The counterattack had begun!
In that moment, Norman, who possessed no superhuman abilities whatsoever, seemed to become the leader of the Avengers. He even stole Steve Rogers' iconic line right out from under him. Yet no one found it inappropriate. Any high ranking official who wasn't secretly Hydra would have looked at Norman Osborn's performance today and seen nothing but sheer courage. Unarmed and unprotected, he had dared to stand up to Pierce.
The public, meanwhile, worshipped him for it. A single thought echoed in the hearts of everyone watching: they truly needed someone with an iron will to take command, to lead those superpowered individuals and strike at evil with the force of a sledgehammer!
In reality, Norman was panicking.
The moment he saw Pierce draw that pistol, his vision swam with dizziness. What gave him the nerve to stand his ground was a small gadget Bant had given him earlier: a portable energy shield generator capable of enveloping him in an instant. So even if Steve hadn't arrived in time, he would have been fine. Of course, from a theatrical standpoint, the actual outcome was far more dramatic.
Now, everyone had thrown themselves into the fray. After injecting another dose of the serum, Connors' physical condition was immediately restored by its regenerative properties. Curiously, however, he wasn't a Dinosaur Man this time. He was just an ordinary Lizard Man. Despite his reduced size and durability, Connors still charged headlong at the Hydra soldiers!
Peter swiftly rescued Harry and the others.
"You okay, Harry?"
"I'm fine." Harry's voice sounded weak, but clad in the armor Bant had given him, he was actually the safest of the captured group. Once freed by Peter, he dodged attacks from enemy agents while remotely summoning a new Goblin Glider.
Natasha, Nick Fury, and Clint Barton were unarmed, but their hand to hand combat skills were exceptional. They quickly disarmed several Hydra operatives and turned the stolen weapons against their foes. There were only a handful of them, yet they fought like an army.
Hydra, on the other hand, actually had an army. And it was an army equipped with top tier gear!
"I'll say it again..." Nick Fury bit the pin out of a grenade and hurled it with force. "Those Pleiades energy shields are completely broken! How is anyone supposed to fight that?"
They couldn't break through. They simply couldn't land a hit! Only the high intensity energy blasts from Tony Stark's armor could punch through those shields. Conventional weapons were useless.
"I recall you were the one who insisted every single agent be issued one," Hill said, her hair plastered to her cheek as she dodged an incoming strike.
"I didn't know they were Hydra..."
Fury shouted back.
Elsewhere, Connors barreled straight into the line of shielded Hydra operatives. The intense energy field seared his skin, but he didn't so much as blink.
"Doctor, the shields are one way only!"
Peter swung in on a web line, arcing over the Hydra formation and delivering a spinning kick to the back of one operative's head. In that instant, a gap appeared in Hydra's defensive line. Connors immediately exploited the opening, slamming into the breach and scattering the operatives like bowling pins. Peter flipped backward, landed on Connors' shoulder to cushion his momentum, then dropped to the ground.
"Didn't expect you to make it back here. But why are you a Lizard Man?" Peter asked.
"I used the failed Lizard Serum. The original formula." Connors' bulbous, ugly face split into a grin.
"The Lizard Serum?!"
Peter jumped back in alarm. "I thought all of that stuff was destroyed!"
"Did you forget about the samples Sturm stole? They were kept at the Hardy Foundation."
Connors recalled.
Rewind the clock slightly.
At the Hardy Foundation. Just as Mrs. Hardy was about to use her phone to alert Pierce, Felicia burst into the room and snatched the device from her hand.
"Felicia, what do you think you're doing?" The usually gentle girl's sudden outburst was so fierce it even stunned the domineering Mrs. Hardy.
"Mother, you can't arrest them!" Felicia smashed her mother's phone on the floor, her voice resolute.
A few minutes earlier, Felicia had met with Mary Jane. After discovering Pleiades was on lockdown, Mary Jane had rushed straight to Felicia. In her eyes, the Hardy Foundation was a formidable power in its own right. She hoped Felicia might be able to do something to get Bant out of danger. So she relayed the secret she had uncovered.
But the subsequent turn of events far exceeded what either young woman could have anticipated. Regardless, neither of them could stand by and watch Bant and his friends fall into harm's way.
Connors breathed a sigh of relief, but he hadn't forgotten his duty to return to the battlefield. The serum's power was fading, leaving him with no strength to fight. Even the injuries he'd sustained were enough to put his life at risk at any moment. It was then that Felicia produced a vial of green serum. Something she had acquired by chance.
Ever since Bant had been kidnapped by Kraven, Felicia had desperately wanted the power to protect him. She had set her sights on the serum, but before she could even begin searching for it, she stumbled upon these vials in a forgotten corner of the Hardy Foundation. She had even considered injecting herself, but the fear of being permanently transformed into a hideous lizard had stayed her hand. Now, with Connors present, she handed over every last vial without hesitation.
After hearing Connors' explanation, Peter was stunned.
"Seriously? That's insane."
Connors grabbed a Hydra soldier and crushed the man's skull with his bare claws. "I suspect Sturm planted them at the Hardy Foundation on purpose. If I recall correctly, Bant and Felicia were the ones who acquired the old Oscorp equipment from him. He probably held a grudge. Leaving the serum there... if someone accidentally broke a vial, Felicia would have turned into a monster."
"That lunatic Sturm!"
Peter swore.
Then, his voice laced with concern, he asked, "Doctor, are you sure you can control yourself?"
"Relax. I've injected the antibody before. I'll be stable for a while. Heads up, more incoming!"
A heavy machine gun opened fire, its rounds tearing through the asphalt and gouging holes dozens of centimeters deep. Peter and Connors scattered.
In the air, Tony was taking heavy fire too.
"There are too many of them!"
He swooped down and blasted a few enemies with his repulsor rays, but a cannon shell struck him from behind, sending him crashing hard into the pavement.
"Where's our backup?!"
He yelled.
"Bant's currently missing in action," Steve shouted back as he pushed forward through a hailstorm of bullets.
"Well, we're screwed then..."
Stark looked up at the dark clouds gathering overhead, his face a mask of despair.
"Mr. Stark, why are you giving up already?"
Peter dodged a spray of gunfire and yelled back.
"See for yourselves."
Tony pointed upward.
Hovering in the sky above were three colossal Helicarriers, suspended like the Sword of Damocles, threatening the entire world. Those immense structures, floating islands of steel, pressed down on everyone's hearts with an oppressive, suffocating weight. Seeing this, Pierce, who had been seething with frustration at the superheroes' arrival, burst into triumphant laughter.
He had slipped away the moment the fighting started. Now, he had found an opportunity to board an aircraft and return to the command carrier. Standing in the main control room, Pierce gazed down at the tiny figures of the superheroes in Times Square, feeling like a god of divine judgment. Without hesitation, he slammed his hand down on the attack button.
Instantly, bullets and explosives rained down like a monsoon!
BOOM!!
BOOM!!
It was an indiscriminate bombardment! The only reason the Hydra agents survived was thanks to their energy shields protecting their heads.
"Spider Kid!"
Stark shouted, hurling several devices. The moment they activated, they generated a small defensive field that enveloped Peter. Peter, with his lightning fast reflexes, simultaneously shot out multiple webs and yanked Natasha and the others inside the protective bubble.
"Thanks!"
The first wave of the Helicarriers' assault was weathered safely. But no one breathed a sigh of relief. Bullets were the least dangerous weapons on those three behemoths.
Pierce didn't immediately press the attack. He opened a communication channel, and his face appeared on the giant screens in Times Square. Sneering with contempt, he mocked them. "Heh heh. You've lost, Fury. Captain. That was just a little hello. The weapons aboard these three Helicarriers are sufficient to wage a war and conquer a small nation in a single day! And I have you to thank for that, Tony Stark. And that hacker who's probably dead by now. Without your help, we couldn't have gotten these beauties airborne so quickly."
"Shut your mouth, you son of a bitch!"
Steve hurled his shield with all his might, smashing the screen displaying Pierce's face to pieces. But Pierce simply switched to a holographic projection.
"Your efforts are futile, Captain. Watch now. The sacred flames of Hydra will purify you all! A new world shall rise from the ashes of the old. Ahahahaha..."
"He's going to launch the nukes!"
Nick Fury's face darkened.
Just as he predicted, the Helicarriers' nuclear launch sequences began to initialize. The three vessels started climbing to higher altitudes to avoid being caught in their own blast radius. The heroes could run. But New York City couldn't.
In moments, the carriers reached their designated altitude. Pierce slammed the nuclear launch button with grim finality.
"Burn with this city, Fury! AHAHAHA..."
But nothing happened.
"Huh?"
Pierce blinked. He jabbed the button again. And again. He pressed it over and over until the red button looked like it was about to shoot sparks, and only then did it dawn on him that the damn thing simply wasn't working. Seriously? How could something so critical just break? His laughter died in his throat.
Then, a hoarse voice spoke from behind him.
"Of course it's not broken. I've simply taken control of the Helicarrier's systems."
Pierce whirled around. Only then did he notice that every agent in the room had been frozen solid, transformed into ice sculptures.
Bant, now a spectral figure of living frost, strode toward him at a leisurely pace.
"What's the matter? Why'd you stop laughing? Are you just naturally incapable of smiling?"
/-\
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