A/N: I do not own any of the characters in this fanfic.

Chapter 8: Plan of Dissent

THE CITADEL AT THE END OF TIME – FEBRUARY 10, 2025

"God no, not Batman."

Was that a bit too en medias res for you all? Sorry, I'll back up.

As soon as we caught our breath after that oh so narrow escape from Earth-9466, I immediately said, "So, we're going back there right away, right? Maybe with the Carlysle? Blowing that place to kingdom come as soon as possible?"

"Wade, we can't just go rushing in there guns blazing," Sylvie said. "We don't know what sort of defenses they have, and they're no doubt on high alert now that we already snuck in there once. Which will also undoubtedly make it harder for us to potentially do any sort of recon so we could prepare for an attack."

"Then let's attack Earth-Whatever-the-Universe-with-the-Daleks is," Harley suggested.

"The Sentinels will probably have alerted them to be wary of attacks," the Doctor said.

"Nobody asked for your two cents, Kilgrave!" I snapped. "We can't afford to waste any time on this; we have to go back as soon as possible! Come on, between the seven of us, we can pull it off. I'm deathless, Sylvie and Loki can create illusions to fool them, Illyana can go portal-crazy and redirect all their attacks at each other, and you, Rose, and Harley can get some…futuristic guns or something to blow the Sentinels to smithereens."

"The only problem with that being that the Sentinels are robots," Loki said. "They'd see right through any illusions Sylvie and I throw at them."

"That's absurd! Your Richard E. Grant variant fooled the Mad #$%&ing Titan himself; you mean to tell me you can't trick a simple goddamn AI?"

"Robots can't be fooled the same way people can. They can discern between what's real and what isn't. That's why I could never manage to get past the Destroyer in Odin's Treasure Vault."

I paused. Great; whenever I pause in the middle of an argument, I lose the momentum I've gained, and my arguing is weak until I get said momentum back again. "…Harley, help me out here," I said. "Let's tag-team them."

"Um…we teleport right to the machine with Shuma-Gorath's brain in it, then set off a bomb or something there and get out," she suggested.

"Which will still leave us with the problem of an entire army of Sentinels and Daleks that can jump across the multiverse at will."

"Which brings us back to the Carlysle. Aerial missile strike to destroy the entire city without ever setting foot in it," I jumped in.

"Okay, Wade. You clearly know more about this universe than the rest of us, so why don't you go ahead and tell us that the Machine City has absolutely no antiaircraft defenses that could potentially blow your beloved new ship out of the sky before you've even gotten to properly use it in battle? We're listening."

Son of a bitch. She had me there. I knew all too well the Machine City was defended by a bunch of giant, flying warships, and even more Sentinels than were flying around Shuma-Gorath's brain. And I really didn't want to lose the Carlysle on its first outing. I imagined myself starting out using it in a bunch of situations where it wasn't really called for. Like, I track down some bank robbers to their hideout and then blow the place to kingdom come. Then after I had gotten decent usage out of it, I'd risk taking it into some big, cosmic battle. Now that I thought about the Machine City's defenses, something large and slow-moving like the Carlysle would be too easy a target.

"Fine. Do you have a better plan?" I asked. "Maybe we should send a bunch of Reapers to wipe that timeline from existence."

"We're not destroying the entire timeline," Sylvie argued. "There's trillions of innocent creatures in that timeline that would die for no reason. I will think about what we should do here, research both universes to find out as much information as possible, and then let you know once I have a plan. Until then, I want all of you to stay here at the Citadel so that we can assemble on quick notice once I form a plan. Got it?"

All of us agreed.

Sylvie turned to me. "And I'm putting a spatial-temporal lock on the Carlysle, just in case you were thinking about sneaking off in that."

"Wasn't planning on it anyway," I said. "After some thinking, I've decided that her inaugural mission is gonna be going bat#$&% crazy on some low-level criminal. Like, someone not even Squirrel Girl would bother fighting."

"I know I should be concerned about you actually doing that, but I can't muster the energy right now. We've got more pressing matters."

"Yep. Me going around the world in that thing is gonna accomplish item number 87 on my bucket list: have criminals be more scared of me than of the Punisher."

Okay, so that wasn't technically on my bucket list until just now, and item number 87 is actually to ride on a Chitauri Leviathan. I was trying to strike the perfect balance here of assuring Sylvie I wouldn't be using the Carlysle to do anything, while also not going overboard and tipping her off that I was actually planning something, just not with my ship.

"Everyone try to get some rest then," Sylvie said, "so you'll be ready to go once we have a plan."

That night, I turned off the lights in the guest room at the Citadel that I was staying in, then waited quite a while to make sure I didn't hear any noises anywhere else in the Citadel. I peeked under the door to make sure no one was stationed outside making sure I didn't go rogue. I didn't hear or see anyone. Man, I must have put on a more convincing performance earlier than I thought.

I slung my ammo bag over my shoulder. Sadly, no swords would be coming with me this time. I had succeeded in blowing my way through the handle of Thanos' blade, but using the halves of it to carve each other up was proving more time-consuming than I had expected. How that giant samurai robot was able to chop off Wolverine's claws so easily, I will never know. Then again, that blade was heated; maybe I should take some inspiration from that. Either way, guns only it was.

Next I cracked open the bedroom door, which I had given a generous coating of WD-40 earlier in the day.

And I froze in mid-step.

Across the hall from me, Harley was easing her door shut. She froze too when she saw me.

"What are you doing?" I whispered.

"What are you doing?" she countered.

"I asked you first."

"Going to take down the Machine City. You?"

"Going to take down the Machine City."

"Alone?"

"Well, so were you!"

"I have a plan, though."

"Yeah, well I have a plan too."

"Let's hear it."

"Use the TemPad I stashed in my room a while back to recruit people from across the multiverse to help me go in there and destroy all the Sentinels and the planegate. You?"

"Use the TemPad I hid in my room a while ago to recruit some folks to help me go in there and destroy all the Sentinels and the planegate."

Damn. Every time I think we can't get more alike….

"Okay," I said. "Well…hear me out on this. What if we both recruit some people, people who will support us in this venture unlike the other Guardians of the Multiverse, and form our own team from them? Our own team that we co-lead, and use to destroy the planegate and the Machine City."

"I like where this is going," Harley replied. "But who are you thinking? I need guarantees you're not thinking Batman."

"God no, not Batman. I'm thinking more the bounty hunter/assassin type. Those who'll go in, help us, no questions asked. Maybe Geralt of Rivia, Cad Bane…John Wick owes me a favor, so him too."

"How does John Wick owe you a favor?"

"Not important."

"And also, you realize bounty hunters are gonna want money for this job, right?"

"Well, I happen to be a very rich man. Thing is, nobody knows it, which makes being rich even better. Offshore accounts. Bet you can't guess how I fill them."

"Drain the bank accounts of all the bad guys you kill?"

…? "Goddammit, you are smart. How the #$&% did you guess that?"

"Only 'cause I did the same thing with Robin. Swiped his college savings and bought myself a Lambo. She served me well until I wrecked her trying to get away from the GCPD."

Wow. That is simultaneously really dark and really ingenious. "Okay, your turn. Who do you have planned?"

"The Birds of Prey. Maybe Punisher too, I've heard some good things about him in the few months I've been here."

"Okay, you got Batman as your nonnegotiable; Punisher's mine. He's got no superpowers, and he's no fun to be around. For #$&%'s sake, there's a whole subreddit that I may or may not have started of people who call him Frank Asshole."

"Well, if you did start it, I would say that's pretty amusing, but since I don't know if you started it, I'm withholding any praise."

"That's fine. There's a whole other subreddit for praising me."

"And it actually has members?"

"…Me and Dopinder, but that's enough for me."

"Well, if we're gonna do this, we'd better get going. The longer we stand here talking, the greater the risk someone's gonna hear us."

"Agreed."

"Oh, and did you get those swords of yours made?"

"Sadly, no; adamantium is far more durable than I thought it would be, and so it is taking a while to slice through it. But at least I have my handy dandy trusty ammo bag, so I still feel well-armed going in."

Harley began changing the settings on her TemPad. "Okay, let's both, after we've recruited everyone, come back to the Citadel at this exact moment. We don't want to be gone any longer than necessary."

"Makes sense." I set my TemPad too. First destination: Sacred Timeline, New Asgard. Last I knew, that was where Geralt had holed up since the Shuma-Gorath incident. Well, it wouldn't be the Sacred Timeline for long, since me traveling there and bringing Geralt back to the Citadel would make another branch, but…whatever. Are there really definitive rules about what makes a new timeline, because this all seems a bit murky to me. Harley and I going back in time to the Avengers Compound Battle made a branch, but transporting a bunch of multiversal refugees to the Sacred Timeline didn't? Hmm. I sense some shenanigans and/or plot armor is afoot.

"Well, see you in a little bit," Harley said. "Ready?"

I finished setting up my TemPad. "Ready."

We opened both devices at the same time and entered the portals they created. So we've got the Watcher's Guardians of the Multiverse, Sylvie's Guardians of the Multiverse, and now…whatever team this'll be. All I know is it's not gonna be more goddamn Guardians of the Multiverse.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed it! Please R&R, it makes my day to get a review! And if you have any suggestions or requests for universes/characters to be included in the story, let me know and I'll see if I can work them in!