27

With a bright red fist, Steel Serpent punches the ground, and makes a tremor, tripping the defensive. Telekinetically, Leader gathers whatever loose solid materials he finds on the ground anywhere, aims them at the Defenders' defensive, and gives them a volley.

Using Mordo as a ramp, Owl leaps, and then glides into action. He aims for Jones.

He gets hit in the chest by one of Hawkeye's regular arrows. He spirals and falls like an injured bird far from Jones.

Nighthawk takes flight. Wanting revenge, Leader telekinetically gathers a huge boulder, and prepares to chuck it at her while she's in flight. He's broadsided by Red Hulk, and the fight resumes-for the first time since the Brooklyn Bridge. Colleen Wing arrives, lights up her fists white, and helps Rulk.

With tonfas in hand, Murakami charges Daredevil and Jones. He too, wants revenge...

Leaper intervenes, and kicks him in the head. He's unarmed. Murakami gathers his tonfas, and spars with Leaper. They're both relentless.

Black Ant sees Misty Knight. He leaps, shrinks himself, and dives for her downblouse-and a VERY appealing downblouse it still is...

Bloody Mary broadsides him, in midair, with one of her machetes. He lands, instead, in Valkyrie's downblouse...

Mordo leaps, and aims for Clea. She's a sorceress, and therefore, his priority, with or without Wizardkiller...

Daredevil lassos Mordo's staff with the cable in his club, and pulls him away from Clea. As he's still swinging around in midair, Jones catches him off-guard and punches him in the nose. Once grounded, she kicks him in the belly. She grabs his staff and tries to break it over her knee-but it won't break.

Steel Serpent sees Wing, fighting Leader with Rulk. His fists glow red, and he charges her.

Clea flies up behind him, and puts a spell on him, neutralizing his weight. She grabs him by the belt, and carries him away. While in midair, she summons Ghost Rider. Ghost Rider levitates, and follows her uphill.

Murakami twirls his tonfas, screams, and charges Leaper. Leaper leaps, slides, and grabs Murakami's tonfas as he's flying over. Murakami's got twin tight grips. His body spins to where he's upside down at the zenith of his punting.

Nighthawk swoops in, and grabs Murakami by the feet. Her gauntlets lasso themselves to Murakami's ankles, trapping him.

Flying back and forth, she dive-bombs Leaper. Leaper leaps, and punches Murakami in a sensitive area each time. They have loads of fun with this. Murakami doesn't.

Bloody Mary raises her machete, and charges Valkyrie. Valkyrie, not realizing what's happening, screams, and raises her Dragonfang sword to defend herself...

Black Ant leaps out of hiding, from between Valkyrie's boobs, and re-sizes himself to normal. Now vulnerable, Bloody Mary charges with her machetes, and Valkyrie charges the same target with her sword.

Attacked by two girls, Black Ant thinks. He's going to enjoy this. He shrinks himself, and goes for Valkyrie's upskirt. Using her machete as a badminton racket, Bloody Mary bats him away once more...

Clea flies up the mountainside, with Steel Serpent in tote. It's a long way to the crater, where Wizardkiller and the Vorm slumber in sweet bliss.

Steel Serpent regains some of his balance, and fights Clea in mid-flight. She fights back. She's a hard girl to wiggle loose from. Plus, she's suspended his weight via a spell, so he can't use that to his advantage.

Nonetheless, he taps into his own qi energy, and his fists light up red again. He punches his captor in the ass, and falls free.

Ghost Rider swoops in, and catches Steel Serpent before he hits the mountainside. Steel Serpent is now too weak to summon the Serpent's Sting.

Up ahead, Clea opens a portal. Ghost Rider flies through it. Behind him, she follows him and closes it. It's taken them to Vormir.

On Vormir, the sun radiates the planet with a dim light that's somewhere between red, purple, and blue. It's humid. Ghost Rider, in his fiery skeleton form, carries Steel Serpent over a vast lake. Behind him and above, Clea follows him.

This planet's atmosphere is...influential. It compels one to relax, and think of home. And to think that Red Skull was trapped in this world for over half a century. It's tempting to settle here...alas, Ghost Rider and Clea must get Steel Serpent back to where he came from.

Farther away, a Vorm, with humanoid physiology, rows a gondola across the lake. It seems, from where Clea flies, that there are two passengers amidships, lying with one another. The coxswain stops rowing, and watches Ghost Rider and Clea fly by. Clea casts a concealment spell, so they won't see them.

Beneath the surface, there's a Vorm that swims like a mosasaur. He senses the two airborne projectiles above the surface. He swims in circles, pumps his fins, and breaches the surface. He opens his toothy jaws, and dives towards Ghost Rider.

Clea casts a portal, sending the Vorm mosasaur somewhere where he won't eat them. She opens another portal, which Ghost Rider inadvertently flies through. She does too, and closes it behind them. This one's taken them to K'un-Lun.

Back on Beerenberg, a Norwegian battalion approaches the volcano, in hovercraft, jeeps, amphibious tanks, and dirt bikes. They're charged with protecting Norway when it's invaded, or otherwise threatened by, apocalyptic dragons and/or villains.

From another angle, a NATO battalion also approaches Beerenberg. There are a few Norwegian volunteers within its ranks. The dragons and villains are a threat to the North Atlantic, as well as Earth. They approach the volcano in jeeps, hovercraft, and dirt bikes.

From another angle, in the sky, a SHIELD Quinjet approaches the volcano. They've been notified by certain CI agents that there are fugitives from SHIELD on the island; Sterns and Carson, namely.

At the base of the volcano, the Defenders' defensive is ongoing, waging, and raging. Of the six villains, Steel Serpent's power posed the biggest risk of waking the dragons up at the wrong time. Thankfully, he's no longer among the offending Illuminati. Thankfully, he's back in K'un-Lun-albeit still in the wrong reality.

In K'un-Lun, Ghost Rider flies Steel Serpent into Shou-Lao's cave. Once inside, he drops him on the cave floor.

Steel Serpent's fists are dim. They're as cold as stone.

Clea arrives. She conjures a chain, and gives it to Ghost Rider. She marvels at the cave's wonders, and acknowledges Steel Serpent. "Let's send him back, Ghost Rider."

"With pleasure," the fiery skeleton hisses. He empowers the chain, swings it around, and lassos Steel Serpent with it. Clea reaches out her hand, and puts a spell on Steel Serpent, that ensures he's returned to his proper reality. Gradually, with the glowing chain lasso still around him, Steel Serpent fades from view...and vanishes.

Back in his own reality, Davos crawls out of the cave, and looks around. The skies are infested with many of Shou-Lao's kind. Some slither up and down the mountainsides, like giant snakes. The humans of K'un-Lun live like hunter-gatherers, avoiding the apex predators' dangerous strikes.

They're immortal. Davos remembers when he had to slay one to become Steel Serpent. Its kin will probably never forgive him for that. Unless he was a criminal in life...but that's a gamble.

His parents are probably still somewhere out here. With luck, the dragons ate them, and he won't have to tell him that his most recent mission was a failure.

On Beerenberg, Owl glides in spirals around Hawkeye and Misty Knight. Knight uses her prosthetic arm, and shoots various projectiles up at him. Hawkeye shoots many arrows up at him; normal and trick. Owl's been hit by all many times; Knight and Hawkeye are both impressed he's still gliding.

Nighthawk flies away from Leaper. She's still got Murakami upside down.

Murakami's inspired, by how sophisticated Nighthawk's tiny gauntlets must be. He grasps his tonfas, curls himself up, and hits both gauntlets with the points on his tonfas-right where the release mechanisms are.

It works. He falls. While in freefall, he spins, kicks, and slashes around his tonfas. He's in no mood to get picked up again by Nighthawk...or anyone on her team.

He lands on the mountainside. He slides to a stop on some soft volcanic soil.

He looks around. What surrounds him looks like a giant snake's tail. It's already half-decayed. He scared away some seabirds while landing.

It's Wizardkiller's shed tail. He knows it. He must've cut it off himself to impress the Vorm. Murakami's saved!

In a cave in the crater, Wizardkiller and Vorm slumber. He's spiraled all around her body like a giant shawl. To him, she's so sexy... Both seem minimally disturbed by what's going on down at the base.

Down near their tails and her legs, it's rather cold. And to think this is a volcanic crater...

A portal opens. Clea and Reyes scurry through it. She closes the portal. They're not sure how much time they have. They're not even sure how to transport the dragons away. They're just as confused as to where to banish them to-or whether separating them is necessary.

"They seem happy together," Clea admits.

"They always do," Reyes reminds her. "And the next thing you know, they're building an armed wall between Mexico and the United States."

Clea stares at him. "I thought Ellis was the American president in this time period!"

Reyes shakes his head. "It doesn't matter. We've got to get them out of here. And pronto."

"Hands off my gunship," Mordo surprises them, having teleported into the cave while their backs were turned, "if you please?"

Clea and Reyes put their hands up. Mordo's got his staff elongated, and his boots loaded.

"Master Mordo, please," Clea begs. "These dragons will destroy the world if you don't send them back. I know. I've come from an apocalyptic future when they have."

Nearby, hidden by the dragons' tails, there's a shallow pit...full of bastardized reptilian eggs covered in barbed reptilian scales. No one's seen them.

"Then the future is apocalyptic with or without sorcerers," Mordo insists. "Whatever the case, getting destroyed by dragon fire is easier; nature is less abused that way."

"This IS an abuse of nature, Mordo! Wizardkiller doesn't belong in this reality, and the Vorm doesn't belong on this planet. All sorcerers in this reality were born into it. And this reality NEVER produces what it shouldn't."

"Inspiring monologue," Mordo mutters. "You would've made Anne Frank proud."

Reyes stands between Clea and Mordo. He knows Mordo wants to kill her more.

Murakami knows he doesn't have much time. With what skill he knows, he brews what he can of the resurrection elixir, and drinks what he must to preserve himself.

And, he buries Wizardkiller's tail. He wants it to be safe when Reid's, Bakuto's, and Sowande's successor fingers of the Hand come for it next.

Leaper pounces on him again. He raises Murakami over his head, pushes him into the air, leaps, and kicks him off the mountain. Nighthawk catches him, and flies him away. Neither one suspects that Murakami's stronger than before.

Leader's put a mental force field around himself. Outside, Rulk his hammering away at it, with his fists and rage. He's strong, but he can't do this indefinitely. The plug-in in his chest will make sure of that.

Wing sighs, and waits for her qi energy to light up her fists. It does. With a glowing white fist, she punches the force field. Leader flinches and yells as the force field disappears.

Rulk leaps, lands on Leader, and starts beating the crap out of his huge head again. He roars while doing so.

Daredevil climbs the mountainside, towards the crater. In or out of his suit, he's a born wall-climber.

Behind him, Jones straggles. It's a tall slope. And she's hardly the lifelong climber Daredevil is. He keeps offering her the cable in his club, for him to tow her along with. Jones only grumbles, and flips him the bird. It's in such moments Daredevil's thankful he's blind.

Stealthily up the slope, Red Skull flies past both of them. Daredevil stops, when he feels his wind. He waits. But when Red Skull doesn't come back, he keeps climbing. By then, Jones has caught up. And, she falls behind again once he regains his confidence.

Red Skull dives into the crater. He finds the cave, and dives in. The dragons' snoozing snouts greet him. Their breaths cause his wraith robe to wave and fly around, like a black flag.

"Please stand down, Sr. Reyes," Mordo implores. "You know I'm just going to kill both of you."

"But if you kill me," Reyes insists, "and she gets away, you'll be no closer to your goal of eradicating Earth-199999 of its sorcerers. Plus, if you attack me, the Ghost Rider will protect me."

"Ah, except you're assuming I'm going to hit you with the staff. You forget," he spins his hands. Streaks of light come out of them. "I'm a sorcerer. And I know of a billion ways to get past a billion obstacles. Your Ghost Rider is merely a flickering candle, in contrast to the wildfire Dormammu would pose to most magi in my order."

Red Skull caresses the area between the Vorm's eyes, and hums a German lullaby. He spent quite some time with her on Vormir, and shares a very sentient bond with her.

She wakes. Red Skull vanishes. Her eyes roll. She hears the battle going on at the bottom of the mountain. She bumps Wizardkiller's head with hers. He wakes. He hears the noise too. In harmony, they both sigh.

Behind them, her legs and their tails move. Clea and Reyes both freeze. So does Mordo. It seems the leviathans have awoken.

Clea and Mordo make portals, and make their exits. Reyes becomes Ghost Rider, and phases through the cave walls, mere moments before the dragons almost discover him via their moving tails.

Both magi's portals open near the cave's opening. Clea and Mordo find themselves facing each other. Both are close enough to kill each other at point blank. Beneath them, the cave rumbles with the dragons' activity.

"You can kill me," Clea tells him, "or you can reclaim Wizardkiller. But with the Vorm to double both of those loads, you must really be a powerful sorcerer if you can do both."

The ground shakes as the cave spews a huge smoke stack of volcanic ash cloud. It spews out way too close to where Clea and Mordo stand.

The black cloud's generation can be beheld from the volcano's base. All fighting forces, Defenders and Illuminati, stop to behold the rising cloud. Beneath them, the ground shakes. Rocks trickle from the volcano's slope.

Far away, the NATO and Norwegian jeeps and dirt bikes stop to feel the magnitude of the quake the two dragons are causing. Some of the dirt bikes nearly fall over. Above, the hovercraft slow down and turn towards their ground forces, once they realize what's going on. Farther away, the SHIELD Quinjet keeps approaching, oblivious of the quake.

Quake, one of their own, has done worse... But not nearly as worse as Graviton has, of course...

Leader levitates himself, spreads his arms, and psionically attacks Wing and Rulk. Wing is crying. Rulk is raging, roaring, begging for it to stop. It seems that brains have overcome brawn.

Aloft, Leader opens his eyes. He smiles.

Rulk has a small mind-but a big heart. He overcomes Leader, leaps, grabs his legs, and drags him back down to Earth.

On the way down, Wing leaps. Her fists are shining white and bright like the dawn. Rulk's feet hit the ground. Wing's fist hits Leader's head.

The ground vibrates. Leader is shot far across the volcanic plain. He lands on his head, and skids to a stop. He plows a furrow in the soil as he goes along.

Lying on the ground, he gradually reverts to Sterns. He's unconscious.

Wing and Rulk stand on either side of Sterns, and watch him. He won't likely come to after a fall like that...but he might.

Time passes. The smoke still belches. Mordo gets impatient. In his hand, he conjures a dagger of pure energy, and raises it to run it through Clea's chest...

She's vanished. He's all alone, before the dragons' doorstep.

Twin sets of great red reptilian claws surface from the cave, and place themselves gently on the threshold. Mordo stands WAY too close to where her claws come down.

She lifts herself from the cave. Around her, Wizardkiller is still twirled.

His nostrils open. He inhales. He sniffs. He smells sorcerer flesh...

Mordo thinks of vanishing. Alas, Wizardkiller doesn't give him time. The Vorm leaps from the burrow, and lands on the crater slope. She crawls in circles around the crater's circumference.

In this spot, of course, Mordo feels small. Clea's not around to share his fate.

Leaper distracts Murakami. Murakami now has his tonfas heavier in hand, as his most recent consumption of resurrection elixir has made him more dangerous than before. Leaper hurts his own strikes on Murakami's tonfas many times. Both men bleed.

Murakami loses his temper, and charges Leaper. Leaper just stands, smiles, and waves.

Nighthawk swoops, broadsides Murakami, grabs him, and does what must be done with the fallen Hand leader. He does resurrect, after all.

Leaper smiles, and watches from the ground. Nighthawk flies in circles around him, getting higher and higher with each spiral. Murakami's not escaping. Doing so would mean a nasty fall.

At long last, Nighthawk won't dare fly higher. It is broad daylight, after all, and she's a night creature. Nonetheless, she's only at 5000 meters. At that zenith, she takes a breath, exhales, and drops Murakami.

And Murakami falls. He gapes and thrashes during his plummet. He releases his tonfas. They fall after him.

Down, down, down he goes. Below, the battle rages on. There's nothing he can do to save himself. He's falling too fast, his teammates are distracted, and he has no superpowers...or a parachute.

He hits the ground. The impact kills him instantly. Alas, his head is still attached to his body. He's dead now...but with a fresh batch of resurrection elixir in him, he will come back...and he'll be even more dangerous than before.

He lies there, eyes wide open. He's not moving-or breathing-anytime soon.

Leaper stands over his corpse. He seems exhausted. Nearby, Nighthawk lands, retracts her wings, and stands near him, over Murakami's corpse. She's panting...but she's far from exhausted. She could've gone many more rounds with him. Alas, the power supply of the Nighthawk wingpack isn't infinite.

A bird's gotta land sometime. And a Hand ninja's gotta die just as much.

The Vorm leaps from the crater sides, and lands before Mordo. Wizardkiller raises his head above hers, kneels down towards Mordo, and sniffs him. Parts of Mordo's robes try to go into his nose as he does. Their eyes meet.

Wizardkiller's eyes narrow. In him, his stomach growls.

Mordo's terrified. He can't think of the spell he needs to instantly calm the dragon...

Above, Daredevil finally tops the last ledge. He can't look down, because he's blind...but he can hear and smell what brews down there.

"I know you must be hungry," Mordo begins to implore Wizardkiller. "Agamotto knows you've been sexing one another for quite some time now. Congrats for breaking free of Leader's mind control, by the way. And as hard as this is for both of you, I'm sure...I really need him back."

Wizardkiller sneers, and bares his fangs. The Vorm tenaciously clings to one of Wizardkiller's coils.

Daredevil smiles. Near him, Jones finally catches up.

"What'd I miss," she asks.

"Nothing," Daredevil says, grinning. "You're just in time to see the epic climax in Shrek, when the dragon eats Lord Farquaad and belches out his crown."

"Always liked that movie," Jones admits. "I just never saw Cameron Diaz as the ogre type...or a redhead, for that matter."

Daredevil snickers, and smiles. "Foggy still agrees with Shrek, when he says Lord Farquaad's using his giant castle to compensate for something..."

Back at the base, Black Ant stands alone on a hill. Down there, Valkyrie and Bloody Mary both appear ready to charge him.

Black Ant's got his sights on Bloody Mary's pussy. He smiles, lowers his visor, shrinks, and leaps for it.

Valkyrie sees where he's going. In a flash, she slashes her Dragonfang steel, and precisely cuts off Black Ant's feet in mid-flight.

Black Ant screams in agony. It hurts. Nearby, Bloody Mary swipes both of her machetes, slicing off more bits of Black Ant's lower legs, until only his knees are left. Black Ant now has bloody stubs for legs.

He resizes himself to normal, and skids across the ground to a stop. He raises his visor, cries in agony, curses, and insults is amputators.

Bloody Mary takes her M4, stands with her upskirt right over Carson's face, raises her M4, and smashes him in the head with its butt, knocking him unconscious. He falls limp, and hence stops shouting, instantly.

Bloody Mary snorts and spits. "Welcome to Deathlok's world," she sneers, "pervert insect."

Back at the crater, the dragons have closed in on Mordo, and have got him in an ever-tightening spot. Daredevil and Jones merely smile, and watch from the top of the crater.

"Please," Mordo implores, with terror in his voice, "just back away some, and let me reprogram you to my will. My world is at stake, and I can't hope to save half of it without your lungs' destructive power."

Wizardkiller draws back his head. He inhales. Beneath him, so does the Vorm. Mordo panics, kneels, and desperately uses his staff to shield the impending executioner's ax...

Inside the dragons' mouths, their throats glow. They get brighter and brighter...

Nearby, Red Skull chants an old Schubert song. The dragons hear this, and listen. They turn their heads. The Vorm, at least, raises hers.

Red Skull floats inside a portal-most likely opened by Clea. He spreads his arms, and summons her towards him.

The Vorm looks as if she isn't sure. She looks up at her man-or sire, rather. He shrugs. Lying on the ground in what would've been his execution chamber, Mordo seems confused.

Red Skull keeps chanting. The Vorm purrs, and lumbers towards Red Skull. Wizardkiller clings tightly to her. He's going with her...back to Vormir.

Jones lies on the ledge, near Daredevil, with her bare arms propping up her head. "I do love a dragon tale with a happy ending," she says dreamily.

Daredevil turns his head towards her. "How do you know Jessica Jones, and what have you done to her?"

As a wraith, Red Skull is intangible. The Vorm marches right through him without getting stuck. She wanders right through the portal, dragging Wizardkiller and his coiled self to Vormir. As a couple, breeding or not, they'll do less damage to Vormir than they could to Earth.

Job done, Red Skull floats from the portal, and flies away. From behind it, Clea closes the portal.

Her eyes meet Mordo's. She's just banished Mordo's gunship to a planet that must be light years away from Earth.

Owl glides in loops and rolls over and around Knight and Hawkeye. He's having more fun than he's ever had. Here and there, he throws shuriken and slashes them with daggers. He's even foiled a few of the projectiles in Knight's prosthetic arm, and the trick arrows in Hawkeye's quiver.

Owl leaps from a monolith, and charges Knight. Knight smiles, aims her arm at Owl, and shines a bright beam of solar light from it.

It blinds Owl, of course. He can't see where he's gliding.

Hawkeye swings some bolas, and broadsides Owl with them. The balls and rope wrap themselves around Owl, binding him. He falls like a rock. He can't glide very far-or half as gracefully-when he's tied to weights.

Knight stands over him, and puts her foot on his chest. He begs for mercy. Knight scoffs, and uses her prosthetic arm to spray a chemical into his face. It knocks him out. He won't be gliding for a while. He's down for the count.

Just to be sure, Hawkeye stands over his body, and shoots a tranq arrow into him. As Jones and Murdock would both know, you've gotta have insurance with this guy.

His father was Kingpin's accountant, after all. For all the Defenders know or care, Owl's pants are overstocked with insurance bonds...

Mordo grunts, and stands. "I don't need a gunship to kill you," he growls. "I can kill all the sorcerers just as well manually. You'll be my next target...and Earth-199999's future will be brighter without you...Clea."

Clea seems too terrified to move. With his boots on, Mordo chambers his leap...

Moments before takeoff, Daredevil's cable deviously loops itself around both of Mordo's boots. Mordo leaps. Jones takes the club from Daredevil, and yanks it towards her. Mordo is grounded instantly, and dragged across many meters of hot rocky ground.

Jones punches him in the head, knocking him unconscious. Near him, his staff retracts itself to a club.

"Darn," Jones mutters. "I was really looking forward to watching the dragon eat him."

Daredevil grins. "Too bad he wasn't wearing a crown, huh?"

"Ah, he could've vomited those boots instead. I wonder if we should just rip them off his feet, and give them to Batroc?"

"Only if they choose him," Clea informs them. "Sorry; that's just how relics in the sorcerers' trade work."

Ghost Rider approaches them, levitating. "Anyone need a ride back down?"

At long last, all of the villains are defeated, and both of the dragons are banished. Murakami was the only casualty-albeit that won't likely last. Carson was wounded-but he deserved it. Knight and Clea would both know.

Owl got hit with several of Hawkeye's arrows, and much more of Knight's cybernetic ammo. And yet, he's sleeping like a babyface over there, as he's merely a rich pretty boy, with many bolas keeping him bound.

None of the Defenders were killed or greatly injured. Thompson's back at Dr. Palmer's place with that broken arm-but at least that one came from friendly fire. (Jones still says she did that to herself...) And Wong's fully recovered from Black Ant's strike against him-as has Daredevil from Owl's first strike.

At long last, Norway, NATO, and SHIELD finally show up. Norway and NATO, at least, are glad to see their services are not needed. Nonetheless, they secure the perimeter, and relieve the Defenders of duty. Their medical teams give some of the Defenders medical treatment.

They clean Carson's "leg stubs," and sterilize and bandage them. They start to bring a body bag for Murakami-but Wing intercepts them, shakes her head, and waves them away.

The SHIELD Quinjet lands. The real Deathlok, Slingshot, 13, Madani, Agent Piper, and Agent Davis dismount from it. Davis and Slingshot are both with SHIELD. They gladly take all five villains off the Defenders' hands-including Murakami's temporary corpse.

Deathlok and Knight meet. They spend an annoying amount of time comparing prosthetics. In a stretcher, Carson vomits while listening to them do so. He still hates Jon Garrett, and he does NOT want to join them as a cyborg...

All is well. Peace has been restored to Beerenberg and New York. And all the Defenders get to go home-albeit Batroc and Walker, who were wanted criminals before, have some paperwork to fill out with the US Department of Justice. And SHIELD offers to protect Maverick from Thunderbolt Ross, as they once did Bruce Banner.

And as he promised, Schmidt reappears to Brunnhilde, and surrenders to the Einherjar. He'll get a life sentence in the New Asgardian dungeons, with hope for parole...by Thor's leave, as soon as he and Rocket Raccoon finish their business with Thanos...if they finish their business with the Mad Titan...

Jones asks Clea if she's returning to the future, to see if it's any better now that dragons aren't going to destroy it. Clea smiles, and tells her that she's thinking about sticking around for a time, just to see if the Avengers get her teacher/boyfriend back...

Jones lumbers over to a boulder, behind which she cached the weapon the got from Barrett/Brock. She sighs. She was really hoping to sate her Guinevere fantasies this time. Alas, Clea and Red Skull lured the dragons away before she could bump them off herself.

"Next time, Captain Britain," she whispers. "Next time."

Carter sneaks up behind her, while wearing her boyfriend's favorite shirt, and slaps her on the back. "Next time, weird redhead from the future," she corrects Jones, "next time!"