(Picking from @batkevin74's first 2 chapters)

Anthony roared through the streets, weaving his way on the hoverbike through the New York streets.

What the stark was Alex up to?

Anthony looked over his shoulder to see he’d given all the soldiers the slip. The last thing he saw was an iron clad fist, echoed by the mechanically barked statement “Traffic violation!”

The next thing he knew he was groggily sitting up in the back of a prisoner transport. He looked over to see a short man with dark hair and a scruffy beard grinning at him.

"Where are we?" Anthony spat semi congealed blood and a tooth out onto the floor

The man answered back in a thick New Latverian accent," We are on our way to our executions, our trials occurred while you were out."

He pulled himself up to the metal bench along the wall," Then why are you grinning?"

"Because my friend, you have the luck of being caged with the great Anatoly Vanko." He makes a grand gesture and struck a pose.

Anthony looks curiously, "Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

Anatoly looks annoyed, "Why has no one in this god forsaken country heard of me? I am the greatest escape artist in the world!"

Anthony grins, "Apparently you ain't that great."

Anatoly's eyes narrow, "Then perhaps I should demonstrate."

The heavy shackles on Anatoly drop to the floor with a theatrical clank. He reaches over using a small sliver of metal to pop open Anthony's. He then lays on the floor, listening to it. Anthony started to ask him what he was doing but was hushed by Anatoly as he discovered a panel on the floor with a shoddy weld. He took his metal sliver and shredded through the weak seem and yanked up the panel. He looked up to Anthony, "We're in luck, a hover truck. No wheels to get caught under."

Anthony watched as Anatoly slipped out asking, "Are you coming or not?"

Anthony slipped out grabbing on to the underside of the truck and watches for a signal from Anatoly. After a few seconds Anatoly waves for him to drop down. The two fall for several feet before Anatoly catches the side of an over pass and then catches Anthony as he just misses the edge. They then wait for a moment for a truck to pass under and they drop on its trailer. They quickly climb down when the truck stops to refuel.

Anatoly takes a short bow, "As I said, I am the best."

"I almost died."

Anatoly waves it off, "Bah! Americans always so worried about what could have happened. You're alive and not being executed, this is a good thing, no?”

“Would you believe it wasn’t me?” said Anthony. As they walked Anthony asks, "How was I tried while unconscious?"

Anatoly replied, "Since the riots began, the Iron army has been promising swift justice to the so-called terrorists. You were in the luck when you were tried for only speeding, they did not really look at you otherwise you would be dead! Anatoly recognises you as the face on all the billboards yes?"

Anthony stopped, "What were you arrested for?"

Anatoly pulled down his collar to reveal a spider tattoo on his neck, "I tell them that I was not a member of the Spiders. In fact it is completely different design, but would they listen?”

Anthony nodded," Gotta hand it to the tin men, at least they're consistent." Anthony stopped and looked around “Umm where the stark are we?”

Read this first

http://www.comicvine.com/forums/fan-fic/8/marvel-iron-age-the-thanos-sanction-prologue/689184/#7

Doomstadt, New Latveria- Shield command center

Holland stands before 3 large view screens where he sees Stryfe, Doom and Carol Danvers discussing the coming of a being known as Thanos. As the three of them come to agreement on delivering forces to New Latveria a light flashes behind Holland. He turns to see the Traveler with 3 cloaked figures behind him.

He clears his throat and states," Well, glad to see everyone's decided to not kill each other for the moment but you're apparently not seeing the whole picture."

Carol replies, "You've shown us the ramifications already."

The Traveler shakes his head, "No I showed you the results of this war, you can't comprehend the full ramifications of what happens if you fail."

Doom interrupts, "Who are you to judge what we comprehend."

The Traveler narrows his eyes toward Doom's screen, "Okay, long story short. A while back Thanos had this thing called the infinity gauntlet, which when combined with the 5 infinity gems gave its wearer near omnipotence. Thanos used it to wipe out half the life in the universe, after a huge battle they managed to get the gauntlet away from him and undo the damage and the powers that be made it so the gems could never be used in unison again. Thanos has found a way to change that. Problem is when he does make them work together again it'll tear a galaxy sized hole in the fabric of reality and basically erase the entire omniverse."

Holland and the leaders on the screens look at him stunned by the off hand manner he'd used to explain things as he continued, "Currently Thanos has the gauntlet and the power gem, the other 4 are here on Earth, 1 somewhere in Northern California, 1 In Chicago, 1 right here in New Latveria. Don't know where the last one is but you can be damned sure he does and he's got an army coming for them. He's going to try to take them all in one fell swoop and you have about 2 hours to prepare for it."

Outer hall of the Command center

Agent Fry meets up with 7, David, Sam and Molly as they arrive in their newly acquired Shield uniforms. David had simply forced his symbiotic suit to mimic and Sam was used to uniforms such as this only Molly and 7 seemed uncomfortable. 7 looked to Fry, "must I wear this?"

Fry shot back, "It'll help us distinguish you from the other Creeds, which will make it slightly less likely for you to die."

7 nods as David chimes in, "I don't know if I like being reputable."

Fry grins, "Who said you were?"

Back in the control room all the view screens aside from Carol's go offline as she asks the Traveler, "Who are your buddies?"

The Traveler looks back, "Oh them well I needed to keep their identities secret from our armored associates for the time being but one of them is going to be your field general."

Carol glares at him, "We know how to fight a war."

One of the hooded figures steps forward and reveals himself to be Ares, "I know better."

The Traveler looks up to Carol, "I have other matters to attend to but he's all yours for the time being, just keep the Iron goons from finding out who he is."

He then tosses Ares a small device, "That's an image inducer with a TP blocker, keep it on at all times until this is done." He then gives Carol a salute and disappears along with the other cloaked figures.

The 3 then appear in Nevada where Jason and Bill discard their cloaks. The Traveler looks to Bill, "How would you rate your dragon slaying abilities?"

Bill looks at him warily,"I'd say fairly high, it does not matter. If I die you have my oath I will take many of them with me."

The Traveler nods, "You will have back up, you just need to stop them here long enough for the Iron soldiers to get here. Feel free to use them as cannon fodder."

He then looks to Jason, "We have one more stop to make then we'll get on with the mission."

Just outside Doomstadt

The Shield forces gather fully armed as Doom's soldiers and several regiments of Iron soldiers arrive. A tall man walks out in front of the gathered forces and introduces himself as General John Aaron, and informed them he would be leading the battle. He quickly divided up the forces and sent them to where they'd be most effective. Some grumbled about receiving orders from a man none of them had ever heard of but he had an air of authority around him and it was as if they all instinctively knew there was none better to lead them to war.

Beneath Ferrum HQ

Cutthroat listens to his orders through his comm then looks out on his regiment and calls his lieutenant under the Iron Hall, "Go."

He hits a trigger blowing large holes in the floors of both buildings and the Stalker army floods in and begin tearing through as more come out of the sewers to spread chaos throughout the city.

5 miles west of Doomstadt

Damos answers his comm, "Yes father." He then looks to his army and waves them on.

Sky above Elko, Nevada

The Makluan clones charge through the air at top speed spraying flames and acidic mists on everything they pass until suddenly several of them are struck down by powerful bolts of lightning. Lash looks over from his mount and sees a lone figure hovering in the air holding a war hammer over his head. Beta Ray Bill looks back at his enemy and sees Lash on the largest of the Makluan beasts and aims Stormbreaker. lightening tears through the creature sending Lash toward the ground but he is caught by one of the others.

He glares at Bill and orders, "Attack!"

(To Be Continued)

@batkevin74 Tag you're it.

Chicago, Ferrum HQ

The chairman sits at his desk while listening to an intelligence report. The soldier reads aloud, "Apparently the Stalkers have abandoned Sinister, in fact we've completely lost track of them."

The Chairman interrupts him, "How many have gone missing?"

The soldier clears his throat,"All of them Sir."

Stryfe's eyes go wide, "There are thousands of them, how the hell did you lose all of them?"

The soldier nervously answers, "The last reported sighting of them indicates that they may have been teleported somewhere, tracking suggests they are more than likely off planet."

Stryfe stands towering over the now visibly frightened soldier, "And I'm just being told of this now?!"

The soldier now trying desperately not to burst into tears, "I'm sorry Sir, I just learned of it myself today."

The Chairman sighs and sits back down, "Any news on the whereabouts of Essex?"

The soldier slowly answers, "He is definitely in hiding but not from us. Reports indicate he's completely terrified of something called Thanos. We're working on finding out what that is exactly."

The soldier stops reading when he sees the chairman's expression, for the first time in this soldiers recollection the Chairman was frightened.

The Geofront

Doom inspects his troops followed by his General who asks, "Who can be so powerful that even my lord fears him?"

Doom snatches the man up by the throat," I fear nothing."

He then drops him, " Fear isn't the issue, but one cannot be too careful when it comes to him."

Doom sits in his throne, "I want every weapon on this island fully operational at optimum levels, and you will triple check them a single misfire and I will execute 5 of you at random. Am I understood?"

The men all bow and say in unison,"Yes my Lord."

Doomstadt, New Latveria

Augustus Holland sits across a table from Agent Fry, "How big was the fleet?"

Fry looked up," At least 30 ships according to Molly they weren't friendly either, she said it was death incarnate."

Holland sighs, "Yup sounds about right."

Fry chimes in, "I'm sure we've seen worse."

Holland takes a serious tone, " No, we really haven't."

Suddenly a young agent enters, " The Supreme Commander of the Iron Army just called, he wants a word with Col. Danvers."

Holland grunts, "Probably wants a status report on Doom."

The agent replies," Dr. Doom is on the line too, they want to call a Summit."

Holland and Fry share a stunned expression as Fry states, "This can't be a good sign."

Thanos' command ship near the moon

An insectoid creature steps up to Thanos, "We've made the required improvements to the animals and have been able to reproduce them at a quicker pace than the Earthling was capable of, your army is ready for deployment whenever you're ready master."

Thanos grins, "Give Damos the coordinates, we'll be sending them within an hour."

Minsk, Belarus 40 minutes later

Damos stands at attention as thousands of Creeds appear before him. He steps up to them, "When I give the order kill everything between here and Doomstadt."

Sewers of Chicago

Cutthroat listens to a status report telling him the best places to infiltrate Ferrum HQ and the newly constructed Chicago Iron Hall, he looks on the hundreds of Creeds and other Stalkers waiting for the order, "Okay boys, on my mark, rip this city apart."

The Rocky Mountains

Lash sits in a large saddle on the back of the largest of the 70 Makluan clones as he looks out on his legion of Stalkers and awaits the order to wipe out everything west of these mountains. He stares impatiently at his communicator and sighs.

(To be continued)

@batkevin74 All set up and ready to go

Gotham City 9:45 pm

Joe Williams walks out of a bar and heads toward home when someone behind him yells, "Hands in the air man."

Joe turns and lets out a huge sigh of relief, "Oh just a mugger."

The mugger looks indignant, "Give me your wallet."

Joe chuckles, "Go away."

The mugger pulls a gun causing Joe to laugh harder,"You think that scares me?"

The mugger now infuriated, "I'm serious."

Joe shakes his head," You must be new in town."

Joe walks on with the mugger following gun still drawn when someone slams into the gunman. Joe again turns to see Nightwing, "Awe I was hoping for Huntress."

Nightwing looks over, "What?"

Joe grins insincerely, "Hey, you're cool too but Huntress," Joe puts his hands out forming the shape of a shapely woman.

Nightwing sighs, "Well you got me there."

10:15 pm

Parking Enforcement Officer Bob Stanley walked his route when he stumbles upon a larger truck like vehicle shaped like a ketchup bottle, he notices the meter hasn't been fed but since this is Gotham he decides to try to get the ticket out and be gone before what ever freak whose driving this thing gets back.

As he places the ticket on the windshield the owners arrives pointing some kind of weapon at Bob, "What to you think you're doing?"

Bob nervously turns to see the Condiment King pointing his ketchup gun at him. Bob bursts into laughter, "Whew, for a minute there I thought you might be the Joker."

Condiment King looked angry as he shot Bob with his gun covering the man in ketchup, Bob looking at his just dry cleaned uniform with the ketchup and promptly shoots Condiment King with his taser and calls for a patrolmen to come pick him up and has his vehicle towed for spite.

10:52 pm

A man named Todd Newman stands with a line of hostages as the Jokers henchmen force them into Joker's strange deathtrap. When the armed henchman gets to Todd something in the man snaps, "Screw you, I ain't doing it."

The henchman shouts, "Move or I shoot."

Todd glares, "Then shoot me, but I am not being bait in another villain deathtrap, this is the eighth time this month and I'm done."

The henchman no visibly angry shoves him, "Why are you so eager? We all know Batman is probably going to kick all of your asses in about 20 minutes any way."

The henchman states," Not this time..." Todd interrupts in a mocking tone," This times different, boss has a plan, blah blah blah. We've heard this all before, villain guy has a plan to do something retarded, he does his little deathtrap thing gives his speech then Batman or one of his guys beats the crap out of them."

The henchman looks exasperated, "Just get in the damn thing, The bat ain't even gonna know we're here until...."

He looks at Todd who points behind him with a condescending expression as the henchman turns his head,"Crap."

As Batman goes about beating up the other henchmen Todd looks around at the other hostages, "Screw this I'm moving to Metropolis."

11: 27 pm

Ted Simms and Mark Thompson sit on a roof top where they sneak in a cigarette. They hear a crashing noise and look over to see Batgirl pulling someone in a costume out of a smashed car. Ted asks, "Who's that?"

Mark looks closer, "I have no idea."

Ted thinks for a second, "oh he's that Quilt guy, Psycho Quilt I think or Crazy Blanket or something."

Mark looks over, "That's stupid, what does he do steal blankets from grandmas to cover the city?"

Ted chuckles, "Would that really be that weird in this town?"

Mark adds, "Batgirl is hot."

Ted looks to her, "Meh, Catwoman's hotter."

Mark looks doubtful, "You've never seen Catwoman."

Ted shoots back, "Did too."

"Whatever dude, I bet you've never even seen Robin." Mark chuckled as Ted's face turned red.

11: 54 pm

Arkham Asylum guard break room

An older guard steps in with a rookie trainee as another guard stands in front of a large dry erase board. The older guard, Ed Smith looks over, "The Bat just left."

The other guard grabs his marker, " Okay, who had today?"

Ed grins, "That would be me."

The guard at the board, Tom Willis looks over and grabs a bag to toss to Ed. The rookie, Bill Watkins looks up,"What's that for?"

Ed sits down, "Its the catch and escape pool. We have running bets on when these guys are going to escape and how long it will take before the Bat drags them back."

The rookie looks stunned, "Shouldn't we be focusing on keeping them locked away?"

Tom and Ed laugh as Tom answers," Well, that is the goal, but lets be honest here. We're in a building full of evil super geniuses, several with super powers. Literally the only time we actually hold one for more than a month is either when they're planning something horrible or the Bat puts them in a body cast."

Ed stops laughing and starts to look nervous," How long has it been since Poison Ivy escaped?"

Tom's smile disappears, "About 2 mo......"

Tom is interrupted by a sudden explosion, "Crap, I had tomorrow."

Tucson, Arizona

The Traveler stands on a roof top along with Bill and Ares looking down on a large man cornered by 4 Iron soldiers. One of the soldiers orders the man, "Surrender freak."

The large man roars back defiantly, "Make me tin man."

On the roof Ares looks down," Can't be, he's the spitting image."

The Traveler steps to the ledge, "I know, its weird isn't it? Well war god shall we go meet your nephew?"

Ares leaps down as Bill follows, the Traveler beat them both to the ground via teleportation. They land between the large man and the soldiers. The Traveler looks back,"You're Jason right?"

The large man nods as the Travler points to Ares, he's your uncle, I'll explain later. We should probably deal with this first."

The soldiers raise their repulsers but the one on the lead takes Stormbreaker to the face. Two more charge forward only for Ares to slice through both in one swing of his adamantine ax. The traveler steps aside as Jason smashes into the last slamming him to the ground and stomping hard on his chest ending the fight.

The Traveler grabs Jason's arm and teleports the four of them away. The next thing they know they are sitting at the base of Mt. Olympus in Greece.

The Traveler steps on front of the group, "Figured this place was appropriate for what I'm about to tell you. Jason, you are the son of Hercules, That's why you're so strong, you're mother was the last Asgardian left on this world after the Bifrost cannon went up. Her name was Brunhilde, she died making sure you didn't share your father's fate. You are the son of both Asgard and Olympus and now we need you to help save the universe. Sorry to drop this all on you like that but we're on a bit of a deadline here."

Jason stares at the Traveler, "Are you out of you're damned mind?"

The Traveler sighs, "I didn't want to do this, a little too drum circle for my taste but oh well, grab him."

Ares and Bill each grab an arm as the Traveler grabs their heads and makes them share their memories with Jason. In Bill's mind he sees an image of Brunhilde that matches the picture kept in a locket he always carries while Ares showed him Hercules whose face he sees every time he looks in a mirror. After a few minutes the Traveler breaks the link and steps behind a bush and makes sickening noises. He raises his head, "God I hate doing that."

Cutthroat struggles against Iron soldiers as they drag him down a hall, Iron Claw chuckling as he squirms, "I've been waiting a long time for this Mortimer, I may have to take pictures and send them to Scalphunter."

The soldiers join in the laugh until one feels something rip through his chest. They all look over to see two carbonadium tendrils extending from the soldiers chest and then separate tearing the man apart. The other soldier drops Cutthroat and spins around to attack but a tendril wraps around him and sends thousands of amps through his armor cooking the man inside like a baked potato.

Iron Claws bladed hand begins spinning like a mincer as he begins to march toward Lash as he pulls back his tendrils. Iron Claw looks back, "Do you really think you can take me."

Lash laughs, "Of course not."

There is a flash of light behind Iron Claw and a large shadow descends on him. He turned to see Slaughter towering above him. He spun around to hit the large man with his spinning blades but Slaughter caught his hand stopping the blades with his fingers and driving his large metallic fist into his face knocking him out. He then tossed Iron Claw to the side as Lash picked up Cutthroat.

He looked up to Lash,"Did Sinister send you to finish the job?"

Lash grinned,"No, Essex isn't calling the shots anymore. The new boss wants to meet you."

They disappear from the hall and reappear in front of a large window over looking the Earth from a ship above. Cutthroat looks down,"Space again?"

A booming voice comes from behind, "We will be back down there soon enough, the question is whether or not you'll be arriving as part of my army or as space debris."

Cutthroat turns to see Thanos looking down on him. He looks up nervously,"You're the boss."

An evil grin crosses the mad Titan's face,"Lets get you upgraded."

Cutthroat adds,"Any chance you have something to negate a healing factor?"

Little Odessa Vodka Bar 2037

The club was busy that night as John Kirby and the other bouncers stood in front of the door. Ivan Bagrov stopped to stare them down as usual, this was the first time he'd shown up during Kirby's shift and was upset that the big blue man didn't focus on the ground like everyone else when he glared. His buddies waved him in.

A few hours later

A woman was being annoyed by a drunken Ivan when Kirby stepped up,"I believe the lady is tired of your company."

The bar tender took a step back as Ivan stood up, "I don't think its any of your business smurf."

Ivan stepped up to him noticing Kirby stood a couple inches taller than him. Ivan gave Kirby a hard back hand expecting him to go down. Kirby's head turned a bit but he stood his ground ordering Ivan out of the club.

Ivan laughed, "This is my father's place, you couldn't toss me out if you wanted to."

One of the other bouncers put his head down,"Oh hell."

Out on the street

Ivan landed hard leaving a crater in the asphalt as Kirby rushed out the door. The big Russian, sobered by the impact jumped to his feet ready for a fight as the blue man came in striking distance. As Ivan punched the ground shook and it sent Kirby back a bit but as he fell back he kicked Ivan hard in the gut dropping him to a knee.

Ivan countered with a hard punch to Kirby's knee throwing him off balance long enough for Ivan to get back to his feet. It quickly devolved into a vicious fist fight with the 2 men proving to be evenly matched. They were causing more damage to the surrounding area than each other when Arkady arrived. He immediately ordered Ivan to stand down and fired Kirby on the spot ending the fight but the feud was just beginning.

Iowa 2041 the Traveling Zoo

Frank Monroe sits across a table from Henry Rossini, "I need to know whether his bark is worse than his bite."

Henry shook his head, "You're looking at this the wrong way, Emil is not a dog. He is a wolf, and wolves don't bark."

Frank grinned, "I doubt he's all that threatening."

Henry got a serious expression as he continued,"Do not underestimate him, he is possibly the most dangerous man on Earth. How much do you know?"

Frank looked curious, "Beyond the two of you showing up in 2012 next to nothing."

Henry nodded, "We didn't invent the process, it was created by a Nazi scientist in the 30s. He failed to recognize his success until it was far too late. Emil and I merely perfected the work he'd done on us."

Frank interrupted, "How old are you?"

Henry answered, "I am 113 years old, Emil is my older brother. Our aging process has been slowed to a crawl and our intelligence was increased exponentially."

Chicago 1 week later

Rob and Campbell stand looking to Frank as he tells them everything he'd learned about Rossini. He was mid sentence when Rob cut him off, "We're being watched."

Frank and Campbell sat in silence as Rob surveyed the area, and took out his gun. He fired 2 shots into a tree causing someone to fall from the branch. Campbell and the General looked surprised that Rob had opened fire but he turned to them, "Trouble's coming fast."

Sergei ripped out of the bushes he'd landed in and charged the group. Rob emptied his clip firing at him as he approached, he managed to dodge all but one bullet though it didn't slow him down. Sergei slammed into Rob and hurled him away as Campbell and Frank drew their sidearms and opened fire. Sergei slashed his claws across Campbell's face leaving four deep gashes he then punched him hard in the chest breaking 2 ribs. He then turned his attention to Frank. He pounced on the general and savagely slashed into him as Rob arrived. He slammed a fallen tree branch into Sergei's face sending him back a few feet then struck him again before reloading and emptying the fresh clip into Sergei's chest. There was a flash of light and Marcus Drake appeared catching Sergei before he hit the ground and disappeared with him.

Campbell called a medic as Rob went to his father's side. Frank was unconscious and Rob tried desperately to hold back the blood pouring out of him.

(to be continued)

Baxter Building New York City

Reed Richards looks at his screen worried as he talks to the Nasa scientists gathered,"Everywhere this thing stops there is a massive energy disturbance within 24 hours that overtakes entire planets."

A scientist asks,"What kind of disturbance?"

Reed looks back, "I'm not quite sure, but what ever it is renders these planets geologically inert when it leaves."

Avengers Mansion, New York City

Superman lands in front of the mansion with She-Hulk, she invited him in as several others arrived.

Iron Man stopped them in the entry way, "This is Avengers only."

She-Hulk spoke up,"He just helped me take down the U-Foes and gave me a lift."

Captain America came up behind Iron Man,"Thor is away in Asgard and we could probably use him for some heavy lifting if he's up for it."

Superman replies,"I'm willing to help."

Iron Man sighed, "Fine follow me."

A few minutes later as the group surrounded a large table Iron Man turned on a view screen, "Reed Richards has asked us for help, this entity has been spotted entering our solar system, at the speed its moving it will be in our atmosphere within the next few hours. According to Dr. Richards, where ever this thing goes worlds die."

The image of a Silver man on what appeared to be a surf board was shown on the screen. Superman looked on in horror,"It can't be."

The rest of the group turned to look at him as Iron Man asked,"You know what this is?"

Superman looked to him,"I am not from Earth. I was born on a world called Krypton, I am the only survivor of my race because my father sent me here as an infant but the ship I arrived in contained the sum total of Kryptonian knowledge. My world was destroyed by a being called Galactus, the devourer of worlds. The Silver man is his herald."

Iron Man chuckled, "And you expect us to believe this?"

Superman looked back,"If you value your life and those of every other creature on this planet, yes."

Captain America stood up,"I don't think he's lying."

Iron Man sat down,"Okay, then how do we stop this Galactus."

Superman shakes his head,"According to history, you don't."

To Be Continued

San Francisco, California 2028

Ana Ramos sits in a dance studio playing on her phone as her mother argues with her instructor, her mother nearly growls at the middle aged woman,"How can you leave her out of competition, she's ready."

The woman sighs,"Look ma'am, your daughter is one of the most physically capable girls here but she refuses to learn the routines and frankly doesn't give a damn about dancing."

Ana's mother turns to her daughter,"Tell her how you feel about this."

Ana doesn't look up from her phone and sarcastically states, "Yea, please let me blah, blah, blah, my future as a broke ass dancer begging producers to cast me in crappy off Broadway musicals depends on this."

Her mother clinched her teeth as the instructor chuckled under her breath, "Dancing is your...."

Ana cut her off,"What, my way to stardom by staring in Step UP 15?"

Ana then stands grabbing her bag, not noticing the strap tangled around the bar on the wall. Before she saw what happened she had ripped the bar from the wall bolts and all. Her mother, the instructor and Ana stared in shocked silence.

Foxtrot company HQ, Chicago, IL 2041

Sara Costello wanders into the lounge area and sees Rob and Max playing a game. She looks in and asks,"Is Ana around? I wanted to get her opinion on something."

Rob replies,"Haven't seen her."

Max pauses the game and turns,"She's on a date with a guy from Bravo company."

Rob looks over,"The poster boy?"

Max shakes his head,"No the blue guy. Drove down from Detroit this morning to take her out."

Rob shrugs,"Kirby? Really?"

Max gives him a side glance,"Yea, 7 and a half foot wall of muscle with super human stamina, what fun could that possibly be?"

Rob sighs and shakes his head.

Navy Pier

Ana and Kirby sit on a bench over looking out on the water as they talk,"You worked for Arkady Bagrov?"

Kirby nods,"Nothing illegal, I was a bouncer at one of his clubs till I bounced the wrong guy."

Ana grins, "And who was that?"

"His son Ivan." Kirby replied, "He was being a real prick so I tossed him, we ended up trading punches on the street, next thing I know I got Arkady telling me I'm out of a job and apparently an enemy for life. I run into Ivan every now and again, its never pretty."

Ana looks him over,"That why you joined up?"

Kirby shook his head before changing the subject,"So what did you do before you signed up?"

Ana smiled,"I did whatever job I could find, pretty much bouncing around till Rob found me fighting in that cage, Mom wanted me to be a dancer."

Kirby chuckled,"I can't see you doing that as a job."

They walk back toward the car but Kirby stops to grab something, as Ana gets to the passenger side door a man pops up behind her with a knife demanding her money. She bursts into laughter as she notices a second man coming.

A few minutes later Kirby walks up and opens her door for her,"Hey did you notice the 2 dudes stuffed in the dumpster back there?"

She chuckles as she gets in,"Don't worry about it."

Foxtrot HQ

Campbell enters the lounge,"Rob, we need to have a word."

Rob starts to make a joke but notices the expression on Campbell's face and stands up to follow him into the conference room.

As Rob shuts the door Campbell begins, "Frank needs us to get to work on something, the rest of the group don't need to know. I mean it your father's life could depend on you keeping your mouth shut on this."

Upstate New York, the Home of Emil Rossini, private basement lab 2028

Emil stands next to Sergei as they walk down a corridor filled with large tanks. Emil looks down to Sergei, "Would you like to know the secret that makes all this work."

Sergei nods as Emil continues, "We didn't create the gene sequence that gives you your abilities, nor did the German scientist who did it to me. Throughout history there have been unique people. They've been worshiped as gods, hailed as heroes, even burned as witches but really they were just humans born with something extra."

They stop at a large tank filled with liquid oxygen with an unconscious man inside,"There's nothing magical about this man here, yes he's very old, older than most religions in the world. One random gene made him the most famous hero to ever exist, immortal, powerful and the source of the trans human DNA that Nexus put in you and those like you. Only problem is, its a tad unpredictable."

Sergei looked up at Emil,"Why are you showing me all this?"

Emil grinned,"For 2 reasons, for one, in the future you will need to know and secondly."

He steps in front of the tank, "I wanted you to see this, in case you ever decide to turn on me. This man could literally move mountains with his bare hands, and I keep him in a jar in my basement. Remember that."

Chicago, Illinois, Lincoln Park. 2041

Just after midnight Frank Monroe and Elvis Campbell sit on a park bench talking. Campbell looks to Monroe,"There are better ways to do this, you're a general you have subordinates for this."

Frank grins,"If you want the big fish, you need better bait."

Campbell looked annoyed,"Some times I forget where Rob gets that cocky crap from."

Frank looks over to him,"Its not cocky if its true."

Both men burst into laughter.

Little Italy, Manhattan

In the back room of a restaurant Ivan Bagrov looks down on the last independent mob boss in New York,"You could've made this easy for yourself, the Bratva, the Triads, the Yakuza, even the street gangs were smart enough to join up but you damned Italians, always so damned stubborn. You're a tired old cliche', your kind have been a joke since the end of the last century yet you still cling to the idea that you're the ones who matter."

Ivan turns a chair around and sits leaning over the back,"I tell you what, one time only deal. If you take this phone and tell your family I'm in charge I'll make sure you can have an open casket at your funeral."

The man spits blood in Ivan's face. Ivan grabs a towel and as he wipes his face he looks over to Sergei, "Peel off his skin, and send it to his kids."

He then steps out to answer his phone, slamming the door behind him as the man starts screaming,"Just finishing up some business. Detroit? Have to have a talk with Marcus for not telling me. No, I want to do it with my bare hands. Besides the blue bastard would tear you apart any way and I gave him my word I'd kill him myself."

Waldorf Astoria, Chicago, IL the next day

Frank Monroe sits watching the sports report in his room as Marcus Drake appears behind him. Marcus sneaks up silently as Frank seems unaware.

Suddenly Marcus grabs his head form behind the chair knife in hand, before he can finish he feels something clamp on his wrist. He pulls back his hand to see that Frank had attached a small power inhibitor cuff on his wrist.

Frank jumps to his feet to face Marcus who goes in for the kill. Frank catches his hand with the with the knife blade less than an inch from his chest. He then yanks Marcus over punching him hard in the face then twisting his wrist causing him to drop the blade. Marcus looks genuinely shocked as the man in his mid 50s easily disarmed him and rendered him powerless.

Frank grinned,"You think we can't track teleporters?"

Marcus swings his free hand connecting with Frank's chin sending him back a step as he runs out the door.

Once Marcus is down the hall Frank picks up his phone,"Tagged him, let him run but try not to make it look like it."