(AN/ Hey folks it's Garouge/Crewefox here with lucky number chapter 13 of The Broken Mirror. As always I'd like thank everyone for their reviews, likes, reblogs, faves and follows for the last update. So without further ado let's get cracking with this chapter...)
Chapter 13 – Identity crisis
Robyn had to jump onto the kitchen counter to get to the cupboards and search for some tea, it's then she heard a voice, one familiar and comforting yet completely unexpected.
"Mom?" The voice spoke.
Robyn turned around sharply to see Aaron standing in the middle of the kitchen, the little koala looked up at his adoptive mother with a curious smile. Robyn was completely dumbfounded and all she could do in reaction was mutter "Aaron?"
"Hi!" Aaron replied brightly, giving a little wave.
"I…what, you…how?" Robyn yammered, jumping down from the kitchen counter.
"You're talking funny." Aaron giggled, the koala was holding his favourite toy triceratops.
"How are you here?" Robyn uttered, tip toeing to her son.
"I'm not here." Aaron gave a mischievous whisper, he then took a step forward and reached for Robyn's paw only for it to pass through like mist "See?"
"Am I dreaming?" Robyn reacted, not believing what she was seeing.
"Nope, you're awake." Aaron answered "And I'm not here, I'm in my classroom with my friends."
"Your power? You're using your power." Robyn gave a bewildered smile.
"Uh-huh, I just discovered it." Aaron confirmed then added "I felt that you were sad while I was in class, so I thought about you and here I am."
"You could sense that I was sad?" Robyn asked, the joy from her voice disappearing.
"Why are you sad, Mom?" Aaron asked innocently.
"Well I messed up…again." Robyn sighed "Remember that mistake I told you about? Well turns out that same mistake has put someone else in danger."
"But you and other mom can fix it, right?" Aaron said.
"It's not that simple, little guy. You see my sister Luna and her wife…I guess you can call them your aunties, well your aunty Alice is going to have some babies and she's stuck in this dangerous place with me and the others until we rescue those mammals." Robyn struggled to explain.
"I'm going to have cousins!?" Aaron asked excitedly, seemingly ignoring the bad part of his mother's words.
"That's what you took away from what I said?" Robyn couldn't help but smile.
"What species is auntie Alice? How many babies is she going to have?" Aaron asked quickly.
"She's a rabbit and there's five of your cousins in her tummy." Robyn told "…and there in danger because of me."
"So?" Aaron shrugged.
"'So'? Seriously? Aaron this is really bad, Alice and her babies are in danger because of me, my friends Zoe and Clara were kidnapped because of my mistake and I need to fix it." Robyn explained, the guilt in her heart feeling heavier.
"So feeling sad is going to help?" Aaron asked with a straight face.
"Well no but-" Robyn began but was cut off by the child.
"Then stop feeling sad and start fixing your mistake, if you just keeping thinking about how you messed up you'll never make it right." Aaron interrupted.
Robyn was stunned for a moment, the koala's words rang true and put her problems is perspective. She shook her head and spoke "And I thought I was supposed to be the grown up."
"I'm the eldest in my class, I'm basically a grown up." Aaron blustered, putting his hands on his hips.
Robyn chuckled at the boy's reaction and replied "Thank you Aaron, I feel a lot better…I wish I could hug you."
"I don't think my powers can do that but if you ever need cheering up just think of me and I'll try to show up." Aaron promised.
"I love you, little hero." Robyn smiled sweetly.
"Love you too, Mom." Aaron said with a wide grin before fading away, even though Robyn could no longer see him she could feel Aaron's presence, it was a comfort and filled her heart with warmth, she walked back to bed, wanting to drift into slumber with this emotion resting within her.
000
The Champions arrived at the SHIELD safehouse not long after nine am, Riri had bought donuts for everyone while Hannah had brewed up some tea and coffee for the heroic guests. "So what's the plan for today?" Kion asked, the lion was dressed in his 'Roar' shorts and one of his t-shirts he didn't mind ripping.
"I got a text from Coulson this morning, there's an ex-con out on parole who might be able to help us with ID-ing the bots that took the kidnapped mammals." Ms Marvel informed while feasting on a powered chocolate donut.
"Who's the ex-con?" Brawn asked, his voice sounding disapproving.
"Phineas Mason." Ms Marvel answered.
"The Tinkerer is out of prison!?" Spiderman gasped, nearly dropping his coffee.
"The Tinkerer?" Olivia scoffed, lounging on top of Kodi's head.
"C list villain, the guy steals and modifies tech and weapons then sells them on the black market." Spiderman answered, regaining his composure.
"Meaning we can't trust a god damn word that comes out of his mouth." Brawn stated.
"Amadeus will you chill for once in your life? The guy's paid his debt to society." Riri cautioned the tall green hero.
"What makes Coulson think he'll talk to us in the first place?" Hannah queried, sipping her tea.
"Because Coulson had a word with his employer, The Tinkerer works for Parker Industries and their CEO, Peter Parker, is dedicated to rehabilitating ex-cons, apparently the deal is Parker will convince The Tinkerer to help us in return for SHIELD easing up on his parole conditions." Ms Marvel explained.
"Well if Pete says it's ok…" Spiderman mumbled.
"You know Peter Parker?" Wasp asked, sounding dubious that the hero would know the world renowned scientist.
"Pete used to help the old Spiderman with his gear, he's done the same for me a few times." Spiderman told a half truth, but Hannah could detect a lie.
"Old Spiderman?" Kodi repeated, sounding puzzled.
"Superheroes in our dimension often inherit titles from our mentors," Viv spoke up "our Ms Marvel is actually the second heroine to have that title, Nadia is the second Wasp, Brawn was one of the many Hulks and Spiderman is just one of the dozens of Spider-heroes."
"Dude that's confusing." Robyn commented.
"Yeah, I mean the seven of us are the only superheroes in our world." Luna concurred.
"And for the next year it will be just the six of you." Alice smiled, actually looking forward to her maternity leave.
Luna however looked glum and said "It's going to feel weird not having you with us on missions."
"You'll be fine, I'm just going to relax all day and read up on this Earth's history, I want to see what's different." Alice assured, stroking her wife's cheek.
Ten minutes later Team Ceartais were changed into their uniforms bar Alice who was staying behind at the SHIELD apartment, Alice gave a good luck kiss to Andraste and waved the heroes off before closing the door to the stuffy looking SHIELD agents guarding the apartment outside. The doe then poured herself another cup of coffee before grabbing a tablet and typing in 'World History' into google.
000
The apartment building that housed multiple SHIELD safehouses was one of the oldest in the city, it was full of trap doors, secret tunnels and of course like any government building it was full of corruptible workers for nefarious individuals to take advantage of. The certain nefarious individual entered through a secret entrance in the basement, conveniently left open by a blackmailed SHIELD agent who in return for their cooperation would not have embarrassing photos of himself at a bondage club posted on SHIELD servers. The intruder was a mercenary, here with one purpose; to kill Alice Wilde. He threw down a leather bag and began to check his weapons before he made his way up the elevator to begin his mission, the mercena-
"For christ's sake Crewefox just say my name, it's Deadpool!" The mercenary blurted out in a frustrated voice "Why the hell are you trying to be mysterious with my identity?"
(AN/ "Deadpool we talked about this, it's called creating tension")
"Oh and here he goes with his stupid Author Note bullshit, you know those really piss off your readers, right?" Deadpool pointed out, the red clad anti-hero began to check his pistols.
(AN/ "Wade will you quit it!? We need to get back to the story!")
"Ah yes, your fanfiction about Zootopia or as I like to call it 'Disney's way to tap into the furry market'." Deadpool barbed with the author.
(AN/ "Zootopia fans prefer to be called Zootopians.")
"Look if it walks like a furry and jacks off to yiff fan art of Nick and Judy doing the nasty like a furry, they're furries." Deadpool chortled "I mean the fandom has a 'Spicy Nick Day' every month."
(AN/ "I knew bringing in this 4th wall breaking bastard was a mistake.")
"Oh you'd know all about mistakes in fanfiction wouldn't you, Crewefox?" Deadpool laughed "I mean all the spelling and grammar mistakes that your dev team apparently beta is one thing but remember I've read your terrible Gravity Falls, Teen Titans and Steven Universe fan fics and holy shit did they suck balls."
(AN/ Sigh "I know how bad they are, believe me. Can we just stop this 4th wall breaking and get back to the fic, please?")
"Tch, fine." Deadpool tutted, kneeling down and getting a kinky maid costume out of the leather bag "Time to make the chimi-fucking-changas!"
000
Alice was engrossed in reading up on this universe's history and what she had read so far was extremely disturbing; unlike her earth this world had a second world war and the events within that dark time made the former assassin's blood curdle, then she read up on the civil rights movement in America and then she clicked on an article about something called '9/11'. Alice felt sorry for the inhabitants of this Earth, Zootopia was far from perfect but it had a lot less darkness than this Earth.
But even though she was focused on reading her instilled prey reflexes reacted when heard something suspicious outside the apartment, her long ears shot up and detected the sound of a struggle outside. Years of training made Alice tense up and get ready for a fight but then she remembered that she was pregnant "Putain." She cursed in French, knowing she would have to go on the defensive to protect her babies. The doe scarpered off the couch she was sitting on and ran to the bedroom to grab her katana and fix on her combat prosthetic arm.
While Alice was hastily getting ready a knock came at the front door of the apartment and voice sang from the other side "Room service." Before the lock was shot out and the door was kicked open, Deadpool walked in dressed in a maid costume with a pistol in one hand and a feather duster in the other "Our complimentary Maid service makes sure your corpse is as clean as possible for when your loved ones identify it." Deadpool joked, twirling around before posing suggestively. When no answer came Deadpool sighed "No one appreciates my comedic side." Before ripping off the maid costume with one tug and tossing it to the floor "Fine I'll go old school for this contract."
Alice had dived out of the bedroom and hid behind an armchair while Deadpool was removing his maid costume, she had her sword unsheathed and ready for combat but if she could avoid combat all together she would. The bunny pressed the 'SOS' button on her prosthetic alerting her team mates that she needed help ASAP before saying "I don't who you are or why you're here but trust me you'll want to leave now."
Deadpool gave a shocked gasp before hamming "Oh Alice, how could you have forgotten little old me? All those awful memories we share, I gotta' say it hurts."
Alice was left puzzled to how this masked man knew her name and seemingly seem to know her "Like I said, I don't know you but you really don't want to make an enemy of me." She threatened, removing to shuriken from the slot on her cybernetic arm.
"It's me Deadpool! Remember the time you stabbed me through butt cheek, or when you put a shuriken through my eye and how can you forget the time you shot my dick off!" Deadpool growled, unsheathing one of the katanas from the scabbards fixed to his back.
"You've got the wrong Alice!" The bunny shouted, throwing a smoke bomb at Deadpool's feet before tossing a trio of shuriken into his left arm while rolling into cover behind the sofa, wanting to get closer to the door "That was a warning, now leave before my friends get here!"
"You're getting soft, Ronin. The old you would've thrown those shuriken at my head." Deadpool coaxed, wondering where his mark was hiding.
Alice shuddered, this merc had called her by the name she possessed when she was an assassin, a name she hadn't been called in five years and it actually repulsed her to hear it spoken again "Ronin died five years ago, only Yurei remains." She spoke with venom.
"What? Ronin, I saw you last month and you were still being a total bitch back then." Deadpool replied, wondering if his target was playing mind games with him.
Alice was confused but she wouldn't let that shake her, she looked at her cybernetic arm and willed it to transform into its concussive blaster mode, a sonic weapon that Olivia had installed into it. She then jumped out from behind the couch and yelled "It's Yurei!" before firing the concussive blastat the chest of Deadpool saw the move coming and dived out of the way and fired a few shots at Alice.
Alice narrowly avoided the shotsand took cover behind a bookcase, Deadpool then laughed "What the hell happened to you? Did Doctor Strange transform you into a rabbit or something?"
"I've always been a rabbit!" Alice snapped, popping out from behind cover and throwing a few nightmare needles at Deadpool which he deflected with his sword.
"Rabbit, Woman, who cares? There's a fifty million bounty on your head and I'm coming to collect." Deadpool jabbed, the merc had seen much crazier stuff than a bunny with a robot arm.
"Woman?" Alice uttered, growing more confused and anxious by the second.
"What's up doc?" Deadpool mocked "Lost your nerve without Andraste to back you up?"
Alice was about to respond but a flash bang rolled next to her feet before she had time to react it exploded with a bright light and a loud bang that made the assassin stumble back, she dropped her katana and her ears were ringing. A rush of thoughts passed through her head; how did I make such a rookie mistake? What is this idiot talking about? Why am I feeling so scared? And then she realised, it was because she was carrying her babies in her womb. Alice had always been a fearless warrior both as a villain and hero but now she had something to fear, her children getting hurt. As the bright spots in her eyes began to fade and the ringing in her ears ceased she heard a gun cock, she looked to see Deadpool standing above her with a gun aimed at her head "Any last words bun bun?"
Alice knew she couldn't dodge the shot if he fired, out of sheer desperation she spoke the truth "I'm pregnant."
"Huh?" Deadpool sounded.
"I'm pregnant, there's a litter of kits in here." Alice said, putting her paw to her stomach.
"Bullshit." Deadpool brushed off.
"It's true!" Alice implored "Let me reach into my pocket and get out a picture of my scan."
"You try anything and I'll go watership down on your rabbit ass, you hear me?" Deadpool warned.
Alice didn't get the reference but nodded anyway, she reached into her pocket and retrieved the folded piece of paper Shuri had given her the day before then passed it to Deadpool. "See, five baby bunnies." She said, her voice trembling.
Deadpool unfolded the piece of paper and looked at the scan, he didn't exactly know what to look at but this would be too elaborate a ploy to execute on a whim. The mercenary flicked the safety on his gun and stuffed back in it's holster, he then childishly stamped his feet and huffed "No fair! Dammit I thought that $50 million was mine!"
"Sorry, I guess." Alice replied, standing up.
"Ugh, why did you have to be pregnant? Actually why are you a rabbit now!?" Deadpool ranted, sheathing his katana.
"I've always been a bunny." Alice stated, returning her cybernetic arm to normal mode "Me and my friends are from a world made up of sentient mammals."
"Typical!" Deadpool seethed, crossing his arms "I get the wrong Alice Wilde from another dimension."
"Are you saying there's another Alice Wilde? A human version of me?" Alice questioned, her mind bursting with questions.
"Well, duh. Is this your first time travelling the multiverse? Everyone has a version of themselves on every alternate Earth." Deadpool responded, staring down at the small mammal.
Alice was reeling from this bombshell, it blew her mind but she needed to know more "Deadpool, was it? Would like a cup of coffee?"
000
The Champions and Team Ceartais arrived at Parker Industries to find a couple of interns waiting for them at the entrance of the building, they gave them all visitor passes and escorted them to the technician lab where broken equipment from across all labs could be prepared. The heroes entered the lab to find only two people within, one was an athletic looking man in his thirties looking on as another man this one short, bald and in his sixties was repairing a circuit board. The younger man looked up at the new arrivals and smiled "Good morning, welcome to Parker industries."
"Dr. Parker, thank you for letting us come here today." Ms Marvel replied politely.
"Please, call me Peter or Pete, like this web head here." Peter grinned, playfully punching Spiderman in the arm.
"Good to see you, Pete." Spiderman replied, sounding happy to see the scientist.
"And these are Team Ceartais." Ms Marvel introduced the super mammals.
"Ah yes, I read about them in the Daily Bugle this morning, seems like old Jameson doesn't like you very much." Peter smiled at Scarlet.
"You mean that old guy who yelled at me for saving spidey's life? That guy's a jerk." Scarlet replied which earned a chuckle from Peter.
"So what's your team's deal? Mutants? Inhumans? Aliens?" Peter quizzed.
"We're from another dimension, where mammals are intelligent and humans never happened." Spitfire answered.
Mage's eyes went wide and whispered to Snowguard "Did that guy just say aliens?"
"Yeah." Snowguard whispered back.
"Aliens exist?" Mage whispered again, sounding shocked.
"Of course, if you're lucky you might meet a few while you're on this earth." Snowguard grinned at the flummoxed wolf.
"Well let's get down to business shall we? Phineas, why don't you come over and say hi?" Peter called over to the older man in a white lab coat.
The old man reluctantly got up from his work table and walked over to the group of heroes "Good morning." Phineas spoke, avoiding eye contact with the heroes.
"Hey Tinkerer." Brawn replied, deliberately emphasising his villain name.
Phineas tensed up and looked down at his feet upon being called by his alter ego, Peter saw how uncomfortable his employee was and said to Brawn "That was unnecessary."
"I'm just calling him by his name." Brawn responded smugly.
"Peter, it's ok…" Phineas mumbled.
"Phineas made a mistake, he's paid for that mistake and is working to be a better man." Peter defended, putting a comforting hand on Phineas' shoulder.
"The only mistake I see is yours, hiring a villain." Brawn replied.
"Ok that's it!" Iron Heart reacted, using her boosters to get off the ground and grab Brawn by the ear "Excuse me while I go talk some sense into this fool."
"Riri! Stop!" Brawn whined, as he was dragged out of the lab by Iron Heart.
"Not a chance!" Iron Heart replied, sounding pissed off.
The door closed and Peter smiled "I like her style."
"We're sorry for Brawn's rudeness Mr. Mason." Viv apologised "He's got a good heart but can be a little bull headed sometimes."
"It's fine." Phineas gave a sad smile "I understand his distrust."
"Agent Coulson told us that you were looking to identify the creator of some robots?" Peter changed the subject.
Andraste passed Phineas one of the USB sticks with the case data on this "On this drive there's video recordings and weapons data of two robots who have been kidnapping mammals from our dimension and bringing them to this one." She informed.
Phineas took the stick and plugged it into a computer on a nearby workstation, it only took him ten seconds to bring up the video file captured from the old Spitfire mech and as he watched the fight his eyes filled with wonder "Amazing." He whispered.
"Any ideas Mr. Mason?" Spiderman asked, trying to be polite to old foe of his mentor.
"Their design looks familiar, I'll have to analyse their weapon data to get something more concrete in mind." Phineas answered, seeming intrigued by the bots.
"I'll bring up the all the analysis I collected." Spitfire offered, stepping over and brining up the files for the former villain.
"While you guys look into that, I'll borrow Spiderman." Peter said, motioning to Spiderman to join him at his work bench.
Spiderman walked over to Peter, pre-emptively removing his web shooters and handing them to Peter "Want to tune them up?"
"Never hurts to keep them in working condition." Peter said before asking in a quiet voice "I heard about what happened at the UN, you ok?"
"Yeah, the only thing that's bruised is my ego, I got cocky and Crossbones took advantage of that." Spiderman replied, sounding downtrodden.
"Crossbones is one of the toughest guys I've ever fought, so don't let it get you down." Peter said.
"Scarlet saved my life twice yesterday, she took acid to the face for me and stopped me falling to my death. I mean she has a healing factor but I still feel guilty about it." Spiderman lamented, glancing over at Scarlet who was casually chatting with Wasp.
"Miles, she's probably been in the hero game longer than you have." Peter reasoned, taking apart the web shooters and inspecting the firing mechanism.
"I've been Spiderman for three years, Pete, I shouldn't be making these mistakes at this point." Spiderman self criticised.
"So? I was Spiderman for nearly twenty years before I semi-retired and I messed up all the time. But I look at you and can see you're already on the way to be a better Spiderman than I ever was." Peter encouraged, using a mini screwdriver to tighten the trigger on the web shooter.
"You're only saying that." Spiderman sighed, not believing his mentor.
"Ok let's look at the evidence. I became an Avenger at 22, you got in at 15 and by 16 you, Ms Marvel and Nova had enough of their politized B.S and took a stand, The Champions is a great team and what they stand for is way more mature than what the squabbling adults in The Avengers could ever achieve." Peter rallied, closing up the web shooter.
Spiderman let out a small laugh before saying "Aren't you technically still an Avenger?"
"I'm a reservist. The only way I'd put back on my spidey costume is if the world was ending or something." Peter corrected, handing back his protégé the webshooters.
Across on the other side of the lab Bullet had heard everything that Peter and Spiderman had said, now understanding why she had detected the hero's lie earlier, she had no intention of blabbing about Peter Parker's former job or that Spiderman's real name was Miles she just thought it was nice that a seasoned warrior had passed on their legacy to a newer generation just like Marian and Robin senior had done with her and the others with the ceartais project. Scarlet then caught Bullet off guard with a quick kiss on the cheek and linking onto her arm, this unexpected case of P.D.A made Bullet smile "Someone's affectionate today. You doing ok, princess?"
"Better than ok, I got some good advice last night." Scarlet replied.
"Advice? Who from?" Bullet queried.
Before Scarlet could answer, Team Ceartais' ear pieces all buzzed with Bella's voice "S.O.S alarm activated."
The Champions in the room wore confused expressions as Team Ceartais' demeanour turned suddenly serious, Andraste feared the worst, she quickly put her hand to her earpiece and asked "Bella who's alarm is going off?"
"Yurei's S.O.S button on her cybernetic arm has just been triggered, she does not seem to be wearing her earpiece so I can not contact her." Bella replied.
"No, no, no!" Andraste panicked "We have to get back to the safehouse, now!"
"What's going on?" Ms Marvel asked, wondering what the super mammals were fretting about.
"Alice has triggered her S.O.S button, it means she's in danger!" Scarlet half growled.
Snowguard didn't hesitate in sprouting her angel like wings and offering "Andraste, I can get you there!"
"Let's go!" Andraste nodded, already running out the door of the technician lab.
Phineas and Peter could see that the heroes needed to leave, the ex-con replied "I'll look into the files you've gave me and call you later."
"Thank you Mr. Mason." Spitfire replied quickly dashing out of the room with all the other heroes following closely behind.
000
Snowguard had never flown so fast in her life, zipping between the skyscrapers of Manhattan with as much speed as she could muster while carrying the small and light vixen heroine in her arms. "Please be ok, please be ok, please be ok." Andraste repeated over and over in a frantic manner.
"She'll be alright, Andraste. Alice is a tough bunny." Snowguard tried to ease, noticing that Iron Heart was now flying beside her carrying Scarlet, likewise with Spitfire carrying Bullet and Viv carrying Mage, she assumed the others were coming by car.
"Where the hell are the SHIELD agents, I can't get a hold of them!" Iron Heart raged.
The flying group turned the corner and could see the building where the safehouse was, Spitfire turned on her thermal imaging and immediately spotted the small shape of a rabbit standing next to a tall human figure "Alice is alive, but my thermal imaging shows there's someone in the apartment with her!" Spitfire relayed, ready for a fight.
"We busting through the windows?" Mage asked trying to ignore that he was a couple of hundred feet off the ground.
"That is unwise, the windows of that apartment are bulletproof however there is an open window in the master bedroom." Viv assessed and informed, scanning the area.
Andraste spotted the open window with it's curtains fluttering in the wind, she drew an arrow ready and asked "Snowguard, can you make it through that small gap?"
"Yes." Snowguard replied, picking up speed as she approached the window, when she was a few feet away she made her wings disappear with a flash of light and both her and Andraste landed in the bedroom with ease. Andraste didn't wait for the others, she charged out of the bedroom with her bow ready.
Andraste ran into the open area of the apartment ready to battle but instead found Alice looking at photos on a phone that a red and black costumed man was showing her "This is my little girl, Ellie." Deadpool gushed.
"Oh my goodness, she's adorable." Alice cooed, holding a cup of coffee.
Andraste was dumbstruck, she could see from the damage around the room that a fight had ensued but her wife and the heavily armed man were chatting like old friends over coffee and the leftover donuts from this morning "Alice?" Andraste gawped, putting her arrow back in her quiver.
Alice looked up, a little shocked and gasped "Luna? You're back already?"
"That's Andraste? Ok her being a fox makes total sense; predatory, skinny, ginger." Deadpool commented, looking at the vixen.
"Your S.O.S alarm…" Andraste uttered, trying to decipher the confusing scene before her.
"Oh I'm sorry, I forgot I pressed that." Alice realized.
"Well I did try to kill you, so it's my bad." Deadpool brushed off as the other heroes rushed in.
"DEADPOOL!?" Viv, Iron Heart and Snowguard gasped.
"Oh hey, kids. I haven't seen you guys in ages." Deadpool waved, not fazed by the angry eyes aimed at him.
"What are you doing here!?" Iron Heart demanded, aiming her repulsor beams at the anti-hero.
"I came here to kill Alice Wilde, but turns out I got the wrong Alice Wilde. But this bunny is such a sweetheart, she made me some coffee to make up for the fifty million I just lost on this contract." Deadpool answered, smiling under his mask.
"You came here to kill Alice!?" Scarlet bared her fangs.
"Easy Scarlet, he's actually been very informative." Alice eased, but Andraste rushed over and tackled Alice in a hug.
"I thought…I thought you were hurt." Andraste began to cry.
Alice hugged her vixen back "Hush, mon amour, I'm ok and so are the babies." She soothed.
"Can someone explain what the hell is going on?" Mage asked, realising that nothing in this universe made sense.
Alice was still hugging the weeping Andraste when she answered "We need to get Coulson here, he owes us some answers."
"Why?" Viv reacted.
"Because this universe already has an Alice Wilde and she isn't a hero." Alice answered, wishing that what Deadpool had told her was not true.
000
Clara was looking all around her as she was carried through the cauldron, she was taking every minute detail of each corridor, every doorway and control panel she passed by as the mysterious bot carried her towards solitary. There were other bots patrolling the cauldron, carrying crates and doing repairs, not even registering Clara's presence as she was carried pass them. The bot carrying her then stopped in front of a door, a scanner ran across the bot's face before it opened and that's when Clara saw the solitary cells. They were four cube-like cells with transparent walls, a cot and a toilet, the wolf saw Brenda snoozing in her cot but then she saw someone she had prayed was alive "Zoe!" Clara called out.
The worn out flying fox looked up and suddenly she seemed energised "Professor Bloom!?" The Bat screeched.
"Zoe, the rest of the mammals are in another part of this place!" Clara blurted out.
"I know, the donkey told me." Zoe replied, looking relieved to see a friendly face.
Clara quickly glanced at the other cells and noticed someone was missing "Wait, where's officer Knight?" she questioned.
"He's not with you!?" Zoe asked back sounding shocked, the bat's fatigues seemed ragged and hand some dried blood on them.
"No he's…" Clara began but trailed off when she realised that she was being led past the solitary cells "Wait, where are you taking me!?" She demanded of the bot, who of course stayed silent.
"Professor?!" Zoe panicked, hammering her paws on her cell door.
Clara didn't know what was coming next but she knew it was something bad, before Zoe was out of earshot she shouted "Zoe you've got to save the others! They need you!".
Clara began to squirm and tremble as she was carried up a staircase and through another set of doors, the room the bot had taken to looked like nothing else in The Cauldron; the architecture seemed to mimic a European gothic style, complete with stone floors and carvings in the wall, the room was lit by candlelight and filled the physicist with dread. The bot suddenly dropped her to the cold stone floor and groaned "Ow."
"You're something special, Professor Bloom." A deep voice said from the shadows.
"W-who's there?" Clara stammered, getting to her feet while realising the voice was not robotic but natural.
"Your captor, of course." The voice answered, Clara could see a tall figure looming beyond the candlelight "You see most of my prisoners are preoccupied with their depression or making it through the day but you aren't like that. You're determined to figure out what this place is and escape."
Clara was terrified but displayed a front of bravery "Why have you brought me here?" she growled.
"To reward your tenacity, I can't let you escape but I can tell you what this place is." The voice teased.
"Some freaks sick fantasy?" Clara spat, pretty sure her knees were shaking.
The figure let out a deep chuckle before stepping into a light, Clara's breath caught in her throat as she looked upon her captor, the figure was garbed in a dark green cloak, his body covered in a silver coloured armour, his mask was the same colour as his armour only two slits in the mask revealing a pair of brown eyes "My name is Victor Von Doom and this is my cauldron."
(AN/ DUN DUN DUN! It's Doom! What does he want? Where is Arthur? What did Deadpool tell Alice? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Review! Next time on The Broken Mirror; Alice and Luna discover some disturbing truths, Clara and Doom have a little chat and back in Zootopia Jack Savage needs Nick's help. So please review and c ya on the 24th September, I'm taking next week off to deal with some family business.)