"THOSE BIRD THINGS ARE GONNA KILL US ALL!" yelled Camilo.
"They're not birds, they're snakes with wings!" countered Antonio.
"Oh, what a relief! I feel so much safer with SNAKES, Antonio!" said Camilo caustically.
"Boys! Stop fighting!" scolded Pepa. Suddenly, in her anger, Pepa raised her arms, her eyes went stormy grey, and she began to float into the air.
Outside, a storm began to brew. Soon, bolts of lightning began to strike the serpents one by one.
Maria cheered. "Come on, Halle Berry, let's get SICKENING!"
But the serpents kept coming. Pepa fell from exhaustion. "I cannot stop the bolts from hitting the village for collateral damage! We have to think of another way!"
Alfred turned to the children.
"Y'all wanna be superheroes?" he asked with a smile.
Kiku walked to Yao and embraced him.
"Welcome home, my son"
Mirabel's father ran inside the house, screaming. "Those quetzals are biting people outside!" He himself was bitten all over, with a few snakes still stuck on his skin, even. The bitemarks were turning grey.
"Goodness, mi amor, you're turning into stone!" yelled Julieta.
"What do we do?!" sobbed Bruno.
Julieta, thinking quickly, shoved an empanada down Armando's throat.
The petrification stopped, and the snakes flew away.
"At least we know there's a cure. Wait, where are the children?"
Alfred drilled the children outside. "Avengers! Are you ready to save the day?"
"Aye, Captain America!" answered the six.
"Alright, just like we practiced!" Alfred ran towards the cloud of snakes.
Dolores turned to Isabela. "What practice?"
The townspeople had been petrified by the snakes. Those who survived were hiding in their houses, staring nervously outside the windows, wondering if even the Madrigals could save them from this horror.
Luisa ripped a palm tree off the ground and used it to swat serpents out of the sky. Isabela tangled them in vines and downed them with floral artillery. Antonio made the snakes turn on each other by using his control over animals, crashing and shattering as they petrified and hit the ground. Dolores found Fernando and they joined Mirabel in sling-shotting a few serpents that the others did not hit.
Camilo had the most important role. "The snakes are after me," Alfred explained. "So I need you to shapeshift into me so they won't know who is who. I'll lend you one of my pistols"
"Cool"
"Alright, we need to pick them off as quickly as we can. Go!"
They ran for the heart of the swarm, shooting serpents left and right. When the cloud came for one of them, the other opened fire at the swarm's flank. They converged and then split up, kiting the cloud as it grew thinner and thinner.
But more and more serpents came. They spat corrosive acid at them. Luisa's palm tree was reduced to a smoldering stump, Antonio had to duck for cover, and so did Mira and Dolores. "There's too many of them!" yelled Luisa. "Fall back!"
Isabela had conjured a towering tree trunk and was taking the fight to the skies, hitting the most serpents out of all of them. A large flock of serpents arced towards her. Isabela spread her arms wide as if to embrace them. Then, she yelled "Via Dolorosa!"
Thorny vines sprouted in the hundreds all over the tree trunk, skewering serpents left and right, and forming a protective shield in the form of a crucifix over Isabela. Alfred grinned. That was the signature move of the heroine Maria, one of the Quirkers from Japan. Isabela must be a fan of hers, he thought.
But the serpents spat their acid at the trunk, dissolving away at it and causing it to topple, and Isabela with it.
Mira and Luisa screamed as their sister fell, but there were too many snakes for them to run safely to her aid. Alfred's heart dropped. Again, people were going to die all because of him. He cursed at the serpents and shot with murderous intent. Camilo joined him, equally furious.
China was caught off guard. Wherein once he was embracing Japan, he was now entangled in an embrace with a mangrove tree, its branches wrapping and pinning him to its trunk.
"Father, you disgrace me. You should know mind tricks of that pathetic level don't work on me"
China smiled. "It is no trick, my child. I am merely showing you the truth. Do you really think they've forgotten all that you have done? Why would you side with people who wouldn't think twice trying to get even with you?"
"I know who my friends are, Yao. And you are not one of them"
"A pity. I had so wanted to spare you and your siblings, but you are an obstinate lot. I don't know where you get it from…" With that, China vanished from Kiku's mind.
Outside, Maria had joined the fight, unleashing torrents of wind that blew the serpents in loops. Alfred was still shooting angrily, blowing the swarm into bits. Luisa and Mirabel were running through it all, trying to find their sister's body.
Still, the snakes kept coming. Maria reeled as a snake dove in at her arm. Virtually everybody else had also been bitten at that point.
"This can't be where it ends…" sobbed Maria.
Then, Kiku stepped out of the house. He stared at the desperate scene before him, the snakes, the villagers, his friends. He took in the scene calmly and took a deep breath.
What was in the past could not be altered, but he could still save the present.
Japan unsheathed his sword, and time stood still. Everything was frozen in place. The pure manifestation of the Rising Sun's power. He sheathed the sword again, and time flowed forward once more. And every serpent dropped dead, cut in half, every one of them.
Maria cheered. Alfred couldn't believe what he just saw. The villagers cheered, at least the ones who hadn't been turned to stone.
But Mira and Luisa stared at the fallen trunk of the toppled tree.
They could not find Isabela's body anywhere, try as they did. Soon, while the elder Madrigals were too busy healing the villagers to notice her absence, Maria and Alfred immediately helped the sisters look.
"It's all my fault, all over again," said Alfred bitterly.
"Please. Blaming doesn't help," sobbed Mirabel.
They were almost ready to give up hope when they saw it. It was a beautiful golden flower just about to bloom. It would've been any other flower, if it weren't the size of a small car. It seemed to be emerging from the ground.
They rushed towards it just as it burst forth with the scent of a May parade. Isabela, radiant and beautiful as ever, stepped out of the flower.
"I bet you didn't see THAT coming," she said.
Luisa and Mirabel were beyond relieved as they tackled their sister into a hug. "HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!" Mirabel demanded, completely shocked by her sister's new display of power.
"I didn't. I felt the earth swallow me up as if to protect me. I'm telling you, Mira, the Earth's alive. I felt someone else's presence with me inside that blossom!"
Colombia nodded. "The Earth is very much alive. She is the mother of us all. You must have a special connection to her due to your plant powers"
"Hey, are we done with those snake things? I have a feeling they might come back with a vengeance" said Camilo.
"Not to worry. I have increased the magics around the valley. Though that means I must stay here." Colombia turned to the three. "You must go on your journey again, without me. I must protect my people"
"You helped us more than enough, Ana" said Maria. "But I realize now who we're up against"
"Who?" asked America.
"Those winged serpents are servants of a specific nation. You remember Brazil said his empire would go from Guatemala down to the tip of Fire?"
America nodded.
Philippines continued. "Why stop at Guatemala? Because someone else was staking claim of the north"
America's eyes grew. "Mexico. She's turned"
Japan sighed. "If Mexico is the enemy, how can we go north? She controls all pathways from here, from the west to the east."
Alfred shook his head. "She may have her flying snakes, but Mexico has shit air forces besides that. What we need is a high altitude flight up north"
Dolores' eyes glittered. "I think I have what you need"