__
"Again!" Taskmaster yelled as Vulture threw a punch. "Better! Throw from the shoulder! Again!"
Adrian breathed heavily as the workout took its toll. He hadn't exerted himself this much, this hard, in some time. He threw a jab which made Taskmaster jerk back, followed up by a cross then an elbow.
"Nice! You're getting better. Soon we'll combine this with your flying style, get you into three dimensional fighting." Taskmaster complimented the attack pattern as he swung a battle mat knocking the older man sideways. "But keep your guard up!"
"How much longer?" Sandman complained as he held an ice pack to his bruised head.
"Do you want to be the Spectacular Six? Or the Mediocre Half Dozen?" Taskmaster asked as cartwheeled over to the silica based man. "Well?"
"Spectacular," he mumbled like a child put on the spot.
"Because YOU need the most work. You've got excellent powers but you have to be solid to hit someone. And when you're solid, you're vulnerable." He tapped the ice pack. "Which is how I managed to crack you in the head yesterday. Don't feel too bad I've been using moves I stole of Zemo, Crossbones and Captain America."
"Stole?" Octavius asked.
"Long story but let's just say if I've seen it done, I can do it" Taskmaster smiled. "Okay hit the showers you're done for today!"
"It's only 11am?" Electro stated.
"You guys are going to have team bonding," Taskmaster said. "Grab a beer, go play pool, go to the pictures, have a chat about religion, I don't really care! Time you got to know each other. Because come tomorrow morning at 9am, you're going to stop me killing a crowd of people. A live fire exercise out in the real world."
Rhino raised his hand. "Um isn't that dangerous?"
--
"Step this way sir," said the British passport officer making Logan roll his eyes. He grunted as he shuffled over to the side away from the main thoroughfare of passengers in the busy Heathrow airport.
"What?"
"You set off..."
Logan jammed a piece of paper up under his nose. "It's all there Mr Bean."
"Yes, right, um," he fumbled the paper as he took a look at it.
"Should really start flying as cargo," Logan muttered as he looked around. "You got my passport there Bub?"
"Yes sir, I'm am just..."
SNIKT! Logan stepped forward and jammed three long adamantium claws up under the man’s ribs puncturing the lungs and impaling the heart. He took back all his papers as he eased the man onto the ground, zipping up his coat to hide the wound he made in his body.
"Help! Help!" Logan cried waving his arms at "He's having a heart attack! Help! Help!"
Several officials raced over as Logan slunk away out the emergency exit during the confusion.
--
London
HYDRA Team 8 stood in two groups posing as tourists on Tower Bridge amongst the other groups.
"This H1, do you read me?" Agent Denman Waez said into camera as he took a shot of Agent Cassandra Romulus who vamped it up, flipping her long black hair.
"H2 got you loud and clear," replied Agent Fred Son from the other group. "And by the nods from H5 and 6 we read you."
"We are hunting a man named Sid Reilly. MGH dealer, supplied some Irish mutant named Banshee and who the X-Men will more than likely try to get a supply network set up with."
"Why not SHIELD?"
"Not enough money in it. They dabble but they make more for doing less with cocaine or heroin. But if we keep stopping their shipments coming in from Columbia via Miami then maybe they will start shilling this poison. Which is what we don't want.”
--
New York
Billy Russo jumped onto his bed and bounced out the window onto the fire escape with an almighty crash.
"Don't just stand there you nut eating freaks!" Squirrel Girl yelled angrily. "After him!"
A wave of grey, brown and auburn fur washed out the window to swarm Billy. He flailed his arms as the critters snipped and snapped at him. Blindly he leapt out and reached for the telephone line that crossed below him.
-Hold one, don’t hold both. Just like a bird- He reminded himself as he hung there. Several squirrels who’d hung onto him as he tried to leap for safety scurried up his body to sit on the line and begin gnawing on his fingers. Squirrel Girl stood on his fire escape watching the semi-naked man hang on for life nine stories above the street.
“Eeny, meany, miney, mo,” She sang. “Catch a cross face by the…well, finger. A shiny fresh walnut to the squirrel who makes him fall.”
__
Baron Mordo appeared on the roof of the British Museum, the mystic call to come here was great. He was almost glad to be called away as dealing with Victor Von Doom was never pleasant.
“Eye of Shuma-Gorath, show me N’Kantu!” Mordo chanted as he cast his spell. Wisps of yellow and green light swirled from his fingers to make a ball of energy which shimmered into a mystical television screen showing a razor edged projectile scything through the mummified monsters neck with such ferocity that his head wobbled slightly before it fell to the floor.
“I assume my BAFTA is in the post?” asked a woman on screen as she delivered a kick to the body, the force causing the corpse to crumble to dust. Mordo smiled and gave a small golf clap; seems he wasn’t needed here. But the undead had a tendency to never really stay put. He would not tread on this super teams toes but he would mystically bind N’Kantu so he wouldn’t be a problem for wherever they intended on taking him.
“And then perhaps I shall call on Warren Traveller,” Mordo said to himself as he slipped into the astral plane and floated into the museum to observe.
__
Washington D.C
President Matthew Ellis browsed the paper as a butler poured some juice. “Creed and Osborn want my job; some days I’d be happy just to give it to them.”
“Sorry to interrupt, Mr President.” Jaspar Sitwell said as he knocked on the doorframe. “Commander Kraken of the HYDRA naval command needs your approval for the exchange.”
“Refresh my memory?” Ellis asked as he really didn’t know what was going on.
“We are handing over Retha Maria Feugo, also known as La Bandera, in exchange for one of our operatives,” Sitwell said. “Do we…?”
“Do it.”
“Also…”
“Man can’t even drink his orange juice these days,” Ellis muttered to himself. “What else Jasper?”
“Generals Zeke and Ross are waiting in the situation room for you.”
“Do we have a situation?” Ellis asked as he prepared to stand and dash off.
“No, not at present sir, b…”
“Alright then,” he smiled, sat back and slowly sipped his juice. “Tell them I won’t be long please Jasper.”
“Yes President.”
__
Peter Parker rubbed his newly shaven head. “You have an odd shaped head Parker.”
__
Jemma Simmons sat at the bar playing hockey with the olive in her glass watching as Anton Trojak moved through the crowd towards her. She nodded at the bartender who began making her another martini.
“You don’t return my calls?” Anton barked. “What’s going on?”
“You, need to settle down,” she said. “You’re making a scene.”
“Scene? You want a scene? How about YOU kissing Sanzetti! Huh?” He snapped. “What’s that?”
“Jealous?” She breathed, licking her bottom lip. Anton grabbed her by the shoulders roughly.
“What are you playing at?”
“Get your hands off me Anton!” Jemma snapped pushing him away. She snatched up the freshly prepared drink and tossed it in his face. “Stay away from me Anton!”
The HYDRA agent didn’t know what to do as people stared at him. Jemma bolted away and out a fire door as two security guards came up beside Anton.
__
Jemma slammed the fire door shut behind her and wedged it with a garbage can for good measure. A shadowy figure walked towards her from the far end of the dingy alley.
“Enforcement or Espionage?” she asked.
“Enforcement.” Came the gruff reply. “Strategic or Supreme?”
“Strategic,” she said.
“SHIELD,” the said together in hushed tones as Jack Munroe aka Nomad stepped into the dim light. Jemma Simmons inserted a mouthguard and tied back her hair as he flexed his fingers.
“Not too hard Jack,” she said. “You’ve got to make it look like Trojak did it. I don’t want to be Diamondback, okay?”
Jack smiled, gave her a thumbs up before slapping her cheek which knocked her to her knees. “I know how to treat a lady!”
__
Billy Russo had no choice but to let go as the squirrel’s teeth gnawed his fingers. And he fell towards the street.
“See you later Frankenface!” Squirrel Girl called down to him.
-Don’t panic, remember your HYDRA train…who am I kidding, I’m a dead man!-
WHUMP!
“Sorry!”
Billy looked at the man in the weird metal suit who caught him like he was a sack of potatoes. “Thanks!”
“No problems, sorry I didn’t get here sooner to stop the attack on your face.”
“It always looks like this,” Billy grumbled. “Are you on stilts?”
“Yeah. I’m your friendly neighbourhood Stilt-Man. Now let’s get you back on terra firma. Are you sure you’re okay? Your face…”
__
“The main problem with Mars the lack of atmosphere,” Mad Thinker said as he addressed the Intelligencia group. “Cosmic rays, ultraviolet light bombard the red planet. Also the gravity is thirty-eight percent of that on Earth.”
“Gravity, schmavity!” Bentley Wittman scoffed. “I’ve built platforms that will counter that.”
“Which will need constant maintenance,” Obadiah Stane added.
“Until the atmosphere is created,” Ivan Kragoff countered. “By importing ammonia and hydrocarbons to Mars we can begin establishing an environment capable of sustaining life.”
“But should we?” Thinker asked. “Should we terraform another planet? Why don’t we turn our attentions to the one we have?”
“He makes a good point,” Obadiah added.
“Because the human race needs constant supervision and a firm hand,” Doom said bluntly. “Nations that pollute don’t just pollute their country, they pollute the planet. And by abstaining from climate accords or choosing not to agree to terms, one jeopardises the many. Latveria is a world leader in environmental agendas and quotas but that means little against the mess say China produces annually.”
“So, you use diplomacy,” Obadiah suggested.
“Diplomacy only goes so far,” Kragoff added.
“Then there’s the temperature swings,” Thinker said guiding the topic back towards Mars. “It regularly is colder than the coldest place on Ear…”
“Because of the lack of atmosphere!” Kragoff cried.
“And to think I wasn’t going to come,” Wittman chuckled.
__
New York
“What’s a Stiltma anyway?” Rhino asked as he read the front page of the Daily Bugle as he and the Spectacular Six stood on the roof of the Daily Bugle offices.
“I believe it is supposed to be Stilt Man, judging by the picture” Dr Octopus said. “The standards at the Bugle have fallen, Jameson would never allow such a child-like error in his day.”
“Wonder what Taskmaster is going to do?” Electro said
“Whatever it is, I’m going to have him picking grains out of his teeth for weeks,” Sandman made a giant silica fist.
“I’m picking up some reports via the police band,” Vulture said as he circled overhead. “Costumed man at the Fisk rally at Town Hall.”
“SPECTACULAR SIX, LET’S GO!” yelled Rhino as he punched the air.
“We really need a better battle cry,” grumbled the Shocker.
To be continued…
Want more, well there's plenty in the library which isHERE
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