Archive of Our Own ^beta

April 1, 2018
Easter Sunday
New York

“This is Elizabeth Vargas, in New York, with Breaking News. In what can only be described as a day out of science fiction, we are witnessing massive robots landing across the country. We have reports from Washington of firefights on the White House lawn and at the private Luthor residence in Washington, just a few blocks from the Capitol. And halfway across the country, in Metropolis, there are reports of smoke rising from one of the Luthor Family’s private skyscraper residences. 

“New York also appears to be under siege. What you’re seeing now are first responders rushing to a massive blaze and rubble on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. Initial reports labeled the disaster an earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale, but witnesses are reporting the destruction was an attack perpetrated by massive robots.

“There appears to be a crater where…yes, that blaze you are seeing now is centered on Tony Stark’s 5th Avenue mansion. It appears the Stark Mansion has been completely destroyed.

“Again, this is Breaking News. There is apparently a blackout around the White House, nothing is working there. We have some footage of a firefight near the private Luthor residence close to the Capitol and we must warn you, some of these images may be graphic. We see bodies in the street outside the gates of the residence…”  

Diana Prince picked herself up off the pavement and stared in horror at the carnage. Fires raged all around her. People were injured and screams of horror echoed in the city canyons. And the mansion… was gone. Nothing but a pile of blazing rubble. Tony, the other Ultimates. Her friends.…  How many were dead? Was there anyone left in there to save?

Instinct took over and Diana started running toward the conflagration, but she stopped short when huge robots streaked out of the sky to land around the smoldering, smoking crater. ‘What the hell are those?’

“HALT! ALL MUTANTS AND META HUMANS WILL BE SUBJECT TO PROCESSING!”

Diana shuddered as the robots began digging through the rubble. She saw as they pulled out a body. She was too far away to get a good look, but the body looked so much like Captain America that her heart stopped.

“THIS AREA IS NOW UNDER THE JURISDICTION OF SHIELD.”

She couldn’t fight a dozen robots. Not by herself. ‘The Society has been broken in one fell swoop.’ Knowing that there was nothing she could do at the moment, Diana moved away quickly. She could hear the buzzing of radios and soon discovered from news reports that the White House had been attacked as well. ‘I need to find safety. We are being hunted.’

Sydney

“We are witnessing events that are beyond comprehension right now in the United States. In the wake of the shocking news that President Lex Luthor allegedly possesses what was described yesterday as extraterrestrial DNA, it appears that a military coup is underway. President Luthor has fled an armed attack on the heart of the American government.”

Damien Parker watched the images of wreckage across central New York as well as the images of a fire fight taking place at One Luthor Plaza in Metropolis. Nothing had prepared him for this turn of events. “I need to know what intel we have on those weapons!” he barked at one of his aides, who fled from the room at the command. “This was not in the plan!”

Years of careful planning were in the balance. Replacing so many key leaders in Intergang, the Freedom Party, and other officials with designer clones could be for naught if SHIELD was deposing of the Luthor family.

Varian, his teenaged son, walked into the room and collapsed into a chair. “What’s going on?” Images of the violence from several American cities were scrolling across the television monitors. His focus turned to all the images on the screen.

CNN International answered for him. “We are getting word that the Vice President of the United States will be addressing the world soon. The location and condition of President Luthor are unknown. We are now calling this a military coup…”

New York: SHIELD Headquarters

“What do you mean, President Luthor escaped?!?” screamed Henry Gyrich, Director of SHIELD, and a key figure in planning the coup. He’d served the previous presidents with distinction as National Security Advisor or as the principal deputy. “We had him pinned down at the White House! The Marines were on site!”

“Sir, they had a very powerful backup force that broke through our containment zone. Nothing is working at the White House, not even emergency backup generators or batteries, and power is out for much of the Federal District as well,” stated Amanda Waller. She was his deputy and helped put together the whole plan. A plan that was now missing key targets. 

“Find him! If Luthor is loose, we don’t have containment!” Gyrich snarled at Waller. “Everything hinged on winning outright! You are tasked to bring in Lex Luthor!”

“We knew the risks and we tried to account for all of the variables, Director, but we didn’t know they had that backup so close at hand,” she offered. The first engagement had gone well, but they needed perfect. So far, they were far from perfect. “We can’t even communicate with our people in the White House with new equipment brought in. It’s a dead zone.” 

“Sir!” one of the watch officers shouted over the din in the control room. “Reports out of Metropolis state that the Luthor Boys are not in custody, and their current whereabouts are unknown. It is suspected that they are below the city headed toward some sort of safe room.”

That was an ominous development. “There goes our back-up leverage,” Gyrich growled. “Find the Luthors, Amanda. Find all of them! Now!”

Metropolis

Philip Luthor, along with his brothers, Hamilton, Ben, and Wes fled down the subterranean corridor that led away from the parking garage below One Luthor Plaza. Just ahead of them, Zach Kent, their uncle, and Dick Grayson were at point. Elsa Fordman, their cousin, and Franklin Richards, Philip’s boyfriend, were right on their heels, with Kyle Rayner and Peter Rasputin bringing up the rear. Cement flaked down around them as their unknown assailants rained blasts from some type of energy weapon on the parking garage behind them, hoping to get lucky and penetrate the deep corridor that led to safety.

“Hamilton, get me back online! Father is making a mistake!” Philip commanded. Communications with the Palace had been cut off just seconds after their parent’s shuttle had taken off from the White House lawn under fire from what Philip could only speculate was the same unknown force that was chasing them. The last thing he’d heard was Lex giving the order for a Counter Strike.

Hamilton started punching keys as they ran. The holographic keyboard on his arm jumped as he moved. “You have audio to Smallville.”

“Enrique, belay that order for a Counter Strike. I repeat, do not counter attack! Order the House into defense mode beta sigma gamma.”

“I’m sorry, Philip, but I can’t do that. Your father has ordered an immediate counter-strike!” Enrique argued.

“Which we are not in a position to launch!” Philip yelled. His gift was for tactical and strategic thinking. He could see ‘chess pieces’ on a board in his head and see moves and counter moves in all directions. 

“What’s your status? I show the four of you moving toward—" Enrique was the House Majordomo and in charge at the moment absent a House member giving the orders. He’d been with the family since the beginning.

“We’re all fine. The ‘big and nasty’ whatever-they-are seem to be focusing their fire behind us,” he said impatiently, as though it was of little importance. "What are those things?”

“Weaponized robots. New technology we’ve never seen before,” came the response. “We are trying to ascertain their point of origin at the moment.”

“Then SHIELD has outflanked us. Move the House into defense mode beta sigma gamma until we can assess the threat. I will deal with my father! Now, do it!” Philip was adamant, this was not a negotiation.

“Philip—"

The comm link ended abruptly. “Damn! We lost them. Get them back.” Philip turned to Hamilton while still running down the escape corridor. “And get me Air Force One, now!” There were so many variables and the situation was dire, but he knew they weren’t in a good position at the moment.

Smallville

Enrique’s heart leapt into his throat when he realized he’d lost communication with Philip, and he fought back his fears for the boys’ safety. He was in charge until relieved of his duties by the arrival of a senior family member. He had to be clear-headed and decisive. And at the moment the decision in front of him was which direct order he was supposed to take. Lex Luthor was the head of the family, but his son Philip was a certifiable military genius.

But an untested military genius, he reminded himself. But the facts fit better with what Philip was advocating. They were flying blind at the moment.

“Sir, SHIELD’s Talon fighters are in range.”

Enrique looked at the holographic radar screen. “Take them out. If an Orbital Defense Platform tries to take a shot at us, destroy it.” He stared at Andre Comeaux, one of the Security Lieutenants, his decision suddenly made. “Beta sigma gamma. Prepare to evacuate to the safe houses. We aren’t safe here.”  They were in a known, fixed position. Even with the firepower here, it was vulnerable.

Andre began implementing evacuation orders and Enrique barked, “Route the Midnight Guard to Metropolis. Get the Heirs to safety. That is priority one.”

Washington

Vice President William McKenna paced the central rotunda of his residence at the Naval Observatory as the Secret Service tried to secure the area around it. Violence was breaking out in various parts of the country as Sentinels and special parts of the military moved to secure key installations across the country. “When can I address the nation?” he bellowed at one of the agents.

“Sir, the White House and much of the Federal District are without power still. We don’t have a place to broadcast from that conveys the image we need.”

“How soon until the White House will be operational?” he demanded.

One of the agents cleared his throat, “Sir, that area is a dead zone right now. We can’t even get equipment in there to find out what’s wrong. They all die once they are in range. Sir, the White House has been neutralized. Even the Sentinels are experiencing issues in that area. They had to leave as power started failing after five minutes.”

One of the Military Aides walked in. “Mr. Vice President, several governors are demanding answers and have called up the National Guard to fight off the Sentinels.” He held a finger to his ear and frowned. “Sir, riots are breaking out in several cities as local police forces are attacking as well.”

McKenna frowned. “Get me Gyrich. We need a response to this. And get me on television ASAP. The sooner I can do that the sooner we can calm things down!”

The shuttle carrying Lex and most of the White House non-combat staff were still in the area. Lex was being restrained by Whitney. “Why is Philip trying to countermand my orders?”

“Because he is doing his job, Lex,” Clark’s voice was harsh. He wanted to act as well, but they didn’t know what they didn’t know.

“If we don’t do something then all is lost,” Lex replied, convinced that they couldn’t do nothing.

Whitney grabbed Lex’s shoulder and shook his head. “No, but he’s being wise. We don’t know where the attacks came from or what those robots can do. We have to regroup and marshal our resources. Then we can ram our fist down their throats.”

Lex ran a hand over his head and nodded. “Get us to the Watchtower. That’s the safest place right now. And find out if our sons are safe.”

Lois Lane and Snapper Carr were both in the ABC Newseum Studio recording Politics 101 when all Hell broke loose. All power went out and they even lost cell service. Gunfire sounded in the canyons of the Federal District. 

“What is going on?” demanded Trish Tilby, another of the reporters that sat on that weekly news program. The gunfire grew closer as the seconds passed.

One of the producers ran over and pointed towards the back. “There is power two blocks over. We have reports of chaos all over the country. We heard that SHIELD is arresting President Luthor.”

The reporters gathered their things and hurried out of the Newseum. They saw smoke from down Pennsylvania Avenue and the White House. Troops were pouring into the area.

“Lane,” Snapper started. “I think we need to leave. If they are arresting the president then they won’t mind killing reporters.”

Lois was about to object when she heard even more gunfire. Her instincts were to cover the story, but she needed to be alive to do that. “Let’s move and find out what we can. We can still cover this while keeping our heads attached.”

Steve Trevor was undercover for SHIELD Director Henry Gyrich inside the Friends of Humanity. Right now, those roles converged with Steve inside Washington trying to help apprehend Lex Luthor.

“Our comms aren’t working and the lead trucks have stopped,” yelled one of the men in his group as they approached the heart of DC.

He could see smoke in the distance. His group was supposed to cross the city to get to Luthor’s compound and ransack it for anything they could find. And to capture as many traitors as possible. But Steve also had orders to make sure that the Friends could be controlled as well. That was proving to be an issue. Graydon Creed was a true zealot and those were always difficult to control.

“We have orders! We walk. Carry anything we can. You have five minutes!” Steve knew that surprise only lasted so long. That element was gone now.

Metropolis

Wes looked up and noticed that the tunnel roof was still cracking. “Guys, we need to move. Those death robots are really pissed at us and I’d like to live to see next Easter.”

The sounds of pursuit were echoing in the tunnel. It was getting too close for any of their comfort. Hamilton frowned as he looked at Philip. “I can’t restore communications. There’s too much interference at the moment.”

“Must be the energy the robots are discharging,” added Franklin. “Plus, we are under how many feet of earth?”

Another tremor ran through the tunnel. “We can discuss later! Run now!” Peter yelled. Larger flakes of concrete began to rain down on the fleeing group. “How far to the next junction?”

Hamilton looked over his display and frowned. “Maybe another hundred yards or so. But I am beginning to doubt the structural integrity of this place!”

Kyle glowed green in an instant. “MOVE!” Using his power he quickly shored up the tunnel. “Franklin, I might need your help in a few.” Being a member of the Green Lantern Corps was handy.

Peter took point and started running full out with the others following. Kyle floated as he used his powers. He let go and the tunnel collapsed in several places behind them.

Ben sighed, “Only one way out now.”

There was only so much punishment even the most heavily armored limo could take, and Lionel’s was on the verge of being breached. The Secret Service blockade had them thoroughly pinned, but Lionel and his security detail were at least holding their own.

Justin Daniels ran out and fired two more subsonic blasts from his gun; he figured three Secret Service agents might have massive hearing loss for a while.

“Our position is untenable, Justin,” Lionel stated. He threw a frag grenade and watched as it took down part of the street blockade. In the distance, smoke billowed from the upper floors of One Luthor Plaza. “Did the boys and Elsa make it out of the Penthouse?”

“Yes, and your son is away, too.” Justin motioned to two of the other guards and they attacked in concert.

Above, two of the recent model Hyperdyne shuttles appeared and started firing at the agents, decimating their ranks. One landed and Alan Owen appeared in full battle armor. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is the last shuttle out of here.”

Lionel moved with Katlan, followed by Tristan and Lisa Fordman. Lionel grabbed Alan on the way in. “Where are the boys now?”

“Sir, they escaped with their group, but the situation is…fluid.” Alan allowed his visor to retract and talk to Lionel face to face.

“Meaning you don’t know where the hell they are!” Lionel knew exactly what was being said and not said.

“No, sir.”

“Then this is NOT the last shuttle, Mr. Owen!”

Jimmy Olsen’s habit of biking around downtown on Sunday mornings and getting in some good shots for his recent photographic essay was also his quiet time. Not this Sunday. He watched as helicopters exploded after firing on the Luthor penthouse. Now he was recording very large robots trying to dig out the foundations of one of those skyscrapers. 

“What the fuck is happening?” Jimmy watched as an energy lance from one of the towers ripped two of the giant robots in half. “Holy shit.”

Grabbing his bike, he pedaled to the Planet to get these videos processed and online. He also fell off the bike as the ground shook again. A quick glance back at the Luthor Center and a third robot was down.

It didn’t take long for Jimmy to get to his work station and start getting his stills and videos moving.

“Kid! What are you doing?” demanded Perry White. He looked over Jimmy’s shoulder and instantly saw he had gold. “Get those to the web guys. Fuck, Lane is…Lane is in DC. Jimmy, get your ass back out there and direct feed everything to our page! I don’t care how raw the footage looks, get it up and out!”

The story of a lifetime, or lifetimes, was happening at the moment and it was a fucking family holiday. “This is the worst April Fools ever.”

New York

Diana moved as quickly as she could. Fire fights echoed through the steel canyons. Regular citizens joined NYPD in fighting off the robots. She knew in her head that the Mutant Institute was not going to harbor any safe place. Oliver Queen’s place was the fall back.

The flames coming from the building on her right made her cringe.

“ALL KNOWN MUTANT AND META HUMAN SYMPATHIZERS ARE UNDER ARREST”

A rocket propelled grenade impacted on the outside of the robot and did little damage.

“THAT WAS A MISTAKE”

She moved to intercept the robot’s attack when she saw three arrows fly out of nowhere and disable the robot. She turned and spotted Oliver in his costume. She jumped up and ripped off the robot’s head. Just to make sure it could not get back up.

“Impressive, Diana. Didn’t know you had that in you.”

“Save it. Stark’s mansion is gone. They are attacking the Society wherever they can. We need a safe place to regroup.” Diana’s worst fears never reached this level. “Hera help us!”

Oliver nodded. “I know a place.”

Gyrich monitored the riots breaking out across America. “How many have we recovered from Stark’s?”

One of the agents pulled up the live feed. “We have Thor, Captain America, Wonderman, and Stark. There are another dozen bio-signatures still down there.”

Another alarm went off. “Sir, we lost the Sentinel in Harlem.”

With merely a head nod, the display shifted to the headless robot lying in the street. “Find me anything that picked up on this in the last twenty minutes. I need to see what did this.”

Two more screens shifted; one from Metropolis and another from a satellite image from Kansas. “Sir, the Fordmans and Luthors have been rescued by those shuttles. We lost a full Talon flight as they approached Smallville. And we’ve lost three Sentinels at One Luthor Plaza.”

Taking everything in, Gyrich touched a few panels on the table below him. He started reviewing a few things. “Inform General Isling that he may begin Phase 2.” He pulled up another file and smiled. “Since the gloves are off, break through all of Luthor’s firewalls and computer systems. I want everything.”

Waller walked over and punched up a few more keys. “We only have half the Cabinet. The FBI refused to arrest the Attorney General and she’s got Quantico buttoned up tight. Secretary of Defense Manheim is unknown. Wayne’s manor was attacked with a missile strike and we have a crew heading that way as soon as one is available. Too many fights are happening at the same time.”

“And Kane Miller?” asked Gyrich about the Secretary of State.

“His son and with some of his fellow Marines got him out. We’re looking for them too.” Waller pointed to the central monitor. “I don’t know if we achieved enough to win.”

The four seniormost members of the Cabinet were free. Removing Luthor from power was no longer a 25^th Amendment thing now. All legalities were murky at the moment. Gyrich frowned as the reality of the situation hit him. “Find them.”

Washington

Chloe Sullivan and Bobby Drake were just outside downtown DC when the coup started. Bobby got the same evacuation notice that the other X-Men got from Prof X. He watched his girlfriend get her camera out and start filming the scene from the heart of DC. Smoke was rising over several buildings in the distance. It was a disturbing sight.

“Chloe, we need to leave. It isn’t safe and you are a known associate of Lex’s,” Bobby pleaded as he gathered some clothes and threw them into a backpack. “Time is limited!”

She looked at him and waved him off. “I need to record this. I’m a journalist. I have my own video feed I can get this on. Pack, I’ll get stuff soon.”

The whole area shuddered as a fighter jet fell out of the air and crashed a block over. Bobby walked over and coughed at the sudden smoke in the air. “We have to go.”

The robots were moving in new patterns now. He could see them moving past the Capital and heading towards the Luthor complex a few blocks away from there. An energy beam came from those buildings and destroyed one of the robots. The explosion blew glass out all around that area.

“Chloe!” Bobby practically begged.

The shaking of the ground and the sudden explosions got her attention. “Baltimore. Let’s head there.”

The dead zone in the Federal District forced the interim government to use the Pentagon briefing room as the place for the national address. It was the only place with enough gravitas and infrastructure to do the address justice. But it had no White House insignia and that was a visual problem when trying to establish a new authority over the nation.

“My fellow Americans today has been one of the darkest days in the history of our land. It has been with a heavy heart that the actions taken today were done, but our great country has been under the influence of unknown elements.

“Alexander Luthor is now a fugitive. He must be apprehended and turned over to the government for trial. His entire Senior Cabinet has been arrested as accomplices until they can be cleared. Congress too has been detained so that we may find out who is loyal to the country. Currently, Secretaries Miller, Wayne, Manheim, and Gunn are the only ones still at large. They too need to be detained and questioned for possible treason.

“I ask the many governors that have ordered their National Guard to fight off the SHIELD units to stand down and join us in making our country safe again. To many our course of action may seem rash, but the very way of life for America was under threat and extreme measures had to be taken.

“Order will be restored and faith in our government, our very way of life, rekindled, renewed in optimism. We will put this chapter behind us and move forward while dealing with the sins of the past.

“We ask that you all be patient with us as we begin the process of healing. Above all remain calm and in time everything will be back to normal. Thank you.”

McKenna came off the air and frowned. “Find all those reporters and get them here. We have to turn public opinion fully to our side.” He knew that time was no longer their ally. Wayne alone had an audience that would listen to him.

Frank Craft, head of the Consortium that had helped lead the United States behind the scenes since WWII, walked out of the shadows and nodded. “That will prove more difficult than anticipated. Luthor possibly being an alien doesn’t seem to be the trigger that we needed. You cannot win this with public opinion. Declare martial law.”

“There is no coming back from that move,” Pete Ross stated. He too knew that things were far from where they needed them to be. The fact that Lex got away clean and the White House was literally powerless was a metaphor he didn’t want to think about.

“It doesn’t matter, do it.” Craft motioned to the cameras. “You have all the support you will get right now. It is ‘with us or against us’ time. SHIELD has the upper hand. The Ultimates are neutralized and Luthor is on the run. He has no base of power now.”

Slowly he walked away and down a corridor to place another call. “It’s Craft. The Vice President isn’t fully committed to the plan. He might need persuading. See to it.”

Watchtower

“Can you believe that load of shit?” Whitney demanded from the Watchtower. There was a level of fatigue he was feeling after the events of the morning that could not be measured.

Clark glared for a second. “Any word on the boys and Elsa?”

Lex shook his head. “We can see their signal somewhere in Metropolis, but that’s it.” He was now in exile. There was a mystery to solve later, but for now he needed to find out what they had available to fight back with. Those robots were going to be an issue.

Clark moved to the table in the middle of the operations room of the space station. His fingers danced as he looked over data. “The palace is now evacuated. X-Corp building in New York has been gutted.” He moved a hand to highlight the New York – Gotham area. “Lots of fighting still going on down there.”

Quickly on several screens he showed fighting in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle, and San Diego. If SHIELD thought the nation was just going to fall in line with them then they had miscalculated badly. The American public was heavily armed and fighting back.

“It appears that not everything is going the way SHIELD anticipated.” Lex quipped. “The governors of California, New York, Arizona, Kansas, New Mexico, Florida, and Texas have all declared McKenna a traitor. They want Congress restored and put in charge of sorting this all out.” Not that his friends in Congress had been all that supportive of late. But that would buy him time to fix things or forge them if necessary.

“Do we know the status of Bruce and Betsy?” Whitney asked as he started running through files. He needed to find something to occupy his mind. A scant few hours ago he never imagined this would be where he was at.

In the middle of the room the Keeper appeared. //My lord, I have analyzed the combat robots that SHIELD used and they are remarkably constructed. They possess an inhibitor that will render many mutants powerless and their firepower is exceptional.

//If you could gain access to one then I should be able to look into its programming and see if they can be reprogrammed or disabled.//

“Do we know where they came from?” Lex demanded. That was the key to stopping SHIELD, discovering everything they could about these robots.

//Point of origin indicates northern Mexico, near El Paso// The Keeper soon had a holographic image showing where many of the robots had launched.

Whitney looked around the room and frowned. Alan was up here, but Chris, Andre and many of the staff were in hiding planet-side. “Perhaps Andre is up for a mission?”

It took a moment to connect to Andre. “Is everyone secure?” Whitney asked first. That was the most important thing, safety.

“For the moment, but we are preparing to move to secondary safe houses.” Andre’s image blurred for a second. “You have that look,” he said suspiciously.

“We need you to recon an area across the border from El Paso. We think SHIELD launched those robots from there.”

Andre nodded. “It will take me about two days to get there, but it will be done.” His image vanished.

“That’s a start,” Lex commented. “But now we need more than that. We need to know exactly what SHIELD was up to and what the next phase of their operation is going to be.”

Clark nodded. “We need to know the boys’ status too.”

Suddenly the images of the House Internet gurus appeared. Max Smith and Aaron Boone both looked tired. “Sir,” started Aaron, “We have all the data files from the Friends of Humanity case that Justice was putting on and we have some other hacks once we found out about Intergang. We think we have some links to SHIELD there. It’s not much.”

It took a moment, but Lex finally grinned. “My son may think we can’t fire back in a military fashion, but propaganda works both ways.” He turned to the Keeper. “Look through every database you can find across the planet and cross reference all the material they have. Don’t penetrate anything beyond standard commercial encryption. Just mark those and leave it for later.”

“What are you planning,” Whitney asked. “You have that look.” Whitney knew Lex too well at this point not to see the wheels in his head turning rapidly.

“Just when we are taking down the Friends of Humanity for illegal operations, SHIELD launches a military coup. How dirty are their hands with Intergang and the Friends of Humanity?” Lex shrugged as he looked out at space. “I want to break in on all communications arrays at once; it is a new day on Earth. All channels, TV, Cable, Internet, including phones. Small displays can have huge impacts. It is time to show them that I played by the rules once and no longer.”

New York

“Sir, we cannot penetrate their shields. The house in Washington and the palace in Smallville are completely sealed against us.” One of the aides yelled in frustration. The force fields were beyond anything they’d ever seen. Nothing was making a dent in them and it was expending a lot of ordinance trying.

Gyrich frowned. “Where did they go? We have that signature that can track them somewhat…” It was a long shot and he knew they had no idea how their comms worked either.

“Sir, that is a faint signal and signature. If we get close, we might be able to use it. But we have to be very close.” Operations was aware of their limitations and it frustrated them to no end. They were supposed to be the pinnacle of technology and they were finding that was not true in the least.

“We will use what we can to find them. Has the heavy machinery arrived in Metropolis yet? I want that tunnel opened up as soon as possible. The Luthor kids might be the only way to get the former president to come out of hiding.” Gyrich looked at the images from Metropolis and the fighting there was heavy, especially in the suburbs. This was not going to plan.

One of the agents nodded and added, “We will proceed with caution. They may have left traps.” Three destroyed Sentinels already told that tale. They were already down almost a dozen of those precious machines.

Diana and Oliver made their way to the Holland Tunnel. Manhattan was being locked down with the bridges and tunnels blockaded by SHIELD and the robots. The sun was lower in the horizon now and dusk would soon fall. Gunfire was still echoing in the steel canyons of the city. Sirens filled the air as well. But there were not many people on the streets.

“Oliver, the tunnel is only partially guarded right now.” Diana said as she looked at the West Street exit. “We can make it across.”

“Where are we going?” he whispered. “I know Manhattan is dangerous, but our friends are still out there.”

“SHIELD has them and we need to rally what friends we do have.” Diana moved quickly followed by Oliver as they made for the tunnel. Power was out so it was dark. Power was out in some places, but looked like it was on in most. There were ways for the Society to make contact and that was vital now. At least what was left of the Society.

Oliver slipped on some night vision goggles, but they were very limited with so little light to use. “This sucks.”

“HALT. NO ONE MAY LEAVE MANHATTAN WITHOUT PERMISSION.”

Diana turned as saw one of the robots at the tunnel entrance. The large light from its chest illuminated the tunnel nicely. She cringed when she saw many lifeless bodies on the side and several burnt out cars obstructing the path.

“Run!” She moved to pick up one of the cars and threw it towards the entrance to the tunnel. It exploded when an energy lance impacted against it, but that bought her time to fly down and pick up Oliver.

“You know, this would have been much faster if you’d have just flown us over the Hudson.”

“Carrying you and avoiding incoming fire would have been too difficult. I would have survived, but you would probably be dead if we had.” Diana flew in a zig-zag pattern to avoid any potential fire from the SHIELD robots.

“Okay, this is a good plan then.”

Gotham

Bruce shook his head clear and looked around at the destruction of his house. “Betsy?”

“Here, Bruce.” Betsy Braddock pushed aside the debris that impacted the table she was hiding under. “Thank goodness for solid wood furniture.”

It took a moment for Bruce to clear his vision and then he felt Betsy’s hand on his head. “Nasty wound there. What happened?”

“The announcement about Lex no doubt played a part in this.” He moved to the wall and cleared a path to the lower levels. “We need to find out what happened.”

They made their way down and Bruce sealed the cave behind him. The Easter weekend was one where he could get away from Washington, but he hadn’t known that his house would get hit with a missile or two. They’d had brunch plans at Tony’s across the river, but had decided to sleep in a bit. He knew Alfred was on vacation in Europe at the moment. He’d try to make contact later.

“Bruce, the news!”

In seconds, Bruce had several feeds live and noted the takeover of the country. “We need to get out of here as soon as possible. If they attacked Stark Mansion as well as Luthor’s residences that explains the attack here. Damn, we were out for a few hours. Troops will undoubtedly be coming soon.” Instantly he was back at the communications console and established a link to the Watchtower. Officially, Wayne Tech had built a science space station even though that wasn’t close to what they had achieved in orbit.

“Bruce?” the image of Lex cleared on one of the displays. “Where are you?”

“The remnants of my house in Gotham. Betsy and I are playing catch-up but this place won’t be secure for long. What is your status?” Bruce knew he was playing from behind and he hated that feeling.

“We are in full regrouping mode; chasing down possible leads, finding out who is still alive, and trying to make it to tomorrow.” Lex sighed and shifted the graphic to something else. “SHIELD sprung these mutant hunting robots on us and that is something.”

Bruce scowled. “Two of my back-up locations have already been compromised.” He scanned over the current Sit-Rep and frowned. “They really got us with the element of surprise.” He paused and then looked around. “Lex, where are Dick and your sons?”

“Seeking safe harbor at the moment, but still free.” Lex paused, “This may sound weird, but what information do you have on the Friends of Humanity or InterGang that only you might know?”

Bruce keyed up his files and found them. This was the stuff that the mutant Mystique hadn’t bothered to look at. “Transmitting now. Why?” Some was obscure and older, but there were some odd links that Dick found when he got all that data in Moscow.

“Counter propaganda.” Lex shrugged in hologram form. “Fighting back has to start somewhere.”

He didn’t need to know the particulars at the moment, but Lex was brilliant and Bruce had learned to trust him. But Bruce knew he needed to get moving soon. He had no choice but to let Lex handle things for a bit. “I’ll contact you in a few hours. I need to get moving.”

The hologram ended and he turned to Betsy. “News?”

“Charles ordered an evacuation to all the teams and students.” She frowned as she checked her secure messages. “He ordered everyone to hide and limit the use of any powers. The robots have mutant detection abilities.”

“Concerning. Dick is with the Luthor boys. He’ll follow his training. We need to head to my last backup location. This place is compromised.”

Metropolis

The teens arrived at the bunker after navigating more structural tunnel issues. Hamilton popped his head out of one of the junction boxes and hit a switch. “Okay, we have power again.” They were deep below the ground, but that didn’t mean they were safe yet. The passage behind them was sealed shut.

“Do we have communications?” Philip asked as he started looking around. He turned and motioned to Ben and Zach to head to the lower level and find some food. There were many variables to factor in, but food was something they needed first.

“I have the relay up, but encryption is dicey. All kinds of things are being jammed right now.” Hamilton shrugged. The energy discharges were much lower but still there was so much ambient energy around.

Elsa and Dick were in another room looking through supplies. She popped her head out. “We have a few spare clothes here, but we have weapons, armor, and some nice tech.” She grinned, showing off another shoulder-mounted railgun.

Wes walked over to Philip and sighed. “We can’t stay here.” He trusted his older brother to lead them in this crisis.

“I know,” Philip looked down at his PDA and then at his bracelet. He did a few things and, in an instant, he was looking at the Ops Center of the Watchtower. “This is neat.”

“Philip, thank God!” Whit exclaimed as all three fathers rushed toward the holographic image of their son... “Is everyone— “

Lex overrode Whitney’s question with a barked, “Status update!” The harshness in his voice did little to mask the relief he felt because he knew the boys were far from safe.

“Dads, we’re all fine. No injuries worth mentioning, but our position is precarious.” He shifted the image and showed them a map. “We’re going to make for the mobile bunker at the railyards. That will get us to St Louis, where SHIELD has less of a presence. From there, we’ve got to get to Houston.”

“Houston?” Clark said, surprised. “Why Houston.”

“The SHIELD medical facility?” Lex guessed. Philip was thinking about the larger picture and that was good.

Philip nodded and his own image replaced the map. “We need to know everything that SHIELD knows, and that medical facility will have computer access to their entire system. It gives us our best chance of hacking in.”

“But not being a military target, their defenses will be less extensive,” Whitney noted. “But that’s still terribly dangerous.” He was worried as a parent, but he knew that the boys were well trained.

Clark stepped closer to Philip’s holographic image. “We can’t beam you out of that bunker, but as soon as you’re clear we can transport you up here with us.”

“NO! We have to do this, Pop! We will need Max and Aaron online to run the interference to give us a time window. Dad, Pop…we can’t all be together right now. It’s too risky. We literally don’t know what SHIELD knows now. They got the drop on us. We’ve crossed over into the abyss. We will keep in contact as best as possible, but I recommend that we communicate in short bursts even over the holographic network. Extended transmissions might be tracked. We love you.” He killed the line in an instant.

Hamilton walked over and patted his twin on the shoulder. “Now what?”

Philip pointed to the Metropolis railyards. “We catch our ride to St. Louis and then head to Houston. We have to get to that installation.” He looked around and saw all of them nodding their heads. “Let’s get moving.”

They all changed clothes and gathered supplies they would need. All of them were armed, but Peter and Zach were carrying the heaviest armaments; as much as Ben wanted a railgun, he was overruled.

New York

It was the final blow that SHIELD wanted to strike on a day that had been very good for the most part. Gyrich and the senior staff were assembled around a bank of monitors as a squadron of helicopters in attack formation approached Westchester County and the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters.

“Two minutes out!” came from over the comms. Headquarters waited for the news that this was another hammer blow. 

They waited as night-vision imaging blurred past until finally mounted head-cams began showing the viewpoint of commandos repelling down on the roof of the large manor house. Chinook helicopters carrying many other soldiers landed on the spacious lawn and flooded the area. The crash of breaking windows filled the air along with sleeping gas to knock out anyone there.

“Clear!” came the call from an advance team. “Clear,” from the roof squad. “Clear,” from a perimeter group.

“Something is not right,” said Gen Hardcastle muttered an instant before all the displays went blank. “What the hell! What just happened? Get me a visual!”

Technicians worked furiously at consoles until finally a lone view from one of the attack ‘copters circling the mansion showed the structure in ruins, with fires burning all around the estate. Chatter on the comms was requesting immediate medical and fire control backup. It was a disaster. 

Gyrich killed the feed. “Get some of the Sentinels over there to start searching. They’ve gone into hiding.” He needed Xavier to be in custody as much as he needed Luthor. This was supposed to be the easy part of the day. The Friends of Humanity wanted the mutant loving Xavier in custody as an example. That too would have to wait.

Boston

The fight in Boston was nothing like the reports out of New York, Washington, or Metropolis. Emma Frost, by sheer luck, was not at the Stark Mansion when it got hit from space. The delay of twenty minutes had been enough to keep her from capture and now she was back in Boston trying to piece things back together.

“Leland tells me that the city is still free, SHIELD has not prevailed here,” said Sebastian Shaw as he walked into the basement of Frost’s secured townhouse. “Xavier managed to get the evacuation orders out in time for most mutants.” He went to a sink and cleaned off the sweat and grime he’d accumulated fighting SHIELD for the last few hours. The warning had been enough to get his people mobilized and to get his paid enforcers in Boston PD to fight when the coup arrived in Boston.

“We were not their primary target,” Emma said as she read the reports coming from various X-Corp places across the country. But as SHIELD moved in America, the Freedom Party moved in a number of other nations. Mutants were on the run everywhere. “But as they take control of places, we will be a major target.” She grinned when she saw the notation that the Friends of Humanity office in Boston had been firebombed.

“That is a certainty,” Shaw noted as he walked out of the small restroom. “Have you been able to get in touch with Wyngard?”

“Charles warned of using long range telepathy. Those robots, those Sentinels, detect mutant powers.” Emma looked at her map. “We need to leave soon or we will be trapped up here.”

“In due time, Emma,” chided Shaw. “If we move too soon then that will draw the eyes that are already searching. If we wait, then we might be able to disappear in a crowd. The main question is: where do we go?”

She looked over all the data they had so far and nothing looked great. New York was not an option. “We wait until we have a good option, but we can’t wait forever. SHIELD will come for Boston sooner or later.”

He nodded and looked over the data as well. “SHIELD has failed and this will not end well for them.”

She looked over at her partner with a frown. “Why do you say that?”

He pointed to the map and Washington DC. “The opening gambit put all their cards on the table and they failed to capture President Luthor. We need to gather our strength and wait for him to give the signal. I have no doubt he was plotting counter moves as soon as this happened.”

April 2
Moscow

International news fed several monitors at the presidential palace. Kirov laughed at the reports of massive protests and violence in the streets across America. Though the images of the robots across that country was a little off-putting. That spoke to a technological upgrade that his spies failed to uncover. That kind of failure was unacceptable.

“Just as we suspected, the great American Empire as fallen in on itself. Move four brigades to the Polish border. We will give them twenty-four hours to surrender before we invade.”

The defense minister frowned. “We have not pacified Iran yet. The Ukraine is still a mess. We don’t have the numbers to fight all of this at once.” They had no reserves left to speak of which made any additional operations an issue.

Kirov jumped up and got in his minister’s face. “This is about using influence to achieve greater goals. America is dying and NATO will be useless without its most powerful member. We can take Poland with little effort if they know they stand on their own.”

“We don’t have the reserves to do this, even as a show of force,” the minister snarled. “We have too many units elsewhere. You increased our deployment to guard against the Chinese since they became American puppets.”

Kirov frowned. “Gather the troops necessary to make the show of force real. Creating a new Russian empire requires courage, Yuri. We can use other means later to achieve the goal, but pure pressure needs to be applied first.” He pointed to the chaos on the screens. “The world is ours for the taking.”

New York

Fighting continued in and around the country. The borders to Canada and Mexico were closed. Gyrich frowned at the last information crossing his desk. “Get Space Command and tell them to position Orbital Defense platforms 3 and 5 over western Russia.” He didn’t wait for confirmation that the order had been transmitted. He rose from his seat and made his way to the main communications room.

“Get me Vitaly Kirov on the screen.” Gyrich waited for a few minutes before the Russian President’s face filled one of the monitors. “Mr. President,” he said with as much disdain as he could marshal.

“What do you want, Mr. Gyrich?” Kirov had better things to do at the moment than entertain the servant of a dying empire.

“The time for pleasantries has come to an end. SHIELD satellites have picked up a military force gathering on the Polish border. NATO is dithering about its current status, we are not. Let me be clear; the United States will not condone any further Russian imperialistic actions.” He looked over at the Operations officer. “Are we in position?”

“Mr. Gyrich, the United States no longer exists. You’re a rotting corpse, but you don’t even know it.”  Kirov glared through the screen. “Your threats are meaningless.”

With a small hand motion, Gyrich signaled one of the stations to fire. “Mr. President, you will find that there is now a smoking crater where those troops were gathering. We estimate that there were fifty tanks and almost a thousand men there. I have the ability to send Moscow back to the Stone Age right now. Fuck with me and see what happens.” He killed the signal. “Someone inform McKenna what I did in case Kirov decides to call our newly minted president.”

Gotham

Helicopters continued to fly back and forth between Gotham and New York. Every so often a Sentinel, the name of the towering robots, would fly over head. Gunfire continued to echo in the distance. The occasional explosion interrupted the regular patterns of the outside noise. America was not happy at the moment.

Oliver and Diana made their way on foot to Gotham Heights. They’d stayed hidden overnight and most of the day as far too many patrols swarmed the area. Stealth was all they had at the moment to keep them safe.

“Where are we going?” Diana asked in a harsh whisper.

“Wayne Manor. Bruce told me once to head there if we ever had trouble. We worked together on a few things before the Society formed.” Oliver pulled out his phone and waved it around. “I’m trying to find the door he said was around here.”

Diana stopped and stared at him and scowled. “Did it ever occur to you that maybe Treasury Secretary Bruce Wayne’s house might be one of the first places SHIELD would look?” The whole thing was insane.

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean we can’t hide there. He told me there is a cave system there we can hide in.” Oliver winked at her. “It’s all good.” 

She grumbled but didn’t say anything out loud. She pushed Oliver under a bush as two helicopters zipped overhead

“Found it.” He climbed through the door and offered her a hand. “Slick here.”

“We need information. Do we even know if he’s here?” She followed him down the small tunnel until it opened up into a larger cave. She started looking around in the dim light, taking in the dripping water and damp mucky smell. “Cozy.” At least any overhead search party couldn’t see them down here.

“It suits its purpose.”

Oliver and she turned to look at Bruce standing on a higher edge. “Any news?” Diana asked, getting right to the point.

“Plenty and none of it good.” He motioned for them to follow. He chuckled at Oliver’s squeak when Diana picked him up and flew him to the cliff. “Welcome, normally I’m more hospitable, but my house is in ruins.”

“What’s the bad news?” Oliver asked as he dusted off his uniform.

“SHIELD has achieved a complete takeover of the government. States are trying to fight them, but the robots SHIELD has are more powerful than anything they have. We have no means to counter-strike. The Ultimates are broken.” Bruce rubbed his temples. “They’re alive, but in custody and I can’t find out where. The Society has been scattered.”

Diana marched over to one of the monitors and pointed to it. “Then find out what we can. If SHIELD is now running things, then we are the resistance. This cannot be allowed to stand.”

Oliver looked over several screens, his frown deepening with each new data point. “We are sure that Luthor is secure?”

“Talked to him last night. He’s on the Watchtower. We may need to evacuate there in an emergency. But that is the last resort.” Bruce walked down the steps to a vault and came back out a few minutes later as Batman. “Let’s move.” 

Watchtower

Lex had on his power suit, a perfectly tailored three piece he loved to wear when he had a big event. His father always told him that a specific way of dressing said more than the words spoken. The lighter shade of the gray vest offset the dark pants and jacket. Classic white button down and a white tie set the whole thing off. The whole family, except Elsa and the boys were now safely in space.

Floating near him were two high resolution cameras. With a quiet motion, he had every television network and Internet channel across the planet, tuned to him. All phones had his face on them suddenly. The world was watching him. The whole world.

“Greetings, I’m President Alexander J. Luthor and I am very much still alive. There is an illegal military coup on going in the United States and I ask that all my ambassadors refuse to acknowledge any orders from the illegal government or from SHIELD.

“Plenty has been said about me and much is untrue, but in the absence of knowledge all kinds of wild theories run rampant. Without proof, SHIELD says I’m an alien overlord. Whatever, but what I find curious is this: Magneto gets captured, the illegal activities of the Friends of Humanity come under Justice Department scrutiny, and suddenly SHIELD launches a coup. Why?

“Because we uncovered several points of contact between SHIELD leadership, their benefactors, the Friends of Humanity, and the crime syndicate called InterGang. SHIELD has launched this coup to cover their drug and human trafficking deals. They were able to do all these things as long as the mutant threat was kept real and on the news. That’s why they never really went after Magneto. It was the Ultimates and the X-Men that won the day, not SHIELD.

“Citizens of the planet, I’m in orbit looking down at Earth, a jewel that is our home and that has many issues. The United States stands for the Rule of Law. SHIELD has acted illegally and launched a coup against the legitimate government. I played by the rules because I believe in the Rule of Law. They arrested Congress and most of my Cabinet. They are trying to silence dissent. I’m still free and I’m not playing by the Rules any longer.

“Mr. Gyrich, Ms. Waller, and all of SHIELD, specifically. You will rue this day. You didn’t know what your enemies were capable of. I’m on every screen across the planet. And I am now going to cut all satellite communications across the planet. That’s step one. Surrender now or step two will be far worse. Order will be restored, but on my terms, not yours.”

He killed the transmission and looked over at Tristan. A moment later the lock out codes that Bruch had proved were entered. All Wayne Tech communication satellites went dark and jamming went up for the rest.

“Tristan, Jeff, prepare to cut the power off in three days from Vulcan. It will plunge North America and parts of Europe into darkness,” Lex said. “The gloves are off and we’ll use what we can until we can fight back properly.”

Clark pointed to the planet and sighed. “We need to consider what happens after this because the planet needs massive help in many different areas if we want to survive.”

“We need to survive first,” Lionel noted. “Then we figure out everything else.”

New York

Gyrich, Waller, and the senior staff of SHIELD watched as the satellite feeds went dark. The exiled president’s address had been unexpected and deeply disturbing. Every single device on the planet, all channels, had him on the screens. There was no way to counter that speech or for people not to say they didn’t see it. Everyone saw it. 

“Do we have comms?” Amanda yelled at her comms area. If satellites were down then that meant they could not coordinate anything at the moment.

A shake of the head made her frown. “We still have cellphone service,” was the inadequate answer provided.

“Sir,” came from an Ops Officer. “Lots of data files are being dumped going back years highlighting contact with Graydon Creed, Morgan Edge, and a few SHIELD Board members. They have a few contacts with a Frank Craft and Graydon Creed noted too. Lots of the illegal activity between the Friends and Intergang is being dumped, some with links to SHIELD operations. Including all the files that Justice had.”

Gyrich sat back and frowned. “Our cover story was Luthor is an alien and the counter story is that we worked with drug runners and human traffickers. They have the Justice Dept prosecution of the Friends of Humanity as the key event of the timeline. Ingenius.”

That got a scoff out of Waller, “We know its horseshit. They wanted to hand over the planet to a mutant loving alien.”

“It may be horseshit ma’am,” General Isling said, “But as narratives go, we had a pair of Jacks and they just pulled a Straight Flush on us.” 

“We still hold the nation,” Gyrich stated. “That is more than he has at the moment and I intend to keep it that way.”

Boston

“That certainly clarifies some things,” Emma noted as she looked over the reports from various stations that could still report information on the mutant underground. “Sean Cassidy says that overseas is a mess because the Friends of Humanity under their banner of the Freedom Party started attacking ‘known’ mutant areas in several cities. At least a hundred dead in Prague, Trieste, Mumbai, Ankara, and several others.”

“Not unexpected, but not a good sign either.” Sebastian Shaw said as he pulled on a shirt. He looked over her shoulder and frowned. “Wyngard?”

“Nothing yet, but Washington is a mess. Though our former associate, Donald Pierce, apparently made friends with Graydon Creed and the Friends of Humanity.” She looked over her shoulder and smirked. “I hate throwing away useful toys. He was very useful at some points.”

“Luthor is flexing in ways I didn’t know was possible,” Shaw said, changing the subject. “Pierce is not a priority. The Hellfire Club is scattered and ineffective at the moment. What is Luthor’s next play?”

“I don’t know, but we need to make sure we are safe. If they are hunting mutants, and the destruction of the Xavier School certainly indicates that they are, then we need to be prepared to use the underground too.” She turned to look at Shaw. “We are ineffective if we are dead.”

“You have nine lives, my dear. I’m not totally invulnerable. But your sentiment is correct. We need to think about where to go if SHIELD comes to Boston in force.”

She nodded and looked at the reports again. The TV screen was local TV and everything was fuzzy. “We need to know what Wyngard is doing and then contact Luthor somehow. We can’t do this without coordination.”

Baltimore

Lois Lane, Snapper Carr, and Trish Tilby made it to Baltimore. The state was not in the middle of pitched battles at the moment. All three looked over the data dump that the Luthors dropped across the planet. And lots of it was from Justice and other investigations but it was properly notated and indexed.

“Wow,” muttered Trish. “They were sitting on a mountain of dirt, some of it going back over a decade in criminal activity. They’ve been tracking parts of InterGang for a while.” Intergang was a rumor in most of the world, just a whisper of what was happening in the criminal underworld. Looked real enough now.

Lois looked over the contacts, the phone records, the hotel footage, and other things like emails. It was a feast of direct and indirect contacts and money exchanges. “There are rivers of dirty money here with the Friends of Humanity and it looks like SHIELD and other groups profited.”

“This does change things. I know we got that information about President Luthor from SHIELD, but they offered no proof. And they are arresting people without due process.” Snapper looked up from his laptop to see the flight of helicopters heading to Philadelphia. “I think we need to hide. We were valuable to them to launder information to arrest President Luthor, but this…they may not want this stuff reported.”

“Agreed,” said Trish as she gathered her things. “I have an office in Philly. I want to get some of this out on the Internet as soon as possible.”

All their phones chimed at once. Lois looked at hers and blanched. “Militia currently storming CNN Headquarters in Atlanta. They are coming after journalists.” The reality of the situation hit hard. “I need to check in with Perry White.”

All the TVs went live suddenly with the feed from Atlanta. Snapper shook his head. “And it looks like satellite feeds will show what the Luthors want at the same time. Christ this is a mess.”

Tilby looked at her phone and shook her head. “Lois, Metropolis is a war zone. Your paper has live feeds from several people, but the shots from One Luthor Plaza are ominous.”

That was one word for it all: ominous. The three of them parted to try to get the story out before they were captured.

April 3
St. Louis

The journey via railcar was far less exciting than Wes assumed it would be. Stuffing ten people into that space had been a chore. They kept the equipment powered down because Zach heard helicopters. Franklin confirmed that there was a manhunt on in Metropolis proper for them. Wes rigged a shortwave radio and they could monitor what many were saying between that hidden network. People were fleeing cities and hunkering down in suburbs or heading to the rural areas. It was a mess.

“We stink,” groused Elsa. “And someone didn’t wear deodorant.”

“Elsa, calm down. We all know Ben is smelly on his best days…” Dick said with a broad grin. Someone had to try to keep it from getting too depressing.

“Oh, I showered before we left thank you very much,” Ben retorted. “Zach on the other hand is known to go a day or two without a shower.”

“Enough,” Peter lowly uttered. “The train is slowing. Get everything we need together. Philip, where is our next departure point?”

He looked at his maps for a moment. “When we stop it will be five rows over for a train bound for Houston. There are some yards on the eastside of the city. We should arrive in the middle of the night. It’s surrounded by a working-class neighborhood. The hard part will be getting from there to the SHIELD facility.”

Elsa typed something, pulled up a map, and turned it into a hologram. “This will not be easy.”

They were all silent as they studied the map of Houston. Franklin shook his head. “These are older neighborhoods with gentrification going on. The mix is interesting, but there is no way we can get from there to the Medical Center without being noticed.”

Kyle frowned but pointed out the obvious. “We will have to split up.”

“Then we do it in three groups,” Philip stated quickly. “One team of four, the others three each. Kyle, Wes, Elsa, and Zach will take the direct route. Franklin, Ben, and I will take the long way around. Peter, Hamilton, and Dick will use the paths through the universities.”

“Just one thing,” Wes added. “We have to actually make it to Houston.” He didn’t want to count chickens or whatever Grandpa Jon used to say.

Philip looked over some of the data that they managed to download. “Wait. The Ultimates are alive.” He looked at their numbers. “The Mutant Underground is fully activated.” He looked over more of the data that had been accumulated and groaned. “Change of plans.”

All eyes turned to him. “We need a team to head to New York and the rest will go to Houston. The Ultimates are alive and need to be rescued if we are to launch a counter offensive.”

“Who goes where?” asked Hamilton.

Dick cleared his throat. “I’ll head to New York. Kyle, Peter, and Zach will come with me. Franklin, Elsa, and the brothers will head to Houston. Less danger that way anyway.” He hoped that was a true statement.

“I made a promise to keep them safe,” objected Peter.

Philip held up his hand. “That is how we will proceed. We’ll be fine and use stealth. Okay, we go and you head to New York. Where?”

“Gotham to start. We’ll crossover into Manhattan from there,” Kyle said with a smile. “Makes sense to me. You’ll need to locate where the Ultimates are being held.”

Hamilton looked up some information and pointed to another set of trains. “Those will get you to Philly. You can get to Gotham from there. Hopefully we can get that information for you from Houston.”

Everyone exchanged hugs and headed where they needed to go. “Good luck!”

Franklin led the way to the train they needed and helped get Elsa onto the car first. The rest of the Luthor boys followed quickly. Hamilton grinned. “I have this train set as a HOT train. It will get to Houston with few stops.”

Ben leaned back in the empty car they were using. “Let’s hope we get there smoothly.”

Montclair, New Jersey

Betsy looked over at Diana, Oliver, and Bruce. “I know that Dr. Grey and Prof X are free at the moment. But that’s all I know at this time. There was a coded message that the mansion was evacuated and the students sent to safety.”

Gathering the supplies they pulled out to rest and returning them to their places; Bruce nodded at that statement, and handed over two backpacks to Oliver and Diana. “We need to keep moving. I have another safe house and stash of supplies in Passaic. I think we have another five miles to go.” Moving on foot was dangerous, but using any vehicle at the moment would draw too much attention.

Diana looked up and saw more helicopters in search patterns. “They are looking for someone I think.”

“Us,” Bruce noted. “We have to move soon. Betsy?”

Elizabeth Braddock was a well-trained aristocrat and a high-powered telepath. But she was also a mutant and SHIELD was on a massive nationwide mutant hunt.  They were moving in short bursts and keeping to cover in heavy buildings and known underground tunnels. The mutant detection equipment was limited in range and that worked to their advantage.

“Let’s move,” Betsy said as she stood up. “There is a group not far that way that is armed and about to go after the sentinel near Hoboken.”

A groan and a sigh came from Diana and Oliver. That was a heavily guarded area and they saw too many dead bodies when they escaped Manhattan to think this mob was going to be effective. As much as Diana wanted to interfere at the moment, there was a bigger picture to look at. She would avenge all the fallen when she had the chance.

Three more helicopters buzzed the area. Bruce and Oliver both watched as they moved closer to where Bruce’s mansion was located, a wreck though it was at the moment.

Washington

The seat of power in Washington was no longer the White House. That part of Washington was a dead zone. That meant the heart of the government was offline. So, the Acting President was still living at the Vice President’s residence at the Naval Observatory.

There was even more fighting happening across the country and William McKenna signed the order declaring martial law against his better instincts. Media across the broken nation lashed out at SHIELD and at him in particular. Newspapers railed against the arresting of Congress and failure to follow the Constitution.

“Are you my babysitter, Col Black?” the Acting President asked of the SHIELD commander who set up shop in the building next door to the Residence. There was a Marine platoon stationed on site for security.

“He’s here to keep you safe, Mr. President,” answered Frank Craft as he stepped into the office. “Martial Law is proving to be nowhere near as effective as I’d hoped in pacifying the country.”

Counting to ten instead of instantly stating ‘I told you so’ was much better in McKenna’s eyes at the moment. Far too many people refused to see his political skills. But the failure to capture Lex and the fact that he had control over global communications at the moment was frightening. No one was relaxed and as each hour passed, he knew that tension rose higher. Luthor was going to counter strike and that was going to prove to be a major issue. No one knew exactly what he could do, but they knew those force fields were no joke.

“You realize that without holding the White House I am nothing but an Acting President, or an imposter as some members of the Press are calling me,” McKenna sat back and looked at Craft. He knew Black was Craft’s and Gyrich’s lackey, nothing more than a military jailor for their puppet president. “Storming CNN wasn’t smart either.”

Craft sat down and looked at McKenna. “We have limited time and we were not as successful as we needed to be, but we still hold most of the advantages.”

That got a laugh out of the Acting President. “Russia is still being aggressive and there is worrying news about the global Freedom Party. There are no advantages at the moment. We don’t have any member of the Luthor family for leverage. He’s going to fight back.”

Jason Wyngard was a cockroach. He knew this and accepted that he was a survivalist. It was a skill as ingrained as his mutant abilities. Part of the Hellfire Club, a Treasury official, and an agent of the Consortium, he was a true triple agent. But his loyalties were always to himself first and who could keep him alive second.

SHIELD was hunting for mutants and that made his life dangerous at the moment. He helped Emma Frost telepathically change a president’s mind to veto the first Mutant Registration Act. That was as close as he ever wanted to get to risking his neck. SHIELD didn’t know he was a mutant and that would be a death sentence if Gyrich and his pals found out.

He was as blindsided by SHIELD’s move as anyone and that too was dangerous. “Where is Mystique,” he wondered out loud. He had no way of contacting her. He was hiding, phone destroyed and at the bottom of the Potomac as soon as the first Sentinels landed. He’d received a notice to get to SHIELD headquarters as soon as the attack commenced. But he also got the evacuation order from Prof X and that was what sent him into hiding. They were hunting mutants.

He arrived at his destination. Being on the road wasn’t the best thing, but people were fleeing the chaos as best they could. He was now approaching Annapolis. There was a house along the Severn River with a boathouse attached. He could get many places unnoticed by a small boat if needed. The Intercoastal Waterway was right there and he could go to Savannah if necessary. He could blend.

The house was secured and he made his way to the basement where there was an old shortwave radio setup. Always have contingencies, he’d been taught. He transmitted his code and waited. He could run if needed, but they were hunting mutants. For now he needed to know when the real fight started.

April 5
Philadelphia – Camden area

Dick Grayson dropped off the railcar just south of the football stadium in Philadelphia. The Delaware River was just over his shoulder. He watched as Peter, Kyle, and Zach jumped down. They had at least another two hours of darkness before the hints of false dawn started.

“There are fewer lights on around here,” noted Kyle as he stretched. He quickly surrounded himself in an energy field and took off to scout the area. He moved barely a couple of feet over the ground as he quickly went up the river.

“Show off,” muttered Dick. He checked his equipment and noted the train routes. “Yeah, we need to get across the river to the rail yards in Camden.”

Zach Kent summoned his armor and soon was in the air as well, knowing it was invisible to all forms of radar and the lack of light made it hard to pick up by any visible camera. Using his form of x-ray vision, he scanned the area for Sentinels. After doing a full 360 scan, he returned to the ground and dismissed his armor. “There is damage to the central city to the north. Looks like two of those fucking robots are up there along with a company of soldiers.”

“Great,” sighed Dick. “Two hundred troops and two robots, we can’t go that way.”

Right then, Kyle returned and was back in his regular clothes. “Nothing on that side of the river to stop us from getting to those yards.”

“No,” Peter started, “We simply have to get across the river without anyone seeing us.” He shrugged at the looks from the other guys.

After a few moments, Dick nodded. “We follow these tracks to get close to some of those piers, but past that big bridge. Zach will take Peter and Kyle will fly me over. Short distance and we make it as fast as we can to the Camden railyards.”

“Then we need to hurry,” Peter stated. “We are limited by darkness and time is short.”

It didn’t take long to follow tracks to the bridge. They waited as they saw a check point in the center of the bridge. No one was allowed to cross apparently. There were stacks of cargo containers all around. Being on foot made it easier to hide, but cost them in time.

“Hey,” came a yelled whisper from the cargo stacks. “What are you doing?”

Dick motioned for the guys to stay while he went to check it out. He spotted an older teenaged girl in some torn jeans, purple hair, and an oversized sweater. “What?”

“There is danger all over the place, you need to hide,” she warned.

Warring with time but also the possibility of an ally, Dick opted for the truth. “We have to cross the river and get to Gotham.”

“Dude, we hear that Gotham and New York are toast. It isn’t safe to head that way,” she said with urgency. “I saw the green glowy guy, mutants aren’t safe either. We hear there is safety closer to Harrisburg, but getting out of the city is taking time. You have to hide.”

Shaking his head, Dick pointed across the river. “We have to get up north.” He looked around and frowned. There weren’t many good hiding places. “Head back to the tracks and out of the city that way. The robots are in the core of the city.”

She shrugged as she looked away. “Your funeral. We can manage.”

He moved back and got the guys to follow closer to the docks. “We need to follow this road to the storefronts ahead and then a little further up on this side. It will shorten the distance on that side of the river to the railyards we need.”

Zach looked around and frowned. “Those kids are heading out and making a lot of noise.” The kids were running down the tracks and back towards the empty sports venues.

“It’s a distraction,” muttered Dick as he shook his head. “Let’s go. Our window is getting smaller and we need to get to Gotham as soon as we can.”

New York

“I want to know how we still haven’t broken through to get into Luthor’s computer systems!” demanded Gyrich. Stress and coffee were all that was keeping him going at the moment. He felt like a blind man with no satellite capability. There were other possibilities of what Luthor could do with Wayne and Stark codes. The world ran on the systems and machines many of Luthor’s friends built. SHIELD didn’t think about that contingency or those implications. A catastrophic oversight.  

General Pierre Hardcastle looked over at Wallace Kinkaid and motioned at him. Kinkaid shrugged. “Whatever Scanner did the first time was enough to trigger a massive upgrade to their defenses. We can’t even comprehend what ciphers they are using right now. It is literally a different language.”

So many things hinged on proving that Lex Luthor was an alien and Gyrich needed all those secrets right now to get the planet operating again. Limited communication was making life difficult and SHIELD was getting blamed. SHIELD was getting crucified was a more apt description of the situation. 

“Have we captured Undersecretary Douglas Ramsey yet?” asked Gyrich as he looked directly at Waller. “I hear he can talk to anything. If it is a different language, you are seeing then find the universal linguist!”

“If he and Scanner worked together,” she added as she pondered the possibility. It was a very good idea and the only one that might achieve their goal. “We don’t have him and he wasn’t on the list of people we were tracking for the takeover.”

“I think we should find him as soon as possible so we can get his assistance in breaking into those all-important Luthor files,” Gyrich said. “Move!”

April 6
Moscow

The Kremlin was awash in activity, but much of it was like bees buzzing with no idea what to do next. Military forces were being counted and reassigned as needed for the next round of Kirov’s directives. The attack by SHIELD on his forces amassing near Poland hampered his plans as did the current communications issues. Vitaly Kirov had uprisings all over the place since dissidents didn’t fear a government without instant communications. Coordinating was difficult at best at the moment.

“Tatiana,” he yelled. “Get the Shadow Squads back out in the field. There is too much unrest and the Army lost a whole regiment near Poland.”

The tall blonde assassin looked at her boss and nodded slightly. “That creates the question of where to focus first. There is unrest in the recently occupied areas as well as Iran. Ukraine is a mess and not under our control fully.”

That she was giving advice instead of just following orders made Kirov mad, but she had a point. “Send the Shadow Squad to Ukraine first. I’ll have the FSV capture any dissenters, including those accursed Freedom Party members.”

“Longshot and his people are in northern Iran at the moment.” She shrugged at the reddening face in front of her. “We are spread thin. You need to recognize that.”

He growled. “America is falling and I need to exploit it right now! Do what you must, but I want the empire reborn and declared soon.”

Watchtower

As exiles went, the Watchtower was a glorified armored space station with all the amenities of a five-star hotel, it simply lacked water features to add to the ambiance. But it had full scale medical services as well as plenty of rooms with a view.

“We have the codes to plunge North America into darkness as well as a chunk of Europe,” Jeff Fordman said. Such a decision could not be made lightly.

Lex walked over and shook his head. “No, but I need a localized power failure in West Virginia.”

Clark and Whitney traded looks. Lionel cleared his throat. “Is that wise, son? Freeing Magneto won’t gain you anything except pain.” It took years to finally apprehend the mutant terrorist.

“But he’d be a headache for SHIELD and with most television networks down, it becomes a guessing game for what happened,” Lex said. “How blind are they?”

“The only thing we are allowing to work are the weather tracking satellites. If they try to do anything else with them, we jam it. They’ve learned that lesson quickly,” Tristan answered.

“Wait,” Lisa said as she laughed. “Clark, can you go into space?”

“Yes,” he responded, curious where she was going with this.

“Can you rig one of those orbital platforms to fire at the West Virginia facility and allow it to free Magento?” she grinned again. She knew how to play high stakes games.

That brought a smile to Lex as well. “It would be SHIELD freeing him by accident. And they have no way of knowing what the platforms are doing. I like it.”

“We need to do this before SHIELD establishes direct transmission control of the platforms. They have to have line of sight, and it only lasts for a few minutes at a time, but they can try to communicate with the defense platforms that way,” Jeff noted for the group.

“No harm trying,” Clark said with a grin. “We need one over the Eastern Seaboard in order for this to work.”

Holographic image of all items in orbit around Earth appeared. Whitney pointed to it. “There it is.” 

Wearing his armor, Clark moved out of the Watchtower and towards one of the Orbital Defense Platforms. Looking down at the planet, Clark was awed by its beauty, but he knew better than most that the planet was in trouble. Or rather, the ability for humans to survive on the planet was in trouble.

‘You are right on track. When you get to the edge you will see a computer panel. Open it carefully,’ said Max Smith over the comms. ‘Tell me when you are there.’

Clark reached the panel that he’d studied at the Watchtower. It was exactly as the diagram said it would be. He carefully opened it. ‘I’ve got the panel open.’

‘Attach the data cord from the emitter you have to the open port on the panel.’

Seeing exactly what he saw on the schematics, he did as he was instructed and soon had the datapad plugged into the ODP. ‘Done.’

‘Hold.’ A number of figures scrolled through the pad and into the ODP.

Clark felt the massive machine move under his fingers. He checked and saw one of the missile bays open. Numbers continued to fly across the screen. ‘One of the bay doors is open.’

‘Noted.’ Several more sequences went by and then the screen went blank. ‘Disconnect and reattach the panel. You might want to get out of there fast.’

Quickly securing everything, Clark moved away and headed towards the Watchtower. He knew that something was going to happen, he just didn’t know when.

West Virginia

In the Appalachia Mountains of West Virginia, an old town called Fort Ashby, there was an old building not far from there the government had repurposed it to be the prison for one person only, Magneto.

It looked like a nice old mining facility, and had three trailers on top of it with a small brick building built into the side of the mountain. But inside was an elevator that went down several hundred feet to the secure level that had a prison made of plastic for the master of magnetism.

Boliver Trask’s mutant inhibitor devices didn’t work on very strong mutants, but an entire area could be neutralized with enough power and projectors. That was how he was currently contained.

Suddenly, the earth shook violently and power was lost. The snapping of bars happened as the whole mountain shuddered under whatever pressure wave had been brought to bear.

Without power, Magento felt his strength return instantly. He was free. “Humanity is in the process of destroying itself. But I have a score to settle with SHIELD.”

Several of the wounded guards watched as Magento hovered over the facility and ripped it to shreds. Then he ascended into the air and moved away. 

New York

“Sir, we are getting reports out of West Virginia of an earthquake,” came the report from the Duty Officer at SHIELD Headquarters.

Chilled to his bones, Gyrich asked the question he prayed wasn’t answered how he feared it would be, “Where in West Virginia?”

It took a moment for the answer to come. “Sir, Fort Ashby, sir. Power is out all in that area and there is smoke in the air. No one knows what happened.”

“Can we get a satellite image?” yelled Gyrich. That Luthor was outflanking him on the communications front was galling. They were limited and it pissed him off. Reports from overseas had many governments in the same boat. At least he knew the Freedom Party and Friends of Humanity were suffering some of the same issues.

An image from one of the geosynchronous weather satellites came up and there was a massive smoke cloud near Fort Ashby. But that was all they were going to be able to get from that satellite and they could not access any of the military satellites they depended upon.

“Local PD is reporting massive damage to the area.” There was a lengthy pause. “Sir, there is an unconfirmed report that Magneto is free.”

Rubbing his head, Henry Gyrich knew this was bad news. “Inform Boliver Trask that we need whatever Sentinels he has available for Magneto duty. Get me General Ross. I want to find out where in space Luthor is and I want him captured!”

Amanda Waller walked over and handed a printout to Gyrich. “It looks like we did this. Ground-based radar shows an object from space near Fort Ashby. We have no data to prove this one way or another, but it came from space and it looks like it came from an ODP. We can’t confirm because we can’t access any ODPs at the moment.”

“We need to find out where they are creating this jamming and get it fixed. We need our full comms.”

Metropolis

Jimmy knew that things weren’t exactly safe. He watched as some kind of federal agents tried to enter the Luthor buildings and couldn’t. He recorded those attempts but didn’t upload them directly to the Daily Planet’s servers. Instead, he got more photos of the damage done around downtown Metropolis. When word came that SHIELD was grabbing journalists, he decided not to go to his apartment.

He had keys to an apartment under an alias that Justin arranged right after the start of the New Year. Justin said it was just in case. Well, this was just in case since the coup started. Two days after the fall of the government, Jimmy saw quick messages inside Daily Planet chats that several armed men had entered the building.

It was later that day that Jimmy heard that Perry White was detained for questioning by SHIELD agents. They were looking for Lois. AP and other news wires had warnings out for all their staffs, SHIELD was coming and wanted only friendly articles supporting the new president.

Now he was hiding from SHIELD and still trying to report on what was happening in Metropolis. The paper was still online at the moment and Jimmy knew enough to keep his IP address hidden. He had a job to do and he was going to do it until he was dead or captured. It didn’t matter.

Passaic, New Jersey

The old warehouse had obviously seen better days, but it was the last standing backup that Bruce had. It was in a slowly revitalizing area that had been industrial in years past. He had full access to a communications array from this site and the ability to access all of Wayne Industries’ servers. Bruce led them to the old office area and then opened a hatch that went underground to a bunker. It wasn’t huge, but it was everything they needed at the moment.

“You know, Bruce, this is a dump,” offered Oliver with a smile. “But we can’t exactly check into the Waldorf at the moment, can we?”

Betsy looked over her email and frowned. “My government is demanding that all station personnel check in. Half of all the staffs are missing.”

Moving to find a place to sit in the bunker, Diana looked over at the telepath. “Why would so much of the staff be missing?”

“Good question,” intoned Bruce lowly. He brought up all the systems and watched as a dozen monitors came to life. His eyes widened as he saw the reports from West Virginia, but opted to move on.

Slowly he got the picture of the country and a limited one of the world. “SHIELD got the drop on us for sure. I can’t hack their files from here; they would trace it too easily and that could be disastrous.”

“What didn’t we know?” asked Oliver as he looked over Bruce’s shoulder. “How many troops are deployed or those robots?”

“We don’t know yet.” Bruce frowned. “We need to find where they took the Ultimates first and foremost. We can’t do anything until they are free.”

Quantico, Virginia

Secretary of State Kane Miller looked over at Attorney General Ursala Gunn from across an old wooden conference room table and shrugged. “We have Marines and FBI cadets protecting us from SHIELD. I have no idea where Bruce is, if he’s even alive even. Lex is in space. What are we supposed to do?”

“They arrested Congress with no Due Process, Kane,” argued the AG. “I cannot allow that to stand. They have violated every single thing we hold valuable.”

Raising his hands in surrender, the seniormost member of the Cabinet sighed. “I understand, but the Rule of Law is a fragile thing. The embassies abroad have heard what Lex said and have obeyed. But this situation cannot hold forever. The Governor of Virginia had his Guard up near the Potomac and is ready to fight. I’m a diplomat, blood has already been spilt. I would like to avoid more if possible.”

The door opened and Graham, Kane’s oldest child and a Marine, walked in with some food. “It’s not fine dining but we have plenty of MREs.”

The Attorney General looked at the young man and motioned for him to wait a moment. “How long will your commanding officers hold out against SHIELD orders?”

Graham shrugged. “Short wave radio orders from Secretary Manheim were clear, SHIELD has initiated and illegal coup and are to be resisted until they can be removed. Nothing more has been discussed as far as I know.”

She nodded and let him leave the room. “Defense, State, and Justice are free at the moment. They don’t have Treasury either. That’s the heart of the government. We know that the White House is abandoned at the moment because nothing works.”

“We will hold here until we are told by Lex what to do. But I don’t know how long SHIELD will wait to try to seize us,” Kane said. He got up and walked out of the room. He took in the base they were at. Thousands of Marines were here and hundreds of FBI agents not far if called upon. His son was sitting at a desk working on something. “Anything?”

“Nothing from Peter or from the Luthors. Dad, we have to do something and soon or else readiness will falter,” Graham said.

“It hasn’t been a week yet for all that it feels like it’s been a month since Easter. We wait for now, but I hear you. I hear you.”

Trenton, New Jersey.

Chloe tried to relax, but she’d been on the run with Bobby since the coup started. She knew that AP put out a warning and that Vicky Vale messaged her that Vicky’s apartment in Los Angeles had been raided two days ago. Newspapers were publishing where they could print and pushing out stories on websites that SHIELD couldn’t bring down.

“Hey,” Bobby said as they pulled up to an older house on the outskirts of Trenton, on the way to Princeton. He was a full-fledged X-Man, but he’d been ordered to lay low. “We’re here.”

It was a cat and mouse game navigating the normally three-hour drive into a two-day affair, having to work around going through the center of Philadelphia where there were a ridiculous number of aerial patrols between New York and Washington.

“I counted at least forty overhead flights,” Chloe said as they went around back to enter the house. It was late afternoon and there were very few people out and about. “Too much for a standard patrol.”

There were no additional warnings from X-Corp or from Prof X himself. That concerned Bobby but they were in operational silence for the most part. “I’m still waiting for the next play. Waiting is not my strong suit.”

Pulling out her laptop, Chloe started writing down everything she knew was happening on the East Coast. Places like the Wall Street Journal were still fully operational, and the Washington Post was fully remote and online at the moment.

“I wish I knew what was happening,” she said as she typed. “Over two dozen reporters have been seized.”

“Well, I don’t want you to be one.” Bobby blocked the front door with a side table and made sure the drapes were closed for all the windows facing the street. “Chloe, this can’t last much longer.” 

April 7
Houston

“Okay genius, we are about to arrive in Houston. Then what,” grumped Ben as he tried to stretch his long legs. “And how do we get to the medical facility you think we can actually hack?”

Hamilton had a hologram of the city up and the image of the train pulling into the yards where they needed to get off. He shrugged as he looked at Ben.

“This street here,” Philip pointed to the major street that would be very close to the railyards. “This street leads directly to the major hospital district in Houston, the Texas Medical Center, and the SHIELD facility is right off this street near the VA Hospital.”

“Great, but how do we get there?” Ben demanded. “Walk? Because you know six people in dark armor will be noticed.”

//If I may, young masters,// came the Keeper in full form. //As you were travelling, I teleported four of the advanced cycles that have been tested several times in trying conditions. They are in the compartment next to you.//

“Finally!” yelled Ben, “I get my motorcycle!”

“Shut up!” yelled Wes as he hit is twin across the head. “We are still on a stealth mission as you just pointed out!”

Ignoring both his younger siblings, Philip looked at the map again. “With four we will have to double up. Franklin with me and Elsa with Wes. Hamilton will have to navigate and I don’t want to interfere with Ben’s motorcycle experience.”

“Damned right,” muttered Ben.

The train came to a stop and the group quickly got down. It was approximately 2:00 in the morning. Ben ran over to the next car and frowned. “Those are huge. How are we going to get them down?”

Shoving Ben out of the way, Franklin waved his arms and soon all four vehicles were on the ground. Being a world class telekinetic had its advantages.  “We need to hurry,” he said as he climbed on the one Philip claimed.

Hamilton looked around. They were in the middle of the railyards and that wasn’t vehicle friendly. “We need to head that way. Once we get there, we turn left to head north. There is an access road to turn left and finally another left to get on Wayside that will get us to our objective.”

“Why not just go that way?” Ben pointed in the opposite direction.

“Because there is no way to get on the road we need that way. There is a small river that cuts off any crossing other than the one we need, which is elevated over all the railyards here.” Hamilton made a sweeping arm gesture. “Only one way to do this.”

All four of the advanced cycles were soon mounted and they followed the directions that Hamilton laid out. Hamilton led the way, followed by Philip and then Wes, with Ben bringing up the rear.

Street lights sporadically illuminated the streets in an odd pattern. Hamilton navigated them to the main road, Wayside, and took them south.

//How long is this going to take?// projected Ben to the group. //I see a bunch of helicopters off towards downtown I guess and some directly south of here, too. Lots of activity for a city that isn’t considered crucial.//

//Advanced medical and energy facilities would always make this place a target, not to mention NASA is located not far from here either.// Elsa admonished. She looked at the map in her visor. //Fifteen minutes is my guess unless there are roadblocks or surprises.//

//I’ve had enough of surprises for a while.// sulked Wes, following Hamilton as they traversed the overpass across a small muddy river. They were in a very industrial area.

//There are three sentinels in the area. One is near NASA, one between downtown and their Galleria district, and the last near the big airport.// Franklin said. //But I am seeing a strong military force near the Medical Center. Do these have a cloaking device?//

Hamilton waited a moment and then accelerated down the road. //Curfew is in effect. Hit the center switch and your visor will interface. You should be able to get it to cloak then.//

All four of the vehicles shimmered for a second and then vanished. For any people out they would hear something strange, but would see nothing. The four bikes moved swiftly over the near empty minor highway. It didn’t take long before they passed a large park to their left and came upon a major Interstate.

//Ignore it and stay on this road.//Hamilton instructed as he blew through the intersection. He opened up the speed and practically flew down the road.

//This is what I’ve been talking about!// Ben was in heaven. He knew he was the rearguard but he itched to pass them all up and go balls to the wall fast. He knew these babies could handle it.

Before they knew it, they were approaching another highway. There were lots of lights on the other side. There was also more traffic; it was as if it were another city in front of them.

//Medical Center is over there.// noted Franklin. //Not far from here and on the left will be the SHIELD facility.//

They crossed under the freeway and moved quickly. “There is the VA,” yelled Philip into the comms of the helmet. It was no longer safe for them to use their abilities openly.

Hamilton turned down the side street that bordered the SHIELD medical facility. They got off their bikes and looked at the tall building through the standard security fence. “There it is. Now what?”

Philip looked around and nodded. With an assist from Franklin, all six of them jumped over the fence. “Hamilton needs to be inside and I think Elsa should be with him to help hack into the network.”

“And the rest of us?” Ben asked as they walked towards the side of the building. “We can’t sit around doing nothing.”

Pointing to the roof, Philip said, “Franklin and you two will be up there. I will stay down here as the primary lookout.”

Objecting, Franklin grabbed Philip. “That’s not wise.”

“But it’s how it needs to be,” Philip stated firmly. He turned to Hamilton. “Go, we are running out of time. When we are done here, there’s a safe house three miles from here.”

Hamilton and Elsa went to the door and he was able to hack the keycard system and get the doors to open. “I have the schematics, let’s move.”

Ben and Wes ‘flew’ up the side of the nine-story building with Franklin between them. “No wonder Zach wants to do this all the time.”

Wes quickly moved to start searching for any movement or any potential approaching trouble. “We’re in position.”

Elsa and Hamilton found the server room they needed. Hamilton connected his datapad to the servers he found. “I have a connection. When they tried to hack us, I was able to get a slice of their codes. Let’s see if we can get in. I’m accessing their remote servers and routing to their inner ones now.”

Connecting her pad to a different terminal, Elsa started running interference and scanning multiple files for lots of low-level things SHIELD might have. “There are tons of medical files with almost no security assigned to them.”

Only half listening to her, Hamilton focused on his hack. He followed the paths that Dick told him existed. It was understood that further questions would not be asked of Dick on how he knew these things. But as he found small markers, Hamilton followed them to a point where he was able to bypass internal firewalls and get into SHIELD’s secrets.

“Look at what we found: Captain America, Thor, Tony Stark, Simon Williams, Hercules, Dane Whitman, Carol Danvers, Monica Rambeau, Bruce Banner, Sam Wilson, Greer Grant Nelson, Natasha Romanov, Bobbi Morris, Clint Barton, and Jennifer Walters. Huh, Janet VanDyne isn’t listed.” Hamilton kept typing and started downloading

“Oh, I found a listing of some medical records for lots of test subjects. They are still in the Army and were created under the directive of a General Sam Thames.” Elsa pulled another program up that fed into SHIELD files. It would jump from Internet data hub to data hub, slowing down their traffic, but would also mine all their email communications and other internal comms that they might have.

“I’m out,” Hamilton announced. “Let’s go.” He gathered his things and quickly headed out. He nodded at Philip. They looked over to the side of the building and there were Franklin, Wes, and Ben.

“Where to now,” Ben asked. “Plus, I’m hungry.”

“The safe house on the other side of the Medical Center and there should be food there,” Philip answered. “Plus, we need to actually analyze the data. Let’s get moving.”

Sydney

The world was a completely different place in a week. But Damien knew it wasn’t all for the better. There was nothing he wanted to do in the United States at the moment. They failed to get Morgan Edge replaced with a clone and Graydon Creed was next to impossible to switch given his tight security and high profile. It had been far easier to switch Vitaly Kirov.

Essex walked in and handed Damien a list. “All cloning activity has stopped given the world paralysis at the moment. But all of Intergang except the American arm is under clone control. As are the Russia and Australian governments.”

He looked over the map that Essex provided of all the Freedom Party leaders that had been replaced with clones. He had leaders across Europe and South America. Given the ties that Intergang had built, he had holds across Asia and the Middle East as well. Then there were his special troops he’d been creating and stashing in places.

“Given the unfolding situation in America, we might need to accelerate our timetable. Get with Corbeau about how we can activate all of them with satellites behaving unreliably.” Damien hated that he was still under the proverbial thumb of his half-brother Lionel. But he was about to get the drop on the Luthor family more than SHIELD had. He would finally have the revenge he’d craved for years, and his son would have an empire to rule.

El Paso

Alan Owen and Andre Comeaux made their way across the border into Mexico near El Paso. The scene at the border was chaos as thousands were fleeing the fighting across the country and trying to get across the Southern border.

They managed to get to Ciudad Juarez without a hassle. They had a way to get in and out of Mexico at El Paso without being monitored. As they made their way down the streets, they looked for the house they needed. They were in the mountains on the northwest side of the city.

Pointing, Alan directed them to the house they needed. The door opened and they were greeted by an older woman.

“I’ve been expecting you. Two blocks up the mountain is a garage, there are two motorcycles there. Follow the road up the mountain and it will take you to the other side. You can get to your place from there.” That was all she would say.

The two men followed her instructions and found the garage with the older motorcycles waiting. It was easy to go up the mountain path and down to a dirt road. Soon they were behind the mountains and heading southwest, away from the border.

“According to the Keeper, the point of origin is eight miles to the southwest. But we don’t have any scans of the area,” yelled Andre in Alan’s general direction.

“I miss technology sometimes,” complained Alan as it was hard to hear but they also couldn’t use much advanced comm equipment for fear of it being detected. This was a stealth mission.

They finally made it to the point where the Keeper picked up the trails of the robots. And right in the side of the mountain was a large cement bunker jutting out of it. Getting off of the bikes, both men activated their advanced armor and moved to approach that large cement structure from the side. It was clear that the structure supported something under the mountain. Fencing was unobtrusive, a minimal obstruction that some wire cutters were able to handle with ease.

“This can’t be the place, there are no cameras or electronic signatures,” Alan said as he looked at his scanner. “Those power lines coming into the mountain are live though.”

“Let’s proceed,” Andre said as they walked around the mountain to that large structure. He silenced a curse after his foot hit something. He looked down and it was a well disguised covered hole. “Looks like a ventilation shaft or something like it.”

The two men managed to get the heavy cover off of the hole and noticed rungs built into the concrete walls. “After you,” motioned Alan.

Andre led the way down and then kept looking for some kind of security devices but didn’t see any. “This is very strange.”

They made it to the bottom of the shaft. There was a three-foot-high opening at the base, a quick search showed that it went into another room that looked like a shaft. They squeezed through the opening.

“This is the bottom of an elevator shaft,” noted Andre. He pointed to the doors that were five feet up. “That was so air pressure has an emergency escape route.”

It took a bit of maneuvering to get the doors open and climb out, where they found themselves on a storage floor that apparently few people ever visited. The dust was thick and the air stale, which also meant that the ventilation wasn’t the best either.

They found an access way to the next level and that is when they heard some activity.

“They need more Sentries to help with holding the cities. They’ve lost a dozen apparently.”

“Trask has a few upgrades for these models but it will take days to get them done.”

“We only have fifteen ready for deployment. We can’t meet the replacement rate that he wants us to meet.”

Alan looked down the corridor from the stairwell they were in. There was a huge factory floor to his left and an assembly line for the robots he’d seen in Metropolis. “Fuck!”

“We’ll worry later,” Andre whispered. “We need a terminal to see if we can get the schematics. We need to know how to beat them without raw power.”

There was no one around their immediate area, so they managed to sneak along the wall into an office. Security was lax but no one was supposed to know this place was here. Any major activity would have been picked up by global surveillance.

Alan got the door open and they made it in. Andre activated his armor and went into full stealth mode, making him completely invisible. Pulling out another device, he started scanning the whole building, getting details about the dimensions, depths, and materials used in construction.

Background conversations were recorded as he moved from corner to corner, trying to get the most accurate assessment of the room. After ten minutes, Andre saw the door open again with a worker on site. He followed Alan back to the stairwell and back to the storage floor.

“I have multiple schematics as well as a delivery schedule. They’ve been working on these for years and there are several that haven’t been deployed, but we don’t know where they are,” Alan said as they dropped back down the elevator shaft.

“How many aren’t deployed?”  Andre asked noting that was a bit concerning if SHIELD had ready replacements.

“Best I can tell without a deep dive into the data, at least sixty.” Alan didn’t know their full status. That was different from what one of the workers said about fifteen were ready to go.

That hung in the air. They needed to report back to the president and then locate the ones that hadn’t been deployed. SHIELD had a strategic reserve and that was not a good thing. It was now a known unknown. Those were always deadly. 

New York

Coffee tasted bitter no matter how much cream or sugar Amanda Waller added to it. Failure wasn’t in her vocabulary but it was a painful option on the table at the moment. Communications were hampered because of the satellite shutdown and Internet traffic was now moving slow because the world’s network also had corporate overlords that weren’t happy with the current state of affairs.

“Ma’am, we can’t locate Dr. Ramsey. Dr. Trask has three Sentinels looking for him across the Bos-Wash corridor, but there are thousands of mutants in this region,” came from one of the duty officers.

“Is Raven still on site in containment?” she asked.

“Detention level five, cell eight. Ma’am Heather, Moondragon, has been ordered released by Director Gyrich.”

She knew that was coming. There was no reason to keep one of their PsiCorps members locked up any longer since they got what they needed and she seemed stable. “Just monitor her for any unusual behavior. I’m going to pay Darkholm a visit.”

Sedated and mentally bruised, Raven Darkholm couldn’t focus enough to want to move a muscle. The collar on her neck, combined with those drugs in her system, kept her from being able to shapeshift. She knew from the activity she heard that things weren’t as rosy as Gyrich expected them to be. The door opened and through her slitted eyes, she recognized the person.

“I have questions,” Waller said as she stood towering over Mystique. “Where is Douglas Ramsey?”

The question caught Raven off guard for a moment. “The linguist? How should I know. He worked for State, they should know where their senior officials were when you wrecked the world.”

The arrogance from the mutant infuriated Amanda, but she kept her composure. “I can easily remind Gyrich that you are to be terminated for treason. And it can be arranged for wide viewing too as a warning to all traitors.”

For the first time in forever, she managed to laugh. “Even down here in your pits of despair, I’ve heard that you’ve failed at every level. You don’t have Luthor and you no longer have any satellite linkups. Defense is split and Manheim is running free. Sucks to be you.” She managed to shoot Waller the finger.

Turning to the guard, Waller yelled, “Prep her for execution. I’ll have Gyrich arrange it as soon as possible. Her and any other traitors we have in custody.”

Frank Craft walked into Henry Gyrich’s office and waited for the other principals for the meeting. “Henry, commerce is breaking down. Banks are closed and the financial system is teetering. The world system is under heavy strain. We will soon have food shortages. Martial law was not enough to stop the rebellion.”

Those words gave Henry pause. Nothing was said as the others walked in and sat down. Henry noticed that Amanda seemed agitated when she stormed in. “Problems, Amanda?”

“We cannot locate Dr. Ramsey. I went to see Mystique and she was useless. I want her terminated on national TV, broadcast over old signals and sent over the Internet as best we can,” Amanda growled. “It is time we set a precedent for traitors.”

“Excellent idea,” Craft said. “We should execute the Ultimates at the same time. It will have the effect we need, Henry. It will destroy hope that the meta humans will restore Luthor to power.”

Henry stood up and started pacing again. “The logistics will be difficult to pull off since most TVs are digital now. The Internet won’t be able to get a clean video stream out either with all hubs going up and down.” He sat down again and looked at the assembled in the room. “But we will do this as soon as we can and we will have as many reporters gathered as we can muster as well.”

Hit a key on the wall, a monitor came up and a listing of captured Ultimates came up. Amanda frowned. “I’d love to add Bruce Wayne to this list too. Maybe one of those X-Men too or the Fantastic Four?”

“We have none of them,” countered Craft. “The Baxter Building was empty and the computers on lockdown. Wayne Manor is rubble. Xavier’s school is a burnt wreck. We do this with Captain America as the prime example. The country will see its false idol fall.”

April 8
Gotham

It was just after midnight as Peter, Kyle, Zach, and Dick got out of their railcar near the Gotham airport. The view into New York wasn’t clear, but what was clear was that all the lights were not on at the moment. Half the street lights were on and it created a weird atmosphere. It was still early spring with temperatures just above freezing at the moment.

“Come on, the mansion is toast so that leaves one place left to rendezvous with Bruce. That’s in Passaic,” Dick said as he moved back towards the Passaic River.

“How far,” asked Peter as he looked around. There was still too much activity in the area. They spotted at least two of those robots patrolling the skies as they got closer to Gotham. 

“Three miles, but we need to be careful, the closer we get to New York, the more SHIELD’s presence is concentrated.” Dick looked around and moved towards the next set of buildings for cover.

Peter moved with them and kept looking off in the distance. “Wait. Dr. Grey sent out a message. Two safe houses were raided, but they’d been evacuated the day before. All mutants must be extremely vigilant.” Peter looked around and frowned. “This is a dangerous place.”

Dick nodded, but continued to move as quickly as his group could. They weren’t over the direct path between Washington and New York, but were still close enough to see lots of that activity.

Zach activated his armor again and moved into the air. He did a full scan of the area trying to see if they were going to run into any military or SHIELD units. He dropped back down and shrugged. “Nothing overt that I can see, but we should still be careful.”

The four of them increased their pace with the knowledge that they had no overt obstacles. Finally, after a hour, they reached the place Dick knew to be safe.

Bruce looked over as the proximity alarms went off. The video feed showed, Dick with his friends. He waited for them to get to the basement level. “Glad to see you, Dick. Where are the Luthor boys?”

Zach moved over and pointed at the map Bruce had on one of his large displays. It looked like it had SHIELD activity on it. “They went to Houston to hack into SHIELD via the medical facility.” He held up his hand to stop questions from Betsy. “Philip made that call and my brother and brother-in-law agreed.”

That gave Bruce pause for a second. “You should have gone with them, Dick.”

“Philip told us to split up because rescuing the Ultimates is the first goal to defeating SHIELD. And I gave Hamilton the right pathways to get into SHIELD’s hidden secrets.” Dick shrugged.

“He sent the heavy hitters to be ready when the word comes down of when and where,” Kyle noted as he sat down. He saw the looks he was getting. “What? Zach and I are heavy hitters. And Peter is called Colossus for a reason.”

Diana shrugged and looked at Bruce. “Well, between three of us we can take on a few of those Sentinels, but not enough to get to SHIELD headquarters if that is where the Ultimates are. We’ll need more firepower.”

“Yes, we do, and I’m working on it,” Bruce said.

New York

Waller walked into the conference room and looked at Gyrich. “We can do it in three days. We have a dozen reporters in our possession. We can have them here and a broadcast over the Internet. We can also have our friendly media outlets here by then too.”

That got Gyrich’s attention. “We need to bring in Creed, we need a major audience for this. Craft knows that martial law is not working. We need fear to drive home that things are different.”

“We need to make sure Magento doesn’t know that his main person is going to die.” Waller knew the strategic value of what this would accomplish. The propaganda value was limitless. But there were risks.

“Proceed. Time is short and we need to bring in the remaining Cabinet once this is done.”

Houston

Hamilton woke from a nap as his laptop started beeping. He looked at an internal communication about executing Captain America on live television.

“Holy shit!” He looked over some of the details. He ran down the hall and barged into the room with a sleeping Philip and Franklin. “Get up! We need to move fast. They are going to execute Captain America to show how they are in control. Three days!”

Philip processed the news and let his head fall back on the pillow. “Three hours and we need to be online with the Watchtower. And we need to get everyone ready for how bad this is going to get.”