Roxxon/Roxxoff

Misty Knight, Shang-Chi, Colleen Wing, and Matt Murdock were outside Roxxon Plaza. The immense structure towered into the air. Roxxon plaza was located in Rockefeller Center, a complex of 21 skyscrapers. The enormous Roxxon Plaza was 56 stories tall, and was headquarters to the largest Oil and alternate fuel company in the world.

Walking in a circle near the entrance was a group of about 20 protestors. They were carrying picket signs and chanting very loudly "Roxxon Kills!! Roxxon kills!!"

Several news stations were filming the demonstration and police were beginning to arrive on the scene.

A man wearing mirrored sunglasses and a very expensive business suit exited the building carrying a megaphone. His amplified voice yelled above the crowd, "Roxxon is spending millions of its own dollars to clean up the recent oil spill. We are doing the best we can and have acknowledged our grave mistake. Your demonstrations are only making things worse. If you do not all disperse immediately i have the authority to trespass you all from this property and have you arrested."

In response someone from the crowd shouted back "Go ahead and try, Man! Heroes for Hire will protect our rights." someone else shouted in addition: "Yeah, and Shang-Chi the Avenger is here too!"

The man with the megaphone looked at the Heroes For Hire representatives in attendance. "Is that right?" he scoffed. "Have you all come here to protest Roxxon's right of free trade as an American company? Dont any of you realize Roxxon provides you and this great country with the energy it needs to survive?! I'll ask the self-proclaimed Heroes For Hire only once before i have them arrested with the rest of this riff-raff. Are the Heroes For Hire loyal Americans, or are you law-breaking vigilante demonstrators?"

Suddenly, one of the protestors points into the sky and screams "Look! That guy's gonna jump!"

Standing on the ledge of the Roxxon building at about the 40th floor was a man wearing a red cap and a blue jumpsuit. The wind blew fiercely. It seemed the man could hardly stand on the ledge.

The man with the megaphone began shouting up at him. "Hey you! Get down from there!! I don't know what kind if stunt you're trying to pull, but it won't work!!!"

News cameras pan up to get a good shot of the man above. An excited reporter is heard saying: "A shocking development here at Roxxon plaza! It appears one of the demonstrators...oh no!"

As everyone watched in horror the man on the ledge was swept off of his feet by a gust of wind and thrown clear from the building, and as he began plummeting towards the pavement! The man fell 3 floors before opening a chute on his back that revealed a massive banner adhered on his parachute that read: ROXXON KILLS. The parachuter glided down to the 34th floor where his parachute became entangled in a flag pole that protruded from the wall. Roxxon security scrambled to draw the man in through the nearest window as his tangled chute began to tear where he was apprehended.

The police began carting off demonstrators, whom did not put up resistance but still needed to be physically placed into the riot van. The Heroes who had not spoken in favor of or against Roxxon Oil were permitted into the building to speak with Hiram Jones.

When they entered the building they found the security chief with three officers surrounding the skydiver at the information desk. When the heroes requested to see Hiram Jones he wordlessly picked up a nearby telephone and plaved a call, and then informed the heroes Hiram would be down momentarily. The guard instructs them to wait in a nearby conference room. After several moments Hiram Jones enters the room. He is a frazzled middle-age man who appears in the verge of a mental breakdown, having worn the same suit for several days and delaying a shower for the same length of time. After discovering what the heroes wanted with him, he become compliant to their questioning.

"What do you know about Cameron Seavers disappearance?" Misty asked.

"I only know what is in the newspaper." Hiram answered. But, Matt Murdock's extra-sensory perception told him that Hiram was lying and that he knew more than he was leading on.

"What kind of project was Cameron working on?" Shang-Chi asked.

"It involves developing a source of limitless energy for Earth. Without Cameron's genius i will be struggling to even keep the project alive. This is why i havent had a day off since the kid went missing." Hiram stated and spoke the truth this time.

"What was with those demonstrators?" Misty asked.

"Last week Roxxon was involved in a massive oil tanker spill off of the coast of Long Island. Although the accident was quickly and efficiently taken care of, the protests continue to use the accident to discredit this company." Hiram confessed. Which Matt Murdock detected as true, but only from Hiram's perspective. Nelson & Murdock attorneys at law had recently taken the legal case against Roxxon because the accident was much more severe than previously reported and the actual cleaning efforts were minimal.

Using his extra-sensory perception Matt also gets the feeling they are being watched. While nonchalantly searching he found a surveillance camera disguised as a small black dot on the face of a wall-mounted clock. When the clock was found, Hiram immediately began apologizing claiming that security at Roxxon has been extremely tight due to industrial espionage. "It has nothing to do with you specifically," he said. "Please do not be insulted, i had no idea this particular room was monitored."

-

As they stepped out of Roxxon plaza, a police car flew past down the street with its siren blaring. Looking in the direction the squad car was heading, a pillar of smoke was seen rising into the air from only a couple blocks away.

Without warning the city seemed to shudder with a massive KA-BOOM!! Another pillar of smoke and the warmth of fire rose into the air. The sound of more sirens fills the air. It sounded like disaster had struck midtown Manhattan.

-

As the HFH approached they saw that two burning police cars were the source of the smoke and flames. They were lying in a mangled heap to one side of the road. Near them was a long tanker rig with Roxxon stenciled in black on the side.

People and cars were fleeing the scene in a panicked mob. The resulting traffic jam was preventing the emergency vehicles from getting any closer to the scene.

Clinging to the walls of a skyscraper across the street from the burning cars was the villain known to the media as the Fly. His wings blurred into a frenzy, creating a windblast that sent another car tumbling through the air to crash and burn atop the pile of destroyed police vehicles! The Fly shouted above the mayhem, "Bring Misty Knight to me! Tell the Heroes For Hire I'm ready to fight! I'll destroy them all!!"

The HFH quickly begin fighting the Fly. Waiting and watching from within a nearby building, The Rhino finally finds the perfect opportunity to use his brute strength to break through the wall and blindside Shang-Chi with a charging attack! The ferocious villain Mad-Dog then used this distraction to blindside Matt Murdock! But, to aid the Heroes against the 3 fiendish foes the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man arrives on the scene!

The nearby tanker was filled with gasoline, and was dangerously close to the burning cars. Firemen could not get close enough to spray the flames with their hoses. The authorities frantically tried to get the Heroes' attention. The truck had been damaged and could not be driven, so Spider-Man's meta-human strength and webs were required to physically move the tanker, all the while aiding in the fight against 3 villains.

After defeating the villains and having them apprehended, all interrogation only turned up that they had all been contracted to kill the Heroes For Hire but refused to implicate their employers.