Spirits And Flames: A Avengers Fanfiction Story

Act IV:

Across the Nine Realms…

As quickly as the white light came, it stopped. The fallen fighters and Fire Demons are gone, but everyone else is mostly all right now.

Without Surtur, the Demon realm Muspelheim is gone.

Odin's throne room in Asgard is no longer in flames, with Odin being in his orange golden Odinsleep chamber to start regaining his strength from his battle with Surtur. The Yggdrasil tree is at full growth again.

Alfheim's forests are alive and thriving again, without Surtur flames. The skies are clear of Surtur commander Ultrons.

The mountain in Vanaheim that was destroyed by Baron Zemo's cosmic level fireball is back up.

The destruction on Midgard seems to no longer be ruins from a late night airplane overlooking the skies. But sometimes, something can't be known just at face value.

Niffleheim, though shaken, is intact. All the soul crystals that were around Hela are back to floating around her rock pedestal.

Jotunheim's water world state has been turned back to a timeless winter land of ice and snow. And the returning cold breezes still circle around Jotunheim's becoming stormy skies.

The walls of flames across Swartalfheim have vanished. The leafless trees are as close to being restored, as they were before Surtur came.

Nidavellirr including The Forge is back up, for the Dwarves and their magically enhanced gear making business with Asgardians.

In a certain city among the mortals of Midgard…

Through Asgardian portals from Mjolnir in Thor's hands, most of the central Avengers arrive to find the Avengers Mansion gone without a trace. Yet under the circumstances of Surtur's attack across realms, it may not be far off. Strangely though, everywhere else among New York City's buildings seems very much intact.

In their shaken feelings over Surtur's cosmic level destruction and what they had to do to stop him from destroying the Nine Realms as they know it, they don't think much of the strangeness around where their own headquarters was and are quite silent. Black Panther breaks the silence, "and where's Iron Man?"

Hawkeye slightly chuckles, "Red Helmet is being fixe... What?!" He has the present Avengers glaring at him, except for Black Widow who can't help but slightly be innerly amused by it.

A few hours later into the fading away night, on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier's cockpit…

Acting S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Maria Hill for the next few hours is standing in the shadows, on the already landed and being unused Helicarrier due to how late it is. The only source of light is a light blue S.H.I.E.L.D. control screen readout, which Maria Hill is looking at. She mutters to herself, "damn signal…!" She hears footsteps behind her, to discover it is Nick Fury with a laser pistol. To Maria Hill's shock, he is aiming it at her.

She inquires harshly, "have you lost your mind?!"

Nick Fury reveals coldly, "actually, far from it: While I informed you I was coming back to S.H.I.E.L.D. after Skrull clean up, I downloaded a copy of your reports to check on if you weren't compromised yourself."

Maria Hill argues, "but I'm no Skrull, Fury!"

Nick Fury reflects, "then perhaps you can tell me what is worse: Using the Cosmic Cube in a sad attempt to erase the Avengers from existence, or using your connections with the president so you can make secret rules for superheroes?!"

Realizing that there is no use pretending to not know anymore, Maria Hill sighs hard, "then I'm sorry that you'll be erased." She on her last word puts her hands on the edges of the readout screen to midair flip kick Nick Fury against the floor hard. Then as Nick Fury goes down with a groan, a hard swing takes out Maria Hill by surprise. She lands hard against cracked glass within the Helicarrier's dome arranged windows.

Nick Fury slightly chuckles, knowing who helped him out. A back to consciousness Mockingbird in the shadows keeps her bo staff in one hand over her shoulder, letting her help Nick Fury to his feet. He thanks her.

Mockingbird slightly sighs, "too bad she decided to be all cosmic level crazy."

Nick Fury sighs hard, "tell me about it. Has Black Widow gotten the president to resign?"

Mockingbird answers with a slight chuckle, "Fury, she's Black Widow: Why couldn't she?"

Nick Fury checks, "and the Cosmic Cube?"

Mockingbird reveals, "already on its way to Odin's museum of untouchable junk."

Nick Fury concludes, "good. Let's go." In a few minutes, she and Mockingbird together start carrying a fallen Maria Hill out of S.H.I.E.L.D. for good. The screen readout that Maria Hill was looking at has timed out, leaving the Helicarrier in darkness.

Meanwhile, among dark green soul crystals…

Valkyrie awakes in a soul crystal, floating around Niffleheim's rock pedestal. It has Hela's silvery marble chair at center. Resting on Hela's chair is a very unusual book titled Niffleheim Pool. The book's center cover pictures widely varying versions of Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Black Widow in small swirls blended with lots of other small superhero swirls.

At the upper left is a dark red outlined circle with half of a mostly black spotted red masked face, half of Hela's black masked face, and a diagonal dark red line through the circle's center. Across the bottom are the words, "by Wade Wilson and H. Soul." Swirled around the superhero swirls is the odd phrase, "get tickets for the one you think won't come back!"

Realizing that her Asgardian sword is not on her person, Valkyrie struggles to get out with her fists. But to her great frustration, she ends up realizing she can't get out that way. A back to normal Hela appears beside Valkyrie. Instead of her cursed cloak, Hela wears a solid black cloak. Valkyrie very angry highlights, "I'm usually not one to talk, but why?!"

Hela slightly laughs, "you already know by now. These crystals help focus my illusions among countless souls, but one crystal can help a consciousness focus long enough to keep itself between realms. It's how I could restore myself this quickly."

Valkyrie insists, "yes, but why?"

Hela sighs hard, "as you can see from here, I need to recover many souls…despite there still being countless souls. You and several other fighter women very similar to yourself have been chosen to bring them back...as the Valkyrior. Without a good number of souls in my kingdom, it won't be long before souls in the other realms fade away by the hundreds."

Valkyrie realizes, "Surtur destroyed me…but you're offering me to be a Asgardian again to bring honor to your lost souls."

Hela remarks, "for one who shall say few words, you're smarter than I thought. Does that mean…?"

With no intention of being trapped in a crystal by a very tricky Hela, Valkyrie concludes harshly, "yes, I shall: But only for honor."

Hela slightly laughs, "yes, I thought you would. But if it's any comfort to you, it shall mean more than that: The Valkyrior shall be my guard against rebellious souls, separating the honorable from the honorless."

Valkyrie comments harshly, "yeah, you keep telling yourself that."

She turns her back to Hela, who just scoffs and teleports away.

In the coming early morning…

Hawkeye is sitting on the steps to a interestingly restored Avengers Mansion. Thanks to Asgardians Sif and Heimdall, the Cosmic Cube's power was responsible for that restoration as a thank you for the Avengers before it was put away in Odin's kingdom. Black Widow is on her way back to the mansion, when she realizes Hawkeye has been waiting for her.

Black Widow sighs hard, "can we not do this now, Clint?"

Hawkeye gets up in recollection, "last time I checked, you're no longer looking for Fury or pretending to be a H.Y.D.R.A. agent. What's the excuse now?"

Black Widow highlights, "not everyone is as collected in thoughts as you, but I thought you could at least respect that."

Hawkeye slightly chuckles, "oh, the Hulk and Yellowjacket will come back more collected than ever. We all will…sigh…given enough time. But when can we ever have enough time for us, if we never use it?"

Black Widow slightly sighs, "you may be onto something there."

Hawkeye wonders, "when have I ever not been onto something?"

Black Widow says with a slight chuckle, "do you really want an answer to that?"

Hawkeye figures, "no." They kiss each other warmly, in the midst of the dawn of a new day.

Underground, among a certain unusual storage room's technology…

Dark gray and black circular walls lit with basketball sized blue lights surround several thin metal stand, which surrounds a light blue silvery familiar android body with a pair of straight downward horns. The android body is Jocasta's, prepared by Ultron some time ago to transfer Wasp's consciousness into for his idea of perfection before Ultron's base overloaded from above.

Interestingly, Jocasta's android body awakens with bright red eyes, but in a man's voice. The familiar voice says, "program download…90 percent complete. Program restoration…85 percent complete." The voice is Vision's. But in Jocasta's android head's eyes come some brief flashes of Ultron programming, before becoming solid bright red again.

The End Of Another Chapter For Earth's Mightiest Heroes…Or The Start Of Spin Off Fanfiction?

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