SHIELD Helicarrier

Nick Fury, Dum-Dum Dugan, Victoria Hand and Jasper Sitwell all sat at a conference table, watching footage play out of the confrontation on the USS Harry Truman between Attuma’s crew of pirates and the renegade team known as Force Works.

“We’ve managed to capture these images using our satellites,” said Sitwell, controlling the footage on the screen via a tablet. “As you can see, someone’s managed to confront Attuma before we’ve had a chance to assemble a team of our own.”

“I can have Mikel’s team on standby if—”

“Hold up on that, Hand,” said Fury. “I wanna know who these guys are. We’ve seen ‘em pop up on the radar more than a few times. Sitwell, what’ve we got?”

“Well, here’s one of the images we’ve captured,” said Sitwell, focusing in on a man in a gray and silver suit of sophisticated battle armor. “The design of the armor is off, but this seems to be modified Starktech. Specifically, the Variable Threat Response battle-suit, piloted by James Rhodes. He’s definitely had times when he’s performed questionable actions, so it’s possible that—”

“It’s not Rhodes. We’ve got a line on him,” said Fury.

“Are you sure?” asked Sitwell.

“Don’t question me on this, Jasper. Just tell me what else we got,” said Fury.

“Well, if Rhodes is ruled out, we know of at least two other VTR pilots. One is Tony Stark, and we know it’s not him.” Sitwell looked down at the tablet. “The other is…Parnell Jacobs. Former associate of Rhodes, known mercenary, first operated as War Machine while in the employ of Sunset Bain.”

“Think we got a winner,” said Dugan. “What other confirmeds?”

Another image zoomed in, on a man who was floating in the air. His feet and chest were bare and he wore a pair of leather pants with a long, leather trench coat. He had a stylized X tattooed on his chest and his brown hair had streaks of white in the front, complete with a glowing eye.

“This one is Nate Grey, the mutant called the X-Man,” said Sitwell. “A refugee from an alternate reality. On-again, off-again association with the X-Men. Omega-class psionic. This guy’s trouble.”

He made a few more swipes on his tablet and another image zoomed in, this one on a cyborg armed to the teeth. “This one needs no introduction. The intel gathered by Moonraker proves something we’ve already known—AWOL Agent Jack Truman, codename Deathlok, has been running around with this crew from the beginning. We think he has a role in the missing Infiltrator ship, which energy signatures from the battle site match.

“But the most interesting part of this group is this last guy,” said Sitwell, zooming in on a man in a knight’s armor, riding a flying horse. The three agents all looked to Fury who just gnawed on the end of his cigar.

“The Avengers know their boy is runnin’ around with these bozos?” asked Dugan.

“The Ebony Blade is known to have a corrupting influence,” said Sitwell. “

“As I recall, the Ebony Blade is, as its name suggests, black, correct?” Hand pointed to the shining sword the Black Knight wielded. “That certainly doesn’t fit the description, wouldn’t you say?”

“She’s got a point,” said Dugan.

“So the question is, what’s gotten into Dane Whitman?” asked Fury.

THE SEVEN SEAS

Part II

By Hunter Lambright and Dino Pollard

The USS Harry Truman

The 3-D Man was pinned beneath Attuma’s foot while his teammates, Cybermancer, Century and the Black Widow, faced off against the Atlantean warlord. Attuma wasted no time with the 3-D Man, instead he charged for whom he assumed would be the greatest threat—namely Century. Attuma barreled through the tight corridor, and Century braced himself for impact.

“You surfacers are pathetic!” shouted Attuma. “The Atlantean race is superior to yours! You have infringed upon us for far too long! Now is the day we take back what is rightfully ours! We are your betters and soon it will be you whose lands we poison!”

“Shut up,” said the Black Widow. She fired several rounds at their enemy, but they bounced off his armor.

“Watch it with that!” said Cybermancer, holding up her gauntlet to deflect one of the ricochets.

The Black Widow ignored her teammates’ pleas and continued firing. But even the rounds that struck Attuma’s flesh didn’t even give him a moment’s pause. Cybermancer moved forward, her armor unleashing a wave of hard light daggers. Attuma deflected them with his three-pronged sword. He lunged towards her, grabbing her by the head and slamming her on the ground. As the Black Widow tried to sneak up on him, he threw his arm back, his elbow connecting with her face.

Attuma returned to the 3-D Man, who was now on his back. He raised the sword above his head, the three blades pointing down at his target. “I believe this was where we left off.”

“Too bad for you, you’re about to have a very bad day.” The 3-D Man rolled on his back and rapidly kicked at Attuma’s groin. His superhuman speed allowed him a quick burst of attack in a very short span of time. As Attuma reeled from the pain, the 3-D Man fell back on his palms and pushed up, his legs striking Attuma across the face.

“You…lousy cur!” shouted Attuma.

“Come and get me, fish breath!” The 3-D Man raced from the spot, moving through the corridors and making his way to the upper deck. He needed more room to maneuver and in these close quarters, it wouldn’t be long before Attuma got the drop on him again.

“Deathlok to Infiltrator, I’ve just detected some satellite transmissions. Seems like someone’s gotten a show from this.”

“I’m finding it difficult to give less of a shit,” came Bridge’s voice in Deathlok’s ear. “We’ve got a job to do, I don’t care if we’re covert about it.”

“Copy that,” said Deathlok.

The Atlanteans had gained access to the ship’s armory and the weapons contained within. Automatic rifles were now handed out to the warriors and they promptly used them on the members of Force Works. War Machine hovered above, chuckling as the bullets harmlessly bounced off his armor.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he asked as the Gatling gun and rocket launcher affixed to his shoulders both turned as he targeted them. “Fire in the hole!”

A barrage of rockets and bullets fired off, taking many of the Atlanteans with it. Survivors scattered, trying to reach cover. Two of them who crouched behind cover suddenly aimed their weapons at themselves. They kept screaming out something in their native language, but put a bullet in each other’s head mid-rant. The X-Man watched it with a grin, his eye crackling with raw psionic power.

“Friendly fire,” he said.

The Black Knight moved furiously through the Atlantean hordes, his shield absorbing the momentum of the bullets. The energy the Shield of Night absorbed was then transferred to the Sword of Light, launching powerful bursts of energy from the blade’s tip.

“Truman!” he shouted over the battle. “Have we got an update from the rest of the team?”

“They’ve gone silent.” Deathlok ducked a sword slash and opened his mouth, flames engulfing his attacker. “But scanner’s picking someone coming from below…”

“GANG-WAY!” shouted the 3-D Man as he emerged from below-deck. He darted through, trying to avoid the gunfire. Not far behind came the form of Attuma, charging after the speedster in a blind rage.

“I will flail the skin from your bones, surfacer!” bellowed the Atlantean warlord.

Attuma saw the rest of Force Works felling his Atlantean guard. His plan was falling apart, and quickly. But he would not allow the indignities he suffered under the 3-D Man to go unpunished. No matter what the cost. He shouted to his soldiers and several of them turned their weapons from their targets onto the 3-D Man. Delroy quickly found himself surrounded on all sides by automatic weapons prepped to fire.

Bullets flew from the muzzle, but they all froze in mid-air, right before they could make contact with the 3-D Man’s flesh. He looked at them in shock, as did the Atlanteans.

The X-Man landed beside his teammate and promptly shoved him to the side with his telekinesis. “Leave this to someone who knows what they’re doing.”

Nate Grey’s eye flashed brightly with his power and the bullets slowly turned. With another flash, they rapidly shot into the Atlanteans who fired them. He turned his attention to Attuma, staring down the warlord. Attuma as well kept his gaze fixed on the X-Man, readying his sword for battle. A sly little grin played upon the mutant’s face and Attuma realized his mistake in focusing his attention on this one when he felt a piercing pain across his back.

Attuma instantly spun and found the Black Knight standing behind him. Attuma’s blood was on the Knight’s blade and a deep gash marked the spot on the Atlantean’s back where he had been cut.

“You want to see what us surfacers are made of?” asked the Black Knight.

“I have seen. And I’m not impressed,” said Attuma. He lunged forward and the Black Knight blocked the strike with his shield. As the Black Knight lowered his shield, he thrust forward with his sword, piercing Attuma’s abdomen. He jumped over Attuma’s head and cut again, this time it was the back of the Atlantean’s thighs.

“How about now?” asked the Black Knight.

Attuma simply chuckled. “A few lucky strikes. You fight like our women.”

The 3-D Man got up to recover from the X-Man’s blow. He looked off to see his teammates decimating the Atlantean forces. He watched the Black Knight squaring off against Attuma, fighting with a rage Delroy hadn’t seen before. It gave the former Avenger more than a moment’s pause.

“Dane, what the hell’s goin’ on with you?”

In his daze, the 3-D Man ignored his senses and thus, ignored the Atlantean who pounced on him from behind. He pinned Delroy against the ship’s deck, his sword poised to strike. The 3-D Man was running short on options. It seemed the only way to fight this battle was kill or be killed.

The decision was made for him. The Atlantean’s back arched forward and a hard light blade emerged from his chest. It was withdrawn and the Atlantean collapsed on the deck. Delroy looked up at his savior and saw Cybermancer standing there.

“That’s now twice I’ve made the decision you couldn’t,” she said. “There better not be a third, Garrett.”

The 3-D Man got to his feet and watched as Cybermancer engaged another enemy. Century was back on deck as well, although he appeared to show slightly more restraint than their teammates. Still, with his powerful battle-axe, he was more than a force to be reckoned with. But there was one person still unaccounted for—the Black Widow.

3-D Man moved in a sprint, trying to see if she was okay. Or even worse, if she had decided to use this mission as a way to claim her freedom once and for all. As he moved across the deck, avoiding the battle as much as possible, he finally found her, planting a device on the underbelly of one of the planes.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Explosive,” she said. “Atlanteans need water, so we force them into water.”

“You’ll blow up the ship as well,” said 3-D Man.

“Sacrifice must be made.” She primed the explosive and walked past her teammate to move to the next plane. “Stay out of my way, little boy. I have no time for your games.”

“No.” The 3-D Man grabbed her shoulder. “I’ve had enough of this compromising bullshit. We either do this right or we don’t do it at all.”

The Black Widow smiled at him. Then in a move fast enough to take even Garrett by surprise, she delivered a roundhouse kick that knocked him on his back. Before he could react, she slammed her palm against his chin.

“I agree,” she said. “But we have different ideas of what’s right.”

The Black Knight’s fighting style was every bit as ferocious as Attuma’s. The two warriors clashed with no quarter, both intent on this being a battle to the death. Attuma’s three-pronged sword and incredible strength proved to be a great match for the Black Knight. But what Dane lacked in brute force he more than made up for with his fighting prowess and mystical weapons.

“You fight well, for a human,” said Attuma.

“Flattery will get you nowhere,” said the Black Knight. Their swords clanged again, sparking as the blades slid away from each other. Attuma swung his sword low and the Black Knight jumped over the blade, delivering a kick to Attuma’s helmet.

Another distraction came as one by one, the fighter jets on the deck of the carrier exploded. The Black Widow stood on the other end of the carrier, holding a detonator in her hand and smiling, the 3-D Man laying unconscious at her feet.

The distraction kept Attuma’s attention long enough for the Black Knight to drive his sword into the Atlantean’s chest. Attuma screamed his pain as the Black Knight drew the sword back. Attuma collapsed to his knees.

The heat on the ship was getting worse. Soon, the explosions would cause a chain reaction. Attuma was finished and he knew it. His soldiers were already retreating back into the ocean. The warlord had no choice but to follow. He fixed his angry gaze on the Black Knight.

“This isn’t over.”

“I should hope not,” said the Black Knight.

Attuma retreated beneath the waves himself. The Black Knight signaled the rest of his team and they gathered close enough for Century to open a portal back onto the Infiltrator. Moments later the USS Harry Truman was reduced to shipwreck, sinking to the bottom of the ocean.

The Infiltrator

Once Delroy came to, he was greeted with a punch from the Black Knight. “You want to tell me just what the hell you think you were doing back there?”

“He charged off after Attuma on his own,” said Cybermancer. “Despite my explicit instructions not to.”

“Then he interfered with my part of the plan,” said the Black Widow.

“The plan?” asked Delroy. He turned to Bridge. “You mean she was supposed to plant explosives?”

“The best way to keep that ship out of enemy hands was to destroy it,” said Bridge. “I knew that would also force Attuma and his forces to retreat.”

“If this was all part of the plan, why didn’t I know about it?” asked Delroy.

Bridge ignored the comment. “This op may not have gone as smoothly as hoped, but we got the job done. The Truman’s out of Attuma’s hands, Attuma’s back beneath the ocean, and we’ve avoided an international incident with Atlantis. We can mark this one down in the win column.”

“What about him?” asked War Machine.

Bridge looked back at Delroy. “I’ll handle 3-D Man. The rest of you return to your quarters. You’ve earned a bit of downtime.”

The team reluctantly left Delroy and Bridge alone. Once they were gone, Bridge took a few steps towards his soldier. “I hope you realize your actions could’ve blown the op.”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Not the first time this has happened either, is it?” asked Bridge. “When I came to you, I told you what our mandate was—force works. You said you were fine with that. You agreed to join this group to make up for your past mistakes and to tackle the threats the other heroes wouldn’t or couldn’t.”

“Didn’t mean I’m willing to sacrifice who I am,” said Delroy. “The Avengers made me realize that I’m capable of standing for something better. Tremont just treated me like his costumed thug and I’m not gonna be anyone’s thug anymore. Don’t care what the cause is.”

“I understand,” said Bridge. “That’s why I want you off my ship.”

“You’re kicking me off the team?”

“Garrett, if there’s one thing you’ve proven over and over again, it’s that you don’t belong here. So go back to the Avengers, go back to your pathetic little life putting out small fires while ignoring the big ones,” said Bridge. “Because the truth is? You were never really on this team. I need people with the stones to get things done. That’s not you, so get out.”

NEXT: Atlas Shrugged