WIDEAWAKE

Marc Spector sat in the lobby of the Heroes For Hire offices, where he made a home out of a vacant office. His roommate Tommy Kent snored loudly through the slightly ajar door. Marc simply sat staring at the moon through an open office window, feeling the cool yet stagnant breeze of New York breeze waft gently over him. Knoshu beckoning to him to further his will from the star-speckled void of space.

The sounds of footsteps outside of the HFH HQ alerted Marc. He turned in his seat to see the silhouette of a man through the blinded door window. The figure bent, and a small slip of paper torn from a bag blew beneath the door. Then, the shadow continued down the street away from the building. The streetlights elongating his shadow as he disappeared.

Marc stood from his seat and walked over to the small piece of paper. He squatted to retrieve it and saw a small missive scribed onto the sheet. In shakey print it read: 'Hank's tavern, 10pm, very important. -J.B.'

-

Marc Spector and Matt Murdock found themselves in the alley behind Hank's Tavern. It was getting late, and the air was foggy and cold. A figure emerged from the shadows behind the dumpsters to stand in the open of the alley. It was Johnny Bifrost. He was wearing a long, leather coat and sunglasses. The sunglasses perfectly concealed his reflective eyes. The expression upon his countenance was one of great worry.

Marc slowly approached Johnny. "Johnny, are you ok? Where have you been?"

"I know i shouldn't have run off like that, but i had to find Felicia. But, i haven't yet, she's still missing." Johnny answered.

"I hate to be the one to break it to you, Johnny, but your sister's probably the one who had you kidnapped in the first place." Marc Spector stated.

"No!!" Johnny firmly stated. "She's been taken! I know she has...ever since we were kids I've always just felt Felicia out there, no matter how far away she is. I know she's still out there, and that my sister wouldn't harm anybody."

"Maybe it's not your sister anymore…" Marc Spector declared. "Maybe Black Talon was more successful in turning your sister into one of his zombies than he was with you."

"Shut up! She's alive. I haven't been able to sleep since the night i left the Aurora Chocolate Mill. Everytime i try i have these horrible nightmares." Johnny cried.

"Nightmares?" Matt Murdock asked.

"Yeah, it's like a vision, but it's crystal clear and in color. In the dream, I'm Felicia, and I'm standing while holding a torch. It's like I'm the statue of liberty, in gown and all. But, then I'm suddenly and painfully bound in ropes and chains. That's when the dream fades to black. I know it sounds crazy but i think it's Felicia trying to tell me something." Johnny confided.

Matt walked up to Johnny and attempted to gently place his hand on his shoulder to console him. "You've been through alot, Johnny. You miss your sister, and sleep deprivation can cause brain damage. We need to get you back to the HQ offices and try to get a doctor to see you. We still don't know how Black Talon's curse might have affected you."

"Wait, Matt...hear him out…" Marc interjected. "Johnny, you have had these visions only since your interaction with the black magics of Black Talon, on the night of a waning moon?"

"Yeah...ever since my eyes changed." Johnny answered.

"Matt...Knoshu has chosen this man as an avatar to assist us in our effort to thwart his enemies. He has been gifted with the sight." Marc said.

"Marc, don't do this right now. He's a scared kid, who's having nightmares." Matt sighed.

"No!" Johnny silenced them. "Look, i only asked you to come here so i can ask for your help. I'm going to look for my sister no matter what. If she does have anything to do with this magic book, then it's in your company's best interest to find her as well. I think she might be near the statue of Liberty."

"Ellis Island." Marc Spector commented.

Suddenly, Matt became alerted to another presence in their midsts. His heightened senses picked up the grinding of boot of the cement of a rooftop directly above them. He could smell a thick cloistering scent, almost taste a musk. Matt could feel eyes upon him and knew their meeting was being secretly observed. "Someone's watching." Matt shouted to Marc before leaping for the fire escape ladder.

Marc stepped closer to guard Johnny and drew his truncheon from his thick parka. Johnny looked to the rooftops to see a dark form disappear from visibility over the edge and dart away. Marc stood vigilantly by, ready for an ambush. While Matt climbed quickly up the fire escape, jumping multiple steps and even climbing the scaffolding itself to the rooftop. Once there he watched the heads and shoulders of a figure drop from the rooftop to another alley on the opposite side of the building. Matt ran to catch up, but when he reached the ledge he could not detect the spies presence. Nowhere in the alley or on the conjoining rooftop was there the indications of a living being. "Dammit!" Matt muffled under his breath.

As Matt climbed back down the fire escape to reconvene with Marc and Johnny, his cell phone began to ring. Once returned to street level he withdrew his phone and saw that Parker Industries was attempting to. Reach him. He swiped to accept the call as Marc sheathed his truncheon. "Hey, Peter, what's up?" Matt answered.

"Not alot. Just wanted to let you know that i was able to confirm that the Mister Fear costume was stolen from a federal evidence lock-up after Alan Fagan was arrested, when i stopped him from blackmailing New York. There's a solid chance this is some new chump wearing daddy's shoes. Did you find out anything about the Heroes For Hire's mysterious benefactor?"

"No. It seems a million dollars just dropped into our laps out of nowhere. Not really conducive to persuading a court that we aren't bank robbers though."

"No, sketchy at best." Peter joked.

"Hey, are you gonna be busy tonight?" Matt asked.

"No, kinda why i called. Need an excuse to leave this office."

"Well, Marc, Johnny, and I were thinking of making a trip out to Ellis Island to see the statue of Liberty."

"At night? The historical site will be closed."

"We're not sight-seeing, it's work. You'd want to dress appropriately."

"Gotcha. I'll meet you guys down at the docks." Peter said and hung up.

-

Ellis Island is located about one mile SouthWest of Manhattan, and one mile north of Liberty Island. It is approximately 1,300 feet east of the New Jersey Shoreline. From 1892 to 1943 Ellis Island served as the chief United States Immigration Station, processing millions of Europeans. Now it is a national monument. Known only to certain government officials, part of Ellis Island was also being used to support the top-secret and heavily classified 'Project: WIDEAWAKE'.

The channel running through the middle of the island was a ferry slip. During the day the ferry carried tourists to and from the mainland. The dock was solid concrete and ran along the entire north face of the ferry slip. In the center sat a ferry building, that had been renovated. It was now a cafe and gift shop. Three ferries sat docked beside it, so it was there that Moon Knight concealed their boat amongst the ferries. Moon Knight, Daredevil, and Spider-Man had arrived in full costume. Johnny accompanied them, still clad in his long leather coat and sunglasses.

As they approached the main building they saw the three guards posted there who patrolled the building in shift for 24 hours. The entire immigration center had been authentically restored. A canopy entrance opened onto a main room, known as the baggage room. Up a set of stairs was the registry room, where immigrants were processed into the country. Upstairs may also be found a balcony, dormitories, an interrogation room, meeting rooms, a library, a theater, a bookstore, the tourist information office, and restrooms. Given the improbability of such a likely place to be held captive inside, and their desire to avoid detection they gave this building and its guards a wide berth.

They then slunk into the commons. All the decrepit buildings that had once stood there had all been demolished and cleared away. The site now had clipped grass, shrubs, trees, picnic tables, and a beautiful fountain. Positioned on a block of marble in the center of the fountain was a miniature replica of the statue of Liberty, made entirely of bronze. Two more guards patrolled this area but were silently rendered unconscious in a chokehold from Daredevil.

A ten-foot tall security fence surrounded the southern half of the island. On the fence were posted numerous signs that read: 'keep out! Construction site! Hard hat required!' the heroes adeptly climbed the fence to find the area beyond the fence a jumble of debris. Nearby stood the remnants of an old hospital. Scaffolding on its walls revealed it to be in stages of renovation, it sat three stories tall and though renovation could be seen outside the inside appeared to be a mess. As the men searched the building they were detected on motion-sensitive security cameras. Once securing the building's vacancy they continued their search towards a large helipad. The circular platform was made of steel alloy, and all debris had been cleared within five feet of it. On the other side sat a small wooden shack, with a large sign on the door that read: 'EXPLOSIVES! Authirized personnel only!'. As the heroes made their way towards the shack, the helipad slowly began to come apart to reveal a launching silo buried deep into the earth. Within the silo a massive Robotic, humanoid killing machine dubbed a Mark IV Sentinel stirred to life.

In the world there were a small population of people born with what was referred to as geneticists as the X-Gene. A mutation to the genetic structure of Homo Sapiens, making them Homo Superior. This X-Gene gives this new race metahuman abilities. It was a Dr. Bolivar Trask who became so concerned with the emergence of the new "mutant" species and their inherent abilities that he feared humanity's subjugation by the mutants. He also held high rank if authority within the board of defense for the United States of America. In response to the attempted assassinations of Senator Edward Kelly by the second Brotherhood of Mutants (a mutant terrorist cell, political activists for mutant rights), the president's office was convinced by Trask to sanction the secret and illegal 'Operation: WIDEAWAKE'.

The project's agenda was to investigate any super-powered mutant the project director believed to pose a threat to national security. Unfortunately, the program had wildly overstepped its bounds by using massive Artificially Intelligent battle-robots to capture and imprison many suspected mutants. Doing so in complete disregard to the U.S. legal system-- that an individual is innocent of any crime until proven guilty by a court of their peers. One of the 4th generation of Sentinels created to destroy mutants lay beneath the helipad on Ellis Island, and had become active through a failsafe device in his programming that would void any dormancy command when the 'X-Gene' is detected. Up above, Spider-Man had ventured within the distance of the Sentinels various probes. Though the X-Gene was not present within his DNA, Spider-Man had received his power from the bite of a radioactive spider that held a poison, which mutagenically altered his structure. Hence, making him a mutant, and awakening the dormant Sentinel.

The earth shook as the turbine engines built into the bootboots of the massive Sentinel roared to life and thrust the mechanical monstrosity out into the open. It hovered high above the heroes who all stood, staring in shock at the Sentinel. Its limbs, torso, and head all cylindrical in shape, but proportionate to that of a 20ft. Tall man. Its body bore a paint finish of lavender and pastel-pink camouflage with serial numbers stenciled across its chest. "Mutant presence detected! Mutant eradication initiated! Weapons armed!" The Sentinel's artificial voice droned on, lights over its speaker on its face lighting in LED with each syllable. Then, it rose its arm and aimed its palm at where Spider-Man and Johnny stood beside one another.

A large repulsor ray blasted from the palm of the sentinel and scorched the earth where Spider-Man and Johnny had once been. Spider-Man had grabbed Johnny and dove behind a large mound of rubble, narrowly evading the blast. In the fray Daredevil and Moon Knight ducked back behind the partially destroyed hospital. Spider-Man fired a ball of webbing into the Sentinel's face to cover its orbital scanners, and ran with Johnny to hid behind a different piece of debris. Though the Sentinels were programmed to exterminate mutants, they also had built-in programming to only incapacitate human intruders, as well as to prevent minimal collateral property damage to the guarded site. While Daredevil and Moon Knight hid behind the hospital they were relatively safe.

Moon Knight and Daredevil raced to the scaffolding beside the derelict hospital and began scaling the building. Meanwhile, Spider-Man slung a strand of web to a massive slab of bedrock. Using his enhanced strength he pulled the rock, and began swinging it over his head to loose it at the Sentinel like a slingshot. The boulder smashed against the steel-alloy plating of the Sentinel's chest and crumbled, only causing the Sentinel to slightly stagger. The Sentinel then lengthened its arm towards Spider-man and a steel catch-cable spiraled from the Sentinel's wrist towards Spider-Man, who quickly flipped out of the way and used his wall-crawling ability to adhere horizontally to the wooden shack. Sticking to it Spider-Man noticed the shack was actually of reinforced concrete concealed with planking. The cable retracted back into the Sentinel's wrist and then it delivered a mighty punch to the mound of earth behind which Johnny hid. Rock, gravel, and sand sprayed into the air and Johnny fell to the ground when his knees quaked with the tremor of the Sentinel's strike.

Moon Knight and Daredevil leapt from the rooftop of the dilapidated building. They both landed on the Sentinel's back as it was still bent from striking the earth. Both of them began jabbing their truncheons into the exposed spaces between the Sentinel's armor plating, directly into wiring and engines. Moon Knight struck a powerful blow into the section where the helmet of the robot connected to its torso, and sparks sprayed wildly as it disconnected wiring on its way in. Moon Knight's truncheon had created a malfunction in the Sentinel's sensory operations. Erratically, the Sentinel rose and Daredevil fell into a roll near the Sentinel's feet. Meanwhile, Moon Knight grasped his Truncheon and now hung from it like a gymnast bar. The Sentinel shot a beam of repulsor ray from its eyes at Johnny and connect squarely. Oddly, instead of being concussed by the dense light, Johnny seemed to be absorbing the raw energy. His eyes began to glow with a bright light as he climbed to his feet. Moon Knight climbed to the Sentinel's shoulder and began prying on his probing truncheon to wrench the robots helmet loose. The malfunctioning robot reached and extended its catch-cable that began to coil like a steel snake around Moon Knight's ankle, constricting with its mechanical strength.

Johnny screamed as he threw his broken sunglasses to the dirt and unleashed another massive cannon beam of light from his eyes. He directed it with his vision directly into the Sentinel's head, knocking it free from the partially vandalized neck joint and disconnecting its internal computing system with the rest of its body and rendering it inoperable. The catch-cable slacked all of its tension as the Sentinel's body lost its power, and Moon Knight leapt from the Sentinel. A large cloud of dust spread across the grounds of the construction site when the Sentinel came crashing down.

After assuring their mutual safety, Spider-Man directed his companions to the fake shack. The door was made of thick aluminum alloy, but covered with wooden planks and even a wooden handle that came off when it was twisted. However, a control panel was also uncovered behind a hinged panel. Using the control panel, Moon Knight was able to open the internal sealing door. Within the shack was a cage elevator with two buttons, up and down.

As they descended in the elevator, they began to hear the sound of an alarm. The deeper they went, the louder it became. Finally, the elevator stopped, and the doors opened into a laboratory. Flashing sirens revealed the place to be in a state of full-alert. Strapped to a table in the center of the chamber was Felicia Bifrost. She was surrounded by an assortment of medical machinery that flashed, gyrated, and screeched. She was in obvious pain.

Between the men and Felicia was a group of eleven men and women in combat fatigues and red lab coats. The three in fatigues were security officers, armed with assault rifles that were pointed directly at the heroes. One of the scientists spoke, "This is a government installation! For your actions you can all expect to be charged with trespassing, destruction if government property, conspiracy, and terrorism….only to name a few. Surrender now or we will use force!"

"That's my sister!" Johnny screamed at the scientist.

"we know, Johnny." Another scientist asserted.

"Wha--" Johnny began.

"Arrest them!" the chief security officer shouted and moved to fire his rifle at Johnny.

Almost a blur, and even without the help of his Spidey-sense, Spider-Man leapt across the chamber and spun to kick two of the security officers to the floor. It was Daredevil who dodged the bullets if the chief and rolled across the floor, throwing his truncheon in mid-roll to crash into the gunman's groin. He doubled over in pain and Daredevil was then by his side to smash his jaw with a punching uppercut. With the security officers defeated the remaining scientists cowered in fear.

Barking frantic orders and pacing, Johnny commanded the scientists to release his sibling from the experimental machinery. Once free she staggered into her brother's arms, and the two made their way towards the elevator to leave the lab.

-

"It's gonna be ok, Felicia. We're together again." Johnny cradled the head of his weeping sister in his lap. They sat together on a couch in the Heroes For Hire Headquarters.

"No, you don't understand. It's never gonna be ok for us. It never was." Felicia sobbed.

"breathe." Johnny said calmly as he stroked his sisters hair. "What happened?"

"I...don't remember all of it. I...i was in my apartment when those lab rats kidnapped me! They drugged me and they kept subjecting me to their fucked up experiments!" Felicia cried.

"Those scientists knew who i was. Who were they?" Johnny asked.

"They...they showed me things Johnny. Project: WIDEAWAKE were running experiments to inhibit the powers in mutants. For lack of specimens, they were breeding mutants as test subjects. We were two of those test tube babies, Johnny!" Felicia confessed, staring her brother dead in his face.

"No. You need to relax, you're hysterical." Johnny soothed.

"No!! You need to know the truth, i can't be the only one who lives with this!" Felicia sat up and pushed her brother back in his seat. She then adjusted herself to face him. "By infecting our bodies as babies with some new strain of virus, our X-Gene was altered, affectively subduing our powers before they could develop. I know you don't remember, because i didn't at first either but we spent the first five years of our lives in that underground science complex. No love of biological parents, just you and i. We were subjected to cruel and inhumane experiments by those scrutinizing scientists!"

"That can't be true Felicia...what about mom and Dad?" Johnny tried to refute, as strange recollections formed in his nibd of sterility and antiseptic smelling environs.

"As the final stages of the experiment, all of our memories of our lives at the institute were concealed with mental blocks. A couple in Manhattan were given $50,000 to raise us and to keep our past secret, having full knowledge of the experiments." Felicia explained.

"That's crazy!"

"As part of the agreement, the government had a scientist that was posing as our family doctor to run diagnostics on us monthly. If they had detected any kind of signs of developing powers he was supposed to inform the institute immediately." Felicia cried.

Johnny felt the cool mercury-like substance of his tears rolling down his cheek and thought of this revelation. If he had been a mutant this entire time than perhaps the alteration of his eyes and abilities were derivative of his inherent mutation, instead of Black Talon's necromantic magic. Perhaps the strange radiation emitted by the Necromancer's potion had eradicated the government's nullification serum. "Why did they take you then, though? What are your powers?" Johnny asked excitedly, curious as to whether it had truly been Felicia messaging him in his nightmares.

"I...i don't have powers. I think the serum permanently augmented my X-Gene. The more i think about it, the more i think i was a success within the experiment which means i would have to be….dissected." Felicia shuddered.

Johnny thought more on what his sister had revealed to him. Had the government really selected their parents as part of an experiment, they had not chosen well. Before the twins were teenagers, their stepfather had died, but not before drinking and gambling the money he must have received from the program away. Johnny had always felt that his father loathed and secretly feared him, and his mutancy would explicate those sentiments. Also why their mother had been the exact opposite, deeply caring but unable to support them. Johnny and Felicia had taken to the streets in their youth to survive. It was how they wound up where they had been prior to all the catastrophe. Felicia working days for the Met and singing nights in a sleazy jazz club, Johnny stealing cars and dealing drugs for a gang much to both their regret.

"The whole time you were missing...i kept having these nightmares, they were wild. I felt like you were crying out to me for help. They actually led us to Ellis Island. I thought for sure you were communicating with me somehow." Johnny told his sister.

Felicia shuffled in her seat and began rubbing her neck. Her lower neck had become a point of chronic pain for Felicia since she had been rescued from Ellis Island.

Misty Knight entered the office the twins sat in, wielding a cup if coffee for each of them. As the two each grabbed a mug Misty joined them at their seats. "How's she doing?" Misty asked.

Johnny proceeded to relay to Misty the tale he had just heard from his twin. All the details ringing true within him as he uttered them in his own words. Misty wore a pained expression on her face. "Felicia?"

"Yeah?" Felicia mousily replied.

"A few nights ago when you told us Johnny had gone missing, the apartment was rigged with a bomb and i almost died. You care to explain yourself?" Misty rudely asked.

"Hey, give her a break! She's been through hell!" Johnny defended.

Felicia fiercely rubbed the sore spot on her lower neck and grimaced, as she released her tension she stared confusedly at Misty. "I don't remember that." she said plainly.

"Do you remember when these scientists kidnapped you?" Misty asked.

"Not exactly, i ju--" Felicia became wracked with intense and searing pain in her neck. She grasped at herself and hunched into the fetal position in pain.

As Misty and Johnny began to rush to aid Felicia, strange blue electricity began to dance across her skin. With a deafening thunder clap, she vanished. During the teleportation Johnny and Misty both watched a look of abject dread and fear morphing her features. Cursing Mister Fear, Johnny became hysterical and required Misty, Moon Knight, and Daredevil to subdue him without the use of his power. He dropped to his knees and begged for their help in freeing and avenging his beloved sister.

-