Chapter Fifteen

Wolverine dug his claws deep into the back of the mindless, raging creature known as The Incredible Hulk. The monster screamed, his bellow shaking the ground and deafening those around him. The Hulk reached back and swatted at Wolverine, trying to knock the feral mutant off of his back. The creature's vision was only now beginning to return, having been stuck through the eyes by those adamantium claws a few minutes ago.

One of the green, mutated Brood leapt onto Wolverine, instinctively defending the Hulk. The beast sunk its teeth into Wolverine's neck and shoulder, tearing away flesh and muscle. Wolverine roared with pain, lashing out wildly at the Brood with his claws in a frenzied attempt to get the damn thing off of him. This was all it took for the Hulk to be able to shake Wolverine loose, then grab him with a single giant hand. The Hulk swung Wolverine over his head, and smashed him hard onto the ground, causing Logan to go as limp as a rag doll.

Magneto soared overhead, and raised his arms like a conductor about to lead an orchestra. He could feel the metal ore beneath the surface of this planet, embedded within it. With a single grand gesture of his hand, he tore a huge chunk of metal-rich rock from the ground, raised it high into the air, and smashed it down atop the raging Hulk.

No sooner had the green goliath dug his way out from under the rock than Namor flew at him, plowing into the Hulk at full force and knocking him flat on his back. In an instant, more of the green Brood piled on top of Namor, biting and clawing at him. Then, a heap of Madroxes piled on top of the Brood, punching and kicking and even biting right back.

Several dozen yards away, Captain America struggled to pull himself out from under a pile of equally vicious Brood warriors. He was covered in blood, his eyes were nearly swollen shut, and he was trying to ignore the bones that he was sure were broken and fight through the pain.

"How much longer do you think we'll have to keep this up, Cap!" about a dozen Madroxes said in unison. Steve silently wondered if he'd meant to do that, or if at this point Jamie's consciousness was so spread out that he couldn't tell one self from the other any more.

"Not much longer, Multiple Man," Steve said, spitting blood as he hacked into another Brood with his shield. "Help is on the way."

Deep within the cave beneath them, Ghost Rider stood before Mephisto and a pack of green, drooling Brood drones.

"If you wanted it to be just the two of us, Mephisto," Ghost Rider said, noticing the disappearance of Magneto and Namor who had been at his side just moments ago, "then why do you surround yourself with these monsters?"

"These creatures?" Mephisto laughed. "Don't worry. They're only here to watch... and perhaps gnaw on your bones once I tear you apart."

Ghost Rider drew his chain out and swung it over his head, then leapt at Mephisto in a fit of pure rage. He whipped the chain at the demon's head, but he caught it with his bare hand and yanked Ghost Rider right to him. Their faces were inches apart.

"I'm going to kill you, Mephisto," Ghost Rider growled.

"Kill me? Kill me!" Mephisto laughed. He placed his hands on either side of Ghost Rider's flaming skull. "You can't kill me! Don't you get it, you stupid fool! I'm the DEVIL! I'll devour your soul, Daniel Ketch, at long last!"

"You may be the Devil," Ghost Rider said. He flung his chain out once more, and wrapped it around Mephisto's neck. He pulled it tight, and Mephisto's eyes went wide with surprise. His hands went to his neck as he struggled to pull the chain away from his throat. "But I'm the Spirit of Vengeance. And that only means you have all the more sins to relive as you stare into my eyes."

Back on Earth, Reed Richards urgently typed calculations into the main computer system.

"Can you pull them out of there, Richards!" Fury bellowed.

"I don't know," Reed said. "I should be able to, but, the problem is Madrox. Every time he multiplies, I have to recalibrate the system that's keeping the energy flow between the two worlds constant. At this point he's multiplying so fast that I can barely keep up with him, much less try to figure out how to bring them back prematurely."

"What do you mean, the energy flow?"

"Since the team traveled to the Brood homeworld though 'Hell,' which is a dimension with an energy flow that is negative to our own, we have to take in an equal amount of that dimension's negative energy to balance out the positive energy that we passed through the gate."

"And where is all this energy going, exactly?" Fury asked.

"I have a containment unit in the sub-basement of the Baxter Building," Reed said. He gestured absently towards one of the monitors that hung from the ceiling of the room. Fury stared at it. The monitor showed a huge containment unit that seemed to be the size of a football stadium, that was just barely containing a huge mass of glowing, crackling, sizzling black energy.

"And what the hell happens when that containment unit can't hold any more energy!" Fury cried.

Reed stopped typing for a moment, and ran his hands over his gray temples. It was one of the few times Nick Fury had actually seen Reed Richards sweat.

"If that happens, Colonel Fury..." Reed said, his tone grim. "Then 'Hell' comes to Earth."