CHAPTER NINE- June 2038

"This is some real Game of Thrones sh—" Tony was interrupted by a dirt zombie, as he dubbed them, lunging to eat his face. "Fresh out of brains. Please come back tomorrow for salisbury steak."

"Only you could look at these things and think of food," Falcon mumbled into his comms, flying high across the battlefield assessing the movements of hundreds, now thousands of temporarily animated bodies.

"Maximoff, you got any dragons?"

"Stark, you're a child," Wanda replied, ripping apart an entire group of demons with her mind and a graceful gesture.

Iron Man flew over to hover in front of her. "It's so nice to be noticed."

Bucky lifted his gun after reloading, back to back with Natasha. "Can I retire yet? I can't take another twenty years of this."

"I swear, Barnes, if you leave me with him…" Nat jumped headlong into a cluster of the evil dirt clods. The bodies broke apart easily enough, but the noise—their howling cries from hell—it was very disturbing. "Oh, god, it got in my mouth," Nat spat.

"This feels like a video-game," Peter Parker exclaimed joyously. "They're not even scary."

"Coming in hot," Rhodes warned, peppering the flank with machine gun fire.

It all seemed so standard, even comfortable. This was their element, sass-fighting, and it made Tony almost happy to relinquish his considerable brain power entirely to wiping out these pitiful foes in the Siberian tundra.

"Anyone else feel that?" Wanda's voice dropped. "Is that an earthquake?"

"Get ready," Nat warned solemnly.

Now he could see it in flight, a visibly rolling, barren field beneath him, and a great hole collapsing in its center, glowing like lava.

"Falcon," Tony yelled, launching to get Wanda out of the way.

"I've got him." Sam Wilson swooped down to grab Spider-Man before the ground fell.

A massive blood-red body emerged from the crevice, thin and stretched to four times the size of a man. A starving form of bone and sinew that rose higher and higher as the earth fell away from the demons he commanded. The shedding revealed faces, souls of those who had left this world.

Surrounding Bucky and Nat were the ghostly victims of their assassinations. Men and women staring blankly at them while closing in. People they had already watched die, people daring them to do it again. Problematic politicians, clinging mistresses, rival businessmen, and one small figure Bucky didn't recognize: a young girl, maybe a teenager. He heard Nat whisper beside him.

"It can't be."

Tony set Wanda down at a safe distance. He turned and began to say "what is that thing—" before he saw it. Maria Stark, his mother, hovered two feet from his face, gossamer and despairing. He could have touched her. "Mom," he breathed.

A flash of blue circled Wanda, slowing to stand in front of her and wink. She tried to keep it together. "It's not real, Stark. They're not real."

The great fiery figure let out a roar, flailing his gangly arms and spiked tail into the air. A hand clipped the EXO-7's wing, crashing Sam and Peter into the ground among a crowd of souls. The mouths of every wraith unhinged and bellowed, amplifying the horrible shriek of their master.

Lightning struck.

"MEPHISTO," Thor called, "you will leave this world and its people alone!"

Satan and his hoard replied with a cry, the specters all turning to attack the God of Thunder.

"I do not ask twice," Thor threatened as the sparks began to dance around his body. The air turned electric, and no sooner had the ghosts sailed into the air to meet him, then the field exploded with light and death.

Author's Note: Sorry for the super short chapter, but I'm rigorously working on the final two chapters of this part: REALITY. The next one is probably gonna be the longest so far because you know how wedding's can be ;) drama drama drama!

Mephisto-from comics