Marvel Iron Age: Cage, The Fist part 8

Continued from here part 7

Southern Wastes

A young mutant girl flees in terror as a group of goblins chase her down. She fell to her knees in the middle of a swampy area and leaned on a tree as her pursuers moved in to capture her. As one was about to grab her a shadow came over him as something rose from the muck.

the goblins immediately began shooting the swamp creature who barely seemed to notice. He placed a sloppy wet hand on the nearest who started to scream as his flesh burned under its touch. The creature then proceeded to slaughter the rest of the crew. It then turned and the girl covered her head with her hands and began to beg for her life but the creature ignored her completely as it walked west, leaving her in relative safety.

***

Near Lake Tahoe, Nevada

The group followed behind Slapstick and his cart in a truck they'd taken from the goblins. The rear of the truck was filled with a dozen children that the goblins had intended to sell before they were beaten. They were stopped by two men dressed in clothing made from Krang hide with heavy guns. The larger of the two stepped up with a flashlight and looked them over before shouting to the other, "Its just Slapstick."

Fiddler Back stepped out into the snow and found it a bit odd for this time of year, "I heard stories about a frozen wasteland in the middle of Nevada, wasn't sure it was true."

The man nodded, "Some Omega level mutant with Ice powers died here during the take over, ruined the place for everyone but us."

The spider looked him over, "And you are?"

"Alex Russel, over there is my brother Mac. I see you brought us some more mouths to feed."

Slapstick hopped up, "That's what your father built the place for."

Curtis popped his head out, "What place?"

Alex looked over, "The Orphanage."

***

They drove for another half mile before entering a village built around the broken down ski lodges that once housed the rich who used to vacation here. Tiffany noticed that the place seemed almost entirely populated with children and teenagers all similarly dressed to Alex and Mac. As they hopped out an old man with a grey beard walked up and put out a hand to shake. As Curtis took it he introduced himself, "Ed Russel, I'd ask what brings you but I can smell that bastard goblin they call Ogre on the truck."

Curtis looked up, "You've heard of him?"

"He's the reason several of my kids are here."

Tiffany was a bit confused, "You smelled him?"

"Enhanced senses are one of the bits that come along with the Russel family curse." He then looked back to Curtis, "I take it you're this Iron Fist, we been hearing about?"

He then looked to Alex, "Get some blankets and have some supper made up, these kids look hungry and tired."

He then gave the Krang pulling Slapstick's cart a pat on the head, "How you doing Bongo?"

Fiddler Back looked to Slapstick, "You named Death incarnate, Bongo?"

Slapstick nodded, "I thought it fit. And he's not death incarnate, he's as tame as a Krang can get. I bet he'd just barely maim you if you got in biting range."

He looked Ed over, "Why ain't he biting the old man?"

"Krangs don't eat werewolf, the meat is toxic to them."

Fiddler Back started to nod as Slapstick walked away, "Wait... What the stark did you just say?"

He then ran to catch up with the group as they continued on.

***

Northern California wilderness

Balain and the Grey halted as Ogre sat propped up against a tree. Balain pointed her repulser at his face, "You wouldn't happen to have seen a couple people riding on a cart pulled by a Krang?"

He spat at her, "I ain't got a starking thing to say to an Iron b**ch."

She shrugged and looked to the Grey who forcibly entered his mind, "The one we seek soundly defeated him and took the spider children he intended to sell."

Balain gritted her teeth at that and knelt beside the man, "Last time I checked, slave trading was illegal in this part of the world."

He gave her a hateful grin as he chuckled a bit, "A morality lecture from an Iron goon? Look woman, the only difference between your kind and mine is that tin plate scrap on you."

She punched down on his broken knee, "If I had the time I'd drop you in the ocean, but you lucked out."

She then stood and gave the goblin a hard kick to the ribs, "I think the Krangs heading this way will deal with you just fine."

He fell to the ground and spat some blood as he glared at the general, "I'll do just fine."

They then moved on as Ogre pulled himself back up.

***

Outside Little Rock, Arkansas

An Iron soldier walks the perimeter of an outpost as a creature made of swamp muck marched past paying no attention. He moved in front of the thing with a shaky voice, "I-Dent."

The creature placed a hand on the soldier's chest and burned straight through the armor and into his flesh killing the man. He then pushed him aside and walked onward.

(To be continued)

@batkevin74@Time_Phantom@TommytheHitman there are more I wanted to call out but it wouldn't let me

@cbishop

Good stuff! Looks likebyou've got some THINGS going on! heh...

@joshmightbe: Nice Continuation. I wonder who burned up that Iron Soldier at the end and what Ed Russell has to do with things.

@joshmightbe: Added to the Marvel Iron Age Library. :)

@impurestcheese: "Whatever knows fear burns at the touch of the..."

@cbishop: Oh him. Hey @wildvine it's that thing you like

@impurestcheese: Just in case no one figured it out, Ed and his sons Alex and Mac are descendants of Jack Russel, AKA Werewolf by Night. It will be important soon. And Yea, that was Man-Thing burning folks.

@joshmightbe: lol I'd never caught taht Werewolf by Night's alter ego is Jack Russel! That's funny! :D

@cbishop: Its an easily missed pun

@joshmightbe: I never knew his alter ego name, but I'm surprised it's not pointed out more often.

@cbishop: I'm surprised no one noticed that I just gave the Krangs a weakness

@joshmightbe: I noticed, and figured it might come into play later, but I'm not sure to what end, so I just figured I'd wait and see. Is it a reference back to something TMNT?

@cbishop: No honestly I just wanted to justify a tame Krang but when I actually thought about it it was actually the first time that I know of that anyone has mentioned an actual weakness for the creatures.

@joshmightbe: You've implied something else about Krangs with that, and I don't think it was intentional- an ability to tell werewolves without biting them (perhaps by smell?) and a certain level of intelligence. Otherwise, how do they know werewolf meat is toxic to them? Is it not fatally toxic, so they've all bitten into one at some point, and had a bad few days? Or have they learned from observation? Or do werewolves hunt Krangs, so Krangs are afraid of their predators, knowing them by smell? ...You don't necessarily have to address any of these questions in-story, but you've created a whole other can of worms for yourself. ;)

@cbishop: We could just say its instinctive, they were originally a result of Sinister's genetic experiments so maybe he gave them a natural ability to recognize things that could harm them and avoid them. I wrote a chapter that heavily implied that Stryfe initially had Sinister turn them loose as a method of population control and to force people to move to the relative safety of the cities where people can be more easily monitored and controlled.

@joshmightbe: Sure, that works.

@cbishop: There is a chapter of Hardy and Creed where Agent Fry explains a bit how things went when they first showed up, I won't go into too much detail but suffice it to say it was a horrifying bloody mess.

@joshmightbe: Yes, yes, yes...I'll get to your bloody forty-one chapter epic! But seriously:forty-one?! ;)