Naruto and Marvel belong to Masashi Kishimoto and Disney respectively.
AN: Special thanks to Meneldur for helping to edit the story and giving me plenty of ideas.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
"Telepathy/Foreign language"
"Jutsu/Technique"
Chapter XVII: Inferno
The cool wind was comforting after a long, arduous day under the spring sun. Jean moaned as she rested her body on her sleeping bag.
Her legs were sore, her feet were killing her, and her shoulders felt numb after an entire day of carrying her backpack through the wooded trail, and yet she knew that such a sense of fulfillment could never have come from spending an entire day at the beach. When she worked for it, and worked for it with literal sweat and tears, the sense of reward was always worth it.
The entire trip was becoming a free therapeutic treatment for her mind. After she had been burnt so badly by her ex-boyfriend and all of his friends, she needed to reaffirm her own self-worth, realize that she still had people she could count on, and had the ability to reach her own goals if she set her mind to it. Being accompanied by her best friend and a teammate she'd grown to like and respect only made her feel more empowered.
It was always hard to tell if Ororo was happy, given the usual stoic control she had over her emotions, but Jean's power told her just how glad her friend was to be close to nature. She had been prepared for it as well, always taking the lead.
Rogue had made up for her improving stamina by sheer will. It was clear that the younger girl wanted to prove something for herself, or just get away from the hubbub of the Institute. Whichever it was, she didn't try to pry, even if she had the ability to do so, but she could guess. What surprised Jean was the southern girl's daring. When they reached their camp site at the edge of the Hudson River, Rogue had jumped in without hesitation to freshen herself up, despite the strong current. Jean and Ororo had entered soon after, the cold water soothing the sunburns and mosquito bites.
Ororo entered the tent after her, settling herself on the sleeping bag. "It's nice here. The air feels fresh."
"Might be a good idea to bring the rest of the team for a field exercise."
"It'd be good. Naruto would outrun all of us and get bored quickly."
Jean laughed. "There is no end to his stamina. How do you think he's doing without us?"
"Naruto is someone you can count on. Maybe not to do the smart thing, but certainly the right thing. He'll always find the way to make things right."
"Hmm…" murmured Jean as she settled into her pillow and drifted off to sleep, the wind and the sounds of wildlife lulling her into relaxing her tired body.
A sharp pain pulled Jean from her deep sleep. Her mind flashed with the memories seen through other eyes. A steel jungle, a sudden sensation of drowning, and a raging inferno. Her heart beat intensely as Ororo got up from her own mattress and put a hand on Jean's shoulder.
"Are you alright?"
Jean breathed in heavily as the migraine began to ease, yet the images burned in her mind still.
"We have to go back to the Institute… now!"
The night was blessedly quiet in the forest. There were no honking cars, no shouting of students, no waking screams of nightmares, and most of all, no judging eyes. There was only the crackling of the fire, the singing of crickets, and the vastness of a black, star-filled sky.
Dani took a breath of fresh air as she finished combing her hair, putting the bottle of shampoo inside the bag. It was the only comfort from the industrialized world she used. Everything else she had done on her own, from the tent, to the pelts, the food she had hunted with the hand-crafted arrows.
She was Cheyenne. She could hunt on her own, survive on her own, live on her own… perhaps even kill a bear on her own.
At times, Dani felt bad for leaving. She didn't hate the other students of the Institute, in fact, she could even call some of them friends. Rahne and Xi'an were easy to get along with, and she could work well with the rest. Everyone did everything to make her feel welcome, and genuinely tried to befriend her.
Perhaps that's why she decided to go. She didn't want those eyes to turn hateful.
'One day, I may return. When I no longer haunt their dreams.'
Dani kicked off her boots and crawled into her tent, settling her body to sleep. The nightmares would be just for her this time. Just as she closed her eyes, she felt the ground shake violently. Standing up in alarm, Dani quickly reached for her bow and stepped into the now completely silent forest. Even the crickets' song had died.
Quickly dressing up again, Dani grabbed all of her arrows, put out the fire, and ran towards the Institute. She wasn't sure if whatever it was that shook the ground originated from there, but she had to make sure.
She emerged from the trees to see the Institute in darkness. On the outside it may seem like everything was normal, and that was the intention. She remembered the drills that Naruto guided them through, despite their protests, if there was ever anything wrong. They were the New Mutants, not meant for frontline combat. They had only one instruction if there was danger: evacuate.
As she heard a loud thud break the silence, Dani took cover behind a rock, her head peeking out silently to try and see. Illuminated only with the moonlight, it was hard to make out whatever made the disturbance, but her ears told her it must be large.
Letting her eyes adjust to the darkness, Dani could eventually make out a massive figure, much taller than a grown human, facing the Mansion while standing completely still. It stayed like that for several minutes and finally moved again, trudging its massive frame around the Institute grounds.
"Dani?" came a whisper.
She whipped her head behind her to see Rahne's red hair, and soon saw all of the students sneaking behind her. One by one she recognized them – Xi'an, Bobby, Roberto, Sam, Jubilee, Amara, and Wanda. All of them were still dressed in their pajamas. Jubilee had apparently been showering, if her wet hair was any indication. Wanda and Amara didn't even have time to put on any shoes.
"What happened?" she asked, keeping her voice down.
"We don't know," responded Xi'an. "One minute we're all getting ready for bed and then we feel the crash outside. We all followed the drill and escaped via the back."
"Where's Ororo?"
"She went on a hiking trip with Rogue and Jean."
"And Naruto?"
"He and Kitty still haven't come back from their trip to the city. It's just us New Mutants and Wanda here."
Dani took a deep breath and tried to think. Their orders came from the Professor or Logan, both of whom were gone. After that was Ororo, and Naruto was second in command. After that would come any member of the main X-Men team. If they were all gone, who was next in charge?
'Oh… it's me,' Dani thought with dread.
"What the hell is that thing?" whispered Bobby, peeking out of cover to see the massive thing roaming the grounds.
"Get down from there!" snapped Dani. Bobby ignored her, and so did everyone else when they peeked past cover to watch.
"Think we can take that on?" Bobby asked the rest of the team.
"Dinnae think so," replied Rahne. "Tha's a wee bit out our league, innit?"
"It just looks like some big ol' robot," added Jubilee.
"A big old robot that's bigger than all of us put together and we know nothing about it," said Xi'an. "You heard what Naruto always says. We don't go into action."
"What's all the training for then?" said Bobby with a cocky grin. "Maybe all of this is a test for our skills, eh? Don't you think it's an odd coincidence that every professor and every member of the X-Men left us all alone, and on the exact day it happens some robot just falls down the sky? I'm betting Naruto is watching over with binoculars to see how we do against it."
"Naruto wouldn't do that," Wanda stated confidently. "He's not like that."
Dani took a deep breath. 'Time to be the leader.' Raising her voice, she started to speak. "We don't know what's going on, but we're not going to rush in like idiots. Whatever it is, we can lose it in the woods and wait for help to come. Follow me."
She could feel the hesitation of the team behind her, and yet she couldn't look back. There could be no lack of confidence on her part, or they would never follow another order she gave. When she stepped away from the hill they were hiding on, she heard Wanda's bare feet step towards her, and then another and another. Soon enough, all of her teammates were behind her, crouching when she did, and finding cover wherever they could.
"Do you have a place?" asked Wanda
"I made a small camp, but it may not be big for all of us. There's food, though, and I guess we can fit three people in the tent if we all squeeze together. The others will have to rest by the fire."
Illuminated only by the moonlight, Dani could identify the edge of the forest only by the complete darkness created by the trees. Even so, she would have no problem making it back to camp thanks to the position of the stars. Once they found themselves inside the embrace of the woods, it would be hard for the machine to find them.
All they had to do was disappear among the trees…
BOOM!
The sound was so massive that it immediately sent her and the rest of her group to the ground, screams of shock and pain piercing the once silent night. Dani raised herself from the ground and reached out for her bow, nocking a stone tipped arrow on the string.
Before them, blocking their path to safety, was a cloud of dust, and from it, a pair of bright red eyes pierced through the darkness. A purple and gray head emerged, followed by a massive body, all of it made from polished metal. As the rest of the group stood up and recovered, they, like Dani, stared dumbfounded at the thing.
"Targets identified."
"We are still receiving information about the shocking events taking place in Hell's Kitchen…"
"Authorities are still investigating if it was an accident or intentional…"
"The President has been informed about the fires and is planning to take action…"
"Worries about another terrorist attack are sending the nation into panic…"
"Reports of gunfire have been made. Locals are calling it a warzone…"
"My fellow Americans. It is in moments like this when we must remember our national character and remain calm. Show integrity by caring for yourselves and your neighbors…"
"We just got confirmation by several anonymous sources that the Maelstrom has been spotted at the centerpoint of the explosions. The masked vigilante is only one of several that has been active in the city, despite confirmation from law authorities that their actions are against the law. For more information on this mysterious group, we talk to the editor of the Daily Bugle: J. Jonah Jameson…"
Natasha kept her eyes on the many screens at the meeting room at SHIELD headquarters showing different angles of what the newscasters were describing as hell on earth. Personally, she had seen worse, but that didn't make this a trivial matter, especially when one of the people who was of utmost interest to them was front and center in the news.
'Just when I left Stark, too,' Natasha thought.
"That brat," grumbled Logan through gritted teeth. He stood up from his place at the table. "I'm going to bail him out."
"What good will that do?" asked Fury, pointing at the footage. "The police will get there before us."
"There's cameras all over the place," added Natasha. "If you want to keep the existence of your kind a secret, you cannot go in adamantium claws blazing." She gave him a calm look. "Besides, he's a capable kid. I've been following him long enough to know that. He's demonstrated time and again that the average Maggia mook or Cartel sicario is no match for him."
"Do you really think the Maggia is capable of something like this? No… something smells fishy here, Nick."
Fury shook his head. "Perhaps, yet we cannot abandon our current mission, Logan. If HYDRA is truly back, we need to make them our priority, and all our hints lead to this place. We need to strike now before it's too late. The abilities of these gangsters are insignificant compared to whatever our true enemy is capable of."
"We bring an exclusive report from one of our investigative journalists. We have reason to believe that this attack was perpetrated by a group of individuals known as 'mutants'."
Logan's head snapped towards the screen immediately. "What?" he growled.
"They live among us, because they are born from us, at least that's what it seems at first glance. These mutants begin to develop superhuman abilities during puberty…"
"That's it, I'm going!" growled Logan, taking his jacket and running towards the exit, until Fury stood up and the blast door closed. Claws sprang from the wild man's hands. "Are you really going to stop me? I'm not SHIELD anymore."
"It'll take you an hour just to reach the city on your motorcycle. It'll all be over by the time you get there," reasoned Fury.
"Then let me take a Quinjet!"
Fury shook his head. "Like you said, Logan. You are not SHIELD anymore, and we do not have authorization to go in with full force yet. This is the work of the criminal element, a domestic issue, not SHIELD's"
"Are you really holding back because of technicalities? My kind are in danger out there!" roared Logan.
"Sir. Doesn't that look familiar?" asked Maria Hill and all eyes returned to the screen. Hulking figures could be seen through the smoke and dust among the flashes of gunfire. They were far larger than any human, and painted in purple and gray.
Natasha's brain kicked in. Vernon Van Dyne and Hank Pym were in charge of R&D for SHIELD, but there was once brilliant scientist of a similar eccentric nature, only his was obsessed with genocidal hatred against the mutants, and in that spirit, had created a series of weapons to annihilate what he considered to be humanity's greatest threat. Only once had she seen the prototype, but it was enough to recognize the new and improved versions.
Fury seemed to realize as well, and now it was he that lost his cool. "Trask! That traitorous bastard!"
Logan sliced open the blast door with ease and looked back at Fury. "I'm going whether you want me or not."
"Wait!" shouted Fury.
"No!"
SHIELD's commander took a deep breath and opened his eye again, hard with conviction. "Give us some time to prepare a Quinjet. Clint, Natasha, prepare to exit. Alert our agents that they have ten minutes."
He closed his eye again. "And Maria?"
"Yes, Commander?"
"Wake him up."
"Understood, sir," said the black-haired agent, hurrying to Natasha's side. "Fury isn't messing around anymore," she whispered to Natasha as they both exited the briefing room.
"He's not someone that takes betrayal lightly."
Maria nodded. "Do you think it was Trask that revealed the mutant secret? He's hated them for so long."
"He knew about them, but there's something that doesn't click," responded Natasha. "News like that doesn't spread so quickly, not without someone with connections to the media. If Trask had gone in alone, they just would've considered him a conspiratorial lunatic."
As they met a fork in the hallways, Natasha went her own way to prepare, with only one question in her mind:
Who had Trask allied with this time?
The sky was painted a crimson red.
Standing at the highest point of Wilson Fisk's skyscraper, Wesley could see the flames that sent smoke into the air. Building after building, block after block, all of it being consumed by a ravenous inferno, the center of which had been blown up, only a hole remaining, quickly being filled by water.
In that lowest level of hell, all of Wilson Fisk's enemies were tearing each other apart, each of them willing to ravage the other in a frenzy of uncontrolled bloodlust, just to inch further to the top. The last one standing would still only be trapped inside that hole, while Wilson Fisk rose above all.
Even the Punisher, the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, Spider-Man, and the Maelstrom were down there, unaware of the strings that had led them to that hole. The four had been good tools for them. Now they have outlived their usefulness.
"Nuke has been dispatched, as well as Mr. Trask's Sentinels," Wesley said softly.
Wilson Fisk did not move a single inch, except to take a drink out of his champagne glass, and hold his wife's hand. Vanessa Fisk, whose beautiful face hid a ruthlessness equal to her husband's, also watched the flames with a cold look.
"Are they all gone?" asked Vanessa.
"They will be," assured Fisk.
She nodded. "Good. Perhaps the air will be cleaner when the fire dies."
"Where there were once many, now there will be only one. One organization, one Kingpin," declared Fisk as he continued to watch the raging inferno below.
Wesley took a sip out of his champagne and let Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, have his moment of glory. He spoke only when Vanessa kissed her husband for the night and left the office.
"Our… friends are eager for the rest of the news," he finally said, his attention settled on the computer and the e-mail he was about to send.
Wilson Fisk took a long drag out of his cigar, letting out a plume of smoke so thick it almost covered the light from the burning city. Without looking back, he gave the cold, hard command.
"Give them the answers they want."
Wesley made doubly sure to check that the information was attached and that the recipients were correct. Without any further hesitation, he sent the message and only took a deep breath afterwards. Soon, he was back at his place behind his boss, watching the fire continue to spread.
From a simple view, it just looked like the burning of buildings, consuming the filthiest, most run-down area of the city. It was more than that. The new world couldn't be built while the ruins of the old continued to exist, and from the ashes of this destruction, something that the people of the world had never seen would rise. Something Wesley didn't even know fully.
The world will never be the same.
The ground behind Naruto exploded just a second after he jumped to a steel beam sticking out from the rubble. Five pairs of red eyes followed him without hesitation, aiming their arms at him the entire time, and as soon as he stayed put for a single second, red energy flew from the metal palms, blasting towards him.
As he propelled into the air, one of the self-named Sentinels aimed higher, predicting his movements. Naruto quickly flew to the side just as another energy blast flew right above his head.
Higher up he went, until he could see the entire view. What was once a building project was now no more than a jungle of destroyed concrete and steel protrusions, all of it covered with a growing fire. Several holes were arrayed throughout the blocks, but the one he was in was the deepest, quickly being filled with water from the destroyed pipes. Spots of gunfire flashed through the darkness and smoke, some of them aimed at the five Sentinels. The metal humanoids paid no mind to them. Those red eyes were reserved only for him.
The Sentinels dropped their arms, and fire began to erupt from their feet. It didn't take long for them to reach up to his level .
"They can fly, too?" grumbled Naruto.
Their palms aimed at him again, but this time there were no energy blasts. Instead, Naruto felt a sharp screech come in waves at him. He screamed and held his head, his whole body seizing up and falling back to the massive hole. One of the massive hands tried to reach for him, but Naruto forced his mind back to fly faster towards the floor until he crashed several floors of an unfinished building.
With gritted teeth, Naruto opened his eyes to see three flashlights aimed directly at his face. The badge of a police officer came into view, and he almost sighed in relief… until he remembered the executed Russian.
Sure enough, he soon felt the cold barrel of a rifle press against his forehead. He reached out to his powers to force the weapon away from him… but something reached the officer first.
The crimson tip of a blade erupted from the officer's chest, with barely a whimper coming out of his lips. The others barely had enough time to react before another flash of steel cut off one's head and the other was nearly bisected at the waist. Standing above the corpses were three masked shinobi, each holding a bloodied ninjato in their hands.
Naruto jumped back to his feet and reached for a kunai on his pocket, with just enough time to deflect the blade aimed at his neck. The two other blades made their move, one aimed at his chest which he caught with his kunai while he dodged away from the one flying to his head. With his free hand, he caught an arm and kicked a face away, headbutting the first ninja while the last he launched away with his powers.
Four more figures shimmered from the shadows, each holding a weapon, and all of them looking at him with darkened eyes, not saying a single word.
Naruto groaned. "Seriously guys. Don't we all have something else to do right now? Do you really want to mess with me while the whole place is burning?" The shinobi simply gripped their weapons tightly and got into a combat stance.
"Fine!" Naruto huffed and crossed his fingers. "Kage Bunshin!" Smoke filled the room, and when it cleared, a dozen replicas stood around him. With a grin, he crossed his arms. "Hehe… who's outnumbered now, eh?"
The shinobi were unfazed as they all launched into attack. With his head finally cleared from the Sentinel's attack, Naruto activated his eyes and easily blocked the blade against him. The shinobi didn't even have to react before Naruto smashed his head in, the force sending him against the wall.
"Stop!" came a voice from the darkness. The command was said not in English, but in Naruto's own language.
From the shadows, even more figures emerged, this time numbering in the dozens, all of the wielding weapons covered in blood. They did not immediately attack him, choosing to stand still as the oni masked man joined them. He stood tall, his hand gripping a blood drenched katana. The dark holes of his mask peered straight at Naruto.
"You have peculiar eyes, genin,"
Naruto froze in place. The confidence of the Oni's posture, his calmness, even his intent to kill reminded him so much of Zabuza. He no longer felt like a stranger in a strange land. For a moment, it was like Naruto was back in his homeland, surrounded by enemy shinobi. They even spoke his language.
The Oni raised his sword and pointed it towards Naruto. "Those are the eyes of His eldest son. The eyes that seek power and reflect hatred."
"What do you know about my eyes?" asked Naruto with a glare.
"Evidently more than you, genin." The Oni rushed forward, sword raised above his head for a strike against Naruto's chest.
Naruto flipped back just as the blade slashed towards him, first at the side and then upwards, and finishing with a downward slice. Naruto used that to step on the flat side of the steel and raise his leg in a furious kick. The Oni stepped back, the mask flying from his face and crashing on the ground. Despite the strength of his kick, his foe recovered quickly.
"You possess good reflexes, genin." The Oni's sword flashed upward again, distracting Naruto from the fist aiming at his gut until it connected. "But your movement is sloppy."
Naruto jumped back with a hand on his stomach. It actually hurt. With his body, a punch by a normal Earth human barely felt like anything. This guy had even more tricks up his sleeve than he let on at the beginning.
'A shinobi always looks beneath the surface.' It had been a long time since he had to remember Kakashi-sensei's words.
Once he recovered, Naruto went on the offensive, concentrating mainly on the sword but also keeping an eye on any other trick the Oni might employ. With time, he too began to get comfortable with launching secondary attacks with his legs or spare hand, as well as diversifying his punches. For the longest time, he favored his right arm. He needed to attack with both. After dodging several attacks, and looking for any window the Oni might make, Naruto landed a kick on the stomach.
The Oni stepped back and sheathed his sword, abandoning his aggressive posture, but not relaxing in the least. He looked at Naruto as he removed his mask. It was the leader of the Japanese gang he'd seen earlier, though the name was unknown to him.
"This servant of the Beast is called Yoshioka Kagenobu of The Hand. What is your name, genin?"
Naruto huffed in the smoky hot air, eyeing the shinobi warily. This was his enemy, and yet just by trading a few hits with him, the blonde knew Kagenobu fought with a code. Not an honorable code perhaps, but a strict one, that didn't allow for this kind of deception.
"I am Uzumaki Naruto of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. I am of the Will of Fire," Naruto replied, his body still tense.
"For now," replied Kagenobu as the rest of his shinobi retreated to him. "But in those eyes… in that blood, you carry a curse. When all your dreams turn to dust, fate will consume you. A fate you cannot escape."
"I am not a prisoner of fate," declared Naruto.
"We will meet again." Kagenobu raised his hand into a half ram sign. The darkness grew, completely enshrouding Naruto's sight. Even the pale light of the moon faded into nothing. When it finally receded, Kagenobu and his men were gone.
Naruto stood dumbfounded for a few seconds. "Eh! What was that? Get back here and explain all of that, Oni-baka!" Great. Another mysterious guy saying cryptic stuff without explaining anything. Just like the geezer. He sat down and huffed. When was he going to start getting answers?
A loud smash forced him back on his feet. The light of the flames reached the space between ruins and with that, a pair of red eyes.
"You again?" The annoyances couldn't stop coming tonight, could they?
The Sentinel raised a palm at his direction and the red energy simmered for a blast. Naruto rose up in an angry flash and flew towards the light purple head of the machine. Putting chakra into his leg, he kicked the machine as hard as he could, and was satisfied to see the thing tilt back from his position. In mid-air, Naruto summoned a clone and quickly formed a Rasengan. Not giving the Sentinel a single second to recover, he smashed the ball of energy straight at the metal head, shredding away layer after layer of metal until the entire face was destroyed and the massive body dropped deeper into the deepest part of the hole.
He landed on top of a flat piece of concrete and surveyed the area. The gunfire had gone almost completely silent. Bodies were littered across the debris, both of the police and the gangsters. Not a single shinobi was among them. The raging fire continued still, spreading noxious smoke across the scene. Flying in the sky were several helicopters with their lights fixing directly on him.
Four thudding sounds around him broke his attention. When the dust cleared, the remaining Sentinels fixed their eyes on him.
Cracking his neck, Naruto took a deep breath and activated his eyes. "One down." He jumped towards the sky. "Four more to go."
Kitty woke up with a moan. Her entire body felt exhausted. It took a massive effort just to open her blurry eyes. A dim light illuminated an unfamiliar room. Her breath quickened until she looked at her side to see a couple of photos of Janet, one with only her smiling and the other with an older man. Her father, most likely.
As the memories flooded back to Kitty, her breath became heavier. She remembered escaping from the shopping mall with her friends, and using her powers to help all of the people trapped in the building out before it crumbled. The energy required was too much and she passed out. She must've been brought to Janet's place after that.
'Oh no… they know now,' thought Kitty with a bite of her lip.
She took some time to look around Janet's room. Apart from the clear luxury of objects – including the most comfortable queen sized bed she'd ever slept on – the most notable thing was the Maelstrom paraphernalia arrayed around the room. But there were also posters for fashion, and drawings for designs that could only have been done by Janet. Some of them were outlandish and outright bizarre, but brimming with creativity.
Along with that were posters of the Maelstrom, and illustrations that must've been done by Janet herself. Some of them were in Naruto's recognizable outfit, but Janet had been rather creative with imagined designs for alternate costumes, including concepts for a logo. Janet had often talked about her love for drawing, yet Kitty didn't know she was this good.
Kitty stood up, despite her fatigued body, and slowly walked towards the door, accidentally dropping a couple of Maelstrom plushies on the floor. She opened it to a long hallway, the walls covered in artwork, along with side tables with expensive looking vases. At the sides were long windows which showed the darkness of the night, except off in the distance, where a red hue dominated the sky.
'The city,' Kitty realized with dread. Just what the hell was going on?
As Kitty maneuvered through the surroundings, she realized she was at the very top of what could only be a very expensive high rise apartment. Just a one bedroom place in the city could cost an arm and a leg and this was almost a large house in the suburbs. It even had an outdoors area with a little garden. She knew Janet's family was loaded, just not this much!
Noises came from down the hall. Peering through a doorway, she managed to see all her friends, all of them in complete silence. Their eyes were glued to the giant screen showing news footage of what looked like a battlefield. Mary Jane was curled up on a sofa while Felicia sat on a beanie bag. Janet, who was the closest to the TV, sat cross legged on the floor, holding onto a large Maelstrom plushie for dear life.
The news picked up when a metal humanoid was sent back by a smaller figure, who began to form a blue sphere on his hand.
'Naruto's Rasengan!'
The thing, whatever it was, soon had its entire face shredded by the spiraling blue sphere of chakra. It was by far the most destructive technique Naruto had in his arsenal, and he didn't use it lightly. The blue ball was strong enough to kill a man. Its devastating force sent the large metal robot falling down the massive hole in the ground.
"Yes!" cheered Janet, her fist pumping in the air. "You can do it, Maelstrom!" She hugged her plushie again as four more figures came crashing around Naruto, her eyes still hopeful.
"What are those things?" asked Mary Jane.
"Dunno. Doesn't matter, though. Nothing can beat the Maelstrom," replied Janet with a wide grin. "Did you see that blue energy ball? I didn't even know he had that! He's always got something else up his sleeve."
Felicia hummed in a low voice. "You know, most heroes only have one thing they're able to do. It's kinda weird how many skills Maelstrom has. I mean he has super strength, can run on walls…"
"Spider-Man can do that too," said Janet. "Maelstrom can multiply himself, has special eyes, seems to have a very durable body, can move at high speeds, has that blue ball of his… I think that's all?"
"He can fly," said Kitty in a quiet voice.
All heads snapped at her direction immediately. Only the newscaster could be heard for a full minute, until Janet rose from her place on the floor and launched herself at Kitty in a full embrace.
"Kitty-Cat!"
Janet leapt from her place on the flood and engulfed Kitty in a tight hug, rocking their bodies back and forth for a full minute until she let go, only for Felicia to embrace her as well, less tightly but just as heartfelt as Janet. Kitty closed her eyes and allowed herself to believe that all would be well.
It all came crashing down with a question.
"You're one of them, aren't you?" asked Mary Jane, green eyes staring into her own. "One of the mutants?"
A pin drop could be heard in the silence. Kitty swallowed the dryness in her throat. "H-How do you know about mutants?" Mary Jane pointed at the TV.
"While we wait for further news on the Hell's Kitchen incident, we continue with fresh information from our earlier report on the mutant phenomenon…'
Kitty froze on the spot. They knew. They all knew. Mutants had been revealed to the world and not on their terms like Professor Xavier wanted to. How? How did this happen?
She turned back to Mary Jane with trembling lips. "I… yes… I am one of them. Sorry I didn't tell you. It was meant to be a secret. It wasn't something I chose. Half a year ago, I found out I could walk through walls and… and…"
The next thing Kitty felt was Mary Jane arms enveloping her in a tender hug. When Kitty got out of the shock, she raised her hands to return the embrace.
"Thank you for saving us," said the redhead.
"We would've been buried in that mall if it hadn't been for your powers," said Felicia. She too gave Kitty a hug after Mary Jane.
Janet waited to hug her again. "It was weird, but really totally awesome! Just like the Maelstrom."
Kitty lost herself for a few minutes in the relief of still having her friends, only broken by the news picking up again.
"Our sources now claim that most mutants develop their powers during puberty. These can range from being able to control ice or pass through walls, or even control our minds. How have we not heard about this before? Well, now we have an answer. Many mutants are reached out by a place called the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. From what our investigation tells us, it seems that the 'gift' is actually mutation. That begs the question, what is actually being taught at this school?"
"Oh no…" Everything was falling apart. They even knew her powers!
"That's your school, isn't it?" asked Mary Jane, and she could only give a slow nod.
"We're just there to help control our powers. We do have a team that goes and recruits others. But it's just to help us keep ourselves safe and not be a danger to others. None of us are bad people."
"So all of you have powers?" asked Janet.
"We do. I can phase through all physical objects, everyone else has another thing they can do. We pick code names too, to further protect our identity. I am called Shadowcat."
"That's a nice name," commented Felicia with a grin.
"Does that mean that Naruto has powers too?" asked Mary Jane.
"Well…"
"I'm going to have to cut you off Jenny. We have exclusive breaking news here that our viewers are not going to believe. This is just in… we can now say with absolute certainty that the Maelstrom is fourteen year old Naruto Uzumaki. Mr. Uzumaki is a student of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, and is known for his vigilante activities with Spider-Man and Daredevil. Once again, all of it leads back to mutants, which our sources are saying are behind the current attacks on Hell's Kitchen…"
Plastered all over the screen was a picture of Naruto, smiling at the entire world.
The whole room went silent as they stared at the TV, each of them with a look of shock fixed on their faces, except for Kitty, who could only feel dread crawling all over her spine. When her friends finally turned to look at her, she could only swallow air.
"Good God."
Dani winced as she took cover behind a tree, sighing as the Sentinel turned its attention to Bobby as an ice spear struck the giant metal head. Her hand let go of Wanda and nocked another arrow. She knew the stone heads didn't even scratch the paint off the Sentinel. It was just to divert attention from the other students.
Beside her was Rahne, panting in her half human form, and Xi'an, who also took a moment for a breather.
Attacking the Sentinel were Bobby, Roberto, Amara, Sam, and Jubilee. Each of them took turns when the attention was drawn at the other. As the Sentinel blasted at Bobby mercilessly, Jubilee threw fireworks, and when the red eyes turned towards her, Amara sent a wave of red hot magma. Sam would smash his body into the Sentinel to keep the thing from getting too close to any of his friends.
On their own, none of the attacks seemed to do anything but mildly annoy the hulking mass of metal. In fact, he seemed to be adapting to their actions, reading them more carefully, and even reacting before any attack landed.
When Sam tried to launch himself at one of the Sentinel's arms as the palm was aimed at Jubilee, the hand turned around and batted the blonde boy to the ground.
"Sam!" shouted Dani as she emerged from her cover and let loose her arrow, striking the red eye dead center, and yet having no effect. She sent a second and a third until the Sentinel's gaze turned toward her. Her hands reached for another arrow only to find an empty quiver.
Twin red orbs faced directly at her. As the Sentinel's palms brimmed with bright crimson energy, Dani could only stare ahead… and do nothing. There was no strength left, not a single thing she could do. Nothing she had ever done to improve herself mattered. Every success, every day she had survived with revenge in her mind, all of it was completely useless.
She was just a frightened little girl running away from a monstrous bear.
"Dani!" screamed Xi'an's voice inside her head. "Move away!"
The blast was fully charged and ready to fire. Dani closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable. Her entire body was tugged roughly just as the place she was standing exploded. She opened her eyes to see herself being dragged by Rahne's teeth. Slapping herself back to reality, Dani stood up and ran towards cover again.
"I dinnae think we can win this," breathed Rahne, reverting fully back to human.
Dani almost nodded until she shook her head again. No, she couldn't allow herself to think this way. She… she was the leader now. If she gave up, everyone would die. No matter what, Dani couldn't help that to happen. She was Cheyenne – a warrior. Hunt the bear, or be hunted. Fight or die.
'When the right time comes, we can find out what we're capable of.' Naruto's words remained in her heart as she stood up and reached into her mind.
"Xi'an!" she reached out with her mind. "I need you to help me connect with the rest of the team."
"Understood."
With Xi'an amplifying her own powers, Dani felt herself slowly connecting with everyone. Their souls were filled with fear, whatever fight they were putting up quickly being snuffed out with every failure. This was not good. Fear was the little knife that twisted inside the heart, killing a man before any arrow could. No weapon was more silent or more deadly.
"Everyone!" she shouted resolutely, her heart too being stabbed with dread, but her voice banishing away all doubt. "Listen to me!"
"Dani!" came Amara's tired voice. "We can't beat it!"
Dani ignored her. She couldn't allow any more demoralization, even if she had to be cold about it. "Give me your status. Bobby, you go first."
"I have no injuries, but I'm a little tired. My powers can't penetrate that armor on their own. I can freeze the body for a few seconds until he bursts out." Dani nodded and called out Sam next.
"My head's a pummelin', otherwise Ah'm alright. Ah can make him stumble a bit if Ah hit him hard 'nough."
"I'm just dandy. That metal bastard is tough! My powers can make a dent, though I think that if I flash him directly on his peepers, he'll go blind for a few seconds," added Jubilee.
"Roberto? Amara?"
"This isn't the best time of day for me, Dani. Don't have much stored energy left unless the sun comes up soon. Still got enough for a few punches, or a single big one," said Roberto.
Amara sighed. "I'm exhausted. Been trying to melt that armor several times now. This thing has some regenerative abilities. If my lava had time to solidify, it could hold him down."
"What about you, Rahne?"
"Tha' metal is too tough fer me claws an' teeth, Dani. I cannae do anything t' hurt him. I'm a wee bit faster than him, though. Set him on me and I'll have tha' munter running fer hours."
Dani took a breath while considering the information. This Sentinel thing was hard to penetrate, had some regenerative abilities, and could detect them with little trouble. He apparently learnt from their powers enough to adapt to new strategies. It was almost like this thing was designed to hunt mutants.
"Alright. We're going to need to do something else to beat it."
"Beat it? Our powers do nothing against that thing!" retorted Amara.
"On our own? No, we cannot win. That's why we have to work as we have been trained. As a group." Dani could feel the doubt in everyone still, the fear was still there. "Listen… I know I haven't been the best teammate… or the best friend. I ran away from you, abandoned you. By our team leader's definition, I am less than trash. One day, I hope to make it up to all of you. That day can only come if we stand and fight this time, to survive. I beg of you… please put your trust in me, and I will not abandon you again."
Dani heard the blasts and steps of the Sentinel, and her teammates doing their best to evade or distract the giant metal humanoid, but inside her head was quiet. Doubt creeped its way back in. Perhaps Naruto had been wrong… she was not deserving to be a leader after all.
"What's that Naruto always says? We are a team," started Bobby, the bravery coming back, and missing its usual cockiness.
"We work like a team," continued Jubilee, the unpredictable trickster with a grin on her face.
"We fight like a team," followed Sam, their mighty hammer and the most loyal of friends.
"We win like a team!" finished everyone, their voices vanishing away the fear, even if it was foolish. Courage was more important than brains now.
"Thank you." Dani closed her eyes and tried to find some weakness. It seemed like everything was concentrated at the head, or at least the neural system. But they would need something hard to pierce it.
"Listen everyone. We're going to need to work together. It's only one against many of us. Remember that exercise Naruto always makes us do?"
"Tora the Cat?" Bobby groaned. "Really? That's the most boring simulation ever!"
"This is bigger than a fat cat, Dani," agreed Jubilee. "And it's following us, not the other way around."
"That's true, but when we tried to capture Tora, it was always faster than us. So the only way to win was to make it seem like we were pursuing her when in reality we were leading her to–"
"An ambush!" said Rahne.
"Yes! Amara, you go on ahead and lay one of your traps. Rahne, you said you could make it run in circles for hours. Think you lead it to training ground two?"
"Aye!" With renewed energy, the Scottish redhead shifted back to a wolf and sped up towards the Sentinel, jumping higher than any true canine could and snapping at the head. The Sentinel tried to grab Rahne just as she jumped off and sped off through the grounds, with the Sentinel in hot pursuit.
"Come with me, but stay in cover," she told Wanda, who nodded in return.
Dani grabbed her bow and sped off with the rest of her teammates. Even without any arrows, her grandfather's bow filled her with strength. WIth any hope, that would be enough to get them through the night.
The ground felt flatter the more she sprinted. Her athleticism had gone up leaps and bounds with Logan's physical tests and Naruto teamwork building exercises. Before, she would've been exhausted after all she'd been through. Her heart beat heavy and sweat dripped down her brow, yet she could still move on. WIth their strength, it could see them all the way to victory.
When she saw the Sentinel reach the middle of the training area, Dani shouted her order. "Jubilee!"
The petite Asian mutant jumped in front of the Sentinel and unleashed a furious barrage of fireworks, so bright that they lit up the entire Institute like it was daytime for a few seconds. The Sentinel stopped in its tracks and fired around itself blindly. None of the shots came close to Sam. The blonde cannonball launched himself faster than she'd ever seen and crashed furiously against the metal head. The force sent shocks across the ground; Dani almost stumbled as she continued approaching and continued her orders.
As soon as the Sentinel careened onto the ground, she gave the signal. "Amara!"
Raging lava erupted from the ground, sending small earthquakes across the entire Institute grounds. The molten rock quickly submerged the Sentinel, though it did not melt the metal, it did make it difficult for it to stand up again. It did manage to raise its head and a palm. That's when Dani called again.
"Your turn, Bobby!"
The cocky boy skated across the frozen field he'd made and began to cover the magma with an icy storm. Steam erupted violently as the magma began to lose its bright orange color for an increasingly dull gray and brown, until a black rock had formed around the Sentinel.
"Roberto… now!"
From the sky came a figure surrounded in orange energy, but the body itself was blacker than the sky. Roberto gathered every single bit of energy he had left and concentrated it all in one punch. With lightning speed, Roberto landed atop the ice covered rock and struck the metal head strong enough to crack the entire trap.
But it was not enough.
The metal head was completely stripped off its cover, revealing only a cybernetic skull underneath, with red flashing electronics arrayed across. It was quickly being regenerated, the metal tendrils almost like living flesh. Dani could hear her friends groaning as despair entered their hearts again.
'When the right time comes, we can find what we're capable of. When the right time comes… when the right time comes…' Naruto's voice hummed in her ear, drowning out all other noise.
Dani raised her bow with her left hand. It must've looked foolish. Even if she had any arrows left, it would do nothing against the Sentinel's armor. Dani did not feel foolish though, every bit of her will concentrated on herself and in the monstrosity ahead of her. Slowly, the metal head transformed into that of a giant demonic bear. The one she had cowered in fear of for so long. But Dani no longer ran, no longer drowned in despair.
Her fingers slowly grasped an arrow, almost ethereal in its golden splendor, crafted from her will. A will strengthened by others, forged in the need to fight not for her own survival, but for the life of those who had come to give her existance meaning.
The arrow fit into the string perfectly, and with a practiced movement, Dani drew her hand back until the bright golden head rested near her aiming finger. She took a last look at the roaring maw of the beast in front of her before she fired the arrow. Reality creeped back in quickly enough to see the bear's head shift back to the Sentinel's head just as a hole was punched through, obliterating the cybernetic skull underneath.
Silence finally fell across the Institute as the electronic remnants of the Sentinel struggled for survival for a few seconds until it finally went dead. Cheers erupted in unison, and Dani let go of the breath she'd been holding.
Dani turned around to see all of her exhausted teammates laughing and crying with joy, and for the first time in years, the young Cheyenne felt a smile tug at her lips. For so long she had forsaken all bonds in favor of revenge, but had never thought of what to do after she reached her goal, or even how to get there. She set her bow down and placed her clasped hands in front of her.
"Thank you…"
BOOM!
She was flung from her place, landing face first on the earthy ground. Her hands reached out to her bow only to feel air and earth. She willed her spent body to stand up just in time for two more shockwaves to kick up dust and dirt in the air. When her eyes adjusted to the darkness, three pairs of red orbs stared back at her.
"Oh come on!" groaned Bobby in despair. The rest of the team also struggled to stand up, looking at the three new Sentinels with absolute hopelessness in their eyes.
A shriek pierced through the night.
"Wanda!"
The Sentinel at the center crouched down and reached its metal hand for the auburn haired girl. Wanda screamed and kicked as her entire body was lifted effortlessly, her fists pounding uselessly against the massive fingers crushing her body.
Dani looked around the ground uselessly, falling to her knees to reach out for her bow, fingers wading across rock and dirt to find nothing. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she grabbed a stone and threw it with all her anger at the Sentinel. It wasn't fair! They had won! What cruel god had nourished hope in their souls only to have it ripped away at the last moment? The dagger in her heart struck true, and despair consumed her.
Until another force threw her back.
All sounds were drowned by Wanda's powerful scream. Dani opened her eyes to see an aura of red energy surrounding the mysterious girl. Wanda raised her fist against the fingers again and this time, the hand exploded.
As the shredded remains of the metal hand dropped around her, Wanda kept on floating, the chaotic scarlet aura shredding the other arm to nothing when it tried to grasp her body. Wanda opened her mouth again, and now let out a roar as the Sentinel at her left slowly distorted and crumpled into a compressed little ball while the one at her left did the opposite, stretching until every piece of groaning and squealing metal straightened into long lines. She focused the last of her anger on the one at the center. The last Sentinel almost literally disintegrated in place, as if every single atom was extinguished in seconds.
Dani could only stand dumbfounded as silence returned to the Institute, Wanda's red aura dissipating into nothing, and when all was gone, the girl dropped lifelessly to the ground. Dani's tired body lurched forward to catch Wanda and break her fall, groaning as the weight sent her to the ground as well.
Staying on alert for a few minutes, Dani waited for another Sentinel to drop. When the crickets felt safe enough to resume their songs, she let go of her defenses and rested her body, still holding onto Wanda protectively. When a noise finally came, Dani no longer had the energy to fight back. Three figures shimmered in the black sky, but these ones she knew.
Ororo flew in gracefully, followed by Jean who landed more roughly since she was carrying Rogue on her back. Groans of relief chorused from her team at seeing the senior members of the school return.
Jean walked around the field, seeing the destruction and the remains of the mysterious machines that Wanda had not obliterated. "What on earth happened here?" she asked.
Dani gave an exhausted moan and closed her eyes.
Spider-Man kept his position despite the burning pain coming from his leg, not daring to move a single muscle. Flames licked at him from every direction, and the cracking of gunfire filled his ears, but his gaze was fixed only ahead of him.
Twin yellow eyes stared back.
The tingle on his head warned of the Lizard's strike. Gritting his teeth through the pain, Spider-Man leapt high into the air. There was not much he could shoot at except for some of the parts of destroyed buildings that had retained some structural integrity. His web catching the remains of a raft, he swung his body back around to the leaping Lizard and kicked him with both legs.
It was like hitting rock, barely able to budge the Lizard even with his enhanced strength. Spider-Man let go of the web and reached for another partially destroyed platform. His hand went to his side to feel the syringe of the anti-formula. There was no way the little needle was going to pierce the skin. The only place delicate enough to deliver it was the mouth… the mouth with the extremely sharp fangs attached to it.
'A date with Gwen. You could've gone on a date with Gwen.'
Spider-Man jumped again just as the Lizard launched straight at him and pulverized the slab of concrete he was standing on, the sharp claws even slicing the steel bar in half.
"Lizard, buddy. Ever thought about getting a trim? The pet shop offers discounts for new and exotic species." He dodged a swipe of the tail. "Whoa, not a big fan, I take it. Well how about a dentist? I know pizza and hot dogs ain't the pinnacle of a healthy diet, but it sure beats eating from the sewers. That breath leaves a lot to be desired! Even Mrs. Lizard will appreciate a nice floss."
He pulled his feet up at the last second just as the massive maw snapped shut with a force that could easily break even a rhino's bone. There was no way he was feeding the formula into that without losing an arm, and he couldn't continue evading him for long either. If he didn't act now, the transformation might very well be permanent.
'Weakness… what kind of weakness can he have?' He was not as well versed in biology as he was in chemistry, but he knew enough to know lizards were cold-blooded creatures that didn't do too well in low temperatures. Perhaps if he managed to freeze him somehow…
He looked around him to see fire and smoke. So much for that idea.
As he dodged another swipe from the claws, Spider-Man shot a web at the Lizard and swung around it until the powerful green arms were pinned at the side. As soon as he finished binding him with the newest and strongest of his webbings, the Lizard quickly broke free of the restraints, using his nails to easily cut the rest of the strands.
"It's going to take more than that, Spider-Man!" snarled the creature, narrowing his yellow eyes. "Once I'm done with you, I will take my formula to gift this entire city. These puny bodies will be left behind to embrace our future!"
"I'm not so sure, gator-boy. I mean, these ape bodies ain't perfect but at least they're easier on the eyes. Can you imagine if Scarlett Johansson turned out all green and scaly? It'd be a crying shame."
"Enough talk!" The Lizard dove at his area with a swipe of his claws.
Spider-Man jumped again, but his leg was caught by the long tail and slammed back to the ground. He opened his mouth in pain, not even having the time to scream before a scaly hand nearly tore into him. He raised his lower body just in time to evade and launched himself in the air, doing a backflip and bringing his entire leg onto the top of Lizard's head. The force sent the hulking figure to the ground, but if any damage was done it was negligible. The green-scaled reptile recovered quickly and snarled at him.
Swinging back to high ground, Spider-Man crouched back into a resting position and winced at increased pain on his leg, but also throughout his entire body. Another blow like that and he was done for. Weakening the Lizard would be hard, and a battle of attrition would be foolish. He needed to think, or he was as good as dead.
'I just need to feed him the formula… but how am I supposed to hold him down? It'll take an entire building just to keep him still. An entire… building…'
Spider-Man grinned and swung back down to the Lizard's level and grinned behind his mask. He dodged another lunging attack and dropped to one of the holes caused by the explosions, standing on a small platform held together by rebar and concrete.
"Hey, Lizard! Now that I think of it, there is a use for your invention. If you reproduce via giant eggs, we could successfully end world hunger!"
Lizard snarled furiously as he dove straight at Spider-Man's position, crashing against the rubble and sending a giant cloud of dust into the air. Spider-Man emerged swinging away and settling onto a bent steel beam lower into the hole, leaving the
"Whoo! As much as that form helps your muscles, it doesn't seem to have done much for your brain, gator-boy. Your two remaining brain cells are fighting for third place!"
"Shut your mouth!" screamed Lizard, lunging once again, this time the force almost tumbling the entire structure above them. Spider-Man dodged at the last second once again and settled near the very bottom of the hole, sending multiple webs across several large pieces of steel and concrete.
"Shut my mouth? But that's like half of my power! I get more use out of it than you'll ever get from those nasty yellow chompers."
The massive reptile growled in fury, looking at him with venomous eyes. Spider-Man didn't even need to feel the tingle in his head to know the lunge was coming. This time he aimed his web at the top of the debris, jumping almost twenty feet as Lizard crashed at the very bottom.
"You insult my superior form even as you flee like a bug!"
Spider-Man grinned beneath his mask. "Oh, I wouldn't call it fleeing. More like multi-step planning." He pulled on the many webs connected to the various detected weak spots of the rubble as hard as he could. It started with several steel bars and large pieces of destroyed concrete falling down, but soon enough all of the smaller pieces began to fall down in an avalanche of debris.
Lizard finally seemed to understand the predicament and made to lunge back to the top, something Spider-Man was ready for. As the hulking humanoid reptile rose upward, Spider-Man dropped down, managing to land a hit on Lizard's back and back to the bottom.
The rubble buried Lizard halfway around his body until he used his powerful legs to kick it away and launch himself back. Spider-Man fired two long webs to the bottom and used them to catapult towards the Lizard. His kick landed at the scaly stomach, but that was not enough. With his fists, he punched the top of the head as fast as he could. Sharp claws glinted with the light, and Spider-Man landed one last kick as he threw a web back to the top and pulled himself to safety.
Hanging from the web, he saw as the growling Lizard was cast down to the chasm, crashing so hard that there was no chance to recover as the avalanche of steel and concrete sealed his tomb.
Spider-Man sighed and waited as the place went silent for a few seconds, it didn't take long for him to feel pain below his chest. It was quickly ignored when pieces of rubble were sent flying upward. At the center of the concrete tomb, he saw a powerful green jaw snap out in fury.
This was his chance!
Letting himself fall back to the center, Spider-Man fired balls of webs at the sides to prevent any arms from coming out, taking his time, he sent more strands towards the mouth, both at the top and the bottom, and fixed it to large pieces of debris until the jaw was completely open and pointing at the sky. He grabbed the vial and grinned.
"It's called a prefrontal cortex, gator-boy. Might want to look into it!" He jammed the formula into the mouth and withdrew just as razor sharp teeth snapped shut.
Lizard shrieked loudly, sounding every bit the animal he had become. The powerful muscles shifted beneath the green scales, and began to get smaller with each passing second. Humanity crawled back into the voice as well, the shrieks turning into screams of a man in agony. As the skin shifted, the left arm began to shrink even faster than the rest of the body, until only a stump ending at the shoulder remained.
The Lizard was gone, and only Curtis Connors remained.
Spider-Man released the breath he'd been holding back. When air came back to his lungs, it felt cleaner; the fire around him started to dissipate into nothing, and the black sky was visible again. Yet with each breath he felt pain. On his legs, on his arms, but the true agony came around his stomach. He placed a hand and felt a hot liquid. When he looked at his hand, it was red with blood.
"Oh…"
He stood up, walking aimlessly around the ruins, hoping to find somebody, or something to help stop the flow. He saw a slope near the edge, and a giant flash of blue. His body gave in, and darkness took him.
He opened his eyes to a glimpse of Hell, and one of its demons staring back.
Daredevil dodged just as another furious barrage of gunfire was spat from the rifle, accompanied by the tearing of flesh and the dying gasps of half a dozen languages. Any resistance was futile against the man who called himself Nuke. There was no reasoning with him, no words that could stop his murderous rampage. Cop or gangster, there was no end to voices that were swiftly and ruthlessly silenced.
"Our boys…" Nuke continued saying the words like prayer, before and after he finished another bout of violence.
Daredevil perched over a steel beam. He didn't need his heightened hearing to notice every single heavy step Nuke took. The furious heartbeat was just another indicator. This was not normal, even for superpowered beings like Spider-Man and Maelstrom.
"He's taken some sort of adrenaline pill," he whispered to the man next to him, the ally he'd been forced to make.
"Nuke," said Punisher with a gravelly voice. "So the old tale was true."
"Old tale?"
"In Afghanistan there is a valley called Shahai Kot. Only a few small villages dare to call it home. Rough place, and even rougher people. In the early stages of the American intervention, local Pashtun tribes were secretly offering sanctuary to the enemy and helping them coordinate attacks. There is no way to drive a tank through that terrain, and air support would be next to worthless when every stony hill is a fortress. An assault in such a place was not going to be easy, at least, not without taking some severe casualties."
Daredevil was smart enough to pick on what was left unsaid. Punisher was a former military man. It wasn't that much of a shock.
"The Marines who were sent to clear the valley had been trained for months, made to fight in the harshest conditions, each of them knowing the hell that awaited them. On the night before the planned assault… orders were given to stand down. The military had taken care of the problem. But still, the Marines felt the need to go and clean up any resistance… there was a lot of cleaning up to do alright. All that was left of the villages were their ashes and the charred bones of their inhabitants. Men, women… children. There was no evidence of a large operation, not even a small team. All of the remains indicated that it was done by one single man and his rifle."
Even in hell, there were moments of silence, and Daredevil took the short pause given to ponder their best course of action. "This is not a person you want to engage in long range."
"Short range is not ideal, either," grunted Punisher.
"But that's where our advantage lies." What little advantage they had, at least. Daredevil gripped the piece of rebar tightly, heavier than his billy club, and not nearly as durable. He could not hear any clinking of guns on Punisher.
"When he leaves open ground," Punisher agreed reluctantly.
Even without the thunderous cracking sounds of gunfire, it was impossible to miss Nuke's furiously pounding heart coming closer to their position, deep in the middle of the rubble, with little space to maneuver that massive rifle. Silently, he moved out of his place, until he felt shadows on his skin, Punisher doing the same.
No order needed to be given, no words needed to be spoken. When Nuke wandered right below them, both shadows leapt down to meet him.
Daredevil extended his leg to meet the large assault rifle that was quickly aimed at his direction. The barrel faced down when it fired, blowing pieces of gravel at his flesh. It stung, but was undoubtedly preferable compared to being shredded by lead. He raised his arm, rebar in hand, and tried to land it on the head, Nuke pulling away at the last second while also punching Punisher in the stomach.
Nuke quickly took hold of his rifle again and aimed it at their direction, enough time for Daredevil to sprint to cover. Punisher's hurried footsteps assured him that he'd done the same just as deafening cracks ripped through the ground.
The destroyed jungle of concrete offered a ruinous maze for Daredevil to lose himself in its shadows. Every tingle of falling rock gave him a map better than any eyes could draw, and so too could he hear the furious stomps and menacing two word prayer of his pursuer, growing angrier and louder with each repetition.
"Our boys… our boys…"
There was a clinking of metal, followed by dead silence.
A whizzing sound was the only warning, only for a second, and the wall of rubble beside Daredevil exploded. The shock flung his entire body off the ground and into the wall of a collapsed building behind him. He felt a rib crack as he crashed against a protrusion and grit his teeth as he landed on his already broken toes and sprained ankle.
There was no time to feel pain; the clinking sounds of the rifle aiming at him forced Daredevil to act. With the metal bar on his hand, he closed the gap between the two. From behind Nuke emerged Punisher, a knife in hand. Daredevil sidestepped just in time to avoid bullets and aimed for the head, striking as hard as he could. He felt the metal bend around Nuke's head, while Punisher dug the knife deeply into the massive man's back.
A roar erupted from Nuke's mouth, carrying not a single trace of pain.
Daredevil fell on his injured foot to avoid a massive hand sent his way and used his good leg to deliver a kick to the face. He heard something break, though he wasn't even sure it was organic. It felt almost like… metal.
"OUR BOYS!"
A football-sized punch landed straight on Daredevil's broken rib and he dropped immediately to the ground. It felt like all strength had been sapped out of his body. Pushing with sheer willpower, he found the strength to crawl away while Nuke was busy trying to untangle Punisher from his back.
Putting hand after hand in front of him, the blind hero retreated away from the fight. If he could recover, then it might be possible for another round. He heard the dying flicking of flames, and the falling pieces of rubble, but in front of him, he heard something else, something closer. Drip by drip, he heard the water falling into a chasm. There was nowhere else to go.
Daredevil held his breath just as his body was engulfed by icy cold water. The shock fired up his nervous system, and the pain was forgotten. All that his body wanted was a way to survive.
His arms seized up with every weak paddle. In the water, all his senses were dulled. He could not see where he was going. All he could pray for was something to hold on to. Something that would let him fight one more time. Something that would see him through the night.
He found it.
A hand grasped his own and pulled him into the concrete shore. Daredevil shivered, the sharp wind stabbing at his wet body. Slowly, his senses returned, as well as the pain around his injured torso and leg. He grit his teeth, both to stop them from chattering and to bite back his anger. He had survived, but was in no shape to go after the rampaging monster above them.
"That thing… is not human," snarled Punisher. His breathing was irregular, and Daredevil could hear the small gasps of pain that he tried to hide beneath the grunts of anger.
"He has the heart of a human," replied Daredevil. "It's his body that's different."
The Punisher grunted. "Military grade armaments. It would take a high grade caliber to even pierce that skin. My armory is a long way from here…"
Daredevil opened his mouth, but held his words. It was not the time to reprimand the man for his extreme methods. Especially when he had no alternative to defeat the seemingly invincible supersoldier currently prowling above them. He'd settle for anything that could scratch the far more gun happy psychopath.
"We can't defeat him," admitted Daredevil through gritted teeth. "But that's not the objective. We just have to prevent him from reaching the civilian population. If we can keep him firing bullets at us and not at innocents, we will have done our job."
"One of those bullets will find us eventually. Who will protect the civilians then?" retorted Punisher.
"It's the hand that's been dealt to us. We have nothing else." There was a long silence. "Unless you happen to have another play."
Punisher stayed silent for a few more seconds. "I'm looking straight at it. Can you?"
He couldn't see it, but he could smell it: nitrogen, sulfur, and oil.
"How do we go about this?" asked Daredevil.
"Ever play Marco Polo?"
Every step was agony as he stalked around the ruins, but Daredevil bit his teeth to prevent any unnecessary noise. There would only be one shot at this. If anything went wrong, it would be their lives, as well as those that would be caught in Nuke's unquenchable bloodlust.
He could hear the heartbeat even from a mile away, still pounding away furiously. Whatever had been done to this man must've included something to prevent a heart attack. He doubted he would ever know. The secrets of his government were deeper and darker than even the criminal underbelly he'd spent his life fighting against. Given the presence of such a man, he couldn't help but wonder if cooperation was involved. That the state Matt Murdock worked to uphold the laws of was the same Daredevil was fighting now.
"Our boys… our boys…" the crazed prayer got closer to his position, and Daredevil put aside his worries for the danger at hand.
"Marco!" he yelled out.
Nuke's response was immediate. The clinking of the giant rifle was directed at his position and Daredevil ducked just as he heard the whizzing rocket fly at him. The cover he had selected protected him from the blast, but it didn't stop the ringing in his ears from the explosion. He took some agonzing steps, stomping loudly to make his survival known.
"Marco!" he yelled out again, barely able to hear his own voice past his numbed ears.
More thunderous sounds came, loud cracking sounds this time. Daredevil sprinted to his next cover, the pieces of gravel biting at his heels as the concrete exploded as the high caliber bullets hit it. He didn't stay in cover too long. He yelled out again and waited for the increasingly venomous prayer on Nuke's lips to follow him.
"Marco!"
The bullets continued to fire until the clicking sound of an empty magazine could be heard in the night. The prayer was replaced by growls as the magazine dropped to the ground loudly and Nuke quickly reloaded, slamming the rifle as he chambered a new bullet and didn't waste any time in his hunt.
Daredevil felt his feet arrive at a mostly empty clearing and stood his ground. His face turned back to the path he'd just come through, waiting with opened eyes for the demon on his trail to catch up to him. His ears were numbed so much that he could barely make out where his pursuer was anymore.
Suddenly, the wall of concrete at his side exploded.
He had barely enough time to turn around, only for the hulking soldier to barrel into him. Arms stronger than steel circled around his body, and he was lifted into the air for a brief second before being slammed to the ground. He opened his mouth to let out a gasp of air. The force was so strong he couldn't even scream in pain.
Beefy hands gripped the front of his suit and slammed his head back in the ground. There was no pain anymore, simply because his entire rattled brain could barely catch anything, only the sensation of a large boot pressing against his stomach.
When sensation returned to him, it was with the tip of the large rifle pressing against his forehead.
"Marco!" growled Nuke, for once saying something other than the two word prayer.
"...Polo…" came the Punisher's grunt.
A massive shockwave exploded behind him, one that would have surely sent Daredevil flying if it hadn't been for the large weight on top of him. His senses caught something large flying in his direction, and in less than a second, Nuke was no longer above him, about to end his life.
When he came to, Daredevil stood up, his senses coming back to him, and he found Nuke several feet in front of him, his entire body impaled by a piece of steel. He was hanging a full foot above the ground, trapped between a concrete wall and the massive bar of steel that almost bisected him from the chest down.
Daredevil let out a breath as he slid down a concrete wall. With the adrenaline winding down he could finally focus on the overwhelming pain of his injuries. The broken toes still hurt, but the biggest agony came from the broken rib. He hadn't realized until now that he also had a broken arm. He closed his eyes and hoped for numbness to take him.
"...Our boys…"
His eyes snapped open again as he heard the labored breathing from a person that should not be alive.
"Our boys…" came the rasped breathing of the man, no longer able to move or even shout, and yet still carrying the same strength in his voice. "Special agent Nuke… has failed… our boys… our boys…" The voice died with the same words he'd been saying for hours. Not in fury; it sounded almost like… sorrow.
Heavy footsteps came closer and stood beside the impaled form of their enemy. "Your boys are all gone, Nuke. Time for you to go see them."
Punisher kept his silence for a few minutes until, without a word, he turned towards Daredevil and walked slowly towards him. "You look like you've seen better days, Devil."
Daredevil let out a breath. "I have," he said with some humor in his voice. He forced his tone to harden. "You know I still don't agree with what you're doing. This doesn't change anything between you and me."
"Everything's changed, Devil. You and your friends have played with Pandora's box for too long. There's no way to go back to what we were. This city will become a warzone." He grunted loudly. "I will continue my work… and I believe you will try and stop me."
"As best as I can."
Punisher turned his back on him and walked out of the clearing. "Be seeing you, Devil."
After letting his body rest for a few minutes, Daredevil grabbed the wall with his good arm and began to walk as well, his ears picking up some pockets of fighting. He was in no condition to fight, but still he pushed himself forward, to the place where two familiar heartbeats were meeting.
Naruto slowly floated upwards with his arms crossed in front of him, eyes blazing red even as several different spotlights focused on him. He could hear several helicopters higher up than him, as well as the remnants of the fighting below. None of the police or gangsters shot at him, probably thankful that he had monopolized the attention of the biggest danger.
The Sentinels.
The metal machines seemed to not care about casualties on any side, so long as they got to him. It made Naruto think about who exactly had sent them. Wilson Fisk was the clear answer, but it seemed far beyond the means of even a crime boss. A powerful crime boss, but a crime boss nonetheless.
Whoever had sent them had to be pushed out of his mind as one of them launched himself to the air.
"Hehe… you might look tough, but you're going down just like your friend!" Naruto summoned a clone and formed another Rasengan on his hand. He hadn't used the technique as frequently as he had back on his planet because of the relative weakness of normal Earth people. These Sentinels were an exception.
Giving a brief look at one of the news helicopters pointing, Naruto grinned and pushed himself downward, straight at the Sentinel's face heading right to him. Rasengan in front of him, he aimed it directly at the weak spot and waited for impact, already imagining the obliterated metal and the Sentinel falling to the chasm to join the other.
That did not happen.
"Huh?" Naruto felt a strong vibration on his hand as the Rasengan met the Sentinel's head. Instead of shredding the metal, his hand and the Rasengan trembled in place, slowly dissipating as it tried to get closer to its target. The further he pushed the faster his Rasengan disintegrated until only his bare hand was left.
Naruto floated for a moment and looked at his palm, dumbfounded. What the hell had happened?
The Sentinel's hand snapped forward to him but instead of getting another energy blast, he saw a large gray tendril snake towards him, a mechanical claw snapping at the tip. Naruto dodged to the side but the cable followed him. Closing his eyes, he flickered away from danger and further down.
Quickly recovering, he looked at his hand again. He was sure that the Rasengan was rotating perfectly. He hadn't failed in making one since he trained with Ero-Sennin over a year ago. Looking at his side, he saw another one of the Sentinels looking away from him. Silently, he summoned another clone and created a Rasengan once again. He snuck towards the Sentinel and jumped towards the head, quickly slamming his hand at the back of it.
The same vibration shook his hand and dissipated the swirling ball of energy into blue wisps. Naruto grit his teeth in frustration. What happened now? How did it know he was there? It wasn't even looking in his direction!
But his eyes caught something above him. The Sentinel in front of him may not have been watching, but the one that he'd been flying at not ten seconds ago had its glowing eyes fixed straight at him.
As the Sentinel finished nullifying his Rasengan, it turned around quickly to meet him. Both hands were aimed at him this time, and the lethal energy blasts were fired again. Naruto dodged just barely, and flickered just in time as the hand of another incoming Sentinel almost closed around him.
He didn't stop flickering this time, appearing back on the ground floor, and jumping from one location to another until he saw a hole from a blown up sewer tunnel. He flew directly into the dark cavern and made a couple of turns until he was sure that none of the mechanical monsters had followed him. It would at least delay them a little.
WIth a sigh, Naruto rested his back on the wet wall.
These Sentinels were not just some mindless robots. They had adapted to his attack just after he destroyed one of them. Not only that, but apparently they were linked together. If one of them saw him, then all of them were aware of his location. Fighting one at a time would be nearly impossible. If he had any chance at this, he would have to be quick and unpredictable.
He grinned. "Time for these metal bastards to meet Konoha's number one, unpredictable, knuckleheaded ninja!"
Reaching into his pockets, Naruto unsealed the inks and scrolls and slowly formulated his plan.
Naruto emerged from the same hole he'd gone through, the Sentinels looking around the chasm for him. He landed loudly at the center of the water and grinned as one of the spotlights caught him and the rest immediately settled on his form. He took a deep breath and opened his mouth.
"Hey! You big metal morons! Where do you think you're looking?! I'm right here!"
Four pairs of glowing eyes snapped to his direction, each of them stopping their search for a few seconds to analyze him. Standing upright, all of them dropped down the chasm in unison, intent on catching him with the gray cords coming out of their wrists.
Naruto never dropped his grin as he made a half ram sign and muttered a single word.
"Katsu!"
Two dozen bright orange spots were lit up in the darkness, from the bottom of the hole all the way to the top, where half of what was a planned skyscraper was still held by a few metal bars and rebar. Smoke rose from the marks and when the lights died down, large explosions took their place. Immediately, the mass of ruined concrete and steel began to slide down in an avalanche of debris as the Sentinels dropped to the bottom.
As the gray cord of the nearest Sentinel was reaching for him, Naruto waited until the last second before he flickered away from danger and up towards the sky, floating in place as he looked back down to the chasm slowly filling up.
The Sentinel that had almost caught him only had a few seconds to look back at his position before he was ruthlessly buried by the collapsing building. The three other Sentinels quickly turned their gazes to him and snapped into action, their propellers igniting below their feet and behind their backs to rise quickly to the top and escape their comrade's fates.
Naruto raised his hands and guided a massive piece of steel to one of the Sentinels and watched as it smacked against the head, dropping it enough for the rubble to catch up to it. Gritting his teeth, he placed both arms in front of him and concentrated on the massive building currently falling into the chasm. Trying to lift it would only make his head explode in a migraine, so instead he felt for the most fragile parts and concentrated on them.
Seam by seam, Naruto untangled the web of metal that held the structure intact and split it into several parts that rained towards the ascending foes. The Sentinel that had been hit by the beam managed to rise only for a large slab of concrete to bury it while the next one evaded a few pieces of debris while blasting others, but eventually the mass of destruction overwhelmed it. The last one evaded most of what fell on it, only being buried halfway across the waist as the avalanche settled into a few tumbling pieces of concrete and gray smoke.
Naruto watched the dust settle for a few minutes until he could see a pair of glowing eyes emerge from the fog. Immediately, he rushed in with a Rasengan to meet the Sentinel's face. The spiraling blue ball of chakra met the same fate as the ones before, being stopped and dissipated just before it reached the target.
As he was forced back, Naruto let out a grin.
"Look below you, dumbass!"
Two dozen Narutos jumped away from the metal body with an energetic shout, each of them leaving two exploding tags behind. With a laugh, Naruto watched as the papers lit up and quickly exploded one by one, almost blowing him away.
When the dust settled, there was almost nothing left of the Sentinel's body. The only part that seemed to still be functioning was the head, which kept on looking at Naruto even as he landed beside it and placed his own tag on the forehead.
"Hehe… this is my special formula! Hope you like it!"
A massive explosion shook the ground, sending even more debris tumbling down. When Naruto could see once again, the head was completely gone, only scattered metal laid in its place.
He pointed towards the helicopters that were still filming him. "Two points for the Maelstrom!"
An eruption of debris at his side forced Naruto to take to the skies again. A battered up Sentinel turned its glowing eyes at him. If machines could glare, Naruto imagined this would be what it'd look like. Blasts shot out from its palms towards him and he managed to dodge just in time. At the same time, the long cords flew to catch him and managed to squeeze out some of his clones as he ascended further upwards.
Suddenly, too quickly for his eyes to predict, the Sentinel's arms split open and where there was once one cannon on each limb, there were now half a dozen.
The beams that came out of them were faster than before, even if they were smaller and less powerful, but they were strong enough to quickly shred his clones, all of them going up in puffs of smoke in seconds.
Naruto sped to the air as the guns turned on him. He turned right and left, up and down as the flashing blasts tried to shoot him down. A force exploded on his chest and he was left out of breath. He stopped his flight and two more blasts hit his body. He felt himself falling, while more pain erupted from each hit. His body stopped falling when he met the hard concrete but the barrage kept on hitting him, each one feeling like a sledgehammer.
Biting his teeth, Naruto crossed his fingers and gathered chakra, roaring in defiance.
The pummeling stopped, but he could feel the clones continuing to disappear. Without a moment to waste, he pushed and his clones flew in different directions, each evading the blasts as much as they could. The Sentinel was forced to concentrate on a few clones at once while Naruto flickered to take cover behind a wall.
The smoke filled air felt like heaven to Naruto's lungs as he panted. He could feel a soreness all over his body and he looked down to see his suit torn up in several areas, exposing reddened flesh and a few cuts. So much for Stark's upgrades.
'Can't fall for that again.'
Eyes widening, he jumped away from the wall just as it was smashed by the Sentinel's arm and flickered to the sky, eyes narrowing on the arms. He could not afford to lose sight of it, and he also needed to eliminate it before any other friends arrived.
And he knew just how to do it.
"You know what I do to giant rampaging bastards like you?!" He crossed his fingers again and channeled a massive amount of chakra. Before the Sentinel could fire again, a thousand Narutos popped into existence.
"Alright! Are you ready for a classic?" he called out with a grin.
"Yosh!" shouted all of the clones in unison and they all descended on the Sentinel. Suddenly, it was not a metal contraption that Naruto was facing, but a pissed off sand racoon.
Ten clones dove behind the Sentinel and kicked it as hard as they could.
"U!"
The Sentinel was launched into the air and four more clones jumped to kick it as well.
"ZU!"
On the opposite side, four more clones rose even higher, also sending their legs at the head.
"MA!"
The ten clones at the bottom leapt into the air, covering the entire length of the Sentinel and gave it one final kick.
"KI!"
Filling almost the entirety of the sky, the remaining Narutos all descended at once, their hands brimming with blue spirals of chakra. All of them slammed their Rasengans directly onto the undefended front of the Sentinel's body, screaming at the top of their lungs, only hampered by the machine's defense mechanism.
Naruto landed beneath the floating Sentinel and together with one of his clones, launched at its exposed back. 'If it's focused on the front… then!'
His Rasengan ripped through the layers of metal, and its destruction seemed to make the Sentinel drop its defense mechanism. The sheer force of a thousand Rasengan slowly shredded the Sentinel from head to toe, from the sheets of metal down to the individual wires. By the time the clones began to have their chakra exhausted, only dust was left of the once mighty foe.
"Three points to the Maelstrom!" Another Sentinel emerged from the ruins. The paint had been almost completely stripped from the head from where the giant steel beam had hit it. Pieces of its armor had been crushed and cut, but it seemed to be reassembling itself.
Naruto floated to the sky slowly, red eyes glaring at the remaining Sentinel.
"Let's make it four…" he whispered.
Holding a hand at his side, Naruto waited for a clone to help him form another Rasengan. His eyes never let go of the metal humanoid as the power brimmed on his right palm. The Sentinel stood its ground, already creating the same small vibrations that would counter his attack.
He didn't care.
With a shout, Naruto dove down, aiming directly at his target, with his hand held in front of him. The world closed in around him, eyes looking only forward at the glowing eyes of his foe. His body brimmed with energy, and he focused all of it into his palm, like he had been doing for weeks now.
The control over his chakra began to buckle as he fed more and more into his palm. Slowly, he felt the Rasengan grow to twice the size, and then three times, four times, five times. Naruto's palm began to tremble. The force wanted to spiral out in every direction to unleash its raw power. He did not allow that. Six times, seven times, and eight times the size, until the sphere dwarfed his hand. Eyes focused on the metal head in front of him, he struck.
The giant Rasengan hit the Sentinel. Naruto didn't even feel the vibrations stop his attack for a single second. The moment the blue sphere connected between the glowing eyes, it rammed through like a sharp knife through a piece of paper. Before he knew it, Naruto shredded the Sentinel in half. The Sentinel couldn't do anything to defend itself against the overwhelming force. No defense, no attack, not even a single movement to spare itself.
It just disintegrated.
The Rasegan didn't stop until it hit the ground, and even then it continued drilling on through the ruins. Naruto's hand vibrated, as if he was holding onto a wild elephant. He let go, and the massive ball of chakra finally dissipated into the air, leaving only a hole the size of a small building where the Sentinel had once been.
Silence finally fell on the battlefield, only broken by Naruto's rhythmic panting and the helicopters above him. His fist was planted on the floor, eyes still alert for anything that might come. After all that had happened tonight, he couldn't afford to let his guard down. Five full minutes passed until Naruto felt safe enough to rest.
His eyes scanned on the field, trying to find any trace of life. Over a hundred signatures had been in this same spot just a few minutes ago. Now, there was nothing.
But… there was!
"No…"
Naruto rushed through the air where he saw the last remaining signatures in the area. Only two. Two which he knew very well. He arrived at a small clearing, where Daredevil was slowly limping to a red, blue, and black figure lying face down, a pool of crimson spreading all over him.
"No!" Naruto landed before Daredevil. "Hey! Peter! Come on!" The signature was still there, but it was fading. He turned the body around and pulled up the mask. Peter's face was pale; the only color being the bright red blood trailing from his lips. "Stay with me!"
Peter scrunched his eyes and opened them. "N-Naruto? That you?" He struggled through each word, and his voice was barely above a whisper. "I got myself in a bad spot, huh?" Peter joked and weakly coughed more blood.
Footsteps beside Naruto alerted him of Daredevil's arrival, but his attention was focused solely on his friend. Awful thoughts passed through his head. Who were Peter's other friends? What would happen to his aunt? Would he want to be remembered as Peter Parker, or as Spider-Man? What could he do?
"He is losing a lot of blood," said Daredevil beside him. "If he isn't stabilized right now…" He slammed his hand on the ground and began to mutter in a low voice. "I should never have involved them… they're just kids. What was I thinking?"
'Stabilize! I need to stabilize him!' Naruto looked at his palm and remembered the technique the old man insisted he'd learn. But… he couldn't do it. It was impossible.
"Naruto…" muttered Peter. "You gotta tell… you gotta tell A-Aunt May."
"Stop talking," responded Naruto with a hitched voice. He placed a trembling hand above the long, deep cut. How? How was he supposed to fix this? Why was there so much blood!
"H-Hey… Naruto?"
"Yeah?"
Peter's pale lips formed a grin. "I asked G-Gwen… out to dinner. She s-said… y-yes." He coughed up more blood and moaned in pain. "I… never got a chance to tell her…about how p-pretty she is."
"You'll have plenty of time to tell her. Just stay with me." Naruto continued to hold his hand above the bloodied wound. 'Come on… come on!'
The green chakra erupted from his hand, only sputtering for a second before it was extinguished. Naruto wanted to scream. Why? Why couldn't he help his friend? He didn't want Peter to die! He just couldn't let it happen! So why didn't he have the power to stop it?
"Calm your mind," came the voice of the Sage, whether it was real or a memory, Naruto didn't know. "Imagine a river, flowing slowly, and try to guide it through a small hole." He did just that, ignoring the world around him except for that river and that little hole, the water pausing its need to explode. It all had to pass, slowly, in harmony.
The chakra emerged from his hand once again, and this time, it did not sputter. In fact, it grew larger, stronger. The light seeped into Peter's wound, and quickly closed the cut, letting out white smoke as if it were being cauterized. By the time he lost control of the chakra again, what was once a red open cut was now a white scar.
"Hey… you alright?" he asked his friend.
Peter groaned for a bit as he opened his eyes. His voice was weak, but no longer dying, and the blood stopped coming out of his mouth.
"I'm… alright… I think." Peter tried to get himself up and collapsed. "Just… I need a break… let's take a break, eh? No more baddies for a week… maybe two."
Naruto laughed, dropping on his ass next to Peter. "Yeah. Maybe two weeks at the beach is what the doctor ordered."
"God, I haven't even had lunch. Hey, you know this place called Luigi's? I was going to go with this beautiful blonde girl but at this point I'll settle for your ugly mugs."
Their chuckles were silenced with a rumbling of the ground. Naruto looked towards a pile of rubble to see a metal hand clawing out, throwing pieces of steel and concrete all around it. When it had enough space, the arm pushed the rest of the buried Sentinel out, its coat of paint scratched and dented, but the eyes continued to shine through the night, and they looked around the sea of destruction until they landed on him.
"You gotta be kidding me!" Naruto shouted.
"Target identified. Sentinels initiating offens–"
From the darkness came a glint of metal, flying through the air until the sharp edge smashed against the Sentinel's head, almost splitting it in half. Mechanical arms twitched as they reached towards the weapon but it was quickly sent back to the ground when a figure crashed against it.
A tall, muscular man, dressed in dark blue, grabbed the metal weapon, which upon closer inspection, was a circular shield. The man reached into the wound he'd made and punched it with enough force to further split the head in two. With a ferocious yank, he pulled out a glowing mechanism within the Sentinel's skull, and looked at it for just a second before he crushed it with his hand. The Sentinel twitched furiously for only a few dying moments until it gave out, leaving only a metal carcass on the floor.
Naruto adopted a battle stance as the man jumped from the dead Sentinel and landed just a few feet from him. Seeing him up close, the details of his uniform were clearer. The man was wearing a suit that reflected the American flag, blue being the most prominent color, but also having red boots and gloves and a white undershirt, as well as a star on the middle of the chest, and a large "A" symbol emblazoned on his helmet. The perfectly circular shield was also painted similarly, with white and red concentric circles, finishing with another white star upon a blue field.
Standing in front of Peter and Daredevil, Naruto raised his fists and prepared to protect his comrades.
The man just gave him a confident smirk. "Relax, son. The battle is over."
Naruto just dug in his heels. "Who are you, old man?"
"I'm a friend, kid. I'm not here to fight you."
"Best listen to him, brat!" came a familiar voice from a speaker.
Naruto turned around to see movement all around him. The helicopters had scattered away and in their place were several jet black aircraft that were landing around the ruins. Soldiers poured from them, dressed in black, and quickly surrounded the entire area. They were armed to the teeth, but their weapons were actually pointed outside the perimeter, not at them.
From the jet directly above them jumped a figure and crashed next to the man. Naruto immediately dropped his defensive posture and winced as he saw Wolverine quickly regenerating the little damage he received from the fall.
"Eh… what's going on? What are you doing here?"
Wolverine's eyes narrowed in a glare. "What am I doing here? What are you doing here, brat?! Weren't you supposed to be back at the Institute?" he snarled.
Naruto raised his hands. "Erm… well I was, but then I heard about this thing happening with the big mob bosses, so I came here, and then there were these gangsters and bad cops, and then there were these ninjas, and then there were these metal things that just kept on attacking me and–"
"Brat…"
"But it's all alright. I beat them all by myself. Well, me and Flag Man over there… but mostly me!"
Wolverine snarled again. "Brat… do you have even the slightest idea what's going on? Do you know how much trouble you're in? How much trouble we're in?"
"What do you mean?"
Out of one of the jets came a man wearing a black trench coat and a black mask. All of the armed men took special care to protect him. Emblazoned on their uniform was a large gray eagle. He confidently strode towards them and stopped just next to the Flag Man.
"Good work, Captain America. Your long sleep has not dulled your skills." He gave a nod towards Wolverine and turned to Naruto and his comrades.
"Naruto Uzumaki," he said in a voice low enough for them to hear, then turned his attention to the recovering Spider-Man. "Peter Parker." Finally, he went to Daredevil. "Matthew Murdock."
He looked at them behind the mask with only one eye. "You are coming with us."
The raging fires of the urban inferno had given way to a grim silence. That did not mean that the calm that had fallen over the city was without witnesses. Indeed, the eyes of the entire city, no, the entire world were settled in just a single block of a single city. Standing atop the roof of a large building, Tessa and Emma Frost had a perfect view of the scene.
The transmission to the live cameras had been cut off just a few seconds ago, not before the entire world had seen the spectacle of Naruto Uzumaki destroying the mysterious metal humanoids.
But the damage had been done. The entire world knew about mutants now, and the revelation came in the most unfortunate of circumstances. Naruto Uzumaki's identity had also been fully exposed. Allying with such a wild card had been a gamble Emma had taken when the Maelstrom was just a local vigilante.
Tessa stopped looking through her binoculars, after seeing Naruto willingly surrender to SHIELD. "This is not something that can be reversed."
Emma sighed and dropped her binoculars. "Anonymity would never have worked with someone like him," she declared. "He's not someone that could be kept behind a mask forever. People like him are born to be seen."
"Perhaps," responded Tessa with a neutral voice. "But this revelation has completely reversed the probability of success for your operation. The chances of your plan coming to fruition… are nigh impossible now."
"Wilson Fisk. He is canny… for a criminal, that is." Emma's poker face would be as perfect as ever for the average onlooker. Tessa could see the jaw clench lightly, and the slight furrow of her brows. "He went from almost being taken down to becoming the unmistakable Kingpin of the criminal underworld. I dare say he may even be above the average scum."
Tessa didn't say what was clear. Emma had thought that Wilson Fisk was just a common thug like all of the others. Never had it crossed her mind that he would be capable of something that would throw her entire plan off. In an operation that required utmost discretion, Fisk had orchestrated a spectacle that put the eyes of the world on Emma's main tool. If even the most remote parts of the planet knew the name "Naruto Uzumaki", then the Club definitely knew now, and it wouldn't take long for his actions to be traced back to Emma.
"He is useless to you now," she commented.
Emma stood in silence, gripping the binoculars tightly. "I don't think so," she said with a soft tone. "It's true, he's useless if we continue with our current strategy. But… if we were to change the plan? If we use his newfound fame and connections to our goals? He has proven to be so resourceful, after all."
Tessa gave a nod. "The probability of his survival tonight was unfavorable, yet he handled himself quite handily."
"Absolutely. Besides, it'd be such a shame to discard someone with such genetic potential so quickly." She smirked. "I suppose I should go back to Massachusetts. Take a look at my Hellions at least… see which of them are fit and well bred…"
"You know you don't need to justify yourself with me," said Tessa.
"Good. The game has changed, and our plans will change accordingly. I think it's time for you to become more acquainted with Xavier's school. I want a complete overview of their student body." Emma looked out one last time with her binoculars, aiming directly at where Naruto was entering one of the aircraft.
"Perhaps you may just be more than another pawn, darling."
"Need anything else, kid?"
Naruto gulped down the last bite of the pizza slice he was eating, his other hand searching around the table until he found a burger. He brought the greasy meal to his lips and took a large bite, not breaking eye contact with the costumed man with a bow at his back.
"I'm good," he garbled with a full mouth. Peter groaned at his side, mouth also filled with a sandwich. After his near death experience, he had recovered with a ravenous hunger. The team that arrested them had allowed both of them to keep their costumes until they were placed in this secure room filled with food.
The archer laughed. "The two of you eat more than an entire team put together. Especially you, blondie."
"How do you think I get this stamina?" replied Naruto with a grin, downing the rest of the burger with two more bites and reaching for a piece of sausage.
"Yeah… that energy is no joke, blondie. Those Sentinels were built specifically to hunt mutants, and you managed to obliterate four on your own. Name's Clint by the by. Though you can call me Hawkeye."
"Maelstrom," replied Naruto, not wanting to say his real name, but respectfully shaking Clint's hand.
"Spider-Man," replied Peter, probably thinking the same.
The door opened to reveal a tall and muscular man, holding a walking stick in his hand and wearing a pair of dark tinted glasses. Naruto quickly activated his eyes and was surprised to see a very familiar chakra signature.
"Holy crap… you're blind!" blurted Naruto.
Daredevil slowly walked towards next to them and took his seat, not touching any of the food. "I can see better than most even without eyes. I can tell you that we're three levels underground near a river… probably the Hudson. I can tell you that the pizza you are eating has cheeses made with milk from four different states, loaded with preservatives… and that there are several people coming towards us right now. One of them has a body filled with metal. Who is really blind, kid?"
The door opened just as Daredevil finished speaking, and three men walked inside. Naruto was immediately relieved to see that Logan was among them, though his face was even more sour than usual.
The two other men he had also seen earlier, one of them tall and muscular, wearing the star spangled uniform and with the shield on his back. This was the man referred to as "Captain America". The second man carried himself confidently, clearly the leader of the group. He had gray spots at the sides of his otherwise brown hair, and had an eyepatch over one of his eyes. Clint immediately went rigid from his laid back position and took his place behind the leader.
Eyepatch sat directly in front of them, pushing some of the empty trays to the floor to make space for a set of papers. He turned his sole eye towards them with a cold look.
"You three caused a lot of trouble tonight. A full blown gang war. A rogue agent sending his Sentinels in a public zone. A bomb beneath the largest metropolitan area in the nation!"
Peter stood up "Err… that wasn't us. We were the good guys here. I mean… yeah it was probably placed there to get us, and they wouldn't have gone to such a level if we hadn't been hitting their businesses for several months, and… I'm not making a good case for ourselves, am I?"
Logan snorted and looked at Naruto. "I can see why you can get along with this guy, brat. He's just as annoying as you."
"Oh c'mon. I'm far more photogenic," replied Naruto and turned towards the leader. "Listen here, Eyepatch. We didn't do anything wrong! It was Wilson Fisk. He was probably behind those Sentinel things too. You're barking up the wrong tree."
"The name is Fury. Colonel Fury to you," said the man.
"Eh? Why'd your mom call you that? Were you born with the glare and the eyepatch?" Peter and Hawkeye snickered at his side, and even Captain America fought a grin.
Fury slammed his hand on the table loudly. "That's not the point! It doesn't matter what your intentions were. The fact is that you thought yourself above the law and acted as such. In doing so, you have taken a bad but manageable situation and created uncontrollable chaos. This should've been handled differently, but you messed it up."
"Handled by who?"
"Not by you," stated Fury and took a deep breath. "As it stands, you have created a full blown power struggle in New York, exposed one of your identities, and even revealed the existence of mutants to the world."
Naruto's eyes widened. "What?"
"You don't watch the news? I thought you were in love with your own image plastered on the screen," Fury spat sarcastically and nodded towards Hawkeye.
A large TV at the corner of the room was turned on. Naruto watched with an increasing pit in his stomach as the newsreels went on. First showing the explosion the rocked Hell's Kitchen and battlefield it created, followed by the arrival of the Sentinels. To his horror, the existence of mutants was revealed to the public, even dropping Professor Xavier's name and implicating the mutants' role in the attacks. Finally, his identity as the Maelstrom was exposed. A photo of Naruto Uzumaki was plastered over the national news.
Fury turned off the screen and bore his eye into Naruto. "Are you beginning to grasp the situation?" Naruto sat in silence.
It was Daredevil who dared to talk next. "What about our identities? Me and Spider-Man?"
"Still secret, for now at least. Either Fisk didn't know your identities or he has chosen not to reveal them yet."
"And what about you, Colonel? Are you going to reveal them to the public?"
Fury paced around the room. "I should. That's what anyone would do in my position. As it is, you are lucky we were the ones that took you in. I could easily go and hang you out to dry, letting the full power of the justice system have their way with you. A system you know so well, Mr. Murdock."
He stopped and sat back in front of them. "But I won't. We are in a war now, a war that extends further beyond this city, and in war, peacetime laws can be more… malleable." He took one of the files and looked at Matt.
"Matthew Murdock. You of all people should know the laws of our country, and yet despite that you decided to skirt them aside in favor of becoming a masked vigilante. An attorney should know better than to become a judge, jury, and executioner. Your hypocrisy is the one that deserves the most condemnation. If I were to reveal your identity, you would be disbarred first and foremost, and your partner Mr. Foggy Nelson would have his career ruined. Of course, then would come the criminal charges…"
He took the next file out and opened it. "Mr. Peter Parker. Quite an impressive set of grades. One of the highest GPAs in the country, in fact. Applicant for the Stark scholarship, assistant to the esteemed Dr. Curt Conners. I see ESU in your future… but that can change in a single moment. ESU doesn't accept former felons lightly, nor does any Ivy League school for that matter. Not to mention your Aunt. You're all she has…"
Peter kept a stiff face throughout the monologue as Fury moved on to Naruto.
"Then there's you. Naruto Uzumaki. A boy of unknown origins. Taken in as a student by Charles Xavier to form part of his team of mutants. There are no records of your existence up until that point. In fact, there are no details about your birth until US citizenship was granted. You speak Japanese as your native tongue, but sure as hell don't look like one."
"My father was Japanese – my mother was Swedish. I take after her in looks."
"Cut the bullshit, Uzumaki! We know who you are. Hell, we've been keeping an eye on you ever since you landed in the middle of Manhattan half a year ago. You're an alien. Those abilities of you are probably from your species, race, or whatever you call yourselves. Xavier may have pulled some strings to get a new identity drafted for you, but it only took a close inspection to see the truth."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa… you're an alien?!" asked Peter, mouth open in shock. "Why didn't you tell me? Err… you aren't hiding any antennae below that blonde hair, are you?"
"Well, we didn't tell each other the whole truth. I mean, you really think I believed that story with the spider bite?"
"That was true!"
"How does a spider bite – eh… well. Yeah, I guess it's true. I'm an alien. Though we don't use that word. We don't even know there were other worlds out there. You're far more technologically advanced than us," said Naruto and looked at Peter. "And no, no antennae or green skin, or whatever it is you think aliens look like. This is the real me."
Fury grunted. "Well lucky for you, my agency specializes in what we may call… unusual cases. That includes enhanced individuals, from Earth or outside of it. Given that the three of you qualify, that means I get first dibs." He placed the documents back on the desk. "So, that means that rather than letting the strong arm of the law fall on your necks, I'm willing to work out a deal."
"Your identities will be kept off the record. You can continue most of your activities, but you will be supervised. Every day, you will have to make a small report of what you've done and what you plan to do. A voice recording will do. On our side, we will authorize the areas in which you are able to operate, and expect your cooperation when you're not given the green light. To prevent the kind of mess we witnessed tonight."
"And why should we accept this?" asked Matt.
"Because if you don't, I will leave you out to dry, and trust me when I say that the FBI isn't going to be as nice as me." Fury sent the folders to Matt and Peter. "In other words… I got you by the balls. Play by the rules, or get kicked out of the club and get fed to the loan sharks."
Matt kept a poker face, but it was clear that Peter was looking for any way out now. Naruto couldn't blame his friend, really.
"This means I'm free, right?" asked Peter, he looked tired, still recovering from the blood loss.
"There are strings attached. But like I said, you can continue your activities. It's going to be rough out there with this gang war, but that's why you have us now," replied Fury. Peter didn't take long to sign, even if he took a shaky breath after doing so. Fury turned his eye over to Naruto. "Now… about you."
"What about me? My identity is already out there, as well as those in my school. You can't threaten me with that. What do you have to offer me?"
Fury reached into the folder and pulled out some documents. "This, for one. Full legal citizenship, no backroom deal stuff. In the eyes of the state, you will be an American, and have all the legal protections that entails."
"And repercussions," noted Matt.
Another document passed onto him. "Which is why you'll be on record as working on behalf of SHIELD. As part of our agency, your actions will be fully pardoned."
"Last time I checked, drafting minors was illegal," said Matt, tightening his grip on the table.
"And like I said, laws can be loosened in times of war, and war is coming, if it hasn't started already."
Matt scoffed. "From what I know, the US army has no shortage of volunteers. I'm pretty sure you don't need a kid for that excursion in Iraq you're sending the boys to."
"I'm not talking about Afghanistan, or Iraq. I'm talking about something far, far more severe."
"What kind of war are you expecting? What enemy warrants the drafting of children?"
Fury narrowed his eyes and pointed at Naruto. "That kind of enemy."
Naruto recoiled. "Me? What are you talking about? I'm a good guy!"
"Maybe you are. I'll even go as far as to say that I trust you are. But when you arrived half a year ago we suddenly became very aware that there is more out there than just us. Even without technology, your special physiology has allowed you to perform feats that far outclasses what even trained and seasoned men are able to do. What happens when someone like you comes that has different intentions? What happens to us fragile humans when someone that can multiply himself or travel at lightning speeds, and survive extreme physical punishment while having the strength of twenty men decides he prefers to rule over us?"
Fury shook his head. "The only way we humans can survive is to seriously kickstart our own arms race. That means developing our own technology, but it also means taking the superpowered individuals on our side and training them to defend our little planet. That's SHIELD's mission, and while we have plenty of agents, we don't have the type that can go against the threats that are coming."
The one-eyed colonel turned his attention back to Naruto. "You know, Uzumaki, tonight will be the hardest on you… and your friends."
Naruto's eyes narrowed. "Are you threatening my friends? Huh?"
"Me? No. The public? Well you just had several blocks of Hell's Kitchen blow up and the media is slowly piling the blame on mutants."
"That's not true! They had nothing to do with this!"
"I know. Damn it if the media doesn't know it either, and yet the story is out there. Oh, they'll quietly retract at some points, edit it without explicitly telling anyone, but the hysteria will be set by then. Mutants are terrorists. Mutants are dangerous. Something for the average person to place their hate and fear into. Even your Professor's government contacts will be strained to help you then."
Naruto clenched his fists and looked down. The nightmare that the Professor feared was coming true.
"You'll need friends. Strong friends. Friends that can offer protection to your school and your kind. Friends like SHIELD. And isn't it a wonderful coincidence? I just happen to need your services, too."
Naruto shook his head. "That isn't fair."
"Life has a nasty habit of being like that, Uzumaki."
Words kept on being spoken, but they went on as babble for Naruto. He just looked at the documents in front of him as Peter handed in the folder and placed a hand on Naruto before waking out with a guard. Minutes flew as Matt and Fury continued a back and forth argument that ended with Matt angrily signing as well.
Naruto was all alone now.
He came back to his senses when Fury tapped at the documents in front of him. The ones that listed Naruto's nationality. "You may be an alien, Uzumaki, but now you are a citizen of the United States of America. You're one of us now. So what do you say? Are you going to lie down, hmm? Or are you going to step up, do your duty as an American, and protect your nation and your friends?"
Silence fell on the room as Naruto stared at the documents in front of him. He turned around for guidance, but there was none. Logan just kept his hardened stare.
This was his decision to make.
He thought of Kitty then, and all of his friends at the Institute – Jean, Ororo, Rogue, Kurt, and Scott. Dani, Wanda, and the rest of the New Mutants as well. They would have a difficult time now that they were exposed… and he had helped to expose them. If he hadn't done what he had done, would none of this have happened?
But there were also other people outside of the Institute he cared about. People like the Fantastic Four, Tony Stark, and Kitty's friends. Felicia, Janet, and Mary Jane. He was a good guy, but what if Orochimaru came to Earth, or even Itachi? What about other types of threats? If he had the strength, shouldn't he use it to protect his loved ones?
Naruto turned his eyes towards Fury and everyone in the room. "I… I accept."
"Good. We'll expect you back here in two days. You can take him from here, Logan."
Hawkeye encouraged him with a grin and a thumbs up, while Captain America gave an encouraging slap on the shoulder. Fury took the documents and exited, leaving Naruto alone with Logan.
"Did I make the right choice?" he asked Logan, his voice barely above a whisper.
Logan grunted and lit up his cigar. "You made the honorable choice. Don't know if that makes it the right one."
Naruto stood up, fists still clenched. "I can't let my friends face this alone. I can't! That's what I fight for, to keep them safe. I can take it – many of them can't. You understand, right?"
"More than you can imagine." Logan guided him out of the room and through several hallways, passing through staff that tried their best not to pay attention to them. Eventually they arrived at an exit where an armored SUV was waiting for them.
"Things are going to change, aren't they?"
"They are. You're in the army now, brat. Good luck – you're going to need it."
AN: There you go guys. This update didn't take as much. I can't tell you when the next one will drop since I'll go back to my other fic, but hopefully it won't be too long.
If you liked this chapter and the story, please leave a review, and if you want, join my Discord server. I respond to messages faster over there.
Link: FEKnu79
Until next time!
The Metal Sage
