Bear Necessity (Day One)
Katherine couldn't see anymore.
She wanted to stop crying, but she couldn't. Her tears wouldn't stop.
Not after what happened.
Not after what she did.
The day had started out perfectly. The weather had taken a break from the heat wave that had been hitting the city. It had rained overnight so the air wasn't humid at all. The skies were blue, the birds were singing. It was the perfect day for a trip to the zoo. And since Kathrine worked at the zoo, every day was a perfect day for a trip to the zoo. It started just after 1:30. She knew because she'd been dressed in her heavy waders, just finishing up the sea lion feeding in the central garden. April had been on her best behavior, she was well trained by now, but Katherine usually had to be on the look out in case the 300 plus pound sweetheart decided she wanted to steal some extra fish. The crowds always loved that, but it was bad for her training.
Katherine had just finished answering questions from a class of what looked to be eight year old kids when the sound came. A strange distinctive sound she knew she'd heard before but couldn't place at the time. A repulsor beam. She'd heard it on the news, but it wasn't something she knew by heart. She hadn't heard it enough to make the connection to danger. It sounded almost like a jump cart at a hospital charging up followed by a whoosh. It didn't shout danger like an explosive. She didn't think she needed to run.
She'd walked over to the penguin exhibit. The next feeding wasn't until 2:30, but between the gentoos, the chinstraps, and the king penguins, she needed to start work on the fish pretty much right away.
It was a short walk, and she took her time doing it. She smelled like fish already, so there was no real point in getting in an enclosed space faster than she had to, and the back room with the metal table that opened into the chinstrap exhibit always smelled pretty strongly of fish.
The first indication that something was wrong had been the literal flaming demon that had been launched over the horizon to land in front of her. It was dead, but the fire was still smoldering.
Katherine's heart caught in her chest. Today was the one year anniversary of the one day war. She'd seen it when she checked the news on her phone on the train ride into The City. Was... were they out for revenge?
No. This didn't look at all like the invaders did. This looked like a demon. Maybe it was a new super-villain? Or a superhero? It looked threatening, but then so did Hyperion. It probably wasn't another invasion. Her mind was leaping to all the wrong conclusions.
The second indication that something was wrong was the literal fire breathing demon that attacked the 4-D theater, blowing up the Delacorte clock.
Katherine dashed into the Penguin exhibit and locked the door behind her. She needed to get into shelter. That was the plan that the zoo had for most disasters. Shelter in place. Anything big enough to hit the middle of Manhattan was either something you could outlast, or not something you could outrun. The superheroes would be here soon. They'd stop this. Everything would be okay.
She waited, huddled in the room for a minute. The walls were thick. She couldn't hear what was going on outside. The nervousness ate at her. Eventually she started preparing the fish for the chinstraps. It needed to be done, and if the world was being invaded by demons, literal demons, then there was nothing she could do to stop it. Leaving the building would only make her a target.
Katherine's curiosity wouldn't let her stay. The building was empty. She looked outside and her heart froze.
Fire.
The demons were gone, but the zoo was on fire. And the walls all around the park were now taller than the trees around her! Taller than the zoo buildings!
There were corpses everywhere. Children torn apart by claws. Police officers burned, to the point where if it weren't for the belts on their waists Katherine wasn't sure if she'd be able to tell if they were police officers.
Shelter in place had worked, but Shelter in place wasn't a plan for fire.
Everyone hated the plans for fire.
You could grab some of the animals to evacuate them. Small ones. The penguins. Not the sea lions, certainly, but the Red Pandas, and maybe some of the lizards and Lemurs in the Tropic Zone Exhibit. Grab them and carry them by hand to one of the other affiliated zoos in the city. The Bronx Zoo had the most room, so that had always been the go to when they went over the plan.
It was messy, grabbing whatever animals you could and then booking it, but that wasn't why everyone hated the plans for fires.
Bending down, Katherine picked up one of the dead officers' guns.
The where the entrance to the park at the south was, Katherine could see the giant rocks and cars. They were sealed in. Trying to evacuate wasn't going to work. That left the other part of the plan.
Carefully, Katherine made her way west, hugging the side of the the penguin house. The gun felt familiar in her hand. She's handled them before, growing up in Texas, before she moved to New York. She undid the safety, well aware that the weapon in her hand was ludicrously under-powered for what she needed to do.
The Plexiglas barrier keeping the enclosure separate from the rest of the zoo was shattered and melted. The informational poster on the wall was burning merrily, noxious black smoke issuing from it.
Katherine didn't know if the tears in her eyes were from the smoke or from what she knew she had to do.
Small animals could be evacuated, big animals could not, and certain animals? Well, they had to stand close and make sure they weren't let out of their enclosures. And if they were?
There was a reason that Katherine had grabbed the gun.
The enclosure was occupied, but that didn't bring Katherine any relief.
On any normal day the exhibit in front of her housed two adult female grizzly bears, Betty and Veronica. Grizzlies could live for almost forty five years in zoos and the pair had only been rescued and brought to the zoo in '95.
Today? There was only one bear left.
Betty stood slumped over Veronica's body; she was bleeding heavily and one of her back legs couldn't support her weight.
Katherine raised her gun; both hands steady, legs spread shoulder width apart.
The wound might be survivable. They had excellent veterinary care in the Bronx. ... But the exhibit was open, and an animal was never more dangerous than when it was wounded.
Katherine's training was clear. There were some animals that couldn't get free; and with the park sealed off, help wasn't coming. Maybe Tony Stark could evacuate a wounded Grizzly Bear across half the city, but she couldn't. Betty weighed about six hundred pounds, if she encountered anyone else in this state? They wouldn't survive.
There was no choice.
CRACK
The gun was unfathomably loud as it jerked in Katherine's hands. She could see Betty's head jerk back as the shot hit home, but she couldn't take any chances. A six hundred pound bear could survive things that a human couldn't.
CRACKCRACKCRACKCRACK
Betty fell, lifeless on the rocks, one eye looking straight at her in what Katherine swore was a look of betrayal.
Katherine collapsed to her knees.
It had to be done.
The tears started to flow.
Katherine couldn't see anymore. Not after what she had done.
By Solusandra
Defending Parents (Day One to Three)
Clair Temple studiously ignored the moans of pain and cries of loss around her as she worked to stitch up a gash on her latest patient. The kids from Columbia University had gotten away largely unscathed from the demon attack that hit the campus due to the timely intervention of Titan Solutions and their 'heroines' Lady Juggernaut and Jessica Jones, or Bia and Theia as the media were calling them, deities of Force and Sky.
"I'm guessing that internship and Landman and Zach's is probably a bust..." She looked down from the wound she was sewing closed to the patients eyes. His long hair had needed to be cut away for the 'operation' and charred ashen flesh scrapped off so it wouldn't infect the closed wound.
"Yeah?" she asked absently. "Classy place. If you could get an internship there, you could in most firms" she told the man. Distraction worked almost as well as anesthetic when you were running low, which this clinic was. Keep them talking, her nursing instructors had told her often enough. They don't notice the pain when they're unloading their problems on you. At least, so long as they don't move.
"Yeah, me and Matt. We were supposed to start at the end of the semester." He gestured up to the TV in the corner, showing the Avengers mowing down demons as they fought to move the line of containment back to the boarders of Central Park. "But that building, oh, its gone now. Just as well. It was depressing to look at."
"Everything's depressing when your world falls apart," she replied, tying off the thread. "Best form of prozac is a mission. You and... Matt, were going to become big-shot lawyers?" the black-Hispanic girl shrugs. "Lots of legal work to clean up after this mess. Any idea who's left standing?"
"Lots of little guys. Matt and I were planning to start our own place and help out the little guy in Hells Kitchen after we proved ourselves as Partners and made some seed money and reputation."
The nurse smiled. It was always nice to know she'd helped patch up a good soul rather than the usual thug. "And Matt?"
The man looked around, stretching right and left as he did so. "I don't know. He was supposed to be here with me. We were discussing the merits of which way to go. Foggy and Murdoc, avocados at law... heh."
~! #$%^&*()_+
Coleen Wing ducked below a flaming limb covered in claws, her eyes hard and sword coiled back to strike. Her opponent would not recover it's balance for the backhand though as she surged forward to stab her Katana through it's neck. Behind her rung the gong and hum of her surprise partner with his 'staff'. The blind man had saved her from a rogue pack of demons with a stop sign of all things, using the torn metal first as an axe and then as a staff, giving her some much needed breathing room. She had no idea how the man did it, but he moved with her in almost perfect sync, covering her back and acting as distraction while she slew the raging hell beasts.
Blood soaked her hands, burning slightly as the creature fell to the ground, felled by her strike. Wrenching the sword out, she met the blind man back to back, and they shifted positions, as her smoking blade went to work on their next opponent. The pair of them flowed and struck holding off three attackers across the street from the fallback clinic as though they were part of a dancing team, and for just a moment, she let herself go, giving into the rhythm.
Then the blind man slammed into her back, his arms going wide as the pole was sliced in half by a blow.
As he fell though, her... partner(?) slammed the sharp shattered end into the forehead of the monster she had been whittling down. The flames died out in a fountain of blood and she recovered her own fall by bringing down her blade on the elbow joint of the fourth demon. Two and a half down, one and a half to go. Then Stark Drones flew by, destroying their remaining opponents with brilliant beams of force.
The pair slumped to the ground, side by side against the alley wall, breathing heavily.
"You alright?" Colleen asked.
"Yeah, you?"
She laughed, slightly hysteric. "Yeah. For the first time in a couple of years, yeah." She twists around and offers him her hand. "Colleen Wing, Kendo instructor."
He laughed. "Matt Murdoc, Law student."
She snorts. "Where does a blind law student learn to fight like that?" she asked, expecting a story similar to hers.
"When I was a kid, I lost my sight due to a chemical spill." he explained. "But it made my ears so sensitive I could hear a conversation down the block during rush hour. An old man taught me how to quiet my mind and use the sound like a radar. Echo-locating like a bat."
Colleen stiffened. "Your hearts beating erratically." Matt said. "You recognize him?"
"Probably Stick," she replied, starting the control exercises Bakuto had taught her so long ago.
"You know him?" Matt asked, pulling himself up and offering her a hand. "Perhaps you could deliver a message then?"
"I'd... rather not" she replied, cagily, "we're not on the best of terms."
"Abandoned you too, huh?" the man who was apparently not Chaste said, oblivious. "Ah well, I was just going to rant at him anyway. Tell him I was making something of my life despite him."
Colleen took his bloody hand in hers and... they glowed. The light was the same color as the demons flame but Matt didn't seem to notice. She squeezed as she allowed herself to be pulled to her feet and their hands ignited into flame. She could feel it in her chi, acting... not right, but Matt didn't even seem to notice. It felt like... rage and fear. But the rage wasn't hers, only the fear. They they let go and both light and fire died.
"Come on, let's get to the clinic. Not much we can do in this fight. Pack of four just about killed us, and from what I hear they usually swarm higher than that."
She huffed. "Then why are you out here?"
"Saving damsels in distress, you?" He asked, teasing in his tone.
She grinned. "Taking out anger issues as I run for my life." She sighs and looks toward the impromptu clinic. "And looking after my students. They only had bokken. I lost three."
"Well, you got the rest out, that's what counts."
With that, the pair of them walked towards the clinic, the asian girl trying to reignite her hands to only minimal effect. This would not be their last battle against the forces of hell as the city was evacuated.
~! #$%^&*()_+
Above the pair, another figure flew through the alley. The blind man was right, the demons usually swarmed in numbers much higher than four. This group had been accompanied by a flock of burning skeletal fliers. Alisa had only stopped to help them because she had shied away from sight of her daughter. The moment she had seen her little girl on the news, she had taken unsteadily to the air, a feeling of power that had given her such calm since first seeing Jessica on the television only a year ago.
But even the joy of the air wasn't able to sooth her passions this time. She had crushed the skulls of those fliers by tearing off a fire escape and swinging it around like a club and the tunnel vision had taken her again. It was the same reason she had backed off from seeing Jessica last time, after the One Day War. She was too volatile. The first time she'd tried, she'd tried to beat one of the Othyrs Guardsmen to death for denying her entry to 'temple'. The man, Charon's, own enhancements and the words of Dr Malus had saved him from her rage; but now she was almost afraid she'd harm her own pregnant daughter if she got too close.
But not afraid enough to back off entirely...
She needed sleep. She needed to calm down. She needed to see her daughter in person. To fight beside her. To protect her and her granddaughter like only a mother could.
~! #$%^&*()_+
Day 3.
Calvin Zabo hit replay on the youtube video for the 14 time. As the clip started, he stared hungerly at the screen. A girl in a black catsuit with silver gauntlets took a hit from a rocky volcanic man straight to the face, but instead of dying, the burning rocks of his arm sprayed across the grounds of the university, starting small fires everywhere. As the dust cleared, she stepped forward and kicked the magma gollum in the crotch, causing it to explode upwards in a fountain of fire.
Then the video became too shaky to see as the amateur videographer lost his grip on the Titan-tech phone. He hit replay and watched it again.
It was Daisy. It was his little girl... She was just as he'd imagined her for all the years of his search. Jaiying's face, but his nose and eyes. Her long hair unbound, her form athletic. She was perfect... and she had his savage side.
She had also awakened her powers. Which meant that Jaiying had probably found her. Calvin frowned and tried not to let his rage overwhelm him as he thought about what that meant. The effort was aided by intense feelings of shame. He had taken too long to find her. Of course Jaiying had not told him. He had failed her. Just as he had failed their daughter. The girl was obviously afterlife's spy in Titan Solutions. The nature of the organization allowed her to show off her powers in full display, and the might of Hyperion protected her...
But she was also in danger. How could the mad titan let his daisy out into a war-zone!? And why was he not there at her side!?
Breathe... Breathe, Calvin... Best not to fly off the handles at your daughters boss. Whatever his reasons, he could crush you like a bug with your meager enhancements and not let you see your daughter...
Yes. To see Daisy... He would go there now. He may not be of much use to her in this situation, but he was strong and good with guns, espionage and acting. He would help her, gain her trust, get into Othyrs, and then he would reveal himself. It would be a tearful reunion, and one long overdue. Yes. That was how it would go. And he'd have a long train trip to Iron out the details.
And perhaps call his wife, if he wasn't too hurt by then.
By Solusandra
Delivering Punishment (Day Three to Six)
"Leave is canceled, boys! We're being called home."
William Russo looked up from his bunk in the... you could hardly call this tent a barracks, but he had no better word for it. "You're serious Major? We've only been in operation a month. I thought this new Unit was important."
"It is." Major Schoonover replied, in his command voice. "Or it was, until three days ago. The CIA Liason running this mission, Agent Orange, has died in New York, along with another forty agents of the bureau during an all hands situation. But that hardly matters."
"Couldn't a happened to a finer piece of shit." a voice called from the back of the unit.
Schoonover glared at them and barked "stow that, Gunner. Have some respect for the dead. You're about to see plenty of them!" He turns back to the rest of the unit. "Three days ago the anniversary celebration of the one day war drew crowds to the big apple. I'm told the reconstruction by Stark and Hyperions pissing contest was a sight to behold." He drew in a massive sigh. "Unfortunately, it seems the day was significant in another manner. Another portal opened, this time spewing aliens that likely spawned the myths of Hell. Their entry point, rather than Stark Tower, was the Central Park Zoo. You boys are being tapped now for the same reason you were tapped for Cerberus. You're the best of the best, and we're mobile. I want this barraks broken down in 3 and ready for extraction in 4. Any Questions? No? Heave to!"
"Shit,.. shit, man..." the teams co-leader Frank Castle, paced beside his rack. "Henley, you still got that contraband sat phone?"
"Yeah, man, just... don't freak out. Lots of us got family went to that shindig. Major'll give us shit if..."
"I don't CARE! Hand it over!"
The soldier, built like a wall, stared down the much smaller frank for all of 10 seconds before lifting his foot and removing the false heel. "We gotta get to work, if they don't answer, don't panic. Could be lotsa reasons, chief."
Franks family didn't answer.
Four hours later, they were on a modified Hercules picking up another unit, and word came through that another portal had opened, unleashing the imagination of H. P. Lovecraft. Of everybody on the modified supersonic transport, only Frank appeared calm.
The icy calm of winter. The calm before the storm.
Day 6.
Frank Castle and Billy Russo stood on the battlements around Central Park, special forces from all the militaries branches spread out around him. Tanks, IFV's and... weirder things provided by Stark and McCole thundered beside them as his unit steadily took pot shots at the milling swarm. The Demons would come in waves mostly, and while concentrated fire from swat could bring most of them down, the one thing that seemed capable of putting them down like it should was the M82 Barrett Anti-material rifle. Frank drilled one that looked like a cross between a gorilla and preying mantis through the eye and watched for a second as the thing screamed and flailed, spewing fire and bladed limbs everywhere.
He'd missed. It was more effective than a clean kill, the demon was doing more damage to it's own pack than a clean kill would have, but the angle had been off and the large depleted uranium round had failed to penetrate. Gritting his teeth, he scanned the attack for a better target before being distracted by a screech from above.
Perfect.
Though the two alien forces seemed to be working together to cause this city nothing but misery, they tended to work cross purposes a lot. This one for instance, the gas bag some of the guys who'd been here longer called it, looked somewhere between a pregnant mosquito and a giant squid, would come around from time to time to spray acid and corruption on the defenders. Even chances you'd melt, burst into flame, become a horrible monstrosity or get black eyes and start shooting your friends. But they were also vulnerable and slow moving. Shoot one and it was liable to explode. Shoot it at the right moment...
He and billy seemed to have the same idea, as they both fired at once, causing the thing to turn into a ball of blue, black and green fire which fell upon the hell beasts burning the burning beings alive. Because of course it did.
Castle heard a click in his headset, "Central Park South, 13 needs resupply, ammo low." Schoonover calls in his ear.
"Ah... got it." comes the nervous reply. Behind Castle, there's a rush of air and then the fat kid is back, Bobby 'whizzer' Coleman. Good kid. Kinda odd. But the, what do you expect from a hero who's too afraid of his own power to fight? He kept everybody supplied though. Moved injured further into the city for medical. Even helped in search and rescue, pulling squads out of tight spaces around the city when some pack escaped the perimeter and it went badly. He'd have to remember the speedster when this was over.
Turning back to the tableau, Frank Castle continued shooting.
Then, the sky fell.
By Solusandra
Slaughter at the Sanctums (Day 5)
The Sanctum was a charnel house. Bodies lay everywhere from a battle than had gone on for most of a day and dragged much of the city of Hong Kong into the fray. The positives, T'Challa decided, was that with Murakami's ninja flooding the battlefield, the Demons were no longer able to invade Hong Kong and London through their connections to the sub-dimensional building in New York, where the fighting was heaviest. The Invasion was focused there, a portal to Hell underneath Central Park, a portal to the Dark Dimension up in the sky above Manhattan. When demons had begun rampaging through what was supposed to have been the Memorial Day of the One Day War, the wizards had gone to battle en masse, leaving only a few defenders to guard the Sanctums.
As they quickly found out, that had been a grave mistake.
All three Sanctums had been simultaneously attacked, and T'Challa had quickly managed to find out who the culprits were. After that horrible night where he had first seen Shuri again, he had spent every waking moment trying to dog Sowande's heels. He had let out an agonised roar of frustration when he later found out that Shuri and Klaue had split from the ancient warlord's groups, but without any other leads or options, T'Challa had been determined to stick as close to Sowande as possible, in the hope that the immortal would eventually group back up with his allies again, leading the Black Panther back towards his sister.
That had lead to a chase across three continents, from the heart of Africa, all the way to Hong Kong, Southern China. It was why he was here in the Hong Kong Sanctum, fighting along Loyalist and Ursurper War Dogs, a sect of ninja warriors called the Chaste, an a section of ninja warriors belonging to Murakami of the Hand, against the demons of Hell, the demons of Dormammu, the terrorists of the Mandarin, and the combined ninja and mercenary forces of Sowande, also of the Hand.
There had been a lot of confused shouting involved before everybody was filled in on who exactly they were supposed to be killing, before the slaughter resumed.
He had received a very brief rundown of the current situation and different sides from an old, blind man who called himself Stick, who had quickly identified the various opposing forces and their respective masters before he had sprinted off into the chaotic melee with a speed that belied his age and disability. Klaue and Shuri were nowhere to be found, however. Either they had gone to the New York Sanctum together (T'Challa tried his best to ignore the thought that his little sister had literally unleashed Hell onto the world, but he wasn't very successful) and the Mandarin to London, as he had only arrived to the battlefield a few days ago, or Shuri and Klaue had split the New York and London Sanctum between them.
Sensing an an attack coming before he even saw it, T'Challa ducked under a gibbering tentacled horror, before unleashing the kinetic energy his suit had been absorbing over the last minute into it's stomach and launching it towards where a trio of Chaste were fighting back to back with Murakami's ninja out of sheer desperation.
The maddening creature splashed across their foes, fighters from the Ten Rings backed up by burning demons from Hell. The demons died as the mixing evil energies tore each other apart. The humans were less fortunate. Some melted, others went up in flame, and the rest turned on each other as dark force and hellfire infected them, driving the terrrorists berserk. The Black Panther and the Hand ninja (those who were tentatively on his side) cut them down while they were distracted before stumbling back, panting. With the most immediate threat ended, the three sides, Chaste, both factions of War Dogs and Murakami's ninja, eyed each other in a tense standoff.
"You help us!" T'chala barked in japanese, "Why?"
"The Master was not happy. Sowande has gone too far: his plans will bring doom to all! Besides, he has something that the Master wants." One of the red robed figures replied, holding his sword out in front of his fellow black clad ninja "We can go back to killing each other when they have resolved their differences."
The man whirled around as two of his followers were impailed from behind. "Yeah, no. I say we kill you now, Nobu." A female voice called out from behind the corpses. The ninja fell to reveal a slender woman with regal features, which Stick had identified as his protege. The unknown woman and the man apparently called Nobu immediately rushed each other, twin Sai meeting Kusari Kama in something approaching either a dance or a blender, T'Challa couldn't tell.
"War dogs!" the panther barked, causing half of the five nearby to stiffen, "Sowande and the Mandarin are still here! Deeper into the Sanctum! FIND THEM!" This time all five acknowledged his order and turned to obey. The two Chaste warriors were about to join Electra against Nobu, but were grabbed by the back of the necks by Wakanda's champion and thrown after the War Dogs. "If what Stick told me is true, then the girl can handle herself. We have bigger problems." The pair of fighters looked at each other, about to break ranks and attack their temporary ally, but T'Challa blurred forward, purple energy crackling over the surface of his suit and the mask flowing up to cover his sunken tired face in an intimidating impersonal mask and they backed off.
"Fine. The Black Sky can fight Nobu on her own. But next time we see him, we take his head, Panther!"
The three of them rushed up the steps, not noticing how Elektra stumbled on hearing their words.
~! #$%^&*()_+
"Yes," Nobu sneered deflecting one of the Sai while turning to the side to dodge another. "You heard your friends correctly. You are the Black Sky. The weapon we have been hunting. The tool that will counter the Iron Fist and allow us to return home."
"Never!" Elektra snarled, increasing the speed of her strikes. Sparks flew and long, thin gashes began to appear on Nobu's skin, despite them moving fast enough that the approaching ninja couldn't even follow them.
"The Black Sky is a bloodline. Rare, and powerful. You are driven to kill. It is easy. You are stronger, faster, your reactions unparalleled, any weapon you touch comes naturally and you strike men down without thought, remorse or being trained to do so. Stick knew this. Stick exploitedthis. After you slaughtered your training camp, he placed you with the Natchios so we could not find you again, reintroducing you to the Chaste only after they had forgotten your deeds."
"Why are you telling me this?!" the woman shrieked, throwing all caution to the wind, simply plowing through his attacks with pure force and raw anger. She landed on top of him, her Sai millimeters from Nobu's wide open eyes.
He smiled, and in his eyes Elektra could see the man accepting his death. "Because we are the Hand. We live and die to serve you, Black Sky." With those words, the circle of Ninja who had entered the room during the fight lowered their weapons and knelt in unison, offering their blades to her.
~! #$%^&*()_+
Stick, three floors up, heard the fight and its conclusion and swore. Sweeping his opponents legs out from under them, Stick extended the Staff of the Living Tribunal, launching himself backwards into the air. Spinning he tried to bring the immense energies of the artefact down on the floor, trying to create a quick route down to his pseudo-daughter, only to be caught in mid air by a telekinetic grip.
From what little he knew from his lessons about the Masters of the Mystic Arts and the powerful artefacts that they so jealously guarded within their enigmatic Sanctums, wielding said artefacts should have been as dangerous to him as it was to their enemies. The various enchanted items had a level of sentience to them: the weapon chose the wielder as much as the wielder chose the weapon.
Most of the artefacts had been taken already anyways during their great offence against the Armies of Hell in New York. That had been nearly five days ago now, and only a handful of wizards had retreated from the battlefield in order to check on the Sanctums. Apparently the situation over there was bad enough that they couldn't be spared in order to retake their precious Sanctums, but as an alternative, the various weapons had almost eagerly jumped into the hands of the defenders, be they Chaste or War Dog.
Not that that really helped him now, Stick noted with mounting frustration, fighting against an invisible hold on his body.
"I think not." a cultured voice intoned darkly. "Electra is exactly where she needs to be, as are you."
It took Stick a few moments to recognise the voice of the one who had him at his mercy.
"Mandarin! I should've known that you'd crawl back to your remaining masters! Begging for scraps again? Desperate for more of their secrets as they keep stringing you along?" The ornery blind martial artist grumped. "Ten oversized pieces of jewelry not enough for you?"
"Well, no, actually." the man replied pleasantly. "But they're more than enough to defeat you." A portal opened behind the Mandarin, probably one of the few remaining wizards here trying to get a sneak attack off. But the descendant of Genghis Khan merely gestured with his hand, blasting through the hole with beams of force and lighting. There was a brief cry of pain from the other side, before the portal snapped shut again, leaving Stick alone in the hallway with the Mandarin. "Shall we continue?"
"Bring it on." Stick spat. Then his milky blue eyes widened and he turned to run again.
"Where ar..." The wall behind the Mandarin exploded.
As Stick made his retreat downstairs, The Mandarin turned, raising his hands as if to shield himself from the flying shards of wood and flame. Where normally this would be a futile effort, one of the rings suddenly shone like a star on his finger with an amber light, covering him with a bubble of pure force.
A dark from impacted against his shield, forcing him back several feet, before it slid off the glowing construct, its misshapen body glowing with lines of fire as its limbs continued to twist and expand. The leader of the Ten Rings swiftly gestured with his hands, and another ring showed with a dark light, which drank in the fire around The Mandarin and flooded the stairwell and the creature with darkness. It didn't seem bothered by the sudden drop in invisibility, merely scrabbling to its twisted feet as it rose above the darkness and screamed. For a moment, man and monster stared each other in the eye, before the creature bellowed fire at him with Sowande's face.
"I see you and Murakami have finished your argument then." the Mandarin commented dryly, the same darkness from before swirling up to swallow the wall of fire whole. "May I ask what prompted this, my Lord?"
From the hole in the wall that (what used to be) Sowande had made, approached a Japanese man in business casual, though his presence was anything but. "I have long been fascinated by the transformation of Alexandra prior to her death. I believe you were there." The man replied in clipped Japanese, twirling an empty syringe between his fingers.
"Ah, yes, the Extremis." He asknowledged, batting aside another burst of flame with a vortex of air. In those frantic moments where the mansion in Malibu went up in flame, with ninja and nazi's battling each other while a half-dragon kept rampaging through the chaos, the Mandarin had only managed to secure a single vial.
As he didn't want to test the volatile serum on himself, but also didn't want to give such power to his underlings, he had kept it a secret from all his allies until he had managed to get into contact with Murakami. Sowande was too warlike and impulsive to be trusted with such power, and the Mandarin had no intention to face such a beast without the Ten Rings to protect him. Murakami, however, was far more level headed and the Mandarin was nothing if not loyal to his Masters.
Whoever his Master was at any given moment could of course chance depending on current (and future) circumstances. For now, allying with Murakami served his interests better than serving under Sowande. "Did you want him to die in a similar manner as Alexandra? Or did you have other plans for our erstwhile leader?" the Mandarin asked with a tight smile which betrayed nothing of his true intentions.
Of course it wouldn't: he was after all a rather brilliant actor.
The asian man grinned in response to his question. "He wasted a great deal of the bone you acquired earlier this year. I felt we needed more. And with McCole blocking Alexandra's Midland Circle project... sacrifices had to be made. Considering his actions have jeopardized the entire world, including me and my forces, this should be a fitting punishment."
A tense silence fell between the two, broken only by the roars and shrieks of Sowande as the mutating man crashed into the walls and floor as he kept being rebuffed by the power of the Mandarin's Ten Rings. Murakami had nearly taken the Mandarin's head when the terrorist leader showed up at his doorstep, with an offer of alliance on his tongue and with a vial of Extremis in his hand. The Mandarin had been forced to quickly shove the blame for the Invasion on Shuri, Klaue and Sowande, stating that he had been forced to bow to Shuri's new gained superior power, and to Sowande's authority over him.
Murakami had accepted that the Mandarin couldn't have acted against the wishes of his Master, but he still felt that the terrorist leader was hiding things from him, and had resolved to not fully trust the Mandarin until he had truly proven his loyalty. Their stare down continued for a few moments until the Mandarin took a half step back, inclining his head in respect.
"I'm certain Sowande would have understood that, given time." The Mandarin replied tactfully, before turning to face Sowande again, this time hitting the growing dragon with a bolt of lightning leaping forth from one hand, and incinerating a Dark Dimension Horror that was forcing its way up the steps with the other. "And what is the status of our relationship?" He asks, his Cloak of Levitation flaring, even though he tried to conceal his tensing for combat.
The effect was somewhat ruined by the jerking, halting motions of the Cloak. For all that it was merely a piece of enchanted fabric, it sure had a strong will of its own and it had made it abundantly clear that it did not like the leader of the Ten Rings. It had even nearly dropped him on more than one occasion!
No matter, he would merely take this as an opportunity to hone the powers over the mind that his Rings had granted him.
The asian man smiled. "Normally it would be a measure of pride to haul my prize away myself, but a dragon... I am no Iron Fist. Not yet... Aid me, and I shall consider your act of loyalty fulfilled."
~! #$%^&*()_+
Stick and T'challa ran into each other, almost literally, within moments of the old man's retreat. "Go downstairs, boy. You don't want anything to do with what's up there."
"Out of my way, Stick." The banished prince growled. "If you intend to break our alliance, do me that favor at least."
Stick huffed, and vaulted over the costumed crusader. "Be my guest, but your sister isn't here anymore, if she ever set foot in this place at all. I think you ought to know that there's a dragon on the loose up there. Might want to keep an eye on that. Men! Sowande's dead and Murakami's out of our reach for the moment. Move out!"
The two Chaste nodded, and quickly followed their commander back to the ground floor. The three of them left wakandan's to sort out their own fracturing peace and took the steps three at a time. Stick felt his heart hammering in his chest as he moved as fast as he was able to. He had to get to Elektra before he lost her and by the sound of it, that wouldn't be long.
God damnit, they'd been WINNING the war! Gao, Bakuto and Reid's branches had all been dismantled, sometimes even before the Chaste had had a chance to act, taken out by an enemy in the shadows whose identity Stick could only guess at. Sowande had been on the run ever since that boy took the throne in Wakanda and started cleaning house all over Africa with his War Dogs, which had finally given the Chaste the opportunity to start pressing Murakami's organization. And then this... disaster completely took everyone by surprise and humanity was left fighting for its survival.
Again.
Except this time, Hyperion was nowhere to be found. Until he came back from wherever the fuck he had buggered off to, it was up to the rest of humanity to beat back the invading demons and close off their advance. This fight was supposed to continue that. Thankfully, with Murakami as the only Finger left that was unopposed by another party, the Chaste had been concentrating their forces within the area when the lunatics had blown up the Sanctums, released Dormammu, let Demons flood New York.
Things were going to shit: Stick would be damned (maybe literally) if he would allow this to go to shit as well and he poured on even more speed as he came to the bottom of the stairs, vaulting over where a terrorist and a War Dog were wrestling each other on the floor, immediately making a sharp left turn the moments his boots met polished marble.
Within moments, Elly was in view. "Don't do it girl!" he called out.
Elektra turned from the bowing asian men and the circle of protection they were holding against the demons, tears in her eyes. "Did you know?"
"Yes," Stick replied, gravely, decreasing his frantic pace to slow heavy footsteps. A creature made of flame and wings tried to descend on him, but he smacked it out of the way with the Tribunal without looking away from Elektra's direction. "So did you, you just didn't want to know."
Elektra began shaking, "It all makes sense. That's why they all hated me. Why everybody hates me... in the end."
"Get that shit out of your head, Elly." He growled. "Remember what I taught you."
"Ignore him, Black Sky. He betrayed you. This is your chance for revenge. Kill him and we will give you everything he never did. Your destiny, your lover and life beyond age or death." Nobu quickly spat over his shoulder, even as he gracefully twisted around a smaller imp-like creature, taking its head off with a single swing.
"He's lying to you, Elly..." Stick countered. "Focus like I taught you, listen to his heart. The Black Sky is an empty vessel, not a person. You go with him, you won't get those things because you won't even care."
"He is jealous of your power. Afraid of what you would do with it. The war is all he lives for. Kill him!"
"SHUT UP! Both of you! I'm not some kid you can order around!" Elektra screamed as she sunk to her knees, clutching her head hard enough that the tips of her fingers turned white.
There was a flash of light and a clap of thunder and the Black Panther came flying down the stairwell over the battlefield, disappearing down an adjacent corridor and a voice rang out.
"Bakuto had some odd ideas over the years, but there is one thing he has always said that I have come to find is true: it's painful raising children. we spend our lives teaching them to be strong, to be independent, not realizing that once we achieve that they are no longer under our control." Murakami strode down the stairs calmly, dragging a twisted and glowing form behind him by the horn while the Mandarin floated above him, two rings glowing like stars on his fingers. "You're right, girl. The choice is yours. The Chaste can no longer control you. They couldn't for quite some time."
The two Chaste that had been following Stick down the stairs, turned around, one of them charging forward with a spear that crackled with lightning while the other drew a bow the glowed with red light, both one of the remaining few artefacts of the Sanctum which had willingly chosen Masters to aid in the defence of their home. Murakami cupped his free free hand in a claw, twisted his stance with sufficient strength to crack the boards underneath his feet and shoved his cupped palm forwards with a barked yell of effort. Struck by his Chi, the fighters were blown back off their feet in a ripple of air. "You know where to find us when you've decided which future you want. Men! Form ranks! We're leaving!"
With that pronouncement the entire battlefield shifted. Murakami's ninja left their positions beside the War Dogs and Chaste against Sowande's mercenaries and the Ten Rings soldiers. But instead of a new frontline forming, Sowande's mercenaries suddenly found themselves bereft of allies rather than reinforced by the turning of the tables as Murakami's ninja quickly moved to stand besides the Mandarin's terrorists. Caught between their Demonic 'allies', the two new alliances and the remaining Masters of the Mystic arts, they were quickly torn apart. The chaos wasn't helped as the wizard tore open portals all over the battlefield at a moments notice as they killed their enemies at moments of opportunity and reclaimed their pilfered artefacts, before closing them just as quickly.
In the middle of the storm of activity, Elektra was undergoing a mental breakdown, and unfortunately for her, there were no attackers for her to focus on. A lone girl, holding her head in the middle of flying blood and undiluted chaos? Only Stick would have had the time to talk to her, and he was engaged in furious combat with Nobu. The ninja would obey his master's wishes and allow the Black Sky to choose her own future, but he refused to let that decision be influenced by his hated enemy. Elektra finally found a direction when the Black Panther brushed roughly past her, shouting for his War Dogs to leave through the New York entrance.
New York. Yes. Matt would be there. Seizing on that thought, Elektra Natchios, the Black Sky, vanished amongst the tumult.
By Stratagemini
A Scenery of Greenery (Day 6)
Samuel Smithers stared. The tree was still there. Still moving. Still... well, not alive? It certainly was alive, but so were most trees. Still sentient?
"I am Groot."
Still talking. That was the thing, wasn't it? Sam had always believed that plants had the potential for sentience, for communication! That's why he'd joined the central park conservatory in the first place; to take care of the plants in the largest man-made park in the city. The world? Probably, the world. The park was bigger than some countries! Monaco came to mind, but there were probably others too... And he got to help tend and protect it! At least, until the invasion. The second invasion, since the one day war didn't actually touch the park.
It made sense, of course. The talking tree that was. The Groot? Were there more of them? Hyperion was known to do genetic engineering. The fire breathing dinosaur that fought in the one day war was proof enough of that. Why wouldn't he make a giant anthropomorphic tree? Sam would, if he had Hyperion's money. He'd been toying with the idea for years, if he was perfectly honest. Not seriously; just... as a thing to do. A Hobby.
Everyone else he'd spoken about his hobby had called it... well, crazy. But... there it was, walking near him, in all it's beautiful flowering, moss-covered glory as it reached out to touch each individual tree with an almost wilted expression on its face as it muttered "I am Groot." to each one.
The fact that it had a face was almost an afterthought to Sam. Of course he'd have a face.
The tree's vocabulary was more puzzling.
"I am Groot."
Why just those three words? Sam had thought that the tree was introducing itself to its fellows, but that wasn't it at all. There was a sadness to it, almost melancholy. There was more to it. It was almost... mourning.
Sam wanted to talk to the Groot, to cheer it up, but... this wasn't the right time. Still, to know that he wasn't alone in his hobby! That a billionaire like Michael McCole shared it! That was... Sam had no idea how to even put the joy that gave him into words!
Maybe... Just maybe it was time to get more serious about his hobby?
AN: Major thanks to both Stratagemini and Solusandra for writing these amazing Interludes! I think that they are really great and integrate well into the story :D The next chapter will be an Interlude from me, where I tackle different POV's such as the Avengers, SHIELD and various members of the world government, trying to show the impact not only of Demons invading, but also of Michael showing just how truly powerful he has become over the years. After that, the Convergence Arc and after that... Thanos. And with Thanos, this story will finally be in its Endgame. Also, check out To Hell and Back Part II! I have done some massive editing on that chapter, so go check it out and let me know if you like it better now! So... yeah, cheers!
All of my thanks and gratitude to my lovely patrons! IronmanMarkIV, justlovereadin, Shaman95, Daniel Dorfman, Carn Krauss, DoctorTortoise, Sam, Thordur Hrafn, DavidJP, ReaperScythe, CJ Elsen, Devon, Khamalpreet Singh, Kyle Reese, RLStrained, Kahn, Vu, Roman Krupkin! Thanks so much!