AUG 2002 - #41

The Fall of The House of Shaw by Paul Hahn

Nightwing and the White Queen were standing guard over the unconscious bodies of Alpha Flight, a team of Canadian heroes that Young Justice took down after a misunderstanding lead to a fight. Alpha had come to take down the Hellfire Club. Nightwing has been kicking himself repeatedly, since his team stopped Alpha from doing something good.

Chuck Barnes heard the shot. He responded instinctively, without thinking. His bo-staff enlarged and he swung, apparently at nothing. The bullet was knocked away at an incredible speed.

The White Queen spun around, looking wide-eyed at Nightwing. With another split second, Chuck tackled Frost and knocked them both to the ground. Five more shots were fired, and then silence.

"What in the world . . . ?" Emma Frost asked.

"Stay here!" Nightwing yelled. He stood quickly and began to sprint towards the direction of the shots, leaving a dazed and confused White Queen behind.

In a matter of seconds he had crossed the short field ahead of him and entered the thick, dense forest that surrounded the mansion. Most of Canada was still a wilderness. It would be hard to find anyone in those woods.

Chuck didn't slow down. He moved quickly, ducking under low branches and side-stepping trees, hopping over bushes and fallen trunks. He was focusing his every sense, as he had been trained to do by Batman. His ears were straining to pick up any way-word sounds, his eyes alert for any movement.

Whoever it was, he was aiming for Frost alone, that much I could gather. Probably thought that it would be an easy target from this far out. I probably surprised the crap out of him. I surprised the crap out of Frost. Heck, I even surprised the crap outta myself!

He continued moving forward, his pace slowing slightly.

If this guy is a professional, he could be anywhere. Heck, he might even be gone. I didn't hear any kind of transportation, though. He could be hiding somewhere, waiting for me. Maybe even waiting for me to chase after him, so no one could protect Emma. That's unlikely, though. But I could be walking right into a trap . . .

Without warning, a man dropped from a tree branch above and tackled Nightwing to the ground. Chuck tensed and managed to kick both feet together into the man's shins, causing him to roll off slightly.

Nightwing rolled free and quickly got to his feet. His opponent was wearing a full suit of orange armor. Nightwing quickly enlarged his bo-staff again, but a kick from the masked man knocked it aside.

Chuck replied with a kick to the man's head, and a second to his chest, knocking him into a tree. The man then grabbed his gun from a holster on his right side. Nightwing grabbed a batarang off his belt and flung it right into the front of the gun, smashing the nozzle. Chuck then punched the man in the face.

The man replied with a blast of intense energy fired from his fists, sending Nightwing flying back and landing hard on the ground.

Chuck coughed. "Who are you?"

"The name's Maverick," the man replied as he pulled out a second gun. "My target was Frost. You shouldn't've interfered, American."

"Sorry," Nightwing said. He had reached a hand into a pouch on his belt and pulled out a trio of smoke bombs. He released them quickly, and smoke instantly filled the area.

Nightwing leapt to his feet and gave another hard punch to the man's face. A kick disarmed him. He kicked Maverick a second time against a tree and used a batarang with a rope to quickly tie the man to it. The smoke began to fade.

"Alright," Chuck said, "answers. Now. Who are you? Who do you work for? What do you want?"

Maverick shook his head. "All you need to know is that I'm here to take down the Hellfire Club leaders before Shaw completes his ultimate plans here. There's almost no time left, and all the deaths afterwards are gonna be on your hands, now."

"What do you mean, Shaw's ultimate plans?" Nightwing asked. "My team came here to find Shaw . . . Frost said he was missing."

"Missing?" Maverick asked. "No. He's been here the whole time, plotting with those twins. They've created a Super Sentinel . . . some sort of massive, mutant-hunting robot. But only it doesn't hunt mutants . . . it hunts humans. If it gets released, well . . . I'm not sure anything can stop it."

Superboy, Phoenix, Jolt, and Impulse were in the middle of a fight with a small army of Hellfire guards, as Northstar and Aurora watched.

"This fight would be over in two seconds," Superboy said, punching another one, "if we only had room to maneuver. As it is, all I can do is swing my arms and hope to connect!"

"At least the room's too crowded for them to start shooting at us," Jolt said in reply, shock-punching another guard.

Impulse's arms were going at Super-speed, battering the guards with ease.

"Enough of this," Phoenix said. She slowly took to the air, hovering above the guards with her telekinesis. "Northstar. Aurora. End this. You have no hope of defeating me."

Northstar grinned. "We don't have to defeat you, really. All we have to do is keep you occupied a little while longer."

"And believe me," Aurora said, "we've got the guards to do that."

With a snap of her fingers, more guards flooded the room with ease. Several joined the twins on the balcony and began firing their weapons at Phoenix, whose telekinetic shields absorbed the impacts.

Suddenly, the wall that made up the entrance was smashed down. Sasquatch stood in the entrance. He looked angry.

Behind him stood Puck, Snowbird, Murmur, Vindicator and the White Queen.

"Give it up, twins," Frost said, her diamond skin covering her body. "You won't win this fight."

"We will yet," Northstar said. He took Aurora's hand, and the two began to float. Then, they both nodded in unison, and a blinding white light flashed forward from them, completely blinding every hero in the room. The Hellfire Guards' masks protected them from the affects. Northstar grinned. "See."

"You?!" Arrowette exclaimed as she entered the large room. Empress and Rebel stood right behind her.

"Yes . . . me."

Sebastian Shaw stood inside the middle of the room, watching the three heroes with interest in his eyes.

"We came here to find you," Empress said.

"Well, you've found me," Shaw replied. "Now, you should leave."

"Frost said you'd gone missing," Arrowette continued. "She thought Northstar and Aurora had kidnapped you or something."

"I'm afraid it's quite the opposite," Shaw said. "I've been here, working with the twins the whole time. Frost probably came out of fear that we would destroy her."

"But . . . why?" Empress asked. "What's going on?"

Shaw sighed. "You see, my Inner Circle fell apart. Contessa and Klarion fled to do their own thing. Firebird freed herself from Wyngarde's control, who was then made to go insane. Sunspot was revealed to be a traitor, and Tessa soon after that. Frost was all that was left . . . and she only managed to have the Hellions, my mutant army, slaughtered by a group of mutants called the Marauders."

"The Hellions are . . . dead?" Arrowette asked.

"Ah . . . she didn't tell you," Shaw grinned. "Excellent. She's probably still in denial. But anyways . . . my Inner Circle proved useless. I decided to take a new approach or two to this whole conquest thing. My first instinct was biological warfare. I had chief scientists in the Tokyo branch working to create a new, deadly virus . . . as well as it's cure. A cure that only I would possess. It seemed to be quite the genius plan . . . but started to take too long. So, I figured, since I still had access to all that Sentinel stuff, I would build an all new, all powerful Super Sentinel that could wipe out millions of normal humans and pave the way for a mutant take-over."

"You're insane," Empress said.

"Not really," Shaw shrugged. "I'm just getting tired of waiting."

"Well, we're gonna take you down!" Arrowette asked.

Rebel leapt at Shaw and began attacking him with an incredible fury. Shaw was unable to block any of her moves, and all her hits connected with incredible accuracy. Shaw fell to the floor, but was laughing.

"I see you forgot to inform your new teammates about me," he grinned. "I'm an energy absorber-rechanneler. You just made me that much stronger."

Shaw punched Rebel and sent her flying across the room. He lunged forward at Empress, grabbing her neck. She teleported behind him in a puff of smoke and kicked him.

"No," Arrowette said. "Don't touch him! We need to hit him with something he can't absorb . . . like one of my flame arrows!"

"If only you had the chance," Shaw said as he sprinted at and kicked Arrowette, knocking her down. "Next?"

"Everyone remain calm," Phoenix said. "I've locked on to your thought patterns. Hold still."

Everyone felt a big rush, like a hard wind blowing past them.

"I've telekinetically forced out every single Hellfire guard," she said. "I'm using my telepathy to see . . . and everyone's gone, even the twins."

"How long is this blindness gonna last?" Puck asked.

"Maybe another thirty seconds," Phoenix said. "So just give it a moment, and then we can continue."

Everyone's eyes slowly readjusted and returned to normal.

"Hey gang," Nightwing said as he walked in with Maverick. "Everything okay?"

"No," Superboy said. "The twins disappeared, and we still don't know where Arrowette and the others are."

"They're probably all in the same place," Maverick said. "Underground, with Shaw."

"With Shaw?" Frost asked.

"He's built some sort of super-sentinel," Nightwing explained. "We've got to stop it."

"Who's the new guy?" Jolt asked.

"His name is Maverick," Vindicator frowned. "He's a mercenary, wanted by governments all over the world."

"I'm a mutant freedom fighter," Maverick frowned. "But we can sort out the details later. Right now, Shaw's gotta be stopped."

"Underground, you say?" Phoenix asked.

"Yup . . . about maybe a hundred fifty feet?" Maverick replied.

"Okay," Phoenix nodded. Her bird of fire appeared around her body. She gripped all the people present telekinetically, lifting them into the air.

"Uh . . . Linda?" Nightwing asked.

With a concentrated blast of energy coming from her body, the ground beneath them was torn open and a whole was dug straight down. In a matter of moments, the basement was uncovered. She began to lower them all down.

"Whoa," Snowbird gasped.

"You can do that?" Superboy asked in surprise.

"I'm finding there's very little I can't do," Phoenix replied. "Our teammates are down there . . . as well as our foes. Be ready."

In a matter of moments, Young Justice, Alpha Flight, Maverick and the White Queen stood on the basement floor, at one end of the room. At the other stood Northstar, Aurora and Shaw.

"About time you guys showed up," Arrowette said as she, Rebel and Empress joined the group.

"Give it up," Nightwing demanded. "It's over, Shaw."

"I'm afraid not," Shaw replied. "It's only just begun."

"No," the White Queen grinned. "It's over."

Shaw and the twins suddenly dropped to their knees, shaking in pain.

The heroes all turned to see Frost smiling wickedly. In a few more moments, the trio of enemies laid down, unconscious.

"What the hell was that?" Superboy asked angrily.

"I disabled them telepathically," Frost replied.

"As well as picked their brains for every little useful bit of information you could find, I'll bet," Nightwing frowned.

"We had a deal, boy," Frost said. "You've kept up your end, I'll keep up mine. You'll never have to deal with interference from the Hellfire Club ever again. As for you, Alpha Flight, here. Bring in those three mutants, and consider the Hellfire Club taken down. And I know that this little Maverick just wants to see the robot destroyed. Very well . . . after we leave, you're free to set charges throughout the basement and make sure all this is destroyed. Is everyone satisfied?"

"I don't like it," Arrowette frowned.

"You'll get over it, child," Frost grinned. "You'll get over it."

And inside her mind flashed every piece of information Shaw, Northstar or Aurora ever had. In her mind flashed everything that was stored in the computers at the facility. She knew everything. Her mission was a complete success. She kept on grinning.