San Francisco. An innocuous brownstone, now the scene of one of the most confusing super-brawls of the last decade.

Moon Knight spiked his truncheon, sending it ricocheting off the corner of the roof and into the jaw of a white-haired woman clad in gold and black. She dropped the pair of steel whips she’d been cracking and fell backwards, clutching at her face.

White cape flaring, Moon Knight swooped towards her, snatching up both whips and activating the electrical charge in each, even as he snapped them around the wrists of the lunging Cottonmouth. The purple and yellow costumed Society member squawked as electricity coursed through him. Moon Knight yanked him off balance and heaved him towards the blue and gray form of Rock Python.

The silver-helmed Society member turned, still holding the limp form of the New Man, Halifax, over his head.

“What-”

Cottonmouth slammed into him and the two tumbled backwards, off of the edge of the roof. Halifax fell as well, but a slim, crimson arm was there to catch him.

Spider-Woman grunted audibly and clambered back up over the edge of the roof, Halifax’s bulk slung over one shoulder. She gently laid the unconscious tiger-man down and gave Moon Knight a thumb’s up.

“Druid’s downstairs! He’s okay. He-”

“Silence!” The armored form of Copperhead rose up over the adventuress, his gauntlets crackling. His hands crashed together, but too late. Spider-Woman slid low, pivoted, and caught him where his helm connected to the thin gorget that covered his neck. Gagging as his own armor was driven into the flesh of his neck, Copperhead stumbled back, firing energy blasts wildly.

An arrow cracked across the back of his helmet, pitching him forward. Hawkeye gave a hoot and fired again, the bulbous headed arrow lodging into Copperhead’s back. A flash of electricity covered him, and he toppled.

“Feedback arrow,” Hawkeye said. “I love those things.”

“Well, he sounds like our Hawkeye,” the Wasp said, zipping past Moon Knight. Moon Knight grunted, and retrieved his truncheon. The Wasp swooped up, and then down, circling the rooftop. Most of the Society members were down, and only a few of the more durable ones were getting back to their feet.

Though she often played the part of the high society-ditz, Janet van Dyne was anything but. Hard experience had taught her the benefit of tactical thinking in regards to costumed combat. Numbers meant little if the enemy could outthink you. And from what Captain America had told her, Sidewinder, if he was the original Sidewinder, was a natural combat tactician second only to Cap himself, and maybe one or two others.
Which meant, to Jan’s way of thinking, that if they were going to win this fight, Sidewinder needed to be put down, and hard. She cut a hard angle, bouncing from one side to the next.

Sidewinder had been teleporting randomly across the roof, seemingly removing his unconscious teammates from play, but, in reality, it looked more like he was positioning the other Society members to take advantage of their numbers. Wearing the Avengers down, minute by minute.

Wasp caught sight of him, his cloak sweeping over the motionless form of Copperhead and disgorging Rock Python and Copperhead, both of whom descended on Spider-Woman. A quick glance showed Moon Knight avoiding the energy blasts of Asp. And Hawkeye-

Wasp flew up, rising over the newly returned Hawkeye. Still a lot of questions there, but those were for later.

“Ha!” she said, as Sidewinder appeared behind the purple-clad archer. Black Mamba reached for him, Darkforce curling from her hands. Wasp hurtled down, wasp-stings bursting from her hands. One sting caught Black Mamba in the back, and the other struck Sidewinder in the chest. He gasped, and tried to vanish, but Hawkeye turned and leapt, stabbing an arrow towards him.

A shock of sound and Sidewinder fell back. Hawkeye gave Jan a thumb’s up. “EMP arrow. Glad I saved it.”

“Clint, I-” Wasp began, but her words were cut off as a fist came out of nowhere and smashed into her tiny form.

“You people and your banter,” Sidewinder said. He reached down, helping the other Sidewinder to his feet.

“It’s unprofessional,” said a third Sidewinder.

“Inefficient as well,” said a fourth.

The first Sidewinder rubbed his chest and looked at the Wasp and Hawkeye. He grinned, his scaly mask twisting. “Now, now, gentlemen. No bad-mouthing the competition. Let’s just finish the job…”

---

Elsewhere.

Footsteps rang through the corridors of the Castle Revolving. The AIM Hive-Node for Alternate M-2-K was alive with warning sirens. Bodies in yellow littered the lengths and breadths.

Blood dripped. Plip. Plip. Plip.

Death Adder stopped and raised a hand. It was coated in blood-human and otherwise-to the elbow, as was much of the rest of his form. Seas and messes. Claws poised over a touchpad set in the wall beside the bulkhead he stood in front of, he looked down at the broken, canary clad form he had been dragging along for the past fifteen minutes. His tail curled around the sobbing clone’s shattered face. Death Adder tapped the keypad lightly.

“F-four…s-s-six…e-eight,” the man whispered. Death Adder typed the code in. The door shusshed open. Death Adder looked down. His tail twitched and the body collapsed, neck snapped and skull crushed.
Death Adder walked into the central nerve center of the AIM base. A ganglion of a larger, more extensive network than any, save a few, suspected. The room was a sphere of oscillating liquid video screens. There was a strange, sterile smell in the air. Voices echoed from nowhere.

“Ejecting Corridor 7-U from Node A-2-K into slip-reality 787.”

“Node M-K-4 oscillating through slip-reality 666. Prepare for assualt by-”

“Approaching Nexus point-extend metafiction antennae-”

Dozens of withered forms lay ensconsed in womb-like couches, their faces obscured by golden, featureless masks. A web of wires and tubes extended from the head of each and trailed up, up, and into…what?
Death Adder looked up. And IODOP looked down. Immobile Organism Designed Only for Processing. An embryonic face glared down, fish mouth gaping, sightless eyes blinking.

Prehensile tendrils sprang from the walls and curled gently around Death Adder, the fiber-optic cameras on the end of each examining him from every angle. There was no threat there. Only curiousity.

“Non-Human. Altered genetic sequence. Unidentifiable energy composition-”

Death Adder sprang. IODOP did not scream as the poisoned claws slashed through its protein tubes and exterior nervous system. The blob of flesh sagged, a thalomide baby at peace. Death Adder looked around as the lights went out, one by one. With one slash, he had separated the Hive-Node from the greater whole of the AIM Metabase. The Castle Revolving had lost a turret.

Death Adder tapped the communication device clipped to his neck.

---

San Francisco.

Boomslang, the red and black garbed Australian Society member, took aim with one of his snake-a-rangs at Moon Knight’s back. A gun barrel prodded him in the back. He turned slowly, jaw sagging.

“Bon soir,” Frenchie said. He waggled the pistol he held. “Drop the snake, mon ami.” Unable to lift off with the battle flowing around him, the pilot had decided to help in his own inestimable fashion by watching his friend’s back.

“I-” Boomslang tensed.

Frenchie shot the oddly shaped boomerang out of his hand.

“You and I, we will sit, I think. Until this ends.” Frenchie leaned back against the Mooncopter and pulled a small, square something out of his pocket. He extended it to Boomslang.

“Cigarette?”

Elsewhere, the door to the stairs exploded open and the unconscious forms of Rattler and Puff Adder toppled to the roof. Doctor Druid stepped over them, his hands moving in quick, supple gestures.

“Avengers! To me!” he said. Energy grept from his hands, striking Asp, and sending the slim Egyptian woman sliding away. “Back, witch!”

“This is getting out of hand!” Asp said, looking up at Sidewinder-or one of them, at any rate-as he swept his cloak over her.

“All according to the plan, my dear,” Sidewinder said.

Across the roof, Moon Knight slammed his truncheon into the back of Rock Python’s head, dropping him, even as Spider-Woman kicked Cottonmouth’s legs out from under him. He fell heavily and she pounced.

A few feet away, Hawkeye grabbed the stunned Jan and dove out of the way as the edge Sidewinder’s cloak suddenly hardened and sliced at them. It tore a chunk from the roof even as Sidewinder turned, clawing for the pistol on his belt. Hawkeye came to his feet, arrow ready. He loosed the shaft and Sidewinder laughed as it sped past him.

“Missed by a mile, Barton!”

“Wasn’t aiming at you, scale-lips!” Hawkeye said.

The arrow thudded intocenter of the steel tendrils still binding Halifax from earlier, causing Rock Python’s trap to pop open. Halifax rose to his feet with a roar, leaping towards Sidewinder, claws out, teeth bared.

Sidewinder peddaled backwards in sudden panic, pistol barking. He disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared a few feet away. A sudden click-click sounded in his ear. Death Adder’s signal. He smiled and signaled the other three Sidewinders, who swept across the roof, scooping up Serpent Society members and avoiding the attacks of the Avengers. The last Sidewinder crossed his arms and chuckled.

“Looks like the job is done in one, Avengers. And quicker than I expected,” he said. “Howsabout them apples, hunh?” He gave a cheery wave and vanished in a twist of cloth.

Hawkeye stood, another arrow ready. “What the heck was that about?”

“Revenge?” Druid said, wiping grime from his robes. “They ambushed me. Knocked me senseless-”

“They do that,” Moon Knight grunted. “It wasn’t revenge.”

“Yeah?” Hawkeye said.

“Yeah,” Moon Knight said. “Voelker doesn’t play that card for spilt milk.”

“Maybe he was after you,” Spider-Woman said. “After all, you have been riding his tail since you got here-”

“It doesn’t matter,” the Wasp said. “Whatever they wanted, they obviously got-”

“Or that’s what they want us to think,” Moon Knight grunted. Jan glared at him.

“They’re gone. We’re here. We need to figure out what they were up to while they were and we weren’t.”

“Maybe you do. Me, I’ve got other business,” Moon Knight said, stalking back towards the Mooncopter. “I helped you track down Pym, and you blew it. I’m done, I think.”

“We blew it?” Jan said, taking a step after him. “Wait a minute-”

Hawkeye grabbed her arm. “Let him go, Jan. Frankly, I’m getting sick of his complaining.”

“I second that,” Spider-Woman said, running her hands through her hair. Jan stopped and looked at them both. She appeared about to say something, then stopped. She shook her head.

“Yeah. Okay.” She looked up. “Anyone heard from Tony in a while?”

---

The Equinox Zone. A shimmering bubble of black energy with bullets bouncing off of it. Not the best place to be, all things considered. But not because of the bullets.

Darkhawk sat up, black bile leaking from between the slits in his mask.

“Oh, I hate that sensation.”

“What sensation? A hole in your chest?” Lena Myers asked. He laughed.

“No, the ‘girlfriend is moving across the country’ sensation.”

“Yeah. That’s pretty bad. Not as bad as the ‘boyfriend is staying in San Francisco’ sensation though.”

“Don’t try and compare sensations with me, lady.” Darkhawk rubbed his chest and looked at her. “Why New York? I just left New York.”

“Damage Control offered me a-a ‘field commission’ I guess you’d call it, with the home office. I’d work out of New York, but be out in the field three days a week. Wakanda, Monster Isle, Scranton-”

“Scranton?”

“You’d be surprised.” She blew a lock of hair out of her face. “I wanted to tell you face to face, but, well-”

“Be fair. I was fighting super-villains,” Darkhawk protested. Granted, that hadn’t worked on his last girlfriend, but still…He raised a hand before she could reply. “Yeah. Yeah, I know. Look, can we talk about this-”

“I thought we were.”

“Somewhere less dangerous.”

“My mind is made up, Chris,” she said. Darkhawk nodded.

“Yeah, I know. I just-” He shook his head. “Later, okay?”

“Later.” She took his hand. “I’m going for cover, okay? You go kick somebody’s ass.”

“I love it when you talk dirty,” he said, rising to his feet. He spread his arms as he let the Darkforce shield dissipate. Lena scrambled away as he thrust himself into the air, glider-wings spread.

He shot straight up, his grapple-claw firing and looping around the ankle of Sunstroke. The villain squawked as he was yanked off-balance. A half-dozen repulsor rays hit him at once and he fell towards the ground. Darkhawk released him and angled himself around, cutting through the air towards Iron-Man and Shatterfist.

“Hey, hey, look who’s back!” he said, plowing into the super-villain from behind.

“Nice of you to join the party,” Iron-Man said. “If you can handle him-”

“Not a-ahck-problem,” Darkhawk said, prying Shatterfist’s hands off of his throat. “Guy is stronger than I thought.”

“Then get creative,” Iron-Man said, rising into the air.

“Get creative, he says,” Darkhawk grumbled. He twisted, tossing Shatterfist away. “Fine. I’ll get creative.”

The gem on his chest flashed and blobs of Darkforce formed around Shatterfist’s hands. As the villain struggled to his feet, the blobs spread, crawling down his arms and soon covering him in an ever-shifting sheath of blackness. He struggled soundlessly, but to no avail. “And that’s how we take care of that,” Darkhawk said.

Above, Iron-Man was scanning the rooftops for any sign of their intial attackers. Not seeing them on the rooftops, he looked around. Several black clad shapes were clustered around the device. What were they-

Tony’s eyes widened behind his mask. “Oh no,” he said.

With an ear-splitting shriek, the strange device exploded, leaving behind only a crater to mark its presence. Bodies littered the ground. The men had been willing to sacrifice their lives for…what? To destroy a broken machine?

Iron-Man swooped low over the position, scanning for any signs of life.

Nothing. He landed and looked towards Darkhawk. “Where’s-ah.”

“Looking for me?” Lena said, coming out of one of the nearby buildings. “I’m no fool. I’m not sticking around when the heavyweights start tossing lightning at each other.”

“Lightning?” Darkhawk said. “I think that’s Tho-HEY!” He turned, clutching at his gem, even as the Darkforce cocoon surrounding Shatterfist abruptly dissipated. Or rather the cocoon that had been around Shatterfist. The super-villain was nowhere to be seen. Darkhawk looked at Iron-Man. “What the-”

“Sunstroke is gone too,” Iron-Man said. A bevy of PALs flew back towards him. “One minute he was there, the next-poof.” Iron-Man looked at the still-steaming crater. “There’s something going on here. Something we’re not seeing.”

“Like two unconscious super-villains?” Darkhawk said.

“More than that.” Iron-Man slammed a fist into his palm. “Something beneath the surface. “The last we saw of Shatterfist, he was in police custody. Now he’s here?” He shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense…”

---

 

TO BE CONTINUED…

 

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Next issue: Back to the Hyborian Age for issue 40! Hawkeye and co. vs. the eldritch might of Thoth-Amon and the Darkhold Dwarf! And be back here in thirty for the 2009 Avengers West Coast Annual-a Kang/Ultron War tie-in! It’s the Avengers West vs. Ultron vs. …Ultron?

 

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