THE MARVEL KNIGHTS GROUP
PROUDLY PRESENTS...
ISSUE #5 written by Jeff Melton
THE K’UN L’UN CONNECTION, CHAPTER FIVE
“Deadly Modifications!”
WHAT HAS COME BEFORE: Danny Rand and the beautiful Spider-Woman traveled to Colorado in search of a kidnap victim known by Danny’s father. During their search, an attempt was made on their lives. Meanwhile, Tarantula prepares for Master Khan’s plans.
PROLOGUE
Kun Lun. The Tarantula stands, shifting slightly, as five armed with spears, maces, and swords. His eyes shift from side to side, keeping watch over all of them as they encircle him. He is dressed in his costume for the first time in a long time, and it feels good to be fully dressed in his own clothes again. His spiked boots shine in the light from the ceiling.
Although there have been minor training sessions in his time in Kun Lun, this is the first time that he has faced well-trained adversaries, armed with deadly weapons. As he looks over the area surrounding him from his adversaries, he smiles a confident smile. This is his element—and where he thrives.
The first opponent rushes forward, carrying a staff in his hands. He quickly bends it in half, and it collapses into two metal staffs, each carrying a sharp point at the end. Tarantula does not know what he has been promised, but he realizes that his opponent intends to kill him if he can.
Tarantula leans back, as his opponent crosses over him, trying to stab him, but swinging fruitlessly above his extended mid-section. Tarantula continues to lean back, falling back onto his hands, even as his legs stretch forward, wrapping around his opponent’s neck and lifting him off the ground, even as he is caught by surprise from Tarantula’s speed.
Tarantula then pushes forward on his hands, bringing himself upward, slamming his foe’s head into the brick and concrete flooring, shattering his skull in the process. He quickly gets to his feet, just as the second opponent rushes at him—this one carrying a cat-o-nine-tails, which has shards of glass in its tails. He swings at Tarantula, who is even now rising to his feet. Tarantula rolls onto his left leg, bringing his right leg forward, imbedding it in his foe’s chest. His foe’s eyes grow large, as his face contorts with pain. He is dead before he reaches the floor.
A third opponent is quickly upon him, rushing towards him with a spear, the point of which leads within a few inches of the back of Tarantula’s head. He moves his head to the right, narrowly avoiding the tip of the spear, as he brings his elbow back, shattering the spear at the handle in a speed that surprises his attacker. The Tarantula then sweeps his leg out, tripping his foe. He quickly turns, shattering his foe’s windpipe with a chop!
The two remaining foes both rush him at once. On the left, the foe carries a long sword, which he holds with both hands, as he rushes forward. On the right, his foe brandishes a spiked mace, attached to a handle and chain, which he swings with a fluid motion that makes it clear he is an expert at this weapon. Tarantula smiles a sadistic smile, as he stands between them.
In a single motion, Tarantula ducks under the swinging sword of his first opponent, even as his left leg reaches out, striking the mace-welder in the knee with his spike. He stumbles back, pain burning in his eyes, as the fast-acting poison quickly causes his body to go through the first stages of a seizure. He falls to his back, continuing to convulse in pain.
Tarantula then leaps in the air, twisting his body towards his foe, as he slams his spiked boot into his last opponent’s neck, imbedding it just beneath his left ear. Tarantula returns to his feet, even as his final opponent falls to the ground, his body twitching uncontrollably.
Master Khan walks into the room, facing Tarantula, who walks over the dead and dying bodies lining the floor in his wake. He takes no notice of them, however, satisfied that they are no longer a threat.
“I am starting to believe,” Master Khan remarks, as he faces the Tarantula, noting that he doesn’t even seem to be breathing hard, “that this has been a very wise investment on my part.”
“An investment?” the Tarantula asks, annoyed. “Why should I not kill you where you stand, as I did your minions—who failed to kill me?”
“If I thought you could not dispatch those men,” Master Khan responds callously, “you would be of no use to me. What I have in mind for you, a mere five warriors—highly-trained though they were—could not do. I have many more than five warriors, yet here you are.”
“You have brought me across the world to this place—for what purpose?!” Tarantula demands, glaring over at Master Khan.
“In your life, you have been many things,” Master Khan comments. “You have been a mercenary in the employ of a corrupt government. You have been a super-villain. You have even been a giant spider.” He notes that the Tarantula seems surprised by what he does know. “Yet, in all of these roles, there is one thing you have never been.”
“And what is that?” the Tarantula asks, feigning indifference.
“Your own man,” Master Khan responds.
Tarantula’s eyes grow more narrow, as anger shoots across his face. “If you have brought me here to insult me…!”
“Hardly,” Master Khan responds. “I have brought you here to offer you the opportunity for a new life. With the gold I can pay you for completing one small mission, you can do what you have always sought to do. You will no longer be an employee. You will be the master of your own destiny. Are you interested?”
Tarantula glares at Khan, but then nods. “What do you have in mind?” he asks, even as Master Khan smiles with satisfaction.
End of Prologue
Bolder, Colorado
A young, thin, dark-haired man waits nervously at the door to the men’s room at a local park.* Even though he is wearing a heavy parka, he can’t stop shaking, although it is not entirely the cold that causes his shaking. He looks around, looking to make sure that the people who sent him here are keeping an eye on him. He’s learned just how dangerous the man who hired him can be, and he doesn’t want to take the chance of being a statistic. The fact that he can’t see either of the two who had him wait here—Iron Fist and Spider-Woman—doesn’t help his nervous state any.
[*The second assailant that we met last issue]
As he waits, he sees a black Infiniti pull up to the gravel parking lot adjacent to the bathrooms. The gravel crunches under the jet-black wheels of the well-maintained vehicle. The young man looks over at the car, noticing that the heavily-tinted back window is starting to be lowered.
He leans forward, as if listening closely to what someone is saying from the vehicle. He looks around quickly, nervously, before making his way slowly to the car. As he does so, he hopes that Danny will get to the car before he does. He saw how easily the blond man disarmed him, * and certainly would prefer to see him handle the killers that employed him and his friend.
[*As shown last issue.]
Arriving at the vehicle, he remembers what he was told to do. Leaning down towards the window, he looks into the window. “You got my money?” he asks.
“No.”
A horrified look crosses the young man’s face, even as the sound of a bullet making its way through a silencer fills the air. The bullet strikes him between his eyes, leaving a small hole that soon floods with blood, even as his lifeless body falls to the ground, a string of blood trailing from the hole in his forehead as he falls.
“Damn!” Iron Fist exclaims, as he leaps through the air, his foot slamming into the back window of the black car, shattering it with a powerful kick. Even though his appearance surprised them, the thugs inside the car act quickly in response to his sudden, dramatic appearance. Tires screech, as the car quickly reverses, backing its way out of the parking lot and crunching on the gravel. Iron Fist reaches out, grabbing onto the metal surrounding the broken window, even as the driver hits the accelerator, causing his lower body to flail about, even as he clutches the window casing even harder to keep his grip.
The car forces its way through the gravel road, leading out of the park, even as Iron Fist holds onto the window. He looks into the broken window pane at the silhouetted figure in the back seat. He can only see that the man appears to be bald, and has a goatee. However, as the car jerks violently, he has to look away, trying to do his best to stay in place.
The figure in the back seat points his handgun at Iron Fist and quickly fires off a round of shots, even as the bullets explode out of the remainder of the glass window towards Iron Fist. He ducks under the hail of bullets, while trying to keep his grip on the metal window frame.
Iron Fist holds on with his left hand as he reaches out with his right fist. The fist starts to glow with the energy it contains, and he quickly slams his energy-charged fist into the metal and glass in the front window, shattering it, and sending glass flying towards the driver, who instinctively slams on his brakes, as the car screeches to a sudden stop!
As the car makes a sudden stop, Iron Fist quickly takes advantage of the situation, swinging his lower body forward, as he smashes his feet through the remainder of the front passenger window, kicking the driver in the face, pushing him hard against the door, slamming his head against the driver’s window!
Iron Fist instinctively ducks in the seat, as he leans back against his elbows, even as the man in the back seat fires a round of bullets towards where Iron Fist was a moment earlier, cutting into the fine leather seats and tearing up the upholstery.
The car jerks forward, still in gear, and not controlled by the unconscious driver. Danny lurches forward, slamming his hand against the glove box to prevent his head from doing the same. He quickly steadies himself, relieved that the sudden movements from the car have—at least temporarily—stopped the hail of bullets from the back seat. He reaches out with his left foot, slamming it against the driver’s foot, hitting the brake, even as the car protests the sudden stop, with the man in the back seat slamming forward against the back of the driver’s seat. Danny continues to steady himself with his hand on the glovebox, even as he reaches for the gear shift, jerking into park.
Good thing this is an automatic, he thinks to himself, realizing it might be a challenge to deal with the clutch, an unconscious driver, and a gunman in the backseat all at the same time.
Before the bullets can start again, Danny hears a ripping sound, even as the back door on the passenger’s side is ripped off its hinges. Danny looks back, where he sees Spider-Woman grabbing the gunman in the back unceremoniously out of his seat. Danny smiles, as he kicks the driver out of the way—and through the driver’s door. He lands on the ground outside on the gravel driveway.
As Danny gets to his feet outside the car, he looks over at Spider-Woman, who has slammed the well-dressed gunman back against the car. Danny notes the pin-stripped fancy suit and shiny black shoes.
“Where is he?!” Spider-Woman demands, glaring at the thug, who she holds off the ground.
“I dunno who you mean,” the gunman lies, his feet dangling off the ground, unable to reach. Danny notes that the gunman is actually a short man, no more than 5’7”. He makes his way over to Spider-Woman.
“Don’t play with me!” Spider-Woman exclaims, her fingers burning with bioelectric energy, which shoots through the gunman’s body. “I’m not in the mood! You and your henchmen tried to kill us—and have at least two deaths on you now.”
The sneer that was on his face a moment earlier has been replaced by an uneasy look, as he tries to recover from the surge of electricity that Spider-Woman shot through his body. She intentionally made it a low-level charge, not wanting to knock him out…at least not yet.
“Maybe you didn’t hear me,” Spider-Woman threatens, still holding the now barely squirming man above her head, as her eyes burn back at him. “I want to know where you have Morris and Charlie Hamilton!”
“I ain’t gonna…”
“Wrong answer!” Spider-Woman responds sharply, as she releases another surge of electricity through is body, causing him to shake and convulse from the shock to his system. “You might want to re-consider.”
“O-ok-kay,” he stutters violently, as Spider-Woman drops him to the ground, not wanting to risk another electric charge anyway. “I’ll t-t-tell you w-w-what you w-w-want to know.”
“We might be here a while,” Danny responds, rolling his eyes.
Spider-Woman shrugs, nodding. “Whatever it takes.”
INTERLUDE
Mrs. Hamilton pulls the sheets up to cover her bare bosom, as she reaches over to answer the phone. In the corner of the room, near the door, the tanned gardener slips his sleeveless t-shirt over his head, even as he looks back with interest towards the bed, where the lovely blonde returns his look, placing her hand over the phone.
She winks at the man who was in her bed mere moments earlier. “I need to get this,” she explains. “Go ahead and let yourself out.”
The gardener seems surprised by this, taking a step back. She looks at him sternly, even as she anxiously waits to return her attention to her phone. “Sure,” he responds, clearly disappointed. He turns and walks out the door, as she shakes her head, annoyed.
“What’s going on, Charlie?” she asks into the phone. “I wasn’t expecting you to call so soon.”
On the other end of the phone, a balding man in his early fifties sits in a hotel room, with the evening sun setting in the distance beyond the window at his back. “Those two private eyes were sniffing around at the ski resort. Was that your doing?”
“Well, yeah,” she responds defensively. “They came asking about Morris. What did you expect me to tell them?!”
“Maybe that we went to Mongolia or something!” Charlie retorts sharply. “At the very least, you could have let me know they were coming ahead of time!”
“I wasn’t exactly expecting them to show up at my door either!” she responds defensively. “And it sounds like you made out all right.”
“It all worked out,” he replies, nodding. “It doesn’t matter now. Just remember that what you have is thanks to the company…and your cooperation.”
“Yeah,” she responds, rolling her eyes, as she runs her hands along her satin sheets. “I haven’t forgotten.”
“Oh,” he adds. “And try to be a little more discreet with your…activities. The last thing we need to be doing is broadcasting any suspicious behavior on your part.” She rolls her eyes, but doesn’t respond. “Anyway, I’ll be in touch, and let you know when you need to make the next deposit.”
End of Interlude
Danny Rand and Jessica Drew (in civilian attire) leave a local branch of SHIELD, where they have just left the gunman and driver, who attempted to kill Danny earlier. Jessica shakes her head, irritated with the events of the day thus far. Danny looks over at his lovely companion, sharing in her frustration.
“Nick* won’t be happy that, after he pulled strings with the local law enforcement to let us borrow the bomber from the ski lodge for our little sting,” Jessica comments, “that he got killed on our watch.”
[*Nick Fury of SHIELD.]
“Well, it wasn’t exactly like we planned his getting killed,” Danny responds. “And Nick’s seen plenty of death in his time. I’m sure he’ll understand.”
Jessica looks at Danny, surprised. “It doesn’t sound like you know Nick,” Jessica responds, then allows herself a slight smile. “He doesn’t feel alive if he’s not reaming someone.”
“Yeah,” Danny nods in agreement. “I’ve had run-ins with those types before. I was surprised, though, that you had such an in with Nick to start with. I know you used to be with Hydra, but I didn’t know you had connections that ran that far up in SHIELD.”
“I helped them bring down a Hydra operation,” Jessica returns, as they continue to walk towards their vehicle. “I don’t mind pulling a few strings when it helps a case I’m on.”
Danny nods in understanding, as they both get into the car, a convertible. The top is down, and Danny rests his arm outside the passenger’s side, as he watches Jessica shift gears, as they take off.
“Did you get up with your office?” Jessica asks.
“I sure did,” Danny replies. “Everything’s good on that end.”
“That’s good,” Jessica responds, shifting into a lane in front of a moving van. “I appreciate all of your help, but I don’t want to cause any trouble with you at your work. I know you’ve just recently started that business, and I wouldn’t want to see you lose any clients.”
“Think nothing of it,” Danny replies, looking over at Jessica, who looks back at him and smiles. “I can’t say I haven’t been enjoying our time together. And I’d like to get to the bottom of all of this myself.”
“You’ll have your chance,” Jessica says, nodding in understanding. “We missed seeing Charlie, but I think he holds the key to this mystery.”
“I took the liberty to prepare a little back-up if needed,” Danny tosses in. “This is looking to be a bigger operation than we originally thought…and they know that two super-heroes are in on this.”
“I’ve thought about that myself,” Jessica agrees. “We’ll just have to be ready for whatever comes.”
“Exactly what I had in mind,” Danny responds, nodding.
TO BE CONTINUED...
NEXT ISSUE: Danny and Jessica take a trip to find out what’s behind Morris Hamilton’s disappearance! Who knows what and why? Plus: A couple of surprise guest-stars! All this in Iron Fist #6!
MARTIAL MISSIVES
This issue moves us closer to the conclusion of the first story arc, and the beginning of the second. The mystery of Morris Hamilton’s disappearance is heating up, and will be resolved in the next couple of issues, with the return of some familiar figures.
In the future, there will be some familiar figures from Iron Fist continuity, as well as others who you’ll recognize, although not necessarily from Iron Fist stories.
I hope you enjoy where the series is going. As always, your comments are appreciated, and can be sent to earth2jsa@yahoo.com.
-Jeff Melton
