The TARDIS was silent. Everyone stood in shock, taking in this new revelation.
"What do you mean, 'Creator'?" Emily asked.
"I mean that I created every single one of you, all of you are characters in a story I wrote." Superfluffy responded.
"So our god?" Eli asked.
"Little g Eli," Superfluffy clarified, "and not really."
"Explain." The Doctor said.
"Look, ever since the incursion I've been in the same boat as you. I'm just as much of a refugee as you guys are. I managed to get you guys out of there before the two worlds crashed into each other but other than that I've been pretty much powerless here. I don't have power in any real sense. I used to know everything that was going on in the Multiverse, I knew every character and plot line. Now I'm lucky if I can connect with you guys."
"Wait a second," Chris said, "if this is What If's Multiverse, doesn't that mean he can track us?"
"No," Superfluffy said, "We aren't his characters. He has no link to us whatsoever. He can't see where we're going."
"Well there's a relief." Kyle said.
"So you orchestrated our deaths?" Garrett asked. Superfluffy was silent.
"Oh my god." Hunter said.
"Your a monster!" Alice said, using her magic to throw Superfluffy against the wall and pin him there. "You killed me and had Malkin use my body as a puppet!"
"I killed you, knowing you would come back." Superfluffy choked out. "I knew you would come back after the Crisis."
"Give me one good reason I shouldn't snap your neck right now?" Alice said cold as ice.
"Because if you kill me, What If Universe will track all of you down and kill you. If you die this time I can't bring you back! Die in this Multiverse it's for keeps." Alice relented and dropped Superfluffy. The Author gasped.
"So," Malkin said, "now that we're all on the same page, what's the plan?"
"There is one place we could go," Superfluffy said, "A place that What If Universe would only mention in very rare circumstances. And while I may not have control over much anymore. There are still a few pieces of Earth Prime-S left." Superfluffy stretched out his hands and suddenly the TARDIS roared to life, leavers pulling and dials turning. The engines roared and the time ship began ripping through space and time. The console began to spark and the ship began to shake.
"Don't destroy my ship!" The Doctor shouted as he held on to the railing.
"Just a little farther…." Superfluffy said before there was a massive boom and suddenly the engines began to calm down and the ride became much more smooth untill finally the time ship landed.
"Where are we?" Asked Eli.
"We're at the center of the Metaverse." Superfluffy answered, then he turned and he opened the TARDIS doors and stepped out. The others followed and suddenly they were standing infront of some type of castle. The looked around them and suddenly they could see an uncountable number of Multiverse floating around in the cosmos surrounding the castle.
"This is beautiful." Emily said.
"So what exactly is here?" Chris asked.
"I'm not sure," Superfluffy said, "but What If thought it was important enough to keep it a secret." Supperfluffy looked at the gates of the castle, "Is this what you guys feel everytime you guys were about to do a mission?"
"Pretty much." Everyone said.
"I kind of like it." Superfluffy said as he turned back to the others. "Let's go."
The group entered the front gates and found it empty. They searched the castle grounds until they heard the ominous and dominant tick of a grandfather clock. They followed the sound until they came across a parlor of sorts. They saw slightly opened doors with books scattered across the floor. From inside the parlor came a voice.
"This is bad, this is really really bad!" The voice was frightened. "If this keeps up the whole of the Metaverse will be under threat." Emily decided she had heard enough and kicked the door open herself. Suddenly the warriors were greeted to the sight of a wild eye'd old man jumping out of his chair in fear.
"Oh good god!" he screamed. "Please don't hurt me!"
"Who are you?" everyone seemed to ask in synchronicity.
"Don't hurt me!" he shouted again.
"We won't hurt you if you just tell us who you are." Eli said. The man managed to eventually get a hold of himself.
"I'm sorry," The man threw on more apologies as the grandfather clock continued to tick in the corner, "allow me to introduce myself." the man said as he nervously played with his hands. "My name is Francis Fiction, and I am the Master of the Metaverse."
"Francis Fiction?" Garrett said to himself, "Hang on, that sounds alot like-"
"Nevermind that," Superfluffy said as he stepped forward, "What do you know about-"
"Ah, Superfluffy1022, you joined December 21, 2019. Your last update was August 16, 2021. I think you really need to pick the pace up."
"What is he talking about?" Noah whispered to Chris.
"I have absolutely no idea." Chris responded.
"Don't give me that crap Francis," Superfluffy said, "How come What If didn't tell me where you were! And why on god's green earth is he trying to kill me?"
"Because I told him to." Francis said with a sigh. "Look, the Metaverse is a very delicate thing, and your existence is causing problems. Problems that I can't hope to contain forever." The man spoke with frantic hand gestures and his gray hair flopped about wildly.
"So this is the guy we need to kill?" Hunter said as his eyes began to crackle with lightning.
"I wouldn't do that." What If Universe said as he emerged from around the corner. "If you kill him the entire Metaverse spirals out of control. We don't know what the consequences would be from that."
"I kinda want to find out." Malkin said.
"Now wait a second guys," Emily said, "let's try and think a little bit before anyone does anything rash." one by oneTVA gates opened up and guards began to come out.
"This either ends with me killing Francis and making sure no one controls me ever again, or us all dying." Malkin said, "which do you prefer?"
"Prune them." What If said, the guards readied their weaponry and began to get into position. Superfluffy turned to What If Universe.
"Let's end this." Superfluffy said, his hands glowing with blue energy.
"Gladly." What If Universe said while orange lightning began circulating his finger tips. Superfluffy blasted an energy beam at What If, the other Author deflected the blast with a bolt of orange energy. What If's orange energy formed into what appeared to be a battle ax, he swung it at Superfluffy but his counterpart blocked it with his own beam of energy. Superfluffy began to harness his energy in a show of force he hadn't done in a long time. The Author seemed to blast forward at What If and he wrapped his arms around him. The two were flying through mid air when what appeared as what would be seen when you shatter a pane of glass appeared in front of them. When the two fell through the broken glass they teleported somewhere else in the metaverse, away from the Warriors, TVA agents, and Francis. Fighting between the Warriors and TVA agents broke out as soon as the two Authors were gone. It seemed that the Warriors had two main goals, take out the Agents while also keeping Malkin and company from taking out Francis Fiction. Malkin motioned her hands to send a bolt of energy at Francis, but Alice sent her flying across the room. Eli's Iron suit activated and he began flying around, blasting TVA agents, Hunter went to use his ability to become lighting to take out Francis but Kyle immediately began chasing him to keep him from doing so, Chris was taking out agents with spells while Noah was opening fire on his enemies with the variety of weapons his suit had in it's arsenal, and Emily and Garrett took to trying to subdue the mutated Peter-417, who was assaulting anything and everything around him with his new fleshy spider like appendages. As the Warriors did their best to contain Malkin's gang as well as mop up the TVA agents, the Doctor ran across the room and managed to grab Francis by the collar.
"What are you so afraid of that you would try to get my friends killed?" The Doctor asked.
"You of all people should understand." Francis said, gesturing to the metaverse outside the large window behind him. "If you and your friends stick around you will be breaking down the walls between the Multiverses. If the walls are totally destroyed it would wreak total havoc on the whole of creation!"
"Surely there's another way," The Doctor said as he shook the man.
"Doctor, I've done the calculations. This is the only way." Francis said, "Either you and your friends die, or your Multiverse does."
What If and Superfluffy were in the battle of their lives, blasting each other from universe to universe. Wrecking nearly everything wake before finding themselves in front of the Lincoln memorial on Earth-W616.
"We were supposed to be allies!" Superfluffy shouted as he blasted an energy beam at What If.
"Look," What If said as he deflected the blast and sent it flying off to blast the top of the Washington Monument off, "I didn't want to do this. But if you guys stay here things are going to get really bad." What If swung what amounted to an energy saber at Superfluffy, who blocked it with one of his own.
"Who says we can't handle it?" Superfluffy said.
"Francis." What If said.
"Francis is a neurotic windbag." Superfluffy said as he knocked the saber out of What If's hand. He put his blade up to his kneck. "I swear on the life of myself and my creations that we will do everything in our power to help you stop whatever threat is coming. Whatever it is we can do it together." Superfluffy outstretched his hand. What If hesitated for a moment, thinking it over in his head. "Look," Superfluffy said, "at least let us try and talk things out." What If looked at Superfluffy's hand and after a few excruciatingly long seconds. He shook it. Superfluffy put down the energy saber and opened a portal back to the castle at the center of the Metaverse.
"Let's work this out." What If said as the two went back to the others.
Castle at the Center of the Metaverse
The fighting was crescendoing into its climactic finale. Alice and Malkin were using every ounce of their magic to take out the other while Kyle and Hunter were battling at sonic speeds, Eli, Chris, and Noah managed to take out the last of the TVA agents, and Emily and Garrett managed to finally subdue Peter-417. The fighting was suddenly interrupted when they heard the voice of What If and Superfluffy call out, "Ceasefire!" The two Authors appeared in their midst.
"We've agreed to a ceasefire." What If said, waving for everyone to calm down.
"Why should we trust you? You just tried to kill us!" Eli shouted.
"Look," Superfluffy said, "we're just trying to talk things out. We have to figure out a solution to all of this. So let's just take a second and calm down." Everyone seemed to relax a little bit, letting the guard down.
"Yeah," Malkin said as she began to relax herself, "maybe you're right. Maybe we should just talk this out." the room let out a silent sigh of relief and What If made a motion for everyone to sit at Francis' desk. "Then again…" Malkin said. Everyone turned and before they could react. Malkin fired a blast of energy at Francis. The blast seemed to fly through the air in slow motion before striking the Master of the Metaverse square in the chest and sending him flying across the floor dead on the spot. Everyone stood in pure shock. Malkin just smirked.
"What have you done?!" What If shouted.
"Liberated us." Malkin said.
"You fool!" What If shouted, "Do you not realize that without Francis everything-" his words were interrupted by the chime of the grandfather clock. The sound seemed to come from everywhere all at once. As if every molecule was chiming along with it.
"Dear god." Superfluffy said as the chimes suddenly end.
"What does that mean?" Chris asked. Suddenly the ground began to shake as if there were an earthquake. Everyone struggled to stay on their feet as a crack opened up in the ground where Francis had died. The crack streamed a blinding white light and it began to stretch out and grow. Stretching toward the vast Metaverse outside the window that shattered when the crack reached it. The crack seemed to exist separately from the ground and continue out into the Metaverse.
"That's not just any crack!" The Doctor cried, "That's a crack in reality!"
"Look!" Emily cried as she pointed off toward another quadrant of the Metaverse. The group looked and spotted as another crack was stretching out moving in a westward direction. The crack stopped for nothing, some time running into Multiverse's. The larger ones were shattered in half, but the smaller ones were destroyed entirely. The group noticed another coming from an opposite direction, and another coming from towards them from afar part of the Metaverse.
Earth-S
"Sir," Fitz shouted from his monitor in the Cortex as he and the other members of SHIELD struggled to keep themselves upright as everything shook around them, "the earth is shaking but not a single fault line has gone off." Daisy winced in pain.
"Everything is shaking, I can feel it all." She said as she doubled over, "This is nothing like I've ever felt before."
Earth Prime-W
Peter Parker-Snow held his children tight as the world shook around them.
Earth-W2
Peter and Courtney watched as Bluefield Highschool rocked around them. Completely confused as to what was going on.
Earth-W616
Agents were scrambling trying to figure out what was going on. But strangely Peter Parker-Coulson wasn't amongst them. He was in his office, on the ground with a massive headache. Like nothing he had experienced in his life.
The Dark Multiverse
The sky opened up in a brilliant white light as the maniacal laughter of a being driven by insanity and power understands what's being done.
"Yes! Thank you Warriors, thank you so much!" Bill Cypher said.
Castle at the Center of the Metaverse
The group watches as the cracks in reality begin to near an intersection, Malkin takes notice and uses her magic to teleport Hunter, Peter-417, and herself away. The cracks intersect, there was a moment before the light of the cracks began to fluctuate.
"Imbalance detected," A deep almost robotic voice boomed, "Metaversal rebalance, engaged.". Suddenly there was a blinding explosion at the intersection and its shockwave began spreading throughout the Metaverse.
"Hold on!" What If Universe shouted as he jumped in front of the group and formed a massive barrier in front of them. The impact of the shockwave shattered the barrier however and everyone was washed in blinding light. And almost as quickly as it washed over them. The light faded into pitch black darkness.
Center of the Web of Reality
Eli, Emily, Chris, Kyle, Garrett, Noah, and Alice all awoke back on the couch with a sudden jolt.
"Oh my god!" Alice shouted as if awaking from a nightmare and accidentally threw a table across the room.
"Please tell me I wasn't the only one dreaming about the TVA?" Chris asked, everyone made it clear all at once that they had all experienced the same thing.
"So I guess it wasn't a dream." Eli said, before suddenly the lights flickered and the ground shook violently for a moment before quickly ending.
"I guess not." Emily said.
"So what just happened?" Kyle asked.
"We aren't sure." Superfluffy said, appearing right behind Chris, causing him to shriek like a young girl. Emily and Noah made time to laugh at Chris' display.
"You cannot sneak up on people like that!" Chris scolded.
"Whatever happened is over," Superfluffy said, ignoring Chris, "What If and I are going to try and figure out the implications of Francis' death and what the 'Metaversal Rebalance' entails."
"So what about us?" Noah asked.
"For the time being you will go on with life as if nothing happened." Superfluffy said, "You will not speak of this to anyone. If we need you, we'll find you guys. Do not come looking for us. Understand!"
"Loud and clear." Eli said.
"Good." Superfluffy said, "you guys take care now." He turned and walked out of the room. The strange thing was, the moment he was out of their line of sight. None of them could remember his name, they remember him as a person and his awesome power. But they couldn't remember who he was. No matter how hard they racked their brains. The name escaped them.
TVA HQ
Superfluffy teleported back to the TVA main headquarters only to find it in ruins. Many of the monitors were shattered, small fires burned here and there and stray wires hung from the ceiling. Superfluffy spotted What If messing with the big central monitor. It sparked to life and the first words that came across the screen read "Multiversal growth: Exponential." they kept flashing n massive red text.
"What happened to this place?" Superfluffy asked.
"The rebalance seemed to hit this place especially hard." What If said as he dusted off a tablet.
"Are you not at all worried about the ominous red letters?" Superfluffy asked.
"I'm the author. I control this Multiverse. I can control this." What If said before the text on the screen gave way to Universe Counter. The number was going up at unprecedented levels. Moving so fast that it couldn't even be read. What If was just staring at the tablet, his eyes wide with shock.
"Buddy," Superfluffy said as he pointed before What If finally turned and acknowledged the screen. "I don't think we're in control anymore."
"And it gets worse." What If said as he handed the tablet over to Superfluffy. "It seems another gateway to the Dark Multiverse has opened up. This time on Earth-616."
"Do we know where on Earth-616?" Superfluffy said, alarmed.
"That's the problem," What If said, "the gateway isn't at any particular place. The gate is inside a person." he walked over and swiped the screen to reveal a picture of Director Peter Parker-Coulson.
"Oh my God." Superfluffy said.
"I didn't write this fluffy," What If said a little nervously, "this is all out of our hands now."
"You're right," Superfluffy said as he looked at the picture of Director Parker, "It's in theirs."
?
Malkin stepped through the rubble of an old and abandoned tower on an unknown world as she was followed by Hunter and Peter-417.
"What is this place?" Hunter asked as he stepped over some shards of ice.
"An old friend of mine used to use this as his base of operations. It isn't entirely what it once was but it will do for now." Malkin said as she rolled up the sleeves of her coat and the sunlight began to bleed into the room from a massive hole in the wall. Hunter turned and looked at the sunrise.
"It's been so long since I've seen the sunrise."
"It's been thirteen years for us." Malkin said as she stood beside him, "I spent thirteen in that black pit of hell. Suddenly I was approached by a man who told me that he would offer me a second chance at life if I would do what he asked." Malkin turned and gestured to the ice shards on the ground, "He's gone now." Malkin turned back to Hunter, "Tell me, how does it feel to see me like this. Still in the former body of my granddaughter?"
"I owe you my life," Hunter said, "it's just that-"
"To be fair I apologize for SHIELD using you as a power source, I brought you back to the wrong point in time." Malkin said, "I've been a new lease on life, it wasn't just circumstance, it was all in good time. I figured I should extend the kindness the Metaverse bestowed upon me to someone else."
"So why did you choose me?" Hunter asked.
"You've seen the Warriors for what they truly are, a band of fumbling hypocrites who speak of high ideals and always fall short. You know what they do to people who aren't 'essential to the team.' You and I can show the Multiverse that true heroes are willing to sacrifice some for the good of the few. Once again there is a crisis coming that will change everything. We can prepare for what has to be done."
"But you're the bad guy." Hunter said as some of his old self trying to over take whatever Malkin had turned him into.
"Oh am I the bad guy? I'll be the bad guy again. It'll be just like last time and we all know how that went. The Multiverse was destroyed because of those 'Warriors'!" Malkin said frustratedly, "Look, you can go back to the people directly responsible for the Crisis on Infinite Earths and who turned their back on you, or you could come with me and do what has to be done, I'll never leave you to die. I've had that done to me too many times to let it happen to anyone else." Hunter looked her in the eyes and thought for a moment. And it was in that moment, as he looked into the eyes of the only person who had helped, the only person who brought him back, that the Hunter of Multiverse-S died. Whatever was brought back from the void wasn't Hunter, he was someone else now. Hunter looked at the trident in his hand for a moment before he threw it out the massive hole in the wall. He turned back to Malkin.
"When the light finally pierced the devouring darkness in the void," Hunter said, "You were the first thing I saw, and you were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. That's what I think about seeing you like this."
"Welcome to the wonderful world chaos," Malkin said as she smiled and leaned against the stone wall as she looked outward, "We have a lot of work to do if we're going to get this place up and running again, but for now, lets just sit here and watch the sunrise." Hunter turned and looked toward the rising sun.
"What's this place called anyways?" he asked.
"Battleworld." Malkin said, "and it's going to be key to our survival."
Malkin will return
Hey guys, this is me, Superfluffy1022. I'm incredibly sorry for such a long hiatus. and I regret to inform this will be my last official update to any stories. While not published till 2020, I've been working with this world four the last 5 years. I have grown more than burnout with writing fanfiction. But, I hate to leave this story unfinished. Which is why I will be continuing to provide creative support to my friend over at What If Universe. All of my characters and stories will be continued over on his account. This includes both the Warriors and Heroes of S.H.I.E.L.D.. What If has already started releasing chapters of Season 2 of Heroes of SHIELD. Thank you so much for all the support you guys have shown this strange little fanfiction and these characters. It amazes me everytime I think about the fact that there are people who have actually read every single one of these incredibly sub-par this isn't thend of the Warriors of the Multiverse, stick around and get ready because...
Secret Wars 2
Coming soon...