MV1 #82 MARCH Year 4

"War and Peace Part Two"

What Has Gone Before: As the Warriors entered Trans-Sabal intent on removing Undertow from power, the Peace Corps was sent in to stop them from interfering in the war between Mezdbadah's rebels and the Undertow, aligned with the legitimate government. The two met after an encounter with the Soldiers of Misfortune, and seem unable to reconcile their differences without a fight...

Undertow soldier Neville Jessin communicated through his radio implant, floating in a helicopter so far above the fight that none of the Warriors or Peace Corps could possibly have seen him. The sound of General Obsidian’s voice echoed in his communications implant.

“We’re sending reinforcements, and we’ll send the Soldiers of Misfortune back out with them. Continue to update us with what’s happening.”

Night Thrasher moved quickly, dashing up to Aquarian before anyone had time to react. He flung his right hand up and watched a fine mist emerge from his armored gauntlet. It hit Aquarian’s thin “zero field,” but only slowed, which didn’t have any effect on the cayenne pepper spray. Aquarian began coughing and tears ran from his eyes as he found himself unable to see or breathe correctly.

“You could have ended this fight before it started,” Thrasher said. “That serves your purposes, but not ours.”
“You arrogant bastard!”

Thrash turned toward the sound of the voice just in time to feel a fist connect with his face, smashing his armored mouthpiece to bits and knocking loose a couple teeth. He went flying, sprawling on the ground. Kymaera stared at the fallen form of her former friend in anger.

Each team had seen one of their members struck down, and things proceeded to get worse from there. Firestar aimed a burst of microwaves at Kymaera, which caused her to let out a scream as the moisture was burned off her skin. In retaliation, Jocasta opened up with eyebeams, but they were intercepted when Proudstar leaped in front of Firestar. He went stumbling back as the force and heat struck him, but managed to hold his ground enough to prevent knocking into his friend.

Will O’ Wisp tried to stay within Aquarian’s reach, as being in the zero field was the only thing preventing him from dissolving into a cloud of energy. He felt so useless, unable to move or use his powers effectively inside the field, but unwilling to step outside of it either.

Charlotte Jones aimed her plasma pistol at Proudstar, trying to help Jocasta take him down fast. Speedball noticed this and tried exerting control over the kinetic energy she was using. Unfortunately, while she was held fast in place, that didn’t prevent her from pulling the trigger, and a blast streaked out to hit Proudstar. It knocked him off-balance, sending him careening into Firestar, and the two collapsed into a heap.

Twilight watched, somewhat panicked, trying to figure out what to do. His mutant powers were still a bit of a mystery to him. But he could see an ever-present red glow around Firestar, and he reached out with his mind to try and control that. As he felt himself connect, he heard Proudstar yelp in pain.

Firestar cried out desperately, “Jimmy, I’m sorry! My field is getting hotter! Get away from me, quick!”

Shocked and dismayed, Twilight tried to “turn” his mind the other way, and let out a sigh of relief as he saw the red glow disappear from around Firestar.

“My powers! They’re gone!”

Jones tried desperately to turn her gun, eager to knock down Firestar and end this stupid fight as soon as possible. Instead she could barely move her eyes, watching as the Bengal came charging toward her. He leaped into the air and she grimaced as his foot came flying toward her. It connected, sending a jolt of pain through her and making her a bit woozy. The kinetic lock Speedball had put on her prevented her from going anywhere, but it didn’t prevent her grip on the gun loosening enough for it to drop to the sands.

Sorceress, meanwhile, had noticed the flow of energy from Twilight to Firestar, and she began concentrating her sorceries to cut off that link. She chanted in a language not heard for a century in this land, and began weaving her arms.

Silhouette had sped over to Thrasher’s side, and she looked down at him. “Dwayne?”

“I’m okay,” he said through a bloody mouth. “Get into the fight, Sil.”

Aquarian yelled, “Kymaera, get me out of here!”

Nita, still reeling from the dehydration Firestar had caused, flew over to grab Aquarian, but found herself slowed to nearly hovering speed as she entered his zero field.

“I can’t reach you! Your zero field is stopping me!”

“I can’t release it,” he said simply. “Arvad would lose his coherence.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Will O’ Wisp said, and he stepped outside of the field, assuming the shape of a ball of energy that began streaking off toward the middle of the fight.

“No!”

“Come on, Aquarian, he did that for a reason! Lower your zero field!”

Reluctantly, Aquarian did, and even though the field was invisible, Kymaera could tell, as she suddenly zoomed back up to her regular flight speed, catching his arms and lifting him into the air.

“What’s your idea, Aquarian?”

“Much as it pains me, Kymaera...we leave. The rest of the Warriors didn’t look happy with Night Thrasher’s pronouncement. I think the fight will soon be over, but it will take too much of our time. We need to look into what we can do to end this crisis without disobeying our directives from the UN.”

Below them, the fight continued. Kymaera gave a last sad glance at the two teams she had belonged to and flew on.

“They’re fighting, sir. Kymaera and Aquarian just flew off.”

“Kymaera?” The sound of the general’s voice was almost giddy. “Troops are still enroute. Expect the Soldiers of Misfortune as well...for the most part.”

Bengal followed up his kick with a punishing right cross, knocking Charlotte Jones unconscious. Speedball relaxed his control and let the commander of the Peace Corps fall to the ground.

Proudstar was now charging at Jocasta, who continued to pour heat beams from her eyes into his chest. It was clear he was in pain, as he cried out while charging. Finally, as he approached, Jocasta shut off the beams and met his outstretched arms with hers, holding the two of them in place as they struggled.

“This is foolish,” she said. “We are not your enemies.”

“You’ve got a funny way of showing it,” Proudstar grunted.

“You attacked us,” she pointed out. Her internal sensors were showing that she was slightly overmatched. Had her heat beams not weakened Proudstar, no doubt this stalemate would be broken already. If his heart were truly in it, she suspected his weakened condition wouldn’t have mattered. But it seemed that he, along with most of the Warriors, was holding back as much as the Peace Corps were.

Silhouette stared down at Thrasher. “I’m not joining this fight, Dwayne. It’s stupid, and you should never have started it.”

Will O’ Wisp’s form, made of light and electricity, floated next to the two. “I wish you would have figured that out before you started it. Now I’m stuck like this until Aquarian comes back.”

Twilight stared angrily at Bengal, wanting desperately to hurt the man who had struck down Charlotte. He felt for the red energy that was still emitting from Firestar and let it flow, rather than bottling it up. He aimed his arms at Bengal and two beams of microwave energy shot from him at the young man. Fortunately for Bengal, he saw it coming and leaped into the air, executing a flip before coming down in a low combat stance.

Sorceress finished her chant and Twilight felt the red energy leave him. Briefly, he felt the connection fail and he watched as Firestar stood up and aimed her arms at him, no doubt aiming a microwave burst of her own.

“Firestar, no!”

Silhouette was yelling now, and Speedball, who had been preparing to take down Twilight next, hesitated as well.

“This fight is a waste of time. Go after Aquarian and Nita, tell them it was a stupid mistake.”

Firestar nodded and took off into the air, flying in the general direction she had seen Kymaera fly off in.

“Firestar is breaking off to follow Kymaera and the one called Aquarian,” Neville reported.

“ETA is one minute. Advise if any others leave.”

The tension in the air was strong, as the two teams slowly disengaged. Silhouette was standing now, watching the Peace Corps warily. Proudstar had collapsed to a sitting position in the desert next to Jocasta, who stared down at him impassionately. Firestar glared at Twilight, who in turn glared at Bengal and Sorceress while he went over to check on Charlotte. Speedball walked over to look at Thrasher, and felt another pang of guilt as his injuries reminded Robbie of the torture he had inflicted in the kinetic dimension.

"I'm sorry," Silhouette said. "Dwayne's heart sometimes gets ahead of his mind."

"Silhouette..." Dwayne growled dangerously.

"Oh shut up, Dwayne! You know damn well that this was a stupid fight. You wanted to prove we were doing the right thing. Since when does that involve attacking friends and legitimate government officials?"

“Since they’re on the wrong side,” he responded.

“Are they? Speedball and Firestar were here the last time the Warriors invaded Trans-Sabal, did you listen to them when they told you their reservations about this? No. What about when Proudstar asked for a specific goal and you couldn’t give him one?”

“Our goal is to free Trans-Sabal.”

“That goal is beyond your reach,” Charlotte Jones said, struggling back to consciousness. “This region is too unstable, has too much history, for you to come in and solve it with four-color heroics.”

“Then we’ll do as much as we can.”

There was silence then, as even Dwayne realized what a hazy goal he had just set for them.

“We’re here to stop the Undertow,” Proudstar said finally. “Isn’t that what we decided, Thrash?”

“They’re part of the legitimate government now,” Charlotte replied.

“Oh come on!” Proudstar yelled. “They killed the king, and even if his monarchy was a little legally questionable, you can’t tell me that’s an acceptable way for an outside force to take over the throne!”

“We’re here under UN authority and orders,” Twilight said.

“You can’t trust those orders,” Proudstar replied. “Undertow obviously has some pull with the UN.”

“This isn’t a discussion,” Jones spat back. “We’re here to get you out.”

“You don’t have the strength to do it,” Silhouette said. “The fight might have been a bit hasty, but we’re fully in the right here, and we’re not willing to back down because you have some kind of official sanction that we don’t.”

The two teams stared at one another, unwilling to back down but not exactly looking forward to another fight. Finally, Charlotte Jones gave an infuriated sigh. She knew what was right too, and she knew that Nita was torn by this mission as well.

“Okay. What if we rescue their ‘Soldiers of Misfortune?’ and then get out? Without those heroes under their control, this becomes a fair fight, right?”

Thrasher shook his head. This is how it always started, how it always had started. Compromise, bargaining, and soon you weren’t doing the right thing anymore. You were doing what other people would let you get away with. He wasn’t about to let the Warriors be about that. They were about doing what was right. About...

“Deal.”

Thrash started to yell at Silhouette for saying it, but a quick look around told him it wouldn’t do any good. He couldn’t read Sorceress or Bengal, but he could see on the faces of Firestar and Proudstar that they agreed with Sil. Speedball might have backed him, he was looking at Thrash with a curious expression, but Thrash didn’t want to lead the team based on pity and guilt.

“Pardon me,” Sorceress said. “But I believe we may get to seal this deal right now. I can sense the Soldiers of Misfortune approaching.”

Kymaera cupped one hand to her ear as the radio transmitter squawked. She held onto Aquarian tightly with her other hand, watching him rub his hands vigorously against his eyes.

“Say again?”

Charlotte Jones’ voice filled the other end of the communicator. “I said we’ve made a deal. We’re going to free the Soldiers and then everybody’s getting out. The Soldiers should be here in a few seconds, and we’ll take care of them. Thrasher says he has experience with those implants, and you should come back and pick him up. So double back and help us out, OK?”

Kymaera stole a glance at Aquarian, who was still rubbing his eyes. She reached into her ear and threw the radio away, watching as it fell toward the sands below. Sorry Charlotte, she thought. I owe these guys more than that. I owe these guys big-time.

Aquarian looked up, still not seeing much more than a blur. “What does she say?”

“They got ambushed by the Soldiers of Misfortune. I got cut off!”

Nita felt her gut twist as she lied flat out to Aquarian. She had grown close to him so fast, and she knew what she was doing was wrong, but she couldn’t stand the thought of letting those Undertow mind-manipulators get off easy.

“We need to go back!”

“The two of us can’t help there. She told us to go and take out the command structure.”

“That’s not what we’re supposed to be about,” he replied. “That’s a military order.”

“We’re in the middle of a war, and our friends are under attack! Times change, Wundarr!”

Aquarian didn’t say anything. He knew Kymaera was lying. He knew that she was giving in to her desire for revenge. And he knew that he had no choice but to trust her to do the right thing.

The Warriors and most of the Peace Corps stood assembled in the desert, watching as two aircraft crested a nearby dune. The aircraft had propellers in front and back, and there were about fifteen soldiers suspended in the open middle of the hull. They wore black and red uniforms and carried rifles that looked like high-tech energy weapons. They had begun aiming at the heroes below them as they came in.

Soaring above them was Ultra-Girl, carrying Jolt in her arms.

Charlotte Jones cursed. “Sorceress, I thought you said you sensed them! Where are Turbo and Elementary?”

Sorceress gave Charlotte a panicked look. “They’re not with them!”

“Then where are they?” Twilight asked. Speedball, Thrasher and Firestar shared an exchange of looks. They all had their suspicions. But with the Soldiers advancing, there wasn’t time to do anything about it.

“Nita, look out!”

Wundarr’s warning came too late, as the speeding form of Turbo came crashing into Kymaera. He felt her grip loosen and he was left floating in midair as she went flying past, Turbo pushing her away with his velocity. He had only a second to react before his vision was cut off by the black form of Elementary, grown into a giant amoeba-shape and coming at him fast.

Elementary’s form wrapped around Wundarr, enveloping the subtle contours of his invisible zero field. Wundarr watched as Elementary began to change, his black gooey mass slowly turning clear in spots. Where he turned clear, there were sparks, and Wundarr realized with a surprised gasp what was happening.

“I can mimic anything I touch,” the hoarse voice muttered. “That includes you, buddy.”

In the control room, Obsidian’s blank face could not reflect emotion, but the length of his stare on Elementary’s controller left no doubt as to his feelings. Samuel Revette shuddered and leaned his head back away from the microphone.

“The Soldiers do not speak,” Obsidian muttered. “They merely act.”

The sparks around Aquarian grew into an arcing circle of electricity, and Wundarr felt something he hadn’t felt in quite some time...he felt the sensation of falling.

Nita recovered from the surprise in time to see the sand rushing up to meet her. She pushed back with all the strength her ankle wings had, but succeeded only in slowing her velocity as Turbo let go and made a sharp, almost ninety degree turn back into the air, leaving her to slam hard into the baking desert sands.

She rose, coughing out the mouthfuls of sand she had swallowed and feeling the searing heat of the desert in her moisture-deprived body. The sand was stuck to her by her own perspiration, and what would have been uncomfortable to a human was like slow torture to an Atlantean. She shook her head, trying to shake the ringing in her ears, and happened to glance upward.

“Wundarr!”

In a flash, Nita was in the air, moving as fast as she ever had to get underneath her friend before he hit hard enough to shatter his bones. She breathed a quick sigh of relief as she caught him and heard a loud “whoof” of air from him.

“Are you alright?”

“Look out!”

Nita took the cue and dove down toward the sand, feeling the burst of powered wind that Turbo had fired at her. She heard a loud sound, like wet napkins hitting a diner floor, and looked down to see that Elementary had landed. He was already pulling himself up into a humanoid form, now composed of the same gritty, burning sand that still irritated her skin. Turbo was flying beneath her, clearly trying to get another shot.

She landed on the sand and let Wundarr go, looking upwards at Turbo, who was flying down to take another pass.

“Okay,” she growled. “No more miss nice guy.”

“Namorita,” Wundarr said softly. “Remember that they are mind-controlled, just as you once were.”

In her eyes, he saw only burning determination, as she flew off toward Turbo. “I’m going to pretend I don’t know that.”

The Warriors and the rest of Peace Corps were too busy to worry about their friend. As the Undertow’s troops began detaching from the odd helicopters carrying them into battle, it became obvious that they were prepared to face superhuman opposition. Most of them were equipped with portable jet packs, taking off into the air in loose formations. The others landed heavily, padded with extra armor and carrying massive guns that required special shoulder braces to hold onto.

Silhouette was quick to move, speeding toward the heavily armored troops on the ground. Unfortunately, she didn’t get far, as their motion tracking sensors let them zoom in on her location. Night Thrasher called out a warning, but was too late to help. The sound of shells escaping their cannons sounded in the air, and a wave of explosions hit the area Silhouette was moving into. When the smoke cleared, she was lying motionless on the ground.

“Sil!”

“I’ll get her,” Speedball yelled. “You give me some cover!”

Robbie bounded toward Silhouette, trying not to think of how many guns were pointed at him, or the fact that Ultra-Girl and Jolt hadn’t even joined the fray yet.

He also didn’t notice that Bengal was right behind him, running as fast as he could. Machine gun fire from the airborne soldiers dotted the desert sands around him, but he moved like a dancer, weaving in and out of the bullets and leaping into the air, executing multiple leaps and flips to continue his progress. Sorceress watched in fear and admiration as her childhood friend and self-appointed protector threw himself so casually into danger.

She began chanting, preparing a new spell.

Ultra-Girl was ready to join the fray now, dropping Jolt onto the sand and making a beeline for Charlotte Jones, which her handler had pegged as commander of the Peace Corps. She was intercepted by the beefy fist of Proudstar, who knocked her back into the air until she came to rest on the sand, laying still for a second before clumsily pushing herself back up. Charlotte nodded at James Proudstar, standing beside her with an angry scowl on his face.

“Thanks.”

“Sir, that was one hell of a hit! She’s got two broken ribs!” Frank Martinez, Ultra-Girl’s controller, yelled at Obsidian, back in the control room.

“She can take it! But keep her away from Proudstar! Move the BG troops in to hit him!”

The armored troops were moving in now, closing on Proudstar and lining up their telescopic sights, but they wouldn’t have much luck. Faster than they could react, Bengal and Speedball were in their midst. Bengal, having spent most of his life learning the weak points in protective armor, easily slipped his deadly martial strikes into nerve points and unprotected areas, while Speedball just careened with concussive force from trooper to trooper.

Twilight watched as a pack of airborne troops began to sweep down, aiming their machine guns at the rest of the two teams, including him. Focusing on the nearest source of red energy, the sun, he concentrated and released a burst of laser fire that hit one of the man’s guns, causing him to drop it. His blast was joined by a burst from Charlotte Jones’ plasma pistol and a beam of blinding light from Sorceress. Will O’ Wisp arced his electrical form through another group of airborne troops, shorting out important control systems and forcing them to abandon the jetpacks for parachutes.

Twilight was surprised that Jocasta hadn’t joined in firing, but he looked over to see her staring intently into the mass of heavily armored troops and then releasing twin heat beams from her eyes.

Jolt had just closed in on Speedball, and was about to clobber him with her electrical punch, when the heat beams caught her in the back. She cried out in pain and surprise, some of which actually belonged to her controller.

Michael Barnes-Quick recoiled in surprise as Jolt was flung aside, and the bio-readouts indicated that she was momentarily stunned. He shouted up to General Obsidian.

“Sir, we’re outnumbered and the tactics aren’t working! What do we do?”

His answer was cut off by the sound of gunfire just outside the war room, formerly used as the king’s throne room. Obsidian nodded toward Wraith, standing next to the holographic battle map in his armored suit, and he nodded.

“I’ll check it out.”

Kymaera flew at Turbo as fast as she could, and his controller wasn’t fast enough to move him out of the way. There was a crunch as Kymaera impacted with the armored man, and the two went flying through the air.

Elementary aimed one of his long sandy tendrils up at Kymaera as she passed above his head, but before he could unleash his internal gas, a burst of microwaves struck him in the chest, causing him to cry out in pain and drop to the ground. Firestar flew by, her microwave trail heating the desert air even further, making it shimmer like a thing alive to Wundarr’s vision.

For his part, Wundarr was racing across the sands toward Elementary.

Kymaera suddenly moved up and then down, slamming Turbo into the ground.

“Sir, Turbo just lost his flight turbines!” The panicked cry came from Bart Rice, the controller of the former pacifist in the Turbo armor.

Obsidian flinched involuntarily as a new burst of gunfire erupted outside the room, and then yelled over the increasing din outside, “Then blast her on the ground! We need Kymaera and we need her alive!”

He turned to Sam Revette and yelled, “Move Elementary in, ignore the two others!”

Outside the throne room, Wraith poked his intangible head out from the wall. He could see the source of the gunfire now. Undertow troops and the King’s Mandroids were firing on a mass of thirty Biting Wind troops. More powerful than the Mandroids, the Biting Wind troops outnumbered the remaining Mandroids by a ratio of nearly five to one, and the Undertow troops on hand weren’t enough to sufficiently balance the tide.

He sighed. Seemed he would have to take part in this fight if they were to have any hope of winning it. He aimed his wrist pistols at the one who was clearly the leader, listening to the Arabic that erupted from the speakers.

The targeting sights indicated that they were locked on, with a good chance of penetrating the armored faceplate. He hesitated, however, as he recognized the voice from the leader. A flick of his mind to the cybernetic interface in the helmet sent his computer searching through CIA records. Seconds later, they confirmed what he had thought. He knew that man.

“Araq!” he called out, foolishly giving away his position. “Araq Mezdbadah!”

Ultra-Girl had rebounded now from her encounter with Proudstar, and Frank Martinez manipulated the control surfaces that sent impulses down her implants, sending her after an easier target. Sorceress was continuing a focus on her mass blindness spell while readying another, and was caught unawares by the lithe blond who came flying up behind her.

Sorceress turned, crying out in surprise, as the rush of air made her aware of the danger she was in. Ultra-Girl’s fist contacted Sorceress’ face, and the young Cambodian girl went flying, landing roughly and sliding to a halt, half-buried in the sand. Bengal heard all of this and turned, yelling out, “Melina!”

The distraction cost him as well, as the airborne troops now regained their sight and zeroed in on Bengal with their machine guns. Several bullets ripped through him, and he fell to the ground, blood leaking from several wounds onto the sand.

Some of the BG troops, seeing the downed opponent in their midst, turned their attention from Speedball and began aiming at the now limp form of Bengal in the sand.

Charlotte Jones, witnessing all this from Proudstar’s side, yelled out, “Jocasta, Arvad! Stop those troops before they kill Bengal!”

Will O Wisp obeyed, shifting from arcing through the airborne troops to flying at top speed toward the massed, heavily armed and armored troops who were taking on Speedball. Jocasta was closer, and quicker, and began firing her heat beams into the group, melting two of the heavy weapons and effectively neutralizing their wielders.

Speedball slammed hard into another trooper, knocking him down and out. He was in the midst of about three more, rendering their burst effect weapons ineffective against him, unless they wanted to take out their own men. Unfortunately for Speedball, one of the troops standing at a distance decided he wanted to do just that, and fired an explosive shell that killed the troopers around Speedball and generated enough light, heat, shrapnel and concussive force to knock the hero out.

The remaining Soldiers of Misfortune, Jolt and Ultra-Girl, were steered away from this grouping. Ultra-Girl flew to engage Proudstar, who was charging toward his downed friends to get them out of the area. Jolt, meanwhile, had bounded across the sand and landed next to Jocasta, hitting her with a bio-electric punch before moving on and taking a swing at Twilight, one that the man dodged before returning fire with sun-driven laser beams.

Meanwhile, Night Thrasher had done what he thought he could about the airborne troops. Running headlong into the danger zone of the battle, he picked up one of the heavy explosive weapons that the BG troops had been using. Ignoring the screeching warnings in his helmet that he was overloading the strength-enhancing actuators in his armor, he hefted it and fired it into the air. The explosion scattered the airborne troops, sending several of them crashing into the ground. A few others managed to avoid being plowed into the ground by the force of the explosion, but found their weapons destroyed in the explosion anyway.

Jocasta, Twilight and Charlotte Jones were locked in battle with Jolt. She was fast, Charlotte thought, fast enough to avoid the three Peace Corps members while every so often slipping a bio-electric punch in on Jocasta. The sounds of fists on flesh confirmed for her that Ultra-Girl and Proudstar were still engaged in combat as well.

Night Thrasher stood back up, intent on getting into the fight with either Jolt or Ultra-Girl, but the blood loss from his earlier wounds was taking its toll, and he found himself dizzy, managing only to move a few steps before collapsing, unconscious, onto the sand.

With Turbo forced temporarily to the ground, Kymaera grabbed his helmet and yanked, intent on ending his threat quickly. She was surprised by the intensity of the scream that resulted.

She gasped in horror and dropped Turbo when she saw what had forced the scream. Wires were coming from the helmet, connected directly to implanted ports on the shaved skull of Harold Erasmus, pilot of the Turbo suit. This was a new kind of implant for the Soldiers, and clearly trying to remove it had adverse effect on the wearer. His scream continued, even as Kymaera moved in and put the helmet back into place. She watched as his body jerked with spasms.

General Obsidian stared at the video display of what was going on.

“Medical readings, Mr. Rice!”

Bart Rice turned back to Obsidian. “She disrupted the implants pretty bad. He’s getting heavy electrical feedback in his brain. If he’s not brain damaged now, he will be in the next few seconds, and he’ll be dead inside of a minute.”

Obsidian didn’t say a word, simply staring at Bart Rice. This wasn’t part of the plan, and it certainly didn’t look as if recapturing Kymaera was going to be possible. Ironic, now that she finally seemed to be ready to serve the Undertow as ruthlessly as they would have liked.

Nita stared in horror at the man in front of her. She was in shock, unable to do anything but watch, as her mind raced through all the ramifications of what she had done. A man was dying in front of her because she had let her anger and thirst for revenge overcome her.

Suddenly, his spasms stopped, and he twitched once and lay still. Kymaera felt an arm on her shoulder. She turned to see Wundarr, looking at her with a stern countenance.

“I...I didn’t mean to...he...I...”

She slumped to her knees, hitting the ground hard, and let her arms hang limply at her side. Wundarr looked down at her and spoke, softly and deliberately.

“My zero field is back, Kymaera. It stopped the flow of electricity that was harming him. You very nearly made a deadly mistake, but I have managed to stop it.”

Kymaera looked up at her friend, her expression a mix of surprised relief and unbearable shame. Before he could react, she heard a familiar voice yelling in the distance.

“Hey, little help?”

Wundarr looked over to where Firestar was flying in circles above Elementary, who had sprung close to a dozen sandy tendrils from his body and was attempting to lash her with them. He concentrated, letting his zero field flow out, reaching to the figures locked in combat. He closed his eyes as the strain of reaching out started to get to him, knowing that he could not leave Turbo’s side.

He heard a surprised yelp as Firestar’s own flight abilities were neutralized, sending her tumbling a short distance to the sand below. He opened his eyes, looking over to see that Elementary had collapsed onto the ground, his sandy form reverting into that of a Hispanic boy who could have been no older than six or seven. Black metallic devices had been woven into his shaved head.

Firestar stood up and muttered. “That’s two down.”

Wraith’s outburst got him Araq’s attention, but not in the way he wanted. Araq turned and fired a long burst from the chain gun on his Biting Wind armor. Fortunately for Wraith, the bullets went right through his immaterial form and struck the hardened walls behind him, leaving a row of bullet scars.

Disappointed in his weapons’ ineffectiveness, Araq yelled out, “Who are you, that would seem to know me?”

“Does the name Robert Carlson ring a bell?”

Inside his armor, Araq smiled. The name did indeed ring a bell. A few years ago, Araq had worked with someone whom he had thought was a fellow mercenary, flying arms into Iran and Cuba on behalf of American intelligence. Much to his surprise, his “mercenary” friend Carlson turned out to be American intelligence himself, CIA to be precise. Nevertheless, the men had found a remarkable amount in common, and had parted as friends. While the voice he heard was masked, the combination of mutant phasing ability with the sheer confidence he heard convinced Araq that Wraith was, in fact, Carlson.

He lowered his weapons and stopped, commanding the others through his radio link to do the same. Carlson gave similar orders to the remaining two Mandroids and Undertow troops.

Shezrah J’hadah, the second in command that Araq had been assigned, angrily spat back into the communicator.

“What are you doing? Giving them time to bring in reinforcements? Kill them, you idiot!”

Wraith spoke again, unaware of the internal battle Araq was facing.

“So Araq, what brings you and your men here?”

“My men? These pigs killed my men,” Araq responded.

“Really? So you owe them no loyalty, do you?”

“None at all.”

“Why don’t you come work for us. The Undertow will run this country well, once we get rid of the remaining rebels from your homeland and those interfering brats from the States.”

There was silence for a moment, as the opposing troops stared at one another. Two dozen Biting Wind armor suits faced off with four Mandroids and about three dozen normally armed Undertow soldiers. The lead suit of Biting Wind armor suddenly spun and unleashed his missiles into a grouping of about six suits, devastating them and the men inside.

“Araq,” J’hadah screamed. “What are you doing? You will be killed for this!”

“Your general underestimated me, J’hadah. I may not be much of a patriot for Trans-Sabal, but I have been an excellent mercenary for most of my life. I know that loyalties can change in an instant. I know that if I did win this battle I would be killed anyway. So I am changing the rules, and allying with Wraith and the Undertow.”

“But you will leave this country in the hands of outsiders?”

“Better an outsider I have known and trusted than a countryman who will put me to death when I have accomplished my goals.”

The gunfire continued in earnest, as the Biting Wind troops unleashed chain gun fire and missiles at the doors to the King’s Throne Room and the Undertow troops. The Mandroids, meanwhile, employed blasters and cutting lasers to cut down a few of the opposing forces before bowing to the inevitable wave of firepower and being destroyed in spectacular displays of stored energy pyrotechnics.

As the door to the converted throne room/command center blew open, Obsidian looked up in annoyance and anger. He saw that one of the Biting Wind armors was now lined up with Wraith, firing methodically at the remaining enemy troops. For each shot Wraith took, an armor fell, and his companion, though using more bullets, was faring almost as well.

“The man next to me is a friend,” Wraith relayed through his communications implant. “And the commander of the rebels up to this point. If we can just hold the command center now…”

His thought was cut off, as one of the Biting Wind suits, the one containing J’hadah, flew overhead, aimed directly at the holographic control table of the Soldiers of Misfortune.

“You will survive this, Araq,” he growled into his communicator. “But if we cannot have this country, neither can you or the Undertow!”

He screamed into his communicator as he unleashed the remainder of his weapons on the control surface and crashed into it. His fuel-driven motors exploded on cue, taking the entire control table and all of the Soldiers’ controllers with him in a ball of flame. Jellied gasoline shot off in various directions, setting the remaining tapestries and other equipment on fire. In seconds, the control room was engulfed in fire. It didn’t matter that the rest of the Biting Wind suits had been neutralized. The Undertow’s operation in Trans-Sabal was finished.

Twilight let himself think for a second how lucky he was that the more resilient Jocasta was suffering the brunt of punishment from Jolt. Clearly, Jolt’s controller had entertained the same thought, for at that moment, the young mutant executed a triple back flip and came face to face with Twilight, her fist drawn back and crackling with energy.

Even as the beam of red light started to form from his eyes to fire back, he knew it was too late. However, something made her hesitate, and it gave him enough time to fire. The red beams struck her full in the chest, and she collapsed softly into the sand, unmoving. Charlotte Jones dropped to her knees immediately and checked to find Jolt’s pulse. She gave a thumbs up when she realized that the girl was merely unconscious.

“Guys? What do you make of this?”

The three members of Peace Corps turned to look at Proudstar, who was now staring at Ultra-Girl. She stood in front of him, fist cocked back, but still like a statue.

“It’s…the implants…something must have…destroyed the command,” muttered Thrasher, slowly getting to his feet.

“What do we do?” Jones demanded.

“We don’t do anything,” Thrash retorted, flipping open a black panel on his right arm to reveal a small electronic toolkit. “I’ll take the implants out of them. I’ve done it before, when Kymaera was controlled by the Undertow.”

Two helicopters landed outside the smoldering remains of the presidential palace. Most of the New Warriors and Peace Corps stepped out of them, except for a few notable absences. Those members, Firestar, Aquarian and Kymaera, joined the group by flying in under their own power a few seconds later. Kymaera was carrying Turbo in her arms, while Firestar carried the unconscious form of Elementary.

“Is this what you had in mind Thrash?” Kymaera asked. “When you came here to save the country?”

“No,” Thrash admitted. “But the Undertow are gone, at least. The fighting has stopped. I’d say we did pretty well.”

“So would I.” Jolt stepped out of the helicopter behind Thrash. “If not for the New Warriors, I’d still be a slave to the Undertow. So would Ultra-Girl.”

“I hate to admit it, seeing all the destruction around here,” Silhouette said, “But I’d chalk this up in the win column.”

“Would you?” Charlotte Jones asked. She gestured at the people gathered around the area, picking through the neighborhood that had once stood near the palace for their possessions. The people glanced at the assembled foreigners as they tried to recover what they could from the wreckage. “Look in the eyes of these people. They don’t see you as rescuers. They see you as people who turned a small uprising into a full-scale super-powered war. Do you think that if the Soldiers of Misfortune had been around, the rebels would have managed to burn down the palace?”

“So we should have been kept as slaves?” Jolt yelled.

“I thought you wanted to be a hero,” Jones retorted. “I’m not denying that a rescue mission was inevitable, and a good idea. I’m saying that you would have done the most good, right here, right now, by helping the Undertow.”

“You’re saying the ends justify the means,” Thrasher replied. “A few good people are enslaved, so that the many can go on with their lives. We let the villains get away with a few things, rather than fight and win but cause lives and property to be lost in the meantime.”

“Right,” Jones said. “Look, sometimes the bad guys win. That’s the way the world works. All we can do is make sure the least amount of innocent people get hurt or killed.”

“That may be the least you can do,” Thrash said. “The Warriors will always strive to do better.”

“Even if you have to hurt and kill people to do it,” Jones replied.

The two commanders stared at each other, neither willing to give on their position. Finally, the silence was broken by Jocasta.

“Commander Jones, I have reached Senator Kelly. He says that the UN has been petitioned for help by a group of Trans-Sabalians who wish to reform the government as a democratic entity. Since the infrastructure is for the most part in shambles, they have asked for the UN’s help in this endeavor.”

“Specifically, they have asked that we stay for a few weeks to make sure Undertow or another opportunistic group doesn’t come back. And the Senator wants to know what happened with the New Warriors.”

Thrash shook his head and got back onto the helicopter. The other Warriors, including Jolt and Undertow, got back on with him. As the rotors started up, Charlotte said, “Tell him we did our job. The Warriors are leaving Trans-Sabal.”

Epilogue One, 15 minutes later:

The helicopter ride had been silent so far, with the Warriors mostly relaxing, suffering from the pain of the wounds most of them had suffered in this mission, or reflecting on their actions and the actions of those around them. Finally, Firestar spoke up.

“Do you see, Thrash? We did our best, and we just ended up making things worse.”

“Is that how you see it, Firestar?”

She nodded.

“Let me tell you what I see. It may take a while to rebuild, but when they do, Trans-Sabal will have a democratic government. No false Kings, no right-wing outsiders, no puppet governments from the neighboring country. We freed four good people from the Undertow without losing any of our own. We don’t really know what happened to the command staff of the Undertow in that fire or the battle at the palace, but we can assume they lost some people they needed. It’s not perfect, but like I said, I chalk this one up firmly in the win column.”

“And you’ve gained two new members, if you’ll have us,” Jolt said. Ultra-Girl, standing by her side, nodded slightly.

“We’re happy to have you, of course,” Thrasher replied. “But I’m surprised, Jolt. Aren’t you with the Avengers now?”

“It’s been made very clear to me that if I want to help with the Avengers, it’ll be after several years of standing on the sidelines and watching. The Warriors may not always be right, but at least you’ll let me jump right in and try to do the right thing.”

Thrasher shook her hand, and then Ultra-Girl’s. Firestar just shook her head and wished with all her might that Vance was here, to make her feel better about all this. Maybe her instincts had been right. Maybe she didn’t belong with the Warriors anymore.

Proudstar put his hand on her shoulder and whispered to her. “Boy, I know that look. When I was with X-Force, Cable led us into a lot of things I wanted no part of.

“I was just thinking, maybe I don’t belong here anymore.”

“Maybe. You know Thrash better than I do, but don’t you think he feels the same way about this as you do?”

“You heard what he said!”

“Yeah, I heard. I haven’t seen anyone’s denial mojo working that good since I tried to convince myself that the X-Men were responsible for my brother’s death. Thrash knows we shouldn’t have gotten involved. Give him a few days, he’ll even admit it. And even if he doesn’t, he knows that we could have handled this better…which can only help us in the future, right?”

Firestar gave him a smile. He was right. She laid her head on his arm and closed her eyes, ready to give in to the need for sleep. “Thanks, Jimmy.”

“Anytime, Angel,” he said softly.

Epilogue Two, the next day:

General Obsidian, Wraith and Araq stood at attention in front of Admiral Protocol. The man was clearly angry, as his massive flesh heaved and roiled with his rasping breath.

“Not only did you lose our Soldiers, you lost Trans-Sabal and you didn’t recapture a single Warrior, much less Kymaera! Can you tell me how I can view this as anything but an abject failure?”

Araq spoke up. “I believe I can, Admiral Protocol. The Biting Wind troops I was leading were the best of the best that my country had to offer. With them dead, my country’s defenses will be badly shaken. And now that you know how a loud invasion of Trans-Sabal was greeted, you know how better to avoid the actions of the United Nations and the New Warriors.”

“Spell it out for me more fully, Araq.”

“Don’t look at Trans-Sabal as a failed coup attempt. Look at it instead as a training exercise for the real coup attempt, which can be directed at my country next door.”

A smile spread across Admiral Protocol’s features. “Wraith,” he said. “This new recruit shows much promise.”

Epilogue Three, Several days later:

Kymaera had just finished unpacking her luggage when a knock came at her apartment door. She opened it to see Wundarr’s smiling face. In his right hand, he held a small bouquet of flowers.

“A street vendor was selling them,” he said. “I thought of you.”

She took them and waved him into the apartment, pouring water into a vase to put them in. He sat on the couch and watched her as she played absently with the leaves. Then she turned to him.

“You think I’m a horrible person, don’t you?”

“Why should I think that?” he asked, surprised.

“I gave in. I nearly killed Turbo in Trans-Sabal because I let my anger overwhelm me. As is, I’ve effectively crippled him. He has to be in that suit for at least an hour a day or he’ll suffer permanent brain damage. Maybe I’m not cut out for the Peace Corps. Maybe I should have gone back with the Warriors.”

“Perhaps,” Aquarian said, shifting on the couch.

Silence filled the next few moments, as Kymaera stared blankly at the flowers.

“So why didn’t you? Return to the Warriors, I mean?”

She came to sit next to him on the couch.

“It didn’t feel right. I mean, Thrasher and the Warriors didn’t do anything worse than I did, but it seemed pretty clear to me that they didn’t even show any remorse.”

“What about here? Does it ‘feel right?’” As he asked, Wundarr took her hand in his. He felt his heart jump slightly as he did it.

She looked down at their hands, then smiled at him and nodded softly.

“I think, Kymaera, that you have put a few old ghosts to rest. Maybe you should accept that and get on with your life.”

From Bob Gansler -
When the New Warriors was originally published by Marvel, I thought it was just Marvel trying to do Teen Titans.  I learned that this was not the case.  Your writing is giving the Warriors an even more unique feel (if such a thing is possible)  The Warriors have their hearts in the right place, but they might get bumped and bruised as they walk along the path of trying to do what's right.

I'm eagerly awaiting the result of the confrontation between the Peace Corps and the Warriors.

Well, it took a while, but here it is! Thanks for writing, Bob. Bob, as you may or may not know, writes a number of good books for MV1, including Vampire Tales and Avengers '58.

If you're not on the MV1 Talk list for discussion of MV1 fanfic, you can join by going to http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/mv1talk. You have to register with onelist but it's a painless process that generates ZERO spam. Or, if you want to send me letters, you can send them to rwlander@snapjudgments.com.

The Warriors move into their new digs in Colorado, and begin taking on a higher-profile in the media. But fame has it's darker side, and when the increased profile makes the Taylor Foundation more profitable, someone becomes interested in the company. And their buyout tactics may be a little more hostile than most takeovers.