Pedestrians were currently running away, media helicopters could be seen in the distance, and there was one thing that was baffling Iron Man.
"Where the hell's Barry when you need him?!" Iron Man shouted as the speedster among the opposing group, a man with white hair and a navy blue leather suit with a giant white lightning bolt on his chest, darted across the surrounding streets of the Tenement Museum.
There was something off about that speedster, Superman thought to himself. He initially figured that this man – whose real name and codename was unknown to any of the Vanguardians at the moment, as was the case with the other three -, but something about the lightning that followed any speedster's body as they zoomed across was different. It looked thinner and was colored like actual lightning, as opposed to the yellow lighting that the Flashes gave off, and that the Whizzer and Eduard Clariss gave off back in their day. It was a minor difference, but once that Superman was curious to know more about. After the speedster was taken down, of course
A tiny missile launcher opened up from Iron Man's left shoulder and fired towards the speedster, but the dude was able to dodge the blast. The brick walls of the Tenement Museum had already undergone some damage, and one of the stairways on the outside of the building had already fallen apart, and the last thing they needed was any damage severe enough to cause them to topple. Iron Man fired another missile towards the speedster, and when he dodged it again, Superman had to race to catch the weapon before it struck the Tenement Museum, doing so with ease.
Wonder Woman, meanwhile, dodged a green blast let out from another one of the Vanguard's current opponents. She had on a red suit with yellow gloves, yellow boots, and a yellow chest. Her mask also covered her forehead, but her long black hair was exposed. The other two powered beings that the Vanguard was fighting was a man in a muted leather purple outfit who seemed to have the ability to elongate and stretch his body, and a green-skinned woman with neck-length hair who wore an armored white suit with a strange green logo at its center (there was a circle, and then ovals coming out from the circle). The latter was currently battling the Wasp while
Wonder Woman had backflipped onto a Sedan that was near the Museum to dodge the blast, and she spoke into her ear comm again.
*Cap, J'onn, do you copy me? What is going on at the Tower?*
The black-haired lady only smirked. "You Amazons are dedicated and well-trained. That much I will give you."
She blasted at Wonder Woman with the same green blasts as before. Wonder Woman shielded off four of them, but the fifth one managed to strike her in the face. The Amazon had to take a moment to cough, and the other lady seized the opportunity and jumped towards her, kicking her hard enough in the chest to send her flying off of the Sedan. Wonder Woman landed onto the Ford Taurus that was parked right behind the Sedan, and she crashed onto that as well.
Wonder Woman gritted her teeth and jumped high off the Taurus to strike a blow against the lady, but the lady merely dodged, and all Wonder Woman punched was the hood of the Sedan, damaging it further. The lady grabbed the Amazon by the arm with one of her hands and backhanded her in the face with the other.
"But you gals aren't perfect, you know? Name's Spider-Woman, by the way. But don't think I'm anything like that 'friendly neighborhood' geek."
Spider-Woman, as the Vanguard now knew her codename to be, let out another venom blast, and this out spat rat into Wonder Woman's face again, which made her cough up. Spider-Woman seized the opportunity and decked her in the face three times, each time utilizing her apparent super strength, before grabbing Wonder Woman by her hair and throwing her down onto the street with enough force to make the concrete shatter.
Blood came out of Wonder Woman's nose now, but she wasn't having any of this. When Spider-Woman let out another venom blast, Wonder Woman dodged it and flew up in the air to punch Spider-Woman right in the stomach. Spider-Woman crashed near the walls of the Tenement Museum, and her Amazon opponent forced her back up. She simply began to pummel her repeatedly; she decked the arachnid-themed lady in the face twice, then punched her in the stomach twice, then in the chest once, and then kicked her in the shin, which caused Spider-Woman to fall down onto the ground.
Spider-Woman got up, and spat a tooth out of her mouth. Wonder Woman had enough of this, and used her Lasso of Truth to get behind this. She grabbed it out and lassoed Spider-Woman with it, with the latter struggling at first, before she seemed to just give in.
"Who are you, really, 'Spider-Woman', and why is the motivations of yourself and your team?"
Spider-Woman stood there silent for a few minutes, before giving in.
"My name is Jessica Drew. I was kidnapped by an organization called Hydra, and they experimented on my dormant mutant genes to activate them so that I could be of use to them."
Wonder Woman let out a deep breath. "The same goes for everyone here. Quicksilver, Elongated Man, Jade, and I were all sent here to distract you guys so that Scarlet Witch and Obsidian could infiltrate the Vanguard Tower –"
"Wait!" Wonder Woman shouted, her eyes widened. "Who are Scarlet Witch and Obsidian? And infiltrating the Vanguard Tower…that's...that's simply impossible…"
Before she could go on, Wonder Woman was blasted with green energy by the green-skinned lady of the group. She was guessing this woman was the one they called 'Jade'. Wasp appeared and tried to blast at Jade, only for the latter to dodge the blasts with ease. Jade grabbed Wasp with her hand and began to try and squeeze her.
A weak chuckle could be heard through Jade's fist. "You're not the first person to try this, and you won't be the last, but every time you people try do this…"
Jade's hand was forced free by Wasp, who began blasting her in the face; Jade seemed to be too surprised and stunned to fire back against the tiny lady, who gave her an uppercut to the face.
But before Wasp could pull any more punches, she suddenly found herself entrapped in a stretchy arm. It was the man in the purple leather suit – and Wonder Woman was assuming this one was 'Elongated Man' – and he smiled as he tightened his arm around the Wasp.
"That must be an old trick for you, Wasp," He said, before using his free arm to wrap up Superman in his grip when the latter tried to strike at him. "But I'm pretty sure you've never fought anyone like me."
"And I'm pretty sure you're too confident for your own good," Superman replied back, before firing his heat vison towards Elongated Man's foot, causing the stretchy villain to yell in pain. In this moment of anguish, he freed both Superman and Wasp unwittingly.
The speedster – who, through process of elimination, was determined to be 'Quicksilver' – was now creating wind funnels, and was aiming them towards Iron Man and Wonder Woman both. Spider-Woman, meanwhile, was just standing there, as if she was contemplating the situation, before she raised her arms up with an aghast look on her face.
"Guys, stop!"
Elongated Man, who was only now beginning to stand up, looked at her amiss. "Spider-Woman, what do you think you're doing?! We must fight the Vanguard!"
"No, we can't Dibny!"
She then looked around, and locked her eyes onto Wonder Woman's lasso. "That lasso there! That must've been what freed me from the brainwashing! They're all brainwashed, Wonder Woman!"
Elongated Man gritted his teeth, but he was unable to do anything before Iron Man blasted at him repeatedly with his armored hands. In his moment of confusion, Wonder Woman managed to lasso him up. Quicksilver tried to stop her, and was only a millisecond away from doing so before Superman caught him into a chokehold.
"Who are you?!" Wonder Woman cried out.
"I am…Ralph Dibny. Thank you."
Iron Man flew off to help Wasp battle Jade while Superman kept his hold on Quicksilver for a few moments. Wonder Woman readied her lasso, and Superman only let go of Quicksilver nanoseconds before the lasso would've entangled them both.
"Are you a soldier of Hydra?" Wonder Woman asked.
Quicksilver replied, "No. My sister and I were both kidnapped from Sokovia and brainwashed into servitude."
That only left Jade. Wasp blasted at her repeatedly, but Jade managed to strike at her with her own green blasts for Iron Man grabbed the green lady by the arm and threw her onto the streets below.
"Use the lasso, Wondy!" Iron Man shouted as Wonder Woman flew down to the scene.
Quicksilver took a deep breath and watched alongside Superman as the Themysciran warrior entangled Jade into her lasso.
"Who are you? Who are you really?"
"I am…Jennifer Lynn-Hayden. I was brainwashed by Hydra into distracting the Vanguard…" Jade then looked down at the ground in shame. "Sorry."
Wonder Woman removed her lasso, freeing Jade from its grasp. The four former opponents just stood there, looking ashamed of themselves.
Jade jumped when the Amazon placed a hand on her shoulder. "Do not apologize. You were under mind control. Help us out – tell us what Hydra's goal is, and why and how they infiltrated the Vanguard Tower."
The Martian Manhunter looked to be at a level of pain unlike anything Captain America had seen him at before, even during their loss to Hydra. His head was tilted down towards the ground, and grimaced, looking extremely uncomfortable. As Cap got up, he was unsure of how to aid the Martian Manhunter. Even accounting for the Super Soldier Serum, 'Scarlet Witch' and 'Obsidian' were out of his league when it came to powers and abilities, and this was something the Captain was all too aware of.
…And on top of that, Hydra was evidently ready for another round against the Vanguard of Justice.
"How in the name of God did you Hydra goons break into the Vanguard Tower?!" Cap asked, pointing towards Scarlet Witch.
No one was supposed to be able to break into the Tower without setting off the alarm that Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne, two of the richest men on the planet, had both teamed up to design. The alarm was capable of more than it had shown when Mera and Cyclops had both found themselves onto Vanguard property. It was supposed to alert every Vanguardian via their ear comms that were was an intruder on the premises of the Vanguard. The only reason no one had come when Cyclops crashed into the site that one time was because Cap, Carol, Hal, and Barry were all there to take care of the situation. But Scarlet Witch and Obsidian had managed to find their way into the Tower without alerting the alarm, which was design for any power, even phasing. And as far as Cap knew, the only non-Vanguardians with access to the Tower were Jay, Alan, and Namor.
Martian Manhunter was then lunged towards the wall, and he breathed heavily before the red energy consumed him again, and he was bashed around the wall. Obsidian, meanwhile, kicked Cap in the leg, and then disappeared into his shadow again. The Captain was truly unsure of what to do, and he felt silly for thinking of trying to attack his own shadow, but it was all he could think of. He got out his shield and prepared to attack, but Obsidian jumped back up and gave him a nasty uppercut before punching him in the stomach, the face, and the chest in that order. Suddenly, he felt the same red energy as the Martian Manhunter had, and now he was levitating above the ground.
But thankfully for the two, the teleporter was activated, and Wonder Woman, Iron Man, Superman, and Wasp all entered the scene.
Scarlet Witch only grinned at the sight, but Cap knew that that grin wasn't gonna stay on her face for long.
Obsidian looked aghast, and Iron Man went straight to tackling him down to the ground while Wonder Woman used her lasso against Scarlet Witch.
Cap simply watched as Scarlet Witch was revealed to have been brainwashed, and that the lasso had freed her from the mind control. Obsidian was freed from Iron Man's grip so that Wonder Woman could do the same to him, and now both were free from Hydra's grasp.
They both kneeled on the ground, and breathed heavily.
"How did you get in here?" Superman asked, walking up to Scarlet Witch. "How did you get into the Vanguard Tower?"
Scarlet Witch sighed. "If I can recall correctly, Hydra has been working on trying to hack your systems for months now. They sent most of us to distract you guys while they finalized their work on cracking the codes."
Iron Man looked as if he was scanning through the systems of the Vanguard Tower. "This is impossible. Br – Batman and I designed these systems to be completely impenetrable, even to the likes of the US Government. And also…Jade and Obsidian, according to my research, are the children of Alan Scott."
Cap's mouth went agape at both revelations, still trying to let what had just happened sink in.