Chapter 2 – The Stars Are Wrong
Mako woke up on a dry field, his armor had been scratched but it was nevertheless intact. "Worldmind, do you read?" Mako asked through his helmet. "I have fallen through the rip in space and have landed in an unidentified planet, do you read over?"
The Nova Centurion Prime walked through the barren plains, he looked at the sky…the star hovering above was nearing the horizon meaning that it was past mid-day. "Anyone? Respond." He tried again. No one responded, odd considering that his helmet had omnidirectional transmissions, not your typical ham radio.
This desert lacked the stereotypical animal skull in the sands, he had seen a bunch of those in several Movers so it was kinda lacking. Mako looked at his arm-device; it said that the nearest point of energy was nearby, to the west. "At least there's something." Mako said while he made his way there.
Closing in to his destination, Mako found a lamp post rooting out of the sands. It looked exactly like Republic City's lamp posts…"What the?" Mako stated, he decided that he might as well fly it from here and get a wider area of vision.
"Oh no…" As he hovered in the air, he saw that he was indeed in Republic City but everything looked wrong, the skyscrapers looked rotten and old. The streets looked derelict with the desert sands going through several districts. "What happened…where am I?"
He flew towards the city, looking around…the sun began to set and now he could see the night sky above. "This is wrong…the stars…they look distorted…out of place." He said to himself. Mako could now feel his stomach twisting and his heart racing. This place was affecting him, his powers began to fail…he had to concentrate deeply to maintain his Nova Force coherent.
Mako decided to enter the empty city; he went to the Air Temple which sat on a vast desert that once was Yue Bay. "Tenzin! Pema! Anyone!?" Mako yelled through the empty halls, no one responded. "Spirits…!" He ran through the rotting wooden halls of the temple looking for a single strand of life.
He entered where his room was supposed to be at; the only thing in there was an altar next to the bed. Mako walked close to it, it was odd and out of place to him. Lid candles and unholy symbols were carved unto the wood that made the altar and dry blood filled the carvings. Mako resisted the urge to hurl and turned to leave but at the far table at the feet of the bed there was a photograph.
He grabbed it and looked at it…it was picture of him and Korra, it looked old but the colors were still as vibrant. Mako remembered the times he had spent with Korra, but those days were long gone…for him at least after he had joined Quasar and the others in stopping Annihilus from invading Earth.
"What are you doing here?" A voice spoke behind the Nova Centurion Prime; he turned to see a strange visage. It was a person that resembled Bolin. "You were ordered to scout that tear."
"Bolin?" Mako asked.
"Who else would it be?" It was Bolin alright, but his appearance looked off. He was covered in what it seemed Metalbending Cop armor but instead of its back-metal coils there were spikes with chains coming down his arms. Red symbols of unknown origin adorned his chest armor and the helmet he held had horns and a black visor that covered his eyes completely. Bolin himself looked a little paler, and his goofy green eyes were replaced with red ominous eyes. "What's up with your armor? It looks a little brighter than before."
Mako knew that this wasn't his Bolin or his world, but he needed to act the part. "It got messed up when I entered that rip but hey I'm fine." He quickly replied.
"So what did you find on the other side? The Mistress wants to know." Bolin responded. The Mistress? Was she responsible for the corruption of this alternate…Earth? Or whatever this place was?
"Mostly the same thing…but I guess…more spacey?" Mako couldn't tell him any vital information of the recent events that had been raised by Annihilus and the war between the Shi'ar Empire led by the Majestor Vulcan and the Inhuman Kingdom. He was here because of that conflict.
"More space!? That's good, come the others will want to hear this." Bolin said while putting his helmet, he waved to Mako to follow him outside. Mako didn't have any other choice; he was alone in this strange world which was still running havoc inside his head.
Outside there was a group of people that resembled Earth's Mightiest Heroes…but like Bolin they had been corrupted beyond belief. The Mighty Thor, a god if Mako has ever seen one was now a demon, not in a literal sense but the expression on his face and his soulless eyes just made so ever clear. His attire looked similar if not a spit copy of the original but he had similar carvings on his hammer and body armor as Bolin did.
Asami, also known as Ms. Marvel had the very same dark crimson eyes as the others but her overall appearance hadn't change aside from not looking very friendly.
General Iroh II, also known as Iron Man, the iron avenger was completely different. His armor had sharp edges, tubes pumping dark blue smoke coming out of his feet and elbows, and an appearance that would disturb even an adult. The symbols on his gauntlets Mako did recognize, they were old Asgardian runes, like the ones the original Thor had on his hammer.
The Captain…once the sentinel of liberty and peace now looked like the vanguard of oppression and death. His shield was sharp, capable of killing a man without a problem and had the same odd symbols as Bolin's armor did. He smiled wickedly as he looked at his gun; the star on his chest had been inverted.
And finally…Giant-Man, he was gigantic for sure, but his once red outfit was not ebony black and his skin was dark green, almost looking like a dead corpse. Mako swallowed some saliva as he saw them all…he was terrified.
"So, what did he see?" Asami asked.
"He said that in the other side, there was more space! We can expand!" Bolin replied with cheer…at least that hadn't change.
"Well that's good news; the Mistress was going to have our heads if we didn't find anything on that rip." The Captain said. "Good job Nova."
"Uh thanks." Mako replied…he had to.
"Why do you look different?" Iron Man asked as he inspected Mako's Nova Prime armor.
"The trip through the rip changed his armor, might have modified it to fit the other side's cosmic laws." Bolin replied.
"Anyway, let's go meet the Mistress." Thor stated. "It's almost nightfall and the Odinson doesn't want her fury over him."
Then an explosion was heard on the distance. "What was that?" Mako asked.
"Must be the Hulk running through the Necropolis again…when will he learn that his duty is to be with the other Defenders? Getting real tired of his shit." Iron Man said. "C'mon team."
They quickly went to the direction of the explosion, Thor helped Bolin, Iron Man assisted the Captain and Asami aided a normal size Giant-Man to fly towards the direction. They left Mako alone…he sighed. He then flew behind them.
"There he is…what the ftaghn is he doing?" The Captain asked.
"Looks like he is running in circles…ruining our city." Iron Man replied. Mako joined them…he then looked down to see what was the Hulk doing but instead of finding the green giant he found a massive tentacle beast, with many eyes and mouths. It was grotesque and nightmarish…
"That's the Hulk?!" Mako yelled, totally forgetting that he was trying to blend in.
"Well yeah…" Bolin responded. "Did going through the rip also made you forget that the Hulk gets irritated too quickly?"
Mako didn't say anything back, fearing that anything he said would make the others suspicious. "I will take care of this." Thor said while putting Bolin on a nearby rooftop. Thor jumped into the fray…
"Can Thor do it on his own?" Mako asked, the beast that the others called Hulk was at least ten times bigger than Thor.
"Of course he can…he's freaking Thor." Iron Man responded. The corrupted God of Thunder attacked the behemoth that was the Hulk. He swung Mjolnir, his mystic hammer, and struck the beast with a powerful hammer smash. But it did little to the Hulk's hide and with one of its tentacles, Hulk slapped Thor aside like a fly. "Well maybe he will need to be a little more proactive, just hit him on the brain!"
"The God of Thunder is tired of your persistent attacks Braner-Xing! I will end it now! FTAGHN!" Thor yelled as he charged his hammer with power, his face changed and looked a lot more demonic resembling the Hulk's appearance. Thor struck on the Hulk's brain area, the thundering attack rumbled through the air making Mako cover his eyes as lightning struck down from the sky and into the Hulk.
After the light show ended, Thor stood triumphant above an unconscious Braner-Xing, he had turned back into human. "Well…that was climatic." Asami said, while putting everybody down. Bolin swung towards them using his chains like Spider-Man used to do.
"Let me take care of the rest, Thor." Iron Man said while he flipped Braner-Xing over and sunk his razor sharp gauntlet deep into his chest and brutally ripping his heart out.
"Wait…why did you do that?!" Mako couldn't believe his eyes, did Iroh just do that?!
"Why are you acting so weird, it's either that or more useless rampaging? He will back on his feet in now time anyway." Bolin responded.
"Settle down, leave him. We have to report Nova's findings to the Mistress immediately." The Captain stepped in. "Or else she will devour our souls."
Mako was following these disgusting aberrations of his friends and brother, they were sadistic, arrogant, terrifying and blasphemous. Now he was in the deep end, following them to the one who would be the worst of them…the so-called Mistress.
On the Other Side of the Fault
"What happened down there?" Quasar asked as he followed Majestor Gladiator through the packed hallways of his ship, the Victorious Vigor, the Shi'ar flagship.
"He fell through the fault, we flew to close." Gladiator replied, arriving on the bridge of the ship there they were awaited by the Kree Queen Medusa and her royal court.
"Gladiator, I want the reports of your advanced research team yesterday." She said.
"Nova was caught in the rip's gravity well, along with the energy reader. Luckily we were able to recover data from it once it fell to the other side…" Gladiator responded as he used the bridge's holographic device to show the energy readings. "It is similar to the energies that are abundant on our side, but they are distorted and off in several wavelengths. Here and…here."
"What does it mean?" Ronan the Accuser asked.
"It means that whatever there is on the other side is nasty…very nasty." Quasar replied.
"I want Nova out there now, we can't risk his absence." Medusa ordered.
Quasar stepped out of the bridge and walked towards the mess hall, he was at the moment useless. Even with his great quantic power he would be sucked into the fault like Nova if he got too close to it as well. He sighed, if the idiot Vulcan hadn't detonated the T-Bomb none of this would've happened. But something told Quasar that this was just the beginning…a couple of days ago he had received a message. It was the day that they had discovered the fault after going through the debris left from the annihilated fleet that had taken the full-force of the T-Bomb.
It was odd, for the fact that it was only he who had received it. The ships from both Shi'ar and Kree hadn't caught it…his Quantum Bands had been the only things that received it. It was from some sort of being, familiar yet strange…it sounded afraid. But the voice was muffled from interference coming from the fault itself.
Quasar's thoughts were interrupted from a worried Namorita shaking his right arm. "Hey!" She yelled at him. She was your standard height Atlantean with a fair skin tone, blue eyes and golden hair. Like her older cousin, she had wings on the sides of her feet and had pointy ears. If Quasar didn't know better, he would call her a fairy but her super-human strength was superior to that of any superhuman of Earth, easily eclipsing Spider-Man, the Captain and rivaling the Thing.
"Yeah…what?" He replied.
"Have you located Nova yet?" Namorita asked.
"Well…I can tell you were he is…but I don't think we can get him out any time soon." Quasar answered, he wasn't good with these types of questions. Especially questions coming from desperate and worried girlfriends.
"You have to do something! He is down there because of me!" Namorita responded, punching his arm with anger.
"Ow…I'm doing all I can. It's just that…we have to wait. Mako is a smart guy; he'll find his way out." Quasar said, remembering that they had but just found Namorita on the edge of the fault. Quasar still didn't understand how it happened especially since she had been lost for years…but she was as if she had never left Earth but then suddenly she is on the fault.
Quasar knew that Mako and she had had a thing back on Earth after Namor's third expedition on the surface. It was way before the Annihilation Wave Incident and the Conflict with Vulcan; he was told that after Nova's supposed break up with that world's greatest protector he had met Namorita. At first Namor, king of the seas was opposed to the idea of the surface dweller mating with a Atlantean…it took the efforts of Mr. Fantastic and the Captain to convince him that Mako was not that bad of a guy.
That was saying a lot considering that Mako wasn't as mature back then as he is now, the Annihilation Wave Incident had made a deep impression on him…especially since it was Mako who ended the conflict. He personally ripped Annihilus's throat out and then beat him to death with it…yeah.
"Something tells me that we don't have to wait too much." Quasar said as he stepped towards an observation window overlooking the fault.
Within the Fault
"Ah you're back." A strange looking blue elf said once Mako and the other abominations had arrived to what seem to be a gigantic temple.
"Tell the Mistress that we require an audience with her, Quasar." The Captain said. That was Quasar, aside from the dark blue skin, red eyes and obvious rougher voice…he looked like the real one, well his armor was thicker and seems to emit some sort of magical aura instead of the more usual quantic radiation of the Quantum Bands.
"Nova, you have been quite the traveler." Quasar said while walking with Mako towards the grand hall.
"Yeah…remind me not to do this again." Mako replied trying to keep it cool.
"Nonsense, you are one of the Mistress' most powerful warriors and her favorite too." Quasar replied with a disturbing warm smile. This guy reminded Mako that the real Quasar was on the other side of rip looking for him…hold on; did he just say her favorite?
They entered the grand hall, now this was a true hell hole. Around every corner Mako saw what seemed to horrible beings with many tentacles filling each area. Only leaving a red rug where the team walked on towards the throne.
Sitting on it was the figure of a woman dressed in black with two men guarding her, they looked like Black Knight and War Machine but…they were too corrupted like the rest. Mako looked at his golden gauntlets, they were vibrant and colorful compared to the rest of these people. He stood out like a sore thumb…he hoped that the 'evil queen' didn't notice his look.
They all kneeled before the woman; he quickly did so as well not wanting to ruin his cover. "My immortal mistress, your faithful Revengers have come to deliver good news." The Captain said.
Revengers? That's how they're called? "Good." The voice of the woman sounded familiar, Mako kept listening. "Bring Nova forward." She commanded.
Nova stood up and walked forward towards the throne, even though he had faced Annihilus face-to-face, prevented a cosmic war, fought against the Mad Titan to a standstill and practically saved the universe multiple times from different threats…standing in front of this woman sent shivers down his spine.
"You have served me well once again." The Mistress said while she stood up, surprisingly she was shorter than Mako. But that didn't ease him one bit. She raised her hands around the hood covering her face, Mako was prepared for some kind of horrible monster…she slowly took her hood off and…
Mako's mouth opened in disbelief, now this had to be a nightmare. "What is it Mako? You look like you've seen a ghost."
What made it worse was that…those azure blue eyes full of joy were still there. And it made the Nova Prime afraid…very afraid.
