Herman Schultz walked calmly down Broadway, he had a mission, one of upmost importance, at-least to him. He had come equipped for the job, and with the on-going reconstruction of the city nobody, not Spiderman, Director Gold or the NYPD would stop him. Eyeing up the bank he put his game face on and walked to the entrance where one of the ATMs was located. Rolling back his sleeves to reveal the gauntlets underneath the shirt he was wearing he struck. The ATM beeped a message and Schultz looked down and sighed.
"Card declined, what the fuck." he swore, "Fine I'll just do this inside." he said pressing the cancel button on the ATMs touch screen before putting his card in the storage compartment of his Vibro-Shock Gauntlets, the power light blinking that the electro-magnetic safeties were online. As he entered the bank, Schultz breathed a sigh of relief there was no queue and an available teller looking fairly board at the lack of activity.
"Morning." Schultz told her as he took his card out, "Listen I want to get some money out of my account but your ATM is playing up or something. The woman took the card and stared at him shaking as she leaned down under the table.
"Please don't hurt me." she wept, "How much do you want?" she asked nervously as she fumbled for something under the desk.
"I want fifty dollars, it's my nephew's 15th birthday coming up and hey." Schultz yelled, "I'm not here to rob you I want to withdraw some money from my own account, totally legal and all that."
"Get out of here." the teller yelled as she pulled out a hand-gun from under the table and waved it nervously in Schultz's face.
"Oh come on, I'm not even wearing the costume and your discriminating against me. Hell I helped saved the city last week, doesn't that justify at least one legal withdrawal without someone pointing a gun at me." Schultz asked.
"Please just leave and don't hurt me." the teller whimpered as tears run down her cheek. Schultz sighed and took the credit card back before leaving. He had to admit robbing banks seemed a lot easier then this law abiding citizen life. He was so busy huffing that he almost missed the news-broadcast on one of the TVs in the electronic shop window next to the bank.
"And the kidnappers have barricaded themselves in the Sky Temple Night-Club with a number of millionaires setting out a regeneration plan for the city. No ransom has yet to be made but the kidnappers have said that if any security forces try and storm the place that they will kill the hostages." the reporter announced, "SHIELD is yet to appear on the scene as they deal with an outbreak of what the CDC is calling Amber Wood Fever, a phenomenon partially responsible for the massive siege by super-villains last week. We will bring you more updates as they happen on both these events." the journalist said before the chubby shop owner changed the channel open.
"Millionaires huh." Schultz said, "Maybe I can get a reward for saving these cash cows. You know I did feel something was missing when I was a villain and when I was Gold's performing monkey. Maybe this is what I need a fresh start as the Shocker, vigilante and all round hero." he said, "Ah skip the hero part may as well get to this club before anyone else, if memory serves there is a way in through the basement, stupid hostage takers probably won't have that covered." he sneered.
Ten minutes later Herman Schultz clad in his Shocker costume was covertly slipping into a sewer tunnel a block away from the Sky Temple Club. The going was good and by the sound of it Melissa and her SHIELD agents were pinned down by a unit of cops who had reverted to their primal natures thanks to prolonged exposure to Carrion. Even though the demon had been banished pockets of infected people still roamed the city, attacking the innocent civilians and looting stores. Shocker had even come across some himself before Melissa had given him the choice of staying with SHIELD or having a clean slate as a civilian. Only Constrictor, Diamondback and Abner Jenkins had chosen the former, the other Thunderbolts had walked away and were living mostly law abiding lives outside the city.
Shocker suddenly head something move behind him and turned to see an armoured figure running along the tunnel behind him. Setting his gauntlets to Level 3 he fired a blast and stunned the runner for a few seconds before it opened fire a burst of flame igniting the tunnel walls with a sticky clinging fire. Shocker dived into a particularly deep pool of stagnant water before surfacing tackling the attacker before prising off her helmet to see a familiar face.
"Scorcher what the fuck?" he swore.
"Oh God you not going to stop me getting to Senator Nicholls. I'm going to teach him that an anti-mutant stance is no longer accepted in politics these days." Scorcher hissed firing a jet of flame up at him causing Shocker to roll off as both villains got to their feet.
"I'm not here for some Senator, I'm here to rescue the hostages and maybe get a reward." Shocker told her, "By all means once I'm done have your way with the good Senator I don't care." Shocker reassured her, "By the way did it just get colder in here?" he asked.
"Yeah the temperature just dropped." Scorcher confirmed, "Something cold is down that tunnel." she added. Together the two former Thunderbolts crept down to the tunnel mouth to see three figures silhouetted against two massive metal blast doors. Two of them stood sentinel while the third member froze the door before giving the ice covered portal a knock before giving the larger of the two a thumbs up.
"Who are these guys and what are they up to?" Scorcher asked, "Security Team, SHIELD Agents or the Hostage Takers?" she added.
"Neither, the big guy is Bison and the man with the ice literally coming out of his finger tips is Blizzard. The woman is Black Mamba, my guess there here to turn over the place while SHIELD is distracted. I suppose if you gather a whole pack of millionaires in one place then you have to expect the criminal element to try something."
"You know we can hear you." Black Mamba said her voice echoing, "The acoustics in this place will do that." Wearily Shocker and Scorcher, their cover now blown slid down to the place where the other three villains were standing.
"So what the hell are you after?" Shocker asked defensively.
"We are the B Battalion." Black Mamba said proudly, "New York's newest Heros."
"No we're not." Blizzard moaned, "You came into the bar I was in and offered to pay off my tab if I helped you."
"Shush, we are going to rescue these people and finally catch Ms. Mighty On High's eye, when she sees us take these guys out then Melissa will have to offer us a place on her Avenger Team or Thunderbolts or whatever she calls it." Black Mamba told them, "You guys can join, you could be Blaster and Burner, it goes with the whole B theme."
"Is she high?" Shocker asked.
"Possibly," Bison answered as he gave the door a quick thump causing the frozen metal to collapse inwards, "I thought we were here to get enough money to reverse my condition. Guess I was wrong."
"Does any of this seem fishy?" Blizzard said as the thugs stepped inside, each one eyeing the others, "We all conveniently show up to a building owned by Stark Industries, where millionaires are being held hostage while SHIELD is unable to respond."
"What you think this is a trap?" Shocker asked, "Because I did the heroics thing once and none of the traps we stumbled into felt like this. Sure creepy frozen temples with giant snakes and Nazi Zombies inside, or a monster infested warehouse, hell even that business in the well they were all traps and they didn't feel as normal as this."
"I don't know, do we even have an idea on who's holding these guys hostage?" Scorcher asked as the team of villains reached a staircase.
"Okay guys." Black Mamba addressed the rag tag team, "If we help each other out, we can get this over and done with quickly." Advancing one at a time the villains hit the stairs heading to the Sky Temple Club on the fifteenth floor of the building. Creeping up to a door Mamba looked in to see the hostages surrounded by thugs with red hand-prints pasted over their chest plates. "Quintos Rohas Thugs, six of them armed with shotguns and machine pistols. All normal humans no sign of meta combatants."
"Let me guess there keeping a tight bead of the prisoners." Shocker said pushing her out the way, "Wait a second I remember seeing one of these guys in clean up week when Scorcher and I were working for SHIELD. The one by the windows with the two guns is a thug called the Pistolarro. We took him down early on, as far as I know he should be in Rykers Island."
"That guys was tough." Scorcher added, "I remember bringing him and his skanky girlfriend in. They did not go quietly."
"Alright the plan is this," Mamba told the others, "I'm going to lure one of the guards over and cloak us, he'll let us in and then we'll split up and take these guys from behind, free the hostages and be heros. People will look up to the B Battalion as their saviours."
"Two things," Shocker hissed, "Number one we're not called the B Battalion and number two, who put you in charge."
"I did." Mamba replied, "Do you have a better plan?" she asked.
"No I just think that since we are all separate in this that we should forget having a leader in this." Shocker replied as Mamba, apparently not listing stood up against the door and locked eyes with one of the hostage takers. "What are you doing?" Shocker hissed, "That's going to get the hostages killed." he added as he peered in to see the hostage takers just stand there. Cautiously he opened the door and sunk his fist into the Pistolarro, only to have the Mexican Bandit waver. "Holograms, this is all a hoax."
"But the hostages are okay." Blizzard announced as he removed the gag off one of the hostages who spluttered and shook from the coldness of his rescuers hands. "What is this buddy a joke?" he asked.
"No Sir." the man said as the other villains released the hostages, "We were take captive by him." he said pointing at a shadow that emerged from behind the bar. With burning red eyes and a massive fin sticking out of his head, Tiger Shark emerged grinding his teeth together.
"Well, well, well." he said sounding like an old fashioned detective, "Looks like my boys are going to have some fun after all."
"What's the game Todd?" Shocker asked, "What's with the holograms and the deception," he added as thugs armed with crow-bars and pistols emerged from the rooms off to the side.
"You'll never find out." Tiger Shark growled as he snapped his fingers signalling his men to attack. The thugs ran in and the villains retaliated as the hostages ran down the stair-well that the 'B Battalion' had ascended. Quickly and efficiently the team took out the thugs leaving Tiger Shark all by his lonesome, the rest of the hostage takers unconscious and broken. Stepping forward Scorcher sent a burst of flame around Tiger Shark causing him to choke and splutter before falling to the floor.
"Well that was easy." Bison stated, "It's like he wasn't even trying." he announced.
"He wasn't." Shocker said walking over to Tiger Shark, "Now what's going on Todd? Are you working for someone, or is this how you spend your free time now?"
"He the boss is going to be happy with this result." Tiger Shark replied, "She wondered who would come, she's looking for super powers to join her gang." he added, "I'm just the welcome wagon." he confirmed as the lift doors shattered and the armoured form of Abner Jenkins in his MACH V Armor was thrown into the room. Standing in the lift was a form that both Shocker and Scorcher knew only too well. Clad in leather, blue lines of woad glowing, her eyes a deep Amber and horns sprouting from her head was the Melissa Joan Gold or as the media called her Carrion.
Another Preview of an upcoming fan fiction. Again comment and critic at leisure.
Impurest Cheese