InterLUDE: A Quest of Rings
By Xenomorph666
Disclaimer: I own only Perfection and Wraith.
DigitalMan and K2 are © My close friend.
Everything else is copyrighted to their correct owner.
Universe: Spliced-Verse
Dr. Doom and the Planeteer
"Welcome to Latveria my dear." Dr. Doom sat at the head of a long table. "Your friends are safe for now, however I must ask you why you tried to get into my country undetected."
"Why should I tell you, you tyrant." Linka snapped as she sat to hi left.
"Tyrant?" Doom glared at her. "I forgot who you are allies with..."
"You rule with fear and power, you are a tyrant." Linka spat.
"My dear, if you would just answer my..." Doom's eyes glanced to Linka's hands. "I see..." Linka quickly covered up her broken ring. "The Planeteer's rings are broken." He took a sip from a glass of wine. "I will have my Doombots escort you to the temple ruins, no I think I will join you. I wish to see this. However, your friends will remain here until we return."
"What?" Linka asked.
"My dear, you and your friends are a powerful force and the only ones capable of toppling those who really do wish to exploit this world endlessly." Doom said quietly. "I only seek to bring it under a single peaceful rule, not to kill of all it's life, so I'm sure you can see that I do not benefit if I deny you aid. In fact I would only make things worse." Dr. Doom turned to leave.
Linka could hardly believe what she was hearing and her expression relayed that.
"I also understand that our recently acquired territory has your hometown..." Dr. Doom turned to give her a cold stare. "That would make you a Latverian citizen my dear and would not be wise to question Doom."
This time Linka froze in complete fear. She knew this would be a dangerous mission, but if what she heard in his voice was right, she had been threatened by the tyrant. It was not at all what she had expected, no, she had expected him to actually do something with his threat, not just make it. She expected to be choked or something, not just threatened.
"Linka, please follow me." Dr. Doom said calmly.
Linka quickly got out of her seat and followed. She didn't know what he would do to her if she did not cooperate, but she had the feeling that it would not only be unpleasant but also very lethal. She followed Doom to very militaristic garage where a jeep awaited them surrounded by several of his Doombots.
"This should be over quickly." Doom yawned. "Of all the Planeteers you are the most intelligent, I have no doubt you will pass this test."
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Meanwhile in a dungeon lab Stanley was bust bouncing around a rubber containment structure that would not break. Lina was simply chained to a steal ball and Rina and Logan were contained in adamantium cages and Rina was not taking it well.
"LET'S HELP THEM OUT YOU SAID!" Rina kicked the bars. "LET TOAD COVER FOR THEM!" She kicked the bars again. "KEEP LINKA SANE! She tried biting at the bars.
"Calm down kid, I got signal out before we were found. They'll come for us." Logan said confidently.
"Oh yeah..." Ash, who had simply wanted to get away from the mansion was in the back of the cage. "And maybe Mr. Fantastic will grow a pair of wing and sprout a unicorn horn. We're in LATVERIA! Had I known we were coming HERE I would have stayed at the mansion!"
"The walls are closing in!" Stanley bounced around furiously trying to break through.
"Will you shut up!" Rina shouted. "If I could just get my claws around to the lock hole..."
"Don't they're electrified, remember." Logan said reminded her of his earlier attempt.
"I don't care!" Rina snapped. "I can't stand this..." She broke down and began to sob.
"Awww..." Stanley stopped his crazy Mask behavior and warped to his normal self. "Come on Rina, hold it together, who else am I supposed to give heart attacks to by messing with Larry's med gear?"
"You do that?" Rina snapped her head towards Stanely, "Stop messing with his medicine!"
"There we go." Stanley smiled. "Larry and Rina sitting in a tree..." He continued.
"You realise they're only friends, right?" Ash was talking to Logan who was strangely calm. "
Yeah, DM told me after the Scions had a bet about our original universe." Logan sniffed.
"Who won?" Ash asked.
"Apparently no one." Logan said. "They all thought they were going to be a couple."
"That's messed up." Ash laughed.
"Now I have to worry about that shell head though." Logan gritted his teeth.
"No you don't." Ash said, "He's smitten with Mona Lisa."
"Oh thank God." Logan breathed a sigh of relief.
Suddenly a loud explosion shook the castle they were in. Everyone stopped and looked up.
"They're here!" Lina cheered.
"Sounds like..." Logan listened to a series of explosion. "Boom Boom and Multiple..."
"Yup." Ash agreed. "No where's the blue Legolas at?"
"Probably trying to find us." Logan said. "So who do I have to worry about?"
"Hell is I know." Ash shrugged, "She's your daughter."
"Don't remind me." Logan said as he tried to pry Rina away from the bars.
"I will kill you!" Rina shouted to Stanley.
"That kid causes more trouble than the Misfits on a sugar high..." Ash said as he watched Stanley mock Rina with a puppet show.
"There's a pool to see who will set him straight first." Logan smiled.
"Put me down for a Scion." Ash said.
"My money's on Wraith." Logan said.
A few minutes later the Planeteers, Misfits and X-Men came rushing into the dungeon. The Planeteers were obviously not happy, doubly so when they had to restrain Rina from killing Stanley. However they quickly learned where Linka was and that Doom was with her.
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"Here we are..." Dr. Doom said with a strange tone in his voice.
"What is this place?" Linka was in utter awe of the large stone temple before her.
It was made of solid marble, as if cut from the very Earth itself. Above it's main arch were the five symbols of the Planeteers, though Linka only recognized a few. She could hardly believe what she was seeing and could hardly believe that Gaia would let such a beautiful thing fall into the hands of such a dangerous tyrant.
"This is what my scholars have come to call a "Vestige of Gaia", it literally sprouted from the earth a few weeks ago and we have kept it secret since then." Doom lead her to a door and read an inscription on it. "Only one of the chosen may enter, only the master or mistress of the winds." He looked down at Linka and she could feel and evil smile form on his face. "Enter." He grabbed her hand and placed it on the door which crumbled and promptly sucked the two of them into a large void.
Moments later Linka stood back up, Dr. Doom was unconscious nearby. She looked around to see the exit wide open and tried to move towards it, but a powerful wind blew her back against a wall.
"You come to seek what is not yours sorcerer." An odd voice spoke as Dr. Doom came to again, he was promptly pulled back through the opening as soon as he tried to speak. "Now let us begin Wind Mistress..." The voice that spoke did not sound happy.
"Who are you?" Linka demanded.
"I am the winds, I am the very air you breath..." The voice spoke as a mist formed over the ground. In it Linka could barely make out a human like form. "You may call me Ariel..."
"Like from the Tempest." Linka asked cautiously. "Like Puck..."
"Indeed." Ariel said slyly, his words almost coiling like a snake.
Linka pressed herself against the wall. "What is my test?"
"My dear, you are the Mistress of winds, I cannot deny that; however, I do NOT like you..." Ariel said darkly. "I might like the next choice better though..."
Linka suddenly felt a rush as all the air went rushing out of the temple. She even felt the air from her lungs being drug out be force as the mist came closing in on her and she could clearly see the spirit's warped face.
"Today you die at the hands of Ariel." Ariel hissed.
"Come now Ariel..." Another voice called, "You dare to harm your mistress? What manner of sprite are thee?"
"PUCK!" Ariel turned to his at the solid form of a floating form that resembles a jester with long flowing white hair and an innocent smile. "Cousin why doth you interfere?"
Linka watched as the air returned to the room and her lungs. She gasped desperately and quickly wondered why Ariel now spoke in old English.
"Oh come now, you must have sensed it good cousin?" Puck stood upon the earth. "They have awoken in the past, the collisions just have yet to be made."
"You speak on her plane now, why?" Ariel spoke again.
"You really haven't sensed it, have you?" Puck laughed, "Oh the Scions must be loving this..." He turned to Linka, "If you haven't guessed my world is about to fuse right along side of yours."
"NO!" Suddenly Perfection appeared, his aura crackling in anger. "Puck, you cannot be serious, tell me your just joking."
"Why would I joke about that." Puck laughed. "Look at it this way, now you have more people to help fight the Heartless. Plus we are integrating into their world."
"Why does this keep happening?" Perfection threw his arms up in defeat. Then the air started flowing out again and Perfection glanced at Ariel before the spirit was turned into a box of Cracker Jacks which Perfection handed to Linka. "There's a prize in everyone." He said with a wink before vanishing.
"Hmmm, should be fun running into you guys when I'm full integrated." Puck laughed.
Linka cautiously opened the box. "When will that be exactly?"
"Hm..." Puck pulled out a calender, "Before the Misfits interLUEDE, after the Turtles"
"What?" Linka asked.
"Secret of the universe my dear, secret of the universe." Puck smiled as Linka pulled out a shining silver ring with the familiar symbols on them, but they were black. "Hm... needs a spirits blessing. Ariel if I turn you back will you work with her?" The box simply jumped. "Ok then." The box then turned back into Ariel, albeit a much more worried looking one.
"Forgive me my mistress I had no right..." Ariel whimpered. "I shall obey your commands and join with your ring..." With that Ariel vanished and the symbols on the ring became full of color.
"Well then time for me to..." Several explosions interrupted Puck. "...go. Your friends are here."
"Really, I could not tell" Linka said with some dread as Puck vanished. "They are going to love this news."