(AN/ Hey Folks here's the next chapter of The Broken Mirror. This is a very quick update cos there's still an ongoing family situation atm, so thank you for your lovely reviews, reblogs, likes, follows and fav'ing the fic. So without further ado let's get cracking with this chapter...)
Chapter 27- Talking is hard.
Arthur had slept terribly, the Eurasian wolf had been restless throughout the night and in the brief moments of sleep he did have were plagued by thoughts of Seren. Aaron's sudden appearance last night had jolted all of the cop's attention to the very subject he had been trying his best to ignore since his rescue from Maria Hill's grasp.
Arthur wasn't sure how his powers and the book of Seren were linked, he had always been gifted with abilities but they had grown significantly since the purple cloud tore through Zootopia when he saw how other mammals had been suffering with their new powers he felt compelled to help them, he had always been like that, a soul who just wanted to help others. Arthur was laying on his side looking at his shield pendant hung around his neck, a Knight family heirloom, the only thing that remained from his childhood home. The wolf's mind was drifting into a pleasant memory when the door to his bedroom was abruptly kicked open and a pissed off Robyn came storming in "Up and at 'em, asshole!" she greeted rudely.
"Robyn?" Arthur nearly gasped, covering himself with his duvet seeing as he was only wearing boxers.
But the ginger hybrid didn't care for the wolf's blushes and reached under the duvet grabbed him by his right ankle and with one swift pull, yanked the canine out of bed "We need to have a little chat." She informed bluntly as she began dragging him into the living room with her enhanced strength.
"What the bloody hell are you doing!?" Arthur reacted, slightly winded from hitting the floor.
"Like I said, we're going to talk." Robyn answered in a thorny manner "And after you shouted at my boy last night I'm not in the mood for your personal shit."
"Stop pulling me and let me get some clothes on." Arthur protested, unable to break free of the heroine's strong grip.
"Nah, I think the cold morning air might do you some good." Robyn replied, pulling Arthur towards the open door of the balcony and in a flurry of movement standing him up and leaning him over the busy streets of Manhattan with Robyn stood on the balcony railing holding the blue wolf by the chain on his pendant and with her foot on his chest.
"Robyn!?" Arthur yelled in a panic, he wasn't looking down at the traffic but he could hear it, if Robyn let go he would be dead as soon as he hit the street.
"See I usually save this trick for interrogating criminals but since time is against us and the fact that you've pissed me off I'm willing to use it on your sorry ass." Robyn said coldly, keeping a tight grip of the flailing wolf.
"I'm on your side, I'm a ZPD officer for god's sake, pull me back inside!" Arthur snapped, feeling confused and scared.
"Are you on our side? Cos' all you've done since we rescued you is brood like a little bitch and ignore your problems. Well now your problem is all our problem, so start talking." Robyn snarled, baring her fangs.
"I've helped you, I found the link between the kidnapped mammals, I've been helping Viv find the second rift!" Arthur parried, baring his own fangs, even though Robyn was a lot smaller she was a lot stronger and he couldn't force her rabbit like foot off his torso.
"Whoopdie-doo, give the wolf a medal." Robyn replied with sarcasm "You and I both know you've been obsessing over files just to avoid the whole Seren thing."
"You know nothing about me!" Arthur argued, considering throwing a punch at the heroine, but thought better of it after remembering all the crooks that had crossed her back in Zootopia.
"I know that you're a chicken shit who isn't even brave enough to face their own problems." Robyn accused "When my Mom told me about you I figured you were a decent guy trying to do the right thing, sure you'll shelter other mammals when they're on the run from Doombots but when you have the option to help others with your powers you won't lift a finger."
"It's not like that!" Arthur denied, feeling the sting of guilt.
"You know what I just remembered my Mom wanted to give you a message that she was sorry for failing you and your friends, I wonder how'd she'd feel seeing you being a coward." Robyn wounded, trying to get under Arthur's skin "Now tell me; what is the connection between you and Seren!"
"I don't know!" Arthur shouted.
"Dude, I'm half fox I know when someone's trying to play me." Robyn threw back "Tell me the truth!"
"I don't know because I was never told about it!" Arthur yelled.
"Explain." Robyn prompted, pressing down harder with her foot.
"I was born like this! Born different. But before I could learn anything about it my family was taken from me...I was just a child when the fire happened, everyone I loved had turned to ash, all I have left of them is this pendant." Arthur answered, his voice strained as flickering memories of roaring flames and charred bodies passed through his mind.
"There's got to be more." Robyn pressured.
"All I know is the bedtime story my grandad used to tell me, about the guardian knights of Seren...but it was never a fairy tale to them, I've tried to block out so much of it because it hurts to remember them. I just remember a room in my house I wasn't allowed to go in, full of books...I can barely remember the faces of my family." Arthur confessed, he could still smell the smoke and singed fur from that horrible night "So you want to know why I've avoided Seren? Because it's the one thing that makes me relive that nightmare, I know somehow that Seren was linked to my family's death...i don't want to see anyone else die because of my family's secret."
"He's telling the truth Robbie." Luna sighed, Arthur could hear the vixen's voice but could not see her "Pull him back in."
Robyn tutted, lifted her foot off Arthur's chest and pulled the wolf safely back onto the balcony. Arthur caught his breath and saw Kion, Hannah, Alice and Luna looking at him from the living room "You were all in on this?" Arthur asked, caught between disbelief and anger.
"We were tired of waiting for you to open up to us." Luna justified, not looking in the least bit sorry.
"And this was a better option than me 'Questioning' you." Alice added while munching on a pear.
"What would've happened if she had dropped me!?" Arthur snapped, pointing at Robyn.
"Then I would've caught you." Spitfire said from behind him, the cop turning around and seeing the Spitfire mech hovering in front of the balcony "I was under the balcony the entire time."
"You're all crazy, you know that?" Arthur huffed, frustrated at the actions of the heroes.
"We're sorry Arthur, but we needed you to come clean with us." Kion apologised, the big cat was the only mammal who looked uncomfortable.
"I'm not sorry." Robyn chirped, walking back into the apartment.
"After what Aaron told us last night about a sword being able to track a rift we wanted to make sure you weren't hiding anything." Hannah said.
"Well I don't own the sword, it was just a bedtime story." Arthur griped.
"But a sword is mentioned in the story you were told?" Spitfire asked, landing on the balcony and opening up the chest plate so Olivia could exit.
"Yeah but the details are hazy, I haven't heard it since I was six." Arthur replied, walking back to his room so he could get dressed, closing the door so he could have some privacy.
"Well what do you remember about the story?" Alice pressed, speaking loudly so Arthur could hear through the door.
"Something about a storm of darkness that destroyed a village, a sword fell from the sky and the guardian knight used it to stop the storm before it could cause more damage." Arthur answered while getting changed into his clothes.
"How does a sword stop a storm?" Kion pondered.
"Aaron said that the sword can detect rifts, so what if the storm wasn't a storm at all? What if it was a dimension rift?" Olivia theorised, climbing out of the mech and onto the waiting paw of Luna.
"A storm of darkness sounds an awful lot like the purple cloud in Zootopia." Robyn agreed.
"But we know the purple cloud was caused by Doctor Doom, how did it happen in the middle ages?" Hannah asked, voicing her puzzlement.
The bedroom door opened and out stepped a fully dressed, and still vexed, Arthur who replied "I don't know and I don't care, the only thing I care about is finding the kidnapped mammals. Don't you think if I knew some way of finding the rift that I would use it, hmm?"
"I dunno'. You've played your cards close to your chest since we rescued you, I honestly don't know what goes on in the head of yours." Robyn shrugged.
Kion could see that response irritated Arthur even more so he attempted to soothe with "Arthur we just had to make sure you weren't hiding anything, you're a cop so you understand why with have to rule out all possibilities."
"Well now you know, so don't pull something like that again." Arthur groused before walking to the kitchen area to get some breakfast but before he even reached the fridge a ball of orange sparks formed in the centre of the living room "What now?" he groaned.
The ball of sparks formed into a ring which grew large enough for a figure to step through, out of the ring of fiery sparks walked a familiar face who gave a relieved smiled when he saw the Ceartais heroes "Hey guys."
"Kodi?" Robyn gawped, her navy eyes marvelling at the magic and her friend's new look.
Kodi didn't reply, he just walked over to Robyn and Hannah and wrapped then in a hug as the magic portal vanished.
"Kodi, is everything ok?" Hannah asked in a concerned voice, hugging the wolf back.
"I've missed you all." Kodi spoke, sounding choked up.
"Dude, you were only away for a night." Robyn pointed out, reciprocating the hug.
Kodi pulled back to reveal his crying brown eyes and sniffed "It's been a lot longer than that."
After the wolf had hugged everyone on the team and wiped away his tears, Kodi proceeded to explain his training with Doctor Strange and his stay at the tempus dormitory, it sounded unbelievable but the Zootopians had grown accustomed to unbelievable things since arriving in this universe. "So you're a year older now?" Hannah asked, fascinated by the tale.
"Yeah but it was worth it, this way I can defeat Doom and get Clara back." Kodi answered, his thoughts of the physicist had kept him focused during his year of training.
"Kodi you don't need powers to be a useful part of the team, you were already a skilled warrior." Alice assured.
"She's right." Kion agreed "Alice, Luna and Spitfire are all powerless and they kick all kinds of butt."
"I hear ya' big guy but Luna and Olivia are geniuses and Alice was trained in ninjutsu and swordplay since she was a child, I was just a guy who drove the truck and got lucky in fights." Kodiresponded.
"There's no luck about it, it was your natural talent that my grandparents saw in you." Luna encouraged.
"Oh my god, why are you all being such downers?" Robyn rhetorically asked her teammates "Kodi knows real magic, that's freaking cool!"
"I'll admit I'm a wee bit curious about your magic." Olivia spoke up from her position on Luna's shoulder "But what's with the outfit? The leather jacket was so much better."
"This isn't just about style, these clothes are enchanted." Kodi grinned mischeviously.
"Enchanted? Like your outfit is magic too?" Arthur asked, the smaller wolf had been silently making his breakfast whilst Kodi told his story.
Kodi answered by opening his coat to reveal the lining of it was black as night with white star-like dots peppering the darkness, but something about it didn't look right "Is that? No, it's not a flat surface." Alice gasped stepping over and went to touch the fabric but found her paw going into the void and feeling so cold that she snatched her hand back "Is that space!?"
"It is, this is called the midnight coat. When an enemy gets too close for comfort, I can command this coat to grab them and toss them to the other side of the galaxy." Kodi explained, loving the stunned faces of the mammals around them "Naturally I'd only use it on Doombots, if anything living went into space they'd be dead in an instant."
"Bloody hellfire." Olivia cursed, amazed by the garment.
"And that's not the only piece of clothing that's magic but for this trick I'll need a volunteer." Kodi smiled, his showmanship shining through "How about you, Robyn?"
"This won't hurt will it?" Robyn asked warily.
"No but it works best on mammals with short tempers." Kodi replied.
"Hey I'm not that bad." Robyn protested.
"You dangled me over a balcony less than fifteen minutes ago and refused to apologise for doing it." Arthur criticised.
"You shouted at my son so you're on my shit list." Robyn barbed.
Kodi waved his paw and the blue scarf from around his neck unwrapped itself and flew towards Robyn and swiftly knotted around her paws, binding her "Try and break free." Kodi grinned.
Robyn knew she had the strength to snap the fibres of a simple scarf so attempted to do so, but it didn't work, she tried again and failed, on the third time she began to growl but still no luck "What the hell is this?"
"It's a great thing to use on crooks trying to flee, tie their paws with this and the angrier they get trying to break out the tighter and tougher it gets. It'll only loosen with my command or when the captive is completely calm and free of anger." Kodi told.
"Yeah, that ain't gonna' happen." Robyn admitted.
"I know." Kodi accepted, waving his hand and having the scarf return to his neck.
"And I'm guessing Strange taught you a ton of spells?" Kion enquired.
"Too many to tell right now but flight and basic elemental magic are the highlights." Kodi answered while levitating a few feet off the floor to the amazement of his friends.
"But you're not getting rid of your wand or cards are you? I put a lot of work into those beauties." Olivia asked.
"No way am I getting rid of the wand, it's way too useful." Kodi answered "But as for the cards, let's just say I've made some adjustments."
"Well, well Kodi, looks like you really are a Mage now." Hannah smiled, proud of her best friend's accomplishment.
"Thanks." Kodi smiled in a goofy manner before asking "So what did I miss while I was away?" but as soon as he asked this question there was exchange of awkward looks between the other mammals causing Kodi to ask further "What?"
000
The Champions' mobile bunker was where the majority of the team were staying during this mission, bar Ms Marvel and Spiderman who had homes in Jersey city and Brooklyn respectively. Viv was always the first one up, despite actually needing sleep she simulated sleep between the hours of midnight and six am in order to reflect on the day's events and commit them to memory. Viv had been up for a few hours, she had eaten breakfast and was resuming her search for possible rift locations on the main computer in the cockpit of the mobile bunker, she would go to the SHIELD safehouse and help Arthur with this task later but felt it would be impolite to call on the mammals before 10am. The synthezoid had been so lost in her search that she failed to notice Riri enter the cockpit, the engineer was holding a glass of orange juice as she looked at the screen and asked "Any luck with the search?"
Viv was surprised by Riri's appearance but didn't show it, simply answering "Not yet, I'm resuming the joint effort with Officer Knight later, maybe we'll have better luck."
"So...I need to thank you." Riri struggled to find the right words, putting her glass down.
Viv got what Riri was hinting at and bluntly called out "You want to thank for me for my muted reaction over your relationship with Amadeus."
"Uh, yeah." Riri answered awkwardly "Given what's happened between us I just wanted to say thank you for being supportive."
"You and Amadeus are my friends, I don't want my feelings to jeopardise your romance." Viv said flatly.
"So you still have feelings for me?" Riri asked, feeling guilty.
Viv cursed internally for letting such a detail slip before confessing "I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel something for you. But that is my problem. I grew attracted to you despite knowing you weren't into girls, I kissed you without permission and let myself think we could be a couple."
"Viv...I'm sorry, but-" Riri began.
"Don't you dare apologise." Viv said firmly "You and Amadeus are a good match, you like and respect one another and have a bright future, don't apologise for something so good."
Riri saw the logic in Viv's words and replied "Ok. But I need to know; are we still friends? Because I want us to be friends."
Viv answered by standing up and hugging Riri "We're friends, that'll never change." she promised.
Riri hugged the synthezoid back and was about to say something heartfelt but the buzz of her smartphone made her groan "Are you kidding me?"
"It is a text message from Ms. Marvel." Viv was reading the same text in her head "She has sighted Ronin in Jersey city."
Riri read the text off her phone and smiled "Looks like we finally have a break in this case."
000
Avengers assemble. It was the well known catchphrase of the most prolificsuper team in this particular universe, when Ms Marvel was first invited to join the team she made it her goal to say the catchphrase at any given opportunity, fulfilling her childhood dream of being a superheroine. But her dream of being an Avenger was short lived, at only four months as a member, she left in protest at the policies and questionable decisions of the team and formed The Champions with the help of Spiderman and Nova. So it felt strange for her to assemble The Avengers once more after her bitter exit, sure she had teamed up with them since but it was the first time she had asked for help from them.
Luckily when she had called it was the friendly Tony Stark that answered, Ms Marvel explained the situation and the billionaire assured her that he would gather the majority of the team at Avengers tower within the hour. Ms Marvel then gathered The Champions and messaged Team Ceartais to make their way to the manhattan landmark. Arthur and Alice opted to stay behind due to their inability to battle while Ceartais used Kodi's new sling ring to create a portal to just outside the tower, the sudden appearance of the mammals made pedestrians gawk and take photos but they ignored the attention and walked into the building.
In the lobby they found Wasp waiting for the team, she got them access to the secure elevator and accompanied them to the top floor where the rest of the heroes were waiting. The lift doors opened and they were met with what looked like a very expensive bachelor pad complete with huge recliner sofas, pool tables, arcade cabinets and a bar. "Huh? Somehow I was expecting something a little more military." Kion observed, looking around and spotting The Champions and some of The Avengers.
"This building belongs to Tony, and he's just a big kid, he loves his toys." Wasp answered.
Robyn's eyes immediately spotted a trio of familiar faces from her bloody trip to the X Mansion; Laura, Collosus and Storm, whom was no longer dressed in her sensible teacher attire but in a black bodysuit with a flowing cape behind her "The X Men were called as well?" Robyn asked Wasp.
"Storm insisted. Ever since Beast was taken she's been in constant contact with The Avengers, Captain Marvel briefed Storm on the mission and she brought two of her best with her." Wasp explained, sounding glad that some seasoned heroes were joining them for this operation.
As Team Ceartais dispersed and mingled while waiting for the meeting to start, Robyn and Hannah went over to the X Men who were stood by an aquarium of tropical fish. The red furred hybrid wasn't the best at apologising but she felt she needed to address Laura about what had happened "H-hey Laura." Robyn greeted, hating herself for the slight stammer.
"Scarlet...hey." Laura replied, looking equally as uncomfortable.
"So, uh, I feel...well, um..." Robyn rambled.
"What my wife is trying to say is 'Sorry for fighting and tearing your throat out.'" Hannah spoke up and tapped her cane on the floor, knowing Robyn would dance around the apology for half an hour otherwise.
"Yeah, that. Sorry." Robyn added, thankful for Hannah's bluntness.
"I'm sorry too, when I woke up in the infirmary and Cyclops told me what happened I felt awful...thank god you can heal." Laura apologised.
"Right back at ya'." Robyn said with a small smile.
"Now that's sorted, introductions." Hannah moved the conversation along, she faced Collousus and could detect his massive and dense form along with a distinct metal scent. The blind gunslinger extended her paw and introduced herself "My name's Hannah, codename's Bullet, it's lovely to meet you."
"A pleasure." Colossus replied politely, shaking Hannah's paw with his massive metal hand "I am Colossus, head of the X Men's security."
"And I am Storm, team leader." Storm said stoically "I must thank you and your team for helping us in our hour of need. Doom has two members of our family and we need to bring them home."
On the far side of the large room The Champions were fawning over Kodi and his new look, and powerset but while Snowguard asked Kodi a barrage of questions Olivia noticed something; the only Avengers around were Captain Marvel, Captain America and Black Panther, plus Rocket Racoon was already downing shots at the bar. "Hey where are all The Avengers? I thought this was their pad." The brown mouse asked, she was sat in her mech with the chest cavity open.
"Most of them are at the compound upstate, they needed to leave a contingent to guard everyone on Doom's hitlist." Brawn answered "The two Caps and Black Panther are more than enough for this mission and Rocket won't miss the chance to get closer to Tazerface."
"And Iron Man is with Ms Marvel going over the plan in his office." Spiderman added.
At that moment the elevators doors opened and out stepped Agent Coulson but Luna's heart sank when she saw Dragoness standing beside him, triggering all the doubt and dark thoughts thathad surfaced from their last encounter. Luna wanted to keep her head in the game but all the things Dragoness had said got to her, the vixen dare not speak to the winged inhuman again and quickly made the excuse "I'm just going to head to the bathroom."
Luna scurried out of the main room sharpish and her lie seemed to have gone unnoticed, except for one person. The sympathetic soul went in search of Luna and found the costumed archer next to the helipad attached to the penthouse, she was sat on the floor with her back leant against a cargo crate "You ok?" Captain America asked, stepping forward.
Luna looked up, surprised to see the star spangled man especially after their frosty conversation at Parker Industries "Would you believe me if I said 'I'm fine'?" she asked back.
"Not really, no." Cap answered with a shake of his head "I'm guessing this has to do with Dragoness?"
Luna didn't answer directly but asked sadly "Why didn't you tell me Andi was the one who hurt her? Why didn't you tell me Andi killed her husband?"
"I couldn't break that news to you, guess I wasn't brave enough." Cap replied propping his shield against the wall, looking at the small predator hug her tail for comfort "I'm sorry for the way I talked to you, that I accused you of being another version of Andi, I can't imagine what you've gone through with this illness and it was insensitive of me to attack you like that." the old soldier said humbly.
Luna looked at the Manhattan skyline and mumbled "Maybe you were right with what you said."
Even though the archer spoke with a low volume Cap had heard her clearly "That's ridiculous." he said firmly.
"Is it though?" Luna replied "Because Dragoness seemed to make a hell of a lot of sense when I spoke to her."
"Zoe is still grieving, for her it's like the Singapore mission was yesterday." Cap reasoned.
"Singapore? You mentioned that when we were at Parker Industries. What happened?" Luna pleaded to know.
"You know what happened; Andi murdered Agent Rojek." Cap confirmed, sparing Luna the grizzly details.
"Dragoness thinks I'm not fully in control, that my D.I.D is still dangerous." Luna spoke.
"She's looking for someone to blame Luna, it was unfair of her to target you." Cap tried to ease.
"But what if she's right?" Luna barked, tears pooling in her amber eyes "Why do I still use the 'Andraste' codename? Why do I still wear the green colours that she wore?"
"Let me ask you this; who owned that title first, you or Andi?" Cap asked, hoping to get some sense into the vixen.
"...I did." Luna answered "But Andi was born from the anger and rage that came from me being 'Andraste'."
"The name isn't important, Luna. Your actions are what prove your morality." Cap encouraged.
"I've made some unforgivable mistakes, even before my mental health became an issue." Luna lamented.
Cap let out a sigh and picked up his SHIELD "I never chose the name 'Captain America', it was given to me by the government. It was originally a publicity stunt but it was my actions that made this uniform, this shield a symbol of justice and freedom to people. Now I don't know much about Zootopia but I'm sure that Andraste is a hero to many, not a villain. And I can bet that Dr. Luna Wilde is a hero to her patients as well, a loving wife to a fellow hero, a dedicated daughter, a caring sister and a friend who looks out for her friends. Those are the actions that make you a good person and that good nature reflects in your codename as well."
Luna finally cracked a smile despite her tears "...You must be the team dad."
"I guess." Cap shrugged, happy to see a smile albeit a sad one "Feel any better?"
"Not exactly." Luna answered honestly "You put some things in perspective but..."
"Dragoness' words still burn." Cap assumed, crouching down beside the vixen "Look you're not responsible for anything Andi has done in this dimension but if the codename bothers you so much, then ditch it."
"But you just said that my actions reflect my codename." Luna countered.
"I also said the name doesn't matter, most heroes change their persona for one reason or another but if the name 'Andraste' hurts you so much, then maybe find one that represents you better." Cap advised, putting his hand on Luna's shoulder.
"...Maybe." Luna uttered, wondering what it would be like to leave Andraste behind.
"Come on, let's go back inside. We've got a mission to prep for." Cap invited, prompting the vixen to stand up and follow him inside.
Twenty minutes later Iron Man and Ms Marvel entered the main room for the mission briefing, the tech billionaire pressed a button to flip the pac-man table and replace it with a holo-projector "Ladies and Gentleman, boys and girls, fuzzballs and critters; welcome to my humble home." Iron man opened, the hero was suited up but not wearing his helmet.
"Humble my ass." Captain Marvel sniggered, causing Rocket to nearly choke on his drink "Enough grandstanding Tony, get on with the plan."
"Yes Ma'am." Iron Man mock saluted the air force colonel "Long story short Doom's all starassassins have been hiding out in Jersey City, not New York like we originally thought. Ms. Marvel spotted a poorly disguised Ronin entering a subway station and after running facial recognition on the station's security cams it confirmed that was everyone's least favourite ninja." The projector was showing a map of the Jersey City subway system.
"Now we know that Doom's assassins had a second rift to Zootopia in an abandoned subway station as well as five hundred Doombots, thanks to the intelligence we got from Crossbones." Ms Marvel addressed the crowd of heroes "So we cross referenced all abandoned subway stations in Jersey City, which has a lot less than New York, there are only three possible stations."
"But I doubt that Doom's hench-jerks will let us just stroll in there, there will be security systems." Laura commented, the mutant was sat on a sofa arm.
"And we can't forget that all the abandoned stations are connected to working ones, hundreds of civilians will be at risk." Blank Panther addressed, observing the subway map.
"SHIELD can take of that." Coulson spoke up "We can trigger the fire alarm system and make up a story about a gas leak."
"But as soon as we do, the assassins will know the jig is up and counterattack." Dragoness mused.
"Bring em' on, I'll introduce those bozos to a world of pain." Rocket bragged, swigging on a scotch and ice.
"If they've got five hundred Doombots they're going to use them, this is going to be a bitch of a fight." Olivia voiced her concern.
"They'll send some of them to fight us." Luna said, realising something when she saw the subway map "The rest will flood through Jersey City."
"How do you figure that?" Snowguard asked, wondering what made Luna think this.
"How did the assassins get away last time? By planting bombs in Chinatown. If they feel cornered they won't hesitate to use the Doombots to attack the city, drawing us away from them and the rift." Luna answered, before pointing at a above ground rail yard "That rail yard is the largest exit for Doombots to go through, plus it's connected to all three abandoned stations."
"Is that what 'you' would do?" Dragoness asked in a catty manner, making Luna's ears fall flat against her skull.
Captain America then butted in "It's a logical assumption, we should go with Luna's reckoning."
"It does make sense." Captain Marvel agreed "We'll need flying heroes to take out the bots before they reach civilians. I think me and Tony can handle the north side of the railyard, Viv and Spitfire take the south, Dragoness and Storm cover the east and Ironheart...damn you're left solo."
"No she isn't, I'll guard the west with her." Mage volunteered.
"Since when can you fly, muttley?" Iron man asked dubiously.
Mage didn't get the reference but replied by hovering off the ground "Since this morning." he grinned.
"I hate to be the negative one but what if Luna's wrong?" Wasp said "What if the Doombots don't come through the rail yard?"
"Then we'll go through the tunnels and help out the rest of you, we're pretty quick." Riri assured.
"Ok so what's the plan for the others?" Spiderman asked, the teen was dangling upside down from a web for no apparent reason.
Ms Marvel cleared her throat and proposed "We split into three teams, matching powersets to make the teams balanced. We each take a station and if we find the rift we alert the other tunnel teams."
"A sound plan." Colossus complemented "But we are forgetting one thing; Night Howler. We know they have it and they could use it against us like they did at the mansion and with Crossbones' convoy."
"We've got you covered." Coulson said, reaching into his blazer pocket and producing what looked like an epi-pen "Thanks to the Night Howler antidote provided by Alice, we were able to find a flower with a near identical genetic makeup in this dimension, we've tested it against Zootopia night howler and it cures it."
"So if we get hit with Night Howler all we have to do is inject ourselves with the cure?" Storm asked, remembering the grizzly sight of blood in the school grounds.
"We've synthesized fifty antidote pens already, you'll each get one for this mission." Coulson promised.
"Let's hope we won't have to use them." Luna shuddered, the memories of a night howler infected Judy flashing though her mind.
000
Doom was sat on his throne, scrolling through a holo-tablet taking note of all his responsibilities, as well as The Cauldron's experiments the tyrant still had a country to run as well as defend Latvaria from foreign forces. Doom calculated that he stopped 95% of threats crossing through the border but he knew one day that 5% would cause grave harm to the Latvarian people, that's why this experiment was so important, to create a force that would protect the nation and the entire planet if need's be. Under his helmet Doom allowed himself a smile as he saw that one of the imprisoned mammals was now in peak physical condition, which meant that he was ready to have his powers extracted, the ID photo showed a caracal boy "Jason Candal, you shall be the first noble soul to help so many." He spoke, wondering if someone so young could survive the extraction procedure.
Doom was about to summon his bots to retrieve the boy when an alarm notification flashed up on his holo-tablet. The fire alarm and evacuation order had be enacted at a group stations in New Jersey, dangerously close to where the second rift was. "Hmm, disappointing but expected." Doom said, the dictator had predicted this would happen ever since Crossbones had been captured but he of course had a plan for this eventuality. He selected Ronin's contact information, confident that the assassin would do his will without question and hopefully eliminate some heroes along the way.
(AN/ So what did you think? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Review. Next time on The Broken Mirror; Captain America and Luna team up, things in The Cauldron become very loud and the team face their toughest challenge later. Please Review and c ya soon...)
