Chapter Two

Connections

In: Washington DC, America

Corvus landed on the roof with a crunch of his boots, as a small bullet fired past him and hit the roof, he fired another boost off his jetpack and left the building behind. The helicopters had quickly became larger versions, either blacked out or in a dark green camoflauge and tailing him on the ground were vans and trucks, some of which had mountained guns on them. Parts of him, his pride, his power and his heritage told him to fight back. More reasonable parts said he couldn't risk some how dying on some desolate world. His legion were out there somewhere, battling the foulest xenos without him.

As he came to the next rooftop he took in his surroundings, vehicles were closing in from every angle. What these people lacked in technology, they made up for in numbers. Corvus knew what their tactic was, they were forcing him east, towards the ocean and away from the taller buildings. He had spotted the place where he would eventually have to land, a dock jutting out into the ocean.

The Primarch spun as he landed, dropping his whip at his feet and slinging his bolter from its slot on the back of his chest piece, held between the wings of his jetpack. It was an Astartes pattern heavy bolter, in his hands a large rifle, it was bigger than the humans chasing him. He readied it and waited.

The people chasing him lined up, crouched in firing lines, vehicles formed up behind them, weapons bearing down on him. The following silence quickly staled the air before Corvus realised. They were waiting for someone. They wanted to take him alive.

In: London, England

Sirius watched the television in his 'Travel Lodge' intently, he'd asked a muggle if he knew a place a tourist could stay and he pointed him in the buildings direction. Every news channel was ablaze with it, a giant man armed to the teeth had appeared hundreds of feet above Washington DC and was being chased across the rooftops by the muggle police and military.

Sirius was only slightly concerned with the chase, the rest of him was more absorbed with how the man had arrived. It didnt look like apparition. Perhaps he had been brought here by the same force that had brought him to a magic-free world. Perhaps he was jumping to conclusions. He shook the doubt from his head, he had one lead, he needed to follow it - get home - save Harry.

He had only been to America once, when he was a lot younger and California was on the other side of the country to Washington DC. He decided apparating there would be presumably easier than getting a muggle passport or enchanting himself a decent broom.

A snap of displaced air and he was on a Californian beach, it was the place he remembered best. He breathed in the warm air and sighed, it was a long way to Washington.

In: The World Station

"What do you plan to do after I cure you Otto?" Victor asked him as he walked into the stations technical workshop. Bits and pieces from his blueprints requirements had been coming in all day and he was hard at work putting it together as quickly as his body would allow.

"Go back to my earth, upgrade my arms, kill Spiderman..." he trailed off. He straightened his glasses and looked up Doctor Doom. "What do you plan on doing here? Have you given up on killing Richards?"

Doctor Doom glared at him for a second, his blood rising at the mention of the name. "No, I haven't." He smiled. "The machine Eobard and I built though? It can pull anything from any multiverse, its more than people, it's power."

"What do you have in mind for this Earth?" He asked curiously.

"This is simply a setting for my ultimate victory, where I will defeat the Fantastic Four. Every Fantastic Four, from every universe." Victor explained, inexplicably, Otto scoffed.

"No offense Victor. But like I and the spider, you dont have the best track record in defeating them. Is that a realistic goal?"

"I have wielded the infinitely gauntlet you insolent-" Victor stopped himself. "I can use the World Station to bring one stone through and that alone would be enough for me to crush all of them." Otto gulped, his eyes had lit up. "You see the beauty of it now don't you? Here you could build the greatest weapons, uninterrupted and encouraged, and use them to kill Spiderman, every Spiderman."

"-the entire Spiderverse-" he muttered, licking his lips. He took a deep breath as if savouring the moment. "I think I would like to extend my stay here and assist you Victor."

In: A Small Town, Texas

Boba knew there was trouble in the air as the old man's car pulled into the town. It was too quiet. The man had given him a pair of jeans a t-shirt and a jacket, all of which were too big for him. He felt more comfortable than he had allowed himself to be in years but drastically unprotected. The old earth dweller had given him a dufflebag to store his armour but that didnt stop him having his wrist mounted laser blaster hidden under the sleeve of his checkered coat.

The man stopped his car on the outskirts when he saw it, a semicircle of vehicles like his own except painted white and covered in red and blue lights. "What's going on?" Boba asked, he saw uniformed men with pistols and rifles taking cover behind them. They were surrounding a pale building thats colour had been bleached away from the sun.

"Probably some fool trying to rob the bank, happens every few months, never works out for 'em, don't know why they bother." He explained, but Boba understood, a job never finished and always stopped, it's practically asking to be stolen from. "This is as far as I'll take you though." He held out a piece of green paper with an old man and the number '20'.

The Bounty Hunter took it slowly, "What is it?"

"Money?" he laughed, as if he had heard some kind of joke. "That should get you a bus into the city. You should head 'round this mess."

"Probably, thank you." The two shaked hands briefly before Boba grabbed his new dufflebag from the backseat and closed the door behind him. He hoped he would be able to repay him at somepoint but he had his priorities set. He needed to build a distress beacon and that would require funds. He looked at the crumpled twenty in his hand and turned to face the bank that was currently being robbed.

In: California, USA

It hadn't taken Sirius long to realise his muggle money was as useless here as his wizard money was back in England. He didn't want to resort to another dog-formed mugging but was full of food and on four legs he could cover decent ground east. He imagined finding somekind of hippogriff on the way there if they were native before he remembered that if the Wizarding World didn't exist then perhaps neither did his earths magical inhabitants. Is this how muggles lived their lives? How quaint. How boring.

He ran then, down the sides of long roads or across patches of rough terrain trying to move as the crow flies as much as possible. It had been nearly an hour since his arrival here and he still panicked over Harry's wellbeing. He would give anything to see him safe. As though speaking of deals with devils could summon them, one appeared.

Red lightning scattered around him loudly, surrounding him with noisy, fracturing light. Sirius turned slowly back into a human, his wand already in front of him but he didn't know what spell to use because he didn't rightfully know what this was. "Hello wizard." A happy voice said behind him.

Turning to face him he saw a man in a yellow jumpsuit with a red lightning bolt emblazoned on its chest. He aimed his wand at him. "I imagime you're the one who brought me here? One of Voldemorts lackeys"

"I wouldn't care to know who that is." He said, grinning. He was suddenly behind him, a flicker of red lightning. It wasn't apparition and it was different to the giant in blacks appearance. As Sirius turned with his wand still raised, he continued. "I just wanted to get a look at you before the drone caught up with you again." His eyes seemed to scan the air around them. "Your teleportation, is it one of your magic things, or is it something else?"

"I'm not telling you a thing." Sirius told him defiantly, "petrificus totalus!" A paralysis hex, the man in yellow was suddenly three meters to the right, avoiding it completely.

He looked at his hands, lightning cracked painfully around his fingers, he winced at them and stared at the wizard. "Tell me what I asked and I'll send you home."

"Its called apparition, every teenage witch and wizard learns it-"

"Is it interdimensional?" He interrupted, seeing the word was lost on Sirius he carried on. "Multiversal? Can you use it to travel to different realities?"

"No." Sirius told him. "Only to places I remember being, but they're not right here."

The man in yellow was clearly disappointed, he sighed at the wizard. "Ah, well, it'll be interesting to see what happens." he turned to leave.

"You said you'd send me home!" Sirius yelled.

"I wouldn't count on that." He laughed. "If you do something interesting perhaps Victor will be willing to make a deal." With a shrug and a flash of red streaking into the distance, he was gone.

Sirius, slightly defeated, lowered his wand as he watched the red dot disappear from sight. He had a lot more questions than he had answers for. He remembered the word drone and suddenly felt like he was being watched. Shifting himself back into a dog he began following the sun as it trailed eastwards across the sky.

On: The Roof Of The Bank, Texas

Boba opened the door to the bank, leaving the duffle bag hidden in the cool stairwell as he crept down the stairs. He knew his plan, to assist in the robbery, using them for their own illicit connections to get the technology he needed. He only had one of his gauntlets equipped, his right one but that in itself had a slew of weapons inside it that he could be more than useful with. Although as soon as he peered into view of the banks main lobby, he realised that he had overestimated the skills of these thieves and the security of this bank.

There were 3 robbers, two with pistols, one with some kind of shotgun, each wore a poor woollen mask with holes cut out for their eyes and mouth. One had an identifiable tattoo next to his eye, one of their boots were untied. The security had been apparently been easily overwhelmed as two sweaty, overweight men lay with their faces to the ground as one the man with shotgun shouted at them whilst their unused tasers sat just out of their reach. The first of the pistol holders emptied the banks trays of money, coins clattered to the ground as he hurried, he was panicking. The final of the robbers stood with a woman in front of him as a shield. He was shouting to the police about how he would kill this woman. What he was doing though was embarassing the name 'hostage taker'. Though he was being serious, unbeknownst to him the pistols safety was on. A plan, a different one, seemed to fall into place in Boba's head.

He kicked in the door with a firm boot and immediately fired the razorwire from his gauntlet at the man with a shotgun, it noosed around its end and Boba easily pulled it from his grip, catching it and usng it as a club against the mans head. Unconscious. He heard a click, the thief just realised the safety was on which creates space between him and the woman as he checks for a misfire. The man with the bag is fumbling for his gun. Fett launches a small tranquiliser dart from a launcher on his gauntlet into the mans chest, who then lets go of the woman. Unconscious. Boba steps between them, catching the man before he drops to the ground, holding him up between him and the final gunman. He hesitates. Boba doesnt. A dart hits him in the side the neck and he immediately drops to the ground with a clatter. Unconscious.

Dropping the sleeping body to the ground with a thump, he looked around, the two guards and a few other people began to crawl to their feet. "That- that was incredible sir, are you with the police?" one of the large security guards said to him.

"No." Boba told him, walking to the sleeping body next to the bag of money and plucking his dart from it.

"T-then, why did you do it?" He asked, confused.

Boba smirked at the pile of money before turning to your him. "Hopefully, for a reward."

On: The Dock, Washington DC

It had been a tense forty minutes until someone of apparent significant importance appeared. Corvus had stood his ground silently, his bolter poised to open fire at a moments notice but those who controlled the land were the same and as more time passed he that saw more and more of them had taken up vantage points around him.

Soon a woman in a black suit appeared, heavily tinted glasses on her face. She walked through the middle of the soldiers as though they were smoke and confidently approached the Primarch. She stopped several meters away from him and there seemed to be a wave of anticipation ripple through the soldiers as Corvus watched them readjust their grip or reaffirm their aim. "My name is Amelia Smith. I'm an agent of the FBI. I have been given permission to talk to you on behalf of our countries leader."

"And does your leader speak for your world?" Corvus replied, untrusting, he hadn't lowered his weapon by a molecule.

"I believe he speaks for a vast portion of the free world." She told him, bravely, she stared up at the lenses of his helmet. "What is your name?"

"My name is Corvus Corax, Primarch of the Raven Guard, Son of the Emperor of Mankind." He told her.

She paused for a second, but only for a second. "I hope you don't take offense that I know none of your titles."

"I do not." Corvus said. "I am far from my legion and perhaps even further from my Fathers light."

"Where are you from?" Amelia asked him.

"I was born on ancient Terra, but raised on the moon Lycaeus." He told her.

"Terra?" She asked, he nodded. "That is Latin for Earth." Breaking eye contact she raised what looked like a miniature dataslate and tapped away at it for a few seconds. Looking back up at him she took a few more steps towards him and held out the device. "If you'd lower your weapon, I think this might interest you."

Corvus's eyes narrowed beneath his helmet and he did turn his weapon away from her as he closed the distance in s few strides. He still eyed the soldiers around him but with his immense gauntlet he took the fragile object from the woman's hand. He looked at it and it wad a geographical map, he assumed of this planet. Things however began to highlight and connect with memories locked within his mind. The Gyptian desert on a much smalle scale, great oceans where there were basins, the mountain range that was levelled for the Emperor's palace to replace. He was staggered. "What year is this?"

"twenty-eighteen." Amelia asked with an edge of confusion, as he slowly handed her the phone back.

Corvus was glad of his helmet becaude his eyes were wide, he was in a frustrating state if fury and confusion. Worse than that perhaps, for the first time since he had been found by the Emperor, he felt vulnerable. "May we speak more privately?"