Carmine Jewels ║ Wanda Maximoff

Chapter 31 - Downfalls

"Now, if you would be so kind to put on Project Insight on the screen again." Pierce said in a falsely sweet voice, knowing that Romanoff had no choice but to obey, his thumb hovering threateningly over the kill switch. "I want you to witness your failure as Project Insight succeeds."

The black spots in Topaz's vision began to fade and slowly, very slowly she could feel her senses returning to her limbs. Those damn discs had truly taken a toll on her and her body. Just to keep herself moving, trying to rid it of the last remainders of the strong currents, she kept flexing her fingers. Some childish part of herself hoped it would help to return the feeling in her limbs quicker.

Natasha moved involuntarily to the computer again, throwing a glance at the recovering mutant. She knew that if the blonde managed to gather her strength back too quickly, another fight would break out. And she truly didn't want to cause Keira any more pain.

A map of the East Coast appeared on screen and as the seconds passed, more and more dots appeared. It was quite obvious that these were the Insight targets, and judging from the sheer amount, a lot of people were about to lose their lives.

With her mission done, Natasha was roughly pushed aside by Pierce who took her place, clearly wanting to feel like he was in control of the situation. The redhead walked over to Keira, who was still struggling to get up to her knees with her body still shaking from exhaustion.

"Lieutenant, how much longer?" Pierce asked to the room, knowing his agents could hear him through the microphones in the room.

"Sixty-five seconds to satellite link. Targeting grid engaged. Lowering weapons array now."

The only question now was if Cap and Wilson would be able to stop Project Insight from happening. The Helicarriers were still rising steadily, but there had been quite a lot of firing going on with the smoke still rising from the guns. And standing on the ground, she had no idea what was going on up in the air.

"We've reached three thousand feet. Satellite link coming online now."

"Deploy algorithm."

"Algorithm deployed."

With great effort, Topaz managed to get herself into a sitting position, her hands on her thighs for support. Her breathing was still labored, and it felt like she couldn't draw enough air into her lungs. She knew that if she tried to stand up now, she'd only fall to the floor. It was all she could do to watch the fear on Romanoff and Fury's faces as the computer started to list the number of people being targeted after Pierce had given the weapons tech the go-to.

"Target saturation reached. All targets assigned."

"Fire when ready." It looked as though the Captain had failed. The dots were still clearly on the screen, ready to be eliminated. If she would've been her usual self, she'd probably be feeling panicked with her breath in her throat. Because she would probably be one of the targets. But now, she felt nothing. Nothing at all at the knowledge that millions of people were about to lose their lives.

"Firing in... Three, two..." You could cut the tension in the room with a knife. "One."

But right as the countdown was finished, the screen glitched for a fraction of a second, and all the dots vanished.

"Where are the targets? Where are the targets?!"

While Pierce's satisfied expression vanished quicker than she would've thought humanly possible, Fury and Romanoff shared a relieved look. The Captain hadn't failed. At the last moment possible, he had pulled through, saving millions of people. Such a shame that the public wouldn't recognize this victory for what it truly was. They would only see it as another reason as to why SHIELD never should've existed in the first place, even if it was HYDRA's fault.