Chapter 15: Nightmare in New York 2

Slowly, almost tentatively the manhole cover was pushed up from beneath. A black, nightmarish figure emerged, followed by many others. The alien invasion of New York city had begun. Fortunately, the city was not without it's protectors.

Moonstar silently drew back the string on her bow, while Karma spoke softly into her communicator.

"We have a confirmed sighting," she said. "Home in on our signal and get us some backup." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a psychic arrow appear in Moonstar's bow. She listened as the others responded. Then she looked at Moonstar, and nodded.

Moonstar released the bowstring, sending the arrow through the skull of the lead alien. The alien stopped, and hissed at the air in front of it. It began to swipe at nothing.

"Good work Moonstar!" Karma congratulated her softly. "It worked!"

"Still got it." Moonstar smiled. "I've never tried it on a non sentient species before."

"Well, now it's my turn to try something new." Karma said. "I've never used my power on a non-sentient species either. But we've got to keep those things busy until the others arrive." She stared at another of the aliens for a moment, and then recoiled in disgust.

"What's wrong?" Moonstar asked. "You look like you've just touched the most repulsive thing in the universe."

"I think I have." Karma replied. "Yeeuch!" Her revulsion was replaced by fear, when she heard a sound on the fire escape.

"Looks like the jig is up." Moonstar said grimly. "They know where we are."

The two aliens that had been attacked began to climb, their claws digging into the brick wall of the building.

"Now would be a great time for back up." Moonstar said, her voice shaking as the first alien reached the top.

*Bamf!* In a burst of smoke, Nightcrawler appeared above the attacking alien.

"Sounds like a cue to me!" he cried. He landed on the alien, and grabbed it's head. "In order to succeed in this world," he grinned. "You've got to get a head." He teleported across the rooftop with the alien head. The rest of the newly arrived heroes groaned at the pun.

Nightcrawler held the head at arms length while he waited for it to stop biting and dripping acid. To Pete Wisdom it looked like the skull scene in Hamlet.

"If you start quoting from Shakespeare, Fearless Leader, I'll have to deck you." He punctuated his remark by thrusting hot-knives into the skull of the other alien. It twitched, and collapsed.

"You do not like Shakespeare Tovorisch?" Colossus looked at his companion in surprise, and maybe a little disappointment.

"There's a time and a place for everything my tin plated friend. And this isn't the time nor the place for Shakespeare."

"It's always the right time and place for Shakespeare." Amanda disagreed.

"Ahem!" Everyone turned to look at their eerie fellow defenders, Morbius the Living Vampire, and Ghost Rider.

"In case you've forgotten," Morbius said impatiently. "We still have a city to save."

"Oh we haven't forgotten," Nightcrawler said. He drew his sword and pointed it at the growing army of aliens. "Lay on Macduff!" He glanced at Wisdom, as though daring him to make good on his threat.

Ghost Rider sighed inwardly. Lord what fools these mortals be.

Namor and his sister Namorita did not take long to find a way to kill the aliens without endangering themselves or the others. They discovered that when hit in the head, the acidic blood leaked, rather than sprayed out. Therefore, they grabbed an alien by the tail, and swung it so that it's head impacted with the wall of a building with enough force to crush it. Other heroes such as Colossus, Iron Fist, Morbius, Douglock, Dare Devil, Elektra, Nightcrawler, Britannic, Black Cat, and Wolfsbane began to use various versions of that method, since they mostly had to rely on their physical bodies to combat a threat.

Deathlock calmly stood in the middle of the street blasting away at any aliens who presented him with an clear target. The battle remained at a stand still for what seemed like hours, until finally the aliens started to come from other sewer access points. Now the heroes were surrounded.

Ghost Rider swept his chain in a wide circle, decapitating several aliens, but the rest closed in on the heroes. Colossus clenched his steel fists, ready to go down fighting, when he heard a scream. He turned, and was horrified to see Wolfsbane in the clutches of several of the aliens. They were dragging her back to the sewer. Around him, many of the other heroes were likewise being captured. In his moment of distraction, an alien managed to get past his defenses and swiped at him with it's claws. With a rending sound, the claws cut shallowly into his metal skin.

Colossus bellowed in pain and rage. He picked up the alien that had attacked him and threw it into another group of aliens. He started of towards his captured teammates, not seeing the alien sneaking up behind. Lockheed swooped down from above and fried the alien with a burst of flame from his mouth. Colossus silently thanked his friend.

And then, an extraordinary thing happened. The aliens dropped their captives and retreated into the sewers.

"It would seem that our friends have found the nest." Namor said. "I believe that we should help them."

"I agree brother," Namorita said grimly. "We must work to avoid any further casualties." Namor saw to his horror what his sister meant. Only Amanda, Colossus, Deathlock, Wisdom, Morbius, Ghostrider, Nightcrawler, Lockheed, Douglock, and Namor and his sister were left alive to continue the fight.

"I'll take their bodies back to Four Freedoms." Amanda said sadly. There would be time to grieve later. "The rest of you, go kill those bastards."

Nightcrawler swallowed the grief and fury that threatened to overwhelm him and followed the others into the dank, smelly labyrinth of the New York City Sewer system.

Next: Rumble Under the Bronx 2