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The Triskelion. Pierce's Office.
"Apparition..."
Natasha Romanoff's breath hitched. Her eyes widened in disbelief as she looked at the black-robed figure that had materialized from thin air.
A wizard?!
The young man, Tom, smiled at her shock. He offered a polite nod to Alexander Pierce, then grabbed the Secretary's arm.
CRACK.
Before Natasha could pull the trigger, they vanished.
The Sky.
Inside the main control room of the Alpha Helicarrier, Captain America was fighting for his life.
Steve Rogers bashed a Hydra operative with his shield, sending him flying into a console. He scrambled over the unconscious body, panting heavily, sweat stinging his eyes.
He jammed the specialized USB drive into the blade server port.
"Done!" Steve growled into his comms. "Alpha is compromised! Stark, what's your status?"
High above, Tony Stark was dancing through a storm of anti-aircraft fire.
"Jarvis, report!" Tony shouted, banking the Mark 42 hard to the left.
"Sir," Jarvis's voice was calm but confused. "The virus has been uploaded to the network. The targeting algorithms should be offline. But..."
Before Jarvis could finish, Tony saw the massive gun batteries of the Bravo carrier swivel toward him. They weren't powering down. They were locking on.
"Damn it! They're still active!"
"The virus isn't working!" Tony yelled. "What kind of firewall is this?! It's eating my code!"
The communication channel dissolved into chaos.
"Stark! Rogers! Answer me!" Nick Fury's voice cut through the static, barking from his command van on the ground. "Why are those ships still targeting civilians?! We have three minutes until mass casualty event!"
"It's no use!" Steve shouted, dodging a knife strike from a Winter Soldier operative. "The system is locked out! It's not responding to the override!"
"It's not a firewall!"
Natasha's hurried, panicked voice broke in.
"It's a Wizard!"
"There was a wizard in Pierce's office! A wizard has partnered with Hydra!"
The channel fell dead silent. Even the gunfire seemed to pause.
Tony was the first to speak, his voice filled with disbelief. "A wizard? Natasha, are you sure you didn't hit your head?"
"I thought their Ministry of Magic forbids contact with Muggles!" Tony argued, dodging a missile. "If they can't even talk to us, how are they co-signing a fascist takeover? Is it a rogue? Another runaway like Hermione?"
"No," Natasha said, her voice trembling slightly. "I saw it. Black robes. Apparition. Pierce treated him with respect... and fear. He wasn't a rogue."
"How do you know?" Fury demanded.
"Because he introduced himself," Natasha said, her voice chilling everyone to the bone.
"He said he was from the Ministry of Magic, Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
"Name: Tom Marvolo Riddle."
The Revelation.
Natasha's words were a bombshell.
The Ministry of Magic is backing Hydra?
Tony didn't have time to process the geopolitical nightmare. The Charlie carrier turned its primary cannons toward him.
But these weren't the standard kinetic railguns. The barrels glowed with an eerie, sickly blue light. Runes etched into the metal hull flared to life.
VWOOM.
A beam of dark blue energy tore through the sky. It wasn't a laser. It crackled with unnatural energy.
"Jarvis! Evasive!"
Tony pulled up sharply, pushing the thrusters to 110%. The armor drew a tight arc in the sky.
The beam followed him. It curved. Beams don't curve.
It grazed the left leg of the suit.
SIZZLE.
There was no explosion. The metal simply... ceased to exist. The gold-titanium alloy was erased, revealing sparking wires and burning insulation.
"Warning! Integrity compromised!" Jarvis screamed.
"Damn it!"
Tony cursed, fighting the spin. He activated the emergency ejection protocols. The suit exploded outward, and Tony tumbled through the air, his repulsors firing to stabilize a rough landing on a nearby rooftop.
He looked up at the smoking wreckage of his multi-billion dollar suit.
Magic, Tony realized, a cold dread settling in his gut.
He understood why the virus failed. It wasn't a firewall. These ships weren't running on code. They were running on Alchemy.
The wizard had enchanted the Helicarriers. They were flying magical fortresses. Science couldn't hack a curse.
"So," Tony growled into the comms, staring at the blue-glowing ships. "We're fighting three magical alchemy motherships? Where is the science?! Can't you be reasonable?!"
The Trap.
Just then, the space between the three Helicarriers distorted.
CRACK.
A figure appeared out of thin air, hovering casually in the center of the triangle formation.
It was Hermione Granger.
She wore her casual clothes, looking like she had just stepped out of a library, completely out of place in the warzone. She glanced at the smoke, then down at Tony on the roof. She frowned.
Her voice, amplified by magic, rang clearly in everyone's ears.
"I said... what are you guys up to now?"
"It's just a Muggle power grab. Why is it causing such a commotion? Can't you handle a few Nazis?"
As she spoke, her aura flared. Crimson flames gathered behind her, condensing into a massive, spectral Phoenix that spread its wings, the heat distorting the air for miles.
Down in the command van, Nick Fury watched the monitor. Initially, relief washed over him. The heavy hitter is here. Game over.
But then, his spy brain kicked in. He replayed Natasha's intel.
Ministry of Magic... Tom Riddle... Cooperation with Hydra...
Why would the Ministry help Hydra create chaos? Why would they build magical weapons for terrorists?
To create a threat that only one person could answer.
To draw her out.
A terrible realization struck Fury like a physical blow.
"NO!"
Fury's voice changed, filled with unprecedented horror. He slammed his fist onto the console.
"HERMIONE! GET OUT OF THERE!"
"THIS IS A TRAP!"
"Project Insight wasn't about killing me! It wasn't about killing Captain America! We were just the bait!"
"They knew we couldn't handle magical ships! They knew we would call you!"
Fury screamed into the mic, watching the three Helicarriers begin to rotate, their blue guns locking onto the small girl in the center.
"THEIR TARGET WAS NEVER US! IT WAS THE WITCH!"