TALES OF THE PENDRAGONS	Earth: 2020. Which corporation are you from?
#31
MARCH 2005 (Early 2020)	FEATURING: The original Death's Head and the Martian Manhunter!

#30 - "(Martian) Man Hunt" Pt.1
Written and HTMLed by: Adrian J. Watts
Editor: Barry Reese

A DC Collision Tie-In
This issue is set between the original Death's Head (1980s) #9 and #10.

Earth: 2020
The Earth of 2020 AD is not a pleasant place to live. Whether you're running from a local gang of vidiots out to get your RealiTV credits, or from a former employer who interprets the word 'termination' a little too literally, you're always on the go. So when you need something done, and can't put your imminent death on hold long enough to do it yourself, you have to outsource.

Enter the "heroes". Gone are the days of superheroes out to defend truth, justice, and the American way. Now it's the heroes who make you pay...

Slade Wilson (H.I.V.E. Master)	Death's Head (Freelance Peacekeeping Agent)	J'onn J'onnz (Martian Manhunter)

Slade Employment Services, New York

Not far from New York's Grand Central train station stands an immense skyscraper. While a skyscraper in the New York of today is certainly not unusual, finding one completely intact, with no graffiti or other vandalism anywhere on it, is no mean feat in 2020.

The 62nd floor of the skyscraper contaied the offices of Slade Employment Services. Owned by Slade Wilson, formerly the mercenary Deathstroke, S.E.S. sought to connect superhumans with jobs - and it had a very high success rate.

Within one of the S.E.S. offices was a wall totally covered in video monitors. Standing before it, in a white suit, with his hands clasping one another behind his back, was the one-eyed, grey-haired form of Slade Wilson. Behind him, a man in a yellow radiation suit that made him look very much like a beekeeper, grovelled and begged for Wilson's forgiveness.

" -- please!" he finished.

Slade Wilson continued to examine the monitors in front of him. One of them showed a tall and bulky green figure with a dark blue cape and a red 'X' across his chest. The figure stood before a convoy of semi-trailers, which showed no sign of stopping - they were going to hit him. Suddenly, the figure became semi-transparent, and several of the trucks passed right through him. The figure became opaque again and stuck his arms directly out in front of him - the next truck hit, and the cab crumpled like so much tinfoil. The figure tore open the trailer and removed a large metal device, before flying away.

Slade Wilson slowly turned around to face the man cowering behind him. "We contracted A.I.M. for this operation because of your successes in the past," he said with very little emotion in his voice. "Because of this, the professional relationship between the H.I.V.E. and A.I.M. has been strained, but not so much that we will not be able to work together in the future.

"But you," he said, taking a step toward the AIM operative. "The Martian Manhunter now knows of our plans. Yyou have failed. And neither H.I.V.E. nor A.I.M. approve of failure. You must - "

The AIM operative rose quickly, and before Wilson could react - or before he chose to react, it was hard to tell - he pulled out a small laser pistol. He aimed it at Wilson. "You're not going to kill me, Wilson!" he cried. "I'm out of here!" He turned and bolted for the door, which opened for him to pass through. He left the building with very little resistance.

"Computer?" Slade Wilson said calmly. "My suit, please."

A row of six consecutive monitors suddenly went blank and, after a moment, began to protrude from the wall. Wilson approached the row of monitors and watched over it as it emerged - it was, in fact, a concealed drawer. Inside were some of Wilson's favourite tools from his time as Deathstroke, including his combat armour. Once the drawer had come completely free of the wall he reached inside and removed the armour, which he donned in no particular hurry.

Then, garbed in a tight-fitting, black and orange armour made of a prometheum-vibranium alloy, he reached once more into the drawer and retrieved a laser rifle almost as long as his arm. As equipped as he needed to be, Deathstroke crossed the room, opened a hidden exit, and left the building.

It was night outside, but other than the lack of light there was very little difference between the day and night in New York. The same unsavoury types were out at all hours and, truth be told, you were probably safer at night when the vagrants had gone to sleep.

AIM operative James Falcon paid this no mind as he fled from the S.E.S. offices. In fact, he paid very little attention to anything other than where other A.I.M. or H.I.V.E. operatives may be concealed, waiting to ambush him. Because of this he noticed neither the flash of blue and yellow lights or the tall, grotesque, and heavily armed mechanoid that appeared right in front of him.

He ran straight into the mechanoid's super-strong body... and fell straight down to the pavement. When he recovered, he found that he was being held almost two feet off the ground by the collar of his radiation suit.

"What year is this?" the mechanoid asked.

"Help me!" Falcon screamed. "Please! I'll do anything! Just save me!"

"Anything?" the mechanoid repeated. "Promising, yes?"

"Anything!" Falcon cried again. "The H.I.V.E. are after me! Wilson's probably behind me right now!"

With the hand he wasn't using to hold Falcon, the mechanoid punched the air directly behind his captive. His spiked knuckles hit the face of the innocent onlooker that was merely watching, and with what Falcon would describe as a sickening crack, the onlooker's skull was smashed into hundreds of little pieces.

"That wasn't Wilson!" Falcon shouted. Suddenly, an orange and black figure rose behind the mechanoid, ready to attack it from behind. "Behind you!"

The mechanoid whirled and swung Falcon like a bat. The AIM operative struck Deathstroke hard, and Falcon was positive at least half the bones in the left side of his body had been broken. The mechanoid dropped Falcon and then charged at Deathstroke, who wasn't even winded by the first blow. Deathstroke leaped onto a fire escape, but this did not deter the mechanoid; he crashed straight through its lowest platform, shredding it, and causing Deathstroke to have to exercise his extreme agility in order to land safely on the ground - although whether he was any safer on the ground was a matter open to debate.

While the mechanoid's back was still turned, Deathstroke raised his laser rifle and fired. The mechanoid's cape was incinerated in only a second or two, but that was all that happened. It turned and walked purposefully toward Deathstroke, who began to step backwards. He fired the rifle again, this time at the fire escape; it collapsed, and the twisted metal formed a cage around the approaching mechanoid.

The mechanoid pulled his arms in close, like chicken wings, then shot them straight out to each side. The mechanoid's immense strength was enough to pulverise the metal, sending pieces of shrapnel flying in every direction.

By now, Deathstroke was on the run - bounding off of dumpster lids, scaling fire escapes, and ducking behind ventilation shafts and chimneys. He was only running, not fleeing. He was heading for a battlefield better suited to his style of combat, somewhere where he could use the mechanoid's own strength against him. He turned back, and saw that the robot was not far away, dragging Falcon along behind him.

Deathstroke vaulted over a convex skylight and dropped into a fire escape down the side of a building not far from the local S.E.S. office. He descended the fire escape quickly, and made a sprint for Grand Central station... but was stopped when the mechanoid's tremendous bulk landed in front of him, sending zig-zag cracks through the pavement.

However, Slade Wilson is not easily fazed. He swung his laser rifle like a club, striking the mechanoid on the crown of his head. The rifle split into four equal pieces.

"Not looking good, huh?" the mechanoid remarked. He picked up Wilson with his free hand and tossed him as high and far as he could. Deathstroke would land, eventually, but nowhere within the mechanoid's field of vision. He grabbed Falcon's radiation suit and used it to once again hoist the AIM operative up off the ground.

"Now there's the matter of my payment, yes?"

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" Falcon heaped praises upon the mechanoid. "Thank you."

"Ten thousand credits."

"Than - ten thousand credits?" Falcon repeated. "I don't have that kind of money!"

The mechanoid's mechanical eyebrows raised automatically, then dropped to become a grim frown.

<CENSORED>

The next morning, New York City sanitation workers discovered a radiation suit inside a garbage bin near Grand Central Station. Inside was a yellow, pulpy substance. One of the garbagemen, already as mutated and diseased as he was ever going to get, dipped his finger into the substance and licked it clean.

"Tastes like chicken..." he whispered.

Slade Wilson's Office

"Computer..." Deathstroke staggered in through the hidden entrance to his office. Pieces of his armour had completely broken off, and those that hadn't would need an entire nation of panel beaters to repair them. The mechanoid's attack had sent Wilson halfway across the state, but he wasn't beaten yet.

"Computer," he repeated, more strongly this time. "Initiate secondary armour retrieval. Slow start."

Slade removed his helmet and sat down at his desk. His opponent was tough, and was obviously going to be a thorn in his side until he was eliminated. Just like the Martian Manhunter. They were both virtually indestructible, incredibly-skilled and determined warriors... and that gave Slade an idea.

"Computer," Slade said. "Please show the battle from the point at which I... departed."

The wall of viewscreens went dead for a moment, then went live as a single unit, showing the one video spread across all of the monitors. It showed, with clear audio, the mechanoid's interaction with Falcon.

"Ten thousand credits...?" Deathstroke wondered. "Of course. A bounty hunter." He leaned outside of his office door and spoke to his secretary. "Janine, scour the news reports for mentions of a large, demonic-looking robot fighting near here last night. Find him, and bring him in - tell him there's one hundred thousand credits in it for him."

"Are you sending him after Wakanda's bounty on the Avenger League, sir?" the secretary asked.

"No, something far better," Slade said, before returning to his office. He sat at his desk once more and instructed the computer to help him produce a hologram, one which enable him to disguise his appearance when the mechanoid arrived. It took close to an hour, but eventually Slade Wilson did bear the flawless image of someone half his age, wearing a sleek black suit, with two working eyes and long blonde hair. Almost on cue, when he was finished the massive mechanoid plowed through the floor and into the office, his arms crossed in front of him.

"Ah, the bounty hunt - " Slade began.

"Freelance Peackeeping Agent," the mechanoid corrected him. "Name's Death's Head, yes?"

"Oh, sorry, 'Death's Head'," Wilson said. He rose from the desk and approached Death's Head. He reached out to shake the robot's hand, but Death's Head didn't take it. "Ah," Wilson said. "Death's Head, I have use of your... unique... services." He took a few steps around the desk.

"You see, there is a man out there - well, we think he's a man, he could be anything, really - by the name of J'onn J'onnzz. He - "

"Don't care about details, yes? Your money's good? They're dead."

"Excellent, Death's Head!" Wilson remarked. "I'm offering one hundred thousand credits for the corpse of the Martian Manhunter."

Death's Head didn't answer; he simply dropped through the hole he'd made in the floor on the way in.

WCTV TV, Westchester County

"Welcome to WCTV's TeeVee Bits, hosted by the always insatiable Vice N. Virtue!" a voice-over announcer cried. "Remember, WCTV is the best RealiTV station out there! You know it's true because we say so! And now, over to Vice!"

As the voiceover echo trailed off, lights illuminated a pink and yellow TV set. The backdrop was of the front of a Fifth Avenue mansion called the League Lighthouse, the New York headquarters of the Avenger League. In front of the backdrop, which was framed in pink, were two armchairs: one yellow and one pink. In the yellow one sat a two-headed man in an orange spandex costume with a blue, grey and silver lightning strike across the torso. In the other chair sat a woman who appeared to be split vertically - the right half of her body was that of a 'girl-next-door'; the other, the most dark and depressing Goth the world had ever known.

Music played for close to thirty seconds before the woman began to speak.

"Welcome to TeeVee Bits, with your host, me!" she said. "On this morning's ten minute special, we have none other than the former Avenger League member - or is that members? - Quickflash! He/they have kindly agreed to answer some of your most frequently asked questions. So without further ado, give it up for Barry West and Pietro Maximoff!"

The crowd cheered. The right side of the body, apparently belonging to a young man with long brown hair and a charismatic smile began to grin and wave at the crowd. The other side, older and far more grim looking, with short, silver hair looked away in disgust.

"So, guys, how are you doing?" she asked.

"Fine!/Disgusted!" Quickflash answered.

"Oooooooook," the host said. "Let's start with the questions, shall we? Lien Owg of Nebraska wants to know: 'Do you have two butts?'"

"No," the brown-haired head, Barry West, responded. "We share a digestive system." Pietro Maximoff looked disgusted once again.

"Amazing!" the host remarked. "Ragy Nojes of Florida asks: 'What happens if one of you is doing something the other hates?'"

"See for yourself," Pietro snapped.

"Rrowr!" Vice mocked. "We only have time for two more questions. Curt Sinagem of Texas has often wondered: 'What if one of you is allergic to something that the other half likes?'"

"These questions are foolish!" Pietro snapped.

"Don't mind him," Barry said. "He just remembers my horrible reaction to Transian food!"

"Ha!" Vice laughed. "Last question, this time from 'Miss Everett', with no address - she probably has a new one every night, if you know what I mean!" The audience laughed hysterically at the well-placed in-joke. "'How do you guys have sex?'"

"Well," Barry began, and Pietro turned bright red. "When - "

"Wait!" Vice interrupted. "Sorry, the question was 'How do you have sex without me?'"

"That's ENOUGH!" Pietro snapped. He rose, pulling Barry West with him. "I have had more than enough of these nonsensical questions! I will no longer endure such - "

Before Quickflash could finish speaking, the set's backdrop was torn apart and the hulking form of Death's Head emerged. Brandishing an axe, Death's Head stalked toward the bi-cranial superhero, who presently lacked the level of concentration and co-operation required to utilise his talents as a speedster. Death's Head grabbed Quickflash by the space between his two heads and held him in place.

"I'm looking for J'onn J'onnzz. Now tell me where he is."

"We'll never tell y - " Barry was interrupted by a super-fast punch from Pietro.

"You never learn, do you?" Pietro snapped. "Martian Manhunter will most likely be found at the League Lighthouse. Either that or his Antarctic lair."

Barry's jaw dropped, and he punched Pietro back. "I never learn? You're the same as the day the High Evolutionary bonded us!"

"At least I know when to give the monster what it wants!"

"By selling out a friend?" Another punch.

"Your friend!" Pietro yelled, punching Barry back. Death's Head's jaw had dropped and his eyebrows had risen in disbelief after the second punch. The punches kept flying between the speedster's heads, so Death's Head released them, turned, and walked straight out of the studio... tossing an incendiary device behind him.

KA-BOOOOM!

League Lighthouse, Fifth Avenue, New York City

Formerly known as Avengers Mansion, the Fifth Avenue townhouse of Tony Stark became the New York headquarters of the Avenger League after the Justice League and the Avengers merged in the 1990s. After the team disbanded, the Lighthouse became a museum dedicated to the history of the Avengers, the Justice League, and the Avenger League, with daily tours and the occasional visit by a Leaguer hoping to reminisce.

J'onn J'onnzz, the Martian Manhunter, spent a lot of time at the Lighthouse. Having only ever been based in the League's Watchtower in Metropolis and the New York central Lighthouse, he hoped that many of his memories could be found here - memories he no longer had.

It was J'onn's fault that the Avengers League disbanded, or so many people believed. Towards the end of the 1990s, the League fought a long-running battle with Deathstroke and the H.I.V.E. Eventually, they tracked down Slade Wilson and had him cornered. The Manhunter approached him, and the League realised it had all been a setup. The Deathstroke they had found was only a life model decoy, and it had been programmed to target J'onn specifically. It detonated with a force nearly powerful enough to kill the alien - and more than enough to leave him brain dead.

Although the League's technology was enough to repair the alien's ravaged body, they were unable to repair his mind. His brain was heavily modified with cybernetic implants and his mind was reproduced from his own previously recorded brain engrams. However, while the engrams were able to reproduce his fundamental behaviours, his memory was lost - as was his ability to feel emotion and empathy. Most of the founding members of the Avengers and the Justice League agreed that J'onn being attacked, specifically as a way to get at the League, showed that the Avenger League was now more of an extra reason to be targeted. Feeling that members would be better served continuing their heroic activities as solo adventurers or small groups, the Avenger League was disbanded.

Yet J'onn still felt most at home in the League's bases and with League members - his entire 'life', from the moment his new mind was activated, centered around the Avenger League. Without them, he felt lost, and continued to remain among the League's abandoned possessions, acting as a kind of ghostly sentinel, protecting them day in and day out.

Or trying to, at least.

As he examined for the thousandth time a painting depicting him, as Justice League chairperson, signing an agreement with Captain America signifying the merger of the Avengers and the Justice League, he tried to imagine what his 'former self' was like. He considered the Martian Manhunter to be a completely separate entity, with no connection to his current self other than in appearance. His reverie, however, was short-lived - as suddenly, the full fury of a determined mechanoid struck down an entire outer wall of the Lighthouse.

With a single thought J'onn became intangible and flew to investigate the disturbance. The decommissioned headquarters' automatic defences had been disabled, but there were still a dozen guards patrolling the grounds. No-one should have been able to launch an attack on the building unnoticed.

J'onn finally reached the front entrance to the building, just in time for the unconscious body of a guard to be tossed through his intangible form. He cocked his head to examine the guard's assailant and saw the menacing, spiked and horned body of Death's Head standing within the Lighthouse grounds.

"J'onnzz?" Death's Head asked.

"I... was," J'onn said hesitantly, "though I bear little resemblance to my former self. Ever since Deathstroke's unsuccessful attempt to - "

"Kill the exposition, yes?" Death's Head remarked. "I'm here to terminate you, not hear your life story."

J'onn became alert, but it was too little, too late. A neutron-powered rocket arced toward him, and although J'onn remained intangible, the Lighthouse wasn't. Several rooms exploded as the rocket struck, and fire erupted across that area of the grounds. The Martian's psychosomatic fear of fire, carried across with his brain engrams, caused him to lose control of his superhuman abilities - the fire washed over his now tangible form, and he did little to try to save himself.

Death's Head stepped closer to the fire, eager to recover J'onn's corpse - he always made sure that he followed his contractual obligations to the letter - but this turned out to be a costly mistake. Seemingly from nowhere came an entire vibranium lined concrete wall. It landed on the mechanoid and shattered, allowing his head to burst through, but leaving the rest of his body trapped.

"Ouch, yes?"

NEXT: Death's Head vs. the Avenger League !

Feel free to send comments, questions and concerns to bella1@netspace.net.au