LAST TIME
on
AGENT GIGAN:
After breaking out of its control during the Chitauri invasion, the living weapon, the alien kaiju Gigan had been brought back to its SHIELD masters and deactivated for repairs at the hands of Otto Octavius…
And as questions regarding the use of the cyborg begin to mount, HYDRA agents Crossbones and Mystique prepare for a subversive offensive to be mobilized.
HAMMER industries, now the manufactures of the Sentinel automatons, draw up designs to construct bigger, more powerful versions in order to compete with the arms race.
During a celebration of the Earth's victory over the Chitauri in Washington D.C., the Brotherhood of Mutants, led by the international mutant terrorist Erik Lensherr a.k.a. Max Eisenhardt a.k.a. Magneto attacks! Taking hundreds of hostages and launching an assault on the heroes protecting the parade, the nation's capital is about to become a battleground.
Lights flickered in the darkness. Faint at first, then more intensely like the sparks of a blacksmith's strike.
What is… the Will?
The thoughts came in broken comprehension, an inner voice bridging the gaps between neurons. Not words, but primal instincts, core programming elements rousing from the oblivion of deactivation.
Accessing core memory… What is the Will?
Fading in from the horizonless black of the unconscious void, an asteroid rolling in weightless momentum came into being, moving closer and closer. Growing large, it came to a graceful stop, and suddenly the vision became more directed, searching, investigating the nooks and crannies of the rock. Deposits of frozen liquids that sated a thirst, veins of nutritious minerals liberated by the cooperation of a beak and crushing side pincers steadily rewarded a patient desire for sustenance. Not much thought existed beyond that concerned with rooting-out the asteroid's bounty.
But there was something unfamiliar nearby, and a new shape manifested. It was not anything like the many types of objects flung throughout the galaxies. It was not jettisoned from the impact of greater bodies, nor the superfluous litter from the forging of some solar system. It moved with purpose, guided by a will. Smooth in some parts, pointed in others; odd lights of unfamiliar color danced and blinked on its surface.
Then there was a bright light, and all sense was gone.
Then, came the Will.
WASHINGTON D.C.
Falcon plunged at rocket speed, hoping sheer velocity would be enough to get him close enough to the Master of Magnetism to disrupt his control over the cyclone of ball bearings keeping the crowd trapped.
Come on! He grunted under his breath, the force of the wind near to burning his face. I just need to knock him down!
Magneto whipped his head upwards with a fraction of a second to spare before Sam Wilson collided with him like a train. Lensherr's arms were coming up, but even his synapses could not react in time before impact, and both hurtled to the ground.
The pen of metal meteors dropped and scattered, leaving the stunned people to gawk at the sudden window of freedom.
Magneto and Falcon came to a halt inches above the concrete, the mutant leader's hands outstretched to break the fall. In the moment they met each other's eyes Sam lunged to remove the helmet. But this time Magento was ready, taking hold of Falcon by his suit and casting him aside with a wave of his right hand. Harnessing the elemental forces of magnetism, he levitated upright and pressed Falcon against the stone of the Washington monument.
Realizing their opportunity, the people scrambled en masse in every direction, frantic and screaming.
Their escape caught Magneto's attention, and with his left hand, raised the pellets back into orbit. While some of those fleeing managed to get beyond the range of the circuit, most found themselves cut off and forced to retreat into the trap. With at least a fair portion of his hostages secured, he turned his interest back to Falcon.
"I know who you are, Avenger." He began, still pressing a hand forward to pin Falcon in place. "What I don't understand, is why you choose to oppose me?"
Wilson grit his teeth, staring back irefully. "Don't know if you've read any headlines about yourself, but you're responsible for the death of a lot of innocent people." He spat. "You're a murderer and a terrorist."
Magneto looked down to the hand he was using to control Sam for a moment before closing it into a fist.
"There is blood on my hands, I'll never deny it. But they are no less steeped than those of the Homo-sapiens who have tried to exterminate my kind for generations."
He opened the hand and looked up. "I should think you would understand this better than most. How long did your own people suffer under oppression? Regarded as less than human? Chattel to be bought and sold?"
Wilson grimaced. "Look I get it, the history of world isn't exactly a record of human kindness. But none of that makes what you're doing okay! Answering hatred and violence with hatred and violence doesn't set things right!"
Erik Lensherr let out a long exhale of resignation. "Would that humanity spoke any other language. Sadly, things are as they are. And in a world that persecutes and denies the rights of mutants, I, am the only one with the will to speak their language."
Magneto flexed his fingers, and Sam cried out as the masonry behind him began to crack.
Monster roared and metal screeched as the demonic dragon and the federal Sentinel wrestled, the creature dragging its talons across the dark visor of the automaton. The right hand of the machine shifted and transformed into a cannon, a charge of yellow energy accumulating in its bowl. With a thundering BOOM! the shot was fired, striking the beast in its abdomen and sending it careening into the nearest building in an eruption of debris as it thrashed and wailed madly.
"OBJECTIVE: TERMINATE THREAT. LETHAL FORCE AUTHORIZED."
As the colossi warred and the hellmouth spewed forth the denizens of the infernal plane to attack the bystanders, SHIELD agent Bobbi Morse, a.k.a. Mockingbird was fighting a pitched battle of her own. A grotesque creature somewhere between a gorilla and a bull in smoke-fuming black fur was trying to rip her to shreds. In the mix of flying bullets from the arriving police and frenzy of civilians, Morse threw herself into one artful dodge after another just to avoid disaster.
A claw swipe for her head was ducked into a butterfly-flip, putting her into position to snag a small flying creature with her b ō-staff and fling it at the monster. A flurry of claws and shrieks in her adversary's face served to distract it long enough for her to dash behind the concealment of a bus stop shelter and collapse her staff.
In her own goggle-installed information display, warning notices from the Insight Helicarriers above indicated the confusion of the algorithm to acquire valid targets.
"WE NEED BACK-UP ON THE GREEN!" She barked into her ear-comms. "Whatever portal Darkchilde opened is spitting out a horde of hostiles, and there's still a ton of civilians out here!"
Blocked by a poster on the glass, Mockingbird had to peek around the corner to check on the status of her pursuer.
The claw was coming right for her, her face flaring into shock, and she pulled back just as the talons torn into the shelter's frame. The beasts' head came around the bend, jaws wide and furious. That was when Bobbi shoved her shortened staff into its mouth and activated its extension. Instantly the ends shot out and braced themselves against the roof and tongue of the monster, causing it to rear-back with a sharp yelp, trying to pluck the object keeping its mouth locked open.
There were a few moments where Morse watched on, wondering if the mechanism was strong enough to-
The roof of the creature's mouth gave at last, and the end of the rod erupted through the top of its head between the eyes. It staggered back on its heels, an arm spasming. Then the foot of a Sentinel came down and crushed it as it walked by, leaving all but the head sticking out from underneath.
"Well that was helpful." She said.
Mockingbird sprung to recover her weapon but was intercepted by a gangly green fiend. Reptilian with a slender body and membrane between the limbs, it wailed at her with an exaggerated maw of curved tusks and bulbous eyes.
The two of them went to the ground in a jumble of greedy clutches and growls where ju-jitsu training kicked in for Bobbi, and she managed to wrangle the creature into putting its back towards her. Despite the short row of barbs along its spine, she maneuvered her legs on either side of its head, locking them in place, and stretched her body to grapple an arm. Hooking its scaly arm under hers, Morse twisted her body and felt for the tension in the demon's neck. She interlocked her ankles for some extra torque and with a final effort, heard the neck snap as the monster went limp.
Breathing heavy, she kicked the thing away from her and low-crawled her way over to where the pancaked-demon still had her bō-staff still sticking out of its skull. Careful not to draw undue attention to herself before getting a hold of her weapon, she drew it out with a slick, sucking sound.
"I gotta start carrying a gun."
A claw slash screeched across the curve of Captain America's shield as Sabretooth advanced, aiming to rip out the Avenger's throat. Victor Creed followed up with a spinning back kick just as Rogers dodged low and swept the supportive leg out from under him. The feral mutant was still in the middle of falling when Cap grabbed him by the wrist and heaved him head-first into the ground, driving the edge of his shield into the back of Sabretooth's skull for good measure.
Cap pressed his ear comm. "Avengers! Status!"
"It's a shit-show, Rogers!" He heard Morse come back.
When no answer came from Falcon, Steve turned his head towards the monument. "Sam?!"
Searing pain shot like a bolt of lightning up Cap's left leg. "HRAAAAA!"
A snarling Sabretooth gnawed on the flesh of Rogers' calf, blood seeping around the fangs.
Cap brought his shield down as he flailed to a knee, smashing Creed in the nose and trying to force him to release his grip. Sabretooth withstood the blow and rose to his feet, upending Rogers. Fighting through what threatened to tear the hunk of muscle off the bone, Steve knocked his shield into the inside of Victor's right knee, bucking the joint and collapsing Sabretooth. With both men down, Cap struck the rim of his shield against the side of Victor's face so hard, it shattered the mandible and part of the cheek bone.
Kicking free, Steve rolled into a kneeling position on a still-stinging leg, the shield between him and his bloodthirsty opponent.
"Always… erah.. always wondered what super-soldier tasted like." Sabretooth licked his chops as he used a hand to put his face back into shape, the bone fragments bonding together. "Kinda tangy."
"So what's the objective Creed?" Cap asked, glancing back a second to confirm the whirling storm of metal behind him. "What's Magneto hope to get out of all this?"
"I'm not much for ideologies, Rogers." Sabretooth's jaws snapped shut. "Like you, I'm a… man of action."
"Whatever the Brotherhood thinks it's getting away with today, we're putting a stop to it."
Creed purred as he displayed a wide, jagged grin, "Good luck with that, Captain. Hope Fury gives you a nice pat on the head for good behavior. After it I leave it on his doorstep."
Rogers narrowed his eyes.
Sabretooth snarled.
The mutant lunged at a speed only a super-soldier could match. Shield braced against the momentum, and a punch over the top flattened nose cartilage into a spray of blood and snot. Sabretooth grabbed the shield and attempted to rip it out of Cap's grip, but Rogers jumped with it, using the power of the swing to position himself into a low crouch.
"Gah!" The pain in his leg protested, but Steve refused to yield and used his leverage to flip Creed onto his back with a fireman-toss. In the next instant Sabretooth had rolled onto his belly, an instinct for violence that would not allow him to remain vulnerable. Again he snapped at Cap's ankles, a feign, seizing the foot of the injured leg and pinning it to the ground. A half-second before Victor could capitalize, Cap embedded the shield in the ground between his leg and the fangs and hooked his free arm around Creed's neck.
Rogers sprawled to the ground and heard Creed gag as he sunk the hold in. While he could fend off one set of claws with the shield, he felt Sabretooth's left hand make contact, claws digging in the meat of his shoulder.
"Can't keep this up!" Steve thought, tasting blood in his mouth as he eyed his goal. "He's gonna keep cutting me until I bleed out!"
"HRUH!" Captain America lurched to his feet, still holding Victor about the neck. He staggered forward on his quivering leg, balancing Creed's weight, the pliable armor of his bodysuit doing what it could to mitigate the damage of the claws. A few yards were all Cap could get before a well-place fist to the breadbasket forced him to double over, giving Sabretooth purchase on the ground.
They grappled in a scrum, Sabretooth's teeth grinding against each other, spittle dripping from the effects of the neck-lock. Cap gave up the hold, drove his knee into Creed's jaw, shield rim into his throat, jumping right cross to the temple.
But Sabretooth fired back with a kick to the injured shin, an elbow-uppercut, and clasped his right hand onto Steve's head with a vice grip. Pressing his claws into the most painful spots, he forced Cap to buckle.
"I'm gonna enjoy this, hero." Victor hissed, pulling back his other claw.
The shield struck Sabretooth's elbow, causing the mutant to cry out as the joint bent beyond its limit. Rogers weaved his shield in front of himself, palm-striking his side to bunt it into Creed's face.
They were edging closer to the ball-bearing cyclone.
Steve landed a straight blow into Creed's abdomen.
Creed raked his claws over Steve's face, sparking off the armor of the helmet and slashing the bridge of his nose.
As Cap turned his face away, he spun bodily, sacrificing the agony of his injured leg to deliver a back kick with his good one that drove Sabretooth back a few more steps. It was then that Victor realized that he was being maneuvered towards Magneto's trap, and in his sudden alarm, he pounced off his backfoot.
Rogers was ready, and with fangs surging towards him reared back with the shield and drove it into Creed's mouth, breaking several teeth and whiplashing the head with a wicked snap.
"GA GHARRRRLL." Sabretooth uttered though multiple facial fractures, bits of teeth tumbling past his lips.
Pulling all the grit he could muster through the lacerations and blood-loss, Captain America left his feet and planted a dropkick into Creed's chest. Unable to stop himself, Sabretooth sailed backwards into the field of tiny bullets, loosing a shrill scream as they tore through him by the hundred.
Steve Rogers turned away from the sight, breathing heavy and taking a knee to support himself as he reached for his ear-comms.
"Avengers… Assemble."
Darkchilde watched on with contented delight, behind her the yawning pit to the lower dimension. The hordes of fiends she'd unleashed were running rampant, causing all the havoc and madness they'd intended. One of the Sentinels was still entangled with the great red dragon, while another was crawling with the smaller beasts like flies over a carcass. While the others fruitlessly stomped around trying to avoid crushing humans.
"Очень хороший" She mused, leaning on her sword.
The sound of combat drew her attention, to where Mockingbird was fighting a path straight for her. Dodging attacks where she could and smacking demons out of her way where she had to, the Avenger's goal was clear. Darkchilde found the effort amusing, tilting her head and marveling at the determination.
"Brave, but unwise."
Raising a hand, an orb of smoky green energy formed in Darkchilde's palm, and she flicked it forward, sending three bolts of the ethereal fire at Morse.
Thinking quick, Mockingbird allowed an ogre-like creature to step in front of her at the last second. The three eldritch blasts slamming into its torso, burning craters into its flesh until it blundered over from the force.
Darkchilde frowned, preparing another salvo. "Hmm…"
Bobbie Morse dashed in a zig-zag pattern as one supernatural cannonball after another sailed past her with ghostly whistles. One blast in particular took on the form of a screaming skull as she used her extended staff to vault over a scorpion-like creature scuttling on the ground.
Frustrated, Darkchilde growled as she immolated both arms with the eldritch flame and began casting left and right.
The distance between the women had closed to thirty yards but having to avoid the increased barrage forced Bobbi to take cover behind a hunk of masonry.
"Avengers…" She heard in her ear-comm. "Assemble."
"Oh boy." She said, catching her breath. The shadow of a Sentinel moved over her.
"UNIDENTIFIED CREATURES, DESIGNATION: HOSTILES. OBJECTIVE: TERMINATE."
Its right hand morphed into the energy cannon, and finding an area clear of humans, fired a short beam of yellow power that hit the ground and erupted. Dozens of demons were obliterated in a second, a chorus of inhuman screams echoing after they were already gone.
"What's the point of this Magneto?" Falcon grunted, struggling for every breath against the pressure exerted on his flight suit. "What the hell do you think the response is going to be?!"
"The same as it always is, Avenger." Magento turned to observe the chaos playing out across the capitol grounds. "Hatred, fear. But to answer your question: Our purpose today is to remind the Homosapien that we will never forget the injustice done to us. And that their position on the evolutionary ladder is about to be knocked down a rung."
In the course of his military service, Sam Wilson had been educated on the strength of ideological extremists, though the flavor varied; racial supremacists, religious zealots, the cult leader. It was another thing entirely to be next to it, look it in the eye, feel its conviction.
"And where does all this end?" Sam asked. "Huh? What does the future for mutant and non-mutant look like to you?"
A single metal bead floated out from the swirling mass, culled into Magneto's hand. "Perhaps you are familiar with the quote I'm about to paraphrase. You may find it enlightening."
The bead then floated over to Falcon, and was pressed into his forehead, applying a tiny bit of pain on the spot.
"I am not, nor have ever been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the mutant and non-mutant races. That I am not, nor have ever been, in favor of making citizens of Homosapiens, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with Homo-superior."
The bead pressed harder, and a drip of crimson was birthed, trickling down between his eyes.
Magneto continued: "And I will say in addition to this there is a physical difference between the mutant and non-mutant which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality."
Falcon shut his eyes to deal with the pain, the ball-bearing moving further into his flesh and pressing against the bone.
Lensherr's face twisted into a grimace. "Understand, Avenger, there can only be peace between humans and homo-superior, when one or the other is subjugated…or wiped out."
Wilson opened his eyes, his face quivering. "So genocide or bust!" He bit. "Tell me, Erik: When do you start putting non-mutants in the camps?"
Magneto's eyes flared wide open, an initial shock that hardened into a burning sneer.
Whatever ire the Brotherhood leader was about to inflict, was interrupted by the shrill cry of Sabretooth coming from the opposite side of the monument.
"Victor..." Magneto said, turning his attention aside.
As Falcon felt the pressure of the ball bearing burrowing into his forehead relent, he heard a voice in his ear.
"Avengers… Assemble."
AREA-51
"Motherfu-" Watching the events in DC on a monitor in the Gigan Control Center, SHIELD Director Nick Fury scowled at the monitor playing the live feed from the Helicarrier cameras.
"A bold move." On the other side of the main table, Dr. Otto Octavius watched from behind his dark glasses. Pulpo, the spider-droid he'd reconditioned into a personal minion, was held against his body as he stroked it like a cat. "He has quite the penchant for audacious gestures, does he not?"
Fury took out his cellphone. "Yeah, he's a god-damn drama queen." He left the room to make his conversation, leaving Otto alone to stare curiously at the screen.
"I have to wonder, Pulpo, why a man with such power at his disposal chooses to engage in such alienating tactics? Of all the ways he could display the purported superiority of the mutant race, he elects to surround himself in fear and atrocity."
He looked down the alien construct, "What a waste."
Octavius returned to the current events but noticed something occurring on a subordinate window on the screen. Reaching over with one of his mechanical tentacles, he minimized the live feed to the right side of the screen and brought another window into focus. It was the monitoring program for the Gigan, and instead of being as sedate and steady as the cyborg itself was, the neural metrics were registering an unusual level of activity.
"What are you doing?" Otto asked out loud. Beyond the control room, the kaiju was standing silent and dark, no outward indication of consciousness.
"Are you thinking? Dreaming?" While Pulpo clambered onto his shoulder, the doctor went to work on the touchscreen. He brought up a framework representation of the cyborg's brain; a four-lobed organ with cilium-like fibers sprouting from the sides and a cybernetic spike embedded through the central ganglia.
"Show me… In detail."
With all four artificial appendages he began manipulating the information on the display, mapping each of the lobes separately into the corners of the screen. Neurology analytics culled from across the animal kingdom and even those of a few extraterrestrial examples helped construct an algorithm to decipher the enigmatic signals. The results were fragmentary but promising. Here and there synapses flared and connected in short bursts, brief instances of decoded pathways.
"Hmm…" Otto tapped his chin with a finger. "My educated guess is that your unconscious subroutines are responding to some stimuli. But what?"
It was when he decided to incorporate the spike into the display that he discovered a steady pulse beginning at the top and continuing down to elicit a series of responses throughout the rest of the brain.
"You're receiving data…"
Blup…blup…blup
A stifled sound drew Otto's attention back to a small indication alert blinking on the minimized feed of the battle in D.C. He raised an eyebrow and brought the window back. The bird's-eye-view of the scene was now being populated by targeting reticles, tracking the many creatures summoned by the mutant. On the left side of the feed, the same alien glyphs present in Gigan's code scrolled intermittently.
"Your network to the Helicarriers is still active? But your link is supposed to be disconnected while you're shut down."
Otto stepped back and pondered the significance of what he was seeing. "Clearly your connection to the Insight system is more than a mere data stream. Most of your body is cybernetic, machine."
His tentacles drifted like fingers tracing a thought in the air, and he came to a stark realization. "Thusly… by integrating your consciousness into the Insight algorithm… I have effectively attached two more limbs to your body! You control them the same way a human brain controls our organs while we slumber."
A smile slowly grew on his face. "Fascinating."
"Octavius, what in the-" Agent Claire Marion stormed into the control room only to stop short once she saw what was happening on the screen. "An attack on D.C.?"
"Oh yes. And quite an interesting one." Otto said.
She came closer, resizing the feed to the entire screen, trying to understand the situation. Pressing a few points on the glass, she isolated the centers of activity and brought up their identification modules. Her face arched in a combination of anger and shock to see the profiles of Magneto, Sabretooth, and Darkchilde.
"That son of a bitch!" She cursed, cheek twitching.
Otto gave her a side-glace but otherwise offered no comment to her outburst, his thoughts quickly returning to the query of the kaiju.
Agent Marion's phone began to chime, and while not altering her attention, took it out to see the message.
{Alert} It said, the contact ID secured. More concise texts then piled in.
{Brotherhood hit the DC HQ}
{Command furious. Demands reprisal}
{Exfil order given}
{Time to rock, babe}
Reading the last message, she felt her body relax, a weight suddenly shifted off her shoulders. She put the phone away and nodded.
"Well, alright then."
Washington D.C.
Three of the federal Sentinels stomped their way towards the infernal portal, covered with demons that pried and clawed at their armor. Sparks flew from where they managed to dig into the wiring, short screams from where they were crushed in the joints and servos. Standing at the perimeter, they levied their arm-cannons and prepared to begin blasting the fiends at the chokepoint.
"They really built those things pretty sturdy, huh?" Morse observed as she caught her breath. On the other side of the hunk of building she was taking cover with the blasts of eldritch energy were burning their way through with every hit. Whatever fears she'd accumulated in the time since the attack began were lessened by the sound of Captain America putting the call out, meaning that serious back-up was incoming.
But that didn't mean she could just sit and wait around for the calvary to arrive.
"Okay, she shoots magic, what do I got?" Searching her immediate reach, she found something useful.
Feeling the pressure let up for a moment during Magneto's distraction, Falcon snapped his arms up, leveled them at the mutant leader, and fired a duo of red hard-light shards from the tips of his wings.
Magneto caught the motion in the corner of his vision and held up his hand reflexively to stop them. Made of light however, they were not effected by his power. One detonated against his forward palm, the other against his chest in a burst of light and noise.
"Gahh!"
At once Falcon was released, and the tornado of metal dropped. The second of freedom was all Sam Wilson needed to push off the monument in tandem with his jetpack and soar straight for his opponent. Magneto's helmet disallowed a straight punch, but Sam didn't need one. While Magneto was still disoriented, he cocked his armor protected elbow and laid it into Erik Lensherr's forehead at 40mph as he shot past. Magneto tumbled backwards from the force of the blow, spinning head over heels.
Falcon somersaulted, killing the jet then quickly turning it on to go back where he'd come. He snatched Magneto by the ankle in flight and hauled him out of the sky.
"GO! GET OUT OF HERE!" Captain America yelled as the ball bearings fell, ushering the hostages to escape while they could. As they got going, he winced and checked on the gashes Sabretooth had carved into him. He knew they would heal, but it didn't mean they wouldn't sting in the interim.
He looked up and saw Falcon knock Magneto for a loop before dragging him down to the ground. Rogers' put a finger to his ear comm as he hurried to meet up.
"Sam, you're only gonna have a few seconds!"
"I know!"
Diving at a steep angle, Falcon let go of Lensherr half-a-heartbeat before he'd crash, banking upwards to skim a few blades of grass at the last second. Magneto hit the ground with the force of a car accident, bouncing off and skipping as the momentum spent itself to bludgeon him with each bump.
Cap was already in motion. "Got to get his helmet off!"
Darkchilde held her breath as she waited for the Avenger to poke her head out. A sudden noise and cloud of dust to the right side was cause enough for her to loose a shot at it.
While the sorceress' attention was diverted, Mockingbird leaped from the left side at a sprint and used her collapsed staff to bat a fragment of stone towards Darkchilde's head. It struck a previously invisible barrier, purple rings rippling out from the point of impact.
"Shit." Bobbit said under her breath as she continued to close the distance. "Of course she has a shield."
The ripples settled, and an angry Darkchilde focused her ire with a sweeping motion of her arm, casting a wide arc of green fire, one she didn't intend the Avenger to be able to dodge.
Morse threw her upper-body backwards and slid on her knees, letting the wave sweep over her by the barest margin. She popped back up and stabbing one end of her retracted staff into the ground, extended it to flip herself up and over an incoming blast and back down with an axe kick. Darkchilde stepped to the side, pulling her sword from the ground and spinning into a defensive stance as Mockingbird's heel came down. The portal collapsed without its key, cutting several fiends in half like a guillotine.
"I hope you have more than your silly stick, Avenger." Darkchilde sneered, the two squaring off.
Bobbie smirked, circling carefully, "Let's see how silly you think it is when I shove it down your throat."
The Brotherhood acolyte glowered, her features growing a bit more devilish. "Я вырву твой наглый язык."
"Yeah?" Morse teased. "Ваша мать."
Darkchilde's brow arched, then she loosed a feral roar, charging with her sword awash in green flame to swing for Mockingbird's head.
Captain America skid along the ground, meeting Magneto as he came to a stop. Rogers' hands went to Lensherr's helmet and tried to slip it off, but an unseen mechanism prevented it from budging.
Though disoriented, Magneto's eyes finally found focus, and he swung an arm out to force Cap away from him. He rolled to his feet.
"You disappoint me, Captain." Erik bit as he flexed his shoulder, he and the Avenger facing off. "I had hoped to avoid a conflict with you, Rogers. Considering all you've done."
Still flinching from the tears in his flesh, Steve spat out a wad of sticky blood.
"I didn't realize we were on such polite terms."
Magneto pursed his lips. "There are not many left who still remember what happened in the 1940's, not many who can say they saw the great Captain America fighting the fascist monsters who destroyed my family. But I can."
"I heard you were in the camps," Rogers' said. "Never realized we crossed paths."
"I was merely a boy then, my parents and sister already laid in a mass grave by the time you liberated Auschwitz. Imagine the shock and wonder of a young Jew to see the legendary American break down the gates and fight his way in to free a bunch of wretched foreigners."
Steve shook his head. "Nobody deserved to go through that. No matter who they are."
"Indeed. Then in 2004 after our liberation of the mutant detention camps, you stood in defense of the oppressed once more at Xavier's school."
"Is this going somewhere, Eisenhardt?" Cap asked, using Magneto's birth surname.
The question aroused a twitch of frustration. "Just to emphasize a point, Captain." Magneto levitated off the ground, his gaze searching out to take in the chaos and destruction. "That in spite of our opposition, I have a great deal of respect for you. And because of that, I will charge you with delivering a message to Nicholas Fury for me."
Mockingbird leapt back as Darkchilde advanced, grabbing a slobbering fiend with three legs and one arm as it tried to latch onto her back and tossing it to take the blunt of a downward cleave of the mutant's Soulsword. The strange creature erupted in screams as its body burst into white flames, evaporating as either half fell aside. But the loss of a single demon was nothing to the furious Darkchilde as she continued, breathing a fume of purple-fire like a flamethrower where she thought to roast the Avenger.
Bobbie Morse just barely avoided the worst of the attack, a great portion of her right leg burned from hip to calf.
"Gaah!" She cried, unable to stand on it, collapsing to the ground. Morse edged back, holding her staff defensively.
"I knew I should have taken that occult combat seminar!"
Darkchilde reached out with a gnarled hand, summoning lashes of green energy from the ground to bind themselves around Mockingbird's limbs. Bobbie smashed them with her staff, but to little effect.
"Are you a religious woman, Avenger?" Darkchilde snarled, curling her fingers tighter. "I recommend you start praying."
KOO-KOOM!
The capital mall was overwhelmed by a dozen crimson mushroom clouds, the smiteful beams raining down from the sky like divine judgement. Demons by the handful were obliterated with uncanny precision, ungodly wails and death-cries subsumed by the thunderous detonations.
"The Helicarriers!" Mockingbird realized, both she and Darkchilde craning their necks upward.
The red dragon, still entangled with a Sentinel was struck in the spine by a single beam, it's back half going limp as it struggled to keep itself upright against the automaton. It roared weakly but was made silent by a batting blow from the Sentinel's cannon-ized fist that sent the infernal serpent to the ground.
"TERMINATE HOSTILE" With yellow power accumulating in the cannon's pit, the Sentinel aimed and fired.
Darkchilde growled her displeasure. "This was supposed to go a little bit longer but… Oh well." She took the handle of the Soulsword in both hands and positioned to drive it through Mockingbird's gut.
Falcon had circled back and scoured the area around the monument for any casualties he could evacuate. He caught one figure crawling along on their stomach, clothes shredded and steeped with blood. He recognized Sabretooth.
"I heard this guy was hard to kill, but Jesus Christ…"
Wilson coasted to a landing a few paces away, stepping cautiously to assess the killer.
The boom of explosions from beyond the monument grounds startled Sam, and he spun to witness the explosions of red energy and debris tear across the National Mall.
"It's about damn time." He said with some awe.
A slight rustling sound to his right and Falcon saw the ruined mess of Victor Creed lunging for him in the corner of his vision.
As the Helicarriers rained down their heavenly fire, Captain America and Magneto maintained their tête-à-tête. Knowing that his chances of taking down the Master of Magnetism head-on was dicey at best, Steve Rogers chose to hear the man out. If for no other reason than it might de-escalate him long enough for reinforcements to arrive.
"I'm listening."
Magneto lifted his chin, satisfied but wary to have his demand heard. "Tell the Director, that I know he has my daughter hidden away somewhere. Tell him that he has forty-eight hours to surrender Wanda to my custody."
{Cap, it's Tony.} Steve heard in his ear-comm. {Me and Pym are out west but a few part-timers are inbound.}
"Or what?" Cap asked.
"Or the consequences will be historical." Magneto ascended into the air, fixing Rogers with a stone-hard stare. "And there will be no forbearance for those who chose to interfere."
Suddenly Magneto's head snapped up and to the north.
Mockingbird's eyes widened, the Soulsword fuming with ethereal green fire, its tip poised above her. She strained against her magical bonds but felt as if she were held down by an anaconda.
A burst of orange sparks flared above Bobbi Morse, and a barrier of intricate yellow patterns interposed itself between her and the eldritch artifact. The sword met the barrier and ricocheted off with a flash of light.
"Illyana Rasputin."
Morse cocked her head back and saw a very welcome figure with his hand extended, floating into the space from a glittering portal.
"Strange…" Darkchilde sneered, lowering her posture.
The Sorcerer Supreme clenched his other fist then opened it, and the bonds grasping Morse were dispelled.
"It's been a while since we last spoke." Dr. Strange said. "Good to see you've kept up your practice, though I can't say I'm pleased with your choice of aesthetics."
"Comes with the territory." She spat, holding the sword at a low-ready. "At least I've changed my wardrobe in the past 10 years."
Mockingbird scrambled to her feet, falling in behind the Sorcerer with a guarded stance.
Strange's expression hardened. "You know better than to go around opening portals to Limbo on the material plane, Illyana."
"Don't call me that!" Darkchilde barked. "Меня больше не зовут!"
Strange shook his head. "If your brother could see you now."
The magic mutant and the Mystic Master stared hard at each other, he stoic and waiting, she angry and fidgety.
"Might as well let me handle this, Bobbi." Strange said to the side. "No offense, but this isn't within your skillset."
"Wouldn't say that, Doc." Morse smirked, tightening the grip on her staff. "I think kicking this bitch's ass is right in my wheelhouse."
Illyana growled, "This isn't your fight, Strange. Go back to your sanctum and meditate. Leave the mutant business to mutants."
"You're kinda making it everybody's business, kid." The sorcerer tilted. "So why don't you put down the Soulsword and we can-"
"AHHH!" Darkchilde swung the sword and unleashed a cutting wave of eldritch energy, charging behind it with furious intent.
Dr. Strange threw up a mandala-pattern shield and the vile-wave crashed against it, shattering like glass. But Darkchilde was right behind it, and the Soulsword tore through the magical barrier as if it were cloth, coming within a breath's distance of the Sorcerer Supreme's throat. Stephen recoiled, surprised by how close the blade had reached.
Mockingbird's staff came down and pinned the sword to the ground. Illyana and Bobbi both snapped their faces level to glare at each other before withdrawing. Darkchilde stepped back and crouched on her satyr legs, infernal magics coalescing around her body until it formed an array of wicked body armor, her horns alighting like candles. A cruel snarl curled across her expression and plumes of fire flickered from the corners of her eyes.
"I don't suppose this is the weirdest thing you've seen this week?" Morse asked her comrade.
"You have no idea." Strange said.
A tumbleweed of violence, Falcon and Sabretooth wrestled over the ground, the protection of the armored wings all that kept the fangs and claws of the mutant from rending muscle and bone. Resembling more a Hollywood zombie than a man, Victor Creed was still a horrible sight, attacking the Avenger with animalistic savagery.
Every time Sam Wilson though he could shake the murderous mutant, Creed found a way to hold on. Their rolling came to a stop with Sam on his back, using his legs and wings to fend off the unceasing, bloodthirsty assault. He finally managed to aim a wingtip at Sabretooth's center-mass and fired a duo of light-blasts that detonated at point-blank distance.
The two men were blown apart in the explosions, Victor's thrown onto his back and while Sam was sent skidding along the grass.
"Awww… Ssshit.." Falcon grunted, his hearing fading in and out. Given the moment, he glanced to the side to see the many ungodly creatures scrambling to escape the Old Testament-style obliteration streaking through the clouds.
It was then he also saw the Quinjet lowering itself near the Washington monument, its twin foreguns spitting devastation to any fiend within range. Its accuracy told Sam that only Clint Barton could be at the helm. As the craft hovered about 15ft above the ground, a drop-hatch opened, and a lone figure fell out. Visible ripples in the air helped the woman coast to the ground and land softly, where she raised her tech-infused gauntlets and raced to his side. A baboon-like demon launched itself at her on its grotesquely malapportioned hind legs, but she spun and caught it in a well of violent molecules, and within seconds the creatures was unmade before it hit the ground.
"Wilson!" She called out, kneeling beside him. "Wilson, are you alright?"
"I'm good, Quake." He squeezed out, feeling his ribcage re-expand.
Quake wore a standard SHIELD uniform, short black hair accenting her Eurasian features, and she helped Falcon to stand. "Good thing the Director put me on standby."
But Wilson wasn't in the mood for chit-chat. "We need to clear the area for EMS, clean-up the last of whatever those things are."
"What about him?" Quake gestured to where Sabretooth was climbing back to his feet.
Before they could form a plan to deal with him however, a silver blur shot past them, and in the blink of an eye, Sabretooth was gone.
Falcon and Quake turned to each other and said in unison: "Quicksilver".
Captain America followed Magento's line of sight until he too found something. Granted to him via the super-soldier formula and infusion of vita-rays, Rogers' eyesight was as perfect as was physically possible for a mortal man, and it was all that help him discern the distortion in the sky that made its way closer to the Capitol mall.
"Charles." Magento grit.
Hearing this, Steve immediately realized the anomaly was the cloaked Blackbird, the personal aircraft of the X-Men.
"Might as well call it quits now, Eisenhardt." Cap advised. "You're outnumbered and outgunned."
Still looking towards the sky, Magneto responded. "Outnumbered, perhaps. Outgunned… Hardly."
With a flash of movement, Magneto's hand reached out and before Steve Rogers could prepare himself, the Avenger's shield and Captain America with it were summoned to within arm's reach of the mutant leader. Steve held on with his forearm through the handles on the inside of the shield, dangling in the air.
"The Brotherhood has made its point known. Remember what I have told you, Avenger." Magneto intoned. "Two days. Fury has two days to return my daughter, or a terrible wrath will be the cost of his refusal."
Rogers fixed Eisenhardt with a determined stare, rewarding the radical with neither fear nor approval.
Magento opened his hand and Captain America felt the hold on his shield released, allowing him to fall the short distance to the ground.
"Give Xavier my regards." Magento bid.
A silver streak of color shot past Steve, and in the next blink, Eisenhardt was gone.
Eldritch fire flared, only to be countered the next instant with a golden flash, dispersing both. Darkchilde tried to advance with her Soulsword but was parried and maneuvered by the superior melee technique behind the bo staff.
Working in tandem: Mockingbird and Dr. Strange successfully kept the mutant sorceress on the backfoot, defeating everything she tried to throw at them. She snarled and spit, tried to summon more fiends to her aid, but nothing held. Her own armor fortunately proved its worth in deflecting her adversary's offense, resistant to both physical and mystical forces.
The whine of turbo engines drew all attention skywards, as the Blackbird de-cloaked above their heads. Darkchilde's brow arched in alarm to see the cargo door already yawning open.
"Tell me, Illyana," Strange said. "Still want me to leave you to your fellow mutants?"
She seemed to flounder in indecision, the Brotherhood's wicked sister looking back and forth between her opponents and the descending jet.
"What's a matter?" Morse asked. "Not eager to see your old friends?"
Darkchilde flicked back to Bobbi with a stark anger, and with a feral scream, charged with a burning blade.
An object, heavy and metallic dropped down between the women, halting Illyana in her tracks. The sword slung over her shoulder in ready for a swipe, she froze, face trembling and unable to move forward another inch.
Before her stood Poitr Rasputin, the Colossus of the X-Men, her big brother. Colossus stood silent, gazing down at his wayward sister not with the grimace of an adversary, but with the sadness of longing. Darkchilde backpedaled a step, letting the Soulsword hand at her side as the rage in her expression melted.
"Illyana…" He said gently, arms and hands opening in a welcoming gesture. As he took a step forward, she retreated, biting her bottom lip in apprehension.
"Не уходи от меня снова, пожалуйста…" He pleaded, reaching out with palms upturned. "я скучаю по тебе."
At this Darkchilde's façade finally broke, and a tear streaked down her cheek as she looked back at her brother.
Before any reunion could take place in earnest, Quicksilver appeared behind Illyana in a cloud of dust as the wind caught up to him. Dr. Strange and Mockingbird assumed fighting stances, her staff ready to deflect, magical discs rotating about his fists.
Quicksilver spared Colossus a brief nod before wrapping his arms around Darkchilde, the pair vanishing with a crash of sound.
Poitr Rasputin's shoulders slumped, and he let out a depressed sigh.
The Blackbird touched down behind the group, Cyclops and Jean Grey preceding the hoverchair of Professor X. Nightcrawler manifested in a sudden puff of brimstone smoke at Dr. Strange's left side.
"Looks like we missed all ze fun." Kurt Wagner mused.
"Still plenty of clean-up to take care of, kid." Morse told him.
Jean, Scott, and Xavier met Colossus as he rejoined them. "You'll get through to her eventually." Charles told the disheartened X-Man telepathically. "She wants to embrace you again, Poitr, I can feel it."
Though they wanted to comfort their friend, there was still danger to help fight. Jean and Scott watched a federal Sentinel aim its hand-cannon and annihilate a bulky creature as it fled. An involuntary shiver went down Cyclops' spine to see the automaton at work. Jean sensed his angst and grabbed his hand.
"Come on, Scott."
"Cap?" Falcon asked as he and Quake met up with Captain America, seeing him regain his bearings. "What happened?"
"We'll talk about it later," Rogers waved off. "Right now we have to clear the rest of the hostiles and help whoever we can."
There was clearly something weighing on the lead Avenger's mind, but Sam decided to let it go for now. "You got it, Cap."
AREA 51
"Looks like he got what he wanted." Nick Fury observed as he re-entered the command center, pocketing a phone. "Low casualty reports. This was a show of force."
Otto Octavious and Agent Marion were in the room, glued to the sat-feed.
"A reminder, Director." Octavius mused, "That he has not abandoned his life's mission, and woe betide those who stand in his way."
Fury steeled his jaw. "Magneto's too smart to just go back to his old tricks. He's using this attack to set-up something else. But what?"
A low buzzing inside his jacket caused Fury to turn away reflexively to check his phone privately. "Rogers" The caller ID said.
"Sir." Agent Marion said.
Just before Nick could answer the call, he faced Claire and found himself on the business end of a SHIELD-issue sidearm. For a second he was stunned by the stone-cold glare in her eyes. This wouldn't be the first time he'd been caught unawares at the point of a gun, which is what kept him from reacting with a surprised jerk.
What did surprise him, was that she fired, and the phone in his hand exploded. The shot caused Octavius to spin around, shocked and bracing himself against the wall.
"Sorry, Fury." The visage of Claire Marion shimmered, becoming the mutant shape-shifter Mystique. "Nothing personal."
Nick threw himself on the other side of the central table, Mystique's shot ricocheting off its surface.
"Otto!" He called out, drawing his own sidearm from its side-holster.
She temporarily turned her gaze towards Octavious, but he raised his hands defensively. "I am a man of science, not violence." He said defensively, lowering his protective goggles over his face.
"Thanks a lot!" Fury barked, realized he'd have no help from the multi-armed coward. He thought a moment. "I've heard of playing the long-game, Mystique, but whoever's paying you for this must have invested a lot!"
Mystique leveled her weapon over the table, anticipating. "Would you believe me if I said I found something more worthwhile than my next payoff?"
Nick raised an eyebrow, holding his weapon against his chest with one hand and fingering one of the buttons on his sleeve cuff. "A little bit, yeah."
Acting quickly, Fury tore the button off and threw it out above him where it exploded in a flash of light and smoke. Mystique had instinctively fired at the target and was unprepared for the blinding detonation. Otto likewise was forced to shield himself but was spared the worst by the tinted lenses of his goggles.
Fury slid on his left side out from the cover of the table, taking a second to aim carefully and knock the weapon from Mystique's hand with a single shot.
"Uuh!" She cried, clutching the injured hand, still unable to focus properly.
Knowing he had to put enough distance between himself and the infamous assassin, Nick got his feet under him and dashed for the exit.
Only for the double doors to slam shut inches from his face. He turned back to see her fist still pressed down on the emergency button, locking the room down. Fury fired a trio of rounds from left to right, causing both Mystique and Otto to duck for cover, giving him the chance to rush past them and make a dive for the glass window the bullets had weakened.
His body hit the window shoulder-first, and he felt the glass shatter, the freedom of the space beyond. But his momentum came to an arresting halt with the clamp of metal around his ankle. Dangling in the same silo as the sleeping Gigan, he looked up to see a second metallic tentacle reaching out to take hold of him.
"Surely that way is suicide." Otto remarked as he pulled the Director back through the window and easing him to the floor.
Nick saw the prone form of Mystique laid out at their feet. "Finally find some courage?" He asked.
"Far from it, Director." Otto explained. "Merely, opportune."
"Well, I've gotta get some cuffs on this bitch before she comes to." Fury gave his jacket an adjusting tug and unlocked the security system before heading for the doors. "Keep her secure, we need to find out who wants to get their hands on the cyborg."
Octavius shrugged. "I'm sure that won't be much of a mystery."
The moment the doors parted, a gloved fist came charging through and smashed itself into Nick Fury's nose, knocking him stumbling back against the table. Crossbones strode in like a lion on its prey, and in the next second he was atop the Director, hammering down with another fist, driving the next into the left floating rib that doubled the man over. The blows came with such violence and ferocity, Fury could only try to get his bearings in the whirling confusion, his ability to balance crippled.
Rumlow dropped Fury with a left hook to the side of the head, glaring down at him with a smoldering hate. His attention then turned to Octavius, who still stood by the ruined control panel. Then he observed Mystique rising to stand, seemingly unharmed beyond a wincing as she flexed her hand.
"You alright?"
"Fine." She grimaced. "I knew he'd have some trick up his sleeve, I just didn't know what."
"Well…" Striding forward, Crossbones cradled Mystique's jaw in his hand. "At least he didn't hit my favorite part."
He leaned down and kissed her.
It was then the alarms began going off, the facility inundated with blaring sirens and strobing lights. The noise didn't rush the moment however, the couple savoring the taste of their conspicuous affection.
Otto cleared his throat. "Eh-hem."
Rumlow and Raven came apart, giving Octavius an unsatisfied scowl.
"Forgive my party-pooping, but I'm afraid time is not on your side." The scientist reminded them, the tiny machine, Pulpo, scampering up one of his tendrils and onto his shoulder.
"Killjoy." Crossbones said. "Come on, HYDRA command wants us moving on the Brotherhood before midnight. I hear the big man is eager to see what the alien can really do."
Hydra? Just coming back to some semi-consciousness, Nick Fury's mind was able to process the one crucial word. Mystique… Crossbones... HYDRA…
Mystique went over to the control panel that lay covered in broken glass, and turning a few butterfly-locks, grabbed a handle and extracted a compact computer hard drive.
"Don't wanna leave without the goodies." She smirked.
Crossbones returned the smile.
"Oh," Mystique continued. "And the parting gift." Raising a small device from her pockets, she pressed a button. A cacophony of explosions rang out in the facility, drowning out even the alarms as a deep rumbling worked its way throughout the hanger. Staff and security agents could be heard amongst the chaos screaming, fireballs and debris blasting into the immense silo. Above, daylight speared into the chamber as the roof was dismantled by detonations. The Gigan silent and still all the while.
Jostled by the trembling, Nick Fury groaned as he regained focus, pressing his hands to the floor to push himself up. Pain throbbed in the side of his head, the scent of blood in his nostrils. He knew he was in trouble, the flash-second image of Brock Rumlow in his memory reminding him how he came to suffer his current discomfort. Anger welled in his heart, fists clenching as he rose up and used the table for support.
"Much as I'd love to finish you off myself, Fury," Crossbones mocked. "I figured I'd just kill two birds with one stone."
Hauling himself over the edge of the table, Nick saw the HYDRA agents step up to the smashed-out window where a hovercraft not dissimilar to the one used by the Fantastic Four lowered down on the other side.
"Otto…" Fury glared.
Octavius shrugged with a grimace of apology. "I thank you for the opportunity you've given me in SHIELD, Director. But as it happens, you were always my second employer."
The admission struck Fury like the taste of sour milk, and he scowled, bruised and bleeding face pinching in a new rage. Searching for where his sidearm had gone, he found it laying on the floor a few feet away. He made to lunge for it, but another explosion rocking the structure stole his balance, causing him to falter. As he then crawled to reach for it, a mechanical tentacle lashed out and snatched the weapon from just before him.
"I bid you adieu, Director Fury." Otto wished him as he followed Crossbones and Mystique who were already loading into the craft, crushing the gun in the claws. With a smile, he raised two other metal tendrils in salute.
"Hail HYDRA."
Fury staggered to his feet as he watched them ascend, heading up to the top of the silo.
"Wake it up, Ock." Crossbones said, steering the hovercraft upwards to the sunlight.
Called to attention with a pair of tongue-clicks, Pulpo fixed its master with a tilted visor, awaiting instruction.
"Command: 'octopod', execute." Otto told it.
The legs of the spider-droid stiffened in response, the red light in its visor pulsing from the center outwards.
In the silent void of slumber, another memory faded into the foreground. The feeling of suspension in a warm environment, but only partly. Certain sensations were different, extremities felt strange. The urge to open eyes was met by a lack of the feeling.
But a sudden instinct surged into the present moment, one that banished the memories and replaced it with an irresistible purpose.
Serve the Will.
Gigan's optic ignited with red power, and an inorganic wail came forth from its silvery beak. Almost immediately, the red gem in its forehead shot a single thin beam of crimson energy and raked it across the inner wall of the enclosure. Fire and destruction bloomed throughout, and all the framework and construction was decimated in catastrophe.
The cycloptic-cyborg loosed another shriek, wings fanning-out to their flight angles and tore the support struts asunder in the process. Gigan faced his beak to the sky and without any visible effort, soared straight up, crashing into what remained of the hanger's ceiling and into the daylight sky.
Reclining in the back seat of the craft, Otto Octavius glanced back to see the android emerge from the ground and fall into a trailing flight behind them. He smiled.
"You no longer answer to the petty will of Nick Fury and SHIELD, my mighty vassal. Now you serve a worthy master, and your will, is the will of HYDRA."
With his gleaming eye set on the horizon, Gigan let his shrill cry loose, eager to comply with his master's call.
Serve the Will.
/