Welcome back! Been a damn long time hasn't it? For returning readers, point of fact, I have heavily edited many of the old chapters pretty heavily. Brave New World forward has the heaviest amount of changes, including dialogue, relationships and even characters. So go take a look back, so as to not be overly confused with what will occur near the end of this chapter. I do not own the MCU(Which is encompassing a lot more as of late) or Ben 10. Italics are flashbacks, and emphasis (Brackets are telepathy). Let the Brawl in the Bronx Begin! In one corner we have our motley crew of heroes, and in the other, we have a Galvanic Mechamorph's worst nightmare! Let's Get Ready to Rumble!
Infinity Chapter X
Diamond in the Rough
"We've been in worse," Ben stated, becoming something blue, lithe, and reptilian and was gone in a burst of wind leaving Quake with an unanswered question on her lips.
("Idiot.") Ben thought to himself, as he raced and weaved through Dust Town, fittingly kicking up a massive cloud of dust as he went.
It had just slipped out. For a second he'd felt normal, he and his best friend running off to face yet another threat, and after he'd snapped back to reality he'd realized too late what he'd said.
Now he'd have to think of a way to play this off, another lie to add to the slowly growing pile. He knew Daisy didn't trust him, her eyes were always on him in one way or another, and he hadn't exactly engendered that trust.
"Worry about it later," he muttered to himself, as he tore free of the tunnel that led down into Dust Town. Skidding to a halt, he looked back and spotted Tony and Wasp catching up.
"Where are the others?" XLR8 asked, his voice vibrating somewhat.
"Grabbing a truck." Wasp stated, looking him up and down briefly, "They said to go without them."
"Alright." Ben stated, staring ahead of him as the sound of feral shrieking could be heard echoing across the streets, "Meet them and you there.
With that, he disappeared in a plume of dust, and just the hint of lightning though neither he nor his teammates took notice of it.
"He's just full of surprises, isn't he?" Wasp snarked at Tony, taking off after Ben.
"Yeah." Tony agreed, his concerned expression hidden behind his helmet, "Full of them."
"Alright Friday, activate all weapons, prime the Unibeam, and if you can play something heroic?" Tony joked, shaking off his reservations.
"Done, done and how does 'Radioactive' sound boss?" Friday asked.
"Fantastic," Tony replied shooting into the air.
Kevin withheld a snapping curse, as for the fifth time in about as half as many minutes Daisy asked, "What was that?"
"No idea what you're talking about," Kevin said, storming past her, expertly catching the keys one of his crew tossed him. He leaped into the front seat, John hopping into the seat behind him, and to his silent, consternation Daisy joined him upfront.
"Punch it," John stated, though Kevin had already turned the keys and laid his down flat on the accelerator. The truck raced out of the tunnel moments, later, skidding slightly as Kevin expertly whipped the wheel to the right.
"You two know each other." Daisy pressed, adjusting her gauntlets, "You and Ben."
"What's it to you?" Kevin snapped finally, fighting the urge to turn and look at her.
"Not sure, depends on who the both of you actually are," Daisy stated, looking over at him cooly.
"Ben's Ben, what you see is exactly what you get." Kevin stated, looking up to see flashes of light and thrown rubble appearing in the distance, "As for me, the name's Kevin Levin. We've been friends for a long while. We've got powers, we know how to use them, and the rest is none of your damn business."
"Oh really?" Daisy asked, taken aback a little bit.
"Yes, really." Kevin stated, "Look, lady, all you need to know about us right now is that both Ben and I will have your back in this fight, and after that, you can cart Ben off to you're big tower in Manhattan, while I go back to making sure those folks down in Dust Town have someone out there that actually give a damn about them. We clear."
"Crystal, Kevin," Daisy stated, in a tone that meant anything but.
"What about you Trigger Happy?" Kevin asked, taking his eyes off the broken road ever-so-quickly to stare at John in the backseat.
"This conversation is above my paygrade." Jon stated honestly, "I just came here to fix a mistake I made, and I plan on doing exactly that, the rest of this isn't on my wheel of concerns."
"Alright then," Kevin stated, pulling to a stop several moments later, and letting out an audible sigh as he watched XLR8 race up one of the still-standing building and then leap off it transforming in mid-air as he went.
"What's he doing?" Daisy cried as she leaped out of the car, and blasted an approaching amalgam to paste.
"What he does best," Kevin responded, his hand transfiguring into a hammer, "near-suicidal heroics."
("They're just robots, twitchy disgusting robots.") Ben thought, just before he crested the edge of the newly made crater, ("So, no need to hold back.")
He took off down the crater, flying through the ashen dirt and expertly weaving around the rubble. He was halfway down the hill when he spotted the first amalgam but it never saw him as he accelerated and with a vicious slap of XLR8's tail ripped the creature's head clean off. The force of the blow sent the body skidding to the ground twenty feet from him while the head raced off with the force of a rocket and slammed into the crystal dome with a noise somewhere between a gunshot and an egg cracking.
What followed was a host of discordant shrieking before several amalgams appeared throughout the rubble, their eyeless, fanged faces all looking in Ben's direction.
There was a bit more scrambling as what was once Darkstar appeared atop a crushed car, and snarled out, "Tennyson."
"What are you doing Michael?" XLR8 asked, his eyes flicking between each amalgam at a dizzying pace.
"I already told you Tennyson, Michael, Morningstar, Darkstar, whatever you wish to call him is gone." the creature growled its thick black tongue lolling out of its mouth once more, "All that's left is the Hunger and you're stopping me from sating it."
"I won't let you get Jacob, he's been through enough," Ben stated, his voice carrying a familiar edge.
"After I have him, he won't have to go through anything ever again." the creature stated, licking his lips.
Ben stepped forward, his body vibrating slightly, "You'll have to get through us first?"
"Us?" The creature asked before a barrage of rockets blew several amalgams into quivering piles of ooze and scrap metal.
"For as much as you claim to not be Michael, you sure do monologue like him." Ben snarked, as Stark and Wasp soared overhead, laying down a hail of repulsor and energy blasts.
"Kill them." Michael snarled, ducking out of the way of a repulsor blast, answering it with a thrown piece of rubble. He then turned and raced back down the hill heading towards the crystal structure.
XLR8 took off, ducking under the first amalgam's swing, its head being summarily pulped by a rocket-powered fist. Tony streaked past, his sights already trained on another of the creatures.
Ben dodged around another amalgam, kicking out with his left foot cutting a huge swath across the creature's face as the ball spun across it. Wasp finished the job as she went into a spiral spin and fired, practically drilling clean through the creature's head. XLR8 continued forward, hitting his knees as two amalgams lunged at him, and lashed out with his claws the sharpness and incredible speed allowing him to neatly bisect them both.
He continued forward, racing down the hill at a breakneck pace, and spotted several more amalgams standing in his path. Barely breaking stride he began spinning like a top his body disappearing in a blur of motion before a sudden and aggressive tornado whipped up around him. The amalgams barely had a moment to realize what was happening before they were tossed skyward into the awaiting crosshairs of Wasp and Tony. Ben stopped his momentum and shot off as the amalgams fell back to earth in smoking, charred heaps.
XLR8 kept moving, dodging under and around debris, finally reaching the bottom of the crater. Skidding to a halt he spotted the Darkstar-amalgam examining the crystalline wall of Jacob's hiding place. Dashing forward he raised his arm to body-check it into the wall. He noticed the strange shiver that spread across the second skin a second too late as the creature leaped to the side. Ben fought to stop, smacking with a sickening crack against the structure right arm first.
He stumbled backward, clutching his broken arm, and looked up at the amalgam. A cruel, fanged smirk crossing its face as it lunged for him. It savagely ripped Ben off his feet, holding him several feet in the air.
"Too slow, Tennyson." the amalgam sneered, tightening its grip; a toothy opening appearing in its other hand as it raised it towards Ben's face, "Now hold sti-arh!"
It lost its grip on Ben's throat as Wasp peppered its back with bio-electric blasts. Kicking his way free Ben shot back several feet, clutching his aching arm. The creature meanwhile fell to its knees, Wasp relenting from her barrage.
The amalgam let out a few seemingly pained gasps, as the red markings across its body pulsed with a viscous light.
"What, am I too much for you?" Wasp taunted, powering up another shock.
"No." The amalgam rasped, turning its head slowly to face her, "You're not even close to enough."
It lashed out, its arm stretching unnaturally long, and snatched Wasp out of the air. She yelled in surprise only to be muffled as its hand melded over her entire body shrouding her in black-and-red ooze.
"But it's a good start." The amalgam stated, the red markings glowing ever brighter; Wasp's cries and struggling growing weaker in tandem.
"Wasp!" Ben cried, bolting forward, heedless of his mangled limb. He flitted around the amalgam's offhanded swipe and struck upwards with his good arm, his claws lopping off the creature's distended hand.
It shrieked in rage-filled pain and leaped claws outstretched. All Ben saw was a growingly familiar blur of red-and-gold as Iron Man slammed into the creature and soared upwards with it.
"Welcome to Stark Air." Tony quipped, clutching the creature's arms to its side as it raged and writhed, "Mind the turbulence."
In response the creature snapped out at him, its fangs grazing the faceplate as Tony instinctively flinched away.
"Whoa there Osmand." Tony snapped, the plating on his shoulders opened up revealing two small six barreled miniguns, "If you wanted an in-flight snack you could have just asked!"
The right gun fired, burying six rounds into the creature's head at point-blank range, which let out a shriek and fell limp in his arms.
"Another one bites the du-urgh!" his joke was cut off by a vicious head-butt, that sent him reeling, allowing the creature to break his hold and plummeted back towards the top of the crystal formation below.
Tony shook his head, opening the faceplate to spit out a wad of blood, and then called after the amalgam, "Sir, you forgot your luggage!"
A pair of rockets popped out of his right wrist, and fired, slamming into the creature and consuming it in a burst of smoke and flame. There was a lull in the fighting as the smoke poured skyward, only for it to be interrupted as a blast of crimson red energy ripped free of the cloud.
Tony barely managed to dodge out of the way in time, as the smoke cleared revealing the creature, its maw still glowing from the blast.
"Well isn't he just full of surprises?" Tony remarked, "Alright Friday let's show him ours."
"Unibeam at full charge." The AI responded, the familiar humming reaching Tony's ears.
There was a lull in the air as the amalgam stared up at him, just as the Arc Reactor's light intensified for a second before a searing beam of neon blue light shot forward and slammed the creature directly in the face.
The creature seemed to flinch away holding its hands up to protect its face from the torrent of energy.
Tony began to make a snide comment when several warning lights erupted over his HUD.
"What's happening!?" Tony cried.
"We're suffering an immense power bleed, Boss, more than the Unibeam should be capable of producing," Friday responded, running a quick diagnostic.
"Well, what's causing it?" Tony asked, before taking note that the red lines across the creature's hide were pulsing with a dull crimson light, "Nevermind, cut power to Unibeam!"
"Already done sir." Jarvis stated, with a hint of trepidation, "But the creature is still drawing power directly from your Arc Reactor."
"Shit." Tony stated, feeling himself being drawn towards the creature as it stood tall, a menacing grin on its face, "How long do I have until I need to be seriously worried."
"We're already on the second reserve before your heart will be in danger of tampering," Friday informed.
"Good thing I already set up my will." Tony joked, the familiar touch of a panic attack about to overtake him.
A sudden boom of thunder, which made him briefly pray for the return of Point Break, and a deep voice shouting, "Incoming!" snapped him free of his panic, as he and the creature looked up in unison.
Several Minutes Ago
XLR8 raced as far as he could from the battle behind him, clutching Wasp close to his chest. It took mere seconds to reach a relatively safe location far from the center of the fighting, or at least he hoped so. Wincing slightly as his right arm pulsed with pain once more, he carefully knelt down and laid Wasp down before him.
"Wasp?" Ben asked, gently nudging the side of her cheek with his good claw.
She didn't look good, her skin was a sickly gray, her cheeks had sunken in and her breathing was shallow. He gently nudged her again, his heart beating a frantic crescendo against his ribs as she once again failed to stir.
"Wasp!" Ben cried a bit louder, freezing at the sounds of explosions in the distance.
"Come on Janet." Ben pleaded, reaching down to prod at her one last time, "Please be okay."
As he reached out a blue spark leaped from his claws to her body, jolting them both.
"Ah what the hell!" Ben shouted, pulling his hand to shake the sudden numbness away.
"Ben?" Wasp choked out, drawing his attention back to her as she sat up slowly. She was shaking slightly, "What happened?"
"That thing got a hold of you." Ben answered, "It started draining you, I got it off of you, and Tony took it skyward."
"Did he, did he beat it?" Wap asked, growing to her regular height.
"I don't-" he paused, as a bolt of red energy, lanced through the sky soaring above their heads.
"That'd be a no." Wasp noted, trying to push herself to her feet, "We have to go help him."
"No." Ben stated, holding his hand up to stop her, "You're not in any condition to go fighting that thing again. I'll go."
"You've got a broken arm!" Wasp protested, finally stumbling to her feet, "I'm just a little drained is all."
She took a step forward and almost immediately collapsed. Ben caught her before she fell, only to cry out as her weight pressed down on his injured arm.
"Okay, so we're both not in the best shape right now." Ben conceded, pulling away from her, "But I can fix my arm."
"How?" Wasp asked, a bit of color had returned to her face but it was clear she was much more tired than she wanted to let on.
"By doing something incredibly stupid." Ben stated, "Stay here, the others should be here soon, hopefully."
"Ben!" Janet called out, but he was already gone, dust flying after him.
"Okay Tennyson," Ben muttered to himself, finally catching sight of Tony's suit being sucked dry of energy by Michael, "You got this."
Galvanized by seeing yet another of his newly made teammates in danger he increased his speed, spotting a still crumbling building that was hanging out towards the top of the crystal dome. He veered towards it, and raced up it, continuing to pick up speed as he tore up its five-story length before he finally leaped off. There was a clap like thunder, followed by a shower of glass as he went airborne.
"Please work. Please work," he begged, as he closed his eyes and concentrated. He felt the change after a few seconds, his skin and bones turning into solid crystal.
Snapping his eyes open he saw Tony and Michael arrayed before him, and called out, "Incoming!"
The creature broke away from Tony, and just barely dodged being summarily impaled by Diamondhead's sharpened appendage. The limb shattered on impact, sending shards of crystal everywhere, several piercing Ravager.
The limb reformed, the pain disappearing as it did so, Ben rounding on the slavering enemy.
"The Stark Buffet is now closed. Thank you for your patronage." Ben snarked, firing off a hail of shards, and following it up with a vicious haymaker that sent Ravager tumbling down the crystal structure.
Tony faltered in the air a bit as the vampiric draw of his energy ceased, but managed to right himself.
"You good?" Diamondhead asked, leaping down after the amalgam.
"Dizzy as all hell, but that's a regular Saturday for me." Tony snarked, "Note to self, avoid energy-based attacks around strange ooze beasts.
Quake powdered another amalgam as it leaped for her throat, ducking under the barking barrel of John's gun as he swivel-shot, his expression stone. Kevin meanwhile, had formed his arms into long thing blades, bisecting and dismembering any amalgams that tried to get to close to him.
"Reloading!" John yelled, hastily discharging his spent cartridge and fishing for another. Daisy nodded, laying down covering fire, sending the swarming amalgams tumbling often directly into Levin's shredding path.
"They just keep coming." Quake stated, "How many of these damn things are there?"
"No idea!" Levin fired back, "But I think we're at least thinning the herd."
At that ten more of the creatures emerged from around an alleyway in a screaming fury.
"You were saying?" Daisy snarked, barely dodging out of the way of another's vicious strike.
Kevin grunted angrily, piercing her attacker from behind, then ripping upward turning it into two twitching pieces of ichor and metal.
John meanwhile pivoted towards the onrushing horde, flipped a switch on the side of his rifle, and pulled the trigger, there was a dull 'shunk' followed by an immense explosion, the amalgams being consumed in an eruption of fire and smoke. When the latter cleared, all that was left was writhing chunks of ichor and not much else.
"Let's move." John stated, "Every minute we waste getting bogged down is another Jacob stays in danger."
The trio rushed ahead in silence, pausing as a large, four-armed amalgam, each limb ending in a barbed blade, turned to face them.
It let out a burbling roar and raced to face them.
"These things just come in all different kinds of ugly don't they?" Quake snarked, as the trio all fell into fighting stances.
The creature lurched suddenly, as a burst of yellow light piercing clean through its chest and out the other side.
Quake opened fire, her vibrations ripping the viscous material clean off the metallic undercarriage, while John's bullets bounced off with little effect. The creature stutter-stepped forward, as another burst of light emerged from the center of its eye. Kevin leaped, his hand forming into a large mace, which he then splattered the creature's head with little resistance.
The beast fell to the ground with Kevin ridding it down, revealing a haggard but smiling Wasp.
"Nice of you to finally join the party," she remarked, her wane features contrasting with the fire in her eyes.
"Jan, are you alright?" Daisy asked.
"That thing, the smart one, you were right when you said it drains people," Wasp remarked, touching her slightly sunken cheeks, "But I'm still good, come on Tony and Ben are still fighting that thing.
Wasp shrunk down, daring ahead with the others a step behind her.
Ben stared around the shadowed crater, hunting for any sign of Morningstar, back to back with Tony, his repulsors primed for an amalgam that emerged from the dust-choked darkness.
"Come on out!" Tony cried, "I'm really getting tired of this peek-a-boo you keep playing."
"Guys!"
The pair whirled, looking up to a shattered bit of building Wasp had alighted on with the others in tow.
"I thought I told you to stay safe," Diamondhead called up to her accusingly.
"Where's the fun in that?" she called back, flitting down to sit on his shoulder, Quake jumped down after her, a cushion of vibrations slowing her fall, while Kevin and John slid down into the pit kicking up more dust as they went.
"Besides, this thing is outnumbered five-to-one at this point." Jan snarked loudly, swiveling around on Ben's crystalline shoulder, "That's why your hiding right! Too scared?"
"Jan, pipe down, we're not here to pick a fight." Tony remarked, "We need to get Jacob out of here before more of those things or the smarty-pants comes back."
"Watch my back," Kevin stated, as he walked up to the crystal bunker, and laid his palm flat against it. The others moved into a tight circle, with their backs to him.
Ben looked over his shoulder, watching as Kevin's body was slowly coated with the same material that made up the bunker.
"Diamond," Kevin stated, rapping his fingers against the surface, "Hardest naturally occurring crystal on Earth. Xeno and I might be able to punch our way through, but that would take too much time, and it would probably scare the kid enough that more would appear, or in a panic, he could create something else to stop us."
"So loud and proud is off the table." Tony agreed, "What else we got?"
"Switch out," Quake said, gesturing for Kevin to take her place.
"It'll take a lot out of me, but I think I might be able to create an opening, a small one," she stated, placing both hands on the side of the structure.
"How big?" John asked, his rifle up as he slowly scanned the shadows around them.
Quake was quiet for a moment as she closed her eyes. Ben could feel the vibration's building as her face scrunched up, a crack beginning to form between her hands, she began to move her hands apart, sweat beading across her brow. The crack widened, and then deepened, as big around as a softball, but growing no wider.
A soft snarl drew the other's attention back away from her, their eyes tracking the cloying dust for any movement.
"You won't take my prize." Ravager stated its voice echoing all around them.
"Prize?" John growled, taking a step out of the ring "You sick bastard."
"I smell your shame, this is your fault." the creature continued, the sound of falling rock sending everyone into a defensive stance, while Quake continued working on the opening.
"You know I'm getting really tired of you monologuing at us." Ben snarked a snarl off to his right met with a hail of gunfire from John. The dust parted to reveal nothing but bare stone, the bullets cracking uselessly into the dirt.
There was a loud cracking sound, and a sigh of exertion as Quake stumbled backward, blood dripping from her nose, "That's all I've got."
The hole hadn't widened any further, but the soft sound of crying could be heard at the edge of everyone's hearing.
"Right, Jan, go!" Tony ordered, the size-shifter shrinking in response and darting in the hole without a second thought.
The dust cloud shifted as several bits of masonry fell through it, causing Ben to look up and see the glowing yellow eyes of Ravager staring back at him.
"Above!" Ben shouted, "Open-fire!"
A hail of crystal shards, bullets, and repulsor blasts roared upwards slamming into the masonry, as the creature leaped aside.
"Back off!" John roared, another grenade ripping free of his gun, and sending the creature careening way off course.
It hit the ground with a snarl, scrambling to its feet, as the heroes rounded on it.
"You're outgunned and outnumbered," Tony stated, several compartments opening across his armor, revealing a throng of dangerous-looking ordnance, "Stand down."
"Outnumbered" the creature muttered, red-light rippling across its body, "No, no, no. I'm not, we aren't, we are not alone."
The creature began to violently twitch and contort, screaming violently, as parts of its body began to slog off and grow.
"That has to be one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen," Tony muttered.
John, cut him off, "Fewer jokes, more firing!"
The suppressing fire did little to deter the rapid change, as limbs and fanged heads emerged up, copies of Ravager that immediately darted forward, the five clones meeting first Kevin and then Ben in melee combat.
The boneless, amorphous creatures shrugged off most physical attacks, tanking bullets and repulsor blasts with no difficulty, while severed limbs grew back within moments.
Quake already imbalanced from the strain of getting through the diamond, was knocked to the ground by a Ravager, its teeth sinking into her raised arms. She screamed, as John also went down, a Ravager inches from burying its fangs in his neck. Tony struggled against another, as its pliable body began to seep between the plates of his armor and pull it apart.
Kevin was managing to hold his own, the Ravager unable to bite through his skin, but it was slowly but surely pushing him away from the group, his attacks finding no purchase against its pliable body.
Ben was in a similar situation, watching furiously as the true Ravager stood up, all that remained of its second skin, the golden "eyes", its backward bending legs, and overly long-clawed upper arms. His cadaverous grey flesh and tattered black clothing were revealed to the world, a sickeningly hungry grin on his face as he darted between the struggling heroes.
Ben watched in horror, as a long black tongue emerged from Morningstar's mouth, and shot into the hole, squirming like an oily snake as it chased after Wasp.
"Correction, that is the most disturbing thing I have ever seen." Tony snarked, even as he struggled to free himself from the Ravager Clone.
"This hunger will be sated," Morningstar muttered around the sickenly long tongue.
"I told you," John stated, a knife appearing in his hands, that he then flung at Ravager, severing his tongue even as the clone dug its fangs into his right shoulder, "To. Back. Off!"
Micheal fell backward screaming, as oily black blood began to pour from his mouth, as he rounded on his wounded but furiously struggling attacker. Tendrils shot out from the clone attaching itself back with the prime and formed into an immense clawed hand, one talon digging into John's bite wound as he was lifted off his feet. Life began to seep from John's body, his skin graying and his cheeks growing wane.
Ben's vision went red, then green as he changed.
Wasp followed the sound of panicked crying as fast as she could, darting out of the hole Daisy had made, emerging into the pitch-black interior of the structure. Her body glowed with a brilliant yellow light, allowing her to see a fair bit around her. It was utterly empty, in this section at least, a dull pink and orange glow, refracting through one pillar of diamond to her right. As she darted around the corner, she froze.
There was Jacob, weeping quietly as glowing magenta smoke seeped from his body, dissipating as it reached the ceiling. Around him in an irregular circle was a frothing pit of lava that made the room hotter than a sauna, and seemed to be slowly growing outward.
"Jacob?" Wasp asked, moving forward only to stop as the boy jumped and looked up, fear in his glowing magenta eyes, snot, and tears leaking down his face.
"Who are you?" Jacob asked, backing away from her further, as more rock crumbled into the moat of lava, "Do you want to hurt me? Leave me alone!"
Wasp grew to her full size and kneeled down, several feet back from the lava, a soft smile on her face, "My name is Janet, but right now I'm the Wasp. I would never want to hurt you, honey, in fact, I'm here to get you back to your mom, and so are my friends outside. Don't worry, I won't get any closer if you don't want me to."
She sat down slowly, "But I need you to come with me okay? It's not safe here."
She reached a hand out towards him very slowly.
"People said they were gonna help me and my mom before." Jacob whimpered, "But they didn't."
"I know, they made some bad mistakes, and you must have been so scared." Janet agreed, "But I promise, cross my heart, that everything is going to be okay."
Jacob stared at her quietly for a few moments, an explosion outside sending him into a cowering ball, "If things are going to be okay then why does that keep happening?!"
"That's my friends, who are fighting really, really hard to get rid of the monsters, so we can take you home." Wasp said soothingly, "Nothing bad is gonna happen to you as long as we're here."
He peeked up at her, "You mean it?"
She laughed softly, "Of course I mean it, we're the Avengers, honey. We protect anyone who needs protecting."
"Okay." he said, looking up at her with a hopeful smile, "Okay."
"Can I come closer?" she asked, gesturing at the lava. He looked down at it for a moment, then back up at her.
"I...I don't know how to make it stop." Jacob muttered.
"It's okay, maybe try thinking about something happy." she offered, "Like your Mom, or your friends, your favorite food?"
He closed his eyes, scrunching his face up as he concentrated, and Wasp watched in gleeful amazement the lava cooled almost instantly. She slowly moved forward, as he opened his eyes and smiled up at her as she got closer, only for the expression to turn to terror at something behind her.
She whirled around as a sinuous black, fanged oozing serpent darted towards Jacob who screamed. The serpent leaped only for Wasp to take its head clean off with a well-placed blast, followed by another that pulped the body into nothingness.
Wasp kneeled down and drew the shaking boy into her. She hugged him tight with one arm, the other filling the room with light, her eyes hunting for other attackers. Jacob buried his face into her shoulder, whimpering softly.
"It's okay. I've got you." Janet stated, repeating that softly as she continued to hug him against her side, "You're safe, I promise."
The was a blood-chilling scream, as the clone that was holding Daisy down suddenly disappeared, a gout of flame burning across its body. It rolled off of her, as she pushed herself into a sitting position, her head still swimming.
Ben had changed into a familiar form, an entity made of fire and red rock that was currently breathing a blaze of fire across the Prime Ravager, who had dropped John and was surging towards its new attacker.
"Come on!" Ben shouted, the torrent abating for a moment, as two pieces of stone levitated and began burning, before rocketing off to slam into the clone's grabbling with Stark and Levin, "You want to hurt somebody, try and hurt me!"
The clones largely ignored him, but the Prime and his original opponent dog-pilled him, the fire had more of an effect than blunt force but not deterring them much.
Quake turned to face her own clone, which was now covered in dust from its frantic rolling in the dirt, it paced towards her like an angry jungle cat before lunging.
Digging deep she sent a violent quake towards it, surprised when it juddered to a halt and began writing on the ground, screaming to high hell.
Hitting it with the other hand, ignoring the strain the creature's squeals quieted until it finally melted into a slightly twitching pile of ooze.
"They can't deal with Sonics!" Quake cried, darting towards the downed John who was feebly trying to get off his back.
"Friday, volume 20 if you would?" Tony joked, a sudden roar of music erupting from two speakers that emerged from the sides of his helmet. His Ravager stumbled backward, clutching its head, body bubbling, and writhing.
Ben continued to struggle against his opponent's unable to shift his attention to changing his form, as they continued to harry him, while Kevin was also still on the back foot.
Quake touched her hand to her nose, the blood quickly coating the tips of her fingers, ("I'm already pushing my limits, but this needs to end. Now.")
Concentrating, fighting past the headache, ignoring the blood draining from both nostrils, and brought her hands together, a high-pitched whine building as a ball of invisible force formed between her hands. Her vision began to blur, her headache hitting a fever pitch as the sphere released, exploding outward. Tony's Ravager melted instantly, going with a loud scream, while Kevin's fought to get back to the Prime, falling apart as it went.
The remaining clone fell into a burning pile of slag, as the Prime whirled, one claw clutching its head, second-skin writhing madly, the other claw lunging toward her as her vision blacked out for a second.
Another scream, this one more human, snapped her back, and as her vision focused she say Ravager, clutching a bleeding stump, a distinctively human forearm laying on the ground several feet in front of her.
Kevin stood there, a diamond blade dripping blood and slime as Ravager continued to rage and howl. A rocket fired over her head, colliding with the creatures chest and sending it soaring backward with a wave of concussive force. Ben followed up Tony's strike with several fireballs, pelting the creature even further away from Jacob's hiding place.
The creature, no person, horribly managed shell of a person, stumbled to a stop, their breathing ragged as Ben, Kevin, and Tony stalked towards it.
Snarling, a red light built up in the mouth, a beam of energy emerging, forcing them, and Daisy to duck as it refracted off the diamond and peppered to the ground around them with craters.
When she looked back up, Ravager was gone. Kevin made to chase after him, only for Ben to hold him back.
"It's done." Ben muttered, "For now."
"Good," Tony stated, bending over, resting his arms on his knees, "Anyone else feels like they just got hit by a truck? It's not just me right?"
"Fuck you Stark," John grumbled, pushing himself into a sitting position. Ben and Kevin shared a look and slowly began to break down into a fit of relieved laughter. Daisy despite everything felt herself joining in before her vision blurred again and she pitched to the side.
"Tremors!" was the last thing she heard as she lapsed into unconsciousness.
Edge of the Dome, October 14th, 5:38 PM EDT
The ride back to Dust Town had been uneventful, but nerve-wracking as John could barely sit up straight, and Daisy's breathing had turned shallow. Again, Ben was amazed by the work the fourteen-year-old miracle that was Elixir could pull off. That had been a few hours ago, and the assembled party, plus Callisto and Jacob were headed out of the Dome.
"Few more minutes and we'll be at the check-point," Kevin stated, turning to look back at the others.
Tired smiles were shared by all, Ben turned to look at Wasp who was carrying the deeply sleeping Jacob.
She stopped walking as John reached her, "Hey, do you think you could take him? He's actually pretty heavy."
John stared down at her for a second, "I'm not sure, don't know if he'd like waking up in my arms."
"Well, the idea is to have him wake up in his mom's." Wasp replied, "Please?"
John hesitated for a bit longer, "Alright, carefully now."
He bent down a bit to take Jacob from her, gently positioning the boy so his head was rested on his shoulder. Ben smiled at the bemused expression on John's face as the young boy nestled even deeper into the man's shoulder and wrapped his arms tightly around his neck.
"See, I think he likes you just fine?" Wasp said with a smile, as she shrunk and flitted up to rest on Daisy's shoulder, "Now, if you all don't mind, I'm going to take a nap of my own. Wake when we're back in the Tower."
"Sure thing Van Dyne," Daisy said, rolling her eyes, eliciting a smirk from Ben who turned back to the head of the group.
They walked in silence for several moments, before suddenly emerging into the orange-gold light of a setting sun.
"Here's where we take out leave." Callisto stated, turning to look at the Avengers and John, "Don't be strangers."
With that last bit of snark, she walked up to John, lifting her hand to gently stroke Jacob's hair, "You better do right on your promise to this one SHIELD, it's is literally the least you could do."
"I will." John stated, his eyes narrowing at the insult, "And a whole lot more than that."
"Good." she turned to the others, "Crusher, let's get back."
She looked at Kevin, who nodded at her, "Right, hold on a moment."
He turned to Ben, as the others kept walking on, though he noticed that Daisy was hanging back yet again.
"Keep up the good work Tennyson," Levin stated, sticking his hand out for a shake.
"Is this goodbye?" Ben asked, taking his friend's hand.
"Hardly, but they need me here," Kevin remarked, looking over to where Callisto was waiting, "These people need someone looking out for them."
"You're not alone in that." Ben said, "I'll help whenever and however I can."
"So will I," Daisy stated, walking back into their conversation, ignoring the annoyed look Kevin shot her, "After all, looks like you're going to need me if we want to stop this 'Ravager' for good."
"Fair enough point." Kevin stated, "But if you wouldn't mind, this next part isn't for prying ears."
Daisy didn't say anything, just nodded and walked after Tony and John, Wasp tucked into the crook of her neck.
"She's trouble," Kevin muttered darkly.
"I know, but she saved our hides today." Ben remarked, watching her walk away, "Regardless, she's got a right to be suspicious."
Kevin grunted in agreement, "Listen, if you're out there playing the hero and you hear anything about Gwen, you let me know okay?"
"Of course, take care of yourself, Levin," Ben said, pulling his friend into a tight hug.
"Right back at you Tennyson." he returned, before walking back to meet Callisto.
Ben turned, walking after the Avengers, a smile crossing his face as he saw Jacob's mother taking her lost son into her arms, joyous tears in her eyes.
Tony was off to the side talking with a hologram of Maria Hill, while Daisy was standing behind John a big smile on her face.
"Thank you, so much, I don't have to words to tell you how happy I am right now." the woman stated, staring up at John with tearful joy.
"Don't thank me," John stated, rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably, gesturing over to Tony and back at Ben, Janet, and Daisy, "They did all the heavy lifting, your son is safe because of them, not me."
"Bullshit," Tony remarked flatly, wincing as Cynthia covered the sleeping boy's ears, "Sorry."
Janet leaped off Daisy's shoulder and grew to her full size, "We all pulled out weight, John included."
"Then I stand by what I said, thank you." Cynthia stated, reaching up to cup the side of John's face, "Truly."
"I-I'm just glad that he's back with you," John muttered, slowly taking the woman's hand off his face.
"What your son can do is nothing short of incredible," Ben stated.
"Which is why he's got a ticket to Xavier's School." Tony stated, drawing Cynthia's attention, "Don't worry, you will both be able to live on Campus, the Professor should be contacting you within the next few days, right Hill?"
"Correct. Agent Stewart, Agent Johnson, Fury wants a full report by the end of the night." Hill stated, nodding to both of them before her hologram cut out.
"Have fun with that." Tony snarked, sticking his hand out for John to shake, "It was nice working with you Agent Stewart, who knows you might be seeing a whole lot more of us."
"I-I'm not sure if that is a good thing," John said flatly.
"Probably not, after all, Dr. Banner will likely be along for the ride next time." Tony joked.
As John blanched, Tony moved on to talk with Cynthia which ended with him handing her an unmarked check and saying whatever amount she wrote within reason Stark Industries would meet.
After that Ben, Daisy, and Janet had said their goodbyes, leaving John and Cynthia standing with the still sleeping Jacob.
They had returned to the tower, and gone about their separate business, Ben heating up some food and eventually finding himself back atop the tower staring back out at the Dome.
"Up here again huh?" Daisy asked as she emerged onto the terrace, dressed in a loose t-shirt and some sweat pants.
"Yep, you know despite how chaotic all that was, I can't help but feel like today was a great day," Ben remarked, as sucked down a large bowl of ramen.
"Well, a great three days," Daisy remarked, joining him at the edge of the terrace, and looking up at the darkening night sky.
"Fair point," Ben stated, looking up at her, "So I'm guessing you didn't come up here just to wax-poetic about being a hero, right?"
"You caught me." she snarked back, cautiously sitting down beside him, "Look, I know I'm prying, but it is literally in my job description to know what you might be up to, so who is Kevin Levin to you?"
He started at her for several moments, contemplating what to say, "He's a friend, an old one, we got caught up in the same mess and that's how we both ended up in the situations you found us in, don't remember much more than that."
"Just a friend?" Daisy asked.
He shot her a confused look, "Yeah, just a friend, what else would he be?"
"Well, Tony had you pegged as ex-lovers," Daisy said flatly, causing Ben to inhale suddenly, choking on his food before letting out a hacking laugh that cleared his throat.
"Are you serious?"
"Deadly" Daisy responded, smiling genuinely.
"Yeah, nope." Ben responded, "Not that there's anything at all wrong with that, but yeah no we, uh, never dated. Never will date. Not my type."
"Good to know," Daisy said.
"What are you going to tell Fury that too?" Ben accused, causing Daisy to break out in a playful smirk.
"Maybe, maybe."
Elsewhere
Ravager stumbled through the rubble of the Bronz, clutching its arm stump, frantic and furious.
"Damn them." they growled, "They took so much from us. So hungry, so hungry."
It stopped as another amalgam crossed its path, freezing as well as it took in the partially human abomination.
Ravager lunged forward, grabbing hold of it by the face with their remaining hand, and began to drain. Wounds closed, the second skin began to grow to cover more of their body, and suddenly a vision struck them.
A series of slapdash mechanical bodies hanging from conveyors that rotate above a strange, twitching partial cube of red-and-black ichor, which snapped upwards growing a second skin over the bodies, which awoke as fresh amalgams and made their way out into the Dome.
Ravager snapped back to reality, their hunger ignited once more, "We will be Whole, and then We will find those who ruined us and break them. Must find the rest of us!"
With that the creature dropped to all fours and began racing through the shattered streets, searching for more amalgam, searching to be Whole.
Avenger's Tower, 11:45 PM EDT
Tony stretched and walked towards the elevator with his helmet beneath his arms, stopping as the doors opened to reveal, a wild-haired Bruce Banner, and a pensive looking Hank Pym.
"You two look like you've had fun." Tony snarked, as they stepped off onto the landing.
"Add Tornado's to the list of weather phenomena the Big Guy hates with a passion." Banner stated flatly, as he made his way towards the kitchen.
"What happened?" Tony asked, turning back to Hank.
"We had a rather electrifying experience." Hank stated, eliciting a loud "Boo" from Banner as he went through the kitchen doors.
"Debrief over coffee tomorrow morning?" Tony asked, trading places with Hank in the Elevator.
"Sure, good night Tony," Pym stated, heading for the kitchen as well.
"Night Hank."
As the door closed the smile on Tony's face fell away, as he reached towards the number-panel, and then placed his palm on the flat metal surface beneath it.
There was a flash as his flesh dissolved, revealing an intricate and futuristic metallic replacement that glowed as several key-holes emerged for him to put his fingers in. The reshaped and reformatted to meet the exact indentations of the keyholes, and the elevator began to move down, picking up speed, unnoticed by those outside before coming to a soft halt.
Tony stepped out of the elevator, walking toward an immense computer screen, piles of history books, newspapers, pictures, and maps were stacked around the room while several holographic boards showed candid photos of numerous individuals.
Tony plopped into the seat that sat before the computer and booted it up with a wave of his hand, "Blue, I've got something new for you."
"What did you find?" a brusque voice asked as an image of a bald blue woman appeared on the screen, "Another anomaly?"
"You got it," Tony stated, plugging his helmet into the computer, all of Ben and Kevin's conversation downloading before his eyes, as he opened up several other files.
"So, intruders from another universe, bringing their problems to us." the AI stated, "Wonderful."
"They have no idea who any of us are, where they are, or what's coming, which means any choices they make should continue altering the time-line," Tony remarked, as he sifted all information he'd learned about Ben into his previously made file, and added one for Kevin.
"And you still think that is a good thing?" the AI asked.
"Yes, we stay on course, we prepare, we find more anomalous people, and the Snap never happens." Tony stated, "So is the hope."
"So is the hope." the AI repeated, "What about this Gwen?"
"Seems to me like whatever thing is riding around in her body just handed us quite a few new fighters for if and when Grimmus ever comes calling," Tony remarked.
"So it's a good thing the Bronx got devastated? Is that what you're trying to say." the AI demanded.
"No, we're going to help those people, help everyone we can, stop every villain that pops up, those we know and those we don't, and we're going to make sure the Infinity Stones never see the light of day." Tony stated, "We can't go down that road again."
"Like you keep saying, and yet here we sit in Avengers Tower, with you once again an Avenger."
Tony turned from the computer, and stared the images hanging on the wall, his eyes drawn immediately to Pepper and then Peter Parker. Two people who he would never involve in his lives again. Fury hadn't known it, but he had tried to hard to make sure the initial Avenger's failed, every death, every injury from that day was a black mark on his conscious, but it was better than the alternative.
He tensed at the memory of Pepper's voice in his ears as he left for Titan, Peter turning to dust in his arms.
"I don't want to go. Mr. Stark, I don't want to go."
That would never happen. Not after everything Tony had sacrificed to get here, he would never watch that young man die, he would never sit on an alien world, damn near alone wondering if everyone he ever cared about was dead.
He stared down at his robotic arm, the ghost pains of his thumb and middle finger, snapping still burned into his body's memory.
Every anomaly he found was a blessing, a fact that things would not be like they were before. Gotham's Knight, Smallville's Angel, The Goddess of the World Wars, The Division of Japan, The Mutants, and now Benjamin Tennyson and his enemies from an entirely different universe, where the Snap had never happened, never could have happened.
"We're not going to Avenge the world this time," Tony muttered, turning back to the screen, and bringing up files on numerous super-powered individuals, "We're going to save it."
AND THERE WE HAVE IT.
God, it has been way too long since I touched this story, I hope you all enjoyed the new chapter, especially the big reveal. As I said before Ben won't always be the focus, and that is likely to be the case with the next two chapters, as we focus on Pym and Banner's adventures in Central City. As always leave any and all comments, questions, or concerns and I'll get to them promptly. VerBeeker, signing off!