Strike-force

[ironhand]

-Issue 1-


“Right, Spinks, who do we have first?”

“This is Jack Knight. He has super powers. Tried to set himself up as a superhero.”

“So why is here doing ten years?”

“He took on a drugs gang. Ended up killing the boss, he gave himself up.”

“By sense of right and wrong and justice. You‘ve read the evaluation, will he do it?”

“When we make the offer, I‘m sure he‘ll take it.”

“Good…and I think he may be a good field leader. You should go talk to him.”

Jack Knight himself sits in his cell and looks around, hearing the voices talking about him faint and watches as the two men, one taller with a scar running down his eye the other with combed hair and no scars and just shades on. Jack investigates the man, who just stares back at him, not afraid whatsoever.

“Hey, I know you‘re talking about me out there. Do you want me to sit here all day or can I go back to my cell now?” Jack asks and looks up at the men who stare back. He then looks down on his hand cuffs and awaits a reply.

“No need for that, Jack. Or should I call you Spectre?” The man with the shades asks and folds his arms.

“Mr Knight will do for now.” Jack snaps back angrily leaning forward.

“Of course, Jack. I‘m agent Spinks and I have a proposal for you.” The man with the shades replies.

“And who‘s the big guy behind you?” Jack questions, wanting to get his facts straight before he goes.

“You don‘t need to know his name. He‘s my boss, that‘s enough for now. Now, Mr Knight. How would you like to get out of here?” Agent Spinks asks Jack and the man with the scar stands there listening to the conversation, but not joining in on it.

“Keep talking.”

“I represent a government agency that does top secret work. And we‘re setting up a team. We‘d like you to join this team. There will be some top secret black ops missions. VERY dangerous. If you serve for one year, you get a Presidential Pardon and you go back to normal life.” Spinks says and stretches his arm and sighs deeply.

“If I survive the year, that is?” Jack speaks crossly glaring at Spinks

“…”

“What have I got to lose? Sign me up.” Jack decides and Spinks smiles and gets him free.

***

That went well. Next up is Dr Nathan Spyres. He invented a serum that gave him growth power. He was jailed because he stole the money to fund his research. He hates being in prison and will jump at the chance to earn a pardon…

“Well, Dr Spyres, what will it be?” Agent Spinks asks after saying exactly what he told Jack Knight AKA Spectre.

“Titan is in.” Nathan Spyres says darkly, actually wanting a shave as he has a stubble and isn’t aloud to shave it until the end of the week.

***

The next one could be a little more difficult. He’s a total nut job. Killed 12 people that we know of and it took around 20 agents to take him down, but I’m sure he’ll agree…

“Inferno…the proposition is this…you serve for one year on our team and you get a pardon and a passport to somewhere else. If you don‘t like that…you stay here, full term isolation.” Agent Spinks speaks casually, not scared at all that the man he is talking to can roast him alive.

“Hey…that sounds pretty cool to me.” Inferno jokes smiling over at Spinks, who frowns straight back over at him.

“But…you do as we say.”

“Hey…count me in. I can be a good guy for a year, sure.”

“We thought you‘d say that. Oh…and just encase you think about running out on us, when you last had your medical, we planted a micro bomb in your head. First sign of rebellion or it looks like you‘re reverting back to your old ways and…boom.” Spinks says and he smirks and watches as inferno goes white and scared, as he was planning on breaking out…but now obviously he cannot.

***

Next up is Jackson Barret AKA Rhino. He’s a small time thug for hire. Strong, touch and stupid. He’ll follow the leader…and we also implanted a micro bomb in his head as well…just to be sure.

“Long as I get regular food and pay…I‘m your man.” Jackson Barret grumbles, his deep voice quiet and he gets up to go already, ready to go out as soon as he can.

***

Only one more left. Another small time crook. I’m sure we’ll have no problem with this one either.

“Well then, Pulse…what do you say?” Agent Spinks asks and looks at the man with quite long hair who is stood up with his arms folded, which must hurt as he has handcuffs on him.

“Stuff it…I‘d rather spend my time here. And eventually I‘ll escape…and I‘ll come for you and your boss---” Pulse snaps back angrily and leans forward to attack but Spinks just frowns at him and walks out the room.

***

“So how‘s it going, Spinks? What do I tell the President?” The man with the red scar asks, wearing a suit looking at Spinks, who does not look happy with the results from Pulse.

“Slight setback with Pulse but the others have all come on board. We have a team of four so far.” Spinks replies, also in a suit and with his shades on, he looks down annoyed about the failure.

“I‘d prefer 5.” The taller man with the scar replies, looking at Spinks, who just looks up at him back.

“Then we can boost the team to 5 using plan B.” Spinks suggests gazing over at the taller man with the scar, who looks back.

With long thought, as he knows who the mysterious “Plan B” is, thinks for a while, fells his chin then looks over at Spinks, who stands there awaiting a reply. The scarred man smiles and looks deep into Spinks eyes.

“Do it.”

***

Okay, plan B. Guy named Serpent. Pretty much strongest out of the group, tackled the superhero team called The Sentinels before we got him in. Has four metallic arms like doctor octopus…except he kind of replaced his normal arms for those metallic beasts. We took them off encase of a danger when he arrived here.

“Hey there, tough guy, how‘s about we repair those arms of yours? In return, you have to work for Uncle Sam.” Spinks says as he leans against the door and looks at Serpent, who has half of his metallic alms and walks over to Spinks, who simply shoves him back away. Serpent smiles, as he hasn’t been with the real arms for ages, and hasn’t got complete use of them yet.

“What do I gotta do?” Serpent frowns, looking over at Spinks who smiles at the reply.

“Excellent decision, Serpent.”

***

Well, Spinks, there they are…our own government superhero team. They don’t look like much now but when we get them in costume, we’ll see how they shape up…see…now they’re in their costumes it makes a little bit of difference.

The scarred man and Spinks watch as the reformed villains come out in their costumes. Jack Knight is wearing mostly black due to his teleportation powers. Rhino is also in black armour and a dark belt and wrist bands. Inferno is not really wearing anything but a black costume with a lightning strike symbol on his chest. Dr Spyres AKA Titan is wearing a costume with stripes and is the tallest of the group. Serpent is also wearing black clothing with now longer metallic arms and his costume.

“Good afternoon, ladies. I must say, you all look lovely in your costumes. Now, here‘s where the hard training starts. Any questions?” Agent Spinks says smiling and comes down from the stairs in his agent gear.

“Yeah, speaking of ladies…why don‘t we have a few chicks on this team?” Inferno asks smiling and looking at the other crazy members on the team who nod their head in agreement.

“Very funny. Now, lets get to work. I‘ll be in contact with you at all times…but I want Spectre here to be the field team leader.” Spinks informs the group and looks at the group, who don’t look very pleased with it.

Especially Serpent.

“Why him? What did that milksop ever do? I almost beat one of The Sentinels to death. I should be the leader.” Serpent snaps over at Spinks, who doesn’t even flinch and frowns angrily at Serpent.

“Almost? Way I hear it baldy, you got your butt handed to you.” Inferno chuckles to himself and points to Serpent, who looks like he will go berserk soon.

“Least you heard o‘ me freako. I aint never hard o‘ you.” Serpent snaps back angrily and his arms wave about angrily and hit the wall near him making a massive dent in it and he drags his metallic arm back out.

Inferno smirks again, not bothered about the insults as his hair sets alight and Spinks looks down annoyed and quite bothered about it. Inferno giggles to himself as he lights up.

“Maybe you should get to know me. I‘ll show you why I was locked up.” Inferno screams getting hotter and more fire coming off of him.

“Okay, boys. That‘s enough…you need to work as a team…we don‘t need all this macho posturing.” Spinks orders the two trying to break it up but the two go at each other trying to hit one another but obviously are having no such luck.

“Stuff it, Spinks…me and hairy here need to sort this thing out first.” Inferno smirks and chuckles and starts shooting fireballs at Serpent, who luckily dodges or blocks it and watches Inferno continue to burn up uncontrollably.

“No, Inferno…you do as you‘re told in Strike-Force. You do as I say. Hit it, Jackson.” Spinks says and looks up at screen and the lower classed agent called Agent Jackson presses two red buttons.

Suddenly, the micro-bombs in both Inferno’s and Serpent’s head go off sending the two screaming in pain as they both fall to the floor as electric zaps from their head shutting their powers both off and they scream in pain

“AGH!”

“ARGHH! TURN IT OFF!”

Agent Spinks waves his hand and Jackson knows that means stop and presses yet another button and the two villains drop to the floor recovering. Inferno has smoke coming from him and Spinks walks over to his weakened body and he chokes out spit and some blood. Serpent, however, shakes the pain off and just gets straight back up.

“Now, Inferno, Serpent…as I was saying, I‘m in command here, and you do as I say. Spectre is the field commander. Any questions?” Spinks says and assists Inferno up to his feet and the villains smirks slightly looking over at Spinks.

“Just one…when the hell do we get to eat?” Inferno jokes and Spinks rolls his eyes annoyed and finds it just typical. Getting the team to actually work together and to even like each other yet alone follow orders is going to go a little harder than he thought it would be.

[ironhand]

-Issue 2-


*Takes place 2 days after the events of Issue 1*

“Here they come. Take them down!” Spinks orders and waves his hand in Inferno’s direction as a group of robots start to get closer to the group, blasting their small knock out bullets everywhere.

“Get back, guys. I can handle these robots.” Titan informs the group as he starts to get bigger and bigger until he is huge as he runs at the robots, each footstep is a small shockwave.

“Titan, NO!” Spinks yells in much annoyance and runs over to Titan annoyed and looks up at him.

Titan stands still, stopping himself from attacking and looks back to see Spinks looking at him annoyed and most definitely frustrated as the group are not working together as a team, like they should be doing.

“You were supposed to wait---Inferno was going to take a shot, you just got in the way.” Snaps Spinks and folds his arms as the robots stop and the room returns to the training room it once was.

“Huh? But I---” Titan mutters, though it is still quite loud as he is huge, he sighs and looks down.

“Are you dumb? This is serious! If this were a real situation, the hostages would be dead by now.” Spinks snaps and looks down, his head in his hands and Titan stands there annoyed as he didn’t know that would have been happening. He sighs deeply and looks down on Rhino, who looks angry with everything going on.

“Jeez…what‘s he doing on the team anyway? The guy‘s no fighter, he‘s just a scientist.” Rhino states the truth and a few members of the group nod their heads as a few just look at the argument as Titan starts to frown angrily.

“I‘m sick of this! I‘ll show you who can fight, lard boy!” Titan calls, still in his huge form as he swings his leg forward, booting Rhino across the room and smashing into the wall as Titan prepares for a fight angrily.

“You just made a BIG mistake, boy…aint nobody hits Rhino and gets away with it. You and me…we got some business.” Rhino states in his dark and grunts angrily and gets up to his feet and gets ready for a fight.

“Oh no…here we go again. This is the tenth fight in two days.” Spinks tells himself and looks down to the floor annoyed and takes a long deep sigh, annoyed about everything going on.

Spinks hears his communicator buzzing and he answers it, only to hear a man (the man with the scar from Issue 1) over the communicator talking to him.

“Spinks, how’s the training going on?” The communicator crackles and Spinks sighs deeply into the communicator.

“Badly, sir…none of them can take orders…they argue and they fight and they don‘t understand the word teamwork.” Spinks speaks in an annoyed tone and looks serious and the crackling in the communicator goes down a little bit, though it starts up once again.

“Well, they‘d better learn fast. We have a code red.” The communicator crackles as Spinks’ eyes go wide and his jaw drops and he looks at the team who are fighting one another still.

“Okay boys, fun‘s over. Get our act together, we have a mission.” Spinks orders in quite a loud voice as the assembled group nod their heads. Titan shrinks back to his normal size and listen to Spinks and what he has to say.

*68 minutes ago*

“Morning, Doctor Robinson.” An agent states smiling, guarding the massive house as Doctor Robinson himself comes in Doctor Robinson has quite dark hair, but is quite old as well and some of his hair is shorter too. He is carrying a case of some kind, a folder and shows his scientist pass over at the agent then slips it back into his pocket.

“Morning, Bob. Nice day. Say, how are the kids?” Doctor Robinson himself asks as he shows a smile and walks forward as the agent clears him through.

“Not so bad. Jack‘s starting school in a couple of months.” The agent states with quite a smile on his face and Doctor Robinson stops walking through the door and turns his head smiling

“No! They sure grow up fast!” Doctor Robinson speaks and looks shocked as he continues down the long hall as loads of agents and scientists working there greet him, as he must be quite popular to all of them.

“Morning, Doctor Robinson.” A scientist calls and Doctor Robinson smiles over at him and waves back smiling.

“Hey, Jim.” He replies and smiles and continues walking as another agent looks over at him smiling, glad to see Doctor Robinson back already, as he hadn’t been in the lab for one week, which was quite long for him normally.

“Hey there, Doctor Rob.” Another agent calls waving at him.

“Yo!” Doctor Robinson states with a smile and moves on.

After finally talking to everyone and everyone greeting him, Doctor Robinson smiles and then goes to a frown as he walks over to a door reading the word ‘DANGER’ on it. Doctor Robinson walks into his jacket pockets, not finding anything but continues to search before finally taking out his pass and sighs.

“Almost forgot my pass…” Doctor Robinson tells himself and swipes the card through the monitor and walks through, seeing a man very skinny with a lab coat on. He has long, thin dark hair and a beard to as he looks over at Doctor Robinson, who once again lights up a smile.

“Hey there, Alex…nice of you to drop in.” The other scientist informs Doctor Robinson, who nods his head, not really listening to him fully.

“Morning, Stretch. Any news?”

“Nah. The new cultures won‘t be ready for another week or so.” Stretch, the other scientist, replies looking over at Doctor Robinson, who actually takes the information given in this time.

“I‘ll just go check the stock.” Doctor Robinson states as he frowns once again and turns to his right and slowly starts to walk over to a massive area full of small experiments going on.

“Bet this is going to be a looonng day.” Stretch mutters to himself and follows Doctor Robinson, wandering which experiment he will take out.

“Somehow I doubt it.” Doctor Robinson says, overhearing the little murmur and smiles over at Stretch and opens it up, taking out one of the small beakers, the one holding a certain gas inside it.

“Batch 76X? Just remind me, Alex, why are we checking that one?” Stretch questions looking quite confused and wipes his hand against his beard and looks around thinking on why Doctor Robinson is checking out that one.

“We aren‘t checking it, Stretch. We‘re going to strike for the glory of the leader. It‘s taken me 6 years to get this close to it.” Doctor Robinson says darkly, grinning as he holds the beaker in one hand looking over at Stretch, who backs away quite scared.

“Alex? What are you talking about? Maybe you should just put that back.” Stretch suggests backing away slightly afraid as sweat comes from his forehead and he takes heavy breaths, just watching Robinson.

“I‘m sorry, Stretch, I quite liked you.” Robinson states looking down and upset about what he has to do.

With that said and done, Robinson looks down ashamed of what he has to do then looks back up at Stretch, who is backing away. Suddenly, Robinson closes his eyes and drops the beaker as it smashes as it hit’s the floor and the gas spreads around the room quickly. Stretch’s eyes roll up and blood spurts from his mouth as he collapses back and falls on the floor. Doctor Robinson splutters out some blood also and then drops on the floor, the gas spreading around the compound.

*Now*

“We lost contact with the base over an hour ago. We think one of the virus canisters was broken. The base will be on automatic lock down. So we need to send you in…to see just what‘s going on inside. Any questions?” Spinks talks, he is standing up on the ship as all the reformed villain sit there on their chairs, looking around or facing Spinks to here what he has to say.

“You’re saying that this is a top secret base full of killer viruses? And you don‘t know what this one is or what it does or how it got out?” Spectre asks, leaning forward on his comfy chair and looking over at Spinks, who just stared back at him.

“That‘s more or less it. And that‘s why we‘re sending you in.” Spinks states holding onto something nearby to keep himself steady as the ship continues to fly in the air at incredible speeds.

Silence echo’s in the room.

“Well, it sucks to be us.” Inferno talks, interrupting the silence and looks around at everyone then back at Spinks, who looks back and then heads towards the entrance and exit of the ship.

“Well, as much as it sucks…we‘ve landed…you boys are going in.” Spinks told him and steps out the ship as the other members of the team also get out to here what they have to do next…

[ironhand]

-Issue 3-


The team walks out of the ship and look around, looking over at the metal door closing the base completely. The team just look at it then turn around and look over at Spinks who walks out himself.

“These blast doors automatically sealed. Whatever‘s in there is still in there. You guys get in there and we’ll seal you back in.” Spinks informs the group and they all look at him and then Titan looks over at him confused.

“So---uh---how do we get in here?” Titan asks confused and looks over at Spinks, who smiles and points over to Rhino.

“That‘s my department.” Rhino smirks and grunts as he walks over to the large metal door and gets onto his knee’s.

Rhino grips onto the bottom of the metal door as his strength begins to pull the large door upwards, bringing the door up and breaking it slightly as he grunts again and continues to lift it up.

“Hurn!” Rhino grunts as he throws his hands up, shoving the door up and he smiles, looking back at the team with a smile and then frowns over at Spinks who looks back over with a smirk upon his face.

“Well…that worked. Now remember I‘ll be in contact with you. You just need to find out what happened here. You‘ll be wearing filters…so whatever was released won‘t affect you. Once you‘re in…we‘ll seal you in. Good luck.” Spinks informs the groups as he hands each and everyone a filter so they cannot be infected at all. They all nod their heads and they put it on as Rhino bends over and goes under the door walking through it.

“C‘mon then, lets go.” He tells the group as they all take it in turns to go under the door and walk behind Rhino following him in the very dark cave. The team walks along the save and Inferno looks around.

“I have a bad feeling about this…” Inferno mutters to himself and walks along, not bothered anymore as Serpent finally gets the nerve to go underneath the door and follows the group.

The team continue to walk on and they head down a slope in the base, though it is quite dark and unable to see a lot of things. Everyone stops as Spectre’s communicator starts to crackle. Spectre presses a button so the entire team can hear whatever Spinks has to tell them.

“Spectre, are you picking me up?” The communicator crackles in the voice of Spinks and the team bend over to hear it better than what they were. Spectre looks over the team and they nod their heads, they can hear what is being said.

“Loud and clear, Spinks.” Spectre informs Spinks walking on slightly, closer to the team so they can understand and hear what Spinks is talking about.

“I just want to make it clear to everyone that Spectre is the field team leader here.” The communicator states in once again the voice of Spinks and Rhino rolls his eyes as does Serpent, who is still not happy about not being in charge, despite his experience.

“Yeah, whatever, can we get on with this?” Rhino grunts angrily and the communicator goes off from Spinks’ side, showing the conversation has now finally ended.

The team walk on slightly as Titan now takes the lead of the group and walks on but then stops annoyed as he cannot see anything at all due to the darkness. He looks over at the group and looks down annoyed.

“It‘s kinda dark in here. Did anyone bring a flashlight?” Titan asks the group searching through his stuff to see nothing in there except for a few things he needs personally. The team shrugs and Inferno makes a loud enough sigh so the entire group all look at him. He grunts looking at them all.

“Don‘t sweat it big guy. Well whattaya know? All the power I got and I have to use it to light the place up a bit. There you go.” Inferno states annoyed as he puts his palm forward as it starts to heat up and then suddenly erupts along with his hair, lighting up slight bits of the cave as he looks over at the group, then notices Serpent throwing one of his metallic arms forward, pointing to something. Inferno looks closely and shoves his fire hand over to see shadowed figures walking their way. The group all looks over not sure what to make of it.

“Hey heads up, guys. I think we found survivors.” Serpent informs the group, even though they are already looking over at it. Serpent squints his eyes slightly looking over unsure what exactly it is.

“There‘s somebody moving around over there. HEY GUYS! OVER HERE!” Spectre calls at the shadows who limp along and head further towards the light, limping and groaning as they go on.

Suddenly they draw closer and the entire team and can see what exactly they are. They look like dead people in a way, walking dead. Zombies. They stagger on with a frown on their decaying faces as they draw closer angrily.

“RRRR” One of the zombies growls walking closer as blood drops from his mouth and from his leg, where he must’ve caught it in something during his way to the team.

“SSSS” The other one growls and also makes his way towards the team angrily.

“What the hell…?!?” Serpent asks as he backs away completely terrified looking at the zombies as they get closer and closer.

***

Agent Spinks stands outside of the mountain with his arms folded, not bothered about the mission as he over hears the mission then springs back into life once again as he hears comments from the group and loud growls from the zombies. Spinks looks shocked and turns the communicator on quickly.

“What’s going on in there? Talk to me!” Spinks order through the communicator and crackling noises can be heard as noises are heard which must be Spectre teleporting. Spinks looks down thinking.

“Here they come!” A voice can be heard crackling through the communicator and Spinks leans forward trying to understand everything being said.

“Get back!” Another crackling voice can be heard as more punching noises and growling noises can be heard loudly.

“There‘s too many of them!” Another one can be heard as Spinks looks confused and finally hears a lot of silence and just simple crackling noises and gets nothing but that and decides he has to do something about that and needs to check if the team is still alive.

“Spectre? What’s going on? Who‘s there?” Spinks asks panicking slightly into the communicator.

Within the cave, Spectre finally teleports in and lands with a thud, as he did not concentrate too much. He looks around to see no zombies there and he pants looking around and notices he is still in the cave where no one else except for him it. He pants a bit then realises he should contact Spinks to inform him on everything what is going off.

“Spinks…what the hell is this place? They---we were separated. We were attacked by---zombies---I don‘t believe it…I lost the others.” Spectre grunts and pants as he looks around, everything is still dark but some light shines around the area.

Spectre doesn’t get a proper reply from Spinks as he staggers to his feet and looks around, then all of a sudden goes wide eyes and takes a few steps back looking at something.

“Wait---what’s that?” Spectre asks, thinking someone is there with him but then realises he is on his own as he notices a zombie right behind him ready to lunge at him.

“RARRGH!” The zombie growls loudly and jumps at Spectre and attempts to have a bite of Spectre.

***

“Huff Huff…I think I lost them. What the hell is this place? I---what’s that? Oh jeez.” Titan pants also as he looks around at his surroundings then cannot as he turns around to see a horde of zombies running at him angrily and he backs off shocked, unsure how to deal with them properly.

Titan closes his eyes tightly as he starts to grow big enough so he can fit in the cave and he starts smashing and beating up each and everyone of the zombies but they start to over power him as he falls down to the ground and shrinks back down to normal size, trying to fight back and keep the zombies away from him.

“Oh god, oh god! There‘s too many of them!” Titan yelps and backs off slightly as he watches one of the zombies mouth’s go wide as he gets ready to make the kill blow, only to be sent to the floor in a pile of ash as fire burns him and kills the zombie properly this time.

“Relax, high pockets, I got your back.” Inferno states as he arrives and shoots a massive wave of fire, burning and destroying a group of zombies and watching them fall to the floor in ashes as Titan thinks hard once again and grows to a much taller height once again.

“Inferno…boy am I glad to see you.” Titan says and kicks a group of zombies back with his large foot and Inferno nods his head and burns them as they all scream and drop to the floor in a pile of ash.

“They don‘t like a taste of my powers do they?” Inferno asks as he blasts more of the zombies reducing them to a pile of ash.

“Guess not. Come on, lets find the others.” Titan orders Inferno and he smiles and creates a line of fire, trapping the zombies as the two start running looking for more members as more of the zombies start to catch up with them

***

“You guys are really starting to annoy me.” Rhino grunts angrily as he swats the group of zombies away with ease, picking one up and tossing him across and with the other hand throwing a death punch to the zombie, leaving a hole in it but not killing it and it growls pouncing on him but he grabs hold of it, slamming it to the ground then stomps on it’s head, killing it as he grunts taking on more.

“It‘s all right for you, their teeth can‘t break your skin.” Serpent snaps using one of his metal arms to punch a man in the face ripping the head apart and killing him as with his other three metal arms blocks a group of zombies away from him and then takes on them, focusing on another target as they start to overwhelm him.

“Yeah…I guess your right. Lets find a safer place.” Rhino sighs as he turns around looking for a way to get out and punches a zombie doing so, killing it as blood and it’s brains comes out going all over the floor.

“Here…behind this door.” Suggests Serpent as Rhino nods his head and runs over to the door in front of them and kneels down again and gets his hands underneath the door like he did before. Serpent blocks the zombies off with all his might as Rhino does this.

“RARRGH!” Rhino screams loudly shoving the metal door up and it crashes and he walks into the place and Serpent follows as the two then back away slightly looking over at a man with a beard who is in chains and looks at the group. He has long hair and a long beard as he must’ve been in there for quite some time. He looks at the two and smiles comes along his face.

“Ah…come on gentlemen…Welcome to my cell, I have been expecting you.” The man states with a smile, looking over at Serpent and Rhino both and they just look back shocked, not knowing what to say.

[ironhand]

-Issue 4-


“Whoa…did I miss a page here? Who the hell are you?” Serpent asks rather puzzled as he stands beside Rhino, who is just as shocked as he is as they both look over at the long haired person, who smiles evilly and walks closer to them both.

“I‘ve been here a long time. A very long time…and now you are going to set me free. My name, by the way, is Plague.” The mystery man states coldly as his handcuffs turn into dust and land on the floor, spreading across the floor like win. The man smirks, still glancing over at the two reformed villains.

“Yeah, sure…why would we wanna do that?” Serpent questions confused and also angrily as he fools his metallic arms, but then realises it is rather uncomfortable and brings it back down, awaiting a reply from Plague.

“Because I command it. I will be free. It is time to walk the Earth again.” Plague growls as his eyes go black. Suddenly, Serpent and Rhino’s eyes both turn black and they look completely mindless, ready to follow Plague’s every command…

***

“Spectre? Come in, can you read me?” the communicator crackles in the voice of Spinks, making Spectre extremely annoyed as he dodges a blow from a zombie, luckily dodging a blow.

“ARGH!” Spectre screams in pain as the zombie luckily manages to get in a blow, it swipes it’s claws and catches Spectre’s mask, ripping it slightly.

Spectre staggers a little and watches the zombie coming in for yet another attack, and speedily turns around, delivering a kick to the zombie’s head, knocking it off in one clean blow. Spectre pants slightly, knowing he was one the small battle.

“Give it up, Spinks, I‘m kinda busy right now.” Spectre tells Spinks annoyed and Spinks does not reply. As Spectre finally stops panting.

“RRAARRRGHHH!” A huge roar is called as the ground beneath Spectre breaks up as a rather large zombiefied security guard comes out, roaring in anger running over to Spectre.

“Oh no---now what? A security guard?! You gotta be kidding me!” Spectre states, backing off slightly as he jumps into the air, jumping over the security guard, backing away slightly.

“ARGH!” A zombie screams in pure anger as it pounces on Spectre’s back. Spectre attempts to squirm his way out but cannot do so as he watches the security guard make it’s way over as well as both start to try and take bites

“Time to go.” Spectre states, knowing that he cannot get out of the zombies grasp as suddenly he turns into smoke and disappears, teleporting elsewhere.

***

“Back off ugly. Man, this is too easy. Stick with me, big guy, we‘re gonna get out of here.” Inferno calls as Titan stays behind him. Inferno quickly throws his arm into one of the zombies face, then turns his hand into fire, killing the zombie and leaving it on the floor dead.

Titan, still scared about the matter, follows along, turning big once again, swatting a few zombies away into one position as Inferno quickly burns them up. Titan closes his eyes and goes back to his normal human size.

“I never thought I‘d be glad to be with a convicted murderer. I say we ditch the mission and get the hell out of this place.” Titan suggests, not wanting to be part of the team anymore after everything what’s going on. Inferno nods the head as they start to walk the other way, heading for whatever exit they can find.

“Forget that…” Spectre states as he runs in and see’s both of the heroes, blocking off their path as Titan and Inferno both look relieved to see their leader, and for once not another horde or zombies

“SPECTRE!” Inferno calls pleased as he walks over to Spectre who doesn’t smiles whatsoever and continues to run slightly, the other two follow him, not wanting to ask any more questions.

“I‘ve got about 30 zombies right behind me. There‘s no way out this way.” Spectre informs them as he eventually stops, knowing the zombies would eventually get bored following him and would try to find some other thing to eat. He closes his eyes and pants slightly, catching his breath then looks over at Titan and Inferno both.

“Well aint that just great…so we gotta head deeper into the base!” Inferno moans annoyed as they all stand there, still collecting their strength and breath.

Silence enters the area as suddenly a crackling noise is heard. Serpent rolls his eyes and presses the button, listening to whatever Spinks has to tell him now. Inferno and Titan go up close to try and listen too.

“Strike-Force, this is Spinks. The mission has a new priority. It---uh---appears that a secret chamber has been breached.” The communicator crackles in Spinks voice as Spectre backs off slightly puzzled as Inferno and Titan both looked confused at this as well.

“Huh?” Titan mutters to himself, not knowing what exactly is going on.

“We---uh---we‘re holding a special…patient in there. If that cell is open then we must assume that he‘s free. He must NOT be allowed to get out. I repeat, do NOT let him out.” Spinks commands as Spectre’s puzzled face turns into that of an angered face. Titan and Inferno still looked confused and rather shocked about everything as Spectre stands there with his fists clenched.

“Wait a minute…is this what we came here for? To check if this prisoner was free? Who is this guy? And how come you never mentioned this before?” Spectre snaps angrily into the communicator, not wanting to follow Spinks’ commands until he got told everything he needed to know.

“You don‘t need to know that, Spectre. All you need to know is that he may be free and your job is to either put him back in his cell…or make sure he doesn‘t get out.” Spinks simply replies rather calmly instead of being angry or anything. He stops the communication as Spectre still stands there, looking down to the ground angrily.

“Spectre, what do we do? Spectre? They‘re coming back again…” Titan grumbles to Spectre as he backs away slightly to see around 30 zombies all charging after them with blood dripping from their mouths and missing body parts.

Spectre does not answer as he still looks down to the ground. The zombie horde draws itself closer as suddenly Spectre teleports in smoke, leaving Inferno and Titan still there.

“SPECTRE!?” Titan screams scared as he gets into a fighting position, ready to fight for his life.

***

Plague hovers above the ground and his black clothing drapes over it as well. Plague‘s black eyes look in pleasure as he simply watches the battle in entertainment. Serpent, who has now got black eyes, growls angrily as his four arms lunge forward, ramming through around 20 zombies. Serpent quickly yanks his arms back, watching the zombies drop to the floor with missing heads or body parts. Rhino growls also as he grabs hold of one zombie, lifting it upwards and pressing hard on the head, making it explode. Plague smiles as he and his two slaves walks forward, killing the zombies.

“Good…I have chosen my slaves well. Take us through these undead and I shall walk the Earth again.” Plague orders as he continues to fly onwards, only to notice yet another horde of zombies coming his way. He smiles, and notices Titan and Inferno fighting bravely in the background.

Plague watches as Rhino and Serpent easily tear through the zombies and make their way onwards. Rhino and Serpent eventually stop killing the zombies and look at Plague, who points over at Inferno and Titan. He smiles evilly as they begin to make their way over there.

“Oh---you are excellent…my heralds…” Plague growls, watching the zombies fall down and get killed once more.

***

“I‘ve lost contact. Oh hell, this mission has gone to hell. He must be free, and he‘ll be coming this way. Stand by men, anything, I mean anything at all comes out of there, kill it…” Spinks orders, panicking slightly, not sure what to do. He throws the communicator down in anger and then holds his head. He watches all his men stand next to the closed door, pointing their guns over at it, ready to shoot at anything, living or non living. Good or bad.

***

“Prisoner 7215, also known as Plague. He‘s been held here since he was taken captive in 1887. His origins are unknown but he‘s left a trail of death and disease wherever he‘s been. We have records going as far back as Europe in 1665. We caught him and sealed him here underground. This was the only thing that seemed to block his powers.” A man states. He has brown, curly hair. He also has a rather smart suit on him as well as shades.

Spectre stands up, watching the video with the man on it, stating what to do and what exactly is in the base. Spectre watches eagerly, not noticing the zombie entering the room, creeping up behind him, ready to have a meal.

“I fear that we should not have used him in experiments making viruses from his blood. I fear we have created monsters. And I fear that his power is escaping. And that is why I must resign my post as director of this facility. He will escape…and soon. I don‘t that on my conscience.” The man on the video continues as Spectre listens eagerly, not wanting to miss anything being said, still watching the video as the zombie behind him draws closer.

The video tape finally ends and Spectre simply raises his arm, hitting the zombie on the head fairly easily. The zombie drops to the floor dead and Spectre just looks down to the floor, thinking to himself, still unsure on exactly hat he should do.

“Seems my mission is clear. I have to put things back how they were and correct the mistakes that have been made.” Spectre tells himself as he turns around, looking over at 2 zombies guarding the door. He kicks one and grabs hold of the other, tossing him over on the floor. Spectre runs out of the room and then closes it shut, locking the two zombies in there with each other.

***

Plague laughs angrily and in joy that he can finally walk the Earth again as Serpent knocks another zombie down, finishing the last of them. Plague then turns his head and points his palm over at Titan, taking control of him.

“And you are mine as well…and now…I shall be free. Open the door, Rhino. OPEN THE DOOR.” Plague screams in anger, as he wants to be free from the prison he has been in for so many years. Rhino nods his head and delivers one solid punch to the door, bending it back slightly as he starts to deliver more blows to it.

Spinks watches this and backs away slightly as he notices his men backing away slightly too, watching the door bend, ready to blow open in any moment soon.

“Stand firm, men. They‘re coming, don‘t hesitate…shoot first and ask questions later.” Spinks orders as he loads his gun too. He points it at the door, bracing himself for anything. He stands further away from the other men, as some agents surround him, willing to save him.

Suddenly, the door smashes open, sending it crashing over and landing in a heap on the floor. Rhino, Serpent, Titan, Inferno and Plague come out of the base as suddenly the agents let out a barrage of bullets. Rhino stands strong as the he saves the others and the bullets bounce off of his hard skin.

Inferno laughs evilly as he throws his palms forward as fire balls come streaming in at the agents, they dive out of the way, dodging some of them but some of the agents unfortunately get caught as they die in the explosion.

Plague growls angrily as he dives into the battle. One of the agents turns around, noticing Plague coming as he turns around, the gun facing Plague as he gets ready to take the shot. Unfortunately, Plague is to fast as swipes his claws across the agents face, letting his dead body drop to the ground.

“YEEARGH!” Another agent screams in incredible pain as Plague turns around, using his incredible speed as he slices across that agent too, killing him. Plague smirks, enjoying the time, as he hasn’t been free to see the sunlight in a long time.

“FALL BACK! WE NEED THE HEAVY WEAPO---ARGGHHH!” Another agent screams in agony as suddenly Serpent’s metallic arm rams through his head, ripping through the agent and once again yanks out of the agent, letting the dead body drop to the floor.

“Time to die.” Serpent growls, still with his black eyes as he smiles evilly, looking over at Plague for more instructions.

“Excellent, my pets. You shall be my heralds in my new world…now KILL THEM ALL!” Plague screams in anger as he watches his heralds do his job for him. He watches Inferno and Titan burning and killing whatever they can and laughs evilly, already enjoying the short time he has walked the Earth.

“Agent Spinks! We don‘t stand a chance. We‘ll hold them off for as long as we can but you must get out of here. The only way to stop them is with a missile strike.” One of the agents calls, running over to Spinks, who points his gun over at the agent first, then takes it down and holsters his weapon. Spinks looks down annoyed and brushes his hair back.

“I-I---this mission as gone all to hell…” Spinks mutters to himself, almost ignoring the agent now, as he begins to think of anything he can do to help win the battle, though everything seems to be going wrong for him.

“Oh god…it just gets worse…the zombies are getting out, too…” The agent grumbles in shock and horror as he points over to the remainders of the door on the base, watching as a group of zombies come out, blood pouring from their arms and mouths as the walk along, slashing at the agents who continue to fire at anyone attacking them.

“You‘re right, soldier. This HAS gone to far. The only way to end this is with a nuclear strike.” Spinks states the truth, getting into action as he now knows what to do with the situation…

[ironhand]

-Issue 5-


Inferno, Rhino, Titan, Serpent and Plague chuckle to themselves easily as they swat through the agents, burning them and killing many of them. One of the agents quickly pulls out his machine gun, shooting a huge round of bullets, killing the zombie staggering towards them as the bullets shred through their skin and then they drop to the floor dead. The agent backs away as he notices Inferno walking over to him with an evil smile on his face.

“K-keep back. YEEARRRGGHHHH!” The agent screams as he runs out of bullets and attempts to back off, only to be burnt up into ashes as the fire wave from Inferno burns him up, reducing the agent into nothing.

“N-no…” Another agent pleads as he tries to run out of the way, but cannot get free as Rhino grabs hold of his neck, not killing him just yet. The agent attempts to squirm his way free, but cannot do so and knows that what happens next means the end of him.

“H-help…please…” Another agent grumbles, as Rhino’s other hand grabs hold of his neck and keeps him steady.

The agent pulls out a pistol, shooting as many rounds as possible at Rhino, but the bullets bounce off his metallic body and drop to the floor. Rhino smirks as his black eyes look at the two, then he brings his two arms together, making their heads collide and split open, leaving them dead.

Plague growls angrily and also in joy as he hovers over to another agent, who backs away, pointing his pistol over at Plague. Plague smirks evilly as his eyes turn black like before and watch what happens next.

“DIE.” Plague growls as he smirks evilly and watches the agent stand there, unable to move as he is being held their tight by Plague’s control.

“URK!” The agent squeals as his body slowly decomposes, his face starts to get more wrinkly as his face gets thinner. Eventually, the agent’s face turns into a skull, then drops down to the floor dead.

Titan laughs to himself as he swats the zombies and many agents away from him then walks over to one of the agents, each footstep is like an earthquake as he draws himself closer angrily. Titan swipes his hand to the side quickly, grabbing hold of the agent and lifting him up.

“No---please---no…” The agent pleads, trying to break free from the extremely big hand, but the grip is to strong and for a normal human it is unbreakable. The agent closes his eyes, getting ready to die, knowing that even though he doesn’t want to, he will be killed.

“Time to die, little man…no…I---I---no I can‘t.” Titan growls then backs away slightly. His eyes which were black not long before turn back to normal as he puts the agent down on the ground in shock and takes many steps back, not sure what to do. He puts his hand on his head and starts to pant, as getting out of Plague’s control was quite hard to accomplish. Plague looks over to his side, looking over at Titan, noticing that he isn’t killing anyone like his orders were and scowls angrily.

“Eh? He has broken out of my control. Ah…I see…that one is no killer like the others. A pity. My other pets will do my work. Heralds, kill you friend.” Plague orders and he points his finger over to Titan, who is still panting and trying to get his breath back, but cannot get it back in time.

Serpent pulls his metallic arms out of the agents he just killed then turns and runs over at Titan angrily, wanting to kill his own team mate. Rhino finishes off his zombies and then turns and looks over at Titan, running over to him as Inferno joins them both and runs at Titan, who backs away scared.

“Oh boy…I wake up from a nightmare and now this?” Titan questions in shock and stays in his huge size and backs away from the three heroes under Plague’s control running over at him, ready to finish him off.

Titan pants for a little while longer and dodges a punch from Rhino by swerving to the side, only to realise that he has been set up by the three. Serpent quickly takes action, throwing one of his metallic arms over at Titan.

“ARRGH!” Titan yelps as the metallic arm smashes against his cheek, sending Titan falling backwards slightly, trying to get his breath back, but knows that it is hard to do that, as there are three of them all out for his blood, who won’t stop.

Titan turns around and looks shocked as Inferno points his finger over at Titan as a fire blast comes up, hitting one side of Titan’s face. Titan yelps in agony, stumbling around with his large feet.

Titan, trying to ignore the constant pain of his burning face brings his fist down to the ground, sending Inferno and Serpent crashing backwards and onto the ground, but they soon get back up to their feet and continue the fight.

***

Spectre smoke follows behind him, indicating that he has just arrived in the new place he has arrived in. Spectre walks in, quite surprised that no zombies are in the base and that all of them have gone outside. Spectre walks in and looks up, looking at the huge metal doors which have been broken and enters Plague’s old jail cell before he was accidentally set free.

“So this is the cell Plague was in for these many years. I‘d better look at it…and then seal it up again. But I need to act quick, before it‘s too late.” Spectre states to himself, entering the area as he looks around the place and frowns, getting ready for whatever he has planned.

***

“Come back here!” Serpent growls evilly as he wraps his four metallic arms around Titan’s huge wrist, tugging on it and bringing Titan backward, leaving him in the position. Suddenly, Rhino pounces up, jumping at an incredible height as he delivers one solid punch to Titan’s burnt face. Titan spits down a tooth, knowing that he may not survive the battle anymore. Rhino drops to the ground as Titan staggers around still.

“N0---no more…I‘m not going to---to let you hurt me anymore.” Titan grumbles weakly, heaps of blood coming down from his nose and dripping down to the ground in a heap. Titan quickly turns his body around, including his wrist, sending Serpent up into the air and ramming him into Rhino, sending them both collapsing to the floor weakened from the blow.

Meanwhile, not far away from the battlefield, Spinks grabs his communicator and talks into it, not bothered if anyone is on the side listening to him or not, but needs to rush encase Plague and his group gets to him before he gets to send the nuke.

“This is Spinks, requesting Nuclear strike on my co-ordinates. The code word is…” Agent Spinks begins, but cannot finish as he feels a hand on his shoulder. Spinks turns around in shock as he see’s Plague. He tries not move too much, encase he is killed and turns to look at Plague, who looks rather angry more then in joy of being free.

“No, Mr Spinks, I don‘t think you want to do that. I won‘t be caged again. I have been caged and experimented on for way too long. And now…I shall be free again. To walk the Earth again as I have for thousands of years. FREE TO---” Plague yelps in anger and brings his arm back, ready to deliver the death blow to Spinks, who seems hopeless at this point. Plague turns his head to hear a small noise as he looks over, noticing purple smoke there as a shadow comes out of it.

“No. Not free. I won‘t allow it.” Spectre states as he walks out of the shadows and throws his filter from his mouth on the ground and stands there, hardly moving just looking over at Plague and Spinks.

“SPECTRE!” Agent Spinks calls, glad to see one of the heroes still up and fighting. Spinks backs away from Plague a bit as Plague turns and glances over at Spectre angrily, taking steps closer to him angrily.

“Aaaah. Another one. The weakest one. And a coward. Where have you been all this time?” Plague growls angrily, not at all afraid of Spectre as he simply stands there, not at all afraid. Plague walks step by step closer and Spectre continues to stand there, though he still has quite a distance away from Plague for the time being.

“Oh, I‘ve been very busy. It‘s time to end this now.” Spectre replies and his hands go into his cloak as he continues to stand there, looking over at Plague who slowly draws himself closer and his eyes go black.

“I agree. It‘s time for you to become one of my pets.” Plague snaps back angrily, annoyed of all the talking as Plague leans forward and his eyes go black, trying to make Spectre be one of his heralds as well. Spectre continues to stand there.

“I don‘t think so” Spectre replies as he reaches into his pockets, taking out two small injections and he throws them over at Plague. Plague loses his concentration and looks down on the two injections, which have plunged into his skin. He continues to look at it, not sure what kind of an attack that was.

“Wh-what is thisYEEEARRRRGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Plague screams in incredibly anger and pain as he stumbles backwards, his hands trying to grab the injections but cannot as saliva fills up his mouth and he spits it out in pain screaming. Plague’s body jerks back as he screams loudly and saliva fills up again as he tries to get it out but cannot and watches Spectre, scowling at him, but unable to do anything as saliva comes out from his mouth still.

“I filled those with as many antibiotics and anti virus as I could. I seem it‘s having an effect on you. And now...you‘re coming with me. Titan, force the zombies inside” Spectre orders rather calmly as he dives at Plague, jumping on him as he punches him across the jaw. Plague staggers back as Spectre pounces on him once again, this time holding on to him as he teleports out, teleporting both of them elsewhere.

Back down on the ground, Titan staggers back weakened as he looks down on Serpent, Inferno and Rhino, who all grip their heads, either in pain or something is happening. Titan stays at tall size as he listens to what Serpent told him and boots many zombies into the base and squashes many others, fighting them, not waiting for whatever the group is doing as he continues to do the job he was given.

“ARRGHH! PTUI! He‘s gone. Get that creep out of my head.” Serpent grunts angrily as his metallic arms grip his head then eventually let go, finally Plague’s control has gone out of them. Serpent opens his eyes and sighs in relief and then looks over at Inferno, who stands there not sure what just happened.

“Amen to that, brother. Heads up, you heard what the man said…lets get these zombies back in their home.” Inferno states as he, like Serpent and Rhino, has no longer got any black eyes as he focuses on the zombies, sending fire waves at them, burning some into ash and sending some into the base.

Rhino doesn’t say anything and just nods his head, charging into battle as with one hand, he grabs hold of a zombie and with the other, punches one back and kills it. Rhino tosses the other one into the base and growls angrily as the base doors slowly close up and eventually close, leaving the others with some more zombies, though there are not many left over now.

“Looks like we‘ve got this all sewn up.” Inferno says, not even looking as he points his hand and hears scream from zombies, burning them all up, smiling as he does so and hears them scream in agony.

“These things just give me the creeps. Lets get ‘em out of here.” Serpent replies as he throws his metal arms in 4 different directions, each one hitting a zombie then ripping out of them and dealing with more.

Inferno smirks and looks over at Rhino, who continues to swat the zombies away with ease. He then looks up at Titan, who throws his feet down, squashing many zombies and killing off the remaining few. Serpent tackles more and Inferno still burns up more, not even looking at what he’s doing as he’s that confident.

“ARGH!” Inferno yelps as suddenly a zombie appears from behind him, pouncing on his arm and digging it’s teeth into it. Inferno yelps, and with the other arm burns the zombie to a crisp then looks at his arm, which has been infected in shock as blood pours from it.

***

“Recognise this place? I took the time to familiarise myself with your cell so I could teleport us back here.” Spectre states, looking over at Plague, who clutches his stomach as the saliva still pours from his mouth, but the pain wears down, but the powers do not work. Plague looks up angrily, more saliva dripping down from his mouth and landing on the floor of his cage.

“You will die for this…This small cell cannot hold me forever. When I overcome these drugs…you shall die.” Plague growls angrily, staggering around a bit, then realises although his powers are dying down, he can still fight.

Plague quickly lunges over at Spectre, who crouches down, dodging the attack and kicks Plague hard in the jaw, sending Plague crashing back into the wall of the cage. Spectre scowls at him, but knows that distance has been kept as he points over to something on the floor. The thing is red with a timer on it, counting down second by second. A bomb.

“That‘s why I planted those bombs. You‘ll be buried under tons of rubble.” Spectre replies, noticing that there is only 10 seconds left and scowls over at Plague, who glances over at the bomb in shock and tries going to Spectre.

“NO! YOU CAN‘T DO THIS! YOU CAN‘T DO THIS!” Plague roars in shock, running over to Spectre in shock as the seconds count down. The space between the two, though is keeping it away from Plague as Spectre looks over at him scowling.

“Bye.” Spectre states, waving over at Plague, who runs over to him. Spectre quickly teleports out of the area in purple smoke. Plague looks over at it in shock, knowing that this is the end.

Suddenly, the entire base blows up sending all the zombies placed in there to ash and leaving Plague trapped under lots of the rubble, perhaps dead…

***

Rhino bounces back as he falls to the ground, looking at the remains of the base he was in not long ago. He closes his eyes and reopens them, not believing his eyes and looks over at the rubble towering up. He quickly turns his attention back onto Inferno, though, who is still bleeding badly.

“Oh jeez, I can feel it…poison running up my arm. Get it outta me.” Pleads Inferno, going onto his knee’s and not even touching his arm, as he doesn’t want to encase it infects the rest of his body. He staggers up to his feet closing his eyes tight, trying to get the pain out of him.

“Agent Spinks. This is the perfect opportunity, I say we let the virus take him. We can study him for years.” One of the agents states, looking over at Spinks, who just watches I horror, his fists clenched.

“For gods sake, Spinks…don‘t listen to that guy. Even you gotta help Inferno. We sealed the zombies up, we can save him.” Rhino pleads, getting to his feet and looking at Spinks in horror for his friend, hoping he will be all right.

“No, you can’t. His arm is already gone. It will only be moments before the rest of him is gone. He can‘t be saved but we can get some good out of this. The research we can do.” the agent snaps back, looking over at Rhino as Titan shrinks down to normal human size and looks over at the agent angrily.

“No way. Inferno saved me down there…no way am I giving up on him.” Titan snaps back angrily, ignoring his burnt face which still is in pain and looks over at Inferno, who is in deep pain.

“With all due respect, ‘hero’ there is nothing you can do. I‘ve already told you, his arm is lost, and within moments, he will be a mindless zombie.” The agent replies to Titan, making Titan get furious as he grows to tall size again and gets ready to attack the agent but Spinks stops him.

“That‘s enough from you, Robbins. Titan, there‘s only one thing to do to save him. Can you do it?” agent Spinks suggests as Titan closes his tight, not wanting to do what he has been told, but then again is scared for his friends welfare.

“Titan…DO IT…oh god, it hurts…just…DO IT!” Inferno calls in pain as he shuts his eyes tight, getting ready for everything that comes next, not wanting to become a zombie.

“Oh god, I‘m so sorry Inferno…” Titan grumbles as he reaches over and lifts up a chunk of sharp metal from out of the remains of the base and raises it up, ready to do what must be done to help Inferno from being a zombie.

“Just do it…ARRGHHHHHH!” Inferno screams as he feels the sharp metal pierce his arm as it rips off and he yelps in anger, but then again knows that it all he could do to stop being a zombie…

[ironhand]

-Issue 6-


“Hey, Slime. How ya doin‘ gal? Good to know.” Serpent states as he enters the incredibly large room. He walks through and sends his metallic arm forward, feeling the glass in front of him and walks towards it. He looks through the glass, looking at his former girlfriend and partner in crime, Slime. Slime’s black liquid body droops down, landing on the floor and spreading all over the place as she looks over at Serpent with hatred in her eyes as he smiles, knowing that she cannot talk to him unless she tries her hardest.

No reply comes back to him from Slime as Serpent roles his eyes. He brings his metal arms back and two of them cross over, folding his arms and the other two metal arms go on his hips, which he is used to doing. Slime just looks at him and her liquid like substance drops to the floor. From her body and comes back onto her again.

“We sucked in the mission, by the way. No way near as good as me and you back in the day. I mean, we totally rocked back then didn‘t we? Yeah, we did. Took on the frickin‘ Sentinels and almost beat ‘em.” Serpent states as a smile leaps onto his face, remembering the good old days and remembering when he delivered a solid punch to the hero known as Hammer.

“Everything‘s changed now, though. Now I work for the good guys. You‘ll hate me for it, I know. I actually don‘t have much of a choice, though. I got a bomb in my head, don‘t do what they say, ka-boom. Yeah. So we sucked in the last mission.” Serpent states, recalling everything which has been going on since he joined the group known as Strike Force. His metal arms come off from their stance and just stay by his side in a nice position, though sometimes they occasionally wiggle to show they are still working.

Slime’s red eyes just stare back at Serpent, they always gave him the creeps as she couldn’t say anything when they worked together. She looks at him as her hand morph’s into a liquid type of hammer, wanting to use it but knows the bomb inside her head will go off, too. She wiggles her slime around and looks at Serpent, who is ready to talk to her again, though she doesn’t care one bit about what she is being told.

“We went up against a guy who liked to call himself Plague. He turned Rhino, Inferno, Titan and myself into his…how do I say it…pets, or something like that. Titan got out of it, but I didn‘t and…well, I killed a lot of good people. Eventually Spectre, out leader blew Plague up. Problem was we still had to deal with the zombies, who were good enough to finish us off. We beat the zombies eventually, sure thing we did. Problem was, Inferno got himself infected. We removed his arm. And you wanna know what happened next? Well…” Serpent states, informing her of everything going on quite quickly, remembering everything what happened and what was said after the events of removing Inferno’s arm.

*2 Days Ago*

“Oh god…it hurts…oh god” Inferno yelps as he watches his own arm drop down to the floor. He closes his eyes in agony and falls to the ground, squirming, trying to find a position which eases the pain but nothing works. He screams some more and watches Titan toss the metal piece away and shrinks down to normal, human size trying to do something to help his friend.

“Use your powers, man…cauterise the wound. You‘re gonna bleed to death” Serpent orders in a way, knowing that the pain most be horrible, as he was in pain when both his arms were removed, but luckily they were replaced with his better designed metallic arms, which delivered more of a powerful punch.

Inferno grunts slightly, trying to ignore the constant pain as he watched blood spill next to him. He hears what was said and nods his head slowly and weakly as his other hand ignites up, as does his hair and he moves his arm slowly towards his arm.

“ARGHHH!” Inferno screams out in incredibly pain as he placed his fire hand underneath what is left of his arm and burns it. The blood stops as he squirms around for a while, the pain hurting him incredibly and then stops, dropping unconscious on the floor as the rest of the group look down on him. Suddenly, a small sound is heard as purple smoke enters the area and Spectre arrives, looking at the situation and running over to the rest, looking down on Inferno and then Titan, whose face is burnt and he is still in loads of pain.

“I‘m back. Plague is gone.” Spectre states, looking over at the group as Spinks looks back at him and stands back a bit, looking at the team who are battered and all of them are weakened or tired or something. He sighs, knowing they weren’t working as a team to begin with any way, so the mission went wrong because of that in most ways.

“Okay, listen up…all the zombies are back inside the base…seal it up. I don‘t want anything getting in or out. EVER.” Agent Spinks says as if he is the law and everyone has to follow his rules as he looks at the team, then glances over at Robbins, who scowls over at him angrily, knowing he is right in a certain way but wants to deny it.

“Agent Spinks, I cannot agree to that. Think of all the virus research we have down there. And those zombies, we could get much more data from one of them.” Agent Robbins snaps angrily as Spinks and the rest of Strike Force glance over at him and frown at him angrily, making Rhino want to hit him ore than he wanted to hit Spinks, which was more than a lot.

“We‘re sealing the base Robbins, whether you like it or not. You want the data? I‘m more than happy to seal you up in there, too. Right now I need to get Inferno to the hospital and clear up this whole mess.” Agent Spinks states angrily as he pointed over at Robbins, who scowled back but knew Spinks had way more clearance through UNIT than he did and also knew he would be removed from the office if he didn’t follow orders.

“Best decision you made all day, Spinks. You lied to us big time about this place. What‘s gonna stop me wringing yer scrawny neck?” Rhino grunts as he shoves passed Spectre and Serpent and scowls down on Spinks, bringing his fist back, ready to deliver a killing blow but is stopped as Serpent’s arms wrap around, stopping him for a while, but he releases as Rhino scowls down on Spinks angrily, wanting to kill him on the spot and get rid of the man who nearly killed them all.

“Maybe the fact that there‘s a bomb implanted in your head?” Spinks suggests as a smirk comes on his face as he watched Rhino back away slightly, still annoyed and out for Spinks’ blood but knows he can’t do it or he’ll be killed quickly.

“Rhino, let it go for now. Inferno and Titan need a hospital and we all need a rest. Teleporting so much takes the energy out of me.” Spectre states and pushes Rhino away slightly and scowls back at Spinks, who presses a button as the invisible jet appears to the human eye, revealing itself again.

“Yeah…yeah, you‘re right. But we aint finished, Spinks. We‘ll finish this another time.” Rhino grunts as he walks over to Inferno, lifting his unconscious body up and resting him on his arm and walks toward the ship to put him in.

“Sounds good to me. Lets get out of this place, it gives me the creeps.” Titan states, heading towards the ship as everyone else does.

“Hm…” Agent Robbins grumbles as he glances over underneath him as he notices Inferno’s removed, and also infected arm and smiles to himself, lifting it up and placing it in his bag and heading into the ship as well.

*Now*

“So yeah. We sucked and stuff. My guess at what you‘re thinking is something on the lines of ‘yeah, well done…now break me out of here and we can team up again’. But, you gotta listen to me.” Serpent states as one of his metal arms removes itself from the position is was in and scratches his head, making him think. Slime just looks over Serpent angrily, hating him already for joining a superhero team as she turns her hand into a mace angrily, but calms herself down once again.

“Just because we sucked and the team nearly died for a first mission, it don‘t mean I aint gonna quit. Those guys need me and I kinda need them. I probably won‘t have second thoughts. Which means I probably will never see you again.” Serpent informs her and watches her red eyes don’t change. Normally, if she was angry or shocked or sad the eyes would grow bigger but this time they‘re not, they stay the same.

“Good.” grunts Slime, managing to force some words out.

“Whatever…” Serpent tells her, waving one of his arms at her then walks off, slamming the door behind him.