Chapter 32: The Nevada incident P2

Screams tore through the night sky while long tongues of fire touched the clouds. Looking down from the chopper, Barton took in the hellish scene below and gulped nervously. He could make out movement on the ground where two inhuman creatures were making a mess out of Fury's perimeter.

The army and SHIELD personnel were way out of their depths in dealing with the threat, and it showed on the ground. The creature wielding a gun that spat out hellish fires set armoured vehicles ablaze. It seemed to be trying to rendezvous with the other creature, the one with horns.

"Coulson, are you seeing this?" Barton asked into the comms.

"I wish I was dreaming, Agent Barton. But, yeah. I'm seeing this." came the reply.

"Well, you've got a problem on your way. Trap 1, the one with the gun, is heading your way," said Barton as he traced the path of the creature, which easily reduced vehicles into ash as it trampled everything in its path.

"Barton, do you have eyes on Trap 1?" Coulson asked from the comms.

"Yep. Trap 1 has more range as it is using some kind of gun that appears to be a plasma weapon." Barton reported.

"What's the range of this weapon?"

"Can't say for sure. Maybe a 100 ft, based on the performance so far. But I wouldn't be surprised if it has more range."

"What about damage?" asked Coulson.

"Catastrophic. Trap 1 can reduce an armoured vehicle into ashes in less than a minute." Barton reported.

For a minute, there was static from the other end.

"Acknowledged. Strike team Two, you are authorised to use cannons and other heavy weaponry. I repeat, all weapons are hot against Trap 1." Coulson's voice from the comms came this time, and the message was for everyone.

Barton looked at the fellow men inside the chopper.

"Well, you heard Agent Coulson. Let's give 'em hell."

"Weapons hot." the pilot said before taking a sharp round with the chopper.

Barton held onto his bow and made sure his equipment was strapped tight on his back. He slowly pushed the doors open as the chopper aligned with the roofs of a nearby building.

"Well, let's do our job people." Barton shouted before he secured himself onto a wire and jumped off the chopper, followed by his team.

The minute Barton's feet hit the ground, he was on the move. He quickly disengaged from the wire and ran as fast as his legs could carry. His eyes strayed towards the carnage down below, where the creature was spewing out fire and plasma like it was a walk in the park. The sheer amount of civilian lives lost in the incident was another thing to worry about if this whole thing could be wrapped up. Barton wouldn't lose any sleep over some radical mob getting some medicine of their own, but on a spreadsheet, the body count matters. Hardly anyone was going to write the dead off as insignificant, his personal opinion notwithstanding.

Besides, there were bound to be other casualties aside from the mob that burned the mosque. The reaction to this whole debacle was also something he was not looking forward to.

Barton paused after he made a final leap into a building with a good vantage point. His team was suitably spread out and ready to turn the heat on the rampaging creature down below.

"Strike team in position?" he asked through the comms.

"In position, sir."

After getting the confirmation, he opened the channel to the chopper's pilot.

"Strike team in position. Bring the rain."

The pilot positioned the chopper against Trap 1 and made a nosedive with weapons hot. The street down below was bombarded with heavy cannon fire as well as anti-tank missiles. The weaponry tore through vehicles, roads and other nearby utilities.

Looking down from his vantage point, Barton looked through his night-vision goggles to take stock of the target.

"Trap 1 has slowed down. Strike team, you are clear to engage."

Barton's order was carried out, and his team started to shell out some RPG rounds and some pyrotechnic charges on the creature. Early engagements with Trap 1 and Trap 2 had shown virtually no effect while using normal bullets. Incendiary attacks, on the other hand, with enough explosive force, seem to at least challenge both Trap 1 and Trap 2.

As his team provided the necessary cover fire, the chopper pulled out of the nosedive and prepared to put some distance.

Barton locked the settings on explosive arrows and patiently waited for his team's cover fire to dwindle. When his team paused their attack, Barton took aim with an arrow and waited for the dust to clear. From the sky, the chopper took up a stationary position and flashed its light on the creature's location.

As the dust and smoke slowly ebbed away, there was no sign of the creature.

"Does anyone have eyes on Trap 1?" Barton asked into the comms.

"Negative sir."

He got a string of negatives from the team, which made Barton seek out the chopper.

"Use the thermal scanner. Scan all the buildings and find the target."

Barton waited for the creature's location while he looked for any sign of the enemy.

"Sir, thermal readings are all over the place. We can't get an accurate reading."

Barton uttered a few choice curses under his breath before ordering his team to change their positions. It'd be the height of stupidity to maintain the same position when facing an enemy of this calibre. Just as Barton gave the order and was about to contact Coulson to keep an eye out for Trap 1, a manhole cover blew straight into the air with an ocean of steam pushing it straight up with tremendous force.

Time seemed to slow down for Barton as he watched the manhole cover smash right into the face of the gunman on the chopper. The steel cover didn't stop there and smashed into the blades of the chopper right after the gunman. The chopper veered off, and the blades were taking heavy damage.

Barton had to abandon his post as the chopper's tail smashed into the building he was perched. He could hear the concrete get ground by the chopper's tail and hear the blades cut through the air, drawing ever closer to his position.

By some stroke of luck, the chopper got stuck on the roof, thanks to the concrete and steel bars acting as a hook to prevent it from falling onto the street. Barton got to his feet and was about to rescue the survivors from the crash when a plasma bolt, which looked more and more like a glob of lava, struck the chopper's fuel tank.

Barton had only a split second to react, so he dived for cover behind a thick concrete wall. The heat from the explosion was almost unbearable, and he thought he was a goner. Despite the cover, Barton's suit caught fire, and he had to roll on the ground to put out the fire.

This action, unfortunately, attracted the attention of the creature. It was the first time Barton was face to face with the creature and it was truly a sore sight for his eyes.

The creature had an outward, near-human appearance, but Barton knew it was anything but human. Both of the creature's hands were made of metal. One hand had claws, while the other was made in the form of a gun. The skin on the creature hugged into its bones, giving it a starved look. It had a bald head with sprouts of dark hair here and there. An eye patch covered the face of the creature, which, for some reason, was steaming.

"Come, little human. Your soul will ensure the sleep that this Ghost craves." the creature growled.

"Oh, yeah. I'll sing a lullaby for you creature." snarked Barton before he fired off the arrow he had in his hand.

To his surprise, the arrow went right through the creature and stuck on a rooftop where the rest of his team was taking cover. Before Barton could warn his team, the arrow exploded, showering his team with blocks of concrete.

"What the fuck!" Barton cursed before throwing a smoke grenade at the creature.

Realising that his team was down, Barton jumped off the building and fired an arrow on a wire to swing down to the street. As he hoped the creature also jumped after him. He was quick on his feet and took cover behind a car while he threw an incendiary grenade at the creature.

Barton could see the grenade blast barely phased the creature. He switched on the comms quickly.

"Sir, I need backup. We lost the bird, and my team is down. I don't think I can slow this thing down with my weapons. It's as if this thing is unkillable."

Before Barton could hear any response, he was forced to roll away from the cover of the car as the creature reduced it to a smouldering lump of melted metal. Barton reached for another grenade, but he was forced to roll away as the creature fired off the gun.

"Come now, human. Meet your end with dignity. After all, it's rare to meet your end at the hands of the Flying Dutchman."

Just as the creature was about to turn Barton into a pile of ash, a camera light flashed, giving pause to the creature.

Even Barton, who had just seen his life flash before his eyes, stared incredulously at the blonde-haired woman holding a small camera in her hands. He wouldn't be surprised if the woman were an aspiring journalist.

"No matter the day and age, there is always an abundance of idiots littering around the world." snarled the creature before aiming its gun at the woman.

But before the creature could pull the trigger, a bright red beam of energy punched into it, pushing it back. The skies rumbled, which made Barton look up. There, among the clouds, he could see a dot of light that looked like a star moving down towards them.

"Urrrrrrrraaaaaaaa! Come down from the clouds, servant of God. Come and fight me." the creature roared to the heavens.

As if accepting the challenge, the clouds parted, and the light punched through the air straight towards the creature. There was another blast of energy that the creature defended using its metal arm. Barton rolled away, fearing for his life, as the white light smashed into the creature, kicking up clouds of dust.

When the dust settled, there was a floating figure right over the creature clad in shiny silver armour. There was a silver spear punching through the creature's chest, pinning it to the ground.

Despite being saved from what was most assuredly a grisly death, Barton was on edge when it came to the new arrival.

"I've got a flying masked fellow on the scene." he whispered into the comms.

"You asked for backup, Agent Barton. This is the backup." came Coulson's reply.

"Oh! That makes sense." he said sarcastically into the comms.

Who was he kidding? Nothing made sense anymore. But this was not the time to ponder about the intricacies of his life. So, he took a deep breath and made his mind ready to do what must be done.

After that, Barton turned his attention back to the floating figure, who had picked up the gun attached to the creature's hand.

"It's some kind of plasma weapon." Barton said, thinking the information might be useful for the floating guy.

"I doubt that." said the floating guy, showing Barton the empty chamber of the gun.

There was no ammunition in the gun! Then what the fuck was this creature firing at him all this time?

"Ha! Hahaha!"

Barton flinched when he heard the evil laughter from the creature making him point an arrow at the impaled creature on the ground.

The creature stirred and suddenly began to laugh like a maniac.

"God, this thing does not die." Barton whispered in horror.

"Then you should blame God for my survival. He sends his servant to beat me down, but he won't bother to release me from the grip of the devil. If he truly wishes to rid this world of my existence, he should just do it. Instead, he plays this cruel joke." the creature rambled rabidly.

"What's he rambling about?" Barton wondered out loud.

As a last-ditch effort, the creature fired off a blast of energy from its eye patch. Barton was about to dodge, but the energy was stopped in its tracks when a dome of blueish shield sprung up around his saviour.

"Well, that's a neat trick." Barton whistled in appreciation.

"You should take cover, Agent Barton. Things are about to get far more troublesome." the masked guy replied in a garbled voice.

Barton eyed the pinned creature and shrugged.

"This is new for me, but I can manage."

"I was not talking about Ghost." said his saviour.

The ground shook behind Barton, and turning around, he saw the most hideous and demonic creature he had ever seen in his life.

"Remember me, homie. I am the Baker, and I'm going to bake you all in flames of Hell."

'What the fuck is wrong with the world?' Barton wondered as he stared at the sick smile on the horned creature with red skin.