Lorna's eyes glowed with a faint green light as she reached deep into the sand. The air around her started to hum, first softly and then becoming sharper as the magnetic field grew. Beneath them, tal responded.
The ground trembled.
Then it tore open.
Sand erupted in violent waves as sothing massive began to rise. tal groaned from deep below, layers of reinforced structure dragging upward as if the earth itself were being peeled back. Entire sections of the buried facility broke free, stretching across the desert as Lorna pulled harder, her hands tightening.
"Guys," she said calmly as she lifted into the air. "You might want to get off the ground for this."
The team reacted instantly, rising with her as the structure continued to erge. It did not stop at a single level. More sections followed, expanding outward for miles as an entire underground complex surfaced within seconds.
Lorna felt a little lightheaded because it was taking too much of her focus and the target was too big, probably the biggest thing she had ever controlled in her life. The dical nanites in her body started to react to prevent internal injuries from excessive strain.
Peter's head snapped to the side as his body tensed. "Wait," he said sharply over comms. "No. Sothing's wrong."
The sensation hit him harder.
Every nerve in his body lit up at once.
"Get back," he said, louder now. "Everyone, move away from the base. Now. Sothing really bad is down there."
Before anyone could react, an intense telekinesis wave washed over the desert, locking them all in mid-air.
Pietro tried to move and failed instantly. "Okay. That's new."
Ava phased on instinct, but even that stalled halfway. Her form flickered, unable to complete the transition.
Lorna's expression sharpened as she pushed against the force. "This is high-level telekinesis."
Frank yelled. "Teleport away."
They all activated their systems at the sa ti.
The team disappeared in a series of bright blue flashes just as the pressure rose even higher.
A fraction of a second later, the desert exploded.
The remaining buried structure tore free from the earth, sand blasting outward in a massive wave that swallowed everything nearby. Vibranium-laced tal structures spread across the surface, twisted and exposed, a sprawling complex now laid bare beneath the open sky.
For a brief mont, everything went still again.
Then another explosion occurred.
A massive detonation ripped through the top layer of the structure, tearing it apart in a violent burst of fire and tal. Debris shot outward in all directions as sothing launched from the center.
A figure.
She shot into the air, trailing fluid and broken tubing. Her body spun slightly as she struggled to stabilize. Red hair clung to her face, soaked in green liquid that continued to drip from her skin. tal connectors hung loose along her spine, sparking faintly as they tore free one by one.
She drifted forward a few feet, completely uncontrolled.
Then she fell.
Lorna moved instantly.
She teleported in despite the risk of getting squeezed into the intense telekinesis grip and caught the girl just before the impact. The force pushed Lorna back through the air, but she held steady, one arm supporting the girl as she stabilized them both.
"Hey, hey," Lorna said, her voice softer now as she adjusted her grip. "I've got you."
The girl did not respond.
Her body trembled, muscles twitching and tensing as if they were not fully under her control. Her breathing was uneven and shallow, like she had been forced into existence rather than awakened.
Lorna shifted her hand to the girl's shoulder.
Her suit reacted imdiately.
Nanites flowed outward in a smooth wave, spreading across the girl's naked body and forming simple clothing within seconds. The tallic sheen faded into soft fabric as the system completed its work. Next, the nanites entered her body and the first thing they did was suppress her power; then, they started the healing process.
"Clone!" Lorna muttered as Elena's scan results were displayed before her eyes.
Below them, the base ca alive.
Massive reinforced doors slamd open across multiple sections. A.I.M. operatives poured out in waves, weapons already raised. They opened fire the mont they had noticed Lorna and the others.
Energy blasts tore through the air.
Lorna did not look down.
Her field reacted automatically.
Every incoming shot curved mid-air, bending away from her in smooth arcs before slamming harmlessly into exposed tal below. The air around her shimred faintly as the magnetic field intensified, forming a controlled barrier.
"Yeah," she said quietly, eyes narrowing as she looked down at the advancing forces. "Not happening."
The girl in her arms twitched again.
Frank and the rest flew down to take down the enemies.
"Get her to the Stark Tower," Frank said before he open fired.
Lorna teleported away from the battlefield.
Frank didn't waste a second.
"Form up and push forward," he said as the nanites restructured into a mini machine gun. The weapon locked into place with a low hum. "We shut this place down now."
The first wave of A.I.M. operatives rushed in fast, rifles up, firing in tight bursts. Energy bolts tore across the air, lighting up the desert in flashes of orange and blue. Frank stepped into it without slowing and pulled the trigger. The space-energy rounds ripped through the front line. The projectiles erased everything in their way... all gone in bursts of white-hot disintegration.
Pietro moved before the second wave could adjust. He blurred through the battlefield, knocking weapons out of hands, slamming operatives into each other, and collapsing firing lines before they could stabilize. He reappeared beside Frank for half a second, breathing steady. "You're welco," he said, then vanished again, leaving three more enemies dropping behind him.
Peter used the jetpacks to fly around, snapping his webs in rapid bursts as he pinned down shooters trying to flank them. He flipped over a charging operative, kicked him hard enough to send him sliding across tal, then ducked under a plasma shot that scorched the air above him.
"Okay, definitely worse than last ti," he muttered while yanking another enemy off balance with a web line. "Web-bomb ti!"
He flew high up in the air and dropped multiple web-bombs. As soon as the bombs touched the ground, bursts of sticky webs erupted, disrupting another group of operatives.
Ava phased straight into a cluster of soldiers, her form flickering as she passed through them. She reappeared behind them in the sa motion, grabbing one and dragging him halfway into the floor before releasing him. The rest turned to fire, but their shots passed through her as she shifted again and simply buried them under the sand.
Elsa moved with precision, her rifle tracking targets before they even settled into position. She fired controlled shots, each one dropping an operative cleanly. "Haha! A bunch of scums," she said with a large grin as she adjusted her aim. "Say hello to mama." She shot again, splattering multiple targets.
Johnny hovered above them, flas building around his body as the heat intensified. "Let's amp up the heat," he said, then dove straight into a cluster of enemies, releasing a controlled burst of fire that incinerated them to ashes.
That's when the temperature spiked.
The ground beneath one section of the base cracked as figures erged through the heat distortion. Their skin glowed from within, veins lit with molten orange as flas leaked from their bodies in unstable bursts. The air warped around them, heat radiating in waves that pushed everything back.
"Extremis," Elsa said, her tone tightening as she adjusted her stance. "Don't let them get close."
One of them scread and charged.
Frank turned, his weapon shifting as the nanites recalibrated, forming a shotgun. This ti, he decided not to waste the Space Rounds and simply switched to the energy rounds.
The energy rounds tore through the Extremis subject, blasting chunks out of his body, but the damage didn't hold. The flesh reford almost instantly, fire surging harder as the subject kept moving forward.
Frank clenched his teeth and kept on blasting while walking forward to the freak.
"Regeneration confird," Elena's voice cut in. "Core temperature rising. Instability threshold approaching critical levels."
Pietro reappeared beside the charging Extremis subject and struck him across the head at high speed, snapping his body sideways. The subject recovered almost instantly, flas bursting outward as he swung wildly.
"Yeah, they don't stay down," Pietro said, already moving again.
Johnny landed hard in front of another one, flas flaring brighter as he matched the heat output. "Finally, soone who can keep up," he said, then drove forward, slamming into the Extremis operative with enough force to send both of them skidding across the sand.
The Extremis operative stood up and spewed a stream of fla at Johnny.
"Hahaha, you gotta be kidding ," Johnny absorbed the flas. "Did that serum ss up your brain?" He then aid both fists toward the freak and threw a concentrated blast of plasma that vaporized the guy.
Peter swung in, landing near Frank as he watched the Extremis operative whom Frank was shooting, regenerate from a half-blasted body. "So what's the plan here?" he asked, dodging a stray energy shot, "Because 'hit it harder' doesn't seem to be doing the trick. Should we use the big gun?"
"Data extraction completed," Elena inford. "This place is a curse. Thousands of innocent people died below there because of their experints. In my opinion, a place like this shouldn't exist. Do what you think is best, Frank."
Frank wanted to use his bone manipulation mutation to slaughter every single AIM fuckers, but Tony told him not to use his power unless his suit fails. So, he decided to rely on the technology.
"Avengers, fall back," Frank ordered.
The team teleported up into the sky.
Frank's arm shifted as the nanites ford a compact singularity bomb in his palm. The air around it distorted slightly, bending inward as if space itself was already reacting to its presence. He locked onto the center of the exposed structure below and released it.
The bomb fell to the ground.
For half a second, nothing happened.
Then the world folded.
A dark sphere ford at the point of impact. It started small but quickly grew larger as gravity beca extrely strong. The nearby tal scread as it was pulled toward the center, causing large sections of the base to collapse in chaotic spirals. Thick walls bent like soft wire, tearing loose and stretching before breaking apart and vanishing into the expanding darkness.
The sand followed next. Miles of desert surface peeled upward, caught in the pull, forming a massive vortex that funneled directly into the singularity. A.I.M. operatives were lifted off their feet mid-motion, weapons, armor, and bodies dragged helplessly into the crushing center where everything compressed and vanished without a trace.
Extremis subjects tried to resist, their bodies burning brighter as they pushed against the force, but it only made the collapse more violent. Their unstable genes flared past critical, igniting in bursts that were instantly swallowed, their energy consud before it could spread.
The underground levels gave way in layers. Hidden labs, containnt pods, and energy systems were ripped free and devoured.
Everything was over in less than 25 seconds.
The sphere collapsed inward with a sharp implosion, snapping space back into place as the distortion vanished in an instant.
That's when the Avengers noticed a crystal container hovering a few inches above the crater, glowing with a gray hue.
"Stay here," Frank ordered as he flew down and landed before that crystal.
Before he could touch it, Tony teleported before him. "Don't touch that thing unless you want to vaporize yourself."
Tony covered his hand with the energy of the Space Gem and then grabbed the Crystal. 'So, this is one of the two unnad Gems of this universe.' His wristband sparked a bit. "It seems to distort technology. No wonder we couldn't find them all this ti."
He put the crystal container into his subspace, then he looked up at the Avengers.
"Great job, everyone. Score: S "
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