I don't own Mass Effect, Marvel, my references, or a social life.
Here's Stuff that just fills space: Yeah sorry about the time between updates, but I found it quite hard to make that happen when you hiding in the mountains. Future updates should be quicker, how much quicker is partially determined by how sober I am during the writing process, and other details that will be mentioned at the end. Anyway here is issue 2 of Eden Prime, and things start exploding… now!
Eden Prime Part 2: Brawl
Things were exploding everywhere.
Such were the way things went when a giant Robotic-Deathsquid with laser beams shot at a hellish Thresher of epic proportions.
Holding on for dear life on the worm's back were two Spectres, a Shield team, and one very recently resurrected Ghost Rider that has everyone puzzled on why he is now on a different planet.
None of that mattered right at that moment though, considering a Celestial was trying to kill them all using its pet squid.
Darting left and right to avoid the beams, the Maw roared as it plunged deep into the earth, under a particularly unhealthy dose of laser above it. Unfortunately, mortals are not usually accustomed to subterranean travel, and were thus thrown off the back of their ride, and to the mercy of their hunter.
Getting up as fast as they can, they scattered in different directions from the massive titan that loomed above them. A futile action, but the only one they could commit to.
The Reaper barely acknowledged their presence as it kept trying to hunt the Ghost Rider. It quickly discovered where he was when it was jumped from behind by a massive worm.
Wrapping itself around its robotic adversary, the Thresher Maw began to squeeze and contort itself as to point the Reaper's weapon down straight toward the ground, rendering it ineffective.
The Ghost Rider himself made his way up his mechanical rival, each step full of rage and fury. Finally, with a mighty leap he made his way to the very top of the Reaper, coming face to foot with the one that commanded it.
The Ghost Rider prepared for battle, setting its chain ablaze and summoning hellfire into his palm, hatred surging through his veins. The Celestial responded by flicking him off.
Never one to give up, the Rider latched on with its chain before he fell too far and swung around to come up to attack the Celestial from behind. The plan would have worked if he didn't swing into an outstretched fist.
Once again in free-fall, the Ghost Rider summoned his Maw, remounting it in mid-air. He needed a new strategy.
…
"Alright, Shepard, what's the plan?" asked Nihlus.
"Why the hell would I have a plan? When this happens, usually the Avengers or the Fantastic Four is around," retorted Shepard, making sure to emphasize the word "hell" and "plan".
"You humans are the ones with the experience at dealing with this situations," said Nihlus, gritting his mandibles.
"Yeah, the experience is usually running in the opposite while the Avengers or some other team comes in to deal with the problem," replied Shepard. "Kaiden, can you do something?"
"I could chuck stones at it."
"What would that do?" mocked Saren.
"Never underestimate the merits of a large stone, Spectre."
Ashley rolled her eyes at her bickering companions; they had bigger issues right now. "Ladies, please, your all pretty. Now can we stop arguing with ourselves and deal with the oncoming horde."
"What oncoming—oh, them." finished Nihlus lamely. "How did we miss that?"
Saren grimaced internally. In their distracted state, they had completely missed an entire armada of Geth heading their way. There were too many Geth to kill the numbers must be in the hundre—
"Hey, you there, Saren right?" asked Ashley, taking aim at a distant Geth dropship with her laser pistol.
"Yes."
"Where do you think the main engines are located?"
"How would I k—"
"Never mind, I think I got it."
With that she fired, and to Saren's everlasting surprise, a Geth dropship fell out of the sky.
"How…" Gasped Saren disbelievingly.
"Its pretty easy, the lower part the most heavily armored, except for a single spot towards the underside, which the laser pistol definitely could pierce," answered Ashley with a smug grin, taking aim again. "The trick is simple: find it and don't miss."
She fired three more times, and three more dropships fell out of the sky. By this point Saren noticed Nihlus was starring blankly at her as well, and was trying to get a better look at her relatively normal looking pistol to see if it had any special modifications to it.
"Yeah it isn't normal for us either," interjected Shepard as Ashley fired a few more shots, each landing without fail. Shepard looked on at the still advancing legion of Geth airships. Even with William's absurd accuracy, it wouldn't be enough to deal with over a hundred hostiles coming at them at that speed, he needed something with a bit more…. impact.
"Hey Kaiden," asked Shepard.
"Yeah Shepard?"
"Seeing as this is the first time we humans are encountering the Geth, what say we share a little bit of human culture with them? I was thinking a little game of "Pinball"."
Kaiden ripped earth and dirt from the ground to create great spherical boulder. The smile he gave when the ball started turning sent shivers running down Saren's spine. Then, with a simple tossing motion, the boulder was sent flying at an alarming pace, before impacting with its first Geth ship. However, instead of just falling to the ground afterward or crumbling to dust, it changed direction and went after another ship.
"Hey Alenko," declared Williams, reloading her gun. "Thirty bucks say that I'll shoot more of them out of the sky than you."
"Make it fifty and you're on."
Saren turned to Nihlus with a wounded expression on his face. "Well, don't we feel useless right now." Nihlus just nods, still trying to compute all that had happened.
…
00128D: Unit 00127T status report?
00127T: Unit 00127T mostly intact. Unit 00321 is not.
00128D: Unit 00128D noticed. Parts of 00321 all over drop ship interior, doesn't matter, Unit 00321 was always a spawn of questionable design. Dropship engine failing now. Implications disturbing.
00127T: Currently falling. Drop ship smashed by improbable floating rock. Chance of boulder resuming assault 100%.
00128D: Is Unit 00127T experiencing error? Boulder in flight? 0% possibili- Redacting previously opinion, 00128D is now falling as well. Improbable boulder indeed. Computing evasion strategies.
00127T: Unit 00127T already knows strategy to avoid boulder.
00128D: Explain?
00127T: Method to avoid boulder is to not be where the boulder is.
00128D: Unit 00128D is not amused.
00127T: Unit 00128D has an outdated humor program.
00128D: Unit 00127T must be running at kilobyte pace if that is the comeback it chooses.
00127T: Unit 00128D can go stick its adapter into Thresher spit.
00128D: Unit 00128D is done with this conversation.
00127T: Agreed.
…
"Hey no fair! I already shot that one," Complained Williams, shaking her fist at the telekinetic man beside her.
"Sure you did Ashley. Sure you did"
Ashley scowled at him and fired six more shots in quick succession. Kaiden did not seem to care as he redirected his boulder towards another ship.
Still, though they were doing damage to the Geth ships in the sky, the numerous units that survived the destruction of their ships would still prove to be a considerable amount. They were compact bastards, Shepard gave them that much.
Lets test how durable they really are then, decided Shepard. Loading his rifle and motioning the Spectres to follow him, he headed towards a small hill that could be a vantage point against the flood of oncoming Geth troopers. It was time he did his part.
"Nihlus, how good are you with that rifle?" asked Shepard.
Nihlus unfolded his rifle in an instant. "I'm decent."
"I'm better," spoke Saren with much certainty. This earned him a hard glare from his fellow Spectre.
"Well then," Shepard added. "What's say we go have some of our own fun."
And when the Geth Legions came down upon them, they did.
Disorganized, disoriented, and damaged as the Geth may be when they began their charge, they still came in mass, uncaring of the their ships falling all around them, or their strategy being ruined by
Shepard fired his rifle in bursts, in order to make his shots count. It seemed that though the Spectre's weapons were woefully lesser compared to his modified Photon Repeater, they did have the advantage of not running out of power regardless of how many shots taken, albeit at the cost of heating problems.
A flash of light, a moment in time, and three dead Geth with a bright yellow hole through their chests told him that his gun was definitely better. Shepard couldn't help but laugh when noticed Saren gazing enviously at his gun with what seemed to be extreme lust in his eyes.
Shaking off feelings of jealousy, Nihlus began making precision shots on any Geth unit that were caught in his sights. Compared to Saren who was spraying more shots and using his biotics to knocked Geth around and Shepard who—wait, where was Shepard?
Looking around, the lead agent was nowhere to been seen. Nihlus turned to Saren who only shrugged his shoulders in response.
"He does that a lot," said Kaiden, still playing pinball with the dropships. "It's kind of his thing."
And almost on cue, Shepard appeared in the distance on a hill towards a few hundred meters to the right. He fired a few shots, but was quickly suppressed by Geth return fire. Scrambling away from the edge, the Geth absolutely demolished the area he was in. What was a hill was now just rubble. The thing was, when the smoke cleared, Shepard was nowhere to be seen.
It was only when the another flash of light resulted in another group of dead Geth that Nihlus noticed Shepard back where he was, right beside them.
When? How? Wondered Nihlus as he continued firing.
Shepard just held his grin.
…
00128D: Excrement
00127T: Indeed.
00128D: Inability to track life form disturbing. Switching to infrared view.
00127T: Unit 00128D still running outdated infrared applications? Now unit 00127T knows why unit 00128D cannot track life form.
00128D: Do not begin this line of discourse with me again. The mockery is tiring.
00127T: It is amusing to- Unit 00127T seems to have lost its arms.
00128D: Now unit 00128D is amuse— Unit 00128D has lost its legs. Excrement.
00127T: Agreed. This charge is doing nothing. Geth forces down to ten percent, unit 00127T sees no point in this. Unit 00127T is leaving.
00128D: Wait. Take unit 00128D with unit 00127T. Pick me up.
00127T: Unit 00127T has no arms. Unit 00128D will have to walk faster.
00128D: Wait Unit 00127T come back. Phallus
Unit 00128D looks around as its fellow Geth fall over lifeless and broken after each consecutive shot. They weren't going to last much longer. The Geth were supposed to be fodder, and as far as Unit 00128D could tell, he did his itself away after its cohort who had long since ran off, unit 00128D turned back to look at the human it could track standing so far away from it. Yet, with every flash of light from his odd weapon, Geth fell.
00128D:…. Unit 00128D wants that gun.
…
Nihlus couldn't believe it, the Geth were running. Well, what was left of the Geth were running away. He read the reports about their war with the Quarians, and not a single one stated anything close to the Geth running away completely.
But the sight before him was undeniable, the few Geth that were not dead were pulling a retreat. It was unbelievable. Turning around he saw Shepard typing on wrist-mounted computer, while Williams and Kaiden were arguing over who won. It seemed like the worse was over.
Then, faster than anyone could react, Ashley drew her pistol as shot a distant figure running up to them. The figure collapsed, but then stood back up. Ashley shot him a total of eight more times before Shepard stopped her to have a closer look at the unknown individual.
"Ow, ow, ow," stated a healing Jenkins.
"Jenkins?" Shepard said surprised.
Jenkins shot his commanding officer a dirty look and glared at Kaiden.
"Huff huff. Sir, did you forget I could heal?" asked Jenkins, incredulously. "Again."
Shepard and Kaiden made eye contact and gave each other nod. Though years of working together, they could often communicate entire messages with a few glances. This conversation went, quick! make shit up.
"Uh, no Jenkins. We were just…testing you."
"On a live mission? With nothing but my gun and little to no direction on where you went?"
"….Yes?"
Jenkins sighed. You'd think being related to the legendary Wolverine would give you a bit more respect.
"Alright," Shepard said. "We need find the beacon, and track down the Rider and evade that Geth warship at all costs."
"You mean that Geth warship sir?" Jenkins inquired, while pointing behind Shepard at the Reaper chasing the Thresher Maw that was coming right back at them.
"Yes, that on—oh hell. Everybody run!"
"By all the spirits, why the hell is he bringing it back to us?" Saren shouted as the Thresher Maw went under again, once again leaving the team to their fates.
Once again though, the Reaper flew by, completely ignoring the mortals beneath it. Then, a single shot rang out.
"Why did you do that, Private?" Shepard asked, disappointment deep in his voice, and ice in his veins as the Reaper started to focus on them.
"Sorry sir, I got nervous."
The Reaper finished turning to the insect that dared fired upon it, seeming more annoyed than anything.
"I-I'm sorry?" Jenkins declared.
"I don't think it cares Private," Shepard theorized, hiding behind a large rock with the rest of the group.
"Well I have t—BEEEEEEEWWWWWW(big explosion)
Fun fact: When a giant metal squid shoots its death ray, and you are caught in the blast, most people tend to die.
Most people were not Jenkins.
"Private Jenkins is down!" cried out Nihlus.
"Don't worry, he is only mostly dead," Shepard said, completely uncaring as he continued dialing in coordinates for fire support.
"What do you mea—"
"Guys, I'm still alive," moaned a pained Jenkins. "Only, I'm very badly burnt."
"Don't worry Private, you'll be fine," Shepard said, still occupied with inputting his coordinates. "Just keep distracting it."
"Yes sir."
Jenkins promptly sat up again, not even completely healed. Nihlus couldn't remember the last time he felt both sick and amused when the still badly burnt Jenkins got up and started slapping his bum at the Reaper. It was brave. It was ridiculous.
It was downright stupid.
For every action, there is a reaction, and there are few reactions comparable to a massive beam of burning agony hitting you in the gonads.
For a few long seconds, Jenkins screamed in agony, howling curses at the heavens and hells.
Then as soon as he was done, he leapt up back on his feet again.
"Tis' but a scatch!"
The Reaper blasted him again.
"Come on you pansy!"
The Reaper fired another shot.
"Ha! You only hit most of me!"
Nihlus and Saren couldn't turn away. The whole thing was like watching a car happen in slow motion; so horrible, but yet, so enthralling. This was an entirely unprecedented level of masochism that finally allowed them to confirm a suspicion they were harboring about humanity all along.
They were all insane.
So it continued on, for a while until Shepard finally finished punching in the coordinates.
"What took so long?" Kaiden questioned. It usually took less than thirty seconds to input coordinates.
"Sorry, part of Jenkins's face flew into my arm and reset the whole thing."
"Oh."
They spoke like the events that transpired were the most natural thing in the world.
"Uh, Shepard," Ashley spoke nervously, looking at the coordinates. "That's a bit close to us, don't you think."
"Shepard never really cared much about danger close," injected Kaiden with a sour look on his face. He threw up his shield in anticipation for what was to come. It was time for the annual "Shepard suicide maneuver".
"You guys might want to stay low. The Uni-blasters are…erratic to a degree."
"What do you mea—"
The first volley came down. Right ontop of Jenkins.
"Damn," cursed Shepard. "I was off by a few degrees."
"I'm still alive. I don't know where my legs are anymore though!" cried out the Private.
"Don't worry," responded Shepard, holding Jenkins's legs, "I'll give them back to you when this is over."
Then the second volley came down right onto the back of the Reaper, impacting viciously upon it. Uni-blasters are much like the Uni-beams that the first Iron Man made popular so many years ago. The only difference, is that the newer ship mounted Uni-blasters are bigger, had a larger source to power them, and could punch a clean hole through a planet with continuous fire. All these details tended to make most problems short of actual warships disappear with a flash.
A Reaper is not most problems. The mechanical monstrosity's design is rather simple in comparison to human technology, a problem likely brought on due to the lack of innovation by the belief that overwhelming might trumps all. With only one continuous beam that is limited in its firing angles as their primary cannon, Reapers tend to be less than adaptive to changes on the battlefield.
However, what its creators did extremely well was the fact that they actually succeeded in building a juggernaut of a ship. The thick alien alloy that composed the outer layer Reaper groaned, cracked and broke, but by the time the second volley finished firing on it, it was still standing with full functionality beyond the superficial damage dealt to its first layer.
By the time the third volley was finished, the Reaper was positioned to fire upwards, and when I found its target, it did. Firing a stream of red that was quite certainly detrimental to the Normandy's hull integrity. Realizing this, the maverick pilot abroad the Normandy began dancing around and under the beam.
Simple words could not adequately describe the sheer skill and insanity that it took to evade the beam, but this didn't Anderson from trying.
"Joker, look ou—BEAM! BEAM! BEAM! Too close Flight Lie—BEAM! Fly further away from the damned beam!" Anderson roared, standing on the bridge behind Joker.
"Relax Captain," Joker stated calmingly, like he was one with the ship. "I'm a leaf on the wind."
A cold sweat broke when Anderson heard that. The last pilot who said that to him didn't succeed at surviving or landing the ship. Still Joker kept at his nigh impossible maneuvers, defying the beam at every turn.
Then, suddenly, the ship was stopped dead.
"Joker? What are you doing?" cried Anderson
"It's not me sir, the ship is just not moving. Its like something is holding it."
Anderson turned to look at the red beam slowly approaching the Normandy. It would take some divine intervention to save them now.
Far below on the surface, a Celestial stood horizontally on the back of its Reaper, with its back to the ground in utter contempt for gravity. Its outstretched hand rippled with force as it held the Normandy like it was a toy replica instead of the actual ship, while its Reaper turned its beam towards the captured ship.
Nothing alive could've stopped the destruction of the Normandy at that moment.
It was at this moment that the Ghost Rider decided to object. Exploding out of the ground directly underneath the Reaper, the Thresher Maw slammed into the sides of its mechanical nemesis, knocking the Reaper off balance and splitting the Celestial's attention, thus releasing the Normandy.
The Celestial itself found a searing green chain wrapped around its neck and a rather furious little insect began to make its up towards the Celestials face. Swinging around before it could be swatted off, Javik landed on the face of Celestial, starring straight down into what seemed to be its eyes, and unleashing the full fury of his penance stare.
It was then did he learn a rather terrifying fact: the Celestial didn't have anything to stare into. The issue wasn't resistance so much as nothingness. The Celestial had no soul, no inner composition to breach. It was like intelligence was put into a Celestial's form, but without any life to it, almost like a ghost wearing a god-like shell.
Javik was then, knocked out of his shocked by a invisible megaton of force traveling at sonic speeds. Seeing its rider fly off into the distance, the Thresher detached from the Reapers back, but not before taking a chuck of metal with it. Sparks flew out the Reaper as the Thresher dove into the earth after its rider.
The Celestial didn't stay focused on the escaping Thresher for long. Instead, the titan chose to refocus on the ship it was trying to crush before it got distracted. It reached out with its force and caught the evasive ship again. But this time, instead of holding it place, it dragged the Normandy closer toward it. It wanted to make sure the pesky little ship was dead.
As the Normandy fell under the pull of the Celestial the second time, things were beginning to look hopeless. That being said, "hopeless" never really stopped the humans. In fact, it was kind of like their standard state in any fight..
"It's no use Captain," Joker declared. "We can't get out of its pull."
Anderson furrowed his brow and he began to go over his remaining options thoroughly. The action he decided upon would later on win him a medal, while permanently blacklisting him from taking charge of any prototype ship.
"Joker, who made the armor plating to this ship?" questioned Captain Anderson.
"Stark Industries wh—oh, oh I see," Joker looked at him in understanding. Anderson gave him the nod and Joker gleefully began to divert all power to the ships engines.
"Going to max speed. All hands brace for impact," announced Joker as he began positioning him ship towards the Celestial. The Pilot then turned to the Captain
"I just wanted to say, sir, that I never saw they day you would order me to actually ram a ship. You're the best Captain."
Anderson scowled at his pilot. "The only thing I feel good about right now is the fact that if I die on impact, you will definitely be dead as well."
"It's was my honor too sir," replied Joker sardonically.
Joker entered the commands into his console as he brought the ship down at a speed fitting to plough a Celestial.(heh)
The Celestial was confused. It was definitely pulling enough to drag the ship out of space but not enough to for it to be going so fast. Then it realized its folly.
The Celestial tried pushing but was late in its reaction. As such, the result was the near instant introduction between a Celestial's head and three billion credits of prototype technology.
Face mashed against the ship, the Celestial looked down into the ship to see a burning inside man still adding more power to ship. The ship responded and promptly went over what was designated as limit, scraping of the Celestial badly before ricocheting off of it and smashing into the ground.
It was on impact that the drive core of the ship went into overload and gave one last push to engines before failing completely, resulting in the Normandy being launched over fifty miles while grinding against the ground, rolling and tumbling all throughout.
Flips, rolls, and much noise was involved in the continued crashing landing of the Normandy. By the time it had stopped, the trail of destruction went from the rocky wilderness all the way into an urban region, where the Normandy eventually found itself logged firmly into a building.
The ship hung there, both in and out of a building, without a sound to be heard, and no proof of life. Then the first sounds of survival were heard, and thus marked the one of the few times in history that the sounds of uncontrolled vomiting were a sign hope.
"Blagghhh, Damn—blagghh!GHUURKK! Joker, was our—urk—status?" questioned Anderson, who somehow made puking look dignified.
"Well, Drive is busted, hull dented all to hell, all systems offline, and people are puking everywhere, ruining the cleanliness standard of alliance ships" said Joker, long used to suicide maneuvers. "If we don't open a window here we're all probably not gonna last long."
Anderson wiped his mouth on his sleeve before turning to attempt to check on possible casualties and issue some orders, but he was shocked into silence by the scene that lay before him.
Navigator Pressely was laying facedown in an ocean of his own bile. Other members who were sitting at their posts were spraying vomit at each other, and those who got up quickly slipped on the puke of their fellows. To make matters worse, a furious Karen Chawkwas forced the now malfunctioning doors open and began marching towards Anderson with a scalpel in her hand, using the prone and agonized crew members as stepping stones to avoid the bile beneath her.
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL WERE YOU THINKING YOU STUPID GIT!" This shout was punctuated by the normally calm Chief Medical Officer throttling the usually unflappable Captain. "YOU COULD HAVE AT LEAST WARNED THE REST OF US BEFORE DECIDING THAT WE'RE ALL STUPID AND SUCIDAL AS WELL!"
It was at this moment that Anderson decided that he was going to retire from ships altogether.
…
"Normandy, come in! Normandy do you read?"
Shepard didn't like the look of the impact, but considering that hull was made by Stark certified material, he had faith that devastation dealt to it would not be absolute.
He didn't have much time to ponder the fate of the Normandy as the Reaper was now firing beams at them as well.
Thankfully, due to the damaged dealt to the machine by the Normandy and the Ghost Rider, the Reaper's aim was drastically off, and even when it did fire, the constant stream was now more of a burst.
Still, the situation was not looking good for Shepard and his company. He wasn't sure where Williams was now, Jenkins had once again been relived of his legs, and the two Spectres were both missing after the Uni-beam shots. Only Kaiden stood beside him, mostly uninjured.
The telekinetic formed a shield between them and the Reaper from whatever materials he could draw from, while also launching him and Shepard into the air. Sweat dripped from Kaiden's brow as a terrible headache set in, usually indicating that he needs to stop.
That wasn't an option at that moment.
Fighting through the pain, Kaiden pumped even more telekinetic power the area around him as he launched himself and Shepard off the ground again.
"Kaiden," Shepard shouted to him. "Set us down behind that trench there."
Kaiden did as his Commander said and all but collapsed into the trench, holding his head as a headache likely created by all the fighting came over him. Shepard took a peek over the top and saw the Reaper was still floating in the air. An arm touched Shepard's shoulder, and Shepard drew his repeater in response.
He calmed down when he saw it was only Nihlus and Saren.
"What is that idiot doing?" Saren questioned as he looked out at Jenkins darting towards the Reaper, both middle fingers extended, and high-pressure blood firing out of his leg stumps.
Little did Saren know, this was a well-known tactic that Jenkins thought up just that minute, and involved three essential steps. First, approach enemy with suicidal intent. Second, distract enemies from allies at cost of pain. Third, have a healing factor.
With vigorous spray, the force of stump blood propelled Jenkins head first into the Reaper's side. Silence reigned as everyone tried to make sense of what happen. Then the Reaper decided that it was going to repay Jenkins by ramming into him as well, which caused Jenkins to void his bowels when he realized what was coming.
His look of dread was replaced by jubilation as the Reaper was shadowed by another figure from behind. The massive Thresher Maw was coming down at impossible speeds from the air, and there was no way the Reaper could turn in time to meet it straight on.
"What are you smiling about," cried Nihlus. "Now you're going to be crushed by both of them."
Jenkins's commons sense decided to kick in around this time. "Oh. Well shit," He elected to vacate the premises before he was squished, but fell over when forgot he didn't have legs. Jenkins gulped as an impact was heard, and then over a thousand tons of force grinded the Private against the floor.
"Ow."
Regardless, the collision between Squid and Worm was sensational!
The Ghost Rider burned hotter hell in the middle of July as he shot towards the Reaper at a extraordinary speed. Launching itself through the air, the Thresher Maw and its rider collided with its nemesis with a deafening clash that resonated across the battlefield.
Miles away, windows cracked, the earth shook, giving only the barest hints that at the site of battle, the ground was torn asunder. But for all the raw fury of the clash, for all the might that vengeance holds within the rider and his steed, it wasn't enough to stagger the mighty being that sat above the destroyer of civilizations. It wasn't even enough to shake the Celestial. The Reaper on the other hand, now had a large dent that composed most of its upper half.
Then with the simplest of acts: the raising of its staff, the Celestial turned gravity upside down.
Falling upwards, the Ghost Rider and his flaming beast were launched off and far away from the typical comfort zone of the ground and into the air with no sign of stopping. But Javik wasn't done.
Much like the defiance that exists in it's wielder's soul, the chain of the Ghost Rider shot through the air, making sure to flip off the laws of physics all along the way, burning through a mile of Earth, before rooting itself in place.
Yanking hard, the Ghost Rider forced both him and his mount down from high above where it had been expelled, going faster and faster, until all that could be seen of the Spirit of Vengeance was a hellish green fireball moving at incredible speeds, targeted at the one that left it tossed in the air with a promise of absolute destruction.
Terrible screeching filled the air as the Maw tore through hardened alien alloys, punching a hole in the hull of the Reaper and taking a limb from the machine. Sparks and metal shards colored the air as the Rider impacted the ground again.
The already damaged Reaper could take no more as it fell out of the sky. The Celestial, however, remained floating in mid-air, watching its mount fall with almost a hint of distaste.
The Ghost Rider seized this opportunity as it spurred its Thresher forward. Knocking over the already unbalanced Reaper, before wrapping itself around on one of the limbs of Reaper and smashing it against the ground.
The Celestial tilted its head at the turn of events. Interesting, it seemed to think. No matter, its research was complete, and the theory was sound. It could now finish the Rider off.
Instead of rising its staff up this time, it simply pointed down. Miles below the surface of Eden Prime, the plates cracked and fractures from the pressure exert on it. Miles above, a Ghost Rider found himself and his Maw being grinded against the floor by what seemed to be an invisible mountain.
The force of the mountain soon grew double, and then triple, until the Rider felt like the sky itself was falling upon him. He had no choice but to go with the force, and dig down. Digging down into the Earth, the Rider felt the pressure above him accelerate his decent, digging faster into the earth with the added burden coming from above.
But then his Thresher stopped dead, and began getting pushed upwards as well. He was slowly being crushed into a ball.
Miles above, the Celestial was clenching its hand together; a simple act that belies the tons of pressure being applied from all sides onto the last Prothean. Javik was, quite literally, in a death grip.
Then, salvation came above.
Like a comet thrown down by the hand of God, a blue phrased through space, the upper atmosphere, and slammed hard into the Celestial. A large detonation of element zero happened at point blank in the Celestials face. Miles away, Saren found this sight to be most spectacular. The Celestial itself found it more annoying.
Marion Stark, the Iron Lady, found herself pressed head first into what was described to be a god-like being's forehead. It was looking uninjured and unimpressed, which meant that she was looking at a lot of pain to come.
"Well," muttered Stark. "It was worth a shot."
Then she unleashed phrase two of her plan; she activated the "Nova" application in her core charged up by the impact, and let it loose in its face. An explosion of biotic energy was unleashed complete upon the face of Stark's foe. The Celestial staggered a bit from the blast that came unexpectedly at it. Then it batted Stark's metallic form into the horizon with its staff.
She responded by unleashing all her Iron Legion units she brought on it. Units thirty-five through forty-two all impacted the back of the Celestial at the same time, with unit thirty-seven drilling its way in, forty placing explosives, while forty-one just exploded in a kamikaze run.
Stark frowned at armor forty-one. It's always that one that goes kaboom.
The Celestial turned and force radiated from around it, almost instantly shredding thirty-seven and badly damaging forty. It was answered by a hail of sustained fire from every other still functional unit.
Plasma, repulsors, biotics filled the air as Stark herself rejoined the fray, firing off massive biotic strikes on the Celestial unit that warped the matter of the area around them. The Celestial remained undeterred as it thrust its hand out at the offending insect.
An impact of force slammed into Stark as her barriers gave out. Cursing to herself, she called upon armor units thirty-six and thirty-eight. The two around spiraled around Stark before their armored plates detached completely into the air and were magnetically attached onto Stark's Adept Vanguard MK1, drastically hardening her outer plating. She then overloaded the core of both the units and sent them on to explode on the Celestial.
The resulting detonation did nothing physically to the Celestial as the inferno filled the air before it. Then, punching straight through the fire and flames was a doubly armor blue blur at that slammed hard into Celestial's head before sacrificing her barrier to grant the Celestial another explosion.
From behind, unit forty activated its explosives. From the side, forty-two pulled off the utterly improbable and held the Celestial's arm in stasis while unit thirty-nine fired its rail gun into the Celestial's armpit.
All this succeeded in doing was scraping the outer shell of the Celestial badly.
An explosion of force filled the air with pieces of Iron Legion bits. As unit thirty-nine was shattered only Stark and unit forty-two were left. Stark knew what she had to do, and forty-two was the answer.
Across the times of life, the universe, of everything, unit designation forty-two of the Iron Legion had always been the most effective one out of the bunch. Though it wasn't always the same model, it seemed like whatever armor inherited the title of forty-two was destined for great things.
With purposed and power, forty-two flew at the Celestial and…landed gently in its hands, like a peace offering. This was soon revealed to be a trap when unit forty-two imploded.
Armor designation forty-two imploded into a miniature black hole, taking a few fingers from the Celestial's hand with it. Unfortunately, the Celestial decided to disagree with Newton as his wretched its arms free and batted the growing black hole at with its staff.
"Oh, come on!" Stark grumbled, before warping away from the approaching ball-o-suck. "How does that even work?"
Not a second later though, the sphere of implosion gave out and dissipated.
The Celestial turned to the Iron Lady power emanating from it, intent on ending Stark. Its focus was then quite rudely interrupted by a Thresher Maw head-butting it between the legs. Stark seized this chance to also charge into the Celestial's midsection. The impact launched the Celestial into the ground, creating a massive crater.
Rolling with the blow, the Celestial ended up quickly rolling to its feet despite the impact. Before him, the last Prothean rode on his Thresher ablaze, and above him hovered a Stark. Then the sky above them darkened and roared as colors shifted in the clouds above, and a massive portal opened in the upper atmosphere, unleashing hell up the Celestial beneath it.
"Well they took their sweet time," muttered Stark at the arrival of reinforcements.
A particle cannon shot to the back of the Celestial announced the arrival of Fury's personal Helicarrier, phasing into existence directly behind the Celestial. All three hundred particle cannons fired at once from the three-kilometer SHIELD airship upon the Celestial, shield still holding before the onslaught.
Then, out from the still open portal came a furious bearded green blur that finally pierced the protective shroud of the Celestial with roar that deafened the heavens above and a blow that shook the earth before leaping away. Following the Hulk was a storm of unimaginable proportions, which erupted out of the portal itself. As the winds grew stronger and the rain darkened the sky, a single hammer drew lighting to the God of Thunder. Chasing the storm was a Quinjet, flying defiantly through the winds and rain as it's back opened to reveal a woman in powered armor wielding in circular shield, an archer with a bow composed of pure energy, the Vibranium clad ruler of Wakanda, and a armored man who leaped out before growing to the size of a skyscraper.
But all were outdone by Doom the portal growing even larger before expelling a massive army of Doombots, followed by sixteen ships that looked suspiciously similar to the now fallen Normandy. Only after an aerial army capable of rivaling any Navy had emerged did Doom himself come onto the battlefield, floating atop several ships that looked a lot like a larger versions of the...
"THE NORMANDY? Why that goddamned bastard!" Fury growled venomously at the Latvian monarch, who wasn't so mindful of copyright infringement. He shook off his thoughts of hatred as he reassessed the situation at hand. "Philip!"
"Yes sir?"
"Deploy a shuttle to go find the Normandy, after that, execute the phase leap. Have us jump out of the negative zone right above the Celestial, and get the Warbirds on standby."
"Yes sir."
Surrounded but in now way outgunned, the Celestial rippled with power and force, preparing to unleash its full might upon the miserable creatures before it. At least that was how it seemed before a broken Reaper was used to whack the Celestial over the back of the head.
Turning to find the perpetrator, the Celestial found a man atop standing atop a runic sign in mid-air, dressed the most ornate of robes, and pinkest of boxers.
"En Garde," declared the Sorcerer Supreme, simmering with power as two massive spectral arms held the broken Reaper as a blunt weapon against Celestial.
It would have been very impressive, considering the magnitude of power the Sorcerer Supreme was displaying, but let's be honest, its hard to be badass when your underwear was such a shade of pink.
"Goddamnit Conrad," muttered Captain America, with a slight smile on her face, before the Quinjet itself joined the fray.
And thus began a battle that would ruin Eden Prime.
…
Miles away, two Spectres and a ragged SHIELD team were looking on at the scene unfold before them.
"Saren," said Nihlus.
"I know," replied Saren with a blank look on his face.
"Should we even bother calling reinforcements?"
"I would advise against that," stated Shepard looking at the Sorcerer drag comets down from outer space to bombard the Celestial to no avail while using the Reaper as a mallet.
Saren shivered at the thought of sending Council forces into that brawl. Imagining the Destiny Ascension being as a blunt weapon was a terrifying thought.
"No. Spirits. No. But there is one thing we could do." Nihlus looked at Saren with curiosity as the older Spectre activated his Omni tool to record the scene before him.
"Just so the Council believes us."
…
A Reaper was forced into a blade lock with the Celestial's staff as Sorcerer Supreme dueled the former rider of the Reaper with the Reaper itself. Across a storm-ridden sky, a Helicarrier shot across the horizon, an army of Doombots peppered the Celestial with shots from miles above as their overlord watched with folded arms, and a Quinjet tore through a hurricane to enter fray.
Conrad Verner wasn't the cleverest Sorcerer Supreme, not the most prepared, the toughest, or even the most skilled. He was, however, the most unpredictable, considering the fact that he himself didn't know what he was doing half the time. The simple fact is, while Stephen Strange preformed magic on the basis of understanding and manipulating forces. Conrad Verner cast his spells on foundation of not knowing how the spell worked, just that it did. In short, no one could fight the Sorcerer Supreme effectively because even he didn't know what the hell he was doing most of the time.
"Thunder! Thunder! THUNDER!" cried the Socerer Supreme as he channeled the power of Thor's storm into the Reaper, turning it into an electro-squidhammer.
Thor took the more straightforward response and just tossed his hammer at the Celestial, hitting it in the back of the head. If it did any damage, the Celestial certainly didn't show.
The Hulk smashed the ankle of the Celestial, while Giant Man tried to tackle the Celestial from behind, before being backhanded. The Celestial rectified this issue by infusing its force into around him, and in an instant, a nigh impenetrable barrier was erected around it.
The Celestial then took note of the Helicarrier that rematerialized above it before an entire platoon of Warbirds energy shots peppered its heads. Warbirds, also affectionately known as the Marvel Company were the legacy of one Miss Marvel, from back when the Avengers first were just starting out, and consisted entirely of meta-human fliers of different qualifications.
The Warbirds made strafing runs while thunder and rain covered them from the force blasts emitted by the Celestial. All this was going on while the Helicarrier disappeared from existence again to jump behind the Celestial to fire upon its exposed backside, and did just so.
…
Far above them, watching the battle and chaos unfold below, Doom sat on a throne within his ship that totally wasn't based off the design of the Normandy. He gazed deeply into the conflict, and was quite intrigued by the Celestial.
Out of all the individuals at play on this now ruined rock, Doom was the most experienced in Celestial encounters. Only a few could boast to match his knowledge in the way Celestials functioned, and because of this knowledge Doom suspected the authenticity of this Celestial.
Beings that rival Galactus, after all, shouldn't be obstructed by an amateur Ghost Rider, and would have long since retrieved the beacon by now, unless…
Doom decided to postpone his theorizing till later, after this situation was dealt with. Doom pressed a button on his throne, and in an instant, every single one of his Doombots and ships unleashed hell on the landscape below, painting the stormy sky green with blasts and beams. Maybe one of the shots might hit Fury.
Accidentally of course.
….
"Oh, just perfect!" This statement adequately described the entire situation Stark was facing. Green blots came down like raindrops; expect she didn't want any of these on her head. Muttering a sentence involving Doom having involuntary intercourse with the cannon of a warship, she darted left and right, firing biotic shots at the Celestial while also keeping herself away from the "friendly fire".
Conrad on the other hand, was surprisingly, doing quite fine. He summoned an shiny blue umbrella that seemed to take in any shot that impacted it. The Sorcerer Supreme congratulated himself on a clever move (that he just made up) by pumping his fists in the air. The Celestial took this chance to wretch the Reaper from his spectral arms and hit him over the head with it.
With the Sorcerer temporarily incapacitated, the Celestial turned to face his other threats. The fire that descended was actually working against his foes, who were forced to avoid, while it might as well be actual rain impacting his robust outer layer.
Gazing deep into the center of an oncoming storm, the Celestial could see through the chaotic winds, and discovered the God of Thunder within. Then, piercing through the storm was a hammer, dragging the hurricanes and lighting bolts along with it. Entire chunks of earth below were peeled away with ease as the hammer flew through the air; bringing forth a promise of an impact that will shake the heavens.
The Celestial caught the hammer and the entire storm following it with two fingers, like it was just holding a pebble. This was its first mistake. From out of the storm, over a hundred beams emerged, and cracked the barrier around the Celestial while its focus was still on the hammer.
And then, with a loud roar, Fury's Helicarrier tore through the storm.
Slamming into the Celestial with a Helicarrier over a hundred years ago would have been a stupid idea, considering previous Helicarriers had a tendency to fall out of the sky when its adversaries gave its engines a funny look. Then, in 2098, SHIELD began outsourcing its defense materials to Cho-Kerberos Incorporated. From then on, it was a different story.
To demonstrate this fact, when the Helicarrier finished ramming against the head of the Celestial, it flashed, disappeared, reappeared ten miles away, and then opened fired from that distance with its particle cannons before disappearing again. Needless to say, the Celestial wasn't too pleased about the situation.
Responding to this annoying fact, the Celestial decided to pull a disappearing act of its own. Forces formed and were focused into a drill beneath the Celestial, and in an instant, it went under. This when the Rider followed it down.
Tearing through miles of earth, an odd race happened between Rider and Celestial: one trying to find a better position to fight from, while the other was trying to hunt the first down. Unfortunately, this also caused some…issues relating the tectonic plates on Eden Prime.
…
Private Jenkins had already received his fair share of injuries to day. He was shot, blasted, crushed, and sunburned, but none of that could match up to what he was currently experiencing: the earth itself was swallowing him.
Seeing the distress that the Private was in, Kaiden took it upon himself to telekinetically pry Jenkins loose from the planet itself. Then the ground beneath him gave way.
Keeping yourself levitated is no hard task for a beta-level mutant. Keeping yourself, your entire team including one who was trapped between a few tons of rock, on the other hand is a bit tricky. So in a split second decision, Jenkins lost his (newly regrown) legs again, cutting him loose from the rocks.
Ignoring the dismayed cry of Jenkins, Kaiden kept the entire group afloat as Shepard surveyed the land around them.
Absolute devastation. That was all that could be said about the situation on Eden Prime. The ground shook and collapsed all around them; something was definitely happening underground. At least it couldn't get worse.
Then a Helicarrier ran into them.
Fury starred at the SHIELD team that was currently plastered outside the outside of his Helicarrier's front bridge in solemn annoyance.
"We—uh, seem to have located Commander Shepard and his team sir," chimed in Philip with as much cheer as he could. It really didn't go well with the image of Jenkins who as currently splattered all over the front windshield. Fortunately, everyone else was okay.
"I noticed, Philip," said Fury glaring at his men on the bridge. "Now if we could find a way to get them off from outside, instead of starring at all day, maybe we could get back to chasing that oversized bastard."
Agents all over the bridge responded. A few going for the buttons to open the blast doors to the outside, some going for jetpacks to retrieve the agents, and one grabbing a mop for Jenkins.
…
Hellfire melted through tons of rock with ease as the Thresher released another blast at the Celestial digging ahead, to no effect.
They had been at this for over ten minutes now, and the all the Rider managed to do was destabilize the entire region. Still, he was undeterred in his hunt for the Celestial.
Unleashing another massive fiery explosion outward, trying to bury the Celestial in a sea of hellfire. The Celestial responded by telekinetically drilling upwards, through the fire and the flames, and carrying on to burst above ground.
However, the moment it emerged, it was greeted by a massive blast of pure mystical energy.
The Sorcerer Supreme, no sporting a rather delicate bump on top of his head was back in the game. In the future, when he was asked on how he tracked the Celestial down so quickly while the area around him was, quite literally, falling apart and he himself was disoriented, he would say that he casted a tracking spell of no equal.
What actually happened was that he got his cape caught on the Rider's Thresher Maw when it dived after the Celestial while he was crawling out from under the Reaper that was brought down on his head.
Reeling from the surprisingly powerful blast from the Sorcerer, the Celestial, head now partially cracked open, lashed out to kinetically blast at him. Conrad scoffed as he blinked out of existence entirely, with a plan to attack the back of the Celestial.
However, Conrad never being one to judge distances well ended teleporting just right in front of the blast, taking the full force to his face. He ended up smacking into a Hulk in mid-leap, coming towards him.
Before the Celestial could make its next move, it was best upon by Thor, the Rider, and the Quinjet concurrently.
The Thunder God brought Mjolnir down upon the back knee of the Celestial while the Quinjet unloaded a salvo of antimatter rounds at the chest of the Celestial.
Though it held on, it was getting slower, and less responsive. The constant pressure or damage must have been taking its toll on the Celestial. Still, it stood up, still ready to fight.
That was when a massive transparent green blast hit it over the head, and punched a hole through part of it.
…
Doom clasped his hands together. Over the years, he had learned to combine technology and sorcery better than he did before. As a result, most of his weapons were now an amalgamation of both, and as a result were better than either.
The green beam that was currently gracing the "Celestial" below with its glow was from one of his Overlords, (which are totally not based off the Normandy) and considering that they functioned off of technology, but ran off of sorcery, they could theoretically fire for an eternity. However, his purpose was to test the effectiveness of his weapon, not its damage, so it stopped.
Deciding to cease the shot to survey the damage dealt to the supposed "Celestial", he saw that the outer skin of the Celestial had all but been peeled off. Doom praised himself internally as he began to monologue.
"Let it be known that none, except Doom deserves the—"
Before Doom could finish his monologue about what he deserved, he noticed the entire landmass being ripped out from Eden Prime itself and launched at him.
The Doombots scattered and all Overlords began charging up to fire. Doom wasn't going get out of the way of the landmass coming at him, Doom was going to punch right through it.
So he did, and in doing so, caused chucks of rocks and other materials to rain down on the combatants below, once again proving whom the biggest dick in the universe was.
…
Fury looked at the group assembled before him with an eyebrow raised: two Turian Spectres, a Stark security officer, a regenerating private, a beta-level lieutenant, and Shepard.
Agent Shepard certainly did take after his mother in the sense that he certainly had a weird crowd following him, but in this day in age, what team wasn't weird?
"Colonel."
"Agent, I see that the mission didn't go as planned." Nick Fury: Master of the Understatement.
"Yeah, not entirely certain how we are supposed to find the beacon considering the land has literally been ruined beyond repair," stated Shepard, looking out at Eden Prime: paradise no more. On the bright side, the real estate value in the area was down.
Ashley was the first to notice the uncomfortable look on Fury's face.
"Uh—Colonel is it? Why are you looking at us like that?" Ashley questioned.
"Beacon…" muttered Fury. Shepard blinked disbelievingly.
"You all forgot the beacon didn't you."
Fury's face scrunched up into a fine mix of annoyance, anger, and possibly denial. "Agent, we have been dealing with a Celestial here, so if you could forgive us…." Fury growled as sardonically as he could. "…We could get on with our lives, and deal with the problem at h-"
"Director?" Philip said.
Fury's face was now in a state of upmost irritation.
"What."
"The sky seems to be falling."
Everyone stopped to look outside. First, a few rocks fell onto the outer shielding of the Helicarrier, then in the distance large chunks of a city-sized landmass were falling from the sky. Fury narrowed his remaining eye at the descending debris.
Far above the falling debris, green lights and Overlord ships descended, and far below was a massive dust cloud that couldn't hide the reality that a battle was happening within it.
"All hands, prepare for phase leap. Get the Warbirds on standby," ordered Fury. "Shepard, make yourself useful and do something instead of just starring at me, Philip activate the Rhodes Protocol. Get ready to execute it as soon as we emerge."
Shepard immediately turned to his group and began discussing their strategies. "Ashley, there is a armory aboard: make use of it. Jenkins…heal. Kaiden, you, me, Nihlus, and Saren are going after the beacon."
"Do we even get a say in this?" Saren grumbled.
"Not unless you want to be stuck aboard a Helicarrier doing nothing. Get whatever you need, when the Rhodes Protocol activates, there will be no going back.
"Wait," inquired Nihlus. "Just what is this Rhodes Protocol?"
"You'll know when it happens," answered Shepard.
Deciding to suit up according for their updated task, Shepard's team discarded their prior gear pertaining towards reconnaissance, and went straight into heavy weaponry.
If there music accompanying this scene, a preparation montage would have been complete. However, from Saren's perspective, the whole thing was quite absurd considering what passed as reasonable weaponry to the human's.
The first issue that leapt out at him was the fact that there was an entire wall devoted to knives, swords, and other melee weapons.
"Why do you even have all that?" Saren asked, point at all the pointy assortments on the wall.
"Oh, its mainly for those who are Ninjas or other individuals who are skilled in close-quarters," Shepard said while the plates of an exo-suit locked around him.
Ashley was picking out a rifle for herself. The G-34 Expander, adapted from Dr. Hank Pym's technology, the bullets had one main function that put them above others: they begin to expand after they managed to loge themselves in the target, and with a superheated tip to the round, there wasn't much it couldn't pierce.
Saren and Nihlus looked around at the odd weaponry that decorated the room. Some were gauntlets of some sort, others were rather simplistic looking guns at first glance, but really disturbed them was the armors in the armory. At the terminal standing before one of the armor stands, it seems that the humans had developed a way to cycle through their suits, rapidly, and it wasn't a surprise why they needed this function; there were thousands of suits displayed on the screen.
Curious, Nihlus tapped on one of the armors designated Mockingbird. What emerged, amused Saren to no end.
"Good pick Nihlus, now you finally get to show off those well toned legs of yours." Saren mocked, appreciating the lack of leg plating— or leg anything—on the armor. Nihlus didn't respond to Saren, choosing instead to address Shepard.
"Agent… why does this exist?"
Shepard finished loading his Repeater when he looked upon the armor on display, and answered, completely serious. "Its for mobility."
Nihlus didn't bother responding to that statement.
"Phase leap active, all hands stand still," bellowed the ship's onboard computer.
"What happens if we don't?" Saren questioned.
"Well, then your face might end up inside Nihlus's chest," stated Shepard, nonchalantly.
Saren's mandibles opened in slight disgust.
…
It took the Giant Man fifteen minutes to dig through the mess that was once ground beneath him. It took another ten to run over to where the Celestial emerged. It just took Doom ten seconds to screw up everything. Typical.
Dodging falling masses of earth, shots from Doom's ships that gone astray, and blasts coming from the Celestial itself, Giant Man closed the distance to deliver a massive haymaker to the face of the Celestial.
Before it retaliate, the Hulk slammed into the lower back of the Celestial with both hands, digging his fingers into the outer plating, and trying to rip the Celestial's back open. This was when a lightning blast exploded on the outer chest of the Celestial.
It took two steps back to steady itself, and one more that grinded against the ruined land. The Celestial couldn't afford to waste much more time, it need the beacon, but before it could get to that, it needed to deal with the nuisances that troubled it at every turn.
Taking in all the force it could, the let loose a blast that could have been seen from orbit. Layers of earth peeled away, as the landscape torn apart. However, at the epicenter of the blast was a layer of protective glyphs thrown up in the nick of time, and behind it was one Conrad Verner: Sorcerer Supreme.
Gritting his teeth, he held up the glyphs against the unbelievably powerful blast leveling the land. Turn to give his allies a nod; he noticed no one was behind him.
It was at that moment that he saw most of the Avengers and a Quinjet holding on desperately to a flaming Thresher Maw that was hurling through the air on the other end of the glyphs. Conrad had thrown up his protective shielding on the wrong side.
The Celestial maintained its power, knowing that it had its foes on the ropes.
Then, it was drop kicked in the back of its head.
Standing before it, still glowing brightly from its phase leap, was Fury's Helicarrier, now operating under Rhodes Protocol. What this means is, it went from giant flying ship, to a massive bipedal form resembling that of the former hero War Machine.
It stood a head taller than the Celestial, and its ports were opening up to deploy its troops again. Before all this could be completed however, the Celestial was once again pierce by a transparent grow beam coming from behind. Doom was at play as well.
Numerous Overlord ships and Doombots descended upon the Celestial. On the other end, the Warbirds and SHIELD personnel were at the ready to put the Celestial down for good.
The Celestial sized up its numerous opponents, and immediately shot right off the ground. Blast into the sky, the Celestial took flight towards were the beacons located, and now probably, buried.
Undeterred both Doom and Fury's forces gave chase as the massive War Machine and a ridiculous amount of Overlords colored the sky with shots.
The War Machine was a persistent predator. With only one individual linked to the entire ship—Fury—there was no issue with coordination.
Firing the particle cannons on its shoulder, the repulsors on the War Machine launched it even faster after the Celestial.
Three blue beams cut through the air as one scrapped the Celestial right over its back, prompting it to project a few blasts backwards with prolonged engagement.
Flying right through the hits, whatever damage was done to the War Machine was quickly repaired; all thanks to nano-machines.
Still, the Celestial put more power into its as it dove down, trying to get to the beacon before more troubles came.
Doom had different plans. Having long since calculated the "Celestials" flight path in his head, he floated in adrift, waiting for his prey to come, before ensnaring it in mystical chains.
It didn't take long for the Celestial to break free from the bindings, but Doom's goal was accomplished by then. Parts of the Celestial were ripped off as the chains were broken, and Doom collected one piece of the Celestial that came falling near him.
Scanning the broken shard from the Celestial, Doom's eyes widened.
…
Shepard's team had left the Helicarrier the moment it engaged the Celestial. The idea was to get the beacon while the War Machine engaged the Celestial and deal with the situation.
Their dropship landed five minutes ago. They spent three just starring at the beacon while the War Machine brawled the Celestial in the background. Saren looked blankly at the gargantuan beacon standing before them.
"How are we supposed to get that out of here?"
"At least it isn't buried," stated Nihlus, looking up at the massive protruding beacon sticking out of from the ruined earth.
"I don't think I remember it being that big," Ashley added. Shepard shivered at statement; the blasted beacon was already giving him the jitters.
Kaiden focused his power and tried digging the beacon out from under the ground again but to no avail.
"It's like its rooted down to something." Kaiden declared.
"Well it—" A flash from the beacon interrupted whoever said that.
Ripping Kaiden from off the ground, and holding him up the air, the beacon shone furiously as it began doing something. Wasting no time, Shepard, pulled Kaiden out of the way from the beacon, and immediately regretted his decision.
He found himself the same position that Kaiden was in. And then, before anyone could do anything for Shepard, the beacon exploded, and forced itself down his mouth.
The group then starred at the convulsing Agent as he began glowing red, blue, and then green.
"Did he just eat the beacon?!" Nihlus groaned in horror. Kaiden simply brought his hand up to his mouth and touched it, thankful that it wasn't him.
…
A forceful elbow forced the War Machine backwards. By this point, the Rider had caught up the battle again, and slammed into the ankle of the Celestial, cracking it. Runes opened up in the sky as meteorites were summoned to bombard the Celestial.
Throwing a Shield up, it blocked the missiles coming at it from the Sorcerer Supreme, but was hit in the back by a dozen Overlord shots. Then the Hulk emerged, while also being flanked by Thor.
Blasting the Avengers' hard hitters away, a Quinjet fired a Uni-beam shot straight through its legs.
Bleeding black liquid, damaged, and overwhelmed, the Celestial drew force upon itself again. Or at least, it tried. Slowly but surely, it was getting slower, its power was getting weaker and…
In the distance, a massive flash came from where the beacon was and the resulting wave washed over all the combatants on the battlefield, without affecting most of them.
The Celestial, on the other hand, fell to its knees as it felt some part of itself fade away entirely. It tried to muster some kinetic energy but failed. The Celestial starred down at its hands as it tried to draw out power, but failed. It slowly began falling apart.
The Celestial was powerless.
Then instead of moving, or trying to muster up a defense, the Celestial just stayed still, as the light faded out from inside it. Its job was done. It succeeded.
A massive Vibranium rocket went into the Celestial's shoulder courtesy of the War Machine, and punched a hole through it. Seeing their enemy damaged, the Avengers pressed the advantage.
The Celestial fell back but caught itself before it could fall over. Seizing the advantage, the Avengers let loose. The Iron Lady became a glowing blue bullet once more and jumped right into, and through the lower abdominal region of the Celestial.
It didn't fall.
The Captain tossed her shield through the air with perfect accuracy, nailing the Celestial under the jaw, before the shield was launched through the back of its head when Mjolnir flew into it. Then three arrows flew into the cracks that made by the prior attack and exploded within the skull. The Celestial took another step back, clutching its head.
It didn't fall.
The Hulk leapt up on the back of the Celestial, smashing and ripping through the armor with out mercy.
It fell to its knees, black liquid dripping out of its cracked face. Still it made no attempt to fight back.
Chanting to himself, Conrad waved his hands wildly in the air and then with a brilliant flash of light…. Nothing happened. Until…
"Wait for it…"
The Celestial's stomach bent inwards as a spectral train rammed into it from out of nowhere.
Everyone stood still in silence for a second.
"Looks like he got… sooouuuullll traiiiiinnnneeeed!" Announced Conrad gleefully. Silence greeted him. He was undeterred; he had to try again.
"Looks that like that will give him indigestion!" He received no applause. All he earned was a face-palm from Stark.
"Hey Conrad," said Stark, while firing at the Celestial, blowing chunks of it off. "You know that thing you do, when your lips come together and sound comes out to make words?"
"You mean talking?"
"Yeah. Stop doing it."
Conrad frowned. No one liked his jokes.
A giant foot snapped the Sorcerer out of his melancholy as he noticed Giant Man attempting curb stomp the remaining chunks of the Celestial's face. Conrad decided to help by transforming the Giant Man's boot into a Chainsaw stiletto.
The Celestial's mangled face was stomped on a few more times before the head was completely sliced, crushed, and demolished.
Then a green blast ended it all. The Celestial began crumbling into dust as the glow faded from Doom's hand.
"It isn't a real Celestial," declared Doom.
"What the hell do you mean it's not a real Celestial?" Marion Stark asked, disbelievingly. The damn thing certainly throttled them like it was authentic, that's for sure. "Did you not see what it did to us? We barely beat it."
Doom scoffed at Stark's statement. Fools. What do they know about facing Celestials. He had fought, suffered, and prevailed against the Celestials more than anyone in the universe, and never once did a single team, without an overwhelming advantage, or device, of some sort take down a Celestial like this.
"Even before it was actually damaged, Doom knew. Celestials are comparable to the might of Galactus, but this one was brought low by a single team of Avengers, a half-wit who forgot his pants, and a single Helicarrier's resources. This is no Celestial, only a pale imitation," muttered Doom. "No Celestial would be killed like this, no Celestial would choose such a juvenile method of entrance, and no Celestial has been this limited in its application of power; this one only manipulated forces."
Stark threw her hands up into the air and began wandering towards the remains of the Celestial. "Great. Perfect. So now all we have to go on here is my destroyed colony, a fake dead Celestial with a broken mech-squid, and shield agent who apparently ate the beacon I dug up."
"But who could make a fake Celestial, and have it attack Eden Prime?" asked Captain America, face full of worry. "And why?"
"I didn't even get the insurance set up," groaned Stark, head in her hands.
Doom held up the part of the Celestial's shattered head. Though its face was cracked and shell was broken, he could still feel the power emanating from within. Whoever could make an artificial Celestial, even a pale imitation, and force it to fight in such a manner, was powerful beyond measure, and undoubtedly, mad.
Thanos was the first person that Doom could think to be able to achieve something such as this, but it didn't make sense: the mad Titan had recently been exiled to an alternate universe, and Doom would know if he had returned. Also, why Celestials? And fake ones at that?
He needed to investigate, and deal with this threat, to prove that none shall match Doom. For the first time since Reed Richards died, Victor Von Doom felt a spark of life come back into him.
Doom turned and warped away, leaving the Avengers stranded behind.
Stark scowled at the slowly disappearing Doom. She could finally understand why her grandfather hated this man so much.
"Dick," hissed Stark.
"Verily."Thor announced, finally landing beside his team.
...
"Alright that's enough of that, lets get the Agent out of here," Said Fury, looking towards the unmoving and still smoldering Shield agent. As the director approached Shepard, the agent suddenly began glowing green, red, and then blue again. The Director stopped dead in his tracks and turned to look at Ashley.
"Yeah, he does that, every now and then."
Fury grimaced and he began to massage his temples.
"On second thought, let's wait till the specialists get down here from the Helicarrier and properly extract him. It looks like someone just got an origin story here, and until we know what the beacon did to him, no one touch hi—goddamnit Conrad!"
Conrad immediately let go of Shepard's legs. Conrad was, in no way, trying to pry Shepard's pants off. SHIELD pants were badly designed anyway.
"I-I was just checking for a pulse!"
Fury couldn't tell if he was lying.
…
A few steps away, two Spectres were discussing how the after action report was going to sound.
"So Nihlus, what are we supposed to tell the Council," asked Saren.
"The Truth?"
"… Nihlus, if you can explain to the Council how a robotic death-squid of the Geth forces along with their godly overlord came down to Eden Prime, destroyed everything in a brawl with human forces, a flaming Thresher Maw being ridden on a skull, an army of robots, and forced a Shield agent to destroy Prothean beacon with his mind without Sparatus dismissing it as a rumor, I'll give you my rifle."
"Well, they can't ignore us both."
"You obviously don't know Sparatus."
"I—"
"They will listen to me!" was the growled out phrase that ended their discussion. The Ghost Rider stood before them, more fiery and furious than ever, despite bringing the Celestial low. "Your Council will believe me!"
Saren grimaced internally, hands fidgeting with his gun. "I am not certain about—"
"They will believe what I say! If they decide not to, I will feed them to my mount!"
The Thresher Maw gave that statement a joyous roar, and made slurping noises.
Nihlus looked to Saren again. "You think we still need to include the part with the inferno Thresher."
"Probably not. We can just show them instead," muttered Saren, dreading his upcoming meeting with his superiors. "They aren't going to like this."
Nihlus starred at the Thresher Maw. "We're probably going need to worry about getting a big enough ship for that first."
Important Ramblings: The Universes of Marvel, comic issues, different individuals, and even writing/description quality will vary with the situation like in different comic issues, so don't be surprised to see one chapter going "Boobs! BUT THE BOOBS ARE ACTUALLY GUNS! EXPLOSIONS! NOW EVERYONE FIGHTS!" in the way the first two chapters after the prologue couldn't give a care about the plot, and then another going all cloak and dagger. Then again, this all depends on how sober I am while I write this, and what kind of compulsive thoughts Mr. Brain forces upon me. Oh, and missing details here will be explained later.
Looking across at the ruined landscape, stood a group people, all dressed in suits.
This was Eden Prime, and it was their job to make it so again.
"All yours guys," declared the Iron Lady without a second glance given.
"Thanks a lot."
It was their job to fix Eden Prime. They hated their jobs.
Damage Control's after issue mayhem coming soon...