Autobots, Assemble!

Part 2:

Galvatron Rising

Chapter 36

JANET VAN DYNE'S PENTHOUSE APARTMENT
WEST 42ND STREET, MIDTOWN MANHATTAN

June Darby considered herself lucky. She had survived against metal titans from space confusing her life hopelessly, one even using her as bait to try and kill her son and his alien motorcycle. She had survived being associated indirectly with the Avengers and thus their many, many enemies. She had survived her home being leveled by the fortress of Darkmount. Oh, yes. Luck liked her family and friends.

Being friends with the Autobots and Avengers had its fair share of risk to be sure – supervillains and terrorist organizations being the two main threats. But the latter especially also had some very nice perks. Being able to stay in a luxury penthouse apartment owned by fashion designer Janet Van Dyne was one of them. Wasp had even purchased some additional furniture to better accommodate the two families living there. Raf's family was not among them though the tween often visited. His family had found a house in Cloudcroft, New Mexico with help from Fowler, far removed from the super-powered chaos of New York.

That the penthouse hadn't been so much considered as a target by attacking supervillains for as long as she, her son, and his two friends and their families had been living there was nothing short of a miracle in her mind. Perhaps that was to due to the ever looming threat of S.H.I.E.L.D, the shadowy espionage organization keeping a close watch on the place and surrounding regions through cameras, bugs, and even the occasionally stationed agent or two.

Admittedly, there had been a few close calls since they had moved in. Once, very soon after Darkmount's destruction, she had witnessed a duel between Doctor Strange and Baron Mordo in the streets just below them, the two flinging spells at each other violently. Luckily the Sorcerer Supreme had led the fight elsewhere. Another time, Spider-Man had swung by, fleeing a very angry, symbiote-snared Wizard. The friendly wall-crawler had jumped on the window to catch his breath before swinging onwards. Whether or not he'd known they were inside she couldn't say. More recently she had viewed aerial footage on the news of a firefight between the X-Men (and Galvatron) and the Brotherhood, the friendly mutant team winning out in the end thanks in no small part to their titanic friend.

And so the nurse had grown surprisingly relaxed. The three kids were attending Midtown High School at the moment and, despite the visits from some of Spider-Man's enemies, life was fairly normal. They were all doing well despite Miko's foster family and June herself still house hunting. Miko's family believed they had found one, so they were away dealing with the arrangements through Fowler. June had even gotten a job at the hospital Jane Foster worked at.

The nurse frankly would have felt fine if she could stay here, but she did not want to impose forever on Wasp's generosity.

She picked up her cell phone on hearing it buzz repeatedly. She was surprised to see Jane's caller ID. Jack and Miko watched her answer from the sofa where the former was tutoring the latter on trigonometry problems. Miko didn't seem to be paying much attention. Today, an agent was stationed in the apartment with them: a tall woman with short-cut hair and an orange and black lightly armored uniform. She had said her field name was Quake, but she much referred to go by Daisy.

"Jane? What is it?"

Jack saw his mother's face pale on hearing what the other woman had to say. Her eyes widened.

"Of course I'll help. Get Tony to groundbridge me there. Ratchet's 'bridge is down today for some 'necessary maintenance' so he told me."

"Something up, Ms. Darby?" Daisy wondered curiously.

"Lemme guess: Galv got himself clobbered again, didn't he?" Miko joked, grinning.

Everyone was less than reassured when June replied with a truly grim frown.

"Daisy? she asked. "Could you watch them for a bit? I'm needed at Avengers Mansion."

Quake smiled and nodded, saying she'd keep an eye on the kids. If they didn't cause any trouble she might even show them her powers or teach them a few moves.

A groundbridge swirled open. The nurse vanished inside, leaving the S.H.I.E.L.D operative Quake in charge of the penthouse. Seconds later it closed. Miko instantly fasted her gaze on the woman, eyes glittering eagerly. Quake shifted uneasily at that look, unused to dealing with minors – civilian minors no less. All she knew for certain thanks to the Avengers and Fury's dossiers was that Miko was trouble incarnate. She did not like the look the girl was giving her now.

"So...you kids need help with anything?"

AVENGERS MANSION, SUB-LEVEL INFIRMARY
FIFTH AVENUE, MIDTOWN MANHATTAN
TIME: 4:00 P.M.

Having never actually been in the infirmary before, June was stunned firstly at how advanced it was. State of the art medical equipment was scattered around the room, some of which she had never seen before. It was also incredibly crowded – almost all of the Avengers plus a good number of X-Men and some S.H.I.E.L.D officers were down here, either keeping an eye out, talking, or helping. She was startled to see Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. She even spotted a dark, winged figure lurking in the pale shadows in one corner of the room, red eyes burning like fire with badly repressed anger. There was no mistaking those red eyes – Galvatron. It struck her that this was the first time she had ever seen the alien's holo-form.

But her eyes were quickly drawn to the third stunning observation: the medical cots. On five of them were young people ranging in age from thirteen to nineteen, and on a sixth was a thick furred brown wolf. All of them were covered in bandages, some of which were being actively removed by Jane, Shadowcat, T'Challa, and Wasp to reveal ugly wounds beneath...wounds that looked all too much like claw and bite marks. They had not healed well.

Her face paled at the sight.

"What...what on Earth did this?" she breathed.

Captain Rogers whipped around to look at her.

"Long story, Ms. Darby." Cap said. He eyed Galvatron carefully as he continued: "Short version: kids got abducted by the MRD over a month ago and about a week ago were used to test out some genetic project Wu says is called 'Predator X.' Kids couldn't fight back. They were having their powers dampened. You can see the results of that for yourself."

"And what is Predator X exactly? I gather it's some kind of artificial animal, going by the injuries alone."

"Predator X was an old project Colonel Moss of the MRD wanted to test out, envisioned by Bolivar Trask before he set up the Sentinels. Was mothballed by S.H.I.E.L.D when they brought it to us for approval." Mae explained. "The end results would have been too violent and too dangerous, endangering civilians as well. I just never thought they'd pull it off. Or that they'd be sick enough to turn the monsters on kids. Kids! What were they thinking?" The Asian woman shook her head.

"One has to wonder where they received the funding and resources for such a complicated project after their dismissal." Vision mused. "Without S.H.I.E.L.D backing them, the Mutant Response Division is now a self-reliant organization. It must be stemming from somewhere."

The noise in the room lowered as the two nurses set to work together on Rahne. The poor wolf-shifting mutant whined almost constantly at the sting and burn of the water that Jane Foster carefully poured over them. Jamie, Jubilee, and the three new mutants did not fare much better despite the gentility of T'Challa, Kitty, Cap, Mae, and Wasp; Jamie and the girl with the tattered insect wings looked on the verge of tears from how badly their own wounds stung. Thor himself tended to Surge with Mjolnir, holding the hammer near while she kept a hand on it, letting her absorb the magical lightning it generated. Each adult let one of the young mutants squeeze their hand while another helped re-apply antibiotic soaked bandages.

"Galvatron?" T'Challa asked. "Would your, ah, 'friend' be willing to help? I believe Iron Fist mentioned to us when he lent us aid recently that he has a healing ability. He claims he saw it used on Black Knight."

From the partially shadowed corner, the black winged figure came. June could now appreciate just how tall he really was – well over six feet – and how large and powerful in appearance his wings were. They were large enough that their tips brushed the floor. But she noticed that despite the fiery anger in his red eyes, the wings were held limply, which explained why they were touching the floor in the first place. He was an odd amalgam of fury and grief. She understood he was upset about the children being attacked, but why...?

She looked around again.

Oh.

"You didn't find Adaryn, did you?" she guessed.

The holo-form refused to meet her eyes as he paused mid-step before continuing, stopping at Rahne's side. To not hear a single word from him was bizarre in the extreme. Whenever he was at the hangar, Jack said he was quite vocal and even a little snide and teasing, not to mention he had a taste for sarcasm to rival Hawkeye. She'd seen that herself with his attitude after MECH's abduction of him. He'd been almost petulant about Ratchet putting him in power down so he could heal.

Not being able to safely retrieve all the mutants, to know that he hadn't been there to protect the others from the initial Predator X attack...it had crushed something inside him. What precisely she didn't claim to know, but something had indeed been crushed.

'You poor mech...' she thought.

Rahne shied away instinctively from the gloved hand that reached out for her. The last time a gloved hand had come after her, needles had been put into her skin. She just hurt so much; she didn't want any more touching around the injuries.

For a brief moment the anger in Galvatron's red eyes subsided to be replaced with reassurance. And so she let the energy form of their alien protector reach out and hold her paw while the medically-trained Kitty re-applied more bandages on her legs. She felt something, a tiny sliver of something, an energy, transfer from him to her – something warm, relaxing and reminiscent of a warm fire on a cold winter's evening. Some of the smaller stings and aches simply melted away.

'I am sorry for what was done to you, Rahne. While I cannot heal such deep wounds as these lest my brother know fully of my presence here, I can at least dull the pain you are suffering. It is all I can offer, but it should allay the pain to such an extent that the dressings should not hurt as much.'

She nearly jolted at the middle-aged voice in her head all of a sudden. It didn't sound like Professor X's voice, and it wasn't Galv 'cause he wasn't a telepath. It sounded...older. Wiser. There was power in it, but at the same time it was the most gentle voice she'd ever heard, and the sheer emotional anguish in it nearly made her heart snap. Whoever this was, they were in agony that she and the others had been hurt, and in even greater agony that they couldn't do much more than dim the pain.

'Um...thanks. That-that helped. Can you...can you do that for the others?' she asked.

The warmth increased. 'Yes.'

Galvatron released her paw. She watched as he went around to the others. Like her, the glitter of pain in their eyes faded and they stopped struggling as much. She saw Jane and June look at him in undisguised wonder. He caught their looks towards the end, met their eyes for a brief second...and then dropped his gaze.

Shoving his hands in his deep trench coat pockets, wings still dragging, he left the infirmary. As he exited into the corridor, his form flickered, shimmered, and vanished.

Wonder Man, after a moment's hesitation, excused himself and flew after him. He was a techie, not a medic. He wasn't really much use in the infirmary. Vision would probably be of more help in there than he was. He was on solid ground acting as Tony's eyes and ears alongside Jarvis while the billionaire inventor and a few of the other techies were up in space finishing up their updates on the last dozen or so satellites.

Tony, Reed, Beast, and Ant-Man had wanted to come back down and help the instant Jarvis had updated them to the situation but Cap had convinced them that the best hope for finding the last missing mutant, Adaryn, would be to finish those upgrades. They'd be able to find her then with help from Xavier, Jean, and Emma. But Galvatron seemed to be have forgotten that. Simon intended to remind him.

He flew into the sub-level hangar to find...no one. Galvatron was not in the sub-levels from what his eyes alone were telling. He didn't know the alien well enough to guess where he was. But that was what the biometrics feed on the ID card was for. Tony had had Ratchet put that there to start with so his team and the medic could keep tabs on him. At least, that was what Vision had told him. He had never actually tested it out himself since he gathered Galvatron enjoyed being somewhat of a loner in the group – didn't like people breathing down his neck or hovering.

"Galv? You down here? Hello?" called Simon.

Wonder Man flew around the various areas of the sub-levels. He checked Tony's armory – nothing. He checked the training rooms – nothing. He checked the Assembly Hall – nothing. He even checked in the rushing waters that ran through the sub-level's main area.

Nothing. There was no sign of the their alien friend.

His hand forced, Wonder Man pulled out his ID card from a storage slot Tony had added to his stability gauntlet. He was a little surprised to note two distinct signals of the same frequency, amplitude, and wavelength: one was coming from the roof of a nearby building, while the other was coming from a place he hadn't even considered: Dr. Pym's lab. He hadn't thought to look there because mainly Tony and Wasp were the ones permitted inside. It was Pym's little getaway from the world of superheroes and supervillains, a place he could just be a scientist.

He flew for the lab quickly. He found Galvatron's holo-form staring intently at a wall-spanning board adorned with pictures of Hydra, Maggia, A.I.M., and Hand villains. Simon recognized the familiar masked visage of Baron Zemo right away, along with the other remaining Masters who were all crossed out with red ink, but there were other faces that did not so readily click. Only designations below them gave any solid identity: Mandarin, Red Skull, Justin Hammer, MODOK, the Controller, Kirigi the Undying, Gorgon, Madame Viper, and many others. Some were labeled as "BOV" which he assumed meant "Break Out Villain" but a good number of them lacked that label. One of them in particular stood out: a strange, angular humanoid made of metal with burning red eyes. Beneath it was the label "Ultron."

It was...bewildering wasn't even coming close. What was Pym doing in here? What was with all the pictures? And more importantly, what was Galvatron doing in here?

The holo-form turned to look at him. "Did you know about this pet project of his?"

Wonder Man shook his head. "I-I had no idea. I've never been in here. You're the war strategist, not me. What does it say to you?"

"It looks like he is narrowing down where they are thanks to reports from civilian and hero eyewitnesses and reports from S.H.I.E.L.D officers." He pointed to the photos as he spoke. "Obviously Dr. Pym wants these people recaptured but he's too much of a pacifist to go after them himself. This data might be for someone else. Who I don't know. Ant-Man isn't exactly the social butterfly that Wasp is. There is, of course, the far-fetched theory he's doing this for himself and does in fact mean to capture them on his own for one reason or another. Perhaps a way of proving himself? Personally I think the doing-this-for-someone-else theory is the more viable one."

Both heroes examined the lab more closely. On a desk near the wall was a large assemblage of mechanical components and some strange devices seemingly tossed around as if in frustration or exhaustion. Wonder Man picked one of them up to get a closer look but could make neither head nor tails of what it was he was holding. It was a tiny little disk-like object colored yellow and black. There was a strange little logo in the center that looked like a hornet. Another object lay on the table that was colored similarly but that had the eerie resemblance to a pistol.

Lastly, Ant-Man's helmet lay to one side – peculiar in it of itself, since he took it everywhere with him. Did he not need it up in space? Or had he left it here for another purpose? The fine-tipped tools laying around it and the exposed circuitry hinted he might either be doing maintenance on it – or else upgrading it.

"...Come to think of it, Pym's been acting a little weird lately. Scatter-brained so Wasp says. She says he's also not sleeping well, being immersed in work down here. And whenever he goes out late at night, he shuts his ID card down." Wonder Man admitted hesitantly. "I don't want to say he's slowly losing it...but everyone else has noticed it, too. Been going on for a while now. We just haven't brought it up. Tony thought he'd come to us, but it looks like we may have to go to him. Stress gets to the best of us after a while."

"Hm." was all Galvatron said in reply.

Then, taking the photo labeled as Gorgon, scanning the information and putting it back, the holo-form disappeared. Simon watched his bio-metric readings recede from the nearby building. He was headed towards Hell's Kitchen, following the information on the photo where Gorgon was last seen. Coming to a decision, he flew out of the hangar bay after him.

If the alien wanted to do something stupid – like go after the Hand's mutant, Hydra-associating leader for example – he was going to need some back up. Hopefully something or someone would meet him halfway and distract him enough for him to forget this lunacy, because there was a reason Gorgon had earned his name: cross his path, and, like his namesake, you would die after being painfully turned to stone, shattered to pieces afterwards by a swing from the Godkiller sword he used. Very few people could boast surviving against him, which was precisely why he was the Hand's leader.

That Ant-Man of all people had him as a target for some reason was disturbing enough on its own, but Galvatron going after him with only a single Avengers as support? This was a disaster waiting to happen. He wasn't thinking straight. He was frustrated; angry at his own perceived failure, and so he wanted a way to make up for.

Admirable in a weird, possibly suicidal way. Still stupid to the nth degree though.

Quake was actually enjoying herself.

Miko had made her uneasy to start with, but now that she had demonstrated her powers to her (safely) and was now regaling a few tales from the Skrull invasion and from her general work that Fury had declassified the girl was much more manageable. Jack's presence had helped greatly with that. The kid had a certain aura of authority, and Miko seemed to be a little less rambunctious when he was around – emphasis on "a little." The girl seemed to idolize superheroes to an almost adorable extent, that was all. Wanted to befriend as many as she could. Who could blame her?

She was just beginning to let herself relax when someone knocked on the door. Were Miko's folks back already? Had June returned from her excursion? She opened the door in all innocence...

And came face to face with a tall, purple masked, crowned man with a sword sheathed at his side. His right hand held a vicious looking energy pistol, its glowing barrel pointed at her upper chest.

"Servus, Ms. Johnson..." he purred suavely in broken German.

Daisy barely had time to shout out "Kids! Get down!" or fling him back with her powers before he fired. She was cast back a good foot and a half, crumpling to the floor. The blast tore through her lightly armored suit, exposing the burned skin beneath it. Only her training kept her from screaming her pain. Doggedly, she tried to get up, tried to lift a hand to send out a wave of vibrations powerful enough to make Zemo's ears bleed. Another shot to the upper chest sent her spiraling into unconsciousness.

Miko snapped angrily: "Hey! Leave her alone, creep! She's not an Avenger!"

The girl leapt over the back of the sofa and charged at Zemo, arm raised to swing a mean punch at him. Jack cried out at her to stop even as she swung. Zemo effortlessly caught her rounded fist in one hand, squeezing it and twisting the arm into a painful backwards position. Miko stifled a pained noise. Then he simply kicked her aside. But he didn't harm her further or render her unconscious or even kill her, Jack noted. Obviously she wasn't the target. But then who was? Maybe he could find out.

Jack backed away, hands up. "I'm not going to fight you. I know I'd lose."

He could almost see the Baron smirk behind his skin-fused mask. "Ah, at last. Someone sensible. Then perhaps you would be so kind as to tell me: where is your alien friend, hm? I haven't seen him for quite some time."

'He doesn't know where he is?' Jack wondered. 'But...why? It's pretty well known he's with the X-Men. Then again, Tony and Wasp both mentioned he was sticking real close to them lately 'cause he's scared the MRD will kidnap more kids, and the Institute's out in Westchester county, and the Masters don't bother with mutants...'

"Well?" Zemo pressed.

Jack debated. Did he tell the truth, or lie? He couldn't make up a lie on short notice. If he was going to lie, he needed time to fabricate one.

"What do you want him for?" the teen demanded. "Last time you and your pals squared off with him you had Dynamo hit him with a nano-virus. Iron Man said you almost killed him."

"Bah!" Zemo snorted. "Yes, I 'almost' managed to. The nano-virus was incomplete then. But thanks to that encounter, Doctor Zola and some associates of his have had more than enough time to perfect it. For getting my Masters locked away and being stupid enough to turn his back on what I had to offer him at the start, I intend to repay him in full. No one turns their back on me. Betray me...and you face a traitor's death."

Jack eyed him. "Associates? Who, A.I.M. beekeepers? Heard they worked for you a lot. Also heard their stuff tends to backfire. Like, a lot."

"Oh, no. Not A.I.M alone. Have you not heard? A.I.M is now allied with the organization MECH. They have quite the database over your titanic protectors. Vision destroyed most of the previous Cylas's hard files...but she did manage to upload much of it to external drives before the purge. Lacking the necessary resources to craft such a complicated virus, the new Cylas turned to A.I.M. and thus to Hydra and myself. When I devise a plan to kill someone, I intend for that plan to succeed, even if I must wait months for it to come to fruition."

"Oh, yeah? Did you forget the other 'traitor' in the ranks, purple puss?" Miko laughed dryly.

Both teens were surprised to see Zemo's skin-fused mask morph into a puzzled expression. He laughed after a moment – a dry, dead, sneering laugh.

"Wonder Man is dead. I saw him perish in Avengers Mansion when he destroyed the Muspelheim Norn Stone. Are you so out of touch with them that they did not inform you?"

They were wise enough not to let their expressions change. The attacks on Avengers Mansion – they had either been remote due to low numbers on the part of the Masters (such as the recent biological attack) or coincidental (the one that had occurred after Wonder Man had appeared at the Mansion). It seemed sheer dumb luck had kept Wonder Man under the radar for this long. Miko could've laughed. Zemo literally didn't realize that Simon Williams was alive and well, nor did he realize he had found shelter with the Avengers themselves. Simon had also been busy helping Tony with the satellites in an on-and-off, kinda random way, so there was also that. Good enough reason to think the guy was dead.

'Or maybe he's just playing with us?' Jack thought. You never could tell with Zemo. Was he saying that the Wonder Man who had worked for him was dead? Or did he really believe the man himself was dead? He was being pretty oddly specific concerning his death though...

On the floor, Miko tried to sneakily contact Galvatron behind her back, to warn him that Zemo was looking for him and wanted to kill him. With his attention on Jack for the time being, she thought she might just get away with it. Zemo caught the movement with another smirk. But he didn't try to remove the phone from her possession or break it.

"Ah! Now that is an idea, isn't it? Why don't we give him a call?"

Realizing her mistake, Miko tried to rise and run for the door. The Baron fired a shot that barely missed her head, the girl yelping in response. It was only her vice grip on her phone that kept it from being flung from her hands when she whipped both up to shelter herself.

"I would advise against that, young lady. I am not one to throw away bargaining chips...but I might do so if I begin to see you as a nuisance rather than an advantage. So." He pointed the pistol at her. "Contact him."

Miko did as told.

"Hey! Galvatron! Wait up!"

The grey aircraft slowed on hearing the voice shout at him from behind. He had seen someone following him some ways behind on his scanners for the last ten minutes. He had thought perhaps it was Hawkeye, Ms, Marvel, Wasp, or even one of the X-Men. So he was rather surprised to see the glowing purple energy form of Wonder Man speeding towards him.

"What do you want? I'm busy."

"Busy flying headlong into your grave?" retorted Simon. "There is no way in hell I'm letting you face down the Gorgon on your own. The guy's on S.H.I.E.L.D's Most Wanted List. You need to be a top-level bad guy to be put on that list. Allow me to put this into perspective for you: Doctor Doom is on that list. You really want to go after a man on the same list as Doctor Doom?"

"If it means lessening the danger Dr. Pym is putting himself in? Yes."

Simon blinked. He hadn't expected that response, nor had he expected the dangerously calm, matter-of-fact tone of voice in which those words had been uttered. He really wasn't the aggressive, screw-the-consequences personality Zemo had allied with in the past. He had a heart. He cared about his friends, didn't like them being put in danger, and he'd do whatever was needed to lessen the risk.

"Then if you're dead set on this, you could use some back up." he said at last.

"...Thank you."

Together they began flying in the direction of Hell's Kitchen once more. They had barely gone a mile when the aircraft's comm. link pinged. He slowed to a hover. It was Miko going by the number. Had Jazz gone and slipped her the ever-altering Avengers frequency again? He'd have a word with him if so. Her cell phone was much more easily hacked than an ID card or Cybertronian comm. link.

"Miko? What is it?" Galvatron sighed.

[Hello, Megatron.]

He felt the Energon in his lines freeze at that suave, purring German voice. Simon saw him freeze, heard his engine sputter and seem to go out.

"Zemo." he growled. "How did you get Miko's cell phone? Where are you? Where is she? If you've hurt her in any way I swear I will forgo the rule of not killing a villain gladly. Damn the consequences. You deserve nothing less."

[Oh, there's no need for threats. She and the other boy are unharmed. I am not after them. But through them...I can get to you.]

"What do you want?" the grey aircraft snapped.

[It is nothing so very complicated, Megatron. You betrayed me by helping the heroes during and after Asgard, and you continue to help them now. What I want is your dead body. And I intend to collect it this day. Come. I have the girl's phone, so you know where I am. Face your death with some dignity. A warrior of your caliber should do no less.]

The line went dead. Galvatron remained silent. He felt his counselor stir anxiously within him, heard him ask what he intended to do; he would not let him forfeit his life when he wasn't healed yet. He would lose him to Unicron then. He found himself unable to answer him. Did he die and surrender himself to Unicron? Or did he skirt around death once more – and thus condemn two teens to death and two families and many friends to endless grief? Neither option was distinctly likable, and "No" was the honest answer to both.

"What? What happened? What's he want?" Simon demanded.

"Forget Gorgon. We can handle him later. We need to go pay Baron Zemo a visit at Wasp's penthouse. He's got Jack and Miko at his mercy."

Wonder Man's red eyes widened. Then they were set in determination.

"Then what are we doing hovering around here? Let's go! Hurry! Go, go!"

They shot off.

Almost politely, Zemo handed Miko her pink flip phone back. Fire burned in Miko's eyes. On the sofa, Jack glowered at him. Quake had yet to rise, but she was stirring weakly now.

"Ironic how I never thought to harm an Avenger through civilian means. My thanks to you for the suggestion, Ms. Nakadai. You have assured the downfall of a traitor and a generally dangerous mechanism."

Miko snarled, vainly throwing a shoe at him in her anger. Zemo shot the thrown object nonchalantly, watching in sadistic glee as it was reduced to ash. Quake's eyes fluttered open and she pushed herself to her knees, unsteadily balanced her weight on one hand as the other covered the burning rip in her suit. She'd heard enough to know what Zemo was up to. There was a major flaw in the Baron's scheme that might just let the mech pull through when he came to answer the challenge; she knew he would.

"He'll beat you. I've read his file. He's not so easy to kill."

"Oh? I came very near succeeding the last time. What pray tell has changed since then, Ms. Johnson? Something I could be aware of?"

She growled at him: "I'd die before telling you a damn thing about him. He's under Fury's protection, so he's under mine, too."

The super-powered agent spat in his direction, challenging him. After getting up to her knees, she sent out a shock wave of vibrations at his head. The Baron cried out in pain, his hands held to the sides of his head as he felt his eardrums come near to breaking open. Sensing she'd made her point, and in too much pain to use her powers for extended time periods, she stopped her assault. When the man removed his hands from his still-ringing ears, he found that a small amount of blood had soaked through his mask.

Zemo's composure cracked a little, satisfaction swiftly replaced by irritation. The woman had spirit but she was becoming annoying now. He went over to her, drawing his blade. He held it to her neck, preparing to slice open the jugular vein and watch her choke on her own blood until death...

Then, through his still-ringing ears, he picked up the distinct scream of an advanced engine. He withdrew the blade. The windows darkened when a familiar dark grey and black aircraft lowered down in front of it, purple lateral lines glowing strongly in what might be interpreted as a threat.

"Ah. It would seem our guest has arrived."

Note to Guest: I might just try that idea, but I may tweak it a little bit. :) I'm also not getting a lot done because of finals/crunch week at school. I got so much going on that I have very little time to write it. I may not make it a one-shot but a miniseries, kinda like First Star I See Tonight or Tcsovan Niv A'anoth. Might flow a little better that way.

Sound good? :) I'll get around to it, I promise, but I may need to wait for the general school-related chaos to die down.