Revamped!

[No, I didn't forget this story. I just didn't feel like updating it].


Chapter 103: All Together Part Four

Earlier - Stark Towers

Emily sits crossed-legged on the couch with a pillow on her legs and her laptop on top. Her hair is in a messy bun with strands falling out and cupping her face. A stylus is in her mouth, being held by her teeth as she types away at her laptop, filling out spreadsheets and muttering calculations to herself. She's so focused on her work that she doesn't even notice Daniel approaching her. She finally acknowledges him when she takes a breath, which is at least three minutes later.

Emily smiles at him as she closes her laptop.

"You've been working hard," Daniel comments. "Do you want to get some fresh air with me?"

Emily circles her lips. "If you accompany me on a shopping trip."

Daniel scoffs. "I'm not going shopping with you."

Emily reopens her laptop. "Then, I'm not getting fresh air with you."

As Emily types away on her laptop, Daniel shakes his head with a small laugh. Emily takes a quick glance at him with a smile before returning her eyes to the screen.

"...fine."

Emily closes her laptop again with a stretching victorious smile.

-o-

Earlier - Manhattan

Emily and Daniel didn't end up going on an expected shopping spree. Instead, they've been browsing around for their wedding. Nothing for the big day has been planned to the T and Emily has been searching the internet and wedding magazines for inspiration but nothing has caught her eye. All that combined with recent events involving Apollo and Sigyn have put their wedding on the back burner but Emily and Daniel weren't complaining since they've been engaged since high school so a seven-year engagement meant that another day unwed wasn't that big a deal for them.

They ended up in a high-end bakery encircled in a series of cakes and other pastries. The head baker was more than overjoyed to see a young couple with an engagement ring walk in, rushing to their side right away. Emily kept her sunglasses on to avoid being recognized.

"Budget?" The baker questions.

"No budget," Emily responds quickly before turning towards Daniel. "How big of a cake do you think we would need?"

"Not sure," Daniel responds. "We're not having a giant ceremony and then you do that tradition where you save the top layer. Are we going to do that?"

"I guess, but aside from that, I'm talking about the physical quantity of the cake. I probably wouldn't eat much since I'd be squeezed into my wedding dress but Apollo would eat an entire bottom layer. And Angela's a vegan… I almost forgot that."

"So we're talking multiple layers, is there a cost difference in that?"

The baker chimes back in. "The price varies on the circumference of the layer and how many you get. Let me get a calculator -"

Daniel smirks. "Not necessary. We're calculators."

Emily laughs a little as she holds his hand. Daniel glances at her before giving her a quick kiss on the cheek.

-o-

Earlier - Manhattan

After what seemed to be an ongoing conversation about icing and edible flowers, Daniel ends up walking out of there in a rush with his head hanging low and his hands shoved in his pockets. Emily trails afterwards, spewing apologies to the baker as she puts on her sunglasses to avoid the press and runs after Daniel in her heels.

"What the hell was that?!" Emily yells at him.

"I'm just saying … red velvet is too overrated and too sweet," Daniel replies, doing a small spin on his heel to face her before returning to his back.

"You're being subjective."

"That's not my opinion, it's a fact."

Emily scoffs to herself. "A fact you made up just now."

Daniel shrugs as he continues to walk off. Emily rolls her eyes as she picks up her pace to make sure not to lose him on the busy streets. Although if Emily were to be honest, she knows that Daniel won't run that far from her.

"Screw you, your stupid mouth, and your over-analytical brain!" Emily yells at him. Nobody else around them sees to notice or care about the excessive noise. "Two can play at that game."

Daniel doesn't turn back to face her. "Well, play by yourself because I don't have time for that crap. Just walk with me."

"I can't because then I'll just see your dumb face and forget how mad I'm at you." She pauses. "What is it? Is it the wedding?"

"Maybe."

That conditional word felt like it stabbed Emily right in the heart. She stops walking and Daniel takes a few steps forwards before he turns back to face her. His hands remain in his pockets as he keeps his gaze on his fiancée when her expression looks as if its entire world was just shattered. Everyone else around them is non-existent anymore and it's just the two of them. Emily even removes her sunglasses to make sure that Daniel is looking at her and the tears she's trying to keep in her eyes.

"What do you mean maybe? Are you getting cold feet?"

Daniel immediately walks back up to her and puts his hands reassuringly on her arms. "No, of course not. It's just that what happened to Xavier in Hel is throwing me off. We wanted to get married with everyone there and maybe we can't get that. Shit, Emily, we barely have anything planned or a date."

Emily nods, understanding. "I get that. It screwed me up too and I'm using our unprepared wedding and my job to distract me."

Daniel smiles as he hugs Emily. She smirks as she returns the gesture and Daniel kisses her cheek. They return to walking on the sidewalk, holding each other's hands. It felt good for them to get that out in the open, to know that they both feel the same way.

"Want to know something?" Emily teases in a whisper. "I purposely didn't fall in love with some other brute of a man."

Daniel looks at her perplexed. "Sometimes, I turn into a hulking specimen."

"Wow, okay, but that's different. I would never marry someone I wasn't attracted to physically and intellectually. Geeky is the new hot."

Daniel grins as he kisses her cheek again. "Leave it up to you to be ahead."

"Speaking of being ahead, there was a woman back there who was ahead of us and walking at a faster pace, but now we're ahead of her although we stopped back there for a few moments to talk and there was nothing distracting her."

Daniel turns around and sees the woman Emily was referring to. She didn't just stop walking, she stopped while answering her phone. That's when they realize that everyone else is oddly frozen mid-task around them. Cars have stopped moving and birds are frozen mid-air. There's not even the slightest breeze in the air. Emily and Daniel glance at each other, glad the other isn't frozen.

"It'd be smart to pose an attack here," Emily feels the need to whisper. "Everyone knows this is where I shop."

Neither of them moves until an earthquake forces them to stumble. They stand in a ready stance and, just before their eyes, a dark portal opens and a flood of armoured skeletons with weapons like swords and spears spill out. Emily and Daniel's breaths stop and sharpen in shock as their eyes open wide, wondering what they could possibly be seeing. Too many questions run through their minds: what are those? Where did they come from? Why is everything else around them frozen?

Their answer to that was to run so they did and only to be chased. Their first thought was this was what Xavier fought in Hel."

"Maybe if we hide well enough, we won't have to fight them," Emily says.

Daniel scoffs. "Good plan, babe."

She isn't sure if he was being sarcastic or not and frankly, neither did he.

"My cell phone is cutting out," Emily pants. "I can't call a suit and my nanotech isn't exactly there yet."

Daniel sighs. "I liked this shirt…"

To take on the oncoming army, Daniel forces himself to turn into his Hulk, which rips through his clothing with a roar. He launches himself in the middle of the flood, crushing a handful of them before stomping and swiping away more. For a bit, they're no match for him until their numbers keep on growing.

Emily slides down behind a newspaper stand. She holds her phone to her ear and has a blip of service that she knows will go out in seconds so that leaves her with the option of calling backup or for a suit. Taking a quick peek at the Hulk and seeing that he's still on his feet, she goes to call a suit but the line is dead.

Emily grunts as she stands up to the sound of the Hulk's roar. A skeleton with a sword heads her way with its weapon held high. When the sword thrusts forwards, Emily ducks. She yanks off her heel and stabs it right through the rib cage and spinal cord. The bones topple right at her feet. Emily picks up the sword and realizes that she has no idea how to use it. She puts her heel back on and just holds it out as the skeleton did for defence.

Emily makes eye contact with the Hulk, panting heavily. It gives her a reassuring look before roaring. Emily quickly turns around and gets toppled over. The sword falls out of her hand, nearly stabbing her as it hits the sidewalk. She quickly picks it up and slices the skeleton's arm right off. Overhead, she can sense the Hulk's growing shadow coming for her but when she looks up, she sees Daniel disappear in a mist of green. Emily's heart rate accelerates as she kicks over the skeleton that was standing over her. She turns onto her stomach and sees that all the other skeletons are gone.

And yet, she's still here.

-o-

Present - Manhattan, New York

"What the fuck?!" Emily exclaims as people start walking all over her.

Emily takes a second to gather herself as she quickly fixes her hair and picks up her bag. She stands up and looks around while struggling to catch her breath and call Daniel at the same time. There's nothing. Emily notices except that the rest of New York acts as if the whole skeleton battle never happened, meaning that she and Daniel were frozen in time for that one moment.

Emily snaps back into reality when she hears her phone ringing. She looks at it and sees several missed calls from her friends and that James is currently trying to call her. She picks up.

James: Please tell me the bride-and-groom-to-be are alive.

"Bride, yes," Emily responds, "groom is MIA."

James: Where are you?

Emily turns around to look at the nearest street sign and spots Xavier pulling up on the side of the road. She runs over to his car and opens the door.

"With Xavier," Emily responds before hanging up and sitting next to Xavier.

Emily barely buckles her seatbelt before Xavier accelerated causing her to fall forwards a bit. Emily curses to herself as she sits up, fixes her hair in the rearview mirror, and buckles her seatbelt properly. She glares at Xavier who doesn't notice what he did.

"You could've given me a second," Emily tells him. She notices how focused he is. "Are you alright?"

"I have some pent-up aggression," Xavier replies.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"I just want to hit something."

"You and me both."

"But thanks."

"Anytime."

Emily goes on her phone and tries to track down the Hulk but nothing comes up. She sighs as she sits back in her seat, hoping an alert will appear soon. Then, she turns to Xavier and watches as he rips through the roads.

"What the hell is going on?!" Emily screams.

"You want the good news or the bad news?" Xavier asks.

"Does it matter?"

"No because they're the same thing. Sigyn's back and, based on what happened to you, she probably took Daniel."

"Why would she take Daniel?"

"No clue."

Emily nods. "How do you feel about all this since Sigyn is involved and you just went through Hel?"

Xavier huffs a breath. "I'm not worried about Sigyn. She seems to be determined to kill us, do you get that? When I first saw her in Hel, she was different; so very different. A bit of her was paranoid which made me wary because I fell for her paranoia but it was at that point where it was concerning. She was a whole new person and not because she's going by her birth name now. I tried not to pursue her or make any moves but it was so hard not to. I tried not to tell her anything but it was so hard to keep quiet. This isn't my fault because she isn't my responsibility. My responsibility now is to keep my ass and all your asses alive for as long as possible."

For once, Emily is left without an immediate response. Sure, Xavier said that Sigyn changed into a new person and maybe Xavier has as well but Emily knows that he's the same as he was in high school: head-over-heels in love with Britney Braun and like the football captain who watches over his team. All that changed was their ages, names, and outfits.

Emily snickers a little. "I bet you confessed your love and she shut you down."

Xavier sighs as he thinks back to what happened in Hel, how he was professing his feelings and Sigyn was just telling him to shut up. What struck him was when she was sending him back to Midgard and she said: "I'm sorry, my darling. I love you and the world needs you more than me." That was what kept him going to this day.

"Something like that," Xavier responds.