Seige of The Avengers tower part 2

The situation was going progressively worse, Natasha remarked in silence, as she watched another suit being torn apart by the dragon.

If things continued as they were, soon enough they would run out of suits to fight.

Most of the screens in the lab were displaying the suit's cameras, and they all watched from their point-of-view as the Iron Legion flew around the dragon — and consequently the building —, shooting their repulsors from a safe distance, moving in a coordinated pattern as they dived, attacked, and then went back up again to escape retaliation. No matter what they threw at him, however, the dragon didn't unwrap himself from the Avengers Tower, which was most definitely the only reason why the suits weren't all destroyed.

But that was a matter of time.

Every time the suits descended to attack, at least one didn't come back. Claws, bites, fast hits from its long tail… It shouldn't come as a surprise, but the dragon was fast, and when he lunged, more often than not, the Iron Legion suits had no time to react. Any and all attacks — from missiles to repulsors' blasts at maximum capacity — had no effect against Ao Shun, his black scales completely unscathed even after repeated precise bombardments that would have, most likely, brought down a Helicarrier.

They looked like a bunch of mosquitos buzzing around a crocodiles' head; annoying, maybe, but also completely harmless.

Meanwhile, the clock was ticking.

Temperature in New York was continuously dropping as the snowstorm raged on, the physical integrity of the Avengers Tower was threatened every time the dragon so much as twitched, and soon enough they would have no more suits to keep him distracted. If Clark didn't come quickly, Raven and Hulk would have to come out and play, and Natasha had a feeling New York wouldn't survive that.

There were some good news, though.

"Nat, the civilians are secured," Clint said through their communicator. "We are coming back."

"Any injuries?"

"We're fine. And as soon as I get to one of my secret stashes and restock my arrows, we'll be good to go and kick ass."

And to think they made fun of Clint for stashing arrows inside the vents all over the building…

"If you're both uninjured, I have another task for you," Natasha said, her eyes never leaving the screens; she held a wince when one of the suits was cut in half by a claw of the size of a person. "Jarvis tells me the demons are flocking to the upper levels. Specifically, to where we are keeping Leland Owlsley and Vladimir Ranskahov."

"They weren't evacuated with the others?"

"And risk them getting away? No. I sealed their cells and the floor they're on, but I don't know if that will keep the demons away." She shrugged, even though Clint couldn't see her. "I don't know if the demons really are aiming for them, nor do I know if this is a planed assault or simply a need to hunt something alive. I wouldn't shed any tears if those two ended up swarmed, but if you have the time, their testimony is worth more if they're alive."

Considering there was still a city after this, of course, but Natasha left that part out. They didn't need more pessimism.

"We're going," Clint said, simply. He paused. "Any word from—"

"Not yet, but I'll keep trying. Do you want a portal?"

"No portals!" he said, fast. "We're not far, we'll walk. Keep me posted."

Just when their conversation ended, her communicator beeped again.

"Romanoff, what the hell is going on there?!"

Natasha wouldn't lie, she had expected this call to happen a lot earlier. SHIELD probably was very busy coordinating the defense protocols to evacuate and shelter the civilians in the city from yet another invading force, otherwise she would have been contacted a lot sooner.

"Who is this?" Natasha asked, knowing very well who she was talking to.

"Romanoff!" Fury almost barked.

Despite the tense situation, Natasha couldn't help but to smirk.

"Director Fury, do you remember when I told you I was looking into the Russian mob's probable connection to the — maybe mythical, maybe not — criminal organization known as the Hand? Well, turns out they were connected, the Hand does exist, and they have a dragon."

She heard a deep sigh coming from the other side.

"And how are we dealing with that?" Fury finally asked. "What do I tell the World Security Council?"

"Let me guess," Natasha started, dryly, "they want to launch a nuclear attack?"

"They want to launch a nuclear attack," Fury confirmed.

"Of course they do… It's pretty much tradition by this point, isn't it?"

"There is nothing 'traditional' about dragon attacks, Romanoff."

"Sir, with all due respect, that has been the Council's answer to everything since the Chitauri attacked. And it never helps. It just forces us to deal with the enemy and with the 'nuclear friendly fire' the Council insists on throwing at us. Let us deal with the situation, it's why the Avengers exist." She paused. "And it's not like a nuclear bomb would solve this, to be honest."

"You think that thing can survive a nuclear bomb?!"

"A few hours ago, Director, that dragon was a literal fossil. Bones and dust. Now, it's alive. It's a magical being and a powerful one at that, or so I'm told," Natasha said, glancing at Raven; they were all listening very carefully when they heard her talking about nuclear bombs, it seemed. "I honestly don't know what the dragon's limits are. Worst-case scenario, he portals the bomb away and the explosion will annihilate an unknown target. Even worst-case scenario, the bomb does hit the target, the entire city is destroyed — us included —, and then the dragon either survives or puts himself back together. And this time, we won't be here to stop him."

Natasha paused, feeling the familiar irritation at dealing with the Council's shenanigans on top of the already stressful day.

"So please, sir, if it's not too much to ask, don't unleash a nuclear attack on New York until we absolutely have no other choice."

Fury liked dealing with the Council even less than her — which made sense, since he did it far more often —, and he was the one who frequently shot down their most idiotic ideas, so it wasn't exactly fair to rant at him. But right now, Natasha didn't exactly care. The last thing they needed to make that day even worse was a nuclear bomb.

"I won't, Romanoff," Fury finally answered, his tone surprisingly understanding. "So what's the plan?"

"The 'plan' is arriving," Natasha said; it wasn't a lie, she truly believed Clark would come, even though he hasn't answered the phone yet. "Until then, we'll keep the dragon distracted."

"And if Superman doesn't arrive until then?" Fury asked, catching on quickly.

"Then Bruce will take one for the team, and do to that dragon the same thing he did to Loki," Natasha answered, simply.

There was silence.

"Need I remind you what happened to Harlem, Romanoff?"

"No, sir, you don't." He really didn't, she had seen with her own eyes what Hulk's battle against Emil Blonsky had done to the place. "But Thor is currently on Asgard, and if Superman isn't here by the time we run out of suits to fight the dragon, we won't have another choice." She shrugged. "And if even that doesn't work, well, the Council already has a 'Plan C' ready."

Fury sighed, loudly.

"I'll keep things here under control, then. SHIELD is dealing with the evacuation, so keep focused."

"Will do, sir."

"Do you need any backup?"

Aerial support would be great, Natasha thought, but she doubted any pilot would be able to fly during that storm. And given how quickly the temperature was dropping, it wouldn't be long until any and all aircrafts were dropped from the sky like giant ice cubes.

"No, sir, we have everything we need," she finally replied.

"Good luck."

Natasha hung up, watching as another suit was destroyed, this one being tossed all the way to another building after the dragon hit the air with his hand; the suit wasn't even touched, but the hand was so massive and moved so fast, that it pretty much created a small tornado.

The Iron Legion was down to five suits and still no response from Clark, no Bifrost from Asgard or any sign of the Sorcerer Supreme.

Jessica, Raven and Bruce were getting more worried at each minute; Natasha was too, but she hid it better. So far, nothing they had tried worked; Ao Shun was basically a lizard-shaped Superman, it seemed, and their weapons were doing nothing except provoke him. They needed something stronger, but Natasha didn't like the idea of unleashing the Hulk against him, and she liked the idea of unleashing the Black Sky even less.

One had the potential to destroy the entire city — maybe more — in the fight against the dragon; the other, had the potential to doom their universe. Depending on how the fight went, winning would be the least of their worries. But sooner rather than later, they would need to make a decision.

Or so Natasha thought. Fate, it seemed, had decided for them.

At least Ao Shun did.

"BLACK SKY!" Ao Shun thundered again, making the entire building tremble. "YOU WILL COME OR YOU WILL BURN!"

Saying this, they watched through the Iron Legion's cameras as he used the claws he had embedded in the Avengers Tower to pull himself even higher, his enormous head looking down on them from the top of the building; he opened his mouth, the mandibles unlocking like a serpent's would, so wide that for a second Natasha honestly believed he would swallow the entire building, from top to bottom.

That's when they saw a spark inside it. A spark that turned into an inferno, as flames began to fill the dragon's mouth, almost as if he were holding a small sun inside his jaws.

Bruce was already running to the windows, tossing his glasses to the side. Raven was focusing her magic, probably to try to conjure some sort of barrier that would hopefully protect the Avengers Tower from complete annihilation. Jessica Jones, for once, was struck silent.

Natasha simply hoped.

Small cracks filled the surface of the ice, slowly, almost gently, like little tree branches growing; suddenly, without warning, everything exploded.

Superman emerged from the ice sarcophagus violently, flying to the sky with such speed that the ice around him turned into diamond dust. He was already over the clouds before he could even feel the lasting numbness in his limbs, definitely an aftereffect of being frozen, but as he flew, fast, the friction against the air started to dissipate the cold, erasing this new unpleasant sensation.

He ignored all that, his mind focused on a single purpose: reach Ao Shun.

Clark was caught by surprise when the dragon emerged from the buried Lazarus Pit, and even more by the sheer speed and strength he displayed, but he wouldn't let that happen again. Now, more than ever, he needed to keep his head in the game, because it wasn't simply a matter of battling a powerful being.

It was a matter of battling a powerful being while trying to keep collateral damage to a minimum; New York couldn't suffer another Incident or Black Zero Event.

Even if Clark didn't know where Ao Shun intended to go, it would be easy to find him, by the trail of frost he left behind. All he had to do was follow the cold air, and every inch he advanced, he could feel the temperature dropping; the Ancient One did mention the K'un-Lunan dragons were so powerful that they affected the weather, after all, and Ao Shun was the once revered as the King of Winter.

He found out why the moment he laid eyes on New York; more accurately, the moment he saw the blizzard freezing the entire city, on a day that was sunny not even half an hour ago.

The streets were buried under several feet of snow, ice covered the buildings, vehicles were lost under the white frost and the freezing winds howled, so strongly that several street poles were bent or had been completely ripped out.

Clark quickly scanned the area, looking for people in danger as he passed over the city, but found no one in need of immediate help; most had been smart enough to hide inside when they saw a dragon flying above them, it seemed, and SHIELD's safety protocols were apparently working well enough, because he could see cops and firefighters escorting civilians to safety all over New York.

That was good news, because Clark finally spotted Ao Shun; and for the first time, he had time to see more than an enormous blur emerging from the earth.

The sight gave him pause.

He knew the dragon was immense, he gathered that much during their very brief meeting, but seeing Ao Shun wrapped around the Avengers Tower, like a serpent about to crush its prey, was astounding, to say the least. How could a living being be so big?! The thing was taller than a skyscraper! And it wasn't only the length of the dragon that surprised him.

Clark wasn't a betting man, but he was pretty sure that a talented pilot could fly a plane through Ao Shun's mouth and keep going directly to the stomach without hitting anything.

It was a living mountain of muscles, dark scales, and sharp bone spikes, with four limbs — with claws on the hands and feet —, horns and teeth bigger than him, and even the characteristic whiskers hanging from the snout. The very picture of an Eastern dragon from the myths brough to real life.

But probably not exactly as he were before the Lazarus Pit, Clark noticed.

There were spots of the unnatural green of the pit on the body, and some parts on the immense body where he could see that the scales had failed to regenerate properly, showing the skin under them; he might not have succeeded in stopping the resurrection, but Clark clearly interrupted its final stages.

All that was pushed to the back of Clark's mind, however, when he saw the dragon opening his enormous mouth, and flames started to burn inside of it, ready to be spat over the Avengers Tower.

It seemed Ao Shun was done waiting for Raven to get out and was about to force her hand; Clark couldn't let that happen.

Thinking fast, he decided to take a page out of the King of Winter's book.

It was simple physics: when a pressurized gas expanded through a small opening, its temperature dropped fast. It was something known as the Joule-Thomson Effect. Of course, humans couldn't replicate this without proper equipment, their lungs simply couldn't compress the air to the necessary pressure.

The lungs of a Kryptonian under a yellow sun, however, could.

Clark opened his mouth and inhaled as much air as he could, using his extreme strength to compress all that air inside his lungs. Then he flew towards the Avengers Tower, landed upon it, right between Ao Shun's burning mouth and the building; he pursed his lips.

And unleashed the arctic breath directly into the dragon's mouth.

The huge fireball held inside Ao Shun's jaws extinguished like a birthday candle, as the incredibly powerful gust of glacial breath hit his mouth, freezing everything inside, until a block of ice replaced all the fire.

It looked like Ao Shun had bit an iceberg, one so big that it that it forced his jaws to remain opened.

The surprise on the dragon's face when his own weapon was used against him was very satisfying, especially after Clark himself was frozen not too long ago.

"HELL YEAH!" Jessica yelled, when they saw what Clark had done through the cameras. She looked at the stunned people in the room. "Did you know he could do that?"

Slowly, Romanoff, Banner and the demon girl shook their heads, too surprised to speak.

"Yeah, me neither," she admitted, still chuckling. "Serves that son of a bitch right, though, huh?"

Jessica knew Clark was alright and would show up, but that didn't erase the relief of seeing him; nor did it erase the relief of seeing him show up at the exact moment they would've been burned to death.

It was about time someone appeared to put that big ass lizard in its place.

Ao Shun's angry roar was mostly blocked by the iceberg in his mouth, as he shook his head, desperately trying to tear the ice apart with his claws and teeth. Using the opportunity, Clark took his chance to take the battle away from the Avengers Tower.

Ignoring the furious dragon, Clark flew down, looking for Ao Shun's legs, the ones that still had its claws embedded into the building. When he found the first one, Clark put both of his fists in front of him and accelerated, hitting the huge claws with all his strength right on their side.

The CRACK that followed when the four claws broke in half echoed throughout the city.

The roar of pain, even blocked by the ice, made the entire building shake, but Clark barely noticed, already aiming at the other one; and before Ao Shun could so much as try to avoid him, Clark hit the remaining claws the same way, breaking them and finally detaching the dragon from the walls.

Without pause, Clark flew down, grabbing the very tip of the immense tail — holding between the scales as well as he could —, and now that Ao Shun was no longer attached to the tower, he forcibly unwrapped the dragon. One, two, three times, using all his speed and strength to lift the scaled body as fast as possible, using the fact that Ao Shun was too distracted and in pain to fight back.

As soon as he was no longer touching the Avengers Tower, Clark flew up, fast.

And unleashed a powerful uppercut to Ao Shun's jaw.

Compared to the size of Ao Shun's head, Clark's fist might as well be microscopic, but that didn't make the hit any less brutal. The blow was delivered with such force that the iceberg inside his mouth shattered and the gigantic dragon was launched up to the sky, opening a hole through the storm clouds that were covering New York.

Now they could fight properly, Clark thought, flying after him.

Raven was speechless.

She was about to be forced into a battle against one of the renegade lords of K'un-Lun, a battle where she would have to use her full power and risk losing control, when Superman — when Clark — arrived in the nick of time.

And froze the mouth of the King of Winter shut.

She did not know he could do that.

"Well, that was interesting. I seems 'Plan A' is still on," Agent Romanoff remarked, her voice surprisingly cool, even though Raven could feel her previous anxiety — now replaced by strong relief. "It seems Clark has this under control."

"He's gonna kick that dragon's scaly ass, that's what he's going to do," Jessica Jones summarized the situation; she sounded like a younger sibling cheering for her big brother as he dealt with a bully.

Either that, or Raven had been watching too many family sitcoms these last few days.

"That was a relief… Though the timing could've been better," Bruce said, his eyes glowing green. He had been one step away of unleashing his rage, Raven knew.

It truly was a good thing Clark showed up in time, because Raven didn't know what would become of the city if she and Bruce fully used their powers at the same time.

"Raven," Agent Romanoff called, "can you open a portal to the floor where Clint and Murdock are? There's still some cleaning up to do inside the Tower, after all."

Silently, she nodded.

"You stay here with Bruce. Miss Jones and I will hunt down the remaining hostiles and regroup here."

"Yep, I'm dying to beat someone up," Jessica Jones said, swinging her mace.

Closing her eyes, Raven raised her hand and opened another dark portal, closing it right after Agent Romanoff and Jessica Jones crossed it. Then, she sat down again, regaining her focus, feeling for any other potential threats.

Far away, Raven could hear as Clark and the dragon battled, the blows sounding like a distant thunderstorm.

Matt had no idea how many demons he already had defeated, but it seemed there was no end to them.

The floor was littered with the corpses of the enemies he and Clint took out, and he had to watch his step not trip, because even that didn't make the Hand's soldiers retreat. For the first time in his life, Matt was fighting without holding back, fighting exactly like Stick trained him to fight, trying to ignore the feeling of the very human bodies breaking beneath his blows.

And also trying to ignore how satisfying it was to finally let the Devil out for real.

He knew those were demons, he could feel them, and there was nothing he could do for those people anymore, but even knowing all that, Matt still felt extreme guilty after each fallen enemy. Guilty, perhaps, by how good it felt to meet his enemies head on with everything he had, more than simply at the fact that he was effectively killing them.

There was no time to second-guess, his actions, though. The Hand was trying to reach Vladimir and Leland, and all that stood between those two and a horrible death, were Matt and Clint.

Or at least it was, before a familiar portal opened.

Before anyone had even the time to think, a barrage of bullets was fired, hitting a bunch of demons directly between the eyes; there were no missed shots, no hesitation, no mercy, as Natasha Romanoff emerged from the portal.

If the Black Widow was the very picture of precision, Jessica Jones was carnage incarnate.

The super-strong woman jumped against the mass of demons, meeting their strength with her own; they were simply no match. There was no martial art style, no finesse, no subtlety, just pure raw power, as she punched, kicked and swung that mace of hers, each blow sending the demons flying like toys.

Until eventually, there was no one left to fight, just a corridor littered with bodies.

"Nice of you to show up," Clint said, flippantly. "I would hate to take the credit for saving those scumbags all by myself."

"Easy for you to say when you used him," Natasha said, gesturing at Matt, "as a human shield, isn't it?"

"Hey, he's a Murdock, they are built to take punches and keep on fighting," Clint remarked. "Huge fan of Battlin' Murdock, by the way."

Huh… Maybe it wasn't a surprise that those two had searched what they could about his life, but it was weird to know that Hawkeye of the Avengers watched his father's boxing matches.

"What about the dragon?" Matt asked, before those two could keep on talking nonsense. "Did Clark—"

"You have no fucking idea how close we all were to be barbecued," Jessica said, walking to them. "Clark arrived at the last possible moment and, get this, froze that motherfucker!"

"He can do that?" Clint asked, as surprised as Matt was.

"You didn't know?" Natasha retorted, as if it were obvious.

Why it would be, Matt had no idea, but he didn't say anything, because suddenly there was a sound indicating that they were no longer alone.

Tap, tap, tap.

It came out of nowhere. First there was silence, only interrupted by their conversation, and then there was that tapping sound, followed by slow footsteps, as someone appeared in the corridor.

A small, smiling, old lady.

"Madame Gao!" Matt snarled, shocked that she would even be there, in the front line of the attack.

"The Devil of Hell's Kitchen," Madame Gao greeted, with a nod. She looked at the others. "Black Widow, Hawkeye…" Her eyes stopped on Jessica. "You and I were not introduced yet, young lady."

"Fuck you, old bitch," was Jessica's polite reply.

"Now, now, even amongst enemies, there must be respect," Madame Gao retorted, still smiling.

"What about amongst old allies?" Natasha asked, her eyes cold. "You turned on Fisk. You are here to kill Ranskahov and Owlsley… And you killed Sergei."

"One does what one must. I am certain you, of all people, understands that, Black Widow." She tapped her cane one last time, stopping in front of them. "But you are mistaken. I am not here for them."

"Those dead demons tell a different story," Clint said, twirling an arrow between his fingers, his eyes never leaving Gao.

Madame Gao chuckled.

"They will die, eventually, but there is not my purpose here. You are." She gestured towards all of them. "Or, I should say, the fact that you are here, and not guarding the Black Sky."

Matt felt his blood turn cold.

"If you think she is unguarded, you are very mistaken," Natasha said, slowly. "And I would be sorry for the men you sent, if it wasn't so amusing."

"But I sent no men, Black Widow," Gao said, smiling. "I sent something… more."

Her gaze fell to the dead people in the corridor; to the dead demons.

They had sent the Beast to take Raven, Matt realized.

They all reached the same conclusion at the same time, he felt, as the smell of their surprise spiked.

"Well, thanks for telling us, you shriveled bitch," Jessica said, walking towards Gao with purpose. "Now we can just deal with you and then help demon girl to fuck up your demon."

Saying this, Jessica reached and held Gao's frail arm, firmly, but almost delicately, with barely a fraction of her strength. And why should it be any different? Gao was a very small, very old woman, not a threat to anyone, much less someone that possessed enhanced strength like Jessica Jones did.

That was the reason why they were all shocked when Madame Gao twisted Jessica's arm — in a display of speed and strength that simply didn't match her appearance — and hit her stomach with the palm of the hand.

With such power — such unnatural strength — that Jessica was sent flying through the wall before anyone could even react.

Madame Gao turned to them, that chilling smile still on her face, and tapped her cane once again on the floor.

Then she unsheathed a hidden sword from it, pointing the blade silver at them.

"It has been a while since my sword tasted blood," Madame Gao said. "Forgive me if I seem too eager."

The sudden surge of pure chi made him tense; Matt was really starting to hate the Hand.

Raven felt the portal opening inside the lab and immediately raised her hand, focusing her powers to stop it.

The fiery arch met resistance and the rift's opening slowed down, but something was different. The power behind that magic was different, stronger… Fouler. The sorcerer opening that portal was not human.

Bruce put himself between her and the portal, but Raven barely noticed, too concentrated trying to block whatever creature was trying to get in. The borders of the portal stretched, then shrank back again, as Raven and the sorcerer measured their strength, each of them trying to overpower the other.

Without even realizing, Raven got up, her face twisted into a snarl, her hand pointed at the — for the moment — small portal.

Whatever being was trying to cross, whatever foe trying to arm wrestle her, had clearly never met Raven.

Raising both hands, Raven poured her energy towards the portal, releasing so much power that the room began to shake. The floor and the walls cracked, the very air trembled and all the equipment in the lab — from the computers to the several robotic arms — was utterly crushed, sparks flying everywhere.

Little by little, the portal began to close, as the entity trying to cross was unable to keep up.

Raven, fueled by the thought of her imminent victory, smirked, allowing herself to enjoy it for the first time.

And then, when the portal was about to close, several pitch-black tentacles suddenly crossed the small rift.

Piercing Bruce's chest and stomach like multiple dark swords.

"BRUCE, NO!" Raven yelled, forgetting about everything else when Bruce's warm blood splattered all over her.

Before she could do anything, the tentacles lifted Bruce as if he didn't weight anything and threw him away, to the other end of the lab. Too distraught to care about anything else than Bruce's well-being, Raven lost her focus, allowing the portal to fully open.

And the Beast to get in.

She knew who the demon was just by feeling the terrible energy emanating from him, even when he was hidden behind the form of a human male. The shape the Beast assumed was of an extremely obese man, so fat and so and so ridiculously unhealthy looking that if he were a real human, he probably wouldn't be standing. He was bald, full of pustules all over his skin, and his clothes could barely contain the flaps of fat hanging from his body. The smell of sickness and filth was nearly unbearable

It was exactly the form Raven would expect from a demon that had been feasting on the calamities of their world for so long.

"I have been looking forward to meeting you, Black Sky," the Beast spoke, his voice almost a gurgle, while his tiny little eyes were fixed on her. He sniffed the air, his stomach rumbling loudly, then he leered at her. "You smell even better than I thought."

He wobbled inside, slowly, deceptively weak. A lie, of course, and Raven knew. No matter what he chose to wear as his physical shell, underneath that was a Demon Lord that had been preying on humanity for centuries.

Raven moved to put herself between Bruce and the Beast, sparing a look to her friend as she did so.

Bruce was still alive, she could feel it, she could hear his gasps for air, but it wouldn't take long for him to succumb to his injuries. She needed to cause a distraction, anything, to give her time to try and heal Bruce, or at least take him to someone who could.

"Do you think the Sorcerer Supreme will forgive this attack?" Raven said, trying to ignore the strong smell of decay. "In one of the cities that house a Sanctum, no less? You might have survived Merlin and Etrigan, but you won't escape punishment this time."

Despite the very real concern she raised, the Beast simply laughed; it was an ugly sound, especially since he started to cough as he did it, spiting a mix of saliva, blood and pus all over the floor.

"The Ancient One and her pet sorcerers are busy, Black Sky," The Beast finally said, his face now full of greenish glob. "Where do you think I sent my legions? The Sanctums and Kamar-Taj have their hands full."

That gave her pause; while not expecting the Sorcerer Supreme to appear and solve everything, Raven was still certain she would support them at some point. But if the Beast was telling the truth — a big "if" when it came to demons, but he had no reason to lie — they were on their own.

She was on her own.

"Do you truly believe they can win?" Raven asked, trying to gauge the strength of the Beast's forces. "Against the Sorcerer Supreme?"

The Beast smiled; it was an ugly thing, full of sharp teeth.

"They do not have to win. They only need to keep the Ancient One while we play." He took another long sniff, closing his eyes. "I can smell your thoughts. You are afraid… But not for yourself." The Beast glanced behind her, to where Bruce was. "For him. For the other mortals. For the… Kryptonian." He smiled again, his mouth torn in a depraved collection of teeth. "I feasted enough to last a year when his planet crumbled."

For a moment, Raven let out a spike of rage, his mockery about Clark's people hitting close to home; she also knew how it was to lose everything.

"Ah, is that love I sense in your thoughts?" The Demon Lord went on, his smile growing more and more. "A friend, a brother, a father… I will take all that from you in one fell swoop if you challenge me, Black Sky."

Raven stepped back, shielding her mind to guard herself against the demon's tricks, not out of fear, but so she could close her distance to Bruce unnoticed.

"What do you expect to win here?" she asked, trying to distract him. "Say your legions win, say the Hand has their way and I unleash Trigon into this world." Another step back. "What exactly do you think it will happen? Do you think Trigon will reward you?" She stared into his eyes. "Trigon will annihilate this world and everything in it, including your precious Hand."

"Yes," the Beast laughed again. "All that pain, all that suffering… It will be an unforgettable banquet."

The demon didn't care about his supposed allies' demise, didn't care that the entire world would become a part of Trigon's conquests, didn't care that his continued feasting would come to an end.

All the Beast cared about was feeding on the agony of an entire dying universe, even if it killed him.

It was like speaking to the very personification of gluttony. Talking would get her nowhere.

Taking a deep breath, Raven focused her powers, pushing down the fear that was about to overcome her; not fear of the Demon Lord in front of her, but of herself and what her powers could do if she lost control. But she had no choice, not now. Clark was fighting Ao Shun, the rest of the Avengers were not there, and Bruce depended on her to live another day.

Raven allowed her shadows to cover her body, ignoring the cackles of the Beast.

"I will not allow it," she said, beginning to float.

She had a plan in mind: blast the Beast away, heal Bruce's wounds the best she could, then portal him to a hospital. Then she would focus on the battle. It wasn't perfect, so many things could go wrong, but there was no other way. Raven prepared herself to face the Beast.

Then a feeling of absolute rage hit her, almost like a physical blow, making her falter.

"RRAAAARGHH!"

The unhuman roar made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. The few windows left were completely shattered by the sound, as were the light bulbs and screens. The room shook, not that differently from when they had a dragon wrapped around them.

Even the Beast stopped, hesitating for the first time.

And before either of them could move, Bruce launched himself against the Demon Lord, destroying the tables and chairs in his path as he attacked, his body growing bigger, stronger and green as he moved, each step breaking the floor, running so fast that there was barely time to react.

Raven acted on pure instinct: she opened a rift to the Mirror Dimension that encompassed them all, and raised the most powerful barrier she could around herself.

That was when the Hulk's fist clashed against the Beast.

To call it a punch would be misleading. The immense green fist hit with the power of a bomb and the shockwaves sent Raven flying through the steel-plated windows, completely vaporizing the floor, the walls and the ceiling. The noise was deafening, and the explosion would have turned her to mush if not for the barrier; as it was, Raven was thrown from the Avengers Tower, spinning inside her circular barrier of black energy, until she finally was able to stop, floating in the sky.

And all she could do was watch, stunned, as the Mirror Dimension's replica of the Avengers Tower collapsed in on itself, each floor falling on top of the below it, until finally all that was left of the skyscraper was dust and rubbles.

If Raven hadn't sent them to the Mirror Dimension, everyone inside would have been dead, that was the first thing that crossed her mind. Bruce had told her that the "Big Guy" was dangerous, and she had felt the rage boiling inside him to know he spoke the truth, but somehow she hadn't expected that.

For a moment, there was only silence.

The New York inside the Mirror Dimension didn't have a dragon attacking, nor did it have a blizzard swallowing the city. It was vast and completely devoid of people, just endless tall buildings as far as the eye could see, looking exactly the same as they were in the real world. The only exception was the Avengers Tower, destroyed in its entirety by Hulk.

Raven dispelled the barrier around her and looked down from the sky, searching. Was Bruce okay? Had he survived the entire building collapsing on top of him? And what about the Beast? Was he defeated?

She had her question about the Beast answered when the debris of the building shook and the Demon Lord dug his way out.

He no longer resembled a human.

It was as if the physical form of the obese man was shedding from him, as the pieces of skin and fat and muscles simply fell down, revealing pitch-black skin underneath. The Beast grew in size, almost as big as Bruce's transformation now, except that instead of muscle, the demon revealed a form not that much different from the obese person he was masquerading as.

The Beast was bloated, much fatter than his human form, but with small bent legs and arms, disproportionate to his size. His skin was dark, leathery, and there wasn't a strand of hair anywhere on his naked body. The head was big, with small red eyes.

And a mouth that resembled a shark, full of sharp teeth, with jaws so big that they seemed to divide his head in two.

The Demon Lord ripped the last bit of fat and skin of his human form, his claws simply pulling the disgusting flesh from his shoulder and tossing it to the side, then he looked up, seeing Raven; his mouth opened in a terrifying smile, showing his enormous teeth.

A smile that was promptly erased from his face when the ground trembled and the Hulk emerged from the debris, no less mad than he was in the real world.

Without realizing, Raven smiled; then channeled her powers to start controlling the Mirror Dimension.

The familiar black raven aura surrounded her, and the entire city started to shake.

Clark quickly raised his arms above his head, shielding himself as best as he could.

BOOOM!

The dragon's immense tail hit him with a powerful blow, blasting him away through the clouds, his muscles burning as he felt as if a mountain had fallen on top of him. Truth be told, reality wasn't that far off, except this mountain was composed by muscles and hard scales, far more resilient than simple rock.

Things were not going as smoothly as Clark thought they would at first.

On all his previous battles, when Clark took the fight to the skies, he was in his element. Zod and his Sword of Rao, Malekith and his Dark Elves, Grundy, even the tournament fight against Thor… When he was flying, the battlefield belonged to him.

This was not true now.

Ao Shun was thousands of years old and, as a dragon, he most likely had been flying since birth; it probably felt more natural to him than breathing. But it went beyond that, beyond just practice. As one of the most powerful masters of chi, Ao Shun didn't simply learn how best to react to the whims of the sky.

He controlled the very winds. The sky itself was an extension of his body.

And his body was already pretty extensive. Clark was facing a one-mile tall monster, a being so incredibly big that he was beginning to feel that Ao Shun was the battlefield itself. The dragon twirled and twisted around him, the massive body moving at amazing speeds, in such a way that everywhere Clark looked, he was faced with a part of Ao Shun's long body.

He attacked from all directions at the same time, constantly, without pause, surrounding the entire area around Clark. As soon as he dodged his bite, the tail was already lunging at his back; the moment he avoided or blocked that attack, the fists were next, throwing him against sections of the serpent's body — with hard scales and sharp bone spikes all over its extension — and then the huge back legs would try to slice or crush him. Bursts of fire and ice were a constant.

Clark flew as fast as he could to avoid the barrage of attacks, using the one advantage he had over Ao Shun's tremendously big body: his agility. Being as small as he was next to the dragon, he could change his trajectory much quicker, but even that proved itself inefficient, since everywhere he escaped to he was met by another section of his body.

And the sky itself was against him, it seemed.

Ao Shun was just so massive that every movement he made displaced air masses, creating strong winds that he most likely enhanced using chi. So even when Clark successfully avoided the dragon, wind blasts would crash against him, pushing him to whenever direction Ao Shun would strike next; the winds weren't strong enough to simply toss Clark away, but they were enough to disturb his flight during critical moments, making it even harder for him to move properly.

It was like a dance, and Clark suspected that if he weren't right there in the middle of it, he would've found it quite the spectacle.

As it was, with his life and the life of everyone in New York at stake, it was anything but. Every minute he spent dancing with Ao Shun was a minute that the blizzard had to grow even stronger. The storm hadn't stopped just because Clark took the fight to the sky, and the temperature was dropping continuously; soon enough, it would drop so low that no human would be able to survive. One way or the other, Clark needed to put an end to this, fast.

If only he could do something about the weather, then he could figure a way to defeat Ao Shun without a time limit...

The answer came to him so abruptly that he almost failed to dodge the dragon's humongous fist. He couldn't do anything about the weather, but he knew someone who could. Someone that was known for causing thunderstorms, but was perfectly able to do the opposite as well.

But how the hell could he get in contact with Thor when he was on Asgard?

Funny enough, it never occurred Clark that he would need direct contact to Asgard before. He was sure that, given a bit of time, Kelex would be able to send some kind of message, but that was hardly helpful at the moment.

He was left with one option.

"HEIMDALL!" Clark yelled, making full use of his super-lungs. "I could really use Thor's help right now!"

Clark had a theory about how Heimdall's super-senses worked. The myths said his hearing was so powerful that he could hear as grass grew on Earth all the way from Asgard, even when there was no air in space for the sound waves to travel through to reach his ears. Of course, Thor would agree, most myths were nonsense, but this one was apparently true. But how?

In Clark's opinion — and he really would like Thor's take on this —, it was because of the Bifrost.

Differently from what most thought, the Bifrost wasn't the actual bridge built on Asgard, the place from where Heimdall watched the Nine Realms; that was just the tool the Asgardians had created to harness the power of the Bifrost. The Bifrost itself was a dimensional force capable of bending space, and that energy could be used by those powerful enough to wield it. Odin was one of those rare individuals.

Heimdall was another.

That was how he would watch out for threats in all the Nine Realms from Asgard, by channeling the Bifrost energy through himself. He could use the Bifrost to transport light and sound directly into his eyes and ears, managing to see and hear things on distant planets.

Clark only hoped he was right about this; and that Heimdall was actually paying attention.

Regardless, he wouldn't wait for confirmation. If Thor showed up, great, if he didn't… Then he would have to defeat Ao Shun by himself, before he turned New York into an ice cube. With this in mind, Clark decided to put his plan into motion.

Stopping midair, Clark aimed and lunged towards the dragon's body, clashing against the mountain-like serpent with a powerful hit. He knew it was useless to attack the dragon that way, the body was simply too big and the scales too hardy to be damaged like that, but that wasn't what he had in mind.

No, Clark wasn't so much as hitting Ao Shun as he was grabbing him.

His fingers sunk into the scales' sides as he used all his strength to keep himself attached to the dragon, even as Ao Shun twisted in the sky; the roars and the wind howling were deafening, but Clark ignored all that, beginning to climb the dragon's body, just as he would climb a mountain, moving as fast as he could without being tossed aside, using his flight ability to keep holding the dragon when his grip failed.

Ao Shun couldn't hit Clark, not without hitting himself, and the wind blasts' effect was minimum while he held like that. And while the dragon tried to shake him off, Clark kept climbing, aiming for his target: Ao Shun's eyes and mouth.

The dragon was a pillar of impenetrable scales, the body too immense and strong to be effectively harmed that way, but the eyes and the mouth? As far as Clark knew, they had no special defense, so they were probably Ao Shun's weak point.

If he could even call a mouth containing hundreds of sharp teeth bigger than him — with the ability to spit fire — a "weak point", that was.

Ao Shun dived into the dark clouds, speeding up, twisting and turning abruptly as he tried to throw Clark away, but the Kryptonian kept holding and advancing, climbing the scales as fast as he could. His cape whipped the air behind him, even redder against the dragon's black, and his hands searched for places to hold, the roughness of the scales actually helping him. By his calculations, he was past the upper half of Ao Shun's body.

That's when he felt the dragon's body turn cold.

"Oh, no, not again!" Clark protested, his eyes glowing red.

Before Ao Shun could blast him with his unnatural cold — the same attack that had frozen him not too long ago —, Clark unleashed his heat vision against the scales. The energy beams clashed against the dragon's natural armor, scorching the surface but unable to penetrate them.

More than able, however, to heat them up and counter the icy blast about to be released.

Clark made a path upwards with his heat vision, almost setting the scales ablaze, making everything he could to heat the air so he wouldn't get frozen again. The dragon roared in pain and rage, turning and spinning even faster to shake him off, but Clark didn't stop shooting the energy beams until he had a flaming path all the way to Ao Shun's head.

Then he started climbing again, even faster, ignoring the heat against his skin.

Dents on the scales, bone protrusions, sometimes slits he carved with his own nails on the burnt scales… Clark kept going up, holding where he could, using his flight to keep his body pressed against the gigantic beast while Ao Shun shook and twisted and dove inside the clouds over New York, roaring nonstop.

Finally, Clark arrived on the top of the dragon's head, holding firmly on one of his huge horns. He grinned, ready to jump down and attack the soft tissue of the eyes.

The moment he was about to jump, however, he heard the buzzing crackle electricity. And before he could even understand what was going on, every single cloud around them lit up, the lightning bolts drawn to the dragon's body, almost as if he were a lightning rod.

Ao Shun completely ignored the electricity, the lightning bolts dancing all over his scaled form; Clark, however, felt every single bit of the energy traveling through his body.

His muscles locked as the spasms hit him, and Clark couldn't have kept holding onto Ao Shun's horns even if he had the capacity to think about that while he was being shocked. As soon as his grip failed, the dragon blasted him away with a powerful headbutt.

Great, Clark was able to think even with all the pain, his body surrounded by smoke as he fell; the dragon could use electricity too. That would've been nice to know beforehand.

He struggled against his own muscles while he fell, trying to regain control and stop the spasms, his eyes never leaving the immense dragon as he made a turn over him; and started to descend, the gigantic and menacing mouth opened, as electricity crackled all over his long body, almost as if he were a thunderstorm brought to life.

Clark started to regain his movements little by little, but the dragon was approaching fast, the mouth so big that it was like looking at a canyon full of teeth. He had no idea how strong those teeth were, if they could rip his Kryptonian body apart, or if the dragon planned to eat him whole.

He had no desire to find out.

And yet, he could not move. The warm and foul breath of the dragon reached him and Clark braced himself, lifting his still heavy arms as best as he could, preparing to keep Ao Shun's jaws from closing shut on him.

When Ao Shun's jaws opened even further, ready to come crashing down, there was an abrupt and inexplainable explosion of electricity, the lightning bolts dancing around the dragon's body suddenly coming to life alongside every single cloud.

For the second time, the entire New York sky glowed blue; this time, however, Ao Shun screamed in pain as all that energy was somehow directed inside the dragon's mouth.

The dragon jerked away, his body shaking just like Clark's did, and the Kryptonian took his chance to fly away as he could, avoiding the crash, his mind filled with surprise and questions. Questions that were answered when he suddenly saw a familiar rainbow bridge lighting up the sky.

The Bifrost pierced the clouds and Mjölnir appeared from it, blasting Ao Shun away with a powerful hit, only to return to the God of Thunder, who grabbed it as he emerged from the beam of multicolored light in the middle of the sky.

"You are late!" Clark stated, a wide smile on his face as Thor flew towards him.

Thor barked out a laugh, swinging Mjölnir absentmindedly as he floated by Clark's side.

"The God of Thunder is never late, Kal-El," Thor quipped back, good-humored. "Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."

When the hell had Thor watched The Lord of the Rings?

As important as the question was, they had more pressing matters to worry about, such as the gigantic dragon flying in front of them, already recovered from the powerful electric attack Thor dealt him.

"Remember me, Wyrm?" Thor shouted, his voice booming over the storm. "How is the neck?"

By the wrathful roar Ao Shun uttered in response, he definitely remembered the one who had cut off his head. Thor turned to him, grinning.

"Dragons are terrible conversationalists," he mentioned, as if talking about a nice book he read once. "Most of their communication is made through scent and the flow of chi, they do not enjoy talking very much. It makes them angry." Thor looked back to Ao Shun. "Does it not, lizard?!"

The clouds became even darker and the winds howled as Ao Shun's fury permeated the sky; maybe asking for Thor's help wasn't such a bright idea after all.

"Let us have some fun, Kal!"

Tony Stark was having a good day.

He closed a huge deal for Stark Industries, he celebrated with Pepper for most of the night — and a bit of the morning as well, not to brag —, he ate one hell of a cheeseburger for breakfast, and now Happy was flying them back to New York, as he sat by Pepper's side; Pepper, who was still throwing him steamy looks, looks that would no doubt result in another round of celebration soon enough.

Life was good.

Staring in Pepper's eyes, Tony slowly traced one finger over her thigh, delicately lifting the short dress little by little; until she slapped his hand away, her face burning red.

"Happy is here!" she whispered, turning to look at the chief-of-security flying the plane; well, 'flying' was a strong word, since the autopilot was doing all the work while Happy nodded off, barely managing to keep his eyes open.

It wasn't a "no", Tony noticed with a smirk.

"He's knocked out," he whispered back. "Flights always put him to sleep. And the bathroom is soundproof."

Pepper looked again at the cockpit, then back at him; she bit her lips, and Tony was already getting up, when a familiar British voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Sir, I now you said to interrupt you during this business trip with 'Avengers' problems' only if, and I quote, 'the world was about to end', but I feel you should see this," Jarvis said, destroying the mood.

Tony groaned, hands still on Pepper's legs.

"Is the world about to end, Jarvis?" he asked, sarcastically, hoping that Jarvis would shut up for now.

"Unclear, sir," the AI answered, making Tony's eyebrows shoot up. "But there is an 89% chance that the entire population of New York will perish in the next hour if nothing is done about the blizzard."

"Blizzard?" Tony exclaimed, surprised, looking at his monitor.

Only to be stunned silent by what he was seeing.

There was a dragon, an honest-to-god dragon, wrapped around the Avengers Tower. Pepper dropped the glass of champagne she was holding, as she stared with her mouth agape, but neither of them reacted to the sound of breaking glass, too shocked by what they were seeing to do anything but keep watching.

"Jarvis… Explain this," Tony asked, his voice remarkably cool, seeing the Iron Legion drop like flies as they tried to confront the monster around his building.

"That can't be real…" Pepper muttered to herself.

"Gladly, sir, but I would like to point out that it is a long story and time is of the essence," Jarvis said.

"You know what, forget about it, you can tell me later," Tony said, getting up and walking to the cockpit. He knocked at the door and Happy jumped from his chair, startled.

"I'm awake, I'm awake!"

"Tell me someone is doing something to kill that thing!" Tony begged Jarvis, ignoring Happy as he walked to his suit storage.

"Superman has successfully driven the dragon off the building and he and Mr. Odinson are currently engaged in combat against the hostile creature," Jarvis answered, bringing up the satellite images. He watched as Clark and Thor clashed against the impossibly big dragon, before Jarvis continued. "Agent Romanoff, Agent Barton, Miss Jones and Mr. Murdock managed to evacuate all the personnel to the safe rooms, and are facing a criminal by the name 'Madame Gao', after they defeated all the demonic invaders."

Pepper had chosen that exact moment to drink some water to try and calm herself; she spat a good portion of it on the screen when the images of dozens of clearly unhinged people appeared, people that were beaten, shot and blown up by Natasha, Barton, Clark's neighbor, a guy dressed in a Devil's costume and Jarvis' own defenses.

He actually didn't know which was worse: that those "people" were actually demons, as Jarvis said — which sounded absurd, but he had just seen a freaking dragon wrapped around his tower, a dragon that was currently fighting an alien and a god/alien —, or that those were normal people, somehow controlled or driven crazy, and now his building was full of dead innocents.

Before he could reach any conclusion, Jarvis went on.

"Dr. Banner and Miss Raven were facing someone they referred as a demon lord called 'The Beast', but they vanished inside a dimensional rift called 'Mirror Dimension'. Current whereabouts unknown."

Who the hell was "Miss Raven"?! Was there a hippie living in the building without his knowledge? And what the hell was Bruce doing, fighting a demon and entering weird portals? Tony clearly needed to have a long conversation with Jarvis about things he should be told immediately, if he was busy or not, because he was honestly lost.

"The hostiles are being tended to," Jarvis continued, "but the main problem that still needs to be solved is the blizzard."

"What blizzard?! The weather forecast for New York said nothing about snow!"

"It originated from the dragon, sir, and covered the entire city. If the temperature keeps dropping at this rate, high casualties will follow."

"Okay, let me think," Tony said, closing his eyes for a moment. Pepper and Happy were still in silence, staring at the screen, trying to understand everything Jarvis said, but Tony ignored them, his mind working fast. "Alright, this is what we're going to do. Happy, turn the plane around and take Pepper back. I doubt we can even fly in those conditions. That's why you chose now to warn me, right, Jarvis?"

"You are correct, sir. Every flight to New York was diverted to other airports by SHIELD's order."

"Great. I'm surprised they didn't just launch a nuclear bomb to try to 'heat up' the city, to be honest," Tony muttered, pressing his hands on the fingerprint scanner of his suit storage.

"Where are you going?" Pepper asked, urgently, finally getting her voice back. "Don't tell me you're going to…"

She gestured towards the dragon, probably too afraid to say it out loud, if her pale face was anything to go by.

"No," Tony answered, actually surprising himself for a moment. "Clark and Thor are dealing with that, and Romanoff and Barton are protecting the Tower. Bruce… I don't know where the hell Bruce is, but he can take care of himself."

He pointed towards the satellite images showing New York covered in snow.

"But they can't," he went on. "Streets are blocked, hospitals are probably full, people are stuck and will freeze to death soon enough. I have to do something about that first. We're supposed to be a team, so let's act like one."

Not too long ago, Tony would've suited up and attacked the strongest foe around without a second thought, damn the consequences. Not because he was bloodthirsty, not because he liked to fight — not like Thor or the Hulk did —, but because he liked to tackle problems head on and solve them as quickly as he could. The dragon was the source of the problem, thus he had to go.

He was a big-picture kind of guy, after all. Or so he thought he was, until he saw how much good Superman did when he focused on the "little picture".

"Jarvis, deploy the Iron Hope project," Tony ordered, raising his arms so his suit could fly and attach itself to him. "It's as good a time as any for a field test. Let's save those people."

Tony turned to Pepper and kissed her quickly, raising a single eyebrow.

"Home sweet home, huh?"

Jessica groaned, feeling her entire body hurting. What kind of pills they were giving to those old fuckers in the retirement homes these days?! She pushed away the pieces of the crumbled wall on top of her, and got up, ready to take off the kid gloves and deal with that old lady for good.

Only to be promptly stunned in place by what she saw.

She knew by now that Gao couldn't be normal, there was simply no way for someone not enhanced to hit like that. But there was a big difference between knowing she was not normal, and what Gao was doing in that corridor.

The old bitch was deflecting bullets like a freaking Jedi.

Romanoff unloaded her pistols against her, only to see Gao use her sword to block every bullet. She wasn't faster than the bullets, not like Clark, but she was clearly fast and perceptive enough to know where Romanoff would shoot and anticipate her, every single time.

Matt, noticing Romanoff was out of bullets, advanced with his metal sticks, only to be met blow by blow, the old lady proving herself stronger, faster and more skilled than the Devil of Hell's Kitchen as she danced with her sword, dodging not only Matt, but Hawkeye's arrows as well.

With a twist, Gao kicked Matt to the side, deflecting an arrow that would hit her back without even looking at it, then hit him with her sheath/cane, throwing him against the wall with barely any effort. Natasha started to fire again, but Gao dodged the first two bullets and advanced against her, her sword cutting the pistol in half, almost taking the agent's hand.

Realizing Romanoff was cornered, Matt threw one of his sticks to her, attacking at the same time as the SHIELD operative grabbed the weapon, and suddenly Gao was fighting both of them at the same time; three, since Barton was still shooting his arrows, aiming for the small gaps between the flurry of his allies' limbs, never missing, but seeing the projectiles being deflected every time.

And throughout all that, the bitch didn't stop smiling once.

Snarling in rage, Jessica grabbed her mace and lunged towards the fight, any thought of holding back completely removed from her mind.

Rage, violence, unquantifiable brutality… Hulk's mind was entirely taken by these thoughts, except by a tiny, almost inaudible, but somehow crucial voice that made itself heard even under all that noise.

Protect Birdy Girl.

Roaring, his muscles tense with extreme power, Hulk advanced towards his enemy, unleashing a barrage of punches against the creature. His fists descended like meteors, clashing with thunderous noises against the foul-smelling monster, the street breaking with every shockwave.

They went through a building, their bodies destroying everything in sight, and emerged on the other side, falling in the middle of the street. Getting up fast, Hulk grabbed the fat demon, smashed him against the ground, and tossed him up, against another building.

Or so he tried, because as soon as he launched his enemy, the demon manifested several dark tentacles from under his skin, each of them piercing the ground and stopping him midair.

Then he launched himself back, the tentacles yanking him directly on top of Hulk.

The hit was unbelievably strong, opening a crater, but it wasn't the pain that troubled him; in fact, the pain simply fueled his rage even more. No, what gave him pause were the tentacles, surrounding him, wrapping around his limbs, neck and torso, restraining him.

He fought, ripping the tendrils apart, biting, roaring, but every tentacle he destroyed was replaced by five more. And when he could barely move anymore, the demon got closer, opening his gigantic mouth.

And puked all over Hulk.

The smell itself made Hulk falter, dizzy, and the pain when his skin began to dissolve made him scream; but this time, somehow, the extreme pain didn't make him fight even harder, it simply numbed him, draining his strength. The fat demon continued to puke nonstop, laughing as he did it, covering him from head to toe, the black and yellow mixture that smelled worse than anything Hulk had ever smelled before melting the green skin.

The creature was still laughing when a black energy beam descended from the sky, ripping every single tentacle apart in one shot; the demon screeched, stopping to vomit, and looked up, his hideous face torn between surprise and fury. The demon still had the same expression when a black aura enveloped him and pulled him up.

Then smashed him down against the ground, face first, widening the crater even more.

Before the demon could get up, the ground trembled and moved as if it were alive, closing like a bear trap on him, crushing the creature in the middle of two walls of earth and asphalt. The walls pressed even more, trying to touch one another by completely pulverizing the demon caught in the middle, who was doing everything he could to hold them back.

The demon only noticed that the walls shouldn't be his main concern when he looked up and saw a savage smile on Hulk's face.

Hulk unleashed the most powerful punch he could; the walls holding the demon were torn apart by the shockwaves, the ground broke, and the ripples of pure power destroyed every single window around them.

The Beast was sent flying against a nearby building, passing through as he brought the walls down, then hit another and then another, collapsing a straight line of skyscrapers with his own body.

His wounds already healing, Hulk looked up, seeing Birdy Girl in the sky, a black aura around her; he grinned at her and started running to catch up with the demon and beat him even more.

Hulk didn't understand what Birdy Girl did, but Hulk liked.

Thor had the biggest, most excited smile on his face, as he threw Mjölnir with all his power against Ao Shun.

The moment the hammer was out of his hands, Kal added a formidable burst of freezing breath to the weapon's momentum, more than doubling its force and speed, the ice crystals enveloping the Uru like spikes.

Mjölnir crashed against the dragon's side in an explosion of lightning and ice, the shockwaves stripping that section of his immense body of scales; the roar of pain Ao Shun uttered as his blood rained over the city was worth of songs.

He called the hammer back to him, already turning midair to block a hit from the dragon's long tail, while Kal flew head on against Ao Shun's fist, clashing against it with such power that the dragon was actually pushed back.

Both of them flew back, standing side by side as they faced the head of the dragon, already turning to breathe fire on them.

Kal's eyes glowed red and Thor raised Mjölnir.

The impact of the combined attacks ripped out one of Ao Shun's horns, the red energy beams and the thunderbolts opening a deep wound on the dragon's face, forcing the gigantic creature back.

Thor could not remember the last time he had so much fun.

Kal, however, quickly reminded him that they were fighting in a very breakable Realm.

"Thor, you need to do something about the blizzard!" Kal shouted to him, the wind and the snowstorm forcing him to raise his voice. "The people in the city won't last much longer. I can deal with the dragon."

What?! That was tremendously unfair! Why should he have all the fun?

Probably reading his expression, Kal added: "I can fight him, but I can't fix the weather. You can."

Thor had not arguments against that and he hated it.

"Fine!" he consented, resigned. "But you owe me one!"

"Anything you want," Kal answered, immediately.

He looked at Ao Shun, already recovering from their attack, his fury almost palpable.

"You will need to take him away from here," Thor said, as the dragon prepared to lunge against them. "I can probably wrestle him for control, but it will work much faster if you force him away."

Kal nodded, considering his next move as he watched Ao Shun glide through the sky.

"I have a plan," he said, then muttered: "And I'm not gonna like it."

Thor frowned in confusion, but Kal gave him no time to think about what he meant. The Kryptonian flew up and yelled:

"HEY, FIN FANG FOOM!" Kal yelled, and Thor widened his eyes in shock; Ao Shun hated that badly translated name. "I will give you one chance to surrender! If you don't, I will be forced to send you back to the Astral Dimension!"

Kal had his answer immediately, when Ao Shun let out a roar that made the very sky tremble and bolted forward, flying directly to the Kryptonian, the huge mouth opened.

"Well, I guess I have no choice then," Kal said, nodding one last time to Thor.

And flying fast, in a straight line to Ao Shun.

Dragon and Kryptonian accelerated, flying even faster, both attacking head on. Thor watched, marveled by such boldness, his eyes wide. He wondered what Kal intended, what was the plan, how he would outsmart Ao Shun. They were getting closer and closer and Thor could barely contain his excitement.

Then, in a single bite, Ao Shun swallowed the Kryptonian whole.

For a moment, Thor was speechless.

"Kal?!" he yelled, horrified, when what happened finally dawned on him.

Thor desperately raised Mjölnir, ready to fly and help any way he could, when Ao Shun's huge body suddenly jerked up, bent in the middle, and shot upwards so fast that soon enough he would be out of Midgard entirely, reaching the void.

It was difficult to measure who was more surprised as Ao Shun was dragged to space by the Kryptonian he had just swallowed, the Asgardian or the dragon.

It was, however, pretty easy to know who was more amused; Thor was laughing so much that it hurt, as he started to spin Mjölnir to finally end this unnatural winter.

Nobody on Asgard would believe him when he told them that, Thor was sure, but that would not stop him from spreading that story throughout the Nine Realms and beyond, that was for certain.

There were few people in the world who could claim to be better than Natasha Romanoff when it came to martial arts; it wasn't arrogance, it was simply the statement of a fact. She had been raised to be the ultimate assassin and her training was crafted to achieve such. Be it armed or unarmed combat, Black Widow was a master.

Natasha was forced to admit that she might be looking at two martial artists that were as good, if not better, than her.

Ignoring the pain in her ribs — probably broken, after being hit by Gao's sheath — Natasha pushed herself up, her eyes never leaving Murdock and Madame Gao's fight, as they clashed their weapons with such grace and skill that one could forget they were trying to injury or kill each other.

Madame Gao seemed to agree with her assessment.

"It is no wonder you caused so many problems for us," she said, blocking an attack Murdock unleashed with such ease that it made her size and apparent frailty when compared to the Devil of Hell's Kitchen even more bizarre. "You are skilled, Devil of Hell's Kitchen."

Murdock didn't bother to answer, grunting as he tried to push Gao back, without success. She grinned at him, taunting, as if mocking his lack of strength.

Then she threw him away and stepped back, right at the moment Jessica Jones appeared, swinging her mace; that attack, Natasha noticed, Gao didn't even try to block. Despite being able to hurt Jessica at the beginning of the fight, it was quite clear who was the stronger one between the two.

It was also quite clear who was the most skilled.

While Jessica's attacks were incredibly destructive, they were also wild and undisciplined; she proved to be no match to Gao when it came to martial arts expertise. The leader of the Hand simply danced around her, dodging, sidestepping the blows, evading any and all hits with absolute ease.

And when she attacked, it was quick and precise, the blade of her sword no more than a silver blur, hitting Jessica directly in the stomach. A hit that would have, most likely, cut Jessica in half.

If not for her Kryptonian skinsuit.

As it was, the sword hit Jessica's stomach, but stopped, unable to cut through the alien material; for the first time, Natasha saw Gao's surprise. So she took the chance and attacked as well, arriving at the same time Murdock and Clint did.

What followed was a barrage of attacks, coming from all sides, all aiming at Madame Gao. Murdock's billy clubs — one wielded by him and the other wielded by Natasha —, Jessica's mace, Clint' bow, all brandished at the same time against the leader of the Hand.

Instead of trying to defend herself or dodge, Gao simply opened her hand; even Natasha could feel the energy focusing on it.

And then she unleashed all that chi in one single hit against the floor.

The shockwaves flung them all back, away from Gao, as if an invisible explosion happened around the Hand's leader. They all flew back, tossed like ragdolls, bouncing against the floor. Natasha felt the air leave her lungs when she hit the wall.

It was a testament of her training that Natasha was able to come back to the fight so fast, because a moment later Gao attacked her.

She blocked Gao's blade at the last possible second, the Chitauri metal of Murdock's billy club luckily strong enough to resist the sharp sword. She tried to push back, using every bit of the strength she had left, but Gao simply smiled, ramming her against the wall again with a single push of her arm.

"You are good, Black Widow," Gao congratulated, forcing the billy club against Natasha's neck; the only thing between her neck and the sword about to cut it. "If Sergei had introduced us when you were younger, you could even be great."

Natasha stared at the Hand leader, feeling her muscles burn with the effort.

"I already have 'Assassin for an Organization full of Psychopaths' on my resume," she groaned. "I hardly need to add another."

Gao never stopped smiling, but her eyes got harder.

"Sergei was insolent as well," the old lady said, her eyes going from Natasha to her blade. "Up until this very sword cut off his head."

She didn't need further reasons to kill the woman in front of her, but she had just found one more.

The sword pushed even more and Natasha felt her windpipe closing when the billy club was pressed against it. She knew there was no way to win against Gao in a strength contest, it was useless, but she had also learned during her training that there were many ways to win a battle.

Before Gao could do to her the same thing she did to Sergei, Natasha activated her Black Widow's Bite and unleashed a powerful electric shock directly on the billy club she was holding.

The billy club that was also touching Gao's sword.

The bracelet glowed blue and discharged all its energy, more than enough electricity to shock her, Gao's sword and Gao herself, maybe to the death; or it would, if Natasha wasn't also wearing the Kryptonian skinsuit Clark gave her under her normal battle attire.

As it was, while Natasha felt a pleasant tickle, Gao was thrown back, dropping her sword, smoke all around her body.

But despite the ugly burns, despite the supposed lethal electrical discharge, Gao still didn't fall. She simply took a long breath and looked back at Natasha; she wasn't smiling anymore. Snarling, the Hand's leader advanced, grabbing her sword and lifting it to finally be done with Natasha.

The moment Gao would bring the sword down, however, Jessica's mace was sent flying from the other side of the corridor, hitting the leader of the Hand directly in the elbow.

CRACK!

The alien mace thrown by Jessica Jones completely shattered Gao's arm, and before she could even utter any sound, be it one of pain or anger, the steel cable from Murdock's billy club was wrapped around her neck; Matt pulled, hard, bringing the old lady down to her knees.

A second later, Clint shot an arrow against her; an arrow that, even with one arm broken and a steel cable around her neck, Gao was still able to catch before it her in the chest.

Despite the, frankly, frightening display, Clint simply winked at her.

"Boom!" he said.

And just like he promised, the arrow exploded.

BOOOM!

It was a controlled explosion, not powerful enough to bring down the entire corridor, but it was more than enough to blow up Gao's arm away and shred her entire torso to bits, throwing her back in a cloud of smoke, flames and blood.

For a long minute, there was just silence, as the four of them simply stared, too tired and shocked to do anything.

Then Gao breathed, deeply.

Still in silence, Natasha got up, grabbing Gao's sword as she walked to her, stopping right by the old lady. There was absolutely nothing she could do to keep her alive, that much was clear, and she was honestly surprised Gao was still breathing.

But not disappointed.

She met the eyes of the Hand's leader, seeing fear in them. The Hand had clung to life so fiercely that they made themselves immortal, betraying everyone and everything they ever cared about. They committed atrocities to prolong their lives, they sullied their souls by dealing with demonic entities, they did everything in their search for eternal life, no matter the cost.

Now, after all that, Gao was one step away of the thing she feared the most.

"For Sergei," Natasha whispered.

And brought the sword down.

Raven supposed she shouldn't be surprised that an evil and corruptive being like the Beast was smart; the demon would not have grown that powerful by tempting humans for centuries and feeding on their torment if he were anything else, after all.

Still, it was frustrating to see how fast the Beast had turned the battle in his favor.

Realizing that meeting Hulk head on was a mistake — especially when Raven herself was supporting the Big Guy, twisting the Mirror Dimension to aid him best — the Beast simply abandoned his previous form; an advantage that beings from dimensions where physical forms were a choice, had.

Instead of the fat, deformed form, with a head, torso and limbs, the Beast had decided to simply bloat himself to unnatural proportions, becoming a dark mass of foul-smelling flesh, not that different from a tumor.

And like a malignant cancer, the Beast spread throughout New York, his tendrils wrapping themselves around the buildings, the fleshy mass spilling all over the streets until it infested the entire place like a disease.

Hulk, of course, was not intimidated. A bigger enemy, to him, simply meant that he had more parts to hit. And he did hit the Beast, attacking every single piece of that tumor with unparalleled violence.

Except that the wounds he caused were not bothering the Beast; all they did was leak more of that disgusting fluid he had puked over Hulk and a cloud of poisonous gas that was, little by little, taking the entire block.

Pain and injuries, Raven noticed, just made Hulk madder, so the burns he suffered as he crossed the flooded streets and the clouds of acid gas didn't seem to bother him very much. But they also had a numbing effect on him, the filth so powerful that it blurred his senses.

Every breath he took, every burn he received, seemed to draw Hulk's strength even more. Soon enough, Raven theorized, he would drop and turn back into Bruce, which would be a death sentence for both of them.

Flying over the buildings, shielding herself from the gas, Raven watched as Hulk ripped another set of giant tentacles — a living forest of flesh, in size, that continued to spread throughout the streets —, ending up soaked in more of that vomit. No matter how much tentacles he destroyed, the Beast seemed to grow more and more, never stopping to bloat.

The plan to unleash a nuclear attack on the city suddenly didn't seem all that bad, Raven considered, but, unfortunately, she had no nuclear bombs inside her pockets.

She paused. She had no bombs, that much was true, but she did have a Hulk.

A being that emanated gamma radiation, according to what Bruce told her, a being that got stronger and stronger the angrier he became.

And Raven could, to a point, control emotions.

Thinking fast, Raven focused her magic and lifted an entire section of the street to the sky, creating a small floating island, bringing Hulk to her instead of trying to draw his attention. The vomit-soaked green warrior looked confused for a moment, but widened his eyes when she landed in front of him.

"Birdy Girl!" he exclaimed, patting her head with the tip of his gigantic finger.

What?

No matter, they didn't have the time for this.

"Hulk, I am going to make you angry," Raven explained, looking into his big, green eyes; eyes that stared at her with fondness, surprisingly. "The Beast is draining your strength and if we allow him to keep doing that, Bruce will come back."

"No Banner!" Hulk growled.

"No, no Banner," Raven agreed. "He won't survive this. But you can."

She kept staring at him, waiting for some sort of answer, of consent. Could he even understand what she was trying to tell him? Raven thought he might, but she really wasn't sure. Under them, the Beast was growing his tentacles, the mass of cancerous tendrils climbing the buildings to try and reach them. There was no time waste.

Suddenly, Hulk nodded, a scary smile on his face.

"Hulk smash!"

It was good enough for her.

Flying over him, Raven raised her hands and pointed them at Hulk's head, focusing on his emotions. Then, when she had a grasp on them, like flipping a switch, she dialed up his anger to the fullest she could.

The raw fury hit her like a physical mass and Raven quickly reigned her own emotions so she wouldn't lose herself as well. But Hulk? Hulk thrived as the wrath filled him, his eyes glowing green, his muscles growing even stronger.

Raven shielded herself, summoning the sphere of shadows around her, when Hulk's entire body started to glow green, the radiation pouring of his body as if he were an atomic bomb about to blow up, burning the surface of the floating island Raven raised, blurring the very air in the sky.

If not for her barrier, Raven knew she would probably be already dead, so she opened a portal and flew away, putting distance between them, watching from afar with magic.

Walking slowly, almost as if getting used to the power inside him, Hulk stopped at the edge of the floating island, looking down at the cancerous mass that took the entire city below them, facing the Beast; he grinned, his eyes glowing even brighter.

Then Hulk opened his arms as far as he could; and brought his hands back together with all his power.

The thunderclap was no different from a nuclear warhead going off. When the hands collided, the explosion was instantaneous, burning and completely annihilating everything around Hulk. Buildings were immediately reduced to ashes, blowing away like sandcastles hit by a tsunami, the streets and Hulk's little island were vaporized, walls of flames spread in all directions and the very sky ignited.

The Beast was no exception.

The huge black tentacles, the cancerous mass that spilled over the city, the tendrils, the gas and the vomit… Gone in a split second, burned away to nothingness as the shockwaves rippled throughout the Mirror Dimension, so powerful that the very realm nearly fractured, small glass-like cracks appearing in the sky.

Raven watched from afar as half of the Mirror Dimension's New York was wiped off the map in an instant, her eyes wide.

She waited, waited until the glow faded, the air calmed and all the shaking stopped. Then she reinforced the aura around her and opened a portal back to the city, where hundreds of buildings used to stand.

In their place, was an empty crater. And Hulk lying nearly unconscious on the devastated ground.

Raven ran to him, desperately, already reviewing in her mind every single healing spell she knew. She kneeled by him, taking in the burns all around his green skin, and started to pour her magic, helping them to close.

Slowly, Hulk opened his eyes and looked at her.

"Birdy Girl… Safe?" he muttered softly, a far cry from his earlier roars.

She nodded, fast, doing her best to control her own emotions as the need to cry nearly overcame her.

"Yes, I'm safe. And you will be too, I promise," Raven said, using her magic to put him to sleep.

"Bold words, Black Sky," a terrible voice spoke, coming from all around them.

Raven was up, her hands glowing black, in a split second, searching. For a long minute, nothing happened; then a dark smoke lifted from the ground, ashes of the burned body of the Beast, and the Demon Lord started to put himself back together, his previous fat body taking form once again.

How could that thing still be alive?!

No matter. Raven had made a promise to Hulk and she would keep it. Stepping forward, putting herself between Hulk and the Beast, she unleashed her magic, using her shadows to envelop the new body of the Beast.

Then she started to rip it apart all over again.

Each part that was regrown, was promptly pulled off again, and Raven enveloped each of them separately in a spherical, individual barrier, preventing them to fly back and reattach themselves. The Beast screamed and threatened, but Raven just ignored him, focused on unmaking him.

"You think you can destroy me, girl?!" the Beast roared, trying to fight her. "You believe that this is the end?! I am eternal! I am immortal!"

She pulled off his half-restored legs, dropping his bloated torso on the ground; he yelled in pain, rolling pathetically on the ground, and Raven advanced towards him.

"Wait!" he said, desperately, realizing that he couldn't hope to match her powers, not when he was so hurt and not when Raven decided to actually use them. "Allow me to leave. Spare me! And I will serve you. What do you want? Power? Riches? To live forever?"

Raven's answer was to rip off his arms.

The Beast screamed once again, struggling against her grasp.

"Kill me now, and my essence will reform once again inside my dimension, and I will return!" the Beast spoke, his gurgling voice filled with pain and fear. "You will achieve nothing! Let us make a deal!"

Raven stared into the Beast's little red eyes.

"Who says I intend to kill you?" she asked, her voice emotionless. "No, death, even if temporary, is too good for you."

She lowered her head for a moment, her hood obscuring her face; when Raven looked up, shadows covered her features.

Except for the four glowing demonic red eyes.

"I will send you to a Hell that even demons learned to fear!"

By the sheer terror on what was left of the Beast's face, he understood Raven's meaning right away. She unleashed her power and forced a portal open; screams of pain and fear echoed through the rift and a terrible red light glowed.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"

The Beast was still begging frantically when Raven banished him through.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" the Demon Lord screamed, until Raven closed the portal shut, trapping him on the other side.

She breathed, regaining her balance, and turned to Hulk; her eyes were back to normal. It was time for them to return.

Clark barely noticed the awful smell of the dragon's innards, or the squishy wet feeling of the guts touching his skin, too focused on the task of lifting a mountain-sized dragon all the way to space using nothing but his own strength to do it.

It was, without a doubt in his mind, the heaviest thing he had ever tried to lift, and his muscles were burning like never before.

He had no idea how many tons Ao Shun weighted, how much opposite force the dragon could apply or for how long he could keep up, but Clark couldn't think of any other way to draw Ao Shun away from New York, so Thor could stop that blizzard. While the outside of the dragon's body was full of defenses — wind, ice, lightning and sharp edges, to name a few —, making it far too easy for Ao Shun to shake him off, the inside had, so far, none, save for the dragon's digestive system, and Clark had no intention to go that far inside or stay for that long.

From the inside, Clark's only issue was having the strength and the will to achieve his task.

The dragon's guts leaked all over him, and the strain on his muscles and bones was unlike anything Clark had ever felt, but the Kryptonian never faltered, flying up, his back pressed against Ao Shun's innards as he lifted what might as well have been the heaviest skyscraper in existence.

And when he suddenly felt the weight over his shoulders lessening, Clark knew they were about to leave the planet; it was time to look for a way out.

As far as Clark was concerned, the only way out was to return from where he came from, because he knew no amount of therapy would be able to fix the trauma of leaving through the opposite way. So the mouth was the goal; all he had to do was fly out.

Something that seemed easy, in theory, but turned a lot harder when he felt the temperature inside the dragon beginning to increase to unbelievable proportions.

"Damn it!" Clark cursed, seeing the red light glowing further down.

Ao Shun was preparing himself to spit fire directly from his stomach, and Clark happened to be in the way of the infernal attack. Knowing they were already in space, Clark stopped pushing the dragon's innards and took off in the opposite direction of the flames, accelerating towards the mouth.

The dragon was so massive that Clark felt he was inside an underground tunnel, the walls so far apart that he had no trouble to fly, which was good, because he had to race the flames as they started to chase him, the heat so high that Clark just knew they would be able to hurt even him.

Finally, he saw the exit; only to realize that Ao Shun had closed his mouth shut, trapping him between a wall of gigantic teeth and the stream of flames.

Clark was thinking fast, without slowing down, trying to come up with solutions that didn't involve trying to break those sharp teeth with his fists, because he honestly wasn't certain he could or, at the very least, if he could do it before the flames reached him. Freezing the way back or trying to blow away the fire wasn't going to work, simply because there was not enough air inside the dragon for Clark to fill his lungs and attack, and he had a feeling that his heat vision wouldn't work that well, since Ao Shun's innards were most likely heat resistant, considering he was used to breathe flames.

There was only one thing Clark could think of.

Flying even faster, Clark rammed his own body against the inner walls of the dragon, hitting it as strongly as he could; then he did it again, and again, bouncing like a ball while he advanced, using every hit to propel himself even faster each time, against the sides, up and down, causing as much damage as he could to Ao Shun's throat.

So much, that Ao Shun opened his enormous mouth and pretty much puked him out, a second earlier than the stream of flames.

Clark emerged in space like a rocket ship, surrounded by dying flames, and turned, staring at the colossal dragon floating like a second moon around the blue planet, the sun glowing even brighter in the distance.

Furious, Ao Shun let out a silent roar, lunging against him without a second thought; Clark just waited, studying the dragon's moves as he surrounded him with his immense body, not unlike he did back over New York, making sure he could attack his prey from all sides.

Even then, Clark did nothing, simply waiting, floating in the dark space. And when Ao Shun attacked with his giant tail, aiming at his back, Clark kept waiting, up until the last second.

Then he dodged, moving so fast that he blurred, avoiding Ao Shun's second attack and then the third one; and unleashed a devastating punch against the dragon's jaw, so powerful that Ao Shun was tossed away from him.

Clark grinned, seeing Ao Shun's surprise and his hesitation to attack a second time, as he wondered how the Kryptonian did that.

It was simple: they were no longer in Ao Shun's element. There was no air in space, no wind to be controlled by his chi, no air masses to hit Clark like trucks every time the massive dragon so much as moved.

There was nothing to disrupt Clark's flight now, and while the same was true for Ao Shun, the dragon clearly wasn't used to the novelty. It was an advantage Clark wouldn't waste.

Despite the arena being different, the adversary remained the same; so did his weak points. The eyes were still the most vulnerable part of that armored monstrosity, and now that Clark could actually maneuver during his flight, he had a far better chance to reach them.

So without delay, Clark attacked.

He flew on a straight path towards Ao Shun, using the fact that the dragon was confused and unwilling to fight in close distance, since Clark had far more agility to move now. Ao Shun, taking Clark's attack as a reckless move, advanced as well, ready to meet him head on.

And why shouldn't he? The dragon was gigantic, immensely powerful, and practically impervious to all damage, his scales and sheer strength protecting him from everything except the most destructive of blows; even when Kryptonian and Asgardian worked together, the damage they did to him was pretty much superficial.

So the King of Winter took this chance to end the fight once and for all; and Clark was counting on it.

Both of them flew extremely fast, the vivid blue planet shining below them, ready to clash with all their might. The dragon grew even bigger as he approached, his immense size towering over the Kryptonian like the tallest of mountains, his arms opened ready to crush and slash, his long serpent body swaying behind him.

Without warning, Ao Shun opened his gigantic mouth and breathed a stream of fire as massive as he was, probably using his chi to allow the flames to burn in space.

Clark dodged to the side at the last moment, never stopping his advance, dancing around the stream of flames as he flew straight on, ignoring the heat and the danger as he kept going. His cape touched the fire, bursting into flames, but even that didn't make him falter.

When they were about to clash, Kryptonian against the dragon's blazing jaws, Clark suddenly accelerated and pulled up, too fast and too abruptly to be anticipated, a move he could have never dreamed to try outside the void of space.

And he collided directly against Ao Shun's left eye, both his fists held in front of him.

The hit was so strong, so extraordinarily powerful, that the eye turned to mush, unable to resist the Kryptonian body. Clark went through, destroying the eyeball in a single, brutal blow, flying inside the dragon's skull.

Directly against Ao Shun's brain.

There was no way for the dragon to do anything, no way for him to defend himself or to at the very least lessen the blow. The impact of the nigh invulnerable Kryptonian body flying at full speed simply exploded the brain, forcing the destroyed mush out of the skull with such force that the remaining eye burst from the inside out.

And just like that, Ao Shun, the King of Winter, was dead once again.

Clark flew out of the dragon's skull, covered in blood and brain, trying really hard to ignore the fact that he had, literally, blown Ao Shun's mind. Still a bit in shock, Clark spat the blood inside his mouth, hoping not to get sick, and looked at the dead dragon, flying silently in space, almost like an oddly shaped satellite orbiting Earth.

He watched for a long moment, saddened that he was forced to do what he did against such a majestic creature, but Clark knew he had no choice in the matter; and he also knew that Ao Shun wasn't truly dead, just disembodied.

What would happen to his spirit, he had no idea, but for his sake, Clark hoped that he would be able to stay in the Astral Dimension; the alternative was, after all, an eternity with Raven's dad, and if what he felt at the Lazarus Pit was anything to go by, Clark wouldn't wish that on his worst enemy.

Still, that left him with a problem: what to do with the body?

Could Ao Shun go back into it, heal the fatal wound somehow and just revive himself? Could the Hand — or anybody else — resurrect him again? Now that he was thinking about it, it was quite possible, really. What was a destroyed brain next to being a literal fossil? Ao Shun managed to come back to life after being reduced to bones, so it was highly likely that his body could still be fixed.

Which meant he had to, somehow, get rid of it. Hide it, seal it, anything that would keep it away from the Hand and others like them. But how?

Looking up, feeling the warm sun on his skin, Clark got his answer.

Hovering slowly to Ao Shun's tail, Clark grabbed the very end of it, sinking his fingers into the scales firmly. He looked at his target in the distance, then back at the dragon, taking a long, deep breath — something he did out of habit, because there was no air to inhale — as he readied himself.

Then he started to spin, holding the immense dragon by the tail.

Slowly at first, carefully, as his muscles were getting used to the strain and the momentum. Then he increased the speed, bit by bit, going faster and faster until he and the dragon were a blur of colors and vague shapes, moving with such power that if they were on Earth a hurricane would have followed.

And when Clark could go no faster, he released the dragon, hurling Ao Shun's corpse towards the sun.

He watched for a moment as the immense creature flew into the void, following the path of the bright light, until it would inevitably reach the sun's gravitational field and sink deep into the star.

Clark didn't know if a dragon's body was strong enough to resist that, but if it was, he would like to see anyone try to dig those bones out.

Now it was time to clean up the mess, he thought, flying back to New York; and for a quick shower, he added, looking at himself.

Maybe he could fly through a storm after re-entering Earth's atmosphere, that should help