A rumble in the jungle

Twisted into the exotic shapes of Chinese characters, neon lights flashed in the night. Hurrying people scurried beneath the glaring signs. Chinatown was always a frenzy.

While patrolling Chinatown's dark and seedy alleyways, a series of furtive movements amongst the shadows caught the attentions of the gathered Heroes For Hire. Iron Fist, Power-Man, Shang-Chi, Mockingbird, and Black Widow.

Three men carrying guns and ghoulish Halloween masks quickly piled into a black sedan. With the slow grace of a shark, the dark auto pulled out onto the street and ambled through the throng of milling pedestrians and honking cars. Mockingbird suggested they follow the vehicle instead of ambushing the thugs immediately.

After tailing the sedan for several blocks, the vehicle turned off its headlights as it pulled into a dark alleyway and stopped. The masked gunmen inside the sedan intently stared at the large warehouse across the street from their parked vehicle. A large sign hung above the gate to the warehouse that read: "Orbison's Factory Warehouse".

The scene was very quiet. Deafeningly quiet after the hubub and hustle of Chinatown. The streets were deserted around the warehouse. The Heroes began to approach the vehicle, whose passengers and driver were caught off guard by the heroes' presence. Initially, they attempted to drive away and escape. Outpowered, the thugs then quickly surrendered.

Once extracted from the car, the thugs behaved nervously and eyes the warehouse suspiciously. "We'll do whatever you guys want," one of the thugs says, "let's just do it away from that building over there."

"Who are you guys? Who do you work for?" Power-Man asked.

"We're Faces of Fear!" one of the thugs proudly exclaims.

"What are you doing here?" Black Widow asked.

"We were supposed to rumble with some Maggia goons in that warehouse, settle a few scores! But the boss is a smart one, and he set up a double cross--there's a bomb rigged to blow those chumps sky-high. It's dangerous here! That thing is gonna blow. We didnt do nothing, let us go." the first thug informs.

"You punks came to watch the fun!" Power-Man chastised.

"Where's the bomb?! When is it supposed to detonate?" Mockingbird inquired.

"It's in some crate, marked engine parts. I dont know when it's supposed to blow. Any minute now, i think." a thug explicated.

So, Mockingbird set to using zip-ties to apprehend the thugs and cuff them inside their vehicle a safe distance from the warehouse. Then, Black Widow stealthily approached the warehouse to perform reconnaissance. Peering through a dirty glass window, Black Widow saw the factory floor packed with at least 20 armed thugs. They appeared to be a mixture of several small-time gangs. They were standing around a tall crate in the middle of the room. Several more crates were lying on the floor to one side, and standing on one of them was a man wearing a long trench coat. Lying at his feet, a woman struggled with the ropes that bound her. Her face was partially covered by a halloween mask. The man motions to the crowd with his submachine-gun and said, "You boys have been brought here for one purpose--to wipe out the Faces of Fear!! When the job is done, the Maggia will give each of you a thousand bills!"

The amassed crowd roared and cheered before the man continued, "They'll be here any minute, so let's waste their whore to get the ball rolling." the mobster pointed his machine gun at the woman's head and chambered a bullet with a loud CLICK!

Instinctively reacting to save the woman, Black Widow and Mockingbird entered the warehouse to confront the thugs. When the two heroines burst in, 17 of the thugs opened fire on the women, completely forgetting the woman captive. The 2 trained spies quickly dispatched of a majority of the villains. However, there was one other villain the two women were unaware of hiding in the warehouse. Patiently standing inside the tall crate was a Maggia goon named Rocko. He had been eagerly awaiting his opportunity to leap out and ambush the faces of fear. As he overheard the sound of scuffle, Rocko broke loose and revealed his modified set of Mandroid battle-armor.

The Mandroid personal battle-suit was originally produced by Stark International intended for use by S.H.I.E.L.D. Not long ago, Tony Stark had discovered the plans stolen for his original Iron Man armor. These plans were then utilized by corporate entrepreneur Justin Hammer, who in turn sold them to various criminals. These criminals often used these plans to construct their own custom set of battle armor. Angered, Stark went on a crusade to destroy all unoriginal suits of battle armor. It was believed all the unauthorized mandroid suits were utterly destroyed by fusing their circuits. However, Hammerhead's branch of the Maggia obtained a copy of the blueprints for the Mandroid battle Armor, and built a suit for their own use.

As the Mandroid initiated its attack on the heroines, the factory door flew from its hinges as Power-Man and Iron Fist entered. They quickly informed the women of the bomb, who actively began searching for it as the duo handled the mandroid. All 13 of the crates scattered across the factory were labelled with stickers that read: 'Engine Parts'. Carefully searching each crate, Mockingbird eventually stumbled across a paper sack amongst the parts. In the sack was a timer, a detonator, a jumble of colored wires, and a glob of plastic explosives. When she discovered the bomb, the timer flashed 14 seconds..13 seconds...and so on. The detonator was connected to the explosive by only 2 of the many wires--a red wire and a yellow wire. To deactivate the bomb, the correct wire had to be disconnected. If the wrong one is cut before the correct one, the bomb would instantly detonate. If both wires were severed simultaneously, the device would still have a 50% chance of detonation. As the other heroes defeated the Mandroid and Maggia thugs, Mockingbird severed the red wire and disarmed the bomb within seconds of detonation.