REAL STEEL

By Wesley Overhults

SHIELD Safehouse 23

“How are you doing?”

Finesse’s sapphire-colored eyes flicked just slightly above the top edge of the book she was reading and was surprised to find Composite standing in the open doorway to her room.  She assumed that Wipeout would be checking on her again for what seemed like the millionth time.  It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy the attention but a girl needed her privacy.  Since the mission involving Riot and the beating she took at his hands, she had been taking it easy.  Unfortunately, the inactivity left her with too much time to think about the seeming revelations that were unearthed during that fight concerning her origins.

“A bit stir crazy, but otherwise I’m fine,” she admitted, her attention returning to the book that Stephanie let her borrow.  “You wanted something?”

“You took a pretty good beating, Finesse,” reminded Composite.

“Yes I did,” agreed Finesse, her fingers moving upwards to turn the page.  “I assume that our supposed master thief might have imparted some details to you concerning what Riot said to me.”

“Frankie just said that he hurt you pretty badly,” noted Composite.

Finesse nodded almost to herself and then turned the page again.  Her ability to speed-read was incredible, one of the many facets of her power to learn new skills and information at a superhuman rate.  She had only been injured for a couple of days and already she had devoured any book that was put in front of her.  At the moment, she was forced to read Neon’s collection since her eidetic memory meant that she had no use in rereading anything from her own library, not that she had access to it while being employed by SHIELD.  She had resolved to see if Quake could bring over some SHIELD manuals or something so that she could at least read something useful once she was finished.

“It’s odd that we’ve never heard anything about your past, Henry,” said Finesse after reaching the end of the book and closing it.  “The rest of us, myself now included, are open books to varying degrees but you still remain a mystery.”

“You must’ve gotten hit really hard in the head during that fight because you’re actually sounding like you’re interested in getting to know me,” commented Composite, his back having been turned to Finesse since he was about to exit the room.  “What would you like to know?”

Finesse thought about the question for a few moments though not all her answers centered around Composite and the details of his life.  The thing she would have really liked to know was whether or not Riot was telling the truth about her parentage but she knew Composite wouldn’t hold any answers to those questions.  Instead, she decided to see what exactly she could learn about her team leader.

“What were your parents like?” she finally inquired.

“I never knew them,” confessed Composite.  “I grew up in an orphanage when I wasn’t in the care of one foster family or another.  Things were good when I was a kid but I got a string of bad ones.”

“You never had any urge to find your biological parents?” pressed Finesse.

“I did but other stuff got in the way,” answered Henry.  “Once I found out what I could do, I started making money breaking legs for whoever would pay me.  Guess I just lost interest in trying to track them down.”

“The lure of easy money can be tempting,” said Finesse, enticed to press her line of questioning.  It was true what she said to him moments ago, that all her teammates were open books to her except for him.  It annoyed her and annoyance wasn’t an emotion she dealt particularly well with.

“Good book?” inquired Composite.

“Last of a trilogy,” said Finesse in reply.  “The first two were enjoyable, this one not so much.  Good plot full of interesting social commentary and a ridiculously engaging main character.  It’s a shame she didn’t receive a better ending.  I was beginning to almost admire her.”

“What happened to her?” asked Composite.

“Everything she loves is taken away from her by forces beyond her control,” explained Finesse.  “I suppose I can relate though I admit to being envious of her because some of what she loves comes back to her in the end.  Maybe that’s my real problem with the ending.”

“You don’t seem like the kind of girl who enjoys happy endings,” agreed Composite before finally taking his leave.  “Daisy wanted us for a briefing.  Try not to drive yourself crazy, Finesse.”

She watched him go and her thoughts returned to dwelling on her biological parentage.  Things seemed so much simpler back when she was a child and all she craved was the affection of her parents.  She never questioned where she came from or who she was.  Riot’s line of reasoning did hold some truth though.  She had read the SHIELD files on Taskmaster and his abilities bore a striking resemblance to her own.  It was enough to give her doubts where none had existed before.

“I enjoy them enough to be envious of the people who obtain them,” she finally said to the empty room, her statement referencing the one Composite had made about the type of girl she was.

Manhattan

Night in the city was never kind to those who weren’t familiar with its streets and its denizens.  As a native New Yorker, Oliver Osnick knew the streets of his beloved city inside and out.  It felt good to roam them once more, skittering through its shadows.  The mechanical spider legs that protruded from his high-tech backpack worked like a charm.  It had taken him only a short time to tune them up and make some upgrades before he was back in business as his heroic alter ego, the Steel Spider.  At one point, Ollie honestly thought he could give up this life.  He thought he could settle down with the girl of his dreams, the kind of girl who had always rejected him before he managed to get himself in shape.  Things with Jane weren’t as idyllic as he imagined them to be though.  The lure of the mask always tugged at him, always told him that he was meant for greater things.  He thought he could resist that temptation but it wore down his relationship.  Jane was the one to finally break it off and ever since then, Ollie had thrown himself into his life behind the mask now that he didn’t have much of one without it.  Problems of the heart were easier to work through when you had muggers and other scumbags to punch the lights out of.

“Right on time,” he said to himself as he swung forward on his grappling cable, letting go of the wire and then using his mechanical legs to break his fall.

The tips of the legs were sharp enough to pierce most substances so they had no problem digging into the brick of the wall, letting him crouch there so he could survey the scene below.  The lenses in his mask adjusted themselves so that he could have perfect vision no matter how much or how little light there was.  During his nightly patrols, the Steel Spider had noticed something strange was going on.  Drug-dealers weren’t new to him.  He had roughed up a few of them in his time but this was something new.  Ollie had cornered a couple of the dealers who were peddling this new drug and it didn’t look like the usual stash for those that sold to the pillheads.  His position as a teacher’s assistant at ESU afforded him access to their laboratory facilities and a quick look at one of the pills under a microscope told the tale.  This was something new and something very, very dangerous.  Whatever this new drug was, it had mutagenic properties and the Steel Spider knew that he had to make sure it got off the streets before anyone else became addicted to it.

“She’s just a kid,” realized the Steel Spider as he saw a young, Asian girl approach the dealer he was tailing.

Ollie saw the girl flash a handful of cash and then the dealer reached into his coat pocket.  He couldn’t let this go on any longer.  It was bad enough when dealers sold to adults but this girl was still a teenager.  There was no way he was going to let someone so young get mixed up in all this.  He used his mechanical legs to kick himself off of the building’s wall, vaulting towards the scene below.  Both the dealer and his prospective client turned their attention towards him.  The girl moved herself out of the way and for that Steel Spider was grateful.  It saved him the time of having to shove her away and let his real hands focus on other things.  He delivered a vicious punch to the dealer’s jaw, his mechanical legs retreating back inside his harness to make movement easier.  Ollie didn’t have the famed agility or strength of his idol but he had spent countless hours in the gym honing his body into shape.  He could throw a good punch when the situation called for it.

“What the hell are you?” asked the dealer as he staggered backwards from the punch and rubbed his sore jaw.  “You some kinda Spider-Man wannabe or something?”

“You’ve got one chance to run but it’s not going to make a difference,” warned Steel Spider.  “You’re not going to sell poison to kids.”

“In case ya didn’t notice, I don’t card people before they buy my stuff,” retorted the dealer as he pulled a handgun from his coat.  “Sorry if I’m keepin’ this girl up past her bedtime.”

“Lights out for you then, loser,” said Steel Spider as he raised his arm and fired something from his wrist.

In the old days, Ollie had blasters concealed in his costume’s wrists that shot streams of pepper spray so he could blind his opponents.  When he redesigned most of his equipment, he decided to go with a different approach.  He had seen footage of both Black Widow and Scarlet Spider on the news at various points in his life and decided to combine their weaponry to make his own.  The launchers on his wrists shot darts that had electrical tips similar to a stun gun, devices he started calling his “spider bites”.  The darts would deliver a nasty shock to anybody who got hit with them.  It wasn’t enough voltage to be lethal by any means but it would put a normal human down and make them think twice before tangling with him.  The spider bite lodged itself in the barrel of the man’s gun, the electricity running through the metal of the gun and shocking its wielder.  The stunned dealer managed to let go of the gun but he still fell to the concrete, convulsing from the shock.  Steel Spider had little time to celebrate as a flash of light blinded him.  His goggles tried to readjust to compensate for the sudden influx of light but he could still see spots in his vision.

“As if screwing up this sting was bad enough, now you have to steal my line too,” said Neon.

Steel Spider blindly shot one of his spider bites at Neon but a stream of water knocked the dart away before it could even touch her.  Wipeout formed the beginnings of another water blast in his hand and held it towards Steel Spider, daring the vigilante to make a move.

“Who are you?” inquired Steel Spider, his vision finally clear and his eyes flicking around to determine just how many of his attackers there were.

“We work for SHIELD,” said Composite as he and Requiem appeared behind Steel Spider to help box him in.  “We had a previous case that involved MGH and we’ve been assigned to track down where it came from.  We were trying to get some answers out of that guy but you knocked him out.”

“What the hell is MGH?” inquired Steel Spider.

“Mutant Growth Hormone,” clarified Composite.  “It’s what that guy’s been selling to people.  It gives them superhuman abilities but it’s also really dangerous.”

“The mortality rate is extremely high,” added Requiem.  “To date, it’s the deadliest drug on the market, surpassing heroin by an increasing margin.”

“He doesn’t need to know the statistics, Sebastian,” cut in Composite.  “Look, we’re on the same side here so let’s not get into a fight.  We want the same thing, right?”

“Yeah but I don’t think we go about it the same way,” countered Steel Spider.  “Let me guess, you were going to try to flip him and make him a snitch?”

“Only way to catch the big fish is if you have good bait,” said Composite.

“I don’t operate like that,” stated Steel Spider.  “You and the rest of SHIELD are free to do whatever you want.  Just don’t get in my way while I try to get these people off the streets.”

Steel Spider extended his hand towards Composite and Henry nodded and shook it.  The mechanical legs came out of Steel Spider’s back and he used them to propel himself up into the air, his grappling cable snagging the cornice of a building.  He swung himself off into the night to track down more of the dealers, leaving the Secret Warriors to their own devices.

“Nice guy,” commented Wipeout as he looked down at the unconscious dealer.  “You want me to give our boy his bath and then see what we can get out of him?”

“Check him over first and see if we can find anything on him,” ordered Composite.  “If we’re lucky then maybe he has a burner on him that he hasn’t gotten rid of yet.  Whoever is running this show has to have some way to keep tabs on their dealers.  If we can find out how they check in then maybe we can ambush the ringleader or something.”

“You know your stuff, Henry,” admitted Neon after seeing Wipeout check the dealer over and find a disposable cell phone.  “It’s kinda creepy.”

“I’ve done work for people like this before,” explained Composite as Wipeout tossed him the phone and he began scrolling through its recent calls.  “I was an enforcer for a long time.  I know all about what happens when a dealer doesn’t check in.”

“Then you should know that this is gonna hurt.”

The air came alive with an intense hum and some unseen force shot towards the Warriors.  Composite ran to protect the others, grazing his fingers against the metal of a dumpster as he passed by it.  The vibration blast hit him in the chest and literally shook him to his very core.  He could feel his metal teeth chatter and the blast warped his body, bending it on the point of impact.

“I’ve handled tougher,” assured Henry as he saw the glow from the wrist-mounted blasters illuminate their foe.

“Only takes one lucky shot, kid,” warned Shocker as he pushed the triggers on both his gauntlets and hit Composite with a double blast of deadly vibrations.

The only reason Henry’s entire body wasn’t scrambled into pulp was the fact that it was made out of metal and even then the blast from both barrels was enough to knock him backwards.  Wipeout surged towards Shocker but a blast from the villain’s vibro-shock gauntlets sent him splattering across the alley.

“We need a plan,” decided Requiem.  “He has powers similar to Miss Daisy’s though I don’t think he can necessarily cause earthquakes.  Still, we should use the necessary precautions and take into consideration that earthquakes kill approximately . . .”

“Just shut up and move, Sebastian,” ordered Composite as he tried to get back to his feet and managed to deflect another bolt from Shocker’s gauntlets, the force of the blast almost tearing his arm off.

“I get a call from my boss that somebody missed his check-in,” explained Shocker.  “I was in the neighborhood so I decided to check it out.  Who are you kids, the New Warriors or something?”

“Close but no cigar,” shot back Wipeout as he reformed himself behind Shocker and tried to douse the villain.  “Sucks that you’re wearing that big-ass quilt.  That thing’s gonna be a bitch to swim in.”

“Yeah and this ‘big-ass quilt’ is the only thing that keeps me from feeling what you’re about to feel,” retorted Shocker as he turned and blasted Wipeout in the face, blowing the head off his liquid body while keeping his other blaster trained on the rest of the Warriors.  “You punk kids seem pretty easy to take apart.  Who else wants to be a hero tonight?”

“I’m intrigued to know what kind of padding you use to protect yourself,” wondered Requiem aloud as he teleported both himself and his two other teammates away from Shocker’s blast to appear behind him.  “Even a fraction of power from just one of those gauntlets could probably shatter a normal person’s bones.  A very gruesome way to die, eccentric one as well.  I don’t believe I’ve read any reports of such a death before.”

“Then you haven’t seen any about the people that got in my way,” warned Shocker.

Composite took a swing at Shocker but the villain raised his hand to deflect the blow, pushing the trigger of that gauntlet with his thumb.  The vibrations created a shield around his hand to deflect Composite’s attack, Henry’s fist bouncing off of the invisible barrier without even touching Shocker at all.  Dismayed, Composite took another swing and tried to hit Shocker in the chest but the vibrational barrier extended to Schultz’s entire body and the impact of hitting the shield threw Henry backwards and sent him through a brick wall.

“We’re not doing anything to him,” said Neon as she used a few light pulses to blind Shocker.  “We need to figure out how to beat him or get away to regroup.”

“I would advise the second option now that he’s fighting blind,” warned Requiem as he saw Shocker raise his hand to fire in their direction.  “I don’t know how wide of a spray those blasters can make but his isn’t a type of offense that involves accuracy.  In these tight quarters, any sort of earthquake could bring a building down on our heads.”

As if on cue, Shocker let out a wide spray at the buildings above the heads of the remaining Secret Warriors.  Requiem raised one of his hands and used his bolts of magical energy in an attempt to break up the falling debris but he sensed it wasn’t going to happen fast enough.  He clutched Neon’s shoulder with his other hand and tried to teleport them to safety but the debris managed to knock him off course.  He and Stephanie landed a few feet away but he was unconscious.  Neon gulped as she realized that the rest of her teammates were down and it was just her left with Shocker.  She hit him with a blast of light but she knew that wasn’t going to slow him down for long.  Stephanie had to retreat.  There was no way she could go toe-to-toe with someone like Shocker.  Fortunately, her power gave her a natural advantage when it came to tactical retreats.  All she had to do was use another pulse of light to blind Shocker and she could scramble to find a good hiding place while she figured out what to do next.  There was a problem though.  The debris from Shocker’s attack had cut off the alleyway behind her and Shocker was blocking the way in front of her.  She was completely trapped unless she could somehow sneak by him and she didn’t think that was going to work at all.

“Boss isn’t gonna like it if I show up empty-handed but you kids will make nice presents,” said Shocker, his head swinging towards Neon and letting Stephanie know that his vision was clear enough to get a general sense of her position.  “You know how MGH is made?  It’s made from people with powers, mostly mutants.  Dunno if you and these others are mutants but it doesn’t matter that much.  Boss has always got time to play with new people and find out what makes ’em tick.”

“Your boss obviously doesn’t keep you around for your conversational skills.”

Neon turned to look up into the sky and saw Steel Spider drop down to rescue her.  One of his spider bites managed to tag Shocker’s gauntlet and the villain cursed as sparks flew from his hand.  It was enough of an opening for Ollie to scoop Stephanie into his arms and then use his mechanical legs to jump back into the sky as he had before.  The legs found purchase on the wall of a building and held fast, anchoring them to keep them from falling.  Steel Spider skittered up the side of the building and then deposited Neon on the roof.  He jumped along the rooftops with his mechanical legs, circling around Shocker’s position and finding a good hiding spot behind an air conditioning unit.  Like any good Spider-Man fan, he had seen footage of all of the wall-crawler’s villains in action.  He knew that Shocker could use the blasts from his gauntlets like rockets to fire himself upwards into the sky but Ollie reasoned that with one of them possibly out of commission such a tactic wouldn’t be an option.  With no other plan of attack, Shocker would go back to whatever hole he crawled out of to get his gauntlet repaired.  That meant that Shocker would lead Steel Spider and his newfound allies straight to whoever was behind this drug operation.

“I decided to see what all the fuss was about.”

Ollie’s blood turned cold and he heard the slithering sound that he knew only one thing made.  Metallic tentacles came down from a nearby rooftop and a figure was walking on them, using them to come down the wall just as he had used his legs to walk up one mere seconds ago.  The voice was female though so he knew it couldn’t be the real Doctor Octopus.  No, instead it had to be the voice of the woman who had taken up that mantle for a short time before settling on the name “Lady Octopus” instead.  Steel Spider looked down again and saw that there was no mistaking her now.  It was Carolyn Trainer herself and it looked as if she was the one in charge of the drug ring.

“That Spider-Man knockoff broke one of my gauntlets,” bemoaned Shocker.  “He came outta nowhere and took the girl.  I got the other ones for you though.”

“And what fine specimens they’ll make too,” decided Lady Octopus as she used her tentacles to gather the unconscious bodies of the three Secret Warriors that were strewn all around the alley.  “We need to move with haste though.  I can already hear the sirens that you’ve drawn here with your bungling.  Even while burdened, I can still cover more ground than you so I’ll be the one to secure our new merchandise and check it over.  Meet me back at the hideout once you’ve shaken our pursuers.”

“You want I should try to nab the girl if I see her along the way?” inquired Shocker.

“If she doesn’t put up too much of a fight then do it,” ordered Lady Octopus.  “I don’t want a repeat performance of what you’ve done here.  Ours isn’t an operation that needs attention focused on it.  If this new wall-crawler gets in your way then dispose of him.  With these children, we’ll have more than enough supply to meet our growing product demands.”

“Got it,” agreed Shocker and Steel Spider could tell he was grinning underneath his mask.  “Nothing better I love than squashing spiders.”

Steel Spider leapt back to the rooftop where he had stashed Neon and found her curled up in a sitting position trying not to make a sound.  He had to applaud her for realizing what was required of her and having enough guts to do it.  He couldn’t say what he would have done in her position.  He could see her even now, could see that she was shaking.  He put his finger to his lips and motioned for her to stay silent.  She nodded furiously and forced her body to comply with his request.  Ollie looked down from the rooftop and saw that Lady Octopus and Shocker were both retreating into the night.  He knew that they should move as well.  The police would be there soon and since they were New York cops, they would know enough to not only lock down the ground but as much of the air as they could given the fact that the city had a sizeable chunk of its population that could either fly or move through the air like he could.

“I’m going to have to pick you up again,” whispered Steel Spider.  “The police will be here soon and we need to move.”

“Okay,” said Neon quietly.

Ollie scooped her up once more and used his mechanical legs to jump them from rooftop to rooftop.  Once they were at least a block away from the scene of the battle, he set her down.  It was at this point that he got a good look at her and realized that he had guessed correctly about her age.  She was too young to be involved in this kind of world.  Girls like her should have been at home studying or talking on the phone or whatever it was that teenagers did.  Ollie didn’t know that much about what girls did at that age.  Jane was his first girlfriend and they hadn’t met each other until college.  His teenage years weren’t exactly the best ones but at least he had a normal adolescence instead of one spent working for SHIELD.

“How did you get mixed up in this?” he asked her.

“I’ve got nowhere else to go,” confessed Neon and he could hear a hard edge creep into her voice.  “I can take care of myself.  Right now I’m just worried about my friends.”

“We’ll find them,” he assured her and he wanted her to believe it because it was the truth.  “I assume SHIELD gave you radios.”

“Yeah, we’ve all got earpieces,” confirmed Neon.  “You have some way of tracking them or something?”

“I’ve got a radio in my mask that’s tuned to the police frequency to help me monitor what’s going on,” explained Steel Spider.  “If I can take a look at your earpiece, I might be able to patch into its frequency and then home in on it somehow.  I’m sure I have the right equipment for it back at my lab.”

“How long will that take?” asked Neon, worried about her teammates’ safety.

“Not long if we hurry,” said Steel Spider.  “C’mon, I’ll get us both there.  I can use my legs the same way Lady Octopus uses her arms to cover a lot of ground.  It’s not the proportionate speed of a spider but it’s fast enough.”

“You were watching us,” realized Neon.  “You knew that someone was going to show up for that dealer.  You were using us as bait this whole time.”

“No, I wasn’t,” he corrected her.  “Yeah, I was keeping an eye on you but it was to see what you were going to do next.  I didn’t know Shocker would get involved.  Your leader was right though.  We both want the same thing here.  I’m one of the good guys.”

“I don’t even know your name,” said Neon.

She looked at him and tried to stop her hands from shaking.  It didn’t matter how many times she and the others went into battle.  The nerves were always there and no amount of acting could hide her fear.  It was fine when she had the others with her because she could always depend on them to watch her back and make sure she was safe.  This time though, she was all alone and the only person willing to help her was a guy she barely even knew at all.

“It’s ‘Steel Spider’,” he told her.  “You can call me ‘Ollie’ though.  Yours?”

“Neon,” she told him.  “Really though, ‘Stephanie’ works fine with me.”

“We need to get going, Stephanie,” he reminded her.  “Are you coming with me?”

“Lead the way, Ollie,” said Neon and she didn’t have to fake the smile that came to her lips.

Steel Spider nodded, cradling her in his arms and using his legs to scurry over the rooftops of New York City.  It felt good to be the knight in shining armor again.  It felt good to be someone’s hero and he had missed that feeling of being needed.  He told himself that being needed wasn’t the same as being loved and that he only felt this way because of his breakup with Jane.  It still didn’t stop him from thinking that having Stephanie in his arms felt right somehow.

Carolyn Trainer was a scientist.  She valued knowledge and the pursuit of it above all else.  Like her idol Doctor Octopus, Trainer understood that knowledge came with a price and that sacrifices were required.  In her view, a scientist should never be afraid to make sacrifices as part of the price to obtain knowledge.  Who or what was sacrificed was inconsequential to her so long as she attained her ultimate goal.  It mattered even less to her when the sacrifice came from others instead of from her.

“I’m interested to start with this one,” noted Lady Octopus as she hefted Composite’s limp body with one of her mechanical arms while two of them put Wipeout and Requiem in the containment chambers she had set up to house her specimens.  “After seeing his abilities in action, I can imagine they’ll fetch a good price on the market.”

“He took a pretty good beating from me,” noted Shocker.

Lady Octopus nodded, more to herself than in reference to her underling’s statement.  When the Champions busted her MGH operation out in LA, she thought she was going to have to spend the rest of her life in The Deep but she managed to escape from the prison during an altercation involving the same group of heroes.  In lying low, she decided to move her operation eastward and continue it.  With such a high concentration of superhumans in New York, Trainer assumed it was the perfect place to set up shop.  It offered her a wide variety of material to manufacture her product and she hoped the large amount of superhuman crime in the city would keep the heroes busy enough that she could stay off their radar this time.  LA was becoming too crowded for her taste.  While she was locked up, she heard rumblings of some other MGH operation going on there but she couldn’t find out who was running it.  It galled her to think that someone else would have the nerve to pilfer one of her schemes.

“I honestly don’t know what to do with him,” she said to herself.  “I’ll have to give him some sort of sedative.  We can’t have him waking up on the operating table and absorbing the table’s metal to help him escape.  No, that won’t do at all and roughly the same thing would occur if I deposited him in a tube like the rest of his friends.  No, this one is going to be available for a limited time only.  I think it would be good to prepare for a full extraction.”

Both Wipeout and Requiem had awoken from being unceremoniously shoved inside their prisons.  They were barely conscious but they both heard the term “full extraction” and they knew enough about the making of MGH to know what that meant.  It meant that Trainer was going to cut Henry open and harvest as much DNA from him as she possibly could.  It meant that their leader was going to die a very painful death unless they did something about it.

“How the hell do we get out of these things?” wondered Wipeout aloud as he turned into his water form and tried to seep through the tube with no success.  “Can you teleport out of yours?”

“Possibly but not with him watching our every move,” answered Requiem, referring to Shocker.  “The second I reappear, he’ll blast me with those gauntlets.  I have people trying to help me formulate a plan of escape.”

“You can’t be serious,” said Wipeout.  “The voices in your head are going to get us out of this mess?”

“Many people have died in this place as the result of our captor’s experiments,” reminded Requiem.  “Right now they’re sharing their collective wisdom with me.  Tell me something, Frankie, can you manipulate the temperature of water?”

“Maybe,” replied Wipeout.  “I mean I never thought about it or tried it but I can manipulate everything else about water so that should work too.  What’s your play?”

“There is a walk-in freezer somewhere in this building,” explained Requiem.  “Theoretically, you could manipulate the temperature of the moisture inside it and heat it up to degrade the genetic samples inside.”

“That doesn’t help us get out of here,” reminded Wipeout.

“Oh Stephanie’s going to take care of that,” assured Requiem.  “I’m planning ahead, you see.  When we get out of here, you’re going to have to find that freezer and take care of it.  We’ll work on getting Henry out of trouble.”

“And you’re so calm about this for what reason?” asked Wipeout, obviously not enthused about waiting to die as Sebastian seemed to suggest as a plan of action.

“For starters, I believe in her and I have the faith that she’ll come to our rescue,” said Requiem matter-of-factly.  “Secondly, thanks to these ‘voices in my head’ as you termed them, I have eyes and ears all over this building.  Stephanie should be showing up very soon.”

“You talk too much, kid,” said Shocker as he came over to the tubes upon hearing Requiem’s plans.  “If you think that girl is gonna save you then you’re an idiot.  There’s nothing she can do that can stand up to me or the boss lady.  Maybe I’m wrong though.  Maybe she’ll surprise me and get lucky.  Maybe I should just give you a good shock.”

“Well you could do that, yes,” said Requiem as Shocker lifted his arm and pointed his gauntlet at him.  “I mean your employer would be really upset if you did but then again my powers are magical so maybe my DNA isn’t the best material to use.  So yes, killing me would solve an immediate problem except for one thing.”

“And what’s that?” asked Shocker as the air around his fist hummed as he charged up his gauntlet.

“You assume that all this rambling is just the ravings of someone who is mentally unhinged,” noted Requiem, a small grin forming on his face.  “While it’s true I am not the picture of mental health, I do make sense from time to time.  You see, I’m smart enough to pull off a diversion when my friends need one.”

Something crashed through the broken skylight of the warehouse that Lady Octopus and Shocker were using as a base.  Steel Spider dropped straight down towards Shocker and fired some of his spider bites.  The vibrations from Shocker’s gauntlet created a barrier around him but the electricity in Ollie’s weapons interacted with that barrier and somehow shorted it out, blowing Shocker into the tube that housed Requiem.

“I think you might be the smartest person in this room right now,” said Wipeout though his words were drowned out by the unintelligible curse that Shocker roared when he whirled around and fired at Steel Spider with both gauntlets, the damaged one having been replaced when he returned to the warehouse.

Steel Spider had already deposited Neon on the floor of the warehouse so he didn’t have to worry about her getting in the way.  He swung on his grappling cable to avoid the destructive vibrations coming at him like freight trains.  He knew he shouldn’t waste time with Shocker when Lady Octopus was somewhere in the warehouse.  He needed to get to her and strike fast before she had the chance to figure out what was going on.

“I’m sick of you damn kids!” snarled Shocker.

“And now is the right time for me to get out of this tube,” said Requiem, teleporting out of his prison once Shocker’s back was turned to him.  “All things considered, I think this worked out very well.  Much preferable to all of us getting dismembered.”

Shocker tried to turn around to cover his back but Requiem hit him with a blast of magical energy that sent him tumbling across the floor.  Steel Spider moved to the tube containing Wipeout and used a few of his spider bites to short out the mechanism powering the tube.  Once it was shut down, he cracked it open and let Wipeout pour himself out into the open.

“How do you suggest we take him down?” asked Steel Spider as he and the Secret Warriors regrouped.

“You kids handle that while I make sure to take out that freezer,” said Wipeout, liquefying himself and slithering along the floor to search for the freezer.

“He’s not the immediate problem,” pointed out Requiem.  “We need to get to Henry.”

Neon nodded in agreement and used a light pulse to blind Shocker before Requiem teleported the three heroes into the room where Lady Octopus had Composite on an operating table.  Trainer felt the energy influx from the teleportation and turned, sending her arms towards her enemies as soon as they were in view.  Steel Spider flipped over the arms and fired some of his spider bites at them.  The electric tips of the darts struck the metal arms and sent the voltage through them to shock their owner.  Lady Octopus swore and swatted Steel Spider into a wall with one of her tentacles.  She crossed the bottom two tentacles in front of her to act as a shield against Requiem’s magical blasts while the top two surged towards the two Warriors.  The metal appendages slithered through the barrage of energy bolts and clutched both Warriors by their throats, yanking them towards Lady Octopus so she could watch them choke to death.

“I was in the middle of my work when you had the indecency to interrupt me,” she stated.  “If you wanted to push yourselves to the front of the line, all you had to do was ask politely.  I’m more than willing to oblige.”

Steel Spider sprang towards Lady Octopus in an attempt to draw her attention and get her to release his friends.  With all the extra sets of eyes she possessed thanks to her tentacles, Trainer saw the attack coming a mile away and with a simple mental command one of her free arms gripped Steel Spider by one of his ankles and strung him upside down, stopping his attack cold.

“Metal arms meet metal legs,” said Ollie as his mechanical legs sprang from his backpack, one of them lunging forward and cutting at his enemy’s chest.

Lady Octopus recoiled and lost her grip on her captives.  She stumbled away, using her tentacles as shields against any incoming attack.  She bumped into the gurney and her arms reacted instantly as something tried to attack her from behind.  Trainer turned and barely had time to use her arms to stop the metallic fist that was about to connect with her face.  It seemed that the field leader for the Secret Warriors had finally regained consciousness.

“Should’ve used that sedative on me,” warned Composite, trying to break the grip that one of Trainer’s tentacles had on his wrist.  “I don’t know how strong these things are but I’m going to end up breaking them.  Save yourself the hassle and stand down.”

“I won’t be denied by some pack of foolish children,” promised Lady Octopus, struggling with Composite.

Henry had already absorbed the properties of whatever metal the tentacles were made from so his body was just as tough as they were.  The two of them jockeyed for position, each one trying to break the stalemate.  Composite sensed something behind him rumbling towards him and realized it was one of the Shocker’s vibration blasts.  He broke the tentacles’ grip on him and ducked, letting the blast hit Lady Octopus instead of its intended target.  Trainer managed to get her tentacles up in time to take the brunt of the blast but the attack shook her to the bone and knocked her into a wall.  Sparks sputtered from her tentacles and the apparatus on her back that they stemmed from.  The vibrations had wrought havoc with the internal mechanisms of her tentacles and she desperately tried to raise them to continue fighting.  The metal appendages weakly rose off the floor but it was clear that the damage was already done.

“I didn’t . . .,” began Shocker as he tried to explain but his apology was lost in the sound of the snarl that sprang from Lady Octopus’s mouth.

“You idiot!” she snapped at him, running towards him with her own legs since she couldn’t use her arms.

Shocker continued to mount some form of explanation but Trainer tackled him to the ground and began hitting him with her bare hands.  Her tentacles tried to help her as best they could, spurred on by her all-consuming rage.  Composite threw Lady Octopus off of Shocker and then put his foot on the villain’s chest.

“You so much as even twitch and I put my foot down,” he warned Shocker.  “I don’t care how hard you try to shake me, you’re going to end up with a couple broken ribs if you try to resist.  Are we clear?”

“You don’t have the guts, kid,” stated Shocker before raising one of his arms to blast Composite.

“I warned you,” said Composite before pressing down with his foot and filling the room with an audible crack.

Shocker’s eyes went wide and he wheezed as he tried to breathe normally.  Either one of his ribs or possibly his sternum was cracked and it was enough of a deterrent to make him stand down.  He lowered his arm and gestured that he surrendered.  Composite turned and nodded to the rest of his teammates.  Steel Spider and the other Warriors had already secured Lady Octopus and they moved to do the same to Shocker.

“I told you before that I don’t like the way you people do business,” said Steel Spider as he glared at Composite.  “You were good help but stay out of my way from now on.”

With that, Ollie scurried back into the warehouse’s main room and shot through the broken skylight, swinging off into the night.  Composite watched him go and then saw that Neon was staring at him.  He shrugged, unsure of what exactly she was giving him that look for.  He had given Shocker fair warning but the villain had to push things.  Henry viewed it as a simple and necessary show of force but obviously Stephanie had a different view on things.

“He was going to take my head off,” reminded Composite.

“I know,” said Neon though the look on her face clearly said that she still didn’t approve of Henry’s actions.  She suddenly wrinkled her nose and the look on her face changed to one of pure disgust though it wasn’t directed towards Composite.  “What smells in here?”

“Yeah, going to take a few showers to get this funk out,” said Wipeout as he came into the room.  “I miss much?”

“I take it you took care of the freezer then,” said Requiem.

“Yeah,” replied Wipeout.  “Funny thing about blood and whatever else was in there.  Once it’s not frozen, it starts to really stink up a room.  Good call on the temperature thing, Sebastian.  Turns out I can do it after all but the concentration for it hurts like hell so I don’t think I’ll be trying it again unless I have to.”

“Good thing you can wash yourself off with your powers,” said Neon as she held her nose.  “You definitely need hosing down.”

SHIELD Safehouse 23

“You stayed up all night because you were worried about me?”

Finesse rolled her eyes at Wipeout’s question and put down her book.  While her teammates had been dealing with their assignment, she had taken the liberty to ask their handler for some new books to borrow.  She had also scheduled a meeting with Daisy to discuss the recent battle with Riot and the questions he had forced her to ask herself.

“I was told at a very early age that reading helps improve one’s mind,” she returned.  “I think it could do you a world of good.”

“Depends on what you read,” said Wipeout with a shrug.  “I’d come in and get cozier but I still don’t think I’ve gotten rid of the smell.”

“I heard and yes I’d rather you not pollute my sanctuary,” said Finesse, getting up from her bed and coming over to stand in the open doorway.  “I got an appointment with Daisy to discuss things.  It’s not enough to satisfy me but it will have to do for the moment.”

“Nothing’s ever enough to satisfy people like us,” reminded Wipeout.  “You mind if I tell you something?”

“I assume this is a secret,” she said to him, turning to retreat back into her room and curling her finger in an effort to get him to accompany her.  “For that price, you’re allowed in.”

Frankie grinned and nodded, stepping into the forbidden territory of her room and closing the door behind him.  Finesse went through some simple stretching exercises, her body having become lethargic from the days of inactivity.  She winced at the soreness of her ribs but they were healing nicely.  She was lucky to get away with such minor injuries compared to what she suspected Riot’s past opponents had received from him.  She was no stranger to injuries because you didn’t spend a life of fighting without learning how to take punches.  Still, it had been a long time since she had been wounded this badly.  Few were the opponents who could measure up to her impressive fighting skills.

“I’m worried about Henry,” admitted Wipeout.  “Ever since that fight with the Agents of Anarchy, he’s . . . he’s been a little more intense than before.”

“That fight was an especially nasty one,” noted Finesse.

“I’m not talking about the actual fight,” corrected Wipeout.  “I know being leader isn’t really his thing and at first I thought he had balls for bending the rules but now I’m not sure.”

“What did he do this time?” she inquired.

“Damn near broke Shocker’s ribcage by stepping on his chest,” he answered.  “I’d expect it from someone like us.  You’re no stranger to violence and, hell, I killed that HYDRA goon that took out Stephanie’s uncle.  I know Henry’s said he ran with a rough crowd but I just don’t think this is in him.”

“Jobs change everyone,” said Finesse.  “Try not to worry about him.  I’m sure if our handler notices something serious then she’ll pull him off his duty.”

“And if she doesn’t notice because this stuff doesn’t make it into the reports?” asked Wipeout.

“Again, don’t worry,” she repeated.  “Now run along.  I need to get dressed and at least attempt a workout.”

“And if I stay?” asked Wipeout.

“I’ll be forced to break you,” answered Finesse though she didn’t glare at him with her usual malice.  “Be a gentleman for once in your life, Frankie.”

“I’m always a gentleman,” he told her as he took his leave.  “I hope things with the doctor turn out okay, Finesse.  Tonight wasn’t the same without you.”