GeneTech

Once, GeneTech had its own personal group of superheroes, however unstable they may have been. They provided security for the research and development firm but now, they were gone. Following a skirmish with the New Warriors, Psionex opted to leave, choosing to move to the Xavier Institute to better learn how to use their powers.

The move came at an inopportune time for GeneTech, for little would they know that today, just shortly after Psionex’s departure, they had to deal with a superhuman break-in.

Two massive, scale-covered hands punched through the wall of the facility. His fingers wrapped around the edges and he pulled his arms apart, tearing a large opening. The amphibious creature called the Abomination stepped back and gestured for his compatriots to enter first.

“You’re too kind, Emil,” said the Fixer, stepping in first. Following him was the mutated creature known as Tiger Shark.

“What are we looking for?” asked the Abomination.

The Fixer held a small PDA in his hand. It displayed a map of the facility and a bright red, blinking dot in the corner. “It’s down this way,” he said, pointing to the left and leading his fellow Thunderbolts through the facility.

“STOP!”

The shout came from two guards, both with their weapons drawn. The Fixer sighed. “Really, do you boys want to mess with us?”

“Put your hands on your head!” shouted one of the guards.

“As you wish…” said the Fixer and he snapped his fingers. Tiger Shark advanced on the two guards and they responded by opening fire. Tiger Shark dodged past the bullets, charging forward with incredible speed. He snarled, claws bared and leapt.

The claws tore through the stomach of the first guard like a hot knife through butter. Tiger Shark ripped the man’s intestine out and brandished it at the other guard. In horror, the second guard dropped his gun and began to run in the opposite direction. Tiger Shark leaped forward and landed on the man’s back. He wrapped the intestine of the first guard around his partner’s neck and pulled, strangling him until he stopped struggling and fell limp. Tiger Shark looked at the Fixer and Abomination with his toothy grin.

“And here I hoped this would be a bloodless operation,” said the Fixer. “Ah well, c’est la vie. Let’s keep moving.”

After a bit more walking, they came to a sealed door. The Abomination cracked his knuckles but the Fixer caused him to pause by raising a hand and shaking his head. “This part requires a bit more finesse, Mr. Blonksy.”

“As you wish,” said Blonsky, moving to the side.

The Fixer examined the door’s security mechanism. A number pad with a slot at the top. “Keycard swipe followed by PIN code.” He scoffed. “Pfft! Child’s play. I’d heard GeneTech had gotten quite a few government contracts in recent years, but evidently not enough to beef up their security.”

One of the Fixer’s mechanical arms removed a small device from his tech pack and handed it to him. The Fixer took a card from it, attached via a cord to the device, and slid it into the slot. On the display screen, four sets of numbers began running through. One by one, each of the columns froze on a single digit. The device beeped to indicate it had deciphered the PIN. The Fixer entered the four digits into the keypad. The light turned green and the airlock opened with a hiss.

Inside, the Fixer marveled at the assembled databanks. “This is like Christmas, my friends,” he said.

“What is all this?” asked the Abomination.

“As I said, GeneTech has become pretty popular in recent years,” said the Fixer. “Stark is very cautious about which defense contracts he’ll accept—absolutely nothing biological. Oscorp is basically a footnote these days. Worthington’s company has now become the X-Corporation, essentially a non-profit entity. GeneTech is one of the few outfits that’s willing to accept contracts for genetic research—and one of the few who’s able to do it well.”

“What do they work on?” asked the Abomination.

“Our fearless leader has discovered they’ve been working on some top-secret government contracts, possibly a reboot of Operation: REBIRTH,” said the Fixer. “But they’re involved in a lot of dirty stuff to get to that point, including housing some very interesting research specimens.”

The Fixer walked over to one of the sealed chambers. Once again, he deciphered the code in the same way he had on the door. The chamber opened and inside was a glass tube with some sort of sludge, red and black swirling together but not mixing.

“What’s that?”

“That, my fishy friend, is what we came for,” said the Fixer. “I’m sure you’ve seen it before, but not like this. Instead, you probably remember it as Carnage.”

DARK KNIGHTS

Part I: Statement of Purpose

By Dino Pollard

Castle Zemo

Once it was Stormfront-1, a refurbished AIM facility located in the North Sea. Now, with the aid of the three moonstones he stole from Karla Sofen, Baron Zemo transformed the facility into a massive castle, located between dimensions. To appease his own vanity, the complex had been renamed Castle Zemo.

Helmut Zemo stepped out of the shower and looked at his scarred body in the full-length mirror. In Counter-Earth, he had taken control of his counterpart’s body, which had been untarnished. But since returning to Earth and discovering his own conscience, Zemo, in a moment of penance, scarred his body once more.

Zemo’s plan had been to utilize both the Thunderbolts and the Masters of Evil, manipulating them with the aid of Moonstone and the Fixer to achieving his ultimate goal—in order to save the world, Zemo must rule it. Utilizing various psychic superhumans, Zemo had attempted to control the minds of all.

That plan had backfired, thanks to the machinations of the Red Skull, who conquered reality on his own with the aid of the Cosmic Cube. Reshaping it to his will, the Skull resurrected Zemo’s father, Heinrich, and was left to be tortured by the man who sired him. The Thunderbolts freed him and shortly after, the Skull was defeated by the Avengers.

Reality had been restored but at a cost—all the psychics Zemo had captured, the equipment he had amassed—it was all gone. The Skull’s final insult. Or perhaps Moonstone’s. She had been working against Zemo from the start and Zemo, in turn, had kept a watchful eye on her. In order to find him in this new reality, she had implanted the moonstone she stole from John Jameson in his body.

What Karla failed to realize was that her stones were sentient and through the one she left him, he was able to communicate with hers. He convinced them to rebel against their mistress and to merge with him. Now, he had the power of three moonstones, more than sufficient to aid him in his goals.

With a thought, golden energy swirled around his body, clothing him in the black and purple costume he had become so accustomed to wearing, complete with a broadsword sheathed at his hip. He gestured with his hand and a portal opened up from his extravagant bedroom. Once he stepped through the portal, Zemo found himself standing in a large dining room with a long table. Robotic servants created by the Fixer served the four men and one woman who sat at the table.

“Good morning, my Thunderbolts,” he said.

Two of the Thunderbolts were also perhaps the longest-lasting members—Melissa Gold, Songbird and Abe Jenkins, MACH-IV. Abe had been working with Hawkeye’s Redeemers but the archer was gone now and Abe ended up with the Thunderbolts once more. Melissa, on the other hand, had always remained with the team, even in their darkest hours. There was something to be said for her commitment, but her morality could prove troublesome, as could Abe’s. Fortunately for Zemo, both possessed strong wills, yet not strong enough to evade his control.

Donnie Gill, Blizzard, was an interesting addition. Never much of a powerhouse, always something of a joke. He fell somewhere between Songbird and MACH-IV. As did Chen Lu, the Radioactive Man, although his intelligence made him more difficult to control than the others.

The fifth member of this team was Andreas Von Strucker, son of Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker and, with his late sister Andrea, known as the mutant criminal Fenris. With her death, he had taken up a new role—that of the Swordsman. He was a late addition and a bit of a wild card, but his hatred of his father would make him a valuable asset.

“Where’s Ebersol?” asked Songbird.

Ever observant, Zemo couldn’t help a smile beneath his mask. “He has some work to attend to for me. He’ll join us shortly.”

“And what’s our first move?” asked MACH-IV.

“Since the Skull’s defeat, we have two other threats to concentrate on and both of them are connected,” said Zemo. “The first, obviously, is Baron Strucker and Hydra. His organization has persisted for far too long and it is time we took the fight to him.”

Zemo looked to the Swordsman who smiled back. Going after his father was the entire reason he joined the Thunderbolts. Zemo continued. “But Strucker has not been working alone. Instead, he has been working with a faction of the United States government.”

“What do you mean?” asked the Radioactive Man.

“I have discovered information that an organization known only as Control has been manipulating events regarding the superhuman community for quite some time,” said Zemo. “Fanning the flames of dissent in superhuman ranks, providing funding to heroes and villains alike, funding groups that opposed superhumans, and other such activities.”

“Why?” asked MACH-IV. “What would the point be?”

“As their name implies, the point is control,” said Zemo. “Manipulate the superhumans, direct them against each other, there is no way they can present an organized front. Thus, no way they can overthrow the government. By crippling Strucker and removing him from the equation, we deal a blow to Control. Perhaps a critical one.”

“What makes you so sure we can even disarm Hydra?” asked the Radioactive Man. “SHIELD has been trying for years with no luck, as have various superheroes.”

“We’re different, we know how Strucker thinks,” said Zemo.

Ravencroft

A mental asylum located in the state of New York, quite a few famous inhabitants have passed through these gates. The tower guard kept a vigilant watch, rifle in hand as the spotlights circled around. Like many nights, it was quiet.

“Nice night, huh?”

The guard turned in shock to see a man in a black, skintight costume leaning against the tower’s rail. There were several white circles on the front of his mask, indicating his name and he loudly chewed on a piece of gum.

The guard scrambled to remove the safety from his rifle and the masked man spat the gum. With the guard’s mouth open, the assassin’s aim was perfect and the wad of gum became lodged in the guard’s throat. He gasped for air, before he collapsed on the ground and slowly choked to death.

“Was that necessary, Bullseye?”

Bullseye reached for his ear, tapping the earpiece beneath his mask to communicate with his teammate. “Nah, but it was fun.”

“Zemo said he wanted this to go smoothly.”

“And it is, do you see any blood? Do you hear any alarms? I don’t.”

“Just get down here already.”

Bullseye descended the steps inside the tower. When he emerged from the bottom, he saw a woman with long, blonde hair and dressed in skintight leather. He whistled at the sight of her.

“You’re lookin’ hot, Wyngarde,” he said.

“Pig,” said Lady Mastermind. They walked towards the front entrance now past the main gate. Bullseye held up a paper clip but Lady Mastermind lifted her hand to restrain him. “I’ll take care of this.”

Using her ability to create illusions, the guard at the front gate saw two doctors at Ravencroft with the appropriate identification. He nodded to them and they entered the front door. Behind the front desk, the guard sat up and looked at them both.

“Can I help you?”

“Doctors Wyngarde and Lester, here to see Inmate #361199204,” said Lady Mastermind.

“Just a second…” said the guard. He entered the number into the computer and his eyes widened when the result came back. “Are you sure you’re here to see that one?”

“Can I just kill him?” asked Bullseye in a hushed voice.

“It’s a little hard to keep the illusion going with you sounding like a bloody sociopath!” she hissed back. She smiled at the guard and said, “yes, that’s him. He’s been transferred under our care.”

The guard shrugged. “Thought they were gonna move him somewhere else, said he couldn’t be helped.”

“One last shot,” said Lady Mastermind.

The guard stood and led them down a corridor of closed off cells. Each one had strong, reinforced glass allowing the inmates to look out. They began to pound on the glass when they saw Lady Mastermind and Bullseye and Regan Wyngarde smiled a little. She chose not to extend the illusion to the other inmates. No one would believe them anyway and it amused her to watch them behave in such a way.

“Pipe down!” shouted the guard. “Dunno what’s gotten into them today…”

One of the cells was darkened and the guard stood before them both. “Here he is. You want some chairs or something?”

“Nah, I think we’re done here,” said Bullseye, throwing the paper clip with the deadly precision that had become his trademark. It went right through the guard’s eye, becoming lodged in his brain. Lady Mastermind rolled her eyes.

“You are such a child,” she said. She took the keys off the guard and opened the cell door. She walked in slowly and in the corner, she could make out the scrawny, red haired man who sat in the darkness on the bed.

“And just what the hell do you want?” he asked.

“Cletus Kasady” she said with a smile. “I’ve just become your new best friend.”

LIGHTNING STRIKES

I figured I’d give a bit of an explanation. This issue takes place after the conclusion of the Fourth Reich story-arc over in Avengers. Originally, I had hoped to release this issue after that conclusion, but my esteemed co-writer Derrick Ferguson has been pretty busy and rather than hold off on what I’m doing in Thunderbolts, I decided to just go ahead and release it any way. However, I’ve kept it as spoiler-free as possible.

Hope you guys all enjoy this new direction for Zemo and his team. I’ve got some long-term plans in mind.