Ch. 4

-POV Nick Fury Helicarrier-

"Director Fury, the council has made a decision." a woman's voice said from the video console in front of me.

"I understand that the council has made a decision. But given that it's a stupid-ass decision, I've chosen to ignore it." I retorted back.

The video of a man became prodemant and said, "Director, you're closer than any of our subs. You scramble that jet-"

Before he could finish I interrupted him, "That is a civilian island. That ship is here to help us when none of our military assets are in range. Until I'm certain my team can't hold it, and if the unknown force becomes hostile I will not order a nuclear strike."

The man countered, "If we don't hold them there, and give the chance of this unknown force a chance to strike. We will lose every."

"If I send that bird out, then we already have." I retorted and ended the call.

-Hulk POV-

Hulk be having fun smashing things. Hulk is at big tower with bad light shooting in the air. Hulk see bad man in green land on top of tower and jump up to smash some more. Hulk lunch green man through glass when Hulk gets to him. Green man hits wall and lands on face, Hulk pounds fists on ground and charge. As Hulk gets close, green man gets up and yells, "ENOUGH!"

"You are, all of you, beneath me!" Green man shouts and continues, "I am a god, you dull creature. And I will not be bullied by-"

Hulk had enough. Hulk grabbed green man's leg and picks him up. Hulk does what Hulk does best, Hulk smashes green man on the ground side to side. After couple of smashes Hulk leaves green man in the ground and Hulk starts to walk away to go smash more fun things.

"Puny God."

-Felix POV-

This little outing has been fun. I've got good company, a target-rich environment, and it seems like our armory is advanced enough to make these Chitari swiss cheese. The one they called Black Widow had gone off to stop the device that was opening the portal. So the ragtag group was me, Jennifer, and the man in the blue suit who went by Captain America. I don't like him that much, too much of a prude, but Jennifer is a blast to be around.

We were running around the city to the hotspots and cleared them up. With Retribution camped out at the entrance of the portal not many of the Chitari reinforcements were making it through. Periodically I would check in to see how our forces were doing, so far we have minimal losses. The weapons these Chitari's were using paled in comparison to the Covenant's plasma-based weaponry. So instead of a Marine or ODST going down in one shot, they'd only be injured and could be medivac back to a FOB(Forward Operating Base).

The flow of the battles started to ramp up, it had the feeling of a final push. The Chitari had become desperate and started to swarm near the FOB my forces had set up for them and the civilians. By now all the big bastards had been taken out by us, something called a Hulk, and apparently, a God named Thor. Right before this push started we got comms from Retribution that the Chitari were heading for the FOB. I sent out orders for the ODST and Dagger to perch up in the buildings, and the Marines to all dig in at the FOB.

We Jennifer, Cap, and I reached the FOB it seemed like this was the prime spot. There were so many costume individuals, people in yellow jumpsuits that had a giant black X on them. Some dude dressed in a leather devil outfit that I swear didn't have any eyeholes. Then there was a badass-looking dude in all black except for a white skull on his shirt. He was decked out to the 9s with his weaponry, I'd like to have a beer with him too. Man has his priorities straight. Then there was this weird dude that had a white streak of hair on either side of his head and had a friggin big ass red cape.

We didn't have long after we arrived before the push started. Let me tell you, these people surprised the hell out of me. The ones I named X-Squad started it off when one of them let out fuckin lasers from his eyes, while the blue one rampaged like a beast. The redhead was floating in the air and every time she flung her arm a Chitari would be flung away. Then you had the Blind Dumbass Devil, who for some reason didn't have see-through lenses on his mask, jumped into the fray with nunchucks and laid a surprisingly coordinated beatdown. What really shocked me was Pajama Cape, from what Jenn told me he actually uses magic, he was tearing up swaths of Chitari. Then we have the Punisher, dude was punishing the Chitari with the shot placements. He somehow got a hold of an Assault Rifle and he was enjoying this target-rich environment. The way he was going at it he'd be one hell of an ODST, might have to look into recruiting him.

With all these special individuals exhibiting their powers, my forces felt invigorated and didn't want to be shown up. The Marines brought 2 Gaus Warthogs and 2 Minigun hogs to the front lines and started to wreak havoc. The ODST in the buildings along with Dagger team picked off the commanders in the rabble below. I did catch a glimpse of Heather with a rocket launcher on each shoulder firing them down at the crowd, with Jace reloading for her. I swear I could hear her cackles of joy from down here.

Halfway through the Chitari massacre, a voice I wasn't familiar with came over the comms.

"Stark, do you hear me? You have a missile headed straight for the city." the man said.

I looked over to Cap and he just winced at me and then flung his shield into a grunt.

"How long?" the one named Stark replied.

"Three minutes, max. The payload will wipe out Midtown." the original voice said.

"FOR FUCK SAKE, CAP WHAT ARE YOUR PEOPLE DOING?!" I yelled out to Captain America.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Cap yelled back.

Artemis cut in before I could berate the useless man. "Felix, this is beyond them. Hell, it's even beyond the Director that has the field. I've been monitoring all communication and it's coming from some Council that runs them. The Director told them to pretty much fuck off, and they went around him and called up two pilots. One was shot down by the Director personally before it even took off."

"I fucking hate politicians!" I screamed out.

"Don't worry, Fury has Iron Man on it." Cap tried to placate me.

"Art patch me through to Hamilton and McGee," I shouted.

"Get the Redemption into orbit now! The fucking asshats have sent a nuke!" I ordered as soon as the comms opened.

"Already on it. Fury just informed me." Hamilton replied and I cut the transmission.

Turning to the side I yelled, "Yo Punisher!" Would you believe it, the guy actually turned to me and gave me a questioning look. I just threw him my Battle Rifle, which he caught after dropping the Assault Rifle he had. "Knock 'em dead," I added as I turned back to the fray and brought the handle to the Plasma Sword out. Igniting the thing I charged into the fray to relieve some frustration at fucking politicians.

The ignition of my sword might as well have been a signal. All the firing from the Marines and ODST stopped, and 5 more sounds of Plasma Swords igniting filled the air. It was followed by 5 different colored armors falling to the ground from one of the buildings. The Chitari tried to swarm us, but we were cutting them down like wheat in a field. After a minute the more combat-experienced ODST had made it to the ground and ignited the Plasma Swords they had plundered and joined in the fray.

--Punisher POV--

This fight is the worst fight I've ever been in. I was in the city scouting out a crime syndicate when the Chitari attacked. As soon as I saw what was happening I rushed to my safe house and geared up. Once out the fight got tough, and there were a couple of harrowing moments. But it all changed when I saw a weird aircraft dropping off a bunch of soldiers and a vehicle with a giant mounted machine gun in the back. As they deployed I followed them to see what they were up to, and found them rescuing civilians and giving hell to the Chitari. I linked up with them as they dropped off a group of civis at what looked like their FOB. Once I let them know I was a retired Marine they gave me a hearty Oorah and a gun. The Sergeant explained, "Once a Marine, always a Marine."

So here I am at what seems to be the final push of these bastards. We have supers everywhere, and this intimidating ass 7-foot metal man. Watching him shoot was like watching a master pianist play, it looked like it came naturally. One of the Marines next to me saw me staring at the killing machine and asked, "First time seeing a Spartan in action?" I looked over towards him and nodded. His battle buddy then slapped the back of his head and said, "Of course it is dumbass. Were you not listening at the briefing?"

I ignored them and continued firing the Assault Rifle I had been given, it was the smoothest weapon I'd fired in my life. After getting lost in the flow of the fight I heard "Yo Punisher!" from my left. Turning I saw the man in the armor staring at me and I gave him a questioning look, his reply was to throw his rifle at me. I dropped the rifle I had earlier and caught his, it was followed by a couple of Marines around me saying "Luckyyy." But the Marine next to me who talked earlier had a shit-eating grin on his face.

"What?" I asked him.

"Oh you're in for a treat, better get some shots off right with that baby while you can." He said as he turned back to the fight and started to mag dump into the fray.

As I turned back to the fight and popped off a couple of rounds with this beauty I heard a hissing sounds to the left. When I looked over I saw the Spartan with a glowing sword that extended from the hilt into two separate blades, one on each side. When he and She-Hulk started to run into the fray it caused all the Chitari to focus on them. All the Marines around me had stopped firing and watched the spectacle.

"Oh shit he is pissssed." a marine hissed out.

"You think he lost another bet to Dagger 1?" another questioned.

Before any more speculation could be had, 5 more hisses sounded. Then I saw something that I would never forget, 5 more of the armored individuals fell from the sky. They all were like reapers of death, killing the Chitari by the dozens with a single breath.

"Damn! They're all in on it, I bet you those old farts in the ODST are running down now to join the fray." someone said to my side.

"Shit if I could kill an Elite and take a sword I'd be in there too!" another moaned out.

"ODST? Elites?" I asked the guy to my right.

"You'll find out later, Petty Officer has his eyes on you. If he recruits you, you'll find out," he replied.

"Were you recruited?" I asked

"We all were, only the best of the best here. Fought back overwhelming odds, and held. That earned my spot in this platoon." he said.

Before I could ask any more questions more of the hissing sounds of the swords igniting were heard. Turning my head I saw tens of men running out of the buildings and joining the fray. By now it was a bloodbath with Aircraft flying over taking out any remaining Chitari that were still in the air. I decided my questions could wait and enjoyed the show like everyone else.

-Felix POV-

As we were fighting many of the melee heroes joined in while we left our hopes up to this Iron Man to redirect the nuke. I had lost track of time in the thrill of combat when the Chitari around us had all suddenly fell to the ground limply. The remaining fliers in the sky came crashing down to the ground all around the city.

After looking around and seeing the battle over I got on our comms and started to give out orders. "ODST I want you to go back to your drop-pods and secure them, deadly force authorized if people do not comply. Dagger, back up the ODST and secure the pods of the lost ones if we have any. Marines gather up all the injured and police all-out weapons. Pelicans I want 1 running Medivac the other 3 on drop-pod retrieval. Retribution, have weapons for retaliation. I want targets of opportunities if we come under attack again." I ordered out, and it was followed by a chorus of confirms.

"Hey wait a minute! Why are you authorizing deadly force and preparing to attack?!" Captain America came stomping over after hearing the orders.

Turning to the costumed man I stared him down. "You're asking why when your country launched a nuke at us?"

"They must have done it because it was for the greater good!" He tried to reason, but not believing it himself.

"Greater good my ass. With Retribution camped below the portal stopping anything from entering there would be no reason to send it. No, your fucking government doesn't want to deal with a force that can handle what they can't. So back the fuck off and be boy scout somewhere else." I spat at the man and walked away.

"Art, connect me to this Fury. Also, dig into whoever sent the order for the nuke. I want all their dirty secrets." I ordered.

"Got it! Patching you in now." Artemis said

"Who is this? How did you get this frequency." A man's voice on the other line was heard.

"I'm the Commander of the UNSC forces. Petty Officer Spartan Felix-116." I introduced myself.

"How the fuck did a Petty Officer become a commander of a ship?" he asked incredulously.

That caused me to chuckle, only a fellow soldier who's been in the shit would act this way. "It's the goddamn military, if something makes sense then the whole universe would end." I chuckled out.

"Well Petty Officer what can I do for you?" he asked with mirth in his voice.

"First off, consider this part is repayment for warning us about the nuke. We are retrieving our drop-pods, keep your men clear or we will open fire." I stated.

"Any other demands?" Fury asked dryly.

"Demands? You are misinterpreting the situation. This is the beginning of reparations. What a better way to start to appease the force that helped save New York and got a nuke tossed at them for shits and giggles."

"I fucking hate politics." Fury grunted out.

"You and me both, we'll be in touch." I finished and had the connection cut.