Chapter Eighteen
"Are you sure about this Fury!" Reed Richards shouted as he continued to manipulate a half dozen controls on his consoles. Sparks and explosions rang out throughout the Baxter Building and the entire foundation shook to the core. There were wisps of energy and flow currents being released into the air from the excess energy building up in the containment core and The Thing was maxing out his strength threshold in a vain effort to try and stop the overflow. Even in this time of duress, Reed was still impressed by the strength and determination his rocky friend possessed.
"Shut up Richards!" Fury continued to bark as he lit another cigar. Only a man that had seen war like him could stay calm in a situation that could result in the destruction of multiple worlds, "For a genius, Richards, you sure can be stupid as hell sometimes. Fix this thing now Piotr. And I swear to god, I'll fucking blow her head clean off if this goes wrong again." Fury drew a magnum from his coat and aimed it at the diminutive woman sitting in a wheelchair in front of him. The woman in the wheelchair was Wanda Maximoff, otherwise known as the Scarlett Witch, and also currently the most wanted mutant terrorist on Earth.
"You know you'd never get the trigger pulled, Fury, before I dropped you like a stone," Quicksilver said defiantly as he placed a hand on his sister's shoulder.
"Actually, I've neutralized your mutant power, Maximoff. Sorry, Fury's orders," Richards said quietly.
"Just do it kid, we don't have time for this," Fury muttered between a cloud of smoke. Quicksilver leaned in front of his sister and took both of her hands in his.
"Beloved, you have to hear me now," he said as quietly as he could over the roar of the explosions. His voice was no more than a loud whisper. "You have to be strong again sister. The world needs you. I know you've been containing your power after what happened, but I need you to use it again, like Proffessor Xavier has taught you to once more. All this energy, you need to feel it, you need to feed it into Richards' machines and dissipate all of it, only you can do this, you have the strength Wanda, please, for all of us…" Quicksilver paused for what seemed like an eternity, "…for Vision." Quicksilver's words reached Wanda, who had lived in a quasi-coma since she lost total control of her chaos magics. She stood upright out of her wheelchair and raised her arms with the grace of a dancer. The energies of the room swirled and gathered around her like serpents coiling around a post. The colors of them changed, faded, shifted, and combined around her with incredible force and magnitude. The room began to dim as all of the energy from the lights were sucked into the void that was encircling Wanda. Suddenly, there was an incredible flash of energy and light and a small sonic boom exploded through the room. The shockwave knocked everyone to the floor, and when the smoke cleared, Wanda had vanished.
"Wanda!" Quicksilver screamed. Reed stood up and shook the debris from his elongated body and checked his equipment readout screens.
"Energy levels have stabilized. Wanda did it, she successfully rerouted all the excess power building up. However, I didn't calculate what all of that energy channeling would do to her, and I'm not sure exactly what has happened to her," Richards said quizzically.
"You don't know, you son of a bitch Fury!" Quicksilver said violently grabbing Fury's shirt collar. Fury brushed him off and found his cigar amongst the pile of rubble in the laboratory. He relit the cigar, and blew the smoke into Quicksilver's face.
"Crisis averted soldier, she did a damn fine job. I just wonder, when she comes back, and you know she'll be back Maximoff, what will she become and do?" Fury said coldly. Fury glanced at Reed, and Reed touched a button on his console.
"This isn't over Fury," Quicksilver spat as he vanished in a blur of motion.
"It never is boy, it never is."
The Hulk was confused. "Hulk only want to be left alone," the brutish monster thought to himself as he continued to smash everything in his wake. Every blow he rained down caused the Earth to tremble. The Hulk was confused, where was little puny man? Why was puny man flying? Hulk didn't care. Hulk smash. The Hulk continued to level destruction in front of him. Whether it was crushing Madrox multiples or shattering the exoskeletons of Brood drones, the carnage continued. When the giant, towering, imposing menace of Galactus appeared, the Hulk spoke for the first time since emerging from the catacombs below.
"Hulk is the strongest there is! Hulk smash purple man!" The Hulk roared in rage. The Hulk squatted down in a crouching position and summoned up all of his rage. He sprung like a cannonball into the sky, into the stratosphere of the planet. The Hulk flew like a missile into the upper atmosphere towards the head of the mighty Galactus. In one incredible moment of momentum and rage and fury, the Hulk punched Galactus square in the face and caused the massive entity's head to actually twist sideways from the incredible blow.
"Now that was cool," Wolverine muttered to himself as he regained his sense of self. He cursed himself for thanking Magneto from bringing him out of his beserker rage, however, he still wanted a piece of the action around him. Galactus turned his head back to the Hulk, who was pounding away at his chest area. He took one swift motion with his massive hand and swatted the Hulk like a fly back to the planet's surface. The Hulk smashed into the ground, leaving a massive crater surrounding his body. The Hulk, even as impervious as he was, reeled from the destructive blow and began to feel real pain. In that brief moment, it was all the window of opportunity the infinite mind of Charles Xavier needed to get into the green behemoth's head. He used his mind to sooth the beast, to assuage his pain, to lessen his rage and quiet it like a soft blanket. In that instant, the Hulk finally subsided and transformed, leaving in that giant crater a small, thin, weak, and very naked human being. Bruce Banner wiped away the grime from his eyes and looked around himself. He saw millions of Brood insect warriors, millions of the same faced man, Captain America, Namor, Magneto, Wolverine, and the huge shadow cast over himself and the entire landscape by Galactus.
"Well, I'm sure this is going to be one hell of long story," Banner said hoarsely. A few Brood leapt towards him in attack, but the blows never landed as they were intercepted by Captain America's massive shield.
"Welcome back Banner. How do you like your rescue mission?" Cap said as he smashed another Brood insect in the face.
"Oh it's great, Steve, thanks. And um, is that Galactus?" Banner said, pointing up into the sky.
"Yeah, you just punched him in the face," Cap said, deflecting another attacking Brood.
"Cool," mumbled Banner. All of a sudden, the ground burst open and Ghost Rider emerged on a flaming motorcycle. "Wow, Ghost Rider too! This is like a wild acid trip!" Cap looked over at Banner and wondered for a moment if his scientist friend had finally lost it. Ghost Rider circled around Banner and Cap, creating a protective shield of hellfire energy.
"Where's Mephisto?" Cap asked up to the fiery rider.
"Dealt with and gone for now," Ghost Rider said as he used his chain to defend the circle he had made around the two men. "Now let's get the hell off of this rock!" He used his chain to once again summon the others around him and gather them to the forcefield generated by his mystical motorcycle. Once he had the others together, they still had to try and deal with the Madroxes. "Well, I sure as hell can't fit all of them on the bike." Magneto looked at the two Madrox Multiples that were on the bike and the still million some odd more fighting the Brood around them.
"Charles, if you're still there, we could use some help with the Mr. Madroxes,"
Magneto asked. Jamie smiled and a look of calm came over all the Madroxes as the mind of Xavier calmed them, and helped them maximize their power. In a brilliant flash, there was only a single Madrox on the bike.
"Whoa. I feel like I might vomit," Madrox said. He did.
"Gross," muttered Logan as he wiped off the vomit from his legs.
"Hold onto something, we have to go back through Hell to get home," Ghost Rider said. He waved his free hand in front of him and opened up another hell portal to travel through. The gang of heroes vanished into the dark void.
The mighty Galactus reached his two massive arms and buried his hands into the planets' core. As he sucked the energy and resources of the planet into his mighty form, it began to break up around him. The dying screams of the Brood colony shrieked and died into the distant void of space.
