Marvel: Terror Stream

2.2k words

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[Public Comments:]

[Ed: Holy shit!! Where did Spider-Woman disappear to? Did Veritas kill her???]

[Miller: @Ed really man, what the fuck was that? She literally disappeared inside that giant black smoke mouth!!]

[Mufasa: RIP spider-woman. we’ll miss you.]

[Top G: Spider-woman NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!]

[Dina: RIP Spider-woman. You were brave... ]

[Ashly: Why is Captain America staring blankly like he just saw a ghost? Who is the guy Veritas is holding?]

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"Who... the hell... is..." bucky panted, eyes unfocused, "...Bucky?"

A few yards away, Steve Rogers stood completely frozen. He had lowered his shield entirely, his eyes blown wide in absolute, unadulterated shock. His mouth opened slightly, but no words came out

"Who the hell is Bucky, you ask?" Veritas parroted in a delighted tone. He paced lazily around the kneeling assassin for a moment before lowering his hammer.

Reaching down, Veritas grabbed the one-armed Winter Soldier by the back of his tactical vest and hoisted him up into the air with one hand. He held Bucky up toward Steve, proudly displaying him like a hunter showing off a slightly battered, very aggressive raccoon.

"I’m with you ’til the end of the line."

"Don’t do anything stupid until I get back."

-"How can I? You’re taking all the stupid with you."

The familiar, long-lost words of his childhood best friend and himself echoed inside Steve’s mind.

’Bucky...’

Steve’s brain completely short-circuited. He simply couldn’t process the visual information in front of him. The ruthless, ghost-story Hydra weapon who had attempted to assassinate Fury, the one he had been fighting for the past five minutes... was Bucky Barnes?!

The phone’s camera smoothly panned around, capturing Steve Rogers’s absolutely flabbergasted reaction for a few seconds before snapping back to focus on the bruised, bleeding face of the Winter Soldier.

[Public Comments:]

[Ashly: Why is Captain America staring blankly like he just saw a ghost? Who is the guy Veritas is holding?]

[Robert: I just got a fax from my friend in new york. He just saw spiderwoman falling from a building. Veritas fucking teleported her!!! She’s not dead guys!!]

[Top G: @Robert HEck yah!!!!!!]

[Miller: @Robert Thank goodness!]

[Nate: @Ashly Veritas called him Bucky, but it doesn’t ring a bell at all... Still, why did this battered black-haired Rapunzel ask ’who the hell is Bucky’ as if he didn’t know his own name? Did Veritas jump the wrong guy by mistake? I mean, he was wearing a mask before, so maybe Veritas accidentally picked the wrong dude??]

[Adorable_Filter: @Nate you ask good questions. But, I’d suggest waiting for the Jester of Truth to continue...]

[Lunaticia: God is always right. God said he is here for vengeance, and God shall have it...]

[Emily: excuse me?? wtf???]

[Miller: Bucky?! Wait, I know that name!!! It was on a memorial wall in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum! I literally saw it just yesterday!!!! He was in the Howling Commandos!! He was dead tho, how he’s back???]

[Nate: @Miller Cap was supposed to be dead too maybe all the people who were in the howling commandos are still alive and are actually immortals? hiding and living among us... ]

[Marcus: @Lunaticia lmao I knew despite the crimes Veritas has committed, he’d eventually make some weird fan-clubs on the internet, but you’re just on another level lmfao!!]

[CaffineWitch: @Marcus ikr? I mean even if the comments in Veritas’s stream are completely anonymous and all, but still, that’s the first time I’ve seen someone call him a god this directly lolll]

[Misa: @Lunaticia I like you, sis! You’ve got taste!]

[Ashly: ugh, the cultists are gathering.]

[John: Hail!]

[Blackened_heart: Hail Veritas!]

[Patron Comments:]

[Yeageristo: I’m fucking loving the violence today!]

[Yeageristo donated 3 TP!]

[urANUS: @Yeageristo +1]

[urANUS donated 1 TP!]

[enemies_to_Lovers_enjoyer: I’m missing my girl gwen. She didn’t get the screentime!!! Why did you send Gwen away??? No inappropriate grabbing as well!?!?!? Im disappointed!]

[The Fool Fan: @enemies_to_Lovers_enjoyer Rise above your pathetic existence.]

[The Fool Fan donated 2 TP!]

[PrettyInRed: @The Fool Fan bro thinks he’s cold and calculative... Fool Fan? No! More like Cringe Ayanokoji fan... 🥀]

[clowneysimp69: @The Fool Fan shut up, I want some romance as well!! 😘]

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"Ladies and gentlemen," Veritas announced in his best, most tour-guide voice, "This battered, one-armed man is James Buchanan ’Bucky’ Barnes. A World War II veteran, former sergeant of the 107th Infantry Regiment, and... the childhood best friend of Steve Rogers."

In his stream, the screen was divided into two. On one side, people could see widely available prideful footage of Bucky Barnes walking alongside the hero of World War II, Steve Rogers... and on the other side, they could see the same man in a battered and bruised condition.

Having made his introduction, Veritas unceremoniously dropped the Winter Soldier onto the asphalt like a bag of trash.

Bucky hit the ground with a grunt, panting heavily. Despite the brutal, direct hits from a literal sledgehammer, he wasn’t a Hydra super-soldier for nothing. He remained conscious, struggling to push himself up with his one good arm.

"Steve Rogers..." Veritas said. He slowly raised his hand toward the frozen Captain and closed it into a fist - the exact same gesture he had used in his previous broadcast when he had issued his warning.

When Veritas spoke again, his voice dropped an octave, turning dark and impossibly deep.

"You finally found your century-old friend. Oh, how eager you must be to sit down with him, grab a cup of coffee, and catch up on everything you’ve missed. The war stories! The inside jokes! The mutual trauma!"

Veritas chuckled, a dry, rattling sound. "But alas... just like how you took away all my friends. I am here to take your friend away from you in the most painful way possible... Yes, Let’s make it slow and painful..."

The Jester tilted his masked face toward the sky. Slowly, terrifyingly, the black-painted lips on his white mask stretched into a wide smile.

But they didn’t stop there.

The mouth of the solid white mask cracked open, stretching wider and wider to a physically impossible, horrifying degree. It revealed rows upon rows of jagged, smoky black teeth, and a long, thin, pitch-black tongue that rested inside between the terrifying maw.

It was an unholy, terrifying sight that looked straight out of a nightmare.

Then, slowly, the monstrous maw snapped shut. The mask flawlessly reverted back to normal. Veritas casually placed a gloved hand on his chin and gave his neck a loud, satisfying crack.

For the very first time in his life, Steve Rogers stood completely paralyzed, entirely unsure of what to do as he watched the Devilish Jester slowly raise the heavy, black hammer back into the sky.

But then he focused his eyes and lowered his chin as he raised his shield. No matter what Bucky had become... what Veritas was doing to him was wrong. He had to stop him.

On the ground, Bucky’s scrambled brain couldn’t process the confusing history lesson. The name struck something deep within him, but something more important was in his mind right now- the mission.

Gritting his teeth, the assassin stubbornly pushed himself up off the bloody ground.

Captain America leaped towards Veritas as well to stop him.

But... it was a completely futile effort... by both super-soldiers.

Without even looking, Veritas had enclosed the mid-air Captain America in a black vertical maw of ash.

Then he stepped forward, his grip tightening as he held the raised warhammer with both hands, ready to bring it down.

"This is the day of wrath... the day of my vengeance."

He slammed it squarely onto Bucky’s back.

WHAM!

As the hammer met flesh and bone, the already trembling Winter Soldier was violently slammed face-first back onto the asphalt. The force of the impact was so intense that a web of deep cracks instantly formed in the concrete beneath him.

"Mrghh!" Bucky groaned, a horrible, wet sound.

Now, the hammer was a strictly blunt-force weapon. This meant Luke didn’t have nearly as good a mind-muscle connection when wielding it as he did with bladed weapons like his scythe.

But that certainly didn’t mean it wasn’t dangerous.

The weapon was forged entirely from his compressed black soot, meaning Veritas could easily control the density and weight of the hammer’s head on the fly.

As he had brought the heavy weapon down in a brutal, sweeping arc, he had rapidly increased its weight to... only a somewhat greater density.

He didn’t want to kill him now, did he?

And that much force was just enough to put the Winter Soldier out of commission...

But miraculously, the super-soldier was still somehow barely conscious. Veritas could see the assassin’s fingers twitching weakly on the pavement.

’Good,’ Luke thought internally. ’I wanted to get one more really satisfying hit in. It’s for the stream, Buck. Nothing personal...’

"HahaHA!" The Jester let out a short, sudden burst of sadistic, manic laughter as he hoisted the massive hammer back up into the air for round two.

Normally, Luke wasn’t a huge fan of unnecessary, brutal violence. But this stream was turning out pleasantly violent regardless, and frankly, he was okay with it.

After all, he believed the Vulture absolutely deserved what he got. He was a ruthless, seasoned criminal.

In fact, the Vulture was the entire reason Luke had originally accepted the Terror System’s very first quest!

If the Vulture hadn’t destroyed that police helicopter - causing it to barrel directly toward Luke’s house and giving him the greatest, most brutal scare of his entire life - Luke wouldn’t even be standing here today. (And yes, Spider-Gwen had stopped the chopper from crashing into his living room, but the trauma was still very real, thank you very much!)

As for the Toad mutant? He was a brainwashed Hydra minion who had aggressively shot his gross tongue at him first. That was pure, unadulterated self-defense.

And the Winter Soldier... well, Luke didn’t feel a single ounce of guilt about beating the absolute stuffing out of Bucky Barnes for the sake of a good stream.

Even if he was completely brainwashed, the Winter Soldier had done some incredibly horrific, unforgivable things over the past seventy years.

Besides, Luke genuinely believed he was doing Bucky a massive favor in the long run. If his chaotic plan was successful, he’d be saving Bucky a ton of future misery, and he might even prevent the Avengers from completely tearing each other apart over a certain Civil War!

’So really, he needs to get the absolute beatdown of a lifetime right now for the greater good,’ Luke reasoned internally, tightening his grip on the handle.

But just before he could bring it down, the screeching of tires interrupted him.

Dozens of heavy, black SUVs suddenly pulled up, completely boxing in the street on both sides. The doors flew open, and a swarm of highly armed, black-clad commandos flooded out, instantly raising their assault rifles and aiming them directly at Veritas and Captain Rogers.

It was S.H.I.E.L.D.’s S.T.R.I.K.E. team.

"Freeze!!" the lead commando barked.

"Drop the weapon!!!" another yelled, multiple green laser sights dotting Veritas’s chest.

Veritas paused. He slowly tilted his masked head toward the commandos, an amused smile practically radiating through the mask.

"Drop the weapon?" Veritas repeated, clicking his tongue. "Very poor choice of words..."

And drop the weapon, Veritas did.

WHAM!!!!!!

He brought the heavy hammer crashing down directly onto the back of Bucky’s back. The Winter Soldier finally went completely limp, passing out for good.

Veritas completely ignored the dozens of heavily armed commandos who had just surrounded them.

He calmly straightened his posture, rolling his shoulders as he finally allowed the massive dark hammer to disperse back into a harmless cloud of soot. The restraints on Steve Rogers dispersed as well.

The S.T.R.I.K.E. commandos aggressively moved forward, closing the circle. Green laser dots danced across Veritas’s white mask and Captain America’s casual clothes.

Veritas slowly turned his head, taking in the sheer number of troops aiming at him. He let out a long, exaggerated sigh.

"Hm. I don’t really wish to waste my energy dealing with so many grunts," Veritas said.

Then, with his usual cheerful tone, he continued, "Well, Captain Rogers, it seems this is where I take my leave. And naturally, I’ll be taking your little friend away with me as well. I’ll figure out what to do with him somewhere else." He waved and placed a disrespectful foot on the Winter Soldier.

The black smoke engulfed the Winter Soldier and then he simply... vanished.

"See you soon, Steve Rogers..." Veritas smiled with a friendly wave.

The soot particles swirled around the Jester, and he disappeared as well.

FTG obviously didn’t require the Ash show, but who doesn’t like a more dramatic exit?

The hovering phone camera lingered for a few seconds, capturing the baffled, panicked expressions of the S.T.R.I.K.E. commandos and a completely devastated Captain America.

Then, right as a massive, heavy white SUV suddenly came screeching around the corner - driven by a very stressed Natasha Romanoff and speeding directly toward Captain Rogers for a getaway - the phone vanished into thin air too.

The screen instantly went black, cutting the live feed.

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