Chapter 8 - To Battle The Very Elements

The Asian Steppes...

Air-Walker's winds intensified as the team sent to deal with the herald tried to take him from all sides; even the two who had planted explosive devices on the tower barely managed to evade the multiple fist constructs he'd created from concentrated air currents. Lightning flashed as Thunderstrike twirled her hammer above herself, while Photon, Enchantress, Darkhawk, and Rescue kept Air-Walker distracted with their own attacks.

"Hey, gasbag! You wanna see a thunderstorm? I'll give you one you'll never forget!" Maria shouted at the herald as she unleashed a powerful lightning bolt on him, having built up quite a charge earlier. The intensity of the bolt actually drew wisps of smoke from Air-Walker as the herald was stunned in place. When Maria finally let up, Air-Walker fell to their knees, and when he looked up at his opponents, it was too late for him to make a move.

"Photon, NOW!" Darkhawk shouted. Sumire swiftly fired off a beam of light from her fingertip denser and hotter than the most powerful lasers built on Earth right at Air-Walker's chest, going right through the herald's core; for some, it brought to mind the battle with Ramiel the Fifth Angel last year, when an energy beam just as powerful was used to take down the crystalline juggernaut. Against this, Air-Walker seemed to solidify for a brief moment, before shattering into pieces, and those pieces then becoming nothing but wisps of air.

Just as the group was about to enjoy their victory, timers went off in Rescue's armor. It didn't take long for Keita to figure out what for.

"Back to the Quinjet! It's gonna blow!" he shouted before he and the others immediately made a beeline for their ride back to Tokyo-3. Just as they got out of the blast radius, the explosives' timers reached zero, and soon the tower was falling apart following their detonation.

As the group eyed the tower's collapse from the Quinjet, Maria made her way to the pilot.

"Captain Armbruster, right?" she asked. "Get us back to Tokyo-3, and step on it."

The volcano site, around the same time...

Firelord twirled his staff about as he unleashed another inferno upon the contingent facing him. Storm flew out of the way, while Quasar erected an energy bubble around herself and Red She-Hulk. Noriko held firm as a seemingly-unstoppable force of flames met the immovable object that was her barrier, until finally the feedback flung her and Ruby into a rock wall behind them, the latter cushioning the former with her sturdier body. Before Firelord could attempt another assault, a shadow fell upon the herald as Stature loomed over him.

"All right, you little firebug, time to go 'squish' now!" Satsuki said as she brought her open hand down upon Firelord, her fingers digging into the ground beneath him. She smirked a little, thinking she'd nailed the herald, only for flames to erupt around her hand. "YEOWCH!" she cried painfully as she abruptly lifted her hand up and quickly dipped it in the ocean nearby. Thankfully, her suit was insulated enough to protect her from third-degree burns, or worse.

Firelord stood up, looking a bit thinner than previously seen, a fact not lost on Ruby as she and Quasar recovered.

"Quasar, get a field around him, quick!" she urged. Noriko, not bothering to ask why, quickly did so and soon encased Firelord in an airtight energy bubble that he struggled to break out of. Ruby then looked up towards Storm. "Storm, try and generate a wind tunnel around the bubble! When I give the word, Quasar'll open a tiny enough hole so it can suck all the oxygen out!"

Mayumi, understanding what Ruby was implying, quickly spun her Raijin Yari and soon a powerful cyclone began to form and descend upon the bubble. Mayumi held it in place while Quasar concentrated to keep her energy bubble intact, until finally, Ruby gave the signal.

"Now!"

On hearing this, Quasar opened a tiny hole, enough for the cyclone to begin sucking the remaining oxygen out of the bubble. Firelord, noticing his chance for escape fading, desperately unleashed a powerful enough burst of fire that broke the bubble, but also burned up whatever oxygen remained, leaving him skinnier and duller in color than before. It also left his reaction time greatly diminished, along with his core visible at the front of his chest.

"Domino! Take the shot!" Ruby shouted.

A smirking Domino then took aim with her custom sniper rifle, got the core dead in her sights, and swiftly pulled the trigger. A loud *CRACK* was heard as an adamantium bullet shot out of the barrel and speeded towards its target. It shattered the core the second it made contact, and Firelord soon dissipated into embers.

"All right, then..." Domino began to say as she looked towards Deadpool. "Time for the fireworks."

Deadpool hefted a powerful-looking rocket launcher until he got into a firing stance. "Might wanna clear out, ladies, 'cause DJ Deapool's gonna bring it down in da hizzouse!" He then took aim at the power couplings on the tower. "Range-200! Target locked, and...BANG!" He pulled the trigger, unleashing a volley of rockets with each pull. "BANG! BANG!" Deadpool laughed giddily as the tower soon rocked with explosions while it collapsed, causing the group to make haste towards the Quinjet that brought them here. Once everyone boarded, it speeded off back towards Tokyo-3, where the real fight would begin...

Former site of the Tokyo Tower, around the same time...

Terrax, a furious grimace on his face, sent wave after wave of rocky artillery at the team opposing him, yet they proved to be capable of plowing through it. She-Hulk's powerful punches reduced a number of them to gravel, as did the Executioner's cutting a swath at first with the weapons he borrowed from the NERV armory and then with his axe, and Spirit and Silver Surfer's respective beam attacks. Misato and Skurge's efforts were enough to clear an opening for Hikari and Rei to turn their beams on Terrax, and they managed to push the herald back a good distance. Undeterred, Terrax twirled his own axe behind him as he wound it into a powerful swing, only for the weapon to be stopped short by a webline from Spider-Woman and Ghost Rider's fiery chain.

"Too slow!" Ritsuko and Asuka both quipped as their combined strength pulled the axe right out of Terrax's grip. The herald was distracted by this long enough for Skurge to swiftly slash at his chest, exposing part of his core in the process. Misato followed this up with a couple more blows that broke away more of his chest armor, before she threw an equally-fast punch right at the core that left a number of cracks in its surface. Misato swiftly moved aside as Captain America dealt the finishing blow with a slam of her shield, shattering the core and reducing the shocked Terrax to rubble.

Skurge took a moment to pick up Terrax's axe, proceeding to carry the weapon on his shoulder; the others regarded him curiously on seeing this. "Spoils of war," he reasoned, which the others decided wasn't worth arguing about at the moment. They then put some distance between themselves and the tower, where soon Mari reiterated her earlier command:

"Once more, with feeling-take the tower down!"

On hearing that, War Machine unleashed his armor's full arsenal, joined by Skurge using a portable rocket launcher and Hikari using her most powerful attack, her 'halo wave', all directed at the large orb that crowned the top of the tower. All made direct hits, and the top exploded, leading to a chain reaction that led to the rest of the tower falling to pieces.

Asuka smirked as she watched the collapse, before turning to Misato. "Okay, we won our game of Jenga-what now?"

"Back to the city," Misato replied as she cracked her knuckles while looking towards Tokyo-3's skyline. "We're going after the big boss."

Central Dogma...

The bridge erupted into cheers as the towering machines came down, but not everyone was celebrating. Yui and Fuyutsuki looked to Aahno, whose expression remained cautious.

"We're not out of the woods yet, are we?" Yui surmised.

"Indeed," Aahno answered with a nod as he looked towards the feed coming from Iron Maiden's armor of the interior of Galactus's ship. "For while the heralds have been brought down, there is still the matter of their master, and defeating him will prove to be more difficult, for he is the ultimate danger-perhaps the final danger..."

To be continued...

**Author's Note(s)**

Once again, a bit light on the Marvel lore allusions, but they should be notable ones.

-With this chapter, I dropped a couple of references to one of Marvel's most successful comics based on a licensed property: G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, which ran for 155 issues under the pen of writer Larry Hama from 1982 to 1994 (the same length as the toyline it was based on). The Captain Armbruster Maria speaks to is based on Ace, the G.I. Joe team's original fighter pilot, while Deadpool's bit with the rocket launcher is a riff on the portrayal of the Cobra villain Metal-Head in the second G.I. Joe cartoon series, which was produced by DIC instead of Marvel's previous partner Sunbow Productions.

-The fictional metal Adamantium debuted in 1969's The Avengers #66 by Roy Thomas, Barry Windsor-Smith, and Syd Shores, where it was presented as being part of the outer chassis of the robotic Avengers villain Ultron. It's more famously known as being the metal bonded to Wolverine's skeleton and claws, as well as being combined into an alloy with another fictional metal, Vibranium, that made up Captain America's shield.

-The last line uttered by Aahno is a variation on one of fellow Watcher Uatu's in 1966's Fantastic Four #48 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Joe Sinnott.