NOV 2002 - #5

Junta Rising: Part I Takeover by Toby Kernan

"What is the deal with this one?" asked SHIELD Agent Abdul Hassir, director of the Cairo bureau, as he eyed the prisoner being escorted to the transfer plane. It was not even four a.m., much earlier than Hassir's normal morning waking time, and he was hardly a charming person after a full night of sleep, much less when he was called from his slumber to authorize a criminal transfer.

"His name is Solomon Prey, a super-terrorist," replied SHIELD Agent Ami Lei, the agent in charge of Prey's flight, "We had to move up his transfer to Geneva. I hear he is going before the War Crimes Tribunal for genocide and other nasty war crimes. I guess someone got word someone was gonna try to spring Prey, and so we had to move his transfer up."

As Lei handed Hassir the datadisk, which contained Prey's transfer information, Hassir remembered Prey. "I know this freak. Slaughtered a bunch of villagers in Wakanda.* Damn freaks, wish the world didn't have so many of these super-powered scumbags runnin' 'round . . . "

*(see Agents of SHIELD #1 & 2 for the whole story!)

"Couldn't agree with you more," replied Lei as she watched Hassir place the disk into his computer and check the information. She also noticed Prey had been escorted out of the waiting building, surrounded by six SHIELD Agents, towards the waiting SHIELD Helicraft.

"It is a lot tougher fighting terrorists when they have rock-hard skin, or can turn into dragons, or spew acid, or whatever . . . " complained Hassir as he pulled the disk from his computer and handed it back to Agent Lei.

"Have a lovely trip." Hassir mumbled sarcastically as he waved Lei on and headed back towards the building. Lei smiled as she turned to join the prisoner and his escorts, who were about twenty yards in front of her, and about sixty yards from the SHIELD Helicraft.

As Lei began to walk make her way to the group, she noticed something strange seemed to be happening between several members of the escorts. Two of the agents seemed to be engaged in some sort of argument. Almost immediately, the argument evolved into a physical confrontation, and the two were wrestling on the ground, exchanging blows. Even more incredulous, the other four agents seemed to be enjoying the spectacle, egging the men on, pointing at the brawl. Meanwhile, they ignored Prey, who seemed to watch the spectacle with a sense of awe in his eyes that seemed to suggest he was as surprised as Lei at the agents' behaviors.

Lei began to run towards the group, but stopped when she suddenly heard a high-pitched squeal come from the direction of the transfer building. Lei had only half-turned when she saw, from the corner of her eye, the transfer building explode in a gigantic ball of flames. Lei fell to the ground, rocked by the sudden wave of heat and the violent spewing of debris all around her.

Amazingly, she turned her attention back to Prey and his escorts, and found that only Prey had noticed the explosion had occurred. The two agents engaged in fighting had not stopped, and the other four were still egging them on. Prey seemed stunned by the entire turn of events, and chose to simply sit upon the ground and watch the strange events unfold.

Lei turned back towards the fire, wondering if Hassir or any of his agents were still alive. The fire had spread, making it's way to another building, and now covered a wide area in flames that were burning high into the pre-dawn sky.

Suddenly, Lei had to turn her head away from the flames, as a large gust of hot wind blew from near the center of the flames. As Lei turned back, squinting, she noticed the columns of flames seem to separate, and several figures seemed to be emerging from the flames. Lei rejoiced momentarily, as she thought Hassir, or some of his agents had found a way to get out of the building alive.

Much to Agent Lei's horror, when her eyesight returned to normal, she found that the people walking from the flames were not SHIELD agents. Not even close. Worse still, she recognized all five people that were moving towards her.

One was an overly large man, nearly nine feet tall, dressed in a blue and orange outfit. He was known only as Powderkeg, a criminal that exuded nitroglycerine from his pores, making each punch or kick a nasty explosion. He was big and dumb and violent, a very awful combination.

Next to him walked a woman, dressed in a red outfit, complete with flowing cape. Her face was covered with a golden mask. Lei recognized her as the current Psycho Pirate, Vanessa Killgrave. She was a second generation criminal with the ability to manipulate emotions and control people simply by voicing her commands. Lei figured it was her that was controlling the agents.

She noticed the third member of the group leave the ground and begin to fly towards Prey and his escorts. She believed his name was Pierre Fresno, a French criminal who went by the moniker Cyclone, because he wore a costume that allowed him to manipulate the element of air, creating tornadoes and powerful winds. Lei suspected it had been him that had cleared the team's path through the flames.

Also among the group was a former SHIELD agent, Peter Van Zante. After being mortally wounded, and captured by Hydra, he was given an experimental procedure, which granted him the power of 'liquid psychokinesis'. Now he was known as the criminal Aquaduct, and had the ability to manipulate large amounts of liquid with little more than a thought or gesture.

Finally, the last member of the group, Lei knew quite well. He was probably one of the most famous terrorists in all of Africa. He was the former leader of the Wakandan Army, and former leader of the African Resistance Party. Today, he wore his standard attire, a white business suit with a nasty canine mask covering his face. He was W'Kazi, the White Wolf.

Agent Lei was stunned, she was unaware that this group even knew each other, much less worked together as a team. She wondered if this was some new faction of the Masters of Evil or something. She also wondered how she could stop them.

It would be one of the last thoughts SHIELD Agent Ami Lei ever had. Much to her dismay, Cyclone was not flying towards Prey and his captors, but rather towards her. Lei tried to grab pull her pistol from the holster, but found it impossible as she rose hundreds of feet into the air, then came falling back down at an extreme speed. She hit the ground with a sickening splat, dying instantly.

The five villains then turned their attention to the six emotionally-manipulated SHIELD Agents that had been guarding Solomon Prey. The two that had been fighting on the ground were already physically exhausted, and were easily dispensed by shots to the head from the White Wolf's pistol. The other four were quickly killed by Cyclone, who threw them into the air, similar to Agent Lei, or by Aquaduct, who sucked the very water from their bodies, leaving them nothing more than dusty husks.

Solomon Prey smiled as the White Wolf approached him and removed the shackles, which restrained his arms, legs, and wings.

"Hello, Solomon," replied W'Kazi quaintly, as though they were just meeting for lunch at a restaurant.

"W'Kazi," said Solomon, satisfied with his rescue, and the death of his captors, "I see our little plan is working beautifully. Quite a little team you have assembled. It seems our 'benefactor' was smarter than I gave him credit for. What about the rest of the plan?"

White Wolf smiled, "Oh, we are almost ready for that as well. This time next month, the whole world will tremble at the mentioning of Junta."

Valerie finally retrieved the dossier and all its contents, and made her way to the heavy security door, which led to the designated meeting room that Sarge Steel had requested she come immediately to. Valerie knew something big must have happened, because Steel never called emergency meetings.

As her clearance key slid through the electronic lock, and the door opened with a whoosh of cool air, Valerie walked inside the gigantic meeting facility, and made a mental catalogue of the other people present. Sarge Steel was in the front of the room, pacing and grumbling to himself. That was not a good sign. Sitting close by was Henry Gyrich, a presidential advisor and general pain-in-the-ass. Gyrich appeared deeply entrenched in a pile of dossiers that were sitting before him. Down the room several chair sat Alec Swan. Valerie had never been too sure exactly what his job was, although he seemed to know a great deal about the inner workings of every agencies of the United States government, even those, like Taskforce X, which were conducted with the highest confidentiality. Finally, across from Swan sat Thomasina Jefferson, President Kelley's Advisor of Foreign Affairs.

Sarge Steel turned from his pondering when Val entered the room.

"Thanks for coming on such short notice, Val," said the obviously-agitated Steel. "Please take a seat, we have a real pisser of a problem here."

As Val found herself a seat next to Thomasina, who smiled coldly when she sat, Steel himself as sat in his chair, and Alec Swan took the floor. Valerie stared at the well-looking man, with his gray-tinged brown hair, deep blue eyes, and very serious look. Valerie's father had mentioned Alec working for the government, and looking nearly the same, have a century ago.

"Thank you all for coming," replied Swan. "We have a very serious situation on our hands. As you all know, Suicide Squad is not a single operation, but rather an umbrella theme by which all of our operations, which use criminal operatives, are designated.

"Four months ago we placed a Suicide Squad in the African country of Burundi. Burundi's current leader, General Kaprada, is not a friend of ours. He took control of the country in a bloody coup and since then has made it his favorite hobby to execute any westerners he has been able to get his hands on.

"Suicide Squad was sent to Burundi in an attempt to lead rebel forces, in hopes of stopping Kaprada and placing a more United States 'friendly' dictator in control of the country. To this end, we recruited Raoul Bushman, a Burundi mercenary, to join Squaders White Wolf, Aquaduct, Cyclone, and Major Victory. Things seemed to be working well until a terrorist bombing blew up the French Embassy in Burundi, killing Bushman, White Wolf, Aquaduct, and Cyclone. That was around six weeks ago.

"Then four nights ago, this happened . . . "

Swan clicked the controller in his hand, and the screen behind him showed the devastation that had occurred at the SHIELD Transfer Facility in Cairo.

"Reports from we are receiving about the situation indicate that this crime, which was perpetrated to release Solomon Prey from his captivity, included our dead Squaders White Wolf, Aquaduct, and Cyclone, along with wanted criminals Powderkeg and the current Psycho-Pirate."

"They faked their deaths?" asked Gyrich, his brow furrowing. He had never liked the Suicide Squad idea, and now it was beginning to look like his intuition had proven correct. He started making mental notes about how he could distance himself from the Squad before the stuff really started hitting the fan. It was no secret that new President Alan Scott was not the kind of guy that would approve of Suicide Squad, if he ever caught wind of it. Gyrich liked his job, and the power it afforded him, and he wasn't about the lose it now, especially over a bunch of super thugs and criminals.

"Apparently so," continued Swan, "and it gets worse. Much worse. This morning, before dawn in the African nation of Wakanda, this little group struck again. We managed to piece information together from what SHIELD Intelligence had given us, and our own 'sources' within the country . . .

"At around 4 a.m., Central Wakanda, the capital of Wakanda, came under attack. Mercenaries and Kenja forces stormed the city. The Palace was assaulted by a group of super terrorists, and taken, in what appears to be a bloody coupe. Many were killed including several cousins and wives of King T'Challa. King T'Challa himself was taken prisoner. Before we even knew what was going on, the following tape was sent to the United States Embassy in Wakanda . . . "

Swan punched another button on the remote, and the screen changed to a very different scene. It looked to be a home video, which moved around the Wakandan Palace. It showed the Palace in a state of disarray, with bloodied bodies scattered across the floors and the face of destruction all about. Outside the view of the screen, screams and rapid gunfire could be heard. Eventually, the video came to the State Room of the Wakandan Palace, where, behind the desk of King T'Challa, sat Raoul Bushman. Behind him stood The White Wolf and Solomon Prey. All of them had smug smiles upon their faces.

"Greeting. We are Junta, and approximately an hour ago, we instituted our own military rule over the country of Wakanda. Now as you know, Wakanda is the world's only source of the precious metal Vibranium, and if you wish to continue to purchasing, and using the metal, it will now be done through us. Also, I am sure, at this moment, certain factions with SHIELD, the United States, and the world, once they see what has happened, will consider retribution against us for our coupe. I would advise against that. We are a very powerful group, with powerful allies, and our influence extends farther than you even suspect. We easily attacked and overthrew the most powerful nation in Africa, and we could do the same to any of you."

"Of all the arrogant bastards . . . " cried Gyrich, his face and neck almost as red as the hair atop his head.

"This is unacceptable," spoke Thomasina, her eyes transfixed upon the screen still. "Wakanda is one of our closest-aligned countries. Prince T'Challa was one of President Kelley's most trusted allies. He was at the White House for dinner just a couple of months ago. Not to mention the Vibranium exports, which are vital in several of our top research and military projects. Just what is this Junta, and how powerful are they?"

Swan began to speak again. "That is one of our greatest questions. Up until recently, as far as we knew, this 'Junta' never even existed. We were aware that Bushman and Prey were aquatinted, but none of the others had met them before they were combined into Suicide Squad, as far as we knew. Someone assembled them, did it with great speed and efficiency, and kept in a secret. We also fear that they had inside help in Wakanda, and maybe from the United States as well . . . "

"What," asked Valerie, annoyed. "Who? We were just getting over Waller and her betrayal.* Now someone else is working, on the inside, against us?"

*(Amanda Waller, former leader of Suicide Squad, engineered a plot to assassinate the President and overtake the Pentagon using rogue Checkmate and Suicide Squad agents. She was later discovered to be the leader of the Assassination Bureau when her plan was thwarted by SHIELD and loyal Checkmate agents.)

Swan continued. "We are not sure. What we are sure of, is that this 'Junta' cannot be left in control of Wakanda. The Vibranium is to powerful, and their centralized location makes it too possible for them to spread their influence across Africa. Not to mention the thought of a super-criminal run nation, especially one that was just recently in our employment, doesn't look all that good."

Sarge Steel then took this as his opportunity to join the conversation. "This is where Taskforce comes in. Now, we are sure SHIELD, especially after the death of several of their agents, has plans of their own, but we intend to beat them to the punch. We will be sending in two teams. Team Alpha will be in charge of finding and evacuating King T'Challa. We figure he is too valuable an ally to let go, and should someone be able to retake Wakanda, we want him back in control. Team Beta, on the other hand, will attempt to take out the super-human elements of Junta, hopefully thereby crushing this coupe."

"Are we sure this is a wise decision?" asked Valerie. "Can we trust a bunch of criminals to take down a bunch of criminals that went renegade from the same program?"

"Do we really have a choice?" asked Gyrich, visibly angered by this whole situation. "This one is going to be a dirty job against a bunch of super murderers that have proven they have no problem with killing whomever stands in their way. Now you all know how I feel about this Suicide Squad, but I say let them kill each other and God can sort the bastards out. What other choice do we have? We made this foolish mess and it isn't like we have our own Checkmate or SHIELD or anybody else to do it for us."

"Furthermore, I think this shows emphatically that it is time to accelerate the reintroduction of the Checkmate program. It is obvious that we can't depend on SHIELD for the security of this country and it's agenda, especially after that debacle in New York City.* Suicide Squad isn't what we want protecting this country and we simply can't trust the Avengers League or any of those other super-types running around. We need to get Checkmate up and running now!"

*(see the 'Manhunter Agenda' in Agents of SHIELD #10-12)

Sarge Steel decided to end Gyrich's rantings. "I agree Henry, and we will get working on that later today, but right now we need to take care of this Wakanda situation. Valerie, how soon can you get the teams ready?"

"We can start setting up teams immediately," replied Valerie. "They will be ready to go by dawn . . . "

"Well then," replied Steel, "let's get this going, and quick. We don't want this Junta situation to become any worse . . . "