"Burn away!"
The horned monster roared before a blast of super-hot flames poured out of its open mouth.
Cerion observed the new arrival. The creature was similar to Ghost, who was pinned down on the ground courtesy of his vibranium spear. The lightforce energy stored inside the spear should be more than enough to interfere with the creature's power and keep it down. But this new creature was far more powerful. He could see that from the amount of heat contained inside its body.
'If this thing unleashes its full power this place will become a melted pool of metal and superheated sand.' Cerion thought.
There was only one way to counter such a risk. The creature had to be taken out of this place. Preferably to somewhere without any vegetation or intelligent life. A plan quickly formed in his mind as the flames crept closer and closer.
Vibrating his eyes in the socket, Cerion was able to amass a greater density of power before shooting it all out in a single blast. The huge concentration of energy managed to blast the Baker away while Cerion's suit projected the energy shield that guarded him and Barton from the blast of fire heading their way.
He traced the trajectory of Baker and the guy was thankfully gaining elevation from the ground.
"Agent Barton. I'll leave Ghost in your capable hands." said Cerion, looking at the archer.
"How am I supposed to do that? The guy is shooting fire out of his eyes!"
"Put him on ice Agent Barton." said Cerion, before he blasted off into the sky.
Cerion quickly caught up with the Baker who was tussling, screaming and spitting out fire wildly in midair. Just like last time, he got the feeling that the fire enveloping the guy was too dangerous.
"Full armour." he whispered and the vibranium suit flowed into every nook and cranny of his body.
Within seconds he was fully covered in a suit of armour made of the strongest metal on earth. Pumping out the Lightforce into the suit, he gained altitude and caught the Baker on the neck. He squeezed hard but all he got was a blast of fire to the face.
The Vibranium suit was not even signed by the flame. Whatever threat the flame holds it was certainly not having any markable effect on vibranium for some reason. Keeping this in mind, Cerion plunged his metal-covered hand into the chest of the Baker.
The Baker grunted and shouted out threats while wildly flailing around. Cerion paid it no heed and pulled back his hand only to see liquid fire in his hand.
"Looking for my heart homie? I melted that to kill you bastard." the Baker, roared out.
"Who gave you this power? Give me a name." Cerion inquired, shaking the demonic entity.
But all he got was mad cackling and a string of profanities.
'This is no use. It's time to put an end to this madness.' Cerion thought as he prepared to blast into outer space.
The vacuum of space might snuff out the Baker's unnatural flames as ice didn't yield any result with Ghost.
However, before Cerion started to ascend to space with the Baker he picked up on two bogeys approaching his position. Focusing his vision westward he picked up on two F-18s steadily making their way towards his position. Then all of a sudden one of the F-18s released a missile while the other began to decelerate.
"Fury, you son of a bitch!"
XXXXXXX
"Put him on ice he says. Yeah, easy for you to say." Clint muttered, looking wildly around but seeing only a burning landscape before him.
He saw a half-burnt building nearby, and thankfully, an intact fire extinguisher was safely tucked away in the front lobby.
"Thank God for small mercies." Clint muttered to himself, as he hauled the fire extinguisher towards the trapped demonic entity called Ghost.
"Hey there. Eat this dipshit!"
With a poof, he unloaded a cylinder full of carbon dioxide into Ghost's face and along the guy's unnatural body. He had no idea whether the extinguisher made any difference, but he just wanted to do it for his peace of mind. Terrorists, psychopathic mercenaries and the usual Ponzi scheme fellows were more his speed. Dealing with flying aliens and fire-spitting demons was way above his pay grade.
Having experienced first-hand how costly and dangerous it was to be in a fight with supernatural beings, Clint decided he was not going to be in another fight like this one.
At least not without proper tools.
He took stock of his quiver, where his exploding arrows were nearly exhausted. Despite using more firepower than he usually did, he barely put a scratch on Ghost. This alone showed just how outclassed he was in this game. Not to mention the number of men he lost from his team.
"Barton! Barton, are you there?" the comms cackled back to life in his ear.
"Coulson. I'm here?" he replied through the comms.
"What's the situation on the ground?"
"Trap 1 is pinned down by an alien spear that's glowing strangely. And I have a civilian near me...." Barton looked around for the journalist who had been clicking away madly a moment ago with her camera, but she was nowhere to be found.
"What civilian?" asked Coulson from the comms.
"She seems to have made her exit. Anyway, we have Trap 1 bound. Can you arrange for an airlift? Also, bring a lot of liquid nitrogen," said Clint.
"Alright. Barton, can you boost your signal? We seem to have lost contact with Vex," Coulson asked.
Clint took a cursory look at his equipment before agreeing, as it was mostly intact for the aforementioned purpose.
"Okay. Put on your oxygen mask and hold tight. Backup is on the way."
Clint frowned at the advice given by Coulson.
"Oxygen mask! What for?" asked Clint with some amount of surprise.
Sure, there was a lot of fire and smoke billowing out of the buildings, but the air quality was not that low. It was still breathable.
"There is a missile headed for Trap 2. It's going to get harder to breathe. You should not be feeling the effects but better to prepare for the worst and be ready for anything." said Coulson.
"Alright. Hawkeye, over and out."
XXXXXXX
"You did what!" Fury shouted, his lone eye bulging out of his socket incredulously.
"Look, Nick. If I had the choice, I wouldn't have done this, but the Council voted, and like it or not, I've got to go along with their decision," said Alexander, trying to pacify his long-time friend.
"Fuck the Council! Why would they sign off on an airstrike when we have a valuable asset handling the situation?" Fury thundered.
"Oh, that's quite simple, Nick. Politics."
Seeing the bewildered look on his friend's face, Alexander decided to extrapolate his point.
"SHIELD is run by the NATO allied nations and some non-aligned nations like China and India. However, the United States is the main backer of SHIELD. The rest of the members don't even spend one percent of their GDP to support SHIELD. So, when the White House wants something done, SHIELD has no choice but to comply."
"You can't be serious. Are we going to bend over backwards whenever the White House throws a hissy fit? Are we really going to compromise on the world's security over politics?" asked Fury.
"You should be thanking me, Nick. The President's advisors were adamant about using a nuke. I managed to talk them down to use an Oxygen Destroyer."
"The Oxygen Destroyer! That's classified, and it needs Congressional approval for wartime use, and we are not at war." Fury said, aghast at what he was hearing.
Pierce only smiled and shook his head.
"Look around you, Nick. We are scrambling jets, and the Pacific fleet has been on alert since the incident in Nevada. All our military bases in the Indo-Pacific are on high alert. Congress has surrendered its constitutional duties to the President of the United States. We are at war!" said Pierce to a thoroughly stunned Fury.
"I understand you, Nick. You didn't think the situation would snowball out of your control. Neither of us did! But, the moment demonic beings that look like they have been straight out of hell stepped in and began burning down a city, the game as we know it changed. The President and his advisors want to be seen as the protectors of Christendom. Their politics demands they take action and be seen protecting this country from the 'devil'. There is nothing you or I could do to change their course of action. War has come!" Alexander declared.
"This is wrong. This is madness." Fury muttered.
"I agree." Alexander muttered softly and squeezed the shoulder of one of his oldest friends in a comforting gesture. "Since when has war been anything else? You and I know war should be the last resort, but mankind has always flirted with war ever since we evolved from apes. There is a period of chaos before order is established. Similarly, war comes before peace. Unfortunately, the world has not known peace for a long time. We pretend there is peace, and then something happens, kicking the reality back into our faces. We have no other choice but to face it because the truth is unforgiving."
"And what is that truth?" asked Fury, with a decent amount of scepticism.
"Freedom breeds war. So long as humans are free to do as they will, war is inevitable. The human proclivity to chaos will always pit us against each other." Alexander said, trying to make his friend see the truth that has always been there for anyone to see.
But Fury shook himself away from Alexander's grasp.
"I refuse to believe that. I think peace is out there if we manage to keep our vigilance and do our duty. Excuse me, Pierce. I need to warn my asset about what's coming." said Fury before taking his leave.
Alexander shook his head and turned away from watching his friend leave to the visuals from ground zero. Nothing of this had factored into his plan for HYDRA's plans. But HYDRA was nothing but adaptable. They thrived in chaos because they understood what needed to be done.
"Peace cannot be achieved with one or two sacrifices. The greater the peace, the greater the sacrifice. The life of Steve Rogers should have taught you that, Fury. Hail HYDRA!" said Alexander, pouring himself a glass of whisky.
He was curious about Nevada's outcome. Would the missile take out the alien? Or was Vex strong enough to survive the Oxygen Destroyer?
Alexander licked his lips and leaned forward in his seat, eager to get some answers.
XXXXXXXX
"Vex! Can you hear me? Vex!" a familiar voice cackled from the transponder inside his mask making Cerion frown.
"Yeah. I can hear you, Director Fury." said Cerion, even as he climbed high into the sky with the Baker in his firm grip.
"There's a missile coming straight at the creature. ETA two minutes." Fury warned.
"I'm tracking it. Tell me, why are you firing a missile when I have it handled?" asked Cerion, not liking having missiles fired upon his person.
"Rest assured, I had no part in this fiasco. The missile is thermally locked. Leave the creature in the sky and get out of the way, fast." warned Fury.
"You sound worried. What kind of missile is this? It's not a nuke, is it?" Cerion asked worriedly.
"No, it's not a nuke. But it is just as dangerous. It's an Oxygen Destroyer. It releases a chemical compound into the air that attacks Oxygen in the air. Any carbon-based lifeform in its vicinity will be wiped off in an instant. Not even bacteria will survive. Leave now!" Fury shouted from the other end.
Cerion was understandably spooked, especially considering Fury sounded very serious. He was not willing to test out his Kryptonian invulnerability against the missile either.
'Better to play it safe for now.' he thought.
"Optima analyse the missile's chemical composition. I want to know everything about its performance." Cerion ordered.
"As you wish sir." Optima replied before employing the scanners of Cerion's suit of armour to collect data.
"Looks like this is where we part ways Baker." said Cerion before throwing the Baker away towards the path of the missile.
At least, that was what he intended but the Baker clutched onto his arm like a vulture getting a piece of meat.
"If you thought I was going quietly into the night, you've got another thing coming, homie. I say we both go with a bang. Ha...ha...ha!" the Baker shouted before laughing like a madman as the missile closed in on them both.
The missile quickly caught up, and Cerion braced himself for the impact. There was a bright flash of light and the sensation of tremendous force hitting him despite being covered in a vibranium suit. He could feel his senses warning him of what was happening. It was as if the oxygen molecules were grinding against each other and disappearing into the infinitesimally small folds of space.
He realised what was going on. Oxygen was not getting destroyed by the weapon like Fury explained. Oxygen was being folded into Quantum space. He didn't know how he came to this conclusion, but his mind was screaming at him to shield himself, and he did the only thing that came to his mind.
Calling forth the Lightforce all around his body, he let go of his tight control over the energy and unleashed the full might of his power. There was light everywhere, and even his senses eluded him.
He became blind to all senses, and darkness engulfed him.