Disclaimer: Yah, yah. We all know.
Sigh. I don't own Marvel or Harry Potter. (Yet!)
Author's note: First off, sorry for the wait. Second off, this was a really tough chapter to write for me. Not to mention that this is the longest thing I've ever written. So won't you be good chaps and let me know if, One: Did I keep Harry in character. Two: How was the chapter as a whole?
Now onwards mortals!
Chapter Six
Immediately, acting on pure instinct, I utter the incantation of protection, and a thin, translucent bubble shaped shield comes about, encompassing the two sorcerers and myself in an oval sphere of magic.
The action, evidently, saves the lot of us from joining nearly-headless-Nick's headless club, as just a moment later, an impossibly forceful something — though definitely a projectile — smashes against my shield.
Its insane force is absorbed by my shield, but its state of translucency is robbed, overtaken instead, by a bright, radiating golden glow.
I continue holding the shield up, and quickly, I make use of free hand, firing off a wandless "Bombarda!"
Instantly, an angry bolt of crimson light bolts out of my palm and its thin trail of crimson light streaks through the darkness, like a streak of red lightning in a black nights' sky — and then it hits.
An absurdly high-pitched shriek of rage sounds and immediately, my body tenses, steeling for harsh battle. Because if its shriek can talk to any part of its size or strength, then I'm in for a real, full blast, first-class, shit-show. One that likely features me as the shit and my opposition as the show.
But then again, I haave faced my share of adversaries before — namely a big, giant basilisk, a freaking dragon! and one flat-nosed and vampire-skinned Voldymorts — so I should be fine.
Well, relatively so.
Probably won't die at least.
My short moment of "self motiva-tion" is quickly interrupted by a retaliation of successive strikes that hit hard against my shield.
This time, my knees buckle, the shield just barely holding.
So much for the motivation.
Quickly, I redouble the flow of magic from my magic core and pour a heavy dose into my shield.
Luckily, both The Ancient One and Dr. Strange decide to wake up (What'd they do until now!? Sip tea!?) each summoning some sort of orange glowing half-disks that bare intricate markings and simultaneously firing it in the direction of my prior spell.
I wait for the indication of a hit — a horrid, high-pitched shriek of rage — right as another overbearingly powerful missile clangs against my now immensely stronger shield, but this time, there's no shriek of rage. Instead, instead there's an odd, creepy shriek of…. glee that sends an arctic chill raking through my body, reaching all the way down to my toes.
That is Definitely not good! I conclude in a flash of pure Einstein caliber genius.
But even before I can begin contemplating the strange phenomenon, I'm distracted by a tingling prickle that runs down my right side. My magic's warning of imminent danger.
Immediately, I abandon the fight in front of me, leaving the creature to the pair of mystic-magic users — both of whom have drawn orange glowing shields of their own — and turn to the direction of danger, casting a slew of spells in a furious, rapid succession.
The salvo of colorful spells break through the darkness — a light-show of destructive beauty, and delightfully, several find their target.
Another earsplitting and high-pitched shriek rips through the air and I don't slow my onslaught the slightest, both because if I do I'll probably won't even be able to join nearly-headless-Nick's club as I'll be not only headless, but bodiless mush, and because I really, really, cannot fail Uatu. There's too much at stake. The fate of the entire multi-verse potentially rests in my hands.
My fantastic barrage of powerful hexes, spells, and charms continue striking the creature (?) and quickly, the shriek turns from one of rage to one of immense agony and distress.
A sudden overwhelming sense of warning interrupts my spell-work. I react on instinct, conjuring a wandless shield.
A shield goes up, slowly. Far too slowly.
"Holy shi—"
It's too late and I'm hit in my chest by something with a bloody unearthly amount of force, and I'm flung through the darkness like a ragdoll hit by a speeding bludger, until I'm halted — excruciatingly painfully — by a rigged stone wall.
My back and shoulder blades immediately flare with an intense burning pain and the sensations of warm blood trickling down my back tell me of open flesh. But that all seems paltry just a moment later when an overwhelming pain erupts from my chest.
A sharp breath escapes my mouth. Quickly, gritting through the gruesome pain that quickly threatens to rob my consciousness, I feel for my wand and cast an overpowered healing charm at the center of my chest. A rush of relief instantly runs though my body.
With a heavy grunt, ignoring the rest of the pain around my body, I heave myself to my feet.
Another flare of warning prickles at the middle of my chest.
This time, having the advance warning, I conjure a powerful shield, shouting a silenced "Protengo Maxima!"
A large, powerful shield comes around my body, surrounding me in a translucent bubble. And really, it's just in time, as the another speeding projectile collides against my shield.
Instantly, my magic powered shield lights up, glowing in a powerful and vivid golden hue. I retaliate quickly, letting intense anger form a banishing charm.
A raging jet of dark maroon light escapes from my shaking hand aimed at the place the creature had attacked from. It strikes true, and this time with a shrilling shriek, the monster is sent airborne, flying backward into the depths of the darkness.
I cancel my shield and let loose a dose of my magic. I wait a moment, closing my eyes as I allow the setting to reform in my magic vision. Surroundings now painted in hazy smoke-like clouds of darkness and fleeting glimpses of the empty spaces of darkness, I dart after the monster-centipede.
I advance quickly and I'm about to let loose a barrage of some particularly nasty hexes when a patch of smoke directly ahead of me turns inward, almost as if it was being sucked in by something.
Then, in a quick and sudden moment, the clouds fly into something. Astoundingly, the small area ahead clears and turns visible. And I see.
Cringing just a bit, I behold the creature standing before me. I instantly decide that it's by far the most hideous thing I've ever laid my eyes on. Its body shape eerily alike that of a centipede — long and narrow with a dozen legs — only it's the size of an oversized school bus, each leg the size of my entire freaking body.
Dozens of small, unfocused eye's dot its furry, spiderlike head and small, overlapping scales protect its presumingly ugly skin.
There's a gash at its middle where some sort of liquid runs freely, (a shade of light grey to my antique vision,) flowing in a river-like fashion in the space between its scales. Its version of blood, I suppose. However, the steady stream of darkness-clouds flowing into its body slowly begins closing the gash.
With a shake of my head, I snap out of my state of transfixion and send a "Sectumsempra!" right at its eyes.
Instantly, three long bloody gashes appear, painfully slicing through several of its small eyes. The creature howls in pain and absorbs an abundant amount of darkness-clouds.
This time the gashes immediately heal, but it doesn't stop absorbing, and suddenly I realize that it's begun growing!
It continues bloating for a long minute and when its all said and done, the creature stands formidably tall, having grown at least an additional third in size. And where it formally was somewhere in the neighborhood of a majorly enlongated and oversized rhino, it now stands really more in the range of freaking elephant.
One that's been mightily pissed off.
Stupidly enough though, my body stands frozen in place, my brain scrambling in disarray, trying desperately to find a possible weaknesses. It's only the alarming sight of one of its huge legs suddenly rocketing out of its socket, careening straight at me — and a sharp prickle of warning in the left side of my chest — that brings me back to the present.
At the last moment, I dive headfirst to the right, just barely avoiding the creature's giant leg by a hairsbreadth and quickly turn into a roll. I jump back up and land on my feet just as another, firmer prickle shoots down both my left and right sides.
I react on instinct, procuring a shield with another "Protengo Maxima!"
Two gigantic armoured legs — hell, if it is even its legs — crash against my shield. The force pushes me slightly back, but thankfully, I maintain my ground.
Having an open window, I quickly turn back to the offensive, returning the centipede's attack with an overpowered blasting hex and a closely followed glowpaint charm.
A prickle runs across my right shoulder. I dart left — my attempt at not turning into the shit of the aforementioned show — and cast a mid-run body-bind charm at the creature.
It almost hits, but the monster-centipede, revealing amazing agility, skitters out of the charm's way with remarkable speed and fluidity.
Merlin's balls, I'm gonna die!
Determined to at least try not to die, I fire off several severing hexes — following the centipede's movements by the glowing paint — and a shriek tells me that I've hit my target.
YES! A grin plasters my face for a moment, but then my shoulders flare with the heat-pain and the grin turns into a hiss of pain.
At the feel of a prickle in the left of my ribs, I ignore the pain and dart to my right.
Somewhere in the not-so-far distance ahead, a shriek sounds. A smile finds its way to face, despite the present pain. About time those schmucks scored a hit!
Another prickle vibrates, prompting me into a further run, but I freeze at feeling of warning that spreads across the entirety of my body. Everywhere. Every direction. Right. Left. Center. Up.
Shit!Shit!Shit!Shit!Shit!Shit!
Panicking, I quickly decide to attempt conjuring the most powerful shield I've even procured. I'm about to speak the incarnation, when suddenly, an idea hits me. An extremely moronic idea. An Oscar-worthy moronic idea. An idea that will probably either kill me or leave me crippled.
In a flash, I come to a decision. I can either risk a shield and hope it holds, or I can do something incredibly, stupendously crazy. It's a no-brainer.
I choose the stupid.
And just in time, as the rapidly approaching projectile-legs are about to make Harry Pudding out of me. With a stare just above the splotch of glowing paint plastered on the centipede and with my wand ready — I apparate!
With the thought of "Take that asshole!" I pop back into existence twenty feet up in the air right-on-freaking-top of the centipede's head-full of squishy, jelly-like eyes.
Without even waiting for my brain to process how the bloody hell I landed here, I quickly cast several severing charms at the nearest eye. At point black range it better do something!
As if hearing the thought, a fountain of gooey, slimy gel-like substance explodes out of its eye socket, splattering my body with a beautiful mess of glob-shit. The centipede howls and thrashes its body in agony and immediately, my balance atop its head is lost. Slipping, my hands reach out and latch onto its scales, holding on for my dear life.
But alas, it doesn't last long and I manage one last "Bombarda!" before I'm sent airborne.
This time, wizened from the previous experience, I apparate before I crash into another wall. Landing back at the first point of apparation, I stand with my wand handy. But as the centipede-monster's shrieks grow from pain-filled, monstrously loud shrieks, to lower and softer growls, I relax, lowering my wand to my side.
I continue standing frozen still, my breathing growing shallower, until, with somewhat of an anticlimactic ending, the centipede's shriek falls to a mere whimper, and then there's silence.
Ah. Blessed silence…
Except, obviously it's short lived, a trio of gleeful, skin-crawling shrieks that would probably make even Voldyshorts cringe, breaking through the silence. With a sigh, I lay my wand flat across my palm and say "Point me, Dr. Strange".
For a moment, the Elder Wand spins in an awkward circle, seemingly confused, twirling clockwise, before changing course in the counter-clockwise. Then abruptly, it halts, my wand's tip pointing straight ahead.
Another shriek sounds. This time one of pure rage. A smile crosses my face even as my pulse quickens in anticipation, adrenaline coursing through my body, and with the inevitable thought of "Well, here goes round two!" running through my mind, I sprint forward, a transparent shield leading the way.
A/N Please RR chaps!