If you want to help me financially, you can do it on
https://ko-fi.com/neverluckysmile
Steve felt the vibration of the mirror in his belt pouch, and had just ducked underneath a blow from one of the Hulkbusters which would've smashed him through a wall. His shield came up, deflecting another punch upwards, his limbs groaning under the power of the thing as he kicked off the floor, flipping up and around using the shield as a one-handed springboard to bring his feet up into the robot's face.
It didn't really seem to faze it, but when he turned, bringing his shield down onto the robot's head, he blinded it just long enough for Clint to get in position to put an arrow through its eye when he pulled the shield away. "Avalanche, now!"
Avalanche nodded and knelt down, his power rippling out into the floor of the hallway, upending and tossing some of their attackers this way and that. Giant Man closed, ripping off heads here and there as Tony blasted away at his own creations. Natasha and Hawkeye did what they could, targeting weak points, but the Hulkbusters didn't have many of those, and fighting them was a little bit out of their weight class, really.
Falling back slightly, Steve pulled the communication mirror out from his belt, shouting into it. "I'm a little busy, Harry!"
"I figured that," Harry said dryly. "Do you know what else is going on around the world right now, or even just in America?"
"If this is something to do with giant robots designed to go toe to toe with the Hulk causing chaos, we know a bit. We're under attack by AIM. They've got this creature named MODOK. It's leading their assault and has taken control of the helicarrier's bridge. We've lost at least half of the crew so far to our own God damn weapons!"
"If it took over by a virus, this MODOK might've been involved in an attack on Magical Minds too," Harry mused, "but regardless, we'd like to come in. Can you give me your coordinates?"
"Negative," Steve said. "Like I said, we've lost control of the helicarrier. I have no idea where we are!"
"Dammit," Harry muttered. Storm's method of teleportation was far more advanced than Harry's own personal one, but it did have limitations. Trying to teleport into a moving vehicle, no matter how large the vehicle, while it was in the air? That was well out of its comfort zone. "All right, I'm going to send Hedwig to you with a message. Just touch the message and let her stay somewhere safe for moment. That'll give me enough of a view to know where to jump."
"And that doesn't sound strange at all!" Steve quipped, raising his shield to block an energy bolt from one of the Hulkbusters. "Whatever gets you here soonest, Potter!"
A moment later, a gorgeous snowy owl appeared out of nowhere above Steve's head, alighting on one of the downed Hulkbusters for a moment, looking around curiously and somewhat disapprovingly, Steve thought, at the amount of chaos. By this point the Avengers had linked up with Nick and what remained of the bridge crew of the helicarrier, bolstered by a few other SHIELD operatives that they had run into on the way. There weren't many of them, and many of their bodies were now lying tossed around the corridor, broken and shattered.
"Sorry about the mess," Steve said somewhat self-consciously for some reason, reaching out to take the message from her. How Steve knew it was a female owl he didn't know and didn't want to know.
The owl hooted once, then began to look around far more seriously, scanning slowly from one side of the corridor down to the other, before winging herself upwards into the air and disappearing silently. "What the heck was that?" Tony asked, having seen the owl disappear from out of the corner of his eye.
"I think that was Harry's familiar or something," Steve said with a shrug. "He's on his way."
Nick winced, hoping that Harry would be willing to at the very least put off the discussion about what the Ultron project and the Hulkbusters were for until after this cluster-fuck was finished. He knew, however, that once they did talk, he would lose whatever ground he had gained with Harry during that meeting.
OOOOOOO
Harry, Piotr and Hela appeared in the segment of hallway that Hedwig had scouted out for them. Hela stumbled somewhat on landing, then sent a sneer towards Harry as she stood up, trying to regain her wounded dignity. "You truly do need to figure out a smoother method of teleportation Guardian. That was somewhat unpleasant." So saying Hela pulled her sword from its sheath at her side, the buckler on her arm enlarging several feet into the metal girded shield the followers of old had made famous.
"I'll make it priority oh… around twenty years down the line when I might have a free afternoon to do so," Guardian replied dryly before gesturing down the hallway towards where the sounds of a battle could be heard. "For now, I think it is time to charge to the sound of the drums."
With Colossus in the lead the three of them charged forward, coming up on the battle from the rear of the action. Natasha and Hawkeye, standing at the back of the battle and taking cover in a few doorways heard them coming. But Hawkeye recognized Guardian and Colossus, though not the woman with them and grinned beneath his mask. "Incoming friendlies!"
As he raced forward Harry took a moment to look at the robots the Avengers were currently fighting. They were large, the same height as Colossus, but wider in the shoulders, with a low-slung, forward jutting head that looked almost grotesque, as if it was supposed to scare. Their arms were massively bulked up with armor, as was the rest of their form, but the forearms were especially so, with hydraulic pistons visible between armor plates. They didn't seem to have any long range weapons, which given how strong they were, was probably a good thing.
"Make way!" Colossus shouted, building up speed into a charge towards where two of the robots were trying, without much noticeable success, to pin Captain America against the wall.
The Super soldier saw him coming and rather than dodging the punch thrown at him as he leaped out of the way of another, took it on his shield. Angling the shield in just the correct manner the blow flung him down the corridor rather than break his arm, freeing the area for Colossus.
Colossus slammed into the two robotic monsters like a runaway train, piling one into the other and continuing on, one hand grabbing a metallic shoulder as he began to rain down blows as fast and as hard as he could for a second. An instant after the robots had stopped his momentum he flipped up and over the robot he had a handle on, pulling the arm up and around before tearing the appendage out of its shoulder socket, smashing it into the face of the second.
For their part, Harry and Hela had also announced their presence in no uncertain manner. Hela charged forward, deftly blocking one blow from a robot with her shield, carrying it to one side and then lashing out with her blade, slicing through the thing's neck with difficulty. A second tried to grab her from the side, but she turned into its reach, ducking under one arm while blasting its leg off with a spell launched from her shield hand before returning to a ready stance as if performing a choreographed dance.
Guardian however stayed back, launching spells downfield at a group of robots around someone he recognized as the Giant Man, Dr. Pym. The creator of the medical beds had been battered nearly black and blue by the robots but was still fighting hard, two broken robots scattered around his feet. Now more joined them as Guardian's bombarda and cutting spells shattered them all. Whatever defense their armor provided them did not extent to magic, and seconds later the engagement ended for now.
From one side of the hall they were in Iron Man, Fury and several SHIELD troopers moved down another corridor toward them, carrying several wounded with them as behind them a grenade went off. The grenade shattered the roof of the hallway, bringin it crashing down and blocking the hallway entirely.
When Guardian looked his way, Fury shrugged. "We didn't want to be flanked, and besides this is my fucking helacarrier, if anyone's going to fucking wreck it, it'll be me!"
Guardian snorted, but kept looking at Fury and Iron Man coldly. "Funny, considering this seems to be your fuck-ups doing the wrecking already."
For his part though Tony seemed remarkably immune to the other super-hero's glare. He bowed grandly to Hela, an odd sight in his armor. "I don't believe we have been introduced my lady. I'm Tony, or when I'm in uniform Iron Man. May I have the pleasure of knowing who I am addressing?"
Hela looked at the man in the armored suit coldly before turning to look at Guardian. "No, no you may not."
"Ouch, why the cold shoulder my dear?" Tony asked, before a loud growl from Fury made him turn to Guardian and Fury. Nearby, Cap gathered the rest of his team, while Colossus moved forward to join Giant Man at the supposed front of their advance along with Avalanche. "Ah, um, right… this is going to be somewhat awkward…"
"Oh and why would that be?" Harry said silkily, doing a near perfect Snape impression that would have sent many of his old friends running, and made Sirius try an impromptu 'Snape spirit banishment' spell to save his godson. "Could it be because you had to call in backup from the man you had planned to use these robots against? Or are we dealing with some other threat you accidentally created out of a sense of hubris and false pride?"
Nearby Hela's lips twitched trying to form a smile before she tamped it down. For some reason watching Harry go all cold and sarcastic was appealing to her. And watching him put it to use against the rather boorish man in the armor added to that immensely after said boor's poor showing.
"Well hell. If you know that then I don't see why we need to talk about it further right now…" Tony huffed, moving to turn back but stopped in his movement by Colossus resting a large metallic hand on his shoulder.
"Partly right, though I will not forget." Harry glared from Fury to Stark, nodding his head once to Colossus, who nodded back, releasing Tony after taking the time to grip his shoulder so hard Tony's computer warned him of the pressure. The big Russian might not have understood all the implications of what Harry had said or even heard about how Harry knew these robots had been built to fight him. But he was more than intelligent enough to realize who was to blame for the current crisis.
After holding his glare on both men for a long moment Harry went on. "For now, we need to know what we're dealing with here. How did this… MODOK? How did this MODOK get onto the helacarrier, how did it know about your projects, and what exactly is the extent of the damage. How bad can this get?"
As he spoke, Harry gestured to several of the SHIELD agents to bring the wounded over to him. He began to use the same healing spells he had used to get Fury back on his feet days ago, but his attention was still on Fury and Stark.
Nick scowled, but realizing that he had to eat some crow answered as well he could. "The Hulkbuster program was initially started by General Thunderbolt Ross. His men designed the robots initially as powered suits, but Tony was the one who figured out how to actually power them, and removed the human component."
"That's why I agreed with Nick on creating the ULTRON program and it's physical components in the first place," Tony said, his voice now far more serious. "I want to remove the human element from war as much as possible."
"Fool," Hela muttered, shaking her head as Colossus held up a hand indicating they had attackers incoming. "It is human nature to seek conflict, war is simply a part of that. And if you remove the human element as you put it, then humanity will forget how terrible war truly is. Not to mention how easily it has proven for these machines to be as unreliable as you are."
Tony might have responded to that barb, though Harry had no idea how, but a large group of AIM troops and four Hulkbuster robots rumbled down the corridor towards them saving Stark from having to attempt it. Guardian and Hela immediately moved to back the two strong men up, while Captain America bounced up and off the corridor's ceiling to bypass the droids in the lead.
The narrow confines of the corridor slowly opened as the Hulkbusters, Colossus and the others smashed into and through walls, opening the passage into the rooms set to either side or just tearing through the innards of the ship in the melee. Luckily there was nothing important to the helacarrier's ability to remain in the air in this section, but the battle was a tough one, the Hulkbusters putting up a better fight this time. Four SHIELD operatives died, and Natasha found herself sporting a broken leg and several ribs for a few seconds before Harry began to do the rounds.
Hela ripped her blade out of the chest of one of the AIM troopers, frowning thoughtfully before she reached down and tore off the odd yellow helmet thing. She had never seen armor like this nor anything else before, so had no idea what it was.
But the body underneath was decidedly not human. It might have begun as a human, but there were metal patches on its face, and one of its eyes had been replaced by what looked like some kind of technological device. Hela had no idea what it could be; she was not used to average human technology, let alone whatever this was. What she did understand was that these 'AIM' persons had done to themselves would make harden reavers shudder.
Moving to her side Harry did the same, kneeling to look at the face of another downed AIM trooper nearby. "Well, that answers the question of how AIM is able to field so many of these troopers of theirs even now when they've lost most of their holdings. They suborn them." He looked over at Pym and Tony. "You two are the tech people, any way to correct this, or undue it?"
Dr. Henry Pym shook his head after a bare second's perusal. "No. Remove the cybernetics and the man would become brain dead instantly. And besides, I doubt these people have been alive as we understand the term since they were implanted with these things. They are merely a more organic version of these Hulkbuster robots at this point."
Shaking his head sadly at that, Harry turned to look at Fury. "You were saying something about the ULTRON program, what is that?"
Tony winced inside his helmet but answered anyway, while Nick was silent, closing the eyes of one of his men. "The ULTRON program was designed to create, call it a general unit for the Hulbuster army, stronger faster, better, the greatest robotic body our technology can currently create, with a lot of… interesting bits and pieces added in. But ULTRON itself is a program, separate from its shell, an Artificial Intelligence which we were designing to be the equivalent of a perfect general, a soldier and leader built to safeguard humanity and lead the Hulkbusters against any and all threats."
"Fool and fool twice over," Hela drawled, shaking her head angrily at Stark's hubris, her long black hair swishing enticingly to Harry even here amidst the carnage. "I would have thought even a thrice-named fool would know that creating life is never easy! And to create something like that, to limit it in such a way without thinking how it might grow? Added to that, your determination to see your own race dependent on machines such as this for their defense makes, that enters the realm of madness. Which is not even considering how this MODOK could twist this artificial life of yours in the womb."
"Luckily the system has several hundred different programs protecting it, as well as an entirely separate system." Fury interjected before Tony could respond. "MODOK could start the activation process, but he couldn't finish it except in the actual activation chamber, and the robot's energy core would need to be at full power before the AI comes online. That will take at least an hour."
"Then I suggest we get moving!" Guardian growled, shaking his head. "But don't think we're nearly done talking about this Stark, you either Fury."
"Guardian, after this I doubt SHIELD is going to ever recover. Whatever you are going to say to me isn't going to hurt nearly as much as that knowledge does, trust me." Fury replied.
Harry didn't answer, realizing the truth of that statement, though it still left Tony to his tender mercies later on. He exchanged a glance with Steve, and the two of them got their troops moving. Hawkeye took the time to sidle up to Guardian. "Don't suppose you have any weapons on you for Black Widow and me do you?"
OOOOOOO
Coyote had by far the easiest job of the Custodes that day. Barely had he arrived that he had dealt with the attackers. He had a harder time getting MJ to agree to leave than anything else. The stubborn redhead wanted to stay and make certain anyone injured during the attempted terrorist assault was taken care of.
By the time he was finally able to get her to leave with Paris in her helicopter, Jean had cleared out the attackers physically assaulting the Magical Mind's headquarters. However she found herself somewhat helpless to aid Sage. The instant Sage had seen her, the woman had barked out, "Stay away from the computers!"
Jean, in her Phoenix guise and under the same illusion spells as she had worn during the meeting to hide her pregnancy, blinked in surprise. "Why? I might not be the best programmer but I can at least help you control the firewalls."
"That's not the problem!" Sage grimaced, her hands flying over the fifth computer she had used since this attack began. "I've gotten a handle on most of the attack, though it was much tougher than it should have been, almost like I was fighting against someone as smart as Doom or Reed Richards. But I had the home-field advantage, as it were, and I eventually was able to cut the corrupted connection to a minimum. But…"
Sage pushed herself back as two hands made out of computer data somehow suddenly extended from the computer towards her. Jean lashed out at the odd constructs immediately with her telekinetic powers, but her attack didn't find anything actually physical to hit. Instead the computer behind the hand shattered under her assault. "Oops, sorry, but what was that!"
"Not a problem, and that is what I was talking about. Unless you think you can move fast enough given your condition to dodge those hands, I don't want you anywhere near the computers. And before you ask, I don't know if any of the spells on you or your own shield would do anything to them!" So saying, Sage moved to the next computer. The two of them were in the room devoted to the finance department at the moment, so there were plenty of computers, but Jean noticed that half of them were already slagged.
"This is like I am fighting an individual in the computer data. Someone who is literally living in the computer, not an AI. A program like that would always have a central core program I could find and combat. This doesn't, and the individual isn't nearly as logical in his approach," Sage said, her fingers once more flying over the computer so fast that the clicking of the keyboard sounded like a Gatling gun. "Virus attacks work like blows against him somewhat, and the emergency firewall was able to keep him out during the initial assault, but I am having a devil of a time keeping whoever it is out of the system now."
"Do you think it's a mutant power then?" Jean asked, flinging up a shield between Sage and the computer as Sage once more dodged back from the hands. She tried another attack, this time igniting the air around the hands with her telepathic powers. Neither the shield nor the fire worked, though whoever was controlling those hands still flinched at the sudden attack, retreating into the data network.
"Yes. Now it's just a matter of who wears out first, his ability to remain in that data-form, or me and my body," Sage replied.
"What happens if we just shut down the central power?" Jean asked.
Sage paused in sitting down, then groaned and smacked her forehead. "Of course! That will either force him to retreat to the Internet or trap him within the computers. But we won't know which until we power the system back up," she cautioned.
"Better that than to keep fighting like this. Now, let's see if we can at least try to capture him." So saying, Jean dropped a communication mirror beside Sage, then left hurriedly, heading down to the power plant in the building's basement, keeping well away from anything electronic as much as she could.
Once she was in place, Jean shut down all power going to the first floor before backing away quickly from the control station. After that she continued, shutting down power to each floor in turn as she tried to herd the attacker, or at least limit where he could be. Sage kept in contact with her during that time, and eventually she reported, "All right, whoever it is seems to have retreated to the Internet. I am shutting down all external connections now."
The communication mirror fell silent for a moment, then Sage was back on. "Done. I'm going to get the computer maintenance team in here now. We'll need to clear each computer in the building then the whole integrated data net before we open that connection again."
"Ouch, that's going to be a pain," Jean commiserated. "Did you figure out where this attack came from?"
"Attacks, plural. The main cyber-assault came in from America somewhere, the other I couldn't trace, but the malware assault attacked our guest too. Since that attack slowed his progress down enough for me to start attacking him, I doubt they came from the same source," Sage replied. "Now I don't think we need you here, so unless you want to drudge with me for a bit…"
"No, no. I know when I'm not needed," Jean replied, chuckling as she came up from the basement. Several security guards moved past her down to the generator room. "I'll head back and see what I can do to help against the rest of this crisis."
Sage blinked, turning her attention back to the mirror for a moment even as she continued to walk down the stairs to meet the security and tech people on the first floor. "Crisis?"
OOOOOOO
Battling their way through the helacarrier to the place Tony called the incubation room was hard going, but with the Custodes there in force, they did reasonable well for a time until they began to be flanked. They also began to see attacks coming in from behind, and their progress slowed to a near crawl. "Where the hell are all of these Hulkbusters coming from? Did you have this many stored on the helacarrier?" Harry groused.
He really didn't want to start flinging blame right now. But every damn time more of those robots appeared it was getting harder to resist the urge especially since he knew that Fury and Stark had created this robot army at least in part to fight Harry and his people.
"No." Nick shook his head quickly. "We only had about forty on hand here, more to experiment and run tests on than to use in real combat. The rest have to be coming from the various Stark Industries complexes they were built on. Hopefully that means they aren't causing too much havoc out there."
Harry said nothing, not even telling the Avengers he had sent a few of the others to see if they could at least corral the robot army. "So this MODOK is able to bring them in from there and throw it at us. I thought that only this Ultron would have the ability to control these robots."
"MODOK's mental abilities are no doubt even larger than his brain's sheer size would suggest," Pym opined. "But you can tell that even he is straining to generate enough computational power to control these robots in large numbers. When they come at us in smaller groups the Hulkbusters noticeably fight better. Thankfully quantity does not equal quality for MODOK at least for now."
"They didn't in that last fight," Hela objected. "At least, not as far as I could tell."
"Your standards are a little higher than most mortals' milady," Harry replied, laughing quietly.
Hela shot him a look, deliberately tossing her hair back as stood proudly, locking eyes with him. "Should they not be?"
"Oh, undoubtedly," Harry murmured, losing himself in those eyes for a moment.
"My worry is how many of these AIM troops we've been dealing with." Steve interjected, rolling his eyes mentally at what even he could tell was flirting. "Only Guardian and Lady Hela's magic are keeping us going at this point, and we've been slowed too damn much on top of that. Remember we're working under a time table people!"
While they were somewhat limited by the fragility of the combat environment, Harry and Hela had let loose as often as they could with magical attacks, destroying whole attacking groups at a time as Avalanche did to dump the Hulkbusters on their asses. But at the moment they were moving around the most important part of the ship in terms of keeping in the air, so they had been forced to fall back on their small to medium scale spells and Avalanche was unable to safely use his own ability.
Just then, Dennis contacted Guardian. "Guardian, this is Spymaster. We have a situation. I don't know if you know this, but the robots we saw in the news, they…"
"I know, they're being funneled towards the helicarrier. How many do we have incoming?"
"Yes they are, and not as many as there might have been. The Navy and Air Force are doing what they can to destroy as many of them as they can in the air, yet it's hard going. But that's not the point. The point is that around a hundred or more just peeled off from the… Shit!"
Harry paused in his forward progress and Hela and the Custodes moved to join them with the Avengers and few remaining SHIELD agents creating a cordon around them. "Dennis, what's wrong?"
"That group of droids was just joined by another, and they are now breaking into squads attacking the jet fighters which had been attacking their fellows and the Navy and Coast Guard ships that were firing on them before. We also just lost the feed from the NSA drone I was piggybacking. But just before we did, I saw that first group that moved heading back toward Florida. Wait one… need to find another… damn it, where the hell did the FF disappear to at a time like this!"
"Can't be helped. Now calm down and tell me what is happening." Harry ordered.
"They are heading toward Disney World," Dennis said bluntly. "That group doesn't seem to be attacking anything in its way, but given that target and the fact everything that can fight them in the area already is, they really don't need to."
"Shiiiit…." Guardian murmured, then exchanged a glance with Steve. "Change of plans."
Steve nodded resolutely. "We need to also take MODOK out now, not after we stop the activation process."
"I'll take on this MODOK fellow, Colossus with me. Hela will provide the rest of you with a magical attack." Harry decided looking over at Hela, hoping she wouldn't argue with him on this one. From the flash in those brilliant eyes of hers behind her half-mask she wanted to, but did not, merely nodding her head even as said eyes promised a…discussion later that Harry knew would be heated to say the least. Whew!
"We'll also send Hawkeye with you I think," Fury said moving to stand beside Harry. "And me, that thing took over my own damn bridge, if we're going to challenge him now, I want to be a part of it!"
"Fine, let's get moving," Harry growled, gesturing Nick to start guiding them forward.
OOOOOOO
Jean bit her lip, biting back a curse with difficulty as her stomach turned into knots in a response that had nothing to do with her pregnancy. Amara, Paige, and Nikolai were doing a magnificent job, and Harry's decision to pull Sam Guthrie off the X-men to help had paid off hugely. Only a few of the robots had gotten out of the Stark Industries complex they had been stored in once the trio of Custodes had arrived, but they had also had to evacuate the complex.
While the robots were not attacking the civilians or anything else outside the complex, they had been hunting down and killing the people inside the factory. Jean had no idea how many had died before the robots had begun to break out of the factory and head to the helicarrier, but thought that it had to be in the low hundreds. Hell, even now the trio was still finding random people hiding out here and there.
But what made Jean bite her lip was the sudden change in the robots actions which Dennis had just reported to Harry. But while she agreed with Harry's actions in the helicarrier, that did nothing to stop the robotic rampage going on. And Amara had just called in requesting further backup at the root of the problem, where the Hulkbusters were digging in and even activating some of the factory in order to build more of themselves. FUCK!
This put Jean in the position of making a choice between two evils. Try to solve the somewhat secondary root of the problem, or try to defend Florida from their rampage. No freaking choice at all, really.
"I'm going to head to Florida, Dennis. We need to deal with that group of shit stain robots! When Emma finishes up with that Sinister Six, reroute Dani's team to help Amara's and get Coyote down there as soon as possible too. Don't pull the X-men out of the battle in the Vault until Scott contacts you. Stopping those criminals from escaping is just as important in the long run as dealing with the rest of this fucking debacle!" Jean ordered, not looking away from the now live news feeds from various news crews in Florida recording the Hulkbusters doing strafing runs on the ground and the dogfight occurring in the air above them.
The Air Force and the Navy were doing what they could, but the Hulkbusters were armored better than tanks, and many of them had long range weapons comparable to Iron Man or even heavier. Several dozen jets had been downed, and at least a few destroyers which had been on patrol in the gulf on training missions had been sunk. But they had kept the civilian casualties down to a minimum up till now.
"My my, cursing, Jean? It must be serious if you are even thinking of heading out given how far along you are." The low melodic tone brought Jean out of her current fugue like an axe through butter, and she turned, her jade eyes going wide as she saw Ororo walking through the hallway towards her and the others, while behind her Illyana and Melody followed, looking quite pleased with themselves.
Ororo had a bit of bed head, and she was walking somewhat gingerly, as if her legs were a little wobbly under her. But other than that she seemed no worse for having spent more than a week in what amounted to a self-imposed coma. She was even wearing her combat suit, complete with panja ring on her hand and… Is that a circlet on her head, or… Jean blinked, and the image of a circlet on her friend's head disappeared, replaced by her normal headdress.
That was the last conscious thought Jean had for a moment. She could not remember actually telling her legs to move, but she was suddenly throwing her arms around her older lover, kissing Ororo hard on her very willing lips, their bodies pressing so close together it was like they were trying to fuse into one being. It took her a few seconds to regain control of herself, aided by the uncontrollable giggling of the two girls and Dennis's pointed cough, but eventually Jean was able to pull herself back under control. "God, Ororo, but I've missed you!"
"Yes, I got that impression, my dear," Ororo replied, leaning her forehead against Jean's and laughing quietly. "I don't quite know how to describe what I was doing, but Gaea was able to tell me a bit about what was going on out in the real world while I was under. Though this crisis is new."
That brought Jean fully back to earth, and she nodded, pulling back further to turn away, looking at the holographic projection. "Um, right. Back to work. Have to warn you though, Ororo, Harry's probably going to steal you away for a few days. To me only a little under two weeks have passed. For him, it's been months since he last spoke to you. The whole lonely vigil thing also did not help us as much as we hoped."
Ignoring Ororo's questioning look about that point, Jean quickly filled Ororo in and then looked at her closely. "Are you? That is…are you back to one hundred percent? Because I think they need us both in the field for this, even with..." Jean trailed off, gesturing down to her stomach. "I have so many dang protective magics on me I should be clanging like a suit of armor, but even so…"
Ororo looked and thought for a moment, then nodded. "My body might not be at one hundred percent yet, but my powers both magical and weather based are good to go. Is Amara still reporting that they are finding more people in the factory?"
"Yes, they are," Dennis replied quickly, staring at the news.
"Very well. I will head to back Amara's team up. My magical area of control spells will allow me to remove anyone from the area. Once that is done, Magma and I will be able to deal with the factory. You…" Ororo hesitated, reaching down to gently rest a hand on Jean's stomach. "You are correct. We need to get involved in the fight over Florida as well, but, but be careful! Please?"
Jean nodded, feeling her eyes tearing up at the amount of loving worry in Ororo's voice. "I will." The two women stared at one another for a few seconds, before turning and racing for the door, stopping only as Ororo began her incantation, stopping just long enough to address Jean before the redhead could fly off. "Oh, and Jean, I think this is an appropriate time to show off, hmm?"
Looking back at Ororo, Jean saw her friend's eyes already turning silver even as she sent a smile Jean's way. She laughed, nodded, and flew out of the main doors of the castle, her telekinetic power flaring around her into a familiar shape.
OOOOOOO
Heading up to the bridge took them a while, but the move seemed to have taken MODOK by surprise. The fact they had to move through a large portion of the ship they had already fought their way through, and thus wrecked, destroying any security cameras, also played a factor.
They did run into several guard posts, but they were manned by AIM troops, which didn't even slow the four men down. Indeed, Harry was now in such a rush he simply wiped out each group with a single overpowered bombarda or cutting spell. He did so so quickly the others didn't even have time to fire, not even Hawkeye.
The group paused outside the doors heading into the bridge in the center of another former guard position. Colossus moved to stand in front of the doors, with Harry right behind him, Nick and Hawkeye to either side. Harry counted to three under his breath, and Colossus brought his fists forward to slam into the steel doors. Durable they might have been, but they didn't stand up to that blow, and the doors were flung inward, smashing into several more AIM troopers.
Behind Colossus, the others charged forward. Hawkeye went right, firing his rifle as quickly as he could pull the trigger while he slid into cover behind the stairs leading up slightly to the observation deck at the back of the bridge. While he didn't like rifles as much as bows, he could still use them nearly as well as his preferred weapon.
To the other side Nick rolled underneath a few of the nearest stations which had been overturned and wrecked by his and his people's earlier retreat. He fired with none of Hawkeye's speed or flare, but he was actually in a better position to see MODOK and his response to their attack.
A blast of what looked like a telekinetic assault but not quite lashed out, sending Colossus flying like a giant metal bullet, slamming him through the far wall. Thankfully that wall led along the helicarrier's length rather than out into the air beyond. But even that was scant comfort as Nick saw an energy barrier appear around MODOK, blocking Harry's attacks.
That was the last thing Nick saw as another blast came his way and Nick was forced to dodge, the attack clipping his head and sending him crashing backwards unconscious and possibly dead. Hawkeye was similarly dealt with, but Harry blocked a similar attack, a magical shield able to block the telekinetic assault or whatever it was.
"Hmm. I would say it is an honor to be in your presence, Guardian, but I would be lying. Or should I say, Mr. Potter? You have some strange so-called magical construct protecting your name, but with my vast intellect I was able to still make that logical connection regardless." MODOK's voice was odd, sounding almost childlike but not quite, deeper in tone and very adult in its words.
There was also a mad glint in the creature's eyes as he looked at Harry. "I must admit to a large amount of intellectual interest in magic, but to see it being used in person is something else altogether."
Harry didn't reply verbally, instead opting to let his magic do that talking, sending chains of spells at MODOK. The creature's shields held against physical assaults as he and his few remained men attacked Harry in turn. The other troopers, however, were fooled by a series of illusions and misdirection spells to fire at one another and even at MODOK himself. This didn't seem to bother MODOK, who kept talking calmly. Even sound or light based assaults couldn't get through his telekinetic shields, or at least not before he pulled something out from a bag at his side.
It was a statuette of some kind, a woman, Harry thought, judging from the brief glimpse he could glimpse before sudden and near overwhelming pain enveloped him from head to toe. It wasn't a mental assault or even a physical one. Rather, it was a magical spell of some sort, but the effect and the medium it attacked him by, Harry had never heard of or even considered anything like it.
My God! It's like the magic in my body is, is rebelling or something! Harry thought, going to one knee. "Wh, wha…"
"Hmm, interesting. My tests with the so-called Voodoo Doctor that AIM captured weeks ago showed that this was effective against magic users, but it is always good to have a second data set to correlate with," MODOK mused. Then he lashed out with a psionic assault which hurled Harry back against the far wall, crushing him against it rather than through it as a similar assault had done against Colossus.
Harry grunted, trying to pour more of his magical power into the Magia Erebea spell to try and break the attack's grip on him. He had to stop after a bare second, however, biting back a scream as the feeling of his own body rebelling against him redoubled. What the fuck is going on!?
"You might be wondering what is occurring to your body, Harry Potter, and while it is most illogical, I find I feel some satisfaction in sharing their fate with my victims," MODOK intoned, letting loose a wet chuckle for a moment. "You see, Potter, this is a blessed item of the Catholic church, some ancient relic or other called Lilith's Bane. What powers it I do not know, though I speculate it is some faith-based magic or other. Regardless, no magical individual or being can use their powers when in its presence, not internally or externally."
MODOK's chuckle became a giggle, one whose insanity was apparent to any listener, though at the moment there was only Harry to see. Colossus had been smashed aside, and though Harry didn't know it, he had yet to return because he had been ambushed by over a dozen Hulkbusters. Hawkeye and Fury were unconscious or dead, Harry couldn't tell. "Yet you haven't screamed yet. Voodoo or whatever his real name was began to scream quickly."
Blinking his eyes against the agony blasting through his body, Harry wondered where the hell that little item had come from. He also made a mental note to see if the Roman Church had other such items, and how many they had lost over the years. If I get out of this, anyway.
"That is my favorite part of this, you see," MODOK went on, moving closer to Harry. "While I greatly enjoy taking away my toys' strengths, turning what makes them special against them, making them merely human, I must have those screams. They tell me I am doing my job appropriately."
Another telepathic assault began, the air around Harry suddenly becoming so hot it was like being thrust into a fire, then so cold it felt as if he had been dipped in liquid nitrogen. MODOK 'tsked,' seeing Harry still hanging there, his crysis suit still in place. While Harry might not be able to use any active magic, his suit was still being powered and protected by the runic arrays worked into it. "Fascinating."
With a gesture from his small, undersized arm, Harry found his limbs stretching out to either side while the thing, the small statuette, was floated towards him, touching his chest, which caused Harry to jolt as if someone had just used a defibrillator on him. Harry could feel his mutant power try to reach out in order to drain the damn thing, only for the attempt to backfire, the pain, the feeling of his magic rebelling against him, redoubling. It was like his very atoms were trying to come apart at the seams.
"Scream for me, Potter. You have no magic now. No, you're just a normal human in a silly suit, just like that pathetic Stark, just like Rogers would be if you took away his serum. There is nothing you have now that makes you special, so scream! Scream and I will end your pain," MODOK coaxed.
Harry convulsed, his teeth gritted so hard he drew blood under his mask, but the only noise that escaped for a moment was an unending grunt. But Harry wasn't a stranger to pain, and he eventually got used to the agony coursing through his body. MODOK tried to redouble the telekinetic assault currently stretching Harry as if he was trying to rip his limbs off, but still Harry didn't scream. Instead, his grunt began to change into a strained chuckle.
This sound brought MODOK up short, and he moved the statue away from Harry for a moment, staring at him with his wide eyes set into that massive, overdeveloped head. "What in the name of science are you chuckling about, Potter? Unless…" He smiled widely. "Unless the pain has broken your mind to the extent your brain is interpreting the pain as pleasure?
"I, I'm chuckling because, I know why you wanted to do this to me, why you wanted to, to make me normal, as you put it," Harry said, gasping a few times against the pain still coursing through his body. Even without using magic in its presence the Blessing, and it could only be a Blessing, even if Harry had never read or considered a Blessing like Lilith's Bane, was still effecting his body.
MODOK snorted. "Then please enlighten me as to what foolish crackpot idea your puny, un-augmented mind has come up with."
"You, you're jealous!" Harry gasped out, opening his eyes to stare at MODOK, grinning behind his mask, the words flowing fast and furious as he tried to lash out in the only way he could. "You're jealous, because while I can be forced to be normal like this, as you put it, you can't be. I, I could walk out like this, and be, be normal. A normal human being able to interact with the rest of society. You though, whatever was done on you, or to you, you can't. You'll always be like that, and that sets you apart just as much as you think your 'vast intelligence' sets you above the rest of us."
For a moment MODOK was silent, staring at Harry, then he smiled a slow, sadistic smile. "While you might not have screamed for me yet, by the time I am through with you, Harry Potter, you will have no more screams to give."
OOOOOOO
Omega level mutant. It was a simple enough phrase, but very few people understood what it really meant. Even after the light show in the North and the amount of theories bruited about what it had been which marked the advent of the title being used among the public, few truly comprehended the term's meaning. By the end of this day all the world, and in particular America, would understand. They would understand and thank whatever god (or goddess) they believed in that many of these mutants were on the side of the angels.
Thanks to her magical method of teleportation, Ororo arrived at her target location before Jean could fly to Florida. She appeared out of nowhere in the center of a parking lot which looked as if it had been home to a herd of rampaging bull elephants. Cars and several Hulkbusters were flung every which way, along with the bodies of two security guards who were armed and armored more like special forces than the normal rent-a-cops. It hadn't saved them, of course.
"Storm, over here!" Magma shouted, skidding around a corner. Despite being in her tectonic energy form, the relief and joy in her voice was audible as she saw the older woman. "Damn glad to see you!"
"Good to be here. Now, let me get to work, and you can fill me in on the specifics of the battle." So saying, Storm knelt down to the asphalt, placing her hands on the ground as she began to call up her magical energies. Invisible to most people's senses a ring of magical energy spread out in every direction from her, slowly encompassing the entire factory complex and several hundred yards in every direction beyond.
With her eyes closed and still listening to Magma's report with one part of her mind, Ororo reached out with her magic, and as she had many times before began to teleport people out of the danger zone. Scared people hidden in dozens of places around the complex found themselves suddenly appearing out beyond the line of trucks and jeeps of the National Guard units which had responded to this crisis.
The instant the last of them fell on his rear, Ororo stood up, looking over at Magma. "Husk and Cannonball are to the east side as you reported, but Vanguard has fallen back to the back exit and is moving to join the National Guard unit there. They have brought up bazookas and seem to be holding that entrance, but given the Hulkbusters can fly, that is immaterial. Have you tested the ground here? Can you bury this place?"
"I can," Magma replied, her back straightening as she threw back the weariness she had been feeling. The Hulkbusters were damn tough, and she had been forced to raise the heat of her magma balls to an even higher degree than normal to burn through their armor. Vanguard's gauss rifle had proven a better weapon in a way, so long as he could keep the range open, but his plasma rifle was utterly useless unless he could target the robots' optics. Paige could handle one or two of the Hulkbusters at a time, but the Hulkbusters had begun to fight them in groups of five or more, while more of their fellows had pushed through the factory or up into the sky and away.
"It won't be fast—there isn't any natural fissure or anything nearby—but I can bring up a magma flow easily. Controlling it and then cutting it off, making certain it won't be able to open again in the future, will be the tough part. But if you want me to bury this place under lava, I can do it."
"Start the process now." Storm quickly knelt, reconnecting with her area of control spell, and a dozen large golems made of asphalt and the metal of the wrecked cars around them formed. Then Husk and Vanguard appeared. "Protect her," Storm ordered, her now solid white eyes narrowing as she saw several more Hulkbusters burst out from the inside of the factory and up into the air. Tracer rounds followed them from outside of the complex, but few hit, and none of the Hulkbusters slowed their ascent. "I will deal with the Hulkbusters in the air."
With that Ororo rocketed into the air, a billow of near tornado force blowing her up between one eye-blink and the next, far faster than she normally moved in the air. Cannonball saw her coming and turned his angle of attack slightly, having smashed through one of the Hulkbusters at speed. So long as he could keep his speed up the Hulkbusters couldn't touch him, but they were just maneuverable enough that he could only get one, or maybe one and a half with every strafing run. "Storm! What are your orders, ma'am?"
"Stay back," Ororo ordered, reaching out with her mutant power now. She felt a brief twinge in her mind as she did so, but it wasn't painful, rather it was like a limb recovering from having been asleep for a time. "I will handle this."
Around fifty of the Hulkbusters were in the air and near enough for their optics to pick up the new threat. Below, dozens, perhaps hundreds of cameramen trying to cover the action from behind the protective line of National Guardsmen and vehicles turned their cameras up as well. Many of the Hulkbusters turned, racing towards the new target, having seen and realized the nature of the threat with their limited on-board computational powers.
It didn't matter. Storm reached out with her power and the wind roared. Dozens of small, localized tornadoes formed under her gaze, tearing the Hulkbusters they targeted apart. The air around others froze to a level not seen outside of the South Pole. Their armor was no protection against that, their circuitry freezing and shutting down, turning them into falling bits of metal. Around the complex a wall of wind appeared, shredding or turning aside the Hulkbusters in the air, while at the same time what few helicopters or jets that were in the air nearby were gently pushed away.
Then the walls of air slowly contracted as Ororo and Cannonball flew higher and higher above the complex, the air growing colder as water condensed out of the air, droplets of water freezing and then moving so fast they struck with such force even the Hulkbusters could feel it, especially given how brittle their armor became. Soon the circle of tornado force changed into an actual tornado roaring not on, but over the complex, touching nothing made of man except the Hulkbusters. None survived the experience.
It was a show of control and power that would have taken Harry or anyone else who truly understood what she was doing aback. But even Magma couldn't quite understand the level of control, of sheer artistry Ororo exhibited in that moment.
As the wall of air dissipated, what every watcher understood was the power of it. Over a hundred Hulkbusters, enough firepower to lay waste to an army core and then some, magnificent examples of human technology in their way, had been utterly removed from the world, leaving mere scraps and rubble behind to patter down in a rain of debris.
At the same time this had occurred, Magma's power had gone to work. The ground shook, shivered, and split open here and there around the complex, and magma poured out, slowly burning and burying the complex. It took longer than Ororo's show, and her friends and their magical allies did have to protect Magma from several Hulkbusters, but within minutes of Storm's attack halting the complex was practically buried under a mountain of slowly cooling magma, bunched up here and there around the former buildings.
And yet again, none of the fury of nature had spread. Only the Stark Industries complex was buried under the magma; none of it escaped. Even the fumes from the multiple tiny eruptions were carried up and away from the surrounding city.
Ororo smiled, her eyes still silver as she slowly floated down to join her fellows, hearing some cheering here and there, though most of the watchers had been stunned into silence. Later on, Ororo knew that the awe this show of force had gathered would possibly turn to fear in many, but she hoped the care that she and Amara had shown would offset that. Right now, however, she and the rest of the Custodes still had a job to do.
Yet as awe-inspiring as Storm's sudden arrival had been, Phoenix matched it.
OOOOOOO
Captain Conrad Knighton, call-sign Knight (of course), yanked hard on the stick of his F-18. This pulled his jet up into a tight arc, dodging a blast of gunfire by the skin of his teeth coming from one of the freaking hundreds of robots that someone had built and now had lost control of. His wingman launched his last missile at that particular robot, smashing the thing back in the air and cracking its carapace slightly, but doing no real damage. "Fuck! If I ever find out who fucking okayed the building of a fucking droid army I am going to drop a fucking bunker buster on their fucking house!"
"Roger that," his copilot muttered in the seat behind him, grimacing as he too launched his last missile at the same target his wingman had hit before glancing up and cursing. "Phantom, you've got three coming up on your tail!"
Phantom, Knight's wingman, tried desperately to shake the giant robots while two other jets went in for a strafing run on them. But their bullets simply bounced off the heavy armor of their target like rain, doing no damage.
Suddenly another robot reared up out of the air right in front of Knight, and he had to turn his attention to his own survival. Yet the robot had gotten too close somehow. Knighton saw this, and just as quickly he realized that he, his copilot, and his wingmen were about to die.
Then there was heat and force. But when Conrad Knighton blinked, he realized he was still in his plane, still trying to flip his plane into a barrel roll away from the robot that should have already ended his life.
Said robot was gone, its entire body burned to ash by a flame so hot it more resembled that of the sun than anything humans could create. "What…"
A massive bird of fire had appeared on the battlefield, its wings miles long, and its claws the size of Knight's jet as it stooped into the battlefield. For a moment that was all he could he could see, then as his eyes adjusted behind his helmet, Knight saw the form in the center of the, the phoenix. He could think of no other word that could describe what he was seeing.
In the center of the phoenix was a woman, that was all Conrad could tell, her form indistinct and almost shivering in his eyes, though what was causing the effect he didn't know. As he watched, his eyes wide, she seemed to reach out, and blasts of some kind of power reached out, slamming into more than a dozen of the robots he and his people had been fighting. When the waves of force faded, the robots were just gone, nothing remaining but some greasy smoke.
Another gesture and several shields of some kind suddenly popped into existence over the city below them, and then around several of their jets. Even several pilots who had time to eject found themselves protected by smaller shields as they began to descend under their parachutes.
The robots turned to attack this new target, but the phoenix's wing seemed to flap, coming back to guard the woman in the center of its form, and their energy blasts dissipated doing no damage. The wings then spread out, washing over the attacking robots, and again they simply ceased to be. The woman then turned her attention down on those who had not yet turned in her direction. The phoenix shrunk only slightly, before the woman stooped down, a ragged cry of a hunting hawk somehow reverberating out in the air. The Phoenix flew over Florida, the massive bird, symbol of death and rebirth, visible to the naked eye by thousands of souls down below.
"Hail Mary full of grace, our Lord is with thee…" Conrad heard his copilot mutter, and found he agreed with the sentiment. If something like that wasn't a sign from on high, he had no idea what could be.
OOOOOOO
Colossus had attempted to get back to the helicarrier's bridge, only to find himself continually faced with a group of Hulkbusters who were not so interested in defeating him as leading him astray or slowing him down. Every attempt to get around or through them was stymied, and he eventually resorted to actually punching his way out of the massive carrier.
Once on the surface, he made his way forward, but it was slow going, and again he was faced with a few Hulkbusters following him out. They continually got in his way, using magnetic clamps on their feet to stay put and trying to dislodge Colossus to send him flying out into the air. It was not a pleasant time, and more than once Colossus nearly lost his grip, but he refused to give up.
With Hawkeye buried and Nick possibly dead, this left Harry, unable to use his magic, alone to face MODOK's tender mercies.
He had no idea how long his torture went on, but Harry knew his ribs had been cracked. His intestines felt like someone had shoved hundreds of needles into them, and his breath was coming so raggedly that one of his lungs must have been perforated. His throat and limbs felt as if someone had torn out his tendons.
Yet he still hadn't screamed. He had bit through his own lip, and he knew that his crysis suit's internal defenses had faded badly, but his suit was still on him, the psionic unable to rip it off Harry's body. And he still hadn't given MODOK the satisfaction of making him scream. Call it bloody-minded stubbornness, call it pride or foolishness, Harry refused to give in. And his mind was still working, his body still responding, though he had gone limp in the psionic grip of the sadistic super-genius.
MODOK finally sighed, backing away slightly in his hover chair. "Bah, this is a waste of time. Your brain must have been affected when your magic was forced back in on itself. Sad. I would have liked to keep you around and somewhat cognizant to see me conquer the world, but I suppose even a genius such as I cannot have everything."
A loud beeping noise came from behind him, and he was about to turn away when Harry let his head fall forward, coughing. The only word that MODOK could hear was "pain," and he sighed before using his telekinetic power to pull Harry towards him. The psionic grip around Harry slackened, acting now more like a grip around Harry's body, letting his limbs fall loose and, MODOK thought, uselessly, as Harry was turned so that he hung in the air like a powerless puppet.
Yet even as he did this, MODOK had turned his entire attention to the source of the beep. The Avengers had finally broken through the defenses around the Ultron incubation chamber, but they were too slow. MODOK had diverted all his troops to that area along with the majority of his remaining Hulkbuster robots, fighting a delaying action more than anything else.
There were also the doors of the chamber and the fact it was so deep into the engines of the helicarrier, having prevented them from entering for too long. Even the strongest of them could barely move those doors, and Hela, who MODOK had no knowledge of prior to this, couldn't use her more powerful spells for fear of the damage she could do to the surrounding engines.
MODOK wanted to cackle, but refrained. Yes, his original troops had died nearly to a man, but they had won. The robots SHIELD had built, the AI Ultron, and his own massive intellect would allow him to conquer the world. First the rest of the so-called Custodes and their allies, then America. With American industrial capacity under his command and the threat of the nation's nuclear arsenal, he could spread out from there, with his first target being whatever it was that Potter had created in terms of orbital infrastructure.
He still had the presence of mind to taunt Potter, however, who he had come to hate the moment he had realized what the so-called hero was. "Yes, Potter? Did you finally have something to say?"
Harry didn't say anything, however. He let his actions do the talking. His fist flashed out as fast as he could in a punch, slamming into one of MODOK's eyes. At the same time his other hand grabbed what hair was on MODOK's massive distended head, holding him in place as the genetically altered super brain screamed in sudden and unused-to pain.
"I said, 'Pain is an old friend!'" Harry growled through bleeding and bitten through lips as MODOK lost control of his telepathic grip. Agony flared once more through Harry as he fell onto MODOK's hovering form but he still kicked out, sending the small figurine MODOK had been holding in one of his near-useless hands flying. The touch of the thing sent another spasm of pain searing through his body, but Harry fought through it, pummeling MODOK as hard and fast as his limbs could move.
MODOK had been created to be a genius beyond all geniuses, his genes manipulated and changed in such a way that he was so far removed from normal humanity as to be a separate species, almost. His mind, though twisted and insane in the truest sense of the words, was far, far more capable than any genius who had come before him, even Richards or Doom, giving him a form of telepathy and telekinesis which he could use to great effect, including creating energy shields of strength and breath to stand up to Harry's medium or even some of his heavy spells.
But he didn't have any actual added physical durability in comparison to a normal human. Indeed, just by looking at him you could tell his body had been left to atrophy. And unlike Harry, who had grown up knowing pain and becoming very familiar with it over his lifetime, MODOK had never felt the sensation he so loved seeing on others.
He panicked, trying to twist his chair this and that way, unable to even concentrate his vast mental powers enough to grab Harry and fling him away. He felt one of his eyes actually pop under a blow from Harry, and a shoulder broke under a kick before he was able to throw the weakened Harry off him. "AHH, ahh! How dare you, how dare you, you pathetic…! I…will kill you!"
Harry didn't bother speaking again. Ignoring his battered body, Harry grabbed up a piece of metal debris from a railing which had separated two of the sectors of the bridge. Twisting around he hurled it as hard as he could, and watched as MODOK tried to throw up the shield which had initially stymied his magical attacks. He then hurled several other bits of debris after the first, an attempt to activate the runic array on his hand or even physically accessing his mokeskin pouch causing the pain from before to redouble.
Still reeling from the pain, MODOK's concentration failed, the shield only stopping the initial makeshift spear, not the others. As MODOK screamed in more shock, then pain, under the hail of random debris, Harry grabbed up a pistol, emptying it at MODOK. Again the genetically modified genius's shield flared up, but a few of the bullets got through, impacting his side, legs, and the hover chair, which immediately lost power. Harry shambled forward quickly, still firing.
Even as MODOK's body crashed to the floor, he was lashing out once more with his telepathic powers. The statuette, Lilith's Bane, raced out and touched Harry. He watched with his one remaining eye as Harry's body jerked like he had just touched a live wire. "Fall!"
But Harry didn't fall. His footsteps didn't even falter while he turned, smashing the statuette to pieces with a makeshift club taken from a metal chair. As MODOK stared at this apparition before him, Harry spoke. "Your, your powers don't define you, MODOK. Your actions do. I am not dependent on my powers; they are just a part of me, just like a hand or a foot. It is will that truly matters, MODOK!"
With that, Harry fell forward, bringing the club down. MODOK's shield again flared under his desperate mental command, but Harry pulled his handgun up again, emptying a second clip into the shield and it faltered. MODOK tried to shout something, tried possibly to even plead for his life, but Harry brought his club down with all the force he could. MODOK's overlarge skull shattered under the blow, along with the brain beneath it.
MODOK's body spasmed, then fell still as Harry went to his knees, falling forward onto his face. He reached up with a shaking hand to pull his mask off his face. He breathed in deeply of the smoke filled air of the bridge, grateful not to be smelling or even tasting his own blood after so long being literally tortured by the mad MODOK.
With the statue shattered, its Blessing faded swiftly, and Harry could feel his magic once again beginning to act as it should, healing him. But his reserves were so low it would take a long while, and Harry gasped as he pushed himself once more to his feet.
Harry didn't get far before a large metallic arm caught him, pulling Harry to his feet easily. "You look terrible, tovarishch. Please, lean on me."
Harry looked up thankfully at Colossus and nodded, leaning against the younger man as they moved over to where Nick and Hawkeye lay under the rubble of the observation deck. They still had work to do.