((This is a cross-over story where Superman and Lex Luthor end up in the Marvel Comic Book Universe. All characters shown are owned by their respective companies. This story is based in a Marvel Universe; and DC Universe, which are both non-cannon to comics or other mediums. You will see familiar characters with new takes on them; old stories which had different consequences; and the never ending battle between good and evil.))

((This is the second draft of this story; which has been edited so that it flows better, in a format that is easier to distinguish from who is speaking. I Have also altered some content; mostly certain dialogue parts which I thought didn't work. Hope anyone re-reading enjoys the revisions. And any new readers enjoy the story I've thought up. Please enjoy; and review if you like and want to see more :). Happy Trails! ))

"Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes."
— Alexandre Dumas

Lex Luthor rushed through his lab, his battle suit damaged from his confrontation with the Kryptonians; had he not bested Supergirl when he did she might have put him down for good. Lex ran in a panicked haste as he looked down at his smashed glove, the shattered pieces of kryptonite still embedded in his gauntlet...his only protection from those Aliens. Those freaks who claim to be their protectors.

Lex pressed in his personal access code and activated his personal project; "Refuge". He had yet to test his device, but if it worked it would send him to the parallel Earth he had encountered where "Superman" was Ultraman...as Lex recalled it, scientific advancement in that reality far surpassed that in his own world. He knew that Ultraman would love nothing more than to help with the demise of his counterpart.

A small compartment along the wall opened to reveal Lexes Inter-dimensional Rift Generator. It was a small square device that almost resembled a box; Lex had used remains of a Mother-Box recovered from Darkseids invasion attempt years prior.

As Lex reached out and picked up the Box there was a loud crash, and the sound of metal bending. Lex was almost thrown off his feet by the shock-wave of the blast. As Lex looked up he could barely see him through the smoke caused by mixing chemicals on the floor; but he could see the blue of his chest, and that Symbol that had come to haunt his life... Kara's blood smeared along it.

Lex heard his voice boom, angrier than he had ever heard him before. "Madman!" In a moment his fingers were around Lexes throat. Lex could see the tears in his eyes as his face began to contort with the pain caused by the kryptonite...but it didn't hurt him like it used to. Clark stood his ground, his fingers digging into Lex's throat. "You deserve to die for what you've done...to Metropolis; to Kara! How many more people are you going to leave dead in your wake?!" Lex could feel the grip around his throat loosen as the kryptonite began to take a more direct effect on Clark.

Lex threw up a powerful armored fist that crashed against the head of the Man of Steel. Clark stumbled back as Lex pointed his undamaged hand and fired a repulsor beam directly into Superman's chest, sending him flying backwards into a cabinet, which crumbled like paper. Lex quickly turned his attention to his box, pressing several buttons.

As Lexes box began to activate, emitting a strange yellow glow, Clark got up to his knees; throwing the remains of the cabinet off of him "No! No one else dies because of you!" A high intensity heat-vision blast exploded from Clarks eyes and charged towards Lex, who put the box between himself and Superman's attack. As the blast hit the box, the yellow light mixed with Superman's heat-vision, turning the bright yellow light a bright swirl of orange. The orange light stretched out and touched every corner of the lab, and with one violent snap the whole lab was sucked into the center of the light. As the light dissipated back into the box; it fell to ground of the ruined floor, a single green light flashing on its panel as water streamed out of the now exposed water main.

...

Avengers Mansion was strangely empty; Tony Stark worked away on his new space-ready flight suit. He was still having trouble finding a suitable metal to withstand re-entry; but thankfully Thor, who had recently returned from Asgard, had brought some metals with him that, fused with the right combination of Earth metals, would provide a suitable coating for his suit.

Thor was in the waiting room watching a news report about Reed Richards and his latest development in bio-chemistry, utilizing the Super Soldier serum to create a cure for many of the known cancers that plagued mankind. His serum was still under research, but Richards was hopeful about the results.

"This just in," the news report cut out to a special news bulletin. "Several miles above the small area of Tyrolese City there was what appeared to be a small sonic explosion. A man who was celebrating his daughters' birthday caught a glimpse of the strange occurrence."

The screen cut away to show the video of a small girl opening a present to reveal a bright pink pair of sneakers. The girls' eyes began to shine with happiness when someone shouted out "There! Up in the sky!" The camera swung around quickly, catching a glimpse of what appeared to be a large off shaped rectangular object seemingly appearing in the sky with a wave of orange light. Then an instant later the object seemed to break into several thousand pieces and explode apart.

"Thankfully there were no reported injuries as a result of the occurrence, but officials are baffled by the video, as no explanation has yet to be given."

Thor had risen from his place on the chair he sat in, "What in the name of Valhalla?" Thor wasn't sure what he had seen; but something had been missed in the report; something important.

Thor came bursting down into Starks lab. "Hail Lord Stark!" Tony sighed heavily as Thor's voice boomed through his lab.

"I've told you a thousand times, my name is Tony. Not Lord Stark, not The Iron Clad Magician; Tony, just Tony."

"You waste our time with this nonsense; there is a captured image series you must observe." Another sigh escaped Tony as he rubbed his mustache against his face.

"It's called...never mind." Tony turned to his computer and ALT-TABed his program and brought up the internet browser; which Tony had forgotten was on a search engine looking for pictures of himself with Eva Longoria. Thor gave a long disapproving glance at Tony. "What? I was out late on Friday and I heard that the lovely Eva Longoria was involved." Thor shook his head, disregarding what Tony said.

"Quest for the...'video' of the strange explosion of Tyrolese City." With almost lightening fast hands Tony began to type into the search engine. Within seconds he had found a link to the video and pulled it up. Tony watched the video with Thor, who was watching intently, searching for something he had missed...

"Wow that is weird..." Tony said as the video ended. "What do you think it could have been? Alien space craft? Military experiment gone wrong? Could just be the mutants acting up again..." As Tony searched his brain for a logical conclusion to the event, Thor reached out and grabbed the mouse, pulling the time index of the video back to the time where the object seemed to blow apart, Thor watched it several time before pausing on a select frame.

"Hark! Do you see Lord Stark?!" Thor pointed a large finger towards the computer screen.

"Don't touch the screen! Grease is bad! I can't stand John Travolta!" Tony said as he pulled out some Windex and began to scrub at his computer screen.

"Divert yourself from this ignorant twittle! Look!" Tony looked up to Thor, almost insulted.

"...Twittle? Is that even a word?" Tony then felt a strong hand grip the top of his head and turned it until he was facing the computer screen, and there Tony saw them.

"What the hell are those?" There in the debris was what looked like two separate streaks going off in two different directions, one was a green streak, and the other a bright red one.

"Darest we find out? Gather your wits Lord Stark, there may be danger about in Tyrolese City!" Thor lifted Mjonlir into the air, "Avengers, Assemble!" Thor shouted at the top of his lounges, his magic hammer making his voice echo throughout the whole mansion.

Tony grabbed hold of Thors shoulder and swung him around. "What have I told you about using your magic voice echo thing in the mansion? If there are any more broken windows I'm taking your hammer away." Thors face suddenly turned crimson red.

"Should you lay a finger on Mjonlir you would be dead before you reached the floor, cur!"

"Hey!" Tony interjected quickly, "I looked that word up, don't call me that anymore..." Thors eyes and his anger never wavered, and Tony knew when to back down from a God with anger management issues. Tony took several steps back with his hands up in defeat, a look of defeat on his face.

"Okay, fine! I'll get my tin can on..." Tony said in haste as he made his way to the platform, and with the push of several buttons on the projected heads-up display, the mechanical goliath began its procedure to encase Tony Stark in his IronMan casing. Within seconds he was adorned in his shining gold and red armor, his blue chest piece shining brightly. His eyes turned a bright blue to indicate that his visuals were up and running. "I'm good to go." The mechanically distorted voice of IronMan said as he returned to the room to see Thor and HawkEye standing there in their outfits, Thor with his winged Helmet and red cape, and HawkEye with his purple mask and bow.

"Aww, look at that Thor, only one extra member..." IronMan said in a mock sadness.

"T'wil take but the three of us to undertake this challenge."Thor said with great bravado. IronMan turned to HawkEye.

"I'm taking a break after this mission. I'm bound to kill myself if I endure too much more of this." IronMans boots ignited and he took off into the sky through a door that opened up in the roof of the mansion.

"Grab hold my friend!" Thor said as he offered his hand to HawkEye. HawkEye took Thors hand as Thor swung Hawkeye around his back and took off through the roof as the door shut closed behind him.

...

Superman shifted in the rock and debris that covered him. He pushed up on the plate of led that Lex had reinforced his walls with to keep him from seeing in; he took a deep breath as he pushed the plate off of him. Clark felt the rays of the sun hit him and instantly begin to recharge him. Yet something felt different.

Clark rose to his feet and looked around to see the lush green field that lay before him. He wondered where he was, and how he had gotten there. Suddenly he could hear the familiar sound of a personal jet propulsion system. Using his telescopic vision he scanned the sky until he saw the bright gold and crimson red armor plated being soaring through the air. Only one person knew how to make armor like that...

Clark took off into the sky, and in moments he collided into the armored man and took him down into the ground, crashing into the green plain. "Gah, what the hell are you doing?" IronMan said as he struggled in Supermans grasp.

"Where's Luthor?" Superman shouted, anger taking hold of him as he remembered the sight of Kara, her face so bloody and bruised that he couldn't recognize her facial features...

"Luthor? You mean Martin Luther King?" Superman slammed IronMan into the ground with such force that Tony Stark later made the comparison to being a live sardine shaken around in a can.

"Don't play games with me! Where is he?" Superman said with ferocity in his voice as he was suddenly struck from the back by a well placed lightening bolt, being tossed several feet from IronMan.

"Keep thy filthy paws off of the companion of The Almighty Thor, mongrel!" Thor shouted as he clasped Mjonlir in his hand; IronMan rose to his feet as HawkEye ran up with his bow drawn, taking point beside IronMan.

Superman rose from the ground, anger swirling in him. More of Luthors Meta-humans? It didn't matter; they were going to tell him where Lex was. Superman took off from his spot, and as he did Thor swung his hammer around in his hand. "Feel the might of Mjonlir!" Thor shouted as another lightening bolt exploded from his hammer, colliding with Superman and sending him flying into a nearby rock face, embedding him into it.

Thor fell to his knees and used his hammer to keep himself up. He had put a lot of energy into that attack since the first one seemed to have no effect. Thor collected himself and rose to his feet and went to investigate his opponent, he found the blue and red clad assailant unconscious in the rubble.

"Where do you think he came from?" IronMan said as he and HawkEye came up beside Thor.

"I am unsure. I do believe It may be responsible for the explosion... We must make haste back to the Keep before this curr regains his senses." Thor quickly scooped up Superman and took off into the sky.

"Huh, and he just left you here to walk back." IronMan said as he turned to HawkEye, who had a disbelieving look on his face.

"You wouldn't..." Though HawkEye couldn't see his face, he could feel the grin that must have been forming across Tony's face.

"Wouldn't I?" IronMans jets kicked in and in a moment he was taking off into the sky, waving back to HawkEye as he went.

As HawkEye watched IronMan fly off into the distance, he pulled out a cell phone from his pocket and pressed number two on his speed dial. He waited through two rings before the phone was answered. "Hey Natasha, can you give me a lift? Awesome. I'm just outside Tyrolese City. Oh yah? That's convenient, see you in a few." HawkEye put his cell phone away and then took out a pack of gum and began wait for the Russian SHIELD agent to pick him up.

((They found Superman; but where is Lex? Is he free to run about the Marvel Universe? If so, who would he possibly team up with? Will HawkEye get back to the Mansion? Who will Thor call a 'curr' next? Find out by pressing the button for the next chapter!))