Stand As Heroes » Quicksilver

chapter nineteen

19 x the battle of san diego begins

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[ Megan's POV ]

It quickly became apparent that Thor and I were doing the best in terms of battling the undead on my Earth. They were all armored up and unexpectedly strong, some of them unexpectedly fast. Taking off their arms and legs or even cutting them in half didn't necessarily stop them.

It was our biggest disadvantage in a battle: they were already dead.

The most effective attacks were my light blasts and Thor's lightning. We both literally could light up the battlefield, and that was the only thing that dissuaded the undead.

Strange had figured out the obvious before I had even arrived. Once the street lights went out due to the overlapping of realms, Strange did some spell -- at least, I guessed it was a spell -- that turned them into actual poles of light. It was super cool.

Other than that, Strange wielded flames in bursts, Vision was literally tearing the undead apart, and eventually I caught sight of Wanda. She threw hexes into the undead, hexes that caused them to either ignite, or disintegrate, but I noticed that she wasn't haphazard with her throwing. Red lit up my periphery near constantly, in spots and flashes.

I realized when I narrowly avoided being caught in the perimeter of a hex that Wanda wasn't going full-blown Scarlet Witch because she was trying to be mindful of the rest of us. After I danced around the circumference of one of her ignition hexes, we made fleeting eye contact across the battlefield.

Wanda mouthed "I'm sorry!" with huge eyes, but I was quick to wave a hand.

"No worries!" I shouted, though I doubted that she heard me.

I had no way to be sure, because what looked like a four armed giant lurched toward me, a boulder-sized fist swinging at me. I nimbly jumped away, only to see a second huge hand reaching for me. I turned intangible with a sigh and watched as the hand swung through me.

The momentum carried the giant a solid step and a half away from me -- which was quite a distance, given it was a giant -- before it seemed to realize it did not have me. It turned back to me, face half-skeleton, half rotted flesh, and roared down at me.

It smelled so much like death that it made my stomach turn. I grimaced as I curled my hands into fists and lit them up.

The giant brought down all four fists on me. This time I turned intangible and jumped so that I was at eye-level with the giant.

It opened its mouth to roar again, but this time, I was ready. As soon as its mouth was open I shoved both my fists out and sent a huge beam of light bearing down into the mouth.

The strangled noise that followed was gurgling and loud and made my stomach clench. I held the light beam, steeled myself against the smell of burning, rotten flesh, and twisted.

The top half of the giants head fell on top of some of the other undead. The giant stumbled forward before it fell to its knees and landed in a position that meant it was now half in Earth, half in Helheim.

With how the tear was creeping further into San Diego, it wouldn't be long before the giant was more in Helheim than on earth, because San Diego would be more in Helheim than on earth. It was not a pleasant thought.

Still hovering in the air, I twisted around, searching. I threw out a few random blasts at any undead that I saw closing in on my teammates, but they were absent-minded shots at best.

It took a minute, but I found him. A blur of blue streaked across the battlefield, zigging and zagging between Wanda, Strange, and Thor. He tended to stick closer to Wanda, which didn't surprise me, since I was literally out of reach.

I landed hard next to Pietro and grabbed his arm as I did. I turned him indestructible at the same time that I sent a wave of heat and light out from me, vaporizing the nearest undead.

Pietro smiled brilliantly at me. "You know, you are a very impressive woman," he told me.

I laughed. "Thanks, Road Runner. You're not too bad yourself."

I was glad I had kept my hand on him, and kept us both indestructible, when Thor landed in front of us with an explosive blast of lightning. His lightning crackled into the undead that had gathered near us again, frying them before they seemed to collapse in on themselves.

Thor immediately focused on me, and I had a sinking feeling.

I set my shoulders and slid my hand down to hold Pietro's.

"Lady Megan," Thor said as he took a few steps toward me. "I believe now is the time for us to cross over and see what we might do to put an end to this." He gestured about with Mjolnir, and zapped several of the other undead in the process.

Pietro's hand tightened on mine. "I am coming with you."

Dry laughter came from above us before Wanda landed beside Pietro. "You most certainly are not," she told him with a severe look.

"I have already almost lost her too many times--"

"We do not know the consequences!" Wanda jabbed an accusatory finger at him, "You could die! For real this time! Did you think of that!?"

Strange leveled the undead that separated him from us. "Pietro, listen to your sister. We don't know what going into Helheim will do to a human that's still alive."

I clenched my jaw and avoided Pietro's gaze.

"Megan is human!" he shouted at them. "Or did all of you forget this!?" He turned a fiery glare toward Thor, "You want to take her to Hell? What will happen to her?"

"Pietro," Wanda said, softer now, but still resolved. "Megan is not completely human."

A weird thing to hear said out loud, but now I knew it was the truth. I shrugged absently in response to my own thoughts, and risked a glance at Pietro.

He looked like if he had the ability, he'd be burning as bright as a supernova right now. "It does not matter. She is not invulnerable. She has limits. We all know this."

"She does have limits," Strange agreed as he threw up a shield over the four of us. "But hers aren't the same as yours. I understand you're worried for her--"

"I do not believe you do," Pietro growled. "None of you are listening!"

"Pietro." I squeezed his hand and urged him to look at me.

His rage eased ever so slightly. His eyes softened when we made eye contact, but I could still how worked up he was; he practically vibrated with it. "Love," he whispered as he reached up and cupped my cheek.

I smiled slightly. "It's not their fault. They don't actually want me to go, either." I searched his eyes. "You know that."

Pietro hesitated, but nodded once. I could see it on his face as the anger gave way to the core of the issue: fear. "Still, it-- I just-- I do not want you to go," he whispered.

I let out a shaky laugh. "That makes two of us," I tried to joke, but it didn't come out as playfully as I'd hoped. I pulled back from him just a little. "We both know I need to go with Thor."

He glanced over at where Thor stood, then turned his full focus to me. "Yes," he admitted, very quietly, "you do." He pressed a quick kiss to my forehead, and started to pull back.

But I pulled him closer by the front of his shirt and kissed him on the lips. When we pulled apart, I looked him straight in the eyes and said, "I love you, Pietro."

Then I let go of him and approached Thor with a nod.

Thor nodded back at me, and we both began to walk toward the ominous tear. I hesitated a few steps away from crossing over, and looked back at where Pietro was.

He shouted, "I love you!" and I could tell when he tried to come after me.

I could also tell when Wanda used her powers to literally pick him up.

I stepped into Helheim with a slight and somber smile on my lips, and watched as my world changed to darkness in a brand new, bone-chilling way.