IN A GLASS CAGE

By Desmond Reddick

Author’s Note: This story takes place after Liberty Legion #12

Bubbles roil up through the field of vision, but the eyes swish back and forth through thick fluid, darting up and down the street in an attempt to lock on to their target. And there they were.

The two walked side-by-side through the moderately busy early afternoon sidewalks garnering several sidelong glances. In the culturally diverse Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, it was common to see mixed friends of white and black. It was, however, uncommon to see a black man so large it defied description carrying on a friendly conversation with a slight white kid.

But the two were only months apart in age, and those in the know would understand two things: that one neighbourhood away, the massive Eldon Haliday was a protector of the streets, and that Alex Power, his companion, was actually three and a half months older. He counted.

Rage and Zero-G sounded like the worst rap duo ever; thankfully they were just friends. They were hardly even super-heroing partners. Their time together in the New Warriors did, however, build a powerful bond between the two. And it was becoming more and more needed seeing as Rage’s days in the Avengers were over and the Power Pack was more or less disbanded. Not to mention the New Warriors.

“ – then you just totally bailed,” Alex laughed.

“What? If you were walking and looking at her at the same time you would have tripped over a fire hydrant too. Probably would have given you a nutshot, midget!” Eldon snapped back.

Alex was doubled over laughing for a moment before continuing: “Epic. Fail!”

It was all he could get out before bursting into laughter again.

Eldon only shook his head, smiled and kept walking.

Alex finally stopped laughing, breathed in a little and then jogged to catch up to his friend. While running, he thought he recognized someone standing as the crowd moved around him up in the distance.

“Hey, yo. Donyell? Is that you, man?” Eldon said looking at his former teammate.

“El’, is that –” Alex began.

Before he could finish his sentence, the tall black man in front of them – clad in black trench coat with a black headband tying back his dreadlocked hair – raised his left hand toward them. He pressed his palm out and spread his fingers.

Neither Eldon nor Alex was quick enough to respond to the huge burst of bioelectricity from Donyell’s hand. The bolts launched clumsily from his hands and danced dizzyingly between wrought iron gates and street lights on either side of the sidewalk before slamming into Eldon and Alex.

Alex, like the twenty-seven people between him and the former New Warrior known as Bandit fell to the ground unconscious.

Eldon still stood, smoke rising from his scorched clothing. His face twisted and his teeth grit. His already massive chest, one that would easily put any pro linebacker to shame, expanded instantly as he set his feet and clenched his fists.

“Bitch, you ’bout to find out why they call me Rage! I don’t know what’s up with you, but you done fucked up now!”

The eyes danced, shaking up the fluid that held them. His cerebrum could feel the movement, and it became excited from what it was taking in.

Eldon charged and, though he took care while stepping over the unconscious innocents, threw wild punches at his former teammate.

Bandit swiftly side-stepped the lunging behemoth and clasped the back of his bald head with his left hand.

BZZZZZZZAAAAAK!

This time, the charge was powerful enough to stun Eldon before he knew what was happening.

Bandit was halfway through turning towards Alex when he began to float rapidly into the air. Alex, on one knee, guided Bandit’s ascent with his outstretched hand.

“I’m not Rage, but you already know why I’m called Zero-G,” he said. “Now I think I’ll show you something I’ve been working on!”

Alex dropped his hand, and Bandit plummeted to the ground form three storeys high at three times the speed earth’s gravity would normally allow.

They eyes shuddered, and the cerebrum hissed with pain as the hand it controlled let go of the curtain. The brain paused for a moment and returned to the window, pulling the curtain to the side once again.

Alex winced as the grogginess of being stunned was now complemented by a sharp headache from using his powers in a new way.

Rage pushed himself to his feet and turned toward Zero-G.

“Hey, man,” Alex said. “You okay?”

Rage had a glazed look in his eyes as he walked over to Bandit.

“Rage? You good?”

Rage bent and pulled Bandit to his feet. Bandit, once on his feet, seemed to elicit no pain or emotion as he too turned to Alex.

“Aww…man!”

Alex threw both men into the air by making them both several times lighter than gravity’s push. Then, while they were still hurtling into the air, he ran. He didn’t have the strength to continue a fight with anyone super-powered for very long.

After reaching the end of the block he continued running but let go of the use of his powers. Rage and Bandit, who were now several hundred feet in the air, began to fall back to earth. Rage, in mid-fall, managed to grab Bandit by the back of his jeans and throw him toward the fleeing young hero.

Alex who was almost another half block away turned just in time to see Bandit hurtling toward him with hands outstretched and crackling with electricity. He crossed his arms in front of his face but was too panicked to do anything to stop him.

“Enough!”

KRA-KOOOOOM!!!

The voice was powerful and omnipresent, followed by a thunderous crack in the sky, flashing even in the darkness of Alex’s covered eyes. He moved his arms to see Bandit being held in the arms of a half-naked man adorned in gold accents and black feathers. He stood on a huge scorched mark in the sidewalk, making Alex think that the man traveled by thunderbolt.

Bandit stumbled to his feet, his teeth grit from the pain in his back he only now felt. He didn’t know what happened to him, but he felt like he’d had the shit kicked out of him.

The ground shook with each stomp Rage took toward the trio of heroes.

“Aw shit.” Bandit muttered while attempting to stand up without screaming in agony.

“You too!” the savior said pointing at Rage.

In a flash, Rage’s eyes returned to clarity. He tripped and fell on his face.

Alex’s nature would have been to mock his friend playfully, but they were well past that at this point.

“What the hell, man?” Eldon said getting to his feet.

“You were under someone’s control. I broke it. The time for fighting amongst yourselves regardless of who was in control, is over. We must all come together right now,” the man said.

“And who are you?” Alex was still scared. The man in front of him looked like someone out of Game of Thrones.

“I am Black Crow, and I am here on a friend’s behalf. Dark clouds grow closer, and there are far tougher times ahead for this country. We need all the help we can get, and a little bit of youthful idealism is what the fight for liberty needs right now.”

“I’m in,” Alex said while looking at a nodding Eldon. “But, where did Bandit go?”

The cerebrum throbbed and the eyes vibrated in the viscous liquid they sat. Its digitized voice cried out in rage as it punched the wall to its left. The dust from the cracked drywall filled the air and clung magnetically to the protective bowl on top of its robotic body.

Partially blinded by the dust, it used its hand to wipe it off. Its hand passed over its field of vision as a strange crackling sound emanated through the room. By the time its hand crossed completely over its eyes, there were two men standing before it. Two men it recognized.

“Schmidt,” Thin Man said. “Werner Schmidt, right?”

“I used to go by that name, yes,” Brain Drain said, his eyes focusing on the two men in front of him. Thin Man stood coolly, staring at him. But the man beside him, Bandit sneered out of pain and anger.

The two men stood looking at the bizarre villain before them; little more than a brain and two eyes in a glass jar on top of a robot’s body, Brain Drain sported some of the most powerful coercive abilities on the planet. But his psychic defeat at the hands of Black Crow left him reeling.

“And you remember me, I imagine?” Thin Man asked.

“Of course,” Brain Drain answered. Thin Man was legendary to any Nazi to survive the war, so he would have known of him even if they hadn’t crossed paths before.

“Then you recall,” Thin Man continued, “that I take great pleasure in seeing genocidal scum like you killed. But first, I’d like to see how well that gel in that goldfish bowl of a head of yours conducts electricity.”

A disoriented Brain Drain stepped back until he hit the window and began to scream.

“This is gonna hurt, Krang,” Bandit said walking towards the villain with his hands crackling with bioelectricity.

The gel did end up conducting electricity, quite well in fact.

LIBERTY NOTES: The forces of good are amassing! There’s got to be a counter to that, right? Right! In the next, and final, instalment of Liberty Worldwide, we’re going to get a peek at that. Follow the exploits of Bandit, Black Crow, Rage and Zero-G in Liberty Legion!