Misfitverse: The Korvac Saga

Disclaimer: "Did I hear someone just take my name in vain?" - Charlie-27, Guardians of the Galaxy

Chapter 24: A Force to Reckon With, Part 1

Gotham City

In the 31st Century, Gotham City still existed. Even though the times had changed, some things about Gotham didn't: It's liking of Gothic architecture, and its propensity for crime.

"Huh...huh...huh..." A pickpocket panted as he raced into an alley, clutching a purse. "Let's see what we got here..." He started rifling through it. "Lipstick...makeup blah blah blah come on! I need credits, man! Although I could give this lipstick to my Aunt Ralph. This is his color."

"If I were your Aunt Ralph, I'd worry about purchasing my own lipstick." A harsh voice growled at the man, making the pickpocket jump.

"Wha-?" He mumbled. He turned around and saw something in the shadows. The sight made him mumble in horror. His face grew pale. "Ohmigod..."

"You made a big mistake committing robbery in my town, punk." The voice growled. The source was an unmistakable silhouette.

"No...no..." The pickpocket mumbled. "You...you're a myth, man. You're a myth! You shouldn't even be alive, man!"

"Oh, but I am alive..." The voice growled. The pickpocket saw a symbol appear in the shadows. A silver stylized bat with a golden border. "I'm very much alive. As long as crime lives...Batman will be around to fight it."

Location Unknown

The red rocket crashed into the planet. It ended up landing in a green grassy field.

Beep. Beep.

A small robot hovered towards the rocket. It was a silver robot with clawed arms and a head that slightly resembled a pair of binoculars. The robot cocked it's head curiously and reached towards the rocket.

Beep SQUAWWWK!

A tentacle erupted from the rocket and attached itself to the robot's head. The robot flailed and squawked as it tried to struggle against the tentacle. After a moment, the squawking and flailing slowed down and then stopped. The robot's optics glowed green. The tentacle released the robot, and then it hovered back the way it came.

Somewhere in space

On board a spaceship, two aliens were sitting in a room, playing three-dimensional chess.

"Come on, Eightyfive!" An orange red-eyed woman complained, throwing her hands up. She had a powerful and muscular, yet curvy frame. Her head was topped by long orange hair, and she wore a black starfield one-piece swimsuit-like costume with matching thigh-high high-heeled boots. Her fingers, with painted red nails, had silver rings around them, as well as around her wrists and upper arms. She was known as Broadside. She could draw strength and durability from a planet's gravitational field. The one she was complaining to, looked up from his gaze at the chess board. "Hurry it up and make your move already! I don't have all day!"

"Take it easy, Broadside. Chess is about patience and strategy." Eightyfive told the orange woman. He looked like a human being, but Eightyfive was actually a mutant member of the Kree race. He was one of the pink Kree, and gifted with mastery of magnetism. He was dressed in a red costume with a blue cape, boots, and gloves. His brown hair was in a mullet, and he had a mustache. Eightyfive got his name from the cell block he was born in, a slave to the blue-skinned Kree. "It's not about charging in, guns a-blazin'."

"Meh." Broadside shrugged. "I prefer laying the smackdown in the new wrestling game, anyway." She heard someone coming down a set of stairs. The source was a severe-looking blue-skinned man. His head was flat on top, and from the sides grew long white hair. His face was flat, not even a nose. His eyes were a solid white in color, and his hands, which had sharp nails were unusual: His hands had five fingers and a thumb each. He was dressed in a dark blue jumpsuit with orange ribbed stripes down the sides, and black boots.

He was known only as Interface. An alien from the planet Uloc, he was superhumanly intelligent and had the power to transmute elements. He also was the leader of Force, a group of mercenaries. Broadside and Eightyfive were members of the group. (1)

"Ah, you are here, good." Interface nodded.

"Let me guess, we got a job." Broadside crossed her arms.

"Your guess is an accurate one, Broadside." Interface confirmed with a nod. "We have been hired by the Skrulls."

"The Skrulls? Why would they hire us?" Eightyfive raised an eyebrow. It was well-known his people and the Skrulls have had a rivalry.

"They wish for us to obtain...an item." Interface explained.

"An item?" Broadside blinked. "What kind of item."

"A very valuable one." Interface explained. "The Skrull Empire has promised to pay us the equivalent of 5 million credits." Broadside and Eightyfive's jaws dropped.

"Five...million?!" They yelped in unison.

"Indeed."

"But...what would they want us to get that is so valuable they would be willing to pay so much?" Eightyfive wondered.

"A...virus." Interface explained.

Avengers Mansion

The Avengers and the Lost Mutants had gathered around the main meeting room of the Mansion.

"This just gets worse and worse." Jhen Walters, the Gammazon, groaned as she put her head in her hands. "Thor's gone, and now poor Monica and Lonna."

"This is getting ridiculous!" Suzi Lee, Kid Razor, grumbled. "Why can't whoever's kidnapping the Legion stick to them, huh? Why are they starting to make us disappear?"

"What I'd like to know is why can't they make these clowns disappear?" Harry Storm, the Tachyon Torch, grumbled, jerking his thumb at the Lost Mutants.

"Screw you, Flamer." Jennifer scowled.

"Clam it, Torch." Commander America

"Uh..." Ray held his hand up nervously. "May I uh..."

"Go ahead." Commander America nodded.

"Thanks!" Ray grinned. The young electrokinetic walked up to the redhaired pyrokinetic.

"What're you doing?" Harry blinked.

WHAM!

The Lost Mutant punched the Torch right across the jaw, knocking him right out of his chair.

"Agh!" Harry rubbed his jaw.

"You know, I could grow to like him." Jennifer grinned at Amara, pointing at Ray. The Nova Roman rolled her eyes.

"Hey thanks, dude!" Ray grinned at the futuristic Sentinel of Liberty, who nodded.

"You are devious, Roge." Randall Pierce, the 31st Century Iron Man, whistled in admiration. Commander America nodded in response. Sam shot Ray a slight prideful smirk.

"Nice one, time-jumper!" Razor grinned, hi-fiving Ray.

"As they say in your century, you have a lot of chutzpah, kid." Harry grumbled as he got up.

"Just be quiet and enjoy your medicine." Jocasta grinned, pushing Harry back down in his seat. The metal woman looked over at Ray and gave him a surreptitious thumbs-up. Ray smirked at her in response.

"Did you see that, Commander?" Harry snapped. "The little punk-!"

"You deserved it. Now keep your opinion to yourself." Commander America ordered sharply.

"Does anybody have any ideas about what happened to our missing comrades?" Randall wondered. "Maybe Count Nefaria took 'em. He's power-hungry monster."

"Who?" The Lost Mutants blinked.

"Count Luchino Nefaria." Sam explained. "Ionic-powered being. Could take on Superman. Needs to regularly feed on ionic energy. Battled the Avengers back in your time."

"He's still battling them today." Randall added. "Being energy, he doesn't age."

"Are there any superheroes from our time besides you that are still around, Sam?" Roberto sighed.

"Uh..." Jocasta raised her hand. "Me?"

"Yeah, but why would Nefaria kidnap Legionnaires?" Jhen frowned. "It's always been the Avengers he's wanted a piece of."

"Maybe to send a message, perhaps?" Jocasta suggested. "The Legionnaires have had skirmishes with him."

"Like that brawl on Galileo City." Harry remembered. "Charlie-27 was furious when he found out about it."

"He was only mad that there was a super-brawl in his hometown and he didn't get to throw a punch or two." Sam chuckled.

"Uh...excuse me?" Dani raised her hand nervously. "Who's Charlie-27? And what's Galileo City?"

"Galileo City is a domed city that is floating within the atmosphere of the planet Jupiter." Jocasta explained. "Charlie-27 is a native of that world. As a Jovian,his body can withstand greater gravitational forces than a normal human. As a result, in Earth-normal gravity, Charlie-27 has great strength and durability. He's a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy, a group of Sol System-based heroes formed during the last Badoon invasion."

"Uhhhh....who..." Roberto blinked, but then shook his head, deciding he didn't want to know. Besides, he'd probably get an answer that told him nothing for timeline-protecting reasons.

"Galileo. As in Galileo Galilei." Haroun realized.

"Yes." Jocasta nodded with a smile. "He discovered Jupiter's four largest moons: Ganymede, Io, Europa, and Callisto. All named after lovers of Zeus in Greek mythology."

"What does that have to do with Jupiter?" Ray blinked.

"The Romans called Zeus Jupiter." Amara explained. "When the Romans adopted the Greek gods as their own, they were given new names. Hermes became Mercury, Athena became Minerva, Aphrodite became Venus, and so on."

"How did the conversation go in this direction?" Commander America blinked.

"Teenage superheroes have a knack for that, Commander." Sam smirked. "You shouldn't be surprised. I've heard Legion conversations go in interesting directions. Their last leadership debate ended up in a huge fight over which girl they liked on that reality show. It was a riot."

"I'm sure it was, but we really must get back on track." Commander America sighed. "Does anyone-!"

BLEEP! BLEEP! BLEEP!

"What was that?" Amara blinked.

"It's a distress signal." Jhen explained. Randall ran towards a console, and he got a fix on the signal.

"It's coming from the planet Klattu." Randall announced.

"Klattu?" Sam blinked. "Oh, God..."

"What is it, Sam?" Dani asked.

"Mainframe. Something bad must be going down if he's in trouble."

"Who's Mainframe?" Doug wondered.

"The system that controls the entire planet Klattu." Sam explained.

"According to the call, he's being invaded." Randall announced. "Something invaded his systems and wreaking havoc. And his sensors have detected Force coming towards him!"

"Force?" Commander America's jaw tightened.

"What the hell would they want with Mainframe?" Harry wondered.

"He needs help, now!" Randall warned.

"If you would like our help..." Marie offered. Commander America frowned.

"I don't know..." The futuristic Star-Spangled Sentinel frowned in concern.

"Commander, I can assure you that these kids can handle themselves." Sam reassured.

"The myths do say they had great adventures and showed great courage during them." Jhen added.

"I don't know." Commander America sighed. "If Force is coming, so is Brahl. That man would kill them in a heartbeat."

"So did Fitzroy." Danielle reminded the 31st Century Sentinel of Liberty. "He was perfectly willing to kill us and he had no remorse for it. The Friends of Humanity would've gladly killed any mutant they saw, so trust us, Commander...we can handle it."

"Who is this Brahl?" Marie enquired.

"Purple guy with the powers of Kitty Pryde." Sam explained. "Real piece of work."

"And I thought the Hellions were the only psychos in this time." Amara snorted.

"You want your ass kicked?" Jennifer scowled.

WHACK! WHACK!

"AGH!" Both girls yelped as Dani whacked them both upside the head. Hard.

"Now is NOT the time!" She snapped. "You two boneheads want to kill each other so bad? Then do it when we get back home!"

"I think it will be quite an interesting experience to work with you instead of against you, Miss Moonstar." Haroun smirked. Dani raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"You don't mind me smacking your teammate upside the head?"

"As you said, it wasn't the time. There are more important matters to be dealt with than our feud at the moment." Haroun answered sagely. Dani smirked.

"You would've made one heck of an X-Man."

"And I could only imagine the Hellions under your command."

"Hey, you two can the lovefest, huh?" Ray joked. "We got butt to kick!"

"Yeah!" Roberto added. "Let's show these future guys how ass is kicked in the 21st Century!"

Well, well, well! Looks like business is picking up! What insanity will happen next? Who is Mainframe? Can our heroes stop whatever is attacking him as well as Force? Will Jennifer and Amara ever be civil? Find out in the next chapter! Suggestions needed badly!

(1) – Force first appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy (Vol.1) #5. They first met the Guardians when they were trying to obtain Captain America's shield, which they believed had magical powers, particularly the ability to give the wielder the power to control minds. When Interface got the shield, he learned the shield was just a shield, and it only inspired people to fight for freedom.