With A Snap
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 52: Return Trip
EARTH M-199999
AVENGER COMPOUND
Thor, Rocket, and Nebula chased after the red ring and quickly found a hole in a window.
As they looked out of the shattered window, Thor paled, "Shit."
He looked on as the Hulk roared a bestial cry loud enough to make the building shudder.
Thor outstretched his hand, and soon Stormbreaker flew into it.
He felt the rage emanating from Hulk, a level of fury that he had never felt before. The Hulk no longer felt like the Hulk, this presence was something genuinely monstrous.
"Rabbit," Thor whispered, "get your weapons."
Closer to the action, Steve walked towards his friend.
"Bruce?" Steve called out.
This Hulk hissed, and acidic blood dripped from his open mouth. Steve half expected the Hulk to call back and say: No Bruce, Hulk.
No, even that was gone, what was standing before her didn't deserve to be called Bruce or Hulk it was something altogether new.
As the other soldier and Ross began to give this creature space, Steve walked towards him.
Rhodey reached for him, "Steve,"
"Bruce? Hulk?" Steve walked closer slowly.
"Shoot him!" Ross barked, out of instinct or out of fear, the soldiers listened and began to fire at this Red Lantern Hulk.
The bullets never touched him, A red energy wrapped around him, blocking the barrage of bullets.
The bullets stopped, and as silence fell, the Red Lantern Hulk screamed. His hand reached the armored card, and he hurled it straight at Ross.
Steve didn't hesitate and quickly closed the distance between them and tackled his out of the way.
Rhodey already called for his suit as Thor flew towards them.
The only question would be if it would be enough.
EARTH ALA-221
BA SING SE, EARTH KINGDOM
The room started to collapse, then a pair of eyes open up. Aang barely realized what was happening in time to bend the earth around them.
Outside of the Palace, Scarlett laughed as flames dance around her. The Dai Li had been beat, or they were surrendering.
The Guard and the Kyoshi warriors were just trying to figure out what to do with her. She wasn't targeting any of them, but they didn't exactly feel safe around her.
There was a massive crack as the palace around them cracked apart.
Scarlett stopped laughing, "Okay, I just want to say that wasn't me."
A massive structure of stone rose above the palace remains to carry out the Avatar and the others.
"What?" Long Feng bellowed.
Natasha didn't even bother; she shot him with one of her stingers shocking him.
He began to fall off the structure, and Jenny just barely managed to get him before he fell off.
"I take it you're the Avatar." Jenny remarked, "We need to talk to you."
"My palace," The Earth King Bellowed.
"It doesn't look that bad," Zuko tried to reassure him.
Light broke through the crack; they just shot out off.
"Okay, that looks bad," Katara added.
EARTH TMNI-404
ACADEMY CITY, JAPAN
"Parry Riposte!" Alexis pulled out his pen and shot back the explosion. "Chemical bombs are interesting; the chemical reaction happens mid-throw."
Yakumaru stared, her explosive countered and blasted back towards them.
Their pink-haired leader Rita Lizumi stared on as the explosion pushed them back. Alexis had made sure not to put enough force to blast to touch them.
Alexis had a bit of a temper but didn't exactly like it when kids got hurt and would hate to be the cause of it.
He tried to stop it, "Look, I've got plenty of tricks. You don't seem to be on the level to be able to hurt me. So let's part away here, and no one gets hurt."
"Sounds like a challenge." Naru, the girl in the paper outfit, said playfully. The sheets of paper that had made her clothes formed into a giant stuffed rabbit mech made of paper. The paper barely covered the more private parts of her body.
Alexis looked away, "Also, you with the bunny-maid out cover yourself up. You are making me very uncomfortable."
"Don't worry; I'll make sure you don't see much." Naru grinned and rushed at him with high speed.
Alexis wasn't all that concerned as he spun off his coat, and with a grand sweep, it enveloped her.
"There,"
Rita blinked, and the coat fluttered, and Naru was gone. Alexis simply draped the coat over his arm.
Yakumaru stared, "What? What did you do?"
Rita had the power known as Predator; it allowed her to track anyone. To her, several large eyes manifested above them in the sky, but they did nothing as they could find her comrade.
"Where did she go?"
Alexis motioned to his coat, "Please tell me they have stage magicians in this world. I would help explain it so much easier."
He wasn't that far off, the motion he did was reminiscent of a magician making a box disappear.
His coat was his favorite piece of clothing, one he tried to wear as often as possible. He had a load tech and magically placed into the coat for a variety of tricks and uses. One of his favorite ones was that there a pocket dimension within the folds of his coat; it allowed him to hide all sorts of things in his coat even if they were well beyond the usual size limitations.
A trick he helped put into Scarlett coat too.
It also served as a neat trick to slip an enemy into where they would not be able to escape until he commanded it.
Yakumaru pulled out more vials, "Tell us where Naru is!"
Alexis saw it in her eyes; the same clawing need to get something that already lost. He flipped his coat, and Naru was shot out, tumbling to the ground.
"It was so dark…" Naru said, shaking, "It was endless and black… and there was trash everywhere… just floating."
"Trash?" Alexis hung on that, "I sometimes can't find a trash can, but it's not that bad."
"What are you?" Rita asked. "What kinda esper ability do you that lets you do that?"
"Huh? I am an esper, I guess. I mean, I do have precognition, but it's not all that great."
"How's that precognition?!" Rita yelled, "You made a person disappear, I couldn't even track Naru with my Predator, and it lets me track anyone. Even Naru's Perfect Paper can't do anything like bounce back explosions or suck stuff into a coat!"
"Paper manipulation? That doesn't seem like an esper power."
Naru yelled at that, "Don't make fun of my esper power."
"You're not an esper; you're a PKer; ESP stands for Extra Sensory Perception. The ability to perceive more than the ordinary like my precognition and that Predator would fall in that category. PK stands for Psycho Kinetic, as in manipulating stuff with your mind like yeah that paper power."
The three girls looked at him like he said something stupid, "What? I'm right."
He was immediately punched in the face by a strange pink paper mech paw.
0000
Tony was hurled back and crashed into the walls of one of the taller builds. He looked up to see the white beetles merge to become a pure white teenaged boy with white wings.
"You're made of dark matter, right?"
"Yes, you can call me Kakine."
" Nice to meet you, and normally I would love to ask you more about how you are like that. But right now, I just needed to know that I didn't have to hold back."
Before Kakine could react, he found a blast of energy erupts from the suit's chest plate, hurling him back.
Tony got up only to see the spiky-haired teen shooting into the air right at him.
"I hate this world," Tony grumbled as he readied a repulsor blast.
0000
The Doctor didn't expect someone who could shoot plasma to show up. Another burst of green energy raged at her. The Doctor was a timelord with had reflexes of one, could react in between the ticks of a clock.
The whirling sound of her screwdriver roared to life; as the energy reached her, it was dispersed by the sonic wave.
The esper looked on, confused.
Mugino looked on, how had her meltdowner been defeated.
The younger girl with the short brown hair Kinuhata looked on, "That was super unexpected." She smiled, "I guess it's my turn."
Kinuhata controlled the nitrogen around her body, and quickly she compressed the nitrogen beneath her feet and let out. The burst of gas shot her towards the Doctor. The nitrogen around her hardened enough to act as armor.
The Doctor barely managed to dodge the blow by the mech was crush inward.
"Okay, that's a neat trick." The Doctor had to admit.
The Doctor realized that she couldn't avoid both attackers at once.
The Doctor pressed the screwdriver onto the machine one last time, and suddenly every alarm blared 100 times stronger then they were ever meant to go.
The girls covered their ears to try and block out the sounds; the Doctor had a bit more resistance and braced herself and used the chance to run.
EARTH M-199999
AVENGER COMPOUND
Missy asked, "What's happening?"
CPU couldn't do a proper scan through the walls but did pick some stuff up, "There is a strange increase in heat and gamma radiation. Plus unidentified energy-"
The walls were ripped apart as Thor crash through them.
Jack already pulled out his pistol, "Wha-"
The ground shook as The Red Lantern Hulk stomped in.
"Do they have a lot of those in this world?" Missy cringed.
Jack fired at the Hulk; the bullets seemed to melt at the red aura around him.
Thor growled, the machine was likely the only way for Stark and the other to return. He couldn't let the Hulk smash it in this berserker state.
Thor urged his legs to move, and he jumped into the air and forced the Hulk back as best he could.
Thor's skin felt like it was on fire; he ignored the pain and pushed on. But the Hulk shoved him away and onto the ground.
The Hulk raised a fist, and the ring began to glow, a construct formed taking the shape of a nail aimed at Thor's heart.
"Hulk. Banner." Thor spoke to him, "You don't want to do this. I'm your friend."
The creature before him didn't speak. It just growled and fired the attack.
It never reached Thor as Jack jumped before it, the nail ripped through his chest and tore his heart apart.
Thor could only watch as this man who he had barely spoken to died for him.
CPU and Darkhelm turned to mist and flew through the air and quickly encircled the Hulk. They formed a metal ball around him in an attempt to hold him off. Though every second they struggled to hold him off.
"Oh, Scott," Missy spoke, "Do you mind helping?"
"What? You knew I was here?" The tiny man appeared among the ruffles of her clothes.
"I have experience with compression field and shrinking; I felt you the second you climb on board. And you were the first to leave. I'm guessing the Doctor asked you to keep an eye on me. Now tell me, can you reverse it?"
Outside Steve sat beside a wrecked car.
The Hulk rampaged through them quickly, nearby Rhodey in his armor began to restart after the thrashing he got. It looked like he was still alive. Several soldiers were getting up and helping those who had fallen or trying to get weapons working. Steve struggled to get up.
"Up." Nebula reached him and helped him.
"That thing did a number on all of you," Rocket mused as he prepared his gun.
"Yeah," Steve admitted, "Something is happening, that ring it's affecting him. I've seen his rampage, and it's never been like this. I've never seen him go directly for people."
There was a massive roar; Steve spotted something on the ground, the ripped door of one of the cars. He picked up and armed himself with it.
"It looks like we still got some work to do."
0000
Martha was looking over Ava when it happened.
"What the hell is happening?"
Mickey quickly rushed in carrying their guns. "Martha,"
"What's going on?"
"I don't know the details; it looks like a war has broken out." He tossed her one of the guns.
Martha caught it and walked out with him, Ava would be fine on her own for a while, and she was certainly a lot safer in there than outside.
As they walked passed a window, they saw a large metal ball fly past it. That only was strange, but the glowing red cracks added something to it.
Not as much as seeing a giant Ant-Man follow it.
"What?"
EARTH ALA-221
BA SING SE, EARTH KINGDOM
The group landed near the ground; Nat looked at the sheer amount of burnt things. And the fact that it seemed no one wanted to get near Scarlett.
"Did something happened?"
Scarlett responded, "Got a little carried away, but no severe injuries, so I think this is a win. Now, what about-" She motioned to the light.
Jenny was doing something with the device on her wrist. "Some sort of rift is forming."
Aang was in a near panic, "The spirits- they don't know what caused this either. They were effected just like us. And they were worried about these cracks in the middle of the air and-"
"Oh no," Jenny let out, clicking more buttons a 3-D projection of the planet formed; it looked like Earth the others were used to by the continents were different. Several spots glowed brightly with dots.
"Is that a map?" Katara asked.
Jenny realized that no one in this world had seen anything close to this hologram.
Zuko shook off his shock, then he realized, "Why is there a dot in the Fire Nation? Thats Hira'a… right in the Forget valley."
"And on the poles," Katara pointed out.
Aang then realized something, "Those are all spots where it's easier to cross to the Spirit World."
Jenny told them, "Those are weak spots to another dimensional plane, the snap had put extra stress on them, and the barriers are about to crack. We need to run, an enormous amount of energy if about to erupt right here."
"How bad is it?" Natasha explained.
"The explosion will be enough to destroy several miles."
The Earth King didn't understand everything but got enough, "Guards! Start evacuating the Palace and everyone around. Get everyone as far as possible!"
"We don't have long," Jenny told them as cracks began to spread out from the source of light.
"Can we do anything?" Natasha asked.
"Maybe," Jenny confirmed, "pressure is building up here, if we can relieve some of the pressure we can probably avert it. The problem is where are we going to shunt the power. I think If I adjust this device, we shoot it off into the void. The problem is that we have to get it deep into the energy field."
The world was erupting, twisting, and bending around the light.
"That's going to be easier said than done," Natasha noted, she cracked her neck ready for a run.
"And we should be a good distance when it goes off," Jenny said, removing the device from her arm. "Unless you want a one way trip to the void when it burns out."
"Okay," Katara spoke up, "I'm not following what you are saying, but that light is going to explode, but we can stop it if you can get that thing in there?"
"Then let's help," Aang offered.
It was not the most orthodox method to ally, but they had a very focused goal.
EARTH TMNI-404
ACADEMY CITY, JAPAN
The Doctor continued to run, her luck had never been great, but she didn't remember the last time she arrived somewhere and was suddenly attacked by so many people.
As she ran, she activated the device on her wrist, "Okay, anyone there?"
Doctor?
Scout's words flashed on the device panel.
"Well, it's someone,"
Trying not to be insulted. My creator's device has come back online. I don't think he's up. As for Mister Stark, he seems busy. I'll do my best to steer them towards you. Also, I think I found the young man you were looking for. I think he's close.
0000
Meanwhile, Touma was being pushed forwards by Kanzaki and Itsuwa.
Kaori said, "Whatever this crisis is, we can't risk it. We need to move you somewhere safe."
"Is that even an option?" Touma told them, "Half the world vanished. I don't know if my right hand protected me or if my luck is so bad that everyone I know just vanished."
Kaori paused for a moment; she knew that feeling. She was blessed with good luck, but that often left those around with bad luck and hurt or worst after they joined her against threats. It would be easy to see his misfortune turn to leave him just as alone. Touma was the kind of person who would prefer the safety of others than himself.
"Kamijou," Kanzaki began, "I know that pain, I know what it's like to feel that. We can't do anything about that, but you are here you have a chance to-"
"How close?" The Doctor said, running right into Touma.
They collided hard and fell to the ground; that what you get for talking to your watch and running.
There was a loud sound like glass shattering.
The moved away from Touma wincing as she did, she grabbed her head. There was a sudden whiplash; the Doctor was a tad psychic her whole species was, some versions of her used that power more than others, but it was always a bit on the background. Suddenly it was shut off; it was like her mind collapsed in on itself.
"Are you okay?" Touma rushed over to the Doctor as she held her head.
"Yeah-" She gritted her teeth, "I'll be fine" she was slowly getting back to it. She opened her eyes, "That close," she smiled, "Is your name Touma Kamijou?"
She had seen that face in the file that Scout had shown them.
"Uh, yeah?"
"Must be my lucky day." The Timelady smiled; maybe her luck had turned.
0000
Naru picked up the seemingly unconscious enemy of theirs by his coat with her bear suit.
Rita looked him over, "Uh, he had me going there for a second. Just a lot of talk."
Yakumaru rubbed her chin, "I know we got to turn him in, but we can rough him up a bit." She noticed the device on his wrist started to beep. She reached for it when something happened.
Alert! ALERT!
A nearby screen blared. A lower screen text scrolled by stating: the dangerous fugitives were spotted.
Then it showed off a map.
The three girls smirked; Rita only said, "That's close by if they are anything like this guy, we can snag them easy."
"And we have a hostage," Rita added, "Let's take him, it should make things easier."
0000
Tony didn't like fighting kids, but these were more like terrors he was blasting them with, and they kept coming. Tony was holding back not to hurt them, but it didn't seem to make much difference.
The Dark Matter kid could repair himself, and the other kid, whose name was Sogiita, didn't seem to feel the damage. He was bleeding a bit but kept yelling about pushing through with his guts.
MISTER STARK!
The worlds flashed on his HUD.
"Can't talk right now!" Tony tried to dismiss Scout for the third time.
No! Now! My creator is in trouble, and the Doctor has found your target.
"Okay, That's good news. Not that Alexis got captured but-"
If my plan is working, he's on his way towards the Doctor. If you can meet up with them.
"Then we can just leave," Tony smirked. "Sorry, guys, but I have to go." From the back of his suit, flash grenades shot out.
Before they could react, the two espers were blinded by the light, giving Tony a chance to fly away.
EARTH M-199999
AVENGER COMPOUND
Scott was hurled backward and landed on his back; he gasped as he was forced to shrink back to his normal size.
His helmet peeled back as he gasped for breath. "I really could use some orange slices."
Martha and Mickey were both firing on the Red Lantern Hulk, but even with large alien guns, it wasn't doing much.
"We can't get through the barrier," Mickey shouted.
The Hulk clapped his hands; the force was enough to blow everyone back.
Thor gripped his ax as he readied to take another hit.
Steven, by his side, told him," You guy high, and I'll go low."
"By us some time," Rocket told him, "The ring is the issue, maybe if we can figure a way to shut it down or break it-"
"Yeah, you work on that," Missy strutted past them, "I'll buy you a moment. But you owe me."
Soldier and heroes all had their weapons aimed at the Red Lantern Hulk and paused as Missy just walked towards him.
The Red Lantern Hulk just glared at Missy, ready to tear her apart, he rushed towards her without a thought.
"I'm the Mistress, and you will obey me," Those words rang loudly in the beats head. "Contact."
His large hand was inches away from tearing her head off her body, but it paused.
Missy smirked or tried to, "My, my," she struggled to speak. "I've been in a lot of head before, but yours-ugh," she grunted, "okay, I will actually have to put some effort."
Missy took a breath and focused; she remained unmoving, and so did her opponent; it was taking everything she could muster to reign him in.
0000
"A half-baked radiations lab," Missy looked around, she'd been in plenty of heads before, but this was something else.
"It's not even a good lab; it looks like you ran a bull through here." Missy clicked her tongue, "Though that by fairly accurate."
On the floor lay, Bruce unconscious, and standing above him was the Hulk, a red ring glowing in his hand. The Hulk stared blankly at the ring.
"You are a nasty piece of tech,"
WHO ARE YOU?
"Are we talking?"
ANSWER THE QUESTION
"I'm Missy," She did a small playful curtsy, "And you are a red alien ring, feeding off the rage. Though I can't blame your choice of host. It's always the ones you don't suspect, and Bruce" She tapped the unconscious Bruce with her boot, "Never would have guessed it. I am going to have to ask him about this when he's more talkative."
LEAVE.
"Can't, you see, we're in the middle of something. You are getting in the way."
LEAVE.
"Try that again, people with whole armies hadn't managed to tell me to leave when I didn't want to."
The mind space was filled with a red light.
"Okay, now we're getting serious," Missy smiled a devious grin.
EARTH ALA-221
BA SING SE, EARTH KINGDOM
The ground cracked with this strange spirit energy. This peculiar group managed to dodge the cracks and the rocks that burst out of the ground. Katara opened the pouch she carried and drew the water out of it, bending it to slice anything that blocked her away.
As more cracks formed and more energy erupted outwards, it continued to push earth out. Zuko pressed his palm forward with one thrust, and fires erupted, shattering the rocks.
Scarlett was swirling her sword around, shattering any earth before her. Suki was right beside cutting through boulders with her metal fans.
Jenny and Natasha raced closer to the coming storm of light. Aang was staying close by using his bending skill to pushing anything of their way.
Natasha quickly noticed that Aang was quick and agile, using a quick burst of air to push him along. He did over rapidly take them and slammed his foot down, dunking the last large stone that blocked their way.
There was a massive chasm of swirling light and energy.
If it could properly stabilize, it might able to form into a portal, but it would likely explode before it could.
Jenny finalized the adjustments to the device. "We need to get it down there."
Natasha looked and then turned to Aang, "You kept bouncing with a gust of wind, can do that with this, and shoot it down there?"
Aang looked down, "I think so,"
Jenny adjusted the device, "Will three-seconds be enough to get it in the center?"
"Yeah,"
"That should be just enough for it to build." Jenny huffed, "Not dad's best work, but there is enough for me to work with."
Jenny tossed him the device, and Aang began to spin the air around it. The device began to beep, and with a spin throw, the device hurled downwards with gusts of wind.
The device reached it's destination and began to shake and, with a small explosion opened up a portal into a white space. The portal started to suck in the excess energy and with a flash of white light.
When it was all over, the King's palace was just a huge hole in the ground, but there were no deaths.
Jenny was using Scarlett's device to bring up another hologram of the world. Cracks appeared all over the globe.
"Okay, that prevents the worst-case scenario." Jenny mused, "rifts and portals have formed over the world, but there will be no explosions."
Nearby Natasha was explaining the situation, "and that's what happened to your friends… and ours. But we are trying to find people to help. We think that if we work together, we might be able to find a way to reverse it. I'm not going to lie; we might need to fight; we might need to do all sorts of things- crazy impossible things. If you asked me, just a month ago that I would be going to other worlds, I would have called you a liar. But if we have any chance, it is going to be if we work together."
"What do you think?" Aang asked Katara.
"I don't know," Katara admitted, "It sounds crazy, but we saw what happened to Sokka and Toph. I wouldn't think that was possible."
"We could go with them, see if it looks right. " Suki added.
Natasha spoke up, "We can bring you back quickly if you don't want to stay."
Aang turned to Zuko, "It's crazy; its the craziest thing I've ever heard but considering what's been happening. I'm not sure if it's impossible."
The Earth King added, "If there is anyone on this world, I think could solve this it would be you."
Aang nodded, "Okay, I think we will go with you. Can we have a few minutes?"
0000
They retrieved Momo, who they left in a nearby tree during the meeting, now she sat on Aang's shoulder. The Earth King went to try and organize the cleanup, but he wished them luck. Suki decided to go with them and told the other members of the Kyoshi Warriors she'd be going and left someone in charge. They sent a few messages to be sure about somethings.
Zuko told the group, "I'm not going, I'm the Fire Lord, and I can't just leave, but if you need help, just let me know."
"Okay," Natasha asked, "how are we doing this? Jenny doesn't have her … whatever we are calling these? We might need to make a few trips or-"
Scarlett was taking pictures of broken statues with her phone when she realized something.
Scarlett groaned, "The thing about Alexis is that sometimes he knows stuff, stuff he doesn't know he knows. He's weird, but sometimes he's weird for a purpose he doesn't know. And after all the years I've known him it gets annoying, I think I'd like it better if he knew it."
"What?" Jenny asked.
Scarlett just pulled out the control, "And the last destination entered,"
Energy shot out of the remote and portal formed before them.
"If you want to follow us," Natasha smiled back to their new allies.
She walked through, followed by Scarlett, Aang and Katara paused, looking at one another as they took each other's hands and walked through along with the lemur. Suki took a breath and followed. Jenny followed the group, and with that, the portal closed.
Zuko watched the portal close on itself. "Good luck," he whispered to no one.
EARTH M-199999
AVENGER COMPOUND
The portal formed in one of the smaller Gates, and they walked out it.
Natasha's mouth went dry, the room was busy, and they're a massive hole in the wall, and Jack was lying on the floor in a pool of blood.
Natasha ran to him and the other quickly.
Natasha was a bit of an expert on blood and knew that was far too much for any one person to lose. She checked his pulse and didn't find one.
"What happened?" Scarlett asked.
Katara reached for her water, "I can heal him."
"It's too late," Natasha confirmed " He-"
"Ah!" Jack gasped, "Ugh, stabbed through the heart is never fun."
He touched his chest, the wound sealed, there was still a hole in his shirt.
"You didn't have a pulse," Natasha told him.
"Yeah, that happens sometimes," Jack got on his feet and walked through the hole.
Natasha gasped, "Bruce."
"What is that?" Suki asked, seeing the large green man glowing red.
"Oh, you're new," Jack half-dazed told them, "Hey, that was Bruce. He's going through something."
The yard had everyone pointing weapons at the Red Lantern as Missy grinned.
It was quiet enough that they could just make out her saying, "I've already won."
A burst red light came off the Hulk and blasted her half towards the other side of the yard.
Missy was cackling with joy, and the Hulk roared again.
Jack simply said, "You picked a hell of a time to join us."
EARTH TMNI-404
ACADEMY CITY, JAPAN
The Doctor couldn't help but smile; she did try to look at the brighter side of life. "Okay, this is going to sound crazy. That's because this is crazy, it's bonkers, out of your mind- but listen. You know that thing that happened has the population just vanished. I know what caused it."
Touma, Kanzaki, and Itsuwa froze at the words.
"And I think you can help," The Doctor sighed, "can you move that hand away from me just for a moment."
Touma rushed his right hand away "Like-"
The Doctor grabbed his head, "Okay, not sure if this will work, but it will be faster. Probably."
To Touma's surprise, she head-butted him.
They both pulled away in pain; Touma's mind was suddenly filled with images and thoughts. Blue Boxes, people he hand never met, robot monkeys, a strange machine, and a golden glove with glowing gems.
Touma was about to touch his head but paused as his thought settled. He understood who she was and why she had come here to him.
The Doctor jolted back, her head hurt. There was a strange feeling of fear, and almost like something had attempted to bite at her.
"I'll go with you." Touma's voice was clear and confident.
The Doctor smiled, "Good, we just have to find my friends, and we can go."
"No one is going anywhere!" A young voice yelled.
It was Naru, who was still carrying Alexis.
Rita looked on, making sure to get an eye of the Doctor if they had to chase her, making sure she could track her.
Rita continued, "We have your friend, come with us, and he doesn't have to get hurt."
Naru tossed him up a bit and grabbed him by the head, her bear suit grabbing it as if about to crush his skull.
Touma's body tensed, his fist clenched as he readied to acts. Itsuwa held her spear ready, and Kanzaki put her hand on her sword, ready to draw it.
"Why would you do that?" Doctor shrugged,
There was silence as no one expected that.
Rita looked around, "He's your friend, isn't he? You are working together?"
"Yeah, I mean, we just sorta met. But why should I do anything if he's capable of helping himself?"
"He's unconscious!" Yakumaru shouted.
"Don't they have possums here?" Doctor asked curiously.
"Why?" Alexis' eyes opened, and he crossed his hand, ignoring that a paper bear was holding him into the air by his head. "I had this whole plan; I was going to let them take to their leader. There I was going to try and take control of their computers and call off the city-wide alert on us, maybe redirect everyone. I had a mask that would let me escape-"
"Sorry to ruin your plan, I figured you'd have a few tricks, but" The Doctor just pointed at Touma, " I already found him, we can just leave."
Alexis sighed, "I guess that works too."
Naru angry started to crush his head.
Alexis was annoyed, he reached into his coat and pulled out a futuristic-looking gun and without wasting a glance, pulled the trigger.
Naru couldn't have dodged it if she tried, the gun fired a weird almost blue like flame covering her up to her arm.
She didn't burn; in fact, she did the opposite, ice formed around her body.
The paper arm outside the ice trembled and started to dissolve, letting drop to the ground. He moved so casually it was almost like he was brushing off some dust from his coat. Naru was killed so fast, and so without ceremony that it took them a moment to realize what happened. That had to happen. The shock, the lack of air, any number of things that would follow being encased in ice like that so fast could only mean that.
Yakumaru and Rita stared on confused, Naru was gone. "And you two."
He turned the gun on them, Rita's last thought was: why do we always run into these monsters.
"What did you do?" The Doctor asked, her mind trying to grasp it he was trying to save the universe why would he just kill three girls.
Alexis slid his hand into his pocket; he barely realized he was doing it.
"Salvare000"
"Is that Latin?" Alexis suddenly found the person who said that before him. Kanzaki with her long sword drawn ready to strike him down.
Kanzaki's magical name was a promise to save people, and she just watched three girls die and didn't move to stop it. But she could stop their killer from doing it again.
Alexis was sometimes grateful that his instincts acted on their own sometimes, he pulled out his sword blocking the sword. The force was still enough to hurl him back.
"What the hell!?" Alexis yelled.
"Murderer!"
Kanzaki rushed again with her opponent, only barely able to parry as he struggled to getaway. Kanzaki was a saint, stronger, and faster than any average person and a great deal of magic to boot. Alexis felt magic in her raged filled swings if the rage weren't clouding her judgment; he was sure he'd be sliced.
The Doctor and the others ran to the girl's encased in ice.
"Let me be right," The Doctor whirled the sonic screwdriver at the ice.
Glass shattering sounded when Touma's hand touched them when he tried to break the ice.
Naru fell out of the quickly vanishing ice.
"Wha-" Naru let out dizzy, the paper around her flaking.
The Doctor smiled and pointed the screwdriver at the ice around Rita. The screwdriver screeched, and the ice cracked apart and dissolved into the air as Rita fell out.
Itsuwa spear and used it to stab the final frozen girl, and the ice dissolved freeing the girl.
The Doctor looked them over and determined there were fine, just dizzy.
Kanzaki had cornered Alexis and readied her sword again and was about to move when the gun went off. The gun fired again, her leg freezing to the ground.
"Stop!" Itsuwa yelled out. "They're alive."
"Of course, they're alive!" Alexis yelled, not lowering his weapon. "What kind of monster do you think I am?"
"You froze them!"
"It's an ice gun, and I'm a technomage, I told you my tech is mixed with magic. There's a filter on it, it makes ice but more accurately projects the concept of the word freeze. It forms ice but freezes whoever gets caught in, as in everything in time included. I use it to capture people. You can free them if you just hit the ice hard enough."
Kanzaki paused, seeing that the girls seemed to be safe.
"You could have said something," The Doctor pointed out.
Alexis shook his head, "Back where I'm from, I have the title of the Curator of secrets; it's a title you don't get if you're very open."
"It's a bit of a pompous title."
"Says the timelady."
Kanzaki realized something, "Lady of Time and the Secret Keeper." She used her sword to shatter the ice around her foot.
Before she could voice her thoughts, the saint jumped back to avoid the green blast of light.
Mugino stood at the other end of the street as she walked closer with Kinuhata.
Mugino growled, "Get out of the way, and I don't have to hurt you."
To make matters worse, one of the Black Crow Units pulled in from the other end. "Surrender now!"
Seeing how complicated things had gotten, Touma said, "Such misfortune."
Was there anyone else with worse luck anywhere.
EARTH M-199999
AVENGER COMPOUND
Natasha walked up towards the Red Lantern Hulk; Bruce must have been going crazy. She never saw him this bad.
"The Sun getting real low,"
The Hulk flinched at the words and turned to her. The red ring glowed brightly, and the Hulk roared.
The other had tried to talk Natasha from tried this, but she didn't listen only telling them this was there best bet.
It wasn't working; his eyes glowed bright red as he rushed at her.
The other tried to reach herm tried to do something, but it was a lost cause they were too far.
But not everyone; a white boot struck the Hulk at the last moment setting him off course.
The Red Lantern Hulk turned to see a figure in a white suit and helmet standing there. The ring blinked as if trying to scare them when suddenly their image blurred, and it looked like there were four of them.
"Move!" Ava ordered, the stunned Natasha.
The Hulk struck towards Ghost, but like her namesake, she merely phased through the emerald fist. The Ring continued to try and scan Ava but wasn't able to get a lock cause she continued to quantum shift, and the Hulk's mind was unable to grasp any of this. Ava moved around, dodging him, giving Natasha a chance to escape.
Natasha moved to the other, "Okay, that didn't work."
Thor was looking at Jack, "You were dead."
Jack calmly said, "Yeah,"
"I saw a hole through your heart. You were dead."
"Yeah, it didn't take," Jack reassured him.
Scott just looked on, "I'm not sure Ava can distract him for long."
"She can't." Martha confirmed, "I can barely wrap my mind around what she's doing, but it is taking a toll on her body. We need to do something quick."
Steve talked to the huddle, "Any ideas?"
"Nope," Rocket confirmed, "I have never seen any tech like this."
"I think I have," Scarlett offered up, "It feels a lot like Alexi's tech, I think there is a magic base behind it. And it's dark, it's angry, I think it some sort of blood magic."
"Blood magic," Thor grimaced, "Even the Dark Elves were wary of it, my mother would only speak warnings of it. The mad beast that would use it needed to be put down quickly."
"I'm not an expert either," Scarlett confirmed, "It's powerful but dangerous and easy to lose control. I'm not a magic expert, just a user. I don't know enough to dispel it or anything."
Steve didn't know enough to deal with the situation; he started to believe magic was real after what Bruce told him about Strange and Wong. They needed a magic expert on hand.
"We need to deal with the Hulk first," Steve started, "We need to get the others back, they can help stop him."
"We'll get them back." CPU told him.
Darkhelm nodded in agreement.
Steve told them, "In the meanwhile, we work the problem, magic or not, that ring is the source of all the problem. If we can break it, we'll have a better chance."
EARTH TMNI-404
ACADEMY CITY, JAPAN
Kanzaki started to deflect the plasma blast from the esper with her sword. Kinuhata and other offensive armor just slammed into her. The one-piece of luck arrived as the tank mech started to turn their weapons from the Iron Man arrived. A few missiles from him around the mech created a cloud of smoke. Scavenger used this chance to flee; the girls had already bitten far more than they could chew.
"You found him?" Stark called out, "Then let's going, I've got people tailing me."
"Sir!" CPU's voice rang out from their devices. "We've got an issue; we have to pull you back."
"Nope! Great timing." Alexis agreed as he moved closer to the Doctor and Touma. "We found the guy, drag us back. He's close enough to us."
"Good, I'll use your devices to form a portal between you."
"Wait, what's happening?" Itsuwa asked, "Kamijou can't-"
The devices began to beep.
The Doctor turned to Touma, "Okay, give me your hand, your left hand." Touma did so, "This is probably going to be a rough one. I don't think we tested the return function, so this will likely be-"
A blinding light formed above them, and those beneath it started to feel weightless and move towards it.
"Huh?" The Doctor mused, "so this is what happened when you try to fold space across universes through a miniature wormhole."
"So, this is okay?" Touma asked as he started to float into the air.
"Oh, no," the Doctor mused, "space is being distorted haphazardly, and we are in the middle of it."
Tony's armor started to glitch out as it could no longer tell which side was up, he gave up trying to and tried to ride it out. Then he noticed something, "Oh no."
Alexis just noticed that rocks and things were getting pulled in with them. "This is going to hurt."
They started to hear all sorts of sounds and noise, but they couldn't seem to care as anything made out of matter, including their bodies, began to dissolve as they approached the light.
0000
Crowley managed to get UNDER_LINE working just in time to see his prey escape most bizarrely. He growled, seeing that they didn't leave alone. His plans only further fell apart, and he for once had nothing to gain or a way to recover what it was taken.
EARTH M-199999
AVENGER COMPOUND
Having your physical form broken down, converted into a thin string of energy, shot across broken dimensional barriers at speeds that could not properly be calculated was not something one would enjoy.
All they saw was the swirling of light and darkness.
CPU and Darkhelm watched as the platform above the smaller gates spun into life. The control panel blared to life; it was getting some strange readings. With a flash of light, something had arrived, and dust quickly filled the room. Also, it sounded like something like metal creaking.
"Okay," the Doctor tumbled out of the dust with Touma. "That could have gone worse."
Alexis followed coughing.
Tony walked behind them, popping out his mask. "I think I saw my own birth."
Alexis waved it off, "Our own personal timelines might have been compressed into ourselves while we traveled through the singularity. You might have seen everything play out. It should pass."
"You went to your birth?" The Doctor asked. "I only got as far back to when I was Scottish."
Touma held his head, " There was a girl- her eyes had stars-" Touma was finding it hard to focus on the memory, and it faded.
"Well, Mission accomplished," Tony took a deep breath. "We got the kid, and we somehow got back home. And why is there a hole in the wall?"
"We have an issue?" CPU called out.
The air was filled with the sound of grind steel.
The group turned around to see the Black Crow Unit driving down the stairs and towards them.
A few things happened when the group was being sucked into the portal. Shuatura moved closer to try to stop them from escaping and got pulled in along with the others. Itsuwa was next to them when they started to get sucked in, but didn't get noticed and was too stunned by the events to say anything. Kanzaki seeing Touma and Itsuwa, get sucked in tried to pull them out but got pulled in. Mugino and Kinuhata were ready to give up on the target when the light showed up; they just got sucked in too have been to close.
And Sogiita and Kakine had chased Tony and rushed in to grab him; they barely even noticed the light.
Shautura, who was driving it was very dizzy and only focused on the group. The other tagalongs were tossed around by their entry into the universe. With Sogiita, Kakine as a white beetle, and Kanzaki holding onto the mech.
So they didn't escape their pursuers but end up dragging them with them.
The group moved outside in hopes of avoiding the mech that was heading their way.
As they went out onto the law, they saw it, The Red Lantern Hulk, as he continued to fight.
"What did we miss?" Tony asked, not sure he wanted the answer.
Author's Notes: Hey, sorry for the delay. Things have not been great. I don't want to get too deep into it's just soon after I last updated, I lost my job. My state has been on lock down because of pandemic so no real luck with a new job search. With constant bad news on TV I've just been really depressed and unmotivated on writing. I had lot of stuff planned and I just got it out.
Alexis fight with scavangers would have crossed the city. The Doctor would be avoiding Mugino and the Black Crows. Honestly, Starks fight would have been bizzare since his oppent's powers even in universe are hard to explain.
The Scavangers have a habit of running into monsters so thats why I had them run into Alexis. The Doctor managed to recruit Touma in her own way. Though anyone knowing Touma's luck knows it wasn't going to be easy which is why they got tag alongs.
Nat's team dealt with a threat pretty easily and recruited them easily. Honestly they had things down pact.
I was hoping to finish this arc here but again with my stuff I couldn't do what I wanted to right. So next chapter will focus on heroes from multiple worlds fighting off the Red Lantern Hulk.
Leave a review telling me what you think. I felt it bit overall and I'll try to be more focus from now on.
Q&A:
largomolo: Okay, I hear you. Yeah, the three MC's tend to be jack's of all trades master of none. But I get what your saying, I'll try and work on it.
Raxius: Luck, the snap was random. I flipped a coin and he survived and used him in the story.
Also, I think I missed it, Drakkon was considered but I decided to go with Zedd.
Guest: Probably not, but I don't think too far ahead.
Luiz4200:I guess that does make sense. Yeah, I felt that red lantern in their rage would find their way to another universe if it was tied with their rage. I mean, in canon their founder used blood rituals to make the rings so I figured it would make sense. Like there was some magic in it. Plus yeah gave me a chance to do this new red lantern.
calderoneric758: You're welcome.
acosta perez jose ramiro: Well lets see if he does break the world.
zachlor16: I could see that, she isn't evil. Just Catra doesn't have a history of making good choices.