IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

BEHEADING A witch, I pummel through the group of Hellhounds. At some point Sebastian came to join me. We're casually having a conversation while we kill vampires and witches.

"So, if you broke off piece of that stick-"

"The stick would not have use!" He finishes for me. I nod in understanding, moving a bit further from him.

"How long is this going to last?" I ask everyone over the comms.

"However long it's going to take. They seem to be multiplying in numbers. A lot of our team is down, or injured. If we aren't careful," Steve takes a long pause.

"We'll what, Cap?" Clint asks.

"We'll lose." My father finishes for Stevie. We all take a deep breath.

"We can't let that happen, everyone start working your butts off!" Tony yells, flying over us to see who is in need of assistance.

I see the Hulk smashing Hellhounds left and right. I make eye contact with him, and smile lightly at him. He surprisingly smiles back, but that smile is wiped off when he is beheaded.

"No!" I scream, running to Bruce Banner's body. He's dead. He's headless. This can't be happening. "Guys," I whimper over the comm.

Immediate worry and concern flow through our communication system.

"Bruce is down." I sternly say, standing to full height. I'm going to kill all these creatures.

I go through them fast, making their deaths merciless. They deserve this. I'm not really thinking about what I'm doing, I'm just slaughtering them all.

"Hey, hey Vera, stick with us." Natasha comes to me, trying to stop me.

"Aim for their leaders. We get them down, we have the whole organization down!" Tony instructs.

Tears leak down my face, and I cry for the first time in years.

Nat grabs me by my shoulders, looking me in the eyes. "It's okay, dry it up and focus on the fight."

I nod my head stiffly, and dry it up. I won't let these monsters see me weak. I'm not weak.

I search the perimeter, making sure that no one is planning anything that they aren't supposed to.

"Does anyone know who the Maleficis Clan Leader is?" I shouldn't of asked that, because in the next second I am blasted away by an unseen force.

Witches, I had to ask.

"I am Neith, clan leader of Maleficis. I am the original witch."

"So what I'm getting at is that you're pretty powerful?" I say more of a question.

"Very," she growls. Her hands light on fire, and she throws fire balls at me. I duck out of the way before I am blown to smithereens.

"Guys, found the leader of the witches. She can throw fire!" I shout over the comms, not fully advancing on Neith.

"Do not engage!" Many yell over the communication system. I smirk.

"I'm going to engage!" I run at her, not heading the warnings my team is giving.

I spin and flip in between the fire balls, her groaning at each of her misses.

Finally, unfortunately for me, she lands a hit. I hiss at the heat of the burn. It's not normal fire, it's more hot than normal fire.

My shoulder sizzles, as the burn heals itself. "That hurt." I grit out at Neith. She just giggles maniacally. "Aren't witches supposed to be green and wrinkly?" I ask the beautiful woman.

"Do you really believe everything the fairy tale books tell you?"

"Well you're here, aren't you?" I smugly answer the question with a question. She growls, launching her fire balls at me again.

I am not prepared so I throw my hands out in front of me, not being fast enough to run from the heat.

What's surprising is when I don't feel anything. I open my eyes to see that I have created a force field in front of me.

'So is this one of the powers Bruce said that I had hidden?'

I smirk, this is cool. I keep my hands up as I advance on the female witch. I knock into her with a strong force, making her fall over.

She chants things in Latin, making the ground shake. There's a loud boom and we all take cover, or drop to the ground.

After the rubble and dust clear, we look at what had happened.

These dang animals blew up the whole facility, leaving nothing of the compound.

The ground beneath us splits in multiple places, leaving some separated from others.

Neith continues to throw curses and spells at me from her hands. This lady needs to find her chill. I go up against her and smack her right in the face.

She falls to the ground unconscious. I leave her be, going somewhere else to fight. What I didn't know was that I would regret that in the future.

I meet up with Iron Man and Captain America, fighting along side them. I had to jump over some distances to get to them, the ground having the big cracks in it.

"These things seem to be duplicating! Cap, we got to do something or we're not getting out of this!" Ant Man yells from his state of being a giant.

"The leaders are too powerful to defeat! I've been against the two weaker ones, and even then I had a tough time!" I exclaim, turning to look at Stevie.

He sighs, eyes filled with a hard look.

"Just keep fighting!" Is his only plan. Everything then just suddenly freezes. What's going on?

It's like we can't even control our movements, as we all move to stand back in a group.

I can't blink, move, or talk on my own. It's like I'm being compelled.

"You all must be in great confusion!" Fallon booms, laughter from the Hellhounds cascades from them.

"You see, vampires have this ability. The ability we obtain is having the power to compel someone. That means that we can control someone by just the look of the eyes. Me being an original with my co- leader, Drystan, we can do this by just the snap of our fingers." He informs us Avengers.

Fear is installed in me, though I can't do anything about it.

"With that being said, Vera Barnes." I freeze even more at my name coming from him. "Come to me!"

Without meaning to, I walk over to stand in front of Fallon.

He looks me in the eyes before yelling, "you will be a slave to the Hellhounds. You will follow through the commands us three leaders will give you. You will not object to anything!"

He forces me to kneel, lowering my head in submission.

I try to fight against the compulsion, but I fail. Steve Rogers however does, yelling out in anguish. He runs up to me, forcing my body away from Fallon. I whimper, resisting the urge to push him out of the way.

Captain America engages in a fight with the leader of the Hellhounds. He appears to be winning, but is forcefully knocked down again. Steve is forced to kneel beside me, and I lean my body towards him.

"All of you are now under our control!" Fallon shouts out to the large group of Avengers. The Hellhounds raise their weapons and hands in the air, shouting in victory.

The dust stirs as we all kneel under their control.

Drystan kicks me in the stomach, making me convulse and almost topple over. I quickly catch myself before I do. I hear grunts behind me. My guess is that the team is the owner of the sounds.

The team stands and walks into the woods, the Hellhounds surrounding us from all angles.

They lead us to their headquarters, but before that they stop at Macklemore Prison. Rumlow and his followers of HYDRA, come out of the building. Hellhounds are already hitting everywhere to control, now that we can't stop them.

Rumlow walks up to me, and slaps me in the face. I glare at him, wanting to return the gesture but physically can't.

"Hello Princess, you and me are going to have a great time." He smirks grabbing me by the arm, and leading me along himself.

'This guy can't be more arrogant can he?'

"Where we heading to, Boss?" Rumlow asks Fallon. Fallon answers curtly.

"Headquarters, we have already started taking over the populated cities. All the people that aren't from around here, we'll send back. The God of Thunder with his army, King T'Challa we will allow to go back to Wakanda. All the aliens." Fallon instructs firmly.

They continue to lead us to big vans and trucks, what I assume is our prisoner transportation.

We will be slaves for the next few years.

Natasha, Bucky, Sam, Steve, and I are in a van of our own. It's silent, our chains readjusting the only sound. Sam Wilson breaks the silence, asking a deafening question that makes us hang our heads in defeat.

"Did we just lose?"

End of Book 1

11.27.2020
1506 words
J.S.