The hallway stretched unnaturally ahead of them, its lockers warped like they'd melted in a blast furnace. Fluorescent lights flickered above, casting strobe-like pulses across the walls. Ethan led Amy through the silent corridor, every step echoing too loud in this twisted pocket of Midtown High.
Rachel sat slumped in the corner, her body limp, her breathing shallow but steady. Her school uniform was torn, and dried blood clung to her temple.
"Rachel!" Amy rushed forward, dropping to her knees. "She's alive—oh God, she's still alive!"
Ethan crouched beside her, eyes scanning the shadows. The red-tinted sky outside the cracked windows pulsed like a beating heart. "Don't relax yet. This is obviously built like a trap. Rachel's bait."
Amy turned to him, voice shaking. "What are we supposed to do? We're trapped, and that thing—"
Then she froze.
Her eyes widened. Her breath caught.
Ethan looked up. "Amy? God dammit."
Her body jerked like a puppet, spine snapping back in a violent arc. She screamed—a raw, animal sound that shook the walls. Light exploded from her chest, Nut's starlight flaring to life. But something else rose beneath it. Something oily, dark, hungry.
Ethan backed away, eyes narrowing. "No... no no no—"
Black tendrils burst from Amy's back like wings of living smoke. The starlight turned sickly—glowing with a reddish hue as constellations warped into unfamiliar shapes.
Amy levitated off the ground, her limbs spread unnaturally wide. Her head tilted back, her eyes fully black now, dripping shadow like tears.
"I warned you," said a voice—not Amy's, but layered and broken, like a thousand whispers speaking in unison. "She was perfect. Her soul was already open."
Ethan clenched his fists. "Nisanti. I didn't think you'd be capable of possessing an avatar."
The possessed girl turned her gaze on him. "You... are clever. But not enough. Possession is simply waiting, finding a crack, and slipping in. Cracks tend to appear in moments of great sorrow and great joy."
A jagged wave of shadow erupted from her form, slamming into the walls and turning them into pulsing flesh. Tiles became scales. Lockers screamed as they twisted into jagged teeth.
The mirror world responded to its new god.
Ethan rolled, barely avoiding a tendril that shot toward him like a spear. "Damn it! Amy, fight it—!"
But Amy was no longer here.
Hovering in her place was a corrupted avatar of celestial power—Nut's divine light now twisted, Amy's face locked in a grin that didn't belong to her.
"This vessel serves me now," Nisanti hissed. "And her power... is mine."
Behind them, a new pulse rippled through the air—and a shimmer tore through the far wall.
Paige Guthrie stumbled out first, her skin half-transformed into metallic armor. Behind her, Felicia Hardy leapt through the breach, claws drawn, white hair flowing like a banner in the wind.
"What the hell—?" Paige's eyes went wide. "Ethan! Amy?!"
"She's possessed!" Ethan shouted. "A demon named Nisanti's in control!"
The air went cold.
Amy-Nisanti turned toward the newcomers a grin on her face.
With a flick of her hand, the ground rippled like water, and dark thorns erupted beneath Paige's feet. She flipped back, barely dodging.
Felicia vaulted over them, claws flashing. "These kids are trapped in here for like five minutes and one of them becomes a demon's plaything. Seriously?"
"She's not herself!" Ethan called, ducking another tendril. "She's channeling Nut's— no never mind just know she's empowered by the demon!"
Amy-Nisanti descended, her corrupted wings spreading wide. The sky outside darkened as her voice slithered into their minds.
"You are ants crawling in the web of fate. I see your path. Your pain. Let me end it all."
Felicia cursed and clawed at the girl, which bounced harmlessly off a shield of star-dark energy.
Ethan scanned the transformed battlefield, mind racing. The demon wasn't just using Amy's powers—it was rewriting the pocket realm around them. The walls weren't walls anymore—they were veins. The air shimmered with illusion. Even space bent.
Paige roared, shifting fully into her steel form and barreling forward with a thunderous punch.
Amy-Nisanti caught her fist with one hand show that it required no visible effort.
"Brute force. Humans remain unoriginal even to this day. Allow me to respond in kind," with that Amy-Nisanti hurled Paige back with a thunderous throw. The mutant crashed into a melted row of lockers, sending debris scattering.
Ethan walked over beside her dragging the unconscious Rachel. "You okay?"
"I've had worse," Paige grunted, steam rising from her arm.
Felicia landed beside them. "We are not winning this one straight-up."
"No," Ethan agreed grimly, staring at the corrupted figure now hovering above them. "Not without the help of someone who understands demons."
Amy-Nisanti spread her arms wide. Reality trembled. And the shadows began to move.
They didn't just stretch—they watched.
Ethan Kane, for all his planning, knew they were already behind. He never thought he'd come across magic and the supernatural world in Marvel so soon. He thought he'd at least have some time to prepare for such a thing later on. This was a massive oversight on his part and his trump card Amy was now being used by the enemy against him. For the for time since he gained Sage's power he actually felt things were not in his control and that he might die.