Marcus Raven, former agent of the FBI and now Agent of SHIELD, watched, as the pier became quite active.

Pier 17 was a name that had come up time and again during his own investigation in to the Dragon Lord and his grip on the underworld of Madripoor. Well, it's wasn't exactly an underworld as it was rather obvious as to what was going on. That was why SHIELD had sent them in, to sort it out.*

When Tyger Tiger had been in charge, the small island's crime had been of a more respectable nature. Now it was a true cesspool of greed, corruption and perversity. Tiger had never touched things like drugs or slavery, but under the influence of Viper and later the Shadow King, she had thrown those cares to the wind and anything had gone and it did.*

Raven closed his eyes a moment. Tyger had been a criminal but she did have her honour and those that had stripped it from her were without it. He didn't like what she did, but he did respect her moral code. There were those in the world who would have thrown that to the wing and done it anyway. She hadn't and had been very successful.

Now that she was gone, and HYDRA as well, the maggots had crawled from the woodwork and were now devouring the corpse that was Madripoor. If X-Force could do some permanent damage, it would be more than worth it, but first they had to see what was happening and here he was, keeping an eye on this place, waiting for the others to turn up. He wished he'd been able to put on his uniform but he hadn't had the time and it was in the hotel room anyway.

The activity from and to the building had stopped, and Raven decided to get closer so he could find out a bit more, and he cautiously drew closer. The docks were a good place to hide but he had to be a little more careful as he crossed over. He got closer to the building at the end of the pier, using his psionic powers to mask himself, but that was one of the reasons he was going closer anyway. Rendering himself invisible was one thing, getting details from people's minds was something else.

His psionic abilities were powerful, but he needed to get closer so that they would be in the range of his psionics and would allow him to make contact with those in there, so he knew what kind of odds they were up against. He focused his telepathy and tried to see who and what was inside the building at the end of the pier, but there was something wrong. His scan was being reflected back at him.

"That can't be right," he muttered. He could just see through one of the windows and there were no actual signs of technology that would enable a psi-restrictor or something, though they could be small and out of sight. The question was why would they need one? It could be they were very protective, or that he was expected. Either way, he needed the others and quickly. He checked his coat and felt his sidearm there, and it made him feel better. Not much, but then he also had his telekinetic abilities. Though the psi-restrictor was an unwanted variable and he was unsure of how they would work with that active.

He had to wait for the others, there was no real choice here and his hand went to his cell phone. He wanted to call them, but he knew they'd send him a text message and that it was set to vibrate so it didn't give him away. Then he heard something and he turned to see a man standing behind him. A very large man, tall, wide and muscular, whom he recognised from Fury's briefing as Bloodstrike.

He wondered how fast the man was, and then realised he couldn't get a feel for him in his mind. Bloodstrike looked at him over the upper rim of the lower pair of sunglasses and Rave looked back at him, and he decided to risk it, pulling on his gun with his telekinesis so it flew from the holster to his hand without his hand moving. Before he could get a shot off, a giant fist slammed in to him and Raven figured he now knew how fast the man was as he slipped out of consciousness

"Well, that was interesting," said Wisdom, his unlit cigarette hanging from his bottom lip as he spoke. He pulled the small oval device away from his eyes, and slid it in to the lower leg pocket of his battle suit. The rest of X-Force were with him, on top of one of the buildings a short way back from the pier, but high enough to see what was going on.

"What did ye see? What's happenin'?" asked Siryn, wanting to know what he'd seen through his binoculars.

"Marcus just got taken out by Bloodstrike, and taken out rather easily," replied Maverick, his mask coming with it's own in-built telescopic visual scanner, so he didn't need the standard issue binoculars like everyone else.

"Yup," said Pete, as he ignited the small, white stick. "Interesting though, wasn't it? That guy came out of nowhere, obviously invisible to Raven's psi-scan. Definitely interesting."

"Why interesting?" asked Lydia Del Ruiz, her curiosity raised. Wisdom could see the wheels turning in her head as she worked out the possibilities. She knew what were the more likely possibilities and she was just missing that one clue, which he could provide her. He smiled inwardly at the tantalisation of his team-mate.

"Because it's could be a psi-damper. He was able to make his gun leap to his hand, which meant he had his powers. Which means they don't have an inhibitor field, so our gifts will work just fine."

"So they either countered his powers specifically and they're ready for all of us, or they were just very lucky," said Lydia. "My money's on the former."

"Oh yeah," said Pete. "Mine too. So if they're ready for us, we're ready for them. They'll probably have specific counters so the best bet is to swap players when there's a problem. If there's a problem."

"So what's the plan?" asked Terry.

"Simple, love," said Pete, as he spat the cigarette to the floor, then crushed it under foot, putting it out. "First off, we get their attention." He looked back toward the direction of Pier 17, and made a quick calculation as to how far away it was. "What kind of range do you have on your sonic scream, these days?"

Inside the warehouse, the rest of the Circle was waiting with their small cadre of people as Bloodstrike brought in Raven's inert body and dumped it unceremoniously on the floor.

"Good work, Eric," said Midnight's Fire. "One down, several more to go."

"Wisdom will be here soon," said Min Li Ng, hovering in the air. "I say we kill Raven now, and display his body for the rest of SHIELD to see." Smiling Tiger hissed in agreement.

"No," said Fire. "We keep them alive for the moment. The Dragon Lord wants them taken that way. We all know the drill. But let's go over it one more..." Then there was a high pitched cry and all the windows shattered in the place

"Everyone out!" shouted Fire, struggling to make his voice heard over the sonic attack and the people started to evacuate though the trapdoor and down to a waiting boat. The Circle knew this was coming and each fitted in an ear-piece that enabled them to hear while cancelling out Siryn's song. "Looks like we have company," said Fire.

"Right on schedule," said Bloodstrike, cracking his knuckles. "Said they'd be watching us." Midnight's Fire gestured and the team exited the building, only to be met by a salvo of hot knives and energy blasts, coming from the small group of SHIELD agents coming at them.

Bloodstrike threw himself in the path of Maverick's kinetic bursts and Silk Fever intercepted Wisdom's shots.

"Get them!" said Midnight's Fire and they all raced forward to meet their designated targets. Bloodstrike went for Maverick, Silk Fever went for Wisdom, Smiling Tiger went for Siryn and that left Midnight's Fire to deal with Del Ruiz.

Silk Fever managed to get to her quarry first, by the virtue of her flight and let loose her own powers, igniting the oxygen molecules in the air and directing it as an energy blast towards Pete.

"Bloody hell," said Wisdom, who ducked, rolled and met the blast with his own hot knives, hitting her blast dead centre, and though his were hotter than hers, she was pushing forward with her powers, while Pete was barely holding his ground. "I could really do with a hand," but the others were busy on their own. "Never mind," said Pete, thinking he'd better think of something fast.

Siryn was avoiding Smiling Tiger for two reasons. The first was that her powers seemed to have very little effect on him or on anyone else for some reason and the second was that the man's moves and the armour he worse were bringing back some dark and painful memories.

She had never got on with Feral, and when they had taken on King Bedlam and his Hellions, Feral had torn out Terry's throat with her claws. The damage that had been done was vast, ripping through her larynx and taking away her ability to speak and the use of her powers.* She had almost died, but she hadn't and the healing process had taken longer than she had liked, which was why she had gained some help in getting her powers back, help that nobody would understand, properly. Not her father, the X-Men, or SHIELD.

They had simply assumed it was some kind of special surgical technique, but if they learnt the truth, it would all be over and that was something she didn't want to happen. With her being in SHIELD there was less chance of the X-Men finding out and that suited her, because one day the question would be raised and she knew she wouldn't be able to look them in the eye.

However this kind of thing brought back memories she didn't need right now and reminded her that she couldn't always rely on her powers to see her through and she faced her fear head on. Using the anger of her shame to keep going, she flew out of Smiling Tiger's reach as he leapt at her, and she pulled her gun from the holster and fired at him. The bullets knocked him back but bounced off the armour so he wasn't injured in any serious way, and it was only a matter of time before one of them faltered.

The question was who would it be?

Lydia was fighting Midnight's Fire in a clash of skill, ingenuity and power. She knew about him from the file, that he was an extra-ordinary fighter, with his enhanced senses, speed, agility and strength all working for him as well as a body that was highly resistant in nature to toxic elements. He also had a deadly array of weaponry at his disposal.

However, Lydia was an agent of SHIELD and not a bad combatant herself and she could match him move for move. His enhanced abilities were useful against normal people, but she was a mutant form Genosha, and she had needed her powers to survive there, before the reign of Magneto from which she had fled the country. Her power to absorb solar energy which increased the strength of her muscles meant that his enhanced abilities were matched by hers, which made the odds even. She was also a detective by nature, observing, calculating and finding a pattern to the clues and events so to make an educated deduction as to what the solution was. The fact the solar energy affected her every muscle meant that her brain had power to spare as well so she was very good at what she did, if not the best.

However Midnight's Fire wasn't allowing her the time to find a flaw in his style, so fast were their moves against each other. Duck, connect, parry, block with the fists and sometimes he would extend one of the two blades attached to his forearm. They were good blades, but the SHIELD uniform took off their edge and it was only if she allowed him to get to her exposed skin that he would connect.

Then at one point she had an idea as she noticed a slight pause when Fire was about to unleash a blade. It was the opening she needed and as he made his move, she grabbed his arm as the blade popped out, the mechanism stinging her fingers, but she threw him, holding the blade and it snapped under her strength and the momentum. Now they both had a blade as Fire turned the throw in to a roll and was back on his feet again.

"A good move," he said, giving her a slight bow.

"You'll find I'm full of them," she said. He smiled and then they went at it, his blade extended against the one she held in her hand. At close quarters all it needed now was one mistake.

Maverick was not best pleased at having to take on the bruiser, but then again he was the best placed of them to do so. The giant blows that pounded at him hurt like hell, but his power to absorb kinetic energy combined with the armour meant he could take it. Better than that, he could dish it out as well.

As they traded blows, North realised he could do with a gun or some of his other toys to help him out, but that wasn't going to happen. The SHIELD battle-suit was many things, but it wasn't his old combat armour and he had tried to get Fury to authorise some changes but it hadn't happened.

That said, he did have his side-arm, so he did something special and instead of trying to avoid the oncoming left hook, he caught it in both hands. He felt the impact of the blow lift him off his feet, and he was balanced precariously on the man's hand. Except he still had him, and there was a build up of power he wanted to get rid of.

"Uh oh," said Bloodstrike and tried to shake North loose, but Maverick fired his energy blast down the man's arm, knocking him through the timber panels of the pier. He could get out of there, given time but Maverick wasn't going to give him that, and a swift boot to the jaw snapped the man's head to the left with a crack.

"That was for Marcus," said Maverick, and turned to see who needed his help the most. There was an idea forming and Maverick fired a kinetic bolt at Silk Fever, nailing her from behind and she slammed in to a wall, then hit the floor and dropped in to the water, leaving a trail of fire behind her.

"Thank you," shouted Pete, and Maverick gave a thumbs up, as Pete turned his attention to Smiling Tiger and fired off a hot knife or two, sliding in to the armour and doing some rather nasty damage in the process. As Tiger howled in pain, Terry flew down and grabbed him, lifting him high in the air, knowing that his wounds made it hard for him to struggle effectively then she dropped him in the water as well.

That just left Midnight's Fire.

"Need a hand, Lyd?" asked Pete, as he lit up a cigarette, gesturing to Maverick and Siryn to go and check on Marcus.

"I got it," she said.

"Oh, yeah, you do," Pete said in a low tone and gave a sigh as he watched her svelte figure dance in the darkness, admiring the way her hair never seemed to get in her way. It had been a few months since he'd broken up with Samantha, and he'd never called her in the meantime and he pretty much figured that ship had sailed and the less said about Katherine Pryde the better. He blew a smoke ring in to the sky, watching his colleague battle the man. "Sod it," he muttered, raised his thumb and pointed his finger at Midnight's fire and winged his knee.

Midnight's Fire screamed in pain as his enhanced sense of touch amplified the effect, and his eyes watered as the stench of roasted skin hit his enhanced sense of smell. Lydia then belted him with a mean left hook, catching him in the jaw and sending Midnight's Fire to the floor with a hefty thud, sending splinters and dust up from the woodwork of the pier.

"What the hell was that for? I had him," she demanded, annoyed at the getting help she didn't need, but grateful for it at the same time.

"And you're welcome," said Pete, as he took another drag on his cigarette. "I said this'd be a day an' half tops. Don't want you making me wrong because you like fighting. You're good, Agent Del Ruiz. Very good."

"That's… that's…" Lydia was almost speechless at his arrogance, and annoyed at herself for liking the charm of the man.

"Yeah, I know," smirked Pete, then his smile died. "Where are the others? They should have been back by now."

"Notice how quiet it's become," said Lydia looking about, and Pete drew his gun.

"I don't like this," he said as he spat his cigarette to the floor. He looked down to see not one speck of red-hot ash, or the slow sparkle of the fag end burning down. "Oh, bloody hell."

"Welcome, Mr Wisdom," said a voice and they turned to see a man directly behind them. Before Pete had a chance to pull the trigger a swift roundhouse kick knocked it from his hand, where it caught Lydia on the head, stunning her. The blow also snapped his wrist back and sheer power behind the blow knocked him to the floor.

"Bollocks," he gasped, feeling the twisting of his hand, and with his other hand he fired off a barrage of hot knives at his assailant, who fired a blot of pure blackness at the hot knives, swallowing them and feeding back to the source, where the darkness enveloped his hands.

"You have no hope of stopping my darkforce powers," smiled the man. "You took on my dragons and won, though that was always to be expected."

"Where are the others?" he demanded.

"They - and you - are my prisoners." The darkforce energies crept up Wisdom's body, holding him fast and preventing him from moving as the man who had defeated them towered over him. "I am the Dragon Lord, and you have failed."