Author's Note – I do not own any of the characters, Marvel and DC do.
As promised, Saturday evening and new chapter. Enjoy.
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Chapter Four
Doomed?
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Clark Kent applied his thumb-print to the last of the seemingly-endless stream of e-forms and leaned back with a sigh of relief as the holoscreen dissipated. A pair of hands started massaging his shoulders and Clark tilted his head back to smile at his wife.
"Thanks. I can't believe the sheer amount of paperwork that running a team generates. I'll have to ask Charles how he does it."
"I asked him and he uses Cerebro." Mystique laughed. "He's got this huge computer he can control with his brain, so he uses it to do all of his paperwork at the speed of thought."
"That is so not fair." Clark grumbled, earning another laugh. "But at least I'm now up to date on everyth…"
The sudden blaring of a siren cut him off and Clark seemed to sag slightly.
"Why do I tempt fate like that?" He grumbled, then he rose from the chair and pulled Mystique into a bridal carry. "Well, let's see what just happened."
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"Sir." The Chief of Watch snapped off a salute which betrayed his military background. "Two countries have just dropped off the grid, we are re-tasking independent satellites now in order to get a look."
"Which countries?" Clark asked as the door behind him opened to disgorge most of his team while Sedara simply stepped through a small portal from her quarters to the Watch Room.
"North Korea has vanished, leaving what early reports are calling Dinosaur Jungle in it's place." The Chief said, glancing at the datapad in his hand. "Normally, this wouldn't cause too much of a problem given how isolationist and aggressive North Korea can be, but the same thing happened to another country... Latveria."
"What!" Conner gasped. "Father! Sis! Are they…?"
"We don't know." The Chief said almost absently as he paged through the reports. "We have some reports of the North Korean armed forces emplacing metallic structures along their coast and land borders, that might have something to do with it. Nothing about Latveria, but then again, Lord Doom is known to have a very competent counter-intelligence division."
"We'll split into two teams." Clark decided. "T'Challa, you lead one to North Korea. Take… Sedara, Isiah and Kevin. Remember that the Chinese and South Koreans will be starting their investigations as well. Connor, you and Betsy are with me. If it's something your father did, he probably left a message or clue behind and you're the best chance of finding it."
"Understood." Connor said, his face still pale but otherwise composed.
"Sedara, give us a Gate to Latveria, please?"
"Sure thing." Gatekeeper said as a rectangle of light shimmered into view.
"Let's move!" Clark barked as he flew through the portal, ready to face whatever was on the other side.
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"My sensors are picking up traces of what seems to be a dimensional displacement." Black Panther said as he looked around at the jungle which had replaced an entire country. "My scientists have run an analysis and they say that the dimensional shift occurred entirely within the borders of North Korea."
"We're getting the same here as well." Clark said from what had been Latveria. "I've had a couple of deep-drones sent to me and I've deployed them, the effect seems to have gone down almost a mile."
"That is quite deep." T'Challa said as similar data flashed up on his lense HUD, then a wire-frame image flashed into view. "It seems that the underneath is… rounded."
"Same here." Clark confirmed. "The outer mile is rounded, but it's flat further in."
Panther looked around, his lenses highlighting unusual energy readings or places where anomalies were waiting to be investigated.
"I think we may need more people to help search." He said after a long moment.
"I've asked Control to send out requests." Clark replied.
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"Sir?"
Zod looked up from the cat whose fur he was stroking.
"Ah, Kar-Tao. Is there a problem?"
The young Kryptonian landed a few meters away from the Governor-General, his expression one of confusion. "Ummm, sir… what…?"
"I heard quite a few people discussing how their pets helped them to relax, to regain their mental stability." Zod said, scratching lightly between the ears of the cat sprawled across his lap. "I made a deal with a certain zoo owner in New Zealand. We moved his entire park across, quadrupling its size and creating new enclosures closer to the natural environments of the animals in question, plus we placed several Gates where his old park had been in order to improve access and in exchange, Kryptonians are allowed to… adopt one of the cats. Like Lyon here. Once he figured out I was too tough for him to eat, he settled down very nicely."
Kar-Tao looked at the fully-grown lion lion for a long moment.
"Is this a human thing?"
"Sort of." Zod shrugged. "I believe humans have smaller versions, they call them House-cats. They aren't anywhere near as nice to stroke as lions. I believe that Nam-Ek has adopted one of the Ligers, quite apt given that they are hybrids."
Kar-Tao nodded, then slowly pulled out a small datapad.
"Message from the Council, sir…"
As he reached forwards to hand over the pad, Lyon growled slightly, causing him to jolt backwards. Zod chuckled as he watched the Ensign flinch from the quadrupedal predator and Kar-Tao blushed slightly.
"Sorry, sir."
Zod reached out with one hand while rubbing Lyon's ears with the other and Kar-Tao quickly darted forwards to hand over the pad, then retreated.
"Thank you, Ensign." Zod said. "Dismissed."
As Kar-Tao flew back towards New Xan City, Zod activated the pad to see what was important enough that it had been sent via messenger. A moment passed, then he sighed and, careful not to dislodge the lion dozing on his lap, he pulled a small communicator from his belt and activated it.
"Taurus, the Companions of Rao might be needed on Earth. It would seem that the Protectors have a slight problem to deal with… apparently two countries have been stolen."
The eloquent silence from the communicator somehow managed to relay the gobsmacked expression of the New Olympian on the other end of the connection.
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"Superman!"
Clark looked round to where a flying chariot and two airborne figures were approaching. On the lead chariot stood a Minotaur clad in high-tech yet traditionally stylized armor while to his left, a human kept in formation, wearing what looked like a cross between a fighter jet and powered armor. To his right, a Kryptonian floated serenely, mild amusement on his face.
"Tauros!" Clark called in greeting as he flew up to meet the leader of the Companions of Rao. "I see you've finally deployed off-world. Who are your friends?"
"Meet Khan-Tiar and MACH-1." Tauros said, waving at the Kryptonian and human respectively. "MACH-1 uses a special flight rig that lets him… what was it?"
"I can do anything a fighter jet can do in a quarter of the space." The reply came quickly. "I was offered a place with the Companions due to my mechanical skills."
"He helps keep our equipment working." Tauros added. "Anyway, we are here as the Lance of the Companions, ready to aid. The Sword is currently moving to rendez-vous with your people in North Korea while the Axe is moving to Hall of Doors ready to reinforce whoever needs aid."
Superman nodded. "Thank you. How good are your sensor arrays? We're running sensor runs to send data back to Control so that the scientists can work out just what's happened.
"We have military-level sensors, Kryptonian tech." Tauros stated. "I have a full array in my chariot while MACH-1 has a combat array."
"Biological sensors only. Sorry." Khan shrugged.
"So, where do you need us?" Tauros asked.
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"Sword of Rao, reporting for duty." The new arrival said as he landed in front of Black Panther. "My name is Rho-Ghar, second in command of the Companions of Rao. With me are Sphinx from New Olympus and Speed Demon."
The winged cat-girl landed gently, folding her wings as she nodded in greeting even as a man clad in a red-and-black bodysuit blurred to a stop by them.
"…sanders?"
Speed Demon half-turned to see Patriot staring at him.
"You know him?" T'Challa asked and Patriot nodded.
"He used to be on the other side. Went up against Parker a time or two before the kid joined Xavier's people, but generally kept a low profile. Went up against me once. Damned annoying, I couldn't move fast enough to hit him while I was too tough for him to hurt."
"I remember that fight." Sanders mused. "I could have taken you down, but I didn't want to risk having Superman come to investigate. Everyone knows Superman can move as fast as, or faster than, most speedsters. Quicksilver really spread the word around."
"We are optimized for recon and hit-and-fade operations." Rho-ghar supplied. "For this mission, we are placing ourselves under your authority. Where do you want us to start searching?"
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The Chief of Watch looked round as the door opened to admit a trio of people he hadn't ever seen before. Pausing to pass a command to one of the analysts, he strode over to them.
"Are you in charge here?" The woman leading the trio asked. "We're the Axe of Rao, part of the Companions of Rao. I'm Silver, squad leader. With me are Zetes and Lhan-Doe."
The grey-skinned winged New Olympian and the Kryptonian male both nodded as they were introduced.
"We've been sent here to act as a reserve group should the Protectors need help." Silver added.
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Clark landed by the temporary camp and blinked at the sight of several velociraptors being held in a fenced-off enclosure, small stains on the grass showing that they had been fed.
"Ah, Superman." The familiar man by the enclosure waved. "I hope you don't mind, but these beasts are more intelligent than most dogs. I'm hoping to train them so that they can work as guard-creatures and riding steeds."
Clark blinked a couple of times, then his mind pulled up the man's name.
"Hoping to increase the mobility of the Genosha Guardians, Beast-talker?"
The mutant grinned. "You got it. It'll take me a while to overcome their natural blood-lust, but I've done harder things. Once I get them trained up, we'll probably assign some of the Unpowered as their riders."
Clark nodded, then turned to where Connor had stepped out of the newly-erected command tent, an odd expression on his face.
"Clark… my father wants to talk to you…"
Clark's eyebrows shot up and he followed Conner into the control tent, where a hologram of Victor von Doom was being projected.
"Lord Doom, you are well?"
"I am. I apologize for not alerting you earlier, but there was a forty-two percent chance my plan would not work. However, it has and Latveria is now unconstrained by its borders. I now have an entire world to rule."
"You shifted Latveria to another dimension… one where humanity never evolved." Clark realized and Victor gave him an approving nod even as the short, stocky figure of Kim Jong-un joined him.
"I have indeed, and I also took the opportunity to increase the population of my nation… with my daughter's aid."
Conner laughed in realization an instant before Kim's form rippled and lengthened, reforming into Cynthia von Doom.
"Hello, brother. God, it's good to get changed into a more comfortable form."
"Hello, sister." Conner chuckled. "So, replacing the leader of North Korea and using his position to claim the country for Dad was your mission, huh?"
Cynthia smirked.
"Clark, I will need a favor." Doom said soberly. "I have deployed a Gate, through which this signal is being sent, but I would quite appreciate the Gate being relocated to one of the Moonbase Domes."
"Any particular number you want?" Clark offered and Doom stroked his metal-covered chin thoughtfully.
"Not four or five, both numbers are too closely linked to my old rival, Reed Richards. I have had too many run-ins with SHIELD for them to see me as anything other than a threat, so not one of the domes near them. I think that dome 17 would be the best place for the Gate to go."
"If the Gate is ready for transport, I'll see to it personally." Clark stated. "However, may I suggest you do a press-release? Having two countries just vanish like that really panicked a lot of people."
"An excellent idea, Clark. I shall begin composing one within the hour."
Clark started to reply, then paused as an icon began flashing on the control screen.
"Lord Doom, please excuse me, but I have an emergency call incoming."
Clark tapped the icon and the hologram flickered as Doom vanished, to be replaced by a familiar figure.
"Clark, get here now!" Zod barked. "We have a probable Code Omega!"
"Conner! Take over moving the gate!" Clark ordered before he vanished in a blur and a distant sonic boom.