Vulture shoved his thrusters to maximum power. The engines screamed, and suddenly he was closing the distance at terrifying speed. His clawed gauntlets extended, razor-sharp tips gleaming, inches from Gwen —
Something plummeted from above and slammed directly onto his back.
CRASH!
The impact drove Vulture straight into the asphalt like a meteor. Concrete shattered. Dust exploded outward.
When it cleared, a figure stood in the small crater, one foot planted squarely on the Vulture’s crumpled wing harness.
Steve, Natasha, the Winter Soldier, Doc Ock... every single person on the street froze mid-fight.
The white mask tilted in the sunlight almost as if basking in the collective dread of the audience.
Patron Comments:
[ DrSkillz: Heh, the sun-kissed technique. This man is definitely an aura farmer. ]
[ Saeko_Kaburagi: Isn’t it a beautiful day... to fuck things up. ]
[ RevunantoXz: Achievement unlocked! Fucking Savage. ]
[ PraiseTheSunWithMe: you are completely wrong @DrSkillz you amateur. He first uses the pull up technique as the main course, then he uses the Sun-kiss technique as an aura multiplier,he even uses ’ignoring everybody for aura point’ as a side dish. go and relearn all your lessons with Mr piccolo again. you failure of a student. ]
[DrSkillz: DAMN YOU!!! *crying punching gif*]
[ Rotaugur: When you think it cant get worse, comes the badly drawn smile on the mask of the terrorrist...]
[IcyZ: It’s Peak ]
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.
.
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The white mask tilted in the sunlight almost as if basking in the collective dread of the audience.
It was him.
VERITAS.
A bizarre sound began to echo across the battlefield. It was a melody - holy, choral, yet chilling. A perfect, deathly tune that suited a masked jester wielding a scythe like the Grim Reaper. The kind of sound that made your soul want to hide under the bed.
[Auto BGM: Ryuk’s Theme (Death Note)]
For the people watching his broadcast on a screen, everything about this music, although very creepy, seemed normal, but for the people present near Veritas... something felt different about this music.
Sure, the source was clearly the hovering smartphone recording his every move, but the clarity of the horrifying music made it feel unnaturally close. Almost like it was playing inside their heads.
Beneath his black polished shoes, the Vulture groaned.
The older man was barely conscious. His heavily armored flight suit had protected him from turning into a human pancake, but his wings were completely trashed. They sparked, smoked, and flapped weakly like a dying chicken as the thruster engines struggled and failed to reboot.
"Get... off me..." Vulture wheezed, squirming. "You bastard—"
The Vulture squirmed pathetically under Veritas’s boot.
Veritas didn’t even bother looking down.
Still gazing up at the sky, he lazily raised his right arm. Suddenly, thick, pitch-black particles began to flow out of his sleeve, swirling rapidly in the air before forcefully condensing into a massive, highly menacing, medieval-looking scythe.
As the scythe fully formed, the edge of the scythe’s blade glowed orange, heating up until it shimmered.
With a smooth, almost beautiful arc, Veritas swung the scythe down, cleanly slicing right through the Vulture’s left wing harness.
And his left arm.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Veritas tilted his masked head, looking genuinely puzzled. "Hm. Overreacting much? It was just an arm. Not your head, birdie."
He tapped his chin thoughtfully with his free hand. "Ah, I see. You must not be very accustomed to pain, right? Always flying above all your problems."
Gwen, who had stuck herself to the side of a nearby building to avoid the initial crash, widened her eyes behind her lenses. She watched in horror as Veritas calmly raised his arm again.
SLASH!
Before anyone could even twitch, Veritas brought the glowing scythe down a second time, cleanly severing the Vulture’s right arm.
"GaaAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! Mumphhhhh!!!!!!!!"
Veritas sighed, stepped forward, and firmly planted his boot right onto the screaming Vulture’s head, burying his face deep into the cracked asphalt to muffle the ear-piercing shrieks.
Unable to process the sheer agony of a double-amputation, the Vulture mercifully passed out.
[Public Comments:]
[Emily: Okay, I know you guys already know this, but to all parents watching—PLEASE DO NOT LET YOUR KIDS WATCH THIS.]
[Blank_Profile69: damn! such a brutal start already. what did vulture even do bruh?? (p.s. I meant to Veritas)]
[Nate: @Blank_Profile69 idk a whim? doesn’t feel like vulture’s his actual target for vengeance...]
[ Misa: ah fucking yes, a consecutive dose of my darling the first thing in the morning. Veritas streaming two days in a row? god really does provide. ]
[ Ashly: Ohhhh helll!!!! ]
[CaffineWitch: Shitttt, why are his streams becoming more and more brutal each time?! And where did that scary-ass scythe come from?!]
[Adorable_Filter: I’m not totally sure, but it looked like black soot and ash condensed to form it. For a second, I saw the blade glow orange too. I can’t figure out the exact science, but it looks like he found another use for his explosive powers... ]
[Ivan: damn, it’s like he’s evolving.]
[Nate: or he’s just showing his powers one at a time... and honestly, that’s even more terrifying...]
A few yards away, Doctor Olivia Octavius stared at Veritas in abject horror. She knew exactly who this Jester was.
A complete, unhinged madman.
It was obvious he wasn’t here to play hero and help the ’good guys,’ but looking down at the newly armless Vulture bleeding out on the street, it was equally obvious he wasn’t on the villains’ side either.
Simply put, Veritas crashing this party was terrible news for everyone involved.
Without saying a word, Olivia slowly, quietly began stepping backward, her tentacles retracting defensively.
"Hello, everyone," Veritas announced cheerily, finally stepping off the Vulture’s unconscious body. He dusted off his suit. "I deeply apologize for the interruption, but I have some very pressing business to attend to with a couple of old dudes."
He raised his scythe, casually pointing the curved blade first at Steve Rogers and then directly at the Winter Soldier.
Steve tightened his grip on his shield. Natasha furrowed her brows. The Winter Soldier lowered his chin and aimed his rifle directly at the devilish jester’s chest.
’Fury’s strange orders, and now Veritas is here targeting both of them?’ Natasha thought, her mind racing. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Doctor Olivia quietly retreating... well... that made her work easier. She needed a working car before there were no cars left to work with.
Gwen, however, wasn’t about to let the Jester do whatever he wanted.
Leaping off the building wall, she swung forward, flipped elegantly off a streetlamp, and landed squarely in the middle of the road, directly in Veritas’s path.
Veritas didn’t slow down. He twirled the massive scythe in one hand like it was a baton, the blade whistling through the air.
"Miss Spider," he replied, his tone dripping with mock politeness, "I say this with every ounce of the politeness I can muster right now. Move..."
Then, without any further warning, an explosion burst from his back. He rocketed forward, closing the gap in the blink of an eye, the scythe already arcing toward Gwen’s neck.
Fortunately, her spider-sense had screamed a warning the nanosecond before he moved. Gwen threw herself backward into a sharp bend, her spine curving as the glowing blade sliced through the air just above her mask. Simultaneously, she coiled her legs, ready to spring up and plant a solid kick right under his chin.
The Winter Soldier, however, wasn’t about to just sit back and watch. Seeing the perfect opening, the assassin raised his rifle and opened fire, raining a hail of bullets directly at Veritas.
He clearly didn’t care if Spider-Woman got turned into Swiss cheese in the process... she was a target too, after all.
But before the bullets could connect, a thick, unnaturally dense cloud of black soot exploded outward from Veritas, totally engulfing him and Gwen.
The heavy smoke acted like a physical wall, swallowing the barrage of bullets. Simultaneously, Veritas brought down the handle of his scythe, blocking Gwen’s incoming kick.
Gwen’s danger sense flared violently again as darkness filled her vision. Her instincts screamed at her not to breathe. Holding her breath to avoid inhaling the toxic-looking black smoke, she tried to flip away.
But the smoke was alive.
The soot rapidly coalesced around her, forming a gigantic, terrifying set of monstrous jaws. The smoky teeth clamped down, trying to chew her up.
"Whoa!" Gwen yelled, quickly raising her arms and grabbing the massive, smoky teeth with her bare hands.
Just then, the jaw dispersed back into a smoke cloud. However, when the smoke cleared... No trace of Spider-Woman could be seen at all.
She had disappeared. As if the jaw had eaten her whole existence.
With Spider-Woman relocated to a different zip code, Veritas smiled under his mask.
He swung his scythe backward, lowering his stance.
With another explosive burst from his back and legs, he shot forward once again. He completely bypassed the dissipating smoke and appeared directly in front of the Winter Soldier.
He lowered his stance, and with another explosive burst from his legs, he plummeted forward like a supersonic missile. He bypassed the empty street in a blur, reappearing right in front of the Winter Soldier. His lowered scythe swept upward in a brutal arc. The blade glowed a searing, blistering orange as it heated up, slicing smoothly toward the assassin’s cybernetic arm.
SLASH!
Sparks showered the pavement as the heavy metal limb was severed completely.
"Rrgh!"
The Winter Soldier’s eyes widened in shock as he stumbled backward with a small groan. Even though the arm was entirely mechanical, it was hardwired directly into his nervous system.
Having it violently amputated sent a massive shockwave of phantom pain and static through his brain, leaving his head buzzing like he had just been hit by a massive hammer.
A few yards away, the Toad mutant glared at Veritas. Unlike Doctor Octavius, he wasn’t a mercenary who cared about a paycheck- he was a brainwashed, highly trained Hydra loyalist.
Crouching low, he fired his incredibly long, slimy tongue straight at the back of Veritas’s head.
Veritas didn’t even bother turning around.
As he casually strolled toward the staggering Winter Soldier, he simply raised his free hand backward.
Tiny, concentrated particles of soot drifted from his palm, heavily coated in his explosive sweat. Guided by the black smoke, the particles latched onto the slithering tongue before it could even reach him.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
A rapid chain of explosions traveled straight down the mutant’s tongue like a lit fuse, culminating in a massive fireball that engulfed the Toad’s entire body.
The mutant let out a gurgling shriek, dropping to the asphalt and rolling frantically in a desperate attempt to soothe the severe burns.
Completely unbothered by the shrieking mutant behind him, Veritas casually strolled up to the heavily staggering Winter Soldier.
He raised the scythe, its blade morphed, shifting into a brutal, heavy-looking hammer.
Then he swung it horizontally, right into the Winter Soldier’s face.
WHAM!
The impact was bone-rattling. Bucky’s brain finally registered what getting hit by a literal sledgehammer felt like. The heavy blow instantly shattered the assassin’s tactical mask, sending shards of black plastic flying.
The sheer force of the blow shattered his lower face mask into pieces, sending them clattering to the road.
The broken mask fell away, revealing the assassin’s face. His nose was bleeding, and his eyes were glazed over.
"Hello, Bucky," Veritas said like a talk show host.
And slammed the hammer into his face again.
This time, Bucky managed to raise his flesh arm in a pathetic attempt to block. It did nothing. The hammer crashed through and sent him to his knees. Blood dripped from his mouth, his nose, his everything. The world swam.
But that name... somewhere deep in the scrambled, brainwashed mess of his mind, a dormant part of Bucky Barnes stirred.
"Who... the hell... is..." he panted, eyes unfocused, "...Bucky?"
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