Symbiote 0290: Final Stretch (3/4)

As Gwen's battle against Shang-Chi commenced, Alex was curiously looking at his own doppelgänger.

"So, can you do everything I can?" He asked. The doppelgänger didn't respond, so Alex continued, "What about the abilities I derive from my hosts? Like Chaos Magic."

Alex's questions didn't prompt any response from the doppelgänger as its form abruptly shifted into an amalgam mass of black that extended all around itself. Attacking multiple people, including Alex, as he showed a wince.

"I know that form would be more efficient, but come on, man," Alex extended his own tentacles out of his back that blocked the attacks of the doppelgänger. "Aesthetics are just as important."

The mass of black abruptly liquified and melded into the floor, shifting its density to become even thinner than water while also camouflaging itself.

"I can still see you," Alex smiled as four tentacles extended out of his back and formed the corners of a boundary around himself. A snarl came out of the floor itself as the doppelgänger gathered itself in front of him. The boundary prevented the doppelgänger from spreading any further. "I thought this would be more of a challenge, but you're just disappointing. No consciousness, not even my full arsenal of abilities; hell, you barely have a complete grasp over your combative instincts. I guess that's what I can expect from a fragment of the Reality Stone that isn't even being used completely."

As Alex shook his head, four more tentacles came out of his back and started suppressing the doppelgänger under Alex's command. Since it was a construct of the Reality Stone, Alex couldn't do anything to it without using the Mind Stone. It would just regenerate any damage that it sustained.

"I can see why the others are having such a difficult time with their respective opponents." Alex nodded as he focused outside the boundary he formed to block the doppelgänger.

Half of the building had already been destroyed as some of the heroes fought in mid-air while the rest took to the streets. Although they had already evacuated almost all of the people in the surroundings, the collateral damage wasn't anything to scoff at. As for the most important battle, Gwen and Cindy were fully engaged with Shang-Chi.

Unlike Gwen, who was holding her own against the esoteric abilities of the Mandarin's rings, Cindy was mostly being protected by her as Shang-Chi continued to focus his efforts on killing Cindy rather than beating Gwen.

[Alex, can't you give Cindy some extra defense or something? It's troublesome to protect her while dealing with this guy.]

[This is still his Reality Domain. He will escape if he realizes that he can't kill Cindy—]

[Stop fucking with me.] Gwen called him out on his cheap excuse for not helping her.

[Fine. But I'm not going to change anything. I want you to feel some pressure here. I want you to push yourself and surpass your limits.]

[Fine, goddamn it!]

Gwen's angry shout was followed by an explosion of bioelectricity from her form, forcing Shang-Chi to use the Lightning ring to resist the explosion. Still, it made him skid backward until he collided with a pillar. She didn't give him any respite and shot her webs at his sides to slingshot herself at him. Her action directly ripped out two chunks of the concrete wall that were attached to her webs.

Shang-Chi quickly shot a concussive force blast under him that propelled him up in the air, barely dodging Gwen's propelled kick.

[I just thought of something. I could incorporate this move of yours into a railgun. With multiple electromagnetic rings, your slingshot speed will be increased exponentially.]

[Thanks, but I'd like to keep my skin on my body when I land.]

Gwen broke through the pillar and was about to shoot out of the building due to her momentum, but she shot her web at a large piece of broken debris and swung it around, transferring all of her energy to the huge concrete slab that she threw at Shang-Chi.

Before it even reached the man, it was disintegrated by a disintegration beam shot from Spectral.

"It's really annoying to deal with these rings."

"Then retreat. I only wish to kill that bitch today." Shang-Chi snarled as he brought his focus back to Cindy, shooting her with a wave of intense cold from Zero.

"And waste all of the effort it took to get you here? Impossible."

Gwen's features exploded with lightning as her speed increased exponentially. Leaving multiple lightning outlines in her path, she appeared in between the beam and Cindy before blasting it with her lightning. The Absolute Zero beam exploded, instantly plummeting the temperature in the surroundings as the moisture in the air froze. It didn't impede Gwen in the slightest as she reached Shang-Chi once again, intent on taking him down.

"I've had enough of this." He growled at her and Gwen felt her Spider-Sense flare crazily. She was forced to step back as he tried to use the Mind Stone to attack her.

"I told you that you won't be able to cheat by using an Infinity Stone again, asshole," Gwen growled at him as a matching yellow glow dispelled the beam Shang-Chi attacked her with.

She immediately followed up with a lightning attack that overpowered Shang-Chi's defenses, sending him flying. By now, the exhaustion was getting to the man as he started making mistakes. With Gwen's undoubtedly stronger physique that was even further empowered by the newly upgraded ‹Lightning Divinity›, Shang-Chi was no longer a match for her. She was already able to hold her own against him in their previous battle and even come out on top, forcing him to use an Infinity Stone. Now, Alex had grown much stronger, which in turn made her much stronger as well.

As Gwen continued beating Shang-Chi up, the power of the Reality Stone started waning and it became difficult for him to continue to command the domain. Slowly, the doppelgängers stopped regenerating after being defeated, with each defeat weakening them further.

"Good work," Alex smiled as he exhausted his doppelgänger to death, making it disappear into the aether of the Reality Stone.

"She should be arriving soon …" Alex spoke to himself as Doctor Strange, with the help of Emma Frost, took care of his doppelgänger. Now that he was free, he made his way to Shang-Chi, quickly supporting Gwen in suppressing the man.

The situation had quickly been turned around. With the heroes being freed of their respective doppelgängers, they were able to support Gwen in taking down not only Shang-Chi but any backup forces that he had stationed around the Reality Domain as well. Even then, the man was extremely troublesome to deal with, taking the collective efforts of Doctor Strange, Gwen, Emma Frost, and Tony Stark to subdue.

"You don't know what you're doing," the man struggled from his bindings. "Not only are you protecting a murderer, but you're also inviting a terror upon your planet that you cannot even begin to fathom."

"We've already made a gamble on a different unfathomable terror," Tony spoke. "Now it's between the two of them to hash it out."

How tiresome.

An apathetic voice reverberated throughout the entire city, sending chills down the spines of anyone who heard it.

"There you are …" Alex smiled a wild smile as his figure got covered in Chaos Energy. He floated up as the morning sky started turning crimson. It was as if waves of Chaos were gathering from all over the planet and coalescing into clouds that were taking up darker shades of red.

Free him and surrender to his reign. I may yet allow your planet to survive my purge.

"This planet refuses, Miss Maximoff," Alex spoke calmly. "Now if you would please retreat, I may yet allow you to keep some dignity for yourself."

Apex.

The singular word contained myriad emotions, the predominant one being anger.

Do you think you can resist me?

"I guess we'll just have to see," Alex said as the crimson cloud in the sky compressed and formed into a human silhouette. Scarlet Angel slowly descended from the sky like an angel, as her blonde hair fluttered in the sky and her white dress with red accents made her seem like she was here to bring salvation to their planet.

"I will not offer peace a second time," the incarnation spoke.

"I would've considered it if it were the real you. But it's not."

"I could throw your words back at you."

"Unlike your incarnation, mine doesn't suffer from your weakness."

"You will regret this," following her words, Scarlet Angel exploded with a burst of a myriad of glows, the predominant one being red, followed by green, yellow, and blue.

Alex's face took on an expression of greed as he looked at the woman's display of power. He didn't bother channeling any of his Infinity Stone authorities. Not only was he already dangerously low on Bioenergy, but he wouldn't be able to contend against her authorities directly due to her having collected more stones than him.

"I've wanted to see the limits of my new Divinity for a while now," Alex said excitedly. His arcs of lightning appeared on his body. The formal suit he had adorned wasn't affected by his actions, but the red atmosphere conjured by Scarlet Angel's presence was dispelled. The clouds instantly turned dark as it started raining, with lightning crackling in the clouds above them.

"No wonder you've gotten so confident."

***

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