Siege!!!

(Part 2)

Writer: Scott Chamberlain
Images: Chris Luna
Branch Editor: Lonni Holland
E.I.C.: Van Plexico

"Yeaaaarrrrgh!"

The Crimson Cowl looked on as her team bludgeoned the USAgent. A hint of a smile crossed her lips beneath the mask she wore. So, the Agent is finally made to scream... She thought.

"Make him pay for for his crimes, Masters." She said. "Helping a fellow prisoner to escape* is a serious offense."

*Last Issue --Scott

Jack Daniels sagged in his bonds. Blows continued to rain down on him as Tiger Shark, Man-Killer, Cyclone and Flying Tiger beat him. The bones in his left arm were shattered; a result of a particularly brutal assualt on that part by Man-killer. Semi-coherently, Jack wondered if the arm would ever be useful again. His thoughts wandered then as his brain became numb to the pain and floated into a delusional state. Dreams and images assaulted the Avenger, as the physical torment continued.

WarToy sood like a statue. The fiber optic cables which connected her to the Avengers computer allowed her to communicate directly with it. Since none of the Masters had dropped in on her in over an hour, she had no need of verbal speech or physical movement.

The admantium armored machine continued to run permutations into the computer, trying to break into all of it's systems and data banks, though one system, she worked on with greater persistance, as ordered by the cowl. The computer had ben far more resistant than expected, however, and WarToy had thus far been unsuccessful. Still, she continued feeding combinations into the machine:

5905GJG40JGE0FOR0E956UTG0ERG -ACCESS DENIED
YUG89F89G90DR0G8DG0094GDFD0S -ACCESS DENIED
12GHIURW6890054948DJ3DJD9XZ0 -ACCESS DENIED

Then...

65O5O7JRHEJSDW1MO0SD72QAZ0PO -ACCESS GRANTED. Please select which personnel file you wish to view.|

Wartoy allowed herself the physical manifestation of a smile. She began scrolling down the list, when another, previously broke-into sytem, the intruder alert, called her attenion.

Security breach on south wall of Compound. Do you wish to engage defensive systems? |

Wartoy ignored the computers query for the moment. Instead she activated the intercom to the room where the prisoners were being held. She spoke vocally: "Cowl, the Avengers have begun their attack. They're coming at us from the south."

Momentarily, the Cowl's voice responded. "Very well. Activate defensive systems. Notify me if and when they manage to break through."

Wartoy complied. She activated the systems and watched amusedly as the sytems fired upon the trespassers. Meanwhile, she began downloading the pertinent files into her memory storage.

Hawkeye finished typing commands into the small access panel in the wall. "There," he said. "I've used a backdoor into the system to make Wartoy think the perimeter has been breached on the south wall. Hopefully, the ruse will distract her long enough to get us into the mansion."

Magdalene frowned in confusion. "I don't understand. How did we get this far into the compound without alerting the defensive systems?"

Hawk grinned. "We didn't, but because of this area's inaccesibility, the systems here aren't as thorough as elsewhere. When we scaled the clifside and broke in through the hangar door, we set of a delayed warning to the main computer. I knew I had enough time to access and redirect where the warning came from. So the Masters wil be looking or us from the south, but instead, we'll be hitting them from the access tube leading from here to the compound."

Lightning had a suprised look on his face. "But Hawk! What if some villian had broke in this way?"

"That's a chance I took when I reactivated the Compound, Miguel. In the back of my mind, I've always feared something like this could happen, so I left the hangar's security purosefully lax, in case something like this ever became neccessary."

The Swordsman nodded. "A well laid plan. Let's hope that it works." He drew his sword.

Hawk readied his bow, and looked around at his 'team'. Himself, Swordsman and Magdalene, Lightning, Shape, the enigmatic Variable, and the suspcious, at least in Hawkeye's mind, Jolt. Tigra had been left behind due to her injuries- much to her anger. He sighed, wishing he had a more experienced group with him. He momentarily pondered trading away his bow if only Thor's hammer, or Iron Man's repulsors could be beside him. "Well, let's get to it. Avengers, and um the rest of you, Assemble!"

The world about was awash in flames. The nation's Captiol burned with a ferocity the likes of which had never been seen upon the Earth. Heracles watched all of this with macabre fascination. From his perch high atop the citadel, he bore witness to the Earth's demise.

"By my beard... What destructon hath we wrought?"

Avengers citadel as yet remained unharmed by the maelstrom, it's defensive shields still held out, though they weakened by the minute.

Heracles looked upn the fallen green-clad form of his teammate. "Good Guardian, I suppose this be a fitting resting place for thee. Surely for I as well. My end draweth nigh."

The Prince of Power continued to regard him. The green-clad man lay on a table. His shield, bearing the insignia of the United Nations, lay on his chest. Heracles reflected. Once Captain America, he changed his name to the Terran Guardian after the Nations of the world united to singularly resist the Skrull invasion. Not that any of that mattered now. The Avengers saved the world from the Skrulls, only to bring it down themslves. "Damn..." Heralces spat on the floor, disgusted at his inabiltiy to see it coming, disgusted at his impotency at being unable to stop it. "Damn..."

The power failed at last in the citadel and the shield grid failed. Quickly, the inferno began to creep up on the edifice. Heracles wondered if even his godly body would be able to stand up to the white-hot flames. He doubted it.

Behind him, a bright light suddenly formed. Spinning, Heracles squinted, trying to see into it, to no avail.

"Son of Zeus," said a voice from within the light. "Join with us now, if you would prevent this from happening in other worlds."

"Who...?" said the demi-god. "Who are you?"

"Of what import is my name, while you stand on the threshold of Hades? Do you no perceive your own soul to be damned for the crimes you and your fellow Avengers have commited here? Join with us, and find redemption by preventing this tragedy from occuring elsewhere in the multi-verse."

The voice's words made sense to Heracles. Indeed he did feel damned. Perhaps if he were able to stop this elsewhere, the souls of the dead would stop crying out to him from the grave..."Very well, the Prince of Power shall join thee!" He stepped into the light, disappearing from sight.

And then, a world died...

Tigra sat in the plot's chair of the quinjet. Her injured state* caused enough concern to Hawkeye that he had left her behind to attempt to get ahold of the East Coasters, if they returned in time to help.

*Tigra was baten at the hands of the Masters of Evil last issue.--Scott

Greer fumed. She knew she was well enough to go with the others. She'd been much worse off and still fought on before in her career. In her mind, Hawkeye was just trying to protect her... keep her out of harm's way. Just like the old days, she thought.

"I can't do this." Tigra said to herself. "Every time I join up with the Avengers, I wind up on the outside looking in, while the others take care of the bad guys." She slammed a fist own on the console. "No more! If I have to strike out on my own to prove my worth, that's exactly what I'll do. This pussycat's days of being a second-rate Avenger are over. One way or another."

Hallie Takamura's heart was in her throat. A bead of sweat trickled down her forehead. She hadn't felt this nervous since her first time out with the Thunderbolts.

Suck it up, Hallie! She thought to herself. You've done this before. You know what it takes. You know what you are capable of. So settle down and do it!

The sweat however, kept trickling; the heart, still beating within her esophagus. Hallie was forced to admit to herself that it had never quite been like this before. These Avengers were real heroes, not a bunch of half-baked supervillains masquerading as such. She knew that as a former member of that group, that everyone would be keeping an eye on her, waiting to see if she would stab them in the back.

Ahead, Hawkeye gave a quiet signal to stop. Silently, the group waited. Jolt looked around and saw that the Living Lightning was watching her. His face wore an expression of calm understanding. He smiled.

Hallie blushed and looked away. She kicked herself mentally for being so easy to read. The Lightning whispered to her. "Hey, don't get yourself tied up into knots. I've been where you are and trust me, everything will work out."

Ahead, Hawkeye signaled to move ahead again. Jolt looked back to the Lightning and gave him a quick smile before she started off again. She hoped he was right.

The Crimson Cowl stood over the battered and bloodied body of the USAgent and nodded with satisfaction. "Very good, troops. This is one Avenger we wont have to contend with again today." She spoke to the intercom system. "WarToy. What is the status of the intruders?"

WarToy's synthetic voice came back immediately. "The defense sytems continue to hold them at bay. They'll never get through before I complete my downloads."

"Excellent. Route the surveillance systems to give me a visual of them from the monitor in this room."

"Monitor enabled." said WarToy's voice. "Enjoy the show."

The other Masters gathered around the Cowl to watch. A view of the south lawn showed the defensive systems firing various weapons at attackers that... weren't there. The Cowl arched an eyebrow at this sight. "What's this? There is no one attacking? Wartoy! Did you visually confirm the presence of the intruders?"

"I saw no need."

"You saw no need!? Damn your robotic hide! It was a diversion!" The Cowl looked at the rest of her team. "Masters, prepare for an att-"

Just then, the door of the room blew in, and Hawkeye's team poured through the entrance. "An attack, Cowlie?" said Hawk. "Is that what you were gonna say?" He fired a blast arrow at her. "Cause if so, it was a pretty good guess."

The Cowl knocked aside the arrow with a cape fold. "Masters attack!"

"Avengers Assemble!" Hawkeye shouted. The battle was joined.

The Living Lightning crackled into his energy form, taking aim at who he perceived to be the biggest threat, which was Man Killer, with her super strength. Electricity arced across the room, striking the brutish woman.

"ARRRRRRR!" She cried. "You'll pay for that, little man!

Tiger Shark lept at Magdalene and got a face full of power staff for his efforts. "Yaaah!"

The Swordsman looked to his love. "Are you alright, Maggie?"

"Fine, love." she saw Flying Tiger, about to pounce. "Look to your own guard!"

the Swordsman took a slash across his chest, courtesy of Flying Tiger. "Hah!" said the villain. "First blood is mine!"

The Swordsman narrowed his eyes. "Yes, but the last shall be mine!" He aimed a flurry of cuts and strokes at Flying Tiger.

Cyclone formed his winds about him and charged the Variable. "Ah, monsieur... Eet appears that I must defeat you. I deu so hope you like enjoy my winds...

The Variable, took a couple of steps back, trying to keep out of Cyclone's winds. Then his body and costume shimmered briefly. He blinked in confusion, then a grin srpead across his face. "Actually, I prefer broiling heat to wind." He stretched out his hands toward Cyclone. Great gouts of fire spewed forth and swirled around the villain.

"Arrrrrgh!" cried Cyclone, retreating ans changing the pattern of his winds to keep a shield between him and the Variable.

Jolt lept around the room like a human dynamo, her bioenergy fueling several well-timed strikes at the enemies. As she flipped out of the way of a Tiger Shark downstroke, a prehensile cape appendage swirled around her neck, cutting off her air.

"Ah!" said the Cowl. "I know you; one of those turncoat Thunderbolts. You would have been well served to join MY Masters instead. Now, you'll pay for your mistake." The fold of the cape wound tighter around Jolt's neck.

A high pitched whining sounded then, and an arrow came flying from Hawkeye's bow. The buzzsaw head sliced neatly through the Cowl's appendage, freeing Jolt. "Yeaaaaaahhhhh!" shrieked the Cowl holding her head in her hands. "My cape! MY CAPE!!" She fell to the ground, stunned.

"Th-thanks..." said Jolt. "I thought I was gone threre." "Don't sweat it, kid." Said Hawkeye, firing a concussion arrow at Man-Killer. "Just get back into the fight. We need your powers."

Hawk's arrow glanced off Man-Killer, to little effect. The amazon-like woman kept swinging at the Lightning, unable to hit his fast-as-light form. On the other hand, no matter how many times he struck her with his bolts, the woman steadfastly refused to go down.

Miguel had an idea. "Magdalene! I think we can do better against each others opponents. Switch off!"

Magdalene shrugged, dropping Tiger Shark for Man-Killer. She swung her powerstaff, which was arm blocked by her opponent.

The Lightning allowed a busrt of electricity to arc from his body toward Tiger Shark, who laughed. "You better do more than that, boy. I can take this all day!"

In response, Lightning turned up the volage. "I was trying not to hurt you, vato. But you dont know when to go down!"

The water held within Tiger Shark's suit began to boil away from the heat generated by the electricity. Further, the water was an excellent conducter for the energy, and the villain fell to his knees. "No! I cant.... be beatennnnn..." he fell.

Flying Tiger gave ground to the Swordsman. The close quarters of the room gave him no room to use his aerial combat techniques. The Swordsman was a far better melee fighter, and Flying Tiger had the cuts and bruises to prove it. "Surrender now, villain, and I will spare you further harm!" the Swordsman commanded.

The Cowl finally rose from he shock of the severed fold. She quickly assesed that her team was on the ropes. But she had to give Wartoy time to finish the downloads. A caped appendage lashed out at Hawkeye, woh was laying down a supression fire against the other Masters.

Hawkeye's super-sensitive hearing aids warned him that it was coming. He managed to dodge out of the way, twisting in mid air to fire a shot in return. The Cowl lashed out with a fold to deflect the shot, but the glue arrow burst upon contact, fusing that appendage to the rest of her cape, rendering it useless.

Then Shape, who had ben keeping an uncharacteristic low profile in the fight so far, slunk up behind the Cowl, and started winding his plastic body around her. "Shape got red lady!"

"Arrrr!" yelled the Cowl. "Get off me, you cretin!"

Meanwhile, Cyclone, kept the Variable's fire blasts at bay with his wind-shield. "Ah, you canno' hope to defeat me with those blasts! Why, I cain deflaict thaim all day!"

The Variable shrugged. "Yeah, you're probably right." His body shimmered again, aquiring some new random power. "Lets see what this does, however." In the blink of an eye, Variable had run around Cyke's shield and landed a right cross on chin, sending him backwards. Variable chuckled. "I love it when Lightning speed comes up."

The battle semed well in the Avengers hands. Then the tables turned... Magdalene landed a solid blow on Man-Killer with her powerstaff. Suddenly, she was grabbed from behind, hoisted high into the air and slammed forcefully to the floor, where she laid still. Wartoy stood over her, leering evilly. "Can anyone join this party?"

"Maggie!" shouted the Swordsman. He fired an enrgy burst at Wartoy from his sword. The energy dissapated harmlessly on her adamantium hide. Wartoy returned the favor by firing beams from her eyes, nailing the Swordsman squarely. Flying Tiger took advantage and scored hits with his claws. Phillip reeled.

Hawkeye took stock of the situation. "Lightning! Hit her from the left. I'll fire from the right!" Miguel moved to comply, shooting electricity at the metal monster.

Wartoy regarded the attack. "While my adamantium hide is conductive to electricity, my inner components are well insulated from such pathetic attacks!"

"Let's see how insulated you are from this!" Hawkeye fired an arrow, which reeased an EMP burst upon nearing Wartoy. The living machine staggered, as her computer driven mind lost control. But then, her failsafes came online, and she grinned at the archer. "Try again, sport. I can take more than anything you've got!"

The Cowl was trying to free her cape of the glue, and herself from Shape's entanglement when Wartoy entered. Upon seeing her, she grew livid with anger. "Why are you here! We're buying time for you to complete your mission!"

Wartoy gave her the electronic equivalent of rolling eyes. "I'm all done with that. Now I'm here to help kick some Avenger butt!"

"We'll see who does the butt-kicking around here." Jolt quipped, hopping and leaping arond Wartoy, landing inneffectual bioenergy punches.

"No!" cried Hawkeye "Get away from her! You can't do anything, Jolt!"

Wartoy regarded Jolt contemptuously. "Is that the best you can do? Let me show you how the big girls play!" With reflexes belying her gigantic metal girth, Wartoy struck Jolt backhanded, knocking her out of the air. Hallie cried out as she slammed against a wall and slid to the floor.

Hawkeye knew he was in trouble. Only he, the Variable and Miguel were left to fight. He needed to think of a way to stop Wartoy fast, or it would be over. "Lightning, keep harrying Wartoy. Distract her! Variable, can you come up wth soething to stop an Adamantium-skinned monster?"

""Er, I can try... but I dont have any control over what power I get..."

"Just do it." Hawkeye fired a pair of arrows at Cyclone an Flying Tiger, keeping them at bay.

"Here goes nothing!" The Variable shimmered, stood still amoment, getting a handle on his new power. Then, he fired liquidy missles from his hands. The missles hit Wartoy and hissed, but seemed to cause no real damage. "Well, so much for acid..."

Wartoy fired her eye beams at Variable, knocking him back. "Much more effective than yours, I'd say!"

Suddenly, Wartoy was knocked from her feet and sent flying. Such force tht could stagger the behemoth made everyone in the room go slack-jawed, Avenger and Master alike. All eyes turned to see who could have done such a thing. Then, Hawkeye cried out joyously: "Wonder Man!"

Simon Williams stood just inside the doorway, his ionically red eyes burned brightly, like newly molten lava. "Yeah, I'm here. I guess you really needed me after all."

"It's about time!" Hawk yelled. Then he pointed at Wartoy. "Get her!"

Wartoy stood up, and grinned at Wonder Man. "Not bad Movie-boy, but then again, not nearly good enough. Lets see what else you've got!" She fired her eye beams at Wondy.

Simon staggered under the force of the beams, but then shrugged it off. "I dont think so, Alkhema." He fired his belt jets and streaked across the room, fists forward. Wartoy stood to take the blow.

Wondy's fist clanged against Waroty's shell like the clapper of some ancint churchbell. The gong sound made everyone in the room hold their ears painfully. Wartoy sailed off her feet, busting through the wall which connected to the computer room. Immediately, she was on her feet again.

"I can take anything you can dish out, Wonder-Bread. My skin is ipervious to anyhting. I am indestructible!" She laughed and struck back at Simon, snapping his head around from the force of the hit.

Wondy whipped his head back, his eyes were blindingly bright. "Honey, you're beaten, you just dont know it yet." The glow of his eyes slowly started spreading across his whole body. He grimaced in rage, a beacon of red ionic energy. The energy washed over everyone in the room, sending them all reeling. All except Wondy and Wartoy.

"Yaaaaaah!" cried Shape. "Bright light hurt Shape eyes!"

Wartoy struck Wonder Man again, but he shrugged the blow off and advanced. "C'mon baby. Come get some!" He snapped her head back with an uppercut, actualy stunning the machine. Then, taking advantage, Simon grabbed her by the neck with one hand and her wrist with the other hand. He began pulling and squeezing.

"Fool!" laughed Wartoy. "This is nothing! I am adamantium, do you hear? ADAMANTIUM!"

Wondy nodded. "I hear you." He redoubled his efforts. Suddenly, a look of panic swept over Wartoy's face, servomotors in her arm began to snap as Wondy pulled. Connections in her neck were being crushed as Wondy squeezed.

"NO!" she cried. "Impossible! You cant do this to me!"

Wonder Man smirked. "Yeah.... Right..." He squeezed her neck one last time and her head popped into the air like a champagne cork. He ripped her arm away from it's connections at the elbow an tossed it away casually. Then he regarded Wartoy's staggering body. "I'm Wonder Man. I can do anything."

What was left of Wartoy stumbled around a bit, then finally crashed to the floor.

Hawkeye watched in amazement, as did all the others still conscious in the room. Then he noted that Simon's energy was burning, and weakening everyone. "Wonder Man! Got to... Turn your- your power... down...!" He managed to get it all out as he slowly sank to the floor.

Simon looked around at what he was doing. "Good Lord!" His energy aura shrank immediately back into himself and he moved swiftly to Hawkeye's side. "You allright, Hawkeye?"

Hawk nodded. "I will be, in a moment. Quick, secure the Masters. We can't let them escape."

"Oh... I think it's too late for that." The Crimson Cowl had climbed to her feet again. "You've destroyed my pet robot, but with any luck, We'll still be able to use what she has inside." The Cowl regarded Hawkeye with a smirk, behind her mask. "You've won the battle today, archer. But the war has already been lost- you'll be made to see that soon enough." She began to glow brightly as her teleportation took effect.

"Wonder Man! Stop her!"

Simon thudered forth with his belt jets, but he was too late, the Cowl and the rest of the Masters of Evil, disappeared from sight.

"Blast!" Hawk growled. "We've got to find a way to negate that teleport power."

Jolt sat up, rubbing her head "Ow..." She peered around. "What hit me?"

"That would have been Wartoy." said the Swordsman, rising groggily to his feet. He helped Magdalene up as well.

"By the Fourth Ring!" she said. "I've never been hit so hard."

Shape rubbed his rubbery head with his hand. "Shape not feel good!"

Hawkeye was by the side of the USAgent. Battered and bloodied, the Agent barely breathed. "We've got to get Jack to the infirmary. Miguel, call Dr. Sanford. Get him here pronto!" Clint looked around the room, noting that no one had really come out of this unscathed. "Tell him we've got a lot of injuries."

Clint sat in the infirmary, where he had been for the last few days. The Agent was still out of it and Clint resolved to wait till his old friend came around, even though Dr. Sanford assured him the Agent merely needed rest.

The Agent opened an eye and looked at the haggard, unshaven Hawkeye. "Jesus," he croaked. "First thing I see when I wake up is you? I guess I must have went to hell."

The two looked at each other a moment, then broke into laughter.

NEXT ISSUE: Things quiet down a bit as we gear up for or next big storyline. That doesnt mean monumentous things wont be happening! Return in thirty for: "Big Decisions"

Lot of reponses to last issue. Let's get to em:

From: tjburns@sigma.net (TJ Burns)

Hey Scott! Sorry to be the one to tell you, but Shape was a villain of the Squadron Supreme's before he was a hero. So we had an all former villain team, but Variable - As far as I know anyway. As for the actual Masters of Evil scene, here's hoping Agent gets the chance to bludgeon Man-Killer to death slowly. Keep up the good work!

TJB

Okay, several people actually pointed out my faux-pas about the Shape to me. I goofed. :) But, you dont get a faux-prize unless you expain *WHY* the Avengers didnt know about his criminal past. Better luck next time, TJ.

From: lonni@idirect.com (The Avenger Lady)

Bet you thougth I forgot you . I really am enjoying this titles more each issue. From Clint's rally cry in 103 to the the Agony of the Agent.... it just gets better & better.

I'm intrigued by the Huntress as this is part of Mock's past I know little about and I'm curious to see how the 2 realities are gonna tie together. You continue to keep me guessing here & in the Hawk series and I love the fun of speculating where you are heading.

Wooo hooo - Shape back! Shape an Avengers - Hawkeye say Shape is! And how prophetic that Hawk has Jolt on his team - as he may soon in the MU! As always a great portrayal of Agent - a character all too often ignored because he started out as a bit of a jerk - hey so did Clint!

You've written another great issue and I eagerly await the next one (do you realize it is almost 10 months since I first wrote you a fan letter?)

Lonni

10 months? Time flies when you're having fun, eh Lonni? :) More regarding the Huntress's story was revealed this issue. Some of you readers may already be guessing where I'm heading with that. (If you do, don't spoil it for the other readers. It'll be our little secret.) As for the Agent. I'm really trying to show the readership here at MV1 that he's a good character who has been much maligned by his peers (and his writers) For much too long. I hope everyone else will come around to liking him like you and I do. Because as a wise man once said, "He aint going anywhere anytime soon."