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Washington D.C. The Eye of the Storm.
The Alchemy Array was a cage of blue light, suffocating and cold. Hermione floated in the center, watching the runes spin.
She didn't fight the absorption. She didn't struggle.
She smiled.
"You want magic?" Hermione whispered, her eyes glowing with the chaotic light of the Infinity Stones. "Fine. Open wide."
She gently waved her wand. An invisible force—a kinetic shove—spread out from her position.
"Hey! Wait a minute—!"
Tony Stark only managed to utter half a sentence before he was slapped away by the shockwave. The Mark 43 tumbled end-over-end, flying hundreds of meters away until he stabilized near the Washington Monument.
"Rude!" Tony yelled.
Inside the array, Hermione looked up at the vast sky of runes. She raised her wand, pointing it straight up, like a lightning rod.
"Maxima."
BOOM.
An unprecedented beam of magical light—a chaotic mix of blue Space, red Reality, yellow Mind, and green Time—erupted from the tip of her wand.
It didn't shoot at any enemy. It blasted straight into the heart of the suppression array.
BUZZ—!
The enormous magic circle screamed. It had been designed to drain a lake; Hermione was feeding it an ocean. The eerie blue light became blindingly white. The runes began to spin faster, vibrating with the strain.
The moment the multi-colored beam touched the array, it was frantically devoured.
On the deck of the Alpha, the six wizards maintaining the formation looked confused.
Is she giving up? Is she surrendering her core?
Hermione sneered. "You like absorbing, huh? Then choke on it."
She didn't stop. She opened the floodgates. The Infinity Stones pulsed against her chest, channeling infinite cosmic energy through her wand. The pillar of light grew thicker, wider, brighter.
It was a magical overdose.
Countless citizens in D.C. stared up in disbelief. A rainbow pillar of light pierced the heavens, dazzling even in daylight.
CRACK.
Time passed second by second. On the deck, the wizards began to look uneasy. Their wands grew hot. Cold sweat soaked their foreheads. Their hands began to tremble.
Tom Riddle, hovering above, frowned. He sensed the surge.
"Impossible!" Riddle exclaimed, his composure slipping. "No human core can output that much mana! You'll burn out!"
Hermione smiled, her voice echoing in their heads.
"Don't you like smoking?"
"Let's see who bursts first. Your array... or me."
The words had barely left her mouth when the alchemical patterns on the hulls of the three Helicarriers erupted with blinding sparks. They flickered wildly, like old lightbulbs about to blow.
CRACK-SNAP.
The sound of warping metal rang out.
"Oh no!" Riddle's expression changed drastically. "The runes can't handle the load! The feedback loop!"
"STOP! CUT THE LINK! QUICKLY—!"
He shouted at the top of his lungs.
It was too late.
The energy had nowhere to go. It reversed.
BOOM—!
With a deafening roar that shattered windows across the city, the three enormous Sky Carriers exploded in mid-air.
Countless burning metal fragments, carrying turbulent blue energy currents, shot out in all directions. The shockwave swept across the sky, clearing the clouds instantly.
For a moment, only a tremendous roar and a rain of falling steel and fire filled the world.
Tony reacted quickly. "Jarvis! Search and Rescue!"
He dove into the chaos, weaving through falling debris. He spotted a figure free-falling—Steve Rogers.
Tony scooped him up just before he hit the water.
"Gotcha, Cap."
Steve shook his head, dazed. He looked up at Tony's faceplate. "...Thanks."
"You're welcome. That's a $50 rescue fee."
The Duel.
Amidst the falling wreckage, the once-arrogant wizards of the Ministry were now writhing in agony on the falling deck plates, their wands shattered by the feedback.
Only one figure remained airborne.
Tom Riddle floated amidst the smoke, his robes singed, his face pale with rage.
"How does it feel?" Hermione asked, floating up to meet him. "To be backfired by your own trap?"
Riddle quickly regained his composure, though his eyes burned with hatred.
"Miss Granger," he spat. "Your growth has exceeded my expectations. To overload an Alchemy Array... you truly are a monster."
He raised his wand.
"However... you must be empty. You endured the backlash. You burned your reserves. I'll finish what the ships started."
"Confringo!"
A massive fireball exploded toward her.
Hermione didn't dodge. She slapped it away with a lazy flick of her wand.
"Stupefy."
A red beam tore through the sky.
Riddle blurred, leaving an afterimage as he Apparated ten feet to the left. The beam struck a distant building, melting a hole through three floors.
The battle began in earnest.
It wasn't a duel; it was a natural disaster.
CRACK. BOOM. FLASH.
Two figures flashed rapidly in the air, teleporting every second. Each reappearance was accompanied by a violent collision of magic.
Ice met fire. Light met darkness. Lightning flashed, and thunder roared.
A terrifying shockwave emanated from their clash, tearing the falling wreckage of the Helicarriers to shreds. A vacuum zone, kilometers wide, formed around them.
On the ground, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and Hydra soldiers stopped fighting. They stared blankly at the sky.
"My God..." Natasha whispered, standing next to a Hydra agent who had also lowered his gun. "Is this... is this what a wizard war looks like?"
The sky changed colors—purple, green, gold—dazzling the eyes. It was beautiful. It was horrifying.
Compared to this, the Helicarriers were toys.
Finally, a massive explosion of green light cleared the smoke.
Tom Riddle tumbled through the air, correcting himself just before he hit the Potomac. He hovered just above the water, breathing heavily, blood trickling from his nose.
He looked up at Hermione, who hovered high above, looking down like a goddess. She was tired, yes. But she wasn't empty.
"HOW?!" Riddle screamed, his voice cracking. "You poured everything into the array! How do you still have power?!"
Hermione chuckled softly.
"Senior Riddle. People improve. Haven't you learned anything in the past year? Or did you spend all your time playing politics in the Ministry?"
She pointed her wand at him.
"You lose."
Riddle stared at her, his eyes filled with malice and humiliation.
"Hmph. Granger... you win this round."
"However," he sneered, "you are exhausted. You don't have the strength to cast an Anti-Apparition Jinx over the whole city."
"Goodbye."
CRACK.
His figure twisted and vanished instantly. Apparition.
The other wizards, sensing their leader's retreat, followed suit.
POP. POP. POP.
Only Hermione remained in the sky.
The surroundings were deathly silent. The battle was over.
The Aftermath.
Tony flew up, hovering next to her.
"Phew... you won," Tony said, his faceplate lifting. "You didn't just kill him outright?"
Hermione glanced at him, her shoulders slumping. "He's right. I did expend too much energy overloading the ships. I couldn't stop him from running."
"Still," Tony looked at the burning wreckage in the river. "You blew up three aircraft carriers with a stick. I think we can call that a win."
The Triskelion.
Alexander Pierce watched the monitors go black.
The Helicarriers were gone. The wizards had fled. Hydra had lost.
A deep despair flashed in his eyes, quickly replaced by madness.
"If I go down," Pierce hissed, "I take everything with me."
He pulled out his secure phone. His fingers trembled as he initiated the upload protocol.
BANG.
A gunshot rang out.
Pierce looked down in disbelief at the bloody hole in his chest. He swayed, then collapsed onto the expensive carpet.
Natasha Romanoff stood in the doorway, her gun smoking.
She holstered her weapon and rushed to the phone. The screen was still lit.
[UPLOAD COMPLETE]
Natasha's face went pale.
"Oh no!"
She activated her comms. "Fury! Steve! Before he died, Pierce uploaded everything! All of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s classified files are on the internet!"
"Hydra is exposed," Fury's voice came back, weary. "But so are we. S.H.I.E.L.D. is dead."
"That's not the worst part," Natasha said, her voice shaking.
She scrolled through the file directory.
"He also uploaded the encrypted files... the ones about Hermione."
"Her identity. Her location. Her powers. The existence of the Wizarding World."
"It's all public."