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"What is it?" Fury pressed.
The sound of Natasha swallowing was audible.
"A... prophecy."
"A prophecy about the Descent of the Witch."
...
S.H.I.E.L.D., The Hub.
Skye stood at the center of the wrecked control room, both hands thrust forward, invisible shockwaves radiating outward from her in all directions.
The air distorted before her with each pulse, force enough to shatter steel.
Yet the black-robed wizard standing opposite her simply raised his wand. Casually. Like he had all the time in the world.
A thin shield materialized in front of him, looking almost fragile, and swallowed every bit of Skye's power without a sound.
Coulson gripped his custom pistol, fine sweat beading at his forehead, his mind running at full speed. They'd come here following a lead on the Clairvoyant. Nobody had said anything about a wizard showing up and trying to kill them.
Skye gritted her teeth and pushed harder. The shockwaves thickened, nearly solid, and cracks began spiderwebbing across the surrounding walls.
The wizard seemed to lose patience. He flicked his wand.
WHUMM!
The ground beneath Skye's feet turned to bog. A tremendous pulling force dragged her downward.
"Skye!" Coulson raised his gun and fired.
The bullets halted in midair a meter from the wizard, hung there for a moment, then dropped harmlessly to the floor.
May launched from the side like a leopard, fast, low, lethal.
The wizard didn't even turn around. He pointed a finger back over his shoulder.
May slammed into something invisible. She grunted and flew backward, hit the wall hard.
"Give up." A low voice drifted out from beneath the black hood, faintly amused. "Your toys don't work on me."
He turned his gaze back to Skye.
"An Inhuman. Interesting power."
Coulson's stomach dropped. He knows about Inhumans?
This was no random encounter.
"Who the hell are you?!" Coulson demanded, stalling for any time he could get.
The wizard didn't answer. He just kept walking toward Skye. Slow. Unhurried.
Despair crept in at the edges.
He wasn't as strong as Hogwarts' professors or Hermione, but that didn't matter. He was still far beyond anything they could handle, even with Skye's awakened abilities.
Then a beam of red light split the air.
Silent. No warning at all.
The thin shield in front of the black-robed wizard let out a soft crack, fractures racing across its surface in an instant.
The red light punched straight through.
It caught the wizard dead center in the chest.
"Urgh—!"
He went down rigid as a board, face-first, with a THUD.
The control room went dead silent.
Coulson, May, and Skye, still slumped on the ground, still gasping, all froze.
What just happened?
A figure walked in slowly. A girl, young, with a head of dazzling platinum-blonde hair and an air about her that was somehow dreamy and weightless all at once, like she'd just wandered in from somewhere else entirely. She was surveying the wreckage with mild curiosity, the destroyed room, the wizard on the floor.
In her hand was a stick that looked vaguely unusual.
A wand.
Coulson's heart leaped straight into his throat.
The girl's gaze drifted over to him. She tilted her head slightly.
Her voice was light as wind chimes, curious, and entirely sincere. "Are you Phil Coulson?"
Coulson blinked. Nodded on instinct. His grip on his gun tightened, but he didn't raise it, she didn't seem hostile, and the situation was unclear enough that he wasn't about to make assumptions.
A faint, floating smile crossed her face.
"I'm a friend of Hermione's. My name is Luna Lovegood."
Hermione's friend. The tension in the room dropped a notch. Everyone let out a breath, and they looked at the wizard on the ground with complicated expressions.
Since Skye's abilities had awakened, the team had been on a roll. Enhanced individuals who used to be serious problems were now manageable, and that had gradually given Coulson and the others a particular impression: Skye was powerful. Very powerful.
And yet this powerful Inhuman, pushing herself to her absolute limit, couldn't stop one mystery wizard. Meanwhile, this small girl had put him down in an instant.
She was a witch too. That much was obvious. But it still stung.
Skye stared at the ceiling and said nothing.
Coulson studied the dreamy-eyed girl in front of him, and something in his chest settled slightly. He stepped forward.
"Miss Lovegood, thank you."
A pause. His eyes dropped to the figure on the floor. "Do you know who he is? Why he attacked us?"
"Huh..." Luna blinked, as if the question surprised her. "You still don't know?"
Coulson went still.
Know what?
He didn't get the chance to ask.
BANG!
Another door exploded open. A squad of fully armed soldiers poured in, guns sweeping the room.
At the front: John Garrett.
He clocked Coulson, May, and Skye immediately. Then his gaze landed on the motionless wizard on the floor, and the girl standing beside him.
Garrett's expression flickered, just for a split second, before he replaced it with something warm and relieved.
"Coulson, you're alright?! Thank god!"
He crossed the room in long strides, voice booming with carefully performed relief. "I thought you were—"
"Garrett." Coulson's voice was flat. "What are you doing here?"
Garrett kept smiling. Inwardly, he was cursing every person he could think of.
Pierce had ordered him here to capture Coulson and Skye. There was supposed to be a Ministry of Magic wizard to handle the Inhuman. The whole thing was meant to be clean and simple.
Instead, Coulson's team was standing there completely fine, and the wizard was face-down on the floor. The plan had collapsed. Again.
His mind shifted fast. "Got word that The Hub was under attack. Didn't want to take any chances, so I came straight here to back you up—"
"Everyone, drop your weapons!"
A second team surged in from the opposite direction, weapons raised, radiating the kind of intent that meant business.
Leading them: a red-haired woman. Victoria Hand. Level 8.
Three groups now. The room went tense in a different way.
Hand's gaze swept Garrett, then Coulson. It paused briefly on the black-robed wizard on the ground, then on the girl beside him. Her voice was clipped and serious.
"Top-priority alert just came through."
"HYDRA, in conjunction with the Ministry of Magic, has launched a full-scale assault on S.H.I.E.L.D."
Coulson's pupils shrank. Around the room, every expression snapped tight.
"What?!"
Everyone heard it clearly. Everyone understood every word.
And none of it made sense.
Ministry of Magic. HYDRA. Attacking S.H.I.E.L.D. How did those three things end up in the same sentence?
Hand kept talking, fast, running through the sequence of events.
"Fortunately, Miss Witch destroyed three Helicarriers at the Triskelion, defeated eighteen Senior Aurors from the Ministry of Magic, and took down the Auror Commander, someone named Tom Riddle."
Coulson looked at May.
May looked at Coulson.
The shock in each other's eyes was identical.
➤ Next: Exposed — Words Unspoken
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