Chapter 21

The Hulk let out a bellow of a roar as he raced towards the mummified man. He had awoken after the Moonray had crashed in the town to hear screams along with the crackling of fire. Not far away he heard the voices of the other Avengers and many of them sounded startled even scared as they faced an enemy that they never thought that they would face. The Hulk may not be as smart as Bruce Banner or Tony Stark but he knew that there was something not right. He could fell it all through out his body as one would feel the coming thunderstorm. Something that kept coming with the Avengers thanks to Thor and his powers to control storms.

Waken up had been easy for him. He was always on the go and needed to fight something quickly or he might just challange Thor or Edward to a duel just for the fun of it. The next part was not that easy as he had to punch through the reinforced haul of the Moonray. The scream that came from the AI only caused the Hulk to make the moves as quickly as possible as not to hurt it any more. He had learned quickly from his experience at Ultron's wrath and from his shared mind with Banner that AI's held grudges. Hopefully the Moonray would not need to seek revenge against him for trying to get out of the tight space that he found himself in.

Once he got out from the safety of the Moonray he had found himself in a street. The street in the small hours of the night had been abandoned and it was made even worse as the people were made to evacuate their homes as monsters raided them. He had watched the ghosts and policemen working together as they got the small population to safety, but it was still not enough for a few people as they got eaten by the mummified people who were taken over the town with sheer numbers.

The mummified man that he had roared at screeched back at him before stumbling towards him. The mummified man moved in such a creepy way that even the Hulk was taken a back for a second. A second was all he could afford with dealing with these. When one mummy was seen ten more mummies would appear and overpower the person that they were fighting. At the end of the fight the person who they had been against was either a walking corpse like them or had been devoured that much that it was just a dead body that was to be forgotten as the mummies moved onto their next victim.

The Hulk took very few running steps before he reached the mummified man. With a punch that would make both Thor and Edward jealous he punched the mummified man's face. The force of the punch was so strong that the mummy's head was crushed into nothing. The corpse that had been reanimated by dark magic stood on its feet for a second before it dropped to the ground in a heap of broken and tangled limbs.

"Puny corpse!" he grumbled to the broken body on the ground. He looked at the twisted body that lay at his feet. He had fought many things from an Asgardian to a insane General who wanted all the Avenger and any other super powered humans to work for him as he shaped the world into what he thought was the best for him and America. To bad he had always been stopped by the Hulk and the other Avengers. He didn't know how the Guardians dealt with him, but since he did not go after Nightshade and her team much he had to suspect that they had done something to him that caused him to think through his actions before he done something foolish agaisnt them.

But he had never fought against anything like the Mummy, or the giant snake ladies that they had fought in Egypt. He was against foes that he had never been against before and he was liking the challenge.

Suddenly he felt a presence beside him. He clenched his fists and growled as he looked to see Nightshade standing beside him in her human form. Her sword was in her hand and was covered in a strange coloured substance that he could only guess was the blood of the mummies that they were fighting against. He had meet up with Nightshade after she had jumped him in her cat form. She had heard him coming and had thought in the heat of battle that he was an enemy. She did not kill him and both of them were glad of that. They worked together with Nightshade watching his back as he took out the most mummies as she slashed at them with her swords or her claws depending on what form she had taken for the battle.

Hulk was learning more about Nightshade. She was like Black Panther and Vision in that she kept to herself or she was always with Edward. When he had meet with Nightshade there was a rage that he had never seen coming from anyone before apart from him, but somehow Nightshade was able to keep it at bay and use it to fight the mummies. She was calming down and had told the Hulk that there was a traitor within the Avengers. He didn't believe her when she had told him it was Stark. He thought that she was joking or covering a fault that she had caused, but he had learned quickly and the five claw marks down his chest told him that she was not telling a lie.

So he was not being foolish and kept his mouth shut about the reason as to why they had crashed. He kept smashing as Nightshade got the people out. The people didn't see her as a monster, it didn't matter what form she was in they listened and done what she had told them. They only took what they needed as they left their homes as their town was overridden with mummies and ghosts.

Nightshade walked past the Hulk. Her focus was on the corpse that he had just taken out. It was the tenth mummy that they had come across since they had gotten together since getting out of the Moonray. One mummy she would have thought that it was something being effected by the Moonray's engine leaking or the Time Zombies escaping from deep within it. But when the number increased to nine others she was having suspicions about what was happening.

She looked beyond the mummy and back at the town. The town was already going through evacuation process thanks to the local authorities. There was the Shadow Network that was also quick to get sorted out and get the people away from the Moonray. UNIT and SHIELD were also en route towards the town. The town that has never seen anything at all that would make it onto the news at 6 o'clock tomorrow.

Nightshade turned back towards the Hulk. The Gamma Monster was like always fired up for a fight. That was a good thing, but at the same time she didn't know what was going on. Why had Stark make the Moonray crash land in this town? It was far away from cities like Glasgow and Edinburgh which she could understand as being the perfect place to raise an army, if that was what was happening.

"Keep your eyes and ears open! Something is not right here!" she told him before her attention returned back to the mummy that had his face rearranged by the Hulk's fist. She heard him grumble but did not give a response. There was something not right about all of this. Approaching the mummy she kept her hand over the pommel of her katana as she got closer.

Dropping to her knees she got a better at the mummy. The mummy was like the mummies from the cheap horror movies that Edward and Julian liked to watch on a Saturday and drag her and Black Horn to see. It was not for Black Horn as it always raised the cravings for human flesh so many times he walked away from the movie five minutes after it started. She never liked the whole idea of horror movies. So she always excused herself as soon as it was possible and done something better with her time like doing paperwork, training or helping around the base in anyway. The flesh of the mummy that was in front of her was dried and tight over the bones that looked like they could break with the slightest of touches. The clothes were that of a policeman. If it was not for the blood that covered them they looked freshly put on. The mummy didn't look like it was battle ready. It had been taken out simply by the Hulk punching it in the face. There was many creatures that were brought back that were fighting fit, this was not.

"Did Hulk smash corpse good?" he asked Nightshade. He had watched Nightshade in silence as she looked over the mummy. He knew that she was looking for something other than how he had taken out the mummy. It was not the standard take off its head like she had told him to do, but it still worked. The mummy was dead at their feet.

Nightshade looked back at the Hulk. This was not Edward nor was it Julian. He would not understand the world that they were in and would never be able to get out of. But she had to make him aware that this was the beginning of something. "You did Hulk! But something is not right at all! We need to find out what is happening and why a health young man in his mid 20s suddenly became nothing but firewood material!" she said getting back up onto her feet.

Without saying another word Nightshade began to walk away from the Hulk and the mummy that he had just smashed its face in. She could hear the Hulk following her. Many people saw him as a brute, but in many times there was Bruce Banner that came through the cracks that he actual cared for those he had called his allies. She had to be glad that he show her as an ally and was not trying to fight her at the moment. She didn't have time for that nor the will to deal with the Hulk after Stark betraying them. She could only deal with so much before she needed to do something that would see someone being rushed to hospital.

"What do we do? Do we find more corpses and Smash them?" Hulk asked. He kept up with Nightshade with little problems as she walked away from the mummy. He wanted to show everyone that he was the strongest Avenger, but it was getting harder with new Avengers joining the team that had powers and strengths that he had never predictaed what so ever. Nightshade was one of those Avengers. He had seen a few of her powers both in Sokovia and agaisnt the Serpent Sisters in Egypt. She could do things that not even Banner could dream of doing.

Nightshade stopped suddenly and turned around to face. "Yes!" she snapped at him. She stopped him before he bellowed in happeness that he was able to fight, "But we also need to learn what the motives were for us to crash here! We are nowhere near the Black Archives so they are not after the relics that we have there! No there is a reason why we were forced to land here!" she told the Hulk.

Nightshade let out a growl. She was talking to the Hulk. "Why I am talking rather than doing? You no doubt only understand to smash and that is all! Everything else you don't see the importance of the fact that we are at war!" she snapped as she looked away from the Hulk and started to walk away from him.

"Me Hulk not stupid! Me think that we crash here because of the blade that we are all looking for!" Hulk shouted back at Nightshade.

Nightshade stopped in her tracks and turned around to face the Hulk. "Did you just say something other than 'Hulk Smash'?" she asked him. She was playing a deadly game here, a conformation could draw in attention from more mummies or Stark who had vanished as soon as the Moonray crashed. And right now she did not want to deal with an angry Hulk, mummies and Stark. She knew that a lot of people would be going to hospital.

The Hulk didn't say anything but walked away from her. He huffed as he passed her and did not even bat an eye at her as he passed.

"We better find the church of the town! From the records that we have been reading over the Crusaders brought the dagger back and hid it in an important building. And back in the day that was a church" she told the Hulk as she walked beside him. In her human form she was tiny when compared to the large Avenger. She had scanned the skeleton of a rather small human when she had crashed landed, but back in the day being 5 foot was tall for a woman. She could easily change it, but that would mean people would have to get use to a new form. They already freaked out when she changed from an Aston Martin DBR9 to the Aston Martin Vulcan. So she was not altering her human form to not feel small next to the Hulk. She could always turn into her true form and be slightly bigger with that.

"Smash more zombies?" Hulk asked as he kept up to Nightshade's pace. He was looking ahead and waiting for the next threat to leap out of the shadows. He knew that Nightshade would be the same, in many ways she was like Captain America.

"Yeah you can take out as many mummies as you want" she responded before her full attention went to keeping silent. She went straight into the shadows of the buildings of the town that she had never heard of. There was no doubt that after the Moonray had crashed landed in the town the town would become swarmed by the news reporters as they searched for what happened in the town. She needed to get this mission out of the way and quickly so they could have an easier story to cover. She could hear the Hulk's heavy footsteps behind her as he followed after her. "But first you need to be quite!" she told him without looking at him.

The Hulk grumbled something as he followed behind her. Nightshade knew that he would follow her orders if he wanted to fight something again. With the Hulk in some sort of control that would make the mission a little bit easier. She just needed to find the oldest church in the town and get the Set Dagger. In a town this size it shouldn't be hard, but without the Moonray telling her where to go she was mostly lost. She had always had the Moonray guiding her and because of that she had become soft with her tracking skills were not like Julian and Black Horn who were able to track a single rat in a city like New York and London.

"Hulk see church!" the Hulk spoke up suddenly. He was pointing up to something with his large green finger.

Nightshade looked in the direction of Hulk's finger. Sure enough there was an old church steeple high above the roofs of houses. "Well that was easy! We better get going then!" she said as she walked towards the churches direction.

000oooo000ooo000o

A large blue and red python slithered out of a large whole on the wall. Its black tongue flicked out of its mouth as it moved away from the warm engines of the Moonray. The large python curled into a large ball as he closed his eyes. Things for the Avengers had not been going well since they had gone to Egypt.

Captain America had been through many things in his life. He had been modified to be the first and only supersoldier that the Allies had in the war against HYDRA. He had seen creatures that should belong only in story books. He had then been frozen in the Artic for seventy years before he was found and defrosted in the mordern world. He had then been one of the forming members of the Avengers when they had fought agaisnt Loki and his alien army in New York City. Heck he even suggested that two aliens joined the Avengers. He had fought agaisnt AI controlled robots and he had fought alongside AI controlled jets. He was one of the few people in the world who had walked alongside gods and monsters.

He had been through many things that no normal person should have gone through in their life. That included fighting against an ancient God who had a thing for causing Chaos and Destruction. He had also fought against three assassins who had a thing for snakes and had one of them turn him into a giant red and blue python.

To say that he had been through a lot was an understatement. He couldn't help the hiss that escaped from deep within his throat as he brought his coils closer to each other. The scales that covered his body grated against each other as he tried to warm his body up in the cold Scottish night. It was something that he thought he would never have to deal with. There was no point in his life that he had been given a warning that he was going to be turned into a python and forced to hid in a tight spot where he knew he would not be attacked.

Black tongue flicked out and he got a scent that he knew. Slowly he moved out from his hiding spot to see Edward stalking towards him. The Ghoul was muttering something under his breathe as he got closer to his hiding spot.

Captain America looked past Edward to see that in the direction of where Edward was coming from the houses were on fire. The closer Edward got to him, the better he could smell the scent of death on him. Becoming a python Cap had learned all the scents from the other Avengers. Stark smelled like oil and metal. Nightshade was of different spices with Wanda smelling like the latest perfume she was testing for the week. Edward was something he never expected. He didn't smell like a rotten corpse like Imhotep, no Edward smelt like spices much like Nightshade.

"Edward?" he asked when Edward got closer to him. He slithered towards the Ghoul who stopped before he stepped on them.

"Captain?!" Edward asked as he looked down at the large python that was coiled and ready to strike.

"Do you know why the Moonray crashed landed?" Cap asked up at the Ghoul. The Ghoul who was looking away from him and towards whatever it was that he had seen moving towards them. He kept his movements small and slow and it would be hard to miss if Steve had no experience with fighting alongside Edward.

"There is nothing on this planet that could bring the Moonray down, Cap! Not even HYDRA or SHIELD has the tech to bring her down!" Edward explained to the supersoldier turned snake. He did not look down at him no his attention was focused on whatever was sneaking towards them. Whatever it was it was large and was able to hide in the shadows and now it seemed that there was something else with the first thing. "Cap I need you to lay low!" Edward ordered the leader of the Avengers.

The snake's head whipped around and faced towards Edward. "What? Edward whatever is coming you need all the help that you can get!" he told Edward. He was not expecting for Edward to pick him up and place him in a garden. "Edward?" he asked as he was dropped onto the soft grass. He looked up at Edward as the Ghoul ran towards the shadow of a building. He was still surprised at how well Edward was able to move and hid. The Ghoul was the same size as Thor and yet he was able to move with self awareness like Black Panther something that Thor could never hope to do.

Edward growled as he kept his back towards the wall of the house that he was using as cover. He could hear the fence of the garden where he had placed Rogers in. He knew that he could look after himself but in this town he had already faced zombies and mummies already. He could not risk the supersoldier getting hurt when he had no way of defending himself in the shape that he was in at the moment.

He could not hear any voices at all. The people that were sneaking towards him knew how to be quite. He strained his ears as he listened to the noises. One of them had heavy breathing and was trying to hide it, but it was failing. If Black Horn was with them the Wendigo would be able to tell him what it was right away, but Black Horn was in America babysitting Julian as he watched the Winchester brothers. The second one was silent but he heard the ringing of metal as a sword was brought out of its holding.

The two were right on top of them when he jumped out of his hiding spot. His axe was brought down onto the ground right at the feet of the Hulk.

"Hulk smash Corpse Face!" Hulk roared but was stopped by Nightshade.

"Hulk stand down!" she ordered the Hulk before she looked at Edward. "Any news about this place?" she asked him.

"You have no idea! Deathwalker, that mummy is out and about and she is draining people like a vampire and turning them into mummies under her control!" Edward explained to Nightshade. To see the shocked looked that came over Nightshade's face was not a first thing that he had seen with her. They had seen many things over the years that they had learned to be ready for anything.

Nightshade grumbled something in another language that Edward did not know. "Stark made the Moonray crash along with release his new girlfriend! And there is a reason why we crashed landed in this town!" she explained to Edward.

"Wait Stark done that to the Moonray? I thought the Moonray was way to smart for his human brain!" Edward snapped at Nightshade. He put his axe back onto the strap on his back knowing that it was Nightshade and Hulk.

"He somehow managed to do something that no one on this planet should be able to do at all! And he is also in this town somewhere looking for the Set Dagger!" she explained as she looked towards the church that they were so closer to than before.

Edward followed Nightshade's look to see the church that she was looking at. "It would seem pieces are falling into place and Seth is five steps ahead of us!" he said to her.

"Yeah, and we need to catch up with him or we lose everything that we have been fighting for!" Nightshade said to Edward. She started to walk towards the church with Edward behind her. The Hulk close by as he to followed them.

"Out of all the churches in Britain it has been hiding under our noses all these years?" Edward asked Nightshade. He walked towards the garden where he had put Captain America in and picked up the angry python that hissed at him. The large python then went to Nightshade where he dropped onto her shoulders. Edward let out a breathe of relief when Cap went to Nightshade. It was no doubt he was looking for heat and that was only something that Nightshade could provide.

Nightshade with a snake wrapped around her stopped beside Edward. "It would seem like that! I just got news from Galvatron that Unicron is heading towards us and so is Dalek Caan. Both of them are being followed by Galv and Dalek Sec!" Nightshade said as Scorponock got to her side. The Incesticon drone had been sent away to get the other Avengers and with them all gathered expect for Stark he had done his work.

"How long do we have until they get here Nightshade?" Cap asked from her shoulder. He heard the clicking of Scorponok to see that he was right at Nightshade's feet. His six optics were narrowed as they all focused on him. He couldn't help it as the coils tightened around Nightshade at the drone that had been following her since Egypt.

Nightshade looked up at the sky. "They should be arriving at any time!" she said as she still looked up at the sky. She then turned her attention to Imhotep who had appeared beside her. "Lead the others to get the Set Dagger and then follow Edward back to our base!" she told him. She looked at Edward and they both shared a nod with each other before Edward walked towards the church.

Thor then spoke up "And what will you be doing in the meantime?" he asked her.

"I will be helping Galvatron with dealing with Unicron! Get the Set Dagger and get out as quickly as you can!" she ordered. She removed Cap from her shoulders and gave him to Thor who looked scared that he had been given a large python. He did not make any move against Cap with the look that Nightshade gave him as she transformed back into her true form.

With her silent warning to Thor, Nightshade took to the air with a powerful flap of her wings. She was soon a black dot in the night sky as she got away from the town.

"Well there goes our ride!" Hawkeye said as he looked up at the sky.

"We better move!" Edward grunted over his shoulder as he looked at Hawkeye.

Hawkeye raised his hands in a sign that he was not a threat and that he was not going to push Edward at all. "I was just saying what everyone is thinking! Nightshade can transform into a jet and a car to get us back to some form of civilisation!" he said to Edward as said Ghoul stomped towards him. He could not help but stare at Edward as he got closer to him. He was still not sure about Edward, he was not like the Ghouls that he had faced when he was growing up and hsi dad went on a revenge mission agaisnt the supernatal. Those Ghouls had eaten the dead bodies of humans in graveyards, but Edward he prefrered McDonalds and other fast food places.

"The base that Nightshade is talking about is only a twenty minute walk from this location. We are also hoping that the Ground Bridge is still opened after Stark mucking about with the Moonray's internals!" Edward grumbled at Hawkeye.

"Wait Stark done this?" Wasp asked as she pointed at the flames where the Moonray had crashed.

Edward just nodded in response before he walked back towards the church where the Set Dagger was. The quicker that they got the Set Dagger the sooner they could get out of this town and back to base. He hoped that Nightshade and Galvatron were quick with dealing with Unicron, but with the way things were going he knew that it would be something that he would not go his way.

"Halt Ghoul you are not getting passed me!" shouted a voice that was thick with a Scottish accent that was thicker than Nightshade's.

Edward looked up to see that standing in the graveyard and surrounded by zombies and Stark was something that he had not seen at all, but he had heard about it. The Nuckelavees hooves slammed into the ground as the horse demon stepped closer to Edward. Edward reacted with reaching for his Ion Axe. He heard Wasp gasp where she fluttered beside him. The sizechanger had never seen the things he had seen over the years. He noticed that Hawkeye had a strange look on his face. A look that only a Hunter would come across a new creature that they Hunted. He would have to ask the Moonray if she could get more information on Clint Barton's past, the past that SHIELD was keeping it hiding from the world.

"What is that thing?" Wasp shirked as she pointed at the horse demon. She was right in Edward's face. Her insect wings kept beating as they kept her small body in the air. She kept turning her head to look from Edward and the Nuckelavee that was glaring at them.

Edward used his Axe to push Wasp out of his line of sight. "Its a Nuckelavee!" he informed her before his full attention went back to the Nuckelavee that was getting closer to him. The horse head and the human head kept staring at him. The skin had been pealed off the body and revealed the red muscles that should have been protected by flesh and skin. On some parts of its elongated body he could see the bones on its long limbs. Its human arms of the human torso that grew from the back of the horse body dragged along the ground with its even longer fingers being useless as they were dragged along the ground.

"What are you doing here? You normally don't take any interest in the issues of the main land of Scotland. What has changed?" Edward asked the demon. He had never seen the Nuckelavee leave the sanctuary of the Scottish Northern Islands in the time that he had been on earth. He also did not hear that he had left the Islands, but he had caused problems on the islands over the years. He only done that when there was something big and bad coming. It didn't matter what it was he was always there. He caused famine and disease on the island as he warned the people that something was coming to the world.

The Nuckelavee stopped in front of Edward. The horse head bend down and started to eat the grass at his hooves. It was the human head that started to talk to Edward, "You think that I am here on my own accord, Ghoul?" he asked Edward.

Edward snorted as he looked at Wasp. "Wasp go in ahead. Me and Thor shall deal with the Nuckelavee!" he told her. She was about to argue with Edward but he stopped her, "Do it Wasp! We need to get the Set Dagger before Seth and his allies do!" he told her.

Wasp wanted to say something else to Edward but she was pushed away by Mehit. The Goddess of War spoke with a delicate voice to the sizechanger, "He is correct! Victory can only come if we paly our pieces right!"

Wasp looked between Edward and the demon as she led the charge into the church. She had to be glad that Ant-Man, Hulk, Anhur and Falcon stepped in front of the Mummies that were about to stop them. Stark was another problem he shot into the air and was already racing towards the church but he was stopped by Vision who had came out of nowhere and rugby tackled him back to the ground.

"Iron Man we are your friends! Why are you fighting with the enemy?" the android asked as he kept Iron Man trapped on the ground.

"His soul has been corrupted and twisted! He is a dark copy of his former self. One who follows Seth orders to the letter!" the Nuckelavee informed them all. Lightning zapped through the air and Mjolnir slammed into the demons human face. He stumbled back on all fours as he glared at the Asgardian that loved earth so much that he had joined the team that defended it. He watched with little interest as Mjolnir returned to its wielder.

Thor grabbed his weapon and was ready to use it again at any moment. "You lie! Stark is one of the Avengers, chosen to defend Midguard from all threats!" Thor shouted. He did not notice that Edward was shaken his head in a clear sign that the signs where there.

"No? Can you not feel the darkness that is coming off of his very soul? Can you not see that he had been acting weird since you came back from Egypt with the sacrphoagus of Seth's commander of the human forces?" he asked looking at all the Avengers in turn. The two Werelions had turned into their Werecreature forms and were snarling down at him. The other Avengers had weapons raised and ready to be used at the given moments.

Edward placed a hand on Thor's shoulder. Thor looked around at him to see a look that only confirmed what the demon was saying. "You agree with this beast?" he asked

"He may be a demon but he has never lied once!" Edward said to Thor before he looked back at the Nuckelavee. "Is there a way to undo what has been done?" he asked the skinned demon.

The Nuckelavee did not get a chance to reply to Edward as Mjolnir slammed into his face again. "Avengers Assemble!" Thor shouted as he led the attack on the mummies and the Nuckelavee. The attack was all that Wasp and her team needed to sneak into the church to search for the Set Dagger.