Chapter 36 - Test Drive

Blonsky roared in both surprise and fury as he was pelted with various plasma blasts from Item 33's arm cannon. They were much stronger than before, actually blowing small chunks of flesh out of Blonsky's hide. The Abomination roared and charged at the alien cyborg, and brought his fist down to smash it. Item 33 swerved back away from the fist with surprising reflexes, and with a flick of its wrist, a curved, metal bladed extended from beneath his wrist. With a flick of its wrist, Item 33 slashed at Blonsky's arm, and the Abomination howled in surprise when the blade actually cut deep into his flesh, leaving a large wound. Item 33 then aimed his plasma rifle and blasted Blonsky point blank, causing the psycho-soldier to stumble back. Then, Item 33 pelted Blonsky with various miniature missiles from its shoulder-mounted rocket launchers, the small explosions only worsening Blonsky's wounds.

Wasting absolutely no time, the reworked Chitauri extended its arms, and a pair of cables with arrow-like daggers at the end shot out. The cables races forward, and planted themselves into Blonsky's chest. Then, electricity flowed from Item 33's arms, up the cables, and were pumped violently into Blonsky's body. Blonsky howled in pain as he tried pulling and twisting the cables out of his flesh. Narrowing its eyes, Item 33's chest piece suddenly opened up, revealing an opening that was soon glowing with a bright orb of blue light. Soon, bolts of blueish electricity sparked around the glowing orb and a blue aura began to glisten around Item 33's chest. Still struggling with the cables, Blonsky looked up briefly, and was taken back and sensed danger. Then, a large torrent of electricity was expelled from the orb, and quickly closed the distance between Item 33 and the Abomination. Blonsky's cries grew louder as millions of volts of electricity surged through him. Soon, Blonsky's eyes started to roll up into his skull as foam began forming within his mouth. Within moments, the Abomination fell over, convulsing briefly before going still.

Item 33 stood still for a moment, observing its fallen opponent, before the shock cables were pulled out of the Abomination's hide, receding back into Item 33's wrists. Putting its arms down, Item 33 turned to the surprised Avengers. To the surprise of everyone present, Item 33 actually saluted to Captain America. Like it actually put its hand up to its forward, and saluted, like a soldier in the military.

"Captain America." Item 33 said, its craggly, robotic voice surprising the group so much that even Natasha took a step back. "The enemy has been neutralized."

Steve just stared dumbly at the Chitauri, unable to fully process what what it just said, or that it even said anything at all. "What?"

Item 33 cocked its head. "Is my translator faulty? If so I can repeat the question in a more comprehensible manor."

"What?" Steve repeated.

Item 33 made a strange jerky motion, and turned its head sideways. "Director Fury, Captain Rogers is expressing a degree of confusion. Is my speech pattern showing any signs of error?"

Director Fury's voice over the comm is what broke the Avengers out of their stupor. "No, Item 33. Your speech is fine. The Avengers are just... surprised by your appearance."

Item 33's head went up in understanding. "I see."

He turned towards the Avengers. "Greetings. I am Item 33. Combat, espionage, and warfare chattel of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Divison, and I have been deployed to assist."

"I... that... you..." Steve stuttered, shaking his head. "What?"

"That's a Chitauri." Carrie said, and Danny, who had stepped back so he was standing next to her, was surprised to hear legit anger in her voice. It kind of scared him. "That's a bloody Chitauri!"

"Yeah." Natasha said, wide-eyed. "Yeah it is."

Slowly, she brought her finger up to her earpiece. "Boss, would you mind explaining?"

"I'd be happy to fill you all in when you all get back to base." Fury said calmly. "First, though, get Blonsky out of that city."

"Fine." Natasha said a bit harshly. "But you better come clean or-"

Whatever Natasha was about to say was cut off by an enraged howl. Item 33 turned its head briefly, making out a large fist that struck it in the chest and sent it flying, crashing into a car. His armor sparked from damage, and the Avengers looked from it to the Abomination, who looked angrier then ever and his skin was smoking and burned from the attacks inflicted onto him by the Chitauri drone.

"YOU DIDN'T THINK A FEW TOYS COULD STOP ME." He growled dangerously, stepping forward. "DID YOU?"

Steve grunted as a fist slammed into his jaw and knocked him back. Danny, Carrie and Natasha backed away as Blonsky turned towards them, and rushed forward with a roar. Natasha and Carrie cleared out, while Danny stood his ground. The Abomination leapt at him, intending to pulverize him, but blinked in surprise when he simply phased right through Danny's body, crashing into an SUV standing behind the ghost boy. Turning around, Danny glared as he fired a number of ecto-blasts at the Abomination, but the psycho-soldier batted the blasts away and rushed again. Danny swerved away from one of the gigantic fists, shooting his own fist out that struck Blonsky right in the jaw.

Remembering all the training sessions he had with Natasha, Danny evaded several attacks, delivering his own after each evasion. Roaring in frustration, Blonsky reached forard and Danny yelped in slight pain when Blonsky's huge fist gripped his snow white hair harshly, and Blonsky pulled his other fist back and drove it towards Danny's face. However, Danny's form vanished from sigh completely, and Blonsky's fist hit nothing. Looking around, Blonsky saw no sign of the Phantom. He roared in fury and angrily punched at the concrete, creating small tremors around him. He grunted when something hot and searing whipped across his flesh, leaving a horrible burn mark. Turning, Blonsky's eyes narrowed when he saw Carrie. Lifting her arms up, Carrie telekinetically manipulated a number of downed, live power lines. Glaring, she shot her hands out, and the cables raced at Blonsky. They whipped at his flesh, electricity crackling and seering his flesh.

Whip after whip caused Blonsky to stumble back, roaring angrily with each strike. One cable whipped him extra hard across the face, temporarily blinding him. When he refocused his vision, his eyes widened when he saw a semi-trailer truck, floating a few inches off the air, racing towards him. It struck him nose first, driving him back and into a building. It pushed through until it was halfway into the building, Blonsky crushed between both it and the truck.

Carrie stepped forward wearily, but Natasha put a hand on her shoulder. Shaking her head slowly at the young psychic, Natasha went forward instead. Gun drawn, Natasha examined the truck for any movement. As expected, Blonsky's large inhuman form exploded from the side of the building. His eyes falling on Natasha, he roared and rushed forward.

Even though it did little to no damage, Natasha aimed and fired several shots. Most bounced off Blonsky's hide, but a few hit the still visible wounds, causing Blonsky even more pain. Quickly closing the distance, Blonsky swiped his arm out and struck Natasha in the side, sending her rolling off to the side. She hissed in pain as she gripped her side. A few of her ribs were probably broken.

"Natasha!" Carrie said, and ran forward to kneel down next to her teammate and friend. Glaring up at Blonsky, Carrie lifted her hand up, preparing to unleash telekinetic force upon the Abomination, when a loud roar caused them all to pause.

Blonsky grunted as a concrete road barrier bashed him in the head and knocked him away. The Hulk growled deeply as he dropped the barrier, glaring at his enemy as he rubbed his skull in pain. Looking over at Natasha and Carrie, the Hulk gave a small grunt, his way of asking if the two women were alright.

Carrie smiled, while Natasha breathed a sigh of relief. "It's about time you showed up."

The Hulk grunted again, and turned to glare at Blonsky. With a roar, he rushed at the Abomination, bashing his fist into his face, knocking him down again. He grabbed the dazed Abomination by the throat, and punched him repeatedly in the face until blood ran from his nose and mouth. Then, the Hulk slammed the Abomination face first into the side of a building, and dragged him violently across, causing pieces of glass and concrete to cut and chafe at his skin. He tossed Blonsky away, and marched towards him. Standing over his enemy, the Hulk brought both of his fists up, preparing to smash hie opponent, when a foot kicked out and send him flying.

Landing on his back, the Hulk grunted as Blonsky's form landed on his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Various punched struck him in the face, driving him further into the pavement. Then, a sharp pain filled him as Blonsky, in a repeat of their first fight in Harlem, drove the bony protrusion on his elbow into his chest. The Hulk roared in pain and struggled to push Blonsky's limb away, while Blonsky, smiling sickly and evilly, breathed heavily.

"WAS WORRIED YOU'D NEVER SHOW, BANNER." Blonsky growled. "GLAD YOU DID. THE LITTLE PEOPLE WERE STARTING TO BORE ME."

The Hulk just roared defiantly, and Blonsky sneered as he renched his elbow out of the Hulk's chest. Standing over Banner, Blonsky slowly brought his fist up, ready to pound the Hulk again.

"YOU - AGH!"

Blonsky was cut off when a shock cable suddenly shot out behind him, and embedded itself into his neck, attaching itself to his spine. Before he could even process what was happening, Blonsky roared in agony as electricity was pumped into his body.

Item 33, sporting damage but still standing, send more volts into Blonsky's systems. The Hulk watched as the Abomination writhed and screamed before going still. Slowly, he collapsed onto the Hulk, who let out a grunt from the small impact. When it saw the Abomination fall, Item 33 ceased its attack, and pulled its shock cable in again.

The Abomination was motionless now, and the Hulk watched as his body slowly shrunk back to its original, puny form. Soon, Blonsky was Blonsky again, naked, bruised, and battered. Growling in disgust, the Hulk shoved the unconcious man off of him and stood up. He roared down at Blonsky's prone form, grunting in satisfaction when he got no response.

Then, he turned to face the Chitauri. Actually seeing the creature that saved him nearly caused the Hulk to go into bloodrage. He didn't have any fond memories of this creature after New York. But... it did save him, and wasn't attacking now. The Banner side of the Hulk urged him not to attack. The Hulk grunted in surrender.

Slowly, the Avengers all crowded around. Steve gripped his stomach, bruises and cuts all over and his mask torn, blonde hair sticking out. Danny had a busted lip, but even that was quickly healing like all the others did. Natasha was still gripping her busted ribs in pain, while Carrie, who took the least amount of injuries, supported her. Steve glanced at Item 33 wearily, before he stepped towards Blonsky, watching as he slowly regained consciousness.

Groaning in pain, Blonsky looked up around him, and his eyes grew wide as he saw the people looming over him. They all glared at him in obvious disgust. He gulped, whatever confidance he had before gone.

"Please." He begged, his voice broken and wounded. "Don't hurt me. I... I didn't mean... I wasn't actually trying to..."

Losing his words, Blonsky looked at Cap, the man who he presumed would be the most reasonable of the bunch. "You understand don't you? I mean, when you're hyped up on all that super soldier juice you don't always no what's what? Right? I hope you aren't gonna punch me or kick me, Rogers. Because I don't think I can handle much more of that right now."

Steve's expression turned into a smile, his eyes emotionless but his mouth quirked into a seemingly friendly grin. "Relax, Blonsky. I'm not gonna hit you. I just wanna make sure those cuts and bruises of yours get the proper attention. Come here. Let me get a closer look at that big gash on your cheek."

Blonsky blinked. "But I haven't got a gash on my cheek."

Steve kicked his foot out violently, and struck Blonsky hard across the jaw. A few teeth were knocked right out of his mouth from the strike, along with some blood. Everyone looked on with zero pity as Blonsky collasped on the ground, gripping his jaw and groaning in agony.

Steve glared at the pitiful man. "You do now, son."

Blonsky glared up at the captain. "You can't-"

He was cut off when a figure, Thordis he recognized, fell out of the sky and landed in between him and Cap with a thud. She was bruised and her armor was damaged. Mjolnir was gripped in her hand and she glared at Blonsky.

"Punch to the face!" She said quickly, and shot her fist out and decked Blonsky hard. He was out instantly.

Danny scoffed, crossing his arms as he watched the man fall. "Let Agent Romanoff shoot him. Just to be sure."

Chuckling harshly, Steve put his hand up to his earpiece. "We're done here, Fury. Send in the cleanup team, and make sure you dig out a straight jacket in size thirty-four. We're bringing him in."

ooooo

Five hours after the grueling bout, the Avengers had returned to the Triskelion, sporting just as many battle injuries as they did in the battle of New York. Banner stayed behind, reuniting with his cousin and getting her home, where she would need a lot of time to recover from that whole ordeal. Blonsky was taken back to his holding pen in Alaska, with a larger amount of guards watching over him. Fury wanted them to be sure that every last drop of that psycho-soldier shit was pumped out of him. He would not have another incident like this happen again.

Currently, though, he had another problem to deal with. Captain America, Natasha, Danny, Carrie, and Darcy were all crowded around his desk in his office, looking at him with mixed emotion. Steve, Darcy, Danny, and Carrie looked angry, while Natasha was unreadable as usual, but her arms were crossed.

"Well?" Steve said.

Fury opened his mouth and was just ready to explain, when the door to his office slammed open. Everyone turned to see Tony Stark, clad in his best suit. He had a very unhappy look on his face as he barged in. Colonel Rhodes followed in closely.

"Fury." Tony said as he pushed past his teammates and glared at the director. "What. The hell?"

"Glad you could join us, Mr. Stark." Fury said calmly, ignoring the inventor's anger.

"Don't give me that!" Tony said. "Why the hell was there a freaking Chitauri in Seattle? Helping the Avengers no less? Seriously, Nick what the fuck?!"

"Stark's reaction isn't misunderstandable, boss." Natasha said calmly. "You owe us an explanation."

"And some goddamn aspirin." Darcy muttered. "My head is killing me."

Fury looked at the heroes with a glare, and eventually sighed. He typed a few keys on his desk, and everyone watched as a hologram materialized nearby. It was an outline of the Chitauri drone that had assisted them.

"We call it Item 33." Fury explained. "It was one of the forty-seven pieces of alien paraphernalia that we recovered from the battle of New York. Unlike the other Chitauri we found lying motionless across the city, this one was still alive."

"How?" Steve demanded, growing somewhat worried. "Every single one of those things dropped dead when Stark sent that nuke through the portal. It should have been dead like all the others."

"One of the scientists in our R&D think-tank, Dr. Theodore Mandrakis, found out that the Chitauri were little more than mindless drones, a mix between flesh and machine. Whoever it was that was controlling them powered them using energy similar that which was found in the Tesseract. Whatever happened after Stark sent the nuke through the wormhole cut off whatever it was that was feeding this power into the Chitauri, and that was what made them drop. This one Chitauri, however, still retained some excess power that kept it alive and kicking. Agent Wrekk was the one who discovered it, and at the time it was completely docile. She had it delivered to Mandrakis' group, and gave him licence to carry out with experimenting on it.

"He installed a new power source, and rewrote its original programming, giving S.H.I.E.L.D. complete command over it, and outfitted him with all new weapons. As you saw before, it's equipped with wrist-mounted shock anchor cables, and an electrical maser cannon mounted in its chest, and a pair of shoulder mounted heat seeking missile launchers. Finally, we grafted into it a repowered Chitauri energy rifle. Item 47. It was another still functioning piece we brought in from New York. One of our newbies, Benjamin Pollack, was able to get it working again, and we added it to 33's arsenal. It's also equipped with repulsor technology, which we borrowed from Stark," this earned an indigant squawk from Tony," to provide flight capability. Technically, it's still in a beginning stage. We still have a few more upgrades until its ready for fullscale war. Today was just a test run, see if the idea would really go anywhere."

Fury set back in his chair, hands folded. "We weren't disappointed."

"So Archangel knew about this?" Natasha said, eyes narrowed. "Why didn't either of you tell us?"

"Because we were afraid you would react the way you are now." Fury said.

Tony still seemed particularly angry. "What the hell were you expecting? You used technology from my suits to upgrade that... thing?! Are you nuts? Those things wrecked half of Manhattan and you've decided to turn one of them into a weapon?"

"We knew the risks, Stark." Fury said dangerously. "We all saw what happened in New York. I know as well as anybody how dangerous these waters I'm treading are. But things are changing. We need to raise our standards, no matter how unorthodox are methods may seem. I don't need to explain that to you of all people."

Tony growled, while Steve stepped forward. "How can you be sure that this thing won't go rogue? Won't turn on us?"

"I can't." Fury said, shrugging. "And if it does, we put it down. We've worked with it. We know its weaknesses."

"You seem awfully sure of that." Danny said, glaring slightly.

"Kid, I'm never sure about anything." Fury lectured. "These are desperate times, and I took a desperate measure. Do I regret it? Maybe, but it's still too early to tell. Until then though, we keep doing what we've always been doing. We fight, and protect the planet. Is that clear?"

Everyone looked at Fury with mixed emotions. Tony through his hands up. "Screw this. I guess I'm just surrounded by crazies. Fucking S.H.I.E.L.D..."

Everyone watched as Stark stalked out of the office. Darcy rubbed her forehead, groaning. "I have a headache. You do whatever the hell you want, pirate. I'm going back to New Mexico where things make a little more sense."

Thordis exited too, and was followed shortly by Danny and Carrie. The two teens glanced back at Fury unsurely, before exiting. Only Steve, Natasha, and Rhodey were left.

"The military is not going to like this, Fury." Rhodes said.

"I know." Fury said in response.

Rhodes sighed. "What about Blonsky? What's the status with him."

"He's been reincarcerated in the Alaskan penitentiary. We're gonna make sure he stays locked up this time." Natasha said.

"Good." Steve said, crossing his arms. "I hope he rots in there."

"We'll make sure of that." Fury said, and he looked over to Natasha.

"Did you get any info out of him? Like how he escaped?" Rhodes questioned the director.

Fury sighed, and sat back. "We checked over all the security feeds. "There is no trace of anyone ever being in the same room as him, except for the guard watching him, and yet we saw him die in a way that could only be done by someone actually walking up and manhandling him. Then, the cell opens, we see Blonsky talk to someone, and he leaves."

"So then - what?" Steve said, stiffly crossing his arms over his chest. "Are we talking about ghosts here? It's not entirely farfetched given we work with one."

"I dunno." Fury said, shrugging. "But, that's not the strangest part. The interrogators questioned Blonsky directly, and he said that a woman released him and gave him instructions on how to find Banner."

"A woman?" Natasha pressed. "Did he say what her name was."

"No." Fury said. "But, he did give a very detailed description. We had an artist representation drawn for further clarification and..." Fury paused, looking somewhat disturbed. "Well, I think it's best you looked for yourself."

Fury uploaded another holographic image, this one of the artist's representation he spoke of. It was in incredible detail, and while Steve and Rhodes didn't recognize it, Natasha's eyes widened. He brows furrowed in confusion.

"Wait... No..."

"What?" Steve said, looking at the widow. "You recognize her?"

"Yes, but..." Natasha said in contemplation. "It's impossible. She's supposed to be dead. I saw them bury her casket."

"I know." Fury said. "That's the scary part. Whether it's actually the same person or not, she's still at large. And we need to find her and detain her."

"Who is she?" Rhodes said, looking between Natasha and Fury.

Natasha brought her hand up to her face, looking very disturbed and shaken. "An old acquaintance. I think it's best we didn't tell Danny about this."

And that's the end of the Blonsky crisis. Next chapter, we skip ahead a few months, after the events seen in my spin-off fic, Thordis: The Dark World. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is fast approaching...

Ajm88: I have been a fan of your stories for several months now and have enjoyed reading them. They are fun. Thank you for making them.

I saw on your bio that you are a fan of Gamera and am curious if you'd try to put our favorite turtle monster in a future story? (cameo most likely but hey I will take it!)

That... is very tempting. I love Gamera, especially the trilogy that went on in the 90s. However, Gamera is a very obscure character, and with how I have the fics going at the moment, I'm not sure exactly where I could put him in the story. But it is an intersting an idea, and I will hang onto it.

On a side note, I have one guest characters that will be appearing in the Winter Soldier story arc. I'll let you all guess who he/she is ;)

Anyway, thanks for reading. Drop in a review to let me know how you thought of this chapter!