Chronicles of the Night

When we last left off, Felix and Black Widow did battle with Hawkeye and Night-princess respectively. The Black Widow left Night-princess in the base with bomb, while Hawkeye was taken hostage. Now realizing how the stakes have been raised by Lisa arriving in Russia, Felix contacts Joseph, and now the Night-Hunters are prepared for their final mission.

Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel Comics, I do own my original characters and the plot.

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The Last Hunt

In Russia…

"Not going to say anything Hawkeye?" Natasha asked Hawkeye tauntingly. Hawkeye was in a chair, restrained in such a way that he couldn't even turn his head in the slightest, the only thing he could move were his eyes and his mouth.

"…" Hawkeye only glared at Natasha hatefully.

"Come now… we were partners in the Ultimates for so long now, aren't you being rude?" Natasha continued.

"Go to hell." Hawkeye told her.

"…" Natasha stood up and clutched Hawkeye around his mouth. "I don't believe you're in the position to be telling me such things." Natasha hissed.

"Forget it Natasha, he's not worth it, the captain wants him alive for now anyways." Felix said, standing right outside the door of Hawkeye's cell.

"Hmph…" Natasha let go and made for the door. "I do hope you enjoy tomorrow's show." Natasha told Hawkeye before walking down the hall. Hawkeye just kept glaring at the two of them.

"Oh yeah… I wanted to give you something while I was here." Felix said. He then promptly gave Hawkeye the finger before following Natasha and closing the door.

"Punk wouldn't be giving that if I wasn't bound." Hawkeye thought as he clenched the hairpin that was in Natasha's glove between his teeth.

"I think he got the message." Natasha said to Felix without turning around to look at him.

"So do I." Felix responded. "Tomorrow is the day… more than one person is going to be in for a surprise, that's for sure."

In the Russian wilderness…

Lisa was sitting quietly in the middle of a pack of Russian Wolves in a cave. In spite of their size and intimidating appearance, they were warming up to Lisa like a litter of puppies. "Your name… how about Jonathan?" Lisa asked one of the dogs.

"Hmph…" It snorted.

"And yours…" Lisa looked at the wolf that was apparently the alpha male out of the pack. She looked at him long and hard. "Your name… is definitely Joseph." Lisa decided.

"Are you talking to these wolves?"

"Yes… they won't hurt me… I already used my powers and they're pursuaded that I'm not their enemy." Lisa answered the figure. "Tomorrow…" Lisa hugged the wolf she named after Josph lightly. "Tomorrow we'll be together again… and we'll go home."

Elsewhere in Russia…

"Fury… you finally arrived yourself?" A Russian man decorated with medals asked.

"Yes, yes I did." Fury said as he stepped down from the a helicarrier. Behind him were Captain America, Tony Stark, Janet Pym, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and Night-Roller. Night-Roller's outfit appear less bulky than before at the gloves and skates, and the body suit expanded down his arms now. In addition, metallic but flexible cables ran from the gloves to a new backpack attached to his back.

"It took you long enough, that one man you sent us did no good and has gotten himself captured now." The Russian man told Fury.

"Believe me, it's under control." Fury said confidentally.

"It better be, or we'll all doomed." The commander sighed. "Those new super soldiers of Ivan's have been reeking havoc, they must be stopped."

"So, any idea of where they're going to hit next?" Fury asked, pretending he knew nothing as he and the Ultimates followed the Russian man.

"Da… I do." The Russian sighed. "Our spies tell us that he and most of his personel are going North from their base to activate some super weapon."

"Good, the Ultimates, a few soldiers, and I will lead an assault on Ivan's forces and hit them before they activate the weapon." Fury said.

"A number of my men will lead the charge." The Russian man said.

"How about we discuss who will lead what." Fury said.

"I hope we can pull this off." Joseph thought.

Back at Ivan's base…

"We finally alone?" Natasha asked under her breath.

"Yeah… I don't even pick up any static that would indicate we're bugged." Felix answered.

"Good." Natasha said. "Remember, once Hawkeye frees himself, we make our move as well."

"Right, whatever guards we have with us go down around us, we then rendevous with the rest of the Ultimates before advancing." Felix continued.

"Good." Natasha said.

"Natasha…"

"What?"

"Answer me honestly, what did you do to Lisa?" Felix asked.

"…" Natasha sighed. "No point lying, you'd know. I left her alive if that's what you're worried about."

"Okay." Felix said with a slight bit of bitterness before leaving the room. "Damn it Natasha." Felix thought.

Back in the wilderness…

Lisa slept peacefully with a few members of the pack. Lisa dreamt of her room back in LA, she dreamnt of starry nights and even of those moments she didn't overly enjoy when she battled crooks. Soon she would be back to the good old times. All she had to do was survive the coming day. Easy right?

Back at the base…

"Very well Fury, you will lead a few of my soldiers in to battle alongside your Ultimates." The Russian commander said.

"I'm glad we can agree on something." Fury said. "Captain, you know the plan right?"

"Right." Captain America answered. "Janet and I will go directly for Ivan, he won't have a chance to activate the weapon."

"Good." Fury responded. "Night-roller and Quicksilver will lead the soldiers while Scarlet Witch and Iron-Man will provide air support." Fury continued.

"That works." Night-roller responded.

"Just try and keep up." Quicksilver said.

"Tomorrow… so close…" Night-roller thought.

Meanwhile…

"Twenty-seven hours, thirty-six minutes, and fifty-five seconds. In that time, actions of tremendous consequence will occur." A Teenager in white clothing said. He was somewhere in the Russian wilderness by himself, and everything around him was misty. "How will it end? How will it begin? Is there a difference? I know what happens, and I don't know what happens… being me is so strange at times." The teen continued. "Joseph, Felix, and Lisa, my all three of you are so interesting."

Twenty-seven hours, thirty minutes later…

The frosty air seemed especially chilling that night. There was a full moon out, the stars were more clear than ever. It hung over a massive open field covered in snow with a few trees here and there. Part of the field was surrounded by progressively thicker woods and then a steep cliff on the other side.

Ivan's soldiers were scattered all about the field far and away from each other behind sandbags. The cliff had an observation room built in to it that had numerous control panels in the room. There were watchtowers with massive spotlights and a crane at the location a truck was backing up to. The truck had a massive metal crate on it, more soldiers than anywhere else in the field surronded the truck.

Inside the observation room, Felix and Natasha stood on the left and right of Ivan respectively, all three of them had big smiles painted on their faces. At one of the control panels, Dr. Petrovitch stood leaning over it.

"Finally… my dream of conquest, realized." Ivan said. "There was Napoleon, Stalin, Hitler, numerous leaders who led conquests over others, all of them failed. Why? Because their tools were weak. But this, this is the ultimate tool, the ultimate weapon, and the ultimate conqueror."

"We merely wait for you to activate it sir." Dr. Petrovitch said.

"It's receiving power then?"

"Yes, all indications say it is ready to go, all that you need to do, is insert your key in to it's container." Petrovitch told him as the truck slowly had the crate slide off of it as a crane hoisted it upright.

"Good. Hell-claw, Black Widow, I shall give you the honor of being at my side for this." Ivan said as a ladder descended to the snowy ground. Black Widow and Felix soon followed.

"And you…" Petrovitch turned to Hawkeye, who was restrained to an upright table by numerous bonds. "You have a front seat to the show."

"…" Hawkeye kept silent and merely gave Petrovitch a hard stare.

Ivan, Felix, and the Black Widow all walked towards the weapon, the spotlights on the watchtower shined on them as if they were walking on a grand stage, approaching the finale.

"Wait… Captain." Felix said.

"What?" Ivan asked somewhat annoyed.

"There's a noise…" Felix said tensely. Felix revealed his claws, suddenly on his guard.

"AN ATTACK!!! AN ATTACK!!!"

BOOM

A beam of energy came from above and struck an area near numerous soldiers.

"Just so you know, I am completely wasted! But I am still a very good shot!" Iron-Man's voice echoed from overhead. Soon soldiers came flooding out of the woods with Night-roller and Quicksilver at their head.

"Activate the air defenses! Soldiers, stand your ground and repel them!" Ivan ordered in to his radio. "Hell-claw! Black Widow! Take the nearest soldiers with you to repel the invaders! Go go go!" Ivan ordered. The two of them silently obeyed their orders and went to grab the nearest unit.

"Incoming missiles!" Iron-man shouted as three missiles all started homing in on him. Scarlet Witch flew up and held glowing hands in front of her. Soon the missiles all disappeared in a flash of scarlet light. "Thank you darling."

"You're welcome. Helicopters!" Scarlet Witch shouted as numerous, heavily armed helicopters flew in.

RATATATATATATATATATATATATATA

"AH!"

"ARGH!"

Machine gun fire peppered the charging Russian soldiers, however Quicksilver weaved through them easily while they harmlessly bounced off of Night-roller's force-field. In spite of the snow, Night-roller had no problem going through it in his blades.

"Try this." Night-roller held up two hands, energy gathered at the palms and two fairly large yellow beams of energy shot out and tore through the sandbags, knocking any soldiers behind them unconcious.

"Ha!" Quicksilver charged to one small encampment and quickly cleared away the soldiers there. The Russian soldiers they were leading managed to breach other sandbags.

In the observation room…

"What! Why are they here!?" Petrovitch demanded. "No! I was offered a chance to create a great weapon and now they'll ruin it!"

"Damn right we will."

"Hm?"

BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM

Hawkeye dropped a pistol he just emptied out and all twelve of the soldiers in the room dropped dead with bullets in the space between their eyes. "Now then, we'll need to come back for you later, so you just stay here nice and quiet until we get back." Hawkeye said, picking up two machine guns off of the dead soldiers.

"Wha… what…"

Outside…

CRASH

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" Hawkeye jumped through the window of the observation room, firing off the machine guns, hitting units left and right. He stopped firing to roll as he landed to reduce the impact of the fall.

"Captain…" Black Widow said in to her radio. She stopped charging and the ten soldiers behind her stopped following.

"What?"

"Checkmate." Felix said lightly.

"RAH!" Natasha turned around and hit all ten of her soldiers with machine gun fire.

"ARGH!"

"OOF!"

"Sorry boys, but I have different loyalties right now." Felix said as he kicked and punched and clawed the hell out of the ten soldiers he had with him.

"WHAT!? WHAT IS THIS OUTRAGE!!!" The Captain bellowed.

"ARGH!!!"

"GAH!!!"

"Hm?" Ivan turned around to find numerous soldiers getting their asses handed to them by Captain America and Hawkeye while they were seemingly distracted by something.

"Ivan! You're coming with us!" Captain America shouted.

"Never." Ivan hissed.

RATATATATATATATATATATATA

More soldiers behind their sandbags began firing at the still far away enemy, but they would advance soon if something wasn't done.

"ARF ARF ARF ARF ARF ARF!!!"

"Hm? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" An enormous pack of wolves came surging out of the nearby woods, they were soon leaping all over the soldiers, clawing and biting at them, hitting them before they could even react.

"GET THOSE ANIMALS!!!"

RATATATATATATATATATATATA

Some machine gun fire became directed at the wolves, some went down while others ran away too quickly. Two of the wolves however, a large white one, and a slightly smaller red one were darting back and forth through the machine gun fire. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"

"ARF!!!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!" The white wolf and the red wolf were all over the soldiers soon. Once they were down, the red wolf's fur began shrinking away, the paws spread out in to fingers and soon Lisa stood there, her eyes light purple in color.

"Isn't that Lisa?" Quicksilver asked.

"Leave her, she's too far in to this to get out now." Fury said, coming out from the trees himself with a number of guns mounted on his bullet-proof vest.

"Lisa…" Night-roller skated up to her. "Are you alright?" Night-roller asked as they ignored the chaos around them.

"I'm fine dad." Lisa told him.

"Good, because when we get home you're grounded." Night-roller said with almost a laugh.

"Yeah, okay." Lisa said before they both gave each other a hug.

"Scarlet Witch, teleport Natasha to where her armor is waiting." Fury said.

"On it." Scarlet Witch said, diving past missiles that Iron-man blew up with his laser beams.

"Damn that Captain's not too bad." Hawkeye said as he fired at Captain Ivan, who expertly ducked behind light cover and avoided them. Captain America ran forward to confront the captain up close.

Everything had gone to hell now. Helicopters were blowing up, soldiers were falling left and right on both sides, and the Ultimates with help from the Night-Hunters were swarming all over the field, overwhelming Ivan's forces.

KABOOM

"Here I am love." Black Widow said, now wearing a completely black version of Iron-Man's armor as a smoking missile launcher concealed itself in the armor's shoulder.

"Good, Black Widow, Iron-Man, fly in and secure the weapon." Fury ordered.

"On it sir."

"Okay guys…" Night-roller sighed. "Now!"

"Got it." Felix said, making a mad dash for the weapon while Lisa did the same thing.

"Felix! Lisa! Stand down!" Fury ordered.

"Sorry Tony, sorry Natasha." Night-roller's voice sighed.

BAM

"WAH!"

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

Night-roller had fired two beams of energy at Iron-Man and Black Widow, both of which made contact and the two suits of armor came crashing down. "A special beam made to temporarily shut your armor suits down, it'll only work once though." Night-roller said as he also made for the weapon.

"Joseph! You too! What the hell are you three doing!"

"Sorry Fury, but we don't work for you, and we're not part of your team." Felix answered. "You haven't seen the specs for this weapon but I have and it's far too dangerous."

"In short, we're destroying it." Night-roller said.

"Ultimates, don't let them destroy it! We have to secure it first!" Fury ordered.

"On it!" Quicksilver ran at Joseph and tripped him up as he skated by.

"Whoa!"

"Sorry, nothing personal." Quicksilver said, hitting Joseph when he tried to get up. "OOF!" A smaller beam of energy came from Night-roller's palm that knocked him away without doing too much harm.

"Same here." Night-roller said. "WHOA!!! Man my beam wore off faster than expected." Night-roller commented.

"Not completely." Iron-Man said as he slowly got up, firing his repulsor rays in succession that Night-roller had a hard time dodging.

RATATATATATATATATATATATATATA

"AUGH!" Machine-gun fire came from wrist-mounted automatic weapons in Black Widow's suit that fired at Lisa.

"Stop getting in the way!"

"Whoa!" Felix had to duck to avoid bullet fire by Hawkeye.

"That was a warning shot!" Hawkeye shouted.

"You know… I meant that finger completely!" Felix shouted back.

"Screw the warning shots." Hawkeye muttered to himself, firing machine gun fire at Felix that Felix had a difficult time dodging.

"Grrrr…" Felix scooped up some snow and threw it at Hawkeye. He dodged it but didn't expect another snowball and it got him in the eyes.

"Hey! What the…" Hawkeye stopped firing and it gave Felix enough time to run at Hawkeye and tackle him. "OOF!"

"Night-roller! It's all you!"

"Ha!" Night-princess kicked Black Widow under the chin and caused her to topple over in the armor. "Go dad!"

"On it…" Night-roller said, skating towards the weapon. "Direct power to right glove." Night-roller said. His backpack sounded as though it were charging, and his right glove gave off a light glow.

"General! The Captain we were fighting was a hologram!" The Wasp yelled in to the radio.

"What?!"

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" Night-roller threw his fist forward and it punctured through the metal crate. On the other side of the crate, Ivan was already on the other side, a card key slid in to a slot.

"You lose." Ivan said.

"What?" Night-roller stood there with his fist still inside the crate for a moment. "OOG!!!" Night-roller was sent flying backwards by a fairly large metallic fist that came punching through the crate. The crate was soon torn open from the inside.

The weapon was a large robot. It was about 6'5" in height, completely chrome in appearance, and it had a medium frame. It had a single visor like eye, sleek metal, its arms had two thin holes on either side of it, glowing palms, and legs that were somewhat thicker than the rest of the body. Lastly, it had a large glowing triangle on its chest.

"No…" Felix said. "We failed."

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!" Ivan strolled to the very front of the robot.

"…" Everyone stopped to stare at the robot and Ivan standing in front of it.

"My my, what an interesting game we played. Traitors on one side, conflicting views, and in the end…. I still win." Ivan said. "Now all of you shall feel the power of my ultimate weapon. The perfect robot, and the perfect machine of destruction. I give you… Ultimo!" Ivan declared.

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The festivities are only just now beginning. Can Ultimo really be this powerful? Find out, next chapter.