Cyclone 03: Doomed
"So, are you going to make the deal?" A calm Nick Fury said.
Across the metal table, Ace, who had been reviewing a packet of papers, looked up and said, "Yes, I think I will." He signed a line at the bottom of the last page and slid the packet to Fury, who shook Ace's hand.
"Thank you for your services, we're proud to accept you as an official S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist," Fury said as he escorted the Ace out of the small room and into one of the nearby hangars. Ace had reservations about becoming a S.H.I.E.L.D. funded scientist, but he had blown all the money that he had made while in school on purchasing his penthouse apartment and then having to completely rebuild it after the prior week's incidents.
Once the refurnishing of the apartment was complete, Marion had suggested that Ace have a separate location as his base of operations, at least for his Cyclone front. "If I could follow you to your house, think of all the villains that could, especially now that you're becoming better known," Marion had said. Ace took his friend's advice and decided that it wasn't the brightest idea to have his personal home as a base, so he began looking up various locations. He found an abandoned factory a couple of miles out of the city that had an abandoned subway tunnel leading into the city. This tunnel had been closed due to the often occurrences of the tunnels flooding, but it was structurally sound.
Ace had immediately began negotiations with the real estate company that owned the land, but once Ace realized that he had only a few hundred dollars left over, he was forced to end the negotiations. Ace, without a steady source of income yet, approached S.H.I.E.L.D. and made an offer that he would allow S.H.I.E.L.D. to purchase any technology Ace made that was not part of his superhero endeavors. In exchange, S.H.I.E.L.D. would purchase and renovate both the abandoned factory and the old subway tunnel to be used by Ace for whatever he wanted. Also, Ace would receive a limitless budget for his science related experiments as well as S.H.I.E.L.D. would give him a reasonable flat fee for any tech that they purchase from him. In addition to the flat fee, S.H.I.E.L.D. would present royalties to Ace should they decide to reproduce the tech.
Ace had done the math while researching the factory and the time it would take to get from there to Times Square via the tunnels was roughly five minutes. It was also convenient to be able to dart into any subway station and be able to head back to his base undetected. He still had full intention to live in his penthouse along with Marion, who had decided to stick around after last week's mishaps. Marion had brought up the point that he could achieve greater goods by teaming up with Ace, than he could alone. It also helped that Ace had presented Marion with plans for a machine that could print off rubber, prosthetic faces that Marion could wear.
Once at the hangar, Ace turned and waved to Nick Fury, who wore a grin on his face as if he was a child and had gotten the toy he had wanted for Christmas. He then jumped out of the helicarrier and activated his armor in mid-air. He flew down, into the city and landed in an alley. Deactivating his armor and switching to human form before leaving the alley, Ace then walked over to his apartment building. He walked into the elevator where Stanly stood, reading today's Daily Bugle. "Ugh, why do you read that rag, Stanly?"
Stanly pressed the penthouse button and responded, "I consider the Daily Bugle to be entertainment, not news. It's fun for me to see how much that silly J. Jonah Jameson twists things that I've seen with my own two eyes! Speaking of twisting, I heard that you now have a roommate, but I've never seen the fellow. Why is that?"
Ace, suddenly and unexpectedly put on the spot responded with, "Uh… he's a real health nut. He's been sick, so he hasn't been able to do his daily jogs and he's been making up for it by taking the stairs every day. I'm sure he'll be taking the elevator soon enough." The real reason that Marion hadn't been taking the elevator was because Ace had yet to make the prosthetic face machine and his old disguise tricks wouldn't fool the ever-observant Stanly. The elevator dinged and Ace stepped out.
He walked into the living room to find that Marion was watching TV. "Well," Ace said, "I've sealed the deal with Fury. I don't like it, but for now, it's the only way for us to make money honestly. Heck, I even got Fury to agree to him footing the bill for the factory and the renovations needed. Supposedly, they're going to have that done by the end of the week, so until then, we have to make do."
"And when were you planning on having my face machine done?" Marion said. He had been hounding Ace about this ever since Ace had shown him the plans.
"As soon as the factory is ours, I can put the order for the budget to make that. Until then, you'll just have to take the stairs. Ace went to the fridge and grabbed a cold soda pop. Cracking it open, he took a seat by Marion and began scanning the news for reports of villainy. Unfortunately, Ace's police scanner had been broken during the raid on his apartment last week and he didn't have the parts to make a new one, so the duo's only option was to watch the news. Unfortunately for the bored duo, the city was quiet.
Sighing from boredom, Ace retired to his bedroom for the night, leaving Marion, who didn't need to sleep, watching the late show. Marion did not like being alone all night, but since there was nothing for him to do, he put up with it.
Growing tired of watching celebrity gossip, Marion turned off the television and went over to one of the few remaining computers. He went on the internet and began looking for some games to play. He found an interesting game that involved catapulting birds, some cheap knockoff of a phone game with a similar concept, and played that for a few hours.
At a little after midnight, the computer and lights suddenly flicked off. Marion went to the wall and flipped the light switch, but the lights didn't turn on. "A power outage in New York City?" Marion looked out the window and saw the neighboring buildings still had their lights on. "Huh, someone must have flipped a breaker or whatnot." Marion picked up the phone to call down to the help desk, but there was no dial tone. "The phone's dead too? Hmmm…"
The lights flicked on and Marion sighed, "Well, at least it wasn't something suspicious." Returning to the computer, something caught the puppet man's eye. There was an envelope on the table. "We don't get mail and I know we don't have spare envelopes…" Marion walked over to the table and saw that the there was a stylized "D" on the back. The "D" was imprinted in a wax seal like the ones that were used in medieval Europe. Marion flipped it over and saw that it was addressed to Ace. Marion went to the master bedroom and knocked, waking the slumbering genius that lay within.
"What is it?" Ace's tired voice came from inside.
"You've received a letter in a most peculiar way. The power went out and when it came back on, the letter was on our table."
"Eh? That's weird. Come in and show it to me." Marion opened the door and entered. He handed the strange letter to Ace, who clumsily popped the seal and pulled out a single sheet of high-quality paper. Ace read the letter aloud, "Dear Mr. Mathews, You are formally invited to dine with his majesty, Victor von Doom, at his estate on the eve of the twenty-fourth. You may bring your wooden friend if you wish, but be warned, not showing will be an insult to Latveria and Doom himself." In place of a signature, there was just an ink version of the seal.
"Hmm…" Marion said, "It would appear that we do not have much of a choice. I think we'd better go. It'd be unwise to offend someone as powerful as Doom."
"I have to agree. The twenty-fourth is tomorrow, isn't it?"
"Close, today is the twenty-fourth; it's a quarter after midnight." Marion said, pointing at the digital clock in the corner of the room.
"Ok, well, we better not tell Fury about this. He'd throw a hissy fit and probably stop us from going. Plus, I might be able to see that backstabbing Sasha."
Marion had heard Ace talk of Sasha before, but he never asked about her as Ace clearly had some sort of deep-seeded grudge against her, whoever she was. Marion shrugged and walked out of the bedroom, returning to the computer to begin again on the bird game. Ace was wide awake from the news and couldn't get back to sleep, so he went back out to the living room. He turned on the 24/7 News channel and zoned out in front of it.
Hours must have passed and light began seeping into the room. After making a rich, energy providing breakfast for himself, Ace headed downstairs and out of the building. His plan was to go and see if he could talk to an Avengers representative about becoming a member. He had been approached by the famous Captain America a few days earlier, but had been so swamped with trying to manage everything that Ace had not had time to stop by the Avengers Mansion and get formally introduced. The same invitation had been made to Marion, but the man declined. Ace didn't know why Marion had passed up the opportunity of a lifetime, but he didn't push the issue and neither did Captain America.
Ace ducked into an alley and once he was sure that there was no one watching, he triggered the mental switch to transform into his mostly human, partially panther, hybrid form. Ace then hit the mental trigger that activated his power armor, which he nicknamed the Cyclone Suit. Ace had designed the suit in such a way that it could only ever be activated while in his Hybrid form; in fact, the part of the brain that the mental trigger for the suit resided in exists only in certain animals and does not exist in humans. He had done this so that his secret identity could be virtually airtight.
Ace activated the many turbines on his suit and flew off, out of the alley and towards his destination. After only a few minutes of travel, Ace touched down on the doorstep of the mansion. Ace pressed the button near the door that could only have been the doorbell. After a few minutes without a response, Ace pressed it again. A voice with a thick British accent spoke out of a speaker near the door, "I am sorry, sir, but the Avengers are not currently in the mansion. Can I help you with something?"
"Uh, sure; I was told by Captain America to come down someday and be tested to see if I could join the Avengers," Ace said, not sure exactly what to say.
"Ah, you must be the new hero Cyclone. Unfortunately, the Avengers are off planet solving a delicate alien situation. I would advise that you come back later, once they are back. If I could have your number, I will contact you once they arrive."
Ace nodded in understanding and rattled off his mobile number. He did not have a cell phone, but he did have an inner-ear implant that could send and receive phone calls. If need be, Ace could always switch the number on the phone if he started getting spam calls. After exchanging thanks, Ace flew off a few blocks north and into the subway station. There were only a few people milling about since it was during business hours, so Ace was able to slip into the tunnels without much attention. He began flying through the tunnels, getting used to the extra navigation required to ensure a safe flight in such enclosed quarters.
After a few hours of practice, Ace ducked down a side tunnel and deactivated his armor. With one more, quick glance around, Ace then switched back to his human form and walked out onto one of the platforms. He walked up and out of the subways, arriving near his apartment building. With a quick trip upstairs, Ace found that Marion was out. He glanced at the clock on the oven and saw that it was noon. He threw together a light lunch and then headed out to try and find Marion. They would need to leave soon, in order for them to be respectfully early in Latveria.
One of Marion's favorite places to go was sporting events. The fans there were so oblivious that no one yet had recognized the fact that he was made of wood instead of flesh and bone. There was a minor league baseball game going on, so Ace headed to the stadium. Ace managed to slip past the ticket gates and made it into the crowd of fans. It was hard to tell individual people apart, so Ace just looked for a person wearing an unnatural amount of black, which is what Marion normally wore. He spotted such an individual across the way.
Ace made his way through the stadium's labyrinthine interior over to the other side. He made it to the person wearing all black and realized that it was some heavyset old man. "Ugh, where could he be?!" Ace muttered to himself. Suddenly, there was a tap on his shoulder and he turned to face the tapper. It was Marion. He stood there in a sporting outfit complete with a long-sleeve T-shirt, white gloves, long sweat-pants, tennis shoes, and a baseball cap. "There you are! We need to leave soon in order to get to you-know-where in time." There was no real need for secrecy, but who knew where Fury's spies might be.
Marion nodded his head and the two of them left the game, slipping out one of the side exits. They entered a nearby subway station and when nobody was looking, they faded into the shadows of the tunnels.
The duo found an old service tunnel that they used as cover. Marion lowered his density to the point where he became intangible and his outfit fell through him. Ace activated his two mental switches in succession and then they were both ready to go, the entire process lasting only a couple of seconds. They went deeper down the service tunnel and exited out in one of the southern subway tunnels. They had memorized the subway systems and parts of the sewer system, since they were going to be using both for travel throughout the expansive city.
They exited out through a station that was used infrequently and flew up into the air. They leveled off and began flying east, across the Atlantic. The flight was uneventful and the two of them had to land in Germany for a little while so that Ace's Nitrogravi engine, the energy producing device that powered his suit, could cool down. They made it to the outskirts of Latveria in their next trip. Once they landed at the border, Ace deactivated his turbines and Marion raised his density and mass back to normal so that he could walk comfortably.
The two of them were greeted by a robot that said, "Welcome to Latveria; home of some of the greatest scientific advancements and is ruled by the benevolent Victor von Doom! If you sirs will follow me, I'll be escorting you by hover-car to Doomstadt!" Ace was surprised by the hospitality and followed the robot with Marion not far behind.
As the car traveled the countryside, Ace was shocked by what he saw. He had been expecting dark forests with dreary swamps and an enslaved populace. What he actually saw were rich, evergreen forests, rolling fields, and a populace that lived more luxuriously than all but the richest of Americans. The robot explained some of the country to the two visitors. "In Latveria, there is no conflict! Nor is there hunger or poverty! Each family is given an acre of land as well as a two story, Elizabethan style house! The citizens go to their jobs with complete faith, due to the fact that the benevolent Doom provides the best job security! Latverian workdays are eight hours long and each worker has a three day long break at some point during a week, so that businesses can remain open all week long! Any time that the economy decreases, benevolent Doom provides some technological boost so that the economy becomes stronger and rebounds!"
The robot kept prattling on for the entire trip, but Ace began tuning him out at some point. Marion kept whipping his head back and forth, trying to see all of the sights as they flew past. The car eventually docked with a large castle that had to be Doomstadt. Once fully docked, the robot guide escorted the visitors through a maze of hallways until they reached a room with a long, oaken table in the center. The table was laden with food of all kinds, ranging from roast chicken, to heaps of baked potatoes, and there were even cuts of steak that Ace had never seen before. Inside of his suit, Ace felt a bit of drool escape his lips.
The robot suddenly stiffened and a different sounding voice came out saying, "The Honorable Victor von Doom has arrived!" Upon hearing this, the duo turned towards a pair of gigantic wooden doors that swung open to reveal a man in a suit of armor that had a large, flowing, green cape attached. The metal mask on the stranger's face revealed that it was none other than the notorious Doctor Doom. "Welcome, guests. I hope that your travels were not too rough."
"They were quite pleasant actually," Ace said, trying his best not to say anything that might offend the madman that stood before him.
Doom gestured to the lavish display and said, "Eat, my friends! After eating our fill, we shall discuss our business!" Doom looked towards Marion and added, "Is there anything special that the chefs might prepare for someone as unique as yourself?"
"Sorry, sir, but I do not consume food. My body does not need sustenance to function," Marion said in a steady rate, his attempts at pacifying the warmongering villain also audibly apparent.
"Very well, now, I do recommend the chicken, it is most excellent," Doom said. The intimidating man took a seat at the head of the table, so Ace and Marion took the seats opposite him. A servant cleared away the dishes that had been laid for Marion and then disappeared into the woodwork.
Ace felt entirely uncomfortable with the fact that he was eating a madman's food and not trying to stop whatever nefarious plot that Doom had to be cooking up. Ace had left his armor on, removing only his helmet so that he could eat. He did not trust Doom for a second, but to refuse the man's hospitality would undoubtedly provoke him. The food was indeed delicious, but Ace's stomach turned, wondering if there had been any poisons or nanobots in it.
Once Ace had eaten his fill, a servant cleared away his dishes. Doom motioned for the two men to follow him and then led them through his castle into a meeting room. Doom motioned for the duo to sit down and then stood behind a podium. Ace and Marion took their seats in what had to have been the most comfortable chairs in all of existence. "Pay attention," the deranged dictator said. "For Doom does not repeat himself. There is a threat to the universe itself that has appeared recently and you are its originator." Doom pointed an armored finger at Ace, who was confused.
"You mean the thing that broke into our universe while I was out dealing with Mysterio?" Ace said, hoping that he was not correct.
"You are correct," Doom said. "My agent was there when it happened. The creature was unsure of what exactly was happening, but left the scene before my agent could report to me." Doom snapped his fingers and a long-haired Sasha appeared from behind the duo. She placed a piece of paper on the table in front of Ace and then went to stand next to Doom. "That paper is the translation of the inscription on the base of that statue."
Ace picked it up and read, "Let none who move stop before the Demon Rex, lest he be free once more." Ace handed it to Marion, who gave no visible reaction.
"What you did, Ace Mathews, was free a Demon of unknown strength. This demon apparently has some ability to travel between universes, because it destroyed your probe and afterwards followed it back to your apartment. Doom shall provide you with plans for a scanner that will track the location of the creature and will leave you to take him down," Doom said, anger audible in his voice.
"So let me get this straight," Ace said. "You, the all-mighty Doom, are asking us, two unknown heroes, to take down an evil that not even you know how strong it is?" As soon as the words left Ace's mouth, he realized that it was a mistake.
Doom slammed his fist on the podium, splintering the wood. "Doom requires help from no one! You are to deal with this, because you are responsible for it! Should you not take down this Demon Rex, Doom shall hunt you down and kill you himself!"
Ace felt warm streams of liquid flowing down his leg. "Yes sir, right away sir."
Doom tossed an envelope to Ace. "That is the schematics to the device that will be able to track the Demon Rex. The Demon seems to absorb all energy around it and that will track where the energy is being pulled to. That is all the assistance Doom will provide, now be gone from Dooms sight!"
Ace tucked the letter into one of the compartments on his suit and then stood up to leave. He and Marion were escorted to the main gates. On their flight back, Marion said, "Well, that went better than expected. We managed to avoid a conflict with Doom."
"Maybe so, but I won't be able to create the scanner until this weekend, when the factory is ready." The duo made it home safely and Ace immediately hit the showers to clean himself up.
The next few days passed uneventfully, with the duo only being able to stop some minor crimes and without seeing a single supervillain. When a disguised S.H.I.E.L.D. agent came to their front door and told Ace that their factory and tunnel system was complete, they headed over immediately to see what it looked like. The incredibly massive main building looked run down and abandoned from the exterior, but the interior looked like a state-of-the-art laboratory. It had a chemistry lab that came with a fully stocked chemical storage unit and a top of the line electron microscope with variable zoom, allowing for it to double as a normal microscope. There were chemistry work stations fully stocked with beakers and vials galore. There were several different kinds of chemical showers for any emergency. In a separate room, there were a dozen, large computers that had twelve terabytes of both memory and RAM each. Ace wiped the nerd drool off of his face and walked over to another door. Down a short hallway was a building that had huge stacks of every kind of metal and plastic known to man. There was a tiny vat of liquid metal bubbling in a corner with two guards standing watch over it.
"Oh Dear Lord, I have Adamantium!" Ace whispered. Marion patted Aces shoulder when the man had begun sobbing with joy. The rest of the tour showed Ace that he had access to a fully equipped drafting station as well as several workstations for cutting, melting, and manipulating metal. Ace opened the final door and saw a dark, unlit tunnel stretching out from behind it.
"That's the tunnel you wanted," said a voice that came from directly behind Ace. He jumped from surprise and saw that it was Nick Fury. "It leads straight to one of the subway tunnels that branch off of Times Square Station. The entrance on that side is a maintenance access door that is locked. It's genetically keyed so that you and Marion can access it. If you want to change the genetic keys, you can do so at the computer terminal."
Fury continued, "The tunnel does have compression units built in so that it will appear to be caved in, unless one of the doors is properly unlocked. This prevents people from simply breaking down the door and walking in." Fury jabbed his thumb towards the lab and said to Ace, "Now get to work! You don't have time to just stand there and gawk!"
"Yes, sir!" Ace said enthusiastically. He almost couldn't resist the urge to skip over to the work stations. He immediately sat down at the drafting station and got to work.
Fury turned to face Marion and said, "Keep an eye on this one. Make sure he sleeps every once in a while, I don't want him to pass out and ruin some real scientific advancements." Marion nodded and watched the intimidating man walk away.
With his new laboratory, Ace managed to create the scanner from the schematics that Doom had provided and installed the small scanning device onto the Cyclone suit's right arm. Ace pressed the power button and the screen flickered to life. The screen was a solid, light green. "Uh, either Dooms calculations were off, which is improbable, or this 'Demon Rex' thingy isn't in our universe. Oh well, if it's not here, then it's not my problem." Ace tapped the side of the screen flipped it upside down, so that it blended in perfectly with his suit.
Ace spent the next few hours redesigning the portal section of his probe and then got to work reproducing it. This time, Ace wanted to make it more effective and sustainable, so that it could be used even if there wasn't an external power source.
The next day, the final project sat in front of Ace. Ace went to work hardwiring the portal generating device to the Nitrogravi engine in his suit and then ran some wiring through his suit's left arm, connecting the portal generation device to a small ten-key keypad. This keypad, like the scanner on his right arm, could be flipped over and would be virtually undetectable. The keypad had a screen that had six blank spots grouped into pairs. Through the keypad, Ace could enter the six-digit, universal keycode that would link the portal from his current universe to the next. Ace had built this so that he could travel into other universes and dimensions to collect samples and do research.
At some point during the next night, Ace came up with an idea to link the scanning device to the portal generator so that the scanner could then scan the alternate universes in search for the Demon Rex. He did it the next morning and began the scan. The process of scanning all the other universes was a long one, but within six hours, the scanner began beeping wildly. Ace looked at the coordinates for the universe being scanned and saw that they were 64,86,27. Ace jotted this down on a piece of scratch paper and then turned the scanner off. "Whatever the demon is up to, I'm sure he can wait a couple more hours for me," Ace muttered. This got Marion's attention, which had previously been focused on a flash game.
"Did you find it?" The wooden man asked.
"Yeah, but I'm building a different kind of scanner. This scanner will be able to pick up signals from the other universes, sort of like a multi-universal police scanner. It'll allow me to hear any distress calls that people send, so long as they send it in the form of a radio or micro wave."
"Ok, so what's the point of it?"
"If the Demon Rex is attacking an uninhabited universe, or one filled with only low level life, then there's no point going after him, right?" Ace asked rhetorically.
"I guess," Marion said, not agreeing with Ace, but also not wishing to start an argument with him.
This new scanner was far more complex than the first one and had more intricate technology than the portal. It took a couple of days for Ace to draft the scanner, perfect the math required for the scanner, and to actually build the scanner. Once the multi-universal distress scanner, which Ace called the MDS, was finished, Ace presented the scanner to Marion and said, "Would you do the honors of turning on the scanner?"
Marion rolled his eyes and pressed a button on the front of the scanner; static came pouring out of the speaker. Ace pressed some buttons on the front of the MDS until a readout said the numbers 64,86,27, the coordinates for where the Demon Rex had been a few days before. A female voice came blaring out of the speaker, "This is a distress signal being sent on all frequencies! This universe is collapsing! Reality itself is being torn apart! If there is anyone out there who could rescue me, please do so! I am the last human left! Please…"
The voice faded out and static took its place. Ace immediately flipped open the keypad on his left wrist and punched in the numbers 64,86,27. An oval the length and width of the Cyclone suit opened in the air in front of the duo. They saw the interior of a ship and were about to step through, when suddenly a woman came flying out of the portal, crashing into Ace and the two of them landed on the floor with a loud thud.
Ace saw that the woman was around 5'2"and that she had shiny metal bands around her forearms and shins. There was also a shield-like metal plate that covered the woman's face. There was nothing on the shiny metal of the mask other than two slots through which Ace could see hazel eyes. The woman had long, brown hair tied back into a ponytail that hung down her back, stopping just above her waistline. Her slender body was covered from the neck down in a dark blue suit that looked like a diving suit. The woman had a katana in its sheath on her back and had a thick, white belt with pouches all along it on her waist. She pointed at the portal and shouted in a commanding voice, "Get that portal closed, now!"
Ace fumbled to hit the deactivation key and then jammed it with his finger. In the second before the portal closed, Ace saw the ship on the other side of the portal fade, turning to white. The portal closed mere moments before the whiteness reached it. "Oh, thank God!" the woman said. She rolled off of Ace and sat with her back against the wall.
Ace rolled off of his back and stood up, looking at the strange woman. "Ok, now you're safe. Who are you and what happened back there?" Ace asked, pointing his thumb behind him, where the portal had been.
The woman sighed, stood, and said, "My name is Alicia Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D." Alicia extended her hand to shake.
"Uh… Any relation to Nick Fury?" Ace asked, shaking her hand and hoping that it was just a funny coincidence.
"If by Nick Fury, you mean the founder of S.H.I.E.L.D. and first Director, then yes; I am his descendant. There are roughly thirty-six generations between us."
Marion piped in with, "So you're from the future?"
"Seeing as this place isn't destroyed, this is not my past. Also, judging by this man's suit," she pointed at Ace. "This earth is far more technologically advanced, despite it being farther back in the timeline. On a side note, why are you wearing a wooden suit? That can't be effective in combat."
Marion looked disappointed, "This isn't a suit, lady, this is me. I'm a living puppet."
"A living puppet? So there's magic on this Earth, eh? You brought up Nick Fury, do you think you can take him to me?"
"Better yet, I'll come to you," said Nick Fury's unmistakable voice from the shadows of the room. He had a dozen S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with him, all of which had guns pointed towards the newcomer. Fury turned towards Ace and said, "We picked up another, similar energy spike here so we came as fast as we could. Is this the intruder?"
"No, sir," Alicia said, making sure not to do or say anything that would provoke the gun-wielding agents. "My universe was being destroyed at the hands of a creature who called himself Rex. Two years ago, he broke into our universe and we've been fighting him ever since. Our best efforts were nothing to him and he made short work of our armies. The rest of humanity was forced to go into hiding in order to survive and even that wasn't enough. The demon's presence was unraveling the fabric of reality and these two," she pointed at Ace and then Marion, "saved my life by opening up a portal."
"And you are," Fury said, raising an eyebrow.
"Alicia Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D."
Both of Fury's eyebrows rose at this statement. "Oh, so you were director of S.H.I.E.L.D. back in your dimension? Well, I'm the director in mine; you're not getting my job." The evenness of Fury's voice showed that he was being serious.
"I wouldn't dream of taking command away from the legendary Nicholas Fury. Besides, I'm sure you have to deal with a lot more things than I did. In my dimension, there is," Alicia gave a half-cough and then corrected herself, "was no such thing as magic."
"We have more than magic, we also have superhumans!" Ace added.
Fury shot a harsh glance at Ace for speaking out of turn. "You have any uses?" Fury was being overly blunt.
Alicia did not like Fury; that was clear. "Pardon me, sir, but I did not become director of S.H.I.E.L.D. by being useless. I was my world's best fighter, not to mention that I was in charge of a vast military force. I am not only physically capable of taking care of myself, but also mentally so."
"Good, now the only question is; do you wish to join S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
"Sir, with all due respect, I've climbed my way up to the top of S.H.I.E.L.D. once, I have no wish to go through that grueling process again." Alicia was starting to get annoyed.
"Very well," Fury said, shocking Ace with the fact that he was backing down so easily. "You may go your own way."
"Thank you sir, now I have some questions for these two, if you'll excuse us." Alicia said, waving her hand in the general direction of Ace and Marion. Fury nodded and retreated once more into the shadows. Alicia turned and said, "So, I take it that you two aren't just scientists?"
Ace was about to speak when Marion cut in with, "Nope, we're bona-fide heroes! We've stopped the Menacing Mysterio and Ace here has stopped the Ravaging Rhino not once, but twice!" Marion was clearly bursting with pride at this.
"I don't know who either of those are. Tell you what, why don't you take me on your next mission so that we can see if I'll be of any use as a hero." Alicia reached up to her mask and began to slide it up. She had to pull her ponytail through the strap in order to get the mask off. The face underneath had flawless, ivory-colored skin. Alicia clearly didn't wear makeup, but had no reason to. She put the mask into one of the larger pouches on her belt and then looked back at the boys. No one could see it due to his armor, but Ace's mouth was agape. He had seen supermodels that didn't look this hot. Ace nudged Marion who looked at him, clearly not understanding what the bro-nudge meant.
Ace shut his mouth and deactivated his armor. Once she spotted Ace's head, which resembled a panthers head due to him being in hybrid form, Alicia took a short jump backward, her hand resting on the grip of her sword, her feet widespread in a combat stance. Ace rose his hands and said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm a good guy, remember?"
Alicia's grip on the sword lessened for a moment and then she stood straight. "My apologies, it will… take some time in order for me to get used to the things of this world."
"It's cool," Ace said, shrugging. He activated the mental switch and his body resumed its normal, human state.
"So, are you a human or a monster?" Alicia said.
"Human," Ace replied, ignoring the monster jab.
"Huh, this world is freaky."
"You've got that right," Marion said depressingly. He turned and walked away.
Ace went and sat down in one of the computer lab chairs, offering a second one to Alicia. "So, if you're going to be a hero, you're going to need to have an alias. Why don't you come up with some and then I'll run them through Wikipedia to see if they've been taken already."
Alicia thought for a moment, "Scorpion?"
Ace didn't even have to look Scorpion up to know that it was taken. "Taken."
"Black Widow?"
Ace looked it up and said, "Taken."
"Deathstrike?"
"Taken, kind of."
"Kind of, how can something 'kind of' be taken?" Alicia wondered, growing angry.
"Well, the real name is Lady Deathstrike, but Deathstrike would be too close of a name."
Alicia thought for a moment, her hand rubbing her chin. "Hmmm… What about Fox, since I'm just as tricky as one and twice as vicious?"
Ace checked the computer and saw that there was no hero by the name Fox. "That might just work. Although, to seal the deal, could I alter your facemask a bit? I could make you a new mask that would be more fitting than your current one. I could also make it more durable."
"Sure, I guess." Alicia pulled out her mask and set it on the table next to a computer. "Just use the dimensions off of my original one."
Ace rubbed his hands together in anticipation and snatched the mask up. He crossed the factory and went into the metal storage room. While Ace was busy with the mask, Alicia went and sat down next to Marion. She didn't say anything and just sat there. Marion appreciated the silent company.
Just over an hour later, Ace walked up to the two silent heroes with his hands behind his back. Ace presented the new mask with a "Ta-da!" and handed it to Alicia. The new design was a bit shinier and had two triangles at the top, resembling a fox's ears. Also, there were small engravings on the front of the mask that resembled whiskers. Ace had tilted the eye holes, finishing up the fox look. She flipped it over and saw that Ace had also supplied some other material in replacement of the cushions that were on the back of the previous one.
Ace began explaining the mask, "Made with Vibranium, this mask will be able to absorb most energy types, including kinetic! Also, the fact that the mask now ever so slightly slants away from the center, bullets will ricochet and will never puncture unless they hit dead on. The cushion is thinner, but made with a gel that is hyper-absorbent, reducing the impact damage tenfold. Also, the ears are very sharp and can be detached and then used as weapons in a pinch. The ears are lined with a substance known as Anti-metal that can cut through virtually any metal; this could come in handy if ever you're caught in a trap. There is also a fold-out air purifier inside the mask, so you can be safe if there is ever gas used on you. The strap is designed to be tight, but not restrictive and has slight padding for extra comfort."
Alicia was amazed, "You made this in an hour? I'd hate to see what you could make if you had a week! By the way, what's Vibranium and what in the world is Anti-metal?"
Marion decided to answer these two questions, "Vibranium is a metal that can only be found in the country of Wakanda and can absorb many different forms of energy. Anti-metal is a variant of Vibranium and has the unusual ability to destabilize the bonds of any metal. The sole exceptions to this effect are Vibranium and its variants, as well as Adamantium. Adamantium is a man-made metal that is indestructible once cooled."
"Adamantium sounds more useful than Vibranium," Alicia said. "Why didn't you use that?"
Ace took over, "That is a good point, but there are two reasons. First off, Adamantium is incredibly expensive and is one of the most complicated things to create. Secondly, Adamantium is toxic to humans and can be lethal with long exposures."
"Both are good points," Alicia said. Ace spied the katana on Alicia's back, but before he could say anything, she cut in with, "No, you cannot take my sword. This baby has been with me since the day I joined S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Does it do anything special, or is it just a blade?" Ace asked. "I wouldn't want you hacking limbs off of petty criminals."
Alicia gave a look that said 'you have got to be kidding me.' "My blade is made of ionized steel. When I put a specific amount of pressure on the grip, the grip sends a small bioelectric signal through the blade, activating the ionized metal. While ionized, the sword can cut through inorganic material far easier than a standard katana, but it becomes virtually impossible to cut through anything with an opposing charge; meaning that, while the sword is ionized, it cannot cut through living flesh, since flesh usually has bioelectricity running through it."
"So, you couldn't cut through a computer, since it too has a charge?" Marion piped in.
"No, normal electricity does not provide the specific charge required to stop the blade."
Ace wondered, "Is the process reproducible? That would be a wonderful option for the police to have, a weapon that could be lethal one moment and then immediately switch to non-lethal."
Alicia shook her head, "I do not know the process of how it was made and even if I did, it takes years of training in order to learn how to produce the specific amount of pressure on command."
"Ah, well, it sounds like you know how to use it and that's what's important," Ace said. Suddenly, a beeping noise distracted the trio. Ace recognized it as the beeping of the scanner that Doom had given him the prints for. Ace quickly made the transformation into his hybrid form and activated his suit. Ace flipped open the scanner. The screen had a red arrow pointing northwest and a small number that read 3.5 miles. "Looks like we'll be seeing your skills sooner than expected," Ace said. "The Demon has arrived!"
Alicia turned towards Ace and said, "We cannot fight him, Rex is far too powerful for three humans to take down! In our universe, Rex took a battle-cruiser cannon blast to the face and didn't even flinch!"
"We have to try! We're the only ones with the technology to track him, so if we don't take him down, he'll do to this universe what he did to yours!" Ace said, a little more harshly than he had intended.
Alicia slid on her Fox mask and said, "Fine, let's go." The trio ran towards the tunnel and unlocked it. There was a slight rumbling from behind the door and then the door swung open, revealing the long, dark tunnel. Ace turned to Alicia and motioned for her to get on his back. She tilted her head in confusion, but slid her fingers into a slot on his back and then pressed her feet against his lower back. Once she was secured, Ace knelt and then took off down the tunnel, Marion not far behind.
The flight felt much longer than what it actually was. The trio popped out the other side of the access tunnel, the entrance closing itself behind them. Ace checked his scanner and then turned north. He popped out of a subway station and then they turned left, flying over to where the harbor was. The trio flew down so that they were flying parallel with the ground, just a few feet off of it. They wanted to take this demon by surprise. They spotted it at the end of the docks, so they slowed down to a stop. Alicia jumped off, landing silently on her feet.
The Demon Rex looked exactly like his statue had. He looked half-human, half-dragon. The demon had broad shoulders with a reptilian head. He was covered in green scales and wore nothing besides a simple, purple loincloth with a lizard-like tail protruding from the base of the monster's back. The demon had glowing green eyes and his jaws made him look like he had a perpetual smile. The monster's hand and feet were surrounded by a green flame, but the flame did not seem to be scorching the ground. Wicked looking claws tipped the demon's fingers and toes.
With Alicia off of him, Ace kicked his turbines up a notch and flew at the demon. The demon swung his body around and delivered a kick with a glowing, scaled foot. The kick sent Ace flying into one of the nearby warehouses. The Cyclone suit absorbed the impact of the wall. The kick had crumpled the suit slightly, not enough to damage Ace's body.
Marion was the next to take action; he charged the demon, increasing his mass and density at the last second. The impact took the demon by surprise and the two of them went off the pier. Marion was hammering blows one after another to the demon underwater, until the demon stopped squirming. Marion let up his assault, but regretted it when the demon's eyes snapped open. The demon punched Marion so hard that he flew out of the water and back on the docks, his wood cracked from the punch.
The demon flew out of the water and landed back on the docks. He opened his mouth and with a roaring voice shouted, "I am the Demon Rex, you cannot defeat me for I have defeated gods!" Marion tried to stand up, but Rex had grabbed him and threw him at the same warehouse that Ace had crashed through. Marion made himself lighter, so that his flight was slowed dramatically. Marion twisted his body and landed with his feet against the wall. He allowed gravity to have him and dropped down to the dock.
Alicia charged the demon and unsheathed her katana while she ran. Rex tried to claw the nimble female, but she dropped down and slid under the attack. She popped up at the last second and did an arcing, upwards swing. The blade slid across Rex's skin, leaving a faint, red line where the demon's blood began seeping out. "Argh!" Rex roared. Ace made it back out of the warehouse at this point, but stayed back, trying to formulate a plan.
Alicia dodged the demon's counter-attacks and backed up, not getting another chance to attack. Marion ran in, once more increasing his density and mass. He swung a left hook, but Rex ducked beneath the attack, moving shockingly fast for a creature his size, and followed up by slashing Marion's stomach with his claws. The attack tore out chunks of his wooden body and sent him flying backwards. Marion crashed into Alicia and the pair of them went down.
"I am too powerful for you to possibly defeat!" Rex said, his words dripping with malice.
Ace suddenly had an idea, "Maybe we can't beat you, demon, but we don't have to!" Ace began sprinting towards Rex.
The demon rose his arms and shouted, "What could you possibly do against me, you pathetic mortal?!"
Once Ace was only a few feet away from the demon, he jumped in the air. While in midair, Ace tapped six random numbers into his portal device and then hit enter. The portal was created in the first available spot in front of Ace which, in this case, was behind Rex. Ace landed with his feet braced against the demon's chest and activated his leg turbines, turning them to full power. Both individuals were sent flying away from each other. Ace landed on his back several dozen yards away and Rex was sent flying backwards into the open portal. Ace deactivated the portal moments before the demon could cross through.
Marion and Alicia ran over to where Ace was lying. Marion was holding his stomach, which was repairing itself, but at a very slow rate. "It would appear," Marion said, "that his claws can damage me in a way that makes it incredibly hard to heal." He extended a hand to help Ace back to his feet.
"That will only slow him down. We'll probably be seeing him again soon," Ace said through gritted teeth.
"Better to fight another day then to fall in the line of duty," Alicia said, sheathing her sword.
Ace nodded and said, "We'd better prepare for when he comes back. He'll undoubtedly be prepared for us next time."
-To be continued in: Cyclone 04: Sinister-