Ratatouille: The Doom Perfume - To Disney Infinity and BEYOND!

by The Mr E

The Incredibles vs the Big Hero 6 - crazy, right? And who would have thought it all began in Remy's kitchen, with an adorably awkward but dangerously genius intruder? Having travelled the world in search of the right ingredients, all she needed was a night howler from Remy's restaurant to accidentally ignite an adventure where ANYONE can show up, from Disney Infinity and beyond!

13. Ch 13: Contest of Champions: To Infinity

NOTE: I do not necessarily agree with all of the elements within the featured or referenced material.

---

Contest of Champions | To Infinity ...

'Wrong way! Wrong way!'

Long story short, that's what Bolt's Motion Sixth Sense was screaming over and over. Long story ... well ... long, it told him that he was moving in a direction that wasn't supposed to exist - at least not according to his idea of directions. It was neither up nor down; left nor right; forward nor back. He wasn't supposed to be here.

So, where exactly was 'here'?

Bolt couldn't understand what he was seeing: the impossible shapes, the indescribable colours, the ever-present flashing lights. His eyes had been opened to a world beyond comprehension - if he could call this a 'world'. He felt exposed, as if anything could happen to him without warning. The rats and baby clung to him for dear life. Good. He wouldn't lose them to this kaleidoscopic world, even if he knew full well that he had no idea how to protect them.

Suddenly the alarms went off in Bolt's head as he sensed something raging towards him. Where was it? Nothing here made sense to his eyes, but he felt it as clearly as he felt the approach of a more innocuous thing shaped like - no lie - a vastly stretched out mass that paradoxically felt like a globe all the same. Somehow, that globe meant safety. Could he reach it before the danger reached them? His Sixth Sense gave a resounding answer.

'NO!'

Seeing no other choice, Bolt pushed Jack Jack away from harm and out of the blue came a monstrous rush of black lightning. It felt familiar, much like the lightning he generated on the run, yet somehow inverted. Somehow deadly. In the fraction of a second during its passing, he caught sight of claws; teeth; a maw opened in a silent roar . It wasn't mere lightning. It had a figure - one that sent chills down his spine. Upon passing, its hateful eyes briefly burned into his own. Was it ... aiming for him? Had missing him thrown it into a state of rage? It vanished as quickly as it came, lightning and all, and Bolt was tempted to promise himself that he'd never have to lay eyes on it again.

Suddenly, the dog reached the elongated globe and fell from the night sky in a stream of lightning, landing on a sidewalk. Bolt could have kissed the ground. They had made it back to Earth! Sure, they weren't in Paris, but the earthly buildings and the starry sky were as familiar as anything else on their home world. He was catching wind of some strange scents, though. No matter. Smelling unfamiliar creatures was not unusual when he traveled. All he had to do now was find the baby and-

"Well, a kid flew right over me and blasted a car with his laser vision!" came a distraught voice.

Bolt's and the rodents' ears flicked in the direction of that voice, which sounded human enough, but its owner looked anything but. For starters, he was pink, with legs and arms that appeared way too long for his stubby body. The newscaster interviewing him was equally bizarre, and so was the slug-like creature whose report the anchorman took next.

"I tried to run from it, but it picked me up with its mind powers and shook me like a doll!" declared the third creature.

"It's true! I saw the whole thing!" another eyewitness with a multitude of eyes stated emphatically.

It would seem Jack Jack had been busy. Despite their monstrous appearances, these creatures seemed far more afraid of a tiny child than anything else, and for good reason if the baby was up to that much mischief. In their state of consternation, none of the dozen or so monsters seemed to notice Bolt or the rats. Well, 'monster' was a rather unkind word, but Bolt was hard-pressed to think of a name that better fit the bill.

"There's no place like home! There's no place like home! There's no place like home!" Remy babbled deliriously.

The red rat stared at him without the slightest idea of why he said that. Frankly, she wasn't too far from freaking out herself, but she hadn't expected him to spook this easily with the Omega Aroma swimming in his mind. Of course! The Omega Aroma had no effect because this wasn't Earth, or at least not their native version of it. Therefore, the global chemical reaction wasn't around to work with her perfume.

She took a few instinctive sniffs. Then she did something that would have left Bolt scratching his head had he been human. She muttered something, so rapidly that only a listener with an accelerated brain would have heard anything other than a grunt. Luckily, Bolt fell under that category.

[Atmospheric-analysis-complete,] muttered the rat. [Xenodimension-identified:-D1ZN3Y/P1XAR-Earth-2319.]

Bolt furrowed his brow in perplexity. "So ... you know where we are?"

She blinked. "What made you think that?"

"You identified this place - said it was some kind of 'xenodimension'," Bolt explained.

"I did?" she asked, genuinely clueless. "I didn't know I was thinking aloud ... I don't even know why I said it. It just sort of came out, but 'xeno' is Greek. It means 'other' or 'foreign'. Based on that, I'd say we're in another world."

"How do you suppose the baby got here before us?" Bolt slowly asked.

Though he hadn't directly reacted to the strangeness of this familiar yet alien planet, she could hear the perplexity in his voice. He was trying to take things in stride - jump start his brain from stunned bemusement by asking that question.

"Um, okay ..." she began, struggling to get her own thoughts past 'bewildered'. "Jumping between dimensions is a step above jumping through time, so maybe the baby landed a few minutes into the past."

"So, where did this kid go?" asked the newscaster.

"Who knows!?" exclaimed his newest interviewee, waving her hands to accentuate her panic. "A swirling flash of light and poof! It was gone! It could be anywhere! It could be-"

*Fwash!*

Jack Jack had reappeared, and every monster stared in abject silence as if afraid to breath.

"Ba ba!" Jack Jack babbled happily.

Like an klaxon alarm, that babble sent the monsters into a fresh frenzy. Jack Jack giggled in amusement as he floated into the air. With each laugh, every light on the block surged as if joining the baby's glee, to the point where many sputtered sparks or outright exploded. So, the baby's giggles were an electromagnetic weapon, Bolt (inaccurately) surmised. Good to know.

Jack Jack's laughs grew all the more ecstatic as his eyes compounded the chaos by unleashing lasers at anything that struck their fancy. If not for the element of extreme danger, it might have passed for the mind-blowing light show of an off-the-hook dance party. Despite the delighted giggles Jack Jack released in response to the chaos, his erratic use of powers suggested that he had little control of them. In other words, this was a relatively innocent rampage.

"23 19!" came a shout.

Suddenly, Jack Jack's lasers and giggles ceased as a flying net engulfed him and he fell from the air.

Bolt and the rats looked to see a group of monsters in hazmat suits, a few bearing net guns.

"The kid has been detained," declared one of the hazmat monsters.

Suddenly, the net guns went flying from their hands, struck by controlled blasts of narrow, golden lightning. For the first time they noticed Bolt, who growled a warning not to trouble the baby. Despite their surprise and fear of his electric attack, their attention (and horror) shifted right back to Jack Jack when he phased through the net. Floating through the air with a gurgling coo, the baby phased into one of the hazmat monsters. To say the poor guy 'freaked out' would be an understatement. Bolt and the rats dropped their jaws as the monster peeled off his yellow suit like a banana skin and tore away with more speed than could ever be expected of his stumpy legs.

That did it for the rest of the hazmat monsters. Dropping their net guns, duty and dignity, they scattered like cockroaches.

Jack Jack was a babbling bump bumbling within the discarded hazmat suit, until his head phased out of it and he looked about in silent confusion. Where had his funny-looking playmates gone? Bewilderment turned to amusement as Jack Jack phased the rest of his body free of the suit and floated into the air.

Bolt darted in, gave a little hop and wrapped his paws around the baby. The plan was to return Jack Jack to the ground with his weight. Instead, Bolt found himself floating along with the infant, who couldn't be happier to have the company.

From the perspective of the dog, baby and rats, the world gave way to a spiral of electric, golden light. From the monster world's perspective, the child and animals vanished in a flash, dead to that universe and alive to another - a world of wonder.

A world of marvel.

---

"Ralph?" asked an incredulous Mr. Incredible. "Wreck It Ralph? You're an icon!"

Chest puffed with pride, Ralph shrugged. "Yup. That's me, gettin' all the hearts."

The super cocked his head in an oddly contemplative state. "You know, as a kid I think you were my role model. I mean, you were strong and you got to break stuff. What little boy doesn't wanna do that?"

Ralph winced. "Ooh! Uh, look man. I don't know how to tell you this, but I'm kind of supposed to, uh ..." He slammed his fist into his palm to drive home the point. "So, yeah. That makes this awkward ... wait, why are you smiling?"

"'Cause you were my role model," Mr. Incredible went on. "Do you know what they call people who 'wreck' indiscriminately? Bullies. Worse yet, sometimes super villains. I caught a glimpse of what happens when I misuse my gift, and I wanted none of it."

Rhino rubbed his chin in thought. It seemed Mr. Incredible had reconnected with his inner hero, which meant (much to his disappointment) that he no longer had a justifiable reason to antagonise the super. Perhaps the negative effects of the Omega Aroma were wearing off. Rhino decided to test the water.

((~Okay, fight's over. I'm powering down now,~)) the hamster declared, apparently losing his blinding glow.

Rhino was almost instantly treated to a slab of concrete hurled by Mr. Incredible. Not a moment later, he was sent a barrage of powers and gadgetry from the other super heroes. However, it all appeared to bounce off of the floating hamster. He laughed as the heroes stared in confusion before the 'powering down' hamster vanished, replaced by a Rhino who continued to glow like the Sun.

"Why are you still BREATHING?!" demanded Dash.

((~Ha ha! Ya fell for it!~)) Rhino declared. ((~I just duped you with a very discrete screen bearing an image of me dropping my guard, just to see what you would do! It doubled as a shield. You guys are still feral, so my conscience is clear! Welcome to my 'Contest of Champions'! Ready? FIGHT!~))

On the word 'fight', the dome of red lightning enveloping Champ De Mars flashed before creating an image like a giant wraparound T.V. screen. That image? A sky, green as opposed to blue, populated by pink, cotton candy clouds. Hills of chocolate adorned a landscape of sweet, swirling colours. Even the air took on a saccharine scent. A number of screens rained from the hamster, rippling across the ground like droplets on a pond before growing into candies that littered the earth while soil, pavement and all transformed into a spread of confection. Even the trees shape-shifted into their candy cane equivalents.

The heroes examined their new environment as if they had stepped into Wonderland. While most furrowed their brows incredulously, a subtle smile played on Dash's lips, until his sister opened her mouth.

"Hey, Da-, uh, bro," Violet corrected. "Isn't this kind of like that game that you love to play but you keep saying you don't 'cause it undermines your masculinity?"

Dash shot his sister a glare. "Sis! I told you! I only play it because the baby likes the pretty colours! It keeps him occupied and out of trouble! And yes, this is exactly like Sugar Rush."

"There's no shame in lovin' Sugar Rush, kid," Fred declared, putting a paw on Dash's shoulder. "In fact, I was 'Grandmaster' in last year's tournament. I can teach you my ways, Grasshopper."

Dash's face lit up. "Really? I mean, good for you ... not that I'm serious about the game or anything."

Fred nodded in a knowing, unconvinced fashion. "We can talk tactics later, because something tells me we shouldn't be standing here."

The other heroes looked down to see that they were in the middle of a massive, gingerbread track. By the time they noticed the engines whirring in the background, it was too late.

A plethora of racers drifted from around the bend of a chocolate hill. The mere sight of the confections they were driving was enough to cause cavities. Even with the heroes in their path, they heedlessly ploughed ahead.

"I'm out," Dash declared as he darted to safety, then he looked back and growled before remembering the number one rule of heroism (and family). "No,-no,-no! What-am-I-doing? No-one-gets-left-behind!"

He retraced his steps, but was cut off when the racers raged before him.

Violet summoned a force bubble and the cars came crashing around her. She glanced back. Everyone was avoiding or deflecting the vehicles with varying measures of success. Wasabi found refuge behind her force field, kneeling head down, hands shielding his neck as if attempting to survive a bear attack. Not everyone was quite as lucky.

"Woohoo!" Fred cheered as he dodged the cars in gigantic bounds. "Super Jump for the wi- MY LEG!"

Having landed in the wrong place at the wrong time, he was carried off on a racer's bumper.

Elastigirl fared better, stretching above the fray and dancing about as the cars rushed her elongated ankles. Frozone conjured a barrier of ice, struggling to keep it standing as the racers smashed by him. Monster Baymax bashed aside vehicles as they came, with Hiro and Honey Lemon found safety behind him. Though quick enough to dart between the racers, even Gogo was cutting it close. Mr. Incredible came to the rescue, or so he tried, sending incoming cars flying and spinning with his fists, but it wasn't enough. It seemed the stampede of racers had no end. Something had to be done.

Violet roared as she sent the force field exploding forward, sweeping away much of the traffic. Seizing the opportunity, Hiro dove from behind Baymax and threw up his hands, unleashing a magnetic wave that launched skywards the cars that found their way around her force field. Combined, their attacks were devastating, tearing a path through the vehicles until cars and force field collided with Rhino's lightning dome in a cacophonous din.

Everyone released a medley of groans as they tried to bounce back.

"You okay, Honey?" asked Elastigirl.

Violet rubbed her shaking arms. "Super-duper, Mom. Alright, maybe not, but positive thinking, y'know?"

"You are still alive. You are still alive," Wasabi told himself, although his nerves weren't buying it.

"Hey guys, should I be concerned about this?" Fred asked, gesturing his leg as he hobbled into view.

Hiro winced upon seeing Fred's leg. "Uh ... Baymax, can you take care of that?"

Monster Baymax stared down at him with piercing, red eyes.

"Oh ..." Hiro amended. "Almost forgot that I removed your Healthcare Chip."

The robot formed a knife hand as he stepped towards Fred. {I can 'take care of it'.}

Hiro was skeptical. "You sure, buddy?"

{Yes.}

"What's the procedure?"

{A karate chop.}

"Baymax, NO!"

It was a tad too late.

Everyone looked to Wasabi upon hearing a conspicuously high-pitched shriek. It took a moment before they realised that it had come from Fred.

"I'm RUINED!" Fred wailed. "I'm ... I'm ... hey, I feel great!"

Monster Baymax raised his hand once again. {That was not the desired outcome.}

Hiro promptly grabbed the robot's arm. "It's okay! Trust me, that was the desired outcome."

Monster Baymax stared at the boy as though he wasn't making a lick of sense. Nonetheless, he conceded.

{As you wish, Hiro.}

Mr. Incredible scowled before hoisting a candy car and aiming for Rhino, only to be blindsided by Ralph. The gaming icon charged for another strike, but Mr. Incredible shot to his feet and caught the massive fist before sending Ralph bouncing across the sugar-coated ground with a toss.

"9.1," stated the super as he sauntered towards his opponent.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Ralph, shaking the crumbs off his body.

"That's the highest threat rating attributed to any living hero, and it's mine," Mr. Incredible explained. "You know what that means? Every day I take constant care not to break something. To break someone. But you can take it, can't you big man? So, whaddya say? Wanna find out how powerful I really am?"

"I'm gonna WRECK IT!" Ralph declared, pounding the ground to accentuate his threat.

Mr. Incredible crackled his neck and grinned. "Showtime."

With a lumbering gait, Ralph rushed in. Mr. Incredible took off, mighty legs propelling him like a freight train. The two powerhouses drew back their fists and hurled them forth with unearthly might. The sonic barrier shattered before their punches, but no one noticed that with the thunder crack of the ensuing impact.

Dash moved forward to help his dad, but Elastigirl put her hand on his shoulder.

"Let your dad have his workout," she shrugged. "If things get dicey, we'll be there to bail him out."

He felt an elbow leaning on his other shoulder. "Besides, you've got me to keep you occupied."

Dash turned towards the mystery voice and froze when he caught sight of a girl around his height and age. Raven hair peppered with sprinkles, tied in a ponytail by a strip of red licorice, her mint-green hoodie, mismatched leggings banded like candy canes and skirt like a peanut butter cup made her look every bit like she belonged in this world.

"You're ... Van ... Vanello ..." Dash sputtered in a starstruck stupor.

She ruffled his hair. "Don't hurt yourself. Yes, it is I, Princess Vanellope von Schweetz of the Sugar Rush von Schweetzes," she did a little curtsy before her face wrinkled in disgust. "You know what? Barf! I hate formality! Just call me Vanellope. Honestly, I'm surprised you don't remember me from Disney Heroes: Battle Mode."

Dash only continued to stare, before observing the way her features faintly flickered. Looking closely, he noticed the nearly imperceptible pixels that composed her.

"You're ... not real?" Dash asked.

Vanellope lightheartedly swung her fist in a disappointed gesture. "Nope. Too bad, huh? In fact, nothing here is real: not Ralph, not the candy, not the racers who despawned when you weren't payin' attention."

The heroes looked around and, lo and behold, the racers and their cars were gone.

"Rhino was thinking of calling us 'screen slaves'," Vanellope went on. "However, that callback- err, callforward seemed a little too obscure. Plus it was kind of depressing, you know what I'm saying? Instead, he dubs us 'cameos'. He may call the shots, but we've got some leash to do what he subconsciously thinks we ought to do based on our source material," her shoulders fell. "In other words, we don't got no leash at all."

"Well, thanks for clarifying that you're not a living, breathing human being," said Elastigirl.

Vanellope raised an eyebrow. "Meaning?"

The super woman answered with a stretching punch, but Vanellope glitched out of the way in a rush of digital energy.

"Can't touch this, grandma!" Vanellope taunted.

She found herself scooped off the ground in one of Violet's force bubbles, before simply glitching out of it.

"That was a cute and completely useless thing you just did there," giggled the little girl.

A disc from GoGo, Fred's flames, a rocket fist came her way, only for her to glitch clear of every attack.

"Looks like I'm real enough to defeat you super zeroes!" mocked Vanellope.

Violet bit her lip in thought before an idea popped into her head. She smiled.

"Yeah, and real enough to be my brother's waifu."

Dash's face lost all colour, much to Violet's amusement. Two birds, one stone.

Vanellope almost keeled over in laughter. "HA HA! Your brother's what?! HA HA HA! He has great taste, a real SWEET TOOTH! HA HA! It hurts!"

"That is NOT true!" Dash snarled.

Violet shrugged, inching behind Vanellope. "You're right, bro. She's more like a candy crush. The honour of waifu is reserved for that Big Hero. What did you say her name was? Ah, right! GoGo!"

GoGo gave the granddaddy of belittling smirks. "So that's why you wanted to outdo me. To impress me."

"LIES! LIES!" Dash screamed. "Waifus have to be fictional, and GoGo is real so-" he paled even more as he realised what he was saying. "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!"

Vanellope was rolling in laughter, but purely by chance she managed to spot the force blast from behind. She began to glitch, but the attack clipped her, sending her tumbling. GoGo swooped in and the dazed Vanellope could barely glitch a dodge before being encased in a slab of ice.

Frozone dusted his hands, only to halt when the girl glitched from her frozen prison, bent over, panting and shivering from the surprise attack.

"Almost worked!" Vanellope wheezed before standing upright. "Nice distraction! But why all the fuss over me? After all, I'm a distraction myself!"

That was when the heroes noticed a gigantic presence looming above them, its throbbing growl rippling to their bones.

Vanellope gave a flat smile. "Don't look now, but I think you guys are toast."

Before even turning, Violet raised a force field and gigantic jaws crashed into it, causing the barrier to quaver. Everyone whipped around to see a massive insectoid attempting to shred the force bubble with its nightmarish maw.

"It's a CY-BUG from HERO'S DUTY!" Fred squealed. "AAWWESOOOME!"

Dash felt his hand grabbed by another and he was whisked out of the force field in a glitching flash. He turned to find Vanellope, but she didn't quite look the same. With a red licorice mask and a bizarre weapon hooked up to a backpack sporting a soda bottle, she almost looked like a super.

The boy blinked in surprise.

"C'mon, buddy! Dontcha remember Battle Mode?" Vanellope pressed.

Dash slowly shook his head. "Trust me, I'd remember that."

She raised her weapon with an air of menace. "Well, maybe my Soda Soaker will jog your memory."

Vanellope fired a high-pressure stream of soda, but Dash had already darted clear. Much to his surprise, Vanellope nearly instantly glitched in front of him.

"Still faster than you, though," Vanellope mocked.

Dash frowned and blazed circles around her before before stopping right up in her face, eyes burning in challenge.

"Glitching's cool, but it's not speed. It's more like a teleport," Dash asserted. "Even so, I can get from A to B lightyears before you do!"

Vanellope grinned before stepping closer to him, her competitive stare clashing with his own.

"Then prove it," she challenged.

---

"Hey, Quill! Look what I got!" came a scrappy voice turned sing-song for the sake of mockery.

The Guardians of the Galaxy shifted in their seats to see the raccoon-like Rocket stepping onto the ship's bridge, with Jack Jack in his arms and a smirk on his face.

Peter Quill, A.K.A. 'Star Lord', frowned. "Look, we're not exactly law-abiding denizens, but you can't just go kidnapping a Xandarian baby!"

Rocket cocked his head in confusion before snickering. "Nice poker face, pal! You're a better liar than I thought. Shame on you, disowning your own pup."

"Uh ... come again?" asked a very confused Peter, glancing self-consciously at Gamora.

The green alien woman quietly folded her arms. Despite her otherwise impassive expression, Peter knew that she was simply taking her time to watch things unfold before deciding whether or not heads should roll (specifically his own).

"Yeah, like you wouldn't recognise your own kind," Rocket went on.

"That can't be a human! We're lightyears from Earth!" Peter argued.

Rocket sniffed the infant before responding to the full diaper with a wince. "Yup. It's human, or at least part human. Not really sure what a full-blooded human smells like, but you know what they say - 'if the stench fits'."

"No one says-! EW!" Peter retched as the fumes reached his nose. "No! No! I do not smell like that, Rocky! Ever!"

"Call me 'Rocky' again and you'll lose a finger!" spat the fuzzy alien. "And two words - 'air freshener'. At least Drax has the decency to tame the beast musk after leavin' the restroom."

"There was never a beast in the restroom," Drax replied from his chair.

Knowing that metaphors were lost on the big guy, no one bothered to correct his misunderstanding.

"Look, Rocky. I've never seen that pup- I mean 'kid' in my life, so just drop it!" Peter hissed, his eyes pointedly darting between Rocket and Gamora. Translation: 'My almost-girlfriend is sitting right there! Do you want to witness my murder!?'

"I am Groot!" teased the teenage, arboreal alien of the same name.

"Groot! That was totally uncalled for!" Peter exclaimed.

"Ha ha! Good one, buddy!" Rocket laughed, before noticing the baby's aggressive glare fixed on him. "He smells bad enough as it is, now he gotta give me the stink eye? Quill, teach your pup some manners."

"He's NOT my-!"

Quill's jaw loosened as the baby slapped Rocket right across the bridge. His gawk quickly turned to a grin.

"On second thought, I'm game for adoption," Peter commented.

Rocket staggered to his feet, teeth bared. "You can adopt what's LEFT of 'im!"

Jack Jack babbled a retort. In his mind, the black fur that formed Rocket's mask and the rings around his tail marked him as a stereotypical criminal in a striped prison uniform (which wasn't an entirely false assumption). Even at that age, Jack Jack had an infantile sense of what super heroes did to bad guys. Too bad he hadn't learnt how to hold back.

Rocket pounced the child and they tumbled. A few seconds later, Jack Jack had grabbed him by the tail and was whacking him against the ground as though he were a rag doll.

"Groot! OW! Weapon! OW!" Rocket commanded.

The plant-like alien moved to help, but Gamora held him back.

"Rocket, that's a child!" Gamora reminded.

"Yeah! OW! And a flerken's a 'kitty cat'!" Rocket replied in sarcasm as the baby began to whirl him in the air. "That ... ain't ... no ... CHILD! YAAAAAH!"

Jack Jack hurled the fuzzy alien, who bounced off his chair and landed behind it. The baby laughed and clapped as everyone stared in silence.

Suddenly, Rocket sprang over his seat wielding a weapon as big as he was and then some.

"The kiddie gloves are OFF!" Rocket yelled as he loaded the mammoth of a gun.

Peter's jaw fairly hit the ground. "Did you just pull a R.Y.N.O. from under the seat cushion? You had one of those and you never shared?!"

"This ain't a R.Y.N.O.," Rocket corrected. "It's a R.Y.N.O. V! And if you wanna share, get ready to eat lead!"

Peter swivelled his chair so that he no longer faced the raccoonish creature, effectively stepping out of the conversation. However, Gamora was not one to relent as easily.

"Again, that's a child!" she reminded. "Besides, a weapon like that will destroy the bridge!"

"YA THINK I DON'T KNOW THE RISKS?!" snapped Rocket. "Don't question me, woman! I'm in a VOLATILE MOOD!"

The others took cover. Jack Jack instinctively turned to adamantium metal as the raccoony alien unleashed a blizzard of bullets and missiles. Somehow, over the din of the firepower, the weapon managed to play its signature jingle - a tune strikingly similar to Tchaikovsky's '1812 Overture'.

Finally, the onslaught ended and half the room was shrouded in smoke.

Rocket blew the smoke off the barrels of his weapon. "See? The bridge is still intact. Toldya I knew what I was doi-"

*ZAP!*

Rocket stared, eyes wide as two green lasers flashed through his weapon. A moment later, it's barrels fell off, revealing the red-hot slice that dismembered them.

A nasty growl emanated from the smoke cloud that remained of the R.Y.N.O.'s attack, before rising to a snarl as Jack Jack emerged in a monstrous form congealed from flame.

"You think I can't take the heat?!" Rocket challenged. "Bring it, Star Lord spawn!"

*FWOOM!*

Flames surged from the baby, reflecting his fiery temperament.

Rocket took a step back before removing an explosive from his utility belt. "Teethe on a Gravity Bomb!"

*( ( GRRRRRRRRRR! ) )*

That noise dwarfed all else. The Guardians turned to see a white dog ridden by two rodents stepping onto the bridge, his eyes aglow like the heart of a supernova and his growl sending tremors throughout the ship. With every footfall, he emanated palpable power, until he was at the monster baby's side. Jack Jack's flames died down as he returned to his original form, hugging the dog with a delighted shout "kit-tee!" Peter briefly swiveled his chair to get a look at the newcomer, before quickly turning away with popping eyes.

"That's a dog, Rocket." Peter stated. "Possibly the most loyal creature in the universe. If he thinks you hurt his human, which it seems he does, he'll tear you to shreds, which it seems he will. If that dog is freakishly powerful, which it seems he is, no one will be able to identify your remains."

"You brought this death beast onto the ship?" Rocket exclaimed, taking another step back as Bolt's growl intensified. Make that three steps, but why stop there?

"Not my doing, not my problem," Peter replied.

"Uh ... Groot? H-Hand me R.Y.N.O. 4-Ever, will ya?"

Groot was nowhere to be seen.

"G-guys?" Rocket whined.

Gamora slowly pivoted her chair away from him just as Peter had. However, Drax was intent on watching the excitement. He'd even whipped out a pack of zarg nuts, but was eating it so slowly that he was sure the 'death beast' would not notice him. In fact, in his mind, he was so still that he was virtually invisible.

Bolt's eyes remained on Rocket as his growl persisted. He didn't actually intend to attack, unless the raccoon-thing made the first move. His plan was to keep the potentially dangerous strangers at bay until he could think of something, or Jack Jack teleported them out of there. More like a plan pending than an actual plan.

[Atmospheric-analysis-complete,] the red rat declared. [Xenodimension-identified-as-M4RV8L:-Earth:-199999-MCU.-Extraterrestrial-sector-unknown.]

"Any ideas?" whispered Bolt.

"Sorry, I'm a chemist, not a macroscopic quantum physicist," the red rat replied. "I'm not even sure if that last thing I said made any sense, so case in point. To say we're 'far from home' would be an understatement."

Bolt's wish came to fruition and Jack Jack emitted a swirling, golden flash. When the glare cleared, he, the rodents and the baby were gone.

Rocket breathed a sigh of relief before his anger flared up and he glanced about for his alleged best friend.

"GROOT!" bellowed Rocket. "The others flaked 'cause they're jerks, but what you did back there? You broke our brotherly pact!"

"I ... am Groot ..." stated the botanical life form, shoving away a vent mesh and climbing out after miraculously squeezing into it.

"What do you mean he was 'mind-bendingly terrifying'?" quarreled Rocket. "What'd a 'dog' ever do to a tree?"

---

Fred tapped Violet's shoulder. "Um, Incredigirl? The Cy-Bug's eating your shield."

"Yes," Violet replied with a slight grunt. "In order to counteract that obvious fact, I am actively generating more force field. It's rather exhausting, so I'd appreciate minimal interruptions."

"Yeah, here's the thing: you shouldn't let it eat your shield," Fred stated.

Between the strain of holding off the bug and Fred's counterintuitive words of caution, Violet wasn't in the most receptive of moods. "Okay, you wanna backseat drive? Fine! Take the wheel."

"That is physically impossible," countered a pedantic Fred.

"Then what would you suggest?!" snapped Violet.

"That you stop letting it eat your shield," he stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Elastigirl decided to butt in. "Excuse me, what's-your-name? Hi. Could you please go sit in the peanut gallery while my daughter does her thing?"

"Would you like to know why I think you should drop the shield?" asked Fred.

Violet laughed none-too-genuinely. It was either that or pull out her hair at this stage.

She began to respond. "Honestly? I-"

Fred's interruption was jarringly alarmist. "'Cause that thing becomes what it eats!"

*( (BWOOWM) )*

The Cy-Bug had exploded into a spherical force field, crashing into Violet's barrier. She screamed, pooling all of her energy into locking horns with the rival force field. However, the insect's feeding had depleted her power reserves. Her shield began to cave. Most of the heroes grimaced as they clapped their hands to their ears. The air pressure was increasing as her barrier compressed under the Cy-Bug's might. It was only a matter of time before ...

*( ( BVVVOOWWM! ) )*

Violet's shield shattered and the spherical insect swelled towards them, faster than human thought and reflex. The impact never came. It took a moment for the others to register Baymax holding the force field at bay. The robot drew back a mighty fist and drove it into the barrier.

The insect recoiled, reverting to its original shape as it collapsed with a screech and a dull thud.

Everyone stared at the robot, appreciative but nonetheless stunned by the savage rapidity of his response.

"What can I say?" shrugged Hiro. "He's intuitive."

Apparently, he wasn't intuitive enough to avoid the force disc that knocked him into the backdrop.

"BAYMAX!" Hiro shouted.

The heroes turned to see the Cy-Bug rising to its feet, body rippling with the purple energy that violated Violet's patented powers. Before it could strike, Honey Lemon dropped a few smoke bombs, and from the resultant cloud came a barrage of attacks ranging from flames to blasts of frost - just about everything the heroes could dish. Overwhelmed by the sheer power of the onslaught, the monster staggered back. It gathered its wits and raised a force field, standing its ground. Stumbling steps turned to an outright run as the Cy-Bug charged the smoke cloud concealing its prey. It was practically on top of them when something yanked it back like a rubber band. Coiled around its thorax was none other than Elastigirl, her legs latched to a candy cane tree. With a tremendous lurch, it yanked the tree up at the roots and charged into the scattering heroes. Elastigirl was far from finished. Limbs twining around its massive frame, she fought to restrain the struggling bug, and man did it struggle.

GoGo was first to retaliate with her discs, but they did little to daunt the ranging monster.

"Hey! Throw me one!" called Elastigirl, freeing up an arm.

The Big Hero tossed the super a disc. Elastigirl grabbed it as it passed, extending her arm as the disc continued to fly before snappily withdrawing it with whiplash speed into the Cy-Bug's eye. That did it. She detached and leapt away as the incensed insect reared with a roar.

Blink and you'd miss it.

Darting between the Cy-Bug's legs were a scarlet blur and a flash of pixels locked in a frenetic feud of speed. As quickly as they appeared, they were gone, zipping among candy cacti, over chocolate boulders and towards a minty marsh.

No matter what Dash did, Vanellope slipped through his fingers. He could almost swear that she was making faces at him between glitches. What he didn't know was that making faces was all she could do. She'd never admit it, but his speed gave her little time to take a breath let alone ready her weapon. Thus, she resorted to taunting. All it really did was fuel Dash's competitive spirit, making him come harder and faster than ever. Finally, Vanellope found enough time to fire a few blasts from the Soda Soaker. None too surprisingly, he dodged every one and had her on her toes once again. It seemed the boy could react to anything if he saw it coming, but what if he couldn't see it coming?

Vanellope passed through a charging Dash in a gust of sparks. The instant she reformed behind him, she unleashed her Soda Soaker. The first droplets of the blast were millimetres from his back when he accelerated, outright outrunning it.

She smirked. He was heading for the minty marsh. One way or another, he would end up a sweet, sticky mess.

Her smile vanished when Dash began to run atop the swamp, drifting into a U turn with a spray of sugary liquid in his wake. Repressing a 'whoa', she raised her Soaker and fired. It took her a moment to realise that Dash had dropped to his knees, speed-sliding beneath her attack. By the time she understood what he was doing, he had reached her and shoved her weapon's muzzle skywards. The ends of her blast sputtered into the air before coming down in a fizzy shower.

"Hold your applause," Dash quipped.

Vanellope frowned. "Dodge this!"

With that, she glitched off the ground and he looked up (half-blinded by the soda rain) to see her falling towards him with her Lollipop Slammer raised like a hammer. He darted away but she glitched mid-air, ending up above him once again. The speedster blazed a path of zigzagging zips, but Vanellope repeatedly reset her falling attack above him. Finally, Dash decided to stand still just a little longer than he needed to.

"HA!" Vanellope shouted in triumph, bringing her weapon down on his noggin. However, there was no noggin. No Dash. He had split at the last second.

"Ha HAA!" retorted the super as he swooped in, snatched the Lollipop Slammer and hoisted it above the girl.

"What are you DOING?!" shrieked Vanellope.

"Uh ... winning?" replied Dash.

Her face took on a broken look. "Were you gonna to smash me to sprinkles? Me? A little lady? What would your mother think?!"

"My mom was the first to attack you!" Dash argued.

She ignored him. "You even laughed like you were going to enjoy it!"

"Yeah, well ... you tried to smash me first!"Dash pointed out.

"I was just putting on a show, but I-!" cue the waterworks, "I was hoping at the end of this, we could be friends again, but-" *sniffle*, "but you threw that out the window ya big JERK FACE!"

Dash's eye twitched as his poor, conflicted mind short circuited. Then he ran off with a frustrated scream and fruitlessly hammered a jawbreaker with the lollipop, venting.

Vanellope watched her handiwork in smug satisfaction.

"Ain't I a stinker?" she asked no one in particular.

---

Again, Bolt was hurtling beyond the fringes of reality. He had no idea where he was going, far less how to steer. However, the familiar shadowy horror behind him was motivation enough to steepen his learning curve. He was closing in on something very strange - a dark pocket that struck him as unnatural. Ominous as it was, a dark spot was exactly what he needed.

Just as he felt the icy breath of the thing on his tail, he turned with a jerk and slipped into 'dark spot'.

The dog and rodents exhaled in relief as they drifted through the black void of their refuge like a planet wandering through a starless void. The dread of the unknown niggled at their minds at they wondered what kind of world they had stumbled upon. It was warm: a dank, sticky kind of warm. Jack Jack's giggled into the darkness, delighted to hear the response of his echo.

"Do you have any frame of reference for this?" Bolt asked.

There was a moment of silence before the red rat replied. "Oh, you're talking to me? Uh ... the absence of gravity suggests deep space. The presence of breathable air and lack of stars suggests otherwise. Not to mention the echo. The baby's giggles wouldn't echo if there weren't some kind of surface relatively nearby."

"I feel movement," Bolt announced.

"Where?" Remy squeaked.

"Everywhere."

A solitary glow caught their eyes as they floated towards it ... or it floated towards them. They couldn't tell. Nearing the source, they found themselves staring at a cube casting blue light. Bolt's eyes widened as his sixth sense went haywire. Within that cube, he felt something immense - a whirlwind of energy swirling through the vastness of space, all sealed within an object small enough to fit between his paws. He also sensed danger. With a small Thunder Bark, he pushed away the cube. The moment he did, a rumbling ripple of motion caused the very air to quaver.

Jack Jack crooned in uncertainty. For once, it seemed he was unnerved.

Finally, Bolt fired a Strike Stare, banishing the darkness. His jaw hung ajar. He'd seen a lot of things in the fantastical world of his television series, but this? There was no comparison. Hordes of tentacles surrounded them in a writhing cavern of flesh. All at once, they converged on the intruders. Jack Jack immediately burst into tears, clinging to the dog in a nigh-unbreakable grip.

"Everyone, HANG ON!" Bolt commanded.

A tactical Thunder Bark propelled him away from the cube before the tentacles collided with a tremendous, wet clap. They quickly reoriented themselves and swarmed towards the trespassers. Bolt went berserk, loosing lightning and explosive barks. The downside? In the weightless environment, the backlash of his attacks caused him to spin uncontrollably. The upside? It allowed him to unleash chaos every which way. Nothing could get close to the storm he had become. All of a sudden, the darkness broke as sunlight poured into the eldritch world. A mighty wind swept them towards the light and they were ejected from the realm of tentacles, landing on the floor with a splat.

Before anything else could be done, a face-down Red sniffed the air and rapidly muttered: [Atmospheric-analysis-complete. Xenodimension-unchanged. Location:-Earth,] she took another sniff. [Year:-1995.]

For a moment, they lay there, eyes and minds adjusting to their surroundings. Jack Jack began to giggle. In some small way, that reassured them that things had taken a turn for the better. Bolt sprang to his feet, battle poised while the others collected themselves.

He raised an eyebrow.

They were in an office. Albeit dated, it couldn't look more ordinary, with the exception of a cat coughing and gagging on the desk. He'd seen Mittens behave similarly after suffering particularly nasty fur balls.

"I've hacked up some gnarly fur balls in my time, but you guys are a whole new world of weird," the cat announced, grimacing in displeasure. "I didn't make a wish. There were no candles. Fury didn't even get me a cake! All I did was wordlessly want an 'interesting' birthday and lo and behold, you show up in the form of a fur ball!"

The other animals exchanged glances.

"Are you saying we just came out of your mouth?" asked Bolt.

"Yeah," the cat confirmed, before eyeing them suspiciously. "You wouldn't happen to be affiliated with the Kree, would you?"

"Kree?" asked the red rat.

"Jerks from off-planet who claim to be 'noble warrior heroes'. Very delicious."

"You meant 'dangerous', right?" suggested Remy.

A mischievous smile lifted Goose's lips. "I know what I said."

The dog and cat (if she was a cat) held eye contact for a moment, exchanging gigabytes of nonverbal communication. Bolt wondered why she would outright ask if they were affiliated with her enemies. What was to stop them from lying? However, there was something about the way her penetrating eyes seemed to pick up every iota of body language. He had an inkling of her almost preternatural knack for discerning friend or foe, truth from falsehood.

Bolt began to open his mouth to tell the creature that he had no ties with the 'Kree'. She spoke first.

"No need to plead your case," stated the feline. "I know you're not an enemy. The name's Goose."

"Bolt," replied the canine.

Jack Jack phased through the floor with a giggle.

Bolt rolled his eyes before looking at the rodents. "Stay put. I'll be back."

With that, he vibrated into ground.

Goose stared at the spot where the canine and baby had disappeared. She seemed fascinated, but not overly surprised. Perhaps she was accustomed to the extraordinary. Goose sniffed the air and slowly shifted her gaze towards the red rat with a concerning glint in her eyes.

"What?" asked the rat.

"You smell incredible," Goose explained.

"Uhh ... thank you?" replied the cautious rodent.

"Your tail is rather large for such a small rat," commented the cat.

The rodent self-consciously pulled her tail closer. "Yes, I am acutely aware of that."

"So you don't like it?" the feline pressed.

"I'd ... like it more if it were smaller, but it has its uses."

"Does it regenerate?"

The rat raised an eyebrow. "What gave you the impression that a rat tail would regenerate?"

Goose shrugged. "Most creatures on my planet regenerate missing limbs. Losing them is more of a short-term inconvenience than anything else."

The rat knit her brow. "And that would make you a ...?"

"Flerken. I'm a flerken. So, this tail of yours: can you live without it?"

"Why so curious about my tail?" asked the rat, although she had a disconcerting theory.

"I'm trying to determine whether you'd miss it when I eat it," Goose explained in a cavalier fashion. "Ideally, I'd like more than just a tail, but I'm not a monster."

Goose ended her statement with a placatory smile. It was meant to be disarming, but it came off as disquieting.

The rat slowly nodded. Her eyes darted about as if some solution were hidden in the room. She wouldn't make the same mistake she made with Mittens.

"Seeing as you're not a 'monster', please respect the fact that I have no intention of parting with my tail," the rat requested.

Goose shook her head. "I wasn't asking."

The red rat pushed Remy forward, instinctively hiding behind him in the process.

"This is Remy," she introduced. "He runs a five star restaurant in Paris, and he'd be happy to prepare a gourmet ... something in proxy for my tail. Isn't that right, Remy?"

"I, uh, I don't see why not!" Remy agreed awkwardly.

Goose narrowed her eyes with a dry smile. "Darlin', I don't want a 'gormay'. I want your tail. Seriously, that's a pretty good offer. Most apex predators would take the whole package without prepping you."

"It's not worth the trouble. I'm poisonous," the rat argued.

"Mm hm, you're a terrible lair."

"Maybe, but yo should know that I'm-"

"That's also a lie," Goose interrupted.

The rat blinked. "You can't-"

"Lie."

"... I don't think-"

"Lie."

"... It's impossible to-"

"Aaand lie." Goose pointed at her own disinterested expression. "You see this? Honey, this is me waiting for you to face the fact that you can't hustle a flerken. You just can't. That's why Skrulls can't hide from us, even with their shape-shifting powers."

"Fine. Here's the truth," the rat asserted, pulling a Blueberry from her bag: "I brought a city, no, a planet to the brink of chaos by accident. Wanna see what I can do intentionally?"

Goose stretched leisurely. "Yes, please. Things have been boring as of late."

Without another word, the rat tossed the berry, only for the flerken to catch it in her mouth. Goose blinked in mild fascination as the chemical ball exploded on her tongue, sending blue mist pouring from her nose. A moment passed and the cat was still quite conscious.

"What was that supposed to do?" asked Goose.

The rat armed herself with two Raspberries and hurled them at the desk, the explosions shattering the table and sending the flerken flying. Goose had hurtled a mere few feet before tentacles fanned from her mouth, embedding themselves in the walls to hold her in place. The tentacles withdrew and she dropped atop the splintered remains of the table, calmly landing on her feet.

"Aren't you full of surprises!" Goose commented. "You can dish it. Let's see if you can dance."

Goose launched a single tentacle with speed of a cobra strike and then some. Just as it came down in front of them, the rats dove clear, landing in rapid rolls before springing to their feet.

The cat frowned. "Hm. You're both pretty fast, but if I was actually aiming for you?" Goose shook her head.

"Same here," the rat declared. "If I'd hit you instead of that desk-"

"Do yourself a favour and go all out," Goose cut in. "I ate the Tessaract with no ill effects ... sorta. You couldn't hurt me if you tried."

The rat sharpened her glare. Time to test that theory. With mechanical rapidity, she hurled a barrage of Raspberries. The building shook as the flerken blocked the onslaught with a tangle of tentacles. Not even a scratch. Goose sent those tentacles raging towards the rodent. What a pleasant surprise! The rat managed to deflect them with her explosive cocktails! However, Goose could see that she couldn't keep this up. What would this tricky little creature do to save herself?

At first, it looked like an accident: a stray Raspberry tossed at the wall. Then it detonated, propelling the rodent clear of the tentacles. Brilliant! The blast was far enough to preclude serious injuries, but close enough to result in some very creative evasive action! What else could did Goose's new playmate have up her sleeve?

The flerken let the rat roll to her feet before sending her a few more tentacles. The rodent shielded herself with a clump of Blackberries, gasping when the tentacles skewered them like a kebab. Well, at least the berries had glued them together. Scratch that. Goose pried apart the balls of sticky black, sending them splatting into the walls and ceiling.

The flerken laughed in delight. "I haven't had this much fun in ages! Go on: do something else! Make me marvel!"

Goose recognised that look. It was the look of prey racking its mind for an escape and finding none. The flerken gave her new play thing a moment. The rat was on the edge of panic, but panicking prey did interesting things. The show would go on. The Earthling just needed time.

"How 'bout an intermission?" Remy suggested.

Goose looked up before thrashing like a bucking bronco. "Hey! What are you doing on my head?! Stop that! Don't mess with the fur! MMFFFF!"

The flerken's jaws had sealed themselves shut, thanks to her new puppet master.

The red rat did a fist pump. "Great job, Remy!"

Remy spoke through gritted teeth as he tugged on several regions of fur with his jaws and all four paws. "Don't ... thank me ... yet!"

The flerken convulsed as she fought Remy's control. He strained to restrain her as the spasms grew more violent until tentacle tips began to peep from behind her lips. He focused all his energy on keeping her mouth closed, only for her to smack him away with a liberated paw. She'd been holding back, but for him she made an exception. It didn't matter if this 'Remy' survived the blow. Facing a warrior chemist? That was fun. Facing an Earthling who could hijack control of her body? Not so much.

When Remy hit the ground, the red rat practically snarled in outrage.

Before the flerken knew it, she was blinded by a chemical firestorm to the face. Goose could only yelp before the Anger Berries practically consumed her. Once thoroughly engulfed in flames, she was blown through the window by the ferocious blasts of two Raspberries.

A recovering Remy stared with fallen jaw at the other rat, whose bared teeth, livid eyes and raised hackles gave her the threat factor of a creature many times her size. Her seething breaths subsided as she gave him a concerned look. He responded with a thumbs up and a weak smile. She relaxed, reciprocating with a smile of her own.

Her feral anger returned with a vengeance when Goose's tentacles yanked the flerken back through the window.

"Do you have ANY idea how LOOONG it'll take for me to get the SINGES out of my FUR?!" Goose bellowed.

"I. Don't. Care," the rat snarled.

"Playtime's OVER!" the flerken screeched.

She fired a tentacle fast enough to shatter brick. Only one thing was faster, and he met her speeding appendage with his forehead. His claws dug into the floor as he slid back a few inches, shielding the rat.

Goose squinted in annoyance before rolling her eyes. "A rival apex. Of course he had to be a rival apex. Hey, 'Bolt'. Word of advice? Don't be a hero."

The dog's eyes glowed Sun-hot in silent resolve.

Goose gave an irked chuckle. "Okay. Let's do this."

A plethora of tentacles exploded from her mouth. The world seemed to slow as Bolt's mind went into fight/flight induced overdrive. Confusion flickered across his face as he flinched, wondering how to deal with this many tentacles. Swift as bullets, they were the only thing his accelerated perception hadn't managed to slow to a crawl. He had to think fast. His tactical mind quickly found order within the chaos. Most of the tentacles were zeroing in on him and the red rat. From all appearances, Remy wasn't even a target. He couldn't save them both, but maybe he didn't have to.

Weaving between the tentacles in a blaze of lightning, Bolt snatched up the red rat (relieved when she didn't go 'crunch' in his mighty jaws) and vanished through the door.

Remy's popping eyes lingered on the rapidly fading trail of lightning. Had they actually left him behind? His gaze slowly, tentatively shifted to the flerken as she released a sound far too nightmarish to originate from a feline (which said a lot considering the sounds he'd heard come out of a cat). Her wrath dissipated as she seemed to notice him for the first time in the last few moments, givnig the rat a Cheshire grin.

"How do you feel about hostage situations?" asked the Flerken.

Remy allowed himself an exhausted eye roll. "Who cares? My response doesn't make a difference, does it?"

Goose's grin remained fixed as she shook her head. "Nope."

...

The red rat managed to get a few words in amid the blazing lightning and whipping wind as Bolt ran. "Did we- just abandon- Remy?"

Bolt paused, looked over his shoulder and began to focus. "Not exactly."

When Goose made a move, his Motion Sixth Sense pinpointed her position aaaand ...

*ZZZZTHHMMM!*

The rat flinched as streams of narrowed lightning shot into the distance from Bolt's eyes.

...

Goose's fur didn't take too kindly to the lightning blast that seemingly came out of nowhere. It wasn't blackened so much as splayed in every direction imaginable. This wasn't the first time she'd been struck by lightning, and it certainly wouldn't be the last (trust the long, crazy life of a flerken). It wasn't the nastiest blast either. Perhaps the dog wasn't strong enough to injure her, or he had no idea how much punishment she could take and cared enough to stay on the safe-ish side. However, he had managed to deprive her fur of any semblance of neatness. Might as well have written his obituary.

Sensing that he was the last thing on Goose's mind at the moment, Remy dove through a hole created when Goose's tentacled barrage had riddled the floor.

Goose parted the frazzled fur from her eyes with a paw. The blue rat was gone. She couldn't care less. Her business was with the red one and her canine friend. She was starting to understand why her species' Earthly lookalikes had such an intense aversion to dogs. Maybe this didn't have to be a pain. Maybe this could be fun. After all, she'd been yearning for excitement. It would be a shame to put that to waste.

The flerken gave herself a quick groom, restoring some semblance of order to her fur. She always liked to look presentable before a mauling. Then she paused, staring at nothing in particular as she set her mind on locating the runaway dog and rat. Bolt wasn't the only one with a sixth sense. The moment she found her target, a vortex of blue light fabricated above her before she sprang through it.

One storey below, Remy finally started breathing as his ears told him that the flerken was gone ... or being very quiet. He could only hope for the former. The rat emerged from hiding beneath a piece of rubble. Without so much as a cursory glance, his remarkable nose had told him that he was in a kitchen. On the other hand, Remy's ears weren't particularly exceptional for a rat, but they were sharp enough to hear the snarling and breaking objects on the other side of the wall. What now?

Jack Jack tore through the wall in the form of a fuzzy monster, sharp fangs on full display as his rabid eyes darted about the room.

Remy stared, somewhat afraid to move. The baby looked like a doozle: one of those creatures from the notorious bedtime children's book guaranteed to send tots and parents alike to dream lands where green eggs and ham were aplenty. Of course, the main difference between Jack Jack and a genuine doozle was that doozles were more interested in napping than mangling walls. They didn't have fangs either. Apparently Jack Jack had multiple monster forms reserved for tantrums and the whim of his imagination.

Jack Jack charged.

Remy dove out of the way for dear life, only to find that the child wasn't coming for him. Springing onto the cupboards, the baby ripped into the wood and shredded a bag of cookies. Promptly reverting to his original form, he nestled into the cupboard and began to nibble at his first cookie.

The rat breathed a sigh of relief. "Just hungry, huh?"

Jack Jack ignored him in favour of gumming the cookie to bits.

Remy rubbed his chin. "Hmm ... you know what? That's not a bad idea."

The baby plucked the dribbly cookie from his mouth, staring at Remy in question. "Babuh?"

...

Bolt darted under a bush, letting down the rat.

"I'll be back with Remy and the baby," he informed. "If something happens, dance, squirm, shake, it doesn't matter. Just move like your life depend on it. I'll know something's up. The weirder the better."

"Um ... okay," she agreed.

*FWOOSH!*

Bolt was gone.

*ZOWM!*

Something had arrived.

She looked back to see Goose poking her head through the leaves. "Peekaboo!"

If ever a 'peekaboo' induced trauma followed by post traumatic stress, it was now.

"Yep, I can teleport!" Goose explained. "A little trick I picked up after eating the Tesseract. It manipulates space, hence wormhole generation, but I won't bore you with the science. Hold still and ... why are you doing that? You're flopping like one of those water creatures. What do you call them? Tip of my tongue ... Oh, right: 'fish'! Is this some kind of defensive panic response? Seriously, why are you Earth creatures so weird! Is there any way by any stretch of the imagination that that could help you-?"

Goose barely heard the rushing wind before something pounced through the bushes at 200mph. She found herself pinned on the sidewalk by Bolt.

The dog's growl rumbled through the Earth. "Stay. Down."

Goose smiled. "Word of advice? Follow your own advice!"

With that, she seized him with a tentacle before hurling him into the sky.

The rat watched from the decimated bush, eyes wide as the dog disappeared into the blue.

"Don't bother waiting up for him," Goose suggested. "He runs fast, but he can't fall fast. Now, if you'll just," she paused to block an Anger Berry with a tentacle before chuckling. "Y'know? This can be fun to a point, but if you don't behave yourself, I'm gonna-!"

"Alright," the rat interrupted, the fight draining from per posture.

Goose tilted her head. "'Alright'?"

"I need to get home and fix things, and ..." she exhaled in dispirited surrender, "and I guess I don't need to be in one piece to do it."

The flerken smiled. "I knew you were reasona-"

"Don't give me a pat on the back!" the rat snapped. "Just make it quick. Please."

Goose shrugged. "Have it your way."

*( ( (( BARK! )) ) )*

Eyebrow raised, the flerken looked up to see that the clouds had parted as though scattered by an explosion.

"What is that mutt doing?" she asked herself, before looking to see her prey fleeing. "Hey! Where do you think you're going?!"

"Newton's Third Law! Woot!" the rat cheered as she ran.

Goose moved to give chase.

( ( (( WOOF! )) ) )

That sounded much closer. The next instant, Bolt came crashing onto her, embedding canine and flerken into the pavement. A few seconds later, three tentacles burst from the ground with the canine in their clutches, slamming him into the road, a building and sidewalk. The moment he hit the pavement again, he vibrated his feet into the concrete before seizing her tentacle with his teeth. She tried to hoist him into the air for a few more smashes. He'd planted himself deep, and he was strong. Seldom had anything challenged the might of her tentacles. Given a second, Goose would have torn him free of the concrete. He beat her to the punch, swinging the flerken into the air before sending her crashing through the nearest building.

Bolt scanned the gaping hole in the structure with his eyes, ears and sixth sense. Once satisfied that the flerken hadn't recovered (yet), he turned to his charge.

"Red, status report," requested Bolt.

The rat tilted her head. 'Red'? Not 'Penny'? Oh, of course: he was no longer under the effects of the Omega Aroma, which meant that he wasn't obligated to nickname her after his beloved owner. Very well. She would answer to that name for the time being.

The rodent gave a smile accompanied by an 'OK' sign.

Bolt nodded. "Let's get outa here."

He flinched as a massive portal opened three feet above his head. Taken off guard, all he managed to do was peer into the vortex and see ... a bus?

Goose emerged last from the rapidly rising portal, smashing the superdog with her weaponised public transportation. Satisfied that he'd been embedded in the metal, she crushed it around him with her tentacles, creating a massive ball.

The flerken twirled the ball on a tentacle, pleased with her work. She wanted to dribble it as she saw the humans do, but she was pretty sure bus balls didn't bounce. Her smile disappeared when paws peeled aside the metal to reveal the glowing, golden eyes of the creature enveloped within it.

She shielded herself with the remaining tentacles as Bolt unleashed the Strike Stare. He wasn't sure what her appendages were made of, but they did a remarkable job of standing up to the lightning. However, Bolt knew his efforts weren't futile. After all, his lightning had caused her to spit them out in the first place. All he had to do was keep pressing.

Mustering her will with a cry, Goose managed to toss the ball into the sky. She took a moment to catch her breath as she stared up at the rolled up bus gaining distance. That hadn't worked the first time, but now Bolt was sandwiched between over a dozen tons of metal. She'd like to see him get out of that.

*( ( (( BARK! )) ) )*

The flerken's eyes widened. She didn't mean it literally!

Bolt had torn the bus asunder, leaving him spinning through the air. Once his head was facing upwards, he released another bark and the kickback gave him a return ticket to Earth.

Goose frowned. So that was how he did it.

The dog's paws cracked concrete as he landed, firing another stream of lightning.

Again, the flerken shielded herself.

"What? No direct attacks?" she managed to ask amid the electric onslaught. "Methinks you're afraid of getting near to me!"

Bolt knew she was goading him, and she had a point. Why get close to a creature capable of subduing and rapidly devouring him? Still, he didn't want to keep firing until Goose melted to a puddle of alien goop. Maybe he could end this before it came to that.

The dog surged behind her, eyes alight to strike her back. Goose briefly glanced over her shoulder before disappearing into a portal. Bolt sensed her reappear behind him. The copycat. He turned in time to duck a pair of tentacles. However, he wasn't sure if they would have hit him even if he hadn't ducked. Was she getting sloppy, or was this one of those classic 'I wasn't aiming for you' moments? He looked back. Ah, there it was: her tentacles had skewered a minivan, quickly dragging it towards her so that he would be swept to her mouth. Clever, but he had tricks of his own.

Bolt cast her a smirk before his outline blurred and he phased through the incoming van. Once on the other side, he launched into a leap and kicked off the vehicle, sending it raging towards flerken's face with more speed than she'd bargained for. He was still airborne when he somersaulted into a Thunder Bark just as the van smashed into Goose's tentacled maw. It practically exploded under the might of his sonic attack, sending Goose flying in the midst of the debris. Bolt had scarcely touched the ground before his eyes locked on the shrieking flerken and loosed devastating torrents of lightning. If Goose was 'flying' before, she practically turned into a missile when the bolts crashed into her. Where she would land, Bolt did not know. He was tempted to think she wouldn't land after that.

Bolt took a few, much-needed pants. He could do nothing more before a frazzled Goose teleported in front of him.

"That ... that was *cough!* the most vicious thing anyone's ever done to me!" she exclaimed, looking about ready to pass out. "I wasn't supposed to walk away from that, was I?"

Bolt shrugged. He wasn't particularly trying to end her, but he wasn't giving her the kid gloves either.

She steadied herself as she stabilised her breathing. Bolt's eyes glowed a warning. Then the flerken gave a single chuckle. Her turn.

Bolt's face planted into the road as something fast struck him from behind. He rolled to his feet and looked back. Nothing. It struck again. This time he took care to observe it with his Motion Sixth Sense. It felt like a tentacle, but her mouth was closed in a smug smirk. How?

He needed to get away. Gather his thoughts. Before he could, a legion of little portals opened around him and her tentacles attacked from all sides. He quickly figured out that she was teleporting them from the inside, for all the good that realisation did him. Bolt scarcely had a moment's reprieve as he was struck to and fro within the tentacled storm. When he found one, he dug into the road, only for a tentacle to erupt from his escape route, knocking him back into the fray. He began to vibrate. It didn't work at first. Apparently phasing through biological matter was difficult for him. Nonetheless, he made it work, even if it took all his focus.

Goose found her tentacles passing through his body. However, he was standing on the ground. The ground was solid. She could destroy his footing.

Bolt lost focus as the flerken began to attack the road below him before her tentacles went back to battering his now-tangible body. His Strike Stares sputtered in random directions as he managed only glancing blows in the middle of the chaos. A Thunder Bark might have come in handy, if she would stop knocking the breath from his lungs. In time, his tactical mind was lost to desperation. In desperation, he did what came naturally for any dog acting on instinct.

Bite.

Half by chance, Bolt managed to wrap his jaws around a tentacle. The moment he did, his mouth was ablaze with lightning that racked the very startled, very angry flerken. Even in the middle of this intense moment, Bolt could hear Rhino's voice at the back of his head.

'New power unlocked! Call it "Taser Teeth"!' the hamster would cheer. 'Ooh! Better yet, the "Giga Bite"!'

Mittens would say he'd spent too much time around that guy.

Not knowing what else to do, Goose wrapped herself in a tumbleweed of tentacles as Bolt zoomed around her, unleashing lightning from every direction. Something told her he wasn't going to let up. Not this time. Goose briefly wondered why she'd pushed such a powerful being into going berserk, and for what? A one-of-a-kind snack? Her pride flared. She would not be zapped into oblivion by some Shzzzllzzzthzz wannabe! She would come out on top, and get the prize she so deserved!

Goose gnashed her teeth as her mind zeroed in on the lightning dog's location. Once she had a fix, she teleported him into the tumbleweed of tentacles. Her appendages promptly engulfed the dog in a grip that felt all but unbreakable. Even if he slipped away, there was nowhere to run. With tendrils interlocked for unyielding strength, she would not let him escape. This was it.

Ever the one to gloat, Goose allowed one of Bolt's ear's just enough breathing space to hear her.

"Out of the fying pan ..." she teased.

'Into the fire', Bolt thought.

Her jaw slackened as his eyes glowed through the girth of her tentacles. Ignoring the burn, Goose made every effort to squish him there and then.

'Red' held her breath. She had reason to believe that Goose had teleported Bolt into her clutches, even if she couldn't see for sure. Was there anything she could do to help? That ball looked like it was built to last. Nonetheless she filled her paws with as many Anger Berries as she could hold. Then golden light streamed through the meagre gaps between the tentacles with ever-increasing intensity. The ball held, until Red heard the final blow.

*( ( (( ARF! )) ) )*

The ball burst open as blinding light bathed the street.

Red closed her eyes. Too late. When she opened them, she couldn't see anything, until her vision began to blur back to normalcy. She took in the sight of Bolt and Goose lying apart from each other, motionless with the exception of the flerken's tentacles sluggishly withdrawing into her body.

After a few seconds, Red drew back when Goose quickened the retraction of her tentacles by slurping them up. The flerken looked as though she wanted to get up, only to flop back onto the ground.

"Hey, Bolt?" she lazily called. "You dead?"

The superdog dragged himself to his feet. It wasn't that he didn't have the strength to lift his own weight so much as he was sore in places he didn't even know he had. Still, he could already feel his body rapidly recovering.

"Naw. I could do this all day," the dog stated.

Goose rolled onto her feet, literally shaking off the fatigue. "Fine. Let's go."

Suddenly, a Black Berry flicked against her mouth, expanding into a dark, sticky ball and followed by a Raspberry, melting the sphere into a makeshift muzzle.

"Let's not," Red quipped, dusting off her paws.

Bolt remained stiff. He wasn't going to let his guard down just yet. However, when Goose began to panic and make futile attempts at removing the tarry black, it seemed his caution was in vain. Was that all it took? A muzzle? Apparently, for all her durability, Goose wasn't strong enough to remove it without her tentacles, the latter being powerless to push through her closed jaws.

"I half-expected her to burst free," Red commented.

"Yeah. Me too," agreed the incredulous superdog.

Goose fumed before marching up to Bolt and raising a paw full of claws. It was time to find out if he was tough enough to withstand her infamously infectious slash! He would probably dodge her, but that was okay. She knew how to find him. She would teleport to the ends of this planet and beyond if it meant getting even with-!

"Sorry I'm late!" came Remy's voice.

Everyone turned to see the blue rat riding a doozle of a baby lugging a serving cart, galloping in an effort to get to the the cookies Remy dangled on a kebab stick. Upon reaching them, Remy disembarked Jack Jack and gave him the sweet treat.

"Keep the change," the rat jested.

Jack Jack babbled his appreciation as he reverted to his human form.

"Well, looks like you had quite a party," commented Remy as he scampered onto the cart bearing a plate obscured by a plastic cover.

Goose looked both confused and on the verge of mauling him (and everyone else, for that matter).

"... And what's a birthday without a cake?" asked the rat, heaving the cover off the plate.

Goose found herself presented with a sweet delight that made her mouth water at the mere sight of it. Never in her 616 years of life had she been given a birthday gift ... mostly because they didn't celebrate birthdays where she came from. This was more of a peace offering than anything else, but nonetheless she found an unexpected touch of warmth in her heart.

Remy released a breath of relief. He hadn't even baked the cake, but there was more than one way to make one. There was no telling if he would hit home with an alien feline's palate, but he knew when he'd hooked the interest of a potential diner. It helped that Goose's pupils dilated to the max as the scent hit her nose. Before she gave consent to her legs they were carrying her towards the dish. She began to bury her face in the cake ... only to be reminded that the muzzle prevented her from eating.

Turning to Red, she briefly looked away in shame of her hostile behaviour. Then she gave Red the most pitiful stare the rat had ever seen. If Goose hadn't been playing the monster a second ago, Red might have melted. For something resembling a cat, she made the sweetest puppy dog eyes.

Red fiddled with her fingers. "I, um ... I don't feel comfortable removing the muzzle while we're still in the same ... universe, really. But given the way I burnt it, it should denature within the next fifteen minutes."

Goose almost staggered back. Fifteen minutes!? Well, she supposed it was fair. Giving a nod of acceptance, Goose seemed to smile a 'thank you' from behind her muzzle. These were some good mammals, and they could see her remorse catching up with her.

Wanting to avoid the growing discomfort of her actions, Goose trotted over to the sweet treat and flerken and cake disappeared into a portal.

Most of the remaining mammals hadn't even realised they'd raised their hackles. However, they became aware of it when their fur relaxed to its default position as the ambient tension ebbed. Remy quickly noticed the way Red was staring at him, like some fairy tail princess beaming at her knight in shining armour. Remy was tentative after the chaos she'd caused, but that didn't stop his heart from doing a back flip into a mug of hot chocolate ... the gourmet kind.

"... Why are you looking at me like that?" asked Remy.

"Because you went out of your way to save me, again!" she giggled, before creasing her brow on a more serious note. "Actually, I'm not really sure why you did it with the absence of The Aroma."

Remy shrugged. Something at the back of his mind voiced agreement. "I would have done it for anyone, really."

Her gaze faltered. "Oh."

Why did that bother her slightly? It was a good thing, after all.

"Well, it's nice to know Bolt isn't the only hero around here," she commended.

Remy opened his mouth to say 'actually, there are three'. Nothing came out. He was hesitant to acknowledge her as a 'hero'. 'Antivillain' came to mind, after hearing Linguini geek out over the moral dynamics of comic books.

Sensing his ambivalence, Red's ears unconsciously dropped.

Remy's mind immediately shifted. No, she wasn't a villain. At least, not anymore. In fact, she'd displayed some pretty heroic qualities. The trouble was he still didn't know what to call her, but he had to say something.

Before Remy could find the words, Jack Jack hiccuped after finishing his cookies. Apparently that was all it took to trigger his volatile powers, teleporting them to yet another universe.

...

Meanwhile, Goose stared at the cake before her as she waited, sitting on Nick Fury's desk. It was her usual hangout - her comfort zone, even there wasn't much left of it after the fight.

The door (what was left of it) creaked open before falling off the hinges.

"GOOSE!" Fury bellowed from the entrance.

The cat gave a slight murmur through her nose, barely casting him a glance.

"I go out to lunch for TEN MINUTES, then I see you on TV fighting some Blip wannabe and I come back to THIS?!" he thundered. "I TRUSTED you to stay out of trouble! I TRUSTED you to NOT DESTROY MY OFFICE!"

Goose rolled her eyes. If he didn't want trouble, maybe he should have considered not adopting a flerken. Maybe he should have learnt his lesson when he cuddled her one too many times, instinct took over and her claws claimed one of his eyes. In her opinion, trust was a mistake. Less disappointments that way.

Fury stomped towards his phone, which was remarkably intact all things considered. "Where'd you get a cake anyway? I'd bet money it's not your birthday!"

Goose wanted to slap him, but he'd already lost an eye. She had to give the guy a break.

Fury dialed a number. "Hello? Get me Damage Control!"

---

Mr. Incredible slipped past Ralph's hefty arms and dealt the brute an explosion of melee. Ralph managed to grab him, only to be judo-thrown over a giant gumdrop.

The super grinned, pumping a 'yes!' between his teeth as he clenched his fist in victory. Forget his record-breaking power. Ralph was every bit as strong as he was, but Mr. Incredible's superior skill made it was almost too easy.

Much to Mr. Incredible's pleasant surprise, Ralph stepped from behind the gumdrop, dusting himself off. The cameo calmly ran his giant fists up his hair, shaping it into a spiky formation.

"Going 'super' on me?" asked Mr. Incredible.

"Nah," Ralph replied. "Just going to town on you. Ever heard of 'Hero Mode'?"

Mr. Incredible shrugged with a shake of the head.

"How about the 'Shouting Match'?"

The super frowned. "What are you-?"

Ralph flexed his biceps and they tore through his sleeves. After sucking in a deep breath, he unleashed a megaphonic roar.

( (( I'M GONNAAA WREEECK IT! )) )

Mr. Incredible clapped his palms against his ears as he reeled under the intensity of the sonic attack. Once it ended, he looked to see that Ralph was gone.

And a shadow was closing in above him.

The super dove and Ralph landed in his place fist first, sending slabs of pastry crust cracking into the air.

"Hey!" Mr. Incredible protested. "That's 'The Grand Slam'! I invented it!"

"So you do remember," Ralph stated.

The cameo brute's fists worked like jackhammers as he pounded the ground, tearing a path towards the super.

Mr. Incredible narrowed his eyes as though staring down a daunting word puzzle. He was a rapid problem-solver, and his tactical knack quickly told him that he wasn't prepared to counter an attack like this.

He sprang over Ralph, grabbed a jawbreaker and hurled it at the cameo.

Without missing a beat, Ralph threw his head forward and shattered the jawbreaker with his skull. He didn't stop. Scarcely even slowed down as he charged the super like a freight train, pummelling terrain.

Mr. Incredible attempted another leap above him, but Ralph sprang into the air and dragged him back to Earth. No sooner had they touched down before the cameo jackhammered Mr. Incredible deep into the ground before piling crust on top of the super and stomping on it, adding insult to injury.

Vanellope glitched beside him, surveying his handiwork. They bumped fists in greeting.

"Hey, Kid."

"Hey, Stink Brain," she replied. "Y'know, that was a pretty well-executed move, considering your I.Q."

Ralph blew her a raspberry. "Anyway, you need any help with your old friend, what's-his-face?"

"You mean Dash?" asked Vanellope before waving off her friend's offer. "Pfft! I'm running circles around that guy! It's sad really. I'd better get back to it."

"Best of luck," Ralph wished her.

The girl gave a small wave before glitching away.

...

Finally, Dash managed to calm down enough to articulate his thoughts.

"Okay ..." he panted. "If you wanna be friends, let's start ove- Hey! Where'd you go?"

"I'm under here," called Vanellope.

"Under where?" asked Dash.

"Precisely!" she replied, glitching out of the blue and giving him the wedgie to end all wedgies. "And that's why you wear them inside your-!"

"AAAAARRGH!" Dash roared.

Vanellope backed away. "I may have carried this a bit too far."

The boy whipped around with steam practically pouring from his nostrils. He'd had enough! By that time, she was already glitching away, but that was only half a second's head start. Ge gave chase. His speed was ferocious. She almost expected him to bellow 'DASH SMAAASH!', but his incoherent wails did a good enough job getting the point across. They also served to give her an idea of how quickly he was catching up. Terrifying, but useful.

Refuge was in sight! Just a little farther!

She could almost feel him breathing down her neck when she slipped into the giant screen that was Rhino's force field, bearing the background imagery. Being a being of flesh and blood, Dash simply bumped into it head-first.

*CLONK!*

And down he fell.

"HA! It made a COCONUT SOUND!" Vanellope squealed in a fit of laughter.

Dash shook away the stars racing around his head and, for want of a more dignified verb, began to claw at the screen in which Vanellope resided.

"So strikes again that pesky invisible wall meant to keep you in the map!" Vanellope teased with mock sympathy. "Don't let it bug you. It's only there to keep your head in the game."

"I cry FOUL!" Dash exclaimed.

"You can cry as much as you want, diaper baby," Vanellope gibed.

Dash's eye twitched in abject annoyance. Then the fight left his muscles.

"Whatever," shrugged the super, turning to walk away.

Vanellope blinked. "'Whatever'? What's that supposed to mean?"

"What do you think?" countered Dash. "This battle just went down the black hole of 'meh'. You can step off the map. I can't. It's like a hack, which means you're gonna spam it 'till the cows come home. That's what I'd do."

He knew her too well. Nonetheless, Vanellope was inclined to defend her sense of good sportsmanship.

The girl glitched in front of him. "What makes you think I'm like you?"

Dash raised an eyebrow and began to step around her.

"Okay, okay, guilty!" she agreed, walking backwards to stay in front of him. "'Cmon, pal! The Dash I know ain't no quitter."

The boy's eyes briefly popped. How on Earth did she know his civilian name? He managed shake it off rather quickly and feign indifference.

"I wouldn't call it quitting," Dash stated, marching on.

Vanellope stopped him with a hand to the shoulder. "Then what would you call it, spoilt sport?"

He gently placed his hand on her wrist as she held him in place, a smirk spreading across his lips.

"It's called a 'hustle', sweetheart," he quipped.

That was her only warning before Dash spun her like an out-of-control carousel, hurling the cameo into a chocolate ball. She managed to glitch through it, avoiding a painful (and delicious) fate. No sooner had she rolled and sprang to her feet before Dash charged in. Time for the finisher. In a blazing storm of blurs, the boy speed blitzed his opponent from every angle. His attack only intensified as he crammed more and more charges into a single second.

Though clamped between the jaws of a thrashing Cy-Bug, Fred couldn't help but notice Dash's chaotic barrage.

"Sweet finisher, Grasshopper!" Fred cheered.

Ralph took notice. "Hang on, Kid! I'm coming!"

He ran to her aid, but stumbled as the ground began to quake. The massive chunk of pastry on which he stood was uprooted on Mr. Incredible's shoulders. The super gave a mighty heave and sent the crust hurtling into the cotton candy sky, Ralph and all. Red lightning rippled across the heavens as it slammed into Rhino's dome, pastry and cameo disintegrating in a rain of sparks.

As quickly as he began, Dash halted his attack.

Vanellope glitched to her feet, stumbling as her pixels quavered like a flickering screen.

"You ..." she panted. "You had me good. Why'd you stop?"

Dash tottered on his toes in a mild, excited bounce, repressing a small smile.

"Heh heh," chuckled the girl. "I don't know what you're up to, but you're about to get soaked right through to your- Huh? My Soda Soaker! Where'd it-?"

She looked back and found the tube connecting the weapon to her backpack severed, leaking the bubbly liquid meant for ammo.

*Ahem* went Dash.

Vanellope looked and he pulled the soda soaker from behind his back, no longer suppressing his mischievous grin.

The girl stared in startlement, before smiling and shaking her head. Dash's smugness turned to confusion as she walked towards him. What was she up to? Gearing up for a sneaky attack? It didn't seem that way, but who knew? Vanellope was a tricky one.

The girl stopped at striking distance. Dash frowned. If she was about to try taking back her weapon, he was ready. She extended her hand, fingers curled. He gazed down at her outstretched fist. Was she actually doing what he thought she was doing? Well, if this was a trick, he supposed he must have been a sucker.

Dash returned her fist bump and she smiled.

"Ya got style, kid," Vanellope admitted.

Dash squinted defensively. "I'm 10. You're 9. If anyone's the kid here, it's-"

Without another word, Vanellope evaporated in a cloud of pixels, leaving Dash's fist hovering in empty air. It wasn't a glitch. She was gone. He'd defeated her. Even the Soda Soaker had vanished from his hands.

The super's shoulders sagged. He expected victory to be sweeter.

...

Elastigirl yanked Fred from the Cy-Bug's jaws. It lunged at him, only to receive a face full of frost. The creature devoured Frozone's arctic power until it crystalised to a new, icy form.

"NOW!" Frozone yelled.

Fred saluted him before leaping over the Cy-Bug, melting a hole through its back with rain of fire.

The Cy-Bug gave a parting shriek before dematerialising.

Fred sprang back to Frozone's side.

"Gimme some five!" he whooped, raising his paw.

Arms folded, Frozone regarded the paw with cold indifference before his expression thawed into a smile. He clapped his palm against Fred's.

The teen froze before staring at his own hand in reverence. "I. Will never. Wash this paw. For as long as I live."

Violet jumped as Dash walked up beside her. If he'd darted in, she wouldn't have flinched, but the way he walked ... as though his feet were weighed down by despondency itself. She'd never seen the speedster walk like that.

"Um ... I take it you won?" asked Violet.

"The deed is done," Dash declared with about as much enthusiasm as Rick Dicker.

Violet immediately understood and patted him on the back. "Bro, you're 10. Don't worry. In a few years you'll meet a nice girl ... with low standards ... no real options ... or sense of smell ..."

"Thank. You. My beloved sister," Dash growled, shoving away her hand and folding his arms with a pout.

---

Bolt, Jack Jack and the rats felt an icy presence as they shot between dimensions. While the rodents didn't know what to make of it, Bolt's sixth sense immediately identified the shadowy being from earlier.

It was coming in fast.

He twisted and managed to meet it with his paws in a wrestle of life or death. It was strong! No, not just strong. He was getting weaker! He could feel it draining him by the moment like a leech. This thing wanted his power? Okay. He would give it everything he had.

The entity screeched as Bolt's lightning came crashing into its face. Its grip held, but he amped up the voltage until the clawed fingers stripped away from his fur. However, the jerk of its release had sent the rats flying from his body.

"Oof!" Red exclaimed as she landed hard, stomach first on a tastefully irregular, tiled floor.

She picked herself up. Briefly touching her pained ribs, she looked around. Some kind of city square? Populated by animals of all shapes and sizes?

A digital billboard caught her eye, featuring a gazelle who seemed to address her directly.

"I'm Gazelle. Welcome to Zootopia."

---

Aaand cut.

I hope you enjoyed this long-coming chapter. I had a lot of fun with the Wrecking Crew ... well, the few that made it into the chapter. How was it? What did you think of Ralph and Vanellope crashing the party? How 'bout that battle with Goose? How many references did you pick up? Here are a few pointers for the reference source material:

Spongebob Squarepants

Justice League (TV series)

The Incredibles

Star Trek

Ratchet and Clank

The Guardians of The Galaxy (TV series)

A little-known Marvel comic

Captain America ... in multiple movies

Mainstream Marvel comics

Ice Age 3

To be honest, I never actually followed some of the series above, but if you've picked up a reference, head over to the review section and make your boast.

Thanks for reading!