You can read early chapters on my [P].[A].[T].[R].[E].[O].[N].
Link: [email protected]/Arson09
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The Curtain Ethan manifested surged forward, sealing the entirety of the impact zone within its obsidian walls.
With the meteors mere seconds away from striking the water, the inevitable aftershock of the initial collision resonated outward. The first atmospheric wave escaped the barrier's boundary by a fraction of a second, hurtling toward the Triskelion.
**In Pierce's Office:**
The shockwave shattered the already weakened reinforced glass windows. Captain Rogers brought his shield up instantly, shielding both himself and Natasha. Bucky, acting on instinct, used his right arm to provide a wall for himself and Maria Hill. Fury and the councilmen ducked, shielding their heads.
But just as the jagged shards were about to pierce them, they stopped. The glass floated in mid-air, suspended by an invisible gravitational force of Gravity Sheep Aeries.
The group looked up, when the expected impact never landed. Outside, the Curtain on the river had completely materialized, a perfect, light-eating sphere. Ethan turned back toward the room, his gaze fixing on the crawling leader of Hydra.
"Look at me," he pronounced. "Look at me, Pierce." The shards of glass collapsed back on the floor, shattering.
At his command, Pierce's eyes darted toward Fury, seeking some semblance of the world he understood.
"Don't look at him. **LOOK AT ME**," Ethan repeated. His tone shifted, carrying a weight that made the others in the room watch him warily.
Finally, Pierce's head snapped in his direction. "You should be dead... He told me... he told me you were dead..."
At that, Ethan looked strangely content. "I want to thank you, Pierce," he began, immediately drawing confused stares from everyone in the room.
Captain Rogers looked bewildered by the direction the conversation was taking; Bucky was in a similar state of disbelief. Natasha, however, kept her eyes locked on Ethan. *He just killed thousands of Hydra agents,* she thought.
"Really, you know, it's not often I get to cut loose like this," Ethan continued. "Usually, there are so many mission parameters—so many things, not to destroy. But not this time. Thanks to you, I didn't have to hold back. But This is it, Pierce. This is as far as you go. You are the last head... the last remaining head of Hydra."
"You are wrong..." Pierce muttered. "Oh... you are so wrong!" he shouted, this time looking around the room.
"You think this ends here? With my death? It doesn't. He is still out there," Pierce announced.
"Who is?" the Captain asked, already dreading the answer.
"A God, Captain... HYDRA'S God," he said, looking at Steve before turning back toward Ethan. "Someone who dwarfs even your power."
What followed the proclamation was laughter—Fury's shrill, harsh, and triumphant cackle. Natasha could be seen stifling a chuckle herself. Ethan, on the other hand, simply stared down at Pierce, his expression unreadable.
"Haha... what do you find... what's so funny about this?" Pierce growled, his voice laced with venom.
Ethan walked toward him and dropped to one knee, meeting his eye level. "Him... the War Curse?" he said, tilting his head to the right where **Kitsune** manifested a vivid illusion of the entity.
"What a joke. I was the one who killed your 'God' when I was a prepubescent child." At his words, the illusion of the War Curse collapsed and began dissipating into nothingness.
"It was me, Pierce. I was the one who forced you to trigger the general alarm for all Hydra forces," he finished, his voice cold and steady as he stood back up.
Pierce, despite his fanatical devotion to the cause, seemed sane enough to grasp the gravity of what had happened. For the first time, he looked truly defeated.
He scanned the room, then looked back at Ethan. "I chose my path; you chose the way of a hero..." he began, his eyes drifting toward the revolver tucked inside the desk at his side.
"But not anymore. You deviated from a Hero' s Path. What you have done today... this world has a long memory. They will remember it and keep reminding everyone," Pierce continued as he shifted toward the desk.
"They found you amusing for a while, the people of this era. But the one thing they love more than a hero is to see a hero fail, fall, and die trying. In spite of everything you have done for them, eventually, they will hate you. Look around this very room—they already..." Pierce lowered his head as if in final surrender, but in the next second, he moved with surprising agility for a man of his age.
"**FEAR YOU!**" he finished, snapping the gun up and pointing it directly at Ethan.
**Bang.**
But it was Fury who fired first. With that, the final head of Hydra, Alexander Goodwin Pierce, lay dead with a bullet in his skull.
Ethan looked at Fury, his expression calm. "Bullets wouldn't have harmed me."
Fury walked past him, his black trench coat billowing in the wind as he stared out at the massive dome enclosing the river. "Is that so?"
The Director glanced back at Romanoff and Hill. At his subtle gesture, they began to exit the room alongside the councilmen. The Captain lingered, looking at Pierce's lifeless body for a moment longer before he and Bucky also made their way outside.
Now, the room contained only Fury and Ethan.
"He was right, you know. They will hate you, or they will fear you... especially now that every S.H.I.E.L.D. file has been uploaded to the internet," Fury spoke, his gaze fixed on the horizon. "You will no longer be seen as the guy who just heals. They will come for you. A faction of the U.S. Government was already hunting you... we just handed them the best damn ammunition imaginable."
"It doesn't matter," Ethan replied, walking up to stand beside him.
Fury looked at him, genuinely confused. "Doesn't matter?" he questioned.
Ethan released a heavy sigh, his mind flashing back to the carnage in Fairview for a brief second. He turned toward Fury, his eyes hard and certain. "We can be the good guys, or we can be the guys who save the world. We can't be both."
He finished his sentence just as he activated his technique to teleport out of the room.
One week later:
**Elizabeth "Bess" Adams**
She has been serving as the United States Secretary of State for only a few months. Following the death of former Secretary Vincent Marsh in a suspicious plane crash, President Conrad Dalton had personally requested her—his former mentee at the CIA—to serve in his cabinet.
As she was not a natural politician, Elizabeth had frequently clashed with White House Chief of Staff Russell Jackson in the past. However, at this moment, they were both in her office alongside the rest of her staff, waiting for a call from the former Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury.
Her Chief of Staff, Nadine Tolliver, brought her a fresh glass of water; Bess nodded, appreciating the gesture. She looked around the room and saw grim faces everywhere.
This atmosphere reminded her of another time—9/11. The environment was hauntingly similar: the same heavy silence and the same set of grim expressions on everyone present.
Jay Whitman, her Policy Advisor, stood at the edge of the room with his back resting against the wall.
Blake Moran, Elizabeth's personal assistant and coordinator, sat on the staff sofa, repeatedly checking the computer for the anticipated call.
Daisy Grant, her Press Secretary, paced around the room while nervously chewing her nails.
Matt Mahoney, her Head of Speechwriting, sat in unusual silence—likely drafting the words she would soon have to deliver to a terrified nation.
Finally, there was Mike Barnow, her unconventional political consultant.
Mike sighed and stood up abruptly. "Fine, I'll say it... This is crazy."
"What is it now, Barnow?" Russell, the President's Chief of Staff, demanded.
"A fucking meteor fell from the sky onto Washington. A *meteor*, Bess," Mike reiterated, looking directly at her. "And the guy who did it... we don't know where he is. Forget that—we don't even know *what* he is. The people who presumably did know turned out to be half-composed of Nazis."
He gestured toward the blank computer screen where they awaited the call. "And the other half seems more interested in making us wait all day than giving us simple answers. I thought 9/11 was bad, but this? This trumps it by a wide margin. This is all just crazy," he repeated once more.
None seemed to counter him; they all knew the truth. They were indeed in a precarious situation.
It had been a week since the Hydra resurgence had taken the world by surprise, but as soon as they emerged, they were squashed back down—almost as if by design.
Her gaze shifted toward the office television, where the morning news was playing:
" Turn up the sound, " she said and Blake did it immediately.
**The Lead: Breaking News**
"This is a CNN Special Report. I'm Wolf Blitzer, and we are coming to you live from the nation's capital, where the dust—and the terror—is only just beginning to settle.
It has been seven days since the 'Day of the Falling Star.' Seven days since the sky over the Potomac turned blood-red and the laws of physics were rewritten in front of our very eyes. We are now standing on the precipice of a political and existential crisis unlike anything seen in the history of this republic.
In just a few hours, the White House is expected to break its silence. Press Secretary Daisy Grant will step to the podium to offer the official executive stance on the man at the center of this storm: Ethan Park."
**The Panel Introduction**
"Joining our panel tonight to help us parse the ethical and legal wreckage is Dr. Henry McCord. Dr. McCord is a former Marine, a renowned professor of ethics, and, as many of you know, the husband of Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord.
Also with us is Congresswoman Kayla Wallace. Representative Wallace, you have spent the last week on the floor of the House calling this event—and I use your words—'the greatest threat to American sovereignty since the British burned this city in 1814.'
Henry, Kayla, thank you for being here."
" Thank you for having us," They answered in unison.
"Before we get into the debate, let's look at the images that have been burned into the global psyche. These clips, captured by tourists and dash-cams, show the moment the first projectile—what experts are still struggling to classify as a 'meteor'—descended directly onto the deck of a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier.
"Look at that footage. You can see the structural failure of the multi-billion dollar Helicarrier in less than three seconds. And then, there is the 'Black Dome.' Our satellites couldn't penetrate it. Our drones couldn't fly through it. For four hours, a five-mile radius of the Potomac River simply... vanished from the map.
**LIVE: NATIONAL NEWS NETWORK EXCLUSIVE**
**Wolf Blitzer:**
"The question remains: Did Ethan Park save Washington D.C. from HYDRA's resurgence, or did he simply remind us that we are completely defenseless against his whims? Congresswoman, I'll start with you. The President is calling this a 'failure of Project Insight.' What are your thoughts?"
**Congresswoman:**
"Let's not stand on tradition, Wolf. Call this what it is: **The Park Problem**. Our President seems to have lost his backbone, but the American people haven't. Ethan Park has been a threat to this sovereign nation since the day he first ignored a Congressional subpoena. We should have declared him a domestic terrorist then and there."
"And the evidence is finally catching up to the myth. In light of the massive S.H.I.E.L.D. data leak intended to expose HYDRA, we've unmasked a trove of information S.H.I.E.L.D. fought to keep buried. Take a look at your screen. This is **Subject 2718**." Wolf continued.
[ A picture of Teen Ethan (fourteen years old) showed on the screen]
**Wolf Blitzer:**
"That black-and-red blur captured on satellite footage near the third plane during the 9/11 attacks? Shield's Analysts have confirmed that was Subject 2718—Ethan Park. We are looking at a suspected, direct involvement in the darkest day in our history."
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A/N: So how was the chapter?