Reticence Saga

Severed Web

Chapter 9: Return to the Savage Land, Part 4

"Hey, true believers. You might be wondering what your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is doing back in the Savage Land, a place that's overflowing with dinosaurs, deadly plants, and bugs with a taste for humans. Well, to make a long story short, Dr. Connors was kidnapped by Sauron and we followed him here to get him back. But we've run into a lot of unexpected things, like space lizards, pharmacists from another galaxy, and two warring races of pterosaurs and birds. And I don't even know what's happened with Matt yet."


Matt glared as he walked through the ship. They'd let him use the computer, which had allowed him to fill in the blanks. "Least I know where the New York hive went," he muttered, before jumping as a female voice said "BOO!" in a cheerful voice.

Matt found himself clinging to the ceiling, shaking a little. He paused before looking at his hand. "Huh, gecko pads. Neat," he muttered. He tried to let go before finding, to his disappointment, his claws had done most of the gripping...which was found out faster as the roof panel decided to follow him down. "Ow," he rasped from under it before the female pulled it off, her name tag saying Lana.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," he was saying rapidly, helping a dazed Matt up.

"This isn't a good time to be testing my nerve tension," said Matt.

"Ok...Captain Ling says we might have a lead on what's messing with the weather," said Lana.

"Cold spots, right?" asked Matt.

"Flash freezes. Something didn't just let the arctic in. In one place, it shot it to absolute zero," said Lana, showing a picture of, at first, seemed like dinosaur statues in the snow...till he realized they were actual dinosaurs, flash frozen before they could flee.

"There's also the artificial day cycle," said Lana, "We've been having flashes of nighttime during the day. It's messing up the sleep cycles for a lot of animals."

"Meaning there's some sort of generator and it's damaged," muttered Matt.

Lana nodded, "Ling went over the black box. Sensors said we hit something on the way down...hard."

"Well, that would make sense," said Matt, "Volcanic thermal spot or not, this place wouldn't be able to support this much life with the six-month nights in the rest of Antarctica. That something must control the climate here, keeping it like the Mesozoic era's equator."

"And I think I found it," said a male voice, Matt turning to see the bulky reptillain, Ling. "A vast power spike before the flash freeze and other anomalies. Right on the volcano's doorstep," he said, adding calmly, "We're going to go in with the last of our engineers, try and get it working again before it kills everyone."

"Great, all we have to do is walk through the jungle of doubt, the valley of fear, and challenge whatever's guarding the place," said Matt sarcastically.

"One of our shuttles can park us right in front of the facility," said Ling icily.

"Oh, that saves us on the hike," said Matt.

"Yes, I assume you are a good flyer so you'll be our driver," said Ling, shoving a helmet into Matt's claws.

"Of course I am. Who told you otherwise? My sister?" asked Matt.

"Who is your sister by the way? Merchant's guild? Spacefarer guild like you?" said Ling curiously. He'd been fishing for Matt's role since he'd been healing...and Matt knew as soon as he realised who Matt was, he'd snap Matt in two over his knee.

"You wouldn't know her," said Matt, "She changes jobs just to keep away from me."

"Why is that?" asked Ling.

"Because apparently just being near her brings her an unwanted plethora of stress and embarrassment," said Matt.

"I can believe that," said Ling.

Matt looked suspiciously at the armor. It looked dragonlike if you looked at it right, it was definitely streamlined. "What's this?" he asked.

Ling smirked. "Must be a very old ship not to have a pilot tether suit," he said.

Matt felt a little uneasy by the name of the suit. It sounded like he'd have to pilot it from the outside. He jumped as an organic noise, turning to see some sort of bio-organic metal covering Lana, flowing for an organic-looking trio of syringes on a bracelet before there was hardly a join, the featureless face turning to look at him and Lana's voice saying cheerfully. "What?" hands on her hips.

"Uh, it brings out your hips," said Matt.

"Aw, cutie." said Lana, Matt finally noticing a slight change to her voice.

"Right, uh, I probably ought to be getting ready," said Matt. Matt nodded, turning and walking into the suited-up Ling...well...looked up at him. "Mother," Matt squeaked to himself.

"Don't think I haven't noticed what's going on," said Ling.

"Noticed what?" yelped Matt nervously. 'Here it comes. Goodbye cruel multiverse. I hope I give him heartburn,' he thought.

"The way you're pulling at that poor girl's heartstrings," said Ling.

"Pulling? I'm not pulling at anything. I didn't even wanna be here," yelped Matt.

Ling's 'helmet' flowed away in a very...symbiote way revealing the reptile behind the suit before he sniffed. "Is that why you've used 30 gallons on cold showers these last few days?" he said in amusement.

"I happen to like cold showers," said Matt.

"Pull another one," said Ling dismissively, "You shouldn't be toying with her like that."

Matt gulped. He had been getting...feelings for her and he knew what that meant: the infected virus was at work again. "I have someone else, waiting for me at home," he finally said, another half-truth to cover his identity. Sometimes thinking of Kala was all that was keeping him from snapping.

"Then why haven't you told her?" asked Ling.

"I'm pretty sure I've already have," said Matt.

"Ah, a sore subject. My apologies," said Ling, before saying, "Go, suit up, we leave shortly...and either let my daughter down gently or choose her."

"She...you..." stuttered Matt, his brain not quite keeping up.

"Just report to the launch bay," snapped Ling.

Matt jumped to attention till Ling was gone, Matt looked down at the helmet. "Urgh...I'm gonna regret this," he said, slipping it on before yelping as the helmet shrunk to be neck tight. "Too tight, too tight!" yelped Matt, worried he was about to be strangled by his own helmet.

Suddenly, a slithering feeling was felt over his scales, Matt looking down to see the same material, in blue, flowing down his arms, a faint sizzle indicating it was burning his clothes away. "Well, that's gonna make things a little awkward later," said Matt. To his relief, the armor still felt like clothing, before two sharp pains were felt at his shoulders.

"Hey, leave those wings allow," said Matt, "I don't want to relearn how to fly again." He growled at that, looking back to see the same sludge covering his wings, sharpening them as well before he started to get a thinner frame too. "This better not mess up my flying when I turn back," muttered Matt.

It seemed to be winding down, a final tingling in his brain felt, new knowledge flowing in, about how to pilot any ship, the presence pausing before repeating the safe landing procedures a few times... "You sound just like my flight instructor," said Matt in an annoyed tone.

There was a sting at that, senses of duty, visions of a planet he'd certainly never been too but he assumed was Lana's homeworld before pictures of Lana, her smiling kindly at him. "I don't need to know that. Really, I don't need that," grumbled Matt.

The presence didn't seem to care, pushing the memories in harder, till Matt was forced to his hands and knees...and it stopped. Korono blinked, he'd sue the spacefarer guild for this mess. "This better not too long," said Korono, "The prehistoric pizazz is really wearing off."


The small shuttle was shaped like a manta, skimming silently over the trees. "Impressive thing...handles like a dream," said Korono, sat in the pilot's seat. The view was soon soured when several large mosquitoes and dragonflies splattered on the windshield.

"Easy, kid," laughed one of the troopers from the back, wearing the same tether suit as Ling, Lana walking in and sitting in the co-pilot's seat.

"So, least you're a good pilot. Tether suit woulda rejected you otherwise," she said cheerfully, her helmet peeled away.

"Why is that always a surprise for everyone?" asked Korono, slightly annoyed.

"Tether suits aren't usually used in the guilds," said Lana, leaning into his shoulder, "These suits come with a lot of features: enhanced strength, sharper response times..."

"Yeah...I kinda prefer my own abilities," said Korono, steering past a flock of pterodactyls, keeping his eyes on the 'road'.

"Everyone could use some improvement," said Ling in a meaningful tone.

Korono glared and shut the cockpit door. "Lana...I...I know it seems I've shown interest," began Korono, delving into his memories and finding gaps, important ones but gaps.

"But...?" asked Lana.

"I...I can;t remember," said Korono, a few flashes seen.

"Then calm down. Dad's a good judge of a person," said Lana.

"But I know I'm forgetting something important," said Korono.

"If it was, you wouldn't have forgotten it," said Lana kindly

"I don't believe that. I just feel like something's glossed over the important stuff," said Korono.

"Maybe it's just fate's way of saying you need to let go," said Lana.

"Maybe I..." began Korono.


"Shit! Everyone, we're landing here. Don't get up," he yelled, hitting the eject buttons, each seat sealing into a pod around blurred figures before dropping through the bottom of the ship he was on. He turned back to see several craft shooting past him. "Dammit," he muttered, steering to the side.


"Korono? Korono? FATHER!" called Lana, before Korono, a blank look on his face banked hard.

"What is going on here?" snapped Ling, getting halfway through the doorway before he was thrown to the side.

"Something's wrong with him!" snapped Lana, shaking Korono again, "Korono, wake up."


"That's most of them..." muttered Matt, looking down to see a group under fire. "One more thing," he muttered, steering his ship into a strafing run...


"By the ancestors, he's put us in a death dive" snapped one of Lings men.

"Perfect time for a PTSD fit," snarled Ling, "Get him away from the controls!"

Lana tried to pry Korono's hands loose only for him to turn to look at , two glowing white eyes before she was backhanded into the others knocking them down.

"If he doesn't snap out of it, he'll nosedive straight into the ground," snapped Ling, "Get him away from the controls, disable them, do something!"

"Too late! Brace!" yelled another trooper.


The ship curved up, but its wings clipped the tree's spinning it and sending it into a roll across the ground before sliding to a slow stop. There was a long moment of silent which was ended when Ling said, "Lana, if you really think this Korono is mating material, then you are overdue a head examination."

Lana checked. "It's the suit. It registered huge cerebral trauma, mental trauma. It tried to heal him with a memory reply," she said in a low voice, looking at her own suit's readings, "Damn...faulty crap, get it off him."

"Not me," said one of the Navaki, "He'll throw me through a wall."

Lana sighed and said, "Find I'll do it."

The suit gently melted away, to show a winged reptilian, Ling's eyes widening before he aimed his left arm, which terminated in a plasma blaster. "Lana, move away," he snapped.

"Father, I can explain," said Lana.

"Explain what? That's the Banisher, bane of all Navaki," snapped Ling, his men aiming too.

"Do you really think the Banisher would be this..." started Lana, pausing as she tried to find the right word.

"Underwhelming?" suggested one of the Navaki.

"Well I would have chosen another word," blushed Lana, Ling sighing and covering his face.

"Lana, please tell me you didn't know he was the Banisher before you had your crush," said Ling.

"I plead the 5th," said Lana, Ling's men sniggering.

"I'm not sure whether this shows appallingly bad taste or suicidal lack of fear," said Ling.

"He's fine. He was a perfect gentleman," said Lana defensively.

"He is the Banisher," said Ling, "You were flirting with destruction incarnate itself."

"FATHER!" snapped Lana in such a tone even Ling tensed up. "You told me that the Banisher was a load of shtako and that actions make the Navaki...and if you kill him, I'll never speak to you again," she snapped, pointing her snout in the air in a huff.

"You really think that old threat will work on me?" asked Ling hotly. There was a long pause before he said irritably, "I hate it when you use 'never speaking to you again' threat."

"He's perfectly harmless," said Lana, checking Korono's pulse and scanning him. "But he's out cold and before anyone suggests we should leave him behind...having a god at our backs might help," she teased.

"He probably could destroy anything that tries to kill us," said one Navaki.

"Then it's agreed," said Lana smugly.

"Fine, but you're not the one who'll be carrying him," said Ling.

"Why not?" asked Lana, offended.

"For starters, he hasn't got a stitch of material on him," said Ling.

Lana made an 'Eeep' noise and turned the tether suit back on at that, turning off its VI after a second or two.

"Secondly, you're not to be anywhere near him until I can assess his intentions myself," said Ling.

"Sir, if I may, we don't have time. These surges are getting worse," said one of the troopers.

"And we're going to have to walk the rest of the way," said Ling, giving the unconscious Korono an annoyed look.

"Then we should stop arguing," smiled Lana


The trek to the Climate Control Center was not a safe one, though what was a safe path through the Savage Land? Though the Navaki were a little on edge when they passed close to Sauron's keep.

"Ok, we go silent. We did scans from orbit on that place. We'll be swarmed," Ling muttered.

One guard was dragging Korono along on a makeshift drag stretcher, before said guard suggested "We could use this dead weight as a distraction."

"Father..." said Lana warningly.

"Private, you're on guard duty for a few weeks," warned Ling, a few grumbles heard before an explosion made them all jump.

"What was that?" asked a Navaki.

"Sounds like Sauron's engaged in battle," said Ling, "Which means he'll be too occupied to notice us."

"Must be some battle," said the Navaki.


It was a rather big battle, a battle of dominance. Though not the kind they were probably thinking of. "I don't care if you are to be my queen, you ask my permission before you start redecorating!" snapped Sauron.

"This place is primitive. I found a solar generator in the lab and repurposed a monitor to get TV...so what?" snapped Chloe, her claws crackling.

"This is my lair! I had it just the way I liked it!" snapped Sauron.

"And this is my room. Am I to be some trophy queen?" snapped Chloe.

"You are to ask my permission for any changes!" snapped Sauron.

"I'll decorate my room how I like," sulked Chloe.

"Only if it meets my approval," snapped Sauron.

"NO! MY ROOM, MY RULES!" snapped Chloe, an arc of lightning from her hitting the generator which began glowing. "Uh oh," said Chloe.


There was one more explosion before things went silent.


It was a sign they were getting closer when the pools they were passing had steam rising out of them. "Heat's rising...feels like home," said one of the Navaki troopers cheerfully.

"I could certain use a warm bath," said Lana.

"You have a patient," said Ling coldly, the group walking through a path of rocks, before realising the wildlife had gone silent.

"The animals don't avoid the hot springs, do they?" asked Lana.

"No..." said a guard before going limp, a primitive axe in his back. After a few seconds, the guard said, "That's going to cause an annoying ache tomorrow."

The troopers turned to see several anthro raptors howling at them from cover. It was strange...usually primitives like these would charge.

"What's got them in an uproar?" asked one Navaki.

"Besides us?" asked another.

A second later, a strafe of blue bolts incinerated the raptors, several hovercrafts shooting overhead. "Them?" suggested Lana

The hovercraft looked Chitauri, but as they came down to land, it was clear that the riders were more Navaki. The ones that were the reason they were here in the first place. "Of all the times to run into those religious nutcases," grumbled Ling.

"Captain Ling, the priests have told us to give you a chance to make the right decision," called their leader, walking towards the group.

"And what do you throwbacks want?" asked Lana.

"What the scriptures say," said the trooper. Lana noticing Korono twitching at that, as the traitor continued, "These...apes should be part of our family or serving us."

"That became forbidden for a reason," said Ling.

"Why? The Nova Corp? Weak, a simple drop of our blood in their water and they'd join us," laughed one of the traitors, Korono twitching again, his hands forming into fists.

"We have evolved to be greater than a plague," said Ling.

"Is that your last answer, sir?" said the traiitor, the last word sarcastically.

"Well, actually, I wanted to share a history lesson with you," said Ling.

Lana hissed, "Father, what are you doing?"

"Using their own superstitions against them," whispered Ling.

"KILL THEM!" snapped the traitor leader, a hail of plasma fire shooting out, the guards yelling "RETURN FIRE!" firing back, though one was almost turned to ribbons immediately, another losing his head to a lucky shot.

"Their DNA may be primitive, but their weapons aren't," said Lana.

The last of Ling's men was torn to pieces, before the fire stopped. "Is that all you have, Ling?" laughed a voice before it said, "Well, if you won't turn, maybe your daughter will?" A laser sighted on Lana's arm before a nasty spiked dart hit her.

"I'm already Navaki, you taildraggers," called Lana.

"Oh, this is special. It shows us the light," said a voice, before Lana felt her blood start to burn, spreading out from the dart. Lana gripped her arm, prepared to rip it off to prevent the spread of infection. But she couldn't make her muscles obey, mostly because they were burning with agony. She screamed as the pain grew too high.

Korono's eyes almost immediately shot open, sitting upright. Ling, on reflex, aimed at him before stiffening up. He wasn't a believer in the Banisher...but the concept still terrified him. The 'Banisher' got up calmly, his form shifting to a winged reptilian, more streamlined than a Navaki, his bracelet glowing before opaque crystal armor formed over him before the glowing helmet turned to look at Ling. "Who caused that?" it said in a dark deep voice.

"Those cultists," said Ling, pointing towards the sect troopers.

"Ok...I'm going to kill them. Is that ok?" said the figure darkly, his wings flapping in apparent frustration.

"Be swift about it," said Ling, stepping back.

The figure turned to look at the shaking Lana. "Restrain her if you have sense. I'm not in the mood for swift."


"Be ready to welcome our new sister when she emerges," snapped the priest leading the group, a crackle heard as a figure jumped onto the boulder being used as cover.

"Hey, I think that's he-" began one guiard before a blue beam passed over him, a few faint wisps seen as the beam ended. The guard wasn't concerned. He should...heal...swiftly... However, when the mist faded, all that remained was a puddle of melted gun.

"My lord?" said one guard nervously as the figure spread a pair of batlike wings and jumped down, walking towards them.

"I'm warning you now. I've had a bad day...and a worse week and I really hoped after the scythe thing I'd never see you guys again," it said darkly, its claws glowing blue.

"It cannot be," said the priest in fear and awe.

"Why do you always come back? Do I have a big neon sign on me that says, 'Piss Matt Off'?" snapped the figure.

"Open fire!" yelled the priest in a panic.

Ther guards complied, a hail of blue plasma bolts shooting out, only for the blasts to hover in place around him. "Oh...it's so nice to meet people idiotic enough to shoot me with cake," laughed the figure, a few shots that hit him being absorbed like water into a sponge. "Ok...who darted the nice medic?" it said, ignoring the continued fire as he scanned the crowd before focussing on the rifle in the priest's hand. "Oooooh...naughty," he smirked...well the helmet did. "Let's see how you like it when your victims fire back," said the figure before his hands started glowing blue.

The Navaki began firing rapidly, more shots missing before the figure charged into their midst, his glowing claws slicing them apart like hot knives through butter. While Navaki could regenerate quickly from wounds, the slices were superheated by plasma, burning away the cells before they could regenerate.

Ling looked up from his suffering daughter to stare in horror. It was some sickening dance, one known only to the attacker. The traitors would try to fight back but the Banisher never seemed to be where they wanted and always where he needed to be. The battle was quick, deadly and efficient.

Korono blasted the remains with fire plasma to make sure they burned. "They're not coming back," said Korono, "Now how do we treat Lana?"

"I don't know. It must be how the priests turned most of the crew," said Ling warily, backing up as Korono pushed some runes on his armor, the helmet's eyes bathing her in light.

"She's infected," he said finally.

"With the old strain," growled Ling, "Those throwbacks want to drag us all to the same savage level as them."

Korono turned the featureless helmet to look at him. "I might have a way...a kill or cure..."

Ling snarled but he said, "Killing would be a mercy than letting her become one of them. But it had better cure her."

Korono nodded before taking a syringe from Lana's gear and drawing some blood, before injecting Lana's arm.

"You might want to stand back," said Korono, "Whatever is going to happen, it'll be explosive."

Lana's eyes shot open at that, arching her back and screaming. Smoke started coming out of her body as glowing cracks appeared in her skin.

Ling glared, grabbing Korono. "You've killed her" he snarled, aiming a slash.

"She's not dead yet," said Korono, "It's literally burning out her infection right now."

Ling glared behind him before snapping, "No it's not", pulling Korono to look to see Lana's horns growing longer.

"Ok, that's a new twist," said Korono.

Lana's screams however had turned to a few moans...clearly it wasn't painful. "Let's go talk behind the boulder," said Korono with manic cheerfulness, pulling Ling along.

"What is your blood doing to my daughter?" demanded Ling.

"She's getting wings I think," said Korono calmly.

"As in..." started Ling.

"Yep, literal wings. And I'm not certain if her suit can withstand them," said Korono.

The two exchanged looks at that before an organic ripping was heard, followed by the same organic noise the tether suits made when covering. "Her suit's repair, idiot," snapped Ling.

"Oh, that's a relief," said Korono.

"It won't even be my daughter..." snapped Ling, a shadow with wings seen coming round the side of the boulder.

"Oh, don't be so dramatic," said Matt, "Just because she has new limbs doesn't make her any different."

Father? I feel weird..." said Lana's voice.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of," said Ling, "It might take some adjusting, but you'll be fine."

"I know...I feel wonderful," said Lana walking into view, Korono gulping. Her scales had turned a sky blue, some small blobs of water orbiting her, her tether suit missing its lower chest and her leggings shorter, the helmet gone.

"Well, you're acclimating very well. Though I wouldn't have guess to be your-" started Korono before he suddenly found himself leaning very far back, only being held off the ground by Lana. "Element?" finished Korono nervously. "Is there a problem?" he said managing to keep his voice steady.

"Only that I'm the one making the first move," purred Lana.

"Hey, easy, I'm spoken for. Though she has a height issue at the moment," said Korono nervously.

"Lana, this is not going to get you my blessing," said Ling with annoyance.

"Father, shut up," said Lana, not looking before with a wave of her hand, Ling had his head in a water bubble. Korono looked at her, noticing her eyes had a red tint before his eyes narrowed and he said in Avalarian, "Hands off her."

"Why should I?" asked Lana in Avalarian.

Korono glared, pulling out a small dart and shoving it into her bare midriff. "Cause I always keep mental poison on me," he snarled, Lana getting a glazed look, her eyes fading to a sea green. "Good thing I brought the poison that only affects the currently active personality," said Matt.

Lana shook her head, before blinking, though the same sultry smile remained. "Ok, Lana, I've already established I have a girlfriend, so put me down," said Matt. Lana shrugged before kissing him on the snout. Matt pushed Lana away and called, "Ling, get your daughter under control."

They both turned to see Ling trying to get the water off. "Oh crap!" yelped Lana, clicking her new talons and the bubble bursting.

Ling took a deep gasp before spitting out some water. "Lana, you're grounded till next millenia," he roared.

"Dad, it's not that bad," said Lana, "Maybe you should try it."

Korono and Ling snapped "No!"

Korono said, "You were a special case."

"It's not worth the risk," said Ling.

"Yeah, you were lucky. You could have easily melted," said Korono scoldingly.

"We need to keep moving," said Ling, "Those might not be the only cultists around here."

"Well, I guess we can just fly to the CCC now," said Lana.

"No, I'm am not being-ARRGH!" snapped Ling as Lana flew up and grabbed him, Korono/Matt rolling his eyes and flying after them. It only occured later to Matt that he should have given Lana some flying lessons first.


"Ok...what have we learnt, young padawan? KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD! Trees hurt," said Matt, Lana rubbing her head from the aforementioned crash.

"Secondly, always consider your passenger," said Matt, pointing at Ling. Ling was rocking in the corner and muttering to himself.

"Stop whining, Father," said Lana with a grumble, splashing his face.

Ling glared before walking over to Korono and pushing him to a quiet corner. "Ok, first off, what are you? Secondly, Korono's a terrible name, what's your real one?" he snapped.

"It is not a terrible name!" snapped Matt.

"It sounds like your overcompensating for something," said Ling.

"It's still better than Lazard," said Matt.

"That's a popular comic on my homeworld," snapped Ling.

"Huh, go fig," muttered Matt.

"Let's be honest here," said Ling, "Neither of those names are what your parents gave you, is it?"

"My name's Matthew...or Matt for short. And I watched your ancestors slaughter anyone they came across. I'm happy you grew out of that though," said Matt calmly.

"You're really that old?" asked Lana.

"No, but time's passed a lot more for you guys than it has for me," said Matt.

"Yeah...so when does that wear off?" asked Ling.

Matt shrugged, "Most likely permanent."

"Permanent?" snarled Ling.

"Look at it this way: your daughter's adding something useful and unique to your species's genepool. A gift from a god, you might say," said Matt, "That would make her pretty desirable."

Ling glared at that. "You think we're that primitive?" snarled Ling.

Lana laughed, "I don't wanna get rid of it..."

"But Lana, you're-" started Ling.

"Blue? I wouldn't be the only one," said Lana, "My horns are bigger? Not that big. I have wings? I did want to join the pilots' guild when I was younger."

"Look, you won't like the side effects. You tried for a minute to kill your father," snapped Matt harshly.

"You already took care of that," said Lana.

Matt sighed and muttered, "They ought to make pamphlets about the downsides of this. You could hurt people easily. It's a dangerous life...and...other people might want to get you."

"Who?" asked Lana.

"Oh, let me think, about every mad biologist who would vivisect you to find out what made you tick," said Matt, "I know there are a lot of them in this universe."

"I'll defeat them all, love," said Lana.

Matt facepalmed. "For the third time...accounted for. What would happen if the..." Matt paused and muttered himself, "Oh, what do they have here?" Speaking louder, he said, "What if the Kree found out about your abilities and decided they wanted to run experiments?"

He twitched as his armor wristcomp said, "Kree infantry is inferior to Atlantean technology."

'Shut up, they don't know that,' thought Matt.

"She does not have Atlantean technology," said the wristcomp, before he snapped at Lana, "The Kree will rip the galaxy apart for someone like you."

"That I can believe," said Ling, "I've seen what the Kree have done to expand their knowledge of genetic engineering to compensate for their evolutionary stagnation."

"I don't know what I can do to cure her. My blood's suppressing the infection. If it's removed…" said Matt gloomily.

"That's for the future to worry about," said Lana, "Right now, we need to get the CCC repaired before the Savage Land becomes a frozen waste."

"Agreed, let me take the lead," said Matt, looking at their location, a smoking volcano. Though they were close to their destination, it did not feel as hot as it should. There were pockets of coolness here, marked by small clouds of mist floating around.

"This is not normal..." muttered Matt, taking off to get a good look...and a red bolt to explode against him. "Hey!" snapped Matt, more annoyed that startled.

Another shell knocked him out the sky, as the dry trees ahead collapsed as two bulky tanks rolled forward, white armored humanoids beside them and a few bipedal mechanoids. "Oh no, not the EGIS," moaned Matt.

"Three targets, FIRE!" yelled one of them, the two tanks and the troopers firing a hail of weapons fire.

Lana and Ling quickly took cover. Lana tried to draw in some water but couldn't find any. "Duh, we're next to an active volcano," she muttered, "Of course there would be no water."

A second later, the boulder they were behind was blown to rubble, a large bipedal mech pointing weapons at them. "Move and die," its pilot said.

Lana tried to conjure up a shield but produced nothing.


Matt glared, firing a plasma beam into one of the tanks, only for the beam to leave a faint scorch. The other tank said, via speaker, "Land and surrender or we take out your team."

"They can't be taken out that easily," said Matt.

He turned to see a battlesuit aiming at them. "Urgh...green as grass," he muttered landing slowly, the troopers surrounding him.

"We can get some payback for Balwak," one of them sneered.

"You're still sore about that?" asked Matt, "That was ages ago."

"Lynch, I think they're just happy about the bounty. Stand down," said a voice, Matt turning to see an anthro falcon wearing a glowing gem.

"Ugh, you again," said Matt with annoyance.

"Mr. Lynch, I am surprised you are here, given your lack of favor with the council," said the Operative calmly.

"Like I put any thought towards the council," said Matt.

"Indeed, McNeil is an annoying prat. I told you to stand down, men," the Operative said, his crystal glowing. The trooper's weapons getting the same glow before being forced into a neutral stance.

"Wait, you're not going to take me prisoner?" asked Matt.

"That depends on the reason you brought a trainee Shar-Khan with you and what appears to be a local," said the Operative calmly.

"I came to do something about the weather," said Matt.

"Ah yes. Doctor Karisa sent my men and I to investigate the same anomaly. It seems we are on the same side for once," said the Operative with a smug smile on his beak.

"I'm so giddy," said Matt sarcastically.

A second later, Ling landed behind the operative, grabbing him in a headlock. "It seems your men don;t take high jumps for a possibility. Tell your men to back down or I'll break your neck like straw," Ling snarled.

Matt snapped "LET HIM GO!" the Operative smiling before his gem glowed again and Ling's wrist made a snapping noise. It was more concerning that Ling's wrist didn't snap back right away and the way he screamed showed that he was just as surprised.

"It's not that hard for me to keep it snapped," said the Operative, Matt hanging his head, as Ling backed off before snarling as the operative pulled out a silver-like blade from his back. "I wouldn't," he warmed in the same calm form, as if this was normal.

"Enough," said Matt, "This is not getting us anywhere."

"Stay back, Mr. Lynch. I know all about infected. In this case, he needs a lesson in the pecking order," warned the Operative, sidestepping Ling's charge, giving a painful shallow cut to Ling's side. "Lesson one: Brute force is not always the ideal path," the Operative said, in the tone of a teacher, a few troopers cheering.

"They're not mindless monsters," said Matt, "They've evolved long past that."

"I guessed that..." said the Operative calmly, Ling glaring and firing a few shots, the Operative using his blade to block each one. "Lesson two: You aren;t the strongest person here," he said, Ling glaring.

Ling snarled before charging straight at the Operative. His target shrugged, spinning out the way and kicking Ling in the back, knocking him into the mud. "So end the lesson, I am in charge here," said the Operative, replacing his sword.

"Great, now we know who the dominant one is," said Matt dryly, "Can we get moving now?"

"We're evacuating," said the Operative calmly.

"Evacuating? We're supposed to be fixing the Climate Control Center," said Matt.

"I had an entire division to control the CCC for our engineers. These are all that's left," said the Operative darkly.

"Their security is that good?" asked Lana.

"No, they're giants," said the Operative.

Matt blinked. "Our last tangle didn't give you brain damage, did it?" asked Matt, before noticing the troopers didn't seem like they were amused. "So, what kind of giants are we talking about? Rock giants? Cyclops? 'Fee fi fo fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman'?" asked Matt.

"Ice elementals. I had 12 tanks at my disposal, now I have 2. I've called for reinforcements, but the lab is in lockdown for some reason," said the Operative.

"Wait a second, frost giants?" asked Matt, "I mean, yes, that's not something you would expect in Antarctica. But not this part of Antarctica."

"Yes, some sort of portal was at the location. We should move on. They're slow and stupid but relentless," said the Operative, before a whistling was heard, an ice spike slamming through one of the tanks.

"Lucky for you, you've got someone who can deal with these living snowmen," said Matt.

"All units, give Mr Lynch some cover," called the Operative as Matt took off.

"Ok, those ice giants shouldn't be too hard to find," said Matt, looking around. It didn't take very long. The localized snowstorm was a dead giveaway. "Gotcha," he muttered, sending a salvo into the cloud.

Unsurprisingly, three ice spikes shot back at Matt. "GAH!" snapped Matt, dodging two and blasting the third, two blasts shooting out into the cloud.

Matt sent a wave of plasma that was more heat than force, intending to get rid of the cloud. The cloud was blasted away to show several white ice creatures. They weren't as armored as Matt was expecting. Though considering they were 10-foot tall warriors made out of blue ice, they probably weren't concerned about being easily hurt.

"Dragon, crush it!" called one of them in a hissing voice, pointing at Matt, who looked behind him on reflex.

"Sorry boys, but the forecast calls for a heatwave," said Matt. The three creatures exchanged a glance before spewing an icy wind, far colder than anything Matt had experienced before. "Ok, that's pretty cold," said Matt. A second blast began to frost his wings, before one of the ice giants charged at him far too quick for something its size. "Ok, these guys are tougher than I imagined," said Matt.

The ice giant had already reached him at that. "You're smaller than the wyrms back home," he sneered, sending an ice blast at Matt.

"But I bet I'm hotter," said Matt, covering his body with plasma. The ice giant reared back, before slashing at Matt. Matt winced a little bit. The frost giant's ice was as sharp as glass.

A second later, a shell slammed into the ice giant's shoulder, the shoulder shattering like...well, ice. The giant itself seemed surprised before there was a shik and part of its head fell away.

"Still think you're a match for them?" asked the Operative in an unamused voice.

"Ah, go chew some birdseed." snapped Matt, sending a blast into the wounded giant, shattering it, the other two backing off.

"The remaining two shouldn't pose a problem," said the Operative

There was a rumble from the volcano at that, Matt sniffing before tackling the Operative, just as the ground he was over flash froze, the 'dead' ice giant reforming.

"This land favors us more than you now, dragon," said the frost giant after his head came back together.

"He's right. All units, fall back," called the Operative.

"But-" started Matt before the Operative grabbed him.

"This is lost. As soon as we're clear, I'm calling in an orbital blast from my cruiser," said the Operative, the men below fleeing, three having to drag Lana along.

"What? That is completely disproportionate to the-" started Matt.

He twitched before slumping, the Operative using his TK to lower him. "Get him on the tank. We're retreating to the edge...and get me a line with the Helakus. I want an orbital blast prepped."

"You can't!" protested Lana.

"Yes, I can. That climate center is going to collapse any day and if those things get a foothold outside this place, the world will be in danger," said the Operative calmly

"But-" started Lana before she was darted with a sedative. "Pull back to the base camp," said the Operative, "We're shipping out in half an hour."


Lana opened her eyes to raised voices, looking around dizzily to see Matt snapping, "You can't just nuke this place from orbit. To say the least of the damage that'd cause if you blew up the south pole..."

"Those frost giants are a threat to this planet if they manage to get a foothold here," said the Operative.

"C'mon, Thor smashes them like they're piñatas. Maybe if you put in more effort, you wouldn't be running," snapped Matt.

"200 of my men are dead at those thing's hands. They need to be removed completely. Those heroes usually only do a half job anyway," snapped the Operative.

"The way I see it, you're not even trying and you're just rage-quitting," said Matt.

"This place is coming apart. We need the remaining time to evacuate the hot lab staff," said the Operative calmly.

"So you're not going to protect this ancient paradise just because you don't live here," said Matt. Just then, one of the troopers ran by screaming with a giant centipede clinging to his back. "Maybe 'paradise' is the wrong word," said Matt.

"So...how would you get past them? They regenerated quite easily," said the operative sarcastically.

"They have some type of home field advantage," said Matt, "Obviously not natural. If it could be removed, they'd melt like snowmen in July."

"I wouldn't be surprised if they damaged the generator. However, they are also easily defending it," said the Operative.

"Well, we still have to try," said Matt, "We owe it to this world."

"So...how will it be done? A foolish frontal assault?" scorned the Operative.

Matt thought it over and said, "I suppose Norse giants don't read Greek mythology, do they?"

"I doubt it, though our research indicates that the mythical creatures here seem to cohabitate," said the Operative.

"So they've probably never heard of Troy," said Matt.


"Urgh...bloody bird cut me head in two. Nothing'll look right for a century," muttered one of the ice giants.

"How much longer do we have to stay in Lizard Land?" complained another ice giant, "This place isn't cooling down fast enough for me."

"Bloody mortal technology...but it's made this place cool enough. Wait till it does the same to the rest of this world," sneered the third.

"A sweltering pit like this doesn't belong in a land of ice and cold," said the second giant.

"And yet we somehow managed to find it thanks to Captain Lost here," said the third giant dryly.

"Oi! Not my fault the bloody Asgardians control all the best paths," snapped the first.

"Wasn't so bad out there," said the second giant, "All those fat little black and white birds."

"I think they're called penguins," said the first.

The third snapped, "Why don't we just smash this thing?"

"Because the explosion will bury us in lava before we could get away," said the first giant.

"I said smash it, not blow it up. We could ice it up," said the third.

"It'd melt first," said the first one.

"Well...least there's no Thor here," said the second.

"I nearly miss Thor," said the third giant, "At least he doesn't stink like this place." There was a crash at that, all three jumping "BY YMIR, IT'S THOR!" the third panicked.

However, instead of another crash, a loud knocking was heard. "You two get it," said the third carefully

The ice giants peered out to see one of the human trucks, a few dozen canisters in the back, white ice-cold steam coming out. "What are those?" asked the second giant, looking at the canisters.

The third reached out and picked up one of them, ice forming on his hand before he opened it, sniffed it, and took a swig. "It's some sorta drink...real cold."

"Must be some sort of offering," said the first giant, "Those mortals realized they couldn't beat us and left this out for us to appease us."

"Nice..." said the second, tossing two other canisters to the others before they walked back in laughing. After a minute or two, several of the canisters wobbled before unscrewing their tops, Matt popping out the first. The worst part of this plan was that they'd had to fill the canister he and the others were in with water to simulate the weight. "Good thing they've never read Ali Baba either," said Matt before looking at the others, "Why aren't you guys wet?"

"Why are you wet?" asked Lana in confusion.

Matt paused before muttering, "Those jerks."

The Operative sliced his way out the last one before saying "Technology like this will have a reboot and self repair. We find control and it's over."

"That simple?" asked Lana.

"Of course there will be heavy defences most likely...and the giants as well," said the Operative.

"Yeah, always are," said Matt.

"My men managed a small sweep before those things appeared. It should be...wait, you're a plasma eater, sense it," snapped the Operative.

"Ok, but it's been a while since I've- Oh, there it is," said Matt, pointing in one direction.

"Lead the way, Banisher," said Ling.


It didn't take long for the rock tunnels to turn to corroded metal...well, probably metal. "Urgh...too much volcano," muttered Matt, turning the corner and being dragged back. "What are you-" started Matt before a hand was clapped over his mouth. It was then Matt heard the deep snoring up ahead.

The group peered around the corner to see several empty liquid nitro canisters, and the three giants sleeping...and several smaller quadruped creatures. "Didn't notice the ice wolves before," whispered Matt.

"Neither did I. Must mean they're sending more things through..." hissed the Operative urgently.

"Ok, can we go around them?" asked Ling.

"With difficulty, but yes. I see two...mighty mean ones prowling," muttered the Operative.

"So keep an eye out for it and let's-" started Lana before jumping and giving a stifled yelp.

The group spun only hearing some skittering claws. "Ok, let's go," said Matt nervously.

"No loud noises," whispered Ling.

The group crept forward, one at a time just in case, towards the door just visible behind the giants, Matt left as last. "Urgh...crush...Midgardians," muttered one giant as Matt went past, before seeing the others...and their horrified faces. He slowly turned to see he was on head height with a lupine face, happily anting before it barked, some dust falling from the ceiling and the giants suddenly jumping. The wolf, to its credit looked panicked, before chomping Matt.

The giants were on their feet by then. "Urgh...bloody runt of a mutt. Got too much midgard blood in it."

"Ugh...my head..." said one giant, "Didn't know the Midgardians made such good drinks."

"Urgh...Turegg's bloody mutt woke us," moaned another.

The third, apparently Turegg, snapped, "Stupid mongrel, why'd you wake us?" The wolf, different from its fellows that it had more icy bluish fur then ice tried to look innocent, even as its cheeks bulged.

"What have you got in your mouth?" asked one giant accusingly.

The wolf made a show of looking behind it for a second before tilting its head as if to say 'Who, me?'

"It better not be my boot again," said Turegg.

The wolf shook its head before chewing. "Ah, leave it, Turegg. It's clearly found someone to eat. Least it's not tryin' to hide em," said the second giant.

"Fine. Stupid mutt got us up over nothing. Lets just go huntin'. Vek, Norik," snapped Turegg, the other two wolves jumping to attention, giving the third smug looks. "C'mon. Let's see if we can find something else besides lizards," said Turegg.

The wolf watched then go before yelping and spitting a frost-covered Matt out, licking him. However, Matt didn't move after being spat out. The wolf tilted its head before grabbing Matt by the leg and dragging him off. It ran to the edge of a glowing pit and picked Matt up proper, hanging him over the lava pool before Matt slowly thawing and what had clearly been the start of a scream finishing. The wolf dropped Matt at the edge of the pool and panted happily, glad to see his new friend was moving again.

"I...I...what...why..." muttered Matt shaking in horror, the wolf happily likcing him. It hadn't had so much fun since its father had taken him to the icy place.

Eventually, the others approached, though staying out of reach of the wolf. It turned to look at them with a happy pant, which went away when it looked at the Operative, carefully moving itself so it was between him and Matt.

"So what just happened?" asked Lana.

"It seems to have imprinted on Mr. Lynch...all we need," muttered the Operative, walking towards Matt only for the ice wolf to shove a growing paw in his way, the wolf growing to be twice their sizes.

"Oh great," muttered Matt, "As if we didn't have enough with the dracowolf, saber cat, and chupacabra."

"He did save you," pointed out Lana.

"I don't suppose I can interest any of you in him," said Matt.

"No," said the others, the wolf shrinking down to a normal canine's size and putting its head as best in Matt's lap as it could, deploying the canine WMD of the 'puppy dog eyes' look.

"Oh, not fair, cut it out!" snapped Matt, covering his eyes. The dog made a sad whine at that, Matt twitching before snapping, "FINE! But no eating the sabretooth kit."

"Can we get on with finding the controls now?" asked the Operative in an annoyed tone.

The wolf growled at him before its ears perked up, running for a tunnel in the cave wall.

"Maybe he knows where to go," said Lana.

"Oh please, it's one of the ice giant's pets," muttered the Operative, as they followed, "I'll eat my hat if it knows."


"Do you want your hat flambeed or turned into a cake?" teased Matt, though the command centre was still a mess. There were sections coated in ice, but the controls themselves were untouched.

"Yeah, they were here..." said Matt, looking at the controls, adding, "Most of this is fried. If Techo was here, we could get this working in an hour."

"We'll have to make due with what we have," said Ling.

"Yeah...how good's your kit, Ling?" said Matt, looking for a hatch.

"Since I often have to repair my ship myself, I would think I'm very decent," said Ling.

"Ok...you're Techo. Fix it." sad Matt, walking to the main door, only for the wolf to drag him back. "Now what?" snapped Matt. The wolf nudged the door open to show several shards of shattered ice in the room beyond. "Huh, what's this all for?" asked Matt.

"Er, they weren't just make ice sculptures in here, were they?" asked Lana as she held up what was clearly a broken-off hand made of ice.

"Good boy," said Matt faintly.

"That looks to be about...four other giants," said Lana, looking at the piles.

"Yeah..." said Matt.

Ling called, "I got something working."

The others came over, the wolf even jumping its front paws up to watch as an image flickered to life, showing a room before a rift opened, 7 ice giants falling out of it, looking around before a pack of the ice wolves, their companion standing out, fell on them before the leader snapped. "This don't look like any Midgard I know..."

"I know it's the right world," said one of the giant.

"You couldn't find your own bed," snapped another giant.

"Hey, I got us out of that Asgard prison, didn't I?" snapped the first one.

"Through dumb luck and shoddy maintenance on the Asgardians' part," snapped the second one.

"Enough. Let's just find out where we are," snapped a third.

"Not a bad place to stay though," said another giant, "If they have food here."

"Spread out. Give it a week and this place'll be a home away from home," smirked the leader before the video looped.

"Well, that explains some things...and why they fried this place," said Matt.

"So what smashed them?" asked Lana.

Matt walked over to the door, picking up a rock and throwing it in, a dozen red beams slicing the rock to gravel. "That'd do it," said Matt.

The wolf whimpered at that, more so when the consoles, part of them, lit up. "Warning: Incursion detected. All sectors. Severe damage to main geothermal systems. Array 1 offline," said a calm female voice.

"Is this the self-repair program?" asked Lana.

"Intruders in main control," said the computer at that.

"That means us, doesn't it?" asked Lana.

"Defences offline," said the computer, a general sigh of relief going around at that.

"Ok, let's start working on restarting this thing," said Matt.

"Automatic self-repair offline. Manual override in geothermal plant. Alert: Climate deterioration at 74%. Estimated time to irreversible damage...8 galactic standard hours," said the computer.

"Not too long in the grand scheme of things," said Ling.

"Well, at least we have plenty of time," said Matt.

"Really? We don't know the layout and the computer will probably try to kill us too," snapped the Operative, before saying, "I'm going to call in the strike..." before the wolf knocked him down.

"Good boy," said Matt, scratching the wolf's head.

"Tie him up," said Ling, picking up some cabling.


"You're all mad. We need to get out of here," snapped the Operative before the wolf licked his beak, said beak freezing shut.

"We're not leaving until the job's done," said Matt, "Unlike you, I don't quit before it's finished." The Operative just glared and struggled a little. "Ok...geothermal plant...anyone have an idea where it would be?"

Lana, who was looking out the window at the front of the room, said weakly "Down?" looking down to a vast center hanging over what was the contents of the volcano.

"I suppose OSHA standards don't apply to ancient aliens," said Matt.

"Nope. I'll need to do this. I'm the only one in a tether suit," said Ling.

"Dad, it's too dangerous," said Lana.

"Anyone else will burn..." said Ling grimly.

"But Matt could do it," said Lana.

"Not really," said Matt, "Being a plasma dragon doesn't protect you from lava. That's a different element."

"Then I will," began Lana, before Ling snapped "You'll fry. I won't allow it."

"I have water powers!" snapped Lana.

"Unless you can summon a lake's worth of water, you're not going to last long at all in a volcano," said Matt. Lana glared and crossed her arms before Matt said, "We'll need to warn interference anyway."

"Pardon?" asked Lana.

"You think those walking ice sculptures are going to let us undo all their work?" asked Matt pointedly, "Look, we need to run interference and you're a rookie."

Lana said, "So were you and you're-" began Lana before shrieking as Matt ripped some of the covering off his mechanical arm.

"A souvenir courtesy of overconfidence. Yeah, it's bad, but it would have been worse if that arm had stayed attached," snarled Matt, "I don't have the advantage of a healing factor like yours." Lana stared in horror at the metal underneath, a few tiny whirs heard as Matt flexed. "You want one too or are you gonna listen?" he said, "And before you say 'that won't happen to me', I do know there are some injuries that your kind can't heal from. I know an Infected who ended up mostly metal. And I'm pretty sure even you can't handle molten lava."

Lana just stared as the fake skin covering regrew. "Now then, Ling, go do your job. We'll handle things up here..."

"If I don't make it back-" started Ling.

Lana stared as Matt said, "Lana'll be fine. I know where she can learn to not accidentally drown things, good people too."

"Good," said Ling with a nod.

"Dad..." began Lana

"Don't worry, Lana," said Ling, "Everything's going to be fine."

"You're lying. You'll get killed," snarled Lana, her eyes getting a red glow.

"Matt..." said Ling.

Matt walked forward, grabbing Lana's arm, "If he doesn't do this, we all die. Everyone in this place dies. Thousands upon thousands."

"It's the only way," said Ling.

"Dad...please," cried Lana, the glow vanishing as she hugged him.

The Operative managed to crack the ice covering off his beak and snapped, "One of you go into that. I have no wish to be incinerated. I swear I'll make sure you go first if you don't...oh God not agai-" he snapped as the wolf breached a mist on him, covering him in frost, apparently freezing him.

"Maybe we could make him do it," said Lana.

"I'd like that, but I don't think we'll be able to convince him," said Matt.

"Dad..." cried Lana, before Matt gently pulled her away.

Ling, his helmet reforming, said, "If you let her get hurt, I will find a way to kill you from beyond the grave, banisher."

"You might be able to pull that off," said Matt.

Ling got up at that, checking a blueprint on the controls, before turning to the others, "Make these ice things pay." The wolf looking surprised before Ling said, "Present company accepted."

"I guess you and me will keep the frost giants busy," said Matt to Lana.

"Uh, I just thought of something," said Lana, "Wouldn't I be at a disadvantage against them? Ice freezes water."

"Water can melt ice too," said Matt, "And ice is another form of water. You could use it against them."

"Ok...you think I can do it?" said Lana nervously.

Matt grinned. "Hey, when I started, I got no training either. Just wing it," he said, before looking at the controls for the intercom. "Calling all sentient ice cubes, your mothers were ice makers," he said, the wolf barking into it too. "Oh, and your pet hangs in his notice," Matt added.

There wasn't an immediate reply to that. "Maybe they didn't get the insults," said Lana.

"Oh, I know what'll get them," said Matt before turning on the intercom, "Asgard rules." There was a collection of distant roars at that. "Always know your enemy's triggers," said Matt sagely, "Ok, there should be a fire sprinkler system that you should be able to access."

He looked around, Lana ding so too before sensing a tingle in the wall. "There..." she said in a faint voice.

"Good, you have a ready supply of the stuff," said Matt.

"And you just generate your own plasma?" asked Ling.

"Yes. Admittedly, I haven't spent a lot of time among tangible-element dragons," said Matt.

He blasted a shot at the wall, revealing an old pipe, Lana's eyes widening hungrily, before she lifted her hand, the pipe creaking before bursting, the water shooting out and into her chest, soaking in like a sponge.

"Just don't damage the system too much," said Matt, "This control center needs to repair itself."

"Screw that, I wanna smash some ice heads," snapped Lana eagerly.

"Right..." said Matt a little worriedly. The ice wolf whimpered a little.

There was a crash at the far end of the trap corridor, the three turning to look before the door iced up and was smashed open. The giants stomped through, looking pretty angry.

"Asgard rules, chuckleheads!" called Matt. The giants roared before throwing ice spears at Matt. Matt yelped at that, before the spears stopped dead in the air, melting into ice water. "Nice one, Lana," muttered Matt.

Lana gasped a bit and icy mist came out of her nostrils. "Taking the cold out of them is hard than it looks," she said.

Matt noticed a few of her scales lighter as well. "Now, I shall demonstrate the fine art of the bitchslap, young padawan," he said, igniting his plasma blade, apparently not noticing the two remaining ice wolves coming at him from behind.

Just then, the ice wolf on their side barked and tackled his purebred brethren. Matt turned, slicing the last wolf's head off neatly. "Hey...my wolves eating your wolf and I killed the other," he called, his eyes glowing and the hidden turrets all blowing at once.

Several shards of ice flew everywhere, but the frost giants were already healing and stomping forwards. "And we have a volunteer," sneered Matt, an aura appearing around him before he flew at the first one. It wasn't quite so easy as Matt. Hitting the frost giant felt like hitting an iceberg. Yes, there were cracks in the icy brute, but Matt's bones were jarred pretty badly.

"Ok...maybe too much bravado. I'm sure we're civil...right?" asked Matt.

The frost giant growled before materializing an ice club and bringing it down on Matt. Matt blasted it with point blank plasma flames before letting the heat go into his fist and punching as deep as he could. "Uncivil it is!" he screamed.

The frost giant splintered at that, but the floor was already coated in ice and it looked like it he was starting to pull himself back together. "No," said Matt darkly, doing another flame blast on the shards.

"They've still got a field advantage," said Ling, "We need to make it hotter."

"Warning...coolant pipe removed...unable to regulate heating in control," said the computer.

"Oops," said Ling.

"No, this is a good thing," said Matt, "Things are going to warm up."

"Crush these wyrms...and that damn mutt!" snapped one of the remaining giants snapped.

Matt blasted at more of the ice, but it was still freezing faster than it was melting. "Lana, a little more aqua please?" called Matt.

A few blasts of water hit one of the giants, only for them to turn to ice immediately. "Heh...nice try," sneered the giant, smashing Matt into Lana.

"Lana, you might want to work on taking out the cold more," said Matt. Lana was looking rather pale, her breathing was a little raspy and there were icicles forming around her lips.

"Lana? That's not a good look for you. Cut the blasts...or find a hot water pipe," Matt yelled, pulling at his collar. The temperature in the control room was rising fast.

"Gotta...keep...going..." gasped Lana, her nostrils starting to ice over.

"It's not working!" snapped Matt, grabbing her and recoiling, the cold low enough to burn.

"Can't...stop..." whispered Lana.

"Bit cold?" said one of the ice giants smugly.

Matt snarled before sending hot plasma at the giants. This time the giants dodged, one sending a white blast of ice at Matt's legs. Unfortunately, this time Matt's legs were frozen to the floor in thick ice.

He struggled a little before looking over at Lana. Lana's head was becoming covered in ice, which was spreading down her back and over her arms.

Matt's eyes blazed as the last was covered, her connection cut. The wolf was punted into the far wall as the giants came in. "Aw...guess she tried too hard," sneered one, looking at Matt who was twitching. Now a sensible villain who knew Matt would treat this as the proverbial smoke from the volcano…these were not sensible giants

Quite quickly, the air was getting filled with steam, the coldness being overridden with heat. "R...raaaa..." began Matt, the giants looking at each other.

"You ok?" asked the first before Matt screamed "RAAAAAGE!" smashed himself free and facehuggered the giant, who fell backwards with a girly scream.

"Oh, get yourself together, Hamut," said the other giant, "He's only a mortal."

"IT'S BITING MY FACE, TERUGG!" Screamed Hamut, Terugg rolling his eyes and walking towards the iced-up dragon.

"Might as well smash this one now," said Terugg. The ice around Lana began to crack at that. "What the-" started Terugg.

A white-scaled arm punched its way out, a snarl heard within. The cracks spread over the ice before bursting off. Lana was noticeably different. There were white scales up to her elbows and knees, icy spikes down her back, and her horns were bigger and looked like they were made out of ice.

"By Ymir's-" began Terugg before he was blasted off his feet.

"Ice giant worm...you think you can beat a dragon?" snapped Lana in a hissing voice.

"You're still just a little pond nymph to me," said Terugg before blasting the dragoness with ice. The blast hit her, only for it to be soaked, up, Lana glowing and growing into a large dragoness that took up most of the spare room.

Matt paused in his savaging of Hamut's face. "Who's casting the shadow?" he asked before looking back. He and Hamut stared at the regal dragoness looming over Terugg, her eyes glowing solid blue. "Well...unexpected," he said.

Hamut saying "Yeah..." before they looked at each other, Matt grinned madly and picked up where he left off.

The water dragon roared, letting out a flood of water from her mouth as she did so. The remaining ice giant just laughed, freezing it as it poured. "Idiot," he taunted.

The dragoness then took a deep breath in, icy mist being pulling into her mouth. The ice giant's reaction was to make a gasping noise, like he couldn't breathe, shrinking as he gasped.

"Huh, never saw that before," said Matt, feeling the heat rising in the room.

The ice giant he was fighting managed to throw him off at that, turning to try to run, sadly attracting Lana's attention. Lana sent a blast of water at him. This time the water didn't freeze and Matt could see the ice starting to melt and crack.

"Lana, stop it! You're gonna kill em!" snapped Matt.

His dazed opponent said, "What did you do then?"

Matt, not missing a beat, said, "Reading you your rights."

Lana paused a moment and asked, "Isn't that the point?"

"No. Khans don't kill. We humiliate, annoy, injure, but we don't kill," said Matt sternly.

"Why not? They were ready to kill us and everyone in the Savage Land," snarled Lana.

"Killing in defence is different from murder. That's a path you don't want," said Matt.

"Why shouldn't I? My father is sacrificing his life because of what they did!" snapped Lana before pausing, "But maybe I can make sure he doesn't have to now."

"Lana, freezing a volcano's beyond even you. You're not lava-proof," snapped Matt.

"I don't have to freeze it," said Lana, "I just need to cool off the surface."

"Lana, that might not be better," said Matt, "The lava pressure..."

Lana spread her wings, smashing the window. "I'm not waiting!" she roared.

"Lana, wait!" yelled Matt before Lana flew out the window, leaving a splash of icy water in her wake.

Matt paused, looking at the water. "Oh shit. Armor, were any of the good doctor's upgraded nanites included?" he asked.

"Yes...39 were detected and are multiplying exponentially."

"Great, bad enough I turned an Infected into a Shar, she's becoming a Shar-Ekta. Chloe will never let me hear the end of this," said Matt. "Tell me there's a heat shield on this," he muttered, jumping out after her.


"Alert...overload imminent..." said the geo-plant reactor computer, Ling wincing as his tether suit adapted to the heat again as he looked through the steam for the override.

"It has to be here," he said, a little weakly. If he were more mammalian, he would be sweating now.

"Warning...reactor overload imminent..." said the reactor computer, Ling seeing several lights.

"Oh thank the Lord," he said, starting to hit switches before the computer said "Code 12...pressure anomaly in main magma chamber."

"Oh, what now?" snapped Ling.

He hit the last switch, the system saying "Override...failure...pressure anomaly has locked overload...transferring to backup reactors. Manual pressure release urgent."

Ling however had staggered back to the entrance to see the lava had fade to a grey, orange cracks glowing. "How is this possible?" he asked.

"Dad...I saved you," said Lana's voice, a white winged lizard landing opposite him, though her form seemed to be rippling.

"Lana?" asked Ling in confusion. The winged lizard looked to be made out of frozen and liquid water. "That damn banisher's curse," Ling snarled before running over to her, "What else did he do? No matter, I'll have the best gene doctors waiting when we return home."

"Dad, I'm fine," said Lana, her voice echoing like it was underwater, "I'm stronger than I was before."

"Look at yourself. You're barely solid...and what happened down there? It looks as stable as the banisher!" snapped Ling, pointing first to her then at the cracking crust before an announcement said "Alert...release pressure...possibility of catastrophic pyroclastic explosion at 53% and rising."

"I was cooling off the volcano," said Lana.

"Blocking a hole doesn't turn off the pressure," said Ling, "It just builds it up."

"Pyroclastic explosion possibility at 62%. Reroute pressure! Reroute pressure!"

"Oh no, what do I do? What do I do?" asked Lana, her form rippling and bubbling.

"Lana, calm down," said Ling, grasping her hands, only for his hands to pass through hers. "Lana, you have to go. I think I can stop this but you have to go..." said Ling kindly.

"No, I can do this!" yelled Lana, part of her tail turning briefly into vapor.

"LANA! LISTEN TO ME! Do you remember the disaster at Mt. Icaru at home? This will be a thousand times worse," snapped Ling angrily.

Lana condensed into a watery version of her normal form. "But I can't lose you," said Lana.

"Lana, as long as you remember someone, they're never truly gone," said Ling kindly.

"But..." bubbled Lana.

"It was meant to be this way, one way or another," said Ling, "Fate can't be overturned."

Ling paused before running back into the generator, the door sealing.

"Father, no!" yelled Lana, forming a wave and splashing against the door before taking ice form and banging on it.

"Emergency venting in progress...please vacate the main chamber," said the AI, several beams hitting the crust, steam shooting out, one hitting Lana's arm. Lana cried out in pain as her arm was evaporated before it regenerated.

Matt yelled from above. "LANA! MOVE IT!"

"But he's in there!" yelled Lana.

"And he's saving everyone!" snapped Matt.

"I won't lose him!" yelled Lana.

"YOU DON'T HAVE A CHOICE!" roared Matt, more steam shooting up, "Water elemental or not, you're not going to survive this close to a volcano. There won't be any vapor of you left."

"No! I'm not go-" began Lana, before Matt shoved a taser grenade in her. Of course, water conducts electricity so it was no surprise to see Lana light up and partially evaporate.

"Dead or alive," muttered Matt, grabbing part of her that was ice and taking off, the wolf jumping on his back as he passed the window.

The piece of ice was slowly growing into a living ice statue shaped like Lana.


"Warning...releasing pressure will result in staff termination...do you wish final base report?" said the computer, Ling programming the last few commands

"Might as well," said Ling.

"Status. Power transferred to secondary reactors. Array two online. Climate stabilizing. All remaining staff have evacuated," said the computer, the floor beginning to shake.

"Then I've done everything I can," said Ling.

"Confirming...plant integrity at 3%...2%...1%..." said the computer calmly, before the walls gave in...


Lana shook herself to consciousness in time to see the volcano erupt. "FATHER, NOOOOOO!" she screamed.

"Hey, careful up there," snapped Matt's voice.

"Put me down!" yelled Lana.

"No, there's nothing you can do," snapped Matt, the wolf growling at her.

"You stopped me from saving him!" yelled Lana.

"There was nothing that could be done," said Matt, "He was going to go out whether you went elemental or not."

"But..." said Lana.

"That lava's hot enough to vaporise...and you nearly made it far worse by rushing in. If he hadn't we'd never have made safe distance and half the Savage Land would be dead and the other half dying!" roared Matt in a tone that make Lana cringe on dragonic reflex.

"Look, I wish there was a way that your dad could have lived, but there just wasn't-" stared Matt before something cold and wet started dripping on his face. "Could you please not cry directly over my head?" asked Matt.

"That's not me," said Lana.

Matt looked up to see the wolf panting in the wind happily. "It's a multiversal law..." muttered Matt, before the dog yelped, Matt looking ahead to see a tree rapidly approaching to say hi.


Several EGIS troopers were waiting for their boss. "You don't think he was blown up, do you?" asked one.

"If he has, I've got 100 credits waiting for me back home," said another trooper.

"No you don't," said the Operative behind them, the two troopers yelping and turning to salute a soot-covered and smoking Operative. "Though it was close," he said, before a 'fwhack' was heard above them. "And that will be Mr. Lynch hitting a tree."

"Has the situation been dealt with, sir?" asked one trooper.

"Yes, it seems this place gets to live. Call in medivac...and make sure Mr. Lynch and his friends are in cuffs," said the Operative.

"We're not taking them to the ship, are we?" asked one trooper nervously. Ships taking Matthew Lynch prisoner tended to explode and/or crash.

"No...we head for the lab and Dr. Karisa can sedate him properly," said the Operative.

A trooper shrugged and said, "Her lab's better than our ship."

"I said call it in..." snapped the Operative.


While Matt and the ice wolf were easily confined, the watery Infected gave the EGIS troopers more trouble. When she was unconscious, it was rather hard to grab someone that literally slipped through your fingers. Being conscious didn't make her agreeable.

"For the last time, get in your damn cell," snapped a guard.

"Maybe we should just use a sponge," said another guard.

Lana solidified for a second and blew a raspberry at them, before drenching them. "Private, get the sponges," said the dripping captain in the tone usually reserved for 'get the thumbscrews'


"All that hassle to bring in a puddle," grumbled one guard, who walked dripping into the ship's bridge.

The Operative snapped, "Not near the controls."

"Sorry, sir," said the guard, "I just can't seem to dry off. Who knew these uniforms could hold so much water?" He pulled off his glove and started wringing a surprisingly large amount of water out of it.

The Operative paused before asking, "How much water?"

"Alot..." said the trooper gloomily. The puddle on the floor bubbled before springing up in a shapely lizard-shaped fountain.

"Urgh," muttered the Operative, walking towards her. "You're still under arrest, young lady," he said.

"I don't have to answer to you," said Lana, "This isn't your planet."

"It's not yours either. We'd have detected your plague from orbit," said the Operative.

"If by 'plague' you mean my stranded crewmembers, I do need to pick them up," said Lana.

"I suppose so. Heroes should get something. Give me the coordinates," said the Operative.

"You must think I'm wet behind the ears," said Lana.

"You are," said the Operative calmly.

"Ok, not my best attempt at water puns," said Lana, "But I know you're only wanting coordinates so you can attack or capture my crewmembers."

"It seems then we leave them undefended to the raptors," said the Operative smugly.

"You know, I hear that adjusting to new environments can awfully hard on your stomachs," said Lana. Suddenly, everyone in the bridge doubled over as their stomach acids did a nauseating twirl. A second later, she regretted it as one of the pilots keeled over, the ship listing.

The Operative snapped, "STOP THIS BEFORE YOU KILL US ALL!"

Lana yelped before grabbing the controls. Lana pulled hard, screaming as the ground got close before it levelled out, a technician taking the controls, before two guards shoved shock batons in Lana's back. Of course, the difference between using a shock grenade and a shock baton was that one was still holding a baton and using it on a water elemental is not safe to do in close quarters.

The Operative side stepped as his men were thrown back before he flicked a small blade into her, it beeped before grey began to spread for it. Lana tried to turn into vapor, but she found it couldn't change her body as the grey spread. "Petrification solution," said the Operative, "Think of it as a tightly compressed bag of cement mix."

"You...I...GAAAH!" snapped Lana, lunging and smashing a guard aside before the Operative neatly dodged her, blasting her in the back.

Lana staggered, but only a small crack appeared in her back. The Operative blasted her again, this time with a sonic blast, Lana yelping. "If you do not surrender, I'll up the charge and shatter you. Prepare for rescue operations at the crashed ship. And put...this in lockup," snapped the Operative when Lana reluctantly raised her hands.

"You sure she'll stay there?" asked a guard.

"Right now, she's as solid as a rock," said the Operative.


The remnants of the ship's crew were happy to see the rescue ships, meaning an easy flight home. "Sir...communique from the ship. They had to deploy BlackStar units to the lab. Some sort of outbreak. Everything seems in order now," said the pilot calmly.

"Good. We already have another potential outbreak on our hands," said the Operative.

"Doctor Karisa and the lab VI confirm the outbreak's no longer viable," said the pilot.

"Unless she can confirm the same for these lizards, I'm not letting my guard down," said the Operative.

"Well, they haven't tried to kill us," said another pilot.

"Lulling us into a false sense of security," said the Operative dismissively.

"Lab in sight, sir...VI confirms outbreak's secure," said a technician at the sensor controls.

"Good, let's get the wounded unloaded," said the Operative.


Matt walked off, feeling utterly exhausted, into the lab. "Urgh...ok, let's get the dissection attempts over with," he called.

"Matt?" Matt looked up to see White Tiger.

"Oh, hey, White Tiger. How have you been?" asked Matt.

"Lost in the jungle, mutagenic wildflowers, prehistoric skunks, the usual," said White Tiger.

"Ok, I-did you say prehistoric skunks?" said Matt in confusion.

"And it turns out their spray makes an effective counter-mutagen. Go figure," said White Tiger.

"Oh...ok, who got mutated? Chloe?" said Matt cheerfully, looking around.

"We...haven't found her yet," said White Tiger.

"Yes, I can't wait to see her," said Matt, forcefully, his eye twitching and his grin getting a little too wide.

Just then, something very large tackled Matt. Looking up, he saw an adult version of Snowbell. "Hi Matt," she said. Matt blinked before Snowbell was tackled, the wolf looking at her with a lupine smile...after all, any friend of his new friend was his too.

"I see your saber cat and raise you one ice wolf," said Matt. The wolf barked at that, looking around before looking at Matt, jumping off a dazed Snowbell.

"So, where's Spider-Man?" asked Matt.

"He and Chris are fine. Apparently, he and Wolf-Bat found out about a conspiracy to turn two native races against each other by turning their leaders into energy vampires," said White Tiger.

Matt blinked. "My God...someone with a weirder life then me... However, I do have the trump card. LANA, COME ON DOWN!" said Matt, calling up the ramp.

"No!" called Lana stubbornly.

"NOW, LANA!" snapped Matt.

"Not until I'm liquid again!" called Lana.

"Liquid?" said Ka-Zar in confusion, Matt glaring before what looked like a sky-blue dragoness walked walked down the ramp.

"Everyone, this is Lana of the Navaki, now a member of the Shar-Ekta," said Matt.

Lana glared and said, "I hate you all." in a low voice.

"She like Hydro-Man?" asked Ka-Zar.

"Who?" asked Matt.

"A villain from the outside who controls water. We have faced him before," said Ka-Zar.

Lana snapped, "I'm not a villain, I'm 18."

"Uh, unless Hydro-Man can turn into ice and vapor, she's not like him," said Matt, "So I guess that means I had the strangest adventure."

"Yeah? Well I have..." White Tiger paused before saying, "Nothing I want to talk about right now."

Matt paused. "Fair enough," he said, looking at Lana, "And you are going straight to Avalar once this is all over for some training."

"Where's Avalar?" asked Lana.

"Not in this universe...I hope," said Matt, "You'll find out."

"Well, I just hope things settle down after Spider-Man gets here," said White Tiger.

Just then, another dropship landed and Spider-Man walked out. "You guys will not believe the day I've had," he said. He paused when he noticed first the adult Snowbell and then the watery Lana. "Oh, you too, huh?" he asked.


Meanwhile, a small group were watching from a ridge, one beating their head on the ground, muttering, "Goddamn Lynch."

"Mr. Floating Potato Head better be right about this place," said Cyber.

"It's an EGIS mobile research zone. It'll have what we need," muttered Omnirus, still beating his head on the ground.

Kala said, "Come on, it's not that bad..." before Omnirus snapped "THEY HAVE AN EXTRA ONE!" pointing at the water Ekta.

"It had to be water," grumbled Leroy.

"Ah, I can take her," said Dark Start, forming a fireball in her hands.

"Don't be cocky. What did I say about Lynch?" snapped Omnirus, the others saying in a bored tone "He has a habit of surviving."

"All I'm saying is this better be the last place," said Cyber, "We've had to look all over the world."

"We'll need a distraction..." said Omnirus.

"Can it go boom?" asked Cyber.

"Yes, it can go boom," said Omnirus.

"Gooood," said Cyber, aiming at one of the empty dropships.


There's another chapter. This one steers rather far off from most Marvel material, even if there are frost giants. The next chapter is going to be mostly in media res and featuring more Marvel material. Keep an eye out for it and please review.