“You want me to go where?”
Abe Jenkins leaned back against the computer console that housed the artificial intelligence of Mainframe, whose computer generated visage was perched on a monitor just over his shoulder. The warehouse near the Hudson, their headquarters, was still mainly empty but a few lavish comforts had recently been added at Abe’s insistence. After all, he was a fugitive in two lives; both the Beetle and Iron Man were actively being sought after by SHIELD. The warehouse was the only place he could safely live.
“Hammer Industries,” James Rhodes replied as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Did I stutter?”
Rhodes was dressed in a fine suit, and even though he hated wearing it, it was required of him for his position as VP at Stark/Fujikawa, Inc. The morning had begun the same as it always did for Rhodes: wake up, go to the warehouse, run Abe through a series of tests, go to the company and pretend he was leading the investigation into Iron Man’s whereabouts. Instead of running Abe through a gauntlet of trials for practice as Iron Man, however, Rhodes had issued a mission to Abe that he wasn’t entirely happy with.
“I know that I overheard the Wizard say that Justin Hammer had hired him and the Frightful Four to steal tech*,” Abe said, “but I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to dive bomb the place without like, proof, or something.”
* (Last issue – D)
“You’ve been reading those law books, I see,” the simulated voice of Mainframe said sarcastically. “What Mr. Rhodes is implying is not a mission for your armored alter ego.”
“Bingo,” Rhodes added.
Abe looked between the two of them, causing the flaps of his opened bathrobe to swing. His mouth dropped open as he realized what they were asking of him.
“Oh, you can’t be serious…”
“Let me ask you this,” Rhodes said. “How does your resume look these days?”
MARVEL REBORN PRESENTS
Gorilla Warfare
Part One of Two
Written by D. Golightly
Abe adjusted the restricting tie around his neck for the umpteenth time. He hated wearing something as constricting as a business suit, but Rhodes had insisted. Even though the very thought of what he was about to do abhorred him, he had to admit that it was their best bet at finding out what Justin Hammer was up to.
Justin Hammer was one of the most vindictive people Abe had ever met. Back when he was the Beetle, Abe had made acquaintances with most of the underworld and knew who was pulling the strings on most of the hired operations that villains sometimes undertook. In his experience, Hammer had been the one who hired a lot of them. He had a thing for villains, for some reason using them as muscle when he could have flexed his company holdings much easier. As one of the richest men on the planet, Hammer had the luxury of throwing money around to get things done. Bad things.
“Mr. Hammer will see you now,” a red-haired and buxom secretary told Abe.
He stood up, admiring the waiting room one last time. The décor was nothing short of impressive, and he wasn’t even inside Hammer’s office yet. He tossed a wink at the gorgeous secretary as he passed. Hammer’s taste in women apparently hadn’t changed since the Beetle had last been in his employ.
Abe pushed open the large wooden doors and stepped into the office. The tile of the waiting room had transitioned into plush carpet that his feet simply sank into, the walls were now a dark blue instead of white, and behind the desk where Justin Hammer sat was a series of thin windows that extended from the floor to the ceiling. Tapestries hung to the right and a mini bar was to the left. The smell of polished oak hit him as soon as he let the doors close behind him. Without breaking pace Abe continued to walk straight to the desk, where he stuck out his hand to the rising Hammer.
“Mr. Hammer,” he said.
“Abner,” the CEO replied. “Have a seat. I was most curious to hear from you. I had thought you retired.”
Abe fell into the comfortable chair on his side of the desk and placed one leg atop the other. “Retirement isn’t something men like us are cut out for.”
“Too true,” Hammer agreed with a soft smile. He folded his hands over one another and leaned back in his own chair, which was obviously more expensive than the one Abe sat in. “So you’re still active then? My sources informed me of the little run-in you had with the new Iron Man.”
Memories of the ruse he and Mainframe had staged before the world circled Abe’s mind.* It had been tricky to pull off, but apparently it had fooled even Justin Hammer, one of Iron Man’s closest observers. “He botched a hit I had been hired for. Nothing too big. I’ll get him back someday. Right now I’m more concerned about the future, Mr. Hammer.”
* (That ‘fight’ took place in the first issue – D)
“Ah, aren’t we all?” Hammer stood back up and turned around, looking out through the thin slits that were windows into the outside world. “The future is something that few people can appreciate, Abner. As you well know, having been apart of my operations before, I don’t allow for random variables in my future. I anticipate it, of course. But I much prefer to guarantee my future as opposed to letting fate take control. Do you understand?”
Abe knew all too well how manipulative Hammer could be, and how he would be more than comfortable selling his own grandmother to ensure that his plans bore him fruit. “Crystal clear, Mr. Hammer.”
“Good.” Hammer faced Abe again, placing his hands behind his back. “It’s an opportune time to come back into my employ. Off the books, of course. But not for your armored side. I need not attract that kind of attention yet. I have a project that your mechanical expertise may be useful in. Would you care for a drink?”
Abe looked over his shoulder at the bar. It was barely passed noon, but that hadn’t stopped him before. He stood up and joined Hammer in walking to the bar, gladly accepting the poured drink once it was offered. He sipped it, appreciating the value of the softly burning brandy. Hammer sipped at his own before clearing his throat.
“Abner,” he began, “I find myself unable to allow any type of coincidence into my life.”
“I’m not sure I follow you.”
“What I’m saying is…I don’t trust you.”
Abner had enough time to raise one of his eyebrows before he heard something crack in the air behind him. A split second later something leathery wrapped itself around his throat, choking down the last few drops of the brandy in his esophagus. He clutched it with both hands as his eyes went wide, understanding the look of contempt on Hammer’s face.
“You remember Blacklash, don’t you?” Hammer asked innocently. The CEO took another sip of his drink as Abe fell to his knees.
He managed to turn his head enough to see the familiar figure of Blacklash, a one time associate of his. The green and purple fabrics of his somewhat gaudy costume were as unfashionable as ever, but Abe had other things on his mind at the moment, such as trying to steal one last mouthful of oxygen before he passed out.
“Howdy, Beetle,” Blacklash said with a tiny wave and an insidious smile. His other hand held tightly the handle of his signature weapon, an electrified whip that he wielded with great aptitude. “Don’t take this personally. Business is business.”
“I want him alive, Blacklash,” Hammer stated. He moved in front of the kneeling Abe and bent down slightly, so their faces were closer together. “I want to make sure he’s being honest with me. Tell me, Abner. Why are you here?”
Abe could only let out a gurgling noise until Hammer motioned for Blacklash to loosen the whip. The constricting cord let up after a moment, but still remained in place lest Abe get any ideas. “Money,” he blurted out after taking in a gulp of beautiful fresh air.
“Yes, it does make the world go ‘round, doesn’t it. You do realize that if I think you’re lying to me for even one second I’ll have our friend here send ten thousand volts through that whip of his, thus destroying your nervous system along with your internal organs.”
Hammer nodded and Blacklash retracted his whip fully, leaving Abe to rub at the raw skin around his throat. “Since you haven’t been in my employ for some time now, think of this as a reminder as to what our allegiance would mean,” Hammer said. “I now own you, Mr. Jenkins. Do as you’re told and there will be no need to revisit this lesson. Cross me, and die.”
Abe tossed another look to Blacklash, who was boiling up his whip to hang back at his side. It sickened him to think that at one time he had willfully stood beside that maniac, taking on the same tasks and doing the same distrustful deeds. Blacklash simply smiled gently, as if the assault he had just committed wasn’t any different than buttering his toast in the morning.
“Okay,” Abe muttered with his hoarse voice. “When can I start?”
“Hammer’s communications network is slightly more complicated than ours,” the pixilated head of Mainframe said. “But only because it is not as efficiently coordinated.”
Rhodes leaned back in his chair, enjoying the air conditioned atmosphere provided in his office at Stark/Fujikawa, Inc. The sun shown through the large windows behind him, casting a glare onto the screen that Mainframe was displayed on. He nervously played with a pen as he listened to the artificial intelligence’s play-by-play.
“They seem to have a neural net embedded in their systems also,” Mainframe continued. “Interesting. If I had more time—”
“You don’t,” Rhodes interjected. “Get in, copy the info you need, and get out. I’m apprehensive enough about you using our network at the office to ping your hacking off of.”
“The more firewalls, the better. Rumiko instituted incredible protection when she took over the company.”
“Even still, hurry it up.”
Mainframe’s head tilted to the side slightly on the screen, approximating the computer equivalent of thinking. A smaller window beneath his head scrolled information by at far too fast a speed for Rhodes to read, or even recognize. Everything was encrypted, and instead of taking the time to translate the information Mainframe had simply incorporated the encryption into his systems. He was effectively reading the unreadable at the highest over clocked speed his systems would allow.
“Hammer’s hiding something,” Rhodes commented, more talking aloud to himself than to Mainframe. “But as far as we know he didn’t get anything of value when the Frightful Four were here.”
“But SHIELD did.”
“Yeah, they did. Any idea what was on those towers Agent 13 made off with?” *
* (Check the last two issues for the whole fiasco – D)
“Basic templates for –screeeee-.”
Rhodes stopped fiddling with his pen and sat up in his chair. “Mainframe? You okay?”
“Daedalus,” the program said. “My name is Daedalus.”
“Excuse me?” Daedalus was the pseudonym that Mainframe had been using while covering their tracks within the Stark/Fujikawa networks. Rhodes wondered if the artificial intelligence was just acting in persona given their location. But the computer’s automated voice sounded different. Deeper. “What’s going on?”
“Sorry. A slight glitch while I was using my system resources to scour Hammer’s network.” Mainframe’s voice was back to normal now, once again sounding distinctly like a muffled version of the original Tony Stark. “I have located traces of a lone signal broadcast from inside Stark Tower during the Four’s insurrection. That signal, received by the Hammer network database, just popped up in my peripherals.”
“So they did manage to get something to Hammer,” Rhodes said eagerly.
“It looks mostly to be correspondence between Rumiko and one of the R&D stations. Nothing noteworthy…but…wait. Hold on.”
“What is it?” Rhodes asked, but his attention was ripped away from the screen by a series of knocks against his door. The door began to open a few inches. “Cutting transmission,” he said before closing the monitoring program on the screen and erasing any evidence of contact with Mainframe.
“Rhodey?”
Rhodes let out a small sigh when he recognized the voice. It belonged to Happy Hogan, an ex-boxer that had become one of his closest friends. Tony Stark had hired Hogan on as his personal assistant and bodyguard, and after Tony’s death he had been a valuable shoulder for Rhodes to lean on.
“Come on in, Happy,” Rhodes said as he stood up from behind the desk. “What’s up?”
“Sorry about busting in like this, Rhodey,” the former strongman said. “Ms. Arbogast said it would okay.”
Rhodes swung out from behind the desk, walking toward his friend. He looked upset, which was odd for someone with the nickname Happy. “She loves to send people in without warning. Don’t worry about it.”
“I, uh…I didn’t know where else to go.”
“Maybe you should sit down. You don’t look so good, Happy.”
And it was true. Sweat was beading on Happy’s forehead and he looked ready to pass out any second. He pulled out a chair for him to fall into and Happy gratefully slumped down onto the seat. He immediately leaned forward and placed his heads on his head, shaking back and forth slowly.
Rhodes was shocked, unsure of how to proceed. Happy was usually a pretty stalwart guy, rarely shaken by whatever was going on around him. Rhodes placed a hand on Happy’s shoulder and said, “Talk to me, man.”
“She’s dead,” Happy muttered after a moment.
“Who’s dead?”
“Pepper. I…I think I killed her.”
Even before he stepped into the laboratory he was being led to, Abe was impressed. The halls and rooms they passed through on their way to the subbasement housed random junk that looked to be more technologically advanced than what he was accustomed to, and he was used to working with state-of-the-art.
“Our project leader isn’t used to working with other…humans,” Hammer explained as he led the way. Blacklash followed behind them, making sure to stay at least ten feet to the rear. “But he’s hit a roadblock in his research, something I hope you might be able to overcome.”
“Who is he?” Abe asked as he scratched his nose. The sterile hallways smelled of disinfectant.
“His name is Ivan Kragoff,” Hammer responded without breaking stride. “He was heavily involved with the Soviet Union space program, but has since come here at my behest. His project involves flawlessly incorporating technology into organics, but you’ll see that soon enough. Here we are.”
Hammer stopped abruptly and turned to face a solid stainless steel doorway. Blacklash paused accordingly behind them and bit into an apple he had been tossing nonchalantly in his free hand. The other hand, of course, was resting atop the whip on his belt. Abe stopped just behind Hammer and looked the door over, wondering what was on the other side. The name Kragoff sounded familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it.
A keypad slid open and Hammer inputted a ten digit sequence into it. The mechanisms behind the door’s shell unlocked with a muffled thunk! and the door began to open. As soon as Abe could see into the room the name finally clicked in his head, reminding him of where he had heard it before.
Inside the lab were a dozen monkeys, or more specifically, apes. Giant cages lined the walls, keeping the crazed and screaming simians from leaping about the lab recklessly. They varied in size, ranging from ten feet tall and hunched over, to weighing barely a hundred pounds. Most of them looked to the door to see the new entries to the lab, but none of them stopped their howling.
“The Red friggin’ Ghost…” Abe said beneath his breath.
“Correct, Abner,” Hammer said. He stepped into the lab and Abe followed, but he noticed that Blacklash remained at the door. Given the rampant insanity he saw inside the lab, Abe didn’t blame him. “Commonly associated with his apes, the Red Ghost, or Ivan as I tend to refer to him as, is our illustrious and charismatic project leader.”
“Now I understand the human reference.” Abe looked around the room but saw no form of life other than the bouncing apes. “So where is he?”
The door suddenly closed behind them, locking in place. “I’m standing here…wondering why my benefactor sought to break the rules I instituted in my own laboratory.”
“Ivan,” Hammer stated coldly without a hint of agitation that they had just been trapped inside a room with a dozen mad apes. “Unless you want me to pull the plug on all of your research—”
“Yes, yes,” the ghostly voice said. Abe watched in slight amusement as an elderly man materialized before his very eyes, standing beside the keypad on the wall beside the door. His voice was dripping with a European accent. “We agreed that you wouldn’t bring random tourists here to bother me.”
“This is Abner Jenkins. He’s not a tourist, he’s your new assistant.”
The Red Ghost scoffed. “I’ll save you the trouble. I don’t need an assistant.”
“Really?” Hammer placed his hands behind his back and got the same look on his face just before he had Blacklash strike down Abe. “Then I take that to mean you’ve solved the rudimentary cortex interface problem?”
The wrinkles on the older man’s face contorted into a look of displeasure. “No,” Ivan answered. “But I will.”
“My time table doesn’t have room for you ego,” Hammer said. “Abner is a master engineer. I have confidence that he’ll solve your problems.”
Hammer reached passed Ivan to input the sequence to reopen the door. He shared a scowl with the Red Ghost before stepping out of the room and closing the door again, sealing it shut and leaving Abe behind with the older villain. There was an uncomfortable silence between them, regardless of the fact that a dozen screaming simians were rattling their cages behind them.
“Umm..,” Abe finally said. “How about you catch me up on what exactly you’re doing here.”
The Red Ghost scoffed a second time. “And permit you to steal my research? I think not.”
Abe recalled all the information he had heard about Ivan Kragoff. He usually worked alone, aside from his ape compatriots of course, so the fact that he was inside Hammer’s facility must have meant he was desperate. Or Hammer had something on him. Once a proud scientist, Kragoff had attempted to duplicate the process that had given the Fantastic Four their powers, using his apes as test subjects.
He was a genius to be sure, and his powers of invisibility, as Abe had just witnessed, were still in working order. He had to assume that Ivan’s ability to become intangible was just as healthy.
The Red Ghost brushed by Abe, letting their shoulders smack into each other. He began to attend to the closest of the howling apes, giving Abe an excuse to step closer to the cages and get a better look at what was going on.
A number of instruments were monitoring the cages, with wires and computers spread out along the floor in front of them. There were several screens per cage, each displaying variables that Abe assumed were vital statistics. Ivan shot him an irritated look but remained focused on the first ape he had come to, which had calmed now that its master was within arm’s reach.
“Hammer said something about meshing tech with organics,” Abe said while glancing over the equipment. “Does that mean you’re working on cybernetics?”
“The integration of a neural net into a post-pubescent animal is not something I anticipated as being so…difficult,” Ivan replied after a small sigh. “Not that I expect you to understand.”
“I thought you had a specific team of apes. Three of them. I don’t recognize any of these guys. What happened to them?”
“If you must know, they died of cellular degeneration as an aftereffect of cosmic ray exposure. That’s part of the research I’m doing here, attempting to stabilize the side effects. Now, unless you have something pertinent to say, I would prefer—”
Abe held up his hand, cutting the Red Ghost off. “When I first constructed my original Beetle armor I had a problem with rudimentary cortex interface, too. Hammer mentioned you’re having problems with that when we walked in. If you’re really trying to integrate that kind of a neural net with the apes’ nervous systems, I think I know where you’re screwing up.”
“I do not…screw up. I—”
“The human brain functions mostly through the correct sequence of synapses firing when they’re supposed to,” Abe continued. “I’m betting that since primates don’t have as developed a cerebral cortex as we do, their synapses fire differently. That means your base program is calibrated wrong.”
While the Red Ghost’s mouth hung open, Abe stepped by him and started to type on one of the keyboards connected to a monitor. His fingers danced across it, accessing information that was more detailed than what was already presented on the screen. “Whether you’re plugging these chimps into a toaster or a tank, they’re going to need base code so that their brains can talk to the implants,” he said as he typed. “I noticed the surgical scarring on Kong here. I assume you’ve stuck something inside him for whatever reason and now his body is rejecting it. Or ignoring it altogether.”
Abe stopped typing and swiveled the screen to face Ivan. The statistics that were throbbing up and down wildly when he entered were now leveling off, which made the Red Ghost’s open mouth form into a small smile.
“I have no idea what the hell you’re up to,” Abe said. “But I do know a thing or two about cybernetics. Whatever you implanted these guys with should work now that I’ve programmed in a base code. Now, this isn’t a full time solution; this is just the foundation. Given enough time I can program unique code for each ape. But to do that, you’re going to have to tell me what it is we’re doing.”
“I told you. I’m trying to stabilize the cosmic ray exposure—”
“Radiation doesn’t need stabilizing after the fact,” Abe broke in. “If these apes are already mutated then there isn’t anything you can do other than make them comfortable while they die. So unless you want me to go give Hammer the lowdown on you lying to him, you better cut me in.”
The Red Ghost opened his mouth to speak, but held his words back. The older man looked surprised. Better yet, he looked interested. Abe had waltzed in and solved something he had been working on for quite some time, and now the insinuation that he was somehow double-crossing Justin Hammer was hanging in the air between them. Abe realized the outright disrespect he had displayed by acting the way he had, but decided to just run with it. It had never been his style to just sit back and wait for things to unfold. If he was to plant himself firmly in Hammer’s operations, this was the only way he knew how.
He just hoped he wasn’t jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.
“Very well,” Ivan finally said. “You’re correct in assuming that Hammer doesn’t need to know about every aspect of my research. I’m not lying when I say that the procedure to replicate the abilities of my former simians was successful. The cybernetic implants do not stabilize the radiation, as I’ve led Hammer to believe, which you deduced.”
“So what do they do?”
“Increase their power tenfold by maintaining a steady stream of particles synthesized to rejuvenate the mutated DNA.”
Abe took a step back as he looked over the apes in awe. “You’re telling me you surgically implanted something into their cerebral cortex…that augments cosmic rays?”
The Red Ghost shook his head slowly, and his small smile steadily grew into a sinister sneer. He rubbed one had into the other, looking foolishly like a stereotypical mad scientist. If the image he presented was known to him, he ignored it, seemingly lost in the possibilities of what he was explaining.
“You’re correct…Abner, was it? I think that with your help I just may be able to take over the world after all.”
NEXT ISSUE: Abner has successfully infiltrated Justin Hammer’s company, but how far will he go to maintain that trust? Plus, Happy is arrested for murder!