Hearing Wolverine's warning, everyone's reaction was instantaneous. They all ducked.
In that instant, they all felt a sharp wave pass by their heads. If they hadn't ducked, they would've been cut in half, considering that the pod that Wolverine had taken the Terrigen essence from was now two pieces of junk metal.
Reacting quickly, Demiurge sent a wave of magic in the direction that the slicing wave came from.
They all got a chance to see who had come. Two people were standing in front of a door — Presumably another entrance, or maybe even their living quarters. They were wearing a matching uniform similar to the Fantastic Four uniform without the logo and some other subtle differences.
"Give back the Terrigen Essence, Hydra agents." One of them said and waved his hand in their direction, releasing the same cleaving wave again at Demiurge's energy wave with both attacks getting nullified.
As for the other man, Wolverine, and Laura charged at him instantly.
Ironheart took flight and Patriot went after the slicing Inhuman.
The other man looked at Wolverine and Laura approaching him and took a deep breath as his face took a bluish hue. He opened his mouth and bellowed, releasing a wave of blue fire at the duo.
They both split up and the man's fire breath chased after Laura. But he was abruptly forced to stop in order to block a projectile from Ironheart.
Meanwhile, Wolverine reached the man and attacked him with his claws, "Night night…"
Abruptly his eyes widened as he jumped back instead of attacking the man, he'd noticed a similar blue glow in the man's hands. His judgment proved to be correct as the man shot a wave of blue fire in his direction through his hands.
"Okay… He can just shoot fire from anywhere…" Wolverine commented as he signaled Ironheart to approach him and back Laura up.
As for him, he changed targets to the other man who was engaged with Demiurge and Patriot.
Laura reached the man and engaged with him in close combat, making it difficult for him to effectively use his fire attacks. Especially with the presence of Ironheart, who kept shooting laser blasts at him, which he had to dodge or parry with his fire. It didn't take long for Laura to subdue him with her close-combat-oriented style.
But just as she put her claw on his neck with her knee on his chest, he bellowed out, "Fuck off, dammit!" He exploded into a being of pure fire before Laura could even react.
She closed her eyes and braced herself for the pain, but it never came. When she opened her eyes, she realized that she was completely unscathed and had merely been thrown off of the man who was now completely engulfed in blue flames.
'I like this new suit…' She thought appreciatively as she quickly approached the man again. This time with new fervor, knowing that his fire couldn't really hurt her other than the recoil.
She retracted her claws that the suit didn't fully cover so that they wouldn't melt due to the extreme heat and engaged in pure fisticuffs with the man as Ironheart supported her from a range.
As their fistfight continued, Laura heard Ironheart's voice, "Try to subdue him for a moment, I have a finisher that would definitely take care of him."
Laura didn't reply, but her attacks started leaning toward restraining the man as she started trying to subdue him for Ironheart to take the final blow.
Soon, Laura grabbed the man's arm and flipped him over, but made sure that he landed on his feet. Then she grabbed his other arm and held him in front of herself like a shield, "Now!" She said to Ironheart. As for the heat that was wafting off of the completely inflamed man, she wasn't even feeling it.
Within an instant, there was the signature sound of Iron Man's repulsor blast powering up. Ironheart came in front of the man and released a blue bolt from the center of her chestpiece. But it wasn't lightning, it was a kind of cold beam that would instantly dissipate all the heat on the man and leave him in a cryogenically induced coma.
As Laura and Riri turned to the other three, they saw that the other group's opponent was restrained under Wolverine's knee as a blue glow covered his entire body, presumably preventing him from releasing any of his powers. Patriot was nursing a wound that he got during the fight on his arm.
"Let me help!" Ironheart came to Patriot's side and started dressing his wound using some sort of gun from her armor. She sprayed some material that solidified as it made contact with his skin and started mending the wound.
"Let's get out of here before they send more Inhumans after us," Logan said and they all grouped up before moving to the staircase exit under Riri's guidance. She'd extracted the blueprints of the entire facility previously.
Under Demiurge's invisibility field, they all escaped from the building and went the way they came. After grabbing the unconscious Ms. Marvel, they moved toward the forest. They would be able to escape from the forest with more ease since there weren't many guards there. The only reason they were able to safely consider going through the forest was due to Demiurge's invisibility field keeping them all hidden from the senses of the Inhuman in control of the forest. Otherwise, ten out of ten times, Wolverine would've rather escaped from the other side.
They started navigating through the forest with the help of Ironheart. When they were halfway through the forest, a voice sounded out, "You should stop now."
With those words, a tree instantly grew out of the ground in front of the group and they were forced to stop.
"Demiurge…" Wolverine said with a questioning tone. Demiurge didn't reply, but his brows were also furrowed in confusion.
The 'tree' took a humanoid form and looked at them with hostility, "You're not leaving here, Hydra agents." The feminine Treant said and the trees around everyone started elongating and their branches approached the group.
Without a word, everyone took up fighting positions and as the branches approached them swiftly, Wolverine and Laura started cutting through them while trying to approach the woman. Patriot wasn't able to cut through them, but he was able to keep himself free with his high level of combat awareness and training.
As for Ironheart, she just flew higher while camouflaging her suit. Although the ability was useless inside the forest, outside, it was all game since the Inhuman wouldn't be able to sense her. She started attempting to snipe the Inhuman from the air, though she was mostly unsuccessful due to the large canopy of trees that kept getting in the way of her shots.
As for Demiurge, he seemed to not be able to react before the branches wrapped around him and formed a cocoon around him.
As Laura and Wolverine defended themselves against the branches, Laura also made sure to protect Ms. Marvel whom she was previously carrying. With Wolverine's help, the three of them were relatively safe.
But soon, a branch smacked Wolverine's arm and made him stumble away from Laura who was left to defend herself and Ms. Marvel alone. None of the members of the team had the time to help the others since they were all busy with themselves.
"Ironheart!" Wolverine's growling tone made Ironheart snap out of her sniping attempts, "Back us up, your attacks on her are useless." He told her.
With that, Ironheart mumbled a light apology and started supporting Patriot and Wolverine from the air, but she was unable to see Laura through the dense canopy of trees.
"I don't see Laura, Ms. Marvel, or Demiurge." She told Wolverine.
"Let's get rid of the plant girl first, we'll find them soon enough." He told her and approached Patriot under the cover provided by Ironheart.
They both started working together and with Ironheart's support, they were able to approach Demiurge's location. They couldn't see the man there so they had to approach the treant by themselves, but it was proving to be impossible. They were in the middle of a forest with a literal shit ton of trees and branches under the treant woman's control. They were barely able to defend themselves, let alone attack.
"Get us out of here, Ironheart." Wolverine decided to pull back and regroup before they did anything more, 'That fucking Warlock… What the hell was he doing…' He cursed inwardly as he saw Ironheart approaching them.
Though, just before she entered the canopy of trees, she had to pull up due to a missile being shot at her.
"It's the other forces of the base." She said.
"Call for backup." Logan made a split-second decision and sent Ironheart away, he and Patriot would have to surrender since there was no way they were going to be able to escape with half of their team out of commission.
As Ironheart was hesitating, another missile was shot at her. As she dodged it, she heard Wolverine's growl, "Fuck off and get some help dammit. You're not enough."
She flinched at his tone and quickly turned around, flying away.
Just as she was about to power her thrusters to breach Mach speed, she was shot with a blue energy wave that instantly depowered her suit.
Wolverine saw all of that happen and narrowed his eyes before growling, "Demiurge…"
***
If you want to support me, check out my Patréon.
I post 20 advanced chapters of the book on my Patrèon. Check it out!
I also do weekly polls there to decide which story I will be posting for the following week.
www.patrèon.com/addyctive
(Replace the è with e)