The battle against Leviathan had been going badly almost from the start. This mess up was turning worse, fast, Skitter thought to herself. She had been following Levithan through the rain, trying to figure how to use her meager first aid skills to keep someone from dying.
Her attention was brought back to the fight as she quit giving CPR to the very large cape next to her.
Miss Militia was firing grenades and manually reloading in between shots. She hadn't needed to do that earlier, so these must be some sort of unusual weapon.
This was proven to be true as they exploded into golden streamers against the hunched over shape of the Endbringer. The second created some sort of point in space that started to draw in everyone within a hundred feet.
The deputy leader of the Protectorate just calmly loaded another grenade as she skidded through the water, firing again at Leviathan. And then something broke as two grenades meshed in a very unsafe way.
Far away, a golden man in a scuffed up white leotard looked up as he felt a massive dimensional breach in the direction of the city he had been heading to.
When he arrive, there was a new volcano in the center of a twenty-six mile divot in the crust. Not seeing the Endbringer, he started to freeze the lava into a new mass of solid rock while he studied the residue of the dimensional breach.
It was into one of the branches of Earth that Eden had walled off, as essentially there were dangerous to their kind if they became aware of them.
But did it matter if he was discovered now? And they might not even really notice.
Once Scion had finished with his work at stabilizing the crust, he floated off to the west. He had other things to do, to distract him from his crushing depression.
A hand made of billions of stars and planets cradled an Earth in his hands. A spark of light was frozen on the New England coast, visible from far off in space. "This should not have been allowed."
A glowing figure of yellow starlight and black abstract stood in front of him. "They are an omniversal plague, attempting to become truly infinite across all realities that they can take."
The cloaked skeleton to the one side said nothing, as was her way normally. She turned and walked off into the cosmos, as if this matter was inconsequential.
"So you will save them?" the male cloaked figure on their other side said. His hooded and masked face seemed distorted. He seemed to come to a decision. "I approve of your intercession. These parasites are attempting to stop my domain, which can not be allowed."
"As does Death, for some reason," Infinity stated in her cool, detached way.
"Death is universal, but not all Death is meaningful," Eternity noted impersonally.
Death had turned her back on the moment in time as Eternity, Infinity and Oblivion bent their powers. And instead of a massive explosion that destroyed a sleepy city in the United States, a new city appeared as if plucked in time and gently set there in such a way to not harm a single resident.
The rest they left up to the Marvels.
Leviathan paused for just a second, looking around. Off in the distance, the sun shone across the Atlantic waters as the clouds over Brockton Bay seemed to be clearing up on the horizon.
Legend had not been distracted, pummeling the Endbringer back onto the ground. Then it was charging forward to slaughter two more capes.
Skitter was wondering what it would take to bring him was when the return of the other Triumvirate members kicked the battle up a few notches. For some reason Eidolon had quit playing defense and was now unleashing strong attacks.
Glory Girl was zooming in side by side with Alexandria, both unleashing powerful punches to try and keep Leviathan off his feet or knock him down. But he was so fast that they were both swatted away.
The flying blasters with Legend at the lead were doing a good job of hammering Levithan.
Skitter was kept running from person to person by her armband, trying to help save lives. Other people with less offensive powers were helping, but they were well over one-quarter losses already.
So the arrival of a new hero was a welcome change. His red and gold armor was quite flashy and he seemed to be an Alexandria package with Blaster powers.
"Who's in charge here?" the new hero called out. His palm beams didn't see to be doing a whole lot, but that also didn't seem to worry him much.
Legend floated over even as he kept throwing beams that bent and twisted to try and knock down the Endbringer. "The Triumvirate and Protectorate are generally in charge at Endbringer fights. Who are you?"
"Iron Man of the Avengers. How hard is this thing to defeat?" Time for a different tack. A massive beam shot from his glowing chest centerpiece. It made an alarmingly small divot.
"We've only ever been able to drive it off," Legend admitted. His electric blue uniform was almost glowing as he flew and blasted.
"What's his threat rating?" Iron Man asked as he fired his chest beam in sonic cannon mode. "And name?"
"He's sank Newfoundland and devastated one of Japan's main islands; killing millions," was the blaster's bitter response. "It's the Endbringer known as Leviathan."
"Iron Man to Avengers. Class Six threat. Sending a high priority call for reinforcements. Threat has killed millions of people and has only ever been driven off by the heroes that have been fighting him," the armored warrior said even as his armor's systems sent him rocketing through the air so fast he dodged the Endbringer and friendly attacks.
Shielder was trying to block Leviathan's tail afterimage, but his shield finally shattered at the impact. He saw his death incoming when the tail bounced off of a muscled chest.
"Retreat for a bit and recover your strength," the new blue and gold wearing man said. He was the sort of hero that could pull off the look of wearing a cape majestically.
Though he did not wear a mask, for some reason.
"Thanks!" the young man said. He flew back in a wobbily manner.
Hyperion did not reply as he flung himself directly into battle, smashing a punch about six inches into the Endbringer that knocked Leviathan back twenty feet. His second punch, which he held back much less on, stopped at another six inches in and forty feet backwards.
A beam of energy blasted in and bounced, only to bend back and strike again and again. It eventually it rebounded a final time and bent to appear next to Iron Man.
"I couldn't get very deep," Spectrum said to the Avenger's co-leader. The black woman's face was quite intense as she floated in her black and white costume. She would need to absorb a lot more energy to affect this thing, it appeared.
"My sensors are showing that it's layered, each layer seems to be progressively more resilient or dense." Iron Man looked away as he flew back. "Ah, there he is. Thor, he's some sort of hydrokinetic. Remove the storm so we are less handicapped."
Another new hero had flown up at high speed, spinning a hammer (?) in one hand. The blonde nodded his head. "Aye, Iron Man. You are right that this storm helps him more than it does us." The hammer sped up as energy crackled as the purple clad figure of Eidolon watched on even as he sent green beams of energy into Leviathan.
Alexandria and Hyperion were slamming blows down, both ignoring the occasional blast that hit them. Hyperion's eyes started to glow, then lashed out with his 'atomic vision' scorching a gash into its side.
"-so we don't know which Earth we are in." Armsmaster looked up from where he was talking to Dragon. "Incoming airplane."
"Unknown design, very advanced," Dragon noted even as she kept a metaphorical eye on her sixty minute timer until her shutdown.
The Avenger's new style quinjet was quite advanced and dangerous looking. The fact that it disgorged a good dozen costume heroes that immediately leaped into battle was a shot of good news for the Parahumans.
Perhaps things were not so hopeless.
The clouds we blown away, showing the noon day sun even as more heroes were being felled by the Endbringer.
"AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!" a man in a patriotic-themed light armor with a circular shield shouted out as he led the charge. "Treat him like you would if he were the Hulk on a rampage!"
Idly, Skitter thought to herself that most superhero groups didn't bother with a battlecry. Not since that group from Japan got killed at Kyushu, if she remembered right.
Leviathan spun around, his tail lashing out a lethal arc of water. An arc of water that was broken up or dodged. Thor had landed and blasted with his hammer alongside of Iron Man, while Spectrum and Hyperion had vaporized the other half. The remaining splashes were deflected off of a shield or by several of the newcomers punching or flying through it.
Cannonball and Sunspot shared a quick grin. "Just like old times, right?" Cannonball said as he rocketed towards Leviathan.
"That's not saying good things, bro," Sunspot said.
"Less clowning around you two," Smasher called out. "We need to rescue the wounded while the heavy hitters get to work. That girl with no super strength is showing you two both up."
Which girl? Skitter thought woozily. She could use some super strength to help pull this female cape away from the fight.
The Avenger known as Manifold appeared with even more reinforcements. This time of the mutant sort.
"By the numbers, X-Men!" Storm called out. "Psylocke and Marvel Girl, get in its head and try to shut him down! Wolverine-"
The two telepaths nodded.
SHNIKT. "On it, Ororo," Wolverine said as he snapped out his claws through his knuckles. "Hey kid, fastball special!"
"My name is Armor," the Japanese girl said in complaint even as grabbed him. Her energy armor-sheath granted her pretty good strength.
Wolverine went flying, claws out. The giant beast ignore him until his claws started to tear into the outer three layers of the Endbringer.
Iron Man suddenly yelled out, "Contain him. We are about to get heavy weapon support."
Armsmaster snorted at that even as he continued to study the Endbringer. Why wasn't he fleeing? Or disengaging?
Forcefields, telekinesis and material barriers were raised around Leviathan, trapping him for just a few long moments away from anyone in melee.
A shadow suddenly swept over the area as a huge airship uncloaked right above them.
"What the fuck is that?" Bitch demanded.
And then energy weapons and missiles shot down in a tight rain of destruction.
"Hellicarrier Iwo Jima," Iron Man said helpfully. "With a full load of Mandroids, SHIELD agents and attack aircraft." The heavy cannons were not doing a lot of damage, even if they were pinning the Endbringer down for a second. That canon should be reaching thermal shutdown right about now-
The beam had cut off, revealing the slightly more damaged Levitha that immediately smashed through barrier. He was barely intercepted by Alexandria, Hyperion, Smasher, M and Armor. That lasted only a second before Armor and Smasher were flung away hundreds of feet.
"You will not pass, beast," Hyperion stated grimly, lashing out with his atomic vision again.
"Thor! Let's double team him," Storm called out as she floated into the air.
"I have no need of thine assistance to summon the lightning," Thor retorted proudly.
"Thor! The X-Men are allies," Captain America shouted even as he continued to study the monster. This thing was as sturdy as major threats like Extermanis or Thanos, he hated to admit. Luckily its offensive power did not seem quite as high.
Sunspot slammed one of his solar powered fists into the Leviathan's back while the main group kept it occupied. Its tail's water echo hit him hard, and then his body was engulfed in pain as the tail hit home. His body spun through the air in a tangle of broken, shattered limbs.
"Sunspot!" Cannonball shouted out as he rocketed over to his friend and partner. His imperious flying blast ignored a blade of water from Leviathan
Thor's face had turned even more grim. This monster truly was of a power above most of the heroes arrayed here. "Come, Storm! Let us summon such a lightning bolt that even this Leviathan will flee from us in fear."
Captain America, Black Widow, Shang-Chi and Spider-Woman were all doing their best to avoid the splash and damage that made it through the heavy physical hitters while seeing what they could do to assist in the battle.. There were over a dozen capes in the air, firing everything they could at the fast moving horror as it dashed from area to area, trying to get to the physically weaker heroes.
And then Leviathan skipped across the ground, his water echo exploding the feet below Smasher and M, sending them flying through a building wall. In just a moment he charged the breach in a literal blur at Captain America.
"Scatter!" Captain America shouted as it stopped on a dime and suddenly rocketed away to the side. All of the 'street-level' heroes were trying their best to follow his order, but it was obvious they just weren't fast enough.
The huge water echo smashed through and chopped a building off at the base. The skyscraper started to come down in a spray of glass and concrete.
"Now! Come the lightning!" Thor shouted even as Storm gritted her teeth next to him.
A thirty-foot wide lightning bolt slammed home against Leviathan, blasting a fifty foot wide crater. A crater that the slightly shrunken and battered Leviathan immediately dashed out of.
"The hell?" Iron Man said to himself. "I've seen cosmic entities get knocked out by hits like that."
Then suddenly Leviathan stumbled and scrambled on the ground. His four eyes (three on one side, the last one on the other) was suddenly looking directly over at Psylocke and Marvel Girl. The ninja telepath merely pulled her bow back a little further and then unleashed a psiblast at the Endbringer's hump.
Again it stumbled, then it dashed off again and leaped over the intervening wall. In a blur that was at least a magnitude faster. In the water it shot off below the surface at supersonic speed.
"It really didn't like that attack," Legend said. "What type of energy is that?" He'd have to see if he could make some lasers that used it.
"Psionic," Marvel Girl said curtly. "We still weren't really hurting it, were we?"
"We were, but not very much. It's real bodies are elsewhere. That thing is just a war projection it uses its powers through," Psylocke said grimly.
"Psionic?" most of the Parahumans were muttering to each other as they landed and started going to help the wounded.
"Of course, we are both telepaths," Marvel Girl said, a raised eyebrow to show her disbelief at all of their shock.
"So where are you people from?" Purity asked.
Dragon's armor tromped up. "No, the correct answer is where has Brockton Bay ended up? What Earth is this?"
Armsmaster nodded at that.
"Most people refer it to Earth 616 out of the infinite Earths out there," Iron Man said as he landed.
"We call ours Earth Bet and have only had contact with one other one, Earth Aleph," Armsmaster explained. "It sounds like you might be able to help get us all home."
"Let's deal with the wounded, first," the armored co-leader of the Avengers stated up front. "SHIELD should have more hellicarriers on their way to help take charge and provide humanitarian assistance."
"They have more than one," Skitter said shock as she sat down. Her left arm hung down limply and her vision was blurry and wavering into double vision.
Off on the edge of the gathering and just around a corner, Alexandria was testing something.
"Door me."
Nothing happened.