Marvel: Gargantos Attacks!

PREVIOUSLY ON...THIS GAME: THIS.

Our heroes - Magnus, Spider-Man, Bucky, Natasha, and Yelena - are on a rooftop in Manhattan as something large, loud, and invisible smashes its way towards them! It lashes out! Smash!

Magnus can't see it, but he's good enough at mystical sensing to dodge. Spider-Man relies on his Peter tingle and flips out of the way, and Natasha watches him and rolls the direction he does. Bucky puts up his metal arm and takes the blow, but Yelena gets caught by surprise and knocked backward ("OW, what the hell was that?"). 

Spidey flips a bunch of webs at it to try and make it visible, but it just rips them off. Bucky runs up and punches at it, and Yelena and Natasha both empty their pistols at it (to no effect). Magnus tosses a little blue globe at it and yells "Cover your eyes!", but the creature deflects it and it bursts harmlessly in the sky, making a cloud of blue paint.

Bucky winds up and punches it again, but again can't get a good angle (also his Superhuman Strength is still down). But then a jet of water erupts from behind them! Maria Hill emerges from a stairwell, using the rooftop's firehose (you know, like in Die Hard) and sloshes the thing. It's not visible, but it's Wet, so some dust clings to it and makes hitting it easier. ("Anybody got some glitter?") Magnus pulls an RPG out of his hat and fires it, but the creature deflects it. Natasha, however, fires a widow's bite and the thing glimmers with electricity for a second.

The creature wraps Magnus up in an invisible tentacle. Spidey jumps on it and tries to pull Magnus free, but the thing is too strong. Bucky punches the damn thing again and feels something give, and draws back a metal fist covered in purple goo. Maria cuts the supports on a billboard and drops it on the thing, which crushes it. It flickers and becomes visible:

Like this, but deader

The heroes take a moment and a breath. Maria looks at Bucky and asks if he's going to get back in the box; Bucky replies "no." Maria tenses, Natasha says that they needs his help, and just before things get unpleasant, there's a sizzling sound behind them. A big sparkly circle appears, and a man in blue with a long red cloak steps - nay, floats - out. Maria recognizes him: Dr. Stephen Strange. "I'm afraid I have to agree with Ms. Romanoff here," he says.

He invites everyone through a portal to "someplace safe," but when they step through, they note that Natasha and Yelena have not joined them. Strange mutters something about them having bigger issues, but then launches into an explanation. He introduces himself (Bucky confirms that his name really is "Stephen Strange" and that's not an alias; Maria notes that it makes his publications easy to find) and explains that the creature they fought was an interdimensional errand boy, acting on some powerful being's behalf. He gestures and the heroes see a magical recreation of their battle with the monster, but this time with the creature visible. Occasionally, red, glowing runes appear along its tentacles. "That's witchcraft," he says, "and I've only ever known one witch powerful enough to summon something like this. And she's supposed to be dead."

"You're kidding," says Maria.

"Huh?" says Bucky.

Strange nods. "Wanda Maximoff." 

Magnus rubs his temples. "Does she have like a red motif going? Because something pulled me out of the multiversal between spaces and dropped me here, and it had red glowing eyes."

"That's her," says Strange, "and if she can reach into the multiversal membrane things are worse than I thought."

Strange explains that beings who can physically travel the multiverse are extremely rare ("I've never met one - oh, wait, no, met a five-year-old the other day" says Magnus). Wanda apparently wants Magnus, and it's not hard to deduce that his nigh-unique ability is why. 

"Go back to the 'she's dead' part?" says Spidey.

"Right, sorry. Bit of explanation." A few years ago, he says, Wanda appeared in Sokovia with her brother Pietro, and fought the Avengers as they tried to take down the last of HYDRA. They fell off the grid after that, but then Wanda popped up in Kamar-Taj a little before Strange got there. Unfortunately, she fell in with a zealot named Kaecilius, and the two of them (and Kaecilius' other disciples) tried to bring the Dark Dimension here. Strange stopped them ("with the help of two very talented masters of the mystic arts"), and Wanda was sucked into the Dark Dimension along with the zealots.

"So she's not necessarily dead?" says Maria.

"When last I saw her," says Strange, "it very much looked like 'dead' was the next step. But no, I did not see her die. I don't know how she got out of the Dark Dimension, but it does seem like she's back, and she's after you."

"Yeah, I get that a lot," says Magnus.

"Does what happened with Ingrid have anything to do with this?" asks Maria. "She kind of turned on us and her eyes glowed red."

"Almost certainly," says Strange. "And that reminds me." He gestures, and all four of their eyes flicker blue for a second. They feel a cool, refreshing bath for their minds. Bucky winces. "Warn me before you mess with my brain?"

"I'm trying to keep her from messing with your brain," replies Strange. "Just a prophylactic spell." He also warns them against dimensional travel. "Obviously Wanda has some reach into other realities. I don't know if my protective spell would travel with you if you left this one. I think our best bet is to confront her here." 

Spidey pipes up. "Could you maybe do a spell to keep her from finding Magnus?"

Strange nods. "Alter the Shield of the Seraphim...yes, I think so. I need to do some research. Rest up, look around, and if you go to touch something and your instincts tell you not to...please listen to your instincts."

He leaves. Maria pops a couple of aspirin and chugs some water, still recovering from Natasha's widow bite. Magnus offers to find her a healing salve or something, but she declines. "Don't know you that well."

Spidey goes looking around and touches absolutely everything. Surely that won't have consequences...NEXT TIME!