NOTE: This story-arc takes place before the events of Avengers #17

“Sharon, move!” Steve Rogers roared as a large hunting knife sliced through the air towards Sharon Carter. Captain America tackled his one-time lover and twisted with his right arm, where he wore his legendary shield. The knife clanged off the vibranium-steel alloy and fell harmlessly to the ground. Cap twisted his face in disgust as their attacker took opportunity to ran away.

“Go back inside,” he growled, “call Fury and find out what the hell might have caused this.” He stood up and brushed off the chainmail of his uniform.

“I’m going after Nuke.”

SENTINELS OF LIBERTY

Part IV: Control

By Dino Pollard and Tony Thornley

Sharon Carter draped a blanket over the body of Lewis Haywerth. It was a hard air bullet, hence the lack of sound. He was dead before they’d even realized it happened.

“So why are you a corpse?” Sharon muttered. “Who has it in for you?” She stood and began looking through Haywerth’s bookshelf. He was an avid Patterson and Grisham reader. A couple Tom Clancy and Dale Brown also.

“Big mystery guy,” she said. She moved to his desk and turned several papers over. She looked up and noticed a framed photograph. Sharon frowned and picked it up. Six men, all obviously well acquainted. Four wore some sort of military uniform; the other two appeared to be civilians. It was grainy but she realized four of the six were familiar.

A much younger Haywerth was obviously to the far left, then Thaddeus Ross, an unfamiliar soldier crouching in front of them, next Howard Stark, another unfamiliar solder, and lastly Bolivar Trask.

“What the hell?” She turned the frame over, and opened it to take the photo with her. She pulled a thin sheet of cardboard out, revealing a hand-written scrawl in fountain pen.

November 17, 1961
CONTROL

Captain America sprinted through the trees, his shield held close to his body. He stopped and crouched down. Nuke was far from graceful, and practically ripped through the underbrush like a snow plow. But the path had stopped. Steve stood and tensed. He was above him…

“Frank!” he called. “Don’t bother trying to fight it out! You’re outclassed.” He needed a psychological edge. Nuke was strong, had torn apart Hells Kitchen single-handedly years ago. It had taken Daredevil and the full Avengers team to take him then. On his own…

“Don’t know about that Captain.” Frank Simpson’s voice rang out above him. “I’m not the old Weapon you once knew. They took me again. Made me better.”

“What did you say?” Steve asked, suddenly very shaken. He had called himself a weapon, as if it were a proper title. “Who are they Simpson?”

“Our fathers, Rogers.”

The leaves shook above and to his right. Steve spun and raised his shield. Nuke dropped on him hard, wielding another hunting knife. His weight knocked Steve to the ground. Cap kicked away and rolled, coming up on his feet. The two began circling each other.

“You thought it was rough before,” he said. “I’m beyond you now Captain.”

“I don’t know about that son,” he replied. “Ever heard of Master Man?”

“I’m not your SON!” Nuke bellowed. He rushed Steve, knife first. He jumped forward and held his shield ahead of him. The knife struck the shield and shattered. He swung again, the edge of his shield catching Nuke’s wrist with a crack. He dropped and kicked Nuke’s knee, another crack sounding loudly. The super-soldier dropped to the ground, holding his knee.

“You’ve made a mistake Captain.”

San Francisco, California

Jack Monroe pulled his hood down further over his face and adjusted his carry-on bag over his shoulder. He fiddled quietly with a cell phone in his pocket. He was a wanted man, which was nothing new to the man known as Nomad. His mission at this time though was deeply personal. He’d been attempting to track down the organisation known as Weapon Plus, the originators of his abilities and those of many other “super-soldiers.”

He felt a strong hand suddenly grip his left elbow, then another his right. He looked at the two men now escorting him. To the left was tall and wiry, but obviously quite strong, and rightie was shorter, and much more muscle bound.

“Mister Monroe, how was your flight?” Leftie said.

“Just peachy,” Jack said. “And yours?”

“Nothing like a flying car,” replied Rightie.

“Well great,” Nomad growled. He shook his arms, shaking free his pair of battle staves. He flexed suddenly and broke free of the grips of the SHIELD agents. He spun and hit Leftie across the temple, then backhanded him. Rightie had his gun drawn before his partner hit the ground. Nomad moved quicker, and drew a set of miniaturized throwing disks from his belt. He threw them as the Pym Particles that shrunk them were deactivated. They hit Rightie as they were still resuming their normal size. Jack turned and ran, not bothering to retrieve the disks.

He heard the shrill whistle of a security officer, but he was too far ahead for him to do anything. He rounded a corner and saw two more suits, both drawing weapons. He restored the size of two smoke grenades and threw them ahead of him. The explosives detonated with a dull thud and the corridor was instantly flooded with dense smoke. Jack ran through the middle of the smoke, praying not to injure an innocent.

He emerged from the smoke at a sprint, catching the attention of several security guards. He came to an escalator and simply jumped down, rolling with the impact of his landing. At this point, the doors were only about ten yards away. He turned to see several out-of-shape guards and all four of the SHIELD agents trying to fight through the crowd now gathering. He grinned and sprinted for the door. The automatic doors slid open to reveal a blond man in a trench coat standing, waiting for him. His fists practically glowed at that moment.

“Nomad, I need a word.”

“That’s funny. I was going to ask the same of you, Mr. Hammond.”

The Helicarrier

Fury puffed on his cigar as he looked at the photograph Sharon Carter brought for him. He turned it over and read the handwritten date and the word CONTROL. Then he looked up at Carter and Captain America.

“And?”

“What do you mean ‘and’?” asked Sharon. “Howard Stark, Thunderbolt Ross, Haywerth, Bolivar Trask. These were four very powerful men in their time. Haywerth was killed and I think it has something to do with this.”

Fury paused for a few moments and puffed on the cigar between his lips. His eye wandered to Captain America and took stock of the Avenger. “What do you think, Cap?”

“Nuke killed Haywerth and that means someone in the government felt he knew too much,” said Captain America. “I know you recognize the other two men in this picture, Fury.”

“General Cecil B. Slinkard and Colonel Edward Harrison,” said Fury. “Slinkard was a known cape-hater on the same level as Ross and Harrison had a very long career in black ops.”

“What about Control?” asked Captain America. Fury shook his head.

“I have no idea about that.”

“Are you telling me the truth, Nick?”

“What the hell kinda question is that?” asked Fury.

“A legitimate one, especially if this is in SHIELD’s best interests to keep secret,” said the Captain.

“Yes, I’m telling you the truth,” said Fury.

“Then I trust you,” said Captain America. “At least until you give me reason not to. But until then, our best bet is finding Slinkard or Harrison and asking them about this.”

“Won’t do much good, seeing as how they’re both dead,” said Fury. “Slinkard pulled a Human Torch, lit himself on fire and took a swan dive from his high-rise office. And Harrison… well, he went a little nuts not too long ago. Stole a bunch of SHIELD tech and was killed while resisting arrest. In fact, out of those six, only one is still alive… or at least assumed to be alive.”

“Ross,” said Captain America.

“Bingo,” said Fury. “But no one knows what happened to him, either. Few months back, he tried to take down the Hulk with some out-of-date Sentinels and went missing during the commotion.”

“Think it might have something to do with this?” asked Sharon.

“Could be, or it could be that years of failing to get rid of the Hulk made him snap,” said Fury. “Either way, assuming you can even find Ross, I doubt he’ll be very useful to you.”

“What about Weapon Plus?” asked Captain America. “Haywerth said it was the organization that Operation: REBIRTH fell under. Jim and I, Nomad, the Grand Director, Isaiah Bradley–we made up Weapons 0 through IV. He also said they might still exist and that they took a darker turn the last he heard about it.”

“Nuke was another of the test subjects,” said Fury. “Weapon VII was his designation, I think. But I haven’t heard anything about them since. I only know one other subject–Weapon X. You know ‘im better as Wolverine. When he was alive, leastways.”

“That means there are still four super soldiers unaccounted for,” said Sharon.

“And in a world of marvels, it’ll be tough to figure out which one’s which. Or they could be people we’ve yet to meet,” said Fury.

“What about Nomad? Any luck tracking him down yet?” asked Captain America.

“We found him in San Francisco and called in one of our old buddies to help us out,” said Fury. “He disembarked from a commercial airline and we had two SHIELD agents waiting for him.”

“You should’ve had a battalion,” huffed Sharon.

“You’re right, but we had back-up,” said Fury. “After he took out the agents, Hammond intercepted him.”

“Was Jim able to take him into custody?” asked Captain America.

“Dunno, we haven’t heard back from him yet,” said Fury. “Maybe Nomad got away and Hammond’s pursuing him or maybe Hammond was incapacitated.”

“That means it’s time for our next move,” said Captain America.

“You goin’ after Nomad?” asked Fury.

“No, I’m going to see what Nuke knows,” said Captain America.

“You’re wastin’ yer time, Rogers,” said Fury. “Nuke won’t talk to you.”

“We’ll see about that,” said Captain America.

San Francisco

Jim Hammond, the original Human Torch, hovered above a rooftop. Nomad knelt on the ground, using his Pym Particles to enlarge the documents he shrank to easily carry. “Here we go,” said Nomad.

Hammond lowered to the ground and deactivated his flames. He rubbed his blond beard as he looked over the documents Nomad handed him. “All related to Operation: REBIRTH?”

“That’s right,” said Nomad. “After Gyrich used me as his personal weapon, I wanted to get revenge. I wanted to see what sort of info he had on me. So I broke into the CSA and stole everything I could find on REBIRTH. And I found something very interesting.”

“These designations… Weapon I, Weapon II, Weapon III, Weapon IV, Weapon… VI?” Hammond looked at Nomad with curiosity. “What’s this all mean, Jack?”

“Call it Operation: REBIRTH, call it Project: HOMEGROWN, call it the Super Soldier Project, but it all falls under the same umbrella organization,” said Nomad. “The Weapon Plus Program. World War II was a different kind of war in many ways, you should know that better than anyone. Steve was Weapon II. Weapon I was the first person they gave the Super Soldier Serum too, a man by the name of Isaiah Bradley. After Steve went missing and Bucky died, that’s when Weapon Plus got their hands on the Grand Director and myself–Weapons III and IV.”

“So who’s Weapon VI?” asked Hammond. “And for that matter, why isn’t there any mention of Weapon V?”

“Weapon VI is a man named Josiah al hajj Saddiq, the genetic offspring of Isaiah Bradley,” said Nomad. “I met him, he’s a Muslim preacher in Brooklyn. And he’s definitely got the blood of a Super Soldier in his veins. As for Weapon V, there’s no mention of him, which means he wasn’t part of Operation: REBIRTH. He was a different kind of Super Soldier. Just like Weapon 0.”

“Which is?” asked Hammond.

“Simple deduction, Hammond,” said Nomad. “Cap and Bradley were the first two and only two marvels preceded them.”

“Namor and I,” said Hammond.

“And we already know Namor was an Atlantean hybrid, so it couldn’t have been him. Which means…”

“Horton was working for Weapon Plus,” said Hammond. “I’m tied into this as well.”

“That’s why I came to you, I need your help,” said Nomad. “I have a feeling this goes far beyond Operation: REBIRTH. The presence of an unknown Weapon V proves that.”

“All right son, you’ve got my help, at least for a little bit,” said Hammond. “But I’ve commitments I have to take care of here, so just be aware of that.”

“I understand.”

“Where are we off to?” asked Hammond.