Kymaera in Fortunate Soldiers Part 1

New Warriors Spotlight 2

"Fortunate Soldiers" - Part 1: "Light"

By Corey Blake

Chicago, Illinois

Kymaera stood across the street from St. Finbar waiting for the service to wrap up. To prevent too much attention, she wore a long trench coat, a scarf around her head, and sunglasses. Her modified Atlantean appearance would normaly unsettle the average person. Blue skin, eyes as dark as midnight, pointed ears, webbed hands, three fingers, a fin on the back of each leg, and a pair of small wings on each ankle did not let her blend into crowds easily.

She removed her hands from her pockets pulling out a small device from her right pocket, while leaving another device in the left one. She had stopped at the penthouse apartment of Dwayne Taylor to borrow some equipment he had used to free her from Undertow. He had offered to help, but she insisted on going alone. The device she was holding was attuned to the frequencybroadcasted by the comm-links inside each of the Soldiers of Misfortune.*She now used this device to track them down and free them from Undertow'scontrol.

Everything was going perfectly until Kymaera discovered that the Soldiers of Misfortune were not all in the same place. They had always worked very closely as a team, breaking up into pairs and operating on the commands of Undertow strategists via the comm-link. Right and Wrong. Dark and Light. Cut and Dry. Hard and Fast. She had been dubbed 'Hard'. 'Cut' had been captured during a battle with the New Warriors and was last seen under the Mad Thinker's care.** Both of their comm-links had been removed. That left six signals to trace.The most distant one was Light's signal, which had brought her to this church.

She had been standing there waiting for an explosion of violence, something to alert her to Light's position. The tracking device told her he was inside the church, possibly among the crowd. During all her months as an operative of Undertow, not once were they ever sent on any kind of undercover work. Their missions were always simple: demolition and murder. So, where was the mayhem? She had been standing there for over an hour, and the signal hadn't moved since she left New York City that morning. As the last of the faithful trickled out from the church, Kymaera began towalk across the street to the front doors. The tracker said he was still inside. Kymaera decided to prepare herself. This could be a trap. She focused her instincts and senses on what was inside the church. How was she to know that there was someone her tracker could never detect, watching from a nearby rooftop?

The Nest

"Enter"

"Sir, espionage has a positive tag on 'Pigeon-1'."

"Oh, good. It's about time. Anything on 'Pigeon-2' yet?"

"Nothing yet. We're still searching. But, 'Pigeon-1' is dead in our sights."

"Fine. I'd like this one quick and quiet."

"We've thoroughly prepped the new unit."

"Then there shouldn't be any problem at all. Let the birds fly."

St. Finbar Church, Chicago

Kymaera passed through the lobby and saw Light kneeling at the front of the church. Masquerading as a priest? She didn't understand his mission, but she didn't want to give him a chance to fight back. She threw aside her trench coat, scarf and sunglasses to reveal her form-fitting green and silver costume. She flew at top speed, tackling Light before he was able to turn around from the noise. He grunted as he was pushed onto the floor.

"I know you're not in control of yourself. But, you'll be free soon!" She lifted her hand to knock him unconscious.

"Please! Stop this!" A voice she had never heard came out of Light's mouth. She stopped her hand from making contact to the back of his bald head. She paused for a moment, and then held his head facing towards the floor. He had the power to shoot white lasers from his eyes.

"You... can talk?"

"So can you. What do you want? This church is open to all. There is no need for this hatred." His voice was commanding, yet calm. Maybe there was a mistake. Maybe this wasn't Light. Maybe he was somewhere else in the church, hidden. She gently picked him up off the floor

"I'm sorry. I thought you were someone else."

He straightened himself out, and began to turn around. She studied him closely. He was a young black man, about the same age and height as Light."I'm sure there is another way to solve whatever disagreement you may have with - - YOU!" He instantly recognized her. His eyes began to glow with panic. "What do you want?!"

"I came to break you from Undertow's mind control. But, I guess that's not much of a problem anymore."

His eyes dimmed down, but Kymaera could see he remained cautious."We've all been freed. During the battle with Namor, we were teleported to a safehouse.*** I guess the submarine was destroyed because our comm-link with Undertow was broken. The feedback nearly killed us, but it granted us our freedom."

"That's wonderful. But, I'm afraid you're not completely free. Thecomm-link inside you is still broadcasting. You could still be teleported by Undertow or anyone else who becomes aware of the frequency. That's how I tracked you here."

His face tightened and Kymaera recognized the emotion. The bitterness towards Undertow and what it made them do still remained. This encounter only served to remind him that his past can come back to jump him at any moment. Kymaera went back to her trench coat and dug into the left pocket.She took out a specially adapted syringe gun. The same instrument used to remove her comm-link.

"Hold still. This will put it all behind you. Forever." She placed the instrument on the left side of his neck, below his ear. The gun buzzed loudly at first, causing him to wince, and then died down. She took it away and looked at him with a smile."What's your name?"

"Father Ray," he said. "I just want to heal people's souls."

"Good. Then continue your work here, Father. Kymaera left after talking for a bit. She had always felt that the other Soldiers were good people, forced to do what they despised most. Now, she knew for sure.

Undertow's abandoned undersea headquarters on the Atlantic Ocean floor

The Atlantean mutant simply called Undertow could not resist his nagging curiosity. Every day he would find his way back to the empty base. He had discovered an abandoned treasure trove from the surface, and had been a hero to his people. It supplied food for a month, when they needed it most. And now Atlantis' outcasts might move into the empty fortress, at his suggestion. They just might finally have a home of their own. Although he admitted that the idea of living in a device created by the very people that caused their genetic mutation seemed more than ironic.

He returned to the room he had shown Namorita the day before. He approached the small computer and tried to mimic what she had done to the keyboard, to see the information she had found again, or maybe find something new. Maybe there was another structure like this somewhere. He was so intent on the computer, he never noticed the movement behind him.Two harpoons pierced his body. One broke through his left shoulder blade.The other drilled between his right shoulder blade and his spine and forced its way out through his chest, breaking two ribs. Undertow screamed in agony and confusion. Electric currents were pulsed through the harpoons, coursing through him. His body went limp, floating in the still churning water. A cord led from each harpoon to two launchers, each held by an armored figure.

"The obstacle has been eliminated. The premises is now clear," said one of them.

Outside, a submarine skulked the outside of the base. Inside the submarine, an organic machine of precision was alive. The crew worked in unison, instantly relaying information to one another.

"Excellent," spoke Chang, "It's good to see our old headquarters wasn't a total loss. When that 'Night Thrasher' attacked us here, he scrambled our mainframe with a complex program, which essentially set about undoing every computer command we ever made.**** Our late, lamented Admiral Protocol considered the base irretrievable and had us shut it down and abandon it immediately. Apparently, one of the computers has a separate mainframe as a back-up, with a limited amount of essential information. We would've totally forgotten about it if this Atlantean hadn't started using it. We certainly don't need the secrets of Undertow getting out into the public, aquatic or otherwise. That is why we needed to bring the Undertow-3 here, General Admission."

"Thank you, Admiral Chang. You are right. I don't know what I was thinking. I'll have the Commandos download the computer's files to the submarine, and have them destroy the base."

"And bring that Atlantean in. Doctor Payne has shown interest in starting up the Soldiers of Misfortune program again."

"That might be difficult, sir. They were under orders to kill on sight." Chang sighed. Rebuilding Undertow from nearly the ground up hadn't been an easy task. Before he could begin yelling at General Admission, one of the Commanders turned to him.

"Sir, the Soldiers of Misfortune are still broadcasting. They're still alive."

To Be Continued...

* This frequency was first picked up by Nova's helmet in New Warriors #54,and later identified by Hindsight in #55. Dwayne Taylor (a.k.a. NightThrasher) obtained the frequency and other tidbits on Undertow from the Mad Thinker in New Warriors #72.
** Cut was taken into custody in New Warriors #65. Mad Thinker sprung himout in New Warriors #72.
*** Namor sought revenge on crimes committed against his cousin in NEWS Ch.3.
**** Night Thrasher and Rage attacked Undertow to free Kymaera in NewWarriors #74.