Aeon Across the multiverse part 2
No, not this again, damn it, where's my son, I need to find him.
Earth Designation 12
He was slamming his shovel into the ground, lifting up one pile of dirt after another. Ordinarily, he wouldn't disturb a grave like this, especially the grave of a friend, and one of this Earth's greatest heroes. He looked up at the grave stone.
Calvin Rankin
The Mimic
X-man and Avenger
He showed us all what a hero could be
It wasn't long ago that he was digging out of a grave. His resurrection had been sudden, no magic materialisation of his body, he'd just woken up in his own grave. The world was still as good as he hoped it would be, with one exception, he friend wasn't alive anymore. He spent six months catching up with current events, and investigating just what had happened to Calvin. The X-men told him about the Exiles, and they scientifically confirmed that the body was Calvin's. He pushed the shovel into the dirt again, feeling it hit something solid. Scraping off the dirt, he went through the long process of dragging the coffin back up. It didn't weigh a lot, not with the body how it was. Killed by Proteus, a bad way to go.
"STOP RIGHT THERE YOU SON OF A BITCH!" a voice screamed from above.
He looked up into the light, a light cast by Storm of the X-men. Her hair was set in its Mohawk style, but she wore her white costume with the cape running from her back, to her wrists. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he saw the other X-men assembled, all ready to protect their friend's grave site. Wolverine, in his yellow and blue spandex, Gambit wore his usual brown trench coat and Iceman had taken on his ice form. Aiming a gun at his head was Bishop, wearing a blue X-men uniform with his red scarf. Cyclops also had a finger to his visor, dressed in a grey and black uniform, Jean Grey was right beside him in a blue and yellow version of her Phoenix outfit. Soon afterwards other X-men started to land, Colossus, Shadowcat, Rogue, Beast and Nightcrawler.
"All right bub, get the hell away from my friend's coffin," Wolverine snarled, his claws ready.
The grave robber lifted up his hood, revealing his red hair and grey eyes.
Me, well that's a surprise
"Sven, I heard you were back, why are you doing this?" Cyclops asked.
"Yeah, he was your friend too," Jean said.
"Mimic spent years travelling across reality, righting wrongs and all that, this Blink lady said it was more complicated than that, that recently the supposed damages to reality were caused by the very people who bought them all together, who have lied to them more than once," Sven explained.
"What are you getting at?" Kitty asked.
"It's been years since Blink dumped Calvin's body here, reality is still standing, so the Exiles succeeded right, but reality doesn't have a structure, or a grand design, it's not something that can be broken or destroyed, just manipulated. So the Timebreaker's lies are still going on, what if Blink and the other Exiles don't know that they're still being lied to, or what if somehow they're still carrying out their missions, under some belief that reality is damaged somehow? I want to examine Calvin's body."
"I already confirmed that it was Calvin," Beast said.
"But the Calvin of another reality would be genetically identical to our Calvin right? So the scientific approach is useless," Sven retorted.
He ripped the lid off of the coffin, exposing the X-men to the sight and stench of their friend Mimic's corpse. Sven's eyes glowed, and markings appeared across his skin, as he placed his hand on the corpse. Instantly, memories, experiences and the very identity of this corpse passed through Sven's soul. He experienced everything this Calvin Rankin experienced, in his brief lifetime. Sven widened his eyes in horror as he stepped away from the corpse.
"He's not ours, this Calvin didn't die as part of the Exiles, but as part of the X-men, he was taken over by Proteus the very first time the X-men encountered him," Sven explained.
The X-men were left speechless. Sven looked down at the Calvin doppelganger's body and lowered his head in respect, sorry that this Calvin had been the victim of whatever force was manipulating heroes across the multiverse. A red and grey armour suddenly began to coat his body.
"There's a conspiracy going on across the Multiverse, and I'm going to find out exactly what is going on," the Aeon of Earth 12 said as his armour glowed.
What, can I do that, could I do that right now? I need to, for Thane.
Earth Designation 1815
He followed the connection he had with Calvin, retreading the footsteps he had taken. It led him to an Earth where operation zero tolerance was in effect. Aeon appeared on a street, his armour making him invisible to all the passersby. He gradually shifted his form, returning to flesh, joining the crowds as if he had always been a part of it. His eyes widened as he looked up at the sky. Orbiting New York was a Helicarrier, and patrolling the street were green and silver Iron men. Subtly bumping into people, the mere contact was enough for Sven to read their souls.
Oh my god, things really went to hell on this Earth. Charles Xavier was the bad guy, and Magneto was the good guy.
What people knew was that unknown super humans had released Charles Xavier, one of the most dangerous mutants on the planet. He killed people in Phoenix Arizona, but was apparently killed by the very same super humans who released him. They later went onto release the entirety of the imprisoned super human population. Included amongst them was Erik Lensherr, a man who always encouraged peaceful coexistence between mutants and humans. But not every super human released by the Exiles was a good guy, some were just other would be Xavier's.
Magneto formed his Brotherhood, which was basically the counterpart of the X-men, they fought for a world that feared and understood them. However, Tony Stark formed Force-Works, a team of government controlled super humans. As Iron man, he worked with Natasha Romanoff, the Iron spider, James Rhodes the War Machine, a robot called Iron Vision, Carol Danvers the Iron woman, Sam Wilson the Iron Falcon and John Blake the Iron Patriot. Though they had saved the world on more than one occasion, they also hunted mutants and put them into camps. But a shadow soon fell over the Earth. Sven, like everyone else on the planet looked up as a giant hologram appeared. It was the Hulk, dressed in some kind of gladiator armour.
"Puny humans of Earth, several years ago, my wife Betty Ross and I were exiled from this planet, by the very people we called friends."
He showed a video of Stark, T'Chaka, a Victor Von Doom sorcerer supreme, Forge and Emma Frost.
"I hope you find peace," Stark had said.
"But I wasn't alone," Hulk said.
Another hologram appeared, this one of Reed Richards and his wife Susan, they were dressed in the purple and black uniforms of the Skrull military.
"You exiled us Tony, but we were found by those who weren't threatened by our intelligence," Richard's said.
My god, the Exiles created a world, where standing together is impossible. Just when the world needs heroes to work together, and they have every reason not to.
Earth Designation MCU2
Wait a minute, this world, it's not the one those Exiles went to. What is this place, why do the Avengers look like movie stars? I mean actual movie stars, although Robert Downey Junior as Stark seems right, Chris Evans as Cap, I never really saw that but wow, he seems pretty convincing. What are they all talking about? Wait, is that me?
Sven Reilly was listening, as the Avengers discussed the new Sokovian accords. Rhodes of course took the side of the accords, Vision mentioned something about an equation and catastrophe (it really didn't make sense) and Tony showed off a holographic picture of some kid that was killed in Sokovia, by Ultron, though Tony seemed determined to lay the blame at their feet. As Tony and Steve went back and forth, Sven read the document, even absorbed some of the contents with his powers.
"I have to go," Cap suddenly took on a distracted tone, and Sven could sense the sadness coming from him.
He got up and walked out, leaving Tony with a childish grin on his face.
"So we're in agreement, I'm right?"
"As fucking always," Sven muttered.
"Lucky Steve isn't here, language," Natasha chided.
"I'm not joking," Sven said.
He had a frown across his face. Standing up, he slammed the accords onto the table.
"Tony, I admired you when you first came out as Iron man, when you took a stand when the government wanted your suits, when you took responsibility for your weapons. What do you think is going to happen when you sign that, you're going to become an employee Stark, an asset for them to use."
"That won't happen," Tony retorted.
"Oh yeah, cause you're the futurist and every decision you make never has consequences, Ultron, and has Pepper returned your calls?" Sven asked.
A look of fury crossed Tony's face, and the other Avengers looked down awkwardly. But Sven wasn't finished, he turned to Rhodes.
"I get it Rhodey, you're a soldier, you have to believe in the system, even when the system is led by guys like General...sorry secretary Ross."
"Why shouldn't we make ourselves a legitimate organisation? Why shouldn't we be held accountable?" Rhodey asked.
"Accountable? Oh like Ross was accountable right? For hunting Bruce day in and day out, for pretty much causing incidents every time he found him? For creating the Abomination? Oh yeah he was accountable wasn't he, Rhodes I get it you have to believe...even when it's quite clear no one in the government gives a shit about accountability. And with a straight face you're going to imply that Thaddeus fucking Ross is somehow a better man than Sam?"
"Yeah, sure sounds like he did," Sam muttered, earning an apologetic glance from Rhodes.
"And Vision, I know you are not big on the whole humanity thing, but your equation made absolutely zero sense. Our power isn't what invites chaos, it's the only thing standing between us and global destruction, the Chitauri, the dark elves, Ultron, Hydra, they all would have destroyed the entire planet if we let them have their way."
"Sven, this is just a move to win some trust back," Tony said.
"You don't conform to win trust, if you have to, then they're not the kind of people whose trust is worth having. Cap's right, the safest hands are still our own, we can do more, like we always should have," Sven lowered his head as he spoke.
A sudden silence fell over the Avengers. Tony walked up to Sven, placing a hand over his shoulder.
"You changed Tony, you changed because some lady came up to you and told her she blamed you for her son's death. Why didn't you change when I said I blamed you, that I blamed all of you?" Sven asked.
What? Something tells me, this shouldn't be turning out like this.
"A year, that's how long has gone by, Jiaying, that inhuman bitch unleashed the terrigen crystals. I was in another universe, fighting something that was going to destroy us all," Sven suddenly grabbed Tony by his shirt, pushing him against the wall. "WHERE WERE YOU TONY! WHERE THE AVENGERS WHEN THE AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. BIT OFF MORE THAN THEY COULD CHEW! WHERE WERE YOU WHEN MY MOTHER! MY SISTER AND THE WOMAN I LOVED WERE DYING HUH!"
"Now, you're going to sign an act, that suggests the Avengers go out there less, tell me Tony, what is it going to take to change your mind? Another woman saying she blames you, because you weren't there? Is that what you're going to tell grieving families 'I could have saved your child, but my bosses didn't let me' why didn't you help me Tony? Why didn't you do more?"
My counterpart, he's going down a dark path, just like I could if I don't find my son. Damn it, I don't have time for this.
Earth Designation 8649
There was a flash of light in Westchester, a portal appeared and out of it came Aeon. He rubbed his head, wrought with guilt over the Earth he had left behind. An Earth that was fighting a super powered world war, all because of the Exiles. He deactivated his armour and began walking to where he knew the Xavier institute was. There, he found a rundown mansion, the windows shattered, roof half falling apart. If there had ever been any students there, there weren't any more. Walking up to the door, Sven knocked at it, and waited.
"Whose there...oh my god," a girl standing behind the door gasped.
"Kitty Pryde, good to see someone like Toad wasn't living in the mansion," Sven said.
"Oh my god, oh god," Kitty's breathing became heavy as she collapsed, crawling backwards away from Sven as he entered.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"She's looking at a dead man," a voice spoke from the stairs.
Sven looked up, seeing Calvin. But unlike his Calvin, his hair was long and unkempt. His beard covered most of his face, and was filthy. The wings on his back were also dirty too, scars had covered his bare chest. In his right hand he held a bottle of whisky, his left arm however had been completely severed. Flying down, Calvin landed, stumbling forward and glaring at Sven.
"I think we're both got to lay off the booze Kate," Calvin suddenly collapsed in Sven's arms.
"What the hell happened?" Sven asked.
Once they had put the unconscious Calvin on a sofa, Kitty made two cups of coffee and sat with Sven.
"Where did it all begin Kitty?"
"Well you know that when I was younger, the X-men saved me from the Hellfire club right?" Kitty asked.
"It was around the time the Phoenix was on the team," Sven said.
"Yeah, we thought it was actually Jean on the team. We all thought the Phoenix had corrupted Jean, made her kill off billions in space, we were all even willing to fight for Jean at this Shiar trial. Kurt always told me the fight probably would have been easy, but they weren't expecting the warriors who volunteered to fight us to be so strong. They didn't kill any of us, but we've always wondered if they hadn't been there, what would have happened?"
"There was another Calvin Rankin with the team right?" Sven asked.
"Yes, our Calvin was with the Defenders at the time, this other Calvin took Wolverine off the board early. When Jean seemed to lose control, she killed Colossus, Storm and Cyclops, it took Angel and Wolverine sacrificing themselves to stop her. Beast, Nightcrawler and Xavier returned to Earth, and Calvin came back too. Beast left the Avengers to restart the X-men, Calvin did the same for the Defenders. But it wasn't enough, we couldn't stop Mystique from assassinating Senator Kelly."
"What happened after that?"
"Things got even tougher for mutants, the X-men were seen as accomplices and hunted. Calvin, a known Avenger, did what he could, and he was starting to sway a few opinions. But when the X-men really needed politicians on their side, they weren't, and thus voted in favour of an act to register all the details of known mutants. The X-men became government employees, but our hands were tied more times than I can count."
"Politics can do that to you, what did Calvin think of all this?"
"He soldiered on, formed a group called X-Factor with Iceman, Beast, and Jean."
"Wait, Jean is alive?"
"Yeah, it turned out that the Phoenix had simply created a copy of Jean's body which it inhabited. Jean joined X-Factor, at the same time Havok started dating someone who looked like Jean, Madelyn Pryor was her name. They disappeared round about the time Apocalypse came on the scene, he captured Beast and Iceman and turned them into his horsemen. Calvin and Jean tried so hard to redeem them, but both of them were already in dark places when Apocalypse had taken them. My time in the X-men was also pretty difficult, a woman called Psylocke was leading us, and things got difficult for her, what with the mutant massacre. She was more ruthless with her mutant powers, so ruthless that she killed Mystique's adopted daughter Rogue."
"But Rogue was supposed to become one of the greatest X-men," Sven said.
"Maybe she could have been in this world too, if we had leaders like Storm and Wolverine...I'm sorry, reliving all of this is hard. Everything just piled up, the threats became too big, Havok and Madelyn came back, with her as some kind of Goblin Queen. Calvin and Jean rejoined the X-men, and for a while they helped improve the team, we saved a lot of lives and the world quite a few times. But there were so many other things that happened too, which cost us far too much. The legacy virus wiped out seventy percent of the mutant population before Cecilia Reyes found a cure, or at least one that wouldn't require a death. Xavier and Magneto merged into Onslaught, and with the X-men weakened, the Avengers sacrificed themselves to stop him."
"What led to all this though?" Sven asked, motioning to the sorry state of the mansion.
"Apocalypse gathered a loud of mutants, added their power to his own, and then tried to take a host in the form of another alternate reality visitor called X-man. Jean disrupted the ritual, and ended up possessed instead. With all the original X-men dead or corrupted, everything just fell apart. Calvin blames himself for all of it," Kitty explained.
Or maybe the Exiles are to blame, maybe their presence changed what was supposed to happen. Just like me being gone might make things worse, or maybe my presence will make things worse. Maybe, I should just find Thane...and get as far away as I can.
Earth 783
The Skrulls had arrived, through the portal projected by the Zodiac key. Their saucer shaped fighters flew through the streets of New York, blasting everything in their path. When people looked up at Pott's tower, they saw a beam of light shooting up at the sky, the same light that was creating the portal. A window on the tower suddenly shattered, and a thin man, of middle eastern descent was thrown towards the ground.
"NOW JOCASTA! NOW!" the man yelled.
Ho Yinsen spread his arms out, and a black and gold object flew out of the tower. Slowly, the object shifted into a suit, latching onto the bands on Yinsen's wrists, and then covering his body. The arc reactor on the chest of the suit glowed, so too did the eyes on the helmet. Igniting his rockets, Yinsen, the 'Rescue' of this world flew upwards. He aimed the palm of his hand at his would be killer, a giant of a man with the muscles to match. His Greek styled armour matched the legends that inspired him.
"There's also another you've angered Ares, his name was Garret," a magnetic wave flew from Yinsen's hand, throwing the god of war into the wall.
Rescue looked at the devastation being forced upon the city. This probably hadn't even have been Stark's home, but his country was the starting point of the Skrull invasion. Yinsen made a promise to Tony, to 'rescue' the world he jeopardised. He intended to live up to his name, moving through the city streets, shutting down the Skrull ships with controlled EMP's, drawing weapons to him magnetically, and saving people. His armour shot out foam that put out fires, and Yinsen himself flew people out of the path of falling rubble. The Rescue armour was not a weapon, just a machine meant to save lives.
"Jocasta, how soon until we have backup?" Yinsen asked his onboard AI.
"A Quinn jet is just approaching the city airspace," Jocasta said.
Rescue swooped downwards, knocking down three Skrulls with a magnetic wave. He looked up, just as a S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinn jet shot several Skrull flight platforms apart. The Skrulls suddenly fired at the jet, knocking it out of the sky. It slammed into the ground, sliding into a building. Three people stepped out of the jet, one dressed in a navy blue uniform, with a star on his chest, and on the forehead of the cowl he wore. The cowl had a gap exposing his blonde hair. Several Skrulls flew towards him, but the man put two fingers to the side of his head. A telekinetic wave suddenly emanated from the man, knocking the Skrulls back.
"Nice mind work Trenton, or maybe I should say Colonel America," the dark haired man next to him said.
"Shut up and fight Whitman," Trenton Craft retorted.
Dane Whitman put on his black and gold helmet and pulled a sword out of the back of his leather jacket. An energy shield appeared around his arm as he ran at the Skrulls, running them through and beheading them. The black haired woman beside Trenton pulled a bow off of her back. She fired an arrow, which split off into four more arrows, hitting each of the Skrulls she targeted.
"Fools, they believe they can stop me," Ares said, looking down at the heroes, believing their fight to be futile.
The tower suddenly shook as another combatant entered the arena. Ares turned, only to be met by a fist that sent him flying across the city. The new arrival landed beside the other heroes. He wore a sleeveless green suit, which showed his upper body muscles, gold armour, shaped like a lion's head covered his right shoulder, an equipment belt was also wrapped around his waist. Stabbing his sword into the ground, the bearded, brown haired man bowed his head to the other heroes.
"Hercules," Trenton nodded his head.
Rescue flew towards the heroes, leading a Skrull saucer behind him.
"General Ross, are you in the right position?" Yinsen asked over his radio.
It reached an army transport in the sky. Inside it, General Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross removed his uniform jacket, and undid his tie.
"Are you sure about this general?" one of his soldiers asked.
"The best weapon we have against the invaders is the Hulk, I'll clear a path and you land in to support the local pd and national guard," Ross said.
He slammed his hand against a button, opening the plane's cargo hatch. Taking a running start, Ross jumped, diving down as fast as he could towards the city. His heart pumped so strongly, one would think he was having a heart attack. But gradually, Ross's muscles began to expand, his hair, moustache and all took on a black colour. As his muscles shredded through his shirt, and his toes burst out of his shoes, Ross's skin turned red and his eyes glowed a fiery orange. The Hulk landed on the saucer chasing Rescue, crushing it completely. All of the Skrulls gathered around the heroes, yelling in fury. But standing together in a circle, the Black Knight, Hercules, Kate Bishop, Rescue, the Red Hulk and Colonel America faced the invaders, the Ultimates had finally come together.
Ultimates, they don't look like our Ultimates. But an interesting founding roster. Okay, where is my counterpart?
A dodge charger suddenly crashed into several of the Skrulls. Its driver, a wild, blonde haired man with black piercings in his ears and bandages on his fingers, grinned as he closed his green eyes. When he opened them, they were instead glowing red. Red markings spread across the car, which suddenly turned into pure light. The light enveloped the driver, Karl Kinner's body. A red suit covered his body, followed by plates of grey armour. Armour covered his chest, exhaust shaped thrusters appeared on his back. The grey armour on his arms had a wheel on each. Smaller plates of grey armour covered his legs, an grey boots covered his shins and feet, wheels also appeared at the back of the legs. Finally, a helmet styled mask covered his face. Aeon had arrived.
There are truly unique versions of Aeon out there. But I wonder, is there an Aeon that hasn't lost his family?
A marvellous world
It was the end of the world as they knew it. That much the boy knew as he walked through the streets.
"MUM! KATE!" he yelled. "Is anyone there?"
He put his hand to his mouth, to protect himself from the smoke. The city was in ruins, and there wasn't a soul in sight. He wanted so much to find someone, for someone to be okay. Walking around one of the buildings, the boy nearly vomited, for bodies had been crushed by rubble, limp limbs sticking out lifelessly.
He's so scared, just like Thane must be. Is this what's going to happen to him, alone, with no one to help him? God, please, let me find my boy!
The boy put a hand to his face. Tears where in his eyes, that weren't in his own. Touching his heart, the boy felt strange, that somehow the tears where his. He had to find someone, anyone who was still alive. Climbing the rubble, dirt covering his clothes, fighting off the urge to vomit every time he saw a lifeless hand or foot, the boy searched. He reached the top of the rubble pile and looked down, widening his eyes at what he saw. Men had come out of the ground, yellow skinned men wearing nothing but loin cloths, their eyes were so narrow that if there was light they wouldn't be able to see. These Mole Men listened out and heard the squirming of a child. The blonde haired girl was yanking at her foot, trying to get free. She looked up at the mole men and covered her mouth, they were ripping open the throat of a uniformed cop.
My god, are those the yellow men the Mole Man uses? God I never thought they could actually be terrifying.
With shaking hands, and a lot of courage, the boy yelled at the top of his lungs. The mole men were drawn away from the girl, and straight towards their next meal. Rocks however slammed into their faces, the boy threw the nearby stones as hard as he could, unwilling to go down without a fight. But when the creatures began to get closer, he turned and ran, as fast as his legs possibly could.
Even as a boy, and even in a universe that's about to die, I'm still a hero. But what kind of hero am I, if I can't save my own child?
Ultimate Aeon Origins Reboot
Chapter 19: Battle for reality part 5
They were getting closer and closer to the end, despite Rogue's sacrifice, despite the time bought by Alpha Flight. They could save the people of their Earth, but it would still crash into the other Earth. The 616 Aeon flew through the Nexus, streams of memories, like film passed him by. He could see in the distance, the armoured form of the Beyonder. They were getting closer and closer to what amounted to a 'control point' in the time stream, the Nexus. If he reached that point, he could change everything if he wanted to, he could wipe out a world. The Beyonder looked over his shoulder, scowling at Aeon. He created a stream of meteors and threw them at Aeon, who flew from side to side to dodge them.
"Hope the others are having an easier time preventing Armageddon than me," the hero muttered.
Earth 1610-the dark world
The avatars and heroes of other realities struggled, putting everything they were into putting Galactus through the wormhole. The devourer of worlds was weakened by Spider-Prowler's poison, but he was still dominating the fight. Slamming his fist into A-Bomb, he pushed him underground. The other Rick Jones, Nova, fired an energy blast which Galactus blocked with his hand. He then fired a blast from his eyes, hitting Rick and knocking him out of the sky. Big Brain made countless calculations, but could come up with nothing. The Frankie Raye Nova released bombs of fire that splashed across Galactus's face, and Storm brought down a flurry of lightning bolts. She bought her hands forward, creating a whirlwind to push Galactus back. Galactus however clapped his hands, only for a pair of Phoenix wings to block them. Storm looked either side, to see the wings of the Phoenix holding back Galactus's hands.
"DON'T LET UP!" Basilisk yelled, firing his optic blast.
Storm joined him with lightning, just as Frankie and Rick launched fire and energy. The Phoenix then formed a telekinetic blast, striking Galactus and pushing him back slightly. Cade yelled as he swung his scythe, unleashing a flurry of energy blades that pelted Galactus's chest again and again, cracking his armour and forcing him closer and closer towards the portal. Psylocke fired telekinetic bolts from a crossbow she had formed, whilst Peni Parker threw rocks alongside A-Bomb, Colossus and Jade Giantess.
"We're running out of time," Cade muttered.
He had a lack of hope, the same as a dying member of the Avatars. Aaron looked up at the sky, and saw the other Earth, every few seconds it phased in and out of existence. But the threat was very real, it would slam into their Earth. The other heroes would make it off the Earth, they had dimensional teleporters handy, but the evacuation of Earth 1610 would be meaningless if they didn't manage to detonate it and save the other world. But in order to detonate it they needed two things, a fully evacuated Earth 1610 to Nu-World, and someone willing to destroy their world.
Earth 1610-True world
Peter emerged from the portal and looked at the other gathered heroes. They had distraught looks across their faces, in particular Miles. Looking behind him, Peter saw Cloak collapse, his skin looked cold and his eyes tired.
"Cloak, oh god no," Peter muttered, grabbing the men before he could fall.
"I want this Parker, let me be with her, its Cloak and Dagger, no one without the other," Ty whispered.
He stopped breathing and his head plopped down. Peter hugged the hero's body, trembling as Jessica and Kitty both touched his shoulders.
"What about Fury?" Coulson asked.
"He wasn't going to stop, in the end, he killed himself in a way," Peter said.
"We lost Rogue," Bobby said, his voice had taken on a cold tone, and he seemed distracted.
"May's stopped breathing," Fitz said, hugging a crying Jemma.
"We carry on, it's what all five of them would have wanted," Coulson said.
"But there's a problem," Sue said, stepping away from the bomb.
"Let me guess, one of us is gonna have to do what Bruce Willis did in Armageddon," Jimmy Hudson said.
Sue only nodded her head, drawing looks of frustration and sadness from the other heroes.
"Will the bomb reach the core?" Coulson asked.
"It will, but we need to be in range to detonate it," Sue said.
"Classic Armageddon scenario," Bombshell muttered.
"Well in the words of a deceased legend, 'let's draw straws and see who stays to dance'," Luke Cage said.
"Are there any teleporters amongst the heroes from other worlds?" Peter asked.
"They all left, their part in the plan was over, and even if they stayed, there's no time to trigger the detonation and teleport out. Besides, this is something a native of this Earth should do, it's on us...no, it's on me, I'll stay and detonate it," Coulson explained.
"People are going to need leaders to help build something on Nu-World, peace keepers too, so you and the members of your team are out of it Mr Coulson," Peter explained.
"Miles is out too, he's way too young for this, Sue has a baby to raise," Ben said.
"Who I'm not raising without you," Susan retorted.
"So it's you guys out, anyone whose already in orbit, Jubilee, Bombshell, Iceman, anyone who's a minor," Nighthawk said.
"We're not kids anymore, it's our responsibility to volunteer at least," Peter said.
"No one is going to draw straws or vote on this, I'm going to do it," Falcon said.
"No!"
The heroes were draw to the voice of the one who spoke. Stood there was Victor Van Damme. He huffed as they gave him odd looks.
"I will do it, and this time, in the new world, tell the truth of what happened," Victor said.
"I can't believe this, you're willing to sacrifice yourself, simply to satisfy your own ego?" Sue asked.
"Yes I am, that should come as no surprise to you Susan, Reed had his chance many a time, he will be remembered forever as the hero who became the villain, I however, my legacy will be that of the villain, whom gave up everything he could have been for just one act that saved everything," Victor explained.
"Well I'm not going to argue with that," Nighthawk said.
"Believe it or not neither am I," Ben said.
Victor huffed, walking up to Fitz and Simmons.
"Give me the detonator, and get me into contact with whoever has organised this foolhardy plan," Victor said.
Dark side of the mirror
Victor Von Doom, ruler of Latveria, looked up at the new home for mankind. The portal to Nu-Earth, the last home for humanity. Then there was the other Earth, the marvellous world that would destroy their own. He saw through the eyes of his counterpart in the original Earth 1610 and smirked underneath his mask. Everything was going according to plan, all that was left was for the heroes to do their part. In the meantime he had his own preparations to carry.
He stood in the middle of Stone Henge, a sight of power. Doom opened a jar, and covered his armour with ashes, the ashes of the Scarlet Witch. Around him, his doom bots chained beings of great mystical power to the stones, or at least those who had mystical powers on other Earths. The beautiful S.H.I.E.L.D. psychologist Agatha Harkness, the surgeon Stephen Strange senior, and his son, sideshow magician Strange Junior, tattoo artist Jennifer Kale and gypsy Margali Szardos. Most were kept unconscious by one of Doom's own spells.
"Master Doom," one of his doom bots spoke, approaching him with a metallic case.
Doom took hold of the case and watched his robots bring in two more prisoners. With an electrical device strapped to his head was Namor, and the broken and wounded form of this world's Thor. An Atlantean, a member of the first and lost society and the son of a god. Doom removed an ancient, dust covered blade from the case. Out of the shadows then came Loki, who grinned at his ally.
"So, shall we begin?" he asked.
Next Chapter 20: Battle for reality finale
Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter
