Double, double, toil and trouble
Kate Bishop frankly stared in awe as her team tore into the now forming ranks of bad guys surrounding the golden shield that held the true enemy. Super heroes were as varied as the villains they often fought. Some preferred to do things quietly as subtly, but on the whole the Avengers disdained such tactics. Maybe it was the raw power of the enemies they commonly fought? Sneaky had its place, on the battlefield and off, but when you faced someone like Thanos or Kang the Conquerer, trying to outsneak the enemy just didn't work! Either they ignored your attempts at stabbing them from behind or they backhanded you into oblivion when you thought you had them at a disadvantage. Some foes could be defeated fairly easily by attacks when they were unprepared, but the Mad Titan and the Master of Time were never unprepared. Such threats were their stock in trade so, the Avengers had learned. They had adapted, trained and perfected their tactics. Teamwork won battles and wars, not individual heroics in most cases.
Kate thought she recognized some of these enemies. Not from her reality, but from books, TV shows and movies. Then again, if half of what she had heard in this wild ride was true, then the multiverse held infinite possibilities. She jerked as a squad of Imperial stormtroopers appeared and opened fire on the Hulk. Bad idea! With a roar, the big guy was in their midst and they had no chance against him in close combat. More cannon fodder in white armor appeared, but their blasters would only make the Hulk madder. That fight was well in hand. Cap and Black Panther were tearing into a group of enemies whose uniforms looked like various soldiers, but they shambled like zombies! Black Widow hit and ran while Hawk-Eye sniped, ducked and rolled away from return fire from a group of… Space hippies with guns? Long hair, peace symbols, fringes, but space suits and guns. Okay. Weirder than ever! Iron Man was duking it out with… Another version of himself? Okay, that was odd too. And where was Thor? Oh, he was stuck in some kind of golden energy sphere, but it was flashing as he hit it with lightning. He wouldn't be stuck in there long if Kate was any judge of things. Kamala was throwing fists at Lorinos' shield and that seemed do nothing at all, not even get his attention.
"This is just the warm up." Elizabeth said quietly from where she stood, her rifle lowered, but Kate noticed her finger was inside the trigger guard. She was ready to shoot. "He has many, many more forces on call."
"He doesn't want it all destroyed." Kate offered, not daring to move as the insane Empress looked at her. The Magos was a red robed statute at Kate's side, her hand still on Kate's arm. "He wants it for his own."
"Yeah." Elizabeth shook her head as Cap took a hit and went flying from some kind human shaped armor suit a far larger than a normal human. But Black Panther was on the thing's back, the king's vibranium claws tearing deep into the armor as if it were made of tissue paper. "Marauder suit. Whoever is in there won't enjoy what Lieutenant Rico does to them when they get back. AWOL from that group is a bad idea." She hissed as red columns of light appeared nearby and a dozen humanoid forms in dark armor appeared. They all had long hair and ridged foreheads. Some held bladed weapons, some held firearm like weapons that they leveled on the Avengers as the ones with swords charged. "Interesting."
"Wait, what? Klingons? Aren't they about honor?" Kate asked as the Avengers regrouped. She burned to join the battle, but she still didn't have a weapon. "How is serving him honorable?" She nodded to the golden man in his impenetrable shield.
"Throughout human history, good soldiers served bad rulers." Elizabeth said mildly. "No matter what alternate reality they come from, Klingon warriors live to fight. If he promised them a good fight? Many would not ask how or why."
"I guess." Kate sighed as the battle continued. The newcomers poured green disruptor fire at the Avengers who avoided it or managed to defend themselves against it. Iron Man was in flight now his copy/alternate pursuing but not able to catch him in the tight quarters of the room. Lots of places to hide from fire in corners or behind architecture. She wanted to help her friends but dared not move. "I can't help you. I know that."
"Good." Elizabeth replied, her focus apparently only on the now expanding battle. Kate wasn't fooled. "I did not want you to be the one to do it, Kate Bishop, but no one else was available."
"I know." Kate jerked as Black Widow took a hit from a bolt of green energy and went flying. The former spy and assassin landed on her feet and something dropped from her to skitter across the floor towards Kate. Kate still didn't move even as she saw her bow, quiver and sword at her feet.
"Nice trick, taking damage to drop off a package. Sneaky is as sneaky does." Elizabeth's eyes held madness again, but it was focused on Lorinos who looked bored in his shield.
"Your siblings will be very upset with me." Kate said softly as the battle raged around the Hulk who had two Imperial troops, one in each on hand and was bashing Klingons away from himself with the white armored forms. Few he struck got up. Then lightning cracked as the sphere around Thor vanished and he landed in the midst of a group of Klingons who tried to swarm him. Bad idea! Kate winced as the fight turned truly vicious. "They love you."
"Love is hard." Elizabeth agreed. "It often makes us do things we never would have contemplated otherwise. There was a time that all I wanted was love, but I learned. There is always a cost to trusting others."
"Open yourself up to love and you leave yourself vulnerable to hurt." Kate said softly. "I think they meant well."
"Probably." Elizabeth allowed. "But that doesn't change the fact that they used you. That they would let you die if they thought it would 'help' me."
"Can you shift us elsewhere?" Kate asked. "This place…" She paused as Elizabeth spun to glare at her. "I mean… I know you and he want to kill each other. I get part of why and know I don't want to know more. I know I am intended to stop you. But…" She swallowed hard as golden power flared behind Elizabeth's eyes. It was terrifying, staring at those flaring golden orbs. Kate stuck to her guns, though and kept her tone level. "Please? It is what I do, trying to protect others."
"I see. What made you want to be a hero?" Elizabeth asked as the world around them shifted. Lorinos started in his golden shields, but before he could do anything, the battle continued on red rock. Mars. "I am curious."
"You will laugh." Kate said weakly.
"I might." Elizabeth was calmer now, her eyes less energy filled. "I don't know anything about you. I was once a guest in a reality very similar to yours, but not 'quite' like yours. In the one I knew, there was no Avenger named Kate Bishop." She waved at the fight where the Avengers were trouncing everyone who Lorinos summoned almost as soon as they arrived. "These I know. You, I don't."
"It is not a very good story." Kate all but pleaded but Elizabeth shrugged.
"Neither is what happened to me." The mad empress looked at Kate who fought not to quail from her gaze. "I hope your mother did not try to brainwash you."
"Not...quite." Kate swallowed her fear and spoke. "She went super villain and I… I never wanted to do that. I had some bad things happen to me when I was younger and was trying to deal with them the best I could. Then one day, I saw a group of people my age doing heroic stuff and I thought 'Why can't I do that?' I mean, I don't have powers, but I can do heroics."
"Everyone gets heroes wrong unless they have dealt with real ones." Elizabeth seemed non-committal, but her gaze was still on Lorinos who was eyeing Thor with undisguised glee. The Asgardian Avenger was ripping through a new group of baddies. Some kind of ninjas with two human/animal mutants in their mix? Wait a minute! Kate recognized them! The Foot Clan with RockSteady and Be-Bop from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Kate stilled. Where was Kamala? She was gone! "Heroes are just people who do heroics. That doesn't make them better or worse than anyone else. Super heroes have supernatural power, nothing more."
"Yeah." Kate sighed deeply as the battle continued. Her weapons were at her feet, but she dared not touch them. "I have seen way too may who thought power gave them the right to do anything they wanted. Whether it was strength, magic, ultra-high technology… It all boiled down the same. Many who wanted stuff tried to take it without earning it and there were those who said 'No'. Who decided to fight to defend those who cannot defend themselves." The Magos appeared at Kate's side, her posture shocked, but then she settled and took Kate's arm again. "Who refuse to allow bad things to happen when they can try to stop them."
"Good and bad?" Elizabeth shrugged, but her rifle's muzzle didn't move. "That is all perspective. Many of your kind call Victor Von Doom the worst villain in history, but his subjects live without fear, have a stable economy, safe places to sleep and enjoy a fairly comfortable life. And before you say 'they are not free'… Think about it. Is anyone?"
"I…" Kate paused and then she shook her head. Slave chains or no money and bad credit? Both could hold one back just as hard and could be just as hard to get out of. "I don't know." Kate grimaced. "Things were so much simpler when all I had to worry about was AIM bots trying to kill me." She complained.
"Fighting is always easier than thinking, true." Elizabeth pursed her lip as more and more enemies poured in to hem the Avengers in. Kamala was still missing. Some of the foes Kate recognized, many she did not. "You know who 'I' consider to be the worst villain in your many versions of reality?" Kate looked at her and Elizabeth nodded. "Reed Richards."
"Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four?" Kate asked, confused. "Why?"
"He is a very smart man, but he often has the social graces and common sense of a lemming." Elizabeth said with a growl as Lorinos varied troops started to overwhelm the Avengers, but then, Kamala popped up from wherever she had been hiding behind them, many times her usual size and started throwing enemies away from herself as she spun, massive elongated fists spiral pummeling everything in her way! The Avengers all ducked. They knew better than to get in Kamala's way when she embiggened like that. "He is the reason Lorinos found your realities in the first place. He is the reason Lorinos found shelter there when the fool fled Orokin's Collapse. Such jaunts to other realities were forbidden for very good reason, but he didn't care about the mess he was making. Why should he?"
"Richards can be a jerk on occasion, but I can't see him doing that." Kate said slowly. Then she paused and groaned. "Unless he was stuck in some science project and just didn't pay attention."
"Bingo." Elizabeth smiled, but there was little mirth in it. "He was so caught up in his precious 'science' that he never noticed when Lorinos slipped through his project and into his world from mine. None of the other heroes in the area did either."
"So, Lorinos was hiding on my world?" Kate shook her head, dismayed. "Or in a close variant."
"Not yours." Elizabeth reassured her. "One of many that are close, but not quite the same. In that world, the Avengers didn't fall apart after A-Day. Advanced Idea Mechanics didn't take over. AIM is a danger there, but so is Hydra, the Hand and many other groups."
"Hydra? The nutcase racists got stomped on a year or so ago by Cap among others." Kate said softly as the Avengers went back on the offensive, Kamala's surprise attack having broken the enemy's ranks. "No one expects them to stay gone, we cannot be that lucky, but they scurried back underground like the rats they are. The Hand? Who the hell call themselves 'The Hand'?" She asked, concern rising.
"Eh, if you don't know, best I don't ruin the surprise." Elizabeth's smile was evil as Kate growled at her. "Hey, no spoilers."
"I get that you are evil, but geez! Okay. When will he lose patience?" Kate asked quietly. "This is just round one."
"He will be more cautious than usual with me actually here." Elizabeth explained. "He knows that if I get a shot at ending him, I will take it. If I hit, I'll kill him." Elizabeth said with a snarl of her own as Thor hit Lorinos' shield with a full barrage of lightning that seemed to do nothing at all. "That may or may not be his core energy, but I have deleted several copies of him and he has to be running low on personal energy since every time he tries to take more, I intervene." That was cold, hard and merciless.
"Do I want to know how he 'takes' more personal energy?" Kate inquired, more or less against her will. Both the Magos and the mad Empress shook their heads in unison and Kate swallowed hard. "Okay. Forget I asked."
"It's fairly gross." Elizabeth made a face. "Even if I fail here today, I will try to keep you out of his hands. No sane female deserves what he does to them."
"What he did to you." Kate said very softly and neither of the women next to her reacted. Kate shook her head. "I um… I don't know what he did, but I can guess and all of my guesses are horrific after hearing what he did to others."
"My siblings told you." Elizabeth was disapproving. "They shouldn't have."
"Knowing your enemy is the first step towards fighting them successfully." Kate retorted. "Not that I want to fight either of you, but I don't really have a choice, do I?"
"In a straight fight, you would lose to either of us." Elizabeth agreed. "So, you will pick your time and target. Good girl." The smile she turned on Kate was warm now. Said smile fell as golden energy started to flare around the area. "And now… The next phase." Elizabeth bowed her head as the golden flashes turned into humanoid shapes. Warframes!
"Enough, Elizabeth." A familiar Vauban warframe stepped out of golden light and shook his head as the Avengers took stock and reformed, ready to attack or defend. He shook his head, no weapons in hand. "Avengers, stand down. I do not wish to fight you." They ignored him and focused on Lorinos who scoffed. The Vauban looked from them to Kate. "Kate Bishop, please. You know what has to happen."
More warframes were appearing, but these just took up station around the area. None raised weapons, although they held them ready. Many different kinds, many shapes and sizes. All ready.
"I know what he wants to happen." Kate nodded to Lorinos. "You?" She eyed the Vauban. "I remember you. Ric. You tried to catch her and caught me instead."
"Things got complicated." Ric shrugged. "They usually do. I have no quarrel with you or your team, Kate Bishop. I know what you are ready to do and I ask that you do it before this goes any further."
"Do you?" Kate asked, not taking her eyes from Lorinos. "And… If I do, what then? We all live happily ever after?" She asked snidely.
"No." Ric was unmoved by her sarcasm. "You and yours go home, back to do what you do. Then I handle this." He waved to the shielded Orokin. "I can."
"Just so we are all on the same page…" Kate said softly. "I kill Elizabeth and that piece of human shaped golden excrement does what he wants, any time he wants, anywhere he wants." The hate in her tone shook Kate. That wasn't her, was it?
"No." Ric replied and Kate looked at the Vauban. "You kill her, I kill him. This whole mess ends. You go home and hopefully forget all of the bad you just went through."
"You can kill him." Kate said slowly, not entirely sure about this.
"Yes." Ric replied. "I have killed Orokin before. He is bit more unusual than usual, but I can."
"And you haven't stopped him… because…" Kate paused and then looked from Ric to Elizabeth. There was some serious tension between those two. Kate licked her lips and slowly nodded. Things were staring to make sense and not in a good way. "Oh. I see."
"Do you?" Ric asked, still not moving.
"Kate? What is going on?" Captain America demanded from where he crouched, ready to move.
"Cap! Don't move! Nobody move! We are all in grave danger!" Kate snapped, her eyes focused on Elizabeth now. The girl slowly shook her head. "This… This is all you, isn't it?" She was suddenly the focus of everyone's attention, but she still didn't move. "Revenge on the one who hurt you, I can see. But on us?" She asked Elizabeth who was just as frozen as Kate was. "What did we do to you?"
"You? Nothing." Elizabeth's tone was cold and dead now, utterly emotionless. "I never met you before. I saw you for the very first time when you slipped out of your reality. I thought I could use you and then my siblings got to you. As did he." Still, no movement, but her eyes were laser beams aimed at the Vauban warframe.
"I gave you the chance to end it on your terms, Elizabeth." Ric and Elizabeth were locked in a duel of stares, but of course, no one could see his eyes. "You chose otherwise. You reap what you sow."
"You dare say such to me." Elizabeth all but spat that.
"There was a time I admired you." Ric admitted. "But that time passed long before you hurt Cecelia."
"What?" The Magos and Kate both exclaimed, but neither the warframe not the mad empress paid them any mind.
"Go ahead and shoot, Elizabeth." Ric all but threw the name at the former Empress. "You know you want to. I didn't want to get involved! I didn't want to do it! You gave me no choice!"
"You side with him!" Elizabeth snapped.
"Because you made me side with him!" Ric retorted. "You had to hurt Cecelia! Not because you had to, but because you wanted to! You just had to prove that you are a monster now. Gwyn said it before and I say it now. You are no family of ours! You wanted to be a monster? Okay. Let's see who the bigger monster is here! You are no better than your mom now and I stood far worse than her off in my day! Go ahead and try!"
"Cap…" Kate breathed as tension rose even higher. "If you guys can get out of here, now is the time to do it!" The leader of the Avengers shook his head and the team was in defensive formation, for all the good that would do against such power as Elizabeth was manifesting now.
"None of you are going anywhere!" Elizabeth's rifle was up and discharged at the Vauban with the speed of thought. Kate gasped, but a small ball had flown from Ric's hand and the black bolt of energy the rifle spat hit the ball and was absorbed.
"Oops." Ric mocked the Empress as his ball suddenly expanded, a sphere of energy becoming a circle that grew outwards. The energy was the same color her rifle's bolt had been! Suddenly everyone but Kate, Ric and Lorinos were suspended in the air! Avengers, warframes, Elizabeth and the Magos! All helpless. Ric drew a small pistol and aimed at the golden shield. A crack and the insanely powerful field that had held off the entire team of Avengers simply vanished! The golden man was lifted into the air to hang helpless before he could speak. The warframe nodded to Kate as he took aim at the floating golden form. "Well, Kate Bishop?"
"I…" Kate swallowed hard and focused. She bent down and picked up her weapons. The bow and sword were hers, extensions of her body and will. There was an arrow in the quiver that she didn't know. When she drew it, the tip gleamed an ugly shade of brown. Was that blood on it? It was! A Fulgurite arrow to kill an immortal. She nocked it automatically and took aim at Elizabeth. "I am sorry." The world shimmered and-
"So am I." Elizabeth said from behind Kate as sudden pain tore though her. She stared down at the golden point that protruded from her chest. The gold eclipsed everything and all Kate Bishop could do was scream.