Hammer Bay, Genosha – 200km from Sakovia
"Are you sure about the intel on this one Walker?" Tony asked to the man on his left.
The man looked over the sights of his raised assault rifle at the Iron Man clad Tony. "This is where we tracked the communications of Magnus."
After the events of the Infinite War with Thanos, the Avengers had become inactive to regroup and heal after their costly battle. They had sustained significant injury and casualties. SHIELD supplemented the team with several tactical units of non-superpowered humans that were incredibly skilled. The team in Genosha was known as Alpha Squad and consisted of Agent John Walker, Dallas 'Vantage' Riordan, Charles 'Barney' Barton, Robert 'Speedball' Baldwin and Amie Zamborano. They were a group of highly trained soldier on loan to the newly reformed SHIELD as tactical agents. They were now on the hunt for a terrorist known as Max Eisenhardt, who calls himself Magnus.
The team slowly entered into an old steel mill that was also attached to the mine at the base of a mountain. Most of the area of Genosha was now abandoned due to a long standing war between the Eastern European state of Sakovia. John looked over to Amie, Barney and Robert that were all moving in formation behind Tony with their rifles scanning the vast interior. John looked up at the catwalk overhead and saw Dallas stalking in the dark with her sniper scope raised.
John tapped his throat mic and looked back down his scope in enhanced light mode. "Vantage, any sign of contacts?"
He could hear her whisper back in his earpiece. "Nothing, other than the small contingent in the woods it's a ghost town. It's a little odd don't you think?"
Tony continued walking at the front of the pack. "Remember guys, stay behind me. This guy loves using shrapnel bombs. My suit can take it but your body armour can't." Suddenly his HUD flickered in front of his eyes. "Friday, what was that?"
The feminine voice of his onboard AI quickly responded. "I don't know sir. All systems appear to be working fine."
Tony didn't trust that, he took pride in how well he had built his system. "Run a diagnostic please."
Friday paused for a minute. "Sir, diagnostic complete. All systems functioning within normal parameters. However I am detecting a strong electromagnetic field inside this factory. It is possible it is interfering with instruments."
Suddenly Tony stopped in mid stride and the team paused. They all quickly scanned the area looking for threats. "You see something Tony?" John asked.
Tony was uncharacteristically quiet and John looked over at him. "Tony what's going on?"
Tony finally broke comms silence. "I can't move."
Little black flecks started to wash by the team's feet toward the center of the room. They watched as it went by in waves and started collecting in the middle. Barney looked down at his feet and back at the team. "What the hell is this?"
Robert knelt down and looked closer. "It looks like iron shavings."
The shavings lifted off the ground and formed a ball about 6 feet in the air. It slowly began to change shape until it started to look like a face. John heard Vantage's voice over the radio again. "Is it just me or does that head look a lot like the pic of Magnus?"
John raised his rifle and fired several rounds that just passed through the mass and it seemed to laugh at him. The voice was human, but sounded like a growl mixed with grinding metal. "SHIELD sent this B squad after me?" It asked in a Polish sounding accent. "Where are the mighty Avengers?"
John smirked. "Buddy, you think a little highly of yourself if you think you're big league. Don't worry though, we'll give you the VIP treatment though. How about you show yourself now."
The face looked around. "I'll direct my question to Iron Man then. Where is the Scarlet Witch?"
Tony was finally able to move again and tried scanning the mass. "Enough of this great and powerful Oz crap." He raised his right arm and shot a missile from his gauntlet. It disappeared inside of the mass and then exploded in a fiery ball that engulfed the mass and began to melt the filings. A man appeared on the upper level floor that overlooked the ground. He stepped out of the shadows and glared at Tony.
"You shouldn't have done that Tin Man." He gestured up with an out stretched hand.
Suddenly Tony shot upward through the roof and into the sky screaming as he unexpectedly flew away. The man then raised both hands and dropped them quickly. The steel rafters fell from the ceiling toward the team. John rolled forward and scrambled to his feet. They all split up to take cover.
Amie tried getting a sight on him but he was quickly obscured by a torrent of metal filings. "What's going on? Is he some kind of enhanced?"
Vantage's voice was next over the radio. "I have a shot, taking it!"
Magnus then noticed her on the catwalk and gestured her way. An angry torrent of filings shot her way and the next thing John heard was the sound of her screams. He watched as she fell over the rail and onto the floor next to him. She laid motionless as he ran to check on her. She still had a pulse but her eyes had been heavily damaged by the metal. He turned around and saw more beams fall down and crush Amie behind him. She didn't even have time to scream.
He raised a hand to his throat mic. "Barney, Robert, quick some help me get them out of here. We're falling back."
Barney suddenly heard a heavy wince and a wet slosh sound. He turned to see John impaled through the chest by a spike of molten metal from Tony's missile. John was grabbing at the spike and sputtering blood from the mouth. Barney and Robert ran over to try and help the rest of the team. They could barely focus from all of the chaos around them. Suddenly a loud crash came through the roof behind Magnus and he turned to see Tony. Tony raised his left arm to him and then opened his hand, palm facing his chest.
"Enough of this shit, go to sleep!" He spit at Magnus as a repulsor beam shot him and knocked him tumbling unconscious across the floor.
John strained to open his eyes just to see blinding lights flashing upward through his vision. He quickly realized he was on his back and moving. He could hear voices but they sounded distant. As they got closer they were still hard to hear, like he was under water. He looked around the room to see he was in the med bay of the Raft, Secretary Ross's high security secret prison for enhanced criminals. He saw three men standing along the far wall and then he looked to the other side where he saw the rest of his team laying in stretchers. He panned back to the three men and could make out that one was Ross and the other Stark. They appeared to be arguing and he focused his attention to them to try and hear what they were saying.
"They don't belong to SHIELD, the DoD is taking them back." Ross barked at Tony.
"What you're going to do is illegal." Tony yelled back.
"They gave their lives for their country Stark. I know you have a hard time to grasp that seeing how even after all you've been through you still play by your own agenda." Ross stabbed back.
"Do you not remember what happened the last time you dabbled in this? You turned your buddy Blonsky into an Abomination that you were lucky Banner was able to take down." Stark cautioned.
Ross shook his head. "If we only knew then what we know now." He then gestured to the third man. "Doctor Curtiss Jackson here has been working for the last few years studying the different serums. He's found a powerful and stable compromise between the Super Soldier serum and the Winter Soldier serum."
The doctor then chimed in. "The two serums volatile qualities are easily regulated by introducing the Extremis 2.0 into the host."
Stark's face looked like he was about to blow a gasket. "Extremis 2.0!? That is the property of Stark Industries! Not to mention you're planning on fixing the problem with three potentially lethal elements?"
Ross smiled. "You should have read that Super hero registration a bit better Mr. Stark. It clearly states that all technology and scientific items the Avengers neutralize become the property of the US government. Everything your team has come across has been sitting inside the vault of the Citadel R and D facility in a secret location. Anyways Stark, this conversation has gone on too long." He gestured to two guards that came and stood next to Tony. "The doctor has work to do. Goodbye." The men escorted him away.
John's vision began to fade to black and the last things he could hear was Secretary Ross's voice. "Activate Thunderbolts Program."
To Be continued...