30 Minutes Before the Call to Stark…
The alarms wailed.
S.H.I.E.L.D. Was a mess with red emergency lights flashed with a rhythmic urgency, bathing the situation room in a constant pulse of crimson. These alarms weren't routine. They were specifically coded to one threat level only 'Omega-Class Escapee Detected'.
Director Nick Fury stood with his arms crossed, jaw set like stone, as streams of data rushed across digital panels around him. The noise didn't faze him, but the visual feed on-screen did. Buildings buckled, asphalt was torn up like paper, and bodies… too many bodies were strewn across a city block.
It was a massacre, "Status?" he barked.
An agent turned from the console, pale and sweating. "We spotted him a few minutes ago, sir. He's moving in a linear pattern, cutting through sectors six to nine."
Fury narrowed his eye. "Where did that muthafucka come from?"
"Uhh... that's what we don't understand, sir," the agent stammered. "He… he was just there."
Fury's lips pressed tighter. "Patch me into the field team."
—
This was not how David thought his week would go.
His unit had been deployed fast, no time for preparation, barely a briefing. The last words he'd heard before jumping out of the chopper were containment protocol Delta. Now? He huddled behind the charred skeleton of a wrecked vehicle, blood soaking the concrete beneath him, gunfire and screams thick in the air.
"This is Mathers!" he shouted into his comms, voice cracking. "Jason, do you copy?! JASON?!"
A sharp crackle answered him.
"He's down, sir!" another agent's voice came through. "Jason is down! Requesting immediate air support! Our rifles and grenades aren't even scratching this bastard!"
David gritted his teeth as he pressed his comms tighter to his ear, sweat pouring down his face.
"Status, soldier," came a Director Fury's voice.
"Sir… we've got heavy casualties! Nothing is working on him and our rounds just bounces off of him! Grenades barely leave a dent! We need the Avengers, sir, we—!"
BOOM!
The explosion cut him off, and someone nearby let out a scream so horrific it chilled David to the bone. The kind of scream that didn't come from pain but pure agony.
He turned, catching the wide, terrified eyes of a policeman across the way. The cop had just seen it why the man screamed.
A car hood, twisted by the shockwave, had turned into a high-speed guillotine. It sliced vertically through another officer, splitting him from head to crotch. Brain matter and intestines splattered against a wall. The bisected corpse hit the ground with a wet slap, the expression of terror still frozen on what was left of his face.
The surviving officer looked ready to puke and then didn't get the chance.
A piece of debris, flung from an exploding hydrant, smashed into his face like a meteor. In an instant, the man was paste, a red smear against the curb.
David cursed and ran, legs burning, adrenaline making his muscles ache.
Overhead, a SHIELD chopper screamed down and loosed Hellfire missiles at the hulking figure in the middle of the chaos.
BOOOOM!!
The explosion hurled David into a pile of trash bins. His shoulder cracked against the ground and he yelled out in pain. 'Shit is my leg broken?'
And then,
CRUNCH and
CRASHHH!
A patrol car came flying through the smoke, as a mangled projectile. It smashed into the chopper that had just fired, sending it into a spinning, flaming spiral before detonating midair.
"FUCK!" David roared. "At this rate, there won't be a SHIELD agent alive before the Avengers get here!"
And then came the voice.
A loud, mocking and monstrous voice echoed.
"Is that all you've got, you puny insects?! I'm going to paint this city red with your blood! Your entrails will hang from the streetlights like trophies!"
Every word carried death. Every second brought more screams and more destructive and carnage's.
From above, another chopper arrived only to be gutted by a hurled concrete slab. Then another, taken out by a helicopter blade thrown like a javelin.
David ducked behind another crumbling barricade as the chopper came down in a fiery collapse. Smoke filled the air, making his eyes sting and his breath hitch. He wiped the sweat from his brow with trembling hands. Everything smelled of blood and fire.
Looking around to see the situation he then turned around and saw on the ground beside him was an RPG. His eyes locked on it.
"Please work," he muttered, tossing his rifle aside and lunging for the rocket launcher. In one smooth move, he shouldered it, aimed, and fired.
WHOOOSH!
The rocket screamed toward the crimson-armored monster stomping through wreckage and flame.
BOOM!
Smoke covered everything but even before it cleared, David knew.
A deep, dismissive voice came through it:
"Hmm… that wasn't even enough to call a mosquito bite."
Then came the laughter, it was anything but Insane and blood-drunk.
The Juggernaut emerged, massive arms coated in gore, chest rising with amusement. His eyes locked onto David. With a Predatory delight.
David felt his courage shattered.
"RAARGH!" he roared in hopeless rage, pulling his handgun and emptying it.
Ping-ping-ping.
The bullets bounced off the Juggernaut's armor like BB pellets. The monster stalked forward, each footstep cracking the pavement.
He passed a cop car and paused.
Inside it, a young cop was hiding and shaking, he was pale and praying he wasn't seen.
But unfortunately for him, he was.
"RUN!" David screamed.
But it was already too late.
The Juggernaut backhanded the car. Metal folded like tinfoil. The cop inside exploded into red mist, chunks of bone and uniform hitting the street like meat confetti due to the force of the hit which froze David.
"GET THE FUCK UP, MOVE YOUR ASS!" someone screamed to David's right, another agent.
David scrambled to obey. Blood blurred his vision, but he reloaded the RPG, fired again.
Before the project could explode, Juggernaut caught it with one hand.
Smirking, he then threw it back directly at the agent who screamed.
BOOM!
The man was instantly vaporized by the blast and half the building behind him crumbled, raining glass and stone onto the road like hail.
Juggernaut turned back to him and walked towards him.
David turned and ran, sliding over car hoods, leaping concrete.
"Where the fuck are the Avengers?!"
Then—
THUD THUD THUD.
Juggernaut sprinted and the ground shook. Each step like a meteor strike.
David tripped out of panic cracking his nose on the ground, he screamed in desperation and despair.
Tears blurred his vision. Blood filled his mouth. He was sobbing not out of pain, but pure, primal terror.
Then suddenly a hand, a giant hand grabbed the back of his shirt, lifting him like a toy.
Juggernaut's helmet covered face came into view bloodstained, grinning, insane.
"So weak," he growled. "So fragile. And these are the fools my stupid brother wants to protect?!"
David's eyes went wide.
"Go to hell," he whispered and shot Juggernaut in the eye with his side piece.
PING.
The bullet bounced.
David looked down.
The flattened slug lay on the road.
Juggernaut's grin widened. "Oh, you've got spirit, don't ya, little man?"
He raised his hand.
"Sadly, now you die."
WHIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR–CLANG!
Something struck Juggernaut in the back.
HARD.
He grunted and dropped David while taking two steps back.
David hit the pavement hard, eyes widening as he looked up, coughing blood and then saw the thing that had saved him.
He grinned through his busted lips.
"About… fucking… time."
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