The Last Gambit
Steven Rogers wipes the guard's blood from his shield and, not sparing a glance at the decapitated corpse nor bothering to hide it, continues walking down the corridor. On the way down he crosses paths with few more agents, freeing them from their misery with ease. Osborn's scared shitless when he sees Steve coming, but Green Goblin persona quickly takes over, like always.
The Iron Grip, or his armor at least, is already there, expressing his disdain with Steve's bloody morning routine. Not that Iron Grip cares, but what if the bodies are found before they get the building at lockdown? Steve can't see or hear Hawkeye, but he has to be there somewhere, he always is. Winter Soldier, whom Steve had sent as a vanguard, salutes him and Steve salutes back, then turns his attention at Goblin and Iron Grip.
The Sleeper shall wake soon, and Steve will once again hold the light of gods in the palm of his hand.
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Darren runs in the air went, desperate to find the armored door again and let the others in before Rogers can wake The Sleeper. If awakened, it will go straight there, destroying everything in it's path, and god knows what Rogers will do with it. Or what The Iron Grip expects to get as a reward for his contribution.
Something suddendly enlarges Darren to normal size, and the vent breaks under his weight, dropping him into a corridor full of double agents.
And Ant-man!
He also found the armored door, but is too preoccupied to open it. The enemy agents are better-trained and larger in numbers than those he encountered in the cave, and Ant-Man is now also there. Darren gets shot badly, or at least it feels like it, to stomach but obviously doesn't have time to take a look at the wound.
Ant-man enlarges the ants as a distraction and punches Darren on the face, but Darren is fast too and shoots him at point-blank, straight to the face. Unfortunately the shot doesn't kill him, but it proves Darren was right.
It's Scott Lang.
When most of the agents are down, Darren reaches for the door, but the ants are still there. And there's somebody locked in the box.
Starr. Probably left alive to be used as a hostage. Elephant-sized ant scares Starr shitless, but otherwise he seems to be okay.
"Okay, let's go --"Ant-man hits Darren from behind and air goes all black around him.
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Steve's feeling particularly sadistic today. He feels like deciding which of the prisoners to torture and which to use as a hostage. Johann knows them both and deserves to be punished from intervening with his Vision. Torturing Starr in front of Johann would have greater psychological impact, they are friends after all. But that would also make him more useful hostage...
Sam interrupts his train of thought by informing him that the intruders have gotten past the armored door and are almost there. Despite the whole building being in lockdown. Lang played his part already and wants to get paid and out of there before the big fight breaks loose, he's stupid but not suicical. Steve politely tells him he will stay as long as Steve wants or needs. If the leaves before getting his permission, he'll regret it.
Steve turns his gaze to Starr, and tells Winter Soldier to go get Cross.
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Some of the cameras are still offline or being turned back on, and Susan has her illusions, so it's easy for her and Helmut to get in. They pass unnoticed past all the guards, but illusions vanish as a sharp cry of pain echoes to the hallway.
Starr's voice.
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"You're deluded, Johann." Steve tells the man standing a few meters away from him "It was the power of gods we fought of in the war. Like that, this is far greater than any of us, yet you've never understood what marks what we fight a battle of nations. But i have seen the future, and there will be only one flag!"
Steve presses the sharp edge of his shield to Starr's throat, Winter Soldier having a gun on Darren's temple.
"I always did do what i perceived right. I didn't care what people, press, mobs, or politicians said. I planted myself, like a tree, next to the river of righteousness and told the whole world: No, you move."
Steve stares Johann straight to the eyes.
"And look at me now!"
"That's a very nice speech you have there, captain" Johann answers slowly, estimating their situation, "But do you know what i see when i look at you?"
"Frankly, Scarlet?" Steve grins "I don't give a damn." Steve hits Starr on the throat, and The Lizard leaps on him, proving no match for his shield.
Johann takes on Steve and Lizard the Green Goblin, Hawkeye starting to shoot them from somewhere. Before Winter Soldier can shoot Darren, he throws him off and tries to reach the control room but is stopped. Soldier, however, couldn't stop Brock at the same time.
It doesn't matter, Coulson and Sam are there. Captain's orders.
What Steve doesn't expect is for Helmut Zemo to turn up alive.
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Coulson, pressing a gun to the back of a technician's head, hears something and turns to see a gun barrel. Rumlow, of course. Sam Wilson, The Eagle, comes from behind and Rumlow feels a gun barrel on his neck.
"You picked the wrong side, agent." Coulson brags.
Brock doesn't answer. It depends on where you're standing. Coulson tells the technician to activate Project Vision. The man sweats and shakes. He knows what will happen if he does, but is also afraid to die.
"Is there a problem?" Technician doesn't answer to Wilson.
"Is there a problem?!" The technician makes up his mind.
"No. I won't."
"What?!" The technician knows what's going to happen and closes his eyes.
"I won't activate it."
Coulson shoots the technician and gets a bullet to the brain from Brock, who dodges Wilson's bullets and knocks the guns from his hands.
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Helmut has to admit illusions are quite useful, but not as useful as an adamantium sword he uses to pierce through waves and waves of double agents and War Machines until they stop coming. He rushes to dying Starr's side.
"Scott Lang.. Ant-man.." Starr wheezes "Iron Grip is... Is..S.." Starr never completes his last sentence.
Rogers, having noticed nothing has happened, turns to Iron Grip.
"Activate it, will you?" Johann uses the moment to make a surprise attack and manages to separate Rogers from his shield, which Helmut picks up and pierces Iron Grips armor open with, but not before he had managed to activate the system.
The armor is empty. Iron Grip was never there.
Ant-man appears and punches Helmut so hard he falls down, but he quickly gets to his feet.
Brock's somewhere alone, against at least Wilson, Johann's fighting with Rogers and might be on the win, Darren's holding his ground against Winter Soldier despite the damage done to his suit, Susan's trying to locate Hawkeye, and Lizard --
..... Lizard's turned back into Connors.
Helmut tries to reach Connors and Goblin, but Ant-Man takes him down again, and he barely misses an arrow to leg.
"Susan!" Susan turns.
"Connors! The Goblin!"
Helmut turns his focus back to his opponent, who kicks him in the face and shrinks down to get behind him, but Helmut's faster and slaps him between his hands like a fly.
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Brock's always wondered why the fucking hell is Wilson working for a nazi. That has to take a special level of insanity.
"Why, you ask? Why?!" Wilson kicks Brock's spine, but he doesn't think he managed to break it yet "For the future! For our home of the brave! In the name of gods!"
Yeah, he's at least as batshit insane as Rogers. He's close enough now.
"Gods, huh?" Brock pulls out a grenade "Let's go see them together."
Wilson tries to dodge, causing the grenade to explode on Brock's face and Wilson's back, destroying his wings.
With the remnants of his strenght, Brock kicks Wilson out of the window. He hears technicians come out of their hiding spots and try to wake him up.
"Agent Rumlow! Agent Rumlow! Brock!!"
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Helmut got to the files, but he'll need two top-level authorisation's eye scans to shut the system down. Pierce has to be there somewhere, building's on lockdown. He comes to the controls room and sees Brock lying on the ground and one technician trying to wake him.
"Rumlow.." Technicians turn to look at him, scared of him being another double agent.
"Some...body get Pierce..." Brock rasped to no one in particular, on the bring of unconsciousness "N...next floor.."
Helmut silently prayed for Brock and ran away, telling himself he had absolutely no time to lose. He didn't even know where The Sleeper originally was. It could be already rampaging through a major city.
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Susan ends up wrestling with the Goblin, the creature's drool dripping into her eye. She doesn't really know what to do to it, they need Osborn alive. Darren finally manages to knock Winter Soldier out and shoots at Hawkeye with his rifle. After an exchange of shots, Hawk dissappears, and Darren goes to help Johann. Despite being quite stuck, Susan manages a distraction that turns the fight in their favor.
Helmut comes with Pierce, who's probably okay because he's his assholish self.
"The fuck is that thing?!"
"No time to explain! Get up there already!"
The Sleeper's currently over the Atlantic, nearing the west coast. If they stop it there, it'll sink.
Despite being outnumbered and fighting a losing battle, Rogers still brags. They won't get Osborn back in time. The world will burn to the ground and a new one will rise from it's ashes!
Susan and Connors haul Goblin to the controls, Connors trying to talk to Osborn, failing to realize the whole "inner battle" thing only works in fiction.
"Left eye, Norman, left eye!"
Susan is honestly surprised it actually works, if only for few seconds. That, however, is enough. The scanner recognizes Osborn's eye and shuts down, also opening the barricades on the doors.
"We won, Rogers" Johann said, as it was his turn to brag now.
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It's on the news: only Rogers and Lang are caught (Rogers will sure as hell get a death penalty, but jailtime isn't enough to Lang!), Iron Grip, Hawkeye and Winter Soldier managing to escape and Wilson's body being never found. Goblin eventually turned back to Osborn and was sent to an asylym until somebody figures out where the fuck Green Goblin came from and what to do to it. Starr's dead and Brock's condition is critical, thought he'll probably make it.
Johann's starting to blame himself, like he always does when something like this happens.
Helmut doesn't know what Johann would've done if Brock died too, thank god it didn't happen.
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After Starr's funeral, Johann, alone, stands over the open grave.
The gravestones stand silently, row upon row like soldiers long forgotten.
Next: The Stringer (You know, the scene that comes after the end credits)