A soft cackle moved through the forest.
Thena dismissed the blade in her hand and turned toward the sound. Gilgamesh lowered his fists, but the golden armour around his forearms remained. Their sparring had already broken enough trees to warn away anyone paying attention.
The stranger floated into view without paying attention to anything.
A snake had coiled around his left forearm. He held it near his face and listened to its hissing with grave concentration.
"The Cowboys are America's Team," Lucius told it. "That is not an opinion. It is a title recognised by civilisation."
The snake raised its head and hissed again.
"The Seahawks are seasonal weather with merchandise."
Gilgamesh glanced at Thena. She watched the stranger drift closer, waiting to see whether he would notice the two people in his path.
He did not.
Lucius had found the weed three days earlier, lost three days to the first trial, and taken another bundle when he resumed his search. Smoking during the flight had seemed efficient. By the time he reached the forest, the snake's disagreement had become more urgent than the hunt.
He finally focused on Thena and Gilgamesh.
"Neutral parties," Lucius said. He lifted the snake-bearing arm. "Explain to this reptile why it is wrong."
Neither Eternal answered.
Gilgamesh stepped forward. "Who are you?"
"Lucius Noctis, largest shareholder of Stark Indus-"
Gilgamesh reached for his ankle.
Thena moved first.
One foot planted, her hips turned, and her heel descended across Lucius's shoulder. The kick tore him out of the air. He passed through one tree, struck a second, and broke the trunk of a third before hitting the ground.
The snake abandoned him during the first impact.
Lucius tried to call after it. Thena reached him before the words formed.
Golden lines met in her right hand and became a narrow blade. A round shield spread across her other arm. She placed the edge beside his throat and stood over him with her weight ready to move.
Lucius stared at the shield while his spine straightened and his ribs settled into place.
"That is a nice shield."
Thena struck him with it.
The rim caught his jaw and sent him through the lower branches. Lucius reached for telekinesis, seized a broken limb instead of his own body, and accelerated it past his head.
Gilgamesh waited where he would fall.
Cosmic Energy covered his fists and forearms in compact golden armour. He turned through the waist and drove one fist into Lucius's abdomen.
The ground opened beneath him.
Soil rolled around the crater. Roots snapped, and Lucius came to rest at the bottom with the taste of blood clearing some of the haze.
Thena landed beside Gilgamesh. Her blade had become a short spear aimed into the crater. Gilgamesh stayed close enough to intercept an escape without crossing her line.
Golden weapons and armoured fists in Australia left only two names. Recognition returned through the pain.
"Thena."
The spear did not move.
Lucius looked at Gilgamesh. "And you."
"There you are," Gilgamesh said.
Lucius tested his jaw. "I would like to complain about the welcome."
Thena changed the spear into a sword.
He raised both hands. "Later, then."
-
Project Insight launched while the Triskelion fought over who still belonged to SHIELD.
Alarms filled the building. Locks withdrew beneath the three carrier frames, and their platforms began to rise through the opening structure. Stark Industries thrusters took the weight one section at a time.
Steve reached the communications room before the first carrier cleared its cradle.
Two guards blocked the entrance. One swallowed a Strengthening Potion when Steve rounded the corner. The other was already moving.
Steve caught the man's pistol wrist and turned the muzzle away. His shield drove the second guard into the wall, but the potion kept him conscious. He came back before the first weapon reached the floor.
There was no time to make either of them understand. Steve damaged one knee, put the shield's rim across the other man's chest, and entered the room while they were still trying to rise.
The broadcast controls connected him to the Triskelion.
"This is Steve Rogers. Alexander Pierce is HYDRA. So are the STRIKE teams and the people launching Project Insight. I don't know how far the infiltration goes, and neither do you."
He heard gunfire in the corridor.
"That is what they are counting on. They want every honest agent to wait for orders while they choose who lives. Some of them are using Strengthening Potions. They may be standing beside you, and they may be stronger than you. That does not make them SHIELD."
The door buckled under an impact.
Steve kept his voice steady.
"Look at what the person next to you is protecting. If they are opening the carriers, stop them. If they are protecting the people inside this building, stand with them. We do not surrender our judgment because someone above us gave the wrong order."
The door opened.
"HYDRA wants us frightened and separated. Don't give them either."
The first squad entered with regular potion already in their blood. Their commander carried an enhanced dose.
Before Steve could move away from the console, the commander crossed the room and struck the centre of the shield hard enough to drive him backwards. Both hands seized its edge and pulled. Steve released it.
The sudden loss of resistance carried the man forward. Steve struck his throat, recovered the shield on the rebound, and turned as the rest of the squad spread through the room. Their speed removed the comfortable choices first. Every block left someone else close enough to hit him.
Across the Triskelion, Maria Hill heard Steve's message while the control centre divided.
A technician stepped away from his station. The security officer behind him raised a weapon.
Hill shot the officer before he found his angle.
"Keep the carrier links open," she ordered. "Anyone closing one is detained. If they resist, put them down."
A squad leader pulled an enhanced vial from his vest.
Hill put two rounds through it. Glass and liquid broke across his hand. He charged without it.
The loyal officers around her met agents who had already taken regular doses. Desks overturned as the first line collapsed. Hill moved down the central aisle, firing only when her people were clear. A strengthened agent ripped a fixed console from its mount and swung it across her path.
She dropped beneath the console, caught the hanging cables around his ankle, and used his next step to pull him off balance. Her pistol settled beneath his jaw before he could recover.
The carrier display continued to climb.
Sam's voice reached her through the earpiece. Wind tore at every word.
"First carrier has enhanced security on deck. One of them caught my wing."
Sam flew between the rising carriers with the assembly spread behind him. He had expected aircraft and fixed guns. The men waiting on the deck should not have been able to jump twenty feet through open air.
One did.
The agent caught Sam's right wing and dragged him toward the hull. Sam rolled before the carrier could take his head, folded the wing, and let the man's grip pull both of them down. He reopened the assembly just above the deck. The change threw the agent forward and gave Sam room to drive both boots into his back.
The man struck steel, rolled, and stood again.
Sam did not waste breath commenting. A Quinjet crossed above him, its guns rotating, while more agents emerged from the access doors.
"Hill, I need the launch crews looking somewhere else."
"I cannot give you the control centre."
"Then keep them off the guns."
Sam accelerated beneath the Quinjet's first burst. Rounds followed him between antenna housings as he banked around the carrier's forward structure.
-
In the council chamber, Natasha stopped wearing another woman's face.
Alexander Pierce watched the disguise collapse. Fury stood across the room with a pistol trained on him. Members of the World Security Council remained behind the locked doors, close enough to understand that their authority had become another hostage.
Pierce still controlled the launch access.
"You lost SHIELD," Fury said.
"SHIELD was never the objective."
Natasha saw Pierce's hand move inside his jacket and fired.
He turned with the shot. The round crossed his shoulder instead of his chest. Pierce pulled out a clearly marked enhanced vial, broke the seal, and swallowed before Fury fired again.
For a moment, he remained an old man in a dark suit.
Then he crossed the chamber and struck Fury hard enough to throw him over the council table.
Natasha fired twice. Pierce dragged one council member into the line, closed on her, and crushed the pistol between her hand and the table. The potion gave him power without giving him practice. His feet crossed when he turned, and the injured shoulder remained lower than the other.
She abandoned the weapon, drove an elbow into the wound, and stepped behind his leg. Pierce tore free before the throw settled. His grip closed on the back of her jacket and sent her through a glass partition.
Fury rose with blood at the corner of his mouth. His eye went to the empty vial.
"Noctis?"
"Not ours," Pierce said. "I bought what we needed."
"With SHIELD money."
Pierce gave him the smallest smile. "With your signature."
Fury did not answer. He shot the wounded shoulder, forcing Pierce to turn toward him and away from Natasha's movement behind.
She came through the broken partition with a length of cable, looped it around Pierce's throat, and planted both feet against his back. Pierce caught the cable and pulled her over his shoulder, but the motion exposed the access terminal.
Natasha released the cable before he could keep her and went for the controls.
-
The first carrier cleared the Triskelion.
Hill saw Sam moving across its hull on the surviving display. Steve's channel carried impacts and the measured breathing of a man with too many opponents inside one room.
The second carrier's thrusters engaged.
Three strengthened agents entered the control centre from the eastern corridor. Behind them came a commander holding an enhanced vial inside his fist, protected from Hill's first shot.
She changed magazines.
"All teams, second carrier is moving."
-
The Wakandan observation team had taken position beside the Sands Point estate before dawn.
Seven rooftops held armed guards. Patrols crossed the grounds on overlapping routes, and the gates never remained open long enough to expose the drive. The pool and terrace showed recent use, but Noctis had not appeared.
The team leader checked the road again.
King T'Chaka had ordered them to confirm the target's presence before signalling the extraction force. Entering now would expose the operation without securing him. The estate's guards were not the true concern. Noctis was.
Two War Dogs watched the mansion. The others watched the road and the sky.
Their report remained unsent.
They waited for the thief to return.