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#2
MAR 09 |
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“Guilty Parties”
Tony Stark stood in the penthouse of Stark Tower wearing only a gold bodysuit covered with intricate circuit work. The bodysuit was the data-spine of the Iron Man armor, the link between his brain and the armor. It was a delicate piece of hardware and the single most amazing he’d ever designed. The data-spine was able to detect and convert his nerve impulses to actions the suit performed and it had taken years to design, much of it a collaboration between himself and Maya Hansen, one of the leaders in the field of bioelectronics. Now it was the most invaluable part of all the hardware that compromised Iron Man.
Tony took a deep breath as he gazed over New York City. He could see where Avengers Mansion had once stood, now just a pile of still-smoking rubble. At that moment a team of engineers was on site, led by Dane Whitman, working to ensure that the mansion was stable and free of anything potentially harmful to the others. Wanda Maximoff was also on site, using her mystic talents to carefully scan the rubble. The mansion had been attacked only a few days before, killing four members of the team; as yet no one had stepped forward to claim responsibility, which meant they had to find out themselves who was responsible.
“Master Anthony?” Tony turned slightly, smiling as he saw Edwin Jarvis, who had narrowly escaped the attack, having left mere moments before through pure coincidence.
“Yeah, Jarvis?” he asked.
“We just received a call from Colonel Fury,” Jarvis said. “The harbor base is fully operational and he’s waiting there for you.”
Tony nodded. “Thanks, Jarv.” He walked over to him friend and put a hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay, honestly?”
“To be honest…” Jarvis paused and looked out the window. “I’m still a bit shaken, sir. To think that I was so close…” Jarvis’ voice shook slightly.
Tony squeezed his friend’s shoulder. “I know,” he said, “I know.” He sighed. “Let Fury know I’m on my way.” He hurried out of the room to the mechanical room where his armor waited. Minutes later, Iron Man blasted across the New York skyline.
Clint Barton walked through the halls of New York General Hospital, followed closely by Jessica Drew. The two Avengers, both in full costume, had hardly interacted before a few days previous. To Clint’s knowledge, he hadn’t even said a word to her, but she was smart and thought like a cop. He wasn’t sure how their intended patient would react to her though as he stopped at the nurse’s desk. The nurse sitting at the desk looked up at him and jumped slightly, surprised to see a pair of superheroes in front of her.
“We’re here to see Steve Rogers,” Hawkeye said.
“Room 344,” she replied.
“Thanks,” Spider-Woman said. The two continued through the hall, stopping once they reached the room. Steve looked up at them, a hardback book in his lap. He smiled as he saw the two costumed heroes and waved them inside. They stepped into the room, Jessica closing the door behind them, and both Hawkeye and Spider-Woman removed their masks.
“Hey Cap,” Clint said. “How are you holding up?”
“Ready to get out of here,” he said. “Doctors are saying I’m healing up well and should be out of here tonight.”
“Good,” Clint replied. “No shield-slinging for a little while though?”
“Haven’t asked,” Steve laughed. “Don’t want more people to know who I am than I need to. I’ll have Beast look me over once I’m out of here.” He looked at Jessica. “Miss Drew, good to see you.”
“Wish it was under better circumstances,” Jessica said. “We wanted to come talk to you, see what you heard, saw, so on, right before the attack.”
“Direct, isn’t she?” Steve chuckled to Clint.
“You want to know as badly as we do.” Clint knew Steve well enough to know that he was hiding his pain. He and Sam Wilson, one of the slain Avengers, were incredibly close. The moment he was cleared for action again, he’d be working twice as hard as any other member of the team to find the attacker and bring him to justice.
“There wasn’t a lot,” Steve said with a nod to Clint. “I had just been to the charity event that you were at. I had wanted to get some more materials for the kids. The Junior Avengers cards?”
“Yeah, I remember that,” Clint said.
“I had just gotten to the gate when I heard the whistling.”
“What kind of whistling?” Jess asked.
“It wasn’t unlike…a mortar,” he said. “Only deeper, a lower pitch; like whatever was making it was bigger. It only sounded for a second before it hit the mansion. The shockwave threw me back to the street. I sat up and found shrapnel buried in my shoulder.” He looked up at Jessica with a frown. “I’m sorry. I wish I could be more help.”
Jessica shook her head. “Don’t be, Cap. Every little detail helps.”
Both Avengers’ belts began beeping. Clint checked his communicard and put a hand on Steve’s uninjured shoulder.
“We’ve got to get going, Cap,” he said. “I’ll drop by your apartment later.”
“Sounds good,” he said. “Be careful Hawk, Spidey.”
Both of them grinned. “Oh yeah,” Jessica said. “Careful…that’s us all right.”
Nick Fury looked up as the gold and red armor caught the sun above him. The aged soldier reached up to the stub of a cigar in his mouth and pulled it out. He glanced down, glaring at the cigar. He had intended to quit for years, but with the enhanced healing factor he’d been blessed with by the Infinity Formula, why bother?
He took another drag of the cigar as Iron Man landed next to him. He breathed the smoke into the air and extended his arm.
Stark shook his head. “Those will kill you some day,” he said as he removed his helmet.
“I’ve thought the same,” Fury said, “but if they haven’t already, they won’t.”
Stark chuckled and shook his head. “So, the new Avengers base? You’ve told me nothing since you donated it.”
“We’re calling it Pier A,” Fury said. “Good ol’ American originality.”
“Is this the Four’s old base?” Stark asked.
“Yes. Reed abandoned it and it then ended up SHIELD property because of all the big doo-dads that he left in the basement. We turn it over to you.”
“Wish you’d told me that from the beginning, Nick,” Stark said. “I wouldn’t have freaked out or anything.”
“And let you move in here with all that fancy Stark tech before we have a chance to bug the place?” Fury took another drag and looked at Tony. Stark raised an eyebrow. “I’m kidding. Naturally.”
“Believe it when I see it,” Stark said. “Well, let’s get our stuff in there and get cracking. I’m ready to find the asshole that did this to us.”
Henry Pym, the hero known as Yellowjacket, stood at what remained of the gate of Avengers Mansion clenching and unclenching his fists. He took a deep breath and glanced down at the briefcase sitting on the sidewalk.
“Jan,” he whispered. He had been thinking for some time about their relationship before that day. He’d wanted to talk to her, to set things straight. To be perfectly blunt, he missed her. He wanted to at least make some progress towards complete reconciliation…to be back with her. Now that opportunity was gone. She was gone. And it would never be there again. No chance to see her again. He hung his head. “Can I do this?” he asked.
“Yes, you can.” Pym turned to see the team’s other Hank, the Beast, standing behind him. “Get a handle on yourself.”
“Excuse me?” Pym grunted.
“Look at yourself,” Beast grumbled. “I don’t have to be a telepath to see it in your eyes. You’re agonizing over Jan. About…I don’t know…being angst-y. Look at what’s happened, Hank: Simon and I were joined at the hip whenever we were together. Not only was Cap injured, but he lost Falcon too, probably the closest friend he’d had since Bucky. Then just take a look at Wanda; Jan was one of her best friends, the Vision is her ex-husband and she’s been dating Simon for three months.”
“Yeah Hank,” Pym replied. “I get your point. We’ve all lost someone.”
“Actually, no,” Beast said, “you don’t. I’m standing here ready to go to work. Wanda’s been on-site since the moment the engineers cleared it, an hour before Dane. I’d bet you money that Steve is sitting in his hospital bed right now, plotting exactly where he’s going, who he’s going to question and what he’s going to do with the information he needs once he has it. He’ll probably ignore every doctor’s recommendation about his activity. But what’s Hank Pym doing?”
“Standing at the edge of the attack site, wallowing in self pity,” Hank whispered. “Now I get it.”
“You’d better,” he replied with a nudge. “Now how about you stop wallowing in self-pity and let’s get to work?”
Wanda Maximoff sat silently in the small tent set up at the edge of the wreckage of Avengers Mansion. She had been there early that morning, surveying the site by herself. The quiet stillness of the morning was the perfect time for her to do her work. Her mutant abilities had alerted her to the first problem--probability was somehow…locked. She couldn’t use her mutant abilities at all.
She had retreated to a secluded place as soon as she could and began working to unravel at least part of the force locking her out. Whatever it was, it was strong, but she prayed it wasn’t stronger than her.
“Knock knock,” a voice said from outside the tent. Wanda looked up as a pair of figures stepped through the flap. She smiled at the sight of Spider-Man and the Black Knight. She could see Ultra Girl standing directly outside, glancing around carefully.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Dane said. “I know you needed time alone but it’s been a while.”
“We’re headed back to the Pier,” Spidey said. “Going to drop some data off and work on a couple pieces of evidence we’ve found.” He patted a satchel hanging over his shoulder.
“You want to come with?” the Knight continued. “Or a sandwich or something?”
Wanda smiled at her friends’ concern and nodded. She had woven through several layers of magic and she could use a break and perhaps some time to consult with Stephen Strange. Wanda uncrossed her legs and started to stand.
“I would love t-“ she started. Suddenly, spots formed in her vision and her periphery started to go black. She found herself in Black Knight’s arms a moment later.
“Suzy, get Doctor McCoy, now!” she heard him crying. Suddenly she was lying down, with the blue-furred face of the Beast looking over her. Then things went black for a while longer.
Later that evening, Iron Man stood at the head of the oval table in the center of Pier A, with the entire team assembled around the table. Peter Parker hung to the wall to his right and Pym leaned against the wall in the corner, but otherwise everyone sat around the table. Wanda was sipping quietly from a cup of mint tea, and Tony’s gaze went back to her a couple times before he raised his visor and spoke.
“So here we go,” he said. “I understand we’ve had an eventful day. First of all, Steve’s okay and he should be out of the hospital day after tomorrow. He won’t be cleared for duty again for at least another few weeks though, due to the damage to his shoulder. Let’s hear what’s happened on-site now. We’ll start with Spider-Man.” Peter nodded and dropped from the wall.
“Hopefully what I have will help,” he said. “We’re looking at a few things. It looks like the explosives were engineered with a few very complex chemical compounds. I’ve never seen them before, but I’ve got a centrifuge running right now downstairs that will separate them into some basic compounds. From there I think we can figure them out, which should give us a trail to follow.”
“Fantastic,” Tony said. “Pym, Dane?” The two men glanced at each other and Hank motioned for Dane to go first.
“Okay,” Dane said. “First of all, it looks like this thing was mostly concussive in nature. It was small, we know that much, and the concussion from the explosion ignited the mansion’s natural gas reserves and created the fireball that left the mansion a cinder. The bomb itself actually expelled very, very little heat.”
Tony raised an eyebrow at that. That wasn’t an easy feat. “Hank?”
“I spent a good chunk of time today analyzing a portion of the bomb itself,” Pym said. “We found about sixteen chunks of the casing, about an average of twelve square centimeters each. Each of them was swimming in latent radiation, none of which was present on the site, indicating the lack of nuclear material in the bomb itself.”
“Which means what?” Ultra Girl asked.
“After figuring out what type of radiation it was, I’d have a guess,” Pym said.
“And what’s that?” Hawkeye asked.
“Guess.”
The room was silent for a few moments. Hawkeye and Spider-Woman took in a sharp breath simultaneously as it dawned on them.
“Gamma,” they said in unison. Hank nodded.
Stark shook his head. “So one of two options there,” he grunted. “Either it was Bruce Banner under duress…”
“Doubtful,” Spider-Woman interjected. “The Hulk’s been active in the last day or two.”
“So option two is?” Wanda asked.
“The Leader,” Pym grunted.
“Dammit,” Stark growled. “I’ll get on the horn with Len Samson as soon as we’re done here, see if he knows anything about Stearns’ whereabouts. McCoy?”
“Well, I have two bits of startling news,” he said. “Firstly, as the team’s current MD, I’m removing the Scarlet Witch from active duty.”
“Excuse me?” Hawkeye said, leaning forward. “We know there’s magic involved here, so we need her right now.”
“And I know and understand that,” Hank replied. “Regardless, I’m not willing to risk a woman and her unborn child.” Hawkeye raised an eyebrow and sat back. He glanced at Wanda, then at Hank and back to Wanda. “A little Simon on the way?” he finally said, grinning. “A sure sign of the apocalypse.”
“Only eclipsed by a little Clint,” Spider-Man said from behind him. The room erupted in laughter for a few moments before Tony held his hand up to quiet the team down.
“I regretfully agree with you then, Hank. The other bit of news?”
“In running my scans of the area,” Beast said, straightening in the chair, “I didn’t find a trace of human biological matter. Not a bit of hair, not a bone fragment, nothing. That includes ionic residue and parts of the Vision’s superstructure.”
“So their bodies were completely destroyed?” Ultra Girl asked.
“No,” he said. “They’re gone. From all indicators, the Mansion was empty when it was destroyed. I’ve already talked to Reed Richards about it, but right now, it seems like we have a deeper mystery on our hands.”
Tony sighed. “That’s…that’s good news,” he said. “I hope. Okay, I have a call to make but this is one step closer. Good job everyone, you’re dismissed.” Iron Man stepped back and strode out of the room and sighed. He knew they were close, but something was nagging him about the whole situation. There was something very bad happening and he needed to know what.
He walked into the Pier’s communication room. Fury had ensured their equipment was state of the art and Stark would have done the same, which made him suspect that Fury wanted to know every detail that he learned. He didn’t bother with scanning for the bugs he knew were already there.
He sat down and opened a video conference screen. He input the call destination, the US Gamma Base headquarters and a few moments later, the face of a young enlisted soldier appeared on the screen, his name tag reading ‘Green.’
“Good evening, Iron Man,” he said. “A bit of a surprise to see you.”
“Sergeant Green,” Iron Man said. “Sorry for the late call. I need to speak to Len Samson, immediately.”
“Aye sir,” Green replied. “Hold please.”
The screen went blank for a moment, then reverted to an image of a waving American flag. Tony chuckled softly. “Oo-rah,” he whispered to himself. A few moments later, the weary face of Doctor Leonard Samson appeared on the screen.
He rubbed his eyes and smiled at Tony. “Evening, Stark,” he said.
“Len,” Tony replied. “There’s some information I need.”
“Is it about the Leader?”
“How did you know?” he asked.
“Stearns was just captured overseas in the last 24 hours,” Samson asked. “I thought you knew.”
“Fantastic,” Tony sighed. “We need to question him in conjunction to the attack on the mansion.”
“That’s going to be tough,” Len said. “He was captured in Symkaria by Silver Sable, and she wants to try him there. She’s refusing extradition, and for right now we don’t have access to Stearns.”
“We’ll see about that. Thanks, Len. Stark out.”
Suzy Sherman stood on the balcony in the top story of the Pier. She had shed her Ultra Girl costume for the evening, instead wearing the comfortable T-shirt and gym shorts that she’d broken in so well over the past few years. She leaned on the railing and wondered about what happened to get her here.
Only a few years before, she was an aspiring model in LA. It wasn’t long before she discovered her abilities and heritage. She was a biologically altered member of the Kree, supposedly a legendary warrior or some crap like that, called the Ultimate Unifier. She didn’t know whether it was the truth, but she’d embraced her powers.
She was a superhero now…and she loved it!
“Penny for your thoughts?” Suzy turned to see Tony Stark, in jeans and a polo shirt, standing behind her with two cups of coffee.
“Just that it’s a little creepy to have your team leader, uh, hit on you,” she said with a wink.
“That’s because I’m not Night Thrasher,” Stark said, handing her one of the cups, “and trust me, if I were hitting on you, you’d know. Vanilla and two sugars.”
“Observant,” she replied and took a sip. “Thanks.”
“Any time,” Stark replied. “How are you holding up?”
Suzy shook her head with a smirk. “Besides suddenly being thrown into the big leagues?” she asked. “I think the biggest bad guy I’ve ever handled was the Absorbing Man. Typically I’ve encountered killer androids and an occasional alien incursion. Now, suddenly, I’m with the Avengers, talking about the Leader and stuff so completely above me.” She leaned against the balcony again and glanced back at Stark. “Why me?”
“Well, Speedball wasn’t available,” Tony said. Suzy scowled and he chuckled. “I’m sorry. Honestly, I went to Carol Danvers and asked her to join. Unfortunately, she was unable to commit but she did, however, tell me about a young woman she’d been spending time with over the past few months, one she said reminded her a lot of herself just before she entered the military.”
Suzy smiled. “That’s awesome,” she said, flattered.
“Obviously, I followed Carol’s lead,” he said. “Hell, she gave you her original costume. If she didn’t trust you, she would have never done that.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” she said. “I wondered if Carol had anything to do with it.”
“She had everything to do with it,” Tony acknowledged. “But I have a feeling that you’re going to go beyond proving yourself.”
Suzy chuckled and grinned. “Thanks boss,” she said. “So what’s the word?”
“Get a full night’s sleep,” he replied. “We leave for Symkaria in the morning.”
“What’s in Symkaria?”
“At best, answers,” he said. “At worst…a fight.”
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To Be Continued...
Next: In Avengers #3: The team heads for Symkaria to question the Leader about his involvement with the bomb that destroyed the mansion. Will Silver Sable let them?
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