Polarity

by Chris Myers

When a Romero-style zombie outbreak hits, three supervillains, led by a long time loser, find themselves doing whatever it takes to save themselves, and eventually, the rest of humanity.

35. Gone Guru

I hit the moose stomach first. I hung on the stuffed exhibit, trying to catch my breath, holding on for dear life as a massive gray hand grabbed the back of my neck.

"I tried so hard not to come back, Herman." Aleksei held me in the air for a moment. "I really did. You have to believe that. I did everything I could to stay dead." With a grunt of effort, he drove me into the tile floor face-first. I felt the blood flow from my nose as he lifted me back up, and slammed me back down. "It was so dark, Herman. And so cold. I've never, ever been that cold before. I couldn't grab onto anything. It...it kept pulling at me."

He let go of me. I tried to crawl away, but a massive foot drove into the small of my break. I screamed in pain as Aleksei applied pressure to my spine. "I resisted. I screamed, but no one could hear me roar, even myself. And the whole time, that urge kept pulling at me, Herman. I was hungry, and getting hungrier. I've never been that hungry. I knew, I just knew, if I opened my eyes, I'd have a chance to stop being hungry. I knew what that meant, Herman."

I felt the foot lift off my back, but it soon booted me in the side, causing me to roll over and curl into a ball. The pain was incredible. The mental anguish...this was my best friend. This couldn't...no way. It can't be.

"You know what that meant. But I wasn't going to be a zombie. No way. I wasn't going to be walking around like that. The harder I fought, Herman, the hungrier I became. You have to understand that. I tried not to, but it just got to be too much. I had to give in, Herman. If I didn't...I couldn't. I couldn't take it anymore."

"Aleksei..." I choked out between breaths.

"Then he reached out a hand to me. I had to take it, Herman. If I didn't, I'd become one of those things. And I didn't want that. Neither did you. I took the Grim Reaper's hand. It was the only choice I could make."

Aleksei grabbed me again, lifting me up from my armpits. "I'm dead, Herman. But I'm not hungry anymore. The Grim Reaper made sure of that." With a yell, Aleksei threw me over his head. I crashed into the floor back first, right on my tailbone. My back arched in pain, my hand going to my ass, as Aleksei turned and strode over to where I lay.

"And he explained a few things to me, Herman." He towered over me, all eight feet of him, staring down. Blood dripped from the jagged hole that Osborn's explosion had torn into his body armor. "Everything you and I did over the past week. It's what led to Norman Osborn noticing me. It's what led to Osborn killing me. It's what led to me coming back like this. And it's all your fault. You wanted to play a hero, Herman. It got you all the glory. And it got me killed."

"No...I didn't..."

Aleksei lifted one huge foot, slowly bringing over my face. His face took on an angry glare, as he reared back to smash my head into the ground...

She streaked from across the room, catching Aleksei off-balance, driving her shoulder into his sternum. Aleksei stumbled backwards, before falling to the ground. The exhibits all around the hall shook slightly at the impact. He rolled around, trying to use his arms to stand back up, and in that time, Ms. Marvel had grabbed me by the forearms and flown out of the hall. In the museum's lobby, she raced up to the top landing of the rotunda, soaring past the hanging banners to land us on the third floor. She set me down, and I immediately slumped against the wall, sliding down into a sitting position. I was in shock, just numb, as the universe decided to cock the ultimate "screw with Herman" shotgun, and load it with the undead body of my best friend.

"Damn it," I barely heard Ms. Marvel grouse. "The Rhino. That complicates things."

"Oh, Herman." His voice sounded like gravel rolling down a rocky hillside as it called up to us. "You got an Avenger to come help you, and it's not even one of the good ones. Herman and Marvel, sitting in a tree. K-i-s-s-i-n-g..."

"I have to call this in. We're gonna need backup." Ms. Marvel reached for her belt, before getting a confused look on her face. "Do not tell me I lost my communicator...Herman." She sounded so far away, a tinny voice in my ear. "Herman," Ms. Marvel hissed, "do you still have my communicator?"

Mechanically, I pulled out the device from my belt. A trembling hand held it out to her. She snatched it, and quickly snapped the communicator open. "Ms. Marvel to any Avenger. Ms. Marvel to any Avenger. Come in. Anyone." After a few seconds of silence, she spoke again. "Ms. Marvel to any Avenger, I'm at the Museum of Natural History. Need backup, quickly." When no one responded, she shoved the device back into its holder on her belt. "Nothing. Either we're being jammed, or no one can get to their phone."

"...then comes Blondie with the baby carriage!" Aleksei chuckled as he finished the song. "You two might as well just go home. I'm not letting you anywhere near Baron Mordo." The familiar sound of him cracking his knuckles filled the lobby. "But you're more than welcome to try."

Ms. Marvel turned from the balcony, kneeling down beside me. "Herman, you know what the Rhino is capable off better than anyone else. We need a plan to get past him and get the Darkhold away from Mordo."

Plan? Aleksei could go toe-to-toe with the Hulk, and we barely beat the green giant with a whole contingent of Avengers...

"Herman? Earth to Herman, come in Herman."

My vibro-blasts would roll right off of him. Ms. Marvel maybe could crack the dermal plating given enough time, but Aleksei could probably swat her around without breaking a sweat...

That's when she hauled off and smacked me.

I felt it through my face's padding as my head swung to the side. "Ow," I muttered. I would have been a little more forceful with my protest, save for the fact it really hurt to move my jaw at the moment. "What the hell, lady?"

"Listen up, Schultz, because I only have time to say this once." She pointed at the floor. "Down there, below us, that's not your friend. That's not the Aleksei you knew yesterday. It's a zombie, a zombie wearing the skin and armor of the Rhino. It's not Aleksei. It's the Rhino. It's not your friend, it's a damn corpse. So find your focus and help me fight, because the only way we're going to get at the Darkhold and stop the end of the world is by going through him."

Some people think the best way to get through to someone is by getting inches from their face and screaming. Ms. Marvel was the opposite, speaking softly, not yelling, just stating everything as quickly and as clearly as she could. And that's what got through to me.

I put my hand out. She grabbed it and quickly helped me to my feet. "Alright," she said in a low voice. "Welcome back to planet Earth. What do we do?"

"I...ok," I said, taking a breath. "It's not just the suit that's made him tough. Aleksei's had that thing for so long, the chemicals have seeped into his skin. He's just as tough as the Hulk and we don't have Hydro-Man to go for the brain this time out. Pounding on him doesn't have a snowball's chance in Hell of taking him down in time...especially if he can regenerate like the rest of the Reaper's minions. Punisher blew Black Talon's head off, and he just grew it right back."

"So you're saying we can't take him out ourselves."

"Not the two of us, no. Not directly. Look what it took for us to stop the Hulk, and we don't have Spider-Man and Thor this time. Damn it...I can't believe I'm missing the web head." I sighed, closing my eyes. "Alright, we do this. I can distract him. You fly in and deal with Mordo."

"Herman...no," Ms. Marvel replied. "You're not powerful enough to..."

"You think I don't know that!" I snapped at her, causing her eyes to narrow a little bit as she recoiled. "I know more about Aleksei than you do, and you know more about Mordo than I do. It's like you said before...me fighting Osborn would have been a waste of time. Trying to fight Aleksei would be a waste of time as well. If I can snag Aleksei's attention, it'll let you get a shot at taking out Mordo, grabbing the Darkhold, and flying us both out of here."

I saw the skepticism on her face, and tried to smile under my mask. "Hey, it's a stupid plan that's going to get me killed. But you said so yourself, the Darkhold and stopping the Grim Reaper are the big things on the menu. This plan is the best I could come up with on really freakin' short notice, Ms. Marvel." I paused for a second. "This is where I'm supposed to say 'trust me,' right?"

"Oh yeah, this plan's definitely going to work now." She shook her head. "You're right. Let's do it. Just don't get yourself killed, Shocker. I'm beginning to like you."

That statement lifted my sagging spirits a little. "I'm beginning to like myself too." I spun away, standing up and leaning over the edge of the balcony. Aleksei was staring up at me, a tight, stupid grin on his face. "Alright, Aleksei. I'm coming down, and we're going to talk."

"Talk? Are you out of your damn mind," I heard Ms. Marvel hiss.

"Hey, it'll distract him," I answered without moving my lips. "Trust me, and I'm saying that non-ironically." I walked to the steps, and slowly made my down from the top of the Rotunda. I did my best to always keep a wary eye on Aleksei, and he never took his gaze off me. His massive arms hung at his sides, gray fists clenched. I lost track of Ms. Marvel as I descended, keeping my focus on Aleksei the whole time.

I stopped at the bottom of the steps. Across from me, just outside the door to the Hall of North American Mammals, Aleksei was backlit by the green light generated by whatever ritual Baron Mordo was...casting? Running? I don't know the proper magical terminology, but the light shined around Aleksei like he was a monster from a bad 1980's techno-horror movie. We stood, facing each other. I wondered what he saw. There wasn't much steel in my spine, but I tried to stand up straight. It's what Ms. Marvel said. What was inside wasn't the man I knew before.

Yeah, and neither was Electro. Or the Vulture. That didn't stop me from relating to them.

Aleksei spoke first. "So, Herman, is this where you and I fight?"

"If that's what you want, Aleksei. I'd prefer a chance to gab first, though."

"Herman, there isn't anything to talk about. I've got a new group of friends, friends who will watch my back, friends who helped me out when I was dead. I've made my call, and it's a damn easy one."

"I can't believe that. Ain't ever heard you talk this way, Aleksei."

"Well...death changes things, Herman. You can't look back on your life the same way once you've kicked the bucket." His voice still rumbled like a bass line, but his manner of speaking had changed. I couldn't put my finger on it. "I know what's coming. I've seen the end. No one's spared, not even the kids."

"The old you would never..."

"That's it, Herman. I'm not the old me. I'm the new me. And I'm the new me because of you." He jammed two fingers into the wound on his chest. "I've been bleeding for the past few hours." With a large schlurping sound, he pulled them back out. Blood, muscle, and bone oozed over the digits as he held them towards me. "I'll never stop bleeding, according to Electro. I've already pulled out my guts, and they just keep coming back. That's the price for living, Herman. I have to deal with this pain, this...sensation for the rest of days. I could blame it on Osborn. He was the guy who pulled the trigger. But he wouldn't have pulled the trigger if you hadn't put the two of us in his crosshairs." I could hear the gentle tapping of blood hitting the tile floor as he pointed the red fingers at me. "And you were the one who got away."

"Aleksei...Osborn tried to kill me too. He had Peter poison me and shove me out of a helicopter. The Grim Reaper rescued me...Osborn, Aleksei," I said, a small pleading note sliding into my voice. "He tried to kill both us."

"He tried to kill you, Herman. He killed me. And do you know what the worst part is? Osborn's still alive."

Pause.

"NORMAN OSBORN IS STILL ALIVE, HERMAN!" Aleksei started to walk towards me, away from the doorway to the Hall of North American Mammals. "My murderer is walking around, breathing, and you just let that slide!"

One massive hand reached out, slapping away a glass case full of butterflies. The exhibit shattered against the floor as he came at me. "You had how many shots to kill him? You couldn't have found all this vaunted courage and heroic drive to pull yourself up and put a blast in his face?"

"I..." My mouth wouldn't open. "I tried..."

"NO! NO, YOU DIDN'T, HERMAN! YOU CAME SO CLOSE TO KILLING THE TRAPSTER FOR A MILLION BUCKS, BUT WHEN YOUR BEST FRIEND DIES, SUDDENLY YOUR MORALITY COMES INTO PLAY? MONEY MEANS MORE TO YOU THAN MY FRIENDSHIP EVER DID!"

Behind him, slowly hovering down from the third floor, Ms. Marvel quietly descended through the air. I had Aleksei's attention, and if I could...just somehow hold it...

"I'm trying to save the damn world," I tried to yell in anger, but it came out in a normal tone, no matter how much I tried to force volume. "Once this is all over, Aleksei, I promise, Osborn will pay for what he did to you. The bastard's going to get what's coming to him. But damn it, there's still a world to save..."

"The world to save!" He came to a stop ten feet away from me. Anger like I'd rarely seen was etched on his face. "When did you ever care about the world? You only cared about yourself, and now you want to save it? All that time staying under the radar. You spent more time running away from Spider-Man than fighting him. You went underground to avoid the Scourge of the Underworld! Not anymore, huh? You finally found a way to fill that ego of yours, Herman, and apparently you don't care who has to die and who gets to live in order to make you feel better about yourself!"

She was just reaching the doorway, and I did my best to keep my eyes on Aleksei so the game didn't get given away. "You wanted to help people too! You and me, we went out to that 7-11 on the first night to protect everyone trapped inside! You came with me willingly, and we BOTH put our asses on the line!"

"Because I was following you, Herman! You always had my back, you always looked out for me, and I made sure no one ever messed with you!"

I put up my hands. "Stop...just stop screaming, Aleksei. I'm sorry, alright? I'm so sorry. If I had a chance, I'd wish this never had happened, that none of this ever came to pass. It's not worth it. Only a madman wants the end of the world to make himself look good. This, none of this, isn't worth the death of the one damn guy I trusted with my back."

"It doesn't matter anymore, Herman. You made your call to be a hero, it got me killed, and then you kept being a hero by letting Osborn walk. That's reality, and we both have to deal with it. And after Baron Mordo takes care of Ms. Marvel, it'll just be you and me. Oh, you didn't think he didn't notice your puny attempt at distracting me?"

Aleksei turned to one side, motioning to the open doorway. Ms. Marvel floated about five feet off the ground, her hands struggling with the bright green chains that wrapped around her body. "A pitiful attempt at espionage," Mordo smoothly voiced from the other room as Ms. Marvel's fingers tried to work between the links of the chain and her neck. "Let us end this farce, quickly."

The chains tightened, and, with a loud cry from the blonde, Ms. Marvel was yanked into the room. Mordo gestured with one hand towards the green portal floating behind him, and I watched, helpless, as Ms. Marvel was flung through the opening. The light flared for a moment, outlining her buxom figure, before she vanished from sight, leaving only Baron Mordo, still hovering in the lotus position. "And then," the aristocrat said, "there was one."

"Not for long, Mordo." Aleksei's eyes narrowed, his grin predatory. "Don't worry, Herman. I'll make sure you die here on Earth instead of...wherever Ms. Marvel and the others ended up. And because we were friends for so long, I'll even make sure you stay down for good. It's the least I could do."

I responded the only way I could.

"Alright, Aleksei. If that's what you want. I'll find a way to put you down for good, even if it means ripping that damn Darkhold apart page by page." I didn't have a choice. Ms. Marvel had been right. Aleksei needed stopped, somehow. And then I had to beat Baron Mordo. And then figure out a way to get Ms. Marvel out of that portal. For a second-rate criminal like me, that would have taken a lot of pre-planning, payoffs to the right people, and a whole lot of equipment. For a second-rate hero like me, it's gonna take a whole lot of improv.

This wasn't my friend. I had to keep telling myself that, taking those emotions and shoving them in a lockbox. This was a bad guy. This was a mean zombie, just like the Incredible Hulk. This was someone who wanted my head on a platter. I had to take him down. And that's what heroes did. Pull it out of their ass when push has gone way beyond shove.

Two level-three's right to the chest, followed by me turning around and hauling ass back up the steps. I could hear the futile impact of my attack as I took the stairs two at a time. His footsteps boomed behind me as Aleksei ran after me. "Oh, you want to make this interesting, Herman? I can do that!"

There was no way I could beat Aleksei in a slugging match. There was no way I could escape Aleksei, since the museum was surrounded by the living dead streaming into Central Park. What I needed right now was some kind of plan, since my last one had gone south almost immediately, leaving me facing off against an undead sorcerer and an undead tank.

On the second floor, I hang the corner hard and fly up the third floor steps, my arms pumping. I could hear my doom coming up behind me, the thump of feet on stairs soon turning into a steady beat. I could imagine him behind me, head lowered, horn out, legs pumping. This is what I was afraid of, a straight line with plenty of room for Aleksei to build up speed, even if it was an incline. I didn't have a choice at the moment. I don't think I've ever sprinted as hard as I have during my trip to the third floor. I spun around at the top of the steps, grabbing the railing and flinging myself around the corner as quickly and as sharply as possible. My boots gripped the tile floor as I ran forward, crossing the third floor of the rotunda. I risked a glance over my shoulder to see Aleksei's horn coming up the third flight of stairs. My lungs burned as I crossed the lobby, and trying to see where Aleksei was, I didn't see the wall in front of me. I slammed into it, bouncing off and landing on my ass.

I scrambled back to my feet. To my right was a hallway leading to the Hall of Asian Mammals. To my left, the wooden and glass door to the museum's gift shop was closed. I took a second to catch my breath as Aleksei emerged from the dim light on the other end of the rotunda. The emergency lighting cloaked his face in shadow, showing off only his sharp horn and broad outline. I stepped backwards, my body flush against the wall I had just smacked into. "Aleksei...you don't want to do this," I stammered out. "Just stop. Please."

I hated baiting him. Especially since I wanted him to stop. But the look on his face...it was THE Look, the one everyone knows in the superpowered community, the one that says "I am going to come at you with the full thunder and fury and enjoy every minute of it." Coming from a hero, it means the world's biggest beat down is coming your way. Coming from a criminal like Aleksei, it means you're going to the morgue.

With a low roar that sounded like a subway train arriving, Aleksei lowered his horn and began to charge. I pushed away from the wall slightly as he started to run, bouncing on the balls of my feet. Too soon, and he'd just change course and nail me anyway. Too late, and I'd end up a smear, another mural on the wall of this fine museum. Grasp of physics and subconscious calculations, don't fail me now. Even in the dim light, the sharp tip of his horn glimmered. The painting on a nearby wall jumped with every step as the Rhino charged, intent on running me through, impaling me on that wicked weapon before throwing me to the side, disemboweling me in the process. I had to judge this just right...just right...

About two steps after my body was screaming "MOVE YOU IDIOT MOVE," I dove to my left, throwing my hands out and firing twin level twos at the gift shop door. The impact knocked it off of its hinges, and I slammed into the shop, knocking the door out of its frame amidst a shower of glass shards and wood splinters. I heard the loud crash behind me as I landed on my stomach. Gasping for breath, I rolled over, seeing what I had wrought.

His horn was buried in the wall to its hilt. The mural was ruined, cracks running from the impact zone all over the surface. Aleksei had both hands flush against the wall, trying to pull himself out. The sucker (I had to think of him this way) had slammed himself all the way to the steel security plating behind the wall. The muscles in his arms flexed under his armor as, gritting his teeth, he shoved backwards. A new crack appeared as he worked on freeing himself.

I moved to just out of his arms reach, and blasted him in the head with a level four from close range. I would have gone with a level five, but the wall would have been caught in the blast as well, making it easier for Aleksei to free himself. I jammed down both triggers, pouring as much vibration into him as possible. Any damage I did to him would just regenerate. I had to scramble his brain, or even shake his skull apart, and pray the time it took for him to grow a second head, I could figure out a way to take down Baron Mordo. The air between us as filled with small explosions, impacting against the side of his head. Over the sounds of my blasts, I could hear Aleksei yell in pain, just like the Hulk had earlier...

The yell became a roar. With a booming crack, the masonry and steel plating gave way as Aleksei yanked the piece of wall he was stuck in away. He staggered back, the wide piece of plaster blocking my view of him. I took a few steps away, raising my gloves to blast the masonry and maybe blind him. Before I could, though, the stone cracked, flying at me in large chunks as Aleksei simply punched his horn free. One piece caught me in the sternum, while a larger piece of the mural smacked me in the forehead. I felt a trickle of blood under my mask as I staggered backwards, stunned momentarily.

The back of Aleksei's hand impacted across the side of my face. One of my crowns came loose in my mouth as I flew backwards, crashing on my side in the middle of the gift shop. "If that was your grand plan, Herman, you're not as smart as I always thought you were," he said as he turned his body sideways to enter the gift shop. Aleksei flicked the last piece of plaster from his horn as I grabbed the counter to pull myself back to my feet.

"That was improv," I groaned, just before moving out of the way as a massive fist smashed into the counter, sending glass and knick-knacks everywhere. I spun back around, firing a level three as I stepped backwards. Aleksei followed, a wild roundhouse missing me and instead taking out a stack of museum guidebooks. The shop was a tightly packed series of display stands and clothing racks, and I kept bumping into them as I made my way towards the rear entrance to the shop. Aleksei didn't have that problem, easily smacking the merchandise stands aside as he came after me. I kept blasting, he kept throwing, and it didn't take long for the gift shop to look like a tornado had blown through. I turned for a second to blast open the back entrance, and that's when a steel clothing stand smacked me in the back. I barely felt it through my suit, but it was enough to cause me to stumble out of the shop into the museum's central hallway, and that was enough time for Aleksei to charge forward. His massive frame took out the walls to the side of the gift shop's back door, disintegrating the masonry, and he rammed his shoulder into the small of my back. Propelled through the air, I skidded along the floor when I landed, bouncing off a side wall before I came to a complete stop. The thumping footstep behind me encouraged me to move my ass, but all I could do was roll over before he was on top of me. With one hand, he picked me up by the face, his fingers gripping me tight. I saw red at the edges of my vision as the tips dug into my skull, squeezing me like an overripe tomato.

"I don't have to kill you, Herman. The zombies in the park have done more to kill hope than turning you to the Reaper's side could ever have done. I can have all the fun I want throwing you around like a rag doll, and that's just what I plan to do."

The red was turning to black as Aleksei flung me over one shoulder. As my vision stopped swimming, he spun around, and charged back through the same gift shop we had destroyed. His arm tucked me tight against his body, preventing me from squirming out. Snow globes and festive alarm clocks broke under Aleksei's feet, the rumbling of his passage knocking even more crap off the walls. The door would normally have been too big for my former friend, but he used my back as a battering ram, shattering the stone-and-glass wall before driving me down, whipping his arm forward and bodyslamming me on the floor. My back protested at the assault, arching off from the floor, as Aleksei ducked down on one knee over me.

Fist cocked back, he drove it down at my head. I could feel the air rushing past my ear as the punch missed, slamming into the floor as I moved out of the way purely by instinct. Stone chips flew into air as Aleksei raised his hand, and I barely managed to avoid another pounding blow, my head whipping to the side as his punch cracked the floor. He threw more blows, each one barely missing. Aleksei's face grew more and more angry, the foundation creaking underneath me with every shot that impacted. "Stay still so I can hit you, Herman," he growled as he pulled his fist back over his shoulder, winding up for a huge haymaker. Before he could swing, I reached up, grabbing for the ruined armor plate just above his heart. I could feel the sticky warmth of the ruined flesh underneath as I held tightly, using it to quickly pull myself up from the ground. I held down the trigger on my other gauntlet as I swung my fist, going all out as I slammed it into his face, firing off a level-four blast at the moment of impact.

Aleksei didn't roar in pain, but he was stunned for a moment, his fist still pulled back over his shoulder. Like a piston, I pulled my arm back, sacrificing power for speed, and decked him again, letting fly with another level-four that rocked his head back a few inches. I let out with a cry of frustration as my arm acted like a jackhammer, jabbing his face over and over again. His nose crunched, flattening against his face, blood spurting from the point of connection as I broke the bone and cartilage...

His fist finally crashed down as Aleksei let loose a roar of anger, slamming into my sternum. He drove down, shoving me away from his body into the floor. Something may have broken under my suit. It damn sure felt like it, as the next breath I drew was like pulling fire into my lungs. Aleksei kept his hand in place, pinning me to the ground, cutting off my breath as he pushed down on my chest. Blood dripped from his nose, splashing onto my armor, as he let out a low growl. The stone cracked underneath me as he shoved me down, my breastbone barely holding together under the pressure. "You think that hurt me, Herman? It barely scratched me. I'm stone. Immortal. Unbreakable."

"Yeah," I gasped. "You might be unbreakable. The floor ain't."

I balled my fists, and two level-fours exploded from my gauntlets as I slammed them into the floor. His eyes went wide, his fist pulling back to punch me again, but the second time I blasted the floor, the stone cracked, dipping slightly for a second, before gravity took hold. I felt the floor give way. We both fell for a second, the stone and steel underneath managing to stay together and support us, Aleksei stumbling to one knee. And that's where I blasted the floor, right underneath him. The tile gave way, and Aleksei went bye-bye. In a cloud of plaster dust, he disappeared. I could hear a loud boom, as the stairs underneath him gave way, and then an even bigger bang as he hit the floor in the lobby.

My chest ached as I got back to my feet. I was doubled over, trying to breathe normally, when the cracks in the remaining floor got bigger. I quickly stepped away, stumbling over to the balcony's railing overlooking the rotunda. Leaning on it for support, I looked down at the scene below. Aleksei's body was on its back, staring up at the ceiling. His arms were twitching, his legs feebly pawing at the floor. God damn it. I had hoped the fall would have put him down, unless he was in his death throes...though the moans told me otherwise. Alright. I had him on the ropes, I thought as I turned away. Maybe if I used level fives...

The balcony suddenly dropped. I grabbed onto the railing, stopping myself from plunging three stories. Behind me, spreading outward from the hole I had blasted in the floor, a spiderweb of cracks grew, branching out and spreading all over the third floor. "Oh, crap," I murmured as the piece of floor I stood on dipped again. I had less than a second to make my choice, and I did. Before I lost my footing, I judged the distance and braced myself and threw my body out into the air of the rotunda. An instant later, the balcony collapsed, falling into the second story and shattering into large chunks of stone.

I freefell through the air, trying not to let my arms flail. I had one shot at this, or else Herman Schultz was going to end up a smear on the floor of the Museum of Natural History. I aimed as best I could in the few seconds I plunged towards the lobby, flinging my hands out as the last minute and praying that I hit this. You could cram a lot of deity pleading into a moment as my palm brushed my intended target. My fingers instantly clenched, trying to find purchase. And they did, as sharp pain lanced through my hand. My other hand shot up, grabbing hold before the velocity of the fall ripped me away from my purchase.

The neck of the Barosaurus skeleton held. The steel rods holding the long neck aloft creaked, but didn't break, not even dipping from my added body weight. From here, it was only a one-story drop to the floor. My legs dangled as I tried to steady myself for the controlled fall. My fingers were caught in a small piece of its neck, but I was afraid to pull them free before I was ready. The grip on my other hand was slipping, and I had to glance up as they almost fell off to readjust. When I looked back down, there he was. Aleksei's face was bloody, still dripping from his broken nose. The smile on his face was a mockery of joy as he reached out for me, well out of range. "Herman," his deep voice said in a sing-song manner, "get down from there, this instant."

I could have blasted him, but both hands were busy making sure I didn't fall right into his grip. And the one kept slipping. I scrambled, my legs swinging wildly, trying to find something to hold on to...but my hand fell off. Immediately, all that pressure went to the hand pinched inside the neck, and the yell I let out echoed across the lobby. I tried to bring my other hand back up, but the pain was just too much, like my digits were being broken. Before I could stop myself, I let go, and fell immediately the short distance into Aleksei's waiting...

He moved backwards instead, and instead of him catching me, I slammed into the base of the Barosaurus exhibit. I rolled onto my side, groaning, as my back protested in pain. That pain soon became the last of my worries, though, as two strong hands picked me up, using my ears (well, the sides of my skull) to hoist me off the ground. Aleksei held me at arm's length, well away from his body. The blood from his nose had dried up, smeared all over the lower part of his face. No words, just clenched teeth as he squeezed my skull tightly. The pressure was too much to bear, and I cried out in agony. It felt like my eyes were going to pop out of my sockets. He had me...but I had him. Fighting through the pain that threatened to crack my skull, I did the same thing that had seemed to work earlier. Level fours right to his face. The space between us was filled with waves of overpressure as I poured everything my vibro-smashers had into him. The pressure on my head lightened as I assaulted him. Come on, this close, something, anything, had to snap. His palms moved away from my ears, but the fingers tightened their grip. One of us roared in anger, or maybe both of us, as he squeezed, I blasted, and someone had to break first. It couldn't be me. It couldn't be me. It couldn't be me...

My arms shook with the vibrations as the recoil and residual energy filled the air. The fingers on one hand ached from being pinched in the dinosaur's spine, and were now being forced to absorb point blank level-four blasts, which I rarely used to this damn long. Through the pain, I aimed directly at his face, the only exposed part of his body, narrow blasts, arms as far out as I could stretch them to minimize distance.

I had to hold...and I did. Aleksei broke first, pulling his hands back and staggering a few steps. His eyes leaked blood, a thin rivulet running down from where his tear ducts should have been. I managed to land, a bit wobbly, on the floor on both feet. I wasn't one for migraines, but that had to be what one felt like. Tears of my own were welling up, and I did my best to brush them away under my quilted armor. The cut on my forehead felt wetter, as if Aleksei squeezed blood and opened it wider. It didn't drip down into my eyes.

One of had to recover first. And this time, it was the undead guy who didn't have to worry about breathing or other circulatory functions. I barely had time to get my head up, which was a mistake as Aleksei's shoulder cracked into my jaw. All that mass, one point of impact, and he skidded a little further, but sent me flying backwards.

If they were still alive, Aleksei and I just ruined future field trips for thousands of little kids as he drove me into the skeleton of the Barosaurus. I slammed into one of the front legs, stopping immediately as I hit bone as hard as a rock. I slid down the shin, resting on the foot itself. Aleksei stared at me, his arms crossed over his broad chest, as metaphorical stars danced around my head. I heard something crack. But it wasn't Aleksei cracking his knuckles, like I had expected. I looked up, sighing as I realized what was happening. The Barosaurus' neck was wobbling, shaking all the way down its spine. The freestanding fossil, the centerpiece of the entire Rotunda, was falling apart from the impact, and it was going to come down on Aleksei and me.

I put pressure on my hand to push myself into a tuck-and-roll, but it was the hand with the pinched fingers. By the time I overcame the shock of sudden pain, the steel rods that supported the dinosaur's frame were snapping, and the long slender neck of the skeleton was giving way under its own weight. That was Aleksei's concern, however. Mine was the torso of the skeleton that had suddenly dropped forward. I made my decision as the entire dinosaur came crashing down, the leg I had been thrown against giving way. Maybe two tons of bone fell towards me, and I was resorting to a trick seen in old pulp novels and movie serials. The two front legs cracked, one right after the other, cutting out the support of the ribcage and bringing the whole thing slamming into the ground.

Around me.

There was just enough room for me, curling into the tightest ball I possibly could, to fit underneath the ribcage. All around me, spears of ancient bone crashed into the tile floor of the rotunda. I had my arms over my head, as the stone floor gave way to the fossils, chips flying into the air. It was one loud boom, the thump echoing across the rotunda, followed by another, smaller crash. That would be the neck, and instead of the cracking of bone on tile, it was the thump of bone on body armor. Aleksei had decided not to move. As I peeked out from between my fingers, the neck fell across the edge of his broad shoulder. My former friend didn't even flinch as the bones rolled off his shoulder, falling to the ground in a straight line. The skull crashed behind him, and Aleksei just stood there, arms still crossed across his massive chest, staring at my huddled form as I slowly pulled my arms away from my head. Ok. My plan to save my bacon had worked. That was the good news. The bad news was, when I had my wrists up by my head covering my face, I noticed something very bad. The energy meter on the side of my gauntlets, both of them, were in the red. The level threes and fours I had been throwing around, the ones that had barely made a dent in Aleksei, had damn near drained me dry. I had very few left in me, a couple of fours, half a dozen threes, and one level five, roughly, in each. And Aleksei was still standing, and Mordo still had the Darkhold, and Ms. Marvel was still gone, and the zombies were still in Central Park, and...

Aleksei walked forward as I went over the litany of just how screwed and out of options I was. Two gray hands grabbed at the ribcage. The muscles bulged under Aleksei's armor as he strained to lift the obstruction between me and him. The points of the fossils slowly rose out of the floor, parts of the exhibit's base sticking to the sharp ends. With a roar, Aleksei lifted the ribcage free. I ducked, dropping completely to the floor on my stomach, as Aleksei turned to the side, ripping the ribcage away from the hind legs and flinging it across the rotunda. Several small exhibits scattered as the fossil slammed into them, before coming to a rest, sandwiching a souvenir stand against the wall at the moment of impact.

The boom echoed in my ears as I scrambled away, retreating in the opposite direction. I couldn't stand and get into a slugging match with Aleksei with my vibro-smashers almost out of juice. I had two options. One, find a place where I could jam new batteries into my gauntlets and get back to full power. Two, somehow come up with a way to drop Aleksei with one (or two) level five shot (shots).

Some of you out there hearing this tale, I know what you're yelling. There was a way to one-shot my former friend. "It's right there, right in front of you!" And a few of you are right. It was damn near in my face, the apple on the tree of knowledge, and all I really had to do was reach out and pluck it. And you'd think a guy like me, who knows a thing about plans, how they go south, and how to improv on the fly, would have picked up on it right away. Well…it's like driving down an icy road. You start to slide, and your brain locks up like your brakes. All you think about is the fact that you're sliding, not how you're going to stop sliding. Right now, I was more concerned with the fact that I was fighting my friend then how I was going to win. Every time I tried to form an idea or plan, it always went back to fighting Aleksei. I was looking to retreat and reload, that was my plan.

I was heading for the west hallway, leading to more exhibits deeper into the museum, when something sailed over my head, barely avoiding taking my head off. The ribcage tore gouges in the painted plaster as it slammed into the hallway, bouncing about in the enclosed space for a brief moment before crashing onto the floor. Yeah, that had been my exit, and now, a 65 million year old fossil was blocking it.

"You're not going to run away, Herman, are you? I'm finally having fun." I turned to look at my former friend, who was making his way towards me. "Smashing stuff, breaking things…that's what the Rhino does, right?" Aleksei stopped in the center of the rotunda, his arms hanging loose at his sides. "Big dumb Rhino, a bull in a china shop. That's all I ever was to you, Herman, a stupid fire-and-forget weapon."

"You know that's crap, Aleksei." He was coming at me, and the only thing I could do was press myself against the back wall of the hallway. The ribcage was wedged in tight, like a couch stuck on a switchback landing, and there wasn't a damn bit of room for me to squeeze underneath or through the ancient ribs. And walking right at Aleksei wasn't an attractive option either. I put out my arms, palms flat against the mural that lined the long hallway. "If you're expecting me to stand here and call you some kind of genius, I ain't going to waste my breath. Because I know that's not you in there, Aleksei. It's just something using your body like a puppet. You don't know a damn thing you're trying to talk about."

"That's what you think. Dillon still had his issues with his mother. Toomes reveled in being damn near young again. Me? I'm enjoying breaking things." The entrance to the hallway wasn't an option anymore, as my armored opponent filled the entire space. "I'm Aleksei, Herman, and you're nothing more than a trapped rat."

"Shows how much you know about rats. I actually took a page out of them." I pushed my palms against the wall, and jammed down on the triggers of both gauntlets with a level four. "Rats always have an escape route."

The vibrations from my weapons went right into the wall. Normally, I'd just blow through the wall, using the energy from my blasts like a shotgun. Sometimes...rarely, but sometimes...finesse was called for. The concrete and wires simply shook apart from the energy, and the wall dropped like a waterfall. Aleksei's red eyes went wide as what had been an expertly painted mural became an exit to the outside world. He started forward, feet stomping, but I was already moving, stepping out onto the thin lip of concrete that ran along the outside of the Museum's first floor. "HERRRRRRRRMAN," he screamed as I immediately scrambled to the left, my hands clutching the side of the building as the cold of the autumn night and the horrible moans both hit me at once. My fingers dug into the stone, the quilted pattern of my armor giving my feet traction on the small stone lip, as I side-stepped away from the hole. A gray hand reached out, swiping in the air as I moved away, before pulling back in. "You're not going to get away that easily," I could hear him bellow before the sound of his rage was swallowed up by the sounds coming from behind and below.

My ass was hanging out over the zombie horde, about ten feet above them, standing on maybe nine inches of concrete. Behind me, the stream of undead continued to pour into Central Park, thinner than the initial rush, but still, that's like the Blob saying he'd lost 50 pounds, it ain't enough to make that much of a difference. Below me, the zombies that had been closest to the museum had turned their attention towards me. Almost six rows deep of the living dead crushed against the stone wall, hands reaching up at me. Their mouths were wide open, their moans sounding like they were coming from Hades, and their eyes, pleading, urgent, as they reached up at me, well out of their reach. Didn't matter to them, though. I was meat, and I was close, and they were letting every one of their brothers and sisters know it.

Now, if you're thinking "damn, Herman, out of the frying pan and your ass is getting singed by the proverbial fire," you ain't too far off. My little escape had been born of desperation, the only way out available to me. One slip, and I was going to become food for a thousand hungry zombies, with no Thor or Ms. Marvel to bail my ass out. But at the end of this lip, all the way to the left, a fire escape, it's ladder up, was attached to the side of the Museum. If I could make it there, I could make it anywhere inside the museum, any floor, away from Aleksei. It'd give me a chance to swap in some fresh power packs. And maybe most important, it'd give me time to come up with some kind of real plan...

Alright, Herman. How about we actually get to the fire escape first?

SHIELD and Osborn's new Thunderbolts were still in the fight. I could hear the sounds of combat coming from the other side of museum. Might as well be on the other side of the world at this point. Slowly, I slid my foot to the left. I leaned forward towards the museum as far as I could, keeping my weight evenly distributed. My fingers felt for any little nook or crevice in the hewed stone, carefully pressing like I was spinning a combination dial or picking a lock. Only when I saw sure everything was stable and sure did I carefully move my right foot, sliding it along. My right hand came last, grabbing onto the small cable that ran down the side of the museum. Great. Four feet down. Hundreds more to go. Well, standing here bitching wasn't going to get me to the damn fire escape, was it?

"Herrrrmannnn..." Aleksei's low gravelly voice drifted from the opening as I scooched my second scooch. If you can come up with a better word, go for it, I'm sticking with scooching. "...you know this won't work. Come back inside. I promise, I'll make it quick."

Yeah...if Aleksei was telling me not to do it, I was going to do it. I shut his voice out. And I did my best to shut out the zombies below me. I knew I could look down and see New Yorkers torn to shreds, missing limbs, organs ripped from their bodies, reaching up for me. All that matter was the nine inches of stone I'm standing on, about...two hundred feet of it? Let's call it that, it's a low, round number I can deal with.

It was just like picking a safe. Slow, steady, and rushing it would trip the alarm...or trip me, and cause me to stumble. A stumbling Shocker is a dead Shocker. The nerves in my body were trying to convince me to go faster as I carefully set my left foot down. It took every single amount of patience I could muster as I slid along the thin lip. Every handhold had to be solid. Every step had to be firm. The past week in New York had been dry, so I didn't have to worry about slick spots on the stone. This was all me. Just me, and a plan. A crazy, out-there, no-way-in-hell-it-will-work plan.

I love those kind of plans. They tend to come out in my favor, even if getting to the end result ain't the best trip in the world.

Left hand. Left foot. Right foot. Right hand. Rinse, and repeat. The motions quickly became familiar to me, but I never let them become rote. Every single movement I made was done with the utmost precision and care, each motion an exercise in patience and terror. I treated it like casing a joint before a job. Every time you got comfortable, you dragged yourself back to reality, because it's when you got complacent that things went south.

They were still there, the moans, but like any good New Yorker, I tuned out the background noise. When I glanced down to make sure my feet were on solid footing, I could see their fingers scrabbling at the stone below me. But for the most part, I kept my eyes front, scanning the wall for any handhold. I could have vibrated my way back inside, but that would put me in the hallway that the Barosaurus ribcage had blocked at one end. If Aleksei was waiting for me at the other end...I had plan, and I committed to it. Left hand. Left foot. Right foot. Right hand.

The fire escape inched closer as I made my way foot by foot along the tiny lip. Years of cracking safes meant my fingers were used to this type of delicate work, but my feet were beginning to complain, as my toes and assorted other bones burned from supporting my body weight. Complaint noted. Moving on. I had no idea how much time had passed. All I knew was the fire escape was closer, and I hadn't become lunch yet.

My forearms were beginning to ache, but I was three-fourths of the way there. I wanted to speed up, but slow and steady...

And speaking of slow and steady, it decided to make a reappearance.

Left hand. Left foot. Gray hand punching through the wall.

The sound of shattering stone caused my head to whip around. It was about a hundred feet to my right, a massive fist sending debris into the air as it slammed through the outer wall. The chips of stone falling on their heads got the attention of a few walking corpses as the hand pulled back. A few seconds later, another hole was punched through the thick stone, about ten feet to the left of the last one, at about the same level as my head.

"Damn it," I muttered, afraid to raise my voice and give away my location. Left hand, left foot, right foot, right hand. As I set up for another scooch, the third impact of Aleksei's fist into the stone shook my handhold, just for a brief moment. In response, I clutched the wall, making damn sure I didn't slip. That was time wasted, as Aleksei's hand pulled back into the museum, only to break through ten feet down the line.

It was the slowest, but most important race of my damn life. I couldn't go fast, but I had to. I couldn't waste time planting my feet and securing my hands, but I had to. Left hand, left foot, right foot, right hand. Fist through the wall, a chunk of concrete flying into the air and smashing into the skull of a New York City Transit worker. Move it, Herman, don't worry about what you can't control...

Each time Aleksei smashed through the steel and concrete, it sent vibrations down the line, all the way to me. Tiny ones, most of their energy absorbed by the stone, but just enough to give me pause. The fire escape now seemed miles away, but I kept going. Left hand, left foot, right foot, right hand. "Oh, God." Left hand, left foot, right foot, right hand. "Come on." Left hand...

It was bound to happen. My foot slipped, my left boot not quite finding the entire lip. Gravity took an instant hold, pulling my entire body towards the ground. My left hand clutched at the drainpipe as I whipped my foot back towards the ledge, planting it firmly. It took a few seconds for me to realize I was hyperventilating, my lungs working overtime, my heart beating a mile a minute. And to my right, as I clutched the stone with every square inch of fabric I could muster, the jackhammer sounds of a fist breaking stone getting closer and closer. Panic started to well up inside of me, and it took every single bit of strength I could muster to stop it in its tracks. Left hand left foot right foot right hand. My breathing threatened to spiral out of control, but I could handle that. Keep moving, Herman, keep moving!

That little voice in my head, the seed of self-doubt I had fought for years and years, was whispering into my conscious. I couldn't make it. My velocity (A) was less than Aleksei's velocity (B), and since we were moving in the same direction towards the fire escape (C), with B A, B will reach C before A reaches C, and damn it, my last thoughts are not going to be working out a simple physics problem! I'm a guy who built a pair of gloves that can level a building out of junk I found in a prison metal shop, so if there's anyone on this damn planet still breathing that could break the laws of physics...ok, I couldn't break them, but I was damn sure going to bend them.

Yeah, great words, but that still didn't solve my problem that Aleksei was moving faster than me. But I kept going, hand, foot, foot, hand. "I know you're out here, Herman," I could hear Aleksei bellow through the holes he had driven into the wall. "And when I find you, you're going on a one-way trip, straight down!"

If Aleksei had been wise enough to start at the other end of the hallway, I would have been a goner. But that didn't provide too much comfort. I tried to stop worrying and focus solely on the wall, but when Aleksei's fist punched through the wall ten feet from where I was currently standing, it wouldn't take a genius like me to figure out where the next punch was going to break on through. I had to risk it. I wasn't too sure of my handhold as I slid my foot over, and I wasn't sure of my footing when I slid my foot over, and...you see where this is going, don't you? Well, it wasn't like that.

I managed to slide a good bit away with less-than-optimal footing and grip, maybe two or three more movements from the fire escape, when Aleksei's hand annihilated the wall. The majority of the concrete flew out over the crowd, raining down on the horde of zombies, but the vibration of the impact, along with just the pure shock of it, hit me full force.

My fingers slipped.

My arms windmilled, trying to keep my balance. Gravity had a hold of my neck, and immediately, my weight shifted backwards, pulled along by my arms even as they lunged forward. So desperate to keep my balance, I just couldn't bring my body forward to grab at the wall. All those Three Stooges shows I had seen on TV flashed across my mind, the stereotypical guy moving his hips and his arms to stay upright even when he knew it was over. My torso went just a bit over the top, and gravity had its win. I could hear the eager groans of the hungry dead below me as that spark ignited in their brains that dinner was about to be served.

The final thought that went through my mind was if I would feel any pain if I blasted myself in the head with a level five before the zombies started to eat me.

Right by my head, Aleksei's fist grazed my ear as he punched his next hole in the wall, just like clockwork. On the upswing, my left arm caught one of his fingers, and I brought up my right arm the moment I had a semblance of a grip. I locked my arms around Aleksei's forearm, using it as a handhold to pull myself back up onto the ledge. I damn near felt his roar of anger as he yanked his arm back through the wide open hole. I slammed, chest first, into the hole, and the jagged concrete made the best handhold I could think of. The hole itself was a mess, with steel cables and some sparking wires filling the space between me and Aleksei. From what I could make out in dim light, my former friend was NOT happy. His teeth were bared, his eyes narrow. Maybe he was going to yell at me again, maybe he was going to roar. I'd never find out, because I jammed one of my fists into the hole and let out a level five right into his face.

I felt the small vibration in my palm telling me that gauntlet was now completely dry as the air in the tunnel exploded in a flash of blue, slamming into Aleksei's face. My biggest attack shoved Aleksei's backwards, away from the hole, swiping at his face like he was trying to bat the air away. Immediately, I pulled back and scrambled to my left. The fire escape was right there, and it only took a few motions for me to get within reach of the metal stairs. I grabbed on, and quickly vaulted myself over. And just in time, because right as I pulled myself over the railing, the wall behind me exploded. Two fists this time. Did I say explode? I meant disappeared, in a cloud of dust. The fire escape groaned at the loss of support as I pulled himself to my feet and scrambled up the narrow stairs to the second floor. "HERMAN! YOU ARE NOT GETTING AWAY!"

As I turned the corner, Aleksei was leaning out of the huge hole he made. Both hands wrapped around the fire escape where it was anchored to the building, and I felt the whole structure shift downward. The groan of bending metal was evident over the groan of the zombies as the fire escape slowly tilted, torn away by the pure strength Aleksei possessed. One of my hand held onto a railing while, with all the power I had left, I blasted the hinges on the second floor's fire exit. The heavy door shifted on its frame before falling forward onto the landing. Even as it was falling, I was diving, easily flying through the opening and landing on my stomach back inside the museum's Birds of the World exhibit. Oh, sweet, sweet solid tile flooring...

With a screech, the fire escape collapsed behind me. I turned onto my back, sitting up, to watch the twisted metal fall past the wide open doorway. My heart was still going 100 miles-per-hour, and my bladder kept insisting I should be peeing my pants after that experience. "YOU CAN'T RUN, HERMAN! I KNOW WHERE YOU ARE!"

"Yeah, yeah," I breathed, before climbing to my feet. I heard the booming footsteps below me, and since I was looking at a set of stairs, Aleksei wasn't bluffing. He knew exactly where I was. I forced myself up, and took off. I passed through the Hall of African Peoples, streaming past darkened exhibits, and into the Akeley Gallery. To the south was what was left of the gift shop, my eyes drawn to the destruction as I ran past priceless works of art. I needed a place to hide, to stop, and not let my footsteps give me away. Aleksei's passage wasn't subtle. I knew he was somewhere behind me.

I pushed through an emergency door at the end of the Gallery, thanking any and all available deities that the alarm didn't go off. I was back in the hallway Ms. Marvel and I had first walked. The entrance to the brand new veranda was to my left. But to my right was a dark classroom. That's what I wanted. I could hear Aleksei behind me, faintly. I eased into the room, opening the door a crack and closing it a crack. This room, as opposed to the rest of the museum, was completely dark. Good.

I made my way to the lectern, dropping behind it to completely hide myself from anyone who looked inside. Aleksei's vision hadn't been the best when he was still alive, and years of ducking around corners to hide from Spider-Man had taught me how to swap out power cartridges silently. Hell, maybe Aleksei wouldn't even think to try the emergency door...ah, there you go again, Herman, counting on luck.

Echoes of Aleksei's taunts reached me as I popped fresh batteries into my gauntlets. My gloves' energy meters filled to green, showing a full charge for both weapons, doing wonders for my ego. Alright. I could throw out a couple of level fives, but at this point, I wasn't sure I could do anything to him. And I really didn't feel comfortable going after Baron Mordo with Aleksei stalking me. So, how the hell do I take Aleksei down? Well, lucky for me, I was in a museum. And they always had technology and scientific gear. Maybe I could jury rig something out of some spare parts and a couple of exhibits. Granted, stuff from the Birds of the World and the Hall of African Peoples wasn't going to help me too much in stopping a walking tank, but the Rose Center for Earth and Space was right across the hallway. If I couldn't find something in that place to help me, I wasn't worth my salt as an engineer.

My heart slowed down. My breathing returned to normal. It didn't matter that I was in a museum surrounded by zombies, being stalked by my best friend, one floor above a sorcerer working apocalypse magic. Stand back, everyone. Herman Schultz was about to do science.

I crept out of the classroom after listening at the door for a few moments, confirming that it was silent outside. It was a short trip through a switchback corridor, and there I was. In front of me, the center piece of the Rose Center sat lifeless, a perfect sphere that taught students and visitors the secrets of the world beyond the stars. I could stand here forever...hey, sometimes even a thug wonders what life's like on another planet. No time for that now, though. In front of me were the Scales of the Universe, a long pathway winding around the large Hayden Sphere that sat in the middle of the place. Carefully watching my steps, I crept along the glass hallway. I passed representations of Jupiter and Saturn, its 17-foot rings pale in comparison to the rest of the universe. Galaxies, supernovas...were the dead rising out there, too? Oh, there's a great thought.

The Scales wrapped around the entire second floor. The very end, almost back where I started, was all about the Earth and its moon. All I had seen during my little jaunt were holographic projectors and slide cameras. Even here, the exhibit about the Earth's moon was a bunch of pictures, from the initial Space Race of the 1960's, to man's return in the 70's, all the way up to a few years ago, when Colonel John Jameson had stepped foot on the moon in the months following 9/11. They even had his spacesuit hanging up, along with his compressor in a case next...

...

...no way. You're kidding me. This isn't happening. I'm imagining this.

I rushed over to the compressor. "Oh, sweetheart..." I said like it was the damn Hope Diamond. "...tell me you're a working model." And the card affixed to the front of the display told me it was better than that. "This is the air compressor Colonel John Jameson used when he landed on the moon," I read quietly as I studied the case. "This compressor, a Stark Industries design, could help fit three times more air into an astronaut's tank." And the damn thing wasn't even alarmed. My lockpicks let me pop the case with a minimum of noise and effort. This was it. This was exactly what I needed to stand toe-to-toe with Aleksei. It went beyond that. This is the damn thing I needed to drop him, once and for all. And the best part? My power packs were still compatible with this thing after all these years.

I pulled the compressor out of its case, and just like before, slapped my last pair of fresh batteries into the power chamber before slinging the whole rig over my shoulders. The machinery was a weight on my back I wasn't used to, but I'd adapt. Oh, man, would I adapt. The cables that would go to the air canisters, I plugged them right into my gauntlets. I swung my arms a few times to work out the kinks in the cables and get a feel for the compressor. For the last thing, I crossed the fingers on my left hand as my right hand reached back and hit the compressor's power switch...

The hum that flowed onto my back was better than sex. Well...not literally. But right now, it was the best feeling in the world. Alright. Time to see if this is really going to work. I raised my gauntlet towards the large scale model of Jupiter, and held down the trigger like I was tossing out a level three. The energy lashed out of my hand like a bolt of lightning, a vibrating shock of blue that cracked Jupiter in half. The bottom portion came undone, falling past the Hayden Sphere to the first floor. I heard the impact, the model shattering into thousands of pieces on the ground. Damn right. Just what I had been hoping for. And I'm sure the model of Jupiter was insured.

Herman Schultz had walked into the Rose Center. It was the Shocker who walked out. The compressor on my back hummed as it worked with my gauntlets, the technology a quick and dirty plug-and-play that was about to save my ass and kill my friend. I focused on the first part as I walked past the classroom I had taken refuge in only minutes before, and made my way to the emergency door back into the Akeley Gallery. Screw subtlety. I had spent too much time cowering, hiding, and pleading, leaping and running for my life. No more. Whatever had taken over my best friend was going down. It was the same feeling I had back in St Patrick's when I squared off with Electro, that heroic feeling, that sense of "I am not going to lose." And I wasn't.

I kicked open the door, and walked back into the gallery. Rows and rows of priceless artwork and sculpture lined the walls as my fingers ran along the edges of the vibro-smashers' triggers. "ALEKSEI! HERE I AM! RIGHT HERE! COME AND GET ME!"

X

Silence after my voice echoed through the empty corridors. Then came the footsteps, from the far end of the gallery. Faint at first, slowly growing louder, each step deliberate. No hurry, no rush. The Rhino was going to take his time getting here, to let me worry and bemoan my fate. Oh, not tonight, kids. Not tonight. I was bouncing, like a kid in a candy store or a businessman at Score's with a fistful of ones. Come on, big guy. I really don't want to do this to one of the few guys who ever had my back, but I don't have a choice.

Eventually, he came into few at the far end of the Gallery. No taunting from him, and none from me, either. Nothing verbal, anyway. I just nodded at him, moving my head up like I was calling him over. That's right, big guy, just come straight at me. This wasn't just about physically hurting him. This was going to be a morale check on my part.

He just stared at me in the dim red light for a moment. "I am glad to see you're accepting your fate, Herman." No response came from me as he lowered his horn, dipping it towards me almost in salute. His feet pushed off, legs pumping, as he quickly hit his full stride. The sculptures jumped on the wall, a painting crashing to the floor as he ran past. His arms swung, adding to his speed, horn dipped down for the killing blow. Hit me in the chest, raise up, swing to the side, and instant disembowelment. I stood my ground, no nerves, no panic, no voice telling me to move. Even my self-doubt knew, at this moment, I had him.

When he crossed twenty feet, I whipped up my arms. My thumbs pressed down on the triggers, and I gave him a level ten right to the skull.

Yeah, you read that right. A level ten.

A couple of years ago, I was on the run from the Scourge of the Underworld, yet another vigilante who loved to show up, pop a third-or-fourth tier bad guy, and vanish into the night. For some reason, this guy had a real mad-on against me, and my ass fled all the way to sunny Rio to avoid him. Warm sand and hot Latino women soothed my fears for a while, but like that song says, paranoia runs deep. After a few weeks of not being able to sleep and jumping at shadows, I decided to come back to New York City and confront the vigilante on my terms. And my terms involved a lot more firepower than I was packing at the time.

Even down in Rio, I kept an eye on the Big Apple, getting a copy of the Daily Bugle delivered to my shack every day. When I saw a mention of John Jameson's upcoming moonshot, I knew I had my ace-in-the-hole. I flew back up to New York City that next day. Immediately, that damn Spider-Man was on my trail, sniffing around and getting in my way. He didn't stop me, though, from getting my hands on that compressor. Of course, the bastard...and yeah, I still think of him that way. I won't beat him senseless if I come across him in an alleyway anymore, but once a punk, always a punk...the bastard hangs in there, works his damn magic, and beats the tar out of me. I end up in the Vault, the furthest thing from Rio you could possibly find, and the compressor goes up into space. Guess I got lucky, because when I thought I needed it, I couldn't use it, and now that I DO need it, it's right here in the middle of a space exhibit.

So what's so damn special about this compressor that has me treating it like a naked and willing Ms. Marvel? Like the plaque on the exhibit said, this piece of machinery can pump three times the amount of air into a canister. Ponder that for a second. Yeah, you're getting it now. My vibro-smashers work by exploding the air around them and throwing it at the target in the form of a blast. So...what happens when those vibro-smashers are pre-loaded with a whole bunch of compressed air, oxygen and nitrogen crammed together, looking for some form of outlet? Putting it as simply as I can, you get the equivalent of jamming an extended ammo drum full of high explosive bullets onto a Tommy Gun and letting it rip. Basically, I just upgunned my vibro-smashers. Given time, I could triple the amount of firepower my vibro-smashers using this compressor. Quick and dirty like, I'm only able to double my firepower. Yeah, double it.

If Aleksei was the ultimate walking tank, you were looking at the ultimate Panzerfaust, and it's name, fittingly enough, is Herman Schultz.

The blast rippled down the hall. Paint peeled away from the walls. Sculptures turned to shrapnel. Painters splintered. Somewhere, an insurance adjustor had a heart attack. And Aleksei came to a halt as the energy slammed into him. The hallway exploded as it looked like he ran into a wall made of solid diamond for a moment, before suddenly bending backwards. He fell to the ground, landing on his broad back, bringing anything still loosely hanging on the walls of the Galley crashing with him.

I would have felt damn good at this moment, finally taking Aleksei down without putting myself in harm's way. But in all the excitement, I had forgotten one tiny, but damn important rule. Newton's Third Law. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In this case, it was me being shoved backwards by the sheer amount of compressed air blasting from my gauntlets. I landed on my butt, the compressor digging into my tailbone at the impact. "Ow! Damn it," I cursed. I knew I had forgot something, the damn recoil. I had to brace myself with every shot, or else every time I blasted Aleksei, I'd end up on my ass.

I got to my feet, wincing at the pain in my butt, as Aleksei rolled onto his side. "What...what trickery is this," he proclaimed, one fist pounding the tile floor, sending pieces of marble and painted canvas into the air.

"Trickery? Damn, joining the Grim Reaper upped your vocabulary." I fired another level ten. The floor around Aleksei buckled, the tile rising in a series of waves as the energy flowed all around it. He put a hand to his face, covering his eyes as dust and debris filled the air. "Equal terms, Aleksei. That's what it is. Get up so I can knock you down again," I growled.

"No...I'm the Rhino! This isn't..."

"Life sucks, Aleksei. I'm sorry to do this to you, but you're in my way, and you're not going to move until I make you move."

The next level ten made him flinch as it washed over him, his eyes squeezing shut. The hallway way down to its bare bones, the skeletal structure of the hallway showing, thick steel security plates that stood up to the assault of my blasts. "Fine! If this is how you want to play it, Herman, come at me!" My gloves energy meter was already at three-quarters, so I had to dial it down. And get in one good shot at his face. I don't care who you are, alive, dead, undead, Iron Man, Molecule Man, the Rhino...a level ten will scramble your brain.

Aleksei pulled himself to his feet. Both his hands went out towards me, his fingers motioning for me to come at him. "You can't hurt me, Herman! Come on!" One gray finger turned and pointed at his face, jabbing at his broken nose. "Right here. A free shot, just to prove you can't do a damned thing!"

"You asked for it." Both hands came up, my fingers holding down the triggers. Two level tens, aimed square at his skull. My foot went back to brace myself. I had never in my life handled power like this. It came from my gauntlets in waves, a stream of blue energy, vibrating and exploding across the distance. My ankle almost buckled under the recoil before I found my balance. Aleksei's face was covered by the blasts, his fists at his sides now. There was nothing left of the prized Akeley Gallery. The precious artwork and painted walls with carved fixtures were destroyed beyond any hope of recognition. "Come on, you bastard," I hissed, "die, for real this time!" Aleksei fell to one knee, and I poured it on, taking advantage of the sign of weakness.

The glare of the energy faded away as I released the triggers. My arms shook from the vibrations that had almost overloaded my suit, threading its capacity. He had to have fallen. Nothing could have withstood it.

"Herman," the ruined figure in front of me said, pushing up from one knee. "Your blasts couldn't stop the Hulk. What makes you think they could stop me?"

He had no skin left. His face was a mash of cartilage and bone, the only bits of flesh remaining hanging from where his suit of armor pressed against his body. "Oh, come ON," I proclaimed, more frustrated than scared. Teeth were missing, disintegrated under my assault. His jaw had a hairline crack. His nose was barely visible. And one arm hung loosely to his side, possibly broken. But he was still active, swaying slightly to one side. No way...Aleksei was strong, but this...

"What the hell it is going to take?"

"You'll never know, Herman." He lumbered towards me, one staggering step at a time. "No matter what you do, I'll win. You can't possibly compare to someone like me..."

Click.

"You're not healing."

Aleksei dragged himself to a sudden halt. "What? What did you say?"

The light bulb in my head flared to life. "You're not healing." By now, his skin should have begun to knit itself over his skull. The fine powder I had ground his teeth into should have been forming a tooth-shaped cloud in his mouth. His nose should have inflated like a balloon being pumped full of helium. "You should be healing, Aleksei. And you're not."

"Herman...you're grasping for straws," Aleksei murmured. "It's over..."

"No. It's not." I don't know what it was, but something...he should have regenerated, like Black Talon, like Chondu, like Electro. He shouldn't have had a broken, destroyed face. "You're not regenerating. And...your voice. You're not talking like you."

"What are you talking about?"

"You don't sound like you. I know you, Aleksei. You don't talk like you're talking now...Electro and the Vulture had the same...speech patterns. You don't." The pieces were falling into place. "No regeneration, and a different personality...and impossible to hurt...you're Aleksei, but you're not him...on the roof. On the roof, Aleksei. When we were back on the roof of the warehouse, we talked about someone. Someone you were embarrassed to talk about. Who was it?"

I crossed my arms, staring at him. He was motionless now, the damage I had inflicted on him stagnant. His eyes boiled red, but...everything else just seemed different. A little hunch. A bit of a slouch. "Herman...this is your last..."

"ANSWER THE DAMN QUESTION!" I took a step forward, my hands pointed at him. "You've been taunting me, telling me how much you hated me for what happened to you, how you wish I hadn't become who I turned into this past week. I had to fight through all of that, that mental pain. I may be a simple thug, but I know friendship...and you screwed with that. I hate having my head screwed with. So, prove to me you're really you, Aleksei."

"It's a..."

"You don't know."

"This is worthless! If you're going to defeat me, defeat me like a man!"

"You can't answer me."

"I won't waste..."

"You have no idea who I'm talking about."

"It's not important!"

"YOU DON'T KNOW!"

Roll to disbelieve.

The illusion fell away. One moment, he was a battered and torn mess of a former human being. The next, he was the biggest zombie I had seen next to the Hulk. His skin went from pink to pale gray. His curses and bellows became ragged moans. And all along his gray armor, green runes glowed, a mix of curves, swirls, and lines that even someone like me recognized as magic.

"You're a zombie under someone's control, like the Hulk."

There it was. The illusion had served its purpose. So focused on the idea of having to kill my best friend, I didn't see the obvious solution to my problem. The way to kill Aleksei. And now, I was overpowered enough to do it.

I walked right up to him. The zombie Aleksei groaned, a hand reaching out for me, but it was weak, a futile gesture with a broken arm that I easily avoided. Without reservation, I jammed my hand into the gaping wound in his chest. I pushed past the sticky warmth that gripped at me, ignoring the jagged edges of bone that poked into my forearm. I turned my fist upward, pointing the edge of my gauntlet towards the base of his skull.

"You're not Aleksei. Get out of my friend."

I held down the trigger, a level ten racing through his body from the inside. It was the same way Norman Osborn had killed Aleksei, back on that rooftop. It was how I was going to send my friend to his well deserved final rest. The waves of energy rebounded off of the tough skin, bouncing around inside of his body, like throwing a grenade in a closet and then slamming the door shut. I felt the energy tear at my hand, but I kept the trigger down anyway, fighting through the hot pins-and-needles sensation that poked at my arm. Aleksei immediately stiffened, lifting me with him as his body went straight. The sound of exploding air banging through his body sounded like popcorn in the microwave, small kernels popping. He staggered to one side, his head bowed, hands pressing to his skull. And still, I kept my trigger down. I wasn't losing. Aleksei was going to die, for good. My suit wasn't absorbing the waves of energy anymore, the skin on my arm feeling like hot knives were being dragged across it. The energy had nowhere else to go, trapped inside the body of Aleksei by virtue of his suit. They bounced and bounced again, like wavelengths overlapping, building on each other to a higher and higher crest. I shifted slightly, ignoring the pain in my wrist as a piece of bone jabbed into it. Come on...Hydro-Man destroyed the Hulk's brain with the power of water pressure. Air pressure had to work the same way...

He swung to the side, his hands now digging into his skull. Blood began to pour from the remains of his eyes and his ears. Aleksei opened his mouth, and red liquid dropped like a spilled cup of coffee. "Come on...get out of my friend. Get out of my friend. GET OUT OF MY FRIEND AND LET HIM REST IN PEACE, YOU BASTARD!"

A loud roar ripped down the hallway as Aleksei's body arched, his head thrown back in agony...and then his face exploded. Chucks of bone and blood flew into the air as the waves of pressure overwhelmed the strength of his chemically enhanced bones. My mask was covered in brain matter and bits of skull as all the energy I had shoved into Aleksei rushed out of the opening in his face, a whoosh of compressed air escaping into the air. His body pulled away from my arm with a prolonged squishy noise, the never-healed wound slurping along my uniform as Aleksei, for the final time, fell. His massive body crashed onto the steel plating that was now the floor of the Akeley Gallery. Where his smiling face had once been was now an empty gray cavity, a soupy red mix swishing back and forth at the bottom.

He was done. Fallen. Deceased. Dead. I had just killed my best friend. And had bits of him on me.

"Oh...oh, GROSS!" I brushed my face with my unbloodied arm, the wetness seeping into my uniform and down to my skin. "Damn it! Ew! EW!" The only thing stopping me from ripping my mask off right then and there was how badly the zombie Aleksei probably smelled. I stumbled from the Gallery into the Hall of African Mammals, dropping to my knees in the middle of the exhibit. I pulled my mask off, gasping for fresh air. "Uh...uh...uh," I dry heaved, my body trying to throw up an empty stomach. Should I be crying because I just killed my best friend? Should I be glad I had just killed my best friend and stopped him from being someone's puppet? Laugh, cry, rage, sob...too many emotions. I just tried to puke, holding my bloody mask in one hand. The hum of the compressor was the only sound other than my heaving.

After a few seconds, the heaving gave way to heavy breathing as I took several deep breaths. I wanted to grieve. I wanted to laugh. I wanted to do SOMETHING. I couldn't, though. I couldn't mourn for my best friend. Not yet. Aleksei's death had only been the first part of my plan. The second part sat directly below me, chanting, controlling the zombie hordes outside of the museum. I had to deal with him. I wasn't going to leave the job half done. I squeezed the blood out of my mask as best I could, but it wasn't coming out. It still dripped as I wrung out the fabric. And there was no way I was going to let a zombie's blood near my mouth. Fine. I wasn't a big fan of my face anyway. I jammed my mask into my belt before standing up. My gloves were recharging as I headed towards the stairs leading down to the rotunda. Mordo, the Shocker's coming for you, and if I can, I'm dragging Hell behind me.

The green light still shone from the Hall of North American Mammals as I entered the lobby. At this point, any thought of subtlety was long gone. I strode across the tile floor, my feet crunching the debris of broken exhibits under them. I strode right up to the entryway. In front of me, still in the lotus position, Baron Mordo smiled at me, the thick pages of the Darkhold on his lap and the green portal still hovering above him. "So you figured out that Aleksei was only a puppet. I don't know why you're so mad. I was only using him like you had used him for so many years..."

Both hands, another level ten. In the past hour, I had thrown caution and finesse out the window for the most part. I was angry. I was furious. And the only cure for that rage was destruction. The energy shot towards the smirking sorcerer...

...and washed over a green dome of energy. It sprang from nowhere, covering the sorcerer completely in a half-sphere that now sat square on the floor. Damn it...could I have ONE moment where my gloves weren't drained dry or completely and utterly freakin' useless?

"Oh, you didn't think I'd have protection in place, Herman? What a fool you are. You've wasted so much time, risked your life, and for what? You may be a safecracker, Herman, and a damn fine one if rumors are true. But magic trumps technology. This is one layer of security not even the vaunted Shocker can crack."

"Hell, Mordo, who says I have to crack it?" I pointed my fingers at the floor just beyond the base of his sphere. Only a level six this time, enough to crack the floor. The stone buckled as I sustained the blast, the stone falling away into the vast basement of the Museum of Natural History...

...and only the stone outside of the sphere. Inside the sphere, the floor remained in place, hovering with mystical assistance. The magic half-sphere was actually a bubble, extending down into the basement, half of it floating in space without any means of support.

"As I said, Herman, not even you can crack this. The magic I'm using," his voice said smugly, "is beyond your comprehension, ancient even while this world was young. None of your technical tricks and mechanic wonders will unravel this magic."

"Let me guess," I said, the very words he used earlier coming back into my head. "Empires I've never heard of, and heroes I couldn't possibly imagine. It would take something older than recorded time to burst your bubble."

Mordo's smile took on a hint of genuine affection. "Well done, Herman. If only you had turned that intelligence to magic. You could have been an interesting apprentice."

"Oh...just you wait." I left the room, leaving him with a confused grin. It took me a few moments to find what I was looking for, just the right size for me to carry. It was dense, and I had to take a few moments to steady it in my grip. Part of it was tucked under my arm, with my other hand holding the tip steady out in front of me. I had no idea if this would work. But hell, there wasn't any reason why it SHOULDN'T.

I trotted inside the door, returning Mordo's smirk as his grin turned into a confused gaze, and then into shocked recognition. "So, Mordo, tell me," I called out as I picked up speed, "is sixty-three million years old ancient enough for you!"

Using momentum, I hurled my weapon forward in a sort of underhanded javelin throw. The tip of the Barosaurus fossil pierced the bubble with ease. Before Mordo could whip up a magic spell or just get out of the way, the piece of rib jabbed into his chest. I stopped short of the hole in the floor as Mordo dropped to the floor, the Darkhold falling from his lap. The green dome surrounding him disappeared, fading into oblivion, as he feebly clutched and swatted at the fossil sticking out of his chest. Blood dripped from his mouth as he tried to get his hands around the rib to pull it free. But I did that for him, stepping onto his little piece of floor and taking the makeshift javelin in both hands, putting my foot on his chest before ripping it free. I held the fossil over him, blood dripping from the tip, waiting for the hole in his torso to start to knit up. It did, the edges of his skin beginning to creep back over the wound, before I leaned forward. I fired a level four from my gauntlets, assisting me to drive the fossil into the skull of Baron Mordo. The floor under his head cracked as the tip was pushed into the floor, passing through his forehead and brain in the process with a sickening squish. I stepped back, watching as his limbs twitched, his head pinned to the ground by the ancient bone. His skin tried to grow back over the massive head wound, but the sheer mess of the offending weapon made it in impossible. Above me, the green portal still swirled, even as its creator was helpless on the floor. But that was an afterthought for the moment. At my feet was the very thing I had gone through hell for the past hour.

The dark tome sat heavily on the floor, closed. The carving on the Darkhold's cover...it'd make the Marquis de Sade go scrambling for his safeword. I bent down and grabbed the book with utmost care. It weighed a lot more than I would have thought, and I struggled to pick it up. It was unbalanced in my hands, and I struggled to keep my footing at I stared down at it. "There you are," I muttered to the prize of the evening. "I got you. So now what the hell do I do with you?"

To this day, I'll swear what happened next was the Darkhold's doing. I could feel the cut on my forehead pulse for a moment, a drop of blood oozing from the wound. It hung on my brow for a brief second, wet and sticky, before slowly falling from my skin. The droplet fell in front of my eyes, a single brief moment of red, coming to a rest as it splashed over the cover of the Darkhold.

_...call her back..._

The whisper came from somewhere in front of me. My eyes immediately snapped forward, scanning the Hall for whoever had talked.

_...call her back..._

"Who's there," I asked hesitantly. "I ain't in the mood for games, not after the night I had."

_...you can call her back..._

The whisper wasn't from anywhere in the room. It was inside my head. A calm, soothing voice, reaching out to ease my concerns.

_...you can call her back to you...use the blood..._

I blinked for a second. The blood? What was this...whisper...whispering about?

_...you can call them back to you...use the blood...use your blood...set them free..._

"Blood? What blood? And who the hell am I talking to?"

_...a million million voices, Herman Schultz...at your command...use your blood...set her free..._

Understanding dawned on me. I looked down at the obscene cover of the Darkhold. Set against the cracked leather, the drop of my blood was vibrant, almost pulsing with energy. I sounded like such an idiot as I stammered in confusion. "You...you want MY blood?"

_...use your blood...bring Carol back..._

"Carol? Who the hell is...Carol? Ms. Marvel? Do you mean her?"

_...the portal...your blood...just one drop will call her back..._

"Ok, wait," I said out loud. "You're asking me to bleed on you? You're a book of evil sorcery! Even I know that's a bad idea!" And I was going nuts, talking to a damn book!

_...in your hands now...you've done good, Herman...use me for good...she will never return without your blood...your blood...your blood..._

"Damn it. Alright. But I swear, the second you turn into Audrey II, I will rip you apart and use you for toilet paper!" I took a deep breath, in way over my head right now. I had seen enough movies and dealt with the fringes of the magic community to know that messing around with a book of evil magic was a very bad idea. But Ms. Marvel had saved my life earlier tonight. I owed that to her. Besides, Doctor Strange himself had said the Darkhold was the key to defeating Dormammu...

Decision made, I swiped a finger across my forehead. The blood reached from the tip down to the second knuckle as I lowered it to the Darkhold. Carefully, I smeared the blood on the cover, a long red line on the faded leather. "Ok. My blood. Work your voodoo. Bring Ms. Marvel back home."

_...your command is mine to obey..._

In my hands, the Darkhold jumped. The cover fell open, revealing a page filled with words written in a language that burned my eyes. Before I could fully comprehend what I was seeing, the pages turned, flipping past rapidly. I held the book in both hands, one hand on the front and back covers, as the Darkhold turned its own pages. It came to a rest in a few seconds. Half of the page it had chosen was filled with a language I recognized as Latin. The other half was taken up by a drawing of a swirling circle. As I recognized the drawing as a representation of the portal above my head, piercing red light shot from the page. I would have shielded my eyes from the harsh glare, but my hands refused to move from the book, shackled in place by some unseen force. The portal above me turned the same color red as the light shining from the Darkhold, magical energy pouring from the book into the portal. All I could do was stand, spellbound if you'll ignore the pun. After a few seconds, the light slowed down, and began to shine in reverse. Now, the energy came from the portal, shining down onto the Darkhold.

_...she comes...be ready..._

"How?" The light grew brighter in answer to my question. The magic binding my hands in place squeezed them tightly, causing me to gasp in pain. The red portal bulged slightly, like an apple being dropped into a piece of tight Saran Wrap. And then came Ms. Marvel. The blonde dropped from the portal, hovering above the ground as she unconsciously used her powers of flight. "Where...Herman? Herman, is that you?"

As soon as she was through, the red light snapped off. The portal above our heads closed instantly, disappearing from this plane of reality without any fuss. My hands slammed the Darkhold shut, though I couldn't tell you if it was of its accord or mine. The Hall was lit only by the dim emergency lighting of the museum, leaving the two of us in shadow.

"Ms. Marvel...I am so damn glad to see you," I told her as she landed gracefully on her feet. "Are you ok?"

"The feeling is mutual," she replied. "I'm fine...whoa." Her eyes had locked onto the impaled body of Baron Mordo, twitching on the ground at her feet. "What the hell happened here?"

"Mordo bet me I couldn't break through his magical security system. He lost." I should have said that with a bit of gusto, but it just sounded so hackneyed when I said it. "I got it, though." Clutching the book in both hands, I held the Darkhold up. "This is it. This is what Strange said we needed to stop the zombies and defeat Dormammu."

"You got it..." she said in disbelief. Then her face lit up as she realized my success. "You got it! Herman, that's amazing!" Her smile almost lifted my spirits, but it soon fell away as she realized what my victory probably meant. "Aleksei," she said quietly.

I nodded. "Yeah. Mordo was controlling him like a puppet, sort of like when we fought the Hulk," I replied in a neutral tone.

"Wow...Herman. I'm sorry."

I just shrugged. "He was dead. Now he's resting in peace. I'll cope with my issues later." A few seconds passed before my eyes met hers. "Thanks, though."

After a nod, she motioned to the Darkhold in my hands. "Alright. So, we got the book. Now what the hell do we do with it?"

"I have no clue," I answered honestly. "I'm an engineer, not a magician. I don't even know how the hell I pulled you back from wherever the hell you had ended up."

She cocked her head in confusion, leading me to explain what happened. "I grabbed the book, and...it told me that you could be brought back. It knew you...it called you Carol." Her eyes narrowed a bit as I continued. "It...it said all I had to do...ah, Christ. I gave it some of my blood, and it brought you back."

"You...you BLED on it? Herman," Ms. Marvel said with alarm in her voice, "from everything we've heard, that's a book of dark magic. It's practically alive! And you GAVE it your own blood?"

"Hey, I had to get you back! And...I don't know a thing about magic. I had to give the damn thing a jumpstart!"

"Well...that just doesn't strike me as a wise thing to have done, Herman."

"Welcome to my life," I groused. "Look, you're back, right? Somehow, I used the book to bring you back. Maybe I can figure out what Baron Mordo and the Grim Reaper were going to do with this thing and reverse it." I looked up at her, trying to talk out the theory going through my head. "The plague didn't start with this book, right? It started with Reaper getting his hands on something from another dimension and sacrificing the Hood to start the spread. They wanted this book because Mordo said it'd give them greater control over the zombies. It's...it's like you said earlier. If this thing can control the living dead, maybe it can stop them somehow."

_...can help...can stop the dead from rising..._

I looked at her. "Don't think I'm nuts, but did you hear that whisper?"

"What whisper?"

"Damn. The book's talking to me." She raised an eyebrow in bemusement. "No, seriously, it's whispering to me."

_...can stop the dead from rising..._

"And it's telling me it can stop the dead from rising."

After a second, Ms. Marvel sighed. "I'm sorry, Herman. I'm just...the fate of the world is in the hands of a criminal engineer and a book of evil magic. I've taken on aliens, fought demons from another world, lost my powers, gained my powers back...and this is easily the situation that's boggling my mind the most." She studied me for a second. "But...you haven't been wrong yet. Foolish and stubborn, but not wrong. During this crisis, you've been at the center of everything. That first night when you saved those civilian outside that 7-11 and became a YouTube sensation. Getting all those villains to work together with us heroes instead of taking advantage of the situation. Stopping the Hulk. Getting the attention of Norman Osborn, the Grim Reaper, and Dormammu. And now, in your hands, the one thing that's going to end this whole mess and put things back to normal." A smile formed on her face, stretching from ear to ear after a few seconds. "Herman Schultz. The center of the universe."

"Yeah..." I looked down at the book in my hands, its promise of ending the plague of the living dead looping in my head, a faint whisper as I mulled over the current situation and Ms. Marvel's words. "Fred was right. Maybe this is what I wanted, deep down inside. But...this is too damn much. I could barely beat Spider-Man. I hid from the Punisher and the Scourge of the Underworld. Anytime I stuck my head up, I got it kicked in. Hell, I haven't had a date in three years. And now...I'm supposed to save the world?" I glanced up at the blonde Avenger. "I wish my self-esteem would make up its mind. I think I can, I know I can't, I think I can, I know I can't"

She sighed. "Herman, you're thinking way too much. Your actions over this past week...your actions tonight...you can do this. Trust me. Some of the people on the Avengers have way more issues than you do." I scoffed at her statement, I couldn't help it. "What? We're not gods, Herman. We're just ordinary people given extraordinary gifts who happen to end up at the right place at the right time to do good. And if that's not the story of the Shocker over the past week, then I don't know what is. Suck it up...you're a good guy now, and when push comes to shove, the good guys don't lose." Ms. Marvel pointed a finger at me, shaking it for emphasis. We...do...not...lose. Herman, the call is from heroism. Will you accept the charges?"

"Yeah...it figures heroism would call me collect..." My head snapped up. "Wait. Was that a 'Simpsons' quote? You just quoted 'the Simpsons' at me?"

"It's appropriate. And you haven't answered my question." Toned arms crossed across her firm chest. "It's in your hands, Herman. Your call."

You've read this far into the story. What do you think my decision was?

"Alright, Ms. Marvel," I said, tucking the Darkhold under my arm. "Let's end this."