Hello and welcome back to another chapter of Convergence. Last time, we saw The Doctor, Iron Man and Spider-Man getting captured by the likes of The Master, Doctor Doom and Red Skull using villains from other universes. However, due to The Doctor's interference, Scooby and Shaggy were accidentally captured as well. Seeing this mistake as an advancement to their plan, the villains celebrate their victory while our heroes watch from their glass prisons.
What's going to happen to our heroes next? Well… let's find out. Enjoy!
If someone told me that today I was going to end up captured by Red Skull, Doctor Doom and some guy calling himself 'The Master', I wouldn't take that person seriously…
Yet here I am, stuck in a glass tube along with Spider-Man and a few others that I haven't met before. Two of them were accidentally brought into this by the man next to me, a man with crazy hair and a pinstripe suit.
Who was this man? Why was he so important? I usually have a lot of answers for many things… but this time, I simply don't know what's going on here.
My name is Tony Stark and this is how I created a new universe…
(-)
The Doctor, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Scooby and Shaggy stood silent as the villains celebrated their recent capture, a mix of shock and confusion on their faces. No words were exchanged, no witty remarks, no vows to stop them… nothing. It was if their heroism (and whatever Scooby and Shaggy had) have been drained out of their system.
The Doctor looked the most defeated out of the five of them. Had he sent his universe to it's doom? Had The Master finally won? Did he really put Scooby and Shaggy's universe in danger in an attempt to stop him? All these thoughts flowed through The Doctor's mind, drowning out most of the gloating and boistering that was going on from beyond his glass tube.
"This is it! Our moment of triumph has come!" Doom exclaimed, clenching his fist. "We've captured the heroes and now the universes will fall in our hands!"
"Then we must make our preparations for our invading forces, Von Doom," Red Skull said, putting his arms around his back. "Come, let's make haste to the robotics lab…"
The Master scoffed. "I'm still not sure about these robots you have in mind, Red Skull. The Cybermen could easily…"
"The Cybermen are unpredictable, they're more aware. Doombots, however, are completely under our control." Red Skull interjected, surprising The Doctor. "Is that clear, Herr Master?"
The Master, while slightly annoyed at being interrupted, gave a fake smile and put his thumb up. "Crystal…" he muttered.
"Good," Red Skull frowned. "Now leave a few Doombots by the door so our subjects can't escape. If this Doctor is such a big threat as you claim him to be, then we don't want him running around the vicinity…"
Red Skull left the room with Doctor Doom, the sliding door shutting behind him. The Master was left scowling at the closed door before a slight frustrated grunt left his lips.
"Treated like I'm second class… I don't know what The Doctor sees in humanity." The Master grumbled to himself before turning to the Doombots. "Doombots, make sure they don't escape…" he ordered with a somewhat unenthusiastic tone.
As The Master left to join with Doctor Doom and Red Skull, The Doctor observed how the whole conversation went down. To The Doctor, it seems that The Master wasn't the true mastermind behind this whole dimensional plot. It was that Red Skull guy. Maybe this was all a ploy to trick him?
Sounds like something he would do… The Doctor thought in his head.
"For a man that calls himself 'The Master', it doesn't seem like he's in charge…" Iron Man scoffed, taking The Doctor's thoughts out of his head.
"Don't be sure about that, The Master always has a trick or two up his sleeve." The Doctor said.
Spider-Man raised an eyebrow under his mask. "What makes you say that?"
"Cause I know him…" The Doctor muttered, giving Spider-Man a grim look. "But the real question is why did he bring us all together? What do they want from us?"
"Hmm… good question." Iron Man said.
"Like, sorry to interrupt but who are you guys?" Shaggy suddenly chimed in, cutting through The Doctor and Iron Man's thoughts.
Everyone looked at each other silently before introducing themselves one by one.
"Well, I'm your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. I can do whatever a spider can!" Spider-Man said cheerfully despite the situation that they were in.
Iron Man lifted up his faceplate to reveal a Caucasian man with black hair and a hippie beard. "Tony Stark. Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." he said with a smirk.
"I'm The Doctor, I'm a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey." The Doctor said, sounding rather reluctant when he mentioned his home world.
"I'm Shaggy and this is Scooby-Doo..." Shaggy introduced.
"Rease ro reet rou!" Scooby chimed in.
"Like, none of these dudes are our enemies and there's no way we can help anybody conquer any universe. We're not even sure how we, like, got here." Shaggy continued, adding a chuckle at the end.
The Doctor rubbed the back of his head in a nervous manner. "Yeahhh sorry, that was me…" The Doctor murmured. "Was trying to stop them from grabbing anyone else but I might've done the exact opposite."
Shaggy's eyes widened. "So you, like, sent that Marshmallow Man after us?!"
The Doctor turned away from Shaggy and Scooby. "Well…"
"Hey, can we focus on perhaps getting out of here first? It's getting kind of claustrophobic in here…" Spider-Man interjected, exploring every bit of the glass as if he was a mime in an invisible box.
Iron Man smirked before lowering his faceplate. "My thoughts exactly…"
Without any hesitation, Iron Man extended out his palms towards the glass in front of him as his repulsors started to power up. Once they were powered up, Iron Man fired his repulsors towards the glass. The glass around him then shattered instantly and Iron Man was able to climb out, wiping any glass shrapnels off his armour.
However Iron Man's escape wasn't exactly quiet. Once Iron Man broke the glass, the Doombots that were guarding the door immediately came running to the pods. Iron Man readied himself for a fight, aiming his repulsors at the Doombots.
"As much as I could take on these robots myself, I would appreciate some help…" Iron Man said loudly, slightly turning his head to the pods.
"On my way!" Spider-Man exclaimed, punching the glass to set himself free.
Once Spider-Man was free, he leapt up and joined Iron Man on the frontline as the robots edged closer to them. When the Doombots ultimately got closer, Iron Man started to fire his repulsors at them while Spider-Man was punching, webbing and kicking through every robot that wasn't fighting Iron Man.
"Um, like, did we mention that we don't have any powers?" Shaggy called out.
"Hang tight, we'll get you out soon," Spider-Man said as he dodged an attack from one of the Doombots. "Do you need help getting out, Doc?"
"Wait just a sec…" The Doctor muttered, reaching out for his sonic screwdriver from his suit pocket.
Pointing his sonic screwdriver directly towards the glass, he activated it and a small blue light emitted from it. The buzzing noise coming from the screwdriver made the glass shiver slightly, the shaking became more violent until eventually tiny shards of glass exploded around The Doctor.
The Doctor stepped out of the tube, brushing a few glass crumbs off his suit and long coat. The Time Lord gave a quick smirk to Spider-Man and Iron Man before turning to Shaggy and Scooby, who were still trapped in their tube.
"Right, hold still you two…" The Doctor said as he pointed his screwdriver towards the tube.
However Shaggy quickly shaked his head. "Like, no way we're leaving this tube man! There's freaky robots out there!" he quivered, clutching tightly onto Scooby.
"Reah, reaky robots!" Scooby whimpered, his teeth chattering with fear.
The Doctor merely frowned. "You guys took on a giant marshmallow man just before," he said, raising an eyebrow. "You're not telling me that you're scared of a few robots?"
Scooby and Shaggy both nodded simultaneously. "At least with the marshmallow man… he was, like, edible!" Shaggy said.
"Robots or no robots, you're not staying here…" The Doctor said, activating his sonic screwdriver on the glass tube.
Unlike The Doctor's tube, the glass around Shaggy and Scooby instantly decimated. However the food-loving duo weren't eager to get out of the tube in a hurry. Iron Man and Spider-Man, meanwhile, were finishing off the last of the robot guards. Once Iron Man completely destroyed the last robot with a repulsor beam, the two heroes rejoined The Doctor, Shaggy and Scooby near the destroyed tubes.
"All of the robots destroyed?" The Doctor wondered.
Iron Man nodded. "Yes, but it's only a matter of time before Skull and the others find out we're free. We need to get out of here."
"Hold on, I want to check out the computer. I want to know how The Master's pulled this off…" The Doctor said as he glanced towards the console and quickly zipping off towards it, his long coat flapping around in the air.
"Wait, hold on!" Iron Man shouted towards The Doctor. But when he didn't respond, Iron Man cursed under his breath and turned to Spider-Man. "Get them, we can't leave everyone behind." he suggested before flying off to pursue The Doctor.
Spider-Man nodded. "You got it, Tony," he said as he spun around towards Shaggy and Scooby, hands on his hips. "Alright you two, let's go."
"Uh-uh!" Scooby and Shaggy refused simultaneously, shaking their heads in tandem.
Unfortunately, the web-slinger wouldn't take no for an answer. Instead of endlessly trying to persuade them to leave the tube, Spider-Man simply strung a web around Shaggy and Scooby and swiftly pulled them away from the tube. With the teenage sleuths in his grasp, Spider-Man soon made his way towards Iron Man and The Doctor. Scooby and Shaggy, however, were trying to run back to the safety of their tube, only to be overpowered by Spider-Man's superhuman strength.
(-)
The Doctor was fiddling with the console when Iron Man caught up with him, a bunch of wires in his hand and his sonic screwdriver clutched in his teeth. Iron Man landed close to the Time Lord and approached him, his faceplate lifting up to reveal an annoyed look on Tony Stark's face.
"What do you think you're doing?!" Iron Man barked. "We need to get out of here before Doom and Skull or even your Master buddy find out we're out of our tubes!"
The Doctor attempted a reply but was muffled by the sonic screwdriver in his teeth.
"What?" Iron Man wondered, a confused look replacing his annoyed one.
The Doctor frowned and spat the sonic screwdriver out, catching it in his free hand. "I said I was trying to find out what The Master's up to, I need the data from this console." he answered.
Iron Man raised an eyebrow, his eyes gazing towards the sonic screwdriver. "Didn't you wreck the console with that sonic gizmo of yours?"
"Sonic screwdriver," The Doctor corrected, making no eye contact with Iron Man whatsoever. "And, yes. Well, technically I stopped them from transporting people here. Well, that's what I thought would happen anyway…"
"Odd, Doctors don't usually have screwdrivers…"
The Doctor briefly glanced at Iron Man before going back to the wires, a sign of acknowledgement. "This one does," he mumbled. "Call me the maintenance man of the universe."
As the Time Lord fiddled with the wires a little more, the console suddenly started to spark itself to life. A thin blue light spread out across the console, holograms of a variety of Earths appeared above them along with screens next to them. The screens were unique, each showing a different significant event. These such events include: a kid filming a wild-eyed scientist showing a modified DeLorean, a red and blue robot battling a light grey robot on top of a dam, three kids wearing red and black wizard robes attending a type of school among others.
The Doctor stared at the holograms in awe. "Oh there we go, molto bene!" The Doctor exclaimed, a grin plastered on his face.
While The Doctor was fascinated by the holograms, Iron Man was more curious about it. He cautiously looked at the many Earths that were floating around him, occasionally glancing at what's happening in the screens.
"Are these… different dimensions?" Iron Man inquired.
The Doctor rubbed his chin as he thought. "It's the multiverse… at least, some of it. There's infinite realities so it wouldn't be possible to get all of them."
"But…" Iron Man muttered. "If they have access to all these different realities then why only capture us?"
The Doctor's eyes widened. "Hmm, good question…" he started to ponder, frowning as he got lost in his thoughts. "Maybe we're the only ones who could stop them? Or is it something else they're planning?"
But as The Doctor was about to open his mouth again, he was interrupted by the sound of slight grunting and something sliding on the cold, metal platform. Both Iron Man and The Doctor turned to see Spider-Man dragging Scooby and Shaggy on a web thread towards them.
"Here comes trouble…" The Doctor proclaimed, a small smirk on his face.
Spider-Man tried to muster a laugh through his tired breaths. "Hey, it's not my fault that these two decided to make my job harder," he huffed, glancing at Shaggy and Scooby sitting down on the ground being entangled in his webs. "They nearly ripped off a part of the platform because they wanted to go back into the tube…"
Iron Man took a quick look at Scooby and Shaggy. "Really? These two nearly ripped out a metal platform?" he scoffed.
"Well, they did eat an entire marshmallow man…" The Doctor recalled, shoving his hands into his suit pockets.
Spider-Man's eyes widened. "Exactly!" he exclaimed. "I don't know what he took in his coffee this morning..."
The web-slinger suddenly stopped talking as he observed the many planets that were zooming around him and everyone else.
"Uh… what's going on here, Doc?" Spider-Man queried.
"The database on the console, it seems that our worlds aren't the only ones up for conquering," The Doctor explained before glaring at Spider-Man, who was working on freeing Shaggy and Scooby. "And it's 'Doctor', not 'Doc'. Makes me sound like this guy…" he said as he pointed to the wild-eyed scientist on the screen.
Shaggy then cleared his throat as he freed himself from the web. "Like, I'm sorry to interrupt… but does, like, anyone have a plan to get us out of here?" he asked softly.
"Rut… rere ris rere?" Scooby pointed out with a look of curiosity on his face.
The Doctor's eyes widened. "Yes, I was wondering that as well." he said, going back to the console and pressing a few buttons. "I know it's not The Master's TARDIS, I'm not sure he's even got one at the moment… So I'm guessing it belongs to one of your villains?" he then wondered, flicking his head back towards Iron Man and Spider-Man.
"It looks like Skull's submarine…" Iron Man responded, slowly looking around the interior. "But something tells me that we're not underwater."
The Doctor turned back to the console and flicked a couple of switches. "Well, let's have a look shall we?"
After The Doctor messed with the console some more, a small rumbling sound occurred above them. Three red large metal panels then started to shift slowly out of view, as if it was the first time that they moved in ages. The heroes prepared themselves to shield their eyes from a bright light from pure sunlight from underneath the water.
But no bright light came into view, not even water was nearby…
Nothing, there was absolutely nothing. Just utter darkness. No stars, no planets, no moons nor any asteroids, it was a cold, dead space.
Everyone was speechless, even Scooby and Shaggy despite having no idea what was going on. The worst reaction out of all of them was The Doctor, who looked at the black spaces with a traumatic look. He knew exactly where they were.
"But… that's not possible." The Doctor murmured.
"Rere's rothing rout rere." Scooby croaked.
"We can't be here, it's impossible!" The Doctor exclaimed, trying his best to keep it together.
Iron Man seemed a bit reluctant to ask the question in his head. "Doctor, where are we?"
The Doctor slowly turned towards the Armoured Avenger with a distinct fear in his eyes, as old demons started to resurface from within his mind.
"We're in The Void…"
(-)
As new discoveries were being unfolded, The Master stood by the window in a meeting room some distance from where our heroes were being held. The meeting room consisted of a reddish long, thin table with black trim around the edges with a singular fruit bowl in the middle. Twelve chairs surrounded the table, something that quietly disturbed The Master. He wasn't used to working with people that couldn't easily bend down to his will, The Rani being an only exception.
The Master stared into the empty void in front of him, his reflection being easily seen due to the lack of light outside. What I've got planned… this tops everything I've ever done. The Toclafane are nothing compared to this. And what's better is that I've got The Doctor trapped in my fingertips. This time… I will win. He rambled in his head.
Red Skull soon came into the room, arms slung around his back. "Herr Master?"
The Master merely curled his lip. "What now, Skull?" he sneered, not even looking at him.
"The prisoners have escaped, Von Doom has lost signals on his Doombots that were guarding them." Red Skull explained, an angry look plastered on his face.
The Master smirked menacingly. "Of course they did. No matter, they've got nowhere to go anyway."
Red Skull didn't seem satisfied with The Master's response. "They are trapped in the ship. Don't you understand? They'll find out what we are planning, they will stop us!"
"How? By fighting back?" The Master scoffed, striding away from the window and towards the fruit bowl. "The only ones that could fight back are the ones from your universe… as for The Doctor? He's no fighter, not since the Time War."
Red Skull raised an eyebrow. "How can a man like him be considered a great threat if he's no fighter?"
"He was a completely different man back then…" The Master responded.
Red Skull was weary of The Master's words but ultimately ignored them. "Right… And what about the others?"
The Master chuckled. "Others? As far as we know, they don't know about them yet…" He then grabbed an apple and bit into it.
"But when they do, it'll already be too late."
(-)
"The Void? Like, what do you mean Doctor?" Shaggy wondered as he and the other heroes stared at the sheer darkness outside of the ship.
"The Void is a dimension between dimensions. No life exists here, nothing exists in the Void. Light, dark, up, down, left and right… not even time, you could let the whole of eternity pass through you if you choose." The Doctor described, eyes widened despite his calm demeanour. "You would be unaffected by the start or even the end of the universe… That's how clever the Void is, like a bunker in a bombsite."
While Iron Man and Spider-Man understood what The Doctor said, Scooby and Shaggy exchanged confused glances to each other.
Scooby darted his eyes from left to right. "Ruh…"
"I think I got, like, half of that..." Shaggy said.
The Doctor rolled his eyes and took a breath, this time using his hands to further explain. "Think of the multiverse as a brick wall… each universe is stacked up against one another and in between those bricks is the Void. Only something very, very powerful can break through the barriers between dimensions." he clarified.
"So basically we're in cement?" Shaggy queried.
"Bingo…" The Doctor muttered, biting his lip slightly. "We shouldn't even be in here, it'll cause a massive tear in the fabric of reality if we stay."
"But how do we get back to our universes? Teleporter's broken, remember?" Spider-Man chimed in.
Iron Man rubbed his chin. "I could fix it, but it might take me awhile…"
"We may not have 'awhile', the best idea is that we find another teleporter on the ship," The Doctor suggested. "The Master would've been smart enough to build another one somewhere."
"JARVIS, track all trans-dimensional energies in the ship." Iron Man spoke aloud to his A.I.
No response. Iron Man frowned underneath his face-plate and tapped the side of his helmet. "JARVIS? You there, buddy?" he wondered.
The Doctor shaked his head annoyingly. "Weren't you listening?" he muttered, a frown placed on his face. "We're in The Void, a dimension between dimensions. Whatever you're connected to won't work here…"
Iron Man darted around towards The Doctor. "What do you suggest then?"
The Doctor thought about Iron Man's question for a moment before his face lit up with an idea. He then pulled out his sonic screwdriver from his suit pocket and put it up against his face. The rest of the heroes stayed silent as the Time Lord fiddled around with the screwdriver, exchanging glances as a range of beeps both short and long emitted from the space gizmo.
"If I can just get the right frequency…" The Doctor mumbled under his breath.
Eventually the sonic screwdriver soon made a noise which almost sounded like a ding before it made a beeping noise every few seconds.
"Got it!" The Doctor exclaimed, his face beaming triumphantly. He then slightly tilted his head to look at the readings on the screwdriver. "Ooh, looks like we're close. Come on."
The Time Lord then dashed towards the doors with his screwdriver in hand, the other heroes soon trailing behind him with no hesitation. It was like a sense of trust surrounded the strange man in the suit and long coat, even Scooby and Shaggy followed suit despite being unsure of the dangers ahead.
But suddenly The Doctor stopped soon as he got to the doors, his eyebrow raised as he looked up to it. His eyes immediately closed in on a computer panel next to it.
"Door's locked… of course it is." The Doctor mumbled.
"Ruse rour rizmo!" Scooby suggested, pointing to the sonic screwdriver.
The Doctor shook his head. "Can't get through a deadlock seal… really need to get that fixed."
"Wait, how do you know that's 'deadlock sealed'?" Spider-Man queried, flexing his fingers.
The Doctor merely scoffed. "One of my deadliest enemies has captured me and left me alone in a glass tube, my guess would be that he doesn't want me to escape…" he answered, panning his eyes towards Iron Man. "Your energy blasts should be able to blast through the door…"
Spider-Man chuckled as he leapt to the computer panel. "Hey Doctor… you're forgetting a simpler solution..." he said before punching the panel directly, causing it to fracture and the glass around it to crack.
After Spider-Man punched the panel, the door then immediately slid open but unfortunately with more Doombots waiting behind it.
"ZOINKS!" Shaggy cried out, his hair spiking out in all directions as Scooby jumped in his arms.
"Doctor, Shaggy, Scooby! Get down!" Iron Man barked as he lifted up his palms and aimed at the robots.
After The Doctor, Shaggy and Scooby ducked out of the way, repulsor blasts shot out at Iron Man's palms in quick succession. While Iron Man blasted through the Doombots enough to weaken them, Spider-Man swung in to finish them off. While most of the Doombots easily dismantled as soon as Spider-Man laid hands on them, one particular bot was more resilient than the others. So resilient that Spider-Man had to punch through the Doombot's chest in order to shut it off completely.
"Sorry to be such a heartbreaker… but you're not my type." Spider-Man quipped to himself, shaking his hand from the pain of going through panels of metal.
"Okay… that's all of them for now," Iron Man declared as he started to slightly hover in the air. "We should get a move on before more of them come back."
"I'm with you there!" Shaggy cried out as he, Scooby and The Doctor emerged from their ducking spot, utter fear in his voice before turning to the Time Lord. "Like, where do we go now, Doctor?"
The Doctor didn't answer straight away as he looked back at his sonic screwdriver once again, pressing up against his face and fiddling around the bits and bobs that made up the screwdriver. Eventually The Doctor regained the signal he had before and pointed it to the corridor ahead. The Doctor slightly tilted the screwdriver to the left when it decided to beep slightly louder and faster.
"This way. Everyone, stick toge-" The Doctor answered before Shaggy and Scooby raced past him and bolted towards the door.
"Oh man, you don't have to tell me twice!" Shaggy remarked, a sense of relief now in his voice.
"Re reither!" Scooby added, sharing the same happiness as his owner.
However The Doctor didn't share the same enthusiasm. "Shaggy! Scooby! Wait!" he exclaimed, his eyes widened.
Once Scooby and Shaggy disappeared out of sight, The Doctor, Iron Man and Spider-Man each exchanged a fearful look before they hurried after them. Thanks to many years running from monsters, aliens or anything that wanted to kill him, The Doctor managed to catch up with Shaggy and Scooby as they reached the end of the corridor. Before a nearby Doombot patrol could catch them, The Doctor ushered Scooby and Shaggy into a small gap in the wall while Iron Man and Spider-Man hid in the gap opposite them.
"What do you think you two are doing?!" The Doctor scolded. "Do you want to get caught?!"
Spider-Man climbed onto the side of the gap and leaned against it. "You guys can't just run off into unknown territory like that, it could be dangerous…" he huffed, a frown forming in the wrinkles of his mask.
"But, like, you and Iron Man destroyed those robots, right?" Shaggy wondered.
"We did but those aren't the only robots on the ship," Iron Man answered. "We're not that lucky."
The Doctor gave a sympathetic look to Shaggy and Scooby. "Look, I know you two want to get back home. We all do. So if we're all going to get ourselves out of this place safely then we have to stick together, got it?"
Scooby and Shaggy nodded in response. The Doctor put a hand on Shaggy's shoulder.
"Trust me, I will get you home. That's a promise…" The Doctor assured them with a smile.
Spider-Man peered around to see if any other Doombots nearby before giving a confident nod towards The Doctor. "Coast is clear," he muttered. "Which way are we going now?"
"Right." The Doctor answered almost immediately, peering at his sonic screwdriver.
The heroes slightly moved out of their hiding places and quietly paced around the many corridors around the ship. To prevent further detection, Spider-Man leapt on the ceiling and wall-crawled alongside the others, while Iron Man hovered nearby because of his armour being unexpectedly loud while sneaking around.
"So, Doctor? You're, like, an alien right?" Shaggy murmured out of the blue.
"Yes I am…" The Doctor replied. "Is that a problem?"
"No… it's just that-"
The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Look human?"
"Yeah, basically." Shaggy nodded. "Like, we've met aliens before and…"
Shaggy stopped himself from talking when he mentioned aliens, as if he was remembering something he wanted to forget but hasn't quite got over it yet. He looked almost… sad in a way. Scooby shared that same look as he peered up in Shaggy's direction.
"And what?" The Doctor queried, seeing Shaggy and Scooby's sudden change in mood.
"Rit's rothing…" Scooby croaked.
"Doesn't sound like nothing…"
Spider-Man sped up slightly so that he was directly below Scooby, Shaggy and The Doctor. "I think it's something else," he observed. "What were their names?"
Scooby and Shaggy's eyes widened at what Spider-Man said. "Uh, like, I don't know what you're talking about!" Shaggy denied, folding his arms.
"Trust me, I know that look. I may have made that look a fair few times, I recognise heartbreak when I see it." Spider-Man said, a soft tone to his voice.
"Who were they?" Iron Man asked.
Shaggy took a deep sigh before he answered. "Their names were Crystal and Amber… they were wonderful. We met them after Scoob and I were abducted by aliens the previous night, but it turned out that those aliens were, like, actually scientists scaring people away from a gold mine. Crystal and Amber, meanwhile, turned out to be actual aliens sent by their government to check out signals in the area."
"Reah… ronderful." Scooby pouted, looking at the ground.
The Doctor smiled softly. "You really cared about them, didn't you?"
Shaggy nodded. "It was the first time that I actually thought about a serious relationship. She felt so right for me, Scooby and Amber were the same. But when they left, it broke our hearts… Scooby Snacks did ease the pain a bit but it was never enough..."
The Doctor's smile slightly faded as he turned back to his sonic screwdriver, unsure on what to say next. Spider-Man noticed this and decided to leap down to the floor and walk closely besides Shaggy and Scooby.
"I'm sorry about what happened. I felt what you two went through…" Spider-Man tried to console. "Well, not really. Aliens never really enjoyed my company…"
"Yeah, trust me… alien romances don't end well." Iron Man chimed in immediately, not even turning around.
Spider-Man raised an eyebrow. "How would you know that, Tony?"
"Well, Gamora and I-"
"Stop. Stop right there!" Spider-Man retaliated, blocking his ears with his hands.
"You asked!"
"Quiet!" The Doctor murmured angrily, pointing towards a patrol of Doombots.
As soon as The Doctor got everyone's attention, they all scurried towards another empty corridor and waited there until the Doombots went out of view. The Doctor peered around the corner to see if there was no one around and, after a brief couple of seconds, soon ushered everyone to follow him once again.
"Rhat ras a rose rone…" Scooby muttered.
"Yeah, too close." Iron Man said. "Hey, Sideburns, how much further?"
The Doctor frowned at Iron Man's nickname but ultimately ignored it as he examined his sonic screwdriver. "Just around the corner…" he answered in a surprised tone.
The heroes approached a metal door, which resembled the other metal doors on the ship but was sized like the average door. The Doctor looked to see a keypad on the wall beside it, he bent over slightly to take a look at the keypad. He then scanned it with his sonic screwdriver, looking cross as he straightened himself up.
"Deadlock sealed again… we're definitely in the right place." The Doctor analysed, rubbing his chin. "Tony, think you can figure out the code?"
Iron Man nodded and started to scan the keypad with his HUD. Even without JARVIS, Iron Man still had access to all of his suit features. The suit eventually revealed a set of fingerprints on four individual numbers.
"Got it, it's 1963." Iron Man said.
"Ah, good year…" The Doctor reminisced as he put in the code on the keypad. "That's the year my granddaughter and I first arrived on Earth."
"Aren't you a bit young to be someone's grandfather?" Spider-Man pointed out.
As the door slid open, The Doctor looked at his companions with a small smile on his face. "I was a different man back then."
The Doctor entered through the door, followed closely by the heroes who were exchanging confused glances at each other.
But the room they entered got them even more curious…
The room was very similar to the control room that they were contained in. Five glass tubes were placed next to each other on one side of the room while a control panel was facing them on the other side. The tubes were all connected to a large wire that spanned up and across the room, leading to somewhere unknown. On the far side of the room was a light blue platform, exactly like the one in the control room.
"Ooh, now this is interesting…" The Doctor said in awe as he looked all over the room.
"More tubes? I guess we're not the only targets here…" Iron Man observed as he gazed over at the tubes.
"But why? What's The Master up to? Why go through all this effort just to get to me?" The Doctor wondered, speaking his thoughts aloud.
"Hey, um, Doctor? Is there, like, supposed to be things inside there?" Shaggy spoke up, a mix of suspicion and caution in his voice.
"What?" The Doctor snapped out of his thoughts and immediately darted to where Shaggy and Scooby were looking. "What things?"
But they weren't just 'things', there were people and animals trapped in the glass tubes. All of them were still and almost lifeless, as if they were in some sort of dream state. In the tubes were an assortment of lifeforms.
One was an adult African lioness, larger and leaner compared to Scooby-Doo. One was an average human with brown hair, wearing a green jacket with a black t-shirt underneath, blue jeans and some sort of strange looking watch on his wrist. Another was a girl made entirely of fire, made obvious due to her orange skin, her hair dancing around like a candle in the wind. Next to her was another human, however he was draped in Renaissance-looking white robes with a pointed hood covering most of his face. Finally, the last tube held an anthropomorphic blue platypus that oddly wore a brown fedora on his head.
"Who are these guys?" Iron Man queried.
"Must be from other dimensions," The Doctor said, putting his glasses on to examine the control panel. "Wonder what they want from them…"
"Hang on, why would Red Skull and Doctor Doom capture a lioness and a platypus?!" Spider-Man uttered out the question that was on everyone's lips before taking a deep breath. "Man, that's a weird sentence to say."
The Doctor soon started to fiddle around with the buttons and switches on the control panel, to everyone's surprise.
"Woah, woah, what are you doing?" Shaggy exclaimed.
"Freeing them." The Doctor replied.
Scooby started to quiver in fear. "Rhere's a rion rin rere!"
"The dog's got a point," Iron Man muttered cautiously. "We don't know why these guys were trapped here in the first place. I'm picking up massive heat spikes from the tube in the middle…"
The Doctor gave Iron Man a grim look. "If these lifeforms are working with The Master and the others then perhaps we can find out some more information about what's going on here…"
"Do you want to take that risk?" Spider-Man wondered.
The Doctor didn't give Spider-Man an answer straight away, he took one look at the tubes then a look at the console. His hand hovered over the switch that would presumably let the lifeforms out. He then glanced at his companions before speaking up.
"Be ready…" The Doctor murmured. "Shaggy, Scooby, get behind me."
Scooby and Shaggy nodded and immediately dashed behind The Doctor, their heads popping on both sides to witness the potential horrors unfold. Iron Man readied his repulsors, aiming one towards the tube with the lioness and the tube with the fire girl. Spider-Man, meanwhile, crouched down and got ready to pounce at the first possible attack, his spider-sense being the signal.
Once everyone got into position, The Doctor grasped the switch and flipped it down. Steam soon seeped out of the tubes as the glass began to slowly retract into the machinery, a loud hissing sound quickly filling the room. Due to them being in a dream state, the lifeforms merely slipped onto the bottom of the tube before they started to regain consciousness.
The lioness was the first to wake up, revealing her teal eyes as he looked around groggily. "Uh… what's going on? Where am I?" she croaked, her voice sounding hoarse.
The others soon began to wake up, sharing the same confusion as the lioness. However when she saw Iron Man and Spider-Man in their attack positions, her grogginess immediately vanished as she got in a defensive pose. Her claws were extended and her teeth were bared, her eyes fixated on Iron Man.
"Humans! Identity yourselves!" she growled.
The other captured lifeforms also got ready to attack the rest of the heroes. In fear, Shaggy and Scooby ducked under the control panel. The Doctor instantly put his hands up in an attempt to make things peaceful between everyone else.
"Everyone just cool it, we mean you guys no harm. We were captured too!" The Doctor tried to defuse the situation.
The human with the strange-looking watch scoffed. "That's believable, how many times have I heard that?"
The human goes to touch his watch only for Iron Man to quickly snap his repulsors towards him. "I wouldn't do that if I were you…" he warned grimly.
Feeling threatened, the fire girl forms fireballs in her hands and places herself between the human and Iron Man. "Or what, tinhead?" she threatened.
The Doctor's eyes widened. "Tony, stand down!" he shouted frustratingly, rubbing his hands in his hair. "Everyone stand down! We've all got to calm down and think!"
Spider-Man moved himself in front of Iron Man, spreading his arms to block a potential repulsor blast from hitting anyone. "The Doc's right, Tony! How are these guys gonna trust us if we attack them? Just stand down!"
Iron Man stayed silent, keeping his aim fixated on the fire girl. Everyone stared at one another in dead silence, the robed human grasping the hilt of his sword in anticipation. The only sounds that could be heard were Shaggy and Scooby's teeth chattering underneath the control panel.
Eventually Iron Man lowered his arms, powering down his repulsors at the same time. As soon as Iron Man stood down, everyone else calmed down and relaxed as they went out of their defensive positions. The Doctor was the first one to speak up after an awkward silence.
"Right… now that everyone's settled, let's get to introducing ourselves." The Doctor muttered. "My name is The Doctor, and this is Iron Man and Spider-Man. The two hiding under the controls are Shaggy and Scooby. We all come from separate dimensions, captured by our greatest foes in a place called The Void…"
At the mention of their names, Shaggy and Scooby emerged from their hiding place however their eyes were firmly shut. "Like, is it over? Can I open my eyes?" Shaggy wondered.
"Yes, everything's fine now. Just a little misunderstanding…" The Doctor replied.
"Rhank roodness…" Scooby sighed in relief as he and Shaggy opened their eyes.
Iron Man looked curiously towards the ones who were captured. "Who are you guys anyway? And how did you get here?" he queried, lifting up his face-plate.
"I'm Ben Tennyson. The Ultimatrix on my wrist allows me to change into all sorts of forms." Ben introduced, pointing to his watch.
"Ezio Auditore." Ezio greeted, his Italian accent being revealed through his speech.
The fire girl folded her arms. "Flame Princess, Princess of the Fire Kingdom." she muttered, still not trusting anyone in the room.
The platypus made a chattering noise, which The Doctor translated as saying that his name was Perry to everyone's surprise.
"And I'm Nala, the queen of the Pride Lands." Nala finished off, kindness and authority in her voice. "As for your question, Iron Man, I simply don't know… it was all a blur. One minute I was going for a hunt, the next minute I woke up here."
"I was being chased by Borgia guards when I was hit by a wild flash of light. Then everything went dark… but I swear I could hear voices, one of them called one 'Master'." Ezio added.
"The Master, he's the one that brought all of us here… him and a few others." The Doctor said, grimly as his mood darkened.
"What do they want with us?" Ben questioned.
"That's what we're trying to find out…" Spider-Man replied.
Flame Princess cursed under her breath, the flame on top of her head growing more and more intense. "I'm gonna find whoever trapped me here and they'll taste my WRATH!" she growled, her form turning more flame-like as she got angrier. The result of her outburst and the intensity of how hot she was getting caused Perry and Ezio to quickly get out of the way.
Upon seeing Flame Princess' anger, Scooby and Shaggy fearfully scurried behind Spider-Man. "Okay… now I'm, like, scared of her." Shaggy whimpered, Scooby nodding intensely in agreement.
"Can't say I disagree with you there…" Spider-Man murmured in Shaggy's ear so that Flame Princess couldn't hear him.
After seeing the fear-induced reaction from Shaggy and Scooby, Flame Princess reformed into her usual humanoid form and took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. "Sorry about that, guys…" she apologised softly, rubbing her arm in guilt.
Nala approached Flame Princess and sat on her back legs. "Don't worry about it, I think we're all on edge at the moment… we'll find a way home somehow"
The Doctor then beamed, messing around with the console once more. "Luckily you have me here, I can get you guys home!"
Ezio raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "You can?"
Perry made a questioning chattering noise as if he was asking "How?"
"Well, if I configure the portal to match your DNA to your respective world…" The Doctor answered as he flipped an assortment of dials and switches before yanking a big switch in the middle. The portal on the far side of the room started to fire up with power, the blue light emitting at the bottom as electricity sparked all over the place.
After turning the portal on, The Doctor smirked gleefully at the group. "And voilà! Molto bene!"
Ben eyed the portal in an unsure way. "You sure this will bring us home?"
"Yup, should do." The Doctor answered confidently. "I wouldn't put anyone at risk if something was wrong…"
Ben still looked unconvinced as he slowly turned towards the portal. "Here goes nothing…" he said before closing his eyes and stepping onto the portal, effectively disappearing from sight.
Perry soon followed suit, tipping his hat off to the rest of the group. Before also jumping onto the portal, he gave The Doctor a salute to which the Time Lord shot him a disapproving look.
Flame Princess was next. Like Ben, she also seemed a little nervous about the strange device in front of her. But it was a reassuring smile from Shaggy and Scooby, despite their initial fear of her, that convinced her everything was fine. It was as if they reminded her of another boy and dog duo that she knew in her universe.
Ezio, due to being from a completely different time period, was completely surprised by how people were vanishing into thin air. When he tried to examine how the portal worked, he accidentally stepped on it and he too disappeared.
Finally, Nala was the last to go. She made her way to the portal where she suddenly stopped as a thought went into her head. The lioness immediately turned to The Doctor, a questioning glance on her muzzle.
"Wait…" she murmured. "Why are you taking us back home? If this Master guy brought us here then maybe we all should work together to stop him…"
"We can handle The Master," The Doctor replied instantly. "Your world needs you. If we can't stop them here, then whatever defense you have is your only hope."
Nala stared curiously into The Doctor's eyes, wondering if he was genuine before she spoke up again. "Very well," she said. "I wish you and your companions good luck, Doctor…"
"You too, your Majesty…"
The Queen of the Pride Lands nodded with a slight smile before she leapt onto the portal, vanishing from the ship and presumably back to her universe. With Nala's departure, that left only The Doctor, Scooby, Shaggy, Iron Man and Spider-Man in the room.
"Okay, Scooby and Shaggy… time to go." The Doctor declared as he narrowly adjusted a dial on the console.
Surprisingly, Shaggy and Scooby quickly shook their heads. "Like, no way man! We're staying here!"
"Reah! Re rant ro relp!" Scooby exclaimed.
Iron Man folded his arms. "I know you guys devoured an entire marshmallow man before, but it's way too dangerous here. We can't risk you guys getting hurt."
"Like, we know that!" Shaggy proclaimed, raising his arms in the air. "But, if this Master dude and those other two guys plan on conquering our world then we have a better chance of saving it here than in our respective worlds!"
"Ralso rour rorld risn't refensible…" Scooby added.
"But we can't guarantee our protection all the time..." Spider-Man retorted.
Shaggy chuckled and pulled Scooby in close. "Don't worry about it, man. Scooby and I can handle ourselves, we've been chased by some ghoulish monsters over the years. Right, Scoob?"
Scooby nodded frantically. "Rou raid rit, Raggy."
Iron Man, Spider-Man and The Doctor all exchanged looks with each other. Both of the superheroes already had decided in their heads that Shaggy and Scooby should be sent home, they turned to The Doctor to see his reaction. The Doctor was conflicted on his choices, but he was tempted to let them stay.
They could be useful…
No, they shouldn't even be here in the first place. You brought them here!
The Doctor sighed, his decision being made. "Alright then, you can stay…"
Iron Man and Spider-Man looked at the Time Lord with widened eyes "What?!" they both sputtered in shock. Even Shaggy and Scooby were a little surprised, they didn't expect The Doctor to say that.
"But…" The Doctor carried on just as Iron Man was about to speak up. "You have to follow my strict rules."
"Those rules being?" Shaggy queried.
"Rule one, don't wander off… a very important rule. Don't break that one, ever." The Doctor replied. "Secondly rule ten, don't eat anything until you're sure it's totally safe. Unless it's a badly cooked kronkburger, in which case don't eat at all." The fact that The Doctor skipped to rule ten made Iron Man mutter confusingly under his breath.
"Rait… ron't reat?!" Scooby wondered, looking like he's about to faint.
"Like, not at all?!" Shaggy questioned, who was starting to sweat nervously.
"If it's unsafe then it will probably be a good idea not to," The Doctor retorted, slightly weirded out by Shaggy and Scooby's reaction. "Besides… our worlds are in danger, we've got no time to eat!"
"Oh… I, like, almost forgot about that when you mentioned when we can't eat anything." Shaggy half-heartedly chuckled, rubbing the back of his head.
Iron Man pulled The Doctor aside and opened his faceplate, a look of dissatisfaction on his face. "Are you sure about this, Doctor? I think it's better that we send them back…"
The Doctor slightly turned his head to the Armoured Avenger. "You heard what they said, Tony… even if we sent them home, there's no one to defend it if we fail. No universe is falling on my watch." he muttered.
"Fine," Iron Man murmured grimly. "But if anything happens to them… it's on you." Those last three words repeated in The Doctor's mind like a broken record, why must there be more responsibility on his hands?
"So now that we know who's staying… are we going to stand here, or are we going to save our universes?" Spider-Man spoke up confidently.
With a smirk under his mask, Spider-Man put his hand out in front of everyone. Shaggy and Scooby immediately got the idea of what the wallcrawler was doing and placed their hand/paw on top of Spidey's. Iron Man rolled his eyes and placed his hand on top of Scooby's just as his face-plate went back down.
The Doctor hesitated at first but as the other heroes gazed at him, he slowly placed his hand on top of Iron Man's. A confident grin soon spread across the time traveller's face.
"Let's go save the multiverse…"
The heroes nodded and lifted their hands slightly in the air as they released them, Scooby giving a small "Roo-woo" afterwards as they headed out of the room with only one goal in mind...
An unlikely team of heroes from three different universes, working together to save all of reality.
And… finally, it's done. Sorry that took me so long, guys… life just got in the way and procrastination didn't help get this story written fast enough.
Thanks to MysticOTDH for coming up with Iron Man's 'Sideburns' nickname for The Doctor.
So next month, you won't see another update to this story since I'll be starting my new story Love of My Life (sequel to Crazy Little Thing Called Love over in the Spyro archive). But I'll be posting Convergence bi-monthly along with that story. So bear with me…
I hope you enjoy the story so far, I really enjoy writing for The Doctor and co once again (I certainly hope that I'm writing the characters right).
This is TARDIS1039, signing off. Allons-y!