June 4th, 2010
Anderson Security Solutions Office – New York City
The second roar was louder than the first.
It rolled through the streets like thunder given voice, rattling windows and sending vibrations through the floor that they felt in their teeth.
Somewhere in the distance, glass shattered in cascading waves. Car alarms screamed.
Ariadne was already at her desk, fingers flying across a hidden interface. Multiple screens flickered to life across the office walls, displaying feeds from security cameras throughout the building and the surrounding blocks.
What they showed was chaos.
Military vehicles flooded the streets below. Humvees, APCs, even what looked like a tank rolling down a road. Soldiers in full tactical gear established hasty barricades, waving civilians away with frantic urgency. A helicopter thundered overhead, its spotlight cutting brilliant white cones through the night's darkness.
Then Eileen's phone rang.
She glanced at the screen. A single word: EVE.
"One moment," she said to the others, stepping away from the window.
The conversation was brief, a few minutes, but when she returned, her expression had shifted from confusion to grim understanding.
"Well?" Ariadne demanded.
"I know what's happening." Eileen slipped the phone back into her pocket. "It's... complicated."
"Uncomplicate it."
"The military has been trying to recreate the Captain America serum." Eileen's voice was steady, clinical. "They failed. Badly. Created something powerful but unstable. They've been trying to contain it for months." She paused. "Today, they finally caught him."
"Caught it?" Melina's eyes narrowed. "Then why are there soldiers flooding Harlem?"
"Because in the process of catching the first one, they accidentally created a second one. Worse than the first." Eileen gestured toward the windows. "That's what's out there now."
Yelena had moved to the window, peering through the blinds with professional assessment. "How dangerous are we talking?"
"Physically? Extremely. Eve estimates the creatures can lift close to a hundred tons. Bulletproof. Rocket-resistant. Powerful regeneration capabilities." Eileen's voice remained level. "Virtually unstoppable by conventional military means."
The room went quiet.
"Virtually," Ariadne repeated slowly. "That's an interesting word choice."
"The monsters are strong," Eileen clarified. "Incredibly strong. But that's all they are. Raw physical power. No magic. No special abilities beyond muscle and rage. Winky could defeat either of them without breaking a sweat."
All eyes turned to Winky, who had positioned herself protectively near the children. She inclined her head slightly - a small gesture that somehow conveyed absolute confidence.
Ariadne's lips curled into a slow, predatory smile. "Just physical power, you say?"
Eileen saw the look and felt a familiar resignation settle over her. "Ari, don't."
"I've been bored, Eileen. The Hand is hiding. My skills are getting rusty." Ariadne walked toward a hidden panel in the wall, her heels clicking against the hardwood with purposeful rhythm. "If there's no real danger... I wouldn't mind testing my current strength against a genuine monster."
"Eve said we could just ignore it," Eileen tried, though she knew it was a losing battle. "Arthur's notes say the first creature, the one named Hulk, should arrive soon to deal with the situation."
"Where's the fun in that?" Ariadne pressed her palm against the panel. The wall slid open with a soft hiss, revealing racks of high-tech weaponry and sleek combat suits. "Besides, after learning how dangerous our world truly is, I want to use every opportunity to become stronger. Real combat experience is irreplaceable."
Melina was already moving toward the gear, her eyes bright with anticipation. She'd been wanting to test the Extremis enhancement in actual combat conditions.
Eileen looked at Winky, then at the excited faces of Tristan and Elena. It was madness, utter madness. But it was also their life now.
"Fine," Eileen sighed. "But at the first sign of genuine danger, Winky takes over. No arguments."
"Agreed."
—
Street Level – Harlem
Five minutes later, the group emerged from the building lobby into a world transformed.
Ariadne had changed into a sleek tactical gear that hugged her frame like a second skin. Twin blades hung at her hips, their edges gleaming with a faint enchantment.
Beside her, Melina and Yelena had undergone similar transformations. The relaxed women from the office had vanished, replaced by weapons wearing human faces.
The Hayes family, by contrast, remained in their shopping clothes.
"You're really not worried?" Yelena asked, eyeing Eileen's lack of preparation.
"Should I be?"
"There's a monster out there that can lift a hundred tons."
Eileen smiled serenely. "I trust Arthur."
The many layers of protection he'd woven around his family - wards, enchantments, emergency portkeys, and safeguards she didn't even fully understand - were her source of confidence. And if all else failed, she trusted Arthur to come save them.
The street came into view, and what they found was not the usual Manhattan bustle.
It was a war zone.
Military vehicles formed hasty barricades across intersections, their headlights cutting through drifting smoke. Soldiers crouched behind cover, weapons trained on something further down the block. The air was thick with the smell of gasoline and fear.
Then Eileen saw it.
The creature stood nearly ten feet tall, a nightmare given flesh. Gray-green skin stretched over muscles that seemed impossibly dense. A spine ridged with bony protrusions. A face that might have once been human, now twisted into something monstrous.
It was fighting a tank.
The tank was losing.
As they watched, the creature seized the vehicle's main cannon and twisted. Metal screamed in protest. The barrel bent like a straw. Then the monster lifted the entire tank, sixty tons of American engineering, and hurled it down the street like a child throwing a tantrum.
"Okay," Yelena said quietly. "That's impressive."
The tank crashed through a storefront, triggering a cascade of secondary destruction. Glass and debris exploded outward. Somewhere in the chaos, someone was screaming.
Eileen turned to Ariadne. She didn't need to speak, the look said everything.
Ariadne understood immediately.
"Melina, Yelena," she barked, her voice shifting into command mode. "Get the Widows moving. Civilian evacuation. Clear this entire block. Now."
Melina tapped her earpiece. "All units, execute Protocol Shepherd. Evacuation and triage. Move."
From the shadows of alleyways and rooftops, a dozen Widows materialized, moving with fluid precision to drag civilians to safety.
"Thank you," Eileen whispered.
"Don't mention it." Ariadne's eyes remained locked on the creature. "I'm just clearing the ring."
"You're really going to fight that thing?"
"I'm going to try to fight that thing." Ariadne's smile turned sharp. "There's a difference. And Winky will save me if things go wrong. Right, Winky?"
"Just like the old days, Ari."
Ariadne laughed. A genuine sound, tinged with nostalgia for the many times Winky had pulled her out of situations she'd walked into too confidently.
They watched from the building's entrance as the battle continued to unfold. The military was throwing everything they had at the creature, and everything they had wasn't enough.
Bullets sparked harmlessly off its hide. Rockets seemed to merely annoy it. A helicopter nearly got swatted from the sky for its trouble.
The monster was barely inconvenienced.
Minutes passed. The military fell back, regrouped, tried new tactics. Flanking maneuvers. Concentrated fire. Nothing worked. The creature advanced steadily through Harlem, leaving devastation in its wake.
And then it noticed them.
A group of women and children, standing amidst the chaos, not running, not screaming. Not cowering behind barricades like the soldiers.
Just... watching.
The creature's eyes locked onto them. Something about their calm infuriated him. The lack of fear was an insult.
"MOVE!" a bloody soldier screamed at them from behind a barricade. "FOR GOD'S SAKE, GET OUT OF HERE!"
They ignored him.
The Abomination turned fully toward them. He growled, the sound vibrating in everyone's chest like standing too close to a subwoofer. He reached down, grabbing a burning sedan by its bumper. With a grunt of effort, he hurled it.
The car tumbled through the air, a ton of burning metal spinning directly toward Eileen and the children.
Winky's fingers twitched, ready to snap.
But before she could act, the car stopped.
It hung in the air, three feet from them, suspended by nothing visible. Flames licked at the frame. Metal creaked. But it didn't move.
It hovered there for a second before being shoved violently to the side, crashing harmlessly into a lamppost.
Everyone stared.
"MOM!"
Elena was bouncing on her feet, her face alight with pure, unbridled joy. Her eyes were wide, her smile enormous, her whole body practically vibrating with excitement.
"Mom, I did it! I did it just like Wanda! I can move things too!"
For a moment, shock overrode everything else.
Elena had shown accidental magic before. Small things, unconscious things. A toy floating to her hand when she wanted it. A door opening when she was too lazy to turn the knob. The typical manifestations of a magical child.
But never a conscious, forceful act of telekinesis.
"Elena..." Eileen breathed.
"Did you see? Did you see?" The girl was practically glowing with triumph. "It was coming right at us and I just—I just pushed and it stopped and then I pushed harder and—"
The creature roared, shattering the moment.
He didn't understand what had happened. He didn't care. The blatant disrespect of these insects, celebrating while he attacked them, drove him into a frenzy.
He grabbed a chunk of concrete from the road. Then a mailbox. Then a motorcycle. He threw them all in a rapid-fire barrage.
Elena giggled. "Get away!"
She waved her hands.
The concrete chunk swerved left, smashing into a wall. The mailbox flew up and over their heads. The motorcycle skidded to a halt, tipping over harmlessly.
It was sloppy, chaotic magic, fueled by adrenaline and childish wonder, but it was working.
"Elena, stop," Eileen said, worry creeping into her voice. "You're going to exhaust yourself."
"I'm fine, Mom! This is easy!"
It wasn't easy. Eileen could see the strain building. But her daughter had just discovered she could do something incredible, something heroic, and stopping was the last thing on her mind.
The Abomination had had enough.
"DIE!"
He didn't throw anything this time. He crouched and launched himself.
He crossed the distance in a single bound, a grey mountain descending from the sky, aiming to crush the entire group into paste.
Elena looked up. Instinctively, she raised her hands to push him away.
But the Abomination wasn't a car. He was heavier. Faster. And alive with rage that gave him terrible momentum.
Elena's mental push hit him, but it was like a breeze hitting a boulder. He didn't even slow down.
Elena's smile vanished. Her eyes widened. The shadow of the monster engulfed her.
"I can't—" Her voice cracked with sudden, terrible fear. "Mom, it's too heavy, I can't—"
Just as the monster's feet were about to make contact, a shimmering, translucent blue barrier materialized in the air above them.
BOOM.
The Abomination slammed into Winky's shield face-first.
The sound was like a thunderclap. The monster didn't break through, he bounced. The magical barrier, held firm against force that would have flattened a building.
The Abomination ricocheted off the dome and crashed into a parked bus fifty feet away.
For a moment, everything was still.
Then Elena collapsed.
"ELENA!"
Eileen caught her daughter before she hit the ground. The girl was pale, her breathing shallow, her eyes fluttering.
Tristan grabbed Eileen's leg, his lip trembling, tears already streaming down his face. "Mom? Is Ele okay? Mom?"
Winky was there instantly, her small hand pressing against Elena's forehead. A soft green light glowed from her palm.
"She is fine, Mistress," Winky said quickly, her voice soothing. "Just sleeping. Magical exhaustion. She used too much power too fast. Her core is empty, but she is safe."
Eileen slumped with relief, pulling Elena's unconscious body tight against her chest. She kissed her daughter's forehead, her hands shaking. "Oh, thank god."
But the relief didn't spread to everyone.
Ariadne stood over them, looking down at the unconscious Elena and the crying Tristan.
She looked at the Abomination, who was shaking his head and rising from the wreckage of the bus, preparing for another charge.
Something in Ariadne snapped.
She had come down here for a challenge. For a spar. For fun.
But that thing had targeted her family. Had made Elena cry. Had made Tristan cry.
The Ice Queen didn't feel cold anymore.
She felt white-hot.
"Winky," Ariadne said, her voice terrifyingly calm. "Keep the shield up. Protect them."
"Yes, Ari."
Ariadne turned her back to the family and faced the monster.
Her fist clenched, chi gathering until it glowed a stark, brilliant white.
The Abomination roared at her, but Ariadne smiled back. And it was not a nice smile.