113 Nuke (part-2)

Phil Coulson

Coulson, Skye, May, Galina, Fitz-Simmons, and Kraven all stared down at the building in the distance. It was a two-story complex, with decrepit hulks of trains all about, rusted rails covered in snow, and windows blown out by time.

Kragoff's servitors were roaming the complex. A bunch of robot monkeys hopping on top of rusted trains, flying through the air, and roaming around the tracks. It should have looked ridiculous. But dozens of primates covered in metal and able to shoot plasma was kind of terrifying. You never realized how big and strong a gorilla or chimp was.

Coulson put aside the thought, for the millionth time, of what a weird mess his life had become. He looked at the others. "What do we got?"

"Enough of an army to cover the entire area," May answered Coulson, lowering the binoculars in her hand with a sigh.

"Not quite," Kraven said. "He makes it seem like that. But watch how they move. He's there, or at least has the nearest entrance to him there."

"...Okay, I got nothing, Crocodile Dundee," Skye said after a moment of watching.

"First, I take that as a compliment," Kraven flipped his bowie knife in his hand with a smirk. "Girl, take a look," he stepped forward to kneel, eyeing the army below. "When a herd moves like this, it's because they want to hide their individuality. To keep predators like us from picking out the weaknesses, constantly shifting to hide their vulnerabilities. This Ivan has hidden himself behind a facade. But any careful person… There," he pointed, trailing his hands along. "Kragoff has patrols going past one particular spot in a perfect sequence. As long as we can follow it-"

"It looks random," Fitz mumbled.

"No, he's right!" Simmons said excitedly. Without meaning to, she moved forward to kneel next to Kraven, who looked surprised. "If we follow it…" she bit her bottom lip and traced her finger.

"Then Kragoff is there. And following the same traits found in herds-"

"So he's not a crazy nutbag?" Skye asked curiously.

"Kraven knows what he's doing," Galina clinked as she moved forward slightly.

"The logic is sound," Simmons looked up at Coulson. He crossed his arms and swayed in place for a moment.

"...We don't have much time. Creel and the others are going to intercept the army soon. So we need to move at the same time. If I'm right, they're thinking the same thing. If all goes well-"

Over Skye's comm unit, the sound of Dial's voice was projected. "Team Omega, about to attack. Should we go for it?"

Creel came on. "This is Team Beta, Vanguard is wondering the same thing."

Coulson looked at Kraven. "You're sure about this, right?"

Kraven scowled, about to speak before Simmons cut him off. "Sir, it makes perfect sense."

Kraven gave her an oddly appreciative look, then nodded. "I have experience. Not just in hunting animals, but in assaulting military bases and poacher camps. Humans are just animals who have lost their way, Coulson. And every animal is at its purest when it comes to a fight. Follow me, kill what you have to, but keep on moving. Fitz-Simmons will be in the center, Skye, you and I lead, May and Galina following."

Coulson mused on that. Then he nodded, looking at Skye. "May I?"

"Sure thing, boss," Skye held out her right hand, Coulson awkwardly uncrossing his arms to talk into her wrist armor.

"Team Alpha is ready. Let's do this."

"Wait," Kraven frowned. "We need a distraction. If we simply rush in, we'll get overwhelmed. We need someone to cause the distraction, to make sure if we do get spotted while we go after him."

"I'll do it," Galina said immediately.

"No," Coulson shook his head. "We need someone to cause a distraction, then sneak over to join us again. And you aren't exactly sneaky, no offense."

Galina said something caustic in the roughest of language.

"I have to go," Skye said softly. Everyone turned to look at her. "What? My armor is made to be able to sneak around quietly and I can make a hell of a noise if I have to. You guys wait for me to make the distraction, then go in. I'll fly after you guys."

"Then we'll have mostly internal forces to deal with," May stood in military stance. "I suggest we cause a distraction for those as well. Our goal is Kragoff. Fighting the soldiers he's got isn't as important as getting to wherever he's controlling them."

"Then that is my job," Galina said.

"Again, you'd need to sneak back to-" Coulson began to say.

"No, I don't," Galina growled. "I will simply fight them. You don't need me inside, Coulson. Skye, Fitz, and Simmons will aid you. I can stay outside and kill as many as possible."

"There are hundreds of servitors," May noted.

"Good for them. I'll give them a cookie," Galina said blandly.

Coulson smirked. "Yeesh. Kids, right?"

Kraven and May smirked as well.

"Okay then. Skye will do the first distraction, sneak away, then Galina will do the second. Agreed?"

Nodding, the two girls in power armor flew off. Moments later, the sound of plasma bolts filled the air. The small army below them spun, then ran in the direction of the shots. A large portion of servitors sent up dust and snow as leaped over rusted over trains and flew into the trees, leaving only a small amount behind.

"Go, now!" Kraven immediately rushed forward, everyone following as he had suggested. They ran through the snow and dirt as a group, charging forward. Using bushes and hulks for cover, Kraven led them along.

Coulson found it funny that somehow, Kraven kept leading them to sneak up behind enemies to kill.

"I really need to my hands on one of those Model 2 guns!" Coulson whispered as he snuck alongside the others, firing his silenced Glock, the loud shots mixing with the plasma fire in the forest to make his shots tough to track. Considering all the insane alien weaponry and tech he dealt with on a daily basis, he couldn't be blamed for the thought that a simple pistol just wasn't cutting it anymore.

"No need!" Kraven jumped like a panther, slicing out the jugular of an ape, then twisting in the air to grab it and force it to the ground, stabbing it in the brain. "No matter the battlefield, a knife will have its place."

"The super strength and speed probably help," May grumbled, joining Coulson in firing a simple pistol at her opponents. "Use the trains for cover!"

"Already doing it!" Simmons whispered, sounding panicky.

"I'm officially sick of monkeys!" Fitz mumbled, groaning as he joined the others.

They made their way to the door Kraven had indicated, the jungle fighter guiding them in his killing spree. Honestly, between May and Kraven, it was tough to tell who was deadlier. It was like comparing a predator to a killing machine. While Kraven was efficient, he was also passionate. He had a wide smile on his face as he sliced and killed, like his life had found completion. May was unmoved. She had a job to do, did it, and moved on.

Both were intimidating to Coulson for multiple reasons. Though May was far more fun to watch for him personally.

They made it to the door, which was guarded by two gorillas. Hiding behind a train, Kraven looked over at the gorillas. "Okay. Can you take care of the ligh-"

May shot out the lights. Kraven grunted in satisfaction, the gorillas roaring in confusion. He and May rushed forward through the darkness and struck as one.

Kraven leapt onto a gorilla, bringing it to the ground and stabbing it in the right eye. He backflipped out of the way of a swipe, then leapt back in to stab his opponent in the heart, twisting his blade with a savage smile.

May, on the other hand, backflipped onto it and shot it in the power couplings that Fitz had marked for her.

With both guards gone, the group entered through the door, Simmons reaching for her comm unit. "Skye, we're good!"

They all waited for a breathless moment.

"On my way."

Skye dropped out of the sky with surprisingly little noise, landing in front of them. Coulson had to fight down his worry for her. The warrior hacker was covered in plasma burns and looked as though she was in pain as she walked through the door. No one said anything as she joined them, Coulson focusing on the job.

"Okay, Galina. Hit em."

Crimson Dynamo/Galina Nemirovsky

That was all Galina needed. She'd been standing behind Kragoff's base, waiting in the woods with bated breath, almost bouncing in her armor. She raised her arms to cock them at her hips. Her chest opened up as electricity passed over her arms and legs to gather at her chest. In the center of her chest where the plates of her armor slid open, revealing a spinning orb of light.

"Dobraye ootro Cyka!"

With that triumphant cry, the energy in her chest began to fire.

An ion cannon, a weapon that used electrical charges to fire particles with immense speed and force. Fiction often displayed such weapons, from Star Wars to Command and Conquer.

It was just as powerful as you would expect and a true show of her genius.

The beam tore through several trees, ripped the dirt in it's passing while melting the snow and turning loose granules to glass, and shone so brightly it illuminated the whole trainyard as though a blue sun had appeared in the sky.

When the beam hit the building, it dusted the concrete wall. And most of the hallway behind it, a portion of the ceiling, over and over until it went through the other side of the building. Galina smirked at the loud sounds of alarm that followed, various primates shouting and shrieking as they all rushed her.

"What the fuck, Galina?!" Skye shouted over comms.

"Warn us next time!" Kraven yelled in agreement.

"That was incredible!" Fitz-Simmons said in unison, bringing a smile to Galina's face without her realizing.

Galina ignited her jets, lifting herself into the air. She growled, lifting her arms up to prepare for the fight. The ion cannon shot, powerful as it was, still caused a noticeable drop in her power reserves. She grit her teeth. "Coulson, you have your second distraction. Now make it count!"

Apes flew and ran towards her as she blasted forth twin bolts of lightning, eyes hardened in rage.

Nikolai Krylenko/Vanguard

Vanguard was in the driver's seat of Lola, Mikhail was in the passenger seat, and Creel was standing on the hood, his form changed to match the red of Lola's metal. Vanguard was shouting into a walkie talkie that came with the car.

"Yes, evacuate the entirety of the area!" Vanguard said to his superiors in Moscow. "We have a team getting ready to dismantle or stop the bomb, but we can't risk him detonating it prematurely!"

He twisted the steering wheel of Lola. Dozens of feet below, an army of vehicles and servitors were tearing across the landscape, sending up plumes of snow. Vanguard brought the car over the army and pressed a button. Bullets flew from the cars headlight machine guns, ripping into the army, which fought back as well. Creel and Mikhail dived down together, their forms rippling into shining metal and brown fur, respectively. When they hit the ground, they immediately began to unleash hell. Claws and fists began to rip apart monkey flesh. Creel grabbed a jeep and tossed it into the air, the occupants falling to the ground. Mikhail was in a duel with the bigger apes, roaring in rage.

In the meantime, Boris had apparently grabbed the radio from the terrified man who had been speaking to Vanguard. "Nikolai, we're running operations to evacuate every town and village we can. Have the reinforcements arrived?"

Vanguard eyed the horizon. Soon, a smile came to his face.

A group of tanks came over the horizon. Smaller dots walked alongside them.

"They're here. I'm going to meet them."

"Good. You have full command over them," in the background, someone shouted in protest. Boris snarled. "Really!? We are fighting goddamn killer monkey robots, let my team do their job you, Debil gazyol!" someone shouted again. "Oh, taking my job are you! Come here! No, come here!"

Loud noises that sounded suspiciously like a metal briefcase hitting a skull came from the radio, Boris yelling all the while. "You have full command Nikolai! Defend our country!"

Vanguard smirked. Boris was a politician. But he'd also been a soldier once. Time like this were a good reminder of that. "Understood!"

Twisting the flying car around, Vanguard flew it over to the army in question. Twisting, he heading to where the man in command would be, noting the formation they'd taken. An older one. Battles on open fields hadn't been a thing in warfare for a while, so it was good they were using the old methods. Vanguard used his knowledge of old Russian military tactics to guide him, coming in low. A man stood on top of a tank, looking up at Vanguard as he came in.

"Looks like your new ride has had better days, Vanguard!" the soldier cried up to him.

Lola hiccuped slightly, the poor dear shuddering in the air.

"I'm borrowing it," Vanguard admitted. "You have your orders."

"Monkeys," the man standing confidently on the tank spat to the side. "Robots. Whatever. We're here to fight."

Vanguard smirked under his mask. Had to respect a soldier. Vanguard parked the car behind the mainline, then got on top of the tank next to the soldier in command, taking a comm unit from the man and linking it to the one Galina made for him. Thinking of the comm unit she'd made for him reminded Nikolai of Galina and Dial's recent obsession, he shook his head and smirked.

"Drive us closer, commander. I want to hit them with my shield."

The tanks and soldiers charged to meet the apes. Bullets began flying. The apes responded as well, the tanks stopping at range to fire on the vehicles and gorillas as the soldiers found what cover they could. Vanguard blocked a shot from a gorilla cannon on his shield. One soldier was shot in the chest, plasma flash boiling the liquid inside him to tear the poor man apart.

Vanguard grit his teeth in anger but kept his focus on the battle. Yelling into his comm unit, he felt his eyes flicker from moment to moment, death and destruction all around him.

"Cover the left flank! Our enhanced units are on the right, we can afford to send less soldiers there! Tanks, stop shooting the small fry, we need to take out the heavy units!"

The second they came close enough, he got into the fray himself. Slamming the pointed tip of his shield into one chimp, he ducked under another, punched it in the chin, then twisted in a spinning kick to knock another over. The tank turret spun around, forcing Vanguard to duck under it's cannon as it passed over head. As he came back up, he backflipped through the air, landing among the other apes to start throwing punches again. The battle became thick with blood, a tank exploded, and another one fired. Vanguard defended a man, only to stop when he realized that man was Creel.

The men shared a brief look. Then they stood back to back and started fighting. Mikhail roared past using his claws to capture a chimp and rip it in half.

More and more servitors charged. More men died. Vanguard grit his teeth, back to back with a man he didn't trust, calling commands all the while.

Team Alpha needed to finish fast, or else they'd lose purely by exhaustion.

Mahmoud Schahed/Dial

We went down the stairs slowly, me in the lead, Chernobog and Fantasma behind. Chernobog was having trouble with the stairs however. His big feet were just too large for the stairs, leaving him grumbling as he had to keep adjusting to keep from falling on his face. Finally he just floated off the floor and followed that way.

For some reason, despite also having giant feet, I didn't seem to have any trouble at all. As long as some part of my feet were touching stone, I was fine. It was a subtle ability, but useful in terms of my balance.

At the bottom of the set of stairs was a series of different hallways. We looked around at them. There were six. I could see down each of them, with the large amount of paint peeling off the walls to make each of them look more like a trail through a forest rather than a stone hall.

A light from behind me drew my attention. Chernobog and I turned to see Fantasma raising a hand covered in a purple 'glove' of magic and a white light in her palm.

"Sorry," she said with a wince. "I didn't bring a flashlight."

"Where would you even put one?" Chernobog said shooting a look at her clothes.

She glowered at him.

"What, that's a fair question!"

"I mean-" I was about to say, only to get glared at as well. I blinked. "I didn't realize it was dark, to be honest. I have perfect night vision in this form."

"Of course you do, you're a Rock Troll," Chernobog said with a grunt. "You aren't named that just because you're as dumb as one."

I scowled, then focused on the job in front of me. "Okay. Which way?"

Fantasma looked around. "We can't just guess. We have to be sure."

I thought about that. Rock Troll. I'd tested the form before, but apparently testing it in a lab setting was less helpful than I thought. But Chernobog had said my night vision was to be expected. Because I was a Rock Troll? Why…

I walked up to one hall. Working on instinct, I closed my eyes. I could feel the earth speak to me again. Well, not speak. In some sense, it was like a very lowkey version of Swampfire's power to talk to plants. Stone and dirt didn't have any sort of life. But I could read vibrations and shifts in the earth like it was a language. Following that, I walked around for a moment. The image we had seen when Kragoff sent the video through that orangutan had been of a cavernous room. So we were looking for an empty space of that size, with a big metal bomb in the center, maybe defended by more apes.

I felt it after a moment. Something sang to my senses, told me that was what I was looking for. The closest equivalent, at least.

"This way," I said, walking down a seemingly random hallway.

"Are you sure?" Fantasma asked.

"Nope," I admitted freely. "But if we're going down a random hallway anyways, it might as well be the one that feels right. I'll trust my troll instincts over chance."

We all walked down the hallway together. Every once in a while we'd come to another set of halls and I'd take one after a moment of thought. We made our way down the disgusting halls, stepping over debris and peeled off paint.

"This place could use a decorator," I mused.

"What, you don't think Kragoff has a monkey just for the purpose?" Chernobog said sarcastically.

"Why monkeys anyway?" Fantasma mumbled.

"Hey, everybody has their own thing," I shrugged. "Tony has his suits, some people have robotic tentacles, Kragoff has monkeys and apes."

We stopped in a room, a big oval lobby type of place. Shattered glass rested on the floor along with destroyed sections of the furniture. Moss was everywhere and the whole place had a disgusting slimy feel to it. I stopped.

"We've got incoming."

As I said that, in the hallways around us, flickering green lights came to life in the darkness, followed by the sound of heavy breathing.

Only four of them though. That surprised me. After an army popping up every time, I could only feel a few.

One of the four stepped out of the shadows, striding toward us.

Kragoff was carrying a cane, stepped toward us in that calm and measured manner that Fury had perfected. The man was just like we'd seen him before, balding at the top of his head with long strands of his remaining hair falling to his shoulders. His eyes were hard, flinty I guess you could say, and he was frowning like we were unruly students in his classroom. He wore an old military uniform under a red winter coat that made him look even more severe as he stared at the three of us.

"Sup," I said instantly.

He sneered, speaking in Russian. "Leave. Now."

We all shared a look. He sneered a bit more. "I knew you wouldn't listen. That someone would be sent to disrupt the bomb. It is why I am here. To give you a final chance. You foolish children have no chance," he snapped his fingers.

Three beings came from the shadows.

One was a gorilla. But it dwarfed all the others that had come before, standing even taller than Chernobog. It was covered in brown armor of steel across it's chest, back, and arms, and his eyes glowed red. The guy looked like King Kong shrunk to barely fit in a building and somehow became ripped. The armor on his arms glowed a slight white, like they were surrounded in energy.

The second was a baboon about the size of a human. He had armor that looked almost loose, gray in color with larger sections along his back. The armor suddenly shrank to become skin tight, with the looser sections flowing to become wings. It wasn't catoms or nanotech or anything, but it was advanced.

The last one was another orangutan. It was floating in the air, electricity floating about armor sections on the arms and legs, with metal slowly circling it like lightweight Magneto.

"You see, while my creations are quite powerful, none of them can match my pride and joys. My three original designs. Miklho," the gorilla growled. "Igor," the baboon flew up on wings of metal. "Peotor," the orangutan raised a fist as steel circled it in the air even faster. "Prevent them from disabling the bomb. I will deal with their allies."

Kragoff faded to nothing. A hologram.

The gorilla rushed forward with a deafening roar. Chernobog laughed. "Come on, Furious George, show me what you got!" The two met in the middle with immense force, spinning into a kiosk that might have once held a bored secretary and turned ancient office supplies to rubble.

Chernobog reached out for the gorilla, Miklho I guess, and pressed his claws to the gorilla's chest. Presumably to simply rip his heart/soul out and end the fight.

Glowing white energy that erupted at the point of contact stopped him in his tracks.

"Oh?" Chernobog clawed at the gorillas chest again, only for the white energy to become a bright flash of light, strong enough that even Fantasma and I were almost blinded and probably would have been had it been aimed our way.

Chernobog, much closer in proximity, roared. "AHHH! You absolute fuck!"

Chernobog stumbled back in pain, his shadowy form flickering. The gorilla raised a fist and promptly socked Chernobog in the face, sending the dark god through a wall. Apparently Kragoff had more tricks up his sleeves.

The orangutan, Peotor, rushed Fantasma, flying on currents of lightning while swinging his arms forward, small metal spikes flung towards her. Fantasma floated up and backward, raising her arms to create a mandala shield in front of her. She grit her teeth as the metal shards bounced off her shield only to fly back and hit the shield again. She fired a magical beam, only for the monkey to raise and combine metal shards together to block the beam.

While those two had a duel in the air between metal and magic, the baboon, Igor, stared at me.

Nonplussed by the intense glare, I hesitantly spoke. "...So, uh, how you doing? You wanna fight or-"

Igor rushed forward before I could finish. His armor flowed to surround his hands to become two long sword blades, slashing at me. I raised my hands and blocked the swords on my forearms, tried to front kick at the baboon. He spun out of the way, then slammed his blades against me again, getting me in the chin.

"Goddamn it!" I swung at the thing, only to miss. "One day, I'm going to meet a bad guy who responds to me being nice to them in a good way!"

"WRACH!" the baboon's armor on his fists grew to become massive mallets, the monkey punching me back into a wall.

Okay then. Apparently he was too fast for me to hit.

The baboon flipped over another punch, punched me again, stabbed at me with a sword hand, flew up on shapeshifted wings and dropped behind me to punch me again.

And he was a shapeshifter. I mean, technically his weird as hell armor was shapeshifting but it was fucking with me either way.

What had Hawkeye told me all that time ago in Rio? That I held back with the watch? Well, a nuke was a good time to unleash everything I had.

Before I could do anything to that effect, the baboon's fingers became five long claws. He slashed at me and I blocked it on my arm again. He got through my skin this time, slicing into my flesh. I shouted in rage, stepping back. I glared at the deep red cuts. "Rude!"

Then, before I could say anything else, the cuts stopped bleeding at a very fast pace, enough that I noticed it.

"...Neat."

Cool. Grendel had regen.

With that in mind, I had to change forms if I wanted to touch this guy. I slapped the Omnitrix symbol on my chest.

Fur and flesh went from orange to blue, and I lost hundreds of pounds of weight in favor of a more svelte form.

"FASTTRACK!"

"Shapeshifting is my game, asshole," I said with smirk, rushing forward. "And I'm the master of this universe!"

Until someone else showed up at least.

Igor the Baboon swung long claws at me as I sped toward him. I slipped around his slash with ease and punched him in the face while running past, basically clotheslining the thing. Iran back around, ready to attack, only for Igor to try to escape by forming wings on his back again and flying upward. I ran forward at full speed, then jumped. In a flash of green, my form shifted again, fur being replaced by orange scales.

"ASTRODACTYL!"

"Squawk!" I blasted forward, my organic jetpack using star power to send me into Igor. We smashed into the ceiling in a crater-making impact.

"Crach!" Igor snarled, flashing fangs at me, then slashing out. I dived back to hover with my wings and fired a blast of green power from my mouth. Igor shapeshifted a large shield out of his armor, which took the blast. I made a whip from my left arm and slashed outward with it, catching the ape by the foot. Igor tried to swipe at the whip with a sword, but I pulled as hard as I could.

"Squawk! Shout out to Wonder Woman!" I joked while spinning around in a circle, pulling the baboon around with me. Swinging him outward, I let go of the whip to send him flying into the ground. I shifted again as I rocketed toward Igor, the baboon still dazed from the impact.

"FOURARMS!"

Still shooting at the ground with the force of Astrodactyl, a full ton of Tetramand slammed into the ground fist first and shattered Igor's attempt at a shield. My four fists slammed into baboon flesh, then through it, the sheer force of my impact cratering the ground and sending the corpse flying.

"I told you! Universe's best!" I crowed.

Just as I said that, Fantasma and the Magneto ape flew by. I leapt after them, ignoring the corpse of Igor to try and grab his orangutan buddy as he kept trying to kill my new friend. I shifted in mid-air.

"SWAMPFIRE!"

Still shooting forward on the propulsion of Four Arms leg muscles, I hit the orangutan hard, wrapping a hand around his face to start punching him.

"OOK!" enraged, the orange furred ape surround himself in blue electricity. I took the current to my system and fought through it, ready to unleash fire, only for metal blades to start slashing at me. A small storm surrounded me when just a few blades didn't dissuade me for trying to break the giant orangutan's ribs.

My arms were torn off, my head was ripped in half, my heart was torn to pieces, I was basically the literal interpretation of every country love song.

"Dial!" Fantasma shrieked in horror.

I grit my non-existent teeth and regenerated, grabbing the orangutan with my left hand as my arms regrew, my plant fingers wrapping around furry legs. Swampfire wasn't about to die just from being torn to pieces. "I'm good! Let's do this!"

My right hand grew back as I lifted it up. I unleashed fire from my palm, engulfing the insane cyber monkey. The orangutan snarled. Didn't know these guys can snarl.

A metal wall of razor-sharp metal blocked my fire. With all that metal blocking me, it let Fantasma strike. She unleashed a bolt of violet magic, sending him to the ground as I let go. Fantasma and I landed side by side, both of us raising our arms to aim at the orangutan. We released blasts of fire and magic at the same time, the orangutan shrieking in rage as he was torn apart. After a few long moments where metal around us shook, he finally stilled.

Before we could relish in our win, Chernobog roared to our right. Spinning around, we watched a gorilla carried along by a ballistic xerox machine go flying past us, bouncing along the ground to roll back on to his feet.

I stared at the giant hunk of Soviet-era steel and plastic that had been used to launch a twenty-foot tall gorilla across a room. "Printer?"

"I ran out of desks and old school printers are giant fucks," Chernobog growled, stumbling toward us. He looked… pissed. Like, amazingly pissed off. His armor was scratched and beaten, practically destroyed, with pieces falling off.

"You, uh, want some help?" I asked curiously.

He growled low and hard, striding past us. "No. I'm killing him now!"

With that, the shadowy demon stalked toward his prey. When the gorilla rose, the beast roared, swinging a fist at Chernobog. Chernobog ducked under it, responding with an uppercut that send the gorilla stumbling back. The white energy around the gorilla glowed again, only for Chernobog to grab a section of floor from the crater Four Arms left behind and blocked the flash of light, smashing the gorilla with the concrete right after.

"NO! No more tricks!"

The two locked arms, shadows and gorilla flash struggling. The gorilla roared, flecks of spit landing on Chernobog's face. Chernobog roared as well, slowly overpowering his opponent and forced the gorilla's back to the wall.

"No more magic!"

Chernobog reared back his head, then slammed his helmeted head against the gorillas. The helmet shattered with the impact, dispersing into flecks of black ash. The gorilla's nose and jaw shattered, blood spilling on the dusty floor, dripping down black fur, splattering both of their armor.

Chernobog used his opponent's daze to snarl in his face."Know this ape,"he grabbed the gorilla and lifted him up into the air above his head, slamming him into the ceiling. Twenty feet and thousands of pounds of mountain gorilla and armor lifted right off the ground. Then, as Fantasma and I watched in stunned silence, he put his hands to the gorilla's waist. The sound of flesh and metal beginning to tear slowly filled the room.

"I am CHERNOBOG! I AM THE BLACK GOD!"

Shadows in the room lengthened. The horrific sound of a gorilla shrieking in fear and pain bounced off the walls.

With one vicious pull Chernobog pulled hard. Skin and steel ripped apart in a line at the gorilla's waist. Muscle split with a disgusting sound. Bones shattered, spinal fluids mixing with the fluids. Another vicious tug, Chernobog ripped the gorilla in half.

"I AM THE STRONGEST GOD THERE IS!"

Chernobog roared in glee, tossing aside the halves to the ground as he was soaked in the blood of his opponent.

The gorilla was still. Then, the upper half slowly tried to force itself to move, fingers clenching slowly. It gaped at us. It reached for us. Anger was still in its gaze. Even after all that, it was still trying to kill us.

Then a massive foot slammed into the things head, shattering it apart. Chernobog raised his hands and released a primal sound, before eyeing us. For a tense moment, I thought he might turn on us.

"...I love my job," he said in satisfaction.

"Clearly," I said as dryly as I could. Fantasma held a hand over her mouth, then shook her head, turning to the hallway.

"W-We have work to do," she said shakily.

At that point, the Omnitrix beeped. In a moment, I was back in human form, still covered in my black/green armor.

"She's right," I said. I retched but managed to keep my lunch down when the smell of the… everything hit my nose. Swampfire didn't have any sense of smell, so it hadn't been noticed until right then.

Fantasma and I shared a hesitant look, then started running, Chernobog following