Age of Darkness | Pietro Maximoff

Part Three: Rule 10 - Keep Your Options Open

Age of Darkness Christmas Special

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The Moscow Rules

1. Assume nothing
2. Never go against your gut
3. Everyone is potentially under opposition control
4. Don't look back; you are never completely alone
5. Go with the flow, blend in
6. Vary your pattern and stay within your cover
7. Lull them into a sense of complacency
8. Don't harass the opposition
9. Pick a time and place for action
10. Keep your options open

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Music: Mission Impossible Theme Extended 10 Minutes

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Part Three: Keep Your Options Open

There are bloody bodies on the ground everywhere. The rest of the people are screaming and fleeing. On the stage are dead band members and politicians, but no Russian or American Presidents.

Glory and Pietro aim the guns and fire at several HYDRA agents attempting to shoot at them. Two dead on the ground after they shoot. Banner, Stark, the younger Odinson, and Pietro's twin sister are standing around the bodies, looking for anyone left alive after the people have fled.

"Where did they go?" Glory shouts, still on the lookout for HYDRA. "They didn't just disappear! What happened to the dwarves? The plan?"

Tony Stark stumbles over his words. "They, um... they came from the crowd, the band, through the ceiling, everywhere. Some bald man in the audience screamed 'Hail HYDRA!' and they all started shooting the guests. Someone snatched the Presidents right out from under me..."

"Shit. It was him all along! The man I spoke with! He's HYDRA!" Glory lowers her gun as Tony's suit becomes a darker shade. "Stark, your suit."

Tony places his hand on his suit, bringing it up, and falling to the ground. His hand is bright red. Glory rushes to him. "Tony!" She pulls open his tuxedo to find a bullet hole in his lower left abdomen.

Banner rushes over to him and pulls the white dress shirt open. "It's not bad. I can take care of him until help arrives." He turns to Glory and Pietro. "Steve, Bucky, Clint, Nat, Thor, and Peggy went after them. They headed towards the garage under the building. If you leave through the front door, you'll be able to catch them before they leave in a car chase."

The two nod, and along with Loki and Wanda, they start running towards the front entrance.

As they enter the large hallway that leads directly to the front door, four guards start shooting at them. Glory pulls everyone back behind the corner, keeping them from getting shot. "On my count, we jump out and give them hell." She turns to see Wanda grabbing her energy blasters that Stark invented for her, Loki pulling out his throwing knives, and Pietro reloading his .44 glock. They all nod to her, and she begins to count down. "Three... two... go!"

The group of four jump out from behind the old Russian ballroom wall and fire at will at the guards. Pietro lands several bullets perfectly into one guard, two in the chest and one between the eyebrows, just as perfect a simulation. Wanda stuns and paralyzes another guard, making him fall and land on his dead partner. Loki stabs his target with many knives, one in the neck, one in he stomach, and on in the heart. Glory nearly perfectly copies Pietro in her skills, taking out the remaining guard with perfection.

They scurry through the hallways, keeping an eye out for remaining traps. "That was a bit of fun, was it not?" Loki says sarcastically. "Perhaps we should do this again. It was very therapeutic, I must say-"