Ultimate SECRET WAR "Issue #0, Prelude to WAR"

[DanMcS]

Hawkeye

Hawkeyes is preparing his bagel when he hears behind him.
"Where's the cook?"
A small wind make him thinks Quicksilver just moved.
"He is looking at Cap training. I think everyone is there, except the ones on Hulk's watch."
Another small draft. A sandwich has appeared in the micro-wave and Pietro is slowly entering the time to heat it.
"Technology! It is suppose to speed up live, not slow it down."
Another draft.
"Internet is pretty slow today. So, Hawk, anything interesting have happen while I was in convalescence?"

Hawkeye grumbles to himself. "Punk soldiers. None of the guys in my unit were ever that obnoxious."

A puff of breeze. "What the..."

Hawkeye comically whips around, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever just made his coffee splash in its cup. He spots Pietro lounging.

"Where the heck did you come from... Oh, hey kid. Good to see you back on your feet. Naw, not much happening around here, bunch of people out of town, not much call for super butt-kicking lately. Tony was talking about going out later, I suppose we could get you a hat, or a wig, and you could come too. You're pretty recognizable otherwise."

He points out the window at the approaching storm and sips his coffee.
"Looks like Thor is on his way in. Must be something, flying around like the lightning. Eh, Pietro? Where'd that kid sprint off to this time?"

 

[Velmont]

"Looks like Thor is on his way in. Must be something, flying around like the lightning. Eh, Pietro? Where'd that kid sprint off to this time?"

"Sorry" says a voice in another direction "My web page had finish loading, so I had to write my reply, about a whole page, and on my way back, I stop to see Cap's training. Now even the guards on Hulk's watch are there. Fury will not like that. And I had to stop by the bathroom too."

The micro-wave indicates it has finish to heat.

"Thor's really like to make his show-off. I think sometimes which between him and Stark is the most childish. Let me guess. He just left some valikyries to give us the honor to have him with us. Do you really think all that crap is true. I can hardly believe it, but after what Black Widow told me about that alien bomb, I am not sure anymore it is only bull. Well, I think the important thing he can do all those thing for S.H.I.E.L.D."

Pietro takes his sandwich, and slowly eat it.

"Pleasure to taste, the only thing I dare to make at your speed. Anyway, eating too fast make me wait after everyone in restaurant, better to have something interesting to do."

 

[Mimic]

*Warning sounds and lights warn the fighter pilot coded named "Jester" of a near by electostatic discharge.*

What the hell, where did this storm come from? "Jester" thinks to himself as he pulls back the throttle slowing the fighter plane down from mach 3. No sense wrecking Uncle Sam's prop... Jester never finishes the sentence as something draws his attention to the outside just beside his right wing.

Flying beside matching the tremdous speed of the jet the Asgardian known as Thor salutes the pilot and smiles as he realises that he has drawn the pilots attention, turning away and flying back to earth Thor lands lighting in front of Triskelion and proceeds to enter. I got to stop doing that, one of these days, one of those pilots is going to crash or even fire at me. He thinks with a chuckle.

Thor wanders down an empty corridor and starts to round a corner. Where is everybody...

CRASH!!

The poor private not looking where he is going crashes head first and proceeds to bounce off of the Asgardian.

Trying not smirk, Thor looks down and leans over to help the man up. "Careful soldier, don't want our fighting men to get hurt. What's the big rush anyways?"

"Sorry sir, didn't see you there. I heard that Captain America is training and wanted to see it before it was over."

"The names Thor not sir, I'm not part of your military. Cap is training? Really? Come on then, I have got to see this, the old guy might need my help." He says with a laugh, as he hustles with the solider towards the training room

 

[Radiant]

A very small panel at the lower right end of the page.

With a tired sigh a young women pushes a pile of books from a small desk.

"Man, Magneto wasn't half as demanding as that Professor."

The page turns and begins with a larger panels showing a much bigger picture. It's a full body shot of the girl itself stretching as she gets up with her room in the background.

The scene shows a slightly larger image of a small students room with only a bed, two shelves a desk and tons of "stuff" in it. In the middle of all that chaos the nameless women known only as Rogue stumbles up as she tries to find a sure footing amidst all the trash she collected on her floor and stretches her arms while she surpresses a yawn.
It is so time for a break. Learning all this stuff is killing me. Wasn't there something about a movie?
She is wearing one of the trademark X bodysuits that show of more than they hide and it is plain to see that the brown haired girl with the white streak in her hair is just a little too skinny. Even her time with the brotherhood and at the Xavier insititute haven't erased all traces of her treatment at Weapon X yet.

She makes her way to the stairs and follows the noise downstairs. She smiles softly then she hears one bamf after the other. At least Nightcrawler seems to feel better now.
She stops halfway, then she hears Collosus in the training rooms. He was the one who beat Magneto into a pulp and somehow she has no intention of getting close to the steel monster. From the kitchen comes Kitie's laughter but the happy kid just annoys her. It ain't as if she's that popular around the place herself. Trying to catch them for weapon X and then working for Magneto just hasn't made her too popular with the X-Men.
Yeah right, as if it would be different if I hadn't done it. My powers are so popular I could be saint and I'd still be alone.

From the corner of her eyes she sees a movemnt outside the window. She doesn't even bother to take another look, there is no chance she can spot Wolverine then he's moving. Just like the rest of the X-Men with is another one she can't decide what to think of. He destroyed Weapon X and freed them all. But he also killed her friend Sabretooth in cold blood.
In the end it doesn't matter, she knew Sabretooth was a psycho, one of them had to die. She would have set money on this outcome of she had any. Aftrerall Wolverine was the one who escaped and eventually destroyed Weapon X. She had touched them both, had Sabretooth asked her she could have told him he could not compare to the "most dangerous mutant".
Ok, I wouldn't have told him because then he would have ripped my head of but that's beside the point.

In the end she just stands in the floor wishing she could either integrate like Nightcrawler or go her own way like Logan. But like her mutant powers she seems to be nothing herself until she finds someone to hold onto.

 

[Bihlbo]

Colossus

Logan was probably the only other X-man that could meet or maybe even understand the drive of the young Colossus.
OOC: the spread opens up with a loooong landscape panel that crosses the spread, extending down about a third of the way across the pages. The young man lays back on his bench, in the mirror reflecting back for the audience to see is his alterego...
Smooth and bronze, the image in the mirror - none of the weight in this room would challenge this X-man's mutant strength... But that's not why he does it...

OOC: This would have to take place after Kitty gets finished invading Warren's privacy upstairs.

Kitty Pryde: Now where's the big bear hiding?
Kitty floats between a few rooms, but doesn't see anyone.
Kitty: Oh! (smacks head) Of course!

A wide panel; Piotr looks exhausted as he sets a very large freeweight back on a rack. Behind him are two large, empty water jugs next to the cooler, the jug in the cooler is only half-full.

In the next panels Piotr is stretching, arms raised, soaked in sweat. Next panel: In the locker room he begins to take off his tank top, and stops with it just over his head.

Piotr spins around and looks stern - "You shouldn't sneak up on people like that, girl."

Kitty lowers back into the floor quickly, only waist-deep. Wide eyed, she looks to the floor right away and blushes. "I, uh, we're gonna watch a movie night with popcorn! You're late. I.. I mean, are you coming mister Colossus?"

"Oh, yes... Piotr is fine." Piotr turns back and puts his shirt in a locker. Behind his back, Kitty unsuccessfully tries to keep looking down. "Will you make me one of your good shakes, miss Pryde? That sounds much better than popcorn to me."

"Um, yeah." Kitty sniffs and makes a face. "You're going to shower first, right?"

"Only after I hear that blender start, you little sneak." Piotr doesn't show her his smirk.

"Huh? You don't need a... Oh!!" Kitty blushes and giggles. "Oh! Um... yeah, I'll just.. I'll go then."

We see Piotr from the chest up as he puts his shorts in the locker. In the next panel he's turned into Colossus, grown tall enough that his head is out of the panel. His bronze, somewhat shiney body replaces his skin with a slight glow at the edges during the change. Then Piotr returns to his human form, now looking completely dry and a little refreshed, and with a humored smirk thinks to himself, Kids.

 

[DJ_Colossus]

The Thing

Ben Grimm leans back in a large leather chair, A stubby cigar poking out of his mouth and he laughs. He swings the phone receiver around and blurts.

"HAh, yeah Luke you know what I'm talkin' about... So, how's that Hero for Hire business doin' lately? ... Good, that's good to hear. ..."

Ben flicks a switch to close the door to the office. He lowers his voice to keep out of earshot of the others.

"You know ... Ever since we became the Fantastic Five I've been sidelined, you know? She Hulk-- The others just seem to like her better. Yeah, I know she's hotter than I am, that's not the point. ... No, Luke, no I haven't done it with her. Luke, get a grip, I'm made of rock man! No, I am not trying to run away from an affair gone sour. Look, I'm going to jump right to the point--
I'm thinking of quitting the Fantastic Five.

You have a job for me maybe?"

 

[Kevin Perrine]

SPIDERMAN & Nick Fury

Peter just stands there for a moment. Then his face takes on a look of anger.
For all that it's worth! Can't I have one night with my girl without Spider-man butting in? Mary Jane was going to be here any minute, and I was just going to have Gwen on her-

And he remembers that they aren't alone in the house, Fury and him.
"What are you doing here, Fury? Gwen is upstairs and Mary Jane will be here any minute!"

[the camera angle swings from Peter's look of confusion to an over the shoulder shot of Fury, as if purposely towering over the young hero - that just want's a night off with his girl...]

"Time to soldier up Parker, we've got issues that Pym thinks you might be able to help us with... Some sort of psychic phenominon radiating from Central Manhattan. We can't pinpoint it by grid with the sensors, we need to get you in. Banner will be reviewing your bio-charts to rig a tap into your sixth sense..... We'll use it to track the occurance."
Fury says as he walks with Peter to the door, picking up his jacket as if to usher him out...

"hop to son... we don't pay you to rest on your ass!"[Nobody's ever paid Pete that he knows of.]

"Is your suit all fixed up from the Osborne incident? We can have Janet's taylor's from marketing to hook you up if necessary... Now let's roll kid. Time'sa wastin'!!"

MEANWHILE
Trudging down May Parker's stairs a Black Op Agent hits the bottom floor.
"All clear sir, Ramsey says his team has Watson and..." Looking up, another Agent swings around the corner - S.H.E.I.L.D. logo emblazoned on his shirt opened from a short struggle with Stacy...
"Target: Operation Degrassi complete sir, we have his girls and they'll sleep this off in T-minus 18hrs and counting."

Fury looks to the Agent then to Pete... quickly to circumvent the kid's petty whining about his life, Nick gives a quick wave to the men and turns Pete around.
"Look Pete, your country needs you... you KNOW I wouldn't do this unless the big brains thought there was another way. The strain we've had with Xavier's people force us to alternative means. That's YOU Pete... We need Spiderman!"

Fury waits for a second to let the boy confirm his need (to make him feel in control) and then begins to rush Parker to the Chopper line still hovering somewhere above.

 

[Kevin Perrine]

DR. BRUCE BANNER - the Ultimates

Carefully waiting for security camera to swing away from viewing him Banner quickly collects the handful of paper scraps he has stored under his matress and casually strolls back to the terminal. As the camera sweeps away from him he quickly places the different scraps of paper on the screen covering certain parts of the equations with his own handwritten portions

"Well record the whole thing in close up and log the activity for Fury. We'll send it down to the lab for them to figure out."

Next panel reveals the tiny glint of a hidden microscopic camera over Banner's shoulder.

[as Banner slides away from the console for his coffee cup, the camera angle focuses tightly on the computer panel... with Bruce first in blur then sharp contrast far behind from table top eye view]

onscreen...
SECRUITY ALPHA
clearance ... Fury, Nicholas
PASSWORD: ditko
DOWNLOAD
LOADING ... LOADING ... LOADING ... LOADING ...
LOADING ... LOADING ... LOADING ... LOADING ...
CODENAME: MISS MUFFET
SUBJECT: Parker, Peter
ALIAS: Spider-Man
LOGISTICS: Queens, NY, USA
CONTACTS: May Parker (aunt), MaryJane "MJ" Watson (girlfriend), Gwendoline "Gwen" Stacy (girlfriend), J. Joahna Jameson (employer)...
etc... etc... etc...
data downloading...
etc... etc...

the file downloading to Dr. Banner's terminal continues with amazingly detailed report briefs on the young man Peter Parker. It lists powers and abilities, charting them against known Super Powered individuals (including the Ultimates & X-men, even the Hulk himself).

Upon completion a digital video track transfers in of Dr. Pym, in the top right corner Col Fury shares the line with three-way conferencing from a seperate remote location...

"Banner, Pym here, we've locked on a sigularity eminating from somewhere in midtown Manhattan. Jan and I haven't been able to pinpoint it... We believe it to be psionic in nature... it's an AMAZINGLY complex set of..."
Fury barges in...
"To the point Banner, I'm sending Wasp and GiantMan with a team to sweep lower Manhattan up for this thing. I'm currently on location retrieving Agent Parker - his files are attached. Pym believes along with the psychometric data we culled from Xavier's med reports we can interface Parker's unique Sixth Sense to use him as a tracker... sorta like a hound dog to bring the other Ultimates online.. I'm bringing him in now - have the data processed and a plan of execution on the table by 2100 hours, no later."
Fury's screen replaces Pym...
"oh... by the way, you've got run of the base on this one. Bring Tony in he might be able to aid with a moble unit of whatever you develop. We need to get on this before Richards does... You wouldn't want ANOTHER egg-head showing you up would you Brucey!??!... Fury OUT."


[the camera pans wide... showing the full length from Bruce Banner to the door of his cell...]
Free... they're letting him free... after what he did.
Captain America, the others they would surely not like this...
It MUST be a STAGE 1 alert to let the Hulk free again!

 

[Kevin Perrine]

the THING - Fantastic Four

[OOC: oops, double posted for Ben... I'm replacing it with the Ultimates now]

Ben Grimm leans back in a large leather chair, A stubby cigar poking out of his mouth and he laughs. He swings the phone receiver around and blurts.

Ben flicks a switch to close the door to the office. He lowers his voice to keep out of earshot of the others.

"You know ... Ever since we became the Fantastic Five I've been sidelined, you know? She Hulk-- The others just seem to like her better. Yeah, I know she's hotter than I am, that's not the point. ... No, Luke, no I haven't done it with her. Luke, get a grip, I'm made of rock man! No, I am not trying to run away from an affair gone sour. Look, I'm going to jump right to the point--
I'm thinking of quitting the Fantastic Five.

You have a job for me maybe?"

MEANWHILE, somewhere getting closer in the Baxter Building...
Johnny Storm, fresh from being released from County General from his crash at the NASCAR track - he wheels around toward the big hall running the length of the FF's personal floor. His wheel chair catching speed he sees the back of a big orange rock lunkhead in short distance..............
As the door shooshes shut.

[the scene continues showing the Thing filling up and breaking through two panels almost crowding this Fantastic Four comic page..... as he feels he's crowding the team...]

"Sshhh#@, ooorange-boy, they ain't never gonna git rid a you. F#&$ man, who'd drive the bathtub!!... LOL...hehehe"
Cage cackles as Ben can hear him fumbling out of his chair... Sensing his buddy's dispair...
"...listen Ben, you're lettin things haunt you too much. You know they just brought in Shulky 'cause'a Matchstick's leg... damn, yer momma got yer name right... everything ends up grim to you don't it..."
Luke tries to put some spunk back into his voice, to cheer the Thing up...
"... I mean hell, I didn't wanna say nothin but Reed asked me to join up just the other day... said he needed more muscle on the team, you ain't got nothin to worry about. You guys go way back... and even so... F#&$ it man, you know you got a place down here wit me at HfH... an if you don't dig on that you could always be a pro-wrestler... heheheh...
Uhhh... by the way... you think you could snag Jenn's cell number for me? she made me delete it last time......."

FOOOSHHHHH!!!
FOOOOOSHHHHH!!!
from outside Johnny tosses two fireballs just the size of a golfball at the release button on the fastly approaching door!!
shoosh... as the door to Ben's room slides open...

"Rock and ROLLER-Derby, GREAT PUMPKIN - cum'on!! I gotcha an oversized chair rigged up in Reed's lab!!! - made it my-own-self, mighty fine work if I do say so myself!! CUM'ON!! What'cha waiting for ya oversized Cheese Dobble!!"
the irreverant young Mr. Storm chides as he bops Ben on the head with a chair cushion... Rolling out into the hall he puts his hands down to his sides facing backward and turns on the heat!!
"FLAME ON!!" Torch taunts as the "after burners" push him out of the Things grasp for now...

 

[Kevin Perrine]

the ULTIMATES (Hawkeye, Quicksilver & Thor)

He points out the window at the approaching storm and sips his coffee.
"Looks like Thor is on his way in. Must be something, flying around like the lightning. Eh, Pietro? Where'd that kid sprint off to this time?"

Pietro takes his sandwich, and slowly eat it.

KAA--THOOM!!Thunder crashes, as the two Ultimates see the silhouettes of speeding forces across the sky swooping past the Statue of Liberty's crown... One heading away from and one heading toward the Triskelion from Manhattan.
Peitro can see both images fairly clearly although Clint cannot, tracking and firing are no problem for the Ultimate called Hawkeye - but seeing things at such an excellerated speed is beyond human... Lucky for the two of them Quicksilver is.

Peitro hits a pickle on his sandwich just as the rain starts clattering on the window canopy.

"Peitro, you there? On-line soldier..."
Says Col. Fury from Quicksilver's Ultimate personal communicator...
"I'll be touching down at 2100 sharp, I need you to organize the Ultimates... I have no clue where Tony is, I have Thor incoming now, Banner has been authorized out of his cell and will be briefing the team in the war room. Pym and Wasp are in the field on assignment, Cap musta forgot how to use his comm piece again....... and Barton never replies on time. Get it done, Maximoff! - Fury OUT."

Hawkeye easily hears all this... Fury hasn't tried to contact him!
Sometimes the man likes to take shortcuts... makes others feel good by deligating, to get his own job done.
One thing's for certain... something heavy is coming down, the team hasn't been completely together since post-briefings on the Alien thing...!!

Thor lands lighting in front of Triskelion and proceeds to enter.
...
Thor wanders down an empty corridor and starts to round a corner. Where is everybody...
...
"The names Thor not sir, I'm not part of your military. Cap is training? Really? Come on then, I have got to see this, the old guy might need my help." He says with a laugh, as he hustles with the solider towards the training room

JUST PRIOR to Thor landing...
As the Odin-son straifs "Jester's" plane the electricity in the air crackles around the cockpit harmlessly......
"Thor - Fury here, what the Hell are you DOING up there... you've nearly downed my team in Queens with that stunt you're pulling on the weather over Manhattan... CON-SE-QUENCES - Thor... Christ!!......
Okay - report to the Triskelion for sit-rep, we have a problem building in Manhattan, Pym and his wife are in the field now. We need you and the Ultimates on stand-by for evac or incursion."

CUT-SCENE....
Rounding the corner Thor and the younger soldier see...... (see Cap's round 1 battle entry, next)