We now come upon a chapter that I had a very hard time coming up with a title for.
DISCLAIMER: I own Derrick Bolris. Red Witch owns the Misfitverse this story takes place in, as well as Benny Barumpbump (I think). All G.I. Joe characters belong to Hasbro, and everything else belongs to Marvel.
Chapter 4: Dormammu So Ugly!
"I cannot believe this, Benny!" Doctor Strange cried, throwing his hands into the air. "You have opened a portal that has unleashed the greatest evil the universe has ever known...to impress a girl?!"
"Oops?" whimpered Benny.
"Ah, but your mistake has summoned me from the Dark Dimension," Dormammu pointed out. "Therefore, Dormammu shall reward you by making your death quick and painless."
"You shall not!" Doctor Strange proclaimed, levitating in front of Dormammu.
"Fool!" laughed Dormammu. "Even the Sorcerer Supreme cannot stop me!"
"How about an army of magic users?" asked Wanda as Nico pricked herself with her switchblade and the magic users behind them prepared their spells.
"No difficult task," Dormammu bragged, until he saw Nico summoning her staff. "What?!"
"When blood is shed, let the Staff of One emerge!" Nico recited, her staff phasing through her chest and being caught by her hand.
"What?!" Dormammu cried, eyes wide. "Inconceivable! The Staff of One?! The one mystic artifact I fear?!"
Dormammu looked more closely at Nico.
"And wielded by a child, no less," Dormammu smirked. "Perhaps I can take this opportunity to rid this world of its greatest threat to me once and for all."
"Good luck with that," Wanda said, casting a hexbolt at Dormammu, who merely swatted the attack away.
"Foolish child!" Dormammu laughed. "I have spent millennia increasing my mystic powers! No human, no matter how powerful, can stop me!"
"How about a mutant?!" Molly cried, running towards Dormammu.
"Molly, no!" Nico cried, but Dormammu simply blasted Molly away with a magical field.
"Mutant, are you?" Dormammu asked. "I have heard rumors of a group of mutants calling themselves the 'X-Men'. Might you be one of them?"
"In your dreams, candle-head!" Molly snapped.
"Then let me rephrase one of my previous statements," Dormammu said. "No human or mutant can stand against the might of Dormammu!"
"Which is why we shall return you to the Dark Dimension!" Doctor Strange vowed.
"I think not, Strange!" Dormammu retorted, forming a magical fireball in his hand and hurling it at the group of magic-users. Wanda used a hexbolt to destroy his attack while Nico prepared a spell of her own.
"Chill out!" Nico cried, a stream of icy energy erupting from the tip of her staff and encasing Dormammu in ice.
"Good work!" Doctor Strange said hurriedly, using magic to open a portal back to the Dark Dimension. "Now cast him back in before he…"
The ice surrounding Dormammu began to crack, and in mere seconds the flaming-headed being was free, blocks of ice scattering everywhere.
"…breaks free," Doctor Strange finished. "Everyone, focus your attacks! Push Dormammu back into the portal!"
"Rockstars!" Nico cried, a burst of energy taking the form of stars blasting Dormammu in the chest while an earsplitting sound rang through his ears. Wanda threw more hexbolt as Doctor Strange cast more spell, and with the combined effort of all the magic users (minus Benny), Dormammu was forced back into the portal.
"NO!" Dormammu roared as he fell into the portal. "I shall return! You shall all face my wrathful vengeance! DORMAMMU IS FOREVER!"
"Dormammu also talks too much," Wanda groaned, "which unnecessarily reminds me of my brother."
"You have a brother?" Nico asked.
"It's Quicksilver," Wanda explained. "He's my twin brother."
"Really?" Molly asked. "You don't look like twins."
"We're fraternal twins," Wanda said. "We don't look alike, but we were born at the same time."
"Well done, all!" Doctor Strange said to the entire crowd. "Every one of us has proven today that our combined efforts can vanquish any foe, even one as mighty as Dormammu! I am afraid, however, that the remainder of our time here may not be as…exhilarating, let us say."
"Yeah, probably," Nico muttered. "But first…"
She turned and glared at Benny.
"Uh, hi?" Benny whimpered before Nico struck him in the head with her staff.
"YOU LITTLE MORON!" Nico screamed. "YOU NEARLY CAUSED THE END OF THE FREAKING WORLD!"
"OW! HEY, I WAS JUST TRYING TO IMPRESS YOU!" Benny cried, primarily in pain.
"YOU WANT TO IMPRESS ME?! SIT STILL AND DIE!" Nico roared.
"Room for one more?" Wanda asked, also glaring at Benny.
"Make that two," Molly smirked.
"Of all the times my apprentice has deserved punishment," Doctor Strange observed as the three girls attacked Benny, "this may be the most deserving—and strangely amusing—of all."
"OUCH! GIRLS! AAH! I NEED THAT!" Benny cried. "OW! DON'T HEX ME THERE, PLEASE! AAAAH!"
****
Aside from Wanda, Nico spent relatively little time socializing with the magic users. Eventually, the convention came to an end, and Nico and Wanda were now saying goodbye.
"You won't tell the other Misfits that we're friends, right?" Nico pleaded. "I mean, I'm obviously going to tell the other Runaways, but…"
"Don't worry about it," Wanda said. "I won't breathe a word. Trust me, as far as they're concerned, we never met."
"Thanks, Scarlet Witch," Nico smiled.
"Call me Wanda," Wanda said, shaking Nico's hand. "I don't call you Sister Grimm, do I?"
"Eh, we stopped using codenames after we ran away from the foster homes," Nico shrugged.
"I miss our codenames," Molly pouted.
"If you ever join the Misfits, we'll give you one," Wanda smiled. "Trust me."
"Cool!" Molly shouted happily.
"Come on, Mol," Nico said, though she was unable to hide a smile. "Let's go home."
****
On top of a building in Los Angeles, a man stood. He had black hair and a goatee, but his most noticeable features were his muscular build and his clothing, which seemed to be patterned after a lion. He was holding a newspaper in his hand.
"My battles with Spider-Man have left me shamed," the man said to himself as he looked down at the newspaper, "but soon my name shall be redeemed. Soon I shall be returned to my place as the planet's greatest hunter."
He took out a dagger from his belt, the latter of which had a tiger-like stripe pattern on it.
"Soon, Kraven the Hunter shall have his greatest trophy yet!" vowed the man, stabbing the dagger into a picture on the newspaper.
A picture of Gert's dinosaur, Old Lace.