'Clint's hit pretty bad, guys,' Natasha's voice sounded worried. 'We're gonna need evac.'

'I can get Barton to the jet. The sooner we're gone the better. You, Storm and Stark secure the scepter,' Thor said to Steve.

'Copy that.'

A tank rolled over the hill up ahead and Thor let out a laugh at HYDRA's attempt to take them on. Sue watched as soldiers tried to jump off and continue the pursuit on foot, only to have Thor collide his hammer with Steve's shield. A shot of lightning rebounded off the vibranium and exploded the tank, the soldiers caught in the blast.

'Find the scepter,' Thor said to Steve before he spun his hammer. The weapon pulled the demi-god into the air and he took off to find Clint and Natasha.

'And for gosh sake, watch your language!' Tony cried and Sue stifled a laugh. Steve looked to her and shook his head.

'That's not going away anytime soon.'

Tony infiltrated Strucker's lab and took care of the soldiers inside. Johnny followed through the same window shortly after, seeing Tony's suit in sentry mode while he worked on the computers. Johnny shook off his flames once his feet touched the ground and stepped over the groaning soldiers. Tony looked up as JARVIS went through the systems and sent all its information back to headquarters.

'Lot of help you were,' Tony said as he looked back down at the computer he typed on.

'I was taking out the gunmen,' Johnny motioned out the window defensively.

'Yeah, and melted half the forest while you were at it.'

Johnny huffed and looked around the laboratory. Its walls were rough concrete and kept all the cold that drifted in from outside in its frame. Anyone who worked in the lab would need winter coats just to keep them comfortable. Johnny was about to be thankful for the thermal insulation Tony built into his suit, but he remembered that he was constantly the temperature of a woodfire.

'I know you're hiding more files,' Tony mumbled to the computer. 'Hey, J, give me an IR scan of the room, real quick.'

'The wall to your left, I'm reading steel reinforcement. And an air current,' JARVIS informed.

Tony looked to where Johnny stood and saw a crevice that didn't line up with anything in the ceiling. Johnny stepped aside as Tony edged in front, putting his hands against the cold wall.

'Oh, god, please be a secret door,' Johnny begged, and the wall swung open. 'Yay!'

Sue and Steve made it into the HYDRA base. Stairs ran from the bottom entry and led up several floors. Sue felt the cold sting at her cheeks, blood rushing to them to keep them warm. Pink patches swirled on her pale skin, and she even felt her fingers begin to lose feeling. Eastern European winter wasn't something she was used to, but she was doing better than most of the team. Her hometown in England had cold winters and she remembered them as a little girl. Snow was a sign of her childhood to her, so it wasn't an issue for The Invisible Woman.

'We'll split,' Steve said to Sue as they climbed the stairs. 'You go off at this floor and I'll keep you updated through the intercom.'

'Sounds good, cap.'

'And be careful!'

Sue headed off the stairs while Steve continued up. She took precaution and slipped into transparency, wondering through the halls unseen. She vaguely knew what Strucker looked like as she had seen a picture of him in the report Steve sent to her and Tony. Anyone who wasn't on the team would be a target, so it didn't matter who she took out. But she had to be aware of the enhanced they encountered in the forest. Someone was zooming around with abilities that were equal to her own, so she was sure to be wary.

Turning a corner, Sue caught sight of someone heading down the hall. In a long crimson trench coat, a woman with long brown hair with an orange tinge snuck around the corner. She was unaware of Sue's presence and the woman approached Steve, who had caught up with Strucker and was about to attack.

'I'll put it right under illegal human extermination,' Steve spoke, and the woman stopped behind him. 'How many are there-'

The woman lifted her hands and danced her fingers near his head, a red mist crawling into his ear. Steve fell against the wall next to him with his eyes scrunched shut. Whatever she sent into his head was disorientating and painful.

Sue followed the woman who slipped away from Steve and Strucker. She was intrigued by her abilities as she was obviously like the enhanced that injured Clint, and zoomed by her and Steve. Making sure she was light-footed, Sue gained on the woman and was a breath away when Steve's voice flowed loudly out of her earpiece.

'We have a second enhanced. Female. Do not engage.'

Because the base was quiet and insulated by concrete walls, Steve's voice was audible outside of Sue's earpiece. Her proximity didn't help, and the woman whipped around, her eyes swimming with scarlet and her fingers producing a blast of crimson mist. Without knowing it, the woman sent Sue backwards and she skidded across the grey floor. Her body materialised from her loss of concentration and the woman was able to see the one she sent backwards.

'Who are you?' she had a thick accent. She held her hand at the ready with red mist threading through her digits, her eyes trained on Sue who pushed her knees to make her stand. The woman in the red coat was also intrigued by Sue, as she recognised her face but couldn't pinpoint her identity.

'I'm surprised,' Sue let out, putting her hands on her back to straighten it from the fall. 'Are we not popular over here?'

The woman's red eyes narrowed before she slipped around the corner. Sue's voice that was laced with her English accent made her realise who she was; she was Tony Stark's partner and lover. They were often on the news together and the western media was obsessed with every detail of their relationship of fighting crime and dating in their downtime.

Sue tried to follow her and turned down the hall she disappeared down. She walked the length of hallways before she went rigid and froze. The woman's fingers appeared from around a corner and the crimson slinked into Sue's ear. Her eyes glazed over, and the woman took the time to leave to where she was originally headed.

Blackness covered Sue's vision for a moment, before it cleared and she looked around either side of her. Blinking three times, she searched for the woman who successfully caught her off guard. She cursed herself for not using her transparency when in search of an enhanced human. It slipped her mind as the woman's abilities intrigued her so much.

'Susie!'

She whipped around at the call of her nickname, but she saw no one. There weren't many people that called her that, and the voice was beyond anyone who would be at the HYDRA base. Rolling on her heel, Sue turned another corner and saw the grey walls change before her eyes. The boring slabs brightened to a white tile and light streamed in from the window ahead.

Steve and Tony communicated through her earpiece, but her mind was deeply immersed by the setting around her. Steve called her name for a status update, but he heard nothing. He informed Tony that Sue wasn't communicating, and Tony called to JARVIS through his earpiece.

'What's up with my baby?' he asked. Johnny and him walked through the hall that appeared behind the secret door. They arrived at a large room where HYDRA was extracting data and DNA from a leviathan that had fallen in the battle at New York. Since Johnny was there, Tony didn't want to show how much the sight of it terrified him. Memories flooded back of him flying the missile through the wormhole and he tried to keep his breathing level.

'Miss Storm is stable, sir. Although, her brain appears to be in a dream-like state,' JARVIS informed as Tony stared up at the leviathan. 'There is no sign of injury to assume unconsciousness, but it appears as if she is dreaming.'

'Cap, JARVIS is telling me Sue's dreaming or whatever,' Tony informed through his earpiece. 'Can you check on her?'

'Copy that.'

Johnny caught sight of the object they came in search of. He grinned as he walked over to a table that held Loki's scepter, recognising it all too well. Its sphere swirled with blue, and its gold handle appeared to have been polished. He picked it up off the stand and held it in his gloved hand, feeling all too powerful with it.

'Thor? I've got our sacred staff,' Johnny informed through his earpiece.

With his back turned, the woman in the scarlet trench-coat slipped her dancing swirls into Tony's head. The man went rigid as he fell into a hallucination of the leviathan coming to life and letting out a mighty roar. He watched in horror as it broke through the ceiling and flew out of the room.

The scene changed and Tony was on a planet where the sky was a constant display of stars. Around him were the Avengers; dead and destroyed. He couldn't believe his eyes and stumbled over to Steve, who looked out into nothing with dirt and blood covering his uniform. Tony fell to his knees and put a finger to Steve's neck, feeling for a pulse. He jumped as his arm shot up and enclosed his fingers around his wrist, gasping for life and staring back at Tony.

'Y-You... could've saved... us,' Steve choked before falling back into death. His words continued in Tony's head, and he looked away in grief. His heart pounded in his chest and all that he believed in fell away. His teammates stared blankly into nothing and Tony went to stand, when he saw the blonde hair of the Storm siblings.

Letting out a sob, he crawled across the black dirt to be beside Sue. Johnny was motionless alongside his sister, his eyes open and empty. Tony ran his thumb over her cold, grey cheek, tears welling in his eyes and his lips pulling into an anguished frown. Her brown eyes that he loved dearly were cold and muddy, unlike the golden maroon that usually captivated him. Her lips were chapped, and blood was dried on her cupid's bow from its leak out of her nostril.

'Why didn't you do more?' her voice sounded in his head, yet her lips didn't move. The Chitauri army flew overhead and took the Earth as their own, the Avengers defeated and leaving it unprotected.