THROWDOWN

Part I

By Desmond Reddick

Red Raven swooped down over Mongoose, arms and wings spread, as she hooked her fingers into claws. Though she swiped with precision and speed far beyond that of a human being, she was no match for the velocity of the yellow and black-colored blur that was Mongoose.

After missing her, Red Raven dropped abruptly to the floor and before even setting her feet in a landing, dropped to one knee and leg-swept behind her. Something clipped her leg but she did not score a direct hit. Dania hissed to herself as the spun around as quickly as she could, only to be met with a devastating clothesline.

“You’re fast!” Mongoose said as she sat legs astride across Red Raven’s chest. She held both of Dania’s wrists in her hands, holding tightly as the crimson bird of prey struggled.

In a quick twist of her wrist and jerk of her arm, Red Raven let loose a wild haymaker aimed squarely at the right eye socket of the dark-skinned young speedster.

Before Raven could connect with her potentially devastating punch, Mongoose grabbed her forearm again and, using Dania’s own momentum against her, twisted her body over and flipping her onto her stomach. Having not let go of the offending punching hand, Mongoose pulled it tightly and used it as part of a chokehold on the incapacitated Red Raven.

Mongoose bent slowly, nuzzling her face in the hair beside Dania’s ear and whispered: “But I’m way faster.”

Red Raven gave a grunting war cry and her wings shot straight up in the air, throwing Mongoose off of her. Mongoose was propelled across the room upside down. She came to a crashing halt as she slid into the rubber wall, but before she could spring to action, Dania was already on top of her. She held the tips of her sharpened gauntlets in the face of the speedster, adrenaline pumping through her body. She wanted nothing more than to scar the girl. She hated her for no rational reason she could discern. She crouched debating what to do long enough for—

The sliding doors of the Time’s Tower’s training room opened with a hiss, and Challenger stepped through. Still favouring his leg from the debacle with Quasimodo, he limped only slightly. It was likely he was bottling the pain so as not to telegraph too much weakness to the young women.

“Nice moves, ladies. Now it’s time for the real test.” Challenger dropped into a forward karate stance. “Let’s see how well you two work together.”

“She’s a real firecracker,” Blue Diamond said to Thin Man. He didn’t need to turn towards him to direct his conversation. The two had been watching Mongoose and Red Raven train together for some time. ‘Train’ had apparently been redefined as ‘try to kill each other.’

“Her father’s been known to fly off the handle once in a while.” Thin Man said.

“Funny, Bruce. Think this is serious?”

“Not particularly. Dania has a fire in her belly that we’re going to need if this Secret Empire thing is true.”

“She may end up killing Mongoose before we even get to know her,” Elton said.

“What do we know about her?”

“She says she was trying to duplicate Bob’s Whizzer formula. Accident and all that.”

“You know,” Thin Man began, “I wonder how many super-powered beings there’d be in the world without a bit of youthful arrogance on the behalf of scientists.”

“We’ll have to bring her to the Penance Council once this all blows over. Maybe they can get her in touch with Nuklo. He’d like to meet his father’s legacy, right?”

“I’ve heard Nuklo’s not necessarily on the side of the righteous lately.”

“Shame,” Blue Diamond said. “Not so easy to keep this all straight these days, is it?”

“The world’s changed, Elton. There is no line between good and evil anymore. There’s only degrees.”

“Do you really believe that? Don’t you think that what has happened over the past week could simply be a string of unlucky events? It is possible, you know, that no one’s actually out to get us?” Blue Diamond was looking at Bruce when he spoke.

Bruce never turned his head from the spectacle below. After a moment, Elton too looked down at the combatants.

They stood silently watching Challenger consistently dodge and misdirect the girls on the floor of the training room. Challenger seemed to take great delight in trying to make Red Raven crash into Mongoose. It was a pretty unorthodox method of team-building, but he was a big believer in working differences out through physicality.

Bruce paid close attention as Mongoose sped out of the way of a jump kick delivered by Challenger, which ended up catching Red Raven in the solar plexus as she flew by.

Never turning from the view of the training room, Thin Man answered: “Anything’s possible, Elton.”

Roger Aubrey stood on the Abyss Bridge of the Vanguard II, his long white and red Penance Council robe draped almost to the floor. As the Mighty Destroyer, Aubrey struck fear into the heart of every Nazi alive. He wasn’t only a superhero, he was a ghoulish, violent Nazi-killer who spent most of the war behind enemy lines.

After the war, he founded the V-Battalion with his friend, his lover, Brian Falsworth. They were a British Nazi-hunting group then. Soon they became much more; they became an international force for peace. But even though there was plenty of activity there, he was beginning to tire of parking the huge flagship in the skies over the eastern seaboard of the United States.

Once Roger lost Brian, the V-Battalion was all he had left. Now, if he wasn’t in meetings, he spent most of his days watching the liquid gel screens in front of him. Any hint of a disturbance needing the V-Battalion’s involvement would swing them into action. And he had just seen one.

“Quadrant 7, maximize,” Roger ordered.

A small screen blanked out first before it was blown up over the entire grid of view screens. All on the Abyss Bridge were privy to a huge image of a blue and orange clad giant slowly climbing Niagara Falls.

“Leviathan.” Roger spoke to no one in particular. “What’s that big idiot doing now?”

Roger turned his head to the Communications Engineer to his right, who was already awaiting orders.

“Ready V-Battalion, Configuration Sigma, CO: Fin. Scramble immediately.” The order would put his most seasoned operatives on the mission under the command of Fin, whose expertise in aquatic warfare would be quite useful.

“Cancel that.”

The command came from behind Roger, but he recognized his colleague’s voice. He turned to see Senator Ralston, uncharacteristically garbed in the white and red robe of a Penance Council member. Not even the highest ranking officials in the V-Battalion could gain access to what amounted to a war room for the group without the clearance and rank-depicting uniforms.

“To what do we owe the pleasure, Bob?” Roger was making no effort to disguise his irritation.

“The Liberty Legion has already mobilized. Let’s see what they can do.”

Roger stood in silence for a moment before replying: “Bob, The Falls is one of the biggest tourist spots in North America. There’re too many lives at stake to play politics.”

“Roger,” Ralston stepped forward and lowered the volume of his voice. “They deserve another shot, and, besides, they’ll beat us there by several minutes anyway. Send out a team, but let’s expect a clean-up.”

The stratoplane flew the length of New York State in just under fifteen minutes at twice the speed of sound. The Liberty Legion, without Valentina who still needed to get her suit operational, left the moment after Amadeus Cho alerted Thin Man to seismic vibrations. Cho’s analysis showed that it was no mere earthquake as the vibrations registered as not unlike the gait of a man roughly thirty feet tall.

Cho stumbled across the readings on a Canadian seismograph and triangulated the epicentre while he dialled the secure line to Thin Man. It took him that long to triangulate because its cause was on the move. He already knew an earthquake in that area was unlikely which is why he was going for the phone in the first place. But the Thin Man was the only one on his speed dial who had the resources to handle an angry giant.

Thin Man really enjoyed having Cho in his back pocket. Back in his day, the whole teen sidekick thing always seemed like putting children in unnecessary danger to him. Hell, fighting alongside a woman – even one as formidable as Miss America – seemed to be a little risky at times. These days, with children rushing into battle every time you bat an eye, Thin Man found it nice that his teenaged sidekick was perhaps the world’s greatest intelligence officer.

He broke concentration when they had a visual. By dipping his finger in a small divot in the plane’s console, he opened a view screen in the air behind him that, through his subspace abilities, allowed the rest of the team to see what he saw with his own eyes.

Below them, a giant of a man was doggy-paddling in the Niagara River towards the falls, his orange and dark blue costume bobbing on the surface of the tumultuous currents. It was equal parts terrifying and ridiculous.

A small window opened up in the corner of the view screen after a circle and line targeted the swimmer. It was Gargantua, formerly Leviathan, a giant who had prior affiliations to both SHIELD and the Secret Empire. Bruce was not surprised.

“You ready, Elton?” Thin Man turned around and spoke after setting the stratoplane to hover over Gargantua.

“As I’ll ever be.” He pulled the Blue Diamond mask over his scalp and then his face. His devastating battle with Quasimodo left him unable to make the change to his diamond form but he was still a force to be reckoned with.

With a twitch of Thin Man’s finger and a directive thought, the back hatch of the plane opened quickly and silently.

Blue Diamond turned to the open air behind him. He only had a moment to utter “Let’s go, Legion,” before Red Raven scooped him up from his armpits and flew him out the hatch.

Thin Man looked at Challenger and Mongoose as he rose from the pilot seat.

“You two have your orders.”

“But,” Mongoose began, “I really think I’d be—”

Challenger raised his hand in front of her face to silence her and spoke for them: “We’ll be waiting for when you need us, Bruce.”

Thin Man stood still and a humming sound precipitated his disappearance into a silhouette that was not unlike television static.

Valentina Heron grunted as she held the pneumatic drill forcibly against the prominent knee joint of the Iron Cross armor. The high-pitched WHIRRR! signalled the final bolt to secure the leg of the armor. She stood from a crouching position; put the drill down on the table in front of her; and removed her safety goggles to admire her handiwork.

“Papa Helmut would be proud.” She said to herself. Some lubrication and a full charge and Iron Cross would be battle-ready once again. It had been too long.

Valentina silently hoped that her friends would be victorious in her absence. She would surely be able to join them on their next adventure, and thankfully so. If what Thin Man was saying was true, there were to be some trying times ahead.

She had just plugged the power cable into the chest cavity of the suit and was reaching for the industrial lubricant on the table when the building shuddered. The neon lights above her flickered in and out just before the crunching sound signalled the attack.

“Drey!” she shouted as she dressed down to a sports bra and jogging shorts. She spoke fluent English, but in times of duress, if she was to break her demeanour and curse, she would use one her mother used to use.

Valentina heard a high pitch squeal rattling in her ear drums. Pushing past it, she climbed into the Iron Cross armor and closed the carapace just before the concrete wall exploded into her workshop. The suit hummed to life and she charged through the particulate dust that used to be a wall.

Iron Cross had barely breached the dust cloud before seeing the readouts on her armor’s archaic status screen. What looked like a plain glass slot for her to see through was actually a very sophisticated transparent computer screen. And what it said wasn’t good.

She was running on twenty percent power. Whoever she faced, she would have to make short work of. And she’d have to do it without any energy blasts or flight. She was so worried about her armor’s ability to stay powered that she couldn’t distinguish the shrill noise of the squeaking unlubricated knee joint from the constant high pitch coming from her green-armored attacker.

“There you are!” Sonic said, reaching out a thick gauntlet and pointing at Iron Cross.

Before Iron Cross could react, Sonic’s gauntlet unfolded on his wrist and a green metal spider launched through the air towards her. The foot-long mechanical creature hit her chest with such force that Iron Cross was driven stumbling back through the rubble of her workshop. She caught her footing but the crab released a powerful shock into her armor.

The screen in front of her blinked out but came back with the flashing power level rising. Thanks to Sonic’s attempt to short out her armor, the vibranium shard Challenger helped install in her internal battery began to siphon the electrical output of the crab.

Iron Cross was already on her way backwards into the destroyed workshop before she powered up. She could have saved herself with a bit of jet propulsion, but instead used a bit of conservation and trickery; both she learned from her mother. She sneered at the memory of every time she had been derided for her Gypsy heritage. Today, it was likely to be the only thing to keep her alive.

Sonic stood over her and looked down.

“That was easy,” he said, his voice digitally warped by the communications device in his helmet.

Not wasting any time, Iron Cross bent her knee and activated the main thrusters in her boot. An jet-propelled knee in the groin sent a resounding CLANG! through the air. Sonic went flying right over Valentina’s armoured body and crashed into the wall behind her.

“Too easy, right?” Iron Cross mocked as she climbed to her feet. It was then she noticed the drag on her right knee. She stood upright, then grabbed the green metal spider off of her chest and crushed it in her gauntlet.

She turned to throw the crushed weapon on the ground but was blindsided by a hit to the back. She stumbled forward and crashed into what remained of the table in her workshop.

“That’s exactly what we were thinking.”

Iron Cross turned around to see Sonic getting to his feet in front of two other armoured attackers. Grasp, clad in yellow and grey armor, rubbed two massive fist gauntlets together; Chain, in blue armor, slowly swung a massive glowing chain in one hand. He made no attempt to hide that he was the one who hit Valentina.

The Seekers! she thought. Part of working with the V-Battalion was getting familiar with their files. Valentina gravitated toward the profiles of armored villains for obvious reasons and knew that these guys were all on a lower power level than her. But, together the Seekers were pretty deadly.

Without a second thought, Iron Cross levelled pulse blasts at Chain and Grasp. The forceful beams emanating from the palms of her gauntlets packed quite a punch and tended, thanks to a little bit of electro-magnetism, to play havoc with electronics.

Chain was hit at center-mass and thrown out of the smouldering hole in the side of the building that the three entered from. Grasp, side-stepped the blast and ran full-tilt at Iron Cross with his huge gauntlets raised.

Iron Cross stepped back but was unable to dodge the huge left hook that crashed into her helmet. She tumbled backwards with Grasp on top of her. The massive fists pummelled her helmet quickly and mercilessly.

Though her helmet screen blinked in and out of functionality with each blow, Iron Cross threw her arms up to clip the side of Grasp’s helmet. Since he was so concerned with caving her skull in, he was taken off balance by the less than devastating blow to his helmet.

Iron Cross rolled out from under him and gained enough distance to disable him with a pulse blast. No sooner had she taken care of Grasp when she has hit by Sonic’s sound cannon.

The sound was heavily muffled thanks to the insulation in her suit, but Valentina’s teeth still rattled as she turned towards him. He stood solidly emitting the sound from the center of his chest. At that range, any attempt to sidestep would be self-corrected by Sonic quickly.

Iron Cross put her right gauntlet towards the ceiling and launched a small missile form her wrist. The resulting explosion brought a good portion of the reinforced ceiling and insulation down in front of, and on top of Sonic.

She used the resulting confusion to cross the room quickly and tackle Sonic. The two slid across the floor and came to a rest just before they slid out of the hole in the side of the building. Iron Cross put both her hands on the side of Sonic’s helmet, dug her fingers into the green steel and pushed forward, arcing Sonic’s back as he hung over the edge of a sheer drop to the street below from the point of the middle of his back.

Valentina hadn’t studied the schematics of these guys’ particular armor, but they were members of AIM in the nineties. AIM went through a period of swiping Stark designs on armoured suits, and, like all suits of that nature, they weren’t intended to be bent backwards very far. Just like the human spine.

Sonic’s pained grunting told her she was right.

Over Sonic’s shoulder, Iron Cross could see Chain climbing the facade of Time’s Tower by digging his fingers into the concrete walls and pulling himself slowly upward.

Iron Cross wondered for a moment if Chain’s flight capabilities were compromised. Her lack of concentration allowed Sonic to release another blast of his sonic cannon. The angle Iron Cross had pushed and bent him into unfortunately made his chest plate aim directly for her face.

The sonic vibrations instantly scrambled any electronic control she had over her suit and the force of the blast pushed her back to her feet. She stood statue-still, rocking forward and back since she had no control over her suit. The rocking threatened to topple her over when her screen came back into view and she regained control of the suit.

The first image that popped into vision when her screen came back online was of Chain, now hovering in the air in front of her. He spun his chain, crackling a vibrant orange with energy, twice quickly before flinging it at her.

The chain seemed to extend in the air towards her so unnaturally fast that any plan of dodging the weapon had to be cast to the wind in favour of simply steeling herself. But the impact was far greater than the one she felt earlier. The electronics in her suit shrieked and dropped out once again.

And for a moment, Valentina blacked out.

The energy in the chain! she thought as she regained consciousness. It was the blinking red alert on her inner helmet screen that brought her back to the land of the living. The screen blinked that she only had 25% of her power left. The insulation in her suit must have taken a beating absorbing the impact of Chain’s weapon.

I have to end this. Now!

Iron Cross got to her feet, her unlubricated knee joint now fully immobilized. She dragged her right leg to a standing position. She planted her feet in the ground, the three “toes” of each iron foot dug through the scorched carpet and into the concrete below. Fissures spider-webbed out from her stance.

She began the process of emptying her batteries by emitting a pulse explosion, if her suit allowed her to do that. The lack of battery power wouldn’t stop her from doing the power dump, but it would certainly hamper her ability to control it. But she also hoped that the low battery level would lessen some of the impact.

Sonic didn’t know what Iron Cross was doing, but it was clear that she was preparing to do something possibly devastating. He spoke into his comm link: “Nail him!”

Chain powered up his melee weapon and swung it in circles that gained longer radii with each swing. It glowed orange once again and cut like butter through the load-bearing column on the south side of the building.

Grasp slowly got to his feet behind Iron Cross and stretched an electrified steel net between his huge gauntlets. He moved towards her contracting the net as he walked.

Sonic planted his feet and pointed his chest at Iron Cross. When his sonic cannon let loose a full power blast that screamed across the room, the other two armoured men at his command jumped to action.

The electric net thrown over Iron Cross amplified the impact of the sonic blast that hit her chest. The orange chain barely made contact with Iron Cross’s outer shell when everything went silent. A vacuum created by the power amplification in the Iron Cross armor sucked everything on the floor towards the center where Valentina stood.

The three armoured villains felt the pull as well, but before they could react by gaining better footing, a white flash of light popped in front of them and a power surge greater than anything they’d ever felt washed over them all.

The windows on thirty-odd storeys of the skyscraper shattered into tiny particles. Even windows across the street rattled, cracked and, some of them, broke. The concrete structure of the building shuddered violently, and, for a moment, everything was calm.

All four armored combatants stood, powerless and unable to move.

“Is it over?” Valentina spoke to herself inside an iron prison.

And then, after a KRRRRRRAAAACKKKK! so loud it was heard easily through the inches of iron and steel protecting each of the four, Time’s Tower fell into its own footprint.

Valentina only had time to think about how hot it had gotten in her suit before she was buried under hundreds of thousands of tons of concrete, glass and steel.

NEXT ISSUE: What? That’s the end? The idea is to get you to read the next issue, right? You probably have a few questions you’d like answered, huh? What happened to Iron Cross? What about the rest of the team fighting a giant at Niagara Falls? How does the V-Battalion fit into all of this? You’ll have to come back next time, but rest assured, the nightmare has just begun.