Chapter 6 - An Amazing Fantasy, Part 1

The air was tense as the quintet of Ms. Fantastic (currently 'flamed on'), Yellowjacket, Iron Maiden, Ms. Marvel, and Doc Samson (the latter being carried by the former two) flew towards the approaching metallic sphere that was Galactus's ship. Though they didn't show it, they were awed by the sight of the craft, with more than a few comparisons to the Death Star being brought to mind.

"You receiving S.W.O.R.D.'s analysis okay?" Hitomi asked Mana.

"Getting it loud and clear," the armored teenager answered as S.I.D. helped filter the data. "Energy readings coming from the ship are, as figured, astronomical. Other than that...no visible entrances so far."

"However we get in, we'll need to be extremely careful not to draw Galactus's attention," Maya warned.

Aoi wasn't listening entirely, as her thoughts drifted to earlier in the day, just before she and the others began planning their strategy against Galactus and the heralds.

Aoi's apartment, a few hours ago...

Aoi had come back to the apartment to check in with its other occupant: her girlfriend of several months, one Rika Deshima. How they met was one of the many astonishing things that had happened to Aoi ever since she and her two fellow NERV techs had received the legacy of Dr. Henry Pym and embarked on the path of size-changing superheroes. Rika had originally been a thief and con artist hired by an upper-level SEELE flunky named Darren Cross, tasked with acquiring the Pym Particle tech suspected to have been given to Aoi and company. Rika had ingratiated herself into the trio's lives carefully, charming Aoi in particular, to the point where they began dating. In spite of the job she'd been hired for, Rika genuinely fell for her mark, and when the trio got in deeper to uncover the truth of NERV and SEELE, Rika's conscience won out and she confessed everything, effectively 'defecting' to their side. Once SEELE had been thwarted, and after giving her own testimony regarding Cross's involvement with the organization, the reformed Rika moved in with Aoi. While at first furious over what Rika had been and done, she proved to be forgiving of the woman she'd come to love when Rika actively worked with them against her former employer.

"You okay?" Rika asked.

Aoi shook her head. "Not really. I'm admittedly nervous-compared to the Angels and even Cross's hired killers, Galactus outclasses them by light years." A determined expression then graced her features. "But I'll need to get over it if I'm going to ensure you and the entire world escape being his next meal." She put a hand on Rika's shoulder, giving it a mild squeeze. "Don't dawdle on your way to the shelter. Please."

Rika took Aoi's hand in her own two. "Hey, I may be an ex-thief, but I'm not the kind that takes advantage during a disaster, natural or otherwise. Just promise, in turn, that you'll come back to me once you've put this guy on a diet."

Smiling a tiny bit at her love's attempt at lightening the mood, Aoi leaned forward and the two shared a brief but passionate kiss for luck. With that, Aoi shrank and flew off in the direction of HQ while Rika started on her way to the shelter.

The present...

"Aoi? You there?" Maya asked, waving an outstretched hand in front of Aoi's face.

Snapping back to reality, Aoi shook her head as she addressed her teammate. "Sorry, what'd I miss?"

"We were trying to come up with a means of breaking into Galactus's ship," Mana replied, "and we'd just figured something. Your Pym Particles can shrink anything, right?"

Aoi nodded, before charging up one of her wrist launchers. "I think I see what you're getting at. Give me some room." She then aimed her left arm at a panel underneath the massive ship, and fired off a mini-disk that attached itself to the panel. Once done, the particles within were activated and proceeded to shrink the molecules making up that portion of the panel, creating a hole large enough for all five to enter the ship.

The site of the former Tokyo Tower, around the same time...

The area surrounding the ruined Japanese landmark had become a staging ground for Galactus's preparations, as one of his towers had been constructing itself around the fallen metal edifice itself. It was a sight that greeted the approaching superwomen and their allies, with the first to arrive being Ghost Rider, speeding in on her hellcycle, carrying Captain America as her passenger. Silver Surfer, Spirit, and War Machine joined them as they descended from their flight, while Cap's mini-jet the American Dream (on auto-pilot) dropped off She-Hulk, Spider-Woman, and the Executioner. The group advanced upon the herald overseeing the construction as Terrax floated on a large, stone platform.

Terrax himself was a fearsome sight up-close: he was easily an inch or two taller than Skurge, though possessed a similar build to the Asgardian warrior. A dark, cobalt-colored 'beard' of some unknown stone framed his face, and he wore a blue and red tunic with shoulder pads that flared outward, a long loin guard that draped in front, and a gold belt that encircled his waist. On his lower arms and legs were, respectively, metallic gauntlets and boots, both also red. Held in his right hand, his axe was large, and had a head in a curved reverse 'L' shape pointing upwards. Terrax eyed the newcomers with a fittingly stony expression as he spoke:

"I am Terrax-herald to the mighty devourer. Prepare for your world's end, for Galactus hungers, and my master will not be denied."

Misato, undeterred by the herald's words, replied back accordingly. "Sorry, but we're gonna have to take a hard pass on that. Tell your master the buffet's closed, so he should leave before we make him leave."

Terrax did not appear to be impressed by the jade giantess's bold statements. "Do you speak for your world, creature?"

Rei fielded the herald's question. "We speak for ourselves," she said determinedly, as she and Hikari hovered while their fists glowed with charging energy, joined by War Machine as he charged his own weapons up. "You, your fellow heralds, and your master are trespassing on this planet. We will not tell you again-leave Earth, and this system, at once."

"In other words," Asuka chimed in as she unsheathed her chainsaw-sword, the fire surrounding her skeletal visage intensifying, "beat it, Rocky, before we turn you into a talking quarry!"

As Terrax began to raise his axe, Spirit struck first as she fired a cross blast at the platform he'd been hovering on, shattering it into pebbles and causing the herald to fall to the ground. The others jumped out of the way just before he made impact, and once the dust settled, Terrax was given no room to breathe while he got up, as Spider-Woman landed on his back, causing him to stagger about in an attempt to get her off. The webslinger wasted no time as she quickly shot a web burst right at Terrax's face, blinding him for the moment.

"Cap, now!" she shouted as she jumped and somersaulted backwards, away from Terrax. Just as the herald peeled the webbing off his face, Captain America's shield hit him square in the chest, sending him stumbling a few steps back. He recovered just as the shield returned to Cap's arm, as she and the other grounded fighters readied themselves for another assault.

"War Machine, go for the tower! Bring it down!" Cap ordered. The humanoid flying arsenal did just that as he speeded towards the tower, firing off a full salvo. Before any of it could even reach the structure, Terrax's eyes glowed as he manipulated the debris in the area to levitate and intercept the ammo successfully. He then sent some of the debris flying at War Machine, knocking him out of the air, only for him to be caught by She-Hulk. While that was going on, Skurge ran towards Terrax, swinging his axe towards the stone herald, only to be met with Terrax's own weapon, causing the blades to clash as sparks flew from the meeting of the two powerful implements of war. Both axe-wielders refused to give, seemingly evenly-matched, until Terrax stomped the ground beneath them, jostling Skurge enough for him to be knocked back by a blow from Terrax's fist.

Spirit and Silver Surfer took their turns at the herald as they each fired off energy beams aimed at him. Terrax responded in kind by using the side of his axe's head to reflect the beams back, causing the two to scatter to avoid them. It was then that Ghost Rider jumped into the fray as she swung her fiery chainsaw-sword down at Terrax's face, only for the herald to bring his axe head up to block. The Spirit of Vengeance pressed down harder as she attempted to sunder the axe head, until Terrax flung her back a ways, causing her to slam into a destroyed wall. As the dust settled around the point of impact, Ghost Rider picked herself up from the rubble, a look of literal burning fury in her eyes.

"Oh, it's on, arschloch," she said with a very ominous tone as she raised her sword. "It's ON!"

The volcano tower site, around the same time...

A rifle scope captured in its red-tinted lens the sight of Firelord, hovering with his back to the viewer as he stood guard over the tower.

"An incredible Cinderella story-" the weapon's wielder, Deadpool, began to mutter. "This unknown comes outta nowhere, to lead the pack at Augusta. He's on his final hole..."

"Will you just take the shot already?" Domino quietly demanded, her thumb just a couple of inches from the DSS choker's detonator that she'd been given by Spider-Woman, before they left for their mission. She had her own scope trained on Firelord as well, but 'suggested' that Deadpool take the first shot at the herald to better gauge what their team was up against.

"Pfff. Killjoy," Deadpool grumbled. "Taking the fun out of quoting such an iconic movie..." With that, he fired off two shots that hit Firelord in the head and below the chest. To the surprise of both mercenaries, the shots went right through Firelord, briefly disrupting the herald's structural integrity, but not in a harmful way. Firelord turned in the direction of the two shooters, with a look that could be perceived as annoyed.

"Annnd...we're made," Deadpool stated.

"Obviously," Domino concurred sarcastically with a roll of her eyes. "That's your cue, folks!"

On hearing this, Red She-Hulk was the first to jump into the fray towards Firelord, followed by Storm and Quasar flying behind and Stature stepping over a ridge at giant-size. Firelord immediately began spinning his staff, from there shooting off a volley of fireballs at his attackers. Red She-Hulk deflected some with her fists, while Quasar used an energy field on her side and Storm conjured up some rain and wind to disrupt the rest. Ceasing his fireball assault, Firelord then proceeded to manipulate some lava from beneath him into a stream directed towards Red She-Hulk. Ruby, for all her ability to absorb heat, knew she couldn't take something at that scale, so she leaped out of the way while Quasar then channeled her energy into a funnel construct to get the lava flowing in a different direction. Meanwhile, Stature tried to make a pass for the tower, only for Firelord to send another fireball volley her way and forcing her to back off. Seeing this, Storm spun her Raijin Yari spear as she summoned some sleet and aimed it at Firelord, diverting the herald's attention as he burned the sleet in his path. Firelord proved to be a multitasker as he still managed to keep Stature away from her goal, leaving Quasar to try and keep some of the heat off her.

As those four kept Firelord occupied, Deadpool and Domino busied themselves, with the former assembling their heavy weapons while Domino focused some specialized scanning equipment that transmitted its findings all the way back to NERV HQ. "You guys getting the scans?" she asked into her long-range comms.

NERV HQ, the bridge...

"All good on our end," Shigeru answered. "Coming in crystal-clear."

"The data you're sending us matches what we're getting from the other herald battles," Fitz added. Scanning equipment similar to what Domino was using was also found on the American Dream at the Terrax battle, while probes full of the gear had accompanied those who went to face Air-Walker and Stardust.

"Conclusion?" Yui asked, already forming a hypothesis based on what she'd parsed so far.

"The heralds are all energy constructs, possibly created by Galactus himself," Simmons answered, "each powered by a small orb resembling an Angel's core."

"Then that means..." an astonished Yui began to say.

The Asian Steppes...

"Defeating them will be just like taking down Angels," Thunderstrike finished as she diverted a small cyclone 'spear' thrown at her, "only we don't need to hold back at all!"

"That certainly explains why my usual charm spells haven't worked on Air-Walker," Enchantress added as she threw a ball of mystic energy towards the herald in question, her efforts joined by Photon firing off some bursts of super-dense light. In the background, Darkhawk and Rescue planted some powerful explosive devices on the tower and set the timers, before zooming off to help the others.

The Indian Ocean...

"Heard it here first, people-let 'em have it!" Dazzler relayed as she fired off a light blast channeled through her guitar, joined by Wasp with her bio-sting blasts and Dragon Man unleashing great swaths of flame from his mouth.

The biomechanical creature, in particular, paused his stream of fire to remark, "Ironic to find myself, a human-sized 'fire-breathing dragon', facing the water herald, is it not?"

"Save the commentary for later, more drying Stardust up!" Wasp shouted.

In-between firing on Stardust, the heroes had to keep dodging the water spouts the herald sent at them, which wasn't easy given how they were surrounded by an entire ocean. Kyouya and Hawkeye, riding a 'sky-cycle' piloted by the latter, were on demolition duty, which was proving hard to pull off due to Stardust's aquatic field advantage.

Suddenly, one of the water spouts managed to knock Wasp out of the air, and Kaede landed on the ground in front of the tower. Shaking herself to get her bearings, a look of fear then appeared on her face as she saw Stardust weaving a rather large column of water about themselves. Just as Stardust was going to slam the column onto Wasp, a battle cry was heard that took both combatants by surprise.

"IMPERIOUS REX!"

Stardust soon found themselves tackled to the side by an unknown assailant, causing the column of water to lose cohesion and giving Wasp enough time to fly out of the way of the sudden deluge. When she turned around and got a look at her unexpected rescuer, she couldn't believe her eyes.

Staring down Stardust was a dark-skinned girl with shoulder-length, violet-colored hair, held in place by a couple of small white clips. Golden hoop earrings hung from her lobes, and a golden, three-ring choker was around her neck. The girl was wearing what looked like a shiny, almost-scaly green one-piece swimsuit with lighter green highlights and a small seashell near the navel portion, and held in her hands in a fighting stance was a golden trident of a peculiar design. A determined, battle-hardened expression was on the girl's face, as she then leaped towards Stardust to renew the clashing of their respective spears...

To be continued...

**Author's Note(s)**

NOW the action kicks into high gear, as we not only see our heroes strike against the heralds, but a new face joins the battle! If you can guess who this is, then you'll note that she marks our fourth non-EVA-yet-still-Gainax guest star in this story. As for our Marvel lore annotations for today:

-Rika is a "Nippon-ized" take on Rita DeMara, the second person to don the Yellowjacket identity, who debuted in 1986's The Avengers #264 by Roger Stern and John Buscema. She originally started out as a criminal who stole and modified one of Hank Pym's outfits, and wound up reluctantly helping Baron Helmut Zemo's version of the Masters of Evil take over Avengers Mansion in the classic story arc "Under Siege!". She would help various heroes during the 1988 "Evolutionary War" story before being roped into joining first Superia's Femizons and then Doctor Octopus's Masters of Evil during the 1992 "Infinity War" event. Desiring to truly reform, Rita, at event's end, wound up joining the Guardians of the Galaxy in the 31st century for a time, before returning to the present only to be killed off in the much-loathed 1995 Avengers event "The Crossing". (Thankfully, Rika won't be the victim of a Kang-brainwashed Iron Maiden, nosiree.)

-Darren Cross debuted in 1979's Marvel Premiere #47 by John Byrne and David Michelinie, as the main antagonist of the storyline that introduced Scott Lang, the second Ant-Man. For those of you who are Marvel Cinematic Universe fans, Cross wouldn't become the villainous version of Yellowjacket until 2016's The Astonishing Ant-Man #12 by Nick Spencer and Brent Schoonover. His brother William, an ex-CIA operative turned criminal mercenary, is better known by the alias Crossfire, a frequent foe of Hawkeye's.

-It's only now occurred to me that the title of my story actually references two Avengers cartoon series: the short-lived The Avengers: United They Stand from 1999, and the more successful 2010 show The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

Now then, a little fun to tide you over until next time.

OMAKE 2 - Unexpected Video Game Mechanics FTW!

Spirit and Silver Surfer took their turns at the herald as they each fired off energy beams aimed at him. Terrax responded in kind by using the side of his axe's head to reflect the beams back, causing the two to scatter to avoid them. It was then that Ghost Rider jumped into the fray as she swung her fiery chainsaw-sword down at Terrax's face, only for the herald to bring his axe head up to block. The Spirit of Vengeance pressed down harder as she attempted to sunder the axe head, until finally...the sword's blade cleaved the axe head in two, much to the shock of both Terrax and the other heroes seeing this.

"But-but HOW?!" a flabbergasted Terrax asked.

Asuka, a skeletal smug grin on her face, pointed a mocking finger at the stony herald. "HA! Swords beat axes! Fire Emblem weapons triangle's a real bitch, isn't it?"

Terrax, not amused in the least, looked at the shaft that was once his axe, glared at Ghost Rider, and then proceeded to unceremoniously *bonk* her on the head with it, knocking the Spirit of Vengeance out as she then began seeing stars and tweeting birds.

Hikari and Rei, watching this, both sweat-dropped. The latter, herself quite familiar with the long-running tactical RPG videogame franchise, sighed resignedly.

"Then again," she began to say. "Lances beat swords."