Chapter 128

There was a terrible crash behind us before I could make a fool of myself. The Lab was under attack. I heard an energy pistol go off and saw the signature blue flash as Kurt teleported somebody out of the way of danger.

Everyone was quick to react and hurried into the Lab.

N'tesh stood at the center, a deep pool of unnatural shadow spilling beneath him. In the far corner were Bruce, Kurt, Betty, and their assistant, who was as white as snow.

The human with horns understandably freaked him out.

N'tesh's eyes focused on us, then widened in confusion, first for seeing Mystique, who had shed her natural blue skin for the doctor's appearance, and then at me. Captain America, who had fired the shot, stuck to the far left of the room, shield and gun in hand, ready to resume his assault while he kept a steady eye on the monster.

N'tesh ignored him wholly, attention firmly rooted in me. He blinked twice as if the action would dispel the magic animating me. He was covered in badly healed wounds, yet he looked like he'd take time to clean his face. It was a point of pride.

"You look like you've seen a ghost, big guy," I smirked. "Although with that face of yours, I can't really tell."

"I don't know how you survived, but I will remedy that shortly," he snarled.

"What no more offers or threats?"

"The time for that has long passed," his voice bellowed as he swiped his hands, and multiple things happened simultaneously.

Five Dreamrunners popped out of his shadows with their swords. Two aimed at Kurt. Two headed straight for us, while the last one targeted the captain.

I sprung into action immediately and blocked one of the two Dreamrunners targeting our group. The second went after the agents, while N'tesh surprisingly went after Wanda, the mutant who almost did him in, ignoring me entirely.

He attacked her from all angles, sending blades through her shadows and from his hands. They flowed and warped as they struck, flooding me with intense anxiety.

Thankfully, I didn't need to worry. She raised a red sturdy shield that bounced the blades back, and I smirked.

Wanda wasn't half bad.

It could've been my imagination, but I swore I saw her lips quirk up at my mental comment. The demon I held back with my blade finally got tired of trying to press me with his strength and disengaged, switching sides with the demon attack Clint and Natasha, who was rapidly teleporting as the sharpshooters pinned him down.

I felt the demon materialize behind me before I saw him and swung, filling my blade with a chunk of the massive glut of energy I felt churning within me. It blasted him hard into the wall, cracking several bones.

Everyone paused in surprise.

Kurt

1 minute earlier

I grabbed Coulson, and the world warped around us, delivering into the center of SHIELD's outpost in New York. Nick Fury was facing a cluster of monitors with a tight fist.

The medics came running before I got a word out.

"Does he have internal bleeding?" One of the medics demanded as he inspected Coulson.

"I-I don't—"

"I don't think I do," Coulson helpfully told the demanding woman. "The lady that patched me up said the blades went through, and she looked like she knew what she was doing."

The woman nodded and yelled at the other medic. "Radio the OR. Tell them we're coming!"

They wheeled out of there so fast they nearly knocked me over.

Fury was staring at me when the drama was done, and behind a frozen frame of Dante in an off-white armor wreathed in fire as he kicked a demon.

My mouth fell open. I wasn't quite believing what I was seeing. When did he--

"How's the situation at the lab."

"Rapidly evolving," I blinked, said. "We lost Rin, but now he's alive…maybe."

Fury raised a brow. "Elaborate, Trainee."

"Uh…well…I watched him die, Director, and shortly after, Wanda, the other telepath on the team swore he came back to life…with a demonic energy signature."

Fury was quiet for a moment before he shook his head. "Mother Fucker. That would explain a lot. That's why Dante didn't bash his head in like the rest of Pierce's goons."

I unconsciously winced at his words.

"Dante is a killer, Kurt," Fury emphasized. "That might make you uncomfortable, but it's the truth. He just happens to be fighting for our side, for now. He was a contract killer before all of this started. And he's went from being a low-rent thug to shattering the sound barrier casually. Now, I find out that he's had the very specimen the demons have been looking for in his back pocket this entire time. I need a sample of Rin's blood. It shouldn't be too hard given how often he gets wounded."

I wasn't entirely comfortable with what the Director was asking for, but so far it was better than most of what I'd been asked to do under Hydra. "What will you do about Dante, sir?"

"He's above your paygrade for now?" Fury said. He technically didn't pay me, but I didn't see the need to point out that fact.

"As for the backup, they've been diverted," he picked up a remote from the desk in front of him and started scrolling through multiple slides of downtown New York. "It was in shambles. Entire blocks were overturned. Military personnel were involved, and Shield actively participated in rescue operations.

"That Demon Domina is every bit as dangerous as the sorcerers claim, and what you see on the screen is only the half of it. You're less than five minutes out, and Dante has just about wrap up the injured Cambion. He'll be over before the psychopath can wrap up his outrageous countdown. That Rin kid shouldn't be too much trouble. Between Wanda and yourself, you should be able to run interference and extraction, as long as the other demon doesn't suddenly show up."

"What if he does?"

"Don't leave Banner's side. Keep him on-site until the very last moment and make sure that reactor doesn't go critical. In case you haven't put it together. The United States Government isn't supposed to have a portable reactor on a campus. If things go sideways, get him out first. Forget the other agents, his girlfriend, and the assistant."

"But sir—"

"I know how you feel, but Banner is the only chance we have to beat the demons," he pointed at his screen, which is full of images of Dante, a picture of Domina they'd remarkably captured, Isha, and the faces of dead Cambions, and other exotic demons. "We're at war, kid. Our side doesn't just know it yet."

His words struck a chord in me. The boss was never emotional. Cynical and overly frank, yes, but never vulnerable. The situation had to be truly dire. I thought he was overly critical of Dante. After all, most of the mutants under shield care had killed—some more than others—and Dante and his team had rescued us from Strucker and put most of Hydra's leadership into the ground. Even now, he was paying for his kind's sins…but at the rate that Dante grew. It wouldn't be wrong before he was untouchable.

If he were to side with the demons for whatever reason or decided to work against us, humanity was in grave danger. Jean was already glued to his hip because of the mansion incidents. The particulars of the mission were obviously still closed off to me because I was a trainee, but I'd be surprised if they were not sleeping together. If Rin returned to life loyal and sane, Dante would be an even greater threat than Domina, and she's the greatest terror threat since 9/11.

I shudder to think what the other demons could achieve.

Fury sighed. "Head on back and keep me updated."

I nodded and turned around as Fury cycled through the television screen to the CDC center in New York. It looked untouched through the reflection on the tiled floors. Fury was ponderously quiet, and that scared me more than anything that I'd learned so far.

I noticed Tony Stark lingering in the dark corner of the operation room just as I dematerialized and transported myself back to the Lab.

2 seconds before N'tesh's attack.

I grabbed Bruce, his girlfriend, and their awkward assistant the instant I felt a change in the air. My first instinct was to transport them back to headquarters, but Fury's words rang in my ear.

My heart warred with my head, and my head won out. I transported them to the other side of the room, near the case of vials containing earlier iterations of the formula.

My heart melted with joy when I saw Rin upfront and center, exchanging words with the demons, but then I considered the Director's warnings and was suddenly paranoid.

Things devolved almost too quickly for somebody with my senses, and two demons came my way. They vanished in a bubble of folded space, and I could feel the world swell in preparation for their reappearance behind us.

Teleporting would've been the wrong call. They would arrive before I could leave, so I spun and waved to the left as I pulled out my pistol and pointed to the closest demon point of exit.

"Move!"

Betty was quick on her feet, and so was Banner, but their nervous wreck of an assistant, overwhelmed and overstimulated, froze momentarily. Banner grabbed him, urging him along, and that almost cost him his life.

My pistol surprisingly took the first exiting demon in the throat, killing him. His body bounced off the floor and crashed straight into the terminal, one of his blades cutting up the system really badly. The second scored a deep gash on Banner's back as he exited with his blades swinging. The cut seemed to surprise him as much as Banner.

However, not nearly as much as the loud impact across the hall.

Rin squashed a teleporting demon like a bug….with a single swing.

What the fuck!