Back to Gatefold
Issue #5 by A. Crute
Jan 2009 |
"The Greater Good"
The Woods, near The Compound…
The small team of ‘Avengers’ (a very loose definition) stood aghast. One of their own number had just been turned before their eyes into one of the zombie hordes which had swept over America…perhaps the entire world.
Clint Barton AKA Hawkeye the archer of The Avengers and the member of the team the rest were here to save. He could hit a bullseye from a distance that barely anyone else on the planet could match. His hands were shaking so much at the moment he wasn’t sure he would be able to stab himself with an arrow.
Jullian Keller AKA Hellion a young mutant who was a student at the Xavier Academy, since the death of all but the tiny bunch of X-Men he had been upgraded to a fully fledged X-man. He was here trying to prove that he deserved to be such by earning his way in the new group of survivors he had just joined.
Piotr Rasputin AKA Colossus was the second of the X-Men to be part of this cabal of heroes. The massive metal mutant currently found himself trapped in his metal form, if he reverted even for a second then the zombie virus in his system would turn him into one of the monsters he fought. He fought them hard, raging against both them and himself for his failings in saving all those he loved in The X-Men.
Eddie Brock & Symbiote AKA Venom. The psychotic cannibal alien symbiote known as Venom. His inclusion on the team was simply to offer some sort of catharsis so his hunger for human brains could be satisfied on the zombie masses rather than on the refugees the heroes were protecting within the base.
Luke Cage AKA Luke Cage (don’t call him Powerman). The super strong, ultra tough skinned superhero of the downtrodden. His impenetrable skin protects him from the bites and cuts which would allow the zombie infection into his body like the others. He was currently soaking wet from diving into the zombie infested lake which Crystal had fallen into.
Chase & Old Lace AKA The only survivors of The Runaways. Having spent 6 months in an alternate reality Chase and his friends basically walked into the zombie holocaust. He and his pet dinosaur were the only survivors. Together the two travelled a long way only to meet Hawkeye and his fellow heroes waiting back at The Compound. It was he who led the charge to rescue the lost archer.
Then there was Crystal, princess of the Inhumans and powerful elemental. She had however been bitten by one of the undead and had seemingly transformed into one of them. She however was different, whether it was due to her Inhuman nature or meta-human nature in general no one could say but at the moment one thing was clear. She was no longer one of them.
“I need to feed!” Crystal growled. The necrosis of her body had already begun to spread rapidly through her body. The flesh was peeling and dripping from the muscle and bones of her body. She was however still moving. Her vocal chords were damaged changing her usually sweet voice to a scratchy growl.
“Crystal?” Clint tightened his grip on the handle of his bow. His fingers tightened but remained gently holding onto the end of his arrow’s fletching. He had to prepare to let fly with an arrow should he need it.
“She is not Crystal anymore,” Colossus tightened his metal fist and ploughed it into the face of one of the mass of zombies who were still moving around them. The metal mutant turned and began to move at his top speed towards the Inhuman zombie forgetting momentarily his battle with the zombies.
Crystal began to run. “Crap, the rest stumble around but she’s from the Dawn remake isn’t she,” growled Hawkeye. She was making a B-line directly for Hawkeye ignoring Venom, Colossus and Luke Cage who was coughing up water. It became obvious that she still retained at least some of her intelligence. She was speaking and had ignored those who she couldn’t feed on to head for the one she could.
Clint raised his bow and let fly with an arrow aimed directly at her head. It was suddenly deflected as a shaft of earth rose from the floor. The arrow sunk into the solid Earth with a THUNK!. “…and she’s powered,” Hawkeye grumbled.
“Hey Crystal get a load of this!” barked Chase as he summoned a burst of flames to the surface of his Fistigons. The flames suddenly exploded back towards him causing him to scream loudly. He tumbled back to the ground covering his face for protection against the flames.
Hellion grunted as he forced a telekinetic blast into the ground tossing dirt across the blonde Californian teen. Chase sat bolt upright coughing and spluttering the dirt from his mouth. Hellion stood over him and grinned “You’re welcome.”
“You just buried me alive!” Chase yelled as he blinked dirt from his face rapidly.
“You set yourself on fire,” Hellion held out his hand to help Chase up.
“No,” Chase corrected as he pointed across to Crystal who now moving around her wall of earth she had created. “She set me on fire!”
“She controls fire and still obviously still has her powers. I don’t know what training you’ve had but at Xavier’s that’s definitely setting yourself on fire.”
“I hate you,” Chase muttered. “Lets help Hawkeye!” he commanded in the next second focusing both boys attention on the in need archer.
The two teens sprung up to action. Old Lace and Venom barrelled passed them overtaking them with little to no effort. They sprung through the air towards Crystal. She let out a blast of flame towards the two. Venom screamed with his dual voices as his susceptibility to fire caused pain to race through his body whilst Old Lace screeched as the fire licked across her.
Hawkeye in this time had sprinted sideways taking out four attacking zombies in the process with a flurry of arrows whilst he re-angled his attack to get another shot at Crystal. She turned her head to him for a second and blasted him with a torrent of water as if from a fire hose knocking him to the ground with ease.
She turned her attention to the two teens who were charging towards her next avoiding zombies along the way. A simple flick of the wrist caused the ground at their feet to rupture and twist catching their feet and bringing them to the floor.
Wind began to howl through the clearing churning the surface of the water and causing waves across the grass. Crystal’s body was lifted through the air by the gust and hurtled towards the fallen form of Hawkeye.
She landed on all fours pressing on the top of Hawkeye. She opened her mouth and plunged down towards him. The archer managed to get his hands up in time and held her head in position whilst making sure to keep his fingers clear of her mouth.
“Kiss me Clint…you have before, you liked it,” Crystals black tongue slid from her mouth across her bloody and skin cracked face. “I only want a little nibble and we can be together again.” Hawkeye returned the force she was pressing down on him with. He gritted his teeth and kept his lips pursed tightly together. Part of Crystal dripping in saliva were dribbling from her across his face.
Clint pushed harder against her head which she was forcing down towards him. “Crystal,” he grunted. “I think I know this answer but I still have to ask…is there any of you left in there?”
Crystal hissed and tried to snap her jaws again. Clint closed his eyes, resigning himself to the fact that his friend was gone. He released his grip of her for a second and swung his newly formed fist towards her. She had already begun to plunge down towards him, his fist hit managing to knock her body weight. Clint rolled with the effect and managed to flip himself above her.
He shot his hand behind his back and grabbed at one of the few remaining ‘special’ arrows he had. He gripped it tightly and forced it down as hard as he could into Crystal’s mouth. He felt the arrow head tear through the back of her throat and hit the floor before it’s payload exploded and he tossed himself back clean away from her body.
The Thermite stored in the arrow deployed spraying the burning chemical around. It can burn at a temperature of 25,000 degrees at optimum conditions. Crystal gurgled and hissed as the heat began to melt her flesh and bone like a knife through hot butter. The fire exploded through her eyes and raced across her entire head.
Chase and Hellion managed to reach Hawkeye at this moment. The two stopped, standing silent for a moment looking down at Crystal. Hawkeye turned to them, his face twisted in anger. “Let’s put these bastards down.”
He pulled an arrow from his quiver and began to aim and give orders. “Chase get more of those bolt things going and pick off the outliers. Hellion I want to see heads popping left right and centre. Venom and Old Lace keep them all corralled as possible. Luke and Collossus…keep doing what you’re doing.”
The heroes now with a defined battle plan launched into action against their enemies.
Later, The Compound…
The zombies had began to gather at the fence which surrounded the compound from the minute the heroes who had flown overhead several hours ago disappeared from sight. There was usually a few drawn by the people inside and then others drawn by the mob mentality the zombies seemed to share. This massive horde was being drawn by the golden shape which was hovering over the base glinting in the sun which had just now descended from their sight to somewhere within The Compound. They didn’t seem to care about it in the slightest at the moment and continued to swarm. Held together by their natural flocking instinct.
Several of the zombies down the centre of the group stumbled in two separate directions suddenly like something had been driven down their centre between them. They began to divide like the Red Sea simply being tossed sideways. Their still groaning bodies bounced, collided, splatted and rolled away from the large gate which they had gathered around.
The returning heroes walked straight down their centre. Colossus helping to hold up Hellion after he just expended a lot of energy in driving a wedge down the centre of the group. “Did that hurt?” Chase asked handing back to the two mutants for a second.
“I’ve got a headache which isn’t going away for days,” Hellion screwed up his face to deal with the pain as if the show the point. Chase smiled widely before trying to wipe the grin from his face ineffectively.
The gates slowly trundled into life and moved apart as the group approached them. “Guess they know were here,” said Luke. No sooner had they all entered the compound did the gates begin to slide shut again.
They were halfway across the yard when the figures began to appear at the doors of the compounds main doors. The closer they got the more people they could make out. Henry Pym, Doc Connor’s, little Sarah, Misty Knight, Colleen Wing and Kurt Wagner.
There was a new figure with them who Chase recognised but had not known him to be there previously. The hi-tech suited form of Tony Stark AKA Iron Man. The last time the two had met was hardly a red letter day for either as they ended up fighting one another with their respective teams. His mask hissed and his face mask began to lift open revealing his face. He grinned widely at then group “I was just about to head out and help…”
Clint’s fist slammed across the face of Tony. The man’s face couldn’t move as the metal backing of his suit gave no give so Clint’s fist slammed into his face and forced his head hard into the metal behind him.
“Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!” began Venom as he hopped happily to a better view point of the two men. Luke Cage and Hank Pym were however straight in to separate the two of them, Luke grabbed Clint and effortlessly pulled him back whilst Hank increased in size and moved between the two.
“What the hell Clint?” Tony growled through gritted teeth. His nose and mouth were bleeding but being in his suit he was unable to wipe the blood on anything.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Clint screamed as he struggled against Luke’s grip.
“Barton this isn’t the place to do this,” Luke nodded to the crowded mass of refugees who were gathered behind the heroes. They were watching, a look of worry across their faces.
“Luke’s right, lets take it inside,” Hank nodded and indicated inside the base. Hawkeye nodded and held up his hands to show he wouldn’t do anything else.
They began to make their way inside.
Misty, Luke, Tony, Clint, Hank and Doc Connors when inside moved into one of the large private labs which they had identified as a base of operations for their decision making processes within the first few days in the base.
“What the hell was that about Clint?” repeated Tony. He had managed to wipe away most of the blood and Hank had stopped the bleeding.
“What were you doing up there?” questioned Hawkeye again. He was obviously angry but the visceral rage had faded considerably.
“I was charging my solar cells, they were dangerously low.” Tony nodded “Now we can run a few of these extra systems off them for a while and get the generator back up and running. I was also thinking,” he turned now to Hank “We could probably use the relay system down in lab C and try contacting some satellites to see if anything is bouncing around up there.”
“We could use imaging to get a look at the Earth too, see how bad this thing really is...We could reverse the information flow and access any remaining data storage and take the first step to finding out what caused this” Hank theorised. The two were always doing this, going of on a science tangent to discuss what they thought they would be able to do.
“You led them too us!” Hawkeye pointed accusingly. “They saw you in the damn sky and came to see what you were. It’s your fault they were swarming out there and I had to lead them away! It’s your fault these guys came after me and it’s your fault…” Clint broke for a second and turned his head.
Hank suddenly noticed something. “Where’s Crystal?...oh,” he lowered his head for a second. His hand rubbed across his forehead. “I’m sorry Clint I know you were friends.”
“They were more than that,” Tony took a step forward and put his hand on Clint’s shoulder. The archer thought for a second of pushing him away but then let it remain there, it wasn’t Tony’s fault more than anyone’s. “They were keeping it quite, Crystal’s ex-husband is with us remember.”
“Oh god, Quicksilver. Where is he?” Doc Connors asked.
“He’s mapping out the lower levels. He found another secret level the other day. He’s not going to take this well,” Hank shook his head sadly. Clint shifted, he wasn’t taking this well himself and he didn’t want to think about the inevitable confrontation with Quicksilver.
“We have bigger problems,” Luke said. He shot a look to Clint who nodded his agreement. “Crystal changed into one of them…but she was different. She didn’t lose her powers…or her intelligence. She was, like she was possessed or something. It was her but she was one of them, hungry for flesh.”
Tony, Curt and Hank paused for a moment. They all seemed to be thinking heavily about what was going on. “It could be her Inhuman DNA…or the fact her genes are different from a normal persons. Like how Firestar and Justice reacted…it could have different effects on different ‘species’,” Hank offered. His mind was already formulating exact models for how he thought it could work.
“We buried her if either of you happened to be worried,” Clint shook his head
“I was only trying to help…get some information. Make this all a bit more bearable perhaps.”
“You’re living with your head in the clouds Tony,” Clint spat with a point of his finger. “You need to focus on here and now. The people we have here need protecting…that should be our first and only concern.” Clint shook his head and turned walking away out of the room. He closed the door behind him with a slam.
“You think we should go after him?” Hank wondered.
“No, he just wants to be alone. What could we say? He can look after himself.”
Hank nodded, he thought he could say something or do something. He had lost Jan when all of this craziness began. He was sure he knew how Clint felt but he remembered how he himself felt, he didn’t want pleasantries. If it wasn’t for having to survive all the craziness around him then he was sure he’d have fallen apart.
“Is there anything else we should know Luke? Crystal was bitten and transformed into a creature with the hunger but she seemed in control of her own actions and powers?” Curt summed up. He was already running through tests he would do on the blood sample of Crystal’s he already had. Luke shook his head slowly. “What about the others, was anyone bitten or scratched?”
“No, Venom ate a fair few of them…anyone else would have become one of them for sure.”
Doc nodded, “Could someone round up Venom for me and bring him to the lab. I’d like to run a few tests. The lack of effect on him could shed some light on the situation.”
Misty nodded, loading her gun as she did so. It always helped with Venom if you could threaten him a little and he’d come along a lot easier.
Hangar 12…
Hangar 12 was a huge open space which had once been full of mini transports and aeroplanes for whichever organisation used to work from here. It had now been transformed into the general meeting and socialising area for the entire Compound having a number of tables and chairs moved from different areas of the base together.
It was here that the teen heroes found themselves. Chase Stein was walking through the amassed refugees with Old Lace just a step or two behind him. Sarah was hanging to the dinosaurs neck for what seemed like dear life. She had been worried about the two. Lockheed the Dragon was sitting firing blasts of flame into the air atop the dinosaurs head.
This scene had of course drawn the attention of the refugees who were filling the area at the time. They were now instead of chatting actively watching with only a small murmur of noise.
“Do you every get the feeling that you’re being watched?” Chase asked to Hellion who was walking just in front of him.
“I’m a mutant it happens…happened all the time.”
“Julian!” Sophia Mantega AKA Wind Dancer screamed as she launched from where she was sitting next to Rahne and threw her arms around her sometimes boyfriend. “I was so worried.”
“…and once again I am reminded that I have no one,” sighed Chase in mock depression. His mock depression hid the true tinge of sorrow in his face at the thought of his lost friends and girlfriend. Old Lace licked her rough tongue up the side of his face excitedly. “That makes it all better,” he patted the muzzle of his friend gently. “I do have a feeling she could make it all better though,” he smiled as Rahne Sinclair walked towards the small group.
She had changed much since her youth. Her hair had grown long and she had changed her demeanour much so she was much more confident within herself now, maybe a little wilder too.
“Bonjour,” Chase smiled as he raised his eyebrows in his best attempt at seduction.
“Vous parlez français ? Je suis Rahne, it' ; s gentil de vous rencontrer finalement correctement,” Rahne held out her hand and shook the giant metal fists of Chase.
“Eh…no it’s sunny actually. It’s the one good thing about today.”
Hellion laughed aloud. “Such a tool,” he shook his head and taking Sophia’s hand walked away from Chase.
Connor’s lab…
Venom was crouching beast like on the hard metal surface of Connor’s lab top. Connors was busy preparing a solution for part of the symbiote to be deposited in. “I only need a little part of your alien skin to run some tests on.”
“A little part is the same as the whole,” spat Venom. The saliva dribbled between it’s huge teeth and from it’s long tongue.
“Come on I don’t believe that for a second, I know better. I’ve studied parts of you before when you were bonded with Spider-Man.” He fixed his eyes on Venoms. “You should hand it over before I have to get one of the others in here to make you.”
Venom hissed. A black tendril wriggled free of his skin and arced towards the conical flask which Connors slid towards him. “I just have to ask you some questions as well? You have in the passed seemed self aware of your own bodily functions, when you come into contact with the decaying matter do you feel a virus inside?”
“Yes, you have tested us before haven’t you?” Venom grinned at Connors ignoring the last question. “You were Parker’s friend…did you know he was Spider-Man. Peter Parker.”
“Please answer the questions Venom. Can you feel a specific contagion when you…”
“He’s gone now. He was turned…though given the Inhuman he may not be so gone.” Venom grinned. “I was there, saw it, felt it through my Spidersense link with him.”
“Pleasse be quite…just ansswer the question pleasse.”
Venom laughed. “Saw him infected, bitten by his poor old aunt May. He had to fight her off, crush her skull. Then he felt the change coming…felt it turning him as he swung over the city.”
“Shut up. Jusssst shut up!”
“I saw him tearing at himself, he couldn’t stop. The Spider in him asserted itself, fought the infection like it was physical. Started to tear himself apart…fell screaming tearing at his own skin.”
Connor’s gritted his teeth and clung to the conical flask with his hand causing it to shatter as he tightened his grip. “Shut up! Jusssst shut up!...Get out! Pleassse leave.” He hissed.
Venom laughed as he hopped from the table to the floor and began to slope off. “SSSSSSsoooo long Doc Connorssss. I’ll ssssee you sssssoon,” he began to laugh as he left the room leaving the Doc all alone.
Meanwhile…
Pietro Maximoff tore into the lab of Doctor Henry Pym. He appeared as if from nowhere blowing papers all over the place which had to scramble to grab/ He nearly caused the scientist to jump out of his skin.
“There’s miles down there. I was all done and then found whole other branch…I’ll get to that tomorrow.”
Hank pursed his lips. “Y-Yes that’s fine. I’m…eh….Pietro I’m sorry I have to do this. I’ve got something I have to tell you. Oh I wish it didn’t have to be me.”
“What’s wrong Henry?”
“Pietro, it’s about Crystal. While you were down below she went with some of the others to search for Hawkeye. They ran into some trouble down by the lake a little way a way…and…and I’m sorry Pietro she’s gone.”
Quicksilver vanished in a blur. Hank’s hand immediately moved to the Compound phone system.
The white haired mutant raced down the hall and through the door at the edge before Hank had even realised he was gone. He was halfway up the spiral stairs to the upper levels before the person Hank rang had answered.
The base was built like a level of Donkey Kong. The slight and speedy mutant moved along the long length of a corridor ploughing through anyone who happened to get in his way before having to race up a flight of stairs and double back on himself to the next set.
His mind was racing. He had scouted around the base when he first arrived and was trying to remember the exact location of the lake where he would now find his wife. She was his ex-wife in reality but Pietro never thought of her as such, she was his wife and the mother of his child…and one day she would be his lover again. That was still true, he was sure, he’d find her and he’d help her in whatever way he could.
He raced through Hangar 12 scattering people in his wake as he sped through the area.
He would simply get outside. He knew the codes to the doors and the gates. He could slip out and find Crystal before any zombie could get close to him.
Quicksilver skidded to a halt and began to hammer the buttons on the control pad. He got it wrong the first time, his fingers blundering on the code at such speed while his mind was elsewhere.
The second time he got them correct and the door beeped to let whoever was inputing the code that they had done so.
He suddenly let out a yelp as a blast of energy slammed against him. His body was tossed against the metal door colliding his head with the metal hard. He slid down the door and into an unconscious heap on the floor.
Iron Man stood over his fallen comrade. “Hawkeye was right, things have to change around here. I’m sorry Pietro but I have to protect our people.”
To Be Continued…
The small team of ‘Avengers’ (a very loose definition) stood aghast. One of their own number had just been turned before their eyes into one of the zombie hordes which had swept over America…perhaps the entire world.
Clint Barton AKA Hawkeye the archer of The Avengers and the member of the team the rest were here to save. He could hit a bullseye from a distance that barely anyone else on the planet could match. His hands were shaking so much at the moment he wasn’t sure he would be able to stab himself with an arrow.
Jullian Keller AKA Hellion a young mutant who was a student at the Xavier Academy, since the death of all but the tiny bunch of X-Men he had been upgraded to a fully fledged X-man. He was here trying to prove that he deserved to be such by earning his way in the new group of survivors he had just joined.
Piotr Rasputin AKA Colossus was the second of the X-Men to be part of this cabal of heroes. The massive metal mutant currently found himself trapped in his metal form, if he reverted even for a second then the zombie virus in his system would turn him into one of the monsters he fought. He fought them hard, raging against both them and himself for his failings in saving all those he loved in The X-Men.
Eddie Brock & Symbiote AKA Venom. The psychotic cannibal alien symbiote known as Venom. His inclusion on the team was simply to offer some sort of catharsis so his hunger for human brains could be satisfied on the zombie masses rather than on the refugees the heroes were protecting within the base.
Luke Cage AKA Luke Cage (don’t call him Powerman). The super strong, ultra tough skinned superhero of the downtrodden. His impenetrable skin protects him from the bites and cuts which would allow the zombie infection into his body like the others. He was currently soaking wet from diving into the zombie infested lake which Crystal had fallen into.
Chase & Old Lace AKA The only survivors of The Runaways. Having spent 6 months in an alternate reality Chase and his friends basically walked into the zombie holocaust. He and his pet dinosaur were the only survivors. Together the two travelled a long way only to meet Hawkeye and his fellow heroes waiting back at The Compound. It was he who led the charge to rescue the lost archer.
Then there was Crystal, princess of the Inhumans and powerful elemental. She had however been bitten by one of the undead and had seemingly transformed into one of them. She however was different, whether it was due to her Inhuman nature or meta-human nature in general no one could say but at the moment one thing was clear. She was no longer one of them.
“I need to feed!” Crystal growled. The necrosis of her body had already begun to spread rapidly through her body. The flesh was peeling and dripping from the muscle and bones of her body. She was however still moving. Her vocal chords were damaged changing her usually sweet voice to a scratchy growl.
“Crystal?” Clint tightened his grip on the handle of his bow. His fingers tightened but remained gently holding onto the end of his arrow’s fletching. He had to prepare to let fly with an arrow should he need it.
“She is not Crystal anymore,” Colossus tightened his metal fist and ploughed it into the face of one of the mass of zombies who were still moving around them. The metal mutant turned and began to move at his top speed towards the Inhuman zombie forgetting momentarily his battle with the zombies.
Crystal began to run. “Crap, the rest stumble around but she’s from the Dawn remake isn’t she,” growled Hawkeye. She was making a B-line directly for Hawkeye ignoring Venom, Colossus and Luke Cage who was coughing up water. It became obvious that she still retained at least some of her intelligence. She was speaking and had ignored those who she couldn’t feed on to head for the one she could.
Clint raised his bow and let fly with an arrow aimed directly at her head. It was suddenly deflected as a shaft of earth rose from the floor. The arrow sunk into the solid Earth with a THUNK!. “…and she’s powered,” Hawkeye grumbled.
“Hey Crystal get a load of this!” barked Chase as he summoned a burst of flames to the surface of his Fistigons. The flames suddenly exploded back towards him causing him to scream loudly. He tumbled back to the ground covering his face for protection against the flames.
Hellion grunted as he forced a telekinetic blast into the ground tossing dirt across the blonde Californian teen. Chase sat bolt upright coughing and spluttering the dirt from his mouth. Hellion stood over him and grinned “You’re welcome.”
“You just buried me alive!” Chase yelled as he blinked dirt from his face rapidly.
“You set yourself on fire,” Hellion held out his hand to help Chase up.
“No,” Chase corrected as he pointed across to Crystal who now moving around her wall of earth she had created. “She set me on fire!”
“She controls fire and still obviously still has her powers. I don’t know what training you’ve had but at Xavier’s that’s definitely setting yourself on fire.”
“I hate you,” Chase muttered. “Lets help Hawkeye!” he commanded in the next second focusing both boys attention on the in need archer.
The two teens sprung up to action. Old Lace and Venom barrelled passed them overtaking them with little to no effort. They sprung through the air towards Crystal. She let out a blast of flame towards the two. Venom screamed with his dual voices as his susceptibility to fire caused pain to race through his body whilst Old Lace screeched as the fire licked across her.
Hawkeye in this time had sprinted sideways taking out four attacking zombies in the process with a flurry of arrows whilst he re-angled his attack to get another shot at Crystal. She turned her head to him for a second and blasted him with a torrent of water as if from a fire hose knocking him to the ground with ease.
She turned her attention to the two teens who were charging towards her next avoiding zombies along the way. A simple flick of the wrist caused the ground at their feet to rupture and twist catching their feet and bringing them to the floor.
Wind began to howl through the clearing churning the surface of the water and causing waves across the grass. Crystal’s body was lifted through the air by the gust and hurtled towards the fallen form of Hawkeye.
She landed on all fours pressing on the top of Hawkeye. She opened her mouth and plunged down towards him. The archer managed to get his hands up in time and held her head in position whilst making sure to keep his fingers clear of her mouth.
“Kiss me Clint…you have before, you liked it,” Crystals black tongue slid from her mouth across her bloody and skin cracked face. “I only want a little nibble and we can be together again.” Hawkeye returned the force she was pressing down on him with. He gritted his teeth and kept his lips pursed tightly together. Part of Crystal dripping in saliva were dribbling from her across his face.
Clint pushed harder against her head which she was forcing down towards him. “Crystal,” he grunted. “I think I know this answer but I still have to ask…is there any of you left in there?”
Crystal hissed and tried to snap her jaws again. Clint closed his eyes, resigning himself to the fact that his friend was gone. He released his grip of her for a second and swung his newly formed fist towards her. She had already begun to plunge down towards him, his fist hit managing to knock her body weight. Clint rolled with the effect and managed to flip himself above her.
He shot his hand behind his back and grabbed at one of the few remaining ‘special’ arrows he had. He gripped it tightly and forced it down as hard as he could into Crystal’s mouth. He felt the arrow head tear through the back of her throat and hit the floor before it’s payload exploded and he tossed himself back clean away from her body.
The Thermite stored in the arrow deployed spraying the burning chemical around. It can burn at a temperature of 25,000 degrees at optimum conditions. Crystal gurgled and hissed as the heat began to melt her flesh and bone like a knife through hot butter. The fire exploded through her eyes and raced across her entire head.
Chase and Hellion managed to reach Hawkeye at this moment. The two stopped, standing silent for a moment looking down at Crystal. Hawkeye turned to them, his face twisted in anger. “Let’s put these bastards down.”
He pulled an arrow from his quiver and began to aim and give orders. “Chase get more of those bolt things going and pick off the outliers. Hellion I want to see heads popping left right and centre. Venom and Old Lace keep them all corralled as possible. Luke and Collossus…keep doing what you’re doing.”
The heroes now with a defined battle plan launched into action against their enemies.
Later, The Compound…
The zombies had began to gather at the fence which surrounded the compound from the minute the heroes who had flown overhead several hours ago disappeared from sight. There was usually a few drawn by the people inside and then others drawn by the mob mentality the zombies seemed to share. This massive horde was being drawn by the golden shape which was hovering over the base glinting in the sun which had just now descended from their sight to somewhere within The Compound. They didn’t seem to care about it in the slightest at the moment and continued to swarm. Held together by their natural flocking instinct.
Several of the zombies down the centre of the group stumbled in two separate directions suddenly like something had been driven down their centre between them. They began to divide like the Red Sea simply being tossed sideways. Their still groaning bodies bounced, collided, splatted and rolled away from the large gate which they had gathered around.
The returning heroes walked straight down their centre. Colossus helping to hold up Hellion after he just expended a lot of energy in driving a wedge down the centre of the group. “Did that hurt?” Chase asked handing back to the two mutants for a second.
“I’ve got a headache which isn’t going away for days,” Hellion screwed up his face to deal with the pain as if the show the point. Chase smiled widely before trying to wipe the grin from his face ineffectively.
The gates slowly trundled into life and moved apart as the group approached them. “Guess they know were here,” said Luke. No sooner had they all entered the compound did the gates begin to slide shut again.
They were halfway across the yard when the figures began to appear at the doors of the compounds main doors. The closer they got the more people they could make out. Henry Pym, Doc Connor’s, little Sarah, Misty Knight, Colleen Wing and Kurt Wagner.
There was a new figure with them who Chase recognised but had not known him to be there previously. The hi-tech suited form of Tony Stark AKA Iron Man. The last time the two had met was hardly a red letter day for either as they ended up fighting one another with their respective teams. His mask hissed and his face mask began to lift open revealing his face. He grinned widely at then group “I was just about to head out and help…”
Clint’s fist slammed across the face of Tony. The man’s face couldn’t move as the metal backing of his suit gave no give so Clint’s fist slammed into his face and forced his head hard into the metal behind him.
“Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!” began Venom as he hopped happily to a better view point of the two men. Luke Cage and Hank Pym were however straight in to separate the two of them, Luke grabbed Clint and effortlessly pulled him back whilst Hank increased in size and moved between the two.
“What the hell Clint?” Tony growled through gritted teeth. His nose and mouth were bleeding but being in his suit he was unable to wipe the blood on anything.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Clint screamed as he struggled against Luke’s grip.
“Barton this isn’t the place to do this,” Luke nodded to the crowded mass of refugees who were gathered behind the heroes. They were watching, a look of worry across their faces.
“Luke’s right, lets take it inside,” Hank nodded and indicated inside the base. Hawkeye nodded and held up his hands to show he wouldn’t do anything else.
They began to make their way inside.
Misty, Luke, Tony, Clint, Hank and Doc Connors when inside moved into one of the large private labs which they had identified as a base of operations for their decision making processes within the first few days in the base.
“What the hell was that about Clint?” repeated Tony. He had managed to wipe away most of the blood and Hank had stopped the bleeding.
“What were you doing up there?” questioned Hawkeye again. He was obviously angry but the visceral rage had faded considerably.
“I was charging my solar cells, they were dangerously low.” Tony nodded “Now we can run a few of these extra systems off them for a while and get the generator back up and running. I was also thinking,” he turned now to Hank “We could probably use the relay system down in lab C and try contacting some satellites to see if anything is bouncing around up there.”
“We could use imaging to get a look at the Earth too, see how bad this thing really is...We could reverse the information flow and access any remaining data storage and take the first step to finding out what caused this” Hank theorised. The two were always doing this, going of on a science tangent to discuss what they thought they would be able to do.
“You led them too us!” Hawkeye pointed accusingly. “They saw you in the damn sky and came to see what you were. It’s your fault they were swarming out there and I had to lead them away! It’s your fault these guys came after me and it’s your fault…” Clint broke for a second and turned his head.
Hank suddenly noticed something. “Where’s Crystal?...oh,” he lowered his head for a second. His hand rubbed across his forehead. “I’m sorry Clint I know you were friends.”
“They were more than that,” Tony took a step forward and put his hand on Clint’s shoulder. The archer thought for a second of pushing him away but then let it remain there, it wasn’t Tony’s fault more than anyone’s. “They were keeping it quite, Crystal’s ex-husband is with us remember.”
“Oh god, Quicksilver. Where is he?” Doc Connors asked.
“He’s mapping out the lower levels. He found another secret level the other day. He’s not going to take this well,” Hank shook his head sadly. Clint shifted, he wasn’t taking this well himself and he didn’t want to think about the inevitable confrontation with Quicksilver.
“We have bigger problems,” Luke said. He shot a look to Clint who nodded his agreement. “Crystal changed into one of them…but she was different. She didn’t lose her powers…or her intelligence. She was, like she was possessed or something. It was her but she was one of them, hungry for flesh.”
Tony, Curt and Hank paused for a moment. They all seemed to be thinking heavily about what was going on. “It could be her Inhuman DNA…or the fact her genes are different from a normal persons. Like how Firestar and Justice reacted…it could have different effects on different ‘species’,” Hank offered. His mind was already formulating exact models for how he thought it could work.
“We buried her if either of you happened to be worried,” Clint shook his head
“I was only trying to help…get some information. Make this all a bit more bearable perhaps.”
“You’re living with your head in the clouds Tony,” Clint spat with a point of his finger. “You need to focus on here and now. The people we have here need protecting…that should be our first and only concern.” Clint shook his head and turned walking away out of the room. He closed the door behind him with a slam.
“You think we should go after him?” Hank wondered.
“No, he just wants to be alone. What could we say? He can look after himself.”
Hank nodded, he thought he could say something or do something. He had lost Jan when all of this craziness began. He was sure he knew how Clint felt but he remembered how he himself felt, he didn’t want pleasantries. If it wasn’t for having to survive all the craziness around him then he was sure he’d have fallen apart.
“Is there anything else we should know Luke? Crystal was bitten and transformed into a creature with the hunger but she seemed in control of her own actions and powers?” Curt summed up. He was already running through tests he would do on the blood sample of Crystal’s he already had. Luke shook his head slowly. “What about the others, was anyone bitten or scratched?”
“No, Venom ate a fair few of them…anyone else would have become one of them for sure.”
Doc nodded, “Could someone round up Venom for me and bring him to the lab. I’d like to run a few tests. The lack of effect on him could shed some light on the situation.”
Misty nodded, loading her gun as she did so. It always helped with Venom if you could threaten him a little and he’d come along a lot easier.
Hangar 12…
Hangar 12 was a huge open space which had once been full of mini transports and aeroplanes for whichever organisation used to work from here. It had now been transformed into the general meeting and socialising area for the entire Compound having a number of tables and chairs moved from different areas of the base together.
It was here that the teen heroes found themselves. Chase Stein was walking through the amassed refugees with Old Lace just a step or two behind him. Sarah was hanging to the dinosaurs neck for what seemed like dear life. She had been worried about the two. Lockheed the Dragon was sitting firing blasts of flame into the air atop the dinosaurs head.
This scene had of course drawn the attention of the refugees who were filling the area at the time. They were now instead of chatting actively watching with only a small murmur of noise.
“Do you every get the feeling that you’re being watched?” Chase asked to Hellion who was walking just in front of him.
“I’m a mutant it happens…happened all the time.”
“Julian!” Sophia Mantega AKA Wind Dancer screamed as she launched from where she was sitting next to Rahne and threw her arms around her sometimes boyfriend. “I was so worried.”
“…and once again I am reminded that I have no one,” sighed Chase in mock depression. His mock depression hid the true tinge of sorrow in his face at the thought of his lost friends and girlfriend. Old Lace licked her rough tongue up the side of his face excitedly. “That makes it all better,” he patted the muzzle of his friend gently. “I do have a feeling she could make it all better though,” he smiled as Rahne Sinclair walked towards the small group.
She had changed much since her youth. Her hair had grown long and she had changed her demeanour much so she was much more confident within herself now, maybe a little wilder too.
“Bonjour,” Chase smiled as he raised his eyebrows in his best attempt at seduction.
“Vous parlez français ? Je suis Rahne, it' ; s gentil de vous rencontrer finalement correctement,” Rahne held out her hand and shook the giant metal fists of Chase.
“Eh…no it’s sunny actually. It’s the one good thing about today.”
Hellion laughed aloud. “Such a tool,” he shook his head and taking Sophia’s hand walked away from Chase.
Connor’s lab…
Venom was crouching beast like on the hard metal surface of Connor’s lab top. Connors was busy preparing a solution for part of the symbiote to be deposited in. “I only need a little part of your alien skin to run some tests on.”
“A little part is the same as the whole,” spat Venom. The saliva dribbled between it’s huge teeth and from it’s long tongue.
“Come on I don’t believe that for a second, I know better. I’ve studied parts of you before when you were bonded with Spider-Man.” He fixed his eyes on Venoms. “You should hand it over before I have to get one of the others in here to make you.”
Venom hissed. A black tendril wriggled free of his skin and arced towards the conical flask which Connors slid towards him. “I just have to ask you some questions as well? You have in the passed seemed self aware of your own bodily functions, when you come into contact with the decaying matter do you feel a virus inside?”
“Yes, you have tested us before haven’t you?” Venom grinned at Connors ignoring the last question. “You were Parker’s friend…did you know he was Spider-Man. Peter Parker.”
“Please answer the questions Venom. Can you feel a specific contagion when you…”
“He’s gone now. He was turned…though given the Inhuman he may not be so gone.” Venom grinned. “I was there, saw it, felt it through my Spidersense link with him.”
“Pleasse be quite…just ansswer the question pleasse.”
Venom laughed. “Saw him infected, bitten by his poor old aunt May. He had to fight her off, crush her skull. Then he felt the change coming…felt it turning him as he swung over the city.”
“Shut up. Jusssst shut up!”
“I saw him tearing at himself, he couldn’t stop. The Spider in him asserted itself, fought the infection like it was physical. Started to tear himself apart…fell screaming tearing at his own skin.”
Connor’s gritted his teeth and clung to the conical flask with his hand causing it to shatter as he tightened his grip. “Shut up! Jusssst shut up!...Get out! Pleassse leave.” He hissed.
Venom laughed as he hopped from the table to the floor and began to slope off. “SSSSSSsoooo long Doc Connorssss. I’ll ssssee you sssssoon,” he began to laugh as he left the room leaving the Doc all alone.
Meanwhile…
Pietro Maximoff tore into the lab of Doctor Henry Pym. He appeared as if from nowhere blowing papers all over the place which had to scramble to grab/ He nearly caused the scientist to jump out of his skin.
“There’s miles down there. I was all done and then found whole other branch…I’ll get to that tomorrow.”
Hank pursed his lips. “Y-Yes that’s fine. I’m…eh….Pietro I’m sorry I have to do this. I’ve got something I have to tell you. Oh I wish it didn’t have to be me.”
“What’s wrong Henry?”
“Pietro, it’s about Crystal. While you were down below she went with some of the others to search for Hawkeye. They ran into some trouble down by the lake a little way a way…and…and I’m sorry Pietro she’s gone.”
Quicksilver vanished in a blur. Hank’s hand immediately moved to the Compound phone system.
The white haired mutant raced down the hall and through the door at the edge before Hank had even realised he was gone. He was halfway up the spiral stairs to the upper levels before the person Hank rang had answered.
The base was built like a level of Donkey Kong. The slight and speedy mutant moved along the long length of a corridor ploughing through anyone who happened to get in his way before having to race up a flight of stairs and double back on himself to the next set.
His mind was racing. He had scouted around the base when he first arrived and was trying to remember the exact location of the lake where he would now find his wife. She was his ex-wife in reality but Pietro never thought of her as such, she was his wife and the mother of his child…and one day she would be his lover again. That was still true, he was sure, he’d find her and he’d help her in whatever way he could.
He raced through Hangar 12 scattering people in his wake as he sped through the area.
He would simply get outside. He knew the codes to the doors and the gates. He could slip out and find Crystal before any zombie could get close to him.
Quicksilver skidded to a halt and began to hammer the buttons on the control pad. He got it wrong the first time, his fingers blundering on the code at such speed while his mind was elsewhere.
The second time he got them correct and the door beeped to let whoever was inputing the code that they had done so.
He suddenly let out a yelp as a blast of energy slammed against him. His body was tossed against the metal door colliding his head with the metal hard. He slid down the door and into an unconscious heap on the floor.
Iron Man stood over his fallen comrade. “Hawkeye was right, things have to change around here. I’m sorry Pietro but I have to protect our people.”
To Be Continued…