With the way Fate had talked about Eternia, Superman had expected… well, he wasn't sure exactly what he had been expecting, but it certainly wasn't a swamp marsh exactly like the ones on Earth.
"We're not that far off." Zatanna called. "I feel powerful magic on the other side of those mountains."
"You can sense other people using… the same power as you?" Legend still couldn't quite bring himself to use the word 'magic' in a sentence and mean it seriously.
"In the same way I imagine you or Superman would notice if you were about to stick your heads in a star, yes." The slightly tense reply came.
Superman and Zatanna lifted off the ground ("Sdniw raeb em tfola!"), Legend picked up the bulky Dampener, and the three flew over the tree-covered mountains. On the other side sat a gap in the mountains that formed a rough bowl-shape. At the lowest point of the depression sat a castle shaped like a giant grey skull, complete with a moat of bottomless abyss. Over the top of this odd scene was a purple dome of energy, shielding the castle.
"The magic we're looking for is in there." Zatanna confirmed what the guys were thinking.
They descended down to the point outside the dome closest to the drawbridge (Jaw-bridge?).
"Looks like they're expecting company." Legend observed. "Look – behind the forcefield. Those are a lot of energy cannons."
Superman spared the ancient castle's battlements a glance. Indeed, various barrels and emitter points had been propped up against the stone, science and magic collaborating to send a firm message of KEEP OUT. He tried to focus his X-ray vision inside, but found that his gaze couldn't penetrate the castle walls.
"Someone knew we were coming." Superman said.
Legend cupped his hands around his mouth. "Hello, the castle!" He called. He'd always wanted to do that.
"Who goes there?!" A voice called back from the castle walls. A man in futuristic armour cautiously stuck his head out from behind the battlements. "State your business!"
"We are travellers from a distant land!" Zatanna called up to the soldier. "We are in desperate need of magicks far more powerful than our own! Will the lord of the castle hear of our plight?"
"Lady." The moustached soldier to called down, faint amusement in his voice.
"Will the lady of the castle hear our plight?" Zatanna hastily corrected.
"Laying it on a bit thick, aren't you?" Legend muttered, and Superman concealed a smile.
He also noticed someone jumping down from the castle walls and begin to walk towards them – an extremely buff barbarian-looking man wearing only fur briefs and a blue harness around his chest.
"What do you think, Sorceress?" The soldier turned and called down into the castle. "Are these the ones we've been waiting for?"
"No need to bother the Sorceress, Master-At-Arms!" A small imp-like form floated up to Master-At-Arm's head height. The newcomer's form was entirely concealed inside a cloak, scarf and hat, and he was clutching a golden staff in one hand. "I can cast the spell myself!"
"Orko, wait –" Master-At-Arms began to say, but 'Orko' wasn't listening. Muttering under his breath, a smoky purple beam of energy shot from his hands and staff to strike a surprised Superman in the chest.
"What the hell?!" Legend yelled out, while Zatanna quickly chanted "Darw ffo rehtruf skcatta."
"Now, traveller, you are compelled to give answers true!" Orko pointed a purple finger down at Superman. "Are you here to steal the powers of Castle Greyskull?"
Superman tried to say 'No, of course not!', and while those were the words that came out of his mouth, they weren't in his voice. Instead, it was in an unfamiliar nasally one.
His two companions suddenly turned to stare at him like he'd grown a second head.
"I knew it!" Orko yelled down. "You won't fool us this time, Skeletor!"
"Nice try, Skeletor." The barbarian spoke up, stepping through the forcefield as though it was made of water. "Evil-Lyn." He inclined his head at Zatanna. "Not sure who you are, though I guess I'll find out in a moment." He nodded at Legend, then drew a sword from a sheath on his back. "This really isn't your day – Orko found out about your plan to enter in disguise hours ago."
"No, wait –" Superman tried, still talking in Skeletor's voice, but despite (or because of) that, He-Man charged at him anyway.
"You don't really look like much of a guardian."
"Oh yeah? Well, you don't look like much of a 'Batman'. You're clearly a human in a weird costume!"
"It's a bat costume. It strikes fear into my enemies."
"No bat I know dresses like that. Although, if you did wear Rouge's outfit, I guess people would be running away from you screaming…"
"If I may interject." Joseph said, steeping bodily between the two and somehow managing to work a double bicep flex into the movement. "The people in town said you looked after something called the 'Master Emerald'?"
Knuckles the Echidna squinted up at the three humans. "Yeah? What's it to you?"
"Well my good man – er, echidna… thing." Joseph said. Knuckles scowled. "It just so happens that we are in dire need of some truly stupendous amount of energy, otherwise… er, well…"
{Everyone you love and care about will die.} Kumagawa's smile was as empty as usual.
"What he means is –" Batman interjected, shooting his 'helpful' teammate a glare. "– that we are trying to stop a disaster of unimaginable scale, and we can't do it without the power of your Master Emerald."
"I dunno." Knuckles said, scratching the side of his head. "This sounds like something Eggman would say to me whenever he wanted to steal the Emerald."
Before any of the three could respond, the sound of a ringtone came from Knuckles. "Wait, hang on guys, I've gotta take this."
He pulled a small device from… somewhere… and pressed a button on the side, causing the image of a yellow anthropomorphic fox to appear on a screen.
"Knuckles! There's big trouble ahead!" Came a slightly tinny voice from the device.
"What's up, Tails?" Knuckles replied.
"Knuckles? Tails?" Joseph muttered to Kumagawa. "What's the next one going to be called, Legs?"
Knuckles pointedly turned around to face away from the humans.
"You remember Blaze, right?" Tails said.
"The crazy fire lady from another dimension?"
"This 'crazy fire lady' can hear you, you know." A new voice came from the communicator.
Knuckles awkwardly scratched the side of his head. "Oh, uh, Blaze! Hi! Um… what are you doing here?"
"It's really bad, Knuckles!" Tails said. "Someone's stolen the Jewelled Sceptre!"
"The what now?"
"It's the powerful magical artefact that can channel the Power of the Stars!"
"Again, the what now?"
"It's the force that allows parallel worlds to co-exist without destroying each other." Blaze cut in again.
"Oh, okay." Knuckles paused. "What's that got to do with anything?"
"Whoever stole the sceptre left a clue." Blaze explained. "'What has two sides, but only one?'"
Knuckles stared blankly at the screen.
Batman sighed. "A Mobius strip."
"A Mobius strip!" Tails happily answered from the communicator, not having heard Batman's response.
"Right." Blaze said. "So I hopped over here, to planet Mobius. I nearly didn't make it, because something's wrong with the space between dimensions."
"We think that someone's disturbing it!" Tails said. "We need the power of the Master Emerald to put it right again!"
Knuckles paused, and looked back over his shoulder at the humans. "Use it how?"
"Um, well, I guess I'd need to build some kind of fake Jewelled Sceptre machine…"
Knuckles turned around and pointed the communicator's camera at the Dampener the three humans were carrying with them. "Something like this?"
"…oh, wow. Yeah, something like that."
"Cool." Knuckles ended the call. "Come on, guys." He said, addressing the humans once again. "It's a bit of a walk to Angel Island."
When Flash, Manhunter, Ant-Man and Mr Fantastic materialised in the dimension of Earth-616, the immediate problem was that of breathing.
Specifically, that the moon they had appeared on lacked an atmosphere.
Ant-Man immediately sealed his helmet (which had its own oxygen supply for the times he was smaller than air molecules), and Manhunter didn't really need to breathe. Flash and Mr Fantastic, however, did.
I sense many minds that way! Manhunter telepathically projected hurriedly, and Flash unceremoniously picked Fantastic up and ran.
As a passenger, Fantastic didn't really have time to see anything except the world blurring around him as the moon's red-grey surface sped by at speeds few in the multiverse could pull off without mucking around with the flow of time.
Abruptly though, the world suddenly halted, and Fantastic gulped down a lungful of air out of pure surprise before the thought that he could breathe had properly processed.
He looked around – the two of them were now in the dull metal confines of what he strongly suspected was some kind of space building (maybe an outpost?).
He looked behind him to find the Flash also gulping down air and no hole in the walls. "Did you open the airlock at super-speed?"
Flash shook his head. "Didn't have the time. I just phased through the wall instead."
Mr Fantastic (who hadn't actually known his partner could do that) paused, then nodded gratefully. "You okay?"
Flash looked at shoulder of the silver chest-piece he had on over his uniform. Mr Fantastic had noticed him putting it on before they left, but hadn't had the chance to ask him about it. "Looks like I had to run us to the other side of the moon. We're fine, but I had to use up a third of the Speed Force I had stored up."
"'Used up'?" Mr Fantastic blinked.
"Most universes don't have a Speed Force." Flash explained, tapping his chest-piece. "I need to use this battery when we go world-hopping, otherwise my powers don't work."
At that point Martian Manhunter phased up through the floor, a tiny Ant-Man on his shoulder and the Dampener held in both hands.
"Glad you see you guys made it." Ant-man said.
There lies a powerful mind not much further in. Manhunter projected. We must hurry – he knows we are here already.
The four set off at a run, heading deeper into the outpost. Manhunter and Flash limited their speed so that Mr Fantastic could keep up.
"This is your 'verse, right?" Flash asked. "Any idea what we're in for?"
"'Unlimited power'…" Mr Fantastic mused. "There's a couple things that could be, but if I had to put money on it, I'd probably have to guess the Power Stone, the purple Infinity Stone."
"I think I remember those things from that time Krona tried to destroy your universe." Flash said. "Don't they only work in your universe?"
Mr Fantastic gave Flash an odd look, even as they continued running together. "We're in my universe."
"…right. So we are."
They entered the central chamber all together.
It was dimly lit, probably because most of the machinery in the room had been smashed and melted by what looked like explosive weapons fire. The floor was slippery, and the entire room smelled like iron filings, but that was because of the corpses who had been strewn around the room haphazardly.
In the middle of the room floated a mechanical throne, and on that throne…
"Richards."
Mr Fantastic grimaced at the gravely tones addressing him. "Thanos. I thought you'd given up on gathering the Infinity Stones?"
The purple titan lifted up his left hand, and the golden Infinity Gauntlet on it, three gemstones shining in the dark. "Sometimes nothing less will get the job done."
Manhunter lifted Mr Fantastic and Ant-Man's memories of Thanos, grimacing at what he saw even as he shared them with Flash.
"We need the purple stone!" Mr Fantastic yelled out.
"Come then." Thanos stood up. "Try and take it from me."
A.N.: Okay, that's all the chapters I had stored up. Updates will be much slower from here on out. If you want to contribute a Rating or a Omake, do so on the original thread on Spacebattles.