Chapter 13: Bang!
In Joy Meachum's penthouse, Colleen Wing wrings dirty dishwater from her dainty dress. Feet away, Eel likewise cleans-up. He knocks the garbage's food scraps, paper, and other from his already unctuous person. Across the room, Iron Fist dusts the dun plaster from his buff mask after going through a wall. From the other room, Misty Knight strolls in looking no worse for wear after flying through a doorway. Everyone examines the exit made by Vulture just now. From Meachum's pad, they can see all the way across 62nd Street to the skyscraper facing theirs. Eel shakes his head. He swears that Vulture will do more damage than he plans to this night.
Without warning, Misty Knight puts a gun to Eel's temple. She cocks the pistol. Turning his eyes, Eel peers at her peripherally. He wonders whether she will explain herself or not. Although, any spymaster could anticipate this double-cross.
Misty Knight explains, "You're under arrest, Spymaster. Nightwing Restorations has decided to collect your federal bounty and to share it with our favorite Hero for Hire, Iron Fist."
Iron Fist further explains, "You don't get to nearly murder Misty and me and get away with it."
Nearby, Colleen Wing twirls a wrapped dishtowel like faux nunchuks. Dancing in, she wraps the taut cloth around Eel's neck and tightens the garrote over his throat. Eel will not be slipping away.
Wing whispers sternly, "Surrender. We can either do this the easy way or the hard way."
Colleen chokes Spymaster slightly. Misty shakes her pistol. Iron Fist brandishes his infamous fist.
"Okay" is all that Spymaster says. He reaches up and pulls Eel's mask from his face. Nathan Lemon looks Danny in the eye, "Do you know what they call fishing for eels? Sniggling. And, that looks like what you have done to me. You baited and tricked me so as to catch me. You sniggled me."
"The word 'sniggle' can also mean to snicker," Knight contributes, "And, trust me. We three are sniggling at you now."
"Yeah well, you got me," Lemon laughs back, "Would you like me out of this dangerous suit? I promise no funny business."
"Sure, strip to your skivvies, Spymaster. We'll let you," Misty steps away. She signals Colleen to release her leash.
The noose leaves Eel's neck. Blue steel remains fixed on the espionage elite. Spymaster unlocks the electric gauntlets from his wrists, and they clunk disarmed to the floor. The devices are not innocuous, however. Without the heroes noticing, the sneaky, skilled saboteur activated an extra in a gauntlet just now. Soon, that Stark tech on Knight's arm will go a wee wonky. Nathan winks at Misty. Willingly, Lemon pulls the Eel tunic over his T-shirt.
Iron Fist watches the oily rag plop atop the weaponry. Danny comments, "I have fought Edward Lavell, a.k.a. the Eel, twice. It is odd to see another usurping his identity."
Lemon pulls off a boot, "Yeah well, Eddie once stole the identity of Sylvester Marston, a.k.a. Snake Marston. So, what goes around comes around."
Rand wonders, "How did you get Eel's supersuit?"
"I did not kill him. Toad did that a while back in Madripor," the imposter makes clear, "Madripor crimeboss Viper simply sold me the scumbag's suit. I sanitized it before wearing it, for Eel sorta oozed at his moment of death."
"No s**t," Iron Fist reacts.
Lemon pulls off his other boot, and Spymaster subtly activates another device. In the boot shaft, a tiny circuit switches and sends a signal. Somewhere, Whirlwind knows that his partner-in-crime is in trouble. Nonchalantly, the baddy tosses the beacon boot aside.
To the left, Colleen Wing commands, "Now britches." She points with a barbeque fork.
With a flourish, Nathan flings his trousers. With a sleight of hand, he palms something from the interior waist. Without noticing, the heroes watch him conceal it up his boxers' back. A small cylinder clips to the pant leg.
"Shall we go?" the cad cordially invites the crimefighters to escort him, "The authorities should be arriving soon in response to the din of battle." Sly Spymaster smiles broadly without and within. He might just have further tumult planned, beyond even an incoming Whirlwind.
Misty smirks in Nathan's face. Then, she slaps the cuffs on him. Smiling still, he stands sedately with hands behind his back. Suddenly, Knight clamps cuffs between Lemon's right arm and her left. Stoic, he stares at her.
Knight tells him, "I brought two pair tonight. One was for Adrian Toomes. One was for you. Now, both are for you. Isn't that nice?"
"You're clever," compliments the wily rogue.
"March!" Colleen smacks the prisoner on the ass. The quartet gets moving.
Misty mentions to Danny, "We should have strip-searched him. We should at least frisk him now. Trust me. As an ex-cop, I know that a scumbag can secret something nasty most anywhere."
Danny says to Misty, "We are not doing either action. We just watched him remove his Eel outfit. He is now unarmed, disrobed, surrounded by us three, and attached securely to you. Spymaster would be one stupid intelligencer if he attempted anything."
Colleen speaks. She supports her partner, "Let me frisk him, Danny. The snoop might still have something up his sleeve."
"Or pants leg," Spymaster thinks to himself. Frowning, he fears that he might have to quickly conceal the cylinder elsewhere on his person.
But, Iron Fist intercedes, "Colleen, Spymaster did just help us. To humiliate him would be dishonorable."
"Thank you" Spymaster is sure to say. Wing falls silent. The Daughters of the Dragon follow Iron Fist down the building's stairs. Along the way, Misty Knight checks a digital display in her enhanced arm. It informs her that the NYPD are en route. Around the fourth floor, Colleen reminds Danny that Beliar and Nightshade are still outside. Iron Fist replies that Clea is too. At ground floor, Iron Fist excuses himself. He must go to the basement and secure downed Bullet. The two women take their captive toward the sidewalk.
Across the street, Beliar sees the trio exit. Nightwing Restorations walk Nathan Lemon abreast. Nathan and Beliar met in a Connecticut bar once to plan Iron Fist's demise. Beliar recognizes Nathan "Spymaster" Lemon, and the demoniac recognizes that he must now devise the double-dealer's demise. Surely, Spymaster, whom Beliar screwed, sabotages this midnight's machinations, he and whatever tricky fellow wears the Cobra costume.
Pandemonium radios Riglevio in the van's hold. Upon hearing, the homicidal henchwoman is jointly mad and glad. On one hand, the hellion is enraged that someone duped the diablos. On the other hand, an unclean spirit cherishes opportunities for violence and vengeance, so Nightshade is overjoyed to possibly obliterate the Daughters of the Dragon and a traitor. As sirens near, Nightshade orders that the truck gun into Park Avenue.
Concealed Clea hears the transmission. In turn, the invisible heroine mounts the runningboard, and the Fearless Defender dogs the evildoers. Through the ether, Queen Clea summons the Master of the Mystic Arts. This night's denouement arrives.
Through the air, the diesel roars to life. Knight notices. Wing announces that Beliar and Nightshade are escaping. Knight and Wing pause with their prisoner at the corner of Park and 62nd. They see the van do a wicked u-ie and accelerate at them. Six eyes go wide. "Move!" Colleen pushes Misty and Nathan mightily aside. The hurtling three-ton transport nearly catastrophically clips the criminal and the couple. It careens across Park Avenue until beaching upon a grassy, bushy traffic island.
"Holy crap!" utters Misty. Colleen supposes that startled Misty reacts to the attempted vehicular homicide. Then, Wing notices what is actually discombobulating Misty. And, Wing is surprised too.
"I say!" Colleen beholds Misty's hand, "What the f**k is going on?!"
Misty grimaces in frustration. The Knight's mechanical limb malfunctions magnificently. Her right arm spasms, dances, flips, and jerks as though possessed. Locked to her left, Spymaster looks on pleased. His gauntlet gambit, back in the penthouse, his gauntlet device has worked. There is no Stark technology that Spymaster cannot sabotage, and there certainly are no common handcuffs that he cannot conquer. Contorting his phalanges, Lemon frees his hands from behind his back. His eyes dart quickly right, then left. The criminal commando has all of five seconds to drop the distracted Daughters of the Dragon.
In the first second, Spymaster leaps high. His foot kicks Colleen in the occiput, the back of the head. She pitches forward. Next, the hood's free hand pistolwhips the loose handcuffs across her face. Furious, Knight yanks Lemon with her left arm, linked to him.
Then, Knight's right hand clocks her unconscious of its own accord. Lemon laughs, sure that Misty hates getting hacked. Spymaster yanks limp lady to him.
In the street, Nightshade kicks open the cube's overhead door. She makes gun fingers at Nathan and Colleen across the way before blithely skipping into the truck's inky interior. Raspberrying Nathan is sure to flip her off.
On the truck's exterior, Clea manifests on the cab's starboard side. Beliar barely notices the sorceress before her glowing glove gesticulates. Her hex blasts the door glass inward. Glass shards savagely slice and embed. Beliar screams.
"Surrender!" demands the Dread Dame of the Dark Dimension.
At the curb, Spymaster kneels over fallen Knight. With her key, he undoes the shackle between them. Suddenly, a resilient Colleen Wing knees him in the face. Snarling, she grabs his shirt front and punches. Nimbly, Spymaster catches her wrist, and Taskmaster's star pupil monkeyflips the master martial artist. Momentarily, the wind leaves Wing. Colleen lies slack beside motionless Misty. Nathan scoops-up Misty's magnum, and he sights the barrel on Nightshade in the hauler.
Nathan's jaw drops. In the shipper's shadows, he discerns the machine gun from Fox's Bowery lair. Nightshade has repaired the weapon, and the deadly device is fixed upon him. Spymaster wishes that he were as prone as the girls presently. He wishes that he had his usual Kevlar suit. Instead, an enemy has literally caught him with his pants down. From the tenebres, Nightshade illuminates the night terribly. Sweeping, the M-2 spits fire like the devil's breath. Fifty-cal rounds wreck brick and steel. One mere shot mutilates Spymaster sufficiently to end him, exploding his innards outward. Another round removes his gunhand entirely. The dead man drops. Nightshade beams. Her thumbs leave the buttons blasting forth the barrage.
Colleen Wing looks on with some shock at pulped Lemon. But, the samurai suppresses mortification; Misty must be moved to safety. Colleen makes motions to do so.
A ways behind Wing, Iron Fist peeks from the doorway that he guarded earlier. Iron Fist has dragged unconscious Bullet from the basement. Seeing the scene, Danny drops his prisoner and dashes to his pals.
In the near distance, approaching emergency personnel slow their vehicles. The rescuers heard and saw automatic weapon fire just now. They wait for super types to do their thing.
At the pandemonium, Clea does her thing. The superheroine orders a bad guy to surrender. The mighty thaumaturge threatens to blast Beliar to bits. She assures him that she has the ability. Beliar replies that he has telekinesis too. Unceremoniously, an eldritch force flings Clea all the way to the cops stopped at 59th Street.
At 62nd and Park, splattered Spymaster lies in his blood and juices. The mauled man is barely alive. Nathan Lemon will live for but five seconds more, and the unclean man swears by . . . that he will have revenge. He is grateful to Chemistro, Iron Fist's old foe. For silver, Chemistro designed a very compact and powerful explosive easily concealed beneath Beliar's van. By Nathan's bottom, the detonator sits. Frigid fingers fumble compact cylinder from shorts. Trembling thumb depresses button. Sneering Spymaster dies thinking that he tricked the devil.
There is a fiendish flash and hellish heat. And, titanic thunder sunders the air. Into the ebon sky, a pillar of fire ascends into a mushroom cloud. Into the solid ground, a whopping crater collapses with a clamorous crack, and waves rumble the earth in all directions. To the south, earth flies, and a church's windows shatter. To the north, fancy facades fracture from old, ornate, office buildings. To one side, the Colony Club crunches partially in. To the other side, the explosion hits the heroes.
Iron Fist's costume shreds in a shower of excoriating asphalt and searing heat. His body skids him over the sidewalk and street. It is nearly the death of Iron Fist. Colleen Wing takes flight into the brick behind her; then, she falls into oblivion, unconscious. Languid Misty Knight floats, flips, and flops upon the turbulent thermal swells. But, she lands safely against supine Colleen, and she snuggles beneath her Wing.
At the epicenter, the dazzling detonation destroys two dark ones. Nightshade is blown to bits. Her goo drizzles and decorates the entire area. Riglevio is a demon destroyed. Riglevio will not reform anytime soon.
Beliar is blown heavenward. Powerful winds rip the limbs from his body, and punishing fires strip the glamour from his form. The Beliar guise is no more. Instead, manifest Master Pandemonium howls in agony above the earth. Unnaturally, ectoplasm hemorrhages from him instead of human blood. Unnaturally, he lives despite his mortal wounds. The cursed man falls back into the inferno. Limbless, the basket case bellows pathetically as he lies afire with no way to put himself out.
From nowhere, Dr. Strange appears and stands over the low Master Pandemonium. The hero conjures water from mid-air to extinguish miserable Martin Preston. With pity, Stephen Strange peers into Preston's face. Those handsome features once led a charmed life on the silver screen. Sightly hair and skin are charred now, and smoke rises from the crimson costume affixed to the eternally-condemned amputee. The red robe's crest is the sign of the devil, and the disciple of order cannot but feel powerful pity for his enemy, this miserable wretch.
"Master!" cries a creature before a nearby church. Pandemonium placed a Rakasha demon there to reserve Cobra a parking space. The imp would aid its master. However, appropriately, a large piece of pane tumbles from the damaged church. The stained-glass shard decollates the demon as by divine intervention.
Gently, Dr. Strange levitates agonized, overcome Martin Preston. He addresses the evil actor, "Master Pandemonium, I promise to send you to a better place, Raggadorr. The Rains of Raggadorr will heal you physically as they do all ailments. But, Raggadorr will be also your place of banishment, your prison. It has held dark mages Kaluu the Black and Arisen Tyrk the Lunatic. The Seven Rings of Raggadorr will hold you in check as well. Your banishment will keep the Mortal Plane safe, and it just might save you. Raggadorr, Scourge of Demons, might just protect you from the odious patron whom you have so foolishly plotted to please."
"No, no god will," sounds a voice through the smoke-choked street. A quiver of Cobra darts fly forth.