Stephanie Wyndham watched from an air-vent. Other superheroes seemed to be able to do it with ease, but right now Cyanide was just choking on her own breath while watching the man who had killed her Father. He was crouched over another man; one that she recognised as Strucker's little bastard of a kid.
Strucker gasped through his bullet-pierced windpipe. A red skull emblem had been painted on the wall behind him in his own blood by Crossbones.
The flaming man spoke to him in a London-accented voice.
Even though Cyanide couldn't make out the exact words, she could still easily read lips.
'You are not going to die.'
'I've been on a one-man crusade.'
'But every army starts with one man.'
'I want you to make me some monsters.'
Cyanide had to control her physical recoil as a man in a bloodstained motorcycle helmet walked into the room calmly and robotically. He took aim at the flaming man's head and fired.
The bullet smashed directly into the side of the man's skull, but burnt up on contact; releasing a spray of sparks which put themselves out on Strucker's face.
She watched the violence unfold below her, and then let her grasp on the shaft slide. Cyanide thudded to the floor below, swords once again crackling and fizzing. The two brawling men briefly acknowledged her existence, though then went on the regret not having done more. She drove her sword directly through Crossbones' helmet, and was rewarded of the wet squelch-crack of a sword rending through a face.
The flamer was next on Cyanide's list, however she was already on the top of his. Flames roared into the black leather of her suit, catching onto her purple wig to reveal shaved blond hair. She lashed out at the pyro, and shoved a sword through his stomach. The metal began to burn and Cyanide felt sick as Crossbones wrenched the blade out of his eye behind her.
She dived under the two strikes of the killers, and then flipped to her feet and opened fire with two energy-charged handguns. Semi-automatic pistols loaded with purple bolts. Two went through the face of the burner, and another one collided with Crossbone's leg.
Strucker took advantage of the chaos and reached for a needle on the floor. He gritted his teeth and drove the pin into his arm. It fizzled and then lava lit up beneath his skin. Extremis.
He screamed as the organs behind his skin began to cook, and then wretched one last time as he felt lava crawl up his windpipe.
Cyanide closed her eyes as an explosion wracked out across the room.
