Captain America nodded. "It's not only the right thing to do, it's also the best thing. As much as I love America, and respect her government, it is confining us too much right now." He took a deep breath, and turned to the door.

All of the current members of the Avengers League were standing behind him, waiting to enter the office of Henry Peter Gyrich. Only Batman was absent, not wishing to be involved with politics.

Captain America opened the door, allowing it to swing open. Martain Manhunter, Iron Man, Wonder Woman, Flash, Thor, Wasp, Giant Man, Captain Marvel, Vision, and Firebird followed him in.

Gyrich stood up, outraged. "Captain America! What in blue blazes is the meaning of this?"

"Gyrich," Cap said calmly. "We have something we would like to tell you, but it can be summed up in two words: We quit." He took a breath and then continued. "The Avengers League is tired of the restrictions placed on it by the United States government. We are not here just to be your lapdogs, we are a peacekeeping force for the world. And we don't particularly like the fact that we are hunting human beings, American citizens no less, just because they are different."

"Sir, if I may add," Martian Manhunter said, "what makes mutants different from us? From me? Other than the fact that I was born on another planet, I am just like them - born with special powers. And the only difference between a mutant and any member of the Avengers League is the simple fact that most of my colleagues were not born with their powers, if they have any at all."

"So, you see, Mr. Gyrich," Captain America continued, "as of now, the Avengers League is no longer a tool of the government."

The room fell into silence for a moment. Gyrich sat perfectly still.

And then, he started laughing.

"You think it's that easy?" Gyrich exclaimed. "Well, maybe it is, but remember, the government gave you the Watchtower, and the government has control of the name 'Avengers League' now. So, leave if you want, but remember what it will cost you."

Cap was a little irritated. However, just being in the same room as this man was enough to stir him up a bit.

"Very well," he said. "What we call ourselves is not important, so long as people know that we are there, and what we stand for." He turned around and led his team out.

Outside in the hall, Firebird caught up to Cap. "So, what are we going to do now?" Firebird asked.

"We go back to the Hall of Justice," Cap replied. "I made sure that the government couldn't touch that building, just in case something like this happened."

"What about the Watchtower?" Wonder Woman asked. "I believe we have some items there that the government has no claim on."

"We'll go there first, then," Cap said.

Meanwhile, in his office, Gyrich picked up the phone. "Yes, I have a new mission for the little group you've been gathering. The Avengers League just quit. I want you to send the team to take them out."

Katar was only half-conscious as the Badoon mercenary strapped him into a chair. Katar, still weak from Thanos' attack, tried to fight back. Another alien mercenary joined the Badoon in wrestling Katar into the chair.

"Carefully!" a powerful voice ordered. "I will not have all my planning undone by your carelessly killing the Thangarian."

The lackeys succeeded in strapping Katar Hol to the chair. Katar tried to break free. He failed. He spotted the large, intimidating figure of Thanos standing nearby, watching him.

"I don't want you harmed, Katar Hol." Thanos said. "At least, not yet. Your mind contains vital information, which I have traveled across the galaxy to extract!

"What are you doing?" Katar Hol asked. "What is this machine?"

"That is the Mind-Cyclone!" Thanos said. "Your entire self will now be wretched from your pitiful soul!"

A helmet lowered down onto Katar Hol's head. Thanos nodded. "Begin the operation."

Katar Hol screamed as his mind was ripped from him and recorded. After the operation was over, Katar went limp in the chair.

"Finally," Thanos said. "His mind is encoded in my computer. Take him away and lock him up securely. I may still have need of him if the first mind-scan did not succeed."

Katar Hol was carried out. Thanos studied his computer read out. I must delve into the unconscious level wherein the critical information lies. Information that Katar Hol himself is unaware he even possesses. Information needed to insure my plans to conquer the galaxy. The location of the most powerful weapon ever created . . . the Cosmic Cube!

"We had better make this quick," replied Henry Pym, aka Giant Man, addressing his allies, "I know Gyrich better than anybody here, and I know you can’t trust him farther than you can see him. I am sure he already has several plans in motion, and I am sure he won’t take well to us being here and occupying his ‘government property’. I think it would be our best option to just get whatever we deem important and get out."

"Agreed," said Captain America, "Let’s make this quick team."

"I will stay here and keep an eye upon everything," said Firebird, "after all, I don’t have anything here to collect."

"I will stay as well," declared the Vision, "I have nothing here of sentimental value, and besides, someone should stay here and monitor the systems in case Gyrich does have something up his sleeve."

Captain America nodded and all the other Avengers made their separate ways to their living quarters or anywhere else something they deemed important was held.

Fifteen minutes passed by quickly. Vision and Firebird stood by the monitoring system, as Vision showed her how to tune into government global security satellites to attain a view of nearly any place on the planet. Suddenly, Vision heard the crackled of energy behind him, and turned quickly.

"What is it?" asked Firebird, startled by Vision’s sudden movement.

"The teleporter system has been activated," declared Vision, "Someone is coming. Someone who has over-ridden the security system, because the system isn’t indicating anybody was on the way."

Firebird gasped as suddenly as another costumed group stood before her. There were nine of them, and most of them didn’t look like very nice people.

"Do you recognize any…" Firebird started, but was suddenly interrupted by the leader of the group. He was a tall, older gentleman, with silver hair and a suit of green, complete with flowing cape and large metal "T" upon his chest.

"You are trespassing," announced the green-suited man, "this is Government property, and we, the Avengers League, are here to arrest you for this offense."

"The Avengers League?" asked a confused Firebird.

The leader of the group was Triumph, a long-time government agent with super-strength, near invulnerability and a host of other powers. The ghostly looking one was a creature known as Phantasm, a creature with powerful telekinetic abilities. The large black bruiser was known as Holocaust, a powerful mutant gang-leader with pyrokinetic abilities, as well as super-strength. The costumed man in all white was a sociopathic lunatic named Paradox with the ability to manipulate time. The shapely female covered head-to-to in black, and wielding a sword, was an assassin known as Finale. The one with the wings and the black-and-yellow outfit was Killer Wasp, a third generation villain with delusions of grandeur. There were also three more women with the group-but Marvel didn’t recognize any of them.

Marvel thought for a second. As far as he knew, all of the ones he knew were either government agents, or currently in government custody. This was bad. This was Gyrich’s plan.

Marvel saw the menacing look in the eyes of the villainous group, and decided it was time for action. He had the element of surprise, and he intended to use it. He decided he would quickly fly into the room and strike through the group, disrupting them, and end with his hands upon Triumph, who looked to be the leader. He started his flight, only to make it a little more than four feet, and suddenly struck hard into something.

Disoriented, Marvel looked up to dizzily see a wall standing before him. He had run straight into a nearby wall. How was that possible?

"Ah," said a voice beside him.

Marvel looked up, and standing there was a tenth person, a man dressed in a suit of green and purple. At least, Marvel assumed it was only one person-he was currently seeing three blurry, disoriented versions of the man.

"Did poor hero hit his head?" asked the man sarcastically, "Mirror Master is sorry…"

<Captain America,> Manhunter spoke telepathically, <It would appear we have a problem…>

<What is it J'Onn?> he received in response.

<It would appear Gyrich had sent a large contingent of super-villains and government agents to rouse us from the Watchtower and apprehend us.>

<Suicide Squad?>

<It would appear so, or something to that affect, although they claim to be the new ‘Avengers League’. Looks to be a very dangerous group. Includes Holocast, Mirror Master, Finale, and led by Triumph. Also there is a suspicious group of three women in the back I don’t recognize.>

<Can you get into their heads and figure out what is going on?> asked Captain America.

<Negative, someone is shielding the group, and I have a sneaking suspicion it has to do with those three women in the back of the group. I have alerted everyone else. They are coming.>

<The rest of the Avengers League is on their way back here.>

"Excellent," announced Triumph, aloud, "Thank you Network, lets get this on!"

Captain America was the last Avenger to enter the room, and was disgusted by the display of all out chaos. There was no organization or thought here, just a mad melee, causing damage everywhere.

<Jonn, where are you?> questions Captain, hoping that he was still telepathically monitoring the situation.

<I am still here.> responded the voice in his head.

<We need to put a stop to this. This is doing nobody good. Worse still, if Thor or Triumph or someone rupture the tower’s integrity. We could all be killed.>

<I agree, but I think there is another problem we need to consider.>

<What do you mean?> asked Captain America, curious.

<Do you feel anything strange going on in your head right now?> asked Manhunter.

Captain stopped for a moment, putting the violence he was witnessing outside his head, and concentrating. Now that he was ‘looking’ for it, he didn’t notice a strange sensation in his head, an uncommon buzzing.

<What is that?> asked Captain.

<I believe that one of the ladies in the back is in fact a highly skilled telepath. I also think that the one next to her is some sort of power augmentor or vampire. She seems to be feeding off the energy of this battle and channeling all of her energy into the telepath.>

<Why are they in our head Jonn?>

<I believe the battle is just a distraction to get us all here, and that the real plan is for that telepath to get into our heads and manipulate them somehow. I am fighting her back, but the augmentor is getting stronger, and she is starting to gain the advantage.>

<Then we have to stop her now. Patch me in to the rest of the group…>

Suddenly, with their telepath down, all of Triumph’s group seemed to back down, all retreating and falling back behind their leader. Despite the supposed retreat Captain America held up his hand as he noticed several members of his team, especially Thor and Wonder Woman, looked ready to jump forward and pounce upon the retreating villains.

Then something strange happened. A woman Captain had not noticed before walked up to Triumph and whispered something in his ear. She was tall, with long flowing blonde hair and mesmerizing eyes. There was something very familiar about her, but Captain couldn’t figure out what that was. He watched as Triumph smiled in smug satisfaction.

Suddenly, all attention turned to the teleporters, as the familiar crackling of energy indicated the entrance of more guests. Two people appeared, both of whom were familiar faces to almost everybody in the room. One was Sarge Steel, the head of the government’s Taskforce M. The other was everybody’s ‘favorite’ read-headed bureaucrat, Henry Gyrich.

"Goodness," cried Gyrich, his feigned surprise a terrible piece of acting, "what is going on here? Why are you EX government agents here in this facility? This building is government property. Please grab your personal effects and leave here immediately."

Captain America watched as Thor tensed, looking as though he was ready to strike at Gyrich. He put a hand upon his shoulder, realizing that this was a situation for cooler heads to prevail.

Henry Pym stepped forward, "There is a matter of personal files on the computer system…"

Henry smiled, and waived his hand, and declared, "Please, by all means, remove them. We wouldn’t want any personal and…sensitive…material to fall into any wrong hands."

Henry looked at Vision, who went to the console and plugged himself in, downloading all the files of the system into himself, then deleting the files from the system, purging them of all the databases that contained information on all of the Avengers, and many other super-types they had encountered throughout the years.

"There," said Gyrich, all smugly, "Now, get your stuff…and get out of MY building…"

"Well, that was…entertaining." said Triumph, as he rummaged through his desk at his the Belle Reve Facility in Louisiana.

"Indeed." said the tall blonde woman standing beside him. Suddenly, her form began to shift. The long blonde hair shifted to a deep auburn color. The pale white skin gave way, and was replaced by skin the color of midnight blue.

"So, did OUR plan work," asked Triumph, "my dear Mystique?"

"Wonderfully," said Mystique, a note of satisfaction in her voice, "While you were busy distracting the Avengers League with Gyrich’s silly attempt to alter their minds, I slipped into the system and downloaded ALL the files. The best part is, nobody even knows we have them."

The real question is, what are we going to do with them?"

Triumph couldn’t stop the gigantic smile that crawled across his face.

"We will see, my dear Mystique…we will see…"

Gyrich had made his way down to the server room. One of Gyrich's computer techs immediately stopped what he was doing and leapt up.

"Sir, I was looking through the logs on this server, just like you said. A full backup was just done!"

Gyrich frowned. "Well, that's not unusual. An automated backup probably happens every couple of hours. "

"Not a scheduled backup, sir. It was ordered manually, and backed up to CD-ROM. The backup stopped about a half an hour ago."

"If that backup ended about a half an hour ago, then that would have been during the battle! " Gyrich stood threateningly over the tech. He knew that the backup had not been done by the Vision--this was someone else, someone unseen.

"You listen to me, boy. You tell anyone about this, and you're finished! You understand?"

"Yes, sir," the tech quavered.

Henry Gyrich had to face the possibility that the most secret information that the Avengers League possessed--their identities, their powers--had fallen into unknown hands. It was in part his fault--if he hadn't sent the Suicide Squad in to attack the JLA, there would have been no way that someone could have slipped in and stolen the data.

Gyrich thought he had taken care of the problem represented by the rogue Avengers League. Instead, new problems had been created.

Problems he had to solve right away, secretly, and quickly.