Flawed Minds

Chapter Twenty Seven

Avenger's P.O.V

The flash of light from the heavens disappeared, leaving a circle of patterns familiar to the Avengers burned into the ground. The long silence was deafening as everyone froze in shock. Bucky stared at the place Nova once stood, his brain taking a moment to catch up as they all realized what had just happened, slowly turning their heads to face the enhanced. They didn't need Nova's powers to be able to feel the rage radiating off of him, his eyes were flashing with fire as he bared his teeth, grinding them with anger as he stared at the burnt ground.

And he screamed.

It was such a blood curdling, anguished scream it caused the team to have to cover their ears. Then he began running toward them at a horrible speed, scattering them in different directions as they struggled to get out of the way. Bucky began firing his rifle and more Hydra agents began to spill into the clearing from the forest, distracting the team while they tried to fend off Ekelhaft's attacks as all hell broke loose.

"WHERE IS SHE?" He shrieked, slamming into Steve's shield, who stood his ground but was forced backward anyway, his feet dragging trails in the dirt under them. A metallic clang was heard as Tony flew past and kicked Ekelhaft in the head, giving Steve a chance to stabilize himself while he was distracted. Essentially that was all the team could do for the moment; their only option was to confuse and distract him, giving them a chance to hit him one after the other, but this only served to anger him even more. It didn't help that the Hydra agents were constantly fighting to get the Avengers away from him, while he seemed to desperately search around for Nova. Natasha, during a brief moment of no fighting, grabbed hold of Bruce and instructed him to head back to the Quinjet, figuring that the jet's scanners and sensors wouldn't be affected by whatever was blocking Tony's suit at such a distance away, meaning he would have a clear view of what's going on. Bruce complied quickly, not wanting to Hulk out and hurt the wrong people by accident. Clint stunned three Hydra agents at once while Bucky and Steve fought back to back, occasionally stepping in to draw Ekelhaft's attention away from Tony so that he could get to him from a different angle.

Bruce made it back to the Quinjet and nervously started her up, loading all the scanners as the jet ascended and slowly made its way toward the fight. He watched intently as he started to make out a visual of the clearing, and just as he had a clear picture it went blank. Frustrated, he took a few breaths and pulled the Quinjet back, just far enough that the scanners became clear again. He could see the team on the ground, Ekelhaft in the middle trying to swat at them like flies, and the Hydra agents swarming around; He took note that there weren't as many left hiding in the forest and tried typing out what he had found and sending a text to Nat. After the initial confusion on the ground a temporary ceasefire occurred, both sides exhausted and panting, the Avengers taking cover as Nat relayed Bruce's message to the team while Ekelhaft fumed and paced, allowing the few Hydra agents that were left to regroup.

"Who even are you?" Tony called out as the team looked at each other in disbelief. "What's the point in all this? What do you gain?"

"I am Dr. Ekelhaft." The enhanced spat, leading to a sudden realization that the Avengers had heard that name before, after one of Nova's many nightmares. "And I want revenge!" He all but screamed. "That thing you stole from me, she killed me. Your precious creature murdered me, then decided to test her powers again on my dead body! Her mistake, she might as well have used a defibrillator," He chuckled at his own joke. "I managed to escape with the test serums I created from her blood! I decided it was time to experiment on myself, and I survived just long enough for one of them to work!" He stopped pacing, laughing maniacally as he scratched at his lightning shaped scars. "I have powers beyond what I could have ever dreamed or imagined, and I am going to take her back, she is going to suffer for a long time, until every last drop of her blood is drained- she will be the fuel of my enhanced Hydra army!" Tony groaned in disgust and Clint eyed Natasha, feeling a lot less confident than he was in the Quinjet. Steve closed his eyes for a moment, desperately trying to come up with a plan to help them get out of this mess, when Bucky started shouting unexpectedly.