Happy New Year, and welcome one and all, to the studio where the magic can happen, even at the holidays! This. Is. The Studio of lyokoMARVELanime! And now, here's your host, the man himself, lyokoMARVELanime!
[audience roaring applause]
AN: Hey, everyone, and welcome to another tale of suspense and adventure, more so on the latter than the former, and I'm really hoping you guys all like this one, because this is the first time I've ever done a holiday one-shot, and not only that, but it's taking place at a future point in the story line of the Code Avengers Series.
Aelita: Meaning we should probably expect a few things to be revealed that haven't been revealed yet, right?
AN: Pretty much, yeah.
Ulrich: And you're just going to willingly give all of that info away?
AN: Kinda unavoidable, really, with this little number, but what can ya do?
Hawkeye: I feel like we're all getting cheated with you doing this.
AN: Whaddya mean by that?
Iron Man: He's talking about how you're just giving away spoilers for one of your stories/series, and yet when we or any other cast member of your other stories do the same, you hit us with a some kind of stupid gag!
AN: First off, they're not stupid. They're funny, usually. Second, come on guys! It's New Year's! lighten up and have a little fun! I clearly am. Btw, why's Hawkeye here? He's not even in this story.
Wasp: Well this is taking place in the Code Avengers series' timeline, so it's to be expected that a lot of us would be here.
AN: Fair enough. So anyways, I'll give a few more details on some of the things that you all may be curious about in the ending note of this story, but for now, let me just give you a quick rundown. The story behind this one-shot is heavily based on the plot for the episode "New Year's Resolution" from season 4 of Avengers Assemble, which was retitled as Avengers Secret Wars by that time, so expect a lot of similarities there, but there are quite a few twists that you may find quite exciting.
Captain America: So that's why it's called "Code Resolution". I was worried that you were calling it that because it was expected to be the final story in the series.
AN: Pfft! Yeah right. This series is not going to be ending any time too soon. For now though, let's get this show on the road and assemble for some holiday action.
So welcome ladies and gentlemen to my first ever, holiday one-shot, and a special look into the future of the Code Avengers series!
[audience applause]
WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS MENTIONS AND REFERENCES TO EVENTS, CHARACTERS, AND PLACES THAT HAVE YET TO HAPPEN OR APPEAR IN THE CODE AVENGERS SERIES, ALONG WITH VARIOUS OTHER MENTIONINGS OF EVENTS THAT HAVE YET TO UNFOLD. DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO HAVE ANY OF THESE SURPRISES RUINED, OR JUST HAVE NOT READ THE CODE AVENGERS SERIES AS A WHOLE BEFORE NOW. YOU HAVE BEEN SPOILER WARNED.
Okay, so since you're still reading all of this, even after that last spoiler warning, I'm guessing you really want to see what happens, or your curiosity got the better of you, so...
I do not own anything from any of either the Code Lyoko or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.
Code Resolution: A Code Avengers Holiday Special
Location: Code Multiverse Marvel Dimension, New York 1949
The entire city of New York had never seen more excitement, even on New Year's Eve, because this year, everyone was ecstatic for the end of a decade. Not that you could blame them. After all the hardships and trials that had been dealt out to the world in the Forties, everyone was of the shared opinion that the 1950 was going to be the decade that began a new era for the world. As such, everyone in New York was celebrating the New Year's to their heart's content and more, in every way imaginable. Folks were throwing parties, chugging drinks with friends, rocking out in the clubs, gathering in Times Square for the big moment when midnight came around, and so much more. It did not matter if they way you celebrated was conventional or not, because tonight was going to be the start of new beginnings. Of course for some, that was turning out to be a bit harder to reach, such as a particular pair that was racing through the streets in a very fancy car, while agents from what remained of HYDRA tried to get the jump on them.
"HYDRA should know by now; never mess with a Stark," the driver of the car gloated as he swerved through traffic, throwing off the latest pair of HYDRA agents off of his car. Decked out in a snazzy, white suit, and sporting his signature mustache, Howard Stark could only grin at the sight of another pair of enemy agents getting thrown to the side by his driving skills, and chuckled, "Always wondered what Mary's top speed was."
"Really, Howard," the billionaire bachelor's companion deadpanned, drawing Howard's attention to his partner and long-time friend. Decked out in a simple, blue business suit, and the red hat that was quickly becoming iconic for her, Peggy Carter had become even more of a force to be reckoned with after World War II had ended. Sure, some may have known her better as Captain America's girlfriend, despite the fact that the two had never even had a date before the captain's untimely demise, but Howard liked to think that more people remembered her better as a founder of the new peace-keeping organization, SHIELD, and if that was not the case, then it would be someday soon.
Peggy quickly proved her metal once again by knocking a HYDRA agent that tried to grab her off with a single punch as she sighed and continued what she was saying before the idiot terrorist had tried to pull her out of the vehicle. "You named your car after a girlfriend?"
"Ex-girlfriend," Howard corrected while continuing to weave through traffic at speeds that were now definitely well beyond the speed limit. "But point taken, Special Agent Carter. I'll rename the car after we deliver the package in the trunk." Out of the corner of his eye, Howard could see Peggy rolling her eyes at him, proving that was not why she had spoken up about his naming of the car, but they were both quickly distracted from their small talk when another pair of HYDRA goons dropped down from the bridge above them. "If we deliver the package in the trunk," Howard immediately corrected.
"You need a ride across town? Take a cab," Peggy told the HYDRA goons as she stood up in the still moving vehicle and drew her side arm: an experimental energy pistol that Howard had recently invented. Sure, Peggy preferred guns that did need to be plugged into a portable power generator like the one that was clipped to the back of her belt, but she could not deny the effectiveness of this pistol, especially not when it could blow something or someone away almost as effectively as HYDRA's old energy weapons. At least, Peggy's weapon should have blasted the agents away, but when she fired the gun, all it ended up doing was blowing her target's head clean off, revealing the mechanical parts inside, and all the while, the machine man was still standing, at least for a few seconds. Peggy was incredibly shocked to see that they had apparently been attacked by a robot, and when she turned to face the HYDRA agent on the back of the car, she gasped in shock when his face melted away to reveal one that could have passed as a metal replication of Red Skull's head.
"These aren't your run-of-the-mill HYDRA agents," Peggy commented before she was forced to push Howard out of the way to avoid the laser blast that the robot just fired at them from its eyes!
Howard lost control for a moment or two, but quickly managed to get them moving in as steady of a straight line as one could manage while undergoing defensive driving. That left Peggy to deal with their mechanical friend, and the English woman had no problem with doing so. Thinking quickly, Peggy immediately ripped off one of the car's rearview mirrors, and used it to deflect the next laser blast the robot fired right back at the machine, causing it to lose an arm, and almost end up completely split in two. Unlike the first one, this robot managed to grab hold of the car before it fell off, and from the look of things, that was not good news for Peggy and Howard, beyond just the obvious. Just as Peggy was about to draw her weapon again, she saw the robot begin sparking and glowing with a strange, electrical energy, and no matter how advanced the technology may or may not be that could only have meant one thing.
"Howard, it's about to blow," Peggy shouted.
When Howard look back, it was just in time to see the robot glowing even brighter with the strange purple energy, and he knew that there was no time for him and Peggy to jump clear before the robot went up in smoke, along with his car. With no other option, Howard braced himself for the impending end, seeing his life flash before his eyes as he did, and suddenly finding himself overcome with a feeling of emptiness. Despite what some people may think, Howard did sometimes consider settling down and starting a family, if for no other reason than to make sure his legacy was never tainted by anyone who would use his company and inventions for personal gain or to harm others, but he was more than a little nervous about getting close to someone like that. Seeing how torn up Peggy had become after losing Steve Rogers had not helped matters either, but now, Howard could not help but wonder if he had wasted his chances.
Any other thoughts on regrets or things that could have been would be left unknown, but not for the reasons that one would think. When the energy the robot was giving off finally enveloped the car, there was no explosion, or fiery inferno of death, but then again, there was no trace of the car or its occupants either when it finally faded. It was almost as if they had all just disappeared into thin air. Anyone who saw this would have been left rather baffled by the sight, not sure what to think, while others who had seen the lights in the distance merely shrugged it off as someone's way of celebrating the coming New Year before continuing on with what they were doing. Either way, none of them could have predicted what had really happened to Howard, Peggy, and the mechanical menace that had been attacking them just now.
Location: Code Multiverse Lyoko Dimension, Unknown Place, Late 1990s
Even if anyone did know about this underground laboratory, they still would not be able to hear the alarms that were blaring at the moment. The people inside were a different story, but any headaches that the irritating noise was giving them was just a small distraction for the security teams. One group consisted of intimidating men and women in black suits, which would give off the impression that they were government agents to anyone who did not know any better, but it was the second group that would give one pause. This second group consisted of several individuals that were clad in full body, black suits that had bluish-green circuit lines running all along them, with only a single circle on the head to indicate that there was someone inside looking out of the body suit. What was even more frightening was how they seemed to melt into and move along the floors and walls, almost like they were not even human, but some would argue that the black swords that they seemed to generate from their hands were far more intimidating. These Ninjas, as many of the people who worked with this group called them, were actually just avatars that people operated from a control center, and normally, they would only appear in a digital battlefield, but today, the leader of this strange group had seen fit to materialize these supposedly unbeatable warriors into the real world. Given the reason why the alarms were going off right now, no one could really blame him for that, because they were going to need all the fighting strength one could get to subdue the person responsible for the alert.
One of the men in black quickly discovered this when someone jumped from the shadows and knocked him out, flipping over his back before firing their weapon at his partner. When the weapon discharged, it did not fire a bullet, but an energy bolt that immediately stunned the second agent into unconsciousness, leaving the assailant with little to worry about as they threw the first agent out of sight. The figure quickly ran over to hide the second agent's unconscious body, but they were quickly jumping back when a black blade suddenly flew past them, coming a hair's breath away from impaling the figure. The figure turned and let a low growl as they leveled their gaze on the Ninja responsible for the thrown sword, and quickly turned their gun on said enemy, firing several shots at once. The Ninja managed to deflect all of the blasts, but as a result, they did not think to keep an eye on the figure, and as a result, the individual had seemed to simply vanish from view when the shower of laser bolts had finally ceased. The Ninja slowly crept forward, its operator likely considering moving it into the walls in order to better search while keeping the element of surprise, before a new shower of laser bolts shot through the Ninja, breaking it down into pixels when they struck its figure.
The figure then stepped out of the shadows again, with the faint lights allowing something of a silhouette to be seen now, but only just enough for one to see that the person was a woman in some type of long coat with light-colored hair, and the mystery woman then turned to race down the hallway. In her rush, she did not notice the first agent she attacked had started to stir, and then tapped his earpiece so that he could report in. "The prisoner is in D-Wing, making her way for one of the side exits. Be advised, she is armed, and has already taken out an R.T.S.A. Also need medical assistance for another agent at my location."
Even the woman had heard the captor reporting in to his boss, she would not have let it deter her from her chosen course of action. She was getting out of this place tonight, no matter what it took or who she had to go through. These people have already kept her away from her family for far too long, all the while continuing to hunt for them while using her to "assist" them in their endeavors, usually against her will, as the various lab tables she had been strapped to while they treated her like some kind of lab rat could attest. Sure, she could understand the scientific curiosity, since she was something that was not entirely of this world, technically speaking, but there was still the fact that they had taken her against her will, and that she had been happy just leaving a peaceful, normal life before all of this. Now more than ever, she understood why her family had decided to hide away from the world, while her husband's secret project was necessary to keep their family safe. She just had to hope that he was done with all the work for said project by the time she saw him again, because there was no doubt that these people would be right behind her when she saw her family again.
Her thoughts about her reunion were brought to shrieking halt when several Ninjas suddenly rose up from the floor in front of her, while multiple, normal agents flooded into the halls from every other direction, effectively surrounding her and blocking all conventional exits. This would not have been a problem for the woman trying to escape from the lab, as she had a very unconventional way of escaping, but that would mean that she had been able to stop and really focus, and any move she made to do so would likely make it seem like she was giving up. That option was far from viable, because if these men dragged her back into the cell she was kept in, she would be under whatever type of dampener they had conjured up again, and she would not be able to use her unique talents to get anywhere that was outside of the cell or this building, so that was why she was racking her brain as hard she could to think of something else.
It was just when she was starting to consider the more daring and risky ideas that a new opportunity presented itself to her, in the form of her captor. The man bore an appearance that could be considered similar to that of the villain from the 1935 Bride of Frankenstein film, right from his curly, red hair to his lab coat and goggles, and the smirk he shot at her radiated with his arrogance and notions of his superiority. The mere sight of this man made her want to kill him slowly with any blunt weapon she could get her hands on, never mind the fact of how he was such a grievous insult to true scientists like her husband, but the one thing about this man that angered her the most was the plans he had in mind for her husband's brilliant work, and what he intended to do with any information he gained from having her as his captive.
"You really should give up, my dear," the man arrogantly told her. "You cannot escape, and even if you could, there's no way for you to get away, let alone anywhere for you to run."
"I'd say you'll forgive me for not taking your word for it, but that would imply that I was actually going to apologize to you for anything," the woman quipped in return, determined to keep him talking while she focused her thoughts, gathering her energy while she did.
Her ploy worked, as the man soon began a monologue on his intentions for this organization. "My dear, surely you must see the benefits that lie before us. Not just with you and your unique biology, but also with the work that your husband did while he was here, and I'm sure that any work he's done since leaving is just as impressive if not more so. I always knew that Schaeffer was a fool to think that we could actually keep the world safe without the program we developed, but to go so far as to develop a multi-agent system to destroy Project Carthage's greatest development…Well, at least we soon learned that part of it was because he wanted to keep you safe. Yes, your daughter factored in as well, but it was mostly you, since you do not technically exist here in this world. Though, after all of our careful examinations, I can't help but wonder if that would be thinking too small. Perhaps it's not just this world you don't exist in, but maybe not even this galaxy? Or am I thinking a little more grand than usual? Not that it matters either way, because soon, all of your secrets, and your husband's, will open the doors to a whole new realm of possibilities, which will put so much into the palm of my hand, that one would think that I was on the verge of gaining power over the entire world."
The woman's breath may have hitched a little on that last comment, but whether or not the madman noticed this did not matter, as she finally had just what she needed to get out, and she knew just where to direct herself off to: the one place that no one here in this world, or this universe had any chance of reaching without her. "Sorry, but you're not getting your hands on anything…because this is the last time you will ever so much as see a glimpse of me in person again!"
Her statement confused everyone a little until they all saw her body begin to glow with a faint aura of pinkish-red energy, and the mad scientist calling the shots immediately realized what she was doing. "No! NO! STOP HER," the man shouted, but it was already too late, as the glow around the woman suddenly became so bright that they all had to look away or risk being blinded for the rest of their lives. There was a sound of several things sparking and then exploding, and when the light finally died down again, they all looked to see that their prisoner was gone, along with the Ninjas, while several electrical systems had been clearly fried beyond recognition. "Damn it," the madman snapped. "Damn it all! And damn you and your family of monsters to hell Waldo Schaeffer!"
Everyone that was still conscious held varying degrees of hesitation when it came to approaching their boss at this point, which quickly became amplified when he started banging against the walls in his frustration, but one of them had to be brave enough to possibly take a fall, because there was something that their boss needed to know. "Um, sir…" a female agent finally said.
"WHAT," the mad scientist snapped, making everyone flinch a little. "Can't you see that Project Carthage is doomed now that we've likely lost her and Schaeffer?!"
"Actually Professor Tyrone, sir, the latter of those might not be true," the female agent revealed. That seemed to settle her boss's anger a little, and she quickly pressed on. "We've found him and his daughter. Their living in the woods of France, near a boarding school called Kadic Academy. He may be going by a different name, but there's no doubt that it's him and the girl."
As the agent said this, she produced a picture for her boss to see, and after snatching it away, Tyrone was immediately greeted to the sight of a man who looked far too much like his old colleague to be anyone but said colleague. Upon crumpling the picture in his hand, Tyrone barked out a new set of orders. "Get a team out there to bring them to me at once! As for the rest of you, find the woman! Search every inch of this place if you have to, but find her and get her back by any means necessary."
Several quick replies of "yes sir" and "understood" followed Tyrone's orders, as the agents all dispersed. Despite their best efforts though, they were never going to find the escaped prisoner, and none of them realized that their efforts to bring in Waldo Schaeffer were going to end up being just as fruitless from the moment that the dispatched team arrived on the doorsteps of the house called the Hermitage. Instead, they would just set several things in motion for a greater destiny to unfold.
Location: Code Multiverse Marvel Dimension, New York Present Day
Central Park was quiet, or at least as quiet as any part of New York could be on New Year's Eve, when a sudden explosion of pinkish-red light suddenly flashed outwards, depositing the woman Tyrone was targeting from its brilliance before fading away again, and once she had propped herself up on her knees, the woman was soon gasping for breath, feeling more than a little exhausted from the strain of using her teleportation powers to cross dimensions. It was by far the riskiest move she could have taken, and one that had likely guaranteed that she would never see her family again, given that it had taken her so many years to be able to use her powers this way again after the first time, but if it meant that she could keep the secrets within her out of Tyrone's hands, then it was well worth the sacrifice. She just had to hope her older sisters would be willing to welcome her back after all this time. At least, that was the concern she had before she finally glanced up and began taking in her surroundings.
"This…This definitely doesn't look like Attilan," the woman noted. Her ears then picked up on the sound of an approaching car engine, and she immediately dived to the side just in time to watch an older looking sports car barrel through the snow and trees, eventually throwing one of the passengers out, until it finally screeched to a halt before hitting a particularly large snow bank. "Definitely not Attilan," the woman deduced as she watched the driver lift himself up from the car as he looked to his companion.
"Peg, are you hurt," she heard the man shout, turning the woman's gaze to the car's passenger, and allowing her to see that said individual was a brown haired woman in a blue suit, who appeared none the worse for wear, despite the fact that she had nearly been caught in a serious car accident. "No. No, of course you're not," the man chuckled after a minute, indicating that he thought it was silly to ask that question. He then turned serious again as he asked, "Now, what was that? And how did we not get blown up?"
"Howard," Peg nervously called out in reply, her English accent clear as day while her gaze fixed on something up above them in the distance. "I don't think we're in 1949 anymore."
Turning to where the English woman was looking, the woman that had just evaded Tyrone also found herself left in awe at the sight of a large building that towered over all the rest, with a stylish, letter "A" shining brightly on the side near the top. Seeing all of this only served to put the woman on edge, as she immediately began thinking she was not as successful in getting away from Tyrone as she thought, and she quickly merged deeper into the shadows, waiting to see how things played out from here. She just knew that if these people held any significance, or were important enough, someone would be along eventually, and those would be the people that she would get her answers from. Just before she disappeared completely, one would have caught a brief flash of her pink hair, but only if they had been looking right at her, and they would also have noticed that it was very similar, if not exactly the same as the hair color of a certain, world famous superhero.
A few years ago, folks would have told you that if you wanted to see the Avengers, the best place to look would have been Avengers Mansion. That was before the team had temporarily disbanded and then came back together again in response to Red Skull resurfacing and forming a new team of villains called the Cabal, and one of the first things that Red Skull had done after coming out of hiding was destroying the original headquarters of the Avengers. Sure, it was a sad day for some of them, due in part to the fact that some members of the team did still come by from time to time, if for no other reason than to remember the good old days, or even so they could grab something from the mansion that they needed right away, but that did not mean that any of the Avengers were homeless. Add in the fact that this Cabal was clearly part of some bigger scheme, and Tony Stark had no problem finally unveiling his latest pet project: the new headquarters for Earth's mightiest heroes, Avengers Tower. While it did not have the same homey feel that the mansion possessed, it definitely did have something close to that in it, along with all kinds of incredible new and advanced technology that would prove very useful to the Avengers in the missions and battles that soon followed.
At the moment though, most of the Avengers were not in the tower, but instead, were out celebrating New Year's Eve in their own ways. Some of them were doing so with family that they had outside the team, others alongside their teammates, and the remaining members were just not celebrating it at all, but instead treating it like just another night. That last one mainly applied to members like Black Widow, who was currently on an assignment for SHIELD. You would think that the whole team would be out celebrating, but the truth was, there were in fact still four Avengers in the tower right now. One of those two was Tony Stark, alias the invincible Iron Man, with the other being Captain America, who had only just realized that Tony was still in the tower, hard at work. The last of those four was none other than the youngest founding Avengers, often known to most as the Lyoko Avengers, or simply by their old team name, the Lyoko Warriors: Ulrich Stern, the Sprint Samurai, and his adopted sister, Aelita Hopper Schaeffer, the Angel Guardian.
All four of these heroes had been through a lot, not just in the last couple of years, but in their entire lives too. Although, out of all of them, that definitely applied to Ulrich and Aelita the most. It was not that surprising, considering that they had been saving the world since they were in junior high school, but what most people did not know, was that Ulrich and Aelita were originally from another dimension; one where things like Stark Industries, Oscorp, and even a lot of the villains the Avengers and their friends/allies fought never existed, at least as far as either one of them knew. The reason why they now live in this dimension was because a few short years ago, their old foe, XANA, who they thought had been defeated, resurfaced and killed all their friends and loved ones, and what should have been a suicide attack to end the demonic artificial intelligence, actually led Ulrich and Aelita to get a second chance at life, and at being heroes. That chance led them to this dimension, and to finding a new family in the Avengers, both original and current. It had also led them to find other things in their new home, like finding love again, discovering that Aelita actually had family in this dimension, a small adventure or two that revealed that they were not actually the last Lyoko Warriors, and even into a tournament that would have decided the fate of all reality, itself, but at this point, they were considering it to be all par for the course.
At the moment, the two Lyoko Avengers, who were now in their early to mid twenties, give or take a year, were just enjoying the rare moment of peace and quiet in the tower to simply hang out with one another. Sure, they likely would have spent the New Year's with some of their surrogate family, but right now, they were more interested in just hanging out with each other more than anyone else. That did not stop Ulrich from bringing up the fact that Aelita could also be spending New Year's with someone other than him or the Avengers right now.
"Hey, how come Spidey's not here," Ulrich asked his adopted sister, who he had viewed as a sister even before said adoptive status. "I figured you'd want to be spending tonight with him more than anyone else."
"Sure, I would usually, but I'm already going to be spending the rest of my life with Peter. Right now, I'd just like to hang out with my brother, who I haven't really been around too much lately," Aelita shrugged in response, her face gaining a faint tint of pink to it while a radiant smile started to grow alongside it at the mention of the original wall-crawling hero, who had recently become her fiancé.
Ulrich just grinned at the sight of Aelita's obvious happiness, as he had seen that exact same expression countless times since he learned that Peter Parker had finally proposed to Aelita, and while an exact date had not been established yet, everyone in the hero community was still ecstatic and eagerly awaiting the day when Spider-Man and Angel Guardian finally tied the knot, even more so in the case of those who knew both heroes in and out of the suits. Still, it did not mean he was going to argue at least one part of Aelita's statement. "What're you talking about? We hang out all the time."
"Yeah, when we're saving the world or just on a mission, and I don't mean just with the Avengers," Aelita countered. "Even when we're just going on a stroll through the city, we end up stopping to fight some gang of crooks, or it's just some way to investigate a lead on some other bad guys. When was the last time the two of us really hung out together, and without the rest of the team, or some other group of heroes?"
He wanted to give a quick reply, but Ulrich could not help but pause and think about it when he realized that Aelita did have a point there. It did seem like it had been far too long since the two of them really spent time just being a normal brother and sister. Back in the glory days of the Lyoko Warriors, even if they were a secret from the rest of the world, they did at least have time to just be regular kids and hang out doing whatever came across their minds, and the same could be said during the years when the Avengers had first formed as well. Now though, especially in the more recent of times, they did not really seem to get any breaks between disasters or whatever other crisis was threatening the world, or at the very least, the city. Still, that did not mean Ulrich was going to let Aelita know that he could not think of anything, as he knew that there was something pretty recent, and letting her know that it had been a while would likely upset her a bit more.
Finally, Ulrich did manage to pull something from his memory, and said, "What about when you took me to see Attilan? Remember, when you insisted on letting me see more of where your mom had been born and lived before coming to our old dimension?"
"Ulrich, that was a month ago, and it was for Thanksgiving dinner with my family," Aelita deadpanned in correction. Upon seeing a defeated look on her brother's face, Aelita's expression quickly turned reassuring as she told him, "Hey, I'm not going to burst into tears just because we're not able to hang out as much as we used to, you know. I'm just glad that we can still hang out from time to time, with or without the rest of our friends, family, or the various explosions that seem follow from whatever disaster we come across. But that doesn't mean I don't still enjoy the more peaceful moments too."
Ulrich could not help but laugh a little at Aelita's attempt to cheer him up, and the pinkette was soon joining in, knowing that she had succeeded in doing just that. Their laughter carried on until they arrived in the lab where Tony was working, just as Steve had walked in. Now they knew that it was not unusual for the super soldier of World War II to be in the tower on New Year's, as Steve was more dedicated to his hero work than almost anyone else, save for Aelita's fiancé, but it was surprising to see Iron Man here when he would normally be out partying it up like the billionaire playboy the world knew him to be, at least by reputation. Everyone knew that he had a thing for Pepper Potts, and at this point, half of the people in their circle of friends, allies, and surrogate family members were expecting Pepper to get fed up with waiting and just propose to Tony herself. That would be far less surprising than seeing Tony hard at work on a night when just about everyone else in the world would be partying or enjoying themselves like they did not have a care in the world.
Apparently, Captain America shared their sentiments on Tony's presence, as he had commented on it before either Lyoko Avenger could start to think of some clever way to voice their surprise. "I'm surprised to you here, Tony. New Year's Eve. Figured you'd be out at a party, or on a date, or something," Steve stated.
"Actually, I'm trying to avoid casual dates these days. Figured it was high time I showed Pepper I was committed to making our relationship work," Tony admitted.
"You only just recently figured that you should do that," Ulrich teased.
"Very funny, Dash Ninja," Tony retorted, knowing that Ulrich would back off after hearing him use that name. Ulrich did not really get too upset when people got his name wrong these days, but he did know that when his friends used it in a conversation, it was just to tease him or tell him to watch it, so he quickly raised his hands in playful surrender. Tony then got serious again, turned to do make some adjustments on one of his Iron Man helmets, and said, "To be honest, I used to love New Year's Eve, you guys. All that wild, nonstop partying until the break of dawn, but then I realized something."
"That there's more to life than nonstop partying," Aelita guessed.
"What? No. Uh, are you crazy," Tony replied with a smile, his voice showing how he felt like he just heard something ridiculous. He ignored the subsequent eye-roll from his three friends as he explained, "No, I realized that every night for me is nonstop partying, because I'm me. I can party every other night of the year, but tonight I'm close to a breakthrough on the…"
"Wait, wait, wait," Ulrich interrupted. "So, instead of partying, like you do every other night of the year, you've decided that you should spend New Year's Eve working?" He then turned to Cap and said, "If you tell me that you suddenly decided that you should party like it was your last day alive with Wanda or something, I will call the rest of the team and tell them that you and Tony have switched bodies."
"Please don't even joke about that. I still have a few nightmares from the last time when the Avengers went through a body-swap," Aelita pleaded. Sure, she had not ended up in a guy's body like Black Widow had, but she did still have memories about how tough it was being in Natasha's body, and not having any of her usual abilities. Never mind how tight the Russian redhead's body suit was, or how her hair seemed to fall into her face every five seconds.
The two's commentary pulled a round of laughter from the two older heroes, and the Lyoko Avengers would have joined in a few seconds later had the tower's alarm not suddenly started going off. Tony immediately turned the holo-screen that had sprung to life, and upon seeing the readouts, he reported, "Picking up a couple of energy signatures. Someone in Central Park is using unauthorized Stark technology. And it looks like there's also something that would indicate interdimensional travel, but nothing that the system recognizes, so I doubt it's anyone we know, or that it could be any of your old pals, Ulrich, Aelita."
Ulrich immediately slapped the dial on his wrist watch, transforming into his heroic alter ego of Sprint Samurai in a flash of light when he did, and stated, "I'll run ahead and scout out whatever may have caused that interdimensional energy. Meet you guys at the source of your mystery Stark tech."
Tony had barely gotten halfway through his responding nod before Ulrich disappeared from the room in a flash of gold, and Aelita was soon changing into Angel Guardian as well, while Captain America grabbed his helmet and shield so that he could head out as well. "Being an Avenger—always a nonstop party," Steve grinned.
"You can say that again," Aelita agreed. She was a little sad that her quiet time with her brother had come to an end, but she did not mind it too much. Like Captain America said, being an Avenger was always a nonstop party in its own way. She just glad that she and her surrogate family were always properly dressed for said party, or could get dressed for it quickly enough.
While the three Avengers had all arrived at the park at the same time, Aelita had opted to help her brother with locating the source of the interdimensional energy, having become something of an expert on stuff from other dimensions after all the experiences she and Ulrich had with such things now. That left Iron Man and Captain America to investigate the unauthorized Stark tech, and they did not have to go too far before they found the probable source of that signal. The surprising thing was that it did not look like it could have been something involved with Stark tech, be it in general, or even the kind that they were used to in this day and age.
"Car crash," Iron Man noted as he scanned the old model sports car with a slightly smoking engine. "But that wouldn't cause those energy readings."
"Whoa! Whoa! I don't know what's going on here, but I know I'll feel a lot better if you two in the costumes take few steps back," a new voice suddenly shouted, prompting Iron Man to spin around with repulsors ready, and Captain America to pull his shield onto his arm as he faced the speaker too, while the latter noted that the voice sounded very familiar. When he did come face to face with the person who had called out to him, Steve's eyes widened by an impressive margin at who was standing before them, and at the woman who stepped out from behind a tree with her side arm trained on both him and Tony.
A moment later though, the woman was also gaping in shock, and slowly lowered her side arm as she whispered, "Steve?"
"Peggy," Cap barely managed to ask, prompting Peggy's companion to lower his own weapon a little too.
"Captain America," questioned the man who looked so much like Tony to the point that he could only be one person.
"Howard," Steve replied in kind, prompting Iron Man to open his helmet's mask.
"Dad," Tony gasped.
"'Dad,'" Howard repeated, exchanging a confused look with Peggy a second later.
"How is this…" Cap started to ask as he slowly approached his two old friends from the Forties.
"Possible," Peggy finished as she met Steve half way, her eyes still wide in disbelief at what she was seeing.
The two were quickly jilted out of their shock when both Starks suddenly shouted, "This is some kind of trick!"
"My dad died a long time ago, so you must be a doppelganger or a shape-shifter," Tony reasoned, raising his repulsor towards Howard while his helmet snapped closed again. "Drop the weapon now, pops." Howard was quick to raise his own weapon towards Iron Man in response, despite any cries from Captain America for the two to hold their fire. Even so, neither Stark let loose a single shot on the other, but it was pretty obvious that Tony was the only one who was not too quick to fire his blast, since Howard was still unaware of just who Tony was. "Don't want to hurt you. Not before I find out who you really are," Tony admitted. He then glanced over to the crashed car, and quickly took note of the familiar license plate on the rear bumper. "And using my dad's license plate number. Huh! Whoever you are, you did your research."
"'Stark1' has always been me," Howard immediately retorted, his finger slowly starting to squeeze the trigger until Peggy and Cap stepped between him and the armored hero.
"Hold your fire," Peggy shouted to her partner.
"Both of you, stand down," Captain America shouted. He then reached up and pulled off his helmet, allowing all to see his face, and finally prompting Howard to lower his weapon completely.
"Steve Rogers! It's really you," Howard gasped, hardly believing his eyes.
Steve just held Howard's gaze for a minute before he turned to his fellow Avenger and said, "Tony, I knew your dad, and this is really him. This is Howard Stark." When he saw Iron Man lower his arm, Steve took that as his cue to turn back to the first Stark that he had ever worked alongside of, and explained, "Howard, Iron Man is Tony Stark. He's your son."
That left both Starks shell-shocked, a fact that was further reinforced when Iron Man's mask slid open once again. It was not every day that one encounters their son before they were even born, or their long-dead father, so anyone could understand why both Stark men were left completely speechless. If anyone of their friends had seen this, they would likely have made some sort of smart remark at either Tony or Howard's expense, but then again, most of them would likely also know that now was not the best time. Eventually, Tony did regain his voice and finally asked his father the only question he could think of. "How did you get here?"
"I wish I could tell you. I don't remember anything," Howard revealed with a shrug. "Try as I can, the last ten, twelve hours are a blank."
"Something affected our memories," Peggy stated, revealing that she could not remember anything about that same time period either. She then glanced over to what appeared to be the lower half of a humanoid robot that was lying near Howard's car and added, "But if I'm a betting woman, odds are good it has something to do with this."
Iron Man was about to approach the robot when a new voice suddenly shouted, "I'll take those odds, and say that this whole thing is just a pretty little sideshow that your boss has cooked up to distract me. Too bad it's not going to work!"
None of the four recognized the person speaking just then, but they could all tell that whoever it was, the person was a woman. Not only that, but from her tone, it was also clear that she was very agitated, and likely to do something very rash. That guess was definitely solid, because a second later, Iron Man was suddenly hit by an energy blast of some kind, and Cap was soon ducking behind his shield when several more came flying out from another position. Peggy and Howard both dove for cover as well drawing their pistols as they did, but they were not expecting their attacker to suddenly spring out of the shadows from behind them. Peggy ended up being knocked away by the mystery assailant. When Iron Man heard his dad cry out in surprise, he immediately turned to where he believed his father to be, and saw Howard being held at gun point by their mystery woman. Even though he could not really see the woman's face entirely, he could still see enough to note that she was fixing them all with a very heated glare, but the most eye-catching thing about her was the color of her hair. He barely even needed to glance over at Steve to know that Captain America had noticed that the woman's hair was almost the exact same color as Aelita's, but honestly, they were more concerned with the fact that she was currently holding the time-displaced Howard Stark hostage.
"Now, I'm going to make this simple, whatever you did to trap me in this little…simulation or whatever this is, you're going to undo it, and then let me leave," the woman threatened. "Don't think for a second I won't blast this son-of-a-bitch's head off if it'll prove to Tyrone that I'm not going to let him stop me from leaving."
"Easy lady, just calm down," Tony tried to reassure her, powering down his repulsors just to show that he was not going to try anything rash. "We don't know anyone named Tyrone, and nothing here is a simulation of any kind."
"Right, and I'm supposed to believe that," the woman snarled in retort. As a result, she did not notice the gold blur that was quickly approaching her from behind, until it was too late.
Peggy and Howard were not entirely sure what had happened next, but all they knew was that they had blinked and Howard was suddenly pulled out of harm's way. A second later, the woman appeared to have been kicked back by an unseen force, and then had a boot pinned against her stomach to keep her down while a saber was held at her throat. In response to the sword that was shoved into her face, the woman immediately glared upwards at the smirking face of Sprint Samurai, who could not help but say, "Guess you forgot to count on the chance that the Avengers' resident speedster may be close by."
"Where did he come from," Howard asked as he stared at the young man that just saved his life.
"That's a bit of a long story," Steve replied. He was not really sure if he could summarize Ulrich's tale any other way at the moment.
Ulrich had to smirk a little more in reply to Cap's statement, but he also ended up letting his guard down long enough for the woman he was keeping pinned to kick his legs out from under him, making him drop his saber when he fell. The woman then sprang to her feet and retrieved her previously dropped weapon, which she immediately fired on Ulrich, just as he was starting to stand. What came next surprised both Ulrich and his teammates, and the energy blast from the pistol not only sent him flying back, but also managed to get through his suit's protection, as one could easily guess by how his suit seemed to fizzle in and out of being like a bad television picture. Captain America was instantly at his young friend's side to make sure Ulrich was okay, and breathed a sigh of relief when Ulrich silently reassured him that he was. All the same, it did not stop Ulrich from muttering out something that surprised Steve a little.
"That almost felt like one of Sis's energy fields," Ulrich had groaned.
Before anyone could really contemplate Sprint Samurai's words, another energy blast came down from above, and everyone immediately looked upwards just in time to see Angel Guardian descending down from the sky to stand between the two sides of the fight. Aelita then sprang up with an energy field ready to fire at the person who had dared to hurt her adoptive brother, but when she saw the woman's face, she immediately faltered in said retaliation, while a gasp escaped from her mouth. By the time Aelita's energy field had completely vanished from her palm, her eyes had become as wide as dinner plates, while one hand had found its way to her mouth in an attempt to better cover her shocked visage, for what little good it did. No one was really sure what to make of Aelita's sudden surprise, but Howard could not help but notice more than a few similarities between the pinkette and the woman who had just been holding him hostage.
"Are those two sisters or something? And what's the story on her anyway," Howard whispered to Tony.
"No, they're not sisters. At least, not as far as I know," Tony quietly replied. "As for her story…well, it's an even longer one than Sprint Samurai's."
Howard and Peggy looked like they were going to comment on Tony's reply, until Aelita said something that shocked everyone there into silence, including them. "M…Mom?"
The silence in the air was so thick at that point you could have cut it with a knife, and no one was more shocked by this sudden exclamation than the pink haired woman holding Aelita and her friends at gun point. Her shock was so palpable that she had even lowered her weapon a little as she stared at Aelita in confusion, but she still managed to keep it somewhat level with the group before her, even as she asked, "I beg your pardon?"
Right from the moment she heard the woman speak, all doubt had left Aelita's mind, and she was immediately smiling with a joy that none of her fellow Avengers had seen before, as she practically cheered, "Mom…It's you! It's really you!"
Aelita likely would have rushed over and enveloped the woman in a tight hug, had she not suddenly snapped her gun up at Aelita once again, and growled, "Take another step and you'll see just how 'real' I am."
If this had rattled Aelita any, she did not show it by too much. Instead, she held her ground, and looked at the woman she believed to be her mother and tried to explain. "Mom, I know that you're probably scared and confused, but you don't need to worry. What you're seeing and hearing is all the truth. Just like the fact that I'm your daughter is true. I am Aelita."
"What," the woman gasped in disbelief, the arm holding her weapon faltering a little more than before, even as she tried to give some reasonable arguments against Aelita's claims. "No that's…That's impossible. I may not have seen my daughter in a few years, but I know it hasn't been so long that she's had time to already become a young woman. Aelita should be just a pre-teen at most. There's no way that you could be her!"
"Except that I am her," Aelita immediately reasoned. She then held up the arm she wore her fancy watch on, tapped said device, and the others all gasped in shock as she transformed from her hero attire, and into the pink shirt, blue vest, black skirt, black socks, and pink and black shoes of her civilian attire, while her eyes changed from hazel to their normal green. "Look at me, Mom. I'm Aelita, your daughter. Yours and Waldo Franz Schaeffer's. I know all about Dad's supercomputer, his lab, and Lyoko. Dad virtualized us both onto Lyoko when the men in black who took you tracked us to the Hermitage, and I spent the next ten years or so inside of the virtual world until someone found the supercomputer, turned it back on, and helped me to fight and destroy XANA. We defeated him a few years ago before my adoptive brother and I were sent into this dimension, your home dimension, and we've been fighting as the heroes we were born to be ever since."
With every word that Aelita spoke, the woman's conviction had faltered a little more, until finally, her arm had dropped to her side, while her weapon fell into the snow with a soft thud. A few tense seconds later, the others could hear the mystery woman muttering to herself as she slowly approached Aelita, raising a hand to the younger pinkette's face as she did. When her palm finally touched Aelita's cheek, she took a few seconds to run her hand through the girl's hair, as if to confirm that she was real. After a few seconds of this, everyone could see the beginnings of tears start to form in the older woman's eyes, even as she whispered, "Aelita?" The pinkette in question just nodded in reply with a soft smile, and that was what finally broke the dam, as one Anthea Hopper Schaeffer immediately wrapped the girl into her arms, letting her tears soak Aelita's shoulder as she quietly cheered, "It is you! My little girl! Oh, my sweet, darling little angel!"
Aelita could only smile in return while tears of joy ran freely from her eyes, even as she embraced her mother as tightly as she could in return. The whole thing was literally a dream come true for Aelita, as she had many nights where this very scenario had played out in her subconscious. Granted, there were no time-displaced individuals in any of those dreams, and quite a few of them did include her fellow Lyoko Warriors and her father as well, but Aelita was most definitely not complaining about any of that, nor did she even care. All that mattered to her right now was that her mother was here, alive and well, and she could feel the warmth that was distinctly that of her mother filling her entire body the longer the woman held onto her, prompting her to make sure that she continued to hug Anthea a little tighter with every second that passed, if for no other reason than to reassure herself that none of this was a dream.
While the teary reunion was going on, the other Avengers could only look on with varying degrees of happiness for their resident pink princess. For as long as any of the team could remember, Aelita had seemed to have suffered far more than anyone like her should have, so to see her finally get a happy ending like this was always practically a cause for celebration. The only difference between now and any time before was that there was no greater source of joy than Aelita finally being reunited with her long lost mother, and right now, that is exactly what was happening, right before their eyes. Sure, Aelita had come to consider both the Lyoko Warriors and later the Avengers as her family, but nothing could ever truly replace the family you were born into, and whose blood ran through your veins. That did not detract from the one big point that seemed to stand out to everyone who knew Aelita's full story, especially in regards to both of her parents, but only one of the Avengers was able to break up the happy reunion in order to ask it.
"How is this even possible," Iron Man finally questioned. "Aelita, I thought your mother had disappeared years ago, so how is she here now?"
"And why does it look like she hasn't aged all that much since she disappeared, at least if we were to go by the few photos you had ever managed to find of her," Ulrich pointed out.
Hearing her friends' questions prompted Aelita to finally pull back from her mother, albeit with a great deal of hesitance, and wipe her eyes a bit in order to clear away any remaining traces of tears so she could look to her mother with a smile that just would not fade and say, "That's what I would like to know, along with at least a billion other things. I have so many questions for you."
Anthea just smiled kindly in return, a far cry from the vicious countenance she held just a moment ago, and replied, "You can ask me anything you want, sweetie. I promise, I'll tell you everything that I can."
"Great, but maybe we should have all of these conversations back at Avengers Tower. We've still got another situation to deal with," Captain America reminded everyone, lifting up the robot legs that Peggy had indicated earlier.
"Right," Aelita nodded in reply, getting her game face back on again. Or at least she started to, until she thought of something else, and quickly pulled her mother over to one particular teammate of hers. "But first, Mom, I'd like you to meet the man who's been like a brother to me, even before he became my adoptive brother: Ulrich Stern."
Ulrich was understandably nervous, considering that he was now being formally introduced to a woman he had just been holding at saber-point, but he managed to quell his nerves as best as he could, and said, "It's an honor, Mrs. Schaeffer, and sorry about…you know…"
"Don't worry. I'm just as much at fault for that as you were," Anthea reassured the young man, her smile showing that she knew what he was apologizing for. "And more importantly, I think I owe you a lot of thanks for looking out for my daughter for so long, especially if she had considered you a brother before your family adopted her."
Ulrich could not help but snort a little in response as he replied, "Believe me, keeping her safe has always been far from easy, and to be honest, there are just as many times when Aelita was the one looking out for me. Doesn't mean I wouldn't do it all over again in a heartbeat, though."
Aelita smiled in response to Ulrich, glad to see that he and her mom were getting along despite their initial meeting, and at that point, all further conversation was officially put on hold so that they could all get back to Avengers Tower, with Aelita carrying her mother and Peggy, while Iron Man flew Cap and his dad to the tower, and Ulrich just followed with his super speed. There were still a few mysteries that needed to be solved after all.
A short while later saw Tony using a small device to scan his father and Peggy with Steve and Ulrich watching from the side as they made sure that the weird robot legs did not suddenly become active for some reason, while Aelita was over in the main lounge area of the tower filling her mother in on everything that Anthea had missed in her daughter's life. Needless to say, Ulrich was sure that Aelita had likely just summarized a lot of the events that had taken place during the days of the Lyoko Warriors so that she could skip ahead to the stuff that they had been through since coming to this dimension and helping to form the Avengers. He could not blame her if that was the case, because while those old days of fighting XANA on Lyoko were not entirely unpleasant, they did end on quite a few sad notes that Aelita was still not too fond of remembering, even if she had moved past a great deal of it. Besides, there were a lot of things that had happened to them here that Anthea would probably consider to be a little more important than their days of fighting in a virtual universe. One such example would be what was happening right now as Tony finished the scans of his father.
"Yep, there it is," Tony announced. "I'm picking up residual neutrino energy readings."
"Well, of course you are," Howard grinned like that should have been obvious. His posturing was quickly abolished though when he asked, "What are those?"
"They're usually associated with time travel," Tony replied as simply as he could while turning to scan Peggy, just to be sure, making the English woman back up a little out of nervousness. A fact that had not escaped Steve's notice, even without the way his gaze seemed to wander over to Peggy every few seconds. "You must've come through some sort of portal."
"Yeah," Howard breathed in awe, obviously fascinated by such a major technological advancement, and otherwise oblivious to his friends' outward displays of discomfort and worry. "Well, tell me about time travel. Why can't I remember it?"
"That's what I'd like to know too," Ulrich stated. "I mean, when Aelita and I went to the future that one time, or one version of the future, we didn't lose our memories, and not to mention you and the others seemed to remember what happened during that whole New Avengers thing a few years ago."
"Well that's probably because it was a different process for both you guys and us," Tony shrugged in response, before he tapped a control on his device, bringing up a holo-display of the readings he was picking up for everyone to see, startling Peggy a little when he did. "Even if it wasn't, in theory, if a time traveler receives a high enough dose of subchronal energy, it could wipe a few hours of memory."
That last bit must have been what did it for Peggy's limits on all of this strangeness, because she hurriedly left the room shortly after that. Steve was quick to follow after her, with Ulrich watching the captain carefully as he went, and as a result, the Lyoko samurai was left alone with the two Starks, and not at a time when he would have preferred. "So I'm actually gonna settle down someday and have a kid. Heh, I thought I'd be a bachelor for life," Howard chuckled with a grin. He then glanced around a little bit, finding a spare Iron Man mask to study when he asked, "Who's your mom? I-is it, uh…"
"Please stop," Tony begged. "You haven't met her yet, and I really don't want to have this conversation with my dad."
Ulrich definitely felt an awkward air falling into the room at that point, and could not help but feel sorry for how Tony must feel right then. Though it was not to the point where he felt like he had to stick around. "You know, maybe there's something else that could help us to make sense of everything back at the park," Ulrich started to say, clearly making an opening for him to get away from the two Starks. "So…I'm gonna go and…see if I can find…anything."
"Ulrich Stern, don't you dare," Tony started to whisper in warning, only for Ulrich to blast out of the room in a flash of gold and a gust of wind that caused a few papers to be scattered about the room. "I hate it when he does that."
Howard could not think of anything to say in response, having still not gotten over how amazing it was to see someone with Ulrich's speed, but thankfully, that did help him think of a way to get rid of the awkward air as he found another gadget to play around with. "The complexity here…It's amazing."
"Yes. Yes, ask me anything. Anything to change the topic," Tony pleaded happily, while a bit of pride seemed to swell up within his chest at hearing a bit of praise from his father.
"All right," Howard sighed as he continued to fiddle with the little remote control device he had found while noting that Tony was now waving a different scanner over the robot legs. "How'd you get so much processing power into something this small?"
"Data packet multitasking. It…" Tony started to explain, only to pause when he saw that his father was still playing around with the remote control device. Clearly, Tony thought that his dad was referring to something else, but he did still find it funny that Howard was so fascinated by one of his more simple gadgets. He then reached out and tapped a specific control as he said, "Here, you'll appreciate this."
A minute later, a full, three dimensional, holographic model of the tower appeared between the two Starks, and Howard's amazement only grew when he realized that one could easily interact with the model, which was displaying events taking place within its walls in real time. "Whoa. Don't tell me you have hard-light holograms," Howard gasped in his excitement, quickly starting to manipulate the model of the tower just to prove what he was seeing for himself. He did jump a little when it zoomed in on the lab that they were currently standing in, and saw Tony working on the very same scans that he was performing right that second, but his smile was back just seconds later.
"This robot has weird energy readings," Tony noted aloud. "Never seen anything this advanced before."
"That makes two of us," Howard admitted as he continued playing around with the holographic model, much to Tony's amusement. Though he did pause when the image shifted to the lounge where Steve had just met up with Peggy, while Aelita was seated right next to her mother on the lower level couch.
While he was happy to hear how animatedly Aelita was describing her previous adventures and experiences to her mother, Steve was a bit more focused on his first girlfriend. He knew that bewildered and lost look on her face all too well, namely from his first few months here in this century, so he had a pretty good idea what was going through her mind right now. Then again, his experience did not include being reunited with someone he had long thought dead, let alone a loved one, so he was sure that Peggy's experience was wildly different from his. Still, that did not mean he was not going to try and reach out to her like Ulrich and the other Avengers had for him after he first woke up from his nap in the ice. He was just not sure how to really start the conversation. Even when he came to stand next to her while gazing out the window to the New York City skyline, he had not managed to think of something, so in the end, he just went with whatever came to him first.
"So…how are you," Steve finally asked, mentally chastising himself for starting with such a stupid question.
"I'm the one who should be asking," Peggy quickly replied with a faint, somewhat forced chuckle, telling Steve that she had already picked up on what he was doing and what was likely going through his mind right now. "Although, 'Anything new?' doesn't sound quite right. What…Where have you been?"
Steve knew that question had been coming. He just had to hope Peggy would be able to handle the answer, along with what could happen upon revealing that knowledge to her. "I spent most of the past sixty years frozen in ice. This world is new to me too," Steve admitted with the best smile he could manage, if for no other reason than to reassure Peggy she was not the only one who felt out of place here.
That seemed to ease Peggy's mood a little bit, but not to the point where she could face Steve for the entirety of the conversation, as she soon turned her gaze out the window again, feeling a sense of calm from the view before her as she spoke. "The last thing I remember, it was almost 1950. After everything that happened in the 1940s, it felt huge. I couldn't help wondering what the new decade would bring, but I never imagined…" Peggy admitted, but she was not able to go any further than that before she finally faced her first love again, and finally confessed what had really been bothering her. "I thought you were dead, Steve. I mourned you. They whole world mourned you. I thought I was over you."
Captain America was not really sure how to take that. He knew that it had to have been hard for all of the friends he had left behind in the Forties after his last mission, but actually hearing it from one of the, and the woman he had cared so much for at that, had really driven that point home for him. Logan had never really talked about it before, partly because he could not remember those days so well, and partly because Wolverine was not known for those types of personal feeling moments, so he was obviously a little unsure about how to handle this here. "Peggy, I…" Steve started to say, only to stop short and start again a second later. "But I'm here, now."
Peggy was about to reach up and do…something out of an instinct that she always felt whenever she was around Steve, but the moment between them was quickly cut short when the tower's intercom rang to life, and they heard Tony speaking to them from his lab. "Cap, Peggy, got a job for you," Tony instructed. "We can't pull enough data from this robot part, so I need you to go back to the crash site. Look for anything else that might've come through that portal."
Part of Steve was sure that Tony had been spying on them, and likely just interrupted to prevent Steve from doing something that would be considered akin to cheating on Wanda, which he was a little grateful for, but he still felt more than a little annoyed by his modern-day friend cutting in so suddenly like that. Still, he was not going to miss out on a chance to make a few more fond memories with Peggy, so he turned to her with a smile and said, "Well, let's go. It'll be like that date we never got."
That earned the super soldier a smile from Peggy that he knew she would always have whenever she heard something even a little amusing, and the two then turned to head down to the tower's garage in order to find a vehicle or two that they could use to reach their destination. All the while, neither of them was aware of the cautious stare that Aelita was sending Steve's way, having heard every word of the two's conversation up to that point. One of the downfalls of super hearing at its finest was that very few things could be kept secret from the person with said ability. Anthea had quickly noticed her daughter's stare, partly because of how Aelita had suddenly stopped talking about her first encounter with her side of the family, and could not help but wonder about the reasons behind Aelita's concern for the super soldier.
"Something the matter," Anthea asked.
Aelita jumped a little at her mother's question, but quickly calmed down again before explaining. "It's nothing really. I'm just concerned about Steve," Aelita replied. She knew she was going to have to elaborate though when her mother's questioning gaze did not falter at all. "For as long as I can remember since coming here, Steve's been like a second father to me, even though there are a lot of times when I have to help him out just as much as he helps me, so I can't help but worry about what's going through his head right now. He didn't really get much of a chance to break things off with Peggy before they were separated, and while he has moved on with someone else, I'm not sure if he'll be able to use this chance to get some closure with her, or if he might do something that could end up hurting a lot of people, including his current girlfriend."
Anthea just smiled, somehow understanding exactly what Aelita meant by that, and said, "I wouldn't worry too much. If he thinks of you as highly as you do of him, then you can trust that he'll make the right decision when the time comes, and if not, then you can bet that Miss Carter will help him make it. You'd be surprised by how often a woman's intuition can help the man they love with getting things right. I've lost count of the number of times when your father needed me to give him a little extra push when he needed it."
"Really," Aelita gasped. From what she could remember, her father never really needed that much help in making some of his decisions, so hearing her mother say otherwise did come as a surprise for her.
"Of course. Believe it or not, no matter what dimension or place they're from, boys always have moments of being incredibly dense or just plain stupid, even when they are as brilliant as your father," Anthea reassured her, with a slight touch of humor beneath her smile.
Aelita could not help but giggle a little along with her mother at that remark, as her mind immediately thought back to a few times when she had to give Peter, Ulrich, or any number of her male friends a similar push due to such instances, and she quickly felt much more at ease now in regards to Steve and Peggy. With her daughter's worries now alleviated, Anthea decided to turn Aelita back to what she was just telling her, and said, "So you said that you first met Crystal and Medusa while Maximus was in the middle of seizing power over Attilan from his brother?"
"Yeah," Aelita confirmed. "To be honest, it took a little while for Aunt Crystal to realize who I was, and I think she might have had a hunch, but she didn't seem to put it together until Aunt Medusa finally saw me using my energy fields. I'm still not sure what was more surprising for me; learning that I had family in this universe, or my first meeting with Lockjaw."
"Why would your first meeting with Lockjaw be surprising," Anthea asked. "Last time I saw him, he was just the cutest little puppy you'd ever seen."
"Cute, in his own way, yes, but little…Wow, you really have been away from Attilan for a long time," Aelita remarked to her mother, earning her a bewildered look in response. "Let's just say that I think Lockjaw must have hit a growth spurt since the last time you saw him."
While story time had resumed for the Schaeffer women, Howard had finally gotten tired of playing around with the hard-light hologram of Avengers Tower, and finally approached Tony with a few more questions. Tony was just glad that his first questions were ones that he was more than happy to answer. "Tell me everything. Like the Iron Man suit," Howard requested. "How do you generate that much power?"
"It runs off this," Tony revealed, gesturing to both the familiar glowing circle of light in his chest, and the diagram of that same device that was on another holo-display. A diagram that Howard instantly recognized.
"Oh, my arc reactor," Howard gasped in awe.
"Your arc reactor," Tony questioned indignantly. He then remembered who he was talking to, and quickly stumbled to correct his misstep. "I-I mean, I…That is, it's sort of mine now. I perfected it."
"Uh-huh. Perfected your old man's design," Howard nodded with pride, while giving Tony a slap on the back. He then made his way over to same spare armor parts that Tony had been working on earlier that evening, and Tony was sure that he was going to ask about something else in regards to the armor, only to find himself suppressing the need to laugh when Howard picked up the thing that had caught his attention. "All right. Now, what's this?"
Tony's attempts at suppressing his laughter grew a little harder when Howard hit a button on the device he had retrieved and jumped at the sound of cheering crowd coming from behind him once the television turned on. "We call that a remote control," Tony revealed once he was sure he obtained enough control over himself.
"Oh. This is fascinating. Huh, I feel so powerful," Howard chuckled as he flipped between channels. He continued to do so, until he finally thought of a big question that he really wanted to know the answer to more than anything else. "So, tell me, Tony, was I a good dad?"
All trace of humor left Tony at that point. If he were to give a full, honest answer to that, most of his memories growing up with his father were far from good, because for the longest time, Tony had believed that the best day of his father's life was when Howard had shipped him off to boarding school. Sure, he knew that Howard cared a great deal about him and his mother, but like him, his father had a hard time showing that to others. The fact that Howard had done everything he could to keep his work separate from his private life, despite the fact that his work was his life, did not really make things any easier for Tony, but he did know now that his father had done a great deal of what he did because he cared so much for him. Still, he knew that Howard was likely going to be left feeling really upset if he found out that their relationship was not all that great, so in the end, Tony had to settle on a half truth as his answer.
"I'm a billionaire tech genius with cars, supermodel girlfriends, including my current one who I'm considering proposing to any day now, and I save the world. You taught me everything I know," Tony informed his dad with a touch of pride and a lot of sentiment.
Hearing that made Howard smile happily, though he had to chuckle as he finally turned off the television, and said, "Speaking of cars, how is it that everything in the future is better except for the cars? I wouldn't trade mine for a single one of those ugly things I saw out on the street."
"Oh, that sounds like a challenge," Tony eagerly remarked. "Give me two hours with your classic car, and I'll add an arc reactor engine that will…" Tony's moment of boasting ended up cut short when he noticed that the Iron Man helmet Howard was currently holding had started sparking with electricity, and he then saw the torso of the Iron Patriot armor lift into the air before it started flying towards them both. "Look out," Tony shouted before pushing his dad aside, saving them both from being knocked over by the red, white, and blue armor piece.
A minute later, the two Starks turned to see that the robot legs had stood up on their own, and claimed the Iron Patriot armor torso as their new chest, while the right arm from one of Tony's other spare suits had attached to the port on its left side, and the previously sparking helmet jumped on top of its neck. Seeing what had just happened, Howard could not help but ask, "Are you doing this?"
"It's not me," Tony instantly replied before they had to duck out of the way a large, blue and purple right arm that came flying onto the corresponding position on the armor torso that the robot legs had cobbled together for a new body. The minute that the arm had been fitted into place, the haphazard robot immediately fired one of its repulsors at the Stark men. The blast went very wide, to the point where Tony and Howard barely had to do anything in order to dodge it, but it looked like the robot was quick to adapt, as it clearly paused to make some adjustments before attempting to fire again. Thankfully, that pause allowed Tony some time to call his armor over to him, and said suit easily blocked the next blast, and then used the impact to jump backwards onto Tony's awaiting body. "Take cover," Tony told his dad once his armor had snapped closed around him. "I'll handle this."
"Run away? Not on your life," Howard immediately retorted as he drew his energy pistol and started to take aim, only to jump to one side before he got hit by some stray missiles.
"Then stay out of the way," Iron Man instructed as he started grappling with the robot.
"Really? You're gonna talk to your father that way," Howard snapped back indignantly, sounding a little too much like a parent for someone who had not yet settled down.
"Dad! Will you just listen to me," Tony retorted in kind while trying to keep the robot from hitting his father with the various repulsor blasts that it was firing out every few seconds. Eventually, Tony had found himself rolled over onto his back, practically pinned down by the crazy machine, and in response, he could only fire up his jet boots, sending them both rocketing out of the lab and into the adjoining room.
Aelita and Anthea had both managed to jump clear before Iron Man and the robot had crashed through the living area, and while Aelita changed into her Lyoko form, Tony managed to shake the robot off of him and fired out a salvo of missiles from the launchers in his shoulders and arms. The robot managed to blast all of Iron Man's missiles before they could hit, but it did not expect the energy field that Angel Guardian fired at it, so it was unable to do anything but get blasted into the wall behind it before being hit dead-on by Iron Man's unibeam. Iron Man and Aelita both prepared to move in and secure the robot, but it was quickly up in a kneeling position, and firing out rapid fire repulsor blasts again, prompting the two take evasive action in every manner that they could.
"I just can't leave you boys alone in the lab for five minutes without you blowing something up, can I," Aelita joked as she leapt across the room, ducking under and around the repulsor blasts as she went, while throwing out a few retaliatory energy fields whenever she could.
"In my defense, nothing was blowing up until the robot legs decided to use parts of my armors to make a new body," Iron Man quipped in reply as he prepared to fire his own repulsors back at the robot.
Unfortunately for Tony, the robot had taken his moment of pause to charge him, and they were both uncontrollably firing off their repulsors in opposing directions while grappling in midair. Aelita and Anthea both ducked to either side in order to avoid being hit by the energy blasts, and after rolling into cover, the latter of the two managed to draw her pistol once again, and started to take aim on the amalgam of Iron Man armors and robotic remains. When she finally had a shot, Anthea let loose a salvo of energy bolts that Aelita could not help but notice had a similar appearance to her energy fields, and when the blasts struck, the robot was left just disoriented enough for Iron Man to push it back a little, giving him some breathing room to fire a quick burst from his repulsors. Tony's blast was not quite powerful enough, as the robot managed to recover quickly and tackled Tony once again, this time sending them both to the floor. With both of his arms ending up pinned down beneath the robot's legs, Tony quickly fired his unibeam once again, and he managed to blast off one of the robot's arms. Unfortunately, that did not stop the robot from tearing his helmet's mask right off, exposing his face to the repulsor that the robot had then shoved into his face.
Aelita was quick to try blasting the robot with another energy field, but before she could throw the sphere of energy, the robot's severed arm suddenly jumped up a little and blasted her back before rejoining with the rest of the body. It did not stay there for long though, as Anthea immediately fired another energy blast from her pistol to remove the recovered arm from the haphazardly formed body once again. Another blast of energy ended up demolishing the machine completely, but when Tony turned to see who had fired the last shot he was both surprised and amazed to see that it was his father that made the kill shot on the machine that would have ended his life just now.
"You're welcome," Howard grinned to his future son as he spun his gun around by the cord it was attached to before holstering it on the back of his belt.
Aelita and Anthea could only grin in a way that was similar to Tony before the former finally asked her mother about something she had been wondering for a while now. "I thought your Inhuman power was the ability to open interdimensional portals, or some other form of teleportation. How is that you can use energy blasts like mine," Aelita asked. "I know those energy bolts didn't come from your gun, because there's no way that a basic pistol like that could ever be used to fire lasers of any kind like yours has been."
"Well to be honest, I don't have teleportation powers. It's all energy manipulation, like your energy fields. The teleportation, interdimensional or otherwise, is really just an extension of my powers, kind of like your wings or your creativity powers seem to be. I just focus on manipulating the energy in the atoms surrounding me to the point where I can create a kind of wormhole effect, and that opens a quick gateway that I can use to move from one location to another in an instant. I can fire energy blasts like you, but unlike you, it tires me out a lot to just shoot the blasts from my hands, so I need something to focus them through, like a gun or some other type of weapon," Anthea explained. Her expression then turned a little sheepish when she admitted, "To be honest, the whole interdimensional travel thing was something that I had actually done by accident the first time around. I was aiming to go to Earth, but despite the fact that I did end up on an Earth, I never took into account that there might be a chance that it would be one that was in another dimension, so I may have overdone it on how much energy I put into the portal when I first opened it."
"So why didn't you ever try to come back here," Aelita asked. This was a question she had been wondering about ever since she learned of her Inhuman inheritance, and what her royal family members had claimed her mother's powers to be.
"I wanted to, but I didn't for two reasons. One was that it takes a lot more out of me than using energy blasts without a focusing tool, and it wasn't until a few years after you were born that I finally had enough strength to actually do it again. Plus, there was always a chance that I could have sent myself to a time that was much later than when I had left, as we both just found out today. I just never thought that it could have been this many years into the future," Anthea revealed. Her expression then turned even softer as she ran a hand through her daughter's pink locks and finished, "The other reason was because I had fallen so much in love with your father and you that I didn't want to leave. I had built a life with you and Franz, and I did not want to give that up for anything if I could help it."
Aelita's smile could not have been brighter, even if she did shed a few tears at hearing this confession. Sure, she did not like the fact that her mother had only stayed in their original dimension because of her and her father, but seeing how sincere she was when she said that she was happy with the life she had made with them definitely zeroed out any ill-feelings that Aelita had about that. She likely would have wrapped her mother in another hug right then and there were it not for the fact that she could hear the robot legs sparking again, causing her to look over at the troublesome machine long enough to glimpse the interior circuitry. That simple glance ended up being all Aelita needed to see in order for her curiosity to be peaked a little more, and she was instantly kneeling down to better examine the circuitry just to make sure she had not been seeing things before. Sadly, she had not been.
"Tony, take a look at this," Aelita told her teammate, prompting Iron Man to see what had caught the pinkette's attention. "Anything look familiar?"
It was only a few minutes of quick study later that Tony sighed in dismay, and almost moaned in misery, "The internal circuits on this thing…Should've known."
"You've seen this before," Howard asked.
"Unfortunately, yeah," Aelita sighed in Tony's place. "To be honest, we were all hoping that we'd seen the last of him a few years ago, but as we learned very recently, he's not so easy to get rid of, even after being practically erased from the timeline."
Anthea was about to question what her daughter meant by that, when a dark, menacing laugh ended up answering her before the words had even formed on her lips, and the four all looked up to see a man with a blue face, clad in green and purple armor with a sword and shield on his back, and riding down through the hole in the ceiling on a hover disk while he glared down at the group as if to boast of his supposed superiority. "There is no such thing as the last of me in any timeline, child."
"And there he is," Tony groaned. "Kang!"
"Such informality," Kang scoffed. "Unlike you, I earned my title, Stark. The name is Kang the Conqueror."
"Yeah, I had a better time believing that with the first version of you that we had to deal with," Aelita retorted with a small smirk.
"First version," Anthea asked.
"A friend of yours," Howard asked the two Avengers.
"Hardly," Tony immediately denied. "Kang is from 800 years in the future, where they have perfected time travel."
"And like every other version of him we've encountered so far, Kang's a time traveling warlord that has either taken over the galaxy in his time, or needed to come back to this century in order to take over. And there's also the times when he needs to prevent something from altering history so that he can continue his rule unopposed," Aelita finished. "But as we all know, the future is always changing, and that means that even after we got rid of the first Kang we ever dealt with for good, there was still another one waiting in the future for a chance to come back in time to try and succeed where the first one failed. Not that they've managed to do so, of course. I'm pretty sure that this is the…what, fourth Kang we've had to deal with now?"
"No, I'm pretty sure he's just the third," Iron Man shrugged.
Kang merely growled in annoyance at the two Avengers, before he turned his gaze onto his target, and launched into his reasons for being in the tower right then. "Howard Stark. You are a hard man to kill. I sent robot hunters disguised as HYDRA agents to your own time, and you ended up here."
"I can't remember what happened, so I'll have to take your word for it," Howard admitted, not seeing any harm in keeping that from the crazy man from even further into the future than he had been thrown.
Kang just shrugged that off as he produced an image of someone that appeared to be wearing a more advanced version of the Iron Man armor, and explained, "In my time, I've been fighting an irritating individual named Arno Stark. Your descendant."
"Arno Stark, huh," Howard noted. He was shaken up a little to learn that he would apparently have a grandson some day, but after learning that he was going to be a father of any kind, there was very little that could faze him at this point. Even if he was though, he was not about to let this conqueror know that. "If he's a Stark, then he should be able to stop the likes of you."
Tony could not help but swell with pride a little upon hearing his dad say that, knowing that it was also his father's way of praising him a little, but he was a little busy with processing the other bit of information that Kang had revealed to them. "I'm gonna have a kid?"
"Now you know how I felt when I traveled to the future and met my daughter, who hasn't even been born yet," Aelita whispered to him, knowing just what was going through Tony's head right now. That was an experience that she and Ulrich were definitely not going to forget any time soon, especially since Ulrich had fainted after learning that he had ended up having twins in that same future with Ava Ayala, the White Tiger. Still, she was not going to pass up on the chance to add in a little bit of teasing. "Probably adds a little more incentive for you to hurry the hell up and propose to Pepper, doesn't it?"
"A threat to my empire who's proven to be impossible to stop," Kang continued, acting as though he were never interrupted, and like Tony was not blushing a little after Aelita's recent comment. "So, I've come back in time…to destroy you."
With that declaration, Kang immediately fired a blast from the laser on his wrist, and all four individuals were sent flying in different directions as a result of the blast. None of them were too seriously hurt, but Kang was clearly more focused on his original target than any of the others, or he just did not care about them. "Without Howard Stark, there is no arc reactor, no Tony Stark, no Avengers, and no Arno Stark. Nothing to stand in my way," Kang finally finished, as he drew his sword and revealed the weapon to be a laser rifle as well as the close-combat weapon it appeared to be.
When Kang fired a shot from his sword-rifle, Howard just barely managed to roll out of the way by the skin of his teeth, but Kang's next shot ended up going wide due to Aelita blasting the time traveler with an energy field to throw off his aim. "Yeah, I'd hate to break it to you, Kang, but while most of that may be true, there is one part that you're wrong about. With or without the Starks, there will always be Avengers so long as there's someone willing to fight the good fight."
Kang merely sneered in response to the pinkette, as he muttered, "Like mother, like daughter. Arachne would often give similar sentimental speeches as well when it seemed clear that she was beaten, and yet somehow, they always seemed to spurn others on to help them fight another day."
"That's really not as surprising as you might think," Anthea retorted before firing a few rounds of energy blasts through her pistol. "Us Hopper women are a brave and stubborn bunch like that."
"So it would seem," Kang snarled before firing on both pink haired women, forcing them both to dive to either side to avoid the blast, and causing Anthea to lose her grip on her gun. Anthea had quickly started to scramble for the weapon, but before she could even reach for it, Kang had already blasted it into a smoking pile of ash, and he could not help but grin darkly in response to Anthea's glare as he said, "Let's just see how long that resilience will last you this time."
While the Starks and Schaeffers were busy with the craziness that was quickly unfolding at Avengers Tower, Steve and Peggy had just pulled up to the crash site that marked the point where this whole time-travel mess had started. Steve had offered to let Peggy right on the back of his bike, but she had insisted that she was perfectly comfortable riding her own motorcycle, and she proved it by navigating the modern day New York streets like a pro. "We need anything that might've come through the time portal with you," Steve informed his first love once they had come to a stop beside Howard's car.
Peggy nodded in response, but was soon jumping a little when Ulrich appeared next to them in a gust of wind and a flash of gold. "Well, I'm not sure how much we'll find, because aside from Howard's car, the only thing I managed to find was the toy soldier's other half, and I've combed the entire area at least a few times over already," Sprint Samurai reported, indicating the other half of the robot that they had brought back to the tower earlier. He then noticed that Peggy still seemed a bit rattled at his sudden appearance, and quickly started to say, "Uh, sorry about the sudden scare, Agent Carter."
"No, it's all right," Peggy reassured him. "Just…try not to do it too much until I can get used to it, and please, call me Peggy." Ulrich smiled in response, but before he could say anything, they all had to jump a little, when they heard something banging on the trunk of Howard's car from the inside. Peggy slowly led the approach over to the car as she stated, "I don't remember what that could be, but if I just threw it in the trunk…"
"It's likely really dangerous, or a serious problem at the least," Ulrich reasonably finished.
"Or it just really annoyed me," Peggy admitted with a smirk.
Steve and Ulrich both smirked in return before turning serious once again, with the former moved to open the trunk, while the latter stood back with Peggy on either side of him. When they opened the trunk, they found a balding man inside with a red beard, a monocle, and dressed in a green suit, and a ring on his left pinky, and from what they could tell, he was certainly mad. The first thing that the man said open seeing that the trunk was opened was something in German that Ulrich could only assume was an insult, before adding, "Leaving me in the car boot! Such indignity!"
"Doctor Faustus," Captain America identified in shock, while Peggy just glared at the man and Ulrich notched an eyebrow in confusion.
"Captain America?! I knew your so-called death was a conspiracy," Faustus snarled in return, his right hand immediately reaching for the ring on his pinky.
He stopped short though when Ulrich suddenly tapped Cap's shoulder and asked, "Uh, who the hell is this guy who looks like he belongs in some type of circus sideshow?"
"You dare to insult the mighty Doctor Faustus, boy? I will make sure you suffer for that," Faustus growled in response.
"Faustus is a HYDRA scientist, and one that is especially skilled in hypnotic suggestion. It mainly only works so long as he has access to his ring and if the person is unprepared for it, or does not possess some other means of blocking him out," Peggy explained to Ulrich, aiming her pistol at the doctor.
When he saw that Ulrich still had a bit of a perplexed look on his face, Steve then added, "He wasn't ever really very high up on the ladder in HYDRA's chain of command, even less so during the war, so I'm not surprised that you haven't heard too much about him."
"Next to nothing would be a little more accurate," Ulrich corrected.
"Well, perhaps that will work in my favor," Faustus grinned as he tapped his ring and began to speak in a cadenced voice. "You will leave this place and forget I was ever here."
"Yeah, your mind tricks won't work on any of us," Captain America pointed out.
"They don't have to," Faustus revealed, and a second later, the trio was forced to shield their eyes as a bright flash of light erupted from the HYDRA doctor's ring and nearly blinded them.
When the light died out, Peggy was the first to catch sight of Faustus's chosen path of retreat, and immediately gave chase as she shouted out the direction to the two men. "He went that way, toward the bridge!"
"Right behind you," Ulrich replied as he and Cap joined Peggy in her pursuit. He did not really bother to use his super sprint to catch up, as he figured it would not take too long to catch up with Faustus, but the Lyoko Avenger quickly found that to be not entirely true. It turned out that while the doctor was not as slow as he would have thought, he was still rather quick all the same, a fact that Ulrich could not help but note. "Guy runs fast for an old, fat man."
"Well at least now you know that HYDRA hasn't really changed too much from all those years ago," Captain America quipped in response, earning a smile from the samurai, while Peggy threw them a look of concern, wondering what Steve meant when he mentioned HYDRA not changing from how they were in the Forties. Did he mean that HYDRA was still around even now?
All thoughts about how history had unfolded were put on hold when they saw Faustus had stopped before a biker gang, and had managed to hypnotize them into attacking the three heroes. Cap, Ulrich, and Peggy were all soon forced onto the defensive as they knocked back the attacking bikers, but they knew that Faustus was just using them as cover for another attempt at escape, so they decided that they should forget about playing nice for the moment. Cap was the first to fight back, as he knocked down at least three of their hypnotized attackers with relative ease, and Peggy was soon able to flip one aside before landing a hard kick that sent a second biker face-planting into the snow. Peggy was quick to show even more of her own hand-to-hand combat prowess when she saw Steve getting dog-piled by several bikers at once, leaving him pinned down for a moment.
"Guess you're not going to get that dance today either," Steve grunted as he tried to push the three bikers off of him, barely even flinching that much at the punches that they were throwing at him.
"I'm beginning to think you don't know how to dance, soldier," Peggy quipped in return before she deflected another biker's punch and then retaliated with a palm strike that sent him sprawling.
In response to that little comment, Cap could not help himself from showing off a little, and easily threw one biker off before he stood up, and spun around to send the remaining two flying off of him. "What do you think about my moves now," Steve playfully asked with a smile.
Peggy just barely kept herself from laughing a little, but still had to give some remark in response. "We might make good partners yet," she lightly teased. She then turned to look around in confusion before she asked, "Where'd your friend, Sprint Samurai get off to?"
When Peggy asked him that question, Steve finally noticed that there was no sign of Ulrich anywhere, and he could only assume one thing in response. "My guess, he went to give Faustus a little surprise."
Cap was right in his guess, as Faustus soon discovered in his attempts to flee from his foes. Looking back, he could see that while the bikers had done their job and allowed him to shake off the captain and Agent Carter, and he was sure that he was now home free. His hopes were quickly dashed when he looked forward again and skidded to a slippery stop before he ended up running straight into Sprint Samurai, who was standing with his sabers already out and ready for action. "Hey, bad news, Professor Phobias. This exit's actually closed, but I'm sure I can help you find another path to cut through," Ulrich informed the doctor with a smirk.
Faustus did not know how the boy had caught up to him, or got ahead of him so quickly, but he was not curious enough to stay and find out. That did not stop him from correcting the boy on what his name was as he turned to go back the way he came. "My name is Doctor Faustus, junge," the hypnotist snarled.
Ulrich had to pause for a minute as he tried to figure out what Faustus had just called him, and that almost allowed Faustus to get away scot-free. Thankfully, Faustus ended up running straight into Peggy and Cap's fists as they delivered the knock-out blow. Seeing that the two had managed to take down their target, Ulrich had to breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that was one less headache to deal with, and then joked, "Really? You guys couldn't save just one bad guy for me?"
"You snooze, you lose," Peggy playfully shrugged while rubbing her sore hand.
"If you want though, I'm sure there's still a few hypnotized bikers back there that you can hit," Steve offered in continuation of the little jest, earning a smile from both of the two.
Ulrich's smile quickly faded though when he noticed that the smiles shared between Captain America and Peggy were holding for a bit longer than they probably should have. There was something about it that made him a little worried, and not just on a personal level, but for various other reasons as well, all of which involved people that had gotten close to Cap ever since he woke up in this century. Sure, he knew that Peggy was the captain's first love and all, and he knew just how it felt to suddenly be reunited with that special someone after being apart from them for so long in the way that she and Steve had been, but Ulrich also knew that those old feelings could cause a lot of problems for the two people involved, especially when it came to their sense of judgment if they were not careful. He just hoped that Steve knew that as well, but somehow, Ulrich did not think so.
After tying up Faustus and carrying him back to where Howard's car was, the three then started gathering up the remains of the robot that Ulrich first spotted, and it was at that point that Ulrich's concerns quickly became a little more validated. "I still don't understand how this is even possible, Steve," Peggy admitted. "Time travel?"
"I don't really get it either, even after all that I've been through since joining the Avengers," Steve confessed as he dumped Faustus near Howard's car. "But if anyone can get you home, Tony can."
"You know, I'm not sure I want to leave so fast," Peggy revealed as she turned a meaningful gaze towards the captain.
Ulrich knew what she meant by that. It was clear that Peggy wanted to stay for as long as possible, or to be more accurate, she wanted to stay with Steve. After all, from her perspective, the man had just come back from the dead, and considering the strong relationship the two held, at least from what he had heard from Steve, Ulrich could not blame her for wanting to stay a little longer, if not forever. He knew that was impossible though, because Peggy Carter was far too important to history for her to just disappear at random. She was a founder of SHIELD, and a vital part of shaping the organization into what it had become today, so there was really no question on whether or not she should go back. When he looked over to Captain America, Ulrich could tell that his friend understood that as well, but from the look on his face, it seemed that Steve had another thought about the whole thing, and Ulrich was quickly praying that it was not the one he thought it was.
His prayers went unanswered, because a second later, Steve was smiling a little more at Peggy as he said, "Well, I could…I could always come with you."
While that did seem to make Peggy smile again, it made Ulrich panic a little on the inside, or a lot if he were being totally honest. Sure, Steve still felt like a man out of time in the twenty-first century, but Ulrich knew that the captain had managed to build a new life for himself in this era. He had found a new family and mission with the Avengers, old and new, he had recently managed to find a home away from the tower in Brooklyn, and of course, there was also the fact that he had also found love again in his current girlfriend, one Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, and Ulrich knew that if Steve really did do that, he would be throwing it all away and leaving a lot of people feeling very hurt. Ulrich was not going to let that happen, and he was just about to pull Steve away with a request to speak with him in private for a moment when the communicator in his visor suddenly went off.
Upon tapping the control on the side of his visor, many questions were immediately answered while new concerns arose in Ulrich's mind, and he immediately tabled his worries about Steve and Peggy in favor of what he had just learned. "Guys," Ulrich called, breaking the moment between the two. "We've gotta get back to the tower! The others need us right now!"
The other two immediately nodded in reply and quickly climbed back onto the motorcycles they had rode to the park on before racing off after Ulrich. The Sprint Samurai likely would have just raced on ahead to provide early support, but he was not going to rush in alone without knowing the full situation. Plus, he still needed one specific question answered. "By the way, did you guys hear what Phosphorus called me, earlier? And if you did, could you tell me what it means?"
"Yeah, we heard what Faustus said," Peggy confirmed while gently correcting Ulrich, though part of her had to wonder if he was getting the doctor's name wrong on purpose now. "And it was German for boy."
"Oh," Ulrich nodded in response, though he still sulked a little at the fact that another bad guy had been throwing out an insult at him in another language. He always hated it when they did that, mainly because he could never think of a good retort in response. "Times like this, I wish I had a translator program in my visor or something," Ulrich then muttered.
The flashes of energy blasts could be seen through the windows on the topmost floors of Avengers tower, even at a distance, but given the battle that was going on inside the tower, that should not be too surprising. While Howard and Anthea were doing their best to avoid the blasts that Kang was firing from his sword-rifle, Iron Man and Angel Guardian were making it a point to throw whatever they could back at the time-traveling warlord, or at least, this version of their old foe. To be quite honest, the two Avengers actually preferred the later versions to the first Kang that they dealt with, as most of the ones that came after were much easier to handle. Sure, it was always nice to have a challenge, but when it came to challenges like the ones that the first Kang brought with him, all the Avengers had to agree that someone would be crazy to want the original Kang back, or at least what they assumed was the original version of him. With time-travel and alternate futures involved, there was no telling whether anything that came back from the future was really all that certain, especially when it was a future that any Kangs came from. None of that mattered right now, especially when they needed to do everything they could to keep Kang from killing Howard Stark.
This goal was proving easier said than done to be honest, as Kang proved when he finally scored a hit on Iron Man that knocked the armored Avenger away from his father and Anthea. Seeing his son get hurt prompted Howard to step out from behind his cover and open fire on Kang as well, but the conqueror just deflected the blast with his sword before turning the weapon on Howard once again. Thankfully, the two parents were not slow in seeking out new cover, though Anthea was glad that she chose to move in a different direction than Howard, considering Kang's shots were clearly focused on him, but she did still smirk a little when she saw Howard's next shot literally nailed Kang right in his face. She just wished that she could do a little more to help right now, and that the elder Stark was not so arrogant to boast about such a simple victory.
"Is that all you got, future conqueror man," Howard had challenged, but he quickly wished he had not, as Kang then flipped his sword around, and then released energy wave from it with a powerful slash of the blade. Thankfully, Iron Man came to the rescue and shoved his dad clear from the line of fire, but there was nothing they could do for the poor couch that Howard had been hiding behind just a few seconds ago.
"Boastful arrogance from one who will soon cease to exist," Kang snarled, clearly annoyed at how Howard Stark continued to survive and due to how said Stark was making a mockery of him.
"I wouldn't bet on that. The man just seems far too stubborn to die, just like his son," Aelita quipped, turning Kang's attention towards her right when she had started calling upon her creativity powers.
Kang probably have looked upwards though, as he soon discovered when Aelita materialized a large boulder above the time traveler. When the boulder fell, Kang merely knelt down so that the shield on his back was facing towards it, but his flight still faltered just enough for Aelita to let loose a pair of energy fields that struck him dead center. Before Kang could recover from the younger pinkette's assault, another energy blast was let loose on the disk he was using to fly, and Kang dropped to the floor the instant it had broken apart. Everyone immediately looked over to where the last blast had come from, and while the Starks were both gaping in disbelief, Aelita could only beam widely at the sight of who had fired that last shot.
"Nice shot, Mom," Aelita complimented.
"Naturally," Anthea panted, proving just how tiring it was for her to shoot energy blasts like her daughter could. "After all…where do you think…you got your energy blasting…skills from?"
A loud roar from Kang quickly brought an end to the parent-child moment, as Aelita quickly pushed her mother out of the path of Kang's sword, while Tony flew his dad to a higher floor that was out of Kang's reach. At least, that's what Tony thought he had done, until Kang shouted, "Distance won't save you!"
Not wanting to find out what that meant, Iron Man immediately charged Kang once again, with Howard shooting out a few rounds of covering fire from his pistol, and Aelita joining the charge soon after once she made sure her mother was well hidden. Anthea was in no shape to try and help now after that last energy blast she had thrown out, and she was soon wishing that was not the case. Iron Man's charge never made it through, as Kang quickly fired a laser blast from his wrist that sent Tony flying back into the deck that Howard was standing on, causing it collapse and bring Howard falling down to the main floor below. Thankfully, Howard had managed to land on his feet, drawing a sigh of relief from Aelita, who had paused in her own charge so that she could avoid getting hit like Iron Man had, but her relief was short lived, as Kang fired another blast that hit her in the side, knocking the pinkette out of the air, and down to her knees on the floor.
Howard snarled at the sight of this, and immediately raised his weapon to fire, only to hear a soft snap seconds afterwards, and when he looked down at the source, he saw that the cord connecting his blaster to the energy pack on his belt had been severed. When Anthea saw this, she had already managed to recover enough strength so that she could ask in disbelief, "You built a laser gun that has to be plugged in?"
Howard could only shrug sheepishly in response before saying, "To be fair, it's still just a prototype, and unlike Tony, I haven't perfected arc reactor technology yet."
"Incredible luck, how you managed to escape my hunters through time," Kang growled as he moved his shield from his back and onto his arm while slowly approaching Howard, bringing an end to the two parents' conversation. "But your—URGH!"
The grunt of pain that Kang let out was due to how a shield had smashed into him, ending his little victory speech, and when Howard turned back to see who had just saved him, he was relieved to see Peggy, Sprint Samurai, and Captain America had finally returned to lend a hand against the time traveler. "Kang the Conqueror," Captain America growled as he caught his shield and slid it back onto his arm. "It's all starting to make sense now."
"Actually he prefers just 'Kang,'" Iron Man playfully corrected after he had pulled himself out from beneath the rubble of the upper deck.
"Less talking, more action, please," Peggy shouted to the two heroes, and punctuate her point, she let loose a blast from her own laser gun that hit Kang square in the chest.
"I've gotta agree with her on that," Aelita quipped before she let loose a pair of energy fields on Kang. Aelita's blasts were soon followed up by Ulrich racing in to land a pair of slashes on Kang at super speed before spinning out a roundhouse kick that placed Kang right in Iron Man's line of fire, and Tony did not hesitate to unload a pair of repulsor blasts the minute he had the shot.
The combined assault had left Kang sprawled out on the ground, and Peggy immediately marched over to hold Kang at gunpoint, just to make sure he would not get up again. "Everything in this century has been quite bizarre," Peggy commented. "But your clothes take the cake."
"To be fair, he's not from this century either, so…" Ulrich started to say, only to notice how Kang was already starting to raise his shield in response to the laser blast Peggy was about to fire. Without even stopping to think, Ulrich raced forward at super speed, and angled his saber so that when Kang deflected Peggy's blast, he would be able to redirect it towards the floor, saving the agent's life. Ulrich's quick actions proved successful, much to Peggy's relief, and Kang's annoyance, and the conqueror likely would have fired another shot from his sword-rifle had he not soon discovered that he did not have any shots left in said weapon. "What's the matter, Kang? Out of ammo," Ulrich teased as he and the others all began to form up around the conqueror of the future. "Probably should've been a little more careful when you were blasting away without a care in the world."
"Who needs ammo? I'll chop you down myself," Kang shouted, and he immediately charged forward to prove just that.
Kang's initial swing was easily blocked by Ulrich's saber, but a sudden swing of his shield easily removed the samurai hero from his path. With Sprint Samurai out of his way, Kang was free to charge at the others again, and this time, there was nothing to stop him from hitting Iron Man with a fierce and powerful swing of his sword, one that knocked Iron Man right into Captain America and Peggy, and sent all three flying across the room. Aelita only managed to evade getting hit as well because she jumped up into the air just seconds beforehand, but she was not quite fast enough to prevent Tony from crashing through the window and onto the helipad outside.
"Tony," Howard shouted in horror, now even more worried for his son than he had been when Kang had blasted him earlier.
Aelita was just as worried as Howard, but she had to focus on Kang right now, and that was easily helped after Ulrich had jumped to his feet again and shouted, "Sis, let's hit him with energy speed blitz!"
Aelita immediately nodded in reply to this, knowing that Ulrich was referring to a tactic that they had developed over the years of crime fighting, both with and without the Avengers, and she immediately flew off in one direction while Ulrich raced off in the opposite direction. As she flew around Kang, Aelita made it a point to blast him with as many energy fields as she could summon, as fast as she could manage, and Kang was soon forced to take cover behind his shield, for all the good it did. When the barrage finally ceased, Kang lowered his shield just in time to see Ulrich come running at him with his sabers pulled back, and the Lyoko samurai easily landed a double slash on the conqueror that left him more than a little disoriented. Ulrich quickly followed up his slashing attack with a swing of his right saber, which Kang managed to duck under, but the conqueror was unable to avoid being stabbed by Ulrich's second saber. That left Kang open for Ulrich to deliver a kick into his knee and then chest, followed up by a roundhouse kick that sent the conqueror back a few feet, giving Ulrich room to charge him once again.
Ulrich's charge was brought short though, when Kang suddenly sprung up and used his shield to take a swing of his own at the male Lyoko Avenger. Since the swing came at practically the last second, Ulrich was unable to avoid being bashed away by Kang's shield, but he did manage to duck under the sword swing that came afterwards, and that allowed Kang to see Aelita charging towards him with an energy field at the ready. Upon being struck by the energy blast, Kang was unable to raise his guard again to prevent Aelita from landing a spin kick of her own, just as she was retracting her wings, and the pinkette had soon pulled Kang into a dual of hand-to-hand combat, showcasing just how competent she was in close-combat. Sure, Aelita was not as good as Ulrich, Captain America, or Black Widow when it came to such fighting styles, but she was skilled enough to use said abilities when it mattered, as Kang had quickly found out when the girl landed quite a few punches and another kick or two on him. Her assault did not last forever though, as Kang finally found a break in Aelita's attacks and guards that he could slip through, and immediately used that to counterattack, starting with a quick stab of his sword-rifle that proved to be a feint. Aelita had ended up falling for it, and as a result, she was soon bashed aside by Kang's shield, and sent flying right into her adoptive brother, just as he was about to charge in to attack Kang once more.
"Aelita," Anthea shouted in horror, but she quickly breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that her daughter seemed to be okay.
Anthea's relief was short lived though, as she and Howard quickly realized that they were the only ones left standing, and without any kind of weapon or defense, they knew that they stood no chance against Kang. So, when the time-traveling conqueror turned towards them with a savage glare, they both made the smart choice and made a run for it. Kang was quickly taking off after them, and made to attack them just when they had reached the elevator. Thankfully, Howard had managed to hit the button to call for a lift, and the elevator doors opened up to permit entry to the two just as Kang had launched his attack. The two immediately stumbled backwards into the elevator car, and Anthea quickly slammed her foot into a random button on the keypad to shut the door right when Kang had started to turn towards them again. Even as the elevator descended, they could hear Kang prying the doors into the shaft open with his sword, but they still breathed sighs of relief when they realized that they were already a fair distance away from him, even if it was not far enough to the point where they could not hear him calling them cowards with an enraged shout.
"Well, that was close," Howard panted before he turned his attention to Anthea, who still seemed more than a little tired. "How're you holding up?"
"Fine for the most part, all things considered," Anthea reassured him as she tried to straighten up. Her face turned serious and grim though when she stated, "You know that he's going to go after your son if he can't get to you, right?"
"Yeah, I know. All the more reason to not hide out wherever this elevator is taking us," Howard nodded. He then placed a hand to his chin while thinking over their options, before asking, "Do you think you can fire out any more of those energy blasts?"
"Not without knocking myself unconscious at best," Anthea admitted. "That last shot nearly wore me out completely, so if you want me to get back into the fight, we're going to have to find something I can channel my energy through. Anything like a gun, a sword, a gauntlet, hell, I'll even take a simple pipe at this point."
Howard was just about to offer the use of his laser gun when he realized that he had dropped it at some point before they had fallen into the elevator, and he quickly began to try and think of another option. He did not have to think too long, because a few seconds later, the elevator had arrived at its destination, and when the two looked into the room, they were left in awe at what they saw. Howard's awestruck expression quickly changed into an excited smirk while he asked, "Think you can find something in here that could help?"
Anthea glanced around the laboratory that they had just been admitted into before her gaze finally settled on armor pieces that belonged to the space armor that Tony had made for Aelita a few years ago. After making her way over to the table that the pieces were resting on, Anthea immediately slid her hand into one of the gauntlets, and as the built in repulsor came to life, glowing with the color of her energy powers, she had to smirk a little as well. "I think I can make do."
"Good, then let's hope Tony won't mind if I borrow one of his spare suits," Howard quipped in reply before he approached one of the cases that contained one of the many spare suits of armor that were housed here in Iron Man's armory.
The fall to the helipad was not that far from the floor he was previously on, and really, Tony had suffered worse hits, so the damage to his suit could have been a lot worse than it currently was. It could have been a lot better too, but it still could have been worse, and that was a line of thinking that Tony was determined to keep up even as Kang dropped down before him once again, even as his armor continued sparking in various different places while the automated repair program worked to fix the damage as quickly as possible. "Oh. You again," Tony casually greeted, hoping that it would throw Kang off long enough for his armor to finish fixing itself.
Needless to say, the only thing Tony's jest did was make Kang angrier than he already was at that point. "No more jokes, Stark," Kang growled before he kicked Iron Man back, slightly increasing the damage to Tony's armor when he did. Just when Tony was starting to sit up again, he found himself pinned beneath Kang's boot while the time traveler raised his weapon back to its zenith, and declared, "Prepare to be removed from history."
Tony could not do much more than listen to Kang's sinister laughter, and watch as this version of the Avengers' old foe prepared to end his life, until the conqueror was suddenly blasted off of him by a repulsor blast, and soon afterwards, a suit of armor similar to his flew out to stand between him and Kang. Looking to the suit in question, Tony easily recognized the armor to be the Mark 51 armor by the much more even balance between its red and gold colors, and considering that only someone with his biometrics could have operated one of his armors, or someone with something close to said biometrics, Tony knew that there could only be one person inside of that suit. "Dad? Is that you," Tony asked in disbelief.
"Get away from my son," Howard shouted as he opened up the helmet so that Kang could see the fierce glare he was sending the conqueror's way.
Kang merely scoffed in annoyance and slight humor as he declared, "Your ridiculous, ancient Stark suits won't save you now!"
"That's funny," Anthea's voice commented just before Kang was hit by another one of her energy blasts, this one seeming to be enhanced by repulsor energy. Looking to where the blast came from, Tony was left slightly surprised by the fact that Anthea was wearing the gauntlets, boots, and chest armor pieces of Aelita's old space armor, the arc reactor points of which were all glowing with a mix of dark pink and their regular blue energy. "I'd say they're doing a pretty good job of that and more, myself."
"Same here," Aelita's voice commented from somewhere above Kang, and Angel Guardian was soon descending upon Kang with a barrage of energy fields flying like crazy. When Aelita landed again, she quickly kicked Kang's feet out from under him, allowing Ulrich the chance to race over and hit the conqueror from the side at super speed.
"Besides, you know the old saying: sometimes the older models can be even better than the new stuff," Ulrich quipped in additional retort to Kang's earlier comment.
Kang was about to stand up and attack again when another energy blast hit him in the face, and he looked to see Peggy standing on the ledge above him. He was about to return fire on the agent when Peggy shouted, "Steve, now!"
Hearing the special agent shout out that signal caused Kang to be too slow to react before Captain America had slammed his shield into the conqueror a few times over, giving Howard a chance to help Tony to his feet while Peggy quickly started to climb down from her current perch. "I hope you don't mind I borrowed a suit," Howard quipped to his son.
Tony likely would have made a joke in reply had Howard not suddenly activated the repulsors on the Mark 51 and blasted him by accident. Thankfully, Tony did not slam into Peggy again, but considering that the special agent had just barely managed to get out of the way just in time, it was pretty close, and served to annoy Tony a little more. "Dad," Tony groaned as he watched his dad struggle to shut off the repulsors.
Seeing this, Aelita could not help but take a few cautious steps back when her mother came to stand next to her, not wanting to take any chances on the same thing possibly happening to her as well. Even so, she had to admit that her mom looked good in the partial armor set-up she had given herself, until she began to recognize where the armor pieces came from. "Uh…is that my space armor?"
"No, just the parts of it I really needed to be able to help without being a problem," Anthea replied with a slightly cheeky smile.
Ulrich could not help it. He just had to chuckle a little as he joked, "I've heard of parents borrowing their kids' clothes in an attempt to be cool, but I'm pretty sure that this would be the first time it's ever actually worked." He then glanced over to see Howard had only just managed to shut off the repulsors before he added, "More or less."
Sprint Samurai's amusement came to an end when everyone heard Kang chuckling, "Children and their toys. Playtime is over…" They all then gasped in disbelief as Kang jumped off the edge of the helipad, but were soon scowling when Kang rose up again on a new hover disk, as he finished, "But the fun has just begun."
Seeing Kang take off again, Howard immediately snapped his helmet closed and blasted off after him, raising Tony's concern for his father a little more. "Dad, wait up," Tony shouted as he closed his own helmet and grabbed onto both Captain America and Peggy. "Hold on tight, kids!"
Just like that, Iron Man was flying after both his father and Kang with a couple of passengers, and Aelita was quickly spreading her wings in preparation to follow them. She then grabbed hold of Ulrich's arm, and proceeded to grab her mother's arm in the other hand, when Anthea suddenly blasted off into the air using her own jet boots. "Mom, be careful! Flying isn't as easy as it looks," Aelita called out, but she was not sure if Anthea heard her or not. She then moved to hold Ulrich with both arms and said, "Hang on, Bro. This may be a rougher flight than usual."
"Honestly, I think I'd be disappointed if it wasn't a little rough now," Ulrich joked as Aelita lifted off into the air in pursuit of Kang, her mother, and the rest of their teammates.
Howard's pursuit of Kang had quickly led him almost halfway across the city, and while he did take notice of the others following after him, it did not stop him from trying to stop Kang on his own. The only problem was he was not quite able to figure out how to fly and blast Kang at the same time, especially since he was having a hard enough time trying to keep his flight path smooth and steady. "You've got this, Howard," the elder Stark told himself. "It's just like riding a bike."
He probably would have felt a little better if he knew that he was not the only one having a hard time with getting the hang of flying, as Anthea was struggling a little as well. Her struggles were a little more obvious though, considering she did not have any kind of helmet with a built-in HUD to help her keep track of said flight path, but that was not throwing her off by too much. "Come on, Anthea. If your daughter can do this with energy wings, then you should be able to handle just fine without said wings," the elder pinkette muttered, only just noticing when Kang finally dove down into the city while slowing down in his flight a little more as she did.
Howard quickly noticed this too, and he was soon landing down on the rooftop and using whatever scanners he could to try and find a trace of the man responsible for sending him and his friend into this century. "Come on out, Kang. I know you're here," Howard called as the others came in to land beside him.
"I'm not picking up any signals," Iron Man sighed in annoyance. "Samurai, are you having any better luck with the scanners in your visor?"
"Afraid not, which means that he's most likely jamming them," Ulrich reported. "Guess we're going to have to try and find him the old-fashioned way."
"You'd guess correctly. Spread out," Iron Man confirmed, immediately moving to search with his dad, while Peggy and Cap moved in another direction, leaving Aelita and Anthea to search in a third one, while Ulrich proceeded forward on his own. After a moment or so, Tony could not help but look to his dad and say, "Sorry this isn't exactly the ideal father-son bonding time."
Howard knew that his son was being sincere, but he was not about to let Tony believe that when he was having the time of his life right now. "Getting to see you in action with your Stark tech, and my old friend, who's now your friend," Howard happily chuckled. "It's perfect."
While Howard's comment did bring a smile to Tony's face, it actually made Steve roll his eyes a bit as he commented to Peggy, "Throwing punches, taking down bad guys, and listening to a Stark ego. Probably not the reunion either of us would have chosen."
"That's where you're wrong, Rogers. I couldn't have planned it any better," Peggy admitted with a smile. "Though I will admit, having the two, super powered young heroes that clearly think the world of you along is a nice bonus."
The heart-to-heart moments did not quite end there, as Aelita had to make her own thoughts on this whole situation known to her mother as well. "You know, whenever I imagined or dreamed of finally finding you again after all these years, this was probably the farthest thing I ever had in mind, and I'm sure you never thought it would be like this either, be it for a reunion or for daughter-mother bonding time," Aelita had sighed a little sadly.
Like Howard, Anthea could only smile and gently argue with her daughter's assessment of their reunion. "Seeing you in action with your Inhuman powers, finding out that they're actually better than mine, learning that you now have a brother, if only by adoption, meeting your new family that happens to be from the universe I came from, hearing that you've actually met my side of the family, and finding out that you're practically following in mine and your father's footsteps? I don't think it could be anymore perfect, sweetie," Anthea happily told her daughter, earning a smile from Aelita in response.
Ulrich had to smile a little after overhearing the conversation between mother and daughter, but his mood quickly changed when he caught sight of Kang's little flight disk, and a quick glance around allowed him to notice that Cap and Peggy were not too far away from the supervillain's position. Seeing that, Ulrich immediately waved in an attempt to get the two's attention, and the moment he saw Steve turn towards him, he quietly gestured towards where he had seen Kang's disk. Steve immediately got the message, and then silently signaled for both Ulrich and Peggy to move around so that they could flank Kang from all sides. Steve then waited a few moments for the other two to get into position, and then charged forward with the intent of clocking Kang right in the jaw. His charge stopped short when he saw only the disk Kang was riding on, but no sign of the villain that had been riding on it. At least, there was no sign of the time traveler until after kicked the captain from behind.
Kang's sneak attack ended up causing Steve to lose his shield, and before he could retrieve it, Steve immediately had to dodge to the side in order to avoid being cleaved in two by Kang's sword. The super soldier did not worry about getting his shield back afterwards, but instead, just leapt to the side, avoiding a blast from Kang's reloaded weapon, and then glared up at the conqueror as he started to boast. "I came here to wipe the Starks from existence," Kang recounted as he slowly started to smirk deviously. "Taking you, Captain America, will be a bonus. Not as much of one as taking the Lyoko Warriors will be, but a bonus all the same."
"Excuse me, Kang. That's my date," Peggy interrupted, and when Kang turned towards her, the woman in question immediately bashed him in the head with Cap's shield. "I only found out today he's alive. Rather prefer to keep it that way."
"And she's not the only one," Ulrich added as he came in to land a hard kick on Kang. Afterwards, Ulrich easily landed a quick barrage of sword slashes, which opened up a chance for Peggy to hit Kang a few more times with Cap's shield.
Captain America was not about to be left out on the action, as he quickly pulled a ventilation pipe off the roof to swing like a baseball bat and knock Kang away from the two. Kang did not stay down for long, but he did have to use his shield to pull himself to his feet again, and he did not stay standing upright for too long either. Almost immediately after Kang was on his feet again, both Starks came in with a punch of their own that clocked Kang really hard across his jaw, and left him even more disoriented than he had been before. As such, he was unable to really do anything when he next heard Aelita shout, "Hey Kang, care for a double dose of energy impact?"
When Kang did turn to the pinkette, it was only just in time to see Aelita and her mother come rushing in, each with energy fields around the fists they were planning to hit the conqueror with, and the impact of the energy infused blows easily released a powerful energy burst that likely would have set off a nearby rictor scale or two. When the smoke cleared, Kang was down on the ground, and seemed to be barely conscious, while the two pink haired women were standing over him with wide smirks. "That was impressive," Anthea complimented. "Enshrouding your energy field around your fist for a more powerful close-combat attack? How'd you come up with something like that?"
"Just something I thought of in the heat of the moment a few years ago," Aelita shrugged. "Plus, I have a friend who can do something similar normally, so that helped too."
Peggy meanwhile, was admiring something else, as she shot a playful look to Steve while examining his shield. "Say, this thing's rather useful. Maybe I should get one for myself," the brunette commented.
"If you can handle it like that, you deserve the original," Captain America smiled in reply.
While she was flattered by the sentiment, Peggy still raised it up so that she could place it back on Steve's arm, as she softly stated, "Looks better on you."
Ulrich could only roll his eyes at the two, and was now fully prepared to step in and say something to Steve about what he heard them saying back in the park, when he heard the two Starks mocking the defeated villain. "Hey Kang," Howard started.
"The Conqueror," Tony continued.
"How's that whole bury-the-Starks-plan going," Howard finished, while Tony knelt down to secure Kang, never noticing how Kang was making a slight gesture with one hand.
The two did notice when Kang's flight disk came flying towards them, and they both had the same response when it knocked their feet out from under them, leading them to fall flat on the ground, albeit in different tones of voice. "Ow."
"The only thing more annoying than one Stark is two Starks," Kang growled, having finally had enough of both Iron Man and Iron Dad.
Before Kang could fly away on his disk, Ulrich's saber came flying through one of his legs, caused him to lose balance, and made Kang fall to the ground again, where he was soon held at bay by both Ulrich's second saber, and his own weapon, the latter of which was currently being held in the hands of Peggy. "Yeah, not that we don't disagree with that opinion, but that's not quite enough for anyone here to be okay with you killing our friends," Ulrich quipped.
"So I think it's time to wave the white flag, don't you," Peggy added on with a smirk of her own.
When Kang let out a sigh, they all started to think that they were finally done with this battle, only to grow more concerned when Kang began smirking again. That concern grew even more when Kang explained why he looked as though he had still won. "You fail to see the bigger picture," Kang informed the heroes. "Margret Carter and Howard Stark coming here from the past created a time paradox. After you've been displaced long enough, everything since the time you left will disappear, including all future Starks."
As the universe were suddenly on Kang's side in proving his point, Kang's sword-rifle suddenly vanished from Peggy's hands afterwards, and Tony's left gauntlet faded out of existence almost immediately afterwards. "Kang was never actually trying to win this fight. He was just stalling us so that his paradox could take full effect," Ulrich realized.
"He's trying to wipe out all of our history, and everything we've ever done," Captain America continued.
"I'm running an algorithm. Let's see if I can calculate how long we have before the time stream is destroyed, based on how fast things are fading away," Tony reported, his HUD already running the numbers as he sent the mental commands to his computer.
"You might want to work fast, because I'd rather not see one of my friends/family members get wiped out of existence," Aelita advised, her concern as clear as day.
"I can give you the answer right now. It's too late," Kang boasted. He then looked directly at Howard as he continued to boast, "Enjoy watching your future, your past, even your own son disappear forever."
Right when Kang finished speaking, a time portal materialized behind him, and Peggy and Anthea were nearly blown off the building they were all standing on by the sudden winds that came with the portal. Thankfully, Ulrich was able to react fast enough to catch Peggy and then stab his saber into the ground so that they would not be blown away, while Aelita quickly caught her mother and then spread her wings to do the same. Determined to not let Kang win, Howard immediately rushed the conqueror, but the time traveler had already slipped through and closed his portal before Howard could even get close. Everyone was infuriated by this sudden turn of events, but not to the point where they were blinded as to what they should do to stop Kang, and Cap proved invaluable to helping them stay on point when he looked to Iron Man and asked if he had anything on his algorithm yet.
"If these numbers are right, we need to get them back to their own time by midnight tonight. Otherwise…," Tony informed everyone, though unable to finish the statement.
"Everything will be erased," Peggy ended up finish for him.
"So what do we do," Anthea asked.
"We need to get back to the park where we all first met up. That exact spot where we found each other, and we're going to need the pieces of the robot hunter that Kang had sent after my dad and Agent Carter as well," Tony answered.
Most of the group did not quite get what Tony was planning, but Aelita managed to piece together quickly enough, and was immediately turning to her adoptive brother once she had. "Ulrich, run to the tower and grab the robot legs that we brought back with us from the park. They should still be up in the main lounge."
"I'm on it," Ulrich confirmed, and he was soon gone in a burst of speed and a flash of light.
The others all started heading to the location that Iron Man had specified, but Anthea had to pause when he noticed Aelita's pace was a bit slower than the rest of theirs. "Something wrong, sweetie?"
"No, nothing," Aelita reassured her mother. "It's just…well, I'm not sure I'll ever get used to being the one who says to 'run to the tower.' That used to be what everyone else told me to do."
It did not take long for Anthea to piece together that Aelita was referring to the days of the Lyoko Warriors, and while she did not know everything about those moments of her daughter's life in great detail, it was still enough for her to lightly laugh alongside her daughter as they flew back to the park with everyone else, all of them hoping that they would be able to get Howard and Peggy back to where they belonged in history before it was too late.
It was not that much later when everyone other than Ulrich was gathered back in the park and helping Iron Man gather up the pieces of the robot hunter for whatever reason he needed them for. During that time, Peggy had managed to find and retrieve the hat she was wearing earlier, and when Anthea saw her wearing it, she had to smile a bit as she said, "Nice hat."
"Thanks. Have I mentioned that I like yours and your daughter's hair color," Peggy smiled in reply.
While she did always appreciate a compliment about her hair, Aelita knew that now was not the best time for such things. "Focus everyone. We've gotta work fast if this is going to work," Aelita informed them as she dropped the robot parts she had gathered before Iron Man, right when Ulrich had arrived with the legs. "If Iron Man's calculations are right, this is right around the exact spot where Howard and Peggy came through the portal."
"Okay, so what are the robot parts for," Captain America asked.
"Simple. There should be enough residual energy in the robot components to build a time beacon. That'll reopen the portal that brought them here, if we can finish it by midnight, which is in, you know, less than two minutes," Iron Man explained as he set to work on the robot parts, opening his mask a little so that he could breathe a little easier and not build up as much sweat as he worked.
"Why can't we just have Aelita's mom open a portal to 1949," Ulrich asked. "If she can jump across dimensions and time…"
"No, it's too risky," Anthea denied. "I can barely get the portals I create to open to an exact location as it is unless it's over a short distance. If I try to open a portal through time, there's no telling if I'll be able to place them back at the time when they left, or if they'll even end up anywhere near that timeframe. This is the best chance we have."
"If we reconfigure the core processor, we should be able to boost the transmission range," Howard noted as he knelt down on the other side of the robot to help Tony any way that he could.
"I'll have to hold it together manually," Tony cautioned, but neither Stark seemed too worried about that detail.
Other parties, however, had other concerns about all of this at the moment. "There's no reason I can't go back with you," Steve informed Peggy as he held her hand, missing the looks that Ulrich and Aelita were both throwing at him when he did.
"I'd like that," Peggy smiled in reply, but that same smile turned a sad shortly afterwards. "But your home is here now, in this century. You've become a modern Avenger, and they need you. Besides, from what I can tell, it seems that some people would not be too fond of the idea of you coming back with me."
When the Lyoko Avengers saw Peggy turn a small smile to them, they both nodded in thanks to her just seconds before both Starks let out a shout of success to let everyone know that they had managed to pull off their goal. The time portal opening up seconds later only reinforced that success, and while it was a little sad to know that Peggy and Howard were leaving, they all knew that it was for the best. Still, that did not mean that no one was going to go anywhere without a few last parting words. "Well, this has been some kind of day," Howard admitted to Tony, his smile not fading in the least. "I found out I have a…that I'll someday have a son. And he's a chip off the old block."
Tony could not have been happier to hear that coming from his dad, but he still had to let his father know of one sad drawback to this whole thing. "You won't remember any of this when you get back," Tony revealed, reminding everyone about the side effects that this kind of time travel would have on Howard and Peggy.
Howard's smile faltered a little bit upon hearing that, but he managed to keep it on for a little longer as he shrugged, "Who wants to know their future? I wanna be surprised when it happens."
Tony smiled in thanks to his dad, glad to know that he did not get his father too upset about this whole thing when he told him, but that was not going to make it any easier knowing that he was about to lose his father again. Apparently, Howard could see that in his son's eyes, because he soon stood up, pulled out his car keys as he looked over to his car, and said, "I guess I can't stay, but this can. You take care of her, and I don't mean soup her up with any of those gizmos. Some things are perfect just the way they are."
Tony could only smile as he caught the keys that his father tossed over to him, but his smile turned a little more sad as he overheard Peggy and Cap starting to exchange a final goodbye. "I wish I'd be able to remember this when I get back," Peggy told the captain. "But somehow, I think I'll know that the rest of the twentieth century will be okay."
Cap had to smile a bit in reply to Peggy, but that did not make any of this easier for him, as he still felt that he owed her at least something before they parted ways again. "Peggy, I'm sorry you still haven't gotten that dance I promised you so long ago."
Peggy could only quietly nod for a minute before she sighed, "Maybe some things were never meant to be. But don't be so down, soldier. From what I can tell, you've already found yourself a new dance partner or two. I'm just glad that they're able to watch your back as well as I can, if not better."
This time, Steve did catch how Peggy had glanced over at the two Lyoko Warriors, and he could only smile in response before he admitted, "I like to think that they're more than just that. Those two…They're practically the kids I never had."
"Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that they're the kids you haven't had yet, especially since I wasn't just talking about them," Peggy revealed. Seeing Steve's confused look, Peggy knew that she would have to be a little more direct. "What's her name?"
That was what finally clued Steve in, and he could not help but ask, "How did you…?"
"Because I just know you, Steve," was all the answer that Peggy gave.
Seeing as there was no hiding it any longer, he finally sighed and let a smile cross his face as he answered the question. "Wanda and I think you'd really like her. She's something special, just like you."
Peggy smiled a little more, albeit with a touch of sadness in between, considering that it was always hard to hear that an old flame had apparently moved on with someone else, and said, "Make sure she knows that, Captain. Every chance that you get, make absolutely sure she knows." Steve nodded in reply before the two finally exchanged a quick farewell hug. Their moment was cut short though when Peggy noticed a second portal forming behind the super soldier, and immediately cried out, "Steve!"
Cap turned just in time to see Kang emerge from the portal and then let loose a blast from his sword-rifle, and he quickly raised his shield to block the blast. It turned out that he did not need to, as Anthea and Aelita both managed to shield the whole group with a quick, defensive energy shield that blocked Kang's blast before it could make contact with the vibranium shield. When the blast finally died out, the defensive field was quickly dispersed, and everyone was ready to go another round, despite the fact that they did not have the time to deal with Kang at this point. Thankfully, it seemed that they would not need to worry about another fight, because seconds later, a figure leapt out of the portal that Kang had come through, and immediately thrust one hand out towards Kang as they shouted, "Energy Web!"
Kang could only grunt in frustration as what looked like a spider's web made of the same energy as Aelita's energy fields wrapped around him, and the figure who fired out said web then threw their free arm in the direction of the portal, made an all-too-familiar hand gesture, and fired out a regular web-line back through the portal, no doubt hoping for it to latch onto something on the other side. When the figure was in full view, everyone could see that it was a woman who was decked out in what looked like a light red-dark pink and silver variation of Spider-Man's classic costume, with the big difference being that in the place of the usual spider-emblem, there was a copy of the diagonal Lyoko emblem that Aelita wore on the chest, colored in a shade of silver, with a black, four-legged spider in the center, whose head was pointed in the same direction as the top point of the Lyoko symbol. The eyes of this woman's mask were also colored the same shade of pink as Aelita's hair, and outlined in white so as to set them apart from the rest of the mask's coloration. There was also a white belt wrapping around the woman's waist, and if one were to look a little closer, they would also see Aelita's variation of the Lyoko emblem on the buckle of said belt, only this time it was in a red and blue coloration.
"Whoa," was all that Captain America and Peggy could say upon seeing this mystery woman.
"I thought it was New Year's Eve, not Mother's Day," Ulrich commented.
"Wait, you mean that's…" Captain America started to ask.
"Yeah, that's my daughter, Arachne," Aelita breathed in surprise.
"Hey Mom," called out one Thea Schaeffer Parker, alias Arachne as she struggled to keep Kang from flying away. "Love to stay and catch up a little more, but I'm right in the middle of work at the moment." She then looked back towards the portal and shouted, "Hey, Shell-Head! Any time you want to lend a hand!"
A second later, another figure flew out from the portal, and grabbed Kang in a full-nelson, but this time, it was someone that left Tony and Howard stunned into near silence, mainly because they recognized him from the holo-image that Kang had showed them and the two Schaeffer women earlier that evening. "Is that…" Howard started to ask.
"Arno Stark," Tony finished, honestly amazed at how impressive his kid's armor appeared to be.
Unlike Arachne, Arno did not give any form of greeting to the younger version of his dad, but instead just helped to pull Kang back through the portal that they had all come from, while doing his best to ignore Kang as he shouted out, "CURSE YOU, LYOKO WARRIORS AND STARKS!"
Once Kang had been pulled back through his portal, Aelita could have sworn she saw Arachne throw her a mock-salute, and she could not help but smile and say, "That's my girl…well, someday in the future, anyway."
No one was able to comment on it, as Howard had already scooped up the recaptured Faustus and began rushing towards the portal. "No time left, Peg," Howard shouted to his partner. "We have to go!"
That prompted Peggy to rush over to the portal as well, while Tony struggled to keep the robot together long enough for both her and his dad to get back to where they belonged in history. Thankfully, his struggle became easier when Aelita and Anthea came over to help him out, so Tony was able to exchange one last farewell nod with his father before Howard turned and stepped through the portal. Peggy however had to stop short before stepping through as well, and throw back one last glance to Steve, clearly worried about both him and herself going forward from here. Sure, she knew that she would not remember any of this, but she still could not help but worry. Eventually, Cap just nodded to her, silently promising that everything would be okay for them both, and that granted him one last smile from Peggy before she tossed him the hat that she had just recovered a moment ago.
"Don't forget me, Captain," Peggy called out over the din of the crowd counting down the seconds to midnight in the distance. She then looked over to Ulrich and added, "Keep looking out for him, Samurai."
"You've got it, Agent," Ulrich nodded in reply, while Steve just smiled in thanks to Peggy for the little token she had given him to remember her by. A second later, Peggy had gone all the way through, and the portal vanished along with her in a burst of light.
Location: Code Multiverse Marvel Dimension, New York 1950
…Or at least it was now, but the odd thing was, Howard and Peggy were not entirely sure when midnight had struck, and a quick glance at their surroundings were not a huge help in recovering their surprisingly blank memories. "Weren't we just arresting Doctor Faustus," Peggy finally asked Howard as she listened to the cheering crowds that could be heard all across the city, having finally stopped looking around them for clues on what was going on. "How did we get here?"
"I…I don't know," Howard admitted, trying to puzzle out the mystery as well, along with the question of what the hell had happened to his car. He then smiled a little bit as he added, "But happy New Year, Peg. I have a feeling the future is gonna be good."
Turning towards the park, Peggy suddenly felt like she had just been staring at something or someone in that area that she knew, yet had not seen in a long time, and somehow, that feeling helped her to believe Howard's words a little more. She could not explain how or why, but whatever the reason was, she truly did think that Howard's prediction was pretty much spot on, and not only that, but it was in good hands that would keep it safe for all the future generations to come, too. Now the only other question she had was where her hat had gone. She was pretty sure that the store she kept buying them from was going to be a little frustrated to hear that she had lost another one for some unexplainable reason, or maybe they were going to be really happy about it, considering she kept going back there to get a new hat every time. Eventually, she decided to just shrug it off and help Howard transport Faustus off to lock-up. The future was not going to be all that great if they did not get such a criminal behind bars as quickly as possible, after all.
Location: Code Multiverse Marvel Dimension, New York Present Day
The cheering that they could hear from the various different crowds in the distance may not have been in celebration of their latest victory over some form of evil, but to the Avengers, it sure did feel that way after what they had been through tonight, and all of them could agree that this had turned out to be the best New Year's Eve any of them had ever had. Still, there was a concern or to that was bothering them. "Wish there was some way to know," Tony admitted. "Some proof that they got back okay."
Ulrich and Steve were both about to nod in agreement with that until the former noticed that the glove that had disappeared from Tony's arm earlier was now back again. "Well, does that work for you," Ulrich asked as he indicated the arm in question.
Tony immediately flexed his arm a little once he saw that part of his armor was no longer missing, and after feeling it out for a good long moment, he had to smirk and reply, "Yeah. That'll do."
Steve had to chuckle a little for his friend, though he was relieved that Tony was not going to be wiped out from history, at least not today, and as he was doing so, his gaze eventually wandered over to the car that Howard had left behind for his son. "That's a nice gift to remember your father by," Steve complimented.
"Hey, don't act like he's the only one who got something to remember those two by," Ulrich reminded the captain as he pointed to the hat that Peggy had left with him, earning a small blush from Steve when he did.
"Yeah, but Dad gave us something better. They both did," Tony admitted with a smile. "Time. Extra time with the people you love is the best gift of all."
No one was going to argue with Tony on that idea, but that did not mean that no one was going to stop themselves from poking some fun at him a little for it. "Wow, since when did you become the sentimental type," Ulrich teased. "I think you might be going soft, Tony."
"Hey, who're you calling soft," Tony joked in retort, drawing a round of laughter from all three boys. He then glanced over to the two girls of their gathering and asked a question that had been bothering him. "So…what happens now for Aelita's mom?"
"That's a good question," Steve agreed. Honestly, the three were more than a little worried about whether or not Anthea would, or even could stay here, since she had traveled not only across dimensions, but time as well, so they did not want to think that Aelita was going to have to say goodbye to her mother after finally reuniting with her again after so long.
Thankfully, it turned out that they did not need to worry, as Anthea came over with Aelita and said, "There's no need to worry about anything. I'm not going anywhere."
"Uh…Are you sure, Mrs. Schaeffer," Ulrich asked. "I mean, you said yourself that you traveled here from several years ago in our dimension's past."
"It may have been years ago when I left, but it was also at a time well after I had disappeared from both Franz and Aelita's lives," Anthea pointed out. "Besides, I've finally made it back to my home universe and found out that my little girl is not only here, but all grown up as well. If you think I'm going to miss even another second of her life, then you've got another thing coming." That drew smiles from all three men, while Aelita could only wrap her mother in another tight hug, all of which showed that they were more than happy to add another member to their little surrogate family, and the minute that Anthea managed to pry herself loose from her daughter, she looked to Ulrich and added, "Oh, and by the way, I don't want to hear you calling me Mrs. Schaeffer. You've been like a brother to my daughter even before she was adopted into your family, so just call me Anthea, okay Ulrich?"
Ulrich had to smile a little as he nodded in reply that, before he too wrapped both Schaeffer women in a tight, group hug, much to everyone's amusement. "Now who's going soft," Tony teased.
"Shut up," Ulrich retorted as he pulled back from the two. He then smiled to his adopted sister, and said, "Happy New Year, Aelita."
"Happy New Year, Ulrich," the pinkette nodded in reply, feeling a lot happier than she ever had in a long time, with the exception of one other special occasion.
Not wanting to be left out of the well-wishes, Tony looked towards the city that they all loved so much and said, "Happy New Year, Cap."
"Happy New Year, Tony," Steve replied just as the song "Auld Lang Syne" could be heard playing over several speakers in the distant Times Square.
That sentiment was one that all of the Avengers had to share, because this was most definitely promising to be a very great, new year for everyone, both in terms of Avengers team members, and the heroes that they were allied with. That did not mean that Ulrich was not going to tell Anthea that Aelita was engaged to someone before the night was over, but for the moment, they were all just glad to see that the world was going to continue spinning onward to the future.
AN: Wow! How about that, huh? Pretty amazing, if I do say so myself.
Ulrich: Why was I really there? It feels like I was only in it for one or two things, and then the rest of the story focused around everyone else.
AN: Sorry, that wasn't really intentional, it just worked out that way. Besides, I didn't want to zero you out on the action completely, so I included you in there. Plus, it was also to show that there were two Lyoko Warriors on the Avengers team in this series for anyone who hasn't read the main story yet.
Aelita: Excuse me. Can I just say or do something really quick?
AN: Yeah, what's up? [suddenly gets tackled in a hug from Aelita] OOF! Uh...what?
Aelita: Thanks so much for bringing my mom back to me in this.
AN: [smiles and returns hug] Hey, you don't need to thank me. [ends hug] Yeah, I brought Anthea back, because really, after all that Aelita's been through, she deserves to have that kind of reunion, and that's counting the stuff that's happened in the Code Avengers series as a whole up to this story's point in the series.
Speaking of which, in case you haven't figured it out yet by the mention of Lockjaw and Inhumans, (SPOILER AHEAD! DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT THAT!) yes, Aelita's mom is in fact from this version of the Marvel universe in this story, and not only that, but she's also one of the Inhumans. And not just any Inhumans, but the Inhuman Royal Family as well. Guess that means that Ulrich's original nickname for Aelita is a bit more literal than anyone thought huh? Because being related to royalty, does in fact make Aelita a princess of Attilan. (END OF SPOILER)
Iron Man: Gotta admit, that's going to be a real huge surprise to find out, even when we do get to that point.
AN: Assuming that many of you really believe her about it.
Captain America: What's that supposed to mean?
AN: You'll find out. Moving on, I hope you all noticed how I mentioned the locations were in the "Code Multiverse", so I will go ahead and confirm that yes, this story series is going to spawn its own little multiverse, and you'll see part of the reason why that is in just a moment.
Moving on, let's talk about the events that played out at the beginning of the chapter, namely with Anthea. Yes, that's a little Easter Egg reference to Code Lyoko Evolution, by including both Tyrone and the Ninjas, and I just had to throw it in so that you could all see why Anthea was going to be coming into the Marvel universe in this series. You didn't really think I was going to just mention that one time at the very beginning of this series and not come back to it at least a little bit, did you? I'll admit that Evolution is not my favorite season of Code Lyoko, but it did have one or two good things going for it, like the Ninjas and the addition of Tyrone as an antagonist.
Iron Man: So how come Ulrich kept getting Faustus's name wrong?
AN: Easy, it's sort of my little way at making fun of Faustus, because let's be honest, how often do people really hear about the guy? He's not exactly all that important or well known, especially not in comparison to guys like say Red Skull, Baron Zemo, Arnim Zola, Baron Strucker, Madame Hydra...you get the idea. Really, I'm pretty sure that most people don't know about him at all without watching Agent Carter, the series.
Ulrich: What about all that stuff with Kang, and all of that?
AN: I'm glad you asked. Well, to put it simply, (SPOILER AHEAD! DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT THAT!) even after the events of "New Avengers", or as it plays out in this series, that will not be the last we see of Kang. You see, there will be a third story, and possibly a fourth, depending on how things play out, or even a fifth, and in that, we will see the return of Kang, but it will be one that is similar to the Kang from Avengers Assemble. So naturally, I've got to explain why he's different from the one we saw originally in EMH. The answer is actually very simple: multiple timelines/futures. The future is always changing, and as such, that would mean that there's more than one version of Kang in a lot of different futures. We saw evidence of that when we were introduced to the Council of Kangs, ya know, so why not make it so that the Avengers only have to deal with Kang again because it's a new Kang from a different future. (END OF SPOILER)
Aelita: What about Arachne? You know, the one from the future?
AN: Right. (SPOILER AHEAD! DO NOT...oh, you get the idea) Now before anyone gets on my case about how there's already a hero in Marvel by that name, I just want to say right now...How many better names do you think there could be for a girl that has both Aelita and Spider-Man's powers? Let me tell you, I've tried coming up with something better, but I just couldn't do it. The best of what I could think of was something like Angel-Spider or Spider-Angel, and both just felt cheap, or like a ship name for the two. And yes, there will be a chapter in the future of the Code Avengers Series where Aelita and Ulrich travel to the future and meet the kids they would have with their current love interests (current as in who their love interests are at the point of the series that this one-shot was posted during. IE. Code Avengers: Cosmic). You can also expect to see a few other Avenger kids appearing in that story as well, giving us a look at the Next Avengers of this story line (END OF SPOILER).
Aelita: So, I guess that's it for the spoilers of our series, huh?
AN: Well, not quite. I figured I've made people wait long enough to get an idea of what's to come in Code Avengers: Cosmic, and considering how long it's been since I've last updated that story, and that it might be a little while before I update it again and reach the second half of that adventure...
Here's a special sneak preview of what's to come in Code Avengers: Cosmic. A little tip, you may want to either imagine or play the background music for the final trailer for Avengers Age of Ultron as your reading this. Role the trailer!...
A view of the city from overhead can be seen as a familiar voice speaks
"I was created to save the world," XANA explained as Sin steps forward to get a better look at his physical form. "People will look to the sky and see…" A modified quinjet flies upwards and into Space as XANA is speaking. "Hope."
A massive, metallic foot steps out of the shadows, and as the figure comes into view completely, Aelita and Ulrich both look on with expressions of horror, before the latter's changes to a snarling glare. "I'll correct this illogical idea first."Numerous, massive robots seem to spring out from the ground while multiple, robotic duplicates of XANA's monsters appear to defend them. "There's only one true path to peace…Their extinction."
From the Studio of lyokoMARVELanime…
Avengers Mansion can be seen before the view pans into the Assembly Hall where Aelita is tirelessly working, with several concerned-looking Avengers in the background.
"My father wanted to create a utopian world where we could escape to from his enemies and live together forever," Aelita is heard saying before she is seen with a very angry look on her face. "He had no idea that in the process, he would create something so terrible."
"An artificial intelligence," Hank Pym guessed.
Mecha-Tarantulas, Mecha-Krabs, Mecha-Hornets, and multiple other mecha versions of XANA's monsters erupt out from beneath the streets of Sokovia along with X.A.N.A.'s original robotic soldiers as people run scared in an attempt to get away. "XANA is nothing more than a virus that needs to be wiped out," Aelita is heard snarling in vengeful anger.
Two slashes are made in a door/wall before their kicked in by a furious looking Sprint Samurai, who's sabers almost seem to be glowing red as if to emphasize his fury. "I am so sick and tired of watching others pay for our constant failure to get rid of one bad program," Ulrich is heard almost roaring in anger.
"Fighting XANA has been my job long before it was anyone else's," Aelita angrily shouts, clearly having snapped. "Is it so wrong that I just want to finish that job so I can get on with my life?!"
Scene cuts to black for a moment before it opens back into the Assembly Hall where the full team is gathered again. "It's not just your job anymore, Aelita," Wasp informs the pinkette.
"It hasn't been for a long time now," Ulrich finishes, drawing the first smile any of them have seen from Aelita in a long time.
Multiple heroes are seen gathering up equipment and tools so that they can head out. Hawkeye is grabs extra quivers of arrows; Wolverine unsheathes his claws; She-Hulk tightens her gloves; Spider-Man loads one of his web-shooters; Black Widow straps on one of her stinger bracelets; Thor stands by as he watches the dwarf king bestow new sabers onto Ulrich; Captain America slings his shield onto his back while pulling up the mask of his new suit (Avengers movie style Captain America); Iron Man's helmet snaps closed, Hank pulls on a new suit; and all at once, the full team of Avengers are seen flying into battle once again.
Coming soon to the Code Avengers story…
Spider-Man is seen doing battle with Green Goblin, the latter of which has been mutated into a massive, monstrous form, before Anti-Venom suddenly leaps out while engaged in battle with Sprint Samurai and Angel Guardian.
"No matter what happens, I know that we can pull through this, just like you always have in the past," Captain America says. "You've done it before, so we can do it again, as a team."
Quicksilver suddenly rushes over to the mansion with Polaris in his arms. "If you think for one second that I'm going to let my little sisters fly into something this insane without me, then you might actually be crazy," Pietro is heard telling Wanda.
Wanda Maximoff just chuckles at her brother's comment in a show of thanks before the scene cuts to another moment that sees Ulrich battling against multiple mecha-monsters, until a familiar, purple-clad figure drops down and slashes through a few before blasting them with several energy arrows.
"And here I was thinking you've figured out how to live to the end of the day without me, old buddy," Comments one Odd Della Robbia as a blue scouter disappears from over his eye, while the man in question looks far more serious than any of his old friends ever remember him being.
"Good to see ya, Odd," Ulrich grins happily.
"I've told you, Ulrich, that's not who I am anymore," Odd starts to correct. "The name is…"
"Wild Archer," Aelita finishes.
Odd just looks at her for a minute, before he finally smirks and says, "I thought I was supposed to be the one that came up with the cool names around here."
"You're also supposed to be the one who's always smiling and joking around, but as you've pointed out, a lot's changed," Aelita points out with a smile, before all three turn to blast away more of X.A.N.A.'s forces.
Pepper is seen getting into what appears to be a suit of Iron Man armor that was specifically modified for her, a slightly excited grin starting to form on her face as the helmet closes. The scene then cuts to show Hulk and She-Hulk drop down and prepare for battle. "You ready, Jen," Hulk asks.
"I'm a little offended that you would need to ask, Cuz," Jen smirks before she delivers a devastating punch.
Spider-Man and Angel Guardian are seen battling against multiple enemies when someone dressed in an outfit that's mostly black but turns white halfway up the torso, over the shoulders, and down the arms, with a white hood and mask that has the eyes outlined in pink drops in and displays various spider-powers of her own. "Who're you," Spider-Man is heard asking. "Some kind of Spider-Woman?"
"Please," the woman scoffs. "I'm a little more original than that. Call me Ghost-Spider."
Multiple other scenes are then shown. The New Avengers (consisting of Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, War Machine, Wolverine, Scarlet Witch, Ant-Man, Aelita, Ulrich, Thing, and Daredevil) form together to battle Kang. Hulk, Thor, and Black Panther are seen battling a XANA-fied Ms. Marvel and Vision on the grounds of Kadic Academy, until Black Panther suddenly gets taken over by the evil virus. Aelita aims an energy field at the damaged form of Vision while Ulrich stands between them as he draws a saber, shocking all of the Avengers present. Captain Marvel battles against Kree forces to help the Avengers save Earth's sun. Sin is shown leading several remaining HYDRA forces against the Avengers while XANA's robots retrieve supplies that they need. Captain America, Wasp, and Hawkeye are shown standing in the scanners as they are sent to Lyoko. Aelita is seen fighting strange creatures in an alien city alongside a large, teleporting dog and a redhead in a yellow and black suit who can command the elements, and a woman with red hair that seems almost alive. Ulrich and Ava become locked in a passionate kiss on an unknown rooftop. Red Skull and Sin battle it out with Captain America and Winter Soldier. Ulrich and Aelita are seen being placed as leaders of various different teams of heroes as they charge into battle against other teams of heroes while Beyonder and an unknown, shadowy figure watch on from overhead, the former looking rather grim, while the other gives off a rather deviously smug feeling.
Scene finally stops to show the Avengers and various different allies, including Spider-Man, Black Widow, Wild Archer, Wolverine, and many more standing in the middle of Sokovia. Thor looks towards XANA's robotic body and shouts, "Is that the best you can do?!"
XANA merely laughs in reply before waving a hand to signal all of his forces to emerge all at once in a mad rush towards the team. "Ya had to ask," Captain America remarks to Thor.
Ulrich draws new sabers that crackle with lightning. Aelita charges her energy fields. Captain America bashes his shield into a few robotic attackers, while Thor smashes them with his hammer. The scene finally shifts once more to show the full team of Avengers and their various allies battling it out against XANA's forces, until it focuses on Ulrich as he races around the battlefield. "AVENGERS," Ulrich shouts as he slashes through several enemies.
"ASSEMBLE," Aelita finishes as she fires a powerful energy field at an off-screen enemy.
Code Avengers: Cosmic…The Second Half.
Ulrich and Aelita step to the forefront of the gathered Avengers, while another pair steps before what appears to be the Justice League. The other pair consisting of a young, Japanese woman, and a young man with black hair and a large sword in one hand.
Phew! Quite a bit going for the future of the story, huh? And that's not counting the more original chapters that we're obviously going to get later on. Now, I'm not too big on watching YouTube videos that pick apart a trailer to explain or theorize on various things, so I'll save you guys the trouble and not do that to you here.
Aelita: Wait! What about that last bit at the end?! With those two mystery figures! You've gotta explain that!
AN: Not really, but I can say this much for now: If you all know you're Code Lyoko facts, then you should be able to figure out who those two figures at the end of the trailer are without any problem, and then piece together how that may tie into why I'm referring to the locations in this story with Code Multiverse at the beginning.
Spider-Man: Can I just say that I'm actually a little excited to see that Ghost-Spider is going to show up? I mean, that is Spider-Gwen, right?
AN: Duh. And we'll see a little bit of Gwen Stacy's journey to hero-hood in Code Avengers: Cosmic soon enough. And then there's everything else we saw in the trailer that's likely got you all getting excited about the future of the series. Don't worry, I'll do my best to get more chapters of the story out as soon as I can, and the updates for all my other stories as well, but some may come a little sooner than others, to be honest, so please, try and be patient with me. Until then, though...
Please read and review, and I'll see ya later in 2019, fellow true believers! I say this next bit in honor of Stan Lee, who brought us so many great stories, characters, and adventures, so here's to you, Stan-The-Man. Excelsior!