On the ground, the civilians who had been scrambling in terror were now utterly dumbstruck.
Every last one of them stood stock-still, heads tilted back, staring up at the sky.
Hermione's silhouette, framed against curtains of lightning, ice, snow, and fire , she looked like a deity descending from the heavens, delivering divine judgment upon the invaders.
"Is this... a miracle?"
"Has God come to save us?"
God is a girl.
Some murmured under their breath, voices shaking. Others dropped straight to their knees and bowed their heads to the ground.
The Avengers were just as stunned.
They'd thought the Chitauri were already overwhelming , suffocating in their power. Then Hermione moved. A few casual, almost lazy gestures, and she'd painted the sky with what looked like the end of the world. Anyone standing before that kind of force became meaningless.
Is this actually something a human being can do?
The question surfaced in every mind at once.
---
Aboard the Helicarrier, in the main control hall, people were packed tight around the massive screens.
Every pair of eyes was locked on the feed, jaws hanging open.
Hermione's small figure was ringed by lightning, snow, ice, and flame. She looked like something that had walked out of a myth , leveling the sky with a flick of her wrist. The Chitauri army, which had been tearing through Manhattan minutes ago, crumbled before her like a flock of startled chicks.
"Am I — am I dreaming?"
One agent pinched himself hard enough to make his eyes water.
Fury stood at the front of the crowd.
Shock. Relief. Cold dread at what could have been. The emotions knotted across his face until his expression was almost unreadable.
He'd always thought he was overestimating her. That he'd given her more credit than she deserved.
He'd been wrong. His imagination, limited as it turned out to be, had never come close.
Fortunately, he'd listened to Natasha. Maintained a civil attitude. Kept things cordial.
Because if he hadn't , S.H.I.E.L.D. would probably no longer exist.
The thought made him shudder.
Beside him, Hill stared at the screen in silence. She couldn't reconcile the figure up there, surrounded by fire and lightning like an avenging god, with the cheerful girl who'd been sitting in this very room not long ago, casually eating an apple and pressing snacks into her hand.
---
At the top of Stark Tower, Loki gazed down at the battlefield below.
His breathing had gone shallow.
He'd known she was dangerous. Far more dangerous than his so-called brother, who thought swinging a hammer counted as strategy. But this ,
This exceeded even his expectations.
Perhaps this is what a true sorcerer looks like.
He pulled himself back, pushed down the jolt of something that felt uncomfortably like awe, and reached through the Scepter of the Mind to contact The Other , the Chitauri commander waiting in deep space.
"The Earthlings are still fighting. Send more troops. As many as you can spare."
"Earth will be ours soon enough."
His voice rang with confidence. He paid no attention to the wave of Chitauri forces that had just been erased wholesale.
The Other received the message and felt a surge of satisfaction.
Loki hasn't let me down. Recommending him to the great one was the right call.
In high spirits, The Other gave the order. More Chitauri warships surged through the portal toward Earth.
---
Hermione dropped from the sky, landing lightly on the street below.
The team closed in around her immediately.
"Hermione!"
Even the Hulk shuffled over , carefully, in small cautious steps, trying to look like he wasn't doing it on purpose.
They looked her over. No injuries. No burns. Not a scratch.
Only then did everyone breathe.
"Hermione, how did you get here?"
She tilted her head. "I made a quick trip back to Hogwarts to pick something up. Didn't expect the Chitauri to move this fast. By the time I got back, you'd already started fighting."
"Sorry." Tony dropped his head. His voice came out quieter than usual. "We were useless. We couldn't handle it ourselves and pulled you into this anyway."
The others looked just as ashamed. They'd made all those promises about protecting the Earth.
And here they were.
Hermione waved a hand. "Save it for later."
She pointed up. "They're coming back."
Everyone looked.
Sure enough, the portal was spilling over again , wall-to-wall Chitauri soldiers and Leviathan beasts flooding out in a dark mass that made the scalp crawl just looking at it.
"Hell — how many of them are there?" The collective mood soured fast.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "That's the whole problem with the Chitauri. Numbers. Every last one of them is a soldier. It's the entire species."
Then she paused, her tone shifting , a trace of satisfaction creeping in. "Want to know what I went back for?"
A beat. Then everyone nodded.
"You'll see in a second."
She flashed a cryptic smile, and launched herself back into the sky.
She opened her beaded bag, flipped it upside down, and shook it. WHOOOOSH.
Cabbages. Hundreds of them, thousands of them, cascading out like green rainfall, piling up on the street below until they formed a mound the height of a small building.
"I didn't do much else this past half year," Hermione said cheerfully, surveying the pile from above. "Just gardened. Hogwarts has excellent growing conditions."
All hand-grown. Completely natural. Zero pesticides. She was quite proud of them.
"...Cabbage."
Tony's voice had gone flat in a very specific way.
"You went all the way back to Hogwarts. For cabbage."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "You don't know what you're talking about. These aren't ordinary cabbages."
Tony's mouth twitched. He tried a different angle.
"Can you still — use those spells? From before?"
Hermione shook her head. "I'm tired."
That settled it for everyone. She'd burned herself out. Whatever she'd just done up there , the lightning, the ice, the fire , it had a cost, and she'd paid it. Magic that powerful couldn't be limitless. She'd probably done serious damage to herself just holding it together.
The shame deepened.
All these adults. All this firepower. And a teenage girl had still been the one to hold the line.
The Chitauri were reassembling overhead. Everyone's expression hardened. They straightened up, tightened their grips, and turned to face it.
Hermione had done enough. More than enough. Now it was their turn. Whatever came through that portal, it wasn't getting anywhere near her.
"What are you all doing?"
Hermione looked around at them , the braced stances, the grim faces, the sheer collective determination , and frowned.
"If you're hurt, take care of yourselves. I said I'm tired, not that I'm out of the fight. I'm just feeling lazy." She pointed at the cabbage heap. "I planned ahead. That's the whole reason I went back."
Her wand came out. She gestured at the pile.
"They'll handle the rest."
Tony stared. He looked at the cabbages. He looked up at the swarm of alien soldiers flooding through a dimensional portal. He looked back at the cabbages.
"They'll , what, feed them?"
It was like showing up to a warzone with a water pistol. His brain was genuinely struggling to process this.
Are you serious right now?
"You're looking down on my cabbages." Hermione's voice went sharp with genuine offense.
The moment the words left her mouth ,
CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.
Every single cabbage rotated in perfect unison to face Tony.
Each one split open.
Rows of long, jagged, very real-looking teeth grinned out from every head.
"Holy shit!"
Even Iron Man flinched back.
Everyone else sucked in a sharp breath.
The pile of cheerful green vegetables , all of them, every last one , were now staring at Tony Stark with wide toothy mouths, and the sight of it scrambled something fundamental in the human brain.
"They're..." Natasha's voice wasn't quite steady. She forced the question out anyway. "They're alive?"
"Obviously."
Hermione lifted her chin, looking very pleased with herself.
She raised her wand.
"Watch."
Her voice rang clear and bright across the battlefield.
"Go get them, my lovely biting cabbages!"
➤ Next: Magical Plants vs. Alien Zombies
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