THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLARS

Part II

By Wesley Overhults

SHIELD Helicarrier, Early Morning

“I don’t need to tell you how bad this is.”

Director Nicholas Fury leaned forward and rested his arms on his desk as he spoke. Quake wondered if it was too early in the morning for him to start smoking one of his famous cigars. She had known Fury for many years and she could recall very few times when he wasn’t smoking. This was obviously one of those times and it made Quake wonder if it was due to the severity of the issue. The tech people had managed to clean out any lingering outside influence in the mainframe. Thankfully the hacker hadn’t gotten around to the backup copies so all their files were still intact. Unfortunately, from what the tech people told her it seemed that the hacker had obtained a full copy of the Caterpillar List.

“Whoever it was, they got the full list,” admitted Quake. “I questioned the girl. She admits that someone hired her and the other two boys. According to her, the man’s name is Fagin and she says none of them had any knowledge about the other hack. The real hacker got into our system through a program installed on the flash drive the girl and her friends were carrying but she denies any knowledge of that too. My guess is that Fagin used these three as decoys while he or someone working for him did the real hack and then left them holding the smoking gun.”

“Could be,” agreed Fury. “Regardless of who hired who, the list was stolen. Someone out there has a copy of our Caterpillar List and that’s bad news for everyone on it.”

“We’ve identified the girl as Jeanne Foucault,” mentioned Quake. “She goes by the name Finesse and until she was approached for the job, she’d never crossed paths with us before. Her record’s clean, mostly because she’s never been caught until now.”

“Girl does good work,” realized Fury. “Maybe we should put her on the payroll and let her put those skills to good use.”

“Beg your pardon, sir?” inquired Quake, skeptically raising her eyebrow at the suggestion of offering Finesse a job when she broke into their base and tried to steal classified information from them.

“Daisy, I need you to put together a team,” explained Fury. “The Caterpillars aren’t the only secret SHIELD keeps that needs defending. I need a team to operate in the dark and do some odd jobs, keep an eye on some interests and all that. I’d like to make that team your responsibility since my plate’s full at the moment. Finesse will be your first recruit.”

“Sir, I don’t think she’s at all qualified,” said Quake.

“She’s more than qualified,” countered Fury, gesturing to the world beyond his office walls. “You know as well as I do that whoever stole that list has nothing but bad intentions for those kids. Find them, keep them safe, do whatever you have to do but do it quickly. The clock is ticking, Daisy.”

“Understood, sir,” agreed Quake, giving her superior a salute before standing up and taking her leave.

She left Fury’s office and walked down the hallway, checking one of the gauntlets on her uniform. The gauntlet had a computer with a holographic display built into it and she saw that Fury already had the tech people upload a full copy of the Caterpillar List to that computer. It seemed as if she had no say in the matter, not that she thought it would be otherwise. She had been an agent of SHIELD long enough to know that you couldn’t say no to Nick Fury, no matter what the assignment was.

“What did your esteemed employer say?” inquired Finesse.

“He’s your employer now too,” explained Quake, taking her arm and relieving the two guards of their duty. “Welcome to SHIELD, Ms. Foucault.”

“You must be terribly stupid if you believe I’ll cooperate with you,” stated Finesse, struggling against the manacles that kept her hands cuffed behind her back.

“You either hang with us or you hang alone,” said Quake matter-of-factly. “Whoever’s coming after the Caterpillars will be after you and your friends too so they can tie up the loose ends. Still think you’re a big enough girl to make it on your own?”

“Point taken,” admitted Finesse. “Where are we going?”

“To get some more recruits,” answered Quake.

An Abandoned Warehouse, New York City

Composite and Wipeout looked at one another and then looked at the warehouse where they had first met Fagin. The building was completely empty and both boys knew why. It didn’t occur to them until it was too late that Fagin never mentioned where they were supposed to meet him to deliver the list. He never said where because he knew they wouldn’t be making the drop in the first place. The whole thing was a setup from the word “go” and they were naive enough to fall for it.

“I was better off by myself,” decided Wipeout. “Nice knowin’ you, Henry, but I think it’s time I cut my losses and moved on. California sounds nice this time of the year. I’ve never been out there before but it beats staying here and it sure as hell beats going back home to Arkansas.”

“You left Finesse,” reminded Composite.

“She would’ve done the same to any of us,” countered Wipeout. “You must be really dense even when you’re not made out of metal. This whole thing was a setup, Henry. Fagin conned us into jumping through his hoops and doing all the hard work. Once we plugged that flash drive into the mainframe, we opened the door for him to download a copy of the Caterpillar List and leave us to take the fall. That was his plan all along.”

“And you don’t wanna get some payback on him?” asked Composite.

“Hell yeah I do but we have no friggin’ clue how to find him,” answered Wipeout. “Face it, we got played. Nothing left to do but suck it up and move on.”

“I’m not leaving Finesse behind,” stated Composite. “You can do whatever you want, Frankie, but I’m going back for her.”

“You’re going to get yourself caught because you’re an idiot,” said Wipeout. “I’m gonna have to tag along just to keep your ass outta the fire. First thing we’re doing is not going after Finesse. She can take care of herself. Right now, we have to figure out where Fagin is and go after him. If we can get the copy of the list away from him, maybe we can use it as a bargaining chip to get Finesse back.”

Composite nodded in agreement. It was a good plan that made sense but it hinged on them finding Fagin, a man they knew next to nothing about. If he wasn’t in the warehouse then the only other place of reference they had was the hotel where he had booked them a room for the night. Perhaps he used that room the previous night and left a clue there or maybe they could figure out their next move using the information they could get from the hotel’s front desk. At this point, any information would add to their overall knowledge about their enemy. Since they didn’t really know anything about him, any information was a bonus. It was a gamble but it was worth it, especially since they didn’t have any other real options at this point.

“We need to check out that hotel,” decided Composite. “There might be a clue there somewhere we can use to figure out where to go next.”

Wipeout nodded and the two boys left the warehouse and headed for the hotel. When they got there, they made their way straight into the lobby and noticed a very large amount of security present. They backpedaled quickly when they caught sight of the cops but the two boys soon realized that the authorities had bigger problems. There was a helicopter in the air above the hotel and it was about to make a landing on the helipad.

“Too much of a coincidence that a helicopter is making an illegal landing on the roof of this hotel?” asked Wipeout.

“We need to get up there and find out,” said Composite.

Bellevue Hospital Center

“Really, we’re going to find our new recruit in there?”

Quake could hear the skepticism in Finesse’s question and couldn’t really blame the younger girl. The file on the young man said that this was where he would be so that was where they had to go. The recruit in question was one Sebastian Druid, the biological son of Dr. Druid. Quake had heard the name Dr. Druid before. Having lived a good portion of her life in SHIELD custody, she spent hours reading up on all the vigilantes and villains that SHIELD had their eyes on. As far as SHIELD knew though, Dr. Druid was dead and his son Sebastian had been a resident of the hospital’s psychiatric ward for years.

“That’s what the file says,” replied Quake while stepping into the building and going straight for the front desk. “My name is Daisy Johnson and I’m an agent of SHIELD. I need to speak to the administrator of the psychiatric ward about releasing one of your patients into our custody.”

The receptionist’s eyes widened when she saw the badge Quake flashed her and she silently nodded in agreement before dialing the phone. Quake nodded her thanks and waited in the main hallway for the administrator to arrive. Finesse unconsciously rubbed her wrists and studied her surroundings. The hand restraints SHIELD used had chaffed her wrists a little and her ears were still ringing from the vibration attack Quake had used to subdue her. There was very little keeping her from escaping though. She could walk away from this at any point but to do so would be suicide. Assuming she got caught again, SHIELD would toss her in jail for her crimes. She was too good at her job though to get caught again. So why was she going along with this at all? Maybe it was because she felt sorry for the innocent people she had put in danger by trying to steal the Caterpillar List. Maybe she felt responsible for whatever ill befell them. If she hadn’t blinded herself to Fagin’s con game then the Caterpillar List wouldn’t have fallen into the wrong hands in the first place. Maybe that guilt was enough of a reason to stay for the moment.

“What’s this all about, Agent Johnson?” asked the hospital administrator as he arrived to confront Quake.

“Sir, SHIELD needs to take custody of one of your patients,” explained Quake. “We need Sebastian Druid.”

“Calling him by that last name will only fuel his delusions,” said the administrator. “Sebastian is very sick and needs to stay here.”

“That is his last name,” retorted Quake. “This is out of your hands, sir. SHIELD is taking Sebastian into custody for both his safety and yours.”

“Fine,” agreed the administrator as the three of them walked towards Sebastian’s room. “Let him be your problem then.”

He opened the door and gestured for Quake and Finesse to go in first. Daisy led the way, her eyes darting to the druidic symbols drawn on the wall with what looked like . . . a crayon? Finesse also noticed the symbols and rolled her eyes at it. To her they looked nothing more like the scribbles of a child most likely throwing a temper tantrum. How they hoped to make an ally out of someone of Sebastian’s apparent mental caliber was beyond her. In her opinion, they would be better off recruiting a five-year-old or perhaps a trained monkey.

“Sebastian, my name is Daisy and this is Jeanne,” introduced Quake, extending her hand towards the young man sitting on the bed looking at the floor with listless eyes. “We’d like to take you out of here.”

“Daisy,” muttered Sebastian quietly, raising his head slowly to look at Quake. “Bellis perennis. Did you know that military surgeons in the Roman army used to have slaves pick sacks full of daisies so they could coat bandages in their juices? In fact, daisies are commonly used in various folk medicine practices. Are you here to heal me, Miss Daisy?”

“Sebastian, you need to come with us,” said Quake. “You’re no longer safe here. Some very bad people know who you are and who your father was.”

“Is,” corrected Sebastian. “He’s not dead, you know. I talk to dead people all the time and I’ve never spoken to him.”

“You’re speaking to me and I’m not dead,” reminded Quake.

“We’re wasting our time,” declared Finesse, throwing up her hands in frustration. “He’s useless to us and I can’t see why anyone hunting the Caterpillars would want him.”

“Some caterpillar hairs have venom in them,” reminded Sebastian, his eyes suddenly focusing on Finesse. “It’s a frequent cause of death in Brazil. Jeanne, was it? I believe I spoke to your parents earlier today.”

Finesse crossed the room with cat-like quickness and had her hand around Sebastian’s throat in a matter of seconds. To his credit, Sebastian said nothing but simply stared at the thief. He watched the rage flare hot in her eyes. He knew as well as she did that her parents were dead and had been dead for years. That was a private matter that Jeanne kept to herself, one that a random stranger like Sebastian couldn’t have known. Sebastian was used to such behavior when skeptics encountered his . . . gift. He wasn’t lying earlier when he said he spoke to dead people all the time.

“Don’t you ever talk to me about my parents again,” warned Finesse. “You’re supposed to be a magician, right? You say one more word about my parents, see how well you can escape from a body bag.”

“We’re wasting time with this,” decided Quake. “Are you coming with us, Sebastian?”

“Miss Daisy, I believe I will,” said Sebastian. “Do I get a codename? I’ve always wanted a codename.”

“Dead Man seems appropriate,” said Finesse, momentarily releasing Sebastian.

“Requiem,” said Sebastian. “Where are we going next, Miss Daisy?”

“We have a car outside waiting for you,” assured Quake. “We need to get moving though. The longer we stay in one place, the more danger we put others in. SHIELD’s already getting reports of attacks on innocent people by various super-villains. They’re coordinated enough to suggest that someone is pulling the strings.”

“Then we better keep going,” suggested Finesse. “Grab him and let’s go.”

Fagin smiled as he watched the helicopter descend from the morning sky and land on the helipad. The door opened and four burly ogres lumbered out of the vehicle and made their way towards Fagin. The mutant thief recognized them as the Wrecking Crew and they made a hole for a member of HYDRA to confront Fagin.

“I did everything you wanted me to,” reminded Fagin. “I got you a full copy of the Caterpillar List as I promised I would. Do what you promised and make me a member of HYDRA.”

“I have been instructed by Mr. Strucker to explain a few things to you,” said the HYDRA officer. “The Swordsman frowns very heavily on those who try to double-cross him. He has kept his eyes on you from the first moment you came to us with your proposal. He knows you have been meeting with someone else and that you intended to also give them a copy of the list if you haven’t already. You clearly intend to join HYDRA as a mole for this other organization, whoever they may be.”

“He did make a very generous offer,” admitted Fagin with a grin.

“Then allow my employer to make another offer,” said the HYDRA officer, nodding to the Wrecking Crew before turning his back on Fagin and getting back into the helicopter.

“You gentlemen are rather large,” noted Fagin as the Wrecking Crew circled their seemingly hapless prey. “I suppose you think this is going to be easy, don’t you? Allow me to cure you of those delusions.”

Fagin took a deep breath and then began to change before the Wrecking Crew’s eyes. His skin turned purple and spikes grew from it as he activated his mutant power. By the time he was finished mutating, Fagin was bigger than the members of the Wrecking Crew. He let out a monstrous bellow that was meant to intimidate his enemies but the Wrecking Crew were either too brave or too stupid to be scared.

“Take ‘im, boys,” ordered Wrecker.

The Wrecking Crew swarmed over Fagin, clubbing him in the legs with their weapons. Fagin swatted Piledriver away, almost knocking the Wrecking Crew member off the roof of the hotel. Thunderball wrapped the chain of his weapon around Fagin’s throat, choking the bigger giant and bringing him down to their level. Fagin roared and threw Thunderball off of his back but Bulldozer charged at the mammoth mutant and rammed his head into Fagin’s kneecap. The blow took the giant to the ground and it was then that Wrecker began his assault, landing some brutal shots to Fagin’s spine with his enchanted crowbar. The door that led back down to the hotel below suddenly opened and Composite and Wipeout arrived on the scene.

“Great, my backup has arrived,” said Fagin to himself after returning to his normal form.

“We should just leave him to those guys,” decided Wipeout.

“No, if we take him back to SHIELD then maybe we can clear our names of this whole mess,” countered Composite. “Like it or not, we have to save Fagin’s skin if only so we can save our own skins later.”

Bellevue Hospital Center

“You don’t have a problem with flying, do you?” asked Quake as she, Finesse, and Requiem walked out of the hospital and towards her car.

“I’ve never flown before,” replied Requiem. “I don’t consider it very safe. Last year alone there were one thousand one hundred and three aviation fatalities. Perhaps we could take a more standard route?”

“SHIELD technology is safer than your standard airplane, Sebastian,” promised Quake.

“But no more durable it seems,” commented Finesse while gesturing to the remnants of her field leader’s car. “I trust SHIELD has adequate insurance policies to cover the destruction of its ‘flying cars’, Agent Johnson?”

The car, or what was left of it, still sat in its parking space where Daisy had left it but it was decidedly destroyed. Wisps of smoke curled through the air to escape from the burnt hunk of metal, indicating that someone had used something very hot to fry the car and leave it a smoldering wreck. A man in a costume stepped out from behind a building and stared at the three SHIELD agents. The diode on the forehead of his costume glowed white-hot before the Unicorn struck and launched a blast of energy at Quake and her two young charges. Quake grabbed Requiem and took both of them to the ground to avoid the blast while Finesse flipped away from it. She wasn’t exactly used to being in combat situations. The few times someone had chased her, she dealt with them using her extensive martial arts expertise. She didn’t carry a gun because she never saw the use for it and she didn’t carry many weapons though she knew how to use everything from bo staffs to sai daggers and everything in between.

“Unicorn’s a lot stronger than he looks,” cautioned Quake, watching Finesse flip and tumble through Unicorn’s barrage of laser blasts.

“You would do well to heed your leader’s warning,” jeered Unicorn as Finesse hit him with a right cross that didn’t even faze him. “HYDRA sends a message to SHIELD and its ‘Caterpillars’. If you do not side with HYDRA then you have chosen the wrong side.”

“I don’t work for people who shoot at me,” retorted Finesse, kicking Unicorn in the chest as hard as she could and barely slowing him down. “If HYDRA wants me dead then they’ll have to start hiring better goons than someone with a flashlight stuck to his head.”

“You choose poorly then,” said Unicorn before backhanding Finesse away.

The ground shook violently as Quake lived up to her codename and launched a wave of seismic vibrations at Unicorn. The pavement began to rise up, rolling like a tidal wave towards the HYDRA agent. Unicorn blasted the concrete tsunami that was kicked up by Daisy’s attack, sending chunks of pavement flying in all directions. He launched two quick energy bolts that separated Quake and Requiem from each other, sending them flying in opposite directions. Finesse leapt towards Unicorn and caught him in the jaw with a flying kick. She flipped backwards to dodge the bolts of energy Unicorn fired in retaliation, taking refuge behind the ruins of Quake’s flying car. Jeanne looked around for something she could use as a weapon. She reasoned that Unicorn’s main form of attack, his energy bolts, stemmed from some sort of technological device. It was either that or God had a sick sense of humor and gave him the worse mutant power of all time. She was betting on the technological aspect though and if she could use something to jam the device then she reasoned Quake could handle their foe.

“Is total uselessness your power or just a skill you’ve perfected?” she inquired when she saw Requiem scamper over to join her in using the car for cover. “I haven’t seen you do a single thing since this little scuffle started.”

“I talk to dead people,” explained Requiem. “I thought you already knew that.”

“Wonderful,” retorted Finesse with a roll of her eyes before she tried prying off a piece of the car’s husk. “I need something sharp to use as a weapon.”

The ground shook again as Quake used her vibrations to throw Unicorn off balance. One of the villain’s errant blasts struck the remains of the car, causing it to explode. Finesse yelped in surprise but suddenly found herself and Requiem somewhere else. She looked at Sebastian and saw his eyes glowing with a power that wasn’t of this world. Though she tried not to let it show, it unnerved her on some level.

“I wasn’t aware I could do that,” admitted Requiem, his hands also glowing with magical energy from the teleportation. “It was instinct I suppose.”

“Do it again,” ordered Finesse as she grabbed a piece of shrapnel from the explosion. “I need to get behind him.”

“I have no guarantee I can or that we’ll end up in the right place,” reminded Requiem, trying to summon up more of the magical energy that coursed through his body. He succeeded enough to employ another teleportation though they didn’t land exactly where they wanted to.

“You children amuse me but this game is over,” promised Unicorn as Finesse and Requiem materialized in front of him instead of behind him.

“I don’t think anyone who names himself after an imaginary creature I had painted on my bedroom wall when I was five has the right to criticize,” replied Finesse before reaching up and jamming the piece of shrapnel into the device on the villain’s forehead.

Unicorn snarled a curse in his native Russian tongue and immediately backed away, sparks flying from the wounded device. He attempted to use it to blow Finesse and Requiem away but the girl’s attack left the device useless. Sensing that he was now on the losing end of the battle, Unicorn opted for a strategic retreat. Quake joined her two young charges as the villain fled. She had to admit that she was impressed with their actions, particularly with Finesse. She knew Jeanne was smart and had an enhanced aptitude for learning but she didn’t get to see such ingenuity in person until now.

“His victims are sad that he didn’t meet his end,” mumbled Requiem almost to himself. “Perhaps another time. In any event, I don’t believe we’ll be flying anywhere.”

“No but you might be better than a flying car,” admitted Quake. “The section of our file on your abilities was very limited, Sebastian. Magic is something we’re still trying to fully understand. Can you make more use of your teleportation powers for us?”

“Not if he can’t control where he lands,” commented Finesse. “I said behind the idiot super-villain, not in front of him.”

“Practice makes perfect,” said Quake in response.

“I’ll try,” promised Requiem. “Just tell me where we need to go.”

Forest Hills, Queens

It took more than one jump for them to get to the right house but they got there. It seemed that Requiem still wasn’t as adept at his teleportation abilities as Quake would have hoped. The boy showed promise, however, and Quake knew he would become an invaluable addition to her team should he choose to stay on. She had more pressing concerns at the moment though. She was here to check up on an old friend and also to make sure his niece was safe. When Quake was taken into SHIELD custody in her early teens, she was put under the direct supervision of Nick Fury. One of her combat instructors was a man named Raymond Sydney. Sydney had been with SHIELD a long time, transferring from the FBI or so Quake was told. Daisy looked up to Sydney in her early SHIELD years and, in turn, Sydney looked out for her as if she was his own daughter. Sydney retired, however, to raise his niece Stephanie who was orphaned from birth. Quake had seen the Caterpillar List though. Stephanie’s name was on it and that meant that her old friend’s niece was in grave danger.

“Charming neighborhood,” noted Finesse with her customary indifference. “I would’ve enjoyed the trip more if my stomach wasn’t somewhere back in the city. What’re we doing out here?”

“Checking up on an old friend and making sure everything is okay,” replied Quake, stepping up to the door and ringing the bell.

“I find this neighborhood a quiet change of pace from our previous surroundings,” noted Requiem, looking around and watching the squirrels run through the trees in the front yard. “No one’s trying to shoot us.”

“That won’t last,” said Quake as Raymond Sydney answered the door on the second ring. “I’m sorry, Ray, but there’s no time to explain right now. Where’s Stephanie?”

“She’s in school,” replied Sydney. “I see you’ve got your gear on, Daisy. I trust this isn’t a social call.”

“Call Townsend Harris High then and get her out,” ordered Quake. “We’ve got people running around knocking off kids that’re on the Caterpillar List and she might be next.”

Sydney nodded. Stephanie wasn’t exactly his niece because there was no blood relation there. He had taken custody of her after finding her when she was just a baby and he was still working for SHIELD. Though they weren’t related in any sense, Raymond saw Stephanie as his niece and perhaps even his daughter. He always knew his past with SHIELD would come back to haunt him some day but he had done everything he could to make sure that Stephanie didn’t get caught in the crossfire.

“You know I was never okay with Fury putting Stephanie on the list,” reminded Sydney, moving to the phone and dialing the school’s number. “It was one of the reasons I quit SHIELD in the first place.”

“Why is everyone so interested in this list of caterpillars?” inquired Requiem. “It seems to me that if someone wanted a list of caterpillars, they could just pick up an encyclopedia and make one themselves.”

“He’s not all there, is he?” asked Sydney.

“I wish he was all somewhere else,” jabbed Finesse.

“He’s fine,” promised Quake. “We don’t have time for this, Ray. Get Stephanie out of school and back here where we can keep an eye on her and keep her safe.”

“If I could direct everyone’s attention to the television,” mentioned Finesse, pointing to the TV that was still on the morning news. “I’m not familiar with what Townsend Harris High looks like but I believe that’s it.”

Everyone in the room looked at the TV and saw that the school was basically under siege. Goons in green outfits had taken the entire building full of teachers and students hostage. Stock photos were shown on the news since no one inside was able to get any video footage. Quake knew the symbol on the outfits very well. Since joining the ranks of SHIELD, Quake had that symbol drilled into her head every day of her life. That was the symbol of the enemy, the symbol of HYDRA.

“You know what that symbol is,” said Sydney, his words cutting through the momentary silence. “We’re getting my niece out of there, Daisy, or we’re going to die trying.”

Next Issue: Wipeout and Composite team up with Fagin against the Wrecking Crew while Quake and her team infiltrate Townsend Harris High to rescue Stephanie.