The Badges vs The Commission part 1

The dark funnel cloud loomed over Brussels, picking up small bits of debris and hurling them past concerned citizens. Cautiously, the people moved back while the funnel expanded as if it were a living organism ready to consume. Some ran inside and others tried to find shelter under vehicles. As the force winds picked up, it stripped siding off buildings, and the tornado pulled small cars across the pavement. As frightened as the people were, there was still a terrifying reality – it hadn’t touched down yet. It was only a matter of time before it and then the real threat would emerge. All they could do was watch as the bizarre vortex towered over the buildings as an ominous sign of the destruction yet to come.

Above the clouds, the ship known as Hyperion’s Light emitted a pulsating beam into the bizarre funnel. On the bridge, Ryan Bennings sat in the pilot seat while Shujai co-piloted. “Keep her steady,” Benning told Shujai while keeping his eyes on the screen in front of him, “The containment field won’t last much longer and this thing is big enough to send us to Oslo if we get too close.” He swivelled around in his chair to face Alysa Saraki, who was seated behind them in deep concentration. She was summoning mystic spells to lessen the effects of the tornado, but she was still very limited in what she could do. The three heroes knew they were only bidding time. Their fourth member, the Cavalier, was gone on an unknown mission, so it was now up to the final two members to neutralize the threat.

Astra Machina and Intrepid flew vertically into the eye of the tornado. Dark clouds swirled around them, but it was much calmer inside than out. Still, the vortex spun at hundreds of miles per hour, and a shingle from a house could easily slice off a limb. As one such shingle flew toward Intrepid, Astra used a shoulder-mounted laser to blast it into dust.

“Thanks,” Intrepid said over her headset.

“No problem,” Astra answered. “We gotta hurry. The others are holding the tornado back as much as possible, but I think they have less than five minutes before it breaks free and takes the entire city.”

“Then we’ll make it fast.” Intrepid used her enhanced vision to peer through the darkness, finding their target hundreds of feet below on a floating platform, “Follow me.”

They descended further just as the tornado sucked up a small car and shredded it into chunks. Metal projectiles flew at them as if they were in a war zone. Astra blasted an engine out of her way and Intrepid looped around a bumper. As they continued, they saw the platform through the dark fog; the floating construct was long enough for a handful of people and had a peculiar, two-story generator glowing brightly. In front of the generator was a man in a lab coat, studying the effects of the weather from a set of monitors along a console. Intrepid landed next to him, giving him a start.

Despite the winds blowing around them, the platform appeared perfectly safe from the effects of the storm. “Dr. Jacobs?” Intrepid’s long, dark hair flew across her face as she shouted over the roaring funnel cloud, “I’m Intrepid, with the Commission.”

“I knew one of you people would show up!” the scientist roared. “Attack me if you want, but I’m the only person who can shut this thing off.”

She gave a sympathetic nod, “I know that. You’re probably the smartest man in the country! Maybe the world! No one can do what you do!”

“I’m glad someone recognizes my intelligence. My colleagues all said this couldn’t be done. I’m sure they’re eating their words now!”

“Yes, you’re right. You achieved your goals and made yourself undeniable, but you have to understand, innocent people are going to get hurt.”

“I’m done caring about these people and this society. It’s given me nothing but frustrations.”

“I get it. Everyone doubted you. The government cut your funding, and so many people thought you were crazy. I can see why you’re mad, but I know you won’t destroy the city.”

“I won’t?” Jacobs’ hand hovered over a dial. “You don’t think I can turn this city to rubble?”

“I know you can, but the reason I said you won’t is that I know, deep down, you really don’t want to hurt anyone. You’re a good person. You just wanted to prove you could do it… and you did. See, you’ve already won, Dr. Jacobs. You proved everyone wrong. Now, all that’s left is shutting down your machine.”

“I-I…,” he stammered and lowered his hand.

Just then, the winds died down, and the storm quieted. The people of Brussels saw debris dropping from the sky as the funnel shrank back. In Hyperion’s Light, the team noticed the tornado was dissipating. “What the hell is happening?” Jacobs shouted as he turned toward the generator. There, he saw Astra Machina standing on it with several tendrils sticking in and through it. The generator grew dark as the last kilowatt of energy was drained from it. Jacobs gave Astra a furious look, then turned to Intrepid as if to go on another rant, but the karate-chop to the base of his neck rendered him unconscious. The agent stood over the unconscious scientist while above, the dark clouds rolled away and the sun shone.

Later, Hyperion’s Light flew back to the east coast of the US with the team on the bridge. Astra recounted the events of the mission excitedly, “… and Intrepid distracted the bad guy while I shut everything down. She’s so good at tricking people.” Astra meant it as a compliment, but Intrepid felt guilty. Since the inception of the team, she had been spying on the Commission for Director Pierce of the IMD. He didn’t trust a team of metahumans who were only answerable to a former child star, genius-level intellect or not. Ever since the revelation of Rex Robison’s mental issues and involvement in the Invasion of 1981, his mistrust of metahumans grew. Intrepid’s membership was a reminder of that distrust.

“I just had to keep him talking for a minute,” Intrepid told her humbly. “It gave you plenty of time to save the day. You probably could’ve done it without me.”

“Hey, compliments,” Ryan Bennings said jokingly, “Glad the team camaraderie is rubbing off on you.”

“It has its moments,” she said jokingly.

“I’m getting a signal,” Shujai announced, “It appears the Dragon is hailing us. The Cavalier is nearby.”

“He missed a whole ass mission,” Alysa said. “Where’s he been?”

“Let’s find out,” Ryan answered.

****

In Baltimore, Dante Greer shot out of bed in a cold sweat. Once he remembered he was back in his bedroom and not fighting for his life in LA, he calmed down. The nightmares were commonplace at that point, and he wondered if they’d ever stop. It had been almost a year since the Upstarts were killed fighting in the Resurgence, with him being the sole survivor.

As he had just turned 18, he was trying to put all that behind him. He was graduating from high school; he had a nice birthday the night before, and friends and family surrounded him. He had the rest of his life ahead of him, so why did he feel so unhappy?

He yawned and made his way downstairs to get some cereal and as he got to the first floor, he heard his parents talking to someone in hushed tones. As he got closer to the living room, he could hear his mother say, “I think he’s up.” He rounded the corner and there, he saw Reggie and Carla Greer talking to a man whom he recognized as Senator Tom Jackson. Senator Jackson was the politician behind the Upstarts program and the father of Kyle Jackson, Dante’s former teammate. Kyle, along with the rest of the Upstarts, died fighting an U’ntari assassin.

“Hello, Dante,” the senator stood to his feet and shook his hand, “Happy birthday.”

“Thank you, Mr. Jackson.”

“Tom,” he corrected, “Call me Tom.”

“…Tom.”

“I suppose you’re wondering why I’m here. I was just telling your parents about your future role.”

“What role?”

Reggie cleared his throat nervously, “The senator seems to still be interested in the Upstarts Program.”

“But that’s all over, right?”

“The show is,” Jackson explained, “As all of you remember, Craig Levison got the show green-lit on the condition that the US military could have a team of superheroes. With the show cancelled and Levison unfortunately passing away, the entertainment side of the contract was made null and void, but the military side is still very much in effect. We had to pull a lot of strings to use our Neutronium reserves and there are some folks in Washington who expect results.”

“But the military service was always optional,” Carla protested.

“Outside of times of crisis, of course. That doesn’t negate the Draft,” the senator’s tone was calm and friendly despite the connotations.

“I’m being drafted?” Dante asked.

“Now that you’re 18, yes.”

“But there’s no war.”

“We’re still dealing with the aftermath of the Resurgence, which technically constitutes as a crisis, and we can implement the Draft in such cases. And certainly, there is precedence here. After all, you, my son, and the rest of your team were called to action in dealing with the U’ntari. This isn’t any different.”

“But the aliens are gone.”

“We thought that back in the 80s and we were sadly mistaken. I’m not sure if you’re aware, but the US is still officially in a state of emergency. After all, we’re still feeling the after effects of the last invasion: terrorists have gotten their hands on alien technology more than once, New York is still rebuilding, and the Commission recently fought a team of villains that included at least one U’ntari warrior.” He turned toward his parents, “And just between us, I’m not too happy the Commission has an alien on the team.”

“I don’t like Shujai, either,” Dante said as he rubbed the back of his neck, “But ya’ll got the IMD and everything. I don’t think you need me.”

“You might change your mind after basic training.”

“Basic training?”

“I have some friends in the Pentagon that’ll be overseeing your military training. Top-notch guys, you’ll see.”

Dante shook his head, “No, I ain’t going! Find somebody else!”

“I would, but unfortunately, there’s no one else left,” the senator appeared solemn, “My son would’ve jumped at this chance if he were still with us.”

“There’s gotta be some way we can compromise,” Reggie interjected. “Dante obviously doesn’t wanna go.”

“You all signed the contract,” Senator Jackson said defensively.

“Yeah, but we didn’t expect this kind of loophole,” Carla said exhaustedly.

“And the world didn’t expect an alien invasion,” was the response.

“Why target us?”

“Unfortunately, Dante here is the only person left in the Upstarts Program. To be honest, as long as we had at least one kid entering the military, we were fine,” he appeared solemn once more, “As I said, my son Kyle would have been the one… he should have been the one.”

“But I ain’t Kyle,” Dante said finally.

Senator Jackson smiled and patted him on the back, “I understand you’ll graduate school soon and you haven’t enrolled in any colleges yet. I think it gives you the perfect opportunity to expand your horizons, see how it fits.”

“This is insane!” Reggie shouted.

“I’ll give everyone a week to get things in order and the top brass will send a car,” the senator made his way to the front door, “I think you’ll change your mind in time. I’ll see my way out.”

****

Back on Hyperion’s Light, the Cavalier had power couplings from the ship connected to his hover craft in the hangar. The Neutronium energy transferred into the Dragon, powering it up after a long journey. Ryan and the Cavalier sat and caught up with one another as the rest of the team mulled about the ship.

“So…,” Ryan started, “… Costa Triste, huh?”

“Yeah,” the Cavalier replied, “I had to take care of some personal matters. The trip took a lot of juice, so I had to charge up the Dragon.”

“Have you been back to New York at all yet?”

“Not yet, but I’m interested to see how -”

Just then, Ryan received a call. Dante’s name and number appeared on a holographic screen that hovered in the middle of the hangar. Ryan answered, “Dante? What’s up?”

“Senator Jackson just came to my house!” Dante responded.

“Tom Jackson?”

“Yeah, he said I have to go to the military even though they don’t have the Upstarts no more. Like, now that I’m 18, I can be drafted or some ish.”

“That’s stupid. What war are you supposed to be fighting in?”

“He said that it’s a state of emergency or whatever, so I have to work for the Army now.”

“Not if I have anything to say about it.”

“Dante, it’s Cav,” the Cavalier began, “If you need our help, we’re available.”

“Thanks, but I don’t know what you can do right now. I’m supposed to be going off to basic training in a week.”

“I understand,” Ryan told him, “We’ll talk to the team and see what we can do. Maybe we can stash you somewhere until this blows over.”

“Just so ya know, Senator Jackson is gonna crash out if I run off. I can just tell.”

“Don’t worry, we’re used to getting in trouble. I’ll keep in touch.”

Just outside the hangar, Intrepid leaned against a wall. With her enhanced hearing, she could overhear the entire conversation. As Cavalier and Ryan spoke to one another about the situation, she left for another area of the ship.

Continued …