Wakanda, July 25th 2018
Victor Faust POV
After very brief greetings, the team accompanied by the King of Wakanda, and his guards were sitting in Shuri's laboratory. The tech genius furrowed her brows as she already started the process of safely extracting the Mind Stone from Vision.
"The city will be evacuated immediately." King T'Challa, true to his title, paced around the room like a panther. "All defenses shall be engaged. We will buy you as much time as we can, sister."
Victor started to feel an increasing pressure on his chest. If they attacked Stephen Strange already, they might have Time Stone by now. Even without them, Thanos defeated the Hulk like it was nothing. If Bruce was telling the truth, they will send a real army after them. God, he hoped Doctor Banner was exaggerating.
"Wanda, you will need to stay behind." Captain America's voice broke Victor out of his thoughts. "As soon as the Stone is out, you blew it to hell, understood?"
"Gladly." Wanda gracefully swept her long hair over her shoulder.
"Everyone else will-" Steve stopped when the morning sun suddenly disappeared. Shadows covered Shuri's lab, which prompted the automatic lights to turn on.
"Oh boy." Victor murmured. As he looked through the windows, his legs got weak. The sky was littered by enormous shadows of dust and fire. Like a meteorite shower, they were about to drop right in the city center. However, they crushed in a fiery explosion as the barrier protecting Wakanda stopped them. Still, a lot more, landed on the city outskirts just as the protective dome ended.
"These are ships." Natasha whispered.
"And they just tried to kamikaze them right on our heads. We need to move everyone." Victor tried to hide his nerves as much as he could. He didn't know why, but he had terrible feelings about the upcoming battle.
Everyone silently agreed with Faust, and hasty made their way outside. Before Victor left, Wanda hugged him. Her fingers dug into his shoulders as their foreheads touched. The whole world stopped for a second. Feeling the warmth of her body and the sweet scent of vanilla made the thoughts of upcoming battle disappear.
"I wish I could be by your side, darling."
"I know Wanda, but this really is the best way to win, and God, do we need to win this."
"Please, promise me you will survive, Victor."
"Wanda I-"
"I'm begging you."
"I... I promise Wanda. I will come back to you, and I won't let a single alien freak get to you."
Wanda, while holding his cheeks, gave him a long and slow kiss. Their lips were joined in perfect and sweet union. Sadly, they were out of time. As Victor pulled out, he heard a quiet whine from his love. It was a gentle sound only reserved to his ears. They both knew the gravity of their situation.
"When this is all done, I will have a very important question for you, Wanda." He whispered in her mind. Wanda adorably tilted her head. Her emeralds shined with interest, but behind them was something else. With all the time they spent together, and their unbreakable connection, Victor could sense hope behind that curiosity, and this ignited an inferno inside him that burned away all his previous fear. No one, not even a madman with all the Infinity Stones, will keep him away from his perfect life. NO ONE.
"Victor, we need to move." Steve said gently but with a steel edge. They were about to have a battle after all. Victor nodded and in a quick flash of light his clothes turned to his Merlin costume. Wanda followed his lead, donning her scarlet red coat.
"Show them your power, Merlin, and come back to me." Wanda said, holding her head high. Victor gave her one last smile.
"Pushy witch." And he was gone.
In but a few minutes, Victor was standing on the open fields of Wakanda among thousands of others. The green sea before them was gently waved by the morning winds. Despite being among a literal army, the sight before him... Concerned.
Right outside the protective barrier, those giant black ships, all bigger than any skyscrapers, landed. He counted seven, but there were probably more. Another worrying thing was the sky. There was this massive shadow far away, looming over them like a reaper.
"Nervous?" Bucky asked Victor, while gently nudging him with his shoulder.
"Well, it's not my first time, but it's just..." As Victor spoke, he made sure his velvet box was safely hidden in the deepest of his pockets.
"Yeah, I get that." Bucky inspected his machine rifle for the hundredth time now. "But once the battle starts, you will just focus on what's happening before your eyes. Keep your nerves on the leash and when shit hits the fan, you let loose everything."
"Look at you, giving pep talks like Steven. He probably wouldn't swear, though." Victor allowed a small smile to grace his face, as he cracked his neck. As he did, he noticed Bruce Banner inside the Hulk buster suit, and his smile dropped.
"He picked the worst time for personal problems. We need the Hulk, but nooo Hulk can't handle one loss."
"You'd be surprised." Bucky brought Victor's focus back. Steven, Natasha and T'Challa returned from their brief conversation with the alien leaders. Seeing the pale and stern face of Rogers, Bucky asked. "So, I take it they are packing and leaving?"
"I hope so. I have shit to do." Victor added.
"Sadly, no. We do this the hard way." Steven stood now next to Victor as everyone watched the black ships opened and spew out a horde, no, a swarm of black dog-like creatures. Even with the distance separating them, they all could hear their violent and chaotic howling. The monsters throw themselves at the barrier, completely numb to its energies, roasting their skin and muscles. They clawed into the dome, desperately trying to open it.
"We aren't the best diplomats." Natasha commented quietly. Even her, always perfectly controlled voice, cracked under the black sea of monsters that tried to swarm them.
"Ya think Romanoff?!" Sam shouted from the earpiece everyone had.
"They are like rabid dogs."
"Exactly. Now Victor." Faust looked at Captain America. "Remember what I told you about not holding back? Not in life and not in a fight?"
"I do. Don't worry Cap. I've got all the motivation I ever needed." He felt magic responding to his feelings. Energy surged through his blood and skin. Victor's gray eyes turned icy blue. The red veins on his arms, his permanent memento of Wanda, started to pulsate with scarlet radiance.
"If we don't do something, they will surround the entire city. They will reach Vision." Bruce called at them from the comms.
"We need to make them focus on us." Steve responded.
"We open up the barrier." King T'Challa sighed from under his Black Panther helmet and gave the order. Victor immediately got an idea.
"King T'Challa, can you open a small portion of the barrier? So that we can bottleneck them?"
"That's precisely what I hand in mind, Victor."
"Show me where the opening will be." As T'Challa pointed with his claw, Rhodey dropped bombs, violently incinerating aliens that managed to pierce through the barrier. Victor raised his open hand and a small gust of blue wind started to dance around his skin. "Good. On my mark, open it. I will give them something they won't be able to ignore."
Victor prepared the spell for a few more seconds and gently blew the small cloud of wind off his hand. The wind flew swift to its target.
"Now!" As soon as an opening appeared in the barrier, the monstrous dog-like creatures rushed in. At the same time, the blue cloud touched the ground and the area erupted. The cloud turned into a furious tornado that decimated the first wave. The winds cut through the monsters, turning them into a pool of blood, scattering their remains. Even with the new wind wall, the aliens kept running through the opening. More and more pushed through Victor's spell and rushed at the defenders.
Victor started to throw balls of blue fire the size of trucks. The fire crashed into the attackers, accompanied by volleys of bullets and energy blasts from the defenders. Wakandan gunships rushed forwards and delivered swift and precise strikes to the horde before pulling back. With their joined efforts, the second wave was stopped. Victor's tornado eventually subsided.
"Jesus Christ Victor! Since when, you can do that?!" Sam both shouted and laughed through the communication channels as he was busy flying felt and right, sending bullets to the dog aliens.
"Now, I think, you've been easy on me back at the airport." Rhodey joined in on the conversation as he too was busy sending waves of rockets to the ground attackers.
Suddenly, on the outskirts of the barrier, from the ground, erupted thick black gas. The cloud put everyone in its vicinity to sleep. Large groups of black dog-like aliens just dropped and stopped moving. Victor couldn't help but recognized this.
"Was that Bob's gas?" Victor asked T'Challa. The King of Wakanda gave him a sharp nod.
"Shuri was able to synthesize the chemical from the sample you gave her. We recently added it as another defensive mechanism."
"At least it was good for something." Their break didn't last long. The horde of vicious monsters simply trampled the sleeping aliens and rushed through the opening.
As another wave was approaching, Victor raised his hands in the air. Blue energy vibrated around him with a low hum. The sky got ever darker.
"Everyone watch out, you would rather not get wet." Victor said through the comms. He clapped his hands and, in the sky, appeared a wide blue magical circle. From it, a rain started to pour. Thick gray water dropped on the aliens like the sky got cut open. The entire area was filled with the unholy screeches as Victor's rain melted down the attackers. The defenders saw dog creatures being dissolved into nothing more than masses of blood and liquefied flesh.
"Fuck." Victor dropped the spell and more sunlight returned to the field. He bit down the pain that pierced through his chest. Then he started to laugh. This was all reminding him of Sokovia. Him using spells and getting pain shocks. But he won't stop, and he won't let his body give up. Victor started to prepare another big spell, but then, from that massive ship far away, started to descend long, enormous creatures. As if swimming through the air, these things coiled closer to the ground and started to spew out another branch of aliens.
"Everyone, these are Leviathans! It's the Chitauri!" Steve shouted into his earpiece. From these flying behemoths literally jumped out hundreds of fresh new, reptilian like aliens. They immediately started to decimate the defenders.
"It's New York all over again!" Natasha shouted through the comms, as the armies clashed.
Despite the constant bombardment from Victor and Wakanda's artillery, the fight turned into a vicious and chaotic mess. While Victor tried to stay at the distance, he too was soon swarmed by those dog aliens. Lightning surged through his hands, and he shot out thick bursts of electricity that jumped from one creature to another. It was then when he was hit with something big. The ground beneath him passed as he flew away and hit something hard.
"Victor?" Faust looked up and saw T'Challa looking at him. His Black Panther suit glowed with a subtle purple hue. The king immediately helped the sorcerer stand up. They both noticed the source of the hit. A giant brown alien the size of the Hulk ran at them. He was carrying a weapon that looked more like a piece of construction crane. T'Challa with blinding speed, jumped at the alien. His punch released a blast of purple energy, sending everyone away.
Victor shook his head and returned to the fight at hand. Those Chitauri aliens circled him and sent a volley of energy blasts. He quickly waved his magic and formed a shield, absorbing attacks. He put his hand to the ground and threw a wave of fire that engulfed his surroundings in a brilliant blue inferno. With a second to breathe, he observed the sky. Those leviathans were wreaking havoc on their gunships. They were dropping down like flies.
"Victor, can you do something about the sky?" Steve spoke into his earpiece.
"No. He was never good with flying. Short bursts? Sure, but prolonged aerial combat was a nightmare."
"As if I have a choice." Victor responded, and a blue aura surrounded him. He flew into the air and fought the immediate nausea. One of the snake behemoths noticed him and attacked. Its opened jaw was gargantuan. Its teeth were almost as long as Victor's body. Before he could respond, the jaw closed, swallowing him.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for reading.
If you've enjoyed it, please don't forget to comment and vote. I truly appreciate it!
Take care :)