It took so cajoling, but Scott and I eventually made up. Okay. Maybe made up is a strong word. He was insulted that Jean didn’t officially break up with him before getting with , but after she explained the suddenness of it all, he let it slide…kinda.
He still hated my guts, and his respect for Jean seed to have nosedived, but he liked her enough still, which was enough for the operation.
“Alright,” I said, clapping as we all stood around the tal roundtable I threw together. “We’re dividing the teams into X-n, The Widows, the Avengers, the Brotherhood, and Ferryn.”
Peter raised his hand. “Uh. Excuse . Why are we called the Avengers?”
I blinked. “Cause, you know, you’re avenging Earth or sothing. Don’t think too deeply about it. I stole the reference from Fury to piss him off.”
Bobby snorted.
“Gotta take the wins when I can. It goes without saying, but everyone from New York is part of the Avengers. Your job is to protect SHIELD. They’re the second-highest priority target aside from Kamar-Taj. It’s where so of the planet's most powerful weapons and artifacts are stored. If it were compromised, it’d be basically ga over.”
“Then why aren’t we guarding it?” Scott asked, folding his arms. “No offense to the other Vigilantes here, but we have more experience working as a team and—”
“Primary mutations that allow you to outclass everybody?” I asked. I took his silence as answer enough. “You’re not entirely wrong,” I said, eyeing Peter from the corner of my vision, “but people surprise you. That’s why your team, a portion of the Ferryn, the X-n, and the Brotherhood are in charge of thwarting whatever city-destroying plan Domina is cooking up. We’ve just thrown a massive wrench in Domina’s plan without her Super Soldiers to invade Wakanda. She’s going to retaliate sohow. At the very least, she won’t have the help of so of the most powerful demons on Earth on her side.”
“How can she retaliate?” Peter asked. “You said ti stops when we’re in here.”
“Well, she’s a planner just like ,” I said. “She likely has sothing up her sleeve. And that’s why we will be hitting her and every Cambion on the planet with everything we have. The Widows will team up with Kamar-Taj and Rin to locate and eliminate every last Cambion and secondary collaborators.”
Kitty blinked. “That sounds a bit drastic.”
I shrugged. “What were you expecting? We crossed the point of no return in New York. The Cambions have made it very clear how they feel about us. Leaving so of them alive is just flat-out naïve. Besides, pulling your punches during a fight against an opponent you can’t restrain is foolish. Considering what they’ve done, I thought the mutants, more than anyone, would understand the necessity of all this.”
“I understand the necessity of force during dangerous tis like these,” Professor Hank said carefully, his very human face wrinkling with intense emotion. Glancing at his surface thought told that was an overreaction. Returning to his human form was still taking so getting used to. Without ever knowing, my enhancent apparently triggered the change and further enhanced his beast forms. It was over Two ters tall, and his hide was thick enough to stop bullets. “I cannot stand in good conscience and allow you to condemn 48 half-humans without any examination whatsoever.”
Jean spoke up in place of . “Trust , we’ve done all of the examinations we need to do. I will not lie and tell you that they are not complex people like you and who make mistakes but they are not children. The youngest of them is several decades old. And they’ve all actively participated in the slavery, mutilation, and kidnapping of a human being at one point or the other. Any court of law would gladly grant them the death penalty.”
Beast swallowed but did not raise any further argunts, but Scott did.
“And what about you?” he echoed Matt’s earlier sentint. “What about your cris?”
“I’m not innocent, but I’m not so heartless monster. Most people in this room would be dead twice over without . All I can hope for is that the good I’ve done cancels out so of the bad.”
Logan grunted, obviously agreeing with the sentint.
“The Best I can offer is to ask the Widows to spare those willing enough to cooperate and give us information.”
Beast shared a look with Matt Murdock. “We could live with that.”
--
Enrique.
“We start from New York, and rip and tear until he peeks his head out, and we can snap it off,” I said with a shrug, looking at the squad of Homonculi standing behind . They stood nearly as tall as , quiet as the night, faces misshapen and raw, twisted by Corvus’s unholy experints. Their veins pulsed, and their bloodshot eyes tracked everything I said and did wordlessly, but they were harmless…relatively.
At least to . The firstborn had coded them with explicit instructions—to obey every order I gave without fail as long as it led to the death of Dante Sparda.
“What do you think, Windu?” I nodded to a masked, pale-skinned, gaunt demon draped in a black cloak. Two Katana handles stuck out.
And in the odd case that Corvus’s toys didn’t behave. I had the head of my guard with . He was worth at least two Greater Demon elders. And I was worth five.
“Quite the ensemble cast you’ve assembled here,” I heard Domina crow behind . “I thought you would’ve thrown the Drakes and the harpies a bone. Invited so of the Elders to join the hunt.”
“They heard about the hunt; they’re free to join if interested.”
“Oh, co on,” she waved, “you and I know your offer is as real as your mother’s love for our father.”
“She’d run him through the first chance she got,” I smiled. “What do you want, little sister?”
Her lips twitched. She hated it when I dug at her like this, even though she played it off. “A conversation. It’s high ti we gave this hunt the attention it deserves, don’t you think?”
A smirk quirked on my lips. “As I recall, you’ve had your go at the runt and failed miserably. Whatever will I need your advice for?”
Her lips twitched. “Because I know sothing you don’t. How the brat thinks.”
I raised a brow. “He’s an overconfident twit who got lucky one too many tis. It can’t be that hard to puzzle him out.”
She tutted. “And risk him getting away and surpassing you in a month? Don’t make the sa mistake I did.”
My smirk faltered. “Alright, I’ll bite.”
“Above the city,” she said. “So conversations are better kept in the family.”
We were above the Chinese relay station when she finally broke. “That half-breed has ruined us.”
I blinked. She was no fan of Lumos. “To take our brother’s death this hard? There’s no need for theatre.”
She scowled. “Forget Lumos, I’m talking about Oscorp.”
“Ah. Your viruses?”
If you wanted to break a population, starve their children, jail the fathers, and break the mothers, but systematically wipe them out with a virus?
It was a bit too…boorish even for my twisted palate. But what did I care? As long as I ruled in the end. “Most of the samples have been transported to Limbo, No?”
“I had the man-child working on sothing far more radical,” she whispered. “It would’ve given us true authority and control when it ca ti to divvy up the planet.”
My brow inched higher.
She had my attention now.
What she was saying directly went against First Born and Father’s mandates. They decided who deserved what in the end.
I let out a belly laugh. “If you think your small super soldier army could hold a candle up to the unlimited forces of Hell, then perhaps I’ve underestimated you.”
She didn’t look insulted. In fact, she looked at as if I was the one out of his mind. Was I missing sothing?
“It can be done. With the support of all of the Cambion, several Fortune 500 companies, a few Alpha and level mutants and enhanced, it can be done.”
“What are you blathering on about?” I narrowed her eyes. The Cambions? Mutants? They’d never side with her.
“The Raft. SHIELD’s little Superhero prison. Think of the sheer offensive power trapped between those four walls.”
“You’re serious,” I said, the mirth vanishing from my voice.
She nodded. “Think about the politics of down below. We were born to be figureheads to keep the peace between the factions. None of the older demons truly respect us. To them, we’re nothing but half-breed curiosities that should’ve been put the sword a long ti ago—everyone except him. Corvus,” she said with no small amount of venom.
My gaze dropped low to check the location of the Homonculi. They were no joke, but she wasn’t wrong. I was tolerated by the Drakes and venerated by the fringes of the Dream Runners. Without my overwhelming strength, I couldn’t imagine…
“Father is working hand in hand with our own brother to replace us. When was the last ti you thought he asked for an update on the human world? He’s too busy competing with the Other Demon Gods that crossed over.
The mutants want nothing to do with the experints. Do you realize how easy it will be to get them on our side, especially if we promise them a Utopia? All we have to do to finally be free is to remove a few obstacles in our path…” Her eyes darted low.
The Relay station.
“You can’t be serious?”
“We wouldn’t have to work too hard,” she said. “Let the humans storm the stations and let it play out. They take care of the link from below, and we mop up after the fight,” she whispered. “Import a few loyalists under the guise of being thorough, rework the global array to ensure they never get back in, and take over a continent. Easy as pie.”
She was insane. But it was just enough that her plan could work.
“Just one problem with this plan of yours. Why risk all that I have instead of just turning you over.”
“Because you have far more to gain,” she said, floating closer. “Think about it. Literally whoring yourself across a continent you own. Tell that doesn’t get you off.”
I cracked a wide grin. “You’re a nut job, you know that?”
She shrugged.
“It makes wonder how he ever got his hand on your formula in the first place?”
She cracked her first genuine smile of the evening, and it all clicked. The bitch.
“You always had a spare,” I muttered, and her eyes twinkled.
“I had a back door in Osborn’s system since day 1. He even thinks no one knows about the private server. It was a contingency in case they ca after my project. I had several sensors and runes in that place. I should’ve been alerted the mont he used Demon magic in that building, or she used her Telekinesis.” She looked sowhat pained.
“But you couldn’t trust anyone of importance with your crown jewels. That’s why you settled for a few Rages.”
“So, what do you choose?” she said, head drawn back. She looked regal, almost.
“You know so well, sist—”
There was a shift in the air, and my cloak flared. A thick layer of black fire wrapped around and manifested wings. I nearly summoned my spear and thrust when my mind registered the energy presence. I raised my hand in ti to stop Domina’s attack. Not that it would’ve done much.
It was Windu.
“Speak?” I growled.
“It’s the Ten Rings. They’re demanding the head of Shaw in exchange for the scientist.”
Domina smirked. “And so it begins.”
--
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