Snuggles The Symbiote
The first thing that Miss Militia noticed when she awoke after the confrontation was that she had been unconscious. That... Was not supposed to happen. She hasn't truly slept since that day in the minefields.
The second thing she noticed was that she was in the middle of a clearing in the jungle. The third thing she noticed was that whatever had caused her to arrive in this jungle had also caused her to twist her ankle.
The fourth thing she noticed, after creating a rudimentary splint out of some conveniently nearby sticks and vines, was that while she was distracted by tending to her injury something had approached her and was peering at her through the foliage. She couldn't quite make out what it was, but her instincts told her that it wasn't an animal.
She drew her weapon in the form of a heavy automatic pistol and aimed it at where she got the impression of her observer's presence.
"If you can understand me, then come out, slowly, no sudden moves," she said in its direction. "And drop any weapons you might have."
Branches rustled and parted and a humanoid reptile stepped into the clearing, slowly, hands up...
In body shape, it strongly resembles a human of exceptional fitness, except for its limbs. Legs bent and stretched at the shins and ankles, extending to long digitigrade feet tipped with sharp claws, one of which on each foot resembled the blade of a scythe. Hands were more humanlike but still had sharp claws at the tip of the digits.
The creature was nude, though it had no sign of primary sexual characteristics anywhere on its red-brown body clad in leatherlike scales. However, judging from the curve of its hips and chest compared to the circumference of its waist, if that was comparable to a human's body type, then it was female.
The head atop its shoulders was the least human thing about it, however. It was not a perfect one-to-one match by far, but it strongly resembled the heads of some rather scientifically inaccurate, not to mention far too large, velociraptors from a certain film that Earth Bet had gotten in a cultural exchange from Earth Aleph.
The creature did not speak but stared at her with eyes far too intelligent for a mere base predator.
"Look, you can clearly understand me. Can you talk?"
"...Yes, I can, human" the creature said in a deep, raspy voice... Was that a Manhattan accent?
"Okay then, then we can negotiate." In the back of her head, Miss Militia began running through a list of known Wet-Tinkers who might be capable of creating a sapient humanoid raptor-like reptile... This was very similar to what Bonesaw had done to herself... She'd mentioned something about a stegosaurus-man from the brat's universe and...
That's right, she wasn't in Earth Bet anymore.
"I'm sorry human, but I don't think we can," the creature rasped in response.
"Why not? I don't want any trouble."
"We can't negotiate because you're about to get clever-girled."
Miss Militia turned to her left just in time to see a blue-skinned masculine raptor-creature jump from the foliage. She tried to fire on it, but it was close enough to punch her in the face. She fell back and hit her head against a tree.
...She didn't technically pass out, but she wasn't quite aware of her surroundings. Instead, she alternated between processing pain and reliving memories of similar injuries.
Once she returned to lucidity, she found herself in a bamboo cage in the middle of a rather large village. More creatures, several color variations of the raptors she'd been before, a few triceratopses, and she was reasonably certain that the purple one was a T-rex.
Assessing herself... The positives of her situation were that both her ankle and her head had been properly bandaged, and her weapon was on the floor of her cage easily within reach... Why would they let her keep it? No, that was obvious. The creatures knew that if she shot one of them, she'd have to fight the entire village... Assuming they were even vulnerable to bullets.
The downsides were that she'd been stripped, presumably either to search her or check for other injuries, and she'd been left in her undergarments with no sign of her fatigues or her scarf in sight.
Looking back out at the village, taking in more detail, it seemed... Anachronistic. Primitive huts stood next to buildings made of metal, primitive tools besides advanced technology. In addition, the dinosaur-like creatures varied from prancing about naked to wearing pelts and leather to wearing modern clothing, and some even mixed and matched: A grey-scaled female who appeared to resemble... Honestly, the head looked vaguely like a dragon. She couldn't place it, but the creature had a body plan similar to the raptor-and-tyrannosaur-people. It was clearly wearing a fur loincloth mixed with a modern sports bra and fluffy pink legwarmers of all things.
And, looking closer, several humans going about their business, along with the dinosaur-creatures, though they seemed to be anticipating something.
Eventually, one of the creatures noticed that she was lucid and told another who told another, and so on.
Eventually, the door to the cage was opened and Legwarmers walked in carrying a wooden tray. It was set on the ground in front of Miss Militia, revealing a wooden cup filled with water and part of a roasted bird of some kind.
"Eat up, human," Legwarmers said. "You need to keep up your strength, and Sauron will be coming to speak with you soon." Legwarmers had a British accent for some reason.
Miss Militia stared at the tray without saying a word.
This, however, prompted the creature who brought it to let out a long, exasperated sigh. "It's chicken. We have a facility to the north that clones livestock for meat. And the water is treated, boiled, and triple filtered to make sure it's safe. We're not savages, despite where we live."
When Miss Militia didn't respond, the creature sighed again. "Fine, whatever, don't eat it, but you're not getting anything else."
"I'm sorry, what are you?" Miss Militia finally asked, still confused about the dragon-headed creature's origin.
"Superior to humans," the creature said as it left and closed the door, either misunderstanding or deliberately misinterpreting the question.
After a few moments, the smell of roasted poultry began to stir hunger in her and after weighing the odds of them waiting to specifically poison her instead of just killing her in the jungle, began to eat.
She swallowed the last of her water in time to notice that she had enough visitors.
Green-skinned, with arms that were also wings, and the head of a pterosaur proud of posture, wearing a loincloth. She couldn't read his mood, but his gaze was piercing.
"Good afternoon," he said. "Did you enjoy your meal?"
Miss Militia considered her possible responses, before stoically replying "It could use some salt." His reaction would give her a gauge of how concerned she should be.
"Ah, yes. An unfortunate bit of circumstances, there isn't a salt deposit to mine anywhere near here and we're trying to be as self-sufficient as possible," the creature said. "The agriculture outpost to the south is trying to grow some herbs and spices, but their main focus is on grain and potatoes. You know, staples. Limited room for experimenting right now."
"I take it that you are Sauron?" She asked.
"Why yes, I am. But now I must ask who you are, and why you're here in my kingdom?"
"A teleporter accident," was all that Miss Militia said in response.
"Truly? Becuase, it's just... That I am not stupid." The creature said suddenly quite angry. "Military fatigues and an obscured face? An American Flag? Carrying a unique weapon? What are you, the lastest failed Captain America here to investigate the works of the Great Sauron? Or maybe here to spy on the mutant farm that intrudes on my territory, growing those wretched flowers? Don't worry, the forces of Sauron will drive them off soon enough. Now," the creature leaned down and looked her right in the eye. "I asked you a question, who are you and why are you here? Answer me."
There was something about the creature's gaze that penetrated deeply into her soul. Before she could stop herself, she began to speak. "I am Miss Militia—"
"Your real name, please," Sauron interrupted without breaking eye contact, "code names are meaningless here."
"Hannah," the hero said against her will. "My real name is Hannah. And I am here because I was sent to retrieve a group of disrespectful, disobedient children whose antics have driven myself and my superiors to the edge of frustration. They refused, rebelled, tempers were raised, and a bystander claiming to be one child's deceased mother attacked me. I defended myself, the conflict escalated, and a teleportation device was damaged, stranding me here."
"Ah, I apologize for not believing you at first," Sauron said as he lowered his gaze. "In my defense, your tone left much to be desired."
"Where are we?" Hannah asked.
"We are in my sanctuary, full of people from all over the world who flocked to my banner to become something greater than the flawed beings they once were, thanks o the miraculous properties of my genetic science."
Hannah blinked. "You... Have the technology to rewrite DNA and alter physiology, and all you're doing with it is turning people into—"
"I swear to God!" Sauron interrupted. "If you're going to say something about curing cancer, save it. I've heard it already." The creature turned and started pacing. "Everyone harps about cancer. 'cure for cancer this,' 'cure for cancer that.' There's already a cure for cancer! Wakanda has one. Richards, Pym, McCoy, Strange, Stark, Mentor, The Vision, and Starfox must have made dozens of cures for cancer between them when they tried to save Mar-Vel. Norman Osborn created a cure for cancer just to murder Deadpool with it!"
Having briefly met this Deadpool, Hanah's sympathy sided with this Osborn.
"Spider-Man and the X-Brats even stole my technology and used it to make a cure for cancer. So, with all these cures out there, why do people still have cancer?" The creature asked, turning its gaze back to Hannah. "Becuase a cure for cancer is a happy ending. And why don't you ask Karl Lykos about what the world thinks about happy endings?
"Wait, you can't!" The creature shouted in Hannah's face. "He had his happy ending, and the world conspired to take it away from him, killed all that was good in his life, and now only darkness, now only pain, now only SAURON remains!"
The creature stood back and spread its arms, gesturing to the village around them. "And these are my people. People who know that suffering, that fundamental truth, or have seen it, and are sick of it. Sick of the flaws and frailties of the human condition, and have come to me for something better, even if it means siding with an Evil as Great as myself. And they decided," Sauron finished calmly, "much like myself, that if the world didn't want happy endings, then we should just have fun turning people into dinosaurs."
"Now, Hannah, you have a choice... You can join our humble commune... Or you can die. Because I will not allow any damned heroes to ruin what we have here. Make your choice."
Hannah considered her options... Well, after the obvious Master-effect of Sauron's gaze, she'd been planning to report for Master/Stranger containment regardless. Long-term survival to report back about her experiences, find the children, and bring them home for discipline were her priorities. With luck, they could force Bonesaw to reverse the process, since she had experience with a similar procedure.
"Fine."
"Fine what, Hannah?"
"Fine, I will join you."
"Very good," Sauron said as he opened the cage and offered her a hand to help her stand. "Now tell me, what's your favorite dinosaur?"