The Iron Vault is the United States' second most secure facility for the containment of the new breed of criminal. The prison itself was a massive tower sprouting up from the valleys between the mountains. The surrounding mountains all led down to a steep drop on all sides. Its only access point was a retracting bridge near the top of the tower, and after the reported ambush by Captain Winters, that bridge was currently nowhere to be seen.
As Silver Cheetah rushed her way to the cliffside where the bridge would have been, and she was not slowing down. Each of the Rogues was carried under one arm like long suitcases. Under the right arm, Captain Winters held out his cannon, fired a beam down at the ground, and built a makeshift bridge of ice from the cliffside to the entrance.
Iron Vault guards were already stationed at the entrance and raining down fire from their perch. Minerva was able to dodge and maneuver past them with ease. While the Sergeant had great difficulty running on ice, the Silver Cheetah's claws made the slick surfaces a non-factor.
But under Minerva's left arm, Baron Boomerang was taking boomerangs from his jacket and launching them wildly at the guards. These weren't thrown with the same precision that the Sergeant flung his helmet, but by the sheer number thrown, and the velocity at which they were launched, they were more than enough to neutralize the guards effectively.
It was at this point that Minerva was beginning to understand the value of the Rogue Heads. She had often chalked up Sarge's repeated challenges against them to his own inadequacy, but she learned that these men were truly capable.
When they made it to the entrance platform, Minerva dropped the two of them like old luggage. She stared down the large steel door surrounded by downed men. She briefly considered eating one of them, but they were on a time crunch. "Alright, Captain. Be a dear and freeze the door so we can bust in."
Instead of breaking the door, the Captain was getting sick over the side of the cliff. Moving so fast, changing elevation as rapidly as they did, and then stopping so suddenly, gave him motion sickness. "Just give me...a minute," Barnes requested as he held up one finger.
Baron Boomerang would have suffered the same affliction, had he not had an empty stomach. Due to his mask sealing off his mouth and being unable to remove it, he had to take in nutrients intravenously. "Step aside, Sheila. Let the ol' Baron show ya how it's done!"
Baron Boomerang reached into his coat to grab, to Minerva's surprise, not a boomerang. He retrieved a cell phone and approached the door's access panel. He began tapping away at the screen and hacked the door's computer controls. And within a few seconds, the door swished open.
Minerva looked a little surprised as Bucky had recouped and walked past her. "What, you didn't think we just kept him around for the boomerang gimmick, did ya? Baron Boomerang's real skill is cracking any lock."
"So why do you bother with the gimmick?" Minerva asked, a little flabbergasted, as they entered the vault. Her view of them was starting to deteriorate again as their idiosyncracies made themselves apparent once again.
"Because, Pussycat, boomerangs always come back. Just like I will someday to my rightful throne," the Baron answered as another horde of Vault guards filed into the room.
Minerva popped her claws and flashed a Cheshire cat smile. Urzcotatiaga was screaming in the back of her mind to have her fill. She was prepared to slice and dice her way through hundreds of people to get to the bottom floor.
Captain Winters realized this and quickly fired his cannon to create a massive ice wall that separated them from the guards. "We can't waste time with these guys. Besides, there's a much faster way down to where they keep the real goods." He said as he could hear a hail of bullets pelting the other side.
Bucky aimed his Winter Cannon at the floor and fired it straight down. The floor froze over, becoming brittle. "Helmut, if you please?"
"With pleasure, Captain!" Baron Boomerang answered as he pulled out a boomerang laced with plastique. He chucked it towards the frozen floor. "Take cover!" He shouted before jumping back and detonating the explosives.
A loud boom was heard as a large hole was blown through the floor, showing the next level below. A few cells could be seen down below. Everyone in the visible cells seemed to clamor and rave about the break-in.
"Why bother wasting them when there's a faster way to do this?" Bucky said pragmatically as he jumped down the hole. Baron Boomerang followed suit.
Minerva sighed in disappointment. She was still hungry. "Well you're no fun," she whined as she leapt through the hole and landed on the floor beside them. They'd proceed to do this over and over as they made their way to the lower floors. But every time they descended one floor, Bucky would fire a sheet of ice to cover their tracks above them.
Sarge got to the Vault a few minutes later. It was a challenge getting up Bucky's ice bridge without slipping and falling into the ravines below. He felt sluggish in comparison to before. His brain was in a fog as his connection to the Speed Force was severed and every second seemed to pass like a second. He felt like less of himself, but that was also less of the man who hated himself for living the life others didn't get to. He didn't feel like the man who was robbed of so much potential because a madman messed with time for a spiteful gag. In his simplest form, he felt like a man who put doing the right thing above all else. He was just Sergeant Esteban Garrick, he had a job to do, and that was enough.
He entered the main hall of the prison to see the large wall of ice left behind. It was see-through, and he could see Vault guards using recreations of Flag Burner's flamethrower to try and melt the ice. Sarge flung his helmet and shattered a portion of it, giving them a way through.
"Is everyone alright?" Sarge asked as he threw his helmet back on. A small horde of Vault guards ran past the Sergeant without giving him much mind or thanks.
"Everything's just fine, Sergeant Garrick. No thanks to you," a larger black woman with short black hair, greying at the temples. She wore a dark blue SHIELD uniform, a long black trench coat, and an eyepatch over her left eye. This was Amanda Fury, Director of SHIELD, and deeply respected and feared in all sectors as "The One-Eyed Wall". Because even with one eye, nothing gets past her.
"Director Fury, I'm surprised to see you out of the office. To what do I owe the pleasure," Sarge asked with a stern look. The League of Marvelous Individuals had a complex balance of power with SHIELD. They wanted the League under full government control, as Agents of SHIELD, but they would never put themselves on the leash. However, the two organizations remained friendly due to Cyberman's technological contributions, Wonder Crystal and Black Orca's diplomatic work, and Sarge's continued assistance on high-risk field missions. All of the League members respected Fury's power, but none of them liked her.
"Don't get cute with me, Speedy. I thought the prisoner transport was supposed to go without issue, Garrick. Now the Iron Vault looks like an apple with a worm chewing its way straight to the core! We were counting on your assistance, and you failed the mission! How could you let this happen?!" Fury berated Sarge, she was not a tall woman, having to stare up at Esteban. But she had an icy stare that briefly chilled the sergeant.
Now, Sarge was chilled, not frozen. He had just as much of a grievance to fire back. "It was a seven-on-one with one of them being another speedster. It's not my fault you were transporting the prisoners and their own weapons at the same time! Not to mention, you transported ALL of the Rogue Heads at the same time on the same truck. You made that transport a prime target for their leader to ambush. Forgive me for not being able to clean up your absolute tactical blunder!" He was genuinely a little angry, especially given the beating he sustained because of all of it.
Fury was paused at his response, she didn't know that the rest of the Heads were free, only Boomerang. "Somebody is getting fired, out of a cannon, for making that call. It was supposed to just be Boomerang and a few D-Listers. But I don't have time to be angry right now. We have a prison to secure, and robbery to prevent." She was zealous but professional. Regardless of her feelings about superhumans, she respected Sarge on his merits as a soldier.
"I'm going down there to handle Cheetah and the others, what kind of security does the bottom floor have?" Sarge asked, put slightly at ease by her shift in demeanor.
"No human guards, we have something a little more advanced down there. It's newly installed, it'll be interesting to see how its trial run pans out," Fury answered with a smirk. "So how are you getting down there?"
Sarge looked at the ice patches. He considered phasing through, but in his weakened state and the structure of the ice, he wasn't sure if he would just get stuck mid-vibration. There was however another option.
He ran over to one of the Iron Vault guards holding a replica flamethrower, "May I borrow this, por favor?" Esteban asked before quickly snatching it and running over to the patch of ice on the floor. He aimed down at the ice, pulled the trigger, and began spinning around in circles, shooting a ring of fire down at the ground. This continued until the ice gave and the remaining circle plummeted down to the next floor. "This is gonna take a bit, you coming?"
"I have to get something first, but I'll be taking the stairs," Fury shouted down the hole before walking off with the guards.
"Wait, where are the stairs and… she's gone," Sarge said with an annoyed sigh before performing his next viginti-quintuple axle with a flamethrower.
As the three villains blew their way down, floor by floor, Captain Winters and Baron Boomerang always quickly scanned the rooms to see what kind of people were in the cells. Most of the cells contained unremarkable men and women who, without their flashy costumes and weapons, were not easily identified. There were a few odd folks with serpentine features such as fangs, snake eyes, and even tails. Aside from Hydra, the most common organization Sarge would have to deal with was the Kobra Society, so he had to detain a lot of snake people.
Going deeper presented what the Iron Vault deemed the "Mad Scientist Wing." This floor was full of normal men who possessed no physical threat on their own but rather were those who engineered monsters or robots that members of the LMI would have had to deal with. Among their ranks were Elihas Heed, Holden Magnus, and Isbisa Quimby. Half of the inmates here were raving, yet brilliant lunatics who could somehow escape their cells if they were given something as innocuous as a plastic spoon for their pudding, so their cells were especially bare. Save for the scribblings on the walls of half-baked blueprints and schemes for escape.
The other half were the "geniuses" smart enough to serve their sentences on their best behavior, and hopefully get parole. Their cells at least had some decent furniture and books to pass the time. Some were even trustworthy enough to use their intelligence for good and help SHIELD develop advanced tech on a work release program. This wasn't based on any sympathetic ideas of redemption which many of the League campaigned for, but rather a utilitarian desire to get as much value as they could out of seized assets.
Any guards on the lower floors were quick to open fire whenever the three crooks arrived, but they were no match for the speed and ferocity of the Silver Cheetah. She was a force of nature compared to the firepower the guards had on hand. Her claws tore through their guns like butter and through their bodies like a tender cut of meat, which they indeed were to her. Minerva stood over the fallen men in the room as her hunger seemed to grow even more. "Surely, I'll be able to sate my appetite with these morsels, and we do have some time," she postured before raising her claws to fully rip apart one of the men she viciously lacerated.
"No, we don't roll that way, and as long as you're working with us, you're not killing unless you absolutely gotta," Bucky asserted as he placed his hand on her shoulder.
Minerva went to slash at his arm, but it was his cybernetic one, so it was only a mere scratch. "You're criminals, mercenaries even. What makes you so high and mighty that you set such a baffling limit on yourselves?!"
"All of us Heads had lives before Hydra, but they were taken from us because they saw our lives as expendable. I put together my team because no one is expendable, and all life's got value," Bucky explained with a sincere expression as he shifted his hand back into his cannon and shot ice down onto the next floor. "We'll ice a guy if we're paid to, but causing that kind of collateral damage is not how we operate."
"You soldiers," Minerva growled, "Always such a sentimental lot."
She rolled her eyes and slashed her arm through the guard she was clutching's arm, slicing it off and taking it with her as a snack. The two Rogues looked at her shocked and appalled. "What, he's not dead, just in shock, and a couple of pounds lighter. Do you know how difficult weight loss is in men over 40?" Minerva asked in a nonchalant tone.
"And they call me cold-blooded," Bucky quipped as they descended to the lowest level of the Iron Vault.
Baron Boomerang's only additional reaction was a clutching of his arm at the shoulder and a whisper under his breath that could only be assumed to be "Bloody Hell."
This was the "Vault" portion of the Iron Vault, the storage facility that housed the technology and weapons used by the inmates to wreak havoc upon the world. There were two layers of security at the bottom floor. The first was a ridiculously elaborate maze leading from the elevator and stairs to the vault door. The three villains were fortunate enough to circumvent the maze, unfortunate enough to drop in on the wrong side of the gigantic steel vault door that housed everything.
"Now tell me, why couldn't we have just used your friend with the pie tin for a face to send us in here?" Minerva asked with an annoyed growl as she gnawed through the severed arm.
"You think we haven't tried that, Sheila? We came here to rob the joint years ago. Still, after Sergeant Meth gave our skulls a good crackin', they made the entire inside of the vault pitch dark, specifically to counter Mirror Move's tech," Baron Boomerang explained with a chuckle, "You should've seen that little smirk Sam had for weeks after learning they made a whole new security protocol just for them!"
"Fine, go on you miserable wombat, crack the vault the old-fashioned way," Minerva ordered as she looked up towards the hole in the ceiling above them. Her catlike senses could tell that there were a lot fewer people in the Iron Vault right now. "Where are all the guards?"
Captain Winters readied his cannon as he looked around the bottom floor, "I dunno. Honestly, I was expecting another fight down here. But there's nobody here."
"Not just here, Barnes. Their blood, I can't smell it anywhere on this floor. The prisoners are still here, but not them. This feels off," the Silver Cheetah elaborated.
As the cheetah and captain discussed the situation, Baron Boomerang continued to work his way through the vault door. In reality, it was a series of multiple doors, each requiring a different protocol to unlock. It was a combination of electronic and manual locks, so he used both his hacking and lockpicking skills to get through a myriad of security checks. Unsurprisingly, he used a special "lockpick boomerang" to work through the latter obstacles.
"Whatever it is, we get outta here as quick as we got in," Boomerang stipulated as he cracked the final door, or so he thought. As the last of the vault's mundane security systems were cracked, the door slid open to reveal a large computer screen. Green static flickered on it briefly before a picture formed across it. It was that of a familiar, pudgy, bespectacled face. It was a face both Baron Boomerang and Captain Winters knew all too well.
"Grüezi, mein freunds!" It was the face of Doctor Arnim King, Bio-Wave. But there was nothing biological about him anymore.
"You've gotta be kidding me," Bucky said with contempt as he aimed his cannon towards the face on the screen. "How the hell are you still alive!?" He fired a blast of ice, but there was some kind of green, holographic shimmer that repelled the blast, likely a security feature added for that exact purpose.
"How far back do you vant me to go?" King asked with a coy smile across his face.
"Well, while I'm hacking you to pieces, start from the beginning while you still have the memory," the Baron said before being badly shocked by the computer panel he was working on.
"Ah, bup bup, little Baron. Consider me zhe Iron Vault's last line of defense," Arnim explained as a series of heavy caliber machine guns seemed to eject from various panels in the walls, all aiming toward Baron Boomerang.
"Ah, just Aces mate. Please, tell us more," the Baron responded as he raised his hands in the air, dropped his boomerangs, and took a few steps back to join the others.
"Anyvay, after my encounter vizh Wolfhawk back during the var, mein consciousness vas digitized and transferred into zhe leftover computer technology from Thawne and Degaton. I vanted him to kill me, und getting his wife killed did the trick just fine. It vas alvays my plan to be immortalized zhis vay, so Hydra could live on by my guidance," King explained with a giddiness, combined with a robotic distortion in his voice.
"I lost my connection to biological life, but the budding necks of Hydra salvaged me, und I had guided zhem for decades from zhe shadows until zhe technology of zhe time could catch up vizh mein genius. A few zhings happened here and zhere; some attempts at world domination, some men vizh cold guns for arms vere sent on assassinations, some masks vere glued to faces, you know, fun stuff!" He continued with a laugh, all of it seemed like he was recounting his fondest memories.
"Really, this was you too?! Why the bloody hell would you do that!?" Boomerang called out, baffled by the decision to disfigure him.
"So, how did you end up like this?" Minerva asked, genuinely curious about this, and completely unbothered by the guns in their faces.
"After zhe Sergeant und S.H.I.E.L.D. raided zhe base my hard drive vas being stored at, I vas reprogrammed by two of Fury's top scientists; Zan Fitz and Jayna Simmons I believe. Fury saw no purpose in vasting such a valuable collection of software and repurposed my AI as zhe Iron Vault's security system. She said she grew tired of zhe Princess hounding her about zhe reformation of criminals, und she vanted to give me a trial run to get her off her back." Arnim explained with a proud smile on his digitized face. He knew that his digital mind was completely altered to become what he was, fallen so far from once being the brains behind a Secret Empire. Part of him did feel shame, and a longing for that kind of power again. But he was also programmed to enjoy his new purpose, and that was enough.
"How can you let yourself be reduced to something so pathetic? You're a glorified PA system! After everything you did, you don't get to just go straight because Fury didn't have the cold cuts to put you down!" Bucky called out with almost disappointment, but it was mostly rage. He was waiting for decades to get revenge on Bio-Wave, and this was all that was left of him. There was a cruel irony of the man who brainwashed him to be his weapon now being brainwashed himself.
"Hurtful, but even after all my reprogramming, I still feel no remorse for what I did to you. I take so much joy in zhe pain I caused you, but also in zhe monsters you have become! Und I may not be Hydra's Brain anymore, but I make one hell of a deterrent!" King chimed as he began opening fire on the three of them.
The brain in the shell unloaded rounds after rounds of bullets at the three villains, but they were well-equipped for this scenario. Minerva would draw fire and outrun the guns, bullets were like softballs to her as she dodged them effortlessly. Meanwhile, Bucky fired his cannons to destroy the guns and coat the remains in ice.
Lastly, Baron Boomerang managed to sneak his way to the control panel and hack his way through the final door. The computer screen forcibly rose with a loud metallic rumble as the mother of all jackpots revealed itself to one of the world's greatest thieves.
"NO!" As the artificial intelligence screeched in fury, static crackled loudly from the screen as his voice deeply distorted. The holographic shimmer that protected his monitor had also seemed to short out and fizzle away. He would try and focus all his fire on Baron Boomerang, but he had either lost his guns or the ones he had run out of bullets.
Silver Cheetah and Captain Winters looked at each other with respect for their effective synergy, each giving the other a silent nod as they walked towards the inside of the Vault. It was dark at first, to prevent Mirror Move's entry, but Captain Winters focused his arm cannon to create a small, white glow from the cryonic energy to light up the room. As Bucky passed under the screen to look upon the spoils of war. Fantastical ray guns, doomsday devices, and confiscated suits of power armor lined the room, not to mention a great deal of gold. It was still a vault, you know. Boomerang was almost brought to tears at the sight of it all.
"So, you finally gonna tell us what we're snatching, Pussy? Baron Bloodbow's fiddle, Madame Cyber's mask, maybe even the Titanium Girder armor?" Boomerang asked as he passed by each one like a kid in a candy store.
"No, but take what you can carry in your coat, leave something of spoils for Mick and the others. We're here for something of real beauty," Bucky explained as the three of them went to the far right side of the room.
To the wall, there was what appeared to be a large helmet. It was gold with a purple crest wrapped around it. It was open at the top, so it was more of a crown. It was a wearable module used to enhance the latent psychic abilities within any person, giving them the ability to read and control minds. This would have been a deadly weapon in the hands of anyone, but it had one drawback which made so only very few could ever wield it; it was four feet tall and weighed a few hundred pounds.
It was designed to be the magnum opus for the Supreme Idea Mechanics In Advanced Neurotechnology, worn by their leader, G.R.O.D.D., famous for his massive head. Minerva circled around the helmet with a scowl, "How are we supposed to get it out of here?"
"Don't cough up a hairball, I got this," Bucky answered with a smirk. He put his finger to his ear, "Sam, how you holding up?"
There was a brief silence before Mirror Move answered over the comms, "Holding the line, boss. Mardon's throwing everything he's got at Thunderman, I think I saw him sweat…once. But the rest of ain't doing crap!" They answered frantically as the sounds of thunder blared through the earpieces.
"Just keep him busy for a little longer. We found the score, we just need to send it to Luthorson. Think you can give us a gateway if I give you the coordinates?" Bucky asked as he blasted a sheet of ice on the wall to serve as their ticket out of there.
"I'll try my best," Mirror Move answered before getting to work.
Just then, Sergeant Speed had finally finished his final spin cycle to break through the ice floors, sending the last chunk of ice plummeting down, crashing at the bottom, and shards of ice going everywhere. Sarge looked at the flamethrower he used to get all the way down here and clicked the trigger a few times. It was out of fuel after so much use. He tossed it aside as he stood before the three villains and his digitized former foe. "It's over, Bucky. Stand down!" He called out, sounding a little winded after everything it took to get down there.
"Velcome back, herr Sergeant, now, it is your turn to DESTROY THEM ALL!" Arnim shouted wrathfully as his remaining operable guns rattled helplessly with empty cartridges.
Sarge looked back at the screen to see Arnim King. He quickly put together that he was the bottom floor's new security system, "Bio-Wave, this is where Fury put you? Another thing I'm gonna have to have a long talk with her about."
Everyone readied themselves for a fight, but Captain Winters seemed especially angry at the fact Sarge knew about Arnim being alive, "You knew this son of a bitch was still around, and when you captured him, you let him live?!" Bucky yelled as he aimed his cannon towards Sarge.
"He deserves to face justice for the crimes he committed. You think that's living? I may not agree with what SHIELD did here on a tactical level, but I have to admit, this seems like justice to me," Sarge defended what he saw as a fitting ironic punishment.
"He's too dangerous to be left alive. You of all people should accept that some people need to die!" Bucky argued back.
Sarge paused for a second, "Maybe, but normal men can't make that call. Surrender, Bucky, and no one else has to get hurt. Despite your assertions, you haven't taken a life today, you can come out of this better than most."
"Nah, if I'm going down, I'm taking at least someone with me," Bucky said before firing his Winter Cannon at the screen. The ice cascaded onto the monitor's form as Arnim's expression was frozen in a look of fear.
"Take this, ya Nazi piker!" Boomerang assisted as he then tossed a boomerang at the frozen computer, shattering it as frosted glass and circuitry fell to the ground.
"No!" shouted Sarge as he dodged the falling glass and ran right towards Bucky. Thor told him to keep it simple, so he was going to punch him right in the face, knock him out, and that'd be that.
"Okay, my turn. You two don't get to have all the fun," Minerva let out a sigh of boredom as she cracked her neck and darted to intercept Sarge's attack.
Sarge knew she was a cut or two above him in terms of speed right now, he couldn't think of some master strategy to make a three-stage assault for everything to go just as he wanted to. But he had other advantages. Thor told him to go for her head, which Sarge initially took as to hit her there, but Thunderman meant to trip her up mentally. And on the run to the Vault, Thor messaged him with a fairly juicy piece of information.
"Minerva, you have another sister," Esteban blurted out as fast as he could.
Upon hearing this news, the Silver Cheetah was reasonably thrown off guard, but just for a second. But it was just long enough for Sergeant Speed to duck down, grab Minerva by the tail, swing her around, and throw her against the wall. His speed may have been dampened, but his strength was not.
The Baron let his boomerangs fly from his hands like he was dealing cards. The real question to be asked was where he was even storing them. Sarge took his helmet off and used it as a shield to swat the oncoming projectiles away. While one strong flick of the wrist, he let the helmet fly, crashing into Boomerang's chest, and bouncing back to Sarge's hand, before promptly returning to his head. "Sorry Harkness, your toys are flashy, but mine's got character," he said with a proud tip of his helmet.
Captain Winters was scrambling to get GRODD's crown to the reflective ice on the wall. He had iced the floor and the wall behind him, and been pushing it across while the others bought him time. "Sam, patch me through, we don't got much time!" He ordered Mirror Move.
"We're getting creamed out here, boss! Burner and Trickster are down, and Mardon's taking a beating, and I'm running on shards," Mirror Move responded, sounding out of breath. They had over-exerted themselves, sending wave after wave of holographic copies to hold off Thunderman's wrath. "I'm not gonna be able to get all of us through."
"I'm not leaving you behind," Bucky asserted.
"This is good for the team, bust us out again when you're with the big leagues. We can wait. What's the next big rule after not killing?" Mirror Move asked rhetorically as they fiddled with their saber, shifting the hilt around to turn it into a pistol of sorts.
"Remember the score," Bucky answered begrudgingly. He hated to abandon his team, but the score, and what it would bring them, came first.
"Good luck, boss." They fired it at one of the remaining chunks of ice left behind. Holding it on the ice, the beam of light bounced around through the Mirror Dimension until it found the two points of contact: A large window on the Legion of Master's ship, and the ice on the Vault's wall. The ice took on an orange tint as it became a portal through space on another dimensional plane.
Sarge had finally shattered his way through Bucky's last line of defense with a barrage of rapid-fire punches. "Just give up, Bucky. It's over."
"It ain't over until I say it is. This giant hat is getting outta here, and you can't do jack about it. Not like you do jack about a lot of stuff, anyway." Bucky retorted as he held his cannon out towards Sarge. He wasn't sure how this was going to go, he was scared, but he was still ready to fight to his last breath to steal that crown.
"Actually, I'll be the one that says it's over," Fury called out as she appeared from the maze on the other side of the room. Getting through all the security systems from the top floor to here had taken a while. She entered with her typical cold self-assurance, and in her hands was a tablet.
"Whatcha got there, Fury? New levels of Candy Blitz come out?" Bucky asked mockingly.
"Actually, it's your friends' lives," Fury answered as she held the screen towards Sergeant Speed and Captain Winters. On it were photos of Flag Burner, Baron Boomerang, Molecule Wizard, Mirror Move, and Batroc the Trickster. Each photo was paired with buttons saying the word, "Detonate".
Baron Boomerang shuddered at the sight of the screen, "Detonate, bloody hell did you do to me?!"
"During your time in SHIELD custody, I had plans to use you for a secret project. It required you under my strict control, so a nano bomb was placed in the base of your skulls to ensure compliance. But it also serves as a hell of a deterrent to prevent escaping, and makes you excellent hostages." Fury explained with a smugness to her. She had them all right where she wanted them.
"Sarge, you better not have known about this too!" Captain Winters shouted with a deep disgust for both him and Fury.
"I swear, I would never have gone along with something so cruel," Sarge answered with a piercing glare towards Fury.
"Don't get high and mighty with me now, Garrick! I'm finally giving these crooks a chance to redeem themselves by working for me! That's what you all care so much about right, redemption? This is just insurance. Now, Captain Barnes, you're going to step away from the mirror portal and turn yourself over to me, or the Rogue Heads will be the Rogue Grey Matter splattered on the walls," Fury threatened with not joy, but satisfaction in knowing she did what she felt had to be done.
Bucky took a deep breath as he weighed his options. He was genuinely considering giving himself up for the sake of his team. But he knew if he complied, there'd be a bomb in his head just like the others, and he couldn't bear to let himself be turned into another human weapon, SHIELD or Hydra. He took one step forward, preparing a surrender.
Unfortunately, Bucky wouldn't get to make his gallant acquiescence, as Minerva had finally come to, took a quick scan of the situation, and immediately darted towards GRODD's crown, kicked it full force on the ice, through the portal, and pushed Bucky in with it. She gave a glance to Fury, who had a look of…well, fury on her face. The Silver Cheetah gave a Cheshire cat smile and raced in after Bucky and the crown.
Sarge stared at the portal, then back at Fury, "This isn't over."
"I'd expect nothing less from you," Fury responded with a hint of contempt. She was weary of the moral high ground the League had lorded over her. She looked to see Baron Boomerang trying to run after them, but she hit a button on her tablet to make the bomb in his head start to beep loudly.
The Baron sheepishly turned around with his hands in the air, "Guess I'm going back to my cell, innit?"
"Boomerangs always come back, don't they?" Fury asked with a smirk.
Sarge bolted through the portal and entered the Mirror Dimension. This was the realm Mirror Move had gained access to after stealing McCulloch's technology. It was a world of chaos and inversion. It was like running through a grocery store, but the aisles were previews into the world beyond every reflective surface in the world. So many bathrooms, so many highways, and so many freshly waxed floors, and all of it was ever so slightly peering into this realm. It was disorienting to navigate, to say the least. It reminded Sarge of the Speed Force, and that brought many unwelcome feelings with it.
Sarge looked around to find the fleeing Minerva and Bucky with the crown, but it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Luckily, it ended up being a very small haystack, as the orange beam created by Mirror Move created a direct link between the entrance and the desired exit. He could see the two following the path designated for them. Minerva was pushing the crown across it, as Bucky fired an ice path in front of it while inside it like a big sled.
Sergeant Speed made a quick chase after them, shutting his eyes to try and ignore the onslaught of reality leaking around him. He just kept running forward, but no matter how much he tried, he couldn't catch up. He could see the exit portal just up ahead, but there was no way he could intercept them.
Sarge wasn't even sure what the plan was, but he knew that GRODD's crown would've been important. So, he kept it simple. He took off his helmet, put all his strength into a superpowered throw, and let it fly straight towards where he knew they were going to go. It cascaded through the air and slammed into not the crown, but Bucky's shoulder. It caused his arm cannon to flinch down, firing ice into the massive helm, and freezing up the circuitry right before they escaped into the portal at the other end. It wasn't much, but it would slow them down.
After doing everything he could do, Sarge's next goal was escaping the Mirror Dimension. But to his horror, the path created by Mirror Move was gone. Unbeknownst to Sarge, at the worst possible time, Thor had finally done them in, incapacitating Mirror Move, and preventing them from maintaining the portals. And without a conduit, he would have been unable to escape. Sarge would try to find the various mirrors around the realm to escape through, but he lacked the ability to phase through the dimensional planes. For a few seconds, any one person could look at their mirror, and see a red streak flash past it with no source, but that'd be all they'd see.
He helplessly bounced around like a pinball, beginning to panic over being trapped in another world. Sarge didn't know how time worked in the Mirror Dimension. For all he knew, every second untethered was 37 years. Esteban was petrified at the thought of losing all that time all over again, losing all the people again, losing the identity he had again made for himself, and being forgotten.
But as Esteban's mind raced towards hopelessness, he could see a lime green light. A straight line, bouncing through all the different mirrors he could see. The beam ricocheted around until it homed in on Sergeant Speed himself. The end of the beam turned into a hand, open for the taking. Esteban recognized the construct and took it. And in seconds, the bright green recoiled, zipping all around the Mirror Dimension until it dragged Esteban through the mirror it first emerged from; a magic mirror in the Tower of Fate.
With one hard tug, the hand forced Esteban through the mirror, and back to the real world. Esteban got to his feet and looked at the savior that stood before him. It was Jessica Maximoff, the Emerald Witch back in tip-top shape. The construct of the hand dissipated as she gave the Sergeant a kind smile.
"Jessica, what year is it?" Sarge asked, just as a sanity check.
"2023, don't worry. You're good, Sarge. Lucky I found you," she answered as she looked at her ring, glowing solely with her own green energy.
Esteban quickly dashed forward to hug Jessica. He felt a wave of relief wash over him, knowing he didn't lose any time. "Thank you."
Jessica hugged back, understanding the Sergeant's mental health struggles better than most of the League. "You're alright, Sergeant. Just take a minute, and let yourself unwind." As she spoke, she used her ring to make a construct of a bean bag chair. She then let Esteban drop into it when he was ready. "Anyway, I wanted to discuss coming back to work. I think I'm finally ready to rejoin the League."