Ben was tired, and it was beginning to show. His boss, and close friend, Oliver Queen, could see it. They had been close friends for years, and nobody knew him better than Ollie did. So when he walked through the door for his mission to Wakanda, it took Ollie little more than a glance and the sound of his voice, and Ben was off the mission and one his way to a two week vacation. Ollie had even arranged for this little trip, a two week cruise aboard the Star Princess, touring Jamaica and several other tropical destinations.

“Here is your drink tiger.”

Ben smiled as his cruise partner, Karin Grace, walked up to their chairs with tropical drinks in hand. Ben smiled as he made a careful analysis of Karin’s beautiful body. She was slender, with stunning blue eyes and short blonde hair. Her ample curves were accentuated by the small, blue bikini which covered on a fraction of her glistening, well-tanned skin.

Karin had been the team psychologist for Suicide Squad while Ben was a member. Karin had been spurned by her lover, Mark Shaw. Ben had been in love with Mari McCabe, the woman known as Vixen, and she had left Ben to pursue her interests elsewhere. Both wounded and rejected, Ben and Karin had found solace in each other’s arms. First they had been friends. Then they became lovers. Now there was nobody that Ben trusted and cared for more than her.

“Come back to me Mr. Turner…where are you?”

“Sorry Karin, lost in thought I guess.”

“Thoughts of relaxation and rest I hope. This whole trip is about getting you away kung-fu fighting and super-villains bent on world conquest. You need to realize that the world will survive without Ben Turner watching guard for a couple of weeks. So sit back, drink your margarita, and relax. Later we will go have a nice dinner, then go make a fortune at the casino.”

Ben smiled as he listened the doctor’s orders. He quickly snatched the drink from her hands, and twisted his other arm around her waist, pulling her down atop him. He kissed her passionately. He agreed with her assessment. He was going to relax and enjoy this trip, escaping his overly exciting life for a while.

“Hit me.”

The dealer handed Ben another card, a seven of hearts, and made his move to the next player at the blackjack table. When everybody had been dealt, the dealer revealed his hand, an eighteen, and checked for winners. Ben was one of them, with a twenty. Ben smiled because lady luck was with him this evening. A quick glance of his chips revealed profits of over two thousand dollars. A very good night, it seemed, and one he attributed to beginner’s luck. While he had played cards occasionally, and had even sat in on several of Ollie’s poker games, his only other time inside a casino had been chasing Angi of Jihad inside the Golden Veil in Atlantic City. It was a little hard to play the slots when you are trying to stop a religious fanatic from burning the place to the ground.

Ben tensed suddenly as he felt someone watching him. Then, noticing the combined scents of White Diamonds perfume and tropical tanning lotion wafting up behind him, he let himself relax and smile.

“Won your fortune yet Ms. Grace?”

“No, I am ahead, but no retiring yet. Looks like you are doing quite well for yourself tiger. I guess I know he is paying for dinner when we reach port tomorrow evening.”

“Deal, are you about ready to leave? I think I have about reached my fun quota for the day.”

Karin grace rapped her arm around his and pulled close to his ear to whisper. “I am ready to leave this casino and go to our room, but don’t give up on the fun just yet, cause I still have plans for you.”

Ben smiled wider as he gathered his chips and readied himself to be off. He looked around cautiously as he left, as the little voice in the back of his head told him that it hadn’t been only Karin that had been watching him.

Ben turned from Karin’s beautiful face and looked at the clock. It was four a.m. in the morning. Ben was a very light and restless sleeper, part of his training. It was not unusual for him to be awake and doing Tai Chi exercises in the pre-dawn. Today looked to be no different. Ben lightly kissed his sleeping companion on the forehead and reached for a pair of black shorts, figuring to find an open spot on the above deck to exercise on. He didn’t figure to find many other passengers there, and that was fine with him, hoping that those that weren’t addicts to the casino were all comfortably nestled in their beds.

Ben locked the room door behind him and made his way to the main deck on this level. Empty except for rows of lounge chair and an unoccupied swimming pool, Ben found an open spot and looked out at the starry sky before him. It was very picturesque and very tranquil. Ben liked it a lot, and placed this moment in his memory as one of his happiest. He then closed his eyes and slowly began the movements of his morning Tai Chi exercises. His arms and legs gracefully twisted into prescribed positions.

His senses honed far beyond those of a normal human, he still barely turned in time to avoid the blade, which was meant for his belly, barely graced his lower arm. Someone was here with him, although he hadn’t heard him approach because of his distraction by the sky’s beauty and his inner thoughts. Worse still , the attacker appeared to be invisible, because although he saw the blood from the wound which now existed on his arm, he had not seen the blade nor the wielder.

“Hello luv, long time no see. Big Mama Waller sends her love, you filthy bastard.”

Ben recognized the voice. This was the assassin Manslaughter. He is a mutant with the ability to make himself invisible to anybody who hasn’t made direct eye contact with him. A master of knives and garrote wire who likes to kill his targets before they even know he is present. He is an unrepentant killer who Ben served with briefly in Suicide Squad and later discovered was part of Waller’s Assassination Bureau. Ben had fought him before, when Waller had corrupted Checkmate and attempted to assassinate the President of the United States. He was a formidable foe.

“Why are you here Manslaughter?” Ben asked as he prepared himself for attack. Ben briefly caught a glimpse of him off his left flank as the assassin quickly moved, seeming to circle him.

“I have been waiting for my chance to bugger you off. Ever since you bested me in Washington D.C. Now I’ve found you, and you’re gonna die!”

Ben felt the rush of air move against he right side. Had it been a normal person, Manslaughter would surely have buried the blade deep into their ribs. Ben was no ordinary man. He was a skilled martial artist who had been taught blind fighting from one of the world’s greatest fighters. He had senses that were honed far beyond even a well-trained fighter, and he had fought his opponent before, and knew his style and tricks.

Ben quickly twisted to the left and turned his head to the right, catching a glimpse of where his opponent was when eye contact was made. Almost without conscious thought, Ben grabbed the arm of Manslaughter and threw him. He flew through the air, making a large splash as he hit the surface of the pool. Ben gave him no time to recover as he quickly leapt in after him. Thanks to the impressions left in the water, he noticed that the knife was still in his wet hand. Ben quickly grabbed for the arm to disarm him. As he did manslaughter recovered and gave him a vicious head butt. Momentarily stunned, Ben lashed out with a vicious punch to the ribs, which sent his assailant splashing into the water. Ben was lucky that this battle was taking place in the pool, because the constant disruption in the water and the outline of water on Manslaughter’s body made him much easier to battle.

Manslaughter knew that he was at a disadvantage in the pool also, and attempted to escape, lashing wildly back at Ben as he made his way away from him. He made in halfway out before his dripping body felt the sting of a vicious blow to the back of his left knee. Falling backward in pain, he literally fell into the arms of Ben, and instantly felt two arms wrapped around his throat, choking the life out of him.

“Alright luv, you’ve got me, I surrender.”

Ben returned to the room at around 7 a.m. to find Karin sitting up in the bed waiting for him.

“Out exercising tiger?” Karin smiled and said until she noticed the bandaged cut on his arm and the large bruise forming on his forehead. “What happened honey?” She said rather cautiously, “Are you okay?”

“I am fine Karin. I was walking with my orange juice when a group of young children swept by me. I lost my balance and fell, hitting me head, and breaking my glass, cutting me.” Ben lied. He had decided not to tell Karin about the Manslaughter incident, fearing it would just upset her and put a damper on their vacation plan. Manslaughter had been held safely, until a SHIELD covert team had discretely came and wisked him off to his new home in prison.

Karin eyed him suspiciously, then quickly jumped up and pulled him down onto the bed with him. She began cooing softly and rubbing his hair above the swollen, growing knot.

“You poor dear, I will take care of you. Of course, don’t think for one moment that this will get you out of dinner and shopping in port today.”

Ben managed a fake groan, then wrapped his arms around his companion, kissing her deeply, determined to make the rest of this vacation the time of their lives.

“Damn!” Amanda Waller wailed as she slammed her fist down hard on the table, spilling its content across its surface and onto the floor. “Manslaughter is a pure idiot. How could he be so stupid? I didn’t authorize any hits, much less one on Ben Turner. Where is that idiot now anyway?”

Chiller took the cigarette out of his mouth and rolled his eyes as he considered how he answered the question. He could see the fire growing in Big Mama Waller’s eyes, a sign that saying the wrong thing could land him in her foul graces as well. He didn’t want to be there. “Einstein was taken into SHIELD custody and they are transporting him to the new Belle Reve prison complex I believe. You still have a couple people on the inside and it shouldn’t be too terribly hard to get him out before they attempt to transfer him to Hugo or some other place out of your reach. Mabye, you should just let the little worm rot, serve him right, he coulda jeopardized our entire operation.”

Waller frowned in dismay, “See what we can do about getting him out of there, so I can kill him myself, and make sure for future reference, nobody decides to have grudge-match battles with any of our former team members. As a matter of fact, let’s just stay away from any SHIELD agents for the time being, because I have my own plans for them.” Waller wrinkled her nose and cast her gaze away, as if in deep thought, and reached for the cigar she had sitting in her pocket. As she lit it up, and took her first puff, she got up and headed for the nearest window. As she looked out at the stars, she sighed in annoyance. She didn’t like this. Not being the master manipulator. Not having the control she had when she was inside the government. She needed to get back into the game somehow, and quickly, before she drove herself crazy.

Waller turned back to Chiller, “Any interesting offers come in the past couple of days?”

Chiller laughed as he flicked his cigarette ashes and poured himself a glass of whiskey from the variety of bottles at the bar, “Mostly just the same old stuff; dictators, presidents, blah, blah…did get one fairly interesting one though”

“And that would be…”

“The Secret Empire send a request. A lot of money attached to this one, must want this guy nixxed pretty bad.”

“The Secret Empire? We don’t normally get hits from those self-righteous bastards. Who do they want eliminated?”

“Some scientist-type. I guess he lives and teaches in Seattle. His name is Henry Pym. Use to be one of those super-types, called himself Ant-Man or Giant Dude or something….”

Waller picked up her laptop and began to search through her database for available assassins. Waller didn’t exactly like doing other’s dirty work, but she had the connections, and the money was too much to resist. She was suspicious though, because the Empire had never hired her out before, which meant they wanted this guy gone, but didn’t want their own hands bloodied. She made a mental note to do a little research later and see if she could dig up why.

“Okay Chiller, Fatale is available and in Tokyo. Send her an email and get her on it NOW.”

In the shadowy confines of the Secret Empire’s Primary Base lies the Inner Sanctum, where the members have gathered. Little more than a giant cave, the stone has been worked to a rounded shape, with rows of seats placed outside and around the center. Here the members meet for important information exchange and council in times of adversity. This is one of those times.

Dressed in their ceremonial hooded robes of crimson and blue, undistinguishable from one another except for the numbers displayed upon their foreheads. Some of the members have assembled for a conference.

Number Three moves from his spot in the outer rim and moves toward the room’s center to address the other members, “Status report: Project 3XE. Outside forces The Reavers have been contracted to eliminate possible threat Forge. Outside forces The Assassination Bureau has been contracted to eliminate possible threat Henry Pym. Agent 13 has assured me that the threat posed at Azule Sol will be removed. The Deathlok model has its orders and is on mission. Agents Five and Eleven are currently looking into other possible threats, including Advanced Idea Mechanics, Stark Corporation, and several of the worlds ‘super groups’. Analysis should be ready in several days. End of Status Report.”