Pandora

1

||Part One: All things Wicked||

    Waves crashed against a rocky shore, salt water spraying the air, reaching towards the black and white lighthouse at the top of a cliff. Cracks lined the concrete and dust coated the light at the top that hasn't been used in decades. Instead, spotlights alongside the back of the cliff illuminated a secret dock built into the island. A military ship sat a few yards from the dock, close enough for the people inside to jump into the ocean and swim to a ladder leading into the underground facility hidden from the world, although it wasn't so hidden anymore.

    Inside the Hydra facility, scientists hurried to corrupt any electronic files and destroy the physical ones while agents scrambled over one another, their escape plan having gone up in flames, quite literally, as the Avengers attacked.

Taking care of the top of the island, the sound of repulser blasts echoing inside the lighthouse, Iron Man easily shot down anyone desperate enough to take that exit. Out by the dock, the Hulk, Hawkeye, and Black Widow took care of the majority of Hydra agents who had jumped ship. Inside the facility, Thor and Captain America fought side by side, cornering the rest.

Blasting another foolish scientist bonding up the steps in the lighthouse, Iron Man peered down the spiral staircase, searching for anyone else who decided to show themselves. "How's it looking down there, Cap?" he called through the comms.

Deep in the island, Captain America slammed the head of an agent into a metal table, knocking them out. "I think we've cleared out down here," he proclaimed, glancing at Thor as he summoned Mjollnir back into his waiting hand. Smiling, the two nodded to one another, "Yeah, we're good."

"I'm headed in to check for stragglers," Hawkeye said from his perch on a ladder by the dock, watching Black Widow race after a raging Hulk along the shoreline. "And Nat's got Bruce," he added.

Stepping outside, face mask sliding up and allowing the breeze to cool him down, Tony huffed in satisfaction. "Let me know when we're ready to blow this popsicle stand," he announced, lifting up his arm as a small missile rose from it, aimed directly at the lighthouse. "I'm just dying to try out my new toy."

"A bit insensitive," Clint mused.

"I'm sure they don't mind," Steve said, putting out a small fire in a trash bin filled with documents.

Peering over his shoulder to the bodies who didn't quite make it off the ship in time as the sea claimed them, Clint nodded his head to side in consideration. "I suppose that's true. Hey, Thor, you think you could create a small storm to put out the fire?"

Flying down the main underground tunnel and past his fellow Avenger, Thor grinned. "Already on it."

Instinctively ducking, Clint looked back to watch the God of Thunder shoot outside and up towards the sky, his hammer raised. In mere seconds, lightning flashed through dark clouds as a brief and heavy rainfall consumed the island. Flames no longer cling to the burning inferno that used to be a ship and, leaving behind a trail of thick smoke, it continued to slowly sink.