As soon as the fresh portal was opened, it was clear to see the carnage that was happening up close. A heavy gust of wind swept through the chamber of Kamar Taj, leaving them unsteady on their feet. Most of them had seen nothing like it, and those who had weren't especially looking forward to experiencing it again. They were only given a snapshot of what was going on, a red storm swarming the streets in ferocious waves. Cars were flying around in front of them, crashing heavily in all sorts of angles. One would have flown right towards them if it hadn't been for Wong's quick thinking, swatting it away with a practised move of his hand. Even still, the Doctor put herself in front of Yaz as if she would be able to protect her from the impact.
Kamala stepped forward, refusing to back down. "Why is this happening? Why would she attack the city?"
"I don't know," Wong replied grimly. "But she's the only one capable of producing such an event."
"So the rumours were true then? She's turned dark? No wonder they were removing all of her merchandise from the shops. They knew that something like this could happen."
The sorcerer held up his hands. "No one could have predicted that this would happen. This isn't like her."
"I think the evidence is pointing to the contrary, mate," Dan argued.
"It's true that Wanda was led down a dark path by the Darkhold, a mystical book that has the power to warp even the strongest of minds. But she rid herself of that influence! I saw it happen. She regretted the damage she'd caused. This doesn't fall in line with the woman we left behind."
"I'm someone who should be holding a grudge against her," America said. "She hunted me down after all, wanting to take my powers from me. But she was only doing that for her children. Like Wong says…something about this doesn't feel right. Not to mention that I was under the impression that she died."
Kamala's eyes widened. "She did?"
Wong nodded his head. "Or so we were led to believe. She destroyed Mount Wundagore, the last remaining site of the Darkhold, and brought it down upon herself. But perhaps that wasn't enough to kill her, as evidenced by her presence in San Francisco."
"But if that wasn't enough to get rid of her, then what is?" Layla wondered, really wishing she had her powers at the moment.
"There's only one way to find out," Carol said, before her face was covered by her distinctive mask and she flew through the open portal, straight into the chaos.
Wong groaned. "I really wish she hadn't done that. This will require a tactical approach. None of us, not even the Captain, can defeat her on our own."
"I guess Carol is still getting used to the whole 'working on a team' concept," Kamala reasoned.
"I was afraid that was going to be the case, yes."
"What are we standing around for?" Shang-Chi asked. His rings were back on his arm, already starting to glow. It was amazing to see the transformation he went through now that he was required to be the superhero, instead of the awkward young man he usually was. "That's my home she's destroying. The more time we spend chatting, the more people that are going to die."
"The kids right," Marc agreed, marching towards the portal. "I don't care if this Wanda was one of the good guys at one point. She's causing a lot of harm to innocent people, and that can't be allowed to happen. Khonshu's entire purpose is to stop this sort of thing from happening." He glanced back. "Layla, I know you're not going to like this, but you're going to have to stay behind."
"I was worried you were going to say that," the woman grumbled.
"Unless you want to have a chat with Taweret…otherwise I'll just be focusing on protecting you when there's other people who need my help."
Layla gave him a small smile, at least pleased to see that his own personality was more able to fight off Khonshu's influence since they'd separated. "Be careful out there."
"I'm really wishing that you didn't bring these people onto my doorstep. I was doing fine, taking a break from this sort of thing." He shook his head before he and Shang stepped through, immediately getting picked up by the tidal waves of magical energy.
The Doctor stepped forward. "I guess this is going to be fun."
Wong looked at her in alarm, placing a hand on her chest. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Helping everyone else."
"You don't have any powers!"
"I don't need any! I've faced plenty of threats in my time without superpowers. But people are in trouble, and I never refuse that call. You'll find that I'm surprisingly durable. You said that we need a tactical approach. I'm exactly the sort of person you want for that then."
"Mate, you're not going to be able to persuade her otherwise," Dan told him. "She's incredibly stubborn when it comes to things like this."
"When I joined a superhero team, I didn't exactly think I'd be thrown into the deep end this early on," Kamala commented. "I've been fangirling over Wanda for years, and now I'm expected to fight her."
America wrapped an arm around her. "Let me tell you, it's even worse than it sounds. A punched her through a multiversal opening and she didn't even get a scratch."
"You're really building up my confidence."
Yaz was ready to charge towards the portal. "There's no point hanging around then…"
"Woah, woah, woah!" It was the Doctor's turn to block her path. "Not a chance!"
"What? If you're going, I definitely am. I'm not letting you face this on your own."
"I won't be on my own. I'll have plenty of support from people who are less fragile than you."
"Fragile?" Yaz practically recoiled at her words as if she'd been slapped. "I've told you numerous times before…I'm with you until the very end. That includes stuff like this."
"My duty is to protect you more than anything else. If you step one foot out there, you'll be swept away in an instant. I'm not going to let that happen. Please, Yaz, stay here. For me."
"No."
The Doctor had apparently expected that to work. "What?"
"You're not leaving me again. I've made that mistake before. I've allowed you to face death on your own, and it was one of my biggest regrets. I won't go through it a second time. We either do this together, or we both stay here."
"I guess that means I don't have a choice."
Yaz saw her nod her head at Dan but didn't realise what it meant until it was too late. She felt Dan edge closer, just as the Doctor began to step away. He had his arms around her before she could process what was happening. With one last, mournful look, the Doctor was walking through the portal, doing her best to ignore Yaz's strained shouts as she attempted to free herself from Dan's grasp. Kamala and America looked between them all, wondering what to do, before choosing to follow the Time Lord. Wong was the last to leave, closing the portal behind him with a final, curt nod of his head.
"No!" Yaz shouted. "No!" Only now did Dan let her go, watching her fling herself to where the magical entrance had been. "Why?" She collapsed to the ground, turning her head to look at Dan. "Why did you do that?"
"Because she was right," he replied calmly, far too laid back for her liking. "You'd only get yourself hurt by going there. And what could you realistically bring to the table in that situation, other than being someone else to think about? It's safer for you to be there."
"I don't care about being safe! What's important is helping people! I can't do that by staying here, locked away."
"It's that sort of attitude that's going to get you killed one day!" Yaz had very rarely heard Dan shout, especially when it was aimed at her. He ran a weary hand across his face. "That's what the Doc's worried about. You keep pushing yourself, taking things to the extreme. She can't look after you forever and, one day, it's going to go too far. You'll get seriously hurt, or worse. She's not pushing you to the sidelines or anything like that. She's saving your life and I'm damn well not going to apologise for helping her do that. No matter how much you hate me as a result."
"That's the second time you've had to drag me away from getting to her," she said, some of the anger slowly dissipating, though there was a growing pile of spite in the pit of her stomach. "The first time was just before she was transformed into a Weeping Angel, and I didn't get to see her for years after that."
"Do you want me to apologise for that?" he asked with a shrug. "Because you wouldn't have survived that experience either. You should be thanking me."
Yaz laughed harshly. "Thanking you? Do you really want me to hit you?"
"If that's what it takes to stop you acting like an idiot, then yeah."
She pushed herself up, walking up to him dangerously. "Do you not even care that she's put herself in that situation and we may never see her again?"
"That was her choice to make."
"I deserved the same choice then! But you took that away from me!"
"The Doctor will be alright." Dan risked putting his hands on her shoulders, but she didn't resist as much as he'd expected. "She knows what she's capable of, and knows when to leave it to other people. It's not as if she's on her own. She's surrounded by literal superheroes."
"If she gets hurt and I'm not there to prevent that, then I will never forgive you."
"Okay. I'll just comfort myself with the knowledge that, if you'd gotten hurt and I could have stopped that from happening, then I never would have forgiven my self. I guess we both can't win at the end of the day."
"What do we do now then?" Yaz asked, feeling defeated. "I can't keep moping around. There's absolutely no way that I can reach them. They're on the other side of the world, and we don't have a sorcerer supreme who can get us there, or a working Tardis."
"If I might interject…" Layla stepped forward, smiling sheepishly. "...sorry. I didn't think I was supposed to talk during that. It seemed rather personal…"
"I'm glad you said it," Katy quipped. "God, that was awkward. I was doing my best to blend in with the surroundings. Like, standing really still so that you wouldn't notice me during that…whole thing."
"Sorry about that," Yaz said guiltily, having almost forgotten that they were there too. "Were you going to suggest something, Layla?"
"I think our best shout is to find a tv and stick the news on," the woman suggested. "At least then we can get a live feed of what's going on. We'll be able to see if they're facing really big problems, and that's when we might have to intervene."
"How would we be able to remotely help?" Dan wondered sceptically. "If you hadn't noticed, all I'm good for is making funny quips every so often. I can't turn invisible. I haven't got super strength. I can't fly."
Layla arched an eyebrow. "But I can. I'd just need to pop back to Egypt."
"If you haven't noticed, we've been left in the mountains of Nepal," Katy pointed out.
"And Wong isn't here to teleport us wherever we want to go," Yaz added.
"Haven't you been looking around?" Layla had her hands on her hips as she spoke, as if she were disappointed in them. "There are plenty of other sorcerers here, who could be convinced to lend us a helping hand. But only if things get really bad."
"They're facing some sort of all powerful witch, right? Who's terrorising an entire city? I don't think things can get much worse."
"How are we supposed to convince these people to help us?" Dan was always coming up with problems rather than solutions. "I reckon they must have sworn obedience to Wong or something, and they won't break that sort of promise."
"I can be extremely persuasive," Katy said, moving her hips in what she thought was an enticing manner.
Dan raised his eyebrows. "Good luck with that. Because I'm definitely not flirting with that walking, talking bull I saw earlier."
xxxxxxxxxxx
As much as the Doctor was adamant that she'd made the right choice in leaving Yaz behind, she was now most definitely second guessing her decision to join the team in San Francisco. It wasn't that she was frightened. It was just that it was incredibly difficult to keep her footing as she shielded herself against the red haze. She was currently clinging onto a lamppost, her arm wrapped tightly against the metal pole. That was until it was uprooted from its spot on the pavement, joining the other objects flying through the air. She was forced to dive for cover, its wiry tendrils almost slashing her across her face. If she arrived back at Kamar Taj with giant scars, there was no telling how irate Yaz would become.
The others had quickly charged into battle, with very little visible success. The Doctor had already spotted Moon Knight being tossed across the street, wincing when he'd crashed into one of the large windows of a nearby apartment block. Shang Chi had only managed to survive a big fall thanks to the timely intervention of his mystical rings, though the force they exuded had left a shallow crater in the middle of the road. The Doctor was sure that the city council wouldn't mind too much if they were able to stop this threat from growing any larger.
Wong was showing a high degree of flexibility that she hadn't expected from the Sorcerer Supreme, flipping over a few tendrils of magic that threatened to attack him. He managed to land skilfully on his feet, skidding to a halt just in front of the Doctor. A golden shield appeared above his head just as some slabs of pavement came raining down, thankfully being directed away from where she was crouching. She really needed to learn how to do that; it would be a handy trick in every sort of deadly situation she usually found herself in.
"How are you doing?" Wong asked, having to shout over the noise of the destruction.
"Splendid!" the Doctor replied with more than a hint of irony. "This is exactly how I wanted my day to go."
She watched as Kamala jumped through the air, using platforms that she was creating with her own crystalline powers. The young girl was doing well to dodge the worst parts of the storm, but then the front end of a town car was surging towards her, and it was only down to the hasty shield that she was able to produce that stopped her from taking the blunt force of it. Even so, she was sent spiralling towards the ground, eventually sent rolling away to safety thanks to one of Wong's portals. The sorcerer was already looking tired after using up so much of his energy.
"Remember when I said that we needed to approach this as a united force?" Wong queried grumpily. "No one's listening to those instructions!"
America tried to punch her way through a particularly thick section of the magical build-up, only to be thrown backwards by the aftershock. The Doctor could barely watch as she picked herself back up again. "It's starting to look as if even a team effort won't be enough."
"Wanda's chaos magic is incredibly resistant to my own. I can barely fight against it. Most of my actions have been ones of defence, rather than attack."
"I thought you were supposed to be the most powerful sorcerer!"
"A title that I'm very proud to own, but Wanda is much greater than that. The whole point is that she's better than this. None of this makes sense."
"Do we still not know what her plan is? What does she want with the city? Is it as simple as wanting to destroy it? To kill everyone?"
"She never wanted to do that. I know her personally, Doctor. She's not the sort of person to kill unless she had a personal reason."
The Doctor was forced to move out of the way of an out-of-control bin. "I'm going to start taking it pretty personally if she throws one more thing at me!"
Carol landed heavily in front of them. She'd been able to travel to space and back without breaking sweat, so it was rather troubling to see her haggard and out of breath now. "I can't get through to her. Literally. She's forticated herself with her own magic. At a guess, I'd say it's like she doesn't want to be seen."
"Maybe out of shame? Maybe she doesn't want to do this? Could someone be controlling her?"
"It'd take an almighty sort of power to control her," Wong commented.
"The fact of the matter is that we can't get close to her." The Captain was shaking her head. She wasn't quite defeated yet but she was on the path to that end result. "Even with the amount of force I can use, I'm just bouncing off her."
The Doctor crossed her arms. "Right then…let's get our thinking caps on. If we can't stop her right now, what's our first port of call?"
"Protect as many people as we can from her. We need to get everyone away from the street and out of the buildings. There's no telling how many lives she could end just by bringing one of the towers down. If she started doing that, I don't think I'd be able to stop it."
"Then it's a good job that I decided to come with you." The Doctor triumphantly held the sonic screwdriver aloft, scanning the area. "The magic is interfering with the sonic's capabilities, but it's still giving me some fairly accurate readings on the local life signs. I think quite a lot of people must have run away already…I'm not going to think about the alternative reason behind there being so few signals. But they're concentrated in that complex across the street." She pointed her hand to an unappealing brown building.
"The door has been completely blocked," Wong pointed out after a closer inspection. "They must all be trapped inside."
"I'm on it!" Kamala shouted, bounding over in her embiggened form.
"Was anyone going to tell me that she can do that?" Carol asked, watching the girl with wide eyes.
"We like to save some information for surprises," Wong said, watching Kamala start to lift rubble from the doorway. America was soon by her side, removing the debris that was being left behind and prying the doors open.
"Now they've got that sorted, we need to be able to talk to Wanda," the Doctor instructed, taking charge of the situation. Neither of the people beside her were used to falling into that dynamic, usually controlling things themselves. "Perhaps if we can get to her eye level. The only way we can prevent this from getting worse is if we can speak to her."
"Are you sure that she's going to listen?" Carol asked, her arms crossed, clearly doubtful of that happening.
"I don't know. What I do know is that I'll always give people the chance to change their minds, to make amends. That doesn't change with whatever universe I find myself in."
"We could potentially communicate with her on that rooftop," Wong suggested, gesturing to one of the tallest buildings on the street. "But it'd leave us in a more vulnerable and compromising position."
"We've got to take that risk. Just don't tell Yaz how dangerous this is, otherwise I'll never hear the end of it."
The Doctor was still getting used to the ease of travel they had, with one portal allowing them to step onto the desired rooftop. The wind was even wilder up there, despite the magical storm mainly affecting the street far below. It was a good job that the Doctor wasn't scared of heights, though she should have been with some of the fates she'd suffered from. Wong was quickly moving to the very edge of the building, cupping his mouth to amplify his voice.
"Wanda!" he yelled desperately. "What are you doing? Why are you doing this? This isn't like you!"
There was no response and the Doctor sighed. "Either she can't hear us, which wouldn't surprise me with what's going on, or she's choosing to ignore us. Which also wouldn't be the most shocking news today."
"Maybe we can create a pathway," the Captain suggested, once again landing next to them. She'd picked up Marc along the way, who didn't look too pleased about being carried. Shang was more than grateful that he'd been able to use the rings to get himself there instead.
"If we focus our powers, that might just be possible," Wong agreed. "We could cut through her magic just enough to expose her to us."
"I could help with that," Marc said, trying to earn back some dignity after his unorthodox arrival. "I haven't tried this too much but Khonshu has told me in the past of how I can drain a person's energy through physical contact. I might be able to do that if I touch her magic."
"Is now the best time to be trying it out?" the Doctor wondered.
Moon Knight shrugged. "No time like the present. If I can weaken her even remotely, that should make your job a lot easier."
"Be careful," Wong told him. "And be sure to fortify your mind. Wanda's magic is especially good at tampering one's equilibrium."
"Then it's probably a good job that I've never had the need for that."
His appearance suddenly changed, transforming into a slicker white suit, no longer draped in a cape. "Are you really going to make us do this, Marc?"
Moon Knight returned almost immediately. "We can debate it once it's over, Steven. Let me concentrate. I'm going to need your support as well on this."
Even with his mask on, they could tell he was gritting his teeth. His hand reached out to one of the red tendrils of energy, and he began to yell out in pain as soon as he grabbed hold of it. Marc was brought to his knees but he didn't let go, refusing to give up. The others watched as the brightness of the magic seemed to fade slightly, but only in the small region near him. It seemed to be as good as they were going to get.
Shang acted first, firing his rings at the bubbling ball of energy. Carol followed it up with an attack of her own, a dull chime ringing out as her powers collided with Wanda's. Wong created a few patterns with his hands, building up a particular charm, before he sent it in the same direction. It appeared to imprint itself upon the magic, staying in place for a couple of seconds before fading away. They repeated the cycle repeatedly, increasing the frequency, until the three of them were practically working in unison.
"I think it might be working!" the Doctor told them, bringing her sonic to the closest patch. "The readings are dropping, but only slightly."
"There's a hole forming!" Wong added, just as he was producing yet another spell. "I think…I think I can see her."
"Is she paying us any attention?"
The sorcerer was frowning deeply. "Something's wrong. She looks…different."
Carol wasn't liking the sound of that. "What do you mean?"
"Only the Scarlet Witch could produce a spectacle like this. But it's not Wanda. I've met her plenty of times. I know what she looks like. That's not her."
"Then who is?" Shang asked, growing tired of the repetitive action of using his rings. Each ball of energy he produced was bringing him closer to the point of exhaustion."
"I just told you. It's the Scarlet Witch."
"Okay, you've officially lost me."
"If the boundaries between realities are weakening…"
"...then this doesn't have to be the Scarlet Witch from this universe," the Doctor finished gravely. "It's another one."
"Does that change anything?" Carol wondered. "The way I see it, it's the same person we've got to get rid of."
"It could change everything," Wong declared, the barest of smiles beginning to form on his face. "Because that isn't Wanda, meaning we may have an ace up our sleeve. Because how do you defeat the Scarlet Witch, other than with a Scarlet Witch of your own?"
