Chapter 4:
Two Cubes in One
(Real World: Lawrence house, the night before Ryder and Spoke discover Loki's warehouse)
Henry, Jason, and Mike stayed the night in the basement, while Jane and Laura slept in Jane's room upstairs. Downstairs, the guys were playing poker, with chips of course; none of them were brave enough to risk real money.
"OK" said Mike as he pondered his cards, "I'm going to call, and raise you 5" he said, putting five chips on the table.
"Ah! Think you've got a good deck huh? Well I'll take that raise!" he said, throwing in an additional 5 coins.
Henry looked strained as he looked over his cards. He only had a pair, and Mike had a tendency of drawing good hands. But he had already folded the last five times, and Mike just loved taunting him.
"I call" he said as he went to grab 15 chips. Along with the obvious thrill of competition (Mike and Jason in particular can make a competition out of anything, one time resorting to "Candy-Land" to settle a dispute), they would usually talk amongst themselves.
"So, Mike, still going as Batman?" asked Jason.
"You bet, can't wait to drive you all crazy with my "Because I'm Batman!" voice, and not appear insane!" said Mike, referring to the famous catch phrase of there favorite Youtube series.
"Yeah, well just remember, Spiderman, being me, can still beat you butt any old time!" said Jason, throwing his cards on the table, "Straight Flush!"
Both Mike and Henry sighed in defeat, as Jason greedily clutched the worthless chips.
"Ok, well, I'm done. Besides, we have to wake up early..." said the sensible Henry.
"No! One more round! Not until I break even with Jase!" demanded an insistent Mike.
"Yes, one more chance to humiliate you guys one more time!"
Henry realized that he wasn't going to win this one. "Alright, one more!"
"Alright, here we go!" said Mike as he drew out the cards. Mike, Jason and Henry looked at there cards, wondering what there opponents had.
"Alright", started Mike, "I'm throwing in 15 chips... So, Hen, how were things with Laura and the dishes?" He asked without missing a beat, still looking at his cards.
Henry shot him a glare of both rage and irritance while Jason looked up with confusion. "Wait, what!?"
"Mike! What's wrong with you?! Jase is right here!" yelled Henry, while Jason stared in confusion.
"Wait, hold on, What's going on? Henry Like's Laura!?"
Mike face palmed himself. "Henry, I was just asking how the dishes went!"
Henry looked to a dumbfounded Jason, who was starting to put the pieces together. Henry was wide eyed when he realized that he just exposed himself.
"Who asks how the dishes went?!" Henry aggressively asks.
"What? you usually break dishes when you wash them. I was just making sure we don't owe Mrs. L..."
"Ok. Ok, back on topic!" interrupted Jason. "Henry, you like, like-like Laura?"
Henry smashed his head against the table in anguish. "Yes, Jase, I like her" he said, face still down on the table, then, waving his finger, "and if you ever tell anyone else, I will hunt you down, beat you within an inch of your life, and feed you to starving Chihuahuas! Got it!"
Jason leaned back in nervousness. "Well, that is the worst way to go... but when did this happen?" he asked, trying not to sound overly interested.
"It started a few months ago, I don't know I just, started liking her. And now I'm afraid to talk to her. How does that make any sense? We've been friends for years!"
"Ah, love, the greatest of life's mysteries, and the strangest" said Mike, trying to sound philosophical. "Oh, and I call" he said, throwing in 15 chips.
"Look, guys" said Henry, don't make anything of this, ok? I'll figure it out on my own. Call" he said, also throwing in chips. "And Mike, please don't try to help, please?"
"Hey, I can't make any promises...Gentlemen, read them and weep!" said Mike, placing a flush on the table. Henry took it gracefully, while Jason continuously smashed his head against the table. Mike laughed maniacally to himself as he clutched the chips; not only had he won the game, but he also tricked Henry into giving away his secret.
(Jane's room)
Unlike the guys, Jane and Laura were getting ready for bed as Laura rolled out her sleeping bag.
"So, ready for tomorrow?" asked Jane.
"Yep. Are you dressing up this year?"
"Nah, I've outgrown that. Wish I can say the same for Mike and Jase. Juvenile delinquents!"
As Laura got into her sleeping bag and got ready to sleep, she pondered Henry's behavior the last month. "Hey Jane, have you noticed Henry being, quiet, lately?"
"Quiet, what, like not talking?"
"Exactly."
"Uh, not really, he's been normal around me."
"Strange, it's almost like he's been ignoring me. I tried to talk to him about his college course earlier, but he was very straight forward, no elaboration whatsoever. It's almost like he was afraid to talk."
Laura couldn't see it, but Jane gave a little snickering smile. "Maybe he like's you?"
"What? No, Henry and I have always been friends. Why would he suddenly be interested?"
"Hey, he's been tight-lipped, that's the first sign."
"Nah, he's probably just...It's just not that. Look, forget I asked, good night!" said Laura with a hint of frustration in her voice.
"Alright, good night."
(Lawrence house: Morning on the driveway)
Henry, Mike, Jason, Jane and Laura were throwing in the last of there bags into the Suburban.
"Alright guys, everything's packed, lets go to Orlando!" called Henry as everyone got in.
"Shotgun!" yelled Mike, as was his tradition when entering any vehicle.
"Mike, we already talked about this, Jane is in charge of the music, so she gets the front seat" reminded Henry as he opened the drivers door.
"Over my dead body!" yelled Mike as he ran to the front of the car. He once again tried to slide over the hood, but yet again he stopped halfway as he tumbled over the front of the car. "Dang it!" he yelled as he fell.
"Mike, just get to the back before we run late, please!"
Sigh, "Fine" said Mike as he walked in defeat.
(Real World: Loki's Warehouse)
"Master, what is this artifact?" asked Darth Vader after Loki appeared with a shrapnel a strange metal through the closing portal.
"It is a piece of the Allspark, a device that can bring to life any machine, turning it into a, "robotic organism"" said Dr. Clithe, who was very familiar with it.
"Yes, well, I think we can do something else with it than simply bring machines to life..."
"General!" interrupted a storm trooper as he and his partner led Spoke and Ryder into the warehouse, "We found these two snooping around outside."
Ryder and Spoke looked around at there new, very unfamiliar surroundings: The majority of the people here were storm troopers, or at least guys dressed in storm trooper costumes. There were also what appeared to be goblins of some sort, but Ryder knew full well they were orcs, specifically from the "Lord of the Rings" series. In the far corner of the warehouse, Ryder noticed some machines and vehicles resting there; some were large, bipedal machines with cannons mounted on the front. There were also strange vehicles, easily recognized as fighter ships from the "Star Wars" series, along with speeders. To the other corner of the warehouse, they saw another, larger and unfinished machine, the size of a storage shed. It had many strange assemblages attached to it, and on the side of it was a large dish, almost the size of a small car.
There were also some characters from other movies they had noticed; an animated boy was standing near a black, dragon-like creature, Elsa, whom they saw already, along with a few raptors and two large T-Rex resting in a corner. Nearby were more normal looking people, normal being non-animated or wearing make-up; a man dressed as superman, a man that looked like Chris Hemsworth, dressed as Thor from "the Avengers"; Darth Vader, and, standing next to Dr. Clithe, sporting a glowing scepter, Loki.
Vader immediately used the force to bring Spoke and Ryder towards him.
"Whoa!", "Hey!" they yelled as they were lifted up and dropped on the ground before them. "Who are you, and what are you doing here?" asked Vader, holding his hand out.
"Alright, I've had enough of this show you guys are pulling off!" yelled Ryder as he got up, still not believing that these are the "actual" characters, but rather people dressed up as them. "I just want to see Dr. Drake Clithe, and get to the bottom of this!"
Loki grinned as he walked up. "Dr. Clithe, friends of yours?" he asked the doctor next to him.
"No, I've never seen these men before..."
"That's because we don't know each other. Dr. Drake Clithe, I'm agent Ryder with the FBI, and I'm not buying this charade you're trying to pull here! How about you explain what you've been doing regarding EMP generation and..." he looks around, "...throwing a, geek convention of some sort."
"Yeah, what's with the EMP you've been giving off!" asked Spoke, "what've you got? A nuclear reactor? Particle accelerator? Or a..." he glanced at Loki, "wait, why is Tom Hiddlestone here?"
Loki laughed, while Doctor Clithe explained, "No, no. This is Loki, the one who's going to change the world! I brought him from the Marvel Universe!" he said, sounding like a madman.
Ryder and Spoke looked to each other, as if to say "OK, he's nuts."
"You don't believe that I'm Loki of Asgard?" asked Loki. They both nodded. "Well, perhaps a demonstration, then?" he smiled.
He grabbed the Allspark shard from the table, and held it out, along with the scepter, for all too see.
Ryder looked to Spoke with wide eyes. "Isn't that..."
"The Cube from "Transformers"? Yeah."
Loki held the shard to the tip of his scepter. It made a slow hum. Then the shard started giving off static charges, emanating towards the scepter. Soon, the entire scepter was surrounded in the Allspark's energy. Eventually, the Allspark was emptied of all energy. Loki flinched as the scepter began fidgeting. The metal almost seemed to shift and change shape. Soon, the scepter turned from its gold color to a silver metallic color, and its shape changed slightly. Loki examined his new, improved scepter, realizing that the tessrac energy inside it was a mixture of the original blue color, mixed with a strange, silver hues of energy flowing through it.
Testing it's new qalities, Loki imagined a sword. Suddenly, the scepter shape shifted, metal rearranging itself into a alien looking sword. He thought again, and this time it shape shifted into a long barreled gun of sorts. He aimed and fired at a wall in the far corner of the room. It let out a blast of blue energy as it blasted a precise hole in the wall as a group of orcs scattered at the sight.
"My, I'm impressed! I like this new toy!" he said as he willed it to turn back into a scepter. "Well, lets test this thing... Doctor, do you have the coordinates?"
Dr. Clithe ran over to the machine, "Yes sir."
"Than bring me this Megatron!"
Ryder looked to Spoke. "We need to do something! This guy is nuts!" he whispered.
"What do we do?"
Ryder looked around. "Look, when I scream 'now', you and I run for the door."
"But our car's over an hour away."
"We'll just have to run and hide, there's plenty of woods out here..."
They were distracted when the generator started and a portal opened. Ryder and Spoke flinched in shock as it materialized. They looked around as the lights flickered, realizing that this was indeed the source of the EMP. There was no doubt about it now; Loki from "the Avengers" is making an army of movie characters, much to there disbelief.
Loki looked to it, ready to walk in, but he was interrupted when a large, jet-like vehicle flew through it, and close behind a F-22 jet. Everyone ducked and jumped out of the way as the two jets crashed through the wall.
"What was that?!" yelled Loki.
"They must have been flying right when the portal opened!" Yelled Dr. Clithe.
Pieces of metal and debris flew everywhere as the Decepticons crashed through the wall. One of these pieces smacked Dr. Clithe right in the head, giving a slight concussion as he briefly blanked out. As everyone took cover, Ryder saw that the troopers holding them had fled amidst the chaos. He saw his chance...
"Now!" yelled Ryder to Spoke. The command went all but unnoticed, as everyone was focused on the two, large Cybertronians on the other side of the hole in the wall. Spoke came across a dreary Clithe, who's eyes had returned to his normal brown color. Remembering the events of "the Avengers", Spoke came to the conclusion that Clithe was free of Loki's control.
"What?" said a dreary Clithe. "Loki, h...he's going to take over." He put his hands to his face, "I...helped him..." he said shamefully before Spoke grabbed his shoulders, shaking him, "We'll worry about that later, right now, we need to run!"
Coming too, Clithe snapped out of it and ran, following Ryder and Spoke. He saw the fourth wall generator, still on the table, unguarded. Knowing Loki would continue to bring in more "recruits", he grabbed it and ran.
Meanwhile, the two jets had since transformed into Megatron and Starscream. They stood up just outside the warehouse, dazed and confused.
"Starscream! where are we?!" yelled an angry Megatron.
"I don't know, master! We must have entered a space bridge of some sort..." Starscream guessed, before feeling a strange sensation on his arm.
"What!? Wait! What is happening? My arm, I can't control it!" yelled Starscream as he was pulled down by an invisible force. Soon, Vader and Loki came into view. Loki raised his scepter as it glowed with energy.
"Wait! Who are you? and what is that? Get away from me!" Yelled the cowardly Starscream as he tried to free himself from Vader's pull, but to no avail, being completely caught by surprise. Loki walked up to the kneeling Starscream and, willing the scepter to extend its length, he jabbed the scepter into Starscream's spark chamber, causing him to freeze as the energy ran through his body, turning his optics to turn a strange mix of red and blue.
Megatron, seeing the fate of his commander in a matter of seconds, armed his arm cannon and fired at Loki. The blast was blocked, to his surprise, by a man dressed in blue and wearing a red cape. He was hovering in mid air and was seemingly immune to the blast, two qualities Megatron didn't know human's had; little did he know that Kal-EL was no human.
Immediately, Superman flew and grabbed Megatron's arm and, using it against him, flung him to the ground. Megatron, with his left arm, tried to grab another gun which had transformed on his back, but was subdued when another man, this one with long, blond hair and also wearing a red cape, grabbed his wrist and held it down. Pinned by the man of steel and the god of thunder, Megatron was helpless.
Megatron looked to Loki, with Starscream now standing by his side, dazed.
"You insolent human! How dare you challenge my authority! You cannot hold the me forever!..." yelled Megatron at Loki, who did not flinch.
"Well, lucky for me, then, I'm no human" he smiled before lunching the scepter into Megatron's spark chamber...
With the hole Warehouse in chaos, Ryder, Spoke, and now Dr. Clithe found it easy to make there way through the chaos. Ryder eventually made it to the speeder against the far side of the warehouse.
"Come on! Get on!" called Ryder as he hopped on, flipping switches and knobs, trying to figure out how it works.
"Wait! Do you know how these things work?"
"No idea, but how hard can this be-eeee!" He yelled as the speeder zoomed off without his consent. Luckily, he went through a door opening unharmed.
Spoke and Clithe turned around to see some orcs had taken notice and made there way towards them.
"Come on! I saw one of them use it before, it shouldn't be too hard!" said Clithe as he jumped up on the speeder, flipping switches.
Spoke looked over his shoulder and saw the orcs approaching fast, swords drawn and roaring. Some storm troopers nearby took notice and likewise ran towards them.
"Come on! Get this thi..." said Spoke, before he was interrupted by the speeder zooming off. The two storm troopers jumped on to the other speeders and pursued them...
Ryder sped through the sparse forest before finding the dirt road that would lead him to the car. Once on the road, he looked behind him to make sure Spoke and Clithe were behind him. Luckily, they soon appeared on a speeder. He slowed down and allowed them to catch up.
"Ok, lets get to the car, and get the heck out of here!" called Ryder.
"Why don't we just take these things all the way through?" asked Spoke.
"Cause these things might have trackers on them, and all of my guns are in the car!"
Spoke and Clithe's eyes widened at the nothing that Ryder used the term guns in plural. Soon, green blasts of light zoomed pass them as they turned to discover three storm troopers in hot pursuit.
"What do you mean they got away with the doctor!?" screamed Loki, raising his scepter at the Uri-kai.
"The man-flesh got on the flying things and flew away!" one of them said angrily. Loki looked around in frustration, as if looking for something to hit.
"And you say two storm troopers went after them?" he asked. the orc nodded. Loki grabbed a small transmitter. As his army came through, he ensured that all of his men (and woman) had a radio piece in their ear, so as to easily communicate with them.
"Will the storm troopers pursuing the prisoners please respond..."
"This is trooper #234, we almost have them!" responded the lead trooper. The prisoners where just ahead, and they were firing upon them in attempts to damage there speeders. Ryder turned and saw that the troopers were gaining. Thinking fast, he reached into his boot and grabbed out a small handgun, which had evaded detection up until now. He turned and returned fire. After several shots, he was able to hit one trooper as he fell off as the speeder exploded against a tree. The other trooper returned fire as Ryder did likewise. They eventually left the forest and into some dry grasslands. Ryder must have hit something important, because his speeder started smoking. The speeder started slowing down, but not before it fired one last shot, which knocked down Spoke Clithe's speeder. They were both flung off and landed onto the grass, while there speeder pin-wheeled and crashed nearby. Ryder saw the crash and turned around. After overshooting them once, he finally managed to land within 50 feet of them, still getting used to the thing.
"Get on!" yelled Ryder, looking back to see more speeders in the distance.
"My leg's broken! I can't move!" cried Spoke as he laid on the floor. Clithe motioned to pick him up, but Spoke pushed him away...
"No! Get going! I can't move! I'll only weigh you down!" he yelled. Dr. Clithe hesitated, but after seeing the speeders getting closer, he started heading towards Ryder. "Sorry" he told Spoke as he left. Once he got on Ryder's speeder, Ryder looked back one more time at Spoke, realizing he was mistaken about how tough the analyst was. He took off, making a beeline for the car. As the storm troopers crossed over, two of them stopped and took Spoke prisoner.
As Ryder and Clithe approached the car, Ryder came up with an idea...
"Alright! When I say now, we're going to jump!"
"What?!"
"Now!" yelled Ryder as he jumped off, pulling Clithe with him. The hit the grass hard, but where otherwise unharmed. They kept there heads down as the other troopers zoomed by, following the speeder, which was still too far away to realize that no one was on it. Ryder looked up to make sure the coast was clear, then grabbed Clithe and ran for the car.
"I can't believe we left him!" yelled an angry Ryder as he grabbed the keys from the sun shade.
"We had no choice, it was his decision. Look, it won't take them long to realize that we ditched them, we have to get out off here!"
Ryder turned the key and started the car. Slamming on the gas, they sped out with great speeds in a cloud of dust.
"Alright, Dr. Clithe! Your going to tell me everything! Right now!"
Loki was furious as he walked around where the fourth wall generator was set up just under half an hour ago. William Spoke was taken prisoner, but that wasn't the man he wanted...
"He took it! I almost had an entire army of robotic creatures, and now it's out of my reach!"
One of the other men, the one's he brought under his control before Loki started entering other worlds, came forward...
"Sir, we're almost done with the larger generator, and we don't need Dr. Clithe to finish it, he's already given us the instructions..."
"And you can operate it?" asked Loki.
"Yes."
Loki's mood improved a bit. "Maybe we're still good, but I still need the Decepticon army if I'm to secure the location!"
Megatron, now completely under Loki's control, walked up.
"Master, I understand you now posses the power of the Allspark?"
Loki looked at his staff, guessing at what Megatron was implying. "So I have."
"So then, why not just create your own army here? The shard had no where near the power the whole Allspark had, but you could still create a small army with it."
Loki grinned at the realization. "Really?"
Loki walked outside to the south side of the warehouse, where some cars where parked, belonging to Loki's real world minions. He raised his scepter and struck it against the floor. bolts of energy surged through the ground, working it's way to the five cars; a blue sedan, a black pickup, a white cargo van, and silver SUV and a grey SUV. The cars spasmed, then transformed into fully formed transformers, complete with red/blue optics. They looked around, then fixed there eyes on Loki. The black one, formally the pickup, asked,
"What are your orders?"
Loki replied, "Go down that road" he pointed towards the road, "and track a car that was once there. I want those humans alive, but don't let anyone see your robot form! It isn't time to reveal ourselves... and I want you to take some of the others with you."
"Yes, Lord Loki!" it replied before it and the rest transformed and drove towards the warehouse. Loki followed.
"Kal-El! Hiccup!" yelled Loki. Superman and Hiccup and Toothless came forward. "I want you two to fly high overhead and aid them if the need it."
They nodded as Superman took off, while Toothless extended its wings and likewise ascended.
OK, now that we got all that boring stuff out of the way, lets get to the action!
Unfortunately, I have a very busy weekend, so I won't be able to work on it until I get back, so the next chapter won't be up until next week at the least. Sorry.
Don't forget to leave a review, whether it be a complement or constructive criticism.
Also, did anyone catch the reference to HowItShouldHaveEnded (HISHE)? They have a YouTube parody web series with a popular segment involving batman and superman. Their batman is actually my avatar. Check them out.
P.S. It has come to my attention that Comic-con is in San Diego, but I was under the impression it changed cities. So this "comic-con" in Orlando is actually a fictional convention which is also called Comic con.