Lamar, Colorado The Bar With No Name
Lash stumbled upon the place but knew it from rumor that it was the ideal place to gather information out in the wilds. He walked in and was greeted by a waitress with a name tag that read, 'Pretty Peggy.'
The irony of this name was not lost on Lash as he thought to himself that he'd seen prettier krangs. He took a seat and ordered a drink and questioned the bar tender,"You wouldn't happen to have seen a fairly large man that looks a bit like a tiger traveling with a Spider by the name of David Hardy, would you?"
The man looked him over, "That all depends, if you're with Ferrum, or the iron c**ts then you're in the wrong place."
Lash noticed the sound of a great many guns being readied to draw. He grinned a bit, "You'd all be dead already if I was."
The patrons eased up a bit as the bar tender continued, "We all been a bit on edge since they started leveling cities, Sergei would be the guy to ask but the boss has been awol for a bit. If you ask around I'm sure someone can help out."
He placed a mug of beer in front of Lash and walked away. Just then a man stepped up behind him and gave him a shove nearly spilling the beer. Lash looked at his mug, "Easy boy, you nearly committed suicide there."
The man chuckled, "Pale face here must not be from around here, we don't take kindly to Spiders and their buddies here."
Lash turned and gave an amused expression to the Goblin punk standing there, "I'm neither, so move along."
The man then poked him in the chest, "People don't tell Goblins to move along here."
He rolled his eyes and rose to his feet, the obviously drunk man puffed up his chest as his friends became nervous about the man standing nearly two feet taller than their buddy. Lash looked down, "Move Along."
Just then a more sober Goblin stood up, "You got a problem freak?"
The dozen or so other Goblins in the bar then stood pulling guns as the other patrons slipped out. Lash sprung out his tendrils when a loud croak like voice rang out. It was Pretty Peggy standing with a rather large plasma caster, "You take it the hell out side or there won't be enough left of the lot of you to fill a body bag."
The Goblins lowered their weapons and backed out of the place as Lash gulped down his beer and tossed his money on the bar. He then walked out to the waiting crowd of taunting Goblins. He nodded and shot out a tendril ripping the head cleanly off the man who'd caused the ordeal to the shock of the crowd. He then wrapped another around the neck of the apparent leader and forcefully dragged him into arm's reach, "I've killed more Goblins than the entire Colorado division of the Iron army combined, you want to leave here breathing, you do as I goddamned tell you to. Do you understand me?"
The Goblin nodded as he fought back tears. Lash continued, "I was asking about a Spider named David Hardy and a Creed he's traveling with, have you heard of them?"
He nodded, "Yea, we all have. Hardy brought down a grind and that cat guy killed a whole crew of us a while back. Please sir, don't kill me."
Lash dropped him to the ground, "Any idea where they might be?"
The man still sniffling, "Heard they had a run in with the thieves guild down in Louisiana, that's all I know, we keep clear of them damn Creeds."
Lash then asked, "Where's your ride?"
The man pointed to a motorcycle with a Green Goblin head painted on the tank as Lash stepped over him, "Its mine now, and thank whatever you insects worship that I find you too pathetic to kill."
The Goblins quickly got out of Lash's way as he walked over to the bike, he then pulled out a knife and scraped off a huge portion of the goblin head and started the bike.
***
Ferrum HQ, Chicago
The Chairman stares at a bank of monitors, "Pull up the Vault."
He looks as the footage shows Lash freeing Zemo's crew. He pays close attention to every detail of the prison break that followed and Zeroed in on Lash disappearing in the crowd. An assistant asked, "Why the focus on this man?"
He looked back with narrowed eyes, "Essex made him specifically to kill me, best to keep track. Zemo seems to be holding his leash currently but he left without the rest. I want every Iron Hall on the continent on high alert, shoot on site orders."
The assistant nodded, "I'll get word to the Supreme Commander."
The Chairman sighed as he realized he'd forgotten his charade for a second, "Very well, any word on these Avengers?"
The assistant shook his head, "Sorry sir, still no news but the sweeps continue."
***
Los Angeles Iron Hall
Falcon Helfitta oversees the repairs to the complex as a man enters his office, "General Sir, might I have a moment of your time?"
The General looked the man over, he noted the expensive suit, slicked back hair and manicured fingers that had probably never done an iota of actual work in his life. He instantly disliked him, "Fisk, already told me you were coming. Frankly I don't care for the cloak and dagger crap."
The man took a seat, "Well sir, it is a bit of a sensitive subject."
Falcon sighed,"Fine, you got a name Slick?"
He smiled, "Names aren't important. What is important is what Mr. Fisk feels he needs to draw your attention to for the sake of the people and your soldiers."
Helfitta choked back a laugh at presenting Fisk as altruistic, "Get to the point."
The man straightened in his chair, "It's occurred to many in the Corporate structure of Ferrum that the Chairman has become a bit erratic, making rash decisions, mass firings, even physical threats to executives, and your Supreme Commander, is not helping. There have been some murmurs rumbling around about perhaps convincing them to step down, perhaps let some new blood step up. The thing is there's really only one man who the army would unquestionably follow so the common thought is that perhaps you would like to become the new Supreme Commander."
Helfitta damn near clapped for the man's obviously practiced speech, "You realize even having this conversation is treason."
The man waved a hand dismissively, "This is all purely hypothetical of course but think about this, your soldiers are running themselves to exhaustion enforcing these increasingly draconian policies, the people are spitting on them in the streets and everyday there are more and more pockets of resistance popping up. Spider and New Latverian support is at an all time high, the Goblin gangs are growing out of control and we have Shield constantly sniffing at our heels. Add in all these wannabe Super heroes popping up and we fear it may be too much for him."
Helfitta stood, "If he were to ever voluntarily step down and asked me to take over, I wouldn't hesitate. But that's not going to happen, you have no idea how far he's willing to go. You think what's happening now is rough, pay more attention. The only difference between now and the past is that it got put on the news. Tell Fisk he better be damn sure before he takes a shot."
The man's smile faded, "Well I'm sorry you see it that way sir."
The man reached into his coat and at that moment the General put two bullets in his chest and watched the man drop along with the phone he tried to pull out. He then hit his comm, "I need investigators up here now, also I need a body disposal."
(To be continued)
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