Chapter 21: The Fight of Istanbul-Nairobi, part 2
A quarter of the Nimrod agents and U.N security died at the hands of Kali just as her BFFs decided to join the party. Quetzalcoatl and Sedna had come, in their physical forms and bringing the newest additions to the Plagues. The corpses of Tzira Khan and Bellerophon, their old prison guardians, served as hosts. Bellerophon had been turned into a zombie dressed in a full-body armor of rotting flesh and animal bones while Tzira-Khan had been turned into some sort of humanoid female jaguar made of volcanic rocks.
"Behold!" Quetzalcoatl raised his arms dramatically at the new plagues. "Malaria, the plague of livestock, and Precipitation, the plague of fired hail!"
Black Widow frowned. "Uh, aren't the boils supposed to come before hail?"
"Don't worry. It'll come soon," Kali smirked.
"Rather tricky, sneaking in. Those demigods outside had a perfect scan of the perimeter..." Sedna smiled a pearl colored toothy smile. "But we went with the classic trick. Sneaking in as guards."
"I'll be straightforward, Anubis," Quetzalcoatl turned his head to face the Rapharion. "Seth promises to make things easier if..."
"Sorry, I'd rather stick my head in Apophis' head." Anubis pointed his ankh spear at the Aztec god's neck.
"Come on, now, Anubis, why the hostilities?" The Aztec god's head feathers moved, either to reach out to Anubis as he took many step backs to avoid them or defend himself from those who tried attacking him. "I mean, you're actually willing to serve a race of ingrates?"
"Shut up."
"Come on, Anubis. What's the big idea? Sure, the original plagues devastated one country due to divine intervention, but that is nothing compared to how they devastate themselves. Humans already smite themselves in their desperate search of reasoning, equalizing, and empowering. One group of gods can kill a thousand, but a group of humans can kill millions of their own kind.
"You've never neglected the atrocities they throw on themselves. The wars, the crimes, the genocides, and so many horrors they have accomplished. They always seek to find excuses for their reasons. 'Our religion must be dominant.' 'No, our gender must be dominant.' No, it's their races, their nationalities, and whichever team they support on the Superbowl. Apparently, everyone must be a weakling because to have an enhanced capacity is punishable by incarceration. They make what we are a crime. Is this what you hope?"
"Shut up..." Anubis was beginning to get angrier.
"I mean, did you honestly expect that a world of monotheists would embrace us?" Quetzalcoatl spat. "You are a pagan nothing to them. We're different from them and they find an excuse to force us into hiding. Did you honestly believe that by protecting them, they would spare you? Even with the kindness that immortals bring them, the mortals repay them with nothing but hatred, execution, and incarceration all because we do not fit their norms."
"We appreciate Thor and he's a Nordic god!" Some mortal female pointed out.
"From outer space. And even though he constantly saves humanity, humans still feel the need to keep an eye on him," Sedna retorted.
"Anubis, you already killed a thousand in the old days with your plagues," Quetzalcoatl continued to harass Anubis verbally. "So what if your father kills a million firstborns? His act would already be a salvation for Earth... from the Decimation."
"The... Decimation?" Anubis was starting to break.
"Anubis, don't!" Marion realized he was getting crushed and Quetzalcoatl realized this as well.
"The Titan will be less merciful than Seth. Unlike Seth, he doesn't discriminate the people he might exterminate. If you don't help Seth destroy all the firstborns, the Titan won't give a damn on who is included in his mass destruction as long as it means half of the population is decimated! THINK, Anubis! Seth might be merciful if you joined him! He might be willing to spare any firstborn you wish to preserve!"
Anubis looked in horror at Marion. She was an only child, a firstborn. The Final plague would surely kill her. Quetzalcoatl had managed to hit a raw nerve, knowing that Anubis' emotional weakness was Marion. It was clear now to everyone who was witnessing this that Seth had purposely sent this god to verbally persuade Anubis into surrendering...
"NO!" Anubis shouted, startling Quetzalcoatl into keeping his head feathers away from him.
"What?" The trio of evil was shocked.
"You heard me! I said NO!"
"Think of the consequences..." Quetzalcoatl pointed a finger at Marion.
"I did! And I'm not taking your advice! You think I'd be selfish enough into preserving a few humans as pets while their families and friends lose a firstborn? You hope that if I do that, they'll give up on me and I'll be all by myself and obliged to go to Seth! I may be the god of mummification and the guardian of the Soul Stone, but that doesn't make me their god and guardian! That job is already taken! I can never change the ways humans think about me, regardless if it's because I'm a pagan god, an immortal, or Seth's son! I finally had the life and home I wanted by leaving the Rapharion's city to join the human civilization, and I won't let any of you take that away from me!" Anubis' ankh scepter glowed brighter from the Soul Stone affecting Anubis' emotions and fired a blast at the trio, sending them flying out of the building.
"Smooth move, hot dog!" Falcon took the lead by flying after the trio that was now loose into the city. The Nimrod agents quickly rushed out to place magical force fields on the human buildings while the local authorities began spreading the word for everyone to get inside and stay there. The Avengers began to follow, but Scarlet Witch and Thor got blocked by Malaria and Precipitation.
"I am your plague, Wanda Maximoff!" Malaria created three-feet-long swords made out of a thousand rotting cow horns. "I am the rotting that you inflict on the flesh of those you claim to protect with your destructive powers!"
"I am your plague, Thor Odinson!" Precipitation spit pellets onto the ground at each sentence break, creating a trail of burning grass circles. "I am the hail of burning fire reflecting your ego that almost threatened the peace of worlds!"
The Scarlet Witch and Thor prepared themselves by summoning magic and lightning bolts from their hands respectively. "Can you believe Bonnie the Banshee was actually right about me being plagued by hail?"
"I know, right?" Scarlet Witch shrugged before they charged at the two plagues.
Meanwhile, things were getting intense. Sedna was raising all the polluted water out of the river and increased its volume, planning on drowning everyone until Kory came in to huff and puff and turn into her half-Jotun form to blow a freezing wind at the water and turn it into an iceberg that Maui then diced with his fishhook. Bacchus grew vines to throw them back at Sedna, who did not appreciate the retaliation.
"Plagues of Seth, assist us!" She called out and out of nowhere, Nile, Amphibian, and Louse appeared. Yatir was still in Istanbul.
Ra, morning and evening star.
Grant me your light from afar
So that with justice I shall smite
The ones who defy your might.
Anubis used the solar incantation that had worked on Amphibian and Louse previously, but now they looked only a quarter scratched.
"How..."
"You really are silly, Anubis." Sedna chuckled. "Seth made us his plagues' generals, and I am an ocean deity. Amphibians like Amphibian and pests like Louse just need me to feed them with my waters!" Sedna sent a shower of water at the two plagues, and as a matter of fact, the magical waters of Sedna increased Amphibian's size and Louse's parasites by ten.
Bacchus worked on engaging Kali in a battle of rock throwing, but the goddess was merely dodging him, for she was busy mixing some gunk in a wine glass. Maui tried sending Nile flying away by swinging his fishhook to create a water tornado to 'dry clean' him, but apparently, thanks to science proving that rain was none other than evaporated polluted water, Maui sending Nile flying only meant that the plague met the 'evaporated polluted water' and merged with it, turning into a cloud that down-poured blood rain.
Kory engaged in a fierce duel between her Asgardian sickle spear and the Aztec spear of Quetzalcoatl. "You will pay for what you did to my brother!"
"I did nothing! I am the king of serpents, he is bound to me!" Quetzalcoatl's head feathered agitated like snakes ready to bite and he raised his hands. The ground shook and tore a rift in the river, sinking the water in and allowing a massive green serpent emerged. His massive height horrified everyone, because should he ever fall down, he'd crush all of Nairobi in a matter of seconds. Captain America remembered Kory's ring and how tiny skulls were placed on the scales, but when he saw the real thing, the fifteen skulls were actually assembled into a chocker collar.
"Jormugand..." Kory was on the brink of tears.
"S...S... Sister, help me!" Jormugand begged in an earth-shaking hiss while he was trapped in a golden glow that made him coil in pain.
"Midgard Serpent, my slave." Quetzalcoatl pointed at Kory. "Kill your sister."
Captain America stood between the children of Loki, holding his shield up to protect Kory the fanged attack of Jormugand.
"Are you joking?" Quetzalcoatl was angry. "You could swallow them whole!"
"Never!" Jormugand hissed through his pain. "You may be my master, Great and Cruel Quetzalcoatl, but my sister and I swore on the River Styx that we would never harm each other!"
"Than kill Captain America! His shield will make a nice pendant on..."
"GET HELP!"
Quetzalcoatl turned to see an orange portal opening and Loki being thrown at him, causing Quetzalcoatl to lose control of Jormugand.
"Hey, what do you know?" From the portal emerged Doctor Strange, Isis, Hera, Ishara, Spiderman, and Aaricia. Except for Doctor Strange, all of them were carrying guns bearing containments of purple fluids.
"Thanks for doing 'get help', Uncle Loki!" Aaricia waved at Loki, who groaned as he raised a thumbs-up.
"What?" Kory was baffled.
"Mother!" Anubis was delighted.
"Great, it's my ancient Greek stepmother." Bacchus groaned.
"Nice to see you too," Hera said drily.
"Spawn of Thor." Jormugand came to his senses and hissed violently. "The Norns decreed that his blood shall meet my venom! You..."
"Alright, bye-bye!" Aaricia raised her hand, revealing Kaïra's finger on it. The Space Stone glowed just as a blue portal came from underneath Jormugand and sucked him in.
"What?" Kory freaked out when she saw her brother disappeared. She rushed to Aaricia. "Where did he go?"
"The Bermuda Triangle." Everyone stared at her. "What? I wasn't going to engage in the Fight of Destiny against your brother! Oh, by the way, Kaïra tried to use this to brainwash Doctor Strange into killing your dad for her." She took off her ring and gave it to Kory. "She threw it away when she thought she killed me."
Kory took the ring slowly. She stared at it and grimaced at Aaricia. "You are GROUNDED on SO MANY LEVELS!"
Aaricia groaned.
Just then, Thor and Scarlet Witch crash-landed onto a building. Malaria and Precipitation ganged up with Nile, Amphibian, and Louse and melted into a goo that transformed into some sort of giant skeleton, its robes made of tars, its veins dropping as waterfalls, its head spiked, and its eyes glowing in fire.
"WE are THE PLAGUES of EGYPT!" Their mouth spoke in multiple voice echoes. "FOR what YOU have committed, YOU will SUFFER by watching THE DEATH of Nairobi! YOU..."
The arrivers aimed their guns at the behemoth and shot. Purple gas emerged and formed a giant cloud that covered the plagued fusion. The fusion started coughing, then wailing. They screamed as their physical components melted into a grey pond that rivaled the polluted water. When the screaming ceased, the gunk stopped moving. The plagues' human hosts were lying on the ground in their normal forms but breathing as though they had been trapped in a comatose stated.
"It worked!" Spiderman clasped his hands.
"Told you your genius brain could do it." Aaricia smirked.
"Hold on." Tony called a time-out. "You managed to create an anti-plague serum? When?"
Back in Istanbul, just before the arrivers came to Nairobi
Because of the fight in Istanbul, all schools were closed early. Aaricia managed to sneak them all in the nearest school in midtown.
"You want me to create a cure for the plagues?"
"Or a neutralizer. But yeah, same concept."
"I don't understand where you're getting at," Ishara agreed with Spiderman.
"Isis mentioned that the plagues were forced to come with loopholes when designed to attack specific people, because without them, they are ordinary plagues that can claim anyone," Aaricia explained. "Without the loopholes, the original plagues could have killed anyone regardless if they were Egyptian or Hebrew. Holy water weakened Nile, solar heat melted Amphibian and Louse, and lavender knocked out Yatir. If we combine these and the potential loopholes for the next plagues before the last one, we might just be able to create a serum that will neutralize the plagues."
"You want me to create a serum that's supposed to fight off a bunch of magical plagues?" Spiderman asked incredulously.
"How many times are you not going to believe me?" Aaricia rolled her eyes. "You made your own webbing, you actually managed to hold off Barnes' metal arm and bring down Giant-Man in Germany, you saved people in a collapsing elevator in the Washington Monument, you tried to hold together the State Ferry when it ripped in half, you risked your life to fight some dangerous weapons dealers, you fought the plagues in New York, and you managed to tick off my sister's evil personality. AND YOU'RE CHICKENING OUT BECAUSE YOU THINK YOU CAN'T USE SCIENCE AGAINST MAGIC?"
Aaricia's intense anger scared the others. They could almost see the bolts in her eyes coming out.
"OK!" Spiderman chuckled nervously and rushed to grab the nearest lab coat. "I should be able to use the equipment in the lab, but I'll need holy water, lavender, and anything flammable. I should be able to use the shelved chemicals to create the vaccine components..."
"I can fetch holy water from the nearby sites," Doctor Strange volunteered.
"Give me five minutes and I can force my nephew Apollo to give us one of his sun rays," Hera volunteered.
"I still got leftovers of my lavender perfume." Aaricia offered.
"Nah, for this, I need organic lavender." Spiderman shook his head.
"Alright, I'll quickly go to the supermarket. You want them whole or grounded?" Ishara asked.
"I can help you in increasing your serum's effects on the plagues," Isis told Spiderman. "It won't damage them permanently, but it will ensure that your science is strong enough to hold against them."
Currently, in Nairobi
"So, it's good enough to hold off the first nine plagues, but not the last plague," Spiderman finished.
"I don't believe it." Falcon was embarrassed. "We struggled for days to keep off the plagues and a kid comes up with the right medicine an hour ago?"
"Well Isis told Aaricia that without the loopholes, the plagues would hit anyone! And we all thought that Seth planned out in advance which plague would target which Avenger, but Yatir said that he'd avoid the obvious! That's why he sent Yatir after me. He was going to have her plague Iron Man by hurting me."
"And you wonder why I just wanted you to go home after you ran into Geb?" Tony glared at Spiderman before then turning to Anubis. "You never should have sent him!"
"She already knew I was going to be there. That explains why she sent copies of herself at the prisons of the bad gods!" Spiderman added before he remembered. "Geb told Seth that Anubis was sending me over to check on Isis... but he also told Anubis that Isis was in Istanbul around the same time as her copies freed the trio."
"Seth knew before I did." Anubis realized.
"Wait, where's Yatir?" Marion asked.
"We gave her a dose of Spiderman's serum and Doctor Strange dropped her off in a GAMA cell," Loki answered.
"But... if Yatir attacked Istanbul, that should have given Seth another landmark point and a new plague. But if all the current plagues are here and Yatir is locked up..."
"Where is the plague that's supposed to mark Istanbul?" Anubis finished Marion's sentence.
"You're looking at him!"
Spiderman only realized at the last second that Kali appeared behind him. The black gunk she had been mixing in a wine glass was now in a glass needle the size of her arm. The moment Spiderman turned his head, she poked his neck with the needle.
The boy screamed as the gunk transferred its way inside him.
"NO!" Iron Man screamed. He tried to reach out for Spiderman, but Hulk held him back. "Let go!"
"You should have listened to your protégé, Iron Man." Kali shook her head. "Now? You pay for your actions."
Quetzalcoatl regained his consciousness just in time to witness Spiderman screaming in agony as the black gunk spread itself all over him.
"Kali, what did you put in him?" Even Sedna was shocked.
"Well before I left India, Seth sent Louse to deliver me a piece of the Soul Stone, asking that in exchange for what I want most in the world, which is destruction, I create the vilest plagues you'll meet before the last one. Using my own blood, an Indian elephant's bone, the hearts of all bacterial diseases known to men, and some sentient symbiote I found on an asteroid, I created a formula enhanced by the Soul Stone fragment and I injected it in the boy... freshly delivered from Istanbul." Kali licked her lips. "He will be transformed into one plague at first, but the moment he is injured or killed in your 'heroic attempts' to save him, his first version will survive while a second one is born. In a matter of seconds, I will have given Seth the plagues of boils and darkness."
Kali raised her glowing hands at Spiderman, who screamed as his body was covered in black and red was boiling out of him, staining him and turning him into what looked like a humanoid mess of red and black.
"The youth of superheroes, rejected by the healthier, older ones above him!" Kali declared. "Your presence to them is that of a pest, not even your own mentor wants you! There is no warmth for you in his heart, so you will plague those he holds close! You will be disease that devastates the hearts of mean and women and the screams of their bodies rotting from your touch will be soothing music to me!"
The humanoid opened its eyes. It looked like the white eyes of Spiderman's mask, but these moved like sentient eyes. Empty, white eyes full of hatred and disdain. The creature opened its mouth, revealing fangs and a retractable pointy tongue. It wailed and hissed in fury.
"Don't worry, mother's here." Kali caressed the plague. "My child. My plague. You are now Carnage."