Earth 254 18/7/2025 Avengers HQ, Written with AI help
Chapter 1: Family Re‑Assembled
Steve Rogers stood at the head of the briefing table, calm and steady. "Wanda says she has something important to show us."
Tony Stark leaned back, eyebrow raised. "New family secrets? What is this, a Maximoff reunion tour?"
Natasha Romanoff watched, her voice soft but sharp. "Depends on who 'we' are now."
Bruce Banner adjusted his glasses, his curiosity piqued. Thor shifted on his feet, intrigued. Clint Barton crossed his arms.
Wanda entered, expression serious. Pietro walked at her side, protective yet visibly tense.
Steve offered them a nod. "Alright, Wanda."
Wanda inhaled. "We have a sister."
Tony smirked. "Wow, and here I thought I was the wildcard."
Wanda allowed herself a small smile before turning to Pietro. He stepped forward. "Her name's Natalia."
The room dimmed as a striking woman emerged—pretty, poised, with piercing eyes and a soft aura of red magic flickering on her fingertips.
Bruce leaned in. "How long?"
Natasha's tone was measured: "We need to know who she is."
Thor studied Natalia, voice deep and resonant. "Magic runs through her—but does her heart?"
Natalia met his gaze. "I was hidden... trained in secret. I didn't ask for this. But I found them—found you."
Clint watched her carefully. "Magic's one thing. Trust? That's earned."
Pietro stood firm beside her. "She controls it. It's real."
Steve looked around the table, then at Natalia. "Show us."
Natalia closed her eyes. A hush fell. The floor trembled faintly. When she opened them, wings of red magic shimmered around her hands, controlled, deliberate, beautiful.
Tony whistled. "Okay. That's something else."
Steve's voice was firm and welcoming: "We do this together. You choose who you are."
Natalia inhaled.
Steve offered the faintest smile: "Welcome to the Avengers."
Chapter 2: The Reluctant Guest
The Avengers' common room was buzzing. Someone had dragged out the Monopoly board. Thor was already hoarding properties like they were realms. Clint was holed up in a blanket fort with snacks. Tony was trying to hack the dice roller app. Wanda sat cross-legged, quietly shuffling Uno cards with magic. Pietro? Zipping around the kitchen, sneaking Pop-Tarts.
Natalia stood at the edge of it all—arms crossed, leaning against the wall, boots still dusty from training, chaos magic pulsing faintly at her fingertips. She was very much not part of this.
Tony (calling out): "Hey, Red 2. You just gonna stare at us all night like the brooding Gothic statue in a Scooby-Doo hallway?"
Natalia (deadpan): "Don't tempt me to haunt the elevator."
Pietro popped up at her side in less than a second, breathless and smiling way too wide.Pietro: "C'mon, Natty. One game night. We're not summoning demons—unless Clint loses."
Clint (from the couch): "I heard that."
Natalia gave Pietro the same look you'd give a raccoon holding a match. "Why?"
Wanda (joining them gently): "Because we want you to be part of this. Of us. Please?"
For a moment, Natalia just stared at the room. Thor is arguing over rent with Bruce. Natasha quietly slipped extra cards into Steve's hand. Steve is pretending not to notice. Tony is somehow adding LED lights to the dice. It was chaos. Ridiculous. Loud.
But there was a heartbeat of something beneath it all.
Natalia (sighing, muttering): "Fine. One game. If I win, I leave."
Tony: "That's the spirit. Sit next to Cap—he cheats the least."
Steve (without looking up): "I heard that."
Natalia walked slowly toward the group. Pietro and Wanda exchanged a look behind her back, silently victorious.
Bruce (calmly): "Should we warn her about Hulk Jenga?"
Thor (grinning): "Let her find out on her own."
Natalia sat down, looked at the pile of board games like they were alien relics.
Natalia: "This better not involve charades."
Clint (grinning): "Oh, sweetheart... it gets worse."
Cue the flicker of red magic across her eyes. And just like that, the game began.
Chapter 3: No Mercy Magic
BOOM.
The street shook as the first explosion lit up Midtown.
A gaping rift tore through the sky above Stark Tower—purple lightning lashing the clouds. Something ancient was clawing through the fabric of reality.
Steve (on comms, tight): "All units, converge on the rift. We've got incoming."
Tony (already in the air): "Yeah, no sh*t."
Thor (from above, Mjolnir raised): "Finally, a fight worth shouting about!"
The sky opened—and hell poured through.
They weren't aliens. They weren't anything. Twisting shadow-beasts, glitching through space like corrupted code. Dozens. Then hundreds.
Pietro: "Okay. This isn't a friendly neighbourhood weird—this is 'what-the-actual-hell' weird."
Clint (drawing an arrow): "Just once I'd like to fight something squishy and dumb."
Natasha: "Shut up and aim."
They were already mid-fight before the comms cut to static.
The Street-Level War
Cars flipped. Glass shattered. Thor threw Mjolnir through five creatures in a single swing. Tony launched a repulsor blast that wiped a rooftop clean, only to be tackled midair.
Tony (grunting): "Oh COME ON! I just painted this suit—"
Steve: "Focus."
Bruce (cracking his knuckles): "Alright, that's enough—let's go, big guy."
The Hulk exploded out of Banner like a detonation, smashing through a transport bus and sending a screaming beast into a concrete wall.
Hulk: "BAD MAGIC THING. SMASH YOU."
Wanda: "They're draining my spells. Someone's amplifying the rift!"
That's when they saw her.
Floating above the skyline, cloak whipping like a flag in a hurricane.
Natalia Maximoff.
No hesitation. No warm greetings.
Just power.
She raised her hands, and red chaos cracked the sky.
Tony (dodging a dive-bomber): "Okay! Witch #2 is in play! This better not be like Sokovia."
Wanda (furious): "She's not like me."
Natalia (flat): "I'm worse."
She slammed her palms together—magic shot outward in violent pulses, ripping three creatures from the air and tearing them apart mid-flight.
Steve (to Clint, watching): "Remind me not to piss her off."
Clint: "Already on my to-do list."
Natalia dove into the centre of the street, conjuring a magic shield just in time to stop a monstrous arm from crushing Pietro.
Pietro: "...Thanks."
Natalia (still fighting): "Next time, dodge faster."
Thor (laughing): "HA! She mocks in battle. I like her."
They pushed forward—together now. Magic, tech, arrows, lightning, fists, shields. The kind of all-out brawl that shook city blocks and broke the sky in half.
Chapter 4: Witch on the Wire
CNN • BREAKING NEWS
"WHO IS THE OTHER SCARLET WITCH?"
📍Live from Manhattan, where the city is still smoking from yesterday's battle, we bring you exclusive footage of the mysterious chaos-magic user spotted fighting alongside the Avengers.
[Insert dramatic footage: Natalia floating mid-air, arms raised, red magic lashing the sky.]
NEWCASTER (serious tone):"We now know she is not Wanda Maximoff. She's someone else. Someone powerful enough to close a transdimensional rift—and wipe out an entire invasion in minutes."
ANCHOR 2 (voiceover):"Social media is already calling her 'Scarlet 2.0,' 'Red Death,' and 'The Real Witch.' Others are asking—where the hell has she been?"
Onscreen: "NATALIA MAXIMOFF IDENTIFIED — THIRD SIBLING OF WANDA AND PIETRO?"
"According to SHIELD sources, the woman is Natalia Maximoff, believed to be the biological younger sister of Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, hidden from all public records until now."
"Reports suggest she may possess a stronger form of chaos magic than her sister, and yesterday, she showed no hesitation using it at full force."
[Cut to live footage of the destroyed battlefield. A crater smoulders. Glass is fused into the pavement.]
REPORTER (standing in rubble):"This was ground zero. Witnesses say she floated over the fight, 'like something out of a horror movie,' before unleashing a red energy blast that erased a thirty-foot monster in under three seconds."
[Cut to public reactions]
CITIZEN 1:"She was terrifying. I mean—I'm glad she's on our side? I think?"
CITIZEN 2:"She made the Hulk look like a puppy. Did you see that thing she did with her hands? I thought we were all gonna die."
CITIZEN 3:"She's hot, but I never want to meet her. Ever."
[Back to studio: "AVENGERS STAY SILENT ON NEW MEMBER"]
Sources say the Avengers are currently refusing to comment on Natalia's official status, though footage shows her working directly with Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor during the incident.
Anchor 1:"Is she an Avenger now? Or a weapon they can't control?"
Anchor 2:"And more importantly—how long until the next thing pulls her back into the sky?"
[Tony Stark's brief press comment, caught walking into the Tower:]
TONY (grumpy, in sunglasses):"She's not on the team. She showed up, blew stuff up, saved all our asses, and disappeared before I could bribe her with pizza. You want a label for that? Call her the Red Emergency Exit. Goodbye."
Chapter 6: Signal Fire
Location: Avengers Compound – 4:03 AM
ALERT. ALERT. ALERT.Every monitor flared red. Sirens wailed. Even the reinforced walls trembled.
Tony (bursting into the lab, coffee in one hand):"Unless someone tripped over the toaster again, that's a Category Ten ping—what the hell happened?"
F.R.I.D.A.Y (urgent):"Planetary event. Energy surge originated in low Earth orbit. Now replicating across twelve locations. Simultaneously."
Bruce (wide-eyed):"That's impossible. That's a coordinated strike."
Steve (marching in):"Who's attacking us?"
F.R.I.D.A.Y:"No known signatures. But they're sending a message."
Satellite Feed – Onscreen
Twelve craters. Twelve identical, perfect circular burns.Each site: a major power grid or defence facility. All now offline.
In the centre of every crater: a hovering black monolith. No markings. No entry point. Just... humming.
Suddenly, they spoke. All twelve at once. Broadcast in every language.
The Voice (metallic, genderless):
"This planet is not aligned. You consume. You fracture. You delay the inevitable.""We have come to begin your unmaking.""We are the Scourge Protocol. Prepare for phase collapse."
Pietro:"...Okay, I vote we nuke it and pretend we never saw it."
Thor (stepping forward):"That voice speaks of balance like Thanos... but colder. No madness. Just math."
Clint:"Even worse: emotionless bad guys don't monologue. They just press the red button."
Wanda:"They're not bluffing. I can feel it. Every word—it's real. They mean to erase us."
Natalia (serious, no glow, no sarcasm):"Then we erase them first."
Chapter 7: Split the Sky
Location: Sydney, Australia — 6:03 AM
The monolith didn't open like the others.It breathed.
A wave of distorted gravity warped the air as shadows curled into impossible shapes.
Natalia (eyes glowing faintly):"That's not tech. That's... dimensional."
Doctor Strange (casting wards mid-air):"They're not just machines. They're doorways. Anchors between realities."
Natalia:"Then why do they want this one?"
A creature dragged itself through the vortex—like a spider built from broken mirrors, shrieking in a language that made the sky flicker.
Strange (snapping his hands into a rune):"Because this universe fights back."
The battle began. Natalia launched forward in a streak of red magic. She slammed into the creature mid-leap, her power colliding with it like a collapsing star.
Global Cutaways: Six Simultaneous Battles
(Keep the six locations, just revise who's where.)
Cairo – Steve, Natasha, Wanda
Osaka – Tony, Pietro
Greenland – Thor, Clint
São Paulo – Bruce, Kate
Paris – EMPTY now
Sydney – Natalia & Strange
Avengers HQ – Situation Room
F.R.I.D.A.Y:"All monoliths are syncing. Each one's broadcasting... something. Strange patterns. Almost musical."
Bruce (analysing readings):"It's a signal—but not to us. They're calling something in."
Tony (cutting in from Osaka):"Yeah? Well, tell them to lose our number."
F.R.I.D.A.Y:"Too late. Something's coming. Something colossal."
Steve:"What kind of colossal?"
F.R.I.D.A.Y (dead serious):"Object size: planetary. Speed: impossible. Destination: Earth."
Final Scene – In Deep Space
Something awakens. A massive mechanical sphere, ancient and breathing fireless energy, turns its eye toward Earth.
Etched into its hull:
EX MACHINA: THE FINAL CALCULATOR
It does not speak. It only judges.
Chapter 8: The Witch and the Wizard
Location: Sydney, Australia – Still in combat
The creature snarled and cracked the sky above them like a mirror. Buildings behind it warped—glass bending upward, asphalt melting into floating stone.
Natalia (shouting over the chaos):"Are you going to actually help, or just draw sparkly circles in the air?!"
Doctor Strange (grimly):"I'm holding your reality together!"
He whipped his Sling Ring, sealing another rupture overhead.
Natalia (rolling her eyes):"Congratulations. Who are you again?"
Strange (deadpan):"Doctor Stephen Strange. Sorcerer Supreme."
Natalia (snorts):"You're kidding."
Strange:"Do I look like I'm kidding?"
Natalia (blasting the monster in the chest):"You look like a Hogwarts dropout."
The creature screamed, sending out a psychic blast. Natalia shielded herself with chaos magic while Strange floated higher, spinning his hands through burning mandalas.
Strange (gritting his teeth):"They're not just machines. They're building convergence points. If even one of them breaches fully, we're looking at multiversal collapse."
Natalia (flatly):"...What kind of collapse?"
Strange (spinning the Eye of Agamotto):"Like... this planet ceases to exist, kind."
Cut to: Avengers HQ – Strategy Room
The entire team—disheveled, bruised, pissed—stood around the central holo-table.
Steve (tight, commanding):"We need to regroup and strike together. One coordinated hit."
Tony (arms crossed):"No offence, Cap, but some of us were getting our ribs crushed by shape-shifting murder Rubik's cubes. A little late for 'coordinated.'"
Clint (deadpan):"Raise your hand if you almost died."
Almost everyone raises their hand.
Bruce (reading monitor):"I ran projections. If Ex Machina reaches orbit, it'll sync with the monoliths and rewrite base physics. Gravity, time, matter—it'll be like flipping a reset switch on existence."
Thor (growling):"Then we destroy the monoliths. All of them."
Wanda (hesitant):"They're... alive, Thor. They feel. Something's inside each one, and it doesn't want to die."
Steve:"Then we find a way to shut them down—before that machine in orbit finishes warming up."
Tony:"Cool. No pressure. Just casually trying to prevent the end of all laws of nature."
Kate (muttering):"Bet it still doesn't cancel my student loans."
Back in Sydney
The creature lunged again—this time faster. Natalia was thrown back into a cracked marble fountain, coughing blood.
Strange (rushing over):"You need to fall back—"
Natalia (snaps):"No. No way. I don't fall back. I don't lose."
She stood, red magic swirling up her arms, and for the first time, something new. Black and red chaos energy, bending reality at its edge.
Natalia (growling):"You want to unmake my world?"
She launched forward."You'll have to go through me first."
Final Shot
In orbit, Ex Machina's core turns red.Twelve lines of energy stretch toward Earth, linking every monolith.
The countdown begins.
00:23:57
Chapter 9: The Breath of Ruin
Location: Sydney – 23 minutes left on the countdown
Natalia stood shoulder to shoulder with Strange as the creature's limbs reassembled for a second attack. Their surroundings floated in fractured geometry—gravity was failing. Streetlamps twisted into the air. Reality peeled like wallpaper.
Natalia (panting):"This is not how I thought my day was gonna go."
Strange (dry):"You get used to it. If you live long enough."
The creature tilted its jagged head. Its "voice" came as vibration, not sound. It wasn't speaking words.
It was broadcasting a feeling. One very clear message:
I am the First. My death will be recorded. You will be catalogued.
Strange (frowning):"That wasn't a threat. It was a log entry."
Natalia (in disbelief):"They're archiving our annihilation?!"
Strange:"Exactly. This isn't war. It's research."
The creature lunged.Strange opened a portal mid-air—Natalia drop-kicked the monster straight into it. They regrouped fast.
Strange (snapping wards into the air):"If I can seal the monolith temporarily, we can interrupt the signal."
Natalia (cracking her neck, magic glowing):"Then you seal it. I'll buy you time."
The Fight — Natalia vs the Scourge Entity
The creature reemerged from a tear in the air, limbs razor-sharp and flickering between dimensions.
Natalia didn't hesitate.She charged, red and black magic whipping around her like a vortex.
They collided in mid-air—her chaos magic locking with the creature's energy core, forming a visible pressure wave that shattered windows for miles.
Natalia (yelling):"YOU THINK WE'RE JUST DATA?!"
The creature roared. Tendrils lashed. Natalia screamed as a lash struck her side, but she held. She matched the monster's blow with an overcharged chaos pulse, blasting its leg clean off.
Strange (gritting teeth, completing the seal):"Just a few more seconds—"
Suddenly — Everything Stops.
The sky turns grey.The wind halts.Natalia is frozen in mid-air.
A voice comes through every radio, screen, and mind on the planet—monotone, cold, infinite:
"We have observed your resistance.""We acknowledge variance.""You are inefficient but unyielding."
Natalia floats down, eyes wide.The voice is inside her skull now.
"You carry the Mark. Chaos Root. Forbidden thread.""We are intrigued."
She stumbles back. Strange steadies her.
Natalia (shaking):"What the hell was that?"
Strange (quietly):"That... was Ex Machina."
Avengers HQ – At the Same Time
Every screen flashes with a pulsating red eye.
Ex Machina's Voice (everywhere at once):
"This is a final analysis. Earth's resistance is logged. Chaos variance has emerged.""Adjustment required.""Transmission complete."
The eye vanishes.The countdown halts at 00:12:12.
Back in Sydney
Natalia (panting, barely standing):"They stopped."
Strange:"They're recalculating. That voice… it recognised you. You're a variable they didn't predict."
Natalia:"Good. Let's make more surprises."
Final Shot
Above the Earth, Ex Machina begins to change shape. Panels unfold like flower petals. A massive cannon points toward the planet. And buried within its machine code, just one repeated line, again and again:
"Unstable anomaly detected: Natalia Maximoff.""Terminus protocol loading."
Chapter 10: Twelve Rings of Extinction
Location: Avengers Compound – War Table Room
The atmosphere was nuclear.
Everyone was in the room—still bruised, still bleeding, still alive.
Steve (slamming a marker on the holo-table):"One strike team per monolith. Coordinated. Synchronised.""No room for error."
Tony (zooming into the display):"Monoliths are cycling energy again. They paused, not stopped. We've got less than twelve hours before the countdown resumes."
Bruce:"And if we don't disable them all at once, Ex Machina adapts. It'll rewrite its protocol."
Thor (grim):"Then we strike first. Leave nothing behind."
Natasha:"And who's behind this planet-sized AI freak show?"
Strange (quietly):"Not a 'who'. A what?"
Cut To: Multiversal Echo – Deep inside the monolith's code
A shimmering shadow moved inside the data stream—ancient, sentient, watching.
It wasn't Ex Machina.It was something older, hiding within it.Whispers echoed in forgotten tongues:
"The scarlet line returns... too early.""Chaos must not ascend.""Erase the witches. Erase the line."
Back at HQ – Panic
Wanda (eyes wide):"I heard it. In my head."
Pietro (tensed):"They were talking about Natalia. And you."
Steve (calm but stern):"Doesn't matter. We destroy the monoliths. All of them."
Tony (flicking through blueprints):"We split into six teams, double up. Magic. Tech. Brute force. Reality warpers. Let's burn the board."
Strange (to Natalia):"You're not the target. You're the variable. The one thing their logic tree can't compute."
Natalia (cold):"Then let's glitch the whole damn system."
Global Strike Teams – Assigned
🛡️ Team One – Egypt: Steve Rogers, Wanda Maximoff⚡ Team Two – Greenland: Thor, Clint Barton🔥 Team Three – Brazil: Bruce (Hulk), Kate Bishop💥 Team Four – Osaka: Tony Stark, Pietro Maximoff🌀 Team Five – Antarctica: Doctor Strange, Natalia Maximoff🗡️ Team Six – Manhattan: Natasha Romanoff, Sam Wilson
(Yes—Sam is back, and no Yelena. As ordered.)
Antarctica – Natalia & Strange
The monolith pulsed like a heartbeat in the snow.
Strange (hovering):"This one's been dormant. But... wrong. It's singing."
Natalia (arms glowing):"I know. It's singing to me."
Suddenly — a projection rises from the monolith:An ancient entity wrapped in code and fire. Not machine. Not demon. Something else.
"Child of the Forbidden Line. You are the fracture. The uncalculated storm.""We were gods once. Then came Chaos."
Natalia stepped forward, magic rising in threads around her.
Natalia (dangerously calm):"You want chaos?"
She raised her hand. Reality buckled.
Natalia:"I'll give you extinction."
Final Montage – Across the World
Each team launches their attack:
Steve's shield rings through the sandstorm as Wanda lifts the monolith into the air and crushes it between hex bolts.
Thor summons a blizzard and lightning at once—Clint fires exploding arrows into the cracks.
Tony drops a micro-fission bomb; Pietro drags the core away in under two seconds.
Bruce smashes one monolith to rubble with raw force as Kate uses zipline bombs to crack its frame.
Natasha and Sam fight back-to-back, grounding their monolith with sonic charges and sheer will.
Natalia and Strange—oh, they don't destroy theirs. They rewrite it.
Natalia tears the construct open with chaos magic while Strange seals it with an ancient spell—locking its power out of this universe.
Final Shot
As the last monolith falls, the orbiting Ex Machina pauses.Its red eye dims. The core flickers.
Then… a rupture.
Something screams through the universe. A language not meant for ears.
And out of the smoke—a figure appears on the deck of Ex Machina.
Cloaked. Silent. Watching.
Not machine.
Not human.
"Bring the Witches. The Real Ones.""The War Has Only Begun."
Chapter 11: Aftermaths & Ice Packs(aka: Chaos Witches, Cold Drinks, and Bucky Barnes Being Weirdly Nice)
Location: Avengers Compound – Two Days After the Global Monolith Strike
The Compound was quiet for once. Not in a "world's fine forever" kind of way—but in the temporary ceasefire before cosmic hell breaks loose again kind of way.
A few floors up from the labs, in the training wing, Bucky Barnes sat cross-legged on a bench, shirt off, bruised up, scowling at an ice pack.
Across from him, Natalia Maximoff had her boots kicked off, one foot resting on the bench, sipping something dangerously red from a sports bottle.
Natalia (deadpan):"Let me guess. You tried to punch a monolith."
Bucky:"It punched first."
Natalia:"You're a terrible liar."
Bucky (glances sideways):"You're annoying."
Natalia (grinning):"Aw, you're flirting."
Bucky (immediately):"Absolutely not."
She smirked, tossing a small pulse grenade from hand to hand. Neither said anything for a minute.
Bucky (finally):"You did good out there."
Natalia (blinks):"...That sounded like a compliment."
Bucky:"Don't let it go to your head."
She leaned back on her elbows, swirling her bottle with mock drama.
Natalia:"Sorry, I was too busy rewriting monolithic chaos code with my bare hands to hear that over the sound of your metal arm short-circuiting mid-punch."
Bucky (grinning now):"It did not short-circuit."
Natalia:"F.R.I.D.A.Y. played the security footage on loop."
He sighed, defeated. "Of course she did."
Elsewhere in the Compound…
Wanda and Steve passed by the observation deck. Through the glass wall, they spotted Natalia laughing—and Bucky actually smiling.
Wanda (suspicious):"...Are they getting along?"
Steve (raising a brow):"Looks like it."
Wanda:"They've known each other two weeks."
Steve (deadpan):"They've both lived through forty wars."
Wanda (sighs):"Fair."
Back in the Training Room
Bucky (quietly):"You ever gonna stop pretending none of this freaks you out?"
Natalia stared at the ceiling.
Natalia (softly):"It all freaks me out. Every second."
She stood up, tossed her bottle into the trash bin without looking—and of course, it landed perfectly.
Natalia (smirking):"But I look cooler when I fake it."
Bucky (nods):"...Respect."
Natalia (starts walking off):"Come on, Barnes. Let's go blow something up in the sim room."
Bucky (grabbing his ice pack):"Only if I get to hit something this time."
Natalia (grinning over her shoulder):"You get to hit everything."
Final Scene: On the Compound Roof, That Night
Natalia stood alone, eyes turned toward the stars.The victory was real—but the universe wasn't done with her yet.Something out there still watched. Waiting. Whispering.
Behind her, Bucky showed up quietly, holding two drinks.
Bucky (offering one):"You looked like you needed backup."
She took it.
Natalia (murmuring):"Yeah. I probably will."
Scene – Avengers Compound, Common Room
(Post-mission chaos cooldown. Pizza boxes everywhere. Thor's eating like he fought a frost giant.)
Tony (scrolling through his holo-screen):"Alright, Natalia. Time to make it official."He taps the air like he's doing something sacred."You're getting added to the Avengers group chat."
Natalia (raised eyebrow):"Wow. I feel... so honored."
Wanda (mocking gasps):"It's how you know they accept you."
Pietro (grinning):"Or want to torture you."
Tony:"Now, tradition says every new member gets a nickname in the chat. Something with flair. Drama. Existential power, preferably."
Clint (from the couch):"Mine was 'HawkDad'. It used to be 'Bird Guy'. That was a dark time."
Thor (mouth full):"Mine is 'ThunderDaddy'. Verily, I did not choose it."
Bruce (quietly):"They made mine 'Green Bean'. I... don't want to talk about it."
Natasha (without looking up):"They tried 'Black Widow, But Hotter'. I deleted it and threatened them all."
Steve:"We're still recovering from that."
Tony (grinning):"So, Natalia… what shall we call you?"
Before she can speak—
Bucky (from across the room, smirking):"Scarlet B*tch."
Entire room goes still.
Natalia turns her head slowly. Glares like a nuke charging.
Natalia:"You want to try that again, Tin Arm?"
Bucky (grinning wider):"Oh no, I meant it. Got a nice sting to it."
Tony (already typing):"Scarlet Btch* it is. Bold. Dangerous. Slightly illegal. I love it."
Steve (stern):"Tony."
Tony:"It's done, Rogers. She's in."
Wanda (sighing):"Don't say I didn't warn you, Barnes."
Pietro (smug):"She's going to hex your toothbrush to scream every night."
Natalia (smirking):"Already did."
Bucky (still smug):"Worth it."
Chapter 12 – "The Witch Paradox"
Location: Kamar-Taj – Forbidden Chamber of Threads
The door hadn't been opened in over 300 years.
Now, it cracked apart with a sound like a dying star, slow and sharp—threads of ancient light spilling across the stone floor. Dust floated in time-suspended halos.
Doctor Strange walked ahead, palms glowing with containment runes.
Natalia Maximoff followed, arms crossed, her Chaos Magic gently flickering against the ancient energy like it had always belonged here.
Strange (glancing back):"You feel it too, don't you?"
Natalia:"It's breathing."
They entered the chamber.
On the walls: maps of universes no longer existing.
In the center: A suspended object, floating midair. Not a weapon. Not exactly.
It looked like a star had been shattered, compressed into a rotating, jagged sigil—alive, screaming quietly in some frequency they couldn't hear but could feel in their blood.
"THE PARADOX CORE."
A remnant from a time before time. Before Chaos Magic had form. Before Scarlet Witches had names.
Cut To: Avengers Compound – Situation Room
Tony (staring at satellite footage):"What the hell is that?"
The feed from the edge of the Tianjing Rift showed the sky splitting open.Not glowing.Not fire.It was glitching—pixels and physical light separating like bad code.
Steve (coldly):"That's not a wormhole."
Bruce (calculating):"That's a root fracture—the kind of multiversal event that rewrites reality at the source."
Wanda (chilled):"Something's bleeding through."
Pietro:"And I'm guessing this is not 'pack a suitcase and hide in Wakanda' kind of problem."
Tony:"No, Speedy. This is 'get the team, get the nukes, and probably call your exes' kind of problem."
Cut Back to Kamar-Taj
Strange circled the Paradox Core.
Strange:"This was locked away because touching it triggers a cascade."
Natalia:"Cascade?"
Strange (grim):"Every version of you across every universe is forced to the surface. All at once. Every trauma. Every power. Every choice you didn't make."
Natalia (quietly):"Sounds... fun."
Before he could stop her, she reached out.
Her fingertips barely grazed the Core.
And then—
Screaming. Not hers. Hundreds of hers.
She saw—
A version of herself ruling the world in blood.
Another being torn apart by HYDRA.
A smiling Natalia with no powers, no siblings, just peace—
One who died at birth.
One who burned the Sorcerer Supreme alive.
Reality twisted around her like a snake. Chaos flooded every vein.
Strange yelled her name—but it was already too late.
She didn't fall.
She fractured.
The Compound – Simultaneously
Red magic erupted from the surveillance screens.
The sky on the screens shattered like mirrors.
And in the center of it—
Natalia. Or someone wearing her face.
Her voice came through the comms:
"HeLLo, VErSiOnS of Me I'vE NeVeR BeEn—Let's FiX That."
Every screen cracked.
Wanda gasped, holding her head—a mental scream slammed into her.
Pietro bolted toward her side.
Steve (to Tony):"She just ripped a hole through the multiverse."
Tony (furious):"She just unlocked herself."
Kamar-Taj – 30 Seconds Later
Natalia dropped to her knees.
Strange grabbed her—runic containment magic burned across the floor, trying to stabilize her.
Strange (panicking):"She accessed a buried thread. Something's following it. I can't see it. I can't—"
A wind blew through the chamber.
But not wind—it was time collapsing inward.
The Paradox Core exploded silently, turning into a pulsing, hovering eye—blinking once. A consciousness.
And then from behind them…
A door opened that wasn't supposed to exist.
Through it stepped—
A tall, thin figure wrapped in deep red and gold—a mirror reflection of Natalia, but older, eyes like static, face like stone.
"You weren't supposed to wake up yet."
Strange (horrified):"She's your Prime Variant."
"No. I'm the Original."
"And now... you've doomed us all."
FINAL CUT: Avengers Tower – One Minute Later
Sirens blared. The sky cracked like it was made of glass.
Wanda (to Steve, breathless):"That's not just Natalia."
Steve:"Then who is it?"
Wanda (whispers):"It's every version of her. Coming for this one."
The final shot:
All twelve monoliths reigniting—they were never weapons.They were anchors—keeping her contained.
Now?
They're breaking.