A/N: Okay, so I see that some of you are rightfully upset about what happened last chapter. Again, I'm sorry. But please trust me, I have a plan and this will all pay off in the long run.
Omega Sentinel
Bucky's face hardened as he picked Steve's shield up and strapped it to his back. It had to have been what Steve felt like when he thought he had lost him twice. It was getting increasingly more difficult to contain himself, to contain the burgeoning anger inside. T'Challa must have sensed this, as he didn't say a word.
Steve's lifeless body, along with Natasha's and Clint's, were eventually collected by a pair of SHIELD agents, Woo and Quartermain. The latter tried to say a few consoling words to Bucky, as it was well known throughout SHIELD that Steve was his best and oldest friend, but they fell on deaf ears.
Janet chimed in moments later that Bobbi was going to be airlifted to a local back to a local SHIELD run hospital, and that Viper had been taken into custody. That surprised him a little, as he would have assumed that she would have killed the woman. Guess she either stomached out or concentrated on saving Mockingbird.
"They are here," T'Challa said.
Bucky turned his head and watched the other New Avengers minus Bobbi walking up. All of them looked tired, mentally and physically. All of them looked angry. "Where are they?" Peter asked.
"Don't know," he answered tersely.
"I have a hunch." T'Challa turned and began to walk back to where he fought the two Black Widows. "As I was chasing Zemo, he ran through a secret passageway to escape. I was unable to open it by the same means as he."
"A secret passageway? Seriously?" Janet said, deadpan.
"How cliché can a guy get?" Monica followed. "He's probably watching us right now through some ancient family portrait with the eyes cut out."
The little bit of humor did little to soften Bucky's mood. If anything, it agitated him even more. He knew what they were trying to do - lighten up the mood so they wouldn't get too uptight and make serious, potentially fatal, mistakes.
It didn't work.
"Here." Black Panther stopped in front of a seemingly innocuous wall and began to feel around. "He hit a switch somewhere on this wall to open the secret door." He felt around for several moments, but gave up. "I cannot find it. Perhaps if I –"
"Found it," Jen said. She reared back and slammed her fist through the wall, sending dust everywhere. "Open Sesame," she said as she ripped the wall apart, and crumbled the rest like one would brush dust off a painting.
The others backed away to avoid the shower of rock and debris. "Well, that's one way to open a door," Peter quipped.
Jen grinned and led the way down the secret passage. It was cramped, dank and dark. Drops of cold water dripped down on the ceiling, barely masked by the skittering of large rats scurrying on the floor.
Janet shuddered. "Is a maid too much to ask for?"
"Zemo must make a killing renting this place out for Halloween parties." Peter ran his fingers along the walls and shuddered when nearly three centimeters of dust collected on his glove. "Yeah, a maid would be nice."
The corridor was long and winding, apparently leading them into the deepest bowels of the castle. After several minutes of walking, Jen saw a light at the end of the tunnel.
It was a small sliver of light leaking out from under another hidden door. "This must be it," she said. She used her universal key to tear the door apart.
The team quickly, but cautiously, exited the tunnel and spread out. The area was large and empty, with almost thirty large monitors lining the walls. "Careful guys," Luke warned. "They're around here somewhere."
"How right you are, Mr. Cage." They turned to their right and found the Masters of Evil standing around Zemo, who was sitting on a throne of pure gold. They were assembled behind a blue force field. "How nice of you to finally join us."
Brunnhilda snarled angrily. "You cannot escape our wrath, coward!" She smiled dangerously and pointed her razor sharp spear at him. "You shall pay for your transgressions against Asgard."
Zemo just chuckled. "I think not." Suddenly, several monitors began playing various parts of the battles outside. "I now readily admit that I have underestimated you. You were more powerful than I first realized. However, that power, such as Ms. Rambeau, Ms. Walters and Mr. Parker, will be the instruments of your destruction."
"The fuck are you yammering about this time?" Luke cracked his knuckles. "Just come on out so we can kick your asses."
Mandarin cackled and pulled a remote control out of his sharp brown suit jacket. "That, I'm afraid, won't be an issue." He pressed the sole button on the remote. A door in the floor, ten foot in radius, opened up, allowing a platform to rise.
On that platform was a young Indian woman dressed in white body armor. Her name was Karima Shapandar, the only agent to have survived the broad executions Viper initiated when Hydra was capturing SHIELD agents left and right. Mandarin found her among the bodies, holding her breath for dear life. It was then that he knew that she was deserving of more than to be resigned as a monstrosity like her fellow agents. They were turned into Bio-Sentinels, mixtures of man and machine.
She was turned into Omega Sentinel, a perfect mix of man and machine. She had all of the benefits of the Sentinels, with none of the weaknesses. He didn't stop, not until she was better than the next generation Sentinels, who themselves were more than a handful for the Avengers.
"Meet Omega Sentinel, the pinnacle of mutant hunting, or in this case, hero killing, technology," Mandarin continued. "You all put on quite a show outside, I'll admit. Perhaps too good a show." He cackled evilly and snapped his fingers.
Omega smiled dangerously, a white glow filling her eyes.
Peter's Spidey Sense was going off the charts. "Guys. I think we're in trouble."
She vanished completely. "Absolutely," she whispered in his ear from behind him. Before he could even think of trying to moving out of the way, he was flying into a wall at breakneck speed. He slammed into it with tremendous force, enough to crash through it and skid to a stop some forty feet away.
"Jes–" Jen started before Omega sunk her fist into her midsection with enough power to lift her off her feet and fold her up in half like a lawn chair. The air rush out of her hurriedly. She collapsed to the ground, arms wrapped tightly around her midsection.
Quicksilver bring there was the worst thing that could have happened. With the Ability Adaptation Module installed within her, she was able to copy nearly every power there. Quicksilver's speed, Hulk's strength, Spider-Man's agility, Wasp's shrinking ability, just to name a few.
Those were the only ones she needed to defeat these Avengers. Yet, she had more.
Her elbow rushed back and struck Luke with enough force to break his unbreakable skin. Blood dripped from his broken nose as he flew back and skidded to a stop just before the force field. "That looked like it hurt," Karla commented.
Danny and Scott tried to engage her, but she danced around them, keeping four or five steps ahead of their attacks. She even managed to trick them into hitting each other, until all they were doing was damaging each other while not laying a single finger on her.
"Aw hell," Janet muttered. She shrunk down as quickly as possible and unleashed a barrage of powerful Wasp's Stings. They succeeded in taking Omega's attention from Danny and Scott, but that was about it. Small singes marked her suit, much to her displeasure.
Janet was too small to see, so she swatted at empty air at multimach speeds. The sonic boom from her movements nearly knocked Janet unconscious, however, and knocked everyone else into the walls.
Janet fluttered to the floor, where she fell to her knees. Her inhaled breaths were shaky. She's too much, she thought.
As the others rose and pressed futile attacks, Black Panther was nowhere to be found. No one but Monica noticed this, but she didn't say anything. She simply stood there, watching the others attack. She knew that she was faster than Quicksilver; Omega pretty much being in slow motion to her proved as much. And as long as she didn't stay still long enough to get scanned, then she stood a chance.
She'd have to fight smart, as one misstep meant her being punched to the moon.
Her body ignited into pure light as she made her move. Omega was too busy dancing around Danny and Jen to notice her approaching. Not that she would have noticed anyway.
A pillar of light energy exploded under Omega, sending her crashing into the ceiling. She landed on her stomach with a hard thud.
Bucky tried to cap her in the temple, but she recovered too quickly and was suddenly on the other side of the room. He cursed and ducked down behind his shield. " We need a plan," he spoke.
"I know. But she's too fast for you all," Monica said.
"But, not you."
She nodded once sharply and vanished herself. She appeared a few feet away, Omega wrapped in her arms, whose own fist was two feet from Bucky's head. A pair of blasts erupted from Monica's lit hands and lanced through Omega's body armor.
The sentinel coughed and fell to a knee briefly before attempting to sweep Monica's legs from under her.
This failed, but it allowed her the second she needed to escape again.
"Sorry, but you aren't fast enough," Monica said from behind her before blasting her in the back. Omega screamed and fell forward.
Jen regained her bearings and swung a haymaker. It was caught and her hand crushed under the Sentinel's Hulk enhanced strength. "AAAAGH!" She tried to jerk her arm loose, but that only made the pain worsen.
Omega smirked and tossed Jen like a rag-doll into Valkyrie, who had been frozen with astonishment at her speed and dexterity. She then flipped over Danny, flicking him into Bucky as she passed, and landed next to Scott. Before she could do anything, Luke managed to tackle her from behind. "Dogpile!" he bellowed.
Everyone who had even an ounce of super strength leaped on top of the Sentinel in a bid to pin her to the ground. It worked for all of three seconds before she threw them off of her. Bio-electric blasts, swirling yellow and green beams, lanced out and struck each of them multiple times.
A chorus of groans echoed through Zemo's secret safehouse.
Monica frowned heavily. Only she, Bucky and Peter were left standing upright. "This isn't working. She's too strong to fight like this."
"You could've taken her out in seconds," Peter noted breathlessly. "Why are you holding back?"
She didn't answer right away. Several beams lanced from her fingers and kept Omega off balance long enough for Luke and Danny to drive her into and through a wall. "She's a victim. Destroying her… wouldn't sit well with me."
"Well, me neither. But she's too strong for me to just web up and I don't see us knocking her out any time this week."
"We don't have to, not by punching her," Bucky said. "Give me a minute to set up."
Monica nodded. "Alright." She flew into the hole created by Luke and Danny just as they flew out. "You can't touch me," she stated as she dodged a flurry of punches, kicks and blasts with ease.
She blurred in and out of range, making sure that her attention was kept solely on her and not others. Especially not Barnes. Whatever he had planned would probably take a few minutes to set up. Hopefully not, because the others weren't going to last much longer. She could tell that Omega was just toying with them. "I don't know what he did to you," she said, "but we can help you. We will help you."
Karima growled and launched a volley of unseen punches. Monica casually dodged them all, a maintained look of concern and pity etched on her tired face. "Stay still!" she snarled.
"No." She moved behind her and blasted her into a punch thrown by Jen. It connected, sending Karima reeling back into and through the wall leading to the secret passage.
"Alright, got it," Bucky said. Within his left hand was a small, battery sized EMP, the very same one he said he had ready to take Clint out if the virus didn't work in time. He waited a moment, then threw it as hard as he could toward the hole created by Karima careening through the wall. Just when she was emerging, it went off. The radius was small, but the effect wasn't.
She twitched violently, as if having a severe seizure, before collapsing to the ground. Monica immediately checked her pulsed, and sighed with relief when she found a weak one. "She's alive. Good job, Cap."
Bucky faltered noticeably at being called 'Cap', which drew an amused smirk from Monica. "Thanks," he replied.
Zemo and the Masters of Evil were stunned. They had thought for certain that the Sentinel would have been enough to finish the New Avengers off. "You've survived that challenge," he said, voice tight with barely contained anger. "However, you have no way of getting passed our shield. As soon as Omega Sentinel awakens, she will fini–" Before he could finished the word, the blue force field separating them from the Avengers flickered and then died. "What?!"
Suddenly, Black Panther faded into view. He had keyed an invisibility function into his suit and had stalked around the battle unseen to work toward depowering the field. "It is over, Baron. No more obstacles. No more walls or troops or minions to hide behind," he stated. "This ends now."
