Component Storage was indeed a mess. Not ninety seconds after I entered the shattered corridor with its sparking light fixtures and cracked walls, the first hint of what exactly had happened in here manifested itself when a blast door shut behind me, sealing me inside the corridor and a pair of turrets folded out of two of the scorched wall panels. With a whine of a charging laser, the turrets opened fire on me, forcing me to put up a mystic shield to deflect the sudden pulses of coherent light.
As I did that, I used the force to telekinetically swivel one turret toward another, destroying the second turret with friendly fire before using a Ferromantic spell to short out the First Turret. That done, I dropped my mystical shield just in time for another blast door to drop in front of me, heralding a second phase to whatever defenses this corridor had.
Speaking of defenses, the blast door wasn't the only thing that the Second Phase had in store for me. A hissing noise from the vents heralded the dispersal of an amber-colored gas into the newly enclosed space. My Amestrian Alchemical Powers allowed me to immediately identify the compound as a more deadly variant of the VX Nerve Agent, and thankfully, I was able to use Aeromancy to conjure gusts of wind to corral the Gas away from me in time to begin transmuting it all into more Oxygen with Amestrian Alchemy. By the time the gas tanks in the vents ran dry, this corridor was the most Oxygenated place in the entire bunker system.
With that done, I took my Wan Shen out of my Bag of Holding, and the Force-Imbued, Valyrian Steel blade of the polearm was able to carve through the blast door, which appeared to be made of titanium instead of any kind of super-alloy. Stepping out into the main section of Component Storage, I was greeted by a mixed group of Serbian Soldiers in tactical gear with Zastava Assault Rifles and AIM Grunts in their beekeeper uniforms with Laser Carbines.
"Light it up!" Shouted a Serbian Soldier with a sub-lieutenant's single starburst insignia pinned onto his tactical gear.
Almost immediately, a hail of bullets and beams of coherent light shot toward me, forcing me once more to put up a mystic shield. The Sheer Volume of fire was impressive, as there had to be a reinforced platoon's worth of troops down here. It was certainly enough to begin chewing away at my shield, though it'd take a significant amount of time for them to get through, the fact that they could chip away at it at all was impressive. Still, better try and solve this peacefully. These guys weren't the enemy, they were just scared.
"I'm with the Avengers! We're here to help by request of General Aram!" I tried, calling out in Serbian. I'd had plenty of occasion to learn while stuck in the Hotel Moscow, after all. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to do much as the firepower continued to issue forth to chip away at my mystic shields.
Frowning, I tried something I had barely had occasion to practice. Reading Surface thoughts was something I could do using the Force and my Pokemon-derived Psychic Powers, but I was barely competent enough at it to attempt doing it outside of training without risking complications in my target. These guys, though? They were practically projecting their surface thoughts for literally anyone to sense. I concentrated for several long moments, and suddenly, the situation became clear. They thought I was Tutinax.
Briefly, I wondered how that could be possible, before remembering that Tutinax could project illusions of people's worst fears into their minds. Given how these guys must have been the last survivors of a fairly major military base that had been completely decimated by Tutinax, it was likely he was their new collective worst fear. Unfortunately, the only way I had to fix this was by knocking them all unconscious and letting time reset their minds for them. To that end, I began casting wandless Stupefy spells learned in my recent jaunt to Wizarding Britain.
Red beams shot out from behind my Mystic Shield, everywhere I cast them, they dropped a Serbian Soldier or AIM Grunt. In a storage room like this, with all the storage containers lining the walls instead of piled up here and there like in a civilian warehouse, there weren't a lot of places to take cover for them. The Sub-Lieutenant, however, managed it by hiding behind a group of unconscious Serbian Troops. With a strangled cry, the Sub-Lieutenant grabbed a silvery sphere off one of the fallen AIM Grunts, pressed a stud, and tossed it at me.
Time slowed as I recognized an AIM Plasma Grenade when I saw one, then I reached out with the Force and grabbed hold of it telekinetically, tossing it behind me down the corridor I'd entered the main room by. I had just enough time to put up a mystic shield to block the corridor from the room before the plasma grenade erupted in the hyper-oxygenated corridor and a conflagration ensued. The combination was powerful enough to level a building and if the corridor hadn't been reinforced with Cogmium Alloy and Titanium Braces, there would have been a major structural collapse. As it was, this complex was designed to stay standing after taking a tactical nuclear strike.
It still tested my shield worse than sixty enemies' worth of Assault Rifles and Laser Carbines had. That forced me to concentrate on keeping the shield going, reinforcing it with more mystic energy, which made me take my eyes off the Sub-Lieutenant. I heard a whine of a Laser Carbine from behind me before a beam cracked out and lanced into my back. It superheated the Argentum backplate of my armor and seared into my back, causing a half-dollar-sized second-degree burn between my shoulder blades on my supernaturally toughened flesh, but doing little else. As the conflagration in the corridor subsided, leaving melted armor plating and blackened reinforced concrete behind it, I turned to face the Sub-Lieutenant.
"Stupefy!" I incanted, hitting the shocked Sub-Lieutenant with a stunner spell right between the eyes, even as he hefted his pilfered AIM Carbine for another shot.
He fell bonelessly to the floor and I was finally able to begin looking for the components to fix the Temporal Gun. Doing so took less time than just getting here, and I swiftly found the components that Doctor Pushnikov needed to fix the device in a few minutes of searching containers and storage lockers lined up against the walls. I brought them back to her and Doctor Pushnikov got to work.
"This should be a fairly easy fix. Give me five minutes to replace the components and solder some new connections and we should be ready." Intoned Doctor Pushnikov.
As she said that, however, there was a massive explosion from aboveground, as if someone had just been punched through the still-standing sections of Belovo Fortress. The ground shook as accompaniment, and dust from the reinforced concrete of the bunker ceiling drifted down from up above.
"You've got three minutes, Doc." I retorted.
"This is not your American Star Trek Program. I am not a Miracle Worker, you cannot hurry the laws of physics." Pointed out Doctor Pushnikov.
"Just get to work, I'll try and reinforce the Bunker telekinetically." I grunted.
And with that, my focus was taken up using the Force to telekinetically buttress the structure of the Bunker, even though the battle up above had clearly moved into the main fortress grounds. For a few, long, agonizing minutes, I concentrated, drawing more deeply on the Force than I had in a long while to keep this lab from caving in while Doctor Pushnikov worked. To her credit, she managed to get the Temporal Gun repaired in four minutes instead of five.
"Khorosho, we are done!" Exclaimed Doctor Pushnikov.
"Great! Let's head up top and zap Tutinax back to his own time!" I nodded.
As we rushed up and out of the bunker, more booms echoed from above and shook the ground, resulting in more concrete dust falling down, along with the creaks and groans of stressed metal. They were really going at it up there, it seemed. I just had to hope that Doctor Pushnikov and I could escape from the bunker before it actually started to collapse. If we could do that, we could Zap Tutinax and end the fight, which meant the sixty Serbian Troops and AIM Grunts wouldn't be buried alive down there.
As it happened we made it up and out of the bunker to find part of the cellar roof had collapsed from where one of the combatants had been smashed through the floor of the Great Hall. Fortunately, the stairs were still reasonably intact, so we climbed our way up past the cells of Contraband Lockup and beheld a scene that any Comics Nerd would have killed to witness if they weren't actually in any danger, that is.
Thor was trading blows with a Giant, Black and Gold-Armored, Brute. Mjolnir tested against a Lemurian Deviant spiked mace. Nearby, Doctor Strange had been knocked unconscious, while Captain America and Tony stood guard over his unconscious form. As Doctor Pushnikov and I emerged from the Cellar, Tony turned to face us, repulsors ready to fire, before relaxing slightly.
"Johnny! Where the Hell have you been?" Questioned Tony.
"And who's the Woman?" Questioned Cap.
"This is Doctor Nina Pushnikov, and I've been helping her put together the Device that's gonna win us this fight. Doc, do it!" I answered.
"Da, setting Temporal Gun for eighteen-thousand BC!" Affirmed Doctor Pushnikov.
She flicked a few dials and switches on the boxy section before pointing the odd, gun-like, section of the device and pulling the trigger. A beam of blue light fired out of the barrel-like nozzle and struck Tutinax, enveloping him in a blue haze before he vanished just before Mjolnir was thrown through the space he'd previously inhabited by Thor.
"What? Where did that son of Jotun go?" Demanded Thor.
"And what was with that Chronal Radiation I just registered?" Asked Tony.
"Back to his own time. That was an ancient Lemurian Deviant, Tutinax the Mountain Mover. There was an experiment involving time travel going on in the Bunker under the fortress. Doctor Pushnikov here was part of a team looking into it before AIM's deadline for the final pullout from Serbia expired. Her team lead rushed testing and pulled Tutinax from the Lemurian Arena using that Temporal Gun. You all know how that turned out." I informed.
"So you helped her repair this time machine?" Questioned Cap.
"It seemed easier than just wrecking what was left of Belovo in a fight." I shrugged.
"A wise decision." Intoned Doctor Strange, sitting up and rubbing his head.
"Strange?" Queried Tony.
"I found a few hundred survivors in the town, hiding in various basements and shelters. The amount of force that would have been needed to defeat Tutinax in combat would have caused them to become collateral damage." Illuminated Doctor Strange.
"You were Astral Projecting, then?" Asked Thor.
"I was. You seemed to be evenly matched, it seemed a wise use of my time given how you were stalling Tutinax." Confirmed Doctor Strange.
"Well, good job everyone. This mission has now switched to search and rescue. Save as many of the survivors as you can." Ordered Cap.
"Speaking of, there's about sixty AIM Grunts and Serbian Soldiers still in the bunker unconscious. Maybe we ought to start with them?" I suggested.
"A sound plan. Verily, the closest destination is oft the easiest." Grinned Thor.
"Yeah, why don't you and Cap handle that? Leave the town to folks who can fly." Tried Tony.
"In the meantime, I shall attempt to find any more survivors. Belovo was a town of several thousand, there should be more than the few hundred I found so far." Nodded Doctor Strange.
"All right, get to work people!" Commanded Cap.
And with that, Cap and I began pulling unconscious Serbian Soldiers and AIM Grunts out of the bunker. It helped that I could use Telekinesis to grab multiple at once, and in an hour, we had the entire reinforced platoon up and out of there. Then we moved on to search and rescue in the Town Proper. It was grueling work, moving pieces of destroyed buildings to uncover basement stairwells and hidden cellars where people had taken cover. The grateful faces of the survivors were worth it though.
By the end of the day, we'd saved everyone we could from Belovo. Prior to Tutinax's rampage, the Fortress had held three battalions of the Serbian Army and a Section of the Customs Patrol. For the town, twelve thousand people had lived here once. Now, only a single, reinforced platoon remained of the Fortress Garrison, while the survivors of the town numbered some three-thousand-four-hundred-thirty-six. That was a death rate of seventy-two percent, which was horrific by any measure. Still, it could have been a lot worse.
When we reported that back to General Aram in Belgrade, though, he was more enthused about the Temporal Gun working than he was outraged at the destruction of such an important border town and fortress. When Cap pointed that out to him, General Aram was similarly dismissive.
"Fortresses and towns can be rebuilt and people are cheap as dirt, we literally make more of them all the time. Functional Time Travel Technology, on the other hand, that is something you do not see every day." Dismissed General Aram.
"Those were people's lives!" Protested Cap.
"And? People's lives get snuffed out every day, do they not? Even in your vaunted United States, are there not areas where life is cheap enough that Gang Violence is a common occurrence? You have very little room to be taking that tone with me, especially not since I have the information you seek." Sneered General Aram.
Cap looked about to protest, but Tony laid a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. "Forget it, Cap. It's the Balkans." He remarked.
"Well enow, but know this. Should you hold back on this information, you shall face the wrath of the God of Thunder." Warned Thor.
"No, I honor deals made. Here. Your information." Responded General Aram, sliding over a dossier.
Cap opened the folder to briefly peruse the contents before passing it around. It seemed like Doom and Mors Cruentia had struck a deal involving a shared mystical research pact. Serbia, likewise, had inked a shared technical research pact with Latveria. There was some sort of Balkan Alliance being formed by the three. In one of the transcripts of the meeting, Doom had promised samples of Crimson Dynamo tech to Serbia in exchange for studying the Cogmium Alloy that AIM had developed in partnership with the Milosevic Government while he told Mors Cruentia about some ancient Turanian Ruins that had been uncovered in Keraadistan by a Vytex Energy Expedition.
"Turanian Ruins? That explains why Mors Cruentia wiped out the expedition. Such Hyborian Age relics often come with very potent sorcery attached." Informed Doctor Strange.
"With commensurate protections. Probably why Doom had Mors Cruentia assume the risk of actually plundering the ruins." I scoffed.
"It also explains all the Crimson Dynamo Technology we've seen so far." Agreed Tony.
"I'm surprised you agreed to share this with us, General. What's the catch?" Questioned Cap.
"No catch, Serbia has done nothing illegal and nothing against the treaties we have with anyone, even the recent peace treaty is still completely intact. It is not a crime to engage in diplomacy with other sovereign nations, after all." Shrugged General Aram.
"Still, Mors Cruentia's Government in Mordvania and Carpasia is currently unrecognized by anyone other than yourself and Doom. You're playing a dangerous game here." I cautioned.
"Perhaps, but until such time as the danger blows up in our faces, we will stay the course. Now, I believe that our agreement with your UN Handlers was that we would allow you in Serbia until the government gave you notice you should leave. Consider that notice given. Agent Bogdanova will see you to the airport." Dismissed General Aram.
The Platinum Blonde Sorceress from before hustled us into yet another government car where we were driven back to the airport and put on a Private Jet back to New York City. At least we were traveling in style, a thank you from General Aram for handling his Tutinax Problem. I mostly slept on the flight back. When we touched down, Jarvis had a car ready to take us back to Avengers Mansion.
Once we returned, we'd plan our next steps for what we'd actually do with this information. . .
XXXX
AN: The next chapter is already up on my Patreon, so check the link in the threadmarked post if you guys feel like throwing me a couple bucks to get chapters in advance. Everyone who does is super appreciated and I can't thank my patrons enough.
All right, so yeah. Tutinax drove the survivors of the Fortress mad with fear using his Psychic Powers, so actually getting into Component Storage to get the stuff to repair the Temporal Gun was a bit of a mini-adventure. Mind you, nothing the Platoon had on them posed an actual danger of killing Jan. Even the AIM Plasma Grenade would only do a little more damage than usual. It was the time crunch that it caused which was the big problem. In the time it took to get the components, the fight moved into the Fortress Proper, which threatened to bury everyone in the Bunker alive.
At the same time, it turns out that Doom has been busy laying the groundwork for a Balkan Alliance between himself, Mors Cruentia, and General Aram of Serbia. That sort of alliance would be bad news for several of their Neighbors. Bosnia, Symkaria, and Transia most notably. While Mors Cruentia isn't looking to expand, viewing the alliance as a way to get more technical and magical power for his existing state, Doom would love to annex Symkaria and Transia while Serbia would leap at the chance to annex the Bosnian Republika Srpska.
At any rate, the next chapter will involve the Avengers planning about what exactly to do with the information they got.
Stay tuned. . .