Author's Note – I do not own any of the characters, Marvel and DC do.
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Chapter Twenty-One
Mission Of The Surfer
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David blinked as the dot in his HUD passed through the wire-frame of the building he was flying over. Looking down, he spotted a distortion forming and flexed his wings, banking hard and bringing his thrusters to max. As he did so, the Surfer emerged from the wall like a blade out of a pond, right into David's flightpath.
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"Xanatos just tackled him straight off his board!"
"Something's happening, he's changing from silver to pewter!" David sent, then another voice broke in.
"This is Reed, our scans indicate his power source is the board he's riding! Separate him from the board!"
"Already done." Morph replied with a grin, then his eyes widened. "Xanatos! DODGE!"
David responded instantly, hurling the Surfer away from him in order to boost himself away from his now-former captive. An instant later, the board that Surfer had been riding slashed through the space he had been occupying before slowing to a halt underneath the falling Surfer's feet.
"Dammit!" Morph cursed. "The Surfer's gone all shiny again, he's powered back up! We might need some help here!"
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The ache of the tackle that had seperated him from his board vanished as the Power Cosmic flowed through him once more and the Surfer looked at his adversaries with a newfound, albeit begrudging respect.
They had found his weakness.
His brow creased in thought, then he dived, curving round the building that he had passed through.
Normally, he would do this the normal way, ensuring that the result was the perfect size for his master, but the locals had proven dangerous.
He was sure that his Master would not mind just one hole being slightly out of alignment.
The Power Cosmic began to form around his clenched fists.
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"He's doing something!" Morph shouted into his communicator. "Backup! Backup! Backup! Now! Now! Now!"
A portal suddenly opened just below him.
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"Everyone go!" Sedara shouted as she opened a portal. Victor blinked, then felt himself being towed along by the Falcon.
"As soon as we're through, dive to get out of the way of the powered fliers!" Falcon half-shouted as Victor regained his balance and started to run, his wings ready to be deployed. "It's going to be chaotic out there!"
Before Victor could respond, he was through the portal and falling. He feld Falcon push him away and used his wings to spin, checking that no-one was close enough to collide with him, then he spread his wings and soared into battle.
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The Surfer blinked as a portal of a type he had never encountered before suddenly formed above him and almost instantly began disgorging flying figures. The Power Cosmic flickered as he realized that he might actually be in trouble.
After all, beyond a certain point, quantity takes on a quality all of its own.
Pulling into a sharp loop, the Surfer dodged the first few attacks and shifted a portion of his power so that he could sense everything around him.
He needed to break free to fulfil his mission, but there were already a hundred fliers swarming him and more arriving by the second.
Time to deal with the main problem.
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Xanatos followed the Surfer'sgaze, then his eyes flashed back to the silvery energy forming around the being's fists. Realization dawned and he triggered the priority channel.
"Close the portal!" David shouted into his comm and the flow of fliers ended a brief second before the portal was hit by a blast fired from the Surfer. "Did she get the portal closed?"
"Sedara's down!" Guardsman commed. ""Still alive, but the backlash of having her Portal disrupted like that knocked her out. Thanks for the warning, we managed to stop anyone else being caught in the effect, but any reinforcements will have to come the long way. We're redirecting them through the Hall of Doors as we speak."
David nodded, then his HUD highlighted a trio of tech-enhanced fliers, two of whom had wings like he did. A few brief eye-twitches changed his comm-channels.
"Eagle, Falcon, Iron Man, this is Xanatos. The Surfer seems to be holding his own too well for my liking, but I have a plan…"
"When don't you?" Tony Stark shot back. "Okay, let's hear it."
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The natives were exceedingly annoying. Although he had managed to create a field that de-powered any of the solar-boosted natives whose physical abilities were a severe threat to him, there were just so many different types of powers that even he was having difficulty keeping track.
Some of them seemed to be powered purely from within while others used worn gems that blazed with energies that his enhanced vision could perceive, yet were in other-colors that he had never actually encountered before. Some used machines to slice through the air while a few soared on natural wings.
And all of them were trying to separate him from the source of his power. The fragment of Galactus which allowed his Master to always know where he was and which fed him the power he needed to create the beacon-pulse that would summon his Master so that he could sate his eternal hunger for even a short while.
But first, he would need to find a way to clear the skies…
…or find skies that were clear.
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""Now!" Xanatos sent and Iron Man launched a spread of decoy rockets and flash-bangs at the Surfer, providing a distraction and cover. Xanatos powered through the short-lived wall of flame, aiming for the Surfer's head, only to be sent spinning through the air by a high-powered backhand.
"Abort!" He managed even as a pair of hands snagged him out of the skies, stabilizing him.
"Falcon here, what happened?"
"He saw me coming. The rockets did nothing." Xanatos growled.
"He saw me, too." Victor replied. "I barely dodged the blast he sent my way."
David frowned. How had the Surfer seen Bald Eagle? Victor had been aiming for his knees from behind…
Unless…
"All units, Surfer has full spherical vision." David sent as he re-activated his thrusters and nodded in gratitude to the Kryptonian who had caught him. "He has no blind spots, repeat, no blind spots!"
"How the hell did the Surfer get the Byakugan?" Someone asked over the comm and David blinked in confusion.
What the heck was a Byakugan?
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He was going to have to try something new.
Pulling the Power Cosmic into a shroud around himself, the Surfer arrowed straight down.
The ground raced up towards him as he reshaped the shroud into a multi-edged cone before he flettened himself against his board and began to spin.
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"What… the… fuck?" Victor gasped as the Surfer shot downwards so fast that the sonic boom caused many of the fliers to tumble like leaved in a gale for a moment. Rather than pull out, the Surfer slammed into the ground, causing a massive cloud of dust to explode upwards, spreading out into a mushroom shape as it did so. "Did he just commit suicide?"
Bereft of their opponent, many of the fliers looped wide to avoid the dust cloud while others swooped down to approach the impact point. As Victor watched, Iron Man landed near the base of the dust cloud and knelt down so that he could place his hand against the ground.
"I'm picking up vibrations consistent with tunneling." He reported after a long moment. "I guess this means that he's still alive and we have to dig him out… wait. It's stopped."
Victor entered a shallow, spiralling dive, barely noticing Falcon take up position beside him, almost wing-to-wing.
"Any idea what just happened?" Sam shouted.
"He created a hole…" Victor mused. "Reed, this is Toomes. How many holes does the Surfer need to create to finish his pattern?"
"Finish his… ah. Oh dear."
"That was the last hole, wasn't it?" Victor groaned.
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The hole was made and his improvisation hadn't failed him. It was at the perfect depth, the perfect width and within half a degree of the perfect angle.
Now all he had to do was to summon his Master, and none of the fliers seemed space-capable.
All he needed to do was gather his power, coat the lower half of the hole with a portion of it, push the rest behind him and…
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If the Surfer had descended fast, his ascent was even faster. Although Victor only saw him as a silver flash before the cyclone his passage had created hurled him out of control through the air, the sensors that Otto Octavius had spent days installing, adjusting and calibrating had managed to track him, reporting on his route (straight up) and his speed (mach 3.52).
The precision of the readouts was lost on Victor as he tried to avoid hitting the ground or losing his dinner from the sudden turbulence.
"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu….!"
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"By Hawkin's Chair!" Reed Richards gasped. "Everyone, the Surfer is now above the atmosphere and his energy readings are spiking!"
"Three ships are on approach and will have weapons lock in twenty seconds!" Zod's voice snapped.
"Too long!" Reed yelped as the readings on his screen rocketed upwards before the sensors burned out. "Whatever he's doing, he's just done it!"
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The Beacon Pulse had been sent. His Master was on his way and would feast once more.
The Surfer looked down at the planet below him, teaming with life, with life-force that would sustain the Mighty Galactus.
Once his Master arrived, the Surfer would begin his search anew.
Nothing was important to him, save fulfilling his task.
Nothing matte-wait! What was/
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"Got him!" The tactical officer exulted. "The Leonidas reports that it has got the board in its tractor beam. Pulling the Surfer into Cargo Bay two, security reports that they're ready to take him into captivity."
"Excellent work." The Captain commented. "Prepare to head back to Prime Base so that we can interrogate him and find out just what he thought he was doing."
"Course laid in." The helmsman said.
"Surfer is in the bay and doors are closed. Leonidas reports that it is securing the Board."
The captain nodded. "Excellent. Take us out."
"Aye, sir!"
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"We have a problem. A big problem." Clark stated in a flat voice. "As you no doubt heard, I've activated the Omega protocols, Ragnorok variant. We need as much help as we can get. Bruce?"
Bruce Banner stood up and triggered the holo-display to show the Silver Surfer sat in a containment cell.
"We've been talking to the Silver Surfer and although he hasn't said much, we've been able to piece together what's heading our way.
"It's Galactus."
A large number of people in the meeting hall gasped or swore and the image changed.
"Galactus is an Entity which exists only partially in our time-space." Bruce continued as the hologram began to show various pictures of a tentacled cloud. "Like an iceberg, over ninety percent of it is… under the surface, so to speak."
"How do you know?" A voice called out and Bruce gave a mirthless smile.
"Good question. Kryptonian records, mainly, some of which were… acquired from the Kree, the Skrull and the Shi'ar. The Asgardians were able to confirm some of it and provide details which helped to get closer to understanding the threat headed our way as well as some history.
"Galactus is believed to pre-date the Big Bang. Don't ask how, because we don't know, but he is older than our universe. Although he regularly consumes entire planets, he is the lesser of two evils. Should he be destroyed, something worse will come through."
"So, we can't kill it. What can we do?" Otto Octavius asked.
"We can drive it off." Bruce supplied. "Rumor has it that three planets have managed that feat, the first being a place called Zenn-La."
"One of my fastest scout-ships in already on the way there to ask for aid." Zod stated from beside the stage. "Another is headed to Cybertron. The third known planet is too far away, even for a Kryptonian Hyperlight Drive, for one of our ships to get there and back in under three months. It'll be more useful in the evacuations."
"We're evacuating Earth." Bruce confirmed. "Governor-General Zod and his people have created temporary camps and already, several million people have been transferred to New Krypton with priority given to women and children. We're recruiting as many males as possible to help in the defences, but they need training and we're not sure how long it will be before…"
Bruce trailed off as an alarm blared, then everyone staggered as a thought that was more than simple telepathy echoed across the solar system.
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