ULTIMATE MELEE
CHAPTER 12
Iron Man's flight towards the army of cloaked men was violently interrupted when he felt a heavy impact hit the jets on his legs.
He felt the suit lose speed. Energy was being drained.
Tony checked his power status. It had dropped dramatically. There almost wasn't enough to make it down on the ground.
"WHO THE HELL DID THAT?!" Tony burst out loud, turning around and checking all around him.
It was incredibly hard to see in the rain, but Tony was sure that there was nobody around him.
"Tony, what just happened?" a voice over the radio said.
"I've been hit," Tony replied. "Victimized by a sniper shooting, to be exact."
"Then get down here. You can't stay up in the sky that long."
Tony obeyed, and began dropping down towards the city headfirst.
Suddenly, a figured popped up in front of him out of nowhere. It was man.
One of the cloaked men, in fact.
"YOU!" Tony yelled, lowering his laser rifle down towards the man and taking aim.
"Don't bother," the figure said. He had a very young, boyish voice. "My new teleportation abilities can get me out of that jam before you even pull the trigger."
"And who would you be?" Tony asked.
"Hmm…I'll need to come up with an alias right here on the spot, so I apologize if isn't good," the stranger said. "Let's see…how about the Renegade Phantom?"
"Is this some kind of joke to you?!" Tony demanded.
"No," the stranger smirked. "But dealing that damage to your jets was. How many billions will it take to repair that?"
Tony growled angrily.
"It's not important," the stranger continued. "What matters is that I just couldn't let you go after those guys."
"And why is that?"
"Let's just say that they have certain information you'd be better off not knowing."
Unable to suppress his anger, Tony fired a laser bullet at the cloaked stranger, but it did no good. The man disappeared before the laser got anywhere near him.
"Damn…" Tony muttered out of frustration.
"Nice try, Mr. Stark," the man's voice said behind Tony. "I'd advise you to watch your back from now on." He laughed wickedly.
Tony turned around to face the man, but as soon as he did, the laugh faded away, and Tony saw that there was nobody there.
Nick Fury walked into the Fisk Tower to find numerous amounts of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents already in there. A large amount of them were surrounding a sleeping man in a purple cloak, with their guns aimed.
"Who is this clown?" Fury openly asked, walking towards the crowd of men surrounding the man.
"That's their leader," Hawkeye said, walking up beside Fury. "He was the only one left here, and the three kidnapped young men have received transportation back to the Triskelion, where they'll be taken to their respective homes. They were the ones who identified this man, named Cyrek, as the leader of the organization that was running the show. They also gave us names of a few others involved: Erasmus, Elektra Nachios, the Punisher…"
"And where are all of our guys?" Fury inquired.
"Well, let's see," Hawkeye accounted. "Cap, Colossus, Cyclops, Storm, and Wolverine are all outside giving their statements. Tony's just landed not too far from here and he's currently being removed from his suit, which got damaged. And Thor, with a heavy amount of security, has been rushed to the nearest emergency center after getting his ass handed to him by Cyclops and Iron Man."
Fury nodded. "Any idea how this guy, who is supposedly in charge, managed to remain as the only one who didn't escape?"
Hawkeye chuckled proudly. "You can thank me for that. I took him out."
"Oh, really?" Fury said, turning to look at Hawkeye face-to-face.
"Indeed," Hawkeye replied, with a grin. "It's like I told you yesterday in your office, Nick. If you need something done, I can do it. I'm your man."
Fury stared at Hawkeye with a gaze of curiosity. "You're going to ask me for a raise now, aren't you?"
The two men began laughing.
Even with the fact that they had just had one of the most traumatic past two days of their life, with their enemy still out there, they laughed, knowing at least some of their stress was relieved.
Aboard the private jet he had bought that day, the Kingpin received many calls concerning his tower in Manhattan.
"Mr. Fisk! The tower! Something has happened! S.H.I.E.L.D. is all over the place and-" was what most of the phone calls consisted of before he hung up.
After all, why should he be bothered on his vacation?
Just then that moment, he received another phone call. The caller ID displayed a number he remotely recognized. Maybe this would be a worthy call.
He answered it.
"Hello?"
It turned out to be Elektra.
"Mr. Fisk, where are you? I captured the young mutant Drake, but in the meantime, I found out the identities of the other two others! Sir, I've discovered a piece of information you have to know! Peter Parker is-"
The Kingpin hung up the phone.
He had no time for this garbage.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. van let Peter off at a corner while nobody else was on the street.
"Good luck, kid," the driver told him as Peter got out.
"Thanks," Peter replied, and then the van drove off.
Peter walked through the familiar streets of his neighborhood.
"Oh God, what a day…" he whispered. Peter was more tired than he had ever been before. He could wait to just get home and collapse into his bed.
Assuming, of course, that Aunt May had bought his sleepover story and she wouldn't greet him with an hour-long lecture about coming home on time.
As Peter approached his house, he noticed that Mary Jane happened to be outside in front of her own home. She noticed Peter, and began running towards him.
They two of them collided and gave each other a tight hug.
"Oh, Peter-" Mary Jane said. "I was so worried about you.
"I'm sorry," Peter apologized. "None of it was my fault. It was just – it was so crazy."
"What happened?" she asked, still clutching him tightly. "I saw you on the news, and-"
"I'll tell you later," Peter interrupted. "Just hold me right now. I feel like I won't be able to walk on my own for the next week. I'm so tired, Mary…"
And for what Peter hoped would last an eternity, he held his girlfriend; he was glad to once again be surrounded by people he loved.
Captain America walked into Fury's office, where he found Nick and Hawkeye sitting at the desk, staring at a computer screen, talking.
After the day's tiring events, it turned out to be a pretty relaxed evening at the Triskelion. Bruce Banner was safely back in his containment cell, and all S.H.I.E.L.D. employees, as well as the Ultimates, did nothing put patiently wait for new information to pour in from the scene of the battle.
"Gentlemen," he addressed, and they both looked up. "I have certain interesting news…"
"What is it, Steve?" Fury asked.
"They've just finished the search of the building," Cap replied.
"And what did they find?" Hawkeye asked.
"Nothing," Captain America answered. "Nothing at all. The only evidence that the organization was even there was the chamber."
Fury's eyes grew an expression of deep concern. "Then it has to be. If there was no computer equipment to create the hypnotic transmissions in those phone calls, then it all has to be-"
"Magic," Hawkeye said with astonishment. "It matches Tony's story, doesn't it? That somebody just appeared out of nowhere and fried all of the energy in Iron Man's jet boosters?"
"Unbelievable," disagreed Cap. "Magic…there's just no such thing."
Nick responded with, "Come on Steve, you've seen giant green monsters, aliens, and mutants running around with all sorts of abilities, and yet you refuse to believe in the smallest bit of the paranormal?"
"That's my opinion," Cap said, turning to walk out of the office. "I don't care if those boys claim that the organization prophesized the events that occurred. And I don't care if Charles Xavier was unable to read the mind of Cyrek, who hasn't said a word ever since we captured him. I say it's all just an elaborate scheme." He walked out of the office, and the door shut behind him.
Hawkeye and Fury looked at each other.
"Go easy on him," Hawkeye said to Fury. "He's from the dark ages. Any magic to him is considered witchcraft."
"But that's the thing, Clint," Fury said, not taking the statement as a joke. "These still are the dark ages. We have no idea about the true nature of magic, and if it's going to start popping up all of a sudden, we have no way of being prepared."
"Well…" Hawkeye began, with a tone of promise in his voice. "Actually, there is one way we can learn a bit more about this."
"How?" Fury asked impatiently.
"I've heard about this one guy," Hawkeye said. "Supposedly, he's down with all this sorcery stuff. His name's Stephen Strange. You should look him up."
Upon the X-Men's return to the mansion, Bobby and Geldoff both faced the students with different attitudes.
Geldoff, like he was known to do, remained alone, only bothering to talk the small amount of friend's he had at the school.
Bobby, however, didn't hesitate to use the attention on him to his benefit. He particularly enjoyed telling his perspective of events to many of the female students in mansion.
"It was a quite a struggle for Elektra to get me," Bobby would say. "First, I used my power to knock the gun out of her hand. I did this weird spinning kick thing and kicked her face into the wall. She got really pissed, and picked up the gun, and began shooting me like crazy. I dodged a couple of the bullets at first, but when one of them finally hit me, I kept my cool for a whole minute, fighting back, until the bullet's effects finally caught on…"
He repeated this story as many times as he could to anyone willing to listen.
"Show-off," members of the X-Men, including Kitty and Rogue, would cough as they passed by Bobby.
However, the most meaning re-counting of the events that Bobby told was a private conversation he had with Professor Xavier as soon as he got back.
It occurred in Xavier's office, where Bobby told the professor in full detail what had actually happened.
"Interesting…" Xavier said. "I must say, Bobby, I'm impressed by your courage in this situation, and I'm glad for you and myself that it's all finally over."
"Yeah…" Bobby said, relieved.
"Well, I must think about this for a while," the professor said. "I might find connections and clues later on that might clear up more of this. Is there anything else you wish to tell me?"
"No, I think that-" Bobby began saying, standing up from the chair, but then he stopped. "Actually…" He slid back into the chair. "There is just one more thing."
"Yes?" the professor asked, interested.
"Well…" Bobby began. "The morning that the Hulk was here at the school, I woke up from a very odd dream…"
"Go on," the professor said.
"In this dream," Bobby continued. "I felt really…powerful. It was almost as if my powers had just received this huge boost, and I had transformed into a stronger version of myself, in which I could do things I've never done before."
"I see. And what did you do in this dream?"
"Well…I was running. I wasn't sure what I was running from, but I was using my ice to get around the roofs and buildings of the city, trying to get away from something. After what seemed like forever, something hit me on my back I fell onto one of the rooftops."
"Did you see what hit you?"
"I'm not sure which one of them it was, but a bunch of guys suddenly floated around me and landed on the roof, surrounding me." Bobby then stopped speaking, and looked down towards the floor.
The professor asked, "Bobby, were these people-"
"Yes," Bobby said quickly, in a worried tone. "They were the purple-cloaked men. I saw them in my dream before I ever even met them in real life."
Professor Xavier sat back in his chair, remaining silent.
"Professor…" Bobby began asking, with a look of fear in his eyes. "What do you think this meant?"
Nick Fury personally escorted Cyrek towards his containment cell in the Triskelion, along with two guards that followed them.
Fury had been very concerned by the way Cyrek had not said a single word ever since he was taken into custody. He could have sworn he had once heard the man mumble "…they'll come for me…" but he decided that it was just his imagination.
"Well, here you go," Fury said, pointing towards the small room surrounded by super-hard glass walls. "I hope you find your new accommodations comforting."
Cyrek, as expected, said nothing.
"Alright then," Fury sighed. "If there's nothing else you'll be needing…"
After a cold silence from Cyrek, Fury gave up and started walking down the hallway and leaving.
"Do I get a phone call?" Fury heard Cyrek say loudly.
He turned around to face Cyrek in disbelief.
"After everything you've done using a phone, do you really want one?" Fury asked him.
Cyrek didn't say anything, but he did nod.
Fury gave Cyrek a cold expression and shook his head. "Not even to your mother."
And with that, Fury continued down the hallway and left the prisoner.
"…And so, Elektra, as I've said, you will forget anything and everything involved the Trinity and the events that occurred surrounding it."
Erasmus ended the phone conversation.
It had been a few weeks since the battle at the Fisk Tower, and he was now sitting comfortably in his working office at the organization's new base of operations.
Their new employer had been very generous with the funding towards their project, and had given them plenty of room to carry out their work, as well as more-than-decent places to live.
At first, the organization was shocked and full of disbelief that Cyrek had chosen Erasmus to be the new Leader, but gradually, they decided that it was indeed a logical choice, and that Erasmus would most likely do a good job in his new position.
It had been a good position to fill, Erasmus thought. Everybody had begun bowing down to him and treating him with unbelievable respect.
Erasmus looked at his computer screen, and the program Cyrek had once used to translate the manuscript.
"Cyrek, you lying bastard…" Erasmus had said to himself when he had first logged into Cyrek's files and learned to translate the prophecy himself.
Erasmus had learned that Cyrek had kept many things from the organization, and had also given an incorrect translation of the prophecy to the organization.
The way Cyrek had told it, it had to be the one that was most worthy of claiming the prophecy that would gain the Trinity powers. The members naturally assumed that it would be extremely appropriate, if not required, that the person who would be gaining powers was Cyrek himself, who was the Leader, after all.
But no, it turns out, that anybody who steps into the center slot was automatically able to gain the powers, no matter who they were.
He could have given me the powers, Erasmus thought when he first found out. He could have given anyone the powers, but he selfishly chose himself.
That wasn't the only thing Cyrek had kept from the organization. He had basically lied about the whole foundation of what the Trinity was.
Erasmus found that the Trinity wasn't just three people that served as the keys to great power, as Cyrek had told them.
Erasmus himself couldn't believe it when he first read what the prophecy had actually said about the Trinity:
"The Trinity consists of three great warriors, whom the Prophet will reveal when they are still in their young ages. The three will already be blessed with incredible power, but the day will come when they will all together emerge as even stronger than before, with the power to do things that their normal potential never held. Their transformations will lead them to be among the strongest fighters in existence, and all others will look upon them as gods."
"Well, well, well," Erasmus chucked when he first read this. "Looks like things haven't even begun to get interesting around here yet."
FIN.