Fourth Story:
‘Where are you taking me?…I demand to know where you’re taking me!…Oww! Let go of me!…What are you doing??…ANSWER ME!’ a panicked woman cries as, blindfolded, she is locked in a room. Suddenly, the steel door slams shut, and the red-headed woman rips off her blindfold, ‘You can’t just do this!’ she shouts, demanding to have a lawyer, she tries the door handle and begins slamming her fists on the door. Suddenly, she clutches her head, and feeling weary, she stumbles across the black-and-white tiled floor towards the basic bed, where she lands, and covers her face with one of her arms.
Meanwhile, somewhere North of the U.S./Canadian border, Johnny Walker a.k.a. USAgent, the leader of Canada’s new super team, Omega Flight, uses his shield to block the bullets fired at him by a strange foe, while calling out to Michael Pointer a.k.a. the new Guardian, ‘This guy’s not even a lightweight!’ Walker exclaims. Pointer blasts their strange foe with his mutant energies which are controlled by the Guardian battle suit and assures USAgent that he has their opponent, but that he needs to concentrate. ‘Would ya quit screwing around and fry this chump already?’ Walker snaps back.
Pointer replies that he is not going to “fry” anyone, as he can subdue their foe without harming him, but he just needs to focus. Walker holds his shield up to protect himself from the barrage of bullets the strange foe fires at him while he radios back to base, ‘I thought you morons said Pointer was ready!’ Walker shouts, annoyed.
Back at headquarters, several scientists, and Agent Brown, are monitoring the battle, and someone remarks that Pointer’s power levels are significantly down. Another scientist remarks that he is reading a 7% drop from last week and a 32% drop from when Pointer engaged the Wrecking Crew four weeks ago. Agent Brown remarks that it is clear Guardian’s powers are decreasing, to which another scientist replies that is not entirely true, and motions to a computer monitor, explaining that the overall trend has been downward since Pointer joined Omega Flight, there have been significant spikes here and there. The scientist believes that the “residual energy” that Pointer retained after his initial encounter withy the Collective has begun to gradually dissipate or fade.
Back at the battle, Pointer hasn’t been able to subdue their foe yet, and dodges a bullet which is fired at him, while USAgent ducks and holds his shield up to protect him from the strange tentacle-like appendages flowing from their enemy, ‘What the Hell’s wrong with you, Pointer?’ he shouts. Guardian replies that he doesn’t know. ‘Feel so…strange!’ he exclaims, before losing control and falling out of the air, he lands hard on the ground.
‘%$#&ing great! Maybe both you losers aren’t even lightweights!’ Johnny moans’, while his foe tries to lash him with the tentacles again and exclaims ‘I am Tentakill - and I am no lightweight!’ Johnny frowns, ‘”Tentakill”? You gotta be kidding me!’ he exclaims, blocking Tentakill’s attack with his shield. Johnny then adds ‘Anyway, that’s what I said - you’re not even a lightweight! Doesn’t anybody listen to me?’ he mumbles.
Johnny calls out to Guardian, asking him to take out this guy, but Michael replies that he feels so weak. ‘Show those Canadian panty-waists how the red, white and blue do it!’ Johnny declares, before asking Pointer what the matter with him is. Johnny begins pulling on Tentakill’s tentacles and reminds Pointer that he is supposed to be the Guardian. ‘Don’t make me bail you out here…I’m just supposed to be observing on this one!’ Walker reminds Pointer, telling him that he is supposed to be a hero.
‘I’m not a hero…’ Pointer replies, exhausted, while USAgent shouts ‘So be a freakin’ hero!’ and lunges at Tentakill, knocking the strange villain to the ground, while Guardian just lies there. Johnny begins bashing Tentakill with his baton, and radio to Agent Brown, asking him if he is getting any of this. ‘I told ya this kid ain’t ready, didn’t I!’ Walker exclaims. ’&*@# rookies!’ USAgent mutters as he punches Tentakill right in the face with his superior strength. Continuing to bash Tentakill, Walker doesn’t notice Pointer get up and radios to Agent Brown that if you send rookies in without the proper training then they are bound to get themselves killed - themselves or some other idiot.
At that moment, Guardian fires a blast of his energy into the fight, but it just knocks Walker and Tentakill apart and strikes a large tree, which then proceeds to fall in Walker’s direction and traps Walker under some of the branches. ‘*!**#@!’ Johnny shouts angrily. ‘Jerks!’ Tentakill shouts as he uses this opportunity to flee. ‘Did I get…’ Pointer begins to ask, while Johnny shouts ‘#@ing! #$@LS#!!!’ as he begins to crawl out from the tree. ‘…him?’ Pointer asks as he collapses. ‘Great’ Johnny mutters, before turning to his radio communicator and asking Agent Brown if he is still reading him.
One of the scientists remarks that Guardian is down by 65%, and another adds that he is reading a significant drop in heart rate. ‘Analysis of absorption inconclusive’ the third scientists adds. ‘Uh…yeah…so…could I get some, uh, help here?’ Walker asks. Agent Brown hangs his head as one of the scientists remarks that the readings are making no sense, as the suit should have compensated. ‘I think Sally fainted’ Walker snaps as he stands over Pointer’s unmoving body.
2 hours later at Omega Flight headquarters, Agent Brown remarks to Dr Benning that it doesn’t make any sense, as the suits internal monitors should be stabilizing these fluctuations, before asking Dr Benning if she has been making any progress with Pointer. Dr Benning replies that Michael is progressing, but that he is quite tortured by the guilt he feels for the deaths of all those people, and what he did to Alpha Flight.
USAgent stands, arms folded across his chest, while Pointer tells a scientist that he is actually feeling much better now. The scientist offers to run more tests, but Pointer replies that he feels fine, great actually.
Dr Benning reminds Agent Brown that, on top of everything else, Michael is forced to atone for what he did by becoming the new Guardian, so he is very confused. She remarks that there is no quick fix for what Pointer is feeling, so it is going to take some time, ‘You can’t just snap your fingers and turn him into your Weapon Omega’.
Pointer turns to Walker and tells him that he is sorry for what happened out there, but that he doesn’t know what happened. Walker tells him to forget about it. ‘It’s not your fault’ he assures him, glaring at Agent Brown, before Walker leaves the lab area while the scientist asks Pointer when he started feeling better. Pointer replies that he isn’t sure, that he doesn’t know when it hit him, maybe an hour ago, it was around the time they got back to base. ‘Yeah…as soon as we got back here, I just started feeling, you know, better. It was like the power…it felt like it was flowing back into me…through me…through my veins…yeah…right when we got back…I started feeling much better!’
Johnny takes out his cellphone: ‘Yeah, hey, it’s me. Just thought ya might be interested in what the weather’s been like up here. It’s real sunny now, all of a sudden…it’s weird, cause you know, for a while there it was looking pretty gloomy’ Walker assures who he is talking to that he will keep watching the skies and keep them posted. ‘Cause I got a feeling there might be a storm front moving back in soon…’.
Meanwhile…the unknown woman, locked in the cell with “Quarantined” on the door, lies on the bed still. ‘Can’t…uh…do this…to me…uhnnn’ she moans, her skin shucked back, and looking a whiter shade of pale….
