"Don't let her hit you with those javelins, Musky," Firestar warned. "They can be deadly!"
"Gotcha, hot stuff!" Muskateer blocked the javelin that Artemis had just fired, but only barely. "Damn, that was close."
Artemis looped around the heroes and sped away through the deserted buildings.
"She's getting away," Muskateer grumbled.
"I'm not so sure," Firestar responded. "Just do what I said, and we'll get her."
"If you say so, kiddo." Muskateer moved out into the middle of the street as Firestar flew off. He held his sword by his side and watched the direction Artemis had gone.
Suddenly, the white armored villainess burst towards Muskateer from the side. He hadn't heard her approaching. She crashed into the Avenger and the two tumbled to the ground. "Now you're at my mercy, hero!", Artemis shouted.
The two had their hands locked around each other's throats. They both struggled to win this deadly battle. Suddenly, Artemis felt a tremendous burst of fire along her back. Artemis released her grip and Muskateer collapsed to the pavement.
"You're through for good, Artemis!" The villainess turned to see Firestar perched on a nearby rooftop. Fear filled Artemis' eyes as she realized that Firestar had played her for the fool. It was over before she knew what hit her.
Cassie took to the air and landed near her dazed teammate. Artemis was laying unconscious a few feet away. "Oh man, good thing you got the drop on her, Firestar, or I woulda been a goner," Muskateer said, as he tentatively sat up.
"Don't worry, Musky, that's what I'm here for." She knelt down next to Muskateer and lifted his mask. The two stared at each other for a moment and then embraced in a long lingering kiss. The face beneath Muskateer's mask belonged to none other than Tom Cruise.
"That's always where I want you to be," Cruise/Muskateer said in a silky smooth voice.
"Oh, Musky,..."
Suddenly, Cassie was rudely interrupted from her dream by a loud pounding noise. She groggily stirred and tossed aside the pillow she was clutching. As she rubbed her eyes, it took another moment for her to realize that the pounding was someone knocking at the door. "Jus' a minute...", she answered.
Reaching for the clock to see what time it was, as it was still dark outside, Cassie fumbled with it and it slipped from her hands. Just then, the door opened and she looked up to see Muskateer standing in the opening.
"Oh, hi, Musky..." Cassie's face turned bright red, even though he had no idea what had been going on in her dream. "What time is it?" She rubbed her eyes again.
"Six thirty, hot stuff."
"In the morning?!" Cassie plopped back into her bed and pulled a pillow over her head.
"I just wanted to make sure you had plenty of time to get ready before our first training session." There was no response. "You promised you'd go along with this, Cassie."
"I know, I know. Can't I sleep a little longer?"
"You need to eat before the session, but not too close to it." Muskateer reached over and pulled the pillow away. He then grabbed her arm. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Your choice."
"Okay, okay..."
A little over two hours later, Muskateer and Cassie could be found in the first sub-level of the Mansion, in the Combat Simulator. He had already been putting her through a conditioning routine for a half-hour.
"I can see what you've been saying now, Musky," Cassandra said, as she towled herself off. "I feel muscles that I've never felt before."
"Hot stuff, that was just the warm-up. We're just getting started."
Cassie looked worried. She took a long drink from her water bottle. "I don't like the sound of that," she said finally.
"In a few weeks, this'll seem like a piece of cake." Muskateer unsheathed his sword and walked over to a wall console. "For the moment, you can take a breather." He pushed a sequence of buttons on the control panel and then stepped away. He swished his sword back and forth in front of him.
Cassie looked on with curiosity. "So, what happens next?"
"Just watch." Muskateer stepped into the center of the room. And suddenly, it came to life. There were ramrods and laser beams suddenly crisscrossing the area. Muskateer flipped over one of the obstructions and under another.
His sword flashed about as he tumbled through the grueling exercise. He slashed at strategically placed targets or blasted them with the various energy beams which his sword projected. For good measure, he deflected some of the laser beams with his sword at other targets around the room.
It took an incredibly fast pace to stay ahead of the computer and not get overwhelmed. Cassie could hardly believe the chaos that flashed about. Then suddenly, it was over. The last of the targets hit, the room suddenly deactivated. Muskateer was once again standing in a large empty area. "How's that?", he asked.
"You really expect me to do that?", Cassie asked, a look of worry on her face. Muskateer had made the drill look so easy. That's what concerned her.
"I'm going to tone it down a bit," Muskateer responded. "Then work up to full speed."
Cassie walked tentatively to the middle of the room as Muskateer took up a position near the controls. "This good?"
"Perfect, Cassie." Muskateer began to punch in the codes to the training program. "Here's the ground rules: there are physical attacks and various energy attacks which will be coming at you from random locations. Each of them has a target somewhere in the room. Hit it and the attack turns off. Every few seconds a new attack will start up. The goal is to recognize and locate the targets and turn them off before you get overwhelmed. Ten targets and the exercise is over. They'll be a bit slower than the one I just ran."
"That was just ten?"
"No, I've got the routine up to thirty for light work-outs and fifty if I'm looking for a serious one."
"Sheesh. Okay, let's get this over with."
Muskateer hit the last button and stepped away. "The first attack will come in five seconds. Three, two..."
Suddenly a laser shot out towards Cassie and zipped past her head. She never saw it coming and screamed as it shot past. She moved out of the way and a ramrod lifted her off the ground into the air. It pushed her towards the ceiling, but she regained her wits and flew off the bar.
"Hey, that could 've hurt!"
"You need to start taking out targets!", Muskateer shouted to her.
Looking about her, Cassie saw one of the targets her teammate was talking about. She fired a blast of fire. Once it was hit, the ramrod ceased motion and retracted itself. "This isn't so hard," she said to herself.
As Firestar began the routine, Muskateer watched intently. Every twenty seconds or so, he pushed a button on the control panel which sped up the exercise a little bit each time.
After a couple minutes, Firestar was beginning to tire. She decided to land to conserve energy. A laser flashed past her shoulder. Another one came down from the ceiling barely missing her thigh. She looked around, trying to distinguish the small panels which were her targets. A ramrod came straight at her, and she dropped to the ground, letting it barely pass overhead. She fired at a target, hitting it, but she was beginning to fall behind. More beams and rods appeared.
"That's nine targets, Cass. Just one more to go," Muskateer encouraged. He watched her fire again, but missed. A ramrod slammed into her and knocked her to the ground. Muskateer jabbed a button on the console and the exercise abruptly ended.
He walked over to his teammate. Cassie sat up wearily and wiped the sweat from her brow. She took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. "Not bad, kiddo," Muskateer said, offering her a hand up. "Only problem is, you were only thinking of the obvious ways to register your targets."
"What do you mean?"
"You only hit them with bursts of fire. You could just as easily flown to them and swatted them with your hand. You sacrificed your flight to conserve energy and use it in your burst, when it might have been better the other way around."
"Didn't think I'd be getting a tactics lesson too."
"I threw that in for free," Muskateer responded.
"But how can that help me in a fight? It won't do me any good to fly up to Grond or Dr. Destroyer and slap him."
"That's not the point. You have to think outside the box, outside what's obvious if you get into a real serious fight. Use what you have to the utmost ability, instead of using it up." Cassie looked confused still by his comments. "Trust me, you'll see what I'm saying eventually. Sometimes you have to look past the obvious, like the move I used on Dark Seraph."
Cassie nodded, but still didn't fully understand. "There's another way you could have easily beaten that test at the end...", Muskateer began.
"Oh?"
"But I'm not telling." Muskateer tossed his teammate a towel. "You can take another break and then we'll start the last series of exercises."
"We're not done yet?", Cassie asked wearily. "I may have to sleep for a week."
"I'm heading up to the observation area for this exercise. I'll radio you when I'm ready."
"Take your time," Cassie answered. "Please, take your time."
A few short moments later, Muskateer was up in the observation area configuring the computer. "I'm glad to see Cassie's going along with it," Muskateer mused to himself as he worked. "She's a good kid. And she's gonna be a great heroine eventually. Just needs some fine tuning."
A few more moments and Muskateer was ready. He punched the intercom button and Cassie could hear him in the room below. "Okay, hot stuff, rise and shine."
She had laid down on a bench to recover. Wearily she rose, with a groan. "How long have we been at this?", she asked.
Muskateer checked the chronometer. "About an hour and a half total. We're almost done," he consoled her. She was running out of steam. Muskateer was about to push her past her limits this time. Muskateer hit the sound system controls and Loverboy burst out over the speakers in both the control room and the Simulator below.
"What do I have to do this time?"
"This program was especially developed for flying energy projectors," Muskateer explained. "The Avengers have been using versions of it for years. You have an obstacle course to transverse. If you touch the ground at all before finishing, you lose."
"Why do I think there's more than you're telling?"
"You're learning, kiddo. Ready?" Muskateer punched the first series of buttons.
"Honestly, no."
"Better get ready then. Here we go!" Muskateer pounded a large red button on the console and the room erupted to life. The sword-swinging Avenger watched as she began the course. After a few moments, he pushed another series of buttons and blasters began to make the course even hairier.
Muskateer watched his teammate work her way through the course. What he hadn't told her was that the flying, twisting obstacle course never ended. It was a continuous loop that took her all around the Combat Simulator.
"Ah, there you are." Muskateer had been so engrossed in the exercise and with the music masking her arrival, he never noticed Black Diamond enter the observation area until she spoke.
"What's on your mind, fearless leader?" Muskateer looked up briefly to acknowledge Diamond's arrival. He continued to keep an eye on Cassie in case he suddenly had to shut the system down.
"Pushing her pretty hard, aren't you?", Diamond remarked as she watched the chaos down in the simulator.
"You noticed that, did you?" Muskateer activated a few controls on the command console. "I want to make sure she's serious about this. Plus, how's she going to get better if I don't push her past her comfort zone?"
"When did all this start?" Black Diamond asked.
Obviously, Cassie hadn't mentioned their conversation a few days ago to Black Diamond. "This morning is the first one," Muskateer answered.
"I certainly don't mind it, but what brought it on?"
Muskateer paused for a moment. He was certainly willing to keep Cassie's secret. With luck and some serious hard work, she'd give up this nonsense about quitting the Avengers. "Well, Cassie seemed to think she got worn down too fast in the fight with the Crystal," Muskateer quickly explained. "So I told her I'd give her a hand with some training."
The two chatted for a short time, as Cassie fought her way through the exercise. (Editor's Note: for a more in depth version of this conversation, see Avengers #14) "Okay, let me just finish this up." Muskateer flicked some switches and the program came to an end. "Alright, Cassie!", he said into the microphone. "You can hit the showers." The exhausted Firestar looked quite relieved to be finished with the ordeal. "We can recap the results later, kiddo." Turning back to Black Diamond, he said, "Okay, what's the problem?"
Later that afternoon, Muskateer sat pondering the changes the team had undergone recently. The Huntress was now a reserve member. Much as he wouldn't admit it to anyone, he liked having her unique skills at his disposal even more.
"The thing that worries me," the hero thought to himself, "isn't what she's capable of, but how she does it. She's pretty raw and that can lead to troubles. She didn't exactly hit it off with Gwen or 'Gale either." Muskateer was keeping a personal log file since he had been promoted by Di.
Muskateer found himself at odds with that problem as well. His moral code closely resembled that of the Huntress. He couldn't fault her for her methods. There was a good chance that they would create some serious friction within the group though. Maybe if she wasn't so direct about it. When Muskateer did his sneaking about, he kept it quiet.
Even with Nightingale on leave, the Enchantress was more than willing to speak her mind about the team's morals. He resolved to try and smooth over any difficulties that would develop. "I'll have to have a chat with Helena."
"I can't say I will miss LB, if he actually decides to leave," Muskateer said. "I always thought his grand-standing caused the rest of the team problems. If there's going to be a glory hound around here, it might as well be me." The team was presently depleted, but still powerful nonetheless. Muskateer thought anyone would have to be nuts to want to fight them, even now.
The sword-swinging Avenger switched off the personal log and headed to the labs in the basement. Linda, Gwen, and Ben would be back from their collection and clean-up routine at the recently routed DEMON base. Muskateer wanted to check out whatever goodies they had collected.
He was glad Firestar seemed to be going along with his plan for now. Without her firepower, the Avengers would be in need of some help. "We've gone through enough changes lately without needin' another batch of replacements," Muskateer thought. "The kid's got more inside of her than she realizes. Poor thing's had it pretty rough. I can understand her feeling overwhelmed n' all."
Down at the Electronics Lab, the Thing was just exiting from the room. "Hey, Junior! I jus' dropped off a load a' electronic gizmos. Di said ya wanted ta check 'em out."
"Yeah, Big Guy, there may be some useful gear in there, plus I want to make sure none of it's dangerous."
"Seein' where it came from," the orange rocky Avenger replied, "I don't blame ya one bit."
"If we can get anything useful outta the mess, then it'll be worth it."
"Yeah, an' you scientists jus' love an excuse ta tinker with gizmos n' whatchamacallits," the Thing said.
Muskateer opened the door to the lab and looked at the huge container filled with equipment and parts. "And don't forget thingamajigs."
The Thing smiled a rocky grin. "Junior, no matter what Lightburst says, yer all right."
"Thanks," Muskateer answered. "I think."
"If ya get tired o' yer 'lectronics, the Yankees and Orioles are playin' tonight."
"Sorry, Ben, Sprout's comin' by after dinner. We've got some work to do."
"Ya better watch out Junior, yer gonna end up like Di. All work and no play."
"Don't worry about me, Big Guy, I still have plenty of play in me. Besides I also happen to think that this is fun." Muskateer pointed at the electronics as he spoke. Ben just shook his head as he lumbered away.
Muskateer entered the lab and began sorting through the equipment. "Now that Di's back and up to speed, the team's hers again," Muskateer mused as he began making piles on the workbenches. "I kinda liked bein' in charge." There was no doubt that Black Diamond was a better choice and much more qualified for the role and Muskateer accepted that fact. However, the seeds had been planted.
Muskateer ran some simple tests on equipment, tossing the non-working or extremely mundane items into a trash barrel. "I never woulda' guessed I'd even be in this position a few months ago. I can't really complain. Plus with the latest changes, I'll have enough to keep me busy anyway."
"The team's gonna have to get by for awhile on just the five of us. Helping Firestar out with her training is only going to make the team better." He imagined Cassie would be crashing early tonight. "She worked hard. Hopefully she'll keep that up. Of course, it's going to get even harder soon. Like my old football coach said, 'if the practices are hard enough then it's a piece of cake when the game's on the line'."
"Ben's not much of a problem," Muskateer said to himself as he continued his testing. "He's solid and you know what to expect. Ditto with Di."
"Gwen's a lot like Firestar in that she doesn't seem to realize the fullness of her powers. At least from a combat standpoint," Muskateer reasoned. "She certainly knows enough about her magic. She's just a little too predictable with it sometimes." Muskateer thought about it for a moment.
"Maybe the whole team could use some training exercises." The Scarlet Sabre was due to come by Wednesday to run some final checks on the Combat system. "After Firestar gets up to speed, we may want to get everyone involved." Maybe Ben was right. He was coming up with more work for himself and he didn't even have an ulterior motive other than the welfare of his teammates.
A couple of hours rolled by as Muskateer continued his testing of the various equipment. He had discovered a few items of interest: a couple of personal force shields, neurotanglers, electric sticks, the DEMON taser electronics were substantially different from what Muskateer used in his sword. There were also various energy rifles, grenades and other items.
"I wonder where Sprout is," Muskateer said, looking up at the clock. "She shoulda been here by now." He moved over to a suit of Demonspawn armor that he had brought back himself earlier. "I guess it's just you an' me for now, buckethead."
Muskateer grabbed the gauntlets and helmet and began another series of tests. It was another half-hour before the Huntress would arrive.
Epilogue:
Across the street from the Avengers Mansion, an unobtrusive figure sat on a park bench, reading the newspaper. Hidden by the paper on the woman's lap was a video screen that was being fed images from a hidden telescopic camera.
"Interesting," the woman mused, "I wonder who that woman is coming out of the alley alongside the mansion." She continued to watch the monitor, the view switching to different areas. Granted it was difficult to see into the mansion from this distance, but she hadn't noticed Muskateer in the Mansion for quite some time.
"You can't hide from me forever, Muskateer. I'll find you sooner or later, and when I do..." The woman switched off the camera and monitor then stowed the gear in her bag. She stood and walked off down Fifth Avenue. "He'll be so surprised."
In Huntress #10
