51 Don't Cry Stryker! I bought Fireworks!!

*Later(3rd POV)*

Over in the outskirts of Queens stopped three trucks and men in full battle gear stepped out followed by a group of Metahumans. The leader of the group kept his eyes shut as he leaned on one of the crates doing nothing, but in reality, he was feeling any shifts in the air around him. Unfortunately, the one looking for him is able to control the wind like any other limb.

The meta's never noticed their armed men disappearing on patrol until at least 8 teams of 4 people disappeared. The leader, Cyclone narrowed his eyes and said, "Where are the patrols?"

"They should be back by now." A woman said looking at the route of patrol, shaking the ant-like antenna on her head, trying to pick any signals from the surrounding.

"Get in formation," Cyclone ordered as he flew up for a better vantage point while lifting up two crates as well, on which stood two identical-looking boys, who lifted their arms, projecting energy shields around Cyclone.

Just as they did so, the crates suddenly exploded, sending the two twins away and falling down. Cyclone barely managed to block the blast, but before he could recover, a shining ball appeared in front of him and exploded, making him injured and fall. He tried to use the wind to stop his descent but found it out of his control for some reason, and the last thing the near-top Alpha metahuman saw was an electrified kick making its way towards his face, and he blacked out. Without much effort.

On the ground, many smoke bombs exploded but the meta's kept their calm as they had trained many times for this situation and can easily detect someone close to them with their eyes closed. But to their surprise, their best radar, the Ant-Girl got knocked out and they couldn't even feel their opponent. But they were slow on realizing that as before they realized, they were laying on the ground as well.

"Enigma dropped from the roof while Nightclaw walked through the smoke and looked at the fainted metas with a frown. " I smell something from them." She said to Enigma.

"Stryker's mind control drug. He made it from his son's blood and uses it to control the mutants. He primarily had it made to control Magneto." He said, checking out the crates.

{Well, you know more than you let on, don't you, Enigma?} The heard a voice coming from the truck on the right and saw a laptop filming them, showing Stryker talking through it.

"What can I say, I like being resourceful." Enigma shrugged hearing him, not surprised in the slightest.

{… X-23} Stryker said, eyeing Nightclaw, who growled at him.

{Playing hero? Is that what we taught you to do? I'm disappointed. Return back, and I promise to treat the other muties you 'befriended' well. They would even be on the same team as you.} Stryker said to her, while Nightclaw stood silently, but sneered at the end.

{Don't make it tough for me X-23, you will not like it. You don't want what happened to your mother to repeat, don't you?} This flared Nightclaw as she glared at the monitor, taking her claws out.

{Be a good girl and come back, freaks and weapons can never be heroes. Humans like us deserve that title} He said with a fanatic look in his eyes.

"And bigots like you shouldn't be responsible for any position in the army. People like you would nuke your own country to 'cleanse' it." Enigma interrupted.

"You dare-" Stryker erupted in rage but was cut off by him.

"Blah-blah demons blah-blah I'm racist blah- jealous- blah-blah. This is all I'm hearing from you. Get creative." Enigma said while acting like cleaning his ears. Stryker was completely red in anger but took a deep breath and smiled.

{I see... a shame you forced me to do this. You really should have listened like an obedient slave X-23. But alas, you just repeated a tragedy.} He said and pressed a button smiling. All three silently looked at each other for five seconds, while Stryker frowned and pressed the button again and again, to no avail.

"Awww, shucks. Strykey's fireworks were a dud. Is little Strykey gonna cry??" Enigma said in a smug and teasing voice, making Stryker's eyes bloodshot in understanding and gritting his teeth in anger.

{Grrr, I WILL DESTROY ALL YOU FREAKS. I WILL COME INTO YOUR HOUSE AND KILL EVERYONE YOU CARE FOR. YOU WON'T GET AWAY}. Stryker roared in anger.

"...Pfft... hehe..hahaha." Enigma couldn't hold it in and started laughing.

He pointed his thumb at Stryker while looking at Nightclaw and said "He... He said he'll attack you in your house. pfft..."Enigma said and continued to laugh, while Stryker looked confused. "Great idea Stryker, in fact, you should go do it now. It's your funeral anyway."

Stryker became more confused and grunted. {What do you mean? Explain yourself!}

"What? Nothing at all. I ain't giving you any spoilers. Go find it out yourself. Though I would love to see your face when you figure it out. haha," Enigma said while chuckling.

He then handed something to Nightclaw and said, "Though no need to cry, Stryker. I left some fireworks at your home, hope you enjoy them" Enigma said, while Nightclaw opened the stick to reveal a red button.

Stryker paled while Nightclaw smirked and pressed it.

*BOOOOM* A voice came from Stryker's speaker followed by a shaking camera and multiple yells, and then the camera cut off.

"Welp, that's that," Enigma said, yawning.

Nightclaw frowned and said, " Why are we keeping him alive?"

"We need a legit reason to drag him under the bus. If we release his experiments, the govt. will just try to cover it up to make use of the research, and hydra would get it as well. It's quite surprising they don't have enough progress, considering they have been experimenting even before Stryker started." Enigma explained.

" How long will it take?" She asked him.

"At first I was thinking a month or two..." Enigma said when his expression turned into anger and bloodlust ." But how DARE he call you a weapon and slave repeatedly. AND in front of me. I will torture and burn him to insanity and heal him to repeat it again and again." He said, while even the clouds above started thundering, responding to his mood.

Nightclaw smiled wryly seeing this. She knew as kind as he was, he would never let anyone harm those close to him, and even an insult would get them into Terra's jaws.

"What about them?" She asked, turning to the metas.

Enigma waved his hand the meta's disappeared. "They'll be under Aliana's team while they recover the mind alteration. After that, the ones who don't look human would get a serum to get some shapeshifting abilities and the grown-ups would be given respective jobs, while the kids will be sent to Xavier. As for those who joined willingly, persuasion or thrown in jail." Enigma explained.

Nightclaw looked weirdly and asked, " Why would anyone join him willingly?"

"Because of how they are treated. Most mutants don't look human outside you know. Those that do are only a select few. So they are willing to join anyone who can give them some acceptance. While some just want power and authority. And those are generally the bad ones." Enigma said while boarding the Nightowl with her and taking off, while police cars stopped outside the factory and teams came out to raid the place, only to find armed men with cyclones and a mongoose-looking guy, with arms broken. The two meta's that Enigma didn't consider to be redeemable. As the first wanted power, while the other was a crazy cannibal, and on his own choice. His powers didn't force him to be like that. He also left proof with them, which even baffled the FBI as to how he gets obscure and hidden details.

Enigma looked at the city, but he was anything but calm. Because his sixth sense has started acting for a while, and he got a feeling someone was targeting him, and not just Enigma, but Alexander Knight as well. Which meant someone knew. And that was something he would like out of Shield's hands for now. He could only guess his opponent to be one of the three options. A Time Traveler, a superhuman intellectual metahuman, or a clairvoyant. But whoever it was, messing with him would be their doom.

'Damn, I sound like Victor(Dr. Doom)' Enigma thought while making plans to prepare for the future.

*Next Day*

"... As of last night, the NYPD has arrested over 20 metahumans performing various crimes, thwarted by them and The Defenders. Mr. West, what are your thoughts on this matter?" Reporter Christine Everhart asked.

"Well, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what is happening now. The no. of metahumans is rising day by day and it's only thanks to NYPD and our heroes that we are still safe. As for why Ney York is becoming more and more frequent to them, it's because a moth always comes towards the fire. Crime lords like Wilson Fisk kept it low because there was no threat to his empire. But the Defenders knocking him out of his seat created a power gap. So, how do the new crime lords take the position? Same as Fisk did, Metahumans.

We have seen a walking human battery(Electro) to a fire-breathing crocodile. And since the Defenders took them out, the new criminals are searching for meta's who are more dangerous than them. Like how Iron Man had to face Whiplash." George West answered.

"It is indeed true. As the light rises, unfortunately, to balance it, so does the darkness." Everhart said, agreeing to West.

"I beg to differ, I believe the one's responsible for the chaos is none other THAN THE DEFENDERS!" A man with a stout mustache yelled. "Because they Defend us from monsters they are responsible for. That's right folks, tell me, did you see walking lizards around before the menace Spiders came around. Or did you see bank robberies become a daily occurrence before Enigma started beating people up? OH wait! Did I say beating? My apologies, I MEANT KILLING! Are you all going to entrust your safety to such madmen who are just as crazy as those criminals. Who even refuses to follow our basic laws? NO, Absolutely NOT". J. Jonah Jameson yelled towards the camera.

*Stay tuned for More...*