Strucker has been making great strides in inventing after he acquired Loki's scepter from the previous SHIELD organization.
Being influenced by the infinity stones, Strucker was confident that he could achieve what Red Skull had failed to when the tesseract was in Hydra's grasp decades ago.
Hydra's previous energy tank was dug out, supplied with the energy from the scepter instead. The defense line around Strucker's castle was tight and could defend against any organizations in the world – except the Avengers.
"Good thing that the Avengers exist. Take that every single Avengers hater in the country."
Ryan snarked sarcastically as he watched the light distinguished from Strucker's eyes. With no mercy in Ryan's eyes, the cautious and brilliant Hydra head died at the age of 55 – without even getting a chance to let the world know his name .
After Strucker died, Ryan threw his corpse like it was some type of rag doll . He heard some messages popping from the system about completing the quest. He ignored the rewards as it wasn't a proper time to check it out. He then plugged his USB drive to Strucker's computer.
"Zola. I want everything."
"Sure thing boss."
The undercover AI that was hiding inside of Strucker system was activated and terabytes of information started getting transferred to Ryan's computer at high speed. His technopathy ability allowed him to read the data directly using his brains– allowing him to learn and comprehend various difficult data at the speed of his mere thoughts.
A few rooms from his location, 3 anxious Hydra agents were standing back to back with each other and their hand held a rifle shakily.
"Wh-Where is it?" One of the Hydra agents said in horror as they couldn't comprehend the beings that had attacked their group. Once there were 10 people, now only 3 were left.
The room became eerily still as the Hydra agents were trying to find the intruder.
At the dark corner of the room, two blazing red eyes snapped open and a figure hanging from the ceiling of the room slowly descended toward the Hydra agents. Gwen had used her ghost spider suit to terrorize the poor agents inside the castle.
Unnoticed by the agents, Gwen whispered in the ear of one of them.
"Boo."
"ARGHH!! (KYAA!)"
Amidst the manly screams of the Hydra agents, one out of the three screamed in a high pitch voice, similar to a girl's screams. They automatically pointed their rifles toward the source of the sound, but when they looked, there was no one above them.
"Ehem. I'm right here." Gwen cleared her throat playfully and was already in front of them.
THWACK! STOMP! KICK! (A/N: Following the comic panel sound effects lol)
In less than 30 seconds, the Hydra agents were already tied up by her webbing. Gwen dusted off her hand and wanted to scare another group of Hydra before her suit's spidey sense kicked in.
"Done playing?" A voice whispered at the back of her ears like she had done to the agents before. Goosebumps appeared on her skin and her heart skipped a beat.
Startled, Gwen assumed a fighting stance before her vigilance melted as she saw her fiance with a smirk on his face.
"Do that again sometimes." Gwen said in a seductive voice and approached him coquettishly before entering his embrace.
"For real?" Ryan asked, wondering if he had activated some hidden impulse inside her. But it was all a ruse, after Gwen had entered his arms, she retracted her face covering and bit Ryan's neck.
"Ouch." Ryan exclaimed playfully. Changing the topic, he asked about the situation in the castle. "Only 1 group left. Those who were retreating with Strucker are waiting by the hangar area by a Hydra jet." Gwen explained.
"Good. Will you hijack the jet?"
Gwen raised her brow at him. "Sure. But why?"
"It has a lot of interesting stuff inside that I don't want to fall in a particular man's hand until I clear them."
Most of Baron Strucker's experiments are inside that jet. Even the jet has been upgraded with the latest Hydra technology.
Nodding slightly, Gwen raised her left hand and shot a webbing toward the ceiling. "I will see you later~" She exclaimed as she swung across the castle corridors to get to the hangar.
As Ryan was looting the castle, he contacted the Iron Patriot battling outside the castle.
"Rhodey, connect me to the external speaker."
After being blasted by the telekinetic blast, Rhodes has been keeping his distance against Wanda while locking her from using her abilities while the Black Panther was keeping Pietro busy.
"My man. You've finished?" Rhodes asked excitedly as he knew Ryan had infiltrated the castle.
"Yes. Strucker is now dead. I need to talk to the twins."
Elated, Rhodes raised his hand up toward Wanda, causing her to hesitate. Suddenly, a familiar voice came out from the Iron Patriot's external speakers.
"Ahh… Testing testing one two.. Can you hear me?"
Even Pietro who was fighting against the Black Panther stopped in his tracks as he heard Ryan's voice. In his hesitation, the Black Panther pounced on him and slammed him on the ground. T'Challa pulled Pietro's hand backward and put him into a limb lock.
"Ooww Oww Oww." Pietro groaned in pain, but T'Challa was without mercy.
"Pietro!" Wanda yelled and wanted to shoot a telekinetic blast toward the Black Panther, but her action was stopped when Ryan started to speak.
"Hi Wanda. Pietro. I've been searching for you guys."
"What?" Wanda and Pietro widened their eyes as they heard Ryan mentioning them by their name.
"You…Know us?" Wanda asked in a shaky voice. It was the first time she had to use her powers in a battle, causing her to be extremely exhausted.
"Yes I do. We've met before. Right, Pietro? You asked me for a signature so that you can give it to your sister on her birthday."
Pietro automatically avoided Wanda's gaze as she turned to look at him. Wanda narrowed her eyes as when Pietro gave her that present before, he told her that he had bought it at a high price on an auction site.
"Don't worry about the bombs on your neck. I've destroyed the remote controller for it. I will remove the nanites injected in your neck when the battle is over."
Rhodes and the Black Panther breathed a sigh of relief after Ryan said that. Fighting a forced opponent just makes them feel bad instead of enjoying the battle.
Wanda plopped on the ground and Pietro stopped resisting as they heard it. If that statement came from any other Avengers, the twins might not believe them. They were only able to believe it as it came from Ryan Knight, the savior of the Sokovian childrens.
"Finish up there and come inside the castle. There are still some hydra agents running around inside. Wanda and Pietro, you can join us too if you want to."
As Ryan said that, the collars on Wanda and Pietro's neck opened up automatically and fell on the ground. The nanites were still inside of their neck, but with the remote gone, it was impossible for the bombs to be activated.
The Black Panther released Pietro from his grasp. Rubbing his hurting hand, Pietro slowly stood up from the grass. "We're cool?" He asked the Black Panther. The latter only nodded slightly before he ran toward the castle.
Rhodes walked to Wanda and helped her to get up. Pietro staggered toward Wanda and took her hand from Rhodes.
"You kids should just stay here. It's dangerous inside and you have no experience at all." Rhodes advised.
"They had kidnapped us. We want to get even." Wanda said with gritted teeth. Her slavic accent was barely audible as she had learned the english language properly during her time in the refuge center.
"You want to kidnap them back?" Pietro asked in shock. Wanda elbowed his stomach, causing him to wince in pain.
"(sigh) okay. Follow me closely alright?" Rhodes said defeatedly as he saw the twins' determined look to get revenge. Ryan's quote rang in his ears as he took a closer look at the twins.
"A lot of the superhero creation and supervillains rising could be avoided if they had just gone to therapy after a traumatic incident instead of keeping the feeling buried deep inside."
"You try to keep up with us." Pietro said condescendingly and carried Wanda in his arms before he exploded into extreme speed.
"Kids." Rhodes said in dissatisfaction and activated his rocket propulser to fly inside the castle.
Ryan walked casually along the castle corridors when a group of 20 Hydra agents noticed him. They aimed their energy rifles at him and opened fire instantly.
The energy shot hit his armor, but it didn't even scratch it. Ryan held his right plan toward the agents and muttered, "Incinerate."
BOOM
The agents were engulfed in a fiery blast, turning all of them into charred skeletons in an instant. As Ryan was clearing out the castle there, he suddenly heard a notification from ALBUS about VERONICA being activated.
"Hmm? Hulk lost his control? Why?" He muttered as he turned his attention toward Zemo's castle.
-Zemo's Castle. 5 minutes before-
"You're persistent." Tony exclaimed as the Beetle kept following him closely from behind. Opening his shoulder missiles pad, he shot more than 20 small missiles toward the Beetle, creating a distance between them.
The missiles continued chasing after the Beetle, prompting him to leave Tony alone to deal with it.
Tony had entered the castle's defense line, prompting the castle defense system to be activated. Twin barrel energy cannon, heat seeking missiles, and sniper bullets from the hidden Hydra soldiers were shot at him.
Through Ultron, he managed to calculate the perfect path to avoid the artillery fire and even returned fire on the Hydra soldiers stationed there.
"Thor. How long will you take? Hurry up!" Tony said angrily as Thor was supposed to be his cover in the front line. "Cap. What's the situation inside? Cap?" Tony tried to contact Captain America, but all of the communication from the inside was blocked.
Twirling the Mjolnir, Thor swung the hammer toward Moonstone Karla Sofen, but she was able to dodge all of his attack.
"It will take some more time." Thor replied.
Stopping Karla's punch and locking her fist in his, Thor managed to have a direct shot at Karla Sofen's head, but she crouched down and screamed like a girl being assaulted, causing Thor to stop his hammer.
"What?" Thor exclaimed in confusion.
"Hehe. Nothing." Karla Sofen replied and swiped Thor's leg, causing him to fall backward.
"It's very easy to trick a chivalrous man." Moonstone said as she sat on Thor's waist when he was lying on the cold hard ground. Shocked, Thor said flabbergasted, "What are you doing!?"
Karla Sofen smirked and held her palm point blank on Thor's face, charging her photon blast to a critical state as she straddle him. She would love it if Thor wasn't fat and was dashing like he used to be, but she would take what she can get.
Before she could release the blast, a 20 meter long tree trunk was thrown towards her.
"I'm cu- Bleh-"
The massive tree trunk slammed on her body and she was knocked 100 meters away from Thor from the impact. Trapped underneath the tree trunk, Moonstone loses her consciousness for a while.
"Hulk!" Thor exclaimed happily as he saw his friend nearby. He stood back up and turned his back against the green monster, "Where is your opponent?" Thor asked calmly as he controlled his huffing breath.
No answer came from Hulk even after Thor waited for a few seconds. "Hmm?" The Asgardian god turned to look at the Hulk, but his face was greeted by a massive green fist instead.
BOOM BOOM BOOM
Thor was shooted across the forest like a bullet, cutting down all of the trees that came in his path. He crashed into a giant rock, causing the rock to be splattered into a small debris. Wiping the blood on his nose, Thor's eyes shook as he watched Hulk running uncontrollably toward him!
Hulk bellowed in anger and his eyes lost their focus.
In his fight with ChenLu – The radioactive man, their battle had reached a stalemate as they couldn't hurt each other.
ChenLu as his power was useless against the Hulk, and Hulk as he instinctively knew that prolonged pressure on ChenLu would cause a nuclear explosion from his body. His Banner side of the personality had warned the beastly side of him to not drag the people of Sokovia in his battle.
Not being able to attack, but not being able to run either had caused Hulk to get increasingly frustrated.
"It must be hard on you. To share a body with someone completely different from you." ChenLu said calmly. His voice resounded like a warmth voice of a mother inside of the Hulk's ears. Banner inside of the Hulk was shocked and tried to help, but Hulk fell deeper and deeper into ChenLu's trick.
Through the power of his radiation emissions, Lu can lull people into a state of suggestibility. He had been using his powers ever since the battle with Hulk started.
"Why don't you let loose? No one will blame you for it. In fact, they should blame themselves as they are trying to tame the monster."
ChenLu walked near the Hulk and put his hand on the green guy, channeling his radiation to increase the potency of gamma radiation in the Hulk's body. Hulk's muscles bulged and became increasingly big until he became more than 2.9 meters tall.
"Go. Show them the monster that they love." Chen Lu said whisperingly and retreated from his battle against the Hulk. He needed to search for Zemo and pry the information from him during the battle as he feared that the Avengers would kill Zemo before he got what he wanted. ChenLu didn't want to prolong his servitude towards Zemo any longer than he had too.
In another part of the forest, Ayala and Barton had some trouble as they were facing Techno. The technological prodigy had booby trapped the surroundings before Barton and Ayala arrived there.
"Does every mechanical genius have a goatee?" Barton shot his arrows toward Norbert Ebersol, but it was blocked by the Techpac on the opponent's arm.
"Will Ryan have one too in the future?" Ayala swung from the branches and kicked Techno on his chest using the distraction Barton had created, knocking him backward a few steps.
"God I hope not." Barton said with a smirk. Ayala landed on the ground where Techno had 4 stands, but then 4 cylindrical disks floated in a rectangular shape around her.
"AHH!" Immense electrical bolt caged Ayala inside of Norbert's trap. Barton pulled 4 arrows from his quiver and shot them all at the same time.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
All of his arrows hit their marks, destroying the cylindrical disk caging Ayala. Barton ran toward her and checked up on her. "Are you okay?" He asked.
"That…bastard." Ayala muttered in a shaky voice. Her eyes blurred and her ears were ringing from the attack.
"Like I said. Bring me some real Avengers." Norbert said casually as he approached the duo. Ayala's kick didn't affect him in the slightest as he wore an armor underneath his clothes.
"Can you recover?" Barton asked in a lowered tone.
"Yeah.." Ayala said weakly.
"Okay then." Barton stood up and activated the enhanced bow Ryan had given him before.
"You know. I am an original Avenger." Barton pulled his empty bowstring and released it. Norbert looked puzzledly in his action, but then, his instinct prompted him to raise his armor up.
BANG
A loud metallic clunk was heard as the invisible arrow had hit Techno's defense. Intrigued, Norbert flashed a disgusting smile as his gaze landed on the bow.
Without saying anything, Barton led the bad guy deeper into the forest, leaving Ayala alone in the area to recover. 10 minutes passed, and Ayala was finally able to recollect herself.
Norbert activated his tech-pac to become alive cables, slithering toward Barton and trying to catch him.
"You know. You're wrong about Aya- White Tiger being a token Avenger." Barton shot various trick arrows, but Norbert's intuitive tech pack managed to defend him every single time.
"She works harder than anyone else to improve herself. To not let herself be drowned in her powers and to save others using the gift she has been given."
"What's your point?" Norbert asked, annoyed by the chatter.
"Don't you know this? You mess with the kitty, you'll get the claw." Barton said with a smirk. The cable wires were inches away from his feet, but he wasn't worried anymore.
Suddenly for Norbert, a white figure jumped on top of him and started to slash his techpac away from his body.
"ARGHH!!" As he shared his senses with the techpac, intense pain assaulted his mind as Ayala slashed off parts of his body.
SLASH SLASH SLASH.
Ayala continued assaulting the techpac until it was broken beyond measure. Norbert's eyes turned white and he fell unconscious on the floor.
"You're alright?" Barton asked as Ayala was holding her knees with her hand and was breathing heavily.
"I… need some rest. You should go inside first. Don't use the area we've been in before." Ayala advised. Although the forest spoke to her, Techno's traps were proven to be a difficult challenge for her to go through.
Barton patted her shoulder and almost left first before an alarm sounded in their earpiece.
"We have a loose HULK. I REPEAT. WE HAVE A LOOSE HULK!" Tony said in the communication channel. He saw Thor being punched at like a ragdoll and had various injuries on his face. Although Thor can hold his own against a normal Hulk, this enhanced Hulk was too much for him.
Tony's eyes shook as ULTRON shared with him the prediction of the battle. "In less than 30 seconds, the Hulk would arrive at the edge of Nova Grad city. Without intervention, the number of casualties estimated is within thousands.
"Summon Veronica. Now!" Tony ordered.
In outer space, the Stark satellite that Tony and Ryan had placed on the earth's orbit was activated. Pieces of the hulking Iron armor flew down from the satellite and aimed toward Sokovia where it would be needed.
(A/N : SECOND TIME POSTING. THE FIRST ONE WASN'T PUBLISHED. I WONDER WHY? Am I banned from wn? )
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