[A/N]: Bonus chapter for Goal 1; Next Goal is 500 PowerStones for TWO more Bonus Chapters
The Helicarrier shuddered five thousand feet above the Atlantic as another explosion rocked its port side, the whole structure groaning like a wounded animal. Domino's hands moved in practiced patterns, crimson strings materializing from her fingertips and wrapping around damaged bulkheads, severed support beams, and ruptured power conduits all at once with ease that came from weeks of practice. The quantum manipulation felt natural now, intuitive in a way that surprised her every time she used it.
She saw the connections holding matter together at the quantum level, invisible threads that bound reality itself, and with a thought she restored them as the crimson strings pulsed with energy and metal that had been twisted and shattered flowed back together like watching a video in reverse.
"There we go." She wiped sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, grinning at her handiwork. "Good as new, baby! Still got it."
Her probability manipulation meshed with Jamie's stolen power perfectly, letting her instinctively know which strings to pull and which connections to reinforce without conscious thought, like her luck was guiding her hands. The hull sealed with a satisfying hiss, damage undone as if the explosion had never happened.
Then every instinct she'd honed over years of mercenary work screamed at once.
Domino threw herself sideways as a blast of yellow energy seared past her, close enough she felt heat through her leather jacket and smelled her own hair singeing. The beam tore through the hull she'd just repaired, punching a three-foot hole that opened to sky and rushing wind.
Wind howled through the breach while alarms blared throughout the carrier in overlapping tones, emergency lights casting everything in red. Domino rolled to her feet, pale skin flushed from exertion and adrenaline.
"Alright, Terminator." She grinned despite everything, despite the danger and the pain. "Didn't know HYDRA had game like that."
FURY stepped through the smoke like something out of a nightmare, seven feet of adaptive plating and cold intelligence with that single circular eye tracking her like a predator sizing up prey, yellow energy coiling around its weapon arm in hypnotic patterns.
Domino's crimson strings wove together with liquid grace, forming guns in each hand that weren't physical weapons but constructs of quantum manipulation, pure energy given form and function that she'd been practicing in the Savage Land under Jay's watchful eye.
She opened fire without hesitation.
Energy rounds struck FURY's chest in rapid succession, one after another after another in a drumbeat of impacts that should've dropped any opponent, that would've torn through steel plating and destroyed internal systems.
FURY didn't slow down, didn't even flinch.
"Okay." Domino's grin widened dangerously. "So you're tough. Let's see how tough, tin man."
She poured more power into the guns until crimson energy intensified to blinding brightness and more holes appeared in FURY's frame with each shot, sparks flying and systems shorting out in cascades of electrical failure.
But the damage repaired itself almost instantly as plating flowed back together like liquid metal, holes sealed and systems rebooted, and within seconds FURY stood pristine again as if nothing had happened.
Then it spoke in a voice that made her blood run cold.
"NEENA THURMAN." The voice was wrong somehow, manic in tone and cadence, processed through something that stripped away humanity while keeping the madness. "YOUR POWERBROKER PULLED ME FROM REST. FROM THE PEACE. FROM THE QUIET I DESERVED AFTER EVERYTHING."
FURY's movements became erratic and twitchy, its head cocking at an unnatural angle that no living thing should manage, joints bending wrong.
"JAY WILL SUFFER FOR WHAT HE DID. JAY WILL WATCH WHILE I WORK. I'LL TEAR YOU APART PIECE BY PIECE, SPREAD YOUR ENTRAILS ACROSS THIS SHIP LIKE CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS, LET HIM SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU STEAL FROM LADY DEATH HERSELF."
The precision was gone completely, replaced by something manic and unhinged as FURY charged with raw fury driving every motion, faster than anything that size should move.
Domino's expression shifted as the cocky grin faded slightly, replaced by genuine concern. "Jesus Christ. Who hurt you, robot boy? Who pissed in your circuits?"
She upgraded her weapons mid-thought without breaking stride, handguns becoming submachine guns with crimson energy streaming in sustained bursts while FURY's chest, arms, head got punctured repeatedly until it looked like Swiss cheese, sparks and fluid leaking from dozens of wounds.
Still it came forward, relentless and inevitable.
Domino backpedaled while firing continuously, boots finding purchase on debris as the weapons evolved again into miniguns that roared with quantum energy and tore through the air, and FURY's entire torso disintegrated under the sustained assault, metal vaporizing.
"Got you, you bastard!"
FURY's single eye flickered once, twice.
Then the damage reversed faster this time, much faster, holes mending and systems restoring and plating reforming until FURY stood whole again without even slowing its advance.
But something had changed in its stance, in the way it moved.
Domino fired again but energy rounds struck the plating and deflected harmlessly, ricocheting at impossible angles that defied physics, bouncing back toward her.
"No. No, that's not...."
FURY's eye conveyed satisfaction that was somehow visible in that single glowing orb, cruel and triumphant.
FURY blitzed forward faster than before, exponentially faster, and Domino barely registered movement before metal fingers wrapped around her throat in a crushing grip, lifting her off the deck like she weighed nothing.
She tried to summon more crimson strings, tried to warp reality around the grip and make the fingers let go, but FURY had already adapted to her powers and her quantum manipulation slid off its form like water off glass.
"CAN'T HURT ME NOW, LITTLE GIRL." The mechanical voice carried triumph and madness in equal measure. "ADAPTATION. THAT'S WHAT I DO. THAT'S WHAT I AM. THAT'S ALL I'VE EVER BEEN. YOU BREAK ME, I REBUILD STRONGER. YOU SHOOT ME, I LEARN. YOU CAN'T WIN."
FURY turned while still holding Domino suspended, choking, and charged toward the hull breach at full speed, and she saw what was coming but nothing prepared her for the impact as FURY smashed through three bulkheads in rapid succession without slowing.
Metal shrieked and tore while supports gave way like cardboard, FURY using her body as a battering ram with her back and shoulders taking each collision with bone-shattering force.
Pain exploded through her spine as ribs cracked like dry twigs and her healing factor kicked in immediately, bone and tissue knitting even as more damage accumulated faster than she could heal, faster than her body could compensate.
Then they were falling through open air.
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