Brak

by Patrick Moore

Gordon Waters, the mutant known as Matrix, sat in his room at Heroes for Hire headquaters reading the lastest copy of JLA and listening to Aerosmith on his stereo. Gordon started like other teens, but having the power to change your skin into metal, wood, rock, even diamond isn't that bad. One day he life changed when his girlfriend was gunned down by two members of his football team just because he was a mutant. When the Heroes for Hire came in to save him from an army of Sentinel Dogs, they took him in to use his powers for justice. A mutant know as Dreamscape lost her powers when the villain known as the Dog Catcher put some nano Sentinel into her brain. Some how she used her powers to short the nano, but she gained angel like wings in the process.

There was a knock at the door.

"Enter," Gordon said.

Maria de Guadalupe Santiago, known as the hero Sliverclaw, entered the room. "Gordon, Iron Fist wants you to get ready for training practice," she said.

"I'm coming," said Gordon, as he got up to turn off his stereo. "We've been training for weeks, and nothing has happened. When are we going to fight some major bad guys? That Dog Catcher guy is a wuss."

"Look what he did to Dreamscape," said Lupe.

"So, she has wings," Gordon replied. "Archangel of the X-Men has wings, so we have a female vesion."

Lupe sighed. "Just come and see what she can do with in the training room."

"DEADPOOL!" shouted the voice of Luke Cage from the other room, as Lupe and Gordon ran to see Deadpool on Luke's computer. "I TOLD YOU NOT TO GO ON THOSE PORN WEB SITES!"

"Well, pardon me, Cagie," said Deadpool, "but I don't have Internet access on my computer."

"Matrix, I thought you blocked all the adult sites on all of our computers?" Cage asked Gordon.

"I did," Gordon replied. "I think DP went on another Internet company."

"What's going on?" Iron Fist said, as he and Puma entered the room.

"You don't want to know," said Lupe.

"Why did we get this idiot in the first place?" Cage asked Iron Fist.

"He helped us defeat the Dog Catcher, and saved Dreamscape," Iron Fist replied. "We need more members on our team, Power Man."

"The name's Cage, not Power Man," Luke said. "This is 2003, not 1970. I also got a new costume to go with my new name."

"Cage is one bad mother fu..." said Deadpool.

"Shut you mouth," said Matrix.

"I was talking about Cage," DP chuckled.

"Enough with the Shaft jokes, guys," said Iron Fist. "Let's go to the training room and see how Dreamscape is doing."

Alice Rowe glided herself away from the laser blast with her wings as she dodged them in flight. She felt that she used her wing for weeks now and she felt like a real angel with them. She saw Casey Jones in the control room waiting to see what he has next for her.

"That's great, Alice," said Casey. "Now come to the control room, the others want to see you."

As Alice landed on the floor, she knew that she had to change her codename from Dreamscape to something else. The door opened and the rest of the Heroes for Hire came in to see her.

"Nice moves, Alice," said Matrix. "I bet I can use my powers to fight you in a training battle."

"Thanks, Matrix," said Alice, "but we better go in the control room to talk more. I was thinking of changing my name that fits my new powers."

"We'll talk about it," said Iron Fist.

Just then, Casey enters with what looks like concert tickets in his hand. "I hope you guys like to take the night off," he said.

"What for?" Iron Fist asked.

"I got tickets for the Kiss concert at Madison Square Garden tomorrow night," said Casey. "Four of my friends are coming with me, and I go enough for all of us to go."

"Maybe Dreamscape, Matrix, and Silverclaw can go with you, Casey," said Iron Fist.

"Can I go too?" Deadpool asked. "I used to be a member of Kiss Nation."

"That's fine with me," said Casey. "I'll get my friends and we'll be ready for tomorrow night."

"How is it going, General Ratlor?" said the giant serpent known as Brak to the humanoid snake hybrid.

"We s-s-should be ready tomorrow night, Lord Brak," said the general. "This world you will takeover with your brothers will help us-s-s in our conquest."

"As the son of Set and She-Hulk, I will have victory," said Brak. "I will also create an army for you to lead, General. This world will be mine."

"You got to be joking, Raph," said Donatello. "Casey is going to take April and us to a Kiss concert."

"That's what he said, Donny," said Raphael. "We need to take a break after that Mouser problem. Where the hell's Mikey?"

Just then, Michaelangelo came out of is room dressed in full Kiss makeup singing Rock and Roll all Nite. His brothers groaned.

"You're not going dressed like that," Raph said to Mikey. "I don't want you to look like those geeks that worship guys in Goth clown makeup."

"Come on, Raph," said Mikey.

"We're ninjas, not the Killer Klowns from Outer Space," Raph replied.

"Why did Mikey get that stupid movie for us to look at anyway?" Don asked.

"Please, Raph," Mikey begged on his knees.

"Fine, if they spot a giant turtle dressed like a circus freak, don't come looking for me," Raph sighed.

"Thanks, Raph," Mikey hugged his brother. "Now you guys get your Kiss costumes and we'll be ready."

"HELL NO!!!" both Raph and Don said.

It was packed at Madion Square Garden as various people young and old went to see Kiss rock their world. Casey, Lupe, Gordon, Alice, and Wade with a image inducer to hide his true form met April and the Turtles who where wearing Kiss shirts.

"Nice turtle costumes," Gordon said to the Turtles. "But this is a Kiss concert."

"We're with Casey," said April.

"You must be April O'Neil, the reporter from CBNC," said Lupe. "I taped you news story about the fall of the World Trade Center, and it gave me extra credit in my current events class."

April smiled. "Thanks."

"If you guys don't mind, we got a concert to go inside for," said Raph.

"Let's get some decent seats, before they're gone," said Casey, as they all went inside.

"We're ready, Lord Brak," said General Ratlor.

"Open the portal," said Brak.

A yellow door opened as Brak and General Ratlor went inside.

"Are you guys ready to rock?" said Peter Criss of Kiss to the crowd.

"YES!!!" shouted the audience.

"Rock and Roll," said Mikey.

"Sit down, Mike," said Raph.

"We going to sing one of our faves first," said Paul Stanley of Kiss. "We're going to rock with some Cold Gin."

The band began playing Cold Gin, and the Turtles and Heroes for Hire began dancing to the music. Just then, a giant yellow circle came behind the band, and a giant snake came out of it.

"Does Kiss have a giant snake at all their concerts?" asked Don.

"No, " said Casey.

"The snake is not in the script," said Ace Frehley of Kiss.

Just then, the giant snake bit off half of Gene Simmons body as blood came out of the other half.

"HOLY SHIT! THAT SNAKE KILLED GENE SIMMONS!" a drunk fan shouted.

"You will now serve Lord Brak," said General Ratlor.

"Where's Space Ghost and Zorak?" Mikey joked.

"You will all be my army to take over this world," said Brak.

"We better call Iron Fist and the others about this," said Alice to the other Heroes for Hire.

They nodded as the got away from the crowd.

"We better go with them," said Don.

"Agreed," said Raph, as the Turtles followed the others.

"You will all be transformed into my new army of Hulks," said Brak, as he sprayed a green mist out of his mouth as it covered the crowd.

The people began to mutate as Gordon looked to see them change into an army of Hulks right before his eyes. The roars of the green giants began to grow with each transformation.

"This is bad," said Gordon.

"Iron Fist and the others are coming," said Lupe, as she ran to Gordon. "What's happening?"

"The original Hulkamania is making a comeback," Gordon said, as Lupe looked at all the Hulks in the concert.

"What do we do?" Lupe asked.

"We fight," said Raph, as he and the others came to them. "We don't want to hurt them, but we got to stop that big serpent, before it leaves MSG."

The Turtles took off their clothes, as the Heroes for Hire pressed a button on their watches as they morphed into their superhero costumes.

"You can take off the turtle costumes," said Dreamscape to the Turtles.

"We're not wearing costumes," said Raph. "We're real mutant turtles. Now let's kick some asp butt."

"Remember, these Hulks are innocent people, don't hurt them too much," said Casey.

Iron Fist, Cage, and Puma flew in their version of the Avengers Quinjet known as the Knightwing as they headed for Madison Square Garden.

"So a giant snake came out of a portal and ate Gene Simmons of Kiss," said Cage. "What do we do when we meet it?"

"We kill it, before it makes more damage," said Iron Fist.

"We still have to get people to safety," said Puma.

"We're almost there," said Iron Fist. "I hope the others are having any luck."

The Heroes and the Turtles fought the Hulk army without trying not to hurt them. Silverclaw morphed into a sloth hybrid as she battled two of the transformed Hulks. Matrix turned his skin into steel and did a spear at a charging Hulk that was heading towards him. Casey and Deadpool fought a couple of Hulks with baseball bats and hockey sticks. The Turtles using their ninja skills fought Hulk version of the remaining members of Kiss.

"I'll take on the big snake," Dreamscape sprouted her wings as she flew towards Brak.

"You dare take on Lord Brak," General Ratlor grabbed Dreamscape's leg. "You face Ratlor, winged one."

BANG

Dreamscape looked to see Deadpool with his Uzi fired at General Ratlor, killing the snake general.

"Thanks, DP," said Dreamscape.

"Just kick some snake ass, baby," said Deadpool.

Dreamscape flew to Brak as the giant snake was about to eat her, but a laser blast hits Brak in his open mouth. Dreamscape turned to see that Iron Fist and the others have come to save the night.

"What the hell is going on here?" Cage looked at the army of Hulks with puzzlement. "And I thought the original Hulk was a pain."

"Long story, Cage," said Dreamscape.

"Time for all of you to die," Brak rammed into the Knightwing, as Iron Fist charged his chi into his fist and did a street fighter like upper-cut into Brak's throat.

The giant snake coughed up blood as he fell to his death. The Hulk army began to change back into normal people without their clothes.

Deadpool spotted the naked members of Kiss and took their picture with a camera. "This is for the tabloids," he said.

Matrix grabbed DP's camera and crushed it and shook his head.

"Let's get these people some clothes," said Iron Fist.

A half hour later, the Heroes for Hire and the Turtles looked on as police and the media where surrounded over at what just happened. People from TCRI came in and took samples from the dead Brak and General Ratlor. The heroes were puzzled.

"What would people from TCRI want with that giant snake?" Iron Fist asked.

"Don't ask," said Raph. "All I want to know is where did that snake come from anyway?"

"Maybe it has something to do with those portals seen all over the world," said Don.

"There's more giant snakes coming?" Mike asked in shock. "We need giant mongooses or Godzilla."

"If this is true, then we need help," said Cage.

"I sure hope the Avengers, Fantastic Four, even the X-Men can stop this threat," said Iron Fist. "Because this is one battle all of Earth's heroes will have to be a part in."

THE END?

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story takes place after the first arc in my Heroes for Hire series, and since I haven't started on H4H # 2, this will give readers a chance to see how the team is formed. Why did I have Kiss in my story? The band had a role in Howard the Duck and spun-off their own title at Marvel. I"m sorry about killing Gene Simmons, it's better that what other M2K writers have done to Cory W. Enjoy my ride.

Patrick Moore,
October 17, 2003