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Spider-Man, Maria Hill, and Ironheart are surrounded. Ironheart's got the Reality Stone trapped in her gauntlet. Everywhere, the Sacrilegious Six is poised. They're after the Reality Stone...

"This is an Infinity Stone," Hill tells them. "You'll destroy the world with it!"

"There are six of us," Dr. Octopussy sneers, "and we've got Mystria with us. We like our chances."

"We don't. None of you are Eternals."

Ironheart still holds the jar with the Reality Stone. From its other end, her gauntlet siphons the Reality Stone into itself. Once the Stone is gone, the jar unfolds, and collapses itself into Ironheart's forearm. The gauntlet shapeshifts, to accommodate for the new power source that's been added to it.

Through his mask, Peter watches, and gapes. "What are you...?!"

"It's something I've been working on, for a worst-case scenario," Ironheart explains. "I don't expect it to work, but it'll be great if it does."

In the forest, they all hear a noise. They look around.

A hoverchair flies over the treetops, and lowers itself towards the center of the campfire's old clearing. A blond merman sits in it. The hoverchair is metal-forged, and bears an Asgardian roundel. He wears a VERY familiar necklace.

Elektra chuckles. "Hello, husband. Nice makeover. How's the beer, suckling peccary, lobo fur, and Aesir hooters?"

Metcalf grins. "Do I detect jealousy, dear wife?"

She folds her sai onto her forearm, and flips her ex-husband the bird.

"Excuse me," Spider-Man interrupts, "I don't mean to ruin an admirable inside joke, but...who are you?"

"I am Metcalf. I was once the husband of Dijana."

"I'M Dijana," Elektra loudly whispers, waving, "for those of you who don't know me by my old name."

"But you're white," Ironheart says. "The Six's husbands were Afroasian nobles."

"First correction: I am Asgardian now. I have joined a garrison of berserkers that dwells in the mountains here in Deseret. We call ourselves the Grandsons of Fenris. They recruited me, and I answered."

"How is it you're an Asgardian? We heard you were all Afroasian."

"The garrison has a forge. They transmutate foreign human recruits into Asgardians. They take what's strong, and empower it. This is my power, as Asgardian flesh deems it."

"Wow," Ironheart muses. "Sure hope the hoverchair didn't come out of the forge with you."

"Need I not specify why I need it?"

"The Six killed the rest of you," Hill reminisces. "Why did they leave you alive?"

"Because of what he's just told us," Dr. Octopussy says. "He's an Asgardian now. Alone, we could probably kill him with moderate ease. But he never leaves his garrison. And they're all Asgardian there. They would've defended him if we tried to kill him there-not that we understand why they would."

Ironheart chuckles. "Impressive. You're strong enough to use the Reality Stone, but you're not strong enough to whoop an Asgardian garrison's ass. You make less and less sense the more we get to know you!"

"You're not getting your blood back," Elektra tells him, "if that's why you've taken that VERY nice hoverchair all the way out here."

Around her, the other Six giggle.

"Of what blood do you speak?!" He blinks. "Whatever that matters, that is not why I have come. Thou and thy sisters in villainy have unlawfully slain a she-wolf. The caniform fauna in her habitat are subject to our garrison's protection. Thou and thy sisters in villainy owe us, the Grandsons of Fenris, the life of a she-wolf!"

"She was chasing us," Huntress says. "Some lesbians just don't understand the words 'I'm straight."

"My brothers in berserkergang partook in communion with her. She did not chase lesbians. She often shared her fantasy of submission to a he-wolf that put forth a lustrous light to match the moon's. We found her carcass in the woods of prompt, following twilight. From her ruins, the berserk nose of my seal discerned six scents. My berserk nose is absent...but my intuition messages me, and familiar fumes rise from six sources hence." He looks around at his ex-wife, and her so-called 'sisters in villainy.' "If thine cutlery did not end our she-wolf, then thou witnessed an atrocity, from which our garrison expects confession."

She-Vulture applauds, monotonously. "Encore, Fat Shakespeare. Sadly, my 'sisters and villainy' and I have unfinished business with the Reality Stone to attend to. Now, our failure to kill you the first time was required. But this time, it's mercy. Leave now, and you will not likely join your fellow nobles, our other ex-husbands, in Jahannam, where you all belong."

Metcalf sighs. "My brothers in vision were right. The easiest step of divorce really IS the signatures." He pulls a small horn from the arm of his hoverchair, and blows it.

Soon, the Sacrilegious Six themselves are surrounded. Creepy lobos and coatis, who all wear iron-forged collars that bear the Asgardian roundel, abandon their cover in the woods that surround. A few lone badgers, who wear the same collars, wander among them. A few lone ferrets, kit foxes, and ringtails, who lack legs and move like serpents, crawl across the ground, coil, and bare their fierce fangs...as the stubby chains jingle from their collars.

Humanoid berserkers arrive too, astride hardy and stubborn peccaries. Their mounts are barded. They wear iron-forged scale armor, and carry swords and spears. The breastplates of their armor bear the Asgardian roundel.

Abroad, a few skiffs prepare to provide air power. From them, a few goat-mounted humanoid berserkers jump, land in the trees, and travel in their tops, for more intimate close air support.

Hill gapes. Behind his mask, Spider-Man beams. Ironheart doesn't know if she can contain her excitement. Alas, she'd better; she'd hate to accidentally kill herself with her Reality Gauntlet.

Metcalf smiles, and looks down upon the Sacrilegious Six. "As much as I would love to help them capture you, I am in no state to fight." He powers his hoverchair. "I expect you to understand." With that, he flies away.

Furious, Elektra tries to overpower his chair with electricity. But by then, her ex-husband is out-of-range.

Sandgirl puts her hand on Elektra's bare shoulder, expecting to calm her. "That chair's an Asgardian gadget," she reminds her. "It's made of metal. For all we know or care, electricity only makes it stronger."

"He may be a fat glutton," Elektra spits bitterly. "But NO man can swallow the sun and expect to survive."

"Actually," Ironheart starts to say, before Hill elbows her in her exosuit's belly plate. Hill tries to hide it, but she broods over her elbow after having struck gold-titanium armor with it.

Hill, Spider-Man, and Ironheart all put their arms up, expecting the berserkers to do their job. With luck, the Six, who already surround them, won't seize the opportunity...

"HOLD IT!"

Mystria holds up her arms. Everyone stops.

Mystria assumes a position in front of Dr. Octopussy, and speaks. "As far as I can tell, this fight is over and altered reality. As a prelude to this battle-or whatever it's becoming-I hereby motion that we begin by pitting our two strongest warriors against one another. The Spartans did it all the time, after all, before conquering new land!"

"We're not Spartans," Huntress insists. "And clearly this trio HAS no strongest warrior." She looks around at the berserkers. "Unless, of course, one of these hot berserker boys wanted to fight in their stead, as a," she flaps her hair, "PREFERABLE patsy."

One of the peccary-riders appears to blush in his saddle. Below, his mount only grumbles to himself.

"It's not of manpower I speak." Mystria imagines herself into many shapes, before resuming her default one and holding it steady. "It's SOUL power. Or, to play the game like the Eternals do, REALITY power!"

"I," Hill mutters, "don't think I like where this is going..."

"Ironheart! You've the power to change reality as we know it in the palm of your hand!" She takes a defensive stance. "I hereby challenge you to a duel of imaginations!"

"This gauntlet is a prototype," Ironheart warns her. "It might not contain the Stone's power like the Infinity Gauntlet did all six Stones!"

"Well, unless you have a gauntlet with 'Reality Stone' on its resume," she claps her hands, and assumes another fighting stance, "THE NETHERFORCE IS ON, BITCHES!"

"Don't," Hill begs Ironheart. "This is insane."

"It might be necessary," Spider-Man says.

Ironheart sighs, and nods. "Fine; challenge accepted!"

Around, the Grandsons of Fenris applaud. Some of the Six seem excited.

"Alright," Huntress rubs her hands together, "a duel of imaginations! This'll be better than ballet!"

All around, everyone clears an arena for the two duelists. Spider-Man enjoys the berserkers' security for as long as it lasts.

"Remember," Hill implores Ironheart, "only defend yourself. Don't put on a show...as easy as it is to blush with an audience as dreamworthy as this."

"I have a plan," Ironheart reveals. "If it works, the Reality Stone will be safe in no time."

"As safe as it can be," Hill admits, "as much as none of the Infinity Stones should exist. I STILL don't know why Stark would use one to imitate a steam factory..."

The space is clear. The two duelists face one another. They demonstrate their weaponry. They bow to one another. They do an about-face, and walk five paces away from one another. They do another about-face, and face one another, weapons at the ready.

This will be intense. And without luck, the world will end...