Avengers: Damnation

The Hungry

Though they didn't want to separate from each other, Thor and Dean knew how crucial it was to proceed with their exploration of the strange worlds they were trapped within. Though a strange barrier kept the small worlds apart, they knew that there must be same way to bypass it.

"I just refuse to believe that there isn't some kind of intersection," Aegis carried on.

Nightstar solemnly agreed with Aegis but Lumen barely heard the rest of the exchange. His mother was gone, his sons stolen from him. And now his husband was in another world. A sadness began to make a home in his core, filling him with the stirrings of its despair.

"Hey," Aegis said when he noticed Lumen was falling behind. He moved back to his friend and embraced him. "It's going to be okay. We'll fix this."

Lumen lifted a brow. "I though I was the empath around here."

"Shut up," Aegis said, squeezing Lumen tight.

Before Lumen could respond, a sensation struck him- an overwhelming hunger, so ravenous to the point of pain.

"What is it?" Aegis asked with a scowl.

"Something hungry is nearby," Lumen warned in a low and ominous voice.

Then the fog-coated beach began to tremble. Lumen and Aegis shared a similar look of annoyance. Then, in a burst of sand and displaced air and fog, something burst free from below, knocking all three heroes aside and blinding them.

"What the fuck is it?!" Aegis coughed, his mouth full of sand.

Then, punctuated by a ravenous snarl, something latched onto his leg and pulled him to the ground. The wind knocked out of his chest and he trashed about, attempting to telekinetically separate himself from whatever was now dragging him.

"I've got you!" Lumen screamed before diving and grabbing him by the hand.

Together, both heroes were dragged by whatever had a hold on Aegis's leg. Nightstar took off in pursuit, chasing them and the mysterious assailant through the sand. Visibility was restored once they cleared the sand cloud, revealing a freakishly emaciated creature. It held onto Aegis with its cartoonishly large mouth and jagged teeth. Doglike in its body language, the thing was abnormally thin, all of its bones on full display beneath a sickly-colored hide. With breakneck speed, the beast moved backwards, rapidly approaching a hole in the sand behind him.

"Got you!" Nightstar shouted, landing on top of Lumen and taking hold of Aegis alongside him.

The combined weight of all three of them just barely slowed creature down. It snarled and shook its head in its attempt to wrestle Aegis away from Lumen and Nightstar. Having recovered from the loss of air in his chest, Aegis squinted his eyes and directed a bolt of force at the creature. The attack struck him in the face, forcing him to release his hold on him. The three of them moved to their feet and took up defensive stances as the creature was sent hurtling backward, disappearing into the hole.

"What the hell is that thing?" Nightstar grunted.

"Hungry," a grisly voice roared from the darkness before them. "So...hungry..."

The three heroes exchanged incredulous looks.

"Master promised me food..." the voice growled, this time coming from beneath them. But the voice held no logic or reasoning. It only conveyed a ravenous and mindless need. "Promised to end the pain..."

"It's tunneling underneath us," Aegis sighed, stating what the others already knew.

Lumen tracked the source of the insane hunger and spun around and fired, blasting a hole in the sand. The creature dodged the bolt and sprang up through the sand beside him. As it ascended, it spun around and threw one of its gangly limbs outward, striking Lumen from behind and throwing him forward. Nightjar fired a blast of magic at the beast but it simply contorted it body, bones crackling in its spine as it twisted midair to dodge the lance of power. As it moved through the air in a grotesquely graceful manner, it's spine clicked back into place. Landing on Nightstar's back, it pitched forward and sank its teeth into his shoulder.

"Fuck!" Nightstar screamed as an explosive aura of dark magic rose from him and struck the creature. It leaped from his shoulders, pivoted in the air, and landed in a crouch before the three of them. Arching its back like a cat, it bared its jagged, bloodstained teeth at them and snarled aggressively.

Nightstar unleashed another blast of magic, this time hitting their attacker. The creature fell onto its back and Nightstar flexed his fingers, invoking a curse of pain to keep the creature from moving. Its body let loose a spasm as agony coursed through its entire being. Nightstar's eyes flashed with darkness and a very different type of hunger flooded his own soul- a hunger for blood and pain and suffering. Lumen and Aegis observed as the dark magic user's skin slowly shifted from his pale complexion to a charred, blackened one. Dark purple veins of power traced his black skin, pulsing with magical light and a foggy aura of that same power resonated from him.

"Yesssssss," Nightstar hissed in a voice that reverberated as if a thousand were speaking at once, eliciting a chill from Lumen and Aegis. "Your pain is delicious, creature." He began to levitate off of the sand, his cape fluttering around him. "Writhe in pain! My soul craves it." He began to cackle manically and threw his arms open wide.  The Hungry thrashed and whined as its blood boiled with immense pain. It's body pulsated and sweated profusely.

"Uh, what's happening?" Aegis whispered to Lumen.

"He's giving in to his darkness," Lumen replied, his mind probing Nightstar's to find that the person they knew had receded behind a cloud of immense darkness. "His demonic side."

Horns began to sprout from Nightstar's forehead. They curled upward, majestic as a crown. His finger tips elongated as sharpened talons grew from them. Behind, a long and pointed tail slowly rose out of the seat of his pants. It curled about, resembling that of a cat at play.

But no sooner did the transformation take place did Nightstar flinch and rescind his assault on The Hungry. Fear replaced the power- fear of what he was. He fell to his knees and hid his face in his hands and the Hungry threw itself up into the air, taking advantage of Nightstar's restraint.

"Aegis- open its mouth!" Lumen commanded as he stepped in front of Nightstar.

Foregoing questions, Aegis reached out with his mind and tore The Hungry's maw open wide.

"It's hungry," Lumen snarled. "So let's feed it." With that, he let loose a stream of light directly into the creature's mouth.

Catching onto Lumen's plan, Aegis simultaneously kept the beast's mouth open and began to levitate massive amounts of wet sand. He sent the debits into its mouth like a never ending ribbon, watching as its emaciated body began to rapidly expand. The creature went to its hind legs and then fell onto its back as its belly ballooned. Then beams of light began to erupt from tiny tears in its body. The beams grew in size as the creature was slowly ripped apart from the inside. A horrific, wet, ripping sound hit the air, followed by an explosion of viscera.

Aegis hastily erected a telekinetic shield and the gore splashed against it, slipping down it in a viscous mess. "Uh...fatality?" He sighed.

"Are you alright?" Lumen asked, taking a knee next to Nightstar and cradling his head in his lap.

Nightstar wanted to open up about how he was feeling. He wanted to discuss the horrific internal tug of war that had just taken place. But speaking on it would only give that fear inside more power. "I'm fine," he muttered. He sat up hastily and brushed himself off. "Let's just keep moving."

Sensing his friend's resistance to discuss what had happened, Lumen nodded his head. "Right. Let's move out."

As Nightstar walked several paces ahead of them, Aegis tapped Lumen's shoulder. "What the hell was that?" He whispered.

Lumen looked ahead at the jerky and unsteady movement of Nightstar. "I think we need to leave it alone," he suggested. "He'll talk when he's ready. Besides- there are bigger things at stake right now."

Aegis nodded. "Right. I just hope he's up to this."