The Crash Pad

“Rico? Hey Rico, you okay?”

Johnny Gallo slowly opened his eyes. From behind the opaque lenses of his mask, he could see the face of Speedball looking at him. Ricochet’s memory slowly started to return and he suddenly sat right up.

“Joystick!” he said. He glanced around the rooftop of the Crash Pad. He saw Spider-Woman and Speedball, but not Joystick.

“She’s gone,” said Spider-Woman. “Eddie filled us in. Well… kinda. He didn’t really know what happened, just said you told him to get cover and then he contacted the rest of us.”

“Where’s everyone else?” asked Ricochet.

“Inside,” said Speedball. “Maybe you should come down and fill us in, huh?”

Ricochet nodded and pulled himself to his feet. The three heroes dropped through the skylight into the Crash Pad. Ricochet saw Eddie and Gravity sitting at the meeting table. Patriot leaned against the wall, arms folded. Stiff as ever. Except Ricochet realized that besides Joystick, they were still one member short.

“Where’s Rage?” he asked.

“Oh, you won’t believe it,” said Speedball. “Y’know when the Thing went nuts downtown?”

Ricochet nodded. Spider-Woman, Speedball, Gravity and Rage had all done their part in trying to put down the renegade hero. By the time Ricochet, Joystick and Patriot had responded to the call, the Hulk had already gotten involved and no way could anyone get near those two while they were going at it.

“Yeah, well turns out the FF were really impressed with the way Rage stood up to the Thing. So right now, he’s been given like, temporary membership. Right now he’s on his way to Latveria with them and SHIELD,” said Speedball. “Turns out the Avengers have sided with Doom, so now America’s at war with them.”

“SHIELD?” asked Ricochet. “Rage seemed pretty ticked off at them after what happened to Machine Teen. Why would he help them out?”

“Nah, that was just that Deathlok asshole,” said Speedball. “Besides… it’s the FF, dude. When they ask you to join, you don’t say no.”

“Regardless, we have more important things to worry about,” said Patriot. He looked at Ricochet. “Now what happened here?”

“Bunch of guys in armor attacked the Pad, they were looking for Joystick,” said Ricochet. “She called them the Jury. Ring any bells?”

“Yeah, gone up against them before, they’re no pushovers,” said Speedball. “Hey Ed, think you can pull up the Warrior files on the computer?”

“Yeah, no problem,” said Eddie. There was a keyboard attached to his spot on the table. He entered in a few commands and a hologram appeared in the center of the table.

“That’s them,” said Ricochet, pointing to the holographic images.

“According to the file, they used to work for the Vault,” said Eddie. “The guy who founded them, his son was killed by Venom. So he got obsessed with the idea of trying supervillains himself and found others who thought the same way. He provided them with modified Guardsman technology. They’ve gone up against Venom, Spider-Man, even the Thunderbolts.”

“And now Joystick,” said Patriot.

“Wasn’t she just small time, though?” asked Gravity. “Isn’t that kind of like going after a fly with a shotgun?”

“She was also part of the Masters of Evil for a time,” said Patriot.

“So how do we find this Jury?” asked Ricochet.

“Joystick’s commlink,” said Eddie. “They’ve all got tracking devices in them. Unless they found it or it was damaged, it’ll lead us right to her.”

“Hey, anyone forgetting the obvious thing here?” asked Spider-Woman.

“An’ what would that be?” asked Speedball.

“Well… it’s like Patriot said, she used to be a supervillain,” she said. “I mean, she was part of the freakin’ Masters of Evil. Maybe we should just let the Jury do their thi—”

“Shut it,” said Patriot.

“But—”

“You heard the man,” said Ricochet. “I may not be Joystick’s biggest fan, but we can’t let this happen.”

“Whoa, hold up,” said Gravity. “I mean, she makes a good point. Maybe this isn’t the greatest idea. Why should we stick our necks out for a villain?”

“Dude, you ever look at the list of Avengers? Half of them used to be supervillains,” said Speedball. ” Even Magneto’s turned over a new leaf.”

“All I’m saying is don’t jump down her throat,” said Gravity. “She’s got a point.”

“You know what they’re gonna do to her?” asked Eddie. “We’re not talkin’ a regular trial where she’ll be sentenced to prison. We’re talking murder. The Jury doesn’t mess around and if you guys don’t stop them, they will kill her. Last I checked, that’s something heroes don’t allow. And isn’t that the whole reason you’re here?”

“We’re wasting time. We already lost Machine Teen, we won’t lose Joystick,” said Patriot. “Now get to the damn Chopper.”

JUDGMENT DAY

Part II: Trial By Jury

By Dino Pollard

Interlude

No one has seen Cassie St. Commons in over a year. Not since she fell to her death one night while trying to play superhero. And even fewer people have seen her since she returned from that death, with strange abilities she herself hardly understands.

She had gone off in search of some answers. And instead, she found herself facing something far worse.

Cassie St. Commons, or Dusk as she has been known as, felt the weight of depression crushing her soul. Or what was left of it.

“You think you’re special, huh? Rebelling against your parents. Piercings, tattoos—aren’t we the little delinquent?”

Cassie could say nothing in response.

“You’re nothing, you little bitch. An insignificant little speck. You’re no different from every other piece of trash he ever created. Nothing more than a slave placed here to do his bidding.”

Cassie felt her voice slowly return to her. “Wh-what are you talking about? Who—?”

“Oh, you don’t remember, is that it? How delicious. You can’t even remember the deal you brokered for your life. Un-life, that is. But maybe that’s what you wanted all along. To be one of those things that goes bump in the night.”

He appeared before her, clouds of darkness surrounded him. His red eyes pierced through those clouds. Peered directly into her, and she found herself flinch beneath his gaze.

“Tell me, Cassie. Was it everything you expected?”

Joystick struggled against the bonds that held her down. The restraints were too strong for her to break, even with her superhuman strength. She was in a large room and the five armored people who comprised the Jury stood before her.

“Struggle all you want, it won’t do you any good,” said the Sentry.

“So what happens now?” asked Joystick. “When does this little trial begin?”

“Right now,” said the Sentry. “Janice Olivia Yanizeski. You’ve been charged with theft, reckless endangerment, attempted murder, and a host of other crimes. Both solo and as an operative of the Great Game and the Masters of Evil. How do you plead?”

“I know I’ve made mistakes, but that’s in the past,” said Joystick.

“Not good enough,” said Firearm. He stood by a console and pressed a switch. Joystick’s restraints became charged with electricity and she cringed while the voltage ran through her body.

“You were a prized student at the University of Arizona before you vanished for three years and reappeared as Joystick,” said Wysper.

“I had a near-death experience and left when I was nineteen,” said Joystick. “Decided I wasn’t going to do the nine-to-five thing. I got mixed up with some bad people during that time.”

“Where’d those gauntlets come from?” asked Ramshot.

“It was a heist, they were prototypes developed by Hammer Industries,” said Joystick. “The plan was to hold the gauntlets for ransom, but I saw another use for them. I stole them for myself and began life as a mercenary. That’s how I got mixed up with Chu Chi-Huan, who brought me into the Great Game and messed around with my genetics, giving me my strength.”

“And the Masters of Evil?” asked Bomblast.

“I needed protection after I broke away from the Game, and the Masters seemed like the best bet,” said Joystick. “After that, I dropped off the map, decided to get my life back in order.”

“But you couldn’t resist the urge to return to the life of crime,” said Sentry.

“It doesn’t matter what I have to say, this ‘trial’ is a joke,” said Joystick. “You’ve already decided on the verdict, so let’s cut the bullshit, okay?”

“That’s fine with us,” said Sentry. “Firearm, would you do the honors?”

“With pleasure,” said Firearm. He hit the switch again and Joystick’s body convulsed as the electricity coursed through her. This time, there was no end in sight and the voltage was higher than before. She could feel herself on the verge of blacking out…

BOOM!

The console Firearm was at exploded. The force of the explosion blew the vigilante several feet away and halted Joystick’s execution. The wall to the ‘courtroom’ had a large hole in it, and Joystick could make out her teammates standing amidst it.

“Since when do your discs explode?” asked Spider-Woman.

“Eddie whipped them up for me during our Slinger days, just never really needed them until now,” said Ricochet.

“Hey there, we’re the New Warriors,” said Speedball, addressing the Jury. “We’d like our teammate back, please.”

Gravity looked at Speedball. “C’mon, can’t you do better than that?” Speedball shrugged.

“If you’re going to stand with a criminal, then we’ll just have to treat you like criminals,” said the Sentry. “Jury, you know what to do.”

The New Warriors leapt into action against the Jury. Ricochet leapt into the air and bounced off the wall, landing in front of Wysper.

“You just didn’t have the good sense to stay down, did you?” she said.

“What can I say, never been known for doing the smart thing,” said Ricochet.

Wysper threw out her hand and the white orbs composed of sonic energy flew from her armor. Ricochet leapt up and bounced, throwing out explosive discs. Wysper dodged around them, her armor protecting her from the brunt of the explosions.

Ricochet bounced off the wall and flew towards her, feet-first. His legs connected with her head and he flipped in the air before landing in a crouched position.

“Damn, that hurt…” he muttered under his breath.

Wysper quickly recovered from the attack, though. Ricochet flung several more discs at her, including a few explosive ones. One of them struck her in the center of her armor, effectively removing her from the fight.

Spider-Woman’s psionic webbing proved to be a decent shield against the white-hot flames powered by Firearm’s armor. She dropped the shield momentarily and expelled a venom blast, disabling one of Firearm’s flamethrowers.

“You little bitch!” he said.

“Like I haven’t heard that one a million times,” said Spider-Woman. She leapt towards him, but Firearm generated his sonic lance in hand and struck the young heroine with it.

“I’ve got more than one trick up my sleeve,” he said.

Ramshot’s battering pulse slammed into Speedball. The Warrior’s kinetic field activated immediately in response and Speedball was flung back into the opposite wall. He struck it and the field sent him rocketing back towards Ramshot.

In the past, Speedball’s kinetic field was uncontrollable. But over the course of the past few years, he trained to improve upon it and was now able to wield it as an effective weapon. While he was heading towards Ramshot, he released several kinetic bubbles that flew ahead of him.

The bubbles pelted Ramshot, preventing him from getting a solid bead before Speedball himself slammed into him, throwing the full brunt of his kinetic field against the vigilante. With Ramshot down, Speedball used his field to propel him to Joystick.

“Hey, how’s it hangin’?” he asked.

“Funny,” she said. “Just get me out of here.”

“Alright, hold still,” said Speedball. He placed his hands on one of the restraints and within moments, it blew off, releasing Joystick’s hand.

“How’d you do that?” she asked.

“If I knew the technical explanation, I’d give it to you,” said Speedball. “But to put it simply? I can make things go boom if I concentrate my speedballs.”

“Works for me,” said Joystick. “Get the rest of them off. I’ve got a score to settle.”

Bomblast’s plasma weapon was little use against Gravity. With a thought, the young hero was able to increase the weight of the weapon, making it impossible for Bomblast to lift it, even with his armor’s enhanced strength. Gravity took the initiative and pummeled Bomblast into unconsciousness with his own enhanced strength.

Gravity smirked and looked to check on the rest of his teammates. He saw Firearm had the upper hand over Spider-Woman, and he wasn’t about to stand for that. The two had recently entered the opening stages of a relationship, and Gravity wasn’t about to let some third-rate Iron Man knock-off ruin that for him.

“Hey jackass!” he said. Firearm glanced over his shoulder in time to witness Gravity unleash a force blast that disrupted Firearm’s concentration, causing his sonic lance to vanish.

Spider-Woman took advantage of her opponent’s distraction and delivered an uppercut. Firearm’s head rocked back and Spider-Woman leapt in the air and performed a roundhouse kick to his head.

Gravity landed beside her. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she said. “But I could’ve taken him.”

“I know,” he said with a grin. But I felt like showing off.”

Patriot dodged the Sentry’s repulsor blasts and was able to get in close enough to engage the Jury’s leader in hand-to-hand combat. At such close range, the Sentry was not able to fire off any blasts and instead relied on his armor’s superhuman strength to engage the young fighter.

Unfortunately for him, Patriot’s strength matched his own. The two traded blows, with neither gaining any headway. Patriot was faster than the Sentry, however, allowing him to stay one step ahead.

An energy baton cut through the air. Patriot leapt away at the last moment and allowed it to strike the Sentry. Joystick approached the armored man and another baton generated in her hand. She wrapped her free hand around the Sentry’s throat and hefted him into the air.

“Right now, I could easily do to you what you were going to do to me,” she said.

“So go ahead. It’s in your nature,” said the Sentry.

“Maybe you’re right.” Joystick narrowed her eyes, but dropped the Jury’s leader. “But you’re not worth it.”

NEXT: Who is Patriot? Where’d he get his powers from? Why did he form the New Warriors? The answers will be revealed in the next story-arc, PATRIOT GAMES!

WAR ROOM

Well, the first phase of my run on New Warriors is coming closer to a conclusion with PATRIOT GAMES. This is an arc I’m really excited about, because it’s one I’ve been waiting to write since I first started planning out my run on this title. Some old faces will be popping up in this arc, both from the original New Warriors comics as well as familiar faces from the pasts of some of the current Warriors.

But I’ve said too much already.