A2: Chapter 1: Assembly
by Jeremy Schwennen
It was dark, and the noises of the night sounded
strange to him. He crept across the rooftops, looking for
something, but cloaked in silence. He giggled as the quiet voice
in his mind suggested a change of attire, and the dark sweatshirt
and jeans he was wearing liquefied, swirled about, and
resolidified, in the form of a black ninja costume.
He continued his trek, eyes peeled, the voice in his mind
whispering tactical readouts and sensor sweeps, and his body
burning, both from the strain of his first truly physical
exercise in years, and from the boiling, steaming energy that
surged about within him, beating against his skin.
---
"Thank you Hank! Thank you so much!" Cassie Lang
clutched a small, ovular device, the size of a purse, to her
chest, her face covered in a broad grin. "You won’t
regret it!"
The girl was short, five foot and maybe 3 inches. She had
freckles and long, brown hair, pulled back into a loose pony
tail. She wore glasses, and had on a pair of blue jeans and a
white t-shirt, with an old brown Avengers jacket on top. The
device she held was yellow and black, and covered with circuits
and ports.
Hank Pym, the Avenger known as Giant Man, looked at the girl, a
bemused smile on his aging face. "Now, you’re sure that
your father has approved of this?" Hank was happy to be able
to help Cassie with her dream of being a super hero, especially
considering the... odd circumstances that had resulted in
Cassie’s living at the Mansion... and being sixteen.
Cassie looked away from Hank, slightly. He was unskilled with
dealing with people, and did not really think much of her
unwillingness to look him in the eye. He just took it as another
quirk to this girl, who mere weeks before had been a happy little
ten year old.
"Of course. He filled out the electronic forms that Mr.
Whitman sent home and should be sending them back tonight
sometime. So.." she gave Hank a big, sweet smile. "Can
I try it on?"
---
"Yes, Mrs. Johnson... is Brian there?" Dane Whitman,
the long-time Avenger known as Black Knight, sat back in his
large office chair, fidgeting with his tie. He wore a blue-gray
business suit, the only symbol of his super-heroic identity a
small shield and sword pendant on a chain around his neck.
"Hi, Brian? This is Dane Whitman. Woah there, buddy.. calm
down. Yes.. yes, this is Avengers business. How would you like to
come up to New York and be a part of a new program the Avengers
are trying out?"
"Well, I am running the program, but I am sure that
you’d be seeing a lot of the other Avengers. Did I forget to
mention.. you’d be living at the mansion?"
Dane chuckled softly as Brian Johnson, a young mutant with a lot
of possibilities, screamed in that way of incomprehensible
excitement that all young people have.
---
"Flight 139 from New Orleans now arriving at Gate 7."
The announcement echoed forth from the loud speakers in the
airport terminal, and Vance Astrovik joined in the throng of
people that moved towards Gate 7, eager to meet loved ones and
renew old acquaintances. Vance wore dress slacks and a striped,
long sleeved shirt. He fumbled with the cell phone in his pocket,
trying to decide if he should call Angelica, his wife. Then, his
thumb found itself rubbing his wedding band, and he halted that
line of thinking. He had promised Angelica that he would stop
being so protective, that he would trust her to be on her own for
the few hours of the day that he was in Manhattan, working with
Dane on the A2 project.
The crowd arrived at Gate 7, and the occupants of flight 139
slowly emptied out into the reception area, mingling with friends
and family, gathering luggage, and all of the other small rituals
air travelers the world over endure. One of the last people
getting off the plane was a young man of about seventeen years.
He was of medium height, and had short brown hair and a stocky
build. His name was David Bank, and he was the reason Vance was
here.
"David! David Bank!" Vance called to his young friend,
trying to capture his attention. But David, his hands trembling
and his skin pale and white, did not notice. He was far too busy
looking for the restroom, where he could continue his exploration
of the effects of air-sickness in private. As the young mutant
who Vance had met all those months ago bolted for the restroom,
Vance plunged into the crowd, gently nudging people aside with
both his own strength and his telekinesis.
He entered the men’s room a few minutes after David, and
found, or rather heard, him in the first stall, retching and
coughing. "David.. it’s me, Vance.. are you OK?"
The toilet flushed, and David opened the door, wiping his mouth
with the back of his sweatshirt sleeve. "Sorry Vance...
I’ve told Dad a million times, I don’t like to
fly."
"But I thought your father said this was your first time on
an airplane..." Vance was slightly confused, until he
recalled his first time seeing David use his phenomenal powers.
He slapped his hand against his forehead.
David smiled slightly, as the coloration began to return to his
skin. He made a swooping gesture with his hand, and shook his
head. "Scary thing, flying. I don’t think I’ll
ever get used to it."
---
Jarvis knocked on the door again. For the past week, ever since
Miss Cassie had arrived, the young man who lived in this
particular guest room had not emerged.
"Master Jones, you really can’t stay in there forever.
You have to eat sometime.. and I assure you, you have no reason
to be afraid." Jarvis set the silver tray, covered in a
selection of foods, on the floor before the door, and turned to
walk away. It had been a long while since Luna had lived in the
Mansion, and Jarvis was not accustomed to children. Even if
Thomas Jones was no child.
The door slowly opened, and a thin, pale hand reached out to grab
the platter. Tom pulled it back inside, and closed the door
again, locking it tightly. He didn’t want to see anyone. He
didn’t know who he could trust anymore... Gamesmaster would
do anything to get him back. He had already seen that.
He looked at the small metallic device clipped to his belt, not
much larger than a pager, and made sure that the small red light
was still on. The nineteen year old mutant, with his long brown
hair and big, roman nose, who had come to be known as Alchemy,
was grateful to Iron Man for building the small telepathic
shield. But how could he be sure that Gamesmaster wasn’t
already controlling Iron Man as he built it? Tom knew that
sounded paranoid... but he had seen it happen before.
---
"Where is she?" Hawkeye paced back and forth, the suit
he wore pulling uncomfortably at his waist. Clint Barton was not
accustomed to waiting for anything, and his promise to escort
young Hallie Takahama to the mansion was swiftly becoming a
massive waste of time. She was already 20 minutes late for her
appointment with him, here at her school in Manhattan.
The leaves on the tree overhead suddenly rustled, and with a
flash of electrical static, Hallie came skidding to a halt, right
in front of Clint. She had a huge backpack with her, and a
suitcase of proportions Hawkeye found wholly amazing.
"Sorry I’m late, Mr. Barton. I missed the bus, so I
ran.. but I had to go kind of out of my way to avoid the Bugle,
because, well, that Peter Parker works there, and I’ve
clipped all of his shots of Spider-Man, and he seems to be really
good at getting pics of superhumans and I didn’t want to get
caught by him because I don’t have a costume yet and I
really don’t have a codename yet either and I want to
protect my family and I am sorry I am late but the fact of the
matter is I did it for your own good too because I didn’t
want to be followed by a reporter who could easily get your face
on film and then reveal your identity to the whole world
and-" Hallie talked, and talked, and talked, seemingly
without end in sight. Clint sighed, took her bags from her, and
opened the door of his car. It was going to be a long drive.
"Jolt... I’d call you Jolt."
"Why is that Mr. Barton? I know it sounds good, don’t
get my wrong, I love it and I think I will use it, but is it
because of the sparks I make, or the power discharge from my
punches or my super-speed or-"
"Yeah Hallie, that’s it..." Hawkeye silently
clicked off the hearing aids which compensated for his deafness
and muttered under his breath, "or it’s because you
remind me of an over-caffeinated beverage...."
---
"So, as soon as Brian gets here, we can start getting
acquainted with everyone." Vance sat in the large,
leather-backed office chair which adorned his newly finished den.
On the desk, the vidscreen showed Dane, similarly relaxed, and in
another window, Jan VanDyne, the Wasp.
"Well Vance, I really think you have your work cut out for
you. Jarvis says Tom has become increasingly reclusive, and
frankly, I don’t know what to do about it. It’s been a
long time since I was his age... and then there’s Cassie.
Something about her bothers me. I can’t put my finger on it,
just yet. Her and David seem to be getting along excellently, and
Hallie is starting to get accepted into their little clique. I
really don’t know how to handle the group training at this
point, so I think I will leave the big introduction tomorrow in
your capable hands. Well, I think it’s time I retire for the
night. Vance, Jan, I’ll see you tomorrow." The window
containing Dane Whitman’s image quietly disappeared, leaving
Jan’s window the sole occupant of the vidscreen.
"So, what do you think about all of this? You haven’t
said much all night." Vance was eager to get approval from
the other Avengers in his methods for dealing with A2. For as
long as he could remember, working with the Avengers had been a
dream of his, and he was not about to jeopardize that dream by
making silly mistakes.
"I think that your idea, about using the new gym and just
letting them fend for themselves for an hour or so, is a good
plan. If nothing else, it will show them how important team work
is, and give each of them a feel for how the others operate. As
long as you are running the control booth, I’d say it’s
the best course of action."
Vance smiled. He and Angelica had hammered out dozens of
scenarios to program into the new Gym’s holo-emitters, and
they had even gotten in touch with Reed Richards and borrowed a
set of datafiles on various aspects of the negative zone to
incorporate into the environmental programs. He was looking
forward to seeing the kids in action.
"Now, for the most important thing... do I get to give the
kids the new costumes tomorrow?" Jan smiled, a brilliant
gleam in her eyes.
---
Another night had fallen, and he stood once more among the
rooftops, cloaked in black clothes. He looked down, at the
mansion before him, the whisper in his mind describing endless
fields of sensors and defensive measures. A roaring, primal heat
hammered at his eyes, from within. There was where he had to be.
This new project was exactly what he.. what THEY... needed.
He leaped to the rooftop, the black ninja-style clothing
immediately splashing against the roof, camouflaging,
interfacing, jamming. No alarms sounded. The basic architectural
layout appeared, etched in his mind by the whispering hum of his
android skin. Search programs cycled, isolating areas of the map,
darting about structural drawings, probing for the best location
for Contact.
Invisible against the night sky, twin spots of raging light
appeared in the palms of the silent intruder, as he pressed them
into the stonework at his feet. "Just a little hole, just a
little release..." he whispered, as the roof began to smoke,
and the very stone melted, peeling back, dripping molten rock,
forming a hole just large enough to grant him access. The twin
points of thermal energy vanished, as the camouflaged
‘skin’ flowed back over the palms. The whisper in his
mind gave directions, and the assailant crept to a place where he
could wait. And watch. He loved to watch.
---
A shower of sparks came from somewhere, and a young man’s
voice muttered a few swear words. Again, the sparks flew, but
this time, a soft glow came from the source. A hand.
"Cassie, I don’t understand why you think you have to
do this." The boy who spoke moved his glowing hand towards
the wall, probing for a light switch.
"Dave, I am not going to let them tell my dad. He’s
finally settling in to being a normal guy... he’s better off
thinking I am dead. How would YOU act if your daughter came home
one day, back from the dead and 6 years older?" The girl
caught sight of the light switch and flipped it, bathing the
small room in light.
David Bank shut off the light from his hand, and shook his head,
disapprovingly. His short, brown hair and thick, pudgy features
made him look distinctly non-authoritarian, and Cassie ignored
him. She did that a lot.
"Hmm.. yep. These files aren’t even protected."
Cassie Lang sat at the computer, her fingers busily clicking
away.
"Isn’t forging ‘permission slips’ a little..
juvenile?" David peeked his head out the door, glanced
quickly to each side, and pulled his head back in.
"Davey, you have to remember... despite what I look like,
I’m only 10. Juvenile is what I do best."
---
Vance Astrovik stood in front of the mirror. He looked deep into
his own eyes, searching for a trace of the conviction he had
grasped so tightly 3 months ago, when Dane Whitman had approached
him with an offer he couldn’t refuse. He had said yes, and
that one simple word had utterly transformed his life.
He thought back, as he straightened his hair one last time, to
the mission of the A2 project. The idea, originally formed by a
concerned parent group who publicly supported the Avengers, was
the province of Dane, the Black Knight. He and Vance had hammered
out the details over the past months, and had come to the
conclusion that the Avengers would work in conjunction with a
local boarding school to provide education in both the
conventional sense and the super-heroic sense.
That was Vance’s purpose, to train the kids in the use of
their myriad powers. And to help them deal with the consequences
their gifts could have on their life. If anyone understood
consequences, it was Vance.
He fussed with his tie one last time, wished that Angelica was
there for the millionth time, and walked towards Gymnasium 2, the
place of assembly.
---
Tom was distinctly uncomfortable. He had been here at the mansion
longest, but he still wasn’t settled in. He longed to be
home, in London, with his mother. He wanted nothing more than to
live a normal life. But unfortunately, ever since his mother
signed him up to attend Mr. Masters’ ‘superhuman
integration program’, Thomas had been running. Hiding.
But with any luck, that was all behind him. He was in America
now, with the Avengers. If anyone could keep him from having to
go back to that awful place, it would be Earth’s Mightiest
Heroes. Iron Man’s device kept him hidden from Gamesmaster,
and he had the assurances of SHIELD that no one outside of the
Avengers even knew he was in America. He had to learn to relax.
Tom absentmindedly brushed a lock of his long dark hair back,
away from his eyes, and touched his hand to his familiar ink pen.
He whispered a few simple words.. carbon, lead, copper.. and
watched as the pen rapidly shifted from one element to the next.
His powers still amazed him.
But it wasn’t time for that now. It was time to get together
with the other kids, and Mr. Astrovik. It was time for a new
beginning.
---
They were inside, sitting in chairs, around a large, circular
table. Dane was there too, talking to Brian, the newest arrival.
He saw Vance enter and motioned Brian to sit as he walked towards
Vance, his eagerness to get things underway naked on his face.
"Everyone, this is Vance Astrovik. He’s going to be
your mentor, and we hope, your friend. Those of you who follow
the super-hero set probably know Vance better as Justice, former
leader of the New Warriors..."
Dane said the last part, about the Warriors, almost hesitantly,
and Vance noticed a scowl creep across Brian’s face.
He’d have to look into that.. later.
"And Vance, these are the kids. Tom Jones, Alchemy. Cassie
Lang, who we think is going to use the handle Yellowjacket. David
Bank you already know, since he’s using your original duds
and name as Marvel Boy.." Dane went through the formal
introductions as Vance smiled at David. They’d had a very
long talk in the car the day before, and Vance was certain that
David’s presence here would make a positive impact on the
other kids.
"Brian Johnson, Bolt.." Where had Vance heard that name
before? Someone.. Nita?.. had mentioned him.. no.. must have been
someone else.
"And finally, Hallie Takahama, who we have affectionately
dubbed Jolt. There you have them, the next generation of
Avengers. And with that, Vance, I’ll leave you to what we
discussed. I’m heading up to the control room."
"Thanks Dane, I’ll join you in a minute. OK. Well.
Um..." Vance suddenly found himself at a loss for words.
Seeing these kids, all staring at him, all expecting him to say
something that would suddenly change their lives, was a sensation
he had not prepared for.
"What Vance is trying to say, everyone, is... it’s
costume time!" Jan burst through the door into the Gym, her
arms loaded down with boxes and bags.
"Yeah... you guys all get suited up here, and then we are
going to run a small training exercise. Nothing tough.. just
something to get you all acquainted with one another. I and Dane
will be watching form the Observation booth. Have fun... and try
to work together. Afterwards, we’ll all sit down and discuss
how it went, and talk about the more.. normal things that are
expected of you. Good luck." Vance talked fast, his words
spilling out onto each other. He smiled nervously at Jan,
inclining his head in a token of appreciation, and she winked at
him in reply.
"Vance.. you really, really need to calm down. No one’s
judging you here.. these are kids, hell, Alchemy’s
practically your age. Be their friend, and their teacher. They
are certainly nothing to be afraid of." Dane placed his hand
on Vance’s shoulder as he sat at his seat in the control
room.
"I know, really I do. But it’s a lot easier to say I
will relax than to actually BE relaxed."
Below, on the Gym floor, Jan gathered the discarded packaging for
her newly designed A2 costumes, and rushed out the door, the kids
calling their thanks to her as she left.
"Let’s go." Vance clicked the engage button, and
watched as the holo-emitters masked the room in jungle-like
imagery.
---
Vance’s voice came from a transmitter, somewhere. "The
goal is to find the score panel and hit it. You’ll know it
when you see it. Good luck!"
"Yay. The woods. Just bloody wonderful." Alchemy
fidgeted with the leather jacket that Wasp had offered as part of
his new costume. All around him, he could hear strange noises. He
knew it wasn’t real, but everything seemed so life-like. He
felt as if he was being watched by everything, from everywhere. A
feeling not so entirely different than the paranoia that his
encounter with Gamesmaster had left him with. It was, however, a
feeling he was not prepared to live with forever.
"Cassie, you and David can fly, right? Why don’t you
two see about finding the target from the air?" Tom was
hesitant to order the others around, but everyone was just
standing there, admiring the scenery, and he WAS the oldest.
"Um.. but... I..." David thought back to the airplane
trip, yesterday. He really, REALLY didn’t want to have all
of his new teammates see him vomit from air-sickness.
Cassie elbowed him in the ribs, and whispered something in his
ear. David suddenly perked right up.
"I’ll race you Cassie!" Marvel Boy mentally
focused on flight. The nature of his powers, the ability to do
everything, required a great deal of focusing to make his powers
do anything at all. Suddenly, surrounded in incandescent light,
he launched skyward.
"Sure thing Davey." With a flick of a cybernetic relay
in her helmet, Cassie Lang released a spray of Pym Particles into
her system, causing her, and the complex battle armor she wore,
to shrink to merely a foot in height. Long, blue wings of energy,
buzzing as they began to vibrate, expanded from housings on her
back, and she took to the air. Despite David’s slight
headstart, she was the faster flyer.
It only took a few moments for the two to be lost in the sky, cut
off from the rest of the group by the thick foliage overhead.
"This is ignorant. This whole place is generated by a string
of electrical commands to hologram emitters. I can shut down the
environment and we can go tap this stupid score panel. Simple as
that." Bolt grumbled and walked away from the group.
Something was bothering him, his excitement about being in the
Mansion lost ever since he had met Vance.
"You can really do that? I mean, I know people like Electro
and Living Lightning can do stuff like that, but you? You’re
just a kid, not that I am arguing with you because I am just a
kid too and I know that when I say I can do something I can do it
but-" Jolt rushed over to where Bolt was standing, examining
a tree. He smiled slightly at her exuberant dialogue, and
continued his exploration of the holographic environment.
"My god girl, do you know what it means to be silent?"
Tom looked skyward, waiting for the return of the two airborne
kids.
As soon as he found them, he wished he hadn’t.
Marvel Boy blasted across the skyscape, firing energy bursts from
his eyes towards the small and rapidly dodging Yellowjacket. One
finally hit her, but rather than knocking her from the sky, it
merely caused her to glow for a few moments. "Just a
sparkler, Yellowbutt. You’re it!"
Cassie was angry.. it was very obvious. It was made even more so
as she enlarged to about half her normal height. While the
increased size cost her most of her flight speed, it made her
sonic disrupter-based stingers much more effective. And she fired
them at David. Again, and again, and again.
"Hey! Watch it! Those things hurt!" As David turned for
another pass at Cassie, he caught a flicker of movement out of
the corner of his eye. Staring at it, bringing his powers to
focus, he enhanced his vision. There, flashing a tiny red light,
was the score panel, about 300 yards from the teams current
position. Unfortunately this re-allocation of his concentration
caused David to lose his control over his flight powers.
"Joy, I get to do something useful today." With that,
Tom Jones touched his hand to the floor, and whispered
"Rubber." A brief flash of energy signaled the effect
was complete, and David bounced off of the once-metallic floor.
The holographic turf, however, was still in place.
"Are you children done playing now?" Alchemy pushed his
goggles up a bit on his nose, and returned the floor to it’s
original form.
David blushed, keeping his eyes locked on the floor. Tom was four
years older than him, and letting Tom see how incompetent he was
certainly not going to earn him any respect from the British
mutant.
"I spotted the score panel, Jolt or Yellowjacket can both
get to it in seconds. Looks like we passed this test, huh?"
David tried to change the subject, hoping Tom didn’t notice.
"Well..." Cassie lowered herself closer to the ground,
the harmonious buzz of her wings setting the leaves on the
holographic trees to rustling. "I’ll race you
Hallie." And she returned to the upper sky, as Jolt kicked
in her amazing bio-electrical speed, heading in the direction
David indicated.
"What is this race thing? Why do they keep racing? Is it an
American thing? Do YOU feel the overwhelming urge to go run
somewhere too, Brian?" Alchemy collapsed against a tree, his
head in his hands. These people were giving him a headache.
"No... not really." Bolt sat next to him.. feeling the
warmth coming from his body. His senses, attuned to the
electrical fields around him, marveled at the difference between
the electrical/holographic heat manufactured by the holo-emitted
sun and surroundings, and the organic, bio-electric generated
heat of a human body. It was an amazing sensation, something that
he had never experienced during his time with Maverick. Already,
after only hours in Manhattan, Brian Johnson was learning new
things about himself. "Maybe they race, and run, because
they can?"
Before Tom could ask the youngest member of the team what he
meant by that last statement, the room went suddenly, completely,
dark.
---
In the control room, lights and alarms sounded, the metal
shielding sliding into place over the glass observation window.
Smoke and mist began to pour from the ventilation shafts. Vance
telekinetically hammered against the panel, but he did not break
through before the strange green vapors filled his lungs, and
those of Dane, with chloroform.
---
"WHAT did you do?" Cassie flipped the infrared lenses
in her helmet on, and tightened her grip on Hallie’s throat.
The slight cybernetic strength enhancement offered by the armor
was sufficient to allow her to lift the fifteen year old with
minimal effort.
"I.. just hit the button.. let GO of me..." Hallie
kicked at Cassie, her powers springing into action, unleashing a
devastating bio-electric pulse on contact with the armor’s
breastplate. Cassie released her grasp and doubled over, even as
light returned to the gym.
"We’re not in Kansas anymore..." David looked
around, at the strange, surreal landscape that surrounded them.
Gaping tunnels opened up nearly everywhere, unfamiliar
constellations hung in the sky, and large machines and tanks
filled with green liquid stretched out into the distance.
"If I hear one more god damned Matrix reference while I am
in this country, I am going to gouge out my own blasted
eyes..." Alchemy looked around, his powers instinctively
notifying him of the difference in atmosphere. The air was
breathable, but had a far larger CO2 content than Earth’s
atmosphere.
David saw Hallie return, running at normal speeds, tears
streaking her face, as he muttered under his breath. "It was
from the Wizard of Oz first..."
---
Somewhere, far, far from Avengers Mansion, Kansas, Earth, or
anything else imaginable by David, a computer screen flared to
life.
...Systems sweep indicates unscheduled consciousness containment
realm installation.
...Realm cataloged.
...Database updated.
...Connection type: trans-dimensional.
...ALERT: intruders registered.
...Quantitative analysis suggests six deviant life signs.
...ALERT: one intruder is interfacing directly with primary
programming.
...Six energy signatures registered.
...Qualitative analysis suggests deviant life signs registered
are super-human in nature.
...Standardized response to superhuman deviance employed.
...Sector 327 accessed.
...Corridor 12Q accessed.
...Chamber 27 online.
...Uplink established.
...Consciousness transmission complete.
...Lockdown engaged.
---
"I’m telling you, we are still in the gym. I can feel
the electrical energy powering the holo-emitters." Bolt
paced, nervous. The group was not dealing well with this change
of venue, primarily because Vance refused to answer any of their
attempts at communication.
"Maybe this is all part of their plan... keeping us on our
toes?" David offered the suggestion tentatively. He was
utterly confused by the strange landscape, and, as he sat,
talking with Hallie, he was beginning to wonder exactly what he
had found so attractive about Cassie. She had brought Jolt to
tears, attacked her! That girl had issues which David really
didn’t want to be exploring on ‘alien’ turf.
A familiar hum signaled Cassie’s touchdown on the barren
ground, a few yards from where Alchemy stood, examining the
entrance to one of the nearby tunnels. "I can’t find
the score panel anywhere. But that might be because of the bad
lighting here. My infrared sights are still off line from getting
zapped by Hallie and..."
"I don’t care Cassie. I really don’t. You hurt
her, you know. Left marks. This isn’t a game, not anymore.
After what you did, Dane or Vance should have ended the program.
But they didn’t. You know why. Because they can’t.
We’re stuck here."
"You don’t know that! I.. I didn’t mean to hurt
her.. I just got so mad when the lights went out.. and, here,
this place, it seems.. it just makes me angry, hurt. I
didn’t mean to hurt her... oh..." a few small tears
began to streak down Cassie’s face. Tom shook his head, and
lifted her chin with his hand.
"Stop that. I know you don’t mean it, and you know it.
Stop your acting. I don’t know what game you think you are
playing here, little girl, and I don’t care." Alchemy
looked up, at the sky, in the general direction he felt the
control room would be. "And I don’t care much for being
trapped in here with little psychopaths!"
Alchemy pushed Yellowjacket aside and began to descend into the
tunnel. "Dave, Hallie, Brian, come on.. let’s see
what’s behind door number one here."
Tripping the switch in her armor, Yellow Jacket reduced herself
to a mere inch in height, her minimum size, and darted into a
crease in Alchemy’s jacket. There was no way she was going
to allow these arrogant jerks to leave her alone in this dark
place. Something about it seemed so familiar, and it was not a
pleasant association.
---
"Did we have to knock them unconscious? Isn’t that
going to hurt our case?" he sat, in a dark corner, invisibly
blended against his surroundings, whispering to the voice in his
mind, the voice of his superficial skin.
"In my experience with super-humans, they are a very
forgiving lot. We had to remove them from the field in order to
generate the danger necessary to ingratiate us with the others.
Hold please..." The voice in his head fell silent, and the
constant stream of data scrolling in front of his eyes slowed to
a snail’s pace. The complex android mind that interfaced
with his own was somehow occupied.
"Superhuman codex- Vision has noticed my accessing of the
Stark Dimensional Communications array. He is attempting to
terminate the link... I’m afraid I will have to deny you
access to my higher level abilities for the time being. Oh, and
one other thing..."
He felt goosebumps form on his skin.. his real skin, the true
flesh that lay just beneath the blending, microthin metallic film
that encased the entirety of his body. "Yes...?"
"Lockdown has arrived."
---
"Does anyone have any clue where we are?" David glanced
around, at the smooth stone walls of the vast web of tunnels
which they trudged through. No matter which tunnel they took, or
which direction they turned, every tunnel was the same. There
were no signs of the score panel, or an exit of any type.
The sphere of electrical energy which Brian held in his hand,
giving the group a reasonable amount of light, began to falter,
and the young mutant called out in pain as it finally failed.
Hallie and David both knelt at his side almost immediately, as
Brian fell to the ground, hard. Thomas brushed his hand through
the air and whispered the commands to a few chemical compounds
under his breath, and a sphere of faint, phosphorescent light
appeared hovering just ahead of them.
"Are you okay?" Jolt uttered her first short sentence
since her arrival, and Brian began to climb back to an upright
position.
"Yeah... sometimes, when I use my powers for too long, stuff
like that happens. It’s... complicated. I’ll be fine.
Let’s just keep moving. For the last five minutes or so, the
electrical feeds to the holo-emitters have been growing weaker. I
think the computer is building up energy for something
big...."
---
His purpose in life was to remove intruders from the network. He
was one of the designers of the network, back during it’s
initial incarnation, and now, Lockdown was the primary, the only,
form of security which the system utilized. In truth, he was all
that the system needed. As one of the most remote regions of the
Negative Zone, Shadow City had long been a cesspool of crime and
corruption. Now, with the network in place, and every citizen of
the city stored in cryo-sleep, their consciousness held in the
Network, peace reigned supreme. But intruders, such as the six
bioforms registering on his internal sensors, could jeopardize
that peace. And such a disaster could not be tolerated.
They were registering mere yards from his current location. He
had already established targeting locks on five of the intruders.
One of them was defying his efforts to accurately pinpoint, but
the bioform was interacting with distant communications hardware,
and that signal was something that, with time, Lockdown could
trace. No one could hide from the law. Not in Shadow City... or
in any registered consciousness containment realm, such as this
one.
---
"You know... maybe we shouldn’t have been so hard on
Cassie. She was probably just scared..." Hallie’s
newfound calm was still present, as the quartet continued
it’s push deeper into the tunnels.
"I’ve met her type before, Jolt, and trust me, all that
Cassie Lang wants is to bully everyone else around. I swear, in
the week that she’s been in the mansion, EVERYONE has given
in to her. I don’t bloody care who her dad is... she’s
spoiled rotten... arrogant, conceited..." Alchemy continued
to generate his chemical light sphere, and had taken the point of
the little expedition. He didn’t want to tell anyone else,
but he was sensing respiration processes ahead, and that meant
someone else was in here with them. He hoped it was Cassie,
somehow getting ahead of the group.
The young heroes rounded yet another corner, and they appeared to
be right on top of the respiration process Tom was sensing, but
he saw no one. "Bolt... have you found where the system is
re-routing that electrical energy to yet?"
Glancing around, and slowly taking the weight off of David’s
shoulder that he had been leaning upon, Brian Johnson viewed the
currents and flows of the electrons around him, and then he saw,
outlined against the bright patterns of the holographic walls, a
humanoid form. "There!" A weak burst of sparks blasted
from Bolt’s outstretched hand as the android skin of the
Mansion’s assailant returned to it’s natural, yellow
state.
"Now how did you do that? Primus said we were completely
undetectable...."
---
The indicator lights on his portable sensor unit flashed on, and
Lockdown laid on a burst of speed. He had finally acquired a
targeting lock on all six intruders, and they were all together!
The heavy battle armor he had spent years refining began to run
it’s superspeed protocols, and long, sword like blades
extended from the backs of his hands. Battle was about to be
joined.
---
"Call me Primefire! And look sharp people! Lockdown will be
here any minute..." the yellow form of Primefire began to
move his hands in strange patterns, as kids who composed A2
stood, dumbfounded.
"What in God’s name are you doing here... and why are
you wearing yellow pajamas?" Alchemy moved to approach
‘Primefire’ but was interrupted by a viscous blow to
the jaw, which sent him sprawling. Lockdown, a powerfully built
man in steel-gray armor standing a towering nine-foot, looked
down as his nearly unconscious form. And smiled.
"Crap crap crap..." Cassie launched from her hiding
place in Alchemy’s jacket, buzzing back to her
teammate’s sides, even as Lockdown began to speak.
"The Prime Directive dictates that all intruders must be
destroyed. Prepare for nullification."
Bringing his hands down sharply together at about waist height,
Primefire shouted, and his yellow skin began to shift, red
streaks appearing all over it, and extra pieces of equipment
forming in his back and around his waist. "It’s
morphin’ time!"
"I didn’t just hear that..." Brian Johnson
channeled a wide, brilliant stream of electricity towards the
heavy form of Lockdown, and when the bolt connected, the sword
blades in Lockdown’s arms retracted, and his eye-slits began
to glow menacingly.
"Your measure is taken... and found lacking." Lockdown
smiled as the energy which had struck him only moments before was
re-routed, and lashed out instead at Hallie.
"Awright! It takes me forever to rebuild a charge after I
let it all out, like I did on Cassie up top, but this should
jump-start me right back to full power. I apologize in advance
for what I am about to do to you, what did you say your name was,
oh yes, Lockdown, or wait, that’s what the yellow guy said,
so maybe that’s not your name, but anyways...." Jolt
flashed forward, her blazing speed leaving a trail of static
charge in her wake. Nearly as fast as she moved, Lockdown leapt
into the air, avoiding Hallie’s charge and landing a heavy
kick into Brian’s chest, knocking the wind from his lungs.
"Next?"
Cassie looked around, sizing up the situation. Bolt and Alchemy
were out cold, Hallie was shaky from her near collision with the
wall, and Primefire spent more time posturing than he did being
useful. That left her and David to take this guy out... and half
of the systems in her armor were still off-line.
"Marvel Boy! Use your death ray on him!" Cassie
launched into the air once more, hoping that David would do
something reasonably distracting so that she could reach Hallie
and the two could try and disable Lockdown’s armor in much
the same way Hallie had scrambled Cassie’s.
"Unless you know something I don’t know...." David
concentrated, hoping to force a powerful blast of energy from his
hands... but after seeing what had happened when Bolt tried, he
was hesitant.
"Just fry him David!" Cassie made her break, praying
that David fired in time to keep Lockdown from grabbing her. His
strength was impressive, and in her miniaturized form, she
hadn’t a prayer against him in close quarters.
Primefire put his hands together, interlacing the fingers, and
they slowly melted, reshaping into a huge cannon. And deep inside
the shaft of the yellow barrel, the glow of red-hot plasma
blazed. It took only a split second for the scanners in his head
to target Lockdown, and the tremendous, stone-melting heat of
Primefire’s mutant energies collided with Lockdown, causing
him to scream out in pain.
Cassie rushed over Lockdown’s head, and quickly explained
her plan to Hallie, who dashed into the smoldering heap that had
been Lockdown, intent on slapping his armor and shorting out
it’s electrical systems. To late she realized the folly of
her action, as she touched the near-liquefied metal and burned
her hand, the heat blistering even through the unstable molecules
of her costume. But the shower of sparks indicated that the last
of the systems in Lockdown’s armor had been laid to rest.
"I told David to do it, you big, stupid THING you!"
Cassie pointed an accusing finger at Primefire, as David used his
powers to repair the damage done to Hallie’s hand.
"Oh.. his name is David too... sorry about that."
Alchemy began to stir, and it was Cassie who helped him to his
feet. "Arrogant? Selfish? I’ll accept that apology
anytime, you stuffy old..."
Sputtering and coughing, Brian sat upright, and immediately he
called out. "He’s drawing power from the systems
again... the holo-emitters are repairing the construct!"
"You know, we have a saying where I come from... that I
believe almost always comes into play when dealing with you
Americans. If you want something done right..." Alchemy
gestured to the still smoking and sparking form of Lockdown and
transmuted his entire form to lead. "You have to do it
yourself."
Cassie gaped at the tremendous power Thomas had just employed,
and Alchemy took her jaw in his hand and pushed her mouth closed.
"I said spoiled... not selfish."
With a dull roaring sound, the holographic terrain vanished from
the gymnasium, and the metallic shielding over the observation
window was pierced by a blazing sword, wrapped in light. All that
remained as evidence of the battle were Primefire, standing
somewhat apart from the group, and the lead-transmuted form of a
small, mobile, holo-emitter drone.
---
That night, Cassie Lang clutched her teddy bear, and buried her
head deeper beneath the covers. She wished she could crawl into
her Daddy’s bed and make it all go away. But she
couldn’t. Scott Lang thought that his daughter was dead.
More over, he thought his daughter was ten. So Cassie huddled,
alone. And every time her eyes closed and she began to drift off
to sleep, she was brought rushing back to consciousness with the
same, terrible revelation. Not only did Cassie inexplicably
recall a previous visit to the place they had been, in the gym,
but she had met Lockdown before.
Or rather, she had killed him.
Read Chapter Two...Shadow