Thunderbolts #25 - Blood and Bones
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Red forked lighting radiated out of the beam of light shooting out of the Sword of Xibalba, the silhouette of the Blood Brother illuminated by the unearthly light. Standing on the roof of Castle Zemo, Melissa looked across the rainforest to where her team-mates were fighting.
"Abe, what's going on down there?" Melissa asked as Citizen V and Yuki cleaned their blades behind her.
"Mel we have a problem, the Department of Occult Affairs is leaving after the Blood Brother took control of the Sword of Xibalba." Abe replied over the team communication link. "Turns out that the sword was actually a terraforming device sent to Earth by his people centuries ago."
"So any ideas on how we stop this?" Melissa asked, as she caught sight of a tiny metallic speck weaving through the increasingly ionised sky.
"We're working on it, although we could use you down here." Abe answered as he dived towards the treeline after Emil Kreagen, the mutated DOA agent heading for where Wraithwitch and the remaining Hydra footsoldiers were gathering. As he thundered towards his allies, the looming form of Atlas expanded, his gigantic fist containing the villain as he grabbed him mid-air.
"Wraithwitch help me out here!" Keragen screeched as Wraithwitch began chanting, mystical light washing over the Hydra assault force.
"The DOA has no further use of you services Dr Keragen." Wraithwitch hissed as the Hydra force teleported away leaving the Thunderbolts standing alone in the clearing. Seconds later a bolt of lightning struck the MACH VI armour, the suit slamming into the forest below. "Those traitors!" Keragen hissed, as Erik slammed him to the ground, before he was chained by mystical chains to the forest floor by Doctor Voodoo.
"Doctor you spent years of your life researching the Sword of Xibalba," Voodoo stated, as he Abe staggered out of the tree-line, his armour sparking with scarlet lighting, "tell us how to stop the Sword. The ancient Mayans did it many centuries ago so there is a way to stop it."
"I'm nothing if not compliant." Keragen stated smugly. "The Ancients used an energy field created from light and dark mystical forces to bind the sword's energy before they threw it as far away as they could." He added, as he cracked a wicked smile. "Too bad you don't have a source of dark magic on you."
"Yes we do." Melissa announced as a sonic orb flew low over the treeline, before its outer shell cracked open to form a set of stairs down to the ground. "Guys this is the new Citizen V and Yuki-Onna, they have decided to aid us with this." She added, before gesturing to the Blood Brother standing on the hilt of the sword like some foul guardian golem.
"Did all of my mercenaries betray me?" Keragen muttered, as Yuki took a few slow seductive steps forward.
"Looks like it." Nightshade replied, as she and Rock Python returned from the wreck of the Thunder Hawk jet loaded with a trio of pylons and a heavy looking computer monitor. "Here's those energy pylons you requested Abe? We'll set them up assuming we don't get vaporised by all that lightning."
"We may not have time." Doctor Voodoo sighed, as he looked down at the scientific equipment. "The trees of this forest are beginning to die from exposure to the sword."
"Then we have no time to waste." Melissa stated. "We'll distract the Blood Brother while you, Yuki and the Doc start chanting." She added, before taking to the air and scything towards the Blood Brother, a sonic hammer in her hand. Reaching the alien bruiser, she swung the weapon only for the Brother to grab the weapon by the head, and use it to throw Melissa over his shoulder.
"Yeah I've seen that move before!" The Blood Brother sneered, as Atlas thundered towards the Sword, his body growing larger even under the pressure of the lighting strikes directed towards him. With a grunt Erik placed his hands on the hilt of the sword, only to recoil in pain as spurs of rock erupted through his hands from the blade. "Seen that too. I've been around long enough to know how to deal with capes like you. After our scientists realised how pollution had doomed my species world, the government sent their greatest minds and strongest fighters to find this hunk of stone. Course we didn’t know where to look..."
"Oh cry me a river!" Nightshade spat as she stabbed one of the pylons into the ground.
"You wanted a river?'' The Blood Brother snorted, as the pylon began to glow, the metal melting as Nightshade took a step back, moments later a gyser of molten iron erupting from the ground. "There's the river you wanted human." He continued, as Rock Python threw a bolas at the Blood Brother, only for the projectile to miss and hit the Sword, steel cables wrapping around the ancient device.
"Anyone else have an idea on how to distract a guy who can reshape the earth around us?" Nightshade asked, as Melissa summoned a sonic cage around the Blood Brother, the alien wrestler ripping the bars away, the sound construct collapsing into blood. Distracted momentarily, the Blood Brother was struck by a missile launched up at him by Abe, the blow knocking him off the blade's hilt.
"My brother hit me harder than that." The Blood Brother hissed, as Abe and Melissa opened fire, a stream of sonic daggers and mercy rounds flying towards him only for a spur of rock to erupt from the earth and block the incoming projectiles. "He'd be so pleased that we'd found this thing." He stated, as he leapt up to where Atlas was standing, smacking him in the face before ricocheting off to reclaim his position on the Sword of Xibalba.
"He's not here though." Melissa chirped, as she flew close past the Blood Brother.
"Nah he's not. Luckily I found a way to get the muscle to back me up and disrupt your superstitious little ritual." The Blood Brother grunted as another gyser of molten metal blasted Melissa from below. "He should be turning up right about now." He added, as an explosion rocked Castle Zemo and a tiny speck flew out through part of the East Wall.
"Who was left in the castle?" Abe asked, as Erik grabbed Melissa from the molten fountain.
"We got all the prisoner out of the castle, the only person left in there is..." Melissa sighed. "You put him to sleep!" She snapped at Yuki down where she and Doctor Voodoo were sitting on the floor, ice and golden energy arching between them to form a revolving sphere of energy.
"He should have been sleeping for hours." Yuki stated, as the figure got closer and closer. Firing up his armour Abe took to the air, his MACH VI armour still sparking with lighting. Moving to intercept, the sound of rockets and missiles boomed across the sky, the flashes of light tainted red by the now alien sky above. Eventually his armour smoking, Abe landed back in the clearing, his armour charred and bleeding fuel.
"We have a new problem." Abe wheezed, as a V shaped glider flew overhead, the one man platform dropping a salvo of tear-gas bombs onto the Thunderbolts position.
"He stole my V-Wing!" Citizen V snapped as the glider zoomed round the Sword of Xibalba to begin a second bombing run.
"We have bigger problems then that." Melissa announced as she threw up a wave of sonic chaff, the projectiles popping around the V-Wing and forcing its rider to veer off course. "We're meant to throw the Sword away right? Well with two Blood Brothers guarding it we can't even get close to the terraforming device."
"We don't need too." Rock Python stated, "I missed that shot on purpose, luckily those explosive coils went largely ignored through our battle, until they had fully constricted around the artefact." He added with a wicked smile, as he tapped one of the bolas on his belt. Seconds later the coils detonated, the blast cutting the Sword of Xibalba in half and sending the Blood Brother crashing to the floor.
"You sneaky snake." Nightshade cackled, as the Blood Brother got to his feet. "You got anything to keep the Gruesome Twosome from smashing us into pulp?"
"Nothing at all." Rock Python answered, as the Blood Brother picked up the hilt from the Sword of Xibalba and swung it at the Thunderbolts, only for Atlas to intercept it before tossing it straight up into orbit, the hunk of stone cutting a blue hole in the blood red skies.
"That's half of it gone." Atlas grumbled. "Perhaps we don't need the hocus poc..." He stopped as the villain manning the glider opened fire with a salvo of rockets, forcing his giant sized target to shrink down to avoid being hit.
"The energy field is still active and spreading." Doctor Voodoo grunted. "Plus the blade is still embedded in the earth." He added, as the Blood Brother slammed his fists together, the shock-wave sending splashes of molten iron and stone flying towards the Thunderbolts, catching them off balance just as the V-Wing opened fire.
"With my brother by my side you aren't a danger to the my people's salvation." The Blood Brother cackled, as the glider landed next to the remains of the Sword of Xibalba. Dismounting from the V-Wing was an almost identical red skinned alien figure, his face skull like and sneering.
"Who?" Abe asked.
"Rumlow." Melissa answered.
"Oh it isn't Rumlow any-more." Crossbones hissed in a cold voice, as he grabbed the Blood Brother from behind and snapped the alien's neck. "Thanks to his species vampiric abilities, and advanced gene rewriting technology you're looking at the new and improved Blood Red Skull, and you're new master!!"
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