Chapter XXI – Night Fright Part II

New York City

The full moon shined on top the quiet city, a city known as the city that never sleeps, but now it was silent. Korra, Crystal, and the monster hunter Elsa Bloodstone, walked in the dark streets of New York. The howls of the werewolves could be heard from the distance, whatever turned the city's population into lycans was the mystery that the trio set to find out.

But more importantly, where are the other heroes?

"So, where are we going?" Crystal asked.

"We are going to Dr. Strange's place." Elsa replied, "The old man is the Sorcerer Supreme, so he might know what's going on."

"Chilly night..." Korra said while making a small flame on top of her left hand. "So Elsa...you're from Nextwave right?"

"Yeup."

"Why aren't they with you?"

"Well Machine Man is doing some dumb mission for A.R.M.O.R and the others are in some vacational trip in Belize. Me? I stayed here because I was planning in going to Europe and meet some friends there when this shit happened." Elsa replied, "Interrupted my flight and tea time too."

As they entered 5th Avenue the trio heard machine gun fire, a sound that made Elsa smirk. "Oh bot I hope this is who I hope it is." Elsa said.

"Who?" Crystal asked. The two followed Elsa who ran ahead of them, rifle ready, to the end of the street and into the E 23rd street. There, over a turned over truck, was the man of the skull, killer of wrongdoers, the one man army...the Punisher, holding his ground against a small possee of re animated corpses.

"What now? Zombies? Oh this is getting better and better." Elsa said, giving Castle a hand by headshotting several undead men. Korra and Crystal threw fireballs at the bigger and sturdier zombified people, their bodies engulfing in flames and falling into the ground.

"Ugh, what's that smell?" Korra asked. A zombie appeared behind her, she quickly reacted and airbended a strong gust of wind against the undead. She then she threw a lightning bolt at the monster, blowing it up into several burned pieces. "That was too close."

All of the zombies lied dead...again, Punisher hopped off the over turned vehicle and reloaded his dual M249 LMGs. "Bloodstone, I expected you to be in a killing spree by now." Castle said in the most dry voice ever.

"Good to see you too, Frankie." Elsa greeted the mob killer, "Just making our way to Strange's scary house."

"Whole area is infested with mythical fuckery." Punisher said, "Not my type of night."

"Is that the Punisher?" Crystal asked Korra.

"Looks like he is, giant skull and everything." Korra replied. The wolves howled as they jumped over the rooftops of the New York skyline.

The Punisher began to walk away, Elsa smirked as the man of the skull headed towards the direction they were going. Bloodstone knew how to read Frank's body movements, they had crossed paths before and she had enjoyed working with the grim Punisher. "C'mon girls, we are going in a life changing trip with Mr. Castle." Elsa told them.

The team reached Greenwich Village, where the Sanctum Sanctorum was located at. The sky was now dark purple, hinting that they were past midnight, the stars were clearly visible now that the light pollution of the city was gone.

"I can't see it." Crystal said.

"That's because of magic." Elsa replied, "Its actually right here." Elsa walked towards an empty lot, she knocked at the air and the sound of wood getting hit was heard. There was indeed an invisible building there.

"Just open the door, Bloodstone." Punisher said, watching their backs for any targets. Elsa smirked once again, and opened the door. She pointed her rifle inside, everything seemed to be quiet. No light were on, meaning that Strange nor Wong were home.

"Hello!" Elsa called out.

"This is weird, Dr. Strange never leaves the Sanctum unattended." Korra said walking inside into the stairwell. "Let's go check the library, maybe he's just meditating and Wong's sleeping."

"Maybe." Elsa replied, "You and Crystal go ahead, Frank and I will just hang out here...in case something comes in."

"Um, sure." Korra accepted. Her and Crystal went up the stairs and headed towards the left corridor that led to the library. The room was awfully dark and the lightswitch wasn't working, "Poop."

"Let's just go, you're not afraid of the dark are you?" Crystal played.

"Nah, I just don't like is all." Korra replied making a small flame. "Never actually been here, just heard stories about this place from the other Avengers."

"What about?"

"Well about the cool artifacts that Doc Strange keeps, like the Couldron of the Cosmos, the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, the Orb of Agamotto and a whole lot of magical stuff." Korra said, "Also about how the place is bigger in the inside than in the outside."

"Yeah, this place is like a mansion." Crystal agreed. They made it through the unusually long hallway and were in front of the door to the library. Korra turned the knob and opened the door, she walked inside with Crystal close behind.

"Doctor Strange?" Korra said to the dark library, and nothing replied. "Huh."

They entered and walked around the furniture where the Doctor and his guest would sit in and chat about events. The person he would talk to the most aside from Wong was Clea, Strange's lady friend and denizen of the Dark Dimension. "I don't like the look...ah!" Crystal tripped on something.

"You okay?" Korra asked her as she helped the Inhuman girl up. Then they noticed that there was a body on the ground. "Oh shit..."

"Who's that and is he okay?" Crystal asked. The person who was on the floor motionless was Wong, Strange's assistant. Korra went to check for a pulse.

"No...he's dead." Korra said, "This is bad, very bad."

"Do you smell that?" Crystal said smelling a strange smell coming out of the woodworks. "Sulfur?"

The exit door closed, and smoke began to come out of the book shelves and walls and ceiling. The dark smoke made the duo coughed, they rushed towards the door but couldn't open it. Korra punched it, but nothing. She even tried to throw fire at it, but a barrier prevented her from tearing the wood door open.

"Korra!" Crystal yelled and pointed behind them. A dark red figure stood in the other side of the library looking at them with red blood eyes.

"Mephisto!" Korra recognized the figure's shape, in coughs she came to the realization. "You've been the one behind this!"

"Avatar Korra, its been too long." The hell-lord replied. "And no, my dearie, it was not me the one who caused this...delight."

"Liar!" Korra yelled, she and Crystal couldn't fight against him inside this smoke, they were going to die if something didn't happen. Korra stood up, and with her airbending she created a small concentrated blast of air through the smoke and threw it at Mephisto. The blast passed right throug him and into the window in the farside of the library. The room cleared, and Korra and Crystal were able to breathe now. "You're the Prince of Lies, Mephisto, of course you're the root of all this."

"But this is not the way I play the game, missy. This is the job of a competitor of mine, someone who seeks to end the fun of mortal lives. Dormammu." Mephisto revealed. "He was able to influence, after so long, one of Strange's artifacts. The Necronomicon."

"Then tell us how to stop him or leave!" Korra demanded.

"My my, how much have you grown in spirit since our last meeting. Anywho, what you have to do is look for the source." Mephisto said. "Here it is...go to the Empire State Building, the one responisble is there."

Korra dropped her guard, "What do you gain from this?" Korra asked the demon.

"Oh just the satisfaction that the Dreaded Dormammu doesn't claim the mortal realm all for himself. We Hell-Lords don't want to deal with his...unfairness ever again you see." Mephisto answered, "And by the way, once you get inside the building, beware your worst nightmares come to life. Heheheheh."

And with that, Mephisto disappeared in a gust of black wind.

Korra was angered that Mephisto had to be the one that guided her to the source of the problem, like some pawn in a cosmic chess game. But she knew what she had to do, and now she had a destination.

"Damn...let's get out of here." Korra said after looking at Wong's lifeless body. "We have to stop this infernal invasion."