Ladies and gentlemen, MARVELites and Lyoko Loyals everywhere, you've patiently waited and watched as many tales unfolded, but now, you're wait is over, as the sequel to Code Avengers is here at last! And now, here's your host, the man behind the first story of this series, the crafter of the crossover extraordinare that is the Gundam SEED Prime Series, along with many other titles, lyokoMARVELanime!

[audience applause]

AN: Thank you, thank you. Thank you all very much! Please, please, no autographs, is what I would say if I could give any to anyone right now.

[audience laughter]

Ah, in all seriousness though, I cannot tell you how good it is to get back to this series again. I know you're all probably expecting something new for Shield of the Cosmic Era, Chaos Hunters, or one of my other, more popular/rising in popularity titles right now, but to be honest, the ideas for this story have been begging me and banging against the walls of my mind for me to start this story, and after watching MARVEL's Ant-Man again along with reading a lot of MARVEL comics titles, and basically just indulging in a lot of MARVEL related stuff, I just had to get this out there!

I know that a lot of you are getting really anxious to see the next chapter of one of those other stories I mentioned, or another chapter for one of my stories that weren't mentioned, but I really just had to get this out there, if for no other reason, than to get it off my mind for a bit once it's gotten well underway. In the case of Chaos Hunters, I'm gonna be honest, I've hit a bit of a slump with that story, so I'm hoping that working on some of my other stories that I'll be able to work my way out of it. Besides, what better way to kick off the new year than with a new story, right? Well enough about all that. It's time to get this show on the road! Avengers, to the new story!

I do not own anything from any of either of the Code Lyoko or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.

And there came a day unlike any other, when Earth's mightiest heroes found themselves united against a common threat. On that day, they became the Avengers: the invincible, armored Iron Man; Hawkeye, the world's greatest archer; the Wakandan King, Black Panther; Thor, Prince of Thunder; the Wasp, size-changing extraordinaire; the Hulk, strongest hero there is; Ulrich Stern and Aelita Schaeffer, alias Sprint Samurai and Angel Guardian, the last Lyoko Warriors; and Captain America, the First Avenger. Assembled, they are strong, and forever, they fight as one. Avengers, assemble!

Chapter 1: Catching up with Doom

The small country of Sokovia had never been one of the largest or most profitable of nations, as even the small country of Latveria was both more well known and far better off than the small nation in the cold mountains of Eastern Europe. As such, it made for a perfect, quiet place for a major terrorist organization such as HYDRA to set up as their main base after the fall of HYDRA Island and Baron Strucker, leaving only a person known by the alias of Sin to lead the terrorists. At least, it was the perfect hiding place for HYDRA until now, if the various explosions throughout the forest leading up to the base were anything to go by. HYDRA forces were pouring out of their base in droves in order to meet the oncoming threat that was blasting its way through to them, but they were all just as quick to fall just as they were to arrive on the battlefield. Some would think that the reason for HYDRA's frantic response would be S.H.I.E.L.D., but in actuality, it was something that many HYDRA agents had come to consider a much greater threat than S.H.I.E.L.D.: the Avengers.

The first strike on the HYDRA agents had come with an arrow barrage from Hawkeye as he swooped down on his Sky-Cycle, and as he flew through the various soldiers and HYDRA tanks that had come out in response to his move, he managed to launch another arrow at a guard tower, which carried Wasp right up to the point where she could take down the HYDRA soldiers that were atop it with a hard right hook, followed by a few, point-blank stinger blasts. Wasp then vaulted over the guard rail as she shrunk down once more and flew off, just as the Hulk came crashing down on the guard tower and the tank that had just driven up alongside it, and as soon as the jade giant had charged forward into a massive number of HYDRA Dreadnoughts, Black Panther came down from the trees on some of the ones that were trying to flank Hulk, and cut them down with a few quick swipes from his claws and vibranium daggers. Black Panther then raced forward on all fours just in time to see Sprint Samurai and Angel Guardian racing in on the Overbike 2.0, with the latter firing off energy fields left and right as they raced through the battlefield, and the former focusing mostly on driving his bike while deflecting enemy fire with one of his sabers. When he drove up and off a small slope, Ulrich activated the Overbike's flight mode so that he could soar over the HYDRA tanks as he cut their weapons of with a quick swipe of his saber, while Aelita jumped off the back of the bike and spread her wings so that she could strike the enemy from above alongside Iron Man, who was unleashing a rapid barrage of repulsor blasts. After another minute or so of shooting, Iron Man spotted an opening to blast into the HYDRA Base, and immediately charged right for it, only to end up feeling like he flew right into an admantium wall a minute later.

"Shit," Stark shouted as he tumbled through the air, attempting to recover from his impact against the barrier around the HYDRA base.

"Language," Aelita reprimanded Iron Man as she continued firing energy fields at anyone foolish enough to get into her sights.

Ulrich just shook his head a little at his sister before he tapped the side of his visor and called out, "Hank, what's the view from upstairs?"

"Well, as I'm sure Tony already knows, the central building of the base is being protected by some kind of energy shield," the voice of Hank Pym replied over his comm. "Looks like whoever this Sin person is, he's got tech that could rival that of HYDRA Island at best."

"You think that's why Hill asked us to take care of this base," Hawkeye asked as he crashed his Sky-Cycle into another HYDRA tank after back-flipping off of it. "You know, since we're the ones who took down HYDRA Island?"

"Funny, the way I remember it, you, Panther, and Cap were the ones who took down HYDRA Island along with your blonde girlfriend, Canary, and didn't invite me along for the ride," Hulk grunted with a large piece of a Dreadnought's head in his mouth, due to the fact that he had torn it off said mechanized henchmen with his teeth.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Hulk," Wasp jokingly told her giant, green friend. She then spun around in mid-air as she fired numerous stinger blasts at HYDRA troops who were still charging at either her or her friends in a vain attempt to stop them before she added, "And if that is the case, then we're not really doing as much of a good job now as they did then."

"Perhaps that is because we lost the element of surprise when Iron Man decided to launch a barrage from the Quinjet's guns," Black Panther suggested after throwing a few more daggers into the enemies that had surrounded him, and the bunkers in his immediate vicinity.

"Okay, first off, that was not my idea, nor was I the one who fired the guns, Cap did," Iron Man pointed out as he ran a carpet-bombing maneuver along the outer walls of the base.

"Because he was following your orders, which came from Hulk being impatient," Ulrich argued while he set his Overbike to autopilot and then jumped off with his sabers ready. The samurai hero then somersaulted in the air before he finally brought both of his swords down in a pair of vertical slashes on another Dreadnought, and then immediately began racing around the battlefield with an additional flurry of sword swipes on every opponent he happened to come close to as soon as his feet touched the ground.

"Fine, fine, whatever," Iron Man relented on that point before he continued on with what he was saying a minute ago. "Secondly, are we really just ignoring the fact that Angel just said 'language'?"

"I know, I know; sorry," Aelita shrugged as best as she could while firing energy fields. She then dived down towards the ground as she encased her hand in an energy field, and then minute her fist impacted the forest floor, a massive shockwave of her pink, energy field erupted across the area, sending soldiers flying off their feet and into unconsciousness, and HYDRA vehicles onto their sides or their roofs. "It just slipped out. Plus, I thought Cap would've said it if he were down here. No offense Steve."

"None taken, Aelita," Captain America replied as the Quinjet swooped overhead with its guns blazing. "Although, I do kinda wish I was down there with all of you."

"Just wait until we've either gotten your shield fixed or Stark finishes that little project of his that he's been working on for you and you'll be back down here with us before you know it, Steve," Wasp assured her friend as she and Hawkeye fired on another batch of HYDRA soldiers.

Even with all their efforts on the ground and the perimeter of the base, it did not change the fact that the team still needed to take out said base and bring in any HYDRA remnants that were bunkered down inside, and the only thing stopping that from happening at the moment though was the forced field that Iron Man had finally gotten fed up with trying to blast through. "Hank, tell me you've got eyes on some type of weak point on this shield, or a power generator."

"Weak point: no. Power generator: definitely. There's one in the southwest corner tower, just a few feet from your position. There are others in each of the other corner towers, but from what I can see on my readouts, the shield will collapse if you just take out one of them."

"Copy that," Iron Man replied, and he immediately barreled towards the tower that his friend back home had mentioned. Once he was close enough, Tony righted himself so that he could fire off a blast from his unibeam, and the minute that the powerful repulsor struck, the shield came down in an instant. "Iron Man to all Avengers; the shield's down and I'm going in. I wouldn't mind some backup, though."

"I'm on my way, Tony," Wasp replied as she shot off in Iron Man's direction as fast as she could.

"What about the rest of us," Ulrich asked after he pulled his sword free from the HYDRA soldier that had just recently fallen by its blade.

"Either join up with me and Wasp or head for the rendezvous point and board the Quinjet, and take out as many HYDRA goons as you can along the way. I'll be sure to let Hill know that the job's done once I find out if there's anything in here that we don't want S.H.I.E.L.D. to have for one reason or another," Iron Man replied.

"Understood," the Avengers replied, and the quickly regrouped as Hulk and Aelita opened up a path for them by having Aelita slap an energy infused fist against Hulk's in a move that the two had come to call the Gamma Energy Burst.

Before he blasted inside with Wasp on his six, Iron Man could not help but smirk as he added, "And for gosh sake, watch your language!"

Aelita had to lightly laugh along with the others, even as she muttered, "That's not going to go away any time soon, is it?"

"Don't think so, Sis," Ulrich told the pinkette before he and Hawkeye raced for another entrance into the HYDRA Base while the others headed for where the Quinjet would pick them up.

No one had to wait long for the other group to finish up, as any remaining HYDRA troops had either fled the scene or simply surrendered, with their reasoning being simply that their opponents were the Avengers, and Tony and Wasp seemed unable to find anything of value in the base that the team would need to keep from S.H.I.E.L.D. for any reason, until the armored leader of the team finally spotted something in one of the labs that immediately grabbed his attention. "Hey Lyoko Warriors," Tony called out to the team's youngest members.

"I thought we told you guys to call us Lyoko Avengers," Ulrich remarked.

"Whatever," Tony muttered before he continued on with what he was saying. "Either way, I thought you guys should know, it looks like we've found another one."

"Wait. You don't mean…" Hawkeye started to say.

"Yep. Another group doing research on how to hurt Ulrich and Aelita," Tony confirmed. "Third one this week."

In the month that had followed the team's adventures in Asgard, the Avengers had encountered various different facilities run by HYDRA, A.I.M., or some other group that had been doing some investigations on how to hurt the two, seemingly invincible heroes from another dimension, and all-too-often, the research in question seemed to be very close to bearing fruit, a fact that scared everyone on the team quite a bit. This was not just because it was an indirect threat against their young friends by those groups, but also because of what always seemed to follow afterwards.

"Destroy it. All of it," Ulrich demanded in a near-menacing tone that indicated that he would not be hearing any arguments on the matter at all.

"Ulrich, are you sure about this," Wasp asked. She did not like the idea of someone being able to hurt two of her closest friends anymore than they did, but she knew that they understood it would be a smarter idea for them to be ready in case either of the two ever went rogue for some reason.

Unfortunately, Ulrich's answer was not necessary, as Aelita immediately snarled into her radio, "He said destroy all of it. Now."

Just as the fact that the Avengers had encountered facilities doing such research so often had become a constant thing in the recent month, so to had the fact that this would follow every time as well. Ever since the battle against Loki, Ulrich and Aelita always seemed to tense up and gain a certain edge to the way they spoke or fought whenever they heard about research in ways to hurt them, but considering what happened when Loki, Kang, and Ultron had managed to do so, none of the team could blame the two. Every time it happened, the two Lyoko Avengers seemed like they were in an unbearable amount of pain, so their reactions were reasonable. However, the fact that they were so adamant about getting rid of it all, right to the point where it seemed like they would tear through anyone who tried to go against them in order to do it, was actually rather scary.

Still, Tony did not want to argue with either of the two, as he did not want to be on the wrong end of an angry Aelita, so he did as the two had practically demanded and destroyed the research as quickly as possible, making sure that there was no trace left at all before he turned to leave the base along with Wasp, Hawkeye, and Ulrich.

"Iron Man to Avengers Mansion," Tony called out. "Mission accomplished. We'll see you when we get home Hank."

"Copy that, Tony. See you guys when you get here. Oh and Tony, Pepper called asking me to tell you that your meeting with Reed Richards later tonight is still on. Apparently, there's nothing going on with the Fantastic Four that is preventing it from happening for the first time in what seems like forever."

"Copy that, Hank, and thanks. Iron Man and Quinjet 3 out."

"Avengers Mansion out."

What none of the Avenger realized at the time though, was that a strange with deep green eyes had been watching them from the moment they had arrived in the forest to the moment that they had left, and when it saw the Quinjet finally depart, it sent out a coded signal to its master after stepping out of the shadows to reveal that it was a silver and green robot with the Latverian sigil on its chest.

The flight back to New York was much more peaceful in comparison to the mission that the team had just completed, and the only exception to this was the video conference that Tony was currently having with Maria Hill. Sure, Hill was actually much easier to deal with lately, but there were still times that she made it rather difficult for Tony to so much as tolerate her. The fact that she was now a bit more willing to ask the Avengers to help out every now and then these days did make that a bit easier though. "We appreciate your assistance in taking out the HYDRA Base, Stark, and I've already got a team rounding everyone up, so you can expect some new arrivals at either Forty Two or at a maximum security S.H.I.E.L.D. prison," Hill reported to the armored Avenger. "There's just two things that I think you should know about."

"And just what might that be," Tony asked in his best attempt to keep his slight irritation out of his voice while he rested one arm on top of his current armor's helmet. As he looked over his current suit, he made a mental note to either do some repairs or speed up work on the Mark IX armor first chance he had, because the current suit he was wearing took quite a heavy beating in the recent battle.

"For starters, our mystery HYDRA leader, Sin seems to have escaped even before you showed up there," Hill replied, rather grimly. "So while he or she is still in play, there's a chance that HYDRA could recover."

"Did you at least discover anything about this Sin person," Tony asked, hoping that Hill had some good news in regards to the mystery, remaining HYDRA leader.

"Sadly, no," Hill replied. "Every time we tried asking one of the captured HYDRA troops, the soldier in question or one of his buddies slipped in a bit of cyanide before they could talk, so we eventually just gave up trying for the moment. Second matter I wanted to discuss though was the fact that it looked like some important research was destroyed, and from what I can tell, it was done using repulsor-based technology. Care to explain that?"

"We discovered HYDRA had been looking into something that would have proven to be extremely dangerous, no matter whose hands it was in," Aelita stated as she took it upon herself to speak up in Tony's place, not that the billionaire was complaining, seeing as Aelita was actually much better at dealing with Hill than he was. "Even if it were in the hands of S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Avengers, it would've been a major threat to the world, so it made a lot of sense to destroy it. If you want to blame someone for making that decision without your consent though, you can blame me, since I was the one who made the call."

Hill just stared at Aelita through the camera on her end for a minute, until she finally asked, "You're absolutely certain that it was that dangerous?"

Aelita immediately nodded in reply, her expression never once changing from the confident one she held as she explained the matter to Hill just a moment ago. "I looked over a bit of the data myself after Tony forwarded an image of it to my Avengers ID card. It was definitely not something that should've been allowed to exist."

The acting director of S.H.I.E.L.D. said nothing in response to this for a minute, but eventually, she nodded in acceptance and said, "Alright. I'll trust your judgment on that, Aelita. Thanks again for the help."

"Any time, Maria," Aelita replied with a small smile, and with that, they closed the communication on both ends while Tony smiled at the two the entire time. If he was being perfectly honest with himself, Tony would have to say that the only thing that anyone could really attribute Maria Hill's attitude change towards the team to would be Aelita. It was no secret that the two had a small chat after the incident with Ultron, and while no one other than the two women and Ulrich knew exactly what was discussed, every one of the Avengers knew that it was definitely something that had caused something of a bond to form between the two, and that bond had inevitably allowed Hill to become a bit more open minded towards the team of heroes. Maria was still a bit touchy about the matter of costumed vigilantes, but she would no longer deny that certain heroes did do quite a bit to help out now and again.

No sooner had the video call ended that the Quinjet finally touched down in the hangar bay of Avengers Mansion, and after disembarking from their main method of transportation, the team immediately spotted Hank Pym waiting for them in a red v-neck shirt, grey pants, and a white lab coat, while holding a couple of water bottles in his hands and a smile on his face. That same smile immediately brightened up a bit when Janet broke into a bit of a run and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug, and after sharing a short kiss with his girlfriend and handing her one of the water bottles, Hank turned to the team and said, "Great job out there guys, and from what I could tell, no serious injuries or casualties either."

"Thanks Hank," Ulrich replied after deactivating his Lyoko suit and exchanging a fist bump with his pacifist friend. "But you know it's mostly thanks to you acting as our eyes and ears from here that it went so well. Just don't start thinking that I'm gonna stop feeling like I'm back on Lyoko with Jeremy shouting down at me every time you call out to us with that kind of tactical info."

Hank just chuckled at Ulrich's comment as everyone thought back to the day when Hank told the team what he wanted to do for the Avengers from now on. After thinking over what Ulrich had talked with him about before the whole mess in Asgard, Hank decided that, while he would not be quitting the Avengers completely, he was also not going to do any more field work unless it was absolutely necessary. That was why he announced that he was hanging up the Ant-Man suit and then volunteered to act as an additional support specialist for the team in addition to J.A.R.V.I.S., which proved to be a great help to the Avengers, as Hank had proven he was able to help them in ways that the computer butler had never managed to before, and having someone who couldn't be hacked or shut down like the AI could be act as that kind of support for the team was also a big bonus. Aelita and Ulrich had often joked a bit about how much like their late friend and former Lyoko Warrior leader, Jeremy Hank had become in his new role, but it was mostly due to the fact that it was actually quite true.

Everyone had to smile a little at the small moment that the two were having, until Tony stepped in to interrupt and ask, "I'm going to change armors real quick before heading over to Four Freedoms Plaza. Hank, you want to come with?"

"No thanks," Hank politely declined, although, no one had missed the slightly desperate pleading in his voice when he said it. "I've already forwarded Reed all my latest notes in regards to our work with Ravonna, and I've got a few things I need to work on down in my lab right now that I can't leave unattended, so I'll have to pass, but give him and the rest of the Fantastic Four my regards when you see them."

Tony just shrugged in acceptance of that before turning to ask the rest of the team if any of them wanted to come with him. "I'll pass, Stark," Hawkeye immediately replied. "No offense, but I can only take but so much science speak before I end up passing out from boredom, so I'd rather stick around here and work on replenishing my supply of arrows."

Tony received similar replies from the rest of the team as well, until Wasp finally said, "I'll come with if you want, Tony. It'll give me a chance to catch up with Sue while I check on the status of Forty Two. It is my turn to do so, after all."

"Mind if I tag along, as well," Aelita asked. "I've wanted to talk a bit more with either Sue Storm or Doctor Richards since the last time we visited them. The former more so than the latter, seeing as Reed seemed like he wanted to examine me under a microscope for the majority of the time."

Janet and Tony could not help but laugh a little at Aelita's statement before nodding in agreement to let the girl come with them, and a few hours later, the three had departed for the headquarters and home of the Fantastic Four, with Tony flying off in the Iron Man Mark III, and the mansion was left to fall into a peaceful moment of quiet while the Avengers each did their own thing. The quiet did not last forever though, as almost half an hour later, the mansion's doorbell suddenly rang, and then continued ringing after no one answered it. After pausing in what he was doing to grumble a little, Hawkeye got up from his seat and went to the answer the door, only to find a pair of individuals that were decked out in large trench coats, with one wearing a large hat that hid most of his face, while the other wore a pair of dark sunglasses over his eyes, and they both had very serious looks on their faces.

"Time to settle this once and for all," the man in the sunglasses told Clint in a tone that left no room for argument.

Clint just stared at the two for a few minutes in tense silence, until he finally asked a very important question. "Is it seven o' clock already?"

"I brought the chips," the larger man in the hat stated as he held up a bag of potato chips in his large, orange, rock-like hand while his blonde friend raised a humorous eyebrow at him in response. "Let's play some cards, Avengers."

"I think they meant poker chips, buddy," the blonde commented to his friend just as Hulk and Ulrich walked into the foyer with the latter telling his large, green friend another old story from his days with the Lyoko Warriors.

The story quickly came to a halt though when Hulk saw the large man at the door and instantly narrowed his eyes in recognition as he growled, "Grimm."

A minute later, Hulk had charged and tackled the larger man in an overcoat, and another match between Hulk and the Thing had erupted on the front lawn, just as Ulrich had reached the doorway where Hawkeye and the blonde man were watching. "Yes," the blonde exclaimed as he removed his coat and sunglasses to reveal the familiar blue and black body suit worn by all the members of the Fantastic Four beneath it. "This is way better than cards. FLAME ON!"

Clint just watched in exasperation as the Human Torch flew into the fray before he finally sighed, "I should've gone with Iron Man."

"Why? So you could miss out on a chance to show up the biggest showboats on the Fantastic Four before we got to our usual poker game," Ulrich asked as he raced into the fray as well, clearly indicating that the Avengers' Poker Night with the two members of the Fantastic Four was going to be on hold for a little while longer. Ulrich may have known full well that Hulk could take Thing and Human Torch by himself, but the samurai hero never was one to let his friends face anything alone, especially if he got to have a little fun in the process.

Around the same time that Hawkeye was watching the free-for-all between Hulk, Thing, Human Torch, and Ulrich, Iron Man and the girls had just arrived on the rooftop of the Baxter Building, home of the Fantastic Four, and were immediately greeted by the loan female member of the superhero team of scientists, just as she became visible. "Sue," Wasp shouted excitedly as she ran up to hug the Invisible Woman.

"Hey Jan," Susan Storm replied just as happily when she accepted Janet's hug before turning to grant Aelita a quick hug as well. "Sorry we keep missing each other. We got stuck in Subterranea for a bit."

"That's underground right," Janet asked before scrunching up her face in disgust a minute later. "Ewe."

"And yet, it's still not as disgusting as running through the sewers to get to the factory," Aelita muttered just softly enough for only Janet and Tony to hear. This was mostly due to the fact that Aelita and Ulrich had insisted that the Avengers not tell the Fantastic Four about the fact that the twins were originally from another dimension after hearing about how obsessive Reed Richards tended to get when it came to scientific studies and discoveries. The thought of the Fantastic Four's leader learning about that fact almost always caused the two to start hearing their phones constantly ringing with calls from said scientist in their minds.

Susan just lightly rolled her eyes at her two fellow, female superheroes before turning to the Avengers leader just as he had lifted his helmet's mask. "Hi Tony," Sue said in greeting. "Reed's in his lab. He's expecting you."

"What? Mister Fantastic is in his lab ignoring you? Shocker," Tony remarked in heavy sarcasm. His tone became a little more lighthearted when he went on to add, "Why are you still hanging around with that guy when you could be with me?" That remark got him an elbow to the gut from both Aelita and Wasp, with the latter of the two quietly whimpering a little in pain since she forgot for a second that doing so would hurt her more than Tony, while Sue just smiled in an attempt to suppress her laughter at the two, and the armored hero quickly went on to stutter, "Uh, you know…as the Invisible Woman…joining the Avengers."

The three girls then just rolled their eyes in unison before Sue grabbed both Janet and Aelita's hands and said, "Tell Reed that Jan, Aelita, and I are having some girl time…assuming he notices you're there."

Tony just threw a light glare at the three women as they entered the building before following after them so that he could head for Reed's lab himself. The minute Tony arrived in the lab, he found Reed doing some work on Ravonna's condition, and after receiving a small greeting from Reed, Tony went on to tell Mister Fantastic about the whole adventure that the Avengers had in Asgard. "And so I'm explaining to Thor that Asgard is an other-dimensional realm, and not a magical fantasy land, when we detect a spike of some sort of unknown energy."

"Adjusting chronal variable to negative five-point-seven," Reed muttered before he retracted his outstretched body back into the chair the rest of him was sitting in and began typing on his computer.

Even though Tony knew that Reed was usually quite skilled at multi-tasking sometimes, he still could not help but feel like he was being ignored for the most part, which was probably just as true since Reed was known to unintentionally block out everything else around him when he was extremely focused on his work. Still, Tony continued with what he was saying, hoping that Reed was at least paying a little bit of attention as he did. "Uh…so, it turns out, that Asgard is accessible by manipulating trans-dimensional wormholes. Everything about Thor and Asgard is explainable by science, which, I've been telling everyone. Oh, and I had to forge a new suit of armor with a metal that doesn't exist in this dimension, and that you've never even seen before."

"Uh-huh," Reed nodded as he turned to another read out. "And where is that armor now?"

"It…uh…the dwarf king kept it. It was part of the deal I made with him for helping me," Tony shrugged in admittance. Reed just nodded again before he stretched himself back over to Ravonna's stasis field again, which just lead Tony to feel even more like he was being ignored, as inevitably muttered, "I should've stayed at the mansion."

What neither scientist knew was that Janet and Aelita were telling Sue about their Asgard adventure as well, while also stating that the whole thing about Thor and Asgard was magical, unknowingly going against Tony's insistent reasoning that Asgard was explainable by science and not magic. "It's true," Janet excitedly insisted. "Thor lives in a magic kingdom with a rainbow bridge, and I flew on a horse with wings!"

"I'm pretty sure that's called a Pegasus, Jan," Aelita commented to her size-changing, big-sister figure while said size-changer slid her Avengers ID card through the slot that would grant them access to the Negative Zone prison of Forty Two.

"It's full of elves, and giants, and a big magic tree," Janet carried on like Aelita had not said anything.

"Which I purged of Loki's evil influence. Not as fun as it sounds, by the way. I was exhausted afterwards," Aelita added in once again, this time getting a nod of acknowledgement from the other two.

"We're still tracking down the Masters of Evil, but otherwise, we pretty much saved the universe," Janet finally concluded just as they came into the center of Forty Two.

"I'm impressed," Sue admitted. "The Fantastic Four have put a few bad guys away in here, but we're mostly just out exploring whatever new thing Reed's found. You Avengers though, you've been busy."

"You have no idea," Aelita giggled as she and Wasp beamed with pride.

Meanwhile, the Avengers had finally started their little poker game with Thing and Torch, and it gave them the chance to tell their two guests about the same adventure that Iron Man, Wasp, and Aelita were telling the other half of the Fantastic Four about as the game went on. As they played, one could not help but look around at the team known as Earth's mightiest heroes and note how some of the Avengers had gone through a few changes in the recent months, at least in terms of appearance. Hawkeye and Black Panther had not really changed anything about their suits, but in the case of Captain America, the super soldier had given his costume a number of notable changes. It now seemed a bit more soldier-like, and while its color scheme remained the same for the most part, it had also saw the addition of some grey to the sides of his body, and white star symbols inside of red circles on either shoulder, while the wings on his mask had been removed. Admittedly, it still did not really seem all that complete without his iconic shield, but Tony had assured everyone that he was working on a way to fix that problem. Although, Ulrich was honestly surprised when Steve said that he did not want to get his old shield repaired, even though T'Challa had said that it was possible with Wakandan help, but in the end, he figured that Steve was just thinking of it as a way to lay an old friend to rest, so he eventually let the matter drop.

Speaking of Ulrich, if one were to look right then, they would see that while the male Lyoko Avenger had not changed his superhero suit in any way at all, not that he was entirely sure if he could, he had changed his casual appearance, at least in terms of what he would normally wear either in the mansion or when he went out with the Avengers for something. About a week after the adventure in Asgard, Ulrich and Aelita had both started wearing the S.H.I.E.L.D. uniforms that Coulson's team had given to them, along with a pair of indestructible visors to hide their identities whenever they went out in said uniforms as opposed to their usual suits. The visors had actually been a small something that the X-Men were happy to provide them with after they had asked about the ones that Cyclops normally wore and if it were possible for them to have a pair of their own, while the uniforms themselves had been altered a bit as well. It was nothing too major of course, seeing as the colors of the suits remained the same, but they had replaced the S.H.I.E.L.D. badge with the Avengers' logo, and had also added the same logo to the inside of the Lyoko symbols on the jackets' chests. It may not have been an extreme change to the uniforms, but it was one that made Aelita and Ulrich really feel like they were comfortable whenever they wore them, and that helped to show just how strongly they had come to feeling like they belonged here now.

The only other real change that anyone on the team had was the fact that Hulk now wore a pair of purple pants that were made of a special material that Tony had designed which would not get the slightest rip whenever he changed from Bruce Banner into the Hulk, but beyond that, nothing else had really changed about the strongest hero there is. Though he would not say that he was complaining about the fact that he did not have to worry about going shopping for new pants all the time anymore.

"So Thor stayed in Asgard, Pym here is insisting on staying behind a computer screen and out of the action, but yeah, we pretty much saved the world. You're welcome," Clint finally concluded as everyone threw in their chips for the latest bet.

"You mean, we saved the world again, along with the entire universe," Ulrich pointed out in a manner that was almost as smug as the archer's.

"Whatever," Johnny scoffed as he looked over his cards in confidence. "The Fantastic Four saved the world this morning, before breakfast."

"Did the thing you saved the world from happen to have something to do with Reed's latest discovery, or was it actually someone else's fault this time," Hank quipped in response as he grabbed a handful of chips from the nearby bowl.

Everyone other than Johnny, Thing, and Steve had to laugh at Hank's comment, including T'Challa, who gave a quiet chuckle, while the two Fantastic Four members just scowled a bit until Steve spoke up. "The rocky fellow…he's the Thing. Which one are you again, son," Cap asked Johnny, gaining a look of confusion from both Hank and Ulrich.

"Whoa, are…are you serious," Johnny exclaimed in honest shock. "How could you not know this?! I'm Johnny! Johnny Storm, the Human Torch?"

"Ah give him a break, Torch. He's like a hundred years old," Clint told his fellow blonde in an attempt to ease his distress.

"Uh, technically he's 97, not a hundred, and he should still know this already," Ulrich pointed out.

"Ulrich's right, Cap. You've met the Fantastic Four before, so you should know who's who on their team already," Hank agreed.

"I'm just making sure that I'm remembering correctly," Steve replied. "And I also wanted to mess with the kid a little."

The two regarded this with a little bit of concern for a minute, but eventually just shrugged it off and accepted that reasoning before returning their attention to the game. "I call," Clint finally said as he revealed his hand. "Ben?"

"BOO-YAH! Full house," Thing proudly announced as he revealed his hand to everyone.

Hulk was about to lunge over the table to start another fight with Thing, when Ulrich raised a hand to stop him and say, "Hold up there, big guy. Let's see if anyone's got something to beat that before you decide to smash him, okay?"

Hulk just grunted in acceptance as he folded his own hand and waited for the others to show theirs. "Four aces," T'Challa calmly announced with a hint of pride.

"Not bad, T'Challa, but not as good as this," Ulrich smirked in reply as he revealed his own hand to everyone. "Royal Flush."

"Ah…take it," Johnny groaned in defeat along with everyone else.

"With pleasure, Johnny," Ulrich smiled as he pulled the pile of poker chips over to himself.

"That's the fourth hand in a row," Clint muttered. "How're you doing it? Seriously Ulrich, what's your secret?"

Ulrich just beamed for a minute until he finally said, "I cheat." When the two massive bruisers at the table turned to throw him suspicious glares, Ulrich immediately went on to insist, "I'm kidding! Honestly, I don't know how I'm doing so well tonight. Maybe it's just my lucky night."

"Well don't expect your luck to hold out forever," Clint promised Ulrich as he collected the cards and started reshuffling once again for the next round, all while doing his best to ignore the challenging glares that Hulk and Thing were throwing each other like everyone else. In the end though, it was a futile effort, and Clint had to groan, "What is it with you two, anyway?"

"Grimm's just sore because he's never beaten me in a fight," Hulk stated with a hint of pride.

"In your dreams, Jade Jaws," Thing immediately retorted. "I've gone toe-to-toe with stuff that'd make you wet your purple pants!"

"Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't all of the fights you two have had ended in a draw or something," Ulrich cut in.

"No, there's just been no official declaration as to who won since something always seems to interrupt right when I'm about to clobber him," Thing huffed.

"You mean right when I'm about to smash you," Hulk roared.

At that point, it started to look like the two were about to start going at it once again, simply for the sake of settling that argument once and for all, until one such interruption came about, in the form of the wall being blasted in from the outside. Clint, T'Challa, and Steve were all quick to pull their masks on while Ulrich raced out to grab Clint's quiver and bow, just in time to join the others in turning to see that their attackers were a number of large, green and silver robots.

"Something tells me that the game just got called off until further notice," Hank quipped as he moved to find shelter from the battle that was clearly about to ensue.

Around the same time, Mister Fantastic had finally paused in his work when he found himself addressing someone who was not currently in the room with him or Tony at the moment, which led him to inquire as to said person's current whereabouts. "Where's Hank?"

"Back at the mansion. He said that he had something that he was working on that he couldn't leave or something," Tony stated in repeat of what he had told Reed earlier when he had walked in and greeted Reed in the first place. At that point, Tony had finally had enough of Reed's inattention and asked, "Are you really this oblivious or are you just the dumbest man on the planet?"

"Excuse me," Reed asked in an insulted tone as he stretched his neck out so that his face was nearly right in Tony's.

"Sue Storm is way out of your league, and you're messing it up by ignoring her all the time," Tony clarified, figuring that he should address one of the most important parts of this discussion as soon as possible. "But, on second thought, if things aren't working out between the two of you, maybe…"

"I can think of fourteen different ways to seal you in that armor forever," Mister Fantastic threatened as he narrowed the distance between his face and Tony's so that there was just a bare minimum distance between the two until they were invading each other's personal space. The two held each other's glares for another few minutes, until neither of them could hold it in anymore and they both burst out laughing in good humor. This was actually something of a routine between the two of them that they tended to do from time to time, and it often served as Tony's way of telling Reed that he was getting fed up with Reed's inattention to the conversation that they were having. As he calmed his laughter, Reed pulled the rest of himself over to where his head was so that he was now standing in front of Tony, and said, "Honestly, Tony, I think Susan's actually been ignoring me the last few weeks. She's been very distracted lately."

That caught Tony a bit by surprise, as this was the first time he had ever heard of Susan Storm being distracted by anything other than Reed Richards, but neither of them had time to think on it, as an explosion suddenly erupted in the lab, knocking them both off their feet, and Tony's helmet off his head. When Tony came to, he quickly strapped his helmet back on, and pulled some of the rumble that had landed on top of Reed off of the stretching scientist, allowing Reed to reform his body back into its natural state. "Ravonna," Reed inquired, leading Tony to direct his armor's scanners to the woman's stasis tube.

"She's okay," Iron Man reported. "Stasis tube is intact. What happened? What was…?"

Another explosion served as Tony's answer, and the two scientist superheroes were quick to turn towards a hole in the wall that a number of robots had come charging out from, prompting Iron Man to open fire with his repulsors while Mister Fantastic took cover. One of the robots dodged his blast and then charged right at Tony, but Iron Man was quick to avoid the blow and grab the robot by wrapping his arm around its neck before he fired his free hand's repulsor right against the mechanized monster's head. After releasing the recently disabled opponent, Iron Man spun another one into the floor and used one of his jet boots to destroy it as well. Unfortunately, he was unable to stop a third one from grabbing him from behind, but he managed to shake it off by flying back into the wall and then elbowing it in the face. He finished the robot off with a repulsor blast, and then turned to engage another one, only to have Mister Fantastic wrap it in a tight hold with his arms and then disabled the machine by pulling out a number of chips from the circuit board in the back of the robot's head.

When the machine fell to the floor, Tony looked to his friend and said, "Looks like you've got a bit of a Doombot infestation."

Reed just growled a little in irritation, as it did not need to be reinforced that these robots were some of those that were built and employed by one Victor Von Doom, the Fantastic Four's long-time archenemies, and then said, "Victor must've found a way around the building defenses."

"No kidding," Tony quipped as he ran in front of Reed and activated a repulsor shield to block the weapons fire that the Doombots were now sending their way. Sadly, there was a slight problem with that strategy. "This old armor can't take much more of this. What is it with you and Doctor Doom anyway?"

"Honestly, some days I find myself asking that exact same question," Reed admitted.

Meanwhile, the girls had just returned from Forty Two and were making their way up to the lab so that they could meet up with Tony and Reed while Wasp was griping on the most recent subject of their little bit of girl talk. "Men are dumb. Don't even get me started about Hank," Janet grumbled to her two friends. "He keeps trying to quit the team."

"Until Ulrich and I find some way to convince him to stay, assuming that you don't do it in the way that only you can as his girlfriend, Jan," Aelita added in. She smirked a little at the sight of the brilliant blush Janet's face gained at her comment before she went on to say, "But you do have a point about men being dumb. I mean, I cannot tell you how many times Ulrich has now tried to save me when I had everything under control. I mean, I love him like my brother and all, and I appreciate the sentiment, but there are some days that he's more like an overprotective father than the older brother I never had."

"Well at least that's the only guy trouble you're having at the moment, Aelita," Sue pointed out with a smile. "Speaking of which, how're things between you and a certain web-head?"

This time, Aelita was the one who started blushing, but she did so with a fond smile before she said, "Things are just like one of his nicknames: amazing. Peter's really sweet, glad to listen, and he does his best to not keep anything from me unless he wants it to be a surprise or something, but he's still nervous about telling me some things involving his personal life, and if it's not that then it's about moving our relationship forward in some way."

"In other words, you two still haven't done the dirty deed yet, have you," Janet teased, getting a hearty laugh out of Sue as Aelita's face went on to off-set her hair color.

"That's not funny, Jan," Aelita snapped. She quickly cleared her throat in an attempt to calm herself down a bit before she continued, "I'm talking about other things, like me meeting his aunt, which I'm actually really nervous about. I mean, I know it's going to happen sooner or later, and he's actually been telling me about how his aunt's been begging him to introduce me to her at some point, but I'm just not sure if I'm really ready for that yet. You know?"

"Yeah, we get it," Sue assured Aelita. "But it's still good to hear that things are going so well for you two. It sounds like he's become really special to you."

Aelita's blush may have died down a little, but it did not fade away completely, even as she smiled at the thought of Peter Parker, the amazing Spider-Man, but before she could say anything, the three felt the explosion rock the Baxter Building. Just when they had shaken off any sense of disorientation, they all found themselves being attacked by a squad of Doombots, and they immediately leapt into action. Wasp was both the first and fastest to react, as she was firing her stingers left and right the minute she had shrunk down and taken to the air, but the Doombots moved a little too fast for Wasp's blasts to be able to keep up with them, and she was quickly forced to do everything she could to avoid being swat from the air like a fly. She managed to keep from getting hit for a while, until one of the Doombots fired its hand at her, and knocked her down to the floor, forcing her to return to her normal size out of reflex when she did.

The Doombots then prepared to move in on Wasp just as she was starting to rise again, but their efforts were all in vain thanks to a number of well placed blasts from Aelita, who had changed into Angel Guardian while Wasp was keeping Doctor Doom's mechanized henchmen busy, and a force field that Invisible Woman somehow managed to erect around herself and Wasp at just the last second. "You okay," Sue asked Janet.

"Yeah, I think," Wasp gasped in reply. "What are these things?"

"Doombots," Aelita replied as she continued her energy field barrage. "The 'mechanical guardians of Latveria', and Doctor Doom's first choice of henchmen. There's a whole file on them in the mansion's computer."

"Well would anything in that file explain why they're attacking us right now," Wasp asked in light retort.

"Not that I know of," Aelita replied. "Nothing I read would explain why Doom would send out his troops on an attack for no reason. Unless he's just doing it to finally destroy the Fantastic Four and Doctor Richards. I mean, he did shoot the Baxter Building into space once."

"Maybe, but he had a reason for that, and this attack has to have a reason to it as well," Sue reasoned as she strained to keep her focus strong so that the force field would stay up. "The only question is why he would attack now, especially with three Avengers in the building."

Before any of them could ponder this question any further, another squadron of Doombots suddenly rushed them with everything that the machines had, and Sue eventually found herself losing her concentration completely due to the noise and amount of force that was being forced against her shields, which came crashing down as a result of this loss of focus. After firing off one more large energy field, Aelita was quick to assume a position over both of her two fellow heroines and formed an energy shield of her own before using her creativity to create a few extra barriers around the three of them, but sadly, it did little good, and the Doombots eventually made it through every shield that Aelita managed to raise up and knocked out all three women. Just before Aelita lost consciousness, she managed to get a small glimpse of a woman with long black hair and extremely pale skin, in a silver and black outfit saying something into a communicator that was lost to the din of the world as it faded into black around her.

Meanwhile, the battle at the mansion had moved to the Avengers' front lawn, allowing the gathered heroes a bit more breathing room, and a bit more area for Hulk and Thing to tear the Doombots apart without worrying about causing further damage to the mansion. Hawkeye kept firing off EMP and electric arrows every chance he had, and true to his nature, he managed to hit every target with ease, while Captain America managed to evade most of the blasts that were sent his way thanks to his enhanced reflexes and agility, while only pausing to disable whatever Doombots he could when the opportunity presented itself, but there was no denying that the super soldier definitely needed a new shield, considering how much worse the fight would have gone for him if he were by himself at the moment. Human Torch was also able to lend a bit of help by blasting every enemy he could from the air while Sprint Samurai and Black Panther slashed apart any enemy that fell into their path. Eventually, Ulrich found he could not ignore Steve's predicament, and immediately raced over to slash through the Doombots that had surrounded Captain America.

With the immediately surrounding Doombots dealt with, Ulrich spun one of his sabers around in his hand and held it out to Steve as he said, "Care to borrow one of my sabers for a bit?"

"Thanks, but I think I'll manage," Steve politely declined, and just prove the point, Steve charged forward, and slammed a powerful combination of punches and kicks into another Doombot before tearing its head off with his bare hands. Ulrich stared at Steve for a minute, but eventually shrugged and returned to the action, just in time to see Hulk use the thing like a large club. The Hulk was about to throw the Thing into another half dozen of Doombots when the robots suddenly ceased their attack and froze where they were standing.

Seeing this, Johnny quickly descended from the air and rapped his knuckles against one Doombots head just to see if it would react. "Hey, no one's home," Johnny stated when the Doombot did nothing in response.

Everyone then turned to see Hulk dragging Thing across the ground towards another robot, as the rocky giant asked, "Are ya gonna let me go now, ya big…"

Hulk just growled angrily and slammed Thing down into the closest, immobile Doombot after everyone else moved away from it, leading Ben Grimm to just moan a little in slight wooziness and disorientation.

Iron Man and Mister Fantastic's battle had also moved to right outside the Baxter Building just minutes before the Doombots around them had also frozen in place, leading the two into a similar state of confusion as the other Avengers, which prompted Reed to take a closer look at his old enemy's robots. "Intriguing; they were shut down remotely, but why? What's Victor playing? He…Susan," Reed exclaimed, cutting off his voiced thoughts when he realized that his girlfriend was not there with them. He then tapped the Fantastic Four emblem on his suit's shirt and called out over its radio, "Susan, come in!"

When they did not receive any reply, Tony was quick to try and radio either Wasp or Aelita, having remembered that the three had been together when the attack hit. When that also failed, Tony immediately ordered, "J.A.R.V.I.S., connect me to Wasp and Angel Guardian's Avengers ID cards. Give me map and coordinates on their locations." A minute later, Tony's HUD was showing him the exact positions of his two teammates, which he immediately relayed to Reed. "They're on the move…at about 800 miles an hour. That's a little faster than either of their normal top speeds."

Any further thoughts on the whereabouts of the three heroines were put aside when the Doombots suddenly opened up and connected with one another through a series of green energy beams, which could only lead the two to one conclusion. "They're going to blow up. Man, Doom really hates you," Tony commented to Reed.

Reed just brushed the latter comment off as his mind quickly went to work on analyzing the explosives that the robots had been equipped with. "Look at the energy configuration," Reed stated once he had finished analyzing the situation. "They've formed a daisy chain to amplify the explosion. If my calculations are correct, the blast radius will encompass the Baxter Building."

"We have to evacuate everyone," Iron Man immediately stated, but he did not realize that Reed had not finished what he was saying when he did.

"Along with half of the city," Reed finished before he stretched over to the nearest Doombot-turned-bomb. "This is just a distraction though. Doom has Susan, Angel Guardian, and the Wasp. I'll deal with the Doombots. You go after them."

"Reed, I'm not going to leave you…" Tony started to argue, but Reed would not hear any of it, and so Iron Man immediately blasted off in the direction of the signals that Janet and Aelita's ID cards were sending out. It was only a matter of minutes before Iron Man managed to catch up with a Latverian stealth ship and then blasted inside after eliminating the Doombots that were flying alongside it for extra protection, but just as he had located his three friends, all of which were unconscious, the doors to another part of the ship opened to reveal a woman that Tony was all too familiar with.

"Lucia Von Bardas," Iron Man snarled in disgust as Doctor Doom's right-hand woman stepped into the light. "I warned your boss not to mess with me, lady, and now…"

Von Bardas did not even bother waiting for Iron Man to finish his threat before she changed her hands into a pair of guns and blasted him back out of the ship, and into the water bellow. When Tony resurfaced, he quickly ordered J.A.R.V.I.S. to start a system reboot for the armor, but before he could ask for the AI to connect him to Reed, he saw the massive flash of an explosion going off somewhere in the city. Fearing the worst, Iron Man immediately blasted off for the Baxter Building as soon as his systems were back online, only to find that none of the Doombots had blown up, and Reed and his home were both still in one piece.

"Huh. I was expecting a little more…mess," Tony commented as soon as he landed next to Reed.

"I disarmed the Doombots. Where's Susan," Reed asked after running up to Tony.

"They…got away, but I've got satellites tracking them," Tony replied, until he remembered why he was in such a hurry to get back in the first place. "If you disarmed these things, what was the big light show?"

"Reed, Ben and I just saved the city from exploding Doombots, no matter what the Avengers say. Isn't that right, Ben," Human Torch called out, drawing the two scientists' attention to the younger Storm sibling just as he, Hulk, Thing, and the Quinjet landed near them.

"Yeah, more or less," Thing replied, sheepishly. "The Avengers helped. A little. Well…a lot."

"If by 'a lot,' you mean we did everything," Hawkeye clarified as he and the others came out of the jet. "Panther slowed down the chain reaction, then Hulk smashed them all together, and threw them up over the city."

"Forgot to throw you with them," Hulk smirked at Thing, immediately getting a scowl from the rocky bruiser in reply.

"Wait, Avengers Mansion was attacked, too," Iron Man exclaimed.

"He knew Johnny and Ben were there, and he wanted them out of the way," Reed reasoned. "All to get to Susan, but why Wasp and Angel Guardian?"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down," Johnny interrupted, his increasing worry quickly showing on his face. "What do you mean, 'all to get to Susan'?"

"And what was that about Aelita," Ulrich demanded in a tone that just dared them to give him bad news. A dare that, unfortunately, Tony had to accept.

"Doom has both of your sisters and Wasp," Tony told Johnny and Ulrich.

"What?! Then what are you standing around for," Johnny demanded, angrily as his flames burst to life.

"Doom's got Suzy, we go get her back, and we clobber Doom while we're at it, once and for all," Ben hollered.

"Well you'll have to get there before me, because I intend to show Doom just what happens when you mess with the Lyoko Avengers," Ulrich snarled as he whipped out both of his sabers.

"It's not that simple," Tony interjected.

"Why the hell not," Thing and Ulrich both demanded.

"Iron Man is correct," T'Challa calmly stated in an attempt to calm everyone down before things got out of hand. "This is a trap. This is what Doctor Doom wants: for the Fantastic Four to come to him, on his terms. If you charge in, you will be destroyed."

"Plus, he's the dictator of a sovereign nation," Tony pointed out. "We go in, and we're the invaders. I can't see S.H.I.E.L.D. or the United States being very happy about that."

"So that's your big Avengers plan? Let Doom win," Johnny demanded, clearly showing that he was ready to barbeque Iron Man if he said yes. After all, he may not always show it, but Johnny still cared a great deal about his older sister.

Tony just smirked in reply as he gave Johnny the answer that the everyone was honestly hoping to hear. "I didn't say that."

Meanwhile, over in Castle Doom, Wasp finally regained consciousness for the second time since she was knocked out, and she was honestly hoping that she would not end up in the same state she did the last time she had woken up. With that in mind, Wasp just lay where she was for a few minutes before she finally groaned, "Okay, nobody shoot me."

"Somehow, I don't think that's likely to happen," Aelita's voice replied, leading Janet to sit up and turn to see the pinkette sitting inside of what looked like a large glass sphere a short distance away from her, and it did not escape Janet's notice that she was in the same position as Aelita. Wasp quickly scrambled to her feet and prepared to fire her stingers at her cage, until Aelita shouted, "No don't! If you try to use your powers to get out, you'll end up getting blasted right in your face. Trust me, I tried already, and all I can say is, my energy fields really hurt, assuming that I was hit with anything like what they're normally like."

Wasp immediately ceased the charging of her stingers and then turned to see Sue was still unconscious, prompting the size-changer to do all she could at the moment to rouse the Invisible Woman until she finally woke up as well. After giving Sue the same warning that Aelita had given her, Janet immediately turned to their not-so-gracious host, who was busily typing away on a variety of computers. "Hey…Hey! Doctor Doom, right," Wasp shouted at the armored ruler of Latveria. "You want to apologize to us before you get beaten up, or after?"

"Uh Jan," Aelita softly warned, but seeing Doom ignore her did not help Janet to listen to her friend's attempt at acting tough like she normally would in this situation.

"And don't think I've forgotten about you, Robot-Girl," Wasp told Von Bardas before she turned back to Doom. "I mean, seriously, do you really think you're gonna walk away from this? You think you're the only wannabe world ruler we've taken down? Here's a tip: putting on a skirt over your second-rate Iron Man armor; not helping." When Doom continued to ignore her, Wasp's anger just continued to build up as she continued, "What, you're too good to talk to me? I've zapped bad guys that…"

"Miss Van Dyne," Doom finally said in response to Wasp. "I am not some common criminal that can be distracted by your prattling. You are nothing to Doom, and your pathetic attempts to play mind games with me amount to exactly less than nothing. So please, stop embarrassing yourself."

"Uh…okay," Janet conceded, having not expected that response at all, especially since she was not really trying to play any mind games with Doom.

"Just ignore him, Jan," Aelita cut in. "The fact that he's talking to you to say that is kinda going against what he's saying. Besides, it's a little hard to take someone seriously when they refer to themselves in the third person." Doom just glanced at Aelita in silence for a minute, not acknowledging nor denying her words any further than that, and then looked back at the nearest computer before Aelita asked, "More importantly, what do you want? You wouldn't have gone to all this trouble for no reason, so why kidnap us?"

"I have exactly what I want, Angel Guardian," Doom replied, and he then pressed a control that raised a metal ring over the glass spheres that the three heroes were trapped in, instantly putting the three on edge until Von Bardas spoke up.

"Warning: there is an approaching aircraft…an Avengers Quinjet," Von Bardas reported as Wasp and Aelita pounded against the glass that was holding them.

"Eliminate them," Doom commanded, and a minute later, the three women found themselves forced to watch as Doom's defenses fired on their friends and Human Torch, who was flying alongside the jet. Thankfully, both survived the first attack, but the three women were completely surprised when their rescuers suddenly turned around and began a full retreat from Latverian airspace. That surprise quickly turned to concern when Doom suddenly turned and fired a blast of energy from his finger, which revealed a previously cloaked Iron Man the minute that it struck him. The girls breathed sighs of relief as Black Panther dropped in and dispatched Von Bardas before the robotic woman could attack Iron Man, and smiled with joy at the sight of Mister Fantastic and Sprint Samurai landing on the arms that held the spheres they were inside of as the two tried to free them through each of their own methods.

"What're these things made of, adamantium," Ulrich asked as he hacked away at the glass of the sphere that his adopted sister was trapped in with his sabers, only to find that he was not even scratching the glass.

The only answer that the samurai hero received was Doom summoning a number of large Doombots with a tap of the control on his wrist, and said robots then firing on his teammates just as Iron Man was standing up. "Okay, so much for avoiding an international incident," Tony remarked as he deflected the blasts with his armor's shields. "Avengers, assemble!"

A few minutes later, Thing came crashing through the ceiling, and down on a Doombot that had pulled Panther away from his fight against Von Bardas just in time to save the Wakandan king, all while shouting out his famous catchphrase. "It's clobberin' time!"

Thing's arrival was then followed by that of Human Torch and the rest of the Avengers, and it was not long after said arrival that Von Bardas was taken out of the fight by Black Panther, giving Hulk the chance to engage Doom directly. Surprisingly, Doom was able to defend himself very well against Hulk's attacks, and that shock quickly increased when the Latverian ruler blasted the jade giant out of his castle with a single blast of energy from both of his gauntleted hands. The sight of the Hulk being knocked aside so easily was more than enough for the other heroes to drop what they were doing, including any efforts to free the trapped heroines, and take out the Doombots as quickly as possible before turning their attention onto Doom himself.

"Doom, you can't win this," Iron Man declared as he landed among his fellow heroes along with the Hulk, who had not only managed to shake off his surprise at the power of Doom's attack, but was now also a lot more angry than usual at this point. "I'm going to give you one chance here. Surrender!"

Doom just looked at the gathered heroes, both in terms of Avengers and his long-hated enemies of the Fantastic Four, before he finally scoffed, "Doom does not surrender."

"First time for everything," Ulrich growled as he prepared to charge the armored dictator.

"Take him," Iron Man ordered, and those two words proved to be all that was necessary for the heroes to charge Doom with everything they had and more. The results were not what the heroes were hoping for at all, as Doom managed to shrug off their attacks without even trying, whether it be through letting them impact his shield, or using some other trick to redirect the attacks back at the heroes. When Ulrich and T'Challa tried to meet Doom in close combat, their efforts made little impact, as Doom somehow managed to best them as well, even when Ulrich was using his super sprint and Triplicate abilities to try and throw him off. By the time that they had all managed to regroup for another attack, Doom had simply walked across the room and seated himself on his throne.

"You are trespassing on Latverian soil. Leave, now," Doom warned the heroes. Before anyone could retort, the spheres that were holding Wasp, Angel Guardian, and Invisible Woman all opened up, letting Susan drop into Reed's outstretched arms, and Janet and Aelita spread their wings as they charged up to attack Doom.

"How about this instead: we kick your shinny, metal butt," Wasp shouted as she prepared to attack, until T'Challa and Ulrich raced into their paths.

"No, don't," Ulrich stated.

"Are you kidding me," Wasp demanded. "Samurai, I thought you, of all people would want to put the hurt on this cheap, Iron Man knock-off just for what he did to Angel!"

"Believe me, nothing would please me more than running a saber through this creep, but doing so now would not be smart," Ulrich reasoned.

"We have what we came for, yes," T'Challa asked, but it was clear that it was not a question. Still, the others all nodded in response, save for Reed, who was busy glaring at Doom.

"Why Victor? What did you even want," Reed asked his old friend-turned-enemy.

"You do not even see what is happening here," Doom replied, though whether or not he was mocking the heroes or giving them a cryptic warning, no one could really say.

"Enough! We're moving out people, but this isn't over," Iron Man stated as the team began to return to the two Quinjets that were flying right outside the castle.

"I agree," Doom accepted.

Feeling a need to blow off some steam at that point, Tony immediately turned his repulsors on the machine Doom had been holding his friends in and blew it up, before he smirked towards Victor and said, "We'll hold a cell for you, Doom. Count on it."

Doom just gave a light glare as the armored Avenger flew off after his teammates, until a sudden wind and a glowing saber at his throat drew his attention to Sprint Samurai, who was glaring at Doom with a look that could have killed an average man a thousand times over. "If you ever come after my sister again, I don't care how much diplomatic immunity you have, or what other forms of protection you hide behind, because I will not rest until you have paid the price. No one messes with the Lyoko Avengers like that without dealing with severe consequences, got it," Ulrich snarled in warning.

Doom just looked between Ulrich and the saber that was being held at his throat before he nodded, "I would not have it any other way. I can understand the value of family, and the bond you have with your sister, Sprint Samurai. You…have now earned my respect."

Ulrich said nothing in reply before he sheathed his saber and ran after the others, honestly not sure whether or not having the respect of Victor Von Doom was a good thing.

Many hours later, the two teams had returned to Avengers Mansion, and after a long examination to determine that Janet, Aelita, and Susan were all okay, they found themselves down in the Assembly Hall discussing why Doom had just let them all leave so easily. It was not like Doom to do something like that, so the confusion they all felt was very much understandable. Of course, some of them had other ideas on the matter.

"He chickened out. Doom knew he was beat," Johnny insisted with confidence. "That's what I think."

Everyone just ignored the Human Torch's overconfident remark, allowing Tony to ask Reed what the Fantastic Four's leader thought Doom had wanted. "I don't know," Reed admitted. "But I can't help but believe that whatever Doom was after, he got it."

That did not encourage anyone on either team very much, as it was extremely scary to think that Doom had succeeded despite their best efforts, but Hank was quick to break the foreboding atmosphere and help everyone to relax as he said, "Well, it's another problem for another day. Right now, I'm just glad that everyone's alright, so I say we just call it a night and turn in for now."

No one could argue with that sentiment, and so, after bidding farewell to the Fantastic Four, the Avengers all dispersed to turn in for the night, each ready to make sure that they would be well rested and ready for whatever would come next. Although, when she noticed Janet and Hank leaving together with small, barely hidden smiles on their faces, Aelita could not help but wonder just how much sleep some members of their team were going to actually be getting that night.

While Sprint Samurai had now earned his respect, the Avengers had greatly earned Doom's ire, and he was already formulating a number of plans on how to take them out once and for all one day, but at the moment, such matters were of little importance to him as he looked on at the results from the scans he had performed on Wasp, Angel Guardian, and Invisible Woman. While the scans indicated nothing out of the ordinary about the size-changer, the ones in the case of the lone female member of the Fantastic Four were a completely different story, as evidenced by the fact that the image of Susan Storm suddenly changed from that of a human female to one that depicted a woman with green skin, pointed ears, a large chin with several bumps, and strange, red and yellow eyes, confirming Doom's suspicions, and the reason for everything he had just done to be true. However, this discovery was not the most fascinating to Doom.

What really grabbed the Latverian ruler's attention were the results of the scans he had taken of Angel Guardian, as while they did not reveal the pink haired Avenger to be something that was not of this world like the ones of Susan Storm had, they did reveal something very interesting to say the least. The girl seemed to have a very unique energy signature flowing through and around her body, and the energy seemed to act as some sort of shield, from what Doom could tell, while also providing her with her suit and powers. The power levels that this energy was giving off alone was astonishing to Victor, but more than that was the fact that the energy itself was unlike anything he had ever seen or heard of before now, and that was saying something in and of itself, as there was very little that Doom had not seen or heard of in any realm of his studies, which served as all the more reason for Doom to be both excited and wary of just what it meant.

On the one hand, the knowledge of this new form of energy served as a reason for Doom to start studying and even attempting to recreate it for his own purposes, but at the same time, the fact that such power was more than likely in the hands of not one, but both Lyoko Avengers was also quite worrying, as he was not entirely sure just what would happen if they were to turn the full potential of that power onto him. Doom had already earned the ire of the Samurai of the young twins for certain, and after hearing of just how devastating the other was when angered enough, he was not all that eager to explore the option of recapturing either of the two so that he could perform a more in-depth study of the energy. Still, this was not something that Doom would ignore or allow to slip past him.

After staring at the scans for another minute, as well as the device that Stark had destroyed in his departure like an angry child, Doom tapped a control on his throne's armrest and stated, "Prepare my lab and have all of my best scientists and workers report there at once. We have much work to do."

AN: Well, there's the first chapter, and it looks like things are off to quite the start already, huh? The little moment at the beginning there, was basically just me trying to give this story a start off like the beginning of Avengers: Age of Ultron. I just really liked how they just jumped into the action right the start there, so I had to do the same with this story. I may actually do the same with some other MARVEL crossovers, so just a little heads up on that. And yeah, I threw in that whole "language" bit from Age of Ultron as well, but substituted Cap for Aelita, simply because of the reasons that were stated in the story. Also, for those of you who know who Sin is from MARVEL comics, I can neither confirm nor deny that it is the same person in this continuity, or even if they will make an official appearance later on without giving away too much information.

Moving on, yes, the Fantastic Four are in the dark about the real origins for Aelita and Ulrich, and can you blame them for not telling them that? Also, yes, Hank is still part of the team, but is now in a support role. Basically, Hank's become backup for JARVIS, and I guess you could say he's taken on a role similar to Jeremy's role in the Lyoko Warriors. Also, the little bit about Ulrich and Aelita being really particular about research on how to hurt them will be a bit of a thing for this story. Last story, it was all about them trying to discover their place in this new world while dealing with the tragedy that had brought them here, and now that they've dealt with that, I thought it would be good to give them a new challenge to overcome, and given how Ultron, Wanda, Kang, and Loki have now all been able to actually hurt the two, despite their suits' protection, this seemed like a good idea to go with.

Also, just a little heads-up, and the only spoiler I'm going to give for this story right now, Skrull Captain America will not be able to fool all the Avengers so easily this time around, and that little thing Doom found out at the end there concerning Aelita, that's going to come into play for a bigger role as well later on down the line.

Well, that just about covers everything for now. Onto the Preview!...

She has faced a demonic artificial intelligence, hundreds of powerful monsters and supervillains, the powers of the worst among mutant kind, and even the power of a god, but now, in the next chapter, Aelita Schaeffer Stones Stern, will find herself in the greatest challenge of her life, and facing what will likely be her greatest foe to date, as well as the one danger that she fears the most. Aunt. May. Parker. Discover what will happen when the two most important women in Peter Parker, the amazing, spectacular Spider-Man's life meet, in…Chapter 2: Meet the Parent, Aelita's Greatest Test Yet.

Yeah, I know how you're all looking at me after all the buildup there, but really, I couldn't resist doing the preview like that.

Aelita: It's not funny! I'm going to die next chapter! I'm going to totally die next chapter!

AN: Okay, well while Aelita has her little freak out about meeting Aunt May, because honestly, who can blame her? I mean, really that is one elderly woman that you do not mess with at all for multiple reasons...

Aelita: [whimper]

AN: Sorry...I'm gonna wrap this up now, so...

Please read and review, and I'll see ya next time, fellow true believers!