Rise || Marvel

《50》Expose Him, EXPOSE

Chapter 50! Milestone!

《 Tia's POV 》

Being dragged through a wall was a lot different than I expected. It didn't cause excruciating pain, for one thing. It more felt like I was being pulled through a wave of water, except I wasn't soaked when we emerged on the other side. Then again, I didn't really have time to take note of anything. Des's 'brilliant' escape route led straight to a sloped hill covered with grey-black dirt and pebbles.

"Barrel roll!" Des piped up meaningfully, "That way you might not break every single bone in your body."

Deciding that this was probably some good advice (and not particularly wanting to "break every single bone" in my body), I tucked into a ball. A ball of screaming and barely contained fire.

Eventually, I came to a halt in a sprawled heap at the base of the hill, face-down.

"How much easier would it be to just embrace death?" I remarked, voice muffled by dirt.

"Stop the Tumblr talk," Des suggested irritably, "But if you want death, you're in luck."

I scrambled to my feet, "Gen Z humour, buddy. And I told you that if you tried anything funny-!"

"Relax!" Des interrupted, "I wasn't going to fight you. Look around, twat."

"You're the twat," I grumbled under my breath. Turning on the spot, I surveyed our new surroundings. My mouth dropped open. About fifty yards away, a moderately large structure loomed, surrounded by great, dark grey, craggy stone walls. It vaguely resembled a medieval castle, but with a more of a Greek-style twist to it with the huge columns and artistic inscriptions. Twisted trees with dark brown trunks dotted the landscape leading down to the fortress. Far off to my right, I could just make out a pitch-black gate, as well as what appeared to be a giant dog. With three heads. Okay. On my left, a swirling river was tumbling through the path it had cut undoubtedly centuries ago. The water was almost opaque, with metallic hues shimmering across the navy and grey currents. From the looks of it, the entire scene seemed to be encased in some gigantic cavern.

"How do I know I can trust you?" I inquired, turning away from the mystical scenery and narrowing my eyes at the orange-haired male suspiciously, "I mean, last time we met, you were trying to kill me."

"Oh, you should get over that already."

"You literally tried to COMMIT A MURDER for the sake of a chat!" I shouted, feeling like my head was about to explode in frustration.

Des waved his hand airily, like a little murder attempt was nothing, "Honestly. I wasn't even doing that much! I could have summoned the dead to rampage, but did I? No."

"You could have summoned the what to do what now?!"

He shrugged.

Pursing my lips, I made a mental note to never piss this guy off to the point where he summoned skeletons or something, "Why should I trust you?"

Des pulled a face at me, "We want the same thing right now. To get back to Earth, right?"

"Okay, so we are officially not even on Earth..." I groaned, "Tony's gonna kill me."

"I'm not quite sure what's happened, either," He continued, "We should work together to find a solution, so we can get back as fast as possible."

"First of all, why would I agree to help you get back to Earth- a place where you recently caused a whole heap of destruction?" I frowned, "You nearly hurt innocent civilians, dude."

"I won't do anything like that again," Des snapped impatiently.

"And how can I trust that? At least tell me what your motivation was!" I persisted, "As things stand, I've got no reason to believe anything you say!"

"FINE! If it makes you trust me at least a little!" He groaned, "I wanted to rebuild this whole world after the accident and save everyone, but I couldn't figure out how to reverse the whole shebang."

"I'm so confused..." I furrowed my eyebrows, trying to make sense of the information unload, "Explain?"

"Yeah... I agree. It's weird. I've given up on trying to understand all the ridiculous rituals and requirements..." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "But I, um, think there's been some slip-up in space and time. I don't really know."

"What about that 'incident' you mentioned? What was that about?" I asked curiously.

The orange-haired male gave me a long stare, as if he were trying to figure out whether or not I was joking, or high. Eventually, he heaved a sigh, "You really don't remember anything, do you?"

"Huh?" I gave him the stink-eye, "I've never been here before?"

"...Nevermind. My point is, I think we can alter the outcome of the uprising before it really happens..." He offered.

An 'uprising', huh? Huh. Fuuuuun.

I leant back on my chair (still not really understanding what he was talking about), "...Aight. So... You're no longer on the 'kill stuff' warpath?"

"No. Now that we're back here, we can probably make things right without the city being destroyed."

"Ah, that's good," I stared at the table.

"And if we can do that," Des continued on his ramble, "Everything won't be destroyed in a chaotic spiral of combined magic. It would be nice if the whole destruction thing doesn't happen again. Any who, if everything works out, we should be able to get back to Earth without too much trouble."

"'We'?" I echoed.

Des looked uncomfortable, "Uh, yeah... Earth's a lot better, compared to being stuck down here 24/7 and being constantly judged by everyone... SO... If it's alright, I was thinking I could try live a normal life in new York. Maybe go to school. Get a job."

I furrowed both of my eyebrows, "Jury's still out on that. You're saying that if we save this place from total destruction, you would agree to live PEACEFULLY on Earth without nearly killing people?"

"Yes. That's... pretty much it..." He bounced on the balls of his feet hopefully.

"Look, I'll consider it, okay?" I sighed, climbing to my feet, "Let's go stop a disaster, shall we?"