"Sir, those appear to be the Black Widows. Their organization was destroyed a long time ago and they became a branch of S.H.I.E.L.D. called the Black Room, temporarily led by Antonia Dreykov and later by Natasha Romanoff, who remains in command to this day."
"Why is their strength so great?" Thanos asked. He did not care who they were, only about their power.
The soldier flipped through several screens searching for information and finally stopped at one. As he read it, his eyes trembled for an instant before he spoke with obvious fear.
"S-sir… according to this, the leader of the Widows was a high level S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and one of Nick Fury's most trusted people, so she has multiple connections."
He swallowed before continuing.
"During a S.H.I.E.L.D. experiment they managed to create a super strength serum. However, normal human bodies could not withstand it, so S.H.I.E.L.D. handed the serum over to the Black Room in exchange for certain unspecified benefits."
Thanos nodded, understanding, but noticed that the soldier seemed to be hiding something. His gaze pressed down on him.
"T-this…," the soldier hesitated, but the pressure was enough, "the experiment from which the serum was extracted was conducted by studying an extraterrestrial body. No name is mentioned, but it is stated that it arrived on Earth in 2012, during the incident recorded as the Battle of New York, along with the Chitauri army."
Thanos's face hardened.
Creating a bodily serum from a being with mental abilities like Hive made no sense, and the Chitauri were a low level race, useful only as cannon fodder. Their genetics were useless except for forming armies easy to eliminate. Only one possibility remained.
Cull Obsidian.
His first son to fall at the hands of the Avengers. The reason Thanos had begun to pay real attention to that planet, beyond the stones.
"Everyone, land," he ordered immediately.
At first glance it might seem he was acting out of anger, but that was not entirely the case.
Thanos's plan from the beginning had been to attack without underestimating Earth. Even so, no one would have imagined that even after destroying the shield with the Power Stone and deploying Outriders across the planet, the balance would still keep tipping toward the humans.
This was no longer simple underestimation. Earth had simply proven to be far more formidable than anyone had anticipated.
Thus, all forces descended on the planet at the same time.
The Avengers, gathered together, observed this and immediately left their base to head for the battlefield.
Thanos's main ship landed directly in Norway, surrounded by a dozen ships that positioned themselves kilometers away, forming a perfect circle with the central ship as its core.
All the ships in the ring connected through a strange energy, and the area within the circle began to change.
The ground dried and cracked, the heat rose to unbearable levels, lava emerged from the fissures, and the vegetation began to burn.
In a matter of moments, what had been a quiet forest turned into a living hell.
"Sir, are you sure? Terrain alteration technology at this level is extremely costly. We only have this one available."
"The Avengers are powerful," Thanos nodded, "the more separated they are, the better."
As he spoke, he brought his hand to his hip and took a crown that hung there.
Although it was called that, it was really more like the upper part of a skull with two enormous horns.
He held it and began to charge it with the power of the Power Stone.
"It is not the Eternal Flame, but it should suffice."
Without giving it a second glance after saying that, he threw it in front of him and boarded his ship, which departed immediately, vanishing at incredible speed.
On the other hand, the crown did not fall to the ground.
It stopped in midair and began to burn. As the fire grew, the crown did as well, until it surpassed the size of a house. Shortly after, a complete body materialized.
Surtur appeared in the middle of the infernal territory. With a size comparable to a mountain, he drew his massive sword and tried to drive it into the ground.
But the blade stopped.
Deep, black magic held it in the air, preventing Surtur from continuing.
Surtur raised his gaze in fury.
"HELA!"
"Surtur, I thought you would hide longer after last time," she replied mockingly.
"We are not in Asgard. Your power is not at its maximum."
"Neither were we last time," Hela mocked, "besides, you do not have the Eternal Flame either."
Surtur stopped talking and attacked.
Each of his blows devastated everything around him, but Hela did not flinch, facing him relentlessly.
In addition to attacking, Surtur manipulated the environment, using fire and terrain to restrict her movements.
But as the struggle continued, he noticed it.
"My territory is shrinking," he growled, "so you are trying to distract me," he said, looking at her with rage.
"I do not know what you are talking about," Hela replied, hurling a massive spear of dark energy that embedded itself in his chest.
Surtur ripped it out with force. The energy burned his hands, but his wounds closed immediately, as if he had never been attacked.
Hela was not lying. Her plan was simple, kill him again and keep his crown to prevent his resurrection. She did not know who was reducing his domain.
But even she began to notice it.
The temperature dropped, the lava slowed, the fire around them went out.
Surtur's control over the environment diminished rapidly and Hela began to move more freely, wounding him repeatedly.
This time, she used massive chains to immobilize him. When Surtur tried to break them, Hela released her grip, making him fall under his own weight, the impact resonating for kilometers.
Then she pinned his limbs to the ground, immobilizing him completely.
When she was about to finish him, everything around them returned to normal.
Hela looked around in surprise. Only a few minutes had passed. Whoever they were, they had destroyed all the perimeter ships with extreme efficiency, dismantling the terrain modification system.
Surtur, however, laughed.
"It does not matter. You are not eternal, Hela. None of you are. Only I am immortal. Even if millions of years pass, one day I will return, when none of you are left to defend them… and I will destroy Asgard."
"I finally arrived."
Before Hela could answer, a female voice echoed from above them both.
Hela turned her gaze and observed with curiosity the young red haired woman who had just appeared.
Surtur, on the other hand, observed her without needing to move, as she floated dozens of meters above his head.
Ignoring both of them, Wanda surrounded Surtur's crown with her magic and drew it into the air.
Seeing her concentrate, both of them understood what she was trying to do.
"It is impossible," Surtur mocked, "my crown is bound to the Eternal Flame. It is indestructible. Not even Odin at the height of his power could damage it."
Wanda looked at him for a second and nodded.
"It is true. It is indestructible. It does not break."
She relaxed. The energy around the crown changed.
Then she began to murmur, moving her magic with fluidity.
"There is no need to force. There is no need to shape. I am not changing anything. It was always like this. This is my reality."
Hela watched as the crown felt different, Wanda's magic penetrating it, and felt growing curiosity toward the strange red haired sorceress.
Surtur felt it too, and without realizing it he panicked.
Being bound to his crown, he knew in detail what was happening. As impossible as it seemed, every atom of his crown was being replaced by chaos magic. It was not being destroyed, it was as if the crown had originally been made of chaos magic, becoming completely subject to Wanda's will.
"Stop! What are you doing?" although he tried to sound furious, his voice carried a fear he had never felt since his birth.
Wanda did not respond.
She remained focused for a few more seconds until, to her, the crown ceased to exist as such. It was nothing more than her own magic, perfectly manipulable.
And with it, she created bubbles.
Before the horrified eyes of Surtur and the surprised gaze of Hela, the indestructible crown turned into bubbles that dispersed into the air.[1]
Hela smiled.
"Were you saying something?"
"Wait!…"
She did not let him finish.
She drove straight through his chest with brutal force, destroying him completely.
This time, Surtur did not heal.
He died instantly, with no possibility of returning at all.
Hela turned toward Wanda, who was kneeling on the ground.
"Are you alright?" she asked, extending her hand.
Wanda took it and stood up.
"Yes… it is just that it is the first time I have done something like that."
She took a deep breath.
"And I hope it is the last. I feel like I will not be able to do anything for years."
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+7 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)
[1] A reference to the first fanfic I ever read.