Surrounded

Mahmoud Schahed/Dial

Well, this trip to Russia hadn't held back in being weird as shit. On the plus side, I know knew where Ursa Major was. He was using a tree like a baseball bat while roaring like a maniac. Mikhail was a bear man. Who would have thought?

Seriously though, yelling out 'Winter Guard, Break Them' while looking like Ivan Drago in human form? Awesome.

He smashed a monkey out of the air, roared in annoyance when some plasma bolts hit his furred chest, then raised his tree-bat and turned a gorilla into a pancake while making a shockwave that shook the ground.

A whole lot of monkeys were flying around for the rest of us to fight though. We weren't in a clearing though. The area was very hilly, with small cliffs, boulders, logs, mud, and high piles of snow. Perfect for us to split up and conquer without getting overwhelmed.

But with the Omnitrix turned off I only had one option to attack with.

Well, I was fighting Warhammer monkeys. Might as well embrace the madness.

I raised my sword and leaped forward with the cry of the Luna Wolves. "Kill for the living! Kill for the dead!"

"Убивай за живых! Убивай за мертвых!" Crimson Dynamo roared in agreement, rushing forward like a ball of lightning surrounding a dangerous power core.

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅"was Mikhail's wordless roar.

Our two groups charged each other with death in our eyes.

Lifted twenty feet into the air by my jump jets, I came down sword point and boots first. I hit a flying chimpanzee like a meteor, my sword slicing through its chest with all my weight behind the blow. The chimpanzee roared angrily as we hit the ground, punching me in the chest. Thank god for my armor, because chimpanzees are insanely strong.

I raised my sword and slashed out like Nat had taught me, cutting the chimps head off.

A gorilla rushed me, only for Creel to grab it in a full nelson. Fantasma dropped down alongside me, holding her magic sword. With a shout, we slashed the gorilla on the chest, making an 'X' symbol across its chest and destroying it.

"Thanks!" Creel barked.

Fantasma and I shared a grin with Creel. He tossed the broken machine ape aside and punched another in the face, brawling with it. Fantasma flew to join Mikhail, and I leaped into the air again, slicing one of the baby monkeys out of the air.

As I dropped, I passed by Skye. Both of us hit the ground together near a servitor. Before it could shoot us, I sliced off its plasma arm. The creature tried to attack us with its actual hand, but Skye lashed out with a plasma palm strike, the heated attack tearing through the servitor's chest with fire and force.

"That is so badass!" I shouted.

"Right?" Skye said in exhaustion.

A gorilla dropped in between us, sending us both stumbling. He swung his left arm cannon at me, forcing me to duck. When he swung again I blocked the blow, only to shout at the pain. Yeah, big mistake trying to block a superpowered gorilla with metal limbs with a sword. My armor's servos whined as they took the immense blow, my arms feeling as though they were about to break.

Then a giant red hand wrapped around the gorilla's green orb thing, squeezing and pulling hard. In a pulse of energy, the orb was pulled out of the gorilla's back. As it whined in pain, Dynamo slid around to join me.

In that weird moment of synchronized thought, she blasted out electricity while I stabbed the gorilla in the chest, ripping the damn thing to pieces.

"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!" I roared angrily.

"...too much," Dynamo said.

"Yeah, I felt it," I said with a wince.

"Still cool."

Then I was getting attacked again, and Dynamo was blasting the monkeys/apes back. I backpedaled while slicing and blocking, my armor getting blasted bit my bit. A monkey/ape slashed and shot at me as well and a gorilla was rushing me. I used a chopping move Nat had apparently learned from the Red Room to cut a chimp head off, and kicked the other back, sending it flying.

I stumbled on a rock. "Oh fuck!" I shouted as my back hit the forest floor. The gorilla roared and rushed toward me. I crawled backward as it raised its arm-

Tree. A sudden tree slamming down from heaven, smashing the gorilla down to plant itself into the earth. Ursa Major growled at me with a beary big grin.

"Think green, da?"

I laughed, then spun up to my feet to rush for the next fight. Kraven dropped from the trees, sliced into a monkey with disturbing ease, then jumped back into them. That was the first time I saw him. But the evidence of monkey and ape robots having been sliced apart by more ruthless blades than mine was all over the forest floor. At that point, he dropped next to me.

"May I?" he asked with surprising politeness. Before I knew it, he had taken my sword and confronted a gorilla. He sliced off the green orb from its back, then it's cannon arm, throwing my sword back to me when he was done. When the gorilla lashed out, he ducked under it and stabbed the gorilla in the heart. The gorilla tried to keep hitting him, so he pulled out his bowie knife, flipped back in the air, and threw his knife, the blade digging into the gorilla servitors brain right between the eyes.

"Thank you," Kraven said with a savage smile. "I needed the extra length."

"There's a dirty joke in there somewhere," I mumbled while he disappeared again.

I landed in the center of our little group, where Coulson, Fitz, Simmons, May, and Vanguard were fighting. "They aren't running out of people, or robots or monkeys or whatever!" I panted. A monkey got on my back, claws tearing at my armor, the pressure hurting me from its immense strength. I reached back and wrapped my fingers around its tiny head. As the screeching baby monkey flared metal claws and fangs, I tossed it to the ground and stomped down on it twice, bone and metal crunching under my boot.

"We must gather!" Vanguard blocked a plasma bolt on his shield, then spun to toss it at the offending monkey. I found myself dueling a chimpanzee in claw to sword combat but I could still hear and see what was happening to the others.

"The servos!" Fitz shouted when a gorilla rushed toward May. "Left arm, just under the armpit!"

With incredible accuracy, May shot the gorilla three times where Fitz had indicated. The green glow of the left arm cannon faded immediately. The gorilla, not the least bit discouraged (since, ya know, half-robot, half-badass jungle animal), continued to rush forward.

"On the back, the power couplings, they should look like silver quarters!" Fitz shouted shakily.

May didn't respond verbally. She simply lowered her pistol and waited calmly as hundreds of pounds of enraged super ape rushed toward her. At the last minute, the gorilla was about to tackle her. She jumped up, placed a boot on his shoulder, and flipped over the gorilla. In mid-air, she fired at the power couplings Fitz had indicated. The gorilla shuddered in place, unable to move as electricity was diverted from machinery to flesh. May did a finisher with a few more shots to the head before she ran out of bullets.

"This doesn't make sense!" Simmons shouted from where she was ducked next to Coulson. "These are too weak!"

"We're being outnumbered and maybe overwhelmed, and you want these things to be stronger?" Coulson asked incredulously.

"The gorillas are powerful, but the flying monkeys are only really dangerous to us because of their numbers!" Simmons yelled.

"This job leads to a lot of weird sentences," Coulson noted.

"But the servitors we had in autopsy were much more formidable!"

"What are you saying!?" Vanguard shouted.

"This might just be Kragoff trying to drown us in numbers, with the real forces elsewhere!" Simmons ducked under a plasma shot with a squeal. I ran for the monkey that had attacked her, taking a plasma shot to my chest before slicing him out of the air.

"Then we have to finish this," Coulson declared.

"I can do it!" Fantasma flew up to us. "If you give me space! I don't want to accidentally hit anyone!"

"Winter Guard to me!" Vanguard agreed.

"Creel!" I shouted.

My best friend was holding a gorilla in the air, forcing the cyborg to fire on his allies. When he heard me, Creel tossed it aside and rushed over.

We gathered around Lola in a circle, still fighting the monkeys. The area became thick with the damn things. Chernobog was the last to join us, the dark god roaring with glee as he smashed cybernetics and flesh to a disgusting paste on the forest floor. I sliced another head off, shouting as I did so. "Now, Fantasma, now!"

She floated above us, waving her arms around her. She spoke. Chenobog shuddered in happiness while the rest of life in the area flinched. The words that left her lips made my limbs weaken, and I blinked heavily when I noticed my vision start to blur.

With a final, caustic word, her eyes glowing purple, she thrust her palms outward. Two things happened.

First, a large circle of violet flowed around us. The monkeys began to beat on it, a gorilla Mikhail had been brawling with getting its arms cut off by the shield and choosing to continue attacking with its fangs.

Then Fantasma spread her arms out, eyes trailing purple energy, sparks coming to life around us. "Burn, all of you."

With that, a skull rose in front of us. A violet one, surrounded by flames. I can leave it at that, at just that generic description.

But something about this thing… Chernobog was laughing. My heartbeat rang in my ears. I felt like I was seconds from death.

The servitors began to burn as the skull floated there. Purple flames erupted around us all, using the flesh around it as fuel. The skull just… stood there. It looked serious, somehow. Less like the grinning smiles of fiction, more like the imposing image of a judge laying down a sentence. A demon of hell, making it's sentence known.

I was reminded of Ghost Rider. Of what I thought he might look like.

And while I watched, every servitor stood still. Slowly, they turned to ashes. Even metal burning in violet fire. And the wisps of white? The souls Chernobog had been eating. They ignited.

"Beautiful," Chernobog whispered. He held a hand out reverently, pushing it through the purple shield. His hand began to burn. He twisted it slowly. His smile was gentle. "So beautiful."

The fires faded away. The skull slowly floated to look at us. Eyeless orbs panned over us, as though trying to discern if we too deserved our enemies fate. Deep within those orbs, I could see a pinpoint of red.

Maybe, if I looked closer… Chernobog was right, it was sort of beautiful. Maybe a closer loo-

"Enough," Fantasma clenched her fists. Slowly, the skull faded away before us.

When it was gone, the shield fell. "Wha-" Fitz stopped speaking, then shook his head. "What was that?"

"Magic," I whispered.

"There's no-" he stopped speaking again, eyes roaming the landscape of purple fire.

Above us, Fantasma's eyes closed as the purple fires around us and the energy around her faded. She fell out of the sky.

Massive bear arms caught her, holding her close. Mikhail looked down at her as he slowly lost his fur, his human form revealing itself as he gently clutched Fantasma's unconscious form. "Good work, lastachka," he said softly