CHAPTER ONE
The coming of the one
There was chaos everywhere.
The attacking Chitauri were outnumbering the Avengers a thousand to one. Even with the combined powers of Iron Man, the Black Widow, Hawkeye, Hulk, Captain America, and Thor, there was little way to win. They were all in a circle, eyeing the sky and anticipating a massive fight ahead of them.
Over at Stark Tower, a solitary figure stood on the roof of the damaged building. He had a bright gold helmet with massive horns that rose up and backwards, a long green cloak, black armor, gold gauntlets and dark boots. He held in his hand a long golden staff that looked like a scythe. In the center of the largest area weapon was a bright blue ball of energy that hummed like a beast, breaking the bonds of its cage. The criminal had shoulder-length, slick black hair and pale skin. The one thing that seemed to stand out was his eyes. They were as green and as bright as emeralds and matched his cloak, but those eyes held nothing but trickery, for this monster – Loki of Asgard – was the god of it. He looked down and saw one of his slaves working on keeping the portal of his army up. The machine had taken quite a long time to construct, and a little tricky to get the materials needed for it. Luckily, Loki had taken over the mind of Dr. Erik Selvig, a genius with machines. With his help, there was little to be done but for Earth to bow to its new rulers…or die fighting to resist the inevitable. Loki smiled to himself as everything was going as planned. The heroes that had beaten him in one round were scattered, and victory – what in the name of Asgard?! Loki looked down to a street and saw a massive group of his soldiers surrounding a group of six people. One of them was massive, had extraordinary muscles, and was dark green. The Avengers! He should have done something with them a long time ago!
"Send in the rest of them!" he said into the air. In answer, more of the giant, whale like machines poured out of the portal, accompanied by hundreds of speeders and soldiers.
"Guys!" the Black Widow warned, looking up at the sky at the attacking army.
"Okay people!" Captain America said quickly. "Until we can shut down that portal, the primary objective is contain…"
BBBBRRRRAAAAZZZZZZZZZZAAAAMMMMMMMMMM!
A deafening roar and a massive explosion of red light split the air and knocked everyone to their feet except for Loki and the Avengers, Selvig fell and hit his head on the control console and was knocked out cold. The Hulk crossed his arms and stood in front of the team to protect his teammates from the oncoming avalanche of hot sparks and dust. Hawkeye grabbed Natasha and pulled her close to him, shielding her with his body. Captain America's shield went up, and Tony and Thor hit the deck. Once the debris had passed, a massive windstorm raged as a massive cyclone of red lightning shot out of the top of the Stark Tower.
"What's going on?!" Loki exclaimed. Just then another pulse of energy shot out in every direction in the form of a spherical red lightning dome that expanded massively and at an insane rate. Loki was fried when the dome hit him and he collapsed, screaming in pain as the lightning wreathed over his body.
The Avengers saw the dome of energy coming right for them, and they all ran for it. Hawkeye threw Romanoff into Stark's arms and yelled, "GET HER THE HELL OUT OF HERE! NOW STARK!" Stark took off and headed away from the dome just as the rest of the team was zapped. Stark raced away from the blast as fast as he could without hurting Natasha. Thankfully, the lightning dome disintegrated after not too long, but a piece of debris got lodged in his jetpack.
"Oh, boy!" Stark growled as he turned around from the massive squad of Chitauri that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He took off in the direction from where he had come from and flew over the outlines of his comrades unconscious or dead.
"We have to go help them!" Natasha yelled over the wind.
"Sorry, sweetheart, but we've got a bunch of creeps right on our tail! We need to run! Or fly, whatever you want, Stark replied. Just then his suit jerked violently and almost let go of Natasha. The Chitauri attackers' hovercrafts suddenly malfunctioned, and they all went in every direction, each one crashing into the ground, each other, or some building.
"I've got to drop you off here!" Stark yelled as he approached the tower. He let go and Natasha soared through the air and fell two stories before hitting the ground and rolling ferociously, diminishing her fall. She got up just in time to see Stark smash into the building and disappear in a huge fireball, and when she saw a charred body falling down, she screamed, "TONY!" She was about to burst into tears, when the whole of New York shook momentarily. As she got back up to her feet, the energy around the Tesseract was getting crazier and crazier. And there was the silhouette of someone standing there. It was a man with a very broad outline in terms of shoulders and torso and legs. Just then, voices started coming out of the center of the energy ball. The figure turned around, and both the figure and Natasha heard voices. They weren't the same, some, like the first and last one, were female, but the other voices were male. They all seemed to overlap and echo in the strangest way.
"Neo, don't go in there! The Matrix is collapsing! RUN!"
"Hal! Sinestro! Get away from that! It's Paralax again – wait, what is that? Wait – NO!"
"Enterprise to Starfleet! Are you seeing this? It's expanding – Starfleet! We're about to be consumed! No, Q! Don't try it!"
"Don't do it master! Master – no! ANAKIN!"
"Mulder! Get out of there – NO! MULDER!"
"Dave! Get out of the circle! Don't go there! What the…"
"Arwen! Lord Elrond! Get back – it's Saruman…what? No – NO!"
"Doctor! Get out while you have – NO! DOCTOR!"
Just then a massive explosion sent the figure flying and landing face first in front of Natasha. In addition, shapes started to appear in the air – thousands of figures with green energy flowing behind them, massive spaceships of some kind of design, and soldiers in the streets. She took out a small collapsible telescope and looked out onto a street. Some of the new arrivals in the street were covered in black cloaks and armor, and they had cylinders in their hands. But all of a sudden, red beams of energy like sword blades burst out of them. They were slicing right through the Chitauri like tissue paper. What kind of weapons could do that?
Just then a female in scarred battle armor, bare arms, and black ponytails leapt out of nowhere with the same kind of energy weapon the black cloaked guys had, expect hers was double bladed and had bright blue beams. High above her, the green-covered flying beings suddenly extended their hands, and out of thin air, a massive flying cannon appeared, composed of nothing more than a bright green energy. Its first blast took out a dark, menacing looking ship, crashing into the waters off of New York City.
The man at Natasha's feet started to move, and she jumped away in shock. The man's face rose and Natasha screamed in horror. His face was a complete skeleton, and she could now see that his hands were just the same.
"What the hell?!" she screamed. She was probably more dangerous in a bikini than an army of soldiers with the latest military firepower, but all of her training and courage fell out of her as she jumped away from the monstrous thing in front of her that was now getting up.
"Вы взяли мою гордость, и вы взяли мои друзья. Вы будете платить за то, что вы сделали, Иштар!" the monster snarled in Russian. "Даже как вы раздавить Вселенной, и как вы смеяться после смерти Beowolf, я остановится на ничего, чтобы отомстить за смерть моего друга!" Being Russian, Natasha immediately understood what it meant.
"You have taken my pride, and you have taken my friends. You will pay for what you have done, Ishtar! Even as you crush the universe and how you laugh after death of Beowolf, I will stop at nothing to avenge the death of my friend!" The monster looked up and saw Natasha standing over him. His screamed in fury as he leapt for Natasha. Her instincts kicked in, and her leg went up and blocked the hand swipe. Her hips then violently turned and jabbed the monster in the side of the head. The monster fell to the ground, but soon got back up and unleashed a fury of punches and kicks. Natasha was an expert at close combat, and in seconds the monster was knocked back.
WHAM! Natasha was suddenly thrown against the wall ten feet behind her in a whirl of movement. She had gone from winning the duel to slammed against the wall – and being suffocated. The monster had been on the ground ten feet in front of her. How did he cover twenty feet in the blink of an eye? Even Loki, when he tried to attack Natasha once and do some very bad things with her (of course, he got his butt kicked), was nowhere near this fast. And the monster's hand now dug into her face. Just then screaming agony burst through her mind. She saw Barton falling into lava, his flesh dissolving, and Natasha unable to help – for she had pushed him in. She saw her teammates screaming in agony as she lay helpless. The monster hissed in her ear, "Теперь Иштар, теперь вы страдаете за то, что вы сделали!" Now Ishtar, now you suffer for what you have done! The agony became worse and worse – her family burning in flames, Barton's flesh being ripped apart by her own blades, and her world falling. Finally she shrieked in a voice completely inhuman, "STOP!"
The monster's torture suddenly ended as quick as a gunshot, and his nails ripped out of her head. The monsters stumbled back into the edge-rail, where he stopped himself from falling off the side to the wreckage so, so far below. Natasha was slumped against the wall, uncontrollably crying her heart out. After a few slow, silent seconds (for the monster anyway) he slowly approached her again and put his hand on her head. Seconds later, the agony withdrew from Natasha's mind like seaweed removed from the sea, and the holes in her head were sealing up, the blood rushing like a waterfall back into her head. Within moments, the physical damage was done, but as she looked back up, the figure had leaned towards her and kissed her. Except that it wasn't the skeleton face. It was Barton's, hard, fierce, but kind. As he withdrew, the face remained the same – even a smile spread across his face – before the flesh withered away like mist, and the hard skeleton face remained. But instead of fiery eyes, the eyes had morphed into sapphires. Not sapphire blue – real sapphires. These even had super-thin pupils as white as the sun.
"Forgive me," the being half-spoke, half whispered. "I saw your mind. You are not Ishtar, but Natasha Romanoff. I have nothing against you." The creature pulled Natasha to her feet and asked, "Where is the one who carried you here?"
Natasha gasped. "Tony!"
She ran over to the balcony and looked down. She saw, sprawled over the remains of a burnt oil tanker, a mangled piece of humanoid armor. Her body was shaking uncontrollably, and the mysterious being must have sense her sorrow, for he ordered, "STAND BACK." He slowly raised one hand, and seconds later, Tony Stark was lifted to the roof level. The figure gently set down Stark, but the damage had been done. Blood was splashed across his suits, limbs were missing, twisted metal was driving into his flesh, and his skull was cracked open. Pieces of brain matter and a horrific amount of blood stained his helmet, neck, and chest.
"Prepare yourself, warrior," the figure said. Just then Tony's body lit up. Tony's mouth shot open, screaming in pain. Before Romanoff's eyes, the metal was twisting back into its proper place, flesh was binding itself back together, and even his skull and were being put back together piece by piece. Even Tony's missing legs suddenly regenerated in a glare of light. They start out as small tendrils, but the light beams coming out of what was left of Stark's legs became as thick as legs, and eventually the solidified into human legs. The armor then rebuilt itself out of thin air over Stark's body. All of this took only thirty seconds. The light in the being's eyes ceased, and the healing was done. The face was still visible, and it suddenly changed into pain.
"OW!" Tony screamed. "Okay, mother ffff…ow!"
Natasha couldn't help but cover her mouth and start to cry in joy. Tony looked around and saw Natasha in her current state and asked, "What's the matter? I knew you're tougher than that."
"They're tears of joy," Natasha half-sobbed. She immediately knelt down and kissed Tony full on the mouth.
"Tony!" a woman called. Just then a blonde woman with high heels, a ruined white shirt, and black skirt came running out of the tower. Natasha turned around and recognized who it was.
"Potts! Get over here!" she called out. She began to run towards him, but the powerful being yelled, "GET DOWN!" Gunfire of sub machine guns rang out, and Pepper hit the deck. A massive eight-foot high, twenty feet long barrier of purple, pulsing energy suddenly formed from the being's outstretched hand. Standing there on the roof were three people. Two were men, one a white man with black hair and a long trench coat with dozens of guns hanging from his body. The other was a bald black man who was also wearing a great trench coat and loaded with weapons. The last one was a woman in a leather tank top with black hair tied back. All of them had dark glasses and were holding machine guns in all six of their combined hands. When they realized that didn't work, they dropped their guns.
"Morpheus! Trinity!" the white man exclaimed. "Any ideas?" Just then the mysterious being back-bended impossibly far without falling, sensing that Natasha had pulled out her two guns and fired. Trinity and Morpheus dove for cover, but Neo was suddenly a blur. It seemed like there was at least eight see-through versions of him were all dodging the bullets – DODGING THE BULLETS!? How was that possible? And all of the Neos dodging all had their feet in the same place, making him look freakish. Once Natasha's bullets had expired, Neo was still standing there as cool as apple pie. He pulled out another pistol, but suddenly dropped it and grabbed his throat while simultaneously being lifted in the air, as well as the other two shooters. Natasha was momentarily shocked, but she felt something. A cold, dark feeling that frightened her to her bones.
A female yell split the air, and the three dropped to the ground. The man chocking them was horrendous looking. He had completely white skin – I mean white white – and piercing yellow eyes. Cracks crisscrossed his skin, and a complicated mask covered his nose and mouth. He had on a black cape, black armor, black gauntlets, heavy boots, and a dark cylinder in his hand. A red sword beam blasted out of it just as a new arrival smashed into the ground beside the machine, now sparking and humming ferociously. It was the same woman that Natasha had seen at the bottom of the tower.
"Back away, Satele!" the black-clad demon growled in a voice that could only belong to something or someone very, very evil. "This fight is already lost!"
"Who is that guy?" the man that Natasha thought was Neo exclaimed. In Tony's helmet, Jarvis warned, "Sir, there is some kind of force wrapped around that warrior. Almost as if he can control the very energy around him."
"How?" Tony asked. Just then the warrior bent his fingers like claws and his hands shook. A massive semi trailer had risen from the ground and was now aimed at almost everyone else. The heads-up display in Tony's helmet showed the energy emanating from the warrior and around, and even grabbing, the truck.
"Oh, that way," Tony said just as he shot a blast of energy at the truck out of his armored hands. The warrior ducked, and the truck fell out of the sky. His hand clenched at Tony, and then pressure alarms started sounding in Tony's helmet. Tony could feel his throat being crushed.
"What the…." Tony gasped, grabbing at his throat.
"Sir, the ener – (WHIZ) (CRACKLE) – cru$*#(% (BRRRZZRZRZ)" Jarvis tried to say, but the electrical signals were obviously being interrupted.
"Full power to thrusters!" Tony gasped. He extended his hands, and massive blasts of energy shot out of his gauntlets and knocked the warrior off the building and into the street below. Tony fell to the ground gasping for breath.
"Tony! Are you okay?" Pepper shrieked as she pulled him to his feet.
"That hurt," Tony groaned. "I do not like that guy." The double-bladed weapon wielding chick jumped off the building, yelling, "Malgus! You're mine!"
"She's kind of cute, sir," Jarvis noted.
"She's alright?" Tony asked. Just then the three gunslingers drew more guns, but before they could cock them, bright green bands of energy shot out of the roof and grabbed their wrists. More bands grabbed their chests, ankles, and thighs, and forced them to the ground. A squad of strange beings arrived. They seemed to be beings from all over the universe, but all wore bright green suits with an emblem like a circle with lines on the top and bottom. This emblem was in a white circle, and bits of white energy flowed along the countless lines in their suits, formed around their bodies with absolute precision. One of them, who looked like a yellow-skinned fish, snapped, "If you wish to continue living, I suggest you stand down and surrender! Kilowog, get the machine guns ready." Within seconds, a massive beast with terrifying muscle builds and looked like a troll grunted, and something on his hand glowed. Machine guns suddenly appeared out of nowhere, glowing bright neon green, and the barrels aimed right at them.
"Uh, can someone tell me what the heck is going on?!" Pepper exclaimed.
"Long story," said the mysterious, sapphire-eyed being. "But I can tell you that you all don't exist – not in one world, anyway."
"What are you talking about?" Tony exclaimed.
"You're all from parallel worlds – those gunmen are from one world, those guys with the laser swords are from another, and the world which the Avengers reside in is just another world. Right now, you're all coming with me, whether you like it or not."
WHOOM! The citizens of New York, who had been surrounded by war, suddenly had their eyes glared by bright white light. When they were able to look again, the war had vanished. Literally. Every single person who had been fighting was gone. Except for the police, citizens, and other humans of Earth in this dimension, the fighting had disappeared – and every off-worlder and super powered-being with it.