Asgard, Unknown Time and Date
"Ghost," the voice screamed, "Ghost get your hard bloody head off the ground and wake up." The man shifted and looked up to see the gleaming hall hewn artistically from the rock shift around him.
"What the…" he moaned as the woman's voice interrupted his train of thought, "Ghost we're running out of time."
"Tate is that you?" he asked lazily.
"Thank God your contingent. Can you move?" Tate asked. Ghost moved his arms and legs, they ached but he could just about move them.
"I'm mobile," he replied, "Where the hell are you?"
"The Helicarrier, Ghost something big is going down and we need to act fast." Tate replied as the sounds of sirens and alarms could be heard behind her. "I'm sending you some data to your HUD, don't block it because it's crucial to helping the others."
"How did you get into my armor?" Ghost asked, his voice full of concern.
"Two and a half days of hacking into Osborne's Back Door to your armor systems. Listen the formula you are seeing is a potent memory restoring drug, your minds were stripped of humanity by the energy blast but this should reverse the effects." Tate explained, "The problem is that it's only temporary, two hours max. I managed to hack into you suits oxygen filtering system to create enough to keep you sane for a few hours."
"And then I revert I guess." Ghost replied, "Would like to keep my brain state like this for a while Tate is there anything I can do to make this the norm not the exception."
"You need a special locking protein, one that's found in a few biological sources on Earth." Tate explained as pictures of a protein structure with additional base pairs appeared, "It's found in Symbiote DNA so I guess you know where the nearest source is." she added.
"Great so now I'm on a wild Toxin hunt." Ghost remarked, "Just great." he added
"There's more you need to implant the protein sample that I stored in…" she stopped and checked the console, "Ghost I'm going to make this quick, the Heli Carrier just got struck by oh my God is that." she remarked, "James's armor has the ability to mass produce some chemicals one you get the protein slot them into the analysis tray on his suit and turn on the computers, for some reason they shut down when he was converted. You have to hurry, in just a few hours the window will have closed. Tell them…" the connection fizzled out and Ghost did a quick satellite up-link to see the HAMMER Helicarrier smash into the ground as forked lightning struck the hull. Quietly he floated away, his suit scanning for the crystalline comms. systems radiation signal along Asgard's deserted halls.
Twenty minutes later Ghost had located the signal of what he hoped was his team mates although he didn't enjoy facing the team of feral agents. Suddenly he stopped as heavy footfalls could be heard echoing down the hall. Quickly he went intangible and hid in the wall as a compact light weight suit of armor, similar to his own crossed the junction and walked past leading a group of people deeper into the ruins.
"Janissary," he sneered, "And Carr, Airborne and Daken looks like there homing in on the rest of the team." he told himself as Janissary scanned the area above them before pointing upwards. Quickly Ghost floated up past them and into the room above to find his team mates huddled around a fire with a HAMMER agent slowly roasting above it. "Despicable," he murmured, "Now to save your primitive lives before your inferior intellect gives our enemies another advantage." Toxin hissed something and stared straight at Ghost before flicking his tongue and advancing past Victoria who was caressing a HAMMER Pulse Assault Rifle like it was a prize procession or a loved one.
"Ghost is here." Toxin hissed, "He smells different, like food." he added shooting a dart of webbing that impacted with his targets face-mask causing him to snap out of intangibility as the Symbiote advanced. Ghost lashed out as Toxin leapt on him, but his weak blows did nothing but make the Symbiote press down faster while the others surrounded them all growling or screeching like feral beasts. Scratching at his attacker Ghost removed a slab of Toxin's flesh just as he bit down on his other arm, gnawing through the metal and the skin only to receive a sharp electric shock.
"That's right I don't taste good." Ghost retorted as Toxin staggered backwards, "I hope this is enough to save you my…well your not my friends nugh." He fell backwards as Natasha slammed into him before furiously trying to remove his mask. Immediately Victoria screeched something and pointed the rifle at her causing the Black Widow to back off mumbling something under her breath. Ghost quickly went intangible causing the group of primitives to gasp, their undeveloped minds unable to comprehend that he wasn't some all powerful wizard, if they hadn't been trying to eat him he would have laughed but now wasn't the time. Judging from the Ghost Suit's X-Ray Scanners, Janissary had found a stair-case and was advancing, he would have to act quickly.
"Over Here" he called popping up near the fire. Victoria turned and opened fire, causing Ghost to snap back to intangible mode. "Hmm he thought, interesting but I suppose even a monkey can pull a trigger and reload a gun, it's just trial and error." Snapping back to the visible spectrum Ghost flew towards James, the squirming Symbiote matter desperately trying to burst out of the armor module. Rushing in on an intercept Wolverine slashed at him snarling and growling as Ghost dodged his claws and turned to keep the beast man off his back.
"Ghost I ain't going to let you get away with whatever your doing here." Wolverine snarled.
"Interesting, I wondered if you had been affected, listen I have a cure but I need you to leave me alone so I can save you from…" the wall behind the smoking HAMMER agent collapsed and Janissary appeared flanked by the other hunters. "…that."
"Intruders." Victoria snarled, "Kill them and add them to the fire." she commanded as she ran on all fours at Janissary who calmly pressed a button on his gauntlet. As Victoria closed the suit fired a length of cable wrapping the feral former Deputy Director of HAMMER tight. The others just glowered at Janissary before howling in unison before charging into the fray not bothering to collect the weapons scattered around the fire. Ghost say James in the thick of the action battling Airborne as the others dodged their attackers blows before savagely replying with a ferocity that they didn't expect. Covertly Ghost reached James only to be blasted with a high velocity gunk of acid as Carr advanced his face bruised and beaten.
"They may be hopped up on whatever, but you are easy prey." he sneered levelling his Alchemy Gun at Ghost. "Now tell me where is the bitch who's been calling herself Chemistro?"
"Dead I think." Ghost answered eyeing Carr's Alchemy Gun, "I'll tell you where her corpse is if you answer a question about science." he replied.
"Where is she?" Carr asked his voice getting more angry as Janissary threw an Anti-Grav Disc at Geode sending her flying away.
"She died on the Helicarrier," Ghost replied, "Now I want to know is what happens when this," he said producing the Symbiote fragment, "and this," he continued, his armor releasing an orange fluid, "combine?" he finished as Wolverine leapt at Carr from behind, the mercenaries' pistol knocked away as he blocked his face with his hands.
"Bet Tate never thought of this as a delivery system." Ghost mused picking up the Alchemy Gun and slotting the ingredients into the armoured tank that was connected. Straining he lifted the weapon system and fired a round of wild shots before exhausting himself. Looking around the room he saw that the only target he had hit was Daken who was in the process of restraining Toxin as Natasha was blasted away by Airborne who stood sentinel over the mutant as he attempted to gut the Symbiote.
"There has to be a better way." Ghost mused as Carr kicked off Wolverine and headed for Ghost. "Here you go." Ghost said quickly as he spotted Chemistro advancing on him, "No hard feelings."
"First you and then Williams," Carr growled, "Nobody takes my name and touches my equipment and live to tell about it. Your going to be nothing but slag and skin particles when I'm done with you." he added firing a shot at Ghost who quickly dodged and watched as the blast hit Natasha as she got to her feet only to be quickly felled by a punch from Janissary.
"Why the hell didn't that work?" Carr yelled firing a quick flurry of shots, all of which impacted with the Task Force HAMMER agents.
"You cured them." Ghost replied, "You're a hero." he told Carr as he shocked him unconscious and squeezed a piece of oozing fluid into his hand."
"Well looks like everybody who was after us is here." Victoria sneered as Wolverine cut her free, "You have one chance surrender and tell us who Nike is or face the consequences." she told them as James powered up his armor.
"I don't think so Cornel Rhodes." Janissary sneered, "War Machine - Anti Personnel Mk 7 Armor systems offline." he commanded as seconds later James's armor beeped and deactivated leaving him immobilized.
"It's still five against three." Victoria yelled, "James and Geode may be immobilized but you lost a man too." she commanded indicating Chemistro who lay drooling on the floor. "You have no chance just leave before anyone else gets hurt." she suddenly started choking as did the rest of Task Force HAMMER.
"I figured that you might beat us." Janissary told Victoria as she fell to her knees, "That's why I came up with a contingency plan." he added as the Sandman erupted from the mouths of the team. "This isn't a rescue it's your execution." he sneered.
Heli-Carrier Debris, HAMMER Base Camp - 13:52PM, 28th August
Tate crawled out of the debris, hoping that the quick set calcium that she had used to heal her leg would hold up to close combat. Looking up at the sky she saw lightning clash as Bullseye clashed with members of the Initiative and the remainder of the Dark Avengers. Coughing she crawled up to one of the Heli-Carrier's massive rotors now lop-sided and buckled before swinging down to the remains of the camp, where the few surviving tanks and AA Vehicles fired up at the combatants while HAMMER agents cowered behind blast shield, their weapons flung down. Hurrying into the communications tent Tate fiddled with the radio equipment before giving it a thump angrily cursing as it failed to work.
"You," she called as a woman, her armor emblazoned with a red-cross of a medic attempted to extract the broken form of an almost bifurcated agent. "Come here." she ordered.
"What is it Maam?" the Medic asked as Tate walked over to her. "Can't you see I'm busy."
"I can," Tate said smiling, "And your doing a fine job, I just need to know if you have a working radio, or at the very least a flare gun."
"Sorry Maam, nobody is coming the government has pulled out most of the National Guard and Army, Osborne is being replaced as soon as they find someone who's willing to take on this mess."
"Okay then I need transport to get to Asgard" Tate announced as she picked up a set of plastic beakers before bleeding into them, "My team mates are walking suicide agents, I have a solution that should keep them from exploding."
"Sorry but all transports have been destroyed." the Medic answered, "There is a rally point held by the Taskmaster but they have no way to get people out of the area."
"Thanks, I'll see if I can get some help from there." Tate replied, "Oh and one more thing, your holding that scalpel wrong."
"What," the Medic asked.
"Your holding it wrong." Tate announced as a clash of Thunder incinerated a S90 Battle Tank just outside the tent, the blast causing the canvas roof to smoke. "Give it here." she commanded taking the scalpel. "You hold it like this." she told the medic as she slammed the knife into the HAMMER agent's cheek.