With a Snap

Disclaimer: I own nothing unless otherwise stated.

Chapter 82: Best Laid Plans

Wade was still dizzy; he had enough sense to know that the Hydra henchmen had taken Bob's weapons, patted down Ulysses to find nothing but coins they didn't bother to take, and took everything from himself: his guns, his knives, his katanas, his pouch, and the TDS device. Wade was sure the others would be angry at him for losing a dimension-jumping teleporter. The last thing the multiverse needed was a death cult of Nazis jumping around.

Not that he could do much. Whatever they used to hit him was making his scrambled mind extra scrambled. He could tell they were being led along. He could see kids being dragged into experiments through windows and closed doors where he could hear people screaming or crying and other rooms with growling noises. He could believe he returned to Ajax lab if he closed his eyes.

"His name is Francis!"

He mumbled as the Hydra Agents opened a door they pushed in the trio.

"Don't worry about getting too comfy; as soon as they finish their experiments, they'll drag you in."

They closed the doors, and Deadpool got what they said: the floor was icy cold, and the walls were covered with frost.

Wade sighed, "Just making sure, you didn't get a chance to call in the Avengers, did you?"

Ulysses shook his head.

"Yeah, didn't think so." Wade lamented as he held himself, trying to conserve heat.

"So, where do you guys stand on sharing body heat?"

"…"

"Okay, I didn't want to do this, but you can cut me open and get inside me like a Tauntaun."

"You're not going to be here too long."

The group looked over to the far corner where a teenage boy was.

"They don't leave people too long; most get frostbite in an hour. This room is a punishment, and they don't want to waste test subjects."

"That's not ominous at all," Wade said,

Ulysses asked him, "Hey, son, what's your name?"

"It's Bobby, Bobby Drake, and I'm why this room is so cold."

As he turned from the wall, they saw patches of ice covering his body.

0000

At the compound, the Doctor had started to work on things. She had goggles over her as she worked on alien devices. She was working on plans for their protection. The six stones each had unique powers. The most intelligent beings at the Avengers compound worked on trying to find counters, though the sheer amount of energy they were dealing with wouldn't last long. Their goal was to find something to buy them time. The Doctor had already begun the work on the mind stone counter. The telepathy device she built for Stark didn't work perfectly, but the experience gave them a lot of knowledge. The scientist brother to a psychic was taking over the project for a counter to the mind stone, and he'd spent his life countering the powers of a powerful psychic, so it seemed perfect for him.

Alexis confirmed that he took Constatein's project because he felt it could lead to how to counter the soul stone. The Doctor was working on something she knew about: devices that manipulated time. They were hoping to work on a device they could use for the new suits that could, if not negate, slow down any time abilities Thanos would have with the stone.

She set the device on the table, "Okay, that should do it. Probably. There is a small chance that it will explode."

The Doctor pulled out an apple before turning on the device, and it blinked. She tossed the apple. The air above the machine began to shimmer, and the apple just hung.

Jenny looked at the apple, "Some sort of anti-gravity chamber."

"A little more complicated than that, try grabbing the apple."

Jenny reached for it but stopped as if hitting an invisible wall.

"It's a time bubble, well, a rough one. The space above the generator is a bubble of frozen time." The Doctor grabbed a pencil and threw it at it for it to bounce back. "Time doesn't move on; nothing can change in the bubble, and nothing can enter it."

"Are we trying to make some sort of trap for Thanos?"

"Good idea, but no. The Daleks fought in the time war; they have the tech to escape such traps. Plus, as long as Thanos has the time stone, I doubt they couldn't counter it. No, I'm working on a counter for the time stone. We will try and make a device so Thanos can't use the stone on any of us."

"So, we'd be immune to time effects?"

"Exactly," The Doctor grabbed the apple and took a bite.

Jenny blinked, confused.

"Oh, right," The Doctor smiled, "Timelords are immune to such effects. Some is evolution and exposure to the time vortex, and some is training."

Jenny tapped on the bubble, and she couldn't get through it.

"It takes time to adjust yourself to different flows of time. In the meantime, we will build something that could mimic that. Which will be a bit more tricky than it sounds."

"I thought Timelord would already have something like that."

The Doctor rolled her head side to side, "Yeah, well, since time lords can already do that on their own, and things like Tardis naturally flow through, they can do the same. There's very little need to have the tech on hand."

"We've got to build it from scratch?" Jenny surmised.

"Gold star!" The Doctor scratched her head, "I mean, it's in the ballpark of Timelord tech, so it shouldn't be all that hard. Plus, it will be a fun project for the two of us!"

Jenny smiled at her Father's optimistic take. "Okay, where do we start?"

0000

Touma sat on a chair as two people used advanced scanners to study his right hand. They had asked him several questions, and he answered honestly, but the truth was that he only knew so much.

Touma momentarily wondered how his life had come to this, and he was in a lab with a short gray alien and a purple man.

Doctor Greyman pulled on his long gray beard, "Ya, I don't see anything."

Venomous sighed, scratching his head, "Yeah, none of our scans show anything."

Touma replied, "I don't know how to explain it better. When my hand comes into contact with anything supernatural, it negates it."

There had been plenty of reports from people who've seen it negate psych powers and magic abilities. Magical beings instinctually seemed to flinch at him; the French children's bug-like creatures looked at Touma almost like a small child in a cage with a hungry tiger.

Touma tried to explain, "A magician I met told me he thought it was the crystallization of the hopes of magicians. That it would reset the world, the magic might change."

"Reset?" Venomous mused over the word.

"Okay, I think I understand." Venomous explained, "It's quantum theory, that what I get out of magic. It's a way of overlapping a possible reality over the current one. Making a certain idea a reality, curse, spell, or whatever."

Greyman was starting to catch a drift, "The rest button, anything that disrupts reality, snaps back. I see, I see."

"Could be useful against the stones."

"Maybe not," Touma admitted, "It has a limit. Really powerful things don't get canceled, maybe deflected or slowed down. Especially things with their power somewhere else."

Still, the hand seemed to give them lots to think about.

"Testing it against some of the power I collected could be useful," Venomous suggested.

"A proper test needs to be thought up, but for the moment, we can do a simpler test. If his hand cannot be at full effect against the stones, then maybe it could be beneficial against Thanos' army."

While Touma's powers wouldn't work against something based on natural laws, a fist or even a laser blast that worked on natural laws could be useful to them.

Greyman explained his plan, "We can't detect anything as it is, but testing its powers against people here might show something, maybe a way to replicate it or maybe show limits to sure up in others."

0000

Zola examined the device; this was far beyond anything he'd seen in his lifetimes. Something human in him wanted to tear it apart and study it's working, but his more rational side let the scanners do their work.

The circuitry was vastly complicated; he was sure this would cause errors, but there was a beauty to its design. While it certainly had flaws, it also allowed for growth and adaptation; systems could repair and change their purpose for new needs; if damaged, they could reroute systems as needed. It was like a person's circulatory system as a vein was clogged, the body would grow a new vein around it. There was always a chance it would come out too late, but the rewards outweighed the risk.

The sensors on the device were beyond anything he had ever seen. Complex sensors that kept real-time scans of the area and the user. In-depth and new methods, there were subtle psych sensors. Hydra barely touched on the technology and used it to gather knowledge and translate it in real-time. They were used for mundane purposes, but with this, he could enter people's minds and rewrite them.

The device seemed to have advanced teleportation capabilities; he could barely grasp them, but if he could understand them and control Hydra, it could be everywhere.

Zola had to admit it was a marvel that he and his team had managed to create a jamming device in the short time they detected Wade with the device approaching.

They had to set up a frequency jammer around the building, and it was continuously jamming the device by bombarding it with high-intensity and high-frequency signals to keep it from alerting anyone else or connecting to an outside device it kept trying to connect to.

0000

Charmcaster was sitting at the table looking over some of the notes she and Gwen had taken regarding people's magical abilities and powers. Some of the other magical user were nearby doing their research on it. Oddly enough, Gwen's hesitance to take a leader role for the magic users turned out to be the right move. Charmcaster and her uncle had scoured magic from all over and learned traditions, rituals, methods, and styles, making it easier for her to understand these various magics. There were a lot of them to go through. Some drew their power from ley lines, some from nature, some from otherworldly sources, some needed books to use their spells, and some people's powers relied solely on magic items. Hell, at least two people had magic that seemed to be an assortment of different styles and teaching and just stuff they made cobbled together in a working system.

Charmcaster and the others were busy finding ways to sure up weaknesses, such as Eldritch magic users were having their power fluctuate. Being in another universe seemed to mess with their magic, though all magic users felt a shuffling to get used to; they seemed to be affected more by the barriers weakening. They were trying to find a way around that. They were also looking for ways to help all the magic users. The fight with Doomsday showed that whatever way they used magic, the more you used it could tire one out, and in the middle of a battle for the fate of the universe, that could be bad.

They worked on the Dr. K suit project with the Mystic Mother and Udonna. The morphic field could be tapped in, which could help, but they were also looking for a mystic battery. If they could make magic batteries that magic users could tap into for power during the fight, it would help their stamina during the battle. They were also researching various protection spells and glyphs they could add to the suit to protect everyone from curses and spells they may have flung at them. Even though Wong was sending the book and information, he was having trouble repairing their damaged base and could not be in person.

Luckily, they had gotten more magic users, so the group and those who could help had grown.

Nearby, Gwen smiled at her, "It's kind of funny,"

"What?" Charmcaster asked,

"This is something you would have done anything for a while ago. If you had something like this, you and your uncle could have overthrown Addwaitya."

"It's not like we didn't have some of these ideas… but it wasn't possible. Resources like we'd need would take decades. It would take lifetimes to develop some of these methods on our own. We would never have come up with some of these crazy ideas. I'm unsure if some of these would be possible in our native universe."

Gwen chuckled, "Yeah, well, it's because you were alone. You're not now, and you have help."

They locked eyes but were interrupted when Itsuwa brought over some notes on their work.

0000

It is horrible to find yourself living in a cage, treated like some animal, not even a well-cared-for animal. As half the world's population vanished, including many loved ones, one could safely assume it was the worst it could get. Not long after that, these poor souls were found by Hydra and dragged into cages; made even worse, they were experimented on. Hydra and AIM are testing their limits, bringing out their powers and abilities.

Some people didn't even have powers, and some were just people they could take without anyone who raised a fuss. They tested on them, trying to see if they could replicate powers; for them, it was worse. They had less value; several people were taken out in body bags, and some didn't even get that. Dozens of people were experimented on to get extremis working; the only known stable case was Pepper Potts, and the effects were negated thanks to Tony Stark.

Either way, this was a miserable existence, with many hoping it would end sooner. However, that might not be an option. Some prisoners had heard talk from the guards that the Faustus program would be ready shortly. They would use it to control some of them for their plans, to make them into living weapons. Some would have their identities stripped away and made to think they were heroes. Hydra would control and puppets to control the population.

Again, death seemed preferable.

The Hydra agents put a muzzle on a girl, and she barely put up a fight. She knew they'd beat her if she resisted by now.

One girl with short black hair felt her skin tingle as they took the other girl away. Her eyes turned to a red-haired girl in the corner of her cage; a collar on her would shock her if she tried anything or disobeyed an order. They were being kept close to keep the girl with the parasite in check. Other than they couldn't touch, not truly. She was left in a cage until they could find a workaround they could.

Time was running out for all of them.

0000

Sheldon waited in a chair while Nora Wakeman worked with the other scientist on the suit project. He'd been pulled away. Sheldon found himself looking at the woman in a purple dress.

"Are you ready? I've been waiting forever."

Sheldon blinked, "You dragged me here and sat me down."

"Semantics," Missy waved him off. She grabbed random bits off a table and started to cobble them together. "Don't get all caught up in the details."

Sheldon blinked, unsure how to act around Missy; she was one of the department heads, though he wasn't sure if that was good. From the last presentation they did, Sheldon had come to realize that many department heads were crazy and possibly evil. Sheldon hadn't gotten through all the files on everyone, but Missy and Venomous were villains.

Missy tossed the finished device at Sheldon, who just barely caught it.

"Okay, off to it."

"To? What do you want me to do?!"

"Isn't it obvious?"

"No!"

Missy shook her head with a sigh, "It's a scanner; go scan things."

"I don't get it,"

"Aren't you supposed to be smart? I suppose you are still only human. Fine, I will spell things out for you. Take the device and scan everyone's tech."

"What?"

"I thought I was pretty clear on those instructions."

"No, I mean, why?"

"Well, that is at least a new question. I need it to do my job."

"I don't get it."

"I'm the head of new technologies,"

"I thought that was the girl who shrinks."

"Salu? No, she's the head of technology, I'm new technologies, it's small but distinct. The whole technology scene is divided between the three of us. The Racoon," she leaned in as to whisper, "Don't tell him he's a raccoon. He's very touchy about it. I think it's tied to some unresolved trauma, but that's the stage magicians' department, not mine. Our Fury friend looks into technologies and sees how we can use them. He's busy finding applications for the tech in the burnt-out garden, weapons, and such. I hear he and Mickey plan on upgrading the Crimson three rides with Dalek weapons. Our Shrinking Salu is making sure that all our technology is working. Salu is helping fix the HUB and ensuring all the TDS are working; maybe she can figure out what's causing all the errors. My design was flawless; I think the Doctor put a zero instead of a one somewhere; that's so her. And yours truly, moi, is about developing new technologies and making it work with the suit project. So scan."

"I still don't get it." Sheldon's shoulder slumped. He could barely follow. He was confused. She said all that with one breath.

"Keep up, scan everyone's technologies. With the device I made, you will figure out how everything is built and working, taking detailed scans. From that, I can reverse engineer everything and find ways to improve and retrofit them to the suit project."

Missy took his hands and passed them over Sheldon's belt, and with a flick, the device began to flash schematics of the silver shell suit.

"Collapsable mech suit, that's charming. I can give you some details to fix it up."

"How did you know- I mean, what?"

"Oh, are you hiding it?"

"Kind of,"

"Now off you pop, go scan everything you can. Rocket and I will see what improvements we can make and how to apply what we can to the others. Etc. Etc, and so on."

Missy ignored him and went to water the strange flower on her desk.

Sheldon looked at the scanner and walked out, more confused.

"Also, don't slouch. You will ruin your posture!"

0000

Several people stood by and watched as the sparring session began; at some point, they decided to move back. Many of the people present weren't sure the two people were holding back. Stark provides some drone cameras hovering somewhat close by, recording the fight and doing scans for Venomous work and the Coven's research.

Someone had suggested that Yami and Kami spar to get a reading of what they could do, though both of them thought they were told just because their names rhymed. Not that they cared much; this whole situation was stressful, and they could use something to work out their tensions.

And that was the problem.

Someone could describe them as shonen protagonists at the end of their series. At the peak of their skills and power, they could potentially push past their limits but haven't had a reason to do so. Yami was the leader of a black bull, a magic Knight captain, and a wielder of dark magic. Kami was the one to develop the most powerful scythe technique and arguably the strongest meister to come from DWMA; Stein could also hold the title, but things got murky with Kami calling him out for his illegal experiments and taking his weapon.

Yami was armed with a katana cloaked in his dark magic. Kami was armed with Marie in hammer form, using the lightning rope technique to boost Kami's speed and reflexes.

Sparks flew around Kami as she ran around Yami, looking for her opening. Yami honestly was reminded of Luck in how she moved, but that didn't make it any easier to pin her down. Yami was trying to get a ping on her Ki; in one way, it was easy. Her and Marie working together gave him plenty to read, but she still moved fast and kept moving. This wasn't like Luck's movements; they were swift, and there was a grace to them like no action was wasted.

Kami was trying to get a beat on Yami; her soul perception let her see his soul, and it usually gave her a sense of his action. To some extent, it did, but he was so stoic that his soul barely reacted. He was also using his magic to help boost his speed.

The others only saw blurs of black and flashes of bright light swirling around the area. They were both striking at each other at anything close to an opening.

While Yami had the stamina advantage, he was still slower than Kami. Kami had the speed advantage, but the longer she kept this up, the higher the chance the technique hurt her.

Each attack was blocked or barely missed; both fighters were giving their all, though that didn't mean the same intensity as others would expect.

"So, you from the Land of the Sun in your world?" Yami said casually, slashing at Kami.

"Oh," She stepped to the side at the last instance, "Japan? My mother actually was; I grew up in a country where I don't think you have an equal."

"Huh? So, how is it on your end?"

"Uh, modern, I guess. It's pretty up there with development, some population problems, but every country has its issues."

"That's right." Yami held up his sword, blocking the hammer; he steadied himself as the force struck him. Electricity coursed from the hammer hitting the blade, and the darkness he controlled seemed to waver. Kami soul attacks could disrupt magic to some extent, not as much as Grigori souls, but enough to distract him. With Yami bracing himself, Kami palmed his face and sparks shot out.

"Soul Force."

Yami was pushed back, forcing down a pained yell. "That hurt."

"Yeah, I just attacked your soul."

"Did you just break my soul or something?"

Kami shrugged, "Probably not."

"Oh. good."

Kami doubted she could hurt Yami's soul. It was intense and solid soul. Yeah, he'd killed, but he didn't enjoy it. He felt for the deaths but didn't let the weight destroy him.

Yami rushed forward, slashing at Kami. Kami nearly had to bend 90 degrees backward to avoid the slash. Kami reacted and made a wild swing with the hammer to force him away. Kami used the opening to jump out.

"Flexible,"

"I try, honestly, not as much as I was when I was younger."

"Yeah, I got a bit of that."

"This life is sometimes best left for the young."

"We're not that old yet," Yami said with a smirk, taking a puff off his cigarette.

Kami attacked and leaned back just enough to miss the attacks, but his cigarette wasn't so lucky, "You should quit those. Trust me, that will hurt you in the long run."

Yami tossed the butt of his cigarette, "Yeah, that doc told me the same thing."

They kept dancing around each other, dodging attacks and attacking each other while generally having friendly chat.

Yami stabbed at her, and Kami dodged, grabbing his arm and taking a note from the Black Widow's book, whirled herself around him, and her thigh wrapped around his head and moved him down. Yami was on his back but wasn't done as he forced her off.

Both combatants smiled. There was a thrill in the fight as they charged up their attacks. They rushed at each other, ready to give it their all.

"Enough," An almost bored voice rang out.

A wave of energy flowed over them, Yami's magic evaporated, and Marie changed back to her human form. They just floated there for a second, and Kami looked over to see Nene standing with her hands up.

Then they dropped.

Despite their forward momentum, they just had Nene seem to make that energy vanish along with any magic and special powers they had been using.

Nene gave a long, big yawn before she smacked her lips, "You were making too much noise. I was taking a nap."

Nene, without another word, turned around and walked off.

Those watching the fight silently agreed that was probably the right call.

"Mama?" Maka walked over to see her mom twitching.

Marie sighed, "You hurt your nerves, didn't you?"

"Uh, maybe a little." She twitched.

"Need help," Yami asked, trying to be helpful.

"I got her." Marie bent down and quickly picked up Kami, putting her over her shoulder to carry her.

Having trouble controlling her muscles, Kami couldn't do much about being put in a less-than-dignified position.

"Let's get you to rest," Maka patted her on her arm.

"Well, if you're feeling up for it, some of the others and I are having drinks later."

Kami considered it, though she was having trouble keeping her head up.

0000

Hiro found himself walking through the warehouse section; he was working on different projects like many of the other scientists. While Missy and Rocket were considered the leaders sending random people on projects, though honestly, most were left to do whatever they felt best suited. Many scientists were flocking to whichever project served their fancy, such as K's Suits project or whatever Soul-centered project Alexis was doing.

Some scientists were studying some of the exotic technology people had with them, trying to learn about them and apply what they learned. Hiro's specialty was robotics, and he had honestly wished to have met the Vision. To complete a machine that had indeed developed sentience would have been fascinating. It was not that Baymax wasn't intelligent, but Hiro was never sure how evolved he was. The Turing test only told so much, and he developed Baymax on someone's brainwaves; Vision was made from a pure computer program that evolved.

Hiro pushed the thoughts aside, and he needed to focus. He had seen the robots that one of Thanos' new generals commanded. Hiro was working on an idea based on the tech they retrieved from Dr. Destiny; if he could adjust it, he might be able to shut down their robots and maybe all their tech. So, to aid in this endeavor, he went into the warehouse, hoping to find equipment to help him.

Hiro walked through the aisles; some shelves had broken pieces of equipment or prototypes of the Avenger's equipment. Hiro's eyes fell on the remains of the Iron Legion, and he momentarily paused to wonder if he could get them to work. He quickly decided against the idea; there were obvious reasons why that project was abandoned.

Hiro was about to continue when he noticed Baymax staring at a large crate.

"Baymax?"

"Hiro, something is strange about this crate. I'm detecting a strange energy."

Hiro looked at the box, "Phineas Horton." The name sounded vaguely familiar. "Open it."

Baymax reached for the side and, with a tug, pulled open the wooden crate. The wooden board fell away, and a large tube was revealed with a man in a red suit standing in the middle.

Hiro placed his hand on the tank.

"I wouldn't touch that,"

Hiro turned around to find Tony Stark walking in with his usual swagger.

"Mister Stark."

"Hiro, right? Yeah, Friday gave me a warning you were opening that box."

"What's with the man in the tank?"

"The Human Torch." Tony waved his hand in the air with a faux stage flourish. "Phineas Horton was one of the first to make ground on Artificial Intelligence seriously. Horton, Zog, and my old man were working on it for the military, a way to keep flesh and blood soldiers off the battlefield." Tony looked at the Iron Legion remains, "That has never really taken off. My old man got involved with SSR and the super soldier experiment. Philo Zog had some success with his Project Electro. I don't know all the details, something with the military and special projects with long-range remotes. The Human Torch was supposed to be this one mechanical man army, able to fight off armies by himself. My dad tried to help Horton fix it, but they never could figure it out."

"What was the problem?"

"Not sure. Dad never went into it. It was a shame Horton's work was ahead of everyone. Modern AI is based on his work. My work with Jarvis and Vision came from him." Tony tapped on the glass, "You could say this guy is Vision's Grandpa."

Hiro thought about it momentarily, "Can we fix him?"

Tony paused. He had never thought about it. "Maybe, I mean, technology has certainly taken a few leaps from his time, but if he's what he's cracked up to be, the Human Torch could be a big help. What do you say, Kid? Up for a project?"

0000

They opened the doors, and men with guns pointed at Deadpool, "Come with us, or we shoot them."

Wade tried not to piss them off, "Well when you put it that way."

Wade did not attempt to move. He just walked out of the frozen cell; he'd be fine if he got shot the others, not so much. They had to wait for the right time.

Ulysses took out a silver dollar from his pocket. They took their weapons but didn't bother with anything like a coin. He flipped the coin through his finger, hoping to warm them.

Wade knew the smell of death; as they walked, he could smell blood and corpses. He tried not to think of how many people died horribly.

There was a roar that tore Wade from his thoughts.

He could barely see something move behind the closed cells as he jolted back. The cells were reinforced steel doors with small crates where they could slide in food or bodies if they tried hard enough.

"What?"

"Animal test?" One of his guards told him, "Don't worry, you have an appointment to keep."

"He can't still be a doctor; what college wouldn't disown him?"

As they passed the animal cells, they entered their destination. It was a sterile lab with a chair in the middle and lots of blood splatter.

"Not sterile now, is it?"

"Mister Wilson, "The distorted voice of Armin Sola cracked as the machine entered the room.

"Look, no one is more pro getting early cancer testing than me, but I don't need a colon check today."

The guards aimed their guns at Wade's head.

"Now, Mister Wilson, we can do this the hard way, which I think will be easier in the long term, though the results might be inconclusive. Or you can do this easily; if you are very good, I might provide an anesthetic."

"Either way, I'm getting strapped in and stabbed. Might as well get some drugs out of it."

"Good undress,"

"I should saved the colon test joke."

0000

Outside, the Agents of Hydra were moving Ulysses' truck, and they decided it could be used to move things. They were a secret organization, and having a free truck would be helpful to move items without notice. It's not like they didn't have some already; they had been bringing people, files, and things the last few days.

One of the garage guys was working on the truck, taking out anything that could track them. They didn't need anyone looking for the missing driver.

His buddy was nearby, "So, how's the engine?"

"It's fine; it's better than fine. It's a state of the art, most of the stuff- I don't even know what it is."

"Well, as long as it works."

"It works-"

Before he could finish the sentence, the engines came to life, and the truck started to move.

"What the hell?"

"Did you get the break?"

"I didn't do anything,"

He jumped to avoid getting hurt.

The truck turned around and turned to the building.

"What the hell is going on?"

Parts of the truck started to shift as the compartment opened up, and rockets popped out.

"What the hell?!"

More weapons popped out of the trucks, and they started firing on the building; as the hydra agents looked on, surprised, the truck began to loop around the building, trying to do as much damage as possible.

0000

Ulysses held the coin in his hand. While to most, it would look like a regular coin, it was micro controls for his rig.

"Why do you need a coin control for your semi?" Bobby asked.

"Son, I've lived an interesting life."

Bob sighed, "We better get going. This is our only chance."

Bobby wasn't under any more illusion that he was safe; it was only a matter of time before they took him for an experiment or killed him.

The lights in the room started to go out, and the doors were electric locks, monitored and locked. The power going down would only last so long that they had to have backup generators.

Bobby asked, "Are you sure this will work?"

"Pretty sure," Ulysses told him.

"I've never done anything about this."

"There's a first time for everything."

Bobby could generate ice, and he needed a gap. When Deadpool was taken out, he dropped a regular coin on the threshold; the door crushed the coin, flattening it. The coin only held the door open a fraction, but they hoped it would be enough.

Bobby placed his hand on the door as close to the slightest opening as he could, and he focused his power. He'd repressed it as long as he could, but every day, the air felt colder around him; he found things freezing over, and he tried to ignore it and pretend to be like everyone else. The irony was that now being so different was the thing that could save his and others' lives. For the first time, he truly tried to use his powers.

Bob asked Ulysses, "Is this going to work?"

"I think so, and the door is steel. The temperature we'd need to make it freeze would kill us. We are in a meat locker that would be like being naked in the Antarctic. But if we can get some ice to work in the crack, enough ice, then we can split it apart. I remembered an experiment in grade school, putting water in a crack in a rock and putting it in the freeze. The ice expanded, making the cracker bigger."

The metal creaked frost formed around the door, and their breath was visible, and they were starting to shiver. Bobby's breath was getting haggard, and he felt weaker; at any moment, the power would come on, and they could see what they were up to on the camera outside, and they'd send men with guns. He had to do something he had never come close to doing, but survival is a great motivator.

Bobby screamed as a large, jagged piece of ice ripped apart the door.

The two men jumped out of the room to get into the hall, which was marginally warming.

Ulysses looked back, "Are you okay?"

Bobby sighed, "Yeah," He looked down at half his body covered in thick frost; he didn't feel cold or anything. If anything, this felt natural.

Bobby shook his head, "We have to get going; we don't know how much time we have."

0000

Zola examined Wade's open heart when the light went off; his screen was dimly lit to see Deadpool smiling.

"What have you done?"

"Me? Just being distracting. By the way, how's the jammer working out for you? You had to be running up your power bill."

The face on the screen flickered before a laser sliced off Wade's head.

0000

Shrinking Violet and Alexis were working on the HUB.

Violet snorted, "How do you guys have a working dimensional portal with such a long list of bugs?"

"Look, I would have loved to clear out more bugs, but we needed a working prototype. It's cobbled together using various technologies to make it work."

"Fine, I get it's a rush job. The programming is the worst; I can barely make heads or tails of some of the code."

"Ask Missy and the Doctor; they wrote most of the code. Plus, we have a ton of special stuff there that is uber complicated."

"The recall feature?"

"Yeah, it's got to do real-time scans of the TDS holder, and if it detects that someone is hurt about to experience serious hurt, they pull them back. But everyone has different levels of tolerance, and the scans on constantly-"

"I get it; it might be over-taxed, and that might be piling up errors. Then we also got your weird AI in the middle of this, broadcasting himself across multiple worlds simultaneously. I don't even have a working frame of reference. Half the stuff here is probably causing all these erroneous data."

There was a beep on the nearby panel.

Alexis, looking over, sighed, "It says that Wade isn't with the TDS."

"Yeah, that shouldn't happen." Violent said.

"And he's not responding. Come along, let's go check it out. Maybe it's a fault in it."

Shrinking, Violet waved to the guards on duty, "We'll be right back and have a portal ready to bring us back. We shouldn't take long."

The odd brainy pair went into the portal.

Fred and Booster Gold were playing cards together.

Fred asked, "What did they say? Keep the portal open?"

Booster shrugged, "Maybe I've been tuning them out. I couldn't keep track of what they were saying."

0000

Alexis and Shrinking Violet walked out of the portal to find the TDS on the table with several high-powered jammers pointing at them and several men holding guns.

A flash of gunfire and bullets flew through the air, and the thud of a body hit the floor. A moment later, the portal closed, and the men walked over past the table but found nobody on the floor.

The lead guard took a walkie, "Sir, a portal opened, and it looks like they got away."

0000

Zola growled, "Very well,"

The power flickered; the generators were on now, but it was too late. The speakers around the building blared, "Attention, we are expecting the Avengers to arrive any moment. We will instigate an evacuation procedure and move out all Alpha-Level projects. You have ten minutes to evacuate."

Red lights began to flash, and a computer voice rang out, "Ten minutes to Self Destruct."

"Sir!" His assistant tried to object. "That's not enough time to evacuate everything."

"No, but it will suffice to get priority projects out. With any luck, the Avengers will show up in time to be caught up in the explosion."

"They aren't that-" Wade began but didn't fish as a laser sliced him up.

"Not ideal, but a hand should suffice; throw the rest to lab animals as a final meal."

0000

Bullets emerged from the portal, and Booster pulled up his shield to block oncoming shots. Someone crawled out of the portal with one hand, and Alexis signaled the others to shut down the doorway, which, if the bullets hadn't clued them in, they did anyway.

"Someone get a medic!" Fred yelled out.

There was a reason why Alexis crawled out with one hand: one of the bullets hit his neck, and he was bleeding. He had his free hand over his wound.

Hearing the bullets, people rushed in to see if they could help.

Booster looked on," Do we apply pressure or-"

"Doing it-" Alexis said in a short burst, "It- didn't hit an artery. I think. Probably. Hopefully."

While smart, he wasn't great at biology, so he wasn't sure how bad it was; he could talk, so he assumed he wasn't dying; still, tasting his blood wasn't a good sign, and it was getting harder to speak.

It annoyed him more than anything; he'd survived a ton of stuff since he showed up, and this was taking him out. The truth was the guys on the other side got lucky. By the time he could detect danger, they had crossed over and shot at the instance they did. His coat could protect him, but it required conscious thought. He needed time to react. He was lucky it didn't hit anything that would kill him immediately, and Shrinking Violet shrunk and pushed him down when she did.

Fred helped him sit up and put his hand on the wound to help slow the bleeding.

Steve Roger, along with others, was among the first to arrive.

Booster noticed, "Wait, didn't the amazing shrinking girl go with you?"

"Did someone get left behind?" Steve asked, he was worried.

Alexis just reached over and touched Steve's TDS device, putting something.

Rose was rushing over and quickly began to heal Alexis.

"Hello?" Shrinking, Violet's voice rang out in a hushed tone.

Steve spoke softly, already suspecting something, "Salu," Steve spoke her real name, hoping to comfort her if something was wrong, "What's your status?"

"I'm okay. Is Alexis okay? He got shot, and I pushed him into the portal."

Alexis just gave a thumbs-up.

"He's being healed,"

She sighed with relief, "Okay, I'll be quick. We don't have time. The second we stepped through, we got shot on, Alexis got hurt, and I told him to get help."

Alexis started coughing blood. He was healing up, but much blood got stuck in his throat.

"Yeah, he's having a little trouble talking," Steve told her.

"Yeah, so I shrunk down and hid as soon as he escaped. We found Wade's device. Someone removed it, and it looks like they were jamming the signal. It must have gone down."

Steve noted, "He did say he was looking for people who had gone missing."

"Taken." Violet corrected, "I heard an order go out. They are taking people out. Worse, they have set off a countdown; this place is about to self-destruct; we got less than ten minutes."

"That doesn't sound like time to get everyone out."

"It's not. They plan to leave everyone not deemed important enough."

Steve lived through World War II and knew what experiments Hydra had done, to some extent at first. He remembered what they did to Bucky and what the soldier he saved told him about the people who didn't return. He remembered, after destroying a Hydra base in France, finding the graves of the men, women, and children they arrived too late to save.

"We need to save as many of them as we can."

"I'm already making my way to the central controls, and if I can reach them in time, I should be able to shut them off. Probably." She sighed, "I'll do everything I can, but if I'm too slow… with how the errors that have been popping up… I'm not sure it will pull everyone out. You could be walking into a powder keg."

Steve looks on before turning to the group, "Look, we don't know what we are walking into. We could be walking into it, and we might not be walking back. There are people in danger, and I'm not asking you to put yourself in danger-"

"You don't have to." Natasha walked over, "We go where we are needed."

Steve looked around to those around, to their resolve to help.

Steve gave them a proud smile, "Two minutes, time is of the essence. We leave in two minutes."

The others ran out to get equipment and weapons and whatever they needed. Shrinking, Violet went into silent mode, sending them a message she had. In her small size, she was practically invisible and with her flight ring she could fly. Hopefully, with everyone in a rush to escape no one would could get to the control room unseen.

Steve looked at Alexis; his wounds were closed, though he looked a little pale.

"Does her power regenerate blood cells? Should I get an orange?"

Steve spoke softly to make sure he wasn't in shock. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I've been shot before. More annoyed they got the drop on me."

Steve was a little unnerved at his flippancy at being shot, but they didn't have the time for it, "We need to know what we are walking into. Do you have any clues to what to expect?"

"Armed mercenaries," He replied quickly, "They knew what they were doing and what to expect. A soldier is trained to attack quickly, but it will naturally be less accurate if caught off guard." He motioned to his neck, "Their aim was pretty good; a portal had just formed, and they were thrown off. I doubt they will be taken by surprise." He groaned, "When I hit the floor, I saw a box. It had three letters on it. Like, a brand, AIM."

"AIM?" Honey Lemon walked over with her purse and pulled out a patch, "I found this when I was in Korea with Ami. The guys who attacked her had these on."

Steve looked, "Tony thought they got disbanded after Extremis. It looks like they aren't as gone as we hoped."

"Why don't they have a target as a logo?"

"What?" Steve was confused by his words.

"Like aim, you aim at a target, makes more sense than a skull with tendrils."

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah, I saw some patches on some of the goons. I thought it was like a patch some troops have, but many of them had them."

"That's not AIM, that's Hydra."

Honey Lemon figured out, "AIM and Hydra are working together."

"Hydra? Then why not use an actual Hydra as their logo?" Alexis said, not getting the weight of what that meant. Then he saw their looks, "Might have hit my head. I'm going to get an orange."

0000

Wade wasn't happy; his head was all he felt, and since he didn't have lungs, it wasn't like he could talk. Zola packed and walked off with his hand while some no-name henchmen picked him up and ran with his parts. If he could connect his parts quickly enough, he could heal them together, but as they reached the room, it didn't seem like it would happen.

With some struggle, the AIM scientist opened up the lid of a large tank, quickly dropped Wade's remains in, and promptly left, not even bothering to close the lid. Wade would love nothing more than to pull himself together, not that he could move his hand, unlike some variant without a mouth that we won't talk about. His hands and legs might twitch, but without being connected to his big brain, they wouldn't move. He could force air through his throat and make words if he tried hard enough, but that wouldn't help now.

Wade wondered how he would get out of this, and he was left to sleep with the fishes in a building that was about to blow.

He told himself I would die here; he had stuff to do. Vanessa needed him to bring her back.

His thoughts were broken when he spotted a single grey fin pop out of the water and move towards him.

Shit.

0000

Zola was furious, to say the least; his plans were being torn apart. Alarms were roaring over everything, and he was informed that some prisoners had escaped. He didn't bother to try to send someone to stop them; this place would explode in a few minutes. Even if they managed to escape and elude all the Hydra and AIM agents, even if they managed to report what happened, it would be too late. It was ahead of schedule, but it would be enough for now. He continued to download all the files into his body and prepare everything. It would be close, but his calculations were without fault. He would have enough time.

0000

The girl with the spider tattoo felt a sense of danger in the air; most of their guards were running around in a panic. Some of the caged people were being taken away.

The red-haired girl with fire powers, Angela's cage, rose into the air thanks to some drone.

Then, the girl with the electric muzzle, Melissa, and her cage rose as if to meet the one in the center.

Andrea's cage lifted with them, "No, no!"

Black filled her eyes

Anya reached for her, "Andrea! Stay calm, stay calm."

Angela's collars started to beep, and so did Melissa's as the harness pointed at Andrea.

"Andrea! Stay calm. I promise you, I'll get you out of this."

"Okay, okay," Andrea breathed, and the blackness receded. She was finding it harder to control it; if something didn't happen to change things, she was going to lose herself.

Author's Notes: I come to you sick, probably the flu hopefully not worse. Might get a test if not feeling better.

But let's go over some notes. First, check out my story Lost Soul, its a spin off following characters that got dusted. Any story with WAS is part of With A Snap so keep that in mind.

As for notes, we Ulysses Archer who is a super hero truck driver in Marvel. His story is crazy and if you're interested looking up Linkara's review on US-1.

Yeah, we got a mutant with Bobby Ice Man here, I figured why not. I do what I want.

I'm sure some people have guessed the girls that showed up in the end, so brownie points to anyone who can tell me who they are.

Next chapter we will have the heroes fight Hydra, if there are people you want to see let me know. I fell I might be leaning on favorites so let me know if anyone whose at the base you'd like to see have their scenes.

So outside the questions, please leave a review maybe it will help me heal up faster. And remember we got a tv trope page so check that out.

Lastly, sad to say but we've lost people so thanks for making my childhood a bit better Kevin Conroy, Jason Davis Frank, and Arleen Sorking.

Q &A:

03: Eventually. If want check out Lost Soul as we have a villianous character take center stage.

Delta Gamer: Trust me, I haven't forgotten them, we will see them soon. Their arc is coming.

crewmastercz: Yeah, I honestly don't know about their character or world enough to write about them.