Marvel Iron Age: Unlikely Allies
Part 2 of 4
Espania,
2178:
Ngumi Takada stood on the grounds of Nunez villa. What was once a beautiful vineyard on the coast of Espania (formerly Spain) was now in flames and reduced to rubble. After being pushed from Madripoor by Sonja Nunez aka Mysteria, Ngumi and her Wild Pack mercenary group or what was left of the two hundred former Shield agents and mercenaries she had picked up over a decade. A dozen of her comrades discovered where the leader of Black Air lived. After a slow campaign of bombing, infiltration and cyber warfare, Ngumi had broken the organization.
“Damn you Deathstrike!” Mysteria growled as she lay with her arms and legs broken at the gates of her mansion. Corpses of her troops were sprawled all over the grounds. She seethed at her victorious rival. “These were my best troops! You butchered all of them!”
“And hacked into your bank accounts. You’re broke. I’m so rich it’s filthy, which is great because starting over is going to be expensive!” Ngumi said as she plunged her sword into Mysteria’s thigh.
“You made it personal!” Mysteria screamed.
“Why? Because I took some contracts from you? Took out some of your men after they launched attacks on my organization?” Ngumi said as she twisted the blade in her leg. “Oh and the personal attacks on my reputation? Very immature, by the way. ”
Mysteria spit at Ngumi’s boot. “So you did this because you like to plug teenag—“ The merc boss was cut off by Ngumi swiping at her left side, cutting through her left arm with her sword and lodging her blade in-between her ribs.
“That’s disgusting.” Ngumi deadpanned. “If I was a different sort I’d have killed your sister Amanda who lives in America. You know she changed her name when she got a mysterious email about the things her big sis was doing?”
“Leave her alone!” Mysteria screamed as she writhed in pain on the ground. “You starking animal! If you touch her I’ll—“
“You’ll kill me.” Ngumi finished as she lifted Mysteria’s right leg and chopped it off at her knee. “A hundred years of hearing of hearing that statement is so irritating.”
“Taichou! Hurry up already!” Ngumi heard from behind her.
Ngumi looked over her shoulder two girls and a few other men belonging to her Wild Pack. “Jess, shut up. Captain Takada is just expressing herself. Don’t be rude!” Said a black haired girl looking at Mysteria’s bloodied visage like a meal.
“Kira you’re a stark!” A teenaged Jessica Mongoose said. “I just don’t wanna deal with Leann puking everywhere! You know how bad she gets after a mission like this? She’s at the transport with Firefly balling her eyes out!”
2201 Now,
Above Madripoor:
Ngumi flew a stolen S.H.I.E.L.D aircraft after her meeting with Scalphunter. She gunned it full speed out of New Latveria and after twelve hours she arrived in Madripoor. “We’re getting ready to land.” Ngumi said as she spoke into her radio. <Madripoor air control this is Major Ngumi Takada. Requesting to land.>
“I was starting to think you were smart, eggroll!” Scalphunter mocked. “You think the Iron Hall is going—“
{Permission Granted. Be advised that General Zhoi is on the grounds and will personally process your visit. Have your passport ready.}
<Thank you.> Ngumi replied. Ngumi turned to Scalphunter and said, “This is Madripoor. Of course they’re going to let me to land. The General wants to get paid.”
Madripoor,
Lowtown:
“So just like that? We pay General Year-of-the-dragon and we get into a country under the Supreme Commander’s control? And how in stark did you get five million credits?” Scalphunter lamented loudly in a busy street, earning the annoyed looks of several passers-by.
“Being a mercenary for thirty years paid well. “ Ngumi answered. “Don’t you bribe people while getting around?”
Scalphunter’s eyes widened in surprise and pretended to be appalled, “I don’t have time for all that! A little dismemberment is faster.”
Ngumi rolled her eyes, “I’m sure.” Ngumi looked around. Much of low town was as it was during the 21st century; though the new century had caught up with most parts of the city. Flying cars hovered above the cracked streets below. Huge towers hung over older buildings like a cape. Merchants on the streets sold their wares, clubs open at all hours of the day were busy and the poor rubbed shoulders with the rich.
“So, about Mysteria…” Scalphunter tried to ask, while he rubbed Ngumi’s shoulders in a familiar way. “You say she’s dead. How dead though? We live in a world of Life model decoys, cyborgs, zombies and—“
Ngumi smacked Scalphunter’s hands away, “I chopped her arms and legs off and then I made her bite down on a stick of dynamite! That is how dead she was!”
“Soorry! Lighten up rice ball and remember you’re the one with a time limit so let’s just hurry it on up before I lose you in this crowd. Couldn’t you people look just a little different?” Scalphunter whined to Ngumi.
Ngumi stopped and tensed up at the reminder about her girls. She got over it and kept walking with Scalphunter next to her. They entered an upper class lounge just before getting into High town. Large rugs with floral patterns where on the floor, the windows where decorated with silk curtains and crystal chandeliers. A large spiral stair case led to the second floor of the lounge where men were carrying large crates into a freight elevator.
Ngumi looked around and took in the area. “I need to talk to the owner of this place. He knows me so—“Ngumi turned to see Scalphunter chatting up a curvy, large chested woman in revealing dress and held a small note book. Next to her was a smaller man in a feathered cap that feigned disinterest, but was clearly watching the two. “Have fun.”
“Lady Deathstrike! It is so good to see you!” Squealed a male voice; walking toward her was a man wearing a bandana and an ugly floral patterned shirt.
“Good to see you to, Stroud.” Ngumi answered as she met the man in the lobby.
Stroud’s eyes narrowed on the former Shield agent as he looked at her from head to toe. “Well it’s nice to see you can still fill out a hard-suit, super spy. I just wish you didn’t come today.” Stroud said as he gestured to Ngumi to follow him.
“Why is that?” Ngumi asked as she held on to the pistol holstered on her hip as she scanned the area around her.
Stroud shrugged as he led her to a private room that separated them from the rest of the lounge by a gold curtain. “It’s a business day. The boring part of my job, I couldn’t possibly host you properly today and I’m a touch irked that you brought a scoundrel and fiend to my establishment.”
“I’m helping Scalphunter.” Ngumi answered as she sat on a rug across from Stroud.
Stroud sat down and faced Ngumi. His shoulders hung low and he looked away from her. “I know. He’s black mailing you and those babies and that poor girl, Leanne.” Stroud held his hand on a wood block and pushed down. The block disappeared into the floor and with it a hookah with a lit coal sitting above it raised itself. Stroud unwound the hose from the pipe and took a long drag of smoke.
Stroud exhaled a thick white cloud and softly said, “I pray the Shinigami have taken her without pain, Deathstrike.”
“Then you know I need information on, Mysteria. Scalphunter seems to think she’s alive.” Ngumi said with an edged voice.
Stroud let the hose dangle from his mouth with wide-eyes. “You aren’t even gonna ask how I know about that?”
“I’ve learned not to ask.” Ngumi answered.
Stroud exhaled more smoke, “Well as you know I’ve got ears in certain places. The right places.”
“And it’s all for sale.” Ngumi said.
Stroud smiled, “That’s right!”
“So is she alive?” Ngumi asked.
“Yes.” Stroud answered as he took in another puff of smoke and exhaled into the air. “Back from the dead. Crazy right? Now she wants Scalphunter dead. He apparently killed a family member. A sister?”
Ngumi inhaled deep and closed her eyes as she took the time to remember. Sonja Nunez had a sister. “Amanda.”
Stroud made a sharp smile; smoke seeped from between his teeth as he answered. “That’s correct. Well she married General Falcon Helfitta, shortly after Gerald Wimple… Scalphunter proceeded to have a good rape of her. Then killed her. Or kill and then… well the reports are sketchy.”
Ngumi grabbed the rug tightly between her fingers, “I didn’t ask that!”
“Well after Mysteria’s resurrection she discovered this. She rebuilt Black Air and is making big moves in Western Sahara. She’s back in business and deals almost exclusively in Africa. That’s why you haven’t heard about her. Nobody pays enough attention to that continent.” Stroud began to yawn as he answered.
“So this bounty on his head is retribution for the death of her sister?” Ngumi asked. She knew Scalphunter was scum. But the rape charge she didn’t expect. He always seemed the type to kick a puppy and take a liking to it, but not rape prone. Another reason to kill him if this mission goes wrong, Ngumi decided.
“Yep,” Stroud said as he produced a data pad tucked in the back of his pants and handed it to Ngumi. “You’ll find her there. Best of all, Lady Deathstrike it’s free!”
Ngumi cleared her throat and couldn’t stop blinking at the man. “Free?”
“I owe you one! Besides you really don’t have time today.” Stroud said as he took another long drag of the water pipe.
“What are you talking about?” Ngumi knew something was up; this information alone usually a small fortune by itself. “What is so special about today?”
Stroud blew smoke in Ngumi’s direction and answered, “I may have known you’d come here. Maybe I sold information on Scalphunter’s possible location to an interested party? Maybe the fact a wanted criminal such as yourself, successfully bribed a General is because I paid to make sure that you’d be here no matter what.”
“Stroud?” Ngumi growled. Ngumi’s grip tightened on the pistol she held since entering the room. “What did you do?”
Outside the room the building shuddered, glass shatter could be heard; the wind roared and sent heat rushing in from the outside. “What the hell was that?” Ngumi shouted as the ringing in her ears started to die down.
“A squad from Black Air is attacking the lounge looking for Scalphunter. Don’t worry the Iron army who has members vying for the reward money as well are en route. Civilian casualties will be high.” A bemused Stroud answered as he stretched his arms out.
Ngumi stood up, unsheathed her sword and drew her pistol. “I need him alive!”
Stroud shrugged, an indifferent expression shrunk on his face. “Nothing I could do really. At least they paid me enough to cover the costs of the resulting damage. I’m barely making a profit here!”
Ngumi grunted and rushed out of the private room. “Good luck, Lady Deathstrike!”
The lobby was totally destroyed. Bodies were strewn all over the ground with glass and other bits of debris covering them. The wounded cried out in pain as others fled. Ngumi continued forward, a fine cloud of dust had built up in the lobby and fire was scattered around the lounge.
“Is the target down?” Ngumi heard from outside the twisted broken frames that were once tall crystal doorways.
Ngumi immediately hugged the wall before stepping out. “He’s got a healing factor! Stark if I know!”
“Well then we just cut his head off. Right?” Said another.
Ngumi waited. Three soldiers carrying pulse rifles walked in. Ngumi raised her pistol and fired into the back of the first soldiers head, the man next to her whipped around as Ngumi thrust her sword in his stomach. Ngumi pushed herself forward as the third gunman fired into his comrades back. Blood splashed Ngumi’s face as the impacts ripped into the man at the end of her hilt.
Ngumi kicked the man off her blade with enough force to send him flying into the shooter. Ngumi quickly got above him and shot the struggling mercenary in the head. “One. More. Time! Oh jingle bells… jingle bells… So many bells!” Ngumi heard Scalphunter sing from the other side of the receptionist’s desk.
Before Ngumi could respond to the master killers butchering of a Christmas carol the hum of a hover craft and the whirling of gun turrets coming to life spurred immediate action. Ngumi ran for the desk as bolts of energy whizzed passed her head.
Western Sahara,
Black Air HQ:
Mysteria sat at her desk in a dark room. A hologram of the lounge and the surrounding streets were on display. From half the world away she led her teams in attacking Scalphunter. “Team 6! Team 1, Iron soldiers are inbound. Slow them down enough to let teams 7,2 and 10 converge on the lounge. Scalphunter is not getting away from me!”
The merc boss closed her eyes. Scalphunter was close she could feel it in her bones. Mysteria’s body had been completely rebuilt; now improved with several bio and technological enhancements. Her eyes and facial scars held a faint orange glow beneath them that hinted at the extensive cybernetics in her body. It took years after coming back to life to get to this point. Sonja Nunez died. She came back. She had to rebuild. She did. Now the head of the European Assassination Division was in her sights.
“Team 7 isn’t responding to our calls!”
Mysteria’s eyes snapped open after she heard this news. “What the hell is going on?” She grunted. Using her display she followed Team 7 inside. The squad kept the drone outside. A mistake. “Helmet cams.” She ordered.
Mysteria watched the recordings. The last man was dispatched easily and left the soldier in front of him exposed to attack. The attack was a woman. She moved quickly and efficiently. Firing into the remaining soldier to stun him and then killing them both. Mysteria recognized their killer instantly, “Deathstrike!” Mysteria screamed as her eye implants began to flare brighter. “Team 6 I want you to pull back and hit the lounge with teams 7, 2 and 10!”
“But team 1…”
“God help them!” Mysteria shouted. “You know your orders! Nothing leaves that lounge alive!” Mysteria was actually excited. The woman who murdered her and the man that destroyed what was left of her family were in the same place. It was perfect!
Madripoor,
Lowtown:
Ngumi and Scalphunter bolted for the stair case. Lazer blasts from the drone’s turrets scortched and splintered the wooden staircase. “Why are we going up?” Scalphunter asked as if he were tone deaf.
Ngumi kept running. The drone was in pursuit of the pair. “Take your chances with the drone if you want!”
“First smart thing you’ve said all day, chopsticks!” Scalphunter said as he abruptly stopped running and unsheathed his sword. He tossed his sword high into the air above the drone. “Look ma! No hands!” He yelled joyously as he jumped from the top of the stairs to the top of the drone with his arms stretched out.
Ngumi was not amused and kept running. “That idiot.” She mumbled. When she looked over her shoulder she saw something else much more impressive. As Scalphunter landed his sword dropped into his hands as he sunk his blade into the drone. The metal on metal cutting made sparks fly as the drone lost control and crashed.
“It’s not plagiarism if you didn’t say I couldn’t steal your move!” Scalphunter grunted as a broken arm and a deep laceration on his face began to heal.
Ngumi sheathed her sword and turned towards the stairs. “Just keep moving. None of these guys are gonna lay down out of pity like Mongoose after a few Long Islands.” Ngumi grumbled.
“You know her to?” Scalphunter asked without an answer.
Ngumi and Scalphunter sprinted up the cramped stairwell. They still had no idea what was going on. An explosion rocked the building. As far as they knew the Iron Army was coming here to claim Scalphunters bounty. Ngumi wondered about a resurgent Black Air. Twenty years ago she decimated their ranks and drained their accounts. They were utterly defeated. Now she’s here fighting them again.
“All I’m saying is you knew Sable and you know that traitor Mongoose!” Scalphunter snarked. He barely hid the mischievous grin on his face. “Did you run a harem?”
Even Ngumi smiled at that, “Shut up!”
“I can’t blame you. Sable and Mongoose are babes! I saw those old pictures,” Scalphunter laughed. “If even the mighty `chopsticks’ fell to temptation, what hope would…”
Ngumi whipped around suddenly and slammed Scalphunter into the stairs. “Ouch!” Scalphunter yelled as Ngumi muffled his voice with her hand. Ngumi pointed up and then Scalphunter heard the clattering of footsteps a few floors above.
Ngumi while on top of Scalphunter put a finger to her lips and with the press of a button on her gauntlet she faded from view. “I need one of those!” Scalphunter privately lamented.
Ngumi crept up the stairs. Five men were making their way down the stairs. A cloaked Ngumi made her way to intercept them. Ngumi flipped over the railing and held herself on a bar as she waited for the men to pass. Ngumi waited until the last man to grab one and pull him over the railing. Ngumi with a hard pull shot up into the air and unsheathed her sword. Ngumi charged the last four. She cleanly decapitated one and cut through the pulse rifle of another mercenary. Ngumi danced around that soldier and delivered an elbow to another which caused his head to smack against the wall. The soldier released his weapon that Ngumi caught. One of the mercs had made it half way down stairs until Ngumi depleted the battery on the rifle on him.
“I hate lasers.” Ngumi said as she fell out of her suits cloak. Ngumi stabbed the man she had elbowed in the chest, killing him and creating a fine pool of blood on the floor.
“Stay back!” Said a mercenary Ngumi had left alive. He was huddled up against the back wall, holding a pistol in his quivering hands.
“You aren’t going to shoot, me.” Ngumi said as she walked closer to him with her grip on her sword tight in her hand. Just as Ngumi spoke two gun shots rang loudly in the stairwell and the mercenary Ngumi was ready to interrogate was missing his head.
Ngumi turned around to see Scalphunter in a prone position on the floor; seeming to not mind the pool of blood he was in. “Pop goes the weasel!”
“You’ve got a problem.” Ngumi mumbled as she continued up the stairs.
The Roof:
Ngumi and Scalphunter had made it to the roof top without further incident. They had noticed more bodies of Black Air soldiers began popping up. They learned why. Apparently several of Stroud’s men rallied on the roof. In the crates from earlier were weapons and they had used them to Make sure Black Air didn’t capture the building. Among the weapon cache was an unmarked transport they were surely going to use.
“Lady Deathstrike!” Said one man that had rushed his way to the assassin and said, “Mr. Stroud said to make everything up here available to you.”
Ngumi looked to the transport. After today there wouldn’t be enough money in the world to get her shuttle back and she was not going to be stuck in Madripoor. She wasn’t going to spend time fighting the Iron army and Black Air. She didn’t have time. “Have one of your men start that bird up. I’m taking it.” Ngumi ordered to the man.
“But ma’am the Iron men have the city under lockdown by now. Black Air is all over the place. Someone is going to shoot you down.” The man said.
“Tick tock!” Scalphunter mocked. “Those littlin’s don’t have time. I mean I know how to get, Mysteria now. I just need the tin men to drop me off after this, Aunty Gumi.”
Ngumi walked away and looked over the edge of the roof. In the streets Iron soldiers fought against Black Air forces on the ground. Civilians were in the way. They died in the cross fire. Just like in Doomstadt during, Wide Awake. Death was everywhere. The mangled bodies of the civilians in the lobby and the men she had killed flashed in her mind. “ Ngumi bit her lip as she took in the chaos. Her girls would be next if she didn’t think of something. `Washed by the fire of a psychopath.’ Ngumi thought darkly at the fate of her wards that would now happen unless she could finish this.“Fire!” Ngumi said out loud. Ngumi looked around at the crates piled up. Ngumi walked to one in a series of ten crates that read: Combat Drone.
“Hey, do these toys share a network?” Ngumi asked as a hologram of a monitor produced itself on her wrist as she began typing.
“What are you doing?” Scalphunter asked without the slightest bit of interest as he looked over Ngumi’s shoulder. “You know this is a lost cause?”
“Come on… Gerald. I know we’re having fun!” Ngumi said darkly as she ignored a glare from Scalphunter. The drone in front of them came to life. The others rumbled and broke out of their crates as Ngumi typed and turned them online. “What kind of payload do these things have?”
Stroud’s man crossed his arms and spoke hard at, Ngumi. “The buyer of those particular drones requested they be fitted with missiles armed with White Phosphorus.”
“Willie Pete.” Ngumi said her face didn’t show any emotion and neither did her voice. White Phosphorus was an incendiary that would burn anything from fuel, to mercenaries and slow the Iron soldiers with enough collateral damage to distract them long enough to get out of the country she hoped. “Perfect. Reminds me of Indakistan before the war.”
“Jeeze, chopsticks and you say I have a problem?” Scalphunter said, still looking over Ngumi’s shoulder, his attention wondered. He raised a hand and quickly pressed on her monitor, “What does this button do?”
The drones shot into the air and dispersed throughout the Low Town district in a flash. “Burns us a way out of here.” Ngumi answered as she closed down her hologram with a small smile on her face.
Another man besides the one who addressed Ngumi when she got there announced, “The transport is ready Lady Deathstrike.”
Ngumi noticed the anger in his tone and how he wouldn’t look at her as she passed him. Scalphunter said nothing about it as they both went on. The explosions down below made the building shudder. People screamed. The air burst. The first fires had started to rain on Low Town. Low Town and the people living here were burning. They seem to scream like they were demanding to be heard and the wind carried their voices to Ngumi to make sure that happened. Ngumi still smiled a small smile as she left. There was more death to deal. Her girls would be safe. No matter what.
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