Chapter Twenty-Nine: Panic's Last Stand

Here it is, this isn't the last chapter by the way, there's still one more plus the Q&A so leave questions for that but this will be a super duper long chapter for you all and remember, important announcement for the next, actual chapter. Follow this story and comment. Now, I'm gonna stop talking, so go, go read my writing. ALSO ANNOUNCEMENT NEXT CHAPTER. Leave me comments for my Q&A there's only one chapter left for questions.


Harley's voice rang through my comm unit, giving me directions to the room where Steve Rogers is currently being kept in. After following all Harley's directions I stop at the door and tell Harley to open it from the control room and after sighing at having to explain how to, he eventually managed to bypass the system and get the door open, it should be easier for him to do that now that he's done it at least once.

The room I enter is pitch black as if this was the Oogie Boogie's lair from The Nightmare Before Christmas. In all honesty if that thing was real I'd take the nearest can of gasoline, spark up a match, and set that bitch ablaze. Shaking myself I scold my irrelevant thoughts and force myself to focus on the mission at hand. Shivers snaked up my spine, the room must be thirty degrees below zero, even in the pitch darkness I can still see the white puff of my breath in the darkness.

My arms close around my body, trying to preserve body heat as I slowly make my way through the dark room, searching for a light switch, or at the very least a flashlight but instead my fingers land on a frozen lake kind of cold doorknob and not the round ones either, no this one is big, like kind used for walk in freezers—it certainly felt like one in here though.

A clanking sound erupts throughout the room and then I feel it. Water. Pooling around my feet, the door behind me slams shut and I feel the water rise higher and higher. Over my ankles and getting higher even faster. My heart thunders in my chest so I reach forward and yank the freezer door, surprised to find it's not locked. I quickly slip inside and shut the door only letting a little bit of water in.

"P-Pan-nic? I-is t-that you?" a stuttering voice of Steve sounds and I suddenly realize the temperature, it's even colder in here then it was in the other room and obviously the door locks on the inside so we're trapped, unless I can find an escape route.

"Y-yeah," I start stuttering over my words. "Who else would voluntarily show up to save the Avengers?"

Reaching into my pocket I pull out my cell phone, giving off a small ray of light which bounces throughout the small rectangular box allowing us to see each other. Steve is dressed in a blue superhero-y blue shirt with a silver star in the center with line on either side shooting towards it. Steve examines me for a moment, blue eyes traveling from my face, to my shirt, and down to my skirt, then back to my eyes.

"Not to be disrespectful or anything, but what are you wearing?"

"You're one to talk Captain Spandex."

He just looks at me, faking cross and I let a signature smirk consume my lips.

"Don't flip you wig Cap," I say, saluting him, while tilting my head and winking.

He laughs. Wow, so the guy actually has other emotions aside from stoic, serious, or just emotionless.

A smile over takes my face, a real smile before I say, "That's right, I know my 40's slang now lets take a gander round this here cellular room and see if we can't find a makeshift way to get lost, here," I hand him my cell phone before examining the room around me. After only a single glace I find out way out, so long as his shield hits the right part of the box.

"There," I point to the corner of the room.

"What about it?" he asks, looking at the corner to which I'm pointing at.

"The integrity of the box has been compromised, and if you hit it with your shield using the right amount or strength and the correct angling, that wall will be no more, almost like magic... poof! Gone."

"You sure?" he asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Positive," I reply, taking my cell phone back and stepping away from the wall so I can hit it with his shield. Steve backs up to where I am and runs at full force at the wall with his shield raised high. Covering my ears, the shield clanks against the wall sending the ringing of metal throughout the room before abruptly stopping when the walls slams back, falling into a hallway lit by fluorescent lights.

I walk from the room with Steve following at my side, tapping my comm unit to activate it I speak.

"Harley, in and out. Who's up next?"

"Black Widow in the hallway coming up by lots of creepy crawlies in her room, she inside a glass box, secure from them."

"Creepy crawlies?" I ask.

"The Black Widow is surrounded by Black Widows."

"Ah, only makes sense, Ian likes two words meanings so it only makes sense he'd do that, well chat in a minute Harley," I end the conversation when I see Steve staring at me confused.

"Nat's in the upcoming room just around this corner. She's in a glass box—bullet proof I'm sure—with thousands upon thousands of black widow spiders all around the rooms interior so we gotta flush 'em out if we want to save her."

"What are we going to do?"

"Set off the sprinklers, they release water when—" he cuts me off.

"I know what sprinklers are."

"Okay, okay, no need to get your panties in a twist," I say, raising my hands in a surrendering way.

"Panties?" he asks, face slightly tinted pink from what I assume to be a embarrassment.

"It's an expression Capsicle," I say pulling open a fuse box on the wall. Playing with a few wire, the lights in the hallways flash in and out as Dad and Harley's voice boom through the ear piece.

"Panic!" Harley says, sounding scared.

"Are you the one playing with the lights?" Dad finishes.

"Yeah I am, don't worry, have you got Pepper out of there yet?"

I'm answered by silence. Just as I begin to worry he responds, voice sounding, almost distant. "Yeah but s-she's sobbing hysterically. She tells me Ian didn't do anything to her but said that what he told her about was bad, so, so bad."

Water pools out from the sprinkles above and the patter or water rained down slapping against the metal hallway, and I waited until the spiders were killed. I'd left the sprinklers in the control room off to keep the computers running keeping Harley in the loop. After about five to six minutes later I have Harley open the metal door. Water pools from the room, more and more coming.

Dead black widow spiders follow the wave of water, bodies upon bodies slowly filling up the hallway. Tried of waiting I pull out a fire extinguisher off the wall, pull the pin, and have it ready in the case of needing to use it to kill any surviving spiders. We enter the pitch black room with the only light is from the inside the four walled, bullet proof glass cell Nat's in that's suspended up over the rooms center.

All the spiders around us are dead, at least they seem to be as none are coming at me. Nat sits in the boxes center with her eyes closed, legs crossed, and arms pressed against her knees. The sound of bullets firing outside the facility let my know my fifteen minutes is up. Looking around the room I find a vague, blurry shape of a metal staircase. The stairs creek and groan beneath us as we literally run up on set of stairs after the other until we reach the top which is closer to the top of the glass box where Nat is.

"I'll just across this and let her out of the box alright?" he asks, and when I nod he steps back to get a running start. The staircase rattles as his feet push off it and soon he's free flying through the air until he slams onto the top of the box. The metal chain holding the box up rattles and chinks from the vibrations as Steve looks around the box top for the lock or key.

Nat looks up at him, as if surprised that he's there then her eyes scan the room a moment before landing on me. Giving a slight smile I wave at her and she waves back, completely oblivious to the dried blood on the side of her face. Her auburn hair is messy and stands stick out every which way, and her lip is busted. She must have put up one hell of a fight to get bruises like that.

Alarms blared throughout the facility as red lights flash both in this room as well as in the hallway as the sirens whir on and on, making me feels as though I'm deaf. Static buzzes over my comm unit and my heart thunders in my chest, is he alright? Panic over takes me, and not my name kind of panic but scary to the core type of panic. Then all of a sudden the static stops and Harley's voice comes back through the comm.

"Are you alright?" I ask him the second I can.

"Yeah, something knocked out our communications but I'm pretty sure I got it back online."

"Harley, where's the next Avenger?" Two doors down, Hawkeye and back down the hall you come from and down to the right is Thor."

"What about Banner?"

"Tony told me he's getting him right now, Pepper's in the control room with me, still crying."

I look over at Steve as he reaches into the cage, taking Nat's arms and gently pulling her up and out of the cage as if she's fragile like a piece of glass. Pssh, 40's mentality. Deciding they're just fine with getting themselves out I thunder down the stairs and flee from the room only to be stopped by a hand on my shoulder. I turn around to see Nat standing there. She removes her arm just as Steve comes out of the room, looking between us.

"Where is he? I know that's what we need to do," is all she says.

Barton, that's who she wants to find. reaching into my ear and pocket in my cardigan I hand them both a comm unit. "This will keep you all in contact with each other."

I proceed to tell them the location of Barton, and Thor as Dad is supposed to be dealing with Banner. Turning once again to leave Nat's voice stops me. "Where are you going? You have me your ear piece, how are we supposed to keep an eyes on you?"

"I don't need to be babysat and to find my machine and blow it into a thousand tiny pieces scattering across the ground."

They don't say anything else and that's all the answer I need before pushing forward and making my way through the empty hallway. One turn after another in search of Ian or my machine. Actually I'm only looking for my machine because I don't want to see Ian, even if I tried to act so brave in front of Dad he still scares me and he always will.

One thing that scares me even more is when this is all over and I'll have to tell him, tell my dad about my childhood. Surely he'll ship me off then when he finds out just how horrible my childhood was. I've mentioned a few things but it was bad, so, so bad. A door at the end of the hallway looks like the kind you'd find that leads into a workshop or a garage with the big blue push in doors and I'm not prepared for what I find.


(BREAK SESSION)


The room I enter is large, like elephant herding ground large. If this room were to be filled with maple syrup I would drown in its syrupy goodness, that's how insanely gigantic this room is. In the rooms center sits the machine, it's big and bulky unlike my original design with a big black cable wire looping up and around the base of the machine before circling upwards and pushing up into the ceiling, probably to the almost cable looking dish I saw earlier.

What could Ian possibly planning to do, with the amount or wiring connecting to the power source it's not even safe to be near this room, if one of those wiring's gets loose the place will go out with a bang and not the good kind. Over the machine is a skylight and a full moon lights the room. What is today, something important must be happening... wait. Today all the planets align, that must mean something, something that Ian could use to his advantage.

"Ah, I see that you've found my machine," his voice sounds.

Whipping around to see the door Ian stands their, cold eyes glaring daggers at me as a smirk decorates his face. Maybe he'll tell me what he's planning to do so I can figure out a way to stop him. In all those movies I've watched the idiot super villains explain the entire plan to their enemies never thinking that the hero might escape and manage to stop then, why couldn't that happen in reality?

"You want to know my plan, is that what it is?" he said, stepping further down the steps.

"What do you plan to do Ian, something, something big, that's what I know."

"Guess what today is?"

"The day when all the planets align but how does that connect into your grand scheme, how does all the planets alignments help you?"

He grins, staying on the stairs. "All nine realms will align an when they do, this machine you created will enable me the ability to..." he hesitates. "To change the playing field."

"What the hell does that even mean?"

"Muspelheim, home of the Fire Demon; Alfhiem, home of the Light Elves; Vanaheim, home of the Vanir; Asgard, under control of Odin; Midgard, where our precious Earth is; Jotunheim, The Frost Giants; Nifleheim, home of Frost Trolls; Svartalfheim, home of Dark Elves; and Helheim, the relem of the dead. Today the all shall be aligned and the sun will be at its greatest power."

"You're going to use Bright Light to..."

"That's right. I'm going to absorb the energy from the sun to destroy the other nine realms and this machine will absorb the atmosphere, trees, water, and every other thing on this miserable rock and sent it all to Mars where HYDRA will be the rulers. Anyone who'll be under HYDRA's rule will be moved to Mars, which will be renamed Eshade in memory our great leader."

"Johann Schmidt, Red Skull, I knew he was alive especially after I found all those files but what do you plan of doing with the desolated planets after you're done harvesting there natural resources?"

"Destroy them of course, they will no longer be of use to HYDRA, and you my dear, will die today. You've been lucky most of your life but your time ends now," he pulls out a revolver from the waistband of his jeans. I duck just as he fires the gun, the pinging of the bullets bounces throughout the room and I'm sure that caught someones attention.

Beeping erupts from the watch and that's when I realize that it's been three hours, three hours I've been trying to save the Avengers and obviously I'm not doing a very good job. The machine whirs as a big flat circular disc underneath the top dome of the machine shooting up towards the skyline. The dome flicker to life, giving a low, radiating blue glow.

No, I have to stop that machine, even if it's the last thing I ever do. Tightening my fingers around the pistol I get back on my feet and, using as much strength as I can, shove the white rolling desk at him. It has to weigh around fifty pounds so it'll hurt like hell. The desk collides with Ian and I almost wince as his body slaps against the tile.

Raising his pistol her fires and I feel the slight burning sensation as the bullet only grazes me. Looking to I see the burn mark on my leggings. Launching forward I grab a lone pipe off the floor by the desk I'd pushed and make my way to the machine as Ian tried desperately to shoot me, the loud popping noises of the revolver blaring through the room.

Ignoring the firing of the gun I search the machine for an off switch only to discover there isn't one.

Ian's laugh sounds over the now loud rumbling from deep within the machine as soon as he stops he continues right after. "Don't you see Panic, you loose, HYDRA will prevail."

He runs at me full force and I raise my gun, only to be stopped when his fingers curl around my arm and the other around my neck. Leaning down to my ear I feel his warm breath on my ear. He tells me something so awful, so horrible that anger boils in my blood. I want... I just want him to...

Dead. That's the only word for it. I want him dead, he deserves to be dead and buried and for what he did to... and for what he did to me he deserves to loose his life.

"Argh!" I scream, hitting him in the face and head over and over until blood drips from his nose. Knocking the pistol from my hand he reaches his now free hand up and sends a stinging slap right across my face. He hits me again and again and again until I'm sure some of my face is black and blue, my left eye is going to be swollen, that's for sure.

Using my now freed right hand I punch him in the stomach, he cries out in pain but I don't stop, blind, boiling, hateful rage has erupted from me like a dam that has broken away and nothing can stop it, nothing can stop me and even if they could I wouldn't want them to because he deserves this, all of this. I yank my knee up, hitting him in the crotch, he doubles over holding his jewels while crying out in pain.

My foot comes up, colliding with his face. Blood literally pours from his face now but I keep going, grabbing his shirt I throw him into the machine before finding a hole leading to the inside of the core. If that's blocked off the machine won't be able to release nonessential energy in thus the machine will explode. Ramming the pipe down the opening I step back as the machine rumbles a deep low, and clearly dangerous noise, Ian's to out of it to notice.

Blue waves erupt from the machine. The next thing happens in slow motion, the loud busting sound of the machine and the invisible force of the explosion sending me flying backwards. Pain erupts throughout the back of my head as I slam into the wall, back hitting first. My feet smack the ground then my butt, and after that I just rest against the wall, head in my knees.

My fingers trail up my head and to the back of my head, feeling the blood pooling out, I turn slightly, seeing the long smear of my blood along the wall where my head had made contact but I can't process a thing. All I can think about is the words Ian said into my ear over and over again. I can't believe it, that makes sense because I knew, I knew I had, I knew it all along but then, I didn't do it then, it wasn't my fault...


Bam! There it is, the end of the battle but now LEAVE ME COMMENTS FOR THE Q&A! Also there's an announcement next chapter for you all. Also, on the 15th till the 20th I'm leaving to go on a cruise so Black Mamba: Kiss of Death won't be updated during that time, this story should be finished before then.