If there was one thing in all this world Tony hated, it was the cold. This was the coldest September he could recall. Tomorrow, he was sure of it, there'd be frost on the ground. What's more, for everything his suit protected against, from bullets up to 50 Caliber, knives, grenades as close as 6 feet away, and those fancy new antimatter guns which were outlawed to no avail, insulation was the least among them.
It was waterproof, radiation proof for up to 3000 REMs, it could protect him from temperatures of up to 1814 degrees Fahrenheit. It was a more even number in Celsius, where it was first tested by US Navy scientists. But to keep out cold? To say it had one job would be lying, but Tony felt disappointed nonetheless.
Still, there's no denying how many times it had saved his life. One time in particular when he acted like an idiot and challenged the entire police force of Liverpool on a dare. 20 shots hit him; only one injured him.
He obviously had to leave the city before the military came in.
This city's police force, on the other hand, might be unwise to challenge, even with peer pressure.
Tony was sitting on an unfitting bench in the back alley of a bakery in Hell's Kitchen, New York City, in the year 2022. It was a Sunday night, and very few civilians were going to be outside, which made it the optimal time for any sort of shady business.
But the organization Tony had taken upon himself to destroy, the Hand, they called themselves, were not shady, not in the least. That isn't the right description at all.
They were either idiots or just plain defiant like he was, and it was probably the latter, because to set up their base of operations in the one city known for literally having… umm, enhanced individuals, who consider themselves do-gooders, literally having them patrolling the streets quite commonly, any sane crime organization would try and get as far away as they could from this city. You might as well try and set up a crime organization in the middle of the Pentagon, that little field in the center.
But the Hand were not normal. They had some sort of ancient Oriental clan honor stuff going on. Ninjas, secrecy, chi, magic, the whole bit. Tony wondered if anyone had pointed out the similarities to the Foot Clan from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He would, that's just the kind of person he was.
He'd caught an associate with the Hand a week ago, transporting heroin into the city. Unlike their many highly disciplined warriors, the native New Yorker told Tony the time and location of the next exchange. Of course, the Hand warriors tried to kill the guy, but Tony kept both himself and the drugs' recipient alive, the latter he killed himself.
So here he was. A Blammo hotel on one side, and a Donut House on the other. He expected the Hand would bring lots of security after seeing two of their ninjas killed. He pulled out his phone and opened up spotify.
"I need a song that's good for fighting."
As he typed on the tiny screen, a man dressed in black jumps down, and holds a katana to Tony's throat. He swallows. "Excuse me, I'm trying to find a-"
"Mister, umm, Masters?"
"Yeah, it's awkward to enunciate, I know."
"You should not have interfered with the actions of the Hand."
"Umm, yes I should have."
"You are skilled warrior, and Gao would be very pleased to have a man like you on her side."
"I wouldn't say I'm skilled exactly, I'm, I'm just a quick learner."
"Whatever you are, it's of asset. You do not have the moral constraints which have caused so many to refuse, do you?"
"Things are far beyond the point of changing my mind."
"Ah, oh well, you'll make a much more trustworthy Black Sky."
"Oh, yeah, one thing about the Black Sky, how, how many of those do you-?" Tony put his arm on the hilt of the katana and pushed it forward as he leaned backwards before the ninja's response time kicked in. Tony glanced on and off to the sky.
After gently putting down the phone, he turned the sword backwards in the ninja's hand. With his now free hand, Tony went under the ninja's right arm and put his hand on the ninja's shoulder. Jumping to and fro, and continuing to look up, he got his elbow on the inside of the ninja's, and pushed it out until his right hand was forced to let go.
With that, Tony put both hands on the hilt and turned the katana out of the ninja's left hand. He swung the katana through his neck, then in the air to knock a poison dart out of the air. He pulled a semi auto pistol from out of its holster and cautiously pointed it up from beside his belt. He let off three shots in under a second, and two bodies fell off the roofs of the Donut House. A poison dart stuck into the kevlar on his neck. He pulled it out and threw it, without looking up, to the opposite roof.
The man who fired it ducked back behind the roof's wall. To peek back up, he was immediately shot in the head with a .44 Magnum. His body hung on the wall.
Tony pulled out the magazine and loaded bullets into the four empty slots. "A poison dart? Really? Sheesh."
He picked up his phone, turned the screen back on, and kept typing on the tiny screen, walking while doing it. He made it to a straight shot for a larger, more open area, packed full with Hand members. He stopped walking, and turned it into reverse.
"Taskmaster," the voice of an old lady boomed from the area. "That is what you call yourself?"
After shrugging, Tony opened his mouth. "Umm, yes, I mean… you know, I don't like how you just said that."
"Excuse me, why not,?" the Madame asked as Tony walked back into her view, and the view of a dozen-odd warriors.
"Nah, no, the way you said that implied it's like, some sort of superhero code name I made up… it's a position, okay? A common Hydra rank."
"Ah, I assumed you called yourself that because, well, your last name, which is quite awkward to- you're part of Hydra, eh?"
"Well, no. Not officially. I've been labeled a Hydra sympathizer, but I don't identify with any of that alien conspiracy theory (blank). So, I'm a mercenary, first and foremost."
"And a good one you are. Tell me, why? Why have you set your sights on the Hand? Let me assure you, you can't win."
"The Hand killed my parents. The Hand also spanked me as a child. Oh yes, and you killed the man who hired me. And you have made multiple attempts towards the stability of Hydra. And you remind me of the Foot Cl-"
"The Foot Clan? From Ninja Teammate Turtles?"
"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, yeah. Heard it before?"
"Not by anyone currently alive."
"Too bad none of those people who brought it up were me."
"This doesn't have to be violent."
"I like violence, it helps me get better. Because honestly, the longer we fight, the less chance you guys are going to have to kill me, and the most chance I'm gonna have to-"
He quickdrew his desert eagle and shot Madame Gao in the head, with seven other ninjas in rapid succession. That left six others, that he could see.
The whole time, Tony was tapping his phone screen, deleting all the words in search, and looking up his thirteenth favorite song from muscle memory. After shooting the warriors over the course of a quarter second, he tapped play and set the phone on the ground.
"Okay."
Amidst the chaos, the ninjas jumped at Tony. With two swords coming at him with angry force, he unsheathed a miniature one and half blocked them both. Pushing the katanas right, he turned his body to the left and snapped the closer man's arm. As Bad Company, by the band of the same name began to play, he lifted the ninja by his broken arm and threw him onto the other one, and spun around his back, pulling the mini katana to meet four others. He sliced the broken arm ninja through the stomach ever so briefly before pulling it out and deflecting five katanas multiple times.
He grabbed onto a neck and snapped it, and jumped to get out of the middle of action. He pulled out an M1911 and shot at the warrior approaching from the left. With a flick of the katana, the bullet was deflected.
With a hop back Tony inquired, "what the (blank) was that? A 1911? Really? I didn't quite catch that, you mind doing it again, slower?"
He came in to meet the ninja's sword from the top, and swiped it left down, while trying to kick out his footing. He was unable for a short time, but the moment Tony managed to get him off his feet, three others came in.
Tony decided to run down a different alleyway. He turned around and got several throwing knives stuck in his suit. There was a broken scooter set next to a trash can, which Tony grabbed onto and threw backwards with extreme force, dodged by everyone pursuing.
Looking back, he glanced someone else on the roof. This alerted him to the roofs again. He decided to make the roofs and his level one and the same. He leaped atop a trash can and threw his gun onto the roof, over the short wall. He hauled himself up to come face to face with a particularly large warrior.
The big guy was wielding a short machete-like katana similar to Tony's, which he drew out in an instant. After a good many lightning quick slashings and deflections, Tony'd lured the man a good distance away, and was now able to leap back to his gun.
Upon grabbing the weapon, the other man tried to get away by diving back to the alleyway. But his head had a bullet in it before it left Tony's view.
He heard another climbing behind him, and turned 180 degrees in a forward jump. He was about to pull the trigger, but he recognized the man as the same one who'd deflected his shot earlier, and he didn't have his sword ready just yet. Tony could've killed him, but he wanted to see something first. He made sure to watch very carefully at his barrel, and the spot where he wanted to shoot, and then fired.
The bullet deflected off the ninja's sword, and toward some dismal direction. Tony had seen everything he needed to. A poison dart of some kind impacted the hood, an inch away from his neck. It caused a ripple over his hood, and even down to his cape. In the shock of it however, combined with trying to dodge the sword of his attacker, he managed to trip on that very cape.
While falling, he got a shot off at the person who'd probably shot him, a silhouette standing on a rooftop three of them away. His body fell down lifelessly. Tony put his hands behind him, dropping the gun, and pushed himself backwards and up.
Tony landed on his feet to find the other four ninjas climbing up on different sides of the building. Without turning around, Tony pulled out a decent sized knife and chopped off the fingers pulling someone up. Whoever it was, they just fell back down onto some hard concrete.
In the course of those events, three more poison darts had hit Tony, all missing his skin; he'd learned, like he always did, and kept his head low. Now there was no choice but to face the attacker up front. He'd tried everything he could to avoid him, as he was clearly a Black Sky, but now there wasn't much more choice.
The man swung his katana down.
Everything stopped to Tony's mind. He looked, just looked at the sword coming towards him. He thought and thought, going through everything he remembered about blocking a sword from above. There certainly wasn't enough time to dodge it, and he only had a pocketknife in his hand.
He met the shrouded eyes of the assailant.
See, when Tony was either five or six years old, his Doctor had diagnosed him with extreme Eidetic memory. It was his mother's request after he repeated the lasso tricks to the note the first time he saw genuine rope skill on tv.
His doctor's weren't entirely wrong, photographic memory was a large part of it, but that was just it, a part. There was so much more to it, and as far as Tony knew, no one else on the planet possessed his abilities.
Chances are you already know them, but in case you don't, or haven't already deduced it, Tony Masters, for whatever reason, by whichever anomaly, was able to copy impeccably any action within his physical capacity that he saw, and combine it seamlessly with any other actions he needs at the time.
On top of that, and his naturally lightning quick reflexes, Tony is able to predict most people's actions, whether in combat or anything else, after only a few seconds of studying them. Only a few, like a Black Sky, with a rewired brain, are immune to him, and able to move and act unpredictably enough to keep him from catching on.
If that wasn't enough, his cells were hyperactive, giving him healing capacities which aren't quite superhuman, but very nearly, equivalent to a two month old child. Of course, as he got older, this inevitably slowed. Now, at the age of thirty eight, his cell repair rate was that of a three year old.
Once people started learning about Inhumans, and all manners of human-enhancing energy, his acquaintances were quick to believe he was superhuman.
To this day, every conceivable test had been negative. As far as anyone could tell, he was a hesitantly stated, a normal human.
But while the cause was still mysterious, the effects were put to good use. Nearly every fight Tony had ever gotten in had yielded some benefit to his skill, and the him of today would easily defeat himself a year, or even a month ago. In fact, the him of right now could probably kill the him of earlier today, having just witnessed a Black Sky deflecting a .45 ACP with a katana.
Again, someone like that, Tony could already tell, he wouldn't be able to predict very easily at all. He'd fought people like that before, not Black Sky's, but people nonetheless. They weren't easy. And this guy was already a fighter to match if not beat Tony. With three other highly trained warriors to help him, as well, even the Taskmaster, the superhero-like codename Tony gave himself for the sheer purpose he liked the sound of it, and how it included his last name, didn't stand much of a chance.
But nonetheless he'd wasted too much time, and now he had little choice but to fight it out, if for a little bit. So, with the sword coming down from above, his only chance was to deflect it off the hardest part of his armor. Around his forearms there was some tough metal protection.
Originally he wanted to use Vibranium on them, but he never got around to acquiring it or enough money to buy it, let alone smelt it at the 19000 degrees Fahrenheit melting point to the cuff design.
Still, these Titanium wrists would do.
He got bruised badly meeting the blade with the left arm
only instants before his head would've been sliced off.
As it happened, he obviously was already turning to the right to stick in his pocketknife still in hand. But already Tony knew that, if the Black Sky was fast enough, since the blade was sliding under his arm, he'd be able to take Tony's arm clean off. And he didn't want to risk anything like that.
So he changed motion slightly and leaned to the right, pulling his left arm up hard, and swinging away from the sword. He came around to grab the Black Sky's arm, and to stab the other, but his assailant used the butt of the sword to knock away Tony's knife-wielding hand. He also had blades on the undersides of his feet, which Tony spotted just in time to be stabbed by them.
To the Black Sky's frustration, Taskmaster's suit held, and he swung the sword around his right to Taskmaster's side.
Once again Tony tried to block it, but it slid off, and the wrist impact barely slowed it from hitting his left side.
Now that Tony was off guard, a poison dart was able to hit him in the throat. He didn't spare a second thinking about it before hopping backwards off the roof, where the ninja with four fingers cut off was struggling to pull himself up.
Tony's body knocked him down once more. They both hit the hard alley pavement below.
On the bright side, Tony didn't feel cold anymore, for as soon as the poison dart hit his skin, it injected a poison that immediately burned through his throat and spread in every direction through his body. Every fraction of a second it was harder to breathe.
He at once pulled the needle out and jammed it into the throat of his fellow man on the ground, some poisonous liquids still contained within. The warrior scrambled with all the franticness Tony didn't let show despite the immense pain, and reached for a vial containing blue liquid as he pulled the needle out.
The Black Sky and one other leaned over the wall cautiously, to be greeted with an upward thrown knife.
Tony could tell by the dying man's movements he was about to put the liquid over his wound, when he pulled the pin out of a grenade and tossed it up and over the wall to the Black Sky, and then knocked out the man with six fingers and stole his vial to pour the contents over his wound.
As the Black Sky, who dodged the throwing knife, hit the grenade back down to Tony, he felt a cold rush through his throat first, and soon to be the rest of his body, and in an instant could breathe again.
But before he could even breathe he slid himself around on the ground and punched the falling grenade back down the alley, below his feet.
After it went off, Tony sprung back up and went off running.
The Hand was there, first and foremost, for money, and the people who would pay them had arrived in trade for drugs they couldn't get their hands on otherwise. They strolled up to the block in an inconspicuous car which Tony now zoomed past.
Black Sky sent two ninjas to follow Taskmaster, one to escort the dealers to cover, and the last to gather the bodies, particularly Gao's, to bring back to the Hand's lair and life. Black Sky himself ducked down beneath the wall and moved around below it so Taskmaster couldn't get a shot on him. His other gun was still laying in front of Sky, but he knew, despite the excellent aim he possessed, Tony was better when it came to a gunfight.
It didn't work. Tony saw both the two ninjas coming with swords drawn and Black Sky ducking down. Before the two could reach him he'd drawn his last handgun and shot the roof five times in different areas. The Black Sky was lucky enough Tony was attacked before he could clear every body length of the roof where he could be, but it wasn't his warriors this time.
Tony heard the monster approaching him. As of late everyone wanted to get their hands on one of these. Tony had never seen one of them in reality, let alone fought one.
He was once strolling YouTube when in his recommended was a video by some hundred thousand subscriber channel called "What To Do When A WEREWOLF ATTACKS You!" The thumbnail was a more gruesome-looking version of the werewolves that actually existed with a scared emoji photoshopped next to it, turned at a 10 degree angle.
It was very likely clickbait, but he still regretted not watching it. It could have been very helpful right about now. If he'd known the Hand had trained werewolves on their side, he'd probably have searched it back up before tonight. But he didn't think it was necessary anywhere outside of Europe.
Still, it was dumb to think the Hand hadn't thought of everything themselves.
The man carrying a briefcase full of cash looked back in horror at the man wrestling with the werewolf and two ninjas as he was pulled behind cover. It clearly had no intention of attacking the Hand members. That was training.
Another thing to note is that it wasn't a full moon out. Something was taking the place of the full moon, probably the petite Stark tech mounted on its back.
See, the modern, artificial werewolves were normally turned from their human forms because of a microscopic gyroscope inside their chest. Inside the nonmagnetic gyroscope is a single tube containing a ball the size of five human blood cells, which, when the perfect amount of gravity is able to pull the ball to the top, it activates the system, and sends the active agent into the victim's bloodstream, turning on the otherwise dormant chemical already throughout the bloodstream.
It then turns into an alternate, more advanced form of the Pyron disease which plagued America not long ago, but with controlled doses of canine behavior, as well as the inability to spread the infection.
People are idiots, as paraphrased from Billy Currington, and whichever cultist who thought it would be good fun to bring movie monsters to life was no exception. But Wales must've killed his parents, because that's where these creatures were let loose, and they quickly spread across Europe. Then there were vampires. Yes, you didn't misread. Vampires.
No more doubt the guy who uploaded "What To Do When A WEREWOLF ATTACKS You" was European than that the video was clickbait.
Tony didn't allow the creature to get on top of him, and neither did he let the beast out of the way between him and the ninjas.
As he stuck a sword up its jaw, the blade impacted something it couldn't slice through. With foot length hands gnashing him, Tony pulled the sword slightly out, and stuck back in to the right.
With a squeal of pain, the werewolf's body went mostly limp. Tony pulled out the sword and was coming around to meet the left flanking warrior before the creature's body had fallen all the way down.
With Tony busy fighting two fellow ninjas, Black Sky saw his chance. He grabbed Tony's gun from off the roof and quickly aimed dead on to him.
Tony, of course, saw the shooter and threw both swords off him. Black Sky took the shot. Tony swung his sword at the angle he'd seen (can't get too dangerous on the first time) the shooter swing, and sure enough, it deflected out in yet another dismal direction.
In the same swing, Tony came down again to meet the right flanking ninja's sword. Nearly too late, the enemy only pulled away his cape.
Black Sky fired a second shot, which impacted at the point of least protection his fellow warrior had exposed. Tony lost his breath, but didn't allow himself to fall down. He tried hobbling away, but the ninjas easily caught up to him.
One grabbed him by the neck, the other one came around the other side with his katana leading. The first one struggled for Tony's arms. He got hold of the left with a firm grip, but righty was able to reach around and pull the pin from one of his grenades.
The two warriors backed off, allowing Black Sky to take another shot. It hit Tony in the back of the neck, causing him to reel forward in pain. As the two ninjas got to safe distances, Tony couldn't take his arms off the back of his head.
Black Sky only had one shot left, and he wanted to save it just in case. By now, the werewolf had returned to full consciousness, and was running for Tony.
Taskmaster forced himself to grab the grenade, and, pulling it from its harness, through it at the oblivious approaching beast. Black Sky tried to take the opening of Tony turning around towards him, but in an instant his cape was protecting him.
Because of how close together the two things were, Tony thought it was a piece of shrapnel that had hit him in the face. The cape falling away, he made an audible cry of pain. After the blown up bits of the werewolf hit the ground, along with the destroyed Stark tech, the two ninjas approached, swords drawn.
Blood covered Tony's bruised and tattooed face, as well as his hands. His preservation instincts were at war with him. But, from the rooftops of the alley across the street he had now managed over to, another figure swung down a chained weapon with both a straight and a hooked blade on the end.
The hook dug into the bottom of Taskmaster's jaw, and was surprisingly able to carry his weight.
Again, there was a bright side. He felt neither the cold or the burning sensation of the poison anymore. He was lifted atop the roof of a Schumer's Essential Reading store by his throat. His hood was pulled aside and a needle was crammed into the side of his head.
With that, Tony went into overdrive, and he was carried by nothing but his instincts. This is the way Black Sky's are known to fight. He reached his hands behind him, and grabbed onto the roof above him. With hysterical strength he launched himself up from behind, easily out of the hook in his jaw, and onto the man on the roof.
The pain was in his head now, he only had seconds to live before it spread to his brain. So, he moved like a flash until the chain weapon was out of the ninja's hand and in his own. The other two ninjas had darted to the wall and were now attempting to scale it, and Black Sky was looking ready to jump off the opposite roof and give Tony a goodbye gift.
With a slash and a half, the ninja's protective kevlar was bypassed and he was bleeding out. Before hitting the ground, Tony reached for the spot the other warrior had kept the vial. He started panicking after not feeling it there, but grabbed onto it after searching around for a second or so.
The first ninja to scale the wall was smart, and launched himself up as soon as he got his hands on top, but it was no use.
Tony had to pocket the vial for a second. The chained scythe was an excellent weapon in the particular situation, and its blade latched onto several folds in the black suit. Tony took full advantage, as he did best, and pulled him to the ground in just the right direction the ninja was unable to land. He then wrapped the chain around the ninja's arm, forcing the blade up a ligament, and then cracking his arm.
He took a second to open the vial while getting to his feet, and guzzle it down. As he did so, the werewolf was evidently getting back up and taking a second to sniff Tony out, Black Sky was running across the street, and ninja number two, scared off by the tragic fate of the other two rooftop warriors, was climbing up a different wall to take Tony on with an even start.
Tony was about to spoil the ninja's day when he was attacked from behind by a second werewolf. Someone was still in the distance, watching, setting off all these attackers. Nonetheless, Tony went to work on the beast, not allowing it to hit him a second time.
Black Sky threw his gun at Taskmaster from below, and with surprising force, hit him in the back.
Taskmaster slit the creature's forearm from beneath, and then pulled back and launched the blade forward to the right. With a pull right, and the easily predictable wolfman's jump forward, Tony, head still buzzing from the poison, slipped around left and strung the chain around its neck, then twice so, and choked the beast by the blade's sticking through a rib.
The ninja approached after five seconds which seemed like an eternity, sword swinging first. It landed Tony, all right, only because he was unable to let go of the chain. The ninja saw his chance and put the katana's tip at the bottom of Tony's chest armor.
That got Tony's attention. As soon as he witnessed the ninja pointing down his sword, Tony had no choice but to let the werewolf go. He pushed himself away, but failed to stop a blade go slightly through his left side. But Tony had enough adrenaline going the pain hardly made him wince before he had unwrapped the chain and pulled the scythe out of Wolfman's side.
He and the werewolf had something in common, but the werewolf's left side was cut more effectively in spite of its tougher skin. Just then, the first one jumped to the roof in one stride. Tony in seconds chained up the attacking arms of the second monster, and as the first one jumped for him, he pulled the scythe blade in its direction. Wrapping the end of the chain first around the second werewolf's mouth, and then his arm, Tony kneed the scythe into the first one's stomach, used it as a momentary stepping stool, and swung around to the creature's top, still pulling the rope fast.
Tony didn't stop swinging before grabbing hold of the first werewolf's head and neck, and fell attempting to snap it. But the vibranium bones had other ideas. Failing to snap, Tony fell in a bad position, and by his and the werewolfs' weight, his arm was pulled in an unnatural position, and Taskmaster had no choice but to let the chain loose. With this, Tony fell wonkily on the roof's ledge and made a conscious effort to fall down to the ground. Too bad, because yet another poison dart would have otherwise hit him.
The Black Sky below had nearly dodged the falling vigilante, but as far as nanoseconds go, his margin of error was in the single digits.
Taskmaster was still so focused he even, in the midst of all this chaos, noticed a warrior across the street, picking up his fallen gun from the roof of Blammo Hotel.
And… then he hit the ground, or, more appropriately, the Black Sky's body. Looking straight up at the werewolves, Tony began reaching for his knives, then corrected himself for lack of any more, then looked around for something to use. There were many objects around that could be used, but Taskmaster was smarter than that. He knew that Black Sky beneath him was surely already holding a weapon of his own.
Tony pulled forward and jumped up, putting both armored forearms in the ninja's direction. Sure enough, Black Sky had a sword pulled up and it clashed against Tony's forearms. The warrior pulled back from the first swing and slashed up behind Tony's guard.
Tony moved his arms and blocked this second strike, pushing himself back with it.
Taskmaster's back hit the wall, and the werewolf landed feet first in front of the Black Sky, where Tony would have been a split second ago. The second one hopped down to his right.
Taskmaster reached up and put his arm around the first werewolf. He reached around with his other hand and quickly jammed his fingers into his eyes. He threw himself back before Black Sky had a chance to slash his arm or whatever.
The first werewolf fell down in pain, reaching for its eyes. The second one opened its mouth wide in anger and lunged toward Tony, and Black Sky put his leg onto the back of the first werewolf to jump over. Tony was in a constant state of flux between sped up, normal speed, and slowed down time, and now at this point he'd put everything into personal slow motion more so than he had since trying to deflect that bullet.
Speaking of which, the guy atop Blammo Hotel across the street was taking aim. Great. Just one more thing to worry about. But Tony wasn't sure of how well the guy who trained like he lived in medieval times would be able to aim the .44 Cal, maybe he could use it to his own favor.
Anyways the creature jumping fangfirst at Taskmaster. That was the real deal. Could he duck down fast enough, with a foot between his face and the wolfman's? Doubtful. His left arm was already up, but that was on the opposite side. He could probably make it, though, if he pulled his chest back simultaneously to pushing his arm in its face.
Time ran out, and he leaned back, impacting the werewolf's open jaw with his southpaw.
Oh yes, his face would have been stuck inside the teeth of that monster right then if he hadn't jumped back. Trusting his gut had saved him as often as any weapon. While he was in the motion, why not try and flip over and ride the wolf?
Reaching around its neck with his right hand, Tony simply let it carry him up and around. Predictable as the simple beast was, he couldn't afford to get used to it, because now Black Sky was added to the imminent threat list.
The ninja had his sword out in an immediate transition between striking where Tony just was and where Tony was currently.
Taskmaster had to fall to the left while pushing the werewolf off to the right. It was only easy because the beast hadn't had time to brace. It ran into the corner wall as Black Sky came from behind.
He was pushed back into a corner and had no choice but to face the Black Sky head on. Weaponless, it was almost impossible to even put up a fight. But he still technically had a weapon, and he could conceivably prolong the scuffle long enough to give himself the upper hand.
He made a mistake, though, which set him on a chain reaction of mistakes. The first one being, he treated the Black Sky's sword as if it was being wielded by someone he could predict. He positioned his forearms where it was surely going to impact, but it turned midair. Or maybe it didn't, maybe it just had a different trajectory originally. But either way, it came close to tearing Tony's kevlar and cut fairly deep into his chest through it.
He reacted as a twitch and made his second mistake of trying to push the blade away, but not blocking on his armor. The pain cut into him and only pushed in on the point to try and tear off his cloak or something.