The respite was brief. Before Riley could fully tend to Quill's wounds, a commotion broke out above them. An evil woman's laughter rang out, followed by the rumbling crash of the earth splitting apart.
Jessica tightened her grip on her shotgun and headed for the door. "I'll go see what's happening."
"I'm coming with you." Shang-Chi followed her and caught her by the arm. Jessica turned back to look at him, and Shang-Chi shook his head. "We can't just rush out there. Stand beside me while I cast a concealment spell."
The two left quickly, while Riley and Quill exchanged information. Quill clearly knew more than Riley did. Riley's fight with Matt had ended quickly because Spider-Man had wanted to vent his anger; Matt had barely been able to fight back before being hammered into the ground. But Quill had tangled with Captain America for quite some time, so he had learned some things about this universe from that evil monster.
"The whole universe has been infected, no doubt about it." Quill shook his head. "Like I said before, it's similar to the universe we came from, except this one has superheroes."
"But what confuses me is that the superheroes here can't die, and they aren't afraid of dying either. When I acted like I was going to take Captain America down with me, he wasn't scared at all. He just burst out laughing. Luckily, he wasn't very smart, so I tricked him into a trap."
"What do you think caused it?"
"I don't know, but Captain America told me that even death would die someday. Universes that couldn't achieve that were weak, and he would grant them true immortality."
"Absurd," Riley said.
"This world never lacks lunatics like that." Quill's extensive experience gave him more to say. "They seek