Chapter 81: Within Question, Without Dimensions

Bronte's had rougher starts to his days. 

He's woken up to Mutant gang leaders and warlords in third world countries trying to blow his siblings up. He's fough off demon dogs in jungle trenches in South America. He's eaten Wendigo's in a feral rage as he melted Canadian tundra like ice cubes over a campfire.

But still. 

The simple potential for danger that the day had already proposed, made his stomach twist like the hurricane waters in his dreams. Only, he didn't feel nearly as scary or predatory as the monstrous future version of himself that was usually in his dreams stalking the stone path. 

He felt the same as always. Romulus was dead, but he wasn't. He lived on. His ideals and function remained like an undying husk, holding each wearer in an endless pursuit of power and domination. Daken was the next in line.

It made him wonder if anyone came before Romulus. If he was ever.... "Daken". The new big bad. Bronte wondered something similar before when he read up on Romulus' very dodgy history. He was always next to and influencing historical leaders. Half of Nero's most devious endeavors were ideas implanted in his mind by Romulus-- also known as Seneca at the time... according to Remus.

He wondered where she was to. She got what she needed and left. Saying their was beef was an understatement. Especially since her very on the nose training sessions against weapons that could harm them suddenly felt directed. Purposefu--

"Bronte?"

Bronte looked up from his hands as they sat inside the subway. The bus rattled along the tracks in the shared silence. A silence that came in the form dozens of voices conjoining into a shared dull hum.

"Yea?" Bronte replied as he looked over at Ilyana. She took the window seat at his suggestion. The morning suns rays bounced off the glass windowed high rises and gave her messy bun of hair a golden halo. It felt ironic.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Remus. With everything that's been going on she kind of fell to the wayside. I wanna know what she's getting into right now."

"Remus is a .... woman?" Ilyana's eyebrow raised in confusion. Bronte only knew that because of how her eyes changed position.

"Romulus' sister. She trained me for a while."

The crowd of people sharing the train car with them grumbled as they bounced along the tracks in transference to another set. Buildings and Heroes blew by in a blur.

"She must be strong. In terms of combat, you're unrecognizable from a few years ago." Ilyana replied.

"Don't gas me up now, I lost my magic remember?"

"It seems you got a sufficient replacement." Ilyana rested a hand on Mend-- doubling as Bronte's left arm.

"....Unc-- who's going to tell her she's touching the wrong arm?" Mend whispered into his mind.

"Not me." Bronte thought, letting her hand rest on his forearm over his leather jacket.

Eventually she removed her hand and continued conversation.

"So, what about Remus slipping through the cracks?"

Bronte shrugged, "She was always kind of cold and self serving.... I could've just started looking into it because of what you said about Daken... the Sea People.... and Demon Mutants..... and Sewer Mutants.... I'm paranoid."

"That's good." Ilyana replied.

Bronte smiled briefly, "Laura used to say that."

"Laura is a good leader."

"The best."

"But anyway.."

"She just was adamant on training for weapons that could harm us." Bronte explained, "We never ran into those. Weapons that stopped healing. When I got to Wakanda I could create fire hot enough to melt my way to the earths core-- to throw off the temperature in a region and devastate it in a day. And I'd even heal through that. But she still... and then Daken... just had that damn sword. The whole time."

"You think she knew?" Ilyana questioned.

Bronte shrugged.

"I could have my people look out for her. Maybe she's resting in some other Dimension."

Bronte looked at her in surprise. So did the man clearly high out of his mind seated behind them listening in-- trying not to enter a bout of derealization. "You can do that?"

Ilyana smiled, "I feel like you forgot I'm a Queen of Hell."

A disc opened up against the wall of the train car on her side, swallowing up the window in a plate of glowing blue mutant energies. Casually, as members inside started to scream and reach for their phones, she leaned in and disappeared.

Bronte didn't miss a beat and pulled on his hood before jumping through the portal.

They landed on the other side in forms more fitting for a hellish realm of demons and biologically horrific skyscrapers.

Ilyana's human skin darkened to a shade of smoke and ash. A smokey dark grey. Her eyes glowed the color of her SoulSword. If he paid attention long enough he could see the horns growing from her forehead. And the tail slithering from her backside like a serpent. 

Mend took over Bronte. His civilian clothes were no more and the seven foot tall slime skinned weather-mutant brute remained. Mend's inherited Wind-Rider magic went something just shy of haywire inside the Limbo Dimension show in the arcane letterings along the symbiote skin shifting in size and brightness. The mane of dreaded tendrils stuck up from their head, gaining eyes that watched everything from all angles.

"This place is NOT conducive to mending Bronte...." Mend growled.

Ilyana showed Mend the SoulSword, "Do not panic. This grants me dominance over this Dimension."

"Didn't you say they've been acting crazy lately...? Or did I make that u-"

Mend spun around as one of their many tendrils went rigid from behind. Just in time to jump out of the way as a Demonic Dragon divebombed them.

Ilyana didn't move fast enough and ate a portion of the blow, causing her to roll a dozen times over before slamming her sword into the earth to gain her bearings.

Mend was already taking to the skies. Propelled like a jet on limbs encased in blue flames and tornado winds to keep up with the dragon.

It flew in pure silence. Entirely unlike what either Bronte or Mend knew about them. It's scales were a dark red that allowed it to blend in with the bloody clouds save for it's unhealthy green eyes-- of which it had eight, and glowing innards.

The reptilian beast spit a torrent of acidic flames.

Mend flew around the assault like a magical gnat.

"HA! You can't hurt us!.... I won't let you..... In fact... you will help ussss..." Mend took off in a burst of wind and blue sparks, only stopping once the beast was far behind them.

Before it got too close, Mend clapped towards the clouds and called down a blinding bolt of hellish lightning.

The dragon roared, momentarily blinded only to open its eyes and find the tattooed flying symbiote was gon--

Mend came up from underneath the dragon, arms stretching and wrapping around it's long scaled throat.

The dragon's innards vibrated as acidic fire coalesced and pulsed, rising up and out of its jaws with a primal roar.

Mend's jaws broke free of it's symbiote skin casing and opened, inhaling the hideous fire until there was no more left.

The dragons insides lost their glow as it hesitantly flew backward.

"Now be a good dog.... or we'll eat you...haha..." Mend burped acrid smoke and shivered as the glowing marks went greenish red for a moment before returning to normal.

Suddenly Ilyana teleported onto the Dragons back. 

"Welcome to the skies, Demon Queen!" Mend gave a bow, standing on the winds casually.

Ilyana stomped on the massive dragons head while speaking in a language that sounded halfway stuck between latin, german and something comprised of sounds a human mouth couldn't make.

The Dragon blinked a few times before quietly hissing. Ilyana said something else and suddenly it was flying her forward, towards the city of fleshy buildings with eyes and spines.

They landed on a rooftop covered in pulsating veins. 

Mend's face peeled away, leaving Bronte's head remaining. His dreads maintained their symbiote skin and extra eyes.

"You fit in." Ilyana commented.

"Don't say that." Bronte blinked and shook his head. Seeing with your eyes closed was bizarre like few things he'd experienced.

"What are we doing here?"

"Leaving a message." Ilyana walked to the edge of the Dragon's head, hanging over the building. She looked down at the streets full of demons.

She spoke in the bizzare language again. Whatever she said, put a new brand of pep in their step because when she stopped speaking, the streets went empty.

She turned and jumped off the dragon, landing on the roof beside him.

"If Remus is in any of the known Dimensions, we should hear something. It's good to get an ID on everyone relative to Daken. The less surprises the better."

Bronte nodded, "Heard you."

"Ready to go see Blade?"

A rhetorical question of course. Ilyana opened up a portal and they jumped through.

Suddenly standing in the livingroom of The Abbey.

Everyone was eating pizza.

Mr Knight dusted off his hands and the pizza sauce on his mask, "Well aren't you two just horrifying."