Fourth Story:
‘When are we gonna train this kid, Agent Brown? I ain’t seen him in weeks! I’m supposed to go to war with Pointer, I need to know he’s got my back!’ shouts an angry John Walker a.k.a. USAgent as he waves a fist in the face of Omega Flight’s administrator, Agent Brown. Agent Brown frowns at the powerful hero who leads the new Omega Flight. Calmly though, Agent Brown cleans the lenses of his glasses and simply replies that Michael Pointer, the new Guardian, is feeling ill today, and resting.
Listening in to the conversation via USAgent’s communicator is Julia “Arachne” Carpenter, Walker’s long-time friend and teammate, who slinks around inside the venting system, peering into Pointer’s quarters, she smirks when she hears Brown’s comment and sees that Pointer is not in his quarters.
Johnny frowns and crosses his arms in front of his chest. ‘Resting, huh? Been doing a lot of that lately…there ain’t anything you wanna tell me now is there, Agent Brown?’ he asks. Annoyed, Brown replies that Pointer will be fine in due time, and adds that he will set up a training session with the two of them tomorrow. Taking his leave and walking away from USAgent, Agent Brown calls back that he’s sure Pointer will be feeling much better by then. ‘Uh-huh. I’m sure’ Johnny replies. ‘Jerk’ he mutters when Brown is out of earshot, before holding his communicator up and asking Julia what she has.
Julia replies that Pointer is not resting in his quarters, and that when he is in his quarters, he is being watched. ‘No surprises on either front’ Walker replies, before asking the former Spider-Woman if she is scrambled. Julia replies that she has her scrambler on, so no one will know she was here. ‘Good’ Johnny replies, before asking Julia to keep on snooping to see what she can find, while he goes and talks to “the ape”. ‘Sasquatch?’ Julia asks.
USAgent replies that Sasquatch is the one that got Pointer involved in this mess, sort of, and hopes that he can answer some of his questions, when suddenly, Walker sees Julia’s daughter, Rachel up ahead of him in the corridor, and asks her how she is doing, but gets no response, Rachel just keeps walking past him. With concern in her voice, Julia asks John what is going on, to which Walker replies that Rachel just walked past him and completely blew him off.
‘She’s a teenager, Agent…it’s part of their M.O.’ Julia replies, smiling. Johnny replies that he doesn’t like it, and declares that when he was a kid he was taught to respect his elders. ‘What’s happened since?’ Julia asks. ‘What’s happened since…?’ Johnny snarls. ‘…’Guys like Agent Brown happened since!’.
Elsewhere in the CSIS complex, Agent Brown enters an observation booth, ‘How’s he doing?’ he asks one of the many scientists present as they look out the glass at Michael Pointer, who is currently tearing up some large robot in the training room. ‘Surprisingly well, considering’ a scientist replies. ‘Considering what?’ Brown asks. ‘Considering that three hours ago he had his head in a toilet, puking his guts out!’ a scientist reveals. ‘Does he know we know?’ Agent Brown asks. The scientist replies that they are clear, that Pointer told them about it when he came in for his session.
Watching the new Guardian dart about and fire electromagnetic blasts at the robots, Agent Brown asks how long he has been down there. The scientist replies that it is going on two and a half hours now, non-stop and with no signs of letting up. ‘And the suit?’ Brown asks. The scientist replies that it is functioning at optimum efficiency, with no power deviations at all, no anomalous readings of any kind and all systems are running as expected.
‘Let me talk to him’ Brown demands, so one of the scientists quickly replies ‘Linking to audio!’. Brown then asks Michael how he is feeling. ‘Agent Brown!’ exclaims Michael, replying that he is actually feeling great as he rips the head from one of the robots. ‘Heard you had a rough morning?’ Brown remarks, to which Pointer, puzzled at first, replies that he is feeling much better now though. ‘Good to hear’ retorts Agent Brown, before telling Pointer that is the suit helping him adjust to his powers. ‘Yeah…okay…about that. You guys any closer on figuring out a way to get me on an even keel?’ Pointer asks, to which Agent Brown assures him they are working around the clock.
Elsewhere, in a corridor lined with several doors that all have QUARANTINE written on them, several armored soldiers march the hall, ‘What the heck is going on up there?’ one of them asks, referring to the commotion coming from the training facility. ‘These poor suckers are getting drained faster than we can keep up!’ another soldier remarks, glancing at one of the doors, he adds that they are down to their last one now.
He peers into the glass panel on the door, claw marks line the wall, a pillow has been torn apart, but the soldier cannot see the inmate, until, suddenly, the criminal - Raptore - lunges at the window, growling, he cracks the window panel with his head. The soldiers move backwards, and one of them says into his communicator ‘Setting up prisoner 0-0-5-8 for transfer!’ as Raptore shoves his hand through the panel. ‘Saved the best for last though’ another soldier remarks.
Back upstairs, Brown asks Pointer if he wants to take a break, but as he dodges a missile, the new Guardian replies that he is fine, and adds that if it is all right with them, he would rather work out a while longer. ‘Sure, Michael…show us what you got, then’ Brown replies, giving one of the scientists the “thumbs up” signal, while downstairs, one of the soldiers remarks that they have been pumping Raptore full of juice all week. ‘Lord knows what so much mutant growth hormone will do to this guy!’. ‘Or to Pointer for that matter. Wait’ll he gets a taste of this!’ the other soldier adds as he presses some buttons a computer, which has Raptore’s headshot on the screen.
Back upstairs, Pointer glows in a brilliant light which radiates around him - and only grows brighter. ‘Here we go…’ Pointer whispers, while Agent Brown is forced to shield his eyes, turning away from the tremendous light. Downstairs, Raptore lies on his floor, motionless, some energy residual rising from his body. ‘This guy’s pretty much had it’ one of the soldiers reports. ‘Ready any available cells…more inventory has just arrived’ someone radios back to him.
Indeed, another container load of American costumed criminals has arrived at CSIS headquarters, unknown to the soldiers monitoring them, Arachne clings to a nearby post, and radios to USAgent that she thinks she has just found something….
