ULTIMATE
MELEE
CHAPTER 7
"Put down the gun, darlin'" the man said, pointing his own gun at Elektra, "and tell me where Bobby Drake is."
Elektra gave a somewhat sarcastic laugh and asked, "Who sent you?" She clutched her weapons tightly, preparing to use them on impulse.
The man said nothing. He just fired his gun.
Elektra quickly ducked before she even heard the loud gunshot, and threw one of her Sais at the man like dart. It him right in the gut.
He gasped and groaned, and fell to his knees.
"He made me do this..." the man muttered, right before he fell and his chest slammed into the ground.
Elektra realized what she had just done. This man was obviously under the control of Cyrek, and was sent here to claim the pieces of the Trinity.
This made her wonder whether Cyrek had already sent somebody to get the third piece of the Trinity as well.
Elektra looked down at the man she shot; felt no regret in taking his life. She merely picked up one of his guns and shot him to the head to make sure she finished the job.
There was a somewhat soft gunshot, and the way the bullet left the gun made Elektra feel no impact from the gun at all. She leaned down towards his head to examine the bullet.
It was definitely there. But there was no blood. In fact, the bullet was stuck to the side of the man's head. And it was an unusual looking bullet, too. Instead of metal, it seemed to be composed of glass, with some kind of green substance inside.
Elektra pulled the bullet out of the man's head and looked at the tip of it. There was a needle there.
This bullet was not meant to kill. It served to tranquilize the victim.
She moved towards the young student that the assassin had shot, and examined the bullet that had struck him in his right shoulder.
Also a tranquilization bullet.
She stared at the boy and grinned with amazement of how lucky she was.
It made sense. He had to be one of the Trinity pieces, which is why Cyrek sent this man to collect him, and not kill him.
Elektra picked up the boy's unconscious body. The Kingpin would be pleased with this.
Suddenly, another boy came running down the hall yelling, "What's happened here?!"
Elektra recognized this boy.
The gun was already in her hand.
Fate, apparently, was kind to her today.
"Professor, are you feeling okay?" Jean Grey asked Xavier, whom was sitting in his office, his hand pressed to his forehead, and breathing a little faster than usual. "You look like you're starting to sweat."
"I sense a great disturbance, Jean," Xavier said. "I've been paying so much attention to what's happening outside, I completely ignored the interiors. Someone is leaving the mansion. A stranger."
"Oh no," Jean gasped. "I knew we shouldn't have let Bobby out of our sights for a single second-"
"Make that three people," the professor said, breathing harder.
"Professor, that's it, we need to get you out of here," Jeans decided. "There's something wrong with you."
The professor looked like he was going to cry. "I'm sorry, Jean, but I can't read their minds. I can't control them. The Ultimates came here prepared. They're wearing some sort of invisible devices around their ears that block out my telepathy, but that stranger that just showed up – I can't sense his mind here at all."
"He's under the influence of those phone calls," Jean realized. "That means – oh, no – it can't be." And she then ran towards the door.
"Jean, where are you going?" Kitty Pryde, who was also in the room, cried after her.
"To stop them!" she revealed. "They're here to take the boys away! Stay here and take care of the professor!"
As Jean ran down the hallways towards the door out of the mansion, she blamed her own stupidity for what's happened. How could she be so ignorant and allow the X-Men to stay so off-guard? Of course there was going to be another intruder! They couldn't have possibly been the only ones to know about Peter, Bobby, and Geldoff.
She picked up her rapid pace. She had one chance to stop the intruders from stealing the boys, and the time was now.
Peter watched as the intruder clicked a little switch on the side his gun. From what he could make out with his currently poor vision, the Punisher had just changed his gun from a "Disarm" to "Tranquilize" setting.
He fired the gun at everyone around the field, including Captain America.
Peter was the only one besides the Punisher conscious now.
"Get up, kid," the Punisher said. "Let's go."
Reluctantly but quickly, Peter stood up and faced the large man in front of him. Maybe he could combat him and get his guns away from him, but Peter didn't think he should take the risk. He was also incredibly thankful that he had his mask on. He didn't want people like this to know his face.
"Hey, big guy, wait up!" a woman's voice called out. Peter turned to see who it was.
His jaw dropped.
The famous assassin Elektra was walking towards them, carrying the unconscious bodies of Bobby Drake and...Geldoff? What the hell was going on here?
"So, Spider-Man's the third, I see," she said, laughing.
The Punisher aimed one of his guns at Elektra. "You will surrender them to me," he said.
"Gladly," she said, lowering them to the ground. "I assume Cyrek sent you."
"Correct," the Punisher said. "Now, carry these bodies and follow me. There is a helicopter parked nearby."
"Whatever you say," Elektra agreed, but obviously unhappy about carrying two teenagers after finally being able to set them down.
"And you," the Punisher said, turning back to Peter. The Punisher quickly threw his first menacingly at Peter and knocked him out.
Jean rammed open the front doors of the mansion and darted outside. Just as the professor described, the front field was full of the unconscious bodies of both the X-Men and The Ultimates. Jean quickly rushed over to the nearest body, Scott's, and checked his pulse.
Still alive.
"Thank God," Jean sighed with relief.
She suddenly reminded herself of why she was out her, and quickly began to feel insecure. She might be being watched right now.
She looked around, expecting someone to pop up out of nowhere and shoot her.
She noticed something, although it wasn't as shocking as what she imagined.
From outside of the mansions tall hedges, a helicopter began rising into the air, complete with the loud, obnoxious sounds of its whirring.
She aimed her hand at the helicopter. It wasn't going anywhere.
Jean used her telekinetic powers to stop the chopper dead in midair.
She grinned. Perfect.
Suddenly, she saw one of the side doors of the helicopter open up and a woman was leaning out.
The woman was holding a gun and aiming it at Jean.
Before Jean could react, the gun had been fired at her and she blacked out.
"I'm leaving," Kingpin announced.
The Leader was shocked to hear this. "Now? When the project's almost completed?"
"Precisely," the Kingpin confirmed, walking down the hallway besides the leader, at a relatively fast pace, almost making it seem like he was trying to get away from him."
"I don't understand," the Leader said in a worried tone. "We're just about to do one of the most miraculous things in the world, and you're taking off for France? Why could you possibly want to leave the Fisk Towers at a time like this?"
"I have no more interest whatsoever in this experiment of yours, Cyrek," the Kingpin said with such fury in his voice, that he made it clear that no one should dare challenge his statement.
But the Leader knew that this meant something.
"What did you do?" he asked accusatively.
The Kingpin said nothing, walking ahead of him, so his back was turned and he didn't have to look at him.
"I know you sent the assassin Elektra," the Leader said, frowning angrily. "And I know why."
"I have no idea what you are talking about," the Kingpin said, trying not to sound guilty.
"You wanted it all for yourself, didn't you? You wanted all of the power! That's why you sent Elektra to capture Bobby Drake! To keep my from accomplishing what I set out to do!"
"HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE ME OF THAT?!" The Kingpin roared, turning back to the Leader, who was excessively frightened. "I have invested time and money into your little project and you you're saying I sabotaged it?!"
"I didn't-"
"Leave!" the Kingpin ordered in a decisive tone. "Leave at once! Your little experiment is over! I want you and your organization out of my towers within an hour!"
With that, Kingpin walked into an elevator, and shut the door, leaving Cyrek with an expression of shock and horror.
When Kingpin left the building, he greeted his driver and got into his limo.
He sighed. How could he have gotten himself mixed up in a situation like this? He felt like he needed to clear his head of all this.
Suddenly, the driver said, "Mr. Fisk, you have a phone call."
Absentmindedly, Kingpin picked up his phone in the car, and the moment he motioned it towards his ear, he realized that he just made a tragic mistake.
He heard the expected static, and if his mind had been alert and properly functioning, he would have recognized the Leader's voice for what it was.
"Mr. Fisk," the Leader's voice said. "You have been an uncooperative partner, and these complications must be highly stressful for you. That's why I want you to take a one-week vacation to Europe, taking no note or concern of what is happening at the Fisk Towers. Just relax. And forget everything you've learned about me, my organization, what we're doing, the manuscript, and everything concerning this Trinity situation. Just go and take your mind off your work." He hung up.
The Kingpin put down the phone.
"Mark?" the Kingpin said, signaling to the driver. "Will you please drive to the airport? I'm taking a long-needed vacation."
"No problem, sir," the driver said. "That is, after all, why you got that ticket to Paris?"
The Kingpin had no idea what the driver was talking about. "Err...yes. Exactly." He made a mental note to fire the driver.
The Kingpin basically got what he wanted. His head was cleared.
Bobby woke aboard a helicopter, not knowing how he got there or why.
"What's going on?" he mumbled. He looked around and saw the weirdest combination of people sitting with him. To his left, lay Spider-Man, who was also awake (Bobby couldn't actually see his face, but he could tell by the alert position he was sitting in that he was awake.) To his right, an unconscious Geldoff sat there.
On the seats across from him sat in the center a man hooded man dressed in purple robes. Bobby had no idea who this man was, but sitting to either side of him were two famous assassins, Elektra Nachios and Frank Castle, the Punisher. Both of the assassins were aiming guns at the three boys.
"Welcome, Bobby Drake," the man said. He was grinning, but something told Bobby that it wasn't out of friendliness. "My name is Erasmus. I believe you know all the others gathered around you."
Bobby knew he was in danger. And it was time to get his way out of it. He tried to freeze the assassins sitting across from him, but he found that his powers weren't working."
Erasmus chuckled. "Don't bother. You'll find that your mind is under a trance that keeps it from using your powers. All three of you are."
"What the hell do you want with us?" Spider-Man demanded.
"The Hulk did not call our your names by accident," Erasmus said, with a marveling look in his eyes. Bobby could tell he was excited about something. "You three are part of a prophecy that clearly explains that you're three pieces of a Trinity that can grant incredible powers to the one who knows how to unlock them. That would be my master, who I'm taking you to."
A million questions exploded into Bobby's mind, but he knew that most of them were pretty unsafe to ask in this situation. But from the information he just gathered, he grew very nervous.
"How do you know these Trinity pieces that were prophesized are talking about us?" Spider-Man asked, and judging by the tone of his voice, he seemed to comprehend everything Erasmus was saying perfectly.
"The Hulk is the man that has been prophesized to be the one who shall spell out those names while under an involuntarily trance," Erasmus explained. "Everything that the prophecy has stated has come to pass, and we would be missing out on much to not take advantage of the situation."
Bobby felt one of the worst feelings of his life. It topped even the nervous, paranoid-like sense he got when he first discovered he was a mutant, which was bad enough. But now he's part of something even bigger. It was all too much for him to handle.
"Why are these two here?" Spider-Man asked, nudging his head towards Elektra and the Punisher. He didn't seem to be reluctant to ask Erasmus questions. Bobby himself had the fear that they would anger Erasmus, but Spider-Man apparently didn't have that problem.
"These two are working for us," Erasmus said. "Elektra here was sent by the Kingpin, who has been an invaluable part of this operation. The Punisher was sent by my master, the Leader of our organization who has the power to order individuals around using mind control over telephones."
It was coming to Bobby slowly, but it seemed to all start making sense now. This is why Hawkeye had shown up at the mansion. And the Leader was who called Storm to learn two of the names of the Trinity.
A frightening sensation hit Bobby as he realized that Erasmus's master was probably about to accomplish what he had set out to do.
"Don't have such an uneasy look on your face, Mr. Drake," Erasmus said with a hint of comfort. "After all, if we're lucky, your role in this might not even require us to sacrifice your life." He then began laughing as if he had just told a hilarious joke.
"You damn people..." Bobby began, taking a risk. "You're sick and twisted..."
"And ultimately successful," Erasmus said, continuing to laugh sinisterly.
However, Bobby, nor Erasmus or anyone else had been aware of the Wasp, who had just slipped out the helicopter, prepared to expose all of the information she had just heard.
TO BE CONTINUED...