Ah, battles between dimensional counterparts. What could be more fun?
DISCLAIMER: I own Derrick Bolris and, subsequently, Zombie Derrick. The Misfitverse this fanfic takes place in belongs to Red Witch, the characters of G.I. Joe belong to Hasbro, and everything else belongs to Marvel.
Chapter 8: Runaways VS Zombie Runaways
"So how do we keep ourselves from being turned into zombies?!" Karolina cried as she blasted her zombie counterpart in the chest.
"Just don't let them scratch you!" Nico ordered as she struck her own zombie counterpart on the head with the Staff of One. "Or was that bite you? I never could keep that straight."
Zombie Chase roared as he charged Gert and Old Lace, but the dinosaur struck the zombie in the chest with her tail. Since nothing happened to Old Lace (and therefore Gert, via the psychic link they shared), it was apparent that touching the zombies would bring no harm. At least, as long as the zombies' feral instincts did not allow for scratching or biting.
Both the Mollys confronted each other. Molly punched Zombie Molly in the stomach, sending the little girl soaring through the air. Derrick, however, had other problems.
"Uh, guys?" the electrokinetic mutant said as Zombie Derrick charged for him. "I don't have anything to drain from, so I'm kind of out of options!"
"Need a hand?" Chase said, sending a fist of flame at Zombie Derrick. "Or maybe a flaming one?"
"Chase, stop with the fire jokes before you turn into Pyro from the Misfits," Derrick warned. "If that happens, then we'll all die."
"Uh, little problem, everyone," Nico said, backing away from the recovering Zombie Runaways. "These guys are tougher than they look."
"Yeah, figured," Chase said. "That's how zombies are. The horror movies were right."
"Anything from those horror movies that can actually keep a zombie down permanently?" Gert asked.
"Stuff we don't have," Chase answered.
"I wanna go home!" Molly cried. "These guys are freakin' scary!"
"Agreed," Derrick said. "Nico, can you get us back to our reality?"
"I'll try," Nico said nervously as the Runaways broke into a flat-out run to escape their counterparts. "Not sure how it'll work, though."
She rose the staff into the air.
"Take us back to where we left off!" she cried, and the Runaways—not the Zombie Runaways—all disappeared.
The Zombie Runaways stopped, entirely confused. Was there not fresh meat in front of them mere seconds ago? A noise behind them, a can being kicked, drew their attention to a large boy with a blonde Mohawk.
"Uh, this isn't a good place to be, is it?" asked the non-zombie counterpart of the Misfit named Fred 'the Blob' Dukes.
****
Back in the regular reality, in New York, a battle was in its waning stages. Captain America and his Avengers were waging war against a villain they faced frequently, a villain of their own design.
Ultron.
The imposingly tall and sinister-looking robot stood alone while every last Avenger stared him down. Captain America and Thor were aided by Hawkeye, She-Hulk, Iron Man, another man with orange goggles and a red-and-orange costume, a sixth man with sunglasses and a large red "W" printed on his blue costume, and a red-faced feminine-looking robot with a dominantly green-and-yellow color scheme.
"It's over, Ultron!" Captain America declared. "Now that the Vision is on our side and not yours, you have no chance!"
"That is where you are wrong, Captain America," Ultron droned. "The Avengers shall be terminated."
"I will not serve you," said the Vision, the robotic daughter of Ultron. "I may have been created by you, but Wasp's brain waves and the Avengers themselves have shown me a different path. What you are attempting to do is wrong."
"And we're going to stop it," Hawkeye added, pulling back an arrow in his bow. The arrow fired into Ultron's chest and exploded, thanks to the device attached to the tip, but mere seconds after the arrow detonated, the hole it created repaired itself.
"What?!" Captain America cried, only for Iron Man and Giant Man to let out a pair of small coughs.
"Uh, we may have designed Ultron with some self-repair nanobots," Giant Man said cautiously.
"That knowledge would have helped a little earlier!" Wonder Man cried.
"Well, it didn't occur to us until just now!" Iron Man retorted. "Incoming!"
Iron Man's call came out just in time: a red blast of energy fired from Ultron's palm would very nearly have struck several Avengers. Captain America threw his circular shield at Ultron, which struck the robot in its stomach, but Ultron recovered quickly and tossed the shield back in a similar manner. Giant Man suddenly grew to a colossal size, raising his foot in an attempt to step on the monster he and Iron Man had created, but Ultron used rockets in his feet to fly away and shoot a concussive energy blast into Giant Man's chest, knocking the massive Avenger off-balance and causing him to fall backward.
"It's time to finish this!" Captain America cried, leaping behind Ultron. "Iron Man, now!"
"You got it!" Iron Man cried, firing a massive blue beam of energy from his chest. The beam struck Ultron head-on, and with Captain America behind the robot deflecting any of the blast that came through, Ultron was soon destroyed.
With a large explosion, all that was left was Ultron's head. The head thudded to the ground, and Captain America picked it up.
"And to think you would have been an Avenger," Captain America said as the red in Ultron's eyes and mouth faded into darkness.
He then looked to his Avenger comrades.
"Iron Man," said the leader of the Avengers as he tossed Iron Man the head of Ultron, "take care of Ultron's head."
"Will do," Iron Man nodded before flying away via rockets in his own feet.
Captain America released a heavy sigh. Thor noticed, and the Asgardian Avenger approached his leader.
"What troubles you?" Thor asked. "We have vanquished the villainous Ultron. No innocents were harmed despite the proof of Giant Man's need to make an attempt at a diet."
"I heard that!" Giant Man cried.
"It's just…" Captain America sighed, "I wish we would hear from Michael soon."
"Ah," Thor nodded. "It has been a month since we spoke to him. He is certainly taking a long time to consider."
"That's what worries me," Captain America said. "I'm afraid he'll decline."
"But why?" Thor asked. "He has been offered the highest honor one with superpowers can ever receive!"
"That's not how Michael sees it," Captain America shook his head. "The only thing he sees it as is our attempt to slowly kill him. Tony's been developing a device that can suppress Michael's hunger, but I have doubts that he'll accept it. He's become so used to being a vampire that he can't see any other way of life."
"Have faith, Captain," Thor said, "I am confident Morbius will make the right decision. Now, what say we celebrate our defeat of Ultron?"
"Sorry, Thor," Captain America said, "but we still haven't fixed the hole from the last time you celebrated something. At the very least…don't drink anything."
****
In deep space, a small yellow pod-like craft sliced through the darkness. The craft's occupant looked down at the computer in front of him.
"Majesdanian energy signature detected," the computer beeped. "Location: planet Earth."
The pilot grinned.
"I've finally found you," the pilot said.
And the craft accelerated towards Earth.