Marvel Adventures: Dragonborn
…
Voice Cast:
Kari Wahlgren as Emma Frost
Erica Lindbeck as Felicia Hardy/Black Cat
Natalie Dormer as Red Sonja
Keeley Hawes as Betsy Braddock/Pyslocke
Tara Strong as Laura Kinney/X-23
Richard Armitage as Dragonborn/Dovahkiin
…
Chapter 1: Wake Me Up When It's Over
The first thing Emma felt was a splitting headache. It was so painful that it could almost be called a migraine. Reluctantly, Emma opened her eyes only to shut them again as blinding white light filled her vision. After the initial pain of the light subsided to manageable levels, Emma opened her eyes again, albeit more slowly this time. Feeling a soft breeze on her face, Emma took stock of her surroundings. Her vision was blurry but soon everything came into focus, sharp and clear.
It was then Emma found she was laying on the middle of a asphalt road. It was a sunny day and she could hear the distant sounds of birds chirping. Slowly sitting up and fighting down a wave of nausea that threatened to overcome her, Emma looked around and she realised that she wasn't alone.
Scattered near were three familiar faces; Felicia Hardy AKA Black Cat, Elizabeth 'Betsy' Braddock AKA Psylocke and Laura Kinney AKA X-23. Also nearby there were two strangers, for Emma did not know who they were.
The first stranger was a woman with fiery red hair and wearing something that could only described as a scale mail bikini and that was being polite about it. The redhead was also quite lush in her figure and the fact that the bikini was already skimpy to begin with was telling.
The second stranger was immediately discernible in gender as he or she was wearing black onyx plate armour similar to that of a medieval knight. But a closer look told Emma that the knight was male if the way the armour was shaped was anything to go by.
Emma then looked at Laura and Betsy and she then tried to make telepathic contact with them. Sharp shooting pains lanced through Emma's mind. Clutching her head briefly, Emma panted as she once again tried to telepathically contact Laura and Betsy. Emma grunted and winced in pain again as the spikes of pain grew. Sighing to herself, Emma crawled over to wake up her fellow X-Men manually, so to speak. Crawling over to wake Betsy, Emma nudged the British-Japanese woman and whispered her name.
"Betsy? Betsy, wake up," Emma whispered suddenly realising how hoarse her voice was. Her mouth and throat felt dry and sandy and she wished she had something to wet her parched throat.
Betsy stirred awake with a pained groan. "Bloody hell! What happened?" the purple-haired mutant asked as she slowly sat up. Looking at Emma, Betsy asked her, "Emma? What are you doing here? Where are we?"
"I'd like to know that myself," Emma said. "If I can guess, we're somewhere out in the country," she noted as she looked at her surroundings.
"Yeah, but where? And which country for that matter?" Betsy said before she gave a brief cough and rubbed her throat. "I don't know about you, but my throat feels like a used cat litter box. You got anything to drink?" she asked Emma.
"I don't have anything on me, and I could use something a little strong myself," Emma said in a rare moment of self-deprecation. "Let's wake Laura up. Perhaps she knows something about this," she added.
"Well, wake her up then," Betsy said.
"I tried to wake you both up with my telepathy, but all I got was a migraine," Emma replied. "Unless you want to try?" she offered.
"Don't mind if I do," Betsy said before she looked at Laura and her eyes narrowed in concentration. A second later, she clutched her head in pain. Panting heavily for a moment, she said, "I can't use my telepathy either."
"So, something is inhibiting our telepathy then," Emma surmised. "Can you use your telekinesis?" she asked Betsy.
"I'll try," Betsy replied as she spotted a small rock and stretched out her hand, her brow furrowing in concentration. The rock rattled and shook for a brief moment but it soon fell still. Emma looked at Betsy who was sweating bullets, looking very exhausted.
"I suppose that answers our question," Emma said grimly. "Try and rest now, Betsy. You must be exhausted now," she added.
"I am," Betsy confirmed, her voice tired and haggard. She then noticed Felicia and the two strangers nearby. "Black Cat? What's she doing here? And who are they?" she asked Emma.
"I don't know," Emma replied, her voice sounding both frustrated and uncertain. "Let's just wake everyone up and compare notes," she said.
Betsy then woke Laura up who thankfully didn't up with her claws unsheathed, but she did look pretty cranky at being woken up. Felicia was a more gracious riser, but she too didn't look very happy at the situation.
Felicia then spoke, "So, what are three X-Men doing here?" she asked Emma.
"We were about ask you the same thing, luv," Betsy replied. "You know those two?" she asked the thief, indicating the redhead and the knight with her thumb.
Felicia looked at the redhead and her eyes widened a fraction. "Is that… MJ?" she asked, more herself than anyone else.
Emma, Betsy and Laura then looked at the redhead suddenly recognising the similarities between Mary-Jane Watson the wife of Spider-Man and the unconscious redhead who lay before them.
"Is it MJ?" Betsy asked.
"Maybe, but for some reason, I think otherwise," Emma commented.
"What makes you say that?" Felicia asked.
"MJ has worn a lot of risqué outfits over the years, but I would think a scale mail bikini is pushing it a bit," Emma said in response. "And I don't think she quite has the musculature this woman has," she added.
"Huh, I guess you're right," Felicia agreed as she took a closer look at the still unconscious redhead. "Could they be cousins or something?" she asked.
"Perhaps, but we won't know until we wake her up and ask I suppose," Emma stated.
"Who wants to do the honours?" Betsy asked and Laura moved up to the redhead and shook her awake.
With a roar, the redhead woke up pulling a steel dagger. "Who are you?! Who dares disturb Red Sonja's rest?" she demanded as her eyes snapped open, revealing emerald green.
"Easy there, Red! We're in the same boat as you," Felicia said to her placatingly. "What's your name? How did you get here?" she asked her soothingly.
"I am Red Sonja of Hyrkania. I know not of how I came to be here," the redhead replied. "Who are you four? Are ye assassins sent to kill me?" she asked.
"If we were assassins, we'd have killed you by now," Emma replied archly. "We don't know how we came to be here either," she then said.
Red Sonja looked at the four women before her, her eyes narrowed dangerously before she snorted and said, "Very well. I shall trust, for the moment." She then sheathed her dagger and stood to her feet, swaying on the spot before steadying herself. "Where are we?" she then asked.
"We don't know," Betsy answered. "Somewhere out in the country, but we don't know which country to be honest," she said.
"And who is this?" Red Sonja asked as she looked at the last still unconscious person laying on the ground.
"We don't know. We hoped you might know," Felicia replied.
Red Sonja set her mouth in a firm line before nudged the knight with her leather clad boot. "Hey, wake up!" she ordered.
The knight stirred awake with barely a sound. The full helmet of the knight turned looking left and right before a voice that was unmistakably male issued from the confines of the helmet echoing slightly. "Where am I?"
"We don't know, and we don't know you," Emma said to him in a slightly frosty voice.
The knight gave a hum before standing to his feet, rising to full height. It was then the five women realised just how tall the man was. Emma was not short by any means and she usually stood around 5'10, 6'0 if she wore heels adding to her height, but this man obviously had a good few inches on her and everyone else here. He was big too, although that may have just been the armour he wore talking, but the way his armour fit him showed that he had broad shoulders and a powerful looking body. The knight was also armed with a sword too adding to his look.
The knight's head swivelled looking at each of the women before him before speaking. "Who might you all be?" he asked.
"You first," Emma retorted bluntly.
"Call me Dragonborn," the enigmatic knight replied.
"That's a not a name," Betsy commented.
"It isn't," Dragonborn confirmed. "If you mean my birthname then I don't have one. I was found as a baby on the steps of an orphanage in the Imperial City," he said.
"Oh, we're sorry to hear that," Betsy said, her eyes softening in sympathy.
"It's fine, doesn't bother me too much," Dragonborn said quietly. "Who might you all be?" he then asked.
"Name's Felicia Hardy, but I go by Black Cat when in uniform, handsome," Felicia said in a flirtatious manner.
"Is she really doing this now?" Betsy whispered to Emma who shrugged, well aware of just how big a flirt Felicia was most of the time.
"Why do people call you Black Cat?" Dragonborn asked in a surprisingly innocent fashion.
"You… haven't heard of me?" Felicia said in surprise.
"Should I have?"
Betsy suppressed an urge to laugh at the look on Felicia's face at being told she hadn't been heard of before.
"As amusing as this is, shall we continue?" Emma asked in a tone of voice that was reminiscent of a teacher trying to get a rowdy classroom to focus on their studies. "I am Emma Frost, and these are Betsy Braddock and Laura Kinney," the blonde said introducing her fellow X-Men to Dragonborn and Red Sonja. "The redhead wearing the skimpy outfit is apparently Red Sonja of Hyrkania," she added as an afterthought.
"A pleasure to meet you all," Dragonborn said calmly.
"Do you mind if you took your helmet off? I'd like to see who it is we're talking to," Emma then said in a way that was more a command than a request.
"Very well." Dragonborn's finger slipped under the chin of his helmet loosening a leather strap before grasping his helmet in both hands and lifting it off revealing his face. It was only years of practice that Emma was able to stop herself from showing any outward emotion when Dragonborn's face was revealed.
A close cropped beard of silver-gold bristles covered a strong square jaw, an aquiline nose sat perfectly centre of the man's face with strong angled cheekbones. Deep purple eyes stared calmly at everyone but had the look of someone who had been through much. Silver-gold cut short in a short wavy fashion sat atop the man's head. There was also some scars on the man's face, but they didn't detract from his looks but instead enhanced them, giving him the look of a warrior-king, a veteran of a hundred battles.
"Meow!" Felicia uttered, a look of pure desire on her face. Emma silently agreed with Felicia's sentiment; she had seen her share of handsome men and Dragonborn would certainly fit the bill. She also didn't need her telepathy to tell her that everyone here was fascinated by the strong handsome features Dragonborn possessed.
"Satisfied?" Dragonborn asked and everyone nodded. Dragonborn then put his helmet back on and tightened the strap. Felicia gave an almost disappointed moan and Emma would swear that she heard a similar noise come from Betsy.
"So, where are we?" Dragonborn asked as he looked around.
"We don't know," Emma replied quickly getting over her reaction to Dragonborn's face. "Unless you have some idea," she said looking at Dragonborn.
Dragonborn looked around for a moment before shaking his head in response. "I do not know this place," he said. "But I can feel a distinct lack of magicka in the air," he added as an afterthought.
"Magicka?" Laura asked looking at Dragonborn.
"Yes, there is very little magicka in the air. I don't know if I'll be able to use my magic fully here," Dragonborn then said.
"Okay, that's either good or very worrying to know," Betsy said. "And neither you or I can use our telepathy," she added looking at Emma. "Do you think this has something to do with the Purifiers?" she asked.
"What reason would they do something like this?" Emma replied. "The Purifiers would simply kill us rather then dump us out in the middle of nowhere," she said.
"Maybe it's a test? Or a game for someone?" Felicia suggested. "Take a bunch of heroes, dump them out in the middle of nowhere and send thrill-seeking hunters after them?" she also added.
"Perhaps, but whoever does that is usually egotistical enough to announce to us that we're being hunted," Emma countered.
"Hey, maybe whoever did this is different," Felicia said.
"Possibly so, but who would do such a thing?" Emma asked.
"Weapon X?" Laura suggested as she glanced around, almost fearfully like an animal being hunted.
"Then they would have just taken you and Logan, Laura. Why take us and two strangers none of us have met before?" Emma said. Laura relaxed a little, but she was still tensed up ready to react with claws unsheathed.
"So, who would it that have taken us and why did they?" Betsy asked.
Then a jovial Scottish Irish voice announced itself. "Perhaps I can be of help?" Everyone turned around to see an odd looking man standing before them.
He was thin to the point of gaunt with grey almost white eyes and pale grey hair. He wore a bizarre ensemble of orange and purple starting with a purple jacket with an orange shirt and white cravat and orange trousers and purple boots. An annoyingly jovial smile was on the man's face as he watched them gleefully.
Dragonborn seemed to recognise him as he said, "Sheogorath."
"The one and only, laddie!" the man cackled as he did a jig on the spot. "If you're all wondering why you're here, well, this is just a wee bit of fun me and a new friend are having," he said to everyone.
"Who are you? What reason do you have to bring us here?" Emma demanded as she tried to use her telepathy on the odd man only for another migraine to hit her and she almost fell to her knees clutching her head in pain.
"I took the wee liberty of disabling your mind-reading abilities, lassie. Now that you'd want to read my mind, you'd only drive yourself crazy doing so," the man replied.
"What reason did you do this, Sheogorath?" Dragonborn asked calmly.
"Like I said; me and a new friend are having a wee bit of fun with ye," Sheogorath smiled.
"And who is this new friend?" Dragonborn asked.
"Oh, no-one you know, lad, but the rest of those lovely lasses might know him as the Beyonder," Sheogorath said.
"The Beyonder?! Why is he doing this?!" Betsy demanded.
"Well, truth is I met him not so long ago, and I may have aired the thought of bring you all together for a little fun," Sheogorath replied.
"You're not better than Kulan Gath then!" Red Sonja spat angrily.
Sheogorath laughed uproariously and replied, "Och, ye wound me, lass. I would nae be so cruel like that gobshite and violate ya against yer will like he would. I'm willing to give ye all a sporting chance."
"What is it we're here for then?" Emma asked as she managed to get over her pain.
"Well, since ye asked nicely; me and the Beyonder thought bringing ye all to this world to help it out would be a right good bit of fun to watch," Sheogorath replied. "Ye see, this world, or rather, this region is in a spot of bother right now," he said.
"What kind?" Dragonborn asked.
"Well, a little twenty-six years ago, some prick thought it would be a good idea to launch some big fireworks on this country and leave behind wasteland," Sheogorath said. "Not all of this country is a waste, ye understand, this region was lucky to be far away from the big ones, but a new problem as arisen because of it," he added.
"What problem?" Sonja asked.
"A disease, a plague to be exact," Sheogorath replied. "This nasty little illness turns people into monsters called the Scorched and there's no apparent cure for it, so once ye contract it, you're bloody doomed!" he said before giving a laugh.
"And you want us to cure it?" Emma asked.
"I already told ye it can't be cured, but you can stop it at the source and exterminate the buggers spreading it," Sheogorath said.
"And where is the source?" Felicia asked.
"Now what's the fun if I tell ye where it is?" Sheogorath grinned. "Now, to make things interesting, I disabled some of yer powers, but not all of them mind ye, just enough to make things interesting for everyone," he said.
"And if we want the full extent of our powers back?" Emma asked.
"Well, you'll have to work for them, lass," Sheogorath said a laugh. "Now, I suggest ye head down the road a wee spell and you'll soon reach a town called Flatwoods. Have fun now!" And in the blink of an eye, he disappeared.
"Wait!" Betsy called out but it was too late. "Bloody fucking hell! Big help he was!" she cursed and she then looked at Dragonborn and said to him, "You knew who he was. Who is he?"
"Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness," Dragonborn replied bluntly. "If you want a more simple term, he is a god-like entity of madness and insanity," he said. "I don't know this Beyonder he spoke of is," he added.
"Another god-like entity who puts mortals in various situations for his own amusement or to answer some question he has," Emma replied. "So it appears your Sheogorath and the Beyonder have brought us all here for whatever sick game they want to play," she said grimly.
"Sheogorath is mad, but he's not outright cruel and can be helpful if he feels like it," Dragonborn said. "And he did say this region was at risk of this plague he described," he added.
"Yeah, a plague that can't be cured," Felicia said. "What good can we do against a plague that can't be cured?" she asked.
"That madman did say we can destroy the plague at its source and kill those that spread it," Sonja put in. "So we find the source of this plague and destroy it," she declared.
"But where do we even look?" Betsy asked. "That lunatic wouldn't tell us where the source of the plague is," she added.
"He did say for us to reach this town called Flatwoods, didn't he?" Dragonborn said.
"He did, as a matter of fact," Emma agreed. "In fact, if I recall, Flatwoods is a town in West Virgina, correct?" she asked looking at Betsy, Laura and Felicia.
"I've never been there, but I'm pretty sure it is," Felicia said nodding her head.
"Then that's where we need to go," Emma stated. Dragonborn brushed past her and started striding down the road.
"Hey! Wait up!" Betsy cried out as she then jogged to catch up with the armoured man and the others scrambled to follow.
TO BE CONTINUED…
A/N: There! The first chapter of this done and dusted! This is just something I thought I'd try out and see if it gains any traction. I'd been wanting to write a Marvel Comics/Elder Scrolls crossover for a little while, so I decided to sit down and this is what came out. As you can tell, this is also a crossover with Fallout 76 and I brought in Red Sonja from Dynamite Comics as she has done crossovers with Marvel Comics and Spider-Man before. I also brought in Sheogorath and mentioned the Beyonder having met and brought together all the characters I've used for a little game of theirs to see how they would fare.
Anyway, let me know what you all thought and I'll see you all in the next one.
Also, before I go, I recently published a Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Game of Thrones/A Song Of Ice & Fire crossover called The Path of Conquest and I've set up a poll on my profile of what the story should also crossover into. So far, the DC Animated Universe, Marvel Comics, Disney's Gargoyles and Lord of the Rings are the favourites, with Van Helsing/The Mummy, the Witcher series, Mortal Kombat and Stars Wars are tied for second place. There are others on the poll, but so far the first four I mentioned are the favourites to win, but far be it from to be proven wrong.
Anyway, I've talked enough, so I'll see you all in the next one.
Be kind to one another,
Angry lil' elf.