HEAVY METAL

By Wesley Overhults

SHIELD Safehouse 23, Manhattan

“You think this is really the best play?”

No one answered Wipeout’s question but all of his teammates looked at him from their seats in the back of the van. It was hard to figure out whether or not it was a vehicle used to transport prisoners. It was big enough for it but the space between the passengers and the driver was a little less than it should be if it was a prisoner transport. It would fit with the treatment they had received even after deciding to sign up with SHIELD. Spending the night in what was basically lockup wasn’t a fun time for any of them. However, Quake had promised that they were going to get settled into their new home though at this point none of the team felt that they could fully trust her.

“I think it’s better than jail,” spoke up Finesse.

“Seconded,” agreed Composite.

Stephanie didn’t say anything and Requiem seemed content to lose himself in his own world as he was prone to do. Stephanie looked at her new friends though at this point that was a loose definition for how she felt towards them. Truthfully, she didn’t know how she felt about anything. The only family she had in the world was dead and she was responsible for it. If she hadn’t have been so stupid and stubborn then maybe she would’ve just stayed home and her uncle would’ve stayed out of the whole thing. What was he trying to tell her before he died? Something about her father? All her life, Stephanie had wanted to know who her real parents were. She learned pretty quickly that Raymond Sydney wasn’t really her uncle, that she was adopted since birth. Her uncle never spoke of her parents though Stephanie always thought he knew something about them. What was he trying to tell her before he died?

“He seemed like a good person,” noted Requiem, looking at Stephanie. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

He was used to hearing dead people in his head but he wasn’t so used to watching them die right in front of him. Life in the asylum kept him away from anything resembling real life. It left him with a somewhat naive and simplistic worldview and it also left him with stunted emotional and social growth. When he was younger, Sebastian was put on antipsychotic medication because the doctors assumed the voices in his head was a symptom of schizophrenia. When those didn’t work, the doctors took him off those medications and he preferred to keep to himself in most cases. Now that he was released from that place, he found it strange to interact with people who weren’t mentally unstable.

“It was my fault,” mumbled Stephanie sadly.

“He doesn’t think that,” assured Requiem. “He’s sorry for letting himself drag you into this.”

“Don’t,” warned Stephanie angrily. “Just don’t, okay?”

The van came to a stop and Quake got out of the car. She slid the door open and the five young people piled out of the vehicle like a clown car stuffed with too many passengers. All of them looked at the building in front of them. It looked like only a small step above the compound HYDRA had been using, the one that they had invaded only a few hours ago. None of them seemed particularly eager to step into such a place and it took some prodding from Quake before they did so. Composite clasped his fingers around the doorknob and turned it, opening the door and summoning up the courage to step across the threshold.

“The place looks better on the inside,” assured Quake.

None of them could disagree. The building looked like a house on the inside. There was a living room, a kitchen, and enough bedrooms for all five of them to have their own rooms. It was almost unreal how nice the building was on the inside compared to how it was on the outside. The five of them practically ran through the building, checking out all the comforts that would now be theirs to use as they saw fit. It was almost too good to be true, which meant that it probably wasn’t.

“There are cameras everywhere except in the bedrooms and the bathrooms,” said Finesse once everyone reassembled in the main hall. “You’re keeping an eye on us I take it.”

“You are agents of SHIELD,” stated Quake. “As such, you are required to behave accordingly. You have everything you need here as you’ve discovered already. However, we’re always keeping an eye on you. As your handler, I will be the one assigning you the tasks you have to perform. You will be paid for these just like any other SHIELD agent. Make no mistake though, this whole ‘project’ is on a trial basis. If you don’t do what we tell you to, we’ll be forced to take some measures you won’t like.”

“I admit this is the nicest cage I’ve ever been in,” said Requiem.

“This is a prison,” stated Composite. “I thought you said we weren’t going to jail.”

“This is the best thing we can give you and if you don’t like it then you will go to jail,” assured Quake. “You know very well what I can do and, trust me, you haven’t even seen what Fury’s capable of. Take the deal.”

“For now,” promised Composite.

“Good,” said Quake and then handed Composite a tablet computer. “I happen to have your first assignment right here.”

“Roxxon,” noted Finesse, looking at the documents open on the computer. “That’s a company with a rather interesting history. What are they doing this time?”

“Word is that they’re trying to illegally smuggle a shipment of vibranium into the country,” said Quake. “The Wakandan people are very picky about who can ship their metal and Roxxon is definitely not on their list of friends. You’re going to intercept their shipment tonight and take their cargo into SHIELD custody. Are we clear on the matter?”

“Crystal,” responded Composite.

“Good,” said Quake. “Composite, you are acting field leader of the team. Take all the time you want for the rest of the day. The ship isn’t supposed to come in until tonight.”

The Secret Warriors nodded and broke up to spend the day however they chose. Quake took a moment to stop Finesse and produced something else from her coat. Jeanne studied the metallic devices and arched her eyebrow warily.

“Friendship bracelets?” she asked Quake. “I’m slightly touched, Agent Johnson, but didn’t those go out of style at least a decade ago?”

“These are wrist-mounted, energy-projecting devices,” explained Quake. “SHIELD prototypes that still need more field-testing. They use the particles of light around them to create three-dimensional shapes out of energy and they can pick up your mental images. When I saw you in the field, I noticed you need a weapon so now you can have whatever weapon you can think of as long as it doesn’t have any moving parts to it.”

“I won’t argue that point,” decided Finesse, putting on the devices and then turning them on. “You know the way to a girl’s heart, Agent Johnson. Let’s see what I can do.”

There was a flash of light and a sword made out of pure energy appeared in Finesse’s hand. It was a katana, the ancient weapon of the Japanese samurai. Finesse twirled the sword expertly, judging the weight and size of it. Another katana appeared in her other hand and she resized the first one to match it, liking the proportions of the second better. She twirled both swords, going through some of the motions of a simple kata before the swords turned into sai daggers. She made a couple stabs at the air before the daggers turned into escrima sticks, the batons of energy whirling through the air with expert precision.

“You like?” asked Quake once Finesse was finished and dissipated her energy weapons.

“Adequate,” said Finesse before turning to inspect her new room, leaving Quake to smile and take her leave.

“We could take that car and just drive off into the sunset,” noted Finesse as Composite pulled up in a very nice car. “I happen to enjoy fast cars actually.”

“Living dangerously suits you,” said Wipeout with a grin.

“Fast cars are usually more luxurious,” corrected Finesse. “I enjoy that.”

“This is SHIELD property,” reminded Composite. “Look, I don’t like this whole situation either and I definitely don’t like being the leader but this is what we agreed to. All of us know what will happen if we don’t go along with this.”

“I’ve spent years flying under SHIELD’s radar,” noted Finesse.

“Probably because they weren’t looking for you,” said Composite, motioning for them to get in the car. “The ship is coming into New York harbor in a couple hours so we need to get in position.”

Both Wipeout and Finesse moved towards the front passenger door while Stephanie and Requiem went for the back. Frankie and Jeanne both got their fingers on the door before noticing that both of them wanted the same seat. Finesse glared at her new teammate and silently reminded him what she had done to his hand the previous day when he placed it somewhere where it wasn’t wanted. To his credit, Wipeout smiled and motioned that the passenger seat was all hers, preferring to take the backseat instead.

“You don’t look very comfortable,” he said to Requiem.

“Motor vehicles are the number one cause of accidental death in the country,” stated Requiem. “However, given that this is a SHIELD car, I feel a little more confident about our chances of not dying in a fiery explosion.”

“You always have a way of looking on the bright side,” cracked Finesse from her seat in the front.

Stephanie didn’t say anything as she looked out of the window, watching the streets of New York pass by. She couldn’t get her uncle’s last words out of her head. Why didn’t he ever tell her anything about her real parents? What cause did he have for keeping a secret like that from her? She didn’t understand it. Then again, she didn’t understand anything about this world she found herself a part of now. She wasn’t the kind to keep secrets, to lie to those that she cared about when it came to something important. She always tried to be a good person, an honest person. She couldn’t be fake like that but now she found herself in a job where being fake and keeping secrets was normal. She didn’t know if she could handle that. Maybe she wasn’t supposed to. Maybe she had to be someone else so she could handle this situation she found herself in now.

“I need a codename,” she said suddenly, her words breaking the momentary silence inside the car. “Everyone else has one.”

“What were you thinking of?” asked Composite.

“Something to do with light,” said Stephanie.

“The deity of light in the Celtic pantheon is, unfortunately, a male,” admitted Requiem. “He does have the honor of having a few early British kings derive their names from his. I don’t suppose ‘Belenus’ strikes you though.”

“Can’t say it does,” admitted Stephanie. She continued looking out at the city as it passed her by and suddenly she was struck with some inspiration. “How about ‘Neon’?”

“I think I like it,” decided Wipeout.

Everyone else nodded in agreement but they had to stay silent for the moment. They were coming up on their destination and it was time to get ready for their first mission. All of them could feel the nervousness as Composite parked the car a block away from the shipyard and got out. The rest of them followed suit and they walked the rest of the way. Quake had given them the name of the ship and the number of the pier so it was easy to find their target once they got inside the shipyard.

“Another gift from our boss,” said Composite as he held out his hand and showed the rest of his team the cluster of earpieces he held in his palm. “Make sure they work. I don’t want any of us going in without a way to talk to each other.”

The Secret Warriors put the earpieces in and could hear even the faintest noises from them, meaning that they definitely worked. Composite gave a nod of satisfaction and then motioned for them to fan out. They used the shipping containers on the dock for cover as they crept around to get better vantage points of the pier. In the distance, they could see the lights of a ship that was making its way towards the pier and if their intel was right then it was just the ship they wanted.

Cain Marko took a deep breath of the salty sea air as he finally came on deck. He had been cooped up way too long in that cargo hold and he was starting to get a little stir crazy. He wasn’t too crazy about boats in general either. This was supposed to be an easy job, the kind of job that you could make a quick buck from, but Roxxon wasn’t exactly good with security. They were lucky to get the shipment out of Wakanda with their skins intact, not that it was a problem for the mighty Juggernaut. These days, nothing really fazed him when it came to the hazards of a job. At this point, Cain just wanted some nice, easy money so he could hold down the apartment he had managed to secure. Honest living wasn’t the greatest gig in the world from his point of view and it definitely didn’t pay as well as this did.

“We’re about to dock,” said the captain of the ship, looking up at his mammoth-sized companion. “Once we dock and you help us unload then we’ll pay you what our employer promised.”

“Works fer me,” agreed Marko gruffly.

He turned his armored form away from the captain and out towards New York City. Ever since his days in the X-Corps, he bounced around from country to country, always looking for something. When he finally settled back in New York again, he knew it was time to play it straight. He settled down, tried to get a good job and all that, but there wasn’t a lot of jobs for an ex-con like him, especially not when his huge size had everyone mistaking him for a mutant. That was strike two against him and he wasn’t about to strike out if he could help it. The people from Roxxon knew he was desperate and they had the perfect job for him. It was as simple as that sometimes.

The ship docked at the pier and a squad of hired mercenaries moved down the gangplank, all of them scattering out away from him to secure the area. Once everything was fine, they motioned to the others on the ship that they should start bringing down the cargo. Satisfied with everything, Marko hoisted two giant, metal containers onto his shoulders. He walked down the gangplank and deposited the containers on the dock.

“There should be some trucks ready to pick up the shipment,” realized the leader of the mercenaries. “They must be late.”

All of them turned towards a blinding flash of light and shielded their eyes from the glare. Composite stepped out from his hiding place and casually walked towards Juggernaut and his band of mercenaries. He stopped in front of Juggernaut and crossed his arms over his chest, staring up at the giant of a man. Henry was no slouch in that department either though. In his former line of work, he knew men exactly like the Juggernaut. They thought that their size meant they could intimidate and bully people but most of the time they were all talk and very little action.

“You got a problem, kid?” asked Juggernaut.

“I’m afraid I do,” admitted Composite. “You see, if my hunch is correct then what you have in those cases is vibranium, illegally obtained from . . . Wakanda, right?”

“What gives you cause to think that?” asked the leader of the mercenaries. “We’re handling a shipment for Roxxon, nothing more.”

“It’s a lot more,” said Composite. “The people I work for want to make things very clear to people like you. Wakanda and its vibranium aren’t available to the likes of you. Now you can tell your boss to either accept that tragic fact of life or he can take it up with the people I work for.”

“And who do you work for?” asked the mercenary.

“I work for SHIELD, sir,” answered Composite. “That means that all of you are under arrest for smuggling for starters but I’m real sure you and your men have a lot of other outstanding charges.”

“There’s a lot of us and only one of you,” reminded the mercenary, pointing his gun at Composite.

“I didn’t come here alone,” assured Henry, running his fingers along the barrel of the man’s gun and absorbing the metal to create a more durable skin for himself. “Like I said, if you have a problem then you can take it up with SHIELD.”

The rest of the Secret Warriors moved to stand behind their leader. Neon had a ball of light in one of her hands, ready to discharge it at a moment’s notice and use another blinding burst of light to further disorient everyone. Finesse hefted an energy katana in each hand, the soft crackle of the weapons the only noise in the area. Wipeout had already shifted the lower half of his body into his water form while magical energy glowed from Requiem’s eyes and hands. In short, the team made it known that they weren’t afraid of the Juggernaut or the goons Roxxon had hired to guard the shipment.

“Waste ’em, Marko,” ordered the mercenary.

“I don’t beat on kids,” retorted Juggernaut, making absolutely no move towards the Warriors. “I may do alotta bad stuff but I don’t beat up on kids. You wanna waste ’em, do it yourself.”

“Maybe we’ll just waste you instead,” retorted Composite, taking a swing at Juggernaut while he was distracted.

The rest of the Secret Warriors took that as a cue to attack. The mercenaries took it as a cue to do exactly the same and they raised their guns towards the team of SHIELD operatives. Neon tossed the flash grenade she held in their midst and blinded them before they could shoot anyone. This gave Finesse the opening she needed to test out her new weapons. The crackling blades of her energy katanas sliced through the guns that the mercenaries were holding and rendered them scrap metal. Once they were disarmed, Requiem used the concussive force of his magical blasts to blow them away. Composite, however, wasn’t doing so well with his opponent. Juggernaut blocked his initial attack and then backhanded him aside as gently as he could. He knew nothing these kids threw at him could hurt him and he had no intention of hurting them so he was content to let them throw themselves at him until they got tired. Composite quickly got back to his feet and tried another punch, one that was as equally useless as the first one.

“Yer gonna have to do better than that, kid,” warned Juggernaut after another backhand sent Composite to the ground. “I told that runt with the gun that I don’t hit kids. Give it up and make it easy on yourself.”

“We’ve been ordered to take down this whole operation and we’re not going to stop just because of you,” replied Composite.

He looked around and tried to find a tougher material for him to absorb and then watched as Juggernaut held up his hand to block the high-pressure streams of water that rushed towards him thanks to Wipeout. Frankie realized he couldn’t hurt his enemy that way so he opted for a different route. He flowed around Juggernaut like a boa constrictor and then clamped both of his watery hands around Marko’s head, trying to drown him. That tactic would have worked on someone other than the Juggernaut since he didn’t really need to breathe. However, the act of being drowned did wake up a little bit of fire in Cain’s heart and he thrashed out of Wipeout’s attack, spraying Frankie’s body in all directions. The Juggernaut turned and shrugged off some blasts of magical energy from Requiem before clapping his hands together and sending shockwaves at the Secret Warriors that knocked them off their feet and sent them tumbling backwards. Cain hoped that the attack had taken the fight out of his opponents but he felt his anger flare when he saw the mercenaries that still had guns move to pick up his scraps.

“It seems our first mission is a rousing success,” muttered Finesse sarcastically as she pulled a new weapon out of her bag of tricks.

Jeanne used the bo staff like a vaulting pole and flipped herself in the air to avoid the incoming fire from the mercenaries. She pounced on one of them and took him to the ground, turning her attention to the rest of them. She hit one of them in the neck with the end of her staff before dealing him another brutal blow in the ribs with the weapon. She turned and spun the bo upwards, clocking another of the mercenaries up under the jaw with one of its ends before giving him a roundhouse kick to take him out. She turned the bo into a weapon that wasn’t as clumsy and launched the dagger in an overhand toss that hit the remaining mercenary in the shoulder, the weapon piercing the body armor the man wore.

“Where the hell did you get those things?” asked Composite.

“A gift from our handler,” replied Finesse with a grin. “I like.”

She created another throwing dagger and played with it as she approached the downed man with the energy weapon sticking out of his shoulder. Finesse turned and stabbed at Juggernaut’s incoming hand. Marko wrapped his fingers around the weapon, the energy blade not hurting him in the slightest, and picked up Jeanne by her hand.

“Get away from her,” ordered Composite, coming at Juggernaut with anger in his eyes.

Juggernaut set Finesse down as gently as he could and then grabbed Composite, hurling him across the length of the dock and sending him for a rude landing on the containers that housed the illegal vibranium. Marko turned and shut his eyes as they registered the blinding flash of light from Neon’s hands. The attack stunned him long enough for Requiem to teleport onto his back and warm up a blast of magical energy that he intended to put right through Cain’s skull.

“Your brother would like to express his disappointment but he’s not able to,” said Sebastian. “I plan on putting this blast through your head but I’d rather not do that. Please stand down and I think we can work this out.”

“Talkin’ about my brother only made it worse, kid,” said Juggernaut.

The magical energy Requiem employed interacted with the magical energy that gave Cain his abilities, blowing both of them in opposite directions. The Secret Warriors regroup around their field leader and licked their wounds, realizing there was nothing they could do to even scratch the Juggernaut.

“Any suggestions, oh great leader?” inquired Finesse.

“I need something tougher than this,” realized Composite. He looked at the containers of vibranium and got an idea. “You guys distract him for a second. Frankie, get one of these things open.”

Wipeout slipped his hand through the cracks in the container and used the water to short out the mechanized lock on it. Once it was unlocked, he popped open the case to reveal the vibranium inside. Composite touched the vibranium and absorbed its properties before taking another run at Juggernaut. Cain met the young bruiser with a right cross that had more viciousness to it than he would’ve liked. Henry didn’t even feel the blow, the vibranium absorbing all the kinetic impact of Juggernaut’s punch. He hit Juggernaut with a couple of shots in his gut before going up high, stunning the behemoth with an uppercut. The blow sent Cain stumbling backwards but he righted himself and simply stood there, realizing he couldn’t attack Composite.

“Ya got guts, kid,” admitted Juggernaut in between gasps. “Look around though. All those guys are down and unless I’m hard o’ hearin’ then the cops are coming soon. You got what you want. Just look the other way. That’s all I’m askin’.”

Composite stared at Juggernaut and thought about what Cain had said. If he hadn’t have rushed into things then maybe most of this mess could have been avoided. For his first mission, he wasn’t turning out to be such a hot leader. He was used to throwing himself into scraps, had been doing it all his life in fact, but this time he was responsible for other people besides himself. He was going to have to be a lot smarter if he was going to be a leader. Juggernaut never wanted a fight. He was only defending himself against Composite and the rest of the Warriors. It was obvious that they were at a standoff since neither of them could hurt the other as long as Henry was in his vibranium form. Was it right to just let him get away clean though?

“Go,” ordered Composite as the sirens in the distance got closer and closer. “I know the score and I know how you feel. You get out of here and you never hurt anyone again. If you do then we’ll have to come find you and we won’t be nice next time.”

Juggernaut grinned and took off, barreling through whatever hapless objects got in his way. Composite returned to his human form and looked at the unconscious mercenaries that littered the area. He wasn’t sure if what he did was right but it felt right. He and Cain were cut from the same cloth, Henry could tell that much. Maybe it was that kinship that influenced his decision but he couldn’t dwell on it at that moment. They had bigger problems to contend with.

“I think I was wrong about you,” realized Wipeout. “I thought you always played it straight but maybe there’s hope for you yet.”

“I don’t think any of us do well with police,” cut in Finesse.

“We need to stay and explain things,” said Composite as the police cars arrived on the scene. “At the very least, we have to make sure the vibranium gets into the right hands. Nobody mentions Juggernaut. Understood?”

All the Secret Warriors nodded in agreement, some of them more reluctant than others. Composite nodded himself. If this was the type of job that Quake and Fury wanted them to do then Henry figured maybe it was time for them to get what they paid for. He stepped in front of the other Warriors as the police moved to further secure the area. He was ready to take whatever heat he had to at this point. As far as he was concerned, the mission was a success.

SHIELD Safehouse 23

“Can I come in?”

Requiem looked up from where he had finally finished organizing his room to his liking and saw Neon standing in the open doorway. He wordlessly nodded and sat down on his bed, indicating that she should do the same. Neon took the offer and sat with him, watching him bounce lightly on the bed. She couldn’t imagine how it was for him living in a mental institution like he had been.

“You wanted something?” he asked her after an awkward silence.

“You talk to dead people,” said Neon hesitantly. “You were there when Uncle Raymond . . . when he died. Did you hear what he said?”

“Yes,” admitted Requiem after an even more awkward silence. “Don’t go down this road, Stephanie. Please, I’d rather not be used by someone I call a friend.”

“Just tell me what he finished the sentence with,” pleaded Neon quietly.

“Your father’s alive,” stated Requiem.

Stephanie felt herself tear up at Sebastian’s statement. Her biological father was alive? She still had a chance to at least know where she came from? There were so many more questions she wanted to ask him but she knew she couldn’t do that. He was too good of a person to get shouldered with her problems when he had so many of his own already. She couldn’t keep pestering him with questions about what her uncle was telling him now.

“I want to meet him some day,” she told Sebastian. “I just want to know where I came from.”

“We all do,” assured Requiem, cupping her chin with his hand and gently tilting it upwards so she could look him in the eye. “The thing that everyone has in common is that they die. What’s different about people is how they choose to live and what they do while they’re alive. It’s a person’s life that defines them, not their death.”

“Thank you,” whispered Neon before pulling away from him and retreating to the doorway. “You think I’ll meet him or my mom some day?”

“I sincerely hope so,” answered Requiem with a smile. “We have to stick together, Stephanie. We’re the only family we have now.”

Neon nodded her head and waved goodbye before closing the door behind her as she left. Sebastian Druid laid back on his bed and looked around his new room, taking in all the comforts it afforded him that his previous residence didn’t. He closed his eyes in an attempt to get some sleep and for a few brief moments, the cacophony of voices in his head subsided and allowed him to drift into sleep. He was never prone to dreaming but on that night, images of Stephanie Sydney filled his mind.

Next Issue: The Anarchy Effect.