LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 24
Chapter 24
Raptor of Life: Jean Quantum’s Gate adventures
Jean Grey In the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.
-- Star Trek Intro --
Jean arrived on Asgard in the MCU after being sent away from Earth-618 and started shaking things up. She's now preparing for the Dark Elves attempt at sacking Asgard, she turned Jane Foster into an Asgardian Valkyrie and obtained the Reality and Space stone to create a powerful intelligent weapon named the Witchblade to safeguard the Infinity Gems in her possession.
# # #
(Jane Foster)
November 12th 2013
Royal Palace of Valaskjalf
Training grounds
Jane couldn’t believe that she was here in Thor’s home and now part of his race because she befriended a cosmic entity in the form of a teenage girl six years her junior. But appearances were deceiving, surely? Jean was a quirky girl, she could drink grown men under the table and eat two boars by herself; so much so that she impressed the participants of the last banquet they had joined in Jean’s honor.
The astronomer liked the fact that Jean was looking out for her, she went out of her way to telepathically implant knowledge on how to use multiple weapons -Bow, Spear, Sword, Dagger, Mace, Shield, Maul- into her mind and started training with her. Apparently, Thor couldn't do it as he was bad at hurting people he loved.
Jean told her that Thor was just being a big softie and he planned to spy on them on the training ground. When they got there, Jean started the female scientist with stretches and a long run around the grounds. The redhead then decided to teach Jane how to hold a sword despite having loaded the knowledge in her brain.
Next the two women squared against each other, Jean manifested her magic gauntlet and a blade reminiscent of a katana blade sprouted out of it. Despite Jane clearly having superior strength and reflexes, Jean mopped the floor with her. But each time Jane stood up, she became stronger and held onto her own for longer.
"You're doing good, Jane!"
Slam! Jane landed on her back and looked at the blue sky and white fluffy clouds. Was it still afternoon and the same day…? Jane didn’t know and it didn’t matter to her right now. When she sat up, she stared as the redhead began cooing at her magical gauntlet. "Ah, you too, my precious. You're so beautiful, do you like mommy too?"
The red and blue stones shone with deep and blinding light and the gauntlet wrapped itself with golden flames. "Good girl, you're a good girl. Yes mommy loves you."
The brunette looked at Jean, the redhead put her cheek against the spiked gauntlet and treated it like a pet or dare she think… a baby. Jane was at a loss for words. "Jean, what are you doing?"
She tilted her head, as if what she was doing was logical. "Bonding with my kid?"
Jane stood up on her feet, her eyes not leaving the special gauntlet. "But it's a gauntlet?"
"Yes, Jane. An intelligent weapon that I created." Jean said as if what she was doing was normal and that Jane was the weird one.
Jean smiled patronizingly. "You really need to get on top of that magic stuff."
The astronomer glared at Jean and pointed her finger at her. "Wait, I am the weird one?!"
Jean nodded, but Jane couldn’t understand after a bit of thinking. The redhead was used to magic and she had a different common sense than her who was originally born a mundane human. But it was still mean. "That’s mean."
The redhead smiled, and pulled a pair of sunglasses that she put on stylishly. “Deal with it.”
Jane closed her eyes and counted to ten, she had to be paired with the walking meme and internet troll; she swore that Darcy and Jean must never meet. This universe might not survive it. Jean seemed to be a really good person, but Jane felt that deep inside there was a layer of violence, mercilessness and monstrous bloodthirst wrapped around her core. Thor had reminded her countless times since having accepted to be placed under the aegis of Jean Grey that the young girl didn't think like a human anymore, that she should stop anthropomorphizing the redhead.
Thor told her that she should be treated like a force of nature and that she could stop feigning her humanity at the drop of a hat. But Jane couldn't do that, Jean acted too much like her friend, Darcy, to treat her like a stranger.
She made her into an Asgardian, and now she is stronger, faster, smarter and there was this well of energy inside of her that she could almost touch but couldn't and that Jean was training her for. After this brief training session, it was magic lessons with Queen Frigga. However it seemed that it wouldn't be happening as Jane heard someone stomping toward them. It was a beautiful woman with black hair, blue eyes wearing silver armor and a red cape.
She stopped before Jane and Jean, there were three men behind her, they were familiar; then Jane remembered, those were Thor’s friends. She recognized the portly redhead man, his name was Volstagg; the blonde fop, Fandral, and the silent Asian looking man, was Hogun.
Sif dismissed Jane entirely, focusing on Jean. She pointed her finger at the redhead and said, “You!”
Jean rolled her eyes, not seeing the danger in that situation as if she was used to it. “Me. You're Sif, right?”
The raven haired woman sharply nodded, her tongue was equally as sharp. “Yes. And you’re the sorceress, the meddler who ruined everything for me.”
*Oh, so this was what it was about.* Jane thought. Sif really wanted Jane’s boyfriend. The brunette glared at the Asgardian woman, her sword appearing in a flash of yellow light.
Jean put a hand on Jane’s forearm to calm her down, then she turned to Sif to say, “Aww, are you mad because I foiled your plan to get married to Thor?”
The venue went silent at Jean's spot-on question, seeing the anger and fury of the woman before them, Jane would say that Jean had successfully needled Sif. The warriors and guards who had been training on the grounds were now surrounding the small group.
Sif took a dagger from her sword belt and threw it at Jean’s feet, it stabbed itself in the sand between the two. “I demand an Honor duel.”
Jane was about to refuse on Jean’s behalf when she realized that she couldn't speak. Jean spoke immediately, her hand tight around Jane’s arm, the brunette realized that she had been silenced for some reason by the Avatar. “Get out of here, Sif. You’re too weak to even polish my armor.”
Someone behind Jane yelled, "Quarrel fired!"
Then the people around them started chanting like a mantra, "Fight, fight, fight!"
Fandral, the blonde man in green hooded cape and leather gear declared, “We will be acting as witnesses!”
Fwooosh! Jean’s hair caught on fire, her eyes filled with flames as her voice echoed into Jane’s head. “Oh, how sweet, you brought your three friends to get their bottoms’ clapped too.”
So this was what Thor had meant when he said Jean’s humanity fell on the way side when she got angry. As one, everyone but Jane stepped back from them. Only one of the Warrior Three was smart enough to understand that they were outmatched.
It was the strong looking red haired man with the ax, Volstagg. He said to his female friend, “You know Sif, I think I left something in my chambers. I’m going to go get it real quick.”
He turned heel and was about to leave the crowd, but it seemed that he was trained to listen to Sif as when she said, “Volstagg, stay here!”
He listened to her and stopped. “Fine…”
Jane saw Jean’s hair stop being on fire, she raised her magical gauntlet of Doom and said, "If it's a fight you want… Sif. It is a fight you’ll get, don’t come crying to Prince Thor when I’m done with you."
Like liquid mercury, the gauntlet spread over Jean’s entire arm, then all over her body. RIIIIIIP!!! The action was broken when Jean was now made half naked, her dress ripped from her body and only wearing barebones armor which covered only the most sensitive areas around her body; Jane asked herself why Jean was now wearing what amounted to a metal-like bikini. If Darcy was here, she would have called this a… Stripperific outfit closer to a chainmail bikini.
Jean’s red dress reassembled itself and laid folded at her feet and something golden and red began absorbing it into her body. Jane was fascinated by what she was doing; the redhead began complaining, “Fuck. Baby, I hope it won't happen again. The Witchblade cloth ripping curse followed you here, really?”
The gauntlet’s gems glowed intermittently with awkwardness. Everyone looked at the half naked form of Jean, some of the boys averted their eyes, while the women compared and judged Jean. Jane was the first to ask, "Jean… why the metal bikini?"
There wasn’t any shame in Jean’s body language, she posed for Jane like a 1940 pinup. Nudity itself isn’t shameful. How can it be? It’s just us being and looking like what we simply are. Rather, shame of nudity is an artificial culturally conditioned response fed by feelings of inadequacy of oneself, intolerance of others, a need to decorate ourselves due to our own plainness, and as a means to express our rank and situation.
In many modern cultures, the “shame” is enforced by associating nudity with sexuality. Just like right now, the Asgardians were supposed to be a futuristic society, but seeing a half naked woman seemed to be too much for them.
Jean said without shame, "This is my new fighting form it seems. Baby, is still young and doesn't know that I need the clothes. So I am going to end up half naked most of the time before she realizes that fact."
Jane swore that Jean was fucking with her right now. "Don't you feel a bit chilly here?"
The redhead threw Jane a deadpan look. "I can breathe in space, Jane."
*Oh…* Once again, Thor’s warning about Jean rang into her mind; she may look human but she wasn’t anymore.
Sif, who has been ignored by the two women while they bantered, called Jean, "You slatternly shrew…"
"Oooooh!" Everyone reacted around them as if the insult -because Jane assumed that it was an insult- was something grand.
"Not bad!" Fandral added his own commentary to the situation.
“Hold up! What did you call me?” Jane saw Jean give those people more rope to hang themselves with. Where was Thor? He needed to rein in his friends!
Sif put on a smug expression. “You heard me, you scarlet woman, don’t you have any shame?! You're besmirching this sacred training ground with your nudity and magic tricks.”
Jean raised her hands in a smooth motion in a ‘stop here’ movement. “Oh, you think this is a game?! That I am similar to the likes of Amora?”
Sif shrugged. "You seem like two peas in a pod."
"Ooooh tell her, Sif!" Fandral continued to fan the flames of conflict.
Fire wreathed Jean’s body as she said with a neutral tone in her voice, “Imma whoop your bottom, you needy skank! And you Fandral, I am going to curse you to look like a troll.”
"No!" The blonde man looked at her in horror as he held onto his face.
SCHING! Sif unscathed her sword with her right hand and her small buckler shield grew on her left arm. She said with a voice filled with confidence, "You won't be alive to do it, witch!"
“Bring it, wench!” Jean quipped back as a katana sword appeared in her right hand, it became imbued with white fire.
Sif yelled as she charged the smaller redhead. “Aaaahhhh!”
Their blades clashed together and Jean kicked Sif who caught the heel of her armored boot with her shield; it didn't stop her from being sent flying into the crowd.
"Is this all you've got?" Jean said in a domineering tone.
Sif was helped up by the rest of the people and she looked at Jean with hate-filled eyes. She threw herself at the redhead again, this time she was more prudent in her approach and targeted Jean’s vitals methodically while avoiding the redhead’s blade.
However, she must have forgotten who she was fighting, spider-like limbs sprouted from Jean’s back, at the end of each of them were swords and suddenly it was like Sif was fighting eight people. Her Millenia old experiences as a weapon master showed itself as she used her speed and reflexes to escape each of the limb swipe. Sif danced and jumped as she survived the onslaught of Jean’s adaptive weapons.
But here was the crux of the situation, the weapon adapted to Sif’s fighting style. A limb had already speared through Sif's shield and taken it from her arm. Next, with her flaming sword, Jean made the war goddess' cape catch on fire. Sif immediately took it off and it landed at her feet.
Jean let go of her katana, which disappeared in a woosh of flames. Jane heard the redhead speak to her magical gauntlet, “Baby, war fans, please.”
Two daggers the size of short-swords materialized into Jean’s hands. With a flick of her wrists, Jean's two daggers unfolded into beautiful blue fans.
Jane couldn’t put her finger on it, but she was sure that she had seen those before. "Hiryū Shōten Ha!!"
But before Sif could do anything, Jean agitated fans and directed them at Sif who widened her eyes when she saw two columns of displaced air of different temperature collide to form an energy laced tornado which instantly grew from the fans to engulf her.
Dwoooooom! The sound of the funnel rang in the air and the tornado moved toward the Bifrost’s bridge.
Jean harrumphed. “You wasted my time.”
Jean Wins! Flawless Victory!
A deep male voice rang out and Jane was suddenly enlightened as to where Jean took those fans from… Mortal Kombat, Princess Kitana. Jane wouldn’t have remembered it if it wasn’t for Darcy forcing her to play with her to decompress between research.
“Look at her go.” Jane said as she saw Sif being treated like a merry go round that stayed up in the sky.
When she was done looking at her handy work, Jean’s gaze fell on Fandral who was trying to run away in the crowd. Jane saw her friend smile like a shark and she walked up to the blonde fop and she told him. "I told you that I would curse you."
Zap! The man lost all his hair, then he became taller and his skin began emanating a bad smell as it gained a swamp green color; Fandral panicked and began growling in terror.
Jane’s eyes widened and she began to laugh, holding onto her belly. Jean summoned a mirror and placed it before the previously blonde man who looked at himself and cried, "Noooo!"
She snapped her fingers and a blue portal opened on a forested area and Jean lifted him with telekinesis and punted him inside. “Bye bye!”
Everyone began running away from the training ground as they realized that the redhead was indeed a wicked witch, they all feared magic to this extent. Jane watched as Jean stopped her fellow redhead from leaving, it was Volstagg. “Oh, Volstagg, just the man I wanted to see.”
Thor was running toward the training ground, bellowing to Jean to wait! Jane couldn’t stop laughing though. Jean opened another portal and stepped in with Volstagg. "Here, let's go look at the prisoners you brought back."
# # #
(Malekith)
Back when Jane picked up the Aether…
As the mask keeping him in stasis unfolded, Malekith opened his eyes, awakening by feeling the elated sensation of the Aether reaching out; however, something happened as the substance disappeared from his magical senses. But he tried again, stubbornly reaching out for the presence of the Aether, but when he did, he found the substance less ethereal, no it had become solid and…
SLAM!!!
SLAM!!
SLAM!!
SLAM!!
Malekith was bounced into his quarters as something powerful reached out to him and grabbed him, slamming him repeatedly inside his room. When it finished with him, he heard a voice telling him, “Mind your fucking business, Xeno.”
“Uuuurgh.” Malekith groaned as he stood up with difficulty. He couldn’t believe that he had been assaulted remotely from wherever the Aether was now. Who could do this?! This sensation of rejection, it was as if he had been found wanting by it. But he couldn’t stop! His people counted on him! With the Aether, he would be able to resurrect his dead species and bring back the previous universe. Whichever being has the stone now, won’t stop him from reaching his goals! He swore it!
Malekith walked up to his loyalists who were barely awakening in their pods and said in a commanding voice, “The Aether awakens us. The Convergence returns.”
It was some hours later that Malekith and his harried band of loyalists arrived on Svartalfheim. One of the Nine Realms, home of the Dark Elves; Asgardians and other inhabitants of the Nine Realms refer to it as "The Dark World," while the Dark Elves themselves call it “Harudheen”.
Two elves exited a black ship, they walked on as they looked at the desolate landscape. The only source of visible light for the world was a black hole. Malekith stopped himself and kneeled to grab a fistful of dust from the ground.
“Look at my Legacy, Algrim. I barely remember the time before the light.” Malekith said in a totally emo way.
Algrim, his subordinate, placed his hand on Malekith’s shoulder in support. “Our survival will be your legacy.”
Malekith felt a bolt of fury striking his heart, fanning the flames of vengeance inside him. He stood up and said to his friend, “The Asgardians will suffer as we have suffered. I will reclaim the Aether. I will restore our world and I'll put an end to this poisonous world.”
Algrim and Malekith returned to their ship, and began plotting their vengeance on Asgard like good little dark elves.
“The Realms will be aligned soon.” Malekith takes out a knife and turns toward Algrim. He looked sad at what he was about to do…
As he said, “You'll be the last of the Kursed.” He stabbed Algrim in the stomach with his large knife. They shared a moment of intimacy, forehead against forehead.
Algrim said more courageously than he felt, “Let my life be sacrificed. The same as our people.”
“You will become darkness, doomed to this existence until it consumes you.“ One of the masked dark elves placed a molten rock in Malekith's hand and the leader of the Dark Elves placed it inside Algrim's stomach with a squelching sound. “And then no power of our enemies will stop me.”
Algrim looked on at his leader, with faith and promised, “I'll destroy their defenses and resurrect the universe.”
Malekith nodded, then turned his head to look at one of his dark elves as he carried a mask.
# # #
Back to the present with Jean and Volstagg in the Dungeon…
We arrived just in time to see Algrim exit his cell by shattering it. Before he attacked the wardens and freed the other prisoners, I pushed them out of the way and called out to the Kursed. “Yo, Algrim!”
The Kursed turned toward me and Volstagg who had taken his ax in hand and entered a battle stance. The Witchblade slithered around my body, forming more armor to protect me; uh this was good, my Baby would help me gauge the power level of my enemy. Algrim in his Kurse form was definitely stronger than Sif.
“Who are you?” The Kursed asked.
As I walked toward him without fear, I introduced myself, “Sorceress Apprentice Jean Elainedottir. Your killer, and the one who will erase the blight of your species on this universe. I swear on my magic that I will return the Dark Elves to where they belong.”
I carefully didn’t say where that was, he must have thought that I said to the embrace of death or something like that. My hands lit with fire, and he didn’t even notice the metal snake slithering from my shadow to his. I conjured more Darklings to fill the shadowy dungeon, no one would escape today.
The Elf turned Kurse snorted in ridicule; not noticing the things going bump in the night, but the prisoners and wardens did and they stood frozen in fear as I summoned more and more of the creatures. “You’re not even Asgar-”
TWACK!! The black metal snake swiped the Kursed’s legs under him and then… the Darklings surged around Algrim and held him on the ground by each of his limbs. As I walked toward him, my darkling boys started to steal the weapons of the guards and presented them to me as offering. I looked at a particularly pretty sword that could spew energy blasts. I swiped it from the imp’s hand and kissed its forehead. The Darkling put his hand on his forehead and fainted with a beatific smile on the ground.
Funny guy. Goldie absorbed the weapon while I stopped next to Algrim as my Reality stone glowed with utter glee as it reacted to what I wanted to happen. “What I am about to do to the remnant of your race, I’m going to enjoy it very very much.”
Zap! A chainsword appeared in my hand, and when I pulled on the throttle, the weapon made an angry buzzing sound as the teeth spun around.VRRRRRRRRR!!!!!
The prisoners in their cells cowered as they heard the sounds of the weapon in my hand. With glee, I gutted Algrim with the chainsword, the buzzing sound intensifying into a high pitched scream as they ground into the Kursed’s armor. The Kursed bellowed in pain as my chainsword gutted him, and I started eviscerating the elf while laughing. The last Kursed died at my hand that day.
When I was done with him, I looked at my Darklings and said, “He is all yours, devour him, boys.”
# # #
(Volstagg)
Like a pack of hungry Hyenas, the Darklings descended on the carcass and started eating it. Volstagg still had his ax in his hands as he watched the other redhead as if she was a monster. “You went easy on Sif, my Lady…”
“I could have done worse, she’s lucky that she’s Thor’s friend. And like I said earlier, she’s too weak to be considered an opponent.” The young girl who was old enough to look like his daughter said.
Volstagg nodded and decided that he wouldn't ever be on the wrong side of this terrible sorceress, even if he had the armies of Asgard behind him and Odin himself ordered him to do it. The Darklings parted as the sorceress walked inside the dungeon and started to speak. “Prisoners! I have need of you! I will buy your freedom if you fight for Asgard today! Today we must erase the taint of the Dark Ones upon this universe. Who is with me?!”
None of them said anything, Volstagg kind of understood; The Sorceress was clearly a rising Dark Lady and they wanted nothing to do with her. The portly warrior said to the younger girl, “A bunch of cowards, my lady. You can’t expect anything from people like this, they’re all bandits or con men with delusions of grandeur.”
The sorceress was clearly thinking about something, the Dark creatures she had summoned finished quartering and bleeding the corpse, they started eating it. “If they’re so useless, I think I will free up space in the dungeon.”
The Darklings perked up at that and started looking hungrily at the prisoners in the cells. She turned to Volstagg who gulped as she asked, “What do you think, my friend?”
“I…” Before Volstagg could say anything, someone interrupted him. It was a willowy redhead… another one.
She screamed from the cell she was into,“Me! Pick me!”
Sorceress Jean tilted her head, smiled, her eyes roamed over the other woman’s body. “Ah, Lady Lorelei. Come, come.”
*Of course, she had to find the other terrifying magic user.* Volstagg thought in the privacy of his mind.
Lorelei is an Asgardian sorceress who can use her voice to ensnare the minds of men. Six centuries ago, she attempted to conquer the Nine Realms using her abilities, but was defeated and earned the hatred of Lady Sif and Warrior Three in the process. Volstagg remembered those times, they were really bad…
The cell’s force-shield flickered before it shattered. Lorelei protected her head and when she saw that the shield was down, she exited the cell. Tiptoeing toward Jean and Volstagg with a victorious smile. Before she could say anything to them, two of the Darklings jumped on her and pulled her to Jean’s feet by her hair.
She was made to lay on her back and Jean used her gauntlet to make a… golden collar with a blue sapphire set in it. One of the Darklings took it from the waiting hands of its mistress and then turned to Lorelei. They put the golden collar around her neck and Jean moved toward her. Volstagg breathed in relief, it seemed that the Sorceress wasn’t dumb enough to free Lorelei without… guarantees.
The redhead crouched next to Lorelei’s head and lifted her chin with a gauntleted hand and looked into her eyes. “If you even think you can betray me, you are already lost. Nothing in this universe can help you escape me. The very concept is anathema to the reality you now face. The Darkness cannot shelter you, not your pathetic body nor even your foolish thoughts. I know where you are, I can always find you if you try, and I will know if you even think of it.
And then, perhaps not that day, but in the moments you feel most at ease, when you grasp for a glimmer of hope, you will die - if I am feeling particularly merciful. I can be exceedingly creative with my wrath, and death is but a kind fate compared to the depths of my imagination. Understood?”
There was the familiar smell of urine coming from Lorelei, who nodded quickly. “Yes, Milady.”
Jean stood up and she smiled at the woman who was let go by the dark creatures. Lorelei stood up and warily stood next to her new mistress.
“You’re now my shieldmaiden. You may address me as Mistress Jean, or Milady Phoenix. Go look for your sister, and draft her to my cause.” The redhead produced another golden collar, this time with a jeweled green sapphire onto it and handed it to Lorelei.
“As… you wish, Mistress Jean.” The woman curtsied with a deferential tone.
Jean then stared at the other cell, no one spoke as they looked at what happened with Lorelei. “Boys, you can start to feast, thank you for helping me today.”
The Darklings shouted in joy, with guttural noises as the cells’ lighting turned off and the force-shields flickered to let the creatures enter them and started tearing into the prisoner population.
“No!!!”
“Aaaaahh!!”
Jean turned to Volstagg, and he shook a bit as she walked toward him, followed by Lady Lorelei. She put a hand on his arm and told him, “It’s time to go help the realm against the Dark Elves. Go warn everyone, Volstagg.”
He didn’t have to be told more, he needed to get away from this budding Dark Lady. “Right away!”
Volstagg fled, poor bastards in those cells should have just joined her…
# # #
(Heimdall)
Himinbjorg
Bifrost bridge
This day had started really well, Heimdall started his duty by taking his breakfast and training as usual, took his bath and then maintained his armor and weapons. He then returned to his post in the Himinbjorg, looking around Asgard for threats outside and within thanks to his abilities. As Heimdall stood in his usual guarding post, he suddenly heard something, it was a buzzing sound, reminding him of an engine. He turned and ran out on the Bifrost bridge. He jumped onto a cable under tension of the bridge, he jumped again, this time on some sort of cloaked ship that was distorting the light around itself.
He pulled his daggers from their sheath and rendered the ship visible as it incurred damage; after a long moment of struggling, he succeeded in sending it crashing into the sea. Heimadall landed on the Bifrost, and looked at his handiwork. He panted, his efforts had borne fruit; however, another buzzing sound similar to this ship rang behind him. Heimdall soon found that a giant black ship was behind him releasing smaller ships to attack Asgard.
FWOOSH!! Fortunately, it seemed that the fates favored him as a golden portal opened next to him and out of it, the red haired Phoenix Avatar, wearing nothing but a metal bikini, exited it. "Milady Phoenix!"
She said the most reassuring things today to him. "Heimdall! I got this! Go raise the Palace’s defenses!"
He nodded and went to retrieve his sword key in the Himinbjorg. But he heard the Phoenix Avatar yell out, "Time to kill some Xenos!"
With red luster, the woman went from 170 cm to at least 210 cm and was covered from head to toe in a black, red and gold armor. She pointed her hand at the black ship. "Just fucking go down!"
The giant ship was leaning dangerously against the bridge’s tower, its engine trying to escape from the force holding it. BOOM! SPLASH!!
The Phoenix Avatar kept the dangerous mothership down, but whoever was manning this wasn't deterred for long, other smaller ships started pouring out of the downed mother ship like rats.
“It’s day, the Darklings can’t help me… I see, let’s call in the other team.”
The skies darkened as multiple golden apertures opened into the sky, Heimdall spied white wings, gold skinned beings and heard the flutters of feathers. He tried to not care as the army of angel looking beings flew after the fighters firing at the city's building and hidden defenses.
# # #
(Thor Odinson)
Royal Palace
Thor couldn't believe this was happening, how could people be so bold and attack Asgard? Heimdall raised the defenses in time as Milady Jean was now keeping the invading forces busy. The defenses were slowly taking down the ships flying around the city, but some of the cannon turrets were being taken down by the invading force through Kamikaze attacks.
Those people wanted at all cost to enter the palace, as if they were looking for something there. Asgard’s own fighting forces were starting to react, the militia and royal guard converged as well to help the citizens. Thor was evacuating some of the people inside the shelters when he saw radiant light and winged beings start shooting beams or balls of fire at the black ships.
The black ships fell from the sky to suddenly crash somehow into the street instead of the buildings and the explosion of the flying crafts were contained by bubbles of force. The pilots inside were also coincidentally spared and ejected from the ships and…
"No, this can't be a coincidence! Someone is doing this!" Thor realized as the angel-like warriors secured the dark elves responsible for this attack of terror on the city.
Asgardian warriors attempted to get violent on the attackers but were rebuffed by the winged beings safeguarding the dark elves. The light coming from their body and presence diminished and allowed Thor to see that they were all golden skinned and wore some rudimentary armors but exquisite weapons wrought in light.
A seven feet tall winged warrior with a giant ax walked toward Thor in a non-threatening way. Thor asked when he was before the being, "Who are you?"
The being retracted his wings behind his body and said, "My name is Remiel and I follow the Lady, she asked us to neutralize the dark elf threat upon your lands."
"The Lady?" Who was the Lady the winged warrior radiating with supernatural light , with powerful weapons and physique spoke about? Thor had an inkling about who Remiel was talking about.
As if reading Thor’s mind, Remiel went into more details. "You know her as Jean."
"Ah. You're with Milady Phoenix, I should have known…" Thor lowered his precious Hammer. Then he asked another question, "How many of you are out there?"
The way all those female and male beings carried themselves screamed of being military, and that they are used to fighting together as a cohesive group. The way they moved at the mind-blowing speed and resisted bolts of energy from the fighters made them powerful warriors. Thor wasn't eager to fight them, and he hoped that Lady Jean knew what she was doing by hiring them.
"Enough." Remiel shrugged and then turned toward his brothers in arms guarding the downed elves.
Thor followed the Warrior and tried to engage him in conversation, looking as the last of the fighters were being taken care of. The defenses of the palace were already up. "Not really talkative, huh?"
The tall angel-like being turned abruptly and suggested, "Prince Thor. Why don't you make yourself more useful and stop your men from attacking my brethren?"
Thor watched as some of the royal guards approached Remiel's people with ill intent. The Asgardian nodded, he didn't want friendly fire to occur. "Right, I will do that."
Remiel slightly bowed his head. "We appreciate it."
Thor flew to the guards and cried out, "Cease! They are on our side! Help them secure the prisoners."
BOOM!! Something happened, one of the towers ended up leaning against the magic shield protecting the palace. Another shockwave destroyed the building for good until only dust raised in the air; something got ejected from the debris and dust crashed against the gold covered wall of another tower which was more sturdy and weathered the impact this time.. Out of the dust, someone else walked out with purpose and looked rather menacing.
Their steps echoed like thunder as they walked toward the Dark Elf. At least, Thor supposed that it was a Dark Elf. The being was rather ugly looking, was it one of the so called ‘Kursed’ that his father had told him about? One moment the person walked slowly, the next they moved at blinding speed that surprised even Thor who is used to following the movements of lightning.
BANG!! The tall woman started hammering at the Kursed, striking at him as if he was a drum. People began cheering at the fight; meanwhile the downed and secured elvish prisoners cried in support for whoever this Kursed was. Thor didn’t have a clue about what was happening…
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!" Then she pinned him with a sword with a glowing blue blade.
As the woman loomed over the Kursed, she pointed her hand at him and said out loud, “You are unfit… to wield so much… power.”
Black and orange fissures started appearing all over the Kursed’s body, then black smoke exited through the Kursed’s mouth. Thor could only describe this energy in the form of a cloud of smoke as chaotic. Then Thor looked transfixed as the elf returned to being a pale skinned one with white hair and lost in height and girth. The god of thunder heard the dark elves prisoners shout the equivalent of:
“It can’t be!”
“Impossibru!!”
“Look, he is returning back to normal!”
“But becoming a Kursed is forever!”
The elf pinned on the sword was still breathing, but with difficulties and he stared hatefully at the woman with white hair and exotic armor. The woman then started speaking aloud, "You're weak, Malekith and an idiot to boot. You really thought that we wouldn't guess at your plan when we have multiple seers in Asgard?"
*So this is Malekith? He was done-in rather fast.* Thor said in the privacy of his thoughts. He noticed how the angelic beings were all on their knees, holding onto their fire-wrought weapons in deference to the woman.
Malekith spat blood on the woman’s armored boot. "You whore! Who are you? You killed my men! They were just following orders!"
She chuckled. "They listened to you. And simply following orders has never been a good defense."
Thor felt somewhat intimidated by this woman’s countenance, she acted as if she was the biggest warrior here, as if she owned the streets they were walking on.
"You butchered them!" Malekith cursed her in his mother tongue after that.
"The fact that you care this much about your people and that I don't, gives me an evolutionary advantage. And if history has proven *anything*..." She took back her magical sword from Malekith’s guts.
“Owww!!!” Malekith screamed like a girl.
The woman continued her diatribe. "...It is that evolution always wins. Your species' time in this universe has been revoked." With a movement of her hand, Malekith floated up and the woman kept him at eye level with her.
She watched him in the whites of his eyes as she raised her free hand and… reached into Malekith’s ribcage and grasped his heart and squeezed.
"Aaaaaaaaaaah!!!!" Thor heard the dark elf scream in agony, he wouldn’t be surprised if Malekith could be heard all over Asgard at this point. Golden and orange flames wrapped around the two people and Thor finally realized who that woman was. Slowly but surely, Thor watched as Malekith was finished just like that, burned from the inside with cosmic flames.
When she was done, the woman swept her sword to the right, the black blood of malekith soiling the stone ground. She then sheathed her weapon and turned toward where Thor was located. She sauntered toward him, and when she finally reached him; Thor recognized Jean Grey, but with short white hair. "Milady… Phoenix?"
She smiled innocently at him. "Oh, Thor. My friend. I see that you've got things well in hand."
“What happened? Can you tell me how you got to fight against Malekith?” Thor said worriedly, he knew that despite her apparent youth, the girl was more powerful than him. However, he couldn’t stop his instinctive reaction of wanting to protect her.
Jean pursed her lips, scratched behind her head and laughed awkwardly. “Well, it went like this…”
# # #
(Flashback)
25 minutes earlier…
Back with Jean Grey…
I towed the huge mothership toward shore and opened it like a tin can. Just like I thought they would, the elves surged through the holes armed to the teeth and threw black hole grenades at me. I let them explode and then, I rewound time with my basic chronokinesis and made it so that they didn’t go off. With TK, I brought them all to me and placed them in my new pocket dimension where I was storing stuff. I loved the space stone, and it loved me back.
As I stood on the Rainbow bridge with my Angelus warriors flanking me, I hollered, "Dark Ones, this is your last chance, surrender… or die!"
I had to give it to them, none of them threw out their weapons and they stood defiantly against my team of warriors who were specifically attuned to the light. They were their antithesis, but I doubt the dark elves knew that. "I have taken all of your fighter pilots alive. They will be treated with decency and treated as prisoners of war."
I tried parlaying with them, if they didn’t accept surrender, that was their fault. I wasn’t here to save them or anything; my generosity had limits. Of course, the dark elf leader stomped all over my charity and pissed on it. He hollered back, "Nay! I-we cannot give up, we need to continue and-"
Taking my chainsword from my pocket space, I interrupted Malekith by pushing the On button of the melee weapon. VRMMMM!! VRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!
I raised my plasma gun from my holster. "I see you’ve forsaken wisdom, you're so blinded by your goal and pride that you don't see any other solution to your baryonic poisoning problem than returning the universe to its previous state. How surprisingly short-sighted for an immortal elf."
My winged warriors brandished their weapons and entered a combat stance, they were ready to fight at my say so. The rank and file of the dark elves stepped back until they reached the foaming waves of Asgard’s ocean as I blasted them with fear aura thanks to my empathic abilities.
"Who are you? You're not Asgardian." Malekith’s voice seemed neutral to an outside ear, but I could feel the fear and uncertainty filling him as I confronted him.
As usual, I didn’t want to give my name to my enemies, that is why I decided to troll the elves. And the situation was so… fitting, I couldn’t resist. I raised my chainsword, "I am the sword of the Ecclesiasrchy, the cleansing flame that will purge this universe of its corruption. I am part of the pure, the faithful, the light in the darkness. I am one of the Sisters of Battle! I fight with the holy trinity of Flamer, Boltgun and the Melta! I will defeat every Mutant, Heretic, Alien and Demon who stands against me!" I took care to add my Low Gothic accent to my speech.
The dark elves all stared at me as if I was completely mental, though my speech raised the fighting spirit of my Angelus Warrior who screeched, howled or screamed their war cries. Malekith finally said the opener to the fight and unsheathed his knives. "You're crazy."
(DOOM Music Start)
ZZZOOM! ZZOOOOOM!! I killed two elves with my plasma gun. "I prefer the term fanatical." I quipped as I started reinforcing my body with TK.
Malekith looked murderous, two dark elves less for his ragtag group. "Kill her!" He commanded, pointing at me with his short-sword.
All the elves charged us with their weapons in hand, rushing toward death unknowingly. I bellowed my order to the Angelus Warriors, “WARRIORS!! SHOW NO MERCY!!”
As one, all the winged warriors started to flare with holy light and took flight while shooting:
“FOR THE ANGELUS!!!” The Vanguard warrior threw themselves at the dark elves at the fore of the enemy formation.
“FOR THE LADY OF FIRE!!!” The female pyrokinetic Angelus warrior started bombarding the dark elves with streams of fire. The sky was turned white with the onslaught of light generated by the Angelus Warriors; sometimes they fired bolts of holy light which exploded in the cohort of dark elves.
“ROAR!!!” The quadruped creatures launched themselves into the melee, biting, ripping and shredding elves left and right.
While I jumped into the fray, I shot at three elves who thought that I couldn’t see them when they were under stealth cloaks. ZZZOOM! ZZOOOOOM!! ZOOOM!!! Three well placed shots disintegrated them, only leaving their lower body and arms.
When I landed amongst the dark elves, I twirled like a ballerina and every elf around me tasted the bite of my Chainsword; black blood, guts and organs escaped from the confines of the dark elves armor which wasn’t simply solid enough to resist the spinning razor sharp teeth of my weapon. I began laughing and delighted in the destruction, death and rampage I was sowing. VRMMMM!! VRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!
“DIE ALIEN SCUM!!” I said while sending bolts of lightning into the ranks of the elves firing at me with their own plasma weapons.
They harmlessly fell against my TK shields. I glared at them and through my eyes a torrent of psychically-generated flames poured forth and burned them to smithereens. And this is where I notice the bodies piling up around me; the harbor’s ground was slick with the blood of the Dark Ones. Hmm, I needed to do more precision damage, that’s why I dismissed my plasma gun and chainsword, then switched for the melta-rifle in my pocket space. The reality stone was awesome and gave me new stuff to play with all the time, Imperium weapons would be enough for this conflict.
The weapon in my hand charged, then I jumped toward a bunch of elves that were still resisting, they had still managed to slay some of the quadrupedal Angelus warriors. It didn’t matter, they never truly died, they were just sent back to the realm of light of the Angelus. The elves were running out of black hole grenades, those little singularity bombs were the only reason why they succeeded in felling my troops.
“HOLD THEM!!!” I yelled as I teleported next to a warrior who was about to be sliced open by Malekith, who kicked back into the ranks of his people.
A lull in the battle was thus created. I unleashed my cosmic fire and healed my warriors, their radiance reinforced by mine. “THIS IS WHERE WE FIGHT!!!”
I pointed my hand at the elves. “THIS IS WHERE THEY DIE!!!”
The air literally vibrated with the Angelus warrior cries, “AHOOOOO!!!!”
My work started back when I decided to enclose the dark elves into walls of stones and my pyromaniac angelic ladies started throwing balls of fire into them; the warriors were immune to fire so they jumped inside the walls and started killing everything that moved. I fired the Melta gun in the holes that I created to fire indiscriminately into the elves' stone prison.
They screeched and screamed as I started turning the elves into molten biological cinders. I took half of the black hole grenade that I’d taken from them from my pocket space and threw them down into the pit and telepathically told my warriors to fly up.
The grenades went off with ‘WOMP!! WOMP!! WOMP!!!’ sounds; then I heard a suction sound coming from inside the stone enclosure.
Silence, complete silence inside; I looked at my side at one of the winged warriors and told him with telepathy to go look if there were any survivors. He spread his wings and jumped in the air and flew overhead. Beams of scarlet energy fired from the inside of the enclosure, but the warrior rolled right and avoided being hit. I threw the melta-rifle into my space and summoned twin bolter pistols, then jumped inside. When I landed, I was instantly assaulted by a dozen survivors that I threw back into the walls with a strong TK push.
My weapons locked and loaded, I started shooting… Hellfire rounds into them with devastating effect. The mutagenic acid inside the vial shattering and delivering acid into my elvish foes. It was horrible to see their bodies being melted from the inside. Desperate, the remaining elvish warriors launched themselves at me to mob me. Each time they were about to reach me, I slapped them with a TK blast or I turned up the gravity and they couldn’t move anymore; in those cases I simply fired a round in their body.
My precog flared and I rolled on the right and fired where I was standing earlier. There stood a cloaked Malekith who dived out of the way of my bolter rounds. I looked at the magazine, it was empty and I didn’t have the luxury to load ammunition. I threw my bolt pistol back into my pocket space and next I called down… my Nemesis Force Sword.
It was a longsword, with gold pommel in the form of a bird of prey, the blade is tempered iron, flecked with shards of silver and inset with ancient runes of Daemon-slaying. “It seems that only you are left, Malekith.”
Unsheathing my sword, the blade started glowing with blue light, feeding on my psionic energy and the deadly warp energy. Malekith looked around him, at the corpses of all his brethren and subordinates and he said, “You wrought more damage to my race than any Asgardian army; you don’t fight like one of them, you use modern weaponry, and you’re too ruthless and brutal. Tell me your name, and I shall write it on your tombstone once I’ve killed you.”
With a tilt of my head I answered. “I already told you who I was; but what amazes me is how you actually don’t care that I’ve killed everyone who supported you? How typical…”
“I do care, Sister of Battle; I’m well past grief for my subordinates. To avenge them, I will not only destroy this universe, but I will destroy all that you love and kill-”
I rolled my eyes. “Spare me the villain banter, come at me.”
Malekith looked up in the sky and saw the Angelus Warriors circling the enclosure, waiting for my call. He then closed his eyes and reached inside his coat where he took out two black crystals; I knew exactly what those were. But I let him Kurse himself. He looked at me with so much venom in his eyes that it could have been considered a mental attack. He broke the two crystals in each hand; Malekith did this because he didn’t have the reality stone to boost himself. But once again he made a bad choice, why were those elves following that madman again?
Black smoke swirled from the crystals and then imbued itself inside Malekith’s flesh, orange fissures spread all over his body as he swelled in size and muscles and screamed as the energy rewrote his genetic makeup. Then the conversion was done, he became a Kursed twice the size of Algrim and he fucking looked like a sabertoothed abomination.
“Now, I have the power to kill you.” Malekith said in a guttural voice as he walked toward me.
I laughed, he really thought that he was going to win this. “I really doubt that, I was going easy on you; now it’s time to finish you off and burn your existence from this universe.”
I reached for Malekith’s mind and trampled his soul and started crushing his will to fight on. Oooh there was some resistance there, but he slowed down his gait as I poured on the psionic energy to crush his mind. I guess this was going to be a fist fight. I sheath my sword at my waist and walked toward the Kursed behemoth. The Convergence was now upon us, the walls between dimension and reality started getting thinner and thinner.
I couldn’t unleash my might as a Phoenix avatar, or else I would burn this entire universe to the ground; that’s how fragile it was. This is why I didn’t start killing the damn elves with a thought. “Any last word, Malekith?”
“Die!” He threw a punch straight down.
But I caught it with my hand and held him down with TK. I smiled, “As you wish.”
BANG!! I struck him on the solar plexus, sending him flying into the wall, I lunged at him and then started ramping up the strength of my punches, boosted by Goldie’s Klyntar enhancement of my body, the Witchblade upgrade to my strength and my tactile TK allowing me to destroy mountains. Malekith could take it, he gave back as much as he received, I diverted the kinetic energy of his strike to send it back to him.
The wall crumbled under him and I sent him directly into a portal created by the convergence of the Nine realms. Following him here, I found myself in a forest; Malekith having landed in a rock formation. With my TK I tore boulders out of the ground and hurled them at Malekith who noticed what I was doing and started punching at them, turning them into little chunks thanks to his monstrous strength.
I began laughing as I glared at him and… used my Kinetic vision. "KAMEHAME… HA!!!"
KRAKOOOOMMMM!!! The scarlet beam of kinetic energy struck Malekith and as I pumped more and more power into it, I pushed the Kursed fifty kilometers away. Looking behind me, the Angelus warriors were pouring out of the portal, following us. I shrugged and jumped where I could still feel Malekith’s mind, he was still resisting my mental assault. But I was winning, he was losing his resolve.
My form was wreathed in cosmic fire as I flew toward my target who was still buried under the ground. We were flying over some kind of steppe. I could spy a village not too far from here. Reaching for the minds of the people inhabiting it, I skimmed their knowledge and discovered that I was on Vanaheim.
I needed to cut this fight short, because I didn't want to disturb the life of the Vanir villagers… Malekith finally extricated himself from the mound of rock and earth I had buried him under. He gasped for air and then looked around, when he looked up he saw me and my Angelus warriors looking down on him.
His eyes widened as he looked upon me, seemingly recognizing something, oh I think he now knew who I was. He looked frantically around and then ran north.
"Where do you think you're going?" I shouted angrily.
Me and my team followed him at super speed. "Coward!"
However, Malekith jumped into another convergence portal between two trees that were strangely placed next to a river. We followed him inside and… the fuck? We were on Earth, more accurately, Paris, France. How did I know that? The Eiffel tower was visible from the park where we landed.
Malekith continued to run, but I couldn't have that, that’s why I created my own portal opened into the sky of Asgard and while he jumped to get away from me he fell right into it and I teleported to him and punched him in the face with 30% of my psionic strength.
The shockwave sent him flying through multiple asgardian buildings…
(Flashback end)
# # #
"And that is how I fought him from Asgard to Midgard and then back here." I finished my tale.
This was a really epic battle, way more satisfying to fight than the assault against the Hand or Hydra. My blood was still pumping, my adrenaline kept carrying me, I was still battle ready. But enough blood has been spilled today, I had my fill. Thor put a hand on my pauldron and said with a proud smile, "What a great tale, did you record everything?"
I could understand why Jane was in love with the guy, he was a good guy when you got through the frat boy persona that he had going on. I think he needed better friends to guide him; not just… enable him. "Well yeah, I've got recordings, wanna see them later?"
There were cameras in the powersuit I was wearing, Imperial technology was still something I was studying right now. I had a thought partition dedicated to it; it was a mix of technology and fucking magic at this point. I didn’t steal anything, all the weapons I got were from fallen people in the 40k verse. I mean there were so many people dying there, that it wasn’t funny. Now I have a sample of the tech to reproduce it, and there were no pesky Mechanicus to stop me. Fuck those guys.
Did you know that the Warp existed here too? But it was super calm here in this universe and usable. Thor tightened his hold on my armor, pulling me out of my thoughts. "Oh yes, I will. This is a good way to report.”
My Angelus warriors all landed next to us, finally catching up to me. I turned to them and the female one in charge came toward me, her name was Gabriel. “The threat to Asgard is gone, my Lady.”
I walked up to her and passed my arm around her shoulders. “Yeah! You were a big help; Angelus Warriors are certainly a powerful bunch.”
She slightly bowed her head. “Thank you for your praise.”
I let go of her. “You guys still want to stick around?”
“Some of us desire to stay with you, Lady of Fire. Others want to go back to the light.” She reported.
From three hundred Warriors, I counted two hundred and eighty still present. “How many of you want to stay?”
She raised her well callused hand, and brandished three fingers. “Three, to act as your bodyguards.”
I saw a huge guy with a sword and a quadrupedal warrior placing themselves behind Gabriel. They looked strong and eager… With a sigh, I rolled my eyes. “Are you amongst them?”
She nodded. “Of course my Lady of Fire.”
“Good.” I nodded back.
Turning to my favorite golden retriever, I mean Thor, I said, “Thor, gather your palace guards and your soldiers. And prepare to replace the Angelus Warriors I plan to send back.”
“Ah, very well.” Thor acquiesced.
As I looked at him; he took something from his belt, it was a small rectangular shaped device and he began giving orders into it. I can’t wait to take a nap after this, because this armor is really heavy; I really needed to streamline and downsize it. I looked at the devastation wrought by my fight with the dark elves… I needed to fix this.
# # #
(Analyst 1182-E)
The Time Variance Authority Office
The alarm blared, the sensors were now reporting that this timeline was being retro-actively changed. Something that should be impossible! True time travel theoretically doesn't exist! Someone was traveling along the timeline while changing its future and… horror wrote itself on the face of the analyst as hundreds of timelines were now forming. He decided to call it in, he couldn’t do anything about what was happening…
He pushed the emergency line’s button.
"This is Analyst 1182-E, uh, reporting a code, uh, 000. Branches rapidly forming at a slope—"
But this wasn’t so simple…
“Minuteman 200914867365, reported deceased!”
“Minuteman 20061486 , reported deceased!”
…
The analyst sat in his chair, countless agents were now dying or were lost and the rampant spread of variant timeline seemed to be impossible to stop. He looked at his computer and looked for the point of origin of the catalyst… it started all offworld, someone had changed something big…
A/N: As promised, here is the chapter! Have fun! I hope you'll like the references in this one; oh and the TVA is fucked.
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