by Stuart Moore
Led, as always, by a gleaming figure in red and gold. He stepped forward.
“Tony,” Cap said.
Cap swept his shield around the room, motioning the Resistance back. They took up position behind him, facing the newcomers.
Iron Man’s voice was calm. “You’ve walked into another trap, Captain. This time we’ve got a few extra allies backing us up.”
Cap glared at the Thunderbolts. “You must be very proud.”
Bullseye widened his eyes, smiled a cruel smile. Venom flicked his long, hungry tongue across his grotesque mouth.
“We’ve had a mole on your side all along,” Tony continued. “Now would be a good time to surrender.”
“If you’re talking about Tigra, I know all about her.”
Tigra whipped her head toward Cap. “What?”
Cap turned to look at her, with mixed feelings. “You overplayed your hand a little, back at headquarters. Though you did make me think.”
Tigra stared at Cap, a hint of regret in her eyes. Then she jumped, light as a feather, across the room, to stand with Iron Man.
“I’m an Avenger,” she said.
“It doesn’t matter,” Tony said. “Even if some of the intel Cap’s fed us is false, we still hold all the cards. This little ‘Occupy’ movement is over. Now.”
Captain America glanced back at his troops. Cage and the Falcon looked furious, ready for battle. Photon, Stingray, Patriot, Dagger, Speed, Asp, Diamondback, and the others: They seemed truly united now. All hesitation had gone. They would fight for him, he knew, until the end.
They won’t be enough. But maybe they won’t have to be.
Cap stepped forward, glared into Iron Man’s glowing eye-lenses. He felt strong, fierce, unstoppable. Like David facing off against Goliath; like Washington sailing down the river. He could hear the cavalry thundering just over the rise, the Marines about to storm the beach.
The chimes of freedom.
“Be reasonable,” Tony said. “You’re outnumbered two to one. How can you hope to defeat us?”
Cap stood his ground. Didn’t move, didn’t even blink.
“Step by step.” Slowly, a dark smile crept onto his face. “Brick by brick.”
THE Invisible Woman ducked into the Quincunx room. Johnny and Spider-Man whirled toward the door, searching frantically. Spider-Man leapt up, looked up, down, and around.
“Sis?” Johnny called.
Sue willed herself to become visible. “Yeah. Listen, we’ve got trouble.”
“No kidding.” Johnny gestured to a bank of open panels, near eye level on the opposite wall. “Reed’s file system is as tangled as his limbs.”
Spider-Man pointed to a screen showing a maze of circuit-board diagrams. “Plus, this old Atari emulator keeps freezing up on me. I’m never gonna realize my childhood dream of becoming world Centipede champion.”
Sue studied the cluster of panels. Six adjacent panels had lit up to form a continuous display screen, showing a schematic of the Negative Zone prison. Small information icons hovered over the individual prison cells; she touched one, and the label DAREDEVIL came up. Several surrounding plates had been flipped open, revealing a rainbow of multicolored wires, switches, and microcircuitry.
Johnny pointed at the schematic. “We’ve tapped into the prison’s mainframe remotely. We even separated the cells holding heroes from the ones with villains in them.”
“Yeah.” Spider-Man placed a hand on Johnny’s shoulder, patronizingly. “We did a nice job with that.”
Johnny ignored him. “But it’s not accepting any of our commands. We can see the cells and who’s in which ones, but we can’t do anything.”
Sue reached for an open panel, flipped a switch. “This should get us into Reed’s virtual keychain.”
Johnny cocked his head at her. “You’ve been in this room before?”
“Oh, sure. Reed and I like to come in here for…” She stopped, smirked, and turned away. “Never mind.”
“No way. No. Way.”
Spider-Man crept up the side of the room, craning his neck to see the display. “Don’t mind me. Just a fly on the wall over here.”
Sue sighed. This was like having two little brothers.
She reached over to a second open panel and flipped another switch. One of the screens flickered, changing to a long list of words:
ATTILAN PLAYGROUND
GAMMA GAMMA KREE
INITIATIVE RUSCH
FIVE FIREFLY FILLION
DOUBLE DUTCH ALEC
BALLMER WOZNIAK BETA
On and on, scrolling down off the screen. Sue swore.
“Sis? What does it mean?”
“It’s a list of Reed’s passwords. One of these is the one we need.” She frowned. “But I don’t know which one.”
Johnny slapped his forehead. “Leave it to Big Brain to be his own, final layer of security. There’s hundreds of passwords here, and only he knows which one goes with which system.”
ECHO MACK BENDIS
ALPHA ALONSO ALPHA BETA
LARRY MAC NIVEN
TERA BYTE GEO
HESTER PRIN PHILLIP
Spider-Man shook his head, staring at the screen. “I feel like I just contracted dyslexia.”
“This is serious, boys. Tony Stark has ambushed us again, down in the lab. He and Cap are doing that thing right now, where they circle around each other like gunfighters.”
Spider-Man hissed in a breath. “That ended real well last time.”
“I barely managed to slip away before Reed saw me. He’s not really out of town—another thing he didn’t tell me, I guess.”
OCTO DECA MEGA
MILLER SIN MILLAR
HAWKING NEGATIVE Z
SIERRA CHARLIE PEGGY LIPTON
RUNCITER TAVERNER ELDRITCH
Spider-Man jumped up in the air, startling both Sue and Johnny. “That one!” he cried.
Sue frowned. “What? Which one?”
He jabbed a gloved finger at the screen. “That one! That’s it!”
Johnny stared at him. “‘Peggy Lipton’?”
“Sixties TV actors. Trust me!”
Sue turned back to the main display, the prison schematic. She called up a virtual keyboard and began to type.
She realized she was holding her breath. Cap and the others were at Tony’s mercy, right now. If this didn’t work…
The display blinked once, and for a terrible moment Sue thought she’d locked herself out of the system. Then the schematic reappeared, with the transparent words overlaid:
ACCESS GRANTED
“All right!” Johnny clapped his hands. “I knew we could do it.”
“Again with the we?”
Sue ignored them. She reached out to the touchscreen, began tapping individual cells. One by one, they turned green. She pinched and zoomed the schematic, moving around the prison, checking each cell’s label carefully.
“Now the portal,” she said. “And then we’re—”
A loud klaxon went off, startling her. Throughout the room, the lighting dimmed. Sue whipped her head around and saw: Every screen, except the ones she was working on, now glowed with the dark red word ALERT.
“I think Team Liberty just went public,” Spider-Man said.
“It doesn’t matter.” Sue turned to them. “I’ve got to stay here, finish activating the portal sequence. You two get down to the lab, help Cap.”
“Sis—”
“Believe me, Johnny. You’re gonna be in more danger than me.”
She turned back to the screen, resuming her task. A command menu labeled NEGATIVE ZONE PORTAL came up before her.
Johnny kissed her once on the head. “Come on, Webs. Let’s go be heroes.”
“Yeah.” Sue grimaced, wincing as the loud alarm continued. “And when you see Reed, give him a good slap for me.”
TONY Stark had won. His forces fanned out slowly, surrounding the so-called Resistance. Cap’s forces stood their ground, not moving. But there was no
doubt now: They were trapped here in Reed’s laboratory.
Every step of this operation had been planned, drilled, checked, and rechecked. The experienced Avengers formed the front line; the Thunderbolts provided backup, their murderous tendencies kept in check by the nanomachines running through their veins. A small army of Initiative recruits formed a circle at the fringes. And if, by some fluke, a rebel or two managed to escape, S.H.I.E.L.D. copters hovered just outside, waiting to scoop them up.
There was nowhere to run, no gambit left for the rebels to play. And yet, here stood Captain America, glaring straight at him. Eyes like black ice. Smile of a dead man.
Tony wanted very, very badly to hit him.
Tony raised his faceplate, forcing the anger down. “If you knew about Tigra,” he said slowly, “why did you let her keep working with you?”
“If I’d exposed her, you might have moved against us sooner.”
“But she led us here. She told us your entire plan.”
Cap turned dark eyes on Tigra. “Not all of it.”
“In God’s name, what do you want?” The anger boiled over; Tony felt himself losing control. “I’ve done everything to help you. I offered you amnesty, more than once. I talked the United States government out of shutting us all down! Do you know what could have happened here?”
All eyes were on Tony now. Reed Richards snaked his way to the front of the group.
“What do you want?” Tony repeated. “Do you expect everyone to just let you do whatever you want, and damn the consequences? Exactly what war do you think you’re fighting?”
Cap glared at him, and the smile faded from his face. “There’s only one war.”
“Excuse me.” Reed’s elongated neck swooped up to face Cap and Tony. “Where is Susan? I saw her before.”
“Not now, Ree—”
A grinding noise filled the room. Tony whipped his head around, searching for the source. Lights flashed, alerts rang out. A large display screen lit up with the words: PROJECT 42 GATEWAY / ACTIVE.
“The portal,” Tony said.
A small clump of Initiative kids stood near it; they backed away, watching as the swirling chaos of Negative Zone space faded into view. Reed Richards swooped his rubber body through the air toward the portal.
“Reed!” Tony called. “Turn that off.”
Reed stared for a moment at the portal. Then his head wobbled, as if at the end of a spring, and reversed course. He stretched his torso toward a control console across the room.
She-Hulk, Hawkeye, Wonder Man: One by one, the Avengers turned to Tony, questioning looks in their eyes.
The rebels started to stir, to flex their muscles. A hard smile crept over Luke Cage’s face.
“Initiative forces,” Tony continued. “Maintain your positions.”
Tony turned back to Cap. The super-soldier’s face was stone cold now, ready for battle.
“What’s your plan?” Tony gestured dismissively. “Escape into the Negative Zone?”
“Not exactly.”
Stature stretched herself up to 10 feet in height and pointed at the portal. “Mister Stark! Look!”
Within the portal, silhouetted against a roiling antimatter nebula, a cluster of colorful dots appeared. Human shapes, and humanoid, all growing closer and larger with each passing second. Some flew under their own power, and some shot along on tiny rocket-jets. All in formation, and all moving rapidly toward the portal’s opening.
Wiccan. Hulkling. Daredevil. Cloak. Valkyrie, Nighthawk, Hercules. And dozens more behind them.
“The cells,” Tony whispered.
“This should even the odds a little,” Cap said.
Daredevil’s grim red form drew closer. Nighthawk’s wings beat wildly, propelling him through the dark matter of Negative Zone space. Cloak’s dark, angry form swooped ahead of the others, almost filling the portal.
Luke Cage smacked a fist into his hand.
Then Cloak broke through the portal, his cape swirling wide. Daredevil followed, and then the others. Hercules, the Greek god of legend, laughed as his enormous legs touched down on the lab floor.
The rebels seized their chance. The lab broke out into chaos.
Falcon took to the air. Hawkeye ran to follow, drawing his bow and aiming shakily upward. “C’mon, Falc,” Hawkeye called. “Cap’s crusade—it’s over, man.”
“Doesn’t look over to me,” Falcon said.
Down below, Wiccan and Hulkling hugged Speed and Patriot quickly. Then they turned to Stature, their estranged teammate. Her eyes went wide with panic, and she looked around. Then Komodo, Hardball, and Armory—Stature’s fellow Initiative trainees—rushed to her side. Armory let out a fierce energy blast, and the battle was joined.
“Don’t hurt them,” Stature said.
The Black Widow ran to intercept Daredevil. He swung his billy club at her and jumped away, vaulting over a disassembled space-flier cockpit. She followed, stingers flashing, murder in her eyes.
Dagger leapt, ballet-style, over the fray, touching down right next to her returned partner. Without even a shared glance, they took up defensive positions back to back. Dagger fired light-bolts at Initiative trainees, dazzling and stunning them. Cloak hurled them into the chill depths of his cape.
“Avengers!” Tony said. “Don’t panic. Follow protocols—”
He turned, just a second too late. Cap’s fist slammed into his exposed face, spinning him around. Tony crashed back against a computer display, shattering it in a shower of sparks.
Tony shook his head, blood flying from his jaw. Raised his hand, fired off a repulsor beam. Cap leapt back, dodging in midair—
—and then the door blew open from outside. Smoke blew in from the corridor outside, silhouetting a phalanx of body-armored S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Maria Hill swept past them, leading them into the battle-damaged room.
Still groggy, Tony reached out a hand to her. “Maria—don’t. Let my people—”
But Hill wasn’t listening. She made urgent hand-signs, maneuvering her agents carefully around the battles breaking out all over the room. Asp and Diamondback stood grappling two-on-one with the powerful, black-clad Wonder Man. Photon ran to join Cage and the Panther, firing energy-bolts into a clutch of half-trained Initiative kids. They screamed and scattered.
Tony cast a quick glance at Cap—just as a massive tangle of limbs and flesh crashed onto the floor between them. Tony jumped back, startled. He barely recognized the two gods, Hercules and Hermes, grappling and wrestling as they tumbled across the floor. Their battle was savage, deadly, punctuated by cries of triumph and howls of agony. They were also laughing.
The gods passed by, crashed together into a wall. When Tony looked up, Cap was gone.
Rebels continued to pour out through the Negative Zone portal. A sea of costumes, red and blue and gold and silver. Humans, aliens, cyborgs, mutants. And all of them very, very angry.
Maria Hill ignored them all. She pointed sharply at Reed Richards, who stood locked in battle with the beautiful rebel called Asp. Reed’s body was coiled around Asp, squeezing the breath from her. She gasped, firing venom-blasts at his dodging, stretching arms and head.
Grimacing with pain, Tony flipped his helmet down into place and flew up into the air, heading toward them.
At Hill’s command, a half dozen S.H.I.E.L.D. agents surrounded Asp. Reed Richards’s eyes went wide; he uncoiled rapidly, slinging his body away like a rubber band—just as Hill’s agents opened fire on Asp with tranq guns. Asp staggered, fired off a final blast, and went down.
“Maria,” Tony called.
Hill didn’t respond. Her agents grabbed the startled Reed Richards, pulled his malleable shoulders down to her level.
“Doctor Richards,” Hill said. “Show me how to regain control of this building’s defenses.”
Reed looked around, dazed. His eyes flickered from the raging Negative Zone portal, to the dozen little battles wreaking havoc on his lab. “What have I done?” he whispered.
> “Doctor Richards. We need to shut down that portal.” She pulled out a magnum, pressed the barrel to Reed’s head. “Now.”
Reed turned to look at her, then at the gun. As if they were insects invading his sealed, sterile experiment.
Tony reached out his hand and blasted Hill’s gun to pieces. She recoiled, grabbed her hand in pain.
“There’s no need for that,” Tony said, hovering just above her. “Reed is our ally.”
Hill cradled her hand, glared up at him.
“Reed.” Tony wafted in for a landing. “She’s right.”
Reed stared blankly at Tony for a moment, then nodded. He reached out a long arm and gestured at a console, halfway across the room.
Tony shot up into the air, surveyed the battle. In between Reed and the console, She-Hulk was grappling with the savage Valkyrie. Val’s sword flashed, grazing She-Hulk’s shoulder. She-Hulk howled with rage and brought down both fists on the warrior-woman’s head.
Tony swerved in midair and fired on Valkyrie with both repulsors. Val went down. She-Hulk grimaced in pain, but reached up her good arm to give Tony a high-five.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents stepped over the downed Valkyrie, pausing to shoot off a tranq dart into her, just in case. Reed led them toward a small computer screen with a keyboard attached. Miraculously, it was still intact.
Tony arced over the group, landing next to them.
“This is it,” Reed said. “I can shut down the gateway from here.”
“Well, get it done,” Hill growled.
Tony turned back to the battle. Stature and Yellowjacket fought back to back, holding off the attack of the other four, rebel Young Avengers. A nasty aerial fight had broken out in the center of the lab, where the ceiling was highest: Stingray and Nighthawk of the rebels, aided by the flashing weather-goddess Storm, dodged and weaved to avoid Ms. Marvel’s powerful force bolts.
“Lock down this room, too,” Tony said. “I don’t care how many criminals they manage to spring from the Zone. If we can trap them in the lab, we’ll wear them down eventually.”