Revamped!
Chapter 105: All Together Part Six
Manhattan, New York - Time Frozen
The skeletons continue to spill out of the portal, coming in fleets as opposed to a continuous downpour. Immediately, Iqadi raises her arms and curls her fingers, calling lightning that she shoots right over there. Many of the skeletons come out as bones and their fragments with discarded weapons. The ones that survived are met with Angela, Merida, and James.
Iqadi lowers her arms and her eyes turn back to brown. She turns her head and sees Apollo standing there in pure fear as if he stopped alongside time. Iqadi runs over to him, leaping past him to kick down a skeleton that was about to decapitate him. That move returns Apollo to reality as his eyes fall on Iqadi.
"Iqadi, why do I recognize these?" Apollo asks almost panicking. "What does this all mean? What is happening?"
"I don't know but, Apollo, we can't think about that now," Iqadi replies honestly. "Listen to me: take a breath and relax. All that anxiety and frustration that comes with your amnesia? Put that into your fighting and regain those memories. You have to fight like you love it. If you get hurt, which I honestly doubt because you're you, use that pain as armour for the next battle."
Apollo nods. Iqadi gives him a reassuring smile as she grips his hand that holds his axe. She then turns back to battle and Apollo swings his axe with the same goal.
Meanwhile, Angela holds a skeleton in a chokehold with her elbow, grunting as it resists against her. She could've just popped off its joints but the armour got in her way and she didn't feel the need to waste her energy on penetrating it.
"Just pass out and I'll let you go," Angela tells it as some persuasion.
She looks ahead and sees one with a mace coming her way. Angela picks up ground and swings around the skeleton as if it were a fire pole, kicking the approaching one over. It's mace skitters to be ground along with its bones. Angela scurries to pick up the weapon and holds it towards the one she had in her grip just seconds ago.
"This will hurt and I'm not lying," Angela tells it. "I've been told that my hits are like kisses."
Angela doesn't wait for a response she knows she'll never get. She whacks the skeleton into pieces with the mace like a baseball bat to a home run. Angela takes a sharp breath as she slings the mace over her shoulder.
"Seriously?" Merida questions.
Angela smiles at her from the corner of her mouth. "I strive for the sweet spot of simplicity and badassery."
Meanwhile, Iqadi pounces down from on top of a parked car, clawing right through a skeleton, slicing it symmetrically. Her eyes flicker and she sees a handful of them charging towards her. Iqadi's hands quickly hover over the belt of her panther suit where she pulls out two shards of vibranium, one in each hand. Instead of using them separately, she joins them together and at the sound of a click, she expands her arms, creating a glowing vibranium pole. She swivels it around before locking it underneath one of her arms.
Iqadi gets a running head start. She uses her pole like a javelin and flies over the skeletons. She lets go mid-air and soars down. On her way, she punches one of them to the ground and flips back up, catching her pole in one hand when it falls back. Iqadi grips the pole with two hands and uses it to sweep some of them off their feet. Once they're knocked over, Iqadi turns her pole back into two separate shards and returns them to her belt.
James flies past Iqadi's shoulder, zipping up and down through the hoard of skeletons. He flies into the ribcage of one skeleton and grows back to his normal size, destroying that one from the inside out. He looks over his shoulder and gets the badass nod of approval from Merida (which he will never forget since that is more valuable than getting a higher classification level with SHIELD).
James turns around and sees a skeleton rushing towards him. Having no time to shrink, James electrifies one of his hands and points it out towards the skeleton to crash into. When he then sees Apollo's axe flying his way, he shrinks back down and runs across the blade to avoid getting sliced.
The axe flies back into Apollo's hand and he begins whirling it again for another go. He holds it up high and lightning strikes. When he slams it on the ground, the concrete implodes, sending all the oncoming skeletons off their feet. Apollo then runs straight into his mess to find the survivors. He throws a punch, knocking them over like dominos.
Apollo then chooses to grab one by the neck and hold it high.
"Why are you here?!" Apollo yells at it although he's not going to get an answer. It was worth the shot to try.
Apollo throws it on the ground before going into a fistfight with another group of them. Once there's an opening, Merida slides right through on her thigh as she fires three arrows at once, each of them exploding at the press of the button on her quiver. She leaps back on her feet, inserting another arrow into her quiver. Merida inhales and fires on the exhale. The arrow cuts right through the spinal cord of a skeleton and uses a boomerang effect to fly back to Merida but she ducks purposely to avoid catching it, and the arrow does the same to another skeleton behind her. Then, Merida snags the arrow when it flies back to her.
-o-
Elsewhere in Manhattan - Time Frozen
"Xavier!" Emily exclaims. "Please, get up, please!"
No response.
Emily looks up at all the skeletons and her suit flashes a headcount of a doable number. She stands up, keeping a stance in front of Xavier to protect him as she lights up her repulser beams and starts firing. She can't help but think about how Xavier can't catch a break. First the Contingency Plans, then Hel, and now this.
Emily has to step forwards and leave a distance between her and Xavier just in case any projectiles fly past her and hit him so she pushes a car with the strength of her suit to protect him. When her back is turned to Xavier, he starts coming back to the surface. He feels groggy and dizzy with his head feeling like it'll explode and his ears are ringing, but the first thing he sees when he wakes up are the skeletons and he immediately recognizes them.
He remembers that dead forest where it was dark the whole time. He remembers the leader who always loomed over him and knew him by name. "Welcome to my realm, Xavier Rogers, for I am Hela, the Goddess of Death." He remembers seeing her again, feeling a tinge if joy inside of him before he became unsure if she was alive or not. "I'm in a limbo…" Then, the last moment he truly remembers is taking her hand and running for their lives. "I suppose my fleet will suffice…"
Seeing those same skeletons makes Xavier groan to himself as he touches the open gash on his forehead.
"...not you again!" Xavier yells.
His voice causes Emily to turn around and she sighs in relief. But for a moment, she thinks she's optimistically hallucinating. Emily puts her suit on an automatic fight mode as she ejects herself from her suit, taking out the gun she keeps in there.
Xavier looks up and sees a skeleton approaching him. His hand stretches to grab his shield but before he could do anything, he hears gunshots and the skeleton crumples before him. Xavier looks ahead and through the underneath section of the car in front of him, he sees heels walking towards him. Once they're in full view, he sees Emily standing there with a gun in her hands. She immediately kneels beside him.
"Oh, thank Thor…" Emily pants gratefully as she puts the gun in her belt. "I thought you died. My suit picked up mild internal bleeding."
Xavier waves it off. "It's fine. Blood's still flowing."
Emily is left speechless at that unorthodox logic. Xavier stands up and curses at the sight of the skeletons as he pulls out his shield.
"I located the others," Emily says.
She points the way and she and Xavier start running. Emily calls her suit to follow but still give them a head start from the skeletons.
"They're just along 5th Avenue and in the same predicament we were," Emily continues. "Daniel is still nowhere to be found but I'm working on it. Do you have a plan yet?"
Xavier shakes his head. "Find out what the hell is this, how the hell this is happening, and where the hell Daniel is."
"Is that all a pun?"
"Shut up, Stark."
Emily snickers as Xavier rolls his eyes. He looks down and sees that Emily is sprinting in her heels.
"How the hell did your shoes stay on this whole time?" Xavier asks her.
"I only buy good quality," she responds.
-o-
Location Unknown, Time Unknown
"You can't hide from me forever!" The voice continues to yell.
Daniel continues to back further and further away from the voice, wherever it was coming from. He just hopes he's scurrying in the opposite direction. Daniel knows that whoever is screaming is calling a monster and he knows that his Hulk is the only monster here. He fears whoever would want it and why they would need it.
"I know you're beneath the Earth ready to eat it alive!"
At the sound of those words, the ground starts trembling as if on cue. Daniel stumbles over, falling on the dry ground and sand flies into his eyes. He coughs and wheezes as he continues to scurry away. Once the ground has calmed down, Daniel continuously blinks to get moisture back into his dry eyes. He rubs at them furiously and ends up turning them green to ease the pain better and easier. For the moment, he decides to keep them at that state to benefit him.
Daniel looks ahead and sees a giant crack in the ground. He continues panting as that sign alone tells him that he's not the monster being searched for here. At that point, he should feel relieved but he isn't because now, he hears footsteps.
Daniel turns around in fear, ready to turn into the Hulk if necessary. He turns his head around to see what's there and his entire body freezes at the sight.
She takes every step towards him delicately and lovely, each move perfectly intricate and coordinated. It's a woman in a dark green corset with tight black pants. Her dark boots stop once she comes close enough. The bodice of her is tied tight, contrasting against her free-flowing golden hair and magic surrounding her atmosphere. Her eyes are as green as her powers, like his, and her mouth is slightly open in shock. Sitting on her head is The Serpent Crown.
She's so familiar, as if she has never changed in the past years, but she also looks like a different person. It's not moving on, it's moving differently. That's all this is. Different life. Different world. Different rules. They don't leave that world behind. They just create a new one. She has taken his breath away from his lungs. Daniel is almost scared to say her name since Sigyn Lokisdottir looks and sounds so foreign to him.
When Sigyn's eyes lock with his, the winds stop and the magic disappears from her hands as they fall to her sides as the ground settles to rest. Her hair rests on her shoulders and her chest heaves up and down with every breath she takes. It's almost like she's the one surprised to see him at the moment.
"I hate that you're seeing me like this…" Sigyn whispers to him, her voice cracking. It contrasts her current appearance.
"I'm glad I get to see you," Daniel responds.
Daniel feels calm yet petrified at the same time. Yes, the voice now has a familiar face to it but at the same time, she's unrecognizable. One thing that Daniel's always remembered about Britney Braun is that although she's very fragile, she can hit with the strength of ten thousand men.
