Screens across the world flickered with the sa headline looping on repeat, each channel trying to sound like they understood what was happening.
THE AVENGERS STRIKE AGAIN. A.I.M. FACILITY RAIDED. HOSTAGES RESCUED.
Inside Avengers HQ, it slled like burned circuitry. A section of the wall still showed impact damage from sothing that had gone wrong earlier that morning, and two repair bots were fixing it.
Frank Castle stood in the middle of the room with his arms crossed. He focused on the holographic replay of their last mission. A.I.M. soldiers rushed through the hallways, and the automated defenses activated. anwhile, the team fought through all the obstacles.
Polaris ripped reinforced steel doors apart like they were paper, twisting them mid-air and slamming them into incoming drones while moving forward without slowing down. "Left side," she called out through comms, already dragging a cluster of ard guards into the air and dropping them hard enough to end the fight instantly.
Quicksilver blurred through the hallway in streaks of silver and blue, disarming three n before they even realized he had moved. He skidded to a stop near a sealed chamber, tapping the glass twice with a smirk. "You guys really need better locks," he muttered before vibrating his hand straight through the control panel and forcing it open.
Spider-Man swung in from above, webbing two guards to the ceiling before flipping over a turret that had just activated. "Hey, not to complain, but do you guys ever take a day off from being evil?" he asked while yanking the power core out mid-spin and tossing it aside like trash.
Ghost phased through a closing blast door, reappearing on the other side just as a group of A.I.M. scientists tried to escape. She grabbed one by the collar. "You're not going anywhere," she said, dragging him back through the door as if the tal didn't exist.
Elsa Bloodstone kicked in a reinforced lab door with enough force to bend the fra, her rifle already up and tracking targets. "Found the test subjects," she called out, scanning the terrified group inside before lowering her weapon slightly. "You're safe now. Stay behind and don't touch anything glowing."
Above it all, Elena's voice moved through the comms, guiding, correcting, and adjusting the plans according to the situation. "Three hostiles approaching from the rear corridor. Spider-Man, intercept. Quicksilver, reroute to extraction point B. Polaris, structural integrity dropping by twelve percent. Adjust force output."
Back in the present, the replay ended.
Frank didn't say anything at first. He let the silence sit long enough for it to an sothing.
Peter shifted slightly, still in partial suit, mask pulled up just enough to show his face. "So… that was good, right?" he asked, looking around like he already knew the answer wasn't going to be simple.
Frank finally looked at him. "You missed the second turret on entry," he said flatly.
Peter blinked. "I got the first one."
Frank didn't move. "And the second one almost cut your exit path."
Pietro leaned back against a console, arms crossed with a faint smirk. "He has a point. You were about half a second away from getting ventilated."
Peter sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Okay, but I didn't get ventilated, so technically still a win."
Lorna folded her arms, her expression sharper than before. "We're not aiming for 'technically alive,'" she said, glancing at the replay again. "We're aiming for control and clean runs without anyone getting themselves or others killed."
Peter scratched the back of his head. "Yeah. Sorry about that. My Spider-sense sotis makes shift my focus to the most dangerous thing or person around . So, I'll train to improve myself."
Ava stepped forward slightly, her tone quieter but firm. "We secured every target and extracted all civilians. So, the mission was a success regardless of one mishap."
Frank nodded once. "That part was acceptable," he said, then tapped the display, bringing up a list of captured individuals. "Seventeen A.I.M. operatives. Three lead scientists. Two independent contractors tied to black-market augntation programs."
Elsa rested her rifle on her shoulder and took a deep breath. "And about forty people who were about to beco science experints," she said, her voice flat but showing so anger underneath.
Frank looked at her briefly. "That's why we're here," he said.
Elena's voice ca through the room speakers again. "dia response is escalating. Multiple outlets are requesting interviews. Public approval rating has increased by twenty-three percent over the last forty-eight hours."
Johnny wandered in halfway through the debrief. He leaned against the doorway with a grin. "Look at that," he said. "You guys are officially famous now. Welco to the big leagues, boys and girls."
Pietro smirked. "I was already famous," he replied without missing a beat.
Peter glanced toward the nearest screen, where clips of their fight were playing on loop. "They got my good side," he muttered, then paused. "Do I have a good side?"
Lorna rolled her eyes but didn't look away from the footage. "Focus," she said, though there was less edge in it this ti.
Frank stepped forward, cutting through the lighter mont without raising his voice. "This isn't about headlines," he said. "A.I.M. is losing ground, which ans they're going to escalate."
The room shifted slightly at that.
Ava tilted her head. "More unstable subjects," she said.
Elsa nodded once. "Or sothing worse they haven't shown yet."
Elena responded imdiately, her tone sharpening. "Data supports escalation probability at seventy-eight percent. Project Ascension remains active. No confird deploynt of advanced subjects yet."
Johnny chid in. "Oh yeah. Rember those burning freaks Thor fought that blew up half a city block? You haven't yet faced them, have you?"
"No. Only operatives and failed test subjects injected with a cheap version of Super Soldier Serum," Frank replied.
Peter frowned. "So we're getting better," he said slowly, "and they're about to get scarier."
Frank looked at him directly. "That's how this works," he said.
Silence settled again, heavier this ti.
Lorna stepped closer to the display, her eyes narrowing as new data flickered across it. "Then we don't slow down," she said. "We hit every base, every lab, every contact point they have before they can finish whatever they're building."
Pietro pushed off the console, energy shifting in his posture. "Now that sounds like a plan I can get behind."
Frank didn't imdiately agree. He studied the data, the patterns, the gaps.
"We move," he said. "But we do it right. There's no room for mistakes and no second chances."
Elena highlighted a new location on the map, coordinates locking into place as the room lights dimd slightly around the projection. "Next target identified," she said. "Underground facility. High energy signatures detected. Probability of advanced experintation is extrely high."
Peter pulled his mask back down slowly, the earlier uncertainty gone now. "Alright," he said, rolling his shoulders once. "Let's go and catch so bad guys."
...
[Sahara]
Heat rolled across the sand in slow waves as the Avengers appeared, the air snapping slightly from the teleport drop. The Sahara stretched endlessly in every direction, empty at first glance, but Elena's overlay painted a very different picture.
A massive underground structure pulsed beneath their feet.
Frank stepped forward, scanning the surroundings. "Status."
Elena's voice ca in clear through comms. "Facility confird beneath your position. Depth varies between one hundred and three hundred ters. Multiple reinforced layers. Heavy shielding. Internal activity is extrely high."
Johnny cracked his neck, flas flickering faintly across his shoulders like he was warming up. "So not a friendly welco party then."
Elena continued without reacting. "Estimated personnel count exceeds two hundred. Eighty subjects enhanced with Super Soldier Serum variants. Fifty confird Extremis signatures. Energy weapons detected across multiple sectors. Unknown power source located at the lowest level."
Peter let out a low whistle behind his mask. "That's… a lot of problems stacked in one place."
Pietro stretched his arms, already shifting on his feet like he was seconds away from moving. "Finally sothing interesting."
Elsa adjusted her grip on her rifle, scanning the sand as if expecting sothing to crawl out of it. "Extremis ans they blow up if pushed too far," she said. "So maybe don't punch everything at full power."
Johnny glanced at her with a grin. "Leave the explosions to , sweetheart."
Frank didn't respond to any of it. He looked at Lorna.
That was all it took.
Lorna stepped forward, boots sinking slightly into the sand as her eyes focused downward. For a second, nothing happened. Then the ground beneath them trembled.
"You guys should fly up," she said with a grin as the air around her started to hum. "Because I'm bringing up the party above the sand."
...
[Deep down in the lab]
A woman with red hair was in a circular glass pod, floating in a green liquid. An oxygen mask was attached to her face and multiple needles were embedded along her spinal cord. It looked like an incubation tube.
There was a little tag on the side of the tube: Mutate #9818.
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