Marvel Team-Up #2 featuring 3-D Man and Shriker

Jack D'Auria doubted he would make it to Yankee Stadium for first pitch.

He was in a cab and on his way there. Danny, one of his best friends, was already waiting for him near there. They were going to get some real thin crust New York style pizza and some good microbrews. Then he saw it go down.

He saw the armored truck almost run over some teenagers. He saw the mercenaries shoot down three of the four with tranquilzer darts. He saw the fourth, a blond girl who looked like she belonged in an underground music club, fighting one of the men despite being shot with one of the darts. He yelled for the cabbie to stop. He jumped out of the cab without paying and was on his way to help when the man in the red and green costume rounded the opposite corner as quick as a gazelle. Jack figured the man had to be a super hero of some sort, both from his outfit and the way he trashed two of the men with inhuman speed. One of the mercenaries near the armored truck touched the ground and magic fire erupted from the street. Jack was on the same side of the firewall as the mercenaries, but they tore away from the scene before he could reach them.

The man dressed like a walking Christmas decoration was tending to the girl, who had been pistol-whipped to the ground. Jack stepped off the curb to head that way and lend whatever aid he could, but then he saw the other men.

They walked out of a shadow cast by a building near the red and green man. They made no sound. There were five of them. Four carried long, curved daggers. The fifth wasn't so much dressed in black as his tailored suit seemed to be made of blackness. He was Arabic, and his bearing seemed almost regal. He gestured at the four armed men and then at the super hero and the woozy girl.

"Behind you!" Jack yelled.

The hero turned to see the approaching men. The Arab spat out some magical word and thrust his hand toward Jack. An arrow made of sizzling light erupted from the Arab's hand. Jack's trained reflexes helped him dodge the magical blast in the nick of time. It struck the wall of the bank behind him and burst into a thousand weird little tendrils before it disappeared.

Jack ran behind a bus stop as New Yorkers, who had stood dumbfounded during the first attack, now scattered as more magic bolts exploded around them. Jack pulled the mask and his oak palm stick from his back pockets. He put on the mask and then ran straight at the Arab.

****

3-D Man heard the warning from the man in the Toronto Blue Jays shirt. He turned to see four men dressed like the other mercenaries advancing on him and an Arab in a dark suit commanding them. He had no idea where they'd come from or who they were. He knew they were after the girl, and that was enough. He stood next to her, knowing to charge them might expose her for further attack.

"Bring it," 3-D Man said as he raised his fists.

Two of the men charged him, but two of the others ran across the street. 3-D Man looked left to see the man in the Blue Jays shirt, now wearing a blue and gray mask that had a skull motif on the front. The distraction almost cost him a lot of blood. One of the mercenaries slashed at him with his dagger, scratching the edge of one of his goggles. He responded with a hard backfist to the man's jaw, knocking it off hinge. The second man caught him with a round kick to his thigh. The shock to his muscle buckled his leg and dropped him to one knee. The mercenary slashed with his dagger at 3-D Man's neck.

****

Jack side-stepped the first man's dagger thrust and cracked him on the hand with the palm stick, breaking the man's thumb and causing him to drop the knife. He punched the man with a right cross and front kicked him into the path of the other man. Both mercenaries fell to the street.

Jack picked up the dropped dagger and ran toward 3-D Man, who about to have his jugular vein cut open.

****

3-D Man got his arm up in time for the dagger to slice the back of his forearm and not his neck. The mercenary immediately thrust back toward his face, but 3-D man caught the mercenary's arm. He slugged the man in the ribs, but the punch didn't land as hard as it normally would thanks to the wound on his arm.

The mercenary pulled back against 3-D Man's grip and began speaking in a weird accent 3-D Man didn't recognize.

"Asharath, vipelli, abmam..."

3-D Man watched the curved dagger in the man's hand shimmer and turn into a writhing viper. The snake bared its fangs and reared back to strike.

The man in the skull mask tackled the mercenary. The snake flew into the air, changed back into a dagger, and clanged to the street. 3-D Man saw the masked man stab the mercenary in the buttock and then slug him across the face.

"Are you all right?" The masked man asked.

They were each struck by bolts of light before 3-D Man could answer.

****

The two men pushed up from the street. The mercenaries were gone. The Arab in the black suit was gone. The girl was gone.

"Damn," 3-D Man said.

"We forgot about that guy in the suit," Jack said. He saw the wound on 3-D Man's arm. "You'd better get that arm stitched."

"The EMTs and cops will be here soon," 3-D Man said before he sat back down.

"Did you call them?"

"Someone must have. I can hear them coming. They're about ten blocks away."

"So who are you?" Jack asked. "Super Hearing Christmas Man?"

3-D Man laughed. "I'm 3-D Man. Triple senses, strength, all that. Are you...a friend of the Punisher? Or just the world's toughest Blue Jays fan?"

Jack laughed. "They call me Shriker. I didn't have the whole costume with me. I'm a good guy from the Great White North."

"You proved that by saving my Canadian bacon."

"Do you know who those guys were, or why they wanted those kids?"

"No, but..."

Shriker stepped back as 3-D Man's face twitched and his body went rigid for a split second.

"Hey, are you sure you're all right?" Shriker asked.

"Now that we have the other girl, we may begin," 3-D Man said in a voice not his own and with an Arabic accent. "She is the agent of time. Take the blood of the other and prepare the boys. Soon Abd-el-Hazred will live and breathe. Wait...There is something wrong. A presence has entered my mind. The boy! The youngest! Strike him down! Do not kill him! Kill him and you will suf - "

3-D Man's face twitched again and he looked at Shriker in bewilderment before he spoke.

"Did you hear that, or was that all in my head?" 3-D Man asked.

"I heard all of it," Shriker said as the first emergency services units rounded the corner. "What just happened?"

"I think I was possessed." 3-D Man stood up and clenched the wound on his arm. "And I saw the younger of the two boys they took. He was chained to a chair and near a window. I could see the Hudson behind him."

Shriker turned as the first cop cars rounded the corner.

"Where are you going?" 3-D Man asked.

"The cops aren't going to believe I'm a hero looking like this. They'll just think I'm a nutcase. I'm also going to call a friend of mine who can help. He knows a thing or two about possession."

Shriker jogged across the street and into a Popeye's Chicken restaurant, pulling off his mask as he went. 3-D Man waved to the cops as they pulled up near him. The first officer out of his car radioed for the ambulance to come to the secured scene.

Jack D'Auria popped open his cell phone as he sat down at a table where he could watch the EMTs tend to 3-D Man. He took a sip of sweet tea as the phone rang on the other end of the line.

"Where are you?" His friend, Danny, asked. "They've already sung the national anthem."

"I'm at a Popeye's on Avenue C between Third and Fourth," Jack said. "I need you and your friend. Something weird is going on down here."

"What kind of weird?"

"Magic and possession. And kidnapped kids."

"I'm leaving now."

****

3-D Man sat in the back of the ambulance as the paramedic finished field dressing his arm. He'd insisted on treatment at the scene, knowing that a hospital trip would cost them precious time. The paramedic was formerly military and got him stitched up and ready when 3-D Man sat up a bit straighter.

"What is it?" The paramedic asked.

"Thunder," 3-D Man said.

"Thunder? There's barely a cloud in the sky."

"No, it's not thunder. It's too drawn out. What is that?"

3-D Man got out of the ambulance. The curious paramedic followed him. The cops, who by now had either remembered, figured out, or been told that 3-D Man was a former Avenger, approached him with questions. They all shut up when they saw the concerned look on his face.

"Something's coming," he said.

Some of the cops drew their guns. Others began to fan out. 3-D Man pointed up Avenue C.

"It's coming from that way."

The cops heard it now. It was a rumble that grew louder with each moment. The cops took cover behind their cars, pointing pistols, shotguns, and rifles over the hoods and trunks.

3-D Man, thanks to his Triple Vision, got the first sight of it. He stepped forward and held out his hands.

"Don't shoot," he said. "You'll just make him mad."

The cops only lowered their guns halfway as the gleaming black motorcycle with wheels made of fire roared to a sideways halt in front of 3-D Man. The rider, a man in black pants, leather coat, and with a flaming skull for a head spoke with a voice that chilled some of the rookies to their bones.

"Where is the man who has summoned the Ghost Rider?"

TO BE CONTINUED!

"You proved that by saving my Canadian bacon." That's my kinda dialog! Lovin' it, brother. Now do us all a favor and make us forget Nicholas Cage was EVER Ghost Rider!