Chapter 29: Avengers Part 7

At the top of Stark Tower, the shield was finally deactivated. Loki had done it. But shutting down the main machine... that was another story.

It wasn't just an energy source: it was a channel. A conduit designed to force the Tesseract to open a portal, using all its power to pierce the fabric of space. The shield had been just a distraction; the hard part was only beginning.

And the time he needed vanished the moment HIVE appeared.

"Damn you... you betrayed us" HIVE spat with fury.

"I was never on your side" Loki replied arrogantly.

Before he could finish speaking, HIVE was already in front of him, slamming him with a brutal punch. Loki vanished in a flurry of illusions, multiplying to confuse the enemy, but HIVE only sneered.

"Cheap tricks. They don't work on me."

And he went straight for the real Loki.

The Asgardian countered, but HIVE dodged with ease and grabbed him by the neck, lifting him off the ground.

"You're not going to ruin our plans."

Barely able to breathe, Loki muttered with scorn:

"They're not our plans, you idiot. They're his."

HIVE squeezed harder… until a burst of energy knocked him back.

"Did I miss the invite?" said Tony as he landed, his armor sparking.

One by one, the rest began to arrive.

HIVE knew it: facing them all would be suicide. So he opened his mouth and released a dark gas, a living smoke that slithered toward them.

Wanda raised a hand and caught it mid-air, trapping it in a sphere she compressed until it burst in a silent implosion.

"That gas parasitizes its victims. Don't breathe it."

But that wasn't the only place HIVE had seeded his poison.

Unbeknownst to them, the leaders of every Hydra squad had a tiny fraction of the parasite inside them. Something microscopic. Dormant. Until now.

And all of them began to release the same smoke.

At the top of the tower, HIVE grew stronger with every second.

"Nothing special, just brute strength... hopefully that'll be enough."

He launched at Tony in a flash of speed, knocking him down with a brutal kick. The armor cracked. The floor shattered beneath the impact.

The others jumped into action instantly.

Tony, still staggering, fired several missiles. Steve threw his shield. Clint unleashed charged arrows. Natasha fired her electric blasts. Gwen struck with a punch packed with all her strength.

Nothing. HIVE didn't even flinch... until Gwen's hit knocked her back several meters and left a small wound.

HIVE looked at her in surprise.

"I've absorbed the strength of thousands... and you managed to hurt me. Fascinating."

Gwen went pale.

"You want to absorb me and make me part of your hive, don't you?"

The answer came instantly: a direct attack.

Gwen dodged and countered, but HIVE caught her leg. She began to release the smoke, but Wanda intercepted again, containing it with surgical precision.

This time, HIVE looked at Wanda with interest.

"You don't understand. All minds, all conflict... I can fix it. When everyone is part of me, there will be peace."

"You're the good guy now?" Tony mocked.

"I am a god. I am beyond good and evil"

HIVE replied with absolute calm, as if reciting a universal truth.

Wanda stepped forward.

"Better a world of chaos and freedom... than peace without thought. Even if it means pain."

Her eyes burned red.

"Because chaos means choice. Pain, yes. But also love, hope, growth. Your hive isn't peace... it's silence. Death disguised as order."

HIVE was about to answer, but suddenly he stopped. He screamed.

"What are you doing?!"

"I'm freeing them" Wanda replied calmly.

HIVE tried to reach her, but Gwen intercepted with a side attack. Then arrows exploded at her feet, releasing foam that solidified and trapped her momentarily.

Enough for Steve to land a brutal shield strike. Before she could react, she felt two hands on her back.

A rising heat.

Two laser beams pierced her, burning through.

"Looks like it works better up close" said Tony.

"No, looks like she's getting weaker" Natasha corrected, looking behind them.

Wanda was still floating. Her red eyes, her aura pulsing. She was doing something.

---

~ Inside HIVE's mind ~

"Stop!"

"You can't do this!"

"I'm a god!"

A massive bulk floated in an endless white void. A grotesque body made of arms, faces, and fused limbs. There were no multiple voices. Just one dominant consciousness.

HIVE didn't share his mind. He assimilated. Annihilated. Victims lost their individuality, becoming extensions of his will.

But now, Wanda walked among his thoughts. Separating parts. Dissolving trapped identities.

Every consciousness she freed turned into light. The body shrank. HIVE roared.

"You shouldn't be able to do this!"

"This is my mind!"

"My fortress!"

But before Wanda, he was nothing more than prey. Vulnerable. Exposed. His will had no power here.

For the first time in countless centuries… he felt fear.

Wanda didn't show it, but she knew. Since the day Laplace shared his plan and told her what she would be capable of. At first, she hadn't taken it seriously. But when she received her powers, she understood.

She didn't feel her powers as something new... it was as if they had always been there.

But she also knew how powerful they were.

Chaos Magic wasn't a skill. It was a state of being.

Even so, HIVE's mind was monstrous. Thousands of times more powerful than the average human's.

But Wanda passed through it like smoke. She claimed its mental domain, immobilizing it, leaving it defenseless.

One by one, the minds fell. Light after light, until only one remained.

---

~ Outside ~

The creature was no longer a god.

It was barely a shadow.

And then… it fell to its knees.

"No... please. I don't want to die."

The group stared in shock. Seconds ago, it had spoken with divine arrogance. Now... it just trembled.

Tony was the first to speak:

"Begging now?"

But HIVE wasn't looking at him.

"I don't want to die..."

"He's not talking to us" Natasha said softly, looking at Wanda.

"What is that girl doing?"

Wanda answered without turning.

"I'm killing it. Only one consciousness remains. It always had a way to escape into another body. But this time... there's nowhere left to go."

She looked at Natasha for a signal. Natasha nodded.

Wanda's eyes shone intensely.

And HIVE collapsed. Dead.

"Finally" Tony sighed.

The group lowered their guard. No one mourned its end.

Then they looked at the machine.

Tony stepped closer to deactivate it, but Wanda stopped him.

"Wait."

She turned to Clint and Natasha.

"Laplace said you have to launch the missiles... there" she pointed to the sky.

The team looked at her, puzzled.

"Missiles?"

But Clint and Natasha understood immediately. They contacted their links.

"Tony, how long until the portal opens?"

"Two minutes."

"Then in two minutes, three nuclear missiles will be heading toward this tower."

Tony slowly turned toward them.

"Why the hell are nuclear missiles on their way here?"

"In case we failed" Natasha replied.

"Missiles capable of erasing Manhattan" Clint added.

Tony was horrified.

"Wait! A tactical nuclear missile weighs at least two tons and travels at Mach 1. And you want to redirect it... mid-flight?... that's..."

"It's easy" Wanda interrupted.

There was no time for questions. A blue beam crossed the sky and the portal opened. Three bright dots approached the Tower.

Wanda raised her hands. Her energy danced.

The missiles changed trajectory and entered the portal.

Explosion.

Silence.

"You're kidding" said Tony, stunned.

The others didn't grasp the magnitude of what had just happened. But he did.

Wanda hadn't just done it.

She had done it effortlessly.

And as he watched her float, he understood something with chilling clarity:

That girl is dangerously powerful.

And remembering she seemed to hold some kind of grudge, he silently swore he needed to apologize.

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