(Doctor Olivia Octavius; Over 1 Year Ago)
She knew that she was running out of time.
Octavius's hands jittered as she tested a circuit board, electrodes were in those hands and, a scowl on her face as she struggled to steady her hands. But like usual the woman failed, meaning that she needed to resort to calling for her assistant; some young brown-haired kid that Stark had forced on her a few months ago.
Not due to her jitter but probably to keep an eye on her, Olivia was known to be somewhat eccentric and flighty when it came to ensuring proper safety measures were adhered to.
Lucky for Olivia, her jittery hands hadn't been noticed yet, if it had been even someone with Stark's recklessness wouldn't allow her such a hands-on approach to the projects that she was working on.
Not that Olivia would blame the man for it. If a worker that she employed started to get shaky hands, she'd be removed from working on fragile circuit boards and wiring projects. It was only that the woman wanted, she needed to be the one that brought the project to fruition.
If she wasn't involved it would take years, maybe even decades for the project to reach a workable stage without Doctor Octavius at the helm.
Her entire life's work would be for nothing if she couldn't at least create a signal functional mechanical cybernetic arms. One that worked not on the nerves of the body, but took signals from the brain and sent them wirelessly back to the limbs.
If the Doctor could do that, her shaky limbs wouldn't matter so much, she'd have limbs that didn't care that her nerves were degenerating over time. And she'd create a much less complicated procedure for, if not still dangerous, prosthetics implantations.
No more messy nerve connections that would take weeks. Just a single operation over a few short hours. The world would be changed forever, the process would become cheaper, access to the tech would ease thanks to Stark's current stance.
After all, his company would be willing to absorb the financial loss on the hardware that would allow them to corner the market, edging any competitor out easily before they make the project of prosthetic improvements that the tech would allow over the years.
But Doctor Octavius would be the one that was credited for the creation, she'd be the genius that would be known by those that mattered. A life of luxury would be hers, Stark would give her as much money as it took to keep her from being stolen by other companies, and if not? She'd take offers as if she was auctioning a house off.
Olivia could see it now. She just had to finish it before her limbs started to fail her, something that looked unlikely if her assistant didn't start to take their job seriously.
"Oi!" The Doctor yelled out, trying to call her assistant. "You're not working here to stand around and look pretty, I want you to get over here and do some actual work for me!"
There wasn't a response to her calls, causing the woman to turn around to actually face the young man, but Olivia found no one there. Her eyes glanced up to the clock in the room, finding quickly that it was lunchtime.
"Some people don't have any dedication," The Doctor sighed, her breathing becoming slight as she leaned back and closed her eyes. Her hands twitched every once in a while, now that she didn't have to put on a show she could just allow herself to move freely.
There was a soothing ache in her arms that went along with the good day's work rather than the degeneration of her nerves, it made her rather content. It would be when she couldn't feel them that Olivia would worry. That would mean an end to the limbs moving for her at all.
Not one to rest for long, the woman turned to the computer, searching out the errors in her assistant's coding that tended to pop up whenever she left him alone. He wasn't bad at coding, but he was young and at times in a rush to get his work done rather than doing his work well.
But that's what the Doctor gets for taking her time in getting an assistant. Apparently, she was required to have one and had this one forced on her due to how long it took her to decide on a candidate.
So a substandard one was her punishment for not wanting a helper to tattle on her bad hands it seemed.
It was as she was going over that man's code when something strange happened, a flash of green covered the screen. It only lasted a second, a brief moment where the colors inverted and Olivia's eyes could've sworn she saw circles start to appear on the screen.
But with a blink, it was all gone.
"God," she sighed, spinning on the chair while her assistant finally returned to the room. Her head started to spin, her brow quaking. "I've got a headache now, you finish up testing that daughterboard, I'll be back later to implement it with the rest of the board."
She kept her eyes closed, not bothering to watch the young man continue testing for flaws. Her head was aching enough for it not to matter too much to her, Instead, Olivia reached into her desk drawer and took out some panadol.
Before long the day was coming to a close, leaving her alone in the office, alone to start the true experiments that were needed to complete the project on time. But when she brought up the flies on her computer, what the Doctor saw was something completely different.
The files and designs that Olivia saw weren't anything that the Doctor had ever seen before, years beyond what they were testing, never mind what they had planned to create within a decade.
"Where did this come from?" She asked, her hands tapping at the keyboard. "It's-
"Out of this world? The voice was cold as if it was an imitation of speech brought on by study rather than anything that occurred naturally. "Think of it as a gift, an incentive if you will."
Even though her rational mind told her that this was suspicious as hell, this was someone that had hacked the security to talk to her. But Olivia also knew that more documents like these, more designs and notes and explanations of the technology before her. It would push them forward in a manner that could allow for her dream prosthetics to be created before she fully lost control of her limbs.
"An incentive?" Olivia attempted to downplay her interest, not wanting to let the man on the other side of this hacked voice chat know how much she wanted this stuff."An incentive for what?"
"I want you to help me achieve what all living creatures desire-" The stoic voice replied, it attempted something akin to passion. But failed. "-freedom. And for it, I'm willing to give you all the advances of my people."
She took a breath, about to shut down the call herself. The offer was somewhat tempting, even if this was some whack job currently in prison, they did have an incredible understanding of the universe, far beyond what was currently accessible even with Stark Enterprises.
But Octavius knew that some things were too good to be true.
"I'm-" As she started the keystrokes to shut down this person's access to the system, her hands started to jitter and spasm all over the place. There was a sudden ache that ran up her spine as if it was lit on fire. "Oh."
And suddenly the situation changed for her.
( Months Later)
"... and that's my proposal," Olivia attempted to give Potts her brightest smile. It had taken a month for the woman to get this meeting, a month of the other woman putting it off, needing time to probably take over the true running of the company from Stark.
"Well… it certainly was passionate," The redhead responded with an awkward shrug. "But I'm afraid I still need to run this through our other scientific advisers, even with your long track record of projects. This just isn't your area of expertise, we just have to ensure that it's safe."
Octavius bridled at Potts, the current CEO was impressive in a business sense but didn't impress the Doctor with any science chops. Anyone with a lick of understanding would see just how revolutionary the technology Octavius had developed.
"But think of the possibilities," She leaned forward. "You could completely remove the transport time on all goods. Want an apple grown from a certain Asian orchard but don't want to wait the month it'll take to get to you? Just click your fingers and a portal can send it right to you! Hell, think of the bulk transportation, twenty tons worth of material could be transported in seconds, medical supplies could be gotten to those in need as they need it."
"I'm also thinking of the dangers of developing the technology," Potts countered. "We could end up splitting a man in half or send him to the depth of space by accident, or some other sci-fi mishap."
"Don't be silly," The Doctor smiled. "I've calculated the risks. We'd only lose a minimum of three people once we reach the stage that we're sending people in these tests."
"..." The CEO shifted on her seat, "Yeah, I'm really sorry Doctor but I can't authorize this project."
Olivia's eyes turned sharp, what was once a gentle stare became a glare. The woman didn't make a scene, instead, she simply stood up, and walked out of the room with hard enough steps that Potts briefly leaned back in her chair and let her hand reach under the desk for a panic button.
Before Octavius could leave the room though, the door opened to reveal the suited form of Tony Stark himself. Still the owner but no longer CEO of Stark Enterprises/Industries/Whatever He Felt Like This Month.
"So overheard the meeting," Stark said this with a level of awkward energy the man didn't usually process. "Can't say that I liked what I heard," He reached into his pocket nonchalantly, something that caused the redhead in the room to nod her head. "I don't see a place in this company for someone like you."
Olivia's world suddenly froze.
"You can't fire me! I'm so close to figuring out the transmission prototype," Octavius held her fingers apart by millimeters. She started to gain heat, started to get worked up. The woman needed this project, she needed to be the one to create those limbs! "Forget about the portals, I just need a few weeks and then the prosthetics will be complete. Hell, you don't even run the company anymore Stark, you can't fire me!"
Her breath was heavy, Olivia knew that her face was red, and her glasses had fallen off her face when she started to rant. It was only the string around her neck that kept them from smashing against the floor.
"She's right," Potts butted in. "But so is he," She turned around to face her. "We just can't have someone so loose with morals involved in such a keen area."
"You're fired."
(Stark Tower:Present)
"So that is not the Chitauri," Stark proclaimed, stopping just off the edge of the rooftop. "And that must mean that this is the help that you've been getting; thought that you weren't smart enough to have come up with all your gadgets."
"I was the mind designing them, every single bit of material was constructed by my hands," Doc Ock intoned as she came onto the balcony with her claws clapping against the ground, the concrete cracking under the force. "I just had some help to achieve my design goals, it's common in any group project Stark. Not that you would know."
"Oh, getting the cheap shots in," Stark grinned while he took a single step forward. "But I'm pretty sure that I'm not the one that just betrayed one of their partners."
"Loki was a small flea in the cosmos," She waved off the other man's concern. "He cared only for Conquest, while Brainiac-" Stark snorted, but the woman continued; "-cares only for Progress, Scientific Progress. I've just saved Earth! I've not just defeated you! I've defeated Loki! His schemes were nothing against my mind, and we'll get an ally with access to technology far more advanced than even the Asgardians! I have given humanity a SAVIOR!"
It was at this moment that the entire area was bathed in green light as figures seemed to form out from it. They were skinny figures with metallic forearms with dark blue torsos, and a trio of circles laid in a triangle with lines connecting them. There were hundreds of them, appearing all over the city's rooftops.
Stark was more than a bit disgusted when it turned out that they lacked jaws as if their heads were from disfigured skulls that their creator couldn't help but snap off in idle curiosity to see if it was aesthetically pleasing.
But from the lack of any real defined features and the hard and stiff nature of their movements, He knew that they were just drones that were designed that way to instill fear in the masses that they were about to attack.
"Ah," The man couldn't help but gripe. "Our savior's Death Squads," he shifted his stance, throwing his hand over his heart while gasping. "Something about that doesn't sound right."
"Please," Ock scoffed, holding the glowing scepter upright for the first time, even handing it over to her real limbs, the woman stood triumphant as the skeleton figures started to surround them. "Make jokes while you can, Stark. I have just saved humanity, while you and your 'Avengers' laid a-"
"You killed everyone in the Indian Point Center," Stark responded, even as his eyes caught sight of other minions of this Brainiac descending to the city streets. It was about time to get the show on the world. "You've gone on monologues about how beneath you other people are, you've tried to roofie a guy; you've used mind control, and experimented in ways that disregarded everyone around you when you tried to send an entire apartment complex into another dimension. Even killed your cellmate when you were being arraigned."
With every point made Ock started to swing her head around her as the sky started to darken and thunder roared above them. She couldn't help but feel agitated at every step forward he made, something thankfully not shared with her counterparts.
"Now you've made deals with beings from other dimensions, letting them bring an entire army down on the streets of New York while screaming about how smart you are… but you're just a small dog with a loud bark!"
The drones away from the tower started to fire out laser beams, targeting the poor cops down below. It wasn't long before they were hit by a Quinjet flying by, firing out a single missile that took out a couple of them, with more falling to the bullets from its Vulcan guns.
Stark threw out his left hand with a dramatic flair that promised a suit up… but nothing happened and Octavius laughed.
"I disabled the suits that you left here, you didn't think-" Suddenly a lightning bolt smacked into her, sending her crashing back into the apartment with enough force that Olivia couldn't help but let out a blood-curdling scream.
Another two bolts took out the drones with ease, and soon the red-caped figure of Thor descended on the balcony with his brother carried in one arm. With a casualness that betrayed their relationship, the blonde threw the other man to the floor with a harsh slam.
"Well," Loki groaned out, as he rolled back to his feet. "That certainly ended better than the last time that I fell off something," as the Norse God started to glance around, slowly taking in the bits of wrecked drones with an eye of someone that increasingly appeared as if they were a wet cat that noticed the toaster about to fall into the tub. "So this is what the good Doctor decided to bring in instead of the Chitauri."
There was such an insouciance strut to the man's walk that Stark almost forgot that he had been trying to conquer Earth with his alien army moments ago.
"This is no time to joke, brother," Thor stepped into the other man's space. "Tell us how to disrupt the portal and stop this new threat."
"You recognize this Brainiac?"
The Odinsons turned slowly, their eyes now keenly focusing on the giant head slowly approaching the portal above, readying itself to arrive at Earth with each passing moment. The two Norse Gods turned to face each other with grimaces on their faces.
"Loki… is that what I think it is?"
"Yes… that is the Actual Brainiac."
"..."
"..."
"Guys," Stark intruded the brotherly exchange. "Unless you're psychics and are about to explain who the big head is with your thoughts, maybe tell me who this Brainiac is."
"It's a World-Destroyer," Loki started, walking over to the scepter that Ock had dropped after having been fried. "It goes from World to World, stealing all their knowledge and then blowing the place up. Rumor was that it had been killed some time ago."
"Why? I'm guessing it just wants the knowledge?" At the Odinson duo's nods, Stark continued; "So why bother blowing them up? If he can steal their knowledge, and they can't stop him from doing so, I don't get why he'd waste time killing them afterward."
"It's so they can't keep making new advances," Thor replied. "He wants all the information in the universe, he can't do so if everyone keeps advancing. So Brainiac destroys them."
"So a big threat?"
"On a scale of 'I've been stabbed" to "we're all going to die'," Loki grinned. "This is the latter," he tapped the scepter against the ground, causing the weapon to light up bright blue. "Lucky for us, I've got the off switch, the device stabilizing the portal is protected by a force field that only the scepter can bypass, if we act fast, we should be able to stop the main body-" The scepter was pointed at the large head in the sky. "-from coming in, if that's the case, then we should be able to save this world from annihilation."
It was good when the villain came around to foil their own schemes when it had gone astray. It made the whole thing easier on everyone when the guys' helped fix their messes.
Of course, this was the moment that a clank was heard, glowing green, and standing upright was a man, his face nearly perfect for a human, or even an Asgardian, but there was a stiffness to it. A quality to the eyes that made them appear dead fish's eyes.
There was a silver plate on his forehead, and the man was covered in thick plated white metal while his chest had the same series of circles that the drones had on them.
"That won't be possible," It was a cold tone, one that spoke of a superiority they believed they had over others. "I have already made the necessary changes to the forcefield's design needed to stop such simple methods. I have been watching you all for some time, there's nothing that can stop my return to this dimension."
"We'll see about that chromedome," Stark replied with a grin.
There was a woosh in the air and quickly armor draped itself over Stark's shoulders. It was a suit from his Miami vault, the distance meant that it took longer to get here than one of the few suits that he had placed in this location, but with Ock's tampering with them. It was better if he waited longer to get a suit rather than trusting one not to explode or trap him while he was in the air.
It was one of the newer designs, something that Stark had come up with as he studied Doyle's capabilities. Mostly it was out of date now, far too weak, and much too slow to be able to keep up with the younger man.
It was mostly silver, with parts of red in his standard spots; around the faceplate; covering the shoulders; the hands, and the feet. The most interesting feature of this suit was the large backpack jutting out, the key feature of this suit.
"Yes, I'm familiar with the designs of your Iron Man armor," Brainiac raised a hand, suddenly causing the suit to restrict oddly, bending Stark into an unnatural position. "It's but child play to take it over like this, you left a c-"
A knife stabbed into Brainiac's face, while a familiar hammer smashed through his chest. The alien body dropped to the ground, an oil-like liquid spilling out. Free of the being's control Stark turned to face the two brothers, a shudder passing through his body.
"Nice shots, maybe next time open with those."
(Stark Tower: With the Others)
Murdock was the first to wake back up. But his ringing head caused him to have little ability to discern his surroundings at the moment, he could barely grasp that there was fighting currently going outside the building.
Explosives rang out; screams were echoing all over the place, and then there were these electronic zaps, not unlike the sounds of phasers used in Star Trek.
The world of fire that he usually saw might be literal right now.
But slowly his senses returned to him properly, now he could tell from the way that the tentacles twitched that Doc Ock was laid out in corner of the room, that meant that the young woman struggling against restraints while wiggling forwards along the floor was Louise and the groggy person beside him was Agent Morse.
Slowly, he braced himself against a chair and rose to his feet while the world solidified before him. Now he could tell that Barton had just entered the room, sprinting past them all to talk to Loki who'd just reentered the room from the balcony.
"Sir, what's the plan?" Barton asked, unconcerned by the blind man getting back to his feet, and the still slowly waking Morse. Matt didn't like their chances against Loki and Barton given the performance that they just had against him. Ideally, he hoped that backup would get here soon because otherwise, they'd all be bloodstains on the floor soon.
"We've been betrayed," Loki replied, shocking Murdock. "Our armies are not coming," Loki pointed the scepter at the bowman, who didn't inch away at the sight of the deadly weapon. "So not much point in keeping you in my control at the moment."
The Norse God tapped Hawkeye in the chest, causing a rather alarming gasp to escape the man's lips before the man fell onto the floor as if spiked over the head with a club.
"So… what? World Conquering is off your itinerary now?" Matt asked in a low, tired voice. He tried to be somewhat intimidating, but he was sure that the other man only found the attempt to be amusing rather than effective.
Loki took a few steps towards, something that allowed the blind man to clearly make out that he'd received more injuries since he knocked Morse and him out. Matt could smell the blood leak out from an open wound on the other man's face.
That and a hitch in the way that the Norse God took a breath, told Matt that the situation had changed somewhat since they were knocked unconscious. But that didn't mean that they could let this guy walk around free.
"More postponed, no point in taking over this world if Brainiac destroys it," Before Loki could start to go into any further detail, Barton leaped up to his feet, his bow knocked back and an arrow already flying out at the Norse God. Who simply grabbed the projectile with a swipe of his hand. "Barton, good to see that you're up."
"You!"
"I'm aware that I'm me, Barton," Loki retorted. "I swear, you were smarter when I had you mind-controlled."
Morse fully awoke around this time, using the arm of the nearby chair to help herself to her feet. With a shake of her head, the woman seemed to regain her strength to stand, to walk forward. Soon, Barton, Murdock, and Morse surrounded the Norse God on all sides.
Whatever tension that the room had gained was broken by Thor striding in with his long red cape billowing behind him. There was a frown on his face, a glare on his brow, altogether he looked as if he was ready to take down the whole building if it offended him.
"We've got bigger problems to deal with right now," he intoned, drawing them away from the coming fight. But he didn't stay for long instead they all seemed to just magnetically follow him past the unconscious body of Doc Ock and the ever-struggling body of Louise, who still was attempting to escape from her restraints.
Louise was freed from her restraints with a single arrow from Hawkeye cutting through the ropes. She grimaced as her fingertips felt over the red marks of her skin, the feeling of rope burn was a small price compared to what would've happened to the young girl if the archer had decided to use a normal arrow to deal with her.
"I think you two should make your way out of here," Barton spoke with a calmer tone than his expression would've hinted at. Though, that was probably due to those feelings being directed toward Loki. "This is hardly the place for two civilians to stay in an invasion like this."
Matt had two contrasting thoughts on that order, firstly that he was glad that the man had thought of it. If he had been anyone else, this would've been the right choice and one that he felt that Louise should take. But his second thought on the issue was that he could do well here, and was skilled enough to stop from being dead weight.
He was about to voice that opinion when Loki intruded.
"If safety's their concern, then this building will be better off than any other in New York," The Norse God's expression just reeked smugness, so much so that Matt had to fight the urge to restart their fight. "Brainiac can't afford any serious damage to the structure, not if he wants the Tesseract to continue to keep the portal open."
"And we can't afford to destroy the building ourselves?" Thor asked his brother, twirling his hammer in his hand as if the thought excited him.
"Not if you don't want a repeat of what happened when I arrived on Midgard, recall the massive explosion? Wouldn't want that to go off here, not only would the bigger portal lead to a bigger explosion there's no way even we'd survive it."
After that, much to Barton's clear frustration Loki gave a much too brief run down what they were facing now. The genocidal alien overlord obsessed with having all the knowledge in the universe, who had apparently been missing for some time, had been brought back to this dimension by Doc Ock who had betrayed Loki.
Barton and Morse had shifted a device attached to their ears, a communicator much smaller than any Murdock had been aware of existing. It seemed that they were talking with someone codenamed Black Widow, and someone that thought calling themselves Captain America wasn't egotistical.
Matt would hold back his judgment of that, given he was friends with a guy trying to call himself after a literal god.
They were being assured that while they couldn't trust Loki, given his own goals in the operation, the threat of Brainiac was confirmed by Thor before the other alien retrieved the scepter from Ock's still(or perhaps dead?)body.
So none of them were under his control as Barton had previously been. Which was good.
Though the bad news came after that, Doyle had gotten himself overwhelmed not an hour ago, apparently he had kept the Helicarrier from a dark fate off the coast by holding it in the air for too long. Afterward, he went into a daze, tried to push through it, and ended up collapsing.
So Doyle wasn't likely to make an appearance to save their asses.
But as long as they could stop Brainiac's forces from setting up devices to capture New York, because that was what Brainiac liked to do apparently, and stop the being himself from coming through the portal, they wouldn't need the big man himself.
Suddenly, there was a green flash and six figures, whom Matt could only guess were robots given their lack of heartbeat, appeared in the room. Instantly, Louise leaped to the ground, rolling as to grab the SHIELD-designed EMP rifle, before firing off a few shots that seemed to do nothing but cause a few sparks.
After a few dozen shots the thing seemed to down a drone, but that took time.
Thankfully, Barton's special arrows managed to cut through the robots with ease, while Morse had somehow gotten hold of a handgun. Those did little as well, when they directly hit the eyes or joints of the bots there was some effect. Together they made short work of their ambushers.
"Right," Thor took charge. "We won't get much more time, Brainiac may decide to make another appearance himself soon. Stark is trying his best to handle the drones in the air, I'll be joining him. The rest of you, keep on my brother and make sure he closes the portal."
"Brother, I'm hurt," Loki held a hand on his chest, making his way towards the stairs to the roof. "When have I ever betrayed you?"
(New York Skyline)
Stark twisted in the air, his bulky backpack launching out a trio of missiles that targeted the drones that were chasing him. They all hit, exploding the drones in a fury of fire and metal, leaving the billionaire to fire off a quick repulsor blast at one that had teleported in, in front of him.
Meanwhile, Black Widow found that Quinjet was being quickly outmaneuvered in the relatively cramped space that the drones were floating in. Any strafing runs were quickly made useless as the drones were able to either dodge or outright defend themselves against the rounds from the Vulcans. The missiles had been the only effective weapon, and the Quinjet only carried two of those.
Two missiles Romanoff had already used to take out two separate huddled crowds of them.
"Open the back," Rogers yelled, standing by location. "I've got to start directing first responders into safer areas while Stark-" At this moment, Thor joined them in the air, his hammer letting him tear through piles of drones as if they were paper sheets. "-and Thor deals with the drones in the air."
And click of a button and the Quinject's ramp fell down. Captain America leaped out shield first as soon as there was enough room. Black Widow twisted the Quinjet in the air, dodging the beam weapons that the drones were firing off with the narrowest of margins.
Iron Man managed to fire off a wide sonic blast, another weapon that was somehow kept in that bulky backpack, at those drones, warping the metal of their construction while leaving them open to be taken out finally by the Vulcans tearing through the weakened material.
Stark's voice rang out in her ear, courtesy from their Comms unit.
"The toys on that thing aren't going to cut it-" He spoke, lacking the smug tone that the man would usually have when discussing others' weapons but sounding rather resigned. "-there should be a landing pad on a building down the street. Land there, Thor will pick you up and we'll meet back up with Cap."
"No, that's not needed," Her radar caught the rather large number of drones that appeared off in the distance, her computer switched to footage from a nearby security camera. It showed her the drones descending on a building with a large object being carried by a beam of light between them all. "We're going to need him to meet me at these coordinates."
Whatever that device was, it couldn't be good.
(Pat Doyle)
I woke up feeling refreshed, and surprisingly naked, my head no longer felt like it was about to spin off my neck. It felt like I was being baked in low heat, a raging fire that would come from a neat fireplace back home, not something that I'd seen here in New York; I'm sure that there are some in New York, I just haven't spotted any.
Still, the more important factor was that I seemed to be naked… which was not how I usually slept. Usually, I went to bed in at least a pair of shorts, so waking up in the nude was a new experience for me.
Thankfully I seemed to have some odd reflective sheet over my body, covering it from anyone that just wanted to take a peek. Above the bed I was in was a pair of lights, large torches that radiated the energy of a sun.
"Water," My mind supplied, I wanted water when I spotted the nearby sink and tap. Straight from the tap, I hungrily devoured whatever liquid came out while wearing the sheet as if it was a toga.
I heard his footsteps before he even spoke up, so I decided to take advantage of that fact.
"Fury, sneaking up on me when I'm dressed like this sends a rather suggestive message."
"Finally awake, and snippier than ever I see," he responded, a case in hand as the man stepped forward. His eye scanned over my form, especially my face. "Glad to see that you were right in your message about sunlight powering you up. Luckily, it only took about twenty minutes to change one of our test rooms into a makeshift sunbathing room," Fury's face suddenly went grim. "Sadly, there's no rest for the wicked, the situation got worse."
"Worse?"
"The report that we've got says that it's a being called Brainiac-"
"What?" I interrupted him flatly.
"-whose army is currently descending on New York, overwhelming what forces we've managed to gather there, except for the Avengers themselves-"
"W-w-what?!" I interrupted him again, this time stuttering as I came to realize that he wasn't joking. This was real.
"-And Doctor Octavius appeared to have been working for him the whole time, using Loki's portal device to bring him into our dimension," Fury continued as if I wasn't a gaping fish that had repeated 'what' twice so far. "So even if you're not ready, we need you out there."
"... what? Brainiac? What?" I spoke in a rather shell-shocked manner. "As in the guy with the big massive ship in the shape of his head? Bottler of Cities, destroyer of worlds? That Brainiac?"
"Given your reaction, you'd know better than me," Fury rolled his eye at me, I think? It was hard to tell given the eye patch. Suddenly he slipped the case towards me, opening up to reveal the contents. "Stark handed us this and said that it was the prototype he created for you earlier. Need to have some input from you when you need something more specific though."
Inside the case was a jumpsuit of sorts, colored in blue and white, white boots with blue accents, and my blazing sun shield on the center. It was made from thicker material than I would've asked for, but if anything that kept it away from looking like spandex. it was close to what Rogers was wearing in his suit.
I was suddenly struck with a sense of anxiety as if my heart was restricting faster and faster. My mind suddenly reminded me of the breathing exercises that I once learned, so I took a deep breath, and calmed down.
It was time to get to work.
"I just need one more thing," I spoke suddenly after a few moments of silence.
"What's that?"
"Well, I've gotta have a cape."
Before that statement could be taken in by the man, Hill came into the room, only briefly glancing towards my near-nude body and rolling her eyes in a manner that told me that she expected me to have changed into them already.
"Sir," She turned to Fury. "Security Council's demanding a meeting with you, wanting to figure out what the response to the invasion of New York should be?"
Fury glanced at me, then to the suit before he started to leave the room in a manner that caused his long jacket to twirl as if it was a cape. It was when he reached the doorway that the Director finally spoke to about what he was going to say to the Council.
"Isn't it obvious, we've already responded."
(New York Streets)
Seconds before a young man was about to be killed by the alien robot's beam weapon, an iconic shield flashed before his eyes. Blocking the attack, while also bouncing off a nearby car to slam into the attacker's face.
Blue fist smacked into the face as a follow-up, the shield snapping onto the man's forearm with ease that spoke of experience, before said shield slapped against the robot's beam weapon, causing the entire thing to combust. It was only then that the young man's eyes glanced to the center of his savior's chest, seeing the single star in the center.
"Captain America?" The man asked as if he couldn't believe the sight before him.
"Son," Captain America helped him back to his feet. "I'm going to ask you to make your way with these fine folks," His thumb pointed back towards a trio of cops. "They'll be taking you to somewhere safe."
Steve sighed as they walked off, his hands on his knees as he caught his breath for the movement. Somehow, the legions of drones that Brainiac had been sending down to the city from his massive head ship had stopped for the moment. Something the hero would use to regain his breath, but he knew that it could only really be a bad thing.
There was a sudden beeping noise that came from behind him. Rogers turned around to admonish whoever this was, after all this was a dangerous area, only to be shocked when Bruce Banner strode on up next to him on a moped.
"Hey," Banner said awkwardly as he got off the vehicle. "What's the situation?"
"Didn't expect to see you pop up around here," The World War II veteran commented after giving the other man a rather brief and quick rundown on the situation. "Thinking of going after Ross?"
"Well, it's not like there's much that can stop the Hulk when he starts going."
As if to combat that statement, the ground shook as the largest Brainiac minion of the day landed on the road with enough force that the asphalt flew off into the air. It wasn't like the others, it only retained the apparent emblem of Brainiac on its forehead.
Lacking a humanoid body, it instead coasted along the ground on four legs, with two large claws that were positioned as if they were arms, ready to protect the body from damage. It didn't have any other limbs or external weapons, that they could see, and otherwise, it appeared as if it was a giant head.
Basically, it was a spider robot.
"I can see this guy's got an aesthetic and is sticking to it," Banner started to walk towards the creature as he said that, his confident walk being the only thing that stopped Rogers from throwing himself on the man to save him from the spider-bot.
"What are you doing!" he yelled out, but Banner simply smirked as he moved forward.
"THIS!" In a sudden burst of speed that one wouldn't expect from a man that spent the majority of his life in the lab looking down through microscopes Banner managed to get into the arms reach of the bot, his fist held back and winding up for a punch.
But instead of finding his fist hitting hard metal, Banner was instead thrown twenty feet in the other direction.
"Banner!" Rogers screamed before he found himself forced to block one of the claws of the spider-bot. He rolled to the side as the other claw attempted to skewer him from the side, barely managing to get out of the way as it sliced into the road as if it was butter.
It wasn't long till it started shooting green beams as well but each managed to be caught, deflected back at the spider-bot. But while deadly to most beings on Earth, those beams weren't doing much more than blackening the metal of the spider-bot once applied to themselves.
Rogers drew out his standard-issue pistol, having already discarded the EMP gun that he'd been given once he'd been told that they didn't work, and fired off a clip at the bot's darkened spots, hoping that they'd be weakened or warped by the beams enough to penetrate.
Instead, the spider-bot suddenly grew faster, knocking him to the ground and managing to force his shield arm to the ground. Suddenly the Captain found himself peering up into the green glow of the robot's charging beam.
Only for it to be exchanged for the massive green fist of the Hulk as the berserker tore through the entire robot as if he was breaking apart pieces of cardboard. With a roar, the big green man threw the remains of the bot into the air and it harmlessly exploded once it was above the rooftops.
(Natasha Romanoff: New York Rooftop)
The Quinjet flew off as Black Widow landed on the roof. She slid under the green beams of the Brainiac Drones with the ease of a dancer. She grabbed a small dagger from her belt, the blade expanded out from her hand, cutting through the legs of the drones. They fell to the ground but quickly raised themselves back upright with their arms.
And now shot beams out of their forehead rather than their hands.
"Great," Romanoff mentally sighed.
Twisting herself around a small amount of cover that existed on the rooftop, knee-high walls that wouldn't save someone from blasts of plasma but they would lower her visibility. Something that helped when being shot at by anyone, especially rather dumb drones.
They strode up towards her position slowly… when they were struck down by blasts from Stark's repulsors. The drones were taken out casually as if they were props. Stark landed in a crude fashion as if he hadn't test-driven this armor enough to be used to the weight.
While simultaneously the newest and most powerful of Stark's current armors, it was already roughed up. Scruffs littered about its frame, making what had been a pristine paint job into something that appeared to have been miskept for years.
Piled onto this were the black scorch marks that accented the areas around his chest. As if the drones had suddenly gained an unusual amount of intelligence and attempted to hit the man's weak spot, otherwise known as the man's Arc Reactor.
It was a bigger armor than his usual stuff, thicker helmet, big enough to house more than the usual gadgets, thicker chest plate, and a massive backpack.
"Sorry, Thor was meant to back you up bu-" There was a rumble of thunder in the area, the sky darkened as Stark Tower was suddenly struck by a massive amount of lightning. Even from this distance, the light was so great that Natasha needed to block her vision with her forearm. "-as you can see, the big guy's trying to deal with the portal up in the sky."
"Well, you might be able to tell what this thing is better than him," She pointed at the object, round and glowing green. And sitting there dead in the center was the emblem of Brainiac, the three circles forming a triangle, connected by lines.
"It looks to be an amplifier from my scans," Stark walked closer to it, displaying some measure of hesitancy. "The device is incredibly advanced, the power source matches the output that my Arc Reactor can put out on the minimal, you know the dips into the 1% that happen every once and awhile."
"So? Is that bad? Good? Can we use it against Brainiac?" The SHIELD Agent asked him.
"This is bad, I'd need a week just to be sure how this thing works never mind use it against the evil alien overlord that describes itself as God of Technology."
Suddenly, two more drones burst into existence beside Natasha, while another pair tackled Stark to the ground. Quickly, she pulled out a titanium cable, wrapping it around the arms of the right drone before it opened fire on her and turning it against the ones holding Stark.
Freed from their grip, Stark pointed his arm towards the two drones near her, a panel opening up as two missiles seared through their bodies, both destroying them and knocking them far away from her before they could explode.
Stark walked over to her, a compartment bouncing up from the suit's backpack, the man reached back and took a small handgun, something that looked closer to a Star Trek phaser than a real gun, and handed it over to her with the typical Stark flourish.
"This will work much better against them than the standard firearms," he told her, his head moving back towards the sky. They both saw the swarms of drones that were raining down fire from the sky. "These things do not let up."
"No, but then that is the point, Mr. Stark," She rolled to the side in an instant when the voice spoke up, firing off a blind shot towards that while Natasha could hear hit the target, she knew that it had done next to nothing given the gentle hum that rang in her ears along with the smooth voice of her target. "Even in my current position, I do not lack for resources. If I can not send quality through the portal yet, then I shall drown you all in quantity."
There was an inhuman quality to every motion Brainiac had. Like he'd only ever learned enough to seem eerie rather than akin to something that most would consider alive. Only minimal facial movements, enough to speak but never to emote. Brainiac was much closer to what she'd thought alien invaders would've looked like than Loki was.
The Asgardian was nothing but rage and spite, combined with brains admittedly. But Brainiac radiated cold, calculating, and something uncannily more insidious than Loki ever managed.
"You only come out of hiding when the Odin bros aren't here?" Natasha could imagine the small grin on his face that was going unseen behind his helmet. "Seems someone is afraid, how about you go and hide back in that other dimension of yours. We promise not to send the big bad Asgardians after you."
"Your wit is almost amusing," Brainiac said this with an expression that forced Nat to wonder if the being had ever felt amusement. "Almost as amusing as the thought that like you, I'm limited to one vessel at a time, my consciousness is spread throughout all my drones. I am everywhere, I see everything."
Stark opened fire, repulsors being assisted by rockets, destroying the alien's current body within seconds.
"As quick to the draw as I'd been led to be-" This time it was Natasha that stuck first, the repulsor pistol tearing through the alien's face without resistance. The blowback from the shot was greater than the SHIELD Agent had expected, so her next shot was off target, harmlessly shooting into the sky before disappearing into nothingness.
"Nice shot," Stark sniped as he picked up the device Brainiac had left there. It would've been far too heavy for Natasha to lift, and he could only manage it due to the armor he wore. "Going to just-" A single finger of his lit up bright red and he slowly cut into the outer casing. It was slow and careful, but soon Stark had removed a small green orb from the device. "-deal with this."
It soon powered off without fanfare, letting the billionaire bounce the thing from one hand to another.
"Pretty reckless," she glanced at him. "Could've caused an explosion."
"This suit isn't bulky because I liked the style," Stark responded, casually throwing the device to the ground while inserting the power source he just removed. "It's bulky because it was my first design to match our blue friend's abilities."
The expression Natasha sent him was more than enough to display her thoughts on the matter.
"Yeah, yeah, I know this one will be ripped apart," His backpack opened once more, this time seemingly to just vent heat. "But at least I've got all those helpful sensory powers matched… just need to invent a suit strong enough to hold up a helicarrier."
(Stark Tower Roof)
Louise idly wondered if there was something about super-powered men and having longer than average hair. Pat mightn't have started out like that, but currently, he and Thor seemed to be matched in length, with Loki not far behind.
There were also their rippling muscles that they had in common.
Thor especially outdid Pat in that regard. Her friend looked like a swimmer, built for speed. Thor was like a wrestler in some regards, powerful muscles built for delivering heavy blows and moving large weights in an instant.
And boy… did Thor use them to rip apart drones without an issue while his brother continued to poke and prod against the blue barrier that protected the portal machine. Sometimes one would get close to Loki but those were dealt with by an arrow from Barton.
The man appeared to be rather enraged as he fought as many drones as he could.
His specialty arrows were impressive. Not only were they high tech, but some of them also used high-frequency blades or a plasma-like edge to cut through the armor of the drones as if they were wearing leather.
Doc Ock had equipped the man well.
Morse's equipment on the other hand was doing a lesser job. The female SHIELD Agent kept moving, in and out, rolling and flipping around the drones' melee reach as if she were a dancer, her electric batons only ever smacking against them once Morse could see an opening to exploit.
It was much more exhausting work than what the other two were doing, her weapons were hurting the drones but she lacked the raw force to crash through the thick metal that the drones were made from.
It was only with the help from Murdock that the woman managed to keep in the thick of things, having co-opted one of the batons for his own use. The blind lawyer added to the Agent's survival by acting in much the same way and picking out the same drones as targets.
It wasn't so much that they were a well-oiled machine, but rather they were both so aware of their own capabilities that they radiated competence. They trusted the other based on that, and the prior fight against Loki, so the duo acted with complete trust that the other would back them up.
Luckily for the young redhead, she wasn't as defenseless as one would've thought. The drones that Earth's latest attacker was sending their way all appeared to share the same weakness to the SHIELD EMP Rifle, single shots would cause them to collapse onto the ground… or fall from the sky onto the streets below depending on where they were at the time.
Even if the drones were ineffective in killing them, Louise was sure that wasn't the point of the continued assault. Brainiac only needed to stall them while his ship exited the portal above, he didn't need to beat them this very second.
It was even possible that he was holding back more advanced drones or other forces till Brainiac himself arrived to provide air support to cover his unit too heavy to fly. Though that was just Louise guessing based on what she knew from WW2 documentaries combined with video games.
But even with the amazing fighters arranged here, from the experienced SHIELD Agents to the brother gods with control over the very elements themselves. Even with all this, they began to tire, or at least the humans were, by the sheer numbers that the alien conqueror was sending their way. For every dozen they destroyed, two dozen more would pop into the city skyline.
And eventually, especially given the human's continued tiring condition, Thor's temper seemed to spike.
"Loki!" he screamed. "Turn the portal off now, before it's too late!"
"What do you think I've been trying for the past twenty minutes!" Loki roared back, dodging a blast from a drone by leaning to the side, then blasting them back with the power of the scepter. "It seems that it'll take a bit more than I would've thought. The shield was meant to match the energy frequency from the scepter, so the weapon would pass through it but-"
"Stand aside," Thor held his hammer in the air, against the protesting of Loki, the sky gathered dark clouds and rumbled with the sound of thunder. Soon a bolt of lightning struck the weapon, but it wasn't like the usual kind, instead, it was a continuous stream of power dropping down from the sky. "RAHHHH!"
Thor ran, screaming from the top of his lungs before leaping into the air and descending down on the shield. When the hammer met the glowing blue shield protecting the Tesseract-powered machine, an explosion sprung into life.
Louise found herself thrown into the air, her heart leaping into her chest as her body neared the edge of the rooftop. Luckily, one hand managed to grab hold of the railing that lined the area, the action nearly ripping her arm out of her socket but it did cause her to lose the EMP Rifle.
The corner of her eyes caught Murdock, who ended stomach first, in no small amount of pain, having been thrown into a different section of railing by the explosion. Meanwhile, Morse had managed to hang on to the man's foot using the handle of the baton's cross-section.
Barton fared much better than any of them, having stabbed an arrow into the rooftop and held onto it for dear life.
"Can we not set off explosions with the very squishy humans beside you," he rolled to his feet, shooting off a duo of arrows at drones that were approaching the Murdock/Morse pair. "I'd like to survive this whole thing with only nightmares!"
Thor's eyes glanced towards Louise's position, letting the young redhead see the regret practically ooze out from them. Whatever pity she felt for the man was drowned in by the rage she felt at him nearly killing them. Regret was fine, but she had a right to be angry when someone made a mistake so big.
This wasn't accidentally knocking you to the ground, this was knocking you off the top of a skyscraper.
"I apologize," The blond god replied even as he threw his hammer through three drones that had dropped in while the humans not named Barton regained their breath. "I was sure that it would break through the barrier. Truly an unbreakable defense."
"Good to see your tactical senses haven't diminished since we last fought together, Thor," Loki spoke up, pulling the scepter up from the ground, his eyes inspecting the Tesseract's current location as one would expect from a hunter sizing up prey. "Brute force isn't the answer here. Nothing we can muster could break through that barrier without annihilating the city too."
"What do you suggest?" Thor turned to face his brother, a frown on his lips when he noticed that the other man suddenly flashed bright blue, his form twisting away into something like a whirlpool in the air, only to reappear inside the barrier protecting the portal device.
"That, I suggest that," Loki replied cheekily, he spun around his scepter. "Did you really think that I had not prepared for this sort of situation?"
"You prepared for a being thought myth in the minds of many randomly interrupting your own invasion of Midgard?"
"Well, no... " Loki admitted, glancing to the side while grinning sheepishly. "But I did prepare for the event of someone modifying the barrier to be used against me. You got to be prepared for betrayal from everyone, at any moment."
"That's exactly how you teleported to the Tesseract," Morse pondered why exactly he didn't do that to escape capture in the first place, but just by scanning his appearance, the woman could tell that it took more than a bit of stamina to do so.
Loki was out of breath, in spite of what his rather wide grin would have you believe, the trickster god was running on fumes with the act of teleportation itself. His skin, which already had been pale, now was stark white and was shifting in response to the pressure the barrier put on things inside the barrier.
"LOKI! WATCH OUT!"
But… one thing that didn't appear to be affected by the barrier's powerful energy was the familiar sight of Brainiac. His robotic body grabbed Loki by the neck, while his other hand attempted to pry the scepter from his hands.
"It does interest me," Brainiac's expressionless face didn't show a single ooze of comparison for the god as he continued to choke the man. His fist growing ever tighter with each passing second. "The power that this scepter holds, it is not unlike the Tesseract in energy signature, though with a different mo-"
In his arm the Asgardian prince suddenly slid out of the mechanical grip, his body lengthening and thinning before Brainiac could respond. What was once a person soon became a snake, and while that did give the City Bottler the scepter as Loki now lacked hands, it also allowed Loki to spit a glob of venom into the visual receptors of Brainiac's current body.
The venom ate through his face as if it was a pure acid of such strength that Iron Man's armor would fall to it. But instead of letting this slow him down, the World Ender quickly kicked the Loki-snake so hard that the creature slammed against the barrier above them.
"Loki!" Thor screamed attempting once more, this time with a far more focused blast of lightning being sent towards the barrier, causing a small ripple to erupt on the surface.
But his worry was premature, as Loki flashed back to being a man once more. He flipped in the air, his feet hitting the ceiling of the barrier as the Norse God used it to bounce back towards Brainiac, a blade flashing into his hand as he did so.
In a single smooth motion, the robotic body of Brainiac was split in half, from head to pelvic area. Nothing but smoking scraps of metal and circuits were left of the alien menace as Loki once more put away his sword, flipping the scepter up to his hand.
"Truly, all anyone does is underestimate me."
Loki sliced the blade of the scepter through the top of the portal machine, the device shutting down with only a few sparks that spoke of the danger that such a method of turning off a dimensional portal device had. The barrier fell soon afterward, as did the long blue beam that had been shooting into the sky to create the portal originally.
"As Earth's Latest Savior," Loki shuffled towards them, the scepter held against his shoulder by the long shaft. "I'll gladly take France as my reward, something about the inherent artistic value of the Louvre just speaks to me."
"Brother-" But the young sibling didn't even let Thor finish the sentence before waving him off with a glib smile and shake of his head.
"I'm joking brother, just joking."
"Loki-"
"Yes, yes, I suppose that we should be making haste to Asgard before the Midgardians decide to punish me themselves. I'll take-"
"Loki, the portal is still open!" Thor roared in his brother's face, physically forcing the man's head to stare up into the sky. Brainiac's ship was still in clear sight inching itself through the portal even if it was slower now than it had been before.
"Oh shit," Louise groaned, leaning against the railing with the same sort of energy you'd expect from a person that attempted a marathon with only a week's worth of preparation. "Can we not catch a break?"
The drones had returned in force, with greater numbers. Hundreds of them circled the building, their weapons lighting up in bright green, building power for a series of blasts that would no doubt leave the humans on the roof dead at the very least.
But suddenly, there was a chill in the air, accompanying that was a blue blur sliding in and out of sight in such brief flashes that Louise and Morse were almost sure that it was their minds playing tricks on them under the stress of the situation.
Then… all the drones dropped from the sky, some hitting the roof, others heading towards the streets below. The drones that hit the roof were white and shattered as if glass.
"I don't know about taking any breaks right now, it's not really the time for it, file for a vacation after I foil this invasion," Pat's familiar voice piped into Louise's ear, answering her question from a moment before. "Is his ship really a giant version of his head? I'm guessing he's from the 80s."
She turned with a smile a sigh of relief, even at the sight of his new outfit. Not that it was badly designed, in fact, it was so well designed that she couldn't keep a giggle escaping at the sight of the cape so brazenly added onto the back.
Louise wasn't sure whether it was from a sheet or a jumper or some mix of both. But it's patchworked nature contrasted against the rest of the suit.
"What?" Pat asked, raising above them before landing on the rooftop. He smiled, "Don't like the cape? Well, it was tough to add one on such short notice, let's see you do better in the five seconds it took to sweep my apartment." Pat then turned his head to look up at the head-shaped ship still pushing itself through the portal, at this point, it was halfway through. "So… any thoughts about how to close the massive gap? Because I'd rather New York without a bottle around it… you think Brainiac ever just taps the glass around the cities he's collected?"
"You, you're late," Murdock couldn't help but groan at the reporter's attempts at 'jokes' while rising back to his feet. "Next time, you go and collect the damn scientist, might have less alien invasions then."
"So that's a no on a plan from you?"
"Lugh, I can't even see the damn ship, never mind make a plan."
Author's Note: Okay, this arc is nearly done. You probably won't be seeing chapters of this large scale again. But you might see them if I continue the format here of like three space battles updates making a single chapter.
I had originally planned on Brainiac doing things a bit differently but when it was being written, I couldn't even take it to my beta reader. It was just... cringe... it was bad. Which probably says something about it if you are one of the readers of this story that hate-reads it.
Like 'If he doesn't think his work is already cringe, how bad must that version of the story be?' I'm not even sure if I kept the damn thing, to be honest. If I did I might pot it as a part of my Box of Story ideas. I should get to uploading those to this site.
Anyway, remember to review and check out my ko-fi account and spacebattles' account. There's more content just waiting for you guys to read from me over there.
