avengers league issue 14

Midnight

"Alrighty, who are these charming little fellas?" asked Belle Reve Chief of Security J. Daniel Murphy as he waited for their paperwork. He tried to suppress a yawn, but found it was impossible, especially at this time of the night. He was never happy with being called out of his restless slumber to check in new criminals to the facility. Now he was tired, grumpy, and the sausage pizza he ate last night was starting to affect him in the most unpleasant of ways. It was going to be a long night, and he could see, in the eyes of his fellow security officers, that they were aware of the situation they were stuck in.

"Transfers from holding facilities in New York," replied one of the guards that had ushered them in, "on direct orders from Mr. Henry Gyrich himself. These two are part of some super terrorist group known as Zodiac. Apparently they tried to poison the water supply of Atlanta or something. The Avengers League stopped them, and we are the unfortunate recipients of these two. The one in the red suit is known as Scorpio, while the poofy-haired blue one is called Sagittarius."

Murphy yawned as he glanced at their papers. "These screwballs got any super-powers?"

The guard shook his head. "No, these are gimmick-villains. The Scorpio guy uses some goofy symbol that vibrates, and the blue guy carries a couple of wrist-launching crossbows. Pretty much nickel-and-dimers. Both of their weapons were confiscated and are already in your store room C, waiting to be checked in."

"Alright," said Murphy. "Since these boys don't have any powers to speak of, why don't we stick them in holding facilities, and I will have all their paperwork processed in the morning when the rest of the crew gets here. Make sure they are stripped out of them costumes, give them some Reve scrubs, and give them a couple of nice, uncomfortable cells to sleep in. I'll talk to Valerie Cooper in the morning and see exactly what I am suppose to do with these two."

3:30AM

The man known only as Scorpio turned in his bed, and surveyed the cell around him. Of particular interest are the bars, which hold him in the cell. He looks around them, noticing that at the corners are electronic devices, just like he had been told. Those devices projected lasers, which when the bars of the cell were tampered with, or opened, instantly triggered an alarm in the main monitor room.

Scorpio waited until the two guards made their half-hour pass outside his cell, then made his way to the sink. Sticking his finger down his throat, he forced his gag reflex, and up came a small balloon, filled with tiny electronic devices. Scorpio quickly made his way to the edges of his cell bars, and deftly, without triggering the alarms, placed the tiny devices on the wall near the ones that controlled the lasers. He watched in fascination, as the little devices, sprouted legs, like little electronic beetles, and moved towards the laser-emitters. Then, once near, they attached themselves to the emitters, and Scorpio knew that their job was to show the monitor room that the lasers were still on, while, in truth the lasers were no longer on.

Scorpio then scratched at his inside thigh, until he found a piece of his flesh that wasn't his flesh at all. He pulled the skin-looking bag from his leg, and tore it open gently, exposing the liquid inside. Slowly he poured the contents upon the lock of his cell. With a sizzle, the lock melted away, and the cell door was open. Scorpio looked outside, and saw nothing, and so he made his way towards the cell next to him, only to find that the lasers and lock had received a similar treatment, and that his partner was there waiting for him.

Scorpio looked at his partner, and was acknowledged with a nod, and the two slithered off down the hallway, in the direction of the Store Room C, where their gear was stashed. The two were very careful, yet swift. They knew they only had a twenty-minute window of opportunity. They were very careful as they made their way down the corridors, avoiding both guards and the cameras, which seemed to be stationed at every corner.

The two men made their way to the Store Room C, and Sagittarius quickly bent down and picked the lock, letting them inside. The two men quickly found two packages which were designated as their stuff, and unwrapped it. Only instead of the outfits and gimmicks of Zodiac members Scorpio and Sagittarius, inside one lay the costume of Avengers League member Hawkeye, as well as his traditional bow and quiver of arrows. The other package was filled with a number of gadgets and electronic devices, which were used by Henry Pym. The two men quickly dressed, loaded up their weapons, and exited into hallway.

Henry Pym checked the time and noticed that they had only ten more minutes, at the most, before their escape should be noticed. Swiftly they made their way down the hall to an office, which bore, on the door window, the name of Valerie Cooper, current field director of Suicide Squad. Quickly, Hawkeye began to pick the lock. He almost had the lock opened when . . .

"Well, well, what do we have here?"

Both men turned their attention to the voice behind them. There stood two criminals, in their costumes, ready for action. Henry Pym recognized both of the criminals. One, wearing a blue and orange outfit, was known as Constrictor. He wielded deadly energized, adamantium coiled tendrils that he used like whips. The other was Badd Axe, an oversized assassin named for the gigantic blade he wields with his superhuman strength.

"Which one do you want?" asked Pym as he searched through his bag for an appropriate weapon.

"I'll take," Hawkeye said, as he sized up the two combatants, "the big, oafy looking one."

"Deal," responded Pym, as he watched Hawkeye moved over to engage Badd Axe in combat. Pym knew they had to get this over real quick. It was doubtful that these two criminals were here by accident, and in fact, Pym was sure that others knew about their presence there. Soon, with tonight's luck, they would be over-ran with criminals and military types.

Hawkeye ducked under the swinging blade of Badd Axe as he moved closer. Hawkeye figured him an easy target-slow and dimwitted. As the blade missed him, and embedded deep into the metal wall, Hawkeye saw his opportunity. He swung himself, low, and punched Axe hard in the stomach. He didn't even flinch.

Badd Axe brought his elbow hard down upon Hawkeye's back, smashing up the arrows in his quiver, sending them, and Hawkeye, sprawling across the ground.

Meanwhile, Henry was busy, dodging blows from Constrictor's coils.

"Come on Pym, been a while since we danced . . . " said Constrictor as one of his electric coils sizzled through the air at Pym's head.

Pym rifled through his bag, and found what he was looking for. Dodging another blow, Pym pulled a gun from his bag and fired it at Constrictor. Suddenly, a vile green slime spewed from the barrel, covering Constrictor from head to toe.

"What the--?!" Constrictor roared as he felt the slime begin to harden, paralyzing him into a statue-like state.

Meanwhile, Hawkeye saw the scattered broken arrows around him, and formulated an idea. Quickly he grabbed several of the broken arrows, and whirled around, avoiding a crushing stomp from Axe. Hawkeye threw one of the arrows at Badd Axe's face, turning away as the bright flash blinded the massive man. Then watching as Axe's mouth stood agape, flung another arrow at it, the sleeping gas from it filling the inside of his mouth.

Suddenly, the roar of an automatic weapon, turned both Hawkeye's and Pym's attention to the hallway, behind them.

There stood Valerie Cooper, smoking weapon in hand. Behind her stood a small army of government agents, all armed to the teeth and ready to blow.

"Somebody has a hell of an explanation job to do here . . . " declared Valerie as she pointed her weapon at Pym's chest.

Several days later, three men sat together in the Oval Office of the White House of the United States of America. One was Henry Pym, and another was Captain America, two members of the Avengers League. The third was Alan Scott, formerly known as Sentinel, and current President of the United States of America.

"So, they just let you go?" asked Alan curiously.

"Yes, Mister President," said Pym, mulling the events at Belle Reve. "Valerie and her troops simply escorted us to the front gate, and she told us to never try something so foolish again."

"And you didn't get any hard information?"

"No. Security was very tight. There was cameras everywhere and they seemed to almost toy with us, seeing how far we would get," replied Pym.

"Well, Mr. President," added Captain America. "At least we know that Suicide Squad is in fact currently active. This, combined with some other information we have received, supports this. There are factions within the government that are taking incarcerated criminals, and putting them to work, offering them incentives and early parole in exchange for their services."

Alan found Steve's protocol a little strange. He had known Steve Rogers - Captain America - for half a century, and being called "Mr. President" by him, instead of Alan, like just three months ago, took some getting use to.

"Well, that is why," replied Alan, his face full of determination, "I asked for your help in the first place. The messy dealings with super-humans that the last administration used need to be a thing of the past. This Suicide Squad. Amanda Waller's attack that decimated Checkmate. The vast unorganized super-units under the government control that are barely better than the vigilantes that are running loose killing each other in the streets. This has to stop!

"This is ridiculous, Steve. I don't even know what is going on with all these secret cabals within the government that I am suppose to be head of. Well, all that is going to change. And I plan to make sure that one of my first acts will be to dismantle this ‘Suicide Squad'."

Meanwhile, half a world away, on a plateau in Scotland, a stranger appears out of nowhere. Energy crackled all around him as he landed softly on the wet grass below him.

"Well," said the man to himself, "I am finally here, master. On Earth. Smells nice at least, but then, I haven't entered one of their nasty cities, mired with throngs of endless brain dead sheep, milling around, mindless of the possibility that their world may soon be over."

The man went down on his haunches, pulling a hand-held computer from inside his suit and punching in a variety of key words.

He continued to speak to himself. "Let me see here, where shall this humble servant seek out members of the Chosen. There are so many of them to test before the master's arrival. Let me see here . . . let's go with America. There seems to be a few off them there, maybe I can found a few together and test them all at once. That New York City seems to have a good stock of people, I am sure I can find at least one of them there."

Advance Man took one more look around at the scenery, then tucked his computer back into his vest, and disappeared in a crackle of energy. Soon, it was as though he had never even been there.

Next: Hawkeye's judgement