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The truth is you're 17. I’m not exactly sure this is the best idea for your life. Right now it makes sense but what about if you decide to become Captain America again? Better yet, what if you find you don’t really want to take care of a child? No one would blame you, but if you got into something like that and wanted to back out...
Appearing in "Who is the Big Man of Crime?"Edit
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- The Big Man of Crime (Mentioned)
- Villamos Cartel
Supporting Characters:
Other Characters:
- Julio Jiménez (Mentioned)
- Maria Isabel Jiménez (Mentioned)
- Henry Pym Jr.
- S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Director Nick Fury (Mentioned)
- Ricardo Berrios (Mentioned)
Locations:
- Earth-3116
- Earth
- Argentina (Mentioned)
- Colombia
- Cartagena
- Earth
Items:
Synopsis for "Who is the Big Man of Crime?"Edit
The chapter starts with James in his house with Carmen. It's been nearly 3 weeks since the events of the last issue and we see James working with Carmen on her english just as he promised. It's quite clear that the girl is progressing faster than what might be considered normal. They have a simple conversation in which James praises the girl for her work ethic and Carmen asking to continue their work.
“(Sorry Carmen. You know you’ve got to do some school work today. When I get back if you're all done then we can work on some more, sound good?)”
She nodded, but her expression was scrunched up in slight annoyance “(School work is too boring.)”
This had become a growing rhetoric of hers in the past two weeks, at first James had thought this was something she had said just to convince him to let her learn more with him. But the fact was Valentina and Teresa had both claimed she finished whatever they gave her really fast.
The grades they pulled from her school’s files showed she was always a good student, but there was obviously more going on than just that at this point. “(I know, I’m working on getting something a little more interesting for you. But just give me a little while, okay?)”
“(Alright.)” Carmen agreed. He stood from his spot across from her on the ground, and offered his hand to the child, she took it and they walked to the main part of the house where he assumed Daisy and La Bandera would be waiting for him. And Valentina would be there to take Carmen away.
It had been nearly 3 weeks since the last time S.H.I.E.L.D. had come to his place to talk about Carmen. Since then things had mostly stabilized.
He wouldn’t say the girl was fine just yet, but he hadn’t expected that to be the case for a while. However she was doing far better than just a couple of weeks ago. He had got to a point where he mostly knew how she was feeling. And in cases weren’t it wasn’t too bad he could usually come up with something for the two of them to do.
He found that like most kids her age, movies were very popular, and she very much enjoyed Toy Story and Hercules. She was also a fan of football and so when he had time they watched games on the TV and cheered for the local club Real Cartagena.
Not every day was as easy as those ones, and there were still days where she didn’t feel like doing anything at all, and on those days he simply did what he said he would and made sure that she knew he was around for when she needed him.
Nights where she couldn’t sleep, or where she just didn’t feel like speaking they all happened but James felt as if he handled them fairly well, and honestly he was happy to. It was nice to be useful in a way that didn’t involve his fists.
Beside Carmen’s mental development there was also the story of her possible physical development in regards to the Serum and more importantly the story he sold by the Informant about her and Banshee. He still wouldn’t forget the phone call he shared with Pym, and the sheer shock he had as he told him what he found.
“James, whatever that guy told you was correct, at least, mostly. I-I mean I barely believe what I’m seeing but it’s legit!”
“Calm down Pym, tell me everything.”
“It’s simple really, they were mostly right about the Banshee, it’s assimilated very well into Carmen’s system, it's almost a perfect match.”
“Almost?”
“Well yes judging from the original scans that guy gave you it’s an almost perfect match. Considering what I’ve analyzed in Banshee and from what you’ve told me, she would have been fine probably until her early twenties, around 22-23, give or take a few years depending on how much she would have used this enhanced X-Gene.”
“So it wasn’t fine after all…Damn it!”
“Well, no it wasn’t. But considering they were checking on the girl every year, I’m pretty sure they were probably working on a solution. But it doesn’t matter, we don’t have to work on a solution because she already has one!”
“Really, you don’t mean-
“Yes James, the serum! A normal person would never be able to use Banshee without eventual drawbacks. The small few who can manage multiple uses of Banshee are simply lesser versions of Carmen. If they had been born with it, they’d probably fare better, but their bodies are still good enough for a couple of uses.”
“Without something to slow down or neutralize Banshee which is naturally volatile and killing the system, you would eventually die. Still the serum enhancing her body will no doubt ensure her body produces enough white blood cells and antibodies that not even Banshee could destroy it fast enough…In fact, If I had to guess the Serum is so strong there’s a chance it could kill the Banshee entirely. In this case there wouldn’t even be something to worry about.”
“Wow, do you really think so?”
“Yeah, I give that a 33% chance of happening, a 64% chance of things staying the same but with the Serum stabilizing her, and a 3% chance of the serum taking things further and enhancing the Banshee as well.” “...”
“Of course I’ll have to do some more tests and it would be better to have her here in person, but I’d say with 100% certainty you have nothing to worry about.”
It was relieving to know that the serum wasn’t going to cause any real problems. But over the past weeks he had been thinking about that 3% number quite a bit. But perspective was needed. Who knew if she would ever get powers anyway? And even if she did there was still a 33% chance she was like any other mutant.
“There you are Rogers.” James heard Daisy’s voice call, she was standing by Teresa, leaning against the counter while Teresa sat at the kitchen table, both drank Coffee’s that Valentina seemed to have brought from her shop.
It was relieving to know that the serum wasn’t going to cause any real problems. But over the past weeks he had been thinking about that 3% number quite a bit. But perspective was needed. Who knew if she would ever get powers anyway? And even if she did there was still a 33% chance she was like any other mutant.
“There you are Rogers.” James heard Daisy’s voice call, she was standing by Teresa, leaning against the counter while Teresa sat at the kitchen table, both drank Coffee’s that Valentina seemed to have brought from her shop.
Another coffee sat opposite Teresa, and that’s where the young Super-Soldier took his seat, nodding to La Bandera and speaking to Daisy “Daisy, glad to see you.”
“You sure?” His long time-friend and once girlfriend questioned, “The news isn’t anything good.”
“But is it anything we didn’t expect?” James wondered, looking at the S.H.I.E.L.D. commander and La Bandera. Vaguely he heard Carmen and Valentina rush off to a different part of the house as this conversation was technically beyond classified.
“Well no. Not really.” Daisy began to explain. “As we expected after the number you two have done on the Cartel these past three-ish weeks, they’ve begun to pull back their men.”
“The streets are nearly empty.” La Bandera added, annoyed at the Villamos Cartel’s sudden pension for cowardice.
“Right, it’s not that this isn’t a good thing, but we’ve believed for around a week now that they are gearing up for a big move. And we pointed today to be that day.”
“Okay…and with Argentina coming up fruitless it’s probable that everyone is still in Colombia.” James deduced easily
“It’s just a matter of where in Colombia. And for how much longer?” Teresa tacked on. Daisy agreed with the two, but it wasn’t that simple.
“Right unfortunately just because the Argentina trail went cold doesn’t mean the Big Man of Crime isn’t completely up in the air. It’s why you two have to put things to an end today with the Villamos Cartel.”
“Agreed.” James and Teresa spoke at the same time. The situation with the Cartel wasn’t necessarily a lost cause, far from it, but they had begun to struggle within the last week.
They had begun to systematically dismantle the Cartel with the information Teresa had gotten on their shipments. And since then, the Cartel had been on the backfoot. With James and Teresa working together going from city to city, taking down any strongholds the Cartel had, little by little they began to see them less and less. It had gotten to the point where they were almost invisible on the streets these days.
This absence from the Cartel had given James and Teresa an opportunity to follow a lead out to Argentina for two days which ultimately ended up fruitless, they had thought they were following the Big Man of Crime but in the end they had barely found any Banshee let alone the mastermind of the entire situation.
At this point going to Cartel was their only option. It was a dangerous mission for most to handle on their own, and even for the two of them James was sure it might not be a complete cakewalk. But things had advanced to the point where they couldn’t really wait any longer. No doubt the Cartel was packing up and moving shop so today they were going to raid the place. And finally get word from Ernesto and Carmelita, who hopefully had more news on this so-called big man of crime.
“Okay then, Let’s meet up at our rendezvous by 7:00. I don’t think you will have to discuss strategy much unless you’d like to involve S.H.I.E.L.D.”
“...”
“...”
Right, judging by the looks on your faces I bet that didn’t even cross your mind, it’s fine I’m sure you two can manage this. Everything sound good?”
“Works for me.” James commented. Teresa got up first, stretched and threw her coffee cup in the bin before responding fiercely “I’m ready for war! But first, I need to nap!”
James and Daisy watched her leave nonchalantly before shaking their heads at the Cuban’s antics. “You’ve surrounded yourself with some interesting women.”
James agreed, though he wasn’t sure if this was something else with Daisy or just an observation “Yeah, I guess I have.”
“You know no matter what happens today there’s a good chance that this is the last day we deal with the Cartel. Whether it’s because we found the Big Man or not.”
“Yeah, their reign over Cartagena ends today, no matter what.” That was the least they could do. In his mind he had already taken too long in dealing with these gangsters.
“Good. Have you thought about what that means for you and Carmen?” Daisy questioned him pointedly, and from the way she folded her arms, and raised a brow he supposed she thought that he should have.
“Ummm, no?” He responded after a moment.
“No?” Daisy repeated once more.
“No.” James confirmed, but he supposed Daisy’s disappointed face meant he should have said something else.
“James. You understand the moment the Cartel is taken down S.H.I.E.L.D.’s focus will be switched to the girl.”
“Daisy I-
“I know, I know. I’ve heard the reports from Agent’s Davis and Jackson. Hell, you told me off a couple of weeks ago too.”
And James at least had the decency to look slightly embarrassed about that. “James when S.H.I.E.L.D. starts to look into Carmen’s situation including everything we know about the Serum, there’s a high chance they stick her with some government family, or at the minimum under constant surveillance with people meant to keep her safe, but not establish a true relationship with her.”
"If you are going to be that person who takes care of her, you're going to need to be thinking about these sorts of things.”
“I don’t get it, I thought I already said I’ll be there as long as she needs me to be.”
“James I appreciate that answer, but as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent that isn’t nearly enough.” The young woman admitted.
“S.H.I.E.L.D. will aim to get more than just words. They’ll want a sign of physical agreement.”
“Adoption?”
“At minimum the girl will become someone’s ward.” She explained “James it could easily be you if you want…S.H.I.E.L.D. won't have a problem with it, Fury and I both agree it makes sense.”
“I’ll be honest I wouldn’t have thought you’d be supporting this.” James pointed out, and Daisy sighed in response.
“The truth is you're 17. I’m not exactly sure this is the best idea for your life. Right now it makes sense but what about if you decide to become Captain America again? Better yet, what if you find you don’t really want to take care of a child? No one would blame you, but if you got into something like that and wanted to back out-
“I would never.”
“Anything’s possible and it’s a tough situation…But I have seen the way she looks up to you. It is different even from Garcia and Teresa. And I think it’s the same for you. She’s good for you in a way. Grounded you from something other than that damn shield. So I’m not exactly sure if it will work, but I can see it happening ya know? S.H.I.E.L.D. just needs confirmation from you and we’ll get started on everything.”
It was an interesting thought all of this. It had been a month and he didn’t believe that Carmen was fine just yet, more than that he planned to stay with her until that was the case. But if that was the situation then he should just take full responsibility right?
“Just need my confirmation huh?” James murmured, Daisy didn’t say anything but the hopeful look on her face said enough. “In the end it’s not up to me Daisy. Let’s deal with this first. Then like you said we’ll come to Carmen after. Sounds good?”
She could tell the former Captain had understood her words and so she simply smiled and agreed “Okay James, no problem, let’s focus on catching these bastards.”
With that Daisy left as well, leaving James to his thoughts. It was far too early to confront Carmen about something like this right? And surely she deserves someone better than him? He barely understood what it meant to have parents let alone be one.
“Well…Cartel first.” He whispered to himself, but suddenly it felt like there was an entirely bigger situation on his hands.
After that the scene switches to nearly 10 hours later. It's evening and the group is outside the Villamos Estate. The time had come to move. At the moment La Bandera and James were on one motorcycle outside of the Villamos Estate.
Further behind was Daisy, Agent Jackson, and Agent Davis who would only start doing their own work 5 or so minutes after they entered the building.
The Villamos Estate was a large mansion-like fortress with easily over a hundred men in the mansion at any moment in time. More than that they needed to be fast because if they weren’t the Villamos might have time to escape which would be horrible as they needed to be brought to justice.
They were also potentially the last link to The Big Man of Crime. The property was huge and privately owned so there was a decent strip that led to the main house where men stood large at the gate. Going through the front was probably suicide for most, but James and Teresa weren’t holding anything back here.
“Ready?” James questioned over his shoulder, “Yeah. This is it.” La Bandera replied simply. She was more than ready to go home after this.
It had been nearly 3 months for her as she had been taken by the Cartel a long while ago. She wanted to go back to Cuba and tell them that everything was okay, more than that, she wanted to tell them that she got to help all of South America and did it with assistance from Captain America.
“Good. Daisy, we're on the move now.” As James said this into his comms, he revved up his motorcycle and headed towards the large estate.
As he got closer and closer to the mansion, the one thing he thought was that he really wished he had his vibranium shield at the moment. But his energy shield would have to do. The motorcycle had gotten onto the front lawn of the Cartel’s large mansion, when a bright spotlight shined on them.
It was the first mission where stealth wasn’t on the forefront of their minds, and as Teresa dismounted from the motorcycle and began to head to the back of the building, leaving James to drive the motorcycle straight through the front door, it couldn’t be more obvious.
The young super-soldier ditched the cycle as it slammed into a group of men, before crashing into a staircase, a small explosion emitting from the bike.
As he launched through the air he landed in front of a small group and quickly got to work. He moved with the practiced grace and precision of a man who spent everyday of his life training. The first goon wasn’t ready for James’ axe kick, knocking him out in an instant.
He spun on his back foot and brought the heel of the other into the side of the next man, before flipping forward and punching the next goon in the face, the hit of a super powered being knocking him out almost instantly.
He had a moment to appreciate his work as he could hear men on all floors of the mansion begin to scramble to come to his location. However they would not give them a chance to get prepared. “Daisy, I’m clearing out the first floor, I’d advise doing what you can ASAP.” James told the SHIELD commander.
“Roger. The setup is nearly complete.” Daisy reported back, over the comms, he thought he could hear the sounds of their launcher being set up on its stand. This was good.
“La Bandera, status?”
“Still heading for the garage Captain!” Teresa explained between huffs. She must have been running as fast as she could to get there. Every second counted in this situation, and Teresa had the important job of stopping their getaway.
More men began to pour in from the stairs, and the warning that was given to James was the sound of bullets slamming against his energy shield, falling harmlessly to the ground.
James pulled out his own energy pistol and began shooting with the precision of a trained assassin. A firefight was what they wanted and he gave it to them, his pistol and shield against AR’s, Pistols, and he even saw someone with a shotgun though with his firing speed he never let them get close to firing.
After shooting down four men, James made a push with his shield to take out the last two men on the stairs, doing a somersault to avoid the rain of bullets he sprang forward and slammed his energy shield into the face of the first man on the stairs, and gave a harsh elbow to the next man sending him tumbling down the stairs.
“Cap, we're ready, just give the order.” Daisy’s voice entered his ears
“Do it.”
He got a response in the form of windows breaking and the men of the Villamos Cartel screaming in worry as gas filled their upper floors.
Every floor from top to bottom was being struck by their aerosol attack. James himself had placed a simple gas mask that would let him filter out the sleeping gas and tensed for a fight.
The top floors had been gassed heavily as that’s where most of the men would be. It was a fast acting agent, so the men would do their best to escape by going down. The Cartel had a lot of men and while James believed they could all be on Banshee and he’d still win, it wasn’t smart to believe he could do that before the Villamos managed to escape. It would be an unnecessary risk as well.
So instead this was the plan. In a perfect world every single one of them would be knocked unconscious, but in groups like these there were always exceptional men and women.
Knowing this James decided to take the fight to them charging up the stairs and heading to the second floor.
The layout for this floor was like a large party hall. His target destination was to get from the back to the front.
The mansion was large and there were many doors on the sides of the room that led to many other places, but James’ target was vertical.
As he busted through the door that brought him onto this floor, he could see 6 men with his one glance, most of them seemed to have some sort of covering on their face in the form of a t-shirt, or another piece of cloth. It was all they could do to stay active.
There must have been twenty men on the ground unconscious already which gave James high hopes. But despite the situation the men were ready when James blasted through the doors.
The gathered forces immediately began to shoot at James, bullets whizzed through the air but his energy shield once again did a fine job of protecting him until he took cover behind a large pillar giving himself a moment to analyze the situation. Their aim is impaired. They may not have been put under completely, but they are definitely feeling the effects.
Knowing this James tossed his energy shield towards the man closest to him and was satisfied with the smack-hum sound that resounded as the shield dissipated after slamming into the man. The energy shield would take a little time to charge whenever he decided to throw the object considering it would then need to regather the Zero-Point energy that formulated it in the first place. But it wouldn’t be Cap’s shield if he couldn’t toss it around.
His pistol was back out in that instant and he fired four blasts taking out four men before he headed into his pouch for the first time that night and threw out smoke bombs obscuring the view of everyone in the room aside from himself.
He had barely managed to take out the last man with a swift quick before the rush of heat that he could feel through the door to the next level forced him to jump backward. And as El Dragon and Machete burst through the door, enraged and unimpaired James knew he was in for it.
He was still in mid air when he dodged a swipe from El Dragon, but it couldn’t stop Machete’s scythe from taking a chunk of his costume, digging through it and creating a large cut on his abdomen.
He grimaced through the pain and managed to flip away from any more attacks, but he couldn't take time for himself as five men came in behind El Dragon and Machete. They lacked guns, heck they even lacked knives, and they just wore simple black tactical gear. And James knew that made them more dangerous than any other men in the building.
“(Is that Banshee worth your life?)” James asked the men behind El Dragon and Machete. Most of them glared in defiance, but he could see in one or two of them, the fear of what might happen to them because of this drug. Regardless, El Dragon answered for them.
“(They know their place!)” El Dragon snarled “(It’s their duty to do whatever the family needs of them. Ain’t that right boys?)”
“(Right boss!)” The five men spoke in unison. James just shook his head and frowned. At least they have a good chain of command.
“(Regardless. What you're doing here ends today. I hope you're prepared, after all I won’t go easy on you. Even after last time.)”
Captain America probably wasn’t supposed to taunt his enemies much, that’s the picture James had got from his father. But technically he wasn’t Captain America at the moment, so James figured it was okay. Keeping his mouth shut had never been something he was good at anyways.
It was seven versus one, and under normal circumstances far from a fair fight…Unfortunately for them he was far from normal. The room was tense with anticipation and as James’ blood dripped onto the ground once more, he made the first move.
He launched off his feet and aimed for Machete, arm corked back and ready to slam into the man’s face. He was sure the San Diablo native remembered how their last fight went as his face tightened up in anger, and his forearm lifted in a desperate attempt to stop his attack.
Though to James’ own annoyance, he never made it there. It was always going to be a gamble jumping into a fight only knowing 2 out of his 7 opponents weaknesses, but this was not a mission they had much time to undergo.
He was met in mid-air by a man who moved in a flash, his forearm blocking his punch…or at least it tried to, but it nearly folded completely inwards at the punch from the super-soldier. The man couldn't attempt an attack on his own, but it was clear his job was done.
He saw another one of the men throw a punch forward and a blast of high pressure air shot out at James and actually managed to cut his arm. It was a small cut as the aim was poor, and did more damage to the pillar behind James, but it proved that he could hurt James if given the chance.
James landed a slight ways away from the group of men, but Machete wasted no time dashing forward the moment James hit the ground and attacked him with his scythe.
The sharp tool hit a strong blockade in the form of the James’ energy shield, the clash causing sparks to form in the air.
As this happened El Dragon launched himself in the air and jumped behind James releasing a blast of fire that James narrowly avoided, breaking the clash between him and Machete and rolling to the side to avoid the fire.
This was a well thought out fight. James realized this as he got up and was met with the claws of an animal. A tiger if he had to guess. The Tiger-Man had grown large enough to break out of his clothing, his feral eyes clearly out for blood.
His tackle was clean, but his large paws missed James face and the creature was kicked over James’ head and into El Dragon who had clearly been preparing some sort of attack. I’m surrounded. That was the thought in James’ mind as he tried to leg sweep Machete and met nothing but air. Machete tried to counter but James finally flipped himself off his back and onto his feet, Machete’s stomp missing the mark completely.
Having said that, by the way his foot slamming into the group caused the stone floor to break up into chunks, James realized he should do his best to not get hit by that.
It was another blast of wind, a swipe from El Dragon, and then a blast of water and purple energy that seemed to scorch the ground which gave Cap the confidence that he had this all figured out. As the man with the broken forearm appeared in a flash before him once more James kicked his knee in, took the man’s good arm, and hurled him into the wind user.
So, there’s a teleporter, A wind user, a beast man who can turn into a human tiger, a water user, and an energy user backing up the main two in Machete and El Dragon. They constantly attempt to surround me, always attacking one right after the other attempting to catch me off guard.
With seven trained professionals this might not be a bad idea but…James thought was cut short as he met El Dragon in a clash of shield vs fist. James turned his shield just a bit making the Dragon’s fist glance off his shield leaving the Dragon to get clocked in the head.
He watched from the corner of his eye as the man with water powers sent a stream of the powerful liquid at him but James barely even had to move out of the way and watched as it slammed into El Dragon who had just been knocked to the ground.
Banshee obviously makes someone stronger but…most people don’t survive using Banshee once let alone multiple times when they don’t have an active X-Gene like Dragon, or some good luck like Machete. These men have probably used this two…maybe three times. It’d be impossible for most to master their abilities in the time they had with Banshee.
5 natural mutants might be a problem, but just throwing more powers at a problem couldn’t fix it. You’d need training to beat someone like me.
It was this final realization that made James ready to stop playing defence. Already aware of their patterns he wasn’t surprised when Machete pushed forward, throwing his scythe before proceeding to launch forward with his fist filled with fury.
The scythe missed and James matched Machete’s speed jumping forward himself, he could nearly see Machete’s growing grin in slow motion as he was so sure he was about to land a critical hit to James’ sternum.
Instead with the grace of a trained dancer James nearly floated over the head of Machete whose punch whiffed completely, and for that he got a strong kick to the head, sending him crashing to the ground, unmoving.
His shield was out next and he sent it straight at the wind user who was definitely following their basic strategy, but was shocked when the energy shield smashed into his stomach sending him flying to the ground.
The Captain was on him in an instant and just two punches from James had the man knocked unconscious along with Machete. The group of seven had become five and from the looks on the water users face, they really weren’t expecting this.
Once again James waited for the first movement of the enemy and it came from the man with energy powers. He could say that the man was a bit better than the rest of the Banshee users, but it still wasn’t good enough.
His attack came in quick and was fairly precise, just barely missing the form of the Super-Soldier. But the miss was costly, as one second James was on the ground and the next he was up in the air his knee slamming into the jaw of the energy user.
He then grabbed the man by his shoulders and threw him to his teammate the Beast Tiger who was charging at him.
The man caught his teammate but probably should have let him hit the ground as the action had left him open to attack. James launched himself forward and brought his hands together forming a double axe handle and smashed the tiger with nearly all his super-soldier strength.
He was the baseball bat and they were the ball as they were sent flying and crashed into a pillar. There was no hope of them being able to fight after that.
“(YOU BASTARD!)” Dragon snarled from his place on the ground. The man burst forward with enhanced speed, shooting by so fast even the water user seemed shocked. James was ready however. Years of dealing with Torunn and Azari had long since prepared him for high-speed combat and this just wasn’t good enough.
The attack that reached his first was the fire. It licked at his shield but wasn’t good enough. “(Yah, yah, yah, yah!)” El Dragon called with each subsequent attack. Two punches that just couldn’t make it past his shield, a roundhouse kick which did manage to push him backwards, and then the boy went completely lateral as he jumped forward and smashed his head against James' shield.
It was a fruitless endeavour. And James completely ignored the Dragon in favour of the water user. Crossing the distance between the two of them in a few steps, ducking under a stream of water and slamming his fist into the man's stomach, sending him unconscious almost immediately.
“(Bastard!)” El Dragon raged once more as he got up onto his feet. This time he was just a bit slower, no doubt he was regretting slamming his head against his shield like that.
“(Your him aren’t you?)” El Dragon continued fists curling in anger “(Your Captain America! No one else could use a stupid shield like that. I didn’t want to believe it but it’s the only way!)”
“(Surely you didn’t believe this was going to work.)” James opted to say, not directly confirming his identity “(Regardless of who I am the schemes of the Villamos Cartel end today. Tonight, your empire dies.)”
“(NO, I WON'T LET IT END THIS WAY!”)” Dragon roared before charging at the Super Soldier. James took off as well, and raced forward planning on ending this battle.
“(And who said you have a choice!)” James yelled back at the man. They met in the middle as they both threw their own punches, their hits colliding, in a battle of strength that El Dragon should have won.
But James was a smart fighter, agile. Grabbing his enemies fist and swinging himself around his first kick slamming itself into his skull and the second into his nose sending the mutant flying to the ground.
He twitched for a moment before he finally went still. James took a deep breath and grimaced, noticing that there was a good amount of blood everywhere, and yet most of it was his own from that initial attack. However he’d be fine. And things were looking good right now.
“Daisy, status?” James asked the girl through their comms.
“We’ve cuffed nearly everyone on the first floor and are heading up to the second right now.” Daisy reported to the Captain.
“Good, I’m on my way to see the Villamos.” James explained. The fight hadn’t taken much out of him, and it had been done fast. His anticipation was growing, would they finally figure out who was behind the Cartel?
“Give em hell James.” Daisy commanded “We’ll take care of everything else.”
“Roger that Daisy.” James called, before switching the line to his other partner “La Bandera, what’s the situation.”
“I’ve planted the EMP’s, no vehicle of theirs will be able to move they are stuck here. I dealt with a few men, but I’ve had no problems. I’m heading through a window to the third floor!” La Bandera explained to him. He could hear the excitement in her voice.
No doubt this meant more to her than James could understand. This information might finally let her go back home.
“Alright, I’ll meet you there. Then we can get them together.”
“I like the sound of that!”
With that said and done the two heroes moved from their respective positions and headed towards the third floor. On his way there James managed to patch himself up. The bleeding had mostly stopped and with his healing factor, he should have been fine by the end of the day.
The third floor wasn’t much different from the second. A string of bodies littered the old mansion and would be under the effects of the gas for a while. It wouldn’t be long before Daisy and the other shield agents cuffed and stripped everyone here of their weapons.
At the very least they had managed to destroy Colombia’s number one supplier. And if it turned out the information they were looking for wasn’t here, James was ready to do the same for any other countries that might need it. But hopefully it doesn’t come to that.
It was just a few moments later when La Bandera hopped through a window on the third floor. James gave her a quick once making sure her injuries were in fact minimal. And was pleased to see that was the case.
“Ready La Bandera?” James questioned the young hero. She gave James a bright smile and a thumbs up.
“As ready as I’ll ever be Captain!” She spoke determinedly. He nodded and then they proceeded to head forward to the office of the storied Villamos family.
As they opened the door, there was a groan of pain, and then two bullets were set off, but it was fruitless. Neither James or La Bandera found themselves having to dodge the wayward shots. Quickly James and La Bandera entered the room. La Bandera found Carmelita lying on the ground a cloth covering her own face as she crawled towards the large window behind their desk which looked to be ransacked. No doubt they were gathering files to escape.
James had quickly taken the gun from Ernesto’s hands, and bound them with cuffs, lifting him up and throwing him on the couch in the office, a few seconds later his wife landed right beside him. They looked at each other and to the two heroes in front of them, they could only call it a face of fear.
“(Look at my face. Look into my eyes.)” James started off coolly, “(I need you two to understand what you're dealing with.)”
The two gangsters couldn’t find it within themselves to disobey James’ order. Both stared James in the eye, and he found pleasure in the moment they both recoiled away from him, realizing just who they were dealing with.
“(I see, with a little time you recognize this face.)” James commented, setting Ernesto’s pistol down on his desk.
“(Just in case it’s not clear I am James Rogers. Captain America.)” His voice boomed authoritatively “(If you thought you had a chance to escape your incoming fate you thought wrong.)”
“(Compliance is the only thing that can help you now.)” La Bandera added fiercely, slamming her staff down in enunciation.
“(I don’t care who you are we will never-
“(Listen in a few moments there will be hundreds of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, here with convoys ready to pack up all your men and shut down this entire operation. The only thing that can save you a bit of grace is if you tell me one thing.)”
The super-soldier paused as he took in the faces of his captives. He knew that for all their grandstanding there couldn’t have been any loyalty between the Villamos Cartel and their supposed boss, whoever they might be.
“(I need you to tell me who the Big Man of Crime is.)”
“(Now why would we do that?)” Carmelita asked haughtily, laughing in the faces of James and La Bandera, it caused the Cuban hero to frown angrily, but she managed to show restraint in front of the people who had previously kidnapped her…the people who had nearly ruined her life.
“(Exactly,)” Ernesto laughed with his wife. “(If you don’t know the Big Man, then there’s no reason for me to tell you our secrets. Heh, all we’ve got to do is wait for him to spring us out.”
“(I have reason to believe that not every action taken by the Cartel was done willingly. That the threat of this so-called Big Man forced you all to do some unsavory things you might never consider under normal circumstances.)” James pointed out simply.
As he said this, he saw the fake mirth leave the Villamos’ eyes, they were replaced with desperation, even if it was just for a moment.
“(The fact is there is no freeing someone from the Vault. You understand you dealt in Superhuman affairs. Chances are you end up there, possibly even the Raft now that construction is basically finished. If the Big Man is hell bent on keeping his identity safe, I doubt he’d risk it on a prison break.)”
“(Especially since we all know that you two are just one of many crime families under his thumb. You're not special to him. You can’t fool us.)” La Bandera spoke somewhat harshly. However the effects were obvious, they knew that James and La Bandera were not disillusioned to their worth to this Big Man of Crime. And it was a harrowing thought to be stuck in the Raft with other super-powered criminals.
However the effects were obvious, they knew that James and La Bandera were not disillusioned to their worth to this Big Man of Crime. And it was a harrowing thought to be stuck in the Raft with other super-powered criminals.
“(The fact is without proof you're destined to be put in jail with the likes of Omega Red, Radioactive Man, Knockout, and the Wrecking Crew just to name a few. However if you can prove you weren’t dealing with Banshee willingly you could end up in a much better position. Maybe they won’t even sentence you to jail for life.)” James explained to the crime family.
“(So…I’m going to ask one more time.)” James took his time, looking at Ernesto and Carmelita dead in the eyes once again “Who is the Big Man of Crime?”
For La Bandera time seemed to stretch on forever as the two crime lords looked to each other in silent communication. She dared not look away from them and could only grip her staff tighter with sweaty palms as this terrible time seemed to be coming to an end. For a moment her faith faltered and she worried that Captain America’s words had not been enough. But as Ernesto sighed in resignation, she could not keep the intrigue and happiness off of her face.
“(Okay…alright, you make a compelling argument.)” Ernesto admitted. “(You’ve got to promise me that we won’t get into the Raft or the Vault. An-)”
“(The only thing I will promise is that we will be fair. You won’t be given time for anything you didn’t do. I can promise that. And if you didn’t do anything that would put you in the superhuman prisons, you won’t go to the Raft or the Vault. However, I can’t guarantee your prison time and you know that.)” James ignored his demands.
“(Fine, fine, it was worth a shot.)” Ernesto muttered derisively. It was quiet for a moment and once again Teresa wanted to tell them that time was of the essence. But once more Ernesto started speaking.
“(I know when I’ve been beat. You two came close, but you were never going to find pure evidence of the Big Man here because he always uses a proxy.)” Ernesto began matter of factly.
“(You see Mr. America, the one you’ve been looking for…The so-called Big Man of Crime is…)”
TO BE CONTINUED!
NotesEdit
Sentences that are formatted "(like so)" indicate that they characters are speaking in another language, in this case, they are speaking Spanish.
Carmen is smarter than the average child. This is something that was relevant before she was given the serum, with the serum now, she is something of a child prodigy. However James and the others don't seem keen on pushing her into anything like that right now.
This is only the second true cliffhanger in the 3116 Universe.
In this chapter James introduces himself and constantly thinks of himself as Captain America, Moreso than he had in the previous chapters of the entire series. It shows that when it comes down to it that's always who he will be.
James seems to have fully warmed up to the idea of taking care of Carmen, however now he simply isn't sure if he's exactly what Carmen needs. He figures that in the end he will let her choose if she to stay with him or not.
In an interview Capt10America explained Banshee like this: Banshee is a volatile drug that most people don't survive after one use. El Dragon can use it multiple times because he's a mutant with an X-Gene however even though most mutants could use it, it still does things like heighten aggression, and it still does burn out the X-Gene after a while. It's incomplete and not perfect so even someone like El Dragon could die after too many uses.
With Machete he is like Carmen in a way. Carmen isn't the only person in the world with good genetics suited towards Banshee, but she was the one the Jimenez family tested on. Machete has good base genetics and a bit of luck, so he has managed multiple uses (6-8 times). However even he is a risk of dying if he uses it much more.
The other mutants shown using Banshee are purely lucky. Most of them have used it once or twice and genetics don't play that big of a factor for them. They are more suited than most but could have died anytime there and probably would die if they used again. It's why they aren't that great with their powers, because they don't use them much.
Carmen's body is now the perfect catalyst to stabilize Banshee. As previously stated her X-Gene has perfectly merged with the Banshee meaning if her X-Gene ever activates she would more than like have heightened abilities. This is possible because of the Serum which has enhanced her physical body in a such way that Banshee could not put enough strain on it. However the serum also has the chance of destroying the Banshee completely.
There is a 3% chance the serum also enhances the Banshee to heights unknown to mutants. There's also a chance that all of this is irrelevant as Carmen's X-Gene could still never activate.
S.H.I.E.L.D. believes it would be best that James takes care of Carmen as their would be no one better to protect her from those who might want the serum, though at the moment it is one of the world's best kept secrets.
TriviaEdit
- No trivia.
See AlsoEdit
Recommended ReadingEdit
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Links and ReferencesEdit
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