Chapter 5: What Did This?
(In the skies above the Labrador Sea)
Black Widow is flying the gigantic aircraft towards Greenland while the others heroes are socializing and preparing for whatever laid ahead.
"I'm not liking this Webs. Something seems off." Power Man said. "The atmosphere of this situation is filled with unclear and dangerous winds." Iron-Fist added. "The younglings are right, this makes me uneasy. Something is not right here." Thor said.
Spider-Man was thinking about the situation thoroughly. He had a very bad feeling in his gut about the events transpiring. Iron Man was running algorithms for possible explanations.
"Don't worry; once we arrive I'll take care of the entire situation. Nothing I can't handle." Hawkeye said. "Don't rush to conclusions soldier, we don't know the entire story here." Captain America advised. "You worry too much Cap, just relax." The archer chuckled.
The man out of time shook his head, his militarized mind alerting him to the uneasiness of what might occur. The Agents of SMASH were arming themselves.
"Oh yeah, one-eye really armed this bird well. We're going to have to take this thing back home." Red-Hulk chuckled, lifting a huge machine gun from its case. "I'll admit, Fury did give this thing some good individual weaponry. I just hope we don't have to use them." Hulk replied. "Ah come one Jade Jaws, where would be the fun in that?" Red-Hulk laughed.
Hulk shook his head. Meanwhile the others were sitting in silence, waiting for the landing. Even Nova was quiet, having been horrified at what he saw happened to those men. White Tiger sat at the front of the plane beside Black Widow.
"You alright?" Natasha asked. "Fine." White Tiger answered, trying to sound respectful.
Widow looked down to see the girl's half-way healed arm.
"You sure you should've come? Your arm hasn't fully healed." Widow said. "Has anything like this ever stopped you from completing a mission?" Tiger asked.
Widow smiled, she was seeing a lot of herself in this young hero. White Tiger is no-nonsense just like her.
"No. What happened?" The professional spy asked. "… Spider-Man…" White Tiger answered. "Hmm?" Widow asked, genuinely intrigued and shocked by the response. "We were training and he wasn't paying attention and I got injured." She answered. "Hmm… What else?" She asked. "He bandaged it up. But it still was his fault for being stupid… more so than usual." Tiger growled.
Black Widow hadn't known Spider-Man for very long. She didn't particularly like his foolish antics and prankster behavior. But she did see the good in him, so she kept asking.
"Did he joke around and brag about great he was?" Widow continued. "No...he barely talked and he didn't even fight. It was like he was ill. But… never mind." Tiger answered. 'Hmm... What's this?' The older woman thought to herself. "What?" Natasha said. "I was sort of in a bad situation and he jumped in to help. But he stupidly had his back turned and got himself hurt even worse than me." Ava growled.
Widow thought about this for a moment. The masked hero had an ability to alert him of oncoming danger. What could make him distracted so easily?
"That was when he was bandaging you? His first priority was to help you." Black Widow said, as if she watched the event herself. ".. He should've been watching his back." Tiger mumbled. "We're here!" Widow said over the plane's microphone.
Everyone did there last minute preparations before they strapped in for the landing. The plane was flown into a huge mile wide crack in the ice and snow. The base had been placed inside what others thought was a hole that should be avoided at all costs. The base was certainly torn apart. It looked as if a bomb had hit the place.
"Whoa… It looks even worse when we see the entire thing." Agent Venom gasped.
Widow carefully landed the plane. Everyone walked outside in the proper apparel. Kazar stopped the others.
"What? What is it?" Hawkeye said. "Let Zabu check the surroundings." The jungle boy advised. "Really? You're going to let the cat check for danger?" The archer scoffed. "Keep talking like that and the cat might eat you." Hulk said, then pointed to the angry big cat.
The archer nervously laughed and hid behind Thor. Zabu snarled but shook his head. The big cat carefully sniffed the air, trying to catch the scent of anything that was unfamiliar. The sabertooth nodded and the jungle teen nodded back.
"Zabu says there aren't any dangers." Kazar explained. "Let's go everyone." Captain America said.
The group walked towards the shredded building and checked the area for any sign of fresh tracks or any other signs of a ground attack. They didn't see anything of the sort. When they went inside they found more signs of unknown caused destruction.
"No signs of forced entry." Captain America said. "Really? The doors are ripped out of the hinges." Falcon said. "But no signs of forceful attempts from the outside. All the damage came from in here. The security tapes won't do us any good since the footage Fury showed us was cut short for part of the time." The veteran soldier said. "But maybe they could tell us the time gap." Spider-Man theorized. "Good thinking Spidey. Falcon, take Widow to find the security room. See if you could find the tapes." Iron Man said.
The two avengers nodded and went to the security room. Spider-Man inspected the walls, studying the bent and misshaped metal reinforcements. White Tiger walked over to one of the cells and studied the impressions in the metal cages.
"What do you have there Spidey?" She-Hulk asked as she walked over to stand by his side. "Look at the way the metal has been bent, it looks as if someone or something grabbed it and bent it." The masked hero explained. "Cous! Come look at this?" The gamma powered woman called over to Hulk.
The green giant walked over and inspected the sight. He saw what the other two found.
"You'd have to be very strong to do this. Not many can do this. But there aren't any boot prints besides the SHIELD soldiers'. Hmm…" Hulk said.
Ava looked at the impressions in the cage. It looked as if someone punched them.
"It looks like someone actually punched this! Who could do this to one of SHIELD's cells?" Tiger called out to the others. "Spider-Man found something similar to that. The base's walls have been bent like putty." Hulk added. "I should know what did this… but what?" Iron Man grumbled. "Wow Stark is unable to solve this mystery. I'm shocked." Hawkeye laughed. "This is no laughing matter Hawkeye. Something is terribly wrong." Captain America said. "Zabu is very alarmed at this place's smell. Something evil came here." Kazar added.
Falcon and Black Widow walked back to join the others. They're faces didn't have looks of confidence and/or good news on them.
"What did you find?" Ant-Man asked. "We found the tapes and checked the time gap… Whatever happened here took about 5 minutes to complete." Falcon explained.
The room went dead silent.
(Whoa… This is really not good… Fury isn't going to like this.)
(A few hours later at the Academy)
The group arrived back at the Academy. The plane landed and the group walked inside. Fury stood there with Coulson, a huge bag, and several various figures in the shadows.
"Director Fury we learned that the…" Captain America started to explain but Nick interjected, "I know what happened. I found out after you left and were well on your way. You can tell me later. But everyone single one of you need to see this."
The veteran spy nodded to Coulson who walked over to the bag which was on an examination table.
"Gather around everyone." The agent said as he grabbed the zipper.
The heroes gathered around the table, and Coulson unzipped the bag. And everyone was horrified by what they saw.
"Gosh..." A-Bomb gasped. "By Odin's Beard!" Thor said, shock and disgust filling his voice. "Damn..." Nova mumbled. "No..." Captain America gasped.
(Oh hell no…)
A dead man was in the bag; his skin is white as snow. The color completely drained… but that wasn't the only thing. Two tooth marks were in the man's neck. All his blood was gone.
"This is... was... Agent Daniels... he was the contact of the warden of the prison here. Daniels would alert me of any troubles. A few agents found him in his office earlier today dead in his chair." Fury explained. "That means…" Power Man started to say, but a cold, familiar voice interrupted him, "Dracula is back and planning to... well you know…"
The heroes turned to see Blade walk out of the shadows, along with the other Howling Commandos.
"The Howling Commandos are here to help." Werewolf by Night said. "I thought you said there were only two people you were calling in?" Nova said, his voice thick with confusion. "Originally he did bub." A rough voice growled.
Wolverine walked into the light and stopped to stand beside Fury.
"Who's the other one?" Iron Man asked. "I'M BACK BITCHES!" An energetic voice yelled.
(Oh boy…)
A familiar mercenary in a red costume jumped into view.
"Deadpool!" A few of the heroes shouted.
(That's right! The merc with a mouth is back baby!)
"We have work to do…" Fury sighed.
To be continued…