My schedule has been tight for some time, so this one is a bunch of things tumbled together. Hopefully its still readable.
EDIT: and to the guest that wants to see Frank jealous: seems like a challenge. Steve Rogers knows better than to go after another man's girl. We'll see, I'll think of something.
Frank showered and put on his regular gear of body armor and black cameo. His mind was somewhat refreshed from the horrifying visions he'd seen and suffered through. And by "somewhat", he meant that he could talk to Maria Hill without having a voice in the back of his head scolding him.
No, it was the fucking Maximoff girl that pissed him off. And she would get her punishment in due time. When the time's right, Frank. When the time's right.
Frank stared at Maria, who was talking on the phone with Stark's Air Force friend, Rhodey, or whatever his name was. The brunette had slipped out of her usual secretary outfit and into a SHIELD jumpsuit. It fit her like a second skin and didn't fail to highlight her curves and edges.
The word sexy came to Frank's mind.
As for Maria, she was used to the ogling but had never tolerated it. Until now, when you were in love with the man doing said ogling. Even if he was a nervous wreck. He seemed a bit more stable since he waken up that morning, but she wasn't taking chances. The Punisher was a man known for fulfilling vendettas, and the Maximoffs had just made his shit list. She finished her call with Rhodey and turned back to Frank.
"Rhodes is available to assist us. He'll link up with us at the helicarrier."
"Good." Frank's face dropped again. "Maria, about last night-"
"Don't do that to yourself, Frank. It wasn't your fault and I did what I had to." She didn't want his head focused on a moment where he was weak and needed help. It was fine to have weaknesses, but not to let your enemies exploit them.
Frank was somewhat taken back by Maria's presence of authority. "Whoa. Didn't expect you be in busy mode this soon."
"Don't blame me, blame Fury. He's being his usual pissy self. Yelling at Ghost as we speak."
Frank smiled weakly. "Better him than us."
She laughed. "Don't be mean to him, he's a valuable asset, just like you." They walked over to the hangar bay, where Fury was giving Simon a verbal beatdown on why something was bullshit and why other things weren't.
"… and I don't want to hear that coming out of your ass again! You got it, Mr. Riley?"
Though he was wearing his red tinted shades, Ghost was showing off visible signs of fear in his body language. "Yes sir."
"Good." Fury turned to Maria and Frank. "You finally made it. Maria, did you have to play babysitter or what?"
Frank clinched his fists, but Maria put a hand on his shoulder: calm down.
"He's fine, Nick, but he doesn't like to be reminded of painful topics, even vaguely."
Fury raised an eyebrow. "Umm hmm. Whatever you say-"
Fury didn't get the chance to finish. An explosion under their feet knocked them all off balance. When Frank and Maria got up, they found a drone hovering in the middle of the hangar bay. It was thin, metallic, and glowed dark red from its eyes.
"Not exactly earth's mightiest heroes," said the drone in an equally metallic voice, "but who cares. You're as much a threat to me as they are."
All four of them began firing off rounds, but the drone began taking evasive maneuvers, not staying in one spot for too long and keeping his opponents from getting a good shot. There was also the matter of not getting Bruce Banner involved in any which way. Last thing Fury, Hill, Frank, and Ghost needed was the Hulk tearing up the tower. Fortunately, Banner was in the science lab, and with luck he'd stay that way.
Ghost ducked for cover, grabbing an FN SCAR assault rifle that was lying around Frank's pile of firearms. He got up and fired a few shots at the drone. The SCAR's relatively slow rate of fire left a few dents but nothing serious. Ghost stood fully and fired off the rest of the magazine, but that too left no damage.
Ghost had to reload. The drone recognized a weakness and started making a beeline for the Englishman.
Instincts kicking in, Frank ducked and ran over to a large six foot tool that Stark used for cleaning the Iron Man suits. It was long cylinder that had to have weighed at least sixty pounds. While Maria and Nick pulled back to the Quinjet, guns blazing, Frank lifted the cylinder and slammed the blunt end of it at the drone.
The drone reeled back from its first damage intake and faced Frank. It scanned and realized that Frank was one side of the room, and the other three humans on the other, not far from the Quinjet.
"Admirable, but foolish," said the drone. "You risked your life for a pile of cockroaches. Why?" Ultron asked the question as if he was truly curious.
Frank got out the cricks in his neck.
"You obviously don't know what it means to care about others, robot. Apparently, you kinda missed that. If you know anything about the Marines or Army, than you know what laying one's life down for another is one of the most selfless and honorable things one can do. Except I'm not dying today. Not on my watch."
"So I've heard. Gotten over your mind games yet?"
"Your pet tried to fuck with my head," yelled Frank as he hit the drone again, sending it to the floor. "She almost succeeded." With each word, Frank laid down another blow on the drone, which attempted to put itself together via magnetized pieces, but lacked the magnetic strength to do so.
"You… won't… succeed," the drone said weakly. "For every human you save, I will kill a million more."
"Kind of doubt it, if you ask."
"Humans have weaknesses, I do not-"
The drone suddenly went limp, mostly because its mangled head had been crushed by a boot. It wasn't Frank's boot, however. Apparently Maria Hill's fashion styles always called for emergency planning.
"Sorry," she said sarcastically. "Kinda getting tired of his tirade."
"So was I, to be honest." Frank had a sprained arm from the brief attack, but nothing more of note. "Fury, Ghost, you guys alright?"
"Yea," they both replied in almost unison and with relief. "About this…" he said referring to the damage caused, "Guess we'll just bill it to Stark."
Banner arrived a few seconds later. He'd have heard some of the commotion, but not the specifics. It took him a moment to comprehend what had happened while he was gone. "No need to turn green?"
"Not at all," was Maria's reply. "Not at all."
The broken drone parts were stashed in Stark's armory. Ghost, Fury and Hill were prepared to leave in the Quinjet. Maria noticed that Frank wasn't following them.
"You aren't coming?" she asked him as she got out to see why he wasn't getting in the Quinjet as well.
"Nope. Someone needs to protect the place until Stark or Rogers arrives, and I'd prefer the Hulk not do all of that."
She bit her lip. "You sure you won't freak out either? No more memories or anything?"
"I can hold my own." He meant it. Mostly.
"I hope so," said Maria as she pulled him for a kiss. "Just tell me when the others arrive, and I'll send someone to pick you up, okay?"
"Okay." He paused, not breaking their embrace. "Also, thank you."
"For destroying the drone? Please, you did most of the work on that-"
"Not the drone. Thank you for trying to screw my head on right." He had difficulty saying that, but better late than never. It also didn't hurt that it was the truth. "I'll try to keep it that way."
"You do that," she said to him, kissing his cheek. "Stay safe as well."
"You too." But as she left, his head turned back to how much he wanted to kill that Sokovian bitch.
The next few hours were idle ones. Frank and Bruce kept themselves on alert for the next few hours, expecting more drones to storm the tower any minute. Apparently, those suspicions were unwarranted: not a single drone attacked the tower that afternoon. Probably to focused on taking out the big boys to be worried about little Frank Castle.
Frank and Bruce used the time to talk. He told Banner stories from his days in the Marines and SEALs. Banner indulged him in various mini dissertations of science subjects Frank didn't know two shits about. He listened, though, because he didn't want the Hulk to be triggered and, well, Banner could use another friend.
The two were opposites. Frank tended to get angry a lot, but was calm and calculated in his ways. With Banner, the doctor tried to avoid conflict whenever he could, but when he got worked, no one could stop him. Well, Romanoff could.
Coincidentally enough, Romanoff became the subject of their talk. "She's the only person that doesn't treat me like a ticking time bomb," said Banner. "I like that, it has a soothing effect on me. Maria has the same effect on you."
"You heard anything that happened last night?" asked Frank. While he'd been wallowing in his memories last night, Frank realized Banner and Fury probably heard the whole thing.
"Bits and pieces. I know the girl made you see your dead family in a negative light. I'm sorry you had to experience it."
"So am I," replied Frank, a scowl coming on his face. "Do you love her, by the way? Natasha, I mean."
Bruce thought for a moment. "I don't know, honestly. I feel for her, I really do. But the last time I fell in love, her dad literally tried to kill me. You know, because…"
"Yes, I've heard. General Ross. I doubt Romanoff's father is going to do the same thing, if he's still around."
Banner laughed weakly. "Ha ha. It's just that every time I try to get close to someone, things… happen badly. The visions I saw don't help that one bit."
"Well, I wouldn't waste the opportunity you've been given," said Frank. "I knew about the Black Widow since I was a SEAL. My drill instructor wanted to fuck her, for Christ's sake. The fact that she's handing herself on a plate to you is telling you something."
As if dropping a mike, Frank took out a cigarette and lit it.
Stark arrived that night, followed by Barton. Stark had a giddy look on his face. "It was JARVIS the whole time. JARVIS was the one keeping Ultron out of the nukes. He didn't die, just heavily damaged."
"Did Ultron know?" asked Banner.
"Doubt it. We'll keep JARVIS here until we find a use for him."
Turns out they had a use, all right. During the spat with Ultron in Korea, Clint had made off with a synthetic body that Ultron had forced Helen Cho to create for him. "Probably wanted to make it his final form or something," suggested Barton.
"Well," said Stark as if a lightning bulb went off in his head, "get the body in the lab. I want to put JARVIS in it."
"Hell no," snapped Frank.
"Probably not the best idea…" Banner trailed off.
"Either of y'all got a better idea? Ultron designed this thing to be his final form. If we can reconfigure it to serve our needs, all the better for us. JARVIS might like having a physical form for once."
"How do you know he won't go rogue like your last pet project?" asked Hawkeye.
"I know JARVIS. He's like, my second best friend after Rhodey. Right, JARVIS?"
"That is correct, sir."
"See?" Stark barred his teeth. The madman. "No problems there. Now where's Nat and Steve?"
"Last I heard from Steve was trying to stop a train from crashing," said Barton. "Nat… Ultron got her." He shifted his eyes from side to side.
"What?" Frank raised a disbelieving eyebrow. He knew the Black Widow was the weakest of the Avengers (to be fair, she had some fierce competition) but she could still hold her own if need be. It didn't make sense.
"Believe it or not. Ultron nabbed her while she was getting me this cradle."
"Is she dead?" Banner had a hint of worry in his voice. It sounded like genuine concern.
"Nope, she's not dead yet. If she was, Ultron would play it back to us like he did with Strucker."
"So there's no way to get in touch? To know where she is without some toy?" asked Stark.
"Nat's been in worse. She'll find a way to get in touch." And with that Barton walked off to set up some machine to receive radio waves from Natasha or whatever. Meanwhile, Bruce and Tony set off to be "mad scientists", as Stark put it himself.
As for Frank, he kind of idled around in his room, with not much else to say or do. So he decided to give himself a mental exercise.
He found an old video camera and pressed play. The first video saved on it was his daughter taking her first steps. "There you go," said Frank in the video, behind the camera. "See, that wasn't so bad?"
Fast forward to Junior's fifth birthday. He'd been fascinated with dinosaurs at the time, so they'd spent the day at the American Museum of Natural History with some of his friends from kindergarten. "Look there. That's a T-Rex, son."
"Oh, silly." His wife came on the screen. Physically, she and Maria Hill were opposites, His wife's hair was blonde and she'd spent one too many days in the tanning salon. But she had been, while alive, a vibrant human being on the inside and out. "That's an allosaurus. See, he's shaking his head."
The various video segments went on and on. The unifying connection between all the clips was that it presented the family he once had in a very positive. This was them before their innocence – and lives – were ripped out from under them.
Frank shed a few tears while going over the videos. He hadn't pulled them out since he'd recorded them, and he'd never watched them during his time as the Punisher. Now that he was, he'd regretted not seeing this earlier. He should have done this at Barton's place. Would have saved him a lot of headache.
He'd have watched the videos again, but a commotion was taking place down in the lab where the synthetic body was. Frank headed down to see what it was, and he wished it was otherwise.
Steve Rogers, standing with Wanda and Pietro Maximoff like they were old friends. No sign of hostility at all.
Frank didn't know whether the girl had Steve's mind wrapped around her finger, or that she'd pretended to switch sides, or whatever. She'd entered their base of operations and he wasn't having any of it. But he didn't attack them head on. He'd tried that already and failed.
Instead, he headed for the armory and picked up a Taser shotgun. It fired individual Taser rounds at a speed of 184 mph. He didn't know how fast Pietro Maximoff could run, but Frank figured that if he had the element of surprise, the kid's speed wouldn't matter.
Frank returned to the lab, where he found an argument with Steve and the Maximoffs on one side, Tony and Bruce on the other. They were arguing whether putting Jarvis in the synthetic body was a good idea or not.
Frank didn't give a shit.
Without warning, he positioned himself so that he was behind the Maximoffs, and fired a round at each of them.
Lots of action, lots of feels. I don't know how durable an Ultron drone is, but if Black Widow could take them out with Taser rods and handguns, the Punisher should be fine. Now review/follow/favorite away, my readers!
-Jokerang