Chapter 546

"I still can’t believe the U.S. government got played this badly by an actor."

Captain America looked ready to explode.

Now that he knew the Mandarin was nothing more than a carefully manufactured fraud, his opinion of actors had plummeted several notches. Apparently, Hollywood had finally found a way to weaponize bad acting.

"This could have been worse," Peggy Carter said, looking toward the estate. "The fake is here. Which means the real one should be inside."

She paused.

"But before we settle the score, there’s one small obstacle."

Through her ghostly vision, Peggy could clearly see six figures approaching. The energy radiating from them was anything but ordinary.

"Get ready," she said. "These might actually be trouble."

"Kilian’s experiments?"

Tony Stark, who had been hiding behind the other two until that moment, suddenly stepped forward.

He looked completely confident.

"You two take a break. I’ve got this."

Tony was eager to prove himself. Maybe if his aunt saw him performing heroically, she might go a little easier on him when they got home.

He had barely finished counting down.

"Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Hah!"

Tony struck a dramatic pose.

Nothing happened.

Silence.

Tony blinked.

"Uh..."

He shifted awkwardly.

"One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Boom!"

Another pose.

Still nothing.

Tony stared into the empty air.

What was going on?

And could they please stop looking at him like he was a particularly troublesome puppy?

"My armor! Where the hell is my armor?!"

He practically jumped in place.

He had been planning to make an impressive entrance, and instead he had somehow managed to make an impressive fool of himself. Mark 42 had chosen the worst possible moment to fail him.

The armor was getting rebuilt the second they got home.

Peggy sighed and shook her head.

She had heard that her great-nephew had been acting strangely lately.

Apparently, the situation was worse than advertised.

"Forget it. We’ll handle this ourselves."

Peggy and Captain America walked toward the house.

Just before they reached the entrance, Peggy suddenly glanced at Steve.

"Steve, want to play a little game?"

"No."

Steve rejected the suggestion instantly.

"We’re not playing that game. It’s humiliating."

"Really?"

Peggy smiled sweetly.

"The second floor. Third bedroom. Loose floorboard beneath the—"

"All right," Steve said immediately. "I haven’t played that game in years. Once won’t hurt."

At that moment, six men emerged from the house.

They moved with grim determination, their expressions solemn. Every one of them had a heavily built physique that looked sculpted rather than trained.

These were the elite guards Killian had personally selected from among his Extremis-enhanced soldiers.

They had been hardened veterans before receiving their new abilities.

Now they were stronger, faster, and more dangerous than any ordinary human had a right to be.

And when they learned that their opponents were a team led by Captain America, they hadn’t felt fear.

They had felt excitement.

Captain America might have been legendary, but at the end of the day, he was still a super-soldier created more than sixty years ago.

An artifact from another age.

Their own enhancements represented newer science, newer methods, and a new generation of superhuman power.

They were stronger.

This confrontation would prove it.

With that conviction burning in their minds, the six men strode toward the entrance.

They were ready for a battle.

Instead, Peggy Carter greeted them with one of the most terrifying weapons known to mankind.

She grabbed Captain America by both ankles.

Then she spun.

Once.

Twice.

Three and a half times.

And threw him.

Captain America shot forward like a human missile.

His body was rigidly straight, his shield braced in front of him. He twisted with the force of the throw, spinning through the air like a miniature tornado before slamming directly into the six men.

The guards stared.

For one glorious second, none of them seemed capable of processing what they were seeing.

They had imagined all kinds of opening exchanges.

This had not been one of them.

Captain America crashed into the group with enough force to send them sprawling in every direction, scattering across the ground like bowling pins.

Peggy raised a clenched fist.

"Strike!"

The six men were furious.

"Are you kidding me?! You’re treating us like idiots!"

The attack had caught them completely off guard, but it wasn’t enough to seriously injure them.

What really hurt was the insult.

They had marched into battle expecting a legendary confrontation.

Instead, they’d been turned into bowling pins.

Four of them immediately charged Peggy.

The other two had the unfortunate distinction of being underneath Captain America.

Peggy didn’t retreat.

Instead, the corners of her mouth curled upward.

She waited.

Closer.

Closer.

The four men were almost upon her.

Then Peggy flipped backward through the air.

Black wings burst from her back.

Hellfire erupted in her eyes.

"You’re asking for it."

Four beams of demonic flame shot from her eyes.

The attackers barely had time to scream.

"Gah—!"

The green fire engulfed them.

Peggy landed lightly.

Behind her stood four charred figures, frozen in their final poses. Glowing green cracks ran across their blackened bodies.

Peggy snorted.

Green light surged across her body as she shot forward between the four statues.

The impact shattered them.

Four bodies broke apart into fragments.

Tony Stark, a man who had never been particularly religious, stared at the remains.

Then, almost unconsciously, he made the sign of the cross.

"Rest in peace."

He paused.

"For them."

And, after another glance at Captain America:

"For Steve, too."

Captain America had already finished dealing with the remaining two.

On paper, the Extremis soldiers weren’t much weaker than Steve. With enough careful modification, they could even surpass a conventional super-soldier in raw physical ability.

Unfortunately for them, Steve had a shield.

And Steve Rogers considered that a fairly important detail.

If someone put everything they had into punching his shield, Steve barely felt it.

If Steve hit them with the shield, they felt it for quite a while.

It wasn’t exactly a complicated equation.

Peggy dispelled her demonic transformation.

"Now..."

She looked toward the interior of the house.

"I’m going inside to settle the score."

At the deepest point of the house, Killian’s hand was still pressed against the abdomen of War Machine.

His hand had turned bright red from the heat.

The temperature was horrifying.

But even that was nothing compared to the heat building inside Killian’s chest.

Things had gone catastrophically wrong.

At the beginning, he’d only expected to deal with Tony Stark.

Then the Black Scythe Lord had appeared.

That had already been bad enough.

Now the older generation had arrived.

And there were two of them.

Worse, they’d already slaughtered their way to his doorstep.

Whether he wanted his plan to succeed or simply wanted to survive, Killian needed the armor.

Immediately.

Finally, the only functioning safety system inside the armor detected the dangerously high temperature.

A warning chimed.

Then the emergency mechanism activated.

War Machine was forcibly ejected.

Rhodey, being a soldier, instinctively tried to fight back the moment he hit the ground.

Killian didn’t give him the chance.

He grabbed Rhodey and hurled him into the wall.

The impact knocked the colonel unconscious.

Killian immediately climbed inside the armor.

A moment later, he blasted through the ceiling and disappeared into the night.

By the time Captain America and Peggy reached the room, the battle was already over.

All they found was a massive hole in the ceiling.

And Colonel James Rhodes lying unconscious on the floor.