Xcalibur Xc
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[Ironman] Ch: 146 [Crimson Reckoning]
🕑 Added 2025-08-10 21:41:23 +0000 UTC[Back to Shaw]
Emma Frost stepped out from the shadows, her white coat catching the moonlight. Her expression was composed but her eyes lingered on Shaw’s torn sleeve and the faint dust clinging to his jacket. “Are you alright?” she asked.
Shaw rolled his shoulders with a sigh. He said, “I'm good. She was stronger than I expected. Far stronger. And she does not even know what she is yet.”
Two black SUVs rolled up behind them. The vehicles stopped in perfect unison. The rear doors swung open, and four men in dark tactical gear stepped out. They moved quickly to collect Shaw’s unconscious goons from where they had fallen earlier. They dragged the groaning bodies to the first SUV and tossed them inside. Then, two of them walked toward Lorna.
Emma’s gaze was on Lorna. The green-haired girl stood unsteady, her chest heaving. Her eyes fought to focus, lips moving with the start of another insult. Emma’s mind brushed against hers. “Sleep,” she whispered into Lorna’s thoughts.
Lorna’s pupils dilated, her stance softened, and she collapsed forward and one of the men caught her. Her aura sputtered out, and the floating debris clattered to the dirt.
“Careful with her,” Emma instructed. “She is valuable.”
The guy adjusted his grip and walked toward the second SUV.
Then it happened...
A sudden pressure made everyone stop in their tracks.
It was like an invisible hand had gripped the entire yard and squeezed. The men froze where they stood, eyes wide and veins bulging as the ground beneath them cracked in a spiderweb pattern.
A female voice cut through the night.
“Take your filthy hands off my sister.”
A pulse of crimson erupted from the far side of the yard, warping the air around it. Then a bolt of crimson energy slammed into the man holding Lorna, sending him sprawling backward in a bloody arc. The girl didn’t hit the ground. Instead, she drifted through the air, cradled by an unseen force, until she floated at the side of the figure who had appeared in the center of the carnage.
Chaos energy coiled around Wanda like a storm. Her hair whipped across her face, her boots sinking slightly into the dirt as the pressure around her increased. She looked at Lorna and saw the wounds on her and something snapped within her. A faint barrier appeared around Lorna.
The rest of Shaw’s men tried to move but Wanda’s gaze flicked toward them.
"Die!" She extended her right hand toward Shaw's men. Their limbs bent unnaturally inward as an unseen force crushed their bodies into the gravel. The sickening sound of bones snapping was swallowed by the wet crunch as the pressure intensified. In the blink of an eye, they were nothing but bloody heaps of meat, twisted and unrecognizable.
Emma’s body shifted. Her skin crystallized into her flawless organic diamond form. The moonlight scattered across her new form, refracting into pale fragments. It was as if she were glowing. The crushing force of Wanda’s power washed over her but didn’t break her hardened body.
Shaw stood calmly as he absorbed the energy. Lorna's power had impressed him, but this was something else entirely. His boots sank into the dirt as he pushed against the invisible gravity. 'To think she could overload me.' He rolled his shoulders once, then stomped down his right foot.
The ground detonated under him. A shockwave of pure kinetic energy shot toward Wanda, ripping through the gravel and sending a spray of metal and rock into the air.
"Cute," Wanda tilted her head slightly, her lips curving into a grin. The blast froze midair. "But no thanks. You can have it back." The energy blast reversed course as if the space around that place was reversed for a moment. It slammed back toward Shaw with double the speed and power.
He didn’t flinch. His arms snapped up and the energy vanished into his body, absorbed like water into dry earth. His grin returned. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”
The air erupted with movement. Shaw charged, his steps cratering the ground, closing the gap between them in seconds. Wanda raised one hand. Instantly, a wall of crimson energy appeared before her. His fist connected with it.
Boom! A massive explosion occurred from the impact, but it wasn't strong enough to break the barrier. She twisted her wrist and the barrier bent like molten glass, curling around him. Before it could close, Shaw’s other fist slammed forward, sensing the danger. He used 50% of his absorbed energy. The kinetic backlash shattered the construct into fragments of glowing light.
Emma attacked from the side. Wanda’s hand flicked upward, summoning chains of raw energy from the dirt. They whipped around Emma’s limbs, yanking her into the air before slamming her into the ground.
Shaw pounced on the opening and threw a barrage of punches. Every blow detonated on impact, driving Wanda backward as her shields buckled.
She clapped her hands and the world buckled. Sound and motion died for a breath, and Shaw found himself hurled into the side of a rusted boxcar. Metal screamed as it folded around him.
Emma recovered fast, striking at Wanda with psionic blasts and then quickly turned her body back to the diamond form as Wanda simply stood unaffected as her constructs trapped her, morphing into spiked cages and snapping whips. She tore them apart just as quickly.
Shaw ripped free of the wreckage. He recovered his lost energy thanks to the attack.
"What the hell is she?" He rushed in at a blinding speed and attacked Wanda again.
This time the hit connected. The force pushed Wanda a few steps back. But she held her ground, her aura flaring until the wind howled through the yard. Her eyes went toward Lorna. The barrier she raised when the battle started has cracked. Wanda raised another barrier around her in that situation.
Wanda’s expression hardened. The crimson glow around her deepened until it painted the yard in a living storm of light. She just had enough. Shaw and Emma were still standing, still moving toward her as if they had any right to do so.
"Allow me to show you what it feels like to drift between life and death," Wanda said as she opened her palm, and multiple wisps of crimson energy spread around the area.
Shaw slowed first. His steps faltered, his head tilting as if trying to shake away sudden dizziness. He opened his mouth, but the words caught in his throat. A deep ache spread through his chest and shoulders. His breath hitched. It felt as if the very marrow in his bones was turning against him. The kinetic energy he stored slipped from his control, leaking away like water through broken glass.
Emma’s diamond form began to crack, fine fissures splintering across her flawless surface. The transformation collapsed entirely, leaving her in her human state. Her breath quickened, and she reached for her head as if a sudden migraine had torn through her skull. Her knees buckled. The sharp efficiency in her eyes dulled under a fevered haze.
"What the hell is this?!" Emma thought it was some kind of mental attack that penetrated her diamond form, which was supposed to be impossible. So, she tried to use her psychic abilities, but nothing happened. She couldn't feel her powers anymore. "You!" She looked toward Wanda. "What have you done?"
Wanda stepped forward. Her power threaded deeper, past muscle and bone, to the very blueprint of their bodies. This is her Biological Manipulation power. She's still in the learning phase, but it was enough for those two. She severed the signals that gave their mutations life, shutting down the genes like flipping a switch. The spark of their abilities died instantly, leaving them stripped and vulnerable.
"I just shut down your mutation and now..."
At the same time, she accelerated the smallest of enemies within them. The harmless bacteria and dormant viruses that all bodies carried surged into overdrive. Fever ignited in their blood. Their immune systems screamed in confusion as every germ they had ever harbored turned into an army.
Shaw fell to one knee, sweat beading on his forehead. His breath came shallow and ragged, his strength draining faster than he could comprehend.
Emma tried to rise, but her body betrayed her. Her skin flushed red, her limbs shook, and she felt as if her entire body was burning.
“You thought power made you untouchable,” Wanda said, her voice calm. “All it takes is one small shift in the balance of what you are, and you are nothing. If it were up to me, I'd have buried you two right here, alive. But sadly, I got orders from the big boss to capture you two alive and since this is my first big mission, I can't screw this up. So, night night. Oh, and do enjoy the pain."
Wanda flicked her fingers and opened a direct portal to Shield base and kicked them inside. Then she walked in with Lorna floating behind her.
---
AN: I decided to keep Wanda at her 60% potential at the moment. Still, she's freaking OP. And no worries, I won't be nerfing her.
Comments
Xcalibur Xc
I will show that later when Tony will build on Mars. For now, it's safely locked away.
Руслан Габдрафиков
What happened to the Skrull technology? Somehow they ended up on the planet, so they must have a lot of spaceships. And now they are just lying around abandoned somewhere. In the movie, there was a whole organization that controlled the Chitauri technology after the invasion of New York. But even so, there were many villains who used alien technology for their evil deeds. I think if someone can find Skrull technology after their disappearance, he can start a technology company and start exploring space. At least I think that space technology will be very developed, and many countries will want to explore space.
Taytay029
Tftc
