"Whoever touches him dies."
Her voice was quiet, yet it carried an unreasonable, rule-like power of penetration, hammering into the eardrums of everyone on the helipad.
The surrounding air pressure plunged to its lowest point in an instant, and the air grew thick and scorching. Crossbones, Brock Rumlow, slammed down onto the scorched concrete on both knees. The hard surface shattered his kneecaps outright, and the agony completely twisted his weathered face.
He opened his mouth to howl, but invisible iron pincers seemed to clamp around his throat, leaving him able to produce only a leaking hiss.
He was not the only one. Dozens of fully armed special operations soldiers around him lay prostrate like boneless creatures, kneeling in utter humiliation. The instant their Gauss rifles and heavy autocannons touched that scarlet energy, the weapons had all turned into useless iron powder scattered across the ground.
Lynn lay among several agents who had likewise been pressed flat, his head lowered, his hands clawing desperately at the ground as he gasped for breath.
He had to look as though he was about to be crushed by that oppressive force.
In reality, however, the "Chaos Energy Affinity" within him was pulsing with excitement. The scarlet particles drifting through the air, powerful enough to tear mortal flesh apart, were slipping through his pores and turning into gentle, warm currents that nourished every part of his body.
Getting energy for free felt great, but Lynn could not smile at all right then.
He glanced into the air from the corner of his eye.
That stunning woman in a dark red trench coat hovered silently overhead. A violent energy storm roared behind her. Her exquisite face held no trace of human mercy or reason, only obsession pushed to the extreme, madness, and a desire for destruction.
Something's wrong with this crazy woman... Lynn gritted his teeth, his mind racing. The impact of her memories awakening was too strong. Her mind is already on the brink of losing control completely. If I stand up now and reveal who I am, she might weld me straight to her body with Chaos Magic and make us conjoined twins forever.
I have to keep my head down. At least until she's finished venting this world-destroying morning temper.
In midair, Wanda did not descend immediately. A flicker of extreme impatience crossed her eyes.
The shrill alarms around her and the enormous, ugly building below interfered with her view of that man. She did not like anything coming between her and Lynn.
Nothing at all.
Wanda slowly raised her pale, slender hand, spread her fingers slightly, and gently pressed down toward the iconic Triskelion ahead.
BOOM-!!!
There was no flash of an explosion, only the terrifying roar of matter being forcibly deconstructed.
The specialized reinforced outer walls and blast-resistant glass of S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, supposedly capable of withstanding a tactical nuclear strike, disintegrated the instant they touched the scarlet ripples, like fallen leaves swept up by a gale!
Thousands of tons of building debris were forcibly crushed and stripped away by an unreasonable, colossal force. Huge sections of wall whistled shrilly as they crashed into the Potomac River, throwing up muddy columns of water dozens of meters high.
With just one casual downward press, the absolute defenses S.H.I.E.L.D. took such pride in were torn open, leaving a massive breach a hundred meters long. Like a flayed beast, the entire building exposed its tangled internal conduits and crowds fleeing in terror.
The director's office, on the top floor.
Dazzling red alarm lights spun wildly, casting shifting light and shadow across Nick Fury's dark face. The high-strength floor beneath his feet shook violently. Spiderweb cracks spread across the walls, and dust showered down.
"Sir! The entire perimeter defense grid has collapsed! The physical interception systems have failed completely!" Agent Hill clung to the edge of the console, her nails scraping shrilly against its metal surface. An unmistakable tremor filled her voice. "The target's energy readings... are already more than three hundred times the readings we recorded when Thor arrived in New Mexico! The instruments are about to burn out!"
Fury's one remaining eye stared fixedly at the surveillance screen.
On the screen, the woman hovering within the scarlet storm looked like a world-destroying deity descended among mortals. She had not even used a weapon. The natural overflow of her energy alone had reduced S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters to ruins.
Fury drew a deep breath and slammed his fist onto the red button at the very center of the console.
WOO-WOO-WOO-!!!
An extremely high-frequency level ten alarm, painful to the eardrums, instantly drowned out the roar of the collapsing building and rang throughout Washington, D.C.
This was only the second time since S.H.I.E.L.D.'s founding that an alarm of this level had sounded. The last time had been when Captain Marvel faced orbital bombardment from the Kree fleet.
"Activate the final protocol. Have all noncombat personnel enter the nuclear shelter three hundred meters underground immediately." Fury clenched his back teeth, every word seemingly forced through them. "Contact the World Security Council. Tell those politicians that what we're facing... is an extinction-level crisis."
"Director, should we return fire? There are still three miniature bunker-buster missiles in the underground arsenal..." Agent Hill asked, her face pale.
"Fire missiles at a monster who can tear space apart with her bare hands? Do you think we're not dying fast enough?!" Fury cut her off sharply, fine beads of cold sweat forming on his forehead. "Pass the order down. No armed personnel are to open fire! No provocative actions! This woman has a clear target. Until we figure out exactly what she wants, no one is to make a move!"
On the helipad.
Gale-force winds laden with building rubble and scorching air lashed painfully against their faces.
Crossbones struggled to raise his head. Flying rubble had split his forehead, and blood ran down his brow into his eyes, staining his vision red.
As Hydra's ace field commander, what hellish battlefield had he not seen? He had fought Captain America hand to hand and remained unfazed amid hails of bullets. But now, his entire understanding had been crushed.
Tactics? Firepower? Strength in numbers?
Before this woman, none of those things even qualified as a joke. This was sheer, higher-dimensional annihilation, the helplessness that came from deep within a mortal's genes when faced with a god.
His hand trembling, Crossbones mustered every ounce of strength to reach for the backup communicator at his waist. He had to get word to Pierce, tell him that an incomprehensible monster had appeared here and that Project Insight might be in serious trouble.
Just as his fingers touched the communicator's casing.
Wanda moved in midair.
The scarlet storm behind her abruptly contracted inward, turning into a seemingly solid dark red cloak. Her pale feet bare, she stepped through the empty air toward the helipad.
With every step, a visible ring of scarlet ripples spread through the air beneath her feet.
Crossbones's pupils contracted sharply, his heart pounding. He thought his tiny attempt to call for help had enraged this deity. Extreme terror instantly shattered his mental defenses, and he desperately tried to raise both hands in surrender. "Don't... don't kill me... we mean no harm..."
Yet Wanda did not spare him so much as a glance.
She stepped onto the scorched, searing ground. The hem of her dark red trench coat brushed Crossbones's cheek, sending a horrifying shudder through him.
She passed Crossbones, kneeling at the very front.
She passed the elite special operations soldiers who were convulsing in terror, some having even wet themselves.
Under Crossbones's terrified, bewildered, and shocked gaze, the terrifying witch who had torn open the S.H.I.E.L.D. Building with one strike and brought a level ten, world-ending oppressive force actually walked straight toward the very edge of the group.
There was only a low-ranking agent there, dressed in a level three logistics uniform, normally meek and submissive around the agency, whose job was to haul equipment.
Wanda stopped.
The raging scarlet energy around her instantly quieted, like an obedient pet seeing its owner.
Crossbones's eyes widened until they nearly bulged out of their sockets.
He watched as that lofty, world-destroying demon goddess, who could casually crush specialized reinforcing steel, slowly bent down. She extended her pale, slender hand, her fingertips trembling slightly as they hovered beside the cheek of that low-ranking agent, Lynn, as though she wanted to touch him but feared that all of this was only an illusion that would shatter at a touch.
Her terrifying, world-destroying aura vanished entirely. What replaced it was actually an intensely suppressed sense of... hurt and pathological attachment?
Crossbones's brain crashed completely.
This woman, who had torn through space to arrive and plunged all of S.H.I.E.L.D. into despair... had specifically come looking for a low-level worker whom Hydra was prepared to expend as cannon fodder at any moment?!
Head lowered, Lynn looked at the small hand within reach, wreathed in faint Chaos Magic. Smelling that familiar, faint rose fragrance drifting through the air, the corner of his mouth twitched almost imperceptibly.
He knew that his plan to keep his head down and work a job in Marvel was completely ruined.
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