Chapter Text
Marvel Forever Presents-
The Brotherhood
#1
By Tony Thornley
“Wetwork”
Scott Summers flipped through the digital file on the tablet. He frowned as he read. The timeline, the details of the actions taken, all of them were infuriating on a certain level. He set the tablet down, slid it across the table.
“So Agent Coulson,” he said. “As angry as that makes me, what does this have to do with me?”
Coulson laughed and slid the the tablet the rest of the way back to him. Scott grabbed his coffee and took a sip, glancing around the crowded coffee shop. He was impressed by the privacy screen the SHIELD agent had brought with him.
“Fury told me you were direct,” he said. “I like that. Normally we’d handle someone like the Spymaster on our own. However, our intel is showing that Calloway is working for a mutant aligned group that’s not the Cult of Akabba. With the X-Men coming back out from hiding, I wanted to involve you.”
“You saw the speech?”
“Everyone saw the speech,” Coulson said. “It was great. Just like Director Rogers said in our visit to Alaska last week, SHIELD just wants to help. There’s a hell of a lot going on. The Cult is not the only moving piece, which I know you’re well aware of-”
“It’s my job to be aware of it,” Scott said. “And I know of no less than seventeen major threats active right now which would all be prime for working with Spymaster. So let’s talk details.”
Coulson smiled. “I knew you’d be interested.”
“Of course I’m interested. But in exchange, I need a favor…”
=X=
Scott sat in his office, laptop open in front of him, spinning a pen between his fingers. He stared at the magnetic whiteboard, which already had a few pictures and printouts.
The Spymaster wasn’t cheap. Whoever had brought him in had deep pockets.
He wasn’t a smuggler, but he was definitely the sort that could get illicit materials from one place to another through other means.
Somehow SHIELD has eliminated the Cult from their list of suspects. He hadn’t been willing to do so until he vetted that himself, but it did lead him to look at other suspects first.
He had recently been spotted in the same location as multiple high profile tech and arms heists.
Most of it pointed one direction, and he hated that direction.
“It doesn’t take a psychic to see what’s going on.”
He jumped at the sound of Jean’s voice, dropping his pen. She giggled as he bent over to pick it up. He looked back at her with a grin and sat back up.
“Sorry,” she said. “I just noticed I hadn’t seen you since you got back from the SHIELD meeting. Captain America angry that we’ve been so quiet?”
“From what Coulson said, still fuming that we didn’t ask for help despite appearances last week,” he said. “Knowing Steve, that probably broke his heart.”
“I’m sure he’ll understand.” She leaned on the edge of the desk and looked at the board. She frowned. “How bad is this?”
“At best he’s helping one of our adversaries move guns,” he said. “That’s at a minimum though.”
“And it gets worse from there,” she asked.
“Foot soldiers, tech, big guns- and I mean BIG-, maybe decommissioned Sentinel tech. It’s bad, especially considering who it might be leading to.”
She looked at the three letters written in the center of the board in green, circled twice.
HFC
“What makes you think it’s the Hellfire Club?”
“The Purifiers don’t have the money. Neither do the Friends of Humanity. Someone helped enhance and bulk up the ranks of the Reavers. The Cult of Akabba is more likely to be recruiting living weapons, not tech, especially considering Stryfe likely has all the tech they could ever need. Cable warned me last week that the Gamesmaster might be active again, but none of this matches his MO, or the Upstarts.”
“Oh hell, I’d hoped to never hear that name again,” she grunted.
“No kidding.” He sighed. “The Acolytes are more or less off the board, and even if they were active, this is not their style one bit. With the intel Roberto sent us last week that the Royals have just reorganized, it feels like them. It stinks of Shaw.”
“Do we have any idea who the Royals are this time around?”
Scott shook his head. “I’ve only heard two names, besides Shaw. Bobby is trying to suss out the others. It’s possible that Spymaster is a Rook or Knight, but I have zero intel one way or another there.”
“Oh? So who are the two?”
“One is Miss Sinister. She looks to be Shaw’s Rook, maybe his Bishop. She’s annoying, but I still don’t know if she’s near the threat her ‘father’ was.”
“And the other?” she asked. Scott sighed.
“This one is a punch in the gut. I don’t even want to say it out loud.”
“Scott?”
He looked at her. She already knew. They both knew it. But to say it out loud made it real.
“Norman Osborn.”
“Dammit.” She looked back at the board. “Who do you want on your team?”
=X=
Neena Thurman lowered her rifle, tearing her attention away from her target to the phone call.
“What can I do for you Cyclops?”
“I need you to come in,” he said. “We need you here.”
“You realize this compromises this entire op,” she said. “I mean, I’ve still got Madrox here, but Jamie is useless half the time.”
“You only say that because you’re angry I’m recalling you,” he said. She rolled her eyes and glanced at Madrox, a rooftop away, and one of his other dupes on street level.
“Yeah, he’s good.”
“I’m glad. Meet me at the old Graymalkin building in San Francisco tomorrow night.”
=X=
Scott stood in the ruins of what was once their home. He nudged at a half-burnt couch cushion with his foot. He felt a hand on his shoulder.
“I miss this place,” Bobby said. “It was so much better than the school.”
“You just didn’t like living in your childhood boarding school,” Scott said.
“That’s totally the only reason I spent so much time away from the team,” he said. “I mean, the Champions, the Defenders, and everything.” He looked around. “Who are we waiting on?”
“Bobby, you know who the squad is,” he said. “You saw my board.”
“Literally, the only thing I remember is Domino, and that’s because she’s standing right there.”
“That’s typical of you Drake,” Raven Darkholme grumbled. She walked into the room, followed closely by Joanna Cargill. “I found a feral killer outside as well. I assume you think you need her.”
“Nice to see you too, bitch,” she said.
“Well this is already starting great,” Domino said. “We meet in a ruined dormitory. We’re at her throats before we get started. I already want to punch Iceman in the face.”
“Hey!”
“You’re just too easy of a target,” she said. “I’m sorry, nothing personal. So this is a motley group. What’s the situation?”
“The Spymaster has been hired by one of our most notable adversaries,” Scott said. “We’re going to use him in order to eliminate one of the biggest criminal cabals on the planet. The Hellfire Club.”
“Oh, well, this is gonna be fun.”
“So what’s the plan?” Mystique asked.
Scott pulled a small piece of Shi’ar tech from his pocket and keyed it on. It began to float, then glow. A holographic image appeared about it, projecting a series of spheres with images playing on them, and lines connecting them. At the center was Sebastian Shaw. Nearest Domino was the Spymaster, but no lines connected him to anyone.
“Nice tech,” Cargill said.
“Scott with the nifty toys!” Bobby exclaimed.
Scott ignored them both.
“Our first objective is to connect the Spymaster back to either the Black King or the White King, no matter how indirect. We make that connection, we can trace either of them to enough illicit activities to eliminate them from the field.” He reached up and twisted his hand, spinning the image so Spymaster’s sphere was directly in front of him. He touched it and ran his finger along it. Images began to appear.
“SHIELD has sufficient evidence of the Spymaster running guns, stealing tech, and allying with hostile entities all over the globe. A direct connection would bring the Royals down, and give us an in to do so with the entire Hellfire Club.”
“Why hasn’t SHIELD brought down Spymaster themselves?” Raven asked. “If they have the evidence…”
“They have the evidence,” Domino said, “but that doesn’t mean they have the man. I’ve run ops against him. He’s a slippery son of a bitch.”
“So where do we start?” Joanna asked.
“Spymaster’s last known location,” he said. “El Paso.”
“And is this all of us?” Bobby asked.
Scott smiled.
=X=
THE RAFT
“Dukes, London, Daken, Unuscione!” a guard yelled across the mess hall. “Come with me!” Freddy Dukes was the first to reach the guard, still gnawing on a massive turkey leg. Daken glared at him in disgust as he followed. Lois London and Carmella Unuscione did their best to avoid looking at either of the men.
The quartet was led to a large conference room, where a man in a suit greeted them.
“Hello all,” he said. “My name is Agent Phil Coulson, of SHIELD. We’re in need of your services…”