Natasha Romanov/Black Widow

Once Steve had finished speaking, everyone stared at Pierce. Rockwell, a tall man with little hair on his pale head, spoke first.

“You smug son of a bitch,” Rockwell said in disgust.

Natasha quirked an eyebrow at that.

“My god...”

The room turned to look at Yen, who was staring out the window. Everyone looked as well, and Pierce's jaw dropped.

“What in the hell...?” Pierce said slowly.

Natasha found herself staring as well. A mountain was rising out of the river. Hundreds of spires rising into the air, grinding against one another. They were made of beautiful blue-green gems, each ending at a point she suspected were sharper than anything man-made, and the whole mass rose until was larger than the building she stood in. When it finally stopped growing, it overshadowed everything around it, shining in the sunlight and casting a green light.

“That damn monster,” Pierce growled.

Just then, people rushed into the room. Twelve in all, wearing the black military gear. As they entered, The councilpersons phones shone a bright red.

“Damn,” Rockwell said. “HYDRA.”

Pierce smiled at them. “Well. I suppose Captain Rogers had quite the plan,” Pierce turned to one of the men. Jack Rollins, the man who had knocked out Dial yesterday. Natasha noted him. “Bring out the Sonic Cannons and have them destroy that damn thing. If we can get rid of it, we can still get the helicarriers in the air.”

Natasha choose that moment to act while she still had the element of surprise. The things Pierce was referring to were likely weapons that AccuTech, a subsidiary of Stark Industries had made for the US military, weapons that had the capability to fire focused sonic blasts that had been one of the few things that noticeably harmed the Hulk. What made things worse is that powerful sonic attacks were one of the few things that were capable of breaking down Diamondhead's crystals, according to Dial during their planning.

How the hell did HYDRA find that out so quickly? She knew Dial leaving behind so much of the stuff was a bad idea, but they were in no position to clean up with all their running around. Didn't matter, she wasn't going to give them the chance to clear the hanger doors.

Pierce turned in time to get a punch in the face from an elderly female politician and fall onto his back in surprise.

Rollins swung at her. Natasha ducked his punch, leaped onto his shoulders and wrapped her thighs around his neck before spinning around, sending Rollins to the ground. She grabbed his pistol and fired quickly at the other soldiers in the room. Five men, too surprised to respond fast enough, attempted to aim their guns at her. She killed one with a single bullet, then dragged his body in front of her to block another man's shot, kicking the body of the man she'd killed forwathanhen shooting once more.

Behind her, another six aimed.

Then Yen shot one in the head with an arrow. He smirked as he held his hand out. A bow made of blue light was being projected from his watch, which had flattened out into a grip. “Huh. It works.”

The other men aimed at Yen. He was already firing before they could get their guns on him. He pulled back the string of blue light, and his watch produced a single arrow of purple light. He fired it, then pulled the string again.

Natasha blocked a desperate punch, then grabbed the mans arm and twisted it around. With a quirk of her hips, the man was on the ground, where she put a bullet in his head.

One of the last men tried to run. An arrow to the knee ended that misadventure, and an arrow to the head did worse then that.

Pierce staggered to his feet in time to see Yen toss aside the watch, which was destroyed in a small explosion. Yen picked up a fallen pistol and pointed it at Pierce. “Hey, boss.”

Pierce turned to look at Hawley, who shot a bullet into Rollins head, then pointed her gun at Pierce as well.

“Sorry,” Yen and Hawley lifted hands up and removed the skin-tight masks that had changed their appearances, their holograms turning off and revealing Clint and Natasha. The pair smiled. “Did we step on your moment?”

Outside, helicopter blades could be heard. The chopper came closer, then landed on the helipad connected to the room.

Pierce stared in shock once more when Nick Fury walked into the room holding a bow and quiver, which he tossed to Clint. “I know,” Nick lips slowly rose into a smile, his eye narrowing at Pierce. “This just isn't your day, Alex.”

------

Sam Wilson/Falcon

“Damn,” Sam said as the final crystal spire rose up. “Just... damn.”

“Thank god he's on our side,” Maria said softly.

The three soldiers watched for a moment longer before Steve turned.

“Okay, you know the plan. Maria, you have the floor.”

“You got it, Steve.”

“Sam, with me.”

“Let's do it.”

Maria walked over to the computers and started to work. Sam looked back at her as he and Steve walked out. “You sure they don't need backup?” Sam said, referring to X and Jarvis as well.

“They are the backup,” Steve said without hesitation. “Come on, we need to clear this base. You and I will work outside.”

------

Moments later, a HYDRA soldier's body was thrown through a pair of doors. Steve and Sam ran through the doors, exiting the Triskelion and seeing the crystal mountain that Dial had created. Sam looked up at the massive structure as they sprinted towards where they could see pilots headed towards the Quinjets. At their hips, Sam and Steve's phones flashed green as they came closer to a group of pilots, who held phones up that flashed green as well. A Quinjet was already rising into the sky. When the pilots saw Sam and Steve come close, they went to join them.

“Sir!” One pilot said, wearing the same blue helmet and flight gear as the others. “Deputy Director Hill sent us to provide air support!”

“Alright!” Steve said. “From now on, you follow this man, his callsign will be Falcon Leader,” Steve pointed at Sam, who the pilots nodded at. “Any heavy ordinance they got, you- DOWN!”

A rocket-propelled grenade flew from a rooftop nearby, slamming into one of the rising Quinjets wing. Steve held up his shield to block some shrapnel as pilots and technicians dodged the exploding aircraft, two people getting crushed underneath it. Sam looked up at the rooftop where the grenade had come from, Steve looking as well.

The Winter Soldier leaped from the rooftop and started walking towards them.

“Sam, get those pilots in the air,” Steve said, rushing forward.

“Cap-”

“Now!” Steve shouted. “We can't let any of their Quinjets control the sky!”

Sam cursed. But he knew it was true. “All right, you heard the Cap!” Sam told the pilots. “Get into the air!”

The pilots took a moment to watch as Captain America smacked away a grenade Bucky shot at him, the explosive detonating harmlessly against the crystals to his left, before he punched at his opponent. Bucky blocked it, tossed aside his launcher to pull out a gun and started firing, forcing Steve to block with his shield before kicking the gun out of his hand.

“Now!” Sam shouted.

Spurred to action, the pilots ran for the jets.

“Falcon,” Jarvis said. “It is as we feared. HYDRA has standing orders in place. While we have shut down all their communications, they are enacting several backup plans, the Quinjets we feared among them.”

“What do we got?” Sam asked, taking off into the air.

“They are bringing in five Quinjets, three gunships, a tank, three Humvees with heavy machine guns, and three Stark Sonic Cannons,” Jarvis explained. “The gunships are acting as air support for the ground vehicles, but the rest are flying over the crystal formation.”

“Then I'll drag them into it!” Sam flew towards the spires of blue-green his ally had created, diving among them. He folded his wings in and leaped off one, booted feet pressing against hard gemstone. He activated his jets again and leaped to the next spire. He twirled in-between two more crystals, coming out of the other side and unfurling his wings to shoot forward.

Five Quinjets were advancing towards him. The Hercules app on his phone helpfully beeped a warning that they weren't friendly, just in case Jarvis' warning wasn't enough. He flew towards them and reached for his hips, pulling out his machine pistols and firing a rapid barrage of bullets into the cockpit of one. The pilot inside was still staring in shock at the man who had appeared from a mountain of crystal when the bullets slammed into the glass in front of him.

Sam shot past the Quinjet he'd fired at with blistering speed. The enemy aircraft twisted to follow him. “Quinjet pilots, this is Falcon Leader, I've got the enemies attention!” Sam pulled his wings into his pack, diving towards the water in time to dodge a barrage of bullets. “I want three with me, the rest intercept those ground vehicles! Come in from the left when you get airborne, I'll make sure you flank them!”

“Understood, Falcon Leader!”

Sam activated his wings again and pulled a sharp dive upwards, lifting into the sky as fast as he could, the G-Forces pulling at his body. He rose over one Quinjet and put away one of his guns to toss a grenade, only to curse when the Quinjet twisted aside leaving the grenade to fall into the clear blue water far below, where it exploded. He pulled away, juking left as bullets began to invade his air space. Luckily, he had cover.

He flew back towards the crystal mountain and dived into it. Bullets smacked against the crystals around him as he jumped off a spire to make a massive direction change to the right. Missiles were launched, turning the area behind him into a fire storm and leaving black smudges against the gems walls.

Then Sam heard a loud ringing in his ears. And to his shock, he saw the crystal's beginning to crack. He landed on a formation and poked his head out. The Quinjets were firing sonic waves at the mountain from small attachments on the wings.

Suddenly Dial was speaking in his ear.

“Gonna be a slight delay! How is everyone else doing?”

"Been an interesting day!" Sam yelled back. “Cap's fighting the Winter Soldier, and these Quinjets have sonic weapons!”

The mountain shuddered, and crystals started cracking faster with small pieces already beginning to break off as the hovering ships maneuvered around.

“Shit!” Iron Man said. “That sounds like Stark Tech, something one of my subsidiary companies built for the army.”

“I got something like that in my right arm,” Colonel Rhodes added, an explosion going off in the background.

------

Natasha Romanov/Black Widow

“Looks like you came prepared,” Fury noted, turning to look at Pierce.

“Well, not me,” Pierce noted. The man smiled at the room, seemingly uncaring of the guns Natasha and Clint had pointed at him. “Some members of HYDRA had encountered your monster before, and they started work on analyzing his crystals immediately. I got to say, they are quite durable. If it wasn't for one of my guys having the good idea to pull out a sonic cannon we had lying around and shoot it at one, we'd have been at a loss.”

Fury turned to look outside. “Falcon, take out those Quinjets now!”

“Already on it!” A small dot came out of the mountain to engage the aircraft as Fury watched.

“I got to say, as nice as it is to see you alive Nick, I have to wonder what you're planning here,” Pierce walked over to look out of the window as well. “My men will have that mountain down soon. And the rest of HYDRA will find a way to get those helicarriers out of the hanger bays, no matter what sort of monster you have-”

Fury abruptly turned to walk towards the holographic screens nearby. Pierce raised an eyebrow at that. “Huh. So you aren't exactly comfortable with that thing on your side. I'd have thought after putting the Hulk on the Avengers you wouldn't have cared.”

“Oh, I'm still a bit suspicious of him,” Fury answered easily. He tapped the holo-screen and watched as a schematic of the building popped up. “But he's useful. And I like him more than I like you right now. That's enough for me. Agent 13, have you cleared the medical level yet?”

As Sharon Carter responded, Pierce fingered his smartphone, eyeing the others in the room.

------

Sharon Carter/Agent 13

Moments before the HYDRA Quinjets arrived, Sharon was leading a group of agents through the building, trying to secure the medical level. They were in a research lab now, caught in a shootout with STRIKE team members. Sharon and another agent had taken a stand behind a counter. She leaned out to fire at one of the men, a guy she'd actually been friends with before. She steeled her heart and shot him in the arm with her stolen M4A1 Carbine. When he fell screaming to the linoleum, she shot him in the throat. As he bled out his last, she leaned back into cover.

“Deputy Director, we're finishing off the resistance in the labs now!” Sharon yelled as more bullets flew over head, some straight through her cover to buzz past her. Broken glass from beakers crunched under people feet, the acidic smell of bleach joined by blood and smoke. “Tell me there are people left!”

“This is X,” An unfamiliar voice that reminded Sharon of Matthew Mcconaughey said. “Miss Hill is in the middle of coordinating a strike against the garage. I can see a small group of scientists holding out several rooms from you.”

Sharon blinked at the voice. For some reason, it rang false to her. It didn't seem real. “Repeat, who is this!?”

“Virtual Intelligence X, working on the behalf of the Avengers,” the voice said.

“Trust him, Sharon!” Maria said suddenly. “We need him to coordinate this attack!”

Feeling troubled, Sharon leaned out of cover and fired a hail of bullets. The agent next to her joined in, as did the six others behind her. STRIKE team members were the best of the best. But left unable to coordinate, they were left easy to split up and kill in the many hallways of the Triskelion. The agent next to Sharon was shot in the right eye, and fell screaming, clutching at his face. An agent behind her was killed by a bullet in the heart. But soon, all of STRIKE in the room was dead.

“Come on!” Sharon yelled, indicating the man who's eye had been shot out. “We can get him help in medical!”

One agent helped the injured man up, and they all ran to the next room. A quick sweep showed it was empty. Same with the next.

The one after that, however, was full of dead bodies. STRIKE team members and SHIELD agents, all laying among broken glass, bullet casings, and pools of their blood. The fighting seemed to be centered on a pair of doors in the back, the SHIELD agents defending it.

“Who did this?” One agent asked as they moved forward.

Sharon ignored the bodies in favor of trying the door to the next room. The handle moved, but when she tried to push it open, something heavy was blocking it.

“Don't you dare come in!” A voice on the other side said. “I'm not letting you HYDRA assholes near the patients!”

“We're SHIELD!” Sharon yelled through the door.

“Oh yeah! Well, let's see what Hercules has to- Oh thank god!” The voice on the other side went from panicky to relieved. Sounds of movement behind the door lead to it being opened. Sharon blinked at the site.

A young, short, and skinny young woman, with short brown hair and a lab coat, stared at them. Despite her petite form, she was also carrying the same M4A1 Carbine Sharon was. She had a purse at her side with several clips of ammo poking out of it. “I thought I was going to die!” She wailed, leaping forward.

Sharon was surprised to catch the woman in a hug. “Well uh, we were sent to prevent that.” Sharon looked behind her. Several more doctors were inside, all holding weapons in fearful hands. Patients rested in beds, some of them agents with very recent wounds.

The group of agents with Sharon entered, a pleasant beep filling the room as Hercules confirmed their identities as SHIELD.

The woman pulled away, wiping away tears. “I'm so sorry, I didn't know who to trust! HYDRA has been trying to steal our phones so they can trick people.”

“Did it work?” Sharon asked.

“It shouldn't have,” said the voice of X from Sharon's comm unit. “Jarvis and I have been using cameras in the phones and in SHIELD facilities to prevent such a tactic from working. Any Hercules app held by a HYDRA agent immediately bricks the devices and sends a warning to SHIELD personnel.”

Sharon nodded as the woman repeated what was said by X.

“Agent 13, have you cleared the medical level yet?”

Sharon lifted a hand to her ear, turning away. “Yes, sir!”

“Good. I'll redirect some agents to help lock it down. Get some of your men to the lower levels. Rumlow is trying to secure the garage to bring in vehicles to level the playing field.”

“Understood,” Sharon turned to the woman. “Barricade the room again. More men will come but we'll leave three people anyways.”

The petite woman nodded shakily. Sharon and her agents went back outside to continue the fight.

------

Sam Wilson/Falcon

As Sharon Carter moved to assist those fighting in the garage, Sam Wilson prepared to attack the Quinjets destroying the mountain as Fury was ordering him to.

“Already on it!”

Sam leaped from the spires and started shooting at the Quinjets. He flew past them and focused his fire on the sonic cannons. His machine pistols took one out, leaving it useless sparks. The Quinjet pilots, realizing they couldn't finish their work while Falcon was dismantling them, hurried to attack him. Sam dived into the spires again.

Two Quinjets flew in after him moments later.

“Yeah, that's right, follow me,” Sam whispered. He took a left, watching as a Quinjet dived after him. Then he shot upwards. The Quinjet tried to follow him, it's rotors whining and wings twisting as it navigated the crystal canyon. With all the cracks having been created by the sonic weapons, portions of the mountain were falling already, some pieces landing on top of the Quinjet with loud banging noises.

Sam pivoted to the right into another canyon and flew upwards, landing on a ledge. He watched the Quinjet follow, and sat for a moment. The Quinjet pilot navigated through the canyon moments later, slowly prowling through the gemstones as he searched for Sam, not seeing him about twenty feet above. Once the aircraft was below him Sam pressed his feet against one of the spires cracked by the earlier assault. With a loud of exertion, he pushed on it. The crystal, already about to teeter below, fell with the added help. Over a ton of gemstone fell onto the Quinjet. The aircraft was sent crashing into the spikes below, exploding in a moment.

Sam flew away as he heard the other Quinjet fly towards the sound of the crash. He flew up and out of the mountain, dodging the gunfire when the Quinjets outside saw him pop out of the top. He pulled his wings and flipped to face the ground. He watched the surviving Quinjet hover to the site of the crash site, and tossed a grenade towards it with a careless motion. It dropped into the right rotor of the Quinjet, and exploded, destroying that wing. The Quinjet, off balance from the missing wing, spun in place, then veered into the walls of the canyon, exploding moments later.

Sam landed against a gem wall and leaped forwards. Another jump and he was out of the mountain again, appearing to the right of the Quinjets. They turned, trying to get a bead on him. Which meant they were pointed to the right of the mountain when SHIELD Quinjets came around the left side.

“Firing!” The pilots roared in unison.

The SHIELD pilots fired into the backs of the HYDRA aircraft, their bullets sliced through the hulls of the other ships. The HYDRA pilots struggled to escape, but were destroyed in moments, their metallic corpses falling into the river below.

“Done with those Quinjets!” Sam yelled, veering around. He looked at the mountain. While still standing, the massive structure had been clearly affected, with cracks forming on the outside where the HYDRA pilots had shot it and large chunks had already rained into the river. The damage wasn't enough to destroy it, but it had been significant.“We need to stop those anymore of those sonic cannons from getting here though.”

“I'm on it!” Steve said, sounding stressed. “Bucky is heading there!”

“Then I'm coming too!” Iron Man said.

“Tony, we need you to get to the computer rooms-” Steve started to say.

“No!” The sound of rockets came over the comm's along with Iron Man's determined voice. “I already downed my Helicarrier. I'm coming...”

“...Understood,” Steve said.

“I'll have Agent 13 divert to the computer rooms,” Fury said.

Sam flipped in the air, and joined the SHIELD Quinjets towards the bridge leading towards the garage.

------

Colonel James 'Rhodey' Rhodes/War Machine

Rhodey sighed at the impulsive nature of his best friend, and focused on finishing his own task. He was flying alongside the helicarrier he was supposed to down, shooting at HYDRA and saving the few SHIELD agents within the hanger from death. He circled around and fired the machine guns on his arms at another HYDRA agent, killing the man with brutal ease. The minigun on his shoulder spun to fire at another man to his right, riddling that soldier. Rhodey landed and walked towards the SHIELD agents he'd saved.

“Thanks!” One of the agents said, staring at him in awe. Rhodey allowed himself a momentary smile at that look.

“No problem. I'm going to focus on the helicarrier, you guys get to saf-”

A crate slammed into Rhodey mid-sentence. It carried him twenty feet before he slammed into the side of the helicarrier. Rhodey struggled in the air before righting himself, turning to see his assailant.

“Ah... I got a guy made of blue glowing metal throwing stuff at me?” Rhodey asked in confusion.

“That- Shit!” Bullet fire came from Dial's link. “You guys are assholes! Listen, Rhodey, that is Creel! He can absorb stuff and take on their properties!”

Creel grabbed a forklift by its prongs and hefted it upwards, spinning around to toss it at the floating Rhodey. Rhodey floated to the right and away from the forklift, ignoring it as the small vehicle slammed into the helicarrier behind him. Rhodey lifted his guns and started shooting.

“His blue form is Vibranium like Cap's shield, but pure,” Rhodey cursed as his bullets bounced off Creel's form, then switched to the repulsor weapons in his palms. Yellow beams of power sliced through the air, colliding with the man below. Creel took the energy beams to his chest, and only responded by walking through it. “He's immune to kinetic attacks, so you got to throw him!”

“Now you tell me,” Rhodey cursed, putting his hands down. He looked over at the SHIELD operatives he had saved. “Run, I got this!”

“Yes, sir!” The SHIELD agents ran for the back. Creel ignored them to grab another crate.

“You know,” Creel called up to Rhodey. “I wanted to find the monster kid, or one of the Avengers. But I'm good with killing a copycat.”

Rhodey chuckled. “Any other day I'd teach you a lesson. But first... Sorry Fury, but I don't have time to be strategic about this.”

The shoulder panels on his armor opened, revealing miniature rockets. Creel smiled, opening his arms wide to take the shot he expected. Rhodey instead raised his hands up to aim at the glowing wings on the helicarrier's left side, closest to where he floated.

Before Creel could do anything, Rhodey started shooting. In seconds, the rockets and repulsor blasts started to slice through the glowing sections of the wings.

“No!” Creel shouted, throwing the crate in his hand.

Rhodey dived around it, flying away while shooting. Creel followed him, grabbing another forklift and tossing it. The forklift hit Rhodey with it's right prong, the sharp metal bouncing off his back and sending him crashing to the floor.

But Creel was too late. Both repulsor engines on the left side of the Insight Helicarrier exploded. The ship tipped to the side, the repulsor engines on the right wings sending it teetering over.

“Damn it!” Creel cursed.

Rhodey grinned under his mask.

“Damn it, did you just break one of my carriers!?” Fury asked.

“Just send me the bill!” Tony said before a loud clanging sound was followed by the billionaire grunting in pain.