Hearts of Avengers

by lyokoMARVELanime

Instead of Traverse Town, Sora lands in New York after Destiny Islands fell and just moments before The Breakout happens. One superhero team-up later, and the Keyblade Hero is now a member of the Avengers. It's the story of Kingdom Hearts with a marvel of a new spin. Just see how Sora and the Avengers will affect both of their adventures, now.

9. Gamma World

AN: Hiya everybody! And welcome back to another thrilling chapter in the Kingdom Marvels Series!

[audience applause]

Hawkeye: Kingdom Marvels Series huh?

Wasp: Hey, I like it. Definitely sounds cool, could be used as a possible title for when we reach our version of KH3, and not to mention...

AN: Sorry Jan, but you're not going to be showing up on the next world, no matter how much flattery you try and use.

Wasp: Aw, no fair! [pouts]

Iron Man: Hey, where's Sora? Or Kairi for that matter?

Riku: Yeah, did you happen to notice that room where a lot of loud, painful screams were coming from when you came in today?

All the Marvel Cast Members: Yeah.

Riku: [points to said room, which has a Do-Not-Disturb sign on it, while loud bangs, explosions, and other various noises can be heard, along with cries of pain and Sora and Kairi roaring in anger] Yeah, they've been in there every chance that they can get after a few certain scenes in Kingdom Hearts 3.

Xehanort: [from the other side of said door] N-Now I know what you're thinking: should we try to rip off his arms, and the answer, just might surprise-AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!

Sora: OH CRY ME A RIVER, YOU HEARTLESS BASTARD! WHAT, CAN'T HANDLE THE PAIN WITHOUT THE X-BLADE THAT YOU MADE BY KILLING MY GIRLFRIEND IN FRONT OF ME?!

Kairi: HEY! Sora, you shouldn't be doing that to him. I SHOULD BE DOING THAT TO HIM!

Xehanort: No! No, nonononononono-AAAAAAHHHHH! NOT AGAIN! WHY DO YOU KEEP BENDING THAT IT THAT WAY?! IT DOESN'T BEND THAT WAY!

AN: Hehehehehehe.

Ant-Man: Don't you think you should stop them? I mean, that seems a little extreme.

AN:...He hasn't seen those parts of KH3 yet, has he?

Wasp: Nope. I'll show him the clips after we're done here.

AN: Please and thank you. Anyways, just to be clear, when it comes to Kingdom Hearts 3, my opinion...IT WAS GREAT! The gameplay, the design and story of the various worlds (my favorites had to be Toy Box and the Caribbean, by the way), the story and how they wrapped up so many plot lines while opening up new ones to confirm that we would be seeing a Kingdom Hearts 4 (hopefully a lot sooner than we did KH3, or better yet, definitely a lot sooner), I mean WOW! I've only completed the main story myself, but I do plan to go back and do all the other stuff in there too. And I also unlocked the secret ending as well, just to help give extra reassurance to myself that our boy Sora is still alive and searching for a way home, because, as I stated in one of the more recent chapters of Keyblade Legion, he's not gone forever, and the creators of the series have stated that Kingdom Hearts is Sora's story, but either way, it was a great game. Sure, I'm not too crazy about some elements, like specific scenes in the story (see what's happening to Xehanort at the moment for the chief examples), so that's why I've been putting in a lot of time to my KH stories. It's my little way of showing that I do intend to have things go differently in my own AU series than they had in canon. You want more proof, check out the fact that I've got the plot summaries for the future stories in my Keyblades Unleashed Series on my profile now.

Hawkeye: Any chance you're going to do the same for our series at some point?

AN: Maybe...Anyways, let's move to today's chapter and other related info, shall we? Starting off, as always, with our review answers.

First up, is to "Dragon Rider 66", and let me just say that, there is a possibility that Thor could bring the others to Olympus Coliseum without a gummi ship or Keyblade transportation, if he wanted to, but given how he's always got something going on, be it with the Avengers or his own things, I wouldn't count on that happening. All the other world traveling will mainly be up to Sora here. As for your question about the Far From Home trailer, that was epic! I especially liked how they integrated that version of the classic Spidey theme song in, because that made it even more awesome.

Rolling on over to "Twisted Pxl", yes, I do hope to have them find out that Sora has both Kairi and Ven's hearts inside of him, maybe not necessarily at the same time, but that is likely to be the case, or at least close to it, and no, they will not be keeping it a secret. It would be kinda hard to do so in this case. As for why we haven't seen any visions of Kairi yet, it's actually both because there hasn't been a need yet, and there hasn't been any point where they could happen or be relevant at the moment so far. As for your wonder about the pairings, I think Kairi is almost always paired with Sora because those two, they're the OTP of Kingdom Hearts, while other pairings like Roxas&Namine, Roxas&Xion, and any pairings involving Aqua have always been interchangeable because there hasn't really been too much in the way of confirmation, or at least something close to it since they first appeared. Sure, Kingdom Hearts 3 may have given us a few ideas, but even so, that's not going to change what people thinks works best. Btw, the BBS trio have appeared in this story's AN sections. It just hasn't been a while since it happened. Yeah...I think I've likely answer your last question by now, right?

"crawforddarius7", I see that you really want my Code Avengers Spider-Verse story out there, and I assure you that I will try to work on it sometime soon. First, I want to do a good deal of work with all my Kingdom Hearts stories, maybe update A Spider's Focus at some point as well, but it will happen sometime soon, so don't worry about that.

Now, "Redrangerlegacy", after seeing the Keyblade transformations and using them as I played through Kingdom Hearts 3, I can confirm that I will be trying to add them into this story, though it may be a little while before it happens. Most likely the sequel to this story, though you do make a good point on having Steve showing Sora how to use a shield offensively, so I'll take that into consideration.

Moving it over to "Gamelover41592", the main reason I decided to exclude Maleficent is because we almost always see her in a KH story at some point or another, and also, I felt that it would've been a little hard to have the bad guys of this story really work if there were two groups clashing with each other (namely Loki and his Masters of Evil vs Maleficent and the Villain Council), and frankly, that's a little too much for a first story in the series.

Riku: Hey, this next one looks like they have multiple reviews to answer.

AN: Well, what do you expect when I tell folks to read and review at the end of every chapter. He's talking about recent follower "Althea Sirius", and let me just go through all of those answers really quick before we finally start the chapter. Sure, having a Sora that started from KH2 would be a little more sensible in some aspect, but you forget, this is an AU story that tells of how Kingdom Hearts would've been different if Sora had started his first journey on the Marvel universe's version of Earth as opposed to Traverse Town. Can't really work with that idea if he's already been through one journey. This is a Sora that's just starting out and gaining powers in a way that he did not gain them in canon. Sure, that may make it seem a little too early for the KH2 outfit, but ask yourself this: what do you think is a better hero look for someone on the Avengers? His awesome, cool outfit in KH2, or that ridiculous jumpsuit...thing he had in the first game? I will admit, you had some good ideas for alternate hero names that Sora could've used, but, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Hikari sound more like a name for a girl than a boy? And that said, to me, Keyblader sounds more like a team name than a single hero's name. You know, like how a single member of the Avengers is called an Avenger, but hey, maybe I'll use the name Keybladers later on in this series. It does have a nice ring to it, so thanks for that. Finally, I've already planned to have a few non-Disney worlds show up here, as evidenced by how a Final Fantasy villain is part of the villain council (which we all saw a few chapters ago), and yeah, maybe Sora's friendship with Donald and Goofy won't be quite as strong as it was in the original canon, but you never know. It could end up being almost just as strong. Besides, this is Sora we're talking about. He can make friends with people who had been a bitter enemy of his like it's as easy as breathing. Oh, and Sora's armor in this story, it will likely last a good while, but it will also be gaining a few upgrades along the way to help when it does get seriously damaged, so you don't have to worry about that. Glad you take such a strong interest in the story, and thanks for the feedback. Not every day I get reviews like yours, so by all means, keep letting me know your thoughts on this stuff.

Phew! Well, that took a little bit of doing, so let's get on with the story.

Hulk: This seems a little long for something that's only supposed to be part one of Gamma World.

AN: Oh! Right...About that...I know I said last chapter that this would only be part one, and I had fully intended it to be, but after writing it out, and along with part 2, I felt that both of those chapters were too short to stand on their own, so...I basically did the same thing I did in Code Avengers and put the two halves together. Here's hoping you guys still enjoy the story. Avengers, to the chapter!...

I do not own anything from either the Kingdom Hearts or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.

---

Chapter IX

Sora may not have been too thrilled about the fact that his leave of absence from school had come to an end, but he was glad that he got to see Miles, Anya, and the others at Midtown in person again. It just was not the same talking to them on the phone or in some instant message chat. Although, that may have been mostly because the others tended to get a bit of a laugh from watching how Sora would struggle so much with the web-cam and other various computer gadgets and gizmos that they all used to chat online, while Sora just grumbled about it. Sure, he could handle working a few basics of technology, but when it started to get a little more complicated, Sora was…very challenged, to put it mildly. Thankfully, Peter, Tony, Hank, and T'Challa were all more than willing to help him out a little bit, or at least to the point where he was as caught up and tech savvy as any other average high school teen. Even so, it did not detract from the fact that Sora preferred hanging out with his friends in person as opposed to over a web-chat or something similar, so he was glad that he could hang out with his Midtown friends again without too much worry. He would have liked to hang out with Yuffie a little more too, but she was in a different grade level than him, and only shared a small number of the same classes as him because of that.

Aside from that though, the other thing that Sora was glad about was that he had not been zapped off to another world again. Ever since he had returned to attending classes at Midtown, the scanners in his gauntlet had not gone off even once. Some of the other Avengers had joked around and said that it probably meant that the Kingdom Key recognized the importance of Sora's schooling like they did, but somehow, Sora doubted that. Even if he did find the jokes a little funny. Still, he was glad that it looked like there were not any worlds in great peril for the moment, because it also helped him to put more focus on the problems they were dealing with here on Midgard. The Avengers had been working JARVIS overtime in their search for the other escaped supervillains, even going so far as to have T'Challa integrate some Wakandan science into Tony's faithful computer butler, and not only that, but Tony also finished his work on Sora's other gauntlet, so now, the Keyblade Samurai had the full matching set of gauntlets to go with his helmet. The kid had made it a point to test out his new toys in the training room the minute Tony had given the go-ahead for him to use the gauntlets' full capabilities, but it ended up looking like he was going to be testing them in the field, because it was only seconds later that JARVIS had gotten a hit on a Breakout Escapee that was on the move, and the Avengers did not hesitate to respond.

"Stay on him," Iron Man ordered the team as they pursued their target.

Black Panther and Yuffie did not give any verbal replies, as they were both keeping their eyes firmly locked on the fleeing criminal as they traversed the New York rooftops like only they could, with T'Challa using the tech in his suit to stick to the walls, while Yuffie just used her ninja training to do the same, before leaping off to another wall, and another, until finally just leapt down onto the next roof in a roll, right as Captain America had landed next to her on his motorcycle, having been out on a simple ride through the city when the alert came in.

"Yuffie and I've got visual," Captain America reported.

"And I'm wondering why the hell he thought purple was a good color to go with for his costume," Yuffie quipped a second later as she broke out into a run that would have made others think she had super speed if they did not know the kind of training and magic she had at her disposal. "Still, ya gotta admit, this guy is fast."

"You can say that again, but that's not going to help this joker for long," Captain America reassured Yuffie just as Sora and Iron Man came flying in from overhead, the former atop his Keyblade Glider as he turned his helmet's sensors towards their escaping fugitive.

Iron Man was just locking his own sensors onto the escapee when the target in question jumped off the roof and disappeared from sight, and then some. "Cap, Yuffie, Panther, he just disappeared off my grid," Tony reported. "Do you have him?"

"Negative," Cap replied, with Yuffie and T'Challa giving similar replies a minute later.

"Wow, HYDRA agents are getting good," Wasp commented. "He doesn't even have any powers."

"Technically, Jan, most of us don't have powers either. Just some really cool tech or impressive skills," Sora pointed out.

Wasp nodded in acknowledgement of Sora's point, before she asked, "What about you? Can you see him on your helmet's HUD, or sense him with your Keyblade-enhanced awareness?"

"No, and also no, because I'm pretty sure that whatever it was that allowed me to pick up on Enchantress's presence in the mansion that day doesn't work that way," Sora replied before he followed Janet in maneuvering a little closer to the ground where the criminal had disappeared to. "Who is this guy again?"

"His name's Clint Barton, a former SHIELD agent that turned out to be a HYDRA spy. Goes by the codename of Hawkeye," Tony explained. "Not only that, but he was one of their best agents, too. He was infamously well-known to be the best shot in all of SHIELD, and likely even the entire world, because he literally never misses a target, and the same can be said for any clues that needed to be found in an investigation. Hence the name. Aside from his costume, the other best way of recognizing him is by the fact that his go-to weapons are a bow and quiver full of high-tech arrows."

"Wow. He must be really good if that's all he ever carried into a fight with him," Sora muttered. Having practiced swordsmanship even before he got the Keyblade, Sora knew that it took a great deal of skill to master any particular weapon, and even more so to use it in a fight where most other people would be using guns or other similar weapons. For this Hawkeye to be able to nail every target that got in his crosshairs with just a bow and arrow, he knew that the guy had to be one incredible archer. Still, all that skill was not going to help too much with nearly all of the Avengers on his trail.

"There he is," Wasp suddenly shouted, having spotted Hawkeye running down an alley, and she immediately dove in to pursue him. When Hawkeye rounded a corner, Janet did not hesitate for a second to keep up her chase, but she did come to a quick stop when she nearly flew right into the pointed tip of an arrow that was notched and ready to fire right at her.

"Hi there," Hawkeye smirked with a sly grin. Clearly he had known he was being chased, and judging by his equally sly, confident expression, he was more than ready for a fight if he found himself getting into one.

At her current size, Janet probably could have dodged the arrow, were it not for the fact that one, she was just inches away from the point of its tip, and two, there was not a target that this guy could not hit. Sure, she was not entirely sold on that idea, but she did not want to be the target that was used to test that claim either. Thankfully, she was not alone, and Hawkeye soon found that out when Sora came swooping down on his Keyblade Glider, and immediately raised his left palm towards Hawkeye, charging up the repulsor that his gauntlet gave him to fire while he shouted, "Back off!"

"Or better yet, just give it up, Hawkeye," Iron Man advised as he too dropped down from above with repulsors ready to fire. A minute later, Yuffie and T'Challa dropped down onto the rafters on either side of the archer, the former with several shuriken already set to throw at even the slightest sign of trouble, with Captain America screeching to a stop on his motorbike in order to block the only other way out of the alley just seconds after, effectively boxing Hawkeye in. "You can't win."

Sora could not help but grin a little, knowing they were about to bag another bad guy and send him off to prison. After how many times that they had been forced to let some of the others get away due to circumstances beyond their control, it felt good to finally get another easy win like they had with Mandrill. His mood quickly changed though when a bright spotlight suddenly came on and blinded him and the rest of the team with its sudden appearance. When the heroes heard someone calling out for them, they slowly turned towards the light source to see the silhouette of a SHIELD jet hovering overhead. For a minute, the team was a bit worried that they might have accidentally gotten in the way of the agency's own attempts at tracking down and recapturing their former agent, but then again, if that was the case, they would not have made such a hasty appearance like this, and the agent on the jet probably would have been giving Hawkeye a warning to surrender as well as opposed to calling out for the Avengers. Either way, they could not let that distract them for too long, but it turned out it had already reached that point when Wasp turned back to where Hawkeye was standing.

"Hey, where'd he go," the size-changer exclaimed.

Hearing Janet's surprised outcry, the Avengers all snapped their attention back to where the archer should have been, only to see absolutely no sign of him at all. It was almost like he had never been there, and from the frantic speed that Sora's head was turning as he looked around, he was not having any better look determining where the archer was. "I've got nothing," the Keybearer finally reported.

"Me neither. There's no sign of him, great," Iron Man grumbled angrily.

"I know," Yuffie huffed, making the others think for a moment she was probably more frustrated about this than Iron Man, until she finished her sentence. "It's only cool when me or T'Challa do that."

While the rest of the team just gave the young ninja deadpan looks in response to her complaint, Iron Man was turning his attention back to the SHIELD jet, which was lowering its boarding ramp so that the person on board could step out and address the team directly. Flying up with Wasp to meet with the agent in question, Tony was greeted by the sight of a familiar face, and for once, Tony was not happy to see him. "Nice going, Coulson," the Avengers leader nearly growled. He was only holding himself back because this was one of the few people on his very short list of SHIELD agents he actually liked. "You just let your own traitor get away. Next time SHIELD wants to help, don't."

"Sorry about that, but we're going to need you to let him go for now," Agent Phil Coulson apologized with his usual easy-going, yet still somehow incredibly serious smile that spoke volumes about whatever reason he was here for. "We didn't come for Hawkeye, Mister Stark. We came for you and your team." A minute later, his smile disappeared completely, and became replaced with a very grim expression that always made Tony a little nervous whenever he saw it. "We need your help."

Hearing those words from any SHIELD agent would have been a bad sign, but hearing them from Coulson, one of the few agents that Nick Fury absolutely trusted with his life and more, could only have spelled trouble, and from the looks that were exchanged between them, Tony and Janet both knew it. So, it was no surprise that Janet had immediately pulled her ID card out of her glove and said, "I'll call Thor and Hulk."

Looking up at what was happening, while also overhearing thanks to the audio receptors in his helmet, Sora suddenly had a feeling that he and Yuffie were going to either need a late pass for class tomorrow, or that they just were not going to be going to school at all the next day, and to be honest, that worried him a lot more than it probably should have. Glancing over to his ninja friend, Sora could tell that Yuffie was likely thinking the same way, because she looked pretty worried too, and that scared him even more.

---

A few hours later, the team, minus Ant-Man who had flown off to Wakanda for a little bit, was flying across a vast desert in the Quinjet, while Iron Man flew ahead of the Avengers' main transport with a small squadron of SHIELD jets escorting them to wherever they needed their help at. Sora probably would have flown over on his Keyblade Glider, but he was not sure that he would have been able to keep up with the Quinjet at his current level of control over that particular power, so he felt it was best to ride with the rest of his team. Still, he was very curious about just why it was that SHIELD had suddenly decided to call them in, but he was willing to wait for those answers, unlike his team's leader.

"I'm getting a little impatient here, Coulson," Tony informed one of his few real friends in SHIELD, his frustration very evident in his voice. "You won't tell us where Fury is, you're not telling us what's going on…"

"Even if I knew where Director Fury was, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be at liberty to tell you, Mister Stark," Coulson interrupted before Tony could get too far into his rant. "As for what's going on, it's simpler if you just see it yourself."

Sora was about to ask what that was supposed to mean, having overheard the conversation over the radio with the rest of the team, until Captain America suddenly pointed out, "Look, on the horizon."

The minute the team did, there were several different reactions. For the most part, the team was left a little stunned at the sight of the remains of the former supervillain prison known as the Cube, completely encompassed by a large, green dome that seemed to be expanding little by little, but for Sora and Yuffie, who had never even seen the place before, they were both struck silent in wonder at what they were seeing before them. Hulk on the other hand, could only growl lowly, no doubt remembering when he had been locked up inside that very prison the moment they had gotten close enough to see the place. For a minute, everyone was worried that this was some kind of trap to recapture the Hulk, even if Fury did give the gamma giant a pass so long as he remained with the Avengers, but then again, if that was the case, then they doubted that it would warrant the SHIELD team that was set up in a small base camp several miles outside the dome. If anything, it was way too small, and there were barely enough Hulkbuster units to qualify as the minimum requirement that had been deemed necessary for capturing and/or containing the Hulk. Either way, everyone was on pins and needles as to what Hulk's reaction was going to be at seeing this place again.

It seemed like the tensest few seconds of any of the Avengers' lives before Hulk finally let out a noise that was more than just a low growl, and when he did, they were not sure if the words he spoke made them feel better or worse, because the first thing that Hulk said was, "Yeah, this is definitely a huge problem."

"You can say that again," Banner muttered from inside his partner's mind, not that anyone knew that, but if they did, they would have been just as worried as he looked and sounded right now.

Seeing the SHIELD jets landing at designated sites prompted Wasp to bring the Quinjet down as well, and once the team's ship had touched the ground, with Iron Man landing in front of it a second later, the team quickly clambered out to get a better look at whatever was going on. "What manner of sorcery is this," Thor questioned aloud for everyone. Well, almost everyone.

"It's pure gamma radiation. What else," Hulk scoffed like it should have been obvious. When the others all turned to look at him, Hulk just said, "What? The place was built to contain supervillains that got their powers the same way I did, or from some other form of radiation, and even before the Breakout, Banner and I knew it was just a front for making more Hulks. Plus, I'm made of gamma radiation. I'd know that stuff anywhere."

No one could argue with him on that, and this time, it was not just because they did not want to. They all knew that he was right, and the evidence was right in front of him. "Still, it's pretty impressive stuff that we're seeing here," Tony had to whistle after a minute. "I mean, man, I bet Hank is sorry he went back to Wakanda now."

"No kidding. This is way better than studying Vibranium," Wasp instantly agreed.

"Ahem," Yuffie coughed, reminding Janet about who she was standing next to at the moment.

"Oh, uh…no offense," Janet quickly apologized, and she took T'Challa's silence to mean that none was taken.

"Hulk, it's good to see you again," a new voice suddenly said, turning the team's attention to the speaker. When his eyes fell on a man in black pants and a red shirt with long, green hair, Hulk seemed to smile a little bit more.

"Yeah, back at ya, Samson," Hulk agreed. He then looked the man up and down for a minute before saying, "You look good considering that I'm pretty sure you were half dead when we parted ways."

Samson just laughed as he patted the big guy on the arm, though whether it was because he was expecting that or because he was used to Hulk's humor, none of the other Avengers were sure. Only one of them had a question about the man's identity. Well, two of them, but only the older one of the two was brave enough to ask. "Now who's this guy," Yuffie questioned.

"Doctor Leonard Samson, at your service," the green haired man replied. "I was working here at the Cube when the Breakout happened, and ended up being exposed to the gamma radiation that was leaking out from its core at the time. If it weren't for Banner and Hulk, I probably wouldn't be here right now, even if it is with a few…minor changes."

"Hey, at least you're not just some puny scientist anymore. Whenever I turn back into Banner, he never retains any of my strength. Kinda pathetic if you ask me," Hulk joked, ignoring the looks he was getting from his other half in their shared mind.

While the two gamma irradiated beings continued to converse, Cap leaned a little closer to Sora and whispered, "Why does that man have green hair?"

"How should I know," Sora replied with a shrug, clearly not bothered by it. "Besides, is it really that strange? My best friend has silver hair, and no one ever questions him about it." A minute later though, he could not help but add, "Well…not anymore, at least." He then glanced over to one of his other teammates and asked, "What do you think, Jan?"

Apparently, Sora did not know that when Janet had a finger to her chin, she was seriously thinking over something that was likely fashion related, and if anyone asked her that particular question, she would automatically be set off. "I'm thinking he should fire whoever the hell he paid to design that suit of his," the size-changer immediately deduced. "First off, the lightning bolts went out of style ages ago. Unless you can really make it work, like say if you're Thor or some other guy with electric powers, it's a total no, otherwise, you might as well wear a neon sign that says 'Lame' in all caps with an exclamation mark at the end. Not to mention that shade of red and black just barely go together, and I mean barely. I mean, come on! Everyone knows that if you want to wear red and black together, the former needs to be in a much darker shade than what he's wearing. The only saving grace is the silver gauntlets and belt that he's wearing, and don't even get me started on…"

Yuffie soon came to the rescue in stopping Janet's fashion rant by slapping a hand over Janet's mouth, and saying, "Okay, okay! We get it Fashion Princess. No need to start planning a whole new fashion line for superhero wardrobe."

While Janet was a little insulted at being interrupted and for Yuffie's newest nickname for her, she did have a small gleam in her eye that made it crystal clear that the ninja had likely just given her an idea the minute that Yuffie had made a mention of a new fashion line for superheroes. Luckily, Iron Man was able to keep everyone on track and prevent Janet from going too deep into that bit of planning when he asked, "So, can someone please explain the situation to us, now?"

"It'll be easier if we explain inside," Coulson informed them, gesturing over to the large aircraft that was apparently serving as the centerpiece of the SHIELD base camp.

Sora may not have known too much about the vehicles on this world, but he definitely recognized an impressive one when he saw it, and Coulson's jet easily qualified for that list. The thing was all black and very massive, and it almost looked more like a spaceship than it did a plane. He also could have sworn that he also saw another pair of SHIELD jets docked on top of the massive aircraft, and as they drew closer, Sora could have sworn he heard Wasp mutter something about it looking like something out of Star Trek. Sora likely would have kept on just walking in a daze as he continued staring at the massive craft, had someone not suddenly come up behind him and given him a small shove to his shoulder.

Turning around to the perpetrator, Sora was met with the sight of a young woman who did not look that much older than him, with short, dark hair that had purple tips, and decked out in a tight suit that seemed to hug all of her curves, and was colored in various shades of black and grey, with some purple on the shoulders and along the sides of her torso. Another thing to note was that she wore a pair of silver gauntlets that cover her lower arms and most of her hands, but left her fingers bare, save for the gloves she wore underneath them. "What's the matter, kid," the woman asked, her voice helping to confirm that she was pretty close to his age. "You've never seen one of the world's biggest planes before?"

"Can't say that I have, Agent," Sora admitted with a shrug while resting his hands behind his head.

"Please, call me Daisy. Daisy Johnson," the SHIELD agent insisted as she held out his hand to him. "Well, that or Quake. Either one works."

"Nice to meet you, Daisy," Sora nodded in reply, accepting the handshake. "I'm Sora."

"Sora Hart, the Keyblade Samurai, the youngest member of the Avengers, and freshman at Midtown Manhattan Magnet High School. I know," Daisy nodded. When Sora shot her a perplexed look in question of how she knew all of that, Daisy just shrugged and said, "I like to keep up to date on all information regarding the superheroes of the world. It's part of the reason why I ended up joining SHIELD, or more specifically, Coulson's team. The fact that I'm a great hacker also had something to do with it, too."

"Cool," Sora grinned in reply with a nod as he followed Daisy up to the meeting room where the others were waiting. Somehow, he had a feeling that he and Daisy were going to get along really well.

The minute that the two teenagers had entered the room, which looked like a miniature control center to Sora, Daisy excused herself to stand alongside Coulson, who was standing at the head of the room. "As I'm sure we're all aware by now, during the Breakout, various supervillains all escaped from the Vault, the Big House, and the Raft in force after the prisons all suffered a strange, still unexplained shut down of their systems, while any attempts to keep them from escaping were made all the more difficult due to the interference of strange, shadow creatures."

"The Heartless," Yuffie supplied.

"Yes, them," Coulson nodded in response.

"And we still have no idea if the Heartless were the cause of the Breakout or what else could have been responsible," Iron Man questioned.

"We're still looking into it, as I'm sure you are, Mr. Stark," Coulson replied, making it clear that he was not going to willingly share any details about the progress in SHIELD's investigation of the Breakout, assuming there was any. "Here's something that I'm sure some of you aren't aware of though: Only a handful of the supervillains contained in the Cube actually left the prison. The rest remained inside for reasons that we were not entirely sure of until now. Daisy, if you would?"

"You got it, AC," Daisy nodded with a grin. Ignoring the playful eye-roll that her superior gave her, Daisy set to work bringing up a video on one of the screens so that the Avengers could see it, and the team were all treated to the sight of a squad of Hulkbuster soldiers moving towards the entrance to the Cube, albeit with a green tint, while Daisy explained what they were seeing in more detail. "This is video from SHIELD's incursion into the Cube after the Breakout. The staff and SHIELD personnel were all accounted for, but the prisoners…well, that was a different story."

A minute later, the lead Hulkbuster agent in the video was suddenly grabbed by a large three fingered hand, and dragged into the darkness of the shadows. In response, the remaining agents started firing blindly at where their comrade had disappeared to, only to pause when a bright light suddenly erupted from nearby, and just when they were scrambling for cover, some of them screaming in fright as they did, the video feed cut out completely, startling some of the team a little when it did. "What was that," Wasp gasped, referring more to the large hand that had appeared than anything else.

"Emil Blonsky, the Abomination. Strong as the Hulk, twice as mean, and with military training" Samson replied as Daisy brought an image of what looked like a very monstrous version of Hulk.

"Yeah, I remember the first time we met," Hulk grunted with his arms crossed. "Guy was only hard to beat that time because I had never fought someone that much like me before."

"As I recall, that fight also ended up breaking…Harlem," Coulson stated.

Hulk just shrugged in response, though it was hard to really tell how much of it was an apology and how much of it was in a manner that said he did not care too much. He then looked to Samson and said, "I'm guessing he's not the big problem."

"You'd guess right, big guy. Part of it actually has to do with that dome you all saw outside," Samson admitted, nodding for Daisy to bring up the next image. Said image was another video of a team of SHIELD agents that had set up a camp that looked to be much closer to the Cube than this one was, and Sora could have sworn he saw a look of sadness cross Daisy and Coulson's face as they watched the video. It only really stayed on the former, because the latter was going right back to business after schooling his features again in a split second.

"The energy dome you all saw outside had exploded outward from the Cube and the SHIELD team that was acting as backup to the Hulkbuster unit was caught inside of it, and then this happened," Coulson explained, while the video showed just what had happened to the agents that were caught inside of the dome's eruption. To the Avengers' horror, the agents in the video all suddenly began mutating and soon transformed into hideous monsters before the video cut out again. Though only Wasp and Yuffie let out gasps of shock, while the Hulk growled angrily at the sight of what had happened, and the others just grimaced or did their best to keep their composure.

"Oh my god," Sora whispered before he glanced over at Hulk. "Was that anything like what it was when…you know…?"

"More or less," Hulk shrugged. "It was more painful for Banner than it was me, but then again, most of those days are kinda…fuzzy. Back then, I really was barely more than a mindless monster that just smashed stuff uncontrollably, but it would probably be better to describe it like how someone can't really remember too much of their days as a newborn without looking back at old videos and stuff."

Sora nodded in response, getting just enough of what the Hulk was describing to really understand it, and then returned his attention to the meeting at hand, just as Coulson stated, "The dome is expanding without any sign of stopping. At this rate, it'll hit a town in the next six hours, and a major city in eight."

"Who is responsible for this," Captain America demanded.

"I'm guessing the Leader. This whole thing reeks of his kind of dirty work," Hulk offered up in his own assessment of the situation.

"You'd guess right," Samson replied just as Daisy had pulled up an image of said villain.

"Whoa! That dude's got a big head," Yuffie lightly joked upon seeing the mug shot.

"You have no idea," Hulk grumbled.

"He's a gamma irradiated villain, as strong as the Hulk is, the Leader is intelligent," Samson continued on, acting as though the other two had not spoken up.

"And as far as we know, the Leader's inside the Cube, most likely with a small army of gamma villains," Coulson stated. "Everyone from the Abomination, to the Absorbing Man, Zzzax, and anyone else you can probably think of that the Hulk has most likely tangled with. They were all inside the Cube when the Breakout occurred. That's why you're all here. We want you to go into the Cube."

The minute she heard that, Wasp had broken out into laughter along with Yuffie, but the latter quickly stopped when she realized that no one else was laughing, and soon elbowed the size-changer to point it out to her too. "Oh, wait, you're serious," Wasp realized with a crestfallen look. She then glanced out the nearest window that was facing towards the dome and asked, "Not to harp on this one particular little point, but how're we going to get into the Cube without…you know…getting all gamma-ed up?"

"This is how, Wasp," Samson replied with a proud smile, as he gestured for one of the scientists on the command center bridge to step forward. A minute later, said scientist, a young woman who had been watching the previous video with a very worried look on her face, quickly stepped forward with a rack that held up a number of what appeared to be green and white hazmat suits, one of which Daisy was already changing into along with a few other agents while Coulson was just retrieving his own, along with one for Samson. "I've modified this SHIELD radiation plating to protect you," Samson explained as he helped Daisy finish getting into her suit while activating it for her as well. "Wearing these, you should be immune to the effects of the Gamma Dome."

The agents then began passing out the remaining suits to the Avengers, until the scientist that had wheeled them in came up to Hulk, who merely glared and asked, "You really think I need one of these suits?"

"Um, no sir. Sorry," the woman hastily replied, her voice carrying an English accent as she spoke.

"Hey, don't worry about it too much," Sora reassured her on Hulk's behalf while he accepted the offered suit in the big guy's place. The young Keybearer was going to need one too, after all. "Hulk's just not much of a people person, Miss…"

"Simmons. Doctor Jemma Simmons, sir," the young woman replied with a forced smile.

"Nice to meet you, Jemma," Sora nodded. He then gave her a reassuring smile as he stated, "Don't worry about your friends. We'll get them back to normal as soon as possible."

That seemed to cheer Simmons up a little, and she gave a much more sincere smile as she said, "Thank you, sir."

This time, Sora let out the groan he had held back before, and said, "Please don't call me sir. It feels really weird, especially when it's coming from someone who looks like they aren't that much older than me. Just Sora is fine."

Simmons nodded in reply with a slightly bigger smile before moving to help the other agents with getting the Avengers suited up, though she did smile a little when she saw she was not the only one who got brushed off after offering an Avenger one of the suits. Thor had also waved off the agent that had approached him with one by simply saying, "An Asgardian needs no such protection."

The agent just looked at Thor for a minute before nodding and carrying the suit over to someone else that would be going in, seeing as all the other Avengers were already holding their own suit, and were now either putting them on or just looking them over. At least they were until Iron Man asked Samson a very important question. "So you've sent people in wearing these?"

"Uh…no, it hasn't been tested yet," Samson admitted. When he saw the rest of the Avengers giving him looks that clearly stated that his words were not inspiring confidence, he quickly slid his helmet on and added, "But I'm confident it will work."

"It'll work," Hulk reassured the team, surprising them a little. "What? Aside from Banner, Samson's the smartest guy there is in the field of gamma ray science, especially when it comes to stuff that's meant to safe guard others against it. If he says that it'll work, then it'll work."

"Good enough for me," Sora nodded in agreement while he tried to activate his suit. He ended up hitting random buttons for a little while though, as he was not entirely sure which one did what, until Daisy finally came over to help him out. "Thanks," Sora nodded in gratitude.

"No problem," Daisy nodded in return. At that point, Sora could not help but take note of how the arms of Daisy's suit seemed to be slightly modified, likely as something that would be used in place of her gauntlets, and figured that those same gauntlets served a pretty important purpose. He had to put it aside though, as he noticed that Daisy was trying to get his attention. "Listen, I've got a bit of a favor to ask of you."

"What is it," Sora inquired.

Daisy's smile fell once again into the sad look Sora saw before, and she revealed, "Some of the agents that were caught inside the dome…they're teammates of mine and Coulson's; really good friends, actually. One of them is also Jemma's fiancé, so…"

"I get it. You want me to promise that we'll get help them out of this mess, right," Sora guessed. Upon receiving a nod in reply, Sora smiled and quickly said, "Okay, sure thing."

"Wait, what," Daisy asked in surprise. She was about to offer some kind of compensation for Sora's aid, but she was not expecting him to agree before she could utter even one word. "Just like that?"

"Yeah, of course," Sora replied like it should have been obvious, though he was confused as to why Daisy was saying that. "Why? Did you think I was gonna say no?"

"Well, no, it's not that. I mean, I get that you and your team are all here to help anyway, but I kinda figured you would've just brushed me off and told me to focus on the bigger picture or something. A lot of people tend to do that, especially since I joined SHIELD," Daisy admitted.

"Well, maybe some people would, but if a friend needs me to help out with anything, I'll gladly be there to do it," Sora informed her.

"Now we're friends," Daisy asked with an incredulous tone, though a chuckle or two did seem to seep into her voice. "You must be from someplace where everything's supposed to be really easy."

"I don't know about everything being easy, but when it comes to things like making friends, sometimes, it is just that simple," Sora pointed out, his smile not faltering at all.

Daisy just stared at him for a minute, before she finally let out an honest laugh, and said, "Sora, I think I can officially say that you're either one of a kind, or just a dying breed."

"Thanks," Sora nodded in response while resting his hands behind his head as his grin grew a little bit more.

"Hey, if you kids are done, we've got work to do," Iron Man called out, and upon turning to his teammates, Sora saw that the Avengers were all suited up and done with checking over their suits, with Iron Man having activated his own armor's gamma ray protection, as evidenced by how the lights on his suit had turned green as opposed to their usual blue, and the two quickly followed the Avengers, Samson, and the other SHIELD agents out to the Gamma Dome.

---

A short time later, the Avengers and SHIELD were a short distance away from the slowly expanding dome, checking over their equipment one last time before any of them made the big jump to see if their gamma armor would work once and for all. When they were done, all they needed was a volunteer, but no one was really feeling brave enough to step forward at the moment. At least, not until Iron Man said, "So who wants to go first? Panther? Hulk?"

Hulk just crossed his arms in response, not making any moves to proceed forward. T'Challa on the other hand was still intent on proving that he would keep his promise to earn the Avengers' trust, so he was more than willing to follow Tony's orders, no matter how good or bad they might have been. He likely would have gone through first had Captain America not raised his shield to stop him before the Wakandan king could take more than two steps. Even Steve did not always follow all of the orders he was given, but only when he thought there was a better way to proceed or just disagreed with said orders, like right now.

"Leaders lead," the super soldier told the son of his old friend.

"Thanks Cap," Iron Man groaned in reply, despite knowing that no one would be able to see his frown behind his helmet. Stark then walked forward a few paces, stopping right at the edge of the slowly approaching dome before pausing to glance back at his team.

In response to his hesitance, Captain America gave him an easy thumbs up, which was soon copied by both Sora and Yuffie, the former of which added a reassuring nod, while the latter leaned closer to Wasp and whispered, "So who's gonna get his armory if he mutates?"

"I heard that," Iron Man informed the ninja, but he received no apology in return. Only a shameless smile that was accompanied by quiet giggles from Sora, Wasp, and Daisy while everyone else just rolled their eyes.

Everyone went silent soon enough when the dome finally passed over Iron Man, and the group was soon waiting with baited breath to see if he would mutate. Thankfully, he did not, and the rest of the team took that as their cue to step through as well, each relieved to see that the armor was working as it was intended to, while Hulk shot Samson a smile of what looked like approval. Hey, the big guy may not want to ever be "cured", but that did not mean he could not appreciate it when he saw something that prevented more Hulks being made actually worked right. Iron Man then glanced over to his team before he smugly commented, "By the way, if I had mutated, none of you would've gotten my armory. Pepper and Rhodey would get first dibs."

"Aw, that's so sweet, in a weird way," Janet cooed, drawing looks from everyone else. "What? He just admitted he would leave his impressive collection of armors to his girlfriend first if something ever happened to him. You can't tell me that you don't think it's kinda sweet."

Tony just marched forward, glad that his helmet kept his face hidden from the others at that moment, and soon after, the rest of the group was putting their minds back on the mission at hand. The further in they went, the more uneasy they felt, because the whole place had a creepy feeling to it. There seemed to be various forms of wreckage and debris everywhere, be it just rocks that had been broken apart by a very powerful force or the remains of the equipment the previous team had brought in with them, and there was a faint green mist wafting about them like a cloud of fog, most likely as a side effect of the Gamma Dome. What left everyone even more worried was how few signs of life there were so far, be it in terms of the criminals that they were expecting or the agents that had been mutated. The whole thing just put the team more and more on edge by the minute.

"Iron Man to SHIELD base camp, respond," Tony finally called out over his suit's comm. system after a few more minutes, only to receive nothing but static in reply. "Ugh. Communications are down."

"SHIELD's down, too. I've got nothing," Coulson then reported before looking to his own teammate. "Daisy, got something?"

"…Sorry AC, but no," Daisy replied with a shake of her head. "We're on our own."

Despite the worries that began to stir up, the team continued to press onward, though with a bit more caution than before. Even Hulk seemed to get a bit more worried, as he quickly moved to the front of the group, almost as though he intended to act as a shield for the others in case something jumped out at them from in front. Wasp on the other hand, elected to fly ahead of everyone, scouting out the area for any signs of anything, until she finally happened upon what was left of the jets that had flown in the incursion team, and the base camp that they had set up outside of it. Needless to say, the sight of how so much of it had been torn to shreds in almost every way you could imagine scared her a little, but she did not let the others know that beyond the few words she offered up. "Man, look at this place."

Sora was about to nod in agreement when he saw something start moving behind the size-changer, and he immediately summoned out his Keyblade in a flash of light as he shouted, "Jan, move!"

Hearing the startled cries of her friend was more than enough to get Janet to fly away from her current position, but the fact that a large, rock-like monster had suddenly seemed to spring up from the ground definitely encouraged her to fly even faster. The Avengers and SHIELD agents were quickly putting themselves on guard, but the latter group suddenly found themselves frozen in their tracks as a pair of large, hulking men and a massive woman with wings joined up with the first creature. The one thing that all four monsters had in common was that they were all wearing the tattered remains of SHIELD uniforms, though the first monster also had the addition of a shredded lab coat over his large, rocky body.

"Coulson," Iron Man asked when he noticed how the agents had seemed to freeze up.

"It's them. It's my team," Coulson gasped in horror.

"No, they're not," Hulk growled while cracking his knuckles. "Right now, any part of them that was your team is too deeply buried beneath the monsters that they've turned into."

The combined roars and hisses that came from the gamma mutated SHIELD agents certainly helped prove Hulk's point, and at that moment, only one thought could come to Wasp. "I kind of miss chasing Hawkeye."

"You and me both," Yuffie admitted as she nervously fingered the shuriken in the pouch on her gamma armor's belt. She had made it a point to make sure all of her weapons had been moved into said pouches while she was changing, but somehow, she was suddenly finding herself thinking that a bunch of measly shuriken were not going to be of much help here.

All of a sudden, the mutated agents rushed at the team, and that snapped Coulson and his men out of their stupor, prompting them to open fire for all the good that it did. Even with the barrage of laser fire that the SHIELD agents were throwing out, the harpy agent was still able to break through and grab one of Coulson's men in her talons so she could carry him off, but thankfully, Wasp was quick to give chase. The minute that Janet hit a soft spot on the Harpy's leg, the agent ended up being released and fell right into Yuffie's waiting arms, and the ninja quickly began dashing away as fast as she could with the Harpy giving chase when she spotted where her prey had gone to. Not that she got too far, as Daisy suddenly came in from out of nowhere, and landed a hard kick into the Harpy agent's blindside. Daisy then quickly moved to get closer, only for the Harpy to suddenly leap up and with a loud screech and then pin the young agent beneath her.

Reacting on instinct, Daisy immediately raised one arm up to prevent her mutated teammate from clawing into her, all the while she tried to reach the woman inside. "May, stop! You need to try and focus," Daisy prompted. "It's me, Daisy! You know, your former protégé? We just had breakfast together the other day…kind of."

Apparently, May was not able to hear the young woman from inside the monster, because her attacks just grew more vicious, until someone suddenly blasted her with a fire ball from behind. Turning to the perpetrator of the attack, Harpy May saw Sora rushing with Keyblade in hand, and the spiky haired teen was soon skidding to a halt so that he would avoid getting hit by the powerful swipe that May swung out at him. Sora quickly dodged a second attack from the mutated SHIELD agent, and prepared to attack once again, when suddenly, May was blown away from him and Daisy by a surprise shockwave. Turning to the source of the blast, Sora could only gape as he saw Daisy with her arm extended upwards to where May had previously been while an aura of vibrational energy seemed to fluctuate around her gauntleted hand.

"Whoa," Sora gasped. "I'm guessing that's what the gauntlets are for?"

"Something like that, yeah," Daisy admitted with a shrug as she got back to her feet. She then threw both arms out as she fired another pair of shockwaves at the mutated May, sending her flying away from Coulson and another agent, and into arms reach of Samson, who quickly grabbed hold of her leg and swung her down to the ground as hard as he could.

Meanwhile, Iron Man was forced to blast into the air in order to avoid being crushed by the Golem Agent, who he realized was someone named Fitz upon seeing the name on what was left of his lab coat, but he was soon forced back when the rock monster swung its large arm around and into him. After using all of his thrusters to regain some stability, Iron Man quickly opened fire with some repulsor blasts, distracting Gamma Fitz long enough for Thor to slam Mjolnir into the golem and knock it to the ground. This did not go unnoticed by either one of the hulking men that were currently facing off against Captain America, Black Panther, and Hulk, and the minute that the slightly smaller one saw his comrade get knocked to the ground, he let out an angry growl and began slamming his fists into the captain's shield over and over again, while the bigger one just kept wailing on Hulk, while the jade giant blocked or dodged his blows.

"Yeah, that's right. Keep trying to hit stuff, and burn through that gamma energy," Hulk prompted, showing one of his few moments of strategic thinking. "It may not do much good in getting you back to normal, but it will at least tire you out enough for this!"

A minute later, Hulk finally landed a powerful punch that sent the bruiser that was perfectly equal to his size flying back a few feet, and he likely would have landed on Coulson had the agent not dove out of the way before the hulking agent had crashed down. When Coulson turned to get a better look at the mutated agent, he quickly recognized several features on the individual, including the odd looking rifle that looked like a combination of a shotgun and an ax, and soon said, "Sorry Mack. I know that getting hit by the Hulk isn't pleasant, but in this case, it's for your own good. Trust me; you'll be thanking us later."

Meanwhile, the gamma ogre, which could only have been the final member of Coulson's mutated teammates, Agent Triplett, or Trip to his friends, was continuing to pound down on Cap's shield, until T'Challa finally jumped in and kicked him away from the patriotic Avenger. Gamma Trip then rushed the Wakandan, only to T'Challa easily dodge him and then counter with a hard, leaping uppercut that was followed by a spin kick across the face. Unfortunately for Black Panther, his leg was quickly caught by the Ogre Agent, and was soon thrown across the battlefield like a rag-doll. When Gamma Trip turned back to where Captain America was, he found his vision being filled the captain's shield just seconds before Steve had rammed into him with a leaping charge. Upon landing behind Trip, Captain America only glanced over his shoulder for a minute to confirm that the Gamma Ogre was out of the fight before moving to join his teammates. Of course, even without seeing the dazed state of the mutated Trip, he probably would have been able to realize that easily enough with how the agent had dropped to the ground seconds later.

As for Thor, he had found that taking down the golem that had once been Agent Fitz a bit harder than he realized, because the agent in question had quickly stood up again and began pummeling the Asgardian several times over, much to Thor's irritation. His frustration soon found an outlet when Thor grabbed Gamma Fitz's large hand and bashed him away with Mjolnir, making him stumble a little closer to where Sora and Daisy were standing. At that point, Sora raised his Keyblade high into the air and called down a blast of his lightning spell, stunning Fitz long enough for Daisy to blast him with a pair of shockwaves, and for Hulk to then come in and land one final punch that finally knocked him out cold.

"Heh. That went well," Hulk grumbled.

"Tell me you're joking," Daisy almost begged.

"Nope. If they had been fully mutated, they would have done a lot worse than that," Hulk informed them. "Take it from someone who knows."

While the others just contemplated Hulk's words in silence, Thor just huffed in disappointment and said, "These creatures may share your origin, my friend, but they are pale reflections of the true Hulk."

"That's a good thing, Thor," Iron Man reminded the Asgardian as they all started walking over to the others, where they found Samson scanning the unconscious Agent May.

"And it's gonna stay that way, too, because they'll be back to normal as soon as we shut this whole thing down," Hulk revealed.

Before anyone could ask how he knew that, Samson stated, "He's right. Once these agents are clear of the gamma field, they should revert back to human form, hopefully, with no side effects."

"You had some pretty good moves back there, Doc," Captain America then told the gamma scientist. "You may not be quite at the same level of strength as the Hulk, but you were definitely impressive all the same."

"Naturally. Anyone can become tough if they get powers like I did, but it takes something special to be able to use it right, and Samson definitely has it," Hulk smirked, once again showing a side of him that the Avengers rarely ever seemed to see. This whole adventure was really shedding some light on the many facets of their gamma teammate's life before he joined the team.

"Doc Samson, Avenger. Think about it," Wasp then added.

"Yeah. I mean, if you get approval from both Cap and Hulk, you know that's a good sign," Sora piped in with his usual grin.

Samson probably would have felt honored by the praise under normal circumstances, but in this case, he had to disagree. "Look around," Samson sighed as he gestured to their surroundings. "This is all my fault. Bruce warned me, and I didn't listen. My only concern right now is making this right."

"Hey, you weren't the only one who didn't listen to Banner. Most people stopped listening to him anyway after I first showed up," Hulk pointed out. He then paused for a minute, glancing off to the side while seeming to mutter to himself, before he added, "And besides…you were just doing what you thought was right in trying to help others. Banner was the same way when he started doing his own work with gamma radiation, and that led him to me. If anyone can make this right, it's the three of us. Banner's words, not mine."

If it were not for the fact that everyone knew about Hulk being able to talk with Bruce inside of his mind, they all probably would have thought he was a little crazy. Well, they did sometimes think that Hulk was crazy, but it was usually for a different reason than that. Either way, it seemed to raise Samson's spirits a little, given the smile of thanks he was giving the big guy afterwards, but it was still a bit of a distraction from the task at hand, and Iron Man was happy to return their focus to that task. "This dome has to have some kind of power source like a gamma generator."

"And that would be right in the middle of the Cube. No way Leader would leave it anywhere else, and that's also the only way he could get a steady supply of gamma energy," Hulk indicated.

"If the Leader truly is as brilliant as you and Samson say, Hulk, then this is no doubt a trap. He would be prepared for SHIELD at the very least, and our large green friend at the very most," Black Panther suddenly pointed out.

Wasp suddenly gasped and exclaimed, "I forgot you talked."

"Tell me about it. I sometimes forget he does too, and that was before we all left Wakanda," Yuffie teased.

"Not the time, Yuffie," T'Challa almost growled in response.

Apparently, Thor had missed all of the jokes, but that was likely because the idea of running into more creatures like Hulk was making him a bit more eager for a better fight, because a minute later, he had come up to give T'Challa a friendly pat on the shoulder, or at least his version of one, and confidently stated, "If this is a trap warriors, then so be it."

Thor's bravery seemed to be rather encouraging to everyone, but Sora was still pretty concerned. If the gamma monsters that they encountered out here were that tough, there was no telling just how powerful the ones inside the Cube would be, and that was without taking into account the former inmates that were now running the prison. To be quite honest, he was not entirely sure if he could handle a fight that crazy. Sure, he had been through some difficult fights before, like when he faced off with Noctis a short time back, and every time he had fought the Heartless, but this was different. They were going up against creatures that were more than likely just as strong as the Hulk, and that scared him a little. It must have shown on his face, because Daisy soon came over and gave a playful nudge as she asked, "What's the matter, Samurai boy? Not thinking about chickening out on us, are you?"

"Get real," Sora scoffed as he tried to put on a smirk to keep anyone from worrying about him. It must not have worked though, because Daisy was still giving him a look that indicated that she knew better, and Sora quickly caved. "Hey, you can't tell me that I'm the only one who's worried about fighting a bunch of monsters that are just as strong as Hulk, can you?"

"Probably could, because they aren't as strong as me," Hulk answered for Daisy. "Even if someone or something is made the same way I was, there's no chance in hell that it could ever match me. I'm the strongest one there is, and that's never gonna change. Besides, like Goldilocks said, most of these guys are just cheap knockoffs. We can take 'em blindfolded."

That definitely raised Sora's spirits a little more, and anyone who was listening to Hulk's short speech was also feeling a little better about their chances. Still, not quite everyone was willing to just charge in without a plan, and Iron Man proved to be one of those people when he announced, "Okay, Thor and Hulk go in first."

---

A few hours later, the whole team was inside the Cube and they were all instantly on their toes as they made their way through the darkened hallways full of green mist that they could only assume was from the gamma radiation. "Stay sharp team," Captain America warned everyone.

Iron Man cast a look in the captain's direction and then said, "Right, everyone stay sharp."

Before anyone could shake their head at Stark's antics, one of the SHIELD agents hollered out in fear before he suddenly disappeared into the smoke, and a second agent was quick to follow soon after. Coulson tried calling out to his men, but it was of no use as he received no response in reply, and that was all the excuse that Daisy needed to start raising her arms in preparation to fire off another one of her shockwaves, while the Avengers all readied their own powers and weapons for action. "The gamma radiation is messing with my systems. I've got multiple contacts, but I can't lock them down," Iron Man then reported.

"If anyone is completely terrified, I can escort you out," Wasp then commented, and from the sound of her voice, Sora could tell that Janet was probably just as terrified herself, and to be honest, he could not blame her. The whole thing was reminding him of the very first time he ever watched a horror movie with his friends when they were kids. Needless to say, he never let Riku pick out a movie again after that night without making his best friend promise that it would not be of the horror genre, because that experience had left him terrified. He also claimed that it had left him scarred for life, but everyone just thought he was being dramatic. Kairi was the only who believed him, having been just as terrified of the movie as he was, and Riku always seemed to think that was another excuse for him to tease the two of them about being perfect for each other. Before Sora could make any comments in response to Janet's offer, Samson was suddenly grabbed by some invisible force and thrown against the wall, startling both Keybearer and size-changer when it happened. The really frightening thing was that Sora could have sworn that the smoke around them had suddenly grown arms and done it.

"Show yourself, coward," Thor then demanded, only to find himself grabbed from behind by a massive man who appeared to be made of metal and then thrown back like a sack of potatoes.

Seeing this large metal man, who he recognized as Ironclad, told Coulson exactly who was attacking them, and he immediately cried out, "It's the U-Foes!" A minute later, a man with a skull for a head, known to the world as X-Ray, had grabbed the SHIELD agent and zapped him with a powerful blast of electricity.

Captain America was about to move to engage when he was suddenly swept up off the ground by a swirl of green smoke which then seemed to take on the shape of a woman. A minute later, the smoke woman had drifted up to the captain and hissed, "Give Vapor a kiss." The minute she said that, Captain America found his suit penetrated by Vapor's gas form and his mouth being filled with toxic gas that began to suffocate him while somehow feeling like someone was trying to kiss him.

When Wasp and Yuffie saw X-Ray attacking Iron Man, they prepared to engage the gamma villain, when suddenly they found themselves being pulled away by an invisible force, almost like someone was moving the telekinetically, and were soon knocked into the wall. The minute after Wasp had fallen to the ground and Yuffie was starting to rise to her feet, Sora and Daisy started to move as well, only for a man who seemed to have the appearance of the galaxy cut out and given human shape with white eye and a v-shaped symbol on his forehead to step forward and wave his hand at them. A minute after he had, the two suddenly felt like the gravity around them had increased by a great deal, right to the point where they were forced down to their hands and knees in an effort to stay standing, leaving the strange man holding them free to say, "Welcome to the Cube."

"Vector," Sampson gasped. He then noticed a circular device on Vector's chest that he immediately identified and he then shouted, "That's…I created those devices to drain gamma energy!"

"The Leader has other plans for them," Vector replied as he gestured to the device on his chest, clearly beginning to boast. "Our power has increased to levels you can't…"

He was quickly cut off halfway through when Black Panther leaped down from where he had perched himself on a nearby wall and kicked him in the back. "You all talk too much," T'Challa commented before he leaped off of Vector.

"No kidding," Hulk growled when he saw Vector trying to stand, and he immediately stomped down on the villain in an effort to keep him from getting up again. It may have been a light push of his foot, but given Hulk's size and strength, that was not really saying much. Vector was just lucky he was only forced down into the floor enough to make a hole in the ground that was shaped like him.

Hulk then turned around to clap his hands together, and the shockwave of his thunderclap blew Vapor right off of Captain America right at the same time that Thor had managed to break free from Ironclad's hold. The Asgardian was just about to move and assist Iron Man with getting X-Ray off when Yuffie ended up beating him to the punch by tossing her shuriken at the electric-powered villain. Her attack did not hit, but it did distract X-Ray long enough for Iron Man to punch him off, so all that was left at that point, was to deal with Ironclad, a feat that was taken care of by Thor, Sora, and Captain America tossing their respective weapons at the large bruiser, disabling him the moment that they all hit, long enough for Daisy to knock him down a little more with another shockwave. "Truly a poor showing," Thor seemed to complain. "The Leader will have to do much better."

"Please don't give him any ideas in case he can hear us," Sora begged. He did not want to see what it was like if the Leader did worse than this.

"No," Black Panther suddenly cut in, getting everyone's attention at once. "The agents outside, the U-Foes, it is all a distraction."

"For what," Daisy asked, but she quickly got her answer when a large wave of electricity suddenly swooped down on Wasp and Coulson, shorting out their suits and then reemerged as Zzzax. Iron Man and Captain America immediately raised their respective methods of defense when Zzzax shot out a pair of blasts at them, when Sora swooped in to divert the attack with his Keyblade while Thor and Hulk charged at the supervillain in retaliation.

"Goldilocks! Go high," Hulk shouted as he slammed a powerful uppercut into Zzzax, knocking the electricity man into the air, and Thor, easily catching on to what his friend was planning, leapt up into the air shortly afterwards. Upon bringing his hammer down on the villain, Thor easily dispersed Zzzax in one fell swoop, but their efforts only seemed to amuse Vector as he attempted to sit up, despite the injuries he had incurred from Hulk earlier.

"You don't get it, do you," Vector asked as he struggled to hold himself up on his elbows. "We don't need to beat you."

"Could've fooled me, Spaceman," Sora retorted, not noticing how Iron Man's suit was fizzling with electricity after it had gotten showered with a bit of the dispersed electricity from Zzzax. Tony on the other hand, did not miss this fact, and quickly realized what the U-Foe leader meant by his remark.

"Oh, no, the gamma armor," Tony gasped in horror, and his suspicions were soon proven true after they all heard a loud, agonizing cry of pain from Wasp.

Turning to where their teammate and Coulson had fallen, the Avengers and Daisy could only watch in horror as their respective teammates' suits completely failed and began coming apart as they started mutating. In the next instance, Coulson had turned into an ogre like creature similar to the one that his teammate Trip had mutated into, while Janet had been transformed into a humanoid version of her namesake. The team could only look on at the two in horror until Gamma Wasp let a loud chittering sound and then shrieked loudly as she charged directly at Samson.

Sora was the first to react by getting in Wasp's path and raising his Keyblade in defense, allowing him to block some of the slashes that Wasp unleashed with her new stinger pincers, until one slash got through and managed to nail him in the side. Thankfully, it looked like Sora's suit held up against the attack, and Sora was able to lock his Keyblade with Wasp's pincers when she next attacked. "Janet, stop! It's me," Sora called out, hoping that he would have better luck in reaching his friend than Daisy had in reaching hers since Wasp had only just mutated. "It's Sora, remember? Your new, surrogate little brother? You took me to my first day of school at Midtown?" He almost faltered a little in his struggle to hold the lock between their respective weapons when Janet applied a little extra strength, and then glanced at the others before he whispered, "You tricked me into telling you about the change I made to mine and Kairi's cave drawing the other day? You know, the one that made it look like I was giving Kairi a paopu fruit?"

That seemed to shake Janet out of her gamma induced haze for a minute, given how her eyes stopped glowing green after she heard the words, but it only lasted for a short time, as the glow soon returned to her eyes and she then shrank down before beginning to attack Sora once again. Thor quickly came to Sora's aid, hoping to take the worst of Gamma Wasp's attacks so that they would not need to worry about Sora's suit being damaged and him getting mutated as well. The last thing they needed was to have to deal with a gamma monster with the power of a Keyblade, but at the same time, the number of mutated SHIELD agents that were now crawling out of the woodwork to surround the team, which included the now mutated Coulson, were not that much better in comparison.

"Well, this looks really bad," Yuffie commented.

"Oh, ya think," Iron Man retorted, even though he completely agreed with the ninja girl. "Thoughts?"

"We can't hurt these men," Captain America insisted, though he was not too sure that Hulk heard him over the way he was growling at their approaching attackers.

"I'm pretty sure they don't feel the same way about us," Iron Man quipped.

"They don't. They're nothing but blind rage and animal instinct right now, so they're gonna attack anything that they might perceive as a threat, which would be anything and just about everything," Hulk informed the team.

"Thanks Hulk. I feel so much better after hearing that," Iron Man drawled in response. "Panther, Yuffie, you two take Coulson. Cap and I will…"

Iron Man never got the chance to finish, as Black Panther suddenly flipped over his teammates and landed feet first atop a gamma SHIELD agent's head before flipping back once more and quickly running off in another direction. Not only that, but Yuffie was soon following his lead, though with the added bonus of tossing out a few of her smaller shuriken at some of the ones that were still standing on her second descent before she turned and followed T'Challa. "Yuffie? Panther," Iron Man called out in an attempt to get the two to stop.

Only Yuffie seemed to hear him though, as she turned back and said, "Don't worry. I'm pretty sure that Kitty-Cat has an idea. Just trust us; we'll be back before you know it."

"I can't believe this," Iron Man groaned as he watched Black Panther and Yuffie disappear from sight.

"Heads up," Captain America shouted just seconds before he had to block an attack from a mutated SHIELD agent, bringing Iron Man out of his groaning misery and back into the action as he jumped into the air and fired a unibeam at the offending gamma monster.

Quake and the other remaining Avengers all quickly began to take action shortly afterwards, and the hallway was quickly filled with whatever magic spells that Sora managed to call out, repulsor, laser blaster, and shockwave blasts, and the loud booms of Hulk's punches mixed in with the clangs and bangs of Cap's shield colliding with something. Sadly, it was not long before the U-Foes and Zzzax had started to recover, and they too were quickly joining the fight as well. When he saw this, Sora turned to aim his Keyblade towards the bigger threats that they were facing, and shouted, "STOP!" The result he got was just a big load of nothing, as the bad guys just continued advancing. "Stop," Sora attempted again, and he quickly began to grow frustrated as he kept waving the Keyblade in an attempt to encourage the spell to come out. "Come on, you did it before when we were fighting Kraven and Mysterio back at Midtown, what's the difference between that and these guys?!"

"Here's a thought: maybe it's the fact there's too many of them," Quake offered up as she shot off another blast at a gamma agent that had gotten too close for her comfort.

"We can't give up," Captain America insisted over the loud noises of battle that had filled the area.

"Won't matter if we do or don't," Hulk growled as he punched away another gamma agent before tearing some of the floor out and throwing it at the U-Foes in an attempt to keep them from getting close. "All they have to do is take out your armor, and you'll end up just like Wasp and Coulson."

"Hulk's right! We have to go for the generator," Iron Man informed the team while he continued to fire his repulsors. "Samson, go! I'll cover you."

Samson immediately raced off with Hulk hot on his trail, with Daisy flanking them both, and Captain America following behind a moment later while Iron Man continued to shot out some covering fire. Tony then turned to see that Thor was still engaged in battle against Gamma Wasp, while Sora was continuing to try and cast his time spell, and he quickly shouted, "Thor, Sora, we have to go!"

"But what about…" Sora started to argue as he glanced towards Janet in worry.

"Iron Man speaks truthfully, young Keyblade master," Thor admitted begrudgingly as he intercepted Wasp's next strike. "If we are to save Wasp, we must make haste and eliminate the greater threat, but rest assured my friend, the Leader will pay for this."

Sora wanted to argue, but he knew that Thor and the others were right and simply nodded before turning his Keyblade and firing off a few blasts of Blizzard in an attempt to build some form of ice wall that would stop their attackers from getting much closer. Thor was next to follow and he brought down a great deal of the ceiling to block the path so that the gamma agents and Gamma Wasp could not follow, which Sora then reinforced by firing a few Fire spells to bring down more of the ceiling in addition to that. It did not stop their attackers for very long, but seeing them break through definitely encouraged Sora and Thor to pick their pace, the former by teleporting closer to Quake's location while the latter merely flew faster while bringing down another portion of the ceiling in a second attempt at stalling.

Sadly, even the second blockade did little to slow down their tails for very long, as the gamma agents, Gamma Wasp, and all the gamma villains they had just faced were soon upon them once more. Sora, Thor, and Iron Man all quickly opened fire with their respective long-range attacks, when the iron Avenger was suddenly tackled from above by X-Ray. Iron Man was quick to blast the U-Foe off him, but he soon found himself directly beneath one of the gamma agents until Cap's shield suddenly struck the agent. "You four protect Samson! I'll get Tony," Steve then shouted to Thor, Sora, Quake, and Hulk as he retrieved his shield.

Unfortunately, the captain's rescue attempt was all for not, as both he and Iron Man were soon backed into a corner by several gamma mutates until they eventually caught in Zzzax's grip and their suits were quickly shorted out. As he felt the gamma rays seep into his armor, Iron Man called out, "Thor, Sora, Hulk, destroy…the generator…no matter what!"

Samson was about to move and help Iron Man when Thor placed a hand on the doctor's shoulder and said, "Doctor, Iron Man speaks truly. Find us the Leader and we will finish this."

Samson quickly nodded in understanding and then led the three remaining Avengers and the remaining SHIELD agent down the last bit of hallway to the generator. Unfortunately, the Leader was not the one waiting for them there. "Ah look Wrecker, they actually thought the Leader was gonna be here," Piledriver commented to the leader of the Wrecking Crew.

Piledriver then took one of the gamma enhancers and attached it to the device on his chance, and soon enough, the entire Wrecking Crew were all mutated into the Gamma Wrecking Crew. "Let's take 'em down, boys" Wrecker shouted, and his crew immediately charged in.

"Wrecking Crew," Quake asked.

"Aye," Thor replied exasperatedly. A minute later, Thunderball had thrown his wrecking ball directly at Samson, knocking him out of his suit. Thor, Sora, and Quake all looked on in shock only to see that Samson had remained the same as he was before.

"I'm…I'm okay. I'm not changing," Samson told them with a relieved chuckle.

"Guess that's as gamma-ed up as you're gonna get," Hulk huffed in reply before he had to punch Bulldozer back just seconds before the powered up supervillain could hit him.

Quake and Sora were both then rolling out of the way to avoid getting hit by a charging Piledriver, but Samson was not so lucky, and ended up getting pushed back out of the room. Quake would have sent out another shockwave when Wrecker suddenly dropped down from above, and she had to raise one of her arms up to defend herself. She soon let out a small cry of shock and mild pain as a result, due to Wrecker's crowbar damaging the gauntlet on said arm, prompting Sora to blast Wrecker away with a blast of Fire. "You okay, Daisy," Sora asked as he rushed over to her.

"Yeah," Daisy grunted while holding her arm. "He damaged my gauntlet, but his hit didn't get through my suit." Before either of them could say anymore, Thunderball's wrecking ball came out of nowhere and smacked right into Sora just seconds before it wrapped around Thor, preventing the Asgardian from moving to assist any of the others, and much to their horror, the blow ended up destroying Sora's suit much like it had Samson.

"SORA!" Thor, Hulk, and Quake all shouted at once, fearing the worst for the Keybearer, while the Wrecking Crew only grinned at the prospect of gaining what was likely going to be a powerful ally, but when the smoke cleared, they were all shocked to see that, despite his suit being torn apart, Sora remained completely unchanged.

This seemed to come as a surprise to Sora as well, because he took a few more minutes to look himself over in an effort to be sure that he had not mutated as well, but when he was absolutely certain, he could not help but grin and say, "Guess Thor's not the only one who didn't need to wear gamma armor, huh?"

Sora's boasting quickly came to an end when Bulldozer suddenly rushed him, forcing him to dodge to the side, activating his regular helmet and gauntlets as he rolled away, but given how Wrecker had just pinned down Thor, while Bulldozer's charge had ended up slamming Hulk several feet away from them, he was not so sure that he and Daisy would be able to do much of anything else to win. It did not help that Piledriver still had Samson pinned either, but that quickly changed when a number of shuriken suddenly rained down on the villains from up above, drawing Sora and Daisy's attention upwards just in time to see Yuffie dropping down to join the fight while Black Panther tossed a pair of vibranium daggers into the core of the generator. A moment later, the generator exploded, and the gamma dome was completely dispersed, while the resulting shockwave from the explosion proved powerful enough to knock out the Wrecking Crew, and likely reverberated outwards to knock out all the other gamma villains in the prison as well.

Seeing his allies slowly getting back to their feet again, T'Challa immediately dropped down from his high perch and assisted however he could, with Yuffie smiling at everyone all the while. "Sorry to keep you guys waiting for so long, but Kitty-Cat seemed to think that he could not share his plan with me despite how loud everyone was being," Yuffie joked to the others.

"Doesn't explain why you two suddenly quit the field and left us to fend for ourselves," Daisy groaned, clearly irritated with the two for that.

"Apologies, my friends, but we could not get close enough to the generator while the Leader's forces guarded it," T'Challa explained. "I was sure that you all would be able to distract them long enough for me to act, and though I did not expect Yuffie to follow after me, she did prove to be of great assistance."

"Why didn't you tell us that was what you were doing," Sora asked.

Now T'Challa had the decency to look a little sheepish before he admitted, "I felt that there was not enough time to do so, and you yourself said that there was a chance that the Leader could have heard us, Sora."

"That was mostly as a joke," Sora snapped. He then took a deep breath before letting it out in a long sigh and saying, "Maybe you should work on your team communication skills for our next mission."

"I will do my best to improve on that," T'Challa promised with a smile.

"Yeah, he's going to need a lot of help though. In case you haven't noticed, Kitty-Cat's not the most talkative person out there," Yuffie teased.

"Yuffie," T'Challa growled in warning, but all he got in return was a shared round of laughter from everyone else. Right now, they were all just happy that this nightmare was over. Everyone, except for Hulk that is, because he could only cross his arms with a cross, yet thoughtful look on his face.

---

A few hours later, the various villains that were acting as the Cube's defense forces were all cuffed and being escorted to transports that would take them to the temporary holding facility that had been set up for the Breakout escapees, while the Avengers and the agents that had been mutated by the Gamma Dome were being looked over by various doctors just to make sure that they had not suffered any long-lasting side effects from their exposure. Even Yuffie, Daisy, Thor, and Sora were being looked at, despite being the only ones who were never mutated by the Gamma Dome, but that did not keep anyone from being surprised by the fact that Sora was apparently immune to the effects of said dome. Frankly, it had left a lot of the scientists rather baffled, and Hulk confirmed that Banner was in the same boat as well. Not that Sora really had an explanation for why he had been unaffected by the dome, or at least not one that he could easily give. He figured that it either had something to do with his abilities as a wielder of the Keyblade, or the fact that he was from another world like Thor, but he could not really tell anyone here about that without knowing for sure who knew about those secrets and who did not, so he ended up just shrugging it off and saying that it was probably a power he had that he did not know about until now.

Whatever the case regarding Sora's immunity to the Gamma Dome may have been, everyone was just glad that they would not have to worry about battling a Hulked-out Keyblade Samurai any time soon, and Samson still had more good news to come as he reported to the recovering Coulson. "Everyone seems to be recovering with no residual radiation poisoning," the gamma scientist revealed. "The energy the Leader used was very specific."

"What about the Leader, himself? Was there any sign of him at all in the Cube," Coulson asked.

"No, but we saved a lot of lives today, and we foiled his big plan," Samson sighed, slightly disappointed that they had not captured their target, but still glad that they had stopped his plan. At least, he assumed so, until someone who had been very quiet during his debriefing finally spoke up.

"I'm not so sure about that," Hulk admitted, making everyone turn to him. "This was all too easy."

"Easy? I must have gone on a different mission," Yuffie rebuked, because if you were to ask her, nothing about this little run into the Cube had been easy.

"This was too easy a win for anything that involves the Leader," Hulk clarified. "If he wanted to really make this little plan of his stick, and have a huge impact, he wouldn't have gone for something so small."

"How was any of this small? We had a prison full of powered up radiation-powered villains and several agents and superheroes that were mutated by gamma rays, and that would've expanded out to a nearby town, and city soon after," Daisy reminded him.

"And if the Leader really did want to do something like this, he wouldn't have made it so that the dome would need to expand out for a few hours in order to affect a town. He would've just started in the most populated area that he could find," Hulk revealed, scaring everyone the minute that they heard that. "Why settle for a small army of gamma monsters, both new and old, when you can have an entire city worth of them?"

"Maybe he just got a little overconfident or something," Sora offered, but he knew that his idea was weak even before he had opened his mouth.

Hulk still had to disagree, albeit silently, as both his and Banner's minds were both working several miles a minute trying to piece together the puzzle. Eventually, one idea did begin to form, and it was not one that either side of the gamma hero particularly liked. "Or…this whole thing was just…a test run."

"A test run? A test run for what," Coulson asked, now really confused.

"Uh…I'm thinking it might have something to do with that, Boss," Daisy stated nervously as she pointed to something behind Coulson, while Hulk and the others all just looked on with wide-eyed fright.

Turning to what his agent was referring to, Coulson also found his eyes widening as he saw what looked like the edge of a second Gamma Dome quickly moving to encompass them, and that was all the cue that Sora needed to reactivate his helmet and gauntlets once again while his hand started flexing in preparation to summon out Kingdom Key again at any second. Everyone else was just on edge, but unlike Sora, it was not because they were preparing to fight. It was because none of them were wearing gamma armor this time, and that could only mean one thing for everyone who was not gamma proof. More to the point, the number of people who were immune to gamma radiation was much smaller than the number that was not, and seconds later, Hulk, Sora, Thor, and Samson were all turning this way and that as they heard the screams of the other Avengers and SHIELD agents echoing around them before giving way to loud roars, shrieks, and other animalistic or monstrous sounds. Even Iron Man was not immune to the effects of the gamma rays that had just surrounded them, as his armor's protection against that particular brand of radiation had been shut down because of Zzzax and his helmet was also open while he had helped oversee the transport of the captured villains. Before anyone knew it, the three Avengers and the gamma scientist were all surrounded by monstrous versions of their friends and allies.

"How is this possible? The Leader's machine was destroyed," Thor questioned after moving to stand back-to-back with Hulk, Samson, and Sora.

"Yeah, the machine for his test run," Hulk reminded Thor. "Told you guys it was too easy."

"Hulk, I think I speak for everyone here when I say I'm beginning to hate it when you're right," Sora quipped.

"Tell me about it," Hulk groaned, with Banner saying the exact same thing from inside his conscious.

Before anymore could be said, Samson was suddenly tackled away from the three Avengers by a large, cat-like creature wearing what they all recognized as what was left of Black Panther's suit. Sora was just about to move and help get his gamma mutated friend off of the scientist when several more gamma monsters suddenly barred his path, along with the Gamma Avengers. As he looked over his teammates, Sora could not help but become a little more worried. He knew that anyone of his teammates were tough in their own rights, but with this new transformation, which definitely included strength that rivaled Hulk's, there was very little chance that they could survive this fight, meaning that he and the remaining two Avengers only had two options. Somehow though, Sora did not think that Hulk and Thor were liable to run away, and the Asgardian quickly proved his suspicions by repeating Sora's earlier actions when they first saw Wasp transform.

"Avengers, remember who you are," Thor pleaded with his Midgardian comrades, only to get a loud roar from Gamma Captain America and Gamma Iron Man in response.

"It's not gonna be that easy, Thor," Hulk reminded his teammate, and given that Hulk was using the Asgardian's real name, Sora and Thor both knew that the big guy had now gotten serious.

Before anyone could ask for some ideas of a plan, the gamma monsters all rushed at the three, prompting Hulk to let out a loud roar as he began punching, kicking, and even thunder clapping them away from their group as best as he could, while Sora and Thor just did their best to parry, deflect, or avoid the attackers. Neither of the other two were too willing to fight their friends or innocent people, but from the looks of things, it did not seem like they were being given much of a choice. Still, they were surprised that Hulk was so willing to just open up and start fighting back like he was. Then again, they had been told that the big guy had basically been going up against the whole world for years now, so it probably should not be that much of a surprise. What was shocking though was the next thing that Hulk said when he finally found a chance to take a break from his attempts at keeping their mutated comrades away.

"We have to get out of here," Hulk bellowed to the other two.

"Are you mad, Hulk," Thor questioned as he caught Gamma Yuffie, who had turned into a massive, female brute with claw-blades sticking out of her wrists. "You wish to run from this battle and leave our friends to this suffering?!"

"He's right! We can't just leave the others like this," Sora protested.

"You want to help them?! Then we need to go! We can't do anything other than get overrun and taken to the Leader if we stay here," Hulk shouted back, punctuating his point by making a mini-earthquake after slamming his fists into the ground. Hulk's attack did disperse quite a few of the gamma monsters, but that hole was being filled just as quickly, so if they were going to go, now was the time. "COME ON! MOVE YOUR ASSES!"

Thor merely hung his head in silence, showing that he realized that his friend had a point, and when he looked up again, he replied, "You go, Hulk. Take Young Sora with you. The two of you may be our best hope at stopping this."

"But Thor," Sora started to say, only to suddenly be picked up by a large green hand, and thrown over the shoulder of the gamma hero that it belonged to. "Hey! Hulk, put me down!"

"Sure, I'll do that after we get out of here," Hulk retorted, and with that, he took a mighty leap that saw both him and his passenger flying over the heads of their attackers and away from the battle royale that Thor was now facing alone. Not that it lasted for too long, as Thor was quickly overrun, and the Asgardian soon found himself praying that his friends would return with a key to victory soon. Otherwise, he was going to be in for a world of trouble.

---

"Let me down! We have to go back for them," Sora shouted as he continued trying to get Hulk to let him off this sudden ride.

"Only if you've suddenly learned to fly without your fancy motorbike, and if you get a clue," Hulk insisted as they came crashing down on the ground again. "Face facts, Sora: we can't do anything to help right now, and if we want to stop the Leader, we need to be stronger and smarter. We can't just go in with fists, swords, and powers swinging this time. I've learned that the hard way several times over after dealing with him."

Sora wanted to argue, to say that they could have done something to help the Avengers and SHIELD agents, but he knew that right now, they could not. Hulk was right; Leader had planned for all of this, made them think that they had stopped him when he was just setting up for his real scheme, and they all fell for it. Plus, the others had said that Leader was just as smart as the Hulk was strong, so if they wanted to save the others and the world, then Hulk probably was making the right call in getting them away from the fight they had been caught in so that they could better plan a counterattack. Sora did not like it, mainly because this all seemed a little too much like the day his home was lost to darkness, but he could see the logic behind Hulk's thinking. Besides, unlike the Destiny Islands, this world was not lost yet, and it definitely had not been lost to the Heartless, so they could still save it, and that was exactly what he and the Hulk were going to do.

Seeing that his friend had finally calmed down, Hulk slowly let Sora off his back again, when he spotted something off in the distance, and immediately pointed it out to his spiky haired friend. Turning his gaze in that direction, Sora used his helmet's scanners to zoom in and get a better look at the object, and immediately gasped in recognition soon afterwards. "We might have a little more help than you think, but only if we can get to them fast enough! Come on," Sora stated as he raced off in the direction of the object, his Keyblade already summoned into his hand.

Hulk could only give Sora a confused look, but if the kid thought that they were going to find help, he was not going to say no. Hey, even the strongest hero there is needs an extra hand now and then, and they definitely needed a few more hands if they were going to stop the Leader, so Hulk followed after his otherworldly friend. He started to rethink that idea when he saw who Sora had raced over to help, because he remembered this particular pair very well. "Hulk remembers you two," the jade giant snarled. "Stupid arrow man and spy girl!"

"Hey, easy, Hulk, I know Hawkeye's a criminal, but Black Widow's on our side," Sora reassured the big guy. "She's one of the people who helped me out when I first appeared on the Helicarrier."

Indeed, there before the two Avengers, squaring off with one another with weapons at the ready to fire, were none other than the former partners, Hawkeye and Black Widow. Once SHIELD's best tag-team, now enemies on opposite sides, and judging by the slightly banged up Sky-Cycle nearby, along with the recently cut ropes, it seemed pretty clear that the archer was the reason why the two were here. The two agents only spared the pair of Avengers a small glance, not willing to take their eyes off of the other for even a second, but it was just long enough to confirm who had just appeared to them, and Natasha was the first of the two to acknowledge the Avengers' presence, starting with the one she was a little more familiar with. At least in terms of people she's interacted with outside of a mission.

"Sora, your timing couldn't be better," Natasha called out while doing her best to keep her guard up. "Hawkeye ambushed me while I was on an assignment and was just about to…"

Before she could finish, Black Widow was hit in the chest with an electric arrow and dropped down to the ground, completely unconscious. Seeing that definitely got Sora mad, because while he may not have really interacted with the redhead for long, or even all that much, he still liked to think he could consider her a friend, and he had already had to leave quite a few friends to get hurt or worse today. Apparently, Hulk shared that feeling, given the way he was growling at the archer responsible, but just when they were about to attack, Hawkeye dropped his bow on the ground between them. He then reached over to remove his quiver from his back and dropped that as well, confusing the two even more, even as he raised his hands up and said, "I surrender."

A brief look was exchanged between Sora and Hulk before the former finally gave voice to their confusion. "What gives," the Keyblade Samurai asked. "You give us the run around for weeks, nearly put an arrow through one of our friends, attack your former partner, and now you're just giving up like it's no big deal? I thought you HYDRA agents were supposed to fight to the end or something like that."

"First off, I was never actually going to fire that arrow at Wasp. It was really just more of a scare tactic. Second, yeah, HYDRA agents do fight to the end like that, but I'm not a HYDRA agent. She is," Hawkeye revealed, indicating Black Widow with his eyes, confusing both heroes even more. "Black Widow was going to sell off a sample of Hulk's blood to HYDRA to be weaponized, and when I caught her in the act, she set me up to take the fall in her place. The minute I got out of the Vault, I had spent the last few weeks tracking her down, along with anything I could get my hands on to prove my innocence and Natasha's guilt."

Sora was not sure what to think now. Looking back, he did remember that Widow had been pretty cold when they first met, and did not really come off as being incredibly friendly, but he was sure that she and Agent Hill were the ones who had helped when he first landed on the Helicarrier. Was that all just part of the act she was putting on as part of her cover? Then again, how could he really take Hawkeye at his word? The guy was a criminal, but what if he had been framed? Normally, Sora probably would have been able to tell one way or the other, easily, but in this case, it was hard for him to know anything for sure. Eventually, Sora just looked over at Hulk, wondering if his big green friend had any ideas to know if the archer was telling the truth, because he was just far too lost to know for sure.

Hulk stomped over to Hawkeye, glaring down at him all the while, but the archer did not waver at all, and kept his gaze and his posture completely steady. Hulk knew that if Hawkeye was lying, he would be able to get the archer to spill it just by doing what he was currently doing, but Hawkeye just kept on staring up at him. Eventually, Hulk just huffed and said, "You came to visit Banner in the Cube once, wondering why I helped save a jet full of SHIELD agents when I could've made a run for it."

"Yeah, and I don't think I ever got a straight answer on that question, either," Hawkeye reminded him.

Hulk continued to glare down at the archer before he finally said, "Probably because of the same reason why you're not running now that you've got what you were after." With his piece said, Hulk stood up straight again, walked over to Sora, and said, "Help Cupid tie up stupid spy girl, and then see if he's got anything else to prove she's a traitor besides a sample of my blood."

Sora was still a bit unsure about this, but if the Hulk was willing to trust Hawkeye on this, he was not going to argue. From what he could tell, the big guy had more experience with these two than Sora had, and judging by what was just said, it sounded like these two had some history beyond just meeting in the midst of a mission to capture Hulk, so maybe the archer could be trusted. Besides, there was a good chance that Hulk would have punched him if he said no, and Sora was not too willing to be on the receiving end of that.

After helping to tie up Black Widow, Hawkeye showed the two Avengers some video footage of the redhead making a deal with HYDRA agents, and that was what really confirmed that Hawkeye was indeed on their side, but Sora still could not figure out why she would help him back when he first appeared on the Helicarrier if she really was one of the bad guys. Hawkeye had said that Widow was a master spy for a reason and that he should not feel too bad about being tricked by her when he asked the archer, but that did not make Sora feel any better. When Black Widow finally started coming around, it was no surprise to anyone that Sora and Hulk were both glaring at her just as fiercely as her former partner was because of that detail.

Seeing her current situation and knowing that she had to get out of there, Natasha immediately started to trying to reach one of her knives, only to stop short when everyone suddenly heard the Leader's voice coming from the radio on Hawkeye's Sky-Cycle. "Attention, humanity," Leader calmly called out.

"That's a restricted SHIELD frequency," Hawkeye informed the other two.

"Too bad that's not a SHIELD agent using it," Sora added as they all turned to the image that was being produced by the holographic projector.

"Humph. You ask me, it's probably a good thing for everyone that he isn't a SHIELD agent. The whole organization would probably collapse under the weight of his ego alone," Hulk huffed in jest.

That got a smile onto Sora and Hawkeye's faces, but they were quickly wiped away as Leader continued his announcement to the world. "I come to you with a message, and that message is 'Do not be scared.' The Gamma Dome that has formed in the American southwest is no threat. It is a promise. It is going to change the world for the better. You are weak. You suffer with your small minds and fragile bodies, and you have plunged the world into darkness with your faults."

"Pretty sure I'd have noticed if this world was being plunged into darkness," Sora quietly muttered, only to get shushed by both Hawkeye and Hulk a minute later. Apparently, they were hoping that they would get something useful out of Leader's monologue.

"But I am here to save you. I will remake the world in my image. I will remake you in my image. You will be perfect, like me, and I will think your thoughts for you. The Gamma energy will grow to envelope the Earth and you will be transformed. Your power will be my power. Accept your future, for I am your Leader. Welcome to Gamma World!"

The three heroes and SHIELD traitor all just narrowed their eyes as Leader's message finally ended and the hologram switched off. The man was definitely insane if he thought anyone was really going to let him get away with this plan of his. Thankfully, there were three people right here who had no intention of letting the Leader remake the world in anyway, or of letting him enslave anyone. Of course, Hawkeye felt that he had to be sure of something before they made any moves.

"You're part of this, aren't you," Hawkeye accused, though a small bit of him was hoping that she would say no so that he could at least know that she was not this far gone.

"Don't be stupid. HYDRA has as much to lose as anyone if that maniac takes over the world," Widow snapped back in kind, keeping a hard glare on the archer while she did. When she turned to Hulk and Sora though, her expression did soften up a little, and she guessed, "The Avengers were inside that dome, weren't they?"

"…Yeah," Sora confirmed with a sad nod, while Hulk just kept quiet. Even so, they could all still see that the jade giant was just as upset about that as Sora was. Any sad feeling Sora had though seemed to get pushed away though, for the most part, as the kid quickly perked up and said, "But we're gonna be able to save them. After all, so long as any one of us is still able to fight, we're not gonna let the Leader win."

"Love the optimism, kid, but how do you propose we do that," Hawkeye asked.

"Simple," Sora shrugged. "Thor wasn't mutated like the other Avengers, so he should be ready to fight when we go after the Leader, and besides, we've got the best gamma scientist in the world on our side."

The other three just stared at Sora like he had grown a second head for a minute, until Hawkeye finally caught on and smacked his head for not realizing it sooner. "Duh. Banner," the archer exclaimed.

Apparently, Hulk did not like that idea, because he was soon growling at the other two heroes like they had just kicked his puppy and said, "Banner's not home. We don't need him to stop Leader!"

"Look, Hulk, I get that you're a lot smarter and tougher than people give you credit for, but it's like I said a while back, there are some ways in which Bruce can help more people than you can, just like there are ways that you can help more people than him. Well right now, if we want to stop the Leader, we're going to need Bruce Banner more than we need the Hulk. If only for a few hours at most," Sora tried to reason.

Hulk did not seem like he was going to budge on this, given that he had quickly crossed his arms and turned away from Sora in a huff, so, Hawkeye decided that he should take a shot at convincing the big guy to let Banner out. It was probably going to get him smashed, but right now, they did not have the time to being playing nice. "All right, listen, Bigfoot," the archer snapped, startling Hulk a little and making Sora and Widow both fear for his safety with every word he spoke after that. "We don't have time for you to be getting an attitude just because big brother is able to help more than you, so if you don't give us Bruce Banner in the next three seconds, bottom line? I will take you down, and make Banner come out myself."

At that point, the whole area had gone silent, save for the sounds of the approaching Gamma Dome, with Widow and Sora both gaping at Hawkeye. The redhead did not doubt Hawkeye's skills, and Sora knew that this guy was one of SHIELD's best for a reason, but from where they were standing, he was not likely to be able to take down the Hulk on his own. What made this even more unbelievable was that Hawkeye did not seem to doubt his claim in the least bit. Hulk must have seen that the archer was being completely serious too, and it did not look like he was going to lose any of that confidence any time soon. Sure, Hawkeye had helped to take him down once before, but that was mainly because he had help from Widow, and Hulk had to stop and save the jet that Hawkeye's crew was in before it had crashed, so he doubted that the archer could win in a straight up fight against him.

With all of this in mind, Hulk did the only rational thing someone could do after hearing a guy with a bow and arrow threaten the strongest being on Earth. He burst out into gut wrenching laughter, and Sora was not too far behind him in that amusement. The two laughed, and laughed, and eventually started laughing so hard that Hulk had to hold his sides in order to try and stave off the pain his laughter was causing, while Sora almost dropped to the ground he was laughing so hard, while a few tears almost started to fall from his eyes. In fact, Sora was laughing so hard, he had almost missed how Hulk's loud, boisterous laughter changed into that a much more subdued, quiet person's chuckles, but the minute he realized they had, he immediately started trying to get himself under control just long enough to see what had happened.

There, standing before the group, was none other than Bruce Banner himself, pulling up and tightening the torn pair of pants that Hulk was wearing before in an effort to keep his only article of clothing on as he started to calm down from his chuckles. "Oh…Okay. You'll have to give me a minute. He hasn't let me out in a long time," Bruce panted. He then looked to the other two and said, "Now, Agent Barton, if you're serious about helping us stop this, then I'll need you to give me a lift. There's a place nearby that should have all the equipment we'll need if we want to stop the Leader."

"How do you know that," Sora asked.

"I'll explain once we're there," Bruce informed Sora while making his way to Hawkeye's Sky-Cycle.

"Wait, what about the kid? Isn't he going to need a ride," Hawkeye asked. His question was quickly answered when he heard Sora summon his Keyblade, and he turned just in time to see the kid transform said blade into his Keyblade Glider before hopping aboard.

"I'm good. I'll just follow after you guys," Sora informed the archer, who was only able to nod in reply, having been too stunned by what he just saw to speak. At least for a few minutes.

"Nice," Hawkeye finally complimented with a smirk after he regained his voice and collected his weapons. "Wish I could do that with my bow."

It was at that point that Widow realized that the boys were not making any moves to bring her along, and she finally found her own voice again too. "Wait a minute. You're going to need my help," Widow called out to them. "If we move fast enough, we can all…"

"What do you mean 'we,' traitor," Hawkeye snapped, startling the redhead with his angry outburst. "If you seriously think I'm going to trust you to not shoot us in the back the minute everything's said and done, then clearly your head's a little more messed up from the electric arrow I hit you with earlier than I thought."

Widow immediately looked to Sora after hearing that, and said, "You can't seriously be okay with this, can you? I helped Fury and Hill save your life when you first showed up. You owe me for that."

Sora just looked at her evenly, before he sighed and said, "We should at least move her to somewhere that she'll be safe from the Gamma Dome for a little while longer."

"Yeah, we don't have the time for that, and she'll likely have figured out a way to escape by the time we finally dump her off," Hawkeye argued. He then sent his former partner another look and said, "Besides, she's one of the deadliest people on the planet, kid. If we give her even a little wiggle room, she'll take us all down before we can blink."

Sora doubted that anyone could be that good, but given how serious Hawkeye looked when he said that, he had a feeling that the guy was not exaggerating. Or at least not by that much, so Sora just nodded and prepared to move out, much to Natasha's dismay. "Come back here," Widow shouted angrily as she struggled to stand up, even though she was still tied up. "You can't leave me like this!"

Upon hearing that, Sora switched his glider out for his Keyblade again, aimed it at the redhead and said, "Maybe not, but I think we can leave you like this. Stop!" A minute later, any hopping around or struggling that Black Widow had been doing up to that point came to an end with the sound of a clock chime, indicating that Sora's spell worked this time. That did not stop the kid from leveling Kingdom Key with a look. "Sure, now you want to do the spell."

"Hey, if it keeps her from getting away a little longer, I'm not complaining too much," Hawkeye shrugged. He then shot a smirk at the redhead and said, "Look on the bright side, Widow. Your new green skin will match your eyes."

"She does seem like she would have the temper for it," Bruce noted as he made sure he was secure on the back of the Sky-Cycle, and with that, the three took off, following the directions that Bruce was giving to Hawkeye, and leaving a frozen Natasha in their wake, who could only growl mentally at the state she had been left in while glancing at the approaching Gamma Dome in worry from the corner of her eye.

---

Meanwhile, back in the center of Las Vegas, Thor and Samson had just been dumped before the Leader, both heavily injured and tired, but still alive all the same. At least for the most part, but only because the Leader needed at least one of the two able to answer some of the rare questions that he could not answer himself. He was going to get those answers sooner than anticipated, as Thor started to come around, being able to recover a little more quickly thanks to his Asgardian physiology. Of course, the blonde also quickly noticed that he was missing something very important. "My hammer," Thor groaned, not feeling Mjolnir's familiar weight anywhere on his person. "Where…"

"Ah, yes. It is quite curious," Leader stated in a tone that would make one think he was actually impressed with something. Of course, it could be that he was at least a little intrigued, but he was most likely not ever going to admit that. "My Wrecking Crew could not lift your weapon, even with their strength enhanced by my gamma boosters, and of all the Avengers, you and the boy with the odd, key-shaped weapon were not affected by my gamma energy. Now tell me, why is that?"

"Only those worthy of the thunder may wield Mjolnir, villain," Thor proudly declared, now knowing full well why he was here, but he did not plan on giving Leader anything that he did not need to know. "And as for your 'energy,' mortal science holds no fear for an Asgardian."

"That only explains you, Asgardian, but it does not explain why the boy was unaffected," Leader countered. "He is clearly not like you, and is just as obviously very human, and yet he was not transformed by my gamma energy, so why is it that he is immune?"

At that point, Thor could not hold back a brief chuckle as he replied, "You may be even madder than I originally believed if you believe that your energy could possibly pose any threat to one who wields the Keyblade. The powers he wields are greater than any even the most accomplished of Asgardian warriors and sorcerers could ever hope to comprehend, let alone a troll such as you, even without them realizing it."

Thor knew that he may have been overselling it a little, which was just as likely to put Sora in danger as it was to keep him out of it, and that he was only making a guess as to why the wielder of Kingdom Key was immune to the Gamma Dome's effects, but it was not like he could really say anything else. Apparently, his answer did not seem to satisfy Leader, as he stated, "Very well. It does not matter if you know or not, or even if you're willing to give me the answers. I will find them in time, and correct the flaw that he is in my coming world. As for you, I suppose if gamma energy has no effect on a thunder god, then you will simply have to serve as entertainment."

A moment later, Samson was yanked away from the room, with Thor unable to tell where the scientist had been taken, and the Asgardian was just seconds away from calling his trusted hammer to him when he was suddenly tackled and then pummeled into the floor by the gamma villain that he had seen earlier in Coulson's briefing: Abomination. From that point on, Thor had to endure taking a beating from the hideous gamma villain, all the while attempting to concentrate long enough to call his hammer to him. Unfortunately, he knew that meant he would need to do whatever he could to keep both villains distracted, and there was only one way to keep Leader's attention occupied: to keep him talking. If there was one thing that Thor knew about tyrants like Leader, it was that they loved to hear their own voices.

"You call yourself Leader, but what gives you the right to lead this world," Thor demanded after picking himself up off the floor. "You defeat your enemies with trickery, with the strength of others! You have no honor."

"You wish me to talk," Leader asked, though whether he knew what Thor was doing or not, it was hard to say, because he quickly granted the request. "Fine. Why should I lead humanity? I am the most advanced mind the world has ever seen. I think on a level normal human beings cannot begin to comprehend. Look at this world, Asgardian. Mankind is on the brink of destruction. They need me."

'Why do they always enjoy talking this much,' Thor wondered to himself. Even if listening to Leader drone on and on did help keep the two villains occupied while he concentrated on his hammer, this one fact about such tyrants still left him rather baffled after all these centuries.

---

As it turned out, the place that Banner was directing his group to was an old cabin in the nearby forest that he had set up some lab equipment with, and even from their very amateur perspective, Hawkeye and Sora could tell that it was incredibly impressive for someone who had been spending his time avoiding various organizations like Ross and SHIELD at the time when he had set it up. "Wow. You did all this while you were on the run," Hawkeye finally whistled in admiration after a few minutes of letting Bruce work in silence.

"Yes, and don't touch anything, either of you," Bruce cautioned from the computer. "That especially goes for you, Sora."

"What? Why are you giving me more grief than Hawkeye," Sora protested, while the former SHIELD agent in question just smirked at the kid.

Bruce paused for only a moment to give Sora a small look that held steady as he asked, "Remember how hard a time you had figuring out how to use the basic functions of a smartphone?"

In response, Sora just let out a long moan before he replied, "For the tenth time that was not my fault! How was I supposed to know that particular app Tony put on the phone was connected to the mansion's defense systems? More to the point, why would Tony have put an app that controls the mansion's defense systems on my phone in the first place?"

Hearing all of this, Hawkeye was not sure if he should be laughing or feeling very worried about the kid's technical skills, but he knew one thing for sure: this scenario that the two were talking about was probably one of those things that one should not ask about. He was still going to make some kind of joke at the kid's expense though. "Shouldn't you know all about the latest tech that all kids in middle school use these days," Hawkeye questioned.

"I'm fourteen, and in high school, for one thing," Sora retorted. "And second of all, it's not my fault that I'm not really able to do…much with technology, but I've never really needed to before."

"Uh-huh. What, were you raised on a deserted island or something," Hawkeye asked.

"Well not a deserted island, but…"

"Can we focus, please," Banner interrupted before the two got to the point where they were tearing each other's heads off, all while turning back to his computer again. "Agent Barton's Sky-Cycle collected quite a bit of data about the gamma energy the dome was putting off, and with the scans that the scanners in your helmet made, Sora, I think I've just about got a few things figured out."

"What can I say? SHIELD likes to be thorough," Hawkeye shrugged before turning to the kid again. "But how come your helmet was getting a bunch of scans without you knowing it?"

"Well, Tony said he made the thing to give me a little more protection when we're out in the field, so, I guess a bunch of different scanners were part of that," Sora reasoned. "Guess SHIELD aren't the only ones who like being thorough."

Hawkeye would have commented on that had Bruce not suddenly jabbed a needle into his arm. "OW! Hey! What'd you do that for," Barton demanded.

"I just inoculated you," Bruce explained. "That will temporarily protect you from the Leader's gamma energy."

"So how come you're not stabbing the kid, too," Barton questioned.

"He won't need it. Apparently, Sora's powers make him gamma proof," Banner revealed.

When Hawkeye gave Sora a look of question, clearly seeking confirmation, Sora just shrugged and said, "It was pretty surprising for me too, because I thought for sure I was going to turn into some kind of mindless monster when my gamma armor was destroyed. No offense to you or Hulk, Bruce."

"None taken by either of us," Bruce reassured while he began packing one of his bags. "We're gonna have to do some of this en route. There's not much time. The longer people are exposed the energy, the more likely the changes will become permanent."

"So I guess we just gotta smash the gamma energy core again, like we did at the Cube, right," Sora figured.

"You would be correct, and it will be at the epicenter of the dome with the Leader, which I've already located," Bruce revealed, bringing up the location in question on his computer screen.

"Well, you've just got all the answers don't you," Hawkeye stated sarcastically. "So how are we gonna get to the Leader?"

Bruce then turned to Hawkeye and smirked as his eyes began to glow green and he replied, "The direct route."

"So basically, you're gonna get angry while I follow you guys there on my Keyblade Glider, right," Sora asked, just to make sure.

"Nope, you'll be riding the Hulk express with Hawkeye, Sora," Bruce revealed while his skin slowly started to turn green like his eyes. "Besides, that's actually the secret. I'm always angry."

A minute later, Hulk was smashing out through the roof of the cabin, with both Hawkeye and Sora clinging onto his back for dear life. Despite what Hawkeye would say later though, Hulk would definitely back Sora up in saying that the girlish scream that could likely be heard for miles had, in fact, come from the archer.

---

Thor had finally had enough of being Abomination's punching bag, and the next time that Blonsky threw a punch, the Asgardian easily caught it, and then decked the former soldier turned gamma villain clear across the room. Were he any other man, Leader might have been impressed, and maybe a little worried, but instead, he continued to sit calmly in his chair far from Thor's reach. "You cannot win, you must know that," Leader told Thor, apparently not at all bothered by Abomination's sudden defeat.

"I disagree, villain," Thor confidently stated. Mere seconds after Thor had voiced his disagreement, Thor's mighty hammer had flown through the window and into his hand, unleashing a lightning strike outside the moment it touched Thor's hand. "I played your game long enough for me to retrieve Mjolnir, and now your game is over!" Before he could even start to charge or even pull back for a throw, the floor seemed to suddenly spring up and slowly encompass him, while the Leader just smirked in amusement. "What manner of…"

"You feeble-minded fool," Leader openly mocked. "Of course I wanted you to retrieve your hammer. I let you do it."

The Asgardian was confused for a moment, until one particular name from the Avengers' most wanted list came to his mind, and his eyes widened in realization as he realized why the Leader would do that. It was too little, too late now though, as the substance holding him suddenly unwrapped and formed a hand a top Mjolnir revealing the Absorbing Man. "Nice hammer," the gamma villain complimented as he absorbed the material of Mjolnir and transformed his whole body into it. "Now let me show you why they call me the Absorbing Man."

The minute Absorbing Man's body was completely covered in Mjolnir's material, he seemed to flash with electricity, all while the Leader declared, "You asked before what gives me the right to rule? Because no one can stop me."

Absorbing Man and Abomination then began knocking Thor back and forth between them while said the Thunderer did his best to try and fight back, all while he had to listen to the Leader continue to drone on, "In fourteen point seven hours my gamma dome will have covered half the planet. In another eleven point four three hours, the entire world will be engulfed! Anyone within the dome is mine to command. You have lost, Asgardian."

Thor snarled in response as he slammed his hammer against Abomination and shouted, "Never!"

Thor was then tackled and sent plummeting to the streets below by Absorbing Man, sending several of the mutated citizens flying away when they crashed. Leader did not seem too worried, as he simply continued from where he had left off, saying, "And without the Avengers, who is left to stand against me?"

"There is that brat with the key sword for one," Abomination pointed out.

Leader just scoffed at that idea, and said, "Please. What threat can a mere child ever hope to pose against me?"

His question was soon answered, when the floor suddenly exploded behind him, and Hawkeye, Sora, and the Hulk leapt up with weapons and fists primed and ready for action. "You, with the head. Freeze," Hawkeye shouted.

"Doesn't matter if it's figuratively or literally. Your head's going back in its jar either way," Sora quipped.

"Hey nice," Hawkeye admitted with a smile, not taking his eyes off Leader. "Did you just come up with that, or were you holding it in for a while?"

"Actually, I overheard Yuffie saying it to herself when we first moved to go in the Cube. I'm pretty sure she was saving it ever since we saw his mug shot, but since she's not really able to say it herself at the moment, I figured, why not," Sora reasoned.

Leader just ignored the two as he turned his attention to the Hulk and said, "I knew you would come eventually, my old enemy, but you of all people must realize this is for the best. In Gamma World, no one will hunt you, no one will try and cure you, you'll be a king. Everyone who hated you, who attacked you, they will be you. Are you really going to try and stop me?"

"No," Hulk responded, bringing a look of worry to Hawkeye's face. Sora on the other hand, did not seem the least bit worried at all. In fact, he just kept smiling, almost like he knew what was going to come next, and from the way his grin widened a little at Hulk's next words, it seemed that he was right. "Not stop you; SMASH you!"

"Disappointing, but not unexpected," Leader sighed. A minute later, Abomination had leapt at the Hulk and knocked him to the ground.

"You ready animal? With the Leader's tech I'm stronger than you, I'm smarter than you, and I'm gonna beat you to a…"

Anything more that Abomination was going to say was lost in the din of Hulk's roar as he kicked Blonsky through the ceiling and then leaped after him. Seeing that the Hulk had things under control there, Hawkeye and Sora immediately attacked at the Leader, only for Hawkeye's arrow to be intercepted by Gamma Panther, and the ice spell that Sora shot off to be intercepted by Gamma Wasp's stingers. "You're both either very brave or very stupid, archer and boy," Leader commented as the other Gamma Avengers stepped forward to face Sora and Hawkeye. "You're vastly outnumbered."

"That's okay. I've got an arrow for each of you," Hawkeye promised as he notched another arrow, even as Gamma Wasp flew right at him.

A minute later, a clock chime was heard, and Gamma Wasp was suddenly frozen in the air, making Leader turn to see Sora aiming his Keyblade at his mutated teammate with a smirk on his face as he stated, "And I'm the perfect guy to help set up his shots."

Hawkeye did not hesitate to fire on the immobilized Wasp, and both he and Sora both quickly leapt out of the way before they were crushed by either Gamma Captain America or Gamma Yuffie. Leaping into the air while spinning around, Hawkeye fired another arrow at the captain's leg, and easily struck his target, but he could not seem to get a clear shot on Gamma Yuffie since she was moving around so much, but Sora easily helped take care of that when he used another ice spell to freeze her in place, giving Hawkeye the chance to land a shot on the gamma ninja's exposed arm, and leaving Sora to engage Gamma Panther and Gamma Iron Man, just to make sure that they did not stop the archer.

"What do you think you are accomplishing," Leader demanded. "Your toys and tricks cannot hurt my creations."

"They're not your creations; they're my friends that you've mutated into monsters so that you could control them like puppets," Sora angrily retorted, just itching to throw out a bolt of lightning right at Leader's oversized head.

"But you're not entirely wrong," Hawkeye admitted. "Neither one of us are geniuses like you, so it's a good thing that we know one, and he made me some new arrows." He and Sora both had to smirk as they turned around just in time to see Wasp change back to normal before collapsing on the ground, though Sora's smile was tinged with a bit more relief than Hawkeye's at the sight, since he was glad that his friends were going to be okay. "His name is Bruce Banner. Maybe you've heard of him?"

"Indeed I have," Leader snarled. He then tapped a control on his console, and his perch then retracted to reveal that he was sitting in a large, battle suit that closed up the minute it was ready for action.

"Oh crap," was the most that Sora could say at the sight of this new problem.

Hawkeye had to agree with the kid on that sentiment. Sure, Cap had returned to normal just a few seconds after Wasp, and Yuffie was likely well on her way, even if she had just busted out of the ice she had been trapped in, but there was no way that they could handle dealing with two Gamma-ed up Avengers and Leader's robot suit at once. At least, that was what the archer was thinking until Sora suddenly stepped forward with Keyblade in hand and confidence in his eyes as he fixed a glare on the Leader.

"You handle getting the others back to normal, along with any other gamma bruisers that Leader might have in here, Hawkeye. I'll keep Cucumber-Boy busy," Sora ordered the archer.

"You sure, kid," Hawkeye asked, very skeptical about Sora's chances. "I mean, you're not exactly my first pick for dealing with a mega genius in a robot suit."

"Hey, island boy, remember," Sora asked, still grinning confidently. "I've swam with fish that were bigger and more dangerous than a glorified geek in a tin can."

That seemed to settle it for Hawkeye, if the smirk he gained was any indication, though it could also have been that he found Sora's last statement funny, but either way, he was not complaining about not having to fight against the deadly robot. All he had to do was land a hit each of the remaining Gamma Avengers with his newest arrows, and anyone else that was infected by the Gamma Dome's radiation. Not even the least bit hard for the world's greatest marksman, and a much easier job than dealing with Leader and his toy, but when the two charged, a part of him did feel a little bad for letting Sora take on the hard job.

A minute later, any ill feelings he had about letting Sora fight the Leader alone were gone, and in their place was only pity for the Leader, himself, because Sora was definitely not giving the gamma villain a break. The kid was slashing, bashing, and shooting at Leader's robot with everything that he could throw, and any openings that the Leader may have seen in Sora's defenses were barely there for more than a few seconds, or long enough for the gamma villain to take advantage of them. It was really a moment of showing that Sora's training with the other Avengers was paying off very nicely, but what Hawkeye found even more impressive were the powers that Sora was packing. Not only was he fast and dealing way more damage than he should be able to with his weapon, but he was also shooting fire, ice, and lightning like it was nothing, and at some points, Hawkeye could have sworn that the kid had even teleported a few times in order to avoid some of Leader's attacks before retaliating. If Hawkeye was not at least a little impressed with the kid before, he definitely was now, but he figured it would be better to compliment the kid after they had saved the world, so he quickly made it a point to set his sights on the Leader as well once he had nailed the last Gamma Avenger with one of his arrows. He could not let Sora have all the fun for himself, you know.

---

Up on the roof, Hulk and Abomination were fairly evenly matched in their struggle against each other, until Blonsky decided to up the power of his gamma enhancer and suddenly became much bigger than the Hulk. In no time at all, Abomination had the Hulk pinned down beneath his feet and he then declared, "I'll always beat you Hulk. Do you hear me? I'm better than you in every way!"

"But I've got a couple of things that you don't," Hulk retorted. He then glanced off to the side and smirked as he said, "Friends and backup."

A minute later, Abomination's head was hit with a gamma arrow, courtesy of Hawkeye, and he was knocked off the Hulk by a fire blast from Sora. The minute he had pulled Hawkeye's arrow off of him, it was already too late, and Abomination had already started changing back to his normal state without the gamma enhancer, just in time for Sora to rush in with his newest ability, which he had dubbed as Sonic Blade to further disorient him, and Hulk to send him flying across the city and into the desert with a hard punch. Just then, the two heroes all raced over to Hulk, just in time to avoid the Leader's robot as it landed across from them. "The three of you think you can defeat me," Leader demanded. "I have already calculated a thousand ways to destroy you all!"

"Then why haven't you used any of them," Sora mocked in turn.

Leader would have roared in anger had he not noticed a rather large shadow suddenly fall over him, and he looked up just in time to see Absorbing Man flying towards him, until the element absorber crashed through the dome of his robot, and knocked them both down onto the roof, with Absorbing Man now out cold. "Perhaps it is because he does not even know the meaning of the word 'destroy,'" Thor suggested as he floated down to his allies, battered, but triumphant in his struggle.

Hulk grunted a little as a show of how funny he thought Thor's comment was, before he fixed his glare on the massive gamma generator that had been set up on top of the building and growled, "You really want to hurt the Leader? This is how."

The other three then watched as Hulk pried the generator off the building, causing a massive feedback to run through the device Leader was wearing on his head in order to control the gamma creatures inside the dome, and increasing the size of his head even more than it probably should have been, even after his transformation. Once the tower was completely pulled out from the tower roof, the Gamma Dome immediately dispersed, and Hulk turned and tossed it as high as he could. Considering how much strength he had put into his throw, the jade giant was sure that the gamma generator was likely in orbit at least, but as long as it was gone and incapable of harming anyone again, Hulk did not care. All that they had to worry about now was making sure that Leader stayed put until SHIELD sent in a team to contain him.

"It would have been glorious," Leader moaned in dismay, drawing the heroes' attention to him as he griped over his defeat. "I was creating the perfect world, all in my image."

"That's the problem. You're ugly," Hulk stated.

"Plus, I'm pretty sure that Hulk's the only one of us that looks good in green," Sora joked.

"No kidding. I tried it once, and let me tell you, I had nightmares for weeks after I got a look at my reflection," Hawkeye continued on, and that got the two to exchange a fist-bump. Clearly, a new friendship had been formed, but neither Hulk nor Thor were surprised. Sora just had that effect with people be they friend or former foe.

---

A few hours later, the true clean-up was underway, and the Avengers who were infected by the gamma dome were now being double checked by medics as Samson was wheeled off to a medical facility. Though he did give the Avengers a thumbs up as he passed them, and that made them all sure that the gamma scientist would be okay. Meanwhile, Hawkeye was sitting off to the side as Coulson and Daisy checked over the video footage from Hawkeye's Sky-Cycle, until they finally turned to the archer as the friendly agent said, "The footage from your Sky-Cycle confirms your story. The Widow is working for HYDRA. I sent agents to her location, but she was already long gone."

"Yeah, she's good, I'll give her that," Hawkeye admitted.

"Well, you're cleared Hawkeye, and your SHIELD special agent status will be reinstated. Congrats," Daisy then said.

"You mean the same SHIELD that locked me up," Hawkeye then asked rhetorically. "Yeah, no thanks. I'm going after the Widow on my own."

"Here's another option," Tony then said as he walked over. "Join the Avengers."

Hawkeye glanced at the recovering heroes before he said, "I don't think so. Look how easily the Leader took you guys out. I'm better off on my own."

"Trust me, you should save yourself some trouble and just accept the offer to join," Hulk told the archer. When Hawkeye just looked to Hulk in confusion, the big guy simply said, "If you don't agree now, Sora will just chase after you and find some way to convince you to stay. He already did that to me when I tried to quit, and I'm still here, now."

"A fact that we are all truly grateful for, my friend," Thor informed Hulk. "You've saved both the Avengers and the world, despite any grievances that have been done onto you. I am honored and very glad to call you as both an ally and a friend."

Hulk just smirked in return, gently elbowing Thor to show his thanks, but Hawkeye paid it little mind, as he just zeroed his gaze on the youngest member of the Avengers. Did this kid really convince Hulk to stay with the Avengers when he considered quitting once? And more than that, just how much power did the kid have? Clearly it had to be a lot, given what Hawkeye had already seen, and he would admit that he was a little curious about Sora. All the same, that curiosity was not going to help him track down Black Widow, and that was Hawkeye's priority. He was about to tell the team that, when Sora stepped up to give his own voice on the matter.

"Come on, Hawkeye," Sora happily prompted. "You can't tell me you wouldn't like having a roof over your head, a lot of serious backup for when you're looking for Widow, or access to a lot of cool tech and resources that would be a huge help in finding her, can you? Besides, me and Hulk trusted you to have our backs when we had little reason to, so how about returning the favor and trusting us to help you out? It always helps to have your friends by your side, you know."

Hawkeye just rolled his eyes at the Keybearer and said, "Yeah, that whole friends to the end thing only works in fairy tales and movies, Island Boy. In real life, the only real strength you can depend on is your own, so have fun living in fantasy land."

Sora was about to protest, until Hulk placed a hand on the kid's shoulder, taking special care to not be too rough with the boy, and said, "Hey, if he wants to go let him. Not like we couldn't stop Cupid at any time we wanted any way."

A minute later, Sora could not help but smirk, because Hulk's statement definitely had the desired effect. The minute he heard that last sentence, Hawkeye was spinning right around and marching up to the big guy to shout, "You want to go, Jade Jaws? Right here and now? Let's do this!"

"Pft, please. He would flatten you before you even drew an arrow," Yuffie scoffed.

"I know, right. You should've heard him earlier when he said that he would 'take Hulk down' if he didn't let Bruce out to help us," Sora teased.

"Hey, watch it, Island boy, and you that goes double for you, wannabe ninja," Hawkeye retorted.

"Who're you calling a wannabe?! I'm a full-fledged, awesome ninja with skills that you could only dream of having," Yuffie snapped back.

"Okay, this is gonna be fun," Tony mused to himself.

"Hey, as long as it gets us another new teammate that can handle himself against the kind of things we deal with, I'm not complaining," Sora smiled, and he knew that the others would agree with him on that. Hawkeye did deserve a second chance, and when he was not being a jerk, he did seem like a pretty cool guy to be around. Plus, considering how he was able to get the better of the team and even beat most of the Avengers while they were juiced up on gamma rays, why would they not want him on the team?

---

Out in the desert, Abomination was crawling across the sand, feeling completely drained of his gamma power after his battle with the Hulk, Hawkeye, and Keyblade Samurai, and having only just recovered from the final blow that had rendered him unconscious for so long, when he suddenly paused at being covered by the shadows of five people, one of which said, "Well, isn't this a pathetic sight. Guess you shouldn't have thrown your cards in with that wannabe. Still, you do seem to have a bit of potential, so, what would you say to joining the real big leagues?"

Abomination looked up to see Night Hunter, who had been the one that had spoken up, Baron Zemo, Enchantress, Executioner, Simon Williams, now known as Wonder Man, and Crimson Dynamo all standing before him, as the baron said, "Hello Mister Blonsky."

---

AN: You guys taking a break from beating up Xehanort?

Sora: Yeah, but only so we can at least see the wrap-up note for this chapter.

Kairi: Besides, no point in beating on a corpse. It's not as satisfying [throws a glare at the door where Xehanort could be heard whimpering in pain]

AN: Yeesh. Brutal for a Princess of Heart, but then again, I'm not complaining. Punk has it coming. Anyways, I'll admit, writing this chapter was a bit more difficult than I originally anticipated. For one thing, Hulk's participation did make things a little more different, because I had to think through how he would be acting in each scenario that was presented in the Gamma Dome, along with how he would react to seeing certain faces, like Samson or the various Cube Villains. I'd like to think I did okay, especially since an experienced Hulk would be a little more mindful of how to handle his enemies like he was here, and like we saw a few times in the series Hulk and the Agents of SMASH, but if you feel otherwise, let me know. Please, be fully honest with me on that in your reviews.

Also, look at who we got showing up this time around: some of our favorite Agents of SHIELD, namely Phil Coulson, Daisy "Quake" Johnson, and Jemma Simmons, along with Fitz, May, Trip, and even Mack making cameo appearances as gamma creatures. If you need an idea as to what they look like, aside from Daisy, the agents all look as you would normally picture them. Daisy on the other hand is rocking her style from the animated series, Marvel Rising. It's a really good series, in my opinion, even if it isn't all that long of a series, so if you haven't seen it yet, go check it out. Oh, and the plane that we saw here, not The Bus, but Zephyr One, just to be clear on that. And don't worry, we'll be seeing a little more of Daisy later on down the line. I wouldn't have made her a bit closer to Sora's age in this story for no reason, after all, and I think you guys might get an idea on why that is in a few chapters or so.

As for Sora being immune to the effects of the Gamma Dome, well that's partly because of how he was immune to the curse of the Aztec Gold in KH2, so basically, he was unaffected because he was from another world, mostly, but I will confirm that his being a Keyblade Wielder does give him some protection against such hazards. Don't think that means that Sora won't be getting his own Space Armor or Arctic Armor for later on, because the kid is still going to need at least the former later on if he wants to survive in space.

Now, the meeting with Hawkeye and Black Widow was something that I found a little more difficult to really work out. I know that Sora did not really interact with Romanoff all that much after their brief encounter in the first chapter, but he was still able to tell that she was one of the people who got him some help when he first arrived on Midgard/Marveltopia, and considering this is Sora, we all know he's going to consider everyone his friend until he has a reason not to, so obviously he would be a bit upset at finding someone who had given him even a little help had actually been a bad guy. Just to be clear, Sora will interact with Black Widow again, and well before the events of "Hail HYDRA", but it will be a few chapters before that happens.

When it came to the Gamma form for Yuffie, I had a hard time working out ideas, but if you want a basic idea, think of a mix between She-Hulk and X-23, only make the claws a bit more jagged and not made of metal. I know she wasn't really in a gamma form for that long, but I figured you guys would still like an idea of what I imagined her gamma form to be like.

Sora: Was it really necessary to have that scene that made fun of my abilities with certain tech. I just said that I can't computer in Kingdom Hearts 3, but that doesn't mean I can't do anything with tech at all.

AN: Well, it was going to come up eventually, and you do tend to have a bit of trouble figuring out some tech, so this was the best way for me to point that out at the moment. Besides, would you really have known how to use the Gummiphone in KH3 without Jimminy being there to help you learn?

Sora: Uh...good point. By the way, are you going to change the name of the Kingdom Caller now that you know what the Gummiphone is actually called?

AN: Probably not. For now, just think of the Kingdom Caller as a prototype Gummiphone. I'll have you get an actual Gummiphone later on in this series, so no worries there.

Now then, I'm sure some of you are expecting us to get into the events of "Masters of Evil" in the next chapter, but we're not doing that. No, we're not going to do chapters that have most of the team recovering while some small side stuff is going on like we did in Code Avengers. We're going to another world again! And the Avengers aren't the only ones going.

Sora: What do you mean by that?

AN: Here's a clue for ya: Onto the Preview!...

After all the drama and excitement that had come from the Gamma World Incident, you would think that Sora would be able to kick back and enjoy a nice, peaceful three-day weekend, even if it is mostly filled with study sessions alongside of Peter, Gwen, and Miles. Too bad for him and his friends, the Keyblade has other plans. Another world is in peril, and the Kingdom Key does not seem to care if it has to drag Sora's classmates along for the ride with Hawkeye, Captain America, and Black Panther in tow, but the group soon discovers that there's one more superhero among them on this visit to another world. Not only that, but Sora also finds a couple of familiar faces, and those very friends have landed themselves in quite the important job. In short, what should've been a nice, peaceful afternoon has led to several secrets being unveiled, another mission to save a world from the Heartless, and all while helping a young summoner on her quest to become strong enough to destroy the greatest evil of her world. Pray to the fayth that our heroes can handle all the insanity, in the next thrilling chapter.

See, I told you we'd be seeing Spidey on another world, and it looks like a few secrets about the web-head and Sora are getting busted wide open. Plus, if you can't figure it out from the details here, I'll put it to you straight. Next chapter, we're visiting the world of Final Fantasy X!

Sora: Hey, isn't that where...

AN: Yes, yes it is. I've been really eager to get that adventure into this story, but until then...

Please read and review, and see ya real soon, fellow true believers!