Carmine Jewels ║ Wanda Maximoff

Chapter 45 - Something New

Keira couldn't help the smile that curled her lips at the indignant looks on Bruce and Tony's faces. Yeah, wasn't that fun to have the carpet pulled out from under your feet, was it?

The scientists didn't get time to respond however before a gunshot rang through the room and the glass underneath Pietro's feet vanished.

"Pietro!" Keira and Wanda shouted in unison.

Keira heard Clint speak to Pietro, mocking him with the same words he had used against him back in Sokovia. "What, you didn't see that coming?"

But she didn't get much time to focus on the interaction below before one of the screens started to beep, warning about the loss of power.

"I'm rerouting the upload." Tony informed the room, but he was rudely interrupted by Steve's shield bouncing across the room, causing multiple machines to spark ominously. The move wasn't appreciated by the billionaire, whose hand got encased by a part of his suit and blasted the supersoldier backwards.

Wanda's hands started to glow, ready to attack Stark, but the red wisps disappeared into thin air as an arm wrapped around her neck. "Go ahead, piss me off." Banner hissed in her ear at the same time that Clint got up the stairs, his gun at the ready.

Steve launched at Tony, but the power when they collided had them both flying backwards, Tony crashing a glass wall in the progress.

Wanda seized the opportunity to break free from Bruce's grip, pushing her magic through him and causing him to stumble away from her.

Keira hadn't even gotten up her gun, too confused by all that was happening. She didn't want to point it at any of her teammates, but they were wasting precious time. They needed to find Natasha, not fighting like a bunch of children in a ball pit.

Luckily, Thor came to the rescue, sliding on the slippery floor and jumping on top of the Cradle. He lifted Mjölnir and summoned the lightning. Everybody was forced to shield their eyes from the bright light as the god brought the hammer down, ignoring Banner's word of caution.

The electricity surged through the machine, causing the screens to light up again, despite not being connected to a power source. It didn't take long until Thor straightened up, having powered up the body within the Cradle enough and everybody just stared at him in shock.

But the moment of peace was cut short as the Cradle exploded, causing Thor to fly through the room. Keira's attention quickly turned to the Cradle though, where a figure had emerged, landing on the edge of it rather elegantly.

A low gasp left Keira's lips as she observed the figure. The stone, sitting in the middle of its forehead, glowed brightly in the dim light. So, this was the Stone that had been hiding within Loki's scepter.

The creature was probably around the same height as Steve or Thor, its form looking humanoid.

But that's where the humanoid features ended. It was a deep, maroon red with vibranium weaved throughout the body. The smoke surrounding its body made it look very ominous, and Keira couldn't help but slowly reach for her gun holster. She didn't know if they could trust the creature yet. But after all, Thor had helped to bring it to life, and there must be a reason behind it, right?

It slowly stood up, its cautious eyes scanning the room before landing on Thor. There was a moment of silence before the synthezoid, for lack of a better word, lunged for the god.

But Thor had seen the move coming from miles away and used the momentum to throw the synthezoid over his shoulder and through another window. It would be a pain to clean up all the glass shards, but luckily, this time, everyone at least, had their shoes on.