Chapter Nine
Logan cracked his neck as his internal organs finished regenerating themselves. Too bad the rest of his cigars were lost somewhere in the debris from the plane. For some reason, having his healing factor kick in always made him crave a good smoke.
"Hey, bub, your head's on fire," Logan said to Ketch, now Ghost Rider. "Thought you said this only happened when the blood of the innocent was spilled."
"Indeed," Ghost Rider replied, his voice hollow and rumbling. "Much blood has been spilled here. The halls of this complex reek of evil and death. Thus, the Spirit of Vengeance has been awakened."
"Right," Logan said. "I liked you better when you were the goofy drunk guy."
"All right, everybody, fall in line," Cap ordered, trying to regain some authority after the chaos of the crash. "Madrox, pull yourself together, will you?"
"Yes, sir," the nine or so Madrox multiples said in unison. They began to merge together, getting their numbers back down to a more manageable three or four.
"So what happened to the ship, Cap?" Namor asked.
"Not sure, Namor. Could have been a force field, alien tech, magic..."
"Magnetism," Logan offered, casting a sideward glance at Magneto.
"Do you really think I would have come along on this mission simply to sabotage it, while putting my own life at risk in the process, Logan?" Erik scoffed.
"Not sayin' anything. Just know that I'm keepin' an eye on you, metal head."
"All right, that's enough," Steve barked. "We have to stay focused, and bickering among ourselves is not going to help anything. Now, whatever it was that caused us to crash into this place, I don't know, but someone or something wants us to be here."
"Creepy," one of the Madroxes said, shivering. He looked around the complex. It looked like some kind of old, abandoned military science base. Giant, antiquated computers and machinery filled the hall that they now stood in, though they were covered in cobwebs and dust. The ceiling rose high above their heads, giving the whole place an echoey emptiness.
"Did you say this was where they found the Skrull that was impersonating Banner?" Namor asked.
"No," Steve said, pulling out a palm pilot that Nick had issued him before they left. Steve had only taken it at Fury's insistence, since Cap still had trouble dealing with modern technology most of the time. "According to our GPS, we're about 10 miles away from the diner where they picked up the Banner Skrull."
Magneto tossed aside some more of the debris from their crashed ship. As he did, he exposed a large doorway, with a spiral staircase leading downward.
"All right," Cap said, returning the palm pilot to his belt. "As long as we're here, let's explore the complex, see if it can reveal any clues about what caused our ship to crash. Maybe there's a connection between this place and Banner's disappearance."
They all fell into line behind Cap, and descended the old staircase. It creaked and groaned beneath their combined weight.
"It sure is dark down here," Logan commented. "Hey, flame head, any chance you can glow any brighter?"
The flames surrounding Ghost Rider's skull shot up higher, casting off more illumination and lighting up the dark stairwell.
"Damn. I was only kiddin'," Logan mused.
The further down they traveled, the darker the stairwell became, and a dank, putrid smell filled the air. Steve had to brush away cobwebs from his face, and the creaking of the stairs only got louder as it echoed all around them.
After what seemed like forever, they finally reached the bottom of the staircase. It quickly became evident that Ghost Rider's illumination was not going to be sufficient, and Steve pulled a flashlight from his belt and clicked it on.
"My God..."
They were now in a small, narrow, brick corridor. Carved into the wall was some kind of language that none of them recognized.
"Is this some kind of alien writing?" Namor asked.
"It's nothing that I've ever seen before," Cap said. He took the palm pilot back out and clicked a few buttons on it. "Fury, this is Steve," speaking into the device. "I'm sending you a visual transmission. See if you can run these markings through the SHIELD database, cross-referencing with any known alien languages."
Steve held the palm pilot up and took a digital picture of the wall. An icon came up on his screen, indicating that the image was being transmitted to SHIELD. Suddenly, the screen went dead.
"What happened?" Madrox asked.
"I don't know..."
Ghost Rider turned and faced down the long, empty corridor, staring into the darkness.
"We are not alone down here," he said, his voice as cold as the grave.
Logan popped his claws. "Boys," he said. "I got a real bad feelin' about this."
