[Planet C-207, Nova Empire Training Planet]
"Who has summoned me?"
My dragon form- in all its massive gleaming Hevnokrenite glory- stomped onto the war-torn battlefield of the cratered city. Behind me were the assembled groundside raiding parties of Sakaar- looking up at me in awe and reverence. And in front of me…
"Ah, now that is a sight that never gets old."
… the horrified faces of the Nova Empire ground forces blanched as they peered out of their tanks and ships to look at the almost stadium-sized dragon that had appeared out of nowhere. They knew full well how utterly screwed they were now that I had been summoned. It wasn't the first time that I've been summoned nor would it be the last. And it was good to see that my enemies trembled in fear at the sight of me. They were quick to grasp the mechanics of my summoning too.
After all, the concept of Summoning Magic in videogames was simple: You use magic to conjure forth an immensely powerful being to lay waste to your enemies.
Such beings almost always make a flashy entrance, perform equally flashy attacks, then leave until the next time they're summoned. There were naturally some variations to it: Sometimes the summons were weaker than the summoner and acted more as cannon fodder than anything else. But the idea of a big, powerful and flashy summons was always a beloved classic, and that had given me an idea just a day or two ago.
What if I was that big, powerful and flashy summons? And thus, the 'spell' [Summon Hevnokren] was made!
"O' Mighty Hevnokren!" An insectoid Sakaarian raider with a Hevnokrenite Amulet chittered- bowing its head low to the ground, "We, your proud Chosen, have summoned thee to this great battlefield. Thy enemies have been gathered in great number for thee to bring to ruin!"
"I can see that."
Entire battalions of the Nova Corps seemed to have been gathered to this battlefield. Armoured Divisions with their heavy tanks rolled on their treads across green pastures, infantry divisions swarmed the ruins of the city, and their air wings- armed to the teeth with bombs and missiles- darted overhead in the blue sky. But against a dragon so massive that their largest tanks were like toys on its gargantuan metal palm? Razor-sharp claws as large as columns? Even they knew that their combined arms wasn't going to be enough.
"It's the dragon Hevnokren!" My enhanced hearing heard them cry out in fear, followed by the desperate shout of "O-OPEN FIRE!"
A furious lightshow of superheated yellow beams exploded from the Nova Empire energy weapons that ranged from shoulder-carried rifles all the way to the cannons mounted on tanks. A single beam would have melted concrete and steel into slag with a single hit, and there were thousands currently scorching the air… and I merely laughed them all off. My personal armour of Hevnokrenite could withstand Klee's Super Jumpy Dumpty nukes at ground zero, what more can my metre-thick dragonhide of Hevnokrenite?
"A fine welcome for me! Let me return the greeting in kind!"
"FO KRAH DIIN!"
(Frost, Cold, Freeze)
And from my massive draconic maw, a blizzard came forth- colder than what should have been possible with Newtonian physics. Swathes of Nova Empire soldiers froze to death as their blood freezed solid inside their arteries. Their jets fell from the sky like hail as their thrusters clogged with magically-conjured ice. Their tanks skidded to a halt as the brutal chill entombed their crews in solid ice. The warm spring afternoon of the continent we were on went back to deep winter once again with the temperature plunging to the negatives, and the battlefield fell silent as the snow began to fall.
And just like that, the immediate battle was won.
There were still some more fighting to be won however: The supercharged-version of the Skyrim spell [Detect Life] enchanted into my Hevnokrenite Dragon scales told me that there were still enemy companies scattered about the continent. But I'm certain that the Sakaarian groundside raiding parties can handle them though. Just your ordinary mopping up of enemy forces.
It was time to loot and plunder, however...
"My control over my Shouts needs a bit more work."
The war-torn city stretching out in front of me was- despite my best efforts to control the Shout- partially frozen as well. And that included thousands of civilians that we could have been made into profitable slaves. But fortunately, there were always more people to enslave on this planet of about 1.2 billion. However, I'll let the Sakaarian raiding parties handle that. After all, my Summon session only lasts a short amount of time before I go back to Sakaar.
== ] C [ ==
Time remaining off Sakaar before mission failure:
10 HOURS, 31 MINUTES, 57 SECONDS.
== ] C [ ==
Three minutes.
I will only operate off Sakaar three minutes for each planet, and only when I was truly needed. But that had an unintended side-effect where somehow…
"O' Dragon God of Conquest!" My insectoid Sakaarian 'summoner' shouted in deference as he bowed so low that his chitinous forehead sank into the fresh white snow, "Glory to thy bride of invention, Johanna! Blessed be thy child of detonation, Klee! We thank thee from the bottom of our squeedlyspooches for answering this lowly ones' prayers. Praise Hevnokren, Dragon God of Sakaar!"
… the Sakaarians had interpreted my handing out amulets as me wanting to start my own cult. And I'll be honest, even I was kind of weirded out by it.
The worship was fine, but the strange titles for Johanna and Klee that the Sakaarians had thought up all on their own were remarkably odd. I've even seen little idols of my dragon form, Johanna and Klee circulating around Sakaar and being worshipped by the masses- it was odd all around. Regardless, he summoned me. I answered his call. And I have judged that it was actually a very effective use of my time, so…
"That was a worthy summon. You have earned a silver of my favour…"
I channelled the tiniest fraction of my power into the Sakaarian- magically enhancing his body and mind to make him a faster, stronger and smarter (subjectively) bugman. Now, even without the Hevnokrenite Amulet, he would be faster, stronger and tougher than a normal Sakaarian. A fitting reward to encourage effective raiding and pillaging amongst the troops. And his fellow raiders could only look on in awe as the summoner glowed the colours of the Infinity Stones before coming out slightly taller and slightly more muscular.
"PRAISE THE DRAGON GOD!" he chittered- raising his spindly insectoid limbs high in the air, "I am blessed in Might and in Right!"
There were about a few thousand or so Sakaarian raiders currently in attendance. And it came as a surprise to me at how many of them shared the summoner's sentiments- a good thousand raiders immediately prostrated themselves into the snow before me. And the other few thousand raiders- upon seeing that other people were doing it- decided to err on the side of caution and fell to their knees as well. Their shouts of exultation echoing through the battlefield.
"Praise the Dragon God!" "Might makes Right!" "All Praise Hevnokren!" "Praise the Bride of Invention and the Child of Detonation!" "Hail Johanna! Hail Klee! Hail HYDRA!" "We are right in our might!"
My cult was growing fast, and I had mixed feelings about being the object of worship like that. But I was a ruler who allowed freedom of religion- mainly because people will have to pay me handsomely to care about what they thought. The fact that it only positively impacted my war goals only made not giving a damn that much easier.
"Yes, yes. Praise me, but only after you salvage as many of these frozen tanks as we can still use them. Thaw those tanks out, upgrade them until they're glowing with the reassuring blue glows of Tesseract-Energy blaster cannons and shields, and turn them against their former owners. I do not want us to be outgunned everytime we hit a hardened ground target."
"It will be done immediately, O' Dragon God!" the Sakaarian summoner immediately replied- still not raising his head from the snow.
"Well, at least we're getting military hardware for our troubles. Otherwise, this planet would not have been my first choice at raiding targets."
The Kree Empire won the latest bid for Sakaar's… services. They gave us three whole cruisers in exchange for us attacking this lonely blue and green Nova Empire planet of C-207. The considerable defensive fleet that protected the planet was easily smashed aside by the Tesseract-Energy technology that my fleet was equipped with.
However, the Kree Empire neglected to mention that this was a training planet for the Nova Empire's groundside forces: heavy tanks, artillery, elite special forces, airforces. It was 'the full enchilada' as they say. And the groundside raiding parties were having their rears handed to them on a silver platter…. At least, until I was summoned just now and turned all our enemies into popsicles. And with the main bulk of the planet's defence forces out of the way…
"Now carry on with raiding operations. As for me, it is time to do the standard procedure of finding the local planetary governor's female family members and raping them in front of him. Payback for putting up a fight instead of rolling over and surrendering all they have to my fleet."
Casting the supercharged Skyrim spell [Clairvoyance], it projected sets of mental images straight into my mind. Crystal clear images of landmarks and directions rushed through my mind before stopping at the frightened face of a fair-skinned fat man cowering with his family in a reinforced bunker. The bunker itself was half the continent away. However, it was a good thing then that I had the power of the Space Stone running through my very soul- it saves on the commute.
"Get over here!"
And just like that, space warped itself to pluck the frightened family from their reinforced bunker and deposited them right in front of me in the snow. The fat planetary governor stumbled face first onto the snow, but his female family members were a lot more graceful. Four of them, three girls in their late teens/early twenties and one that should be around her mid 30s. They all had the neon pink skin that was distinct to the Krylorian race, and bright pink pupils that went wide the moment that saw they were no longer in their safe bunker.
"P-please, Lord Hevnokren, spare them!" The rotund planetary governor pleaded as he stepped between me and his family- his massive beer belly straining against his teal Nova Empire uniform, "It was me who organised the resistance against your fleet, not them!"
"Well, that is surprising. You looked like the sort of man who would have cowered as I claimed your daughters. But I see that you're not as spineless as you looked. That backbone of yours may just prove useful to me, round mortal."
"What are you going to do with us?" he dejectedly responded- smart enough to realise that he couldn't stop me.
"For now, you and your family will enjoy relative safety in one of my cells on Sakaar. Be grateful that is all that I'll do... for now."
And with but a flex of will, the not-so-happy family was teleported in a flash of the Space Stone's energies to said cell underneath the Grandmaster's Tower. With one last glance to my ground forces, I teleported back to my Sakaar to nurse my growing headache.
[Roof deck of the Grandmaster's Tower, Sakaar]
A taste of godhood. Or perhaps, 'Suffering from Success.' That was what I was experiencing at the moment.
People imagine a lot of things when they think of Godhood. Some imagine omnipotent gods- creating worlds out of nothing, breathing life out of nothing, and returning the previous two back into nothing. Others imagine omniscient gods- knowing and controlling the destiny of the entire universe, subtly guiding it into whatever fate they please. Others still imagine omnipresent gods- the type of god who listened to your every prayer and thought, performing miracles every so often, a god that the faithful could take comfort in knowing was always there for them. But to my incredulous and never ending surprise… I was on track to become the last type of god.
And it was incredibly annoying!
It was mainly due to the inane and absolutely eye-rolling prayers and thoughts that I was receiving. Something that my metal Hevnokrenite made it all possible: From hearing the wearer's thoughts, to channelling power to them- enchanting them to be faster, tougher, stronger or be able to blast ice from their hands and whatnot. It was a considerable upgrade to my growing fleet.
So of course, in my eagerness, I distributed Hevnokrenite Amulets to the most deserving Sakaarian raiders. Mostly captains of whole ships, but sometimes, there would be a lone-wolf type that would be very capable at what they do. Naturally, all of my waifus also had Hevnokrenite in one form or another. And in every last one of them, I could hear most of their thoughts.
Thus, here I was: Driven to roll my eyes almost every second by the hundreds of prayers I received over vapid mortal concerns.
This Sakaarian Raider was praying for a bigger penis. This Sakaarian raider was hoping for a strong Xandarian man who she could lay her eggs inside of. Another Sakaarian raider was hoping that he would be able to find a good pair of socks for his mother's birthday. Fischl's train of thought was a jumbled chuuni hellscape with the most coherent thought about her being a 'Cursed sentinel-eternal of Sakaarian Twilight Realm.' Jean was strongly fantasizing about me stopping by and roughly 'raping' her right on her work desk. Klee was carpet bombing a Nova Empire city at the moment and feeling a bit numb. This billionaire playboy on earth was thinking of ways to monetize Angela's technology. And blah, blah, blah.
I also noticed that I was feeding off their faith slightly. But compared to the Infinity Stones that I had in my possession, the power that I received from that faith was negligible to the extreme.
Yes, I can channel immense power to the Hevnokrenite amulets from anywhere in the universe- empowering the wearer with immense strength and endurance that would have given the Hulk a challenge, however, I was still a warlord. Sitting on my rear as I materialised pallet after pallet of Vibranium for my constantly expanding Sakaarian Fleet was not what I started my universal conquest for. I craved to rape, kill and pillage as well. So, when I distributed those enchanted Hevnokrenite amulets to Sakaarian captains that have proven themselves in battle, I told them that the Hevnokrenite amulets had the spell [Summon Hevnokren] enchanted into them.
'Just grip the Hevnokrenite Amulet and pray to me.' I had instructed them. My only condition to them was that it was only to be used when the fighting was most desperate- when I could both turn the tide of the battle and also enjoy the slaughter the most.
And it has been working well.
So far, I've only been summoned for an inane reason once: Some fool pleaded for me to save their terminally ill offworld lover, and I had immediately cured them both of stupid by incinerating them where they stood.
Now if only people would stop thinking so loudly with pointless random thoughts too, that would be well appreciated. It wasn't that my mind was being overloaded with psychic input, no. My mind could keep up with the unending inflow of strong thoughts and prayers thanks to the Company Perk [Psychic Talent] which I had bought early on.
It was just that I already didn't give a damn what other people thought, so why should I start now? Besides, I'll handle researching ways to exploit this psychic connection later. I had better things to do in the meantime like starting a universal war for the Dragon Balls.
"Topaz."
"Yes, Lord Hevnokren!?" The big-boned former assistant to the Grandmaster saluted as she came running onto the roof deck, and I held back a sigh of disappointment.
I really needed waifus with administrative experience to keep Sakaar running. While Sylvie 'The Glorious High Queen of Asgard' was busy putting the Nine Realms in line, I had no one to oversee general day-to-day operations here on Sakaar. I should see if any of the Genshin Impact waifus can be delegated to the task while I was off raping, killing and pillaging around the galaxy.
Or alternatively, I should look for ways to eliminate the need for waifus altogether. Projects for later. The enemies in the immediate area need to be dealt with.
"Assemble the next batch of worthy recipients for my Hevnokrenite Amulets within the hour. But add two names to the list: 'Moraga' and 'Bulane.'"
"Right away, Grandmaster!" she saluted once again before marching off to the elevator.
Of course, shuffle the last syllable of their names and it's evident that 'Moraga' is 'Gamora', and 'Bulane' is 'Nebula.'
'Moraga' and 'Bulane.' Their cover story was that they were two adoptive sisters turned mercenaries who joined the Sakaarian Fleet just recently. They had arrived just a few hours after Gamora and Nebula evaded capture by the Favonius Knights. What a coincidence. I wasn't even mad that these two were here, because it took serious guts to come back and try to infiltrate Sakaar again right after having their cover blown the first time around.
The fact they tried again to infiltrate meant that they didn't know that I had the Magic of Divination on my side, otherwise they would have known how futile the effort was. I had a dedicated Hevnokrenite scale on my Dragon form that was enchanted with a permanent [Clairvoyance] spell pointed at capturable waifus/husbandos. I practically knew where every named character in the MCU was. At least, those who weren't protecting themselves with magic like the Ancient One from Doctor Strange, or those who were in alternate timelines/dimensions/planes of existence.
But Gamora and Nebula being on Sakaar was perfect, because now I get to lead their daddy dearest to his doom.
(An hour later)
The Grandmaster's Tower had undergone a comprehensive reconstruction.
When I arrived, it was just like any other skyscraper- a thin, blocky tower made from the scavenged hulls of a thousand fallen starships, and decorated with the faces of past arena champions. An iconic landmark for the planet, the tower was an enduring symbol that the Grandmaster ruled over this pitiful world.
But not anymore.
After several expansions using the energies that I had absorbed from Reality and Space Stones, the tower stood as wide as any of earth's largest football stadiums, and taller than any of its skyscrapers. Its foundations pierced so deep into the ground that the planet itself would have to break before this tower would topple. All in all, it was a monolithic structure of metal that would serve as a constant reminder to the denizens of Sakaar as to who ruled the planet through sheer might.
The Dragon's Tower, the Sakaarians have taken to calling it.
But apart from the auspicious name though, it was currently devoid of purpose aside from being a glorified perch for my increasingly large dragon form, and the occasional convention centre. But I had big plans for this tower, it would be the cornerstone that would realise my goals for the Dread Armada. The deaths of some of my key waifus had shown just how dependent I had become on my waifus to project power. How dependent my progress with research into the magical sciences hinged on minds that were not mine. And being dependent on other people like some mortal weakling was wholly unacceptable for me.
However…
== ] C [ ==
COMPANY MISSION
Mission Title: Under Draconic Rule
Scope: Standard-Level
Objective: Rule Sakaar for 10 years.
[?] Sub-Objective #1: Kill the Grandmaster and wrest Control of Sakaar from him
Sub-Objective #2: Triple the population and economic production of Sakaar within the next 5 years.
Sub-Objective #3: ?
Condition: You cannot leave Sakaar for more than 72 hours each month.
[?] Sub Reward #1: 40 Credits
Sub Reward #2: 200 Credits
Sub Reward #3: ?
Mission Reward: 1 T11 Ticket
== ] C [ ==
If this distraction with my homemade Dragon Balls goes well enough, I will achieve complete godhood long, long before the 10 years are up, and then, I will have no need to depend on waifus as extensions of my power.
Just as I had originally intended.
I stepped into the spacious atrium at the ground floor of the tower for one more grand lie. The atrium was devoid of any furnishings: just a wide open empty space with tiled titanium-alloy floor, tiled titanium-alloy walls and titanium-alloy metal ceilings. There was nowhere to hide, and it made my audience of the few hundred Sakaarian raiders fidgety as they stood at attention- giving me distrustful looks as they kept their weapons in arms' reach. They probably expected Hevnokren himself to greet them- a giant of dragonbone and wrath. But instead, they were greeted by this delicate-looking girl.
"Thank you for coming, everyone!" I cheered with a charming smile to my audience as I struck a girly pose in my Barbara form. Soft blonde hair cascading past my feminine shoulders, cheery steel-blue eyes glossing over each of my audience, a frilly frock dress of white and blue and gold resting on my slender and very feminine frame, perfect white stockings clinging to flawless long legs and a soft lyrical voice.
Here I was once again- wearing the innocent face of a gentle-hearted young woman. And I had to hold back a bloodthirsty grin of anticipation as the time came to make weaklings fight amongst themselves over pretty lies told by a pretty face all over again.
"All of you have likely heard rumours about why Hevnokren has called you here." my cheery feminine voice echoed across the atrium, "But only one of them is true. Regardless of what anyone else thinks, each of you is here because you have distinguished yourselves in the previous raids, and by our Dragon God's command, you are to be granted a token of his favour."
With a flex of will, a metal crate appeared beside where I stood- provoking a few of the jumpier raiders to raise their Tesseract-Energy Lugers. Barely refraining from rolling my eyes at their pea-shooters, my dainty hands popped the metal lid off the crate and lifted a fistful of Hevnokrenite Amulets. And everyone immediately lowered their weapons to stare at what I had.
"Yes… you recognise these being worn by some of the more veteran raiders, don't you?" I smiled sweetly, "Wear them, and they will make you stronger, faster, tougher and perhaps smarter. It doesn't matter if you believe these amulets to be some source of advanced nanotechnology, cosmic radiation, or even magic; they will work regardless. Hevnokren has also commanded me to relay to you all this message: 'Do what you will with the power you gain from them, but remember that Might makes Right.' "
There were murmurs and whispers. Of course there would be, that was par for course. In a dog-eat-dog world that was Sakaar, deception was but one of the many ways to gain power. If it was the bone-armoured giant Hevnokren saying these things, they would not be doubting as much. But instead, they had innocent 'Barbara' relaying the message.
"Of course, feel free to decline." my- Barbara's- voice coolly advised, "There are no consequences to declining… apart from realising how much harder it is to keep a competitive edge when all your rivals and peers have grown so much stronger, faster and tougher overnight."
And that immediately had them hurriedly stepping up to claim their own Hevnokrenite Amulets, and I smiled as I gave them out one by one. Eventually, a pair of neon pink-skinned women in their raiding leathers stepped up to accept their Amulets. 'Moraga' and 'Bulane.' Or, more accurately, Gamora and Nebula in disguise.
"This had better work." 'Moraga' grunted as she slipped the amulet on while handing another amulet to her sister 'Bulane.'
"The veterans have had no complaints about these amulets as you can no doubt feel for yourself." I reassured them with a soft smile- meeting her eyes with my own steel-blue ones, "These are made by Hevnokren himself!"
And immediately after they put it on, the daughters of Thanos visibly shivered as they felt the power of the Hevnokrenite Amulet flow through their bones. And I began hearing their thoughts- mostly about how lucky they were to have gotten a second chance at infiltrating Sakaar and how they have been successful in acquiring one of these infamous Amulets. And that suited my deception just fine. Let them think that they have successfully infiltrated the ranks of my trusted elites who wore my Hevnokrenite Amulets.
"This will be… adequate." Nebula in disguise hummed as she grasped her Hevnokrenite Amulet, and Gamora nodded with her before they both walked off- still a bit taken aback by how much power that little amulet of Hevnokrenite granted them. And I merely flashed a bright smile as I continued handing out Amulets to the rest of the Raiders.
It didn't take much time afterwards for me to finish the task. And as I cheerily waved off at the last Sakaarian raider, I heard Gamora and Nebula talking through their amulets.
"None of Hevnokren's women had presented significant leads to the location of the Infinity Stones." Nebula subtly whispered to Gamora from their vantage point at a nearby restaurant. "But we have never seen this one before."
"She's definitely one of Hevnokren's though." Gamora whispered back- no doubt eyeing me through the window, "She dresses as weird as the rest of them. That, and Hevnokren trusted her enough to distribute these amulets to his favoured raiders- wait, she's on the move!"
And I merely acted the part of the cheerful waifu as I hummed and made my way to a nearby upscale bakery while on foot. The immediate surroundings of the Dragon's Tower was more upscale than the rest of Sakaar as it had a lot of the cartel HQs in the vicinity. And wherever rich people played, expensive businesses popped up. There was still violence and murder on the streets, but it definitely had a more… formal air to it.
Gracefully slipping through the crowds of people, I entered the bakery with the two daddy's girls observing me from the bar just across the street. Sitting down at the private function room in the corner of the bakery, I ordered myself a sweetroll as I listened in on the two sisters.
"Can't be anyone else aside from one of Hevnokren's women." I heard Nebula whisper to sister as she and Gamora watched me sit down to eat sweetroll, "This shithole planet has more cutthroats, junkies and opportunistic slavers than the rest of galaxy combined… and she's walking around like she's on a shopping trip on Xandar. Wait, she's receiving a transmission."
Showtime. It was then that I 'received a call' from 'Hevnokren.' The Hevnokrenite magic-comms bracelet on my wrist projected a life-sized hard-light model of my normal Dovahkiin form.
"It's a hard-light transmission from Hevnokren!" I heard Gamora whisper with laser-focus. And I had to push down my urge to laugh at how gullible they were. Gamora and Nebula didn't know that the Hevnokren they were seeing was just a holographic recording that I was passing off as a live call. Just as I had rehearsed
"Good afternoon, Hev." My soft lyrical voice greeted the hard-light hologram. "Let me finish my brunch and I'll head straight to the tower."
Clad in the dragonplate armour that everyone on Sakaar recognized, the Hevnokren in the recording looked down at me with those blood-red eyes peering through the eyes slits of that bony Dragonplate helmet. And it was then that I understood first hand how intimidating I looked to everyone else.
Hevnokren, a seven-foot-tall (210 cm) obelisk of invulnerable dragonbone armour, bulging muscles, dangerous magicks and rape stood over my dainty five-and-a-half-foot-tall (165~ cm) frame. It was made worse by how I knew what level of brutality that form was capable of. And for all intents and purposes, Hevnokren was here- looming over my small feminine body. And I had to say, it was suitably intimidating. Because if there truly was anyone to fear in this universe, it would be myself.
"This cannot wait." his deep voice intoned like boulders crumbling- rattling me down to the bones. "I need some specific items to be found and retrieved, Barbara."
"Whatever you wish, I'll do my best to acquire them, Hev." I replied- sitting up a bit straighter at attention. The Hevnokren-hologram nodded before his large bone-gauntled hands pulled up a holographic screen. And on its display was a shiny metal ball just slightly smaller than a lemon with seven stars embossed on one face.
"I need you to find this." He gestured to the ball. "There are seven... Seven pieces of a wish-granting artefact which I suspect to be Celestial in origin."
Celestials: God-like beings the size of planets in the MCU that created stars and livable planets. They briefly appeared in the Marvel movie 'The Eternals.' And they were suitably overpowered and famous enough that the locals here in the MCU would easily buy the lie that they were the ones who created the Dragon Balls.
"But aren't the Celestials extinct?" my soft voice debated back.
"That is irrelevant." Hevnokren immediately rebutted, "Extinct or not, their fully-functioning toys remain."
All lies, of course. I made the Dragon Balls, the Celestials aren't extinct, and they had nothing to do with the Dragon Balls. But Nebula's dramatic whisper of 'Celestials!' told me that the two were slurping up my lies as eagerly as sluts did for my semen. Lying to people will never stopped being amusing, especially when they're ijust begging for someone to tell them the lies they want to hear.
"But surely they won't be needed when you have three Infinity Stones?" I offered again- ignoring the sharp intake of breath from the two Daughters of Thanos as it was 'revealed' that Hev possessed half of all the Infinity Stones already.
"I suspect these… Dragon Balls have power comparable to the Infinity Stones." He growled in annoyance- his large hands creaking into fists, "Enough power for one or two universe-changing wishes."
Acting out my 'shock and panic', my steel-blue eyes widened at the implication, and I licked my suddenly dry lips.
"Can… can people just wish for all six Infinity Stones to be transported straight to them?" I whispered lowly- knowing that Gamora and Nebula can still hear me though. And I can hear them hold their breath as they awaited the answer they have been hoping for. The gullible morons.
"If these Dragon Balls can do that…" Hevnokren's deep voice mused in consideration, "We can't take the risk of them falling into anyone else's hands."
I scowled as I nodded in silent agreement. That would have been frighteningly and completely BS to have all those hard-earned Infinity Stones suddenly whisked away because someone else collected seven other items… if it weren't all complete lies, of course.
"So, find these seven Dragon Balls." He commanded as he stepped closer- forcing me to crane my head upwards as his armoured form loomed over me, "But do it discreetly and do it now, Barbara."
"I-!" my soft feminine voice stammered out, "I won't fail you, Hev!"
"See to it that you don't." His deep voice rumbled with just a hint of a threat. A bone-plated gauntlet rose up to lift my chin towards him- making me meet his blood red eyes that were filled with promises of such brutality. "You do not want to know what I'll do to you if you fail, Barbara…"
And as his dragonbone-gauntleted hand gripped the neckline of my white frock dress, I tensed up every muscle in my body and held my breath in my throat- playing the part of the frightened girl under Hevnokren's command who he was threatening to assault and rape.
"So I'll expect a report on your progress soon, Barbara. And I will allow no excuses." Hevnokren finished abruptly- letting go of my frock before he flickered out of existence.
I placed my hand over my chest- trying to calm down the 'frantic beating' of my heart. And I held back a victorious grin at how my performance had sold the lie well enough to fool Gamora and Nebula. I could hear their thoughts through the Hevnokrenite Amulets that they wore. But the ongoing conversation between them was even more hilarious.
"To think Celestial Artefacts like that would still exist… I have to relay this to Father!" I heard Gamora mutter to herself.
And with my 'still nervously shaking' hands, I helped myself to another slice of my glazed sweet roll to calm myself down from bursting out in laughter. The Daughters of Thanos gobbled up all that bullcrap about Celestial artefacts and the power of the Dragon Balls. And now, they were going to go back to Thanos and feed him the same amusing lies. I know that this was my goal from the start, but this was just comedy gold! They were just so desperate for useful information that they'd pounce on the very first scrap that they saw!
"What do you mean 'I have to relay this to Father'?!" Nebula growled back at her sister in a low, hostile tone. "You're not going to steal all the recognition, sister!"
"One of us has to keep an eye on this 'Barbara.'" Gamora tartly responded, but her sister apparently wasn't buying her excuse.
"If you're so selflessly dutiful…" Nebula mocked, "Why don't you stay here and I'll report to Father?"
The pregnant pause between the two told me that Gamora was caught on her bluff. That and their thoughts were all about outdoing the other. The rivalry between the two sisters on who can suck up to their daddy better was occupying a lot of their thought process. I had to keep from rolling my eyes: Daddy Issues incarnate these two were.
"Now is not the time for this… but fine." Gamora conceded the point with a sigh, "We'll make the report together, then we'll tail Barbara. Father should know about this wish-granting 'Dragon Balls' as soon as possible."
And just like that, Gamora and Nebula left, leaving me to enjoy my sweetroll in peace without them staring at me. I felt their Hevnokren Amulets rapidly move in the direction of the docking bays- likely to use their ships' comms to discreetly contact Thanos.
Just as I wanted them to do.
That's it, Gamora and Nebula. Run back to daddy Thanos. Tell him all about the Dragon's Balls. Distract the purple titan with shiny baubles and make him focus his attention away from Sakaar. Away from what I was really planning. Let him tear through the galaxies looking for the Dragon Balls. Let him distract everyone until it's far too late to stop me. Because the wheels were now in motion now, and all I needed to do was to keep them rolling until this whole universe drove itself straight off a cliff.
With a single step, my Barbara form teleported to the top of the Dragon's Tower where my massive stadium-sized dragon form stood watch over Sakaar.
"Let's see how much of a fight 'Earth's mightiest heroes' can put up against me when their greatest source of power is none other than… me." I murmured while wearing a grin of anticipation for the impending murderous free-for-fall. "These hordes of weaklings will fight amongst themselves and keep themselves from distracting my work. Meanwhile, I'll be busy battling against the only power in this universe that could rival the Infinity Stones. And when I emerge victorious, I'll be violently claiming their power as my own, then… truly nothing in this universe will be able to stop me."
My Barbara form gave a oh so gracious smile as she extended her arms wide open to the horizon.
"So, where are you now, O' prospective bearers of my Dragon Balls?" I whispered, "Go forth, and prove yourselves worthy of all seven. But remember…"
"Might makes Right."
[A prison cell underneath the Royal Palace of Valaskjalf, Asgard]
"Curious little thing, aren't you?" Loki Laufeyson muttered to the lustrous metal orb in his hand as he lay on his cot.
He gave it a little toss into the air before catching it.
"One night, you are not. And the next morning, here you are." He mused with a slight smile, "Oh, if only pretty things snuck into bed with me all the time in prison. Perhaps my stay here would be more enjoyable."
He wasn't sure what it was to be honest.
It wasn't part of his cell's furnishings, of that he was certain. He already had every bump in his cot, every flaw on his table's woodworking, every pattern on his ceiling memorised. And he certainly would have remembered this lustrous metal orb if it was in his cell from the beginning. Nor was it some odd device- it had no seams on its structure to signify that it was anything but an orb made of solid metal. There was nothing on the orb apart from the trio of stars embossed on its side.
He was absolutely starved for mental stimuli, and this metal orb was the most that he had received in the past day or so since he was deposed by that brute of a warlord from Sakaar. And Loki didn't know where his plans had gone wrong. All he had done was invite the warlord to a feast as they observed the destruction of Jotunheim via the power of the Bifrost.
"How was I supposed to know that the brute would take it as a threat?" He complained to the orb, "… well, it had been a threat. A subtle one, at least. A reminder that Sakaar may have had its great fleet, but Asgard had its Bifrost. A military alliance between Sakaar and Asgard was all but assured then. At least, an alliance where I would have been able to twist the big oaf into doing my bidding. But it was an alliance nonetheless!"
However, it was all for naught now. From the scant little gossip that he had heard from the guards, decrepit old Odin had already woken from his Odinsleep.
"Yes… good for him." He murmured to himself just before he heard the sounds of footsteps that he was all too familiar with.
He immediately went to channel magic onto the orb to make it disappear from view. Just paltry tricks that any beginner illusionist could do, but none as skillfully as he did. So, imagine his shock when the orb refused to disappear. That made him sit up from his cot- his wavy raven black hair bouncing down his shoulders as he eyed the orb as the footsteps grew louder.
Left with no other choice, he simply stuffed the lemon-sized metal orb under his pillow- just a scant second before his mothe- his adoptive mother walked into view still in her usual periwinkle blue dress..
"Loki…" She smiled sadly at him, and he had to push down the spark of irritation from her pity.
"Seeing as you're here, I take it Odin has recovered." He groused at her.
"Yes, he has. And your… sister has taken the throne." She responded, and Loki sucked in a breath through his teeth in annoyance. Governess Sylvie… He actually enjoyed her company. The constant back and forth of witty retorts like duelers with their swords. She possessed a cunning mind that he considered to have been the only one to ever have come close to his league. To think she was one of Odin's spawns too… Loki loathed every last one of them. But he couldn't deny the slightest twinge of regret over it for her.
"She's not my sister, and Odin is not my father." He ground out- hardening his heart.
"Oh, Loki…" Frigga sighed, "She's more closely related to you than you realise."
And his head whipped back to look at her incredulously. A hundred possibilities went through his mind. Was she also a frost giant? His actual sister by way of Laufey? Actual family? But no, he wouldn't give Frigga the satisfaction of seeing him interested by what she said to him. She had lied to him for far too long already. They all had. He would not humour Frigga. So, he pushed it all down: His anger at being lied to, his sorrow at being betrayed, and his hope… that he had an actual family that he knew of.
"Why are you here?" He evaded the topic, and Frigga simply stepped forward- closer to the golden energy field that separated them.
"Is it not enough for a mother to see her son?" She smiled a bittersweet smile, and all that self-control vanished as those words pushed Loki off the edge of his patience. How dare she?!
"I AM NOT YOUR SON!" He bellowed to her- striking the golden energy field with his fist. "I was never your son. How could I have been that when Odin never gave me the chance?! When Thor was granted everything while I was granted nothing but scraps!?"
And Frigga once again just looked at him with those blue eyes filled with pity and sorrow.
"We gave you our love, Loki." she whispered in that tone she used when he was but a child- the same tone when she instructed him on how to harness the magical talent within him for the first time, "Is that not enough to prove that we consider you our son?"
And for some reason, Loki felt like he had nothing to say. He was unable to do anything but look away. Anywhere but the eyes of the woman who had taught him, and raised him.
"In another place, in another time… you would have known that as well." she whispered mournfully- sounding like she was on the verge of tears, "And my only regret will always be not that we decided to take you in as our own… but that we did not reveal your heritage sooner. Sylvie is proof of that wisdom."
And at those words, Loki immediately turned his questioning gaze back onto her.
"What do you mean by that?" he prompted- confused at how his- No, Thor's sister fit into all this.
"I believe we have already spoken enough for today… however I will return." Frigga sighed- placing her hand on the golden energy field that kept him prisoner and meeting his eyes with her own blue ones, "And I bear the hope that one day, Loki, you will realise just how much you mean to me. To us both."
And with those last words, she turned and began walking off. But Loki wasn't done with her.
"No! Answer me!" He shouted his command at her retreating back- his fist pounding at the energy field, "How is Sylvie involved in this matter?! Tell me!"
But no answer was forthcoming even as her footsteps disappeared into the distance, and he was once again left in his cell with nothing but questions heaped upon questions weighing on his mind. All alone.
"Well, almost all alone." Loki sighed as he took out the metal orb from underneath his pillow, holding it up to see his reflection on it. This magically resistant little ball of metal was his only company… Then his thoughts came to a screeching halt. And like a clear ring of a bell, an idea slipped into his mind.
A magically resistant metal orb! His rich blue eyes moved their gaze from the orb and to the golden energy field of magic that kept him prisoner.
But no.
He wasn't about to use this orb to disable the energy field. Not yet at least. He wasn't even certain who slipped this ball to him, or what he'll do if he even escapes his cell. Squeezing the metal orb, he attempted once again to shroud it from sight. Pursing his lips in concentration, he channelled his magic from his hand and onto the ball- wanting to see if there was a limit to how much magic this ball could sustain before…
Power
Power like nothing Loki had ever felt before exploded from the orb- it was like roots of pure magical energy were burrowing under his skin and spreading through his veins. Every muscle in his body burned like they were being set alight with undeniable strength. His magical might roared in triumph as it felt like it had been given a grand bounty to feast on- each errant twitch of his own magic felt so powerful that his body would burst before it could contain it.
Then Loki saw it. No… he felt it.
It felt like he could conjure illusions so powerful and so convincing that it would fool reality itself. Might. It felt like he could claim his rightful birthright as High King of the Nine Realms. To finally step out of the shadow of his 'brother' Thor. Makes. To lead Asgard into an era of prosperity greater than any king before him have ever considered in their loftiest dreams. He felt like he didn't need to make 'father' proud anymore. Right. It felt like he could lift Mjolnir, but he would have refused its power. He no longer wished to tread the same ground that others had.
No… it was time for Loki Laufeyson to forge his own path- his own glory. And just as he floated down from the rush of power, Loki saw that there were seven other orbs such as the one he held. He could feel them as if the orb was pointing him to them. Midgard. He needed to go to 'Earth' as the mortals call their planet and claim the other six orbs.
Just like that, his path was revealed to him as if the Bifrost had illuminated it. And as he sat back down on his cot and gripped the orb tight in his fist, Loki smiled- trying to control the jitters of excitement as the many, many possible schemes flowed in his mind.
"For the first time in my young life, I feel like I have found it: Purpose." He whispered to himself and to the orb with barely controlled anticipation. "Glorious Purpose."
[Wakanda, Africa]
Shuri, Princess of Wakanda and head of their research department was going to scream.
"Gaaarrggghh! You stupid, uncooperative ball!" she screamed at the shiny metal ball that sat on the observation pedestal of her laboratory. "Why won't you let me test you?!"
All around the lab, vibranium tools lay broken and various lab assistants of the Wakandan Design Group were looking clueless.
After all, it was not every day that a mysterious metal ball appeared on her brother's bedside table. No sign of forced entry and no alarms were tripped. It was like the metal ball had appeared there out of thin air… And that had her parents worried sick over that. They had this wild theory that it was a message from an assassin- as if to say that they could be strike where they slept. Patently absurd in Shuri's opinion. And that was on top of everyone else' wild theories of what that ball could be! Ranging from a very sturdy bomb, to new type of sentient Vibranium, and perhaps a sign from the panther goddess herself.
But, speculation aside, who can say what it actually was though? Certainly not her, because the ball refused to yield its secrets even to the best and brightest minds Wakanda had to offer. And all she could do was glower at it like it owes her money.
"Careful, sister." Her ever-wise brother T'Challa chided her as he strolled into her lab, "Remember what mother always says: If you make that angry face too often, it will stay that way."
Shuri rolled her eyes.
"Go practice being the oh-so-wise Prince of Wakanda somewhere else, brother." She grunted- straightening out her white lab dress. "And shouldn't you be worried about how this ball somehow got into your room?"
"I believe it is a sign from Bast." He smiled in return as he picked up the metal ball- just slightly smaller than a lemon- in his bare hand. The pair of stars embossed on its surface gleamed under the light as T'Challa tossed it slightly into the air before catching it, "Why would I be worried?"
That confident 'I am the great Prince of Wakanda' smile that he was shooting at her made her want to puke. And Shuri had to wonder how many hours he had spent just practising that smile in the mirror every day. It was like her brother was more concerned with looks than she was!
"Even if it is… what kind of sign would it be?" Shuri rolled her eyes before looking at T'Challa with a teasing grin, "Maybe it is a sign from Bast: a sign that my brother needs to lose weight or else he'll become round like that ball?"
"Very funny." He replied with a deadpan before sighing, "Seriously, Shuri… I believe this ball was sent by Bast herself."
Shuri watched as T'Challa stared into his reflection on the metal orb- a look of deep contemplation on his bearded face.
"This metal…" he muttered with his voice heavy with worry, "...it is impervious even to our most tempered Vibranium to scratch. And it was placed by my bedside table. Me! Heir to the Golden Tribe and future King of Wakanda. Could this metal hold the secrets to the next step to our Vibranium technology? Is this a new age for Wakanda? And has Bast entrusted me with being the herald to that new age?"
And Shuri could not help but shake her head.
"Brother…" She muttered softly. "There you go again- putting the weight of all Wakanda on your shoulders."
"But it does." T'Challa replied- squeezing his fist around the ball, "Because one day, I will be king. I must live up to the expectations of the people of Wakanda. The border tribe, the river tribe, the mining tribe, and the merchant tribe… they will all look to me to rule them with a steady hand, sister."
Shuri sighed in exasperation. Why was it that big brothers tend to be so hopeless without their little sisters?
"You are taking being Prince of Wakanda entirely too seriously like you always did." She smiled fondly back at him, "You are like a puppy that way. Always so ready to please our parents and being so sad when you cannot. It is just too bad that you're the farthest thing to being cute as an actual puppy."
"You focus on being Prince of Wakanda, brother." She gave him a quick peck on his beared cheek as she plucked the metal ball from his hand. "Let me figure out what this ball is all about, and when I do, you will be the first person to know."
"Very well, Shuri." He laughed, "I will leave it to you and the Wakandan Design Group's expert hands."
She tossed the ball into the air and caught it- holding it up to the light. The shiny metal ball was just slightly smaller than a lemon- a pair of stars embossed on its otherwise mirror smooth surface. And just by looking at it, she somehow had a feeling that this ball was going to change everything. It was like how the Americans say 'She could feel it in her gut.'
"You and me? We're going to change Wakanda." She muttered to the ball before frowning." So please cooperate."
Power
Power like nothing Shuri had ever felt before flowed from the orb like an unstoppable deluge. Might. it was like her every vein was plugged straight into a power socket. Tendrils of white-hot energy dug their roots into her skull. Makes. Every muscle in her body felt like it was boiling with her blood. She could feel it. The Vibranium. In the broken tools laying around her, lining the walls, lacing her bones and in her very blood. Right. And all she had to do was reach out and… willed the Vibranium to move. And like a choir of several thousand birds, the Vibranium sang to her as it moved as directed.
Then was once again in her now ruined lab, kneeling on the cold floor.
"SHURI!" She heard her brother shout, "Let go of the ball, sister!"
But Shuri was just left speechless at the sight right in front of her. It seemed that she had drawn the Vibranium from the tools and walls to form it- leaving the place a wreck. But it was worth it because of what was made out of the Vibranium: In front of her was a sculpture of the new nanite that she had been designing in her free time.
There, shimmering and gleaming lustrously under the light, was the nanite. A spindly spider-like thing, and it looked much more intimidating when it was as large as a human. It was to be her greatest creation yet. Something to propel Wakanda to heights never before seen. Every aspect of every Wakandan's life was going to be improved by the technology that she developed here in this lab.
This sculpture of her nanite… it was beautiful beyond just how it looked. It was beautiful in its symbolic meaning too. Formed from pure Vibranium- the same metal that had made her home so prosperous, this sculpture was Shuri's hopes and dreams for her home- for Wakanda- made real.
"Br-brother, it- it's- " Shuri gasped- a tear in her eye.
'It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.' She wanted to say. But before she could say that, T'Challa surged forward and snatched the ball from her hand in an attempt to get it away from her. Only to be subjected to the same experience as her.
"AAAAUGGGHHH!" Her brother screamed, hoarse and guttural as he was brought to his knees.
"Brother!" Shuri shouted in concern, but something else caught her eye and now a deep fear speared her through her belly and a horrified whisper slipped from her lips, "No… No, no, no, no!"
The sculpture of her nanite cracked and broke like an ice sculpture. Then it tipped over and shattered into a hundred pieces right before her eyes. The vibranium shattering like glass… just before it moved like a liquid- molded itself into a new sculpture.
Bast, the panther goddess stood proud atop a pedestal, and thousands of tiny people looked up at it in awe and reverence. SHuri could see some of the people wearing the clothes of the River Tribe, the Merchant Tribe, the Mining Tribe, the Border Tribe, and even the Jabari tribe. All of them united underneath the panther goddess.
"It's… it's beautiful." Shuri heard her brother whisper as he stared up at the new sculpture, and a stark realisation hit Shuri as she eyed the new sculpture. Was… was this her brother's dream? Just as the ball formed the Vibranium sculpture of her nanite, it also formed this sculpture of this symbol of unity in Wakanda. It did sound like something he would wish for you.
"My Prince, the ball!" Okoye, her brother's bodyguard, practically shrieked in alarm.
"It is… alright, Okoye." Her brother gasped as he got off from his knees and onto his feet- his dark eyes never once leaving the sculpture that was in front of him. "It is going to be alright."
"Brother…" Shuri hesitated as she walked up beside him to look at his sculpture too, "...Is this what you dream of?"
And T'Challa merely glanced at her with an amused smile like she had told a mildly funny joke.
"A Wakanda united as one under the goddess that has gifted us this land rich with vibranium?" His voice echoed as if he could see it in front of him, "How can it not be my dream, Sister? This ball… it can control Vibranium at a thought. If there was ever any doubt in our parents' hearts that this was a sign from Bast… this discovery will wash them away all uncertainty! We must share this great discovery with all of Wakanda!"
"I know, Brother." Shuri whispered with deep hesitations over this, but T'Challa was still swept up in all the excitement.
"I'll… I'll stay here and help clean up, Brother." She reassured him, but not before her eyes were drawn to jealously stare at the ball in her brother's hand. The little lemon-sized ball with its two stars embossed on its surface held firmly in his grip. And there was the briefest of tense moments when her brother caught her staring and he reflexively moved it away from her.
But thankfully, they both caught themselves. Shuri gave her brother a reassuring smile, and he returned it.
"You go share the news with mother and father." She urged him.
"I will, sister." He said, practically vibrating with excitement as her turned on his heels and glanced over his shoulder and walked off with the ball, "I will not forget to mention that this is all due to your efforts, either."
And just like that, he left her in her lab.
Shuri didn't say anything though. Her eyes were still drawn to the small shattered piece of her own sculpture that still lay on the ground. Leaning down to pick it up, she cradled it in her hand as if it was a bird with a broken wing. Then she glanced back at the sculpture. Her brothers' dream was made from the shattered remains of her own.
"It is going to be alright…" She whispered to herself as she held the piece close to her heart. Hers and her brother's dreams weren't mutually exclusive. They can work together to realise them both. But… he wanted to share it with everyone. There were around five million Wakandans in their home nation, and there was more than enough Vibranium under their feet that they would never have to worry about anyone being left out. There was enough of the precious metal for every single Wakandan to simply take some and make something good out of it.
But that starball? There was only one of its kind.
And Shuri couldn't help but purse her lips at the possibility. But surely- surely- reason will prevail, won't it? They were not like the people in the outside world who fought amongst themselves out of greed and pride over things like oil fields.
They were Wakandans, after all. They were better than that.
[Somewhere on the Arctic circle, Earth]
Solemn words echoed throughout the derelict superweapon.
"Tomorrow… Hydra will stand master of the world. Borne to victory on the wings of the Valkyrie…"
Crackling from some malfunctioning gramophone from the depths of the craft, the words echoed across the empty, frozen halls of this craft. The words seemed to have come from anywhere and nowhere at the same time. Finding the offending gramophone would have been an exercise in futility. In this massive aircraft that had one day been on the verge of laying waste to all the civilised world, it would have been like finding a needle in a frozen, snow-covered haystack. At least, it only tended to play some of the time.
"Our enemies' weapons will be powerless against us… If they shoot down one plane, hundreds more will rain fire upon them…"
It was like the words were taunts from a ghost. The captain of this massive plane who was still roaming the halls like a spectre that didn't want to rest. Clinging tightly to the precipice on which he had almost accomplished his goals.
"If they cut off one head, two more will take its place…"
"Hail Hy-"
*Clang*
Stever Rogers sighed as he carved another tally on the wall using the edge of his shield.
Day 2 of being all alone.
And almost above everything else, he hated being alone. Most of his worst days happened when no one else was there to give him a hand, or for him to give anyone a hand. Cut off from all help and cut off from helping. What use was this vibranium shield painted in red, white and blue when the only person he could use it to protect was himself? He didn't know how long he had been a popsicle for, but the Strategic Scientific Reserve wouldn't abandon him. He had faith in his allies who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him over the years of the war.
Colonel Phillips… Howard Stark… Peggy Carter…
They'll come looking for him sooner or later. He knew how hard it was mounting a rescue mission. How much more a rescue mission into the Arctic circle? He might be stuck here for a while. But what he really wanted was to go out there and start marching towards the direction of the frontlines, or maybe end up back home. Back to the good ole US and A. But this wasn't France or Germany or Africa.
This was the Arctic.
Hundreds of miles of nothing but ice and snow and certain death was waiting for him out there. He had taken a peek outside to check too. The blizzard out there would freeze him to death- Erskine's Serum or no Erskine's Serum. And that's why - despite how much he didn't like it- he had to stay in here, in this small storage room in the belly of the beast that he had almost died stopping.
The waiting was the hardest part of being a soldier. Just endless waiting punctuated by brief flashes of extreme violence.
But in this little storage room, at least he had everything he needed to survive the wait. A small bed that he had salvaged from the crew quarters. Right at the centre, he had set up a small heater/stove that he had from spare Tesseract-Energy ammunition to melt ice into drinkable water and to warm the room. And at the wall opposite of his bed, a stack of boxes reaching up as tall as him leaned against the metal wall. Each box contained German MREs which meant that he had enough food to last him months. And he had to admit, even to himself, that those little tins of 'Scho-Ka-Kola' chocolate that came with each MRE actually won out over the hard candy that the US Army's field rations were supplied with.
All in all, this was actually a much cozier accomodation than most field barracks that he had slept in so far.
And when he had his main and immediate concerns of water, food and shelter met, he had also made the effort to reestablish contact with the chain of command. Searching for working radios was easy enough. Getting them to work was slightly more difficult. But getting someone to pick up on the other end? That was out of his hands.
And so, it was just more waiting. All he could do to be honest. He had no way of knowing how long it's been. His only measure of time was a clock that he had only recently got up and running. It felt like he was a prisoner. But at the very least, he had stopped Hydra's last plan.
There was just one last mystery he hadn't solved yet.
Steve looked down to the strange metal ball that he held in his gloved hand. A shiny metal ball just slightly smaller than a lemon- with six stars embossed on its otherwise mirror smooth surface.
"Where did you come from?" He whispered to the object that had thawed him out of the ice. Steve wasn't sure if it was a piece of debris from elsewhere on the ship- it didn't match anything here on the plane. Was this some kind of Hydra tech he hadn't seen before? And even more mysterious was how it managed to thaw him out in the first place. It was oddly warm to touch despite the room temperature hovering around zero, but it wasn't hot enough to melt through ice.
He lifted the ball up, trying to get a better look at it before-
Power
Power like nothing Steve had ever felt before exploded from the orb- it was even worse than when he had Erskine's serum injected into him in Stark's Vita-ray chamber. It felt like it was burning him from the inside out. His skin feeling like it was being deep fried. His skull felt like molten metal was being poured over it. Each and every single one of his muscles screamed in pain.
And then came a more familiar feeling.
That feeling of immense strength bubbling up from his muscles. Might. The feeling like he could leap over houses with a single bound. The feeling like he could hurl his shield so hard to pierce concrete walls. The feeling like each punch he threw could dent even the armour of tanks. Makes. He felt like he could go faster than ever before. Like he could pluck the wings of a fly one at a time. Like he could outrun motorbikes and cars with ease. Right. It didn't feel so cold anymore. It barely even felt chilly. And somehow Steve just knew that he could withstand fire and cold as if they were a hot autumn day or a chilly spring afternoon.
Then it was over as abruptly as it started. He was back in that little storage room in the Hydra Valkyrie plane. The voice of his defeated archnemesis echoing once again in the background.
"Tomorrow… Hydra will stand master of the world. Borne to victory on the wings of the Valkyrie…"
"W-what was that?!" Steve breathlessly panted from the rush as he glanced down to the innocuous metal ball with its six stars. He was gripping it so tight that it would have bent steel, and yet… the ball looked undented.
"Our enemies' weapons will be powerless against us…"
"The plot thickens with you, doesn't it?" He rhetorically asked the ball in his hand. But that wasn't going to help him. He was still trapped on this plane until help arrived. Just listening to the voice of the Red Skull droning on and on about his evil plan that Steve had already foiled. The Valkyrie was never going to see itself in the air again.
"If they shoot down one plane, hundreds more will rain fire upon them…"
Steve stood up- the snow crunching beneath his boots. Wait… that's right. Wasn't there little flying aircraft that were meant to be ejected from this plane? Those 'Hydra Parasit' as the documents they've retrieved from the Hydra bases had called them. He marched out of the room and to the bomb bays where there were several of those 'Parasit' bombcrats left. Like the name would suggest it was shaped like an aircraft bomb, slightly larger than your average roadster and should have had the one-way range of about 1000-1800km. Walking over to the nearest one, he brushed the snow off the side.
"If they cut off one head, two more will take its place…"
And Steve smiled at the irony of it all.
"Boston, Massachuesettes." He read the words painted on the side of the bombcraft. "This one might still reach its destination. Just need some takeoff gear, and a runway. And If I remove the warhead, it might just be light enough for its small fuel capacity to reach Boston. Setting it all up might take a day or two, but it's not like I have anything better to do than eat German chocolates all day."
He'll keep the SOS from his radio on a loop while he worked on this, but having a solid plan was always a relief.
"It's worth a shot." he thought out loud, "Worst case scenario is that I'll end up in Canada. My French should be passable if a bit rusty."
He reached for his compass and realised that when the plane crashed, he had likely lost it along with the photo that he had kept.
"Peggy, I still owe you that dance." He spoke with a sigh before bringing up that metal ball out of his pocket instead. His blue eyes stared at it hard.
"And you are coming with me to SSR." He muttered to the lustrous metal ball. "Stark will love to take a crack at whatever you are."
"Hail Hydra!"
[The Ten Rings Headquarters, Somewhere in Asia]
Mattias 'Razor Fist' Xu knelt before the throne of his leader- the Mandarin, his adoptive father and founder of the Ten Rings.
And between them, sitting on a small cedar table, was a shiny metal ball just slightly smaller than a lemon- a set of four stars embossed on its otherwise mirror smooth surface.
The silence that permeated the throne room was making Mattias nervous to be honest. He liked to think he was a pretty big guy at 6' 4" (193cm) and over 200 pounds of pure muscle. But under the ancient eyes of his adoptive father who couldn't have been taller than 5'7" (170cm), he still felt like that small orphan boy on the streets of Romania.
And despite how they had no clue as to why they were assembled here, the gathered ranks of the Ten Rings stood in disciplined attention around them like the well-trained military battalion that they were. The Mandarin didn't pay anyone any mind though- he just continued to stare at the small metal ball appraisingly… before finally breaking the oppressive silence.
"Describe the dream that you had again, Mattias." His adoptive father commanded with a voice weightier than Mt. Tai, and Mattias obeyed.
"Last night I dreamed that I woke up in a dark, barren world." He began- keeping his head bowed, "The red sun in the sky was blocked in a permanent eclipse. All around, there was nothing but dark sand and shallow ponds… except for a mountain of black rock that towered up into the sky."
There was no audible muttering among the gathered men of the Ten Rings. They were too disciplined for that. But the way their eyes glanced at each other and made their subtle movements told Mattias that they were wondering where he was going with this dream. Mattias had seen some really weird shit during his time training and operating under the Mandarin. He'd fought all across the world, helped topple regimes, set up new ones, he'd even seen the legendary magical artefact that was Ten Rings itself in action. But this dream took the cake.
"Huge metal chains- each link the size of a house- stretched out from the horizons to secure something at the top of the mountain. And I felt drawn to climb the mountain. A seemingly never-ending set of stairs carved right into the ash-covered black stone. And at the summit of the mountain, I found a great dragon. A giant western-style dragon with scales that gleamed like metal. Larger than entire stadiums. Its limbs and wings were secured by those great chains. But most of all, it was fast asleep."
And still the throne room was silent, and the lingering fog of doubt still remained. However, Mattias was not about to disobey his master/adoptive father. So, he continued with his tale.
"Then a young girl garbed in strange clothings of purple and black swooped down from the sky on black raven's wings, and landed right beside the slumbering dragon's great maw. She looked straight at me with her eyes of sparkling emerald, and introduced herself."
"Her name was 'Fischl' and she regaled me of her many titles which I could no longer remember, but I do remember the titles 'The cursed Sentinel-Eternal of the Sakaarian Twilight Realm' and 'Keeper of the Stalwart Chains.' She also spoke of the sleeping dragon whose name could be closest translated to human language as 'The Heavenly Metal Dragon God Star Emperor.' "
"This Fischl spoke of how we mortals were all frogs in a well. Gazing uncomprehendingly at what little of the heavens we could see. But out of all who sit under heaven, I was an honoured one. And in my dream, she presented me with this orb. I beseeched her to explain what these orbs were and she answered that these orbs were the final, dying tears of long-dead stars crystalized in a form mortal minds could comprehend. These were seven keys that locked the Stalwart Chains of her Dragon God and kept him from ascending to the heavens beyond the heavens to battle his hated rivals as was ordained by the principles established in the before-times."
"By merely bearing this key, I am granted the smallest silver of the Dragon God's power, but as are six others. The keys seek each other out- pointing their bears towards each other. And whosoever gathers all seven keys shall be rewarded with their heart's desire by the grateful Dragon God… then I awoke. I woke to such immense Power that it felt like it would tear my body apart as some of the others in the barracks would attest. And when the surge of power receded, I found this orb laying on my chest, and immediately brought it to you, master."
"Demonstrate to the others the powers that orb grants you, Mattias." His father ordered while nodding to some attendants to the side to bring a thick steel beam to the centre of the throne room.
Following orders, Mattias picked up the small orb and placed it to the metal stump of his arm where it was securely held by the metal locks. And with a mere flex of his will, a solid blade of bright orange fire immediately sprang from the stump. It shifted across several fiery weapons: an axe, a whip, a spiked mace, a giant clawed hand… before finally settling on a simple Chinese dao broadsword. With a single effortless swing, Mattias bisected the steel beam as if it wasn't there.
Silence filled the room as the Mandarin allowed them to digest all the information. Then a junior member garbed in a plain black uniform- very brazenly and very foolishly- spoke the words that were lingering in all their minds…
"Isn't this just the plot of Dragon Ball?"
And in barely a blink of an eye, their leader launched a ring at the one who spoke that- sending him skidding across the grounds.
"Do not speak out of turn!" their ancient leader admonished the fallen member. "However, he is not incorrect. This does indeed sound like Dragon Ball. The original manga, I may add."
And Mattias held back a sigh, it still took him aback at times knowing that his adoptive dad knew this much about anime culture. This few thousand year old living myth and legend actually knew what Dragon Ball was, and even watched the whole saga. All this despite it being Mattias himself who was forced to explain to him the concept of anime and Dragon Ball to him after someone secretly smuggled a hard drive with all the series on it.
"However…" The Mandarin's firm voice spoke, "I will remind you all that many of modern day myths have their basis in actual people and objects- I would know, I am some of them. There is a possibility that the creator of the Dragon Ball manga, Toriyama-dono, secretly knows something more to this."
There was a sharp intake of breath all across the throne room as everyone figured out where this was going.
"Team Tiger, you are to fly to Japan to question him, but no permanent injuries." the Mandarin commanded to their elite assassination team- his voice climbing in volume, "But if he is too injured to continue Dragon Ball, I will pluck your eyes from your skulls and feed them to the ravens!"
The Mandarin cleared his throat before continuing- much more calmly this time.
"Also, my mint first edition copy is in the library, have him sign it and make it out to 'Wen'." He instructed Team Tiger, and that reminded Mattias of something. So, he raised his hand.
"Yes, Mattias?" His adoptive father asked calmly.
"Can I have my Dragon Ball Z copy signed too?" He tried to ask in his steadiest voice, and the Mandarin merely sighed.
"Very well," He graciously replied, "Whoever wishes to have their copies signed by Toriyama-dono, approach Team Tiger after this meeting."
There were murmurs of excitement among the crowds at the order.
And despite the threat of having their eyes plucked if they go too far, Mattias could still feel how Team Tiger was vibrating with excitement. A several week long, all-expenses paid trip to Japan to stalk and kidnap a world-famous mangaka? They were going to be the envy of the entire Ten Rings, and also their pity. Everyone was likely going to saddle them with their wishlists. Mattias himself needed the latest issue of Shonen Jump, and getting it fresh off the presses instead of having to do a long wait for it to ship overseas was always a treat.
"For those that will remain in the compound…" their master began, "Everyone is required to watch the entire saga from start to finish, and be prepared to aid Mattias."
He was ordering them to binge watch anime on company time? Well, Mattias wasn't going to complain. In fact, he knew for certain that no one in the Ten Rings was going to complain about that.
"Mattias, you must embark on this journey to find the rest of the Dragon Balls." His adoptive father commanded him- his steady brown eyes locking onto Mattias' blue ones, "Seek out the bearers of the other Dragon Balls, and when you do… know that you have our organisation's full might at your back."
"And keep a record of your journey." His adoptive father advised him, "We may be living in an actual anime and this is our chance to see it serialised before anyone else."
Mattias struggled to keep the fanboying in his head. He was a one-armed ninja with a blade for a hand, trained by a secret and ancient organisation and now he's going on a quest to gather the real life Dragon Balls! Holy fuck.
And as he walked off the compound, he heard it. The entire compound had come to see him off in their own way. About three hundred ninjas all garbed in different shades of black, shadow blue and shadow purple were standing on the roofs of the compound jumping and cheering and playing the Dragon Ball Z opening theme from their boomboxes.
And Mattias merely tipped his bamboo hat to them to hide his tears of happiness at how his entire family had come to cheer for him.
"Cha-La! Head-Cha-La!" He quietly sang along as he walked off into the sunset- his dark cape coolly fluttering behind him. Maybe he can get his manga named 'Razorfist.' Now all he needed was a smart and strong love interest like Bulma or Videl or maybe Android 18!
"Thank you for this opportunity, O' Heavenly Metal Dragon God Star Emperor." He prayed to the orb embedded into his arm, "I will earn my wish by freeing you from your Stalwart Chains."
Mattias Xu, the main character of his own Shonen anime adventure! He was living the dream!
[Texas, USA]
Clint Barton felt like he was just your normal family man- living the dream of that normal life.
He had a gorgeous wife and two beautiful kids that he adored. He had a nice homestead in Iowa, a stable job that had great benefits, some friends here and there.
But his job did get boring sometimes.
Clint- or 'Agent Hawkeye'- watched on the tablet as the SHIELD patrol of snowmobiles cruised through blizzard over the knee-deep snow that blanketed the ground. He waited until the patrol disappear behind the thick curtain of snow fall before he went back to his favourite pastime. Peeking out of his tent, he drew his bow and loosed an arrow at the bullseye he had hung on a tree 200m downrange.
"Never thought I'd hate Texas for its snowy weather." he muttered completely miserable as he spotted that his arrow was a whole third-inch off target. "Damn blizzard's throwing off my aim."
Clad in the thick, fur-lined winter uniform of a SHIELD agent, Clint was definitely not feeling like a happy camper as he stood guard on a small covered platform halfway up a cell tower. The makeshift tent that he had erected proved to have been less than insulating against the blizzard winds.
"All this for a hunk of space rock." He grunted as he tucked his hands under his arms to keep them warm.
Because just before the freak blizzard arrived here on Texas, SHIELD groundside radar detected a meteorite impacting in the Texan wilderness. Director Fury- not one to believe in coincidences- called the meteorite a possible 0-8-4, a SHIELD code for an object of unknown origin, and ordered them to retrieve it. Unfortunately, the precise impact site was lost in the super blizzard and they had to resort to sending out teams to dig around like they were searching for buried treasure- which wasn't far off to how it felt at the moment.
Worse yet, he couldn't realistically wear any more layers without turning himself into a sitting duck that couldn't even draw his bow, and if he was going to make his tent any warmer, he may as well put on a neon sign on his location announcing 'SHIELD Lookout here! Target me first with all your heat-seeking missiles!'
"It's almost as cold as that op in Siberia with Nat." he groused. And his thoughts couldn't help but go back to his partner. His now very pregnant partner who was very much not on the roster anymore. Not for the next eight months at least.
"SHIELD's best infiltration agent… on maternity leave." Clint muttered as he stuck his hands under his arms to warm them, "Who would have thunk it?"
Still, it was good that Nat personally called him herself to deliver the news of her pregnancy.
If Clint had received the news from anyone else that the conception of Natasha's baby was… less than consensual? They both knew that he would have gone AWOL just to hunt that sonuvabitch down himself. And if he was being completely honest, he had mixed feelings about Natasha's decision to keep the child, but he had never heard her so furious at even bringing up the option at all. Nat's shouting was still ringing in his ear after that particular call. He felt that Fury's advice was right for this one. At the end of the day, they were just concerned third parties, the choice was ultimately hers to make. And boy had she had her mind set!
"Natasha… with an actual family of her own." Clint mused, and he couldn't help but smile for his friend. "Yeah, she always dreamed about that idea… never thought she'd get that chance, but here we are. But I get it, Nat… I really do."
After all, he had a family of his own. And the prospect of having a baby- your own flesh and blood- on the way? Just the thought changes something in a person. The changes differ from person to person, but the change is always there. And speaking of the family… Clint fished out a small notepad from his pocket and checked his shopping list.
"Got to remember to bring back that authentic cow leather cowboy hat for my boy..." Clint muttered as he ran his icicle of a finger over the list, "Leather cowboy boots for my missus… size seven and at least three pairs in different styles. And for my little princess, she wants a… pony? Yeah right. Can't she want the new iPhone like all the normal little girls her age?"
And it was at that precise moment, his in-ear comms crackled with an incoming transmission.
"Agent Hawkeye, do you read?!" Agent Coulson- the commanding officer for this operation in Texas- notified him urgently, and Barton immediately tucked his shopping list back in his pocket.
It was game time.
"Agent Hawkeye reading you loud and clear, sir." Clint reported with a grunt as his thickly-gloved hands pulled up a reinforced black tablet. A tablet that was linked to thermal sensors on his little roost atop this cell tower he was on, if anything warmer than a snowman walked within a 4-mile radius of his camp, he'd see them.
"Any thermal signatures coming up?" Coulson's voice questioned through Clint's in-ear comms.
"Sir, I'm getting no readings on the thermal sensors." He reported, swiping through the sensor feeds. "Nothing apart from the SHIELD outpost that is…"
And immediately, Clint realised what was wrong: Didn't he just watch a snowmobile patrol pass by a few minutes earlier?
"Check again at azimuth 170." Coulson instructed him, and he angled the sensors to focus to the south of south-east. And he found… nothing. The tablet's screen showed him but nothing violet- nothing warmer than snow was out there.
"Still nothing, sir." He reported back to Agent Coulson- unsure if that was good news or bad, "No heat sources at all: No snowmobile engines, no body heat from wildlife, not even hot gun barrels… nothing."
There was a stretch of silence as Agent Coulson didn't respond- likely coordinating with the others at the SHIELD outpost.
"We haven't had any call-ins about vehicular breakdowns, so it's likely that our snowmobile patrol team has been taken out." Coulson concluded- the tightness in his voice making his anger at losing good men and women apparent.
"Possibility that it's faulty comms, sir?" Clint tried to calm down his commanding officer.
"Faulty comms?" the older man parroted, "From all eight of them? I don't think so. Got any ideas on how these snow ghosts managed to eliminate everyone without showing up on the thermal sensors?"
Clint thought about it for a moment- his blue eyes peering out of his tent and into the heavy blizzard.
"Well, sir… unless we have ice giants attacking us, our patrol likely fell from sniper fire coming from beyond the thermal sensor's 4 mile radius. So, I recommend sounding the alarm- the outer perimeter seems to have been breached."
"Fine, I'll sound the alarm." Coulson immediately replied, "Regroup at the outpost, agent; but leave the thermal sensors running, we may need them yet. Report to me directly when you get here."
"Will do, sir. Agent Hawkeye out." Clint responded, already moving to pack up everything inside his tent into his hiking backpack. "Portable oven top, check. C4 explosives, check. Coffee thermos, check. Sleeping bag, che-"
*Clink*
And just as he was hurriedly folding his sleeping bag up, something fell out of it and onto the metal grating. Clint's sharp eyes immediately saw what it was: A shiny metal ball just slightly smaller than a lemon- with five stars embossed on its otherwise mirror smooth surface. Curiously, he scooped it onto his hand. It was still warm to touch, so it must have spent the night with him in his sleeping bag. And it hadn't killed him, so it wasn't a bomb. It was pretty light too- so likely aluminium. And it felt too solid to be a listening device, so…
"Looks like a knick-knack. Must belong to one of the guys back at base." he muttered as he placed it in his winter coat's pocket. And just like that, he began the climb down the cell tower's pretty sparse ladder. The three minute climb down felt like an hour as the blizzard wind was beating away at him like a boxer was punching at him through his thick fur coat.
"I hate Texan blizzards." He grunted as he finally reached the bottom to where his own snowmobile was parked- almost completely buried in snow now.
But thankfully, the snowmobile started just fine.
And he soon found himself speeding through the Texan woodlands deep in winter. But of course, he kept his bow out and his eyes peeled. That SHIELD patrol got ambushed on their snowmobiles just miles away from where he currently was. But at least, he felt a bit safe in the woods. This forest filled with its tall Texas oak trees should obscure most sightlines against snipers, but it would work against him and his bow if he got engaged in close range. But it's not like he was going to run into any-
"Ice giants!" He shouted in disbelief as a group of them appeared from behind the snow-covered oaks tree. Their chiselled blue-skinned physique stood shirtless at a towering 10 feet (3m) tall, and judging from the toothy snarls they were aiming at him, they didn't look particularly happy to see him.
Naturally, Clint's first course of action was to make a sharp U-turn away.
"C'MON! I was just kidding about the ice giants!" He roared up into the sky to whatever god had decided to take a dump on him today. Immediately, he used the emergency channel in his in-ear comms.
"Uh, SIR!?" He shouted over the howl of the blizzard. "I found the guys who ambushed the patrol team, or more accurately, they found me!"
"Agent, do you have a visual of your assailants!?" Coulson immediately asked just as Clint saw them sprinting towards him in the side mirrors of his snowmobile. His trusty bow already in hand, he loosed an arrow at one of the giants at the distance- striking the lead giant on the chest. But it did no damage whatsoever as the arrow merely bounced off the charging giant's chest as if the arrow was made of foam.
"Dammit! I sure do, sir!" Clint responded- glancing behind him to the giants that were somehow almost keeping up with his snowmobile, "They're big! And blue! And ten-feet-tall! And-"
And Clint made a turn just in time to dodge a massive spear of ice launched at him.
"-They throw spears of ice as big as lamposts!" He shouted into his comms- his voice starting to lose its cool as more and more of them sprinted out from the forest. He unholstered his pistol and unloaded the whole magazine on the closest giant and succeeded… in slightly injuring him. Just grazes and shallow wounds.
"Dammit, the pistol's calibre is too small!" Clint grunted as more and more ice spears rained down around him, but thankfully, he was gaining a bit more distance from them. "Sir? Got about twenty of them sprinting after me! Could use some backup right about n- Oof!"
Unfortunately, an ice spear landed just in front of him and he was unable to turn the snowmobile in time- sending him flying off and skipping across the thankfully soft snow.
Thankfully, his bow wasn't damaged either- letting him loose another arrow. And Clint watched as the incendiary arrow struck another unafraid giant, but this time, the arrow ignited on impact and burned a 2000C hole through the ice giant's chest. A smoke-filled croak escaped its lips before it collapsed falling into the snow. The good news was that they weren't invulnerable, but the bad news was that was his only incendiary arrow.
"Woah!" Clint exclaimed as he dove into the snow to just barely avoid the volley of ice spears as they stuck to the ground all around him.
And it was then that Clint knew that things weren't looking too good. Nineteen giants in front of him, goodness knows how many more in the forest around him. His main and secondary weapons didn't work on them. The thigh-deep snow couldn't let him move at walking speed, much less run. His in-ear comms fell out as well. But he wasn't out of options just yet- he had some C4 in his pack. …Which- if his eyes didn't deceive him- were all the way over there with his totaled snowmobile.
Alright, so maybe he was completely out of options.
As for Clint himself? Well, he wasn't some supersoldier. He wasn't like Captain America. He didn't have the strength of ten men, or a shield made of the rarest metal on earth. All he had were steady hands, really good eyesight and some skill with the bow… A bow that had snapped in half under an ice spear.
"Can't die here…" He grunted as pushed himself off the snow and onto his feet, "Nat and the missus would kill me if I did."
The shadows of his would-be killers were visible in the distance through the blizzard's snowfall as they casually approached. This was their element and they knew it.
Never before had he felt so helpless- so powerless, and so human and so fragile. But most of all… never before had he so badly wished that he could fight like Captain America. He wished for even a fraction of that power. Not so that he can go around punching nazis in France like Captain America did, Clint just wanted the power to come home to his wife and kids.
And that's when he felt it.
"Aaagghh!" He grunted from the pain of something searing the skin on his leg. The metal ball that he had picked up became increasingly hot- so hot that it felt like it was going to burn a hole through his leg. And he hurriedly jammed his hand into his pocket to dump the ball into the snow. But no sooner did his gloved fingers wrap around the ball…
Power
Power like nothing Clint had ever felt before exploded from the metal ball- it was like someone had stuffed an entire tornado into a syringe and shot it straight into his arteries. Every nerve in his body screamed in victory, every muscle burned with strength, and his bones ached like they were being glued together with pure metal. His eyes itched as his vision grew sharper- able to pick out even the details of the ice giant's tattoos through the heavy snowfall. His ears throbbed as crisp sound began reaching once deaf left ear.
Then the mother of all adrenaline rushes came.
He no longer cared if these giants were ten-feet-tall or a hundred! Might. It didn't matter if there were twenty of them or a thousand! Clint motherfucking Barton wasn't abandoning his wife to a life without her husband, nor was he going to abandon his kids! Makes. He'll take down these giants! He'll take them all down with his bare fists if that's what it took! No one stood between him and his family! No one! And this incredible surge of strength rekindled something deep inside him- an ambition. Right. And his ambition? He was going to give his family the best life they can possibly have! He was going to make the world a better place!
Not knowing why- only knowing that it 'felt right,' Clint gripped that metal ball tightly in his palm as he lifted it out of his pocket. And immediately, the ball molded itself within his hand- stretching out itself this way and that until Clint found himself holding a solid metal bow complete with a bowstring.
And looking at his new weapon, Clint gave an incredulous laugh as he shook his head.
"This is definitely one of those insane over-the-top comic book superhero moments." He grunted, just rolling with weird magic as he lightly test-plucked the bowstring of his new bow with a finger, "But I'm not complaining. Last chance, giants. Surrender and SHIELD will treat you fairly."
Somehow, Clint just knew that he could take them on. That he could take them all on.
And watching him with bright red eyes were those blue ten-feet-tall ice giants as they stood in the howling blizzard. They bared their teeth at him as the frost swirled in their hands to form swords, axes and spears made of pure ice. And despite him being armed with a bow again, they continued to advance- fully intent on overwhelming them with numbers as they burst into movement.
And so did Clint.
Clint didn't know what exactly the metal ball did to his eyes, but he did see the results. His blue eyeballs saw it all in fact: He saw all 26 ice giants behind the blinding white curtain of heavy snowfall,, he saw the first ice giant crunched the snow as he took the first step forward, he saw every detail of those intricate tattoos that snaked all over the ice giant's torso and finally… Clint saw the precise moment when his arrow pierced through the spiral-shaped tattoo over the ice giant's heart and straight out his back.
90 metres. That's all Clint had between him and the charging giants. He nocked another arrow.
"You had all better stop!" Clint shouted the warning to the rest of the giants. Not that it did anything though, they barely glanced at the collapsing giant before they were charging at him with their red eyes focused straight at him and their basketball-sized fists clenched around the handles of the massive ice weapons they're intending to murder Clint with.
70 metres. Two giants stumbled dead into the snow with arrows through their eye sockets.
50 metres. Two more giants fell as Clint's new magic bow launched arrows at speeds that shouldn't be possible with normal physics. The bow was launching arrows with almost as much energy as a bullet.
30 metres. Four more giants fell, and their eighteen friends were still unharmed. And despite the clear upgrade with his weapon, Clint started thinking of ways out of this. Because the rest of the giants were now raising weapons over their heads, intent on hacking him into bloody bits on the snow-
*BLAM*
-but stopped in their tracks as a shot whistled over their heads.
"Frost Giants!" A new voice bellowed from the distance as the muffled thudding of a horse in full sprint announced the newcomer's approach.
On a muscled-up brown warhorse, his ally arrived- the portrait of the quintessential cowboy looking like he had jumped out of those old-style western movie posters. From the cowboy hat to the spurred leather boots to the riding chaps, this guy was the most cowboy anyone could ever be. Not surprising that one would be wandering around despite the SHIELD cordon, this was Texas after all. But what did surprise Clint was how the 'Frost Giants' reacted to the mounted horseman's arrival.
"Thor Odinson." The frost giant at the head of them growled with their deep voice as they clearly recognised the cowboy by face. "How fortuitous. We held the faint hope that we would encounter you on our quest here on Midgard… We will behead you just as you had done to our leader Laufey, then leave your corpse for the ravens."
And all Clint could wonder was 'how and why was a Texan cowboy enemies with these frost giants?'
"This war is between Asgard and Jotunheim," This 'Thor' replied as he trotted his horse between Clint and the giants- the cowboy's blue eyes glancing at Clint for a brief moment before looking back to the giant, "Leave the people of Midgard out of this."
The frost giants snarled at the cowboy for the suggestion.
"The realm of Midgard will be sufficient reparations for the treachery of your 'King Loki.' the lead Frost Giant scowled, "But, all the same, we shall retrieve the Casket of Ancient Winters after your 'King Loki' reneged on his bargain and attempted to steal it back from us."
"No!" Clint heard Thor vehemently denied, "Loki would never-"
"Strike a deal with us?" the Frost Giant offered with a mocking sneer, "Sell your slumbering father's life in exchange for our aid in conquering the rest of the Nine Realms? You brutish, but naive prince. It will be our pleasure to cure you of your ignorance… permanently."
"Loki will answer for this." Thor promised before aiming his eyes at the frost giants, "However, that can wait until after your defeat."
And the frost giants grinned a vicious grin that told Clint that they knew something he didn't.
"The power of your hammer is no longer yours to command, Son of Odin." he heard them taunt the cowboy whose face fell silent. "You are without your greatest strength."
"Mjolnir is no longer mine to wield, that is true." Thor's soft whisper rang clear even through the blizzard winds, then his voice rose in a jubilant shout. "But I am not without the means to defend myself! Behold, my new hammers!"
And with that shout, he upholstered two large revolvers- polished and gilded with gold- from his hip and raised them high above his head.
"The Járngreipr!" He proclaimed with a triumphant grin. "The 500th weapon in the arsenal of the legendary Midgardian warsmiths, Smith and Wesson!"
"I am Thor, Son of Odin! Guardian of the Lone Star Realm!" the cowboy announced- aiming his revolvers at the giants. "And for as long as I have breath in my chest and strength in my arms, you shall not mess with Tex-As!"
And for some inexplicable reason, Clint saw that the frost giants were looking seriously intimidated by cowboy Thor's revolvers more than they ever had when Clint shot them with his own pistol. Maybe the higher calibre was far more threatening to them?
But the frost giants seemed to find their balls as they just snarled back at the cowboy.
"Son of Odin, we shall-"
Anyway, Thor started blasting.
*BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM*
"YEEEEEEEE HAAWWW!" Thor shouted triumphantly with his strange accent over the thunder of his revolvers. And Clint took that as his cue to also start loosing arrows as well.
The initial barrage of .50 calibre bullets and magically-accelerated arrows saw many of the giants crumpling to the ground dead. However, that didn't deter the rest of them- fearlessly surging into action. Some managed to hurl their spears of ice, others with their icy weapons in hand charged him and Thor. Still, Clint noticed that they were cutting through those frost giants like a hot knife through butter, and he wasn't too prideful to admit that this 'Thor' was shooting down giants faster than Clint could.
But out of the corner of his sharp eye, Clint noticed something strange about his new ally. Because though he wasn't the most knowledgeable when it came to guns (Nat was), he was still sure that no revolver in the current market didn't sound like actual thunder or had the muzzle flash that looked like blue lightning. But maybe the guy who was using the magic shape-shifting bow shouldn't throw stones about peculiar weapons.
Then a shadow moved in the corner of his eye, and Clint turned just in time to see a giant that had circled around to attack him from the rear- a plan that had seemingly worked because Clint didn't have an arrow currently nocked.
"Raagggghh!" A frost giant roared over Clint as the giant's icy axe swung down in an over-head aimed to split Clint head-to-toe. Reflexively, he brought up the metal bow in an effort to block or at least deflect the attack. Clint had expected the bow to not break- magic as it was, meanwhile his fragile human bones would break from the force. So imagine the look on his face when the bow took the giant's axe swing head on, and all Clint felt was a gentle push on the bow. The frost giant apparently didn't expect it either- hesitating just for a full second.
*BLAM*
And a second was all Thor needed to put a bullet through the giant's cranium.
"Oof!" Clint grunted out as the giant's ten-foot-tall heavy body crumpled on top of him. He was pretty sure that the metal ball enhanced his strength. Enough to not get completely crushed by the half-tonne corpse, but not to the point where he could push it off him.
Thankfully, his new ally, Thor, helped with that- dismounting from his horse and gave the corpse an almost casual push. And Clint sighed in relief on the snow.
"Are you injured, bowman?" Thor asked as he extended a hand to Clint.
"Considering all the surprises today? Surprisingly uninjured." Clint grunted back as he took the offered hand- hoisting him up to his feet again. "And call me Clint."
"Well met, Clint!" Thor smiled back- tipping his leather cowboy hat to him.
Then came the awkward part, because SHIELD protocol dictates that he take Thor in for questioning. Alienating or engaging Thor didn't seem to be the brightest idea, but Clint knew that SHIELD needed someone who actually knew what the hell was going on. So, all Clint could do now was ask as politely as he could.
"Hey… Thor was it?" Clint called out to the cowboy, "These guys seemed to know you. Would you mind if you come with me back to our outpost and fill us in on… all this?"
He spread his arms to gesture to all the dead frost giants laying in the snow around them.
"Outpost?" Thor repeated- a serious look coming to his features and his blue eyes peering at Clint from underneath the brim of his cowboy hat, "You are a sworn defender of the Lone Star Realm?"
And despite being a bit weirded out by the strange choice of words, Clint nodded.
"Texas is within our jurisdiction to protect, yes?" he informed the cowboy- glad that he didn't have to lie about it. It was true after all: SHIELD did have jurisdiction over all fifty-states. And special, provisional jurisdiction in a few other places as well.
"Then take me to your commander." Thor immediately urged him, "We must warn him of the frost giants' plot! The Casket of Ancient Winters must be found before it turns all the realm into as desolate of a frozen wasteland as Jotunheim!"
Clint didn't know where Jotunheim was, but knowing the source for the super-blizzard was already more information than SHIELD had.
"Yep, this would be a lot easier if I found my in-ear comms." Clint muttered as he tried to find where it fell, but the odds weren't good in this blizzard, "Dropped it when the frost giants were chasing me."
"I believe there is someone who can aid in locating your communications device." Thor reassured as he walked over to his horse, and Clint sighed as he glanced down to his magic bow.
Between the freak magical super-blizzard, the frost giants with their ice magics, and his own magic metal bow, Clint was prepared for more weird things to happen. So, he prepared himself for the moment that Thor was going to reveal that his horse was going to be some super-powered horse that could locate small things by scent. But no.
Somehow, it was even weirder than that.
Thor reached over to a medium-sized canvas sack sitting on the back of his horse, pulled open the top and the last thing that Clint could have expected came out: the childish voice of what appeared to be an eight-year-old girl.
"P-paimon is so fr-freezing!" the girl who was ostensibly sitting inside the sack whined as Thor looked into it.
"With luck on our side, our next pull shall include some warm clothes for you." Thor reassured her, "But for now, we require your aid in searching for a lost item."
"Paimon r-really doesn't w-want to go outside!" She stammered- her tiny pale hands trying to pull the sack's opening closed, "T-Thor! Please c-close it!"
She didn't sound like she was any older than Clint's own daughter… why did Thor take a kid along with him to fight these giants? That was incredibly irresponsible, and Clint felt his anger rise… only for him to push it back down. He needed to take a step back and look at the big picture. The girl was likely someone from around here that Thor saved.
"Forgive me, my friend." Thor apologised and sounded like he meant it too, "But we urgently need your help, you are the only one who can find the item in this blizzard."
"Muuu~ F-fine!" the girl sounded like she was audibly pouting. And out of the canvas sack, a small snowy-haired child, looking no older than five-years-old, came floating out as if gravity was just a suggestion for her. She wore a little white and pink dress and a cape that looked like a starry night sky. And wherever she flew, little motes of interconnected light like twinkling constellations appeared and disappeared in the air in her wake.
"A fairy?" Clint muttered in disbelief just as the fairy girl noticed that he was there. And with a little 'Eep!' she darted to hide behind Thor. Her wide dark purple eyes peered at him over Thor's broad shoulder- making the cowboy chuckle good-heartedly.
"Clint, may I introduce you to my travelling companion, Paimon." Thor smiled before glancing to the fairy, "Paimon. This is Clint, a bowman of great skill. Fret not, he is a good man. I can feel it."
Were all Texan cowboys this friendly and quick to trust? Or did this Thor in particular have some magic senses that made him say that? Clint wouldn't consider himself a good man… He was just a guy doing what he felt was the right thing to do.
"Erm… if Thor says so then it must be true!" Paimon floated forward to extend her hand to him, "Nice to meet'cha, Clint!"
"Yeah… nice to meet you too." Clint replied, absolutely nonplussed as he shook her tiny hand. This day just kept getting weirder and weirder and weirder.
"What did you need Paimon to find?" She asked, tilting her head, "Paimon is great at finding lost things, but uhhh… only if it's close by! It is close by, right?"
"Yeah, it should be around here somewhere." Clint nodded- gesturing to the heavy snow, "Little black earpiece that-"
And before he could finish describing it, this 'Paimon' darted around- flying here and there against the blizzard winds for a few seconds before swooping down. Her tiny palm reached into the snow and scooped up a familiar black in-ear comms piece.
"Paimon found it!" She declared- holding the comms piece over her head before flying to Clint and handing it to him.
"Thanks, let me just make a quick call to the Outpost." He thanked her while patting the snow off the little black earbud.
"SHIELD outpost, this is Agent Hawkeye." Clint spoke into the comms, and immediately got his response.
"Agent Hawkeye, you cut off for a while there…" Agent Coulson's voice once again spoke through the in-ear comms. And more importantly, the phrase 'you cut off for a while there' was a SHIELD Counter-Sign. Something to prove that he was the real Agent Hawkeye and not an audio recording. And the code-phrase for that was…
"Must have been the wind, sir." Clint spoke clearly into the comms, and he heard Agent Coulson sigh in relief.
"Good to have you back, Agent Hawkeye." Coulson replied- the relief colouring his voice as he was glad to hear Clint was safe. Because if Clint responded with 'It must have been interference,' it would have been a code-phrase that he was being held at gunpoint, and wanted to subtly clue SHIELD to send an extraction team without giving it away to anyone listening in. "Report, Agent. Have you shaken off your pursuers or dealt with them?"
"Sir, you wouldn't believe me." Clint reckoned as he glanced at Thor and Paimon.
"Try me." Coulson firmly responded- sounding amused. And Clint took a deep breath before launching into his explanation of recent events.
"A Norwegian cowboy with his enchanted S&W Model 500s arrived to fight off the Frost Giants who were here for a magical artefact that was making the blizzard. Then the cowboy's fairy helped me find my comms." Clint explained, before remembering about his new bow, "And a magic metal ball binded to me and transformed into a bow for me."
And for almost a good full minute, the comms were silent.
"Understood." Agent Coulson reassured, "I'll send a hazmat team in case there is hallucinogenic gas in the area. We'll have medical on stand-by to deal with your hallucinations. Just stay put in your location, we'll arrive soon, agent."
And Clint just sighed as the connection ended, leaving him alone with his new allies.
"They said that they'll be here soon." Clint notified the cowboy and fairy, who both broke in bright smiles at the news.
"I hope they have lots of food!" Paimon cheered- wiggling excitedly as she floated in the air, "Paimon is starving from all the cold!"
"Hah, if Volstagg was present, he would challenge you to a feasting contest!" the cowboy guffawed from one of his own references that Clint couldn't make heads or tails of.
"Paimon can take him on!" the fairy declared as she thrust her tiny fist high over her head- earning a laugh from the cowboy. Clint simply looked at them without saying anything- content to just observe from a distance. The arrival of these two was going to change the world, and Clint could already feel Director Fury's blood pressure rising, because SHIELD was going to go through some interesting times these next few days. And the director hated it when things got interesting.
And Clint could only think 'Better him than me.'
After all, he liked his home life to be nice and quiet. After this circus here in Texas, it'll be a hell of a relief to go back to his family in that quiet little rural town where nothing happened and otherworldly visitors didn't come and leave dangerous artefacts laying around.
[Nova Empire Planet C-71] (Two days later)
Klee dashed through the glowy blue portal and onto the world that she had finished bombing a few hours ago.
It was a great view too! The Sakaarian Fleet was burning and exploding everything on this world. Something about 'scorched earth tactics' and 'strategic planetary genocide.' But that mostly meant that Hev wanted Klee to make the whole world explode really good. And right there in front of her, sitting on top of this really tall tower was Hev in his huuuge metally dragon body. His long shiny metal neck turned so that his huge dragon head could look at her.
"Hev! Hev! Hev!" She called out, jumping excitedly in place- waving at him so that she was sure he could see her. He was so huge after all.
"Yes Klee?"
"I want to go to school!" She shouted up at him. And she did. She really did. She'd never been to a place where it was full of other kids too!
Hev only looked like he was really thinking it over too. And she really liked Hev for that. Not like Jean who says 'No, Klee.' right away, Hev really wants to try and let her do what she wants and make her happy. And that's why Klee really wanted Hev to be happy with her too!
"Oh? Where did you hear about school anyway? I'm quite certain that I've already gathered up most of the kids your age on this planet for the dry run of Project Fortnite."
"I met a girl at that house in Eye-Oh-Ah that you marked to have someone my age." Klee immediately burbled happily, "Lila was real fun to talk to. She liked fluffy things too, and her dad was going to give her a pony when he came back from Texas, but that was going to take a while so I gave her a Mini Jumpy Dumpty while she waited!"
"You actually went to the Barton household in Iowa? I only marked her for Project Fortnite for the giggles. But this is a convenient coincidence, because according to this Tower, having more waifus on earth may just be what I need."
"Oh!" Klee shouted in surprise as she ran to the edge of the tower and looked down, "This one looks like the upgraded Grandmaster's Tower at Sakaar!"
"It's called the Dragon Tower now. But yes, it is."
"What's the tower 'sposed to do, Hev?" She asked, and that reminded Klee of something she's been seeing a couple of times before. "And why do you keep making them on every planet we explode?"
But Hev just smiled at her and gently pat her head with his giant claw.
"Oh, just boring grown up work. Nothing to worry about."
And Klee believed him, last time she asked what the boring grown up work was, Hev had her with auntie Sylvie listening to smelly old people talk on and on about 'politics of the Nine Realms' and 'mass extortion.'
"Uh…" She hummed hesitantly while looking at her boots, "So, can Klee go to school, pretty please, Hev? Klee really wants to go!"
"Sure, why not? But only on the condition that you only use the special explosives we made together."
"You mean the one with the IFF Hevnokrenite fuses?" Klee yelled out in disbelief, "But they only make some things explode!"
"The only reason it makes only 'some' things explode is because that's the whole point of the Identify-Friend-or-Foe (IFF) feature: so that I can personally choose what your bomb explosion can affect during the time of detonation. And I had only started to enforce that measure upon you because of the incident you started the other day. I certainly did not appreciate your attempt to blow up the people apologising to you for making Johanna sick while you were all still inside my [Dragon Cabin]."
"Ehehehe… Klee forgot all about that? Uh, oopsie?" She scratched the back of her head. Then she bowed low at the waist to show that she was sorry. "Klee is really, really sorry again for almost making you explode from the inside out, Hev!"
"It's fine… Parents should be strong enough to withstand their children's less-than-intelligent antics after all. You're lucky that my Hevnokrenite is sturdier than any of your bombs, otherwise that nuke would have actually done some damage… Just don't try it again."
She nodded eagerly.
"Klee just got really angry and got carried away!" She apologised again. She will try really hard to remember this time. She always felt really bad whenever she hurts people she care about with her bombs. "Klee won't ever forget her promise to not to try to explode super nukes inside you ever again, Hev!"
Hev just gently patted her head with his giant metal claw again.
"Good girl Klee. Like I said before, Earth is very important. So, I can't have you exploding the planet too much. So, either I can choose which things and people your bombs can blow up, or you go to school without bombs at all."
"IFF Hevnokrenite fuses are fine, Hev." Klee nodded. They weren't the most explodey bombs, but if it meant that Hev felt happy if she used them, then it made Klee happy too.
"Just give me a few more days to research it and they'll be better than your normal bombs. But for now, I'll just make a call to your Auntie Mercy, and she'll help set things up with the help of her iron friend. And that means you and Johanna and maybe a few others get to spend some time together at your new school."
"Yipee!" She cried out in excitement as she wrapped her whole body around Hev's huge claw in a super hug, "You're the best Hev! I'm going to go celebrate by giving everyone on Sakaar some nice bombs!"
"Wait, stay here for a while, Klee. It's just about time."
"Oh, okay!" She chirped while smiling, just happy to be with Hev and watch the pretty fires and explosions in the distance from the top of this really tall tower. She didn't know what time it was going to be, but Klee hoped that it was something special!
And just as she was about to sit down on the edge with Hev, something really unexpected happened. Right in front of Klee's eyes, a very familiar woman appeared out of thin air laying on the metal floor of the tower. Pretty blonde hair in a ponytail. Shiny black coat. Blue eyes whipping around to look before setting on Klee.
"J-Johanna!?" Klee choked out, her mouth suddenly feeling dry.
"Klee!" Johanna yelled out as she rushed forward and swept Klee up in a tight hug. "Did you evacuate safely?"
And Klee couldn't answer. It felt like she was frozen stiff- like her mind stopped altogether. Her eyes just staring at the patch of sky over Johanna's shoulder- the blonde ponytail swaying at the corner of her eye. It felt like she still couldn't believe it: She couldn't believe that Johanna was back.
"Your emergency warp worked as intended. Klee arrived to me just in time, and we've been waiting for you to… get well for almost three whole days."
Three days… something about those words made something click in the back of Klee's mind. And Klee didn't know why, but tears welled up in her eyes as she threw her arms around Johanna as wide as she could.
"J-Johanna was really sick!" Klee blurted out between choking sobs, "And Klee was so wo-worried!"
She gripped at Johanna's coat with her small fingers- wanting to make sure that she never leaved Klee alone again.
"K-Klee really missed you!" She hiccuped- trying not to cry on Johanna's black coat that Klee thought was so nice.
"I missed you too, meine tochter." Klee heard Johanna whisper softly. And Klee didn't understand some of the words that Johanna said. But for some reason, it made her really happy hearing them anyway. But Klee didn't know why she was still crying so hard?
"It's alright to cry." Johanna reassured her as she stroked Klee's back, "It's alright."
And Klee only hugged Johanna as tight as she could- sobbing into her shoulder as if Klee had been feeling really really sad without knowing it herself. But Johanna's gentle hand was there on her back- stroking gently and leaving warm trails. And with her eyes closed like this, Klee felt like she was hugging her mom again. Felt like Klee was safe and warm and not lonely anymore.
But most of all… it felt like she never left Klee.
"It is going to be okay." Johanna whispered into her ear- just patting Klee's back with her warm hand, "Johanna is here for you, Klee. Johanna is here."
"We're here for you, Klee."
And Klee… she couldn't help but cry harder, because she really, really, really missed those feelings.
- Chapter 17: The Mystical Adventure for the Dragon's Balls End -
Chapter 18: Klee's First Day of School! soon…
…
AN:
I am so sorry for the long chapter… Also, I hope you're not all sick and tired of Klee.
Behold! Cowboy Thor and Paimon… With Hev diverging Asgard and Sakaar from canon, Thor needed a new direction for his character arc. Blame Red Dead Redemption 2 for making cowboys look so cool.
Never trust a wish-granting artefact… It can only end horribly just ask anyone from the Nasuverse.
Dragon Ball Candidate Selection Explanations…
1st Ball: Tony Stark… Tony can actually be a pretty threatening villain when he wants to. And he was just a push away from going down that path. Also, more powerful Iron Man suits! Gundam anyone? Yay!
2nd Ball: [Disputed]… Could be T'Challa, could be Shuri, could be Killmonger, could be Okoye. Leaving the 2nd Dragon Ball unclaimed was an effort on my part to make Wakanda more interesting. I had initially considered T'Challa to be the one to bear the 2nd Ball, and try to make Wakanda into a beacon of light in an increasingly chaotic earth. But then I remembered an old movie about African tribalism that I watched as a kid that had taught me a valuable lesson in life. After all, things are easy when there is a lot of Vibranium to go around… but now? There is only one Dragon Ball in Wakanda.
3rd Ball: Loki… I felt that this was a natural pick with all the superheroes getting power ups. But I don't want his arc to be that predictable, especially since Sylvie is very much active and sitting on the Throne of Asgard.
4th Ball: Razorfist… Going to lean on that Xianxia homage. Also, we need at least one bearer who has watched Dragon Ball. Because remember, the Dragon Ball series canonically exists in the MCU. Check the wiki, it does!
5th Ball: Hawkeye… One of the truly good characters, and underrated too. He's a decent man, but it only takes one really bad day to break a decent man and turn him into something else… Also, Stealth archer build is OP.
6th Ball: Steve Rogers… A natural pick. Even I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but having Hev whispering through the ball is bound to push Steve into interesting directions. Steve Rogers had a pretty weak character arc after the first movie in my opinion.
7th Ball: Oops… now where did that seventh star ball go? Huehuehuehue.
…
Yes, yes. Flipflopping between Murderous Rape Dragon and Best Dad… But I like to think this was more about Klee's and Johanna's character arc than Hev's.
Fellow author 'The Dark Wolf Shiro' has a discord server where I hang around… with, I quote from him, 'a bunch of other authors and a load of porn.' Here's the link for that: discord .gg/wd3tUYWVCd