ULTIMATE MELEE
CHAPTER 10
"Aaaaaaaaaand...GO!"
All at once, Captain America, Logan, Hawkeye, and Colossus (in his steel form) just out of the jet.
"Did I mention that this was my favorite part of the job!" Hawkeye yelled over the loud sounds of the wind.
Rain had begun to fall as the four men dropped down towards the street.
People from above watched, some terrified, at the jet, which was casually making its way through downtown Manhattan. Normally, this would be considered highly illegal, but as Captain America had said, "It's good to have the government on your side."
Captain America landed on the sidewalk in a perfect pose, showing no discomfort. Logan had landed on his back, but his pain quickly healed as he stood up. Hawkeye had fired a grappling hook at a nearby streetlight post, causing him to not land on the pavement until he voluntarily let go of the hook and landed casually. Colossus had landed without recoil, but while he did so, the pavement he had dropped on had crushed under his weight.
"Let's not do that again," Logan said, although everyone seemed to disagree.
"You think they're expecting us?" Hawkeye said, facing the front door of the Fisk Tower.
"They have to be," Cap said. "After all, who's not going to notice that black jet flying overhead?"
"The police certainly have," Colossus said, looking back.
All the others turned around and saw what seemed to be dozens of NYPD and FBI cars and helicopters arriving at the scene. Sirens filled the air, and with the mixture of rain, everyone who was watching began to see signs of chaos and panic emerging.
"What on God's earth is happening here?!" one of policeman running towards the party exclaimed.
"Stand back, officer," Hawkeye, motioning his hands up to tell all the authorities to keep way. "This is a S.H.I.E.L.D. priority."
"Is that why you've got the X-Men with you?!" the officer shouted.
SNIKT! "You got a problem with mutants taking care of this, bub?" Logan threatened.
"Uh…no…I'm just…" The officer stepped back nervously. "I'm just gonna step back and let you guys handle this. Go ahead."
"In several minutes," Captain America said. "You're going to see that black jet fly over here again. Let it land. No matter what happens, do not shoot it."
"Yes, sir," the now unconfident police officer said.
Logan, Colossus, Hawkeye, and Cap turned back to look at the building.
"You guys ready?" Logan asked.
It was a rhetorical question.
They rushed towards the doors.
Bobby stood there on one of the slots of the platform in the Leader's chamber, with his legs chained there so he couldn't move away, quietly waiting.
He occasionally glanced over at Geldoff, also chained to one of the holes on the platform, who was nowhere near as silent as he was.
Geldoff frequently kept mumbling words of hatred and disgust. "I swear, if we ever get out of here, I shall kill that horrible woman who tricked me into coming here. That assassin…what was her name again? Was it…yes, Elektra. That was her name. Elektra. That bitch will die."
Bobby ignored Geldoff's statements, and kept thinking about how Peter had escaped. Without Peter, the Leader would have no possible way of achieving his plan. Bobby prayed that Parker had found his way to the X-Men or the Ultimates.
Geldoff's speech was starting to get unavoidably loud. "Those damn Greeks…you can never trust them."
"What?" Bobby said, looking at Geldoff with confusion. "What do the Greeks have to do with this?"
"You heard the names, did you not?" Geldoff answered. "For starters, Elektra. That's Greek right there. And before she left, Elektra addressed that so-called 'leader' as Cyrek. And the name of the man that brought us here on the helicopter is Erasmus. These are all Greek names. This all has to be some kind of cult that began in their country."
"Interesting…" Bobby said as he looked away, thinking about this for a moment.
Suddenly, the door to the chamber opened and Bobby's worst fear at the moment came to pass. The Leader and Erasmus walked in, followed by three other members of the organization, with one of them carrying Spider-Man.
"Oh $#(," Bobby said silently.
"Indeed, Mr. Drake," the Leader said in a self-satisfied tone. "Luck seems to have run out on you, has it not?"
"You'll never get away with this," Bobby said menacingly. "The Ultimates, the X-Men, they'll all find you and they'll have Colossus split open your head with his bare hands!"
The Leader chucked at Bobby's remark. "You really think so, do you, boy? Well, let me tell you something. After this power extraction, I can promise you that I will be nothing short of invincible. What mutants are to humans, I will be to mutants; terrifying and dangerous."
The three servants climbed up onto the platform, and Parker was awakened only to realize that his legs were being chained to one of the platforms, with his hands handcuffed behind his back.
"Comfortable?" the Leader asked Spider-Man. "You see, we couldn't risk you using those little gadgets of yours again to escape. Although, I must admit, they are a pretty ingenious invention."
Peter said nothing.
"Excellent," the Leader said softly, staring contently at the surface of the platform. "All the corner slots of the triangle are full. The Trinity is in its place. All that remains now is the slot in the center of the triangle…the one that's reserved for myself."
Bobby's stress had made him begun sweating more than he ever had in his life. He was about to witness the triumph of a horrible villain, and none of the other X-Men were there to prevent it from happening.
"Stand back, my loyal followers," The Leader proudly said, and the four other members of the organization backed away towards the walls. "You, out of all of my fellow believers of the ancient prophecy, have the privilege of witnessing the birth of our great legacy!"
The Leader climbed up to the surface of the platform and stepped onto the center slot.
He turned back and faced his followers, who were all down on one knee in honor of their master.
Bobby couldn't bear to watch, but it seemed like it was impossible to blink. The thrill and panic going through him was of a level that he had rarely ever felt before. In a way, it was intoxicating.
The Leader raised his arms into the air, closed his eyes, and yelled, "ARISE, FORCES THAT BE, AND GRANT ME POWER!"
All four slots on the platform erupted with a bright glow.
As soon as Logan, Colossus, Captain America, and Hawkeye entered the lobby of the building, they were immediately met by at least 50 of the organization members, all with guns aimed at the four intruders who had come in. Standing behind the army of the followers was the Punisher, with his guns ready as well.
The organization members wore long purple robes, with hoods on at the top, and a thin black layer of clothing concealing the lower parts of their faces. Only their eyes were visible to anyone looking at them, and at the moment, all the eyes had angry expressions.
No time was wasted. Bullets began flying through the air.
Logan and Colossus began running towards the enemies; Logan was taking the bullets, ignoring the pain that would later be gone due to his healing factor, and Colossus, being bulletproof, felt no pain at all.
"Run outta tranquilizers, have you?!" Logan yelled as he jumped at a small group of them, with his claws ready, and tearing away at them. "Too bad…" He stabbed one of the followers in the eyes, leaving the man screaming with unimaginable pain. "…'cause that was your only decent weapon!"
Colossus had also begun fighting the organization members, by punching each of his targets one-by-one, sending every one of them flying across the room.
Hawkeye had been narrowly dodging all the bullets that were flying at him, thanks to his clever tactic of hiding behind Captain America and his raised shield. While Hawkeye rapidly fired arrows at the enemies in the room, Cap had flung his shield out like a boomerang, and it knocked down several of the organization members until it flew back to him.
It wasn't long before the heroes noticed that the organization members had stopped firing bullets, and had switched to shooting yellow laser blasts from their hands. But it didn't help them much. The Ultimates and X-Men were still prevailing.
Pretty soon, all of the organization members were down on the ground, moaning with injuries, and submitting to defeat. There was only one enemy still left standing.
The Punisher.
"Don't come any closer," he said, walking towards the four with his guns aimed. He was guarding a narrow hallway, with an elevator door at the end.
"Listen," Hawkeye quietly told the others. "Captain America, you and Colossus go on ahead. Wolverine and I will deal with the Terminator here."
Everyone agreed, and they all charged towards the Punisher, who had began shooting at them. Hawkeye and Logan stood their ground and dodged the bullets, while Colossus and Cap ran through either sides the Punisher, and toward the elevator.
The Punisher quickly turned around to shoot the two trespassers, but Logan immediately leaped at him and delivered him a nice kick to the head, sending the Punisher flying a few feet and landing on the ground. He immediately got up, and faced Logan, ready for a full confrontation.
Meanwhile, Captain America and Colossus pressed the button next to the elevator, and in a matter of seconds, the door opened up and they rushed in. They quickly shut it as soon as they were both inside.
"Prepare to take a nice shot at this guy with that fancy bow of yours," Logan said to Hawkeye, who was standing not too far behind him. "I'll keep him distracted." Logan tightened his fists and he and the Punisher were staring at each other with a deadly tension.
In what appeared to be the exact same instant, they both leaped at each other. The Punisher fired his gun, and Logan then pulled off one of the most miraculous things he had done in recent memory. With a swift horizontal movement of his arm, his claws intercepted the bullet the Punisher had fired, and sent it flying towards the side.
Logan then collided with the Punisher, and stabbed him in the chest with his claws.
The Punisher yelled out a horrible noise that consisted of groaning and screaming. He turned around, trying to weakly and slowly walk away.
Logan pulled his claws out of the Punisher's ribcage, and moved aside, giving Hawkeye space to finish the job.
Hawkeye immediately released and arrow from his bow, which hit the Punisher right in the back of his neck.
He fell down.
"We make a good team," Hawkeye told Logan a few seconds after the body had hit the floor.
Logan scoffed. "If it had been me giving the final blow, he would be dead."
"That's not our objective," Hawkeye said, walking towards the Punisher's unconscious body. "We need information from these guys, which is why we now have to stay here and make sure none of them get away."
"Are you saying we're done with ass-kicking for now?" Logan asked, not thrilled at the idea.
"I am," Hawkeye replied. "But you're free to go back up there into the sky and wrestle Thor if you want."
"You know what?" Logan said in a funny, sarcastic voice that did not suit him at all. "That sounds fun, but I think I'll stay here."
Hawkeye chucked. "Glad to see you have some sense."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Logan said, irritated.
"Well, come on, you obviously couldn't take Thor-"
"You wanna bet?" Logan began to walk away towards the exit door. "I'll go knock his lights out right now."
"Wolverine, you can't do that! Not at a time like this!"
But Hawkeye's words were not listened to.
As Logan got out the building, he began proceeding down the steps outside the entrance, when he suddenly noticed that the police officers gathered out there were all staring up above Logan.
Before Logan could look up, he was violently hit in the head, and his face hit the ground pavement.
It turned out that a person had fallen on him.
"Thanks, Logan," Storm said, smiling. "You broke my fall."
Inside the elevator, Captain America and Colossus were suddenly faced with an unexpected challenge.
"Uh…" Colossus said. "Which floor do we go to?"
"Quiet," Captain America ordered. "Can you hear something?"
Colossus listened, and he did in fact hear a voice from a distance faintly say, "...grant me power."
"It's coming from below," Colossus said.
"How can that be possible?" Captain America asked. "We're on the bottom floor."
"Then there's only one way to get down there," Colossus said, putting his lands together into a large fist. "We smash through."
He then hammered the bottom the elevator floor, and a hole brought through the steel. Colossus lifted up the edges of the steel to make the hole bigger.
He looked at Captain America and said, "After you."
The Leader stood there on the platform feeling like energy was practically rising out of the ground.
Soon it will reach me, he thought, and I will be the most terrible force in the world.
Suddenly, the Leader heard some kind of smashing noise coming from outside the chamber. A crushing sound of destruction.
The Leader opened his eyes to find that the chamber door had been opened, and coming into the room was Captain America, followed by Colossus. The Leader's hope felt shattered as Captain America had at once launched his shield, and it flung it forward.
The shield rammed right into the Leader's stomach, sending him flying of the platform.
The Leader has suddenly ceased to feel the energy coming toward him. "NOOOO!!!!" he screamed. The energy extraction had been interrupted almost as soon as it had started. I was so close, he thought. So close to success.
He could only watch as the two intruders entered the room, and began attacking the Leader's four followers in there.
Captain America had grabbed Erasmus, and jerked him to the wall by his throat, leaving him gacking. Colossus had grabbed two of the others, each with one arm, and began to continually smack them into each other.
The Leader tried to get up, but it was useless. The impact of the shield had made most of his lower body go numb.
Then something happened The Leader had not imagined, and could not prevent. The one follower that was not being attacked by the intruders, Flash Thompson, had run up onto the platform.
Flash proceeded towards the center slot.
TO BE CONTINUED...