Chapter One: Welcome to the Mayhem
S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Sean Livingston sat at the driver’s
seat of a black Camaro in the middle of a Manhattan junkyard clearing for
nearly four straight hours. Although it felt more like a stakeout, sitting
in one area for a lengthy period of time, it was in actuality a sting operation
that he waited to happen. He was on this assignment with Natasha Romanoff,
the legendary Avenger and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent codenamed “Black Widow.” They both
wisely kept to civilian attire for the upcoming operation with Livingston
donning a long black trench coat, black shirt, and black pants and Romanoff
wearing a brown, buttoned-up leather jacket and black skinny jeans.
(Character Note: Romanoff's "civilian look" is primarily based on that she uses in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The movie had not been released in theaters yet at the time this chapter was outlined, written, and posted on FanFiction.net, so I worked from set photos of Scarlett Johansson.)
During the wait for the arrival of their target, a
wealthy businessman by the name of John Saccheri of “Sacch Corporation,” the
two agents were relatively quiet in the Camaro. The radio played faintly,
maintained on the same XM station since Sean started the car. He was thankful
that it was a station that didn’t play romantic tunes or else it would have
made the wait far more awkward for him and Romanoff. It was not that she wasn’t
his type or even the fact that she was remotely the kind of woman who was into
romance; he was already in a serious relationship with Maria Hill and wanted to
keep it secret from most of everyone at S.H.I.E.L.D., especially his mother and
Director Fury.
(Narrative Note: This relationship between Agent Livingston and Maria Hill was intended to be explored throughout the story. When it turned out that Hill played a larger role in The Winter Soldier than expected, it was sidelined in favor of keeping our characters slightly away from the plot of the movie to focus on the one of Marvel Mayhem. There still are hints dropped of their relationship in upcoming chapters.)
After three hours, Livingston felt as if something needed
to be said about their assignment: “This is ridiculous. We are two of the most
respected agents in the organization, and we’re resulted to handling low-tier
missions like this.”
“Oh, I dunno.” Natasha responded with a grin. “It’s not
so bad. Who knows – we could still see action.”
Sean was surprised by her optimism: “You mean you aren’t
the least bit pissed about this? You fought the freakin’ Chitauri for crying
out loud. You should be on some solo mission in Latveria or teaming with
Captain America for infiltration of a heavily-guarded terrorist base – not
sitting here and letting your butt go numb for some businessman who thinks he’s
Wilson Fisk.”
(Marvel Note: Two key Marvel Comic references are made in this piece of dialogue, but only one of them in reality ties with Marvel's cinematic universe. Latveria is the home of Doctor Victor von Doom, an adversary of the Fantastic Four, but Marvel/Disney does not own rights to the characters to feature them in the cinematic universe. Wilson Fisk, adversary of Daredevil, does in fact exist in the MCU, but had not yet been properly introduced until the Netflix series a year later.)
Romanoff shrugged. “I’m just broadening my horizons, I
guess.”
Her remark left him slightly baffled, but he decided to
leave it be in respect for her. Instead, he opted to change the subject:
“Regardless of low-levelness, I still don’t want this thing to boil over. If something
goes wrong, I hope they make sure to
listen closely for the signal.”
While the young agent was increasingly tense, Romanoff
remained calm and cool. “Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be O.K.”
All he could do was take her word for it, especially
after being interrupted by a series of headlights shining in their eyes.
Looking ahead, they saw a white, stretched-out limousine, accompanied by two
black Hummers and a black box truck, coming up toward them. With a heavy,
nerved sigh, he looked to Romanoff and said, “Show time.”
The two stepped out of the Camaro as the limousine and
the three other vehicles pulled to a stop across from them. Upon removing
herself from the passenger seat, Romanoff required a moment to stretch out her
limbs, which were locked from the hours of sitting. It was an unpleasant
sensation to say the least, specifically the parts of her that fell numb –
including (coincidentally) her backside. She knew Sean was only speaking
metaphorically when he spoke of her butt becoming numb from the waiting, yet it
turned out what exactly happened. She
chose not to tell him about it for the sake of dignity and focus on their
mission.
(Authorial Note: I've been known to give subtle hints of moments and/or characters that seem out of the ordinary, building up on a later reveal to readers. Pay close attention to certain shifts in personality with Black Widow in this chapter and the next. Not all is what it seems.)
She looked with him to the limousine as a wide, stocky,
bearded gentleman stepped out of the vehicle. He had thick black hair slicked
with gel and wore a white, clean, pressed business suit, and a white fedora, included
with a white trench coat draped on his wide frame; it all stood out from all
the junk that surrounded him, as well as his black-suited bodyguards. It did
not take much for Livingston and Romanoff to see that this was their man: John
Saccheri. He approached them with eight bodyguards flanking him, puffing on a
thick brown cigar and holding a white-silver cat. Sean thought the man
resembled the stereotypical New York gangster – or something out of a James Bond film.
“Panda.”
Sean could’ve sworn he heard Natasha mutter that word as
Saccheri came right up to them. This surprised him, being out-of-context with
their situation (Saccheri did not resemble a panda in the least bit). He chose
not to confront her on it – not with Saccheri and his men now standing in front
of them. He puffed on his cigar, gazing left and right between Sean and
Natasha.
(Character Note: The "John Saccheri" character is based on and inspired by the actual John Saccheri, who also inspired the character "Panda" in other World of Disney installments. Saccheri had a hand in the development of his character, coming up with ideas for what made him such an "evil mastermind." I envisioned this character who just happens to bear resemblance to Panda's human form to be the polar opposite of the loving, caring sidekick/companion of the Guardian of the Disneyverse.)
Through the cigar in his mouth, he pointed to Sean and
ordered two of his bodyguards, “Search ‘im.”
Anticipating this, Sean willingly held up his arms and
allowed the two men to pat him down from top to bottom and search through the
pockets of his coat. When the search was done, one of the men faced Saccheri
and alerted, “This one’s clean. You want us to search the other one?”
Saccheri’s eyes suddenly lit up with excitement. “No, no.
Allow me to have the pleasure doing that myself, boys.” There were snickers
among his men as he handed his white-silver cat over to one of them and
advanced on Romanoff with a sick grin.
Seeing that grin, Natasha grew obviously nervous. “H-Hey.
I don’t have any weapons or wires on me, if that’s what you’re thinkin’. I’m totally clean.”
Saccheri shook his head. “Can’t be too sure about that.”
He grew closer, prompting Romanoff to back away. “No!”
He looked upon her with an angry, dissatisfied scowl.
“Well, then I guess we should just call the whole deal off, eh?”
Sean gave a disgusted sigh. “Just let him do what he
wants, Natalie.” He did not plan on using cover names for this mission, but had
to in this case, in order to remind Natasha how serious they had to be with
Saccheri and his requests.
(Marvel Note: "Natalie Rushman" is the cover name Romanoff used when posing as Tony Stark's new assistant in Iron Man 2.)
With no other choice, Romanoff raised her arms and
allowed Saccheri’s personal search to commence. It had to be the most embarrassing
moment of her life. Fondling more than patting, Saccheri made her the center of
entertainment not just for himself but his men as well – all of them snickering
like schoolboys. From the corner of her left eye, she could see Sean slightly
pacing, his fists clenched in anger and frustration, although she couldn’t tell
if it was from Saccheri wasting their time or the show he put on with
her. Either way, the feeling was mutual.
After a very slow three minutes, a gruesomely satisfied
Saccheri ended the show, pretending to dust his hands off as he stepped away
from Natasha. He was quick to move on to business, acting as if what he had
just done to her never happened. “Now then,” he began, taking back his
white-silver cat from the one bodyguard. “You two are really gonna like what I have for you. What I’ve got here is
something that’ll make even Tony Stark crap his pants. But, first, I must ask
you this: what is the one species that we humans take the least bit granted for? What is the one household pet that you see
getting all the attention, all the respect, all the love, and all the
pampering?”
It was obvious what Saccheri was alluding to, holding his
cat up and down, left and right, and in circular motion as he asked his
questions. Sean gave the answer the deluded businessman was looking for:
“Cats?”
“Yes!” He gleefully shouted. “Cats! The beautiful
predators that we least take for granted in our boring, everyday lives! Except
for me. I’ve seen the potential that comes with these glorious creatures no one
else has. Household, pet shop, alley…I’m taking every cat I find and implanting
each one with a microchip that will allow total mind control over them. They’ll
be placed in ‘good homes,’ including the biggest home of them all – The White
House, to spy and unleash their ‘furry fury’ whenever I command them to.”
(Authorial Note: When I first offered a role to Saccheri in my World of Disney series, he had hoped to play a villain, whereas I wanted him to be a hero. We eventually compromised with the two different characters based on him in two separate stories. He even pitched me this very idea of "mind-controlled cats" as part of his antagonistic character's signature shtick. It is one of the few times that the inspiration for the character had a hand in his or her development.)
“That’s sick.”
Natasha said exactly what Sean had been thinking during Saccheri’s entire pitch
to them. He knew the businessman was insane from his history with shady creations
covertly linked to his company, but his latest “master scheme” made him outright
loony in the eyes of the young agent.
Saccheri smiled from Natasha’s remark, taking her disgust
as a compliment to his “genius.”
“How will you control them?” Sean posed the question as
part of the mission, needing the full information of this plot, even though he
didn’t really want to know the specifics.
The maniac smile on Saccheri’s bearded face grew.
“Thought you’d never ask. Follow me.” They did as he requested and joined with
him and his men over to the box truck, gathering near the rear doors of the
cargo hold. A couple of his men worked together to open the rear doors,
revealing a control center inside the cargo area. Lit up in the darkened space,
the control center consisted of an array of computer monitors with a wide
console that had various knobs, switches, lights, and buttons, in addition to a
large keyboard. There was only one chair to sit in at the station; it was
bolted down and had a seatbelt, making it suitable for operation while in
transit, and it looked wide enough to fit Saccheri’s frame.
This was proven once Saccheri stepped into the cargo area
and sat at the station, setting his white-silver cat down on the floor near
him. “Now…watch this,” he said before
typing a command into the keyboard that went through the computer system and
transferred to the microchip implanted in the cat’s brain. The transference was
invisible to the naked eye, but it certainly resonated between computer and
chip, evident from the sudden display of vicious behavior in Saccheri’s
white-silver cat, as opposed to its gentle demeanor in the time Sean and
Natasha had seen it. It hissed at them, making them flinch – Livingston felt
particularly embarrassed for doing so, even allowing himself to be caught by
Saccheri.
“Ya see?” The mad businessman exclaimed in delight over
the demonstration. “I can even manipulate his behavior from ‘fussy’ to
‘bloodthirsty’ with the simple turn of a knob!”
Romanoff became increasingly revolted from this
presentation of what could only be described as “typical animal cruelty.” “You
are inhuman for doing this, you know that?”
Sean was caught by surprise from her openly belittling
Saccheri and his project for the second straight time. The first time went
entirely unnoticed by Saccheri, but this time he caught on to the fact that she
was legitimately being critical of his work. Getting up from the station, he
walked back to them and asked in suspicion, “You both knew the mechanics
of my merchandise. Why did you two show so much interest if you were just going
to come here and criticize it?”
That was it. Sean knew their cover was blown,
surprisingly by the one woman who excelled in maintaining cover. It was such a
simple mission that Livingston knew there was no way it could go wrong with the Black Widow at his side. But things
began to take a turn for the worse that very second, and Sean knew he had to
act right away to correct Natasha’s rookie mistake.
“She’s simply praising you through flattery.” He said,
hoping that appealing to the man’s ego would help. “She’s been really fond of your work over the years.”
Saccheri frowned. “How could you two know of my other projects when I’ve just showed you
this one?”
Sean’s body tensed – he had now blown their cover completely.
In a heartbeat, Saccheri’s men pulled out their guns and
aimed them at the heads of Livingston and Romanoff. “Think we’ve got a couple
of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents here, boys,” the businessman realized. “S.H.I.E.L.D.’s
always been on my tail over my little experiments, calling them ‘illegal,’
‘immoral,’ and…inhumane.” He sharply
uttered the last term while glaring towards Romanoff. “You’ve wanted to shut me
down for a long time. Well, I’m going
to shut you down!”
The two agents heard hear the guns of Saccheri’s men
click in response to his cryptic command.
“Big mistake coming into this without the necessary
communication to call for backup.” Saccheri panned.
“What the hell ya’ll doin’ ‘round here in my yard!”
Whatever bloodbath that was about to happen there in the
clearing was interrupted by the emergence of an elderly black man with curly,
balding gray hair and a beard to match, wearing a red plaid shirt with lime
green suspenders to hold up a grey pair of pants. He walked stiffly towards the
group and yelled in a raspy, furious voice, “Ya’ll get outta here! If ya ain’t
buyin’, get to steppin’!”
“Get out of here, old man.” Saccheri warned. “This is
none of your business.”
“Ya damn right it ain’t none of my business, because my
business is in junk, not white trash!” The old man grumbled. “Now get the hell outta
here!”
With the snap of his fingers, Saccheri gave an order for
his men that need not to be spoken out loud. Immediately, all eight of them
moved their guns away from Sean and Natasha, fixating them on the old man. In
reaction, the elderly character raised one hand up while the other clutched his
chest, a look of fear masking his face.
“Oh, lord!” He cried. “This is the big one!” He then
looked to the sky and screamed, “Ya hear that, Elizabeth? I’m comin’ to join
ya, honey! With eight white men ready to do me in!”
(Pop Culture Note: This old man is a clear spoof of the "Fred Sanford" character from Sanford & Son, sharing more than one parallel to the Redd Foxx character. In fact, this is technically the second time that the show has been referenced in World of Disney continuity, as Joanie Navarro - a Sanford & Son fan - uses the "fake heart attack" gimmick in the very first story.)
Saccheri rolled his eyes in annoyance. “Drop the act,
Gramps. I’ve watched enough of Sanford
and Son to know a fake heart attack when I see one.” Even as he made this
known, there was a lot about this character that reminded him of the one Redd
Foxx was famous for.
Of course, the sudden collapse of this old man was not part of the well-known routine.
After watching him fall to the ground and lie there lifelessly, the frustrated
Saccheri had enough. He took a gun from one of his men and walked to the fallen
old man. He trained the gun on the old man’s head, intending to shoot him there
to bring some legitimacy to his “death.”
Just as his finger was on the verge of yanking the
trigger, Saccheri is suddenly blinded by a spotlight that shined over him and
everyone else in the area. He instinctively looked up in an attempt to see
where the light was coming from, hearing the deafening sound of jet engines to
notify him of a possible aircraft directly above them. He fired his gun at the
craft, despite not being able to see it past the light. His action not only
proved to be futile but foolish as well, as the invisible, airborne intruder returned
fire, blowing out the tires to the Hummers, Camaro, and truck; it managed to
blow only one of the rear tires out on Saccheri’s limousine.
Saccheri panicked in the midst of the ambush. “What is
this?”
“It’s called a distraction, dummy!”
He looked down to see the old man sitting up and aiming
at Saccheri’s head with a gun he retrieved from his “gut bulge.” The elderly
character smiled and said in an entirely different voice – one that sounded
young and feminine, “Surprise!”
It was then Saccheri realized he had been played by yet another S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, this one
under heavy disguise.
(Character Note: This S.H.I.E.L.D. agent is one readers will recall reading about in The Marvelous World: World of Disney 2 - "Elendriel Livingston," inspired by popular cosplayer Elendriel Alastair. Her mastery in disguises is an aspect of her character explored for the first time in Marvel Mayhem, inspired by her amazing real-life cosplay.)
Meanwhile, during the confusion, Sean leapt into action
against Saccheri’s eight bodyguards, disarming and subduing them with a series
of aggressive, tactical attacks that led to the men suffering unimaginable
injuries; bending back arms at the elbow and kicking in legs at the knee, he shattered
the human appendages in a matter of seconds. A horrified Natasha stood by and
witnessed the display of violence from the young agent.
(Character Note: Another new aspect in character is that of the true violent nature of Agent Sean Livingston, who - until now - has never been known to have a history of violence.)
When he was finished with the last man, Sean exhaustively
looked to Romanoff, who stared over the bodies of the groaning, injured men.
“Hey!” He belligerently yelled, scaring her out of the trance that the brutal
scene put her in. “The hell’s wrong with you, Romanoff? Why didn’t you back me
up?”
She was speechless; but her chance to respond was taken
away by a series of sudden explosions that erupted around the scene. The
invisible aircraft above them recoiled and, in response to the unexpected
chaos, dropped its camouflage, revealing itself to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjet. Temporarily
unsighted by the dirt and rocks that rained down on her and everyone else,
Natasha spotted Saccheri retreating to his limousine. The scared businessman
yanked the driver out and took the wheel himself, speeding away from the
junkyard.
(UP NEXT: Mysteries Revealed!)
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