Chronicles of the Night
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn rocks, which is why my updates have been less than speedy lately. So anyways…
When we last left off, Felix recounted his training with S.H.I.E.L.D., including training with Captain America, and some of his work with the Ultimates black-ops team. Felix now continues his story, starting with his confrontation with the Hulk.
Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel comics, I do own my characters and the plot.
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Stressful situations
"RAH!!!" The Hulk slammed his fists on to the spot Felix was standing on before Felix cart wheeled to the side.
"Ugh… that could have been my face." Felix moaned as he looked at the destroyed section of floor he was previously standing on.
"Hulk crush Felix!" The Hulk jumped at Felix and nearly crushed him under his feet. Felix however dived under the Hulk, sprang off of his hands and kicked the Hulk as hard as he could in the butt before jumping away again.
"Yipe!" Felix narrowly ducked under a punch thrown at him by the Hulk, he then moved in and scratched the Hulk's stomach a few times. "What?" Felix was shocked when the scratches began healing almost as fast as he was making them.
"You make Hulk maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!!!" The Hulk kicked Felix hard enough to send him flying in to a pillar.
"AH!" Felix cried in pain as he felt the Hulk's massive foot strike his torso and send him in to the pillar. "Oh… man… lucky nothing's broke… SNAP!!!" Felix dived to the side to avoid the Hulk attempting to tackle him, causing the Hulk to completely smash the pillar behind Felix.
"Tony, come in Tony! You still there!" Fury's voice boomed.
"Yeah I'm still here, barely though, my armor has taken a lot of damage." Stark answered. "Why'd you dispatch the black-ops anyways?"
"What? I didn't dispatch the black-ops… who's there?"
"Felix is trying to avoid getting his head pounded in right now." Tony said.
"Felix! Ugh… he can't take on the Hulk… Iron-man, you have any other tricks?"
"I could see if the armor's power can't be redirected to the uni beam."
"Do it." Fury said.
"Okay, it'll take a minute though."
"I'm not sure that I have a minute!!!" Felix shouted somersaulting away from the Hulk like crazy before diving to the side to avoid getting crushed. "Come on… think think think…" Felix told himself. "Ugh… if only this guy wasn't SO FREAKIN' STRONG!!! Wait… maybe I could…" Felix turned around and looked at the charging Hulk.
"HULK SMASH FELIX!!!"
"What are you doing!?" Tony yelled.
"…" Felix watched the Hulk attentively and focused his other senses entirely on the Hulk. The Hulk threw a right hook, Felix ducked in towards the Hulk, and then jumped upward delivering a really strong uppercut. The Hulk staggered back a little bit, and Felix then jumped over his head, grabbing the Hulk's head, and then pulling his head backwards and slamming him in to the ground as Felix landed.
"RAH!!!"
"Whoa!" Felix jumped back as the Hulk rolled backwards to get back on his feet. Felix ran back towards the Hulk to try and land a few more hits but…
WHAM
"Ugh…" The Hulk wheeled around and back handed Felix, sending Felix flying and skidding across the ground right past Tony. Felix coughed, trying to catch his breath, and was trying to stand back up. "I think he broke something this time." Felix cringed.
"RAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!" The Hulk ran forward to smash Felix in when
BAM
A fairly large beam of energy came from the chest of the Iron-man armor and sent the Hulk flying out of the building. "Here he comes Janet! You're up!" Tony said. "Fury… I'm going to need my crew to get me out of this suit… and a medical pick-up for Felix."
"I'm… okay… reeeeeally." Felix said before passing out.
Back to the present…
"Yeah… the Hulk nearly broke my ribs that time, and after hitting me only twice, it's fortunate he didn't put all of his strength in to those blows." Felix said.
"What happened afterwards?" Lisa asked.
"Well, Captain America stood toe-to-toe with the Hulk briefly, and then to my amazement Thor arrived and also got a few good hits in on the Hulk." Felix said.
"Thor did help?" Joseph interrupted.
"Yeah he did, the president gave in and doubled the international budget." Felix said.
"That's hard to believe." Joseph said.
"I know, I believe Fury's exact words were 'and to think I voted for Nader'." Felix said. Joseph laughed pretty heartily at this comment while Lisa looked confused.
"I don't get it." Lisa said.
"Ah well it's not important." Felix said. "Long story short it ended up being Janet who neutralized the Hulk, Banner was put in a special prison cell to see if he couldn't cure himself, and all of us celebrated a little differently."
Back to the story…
"Thanks driver." Felix said to some cab driver. Felix stepped out of a taxi wearing a brown long sleeve shirt, black jeans, dark sneakers, brown gloves and shades. "Oh hey Steve." Felix noticed that Steve was already here wearing a white T-shirt, large blue jeans, and sneakers of his own.
"Felix, seen Tony or Thor?"
"Nah I haven't, and Tony's the one who sent the invite too." Felix said.
"And I wouldn't abandon my guests." Tony said, walking out in some black dress clothes, although still somewhat casual. Thor wasn't dressed in anything Felix was expecting, Thor was in a simple blue sweater and blue jeans. Thor himself was had long blonde hair, a close beard and mustache, and a pretty large build.
"So you're Thor, nice to meet you. I'm Felix." Felix said, holding a hand out.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Felix." Thor said, taking Felix's hand and shaking it. The four of them were standing in front of a decently large mansion that had a bunch of boxes being moved out of it.
"You sure this is alright."
"Absolutely, after that scrap in town I figured we could all use a little to drink and why not make it my treat?" Tony asked.
"You do know I'm not twenty one yet right?" Felix asked.
"Ah it won't kill you tonight."
"Selling this house Tony?" Thor asked as they walked in to the front hall and made their way to a room that only had a table and four chairs around it for furniture.
"Oh no no no. This house was bought in memory of my dear mother. I wouldn't sell this house for my life." Tony said as he took a seat at one of the chairs while the other three took their seats. A chubby bald man in a butler's uniform walked out with four glasses and a bottle of wine.
"Good evening sirs." The man said.
"You know, putting on your best tie isn't going to help a whole lot Jarvis." Tony said, taking his glass.
"I figured I could try." Jarvis said, pouring four glasses.
"Hmmm…" Felix took a whiff of the wine, and then took a light sip. "Say Thor, where did you get your powers from?"
"Ha! I am the son of Odin, these powers are my birthright Felix." Thor said with a laugh.
"Are you bluffing or are you really the real deal?" Tony asked.
"Oh I'm very real Stark." Thor answered, not getting mad in the slightest, which Felix found somewhat impressive.
"How long has this been going on?" Steve asked taking a sip from his glass.
"Oh I've known all my life, but I wasn't truly awakened to my calling until the last few months, and it was then that I knew what I had to do." Thor answered.
"Protest government and military rule, look to peace, heard it before." Felix said. "Good goals though." He added.
"So wouldn't joining the Ultimates make getting the message across easier?" Tony asked.
"No, joining the team would contradict everything I stand for, but… I'll be on call anytime there are lives at stake." Thor said before taking a drink from his glass.
"Yeah watching that replay on the news, I'm glad you'd be willing to help." Felix said. "Tall, green, and angry practically broke my ribs… mm… still a little sore." Felix grumbled.
"I have to say, life in the twenty-first century is a little hard to adjust to…" Steve said, striking up a conversation.
"Yeah, not understanding any of that street slang and not knowing who Justin Timberlake is…" Felix commented sarcastically, raising his glass to take another sip.
"Who's Justin Timberlake?"
"…" Felix stopped drinking and held the glass to his lips, a reaction that was clearly labeled 'I can't believe I really have to explain this'.
"Being frozen in an ice block since World War II is probably going to do that to you." Tony said, refilling his own glass for the fourth time already.
"Hey, at least you've still got someone alive right?" Felix asked.
"Yeah, Bucky and Gail are alive still."
"I still end up wishing I could go back and just have done something about that guy or that gun before my mom ended up getting shot." Felix said.
"Ah cheer up." Thor encouraged, refilling Felix's glass and then his own. "You've still got a long life ahead of you now, so don't let the past discourage you."
"That's actually some pretty sound advice… or am I just getting drunk already?" Felix asked. This comment got a good laugh out of everyone, especially Tony who was really beginning to get drunk. "Well Tony we've spilled our guts what have you got to say?" Felix asked as Jarvis brought out a fresh bottle.
"Yeah I'm curious as to why you're in the Ultimates." Steve said.
"You really want to know? Why I'm in the Ultimates and why I've been making multi-billion dollar contributions to charity lately?" Tony asked with a smile, but it didn't indicate a joke.
"Heck I'm curious." Felix said.
"I'd like to hear." Thor said.
"Okay…" Tony then placed his finger to the right side of his head above the ear going towards his forehead. "I've got a brain tumor."
"What?"
"You're kidding."
"Really?"
"Yep, right here, and it's completely inoperable." Tony Stark said.
"Jeez… that sucks." Felix said.
"How long?" Thor asked.
"The doctors say it could be anywhere between six months or six years even. Knowing that I started thinking about where to take my life and I thought that I'd at least do something useful with my life before I die, so I gladly signed up for Fury's team." Stark said.
"Well that just killed the mood didn't it?" Steve asked.
"Yeah… yeah it did." Felix said in agreement.
"Ah forget about it, how about we raise a toast?" Tony asked standing up. Everyone else stood up as well and picked up their glasses, all of which had wine in them.
"Well it's your house Tony, to what do we raise this toast?" Thor asked.
"To absent friends apparently… to Hank and Janet Pym." Everyone then brought their glasses together and made a light chink. "With whom without I'm sure we'd all be dead by now." After that they all took a drink from their glasses.
Back to the present again…
"Yeah that was the last time I ever touched any kind of alcohol and the last time I intend to touch the stuff." Felix said.
"Didn't like it?" Joseph asked.
"Well I can't say I got really drunk but I still had a headache in the morning."
"What were Hank and Janet doing?" Lisa asked.
"Uh well… it's not really my place to talk about it." Felix said grimly.
"I think I know what he's talking about." Joseph said with an equally grim tone.
"What?" Lisa asked.
"It ended up being on the news but… well we might be able to talk about it another time." Joseph said. "So continue."
"Sheesh what am I? Your story-teller?" Felix asked.
"Please?" Lisa asked sweetly.
"Gah, those eyes… fine."
Back to the story…
Felix was in his uniform sitting in a helicopter with other military units, surrounding a sky-scraper building. "You sure this is it? This is just an office building." Felix asked over the radio.
"Hey, you helped us find this place." Hawkeye answered over the radio.
"There's no doubt about it that this place is full of chitauri sleeper agents." Black Widow said.
"So let me get this straight, we're supposed to kill these guys, and get any available information from the building?" Felix asked.
"What's the matter? Scared kitty?" Hawkeye asked.
"Keep pushing it and I'll show YOU just how scared I am." Felix responded over the radio. The plan was pretty simple, Hawkeye would walk in through the front door with a few guys following behind him while he and Black Widow would take a few guys through the windows on higher floors. They'd try and sweep the whole building quickly this way.
"Okay, I'm in, let's go." Hawkeye said.
"Hit it." Felix said to one of the guys in the helicopter. That guy picked up automatic rifle and began firing at the windows, the windows shattered to pieces one by one. "After me! Go!" Felix shouted, he leaped out of the helicopter and landed in what looked like a pretty typical office with cubicle desks and all that. A few people were already dead from the gun fire earlier.
"Hit them quickly, they'll wake up sooner or later." Black Widow said over the radio.
"Don't have to remind me Black Widow." Felix said as he revealed his claws and scratched a number of them in the face before hitting them with all of his force. Once the helicopter drew close enough a few other soldiers followed Felix in the building while others stayed behind for support. As Felix and the four soldiers with him began cleaning up, a few office workers grabbed guns of their own and started shooting at them.
"Whoa!" The soldiers got down while Felix weaved side to side to avoid the oncoming bullets.
"Yeah… their heartbeats aren't entirely normal… but just like the soldiers they pump a little extra blood just before they pull the trigger." Felix said as he dived forward and punched down the nearest gun man.
"How are things on your ends dahlings?" Black Widow asked while gunfire was heard on her end.
"You mind Natasha… some of us haven't had your enhancements and find it hard to concentrate on fighting while talking." Hawkeye said.
"Some? I do believe that'd be one of us eh Hawkeye?" Felix said as he dodged another hailstorm of gunfire before taking out more gunmen. "Whoa!" Felix jumped over a rocket that one guy launched at him that blew a hole in the floor a few feet behind him. Felix jumped down in through that hole and immediately ducked for cover as more bullets whizzed past him. Felix picked up a chair and hurled it at the nearest guy before ducking out and ducking and weaving through the bullet storm yet again.
"Okay I think we're getting somewhere wi… oh hell." Hawkeye said.
"What?" Felix asked as he punched out three more sleeper agents.
BOOM
"Whoa." The whole building violently and part of the floor Felix was standing over split in half. "I need covering fire fast." Felix said in the radio.
"Roger." The helicopter flew down to Felix's floor and began sweeping the floor with automatic fire, while Felix took cover himself.
"What's going on down there?" Felix asked in to the radio.
"I'm kind of hanging out now. Oh crap… Widow… someone I need a little help here!" Hawkeye shouted over the radio.
"Hm?" Felix went to the part of the floor that split and looked down. Several floors below him, Hawkeye was hanging by one arm to a piece of the building while holding on to his bow with the other arm, and from what Felix could tell, there were three guys about to add weight to Hawkeye in lead.
"Chopper, toss a sniper rifle down on my signal." Black Widow said.
"What?"
"Just do it now!" Black Widow shouted. Someone from inside the chopper tossed a sniper rifle out of the chopper down towards Hawkeye, and about three floors or so above Hawkeye, Black Widow jumped from one half of the building and landed on the other side, catching the sniper rifle, aiming and shooting down those three guys about to shoot Hawkeye.
"Whew…" Felix sighed. "Hm? Whoa!" Felix somersaulted out of the way of more gunfire. "Aw man I got so distracted by Hawkeye and Black Widow that I didn't pay attention to the heartbeats up here." Felix thought. Felix jumped off of that floor, fell a few floors and then grabbed the ledge of a different floor before scrambling up to continue his work.
"Come on we've still got a job to do." Hawkeye said.
"I know and I'm still on it." Felix said, clawing out some of the sleeper agent's eyeballs and slashing them with more force than usual. Felix was almost disgusted at how much of their bluish-green blood he could draw from them. "Hm?" Felix turned around to fine one guy holding a remote with a button of some sort. "Sniff… sniff… !!!" Felix just then realized what that was. Felix abandoned beating the crap out of those guys and made a break for the window.
KAAAAAAAAAAABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Felix jumped for the window, but the force of the explosion pushed him farther than he intended to jump and began falling down to the city below. Worse yet he might not even make it that far, as he was about to land on the helicopter blades. "DRIFT TOWARDS THE BUILDING AND THROW A CABLE THE OTHER WAY!!!" Felix shouted in panic.
"Okay can do." The helicopter drifted closer towards the building while Felix readjusted his body position in the air, he narrowly missed the helicopter blades, and reached out for the cable as they threw it out. Felix grabbed it and held on even as the cable reached its maximum length. Felix had to catch his breath for a minute before he shakily started climbing back up towards the helicopter
"Those bullets… hardly scared me… or even the Hulk but… my god I seriously could have died that time… I really really could have died that time…" Felix thought to himself.
"Jeez what did you do up there? Whatever that was nearly caused another floor to cave my head in." Hawkeye said over the radio.
"Stupid child! Dangerous stunts like that could endanger more than just yourself!" Black Widow shouted harshly.
"Boy, she can be mean when she needs to be." Felix thought. "Yeah okay." Felix said.
Later…
Fury was sitting at a large desk that had a few computer monitors on it and his phone. The large window behind him had a view of some of the harbor of the Triskileon. "Fury."
"What is it Felix?" Fury answered in to some intercom.
"I need to talk to you." Felix said somewhat impatiently.
"Fine… come in." Fury said. "I'm probably not going to like hearing this." Fury said as he put some paperwork aside and took a sip from his coffee mug. Felix hastily walked in and stood in front of Fury's desk.
"I want out."
"I knew it." Fury sighed. "And why would that be?"
"Fury, that last mission I did for you guys I nearly died and I could have also jeopardized everyone else there as well. I want out." Felix continued impatiently.
"No dice kid… now go to the conference room, both teams are about to receive a briefing." Fury said rather simply.
"Damn it Fury! Don't you get it! I'm not cut out for this super heroic crap!" Felix said, slamming his hands on Fury's desk.
"Listen Felix!" Fury said, standing up from his seat and raising his voice. "In this kind of work you're going to make a mistake and you're going to have to live with it! Sometimes someone is going to die and when that happens you aren't going to have any choice but to move on and do better next time! But while you're working under me you're going to show a bit more respect than this Felix!"
"…" Felix said nothing, he just turned around and walked out of the room with a bit of a scowl on his face.
"Has Thor arrived yet?" Fury asked, sitting down and pressing a button down on an intercom.
"Not yet sir."
Outside…
"…" Felix was near the very top of the Triskileon, one leg hanging over the edge and his head resting on his other knee. "Damn it all…"
"And what seems to be the problem my friend?"
"Hm?" Felix looked up and saw Thor slowly landing on the roof next to him. Thor's muscular physique was more visible like this, his outfit had no sleeves, and it looked something like a metallic vest that had six large, glowing blue circles on the front of it, he had on some kind of belt, and the rest of the outfit was just black tights. "Oh… hey Thor."
"You really don't seem to be doing so well Felix, do you mine me asking if you're doing alright?" Thor asked.
"…" Felix didn't look at Thor but looked at the harbor below. "Thor… if you make a mistake like… I don't know, caused a stray lightning bolt to hit someone or accidentally toppled over a building or something what would you do?" Felix asked.
"Ah… so you made some mistake or another did you?" Thor asked.
"Well… that I and I nearly got made in to tossed salad." Felix said.
"Ha. The son of Odin doesn't fear death, and neither should you Felix."
"Excuse me?"
"When you have power, naturally you're going to have it put to the test and you should not be surprised if death steps in front of you more than once. And about making mistakes Felix… even the greatest of us make them, but like the past we can't let that weigh us down." Thor said.
"…" Felix stood up, stretched and bit and then turned to Thor. "Thanks buddy." He said, smiling a bit.
"Anytime my friend. Now I think Fury wanted us for some briefing."
"Ah crap that's right." Felix groaned.
At the briefing room…
"A drink now Tony? But it's only nine A.M." Steve pointed out.
"Not in Moscow." Tony said before taking a drink out of his glass. Felix and Thor just walked in to a room and sat at one of the white tables near Steve, Tony, Natasha, and Clint. Wanda and Pietro then walked in with Fury coming in behind them.
"Alright then… first things first, Natasha and Clint, since your backgrounds have been thoroughly falsified now you'll be moved up to the public team." Fury said.
"Why am I staying in black ops?" Felix asked.
"Because you still have an issue with taking orders." Fury told him.
"Sheesh… touchy." Felix said.
"Anyways… for the past few weeks, Clint and Natasha, along with some help over the last few days from Felix have been investigating the Chitauri…" Fury explained.
A few days later…
"Sheesh, can't believe Cap did that to Hank." Wanda said, looking at a newspaper that had a picture of Hank Pym in giant form, covered in bruises and buried under a few construction bars.
"That's what happens when you beat your wife. How long until Jan's out of the infirmary anyways?" Felix asked. Felix, Wanda, and Pietro were in the sparring room, Wanda sitting against the wall while Pietro and Felix were having a small match-up with each other.
"The nurse said probably in the next day or so." Pietro said, swiftly blocking a punch and a kick from Felix.
"On another note entirely… I can't believe we're stuck here while the public team goes to take care of wherever the hell that Chitauri base is." Felix said dodging a few punches but then getting a superfast punch in the cheek. "Ow! I thought we agreed no powers." Felix said.
"Hey, isn't entirely fair when your powers are always affecting your physique." Pietro said.
"Yeah well so are yours, but you have more self-control than that." Felix said, blocking another punch and managing a good blow on Pietro's chest.
"Okay boys you can stop now." Wanda said.
"Fine… Cap's much more engaging anyways." Felix said taking off his sparing equipment. "Hm?" Felix's ear twitched a little bit and he got a focused look on his face.
"What is it?" Pietro asked.
"Quiet…" Felix said. He looked around a bit and then got a panicked look on his face. "There's a bomb in the room!" Felix shouted.
"What!?"
"Never mind that we need to get out now!" Felix ran for the door but even when he pressed the button to open it, the door wouldn't budge. "Damn it!"
"Hold on…" Wanda said, holding her hands in front of her chest as they glowed scarlet.
"What's she doing?" Felix asked.
"Getting us out of here." Pietro said.
"How? A bomb is about to go off and she's holding glowing hands in front of her." Felix said, growing more panicked by the second. "Augh… it's going to blow any second now."
"Almost…"
"Come on Wanda." Pietro encouraged.
"Wait! What about Jan though? She's still in the infirmary!" Felix shouted.
"Ready!" Wanda said.
"But the bomb is…"
KABOOM
Outside the Triskileon, a scarlet flash of light occurred and the three of them landed on the ground gently. "Did I ever tell you how much I enjoy your company?" Felix asked.
"We've got bigger problems." Pietro said looking around. There were a bunch of men in old German soldier uniforms pointing guns right at them.
"They've shifted their bodies well but their heartbeats are still heavier than normal humans… they're definitely Chitauri." Felix said. "How many do you think you can take?" Felix asked.
"I could take the left half." Pietro said.
"Fine, I'll take the right." Felix said.
"Don't hog them all to yourselves." Wanda said, holding up her glowing hands and hovering a few feet above ground.
"First one to take down as many as they can and get back inside the Triskileon wins." Felix challenged.
"Fine." Pietro agreed.
"Let's go!" Felix shouted as the gunfire sounded.
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Felix's flashback shall be concluded in the next chapter. How does the situation with the alien Chitauri end up being resolved? Find out.
