Twinkle in Sweet Repose

[The Vision]

Vision floated towards the beasts, his Solar Gem emitting a strong beam of light. The beasts, in turn, flapped towards him. The android grit his teeth.

> open “adaptoidfiles.zip”
> run “mjolnir.exe”
Running...

A three-dimensional digital outline of Thor’s legendary hammer was drawn into the air, which Vision gripped. The outline was filled with a blue film of data, as if an invisible paintbrush was coloring within three-dimensional lines. The film slipped off, revealing an almost exact copy of the hammer as the Vision remembered it.

Both the Vision and the beasts flied faster, until the combatants were charging at each other mid-air.

With a roar, the android flung his hand forward but holding onto the hammer, surging his momentum forward, as he had seen his friend do many times before. He slammed the weapon into the face of one avian monster, knocking it down. Quickly after, the birds surrounded the android. The Vision spun wildly, gripping the hammer tightly. He felt about four hits knock back several beasts before the hammer dissipated. Panicking at how quickly the hammer disappeared, the Vision shot his body upwards. The twelve beasts unaffected by Mjolnir spiraled after him in a swarm.

> run “gazerbeam.exe”
Engaging optical heat generators...

The Vision then spun his body and looked down, forming a sort of umbrella of burning death to break apart the spiral as best he could. It was an effective motion – the beasts split and dodged the frantic spinning beams and continued to ascend.

The lasers stopped for a moment to avoid overheating the Vision’s eyes. He shot off faster, this time moving parallel to the ground. The birds rearranged themselves into a funnel of vicious bites and claws.

> self.setvalue density 10.330002%
> run “ironman_stopinplace.exe”
Running...

Each of the Vision’s palms opened a small circular hole, where two glowing discs appeared. The Vision faced his palms forwards. A burst of energy appeared from both palms, rocketing him backwards. The beasts flew forward, unable to stop as quickly as he did.

> run “gazerbeam.exe”
Engaging optical heat generators...

Now behind the swarm, who were colliding into each other to spin around and face the android, the Vision fired another barrage of lasers at the avian creatures. Three of them fell out of the sky.

As the bird-like creatures stabilized themselves, the Vision counted the hostiles.

> scan(for_(tag:hostiles))
Scanning...
(13) similar objects located.
> self.setvalue density 561.3003%

The Vision suddenly fell straight out of the sky, causing the creatures to miss him entirely. He landed heavily on the street, leaving cracks in the concrete. The flock of monsters spiraled downwards, still intent on tearing apart the android. He fired another barrage of lasers as the group moved sideways. Once they became level with the ground, they flew horizontally towards the Vision. They learned their lesson about their own momentum, and they avoided lethally colliding into the ground. The Vision scowled. He was hoping to remove some of the beasts from play by having them crash.

He took off again, flying away from the beasts this time. Looking back, the Vision fired several lasers at the birds. But they were faster than him, and in a matter of seconds were right on his tail.

WARNING
Detected (1) incoming missile

The Vision spun to the right in a barrel roll, narrowly dodging the RPG. The birds were not fast enough to dodge, however, and the resulting blast almost killed all of them.

The android landed on his feet, stumbling due to his forward momentum. Stopping himself, he looked up to see where the rocket came from. He received an answer in the form of the sound of a shotgun.

Agent Ironheart was dealing with a pack of hounds. They were no normal hounds, appearing to be dachshunds trained to hunt but with their skin and eyes removed. The soldier was holding off about four of them.

One blast from the shotgun blew one hound away, but another gripped its jaws on the soldier’s leg. Screaming in pain, Ironheart shot the hound in the back, blasting it off but leaving it still alive. The Vision threw himself forward, tackling a hound mid-lunge and pinning it to the ground. He solidified his fist and punched the hound in the face many times.

Ironheart cried out again. The Vision looked up. Ironheart was reloading, but the two remaining hounds were approaching, snarling their jaws and drooling over their exposed muscles. Their shoulders were hunched as they walked towards their prey.

> run “unibeam.exe”
Running...

The Vision stuck out his chest. A large opening appeared in the center of it, tessellating a glowing blue disk over the aperture.

“Request: get behind me.”

Ironheart looked behind his shoulder, glancing Vision’s makeshift arc reactor. It glowed violently, energy coursing in the center of it. Smartly, he abandoned his reloading for a second and sprinted behind the android. After a little less than two seconds, the arc reactor clicked and pressed inwards, and the disc exploded in a surge of energy. The two hounds were flung backwards by the blast into the chain-link fence behind them. With a loud chink, they collided with the fence and dropped painfully back onto the ground.

They were still alive, however, and unlike most canines, they seemed to have no fear for their lives. They continued to growl and limp towards the Vision. From behind the android, Agent Ironheart drew his shotgun and promptly embedded many, many pellets into the dogs’ heads.

The siren stopped, and the fog rolled back. The Vision hadn’t even noticed that it was suffocating him. He nodded at the Secondary soldier beside him.

“Query: are you injured?”

“I’m fine,” Ironheart said, refusing to return the android’s amiable attitude, “We should move. You seen the rest of the team?”

“Negative,” the Vision replied, “Just you. Query: do you have any rocket launcher ammunition remaining?”

Agent Ironheart nodded.

“Query: may I see?”

The soldier hesitantly opened his pack, where one lone RPG stuck out. The Vision squeezed his eyes at the rocket.

“I see,” the Vision replied thoughtfully.

“What are you-”

The unworldly scream of the winged monsters shrieked from down the street. The Vision accessed the memory files regarding the rocket launcher slung around Ironheart’s shoulder. Then he replicated it. A large cylindrical structure trickled into reality over the Vision’s shoulder. He gripped a handle that was slowly protruding from the cylinder. The Vision pressed a trigger, promptly launching another explosive at the new crowd of the beasts. It detonated upon impact, presumably killing or at least disabling the flock.

“I can replicate certain actions,” the Vision explained.

Ironheart watched him with terror and wide eyes. “You can just... create rockets?”

“Error: bad logic. I can only replicate very recent events, at the cost of large amounts of energy. And even then, these events are likely to be inaccurate representations.”

“But you...”

The Vision stared back at the old man.

“I copy things. I can’t just make one out of nothing.”

Ironheart shrugged. “Even still. Impressive.”

“Thank you.”

“Did you see anyone else?”

“Negative. Your query implies you have also not seen members of our team.”

Ironheart checked the hounds to make sure they were dead. “Indeed. I did warn you about Silent Hill.”

“Correction. The monsters which we engaged in combat were not as fear-inspiring as you or Agent Salvador implied.”

“That would be because the fog is still studying you,” Ironheart grimly said, pressing more shotgun rounds into the barrel of his rifle. “In a few minutes, it will show you exactly what you fear or regret. Maintain your guard, android.”

Before the Vision could reply, Ironheart was thrown towards the chain-link fence by a red wave of energy. The pinkish-red energy then surrounded the Vision, pinning him against the same fence. The pair struggled against their strange bonds, but to no avail.

The Vision looked up. In front of him was a floating woman in a deep red shoulderless gown, which swirled around her as if gravity did not apply to it. She wore gloves that reached to her elbows that matched the gown. She had no head. Instead, a gigantic rusty isosceles pyramid faced forward, its long and bloodstained point similarly defying gravity. Struggling against the new opponent, Vision’s scanners quickly analyzed her. Rather quickly, the scanners found a result.

One which cause the Vision to gasp, a function which he was not capable of carrying out.

The Vision’s mouth was agape.

With a quivering whisper, he managed to say, “Wanda?”