2350 HOURS
Castle heard Fury's gruff voice in his head set. He was sitting next to the pilot.:
"We're approaching the target zone, so look alive, troops. Party time starts in a few minutes."
Two choppers full. Castle. Sable. Widow. Shotgun. Elektra. G-Wiz. Crippler. Amy Chen. Fury. A dozen of Sable's men.
Against 150 heavily armed, battle tested warriors.
It would have to be enough.
"We have sentinels on the roof." Castle heard again in his headset. " Six. One of them has binoculars."
WAREHOUSE
HQ OF RASTOVILICH AND TATAMOVICH
Rastovilich took his hand to his ear.
"Repeat that, watchman."
"Sir…I can hear choppers coming in, distantly, but I can't see them."
Rastovilich was puzzled. That made no sense.
"What is it, Victor?" Tatamovich asked.
"I'm not sure." Rastovilich said.
CHOPPERS
Fury's voice: "On my mark…"
WAREHOUSE
"Viktor, are we under attack or not!" Tatamovich shouted.
"Shut up, Piotr! I'm trying to think" Rastovilich said.
"What is there to think about? Either we are, or-"
CHOPPERS
Fury: "Hit it."
Both helicopters fired 20 mm Hellfire missiles at the warehouse.
The warehouse roof exploded in thunder and lightning, along with the sentinels.
WAREHOUSE
Tatamovich: "Holy shit!"
Rastovilich: "Does that answer your fucking questions! COMRADES! "
Whoever hadn't perished in the first onslaught was already recovering. Aiming at the night sky.
Rastovlich: "Where the fuck are they?"
One of his men seemed to listen intently and fired his AK-47 seemingly blindly. But something impossible happened.
Metallic sparks appeared out of nowhere.
CHOPPERS
"They figured us out!" G-Wiz said. "They know we're cloaked!"
"Ok. Fuck this hide and seek shit!" Fury said. " Remove the cloaks! Hit the ground and grease those motherfuckers!"
One of the chopper doors opened, the one holding Sable's Symkarian mercs. One of the was firing a 7.62mm mini-gun as the rest of the troops were repelling to the ground.
Castle's chopper went to the opposite side. Shotgun, with his belt-fed fully automatic 12 gauge weapon loaded with c-4 shells, was providing the cover.
It was hell.
It was war.
Dozens of the Russian mercs were being hacked up savagely by the relentless fire. The place was already littered with dismembered, gutted and burned corpses.
RASTOVILICH TOSSED TATAMOVICH A WEAPON, AN AK-47 WITH A 90 ROUND DRUM, Rastovlich had an M-4 Carbine with a similar drum, but it was fitted with a 40 mil grenade launcher.
Most of his men were still alive, taking cover and fighting back. Fighting hard.
Rastovilich aimed his 40 mil grenade launcher at one of the helicopters.
THE PUNISHER WAS FEELING AT HOME AMIDST THE CARNAGE.
One way or the other, it would end here.
Castle was holding his 7.62 M-60. His allies were spreading out. He found cover behind a concrete pillar. A cluster of half a dozen tangoes were heading his war. He unclipped two frags from his harness. Removed the pins and tossed them.
All six men were blown apart by the twin bombs.
Castle broke cover and went deeper into hell.
Then he heard a chopper explode.
NICK FURY SWORE AS HE SAW HIS CHOPPER EXPLODE. PILOT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD KID.
And so much for evac.
All Fury had to do was give the kid's death some meaning. He took cover behind some crates walked behind some of the enemy.
Like he told Widow earlier, this was fair. Fury wasn't Wyatt Earp.
Fury fired a long burst from his M-16/40Mil combo and cut down his four targets.
He rose his head on time to see four of Sable' Symkarians go down, taken by a group of Russian mercs. He fired a 40 mill High-Explosive round at them. They went, up and away in one piece or more.
Then Fury heard a barrage of automatic fire behind him and saw three more crumple to the ground.
"What would you do without me, Nick?" Black Widow said.
"Don't flatter yourself, Romanov. Let's go. We have more fuckers to kill."
ELEKTRA DIDN'T CARE MUCH FOR FIREARMS BUT THEY WERE EFFICIENT TOOLS.
She ducked and rolled as four of the enemy were firing at her. She fired back with controlled bursts of her H&K 7.62mm assault rifle. She seemed to dance around their fire as her round were touching their marks.
The stench of death was overwhelming, but the complete lawlessness of this massacre was liberating.
She abandoned herself to the sinister and beautiful dance of death.
She smiled. When more men came at here, her smile was wider, when she opened fire, she laughed whole heartedly.
Then their other helicopter exploded.
G-WIZ AND CRIPPLER WERE BOTH STARTLED BY THAT NEW TITANIC EXPLOSION.
"Hey, what-" Crippler said right before his skull was blown all over G-Wiz.
"Crippler! CRIPPLER!"
G-Wiz, eyes full of tears and rage saw five enemy soldiers come at him.
"FUCK YOU! MOTHERFUCKERS! MOTHERFUCKEERRRS!"
G-Wiz fired a weapon that seemed to project a net. It was. Except it was of barbed wire. Three men were caught and torn to pieces.
"You wanna be gangsters, you bitches!" G-Wiz said pulling twin 9MM fully automatic Glock 18s. "Let's dance, bitches, let's go gangsta style! Come on!"
He fired in pure unchecked rage at the remaining two. But didn't notice a man walking behind him, stopping, taking aim with an AK-47 and firing a short burst at his head.
TATAMOVICH WALKED OVER TO THE FALLEN ENEMY. AND SPIT ON HIM.
"This is what happens when you break into my house, you spic fucker."
SILVER SABLE WAS FIGHTING FOR HER LIFE. AND KEEPING HER EMOTIONS IN CHECK.
She'd lost most of her people so far and there were so many of the enemy.
But it wasn't time for mourning and self doubt. She was along side Amy Chen.
"Sable. We've lost Crippler and G-Wiz. And our men."
"Keep fighting, Chen, kill as many as-"
"SABLE!" Chen shouted as she shoved Sable aside before he body was torn up by automatic fire.
"AMY!" Sable hosed down the trio of thugs who'd shot her ally and friend. She went over to Chen.
Eyes opened forever. Face intact and strangely peaceful.
She was a warrior and died a warrior's death.
Silver Sable got up and moved on.
CASTLE WAS SOON JOINED BY SHOTGUN BEHIND A PILE OF CRATES.
"Frank! We're getting our ass kicked!"
"Yeah." Castle said cutting down two men with his 60. He was out. He dropped it and unslung an M-4 Carbine.
"Nothin' gets to you, huh?" Shotgun said, blasting a trio of tangoes with a mix rifled slugs and shredder rounds. "We're running low and ammo. We lost all of Sable's people except Sable. And our choppers. And we still got Fury and Widow. And about two thirds of the opposition."
"Looks like we're fucked, Walker." Castle said quietly. "These guys aren't street thugs. They're hardcore."
"Fuckin' A." A familiar, gruff voice said.
"Fury." Castle said. "And Widow."
"But so are we." Fury said.
Soon, Elektra and Silver Sable joined.
"I could think of worse ways of dying for people like us." Elektra said.
"I gotta admit, this beats prostate cancer." Fury said.
"Or apathy." Sliver Sable said.
"Sable…"Fury said.
"You didn't get me into this, Fury, I did. They were warriors and died as such. I saw we honour them by taking out as many as we can."
Dozens of mercs were closing in on them.
"Sounds good to me." Shotgun said.
"This is our last stand. Let's make them remember it." Widow said.
"Let's deal out some Punishment." Castle said.
Like one man, they rose from cover and unleashed the fury of their automatic weapons.
TATAMOVICH AND RASTOVILICH SAW THE SMALL GROUP OF SURVIVORS FIGHT WITH EVERYTHING THEY HAD.
"No wonder Castle did so much damage. He had Elektra, Nick Fury, Black Widow and Silver Sable as allies." Rastovlich said.
"And who's the big nigger with the shotguns?" Tatamovich said.
"I don't know. But he's no slouch either. But in the end, it won't be enough." Rastovlich said.
"You almost sound sad." Tatamovich said.
"Warriors are a dying breed, Piotr. These were the best of the best."
Then an armoured car crashed through one of the walls.
"What the…" Rastovilich said.
"Who are these assholes?" Tatamovich said.
The truck plowed through several of the mercenaries.
Then 50.CAL machine guns were deployed from the truck and were hosing down the Russian mercs.
"FURY." CASTLE SHOUTED OVER THE MACHINE GUN FIRE. "ARE THESE SHIELD?"
"Honest to Christ, Castle, I have no idea who the fuck they are, but I am glad as hell they came." Fury said. "Let's give them some cover, people!"
With the new arrival, the fight didn't seem as hopeless for Castle and his allies.
Then metallic sounds were heard on the ground as the truck was still rolling through the troops.
"That thing is laying mines!" Shotgun said.
"Get down." Castle said.
Each of the half dozen mines went off. Each mine killed four of the enemy.
RASTOVLICH WENT OVER TO ONE HIS PREVIOUSLY FALLEN MEN WHO WAS HOLDING A LOADED RPG.
Rastovlich grabbed the rocket launcher and aimed it at the truck.
"Dosvedania." Rastovilich said as he fired.
THE TRUCK WAS HIT ON THE SIDE AND WAS FLIPPED OVER A FEW TIMES. AND LANDED ON ITS TIRES.
The Punisher and the others were still spraying the remaining soldiers as others closed in on the damaged truck.
The slide door opened and more automatic fire came out of the truck.
Then two men came out in full combat gear hosing down the opposition. One man, with short hair and a short beard was holding an M-4 Carbine with a 100 round drum. The other one, tall, strong, Slavic features, muscular was holding a 5.56 GE minigun.
"Son of a bitch…" Fury said.
"You know them too?" Shotgun said.
"So do I" Romanov said.
"Who are they?" Silver Sable asked.
"Govenko and Renaud. Sometimes known as Danko and Niemans of Interpol. Part of an outfit called Branch-X." Fury said. "Spooks. Really undercover."
More automatic fire came at Castle and his partners.
Rastovlich and Tatamovich.
The Punisher dove and rolled, pulled out his twin .45s and fired. And they both fell. Punisher walked towards them. He'd score a couple times on each of them. They were wounded and not going anywhere. The others were handling the remainder of the troops.
He thought of all the victims. The ugliness of the past couple of days which felt like a year.
He stood over them.
Both were coughing blood.
He aimed a 45 at each head and fired almost at the same time. Both skulls shattered and splattered the brains that masterminded a nearly successful hostile takeover of New York City.
He re-holstered his pistols. His shoulders slumped. He was tired. The adrenaline rush was wearing off.
He turned around. The last of the mercenaries had been finished off.
His work was done.
The Punisher went out in the cool night air.
DANKO/GOVENKO LOOKED AT FURY AND THE OTHERS:
"We have a hovercraft posted not far. We can get you of here before the law shows up."
"Good idea." Shotgun said.
"Where's The Punisher?" Renaud/Niemans asked.
"Frank ain't much of a social bird." Shotgun said.
"Let's get out of here before we become jail birds." Widow said.
"Also a good idea." Elektra said.
And they left behind a burning, corpse filled shell of a warehouse.