We'll take the children, and judge their worthiness to survival at our leisure. We'll be ready for anything those flat scans throw at us."

Next issue: No one is ready. And deep behind enemy lines, everything goes wrong. And it gets worse from there.