Mahmoud Schahed/Dial
Well, this trip to Russia hadn’t held back in being weird as shit. On the plus side, I know knew where Ursa Major was. He was using a tree like a baseball bat while roaring like a maniac. Mikhail was a bear man. Who would have thought?
Seriously though, yelling out ‘Winter Guard, Break Them’ while looking like Ivan Drago in human form? Awesome.
He smashed a monkey out of the air, roared in annoyance when some plasma bolts hit his furred chest, then raised his tree-bat and turned a gorilla into a pancake while making a shockwave that shook the ground.
A whole lot of monkeys were flying around for the rest of us to fight though. We weren’t in a clearing though. The area was very hilly, with small cliffs, boulders, logs, mud, and high piles of snow. Perfect for us to split up and conquer without getting overwhelmed.
But with the Omnitrix turned off I only had one option to attack with.
Well, I was fighting Warhammer monkeys. Might as well embrace the madness.
I raised my sword and leaped forward with the cry of the Luna Wolves. "Kill for the living! Kill for the dead!"
“Убивай за живых! Убивай за мертвых!” Crimson Dynamo roared in agreement, rushing forward like a ball of lightning surrounding a dangerous power core.
“▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅” was Mikhail’s wordless roar.
Our two groups charged each other with death in our eyes.
Lifted twenty feet into the air by my jump jets, I came down sword point and boots first. I hit a flying chimpanzee like a meteor, my sword slicing through its chest with all my weight behind the blow. The chimpanzee roared angrily as we hit the ground, punching me in the chest. Thank god for my armor, because chimpanzees are insanely strong.
I raised my sword and slashed out like Nat had taught me, cutting the chimps head off.
A gorilla rushed me, only for Creel to grab it in a full nelson. Fantasma dropped down alongside me, holding her magic sword. With a shout, we slashed the gorilla on the chest, making an ‘X’ symbol across its chest and destroying it.
“Thanks!” Creel barked.
Fantasma and I shared a grin with Creel. He tossed the broken machine ape aside and punched another in the face, brawling with it. Fantasma flew to join Mikhail, and I leaped into the air again, slicing one of the baby monkeys out of the air.
As I dropped, I passed by Skye. Both of us hit the ground together near a servitor. Before it could shoot us, I sliced off its plasma arm. The creature tried to attack us with its actual hand, but Skye lashed out with a plasma palm strike, the heated attack tearing through the servitor's chest with fire and force.
“That is so badass!” I shouted.
“Right?” Skye said in exhaustion.
A gorilla dropped in between us, sending us both stumbling. He swung his left arm cannon at me, forcing me to duck. When he swung again I blocked the blow, only to shout at the pain. Yeah, big mistake trying to block a superpowered gorilla with metal limbs with a sword. My armor’s servos whined as they took the immense blow, my arms feeling as though they were about to break.
Then a giant red hand wrapped around the gorilla's green orb thing, squeezing and pulling hard. In a pulse of energy, the orb was pulled out of the gorilla’s back. As it whined in pain, Dynamo slid around to join me.
In that weird moment of synchronized thought, she blasted out electricity while I stabbed the gorilla in the chest, ripping the damn thing to pieces.
“BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!” I roared angrily.
“...too much,” Dynamo said.
“Yeah, I felt it,” I said with a wince.
“Still cool.”
Then I was getting attacked again, and Dynamo was blasting the monkeys/apes back. I backpedaled while slicing and blocking, my armor getting blasted bit my bit. A monkey/ape slashed and shot at me as well and a gorilla was rushing me. I used a chopping move Nat had apparently learned from the Red Room to cut a chimp head off, and kicked the other back, sending it flying.
I stumbled on a rock. “Oh fuck!” I shouted as my back hit the forest floor. The gorilla roared and rushed toward me. I crawled backward as it raised its arm-
Tree. A sudden tree slamming down from heaven, smashing the gorilla down to plant itself into the earth. Ursa Major growled at me with a beary big grin.
"Think green, da?”
I laughed, then spun up to my feet to rush for the next fight. Kraven dropped from the trees, sliced into a monkey with disturbing ease, then jumped back into them. That was the first time I saw him. But the evidence of monkey and ape robots having been sliced apart by more ruthless blades than mine was all over the forest floor. At that point, he dropped next to me.
“May I?” he asked with surprising politeness. Before I knew it, he had taken my sword and confronted a gorilla. He sliced off the green orb from its back, then it’s cannon arm, throwing my sword back to me when he was done. When the gorilla lashed out, he ducked under it and stabbed the gorilla in the heart. The gorilla tried to keep hitting him, so he pulled out his bowie knife, flipped back in the air, and threw his knife, the blade digging into the gorilla servitors brain right between the eyes.
“Thank you,” Kraven said with a savage smile. “I needed the extra length.”
“There’s a dirty joke in there somewhere,” I mumbled while he disappeared again.
I landed in the center of our little group, where Coulson, Fitz, Simmons, May, and Vanguard were fighting. “They aren’t running out of people, or robots or monkeys or whatever!” I panted. A monkey got on my back, claws tearing at my armor, the pressure hurting me from its immense strength. I reached back and wrapped my fingers around its tiny head. As the screeching baby monkey flared metal claws and fangs, I tossed it to the ground and stomped down on it twice, bone and metal crunching under my boot.
“We must gather!” Vanguard blocked a plasma bolt on his shield, then spun to toss it at the offending monkey. I found myself dueling a chimpanzee in claw to sword combat but I could still hear and see what was happening to the others.
“The servos!” Fitz shouted when a gorilla rushed toward May. “Left arm, just under the armpit!”
With incredible accuracy, May shot the gorilla three times where Fitz had indicated. The green glow of the left arm cannon faded immediately. The gorilla, not the least bit discouraged (since, ya know, half-robot, half-badass jungle animal), continued to rush forward.
“On the back, the power couplings, they should look like silver quarters!” Fitz shouted shakily.
May didn’t respond verbally. She simply lowered her pistol and waited calmly as hundreds of pounds of enraged super ape rushed toward her. At the last minute, the gorilla was about to tackle her. She jumped up, placed a boot on his shoulder, and flipped over the gorilla. In mid-air, she fired at the power couplings Fitz had indicated. The gorilla shuddered in place, unable to move as electricity was diverted from machinery to flesh. May did a finisher with a few more shots to the head before she ran out of bullets.
“This doesn’t make sense!” Simmons shouted from where she was ducked next to Coulson. “These are too weak!”
“We’re being outnumbered and maybe overwhelmed, and you want these things to be stronger?” Coulson asked incredulously.
“The gorillas are powerful, but the flying monkeys are only really dangerous to us because of their numbers!” Simmons yelled.
“This job leads to a lot of weird sentences,” Coulson noted.
“But the servitors we had in autopsy were much more formidable!”
“What are you saying!?” Vanguard shouted.
“This might just be Kragoff trying to drown us in numbers, with the real forces elsewhere!” Simmons ducked under a plasma shot with a squeal. I ran for the monkey that had attacked her, taking a plasma shot to my chest before slicing him out of the air.
“Then we have to finish this,” Coulson declared.
“I can do it!” Fantasma flew up to us. “If you give me space! I don’t want to accidentally hit anyone!”
“Winter Guard to me!” Vanguard agreed.
“Creel!” I shouted.
My best friend was holding a gorilla in the air, forcing the cyborg to fire on his allies. When he heard me, Creel tossed it aside and rushed over.
We gathered around Lola in a circle, still fighting the monkeys. The area became thick with the damn things. Chernobog was the last to join us, the dark god roaring with glee as he smashed cybernetics and flesh to a disgusting paste on the forest floor. I sliced another head off, shouting as I did so. “Now, Fantasma, now!”
She floated above us, waving her arms around her. She spoke. Chenobog shuddered in happiness while the rest of life in the area flinched. The words that left her lips made my limbs weaken, and I blinked heavily when I noticed my vision start to blur.
With a final, caustic word, her eyes glowing purple, she thrust her palms outward. Two things happened.
First, a large circle of violet flowed around us. The monkeys began to beat on it, a gorilla Mikhail had been brawling with getting its arms cut off by the shield and choosing to continue attacking with its fangs.
Then Fantasma spread her arms out, eyes trailing purple energy, sparks coming to life around us. “Burn, all of you.”
With that, a skull rose in front of us. A violet one, surrounded by flames. I can leave it at that, at just that generic description.
But something about this thing… Chernobog was laughing. My heartbeat rang in my ears. I felt like I was seconds from death.
The servitors began to burn as the skull floated there. Purple flames erupted around us all, using the flesh around it as fuel. The skull just… stood there. It looked serious, somehow. Less like the grinning smiles of fiction, more like the imposing image of a judge laying down a sentence. A demon of hell, making it’s sentence known.
I was reminded of Ghost Rider. Of what I thought he might look like.
And while I watched, every servitor stood still. Slowly, they turned to ashes. Even metal burning in violet fire. And the wisps of white? The souls Chernobog had been eating. They ignited.
“Beautiful,” Chernobog whispered. He held a hand out reverently, pushing it through the purple shield. His hand began to burn. He twisted it slowly. His smile was gentle. “So beautiful.”
The fires faded away. The skull slowly floated to look at us. Eyeless orbs panned over us, as though trying to discern if we too deserved our enemies fate. Deep within those orbs, I could see a pinpoint of red.
Maybe, if I looked closer… Chernobog was right, it was sort of beautiful. Maybe a closer loo-
“Enough,” Fantasma clenched her fists. Slowly, the skull faded away before us.
When it was gone, the shield fell. “Wha-” Fitz stopped speaking, then shook his head. “What was that?”
“Magic,” I whispered.
“There’s no-” he stopped speaking again, eyes roaming the landscape of purple fire.
Above us, Fantasma’s eyes closed as the purple fires around us and the energy around her faded. She fell out of the sky.
Massive bear arms caught her, holding her close. Mikhail looked down at her as he slowly lost his fur, his human form revealing itself as he gently clutched Fantasma’s unconscious form. “Good work, lastachka,” he said softly.
“That was…” Skye gulped, looking about the battlefield. “Crazy.”
“But it exhausts her of most of her energy,” Vanguard said, looking on with concern as Mikhail held her.
“She’ll be all right, she just needs a break,” Mikhail had stopped shrinking, now left shirtless with torn up pants ala the Hulk. Which made sense.
“She can rest,” Coulson said, eyeing Mikhail. “In the meantime, mind explaining anything?”
Mikhail winced. “Well… I suppose I have a few things-”
We all stopped when a buzzing sound filled the air. All of us turned to see another Servitor fly in. May and I stepped forward side by side, as did everyone else, all of us brandishing weapons as a group. The thing came to stop in front of us. It had no weapons or claws. It looked like an orangutan with wings and a… really?
“You had to keep upping the crazy?” I asked.
The image of Ivan Kragoff stared out at us from a screen embedded in the belly of the thing. He smirked.
“Impressive, isn’t it? Allows for long-range communication on the battlefield between a general and his forces.”
“So does a cell phone,” Skye noted.
Kragoff scoffed dismissively. Then he narrowed his eyes. “I give you this one chance, Winter Guard. As daughters and sons of the motherland, you must understand that I do this for you, for all of us! And yet, here you are, working for the Americans to attack me?”
“I’m British,” Simmons cut him off.
“Scottish,” Fitz added.
“Yeah, and we work for the United Nations, not America,” Coulson explained further.
“You are all enemies of Russia,” Kragoff swung an arm out, tossing things aside. “You wish to keep her weak and defenseless! Keep from the greatness she deserves!”
“Yay, logic isn’t working…” I mumbled.
“Does it ever?” May said to my right.
“Speak, now!” Mikhail barked, striding forward while clutching Fantasma.
“One chance,” Kragoff snarled. “One chance to simply walk away. Leave the Americans behind. Go to your leaders and tell them of what I do for our people. That we must use my creations, for the betterment of all! Without depending on,” here he eyed Fantasma and Chernobog. “Foul magics and disgusting false gods,” he looked at me. “Or alien monstrosities.”
Chernobog smiled. “Oh? How funny. I was worshipped by the Slavs of old. I’m the most Russian one here. Though I suppose I should thank you for the meal.”
Kragoff snarled angrily, the orangutan carrying his screen shuddering. “Make your decision. Russia, or death.”
Vanguard shook his head. “We will come for you. And you will pay for what you’ve done.”
“So we’re agreed that we’re kicking his ass then,” Creel said, crossing his arms over his barrel chest.
“Not if you want to live,” Kragoff’s face faded to reveal an image of a small town. A village, really. “As a Soviet scientist, I was privy to many of our bases. Most have been abandoned, leaving only their remains. Remains an intelligent man could use to his advantage,” he smirked as the camera zoomed in across the cold landscape, slowly coming in on a place that looked… well, military. Stone bunkers, lots of helicopters and tanks destroyed by the decades of ice and wind over time. The camera slowly panned in until we were entering a base, and then quickly, to quickly to be natural, the footage stopped in what looked like the bottom room of the place, a big room covered in snow with dozens of seats around a big central space, like a round amphitheater. In the center was-
“Oh, you fucking asshole,” Creel said, dumbfounded.
It was big, and ugly, covered in pipes, with lots of wires, a series of lights on it. And a single symbol resting on it. The symbol for radioactivity.
“You made a nuke!” I shouted in shock. “Dude, what the hell!?”
“Silence!” Kragoff shouted. “This is a necessity! If you don’t follow my demands, the nuke will detonate on a timer, killing millions in the surrounding cities and villages,” the camera flipped to show a group of servitors. They were flying, running, and a couple were in cars driven by robotic skeletons. “We will be attacking another base, to prove once and for all the strength of my army. If you interfere in any way, I will not tell you where the bomb is. It will go off, without you there to stop it,” Kragoff narrowed his eyes. “Make the smart decision. Or see the death of millions. Your choice.”
The screen turned off, and the orangutan tried to fly off. Until Chernobog leaped forward and grabbed it out of the air. “No. I’m going to need you soon,” the dark shadow said simply.
Coulson looked over at Skye. “So, you got the coordinates?”
“Yep!” Skye chirped. “Guy really loves to talk, so I had plenty of time to trace the connection, and the software used the video he sent to figure out the other locations.”
Mikhail blinked, before looking over at Crimson Dynamo. “Can your armor do that?”
“It will,” somehow she managed to combine impressed and determined in one sentence.
“In the meantime, we have three objectives,” Vanguard growled. He hopped up on top of a log and looked down at us. “The plan hasn’t changed. May, Mikhail, and I had anticipated needing to split up, and I believe we have the best plan. Galina, you said you were working on a counter?”
“Yes,” Galina stepped forward. “Fitz, Simmons, and Skye were all working with me on a virus that would cause the cybernetics within the servitors to react violently to their biological components. If we can get to Kragoff, we can upload it directly to all the servitors.”
“Then that is team Alpha’s job,” Vanguard said firmly. “Coulson, May, Kraven, Galina, Skye, and Fitz-Simmons will head to Kragoff’s location. Team Beta will be stopping the servitor army attacking the base. We need enough powered forces to stop them, so Dial-”
“I think I should head to the bomb,” I interrupted. “My tech form, Jury Rigg, can disable the thing in seconds, even use it to make something that will help people.”
Vanguard bit his lip, then nodded. “Very well. Mikhail,” he hesitated, then reluctantly continued, Creel, and I will intercept the army. Coulson, I will need to borrow your flying car.”
“...Damn it,” Coulson said, pulling out his key and tossing it. “Fine, but if you scratch it, you’re paying for it.”
We all looked at Lola. Her fender fell to the ground, and some sections where plasma bolts had melted the sides smoldered. The poor girl had had better days.
“Well, scratch it more,” Coulson amended sadly.
Vanguard sighed, then continued. “We need someone to defend Fantasma-”
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“No need,” Chernobog walked over to Mikhail, still holding the struggling orangutan in his right fist. “I’ll take care of this little problem myself,” he said with bared teeth.
Mikhail watched him, clutching Fantasma protectively. “If you hurt her-”
Chernobog chuckled. “Wouldn’t dream of it. For such a wonderful display, summoning even a portion of that creature? The little lady deserves to partake. And to be honest, I’m too bloated for another delicious bite,” as we watched, he reached for the ape in his hand. The poor thing stared at it curiously. His clawed fingers dug into its chest as though diving through water. It screamed.
With a single pull, a wailing spirit was held in Chernobog’s left hand, the orangutan going limp in his right.
He twisted the soul in his hands as we all watched in horrified curiosity, then slowly moved his hand over Fantasma’s lips. She breathed in. The spirit entered her mouth and nostrils in a stream of white. “There she goes. Should have a fruity flavor, like apples,” Chernobog chuckled.
“I wish my scanner wasn’t broken,” Fitz whispered. “I need to know the science behind this.”
“Oh, it is science,” Chernobog whispered back, eyeing Fitz. “Ancient, with an understanding of the energies of the world. Few study this anymore. But there is power here. Forgotten power and pretty damn cool power.”
Fantasma’s eyes snapped open, the entirety of them glowing shades of purple, switching between them. She breathed in again, then looked around at us, settling on Mikhail. “W-What happened?”
“You saved our asses,” I said, getting a look from her. “Thanks, Fantasma.”
She sighed in relief. Mikhail slowly lowered her down and she primly flipped her hair. “Well. It is my job, after all.”
Vanguard smirked. “I’m glad. Because I have one more,” he pointed to each of us. “ Team Omega is Fantasma, Chernobog, and Dial. You will leave together to stop the nuke. He will most likely have defense.
We will need Chernobog to absorb the radiation in case this ‘Jury Rigg’ fails, while Fantasma will aid you in the offensive.”
“Nuke?” Fantasma asked, stunned.
“I’ll tell you on the way,” I promised. “You were kind of out of it before Chernobog fed you a monkey soul.”
“He did what!?” Fantasma said, giving the grinning darkness a shocked look.
“Well, ape soul, technically,” I noted with a frown.
“Only the energy,” Chernobog explained. “Soul food ain’t good for mortals.”
“You fed me a monkey!?” Fantasma shouted angrily.
“You have your missions,” Vanguard said, cutting us all off. “Skye?”
“Here,” Skye brought up a map of the area on a hologram. “Dial and Creel should already have these in their armor and gauntlet.”
My HUD did indeed show our targets.
“Then you have your assignments,” Vanguard snapped his arm out. “Go!”
------
Running across the snow and leaping around with the jumpjets was slower than flying, but not by much. If I could, I would have turned to Fasttrack or Astrodactyl, but I didn’t want to risk running out of time on the Omnitrix mid-battle. Better to change before a fight, when I could do the most good.
We didn’t really talk during our journey beyond me taking time to explain everything Kragoff had told us to Fantasma. Fantasma and Chernobog flew above me, forcing me to push my armor as hard as I could, catoms expanding and contracting like muscles to let me, if not catch up with them, then at least not slow them down too much.
We reached the village that we’d seen from the video. Coming to a stop, Chernobog and Fantasma floated to my left and right as I rested my sword on my shoulder. We probably looked like something out of a fantasy RPG, a demon, a wizard, and a knight in black and green armor standing together on a hill.
The village was just three apartment buildings and a small section that looked like it had been one of those little sections set aside for stores and such. I eyed the military base in the distance. “Okay. Those who think this guy actually left a bomb unguarded, raise your hands.”
“Suckers bet,” Chernobog growled. Fantasma nodded as well.
“Okay then. In that case, we play this… damnit,” I shook my head. “No, we can’t wait. It’s a nuke. We need to take care of it before the others meet Kragoff and he decides to just detonate it with a suicide mandrill or something.”
“Agreed,” Fantasma said, floating down toward the village. Chernobog and I followed, the three of us making our way to the center. I tried not to show how exhausted I was.
Running here was bad enough. But the combat before had been worse. Like cardio on fast forward combined with stress and delirium. I was panting, my muscles were sore, and I was basically running on adrenaline. But there was a nuke. If it went off, innocent people would die. That just wasn’t going to happen. I’d seen enough death in Rio.
“Just one thing,” I raised a hand to my ear, activating the quantum comm unit I’d made all those months ago. “Team Omega, about to attack. Should we go for it?”
Creel came on. “This is Team Beta, Vanguard is wondering the same thing.”
For a moment, all was quiet. Then Coulson came on. “Team Alpha is ready. Let's do this.”
With a look at each other, we attacked.
As we dived down toward the village, they began to pour out of the buildings. Servitors. Dozens of them, coming from the windows of the apartment buildings, the entrances on the bottom floor, and off the roofs.
I flipped the Omnitrix open as I ran, changing through my menu. Most any alien would have been effective, but I decided to use someone new. With a push, my body changed in a millisecond.
Brown human skin became orange, with the consistency of stone. My feet became two toed, and my hands became four fingered. I gained a couple feet in height and hell of a lot of pounds of rocklike muscle. My ears became pointed, my face widened, and my beard flowed to join my hair and become dark brown instead of black. Black armor covered my torso and waist, a Roman-style skirt surrounding my waist.
“Grendel!” I shouted out as I slammed into the ground. With that cry, I roared, feeling energy fill my body like a shot of caffeine direct to my heart. “Let’s do this!”
“Ah man,” Chernobog grumbled. “He can turn into a troll.”
A plasma shot hit me in the head. I blinked at the bright green light that followed, then wiped off the remains of plasma. I smiled a fang-filled smile. “Didn’t hurt…”
More shots hit me, over and over. I roared in happiness, jumping towards a group of servitors. “Doesn’t hurt, bitches!”
What a rush. I could feel that I wasn’t as powerful as Four Arms or even Rath. But I wasdurable. With the confidence that brought, I landed in the middle of a pack of servitors.
These ones were different, somehow. They were all more human in appearance, with little to no fur, and more recognizable features. One leaped on top of me, grabbing the fur on my chest and stabbing claws at me. I snarled, grabbing him up. Stronger than the others, he seemed to pull at me. I ripped him off anyways, tossed him to the ground, and stomped on his head.
The earth spoke behind me, warning of an attack. I spun around, grabbing a fist as it was thrown at me.
The gorilla, much bigger than his counterparts from earlier, struggled against my grip. When he threw another punch, I grabbed this one, then wrestled him briefly. Just like Steve had taught me, I dragged him in, twisted him over my hip, then slammed to the ground. Then, just like Nat had taught me, I pressed a foot to his neck and twisted snapping his neck.
Something came out of the sky, surprising the hell out of me as it tackled me to the ground. I laughed with the excitement of the attack, rolling to punch the servitor off of me. I dived back into the group and… I’ll be honest, I ended up losing myself a bit.
I ripped apart another servitor in my hands, took a fist to my face with a grin, brawled with a gorilla just for the fun of it.
The Rock Troll form I got from Ulik apparently had an effect on my brain. Like Rath, I felt it affecting me. But it was so much more insidious than Rath. Rath was like cocaine, hitting me immediately with a rush. Grendel was more like eating a pot brownie. The rush came slowly, filling me until I was burning with it. I punched, kicked, and bit my way through my opponents, laughing.
Someone was yelling at me, but I ignored them favor of continuing to have fun. I clawed at the chest of a servitor, ripping chunks of metal off of it, then uppercutting the thing back. Before I could continue rampaging into the army of monsters, taking punches, claws, and plasma shots without a scratch.
Before I could continue, something happened. The world faded away into smoke, coming together. I blinked as the smoke coalesced into the image of Fantasma in the middle of a red landscape. “Dial, look up and listen dammit!” she shouted with a voice that felt like it was in my brain. Otherwise, the sheer volume would have cracked my eardrums.
The world faded back. I felt a mouth biting down on my arm with immense force, but ignored it to listen to the instruction
“Dial!” When I looked up, Fantasma was above me. “We have a job to do!”
“Ah, let him have his fun!” Chernobog called behind her, eating his way through opponents. His armor was covered in gore and machine oil, the darkness all smiles the whole time.
“Nuke, you idiots!” Fantasma blocked some plasma shots with her shield, then fired back with a magical bolt that slammed an opponent out of the air. “We need to stop the nuke!”
I blinked up at her, finally realizing what she was talking about. “Damn. You’re right,” I smirked. “No need to stop fighting though,” I mused.
With that, I started rampaging again, this time rushing directly into an apartment building. In there, I found what had to be servitors in the double digits, rushing toward me in the hallways. I grinned, flashing fangs before slamming my fists together. “Lets rumble!”
The monkeys in front of me hit me like a wave, five pushing me back. I grunted, grinding my feet on the ground to try and come to a stop, my arms encompassing my opponents. With a shout, I punched one in the face, grabbed another, picked it up, and tossed it into the ceiling, cracking the stone above us. A gorilla joined the mashup. I grabbed by the shoulders and twisted to slam it into the right wall, smashing through the wall. The gorilla, about three feet taller and hundreds of pounds heavier than the ones we’d fought in the forest, spun around as we went through the wall, tossing me through the remains of a bedroom to land in the decrepit kitchen, half covered in mold and snow. I broke apart a drawer and tossed it at the gorilla, then jumped upward, slamming my way through the ceiling.
Once on the next floor, I began to run. Fantasma had been right. We had a job to do. With that in mind, I took a football charge stance and started running.
More plasma bolts hit me, and I could kind of feel them now. Apparently, there was a limit to how durable I was. Good to find out.
I grinned and roared my way down the hallway. I shoved aside another servitor, tackled one to the ground and stomped on its head, grabbed a fluorescent bulb off the floor and stabbed it into the heart of another.
Picking another monkey, I used it as a shield, making my way down the hall with all the speed I had, until anything in my way was tossed aside or trampled on. The sounds of monkeys shrieking filled my ears like a series of explosions, the servitor I’d lifted up scratching at me while firing shot after shot at my face. There was a window at the end of the hall, one of the few intact ones in the entire building.
When I smashed through the window and most of the wall around it, I let out a whoop of joy, the chill air of Russia filling my lungs. Falling down with the servitor beneath me, our impact crushed it under my weight. Crawling to my feet, I kept running, Fantasma and Chernobog just ahead of me. More servitors rushed across the snow, or flew through the air, rushing through the half-destroyed tanks and helicopters around us. I took a massive jump, landing on top of one of the smaller servitors as it crawled on a helicopter. As the former vehicle and current weapon of war were smashed apart under my weight, I grabbed the rusty rotor blade of the helicopter, ripping it off in two sections until I had them in my hands like a pair of blades. Rushing forward, I started slicing through servitors, laughing all while.
“Enjoying yourself?” Chernobog asked laughingly, landing behind me to join in.
“This is just plain fun!” the earth spoke to me again, letting me know to duck an attack. I was finding that my connection to the earth was deeper than just being made of it. I mean, I suppose it made sense for a Rock Troll. Explained how the hell Ulik kept dodging us, if he could sense things on the ground the way I did.
“Come on!” Fantasma said from the door to the massive round bunker. Chernobog and I shared a reluctant look, then ran for the door. “We need to-”
BOOM!
Chernobog and I slammed our shoulders into the metal door in unison, snapping it open. Inside, I could see some stairs leading deeper inside.
“Thank you,” Fantasma said lightly, rushing in after us. She turned back to block the doors with a shield, straining as she held off the small army outside. Dozens of servitors clawed and shot at the violet mandala, and she gritted her teeth. “I can’t hold them off for too long!”
“I got it!” I said, clapping my hands together and rubbing them. “Go!”
Fantasma nodded, then turned. As she did, I jumped up, slamming my fingers deep into the ceiling. With a pull and a push, the entire ceiling began to crumble. I dropped down as the whole thing began to collapse, rushing down the stairs.
“Go, go, GO!” the cave in smashed down over us, forcing us all to book it down as a trio. Fantasma twisted out of the way as I passed her, turning to blast out purple flames from her left hand. They were hot enough that even I could feel it. Hot enough that as it hit the stones falling toward us, the rubble boiled. She grit her teeth and snapped out her other hand with a shout. In a single move, the rubble froze into place, turning it into a rough wall. We all stared at it as the sound of plasma shots and claws impacting stone filled the air above us.
“Won’t hold for long,” Fantasma noted.
“Then we better find the nuke,” I growled.
“Hn,” Chernobog sighed. “This has been just the best day, you guys.”
“...”
No idea what I was supposed to say to that.
------
Director Maria Hill
Hill shook her head, glaring at the woman in front of her, a woman with dyed blonde hair and glasses wearing a black business suit and blue shirt. The blonde was speaking in Russian and sweating slightly. Maria could see why.
Steve and Fury were on either side of her, both wearing casual clothes, Fury glaring at the woman along with Maria, while Steve was more neutral. Though Steve had the benefit of his powerful demeanor to help.
Apparently, that was enough to make the woman panicky. Which meant she was a lapdog, forced to come by with the paperwork and read off the proposal. Which meant the Russians were scared Maria was angry. So the Russian politicians didn't all suddenly have their heads up their asses.
The doors to Maria’s office suddenly opened. The woman squeaked, startled, while Steve, Maria, and Fury sighed in unison.
Tony strode in confidently. He eyed the woman. “Huh. You… are clearly under a lot of stress. You should have a drink.”
With that, he strode up to the bar nearby. “Tony-” Steve was about to say.
“I warned you about this,” Tony said to Fury and Maria.
“About what?” Fury said with a cocked eyebrow.
“Crimson Dynamo,” he poured out a drink as he spoke, walking over to the woman. “I mean, it was bad enough when it was just me and Rhodey, but now that we’ve got so many people running around in the low rent stuff, of course, everyone else is trying to cramp my style. I mean, it was bad enough when they were screwing up all over the world and I had to show it during that trial forever ago.”
“Those poor people,” Steve winced.
“Eh, screw those guys,” Tony passed the woman a glass, the terrified Russian woman taking it gratefully.
“Important thing is that once again, I was right, and once again, true genius goes unappreciated.”
“Tony,” Maria said firmly. “We were in the middle of something. I believe I told you to come when you had something.”
“I do,” Tony walked over to stand behind the desk with Maria. “I read the deal. I say we take it. With some modifications, sure. See, we need more. And I can think of a couple of things we could use,” he tapped at Maria’s desk, bringing up the files in question. Before them, Tony’s ‘revised’ version of the file. “What do you think?”
Maria read it over. Then she nodded. “Fine. I won’t shoot you today.”
“And once again, I survive despite destiny,” Tony chuckled. “By the way, Thor is still raging.”
“Really?” Steve asked, sounding amazed. “He’s been at it since-”
“Since he saw the bad guy from Ferngully rushing around with our lesser selves?” Tony scoffed. “Hell, I’m still surprised you aren’t mad.”
“I don’t really care as much,” Steve said with a raised eyebrow.
The Russian woman sank down in her seat as she started to realize how ignored she was.
“Yeah, well I do,” Tony scowled. “I don’t know who the guy cramping my style is, but I’m tempted to fly over to Russia and have a party.”
“...That doesn’t sound like a threat,” Steve frowned.
“Steve, you’ve seen the kind of chaos I can cause at a good party,” Tony said with a wide grin.
Maria raised a hand, stopping their banter. “This deal will work. If you can meet our own demands, we’ll be able to, if not overlook this, then at least use it to our advantage.”
The Russian woman gulped. “Okay! I will hurry and call!”
“Please do!” Tony said with a grin. “You’ve got a deadline though.”
The unforgiving looks she got had her rushing out of the door.