-Arctic Battlefield-
"The Avengers? What are they doing here?"
Hidden behind the ancient pine tree, Ikaris's eyes flickered with alarm. The sudden arrival of the Avengers had completely disrupted his carefully laid plans. He pressed himself closer to the bark, using his millennia of combat experience to remain perfectly still, his breathing controlled to near-imperceptibility.
Christine Palmer was completely unaware of the Eternal warrior mere meters away. Her entire focus was on the dying woman in her arms, her medical training taking over.
"Damn it! She's critical—multiple penetrating trauma, massive internal bleeding!" Christine's hands moved quickly, checking pulse points, assessing damage. "I need to get her to a hospital immediately! She won't last another ten minutes out here!"
From his hiding place, Ikaris heard Christine's urgent mutterings and felt his resolve harden. He couldn't allow Ajak to survive. If she lived, she would expose him. His people—the other Eternals—would rally to her cause and work to prevent Tiamut's Emergence.
His eyes began to glow faintly as he prepared to unleash his cosmic energy beams. One quick strike at the doctor, then finish Ajak before—
Movement in the valley below caught his attention. Natasha and Strange were already engaging the Deviants. He couldn't risk revealing himself yet, not with the broadcast potentially watching everything.
Ikaris forced himself to wait, to be patient. An opportunity would present itself.
-S.W.O.R.D. Headquarters-
Nick Fury stared at the satellite feed displaying the Arctic battlefield, his jaw tight with tension. "Where the hell did those things come from?"
The creatures on screen moved with predatory intelligence, circling Strange and Natasha like a pack of wolves.
"They need backup," Fury stated flatly. "Where are the others?"
Maria Hill checked her tactical display. "Sam and Barton are en route to the Sanctum. Once they arrive, Christine will portal them directly to the location. ETA seven minutes."
"Make it five," Fury ordered. "I don't like what I'm seeing."
Hill nodded sharply. "I'll tell them to move faster."
-Arctic Battlefield-
The battle had already begun in earnest. The Deviants had formed a loose circle around the two Avengers, their grotesque forms shifting and rippling with barely contained aggression.
One of the creatures—its body a nightmare amalgamation of claws, fangs, and tentacles—suddenly charged at Natasha, who stood on the ground near the cliff edge.
"Wrong choice," Natasha said coldly. She sidestepped the lunging attack with practiced ease and brought Mjolnir around in a devastating arc. The hammer caught the Deviant square in its center mass with a thunderous CRACK.
The creature was launched through the air like a missile, its body tumbling end over end for nearly fifty meters before crashing into the ice. It rolled another dozen meters, leaving a trail of black ichor, before finally sliding to a stop. After several seconds, it shakily pushed itself upright, clearly stunned but not dead.
The other Deviants immediately recognized the threat level. This human was far more dangerous than they'd anticipated. They shifted their attention to the easier target—the human floating in the air.
"Oh, wonderful," Strange muttered as four Deviants suddenly changed direction and lunged toward him. The Cloak of Levitation yanked him backward, narrowly avoiding snapping jaws. "I've become the popular choice!"
He conjured a blade of golden magical energy in his right hand. "Well then, let's dance!"
"Stephen! Keep your distance!" Natasha's voice was sharp with warning. She was already moving to intercept the nearest Deviant. "These things aren't normal! Don't let them touch you!"
Strange saw the concern in her eyes and adjusted his tactics immediately. He rose higher into the air, putting distance between himself and the creatures. His hands began moving in complex patterns, weaving offensive spells. "Fine! I'll provide covering fire!"
"Good!" Natasha raised Mjolnir high above her head. Dark clouds began forming overhead, responding to the hammer's call. Lightning crackled across the sky.
Thunder boomed. A massive bolt of electricity struck down from the heavens, channeling directly into Mjolnir. The hammer blazed with captured storm energy, arcs of lightning dancing across its surface.
Natasha aimed at the Deviant in front of her and released the accumulated power. Lightning erupted from Mjolnir in a concentrated beam that struck the creature dead-center.
"AAAWWWW!" The Deviant's scream was almost human as electricity coursed through its body. The smell of burning flesh filled the cold air. Its body convulsed violently, smoke rising from charred tissue.
But the scream also served as a battle cry. The other Deviants immediately charged at Natasha in unison, recognizing her as the primary threat.
Natasha didn't hesitate. She leaped into the air, using Mjolnir's power to carry her upward and away from being surrounded. Then she dove down at a different Deviant below, building momentum.
She came down like a meteor, driving Mjolnir straight into the creature's skull. The impact cratered the ice beneath them, and the Deviant's head literally flattened under the force of the blow.
Without pausing, Natasha hurled Mjolnir at another Deviant that was turning to charge her position. The hammer struck it in the chest with enough force to send it flying backward into the cave entrance, where it crashed out of sight.
Strange wasn't idle. He conjured a Tao Mandala shield just in time to block a leaping attack from his left, the Deviant's claws scraping uselessly against magical energy.
Another Deviant tried to flank him from the right. Strange spun, the Cloak carrying him in a tight barrel roll, and he narrowly avoided being grabbed.
He raised his hand and called out, "Mjolnir! Return!"
The hammer responded instantly, flying back toward him—but Strange deliberately didn't catch it. Instead, he stepped aside at the last second, letting Mjolnir's flight path intercept the Deviant that had been circling behind him.
The hammer struck the creature's face with a sickening crunch. The Deviant dropped to the ground, and Mjolnir's enchantment kept it pinned there, the creature unable to lift the weapon off its skull no matter how much it struggled.
"Nice shot!" Natasha called out as Mjolnir flew back to her waiting hand. She turned her attention to the cave entrance. "Now for the leader."
She began walking toward the dark opening, hammer ready—
A roar echoed from within the cave. Not the mindless snarl of a beast, but something far more intelligent. More dangerous.
"Tap... tap... tap..."
Heavy footsteps approached. Kro emerged from the darkness, but he'd changed. His form had grown larger, more defined. His features were sharper, more intelligent-looking. Golden energy—Ajak's stolen power—still rippled across his body in visible waves.
Behind him came the Deviant that Natasha had knocked into the cave earlier. It too had changed, its wounds healed and its body enhanced, clearly benefiting from proximity to Kro's newfound power.
Strange flew down to land beside Natasha, his eyes narrowing as he studied the transformed Deviants. "They've changed. Evolved. Why?" His analytical mind raced through possibilities. "That woman earlier—the one Christine is treating. Did that thing absorb something from her?"
He'd only glimpsed it for a moment, but Strange had clearly seen golden light flowing from Ajak into Kro's tentacles. And immediately after, Kro had transformed.
"Whatever happened, we need to end this now," Natasha said firmly. "I'll take the big one. You handle the other."
"Understood." Strange began gathering magical energy between his palms, frost forming in the air around him.
Natasha charged at Kro, Mjolnir blazing with power. She swung low, aiming to take out his legs and separate him from his subordinate.
The hammer caught Kro in the knee, and even his enhanced durability couldn't fully absorb the impact. He stumbled, nearly falling, and the two combatants separated.
Strange seized the opportunity. He thrust both hands forward, unleashing the Winds of Watoomb—a howling gale carrying supernatural cold that could freeze flesh instantly. The wind struck the smaller Deviant like a physical force, driving it backward across the ice, away from its leader.
Natasha pressed her advantage against Kro. She came in fast with an uppercut, Mjolnir catching the creature under its jaw with tremendous force.
Kro's head snapped back. Several fangs flew from his mouth, trailing black blood. He was lifted completely off the ground by the blow, tumbling backward.
But within seconds, he was already recovering. The golden energy flowing through him—Ajak's healing power—rapidly closed wounds and regenerated damaged tissue. By the time he regained his footing, his jaw had completely healed, new teeth already growing to replace those he'd lost.
"Are you kidding me?" Natasha stared in disbelief at the fully recovered Kro. He'd been bleeding heavily moments ago, and now there wasn't a mark on him.
"RAAAH!" Kro lunged at her with renewed aggression, his intelligence making him far more dangerous than the mindless Deviants.
Natasha dodged his attack, rolled to the side, and raised Mjolnir skyward. "Fine. Let's try something stronger!"
Lightning answered her call. A massive bolt—far more powerful than before—struck down from the storm clouds, channeling directly through her body into the hammer. The air itself ionized, crackling with electricity.
She released it all at once. The concentrated lightning struck Kro like divine judgment, the electricity arcing across his body in visible branches of white-hot energy.
Kro's scream was deafening, his body convulsing under the assault. Smoke rose from his charred flesh.
But again, the golden healing energy activated. Burn wounds closed. Damaged tissue regenerated. Within seconds, Kro was recovering.
'I need to hit harder,' Natasha realized. 'End this in one strike. A prolonged fight favors him, not me.'
While Natasha faced off against the Deviant leader, Strange was finishing his own battle. He'd been secretly gathering the residual lightning energy from Natasha's storm attacks, collecting the scattered electrical charge that still saturated the air.
Now he compressed it between his palms, shaping it with mystical formulas, and released it in a concentrated beam: the Bolts of Balthakk, enhanced with storm energy.
The lightning struck the smaller Deviant's head with surgical precision. The creature's skull exploded, brain matter and bone fragments scattering across the ice. Its body collapsed, twitching, then lay still.
Strange waited a moment to ensure it wasn't regenerating, then turned to help Natasha. "One down!"
They converged on Kro from opposite sides, forming a pincer. The Deviant leader was highly intelligent—far more so than his subordinates—and he immediately recognized the tactical disadvantage.
He turned and ran, not toward the cave but toward open tundra, trying to escape.
"Oh no you don't!" Strange's hands moved in rapid circles, tracing complex patterns in the air. The Mirror Dimension erupted around them, reality folding like origami, creating an isolated pocket of space.
The landscape transformed. Ice and rock became fractured crystal surfaces. The sky shattered into geometric patterns. Gravity became optional.
Kro found himself trapped in a kaleidoscopic maze with no exit, no escape, and two very angry Avengers bearing down on him.
-S.W.O.R.D. Headquarters-
"Hill!" Fury's voice was sharp. "Status report on Palmer!"
Maria Hill was frantically working her phone, her expression growing increasingly concerned. "Sir, she's not responding. I've tried her cell, her earpiece, everything. No answer."
Fury's jaw clenched. "Get me eyes on that cliff. Now."
"Redirecting satellite—" Hill's fingers flew across her keyboard. The main screen shifted, zooming in on the clifftop position.
What they saw made Fury's blood run cold.
Christine Palmer lay motionless on the ground. And standing over her, eyes glowing with barely restrained cosmic power, was a figure they'd never seen before.