Avenging Justice:

Two Worlds Collide

Part XXVIII

Earth, High Earth Orbit

Four adventurers stared down at their home world below. A dark spot had opened up over the south eastern part of New York. Radio signals from below were full of outrageous reports, things that just couldn't be true. Yet, as they watched, the evidence was there. Aliens were invading, and if it wasn't so horrible, it would be fascinating.

Their craft was being partly controlled, and their flight documented in one of the buildings below. It cost Reed dearly to hold onto the building, but it was worth it. From there he could safely do experiments, and the research he so desired. The cost of moving all his equipment and in process experiments would have cost him several fortunes. At least if he was going to do the move right.

As such, he had to sometimes ask for help from an old friend, with that term being used very loosely. Victor Von Doom was one of the few people in the world that could match him in intelligence. Like Tony Stark, Victor was able to do whatever he wanted, thanks to wealth and his position in Latveria. So, of course he was perfect to fund Reed's expedition. It had only taken Susan a few hours to convince him, because Reed knew what would happen. Victor would lay claim to all their findings.

The good thing, was even if he did, it would push Reed's own discoveries to the limit. He'd be able to make more discoveries, and those were things that Victor couldn't take away. As long as he had Susan, the Baxter Building, and Ben's friendship, he was okay. They were his family, one chosen, one a part of his soul, and he even had a soft spot for Johnny. A hotshot, the young man had an excess of confidence and a fiery personality.

"We should be safe up here," Reed Richards explained. "Ben, will you keep an eye on our orbit? Johnny back him up. Susan, I need your help with this. This storm will only come once in a lifetime."

"Leave it to Professor Fancy Pants to be more interested in glowing space radiation, than an actual alien invasion!" Johnny Storm grumbled as he took the seat next to Ben Grim.

The down to earth, and rock solid Ben chastised him, "Can it, Junior. Reed's right, this is a once in a lifetime. We can't do anything from up here, and do even less down there. Once it's over they'll need eggheads like your sister and Reed."

"Reed!" Susan called out.

He swam over to her in the zero gravity of space, "What is it?"

"I just checked the sensors, that stream is heading straight for us," she explained. "According to the equations, we should have another hour or two."

Reed went over the computer read outs, scanning over them at a mile a minute. Windows popped up and lowered, readings spiked across instrument graphs and his heart sank. In his spine, he felt a cold hollow form, and worked its way up to the base of his skull. He pulled up another window with their flight calculations. Reed felt the engine start, even as he realized it wasn't going to be in time. They would have needed to start moving an hour ago.

"Doom's technicians didn't use my updated calculations," Reed said softly, his eyes flicking to Sue. "I'm so sorry."

"We're not dead yet, Johnny, you take the other controls," Ben commanded. "When I tell you to pull, you pull! We're going to outfly this thing."

Outside orientation rockets fired, turning their custom built vessel on its axes. As the vessel turned towards Earth, the main rockets fired, building momentum. Inside the ship shook as the massive engines began pushing them into a lower orbit. Inside Ben aimed the ship, aided by the ship's onboard computer, into the steepest reentry he dared.

Behind them what was pure darkness with pinpricks of light, became a bright cacophony of different colors. Like an old seventies movie screen, flashes of greens, blues, yellows, reds and oranges pierced the heavily shielding viewing windows. Temperatures inside and out rose, and the inhabitants felt burning sensations roll across their skin. The energy they had to study overtook them, and their ship disappeared into the atmosphere of Earth.

Earth, New York, New York City

Iron Man found himself dodging blows and heat vision from a very angry woman. He blasted his repulsors just at the right time, sliding across the street, and making her miss him. He pulled up and sent a blast of energy right at her. Faora took the hit, and then was on him. Tony moved his head, which lead to her blow glancing off his faceplate, but he still felt it. On instinct, he smashed his armored face into hers, and knew he'd made a mistake. She gave him an evil smile, then proceeded to send him into the atmosphere.

Strangely as he exited the atmosphere, he saw a small craft death spiraling back to Earth. However, he didn't have much time to think about it, as the lady in black was back. He hit his boot repulsors, heading away from her. He had to get back down to others, but also not die in the process. He really wasn't looking forward to discovering the last great mystery of life so soon.

"Stark, change your repuslors to this frequency," a gravelly voice growled in his ear.

Iron Man dodged another swipe from the woman, she was toying with him, "I'm sorry who is this? I'm going to need you to call back after the disaster, I'm a little busy."

"Change the frequency, it should mimic the radiation of a red sun," the voice came back. "That should give you an edge, one you might be able to use."

Tony guessed he didn't have much time, so he did as the voice commanded. When the woman came back, he blasted at her with the new repulsor energy frequency. Sure that she would be invulnerable to his attack, Faora let the beams hit her. Which was followed by a silent scream, and her racing back to Earth. She could survive in space, but apparently they needed oxygen. That would be useful information.

"Good tip there," Tony said into his helmet. "What else you got?"

"Get back down here, the others are in need down here," the voice said. "Batman out."

Below Black Widow and Hawkeye found a bus full of trapped civilians. Clint busted out the window, and started helping them out. Nat was covering him, using her guns, and hand to hand combat to take out the attackers. As she did, her finely honed senses told her she was about to get attacked from the rear. Grabbing one of the aliens, she flipped them over and brought a kick up at the Chitauri's head that had been coming at her. The thing fell, but another managed to slam its weapon into her.

She fell to the ground, bringing up her pistol to shoot, but stopped. Like an avenging nightmare demon, a dark bat shape filled the background behind the Chitauri. The alien found itself pounded the ground, where it was joined by five more. The man bat thing moved with purpose, and with a controlled brutality. It was at once mesmerizing and hard to watch, even for one like her, who had been trained to show no mercy.

Batman stopped as several Chitauri decided their best option was to rejoin others like them. As he did, she saw the folds of his cape cover him again, making him a dark shadow amongst the daylight. He turned and the visage caused her to nearly jump. It wasn't that he was necessarily scary to look at, it was how he moved. Batman didn't move like a fighter, a man, but like a force of nature, of vengeance incarnate.

"Are you okay," his gravelly voice shook her back to reality. "They will be back, and in greater numbers."

"You know how to make an impression," she said.

Turning around to check on Clint, she saw he was done and coming up slowly behind Batman. She could see he was debating if the dark thing beside her was friend or foe, and he was leaning towards foe. She wanted to wave him off, give him a signal she was alright, but the Dark Knight stopped him with a sudden look.

"Hawkeye, I wouldn't suggest that," Black Widow moved between the two. "I think he's on our side."

"Let's go, Iron Man is on his way back," Batman said.

Before either could argue, he zipped away. Hawkeye caught sight of him swinging away on a line, but just barely. He looked at Nat, an unasked question passing between them, before they followed Batman. With the way the day was going, maybe a demon bat thing was just what the doctor ordered.

Faora took in a grand gulp, her vision focusing on the metal encased human. She was going to rip him apart. That last blast had really burned, and she was wondering how he had done that. Before she could though, she turned just in time to parry a blow from another fighter.

This one flew like her, without the need for the metal man's equipment. She also seemed to be covered in plasma. The flowing, fiery, wispy matter erupted from her, pushing up her hair into a mohawk under her mask. Faora was curious, was this one a worthy fight? Maybe she'd survive long enough for her to find out. In the meantime, she had an invasion to complete.

Faora's heat vision blasted into Captain Marvel, and Carol was hit harder by that than any previous attack. Still, she wasn't going to just take that. She responded with a pure blast of cosmic energy, sending the other woman rocketing back. Now, she was in her element! Carol chased after, pulling energy into her fists as she pounded into the woman. That was till the other woman caught one fist and repaid her the favor times ten.

Carol wasn't sure when she hit the ground, but she definitely knew she was in a fight. Smiling, with blood pooling in her mouth, she shot back up toward the black clad woman. Below Non and Hulk were demolishing another building, bricks falling down upon them. Hulk's roar was tinged with a fair amount of pain. Though to be fair, Non's grunts sounded more like a wounded child's than a monster of a man.

Thor reached for his hammer, feeling its comforting touch as he grasped the handle. He was a prince of Asgard, and he would not be felled by these devious villains! Pulling himself up, ignoring his battered body's protests, he stood. Lightning flowed around him, and he felt its presence to his beckoning call. Raising Mjolnir, he brought the lightning down. All around him lightning strikes blistered the ground, taking out Chitauri for a block in all directions.

Even with that, more came, and the invasion continued. He wasn't sure how many more of those he had left in him, but he wasn't about to lie down in defeat. He twirled his hammer, launched himself into the air and looked for the others. The sight of the destruction all around gave him a brief pause. What had his brother brought to this world?

Captain America caught several Chitauri attacking a trapped car. Throwing his shield, he launched himself at them. Time perfectly, the shield hit one, then another, before slamming into another one, just as he slammed into the last one. The alien turned its weapon on him, only to find its blast absorbed by his returned shield. Steve completed the takedown, and the people in the car were now safe, for the moment.

In his ear, he heard Wasp and Ant-Man calling for help. Rushing back out of the alleyway, he saw why. Another one of those flying metal serpents was on its way to drop off more soldiers. He could make out Wasp's stinging blasts, and saw her shrink and enlarge back to fight the Chitauri. Meanwhile Ant-Man pulled out a new trick and grew to incredible size. He walloped the flying serpent transport, then proceeded to wrestle it to the ground.

In the meantime, it damaged two other buildings as it fought against him. Several chariots turned towards him and hit him with their energy weapons. He yelped in pain, and nearly lost his grip on the serpent thing. Hank held though, knowing it was more important to destroy the serpent thing. He heard the weapons go off again, only this time he didn't feel any pain. Finally breaking the transport, he shrunk as it exploded, riding the pressure wave like a surfer on the ocean.

Green Lantern held the shield up, not realizing Ant-Man had escaped the blast. Behind him, a red blur ran around several Chitauri, surrounding them in a wall of punches. The Flash stopped to give Green Lantern a salute, and was gone again. Above the sound barrier cracked and boomed as red blur went by. From that red blur a figure dropped to the ground, landing ready to fight. Wonder Woman leapt upon the nearest invader, while out in the harbor a grand wave shot out a trident wielding man, yelling a boisterous war cry.

By far, the most dramatic entrance was Martian Manhunter's. As the Chitauri turned to face the new warriors, they soon found darkness surrounding them. From the swirling mass came a green skinned humanoid, and he crushed them with his strength. Blue cape flowing in the air, he floated with red eyes glowing.

Meanwhile Carol and Faora were locked in battle, with Carol fighting harder and harder. Using her power, she was holding her own, but she was about to get some help. Having to pay attention to the fight at hand, she barely registered the sonic boom. She only did, because it could be a change in battlefield fortunes. If it was someone on her side, great, if it was more bad guys, she was in for the fight of her life.

The newcomer sent Faora bouncing off the road below, slamming through buildings as she did. Carol managed to catch her breath, but wasn't expecting what she saw. A teenage girl, couldn't be more than sixteen, was floating beside her. A flowing red cape and skirt, in blue, marked by a shield she recognized from seeing Superman.

"Sorry I'm late," the teen said. "I'm.."

"Later," Carol pointed at the Faora rushing back at them. "I think you pissed her off."

Supergirl smirked, "Good, now I have something to take out my frustrations on."

"Oh! Here I was worried," Carol laughed. What a world to come back to.