Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD
Phil rushed into a room with two joysticks in front of a screen, sitting down and initializing the weapons as fast as possible. “May, how long can you keep us in the sky?!”
She responded over the plane's speakers. “I’m barely keeping us up as it is! We need to either land or evacuate as soon as possible!”
“Get ready for either one!” Phil shouted as the plane shuddered, the loud sound of plasma shots slamming into his Bus making Phil grit his teeth. The screens came up, the camera’s showing the monkey servitors outside. Phil grabbed the joysticks and aimed at the monkey with an angry smile. He began to pull the trigger.
Outside, on the wings of the bus, twin cannon turrets rose out of hatches. Phil aimed them at the targets and pulled the triggers, blasting one of the monkeys out of the sky. “Eat your heart out, Luke Skywalker,” he quipped, spinning the cannon turrets to fire again and again, trying to stave off the destruction of his plane.
It very quickly became clear that he was fighting a losing battle. The damn things were rocketing around too fast, ducking and diving through the air while firing at the Bus. He took out a couple, but there were dozens of the things. Phil frowned in disappointment when one of the cannon turrets got taken out.
“Skye, Dynamo, I could use some air support out there!”
------
Skye
Skye felt her armor fold into place over her body. She bit her lip as she ran toward the hole blown into the side of the Bus, flying up and out. As soon as the wind hit her she had to compensate, twisting in the air to aim her boots so that she was flying alongside the Bus. She fought against the high-speed winds of her flight. Her HUD showed a sudden drop in temperature, and she had to focus on her targets.
She stopped to blink at the sight of the enemy. “Are those flying monkeys?!”
“I know right?” Phil said over the comms.
Before Skye could respond, some of the buzzing monkeys twisted to shoot toward her. She yelped, twisting out of the way of a plasma shot, and fired one back. Her green shot hit a monkey, setting it on fire, but she was forced to hit it again when it kept shooting at her.
With a twist, she shot to the right, then forward, aiming her hands and firing more plasma. The blasts flew past a few monkeys, hitting others. She yelped when a sudden burst of wind sent her sliding back, forced to compensate for it. While she did that, she was tackled by a monkey. It wrapped around her arms, Skye shouting in shock as a monkey baby started clawing at her armor. It raised an arm and prepared to fire plasma. Skye yelped out a command word.
“Shoulders!”
Her shoulder popped open, a pair of turrets sliding out. They twisted to fire at the monkey on her back, hitting it with a stream of bullets that sent it flying off.
Skye shouted out again when a plasma shot grazed her thigh, scorching her armor. Her HUD screaming about the sudden rise in temperature and damage wasn’t needed when her leg was screaming in pain. She grit her teeth, raised her arms, and started shooting, her shoulder guns joining.
“Come on!” she roared, jet boots sending her flying forward to meet the monkeys. She took out two, dodged another, then twisted to slam her elbow into another, spinning back to kick another. Another plasma shot nearly took her head of. She fired back, her shoulder turrets firing on auto while she forced down her emotions.
Baby monkey viscera and cybernetics parts sprayed around her. She was panting as she fought, trying to stay calm and failing, getting clawed in the back before she spun out of the way and punched her opponent. Another one tried to tackle. In a desperate move, she struck with a palm strike at the same as she fired a plasma blast. The impact of the attack combined with the plasma shot sent the thing twisting away.
Struck by inspiration, she struck another monkey the same way, trying to incorporate the techniques she’d learned from Nat, May, and Steve with the armors plasma shots.
“Yeah!” she cheered as another plasma palm strike knocked an opponent out of the air.
More monkeys flew toward her, slowly trying to overwhelm her. Despite her desperate attempts to drive them back, another shot grazed her arm, the pain slowing her down. Gritting her teeth, she tried to fight back, sweat pouring down her lips to fill her mouth with the salty taste.
Then lightning flew around her. Monkeys froze in the air, falling back behind her as electricity disrupted their systems. Skye looked down at the plane, where some more lightning flew up from to join the cannon turret fire.
Crimson Dynamo stood firmly on top of the Bus, hands raised and hatches that covered Leyden jar-looking devices opened all across her massive armored form. As Skye watched, Galina fired twin beams of searing blue light from her palms, blasting apart several of the servitors as they dived toward the Bus. Crackling lances of electricity surrounded her in a bubble, streams flowing into her hands then flying outward to meet with the monkeys, the white-blue attacks ripping them apart. She looked like a lightning rod in reverse, blasting the sky with power.
“Oh right, mag boots!” Skye realized when she noted Crimson Dynamo somehow standing on the Bus with ease. Dropping down, Skye landed next to Dynamo, sighing in relief when her own boots activated. At least she no longer had to fight the wind.
“You okay?” Galina said as she unleashed power over and over toward their opponents in a brilliant display.
“Yeah, but it came close!” Skye shouted, wincing at the pain from her grazed leg and arm.
“We must continue to defend the Bus!” Galina roared, gathering a ball of electricity in her palms before firing it as a beam.
Before Skye could respond, more monkeys came from the sky. She fired her plasma beams, fire joining lightning, filling the air between them against more enemies. Skye used Crimson Dynamo as cover, the other woman’s electric bubble able to take incoming fire.
Then the monkeys started going all kamikaze on them, diving toward the bubble. When they slammed into it they would erupt in balls of purple energy, sending ripples across the bubble. Galina cursed out in caustic Russian.
“They are attempting to overwhelm me!”
“Can they?!”
“With time!”
“They don’t have time,” another voice said.
Like a spirit, Big Chill floated up from the floor in between them, scaring the hell out of Skye. Apparantly he'd chosen to just fly through the plan as a ghost instead of going around. As she watched, he unfurled his wings and snapped his hands up. Cold blue light flew from his palms, freezing the servitors. Skye shot one, while Dynamo hit another, sending beautiful flecks of frost across the sky.
Fantasma flew overhead, waving her hands around in a circle then thrusting them forward. A gust of wind erupted with the motion, sending a group of monkeys tumbling through the air. She punched her fists together and held them outward, a pair of purple circles floating parallel to her knuckles that she used as shields. “We’re here Coulson!”
“Yum!” with that little battle cry, the most terrifying thing she ever saw dropped from the night sky. Teeth dug into flesh and metal. A wailing soul was sucked into a gaping maw. All life in the area seemed to wane.
Except Big Chill. Everyone else seemed to flinch, even the monkey servitors, but he fought just as hard. The others joined in. The Bus itself continued to fire it’s cannon turrets while the heroes fought on top of it, flying around in a display of powers and lights.
Funny. Years back, Skye would have given anything to be able to be in a fight like this. Kinda worth the wait, scary and painful as it was.
------
Carl Creel/Alloy
“Damn it, I should have gotten rocket boots,” Carl cursed to himself as he fought his way through the rocking plane. "Then I could be fighting out there."
He’d switched to vibranium form. While he couldn’t exactly contribute in the fight around them, he’d bounced enough times off the walls of the shaking Bus that he was glad he’d done it.
“Coulson!”
“In here!”
Losing his balance on the way, Creel slammed a fist into the wall, vibranium knuckles splitting apart steel. With that handhold, he forced his way into a room at the end of the hallway, where Phil was sat in front of two joysticks and a screen.
“May told me to check on you!”
Sparks flew from a console, a spray of some sort of gas shooting down from the ceiling. Coulson cocked and eyebrow at Creel. “I’m doing okay, how about you?”
Creel had no idea what to do with such an unflappable response. “Uh…”
Coulson turned back to the screen and kept shooting. “We’re losing systems all across the plane. May is barely keeping us up, and so far Galina has shattered my kill count. So no, I’m not doing so great.”
“What should we do, do we have a plan?” Creel said worriedly. “I mean, worst comes to worst I can just fall all the way down.”
“...Lucky you,” Coulson said after a moment of hesitation. He shook his head. “I hate to do this but… we need to evacuate the Bus. If the engines fail, a lot of us are going to die, and I need everyone I can get for the next part,” Coulson looked behind Creel. “What do you think?”
Creel turned to see Mikhail standing behind him.
“It’s our best option,” Mikhail said with a shake of his head. “I’m sorry, Coulson.”
Coulson rose from his seat. “Sympathy later. We need to go, now!”
All three men rushed out, Creel and Mikhail helping Coulson along. “Everyone, get ready to evacuate! May, that means you!”
“Coulson-” May said over the speakers.
“That’s an order! Set it to autopilot and get to the cargo bay!”
------
Mahmoud Schahed/Dial
I reared back with a deep breath then leaned forward, a wide blast of ice enveloping the area in front of me. The temperature drop froze the servitors in a wide area, allowing Fantasma to slash them apart with her magic sword while Skye hit them with bullets from her shoulder turrets.
And yet, we were getting surrounded. Chernobog was happy about that, the dark spirit shooting from one servitor to another and ripping them apart with his teeth. Galina was doing a really good impression of Frankenstrike and Thor, Skye was kicking more ass than I expected, Fantasma was making Gandalf look like Frodo, but we were barely making a dent in the numbers around us. A kaleidoscope of purple magic, ice beams, lightning, plasma from Skye and the monkeys, and the cannon turrets joined together to turn the Russian skies into a beautiful war zone
Coulson suddenly spoke over our comms, my Omnitrix blinking green light with every word. “All teams, we’re going to have to evacuate the Bus! Try and hold them off of us until then!”
“Already done!” Galina and I said in unison.
A servitor charged toward me. I punched it aside where it bounced off the Bus, only for another to hit me. Fantasma blasted it off of me, and I returned the favor by hitting another one.
“How many of these things are there?!” Skye shouted, standing back to back with Galina.
“Enough,” I growled in annoyance.
Chernobog, floating above us, hummed in pleasure. “More are coming.”
With that ominous little line, something large slammed into the roof of the Bus, shaking the whole thing. We all staggered with the shockwave of the impact. I stared in shock at the being that had landed on the plane.
“A servitor… gorilla?” I said in honest surprise. Looking back, it made sense, but the suddenness threw me.
What had to be five hundred pounds of muscle and metal roared. It’s left arm had been replaced with a metal cannon, and half its chest was either replaced or covered in steel, a glowing green orb on it’s back. The thing raised hits arm and shot at me. I went intangible, the big ball of light it fired bashing Chernobog out of the air, the dark god growling in anger as his big bat wings pumped to get him back to us.
“Oh, shoot me with a cannon? I’m coming for you first!”
“A gorilla, seriously?!” Skye shouted.
“Take him down!” Fantasma shouted back, blasting at the gorilla with a series of purple beams. Skye and Galina joined her.
The orb on the gorillas back glowed green. Before he could get hit by enough force to turn a tank into mulch, a big orb of green light flowed over him, becoming a shield that absorbed the beams of power. I waited for a moment for the shield to deactivate, then fired as well, hitting the gorilla on the chest. His metal chest frosted over. He didn’t seem to like that, cause he leaped forward with a roar.
I went intangible, letting him fall through me, every part of his body covered in ice as it passed. More monkeys attacked the others, forcing me and the gorilla to face each other head-on with no distractions.
The gorilla raised his left arm and fired shots at me, forcing me to dodge as I floated about or go intangible. I fired beams at him, slowing him down or bouncing off his shield. He charged me again. I went intangible and dived into the plane beneath us. I fired a beam of ice as I flew back up toward up, the beam smashing into his chin, followed by my fist.
“Shoryuken!” I said in Big Chill’s ghostly voice.
The gorilla staggered back, then raised his left cannon hand again. I went intangible before I realized that he wasn’t aiming at me. With a primal roar, he fired.
The ball of green flame that left his cannon slammed into the right wings engine. The engine exploded in fire and sparks, scrap metal flying about while the shockwave shook the world around us.
“Oh you dick,” I said softly.
The gorilla roared. I sprayed him with ice again, trying to distract it. It raised shields, my ice uselessly bouncing off the green orb. It raised its cannon arm, the end glowing green. I ignored the shadow that flowed behind the gorilla to stop firing my ice beams. The gorilla dropped shields to fire back.
That was when a massive arm wrapped around its cannon.
“Hey,” Chernobog grabbed the gorilla by the other arm. He pulled the screaming animal close. I could see portions of its soul floating off of it. Chernobog smiled, an inky black tongue slipping past razor-sharp teeth to lick at the gorillas face. “I don’t let a man hit me with his cannon,” the gorilla struggled in its grip, muscles of flesh straining, limbs of metal squealing as they were crushed by hands and claws of shadow. Chernobog smiled, slowly opening his mouth over the gorilla's neck. “Unless he’s willing to give me dinner.”
Teeth shredded into soul, flesh, and metal. Chernobog laughed as he began to dig into the creature that screamed in his grasp. He slashed out chunks of what I could only think of as 'soul' and swallowed it down. "Ahhh," he sighed happily. "Was it good for you?" Chernobog asked the discarded remains of a robot gorilla in a satisfied tone.
I turned away to float over the Bus, more easily able to catch up with it. I froze servitor after servitor, punching when needed punching and going intangible where I could as the onslaught continued.
Then a group of monkeys twisted in the air. For a moment I wondered what the hell they were doing. They didn’t seem to aim at us. Instead, they flew toward… Oh shit.
I dived toward them, raising my hands to fire at them. They fired at me, forcing me to dodge while firing, but I only got three in a spraying movement. The rest slammed into the other wing.
“Oh come on!” Skye shouted below me. “This is my house you assholes!” the shout was followed by more shots of plasma from her palms before she spun to kick aside a servitor that must have been made from an ape instead of a monkey.
I grit my teeth. “Forget the Bus! Defend the cargo bay, make sure everyone can get out!”
We all headed there while fighting through an army, two more loud thumbs followed by a pair of gorillas trying to shoot us. Chernobog groaned.
“Ah man, I filled up on empty calories already! So delicious, so wasteful.”
“You are a special kind of weird,” I grumbled. I took a deep breath. When I breathed out, the immense wave of cold that shot out of my mouth became a blizzard. The gorillas raised shields, blocking the blast, but a majority of the monkeys froze over.
“...You should do that first from now on,” Fantasma mumbled while monkeys fell to the ground.
“Not without making sure I can take out as many as I can,” knowing the move would just expend energy otherwise, especially for prolonged combat when a simple beam was so much more efficient. I shook my head at the sight of the gorillas shooting up into the air to go after us, the green orbs on the backs acting like jetpacks.
Damn. This was just getting annoying.
------
Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD
Coulson sighed in relief when he entered the lab with Creel and Mikhail to see Simmons and Fitz finishing up. “All done?”
“Yes!” Fitz shouted, running from computer to computer. “All the data is backing up right now. Coulson are you sure-”
“The Bus is lost,” the words felt like sand in his mouth. Coulson forced them out anyway. “Get to the drop-packs.”
Simmons ran up to Fitz and handed him a gray device that looked like the jetpacks from modern cinema. “Coulson, should we go now?”
“Creel,” Coulson said as an answer. When the material absorber looked at him, he continued. “Go down with them. Where are Kraven and Vanguard?”
“Here,” Vanguard strode into the room, already wearing a similar pack. He was followed by Kraven, who was holding his own back with some distaste.
“Good. We’ll jump together, don’t want to get lost on the ground.” Coulson led the way out as the cargo bay door slowly dropped. As it did, Big Chill and Fantasma flew in to land in front of them.
“We’re getting swarmed,” Big Chill said. “If we could go all out and stop worrying about the plane, we might be in better shape.”
“You’ll get your chance,” Vanguard said in response.
“Are we all here?” Fantasma asked, worried.
Coulson looked around. His eyes widened in realization. “May!”
“On my way,” Dial’s Omnitrix symbol on his chest blinked with each word. “Go without me, I’ll catch up.”
“Damnit,” Coulson cursed. “Everyone, head out! I’ll stay and make sure she’s safe.”
“Coulson-” Mikhail seemed ready to say. He was interrupted when the plane rocked.
“That’ll be the gorillas,” Dial mused.
“Gorillas?” Creel said incredulously.
“It’s been an odd night,” Fantasma answered. When a lock of hair fell across her face, she blew it out of the way.
“Go, now!” Coulson barked.
After a look at everyone else, Vanguard nodded. “Come on!” He ran toward the door and leaped out.
“Sir,” Simmons said softly, pausing before saying anything else. Then she sighed. “Good luck.”
“Same from me, sir,” Fitz said.
Creel led them over to the bay door. “I’m going to drop first,” he said.
“Don’t you need a drop-pack?” Simmons asked him, a worried look on her face.
Creel eyed the back. Then he smirked. “No. I’m going to clear the landing zone.”
He shifted into his vibranium form. Before anyone could say anything, Creel twisted to fall out of the plane, plummeting to the ground with immense speed.
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“Ha!” Kraven barked with a savage smile. “He really knows how to live!”
“That’s one way to put it,” Simmons grumbled. With a deep breath she followed, Fitz close behind.
Everyone leaped out one by one while he moved over to Lola. Coulson stopped to stare out at the plane. After all this time, all the battles they’d fought. He felt at a loss as he watched his plane shatter around him.
The Bus had been transportation, weapon, base, lab, and home. It had protected them, helped them. In many ways, it had saved the world as much as the rest of them. And now he was about to lose it.
Coulson was drawn from his thoughts when May came into the cargo bar. She leaped over the railing, ignoring the stairs, and rushed over to him. “We need to go!”
He nodded slowly. After one last look, he turned to May, who was looking for a pack. “Forget it. Get in.”
May looked over at him as he opened the door to Lola. Nodding firmly, she leaped in as well. Coulson twisted the key into his car’s ignition and chuckled sadly. “Kinda sad but… I’ve always wondered if I could pull this off.”
The car started up and he reversed out into the open air behind them.
------
Mahmoud Schahed/Dial
Coulson driving backward in Lola surprised the hell out of me. As I watched, the wheels folded in, the hubcaps pointed toward the ground and blasted out jets. He twisted her around and flew her down to join us.
Coming to a hover next to me, Skye, and Fantasma, we all watched as the Bus plummeted through the sky.
“...maybe it won’t be that bad?” I said hesitantly. “Maybe we’ll be able to repair it or-”
Green and purple lights erupted around the Bus. In a spectacular display of light and sound, the Bus, home of Team SHIELD, exploded.
“I set it up to take out as many as I could,” May said softly as the red fire of the Bus’ last fight shone on her face. “Figured I’d give her a shot at revenge.”
“Goodbye,” Skye said sadly, shrapnel raining down on the forest below.
“We’re not done yet,” Coulson turned to look at us. “Dial, go shut down that fire,” he indicated toward the flames that had arisen due to the plane shrapnel smashing into the forest. “Take Fantasma as backup. The rest of us will go down and join the others.”
“Got it, Coulson,” I agreed. I looked over at Fantasma. She gave me a firm nod, the two of us twisting into the air to head toward the fire.
“How did the monkeys sneak up on us?” Fantasma asked as we flew side by side.
“They must have had some sort of stealth system,” I mused. “Then again, they could have been mistaken for birds? We’ll have to find out later,” I went intangible, diving through the trees as Fantasma flew just above. “Plus side, we’re pretty close to our destination anyway.”
Coming to a stop just above the fire that was burning the forest, I felt a bit of relief that things weren’t that bad. The floor was covered in snow, and most of the fires hadn’t began to rise. Still, the training I’d been given told me not to take a risk. Even a snow-filled forest didn’t necessarily negate the possibility of a fire spreading out of control.
I could mentally feel my clock for my Big Chill running down (Not literally, more just me guessing combined with experience for how long forms lasted), so I started blasting the fires around us, dropping the temperature around us even further. I did it over and over, cooling the metal shrapnel around us and puffing out the fires. Then I realized something, cursing.
“Damn it,” I grumbled.
“What’s wrong?” Fantasma asked.
“Just… I forgot this form doesn’t really have problems with high heat. This species actually eats plasma,” I shook my head. “Didn’t have to go intangible. I could have literally eaten every shot that came at me.”
When I looked over at her, Fantasma blinked. “How does one forget something like that?”
“Get as many forms as I have and lots of things can slip your mind,” I said with a shrug, pulling my wings in to surround me in a hooded cloak. I finished up a few minutes later and looked up at the still floating Fantasma. “We’d better join the others.”
Before I could say anything else, the Omnitrix began to beep, and I turned back into a human. I grunted in annoyance. “Damnit. And now I’m freezing again.”
“Oh, so that’s what it looks like,” Fantasma said, dropping to join me. “When you become human again, I mean.”
“Pretty much, yeah,” I rubbed my arms, trying to get some circulation going.
“Is it strange, turning into aliens?” she asked curiously. “Or does it feel natural?”
“A bit of both honestly? Like, when I’m an alien it feels normal to have four arms, or wings, or no eyes. But I’m still mentally human, so I can get a bit weirded out about it,” I looked around. “Let's go. Dial!”
In moments, the catom armor I was used to keeping on me flowed over my body, leaving everything but my face uncovered. I sighed in relief as my black and green armor clamped into place and protected me from the cold, reaching for my waist to feel… Oh shit!
“My sword!” I spun in place, staring at the remains of the plane. “It was on the plane!”
Fantasma looked around the scrap metal all over the floor and hanging in the trees. “Could it have been destroyed?”
“It’ll take more than that. Tony made that thing to last,” I said back, trying to figure out what I could do. “Man, I loved that thing.”
“Is it really so important?” she asked.
“It’s the best melee weapon I’ve got and a gift from Tony. I stabbed a Wendigo with the thing,” I mused softly.
“Oh, I can help!” Fantasma stood before me, raising her hands. “Okay, hold still. I just need to do a spell I made. It’ll connect your soul to your sword, letting you find it. Then I’ll disconnect you again.”
I blinked down at her as she bit her bottom lip, twisting her palms together, flickering her fingers against the palms, separating them, then clapping them together. Purple rose over her hands. She held out her hands, placing them on my chest.
I had a second to wonder if Chernobog was next to me again before I realized what was happening.
The energy that touched my chest filled me with the feeling of acid in my veins. I gulped unsteadily. That little motion felt like it took all my energy. When the energy faded I felt disgusted. Like I’d been dipped into something had a honey sweet smell, but was also made of raw toxic sludge. Something horrific that was also somehow intoxicating, but inside me.
Fantasma eyed me as I stood there. “A-Are you okay? Some people… don’t seem to like my magic, when I use it on them.”
I coughed and felt like I had a glob of playdoh in my throat. With another hacking cough, being careful to aim at the ground, I shook my head. “Oh, oh man. That was… rough. What was that?”
“A location spell,” when she spoke, she sounded… hurt. Hurt and sad. “I’m sorry. My magic… I don’t know why. But it just has that effect. People say it feels disgusting. But it always feels normal to me.”
I nodded slowly. “I-I guess that means it works. And that’s all that matters. Thanks, Fantasma,” I said with a smile. It was a struggle, but I really did feel grateful, so the smile was as broad as I could make it. She smiled back, eyes glittering.
“Okay. So what do I have to-” I was cut off when a line of white came from my chest. The line slowly twisted through the air, headed deeper into the forest. “Oh. Like that, I guess.”
“Yes,” Fantasma seemed a bit proud, flipping her hair as she flew up into the air and followed after the line.
Not willing to walk, I jumped, activating the jump jets in my armor to cover more distance. With her flying and me jumping, the two of us followed the line through the forest. I tried not to let the fact that the line leaving my chest felt like a Ghost had her hand in my chest and wrapped around my heart throw me off.
Tried to at least.
We ended up near a large chunk of metal that had probably been a wall of the Bus. Portions of scorched leather and furniture stuffing, as well as a bunch of trees that had fallen over, lay around, covered in ice from when I’d blasted the area as Big Chill. The line went under a thick piece of metal. I crouched and grabbed the piece, using the armors enhanced strength to pull it up and toss it aside, making sure to do it with my leg muscles rather arms. I dug through the remains of metal and glass until I found the handle of my sword, sighing in relief.
“Thanks, Fantasma,” I said as I looked up at her. “Your magic is pretty sweet. I mean, it feels weird as hell, but it's damn cool.”
She seemed really happy about that for some reason, practically glowing with joy. “You’re welcome! We should join the others though.”
“Got it,” I turned and walked in the direction the others had been falling, jumping moments later to follow her flight as we went through the trees. It took a while for us to make our way there. When we came close, the sounds of gunfire and plasma bolts began to fill the air, coming from the skies above. We shared a look and double-timed it there.
------
Leopold Fitz
Fitz yelled in fear as he fell toward the forest below. Creel was quickly falling down below him, barely visible as a vibranium dot far below. Jemma was alongside him, screaming as well.
Fitz held out his arms and legs like he’d been told a million times, slowing down his descent with a wider surface area. The science of terminal velocity filled his mind, not helping his minor panic attack. Bloody hell, people who did this for fun were lunatics!
In his ear, his comm was filled with the sound of Coulson. “Okay, don’t panic, but you guys are under attack.”
“What do you mean don’t bloody panic?!” Fitz spat out.
“Just stay calm! Activate the drop packs when you hit the right elevation. I’m coming down in Lola, and we’ll all be together.”
Gulping, Fitz looked at the altimeter on his wrist, the one all drop-packs came with. Far too fast for his liking, it was dropping. He waited for an amount of time that felt like both forever and far too short.
The second it hit the green zone, Fitz tried to hit the button on the right strap of the drop pack.
His fingers slipped.
Panicking, he hit it again.
With a gentle ‘fwoosh’ sound, the jets on the drop pack ignited. Bit by bit, they revved up, slowing him down. By the time they were fully active he was able to breathe a sigh of relief.
Until the monkey with wings flew past, scaring the hell out of him.
“I am getting real tired of being scared!” Fitz shouted in annoyance.
“Fear not!” Mikhail floated down to join him, followed by Simmons, Kraven, Vanguard, Skye, Crimson Dynamo, Chernobog, and Coulson with May in Lola. The fighters surrounded Fitz-Simmons while more servitor monkeys came up from the forest. “We are here!”
With that triumphant cry, he pulled out a pistol, firing at the servitors as they flew past. Vanguard joined him, while Kraven, to Fitz’s surprise, pulled out a bowie knife. Skye and Chernobog flew about, while Coulson twisted Lola around.
Fitz looked down at the ground in time to barely see Creel about to hit the ground.
Or, not the ground. On the ground below, more servitors could be seen running about. A gorilla was roaring up at Creel in freefall. Time seemed to slow as Creel came down at the roaring gorilla. Creel raised an arm. When he met the gorilla, it was elbow first. The impact sent a shockwave that shook the trees free of snow. Creel’s elbow dented in the gorilla's skull, split it apart in a spray of sparks, shrapnel and flesh, and just… kept going. A combination of terminal velocity and vibranium durability let the human bullet crush his way through the cybernetic horror. When he impacted the ground, an immense crater was created around him.
“Hoooly,” Fitz said in shock, watching Creel stand up to roar a challenge at the monkeys. “Eat your heart out, Rath.”
Coulson piloted Lola around, two machine guns sprouting from the headlights. May had a pistol in her hand, firing at the monkeys while Coulson unleashed hell on the buzzing creatures with Lola. At one point, May quickly headshot a monkey, then hit it two times in the heart when that didn’t finish it. Whenever the monkeys grouped up, Coulson activated Lola’s flamethrower, scorching the things. Poor Lola ended up getting hit hard by the plasma bolts, scorching her surface with holes and melted metal, one of the shots shattering the windshield. Coulson kept fighting.
Skye floated about the landscape, teeth gritted under her helmet. She twisted through the air with impressive ability, blasting out plasma shots, her shoulder guns firing. At one point the shoulder guns clicked. Out of ammo. The shoulder guns sank back into her armor, and she kept fighting. She seemed to have learned a new technique, a palm strike at the same times as she fired plasma. Badass.
Kraven, to Fitz’s surprise, seemed to be using his bowie knife to great effect. He was using the slow engines of the drop pack to somehow just… end up in the cybernetic monkeys paths. Like he just knew where they were flying next, and didn’t need the high speed of Lola or Skye to meet them. When the monkeys came close, he would slash out. First, he sliced off their wings, the knife somehow chopping through metal with ease. Then he took off the arms as the monkeys fell. With two stabs, he pierced the chest and head. It was… terrifying. He was fast, ruthless, and quiet. There was a primal feel to the attacks, the way he seemed to prowl about and surprise his opponents. Even in the air, he made a knife a viable weapon. Just by being smart about it.
Vanguard stayed closest to Fitz-Simmons, his shield high. Fitz found himself trying to figure out what metal the shield was made of. Because no matter how many plasma shots hit the glistening shield, it was undamaged. He blocked a shot headed for Simmons, pulled Fitz out of the path of another, then raised his pistol to fire at the monkey, forcing it to dodge.
“Thank you!” Fitz-Simmons said in unison.
Vanguard only nodded, eyes narrowed as he continued to defend them.
Chernobog flew past then. Fitz gasped at the sucking feeling that came from him. A sense that was more mental than physical. What… what was that? It felt like he had been… what was that?!
Chernobog laughed, grabbing a servitor between his hands. As Fitz watched in uncontrollable curiosity, the servitor seemed to emit a sort of, energy. A pale white stream of light in the form of a monkey, one that had been withered, with no cybernetics. What was that? Not a power source, something else.
A traitorous part of Fitz’s mind whispered that Chernobog had absorbed the soul of his victim. He turned away to look at Crimson Dynamo.
Dynamo had taken to the ground, landing to fight alongside Creed. She hit the ground with an eruption of lightning, melting the snow around her for twenty feet.
A gorilla rushed her. She blasted it with lightning, the massive gorilla blocking it with that strange shield it emitted from the green orb on it’s back. The gorilla slammed into Crimson.
And came to a stop when Crimson raised a palm and stopped it in place. She raised the gorilla high, the animal roaring, then slammed it on its back. Held down by Crimson Dynamo’s armored hand on his chest, the gorilla screamed out on the ground, scratching at her armor and the ground, punching her desperately in the chest. Galina raised her other hand and punched the gorilla in the face. Once, twice. The gorilla’s face was covered in blood. Then she punched it once more, sparks and gore following the monsters head exploding.
Galina rose up and created twin balls of electricity in her palms. The round blue-white orbs flew out, melting snow on the way and turning servitors to corpses. She hit another one in the midst of attacking Creel, knocking it back. The woman and man of metal fought side by side against the overwhelming numbers, electricity and vibranium fists causing mayhem.
Fitz looked over at Mikhail.
The Russian soldier had pulled out a massive pistol, one that Fitz recognized. He’d looked up a lot of Russian weaponry on his way to the country after all. This one was a RSh-12. A model of gun that had a reputation as one of the most powerful revolvers in the world, only in competition with the Smith and Wesson 500. It was capable of firing 12.7x55mm cartridges. The same sort of bullets used in Russian sniper rifles.
Mikhail raised the massive revolver and fired it.
A monkey tore in half.
He fired again, the Russian’s eyes hard.
A servitor lost a plasma shooting arm.
Another shot ripped a hole in the chest of a servitor, spraying metal, wires, and computer chips. Hollowpoint. The nutter was using hollow point bullets in one of the most powerful revolvers in the world.
Mikhail aimed at a larger servitor, this one more ape than a monkey, that was flying down toward Creel, who was in the process of lifting a boulder off the ground and tossing it at a gorilla. His bullet sliced a hole in it, tossing it to the ground.
Before he could fire another shot, a plasma shot hit Mikhail’s drop pack.
“Гавно!” Mikhail said in Russian as his drop pack exploded.
“Mikhail!” Coulson shouted in horror as Mikhail fell dozens of feet to the forest below.
“He’ll be fine!” Vanguard called out, to Fitz’s surprise. “Let’s land!”
Coming to the ground, the drop packs stopped holding them up, allowing the group to continue fighting. Kraven disappeared into the forest, while Vanguard stabbed the pointed end of his shield into a servitor.
Everyone went into battle except Coulson, Fitz, and Simmons, Fitz-Simmons ducking behind Lola when she landed while Coulson and May hopped out of the car.
May, undeterred by the lack of power armor or enhancements the others had, snapped out a baton, held her pistol out, and began fighting alongside the others, determination on her features as she struck out at her opponents, baton knocking the lighter servitors to the ground while the others took care of the larger opponents.
“We have to find Mikhail!” Coulson shouted over the din. “If he’s hurt-”
A sound came from the forest. All other noise stopped. Everyone turned to look at it as the trees shook with the power of that roaring sound. Birds flew off in the distance in a chorus of fear. Fitz gulped.
“What was that?” he asked trepidly.
“A friend,” Dynamo answered, rising to her full height.
A tree came crashing down in the distance. Then another and another, coming toward them. A noise like an avalanche of stones down a mountainside came with it, the roar of something powerful. Fitz had never heard a true Hulk or Rath roar in person, but he imagined that was what it sounded like.
The being that stepped out of the woods was as large and wide as the Hulk. But covered in fur. Fangs flashed in the light. Massive hands clutched a gorilla by the head, dragging the cybernetic creature behind him. The other hand reached up to rest on a tree, then pushed it aside with ease, sending the whole thing tumbling to the ground.
A bear. A man. A gigantic bear-man. It, he, made that mountain roar of noise again and clenched the fist holding the servitor head, crushing it in his grip.
“Hey guys,” Dial said behind them as he joined them, Fantasma floating near him. “What are we… oh. Holy shit.”
“Mikhail!” Fantasma said cheerily.
“Mikhail?” Coulson asked, stunned.
“WINTER GUARD!” The bear man raised the destroyed servitor high. “BREAK THEM!”
“I knew it!” Dial shouted.
Then all hell broke out.