ULTIMATE
MELEE
CHAPTER 6
Thursday, 6:07 A.M., Two Days Earlier...
"Alright, Dr. Banner, I have your current medical records and it appears that the Hulk serum in your blood is not deteriorating at all," Dr. Henry Pym said, tapping a paper on a clipboard, while standing outside of Bruce Banner's containment cell.
"That can't be!" Banner exclaimed. "I designed that formula myself! The effects were never supposed to be permanent!"
"On a normal occasion," Dr. Pym agreed. "However, as you know, since you added Captain America's blood, the final outcome was –"
"I know, I know," Banner said, banging his head against the wall of unbreakable glass. He sighed and had a desperate look in his eye. "Is there anything, anything at all that we could do to make it go away?"
"No, I'm sorry," Dr. Pym said. "I've done all I can."
"Well, thank you," Banner said, walking away from the glass wall. "I appreciate the fact that you've done this. I trust you with those records more than anybody else."
Just as Dr. Pym gathered his papers in preparation to leave, he suddenly witnessed Bruce stop dead while he was walking and fall to the floor.
"Oh my God!" Dr. Pym burst out, panicking. "Security! Get in there! I think he might be having a seizure!"
5 minutes later, a handful of S.H.I.E.L.D. paramedics and security guards surrounded Banner inside his containment cell. The guards had tranquilizer guns ready, and the doctors examined him with great caution.
"His breathing appears to be fine," one of the paramedics said, leaning her ear close to Banner's face. "Although, it sounds like he's trying to say something-"
Suddenly, Banner yelled out, "BOBBY DRAKE!"
At will, the guards right in front of Banner fired their guns at him.
They then backed away slowly.
"He's out," one of the guards confirmed.
Outside of the cell, Nick Fury and Hank Pym watched as the paramedics injected Banner with numerous drugs.
Fury turned to Pym, and with a serious look on his face, he said, "We're keeping this quiet for now."
Friday, 3:37 A.M., One day later...
Nick Fury was resting in his sleeping quarters when suddenly he was awakened by the loud ringing of his phone. "What the hell...?" he whispered. "I thought I turned that damn thing off..."
He answered the phone, expecting it to be something dramatically important.
He heard static, and then his mind went blank.
"Listen to me, Fury," a voice said over the phone. "Who is the Hulk?"
"Bruce Banner," Fury replied, unable to resist answering.
"Are you keeping him contained at the Triskelion?" the voice asked.
"Yes," Fury answered.
"If he has a phone number, give it to me."
Fury did so.
"Excellent," the voice said, pleased. "Now, we are aware of the little event that occurred yesterday morning. What we need you to tell us is what the name that Bruce Banner said was. Tell me."
"Bobby Drake."
"Good. Now, here is what you must do: In approximately ten minutes, you are to be where Banner is, prepared to let him out of the Triskelion. Make sure there is no security around, and that all visual security cameras are cut off. Release him as soon as he is finished receiving a phone call."
The lights that suddenly turned on inside his cell awaked Bruce Banner. He checked his watch and saw that it was the middle of the night. "What now...?" he said, looking up from his bed.
Standing outside the containment cell, he saw none other then Nick Fury.
Ever since the day before, Bruce was not allowed to have any visitors, and the reason was obvious. They had told him what he did after he blacked out, and it concerned not only just them. It took Bruce an hour to convince them that he did not shout out the name of the young man who was a member of the X-Men out of his own will. Something else had made him do it, and not even Bruce could explain what.
"Great," Banner said loudly. "The man of the hour...the very late hour, that is."
Fury didn't laugh or respond in any kind of way. His face looked completely blank and lifeless.
"What do you want?" Banner asked, putting on his glasses from his bedside table. Just as he did so, the phone on the table rang.
"I'll be with you in a moment," Banner said to Fury, who still didn't appear to be reacting to what Banner was saying.
Bruce answered the call, and after hearing some static, his head began to hurt, and then it felt like he blacked out.
"Listen to me, Bruce," a man's voice over the phone said. "Nick Fury is about to open your containment center. What you need to do is slip out of the Triskelion, turn into the Hulk, and make your way to the Xavier Institute, home of the X-Men, and summon Bobby Drake to come out. Once he does, make sure that he is unconscious, get away from the X-Men, revert back to your human form, and bring him to Fisk Towers. We will be there and you will give him to us, and then allow our men to knock you out. Do you understand?"
Bruce's mind, if it had been working, would have understood that this was one of the riskiest missions ever, where plenty of things could fail. Some of the things Bruce didn't want to do. Other things he wasn't sure that he could do.
But they were his orders.
"Yes, I understand," he said, and then the call ended.
Bruce's expression now matched Nick Fury's, and he watched as Fury pushed the buttons that began opening the containment cell.
Saturday, 5:39 A.M., Now...
Peter stepped out of the jet and onto the grass in front of the school. It was a cool morning, and his suit didn't exactly keep him warm. At least his mask was doing something; his head apparently wasn't cold at all.
Suddenly, he wondered how he could be so stupid as to think of something as trivial as his comfort at a time like this. Had Professor Xavier suddenly entered his mind and attempted to keep him distracted.
Lead by Captain America, Peter and the Ultimates began advancing toward the mansion.
"Remember, kid," Captain America said. "Stay close."
"Right," Peter said nervously. There was a good chance that he and the Ultimates would lose today's battle. After all, this was the X-Men's territory, completely with a psychic that could keep track and manipulate everything that would happen in the battle.
Iron Man swooped down past the others, to alert them that he was there and ready. He flew ahead, and in an attempt to not fall too far behind, the others began sprinting quickly.
What happened next was no surprise. The X-Men came out of the front door of the mansion. Peter identified them. There definitely had to be more. The only ones who came out were Storm, Cyclops, Colossus, and to his horror, Wolverine.
Peter gulped. Coming here was a mistake.
"You're not supposed to be here!" Wolverine yelled out from across the field. The Ultimates and the X-Men, both not moving, were now only about two hundred feet apart from each other.
"Jim Howlett, you and Kurt Wagner are under arrest for infiltrating a government building and for the kidnapping of Bruce Banner!" Captain America shouted back with a might of authority in his voice.
"You're not getting any of us without a fight, especially not Nightcrawler," Logan said, smirking.
"Why?" Iron Man asked, his laser rifles pointed at Logan. "Where is he?"
Logan grinned wickedly.
"Right here," Nightcrawler announced, appearing inches in front of Captain America.
Before any of the Ultimates could respond, Nightcrawler quickly grabbed both Cap and Quicksilver, and disappeared.
"Oh $#&!" Iron Man yelled, firing off a laser beam at Logan.
It was then that all hell broke loose.
Nightcrawler appeared in front of Logan, and quickly grabbed him and disappeared, getting out of the way of Iron Man's laser. The laser hit Colossus, who was only affected by it by flinching a bit and falling back a few feet.
Black Widow had already continued running towards the mansion and had begun firing at Cyclops, but was interrupted when Cyclops fired off an optic blast straight at Black Widow, sending her flying back a long distance. She slammed into the side of jet, and sunk down onto the grass, unable to move.
Scarlet Witch, who was distracted by the disappearance of her brother, also met the same fate, as her absent mindedness had caused her to be oblivious to Cyclops, who had fired off another laser, and once it hit Scarlet Witch, unlike Black Widow, she was already down on the ground before being set flying back towards the jet, leaving her to be grinding across the grass.
Wasp, who had come prepared in her shrunk form, had started flying towards the mansion, hoping to go unnoticed, when Storm spotted her and fired off a whirlwind towards her. Wasp was caught in the small cyclone, and when it quickly died down, nobody could tell where it had blown her away.
Iron Man had repeatedly fired more laser at Colossus, who as now running towards him. Colossus had managed to dodge many of them, and Iron Man noticed that he was getting to close to him for comfort. Before Iron Man decided it was time to fly and get away, it was too late. Colossus had leaped towards Iron Man, and with one efficient punch to the chest, knocked Iron Man over onto the ground. Colossus repeatedly jumped on top of him until Iron Man appeared to stop struggling to get up. He was down for the count.
Peter, who had managed to avoid getting targeted, had spotted where Nightcrawler left Captain America and Quicksilver.
"Oh...my...God..." was all Peter could say when he spotted them falling from 300 feet in the air, yelling loudly.
Nightcrawler had left them in the sky.
Peter shot his webbing at Captain America. It narrowly caught Cap, and Peter yanked the webbing and Cap towards himself.
He then shot out another line of webbing at Quicksilver, but it was suddenly violently interrupted by Storm, who had blown it way from its course.
Peter was about to attempt to catch Quicksilver once again, but Cyclops had shot on optic blast at Peter, and while Peter successfully dodged it, it kept him achieving and opportunity to fire his webbing again.
Quicksilver fell and slammed into the ground with a loud cry of pain.
Captain America's fall however, since he was tied to Peter's webbing and flying his direction, was somewhat more smooth, as he crashed into Peter, sending them both ramming onto to the ground.
Cyclops came their way, and he looked down on them, full prepared, and touching his visor, ready to shoot.
"Don't you dare move," Cyclops said to them, with a ferocious look on his face.
Peter slowly turned to look at Captain America, who was lying there looking like he was just an inching away from jumping back up and landing a kick on Cyclops's face.
"You told me to stay close to you," Peter said weakly. "Look where that got us. By saving your life, I've killed both of us."
"Oh, believe me, Parker!" Cyclops yelled angrily, as if he wanted everyone to here of the X-Men's knowledge. "You're too important to kill!"
"How do you know about that...?" Captain America said in disbelief.
The rest of the Ultimates who were down on the ground throbbing with pain but still conscious, including Scarlet Witch and Black Widow, heard this too and realized that the X-Men knew more than they expected them to
Suddenly, a bullet came out of nowhere and landed right in Cyclops's shoulder, making him shriek with pain and drop down to the ground.
Numerous other bullets came, hitting the rest of the X-Men, including Wolverine and Nightcrawler, who had just reappeared behind Cyclops.
Storm was hit right in the heel, which made her completely collapse, as if her legs were suddenly nonexistent.
Even Colossus, who was generally bulletproof, was suddenly hit in the chest, and he too fell down on his knees, and then lost consciousness.
These were not normal bullets.
At first everyone's reaction to this was that it had to be one of the Ultimates who had not arrived there with the others, like Thor or Hawkeye. But when one of these bullets hit Captain America, sending him crying with pain, they all realized that it was someone who was on neither the Ultimates nor the X-Men's team.
"You," Peter said, as he watched a man run up to Peter and look down on him with two guns aimed.
"So, Peter Parker is Spider-Man..." the man said. "It's time for you to come with me, kid."
Peter knew this man, and he had every reason to be afraid.
Elektra walked though the hallways of the mansion quietly until a student spotted her.
"Are you new here?" the boy she had run into asked. He had long dark brown hair, and spoke with a Latverian accent.
"Uh, yes, I am" Elektra said. "I was just wondering where I could find Bobby Drake."
"I believe he is in the professor's office," the boy said. "But this is not a good time to be walking around this mansion. "There is much fighting happening outside."
"I'll be sure to be careful," Elektra said, walking past him and away.
"Great," she whispered. "Where the hell is this professor's office...?"
Suddenly, she heard a gunshot come from behind here. She quickly turned around and drew out her weapons.
What she saw was the boy she was talking to had been shot.
And the assassin was now raising his guns towards Elektra herself.
"Tell me," the assassin said threateningly. "Where is Bobby Drake?"
"It's been done," the Leader said, walking into the Kingpin's office.
"What has?" the Kingpin asked curiously.
"I've just called the kidnappers and updated them with our current status," the Leader replied. "We've now identified all three of the Trinity pieces and I've sent two guys after the ones at the Xavier Institute, which are Geldoff and Bobby Drake. Seeing as how the Ultimates are probably already over at the mansion, there's a good chance Peter Parker is too, so we've instructed the burglars to keep an eye out for the mention of his name too." The Leader smiled proudly. "This is perfect, isn't it? We're so close to accomplishing what we set out to do."
The Kingpin, however, sighed and covered his forehead with his hand. He knew what this meant. The Kingpin had also sent Elektra to claim one of the same targets the Leader's men are going after. This could lead to serious complications.
"Tell me, Cyrek," the Kingpin inquired. "Who did you send to capture the young men?"
"Well," the Leader answered. "One of them is just some deadbeat no-name, but still qualified burglar/assassin. The other has somewhat of a bigger reputation in this field of work."
"Who?" Kingpin asked impatiently.
"His name is Frank Castle, but he's more famously known as The Punisher."
TO BE CONTINUED...