ULTIMATE MELEE
CHAPTER 4
Captain America had led Peter Parker through the Triskelion and up to Nick Fury's office. On his way there, Peter saw that something big had happened not too long ago. The people of the building all had nervous looks on their faces, and through little bits of conversation, Peter could hear them say, "The Hulk is gone."
Cap must have heard this too, and that's probably why he asked Peter to pick up the pace.
"This is some serious $# right here, Nick," Tony Stark said, as Peter and Cap walked into the office. Inside were the rest of the Ultimates, minus Hawkeye and Thor. "We need to march down to Xavier's place and get Banner back."
"Obviously," Nick Fury began, "that's easier said than done."
"Hey, Nick, the kid's here," Quicksilver announced, and everybody in the room turned their attention towards Cap and Peter.
"Peter Parker," Stark said. "It's nice to see you again."
"Yeah, yeah," Peter said, skipping the greetings. "Listen, Captain America told me what's going on, and I'll help you out, as long as I can get back home before tomorrow."
Everybody in the room laughed.
"Kid," the Black Widow said, "Something a lot bigger than you is happening here. Whether you like it or not, solving this problem may require you to lose that secret identity of yours."
"It's not exactly a secret anymore," Peter said back. "Everybody in this place knows about it. I just don't want the word getting out."
"Parker, everything private here stays in the building," Fury said. "All S.H.I.E.L.D. employees are bound by contracts of confidentiality-"
"That sure explains the Hulk's escape this morning," Peter interrupted, leaving Fury to frown. "Obviously security here isn't as tight as you guys would like to think."
"I say let the Hulk have this toddler," Scarlet Witch said. "He's obviously not going to cooperate with us."
"Who the hell are these two?" Peter asked, looking at Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.
"They're part of our shadow team," Fury explained. "Unlike the Black Widow and Hawkeye, these two won't be upgraded to public status because...well, they're mutants."
"Speaking of Hawkeye," Captain America said, leaving Peter with no opportunity to criticize this fact, "Where is he?"
"He's pulled a vanishing act," Tony said. "He and I were at a bar earlier tonight, and when I went to use the restroom, I came back to find him gone."
"Do you have idea where he might have went?"
Hawkeye peeked out from behind the bushes as he saw the jet landing down on the school campus. And if it contained anybody important, it most likely had to be Banner.
He saw three of the X-Men exit the plane. One of them was carrying Banner's body.
Bingo.
He got his bow ready and prepared to move in.
"I honestly have no clue," Tony said.
"With the kidnapping of the Hulk, plans will definitely have to change," Fury declared. "At the risk of sounding cliché, this means war."
"War against the X-Men?" several of the Ultimates asked in unison.
"I'm sure this can be properly compromised without starting a large-scale fight between Xavier's students," Cap said. "All we really need is Banner back."
"Yeah...why is that again?" Peter asked. "After all, he was screaming Bobby Drake's name, right? Can't we just have the X-Men deal with it?"
"Well, kid, it's standard policy for the U.S. government to deal with situations like this," Fury replied. "Besides, this Hulk behavior all started here in the Triskelion. It means that no matter what, we're involved, whether we like it or not."
"So basically, we have to 'convince' the X-Men to give him up," Scarlet Witch said. "And since the Hulk is conveniently there at the scene of the mission, this might just be the perfect opportunity for you to tag along, kid."
Peter groaned. Just what he was looking forward to. Fighting people like Wolverine.
"That's right," Stark agreed. "Tomorrow morning we'll drop them a visit. We can't just leave this situation to the X-Men. They might end up doing something...unpredictable."
"Or someone else might," the Black Widow said.
Everybody turned to her.
Without being asked, she answered, "Well, there seems to be some kind of outside force involved here. Someone who has been causing all of this. Releasing the Hulk, telling him who to go after, etc. And these person, or people could have easily have abducted Hawkeye. Someone here is being the puppet master. Let's hope that they don't get to the X-Men and Banner before we do."
The coast of Croatia was one of Thor's favorite places to be. So many good places to meditate were by the Adriatic Sea. If Thor ever admitted to taking vacations, this would be one.
Today, he was sitting quietly on an empty beach, watching the beauty of the morning sun, and enjoying the slight breeze coming his way, along the sound of the calm waves. With eyes clothes, he sighed. This is what relaxing was meant to be.
Then came the great disruption. His cell phone rang.
Thor reached for his bag, which was packed with simple things like fruit and water, and he pulled out the phone that Nick Fury had insisted he should get in case he ever needed to be contacted.
However, the screen did not display any name that Thor was familiar with. But it could have meant that one of the Ultimates was calling him from a phone that was not their own.
He answered the call. "Hello?"
A highly unusual static-like sound came from the phone, sending a wave of pain throughout Thor's head.
Next thing he knew, he didn't know anything. It was as if his mind was blank, and incapable of creating an independent thought. His free will was fried.
Then a sinister voice from the phone said, "Listen to me very carefully, Thor. There is something that you must do..."
"AH! OH MEIN GOTT!" Nightcrawler screamed in terror, dropping Banner's body. Following that, he himself passed out and dropped hard onto the ground.
"What the hell-?" Logan said, quickly turning around to see what had happened. There was an arrow stuck in Nightcrawler's back. Someone had shot him. SNIKT! Logan busted out his claws, prepared to fight.
Cyclops, too, had turned to see what was going on, and just as he did, an arrow quickly flew by him, narrowly missing his ear. He ducked and rolled on the ground as another arrow flew right above him.
Logan looked to see who the attacked was, and he was not surprised to find that it was of them.
"THEY'VE FOLLOWED US!" Logan yelled at the top of his lungs, hoping someone inside the school will come outside to see. "THE ULTIMATES ARE HERE!"
The attacker, who Logan recognized as the Ultimate known as Hawkeye, had emerged from the tall bushes that surrounded the landing area for the jet.
"How the hell did you guys get here so quick?!" Cyclops shouted out to him, as he hid behind the nearest tree.
Hawkeye ignored Cyclops and aimed his bow at Logan.
"Surrender Banner," Hawkeye said in a dull, mindless voice.
"Tell Fury that we'll give him back once we're through with him!" Logan yelled at him in response.
"Surrender Banner or die, James Howlett," said Hawkeye.
The mention of his name caught Logan off guard, and Hawkeye fired an arrow at Logan, successfully landing in his stomach. The arrow's effects made Logan feel numb, and he fell to his knees, clutching the arrow and trying to pull it out. This proved difficult, as the arrow was in pretty deep.
Hawkeye began to move in closer towards Banner's body, and neither Logan nor Nightcrawler could do anything about it now.
Cyclops, breathing heavily, prepared himself.
He jumped out from behind the tree and shot a stream of laser out of his eyes at Hawkeye. It successfully hit, and Hawkeye was knocked down to the ground, his bow having been knocked away from his hand.
Cyclops ran up to Hawkeye, who had attempted to grab his bow, which was five feet away, but Cyclops kicked it further away from him. He then stomped his foot down onto Hawkeye's stomach.
"I'd advise you not to move," Cyclops said, looking down at him, with a grin of success on his face. "Let's hope you're important enough to be held up for ransom."
Cyclops leaned down, and with one soft, but effective punch, he knocked out Hawkeye.
"Good news," Cyclops called out back to Logan, who had just managed to pull the arrow out of his stomach. "It looks like we'll probably get a little more information than we wanted."
"Well, well, well, here we are on the way to Xavier's place," Quicksilver said cheerfully. "Excited, sis?"
"Of course," Scarlet Witch replied. "It's only natural that we got picked for this kind of mission."
"For the last time," Captain America said, starting to get irritated. "You were not brought along on this mission just because you are mutants. You were brought along because of your ties to the X-Men, which may increase our chances for a friendly resolution. We would like to avoid violence if at all possible."
"I second that," Peter said weakly. He, Captain America, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, the Wasp, and the Black Widow were now all aboard a heavily armed jet that was flying them to the X-Men mansion. Iron man was flying with them beside the jet. It was now the dead of the night and they had spent the last several hours briefing for the mission and preparing themselves.
Peter had been told to do only one thing: Stick with Cap.
"Assist him only if necessary," Nick Fury had told him. "He'll protect you once you two get to Banner. Hopefully, he won't have transformed into the Hulk. It would be much easier to test out why he wanted you using the Dome Experiment."
This had not comforted Peter. Although causing chaos at the X-Men mansion wasn't something to he was interested in, being dropped into a closed area with the Hulk was something that he had hoped would only stay in his worst nightmares.
"Don't be so nervous, son," Cap said to Peter. "This conflict at the Xavier Institute will not be an all-out melee. Just think of it as a theft mission. We don't want to cause mass destruction, which is exactly why we didn't require Giant-Man for this."
"That's one reason," the Black Widow said. "The other being that Janet didn't want him to."
"Oh please," Janet scoffed. "As long as I wouldn't have to talk to him, I'm completely okay with him coming along."
"Get some sleep," Captain America said. "All of you. I have a feeling we'll all be doing a lot of running at dawn."
They all nodded, and attempted to closer their eyes and force themselves into a slumber, even though they all knew that the anticipation would keep them wide awake and full of energy.
"It may be temporary," Captain America said, smiling at Peter. "But welcome to the Ultimates."
"Hawkeye has failed us," the Leader said. He was gathered in a remotely dark room with a few others. "His attempt to capture the Prophet has failed, and the X-Men have him in their custody now."
"Lucky for us, the mind-control effects will have worn off when he wakes up," one of the followers said. "He will not remember a thing, and neither Xavier nor Jean Grey can retrieve those lost memories. The only ones who will be blamed are the Ultimates."
"This failure shall still be frowned upon, Cyrek," another man, who was not a member of their secret society, said.
"Never speak the Leader's name!" a follower hissed.
"It is alright," the Leader said. "Mr. Fisk here is not a member of our organization, and therefore, is not required to obey our laws."
"Thank you," Wilson Fisk, who was known to be the Kingpin of Crime, said. "Now, you have seized control of Thor, correct?"
"It has been done," the Leader replied.
"Very well," Kingpin said. "Once he has carried out his orders, I shall make a final consideration of whether to continue funding your plan."
The Leader laughed. "At this rate, how could anything go wrong? We operate in untraceable secret, and neither the X-Men nor the Ultimates have a clue about who we are or what we're doing."
The Kingpin frowned and said, "It is not wise to underestimate S.H.I.E.L.D.'s power. There is no doubt that Nick Fury is very curious to know what kind of influence he was under during that period of time that the Hulk was unleashed. Nick Fury is a smart enough man to find a way to regain the surveillance footage and see himself unlocking Bruce Banner's containment chamber."
"Correct," the Leader said. "But does he have any leads right now? Normally, tracing the phone call would be the best option, but we have gone through great lengths to make sure that he can't do that."
"I'm trusting you on this one," the Kingpin said, standing up from his chair and beginning to leave the room. "You better hope that Thor successfully completes his mission. It would be our greatest achievement yet. And as always, if you require any assistance, which wouldn't at all surprise me, don't hesitate to ask me to send it one of my own assassins."
"Thank you, Mr. Fisk," the Leader said. "You will not regret to see the day that the Trinity will be complete."
Thor rapidly flew across the Atlantic Ocean, sometimes at such a low altitude, that waves were being made on either sides of him.
The flying was almost natural to him, and if he were not under certain mind-control, he may have not had the mental discipline to do it otherwise. His mind was blank, and free of thoughts and worries.
Except one thought, that is. His job. His order. His mission. It must be completed. It was the most important thing he could do right now.
He repeatedly muttered it under his breath: "Kill the Ultimates, kill the Ultimates, kill the Ultimates..."
TO BE CONTINUED...