- Manhattan, New York –
"Round two, punk" The strange undying boy addressed the two Asgardians calmly- the teen tilted his head in a confused manner as if he was decerning knowledge only he was privy to. His lips pursed into a thin line, eyes aglow with a haunting yellow hue, his pupils an electric blue shone brightly.
The boy's gaze became fixed on Enchantress, a manic smile bloomed behind the boy's hidden features. Strangely enough, his eyes were empty, devoid of anything that resembled the arrogant, rash but bold child that challenged him and the mighty green one to a battle of fists.
Black miasma bled out of his form in waves, shadow-like particles saturated with strange properties akin to the mists of Helheim filled the air beside the child; merging, growing, pulsating, and shifting like a mass of dark fluid flames.
Something had changed.
The god of thunder could feel it, his hammer hummed and crackled with malice. Lightning crackled around his form as power pulsed in his veins.
This was concerning, unlike most magical weapons Mjolnir had some form of sentience, and although it could not think for itself the weapon did process a will of its own. The fact that it acted was enough for Thor to realize the sudden dangerous shift in their situation.
Thor took a cautious step back; one hand gripped his hammer tightly while the other gently pushed the enchantress protectively behind him.
The Asgardian Sorceress was oddly quiet.
"Amora?" Thor spoke softly, his voice hinting worry for the woman. She seemed to grow pale by second, her hands shook as she took a shaky step back into Thor's embrace, her expression was of unease and trepidation.
"That child… Can you not feel it Thor…" she spoke, almost whispered, her mind in turmoil trying to make sense of the being before her. Her hand reached out to cradle the nasty bite mark left by the boy? The enchantress glanced at her blood, the wound was still fresh. Why had it not healed yet? Why weren't the spells working? It was as if she was reduced to a mere mortal. Like the magic she had didn't work… What was that putrid black mist surrounding that boy?
"My wound… your Mjolnir…"
A sudden, concerning realization dawned on her. If her line of thinking was correct, at this moment, he was her perfect counter. What were the odds of running into such an individual on such a remote world? One with the power of anti-magic-true nullification.
"Thor, that child, He must die today," Amora commanded Thor with renewed conviction. Her hands lit up with green Nordic rune circles.
"Ay, my love, as you wish. Prepare yourself. I think he means to kill you." Thor warned her, he moved to the front to confront the teen only to pause in his stride.
"Then let him try. It will be his end." the enchantress replied. She sent a hidden beacon alerting all the Chitahuri near the area to gather at her location.
Both Asgardians watched as the black smoke finally began to lessen. The black miasma slowly dissipated, and from it came another figure. Dressed in black with a face covered in stale white bandages.
{False Ajin: Active – fifth death variant_designation: Noir}
(A/N: False Ajin are past versions of Peter and when summoned they are referred to in the order in which Peter has died and possess abilities up to that point. I.e. the first death variant would be Peter in chapter one before his death on the bridge- This version would only have his demi-human ability.)
The new arrival simply glanced around and cracked its neck before speaking. "Damn, this is weird. So I guess I'm the shadow huh? Scratch that, this is actually pretty cool. Guess it's a fair fight now Your Majesty."
The bandaged-clad individual did a mocking bow.
"Ay, but this changes nothing" The Asgardian prince replied, arms at the ready with Amora to his left.
"Your magic may be strange for a mortal, but my hammer and I have yet to taste defeat in the heat of battle."
"Not yet." the black glad teen teased. His voice was rich with mockery and mirth. The one next to him remained still and silent only regarding the banter with a mechanical gaze.
A mighty roar filled the streets once more. It wouldn't be long before the mighty green beast would be joining them for this battle.
Both parties took a moment to size each other up. All around them, the Chitahuri horde began to close in.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Shakespeare in the park? let's dance." The bandage-clad teen shot forward in a blitz of speed. The other made a beeline for the Enchantress who shot a blast of magic towards him in retaliation while simultaneously casting multiple illusions of herself across the field who mirrored her actions.
Thor spun Mjolnir high above his head summoning streaks of lighting as he blasted forward.
"HAVE AT THEE!"
*Boom*
…
-Elsewhere in New York-
Gwen Stacy was not having the best of times at the moment. After her supposed return to what was supposed to be her own universe, she was starting to question whether this was even the right universe.
She swung through the chaotic streets of New York dodging plasma bolts, slugging flying armored aliens, and jumping around on the backs of leviathans. As luck would have it, the area she dropped in had only a few stray leviathans and Chitahuri swarms as the bulk of the attack was suddenly drawn away.
Just another average day as a superhero. It was times like this that she would question her life choices. Hopefully, Miles and the others were having better luck than her right now.
The spider-themed hero dropped diagonally onto the side of a building to try her phone but the battery was fried- interdimensional travel tends to do that to normal tech.
The streets below her were like a war zone. Screams and panicked cries filled the air; gunfire, explosions, and blue and red lasers came out of every direction and miniature freak storms were forming in two different places at the same time.
"Seriously, what the hell is going on?" Gwen wondered aloud as she swung around towards the nearest police precinct. She was sure her dad would be there and even if he wasn't there, it was the best way to get in contact with her family or at the very least find out what was going on.
The teen was alarmed when she heard screams and gunfire amidst the chaos prompting her to drop low and make a sharp turn around the corner as she swung. Just below her, a few Chitahuri foot soldiers were in a firefight with a group of cops protecting a few civilians who took cover behind their police vehicles.
She took the scattered Chitahuri out with ease and her surprised arrival distracted them long enough for the cops to take the rest out.
"Hello there, citizen, just your friendly neighborhood spider-woman here to help." Spider-woman quipped as she dropped on the roof of their vehicle.
"Thanks for the help kid," An aged officer answered her with a sigh of relief.
"Any idea what's going on?" The spider-themed hero asked.
"Can't you tell? Look around ya kid, it's a goddamn alien invasion!" the old officer huffed as he fiddled with his radio scheming through various NYPD channels.
"Look. Your guess is as good as ours, Spidey. One minute, it's a normal day, then bam! Big hole in the sky, Bam! giant metal snakes everywhere, and these things just start pouring out. From there it just got crazier" a younger officer chimed in as the rest began guiding the scared civilians
indoors.
"You have any news of the 15th precinct?"
"Sorry, Comms have been down since this shit show started, got someone you know in there?" the officer replied.
"Something like that" the teen hero answered vaguely.
The sudden sound of the police radio crackling to life getting undivided everyone's attention.
"Attention all units, attention all units, this is Captain George Stacy, switch to my channel for secure comms. We got a major situation goin' down at 35th Baker Street. Repeat, 35th Baker Street, We've set up a barricade and we're holding strong with a little help. This isn't a drill, folks. We have an invasion on our hands. Hostiles have taken over the area. All available units and any able-bodied civilians nearby with a gun, get your butts over to 35th Baker Street for a last stand. We need every hand we can get. If you can't make it huddle down and sit tight, help is on the way."
"I repeat. This is an all-hands-on-deck situation. I repeat, all able-bodied units and civilians in the vicinity, hustle over to 35th Baker Street immediately. Lock down the perimeter, protect the civilians, and hold your ground. We're the last line of defense here. If you have a weapon, use it. We're all we've got folks."
Gwen stilled as relief flooded her being at the sound of her father's voice. Almost instantly the channel was flooded with shatter.
"Unit 22 to Captain Stacy, copy that. Were pinned down just a few blocks away, heavy casualties, taking fire, we got officers down."
"Unit 7 to Captain Stacy, we're on our way, ETA 7 minutes."
"Copy that Unity 22, we're en route to you, Captain Stacy out. "
"Unit 2 to captain…" the old officer quickly joined the chatter with a sit rep, with a pause as he turned to look at the spider-themed hero.
"Well, you heard the captain, get your ass over there. We can manage with what we have here, they'll need all the help they can get."
Gwen gave the old officer a quick nod with a mock salute before quickly swinging of, she knew where her dad was, now all she had to do was get to him.
…
-Back with Peter-
Peter met Thor's hummer with his reinforced fist with a clang, the impact give out a bust of electricity that fried the armored carapace covering his hands but dissipated upon coming in contact with his skin.
That hammer was becoming a nuisance for the teen. It didn't help that countless Chitahuri kept swarming him the moment he and Thor separated.
He was violently pushed back by the lightning-empowered Thor- countless crimson crystal shards shot out from his Kagune, stabbing Chitahuri foot soldiers and exploding on impact.
Somewhere along their fight Thor took it upon himself to take Peter on as the Hulk and Enchantress battled the manifestation of his False Ajin Noir. Turns out there were restrictions to summoning the living embodiment of death onto the mortal plane so he had to settle for the next best thing, his past self.
Peter dodged a barrage of lightning strikes using a few Chitahuri foot soldiers as shields then used their charred bodies as makeshift bombs after stabbing them full with his blood crystals.
He tossed them at the blond prince who batted them aside with ease. The thunder god attempted to bring forth more lightning but Peter activated his Imagine Breaker temporarily sealing off Thor's magic causing the god to pause in confusion, the green in his eyes lessened giving way to his stormy blue but Peter didn't give him the chance to blink, he was upon the god in flash- hands pulled back with the Will of Saitama already in effect.
The surprised god could only bring forth his hummer to defend himself. The resulting shockwave sent both fighters spiraling apart.
Peter could already feel the side effects of the image breaker affecting his body, the will of the entire human race whispering in his psyche- blood trailed from his nose and eyes. His right arm was already twisted and mangled from the drawbacks of the will of Saitama.
On the other hand, the thunder god took a moment to regain his bearings, his iris blinking between an eldritch green and stormy blue. The effects of the Imagine Breaker were beginning to affect the enchantress's spell on the prince Asgard - something Peter took note of.
"What is this? What is happening? Why am I fighting…." the god trailed off before the green energy took hold of him again. He turned to Peter with an infuriated gaze. The green in his eyes glowed intensely as if to hold the prince down.
Peter took this in with an impassive gaze, his body wasn't strong enough, it could handle the drawbacks of his other abilities. He wasn't healing or adapting fast enough. He needed to reset.
Peter coldly brought his palm to the side of his head and without any hesitation blew apart his own head with his branch of sin.
The god could only watch in muted shock as the teen's body fell limb as did most of the Chitahuri around the Norse man. Peter's Ajin however remained active in a brawl against the enchantress and the Hulk not far from where Peter and Thor were.
Thor watched as the headless teen pulled himself back on his feet with his head reforming from the black miasma. He was disturbed by the teen yet sickeningly fascinated at the same time. The Norse god had met many a creature during his long life but never one quite like this.
"I ask you once more, what manner of creature are you?"
"Not of this world" the teen replied, eyes empty- with a voice devoid of any semblance of humanity.
It took less than ten seconds for the teen to heal himself completely. It took even less than that for Peter to reactivate his imagine breaker and the will of Saitama and shoot toward the enchantress at speeds that left a sonic boom in his wake.
Thor hastily threw his hammer after Peter with all his might in hopes of stopping Peter from reaching Amora.
….
-With the enchantress, hulk, and Noir-
Amora was annoyed, beyond that- she was livid. Before her a creature of shadow and death battled with a monster of flesh and rage.
The green beast grunted and growled as he tried and failed to pound the black-clad teen into the earth. The teen fought with the martial prowess, strength, and skill of a practiced master.
She knew a shade when she saw one, a being comprised of one's own shadow given life and soul from its caster but the one that she faced with the green beast was unlike anything she faced before.
It was death incarnate; dead yet living, an abomination born of something ancient that spit in the face of magic as its nature stood in opposition to the very notion of magic.
She growled in frustration as she threw more spells at the thing.
This planet was supposed to be easy, Loki promised a world ill-prepared for a force of such magnitude. A world ripe for conquest like the Asgardian legends of old.
What they got was a world filled with hidden monsters and untold dangers. Strange beings with powers and abilities that baffled even her with her centuries of knowledge gained from halls of knowledge in Asguard.
The boy, that mortal, he was not of this world, she had never met a being so shrouded by death save for the Mad Titan Thanos himself but even then, death's touch on him paled in comparison to the hold it had on this boy.
On the contrary, it was almost as if he was that haunting dark miasma, that shroud of death cherished the child. Regardless, that child had to die, anti-magic was rare, very few could negate magic, and even rarer were those that could completely erase magic from existence.
Amora erected another barrier in front of her and shimmered away leaving behind an illusion, one that was quickly destroyed by the shade as it slammed into it- destroying her barrier with ease. The green beast followed with him with a horde of Chitahuri.
Amora paused as she felt her spell on her beloved Thor weaken slightly. She quickly cast an enchantment to reinforce the spell. It was old magic, strengthened by Loki's scepter, she held no worries about the spell breaking as the more one tried to fight the spell the stronger it bound them to its enthralling snares.
The only way to end the spell was her death, or the destruction of the binding agent which was Loki's scepter.
And neither would…
*Boom* A sonic boom shook the air.
A sudden chill crawled up her spine and the foreboding feeling of death shrouded her being.
It was only a moment. A passing shadow in her peripheral vision, but it frightened her to her being for she knew in that passing second that she was dead.
Her magic failed her, all magic in the area ceased to be except for the magic in her body. She willed all her magic with every fiber of her being and called out in summons of the person she knew would always answer her plea.
"Executioner!! To Me!!"
Hulk made a move to defend her but Noir tackled him aside as both fell into a portal opened up under them. One of many to tare their way open around the enchantress to redirect anything that would do her harm.
Through the creaks in space, she saw it.
She only caught a glimpse of the shadow of what would be her death, a child with bright empty eyes, fist drawn back before a portal erupted before her, and Mjolnir knocked the child directly into it but it was far too late, one of the children's crimson limbs sliced her diagonally through the portal before it closed cutting the limb in half.
On the side of the city, a building had its upper floor and a leviathan its lower half reduced to atoms from Peter's punch.
…
-Elsewhere with Spider woman-
Gwen swung wildly towards 32 Backer Street, she knew this street so navigation there was easy enough.
She dodged a few plasma bolts and took a few more floating Chitahuri out before finally reaching her destination. Used her webs to launcher herself forward, the building in questing was just up ahead of her.
Chitahuri hordes littered the streets firing on them, and a line of police formed a barricade much like the one she was at previously, they were in a heated gunfight as scattered medics did what they could for the wounded amidst the chaos.
Dread filled her as she saw a leviathan swooping down from the sky, its shadow looming over the barricade below. She could see her dad among the many officers, he stood out like a beacon.
She used every ounce of strength she had to push herself forward; twisting and turning in the air with her webs for extra speed.
She was so close.
It was then that a shimmer of light flickered against her mask. The space directly ahead of her was split open as if someone had taken a sharp bade at cut a hole into the air. A figure fell out and then all hell broke loose.
*Boom*
A violent shock wave shook the skies and the streets blasting Gwen back onto a nearby roof. By the time she regained her baring, all she could see through the cracked lances of her mask was a figure jumping back into the portal leaving nothing but destruction behind.
She walked forward and watched the officers below gather themselves. Half a leviathan lay bleeding next to the torn bodies of Chitahuri foot soldiers.
"No…" she whispered in horror – pinned under the metallic limb of a leviathan was her dad.
...
-Back with Thor-
Recalling his hammer back into the palm of his hand, Thor ran to a stop in front of Executioner cradling a bleeding Enchantress in his hand, his axe in hand.
He had only a moment to bring up his hammer to guard both himself and the executioner as Peter came shooting out of a portal that the executioner opened to reach the enchantress.
One that opened right in front of the X-man.
-Chapter End-
Spider people and their canon events, there always has to be something ya know. You didn't think Spider-Woman was safe, did you?
And now Peter is unknowingly the direct cause so more drama incoming.
Anyway, I'll once again apologize for the late update but it is exam/assessment week for me so I've been busy with school studies, test assignments, and other useless stuff.
Now if only if only there was a way to financially support me of fanfics alone. (^_^)
Cough*support*cough*me*cough*on*cough*paytreon*cough*
patreon.com/DASOR
*Cough*
Anyway, shamelessness aside, hope you all enjoyed the chapter.
And thank you, Ashfield, for the support.