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5 MINUTES AGO…
“So not cool.”
“This is not of the tesseract,” Thor replied to Clint’s comment over the comms.
“Small comfort, Thor,” Clint muttered. “So, what the hell is it?”
The hole that had opened up in the center of the five devices was so deep it appeared to empty into the void of space without stars, with a thin surrounding ring of blinding white light. The two dozen Hydra soldiers shifting around them had a nervous energy, eyes wide, and keeping all talking to a whisper.
The only one speaking above a whisper was the apparent leader, who was smearing blood from where he had sliced into his hand onto his own forehead as he read aloud more Latin and some other language none of them recognized from the old book that lay on the broken stump.
“It’s a spell,” Natasha whispered urgently.
“No shit,” Clint grumbled. “But wherever that portal leads is already open. What the hell is he summoning?”
*****
10 MINUTES BEFORE THAT…
When they had first passed over, the five devices were already in place in a precise circle in the center of the cemetery, with a scientist stationed at each device.
On the quinjet, Clint and Nat had been scanning out the front screen and the monitors anxiously, while Steve and Bruce kept an eye on the tablet screens they held. Tony was in the air over New York still, having had a hard time getting out of the UN without causing an international incident, and would arrive not long after they landed. They weren’t sure where Thor was at the moment as Jane had alerted them that he’d left his phone and that his comms unit had been fried. Bruce had estimated his arrival time based on her report of when he left the laboratory in Scandinavia to also be close to their landing.
All they had so far was that Hydra was trespassing in a cemetery in Kansas of all places, doing no one knew what in the dusk of the day, so they had landed quietly and sneaked into positions around the area, waiting for Tony and Thor to arrive and for Steve to give the signal.
It was Clint who relayed what he could see was happening, but it was Natasha caught swearing in Russian when he relayed that the leader had called out to the soldiers, who had moved behind the scientists. At a signal from the leader, had casually slit the men’s throats, shoving their bodies over the devices and into the center of the rough circle. Steve had been poised to drop his hand for them to move in as several things happened simultaneously.
Thor and Tony arrived quietly, Tony tossing the god of thunder a spare comm from a compartment on his suit, and the leader held up his bloody hand as each of the devices all shot blinding white light at two of the other devices, forming a pentagram. Between the flared white lines, it became a deep void, blacker than any black Clint had seen before. The five scientists bodies vanished into the darkness.
A few soldiers screamed, then all sound shut off as though someone had hit mute on a remote as the void in the center flared until the pentagram became a solid form, surrounded by a harsh white outline from the devices.
*****
NOW…
“Hawkeye,” Natasha said. “Clint.”
He snapped his attention from the leader back to the portal as the darkness rippled. In the center, a hump formed, a lump emerged. It was wet and moving, parts pulling into the shape of a bowed head and an arm that pressed against the edge of the darkness. The shape continued to emerge until the mass of gooey crimson and black sludge shifted into the shape of a man climbing up slowly.
From this distance, Clint could tell the figure was tall and slender, broad-shouldered, but moved as though exhausted, having pushed itself through miles of quicksand, rather than summoned. It struggled to its feet and with the overall coverage of a dark, oozing substance and the reddish shine on the limbs, Clint wasn’t sure if it was human, or just humanoid.
The soldiers around the devices were still and quiet as the thing’s hands came up to wipe the slime and goo from its eyes, that opened to look around as it seemed to suck in a deep, wheezing breath. In the already dark of dusk, the only light was the bright flare of the five-pointed star outline between the devices. To say the spooky atmosphere was intense would have been wrong.
“Wait,” Thor breathed, just loud enough for the comms devices to pick it up.
“Is it human?” Bruce asked.
“We must know more about what we face, friends,” Thor muttered.
“Damn it,” Tony grumbled. “Should have just destroyed those devices as soon as we arrived.”
Steve shushed them, gesturing to the area in the center of the cemetery.
The being that had risen up screamed suddenly, back arching, limbs flung out, twisting in torment. Then it fell back to its knees, sliding onto its side, coalescing back into a gooey lump. But surrounding it, inside the void, four new figures, four of the scientists that had been shoved in, rose up, all of them screaming soundlessly with their slit throats and dead eyes, but writhing as if in pain. Around the portal, the soldiers backed away as the fifth scientist, a tall blond man whose damaged throat healed as he began to rise from the void, directly behind and over the first figure, now huddled in on itself, arms wrapped around its head.
The blond scientist, his glasses that had hung on by one ear flung back into the hole, was smiling and looking around, taking in the people around the pit. When his eyes settled on the leader, who puffed out his chest at his success at whatever he thought he’d summoned, the scientist’s eyes turned cold as he snapped his fingers. All four of the other scientists’ bodies arched, tense and tortured. There was the sharp, brittle, brutish sound of many bones breaking as the four went limp, still, and sank back into the darkness of the hole, leaving the gooey being and the blond scientist in the center. For a split second, Clint was sure the ice blue eyes of the remaining scientist had looked directly at him, flashing red, but they locked back on the leader as the man spoke up.
“My Lord Lucifer,” the Hydra leader called.
“Lucifer?” Steve whispered. Later, all of the team would claim they were frozen and could not make themselves move. Clint shivered internally, not quite believing Thor’s claim that this wasn’t Tesseract magic.
“Mud monkey,” the thing wearing the soldier replied coldly.
This seemed to give the leader pause, but he pressed on.
“My people have worked for a very long time for a way to open the Cage-.”
“Really.” ‘Lucifer’ answered, stepping dismissively up on the back of the huddled being, ignoring the shuddering whine, then down onto the dark void material as though it was solid, stopping casually just inside the white outline. “And I’m assuming there’s a reason for all your effort besides my company?”
The leader stood taller, his smile tightening.
“My name is Henrik von Kurtz. I am what remains of Hydra’s stateside command.”
Lucifer rolled his eyes and looked down at himself in disgust.
“Hydra?” He snapped and the white coat vanished, leaving him in a white t-shirt, plain black slacks, and hiking boots.
“I have freed you, summoned you,” the leader declared, eyes stuttering over to the huddled mass behind Lucifer, “…and your companion-.”
“Companion?” Lucifer asked, tilting his head in confusion. He glanced back at the huddled being and smirked darkly. “Him?” He strolled over and toed the being with one boot tip. “You hear that, Sam?”
The huddled mass shivered, letting out a wheeze, which made the leader blink in surprise.
“-to help Hydra bring order to the world,” von Kurtz swallowed. “We must first destroy the Avengers. With your help, of course.”
“The Avengers?” Lucifer’s gaze drifted around at each person in the cemetery until all the soldiers were twitching nervously. Then he tilted his head the other direction and his eyes did flare red as the possessed man looked directly in the area of the hidden Avengers. “Them? Really?”
He threw his head back and began to laugh loudly. The Hydra leader frowned in anger.
Clint tensed. He heard Bruce whisper into the comms.
“Oh, this can’t end well.”
*****
None of them could say what signal they responded to, but they could all move again and it was as though they had all been fighting against a forcefield that had fallen at that moment.
The Hydra leader’s eyes had gone wide as he’d understood the implications of the look from Lucifer. Steve had dropped the hand he’d had held up, but he didn’t remember doing it. Thor had jerked his hand as though Mjolnir had attempted to pull away pre-emptively. Tony’s boots had flared off, shooting him up through the trees and into the open; even Jarvis would later say there had been no command from him or Stark to ignite them. Clint’s arrow and Natasha’s thrown knife had hit Lucifer’s chest at the same time, the outline of the pentagram flaring brightly as the weapons crossed it.
Bruce had been the only one to hold control and not change, but he’d swear that all five of the others had reacted at the same time.
“Ouch,” Lucifer chuckled with a fake moue as he pulled both the arrow and knife from his chest, where no blood bloomed.
“Stop them!” The leader yelled, gesturing at the attacking Avengers as he pulled his own gun from its holster. All of the Hydra soldiers began firing at the Avengers, any bullets that passed through the pentagram making the outline flare and with the rapid and random flashing, they ducked back, jogging around the edge of the devices to keep the bullets from crossing the borders.
“Surrender!” Steve yelled, bashing a gun out of one of the soldier’s grip, but in the confusion, another soldier got off a shot that bloomed red on Steve’s forearm. He retained his hold on the shield, but his next attempt to deflect a bullet was a bit slower.
Tony was steadily blasting, aiming for the still smiling blond man in the center of the devices. None of the strikes appeared to do any damage to him, but the lump still huddling behind him flinched and cried out when it came too close.
Natasha was a whirling dervish, dancing with her widow bites and blades between the snick and thunk of Clint’s arrows, soldiers flinching or falling, while Bruce stayed out of sight at the jet ramp and called out if anyone or ‘anything’ escaped the other Avengers’ circle of battle. Clint didn’t miss much but as the archer was creeped out by all of his arrows, explosive or not, doing absolutely nothing to the possessed scientist, as well as working to cover his teammates, he was avoiding turning his attention away from the battle.
Lightning crackled across the sky, but only skirted the edge of the hole, following the device outline. The blond man gestured as it built and a spark shot away, taking out the leader, his body smoking and horrificly burned as it fell.
“Enough,” Lucifer called out, sounding almost bored.
Everyone who still lived felt static crawl across the area and turned to face the portal. All six of the Avengers and the small handful of Hydra soldiers. The sky was entirely dark, Lucifer’s face lit from the white outline. He waited for the rest of Thor’s lightning to bleed off into the ground or up into the sky before he glanced down at the shivering lump at his feet and smirked.
“So close, huh?” Lucifer crossed his arms over his chest and strolled around the circle, where he would flick a finger at a random soldier as he passed. All of them screamed, eyes rolling back, then fall dead where they stood. Not once did he flick at one of the Avengers, although he did eye each one of them up and down, even tilting his head towards the jet, where Bruce shivered, feeling the eyes on him.
“Sir,” Steve called, chest heaving.
All of them had their weapons up, eyes on the man in the middle.
“Sir?” Lucifer chuckled. “Aren’t you polite for a man who just killed a cadre of other men? They were the worst scum of what my brothers call ‘humanity’ and wanted to kill you first, but still. So polite.” He paused, one finger tapping his chin where he boldly stood just inside the outline. “I’m inclined to hear what you have to say. Eh, Sam?” He glanced back towards the lump that had heaved itself up onto its knees, head still bowed, wavering over shaking arms.
When the figure didn’t respond, Lucifer frowned.
“You’re no fun anymore.”
“Sir,” Steve resumed, disturbed more than he could dare to show.
“Lucifer, boy,” the man replied, his smile cold as he pointed over his shoulder at the lump.
“Lucifer,” Thor growled. “You cannot be him as he was sealed back in his cage some years ago.”
The blond man blinked in confusion and smirked as he held his arms out.
“Did you not just hear what that guy called me?”
“Yeah,” came Tony, “We don’t usually take whatever Hydra says as truth. Evil lied. Like, a lot. You get that, right?”
Lucifer laughed, watching the five Avengers in the cemetery move into place around the portal, standing not far from the devices.
“Sam, have I ever lied to you?” He leaned back, speaking sotto voce to the huddled being behind him, who shivered, shaking his head slowly. “See? It’s all a misunderstanding.” The blond who claimed to be Lucifer raised both arms high and the white outline flared brightly, his eyes glowing red.
“Thor?” Bruce’s voice came over the comms.
“If you are Lucifer,” Thor said, lifting his chin and narrowing his eyes, “then you are an archangel.” Lucifer lifted one eyebrow as the white flare died, but his eyes still glowed brightly. “If you had the power, you could step out of the portal and face me.”
Clint and Natasha watched closely as the man’s face fell into anger rather than smugness. It was fast and the emotion quickly turned to disdain.
“You can’t,” the being still hunched over said as it struggled to lift one leg so it could rise to its feet.
Lucifer spun to growl at him.
“Shut your mouth, bunk buddy.” He gestured and the being, ‘Sam’, flinched and grunted, but continued to struggle to his feet. “Down on your knees and I won’t go after your brother after I get out of here.”
“No,” Sam mumbled. The gore-covered being continued to his feet, rising up until he stood taller than the scientist Lucifer was inhabiting. “Dean is still safe from you.” He took one stumbling, wavering step towards Lucifer, who, in surprise, shifted backwards, moving towards where Thor stood, Mjolnir held tightly.
“Sam, Sammy,” Lucifer said with a laugh that broke a little. “You’re just earning yourself so much more punishment and we know pain, right?” He caught himself and shifted forwards.
The Avengers watched in horror as the two beings shifted around each other, Lucifer making gestures that Sam twitched away from before he moved forward again. It only took a moment as they seemed to dance, with the gore-covered being now looking partly shredded by whatever Lucifer was doing to him. By the time they got close enough to the edge of the portal, Lucifer bumped it and he snarled as it flared up and where he’d touched it, the clothing and flesh burned.
“Release me,” he snarled at Steve, who blinked before shaking it off.
“No,” Sam growled, not taking his eyes off Lucifer. “You’ll never be free.” They had ended up directly in front of Thor and Sam reached to the side, his hand going through the portal, burning and smoking as he gritted his jaw.
They were all in shock as Mjolnir ripped itself from Thor’s hand, flying into Sam’s hand, who immediately pulled it into the portal and swung it up to take Lucifer off his feet.
“You’ll pay for that,” Lucifer snarled as he glided back up to his feet.
“Doesn’t matter,” Sam replied, raising the hammer high and slamming it back down over Lucifer.
There was a bright flash of the white again and when the Avengers could look again, Lucifer was no longer in view. Sam’s chest was heaving as he slammed Mjolnir down again and again in the center of the portal, black lightning flashing from the darkness to strike the five devices. The white edge flared again and again and then went dim, flickering as the devices all began to whine sharply. Sam was sinking himself down into the darkness again, but he heaved Mjolnir back towards Thor, who caught it, his face frozen in surprise.
“Who are you?” Thor asked in awe.
Sam groaned as he fought being pulled down. Thor tried to reach inside the circle but was unable to break across the border. Tony was also trying to fly through the edge but he bounced away from it as though it was a forcefield, his armor taking on small burn marks where it contacted.
“Drown the book in holy water. Hide it. Keep it safe.” Sam cried out in agony as he was swallowed by the darkness. Natasha frowned as she grabbed up the old tome as she was closest, making a face as though it was slimy.
The devices’ whine rose in decibel as well as frequency.
“Back!” Steve yelled and they all spun away, sprinting away.
There was a final bright flare and while they were expecting a huge explosion, it was anticlimactic. The screech of the devices cut off with a soft whomp and the area went almost completely dark except for Iron Man’s repulsors.
They stopped, breathing hard and turned to look.
There were all the devices, melted into nearly unrecognizable lumps, as well as the bodies of the Hydra soldiers. All of the damage appeared to be constrained within a small radius, but where the actual portal had been, there was undamaged ground and a single, unmarked wooden cross, slowly rotting.