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Posted by Captain America
on 9/3/2008, 11:57 pm
98.115.67.149
Ray’s Gym, New York City
3:45 p.m.
“This downtime is killing me Steve,” Sam Wilson begins. The two workout in the tiny neighborhood gym right down the street from Cap’s apartment. Cap and Falcon run side by side on a pair of treadmills that look as if they might be the first ones ever invented. Other than the two older men playing chess over by the boxing ring, the place is empty.
“I know me too, but I’m sure Fury will have something for us soon.”
“That’s what you’ve been saying for the last month. We haven’t heard anything at all from him in the last couple weeks. He still hasn’t even told us who else he has in mind for our ‘team’.”
“He is currently number one on SHIELD’s list right now.” As if on queue, the door to the gym opens and in walks Tony Stark in a SHIELD warm up suit. He waves to the old men in the corner and walks over to his friends. Peeling off his warm up, Tony jumps on the third treadmill.
“Good afternoon,” Tony says checking his pulse rate on his watch as he begins to run.
“I believe this is a private gym,” Falcon says.
“That is why I took the liberty of purchasing it a few hours ago. Let’s get down to business, I want Fury and you two know were I can find him.”
“Sorry we can’t help you Mr. Director,” Cap says, using his title with a ring of disdain. The two men lock eyes and both of them come to a halt on their treadmill. “Now if you don’t mind…”
“I could have you both arrested on obstruction of justice charges.”
“Oh, I think we can make it a lot more interesting than that,” Falcon says cracking his knuckles loudly. “I sincerely hope you brought back up with you.”
“This isn’t what I want,” Tony says stepping back, his hands up. Steve steps in between Sam and Tony, putting his hand on Falcon’s shoulder. “Listen, I can understand why Fury doesn’t want to come in. He made enough people in Washington look like idiots when he exposed Hill that he would never get SHIELD back. I really need his help, I’m at a loss on who else I can turn to.”
“I’m sorry Tony but we can’t help you.”
“At least give him a message for me. I think there was a lot more going on at Red Skull’s base than we originally thought.”
“What do you mean?”
“The clones were designed to fail. Pym has done autopsies on several that died and has found that they were all flawed at a very fundamental level. He has read through the data and thinks that Dr. Kailius intentionally sabotaged them.”
“Now why would he do that?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. We’ve also managed to hack the security systems and learned that Kailius and a man in black cleaned out the DNA sample locker at the same time as our attack.”
“Any idea who this Kailius guy is,” Cap asks.
“He wasn’t even a blip on the radar, all we can find are his records from college. He attended a tiny community college in Maryland were he got B’s and C’s in a nursing program. He was obviously a patsy for someone who wanted to infiltrate Hydra.”
“Any ideas who,” Cap says.
“That were I’m hoping Fury might know something…”
Jaizhong, Capital city of Tripwai
This could not be happening, General Zhao said to himself once again as he sat in a small cell. A month ago when this back water province had declared independence from his beloved China, he had thought it a joke. But the western powers had backed the rebels, even recognizing their status. Zhao had been given the opportunity by his superiors to quell the rebellion and he relished the chance. But all of his plans were destroyed when an unknown tandem of mutants had aided the rebels.
Now here he sits locked away in solitary confinement until his release can be brokered for. Unfortunately that was probably a worse prospect than sitting in this cell. His superiors did not tolerate failure and Zhao was sure this would be no exception. Death in battle at the hands of his enemies would have been preferred as opposed to the execution that awaited him when he returned home.
“General I have good news for you” a uniformed man says as he comes through the door into the cell block. Zhao had come to know the man as General Xian, the military leader of the rebels. He had been gracious and seen that Zhao was not ill treated in any way during his time here. “Your time is almost at an end with us, you will be going home very soon.”
“I think we both know what that means for me.”
“Then stay here and accept political asylum.”
“And abandon my family to die for my betrayal?”
“We will stall negotiations for your release. That will give us time to send people across the border to smuggle your family out.”
“I will need time to consider what you have said,” General Zhao replies. Both men bow to each other and Xian walks back to the door. A small man in a drab uniform enters pushing a cart with food and water. Xian holds the door for the man before exiting.
“Oh how the mighty have fallen,” the man with the cart says. He pushes the cart up to the bars and slides a tray forward into the cell through a slot. He pours water from a plain pitcher into a mug and sets that inside as well. “Your masters will not be pleased.”
“I do not need to take verbal abuse from a servant.”
“I serve a much greater master than these dogs,” the man says with venom in his voice. “I have been instructed to offer you a chance to make these rebels pay.”
“Is this some sort of trap?”
“What do you have to lose? If you return home, you will be executed. If you stay here and take their off your family will die in your stead.”
“What does your master hope to gain from aiding me,” Zhao asks suspiciously.
“He has a vested interest in seeing that all democracy fails. And an alliance with the mighty nation of China would be a great building block.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“Your methods are to direct, this will take more subtlety.”
“What do you need from me?”
“You will return home and tell your superiors to await an emissary from us…”
*Italics are translated from Chinese
SHIELD Installation 4623
“It’s about time you quit letting Steve and Sam twist in the wind,” Sharon Carter says. The two sit in a briefing room waiting on the arrival of Cap and Falcon. Things had gone smoothly since the ‘outlaw’ SHIELD faction had taken up residence in this base. The security protocols were a bit excessive but necessary to avoid detection by the legitimate authorities that hunted them.
“Stark’s men have been watching them like hawks up until a few days ago. I still can’t figure out why he pulled the surveillance team off.”
“Are you sure he really pulled the team off? Maybe he planted some kind of new tracer on them when he approached them at the gym?”
“My ears inside of Stark’s camp would have picked up on any new tech like that.”
“I hope your right,” Sharon says. “What about the rest of the team? You’re sure that they are on board as well?”
“More or less,” Fury replies with a grin. Nick reaches into his front pocket and pulls out a cigar. He lights it up and says “here they come.”
Steve and Sam walk through the door, both laughing. They shake hands with Nick and Sharon before they sit down. Nick slides a manila folder to each of them.
“So what are we looking at here,” Sam asks.
“That is the problem Sam, we don’t know. After you sent us the message from Stark we also did some checking into this Kailius. We’ve managed to link him to that research facility in Mexico. Rumor has it the place was an organ farm, selling body parts on the black market. Problem is, as soon as we connected the dots and found out about the place it was gone. Someone leveled the place as if it never existed.”
“There has to be some kind of record of the place beyond this picture,” Cap says.
“We’re talking about an area were you slide a few grand into the local authority’s pockets every few months and they don’t care how many people disappear. We even got someone inside the local hall of records and it has been wiped clean.”
“So you’re saying someone has just disappeared with DNA from half the mutants and other powered beings on the planet.”
“In a nutshell, yes,” Fury replies. “And I’m at a loss as to were to look next.”
“What about the Skrull?”
“I’ve got even less as far as that is concerned.”
“Aren’t you just a bastion of good news. Is there anything positive you’ve got for us,” Steve asks.
“I think you’ll get to meet the rest of your team…”
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