NATURE VS. NURTURE

Part I

By Wesley Overhults

Hope Springs, Arkansas

Frankie Jensen sighed heavily as he drove the rental car into the city limits of Hope Springs. He hated coming back to this town and his mother’s death wasn’t exactly the best reason to pay his hometown a visit. He could feel the crushing weight of mediocrity settle on his shoulders just by being back home. He had to do this though. His mother had worked herself practically to death to provide for him and he owed it to her to pay his respects. He wondered at times if she ever knew the truth about how he could afford to keep her in that hospital so long. He wondered if she knew about all the things he did to pay his bills, how he moved around all the time to avoid detection from the authorities and not to see the world. He wondered if she was ever ashamed of him and if she took that shame to her grave. He pushed those thoughts away, afraid of the answers he would find if he pursued them.

Wipeout pulled the car into a local motel where he had booked a room in advance for his stay in town. He knew the motel well enough to know that it was on the seedy side. The owner took cash only but he also didn’t ask questions. When he was in high school, Frankie heard rumors of all kinds of things going on at the motel. There was one rumor that one of its rooms was once used as a meth lab and he definitely knew plenty of his classmates booked rooms at the motel on prom night even though most of them were under the age of consent. It was the only hotel in town though so he couldn’t be choosy.

“Don’t tell me you’re already worried about me,” he said into the phone Daisy had given him for the trip. “I got into town just fine and I’m checking into the motel.”

“It’s just me,” said Gadget. “I just, you know, wanted to say I’m sorry. My parents got divorced when I was young and my mom wasn’t around for most of my life. I just wanted you to know that.”

“Yeah, I get it,” said Wipeout. “Keep an eye on them, okay?”

“I always keep an eye on you guys,” she assured him. “Daisy hasn’t given them another mission yet but I dunno why. They’ve got me reassigned on some other stuff but like I said I always know what you guys are up to.”

“That’s frightening and reassuring at the same time,” said Wipeout. “Tell the others I’ll be back soon and tell Daisy thanks for not sending any trained monkeys with me this time. I guess she’s actually starting to trust me.”

“I’ll pass the info along,” promised Gadget. “Stay safe.”

“Hey, can you check on something for me?” asked Wipeout.

“Sure,” answered Gadget. “Just tell me what you want me to find out.”

“You know like the rest of us that Helix was shipping stuff out of Hope Springs,” explained Wipeout. “Can you check and see if he’s done anything else involving here?”

“Daisy said we weren’t supposed to go near Genetech,” reminded Gadget. “I’ll see what I can find but I’ll have to be really careful about it.”

“You’re the best,” said Wipeout before hanging up the phone. He hadn’t forgotten that Helix had some sort of connection with his hometown and he wanted to find out exactly what that connection was. Maybe he could do some digging while he was in town.

“Great, this craphole again.”

Ricky Calusky had only been to Hope Springs one prior time and the experience didn’t exactly leave a good taste in his mouth. Excavator shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and kept the hood on his jacket up to conceal his face. He was still a wanted felon, not that it seemed to matter much to the people of the town. He didn’t know what kind of stroke his new employer possessed when it came to Hope Springs but Helix had it in spades.

“Yeah, this craphole again,” agreed Fagin. “Keep your head down around here. The boss has power here but you still need to be careful about showing your face.”

“Hey, I’m legit now,” reminded Excavator. “How come the boss wants all of us down here? It’s not like this place is a big deal or anything.”

“Because I’m from here,” said Helix as he stepped off the plane and set his feet on the tarmac. “I know you’re used to a larger pond, Mr. Calusky, but don’t belittle my home. Many great men have come from humble beginnings.”

“What do you need from us?” asked Ana Kravinoff, her two new pets tugging at their leashes as they sniffed around.

“You five just need to amuse yourselves while I take care of some personal business,” ordered Helix. “I know that all of you don’t really want to be here but I think you’ll find plenty to keep you busy. Trust me, things will get interesting soon.”

“I’m all for that,” said Komodo. “It’s been awhile since we had something to do.”

The rest of Helix’s crew showed various signs of agreement. Helix could see that they were all anxious to earn their keep once more. All of them did good work but they could be erratic at times. They had to be kept in line but that was where his main henchman came into play.

“Do you need any of us to come with you?” questioned Fagin.

Helix had to suppress a smile at Fagin’s eagerness to please. It was no secret that Fagin wanted to be Helix’s favorite creation. Helix had to admit that Fagin was barely a success but he did have his uses. His willingness to do anything to earn Helix’s approval was something the geneticist used to keep him in line. Helix never had to question where Fagin’s loyalty resided. However, the same couldn’t be said about the rest of his motley crew so it was a good move to use Fagin to keep them organized and under control. None of his other operatives were powerful enough to match Fagin. Helix knew this and that was the reason he recruited them.

“No, I’ll be fine,” answered Helix. “Avail yourselves of the simple comforts of my town, ladies and gentlemen. I have an important social function that needs my attention and it requires some strenuous mental preparation.”

SHIELD Safehouse 23

“Do you miss him?”

Finesse rolled her eyes at the question and would have snorted at it but that would have been very undignified on her part. Composite simply waited for her reply but she was clearly not going to give him one.

“Oh, you were serious,” she realized when he continued waiting for her answer. “Not really, no.”

“You sure about that?” asked Composite.

“Don’t do this, Henry,” warned Finesse.

She returned her gaze to the book she was reading, her ears automatically tuning out the TV once Composite turned the sound back up and went back to watching it. Finesse’s brow furrowed as she tried to concentrate on her book and not think about the question her team leader just asked her. She felt . . . sympathy for Wipeout. That was the right word for the emotion wasn’t it? She didn’t feel that emotion often, mostly because she didn’t allow herself to get close enough to people to warrant it. She was close enough to him though and she felt sympathy for his loss. Life could be hard without parents. She wondered if he had ever tried to find his father. She knew he never spoke a single word about him and wondered if that was because he didn’t know who his father was or maybe because he knew and hated the man. She wasn’t the type to pry though. That required her to actually care about other people.

“Got an answer for that question yet?” inquired Composite.

“I’m not going to answer the damn question,” snapped Finesse. “Not now, not tomorrow, not next week, not ever. Do we understand each other?”

“Fair enough,” said Composite though his tone clearly indicated that Finesse had already answered his question just from her reaction to it.

“It’s not as if it matters to you,” continued Finesse. “That’s the thing I can’t figure out about you, Henry. One minute you’re breaking the rules and the next minute you’re trying to keep us from doing the same thing. The way you’re pestering me, it’s like you want me to go down there to check up on him.”

“You’d have to admit something to yourself though,” said Composite.

“There is nothing to admit,” stated Finesse through clenched teeth. “You are exasperating, truly and completely exasperating. I regret every day that you and I met because I know you and the others will be the death of me. I do not care. I am here because I have to be. I admit that I’m not as confident about getting away from SHIELD as I used to be. I admit that and that’s the reason why I’m still here. It has nothing to do with any of you.”

“How long have you lived in denial?” he asked her. “You’re too good at it to be new to it.”

“And look at yourself doing the same thing,” she retorted. “You act as if you’re someone noble and virtuous but you’re really not. You bend the rules as much as any of us would in your position. You’re not a leader, none of us are. We’re just criminals who happened to get caught.”

“Except for me.”

Both Finesse and Composite turned to see Neon standing in the doorway to the living room and realized she was listening to their argument. Neither of them could deny that Neon was the only person on the team who was completely innocent. True, Requiem wasn’t a criminal either but he was hardly normal or innocent. Stephanie was and all the Warriors knew it. It was why they all tried to look out for her, especially the three original members. They all felt guilty for the death of her uncle and that guilt drove all three of them to stay with SHIELD even though it killed them.

“Yes, except for you,” agreed Finesse. “All of you are free to do whatever you like. I’m not going down to Hope Springs to check on Frankie though. Unlike the rest of you who seemingly want to coddle him, I can treat him like a real adult and expect him to take care of himself.”

With that, Finesse got up from the couch and left the room, brushing past Neon on her way out. She turned and gave Stephanie one last look and then shook her head. All of them were fools. They were all idealistic fools who didn’t know what it took to survive in the world she grew up in. She knew a harsher side of life than any of them could ever know. She had spent years scraping by on the streets, stealing and fighting for money just to survive. None of them had tasted desperation like she had because none of them had fallen as far down as she had. They were all idealistic fools and it was starting to rub off on her. She wasn’t lying earlier when she told Composite that they would be the death of her. Maybe in some way, they already were.

Hope Springs, Arkansas

He had tried to pick out something nice to wear. Of course he had saved the nicest clothes for the actual funeral but he needed something decent for the visitation as well. Wipeout already hated this. He didn’t mind having people come up to him and tell him what a good person his mother was because he already knew that. What he hated was having to lie to people about where he had been all this time and what he was up to. He only said that he worked for the government, which was technically untrue since SHIELD was an authority unto itself and wasn’t affiliated with any country’s government. It was an easy lie though and he had told enough lies in his life that he was used to it by now. Still, it was maddening. There were members of the hospital staff at the visitation, ones that knew his mother well in the time she was under their care. There were former coworkers of his mother’s there as well, all with good things to say about their time together. The thing that Frankie hated most about the whole ordeal was that he hadn’t seen anyone at the visitation that could have been his father.

Frankie Jensen had never asked his mother any questions about his father. In turn, she had never spoken a single word about him and the two of them had always left the matter at that. However, that didn’t mean that Frankie wasn’t interested in knowing the man’s true identity. He thought perhaps that his father still had some form of affection for the woman who had given birth to and raised his child. It was Wipeout’s hope that such affection would drive his father to attend the funeral. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to discern anything at this visitation. He wished that he had brought Finesse along with him. She was able to read people better than he was and he needed that skill now.

“Saved by the bell,” he muttered to himself as he heard his cell phone ring. He ducked into an empty room at the funeral home so he could take the call in private. “Go ahead and give me some good news.”

“Dunno if you call this good news or not but I got something,” promised Gadget. “It took a lot of digging but I found out that Helix booked a flight back to Hope Springs for today and it doesn’t look like he came alone. It was a private airfield so I couldn’t get any hits off of any cameras but I did get a look at the flight plan for the jet and there was definitely more than one passenger on it.”

“Figures that he’d bring his whole goon squad with him,” said Wipeout. “Whatever it is, it must be important.”

“He never told anyone what it was for,” said Gadget. “I can’t tell if it’s business or personal but you’re right about it being important. I’ve seen the files SHIELD has on his team and they’re pretty nasty.”

“Nastier in person,” confirmed Wipeout. “It doesn’t make any sense though. This town isn’t exactly rife with criminal activity, at least not enough that you need an entourage like his with you when you come for a visit.”

“Maybe he’s trying to move more stuff up to New York,” suggested Gadget. “Anyways, I gotta get busy on some other stuff. I don’t think I can really turn anything else up but I’ll keep digging if you want me to.”

“I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” said Wipeout. “You might wanna pass that info on to the rest of the Warriors. I know they’ll want to get another shot at this guy and this might be the best time to do it.”

“They’d have to do it off the books and that’s pretty dangerous,” reminded Gadget.

“We’re used to working off the books,” countered Wipeout. “Just pass it along. Whatever they decide to do after that is up to them.”

Wipeout hung up the phone and went into a nearby bathroom. He looked at himself in the mirror before allowing some water to leak from his fingertips. He lightly splashed the water against his face, trying to lift his spirits so that he could make it through the night. The hardest part was tomorrow when the funeral was going to take place. He still couldn’t shake the information that Gadget had just shared with him. Why would Helix return to Hope Springs in time for his mother’s funeral? There was no way the two events could be connected but Wipeout knew that nothing was as it seemed where Helix was involved.

Frankie heard hushed murmurings going on back in the visitation room. He went out into the hallway and made his way back into the room just in time to see a familiar if unwelcome face. The man’s name was Thomas Zane. He was the owner of a company called BioSynth. The company wasn’t unlike Genetech albeit on a smaller scale. Biosynth was a pharmaceutical company and it was the leading employer of Hope Springs. Frankie’s mother had worked in the secretary pool at BioSynth at one time and had apparently made a good impression if the company’s CEO deemed it necessary to make an appearance at her funeral visitation. There was always something Wipeout didn’t like about Zane. It wasn’t just that the man had money. Lots of people had money so Frankie had stopped trying to hate people like that. No, instead he was more willing to hate the system that created such men. It was a system he always wanted to be a part of but never could be no matter how many nice things he stole. Something else was wrong with Zane though, something that got under Frankie’s skin. He hadn’t interacted with Zane very much, nothing beyond the standard interaction when he was younger and his mother was Zane’s employee.

“Are you the son?”

Wipeout focused on what was going on around him and realized that Zane was talking to him now. He was wearing a black suit, the cut of it fine and probably European. Wipeout wondered how he could afford such things. Being the kingpin of a town like Hope Springs didn’t exactly rake in the revenue necessary to buy things like that. Yet Zane wore expensive suits, drove a nice car, lived in a veritable palace compared to what most people lived in. So where was all that money coming from then?

“Yeah,” Frankie replied in answer to Zane’s question. “You’re Thomas Zane. Can’t be part of this town without knowing who you are.”

“Gail was a good worker,” said Zane. “Everyone at the office loved her.”

“Not that you would know because you were hardly at your office,” said Wipeout. “Look, whatever you’re here for it’s obviously not for my mom. Just go mingle with the common people and then go back to your mansion and forget she ever existed. It shouldn’t be that hard for you.”

“It might be harder than you think,” admitted Zane. “I don’t know where you’ve been or what you’ve been up to since you left, Franklin, but if you’re interested I can find a job for you. I’m sure you’re a very talented young man.”

“It’s Frankie, not Franklin,” corrected Wipeout. “I’ll pass. I’ve already got a job working for the government.”

“That must be very lucrative work then,” said Zane. “If you happen to change your mind then give me a call. I’m sure you can look my number up in the phone book.”

“Yeah, sure,” said Wipeout nonchalantly. He wished he had a fake ID on him and that there was a bar within walking distance from the funeral home. He desperately needed a drink.

Something caught his eye as he walked out of the room and looked through the windows on the front door of the funeral home. Across the street, there was someone he thought he knew. He couldn’t be sure but he thought he saw Excavator standing under the awning of the strip mall across the street. The hood on his jacket was up so Frankie couldn’t see his face but he could tell it was still Calusky. It wasn’t as if it came as a shock to him that Calusky was in town. Gadget had already told him that Helix had brought his whole crew with him and this sighting just confirmed suspicions. It was odd, however, that Calusky just happened to be across the street from the funeral home where Frankie’s mother’s visitation was being held. Maybe it was a coincidence but maybe it wasn’t. At this point, Frankie definitely felt like punching someone. He stepped out of the funeral home and hurried across the street, not minding the rain sprinkling down lightly from above. For obvious reasons, he never minded water.

“Look, man, I ain’t here for no trouble,” said Excavator as Wipeout confronted him. “I’m just tryin’ to get my Mickey D’s on, okay? Besides, I’m legit now so you and your buddies can’t touch me.”

“What is it about this town that makes it so you can’t stay away?” asked Wipeout.

“Take it up with the boss, man,” said Excavator, sipping his drink. “I got the old Royale with Cheese waiting on me inside so unless you wanna throw down, I’m gonna get to steppin’.”

“What does your boss want here?” asked Wipeout.

“Hell if I know,” answered Excavator. “Boss don’t tell me nothin’. He said he was from here so I guess he felt all nostalgic or something. Are we done here?”

“You do realize I could kill you right now if I wanted to, right?” asked Wipeout.

“Nah, you and those other kids play it too straight for that,” explained Excavator. “Fagin told me you guys used to be a real trip back when you were in the game. Kinda weird seein’ how you turned out.”

“Tell your boss to get out of this town and never come back,” warned Wipeout.

“Go tell him yourself ’cause I ain’t nobody’s messenger,” dared Excavator, taking another sip of his soda and then going back inside to get his order. “By the way, just a heads up and all that. He told me to come out here and do this. He said you’d see me and you’d try to get in my grill. Boss is smart, I’ll give him that. He read you like a damn book. Told me to give you a message too.”

“What’s the message?” asked Wipeout.

“Enjoy tonight because things will be different tomorrow night,” said Excavator. With that, Ricky went back inside the McDonald’s to get his food.

Wipeout stood there and listened to the rain patter against the awning above him. He turned over the warning in his head but none of it made any sense. It was clear though that Helix was playing a game. Frankie wasn’t sure what it was but he knew it had something to do with his mother’s death and he wasn’t going to rest until he figured it out.

The Next Day

This was going to be hard. As the only child of the deceased, he was going to have to get up in front of everyone and say something. It was the right thing to do although Frankie Jensen didn’t make a habit of doing the right thing. He would do it this time though because he knew it was what his mother would have wanted.

“Fine then, Mom,” said Wipeout under his breath as he straightened his tie and looked at himself in the bathroom mirror of the funeral home. “Let’s go out there and do this.”

He composed himself and then went back into the room where the funeral would take place. He sat in the front row and listened to the music play. Everyone fell silent once the music started and when it was over the director of the funeral home stood in front of the mourners who had come to pay their last respects to his mother. Wipeout listened to the director drone on. His mother was religious but he didn’t put too much stock in that sort of thing. He was always more concerned with material things, tangible things that he could touch and see. Those were the only things that really mattered in the world. It was a sad truth that he had learned over the course of his life. People valued power and wealth above all else and the biggest unit of measurement for those things was what you owned. When he talked about this belief, his mother always scolded him and told him that you wouldn’t be able to take those things with you when you died. She was right, of course, but Frankie wasn’t concerned with dying. In his line of work, it was bound to happen eventually so why bother worrying about it?

“The deceased has left behind a son who would like to say a few words about her,” said the funeral home director. “Frankie, if you would.”

Wipeout nodded and got up from his seat. He stood before the mourners and used a few seconds to take everything in. He had been preparing himself for this day ever since he learned that his mother’s cancer was inoperable and that she only had a small amount of time to live. He had cried when he found out the news of her death but after that night he hadn’t shed a single tear. It worried him on some level.

“My mom was a good person,” began Wipeout. “She believed in the value of hard work and she tried her very best to make a decent life for the two of us. Growing up without a father was hard for me but she took care of me as best she could. My mom was a giving person. I think it was the biggest thing that defined her, and she tried to give me the best life she could. I’ll always remember her for that and be grateful to her. I guess that’s the one thing we should take away from this service. She was always there to help people in need and we should be too. We should want to give as much as she did. We all have tough lives. Every day we struggle to make it through and we worry too much about ourselves. Sometimes we should worry more about others, about how we can help them get through their day just like we’re trying to do with ours. In the end, all we have is each other. That’s what my mom taught me.”

He didn’t wait for the director to say anything. He simply returned to his seat and let the man resume his speech. It was true what he said. His mother did value hard work and she believed in the power of giving to others. Frankie believed in that too but he had become disillusioned with the world. How were you supposed to give when there were so many in the world who took instead? How were you supposed to balance your own wants and needs against those of the people you loved? He had struggled to answer these questions all his life and yet he never came to any decisive conclusions. Maybe he never would. Maybe he was destined to continue on like this for the rest of his life.

“You need to come with us.”

Wipeout looked to see a black man sitting behind him. The man opened his coat to flash a police badge at him and then nodded towards the door. Frankie shook his head. He had planned on being one of the pall-bearers for the funeral and he wasn’t going to let anyone stop him from doing that.

“Don’t do this now,” warned Wipeout as the service concluded and everyone rose from their seats. “Just let me bury my mom, okay?”

“It’s not up to me, kid,” said the man. “My name is Isaac Allen. I’m a detective with the HSPD and we’ve recently received evidence that implicates you in a number of thefts. I’ve been sent to bring you in.”

“You don’t have any evidence,” countered Wipeout. “If you want me to come downtown then fine but not until after the funeral.”

“This is going to get ugly unless you cooperate,” warned Detective Allen. “I was being nice before but now we’re going to cut to the chase. We have a warrant for your arrest, Jensen. You want me to perp-walk you through your mother’s funeral?”

“I’m sorry but it looks like I’m not going to be there for the burial and all that,” said Wipeout to the funeral director. “As for you, Detective Allen, catch me if you can.”

Wipeout liquefied his body and snaked across the floor as a trail of water. He snuck under the bottom of the funeral home’s front door and then poured himself into a storm drain. By the time Detective Allen burst through the front doors of the building, Frankie was blocks away. He reformed himself once he was sure he was far away enough. He needed to figure out what the hell was going on. It was true that he had stolen some things on his way out of town a few years ago, but he knew they didn’t have any evidence that he was the culprit. Water degraded evidence. It washed away fingerprints and it didn’t leave any fibers or DNA behind. The police didn’t have any evidence on him, but they were determined to bring him in anyway. Wipeout wanted to know exactly where they got that supposed evidence. It was then that he remembered what Excavator had told him the previous night.

“C’mon, pick up,” said Wipeout as he dialed a number on his cell phone and then cursed when it went to Daisy’s voicemail. He dialed another number and hoped that this time the person was there.

“There’s probably something you should know,” said Gadget when she answered the phone.

“Why do the local police have a warrant for me?” asked Wipeout.

“Yeah, I was just going to warn you about that,” said Gadget. “I just got the notification about it this morning but I had to work on something else so I didn’t have the chance to tell you earlier. Did they try to arrest you?”

“They tried,” stressed Wipeout. “I think Helix has something to do with this. I ran into Excavator last night and he warned me that things were going to get ugly. I think this is what he was talking about.”

“I can’t get into their system just yet,” said Gadget. “They’ve got some really heavy encryption on their networks, firewalls and all that. This is like FBI-level stuff or something. It’s going to take a little bit to get through. How the heck did cops from a town like that get this kind of stuff?”

“Have you ever tried to hack into Genetech’s systems since that time we tangled with them?” asked Wipeout.

“No because Daisy said they’re off limits but . . .,” began Gadget and then she stopped. “It’s the same security, like exactly the same programs and everything.”

“Figured it would be,” said Wipeout. “Look, I don’t know how long I can keep dodging the police here. Where the hell is Daisy? She wouldn’t pick up the phone when I called.”

“They called her to work on another assignment,” explained Gadget. “Wait, you’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking, are you?”

“Tell the team to get down here,” ordered Wipeout. “Helix is here and we’re not going to get a better shot at him.”

“That’s what I thought you were thinking,” said Gadget. “I’ll get on it right now.”

Wipeout nodded and hung up the phone. He tried to figure out what his next move would be. He couldn’t go back to the hotel because the police were probably there right now going through all his stuff. He had to figure out where to go next but it wasn’t just that. He had to figure out what their next move against Helix would be. He was behind this and Frankie was going to make sure he paid for it.

Next Issue: The rest of the Warriors come to Wipeout’s aid but Helix’s plan to neutralize them is already set in motion.