It was late at night when the blonde haired, blue-eyed Aster Cross was driven to the warehouse just outside the city's limits. He had his hands neatly folded on top of his lap as the limousine he rode in reached the pier and stopped outside warehouse nine. Aster smiled as a small robotic pirate rolled out of the abandoned building and opened the door for him. It led him inside the building, where the young, evil billionaire could see how the project he funded was doing.
There were small robot pirates all over the warehouse. Some of them had wagons full of scrap, while others held tools to build a large, green machine in the center of the room. Aster hummed as the pirate robot assigned to him tapped his arm and motioned for him to follow it. Aster walked slowly, his hands behind his back as towards the back of the building. As they passed the machine, Aster looked to the left in order to see the purplish rock that glowed green in the center of the machine they were building.
The small robot led Aster Cross to the leader of the project; Captain Scrapbeard, a grizzled head with a metallic, spiky beard attached to a green robotic body with rusted limbs and red, dimly lit core in the center of his chest. The captain turned around and groaned when he laid eyes on the much smaller boy.
"Blast it all, billionaire, the project's not ready yet! You know how much energy this thing needs to even work!?" Scrapbeard shouted, slamming a clawed fist onto his workbench.
"You've been working on this thing for months now, with no progress! I told you, I can always just lend you the top physicists from one of my parent's companies!" Aster said. Scrapbeard just scoffed and went back to his work, sliding a welding mask over his face.
"Nah. At some point, one of your scientists will just leak the project to the National Superhero Association, and that would get us into rough waters!" Scrapbeard countered. "Do you really want the Number 1 Superhero to waltz into this city and blast us all to kingdom come!?"
"I can just bride the scientists! Or threaten to buy their house and sell it to the highest bidder! What are they gonna do, buy it back!?" Aster argued back.
Scrapbeard groaned in response and got from his seat. He welded a new part to the large machine. Afterwards, he walked over to the side and tapped the gauge. The red needle had been pointing to the green sections, but soon moved to the yellow side of the gauge. Scrapbeard smiled wickedly.
"In the end, it'll be a moot point. My Dimensional Shifter will be ready for testing tomorrow, and once all preparations have been completed, we can bring in supervillains from all over space and time! Gra ha ha ha haw!" Scrapbeard cackled.
"I think you mean 'our' Dimensional Shifter?" Aster smugly corrected him. Scrapbeard groaned and shooed the fifteen-year-old boy away from his workplace.
"Whatever! Just keep those girls busy! I'm at a critical point in this project! The moment they find this, they'll tear all of my hardwork down!" Scrapbeard warned him. Soon, the pirate robots pushed Aster outside the complex and shut the door behind him.
"Alright, fine!" Aster shouted back. He kicked the large door before going back to his limousine and snapping his fingers. Obediently, the driver turned on the vehicle and drove away. With a scowl, Aster pulled out his phone and entered the villain's private Discord server.
"Alright, let's if we can't keep the 'heroes' occupied for another few months…" He muttered smugly as he pinged the entire Discord server.
Reyna yawned as she lounged on her chair, muddy boots propped up on the team's coffee table. Her black hair created a curtain over her silver eyes, using her denim jacket as a makeshift blanket. On the other side of the room, Serena Winters was typing on her small laptop, writing every single idea that formed in her mind. The laptop's light reflected off her glasses, the room filled with her frantic typing.
"I'm bored," Reyna muttered as she scratched the back of her head. Serena glanced at her leader for a brief moment, her yellow eyes blinking.
"Okay…? I'm not exactly sure what you want me to do about it," Serena said, pushing a lock of brown hair behind her ear. "Though, to be fair, I think it might have something to do with the fact there hasn't been a villain plot yet. Today is Saturday, right?"
"You're the one on the computer," Reyna muttered. Serena huffed, tabbed out of her word doc, and checked the corner of her screen.
"Yep. Saturday morning, in fact," Serena told Reyna. Reyna hummed and leapt off the couch.
"That is strange. You'd think Scrapbeard would've sent out his bots to do…something at this point. Why the heck hasn't he?" Reyna wondered. She took out her phone and opened the public Discord server for their team. She scrolled through general chat, looking for any messages that were screaming about danger, but she found none. She then checked her DMs, but other than people being petty, there was nothing of importance.
"Maybe, we can relax for today? It has been a while since we had a Saturday to just… laze around and do nothing," Serena mentioned.
"Nah, last time we had a free Saturday, Cosmic Clown almost broke the city," Reyna muttered. "I'm gonna go look for trouble. You can hold down the fort, right?"
"Yes, boss," Serena said with a roll of her eyes.
"Relax, I'll buy you sushi on the way back!" Reyna muttered. Serena's eyes glittered as Reyna ran out of their room, and onto the streets of Metro Paradise.
Metro Paradise, despite the name, is a relatively normal suburban city. Aside from the almost constant villain attacks, but then again, all major cities suffer from normal everyday problems. Reyna sped through Metro Paradise at over 200 miles an hour, bouncing off walls and climbing skyscrapers in mere seconds with ease.
As Reyna ran up one skyscraper in the heart of Metro Paradise, she felt the ground shake for a brief moment. The girl slowed down to a brisk jog and raised an eyebrow. She took out her phone and opened Discord again, looking at the new chat messages that popped up. Nobody seemed to be talking about the earthquake, at least, not yet. Either way, she should DM Serena in case–
"Kya ha ha ha ha!"
Reyna immediately jumped away from where she stood. Fireworks went off where she was, an explosion of bright colors burning away at the ground and causing it to melt.
"What do I keep telling you? Were supposed– oh who cares anymore, she already saw us," A male, suave voice spoke from above. Reyna craned her neck upwards and let out a bored sigh.
"Speak of the devil, and he shall appear…" Reyna said with a roll of her eyes.
Floating above her were two villains; one she learned to tolerate, the other she finds annoying. The latter was Cosmic Clown himself, a boy dressed in a dark blue court jester's outfit with studded sleeves and a large backpack filled with multiple illegal fireworks. The other was Hyperion, an alien from an unknown planet whose entire body is made of yellow plasma, except for his blue beady eyes. He wore a suit of black armor with a green gem in the center that regulated his body heat and kept him from melting anything he was even remotely close to.
"Oh great, our resident space villains. What're you guys gonna do, create a black hole in the middle of town again? If it didn't work once, it won't happen again," Reyna said, tilting her head and glaring at the two supervillains.
"Relax, toots, we ain't gonna use that old trick again. We just got a ping from Bad Boy Bill–!"
"Can you keep your mouth shut, for like, five seconds!?" Hyperion shouted, placing a finger over Cosmic Clown's lips. The interdimensional trickster blew a raspberry, the saliva causing Hyperion's finger to sizzle. "Whatever, let's just…" The fire villain sighed and landed on the ground. Even with his armor on, the concrete beneath him started to sizzle.
"We're here to settle the score, Slipstream," Hyperion growled. "In our, and by our I mean mine and Richard's and no one else's opinion, you've kept the peace in Metro Paradise for far too long! It's time someone greater, someone dangerous and powerful, take the reins of this fair city!"
"Someone like me!" Cosmic Clown interrupted, floating in front of Hyperion and tossing another volley of fireworks. Reyna jumped away again, but was caught off guard when Cosmic Clown suddenly teleported in front of her. She bent downwards to dodge the incoming punch, only to find out that she was sliding towards Hyperion. He tried to pin her down with his hands, but Reyna managed to tuck in her feet and launched a horse kick into his chest. The hit allowed her to bounce away from him. She landed in between the two space-themed villains and cracked her knuckles. Hyperion's flames went from yellow to blue as Cosmic Clown readied another pair of fireworks in his hands.
"Preferably not some like him, Richard would just blow the whole place to kingdom come," Hyperion corrected.
"Sorry, buds. As long as I'm still kicking, you won't be able to take this place over," Reyna growled, her lips curling in a smile. She cracked her knuckles as Cosmic Clown and Hyperion launched themselves at the heroine, flames and fireworks armed and primed as the wind began to howl around them.
Back at the warehouse, Scrapbeard groaned in pain as he pushed a large piece of metal off of him. The metallic pirate snapped his fingers and waited for his swashbuckling minions to respond, but he only groaned louder as they didn't respond. Scrapbeard shuffled to the back of the warehouse and turned on the emergency generator, turning on the lights and rebooting his minions.
"Okay, the first test wasn't a success," The metal pirate grumbled. In front of the Dimensional Shifter was a golden circlet adorned with chains that connected to tear-shaped emerald gems. "Bah, that's why we have the scientific process… which totally involves messing with the numbers until something we want happens. Increase the power output on those generators!"
Off to the side, there were two pirate robots riding on bicycles connected to large generators. They saluted and continued cycling faster, causing electricity to spill out of them. Scrapbeard laughs maniacally as he approaches the Dimensional Shifter with the circlet in his hands.
"Now, by placing this inside the scanner…" Scrapbeard spoke, placing the circlet inside a device that looked suspiciously like a microwave, "…And punching in the interdimensional range, I should be able to receive an exact copy of this treasure from a nearby parallel universe!" He exclaimed, pointing towards a large, repurposed washing machine next to the Dimensional Shifter
"Hey, wait a minute." Scrapbeard muttered as he opened the microwave to double check something. "Drat! The black ribbon that I placed inside was vaporized!" He cursed. Scrapbeard stomped towards the washing machine and opened up, but it only revealed a few strands of black hair and a few droplets of blood.
"Welp, I wasn't using it for much anyways. Turn on the Dimensional Shifter!" Scrapbeard ordered. He slammed the washing machine shut as he robot minions began moving about, pressing levers and tapping buttons. The purple rock in the center of the machine began glowing as it was struck by millions of volts of electricity. The area inside the machine began to glitch and deteriorate, almost as though reality was caving in upon itself.
As the robot minions scurried away, looking for a place to hide as Dimensional Shifter began letting out sparks, Captain Scrapbeard stood in front of the machine, in awe of his creation. "Yes, yes, my glorious machine! Pull the dimensions towards us! Tear down the walls between realities! Gwa ha ha ha har!"
The Dimensional Shifter let out streams of electricity, one of which struck the two robots on the bicycles. Steelbeard yelped as he ducked under another stray light bolt, this time hitting the control panel on the opposite end of the warehouse.
"Oh, that can't be good…" Scrapbeard muttered as the Dimensional Shifter began to go haywire. The core inside the machine released out a large, green beam of light from the top. It smashed through the top of the Dimensional Shifter, blowing everything and everyone away. As the light flew into the sky and struck the clouds, green energy was dispersed in waves and spread to all parts of the city. Scrapbeard could hear a distinct cracking sound coming from somewhere that he couldn't find.
With a growl, Scrapbeard turned on the emergency generator for the emergency generator, rebooting all of his minions again for the fourth time that week.
"Start fixin' up the place!" Scrapbeard ordered. The robot pirates nodded and scattered all of the warehouse as Steelbeard walked to the front of the Dimensional Shifter. He opened the microwave and let out a groan when he saw that the circlet he had placed inside had melted. Scrapbeard slapped himself in the face and groaned into his palm.
"I probably should've placed something less valuable inside…" the pirate muttered. He banged his fist on the side of a machine, which caused a large block of metal to fall from the ceiling. He batted it away with his arm before it connected, which sent it towards the washing machine. As he was about to walk away, Scraplbeard heard a pained grunt as metal clattered on the ground.
"What was that?" Scrapbeard muttered. He stomped towards the washing machine and opened, but nothing was inside it except for molten metal. He cursed, knowing that he would have to replace that as well. As he closed it, Scrapbeard noticed a splash of red in the reflection of the glass door. Turning around, the metal pirate found a young woman with red hair, dressed like a Greek warrior. She was breathing heavily, and her eyes were screwed shut, as though she were in pain. There were burn marks above her chest, and blood was leaking from one of her ankles.
"What in the… who's this?" Scrapbeard asked himself. He thought for a few moments and pushed the girl's bright red bangs away. As he expected, she was wearing an exact replica of the circlet he placed in the microwave.
"It worked… my Dimensional Shifter worked! Yes! Gwa ha ha ha har!" Scrapbeard cheered. But before he could celebrate, his left arm buzzed. With a growl, he tapped the screen and answered the call from Aster Cross.
"Scrapbeard, what the hell was that!? There were two earthquakes in the last fifteen minutes, and the second one had a laser light show attached to it!" Aster yelled.
"Calm down, rich boy. I just ran the first successful test of the Dimensional Shifter! And you know what my machine brought me?" Scrapbeard said smugly. He turned her arm so that camera faced the girl that was on the floor, whimpering in pain. "Viola! A real human from another dimension!"
"She looks like she's dying," Aster muttered, unimpressed. Scrapbeard's smile turned into a frown at his comment.
"Yeah, whatever! It's still a human from a completely alternate plane of reality! That means that Dimensional Shifter can work! Once I mess the numbers and power input, I'm sure I can bring any villain from any dimension! We will finally be able to rule Metro Paradise with an iron fist!" Scrapbeard gloated.
"Ok, cool. There are just two things," Aster interrupted, raising two fingers. "First, somebody definitely noticed the earthquakes and beams, and are probably telling Slipstream about it right now. Second, how do we know that she's a villain!"
"Oh, you're right… I'll find a way to hide the Dimensional Shifter. You do have some other villains bothering Slipstream, right?" Aster nodded. "Good, that should give me enough time. As for the girl, I will send her to one of your parent's hospitals. And if it turns out she's a hero…" Scrapbeard muttered. A compartment opened up in his left leg. He brought his hand down and picked up a metallic pirate's hat.
"Well, she won't have to think about anything for much longer… Keh he he he…" Scrapbeard laughed. He took the circlet from the girl's head and placed the pirate hat on her. The girl shrieked as electricity poured from the hat and jolted her entire body. Her eyes opened, emerald green eyes turning bright red in a matter of seconds.
Reyna skidded across the ground when the second, large earthquake hit. When the entire world turned into a shade of green, the hero looked up into the sky and saw a pillar of light rise into the sky.
"What the hell?" Reyna managed to say before she was launched away by Cosmic Clown's fireworks.
"Man, I wanted to make the whole world glow…" The kid muttered, both he and Hyperion unaffected by the shaking since they were in the air. The Star-Spawn crossed his arms and said nothing as the light slowly dimmed and dispersed.
After a few seconds of pause, Hyperion went on the attack again as he thrusted his hand forward and fired multiple balls of plasma at Reyna. The speedy hero dodged them with relative ease and launched herself into the air. She drew her fist back and quickly whirled around with her foot outstretched, creating a blanket of wind that knocked away Cosmic Clown's fireworks. They exploded when they came close to Hyperion's body, creating a blanket of smoke that allowed Reyna to hide herself. She rushed out every so often, landing punches into his black armor and knocking him onto the ground.
Before she could land one more kick to his back, Hyperion let out a torrent of fire and melted the concrete, hiding underground. With him gone, Reyna turned her attention to Cosmic Clown, who launched multiple fireworks at her. She tried to approach, but plumes of lava shut up from the ground. Reyna quickly swerved away, dodging lava and fireworks as best she could. Her eyes widened when Cosmic Clown suddenly appeared in front of her and stuffed multiple bombs into her mouth. With his tongue sticking out, he plugged his eyes with his fingers as the bombs exploded, smoke filling Reyna's stomach with smoke and launching her into a mall. Her back shattered the entrance fountain and sent water flying.
Reyna coughed up smoke and water as she struggled to her knees, Hyperion and Cosmic Clown floating ominously above her.
"Ke he he he! We've gotcha now, punk! Put your hands where I can see 'em!" Cosmic Clown shouted, a dart gun appearing in his hands and a police badge appearing on his chest. Hyperion looked like he wanted to scold Cosmic Clown again, but he just sighed and looked back at Reyna, his hands glowing bright white.
"So it seems your run has come to an end, hero," Hyperion says triumphantly. He floats to the ground, the floor smoldering and water sizzling from his heat. Each step forward creates another molten footstep on the ground. Beside him, Cosmic Clown conjured another set of fireworks, each one already ignited and ready for launch.
Despite her seemingly impending doom, Reyna merely smirked at his words.
"Please. We're still halfway through Season 2," she muttered, her eyes locking on to something behind her.
Before either villain could respond, something fell from the sky and crashed into Cosmic Clown, causing his rocket to explode prematurely. There was a brief flash of purple light, accompanied by the sound of shattered glass. Reyna rushed to where she heard the sound and found a girl with long black hair and cat ear sticking out of the top of her head.
Hyperion let out an enraged shout as he flew towards Reyna. He released a torrent of flames, but Reyna ran away just in time, and dragged the fallen girl with her. Hyperion's body turned bright white, and he gave chase. The streets melted as he flew over them and closed the distance on Reyna and the girl.
Reyna looked for a brief moment, temporarily blinded by the brightness of Hyperion's flames. "Alright, where's the nearest fire hydrant…" The speedy hero muttered. She felt the heat rising behind her, and ducked as a fireball went flying over her head. Reyna growled as she took a hard left, Hyperion following closely behind them.
"Watch where you're throwing those!" Reyna shouted back, causing the girl in her arms to stir. Hyperion growled and continued lob fireball after fireball at her. She swerved to avoid getting hit by one, and nearly tripped on a hydrant.
"Hold up!" Reyna quickly spun on her heel and turned around near instantly. Hyperion tried to strike her with a jab, but she easily dodged with a duck, hissing uncomfortable as his fist grazed her cheek. In the blink of an eye, she grabbed the weird gun blade thing attached to the unconscious girl's hips and slashed through the fire hydrant just as Hyperion came flying over. High pressure water flew out and doused the Star-Spawn from head to toe, causing him to land on the ground as a vaguely humanoid creature with dense metallic skin.
Reyna whistled to herself and placed the girl on the ground. She walked up to Hyperion and tapped his head with the tip of her running shoes, eliciting a low groan from the Star-Spawn. "Just leave me alone until the cops come," The villain muttered.
"Alright, if you insist," Reyna sighed, stuffing her hands into her jacket. "Same time next week?"
"Can't. My mom's coming over to help me take over the planet," Hyperion grumbled as he irritably slapped Reyna foot away. Reyna shrugged and walked away, giving a brief salute to the Star-Spawn.
"Tell her I said hi!" Reyna said, leaving Hyperion defeated on the floor. "Now that's over, I should check up on Cosmic Clown. At least… all do that after you stop pointing that gun at me," She muttered nonchalantly. Standing in front of her was the unconscious girl she carried to safety.
The girl that so much like Serena Winters trembled as she pointed her dinky pistol at Reyna. Her eyes were blown wide, each breath as audible and shaky as the last. Reyna's eyes lowered, and she noticed that Serena's clone was bleeding from a wound on her abdomen.
"You might wanna get that checked out," Serena said. Serena's clone for some reason.
"Don't move, don't you dare move, Neo!" The girl hissed loudly. Reyna crossed her arms and looked at the girl in confusion.
"Neo…?" She muttered a question. "Who's that?"
"Why do you look like Ruby, why do you sound like her?" The girl holding the gun asked. "If you're trying to trick me again, you're doing a very poor job."
Reyna tilted her head as Serena's clone began to ramble, quietly muttering to herself. Her amber eyes, not green, darted from left to right, taking in the city around her. As she does, the grip on her weapon begins to weaken, and her mouth opens in surprise. Reyna narrowed her eyes at the brief window of opportunity and dashed forward.
Not-Serena made eye contact with Reyna for a brief moment before she fired. However, by the time her finger squeezed the trigger, Reyna had already struck her in the back of her neck. The girl let out a wet gasp as she fell forwards and collapsed face-first on the ground. Her fingers twitched as she fell unconscious. Like with Hyperion, Reyna tapped Not-Serena's head with her foot to get a reaction, but nothing happened.
With a heavy sigh, Reyna grabbed Not-Serena by the collar and hauled her onto her shoulders. She was surprisingly light. "Normally, I would leave this to the cops, but I feel you're not some regular clone," Reyna said to herself. After she secured the girl with a nearby rope, she dashed back into the city, following the path of melted rocks and fire that Hyperion left behind.
"I'll check up on Cosmic Clown, then I'll drop you off at Serena's place," Reyna said, looking up at the sky. She remembered the green pillar of light that burst from far away and soon spread all over the city. It looked like it came from the docks.
"I get the feeling Scrapbeard's behind this. I'll be sure to give his submarine a visit before I clock out for the day," Reyna said, her eyes narrowing as she made her way to the mall.