The surgeon walked through the doors, holding his freshly-washed hands up as he did so. He approached the gurney which was already surrounded by the rest of his team. “Okay ladies and gents, who do we have with us today?”

“Bart Gallows, goes by the name of Americop,” said one of the surgeons. “He was picked up outside Texas by one of our teams. The big boys want him improved upon, said he’s not as much of a threat like this.”

“And also too independently-minded, I’m guessing,” said the head surgeon as the nurse slid his gloves on. “Okay, what sort of armaments do they want?”

“Right over here, doctor,” said the nurse. She pushed a button on the small remote she held and a holographic image of Gallows’ body appeared. Another button and it overlaid the proposed additions. “Cardiovascular strengtheners, adrenal amplifiers, and a cerebral implant are the primary additions.”

“Good, that’ll make him stronger and faster without increasing the strain on his heart. And the implant I imagine is to deal with that pesky free will problem.”

“Precisely, sir.” The nurse pushed another button and another holographic overlay appeared. “They also want some cybernetic implants, particularly optical. We need to be able to see what he sees in the field.”

“Anything else?”

“They said it’s your show, as long as you stay within the budgetary limitations.”

“What sort of work do they want him out in the field performing?”

“Assassinations, mostly.” This new voice belonged to a man who stood in the corner of the room, also dressed in medical scrubs but keeping apart from the rest of the surgical team. He was an overseer. “We’ll need him to perform black bag ops, which is why we’re not going too crazy with the armaments. Don’t need him to cause a lot of sound and fury.”

“That’s understandable,” said the doctor. “So we’ll focus on enhancing his human capabilities, strengthen his bones. Any other cybernetic implants we should be thinking about, Mister…?”

“My name’s unimportant, Doctor,” said the overseer. “But we need him combat ready ASAP. Can you do that?”

“Recovery time with an operation like this shouldn’t be too long, unless you want to completely arm him.”

“Then don’t. We need him strong and we need him fast and we’ll need his skills to be preserved. That’s it. We’re not in need of another Nuke. However, some cybernetically-enhanced strength would definitely not be discouraged.”

“Understood, we’ll do our best, sir.”

“If I were you, I’d do a damn sight better than that, Doctor,” said the overseer.

“Of course,” said the doctor. “Okay people, let’s get started. This guy’s not gonna cut open himself.”

As the surgical team went to work on the unconscious form of Bart Gallows, the overseer moved closer, walking over to the man’s head. He looked down into the face of the Americop and smiled.

“You’re going to be one spectacular weapon. Congratulations, Mr. Gallows—you’re going to become the scourge of America’s enemies you always hoped you’d be.”

ELEMENTS OF CONTROL

Part II

By Scott Redmond and Dino Pollard

Today

Captain America removed the shield strapped to his back. He looked at Sharon Carter, his SHIELD liaison and the sometime lover of his predecessor, Steve Rogers. “Take Crowne and get him out of here. Sam, you’re with me.”

The three of them had reported to Washington, DC in order to retrieve Randall Crowne, a Senator who had inside information on Control. According to Crowne, Control had wanted him to propose a further-reaching version of the Mutant Registration Act, called the Superhuman Registration Act. It would require every single hero to be registered with the federal government or be declared enemies of the state.

Crowne refused and Control was now trying to have him killed. He claimed to have more information regarding Control and the SHRA, but refused to divulge to anyone other than Nick Fury himself. And now, Control was beginning a raid on the SHIELD safehouse they were at in order to silence the Senator.

Captain America glanced to his partner. “You ready for this?”

The Falcon nodded his agreement and extended his wings as he flew up to the rafters where he took his position. Captain America stood his ground as the agents burst through the door with Americop at the lead.

“I’ve heard about you,” said Captain America. “Americop, right? Way I hear it, you’re supposed to be one of the good guys. So how about you stop for a minute and think about what you’re doing here.”

Americop didn’t break stride, just continued walking towards Captain America. Josiah readied himself for what he knew what was to come, but continued talking anyway. “I know there’s a good man inside you, Gallows. Don’t let Control destroy him.”

Once Americop came within arm’s reach, he took a swing at the Super Soldier and knocked him clean off his feet. Captain America fell to the side and rubbed his chin. “That’s the kind of thing I was trying to avoid.”

“Designate: Weapon VI,” said Americop. “Bring me Senator Crowne.”

“That’s not gonna happen,” said Captain America. He flipped back onto his feet and charged forward with his shield held in front.

Americop braced himself for the attack and slid a little, but quickly gained traction, slowing. He pushed back and yanked the shield away, discarding it. Americop moved forward and threw his fist into Captain America’s stomach, causing him to double-over. He grabbed the Super Soldier’s back and drove his knee into Josiah’s rib cage. The man felt a few of them crack. Americop followed it up by balling his hands together and slamming them on Josiah’s back, forcing him into the ground.

With his foot, Americop turned Captain America onto his back. He turned to the soldiers who accompanied him. “Fan out. Search the entire perimeter. Bring Crowne to me at once.”

Up in the rafters, the Falcon watched as the entire event went down. He had wanted to intervene, but Josiah wanted him out of sight, wanted to see exactly what Control had done to Americop. Now that he had seen enough, he knew it was the time to cause a distraction of his own.

He raised the small remote he held in his hand and pushed the button. The skylight opened and the soldiers and Americop looked up at it. Within moments, dozens of falcons, with Redwing at the fore, flew into the safehouse and began their attack on the soldiers.

They fired blindly, but had trouble hitting the birds, who moved too fast and moved at close range. Pecking and clawing at the agents of Control. The Falcon himself dove from his position and extended his wings to give him just enough of a glide before he retracted them again. He went feet-first into Americop, shoving him against the wall.

“You’re not getting off that easy,” said the Falcon.

Americop turned from the wall, drawing the automatic weapons strapped to his legs. He opened fire, spraying bullets and the Falcon took flight once more, trying as best as he could to avoid getting his wings clipped. He brought his arms forward, the holographic wings forming a hard-light shield as he fell back towards the ground.

“Go after Crowne!” ordered Americop and the soldiers moved towards the exit, still trying to shake off the birds.

The Falcon dove towards Americop and slid on the floor. He extended his arm and his grappling talon hooks fired from their compartment on his gauntlets. The talons snagged the guns and the Falcon pulled them away from their owner.

Americop reached behind his back and drew a shotgun instead, cocking it and opening fire. The Falcon barely had a chance to activate his wing-shield in time. Before Americop could fire another shot, the familiar red, white and blue shield slammed into the gun and then struck the wall before landing on the ground.

Captain America stood again, albeit extremely bruised. He walked towards Americop, one hand around his stomach. “We’re not finished yet, Gallows.”

Americop picked up the fallen shield and faced his opponent. “You think you’re good enough to carry this shield?”

“Maybe not, but I know I can do it better than you,” said Captain America. “Now put it down.”

“If you insist.” Americop whipped the shield towards him. Captain America ducked and it flew at the back wall, ricocheting against it and flying right back to Americop, striking him in the chest.

“Not as easy as it looks, is it?” asked Josiah.

Outside, Sharon and Crowne had themselves pressed up against the side of a wall. Gunfire echoed all around them as the agents of Control tried to move in. Sharon searched through the various pouches equipped to her SHIELD uniform, trying to find something.

“What are you doing?” asked Crowne. “You have to get me out of here, call in reinforcements, something!”

“Okay, you’re really starting to work my last nerve,” said Sharon. “Now either shut your mouth, or I’ll shoot you myself.”

She fished out several small pellets from one of the pouches and smiled. “Ah, there we are.”

“What are you going to do with those?”

“Your mouth is doing that annoying ‘talking’ thing again, you should look into that.” She threw the pellets out into the open. Once they struck the ground, they blanketed the area in a smokescreen. Sharon slid what looked like sunglasses over her eyes but in reality were equipped with infrared imaging. With a gun in each hand, she jumped out from behind the wall and opened fire on the soldiers.

She hit the ground and rolled slightly, then stood again. Running out into the open, she shot at soldiers both flanking her at the sides and coming at her from the front. Thanks to the glasses, they stood out like giant red blobs against the smoke, although they had no way of seeing her at all.

Sharon spun around and saw some on the roof, trying to come at her from above. She fell on her back, firing more, nailing each of them and they fell from the top to the ground below. Sharon got back up to her feet as the smoke slowly began to clear.

“Chow Yun-Fat, eat your heart out.” She turned and once she did, something struck her face with incredible force, knocking her off her feet. Sharon struggled to get up but the attacker kicked her in the ribs.

She opened her eyes and looked up at the new assailant. He was dressed in a black uniform and had shaggy brown hair with a domino mask concealing his eyes. His left arm was cybernetic with a star over the shoulder and in his right arm, he held a handgun. She could see that he also had a rifle strapped to his back.

“Who—”

Before she could ask the question, his cybernetic arm struck her face again and her world faded into darkness.

The mysterious assailant looked around and stalked slowly. He knew Crowne was still here. Slowly he made his way to the wall where Sharon emerged from. Behind that wall, Crowne waited. Ever since the gunfire stopped, he didn’t hear a single sound. He thought maybe Sharon was finished, but was too afraid to check.

He moved closer to the edge. He would just peer around, that’s all. He placed his hand on the edge, wrapping his fingers around it and then something cold and metal grabbed his hand and squeezed. Crowne let out a soundless scream as the bones in his hand were crushed by the mechanical fist.

The assassin appeared from around the corner and put his gun to Crowne’s head. Crowne began to breathe heavily, trying to figure out a way to survive the situation. “Please…you don’t understand. They were threatening me, I wouldn’t have told them a thing.”

“The Cabal knows what you’ve done, Senator. And they’re not happy with you.”

“No please, you can’t do this. I promise, I’ll do whatever they want! Honest, I swear!”

“It’s too late for that.” The assassin pulled the trigger and his face remained emotionless, even as the Senator’s blood struck his face.

Americop elbowed Josiah in the face and followed with a kick in his crotch. The Sentinel of Liberty fell to his knees. Americop raised him up again by his uniform and threw another punch and another, pummeling him.

“You know, Rogers could have stood up to this. Even with everything Control did to me, Rogers still could have beaten me. But you?” Americop picked him up and threw him against the wall. Josiah struggled to get back up as Americop strutted over to him. “You’re not a replacement, you’re just a poser.”

The birds came back, flying around Americop. The Falcon charged forward and barreled into him, mustering up all his strength to knock Gallows off his feet. Americop backhanded him and drew a dagger from the sheathe attached to his boot. He grabbed Falcon by the neck and pinned him to the ground, raising the knife up in a stabbing motion.

“You’re not part of this, Wilson. Should’ve just stayed outta my way.”

“Gallows!”

Americop turned in time for Captain America to smack him with the shield. Americop reeled from the attack, but got up again in no time. He started to chuckle as he watched Josiah try to steady himself.

“Look at you, you can barely stand. Just what exactly do you think you’re going to do to me like that?” He motioned for Josiah to come at him. “Alright big guy, let’s see what you got. Let’s see if you’re really ready to play in the big leagues.”

“What do big leagues gotta do with you, Gallows?” asked Josiah. “Way I hear it, the amount of people who’ve actually heard your name can be counted on one hand.”

“I’m gonna enjoy feeding you your own skin, Bradley,” said Americop. But before he could take a strike, he heard a voice buzzing in his ear.

{Gallows, target is down. Mission accomplished. Time for evac.}

“But I’m just about to tear this faux-Cap apart.”

{Orders are orders, Americop. It’s time for evac.}

“Fine,” grumbled Americop. He threw the knife and Josiah was barely able to lift the shield quickly enough to deflect it, but that time is all it took for Americop to close the distance between them. He grappled with Josiah and slammed him into the ground, knocking him unconscious.

When Josiah finally regained consciousness, he was lying in a hospital bed with Nick Fury and Henry Gyrich standing over him. He pulled himself to a sitting position. “Where am I?” he asked.

“Helicarrier,” said Fury. “By the time I was able to rendezvous with you, I found all three of you laid out an’ unconscious.”

“And Crowne?” asked Josiah.

“Dead,” said Gyrich.

Josiah looked off to the side and saw the Falcon and Sharon also lying in beds. The Falcon was still unconscious but Sharon was awake and looking pretty distraught. Josiah looked at Gyrich.

“Do we know what happened?”

“Yeah, we do,” said Sharon. “I fucked up, that’s what.”

“Not how it happened,” said Fury. “You took out an entire squad of Control’s agents by yourself, that’s pretty damn impressive.”

“Only to be taken down by one guy,” said Sharon.

“Super Soldier?” asked Josiah.

Sharon nodded. “Pretty sure he was. Had a cybernetic arm that hit like a Buick.”

“You get a good look at him?” asked Gyrich.

“More or less. He had brown hair and he wore a domino mask. The arm also had a star on the shoulder.”

Gyrich looked at Fury. “Ring any bells?”

Fury paused and considered it. “Nah, can’t say it does. But I’ll look into it. What I wanna know is how did Control find out the safehouse’s location?”

“That’s a very good question,” said Josiah, his eyes drifting over to Gyrich. “I’m sure we’ll get some answers soon.”

“We may not’ve learned everything, but we do know some things,” said Fury. “Americop tells us Control’s not only recruitin’—they’re upgrading. And we know they’re behind the SHRA.”

“Won’t be long before they find someone else who will play ball with them,” said Josiah.

“You’re partly right,” said Gyrich.

“Which part?”

“Control has someone else in mind to sponsor the SHRA.” Gyrich held a newspaper in his hand and he passed it to Josiah. “Problem was, it’s now past-tense.”

Josiah looked at the headline. It read: SEN. SHARPE INTRODUCES SUPERHUMAN REGISTRATION ACT IN CONGRESS.