Chapter 1
(Oxford Street, London; Primeval Prime)
The city bus gently pulls up to the stop. As the doors open, passengers rush both in and out of the bus, desperate to get their way as their busy lives rush them, be it adults going to their workplace only to sit in front of their computers compiling data or in boring meetings just to make a living, or school students studying tirelessly for the subjects they swear they don't need. Yes it was just another ordinary day, so ordinary that newcomers to the bustling city of downtown London will have to entertain themselves just by listening to the noises of the constant honking of vehicles and drivers yelling at the traffic as they rush. Oh so ordinary, or so you may think.
The world and the universe is filled with wonders beyond imagining, wonders that may fascinate you, or paralyze you with utter fear. Whether or not one is ready to understand these secrets however may not be the kind of consideration fate or destiny gives. Nobody knew this better than Taylor and her best friend Ben. They both walk to the back of the bus ready for another day of secondary school. Ben shuffles past strangers to the back of the bus where there was much more room, with Taylor following close behind.
"My brain is just about ready to burst, I swear I was up all night studying for that bloody physics test" says Taylor, as they eventually come to a stop.
"You want me to tutor you?" replies Ben. Taylor smiles in appreciation of the gesture.
"Of course, but I doubt I'll be able to understand it like you can. I ain't gifted with the smart guy intellect you got"
"You just need practice, it's not that difficult. I used to think that doing these meant the end of the world, but it's all so fascinating"
"It's only so fascinating for the lucky few like you, you wrap your head around these ridiculous equations so easily"
Ben smiles, flattered at the thought that he may be gifted, but still wishes to help Taylor get to his level. "Well in truth I think in some alternate reality out there I probably wouldn't have gotten into these if I didn't see, well, you know what"
Taylor nods. She was aware that she and Ben bonded over the mutual secret they shared, about how they saw into the past through the glowing portals, and had nearly lost their lives. The experiences both haunted and fascinated them. When they first met, it took them a while to piece together that they both saw the same impossible phenomenon. Experiencing it changed them for both the worse and better. Both had taken an interest in science, Ben going for the more physical aspect of it while Taylor was more into the zoological side, in that department Ben was able to teach her much about prehistoric life with all that he has read, and the fact that he once harbored a Ceolaurosauravus.
"Yeah you're right" says Taylor in agreement. "Besides, who's to say whatever we learn won't help us if we run into those things again. They could even save our lives"
"Let's take it one day at a time. I'll help you ace the test, don't worry. We survived synapsids and giant bugs, we can handle physics!" Ben replies enthusiastically. Taylor however gestures to Ben to keep it down, to which he complies.
"Easy, we don't want people to think we're cookoo, you know what they'll think" Fortunately everyone seemed to be too busy talking on their phones or typing documents and essays on their laptops to realize.
"Right, sorry. It's too exciting to keep in though isn't it?" says Ben. "Well minus the whole plausible death thing, I'd rather see the creatures from a distance. If we get face to face it will be too soon".
Taylor opens her mouth to speak, only for their conversation to come to a literal halt. The bus suddenly and abruptly crashes into the car in front. Many of the standing passengers who couldn't brace themselves including Taylor and Ben fall over. Taylor falls to the floor while Ben manages to catch himself.
"Are you alright?" He says, helping Taylor off the floor.
"Ugh, that hit me right on the head" she says, rubbing the side of her head as she puts her arm around Ben's shoulder as he picks her up. The fallen passengers before them struggle to get up, a few of them even having their phones broken after they get crushed by other's suitcases or bodies. As many passengers are sitting on the ground and struggling, Taylor sees the front bus window ahead, seeing an all to familiar sight. At the traffic signal a few hundred feet in front of the bus opened a giant 50 foot diameter anomaly in the middle of the traffic intersection. The abrupt opening caused the pile up of cars in front of the bus and thus the crash. Many drivers and passengers get out of their cars, tending to their injuries or marveling at the sight before them. A handful of cars at the front of the intersection have also traveled through the anomaly.
"Oww" says the bus driver, after briefly rubbing his legs to soothe his injury. He grabs the handle on the wall next to his seat to get up. "Is everyone okay?"
A few passengers reply positively while others still groan in pain or continue to softly panic about the anomaly in front of the bus. Suddenly an enormous head and neck protrudes from and bursts through the anomaly and an aggressive speed, followed by gigantic pillar like legs, trampling over the cars near the anomaly and flattening them as well as any people unfortunate enough not to escape. The 150 foot long Diplodocus rampages like a bull African elephant, appearing to have no form of painful reaction to stepping on the metal and glass from the cars. The sauropod bellows as he continues to stampede forward, crushing even more vehicles as people scream and run for dear life. The passengers on the bus including Taylor and Ben yell and scream as the Diplodocus charges straight towards the bus, hitting the front with his legs. Passengers push, shove, and scramble to the back to avoid impact. The driver, not quick enough finds himself crushed and pushed into the seat by the Diplodocus' front legs. The Diplodocus suddenly rears up on his hind legs and crushes the front of the bus with his forelimbs, bringing the ceiling down upon the first third of the bus and killing the driver in addition to a few passengers. The Diplodocus pushes the bus forward and continues to rampage, turning his attention to the automobiles next to it.
Ben turns to the closest seat and quickly opens a window. "Everyone over here!" he shouts, beckoning the passengers to the window. He climbs through, grabbing the window from the outside for balance and pulling his legs out. He falls to the pavement and winces in pain, but quickly gets up to help Taylor out, grabbing her arms and squeezing her through. As Ben pulls her out he and Taylor fall to the ground. Still holding Taylor by her arms, Ben picks her up and turns to face the bus, then begins to look around at the surrounding debri. Other passengers attempt to squeeze through the window in an effort to get out. Taylor faces the bus for a moment and then turns around, only to see that Ben disappeared.
"Ben?" She yells, looking around. "Ben?!"
"Over here" Ben yells back. He runs around a car, coming back with a crowbar in his arms, running past Taylor.
He quickly runs to the back bus door and sticks the end of the crowbar into the door gap. Taylor runs up to him and grabs the bar too, helping him pry the door open. The two struggle for a few seconds, until the door eventually comes open. A passenger runs out, followed by others pouring out and running to the nearby building. The first passenger out stops and turns to the kids.
"Thanks guys" he quickly says. "Now come on, we got to go". He gestures to them and puts his arm around Ben and pushes him forth in the direction of the building, urging him to run. He also grabs Taylors arm and she follows him. As they all run, Taylor looks back briefly, to see the Diplodocus looking over the bus. He raises his long neck to tower over the bus, and most unusually he opens his mouth and attempts to bite into the metal hull of the vehicle as if trying to consume it. The passengers alongside other civilians run inside the office building and make their way to the windows beside the door to watch the beast from safety. Taylor runs to the window to find Ben already there, and they both look out at the Diplodocus, who rears up and crushes the bus over and over again in an attempt to flatten it in frustration. There were destroyed, flattened vehicles everywhere, in addition to buildings that have been broken by the massive sauropod. Many of the vehicles were also on fire and piled up on top of each other in masses. The Diplodocus pushes the bus with his legs so that it topples on its side. As if he wasn't threatening enough, the Diplodocus puts his two front legs on the bottom of the bus, which was now facing him. He uses his feet to push the bus forward, and it slowly drags on the ground straight towards the window. The people in the building panic and many begin to run. Taylor and Ben catch up and dash straight behind them as the damaged bus smashes through the window and destroys it as well as part of the walls like a giant battering ram. The passengers begin to run through the building to the other side to escape. Vibrations are heard and dust and debri begin to fall from parts of the building as the Diplodocus attempts to break into it.
Outside of the building, the Diplodocus sways his long neck around, smashing it into the building like a giant whip in order to bring it down, and he's not alone. As he's doing this, two more adult male Diplodocus roughly his size emerge from the anomaly, proceeding to attack vehicles and buildings, stomping on them or whipping them with their tails. They attack as if they were somehow predators trying to hunt prey, despite their herbivorous nature. Elsewhere, approaching the street of the rampage were many SUVs and Jeeps belonging to the Anomaly Research Center. In the leading SUV, the field members Hillary Becker, Abby Maitland, Keiran, Matt Andreson, and Emily step out. They all however briefly stop to see the absolute chaos before them. Many hundreds of feet before them near a large city roundabout was a herbivorous Diplodocus flattening cars and destroying structures left and right.
"Lord have mercy" Matt says upon seeing the sight. Abby has her mouth gaped open before she considers calming down to reply.
"Um, yeah that is absolutely not normal. They're supposed to be herbivores" she replies. Becker runs to Abby's side armed with his electromagnetic distribution rifle.
"Yeah? Perhaps you should try making that clear to him, honestly it might save me a days worth of work" he says sarcastically. Abby turns her head to face him unimpressed, though she did find that slightly funny. She was understandably more concerned at the kaiju sauropod they would have to somehow restrain.
"Here" Emily says, appearing beside Abby to lend her an EMD. She takes it, and the three prepare to await Matt's instructions.
"Alright everybody get in your own car" Matt says, meeting with the rest with his own gun. "If we try to do this on foot we're going to get flattened for certain. We need to buy Connor some time to close the anomaly"
Behind Matt, Connor appears driving his own SUV and stops next to him. "Matt, should I close the anomaly?" he asks through the window in haste.. Connor was taken by the shock of rampaging sauropods but was more desperate to stop them. Matt turns to reply.
"Yes but not yet, you need to wait for us to distract them first." he pauses for a second. "We got to do this right, one slip up could mean the end of us.
"Um Matt, while we're on the subject of, said end of us" says Becker calmly, points his rifle in front of him. The Diplodocus had spotted them, now charging from the distance straight towards them like an angry elephant but ten times heavier. Becker turns a knob on the gun and sets the EMD taser setting to the maximum level, traditionally used on predatory therapods. He shoots at the Diplodocus multiple times, aiming for the head. However he keeps hitting the neck and body due to the constant movement. The Diplodocus shows little signs of struggle and continues to charge.
"Lord have mercy" Emily says in response to seeing the charging sauropod.
"Alright everybody get in the cars, one for each of us, hurry!" Matt says, urging Abby and Emily to grab their own cars as field soldiers join Becker. "Becker, you better get one too, that's an order"
"I work better on foot Matt, I'm missing enough as it is" he sternly replies. The Diplodocus is a mere 150 feet away and keeps running. Matt scoffs lightly in response to Becker's overconfidence.
"Look I'm not looking forward to seeing you get stomped on, just do it" Matt orders as he boards the car, which speeds off. Becker sighs, but complies, immediately running to one of the SUVs as it reverses with the door open. Becker jumps in and the ARC vehicles scramble in multiple directions. The Diplodocus charges straight for Becker's SUV. The driver quickly turns in an arc to the right and speeds off just seconds before the Diplodocus is able to flatten them. The Diplodocus bellows and stops for a moment to catch his breath, but not for long before he charges again, following Becker's car.
"Well, clearly I deserve this" he remarks to the driver, still keeping the serious expression on his face. "I managed to piss off a great many dinosaurs in the past few years, I should have known this would happen eventually. I'll say though, I enjoy these odds more than the Therocephilians."
The dozen ARC SUVs scramble down the street and split up at different intersections, with Becker's car being last in line. The driver speeds up as the Diplodocus catches up. The driver swerves to cut through abandoned vehicles in the road and approaches an intersection. The Diplodocus tramples the cars in front without difficulty and sticks out his neck hoping to grab the SUV, until the driver makes a hard left at the intersection. The Diplodocus turns his neck to follow and hits the back of the car with his head, shaking it slightly. The Diplodocus begins to slow down at the intersection and stops, watching Becker's car speed away and give up chase. The Diplodocus turns his head to the sounds of tires screeching, and gently turns around. He brandishes his whip like tail, swinging it from side to side and bellows, poised to attack. He positions his front limbs, bending them slightly and puts his left leg slightly behind his right, ready to charge. As he faces to see the direction of the road he just ran down, four ARC SUVs with Matt, Emily, Abby, and Keiran charge down the road, driving. They come to a stop and park with the side windows facing the direction of the Diplodocus, and the windows roll down as the field team point their EMDs through them.
"Now!" Shouts Matt.
All four fire the guns multiple times at the Diplodocus. The beast rears up and bellows before crushing the asphalt below him and charging once more.
"Come on you big ol'lizard! Get beat already!" Abby says in frustration, noting that the Diplodocus did not seem to be affected.
They continue to pelt the Diplodocus with projectiles till he's is mere tens of feet away. Emily is heard screaming in rage as she shoots,trying to fell the beast by taking multiple shots at the legs. The Diplodocus suddenly loses feeling in his legs and falls to the ground on his side, scraping the road slightly as he comes to a stop and falls unconscious. In relief Matt dangles the gun outside his window and rests on the window sill of the car door and sights.
"Well" he says, and pauses. "That was a close call. One down, hope to god there aren't any others." Right as he says that however does he hear another bellow, with a second soon following it. In the meantime Connor's SUV is driven to the anomaly. The driver swiftly parks before the wreckage of the earlier traffic jam, consisting of 4-5 rows of destroyed cars and the bus, which looks like it was flattened in one of those junkyard car crushing machines, only very crudely. Connor gazes at the wrecked city bus.
My word, what the hell could possibly trigger a herbivore to be this destructive? he thinks to himself as he slowly gets out of the car. He continues to stare at the wreck which now catches fire. He's suddenly snapped back to reality, and runs to the trunk to get the anomaly compression device. Connor opens the trunk and grabs the suitcase handle, struggling to pull it out due to its weight.
"Awe, come on for the queens sake, please move!" he groans. He drags it out and the case weighs him down briefly. He grunts and bends his arm to hold up the case, and after some struggle he drops it, holding the handle with both hands. Connor catches his breath and quickly unlocks and opens it, pulling out the device. Consisting of a small tripod supporting a rod, he points it in the direction of the anomaly. A bellow is suddenly heard, Connor looks up at the anomaly for a moment.
"Oh, hell no..." he says quietly. His worst nightmare, which would normally be a dream in other circumstances comes to pass when a fourth aggressive Diplodocus charges out of the anomaly. This Diplodocus is a female, slightly smaller than the large males that came through earlier. The Diplodocus looks around at her surroundings, swaying her neck from side to side as if to take in the surreal human city. She suddenly catches sight of Connor, who stares in shock and awe. He knows he can't close the anomaly with an animal too close to it. The Diplodocus charges forward, heading straight for Connor. The two ARC soldiers behind Connor shoot the female with their EMDs, but the constant firing of pulse shots don't work effectively. The Diplodocus gets mere meters closer, and Connor stumbles to the right before running for dear life just barely avoiding being stomped upon by the sauropod's left foot. The anomaly compression device was not so lucky, as the next right step smashes it. Connor rolls to the ground and looks at the beast, seeing that she has picked up one of the Arc soldiers, crushing him within her teeth before dropping his body. Connor being Connor of course, the first thing that pops into his head is how a herbivore with peg like blunt teeth can be so aggressive and capable of doing this. The second Arc soldier hides behind a car, and runs to Connor.
"Come on, come on get up, we got to get out of here! he says. He grabs Connor's arm and helps him up, and they both run to the building next to them, the same with the bus passengers from earlier. The Diplodocus slowly builds up speed and charges. The soldier fires more shots before joining Connor, and they both run through the broken doors. Despite being in the building they're not safe, as the Diplodocus breaks through the debri and broken doors, sticking her neck into the building in an effort to grab them. Connor stands next to the walls of the atrium to the left of the door, being out of reach of the Diplodocus, while the soldier stays on the right. The Diplodocus quickly gives up and brings her neck out, proceeding to raise her neck to spectate her surroundings of the city before walking away, further trampling the already damaged cars, trucks, and human corpses.
Both Connor and the fellow soldier pause for a moment to catch their breath, staring at the Diplodocus outside as she walks away exhausted. The two face each other and crack smiles of relief at each other. Connor squats and breathes a sigh of relief.
"Phew, oh dear. Okay, come on, let's get out of here" he says to the soldier. They both start to walk quickly to the back door of the building just roughly 40 feet away from them. Connor faces the soldier and cracks a casual smile, nodding his head in relief. He starts ahead of the soldier, who stretches and shakes his limbs. He picks his EMD gun off the floor and begins to follow Connor to the back exit. Connor breathes in and lets out an audible sigh of relief and turns to the face the soldier while he walks.
"You know mate, I think we might just make it out of this alive." He turns his head back to face forward, seeing that there's a group of civilians scattered outside on the street behind the back of the building. Connor picks up speed when he sees that they are starting to run down the street after seeing the danger that's coming. The ground starts to shake, quickly building up. Dust and debris start to fall from the ceiling above Connor and the soldier. Connor gets focused sensing the urgency and continues to speedwalk to the exit, opening the door. Connor opens the door and walks out to the sidewalk, the soldier just behind him. They see that the female Diplodocus has reached the street where the back door is located and makes way, chasing the people down it. Connor briefly stares at the Diplodocus in anticipation, as if a fierce glare will somehow stop her rampage, but the beast just raises her head and lets out a trumpeting call of aggression, continuing to stampede forward. Connor presses his earphone to his ear and speaks through it.
"Team this is Connor" he says quickly. "Listen, a fourth Diplodocus came through the anomaly, and kind of smashed the closing device to smithereens so I've got to go back to HQ and fetch another. I don't know how we're going to hide this but I have got to go back and get another, thank god I've built some backups in my spare time." He turns to the soldier.
"Listen, you got to help these civilians out of here, get them out of here and to the other side, away from the wreckage and the anomaly" says Connor to him. He points in the direction of the building entrance where the Diplodocus was no longer.
"Connor" comes Matt's voice over the earphone. "You say you're close to the anomaly right? Look we sent Keiran, he's coming to you."
"Ye-ye- yeah" Connor replies, stuttering briefly. "I'm coming, but there's too much debris and wrecked cars. You need to take the street to the right of the one on the anomaly though, and meet me at the back of the building, the one that the anomaly is next to but be careful, the fourth Diplodocus is on the street. I'll try covering you". Connor gets off the conversation and runs into the street, turning on the EMD. "Hey, heeey!" he yells, jumping up and down and waving his arms. The Diplodocus, fast walking now picks up speed, stampeding towards him. Connor takes aim at the head and opens fire, but misses, and the shots go to the sauropod's torso. Connor turns around and begins to run down the street before the Diplodocus can catch up with him.
Elsewhere in the skies, unknown to all the mortals below him watches a god. Floating high above the downtown London streets, spectating the entertaining chaos unfolding below him with a satisfied smile on his face. He watches with his eyes wide open and his smile, in anticipation and excitement for what will happen next, as if he were watching a thrilling movie. He then takes a big, cathartic sigh. Finally, after many years of searching, he finally found a perfect universe for his next project.
"This is perfection." he says, emphasizing his speech with a sense of delight as he was savoring his discovery. " This is exactly what I need, no. This is better than I could have imagined!" He says taking on a more enthusiastic tone. "This will be my entertainment for eternity!". This man was none other than Beyonder, a extradimensional entity of great power and intellect, and he was about to get a long awaited upgrade. Still hovering in the air, Beyonder turns around and in a second takes off into the sky at high speed. He makes fists of his hands and stretches them out, cutting through the air as he launches through the atmosphere like a rocket. His hair and beard draw back as a result. In no time Beyonder finds himself high up in the thermosphere, and he swiftly turns around. He was now flying backwards, still pushing himself through witnessing the beauty of Earth's oceans and continents below him. Beyonder smiles at the site as he slowly comes to a stop in the medium of the exosphere. Not a wholesome friendly smile, but rather a sinister one. One with anticipation and excitement about how he would doom this world. Beyonder lets out an evil chuckle before gently turning around. He takes a moment to look around intently before finding his destination, ever so far away in the distance was the Earth's Moon. He manages to make it out as a fairly larger object from his perspective compared to the many stars in the heavens. Not many know just how far away it is from Earth. Beyonder's body rotates forward to the point he's almost ventral, and he darts to the Moon at a much higher speed than before. As he's soaring through space he looks back for a moment, seeing the Earth get smaller and smaller. He turns back to face the moon, seeing it get bigger and bigger as he closes in on it. He lands on the surface of the moon, touching down in a three point landing. He gently rises upright and faces forward, open his eyes slowly and dramatically. He takes a moment to stretch his neck and arms and lets out a sigh of relaxation.
"It's time." he says. He reaches into the shirt pocket of his white suit and pulls out a a tiny metallic disk, holding it in his thumb and index finger. Beyonder tosses it out before him, before it lands in the sand it suddenly begins to take shape. The disk begins to grow at the edges and suddenly becomes 20 feet in diameter. The device also grows mechanical beams resembling limbs that allow it to lift from the ground as a platform. The ends of these legs them dig into the ground below, anchoring it. The base of the disk is shown to have a glowing blue light on the face of the circle, with the border being metallic silver. The teleportation platform was complete. Beyonder levitates and hovers, landing on the disk. He sticks his hand out, technopathically triggering it. Suddenly however he stops, and his heart races in anticipation as he senses danger. He quickly turns around, to see a humanoid shape charging at him, flying from above. Uatu the Watcher slams into him, grasping Beyonder's shoulders with his arms. The impact damages the face of the platform slightly where Beyonder was standing. The two are thrown off and tumble 30 feet near the portal. Both omnipotent extradimensional entities quickly get up, both dusting off the moon dust that caught onto their clothing. Beyonder shakes his head and takes a moment to look up and register his attacker.
"A Watcher?" He asks out 's hands begin to glow a bright white aura, indicating that he's activating his powers, powers similar to those of Beyonder himself. The glowing white on his palms then transfer across his entire body, and a metallic battle armor manifests on his form. The all seeing alien bore a distinctive feature from Beyonder, who took the form of an ordinary human. Uatu had a proportionally large cranium to house his brain, as well as much larger eyes as well as a proportionally widened nose and lips compared to that of humans. His armor then begins to radiate a strange golden electric energy.
"I know who you are" he declares to Beyonder, Uatu's voice like his made an echo when he spoke. He puts his right leg behind his left before putting his hands up and making fists.
"I know what you're capable of. I know that whatever it is that you desire, it will be far from ideal."
"You are indeed a Watcher, and yet, you seem different than the ones I'm familiar with. You're not from my world, are you?" Beyonder asks.
"It matters not where I'm from, but what does matter is that whatever you're plotting, it ends here!" Uatu replies. Beyonder sighs in frustration under his breath, and quickly manifests his own armor, with his head exposed. Beyonder's armor is simpler than Uatu's metallic, brightly colored, and with less ridged parts. The most unusual features are the extremely oversized pauldrons, expanding behind Beyonder and being much thicker and rounded than the other joints.
"If you truly know how I am, then you must know that I cannot be stopped, by anybody! You're not the only one who can conjure fancy armor!" The pauldrons on either side of Beyonder's head then enclose his head, turning into a gigantic oversized helmet covering his head and shoulders. On the front of the helmet an image of a face manifests, changing with Beyonder's actual expression behind it. Uatu exhales and clenches his teeth, he produces cosmic energy with his hands, the sparking electric energy envelopes his hands. Beyonder watches him, the two are caught in a staring match with Uatu itching to take the strike. But no, he suddenly and swiftly turns to the direction of the multiversal teleporter, firing a powerful beam of cosmic energy, lighting up their lunar battlefield.
"NOOOOOOOO!" Beyonder yells. His perceptions heighten for a moment. He quickly takes a great leap, positioning himself between the teleporter and Uatu, in front of the beam's end. He takes the beam straight to his pauldron helmet, tanking it. The beam drenches his helmet's surface with burning hot energy. Beyonder sticks his arms out behind him, motioning his fingers and clenching them into fists, telekinetically moving the lunar soil. A mass of rock and soil suddenly rises up from the ground behind him, attaching to Beyonder and anchoring him. Beyonder acts as a living shield as he tanks the beam. Realizing his attack was thwarted Uatu quickly takes flight, rising up into the air and firing off a second beam. Beyonder quickly telekinetically breaks the rock anchor. He flies up and takes the hit again, being thrown back by the immense force of the beam. He flips backwards in the air and lands on his feet on the teleporter platform.
"I've had enough of this!" He says frustratedly. Uatu fires a third blast and Beyonder holds his hands up, blocking it with an invisible shield using his powers. As the beam makes impact the shield manifests as a mysterious translucent fog in midair before quickly dissipating. In the blink of an eye, Beyonder flies at high speed. He takes off relatively gently from the teleporter platform as to not damage it further. He flies to the left of Uatu, hovering just tens of feet away from him, and darts at him, throwing a painful punch to the Watcher's face. Uatu is thrown back, his head briefly ringing from the pain. He lands on the lunar surface a few hundred feet from the teleporter, behind a couple of small rock spires and into a shallow crater. He tumbles upon impact across the lunar surface. Uatu groans in pain briefly but quickly shrugs the hit off and stands up. In no time, Beyonder lands tens of feet away from him, as he lands on the ground the impact throws lunar dust in all directions from his feet. He lets out a brief chuckle, being displayed by the white outlined face on the front of his enormous helmet.
"No, I will never surrender." Uatu says. Beyonder huffs.
"You didn't have to tell me that, you're not the only one who can read minds" Beyonder replies. "Let's get this over with, I have a tight schedule, got a multiverse to throw into utter shambles you know?" he asks rhetorically. Uatu lets out a frustrating growl, taking offense to his goal. He charges up his attack, the energy in his palms sparking more intensely and growing in volume slightly. He combines the energy in his hands into a single concentrated beam and fires it at Beyonder. Beyonder smiles at the attack, ready to counter it. He stretches out his arms on either side, palms facing up, telekinetically kicking up the lunar soil and rock. The ground shakes as an enormous wall of dirt shields the beam, even as the beam destroys the wall more lunar matter immediately rebuilds the destroyed parts. The beam blows into the wall, throwing dust everywhere. Uatu puts his right arm up to shield his face. He sees that he's enveloped in a cloud of dust, obscuring his view of Beyonder. Suddenly, in the corner of his eye moves a shadow. The dust clears and Uatu faces his left, seeing the shadowy silhouette of Beyonder, now with his helmet off, smiling with a sinister grin even more unsettling when paired with his white pupil-less eyes. Without a second though Uatu takes flight, darting away from Beyonder. He knew that he had to destroy the teleporter at once. Beyonder kneels down and kicks the ground as he dashes after Uatu. He flies to Uatu's right about a hundred feet away. The teleporter was within their sites and straight ahead. Uatu turns his head to face Beyonder, glaring at him in motivation to reach it first. Suddenly, a crackling sound is heard from behind him. Uatu turns around in midair, his body still flying backwards and to the teleporter, but he sees behind him an enormous human arm and hand. A hand manifested by the Beyonder made out of moon rock and soil, coming straight for him. Beyonder controls the giant left hand with his own real one. The hand cuts through the ground, rumbling through it and cracking the surface as it chases Uatu. As Uatu speeds up to dodge it, he fails to notice a giant manifested right arm. It rises above the soil and catches Uatu. Beyonder clenches his fist, allowing the giant arm to clench Uatu tightly as to not let him escape. Uatu struggles and grunts and groans pain, feeling crushed in the grip.
"Y- You-" he says, unable to speak.
"Gotchya fat head!" Beyonder says satisfied. He shakes his head and neck, and takes a moment to stretch his limbs. Fighting gods can be hard work, even for another god.
"Ahhh" sighs Beyonder. He takes flight and hovers past Uatu slowly. "I gotta bounce but it was nice fighting you" he says, pointing his finger at the Watcher. "You might want to direct that energy to what's yet to come though" He flies away, making his way to the teleporter. He lands on the teleporter's surface and presses away at the panel, activating his destination. The teleporter whirs and the blue platform surface glows. Elsewhere in the distance, Uatu struggles for his life, finding it hard to breathe. He takes deep breaths in and out again and again. He had to get out of this. With all his strength and might he lets out a yell, radiating energy from his arms. He bursts through the tight grip of the hand, blowing it up and leaving an lunar arm sticking out of the ground. Uatu falls to the ground in pain, coughing and catching his breath. He takes a moment to get up, and sees Beyonder on the active teleporter in the distance. One moment he's there, and the next, he vanishes. He was too late. Beyonder continues to inhale and exhale, finally calming down and catching his breath.
"This, is not good" he says to himself, shaking his head. "I need help, whatever he intends to do with this universe, I have to stop him, no matter what." he says firmly. Uatu gently sits down, taking a moment to rest. He puts his hands on his forehead in frustration of his failure.
Universe: Marvel Earth 12041-11
Enigma's Shrine
Beyonder is moments away from teleporting to his native universe, but the mere seconds for him is time enough for him to relax his mind and recalls his past. He made this discovery of Enigma's Shrine just moments after his resurrection. He would never forget that moment, when a lowly gang of puny mortals actually struck down a god such as him. Tony Stark, Jane Foster, Bruce Banner, and Steve Rogers. These were the mortals who had the audacity to turn on their god, humiliate him, and destroy his experiment. Sadly, his opportunity for revenge will never come, as they were long dead. But this would matter not as he still had purpose, or so he would need to assure.
In a blip, Beyonder manifests at his teleporter, his battle armor disappearing as he arrives. He quickly registers his surroundings, noticing something very obviously wrong. He did not leave the teleporter surrounded by several artillery weapons pointed at it, and he certainly did not build a giant metal dome build to cover it. This was not how he left it, but there he was, surrounded by several guns resembling the anti-aircraft kind. Missile and RPG launchers as well as plasma and heat cannons among others in many shapes and sizes. What caught his eye the most were four giant heat beam shooters arranged perpendicularly, two facing Beyonder's front and back and two to his were large with thick cylindrical barrels. The weapons around him started whirring as they were powering up, and Beyonder noticed how all of the projectile launchers and cannons had color schemes of green and purple. They were now powered up and ready to fire. Beyonder lets out a frustrated sigh.
"Ugh, Kang" he mutters under his breath. The 15 foot tall heat cannon in front of him fires off a powerful beam. Beyonder reflexively holds his hand up, crafting a light gray circular telekinetic shield in front of him. The cannon from behind him fires, and Beyonder swiftly holds his left hand out to shield the blast as well. All of the guns suddenly open fire, filling the room with tremendously loud bangs and echos. Beyonder instinctively crafts a telekinetic dome around himself and the teleporter. Despite his great powers he was struggling to hold it intact, feeling the projectile blasts pouring in and pushing the surface of the dome inward. Beyonder held his position, his powers taking strain on him as what seemed like endless rounds of ammunition and energy piling onto his dome shield.
I'm such an idiot! he thought. Clearly I learned nothing from the likes of Stark! I didn't even consider the obvious fact that Kang would prepare for my return! It was hard to so much as think with the sounds of the blasters piling on, creating a painful and repetitive sound fest. Two sliding security doors on either end of the dome open. At each entrance around ten of Kang's soldiers, unknown aliens, and a few soldier robots enter armed with guns.
"There he is, he's back!" the soldier's captain yells. All of the soldiers get into their positions, on either side half of them got on their knees and aime their ray military rifles. The standing soldiers behind them took aim as well.
"Alright boys, just like we practiced. Fire!" the captain orders. All soldiers on either side fire off, pelting Beyonder's dome with energy projectiles. Beyonder feels himself weaken, unable to hold it off for long. He uses his eyesight to see past the translucent dome, but sees nothing but bright yellow from the heat cannon in front of him. They were clearly doing the most damage, pushing into his shield. The pressure causing him to slowly shrink it. The other projectiles and soldiers must be for additional help.
"No, I will, not give up!" Beyonder says, exhausted. "I have come too far to let this stop me!" He has to take a moment to catch his breath. With the remaining strength he has he begins to speak.
"Stop please, I surrender!" he says. The captain holds his hand up.
"Hold fire!" he yells. The soldiers stop shooting and lower their weapons. The captain picks up a remote from his pocket and pushes a button on it, and slowly, all of the cannons and guns in the dome gradually stop firing and depower, turning off. Beyonder relinquishes his dome shield, it fades away and he collapses on the teleporter platform out of exhaustion. Beyonder lays on the platform surface, and struggles to get up. As he's on the ground, he reaches into his shirt pocket without the soldiers noticing. They start to walk to the platform. Beyonder feels around in his pocket, jackpot! He pulls out another disk from his pocket, covering the view of the soldiers with his left hand. He looks at the disk and his eyes glow, activating the disk. He briefly turns his head to the heat cannon that was in front of him, his eyes glow again, technopathically locking that as his target. The disk in his hand suddenly takes flight, quickly flying to the base of the head cannon and attaching to it. Beyonder's senses allow him to hear it activate. He now feels slightly better, his stamina recovering in the mere seconds it took for the soldiers to walk over to him. They walk on the platform and Beyonder gets up slowly, putting his hands up. The captain remains unafraid but some of the soldiers jolt in fear, holding up their guns.
"Please, I surrender. I mean it, I'm, exhausted. Call Kang the Conquerer, tell him, that I surrender to him" he says with apparent sorrow and disappointment. Some of the soldiers look at each other confused, but get back on task. The captain brandishes a large pair of power nullifying cuffs. The soldiers behind him take aim at Beyonder as the captain swiftly comes forward to cuff the omnipotent god. But just before he can, Beyonder cracks an unsettling smile, one that some of the guards and the captain both expected but still feared.
"Psych." he says calmly. Beyonder throws his hands back and jumps, kicking the cuffs into the captain and throwing him back. Beyonder flips in the air and lands, then swiftly turns his head to face the heat cannon with his hacking disk on it. He activates it telepathically. The cannon suddenly aims at the captain and fires off. At the same time the soldier next to where the captain was, unaffected by the blast fires at Beyonder, but he reflexively shields it. Beyonder telekinetically pushes all of the soldiers in front of him back many feet. In a burst of force some of them slam against the dome walls. He turns around and delivers the same attack to the soldiers behind, and the soldiers scatter all over the place. The heat cannon in front of the hacked one suddenly whirs to power up. Beyonder turns to see the injured captain on the floor, but looking up at him strong enough to hold up the remote and turn the cannons on again. Beyonder takes flight, allowing his hacked cannon to blast the one across from it. He flies across the room, pulling out more hacking disks. He flies to the third cannon as it powers up and attaches the disk, then finally to the fourth. The three cannons were now under his control. He holds out his hands to activate them. All hell breaks loose as the cannons fire devastating heat beams, destroying all the other guns. He quickly flies to the teleporter and crafts his dome shield once again, deflecting any stray debri and bullets. The heat beams sweep across the room, blowing up all the guns and launchers. A minute later the room was covered in black scorch marks from the heat cannons, the soldiers all dead and their bodies and uniforms partially melted from the heat. Beyonder lands next to a soldier and turns his body over, taking his ID. He opens the dome's door using it on the scanner and casually walks out.
He walks through the hallway leading from the security dome. The interior of the hallways and dome were all decorated to Kang's liking, painted in purple with green stripes and lines running across them. As Beyonder walks ahead he sees that there are security cameras placed at many intervals in the length of the hall. He holds out his hands to telekinetically crush them, one by one. The metal that the halls and cameras are made are durable, however he does destroy their lenses and interior components. He views the path ahead, seeing that more of Kang's Shrine guards are coming after him from the distance.
"Heh heh, too late boys!" he says. Beyonder sticks out his arms to either side, brandishing his battle armor once more, as well as his large pauldrons and helmet. Beyonder kneels slightly and takes flight at superhuman speed, the same that he uses to travel the cosmos. He flies like a lightspeed missile, plowing through the guards, leaving behind battered and bloody bodies. He finds himself racing through the hallways, crashing into dead ends and walls along the way. In just seconds however Beyonder finds an exist door before him. He breezes past it, making his way to the outside. He is on the surface of the asteroid known as Enigma's Shrine, an ancient asteroid base used by the gods who created the universe. Beyonder flies off the asteroid and thousands of meters away and turns around, viewing the building he left at a distance. He sees how it changed since the last time he left it. Enigma's Shrine was like an ordinary asteroid, but used as a tomb after the great entity's passing. Her omnipotent powers however are said to be contained within the Shrine, theoretically infinite and capable of affecting the multiverse. The only way to acquire this power is by hacking into the asteroid. Inside it are electronic devices resembling computers with countless lines of security codes.
Beyonder did not come to this fully unprepared, he had spent years after his resurrection unlocking Enigma's shrine, all the while his enemy Kang the Conquerer hunted him across the universe for his knowledge. The Shrine was but a myth as far as they were concerned, until Beyonder stumbled across it far away from the Milky Way. He couldn't believe his eyes. He had a fortunate headstart of years ahead of Kang as he could cover more ground. Beyonder looks at the asteroid base Kang built on the asteroid, it covered the carved interior and was clearly well defended from the outside, but not as much from inside. Beyonder flies back down and into the building, over the course of minutes he travels at high speed through the hallways, eventually coming to the interior of the asteroid. It was below the dome that he was previously trapped in, on top of the asteroid. He finds himself in the interior, an enormous one way bigger than the dome. He sees enormous supercomputers before him, automatically hacking into the remainder of the Shrine's code.
I don't understand, why is the room unguarded? Beyonder wonders. They must have all been diverted to me. All he knew is that if everybody here was dead he was free to complete the hack. He knew that Kang would want Enigma's powers all to himself. Beyonder walks up to the control panel for the overhead computer before him and places another hacking disk on it.
"Welcome, Beyonder" says an automated female voice from the computer. "Enigma's Shrine is now under your control." Beyonder types and scrolls away on the computer pad, viewing all the hacked code. Without his intellect the process would take billions of years for any other mortal, or so he thought, as somehow Kang was able to properly decipher most of it. There were put a few thousand lines to go.
This is perfect, I made it just in time! Enigma's powers are mine! he exclaims in his head. I have to hurry, there's not a moment to lose, it won't be long before that purple faced bastard gets here!. Beyonder continues to type away where Kang's computers left off. He goes into a meditative trance as he types away, blocking the outside world. He needed all his focus if he was going to complete this. After minutes, it was done. After many years it has all come to this! The minutes go by until Beyonder completes the last line of the puzzle.
"Hack complete" says a computer voice. A strange mechanical grinding sound is suddenly heard from behind. Beyonder turns around, to see that a circular door on the floor suddenly opens. The frame has multiple curved triangle shaped doorways pointing to the center from the edge of the circle. The doors open to reveal the entrance to an underground tunnel below the room. Beyonder walks up to the opening to look into it, he sees that under the doorway was a railless spiral staircase descending into darkness. Without wasting a second Beyonder quickly speedwalks down the staircase, finding that it's rather short and doesn't even complete one rotation. He gets to the bottom, walking down the narrow tunnel with gray rocky walls on either side. He continues forward, finding a strange, large rectangular shaped door in front of him. The doorframe had two doors, which open up abruptly, startling Beyonder momentarily. He jumps back briefly but comes back to focus. Beyond the doors was a void shining a bright light into the hallway. He pauses for a moment, taking in the unusual sight before walking up to it slowly. Suddenly, Beyonder is swept off his feet, sucked into the doorway. He's swallowed up by the void.
Elsewhere, outside the Shrine thousands of meters away, a Universal Neural Teleportation Network (UNTN) manifests. In the middle of empty space a pattern resembling numerous colored hexagons appear arranged like a puzzle, bordered by strokes of bright white light. They are artificially generated wormholes generated by space traveling craft. Countless wormhole portals open up surrounding the asteroid, one by one battle ready spaceships manifest out of each of them. Ranging in size and shape, but they all had external blasters on their wings and bodies. In just seconds, ten thousand of Kang's battlecraft surround the Shrine in all directions, except for one place. Amidst the enormous spherical curtain of spaceships surrounding the asteroid was a gap, making room for the biggest one. The enormous hexagonal shaped portal appears, the portal surface shining a translucent orange and rippling. Through the portal floats the enormous and cumbersome Democlas, Kang's mothership. Taking a shape similar to a gigantic sword, the enormous propulsion engines at the sword like ship's pommel and rain guard push the craft forward. The cockpit is placed near the tip at the front, where Kang rests on his throne. The throne is against the wall and elevated slightly on a pedestal, allowing Kang to look down on his pilots and crewmembers guiding the ship, crewmembers were all humans in uniform, along with ten combat robots armed with rifles. Two were pacing, two were in position next to Kang's throne and six looking out into the deep space. The ship slowly but surely makes it's way out of the portal, which closes behind the massive mothership. Kang stands up from the throne, his helmet screen zooms in on the Shrine to view the disturbance before them. Beyonder phases through the walls of the asteroid facility, hovering in the middle of space just a few hundred meters outside of it. He proceeds to fly closer to the center of the massive elliptical enclosure formed by the armada of Kang's ships that surround him. Beyonder eyes the mothership, staring directly at Kang with his all seeing vision.
"We're too late. A temporal attack would be pointless now" Kang announces to the crew. The message is heard through the speakers of all the ships in the armada. "Well, any attack would be pointless, he would easily forsee it with his newfound powers."
"Ohhh, you damn right about that Kang!" says Beyonder smugly and telekinetically to Kang. Kang reacts to the message as he quickly jolts his head up in Beyonder's direction. Kang clenches his jaw and glares, groaning in anger at Beyonder's taunt.
"Subjects of the Kang Dynasty! We've reached the point of no return, it's him or us!" he says. He speaks quickly, knowing that Beyonder will react without delay. "Fire upon him, that's an order. You won't be able to beat him but we can try incapacitating him! Attack!"
Without delay the endless swarm of Kang's warships charge at Beyonder. From above, below, and behind. The Democles however and a few large ships surrounding it do not move. Beyonder turns to face the ships charging at him to the right, they fire off purple energy beam projectiles, beams capable of destroying powerful creatures and structures with ease. Beyonder waits for the projectiles to come closer. Beyonder simply sticks his right hand out in front of him, waving it to the right side. In a moment each of the projectiles enter circular portals that manifest in front of them. The portals instantly reopen at the precise angles pointing to the engines of the ships that fired them. Some of the projectiles hit the cockpit windows, cracking them, and others hit the boosters from the sides and back. The three ships that fired now crash into each other, but are durable enough not to break apart, but they slowly come to a stop unable to move. This however was just the start of the slaughter. Thousands upon thousands of ships continue to charge at Beyonder, opening fire. Projectiles come flying in towards him, but Beyonder simply raises his hands, stopping them in their tracks. In an instant they freeze, only to change direction and fire off again backwards right to the ships that launched them. At tenfold speed the projectiles destroy the side cannons on the ships that shot them. Beyonder stops, feeling a push behind him. He turns around, seeing that a ship is blasting at him but to no avail. Not even pushed back, Beyonder just stays still in the weightless medium as the ship futilely attempts to subdue him. The many ships behind this one are scattered, damaged, or retreating from Beyonder. He finds amusement to this, an insignificant mortal pilot either driven by desperation or rather with a big ego.
Beyonder sticks his hand out, playing with his powers as he curls his fingers together slowly to make a fist. The ship before him is telekinetically crushed, despite the seemingly unbreakable hull, the ship's wings, body and side cannons instantly collapse in on themselves, thus causing it to stop firing. Beyonder gestures his hands and pulls them together, crushing the ship. He lightly feels the blasts of several ships behind him. Three thousand of Kang's ships join together to blast at him, the rest behind them as to not interfere with their attack. There's no effect, Beyonder stands unharmed, not so much as nudged from his position.
"How cute." he says calmly. Beyonder telekinetically grasps the crushed ship. With a few hand gestures he reshapes it completely, it now becomes a 90 foot long bullet. He aims it in the direction of the Democles' cockpit, which is blocked a handful of ships making up the massive firing squad before him. Back in the cockpit Kang looks out the windows, his helmet's facial visor zooming in on Beyonder during the fight. He quickly registers the structure Beyonder created out of his fallen ship, and notices Beyonder looking right at him from a great distance.
"You've got to be shitting me!" Kang says in a panic. He momentarily frowns and looks down in acceptance for the terrible inconvenience that is to follow. Beyonder raises his right hand and motions it behind his head, aiming the giant bullet.
"Sayonara you purple faced BITCH!" he shouts enthusiastically as he swings his arm in front of him, launching the bullet at the Democles at an ungodly speed that would give light a run for its money. The bullet peels through a handful of Kang's ships, causing them to explode. In the same millisecond the bullet also peels through the cockpit of Democles and goes right through the ship's body. An enormous explosion follows as the front of the ship is completely decimated. The explosion clears up, revealing the front of the ship to be a complete mess of debri scattered in the space around it. In an instant Beyonder flies to it, stopping in front of where the cockpit used to be. He looks around to see that among the shattered pieces of Democles, among the mess are bodies of both Kang's soldiers and the robots, some even with missing limbs and heads floating about. Thanks to his all seeing vision he immediately knew that Kang wasn't here. Beyonder chuckles to himself. The rest of Kang's ships all stop firing, each turning and maneuvering to see the destruction Beyonder had wrought.
"Well I have to say Kang your reflexes are sharp. Not bad for a centuries old man." he says. He turns to face to the right slightly upward to see Kang, who has teleported hundreds of meters away. He floats in the medium with his arms crossed. Kang tries to put up a calm demeanor, though he is immensely pissed at the destruction of Democles. He knew right away that Beyonder's omnipotent powers allowed him to peer into Kang's mind, thus it was no hidden secret. Beyonder laughs out loud in amusement.
"Don't be so frustrated Kang, I actually happen to like your ship. I think I'll keep it for myself, as well as the goodies inside it. Beyonder turns to face the ruined Democles and sticks his left hand out. All he has to do is wave it around, and in an instant, all the debri suddenly come together and take their place back on the mothership's body. Like magic, the Democles is restored. The entire front of the ship magically reassembles itself, the glass shards of the cockpit window, the frames, the metal hull, the engine parts all come together. The mothership is now restored, good as new, well except for the bodies of Kang's men and robots, still floating freely. Kang simply watches this in awe, but he knows that Beyonder's only intention is for his own gain. He also notices that hundreds of ships in the armada are leaving, fearful of Beyonder's power. Kang sighs in frustration, normally he would be disappointed in their insubordination but he understands, as he himself has no idea what to do.
"Cheer up Kang" says Beyonder, facing him. "I'd rather not kill you right away, I mean, nothing would give me greater satisfaction but I'd rather see you as a participant in my little game. You're abilities are very valuable, besides, I'm offering you the multiverse so you should be grateful!" he says sternly. "As for your men..." he continues. "You have trillions of them anyway, hope you don't mind losing a few." Kang is suddenly overcome by the horrific realization.
"No, no wait!" he pleads. Beyonder turns around and motions his arms, and in just a few seconds all ten thousand of Kang's ships are doomed as they're all telekinetically hurled into one location. A handful of ships suddenly get stuck together into a lump, very quickly they're joined by more, and more, and more. A ball of hundreds suddenly becomes a thousand, then another, then another. All in just ten seconds, all ten thousand ships are joined together into one mass, an enormous ball bigger than the Shrine. Kang just watches with his mouth gaping, his arms out and in denial, knowing that any kind of resistance will just end with his own death. Beyonder stretches his left hand out, aiming it at a target far in the cosmos. Kang watches, as out of nowhere, the beam of a gamma ray burst manifests. The beam runs through the massive sphere of Kang's ships, but as Beyonder holds it in place and as such it doesn't move as the beam cuts through it. All of the ships then explode starting from the ones in the middle of the circle to the ones at the edge. The combined explosion causes a massive burst of blinding light before them, causing Kang to momentarily cover his face with his hands. The ships themselves and the troops on board were all turned to ash by the burst's beam. Kang could see a massive cloud of smoke, debris, and the scattered body parts of countless men. He's still with utter shock at what he has witnessed. He did not anticipate that the powers of Enigma's Shrine would be this great. Beyonder casually turns around to face Kang with an evil smile. Kang had never been so afraid for his safety in all his years of colonization.
"I know that you would normally contact a rescue crew but I'll save you the trouble. You have much to prepare for the upcoming storm!" says Beyonder. He puts his hand out.
"Wait, what are you doing?!" Kang yells. He feels something is wrong. Beyonder telekinetically grasps him, and in instant, flings him in the direction of Earth. Kang's scream echos as he hurdles across space. Beyonder turns around to look at his handiwork. He lets out an evil laugh, and immediately raises his hands up. He telekinetically grabs several asteroids and pieces of remaining debri from Kang's destroyed ships. From across the cosmos several asteroids travel to Beyonder's location, as if they were somehow responding to him. Several processes occur at once, one by one Beyonder begins to reassemble the the destroyed ships, putting them together atom by atom, piece by peace. Of course he was leaving the bodies of Kang's men to rot. The asteroids that Beyonder had summoned also take many shapes, smoothing out into buildable plate structures. They started attaching themselves to the surface of Enigma's shrine, the stone composition of the attached asteroids gradually turning fully into metal, specifically vibranium.
"Time for some reconstruction!" Beyonder declares, before laughing maniacally.
Uatu's Base, Blue Area of the Moon; MCU What If Prime
Uatu, now recovering from his earlier fight, types away at his computer. He opens an application allowing him to make contact via video call. In no time the monitor on the large computer screen displays the face of his contact. Another Uatu from another world.
"My friend." says the second Uatu (M-12041 Prime). "Are you alright, is all well?"
"No. I'm afraid not" says the first. "What we had feared has come to pass. You must inform the heroes of your Earth and I will contact mine. We need all the help we can get." he says declaratively and with determination.