Template:Featured Articles/23-2023

Moment of Awesome - Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch: During their raid on Hammerhead's compound, Kevin Sydney and Wanda make their presence felt with authority. From her position, hidden in the shadows, Wanda did have eyes on the entrance. Unlike Kevin, she had no obvious weapon but one rarely needed to bring one when they were the weapon. "Currently all clear," she confirmed, "but that is about to change." She watched as the chaos lines shifted slowly at first, almost normal, but as the seconds passed, the lines twitched and moved. "And here we go..." The sound of the alarm cut was bracing as the door was kicked open. Men flooded into the grounds of the scrapyard, searching for the point of the attack. "Nicely done." Kevin muttered into the mic, bracing the rifle against the concrete edge of the parking complex. He took a deep breath he didn't really need and sighted along the scope. "And, on his ample forehead... aiming full." He let out the breath as the rifle barked and a man went down in a heap. Kevin worked the bolt, loading a new round. "The deadly stroke, descending." A second shot, this one nearly decapitating the man, leaving his head split in two. "pierc'd the skull." Some of the men were looking around, trying to take cover and fire in the direction of the shots, But Kevin was a kilometre away; a lethal speck in the distance. "...and Down drops the beast," Another shot, catching one of Hammerhead's men square in the chest and dropping him instantly. "nor needs a second wound," Kevin's voice was like a metronome, timing off a shot every ten seconds, each one lethal. "But sprawls in pangs of death," The man closest to Wanda's position snapped his head sideways as the bullet cleared through temple to temple. "and spurns the ground." Another man down, finally forcing the rest of Hammerhead's men into cover, seeking peeks over their shoulder and from behind concrete forms. Kevin tracked back and forth, sighting the underboss and lining him up carefully. "In Dares' stead I offer this. Eryx, accept a nobler sacrifice;" The bullet passed through a small hole in the concrete, meant for the installation of piping and bisected the man's throat. "OK Maximoff. They are down and in cover. Rain fucking fire." To himself, almost inaudible, he whispered to himself as he continued to watch the unfolding carnage. "Take the last gift my wither'd arms can yield: Thy gauntlets I resign, and here renounce the field." There was something about hearing whispered lines from the Aeneid as men fell in a shower of blood before her. Her fury at North's capture had been simmering but as she stood to full height in the shadows, it ran through her, fueling the chaotic powers inside of her. "Ask and ye shall receive." The world was awash in red strings, outlining every possibility in front of her. Men huddling behind concrete stood out to her as if someone had shown a spotlight through the material. And it highlighted every. Single. Weak. Spot.