Homecoming

Steve had thoroughly enjoyed his honeymoon with Kate. The resort was all inclusive and they had nothing to do but lay about in the sunshine, swim in warm, blue waters and make love as much as their bodies would allow. The food was great as well and Kate drank a bit too much a couple of times. It was difficult at first for them to relax but once it took they were into it.

Coming home was bittersweet though he would have liked to stay longer, with Kate there beside him. They were both quite tanned and all smiles when they entered the Tower. It appeared that ‘things’ had gotten to a form of normalcy as Logan looked up from the show he was watching and waved at them. Peter, Serena, Tony and Isabella were playing cards on the table near the kitchen and Evan, Natalya and Pharoah were cooking...something in the kitchen. One of Pharaoh’s middle-eastern dishes if Steve had his guess.

“Hey guys!” Steve said jovially as he brought in his suitcase. Kate had several suitcases and their driver had followed them in. “Dang Kate, those are all yours?” Logan asked as he they were unloaded around her. 6 in all. “Its a honeymoon, I’d think ya wouldn’t need so many clothes,” Logan said and grinned sheepishly. Steve frowned at him. “Well I guess you haven’t improved Cap’s sense of humor yet,” Logan said. Everyone else stopped what they were doing to greet them.

Kate had thoroughly enjoyed her honeymoon with Steve. It had been nice to get away from everything and just relax. It had taken them a day or two to actually not think about work and be able to solely focus on each other, but once it had happened they had not want to return to work. However, Doom continued to linger in the back of Kate's mind and she knew that they would need to take care of him. Thankfully, the press continued to be unaware of where they were spending their honeymoon and Tony and Isabella had paid off the resort to not tip off the press. Kate and Steve deserved this time alone to spend with each other.

Kate walked back into the tower next to Steve and they both looked extraordinarily happy and relaxed. Kate heard Logan's comment about her luggage and just smiled and rolled her eyes. Everyone got up and walked over to say hello and ask them about their trip. Isabella smiled at the pair.

"So, it looks like you two were able to relax."

Kate smiled and laughed a little. "Yeah, it was a little strange for us at first, but we finally got the hang of it."

Both Steve and Kate answered a barrage of questions from the others. Some were about their vacation, the weather, the resort, and the honeymoon in general. After Steve and Kate had unpacked and came to share the meal that Pharoah prepared, with help from Evan and Natalya...more Evan than Natalya though, she did not really have the knack, they were inundated with even more questions about their vacation. Peter wished he and Serena could go and get away for a while. However between his studies and being Avengers, that would not happen for quite some time. Evan wasn’t certain if Natalya knew how to relax like that or he’d suggest that they should go to a place like that. Between what had recently happened to her, her medications, her nightmares and their new relationship, he felt that she needed too much space to be with him that much at one time. Having separate rooms seemed to actually work for them. Especially since Logan spent nearly as much time with her as Evan did. Though perhaps, not in the same capacity. Evan shared her bed often but they two shared her heart between them. Evan was alright with that as long as Logan did not share her bed as well and he didn’t think Natalya would allow that. At least not right now.

Tony really liked what Pharoah had made, a sort of yellow curry with chicken and rice. A tad bit spicy but very tasty. Logan and Peter were on their second bowls of it when Tony felt his watch alarm go off. He raised it up to look at it and Isabella noticed the movement and the sound of the alarm. What it meant was that their surveillance devices that Tony had designed were picking up Temporal Displacement. Which was very likely do to Doom using his power to teleport him and his men into the industrial complex. He lifted up his gaze to those around him.

“Doom is on the move, we have to go,” He said urgently. “Suit up and meet in the jet. Isabella and I will arrive first and assess. Evan, you, Serena and Natalya will handle Doom directly if he gets into the fight. I was going to present Evan’s plan to everyone but we’ve run out of time so I’ll tell it quickly now. Evan will nullify Doom’s powers with his own, provided that he can do that, Serena you’ll need to help keep anyone off Evan. Natalya, you’ve got to get the Uru away from Doom. We don’t know what form it may be in but we believe it is likely his mask. Work together to pick the right time. The rest of us will assault his soldiers. We ‘need’ Doom to join in the fighting if we are going to defeat him. Evan, are you ready?” He asked and looked at him. Evan had just set his bowl down and looked around to all of the faces that were now looking at him.

Peter did not like this plan very much. It put Serena front and center working with ‘Evan’ again. He could not like the man and though he was clearly besotted with Natalya, whenever Serena and Evan were together, although innocently, it got his back up. “Evan,” Steve said and stood up. “We don’t need to kill anyone today,” He said and Evan frowned at his words as he stood as well. “Until you do,” Logan said and stood himself as Peter stood. All of the men were standing now save for Pharaoh and the tension in the room right then was palpable. And before one of their most dangerous missions no less. Evan Pharaoh frowned at the unease between them and he looked at Isabella expectantly.

Kate was happy to answer any questions that the others had about their honeymoon, minus the intimate parts. Those memories were just for Steve and herself. They unpacked and then joined the others for a meal. Natalya really hadn't helped much with preparing the curry besides pulling out the needed ingredients. She wasn't a natural cook and had never been taught how to cook while at the SSB. The one time she had tried to cook it hadn't gone so well. The kitchen had filled with smoke and set the fire alarm off. Needless to say she was better at ordering food to be delivered. She did enjoy the dish Pharaoh made though. It was a little spicy but quite flavorful.

As everyone continued to ask Steve and Kate questions about their trip she saw Evan glance at her every so often. She began to wonder if he was thinking about them going away. To be honest, Natalya had never taken a real vacation before. She always needed to be doing something and found it extremely difficult to just relax. The other night she had been watching a movie with Evan and she got rather fidgety. It didn't help that she still wasn't sleeping well. They had tried taking her off of the sleeping pills, but that hadn't gone well and so now she was back on them.

Suddenly, an alarm sound coming from Tony's watch caused the conversation to abruptly end. Natalya looked over and saw Tony and Isabella look at whatever the notification was and their moods quickly became much more serious. Natalya listened as Tony informed them that Doom and his men were likely at the industrial complex. His plan seemed straight forward enough, but everyone knew that anything could happen during a fight with Doom. They would all need to be on their toes and alert.

Kate nodded to the plan and looked over at Steve as he stood up and addressed Evan. Suddenly, the tension in the room became thick as Logan then addressed Steve. All the men apart from Pharaoh were standing and eyeing one another. Isabella quickly stood up to address the situation.

"Ok, can we table whatever the hell is going on between you boys right now? We are about to face Doom and we need to be able to work together as a team, otherwise this fight isn't going to go our way." Isabella had intentionally used the term "boys" because she felt they were all acting rather childish.

In the jet Peter squeezed Serena’s hand. Her suit could have allowed her to be out there with her parents but she was to be in Evan’s group where he was to be in Steve’s. He didn’t like not being in the same fighting group as her but he was a team player and he would go where those who knew more about such things said he needed to be. Natalya piloted the jet as usual with Steve as her co-pilot. They all had on headsets and Tony and Isabella were feeding them scouting information from where they were, flying high up almost to the industrial complex.

Evan and Kate sat behind the small cockpit with Peter and Serena behind them and Pharaoh behind them. There was an empty chair next to Pharoah and 2 more chairs behind him. The jet was designed to hold 8 plus 2 more as pilot and co-pilot but Tony and Isabella had suits so they rarely flew in the jet.

“Natalya, there is a clearing just behind the main warehouse to the North. We can see a lot of people running out the front on the south side of the main building. Do a low pass and hover on top of the building and drop off your team. We can see a few skylights on the roof that you can come down through. Cap, land and go in from the North and engage the soldiers who appear to be guarding the North entrance,” Tony said.

“We’ll try and help these people get away from the fighting,” Isabella said. Evan twisted in his chair to look at Serena. Her and Peter though were leaned toward one another talking though he saw her eye glance briefly toward him then back to Peter. Out of the corner of Peter’s eye he saw Evan looking at her and his brow furled in agitation but only for a moment. “Serena, try not to use much of your power until I’m ready. If you use your power and hit it while I’m still attached to the construct ill be making...you might kill me,” Evan said. His voice was grave but his expression was utter calmness. “Just thought you might want to know that,” He said with a smirk.

“Natalya, you’ll need to stay out of the fighting and be ready to pounce on Doom. “I’ll tell you both when though I still have no idea if any of this is going to work. I’ve done tests with…” he paused not wanting to make presence of his work with the Tesseract, something that was supposed to be top secret. “I’ve done some testing...before” He said awkwardly.

Though Kate was also a pilot and was trained to pilot the jet she was more a backup pilot in case anything happened to Natalya or she was in any way unable to be the pilot. Serena let Peter hold her hand and gave him an encouraging smile when he squeezed her hand. They talked together in low voices. However, Serena paused their conversation when she saw Evan turn around in his seat to look at her. She listened to what he told her and nodded a little in understanding. It made her incredibly nervous to know that she could possibly kill Evan if she used too much power. She would have to be very careful and in control the entire time. "Well, that's not terrifying," she replied with a little smile.

Natalya glanced over her shoulder at Evan when he instructed her to stay out of the fighting until he gave the signal. She gave a little nod and then looked back ahead. Out of the front windows she could see the industrial complex appear. Isabella and Tony were working together to clear everyone out in order to keep them safe. Natalya hovered the jet just above the roof of the main building in the complex as Tony had instructed. "Alright, everyone out," she said as she opened up one of the side doors. Once everyone was out she flew the jet to the clearing Tony had informed her of and landed the jet there.

Pharaoh appeared to slump to one side though everyone knew what that meant. He had gone into his astral form. “Sound check,” Pharaoh said theough the headset he had taken with him in his astral
Form. It was altogether eerie how he did that but everyone but Evan was used to it now. Even as everyone disembarked the jet he was already flying by the speed of thought into the building through walls and everything else. He stood near Doom who was surrounded by 4 guards.

“Oh they have something new this time guys!” Pharaoh said. “We know!” Tony squawked into his headset as he and Isabella had to dodge some kind of blue energy bolt that the soldiers fired from one end of their pole arms. “They have some kind of energy lance,” Tony said as he and Isabella returned their fire with some of their own. However this time instead of their rockets exploding they only hissed as a grey gas bloomed out from where their micro missiles struck. The two guards near the southern doors fell to the floor unconscious.

“Strep!” Steve said into his throat jack. Instead of wrist comma this time they had ear pieces and throat mikes that were voice activated and hands free.

Everyone was out of the jet and bearing as fast as they could toward the large white building ahead. People were huddled down here and there. Civilians likely wanting to be anywhere but there. “Doom is near some kind of large foundry and three of his men are loading a large, metal crate. We don’t have much time,” Pharaoh said. “Ok Natalya’s team, Kate, Peter, Logan and I will draw the soldiers, you move past to engage doom!” Steve said. Tony and Isabella had landed and were directing the flood of civilians out of the building to safety.

Isabella just narrowly managed to dodge one of the blue energy bolts that was fired at her. At Tony's signal, she and he returned fire with missiles that emitted a gas upon impact. Thankfully, that took out two of the guards. With the guards taken care of, Isabella and Tony were able to focus on continuing to guide people to safety.

Natalya quickly caught up to the rest of the team and joined Steve, Peter, Kate, and Logan. The soldiers spotted them and rushed towards them. "I'm kinda missing the beach right about now," Kate commented as they began to fight the soldiers. Natalya grinned a little and got her legs around one of the soldier's neck in a double leg-grapple and twisted her body until he hit the ground. "Really? I find this far more fun than laying around on sand."

This time it appeared that there were alot more soldiers than before. Likely because Doom expected the Avengers to be here. And if he expected them...did he have something set up for them?

Everyone besides Evan and Serena were actually fighting. Kate got hit hard by one of the women soldiers in the side but she narrowed her hand and chopped at her face kung fu style. Like that her hand made it through the narrow area in her helmet that exposed the woman’s face and she went down in a heap. Blood began to soak her uniform on that side but she knew she could continue to fight. Steve saw what happened but he was dealing with 2 of his own. Deftly he blocked one with his shield then hopped over another’s shock lance and bashed him in the head. These soldiers were extremely good with these lances and their armor did much to protect them from impacts. Steve half stood on the first one’s lance when he tried to chop down at him then struck the other with the edge of his shield in the groin, near one of the gaps in his leg plate. It brought him down to a knee then Steve disarmed the first one completely as he spun again then sent the man flying back with a hard shield bash to the chest.

Evan could see Serena wanting to fight She watched as Peter hopped up onto a set of crates, shot his web at a soldier then shot another web up onto a ceiling girder. He hopped down and pulled the soldier up so he became suspended by the web that was attached to him. He snapped it with his lance but then fell several feet onto the floor. Peter ran up and shot him with a web to the face then webbed his lance and pulled it out of his hands.

“Oh neat! I saw this in the movie Stargate! Cool!” He said excitedly as he held the shock lance. He flung the weapon toward Serena. “There you go babe!” He said as he dodged another soldier’s energy blast. Actually there were several more coming toward them and they all seemed to be shooting at Peter. Peter was so fast though, dodging and hopping. Rolling and flipping about that they hit nothing but air. “Hey, three against one isn’t very fair!” Peter said peevishly as he dodged their attacks.

Logan fought two soldiers. He had taken an energy blast to the chest but that only seemed to anger him. He growled like a feral wolf and jumped on the one closest to him. It was more of the two soldiers trying to help one another as Logan’s claws raked at their armor, trying to pierce through to their flesh. “Ah!!!” One of them yelled as Logan did find flesh.

“Kate are you alright?” Steve said quickly though he didn’t look at her. He had one of the shock lances and was shooting at two more soldiers that ran toward them. They were all in a massive melee now. Soldiers were coming at them in a large group. Evan was behind Serena, trying to conserve his power for Doom. “Natalya, we need to get around this, this is just a distraction!” Evan barked angrily. Their initial plan for he, Natalya and Serena to circumvent the fighting was falling apart.

Kate's side burned and she could feel blood soaking into her uniform. However, she was able to remain on her feet. Her adrenaline was pumping hard and she knew that later on she would be pain. For now though, she used that adrenaline to continue to fight. She suddenly missed that shield she had taken from one of Doom's soldiers during their last encounter. Unfortunately, it was currently sitting in Tony's lab to be studied.

Natalya was fast and agile in her fighting style. One would almost find her moves graceful, if they weren't so accurate and potentially deadly. She did not even bother getting out one of her guns. It would be a waste of bullets as their armor could not be penetrated by them. She managed to avoid being hit by the energy blasts, but only just barely.

Kate was still bleeding, but she couldn't exactly stop and check her wound. "Yeah, I'm fine," she lied and managed to yank one of the lances from a soldier's hand.

Serena stood to the side watching the fight with Evan. She had her energy shield up to protect Evan and herself. She watched Peter and felt helpless standing there and not doing anything. Peter seemed to sense this and she grinned when he tossed her one of the lances. Because it used energy blasts she could use her own power to amplify it. She saw Natalya surrounded and she pointed the lance at one of the soldiers she was fighting and shot a stronger bolt of energy at him. It wasn't enough to kill him, but it did send him flying backwards. She did that to another one while Natalya handled the third herself.

"Alright, you guys. I'm out. Be careful."

She made her way over to Serena and Evan. She looked at Serena. "Thanks for that. Let's go."

Natalya’s words fell on deaf ears as everyone was being hard pressed by Doom’s soldiers. Evan, Serena and Natalya pressed past them, severe faces hoping they did not regret moving on.

Moving on presented them with. Few more soldiers however. doom’s guards saw them coming then turned to face them. They were six in all but only 3 engaged them. Evan stopped short and began to use his dark energy. Serena was like his shadow in that she continued to shield him and a good thing as one of them shot an energy bolt at him. It absorbed into the shield and enhanced its protectiveness all on its own. Serena’s ability to absorb energy worked through her shield...apparently and they quickly shifted their attacks to the others. Evan didn’t wait through and he struck with a tendril of dark matter. It reached forward and grappled one guard and lifted him into the air. He screamed in horror as it bashed him into the concrete floor several times before the man stopped moving.

Natalya and Serena moved on with Evan. Serena kept the shield up that she had around Evan and herself and was actually able to expand it to include Natalya. Her energy shield, like her blasts or orbs, glowed red and pulsated with her power. Whenever anything would hit it it would ripple, but would not break until she released it with her powers. Interestingly enough she quickly realized that in addition to her being able to now absorb energy through her physical touch, she could absorb energy through her shield as well. Serena continued to hold onto the lance that Peter had given her and she used it to strike one of the soldiers with a blast of energy. She then did the same to the second soldier while Evan focused on the third. Natalya watched as a tendril of dark matter grabbed the soldier and then lifted him up into the air before bashing him against the floor several times. When he stopped moving Serena gasped and Natalya looked over at Evan with anger in her eyes.

"We said we weren't going to kill."

“He’ll live, if for only a while. Our concern is with Dr. Doom….look!” Evan said as he pointed. Doom was moving a large container with his dark powers while several of his guards looked on. The other 3 that had held back only shifted toward them and stood guard on Doom’s flank. Tony and Isabella were on the opposite side dealing with his other guards and being hard pressed. Tony’s armor looked damaged and he had some kind of energy shield up from his forearm. Evan sad Serena almost lurch toward Her parents but Evan barker at her. “No..you stay with me!” Evan said harshly as a displeased commander would. “Natalya, When Doom Attacks do not engage him! I’ll tell you when!” Evan said as he began to use his power. A small, roiling mass of violet fringed blackness began to form before them. Evan’s hands flowed violet as well as his eyes. That was new, something they hadn’t seen before.

As Evan touched the plane of Chaos he began to draw on its power. As he did that another black tendril came out of the floor and stopped the large container in mid arm. Doom who had been ignoring them up to this point turned to face them.

“Ah, the Stark child. I’ve been wanting to meet you but you are still just a girl?” Doom said in surprise. “Doom you harm her and you will regret it!” Tony shouted as Isabella dispatched one of the three guards they were fighting. Tony held off two others but just barely. He is armor was a wreck and he looked wounded.

Natalya was becoming increasingly worried about Evan, but now was not the time to bring that subject up. They needed to focus on Doom who was moving the container. Serena looked over to see her parents fighting against several of Doom's guards. Her father's armor looked damaged, as did her mother's. Serena became fearful that her parents were in danger and instinctively began to go towards them, but was stopped by Evan who yelled at her to stay with him. She remained with Evan, but kept an eye on her parents.

Natalya watched Evan closely and was rather surprised to see his eyes start to glow with a violet color. That was something she had never seen before. She remained where she was and waited for Evan's signal to engage Doom. One of the dark tendrils Evan created grabbed hold of the container and stopped it in mid-air, but Doom didn't seem terribly worried. As he turned and focused on Serena, Natalya stepped in front of her. "Don't even think about it Doom."

Doom tilted his head when he saw Natalya move in front of Serena. “And who is this a fly that needs to be swatted aside?” Doom said tauntingly. Tony fell to one knee, the two guards battering him down but Isabella came up and unleashed a huge blast of repulsive energy at them.

As Doom used his power a black fist of black magic appeared into the air above Natalya. But as it came down toward her, Doom obviously intending to crush her it flat like a fly. But as it moved it began to pull away as if like black ash into a hard wind toward the now larger roiling ball of blackness. Evan absorbed Doom’s construct completely. Doom shifted his gaze at Evan then and he began to use his power on him. As he did everything he conjured became sucked up into Evan’s construct. Evan winced as if he was in pain but continued to hold his arms up to stop whatever it was Doom did.

Steve’s team we’re doing much better and they were running toward them. Doom saw them coming and the last of his guards peeled away to confront them. Doom appeared to increase his assault on Evan and Evan began to show signs that he was absorbing to much. His veins began to turn Ashen like his face. “Not...yet!” He said though only loud enough for them to hear.

“I see you have someone with you with some ability Tony Stark, let’s see what he can do,” Doom said ominously. A doubt of black fire began to surround d Evan but before it could actually touch him his construct began to absorb its energy. Doom looked as if he was actually trying now, though his mask hid his
Expressions. Evan fell to a knee, his veins turning black from the effort of containing that much power. At the same time Isabella and Tony managed to take down the last of their opponents but Tony looked to be injured and she was giving him medical attention.

“Now Serena!” Evan shouted as the large mass of violet and black grew ever larger. As Serena struck the mass with her power Evan released his home on it. Her beam cut into it but seemed to cut into it as it spasmed as if it were actually alive. “No!” Doom shouted as he continued to feed his power into it. Obviously unable to stop and it’s was harming him in some way.

Isabella knew that her husband was injured. Though both of their suits were damaged, Tony's was more so. They managed to take down the last of the guards and then Tony seemed to collapse to the ground. Isabella was quickly at his side and she retracted his face mask. "Tony...stay with me," she told him as she scanned over his body and then began to treat his injuries. He was going to need more medical treatment than she could provide, but she hoped to stabilize him.

Though all the fighting that she was doing, Kate's injury had grown and began to weaken her. She kept fighting though.

Serena watched and waited. She knew that she would need to be ready as soon as Evan gave her the command. Natalya became more and more concerned as she watched Evan absorb Doom's power. She could tell he was getting to his limit and she wanted to stop him, but she knew she couldn't. Finally, he gave Serena the command to attack. Serena, who had given the lance to Natalya, held up both of her hands and released a steady stream of energy into the mass. She remembered what Evan had told her about using too much power and she tried to hold some back so as not to kill him.

Evan’s face was contorted in pain. And he was in pain as he continued to hold the tiny fissure he had opened into the plane of Chaos. Doom’s powers were being sucked right into it and he was managing the overflow but only barely. Evan had fallen onto all fours but the flood continued.

“What...what is this!” Doom exclaimed in surprise. “What are you doing!” He bellowed as he lifted up his hands. And indeed as he looked at his hands they seemed to blur as if he was slowly being pulled into the fissure. Into the large, roiling mass of blackness that hovered between them all. “NOW NATALYA!” Evan yelled. Doom saw Natalya lunge for him but as he tried to reach out toward her Evan shifted the mass to the floor. As he did so Doom fell to his knees as if a terrible weight were pulling him down. Even his arms seemed pinned to his sides. The gravity of the plane of Chaos had partially seeped through the fissure and touched Doom via his powers. Steve, Logan, Kate, Peter and Pharaoh had drawn up short and could do little but watch as Natalya lunged for Doom’s mask. The very mask he had somehow forged from the bar of Uru that Tony Stark had given him.

Serena continued the steady stream of energy into the black mass. She glanced at Evan and was becoming more and more worried about him. She was holding her breath as she waited for him to give Natalya the signal. Finally, Evan yelled out for Natalya to go and like a cat Natalya sprang forward and ran at Doom with tremendous speed and strength. She saw Evan pull Doom down towards he floor to pin him there. She reached out towards the mask. As her fingers gripped it, she flipped up and over Doom's body, ripping the mask from his face as she landed behind him in one graceful, fluid movement. She held the mask tightly in her hands and rushed away from Doom so if he did break free of Evan's grasp then he wouldn't be able to lunge at her and get it back.

Kate held her wounded side. She applied some pressure, but she could feel the blood between her fingers. Serena was starting to feel the effects of using so much energy and she felt herself becoming weaker. She would need to stop soon, otherwise she would pass out.

Evan gritted his teeth and managed to hold up one arm toward the large mass. He pushed it toward Doom who was helpless to move away from it. It seemed to...meld with him and the black mass seemed to draw into him. But slowly it began to draw out in a dark violet stream or matter. The stream began to spin around Doom and pull him molecule by molecule into it. “Now Serena...destroy it!” Evan shouted as he released his control over his construct. He didn’t really know what was going to happen but the fissure needed to be forced shut now that it was opened. Filaments of an alien plane of existence did not belong in this one and he was afraid if she didn’t destroy it it would continue to expand. Doom began to scream in pain as his body began to float away like sand in a high wind. When Serena’s blast of red energy made contact the entire mass exploded outward but then imploded in on itself. The entire team was pulled in and hit hard against one another. They landed hard on the concrete floor but then all was completely silent save for the moans and groans from those that were still conscious.

Serena used what was left of her energy to create a much more powerful blast. She hit the black mass with a strong stream of energy. Doom's screams echoed in her ears. She didn't want to kill him, but she couldn't stop now. Suddenly, the mass exploded, but then imploded in on itself. Serena felt herself being pulled forward and then darkness took her as she lost consciousness. Kate remained conscious, but was in pain and when Steve looked at her he would be able to see the blood soaking through her suit. Natalya groaned and then managed to pull herself up and onto her feet. Logan was beside her and she reached down and offered him a hand to help him up.

There was no sign of Doom save for the silvery mask that Natalya held in her hand. Peter lifted up Serena and held her in his arms as he knelt among them. “She’s alive just unconscious. “I don’t think Doom is dead, I saw him get pulled into...whatever that...was,” Peter said. Steve was administering first aid to Kate. he cut her suit with a small knife he had removed from his utility belt then began to hold a bandage up to her wound. “It’s pretty deep...another scar I think,” He murmured as he tended her.

“Well lets hope where ever he went it keeps him out of our hair for a while,” Logan said gruffly. He had been wounded but wasn’t anymore. His uniform had several burn marks and bloodstains but he appeared right as rain now. “A souvenir?” He said as he looked at the mask in Natalya’s hand. Evan did not stir and his face was extremely pale. Isabella left Tony where he was and moved up to see if there anything she could do. She checked out Serena and then Evan. She sighed relieved after she checked Evan. “Well he’s alive, and we agreed to this plan?” Isabella said angrily as she continued to monitor his lifesigns. She injected him with several things to help bring him closer to consciousness.

“We didn’t see another way,” Steve said. Who he meant was himself and Tony but no one seemed to have a better plan so they went with Evan’s. It worked but just barely. “He would not have given up the mask willingly by any means,” Pharaoh said as he stood. “I think its a bit harsh to make judgements on such a narrowly won success. Doom forced our hand Isabella,” Pharaoh said as he looked everyone over. They were all pretty banged up though himself, Logan and Natalya were relatively unharmed.

Kate winced a little as Steve bandaged up her wound. It would need to be properly attended to and stitched, which meant she would be spending the night at SHIELD's hospital, but she wouldn't be alone. Likely Serena, Evan, and Tony would be there as well. Kate gave Steve a little smile. "Thankfully, you don't seem to mind them," she said about the scar.

Isabella was not entirely pleased with how this plan had played out. It had put Serena front and center against Doom. Serena was still young and relatively inexperienced when it came to fighting. Serena could have easily been killed. Serena was her only child and she was protective of her.

Since Peter had Serena, Isabella went to check on Evan. Thankfully, he was alive and she began to administer some first aid. She looked over at Natalya. "Go and bring the jet and let SHIELD know that we have several injured."