Barton's concern was fleeting. Moments later, the colossal form of the Hulk strode out from the thick, roiling cloud of dust and debris, looking entirely unfazed.
"Oh, thank god, there he is!" the second Peter Parker exclaimed, his sharp eyes catching the movement first. "He looks okay!"
The Hulk came to a stop beside the road, which was now a ruin of potholes and gravel. Not far away, a massive fissure torn open by the earthquake scarred the earth, stretching all the way into the city limits. There was no telling how many homes—or lives—had been swallowed by it.
Hulk glanced back at the mountain of rubble that was once the Earth Elemental, then collapsed to his knees. His massive frame convulsed, shrinking rapidly until he had returned to the exhausted, shirtless form of Bruce Banner.
"Hey, Bruce! You alright?" Peter asked, running to his side.
Banner pushed himself up from the ground, wincing. "I'm okay," he managed. "Did we… did we get it?"
"Yeah," Peter confirmed, his voice now subdued as he took in the destruction. "It's gone. We killed it."
"That's good," Banner sighed, the relief on his face palpable.
Barton landed the Quinjet once more, revealing his identity to the stunned local military and asking them to secure the area. The commanding officer, who recognized the vigilante from his aerial assault, simply nodded. This was far beyond his pay grade; he'd let his superiors deal with the political fallout. Right now, his city needed him. As the soldiers mobilized for urban rescue, the first Spider-Man looked at his team, and an unspoken agreement passed between them. They immediately headed toward the city to help.
Aboard the Helicarrier, Nick Fury watched the feed of the collapsing elemental with a grim smile. But his satisfaction vanished as the drones panned over to reveal the extent of the earthquake's damage to Nairobi. He frowned, a deep line of worry creasing his forehead. He hadn't expected this kind of retaliation.
Maria Hill walked up beside him. "We underestimated them, Nick," she said, her voice low. "It can cause earthquakes. What's next? A tsunami from the water one?"
"Who knows?" Fury replied, his eye fixed on the screen. "Luckily, Tony's team was fast. If they hadn't eliminated the Water Elemental when they did, the losses could have been far worse."
"That still leaves the wind and fire. What powers are they hiding? Continent-spanning tornadoes? Full-scale volcanic eruptions?" Hill's face was etched with worry. They had been working from Mysterio's intel, but it was becoming clear that their understanding, colored by the memory of Beck's holographic illusions, was dangerously incomplete.
"I wonder how Thor's team is doing," she mused.
"They'll manage," Fury said, though his tone lacked its usual confidence. "We've all seen what Thor and Max are capable of."
"Where's Carol? Any word on when she's coming back?"
Fury shook his head. "She'll let me know when she hits atmosphere. Could be soon, could be a while."
Hill sighed. "Well, I hope she doesn't take too long. After we deal with these things, we still have an invasion from some 'outer god' to worry about. My god, this job…"
Thousands of feet in the air, communication was impossible. The constant lightning arcing between Thor and Max fried any headset they tried to use, leaving Rhodey to act as the sole communication hub. They flew at supersonic speeds, chasing the Wind Elemental across the globe. From time to time, the rainbow glow of the Bifrost would flash in the distance, a silent, instantaneous report from Heimdall revealing the creature's new coordinates. They finally realized the elemental was leading them in circles, having looped back over North America and now heading south again.
It was then, as Tony and his team were regrouping from their own battle, that an emergency call came through from Pepper.
At that exact moment, the second front of the war was collapsing.
Kaecilius, cornered by Wanda in the mirror dimension, made a final, desperate move. He grabbed the last of his zealot followers, using her body as a shield to absorb Wanda's hex bolt. In that moment of hesitation, he lunged, stabbing Wanda with a blade of solidified air. The wound wasn't deep, but it was enough. He shattered the dimensional wall and escaped back to the real world.
Though his power had grown in the mirror dimension, he had never lost sight of his true goal. He immediately summoned a portal back to the New York Sanctum.
Strange, seeing Wanda injured, was torn. He knew he had to pursue Kaecilius, but he couldn't leave his allies vulnerable. He quickly brought Wanda back to Pietro, instructing him to get her to safety before Kaecilius could return to finish the job.
That brief delay was all the time Kaecilius needed. He arrived at the New York Sanctum and engaged Mordo, who was standing guard. Though skilled, Mordo was no match for the empowered zealot. He was disarmed in two moves and a shard of air pinned his thigh to the floor, immobilizing him. Just as Kaecilius raised his hand for the killing blow, Wong appeared, saving Mordo from the fate of Master Drumm.
Kaecilius brushed the sorcerers aside and focused his magic on the Sanctum itself. Wong could only watch helplessly as he pulled Mordo through a closing portal, the last thing he heard being the deafening roar of the ancient building being torn apart. He punched the ground in fury and despair.
When Strange returned to reality, he saw it immediately. The sky over New York was being eaten by a cancerous, impossible darkness. In the distance, the New York Sanctum, the final lynchpin of Earth's mystical defenses, was gone. With its fall, the barrier holding back the Dark Dimension shattered.
"Oh, shit," Strange whispered, his face pale with horror. "Dormammu is coming."
From the top floor of Stark Tower, Pepper saw it too. She stared through the floor-to-ceiling windows as reality warped. Bizarre, misshapen planets drifted in a void of flowing black smoke and flashing purple light. Huge, obsidian spikes and broken, spiral platforms crisscrossed the darkness. In the void between them, monstrous, distorted shapes writhed, and giant tentacles waved lazily. It was a vision of pure, cosmic madness. That was when she made the call. The call that Tony had just received.