Mister Fear
After escorting Callisto back to Skids' and the X-Cell's hideout in the tunnels, the heroes were greeted with a tearful reunion. The Morlocks in attendance took Callisto in their arms. Despite having ceded leadership over the Morlock collective to a Mutant named Masque, whose extremism and hatred towards humanity many in the Morlock community disagree with, many Morlock considered Callisto their leader. Black Widow had awoken from her recuperative slumber and embraced Daredevil as he entered. She was still wounded, but the healing properties of the Morlocks abilities were incredible. If she had not received attention she would have died from her injuries. Regaining consciousness and learning that her rekindled love was away in what could have been a fatal conquest worries her. Both were dramatically relieved at the safety and well-being of the other. Iron Fist approached Misty Knight and spoke to her briefly about the events that had occured in the Marauder's lair. It was the first time they had spoken personally in quite some time. At one time the two nurtured a romance and deep affectionate love for one another. It had even produced a child from their intimacy, but it was the loss of very child and calamitous events that occurred afterwards that estranged the two. Danny Rand had been busy trying to help and save the world, as well as gallivanting away to K'un-L'un every time it faced the threat of evil. For a moment the two reveled in his victory.
Holding true to her end of the bargain, Skids agreed to escort Moon Knight, Daredevil, Iron Fist, Powerman, and Johnny Bifrost to Mister Fear's lair. Callisto would be led to a larger population of Morlocks led by her rival Masque to vie for leadership once again. Along their trek through the alley Black Widow and Misty Knight would be escorted to the surface where Misty knight and Black Widow would call in Widow's S.H.I.E.L.D. reinforcements and most of NYPD to infiltrate from above.
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The place was actually an abandoned S.H.I.E.L.D. foxhole. During the cold war S.H.I.E.L.D. constructed the "foxholes" to be used by agents in the sewers as emergency refuge centers after their covers had been blown on the streets. Most S.H.I.E.L.D. foxholes were merely ten-foot square concrete rooms. Each contained a row of six wall lockers, each of which usually held a hand weapon, a first-aid kit, a portable two-way radio connected only to S.H.I.E.L.D. frequencies, and concentrated foodstuffs. The shelters also held several folding chairs, a porcelain washbasin and toilet, and a wall mirror. A fox-hole was powered by long-life batteries.
However, S.H.I.E.L.D. had used this foxhole to house dangerous prisoners. A massive main chamber had been utilized as an area to prepare processed foods, wash clothes, and see to the day-to-day needs of the inmates. But, all of the sundries and appliances had been extricated. Teleported far away to be exact.
The wall behind a massive machine was covered with blinking lights, forming a detailed grid map of Manhattan. Six glass and steel cubicles attached to the machine and lined up in two neat rows down the center of the room.
Mister Fear sat at the controls of his great and powerful machine, preparing it for the next phase of his vile plan. His tremendous device consisted of an accumulation of circuitry and computer hardware, including metal mainframes, glass bubbles holding strange gases, flashing monitors, and blinking lights. Tearing his mind from the confusing operation of his weapon, Mister Fear turned to the other who sat in one of the two large steel chairs built i to the machine's control console.
It was a blonde woman with an incredible body, wrapped snugly in a black and silver leather bodysuit. She wore a black horned helmet with an opaque visor that obscured her beautiful face. The face that Mister Fear, Alan Fagan, had fallen in love with. The face of Felicia Bifrost, or as the world would know her soon...Mistress of Mister Fear, Lady Anguish.
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6 weeks ago
Alan Fagan had just been released from prison. He wasn't sure how it was possible, or if it was even legit, but when someone gave him the chance to walk free after Blackmailing New York he didn't need to be asked twice. With nowhere else to go and only a small sum of money to his name Alan walked into a seedy jazz joint to drink at the divey bar. He considered it celebrating his release. That night the unexpected happened for Alan Fagan once again, and this time in the performance of the illustrious Felicia Bifrost who decided to sing with the band. It turned out she was a usual who would perform for tips and a small check from the owners whenever she had time from her day job to show up. Alan was captivated from the moment he saw her hit the stage and shoot the breeze with the grizzled old musicians. She snapped the band to cue the instruments, and began to follow the bassline in.
"Never know how much i love you, never know how much i care--. When you put your arms around me i get a feeling that's hard to beat. You make me feel--." then, as the rest of the band she began swaying her hips and gown to the beat. "You make me feel when it when you hold me tight--, when you kiss me. I feel it in the morning, and i feel it all through the night--."
It was love at first sight, but for the first time in his entire life up to that point Alan Fagan was too timid and shy to initiate conversation with a woman. However, he couldn't take his eyes off of her. He felt compelled to watch her as she left the stage, and proceeded to leave through the back entrance. He watched in silence as she hummed to herself down the dark alleyway, giggling to himself like a schoolboy as he fawned over her. He watched as she rode the subway home, and he watched from across the street as her hooligan younger brother came to her home and their argument could be heard through the open windows.
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Alan couldn't believe it when he had received some kind of court order to go to some warehouse by the docks to retrieve his former Mister Fear gear and contraband. For some reason he went, and since that day his life had completely altered. It was revealed that a condition of his illegal release was to serve a new boss, who needed him to perform various criminal tasks as his Mister Fear alter ego. To further these ends, ''the boss" as Alan could only recall them as his true memory of him seemed hazy and incomplete, gave Mister Fear their strange contraption. To store it and keep an effectively isolated headquarters Mister Fear transported the machine into the abandoned S.H.I.E.L.D. foxhole in the Morlock tunnels. He had become aware of the specific foxhole's locstion when he was held captive in it shortly after his apprehension by Spider-Man that he had been serving his prison sentence for.
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After watching Felicia for weeks, and unfolding the boss' insidious plan all the while, Alan Fagan finally developed the courage to approach Felicia Bifrost. However, he had done so in the Mister Fear alter ego and used Johnny to blackmail Felicia into becoming his company. He violently subdued her and was able to bring her to his lair where she was made malleable to obedience, by the weapon and malice of Mister Fear.
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Present
The Heroes walked along the tunnel with Skids as their guide when she came to an abrupt halt. She glanced back and forth up the tunnel before stopping and leaning back against a wall. "I am sorry, men, but i believed their to be an entrance to another tunnel here. When last i saw these monsters you call the Night Shift they loped this way and walked through a door. Perhaps this is the wrong tunnel."
"These tunnels are like a maze, trying to distinguish one from any of the countless others would be a difficult feat for most." Iron Fist assured her. "you've done the best you could, Skids."
"Maybe they're not here anymore." Luke Cage suggested.
"Wait….because these tunnels are such a maze, maybe they left some kind of trail….a way to retrace their own steps if they got lost. We expected something obvious, but maybe we should be examining the details." Iron Fist added.
So, the heroes began searching the tunnel for the most minute evidence of anyone other than themselves passing through these tunnels. Scanning the floors for turned debris or dusty footprints, and Moon Knight shined his small belt-blacklight along the wall looking for prints or markings. As the others did this, Daredevil slightly turned his head at an angle and began reaching out with his enhanced senses. After only a moment of this, Daredevil withdrew his cane and extended it to its full length and resemblance to a cane used by the blind to garner an idea of their immediate surroundings. Daredevil stepped to face one side of the wall, and tapped lightly with the end of his cane. Then, sliding the cane over to the right a fraction of an inch and tapping again. This time he detected the subtle difference in echo and tone from the surface. Instead of the bump usually accompanying the sound of the cane hitting the solid cement wall, there was a 'chink' and clamour of the metal cane smacking a hollow metal. A door. "Wait. Here…." Daredevil notofied his teammates, "there's a hidden door."
The others congregated around the door that had been seamlessly camouflaged to blend in with the main wall. When Moon Knight shone the ray of his blacklight over the door, it's vague outline became visible. As well as a smudge of oils from perhaps multiple people's hands across what would've been the actual doors only gropable surface, and a handprint across a brick directly beside the door. "There's a biometric sensor to unlock the door." Moon Knight explained, and then before any could devise a course of action Moon Knight simply removed his right glove and placed his hand onto the scanner. "Unless this thing has been coded to only open for one specific individual, the majority of hand or fingerprint metric devices only truly measure the width, and length of a hand. More confirmation of human interaction than the ability to accurately determine the interfacers identity."
With his hand on the invisible biometric scanner, a bar of bright red light rolled down the brick shining out from behind Moon Knight's hand. It dropped from the tip of his fingers to the base of his palm and ascended back to the top. The ominous red light then flashed green, and with a clack that was loud in the silence followed by the metallic grinding of releasing locking mechanisms the door slid open.
Opposite the door lay a tiny passage criss-crossed with visible laser-lights the entire length of the passage between the inner and outer door. The inner door appearing to be another biometric-keyed locking mechanism. As the heroes pried the door open further a noxious gas cloud began to fill the passage from small vents in the floor and ceiling. It was the horrendous Fear compound crafted by Mister Fear from The Scarecrows own weaponry, and was much more debilitating. As soon as it began suffusing the room Skids was shoved into the outer tunnel, jumping out the outer door as its locking mechanism recalled and slammed the metal door closed trapping the heroes in the small chamber. "It's a trap!" Moon Knight shouted out of surprise, unprepared and unguarded the Fear compound already affecting his fragile mind. Exposing him to his own most horrid fantasies and chilling phobias.
In an instant, Daredevil the Man Without Fear, leapt into action While Johnny Bifrost thought quickly and began to rip his jacket into shreds of cloth and quickly covered his own face to at least partially filter out the noxious chemical in the air. Iron Fist did the same with the golden mask he wore by tying it over his mouth like a bandana, and Luke Cage tried to hold his breath. The compound would begin to ravage the minds of both his allies and himself if he was not expedient in his actions, so Daredevil dove between a pair of the laser-light detection devices and then lithely crawled as nimbly as Spider-Man between another towards the inner door. Once he deftly dodge the laser beams and made it safely to the opposite end of the chamber he noticed a similar biometric scanner beside the door. However, this scanner bore the S.H.I.E.L.D. eagle insignia above it in stenciled paint. Moon Knight's theory about the scanners not being coded were wrong, and whoever had taken this place as their stronghold had access to S.H.I.E.L.D. security codes. Realizing the futility of trying to override the lock, Daredevil smashed the scanner with his truncheon and the doors locking mechanisms grinded open.
Escaping the toxic fear gas, the heroes rushed into the next room. They were astonished and mortified with what lay before them. Mister Fear and a woman in strange garb sat at the controls of a large machine. Along the walls, and connected to the machine sat rows of confinement cells. Each was locked with sliding doors of steel alloy and the walls reinforced concrete, except the walls made of shatterproof glass on each cell. Each cell seemed to hold a porcelain toilet and wash basin, as well as a bed. Black Talon, The Brothers Grimm, Frankenstein's Monster, Gypsy moth, Scarecrow, Shroud, Tatterdemalion, and werewolf were each in a different one of the cells. With the press of a button by the woman at the controls and the doors to the cells slid open. The inhabitants all then immediately moved to attack the intruders.
Immediately the battle broke out. Mister Fear fretted at the controls of his machine, ensuring it operated flawlessly. Meanwhile, his companion Lady Anguish watched the fight as a wicked grin was forced across her countenance. Moon Knight, still caught in the thralls of fear from the gas-chamber he needed to retreat and recuperate until he could be of use in this fight. So, he withdrew three smoke pellets from his belt and smashed them to the ground releasing the chemical that diffused the air with the acrid and opaque smoke and then slung the chained portion of his truncheon to a support beam above and essentially grappled up. Where he sat perched and watched, the tunnel below him seemingly turning to sand in his fear-stricken brain.
Luke Cage and Frankenstein's monster's mutual hatred for each other was rekindled the moment they laid eyes on each other. The slow-burning ember of rage over an unfinished confrontation. The monster roared before charging head first towards Luke who grappled it into a headlock as he was lifted from his feet in a tackle. Iron Fist quickly took the Brothers Grimm out of the fight in an effective double spin-kick, striking one after the other in succession as he spun and leapt through the air, landing gracefully but between The Scarecrow and Gypsy Moth. Just as the fight broke out and first blood could be drawn Shroud activated his abilities and blanketed the entire foxhole in a murky and impenetrable darkness, rendering the combatants blind dave for himself and Daredevil. Making his enemies more of obstacles than adversaries, he began to weave through the darkness like a snake in the grass. Johnny stumbled blindly in the darkness and tried to sneak his way towards one of the machinery that was controlling the Night Shift.
Through the pitch-black veil of unnatural darkness the meaty thuds and bone-wrenched choks of Powerman and Frankenstein's monster's fight echoed off the walls. The two were locked in a brutal test of strength and will, neither willing to yield to the other and unbounded in strength and endurance. Fists flew like boulders threw the air and pounding into the head or abdomen of the other, sharp elbows and knees cutting across the monster's dead skin. After taking a barrage of strikes to its head and neck it raged and pinned Powerman to the side of one of the containment cells, holding his arms up and by the wrist. Once his arms were pinned Frankenstein's monster began bashing his own skull into Luke Cage's forehead with a sickening melon-like clunk resonating from the impact. Luke groaned in pain. Although his skin was invulnerable his organs and skeleton were not and the monster's brutal attacks would give Luke a concussion if they continued. So, when the monster reared his head back for another devastating blow Luke ducked causing the monster's projectiled head to go crashing through the reinforced concrete of one of the cells. Luke twisted from the monster's grip and stood behind it, panicking as it strained to pull its head out through the hole it had created. Pushing the heel of his boot down on the monster's back-side, Powerman kicked the monster past the weakened wall and careening into the cell in a heap of debris.
Iron Fist stood an unknown distance between two enemies in the midst of Shroud's darkness power. Instead of swinging blindly and wildly Iron Fist assumed the snake pose and started the channeling of his chi. The snake pose, was a martial art style of awareness. Since he could not see he would have to use his other sense to gauge how to react. The snake style was also one of reaction and speed. Scarecrow reached into his bag of fear compound and withdrew a mighty handful of the powdered substance. When he tried to hurl it into the darkness his wrist was grasped by the nearby Iron Fist who threw the powder and Scarecrow into Gypsy Moth who had been standing directly behind him. Startled by being hurtled into Gypsy moth lashed out with her power and began whipping at Scarecrow with her cloth weapons. Tatterdemalion then leapt through the darkness and placed his corrosive gloves down onto Gypsy moth and her fabric began to melt away. Scarecrow and Tatterdemalion began teaming against Gypsy Moth before the terrible realization dawned on them. "Wait, Scarecro--" Tatterdemalion started but was beaten down by a sharp chop to the back of his neck by Iron Fist who then kicked Scarecrow in the jaw and laid him out cold. Gypsy Moth lay to badly injured to move. All the while Black Talon began working a cantrip to allow him vision even in the Shroud's unnatural darkness emissions. Slowly the Voodoo necromancers eyes began to morph.
Daredevil and Shroud faced off in the darkness, but the two proved too evenly matched. Their fighting prowess and styles were too identical, they knew the perfect evasive maneuvers and tactical strikes to make against their opponent. Shroud's ability was negated by Daredevil's own ability and so they seemed to be at a stand-still. Unfortunately for Daredevil however, the werewolf of The Night Shift had been embracing his heightened animal senses to sniff out his quarry and Daredevil came across his path. The massive lycanthrope loped towards the man without fear and Daredevil only noticed too late as the quickening footsteps clacked against thr cement in his ears. It leapt to bite at the neck of Daredevil.
Suddenly, several crescent shaped shurikens whistled through the air and into the back of the Shroud throwing him off center in his defensive against Daredevil. Moon Knight soon also followed behind the shurikens but flew over the head of Daredevil to repel the werewolf away with his truncheon and land deftly behind Daredevil and face off against the werewolf.
Johnny Bifrost had made it generally undetected across the foxhole but passing through the densest portion of Shroud's darkness he stumbled directly into Black Talon. When he heard the large man's bassadone laughter he recognized it was the demented sadist who had tried to turn him into a zombie back in the Aurora Chocolate Mills. But, given that he could see and Johnny could not Black Talon had the advantage on Johnny and grappled him into a vicious bear-hug. Feeling the cartilage of his spine popping and cracking into bursts of searing pain Johnny screamed as he emitted a massive blast of his optic blasts downward into Black Talon. The intense beam of energy tore down and through Black Talon, severing the man's arms and pummeling him down to the ground and immediately unconscious. The blast was the only light bright enough to penetrate the opaque field of Shroud's darkness and in the flash Johnny saw Mister Fear and his somehow familiar female companion. He also saw the glint of rare metal and jewels on a necklace around the woman's neck. Using his newfound sense of direction Johnny ran forward out of the darkness and in an attack on Mister Fear.
With the badly cut Shroud losing his will to fight with the lifeblood that flowed down his back from the shurikens, Daredevil very quickly began to take the upper hand against his enemy. Directly behind him Moon Knight bobbed and wove between the slashes and ferocious bites of the Werewolf. Knoshu had given him his mask as a way to see by his patron deitie's light regardless of the darkness he was in or the depth of an illusion. Also, since the Shroud was slowly being beaten into unconsciousness the darkness was ebbing slowly from the foxhole and returning to its usual phosphorescent lighting. Luke Cage had seemingly been triumphant in his battle of strength against Frankenstein's monster, as he stood over it while it lay motionless at his feet save for its chest inflating and deflating in heaving exhausted breaths. Moon Knight performed a leg sweep on the werewolf who fell, but used his lupine dexterity to quickly leap forward onto the recovering Moon Knight. Instinctively, Moon Knight held his truncheon between himself and the monster to hold it at bay. It's massive and grotesque snapping maw struggled closer and closer to his neck. Moon Knight then swung a kick into the Werewolf's groin as he heaved to throw it from atop him. Yelping through the air, the werewolf collided into a wall of the confinement cells. In a rush Moon Knight slammed the cell door closed and withdrew three small pellets from his utility belt. Unlike his smoke pellets, these were combustible and released small amounts of a synthetic super-adhesive gel. Essentially glue bombs, equivalent in tactile duration and resistance strength to Spider-Man's web but lasted much longer. The pellets burst and the gel squirted into the jam of the door, gluing it shut and trapping the werewolf back inside.
The Heroes For Hire stood gathered over their enemies who lay defeated, and were snapped to attention at the sound of Johnny Bifrost as he screamed in rage. He had approached Mister Fear and Lady Anguish through the turmoil of conflict and stood before them. As soon as he was close enough Johnny looked upon Lady Anguish and saw his sister Felicia Bifrost past the disguise. Around her neck was the beautiful piece of jewelry that had sparkled in the light of his optic blast. She wore the stolen Starfire Necklace, that the Night Shift had stolen from the bank. "Felicia?! What's wrong with you??" Johnny cried into the vacant eyes of what was once his sister. "Don't worry, ill get you out of here!" he resolved.
Johnny then screamed as he channeled a blast if energy through his eyes and directed it towards Mister Fear. The villain remained unscathed however as some form of Force field of kinetic energy deflected the blast causing it to ricochet and damage the structural integrity of the foxhole. Johnny looked to his sister and noticed the strain in her face. She was using some sort of telekinetic ability to defend Mister Fear. Lady Anguish then waved her hand and Johnny was thrown across the foxhole with a telekinetic push. He collapsed heavily to the floor.
"You fool, you squandered away the love and affection of your kind-hearted and caring sibling, now she will be the harbinger of your doom. Lady Anguish will be my bride!" Mister Fear shouted at Johnny before manically typing a control into the machinery he had been interfacing.
"Bow before Lady Anguish!" Felicia commanded as she raised her hands into the air. She began exerting her mental dominance over the collected Heroes for Hire and Johnny Bifrost as her mutant ability also gave her remarkable telepathy. With her will influencing their minds like tendrils or fingers touching their very brains she began to transmit pain to their bodies.
While controlling their mind, Felicia Bifrost's subconscious reached out to Johnny and the heroes. She revealed to them through the conveyance of her own memories how after being kidnapped by Mister Fear he had soon planted a strange tech device to the back of her neck that had resembled a disk. She had witnessed all of the Night Shift wearing the same metallic disks on the base of their skulls as well. Ever since it haf been implanted on her Felicia's thoughts and ideas were no longer her own. Through the machinations of his grand and vile machinery Mister Fear had used his device capable of controlling the mind of its wearer as well as transporting them through space on earth via teleportation. She was in great Anguish, the irony of Mister Fear's acclaimed name for her malicious alter ego, watching through her own eyes as her own body mercilessly tortured and killed the heroes. The Night Shift had not been acting of their own volition in the crimes of Mister Fear. But, the strangest thing of all that Felicia passed on to Johnny was that she had spotted the disk that connected a person to the device on Mister Fear's own neck. "The machine is the key!" Felicia telepathically communed to her brother from behind the mask of Lady Anguish and the mind control.
While the Heroes for Hire all writhed and collapsed in pain from Felicia's psionic assault Johnny noticed a blur of darkness in his peripheral vision. From out of the shadows of the foxhole leapt a muscular man in a jet-black leonine Vibranium-armored costume that was adorned with gold claws and jewelry. Violet eyes of the costume's enhanced vision features glowed as Black Panther pounce onto his prey from hiding.
Black Panther, King of Wakanda T'Challa, swiped the necklace from her body as the claws of his costume glide down Lady Anguish's back and sliced it into ribbons. Screaming in pain she fell to her stomach on the floor. Blood welled from the three serrations across her back. "Nobody steals from Wakanda!" Black Panther exclaimed as he held the reclaimed Starfire Necklace up to all gathered.
Mister Fear drew the pistol on his hip and went to aim it at Black Panther but he could not raise it fast enough. Black Panther was on Mister Fear in an instant and began pummeling the man with a series of debilitating strikes and kicks to the man's joints. Mister Fear did where heavy army however and was able to keep his footing and turn on the offensive against his attacker. Black Panther disarmed Mister Fear when his vibranium claws segmented Mister Fear's pistol on its sharpened-unbreakable edges. In a panic Mister Fear began attempting to defend himself against the Black Panther.
Johnny and the Heroes were temporarily released from Lady Anguish' telepathic mind control. Remembering vividly Felicia's message Johnny began to channel as much of his optic blast as he could muster and fired a direct beam into the control console Mister Fear had been sitting at. As the interface to Mister Fear's horrible Hypnoporter exploded the sound of electrical hardware short-circuiting filled the air. The machines console erupted in a gout of singeing sparks and black smoke and noxious gas, fragments of destroyed computer raining down onto Mister Fear and Black Panther as they struggled against each other. Lady Anguish and the remaining members of the Night Shift were sent into violent convulsions during the destruction of the device, but as the reaction halted as did their own body's shock. Soon the shaking and flopping bodies slowed to a still and Mister Fear screamed in fury as he was then wracked with an overwhelming wave of psychokinetic activity via his own connection to the machine. Fighting against the mental pain and physical agony of combating the Black Panther proved too great for Mister Fear and his will began to falter as did his limbs and he fell to his knees.
Black Panther looked down on Mister Fear in disgust. "How dare you even attempt to do this." Black Panther chastised before smashing his strengthened fist into Mister Fear's temple and knocking him unconscious. As Black Panther turned around the Heroes For Hire and Johnny Bifrost had all gathered around him, having witnessed the defeat of Mister Fear.