yellow bird flying

[cutting_edgex23]

X doesn't leave any notes.

She takes Thor to Greymalkin Industries, acknowledging the mutants they pass with a quick flickering gaze, then moving quickly on.

It's the walk of an X-23 with business to attend to. They've all seen it before. Only half of them manage to ignore the Asgardian that accompanies her.

Once they've made it to the garage, X fishes out helmets for both of them, then checks two motorcycles (her usual and one other) for full gas tanks and decent repair.

That done, they're ready to go.

It's going to be a long, travel-filled week. And at the end --

Well.

They'll find out when they get there.

Comments

[mjolnir_retriever]

"Oh, geez," Spider-Man says. "I think I know what this is. It's the Uni-Power, guys."

He keeps talking, but Thor's only half-listening. The device in the small child's hand seems of greater interest.

And then X's hand -- which shoots out to clamp his right wrist, tight around the vambrace, and suddenly they're somewhere else.

A ruined plain of black stone and sand beneath a febrile orange sky festooned with broken moons. This is nothing but desolation. He stands beside X, Sue Storm and Spider-Man with them, and no one else.

No one else except the army ranged across the plain before them.

Thor's left hand tightens on Mjölnir.

"We did not leave your realm," he murmurs, a deep rumble into the silence of this stricken world. "Not by any means I know."

[cutting_edgex23]

"We still have to find some way back. My life plans didn't include a years-long coma."

X ignores the banter, focusing instead on the army before them.

Thor's words will likely be important in a minute, but for now --

She peels the glove off her left hand, scar burning dully.

From the plain before them a howl rises up. "I smell -- starlight!"

The scar brightens as the army flings itself forward, spears poised as they run toward X. And Thor. And Sue. And Spider-Man.

snikt

If they were truly on another plane, X might not hope to win. But if this is something else -- if it is an inner struggle, or if it truly takes place in some kind of Hell --

She has been here before.

There are worse fights. (If few that are more important, in their way.)

[mjolnir_retriever]

The army's ruddy, horned warriors howl, and as one they launch their spears. Sickly, dark-glowing energy bubbles within each haft. There are hundreds of spears, clustered into a vast cloud, too many to dodge or parry --

Thor spins Mjölnir low and fast, drawing on its energy and his own to build together in a crackling rush. He slams the hammer to the ground, a great overhead swing that carries him down to one knee and sends a shockwave exploding outwards from the small protected circle of this group.

Rocks crumble. The very air smells scorched. But the spears pass through, utterly unhindered.

Illusion. Illusion, almost certain. But -- but the look of that black-orange energy --

Thor spins and throws himself towards Spider-Man. He's tough, X will heal; these two are human, so far as he knows.

[cutting_edgex23]

X does not swear. There is no point, and she is not a bastion of profanity at even the worst of times.

She does, however, fling herself backward, twisting mid-air to try to ensure that as much of Sue Storm is shielded as possible.

If only she were a few inches taller. And a few inches broader.

The spears slice home, stabbing through skin and muscle, digging deep into the earth below.

X hisses in a breath, body remaining motionless as she looks down at Sue.

The other woman is not breathing. In fact, the only heart she can hear is hers.

Yanking her own flesh away from the spears, twisting to try to cut the shafts so that she can at least regain her feet, X fights to turn toward her friend.

Sadly, the demons reach her first.

[mjolnir_retriever]

Thor is several inches broader and taller than Spider-Man. (And X, and Storm.)

In this case, the size of the target doesn't really matter. There are enough spears to go around. And between the heavy, razor-sharp points and the dark energy bubbling behind them --

(I'm sorry, father he had time to think, just in case this was real after all, before he was thrown into a blackness he's floated in once before. He's beyond remembering that.)

Thor's heavy body is a limp sprawl atop Spider-Man's. His armor is dulled by blood from the spear-shafts pinning both of them to the ground.

[cutting_edgex23]

X fights.

X always fights.

But even with healing, it makes no difference.

Fortunately she has died before. The feeling is familiar. (And, maybe, a comfort.)

Drawing a breath again is -- not.

"Thor," X says, ignoring the intense blackness surrounding them. "Sue. Spider-Man. You are okay?"

It is best to check the important things first. They can figure out where they are -- and how they are there -- in a few seconds.

[mjolnir_retriever]

"I am well."

Thor's eyes have narrowed. His fist is tight around Mjölnir -- or the dream-projection of itself.

Spider-Man is saying the same thing with a great deal more words, and Sue with attempted reassurance.

"But I find myself very annoyed."

[cutting_edgex23]

"Yes."

X's agreement is prompt.

Her hand is burning again, matched in color and intensity by the lights that begin to appear all around them, flickering gently.

Like stars.

My hosts.

The voice comes from everywhere and nowhere, within and without.

My chosen heroes. I, the Enigma Force, am with you.

"I knew it was the Uni-Power!" says Spider-Man.

"Where are we?" asks Sue.

"I have died before," says X. "This was slower. But not different."

Little avatar, says the voice, closer to hand, you have already learned your lessons.

"Hey!"

[mjolnir_retriever]

They're... surrounded by lights, which seem to be talking to them.

Or something. At any rate, they're all conversing with something, which seems to be the same thing for all of them.

Thor's face is eloquent of his bemusement.

Well, it doesn't seem to be harmful yet!

"I hear nothing," he contributes in a low voice, towards X.

Just in case it's relevant.

[cutting_edgex23]

"It is the Uni-power," X says in response. She is not trying to be quiet. "The Enigma Force. The Sword in the Star. It protects Eternity. The universe."

She has, after all, been here before.

Yes. I was prince and sword both, once. And my ancient enemy, the King of the Whirldemons, he who sought to conquer your world and devour its inhabitants -- he has very nearly broken free of the prison I put him in, one million years ago.

X relays this word-for-word to Thor, leading Spider-Man to grumble about a tape delay. He falls silent, however, as the Enigma Force continues to speak, detailing the horrors of the Whirldemons, those same creatures that so recently killed X and Thor and the rest. Their plan is the same as it always has been, to conquer, to kill, and to feast.

"We will stop them. Him." It is a solemn promise from X.

"Will you help us?" Sue wants to know. Spider-Man, too.

[mjolnir_retriever]

Floating in black nothingness, Thor listens.

This is not a tale he knows. Perhaps a scholar of Asgard would, one who knows ancient history and other realms in greater detail than he; more likely, this Uni-power and Enigma Force don't exist in his world. Either way, he will remember it.

[cutting_edgex23]

No.

For what it is worth, the Enigma Force sounds genuinely regretful.

I am in a . . . distant place. I will try to reach you, but --

"We will protect them," X says, fiercely. "Everyone. We have done it before. I know."

It's not like they have much of a choice, honestly.

And it is what they do. It is what she does.

It is what she chooses.

Remember this, little avatar. The King will know you are different from the others. His eye will be upon you. Be wary of that.

"Why is she different?" Spider-Man does not mean to sound jealous, but he genuinely wants to know. Stuff like this is always important. Always.

She knows what it is to choose, more than any I have met. We are all made of stars, Peter Parker. But we must choose to touch them. She does.

[mjolnir_retriever]

Thor's mouth quirks in the very faintest of smiles.

[cutting_edgex23]

And then Reed and Ben are fighting the man X saw in the crowd. His brow is marked with the glowing dark-energy sigil of the Whirldemon King, and he stands relaxed and at ease amid heroes that other villains find of at least mild concern.

None of their blows appear to touch him. It makes him laugh, self-satisfied and vicious.

Given his preoccupation, X takes a moment to check where the children are.

And the aliens.

In case they need to be moved to safety.

[mjolnir_retriever]

The one alien who is tall and blond -- rather than small, green, and currently living in the Baxter Building -- sprang into motion as soon as they returned. (Or awoke.)

For what good it does. Even Mjölnir's blows can't touch this man, wrapped as he is in a shield of orange-dark energy. Lightning would likely fare no better, and it would wreak destruction upon this building.

But Mjölnir's blows do knock him backwards, as Sue's shields and the Thing's rocky fists do not.

The man dislikes that -- and it distracts him a little from strikes at the others. Both are reason enough to keep it up.

The man declares himself weary of games, through a smirk that he would like to be vicious. (It is, but Thor mostly finds his manner annoyingly tacky.) A soundless burst of energy rocks the room, sending the others flying backward.

Thor is unaffected, though he has to brace a little; it lifts his hair like a strong wind.

So is X.

[cutting_edgex23]

"Look at you," the man -- the demon -- says. "Still standing, and with energy so like that of my old foe. I wonder what that means, little one."

X just looks at him, gaze flat.

"It is irrelevant. I will not let you hurt anyone here. Or on this world."

She darts toward him, swift and unerring.

"Charming," he says, amusedly watching her move closer. "You actually think you can -- "

snikt

The gash in his cheek begins dripping blood.

She follows that up with a brutal stab to the throat, which then turns into a diving slice.

Just to be thorough.

"Oh little one," the Demon King says through bubbles of blood, "did you really think it would be that easy?"

Valeria is standing just behind him, ray gun in hand.

X's eyes widen.

It is already too late.

[mjolnir_retriever]

She's a child, and --

Mjölnir smashes into the man's face, hard enough to pulverize stone. X is not the only one who believes in being thorough. Whether it does damage now or not, though, it's too late.

Valeria's young face is wearing the demon's smug, obnoxious smirk, and a familiar sigil has begun to glow orange on her forehead.

"Open the portal to my people," she purrs, in a voice too resonant for a child's, "or the girl will die."

Thor breathes out in a low, furious growl. His hands are fists, ready for a deserving target.

[cutting_edgex23]

X steps forward, claws sheathed.

Her expression is set.

Focused.

Determined.

"No. Let her go. Take me instead. You known it was my energy that opened the portal."

X does not look away from the demon.

"You can use it to open the portal again. For . . . your people."

[mjolnir_retriever]

"X," Thor says, low and intense.

He knows, he understands, he would say the same, but --

X is good at tricks, he knows that now. Let this be a trick. The demon is no honorable warrior; it's a vile thief, and deserves deceit in trade.

[cutting_edgex23]

"What makes you different?" the demon King sneers.

X's expression remains calm. Composed.

"You know."

If it does not, that is not her problem.

"Let her go."

The Whirldemon smiles, teeth momentarily too sharp for the girl's face, forehead marked with a burning brand.

"All right. Let's see what you can do, little one."

X staggers, eyes closed, bent in half over her suddenly-sick stomach. And when she stands straight again, it is her own brow that is marked.

The instrumentation in the rooms around them begins to whir. Power rises. In the air in front of her, a portal opens. Within it are hundreds -- no, thousands -- of demons forms. They are moving closer.

There is no time. X knows this very well.

She flicks a quick, sideways look at Thor, then at the machinery all around them.

"You know what to do."

And then she is running, quick as she has ever moved, toward the portal.

She leaps --

"NO!" the demon King cries.

-- and she falls.

Like a stone.

Like a star.

X burns.

[mjolnir_retriever]

"NO!"

Never a backward glance: X flings herself into the portal at a sprint, and Thor can't catch her arm, he can't reach, and she's falling away into the void, a tiny bright brave shape plummeting, lost.

There are tears already standing in Thor's eyes when, with an inarticulate roar, he calls Mjölnir to him and flings it through a bank of equipment. Then another. And another.

(But not the walls, and nowhere near the people. X fell to preserve this place.)

[cutting_edgex23]

X lands with a heavy thump, flesh and skin reconstituting itself as it always does.

She looks up at the Whirldemon King, who is seated and glaring at her from his throne of bone, his soldiers and advisors surrounding him. They look hungry.

X does not care.

"You deceived me," he says. "But now you are trapped here with me, forever. And I will not kill you, little one. Oh no. You will live on, in terror and agony, as fodder for my demons and a plaything for my court. You will beg for death and it will not come. Tell me, child, was your sacrifice worth it?"

"Yes." X does not flinch, not at all. "I protect people. It is what I do. It is what I am. And I will never let you hurt anyone else. Ever. On my world or any other."

The demon King laughs. "And how will you accomplish this? With the sign of a dead star that you wear? Please."

The star on X's burning is burning. Her eyes are burning, too. The rest of her soon follows, but this light is brighter than when her flesh was aflame, so short a time ago. It is clearer, too. And when it fades --

Captain Universe stands before the King, power wafting from her like smoke from a torch.

"I know you will never defeat me. You cannot."

Swathes of demons die by her hand, with more to follow. It is easy. Not least because she knows it will be.

The demon King, however, seems pleased at her newfound powers. "My old foe. It is so good to see you again, here in my power. I have hungered for this, to extinguish the light that imprisoned my people. Oh, how I have dreamed."

X stands before him, unbloodied and unbowed.

"You have pathetic dreams."

She almost sounds sorry about that, even as she looks up into the clouded and occluded sky.

"And I can still see the stars."

The light all around her flares bright enough to be blinding, and when it fades --

She is gone.

[mjolnir_retriever]

The portal is closed.

He would have held it open, if he could -- if he could, and if X had not fallen (died?) to close it.

(There's Milliways, and her Security badge if it remains intact. And X's healing is formidable. There's hope -- of course there's hope. And yet.)

The instruments the demon was drawing upon for power are all destroyed. Thor hooks Mjölnir on his belt -- what is there for him to strike with it, now? -- and turns away from these strangers, from their expressions and their gazes and whatever words they might choose to say. He'll speak to them again, but not in this moment. Not quite yet.

He rests his hands upon a dead and crackling row of antiquated computers, and closes his eyes, just for a moment.

[cutting_edgex23]

Soaring through the void, feeling the pull of her own world at her feet, X hears the last fading remnants of the Enigma Force within her.

My little star. My chosen vessel. How bright you burn. Never forget. This is just the beginning.

It has work to do elsewhere.

So does she.

The Baxter Building reforms itself around her, charred machinery littering the ground. But Valeria is okay, and being held tight by Reed and Sue. Spider-Man is upright, and the aliens, and Thor.

Thor.

X takes a step forward, gently kicking a piece of metal out of her way. (It helps to make noise, sometimes.)

"Thor," she says, making sure her voice rings clear.

It is a place to start.

[mjolnir_retriever]

Thor spins, relief spreading over his face like a wash of sunlight.

Even if the relief is abruptly tripped up by confusion.

It's X, or at least it looks and stands like her -- but that energy he felt faintly responding to the demon is now far stronger. More to the point, she's blue and white and glowing. Not blue like a Jötun; blue like the heart of a flame.