Marvels and Terrors: Chapter 3
"Wake up, Marvel,"
Cold water splashes onto my mask, soaking it and me. Opening my eyes slowly, I'm greeted to the sight of three Peacemaker guards crowding around me. We're in some kind of vehicle, possibly a quinjet, with metal walls and a sloped roof. Strangely enough, there's no water bucket to be seen.
I observe the guards. They're wearing the standard attire: black trenchcoats with red jeans and skull masks. It's a little strange for a guard uniform, but it was Soul Rider's call, I heard. Don't know why they would put that guy in charge of uniforms.
"Look..." I manage. My entire torso area hurts more than anything ever should. I think Hulk might have broken a few things. "It's the Rider's groupies. How'd you three get a gig like this?"
"Shut it, rebel," One of them orders, kicking me in the gut. His eyes glow a murderous shade of blue, and I realize that he must have been the one who splashed me. Water formers always have glowing blue eyes.
Looking down, I realize they tied me to a large, metal chair, made of the same kind of material as the vehicle. "Huh," I grunt, spitting out blood into my mask. "Think you'd be so tough if I wasn't tied in this chair?"
"I said-" The guard starts, raising his fist. Before he can strike me again, though, one of his companions grabs his arm, stopping him.
"Hey, cool it, man. He's just trying to get inside your head. You know what Cap would do if we were caught abusing a prisoner, especially this one." This guard's tall, I'd guess around 6 feet. Unlike the others, he's not wearing any gloves, revealing hands lined with scales.
"Yeah, well, if he gets out of line again, I'm not going to hold back," The first one says, shaking his friend's hand off.
"So what's the deal?" I ask the guards. "Did Cap ask you guys to escort me to interregations?"
The first two glance at each other worridly, as if that's exactly what happened. The third, however, simply stands in the corner silently, not saying a word.
"That's what I thought," I say casually. "I have no idea why Cap would choose you though, water eyes. I thought he still had standards."
"That's it," The first guard says, shoving the second one into one of the walls. "This guy's going down."
He pulls back his fist, and brings it right into my jaw. It's a good hit, better than I had expected it to be. He hits me a few more times before grabbing my face with both hands. "Listen up. No one messes with me. Hear me? No one."
"And no one messes with me," I reply, grinning. He's still touching me. I have him just where I want him.
Takng a deep breath, I activate my ability for the third time that day. Surprisingly, I've never tried using my ability when someone else is doing the touching, but it still works. This time, though, I'm presented with two different options: fire or ice. The power does that sometimes. It's adapted itself a bit over the years.
I take a few seconds to ponder it. Ice would be more suited for the guard, but fire has more power. In this case, the choice is easy. Fire, I think.
As soon as I do, a burst of fire erupts around me, burning my bonds into cinders and setting the guard on fire. Standing up, I send a concentrated blast of fire at the second guard, who immediately falls on his back, trying to pat off the flames. I turn to attack the final guard, but he's nowhere to be seen.
Pointing to the nearest wall, I melt a hole in it, and jump out. Turns out I was in a Quinjet, and it was pretty high up, far too high for my comfort. Enveloping myself with fire, I fly up into the clouds. From what I saw when I jumped, I'm above a desert, which is good and bad. Bad, because I have no idea how to survive in a desert. Good, because if it's the desert I think it is, I might have some friends to contact.
Flying down a little, I decide to explore from above a bit. My chances are better in the air than on the ground. After exploring countless miles of barren landscape, though, I'm about to give up. But then I see it: the test site.
It's almost like area 51, in terms of fame. Different people have called it different things: Birthplace of Evil, The Cursed Land, even The Beginning of Heroes. Personally, I've always thought of it as what it is: a test site, albeit one that produced some of the greatest monsters of our time.
I try to resist the urge, but I have to go down. I have to see it. Landing on the still-scorched ground, I simply stand still, staring in awe. I didn't think this place was still around, honestly. Thinking back on what happened here so many years ago, I almost collapse. This place has a history deeper and darker than most people, including myself, fully know.
Eventually, I get myself to turn and fly out of the site. If I'm going to do what I need to, I probably don't have much time. Part of me wishes that things were like they were back when the whole superhero thing had just started, in the beginning days of the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four. Things were so much simpler then, when heroes were heroes and that was all there was to it. Of course, there were some exceptions, as the test site proves, but still, it must have been nice.
After some time, I find what I've been looking for. It's a fairly large cave opening, near the edge of the desert. If you haven't been trained on this desert and it's most famous inhabitent, you wouldn't be able to recognize the cave as anything more than that: a cave. Luckily, I've been trained quite a bit.
I enter the cave, making sure my steps are slow and careful. You can't be too cautious when you're dealing with the kind of things I am right now. My breaths sound incredibly loud in the dark silence of the cave. Right in front of me there's a long row of steps leading downwards, which I take as slowly as I can.
After some time, I reach the ends of the steps, and head straight ahead. Within seconds, I'm facing a large, metal door. Of course, it's not just any kind of metal. This is the metal that held back the strongest one there was.
Putting my hand against the door, I whisper to no one in particular. "Hulk, what happened to you?"
Suddenly, cold metal points into the back of my neck. "The green one? He's dead."
I know who it is. He's the entire reason I came here. "Nice to see you too, Ross."
"I haven't been Ross in years, punk," He replies. "If you're going to call me anything, call me Hulk."
"Do I have to?" I ask with a slightly whiny tone. "I always liked Rulk better."
"Rulk..." The metal, which I know is a gun, is taken off my neck. "Only one person ever called me that. Is that you, Marvel?"
I turn slowly, my hands raised in surrender. "You know it, old man."
The Red Hulk looks the same as ever, which I am very glad to see. Everybody's changed so much after the War. Towering over me, he's still a giant red mass of muscle. I recognize his gun as the one that he used to kill Abomination way back when, before my time. He always kept it, said it was there to remind him of some darker times. His burning golden eyes examine me with no emotion, making sure it really is me.
Eventually, he speaks up. "Hah! It's been too long, boy," He says, patting me on the back.
I try not to wince. A Hulk pat can hurt. "Way too long, Red. How's it been going?"
Rulk sighs, his shoulders stooping. "Not so well. I've been living in the Nevada for a while now, ever since the War ended. Figure the world doesn't need me anymore."
"Trust me, you couldn't be more wrong," I say. It wasn't like him to look so defeated.
"What do you mean?" He asks, suddenly interested.
As quickly as I can, I tell him all the events of the last three years, everything Cap's Peacemakers have been doing since the end of the War. It's a long list, but when I'm done, he turns to the metal door, his expression deadly serious.
"Rahhhh!" Screaming with rage, Rulk tears the door apart, and steps into the blackness within the room. He must have gotten stronger over the years, because there is no way the Red Hulk that I'm used to could break that door. No creature on Earth could, before this.
A few minutes later, he steps back out, armed to the teeth. In his hands, he carries two copies of the handgun from before, and over his back is slung a giant laser canon. He wears two ammo belts actually around his waist. He looks angry enough to kill an army, and flames are running across his body.
"So Rogers has gone rogue," He says, walking past me. "Fine. Looks like it's time to bring back the Remnant Squad."
Kind of a tie-in with my other story, The Remnant Squad. If you've read it, you can guess where things will go from here. If you didn't guess, the desert they're in is the Nevada Desert, and the test site is the one where Bruce Banner first became the original Hulk. Please, please, please review! Please?