Here's a new chapter. I wish you a good read!


XXXX


Chapter 10:

Jane Foster woke up suddenly, her ears hammered by a steady rhythmic whistle.

A clear vision came to her mind, like the memory of milk dripping on her father's chin or her ex-assistant, Darcy, who was running away from the studio after stealing a donut, as if she had rockets on her feet.

She saw the soldiers who had accompanied her, Selvig and the rest of the scientists who perished while they were trying to escape from a beast that had come straight out of the maze of hell. She saw the snow stained with their entrails.

Jane straightened her back, saw fresh blood on the palm of her hand and screamed, trying in every way to get it off her. In doing so, she left a sumptuous red stripe on her clothes.

She began to look around, her face adorned with a terrified expression.

The clearing was practically burnt.

Nothingness. No crows, no jays, no spikes or squirrels. Only the wind could be heard and, occasionally, the muffled plop of a small layer of snow falling from the branches. The local wildlife was gone, like a funny procession of animals from a cartoon.

Then, the memories of what had happened a few hours earlier came back to her all at once, with the same intensity as a running train.

Without wasting time, the woman began to walk towards the point where they had landed.

It was no longer snowing, but the sky was still dark and the wind seemed to be getting stronger. Hadn't the radio talked about a storm in two stages? She didn't remember, and it didn't really matter.

Somewhere in the west a huge roar rang out. Jane looked in that direction, but saw nothing, only large purple masses. The storm had gone away.

She crossed the border of the base camp, walking on the snow marked by the furrows of the military jeeps, and approached the main tent, the outside of which had almost completely collapsed due to the wind. The generator was buzzing, and the metal planks still standing were about to collapse.

Jane stopped to examine the instrumentation, mostly intact, although some antennas appeared to be burnt out. She expected worse.

She stayed where she was for a moment, trying to remember the arrangement of the equipment. Selvig would have been better than her - with his eyes closed, waving his index finger, he would have written everything down to the smallest details - but in this case Jane thought she could do without the skill of her now deceased friend. After all, she had also helped set up the tent. And most of the equipment in the base camp was bought personally by them with SHIELD funding.

But what really interested her was the location of the cell phone that belonged to the man, which as per textbook he had left in the room before they went to the meteorite. And knowing her friend, he was probably protected by the exact same password he had used since she had known him more than twenty years ago: Jeanne, the name of his last wife.

She turned on the detection equipment and, after nearly ten minutes of wandering around the tent, she was able to find the communication device. It had fallen to the ground, but looked in good conditions.

Jane entered the password. The intuition turned out to be correct, to her relief.
After that, the woman began to scroll through the contacts. And it was at that very moment ... that the monitors in the tent began to flash red.


XXXX


The Harlem neighbourhood was hardly new to unexpected changes.

In the 1920s, it was the centre where a black cultural movement called the Harlem Renaissance was born, which was a time of artistic productions such as jazz, whose shows were intended only for white people.

Harlem was also one of the first areas where street kids started dancing to the rhythm of hip hop songs.

During the period immediately following the end of the Second World War, the neighbourhood became a destination for many Hispanic-American immigrants. In a few years, also due to a sort of general period of decline of the area, it turned into a poor neighbourhood, with a high unemployment and crime rate.

After the years known as the most dangerous, the infamous and decadent area within the island of Manhattan began to alter its face, thanks above all to the will of its inhabitants, determined to change the situation in better.

A work that in recent years had been carried out by Luke Cage, now an official representative of the black population of New York.

They called him by many names: Power Man, the bulletproof man, or the protector of Harlem.

And as such, the superhuman had spent the last half hour fighting a herd of strange bugs that had started attacking the people of the neighbourhood like stray dogs. Needless to say, it wasn't exactly the way he expected to end the day.

"Do you still want to fight, peace of shit?!"

Luke Cage approached one of the fleas, whipping a punch with the force of a locomotive.
The giant insect staggered backwards, crashing into a metal fence like a missile on a bamboo screen. He shredded the canopy of an old sports car and finished its race against a minivan parked nearby.

Luke jumped after another flea, covering six meters with every leap he made.

"Come on!" he shouted. "You and me, little freak! That's what you wanted, right?"

He threw a motorcycle into the air and the animal was forced to jump backwards to avoid it.

A quartet of fleas grasped the hero's arms with their teeth. Luke didn't even get upset and shattered the jaws of the insects as if they were made of paper, throwing the bodies away.

Then, he tore off the axle of a vehicle and used it as a club. He twirled it around him, but one of the arthropods grabbed it at the end. A quick move and the steel bar broke against the man's face.

The insect leapt forward, landing it and preparing to bite Luke's head. However, just before it could do that, a black blur sent the animal straight against the window of a skyscraper.

Luke dilated his pupils in surprise, taking a step backward. At the same time, the figure of Jessica Jones landed in front of him with a leap, her face adorned with an amused smile.

"You've become slow", the woman commented.

"And you smell of alcohol", Luke replied, with a roll of his eyes.

It was typical of Jessica to try in every way to prick others at the first opportunity. One of the main reasons she didn't have many friends, but deep down he knew this was exactly what she was aiming for. That's why they broke up ...

Freeing the head of those thoughts, he realized that his old lover was not alone. Next to her was a guy slightly younger than her, with brown hair and very similar clothing.

"Who is he?" the protector of Harlem asked, pointing to the newcomer.

Jessica raised an eyebrow, glancing quickly at her drinking buddy. Had he really followed her this far? Honestly, she had almost forgotten about him, even though she did her best to hide it.

"Ford, Luke. Luke, Ford", she said after a moment of silence, pointing to the respective men.

"Hi", the young man greeted, while Luke just gave him a nod.

Then, the protector of Harlem turned his attention to Jessica.

"Do you know what's going on?"

"I was hoping you could explain that to me", she replied, crossing both arms in front of her chest.

The man let out a discontented sigh.

"I'm groping in the dark. The storm came about an hour ago, there was a roar, and then these things came out of nowhere", he said, pointing to the flea corpses he had killed.

Jessica assimilated the information in the back of her mind.

"Where did the roar come from?" she asked suddenly.

Luke seemed to think over it, before pointing to a specific part of the city.

"It seemed close to the centre. Times Square, probably", he said with a vaguely convinced tone.

Jessica turned her head towards Ford and put her hands on his shoulders.

"Do you have a place to go?" she asked seriously, while the guy blushed because of the proximity to the woman.

He nodded quickly, receiving a satisfied smile from the detective.

"Then good luck", Jessica said, passing him and proceeding to head towards the centre of New York.

Ford stared at her incredulously. "Wait, and where are you going?"

"To Times Square", the detective replied, without even turning around.

Ford glanced quickly at Luke. He simply shrugged, as if he was used to the impulsive behaviour of that strange woman.

Then, without even giving the man time to argue, he started following her.


XXXX


Quake held both hands forward, generating a mighty sonic wave that hit whatever it encountered in its path, from the cars to the road surface. Wanda did the same with her powers, and the two attacks met in mid-air.

The resulting shock wave spread to the top of the buildings that surrounded them, manifesting themselves in a shower of sharp glass and shards. Quake dodged backwards to avoid them, while the opponent simply summoned a telekinetic shield from above, which stopped the advance of falling debris.

"Wanda, I don't want to hurt you", Quake said, putting herself in a defensive position.

In response, Scarlet Witch's eyes flashed yellow. Then, the woman held her right hand forward, making a rapid movement with her wrist.
At the same time, a total of four cars flew in the direction of Quake. The Avenger raised her arms and generated another sonic wave, reducing the vehicles to a pile of scrap metal.

She turned, just in time to put down a telekinetic punch by the adversary.

"Ok, bad choice of words", she muttered through clenched teeth, while her feet began to sink into the road surface.

Scarlet Witch didn't respond and began to target Quake with a flurry of kicks and punches, all accompanied by an intense red glow. Each of those strokes, combined with the woman's powers, were the equivalent of a racing bike, and Daisy was forced to appeal to every ounce of her strength to brake them.

"Wanda, that thing is controlling you!" she shouted, avoiding a punch that generated several cracks on the asphalt. "Wake up!"

But the Scarlet Witch remained silent, continuing to attack her as if she no longer wanted to do anything else.

At one point, Quake managed to grab her wrist, lowering her head and hitting her with a powerful straight kick to the stomach. The blow, combined with a weaker sound wave, sent the opponent against a bus that was about ten meters from the couple.

The impact pushed the vehicle towards a lamppost, destroyed its windows and deformed the aluminium cover.

Quake smiled satisfied. However, that victorious expression was very short-lived.

Wanda rose from the ground as if nothing had happened, surrounded by an intense red aura. Around her, debris and pieces of metal began to twirl like plastic bags.
The Avenger swallowed hard.

"Er ... sorry?" she said with an embarrassed tone.

And then, Wanda threw the bus at her, sending her to the adjacent neighbourhood.

A little further on, Ghidorah was looking at the fight with an amused air.

Internally, it found itself impressed by the fighting skills and power of that Wanda Maximoff. Perhaps, after completing what it had come to this dirty planet for, it would have brought her with it. A preventive workforce, like those parasites that followed it like flies.

But this was certainly not the time to dwell on such thoughts. With the defenders of the Earth now occupied, the moment it had awaited had finally come.
"Are you ready, my brothers?" the middle head asked, facing the other two.

The right one nodded resolutely, while the left head chuckled enthusiastically, snapping its forked tongue.

The middle head smiled satisfied. Then the dragon spread both its wings.

The storm that hovered over New York seemed to grow in intensity, while numerous thunder and lightning bolts began to flash from everywhere, enveloping buildings, people and anything that was so unfortunate to be on their way.

"Here comes the thunder", the monster whispered, releasing a roar from another world. A cry that seemed to come from the darkest meanders of hell itself, accompanied by the cold laughter of the reaper.

And as the earth began to tremble ... the beast let out a war cry that rang throughout the length of that now devastated city.
"We are the storm! We are ... DEATH!"


XXXX


To better understand what would have happened on the whole planet shortly after, a little science lesson is needed first.

Basically, it is possible to say that the Earth is made up of three essential parts. Starting from the inside, in fact, we have the Core containing iron and nickel, which constitutes the main component of the Earth's Gravitational Field.

Then the mantle wraps it, which has a very high viscosity, and finally the outermost layer, known as Crust.
The most superficial part of the mantle and the crust constitute what is defined as the lithosphere, which in turn flows over a partially melted layer of the underlying mantle called the asthenosphere.

Then there are two types of crust: the continental one, which is thick (about 30 km deep), and the oceanic one, which is thinner than the previous one but heavier (about 10 km deep).

The Lithosphere, however, is not a unique and continuous envelope, but is made up of several pieces that interact with each other. In fact there are diverging margins, where two pieces, or rather two plates, diverge. And near these areas, known as the mid-ocean ridges, new crust is produced continuously due to the rise and subsequent solidification of the mantle below, which dates back along this chasm.

In addition to these margins, there are also those defined as convergent where, on the contrary, the two plates collide like those electric machines typical of city fairs.

When an oceanic plate collides with a continental one, the oceanic plate will always end badly, while the continental one will be saved. In the case of two oceanic plates ... one of the two will sink, generating a sudden displacement of warm water towards the surface of the sea and leading to the creation of so-called anomalous waves, or tsunamis.

Put simply, when the new crust is born it is very light, and like all young people it thinks to be immortal. Unfortunately, sooner or later the age begins to make itself felt and the poor unfortunate crust becomes colder and denser, so much so that the underlying mantle on which it flows can no longer support it, and therefore goes 'in subduction'.

Near mid-ocean ridges, precisely at the point where the plates subduct, in contact with the rocks of the crust, seawater can enter, and this causes their alteration.
The altered rocks become hydrated, and when they reach a certain depth (due to the sinking plate) they release the water they contained, letting it flow in the mantle in which they are immersed.

In doing so, the coat hydrates, and its melting point is lowered, thus generating the phenomena of magmatism eruptions and seismic shocks.

The Pacific Rim was one of the main outlet points for this phenomenon, 'decorated' by volcanic systems and earthquakes that illuminated the subducting oceanic plate, forming the so-called Ring of Fire. But these environmental disasters were limited to rather isolated areas, and didn't pose a danger to local populations.

All this was possible thanks to the Earth's Gravitational Field, which prevented the plates from floating on the mantle and continually changing the planet's external structure.
But when Ghidorah launched that defiant roar, exactly at 6:00 pm in New York City, it didn't do it just to show off. No, because the monster began to change the gravity of the planet it had chosen as its next meal, with devastating consequences.

All over the world a disaster was underway. Suddenly the decomposed hydrates of methane present in the North Seas – that until recently were stable ice extensions that slipped into the bottom sediments - collapsed on themselves.

For a stretch of one hundred and fifty kilometres, the frozen bond of water and methane turned into an explosion of gas.

While seismographs all over the world recorded the landslide of the various escarpments, magma opened its way to freedom, blowing up the vertical walls, tearing pieces of rock, making the whole planet tremble like a pressure cooker. And the tectonic plates began to float.

Within seconds, kilometres of debris and lava collapsed.

In a monstrous chain reaction, the masses slipped on each other, breaking through the last still solid structures and turning them into mud.

The Ring of Fire, with its hundreds of external and submarine volcanoes, exploded with a cacophony of explosions equal to 2000 atomic bombs fired simultaneously by the stratosphere.

Millions of tons of mud, magma and rubble collapsed on the borders of the other plates.

When the first offshoots of the magma reached California, on the seismic fault between Los Angeles and San Francisco, there were no more barriers, but there was only a free mass that precipitated more and more, devastating everything that had shape and structure just a few seconds before.

Part of the plate headed west, and finally stopped against the benches surrounding the Pacific plate, destroying both cities with an earthquake of at least 9.8 degrees on the Richter scale, the largest ever recorded in human memory.

In Norway, part of the Salvina was divided along the rise between Iceland and the European continent. Most, however, advanced on the canal between the United Kingdom and Shetlands, like a giant slide. Nothing managed to stop it, which resulted in numerous tsunamis.

In Indonesia, the situation was even worse. The same abyssal basin that thousands of years before had welcomed the birth of the Mariana Trench, was now filling up with tons and tons of magma and methane that had come out of the seabed, which were moving unstoppable upwards at an unimaginable speed.

At the same time, the Continental Hoof collapsed. It was simply torn away over a hundred kilometres wide. And this also led to the eruption of Mount Fuji, Japan.
In less than 30 minutes, at least 10 million people had already died.


XXXX


Inside the SHIELD D base in Nevada, the situation was certainly not the best.

The various screens that made up the command headquarters began to glow red, while the ground beneath everyone's feet began to tremble.

The alarms sounded like if they went crazy, while sparks and pieces of concrete fell from the ceiling.

"What the hell is going on?!" Fury exclaimed, keeping to the edges of the tactical table to avoid falling.

Beside him, Maria was not doing better.

"We don't know, sir! Seismic shocks have been detected all over the world!" the woman said, starting to slide the laptop she held in her hands. "Tokyo, Los Angeles, Beijing, Rome, Hawaii ... they are everywhere!"

The man started to ask for more information, but at that precise moment the phone in his jacket pocket started ringing. A low and rhythmic music, like the one used by the first satellite phones of the 90s.

He knew the number that was calling him: it belonged to Erik Selvig, the head of the scientific section of SHIELD.

Without wasting time, Fury brought the device to his right ear, plugging the other to block the cacophony of sounds and screams that was echoing throughout the room. "Selving?"

"Fury, thank goodness!" a very familiar voice answered on the other end of the line. And it didn't belong to Selvig.

"Doctor Foster?" he asked incredulously. "Why do you have Selvig's phone?"

"Selvig is dead, sir", the woman said, surprising the spy.

"How did it happen?"

"We had been sent to investigate a meteor that fell in Alaska and ... and ... I don't know, something attacked the base camp, killed Selvig ..."

"This 'thing' seemed by chance to come directly from the Hobbit?" Fury interrupted her.

There was a short pause.

"How do you know that?"

"Let's just say that it's not shy at all", the man muttered, glancing quickly at the screens and alarms on the base.

He heard the woman swallowing on the other end of the line.

"It doesn't matter, I didn't call you for this. Do you know what's going on all over the world?"

"A 4D version of 2012? Yes, we noticed it", Fury sarcastically replied. At that precise moment, a strong seismic shock struck the building, and the Director found himself on the ground.

The man cursed, while Jane started talking again.

"I think I know the cause."

"Explain", Fury ordered, using the table to get up. He noticed that Maria had managed to keep up despite the power of the impact. God, he was getting old.

"Whatever that monster is ... I think it's reversing the gravity of the planet. My instruments are detecting gravitational lines that start directly from the meteorite and reach New York, wrapping the entire planet like a net. And this is causing a reversal of the polarity of the Earth's Gravitational Field, with consequent landslide of the plates that make up the Crust. And it's only the beginning!"

"And what will happen once it has completed the work?" the director asked, with a background of resignation.

The answer came quickly ... and predictable.

"The earth will collapse on itself… and nothing will remain of us but dust in the void of space."


XXXX


The tsunami generated by the landslide of the Pacific plate travelled at first in all directions at a speed that reached seven hundred kilometres per hour, with very long and low ridges. Only the first wave carried a million tons of water and a corresponding amount of energy.

After a few minutes, it reached the edge of the continental shelf.

The seabed, which became more flat, slowed the wave and slowed down its front, without however reducing the energy transported. The masses of water continued to push forward and, as the speed had decreased, they began to overlap. The lower the seabed became, the more the tsunami rose, while the length of its waves shrank dramatically.

The waves of a storm rode on their crests. By the time the tsunami reached the first drilling platforms on the North American mainland, the speed had dropped to four hundred kilometres per hour, but it had become fifty meters high.

Fifteen meters were not enough to worry these structures excessively. At least as long as it was normal storm waves.

But the waves that spread from the Pacific seabed to the surface of the water, accompanied by mountains of debris, had the impact effect of a jumbo jet and detached them from the foundations.

A few minutes later, the wave reached the Alaskan coast, high enough to cross the tree line.

Jane, who still had Selvig's cell phone in her ear, saw the huge body of water proceeding relentlessly in her direction.

"Oh my God", she whispered with a low voice, dropping the communication device.

For those who lived near the sea, a tsunami was a real nightmare. If the earth shook, control was usually lost. The material was deformed and torn. There were mass escapes and fires. If an earthquake made a city vibrate, one could only hope that nothing worse happened, that the seabed would not sink and collapse, that the buildings anchored to the ground would hold up.

But immediately after the shock there was another problem against which there was nothing to do. Just nothing. And that problem was reaching the meteorite impact site at a speed of three hundred kilometres per hour.

Jane saw it approach and understood that there was no more hope. She turned and fled the area like a hare.

It all happened quickly.

She stumbled and fell because of the ground made slippery by the storm. Instinctively she clung to a broken trunk.

An infernal noise exploded behind her, a series of roars and rumble, as if the world around her was about to collapse.

She felt the first drops of water wet her face ... the air flowing through her hair ... the whipping of the wind ...Wait ... the wind?

Why wasn't she drowning? The wave was just a few meters away from her, she should have been underwater by now. Perhaps the power of the impact had killed her instantly. Was she already dead? But then why could she feel cold?

She opened his eyes ... and stopped. She was in the arms of a man she thought she would never see again.

Thor Odinson had shorter hair than she remembered, and the thick golden beard with which she had known him with was now dark and shabby, stained by time. What remained unchanged were the eyes, blue like the sky itself.

Looking down she realized that they were flying. The tsunami had completely submerged the area, and now the immense mass of salt water was carrying tree trunks and debris below them.

She huddled around the body of the Asgardian, trying not to think of all those poor people who were in the surrounding villages, probably all dead. There was no escaping from a disaster of this magnitude.

Then the woman heard a low and rhythmic hiss, followed by a moan and the sound of bulkheads being opened. Like a plane about to embark.

A few seconds later, both she and Thor passed through the opening of an aircraft, finding themselves on a bridge.

The god released her gently, allowing her to take a few steps back. Then, the astrophysicist looked up at her saviour.

"Jane", Thor greeted, his face adorned with a placid smile.

Her reaction was instantaneous.

"Thor!" she exclaimed happily, jumping on the man and wrapping both arms around his neck. "I don't think I've ever been so happy to see you like in this moment!"

Initially surprised, the Asgardian affectionately returned the gesture. At least until he heard a loud cough behind him.

Both quickly broke away from each other.

Nebula was the one who made that sound, and was flanked by the rest of the guardians.

Jane quickly became aware of their rather bizarre features, but didn't dwell too much on it. After all, she had read their files like any member of SHIELD.

"So, don't you want to introduce me to your friends?" she asked hesitantly, noting that the blue alien was staring at her much more intensely than the others.

"Who is she?" Nebula said at the same time, narrowing her eyes in Thor's direction.

Unaware of the tense atmosphere that hovered in the cabin, the god of thunder merely patted the back of the astrophysicist.

"My companions, this is Jane, an old friend."

"Ex girlfriend", she added, with an embarrassed smile.

Thor chuckled as Nebula's right hand moved much closer to the knife she carried in her belt. Quill was the only one to notice, and took a few steps away from the cyborg.

"Yeah, a kind of girlfriend", the Asgardian agreed, giving Jane an affectionate smile.

The woman blushed intensely.

Nebula seemed ready to launch her out of the ship, but was promptly stopped by Rocket's voice.

The raccoon had a holographic tablet in his hands, with rusty edges, but still functional.

"If you are done with the competition of looks ..." the genetic experiment said, showing the screen of the device to the group, "I think I've located our giant friend."


XXXX


Like most cities in North America, New York was not located near any seismic zone. For this reason, the effects caused by the sudden landslide of the various plates were minimal, even if the metropolis was still hit by a shock strong enough to shake even the tallest skyscrapers.

Ghidorah observed the devastation caused with a satisfied smile. Then, closing their eyes, the three heads began to expand their telepathic field, the same one they had used a few minutes earlier to take control of Wanda's mind.

"Listen to me, inhabitants of this world", the middle head began, whose deep and malevolent voice was heard by every person or animal present on Earth. "This is a message, a message for every man, woman and child: you have lost yourselves, but I have come to you. The harvest day...has arrived."

He paused to allow its new audience to accept the extraneous presence within their minds.

"'Jormungand', 'Apophis', 'Ghidorah' ... they call me many names, in my long life. I was born from death! I was there to create the spark and feed the flame of the universe, to spin the wheel of countless civilizations. And when the forests were cleared to thrive again, I was there to set it on fire!" it exclaimed, baring its teeth in a chilling smile. "All your palaces, all your cities, all your skyscrapers and your temples will collapse ... and the dawn of a new liberation will rise from their ashes. And you will not be able to do anything to prevent what is coming."

The creature drank from the terror and dismay that it perceived from the minds it was touching, an indistinct mass of many small lights trapped in the void that was its cruel soul.

"This message has one reason, one reason only: to those with the greatest powers ... don't hinder me. For all of you ... the time to die has come", it whispered, ready to break the connection.

At that precise moment, a green blur appeared in the beast's vision, landing on the top of a building that was a few meters away. The three heads spun around, pointing in unison towards the newcomer.

It was the strangest human being they had ever seen. Small compared to them, of course, but at least three times the size of a normal human. And it was green as the grass of a freshly pruned field.

"No ... now it's time to SMASH!" Bruce Banner said, clapping both hands against each other.

And before Ghidorah could argue ... the Avenger known as the Hulk leapt into the air, hitting the monster.


XXXX


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BOOM! I hope you liked it.

In the next chapter, Hulk vs Ghidorah. And yes, the power that Ghidorah is using to destroy the planet is from the anime version.