Thunderbolt #2 - Operation Jailbird
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Black Oak Women’s Correctional Facility, Colorado
Joystick lashed out as she reached Melissa’s position only for her target to slide under the blow and hook her arm under the attacker’s elbow before slamming her to the floor. Snarling in anger Joystick retaliated with a swift kick to Melissa’s shins, the blow doing nothing but to increase the anger of her opponent. With an almost inhuman scream Melissa punched Joystick in the throat, the blow causing her opponent to cough and choke. Blinking once, twice Melissa; backed off, mouth open in shock as she looked down at her opponent.
“Janice are you…umph” Before she could finish her sentence Joystick lashed out, her kick landing so hard that Melissa felt one of her ribs crack. In the seconds she took to recover Joystick had flipped to her feet and was running towards her, a makeshift knife clutched in her hand. Reacting Melissa moved too slowly to completely neutralise the strike, the blade skimming across the surface of her arm but missing her neck, the target Joystick had been aiming at.
“I can't believe you fell for that trick.” Joystick snorted as she began to rain blow after blow before being slammed backwards as Melissa pushed back, the blow causing her attacker to stumble backwards. “Just like I can’t believe a goody two-shoes like you would end up here.”
“Then you don’t know me at all Joystick.” Melissa replied in a cold voice before grabbing Joystick by the neck and threw her into the wall, the younger woman staggering backwards from the impact.
”Sure I do.” Joystick groaned as she turned around and threw a punch at Melissa only for her foe to step backwards, causing the blow to go wide. “You're a piece of trailer trash who thought she was a badass, but always hid behind the skirts of bigger women when things got bad. Not to mention the only person who would ever suck face with Baron Zemo.”
“Wrong.” Melissa replied in a sinister voice as she picked up the blade Joystick has dropped and stabbed it into her foes hand. “Songbird was an act; Screaming Mimi was the real deal.” She added before pushing Joystick to the mat, her foes squirming to escape as Melissa’s hands closed round her throat. Seconds later she blacked out as her opponent got to her feet and looked around at the ring of guards and inmates. “Anyone else want to step in the ring for the two seconds it’ll take me to kick you back out?!” She yelled, her words echoing around the completely silent room.
“Gold!!” One of the guards yelled. “Warden saw your little fight, says you earned some time in the Advanced Measures Wing.” She added, her hand resting on the pistol mounted on her belt.
“No need for that.” Melissa stated as the guard standing behind her raised her pistol and fired, a thick dart stabbing into Melissa’s neck.
“Oh we wouldn't say that.” The first guard announced as Melissa fell to the floor next to Joystick. “Bring her, leave the other one. She either wakes up or dies where she lies, the Warden has no more interest in her.” She added as the second guard grabbed Melissa by the hair and dragged her towards the exit. “As you were ladies.” She ordered the rest of the inmates in the hall, the first few already stalking towards Joystick’s body. “Make sure she gets the welcome back to general population she deserves.”
**
Burton Canyon, Colorado
Abe spun round just as the staff came slashing down at his head, his gauntleted hand grabbing the weapon and halting it’s strike before pushing his attacker back. Cocking its head the figure vanished right before his eyes.
“There’s no point hiding.” Abe told his attacker. “My armour has some of the most advanced sensors on the planet installed into it.” He added before firing a burst of mercy rounds towards the doorway, the majority hitting wood and plasterboard with the rest bouncing off the concealed attacker. Silently the assassin returned fire with a concussive wave of sound, the blast sending Abe skidding back into a cabinet, glass and wood showering over him. Retaliating Abe fired another burst of mercy rounds at his attacker, only to see his target duck into the lounge and out of his line of fire.
That blast, it sounded like one of Shocker’s gauntlets, but it’s not him, he isn’t this quick and he never used a staff before. Abe mused as he ran into the lounge, his sensors working overtime to locate his opponent.
“Abner Jenkins.” A voice crackled above him causing Abe to look up, his sensors failing to detect the speaker. “This doesn't concern you.”
“What is this!!” Abe yelled as something came rolling across the carpet towards him. Looking down Abe swore as the pumpkin grenade his attacker had dropped exploded into a cloud of thick green fog, his assailant pouncing onto the sofa before lunging at MACH VI. Without thinking Abe retaliated, activating his armour’s taser only to see his foe cut through the wires and slam his claws into his chest plate.
“Don’t pretend you don’t know,” The attacker snarled as Abe pushed him away, blood staining the metallic blades sticking out of the assailant’s knuckles.
“I don’t, someone seriously needs to fill in the blanks for me!” Abe yelled as he fired a pair of missiles at his attacker only to see the projectiles veer off from their target and impact on the walls. Seconds later an unseen force picked his armour up and sent him slamming out through the door into the street. “For starters who are you?” He groaned.
“Oh you know who I am.” The figure announced as his silhouette caught alight before expanding outwards, the flames setting the whole building alight. “Stay away from this Abner Jenkins, she will only destroy you.” The figure clad in blue armour and a skull like mask hissed, pink sonic wings sprouting from his back. “And don’t follow me, next time our paths cross I won’t be so merciful.” He added as he soared off towards the mountains on the other side of the town.
Oh I know who you look like. And who you sound like, and while you may be using the same gear and name as him you can’t be the man who wore them originally. Abe thought as he got to his feet before looking down at the blood leaking out through the holes in his armour. Groaning he tracked his attacker as he disappeared into the horizon before falling to the floor. “MACH VI activate field medical routine, anticoagulant sub programme.” Abe ordered his suit before hearing the click of a safety being removed from a handgun.
“Tell it to do anything else Mr. Jenkins and you’ll be fixing a hole in your head.” A woman announced.
“Let me guess SHIELD?” Abe asked.
“Agent Cooper, Committee of Super Human Affairs.” The woman replied. “I need to talk to you about Operation Jailbird; I need to talk to you about Melissa.”
**
Abe took a cautious sip from the bottle of water Agent Valerie Cooper had given him. It had taken five minutes for her to detail what had happened inside the house and another two to reach the motel room she was staying in. And while a lot of talking had been done in that seven minutes not a lot of information had been shared.
“So what do you want to talk about first?” Valerie asked Abe as she pushed a pile of laundry off the bed.
“Start where you want, just tell me something about what’s going on.” Abe stated as he ran his hand over the slash mark in his armour, the suit standing like a sentinel in the corner of the room.
“The CSA has been under attack from a mysterious figure wearing equipment stolen from our vaults for the last year.” Valerie announced. “We still don't know who it is or what they want but we've managed to rule out some possibilities.”
“You’re talking about Monroe right?” Abe asked.
“Yes we exhumed his body and it was untouched. He is not the figure wearing the Scourge armour we designed for him, although whoever is using it is matching his mannerisms and voice almost perfectly.”
“And what does this new Scourge have to do with Melissa?” Abe asked as a knock sounded on the door prompting Valerie to slide off the bed and peer through the peak hole. Smiling she opened the door and a massively well built man wearing a business suit and shades walked in and whispered something in Valerie’s ear.
“What? What happened?” Abe asked as the man walked over and shot him a smile before removing his dark glasses. “Erik? What the hell are you doing here?”
“The same thing as you Abe.” Erik replied. “It’s great to see you again by the way, you feeling okay?”
”Not really, came home, got attacked by an assassin.” Abe deadpanned. “Still it beats every day I was the Beetle so it’s all relative. Now somebody please tell me what’s going on?”
“Hey we’ll tell you but I’ll warn you it isn't pretty.” Erik announced as he sat down on the bed. “A few months ago I made parole, I was out for a grand total of five minutes when the CSA swooped in and grabbed me.”
“We would have asked but we time was limited.” Valerie stated as she shut the door. “Many of the operations we were running had been ruined by this new Scourge. This one remained secure until today; he must have tracked the correspondence Melissa was sending us via long range sonic pulses about Black Oak Prison.”
“Black Oak, I was there this morning.” Abe told them, “Melissa looked as if every con in the place was beating nine bells of hell out of her.”
“That was the plan.” Valerie replied, her words causing Abe to shoot her a look of disgust. “Melissa agreed to it before you ask, but we had to know what was going on inside the facility. You’ll understand when you see these…” She added before walking over to the dressed and removing a piece of plastic equipped with a thumb print reader. Running her hand over the scanner Valerie handed Abe the device, images of broken and bruised corpses flashing across the screen.
“These all came out of Black Oak?” Abe asked as he forced himself to keep watching the images on the screen.
“Yeah.” Erik answered. “That was all I needed to get on board with helping these guys. Some of those girls are Lindy’s age. Or were, but if that doesn't convince you there is more.” He added as the last image left the screen and a buffering ring appeared before a whole new set of images appeared.
“I think I’m going to be sick, they look as if they've been…well I don't know what I can call it.” Abe gasped before handing the screen back to Valerie. “What happened to them?”
“According to records they all went sanctioned under some kind of ‘Advanced Measures’ Initiative. Necropsy suggests while they were they were genetically altered. I’m not sure if what we've seen was the desired effect or not, our mole in the prison waste disposal system couldn't tell us although he’s currently working on getting into the specialized wing holding the inmates.”
“And you sent Melissa there!!” Abe yelled his fists balled and ready for action. “What were you thinking?!”
“That whoever is behind this needs to be brought to justice.” Valerie answered.
“Anything else?” Abe asked angrily.
“That it’s time to end this,” Valerie stated, “before it’s too late.”
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