บท 147: Chapter 132 - Project Insight Part 8
Alexander Pierce's Office, Triskelion, Between Washington D.C. and Virginia.
Before the Arrival of the Sentinels.
"What is Project Sentinel?" Natasha asked Pierce, still confident. She was certain that Hydra had another card up their sleeve since another person wearing Stark's armor had appeared in the previous battle, and Hydra wasn't the type of organization to reveal its hand so early.
"The Sentinel Project was actually not something we created, but rather something we seized from a fallen enemy," Pierce explained.
"Could you cut the suspense, please? I'm a bit busy right now to find it enjoyable," Natasha urged. Keeping the conversation this way was the best way to get Pierce to spill what he knew. She didn't have much time before this new project became active, and she wanted to know all the details before its arrival.
"The Sentinel plan never got off the ground; it's bluffing," one of the council members said, looking at Pierce.
"Is it really?" Pierce asked, looking at him.
"What then didn't get off the ground?" Natasha asked the older council member.
"Not long ago, when Genosha began massacring anyone taking hostile action to remove mutants, we found a surviving scientist in one of their bases. This scientist was developing a project with firepower powerful enough to locate and destroy any mutant in the world," the council member explained.
"Let me guess the rest. S.H.I.E.L.D. retrieved the scientist, and was about to restart the project," Natasha interjected.
"Correct. The scientist, Bolivar Trask, readily agreed to help us, as we told him one of the potential targets we would use the project for was Genosha. But when the project was about to start, we had to stop it," the council member continued.
"Why?" Natasha inquired.
"According to the scientist, something vital was missing to create his masterpiece."
"What?" Natasha pressed.
"The blood of a mutant named Mystique!" Pierce answered.
Mystique was practically Magneto's right hand; attacking her would be like attacking another nation protected by the most powerful nation on Earth.
"The council did the right thing in not trying to acquire her blood, but luck favored us. Not long after, during an extraction of a group of mutants being used for research in a third world country, Mystique was injured, and her blood was retrieved by one of our agents who was on another mission," Pierce finished, smiling.
"Was that the plan to checkmate Genosha?" Natasha asked.
"Yes. The robots can easily penetrate the storm around Genosha. I'm not hopeful enough to believe they can defeat that monster, but they will certainly keep it busy long enough for Project Insight to come online."
"How many?"
"We only managed to build sixteen in total. All ten must already be in Genosha; the other six were kept as reserves, until now, of course."
The sound of a helicopter landing outside the room caught everyone's attention, except Natasha's.
"Steve, can you hear me?" she spoke into her communicator.
"I'm here," he replied amidst the sounds of explosions, bullets, and gunfire.
"Pierce just revealed that he has a secret weapon. Six of them are heading to your position now."
"What should I expect?"
"I don't know."
Then Fury stepped out of the helicopter outside and walked towards them.
"I think I found Pierce's secret weapon," Steve said, his voice a bit weary.
POV: Third Person.
On top of Helicarrier IN-03.
A Few Minutes Before.
Fighting while jumping from Helicarrier to another wasn't an easy task. Since Sam was under heavy aerial fire, he couldn't get close to the Helicarrier. So Steve Rogers, after swapping the electronic card from the first Helicarrier, hitched a ride with Sam to the second.
Unlike the first and third, which had their decks engulfed in flames, the number two was practically deserted. There were only weapon crates and equipment scattered everywhere. With the launch underway, this was the only Helicarrier that hadn't armed itself before takeoff.
Sam and Steve, seeing no one around, calmly walked towards the center of the ship. But then the Winter Soldier appeared and started fighting them both. Using the element of surprise, he easily managed to delay Steve and tear off one of Sam's wings, causing him to fall from the sky.
"Bucky, stop this!" Steve yelled during the futile fight to wake his friend up.
While swiftly moving towards the entrance of the Helicarrier, he was pursued by Bucky. He wished he could save his friend, but at the moment, dealing with the three ships was a priority.
"Steve, can you hear me?" Natasha contacted him, informing him about their enemy's new weapon. Before the communication ended, two robots landed right in front of Steve, who was just a few meters from the entrance.
"I think I found Pierce's secret weapon," Steve said as he hurled his shield towards the black robot, standing four meters tall. To his surprise, the robot merely raised its hand and caught the shield. The second robot then raised its arm and fired a beam of energy at Steve, who rolled on the ground to dodge.
"I need backup here, Natasha!" he shouted into his communicator.
At that moment, Bucky finally caught up and attempted to kick Steve in the face. Steve raised his arm and managed to block the blow, and they then engaged in another exchange of blows. As Bucky was considered an ally of the Sentinels, they didn't shoot at Captain America. Their hands then morphed and transformed into long blades.
Seeing that they were closing in, and unable to reach his shield that had been thrown to the ground, Steve punched Bucky in the face and then grabbed him by the belt. He pulled him towards himself and landed a headbutt squarely on Bucky's nose. Dazed, Bucky stumbled backward, giving Steve enough time to pull the pins from the two grenades he had taken from Bucky's belt.
"BOOMM!" "BOOMM!"
After throwing the two grenades at the two robots, he silently prayed for them not to be so resistant, but unfortunately for him, the two robots reappeared in front of him, but now their bodies were not black anymore; they had changed to an almost dark red. Seconds later, they returned to their black color.
"Natasha, how's the backup?" he asked once again through the communicator, while dodging the energy shots from the robots and evading Bucky's pursuit, who had already recovered.
{Both the Queen and Sam are being pursued by the Sentinels; I'm heading immediately to his position, and after saving him, we'll both come to you.}
Without his wings, Sam was in more danger than Steve.
"Understood, Natasha, no need to rush," he said, looking at the three enemies coming towards him.
"Everything is under control."
POV: Third Person.
Avengers Base, In Orbit.
At the Same Moment.
"This is definitely the craziest idea you've ever come up with, Tony," Bruce said, standing beside his friend in the command room of the Base.
"Do you think this is crazy? When I was fourteen, I tried to build a robot girlfriend; those were dark times," Tony replied.
"Tony, you're literally increasing the speed at which we're falling; any miscalculation, and the worst will happen."
"Are you just going to keep complaining, or will you suggest another, less insane idea?" Stark asked.
Bruce knew they were out of options. Just hours ago, Stark managed to take control of a nearby military satellite. The first thing he did was try to ask for help, but his request went unanswered. They couldn't understand why, but with the military satellite under their control, Stark established a link with Jarvis, who reported all the information he could gather.
They discovered that it was a S.H.I.E.L.D agent who infiltrated during the construction of the base, putting them in this big trouble. But they couldn't figure out why. To make matters worse, the one who would have this information, Fury, was killed. And the insanity only increased when they saw that Steve and Natasha were being hunted for treason.
So they focused all their attention on S.H.I.E.L.D. It hadn't been more than half an hour since they heard Captain's speech after infiltrating the Triskelion system.
"Well, since you don't have any other idea besides mine, let's move forward; we have Nazis to kill."
Stark's plan was not to bring the Base back to its position, but to accelerate it. They would use Earth's gravity to orbit the planet and then launch back into space. During this orbit, the two of them, each wearing an Iron Man suit, would jump back to Earth. This plan wasn't so insane; it was entirely possible. But what made it insane for Bruce was that they hadn't regained full control of the Base yet.
"Then do it, and may God help us," Bruce decided.
"Just to be clear, which of the gods are you praying to?"
Stark's joke went unanswered; Bruce was more concerned with going to the storage room and donning one of the armors.
POV: Baldur.
Deserted Beach of Genosha.
A Few Minutes Before the Sentinels Arrive at the Triskelion.
"Angela, could you grab a bag or something and start cleaning up?"
"What in the hell are you talking about? You're responsible for most of this mess!" my sister shouted from a few meters away from me.
We were now on the beach of the main island of Genosha, which faced the storm directly. So invaders always landed here, making this a well-protected deserted beach.
Invasion attempts were rare now, so this place was very calm and quiet. Unfortunately, this peace was shattered when the damned Hydra sent ten Sentinels to cause trouble.
These damn robots easily passed through the storm and reached the beach. It would have definitely caught us off guard if I hadn't already been expecting this attack.
A few months ago, I received information from the WarDogs that Hydra was very interested in Mystique's blood. It wasn't difficult, with my past memories, to figure out that somehow the bastards managed to build Sentinels.
So an hour before Project Insight was put into operation, they invaded the island. Clearly, they were here to cause trouble for us so I wouldn't help Steve. Unfortunately, the ten robots were greeted the moment they reached the beach by anti-aircraft gunfire, shooting them down. I didn't want to waste my people's blood in this fight against these killing machines, so Angela and I took the lead in the battle when the Sentinels fell from the sky.
To my surprise, these Sentinels were much more advanced than expected. They could subtly change their shape to other materials, thus increasing their defense for each situation. They resembled a weaker version of the Sentinels from the movie X-Men: Days of Future Past.
They gave us more trouble than expected, but their weakness was clear. Their shape-shifting wasn't perfect, so all we had to do was use a higher energy potential than they could resist to destroy them.
The metal they were made of wasn't much of a resistance either; Angela easily cut them with her sword. But the metal itself was more interesting; I cut myself during the fight, didn't pay attention to such a small wound during the battle, but when it was all over, I noticed they didn't heal. This definitely requires more research.
So now we're on the beautiful and once peaceful beach of Genosha, with machine parts scattered all over the sand. I'm resting a bit sitting on one of the carcasses of a Sentinel, my lovely sister a few meters ahead of me, searching for her sword that fell in the sand during the fight.
"You should make more of these things, Baldur; they were great for training," she says.
"If you want to train, just go fight in the realm of the Fire Giants or something like that; I'm not going to spend so many resources to build training dummies for you."
"Stingy."
"Excuse me Sir."
I was about to start a fight with my sister when Alice called me.
"What is it, Alice?"
"Mr. Stark and Banner have managed to regain control of the Base to its position; they're heading towards the Triskelion as we speak."
"How are they coming back?"
"Using suits, sir."
Hydra's takeover of the Base was a truly perfect move, even I didn't foresee that.
"So everyone is coming back together again; maybe I'll take a look at everything."
(She'll be there too), I think.
"Stop making excuses; you just want to see your ex," my sister says, finally finding her sword.
"And what if I do? Let's go already; I don't want to interfere too much in Steve's affairs, but an attack of this level against Genosha has to be responded to accordingly. Even if they failed so miserably."
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