DISCLAIMER: I own absolutely none of the properties you will see here. All rights go to their respective owners.
The Dark Phoenix
Chapter 1
Fire.
It surrounded Rei Hino everywhere she turned. The raging inferno had engulfed the entire city of Tokyo. Buildings crumbled. The clouds went black with smoke. Corpses continued to burn. It nearly gave the illusion that the apocalypse had come to the city, but this wasn't entirely the case.
It was clear to Rei that this was merely a dream, though it barely made the scene before her any less horrifying, and she swore that she could still feel the flames burning through her skin. Such an occurance was something she was somewhat accustomed to, as she had eerily similar dreams that fortold of Pharaoh 90's onslaught of Tokyo. A sinister deed that was thwarted thanks to the Sailor Guardians, particularly Sailor Moon and Sailor Saturn. But there was a stark difference. In those dreams, she seemed to have somewhat of an understanding of what was going on. Likely thanks to her psychic abilities warning her of the coming danger.
But here, that was not the case. She had no idea just who or what was even capable of causing such carnage and devastation. And the only clues she got as to just what was going on was the source of the flames eminating from the center of the city, and a group of figures that were nearly completely shrouded in fire.
She could just barely make out the silhouettes of some of the figures, but was completely unable to tell who most of them were. There was a small, somewhat pudgy teenager that seemed to carry a pink shield, a red-haired girl that carried a lumberjack's axe and wore a black and silver combat suit and a girl with long blonde hair, a missing right arm and, strangely enough, a yellow gauntlet on her left arm with what appeared to be tiny shotgun barrels at the end of it.
Of these figures, Rei was only able to confirm the identity of one: a teenage boy that wore a white and black suit with gold highlights, a similarly colored helmet and carried a sword with what appeared to be a white tiger's head at the end of the hilt. Unmistakably, this was the White Ranger of Angel Grove back in America, but what exactly he and these other people were doing here still mistified the shrine maiden.
Then, there was the source of the flames. Floating above the center of the city was a gargantuan, bird-like creature made completely of fire gazing down at both Rei and these mysterious individuals. The guardian of love and passion could do nothing at the moment but stare back at the creature in shock and horror.
"What are you?!" she shouted at the creature. "Why are you doing this?!"
"All shall be revealed soon, my child," the creature answered before practically exploding in a massive fireball that started to engulf the entire city. The buildings, the corpses, the individuals and, soon enough, Rei herself.
It was at this point that she finally awakened from her nightmare.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away...
Drakken let out a hearty laugh as his latest machine began to hum. It had taken him weeks to appropriate the proper tools and materials he needed to put it together, not to mention going to his prime dealer for the right power core he required to get his weapon up and running and paying more than a pretty penny, but it would soon all be worth it once his plan came into fruition. He had been careful as not to arouse any suspicion from his arch-nemesis, and, by the lack of a certain teen secret agent skulking around his latest island base, he was sure that his victory was certain. Although, if she did poke her head out, he had a surprise for her this time.
"This is it, Shego!" the blue-skinned madman began. "Once the ray is fully charged, I will pull the Moon out of its current orbit, and the world leaders will be forced to name me their new ruler, or they'll be caught in a watery grave! HAHAHAHAHA!"
"I'll believe it when I see it, doc," his henchwoman brushed off as she filed her nails.
"Then I'm afraid you won't be seeing anything tonight!" a familiar voice decalred.
Drakken gritted his teeth upon hearing that voice. He slowly turned around and looked down from his balcony to see the bane of his existence standing proudly before him. It was the teen superhero known as Kim Possible, and Drakken was in no mood to have his plans be once again be ruined by his enemy.
"Ah, Kim Possible. I was wondering when you'd show up," He began. "I knew it was only a matter of time before-wait, hold on...where's that idiot boyfriend of yours?"
It took Drakken and his second-in-command aback when they realized that their enemy had come alone. Normally, she'd be accompanied by her boyfriend/sidekick, Ron Stoppable and his pet naked mole rat, Rufus. But today, neither him nor his pet were anywhere to be found.
"Ron, couldn't make it today," Kim explained. "There was this big convention in town and he really wanted to go. Besides, I've taken you two on long enough to know that I take you on all by myself."
"Oh, but that's where you're wrong!" Drakken denied in a dramatic fashion. "For this time I have prepared for your arrival with a little welcoming party!"
Before Kim could ask what her arch-enemy meant, she suddenly saw a blast of ice coming towards her out of the corner of her eye. The teen agent narrowly dodged it, only to be struck in the back by massive, metal fist. Before she could get back on her feet, what appeared to be helicopter blades swiped towards her, forcing her to roll out of the way and nearly into a female figure holding a mace over her head. Kim managed to jump back to her feet and evade the swing of the mace, but was unable to avoid being hit in the back by one Shego's plasma blasts. Dazed from the hit, Kim stumbled backward into the tight grip of a stranger's muscular arms that held her at bay.
It was then that Kim got a good look at who had ambushed her. It was gang of villains, but, aside from Shego, none of these rouges were part of her list of enemies. First, there was Cold Finger. An ice-themed villain from the city of Megadale, Australia, who was a villain to Shezow. Next, was Senior Siniestro. A mecha-suited bandit that hailed from Miracle City. Following that was the Decepticon Ranger/Triple-Changer known as Dropkick. The next villain was Dementia, who was the top assassin/field agent for the supervillain weapons dealer, Black Hat. Finally, the villain who was currently holding down Kim was a Cajun voodoo wild man known as Catfish Booray, a villain from Norrisville who would often pestered the Ninja.
Any normal person would be scared of this union of villainy, but Kim managed to keep up her bravado.
"So, how did you guys all meet?" she inquired. "Is there some kind of super-villain dating site or something?"
"Mock all you'd like, but you don't stand a chance against all of us!" Drakken declared with a laugh. "It's too bad you didn't have anyone one to back you up like I do!"
"Wish I thought of that," Kim replied.
Suddenly, the wall across from the villains exploded outward when something struck it from the other side. That something was a group of heroes who had been waiting for Kim to give them the signal to enter the room. The heroes were members of a newly formed team that was dedicated to the protection of the planet and its people: The Infinity League. The team, who had come to Kim's aide, consisted of the former Homeworld Gem, Peridot, the hero of Paris, Cat Noir, the former defender of the Multiverse and part-time sidekick now full-time heroine, Sashi Kobayashi, one of the pint-sized powerhouses of the Powerpuff Girls, Buttercup, and two recent recruits, the former mutant villains turned heroes, Bebop and Rocksteady.
"Oh, wait, I did," the teen heroine added with a sly smirk.
Quickly taking advantage of the villains' shock, Kim threw her head backwards and smacked Catfish in the face with her own head, forcing him to drop her and allow her to leap over to the rest of her team. Drakken, knowing that he needed to put the odds in his favor, rushed over to a nearby control panel and pressed a button that allowed several squads of his henchmen to enter the room.
"Stop them!" he commanded.
With that, the blue-skinned madman hurried over to his machine and began to furiously type in the necessary codes to put his plan into action. That was something that the League wasn't going to allow.
"Peridot, get to the ray's control pannel and see if you can shut it down," the secret agent ordered. "Everyone else, let's take these guys down!"
While Peridot began to ran toward the ray's control panel, the other members of the team charged toward the villains and the henchmen, who were in turn running toward them as well. The two sides smashed into one another and began to battle among themselves. Using his staff as a pole-volt, Cat Noir leapt forward and knocked out two henchmen with a double kick before knocking out a third with a swing of his pole to his head. He then jumped back when a blast of ice nearly struck him from the side. He turned to see that Cold Finger had set his sights on him.
"Here kitty, kitty..." the frost-themed teased darkly.
"Sorry, but I'm more of a summer guy, personally," Cat Noir denied.
"Then I'll just have to-" Cold Finger attempted to say.
"'Put me on ice', yeah, I know the line," the black cat hero finished. "Jeez, you ice-themed villains need some new material."
In a fit of rage, Cold Finger fired a wild blast of ice at Cat Noir, who easily evaded it. He kept dodging each blast that was fired at him until he was close enough to get in a hit with his staff that sent Cold Finger flying backwards into a wall. Recovering quickly, the sub-zero villain saw that his opponent was rushing toward him and quickly placed his hands on the ground, creating a sheet of ice on the ground in front of the Miraculous wielder. Cat Noir lost his balance and slipped on the ground, allowing Cold Finger to have enough time to fire another frost-blast at him. Luckily, the cat-themed hero managed to jump back to his feet and spin his staff in a rapid motion, thus creating a sort of shield that protected him from the onslaught of ice.
Keeping the ice beam at bay, Cat Noir slowly advanced toward Cold Finger, who was backing up until he realized that he had bumped up against the wall. In an act of desperation, Cold Finger placed one of his hands agaisnt the wall, creating a stream of ice that traveled upward toward the ceiling. Upon reaching the ceiling, the ice formed into stalagmites that fell down toward Cat Noir. The French hero caught site of the falling spikes and was forced to use his superpower in order to save his life.
"Cataclysm!" he shouted as his power surged through his arm.
Using the power of destruction, Cat Noir shattered the falling ice spikes with ease. Seeing that his attack had failed, Cold Finger tried to conjure up another frost-attack, only to knocked out from an uppercut from the cat-themed hero.
"Why don't you chill out for a while," he said, laughing at his own pun.
"Lame!" Buttercup called out.
The pint-sized powerhouse was currently busy brawling with Dropkick. The Decepticon Ranger threw a punch that sent Buttercup flying across the villain's lair. She shook it off and rocketed back into the fray, this time taking hold of her opponent before flying through the ceiling of the lair and into the skies above, all the while pummeling him with barrage of punches and kicks. It wasn't until a well-placed backhand that Dropkick managed to get Buttercup off of him.
"I'm gonna tear you apart for that!" he proclaimed as the two flew in mid-air over Drakken lair.
"Heh, you hit like a girl," the Powerpuff Girl mocked with a dark smile.
"Ooh, tough talk," the Decepticon retaliated. "Let's see you keep that up after I pop that giant head of yours, freak!"
Dropkick then transformed into his helicopter mode and flew toward Buttercup at a break-neck speed, firing a missle that Buttercup easily blocked before kicking him the cockpit. After transforming once more, Dropkick returned the hit with left jab that, this time, found its mark across Buttercup's cheek. The tiny rage machine snarled at the sucker-punch before striking another punch into his chest that sent him tumbling into the wildlands that surrounded Drakken's lair.
Seeing that Buttercup was coming toward him like a green comet, Dropkick transformed into his muscle car mode and drove backwards through the forrest while firing a volley of missiles at the young metahuman, only to have them destroyed by her heat-vision. After destroying the missiles, Buttercup roughly landed on the roof of the car, forcing the Decepticon to turn back into a robot before the Powerpuff Girl grabbed him by chest. She then forced him to the ground before grabbing him by his large, mechanical neck.
"Uhhh...Best two out of three?" he meekly asked.
Buttercup's response to that came in the form of a swift headbutt that knocked him into stasis. Meanwhile, back inside the lair, Rocksteady was busy fighting Senior Siniestro after he had taken down several squads of henchmen.
"Reach for the skies!" Siniestro said, firing a missile towards the rhino as he did so. "I'm-a gonna tear your hide up, hombre!"
Rocksteady, however, managed to grab the warhead in mid-air and squeeze it til it detonated in his hand, barely even managing to scratch him in the process.
"Is easier said than done, partner!" the man-rhino replied.
Rocksteady punched the mechanized bandito in the face, making him stumble back. However, Senior Siniestro leapt forward and tackled the mutant to the ground before delivering a series of punches that the man-rhino managed to guard against with his well-armored arms. After taking several hits, Rocksteady reached up and grabbed Siniestro's armor by back the neck. He then got up and choke-slammed him into the ground, before tearing a hole in the armor and pulling out the frightened child the bandito truly was.
He then saw that his friend, Bebop, had also finished taking down Catfish with a roundhouse kick.
"Are you alright, comrade?" he asked as he put the now incapacitated Sergio down.
"I'm good, homie," the warthog-man assured. "This backwoods freak said he wanted to put me in a stew! I wasn't having any of that!"
It was then that that the two former villains saw a large group of Drakken's underlings chasing after Cat Noir, who was slowly losing his powers. Rocksteady pulled out his mini-gun and opened fire, giving cover to his cat-themed teammate.
"Rocksteady, I told you no guns!" Kim scolded the man-rhino as she fought Dementia.
"Is okay, Comrade Possible!" Rocksteady said. "I'm only using the rubber bullets."
Kim wasn't in the proper position to argue considering that she was in a fight with a psychopath at the moment. Dementia laughed manically as she swung her mace at her opponent, only to have the teen hero not only dodge it but also strip the weapon out of her hands, toss it aside and deliver a strong knee strike to the lizard woman's stomach. Dementia hissed in pain before lashing out with a right cross that struck Kim across the face and knocked her off balance. She then kept up the attack with a quick sweep of Kim's legs that caused her to fall to the ground. Kim managed to roll out of the way before Dementia could stomp on her neck. The redheaded heroine shot her feet upwards with a kick that connected with the madwoman's chin and caused her to fall backwards while Kim got back on her feet.
Dementia, now on all fours, hissed like a lizard before charging at the teen hero. She then jumped up right at the last second and bit into Kim's shoulder, making the agent scream in pain in doing so. Kim punched the other girl off her person, who only grinned wickedly a she licked her lips.
"You taste good," the villains noted with a dark giggle.
Kim only glared back Black Hat's agent as she took a battle stance. Dementia, welcoming the fight, rushed toward her opponent again and threw another punch, only this time Kim countered it and put the lizard-woman in hip-throw that sent her tumbling to the ground. Kim then jumped on top of the villain and held her down.
"Alright Dementia, what's the sitch?" she demanded "Why are you and these other villains working for Drakken?"
"I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you," the goth answered. "In fact, how about I just kill you anyway?"
Suddenly, Kim felt a suddenly felt of surge of electrical pain course through her body that made her cry out in pain. Dementia laughed as she shoved the hero off her body and jumped back to her feet, revealing a small taser-like device in her hand that she had used to shock Kim with. She then pulled out another device and activated it. The device opened a Kraang portal behind her, only instead of being pink, it was a dark purple. Dementia blew a raspberry at Kim before jumping through the portal, which closed behind her as it did. Kim had little time to be in awe of the sight she just witnessed considering that several of Drakken's henchmen were advancing toward her, making her shake off the pain she was in and get back in the fight.
Meanwhile, while all this was taking place, Peridot had been trying to get to the ray's control panel. However, that was much easier said than done considering that she had to scurry across a warzone. Finally, she had reached the stairs that lead to the balcony were her objective was, but when she was halfway up them, she stopped when Shego jumped in front of her after doing a front-flip over the little Gem's head.
"End of the line, pipsqueak," the green-clad villain said, charging up her plasma as she did.
"No it isn't," Peridot denied. "Because we have a Sashi."
As if on cue, Sashi came flying in with air-kick that sent Shego falling over the side of the stairs.
"That's four times you owe me," the part-time sidekick informed her teammate.
"Three," the alien corrected. "We agreed to never speak of Jacksonville again. Ever."
Sashi shrugged before jumping down to face Drakken's right-hand women.
"You know, Kim's told me a lot about you," she mentioned. "I think it's all over-hyped, personally."
"Oh yeah? And what's that?" Shego questioned.
"Because Kim holds back," Sashi answered. "And I don't."
The two combatants rushed at one another. Sashi blocked a spin-kick from Shego before punching the older woman in the chest. Shego threw a charged up plasma fist at the sidekick, only for Sashi to evade it and deliever a brutal double-kick to her side. Shego kicked Sashi in the chest and knocked her off balance, but only for a second since the teen recovered and gave a strong karate chop that Shego barley managed to dodge. The villain jumped back a bit a fired a volley of plasma blasts that Sashi jumped, ducked and evaded out of the way as she rushed toward the older woman with a mid-air kick. However, Shego reached out and grabbed her outstretched leg and threw her to the ground where she then tried to plasma punch a hole in her chest. She would have succeeded had it not been for the fact that Sashi luckily rolled out of the way and jumped back to her feet.
Sashi then round house kicked Shego in the back, knocking her to the ground, but the green-clad villain recovered from the hit and fired another plasma blast, this time grazing the younger girl's side. Sashi fought through the pain and threw a series of quick punches and kicks that Shego could barley dodge before Sashi managed to get in and strike her in the shoulder, making her arm go suddenly numb.
"In case you were wonderind, that was a nerve bundle in your upper deltoid," Sashi explained. "Might not have hurt, but you're not gonna be using that arm anytime soon."
Seeing that it was a lost cause, Shego quickly pulled out a similar device to Dementia's, and like her's, it created a portal for the green-clad villain to escape through. Back with Peridot, she had finally reached the control panel, where she found Drakken finishing with his work.
"You're to late, you little toad!" Drakken shouted. "Soon, my ray will pull the Moon-"
Unfortunately, Drakken's moment of triumph was cut short when Peridot suddenly jumped into the air and landed on his face, biting and clawing at him as she did. When the rest of the team arrived to assist her, they found Drakken running around in a panic while the Gem was pulling his hair and biting his scalp.
"Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!" he cried out in hysterics.
It was then that he managed to rip Peridot off his person and toss her to the ground. Seeing that he was outnumbered, Drakken also opened his own make-shift Kraang portal.
"You're too late! My machine will pull the Moon out of orbit and I've locked the controls!" he said. "Farewell, Kim Possible! You may think you're all that, but you're still not!"
Drakken then departed through the portal, leaving the team to face the challenge of stopping the machine.
"You think you can stop this, Peri?" Kim asked.
"It'll be diffcult, but I think if I can re-route some old codes through the system's power core I can-" Peridot began to explain.
The Gem's words were cut off when a green streak suddenly crashed through the ceiling and began to tear apart the ray, effectively destroying it within seconds. Once the doomsday weapon was stopped, Buttercup, dusted her hands off and rejoined the team.
"...or we could do that," Peridot finished. "I mean, it's not like I do anything on the team or anything. Seriously, why bring me at all if Buttercup is just going to swoop in at the last second and smash it?"
"Great, now she's going to be like this for the next three hours," Sashi muttered.
"...and that's what happened," Rei finished.
Usagi needed a moment to take in everything that she had just heard as the two enjoyed a quick breakfast at the park. Her friend had often told her of the visions she had within her dreams, but this was by far the most vivid description of any dream she had. And judging by the look on her face, the leader of the Sailor Guardians could tell that the dream had visibly shaken her as well.
"I can almost still feel the fire on my skin..." Rei furthered slowly. "I've never felt power like this before."
"You think it might be someone from our past?" the fellow teen asked.
"No, this felt different," Sailor Mars denied. "This didn't feel like someone like Beryl or Metallia or even Pharaoh 90. This was was even stronger...and older."
"Older?" Sailor Moon repeated. "What do you mean?"
"I don't know how else to explain it, but that...thing felt ancient," Rei tried to explain. "Like it was as old as the universe itself."
Usagi shivered upon hearing that. Beryl, the Diamond Generals, Metallia and Pharaoh 90 were bad enough, but the thought of facing a being like the one Rei was describing was much too frightening for the young leader to imagine. However, despite the fear she felt, Usagi straightened up and quickly found her inner resolve.
"Well, whatever this thing is, we'll take it on if it does deiced to show it's ugly face around here!" she proclaimed.
"I don't think we'll be the only ones facing it if it ever shows up," Mars continued. "In my dream I saw several other people also looking at this creature. I didn't know most of them, but the one I could make out was the White Power Ranger."
That took Usagi aback. The Power Rangers of Angel Grove were legends among the growing superhero community and were something of personal idols to the Guardians as well. To hear that one of their heroes may be wrapped up in whatever this was only added to the severity of the situation.
"We need to tell the others," Usagi concluded, to which Rei nodded in agreement.
After calling the GJN to have them take the villains and what henchmen who hadn't fled they had managed into custody, Kim and her team were beamed back to the Infinity League's orbital base, Skyward Tower. In the six months since the team's formation, the League had grown to an incredible size and was still receiving new members. Together, the team had cut down supervillain activity on a global scale. Now united, the group easily took on challenges that no one single hero could stand against. From madmen to monsters, they had done much in their first six months as global team, one that was going to make sure that mankind was safe from the forces of evil.
As Kim and her team stepped off of the beaming platform, they were greeted by the person manning the beaming pad's controls, Mason 'Dipper' Pines. While Dipper had no powers of his own, he and his family had managed to take out what Dr. Director referred to as an 'Omega-Class Threat,' thus saving the whole of existence in the process. While most of Kim's team was present, Cat Noir asked to be returned to Paris before his ring ran out of charge.
"Welcome back, guys," he greeted. "How was the mission?"
"Good, but not great," Kim admitted. "I need to talk with Danny and the others. Are they in?"
"Everyone except the Ninja," the boy replied. "He's off duty."
"You mean off duty with Rena Rouge," Sashi chided. "Seriously, those two can't keep their hands off each other."
"Yeah, like you're the one to talk, Sashi," Dipper reminded. "Didn't I catch you and Penn the other day-"
"Finish that sentence. I dare you," the sidekick warned darkly.
Dipper let out a whimper before quickly backing down. While this little back and fourth was going on, Kim was speaking to Bebop and Rocksteady.
"Great work out there, guys," she thanked them. "You two are shaping up to be great heroes."
"Da! Is better then being stooge for Shredder," Rocksteady said.
"Yeah, we're total naturals at this thing, baby," Bebop agreed.
"You know, when the Turtles vouched for you guys, I was skeptical at first," the teen heroine continued. "But so far you've impressed me with how far you've come."
"We aim to please, KP," the pig-man assured. "Come on Rock, let's go get some grub over in the mess hall, I'm starving!"
"Ohh, I'm going have the food replicator make me a bowl of beef cabbage stew!" fellow mutant said with glee.
"Hey, wait for me!" Buttercup said as she followed the duo to the mess hall.
Once the two had left, It was then that Kim turned her attention to Peridot.
"Peridot, I need you and the other big-brains to try and figure out the temporal signal of those portals Drakken and the others were using," she began. "Talk to Donnie first. He has the most experience with Kraang portals."
"On it," Peridot confirmed. "Just keep Soos out of the lab this time. I don't want another repeat of last week."
"For the last time, he's sorry," Dipper defended the tower's janitor. "He didn't know that was a black hole generator."
"It was labeled 'black hole generator!'" the Gem shot back. "Just keep him out of our lab!"
With that, Peridot made her way out of the teleportation room and made her way toward the Tower's lab, which was home to the most brilliant minds within the League. Kim was about to make her way toward the meeting room to speak with the other heads of the League, but was stopped by Dipper.
"Hey Kim, can we talk real quick?" he asked.
"Sure, what's up?" she replied.
"Listen, I'm grateful that you guys made me and the rest of my family members of the League, but I was wondering when I could go out on field mission?" Dipper inquired. "I've been here six months, and I like manning the telepad's controls when Wheeljack and Jeremie aren't around, but I'd like to be a part of real mission."
"Mason, we've been over this," Kim reminded him. "You and your sister aren't ready yet. You're both still in training and aren't cleared for field-ops until you are."
Dipper grimaced at that. Ever since he and his sister had joined the team, the twins had been mostly put on tower duties. Mabel would be posted on guard duty, which she usually was bored of doing and just posted pics of her pig, Waddles, on social media all day. Meanwhile, her sibling was either manning the telepad control's or also on stand-by. Aside from those jobs, the twins were also training in hand to hand combat with their teacher, April O'Neil, who had offered to teach the twins when they became interested in learning how to fight. Although they had come far in their teachings, they were still learning the basics. [1]
"But we beat Bill Cipher without any training at all!" the boy defended. "You let Ford and Wendy go out on missions all the time and neither of them trained!"
"That's because Ford spent years in the Multiverse and your girlfriend has survival training," Kim explained. "And as I recall, you beat Bill by pure luck."
"So, that's it? Mabel and I aren't allowed out of the tower then?" Mason questioned sharply.
"Until April clears you for field missions, yes," the teen heroine affirmed. "And that's final."
Dipper let out a defeated huff at that remark. Seeing that the boy was clearly hurt, Kim gently placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him.
"I know you think it's because you think the rest of us believe you're too are young, but it's not," she assured. "A lot of us started our hero careers when we were around your age. But we have powers or training to get us through these missions and you and Mabel don't. We want you guys to be ready for anything for when we let you go out there with us."
"Yeah, I know," Mason agreed glumly. "I'll send a message to Danny and the others to join you in the meeting room."
"Okay, thanks Mason," the redhead thanked before leaving.
Once Kim had departed, Dipper pulled up his wrist-comm, a device all Infinity League members were given upon joining in order to stay in touch with other members. But instead of contacting Danny first, he instead hailed his sister.
"So, what did she say?" Mabel asked in an excited voice.
"It's still no," her twin sadly confirmed. "I'm sorry, Mabel."
"Aw, that sucks!" Mabel shouted. "I'm getting tired with all this guard duty junk!"
"Well, don't worry sis, once my little project is ready, then they'll have to let us on the field," Dipper said.
It didn't take long for Danny and the other heads of the League to join Kim in the meeting room. Granted, the Ninja wasn't there, but they had no time to wait for him. While only one member was out, the rest were present. Danny Phantom, Jenny, Shezow and the American Dragon had gathered around the table, along with the recently added seventh leader to the League, Optimus Prime. Prime was voted into the team's inner circle due to his grand leadership skills and could act as a bridge between the rest of the League and the Autobots, G.I. Joe and the Earth Corps who, while considered members of the Infinity League, worked closer with the GJN than they did the the team of metahumans due to their longer experience and military backgrounds. Once everyone was seated, the meeting began.
"Shouldn't we wait for the Ninja?" Shezow asked the others.
"We'll send him a report later. This can't wait," Kim replied.
"You mentioned in your debriefing about seeing Drakken and Shego using Kraang portals," Optimus began.
"Modified ones, but it was Kraang tech alright," Kim answered. "Peridot did a reading on the residual energy they left behind and confirmed it. She's in the lab sharing her findings with others tech-whizs right now. They'll let us know if they find anything useful."
"You said Dementia had one too," Jenny furthered.
"That's how the three of them got away," the teen agent explained. "They just cut and ran and left Cold Finger and the others behind."
"You think Drakken's working with the Kraang?" Danny questioned.
"Nah, dawg, Leo told me that the Krang lost their bite after he and his brothers drove them out of New York," the American Dragon commented before adding "Man, that was a crazy summer."
"Besides, why would they be using modded ones if they could have access to the real deal?" Shezow added.
"Unless they were stolen," Jenny surmised. "I mean, when the Kraang left New York, they must have left a ton of leftover tech behind. That stuff has gotta be worth a fortune on the black market."
"But that doesn't explain what Dementia and those other villains were doing there in the first place," Optimus said.
It was then that an idea suddenly sparked across Jenny's mechanized brain.
"Unless the guy who sold those portals to Drakken also sent those villains to be extra muscle for him too," she mentioned. "And who's the only villain we know who could do something like that?"
"Wait, you don't think..." Danny started to say until he caught onto who she was talking about. "Damnit!"
"Black Hat..." Optimus sneered.
When Drakken and Shego stepped through the other side of the portal, they knew that they were in trouble. No doubt by now Dementia, who had a head start over the other two villains, had already told Black Hat about their failure. It had been only a month since the blue-skinned scientist and his right hand woman had joined the arms dealer's Society of Supervillains in order to better combat the growing numbers that the League had been gathering since its inception. [2] While Drakken and Shego feared no man, Black Hat wasn't even human and could chill them down to their very souls with a single look. And knowing the demon's temper, they knew that they were going to really get it.
The base of the Society was located deep underground in an unknown location that only Black Hat knew of in case one of their members were captured and later interrogated by the GJN. Because of this thought proccess, they would know nothing. While the Society was still young, only three months old to be exact, it still had quite a few members to its name. Granted, aside from Drakken and Shego, the band of villains only consisted of several small time hoods or thugs. No one huge had really shown any interest in being apart of the demon's group. It was Black Hat's hope that with Drakken as an official member that other big time villains would consider signing on, but this failure would no doubt put them off.
They found Black Hat inside his private office with Dementia already appearing as though she had just finished with her report on Drakken's failure. The blue-skinned scientist attempted to smooth things over with the head of the Society.
"Now, before you say anything, I just want to-" Drakken attempted to plea.
"Stop," Black Hat said in a calm yet menacingly firm voice. "Dementia told me everything."
"Well then you know that it wasn't our fault," Shego cut in. "Seriously, the League was-"
"A probability that you should've seen coming," the demon interrupted sharply. "And, thanks to your lack of foresight, four of our members are in GJN custody!"
Black Hat slammed his fist on the table, breaking in half and, in turn, making everyone else in the room jump in fright. The arms dealer then shot up from his chair and stormed over to where Drakken and Shego were standing.
"Dropkick was my way of getting in with the Decepticons!" he continued angrily. "But with him incarcerated I have no chance of Megatron joining the Society! In fact, now I have to explain to him as to why one of his agents is missing, and it's all thanks to you two morons!"
"Well, maybe you should've sent us some heavy hitters!" Shego snapped back.
"Those were heavy hitters! It's not my fault your boss isn't smart enough to properly use them!" Black Hat snarled. "Because of your utter incompetence, you've made this Society look like a joke! This is something I expected from 505. Not from the likes of you!"
Suddenly, the arms dealer's rant came to an abrupt halt. He then turned his head upwards slightly as he seemingly stared off into space, confusing the other villains as he did. What they didn't know was that Black Hat had felt a disturbance in the universe. One that he had not felt in a long time. It was a little known fact that Black Hat was an old being, but the presence he felt was older than even he was, and far more powerful. But, rather than fear the entity, the demon only smiled wickedly.
"Uh...what are you doing," Drakken finally asked.
"Something is coming..." Black Hat replied slowly.
"What is it?" Dementia inquired.
"It's an opportunity," her boss answered before letting out an evil cackle.
And what an opportunity it was. Deep in the farthest corners of the Milky Way Galaxy, a massive storm of fire started to make its approach towards our Solar System. Within it, unkbeknownst to everyone, was the same creature that had plagued Rei's nightmares. It was a creature that had been exiled from this universe decades ago by a team of the smartest beings in the entire universe, but now it had made its return.
It was a creature of desire and rage. Fire and death. Destruction and creation.
It was the Phoenix.
[1] - As explained further in the second Infinity Verse Spotlight focusing on Dipper.
[2] - As conceptualized by Black Hat in part 4 of The New Frontier.