Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
Amid the swirling yellow sand and barren earth lay the remains of a giant. He lay motionless on the ochre ground, legs stretched straight behind him and both arms reaching forward as though embracing something.
This was Cassandra's headquarters, a base made from Ant-Man's corpse, enlarged with Pym Particles. Such an unusual aesthetic revealed Cassandra's own madness and evil.
She was the acknowledged ruler of Knowhere, a madwoman without the slightest reverence for life. Everything she did was to satisfy her twisted, perverse, bloodthirsty desires.
"Captain, are we really going to work for that madwoman?"
At the entrance to the base, a man in high-tech exoskeleton armor put the question to the man beside him, who wore a black special-operations uniform.
The Hydra Captain ignored Crossbones and silently mourned him for a second.
Rip...
The next instant, a terrifying force tore at Crossbones Rumlow's body. In the span of a single breath, the veteran special forces soldier was stripped of his flesh, leaving only blood, bones, and remains scattered across the ground.
Cassandra appeared from who knew where and pressed close to the Hydra Captain, reaching out to stroke his chest.
"Steve Rogers, the famous Captain America actually threw himself into Hydra's arms. Don't you think that's interesting?"
When the Hydra Captain didn't answer, Cassandra was undeterred. She took her hand off Steve's chest and stood about a meter away from him.
She put both hands behind her back and pretended to be an innocent, naive girl, looking at the Hydra Captain and fluttering her eyelashes.
"Aren't you sad for your teammate? Go on, tell me what you want to say to me! Once you're finished, you can go join him."
Cassandra's acting was superb. An ordinary person might have fallen for it, but unfortunately for her, she was facing the Hydra Captain, Steve Rogers, whose willpower had reached the human limit.
Even though he had gone over to Hydra, it didn't change the fact that he possessed extraordinary perseverance and willpower.
Cassandra waited a full minute without receiving an answer. Finally growing impatient, she waved a hand, and Crossbones' remains instantly turned to dust, scattering into the wasteland with the billowing yellow sand.
"What a boring man."
Seeing him standing motionless like a stone, Cassandra returned to her usual self. She reached up to straighten the collar of her khaki trench coat and prepared to enter the base and return to her throne.
"Huh?"
Before Cassandra could take a step, she sensed something unusual. She turned and saw dark clouds sweeping toward her, rainbow-colored lightning flashing within them. Her mood, which had just been spoiled, instantly improved.
"Madam Nova, Alioth is coming. Go on ahead; I'll cover the rear."
The Hydra Captain looked at the clouds filling the sky, his expression turning somewhat serious. He took the shield from his back and slipped it onto his arm.
"No, no, no, that isn't Alioth, darling. That's a very interesting test subject."
Clap, clap, clap...
Cassandra clapped three times in excitement. As she gazed toward the dark clouds, her eyes grew even more fervent. That Thor was finally willing to bring her toys up to her.
She had been very bored these past few days!
The three crisp claps spread through the base like a signal. In less than a minute, a full twenty or so people had gathered behind Cassandra.
At their head was a massive, powerfully built man, a full three meters tall, encased from head to toe in armor made of red metal.
Beside him stood a middle-aged man in an elegant gentleman's suit. He was dressed in a British style, without a single wrinkle visible anywhere on him, and wore a pitch-black metal helmet.
Behind the two men was a large group of Mutants, Ghost, Siren, and the Hydra Captain's associates, Madame Hydra and the Winter Soldier.
Every one of them stood ready, prepared to join this carnival of death at any moment.
Above the clouds, a five-clawed Shenron formed entirely from laws was rapidly approaching Cassandra's base.
Thor and his companions stood on Shenron's back.
Gambit Remy had grown used to the Thor before him pulling off a stunt terrifying enough to scare people to death every now and then. Such displays would no longer frighten him so easily.
Kid Loki still couldn't suppress the curiosity peculiar to his youth and asked, "Um, why don't we just charge in and kill them? Why make such a show of telling them we're here?"
"You don't get it, do you, kid? It's called style, understand?"
Thor rolled his eyes at the kid who didn't understand a thing.
When he didn't have the power, he didn't show off. Now that he had it, if he still didn't show off, what was the point of having it?
Besides, a mere Cassandra could be wiped out with a snap of his fingers!
The small group of Mutants at the Ant-Man base finally got a clear look at the cause of the rainbow lightning filling the roiling dark clouds. It was a seven-colored Shenron over a hundred meters long, and the enormous creature was sweeping toward them.
"Th-that's what?!"
Which of Cassandra's subordinates present wasn't a capable fighter with extensive experience and knowledge?
Yet they had never seen anything like this. The mere pressure radiating from the dragon of laws was enough to keep thoughts of resistance from arising in their hearts.
"A dragon formed from the power of laws? Interesting."
Cassandra had no intention of shielding her subordinates from the pressure. She simply stood where she was, watching Thor's performance.
"Hey, Cassandra, you self-important Joker Charles won't acknowledge, I'm here to kick your ass!"
A pillar of thunder crashed down two hundred meters in front of Cassandra with a bang. Thor and the others landed in an instant, and even as he made his entrance, he didn't forget to rub salt in her wound.
"Thor, have you come to bring me new toys? Good. I can get a new diamond toilet."
Rather than being provoked as expected, Cassandra gave the people Thor had brought a casual glance.
Psylocke, the White Queen, three Loki variants, and four nobodies who were good for nothing. Coming to cause trouble for her with so few people was simply too amusing!
"Cassandra, have you considered the possibility that I'm here to turn you into a toilet?"
Thor wasn't about to pass up the classic pre-battle trash talk. While her attention was on him, he sent the Shenron of laws circling in the sky hurtling straight at Cassandra.
Cassandra was no fool. She immediately noticed his little move and raised a hand, causing Juggernaut to appear directly above her and take the first attack for her.
Boom!
With a tremendous boom, the hundred-meter-long Shenron bit down viciously on Juggernaut and drove him straight into the Ant-Man base. Cassandra's base was destroyed in a single exchange, while Juggernaut was nowhere to be seen.
Sacrificing a teammate before the group fight had even begun left Thor at a loss. It had to be Cassandra; whether you were her enemy or her teammate, you were in for a treat.
Thor had no intention of giving Cassandra the chance to fully unleash her powers. He instantly activated the Law of Space and appeared behind her.
His sandbag-sized fist, wrapped in multicolored lightning, crashed down at her head and collided with the telekinetic barrier created by the evil bald woman. A formless, immaterial Shockwave spread wildly outward from the two of them.
A few unlucky people who were standing too close were sent flying by the aftermath of their clash. They slammed heavily into the ground, their fates unknown.
The elegant middle-aged man in the suit stood quietly where he was. The terrifying shockwave was rapidly absorbed the moment it touched his body, then condensed into a small ball of light in his palm.
He paid no attention to the man fighting Cassandra. Instead, his gaze settled on the White Queen among Thor's companions, Emma Frost.
"Emma Frost, my queen, you're far too late."