Chapter Thirty-One: We Did Something Right
"Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory." -George S. Patton.
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Do you know the feeling when you finally have an answer for a question that eats you away? To receive the complete truth for a belief that haunts you every day? A thought that has kept you awake at night that will never bug you again?
I believed that I had ruined my good will. I had growing ideas that I had become a ruthless killer. My innocence has been permanently stained with the blood of over a hundred Titans and terrorists. I know that taking some truly devious people out of the picture is for the benefit and safety of millions of others, but I'm not just taking out an enemy. I am killing a father/mother, son/daughter, husband/wife, and someone's best friend. I am conflicted with a moral dilemma of whether I truly have the right to end another's life just because they are against me.
Everything I have done, everything I will do has not been to bloody my hands but truly for the greater good.
I am writing the right side of history.
I stand for a moment in complete shock with Mjolnir in my grasp. I am absolutely stunned by the powerful hammer in my hands. I mean, why me? My mind is swarming with thousands of thoughts that paralyze me in my place. It is only when Tony shouts at me for an update that I remember the dangerous predicament we are in.
"Mon, what's the situation with Thunder Arms?" Tony grunts as he lands a punch to Corvus.
"I-uh... He's... Uh... I have the- uh... He's not..." My brain is unable to formulate complete thoughts, "The thing. The thing, the- uh, thing."
"It appears, sir, that your daughter is worthy of wielding Mjolnir," Simmons informs him timidly.
"What the-?" Tony spins around to look at me. From the thumbnail video of him in the corner of my visuals screen I see his eyes widen in utter bewilderment. "Honey, I think we did something right!"
"Oh, boy, did this just get so much more interesting," Daisy chortles as I am now left to do something with a weapon I never dreamed of handling.
"What's happening? Is everything okay?" Captain Rogers inquires.
"Well, no, I don't think I'll ever be okay again now that my girlfriend will forever hold it above me that she is worthy of Mjolnir," Alex says nonchalantly.
"What-oh, damn-" Captain Rogers's feed cuts out suddenly.
I take this as a sign that I need to get moving to destroy the blade. I have already wasted a full minute just standing here being completely dumbfounded that Mjolnir is in my hands; I cannot misuse another. I need to regain my focus.
But what do I do with Mjolnir? Do I throw it? Do I use it like a club? Do I dropkick it and hope for the best? I have watched Thor skillfully throw it and swing it. However, unlike Thor, I am not at all mastered in handling the hammer. He has had hundreds- if not thousands of years to practice using it. In the end, throwing Mjolnir will hit the enemy faster than having me fly over to hit him.
This is why none of my suits involve weaponry that involves throwing. Before I tell what happened, just let me say that I have never been trained in any type of knife, ax, or other weaponry throwing and I have no such thing as beginner's luck. Mjolnir ends up bouncing off of the floor, leaving a major dent in the metal, before smashing through a garage door and into one of the more high-tech crafts.
Daisy nearly dies laughing as my throw was completely awful. Banner sighs deeply at my amazing fail. Agent Tripp is stops in the middle of his teasing sentence when the hammer comes soaring back to my hand. Tony does not say anything about the throw and only tells me to hurry up as Corvus is not wearing down.
I propel myself to the brawl. I have Mjolnir by my side ready to fight. Uncle Rhodey backs away just enough for me to land a powerful swing to Corvus. My amateur hit sends Corvus Glaive spiraling across the hangar. His back hits the energy barrier along with his blade. The force bends under the force of his impact but throws him backwards. Corvus lands on his hands and knees just under the opening.
This is the perfect opportunity to try throwing Mjolnir again. Corvus's blade is unmoving in his grip as he struggles to pull himself off. I loosen my grip a bit more this time to I can release the hammer sooner. My throw is near perfect to my relief. However, Corvus sees the weapon coming. He side steps the hammer and I miss my target. Mjolnir ricochets off of a wall before bouncing off of the floor. It is not until it hits my dad when it comes to a stop.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" I apologize profusely as Tony remains on the ground with Mjolnir on him.
"You're fine," Tony grunts as he tries to get up.
"That one wasn't my fault though!" I exclaim, very frazzled by this entire situation.
"You're fine, just get this thing off of me so I can get up!" Tony shouts.
"Oh, yeah." I pick the hammer up off of my dad.
By now Corvus Glaive has regained his stance. The three of us stand side-by-side as we face our opponent. I hear the voices of the other half of the Avengers on the line as they communicate with each other. Their words overlap and mix in with Alex and Simmons's input. All of this noise is muted in my ears as I focus on the problem in front of me.
I throw myself at Corvus with Mjolnir readied. He is quick to block my blows with his arms or blade. A simple hit of the hammer to his blade will not destroy it; I need to land a powerful blow to shatter the metal. However, I cannot deliver a big enough swing since I am on defense right now. This villain overshadows my agent training and it is becoming harder and harder to be an even match to his skills. Having to utilize a new weapon has also thrown me for a loop. I would be able to handle Mjolnir just fine if it was not under such dire and stressful circumstances as I am right now.
It is frustrating me greatly that I cannot seem to master Mjolnir. I can always adapt to any new weapon at a moment's notice. I have perfect aim when throwing a ball, shooting a gun, or landing a punch. When it comes to a metal block with a stick on it all of my practical skills have gone out of the window. A majority of my S.H.I.E.L.D. training was solely on keeping my mind calm and my nerves at bay. Where has all of that training gone? I even excelled in that portion of my training; even Agent Hill said I surpassed most agents both senior and novice. Now my brain has turned to mush at the time I need it to be at its sharpest peak.
To be completely honest, Mjolnir is only hindering me at this point. Since I am trying to attack and inflict damage with a foreign weapon, I am not completely on the level I need to be on. I am barely fluent in performing with the hammer to block hits, so how am I to land any lethal blows?
"What happened?" A deep voice sounds out from the other corner of the hangar, "How long had I succumbed to the unconsciousness?"
I finally have a brief moment of opportunity to thrust the hammer head first at Corvus. The top of the hammer clouts with his abdomen and compels him soaring backwards.
"Take it! You take it!" I throw Mjolnir at Thor as fast as I can. I want the responsibility out of my hands as soon as possible.
Thor catches Mjolnir with a thunderstruck look on his face. His head is tilted a bit to the side with his lips slightly agape. He quickly regains his composure and shrugs his shoulders.
Now with the team all together once again, we can formulate an actual plan to defeat Corvus. My hit had sent him to the other side of the hangar. He now sprints at us so gracefully it looks as if he is gliding. Out of the corner of my screen I see Dad glance over at Rhodey.
"You wanna Vanko this son of a bitch?" Tony asks.
"Will that get the blade of immortality away from him?" Rhodey questions.
"It will if we use three."
Rhodey pauses for a moment, "Oh, hell no."
"Wha-"
"Mon, fire your repulsors at Corvus. Thor, be ready to smash the blade," Tony calls out orders, "Now!"
I follow my dad's command without hesitation. My high-power muon beam does not fail to meet its target. As my repulsors hit Corvus, Tony's and Uncle Rhodey's repulsors meet with mine. The impact of three beams colliding with each other on the same mark immediately ceases Corvus's movement. I watch in amazement as the three repulsors create a ball of energy. I have never witnessed any amount of rays coming together before, so I do not know of the effects. I can barely gaze as the sphere of energy engulfing Corvus is too bright to look at. Before I can switch my vision to infrared the ball explodes.
The explosion violently forces me backwards. All I can see is white and orange flames. I am only airborne for a few seconds before I hit the solid metal wall that was behind me. All of the air in my lungs is knocked out of me by the impact. My suit malfunctions due to the impact. I crumple to the ground as my suit shuts down. Luckily, it is only a moment later when Lucis powers up again.
Every object has been pushed away from where the explosion was. Our space shuttle lies on its side. Tony and Rhodey are both now finding their feet underneath them from where they were thrown to. Thor emerges from where he had taken shelter. Corvus lays on his stomach unmoving in the middle of the cleared circle. All four of us stride over to where he is on the ground separated from his blade. The gold blade vulnerably sits a few feet away from its owner.
"No..." Corvus lifts his head at the same time Thor raises Mjolnir, "No!"
With a monumental swing, Mjolnir strikes down onto its target. The metal of the blade shatters into dozens of pieces. The once fearsome weapon is now nothing but another shattered relic.
"No! No!" Corvus bellows as he scrambles to his feet. However, Uncle Rhodey grabs him by his collar and yanks him to his feet.
"Yeah, it's over, Corny," Tony replies crudely as he holds out his fist.
Before anyone can move, a small projectile bullet is shot from Tony's gauntlet and pierces through the chest of the villain. Corvus's insensible body falls to the floor. Thick, red blood oozes out of the deadly wound and runs down his chest onto the floor.
"Not so immortal now, are you?" Tony asks as his gauntlet clicks back into his suit.
"And that wasn't even the main bad guy," Uncle Rhodey scoffs and sighs.
"We must not waste time to rejoin the others," Thor states.
"Can someone give us a hand here first?" Director Coulson asks as the space shuttle is still on its side.
"I got it," I hover over to the spacecraft. It does not take too much effort to lift the shuttle and set it upright. The body rocks and rattles before it settles into its natural position. "Is everyone okay?"
"Yeah, thanks for keeping the fight away from us," Director Coulson responds, "Daisy will get the communications back up in a minute and we'll be good to go."
"Brucey, how are you holding up in there?" Tony inquires.
"Eh... fine," Bruce grunts in response, "It looked as if for a few moments there you were going to need help. And for a few seconds that you were going to get help..."
"Ha, thanks for not ripping the whole place apart," Tony chuffs.
"Guys, we have a situation," Daisy interrupts.
"Oh my..." Director Coulson mumbles.
"We... Too many-... Captured." Captain Rogers's voice cuts in on the feed.
"We're captured and being taken to the leader," Natasha's line isn't broken, "Send help. I repeat, we are captured. East hallway is-"
"Agent Romanoff? The east hallway is what? Agent Romanoff? Natasha?" Director Coulson calls out but with no response in return. "Barton? Barnes? Wilson? Does anyone copy?"
Still there is no response. We have got to get moving. Thor, Tony, Rhodey and I take off as fast as we can to rescue our team. Fitz advises us that the west hallway is teeming with movement. We all dash over to the door that Alex has so graciously unlocked for us. As soon as we step outside of the hangar, Alex locks it down so that no one can pose a threat to Director Coulson and his team on the space shuttle.
We run into no member of the Black Order on our way to the headquarters. It is uncanny that we have no obstacles. I am about to drop a comment about it when Fitz speaks up.
"Ooh, ooh, disable the force field dome," Fitz exclaims.
"I got it," Alex responds.
"You're keeping our path clear?" I question him as I fly in between fly in between my dad and the wall.
"I said I'd have your back from down here, didn't I?" He retorts.
"Looks like you have incoming, second hallway on your left," Agent Hill chimes in.
The four of us are met by a squadron emerging from said hallway. The hallway lights up with repulsors being fired along the alien guns. Thuds of Mjolnir striking down opponents resonate off of the walls. I am not too worried about this ambush until Lucis delivers disturbing news.
"Ma'am, I am afraid that these EMPs will short out yours, Tony's, and Rhodey's suits. The spectral flux is greater than any known EMP of Earth."
"Guys, don't let the beams hit you! They'll permanently short out your suit!" I inform my team.
"Didn't want them to hit me anyways," Tony rejoinders as he spins around to catch the one guy who slipped behind us.
Once we eradicate the squadron we continue on down the passageway. We are reaching the halfway point when another regiment seems to pop out of nowhere. They open fire on us and we retaliate. I am doing fine as I dodge beams and fire my own repulsors. Uncle Rhodey fires projectiles at the enemies. Thor sends the members to the ground with fatal blows of his hammer. My dad, on the other hand, ends up getting triple-teamed. They all deploy their weaponry at the same time. Tony is able to escape two of the EMPs; however, he steps right into the path of the third.
"Ah! Gah!" Tony exclaims as his suit is shorted out. I can hear it sizzling and popping as everything electrical- which is basically his entire suit- is fried. Tony's feed on my screen glitches a few times before it completely crashes.
Uncle Rhodey, Thor, and I make quick work of the remaining foes. Tony hurries to unlock himself from Mark XLV. He stumbles to the ground as Deep Space Suit begins to smoke.
"Dammit," Tony grumbles as he is now without his main power, "Monica, give me a gun."
"Take my suit," I begin to get myself out of Magnetar.
"No, I'm not going to do that!" Tony holds out his hand for a gun.
"I have Exoskeleton, I'll be fine," I wave off his concerns, "Take Magnetar."
"Just give me Exoskeleton. I'll figure it out."
"Are you sure? I'm more experienced with-"
"Just give me it to me! We got to get going!" Tony's voice is higher he is stressed.
I rush to detach Exoskeleton to give it to my dad. Tony is quick to deploy the backup suit. Once the arms and legs unfold onto his limbs and the headset wraps around to his temples, Tony gives the repulsor rockets a test. He spurts up a few feet before landing perfectly. He flies up once more to curl up for total protection. Dad is able to see how the armadillo skeleton-like shell will work. He hums in response as he is pleased with how Exoskeleton performs.
Together we continue towards where our team was captured. We still have no communication with Captain Rogers, Bucky, Sam, Clint, and Natasha. Daisy disclosed to us that all of their lines are still up and running without a glitch with the exception of Captain Rogers's line. They must have been threatened to not speak or something along those lines as there is no reason technology-wise as to why they would not be collaborating with us.
We continue our speedy flight down the spacious hallway. We only run into one other squadron of Black Order troops. Uncle Rhodey and I dodge the EMPs. Tony spins out of the way of oncoming laser beams while firing back repulsors. Thor throws Mjolnir to take down an entire line of enemies. That little obstruction does not take too much of our time luckily.
We are almost to our destination with we run into a problem- literally. An unseen wall appears and two of us hit it will full speed. Uncle Rhodey and I ram into the security mechanism since we were the frontrunners; this acts as a warning and allows Tony and Thor to come to a skidding halt before they too can hit the wall. The colonel and I bounce backwards off of the shield and to the ground.
"Force fields," I huff as the four of us are enclosed in a dome.
"Alex, now would be a good time to disable their security protocols," Uncle Rhodey says with humor even though he isn't kidding.
"What is this Star Wars shit?" Tony scoffs as he lands back on the ground.
"I can't, this was activated manually and I can't disable something that has been manually turned on from here," Alex responds.
"Great, all we need now is Alex to come speeding out of a door and bounce off of the wall over there," Tony motions to the wall to his right, "Then maybe electrify someone."
"Heck no! I'm more of a Chewbacca if I say so myself. I'm always there when you need me and during the fight, but I don't see much of the action firsthand," Alex explains.
"Why did you have that explanation on hand?" Tony questions with a flip of his hand.
"Uh oh... Guys..." Daisy trails off, "You have incoming, lots of incoming."
Sure enough, it is not a second later when we are encircled by dozens of creatures dressed in the Black Order uniform. Of course, all of them have the EMPs aimed directly at us. Now I know what Natasha was trying to say.
The east hallway is a trap.
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Phew, these big fight chapters are long! I'm like thinking that I probably have a bit over 2,000 words and then oops I have 3,000.
Dedication to @baylynn15 <3
Thank you for your support!
x JLG