HELL IS FOR CHILDREN

Part I

By Wesley Overhults

Earth-171

She missed her friends. It was odd what moments people chose to think about at certain times. In this moment, stranded on some unfamiliar Earth without a mission from the Tallus yet, Nico Minoru chose to remember her friends. It had been a long time since she had seen the rest of the Runaways. She tried to stay in touch when she left to be Strange’s apprentice but going to magic school left her with little time to visit them. Victor was keeping them in line no doubt. Molly was probably growing like a weed and driving all of them crazy. Nico missed them even more now that she was a million worlds away from them. It wasn’t like she could just hitch a ride on Strange’s magic express and pop over to the left coast to see them. Now she had a new set of friends to look out for.

As the Exiles touched down fresh from another trans-dimensional teleportation, Sister Grimm flicked her eyes to Daredevil and knew he was looking at her even through the red lenses of his mask. He flashed her a small grin of assurance even as he and the others waited for her to tell them their new mission. She closed her eyes and listened. She was used to hearing weird voices in her head. It came with the territory when you had to commune with things from another dimension. The Tallus spoke to her but she didn’t like the words she was hearing. She strained, hoping that she had heard it wrong and listened one more time. The message was clear and unmistakable but she couldn’t tell the others the truth.

“Give us the news, Nico,” ordered Sandman.

“Nothing,” she replied. “It’s not telling me anything yet.”

“Great,” muttered Daredevil. “Nothing I love more than waiting around for some wacky charm bracelet to decide my fate. I still say we should just go buy a dozen fortune cookies and call it a day on this crap. Reading those things would be more helpful than the Tallus.”

“Guess we better find out where we are,” decided Sandman. “Wasp, Goblin, run us some recon and see where the hell we are. The rest of us are going to see if Nico’s magic charm bracelet tells us anything.”

“Yer big plan is ta wait on that thing?” inquired Husk. “Can’t say Ah like it much.”

“Just until we know where the hell we are,” clarified Sandman. He nodded to the two air-traveling Exiles and they took it as a sign to proceed with his orders.

Wasp and Goblin floated into the sky with ease. Harry noticed that Kate hadn’t said anything to him ever since her solo mission. He didn’t press the matter, preferring instead to let her open up to him when she was ready. They were close, something that scared him because he couldn’t allow himself to lose sight of his ultimate goal. He couldn’t allow himself to lose sight of Liz. Still though, Kate’s unwillingness to discuss what had happened unnerved him. Truthfully, they hadn’t had a chance to really talk ever since he used some of his Goblin formula to heal the life-threatening wounds she had received from Bullseye. On the outside, she seemed fine but Harry found himself concerned about the inward effects of the formula on not only her body but also her mind. He knew about her past, knew that she had abused MGH until it permanently mutated her body. Did he make her fall off the wagon by saving her life the way he had?

“You never told me where you went while I flew solo,” mentioned Wasp, breaking the silence and snapping Goblin out of his thoughts.

“I was trying to find a place I could use to synthesize some more Goblin formula,” he explained, his eyes absently scanning the skyline. “It was a futile effort.”

A darkness hung over this city. It was thick, so thick that it couldn’t be night. He looked upward and saw a thick cloud of something blanket the sky. Whatever those clouds were, they didn’t look natural at all. Harry figured it was worth taking a closer look at what was in the air and perhaps what lay beyond it. He rocketed higher into the sky without further notice. He pierced one of the clouds and realized he was choking. The healing powers of his Goblin formula quickly worked to compensate for the influx of toxic chemicals. Whatever this cloud cover was made of, it wasn’t good to breathe. Harry didn’t have time to ruminate. He had hit the proverbial glass ceiling when it came to his airspace but this glass ceiling was electrified.

“Harry!” cried Wasp as she saw him fall towards the city below. She flew towards him even as he righted his fall and she noticed he was coughing.

“It’s smog,” realized Goblin. “There’s a ceiling up there and I hit it. Someone or something has put a canopy over this city and it’s trapping the smog. If someone doesn’t do something, the people down there are going to choke to death on it.”

“Well if the smog doesn’t tell us where we are then that should,” informed Wasp while pointing to something in the distance. She could barely make it out due to the unusual lack of light but there was no mistaking it.

Goblin turned to stare at the famous Hollywood sign though it seemed to have fallen on hard times. The floodlights used to help illuminate the sign at night were barely serviceable and both Exiles could see that some of the sign’s letters were falling apart. Still, it gave them a landmark to help them get their bearings. They were obviously in Los Angeles.

“Better get back on the ground,” decided Goblin. “The others will want a report.”

“They’ll have to wait,” corrected Wasp, pointing to lights in the distance that were moving closer and closer to their position. “Something tells me that’s not just a commercial jet.”

“That’s not a jet at all,” stated Goblin. He shielded his eyes from the blinding glare of the floodlights, dropping low to get out of their paths. He could see what was going on now though. A squadron of mechanized enforcers swarmed through the air like metal insects.

“You are in violation of the law,” boomed the squadron leader’s voice. “Exit from the city limits by any means is a punishable offense. Come quietly or resist at your own peril.”

“Scanning for verification,” announced another of the drones. “Violators are recognized as Harold Osborn alias Green Goblin and Katherine Bishop alias Hawkeye. Both are listed as deceased in databanks.”

“Hawkeye?” questioned Wasp. “How the hell did I end up as Hawkeye? Last time I touched a bow and arrow was one of those Nerf ones when I was nine.”

“Time enough for those questions later,” responded Goblin. “Kate, we need to get to the ground before . . .”

“Prepare to terminate with extreme prejudice,” ordered the leader before lifting its arms. The others followed suit and the air was alive with the cocking of weapons, the red beams of targeting sensors training on both Exiles.

“Dive!” shouted Goblin, reaching into his bag of tricks and hurling a round of flash grenades at the robots.

The orange orbs popped and blinded everyone and everything in their immediate vicinity but Kate and Harry were already hurtling towards the ground. The flash grenades deterred the drones for all of two seconds before they recalibrated their vision sensors and launched their payload of rockets at the Exiles. Wasp and Goblin weaved through the rain of death, watching the rockets explode below and tear up the ground.

“You could give us a warning next time!” shouted Sandman, elongating both his arms and turning his hands into a giant shield to give him and the other ground-bound Exiles shelter from the hail of missiles coming down on them.

“Welcome to LA, guys,” muttered Sister Grimm, hoping her words were lost over the roar of the battle.

“There’s a dome over this city,” explained Goblin. “Apparently someone doesn’t like it when you leave.”

“Cheery,” retorted Sandman, launching a volley of sandstone spikes at the robots and causing them to break formation.

“Flint Marko alias Sandman, Paige Guthrie alias Husk, John Gallo alias Ricochet,” analyzed the lead drone. “All are listed as deceased. Kill ’em all!”

“Wait, that voice,” realized Sister Grimm. Though it was garbled and static-filled, she swore she had heard that voice before.

“Little busy to worry about that now, Nico,” reminded Daredevil, launching one of his d-discs at the robots and watching it shatter the searchlight on the thing’s shoulder. “We need to get ourselves some more cover and start picking these things off.”

“Right,” she agreed before raising her hands towards the drones. “BLACK HOLE SUN!”

Stygian blackness spilled from her hands and enveloped the drones. It wasn’t regular darkness, it was living darkness from the Darkforce Dimension. The sentient mass of shadows swallowed the drones whole, completely blanketing them and rendering them unable to see anything on any spectrum. The darkness was tangible as well, holding the androids and moving to stop them from escaping its clutches.

“Harry, you and Kate take care of them,” ordered Sandman.

Wasp and Goblin flew into the cloud of darkness, Kate shrinking down to make her a harder target. The darkness swallowed up the light from the sting blasts and sparkle beams they discharged but the bolts were no less effective. They found their marks every time and it began to rain pieces of android. The storm of scrap metal stopped as something blew Goblin and Wasp out of the Darkforce cloud. The lead drone rocketed out of the cloud and began strafing the Exiles with laser fire.

“Nico Minoru alias Sister Grimm,” it registered. “Listed as deceased. Receiving new instructions from central network. Master will personally deliver epic pwnage to her. All other n00bs in immediate area will be destroyed. Any resistance will be classified as epic fail.”

“Why the hell is that thing using leet-speak?” inquired Daredevil.

“Because the guy who built it is still an idiot,” retorted Sister Grimm. “I know you’re in that thing somewhere, Chase Stein. Is this how you treat someone you’ve known your whole damn life?”

“Negative, Sister Traitor,” replied the drone before unleashing another round of plasma blasts. “Master deems it teh epic suxxors when filthy, non-Pride humans speak his true name in his presence. Most especially, Master deems it ultimate suxxors when Nico Minoru speaks it because Master does not know Nico Minoru and never truly did.”

“I don’t understand,” said Sister Grimm.

“Just kill the damn thing,” said Daredevil, springing into the air and grabbing the drone’s ankle.

Johnny flipped himself upwards and wrapped his legs around the robot’s waist to keep himself in the air. The drone raised its hand at him but Daredevil batted the appendage aside before pressing the end of one of his batons to the android’s forehead. He clicked a hidden button on the baton and watched the grappling hook spring out from its housing, puncturing the robot’s steel-plated skull before coming out the back of it and hooking itself there for good. Daredevil kicked himself backwards, letting out the line as he landed on the ground. He clicked the button again and watched the grappling line reel itself back into the baton, pulling the robot towards the ground. The drone kicked its booster rockets into a higher gear in an attempt to get away but the grappling hooks in the back of its head held their ground.

“I got it,” promised Sandman, grabbing the baton from Daredevil and yanking backwards. The tug-of-war continued for a few seconds before the robots head finally flew off its body. The head ended up at Sandman and Daredevil’s feet while the body dropped like a stone and landed with a thud.

“Looks pretty advanced,” said Sandman after checking out the severed head of the drone. “You know the guy who built this, Nico?”

“His name is Chase Stein,” informed Sister Grimm. “We . . . we’ve known each other forever. This isn’t like him. He wouldn’t do something like this.”

“Been a long time, Nic,” sputtered the head, making everyone jump. “Gotta say I always hoped you were still alive. The others are gonna be so psyched when I let ’em know.”

“Chase, tell me what’s going on,” pleaded Nico.

“Save that shit for someone who cares,” retorted the voice venomously. “You sold out your blood, Nico. Now you’re finally gonna get what you deserve.” The droid’s eyes began to blink and Sandman realized what it meant.

“Everybody take cover,” he ordered, using his body to enclose the team in a box made of sandstone. All of the droids exploded but the Exiles were safe inside Sandman’s shelter.

“You said something about being in LA like you already knew where we were,” mentioned Daredevil, looking to his new girlfriend. “Nico, what’re you not telling us? Do you know what our mission is or not?”

“Yeah,” she mumbled quietly, looking to the rest of the team as Sandman reverted to normal. “I knew our mission but I didn’t want to tell you guys. The Tallus wants us to stop the Runaways.”

Sierra Towers

“You’re completely sure it was her.”

The eyes of Chase Stein’s robotic body glowed with an amber-colored light as he compiled data from the skirmish his robots had with the Exiles. He ran through all the data from their scanning programs. Facial recognition software confirmed it was her. A voice analysis said the same thing and the DNA scans turned up positive as well. There was no mistake. Apparently, Nico Minoru had come back from the dead.

“My drones are built with every scanning program I could think of,” stated Stein, though these days he went by the handle of Machine Man. “No doubt about it, it’s her.”

Alex Wilder rested his chin above his upright fingers and pondered how best to approach the situation. After hearing the news that his ex-girlfriend was back from the dead, Alex had called this special meeting of The Pride for the express purpose of figuring out what to do next. It wasn’t as if The Pride had much to do these days. After Victor Mancha went rogue and killed all of the country’s superheroes, The Pride managed to put him down when Chase of all people hacked into the cyborg’s central processor and downloaded his consciousness into it. It was after that battle that The Pride declared LA under their full protection and instituted their martial law. Chase, along with Karolina’s knowledge of alien technology, constructed the protective dome to keep everyone out of LA and ensure that The Pride had complete control of the city. Though the US Army and the National Guard had set up a perimeter around the city in case The Pride attempted to expand their territory, everyone knew it was pointless. Thanks to their technological prowess and superhuman abilities, The Pride could hopelessly outclass anything the government threw at them. This team of superhumans inside their borders, however, could prove challenging. A challenge was something Alex Wilder and the rest of The Pride hadn’t had in a long time.

“The Skrulls are known for their shape-shifting abilities,” offered Karolina, now known as Starshine. “It could be a group of their sleeper agents trying to gain a foothold on Earth and eliminate the Majesdanian presence here.”

“Scanners registered negative for any alien DNA,” said Machine Man. “I got some weird chronal signatures from them though. Could be a blast from the past.”

“Great,” muttered Alex. “We don’t have a consultant for that until we get Gert back on her feet. How’s that coming, Chase?”

“Slow go, boss man,” replied Machine Man. “You got me workin’ on too much crap these days. My drones are still rounding up any resistance and I’ve finished the schematics for that filtration system for the dome. I can only do five things at once, Alex.”

“I can mobilize the refugees from Majesdane if you need more help, babe,” offered Starshine. “They’re wasted as civilians anyway.”

“It’s a good strategy,” decided Alex before Chase could answer. “I want finding Nico and these others as our top priority until I say otherwise. Molly, you ready to hit the streets with some of Chase’s new hunter drones?”

Molly “Bruiser” Hayes didn’t respond to the question. Her fingers furiously clicked the tiny keys on her mobile phone. At fifteen years old, she had recently discovered the wonders of texting although there were few people to text these days. Thankfully, Chase had outfitted her with a mobile phone that would get a signal past the dome around the city. Molly found out that making friends online was infinitely preferable to the real thing, provided of course that her new friends didn’t know who she really was.

“Chase, please disconnect Molly’s phone until the meeting is over,” ordered Alex.

“Sorry, kiddo,” apologized Machine Man before hacking into Molly’s phone and disconnecting its internet. “You know the drill. No texting during meetings.”

“You guys are totally unfair,” whined Bruiser, huffing her displeasure and glaring at the others. “You could let me have some friends every so often, you know.”

“Molly, you’ll be taking a squad of Chase’s new drones into the streets to hunt down Nico and her friends,” explained Alex. “Karolina, I’d like you to have your Majesdanian friends helps us out with this task instead of population control. I think they’ll enjoy the opportunity for combat again.”

“Definitely,” agreed Starshine. “I’ll go with them. You wanna come along, babe?”

“I need Chase for other things,” cut in Alex. “I’m going to stress that you bring Nico back alive. I have plans for her.”

“Okie dokie,” agreed Bruiser. “I get to beat her up though, right?”

“Of course,” answered Alex. “Meeting adjourned, everyone. You all know what you need to do.”

The rest of The Pride left the conference room to go about their assignments but Alex stopped Machine Man before the robot could exit the room. Chase turned and arched his eyebrow, his nanotech body morphing his arm out of Alex’s grasp. Chase Stein didn’t enjoy the company of humans, preferring instead to surround himself with machines. Alex Wilder was the rare exception to this rule.

“I gotta check on Gert’s progress,” explained Machine Man.

“Will a chronal signature from these others work for the plan we’ve discussed?” inquired Alex.

“Should be able to pull it off if I can duplicate the signature,” said Machine Man. “You’re the DM for this campaign, Alex. I’ll run whatever strat you need me to.”

“Keep up construction on the device,” ordered Alex. “When we get Nico, we’ll see if she’ll work.”

“Crowd control, filtration system, Gert, and this,” counted Machine Man. “I got room for one more in my queue if you wanna gimme something else.”

“That’ll do for now,” decided Alex. “Let’s see how the encounter plays out and then go from there.”

The Exiles decided that staying out in the open was only an invitation for more drones to attack them. To alleviate this problem, they moved into the alleyways of the city until they could come up with a real plan of action. Nico had told them their mission but none of them really knew how to go about it. All of them weren’t up to speed on the criminal or superheroic activities of the West Coast except for Nico. That made her the best one to coordinate their movements but she seemed very reluctant to actually engage these Runaways in battle. It was the latest in a pattern of incidents the Exiles had experienced since they became a team. It seemed that every reality they went to forced each member to confront people they had once considered friends and even family. Nothing was as it seemed in these alternate worlds and none of them could count on their previous memories and feelings when it came to dealing with people in other worlds.

“I don’t sense anything coming towards us,” said Daredevil. “I think we’re good for a minute.”

“Can’t keep squattin’ in alleys ferever,” brought up Husk.

“They’ll send out Old Lace if they want to track us,” explained Sister Grimm. “If she knows my scent, she’ll be on it in a second.”

“Doesn’t give us much time,” admitted Sandman. “I thought you said these people were kids. How could kids do all this?”

“I don’t know ,” replied Sister Grimm. “If we can just figure out what happened in this reality, maybe I can talk to them.”

“Stein didn’t seem to keen on that,” reminded Daredevil. “You think the rest of them are as interested in being bestest friends with us as he was?”

“From the way he talked, you caused whatever happened,” added Wasp.

“Wish I knew what it was,” said Sister Grimm. “We’re wasting time though. We need to start looking for the others if we’re going to finish this mission. I don’t know what they’re up to but we have to stop it whatever it is.”

“So where to first?” asked Goblin.

“Bronson Canyon, the La Brea Tar Pits, and a beach house in Malibu are the only crash pads we’ve used before,” said Sister Grimm.

“We’ll cover more ground if we split up then,” decided Sandman. “We need some way to stay in touch with each other. We don’t know what the Runaways will have waiting for us out there.”

“A little temporary telepathy should do the trick,” decided Sister Grimm. “VOICES!”

Everyone’s head glowed with magical energy and the Exiles discovered that they could hear each other’s thoughts. They looked at each other nervously, not exactly sure if they were completely comfortable with this tactic. Still, it was the easiest way for them to keep in contact with one another and Nico did say it was only temporary.

“Wasp, you and me check out the canyon,” ordered Sandman. “Daredevil and Goblin will go to the tar pits while Sister Grimm and Paige check out Malibu.” The rest of the Exiles nodded and dispersed to accomplish their assignments.

Malibu

“Never actually been to this place before,” admitted Sister Grimm as she and Husk looked at the beach house. “Victor said he and the others started using it after I left. It apparently belonged to our parents at some point.”

“Run that one by me again,” said Husk.

“The Runaways and I are the children of a crime cartel called The Pride,” explained Nico. “The Pride were in league with some big-time magical creatures who granted them power in exchange for the occasional human sacrifice. The others are I were supposed to succeed our parents but, well, you know how rebellious teenagers are these days.”

“Ya’ll just became superheroes instead,” summed up Paige with a smirk. “Ah woulda just stuck with a couple piercings and a tattoo, all things considered.”

“Different strokes,” responded Nico before the two girls approached the house. “I have a feeling this is a dead-end. Given what happened earlier, if this was their hideout then Chase’s toys would’ve been all over us before we made it this far.”

She hated referring to this place as a “hideout” as if they were after some run-of-the-mill super-villains. These were her friends, her only family she had left in the world. They had promised each other they wouldn’t turn into their parents yet in this world it seemed that promise was broken long ago.

“Point taken,” acknowledged Husk before peeling the skin off her right arm and tossing it aside. “Mama always said it was always polite ta knock.” Husk unceremoniously punched through the door though the action yielded no response.

“Definitely a dead-end,” decided Sister Grimm after the two girls entered the house and looked around. From the looks of things, no one had been inside the house in years. In fact, most of the furnishings had been cleared out.

“Haven’t picked up anything from tha others,” informed Husk. “Hearin’ voices in mah head reminds me o’ home too much. Miss Frost could talk up a storm in yer head if ya let her.”

“You’re lucky you don’t have to put up with Johnny thinking to you,” said Nico. “Trust me, there are some unclean things going on in his head.”

“Yer gonna offend mah virgin brain,” retorted Paige sarcastically before noticing movement out of the corner of her eye. “Stay close. Ah thought Ah saw somethin’ outside just now.”

A rustling noise set both of them on edge and Nico could feel her anxiety transmitting to the other Exiles via the telepathy. There was a hollow, mechanical growl and something silently entered the house through the smashed door. Husk and Sister Grimm watched a pair of beady, electronic eyes light up in the dark and the thing growled again.

“That this Old Lace ya were talkin’ ’bout?” inquired Husk.

“Not exactly,” replied Sister Grimm, her eyes turning to the nearby window just as a shadow came hurling towards it. “Old Lace never had friends. Move!”

Both girls moved as the robot crashed through the window. This caused the first one to pounce, taking Nico to the floor even as Husk stripped off her skin to reveal concrete underneath.

“Ah need some light,” she called out to Nico.

“JUMPIN’ JACK FLASH!” chanted Sister Grimm before light erupted from her hands and illuminated the room.

“Lordy these are some ugly lookin’ critters,” realized Husk.

Nico looked at what they were facing and wanted to throw up. They were robotic copies of Old Lace, cybernetic raptors that were no doubt programmed to track and kill anyone that Chase didn’t like, which seemed to include everyone these days. The drone on top of Nico growled and snapped at her. She moved her head before the thing’s jaws could lop it off and breathed a sigh of relief as Husk picked the thing up with one hand and slung it into its companion.

“There are more of them,” said Sister Grimm before two more raptors entered the house and flung themselves at the two Exiles. Husk batted them aside while she and Nico made a run for the exit. The pack of raptors wasted little time in getting back to their feet and stalking towards them.

“Tha others are havin’ trouble,” informed Husk. “They ran into some weird aliens who glow in the dark. Looks like we’re gonna have ta hold tha fort.”

“What’re Karolina’s people doing here, Chase?” asked Sister Grimm. “I know you’re watching through these things. Talk to me and explain what’s going on.”

“Don’t think they’re in tha mood fer talkin’,” said Husk, watching more raptors surround them. “Ah’ll say this fer yer boy, Nico. When he gets an idea he really beats it ta death.”

“Funny that you use that phrase,” said a voice as the circle of cybernetic creatures parted to let Bruiser through. “It’s like . . . oh my God what’s that word? Foreshadowing?”

“Molly?” asked Sister Grimm in surprise. “Molly, it’s Nico. I don’t know why you’re doing this but this isn’t some kind of game.”

“Screw this,” decided Husk. “Ah don’t like beatin’ up kids but if that’s what it takes then fine.”

“Paige, don’t,” warned Nico even as Husk ran towards Bruiser.

“I’m not a kid,” declared the youngest member of The Pride, her eyes darkening. She caught Husk’s fist with one hand, stopping it cold as if it was made of paper instead of concrete. Molly laughed as one uppercut shot Paige into the air and caused her to land in the ocean.

“Molly, don’t make me hurt you,” said Sister Grimm. “Please, let’s just sit down and talk about this. I’m not the Nico you knew, okay? I’m from a different reality so whatever I did, that wasn’t me.”

“For reals?” asked Bruiser and even in the semi-darkness, Nico could see that Molly was giving her that look. “You really mean that?”

“Yes,” answered Sister Grimm, moving cautiously towards the younger girl. “Whatever happened, we can fix it. You know I would never hurt any of you guys. I would die before I did that.”

“Nico . . . we’ve done a lot of bad stuff,” explained Bruiser. “Alex says it’s the right thing to do but I dunno . . . I miss the way things were.”

“It’s okay,” promised Nico, close enough now to envelop Molly in a hug. “I promise you everything will be okay. Just get these things to back off and we’ll work it out.”

Nico didn’t feel the impact as Bruiser reached up and flicked her finger against the back of the Exile’s skull. Unfortunately, a small thump from Molly was enough to knock out a normal human being if she chose to use her super strength. That’s exactly what happened and the witch’s body went limp in The Pride member’s arms.

“Some things never change,” decided Bruiser. “Grown-ups are so damn gullible.”

“Kay-Kay says her crew is wrecking shop on those other n00bs,” informed Machine Man’s voice through one of the raptors. “Alex wants Nico back here alive.”

“I know,” confirmed Bruiser. “I could’ve done this myself. I don’t need a babysitter anymore.” She rolled her eyes and looked at Nico’s unconscious body for a moment before turning to the raptor squad. “Go find that other girl and get her back here. I totally need a new punching bag.”

Next Issue: With Nico in their custody, Alex and Chase move ahead with their plan while the Exiles try to uncover the origins of The Pride.