Hello, readers! Sorry for not uploading this chapter sooner.

Anyways, hope you enjoy and please do leave a review! :)

{*}

An undetermined amount of time after the events of Chapter 1…

Code flew together in an almost synchronized dance as a gateway came into existence, and a small, orange-furred critter fell through, his large green hat falling over his face. He sat up and straightened the hat on his head before looking up and around, a large grin nearly splitting his face with excitement.

"Wow! Well, isn't this a pretty lil' place! Sylvia, check it out! I knew there was something in that little closet!"

Not noticing the gateway disappearing and the overall fact he was alone, he leaned towards a lily-like flower, it's physical form lined with changing, glinting neon blue computer coding.

"Oooooooooo, shiny!"

"Hey."

The short orange fellow straightened up, curiously eyeing the strange folks in front of him. One of them was a rather large…lizard? He didn't know if he was a lizard for certain, but he sure did look like one. The lizard was dark grey, wearing nothing but a worn pair of army pants that had been fixed up to accommodate the large spikes that stuck out his back and his tail. The other was a reddish-brown weasel who's torso and limbs were rather humanoid in shape. He wasn't as tall as the lizard, but still tall, and wore a white button-up shirt under a dark brown leather jacket and dark jeans. He also had an eyepatch over his right eye, the remaining eye a sky blue color that would've been so vibrant had there not been a shadow of bitterness that the orange fellow could sense lay inside.

Said orange fellow immediately walked up to the two strangers, grinning and holding out a friendly hand in greeting.

"Howdy! Folks call me Wander, and this is my pal Sylvia- Syl?"

It was then that Wander realized he was alone, his loyal Zbornak friend no where in sight. He scratched his head, confused. "Where'd she go?"

"She didn't come here with you, lad." Wander looked up at the weasel, the one who'd spoken in a British accent.

"But she was just behind me-"

"And the Antivirus only chose you. It only picks one person from a universe at a time." The lizard guy grunted in a husky, deep voice, then asked, "So, what kind of hero are you? War hero? Superhero?"

Wander shrugged with a bashful little laugh. "Oh, I don't know about 'hero', I don't like to brag or anything, y'know? I'm just a friend to all, cuz there's always good inside even the meanest of bad guys!" He gave his two new acquaintences a sweet smile, and the lizard guy facepalmed.

"'Scuse us for a sec, buddy." Lizard guy grabbed the weasel's upper arm and pulled him away to talk.

~POV Switch~

"This guy's not a fighter! WHY'D THE ANTIVIRUS CHOOSE HIM?!"

"Why're you asking me?! It ain't like I chose him!"

Buck wrenched his arm out of Godzilla's grip, hitting the anthropomorphized kaiju in the chest to emphasize his point as they whisper-yelled back and forth until the weasel sighed heavily and interrupted Godzilla's next rant.

"Look, let's just give the lad a chance! Besides, he might have some sort of hidden ability, and we can't just leave him out here, defenseless! The Viruses will get him."

The two eyed each other tensely, then Buck quipped, "Sans would kick your ass for leaving him-"

"FINE. Fine." The kaiju massaged the bridge of his nose, and the two turned back to the confused little…

They really didn't know what he was.

"Alright, Wander." Godzilla huffed, crossing his large, muscled arms. "Guess you're coming with us."

Wander practically pranced on up to them, all smiles and sunshine. "Aw, that's mighty sweet of you! Oh, I don't think I got your names!"

"Godzilla. Buck." Godzilla stated bluntly, jerking his thumb from himself to the weasel next to him.

"Where you from? I've never seen anything like you two before!"

Buck inwardly groaned, preparing for the onslaught of questions their new little friend had for them. Godzilla, however, felt less like tolerating the eager orange ball of sunshine and more like breaking someone's neck.

However, the kaiju figured it wasn't worth getting into trouble for and settled with fantasizing about strangling oblivious little Wander senseless to keep his sanity in check.

{*}

"-and that's the story of the time Lord Hater and I were best friends for a day. Oh! That reminds me of-"

Godzilla and Buck looked at eachother in dispair, the kaiju leaning in and whispering, "Still counting on a hidden ability? Cuz I think this guy's just all kinds of oblivious, and he's also lacking in the brains department-"

"Okay, okay! I get it! But I still don't know why the Antivirus chose him, alright?"

Godzilla straightened up with a smirk on his face, then proceeded to interrupt Wander's storytelling loudly. "Well, here we are! Home sweet home!"

Wander immediately stopped speaking, but only for a moment, as he quickly launched into a series of awe inspired compliments and questions as the trio approached a small village of shacks, tents, and buildings hidden between neon blue code-made hills and trees. The structures were also made of a similar blue code, and camouflaged incredibly well in the environment when at a distance.

A silver brindle akita, an anthropomorphized teen pup with three scars on his forehead and walking on his back paws, left one of the shacks, tail wagging as he ran up to Godzilla. The bipedal pup wore a slightly oversized white shirt and dark grey sweatpants.

"Nīsan! Kaettekita ne!" The pup shouted happily and leapt up, wrapping his much smaller arms around the kaiju's thick neck. For the first time since Wander met him, Godzilla actually smiled and gave a gruff chuckle as he hugged the pup back.

Picking up the scent of the newcomer rather quickly, the pup looked at him curiously.

"Anatahadare?"

Wander stared, confused, as he didn't understand. Godzilla spoke for him though.

"Kore wa wandādesu. Kare wa watashitachi ni kuwawaru tsumoridesu."

Wander looked to Buck, eyes wide and innocent with confusion. The weasel gave a short laugh. "Gin only speaks Japanese. 'Zilla's the only one who understands him."

Godzilla proceeded to look over at Buck with a nasty snarl on his face. He clearly disliked that nickname.

Whether it was to escape the kaiju's wrath (as the spikes on his back and tail had begun to softly glow a bright blue) or he just didn't want to waste any time, Buck led Wander into the village to what looked like, for lack of a better word, a garage. Inside, sitting at a table and sharpening glowing blue knives (about a dozen already lay out, freshly sharpened and ready to be put away) sat an Amazonian warrior, her long dark hair gently tied back as she worked.

"Diana!"

Diana, dressed in her usual slim red, blue, and gold body armor but wearing army green pants and a black sweater overtop, turned and smiled at the weasel.

"Well, you're back early! Any trouble out there?"

"No, the East grid's pretty clear. A gate opened up." With that, Buck gestured to Wander. Said orange fellow was practically radiating sunshine and sparkles, so captivated by his new surroundings and this new lady that he was finally quiet with awe, having probably run out of fresh compliments. "Any idea where the Cap is?"

Diana nodded. "Yes, he and Leonardo are discussing taking back part of the South-West grid. Sounds like the Viruses managed to steal some ground the other day. They're in the back." She tipped her head to a back room with a closed door. Buck gave her a small friendly wave as he led Wander to the door and entered.

Leo stood at one end of a table, on which lay a digital map of the land, and at the other end stood a soldier with dark blonde hair and bright blue eyes, wearing a white shirt and brown pants, a red, white, and blue circular shield with a star in the center sat leaned against the wall just behind him. As they both looked up, Buck gave a grin in greeting and tipped his head at Wander, indicating his presence to the other two.

"Wander, meet Leonardo and Steve Rogers. Leo, Steve, meet Wander!"

Leo and Steve gave Wander their own greetings, smiling warmly at the now new member of their team.

Wander skipped over and looked at the map on the table. "Oooooo, neat! What's this?"

"This is a map of all the places here we can consider safe. When they're a solid blue like where we are right here-" Steve pointed at a solid bright blue splotch on the map, "-then it's safe. Solid green is basically No Man's Land." He pointed at the solid green that practically bordered the entire map.

"And the blank parts are the war zones, where territory belongs to no one."

Wander tipped his head. "'War zones'?"

Leo and Steve looked at eachother, then at Buck. "You didn't tell him about the Dark Virus?"

"He never asked until now." Buck casually shrugged.

"What's a 'Dark Virus'?"

As Wander's confusion grew, Steve took it upon himself to answer his questions.

"The Dark Virus is basically an essence of this MiddleVerse, a universe in the middle of all our universes. The Dark Virus want to destroy all our universes, so we have to fight it. Leo and I were just coming up with a plan to take back a bit of the land that the Dark Virus's minions, the Viruses, had taken. And a word of warning," Steve suddenly turned serious, "If you see a Virus, and trust me that you'll know one when you see it, kill it on sight. Every lone Virus we find is a scout-"

"Whoa, wait! Kill?!" Wander suddenly spoke up, a look of shock and fear on his face. "Why don't we talk to them first?"

"Uh…They aren't really talkers."

"Did you even try?"

Leo, Steve, and Buck all looked at eachother, Buck in particular appearing more irked than baffled like the other two. Wander continued his passionate plea.

"We gotta try! Maybe if we can get them to see that what they're doing is bad-"

"They don't care, Wander!"

Wander jumped at Buck's sudden outburst, eyes filled with mixed emotions, and the room went quiet for a moment. Buck sighed and spoke again, calmer. "They only want to win and destroy us all."

"B-But if I could just-"

"They. Don't. Care. They'll kill you the moment they see you, and when you die, your universe, your friends and family, will disappear. Not even the smallest trace will remain."

"But there's gotta be a reas-"

"They don't have a reason, okay?! They just do it because they can! They feel nothing! It's because of those monsters we're stuck here and the only way home is to beat them, and the only way to beat them is to KILL THEM!"

Wander cowered at the outburst, almost shaking until Steve placed a hand on his head reassuringly and gently guided him to stand behind him, as if to shield the orange oddball from the weasel's rant.

Buck turned his head away, eye shut with regret. He spoke, now softer. "Lad, I don't know how things work in your world, but here it's different. The Viruses aren't good guys in the slightest, they aren't an evil that can be saved with friendship. There's no point in trying to turn them good. They're pure evil and don't care if you care. No matter how much you hope for them to be good, they just aren't."

Wander's eyes welled up. No… There had to be a peaceful way to stop this war! Lord Dominator had been even eviler than Lord Hater, and even she had cracked before making her escape. There was no way a being could be simply pure, soulless evil…right?

Leo chose this moment to speak up, seeing Wander's mood fall in the wake of the weasel's little speech. "Just because you've all but given up on everything doesn't mean he has t-" He immediately regretted it as the weasel stiffened with a noticeable jerk, unconsciously knowing he'd just triggered a volcano. "W-Wait, dude, I didn't mean-"

The weasel looked the blue masked turtle in the eye, his voice starting dangerously low and quickly building to a yell. "We've been fighting for how long now, a year? A decade?! MAYBE WE'VE BEEN HERE FOR OVER A CENTURY AND WE DON'T EVEN KNOW IT, AND FOR WHAT?! DON'T YOU MISS YOUR BROTHERS?!"

Leo stiffened at this, Buck having struck a nerve, but responded with a calmness that would've made his Master Splinter proud. "As long as I'm alive, I know that they're alive. And when we win, I'll be back home again."

"SO WE'RE JUST GONNA BLINDLY TRUST THAT THE ANTIVIRUS WILL LET US GO HOME IF WE WIN?!"

Steve reached over to put a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm the weasel. "Buck-"

The weasel brushed him off. "I just want to go home! I just want to be with my herd again! Is that too much to ask?!" With that, he turned and stalked off, leaving the room and running out of the garage. Diana froze up in surprise as he ran past her, then went to pursue him.

Wander pressed himself against Steve's legs like a frightened puppy, eyes wide. "Is he okay?" he asked, concerned as ever. The soldier sighed and spoke softly. "While we're here, we don't age. Time in our worlds is stopped, and none of us will get to go home until this war is over." He leaned down to be eye to eye with Wander. "Buck isn't coping too well with being away from his family like this. He wasn't always this sharp tempered. He's just….running out of hope. Please forgive him."

As Steve straightened back up, Wander looked out the door where the weasel had left, fear now replaced with pity and sadness.

{*}

Yay for angst and drama, amiright? XD

Translations done in Google Translator, so I apologize if they're crap.

* Big brother! You're back!

* Who are you?

* This is Wander. He's going to be joining us.

Hey guys, thanks for reading! I apologize, as AU Heroes will go on a hiatus of undetermined length until I can get back the inspiration that sparked the motivation to write this in the first place. Until then, please do read my other stories that will be published a short time after this chapter is posted! Please, do tell me what you think of AU Heroes so far! :)

Sans & Undertale © Toby Fox

Leo & TMNT (2012 show) © Nickelodeon

Buck & Ice Age © Blue Sky Studios

Godzilla (2014 movie version) © Toho

Gin & Ginga Nagareboshi Gin (anime) © Yoshihiro Takahashi

Wander & Wander Over Yonder © Craig McCracken

Wonder Woman/Diana Prince & Justice League © DC

Captain America/Steve Rogers & Avengers © Marvel

Antivirus, Dark Virus, MiddleVerse, & story/idea © KaraTheFangirl