"I thought we were attacking from the grassy plain, not the river."

Black Widow looked out the copilot's seat as the Blackhawk circled the Apollo/Artemis factories. They'd departed little less than an hour ago. While the Hulk, Thor, and half of Panos' men were silently moving across the field in the nighttime, she, Hawkeye, and Frank were leading an airborne assault elsewhere. The rest of the Avengers and hired help were coming in two Blackhawks, the second not far behind.

"Rogers gave me this idea, believe it or not," replied Frank. "We'll try to keep as much fighting on the river as we can while the big guys hit them where it's supposed to hurt." The Punisher spotted several anti-aircraft guns moving upwards. "Everyone hold tight. We've got company." He swerved the helicopter a hard right as the cannons opened fire, raining explosions around the night sky. A chain gun in both Blackhawks returned fire to the men on the ground also doing what they could to bring the Avengers to the ground. "Thor, give me your status."

"As expected, they're going for the birds," answered Thor on the earpiece. "Tell us when you want Banner to change and we'll be going at it. Your allies are currently disabling security measures around here, or so they tell me."

Those measures would include cameras, electric fences, gun turrets, and anything else that would keep a normal army out. But not ex-Greek special forces and a group of superheroes.

Bullets began whizzing around the Blackhawks closer now, and some even cracked the windscreen. "Thor, you might want to give the signal to Banner now," said Barton. The Hulk's loud roars coming in over the radio implied that Banner already knew. "That should give them something to chew on-"

All of a sudden the anti-aircraft fire was getting even closer. Hawkeye barely missed a few round, but several of the smugglers, including the one manning the chain gun, were hit and went down.

"Ah hell," replied Frank. He got out of the pilot's chair. "Clint, take over. I'm going to do what I do best." He made his way the empty chain gun and opened a new hail of fire.

The enemies on the ground received a new burst of fire and blood. It wasn't they hadn't suffered before from the bullets, but now the bullets we coming with a new sense of purpose and direction. By the time Frank had finished clearing out the two sides of the river, everyone else in the copter was just looking at him in amazement.

"It's just a machine gun," commented the Punisher as the Blackhawks took down to land. Panos began shouting orders to his men while Stark zoomed out. "Watch the perimeter. Keep an eye out for any hostile reinforcements." Rogers was back to his old habit of giving the orders and calling the shots. "Frank, I need you taking the lead. Call out everything. We'll be coming in hot from the other side. You think you can handle that?"

"Yea. Captain's orders," replied the Punisher, not very convincingly. He began shouting in Greek, and took a trio of the Greeks to watch him as he approached the first door. Unlike most of the materials around here, this particular door was made of wood. The type of wood that could be brought down with a well-placed kick.

Frank surveyed the first room of this factory. It was deserted, with conveyer belts and weapons lying about. Almost as if hastily deserted. This didn't look right.

A ping sort of sound, and one of the other men was down. It wasn't deserted. It was a trap. "Get down!" The bullets switched to automatic fire, not just sniper shots.

Frank scanned the area quickly. Balcony area. Door to the far right. Another door, closer and on the left. Catwalk on the center. Four targets.

Frank switched the grenade launcher on his M4A1 and fired the first grenade, hoping to get both the guy on the catwalk and the guy on the balcony. It worked: the catwalk exploded, and its debris went flying in all directions, but mainly at the balcony. With two threats down, the Punisher began firing at both the doors with three round bursts. The man on the right was brought down, but the one on the left fled into his doorway, slammed the door behind him shut, and began shouting in muffled voices to others, who Frank guessed were other HYDRA underbosses. He shot at the door on the left, but it was made of much more stronger metal than the wood door he had kicked in.

Three clean hits in eighteen seconds. Not bad, although a fourth target had gotten away. He ordered the two remaining allies to plant an explosive charge on the door. He gave it a three second charge, and waited. The door came off with plenty of smoke and ashes.

Frank quickly shot two of the disoriented men inside, and wounded a third by shooting him in the foot. He dragged the wounded one out into the main factory room and told his helpers to try and get one of the conveyer belts started. "You're going to tell me where the hell all of your friends are. And they're not all fighting the Hulk and Thor."

"I'll never tell you-"

Frank jammed a pistol in the henchman's mouth. "Play nice, or this trigger gets pulled. Understand?"

"Fuck you."

Frank seriously contemplated putting a bullet in his head then and there, but decided against it. Instead, the conveyer belt came on. Frank lifted the henchman and attached him to the belt, moving towards some kind of funnel with a grinding sound coming out of the bottom of it. Not something you wanted to be caught in.

"Please, don't," said the now-worried henchman.

'Well, you can always tell me about where the rest of your friends are. They couldn't have just left the place completely."

The bad guy's breaths were coming as short pants. "Half of them went to grab the alien armor in the basement-"

"Alien armor? Like from New York?"

He quickly nodded.

"That's all I needed to know. Also, I changed my mind about pulling the trigger."


Elsewhere

"We've got Alpha team grabbing the Chitauri armor and weaponry from the lower levels, but is there any way you can send the asset down here?"

Baron Von Strucker sighed. The leader of Apollo was not a man known for a will of steel, just expertise in firearms.

"Negative. The asset went missing in Washington. But I have a replacement." He told the Apollo leader of who he was sending.

In Greece, in a war-torn factory, a man's face went pale. "Please don't tell me that's who you're sending. He's way too unstable-"

"It is, and you're going to like it. Now hold that position-"

The line went dead. Baron Von Strucker, frowned, then went back to his work. The staff Loki had dropped off was a miracle full of miracles.


The Punisher found Hill, Captain America, and the rest of the team down three rooms across ten minutes and a dozen bodies later. From the blood and sweat they had on them it looked like they had taken the brunt of the work. Apparently the majority of what men HYDRA had left on the surface were sent to the back of the factory, rather than the front.

"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes," Hill told Frank. "You don't even look like you've fought a bit."

"Not my fault I'm the best at what I do. Or maybe it is."

"Get over yourself Frank." As she said his name Hulk burst through a wall, followed shortly afterwards by Thor. "That was fun", said the Norse god of thunder.

"Were there any civilian causalities?" asked Rogers. Frank was sorely tempted to roll his eyes, or even openly mock Rogers, but for the sake of teamwork he didn't.

"No. Banner was careful enough that our allies got them out safely. No harm done, unless you count a dozen of those war machines burned to the ground." Hulk just grunted.

Blue lights of energy interrupted their brief respite. The team took cover as they saw what looked like, but couldn't be, Chitauri foot soldiers Helmets, body armor, even the thin plasma rifles matched.. " I thought they all died when their mothership got blown up," said Hawkeye.

"SHIELD collected most of the alien armor and weaponry," replied Hill, delivering a headshot to one of the men. "Or rather, HYDRA did."

"Doesn't matter. They'll die either way." The Punisher delivered another clip from his M4A1, then bent down to recover and reload while Hawkeye fired an explosive arrow that took out half a dozen faux Chitauri. The rest were easily smashed and thrown around by the Hulk and Thor in a matter of seconds.

"If they thought that could kill us, I'm very disappointed," said Black Widow, as more approached from multiple directions. Panos and his men were holding them off for now, but not for long. Then Stark flew by.

"Um, boys and girls' said Stark through his suit, "about those Chitauri powered bad guys. Got a lot more of them coming from the east. Plus what appears to be a tesseract powered tank."

"Do they ever adopt to the times?" said Rogers as he, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Hulk ran to where Stark said the new threat was.

"Ironic how you, of all people, are talking about getting with the times." Frank was off to join them when a voice cracked over his radio. "Hello again Mr. castle. I understand you might be a little busy, but you're going to want to hear what I have to say."

"Fuck," Maria groaned. It was the Taskmaster. He'd had to have tagged them and followed them all the way here.

"Mr. Castle, I've already killed four of your Greek friends and have their leader right where I want him. Don't make me kill anymore."

"How about you and me play a game of 'fuck off'. You go first." Frank slammed his radio back in his belt and began to set off where Panos and his men were holding off more Chitauri armored goons. "He wants to settle the score, then count me in," said Maria Hill as she followed Frank, loading her guns. "Thor?"

"I relish the challenge." The three ran off to assist Panos and his men any way they could.

"I suppose Miss. Hill is there with you." Taskmaster's voice crackled through the radio again. Maria didn't reply, she was too busy firing at a new wave of HYDRA men wearing Chitauri armor to. She did take note of him, though.

"I want to tell you something," said the Taskmaster. " I got this... memory thing. Due to my ability to pick up fighting styles, I can't remember much else. But I remember you. I remember him too. I remember your pretty little eyes aiming for ME, not him. Him, whom we were sent to KILL. You think I don't remember that?"

"I remember telling you to put a stick up your ass," snapped Hill. "And not just once. On your left Frank." Frank came within a hair of being blasted by a Chitauri plasma shot, and proceeded to shoot the man who fired it instead.

"I don't remember that. But we'll both remember this."

All of a sudden Thor spotted Taskmaster on the roof, with his own alien firearm in hand. As Thor flew up to face him, Taskmaster fired twice. The first was at Thor, to keep him at a distance.

The second was at Frank and Maria. It threw them in opposite directions. Frank got up fast, but Maria didn't.

"Fuck."

A/N: Time for Frank to go be the hero and save Maria, hopefully. I'm doing a rough draft of when the Punisher faces off against Winter Soldier. It should be posted in the Captain America section of the site in a day or two, so keep your eyes open. Now go write something in that review box and post it, it'll make me happy.

-Jokerang