Team Amazing: Justice Taskforce Issue 3

Avery Magnum ran a hand through his windswept hair, smoothing the golden strands down against the cool breeze currently blowing from over the sea. It was dawn on the island, and sunlight spilled like water from a bubbling fountain, pouring through the cracks in the thick gray clouds that clung to the indiscernible line that separated water from sky. In the distance, puffy cumulus clouds rose from the horizon like giant beasts, waking from their night slumber, stretching their arms towards the heavens in some mighty appeal to nature. Magnum allowed himself to be momentarily awed by the beauty of the island and early morning sea, the tangy smell of salt that drifted in the air, and the sound of water splashing against the wooden dock he stood upon.
He turned around to examine the work of the men behind him. They were currently unloading the package from the cargo table it had been airlifted in upon. Several forklifts were slowly angling their way towards anchor points on the large package, like barracudas attacking a large and helpless prey. Overhead loomed the metallic structures of two industrial cranes, their operators smoothly guiding wires and hooks toward anchor points on the top. The entire site, carved from the heart of the island and layered in steel and concrete teemed with men and construction crews, all scurrying about trying to get the job completed as quickly as possible.
Avery paced around the perimeter of the site, viewing the package from all angles, ignoring the pain in his ribs. It was gigantic, the package, a monstrosity of human engineering both in appearance and in purpose. Consisting of a thirty foot long aluminum tubular frame, skinned with magnesium, the package tapered to a fearsome point on one end. The other end of the tube was a messy explosion of tubes and wires, pipes and fittings, gaskets of all size coupled to a threesome of conical nozzles. The package was covered in certain places by hundreds of feet of military tarp, gray in the dim morning air, and damp from the night moisture before. It was cool still, and Avery watched as his breath formed cool wisps in the clear air, similar to the jets of steam that occasionally erupted from the openings on the package his engineers and mechanics were currently performing a delicate type of mechanical surgery upon. The entire thing seemed chaotic, but Avery reveled in understanding the true purpose of the project, and the design of the end result. As his crane crews tightened their winches against the strain of hundreds of tons of metal, Avery looked skyward and sighed contendly.

It felt good to be a villain.