The underground warehouse was massive—easily the size of a dozen football fields.
If you mapped it out on the surface, it would've gone well beyond the Triskelion's footprint and likely extended under the Potomac River itself. It was even larger than the drydock where S.H.I.E.L.D. built their helicarrier.
The entrance alone was a wide concrete runway, big enough to fit six trucks side by side. The road stretched several kilometers, flanked by storage depots filled with gear, weapons, and supplies—S.H.I.E.L.D.'s main logistics hub.
Normally, agents and trucks would be moving nonstop, transporting cargo in and out. But now... everything had stopped.
Trucks sat still and every single one of the drivers was dead.
Most had been killed by some kind of sharp weapon. Their throats were slit, blood pooling around the cabs. Not a single person survived. The air reeked of blood and death.
Maria Hill and Rumlow stood over the corpses, grim and furious. For Maria, these were S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. For Rumlow, they were more than that—some were part of his own strike team.
The scepter had been stored here—or at least, that's what they told the public. Maria knew better. Alexander Pierce had moved it long ago. Still, S.H.I.E.L.D. kept up the lie that it was locked away in this facility, hoping to mislead anyone trying to steal it.
They expected that might deter normal thieves. But whoever broke in here were no ordinary people.
Officially, S.H.I.E.L.D. worried about Loki returning for the scepter—but they didn't really believe he would. Based on intel, Loki had intentionally left the scepter behind at Stark Tower. They figured Natasha recovered it simply because he let her.
Loki wasn't the kind to come back for something once he threw it away—even a powerful artifact. Especially not when he already had the Tesseract.
Which meant the attacker wasn't an alien—it was someone from Earth.
But who on Earth could breach a high-security base, kill every agent silently, and avoid every trap?
Even if the traps weren't the tightest, they were still designed by elite agents.
And yet, here they were—surrounded by bodies with no answers.
"Be alert," Daniel said, stepping carefully down into the warehouse. "The magical energy here is intense."
He moved fast, scanning the area, stepping over bodies and following the trail of magic deeper inside.
Behind him, Maria and Rumlow drew their weapons. They'd already locked down the Triskelion and called for backup. Reinforcements were coming.
Rumlow was visibly shaken. He'd tried to calm himself, but these were his men. Even Hydra required a level of loyalty and internal trust. This hit too close.
More than anything, Rumlow wondered, 'Was there even one survivor left?'
He'd posted elite guards deeper in the facility—especially near the vault where they stored the decoy scepter. Those guards were well-equipped and trained for exactly this kind of breach.
Still, Daniel's warning about the magical energy told Rumlow everything he needed to know: they'd been up against someone dangerous. Someone skilled. If not for Daniel detecting the energy trail, the intruder might still be hiding here undetected.
If they weren't already dead, they were close.
And if Daniel wasn't careful, they all might be next.
The three of them moved in formation, standard combat spacing—Daniel in the lead, Maria and Rumlow guarding his flanks.
Daniel moved with purpose. He was tracking something—clearly heading toward the vault where the fake scepter was stored.
That vault contained a special device—one that could temporarily seal off space. Once activated, no one could leave until the lock released on a timer.
That's why they hadn't needed a huge team to guard the scepter. Between the decoy and the space-locking device, they were confident.
Maybe too confident.
They didn't think anyone could break into this level of S.H.I.E.L.D. unnoticed. After all, no one had ever done it before.
Daniel moved so fast that Maria and Rumlow had to sprint to keep up. Within minutes, they reached the last chamber—a smooth wall with no visible doors.
On either side of the wall were massive storage rooms filled with weapons and gear. Anyone looting them could walk away with a small fortune.
But behind this wall, at the very back of the entire warehouse, was something no one would ever expect—a secret vault.
"How do we get in?" Daniel asked, turning to Maria and Rumlow.
Rumlow stepped forward and stomped on a section of the floor. Instantly, a steel panel slid upward, revealing a hidden keypad.
This was a high security entry—it required palm and eye scans too.
No surprise—it was S.H.I.E.L.D., after all.
Rumlow entered the code and completed the scans. The wall shifted open, revealing a dark passage.
Lights flicked on, illuminating a sleek, silver corridor.
Rumlow stepped forward, but Daniel raised a hand. "No. You two stay here. If we're facing the kind of enemy I think we are... I might not be able to protect you."
It wasn't that Daniel doubted their combat skills. But he knew what kind of magic was at work here.
It was spatial magic.
This wasn't a mutant's teleportation trick. This was a master-level magician—someone who had learned to bend space itself.
Only a handful of magicians on Earth could pull this off. Outside of the mystics at Kamar-Taj, anyone else capable of such magic was almost always a legendary-level mage—rare and extremely powerful.
If one of them wanted the scepter—or even the decoy—it wouldn't be for anything good.
Daniel stepped into the corridor. As he walked deeper, his figure seemed to fade—not just from sight, but from reality—like he was passing into another space entirely.
Maria watched him disappear.
Then she turned and bolted toward one of the armories.
Rumlow frowned at first, thinking she was leaving—but then he realized, 'She's going for weapons!'
The agents' standard issue gear had been useless—sliced apart like paper.
If they were facing a magical threat, they needed firepower.
A moment later, Maria returned, armed with two XM40 rifles, each with grenade launchers attached.
She was ready for war.