Supreme Leader Laxington sat at the end of the long table, his hands clasped on its surface. The main screen before him was frozen on the instant the Spirit Bomb struck the spatial rift.
The Situation Room was so quiet that only the hum of the central air conditioning and the refresh of the scrolling ticker along the screen's edge could be heard.
The Chief of Staff stood behind him, clutching a freshly printed emergency assessment. The pages rustled between his trembling fingers.
"Supreme Leader, according to a joint assessment by the Department of Energy and the CIA, the energy sphere the Golden Armor God of War released above London had an instantaneous yield beyond the measurement range of every weapons system we know."
"Put simply, if that blast hit any city on Earth, that city would cease to exist."
"And he used it on Dormammu."
"Dormammu is a dimensional entity. That means..."
The Chief of Staff paused, swallowed, and lowered his voice further.
"That means the Golden Armor God of War has the power to destroy Earth all by himself."
"And today, he used that power against a god from another dimension."
"And won."
Laxington remained silent for a long time.
At last, a muffled curse slipped through his teeth. "...Fuck."
General Lane sat on the left side of the table, a general's stars still pinned to his dark green uniform. The muscles in his face were tighter than usual.
His gaze stayed fixed on the golden figure on the main screen. His fingers tapped the table twice without his noticing.
He thought of his daughter, the clothes strewn across that office, and the sounds that had slipped through the door while Lois crouched beneath the desk.
He clenched his fist until his knuckles turned white, then slowly relaxed