"Webs and Bones"

by Matthew Turnage

Four days ago:

A heavily armored van rolls down a lonely stretch of highway in the midwest. Two guards chit-chat aimlessly as one drives and another flips through the newspaper.

"Say, did you see this article? Apparently Captain America ran into the Red Skull again," the one reading the paper says.

"Oh yeah? What happened?" the driver asks.

"It doesn't say. I mean, it says some government agency's keepin' the details hush-hush or something. But I guess they didn't do too good of a job if this much leaked out, huh?"

"I guess not. You know, I wonder how them reporters find out about this top secret stuff?"

"I don't know. Think our passenger would be interested in knowing this?"

"Gee, I don't think that's a good idea. It might put him in a bad mood. We've still got hours to go before we get to the Vault, and I don't want him causin' any trouble."

"Ah, what are you afraid of? He's chained up back there." The guard folds up his newspaper, then turns to slide open the viewing plate behind him. He sees the prisoner sitting quietly on a bench in the rear compartment, his hands and feet chained.

"Hey, Crossbones," the guard says. "Your old boss, the Red Skull, just ran into Captain America again. How come he never busted you out, huh? Did you two have a falling out or something?"

Crossbones looks at the guard and says nothing.

He knows, when the van stops in one hour for a restroom break, it will be simplicity itself to snap his chains and then the guards' necks. He could have escaped at any point in the last few months, he just needed motivation. And now he has it. He's going to New York to see Captain America. And then he's going to make Captain America tell him where to find the Red Skull. The Red Skull thought Crossbones was someone to be discarded when he outlived his usefulness. The Skull's going to find out he was wrong.

Today:

The life of a superhero isn't all glamour and excitement. Case in point: this morning finds Steve Rogers, Captain America, desperately searching for a box of Wheaties at his local grocery store. "I'm sorry sir," the stock boy states. "We're all out. We should have some tomorrow."

"Thanks anyway," Steve answers. Steve collects the remaining items on his list and heads to the checkout line. As he waits in the line, he begins flipping through the latest copy of TV Guide when suddenly a young man approaches him.

"Say, don't I know you? Aren't you Steve Rogers?" the young man asks.

"Yes I am," Steve answers. "We've met, haven't we? You look familiar."

"Sure, my name's Van. I was an intern at Marvel when you were drawing the Captain America comic."

"That's right, I remember you. How have you been?"

"Great. I'm an editor there now in fact. Are you still drawing?"

"I'm doing some commercial art right now. I haven't done any comic art since I was working on Cap."

"Listen, if you're interested, give me a call," Van says. "I'm editing X-Men, and I don't have to tell you it's one of our worst-selling books. All that anti-mutant hysteria. I think we could turn things around if a really dynamic artist like you came aboard."

"I'll think about it," Steve says. Van hands Steve his card and walks away. As Steve looks at the card he thinks, "Maybe I will take Van up on his offer. Not only will it give me some steady work, but it might be a good way to combat the anti-mutant feeling in this country, as I recently tried to do in my costumed identity." (In the stirring Cap 457 - Matt)

In a hidden HYDRA base, the base commander begins passing out the day's duty assignments. He moves down the line of HYDRA agents, silently bemoaning the dull daily routine. As he reaches the end of line, though, he's glad for the little perks that make the boring routines worthwhile. He looks at the newest agent - she's only been with them a few days, but she's proved to be an incredibly competent soldier. And she ain't too hard on the eyes, either.

"Agent, you're assigned to pilot the shuttle on today's mission. You and two other agents are to pick up supplies for Operation Q. A milk run."

"Will do," the agent replies.

"The way she smiled at me," the commander thinks, "was that a come on?"

Meanwhile, in Times Square...

"He swings through the air with the greatest of ease..."

"Take singing lessons, you bum!"

"Ah, good old New York," thinks the amazing Spider-Man. "People aren't even afraid to criticize their friendly neighborhood webspinner's melodious voice as he swings overhead." Spidey blows his heckler a kiss as he swings by.

"Nothing like some good, old fashioned web slinging to take my mind off my troubles," Spidey thinks. "And boy do I have a lot of troubles these days! (Don't believe him? Check out our new Web of Spider-Man title! - Madison Avenue Matt) Still, I'd better head over to the Bugle to see what's shaking."

Suddenly, Spider-Man swings to the nearest building and leaps to its side, adhering to the surface. "I just got a light tingle on my spider sense as I passed by. It may be nothing, but I'd better check it out. Any excuse to delay seeing Jolly Jonah's mug..."

With a fluidity and speed almost incomprehensible to the average human, Spider-Man skitters along the face of the wall back in the direction he came. "Yeah, someone on the street is definitely setting off the old spidey sense. But who... Ah. There's a suspicious looking character if I ever saw one. You'd think these guys wouldn't always wear a trenchcoat with a hat pulled down over their face. In fact, it even looks like he's wearing mask under that hat. Maybe I'd better see what the deal is with this guy."

Spider-Man's wiry muscles send him shooting away from the building's face. In mid-air, he performs a triple summersault before executing a perfect two point landing on the street directly in front of the man in the trenchcoat.

"Excuse me, sir, but if you're going to go around wearing a mask in public I'm going to need to see your union card," Spider-Man says.

"Crap," is the trenchcoated man's only verbal reply. However, non-verbal communication is often much more effective, and the trenchcoated man illustrates his understanding of this fact by promptly swinging a punch at the webbed wonder.

"Alright, we'll put you on waivers and let you play without a union contract, but only this once!" Spidey jests as he leaps into the air to avoid the punch. He flips over the trenchcoated man and grips the coat as he is airborne, ripping the coat off as he lands.

Spider-Man quickly recognizes his foe upon seeing his costume. "Crossbones! Hoo boy!"

"Say your prayers, squirt," Crossbones spits as he charges the webslinger.

Steve Rogers carries his two bags of groceries up the stares of the apartment building he resides in. As he reaches the top of the stairs he passes his neighbor, Bill Anderson.

"Hi, Bill, how's it going?" Steve asks.

"Fine. Seeya, Rogers," Bill murmurs.

"I wonder if Bill's having some sort of personal problems," Steve thinks as he unlocks the door to his apartment. "I see Jeff inviting him to hang out with the rest of us all the time, but he never comes. Oh well, nothing I can do if he doesn't want to open up."

Steve carries his bags into the kitchen and sets them on the table. He checks the answering machine - no calls.

"Rachel's coming over tonight," he thinks. "I've got to get it through to her once and for all - it's over between us. I don't know why I'm getting so tense about this. Maybe I don't want it to be over... No, that's not true. We had a good relationship but that time's gone, and we can't go back. And I've got to make her understand that. I just hate to do it..."

Steve shakes his head and walks back into the bedroom. "I need to distract myself. It'll still be several hours before Rachel comes by... a good workout at Avengers mansion will keep my mind off of it. Besides, I haven't had a regular exercise session in a few days, and I don't want the Avengers to think I don't practice what I preach."

After changing into his Captain America uniform, Cap heads to the warehouse where he keeps his motorcycle, and then speeds down the street.

"Maybe I should check the police bands just in case," Cap thinks as he activates his helmet radio's scanner.

"Confirmed," a voice comes over the scanner, "the big guy's name is Cross- bones. He escaped while being transported to the Vault a few days ago."

Another voice answers, "We can't evacuate all of Times Square! If Spidey can't stop him soon, we may have some serious injuries here."

Cap quickly changes his direction to head towards the battle. "Spider-Man is incredibly capable, but he doesn't have the experience with Crossbones that I have. I've got to get there and do whatever I can to end this quickly."

Sharon Carter, disguised as a HYDRA agent, deftly pilots a HYDRA shuttle to its destination. "I knew that base commander was a sucker," she thinks as she begins to descend towards their target. "Some minor flirting and I was able to land the assignment I wanted. HYDRA's provided me with less of a challenge than I thought. I was able to rob their database without any problems (as seen last issue - Matt)." She glances over her shoulder at the two HYDRA agents accompanying her. "All I have to do is get rid of these bozos...."

She brings the shuttle in for a landing near a small manufacturing warehouse. "Here we are, boys," she announces.

"Just wait here," one of the agents says. "The security here's non-existent. We should have the components in a few minutes."

Sharon waits until the HYDRA agents have disembarked and entered the facility. She then pulls her HYDRA standard-issue blaster from her holster and checks the charge. She walks over to the entry ramp and waits. In a few moments, the two agents return. One is carrying a computer component the size of a man's fist. As they approach, one says, "Get to cockpit, let's go!"

Sharon's only reply is to raise her blaster and open fire on the two agents. Once the agents are down, she runs down the ramp and retrieves the component. She promptly destroys it.

"HYDRA will be able to find another component, but this should delay them a day," Sharon thinks as she returns to the shuttle and prepares to lift off. "That'll give me enough time to recruit some help. And I know just the guy..."

Crossbones swings at Spider-Man. "I don't have time for an idiot like you," Crossbones says as Spider-Man ducks out of the way. "It's Captain America I'm after."

"You know, by now you'd think I'd be used to being the Rodney Dangerfield of the long underwear set," Spidey says as he leaps back and fires webbing at Crossbones' feet, "but those kinds of comments still sting, Bonesy."

Crossbones reacts quickly and manages to avoid most of the webbing. However, part of his boot is covered in the webbing, and is stuck to the ground. Crossbones vainly tries to break the webbing, and Spidey leaps at Crossbones. Crossbones uses Spidey's momentum to flip the webbed wonder overhead. Cross- bones then manages to remove his boot, giving the villain free movement once again.

"And now, Webhead, I'm gonna-"

"Hold it, Crossbones!" a confident voice pierces the air.

If Crossbones did not wear a mask, we would be able to see his sickening smile as he sees his foe. "Captain America! I'm going to beat you within an inch of your life, and then you're going to tell me where I can find the Red Skull, so I can give him the same treatment."

Crossbones charges the Sentinel of Liberty, but Captain America hurls his legendary shield at his foe. The shield catches Crossbones right in the gut. As Crossbones is momentarily stunned, Spider-Man leaps onto his back.

"Don't tell me you're forgetting your old dance partner already," Spidey quips as he applies a chinlock on Crossbones.

"You've got a thing or two to learn about hand-to-hand," Crossbones says as he grabs Spidey and flips him over his back.

"Look out, Spider-Man," Cap says as he ducks to avoid the flying wallcrawler.

Crossbones tries to pounce on Cap, but is greeted with a boot to the chin. Cap gets back to his feet and delivers a kick to the solar plexus. "Hopefully my shield softened his gut up a bit," Cap thinks as he follows up with a fist to the head and then a punch to the gut.

"Heads up, Cappy," Spider-Man calls from behind. Cap ducks and Spider-Man webs up Crossbones' eyeholes.

"You insect!" Crossbones growls. "This is between Captain America and me!"

"No," Cap corrects as he punches Crossbones again, "once you threaten society, it's the duty of every responsible citizen to oppose you!"

"Gee, Cap, who writes your dialogue?" Spidey asks as he lends his spider- strength to knock out Crossbones with another punch.

Cap stares at Spider-Man quizically.

"Take it easy, Cap, it was just a joke," Spidey says defensively.

"I know, Spider-Man," Cap smiles as he claps Spidey on the shoulder. "Thanks for the help. The authorities will take things from here. If you'll excuse me, I've got a date."

Spidey scratches his head as he watches Cap ride off on his Harley. "Captain America? A date? Wow. Who would have figured that?"

Steve paces back and forth in his apartment. "I've got to end this here and now," Steve thinks. "I've got to make Rachel understand we can't go back to what we had. There comes a time when you have to let go of the past." Steve pauses at the irony of his last thought. After all, how long did it take him to come to terms with the death of Bucky Barnes? Sometimes the past won't let go of you.

Steve hears a knock on the door and answers it. "C'mon in Rach - oh, hi Anita."

Steve's neighbor, Anita Rodriguez enters. "Hi, Steve. You don't have plans tonight, do you?"

"Actually, I do have a friend coming over," Steve says.

"A lady friend?"

"Um, yes."

"Nothing serious, I hope," Anita says as she presses herself against Steve.

"No, but she'll be here any minute," Steve says as he tries to politely direct Anita towards the door.

"Well, I won't get in your way. But if you're up for something a little later, just give me a call, okay?"

"Sure, Anita," Steve says. "See you later."

As Anita walks out, Rachel approaches Steve's door. "Hi, Rachel," Steve says. "Come on in."

Rachel enters and Steve closes the door behind them. "Steve," Rachel begins, "we were great together. I'll admit I made some mistakes, but when I thought you were dead - Steve, I realized how much I care about you. There's got to be some way...."

"Rachel, I'm sorry," Steve says. "But my feelings haven't changed. We both have to move on."

Before the conversation can continue Steve hears a thud from his bathroom.

"What's that?" Rachel asks.

"I don't know," Steve says as he cautiously approaches the bathroom. Suddenly the bathroom door opens and there stands Sharon Carter.

"Sharon?!" Steve says, shocked. "What are you doing here?"

"Love this rathole you're in now, Rogers," Sharon says. "Skylight over the bathroom? Give me a break. Lose the cutie, we've got to talk business."

"Don't tell me you and she -" Rachel begins.

"Rachel, I'm afraid this will have to wait," Steve says.

"No, Steve. I see how it is," Rachel says coldly. "I just wish you could have been honest with me." Rachel angrily stalks out of Steve's apartment.

"Rachel, you don't understand -" Steve is cut off by the slamming door. He turns to Sharon. "Your timing is unbelievable, as usual," he says, his tone sarcasm mixed with annoyance.

"It's a gift," Sharon replies. "I don't have time for chit-chat, Rogers. Tell me everything you know about the Q-Ray."

Next Issue: What does Steve know about the Q-Ray? Plenty! Join us for a special flashback to World War II, featuring guest stars Bucky Barnes, Baron Heinrich Zemo, and General George S. Patton!

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