"This is the biggest thing we've faced since we faced Thanos. A lot of you weren't there. There were a lot more of us then. And even then, we lost a lot of good men and women on the battlefield. This could be like that. I can't promise you an easy victory. Hell, I can't promise you we'll win at all. Hydra took down the most advanced civilization in the world in one fell swoop and they've wreaked havoc against the best of us. But we have to try. If we don't try, they'll take over the world, and we'll pay the price. It's now or never, we are the Avengers. If we can't stop the Enchantress nobody can."
Sam addressed his team bravely, trying to put on a good show as they stood upon the grassy hill overlooking New Asgard. At least, what was left of it.
Cassie sucked in a quick breath as she stood between her father and Hope, all dressed in their Ant-Man, Wasp, and Stature uniforms. Kate Bishop opened her bow, raising her head defiantly as Bruce clenched his one good hand, preparing to Smash for the first time in years. Doctor Strange hovered above Wong and the sorcerers they'd been able to scramble together on such short notice. Shuri clenched her jaw as she powered up her blasters, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to spill over at the thought of her lost family. Peter stood nearby, looking at his lock screen, a photo of him, MJ, and his son. A tear slipped down his cheek as he put the phone into his pocket, praying he'd live to see the morning and his family again. Wanda's hands danced red as she swirled her magic, standing between Bucky and Steve, each holding rifles and ready to fight.
"One last fight?" Steve asked as he studied the burning village, looking for their target.
Bucky nodded and cracked his neck, "Then we go home."
"You two could both walk away and go home now. I see inside your mind, it lies elsewhere. You two won't be the difference between winning and losing today. If anything, you're more of a target. The Enchantress wanted you. The Medranos were very clear about that. I read Sam's debriefing." Wanda explained before meeting Bucky's glance. She shrugged, then turned to look at Steve, "I read Sam's mind. He saw the Enchantress. He heard her words. She was looking for you."
Steve groaned, lifting his chin when he finally caught sight of the Enchantress down below, dressed in green with a pointed headpiece that held back her wild white hair. Steve couldn't help but think she looked a bit like his wife used to, which made him regret his decision even more. "Well, I'd hate to disappoint her."
"Instead you'd rather disappoint your wife. Your kids." Bucky droned and Steve shot him an annoyed look, easily looking right over Wanda's head. Her eyes glowed red and a wicked smile broke across Amora's face.
"Let's go. She wants to talk." Wanda interrupted, and began floating down the hill toward the center of time. Steve and Bucky turned to Sam and he put his hand up, telling them to stay behind and keep the perimeter. Captain America led his team into New Asgard, looking around as they did.
Doctor Strange approached Sam and whispered, "Something isn't right. She has dark magic. She doesn't mean to talk."
"What choice do we have? We don't know what we're dealing with." Sam retorted through his teeth as they came to a stop before the Enchantress.
She leaned all her weight against her left hip, looking the Avengers up and down with unimpressed green eyes. "That's it? That's all you brought to defeat me? Well, I have to say it's a little disappointing. Won't be much of a fight." Amora shrugged and readjusted her green gloves that came to her elbows, "So who's the leader? You? The not-so-super solder?" She addressed Sam cruelly, looking up only to add, "Where's your shield, Cap?"
"What do you want?" Doctor Strange asked pointedly, cutting to the chase and avoiding the sorceress's banter. He looked around quickly, noting there was not a single soul around, "Where are the citizens of New Asgard?"
"Dead. Nobody was strong enough to battle me. No Odin. No Loki. No Thor." She snarled bitterly before laughing sweetly, "Apparently Queen Valkyrie has disappeared. The greatest of all warriors, nowhere to be seen."
"The greatest warriors fell at your hand. My country. My people. My family." Shuri sneered, aiming her gauntlets at the sorceress, "I will fight you until I rejoin them. For Wakanda."
"What do you want?" Bruce asked, taking a step forward in front of Shuri and Amora beamed at his presence. Bruce shifted uncomfortably under her gaze, "You want a fight, we'll give you a fight. We'll destroy you and Hydra along with you."
"Oh, you can have Hydra. That was Schmidt's dream, not mine. I was promised the galaxy, do you really think he could give me that?" Amora taunted, taking a step closer. The team looked down, seeing the ground glow green as she approached them. She smirked, looking up at Bruce from beneath thick black lashes, "Slaughter them all. I don't care. You can have your world. I only want one thing. And I'd hoped you all would be enough to bring it. I thought destroying Wakanda would get his attention, but no, no he didn't come. I tried to capture his friends, but somehow they keep slipping through my grasp." Amora looked up to Steve and Bucky, who had their rifles trained on her. She rolled her neck and turned back to Sam, "What does a woman have to do to summon the God of Thunder? Tell me, how do I find Thor on this wretched planet?"
"That's her play. She's looking for Thor." Scott Lang's voice cut through the comms. Steve and Bucky looked at each other, then looked at Kate Bishop, poised a little farther down the hill with her bow up and ready. She was quaking in her boots.
"We don't know where Thor is. We haven't heard from him in years, we don't even know if he's alive!" Bruce called out, keeping his distance as Amora continued getting closer to Sam and Doctor Strange.
Amora groaned and rolled her eyes, throwing her head back in frustration, "You people are insufferable, and there's nothing I want more than to wipe you off this pathetic planet!" She screamed at the Avengers and they were thrown back by the force of her magic, crashing against the destroyed buildings that used to house the Asgardians.
Sam's wings ejected from his pack and he took to the sky, holding a gun in each hand. Doctor Strange wielded a golden shield as several other sorcerers did the same and Spider-Man shot a web toward a nearby church, pulling himself to stand on the side of the steeple. Amora looked around as the Avengers surrounded her. She studied each of them, taking in their various powers before turning to Wanda, "You're powered by an infinity stone."
"I got my powers from a stone many years ago, it doesn't power me now. I'm my own power." Wanda twisted her fingers and wrapped her magic around Amora and the Enchantress allowed it for a minute, pretending to struggle before easily pulling out of the Scarlet Witch's grasp. She turned and moved her hands toward the Earth, pulling roots up through the Earth and wrapping them around Wanda's legs, up her torso and eventually wrapped around her hands, forcing them closed before winding up to her mouth and stopping her from being able to cry out.
Sam shot at Amora but she just raised her arms and the bullets bounced off her green gloves, then she used her left hand to summon an ax leaning against a broken wall of a building. Once she had a weapon, she hurled it at Sam with terrifying speed and he darted out of the way, but she summoned it back and he flew to the side again, narrowly missing being chopped in half. Bruce charged her, swinging his left hand at the Enchantress, but she dropped the ax and moved her hand to hold his neck without actually toughing him. "Nuh uh. None of that Doctor Banner." She squeezed and the Hulk squirmed in her grip, trying to pull away, but he had no leverage as she lifted him off the ground without lifting a finger. With a grunt she discarded him to the side, then turned back to the sorcerers before her, ready to fight.
Hope and Scott enlarged and grabbed each of her arms. Amora was startled at the sudden appearance of more adversaries, but before she could react Cassie had a hold of Amora's long hair and yanked back her head. Stature looked up toward the hillside and yelled desperately, "Hawkeye! Now!"
Kate shot her arrow into Amora, but the sorceress vanished from Scott and Hope's grip, sending the arrow straight into Cassie's stomach. She stumbled back a step as Scott grabbed her and helped her to the ground, "Cassie! Cassie no, no no, NO!" Cassie grabbed her dad's arm as Hope quickly dropped and shrunk the arrow before carefully pulling it from Cassie. She looked at Scott and held his shoulder supportively as he held his daughter, occasionally looking over her shoulder at the Enchantress who had already turned her attention to the others.
Shuri blasted the Enchantress with gauntlets, but Amora just rolled her eyes and twisted her hands in a circle. Shuri grit her teeth and shot again, but this time the current ran through her body and she fell to the ground in pain. She groaned as she looked toward the Enchantress, who smirked and turned toward the archer in the hills beyond the Asgardian homes.
Kate dropped her bow and screamed as Amora shot her open palm towards her, sending a heap of bricks toward the archer. Kate dove out of the way, rolling down the hill closer to the fight as Sam continued to shoot at the woman. She reached toward the sky with both hands, grabbing the air and ripping Sam's wings away, causing him to plummet to the ground onto Doctor Strange and Wong.
"Captain, there's nothing more we can do. She's too powerful for us." Doctor Strange breathed as he helped Sam to his feet and looked around as Amora easily took out most of his sorcerers with one swoop of her hand. Sam dropped his head and sucked in a breath before looking up at his friends.
"Get out of here. The rest of us won't have the chance." Sam choked into his comm, seeing he wasn't strong enough. The Avengers weren't strong enough. Not anymore.
Steve looked over to Bucky and saw a single tear slip down his cheek before he picked up his gun and went charging down the hill toward the Enchantress. Steve watched as Bucky shot at her, screaming loudly before he was swatted to the side with a flip of her hand. Steve felt his stomach drop as Amora turned to him, ready to fight. He was the last man standing. Again.
Every step Amora took toward Steve shook the Earth itself. He rose to his feet and began walking toward her, feeling no need to rush to his death. She laughed as he reached her, reaching forward and pulling Steve toward her so his nose was inches from hers, "I've waited so long for this. Schmidt talked of nothing else for years. He wanted to kill you so badly, but he failed. Not only do I get to do the one thing the Red Skull couldn't accomplish, but I get to wave it in Thor's face when he finally does arrive. Because he will. I'm sure of it."
"You don't know that. We don't even know if he's alive. If he doesn't come, then what are you gonna do?" Steve gasped, and Amora grinned when she felt his breath on her face. She looked away for just a moment, taking in the Avengers she'd so easily defeated.
"I'll destroy Earth. And then take over the galaxy, one planet at a time."
"Not today you won't!"
Spider-Man swung toward Amora, knocking her away from Steve and giving the soldier a chance to escape. Peter webbed up Amora quickly, darting from one building to another as she tried to pull free of his webbing. She began growing more and more frustrated, then began to glow green until she burned through the webbing. She cryed out as she raised her hand toward the harbor, yanking hard and washing Spider-Man out of the sky mid-swing and onto the ground beneath her feet. "Pesky insect!" Amora raised her leg and prepared to slam down on Peter with her green-heeled boot.
Peter squished his eyes closed as he prepared to die, awaiting the impact, but all he heard was a high pitched whirring noise followed by a grunt and a thud. Peter opened his eyes to see Amora was gone, so he sat up and looked around, searching for her until he saw bubbles in the waters of the bay. He was immediately taken aback when he looked over his shoulder again to see an Iron Man suit floating behind him. Peter scrambled to his feet as the other Avengers watched the suit carefully, waiting to see who was inside.
"Rhodes?" Sam asked questioningly, but the suit just turned to him silently, giving a firm nod, then looked up quickly and blasted Amora back into the water as she tried to climb out.
Steve approached slowly. There was static in his earpiece, followed by the familiar voice warning, "You tell anyone, I'll lay you out right here."
Steve nodded as a smile grew across his face, honored to fight along the great Tony Stark one more time, "Understood."
Peter's lip quivered before he heard the same static in his earpiece. He stared at the red and gold suit for a moment, then pulled off his mask to get a better look as he raised a shaking hand, "Thank you. I appreciate the assist."
"I'd never let anything happen to you Kid, don't you know that by now?" Tony quipped, then turned to face Amora as she finally pulled her soaked body out of the water and onto the dock, panting as she faced down the newcomer.
"That... was very rude. And you'll pay for that." She huffed, raising her hand, but an arrow shot into it from behind a rock in the hillside, piercing her skin painfully. She cried out and turned, but didn't see anyone. The young archer was quivering behind the bleeding Stature, and her bow was nowhere to be seen. As Amora raised her hand to blast toward the rocks, the arrow exploded and she screamed out in pain, more angry than ever before. "Where the hell are you? Come out and show your face!"
Steve strode forward, taking the lead as Banner nodded a little, understanding what was happening. He took one thundering step forward to stand beside Steve as the Iron Man hovered beside them. Amora looked between the trio and chuckled a little, "Oh. This is going to be good."
Steve leapt at the sorceress and she flung him to the side, but the distraction allowed another three arrows to find their way unexpected into her back. She screamed at the feeling of the metal in her body, and the arrows froze her blood from the inside. As she howled, Iron Man blasted her a few steps back and Hulk stormed toward her, distracting her enough for Iron Man to fly down and pummel her into the ground. She laid there for a moment groaning, but the four knew not to celebrate yet.
While Amora was distracted fighting, Kayla stormed onto the battleground, skidding to a stop beside Cassie and her father, "Hey, hey, it's okay. I got this." Kayla hissed as she pulled out a small machine and hovered it over Cassie's wound. Scott stammered for a moment, trying to find the words to express his disbelief, but Kayla just grinned up at him as Cassie's skin began repairing itself. "Hey, Ant-Man."
"Didn't think you were coming." Scott answered after a moment as Cassie took a deep, easy breath.
"I never let Steve go into battle without me. Plus, I brought help." Kayla moved quickly from Cassie to sit on her haunches beside Shuri, using her super strength to yank off the burned gauntlets. She smiled at her friend, occasionally looking up to make sure her husband still had things under control. At this point he hadn't even realized she'd arrived.
Suddenly Amora began to laugh from her place on the ground and placed her hands flat against the grass, shooting magic through the ground into the feet of the Avengers, holding them in place. "You can beat me down, but you'll never win. No magic you can conjure, no weapons you can produce, nothing you can throw at me will defeat me. I'll just keep getting up again and again and again." She floated up from the ground, green mist swirling around her as she faced down the team of heroes.
She caught a glimpse of the new player and reached forward, pulling Kayla toward her. She studied the auburn haired super-soldier for a moment with a sly smile before chuckling, "I remember you. The Captain's wife, isn't it? How foolish of you to be here with him, leaving your kids unattended. With you both gone, they won't be that hard to track down." She grabbed Kayla's neck with her long fingers and squeezed, causing Kayla to choke a little.
"You touch my kids, it'll be the last thing you ever do." Kayla sneered as Amora lifted her above the ground. Kayla tried to grab at the green gloves, but they shocked her when she touched them, taking away any chance of escape.
Amora glanced over Kayla's shoulder to Steve, who stood frozen in place between the women and the others. She studied him for a moment, then looked back to the woman in her grasp, "I'll be the death of you, you know. There is no escaping me."
Kayla gasped through her crushed windpipe, but she was suddenly aware that the sun had disappeared. She swallowed hard, looking up at the sky, "Never say never." She croaked out as a spear shot through the sky towards Amora. The Enchantress dropped Kayla and bent down, flushing her back against the ground before floating back to her feet and looking up at the sky with scared eyes for the first time. "No."
A winged horse flew down from the darkened sky with Valkyrie crouched on its back. When the woman reached Amora, the blonde backed up a step, staring at the warrior with terrified eyes as Valkyrie leapt from her horse and brandished a sword. "Amora the Enchantress. Haven't seen you in a while." Valkyrie looked around, seeing all the damage the sorceress had caused, "Where are my people?"
"You left them to die." Amora sneered, stalking toward Valkyrie, but she pushed her sword against Amora's neck and raised her brows questioningly.
"You want to try that again?"
Kayla scrambled away, practically climbing Steve's legs to get to her own feet. He wrapped his arms around his wife and turned them so his burly back was blocking Kayla from the fight, "What are you doing here?"
Kayla looked up and smirked, "What, are you surprised?"
"No." Steve answered, trying really hard not to smile, but Kayla caught a glimpse of it anyway. "Last mission?"
"Every time you say that, you add ten missions onto my life, and I'm kind of over it." Kayla teased quietly, and both were distracted by the sound of Valkyrie yelling behind them.
"Tell me where they are!" She screamed at the Enchantress, but Amora just pursed her lips and looked away, ignoring Valkyrie's threats. Valkyrie growled deeply, touching the sword to Amora's neck now, "I don't want to do this. If I kill you, we'll never find the Asgardians. Tell me where they are, and you can face him."
Amora's eyes brightened at that and her red lips broke apart to show her sparkling teeth. Like a wild animal offered a glimpse of its prey for the first time in months, "When he arrives, I'll tell him where his people are. Where the people he left behind are. If he cared he would have stayed."
"It's more complicated than that, and you know it-"
"I was banished from Asgard. I was thrown out of my home. I just wanted a chance to prove myself-" Amora bartered but Valkyrie just stepped closer, never taking her eyes off the treat. Doctor Strange surged forward and used the Eye of Agamotto to wrap magic around the Enchantress and keep her trapped in place while she awaited punishment.
Kayla and Steve took a step back as Banner followed. Iron Man flew backward, giving the two women by the docks a little more space. "What's happening?" Kate Bishop squeaked as Clint Barton ran up to her and collected her, pulling her farther away. Peter helped Cassie up and they backed away to join Shuri, who was working diligently to cut Wanda out of the vines.
"If I had to guess, I'd say the cavalry's coming." Clint muttered as Kate looked up at her teacher and smiled. Steve turned to his old teammate and grasped his hand, pulling him into an premature hug. Clint smiled up at Steve, "Cap."
"Barton. Aren't you a little old for this kind of combat?"
"Aren't you a little dead to be fighting wars?" Clint answered back and Steve opened his mouth to retort, but he had no excuse.
Suddenly their attention was drawn to the sky as lighting flashed around them. Kayla gripped Steve tighter, praying they could snuff out Hydra once and for all. As the clouds opened up, a rainbow portal broke through the sky and delivered Thor Odinson onto the ground before Amora and Valkyrie.
"Enchantress!" Thor bellowed as he stormed toward the woman. "Where are my people? What have you done to Earth?"
"I had fun with it." She chuckled, but Thor just pressed Stormbreaker to her green dress and she groaned, "Well this isn't fun at all."
"I'm not in a gaming mood. Valkyrie brought stories of your destruction. You've tormented my friends, you've slaughtered my allies, and now you'd hidden away my people. Give me answers, or you'll pay the price with a swing of my ax." Thor threatened, but Amora's face dropped and she spread her fingers, magic flowing around them.
"You may not be in the mood, but I'm not done playing." She snarled as her feet left the ground. She thrust out her wrists and captured the Avengers in her hands as Thor stood in front of her, staring up at her angrily. "Now, where were we?"