POV: Third Person
Alexander Pierce's Office, Triskelion, Between Washington D.C. and Virginia.
Shortly After Captain America's Speech.
"Traitor scum!" shouted one of the council members at Alexander Pierce, who remained stoic, still holding a champagne glass. He didn't respond to the council member's provocation; instead, he calmly placed his drink on his desk, and when several black-clad soldiers entered the room, another council member ordered them.
"What are you waiting for? Arrest him," commanded the Asian council member.
To the shock of the four members present, however, the soldiers drew their pistols and aimed them at the council members.
"It seems the stage is mine," said Pierce arrogantly.
After saying this, Pierce walked over to his window, where he had a view of the entire lake. It didn't take long for the Helicarriers to begin taking off. After ascending a few meters from the ground, they started firing wildly at their attackers. Knowing that the situation had spiraled out of his control, he grabbed his phone and gave the order to reveal his trump card.
"Let me ask you something, what if Pakistan invaded Dubai tomorrow?" he began his speech while placing his phone on his desk and pouring another drink, which he passed to the Dubai council member.
"Knowing they will take your daughter to a stadium to kill her. You can stop this. You can press the button, can't you? You can do that?" he asked.
"Not if it comes from you!" replied the Dubai member, hurling his glass to the floor.
This made Pierce laugh. He then picked up the gun given to him by a soldier at his side. But when he aimed his weapon at the council member, he was struck by a kick, causing him to drop the gun.
The last council member, an elderly woman, to everyone's surprise, attacked them. She somehow materialized two golden daggers that were thrown at two of the enemy soldiers, hitting them squarely in the forehead.
The last soldier drew his weapon, but before it could be aimed at her, his hand simply fell to the ground; one of the daggers that had pierced the head of one of the dead men reappeared in the woman's hand, and with a swift motion, she cut her enemy's wrist before he could scream in pain; the dagger then moved once again, this time slashing his throat.
The woman then touched her face, deactivating her camouflage, and then removed her wig, revealing her golden shoulder-length hair.
"Sorry. Am I interrupting?" she spoke.
Natasha, the Black Widow, wasted no time and went straight to the computer on the other side of the room, but before that, she handed a gun to one of the council members, who kept it pointed at Pierce. She had to work fast before reinforcements arrived.
Something made her quite anxious. It was the smile on Pierce's face.
"You should be a little more surprised and concerned, you know, it took quite an effort to get here; a little recognition goes a long way."
Using her spy training, Natasha tries to extract something from the target while working on the computer.
"It was indeed a great surprise, but utterly useless."
"I'm with you on my power while I'm literally extracting every piece of information you have; please, you're embarrassing yourself," she taunted further.
"I'm saying it's useless because you should have attacked me the moment Rogers finished his beautiful speech."
Natasha stopped typing after those words; the only thing Pierce did after the speech was to pick up his phone; clearly, he did something. Seeing how Natasha stopped typing, Pierce smiled even more and said,
"The reason all this is useless is that the moment I picked up my phone, I activated Project Sentinel Online."
POV: Amora
On Top of Helicarrier IN-02.
A Few Minutes Before the Start of Project Sentinel.
I roll on the floor to avoid being hit by the woman's green-armored sword strike. As I rise, I create a shield of green energy in front of me to protect myself from one of the energy blasts from her repulsors. From the moment the armored woman appeared on the battlefield, she continuously attacked me, leaving me no time for anything but defense.
A perfect strategy for fighting a sorceress; I have confidence in my quick enchantments, but the longer I have to perform a spell, the more powerful it will be, and she seems to have deduced that too.
As I dodge her sword, she shoots at me with her repulsors; when I dodge them, she would use another long-range weapon like missiles, so as I could do nothing but dodge, she had enough time to close in on me, restarting everything all over again.
"Enough!"
Letting my frustration take over me, a wave of pure magical energy explodes from my body, pushing the armor backward, which regains control of her body using her repulsors in the air. This small explosion gave me enough time.
Several clones of myself are then created and separate from my original body; each clone then flies to take its position around the armored woman, completely surrounding her. Each clone then unleashes a different type of attack: ice, fire, thunder, winds, and pure energy. But once again, my adversary proves worthy of dying by my hands.
She flies high and twists her body in the air, evading the various shots; one of them came toward her back in her blind spot, but she bent her arm and used the blade of her sword to block the blow. To my shock, she used the force of the blow to adjust her position in the air, making her face me; seeing such a display of skill, I made my clones disappear.
When she faced me, she attacked again, but this time, it was the arc reactor on the woman's chest that fired a large beam of blue energy at me.
"For the Shield of the Seraphim!"
The energy shield does its job, protecting me, but I sense something, and when I look up, I see two Quinjets diving at high speed toward me. Her attack is not over yet, so I can't move.
The two jets then reveal their weapons and fire missiles at me.
(What a beautiful trap!)
With the missiles almost upon me, I simply dispel the Shield of the Seraphim, letting the arc reactor blast hit me, throwing me backward just in time for the missiles to hit the Helicarrier itself.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
"A suicidal strategy, but it worked."
The damage from the blow was greatly weakened by my defense; taking it was far better than being hit by those missiles.
"Bravo!"
As I rise from a pile of flaming debris, I am surprised by the voice of my enemy, who stands just a few meters away. It seems my strategy has earned me a bit of her respect.
"So, you can talk now! That's good news," I jest.
"Many words are unnecessary. My name is Ophelia Sarkissian, you may call me Iron Viper," she says as her helmet opens, revealing the face of a beautiful woman. Not as beautiful as mine, of course.
"I am Amora, Goddess of Magic and Seduction."
"I know. Why not surrender?" she asks, making me laugh.
"What could you possibly offer to even make me consider joining your side?"
"Your husband."
That stops my laughter.
"Dr. Faustus is an ally of ours. When we capture the king of Genosha, he can hypnotize him, making him love you again. All you have to do is help us capture him," she continues.
"I stand corrected. It was better when you kept your mouth shut!"
Once again, I am consumed by rage, not the silent fury of my husband, but a storm.
"How dare you suggest that I would betray him in such a way!"
"You've done it once already, what's the difference in doing it again?" she says before closing her helmet.
I know she's trying to make me lose my temper and control. I try to keep it together, but to no avail. My energy explodes from my body, making my long golden hair dance in the air; the entire Helicarrier trembles, like a frightened animal.
"You thought you could defeat me after I lost control, unfortunately for you, you only hastened your demise!"
I extend my hand as if to grasp Iron Viper, and as I begin to close my fingers, an invisible force grips her entire body, forcing her to her knees. The more I close my fingers, the stronger the force crushes her; she tries futilely to push against it, but it's a useless effort.
"AAAAAH!"
Nearly crushed, my enemy begins to scream. Realizing she can't fight this with brute force, she fires two small missiles from her armor, which fly upward and explode in the air. The explosions release the same green mist she used against me before; before the mist can envelop me, I twist my hand, hurling my enemy out of the Helicarrier.
I raise both hands high, and the mist begins to gather into a single point. Like before, it becomes a small green dot in the air, disappearing shortly after.
I look to my side and see Iron Viper coming at me again, her sword ready to strike, her armor a bit dented now. I knew she would try something like this, and with no more patience to spare, I move my hand, freezing her in mid-air.
I calmly approach the frozen Iron Viper and touch her helmet with my finger, transmuting it into small butterflies that flutter through the air. The woman's long black hair falls over her shoulders, her frozen face showing only panic.
"You really thought I was having such a hard time fighting a mere mortal?" I ask, looking into her eyes.
A spell to freeze a person's time is complicated, not something I can do easily; it depends greatly on the individual's strength. Normally, I use this trick to dodge powerful blows; I'm glad to know I can do it now in just a small space.
"It's not just my husband who's getting more powerful with time."
"Look at those frightened eyes; don't worry, it will all be over soon."
Though I enjoy playing with my prey, I still have to play my part in the plan to bring the Helicarrier down before it reaches the altitude for the attack. So, I point my finger at her forehead, ready to give her an painless death she doesn't deserve after her words.
"Sleep well, little Viper!"
The tip of my finger glows green, and just as I'm about to fire...
"Bam!"
Something large lands behind me. I turn and see a humanoid armor similar to the Destroyer. It's matte black, three meters tall, with red eyes.
"Is this an attempt to copy the Destroyer?" I ask the armor.
I highly doubt this armor is manned; it doesn't respond to me. Its face then contorts, the machine raises its two hands, and fires at me. I move as fast as I can, creating a shield of green light in front of me, but I greatly underestimated the new armor. The beam of light easily pierces my shield and hits my body.
I'm thrown out of the Helicarrier.
My body spins in the air for a few seconds until I start using magic to fly. Now I'm a kilometer away from where I was, and I can see the situation we're in. Two more robots similar to the one that hit me are fighting Rogers on the other Helicarrier; he's doing his best not to die.
Damn robot that attacked me now comes flying at me again, with a new friend, and Iron Viper, who freed herself from my spell when I lost my concentration.
"It seems we no longer have time to play."
I open my hand, and when I close it again, a black staff appears in it. But before I do anything, I feel a powerful presence watching me from afar. This presence is quite familiar to me, and after feeling it for some time, my body trembles with excitement.
He was here, just waiting for the right moment to reveal himself.
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