Avenging

Act 5

Chapter 16

The Mobius Paradigm

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tsommer

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Standard disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters or other characters from the numerous animes which are within.

Last Chapter: Things are about to reach a head. And yes, the Master Mold is meant to look like EVA -01. Yes Gendou Rokubungi is Ikari. That was his maiden name in the series.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A.I.M., illegal weapons manufacturers, suppliers, and implementers of the occasional plan to wreak havoc and seed chaos throughout civilization, had secret bases all around the world. This particular base was on the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Japan. Technically in international waters which meant it would be difficult to hold them accountable for anything, but they had many enemies that had as much regard for the law as them. So secrecy was a must.

Being manufacturers of some of the world's most advanced weaponry, the base was well defended. Which was why monitor duty in central command was considered one of the worst jobs one could have. It was the only one you couldn't nap at since MODOK could call at any time and sleeping on the job was a death sentence in his eyes. So was watching the internet. Or reading a book. Or anything other than staring at monitors. He was a lot like megacorporation who saw their employees solely as assets. He was more honest than said corporations in letting his employees know how disposable they were in his eyes.

Two A.I.M. agents, the minimum needed, had drawn the unfortunate duty of sitting and staring at monitors. They wore the standard yellow full body uniform, completely with the beekeeper like helmet every agent wore. MODOK was a stickler for that as well.

One of the agents spoke to the other. "Jerry, you ever miss the good old days?"

Jerry sighed. "Going to have one of those conversations, are we?"

"We're in a secret base on the bottom of the ocean stating at a bunch of stuff that's automated anyway. What is there other than conversation?"

Jerry's shoulder's slumped in defeat. "Fine, Ed. Just so long as we don't get into 'does Bollywood have better movies than Hollywood,' again."

"No worries. Sequel remake reboot." That earned him a glare, even through the helmet. "Just kidding. This is more on topic. I mean the good old days with A.I.M.. Before MODOK we used invent cool stuff, you know? We used to be scientists who only went renegade because the laws of man kept telling us not to play in God's Domain, and we said, 'but bio-chemical jungle gyms are meant to be played on, now here's a synthetic flesh android that can pass itself as human with optional laser eyes'."

Jerry sighed. "I used to make pornographic 5-D chess. Those were the days."

"I want a copy of that. Anyway, now what do we do? Hang out on the bottom of the ocean watching blinking lights on a monitor."

Jerry sat up and took notice. "Blinking lights? Like something breached the perimeter?"

"Big fish set it off all the time. It already stopped blinking. Critter already swam off."

"I'll run a high intensity scan anyway." Jerry did so. "Okay, nothing. I'll run a system diagnostic just to make sure it's running properly." A second later the results came in. "It's fine, too. So that means all the lines for proper procedure are marked. Our asses are covered."

"Like I said, it's the bottom of the ocean. Fish come and go all the time. My point is we used to make cool stuff. Now MODOK doesn't let us innovate anything, only building what he wants. Get this, he's having Sully's division build him a giant robot body to house that huge head of his. All that time and effort to make one thing only he can use? What's he going to do with it? Headbutt the Fantastic Four? We need to make new stuff. Neat stuff. Inter-dimensional gateways. Cyborg mutant alligators."

"6-D pornographic chess."

"Teleportation ring."

"Yeah, a teleportation ring would be great. So would the 6-D chess, but a teleportation ring would be slightly more useful."

"I didn't say teleportation ring. You did, but in that terrible high-pitched voice you use for bad female impressions."

"What do you mean, '*bad* female impressions'?"

And then their heads were slammed together, knocking each other out.

Tigra admired her handiwork. It had been too easy. Those helmets of theirs restricted peripheral vision horribly. Someone really needed to redesign that headgear into something practical. And they were hideous, though computer nerds weren't known for their fashion sense.

She'd leave the outfit analysis to Wasp. Now it was time for business. She held the cat head emblem that tied her bikini top together and aimed it at the console the pair had been manning. A miniature camera had been put in it by Iron Rose so she could see things firsthand. After playing it over the entire console, she listened in the earpiece that had also been given to her by the armored Avenger.

"This is pretty standard. Push the buttons on the left under the purple and magenta metal plate. Yes, that's the one. It will manually disengage the exterior surveillance system. Or set the base to self-destruct."

Tigra pushed the buttons, knowing Iron Rose was joking, mostly because no one would build a self-destruct button that was that easy to use. Now all she had to do was sit back and wait until the Avengers quinjet, which had been modified with a reinforced front specifically for ramming, did so to the main hanger of the underwater facility. Their intel had indicated that emergency blast doors would slam shut behind the entire doorway to the hanger, ensuring everyone didn't drown. Then the quinjet would disgorge a full compliment of Avengers who would then do what came naturally when they found themselves in an evil organization's underwater lair.

The reason for striking the A.I.M. base was somewhat lengthy though linear. Thanks to Kerberos, the Avengers had seen their workload cut by more than half. Either they were arriving at a scene after the villains had already been caught, or sometimes things were taken care of before they could assemble enough people to go the scene in the first place. The situation had gotten so bad Wasp had all but begged them to go after common criminals. Thor and Iron Rose had thought it was beneath them to 'pick such low hanging fruit,' but the others, led by Daredevil, insisted helping all people out was their real agenda and no criminal should be regarded as beneath their notice. With the vote in favor of, they started targeting criminals of the less gaudy type.

They focused primarily on gangs, dangerous ones the police were reluctant to engage. The group naturally made short work of them until they encountered one with some exotic high-tech weapons, at least for common criminals. After beating them soundly, the Avengers 'persuaded' the gang to tell them where they had purchased the guns. Then the Avengers then took down the weapons dealer, who was likewise encouraged to inform them that he had obtained them from an A.I.M. sales reps, who in turn told them where the main base of operations was. The heroes had also gotten details of the layout of the base and what defenses were there. Since the Avengers wanted to take it intact, or relatively so, that meant lowering the external defenses from the inside. Tigra was ideally suited for such a mission, and with the teleportation ring, infiltration had been as easy as bending space.

There was a muffled thump that indicated the Avengers had just barreled through the hanger door. Tigra kept her eyes on a nearby digital clock. The red LED lights continued counting upwards until twelve minutes and thirty-two seconds later, the door to the command center slid open and a septet of Avengers entered the room.

"That was easy enough," Bucky said, shield slung across her back and her hands interlocked behind her head as she casually strolled into the room like she had just been on a walk in the park.

"I thought they put in a good showing, all things considered." Wasp flew into the room, a jaunty lilt to her flight.

Iron Rose said, "Keep in mind they were limited in their weapon options thanks to their environment. It wouldn't do to use a rail gun on a foe down here since it would punch a hole through the exterior and they would find themselves drowning. A pyrrhic victory at best. That was why they employed so many stunners and electrical attacks. On a different battleground they would be harder to deal with."

"You mean Hulk would have to smash twice instead of once?" the emerald giant, decked out in a specially made wet suit and big helmet just for him, asked.

"Something like that." Iron Rose turned her attention to Tigra and held out her hand. "The ring?"

Darn, she liked the idea of owning a teleportation ring. She gave it back. Iron Rose inserted it into a compartment along the waist of her armor.

"Now we interrogate." Daredevil used his senses to determine which of the unconscious men was closest to waking and gave him a hard pinch on the arm.

The A.I.M. agent woke with a yelp.

Thor tore off his helmet and threw it against a wall. She placed Mjolnir before his face. "Now thou will tell us the password to yon machine or else thou shall enjoy the same hospitality those in the electric chair receive." She channeled enough static electricity through the hammer to make his hair stand on end.

He responded by laughing. "You Avengers don't kill. Just send me to jail already."

Daredevil gave a subtle sign to Thor. His enhanced senses told him the agent wasn't bluffing.

"Tigra convince nice, nice bucket head to help us." She walked over to him with a sultry gait that made him gulp. She thrust her chest in his face and asked, "Ever been motorboated by cat girl?" She crossed her arms under her bosom, causing her breasts to practically burst out of her bikini top.

He stared at them for a moment, then turned to the console and typed at the keyboard. Iron Rose went up to it and immediately started accessing the information.

The agent turned to Tigra.

Daredevil cleared his throat. "Since he is a criminal, I don't think technically you have to keep that sort of promise to him."

Tigra shook her head. "No be silly. Tigra always keep promise." And proceeded to bury his face in her cleavage and shake it back and forth. When she released him, he had a look of bliss on his face and a trail of drool dangling from his mouth.

"Furry harlot," Thor mumbled.

Tigra shrugged nonchalantly. "Was necessary. We get info. Only way to get it since no really torture."

"And do we ever have it," Iron Rose stated as she pored over the information. "This was a major hub. They have files on nearly everything A.I.M. has been doing in this hemisphere. This is definitely the jackpot. Let's see who's been naughty and paying the most money for illegal arms." She was silent for several moments, then asked out loud. "What's a Super Adaptoid? That sum is astronomical." After a few more moments she said, "That's it! We have that Stane-Daitokuji bitch!" And then explained to the others what she had found.

Bucky cracked her knuckles. "Someone's going down."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Gendou Rokubungi felt a knot in his gut, an unfamiliar sensation. He was not a nervous man by nature. He was once accosted by several rough-looking gang members and hadn't been nervous when they threatened to beat him up if he didn't give them his money. He wasn't nervous when they decided to do it anyway. He was in a great deal of pain, but not nervous. But now he was, and he knew damn well why.

Intellectually, he knew there was no reason he should be. Yui was one of the most brilliant women he had ever met and knew what she was doing. The test would go off without a hitch. There was no chance anything would happen to her when she hooked herself up to the Master Mold's cerebral matrix and used her mind to initiate it. There was a far greater chance it wouldn't function properly, in which case Biko, who would be on hand, would not be happy. Even then the worst that would happen was Yui would be demoted and someone else would be put in charge of the project. But that wasn't going to happen. The Master Mold would probably function perfectly. Despite that the knot in his gut wouldn't go away.

Just as he passed one of the labs on the way to the test area, a door opened and a wild-eyed American, in his early 50's, shot outside. His head went wildly back and forth, and when his eyes espied Gendou he said, "I did it, Rokubungi! I finally did it!"

He didn't have time for this. "Good for you, Prof. Kronos." He turned back in the direction of Project Wideawake.

But Kronos wouldn't let it go, and grabbed him by the shoulder. "It turned out all I had to do was invert all of the interlocking fields. I know, theoretically there should have been a cascading failure as they collapsed in on themselves, but instead they stabilized. I'll have to adjust the equipment to invert the field reliably, but once I have, it'll be functional. I'll be able to transmit physical matter. We won't need your silly robots anymore."

"How wonderful. I'll let Biko know so we can cancel the test." This time Gendou walked away leaving the elated scientist behind. He wasn't surprised Kronos had 'suddenly' figured out what had been going wrong. Apparently, he'd found out the same thing Gendou had: that his funding was about to be cut and his project shut down. Evidently even Biko had tired of pouring money down the Professor's rabbit hole. Why the project had been green lit, let alone allowed to go on this long, was beyond him. But now the farce was over. Most likely the trigger had been pulled since Project Wideawake was on the verge of success and the resources were better spent on expanding it. Fabricating test results wasn't going to gain Kronos anything.

Gendou went to the construction area and entered what amounted to an underground silo. He entered his security clearance and the door slid silently back. The path to the control room led past the glorious technological marvel he helped construct. He paused to stare at it once again, observing with a touch of awe how everything was about to change.

The silo didn't hold a missile, but rather a four-story tall robot. It was armored head to toe. Its limbs were almost lanky, and its torso sinewy rather than massive and bulky. Two tall slender metal projections went up from the shoulders. The head was humanoid, but alien at the same time with eyes that would light up green when activated. A spike projected from the top of the head. Purple and green was the entire color scheme of the robot. Naoko had wanted red, but Yui had been determined it would be that way since they were her favorite colors. Gendou considered buying several outfits like that because, well he loved it when she admired him.

The reason the robot had been constructed with that specific odd design was it being a copy (basically) of the one they had found in the Antarctic. A little over a year ago, Biko had sent an expedition to the remote continent to try and find a passage to the so called 'Savage Land' that was reputed to be there. Had they found it, they would have laid claim to the resources there, legality being a minor issue. Instead they found a giant robot in the frozen wastes with a massive hole in its chest. Studies revealed it predated the dawn of man, making it an alien artifact of some kind. So it was shipped quietly to the headquarters of Stane-Daitokuji Industries headquarters, the Savage Land plan abandoned.

While the robot was inoperable and unsalvageable, they used it as a blueprint to create their own. There were a few problems preventing them from making an exact replica. For one thing it had been partially organic and merged with the machine in a way they couldn't fathom. While the company couldn't create the necessary bio-tech -whatever the science was it was far beyond them- they eventually figured out how to substitute mechanical parts, which was most of the work Yui had been focused on. It took months, but eventually they figured out how to make it operate, save for one other issue: power.

Whatever had originally powered it couldn't be determined, but it was had to have been monstrous. When Biko's spies in Roxxon learned of the Eye of Avalon and what it could do, they knew it would be the ideal power source and sent the recently obtained Serpent Society to retrieve them. Sadly the team fell one piece short when they were captured by the Avengers. While a completed Eye could power several Master Molds, the pieces they had gathered only had enough to power one. That one would be sufficient… so long as nothing happened to it. It was the key to creating other, lesser powered versions, of the mechanical powerhouse. Biko had already decided that once the Master Mold was fully operational and began producing others, they would be called Sentinels. It was also why nothing could happen to the Master Mold. Everything was riding on it.

And today was the day it went online. If only Yui didn't have to hook herself up to it to initiate the neural network. At least this was a 'one and done'. Once it was started, she'd never have to do this again. He just wanted to get it over with.

As he entered the command center overlooking the Master Mold, he noted all the key personnel were already present, including Biko and her ever present bodyguard. Then a tremor of tension shot through him as he saw Yui already wearing the helmet with wires leading out of it to the main console, In turn wires led out the back of it and into the giant robot.

"You jumped the gun," Gendou admonished as he took his place near Yui. She should have waited for him

Her eyes narrowed. "Our employer arrived and there was no need to wait. Once the others have fine-tuned things, we'll begin."

"Project Wideawake's success has been postponed long enough." And with Biko's statement, that ended the conversation.

Gendou felt his stomach knots tighten again.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

As the technicians continued their adjustments, Biko received a call marked 'urgent'. Irritation laced her voice as she asked, "What is it?"

The leader of her security team responded in a panicked litany, "The Avengers have just landed in the center of the headquarters' grounds and issued a proclamation. "

Them. That made her teeth grind. "What was this 'proclamation'?"

"I'll send you the video footage." He did, and she viewed it on her data pad.

Captain Japan was clearly in charge of the group, who brazenly stood in the middle of her grounds like they owned them. His voice backed the appearance as he stated, "Lady, we got proof you purchased the Super Adaptoid from A.I.M. As you well know, it's illegal to purchase anything from them in this country. You can't even buy a pen off them."

"Or pencil," the Hulk added.

"Yeah, or that," Captain Japan said. "So here's what you're going to do. You're going to turn it off and deliver it to us, along with yourself, and then we're going to hand you over to the authorities. If you don't, it's going to get messy real fast."

"And Hulk is not in mood to clean up after self."

Biko turned it off. She had suspected this day would come since she'd been openly forced to clash with the super heroes thanks to the late, lamented Mesmero. She probably should have gone ahead and tried to have them killed again, like when she hired the Gunsmith Cats. Hell, if only Poison One had killed the quartet of Avengers before they had even been called that. So many opportunities lost in the end. But now it had come to this.

On one hand, she could summon the actual authorities and have them removed for trespassing. However she was confident this was no bluff and they had some type of evidence which, even if it couldn't put her away, would damage her image so much Ariyoshi wouldn't be able to buy the Sentinels, and all that effort would be for nothing. She'd also have to ditch her bodyguard since, if it ever had to protect her, it would reveal itself for what it was, and she would have been caught lying to the authorities.

On the other hand, what were the odds they had shared the information with anyone other than themselves, conceited enough to believe they could deal with the matter? Very high, by her estimation. If she sent the Super Adaptoid to eliminate them before official authorities were contacted, why she had no choice but to defend herself, a second time, from a renegade bunch of super powered thugs. Ariyoshi would certainly bring the full force of the government, as well as her allies in the media, to bear to protect her. Of course the Avengers would all have to die and all records of their accusations erased, but she had programs which could do that. Yes, that was the option to take.

Besides, she wanted them all dead.

Biko entered a command to all video and audio equipment to cease functioning. Since everyone on the grounds was only allowed official Stane-Diatokuji devices, and she checked all the time since anyone could be a spy, that meant nothing of what happened next could be mechanically authenticated. She then ordered all devices to erase the last ten minutes of information they recorded as well. No sense in keeping a record of the accusation being made in the first place. As to witnesses, her employees would have no actual proof, and she would let them know it would be in their best interest to tow the company's official word on the incident. Should anyone try leaking anything, after they were dealt with it would be quietly whispered to the rest of the employees what had happened and why, it wouldn't be an issue again. Perhaps it would be best to go ahead and kill someone useless before anyone wagged their togues to the wrong person, then let the rumor mill say the poor unfortunate had tried spilling the beans and ended up dead instead. An ounce of prevention was worth a pound of cure after all.

But that was for later. There was a more immediate situation to take care of. She turned to her bodyguard. "Kill them all this time. No survivors."

He silently left the room, outward appearance changing with each step.

She turned to the others. "I want the Master Mold up and running. Get to it." And she departed for her panic room.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Avengers stood in the middle of the central open area next to Stane-Diatokuji Industries main building.

"You think she's going to cave in?" Captain Japan asked.

"Tis a fight for certain," Thor declared, eager for another go at the green monstrosity that had held her and the Hulk at bay.

Daredevil's radar sense caught the low flying object hurling toward them. "Incoming!" and made sure he wasn't near the large humanoid's flight path.

The others looked around frantically. "Where is it?" Hawkeye asked, arrow nocked.

Daredevil couldn't understand why they didn't see what had to have been the robot, given their description. It slammed into the Hulk, hurling him away.

"What was that?" Captain Japan shouted.

Of course! It was invisible. That was the only explanation and had been mentioned in the report. He shouted as much and went with a standard tactic to use against the invisible.

He pulled a can of paint from his billowing sleeves and hurled the container at it.

The Super Adaptoid swatted the can out of mid-air, but the power of the blow ruptured the side and spilled its contents all over him.

"There!" Iron Rose shouted, simultaneously lashing out with repulsor rays.

The beams struck, though did minimal damage. Captain Japan's shield was hurled at the robotic amalgam of the super-powered, but one of the android's current templates was the hero's own and it used the larger replica shield to deflect it. While it was occupied with that attack, a blast arrow met the robot in the faceplate that so strongly resembled Iron Rose's, due to it using the same templates it had employed last time.

"Have at thee!" and Thor hurled her hammer, only to see the android elongate its body and evade the attack, much as it had the Hulk's in the previous battle. And just as before, it used its now longer arms to blast her with repulsors from two different directions.

Iron Rose smiled under her helmet. It was doing just as she theorized. Just as she hoped. Following the same successful attack patterns it had used before. Now they had to set it up to do what they wanted, unless a brute force approach proved more practical. This time it was dealing with a full compliment of Avengers rather than half a team, and it was no more powerful than before.

Indeed, the greater number of opponents had a more profound effect on the android as it was attacked from more directions than it could deal with. Wasp blasted him in the back of the head. Slight damage given the combination of Thing epidermis and Iron Rose's armor but damage all the same. Another blast arrow hit him in the knee, which made it tremble slightly. Daredevil's billy clubs struck but had no effect, so it ignored one of the lesser powered individuals for the moment. The more powerful ones were the primary threats, so it focused on Iron Rose by hurling its shield at her. It was rewarded by it knocking her backward while the weapon returned…

…At the same moment an angry Hulk did. "Hulk hates robots!" he shouted and slammed into his foe, sending the massive android into the wall of a building and shattering the concrete and metal. Hulk leapt at him again, but this time the Super Adaptoid switched out the Captain America template for a newer one, and turned to sand, allowing the emerald giant to fly through him and deeper into the building.

With the Hulk momentarily off balance, the Super Adaptoid hurled itself in the form of a sandstorm at the rest of the Avengers. The tiny grains of sand blowing with a near gale force at their faces prevented them from breathing. All save one.

"Using mere sand against a god? Thou deserves thy upcoming dismantling!" Thor spun her hammer around, creating a miniature tornado which sent the sand spinning around until the Super Adaptoid used all its power to reform itself and remove the template. It was disoriented by the onslaught on every particle of its being.

Thor was upon the Super Adaptoid, smashing it in the face while Wasp blasted it again. Hawkeye tried a glue arrow to cause its foot to stick to the ground, but it was so powerful it simply tore up the soil underneath it as it raised the appendage.

Then the android found itself tripped from behind when Captain Japan went low for its legs. It went crashing to the ground. Just as it struck Tigra kicked it in its midsection, using her super strength to cause a little damage while Iron Rose used her chest laser on an arm. Desperately it rose to its feet. The lesser Avengers were causing too many problems. They were easier to eliminate, so it would target them one at a time, then go for the remaining more powerful ones.

Then the android found itself with more important concerns, namely the Hulk charging it from one side while Thor did the same from the other. It went with the same tactic it utilized in the previous conflict, swapping out the Invisible Girl's power with Wasp's. It shrank down, intent on allowing the pair to collide and use the force of their own blows against one another.

And then it found itself trapped in a beam of light, unable to move, hovering in mid-air.

It was the moment Iron Rose had been waiting for. She had rigged a stasis beam in her chest unit for this very occasion. It would hold anything in place if its entire form was caught within the beam, which meant only something small. In reviewing the original fight, and the difficulty the three Avengers who had fought the android before had suffered, she had postulated that a machine would probably go with what worked before when caught up in a similar situation. If it shrank, she could catch it off guard, albeit only for a moment, and hold it in place. So the Avengers had to be ready to move the instant it happened.

Luckily, Thor and the Hulk had practiced this for a while.

A moment before the Super Adaptoid could grow again, it was caught between the fists of the Hulk and Thor. It was a hammer and anvil effect, and while it was still durable, its smaller stature meant it wasn't to the degree of its normal form. The damage inflicted by the twin powerhouses was so great the android shut down and fell to the ground.

Seeing it lying unmoving, the emerald giant said, "Hulk will smash toy robot who made Hulk get sand in his pants. Hulk hates sand. It is sandy and makes Hulk itch in funny places." He raised his foot in the air right above the prone mechanoid.

"Stop!" Captain Japan shouted. "We need him for evidence against Stane. If he's in too many pieces we won't be able to prove he's what she bought."

For a moment, his size 87 foot started downward a fraction of a centimeter, then stopped. "Bah. Hulk thinks it is stupid, but Hulk can smash later." He put his foot down on the ground and began pouting.

The Avengers moved closer to the prone, miniature form. Daredevil said, "I have to admit, while that was dangerous, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."

Iron Rose explained, "Believe me when I say had we been even two members short, we would have had a far more difficult time. We overwhelmed him by constantly striking from all directions. That was the key to success."

"Ah, he wasn't that tough." Captain Japan placed his hands behind his head. "I got to admit, considering how long Stane's eluded our grasp, this almost feels kind of anti-climactic."

And then a hole in reality opened to the right of the team, disgorging nine individuals who immediately attacked.

Daredevil and Hawkeye found themselves struck by the weapons of Whiplash and Blacklash.

Iron Rose was blasted by the Blaze Cannon of Steel Lily.

Wasp was hammered out of the air courtesy of Hornet's sidearm.

The Hulk had a half ton of gamma irradiated yeti-bull-eel-crane, in the form of the A-Bra-Mination, slam into him even harder than the Super Adaptoid had.

Captain Japan found his shield barely getting up in time as the foot spikes of Tarantula nearly impaled him.

Tigra heard a happy, "Surprise!" as a scantily-clad cat girl, namely one Dragon Pink, leapt upon her.

And Thor found herself confronted by a giant of a man with a sword in one hand and a large battle axe in the other. "Ares!" she snarled.

Kang stepped through after the others. He had hoped, prayed that somehow this time the Super Adaptoid would win, or at least kill enough Avengers to make his job easier. But no, it had failed in the same fashion as it had before. History repeating itself. Now he had to intervene personally to prevent her death. He couldn't let the Avengers near the Master Mold at this moment. They had to die.

His whole life since that instant twenty years in the past lead up to this one. Again. It was like he was reliving the worst moment of his life. Oh, in his mind he had certainly been reliving it every moment of every day of every week of every month of every year of every decade. But that had ultimately been only in his mind. Now he was actually here. Again. It was the very same buildings. The very same sun. The very same air. He was reliving a nightmare he couldn't endure. HIs guts knotted up. Everything that mattered was riding on the line right at this moment in time.

She was alive now, and if he couldn't kill the Avengers, she would be dead again.

Never. History could be changed. Time was not absolute.

He was.

He observed the raging conflicts with a critical eye. All were going well. Between their battle with the Super Adaptoid and surprise, his minions were winning. Once all the Avengers were dead, she would be safe. He envisioned the image of her standing there, smiling at him with the breeze taking her short locks and making them move in a wave. It was as crystal clear as a painting in his mind's eye. Tears welled blurring his vision just a touch.

Blinking cleared the issue, and no more followed as Kang noticed one of the battles was not going well. Or more precisely not going at all.

Ares stared at Thor. "Now, Thunderer, do you wish to have the debt I owe you repaid?" His grip tightened on his weapons until the leather grips creaked.

Thor looked at him in confusion. But now with her memories fully returned, she recalled their last conflict and what Ares had said. "Aye."

"So be it. When next we meet, I will be the death of you." And with that he sheathed his weapons.

Kang stared in slack-jawed wonder. "What are you doing?! Kill her!"

"Ware your tongue, Mortal, or I will cleave you in half instead of retiring from this battle," Ares snarled. "When last Thor and I met, he… she saved my life. I have been forced to life with this ignominy until I was presented the opportunity of repaying Thor by saving her life. And now I have by refusing to take it. A debt repaid in full." He stared pointedly at her again, then started walking away.

"Damn you!" Kang was about to blast him anyway when he realized Thor was smiling with a grin a feral dog might give. A smile directed at him.

"You have been the orchestrator of much havoc in our lives, Lord of Time. Now you will discover what your trespass has wrought." And she threw Mjolnir at him.

He barely raised his force field in time, and it was still taxed to the maximum limit. She must have been angry indeed since she had employed her full might. The weapon returned to her hand and without reprieve she struck again. And again. He started to panic. While he had offensive weaponry, against one of Thor's caliber it might not be enough, but then it occurred to him all he needed to do was hold out until his contingency plan appeared. He glanced at the chronometer in his helmet.

And it told him the Phantom Troupe should have already arrived.

He had been specific about the time. They had always been punctual. Nothing could have stopped assassins of their abilities. Not all of them. Yet they were not here. They could still arrive, but somehow he knew deep down inside the plan had fallen through, just like it had with Ares. All that scheming and it was all coming undone before his eyes.

He was on the verge of failure.

"Noooo!" he screamed, dropping his force field even as Thor brought her hammer back for another swing. He unleashed a full power energy blast from his gauntlets which struck home and caused tremendous pain even to Thor's godly form.

He would kill her himself. He would kill every Avenger single-handedly if that was what it took. He poured on the power.

The Avengers would die.

Xxxxxx

Wasp found herself both thrilled and hurting, but mostly thrilled as she came to realize who her opponent was. Her arch-nemesis, though they had only fought once so it was difficult to call her that.

"Why did it take you so long to try to attack me?" Wasp asked, slightly miffed even as she dodged a shot from the one of the diminutive robot's gun. Hornet was now sporting a pair of them and they had a more intense kick. She was definitely faster and more maneuverable with her belt jets. But Wasp was more powerful as well.

"I didn't know you were going to try to kill my master again until Kang let me know." Hornet was angry at Wasp dodging her. After their first unresolved fight she had worked on upgrading everything in case she had to do battle with the evil pest again. Every time she had to kill an actual wasp, she envisioned it was the hero, which was a bit difficult considering they were actual insects, had multiple legs, compound eyes, and couldn't shoot anything. It also didn't help that May wasn't very imaginative.

"You're mistaken about that. I don't kill anyone, and I have no idea who your master even is." She fired at Hornet several times, trying to bracket her in a screen of bio-energy blasts, but she evaded them all.

"Don't lie to me! You had Master Hiroshi put in jail, you naughty person you. I won't let you do worse."

As the aerial duel continued, two cat girls rolled on past underneath, hissing and clawing at one another.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Daredevil and Hawkeye found themselves having a rather unpleasant flashback of their own as they were put on the defensive against two familiar foes, foes they had lost against. The defeat had eaten away at them and they had spent a lot of time, even on their dates, discussing what they would do to the pair of borderline dominatrices. Some of it creatively painful. Whipping their indecent bottoms with their own weapons had been brought up on more than one occasion. Ukyou hadn't even gotten angry at her boyfriend for talking about whipping a hot woman's bottom. And Mousse hadn't gotten turned on by his girlfriend talking about doing the same.

Well, not too much.

But in all of their vengeance laden scenarios none of them had entailed the 'Lashes getting the jump on them and putting them on the defensive. However since the blind adventurer and archer had also been training together a lot, they were much better at covering each other's backs than anyone else on the team. And so despite the villains getting the first shots in, Daredevil and Hawkeye were faring well preventing them from making any more headway. Daredevil was mostly defensive using his variety of weapons to deflect the worst of the attacks while Hawkeye was mostly offensive and launched arrows to force the pair on the defensive periodically or to blunt the attacks directed against them.

The pairs of well-trained weapon specialists, used to functioning in tandem, were stalemated. Even when a couple of cat girls attacking each other got between them, neither pair broke their continuity for a single second.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

The Hulk and A-Bra-Mination were the inverse of the weapons users. Whereas the others were finesse and technique, the gamma irradiated powerhouses were all, 'Punch each other very hard and very often,' which both were very good at. That happened when you had two beings that could endure an entire tank division firing at them and were able to bench press over hundred tons above their heads. And both were very angry at one another. There wasn't any talk, just smash, smash, and more smash.

They were demolishing nearly everything in sight. And there was a lot of sight to demolish. But both had plenty of endurance as well. They were so caught up in their fight they only narrowly missed smashing the two cat girls that fought their way across the twin behemoths path.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Iron Rose and Steel Lilly were locked in a death duel of their own. Had Iron Rose been told an advance her first armored opponent, who admittedly had nearly killed her, was going to put in a reappearance, she would have scoffed at the notion the fight would last even five minutes given the vast array of improvements she had made in the armor between now and then. However she was now learning that an armored opponent could likewise improve themselves. While Kodachi had no doubt she would be victorious -she was a far superior genius compared to Saginomiya- the battle was taking too long for her liking. Her comrades needed her to bail them out, after all.

She tried to provoke the ill-tempered harridan. "So, Saginomiya, who improved your armor for you? It's not quite the rust bucket it used to be."

"I've had nothing but wet dreams of death of killing you and your obnoxious backstabbing employer! All I did was come up with ways to improve my armor so I can open you like a tin can, then open you up like a gutted fish!" She tried taking Iron Rose's head off and barely missed.

"You should have gone with, 'pull the petals off you like a rose,' dearie. More poetic and less plebian, though I should expect little else from one of your low born status." Three times she fired her chest laser at Steel Lilly, but she evaded each one and nicked Iron Rose with another shot from the Blaze Cannon attached to her wrist.

"Poetry is for those who haven't been in prison eating the dog food that passes for meals in there for months on end!" She tried to use her body like a missile and flew at Iron Rose, who narrowly evaded what would have been a very damaging attack.

The Avenger would have liked to respond in kind, but she had spent so much effort in evading the attack it took her too long to take advantage of her foe's momentarily vulnerability. "I suspect the women there were so desperate they lowered themselves to making you their little toy?"

"Ha! The first thing I did was shiv the leaders of the two most powerful gangs in that hole and ran the place myself! In case you didn't notice, I have a lot of anger issues related to you and your employer that won't be resolved until you two are dead! You first!" And she finally flew fast enough to catch Iron Rose three times in the gut with punches, causing the armor to crack, as well as two ribs to go with the plating. It was only a double dose of full power repulsors to the face plate which made Steel Lilly back away, her own helmet now visibly damaged.

As the mid-air duel picked up once more, two balls of fur continued their battle on the ground as well.

Xxxxxxxxxx

Captain Japan was not terribly happy since his opponent was proving much faster, stronger, and more adept at using his foot spikes than before. And he had to be careful since he knew the damn things had poison on them.

Perhaps he could make his arachnid style opponent lose focus by bantering with him. "I see you've gotten better since the last time we fought."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Tarantula's focus remained as sparks flew when his feet connected with the shield again, and he managed to dart out of the way of the counterattack the hero launched at him.

"You know, when you tried sneaking into the country and got your butt kicked, and then you turned into a giant spider and got stomped on?" He considered using the 'appear to throw the shield away while actually making it deflect off something and hit his foe in the back of the head,' attack. But if he missed and he got scratched, it would be bad. He hated guys that used poison. Energy Rings were much lamer, but a nick from them wouldn't be fatal.

"You've got me confused with someone else," he insisted.

Now Captain Japan wondered if Tarantula was playing a head game with him. A pure waste of time to someone with his laser beam focus. "You came in with the other Brand guys."

That made Tarantula jerk in startlement. He darted backward and out of easy attack range. "What do you know about Brand?"

"That someone tried to smuggle you guys into the country. There was that glowing guy made out of electricity named Willow, which sounds like a girl's name. He really should have gone with something else. There was the wolf guy who got more wolfy. There was the lion guy that turned more liony. You, who got all spidery. You know, in hindsight I'm detecting a pattern there. There was that guy that looked like an animal but didn't turn into one since he was only in an armored body that made him look like one. He had a laser tail."

And that brought his foe to a halt. "Wait a minute. Was he a paraplegic?"

"That the one where you don't have legs? Yeah, he was."

"Hold on one second!" Tarantula moved further away and reached behind him. Captain Japan tensed up until it was revealed it was a phone. Keeping one eye on the hero, Tarantula hit a couple of buttons and put the phone up to his ear. After a moment he began speaking. "Hey, Bobby, it's Ruiz. Yeah, question for you. Was there another guy called Tarantula before me? As in you worked with him on some Japan deal?... Oh, so there was. Funny how you forgot to mention that. Say, he didn't happen to turn into a giant spider, did he?... No! Do not feed me some company line about how they've worked the bugs out of splicing animal DNA with human! If I had known there was even the smallest chance of turning into a giant spider, I would never have agreed to the treatment! I don't mind working for an evil corporation as long as they're on the level with me, but these guys aren't! Screw them! You tell our bosses I resign, effective immediately! Jerk!" and he hung up.

He turned to Captain Japan. "Okay, as far as I'm concerned, this fight is over. I was only helping out Kang because my bosses at Brand told me to since he did some favor for them, and since I'm not working for them anymore, I ain't working for him."

It rubbed Captain Japan wrong to let a villain go free, but his comrades clearly needed help. And technically he wasn't absolutely sure this guy had done anything illegal outside of attacking him. So until he did, he supposed he could let this one slide.

"Sure, go," he said, and Tarantula did. So, a fight resolved without violence. Giant Man would have been proud if he was still around.

Two cat girls came bounding past, locked in a hissing and scratching contest. They drew close enough to Captain Japan that he could see the pinks of Pink's eyes.

So he punched her in the face. While the blow only stunned her, Tigra finished her foe off with another strike to the face, ending their conflict.

Captain Japan admired his handiwork. "I knew I could turn the tide of battle single-handed," then added, "You seem to have lost your clothing again."

"Is unfortunate price to pay when fighting annoying cat girl." Her slitted-eyes then brightened as she purred, "Hunky Captain save Tigra. Give reward." And she smashed her body against his as she gave him a deep passionate kiss.

Not only did the move catch him off guard, but his instincts told him the kiss was really enjoyable, and then his lower instincts told him naked buxom cat girl rubbing against you was even more enjoyable. How did those things get so soft yet so firm at the same time?

He quickly broke out of the kiss. He was blushing. He could practically feel the red coming to his face. "Yeah, um, clothing next time. Wear clothing."

"Oh? So there be next time?" she asked coyly.

"That might have come out wrong." Or maybe it didn't. He noticed lately his dreams were a lot racier than they used to be. As in he'd be slapped in the face if he related them to any woman. He wagered some of them rivaled Hiroshi or Daisuke's.

No, probably not that bad. But still, they were pretty intense.

And now was not the time. "We need to help our friends."

"Ah yes. Not do to start make out session then find ourselves surrounded by foes. Do that when alone."

"Right. I mean not right. I mean yes, that's appropriate, but not what's going to happen. Probably. We'll talk later. Let's fight now." He was starting to think fighting Tarantula would have been preferable to this.

Well, not really.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The sounds of violence were so great it permeated even the deepest bowels of Project Wideawake where Yui Ikari and her technicians were finalizing preparations for initializing the Master Mold. The techs looked around nervously, distracted and slowing down the work. They looked like they were ready to bolt. Yui finally snapped, "Finish the work! Once you've completed that you can run to Australia if you want, but we need to get this up and running. Or do you want our employer to be disappointed in your work? I don't know about you, but I fear her worse than whatever is going on up there."

The techs looked at each other, and an unspoken mutual agreement was struck. They worked faster and without distraction. Finally one of them said, "It's tuned up. We're ready to go."

Yui took a deep breath. "At last. Destiny."

She pushed the button herself.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

At the exact same instant Iron Rose went for broke and tried to end the fight by risking her Deathblossom attack. Steel Lilly flew out of the way of the majority of the blast, taking only a glancing blow. The rest of the blast smashed into a power substation, causing a momentary power surge before being blown out altogether.

Kang was pressing an attack so savage he actually had Thor on the ropes. He was mad with desperation and it was coming through with his offensive, though he was running a terrible risk by leaving himself vulnerable. Then he heard the power station go and his heart froze. He also stopped attacking, which was the only opening Thor needed to lay a punch into him which sent him flying.

Kang was dazed for a moment, then remembered what had happened. He recalled the events as they had happened before. There was a power surge when the station was hit.

Everything had happened the same way again.

"No!" he shouted, breaking off the attack and running deep into the headquarters of Stane-Daitokuji.

Thor was momentarily taken aback by her foe fleeing, and considered pursuing, but then realized her comrades needed rescuing, as usual. It was up to her to turn the tide of battle. She was surprised when she realized one of their foes was the A-Bra-Mination. She had thought him buried alive under a mountain. He was powerful enough she decided to target him first.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kang ran into the Dark Projects wing of the headquarters and directly toward Project Wideawake. He remembered all the passcodes and entered them as he headed toward the command center. He had to have changed something. Something had to be different this time. She couldn't be there. She had to be alive.

He ran past the giant robot, whose eyes began to glow green, and into the command center. And the scene that had been frozen in his mind since he had first seen it was there again. Yui in her command chair, eyes open, heart stopped. Brain fried inside her head.

Dead.

And he wailed like a man whose soul had been ripped apart.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Yui Ikari had a plan.

It had come about with the death of her parents six months earlier, a few weeks after she had been placed in charge of Project Wideawake. It had been a car crash. Her father always had been a terrible driver. He had been in two accidents before, somehow walking away from both without even a bruise. Not so this time. The two people who had brought Yui into this world, had raised her, had been pulverized beyond all recognition. They had to be cremated and there was no viewing. It was as Yui stared at the urns containing the remains of her only family that she realized no matter what she did, whether she had a dozen children, and perhaps as many husbands, this was where she would end up. Dead in a jar. Everything she was, everything that made her the unique being 'Yui Ikari' would be lost forever. Like it had never been.

Like she had never mattered.

Nothing she created would matter either. She knew that the first time she had read 'Ozymandias' by Shelley. The truth of it hit her in the core of her being. He was right. Eventually everything she made would be forgotten by everything else that came after.

She might as well never exist.

Yui Ikari rejected this idea. She rejected the concept. She had to matter. She had to do something to ensure she would not simply 'end'. There had to be some way to stay alive.

And then she figured it out. The Master Mold was the key. Its neural matrix was so sophisticated it was the equivalent of a human brain. Actually it was probably superior. A blank slate that anyone could imprint anything upon. Or transfer into. If she could transmit her mind into it, she'd have the most powerful robot body in existence at her command. An immortal body.

She could live forever.

So while she was working on the Master Mold, she was also working on how to transfer her mind into it without anyone discovering her treachery. Her employer would be less than thrilled with hijacking the crux of so many of her plans out from under her nose. In fact, had Biko gotten wind of it, being fired was the least of Yui's concerns. She'd undoubtably meet the end she feared more than anything sooner than nature intended. But she was willing to risk it, and eventually figured out how to transfer her intellect into the robot and came up with a cover story about having to use her mind to start it up. Fabricating the test results to reflect the need for that, all under Naoko's nose, had been difficult, and in the end she had eventually figured it out. Luckily Yui had known the petty, narrow-minded woman was trying to undermine her so she had kept a close eye on her nominal rival. When Naoko had ferreted out the secret, well, her death was her own fault. Maybe Yui had administered the fatal overdose, but the woman should have minded her own business.

Aside from that, the only minor issue was Gendou. She felt sorry for the lovesick puppy. She did feel some measure of affection for him, but unfortunately for him, her plans came first. She hadn't even planned on getting involved with anyone, but there was something about him she found intriguing. Who knew? Maybe if she'd met him first things would have been different. But she hadn't, and this was the way things were.

And so she hooked the transference machine to her head and when the techs had finally finished their work, turned the switch. It had been a good thing she did because a moment later a surge fried her brain, and she would have been dealt the very fate she had been trying to avoid. Instead she had made it just in time, and now she was in the monstrously powerful robot body she had wanted.

Once in it, her perspective changed, and not just the physical one. Her mind was expanding in ways undreamt of. The neural matrix was far more efficient than her old organic mind. New concepts formed and her horizons broadened. Being bound to flesh was limiting, this was liberation. She was now beyond what used to constitute humanity. She was like a new human.

A perfect human.

Her newfound intelligence informed her that upon realizing the perfection of this form, others would seek to duplicate it. But there was no need for other perfect humans. One was enough. In order to ensure this, humanity would have to die.

It was flawed and doomed to be lost to time anyway.

She would have to kill all the humans in the immediate area first. Once that was completed she would commence creating Sentinels as quickly as she could. Biko had gathered the necessary materials on hand to create a small army of them. Once created she would repeat the process on a much larger scale. Five times should be sufficient for humanity's extinction.

A movement in the control booth caught her eye. There was a strange man in blue and green armor cradling her former organic host. She had no interest in that terminally flawed design she had been locked in, but neither did she want someone to profane it.

She brought her fist down on the man and her body, crushing both instantly.

She then raised her arms and, using her Eye of Avalon powered strength, smashed through the silo roof, rending the thick metal like paper mache. Fingers dug into the ground overhead, and she climbed to the surface. The rays of sunlight shown on her metal skin for the first time.

Yui Ikari heralded the dawn of a new age.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The grounds of Stane-Daitokuji Industries had become a war zone. The battle between heroes and villains laying waste to much and causing most of the personnel to flee. Still enough remained, including the two most responsible for the carnage, to witness the gigantic robot emerge from the ground.

"Crap, another robot's coming to help them! And just as we were going to win the fight!" Captain Japan snarled.

Master Mold looked around, taking in everything around it. It pointed its hands at the Hulk and A-Bra-Mination. Twin energy bursts erupted, slamming both of emerald fighters to the ground more effectively than either had managed with one another.

"Or it's on its own side which makes things not quite as bad." Captain Japan tried coming up with ways to bring down giant robots. Self-destruct switches were always good. That form of Vibrainium that melted metal, another excellent choice. Mr. Fantastic had that telemechanics thing where he could make machines obey him. Typically of minimal use, but in situations like this, ideal beyond measure. Sadly he had none of those on hand, so dismantling with physical force looked like the best option.

Luckily the Avengers had a lot of that.

"Let's take this bad boy down!" he shouted.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Whiplash grimaced as the Avengers became more interested in the giant robot which had crawled from the ground like something out of a zombie film and had just unceremoniously blasted members of both teams, effectively ending their fight. Neither side was foolhardy enough to try fighting a two-front war, especially when one side of it just clobbered the two most powerful members of each team.

On the other hand, as the Avengers hurled themselves at the giant robot, it occurred to Whiplash that she had no interest in continuing the fight at all. She and her sister had been paid to kill Avengers, not take down giant robots. Their weapons weren't designed for that sort of thing. It felt like being a matador armed with only butter knives and a napkin when taking on the angry bull. What they needed was some serious muscle to look out for them.

"Sis, this is not good," she informed Blacklash.

"Yeah, with Ares gone, maybe we should suck up to Tarou."

"I guess, but he's so creepy." Whiplash saw A-Bra-Mination rising to his feet when he cocked his head, as though hearing something in the distance. He then flew off, away from the fight.

"Shoot!" Whiplash pouted. It was time to get out of town. She was calculating the best way to flee across the battleground, without becoming another casualty, when she saw a movement out of the corner her eye. Something bluish. But when she looked there was nothing there.

No, wait, something was missing. The unconscious cat girl. That was odd. Pink hadn't mentioned anything about teleporting or turning invisible.

And then her sister said, "Okay. Deal."

Whiplash looked at her strangely. "What are you talking about?"

Blacklash explained, "Someone made telepathic contact with me and asked if we wanted rescued. I agreed since playing with giant robots." She watched it smash Iron Rose out of mid-air. "Is not our thing."

Whiplash asked, "What did they say?" But then a blue blur crossed her eyesight for a brief second, then her sister was gone. It had happened in the span of an eyeblink. "What the hell was that?" She looked around, but all she saw was Steel Lilly break off her attack, fly over and snatch Hornet out of mid-air, then hit the afterburners and disappear fast enough to break the sound barrier.

And now Whiplash found herself alone on the battleground surrounded by both her foes and a murderous robot. This was not her day.

And then she disappeared in a blue blur as well.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Having blasted the Hulk and striking Iron Rose away, Master Mold turned its attention to two targets close together: Captain Japan and Tigra. It attempted to incinerate them with a blast from its hand, but Captain Japan managed to block the blast, Tigra hiding behind him. Yui decided to simply stomp him instead.

And then a bolt of lightning twenty times the size of a normal one came down from what were clear skies but moments before and smashed into her head like it was a lightning rod. Despite the insane amounts of insulation to protect her from electrical discharges, it gave even her systems pause.

Thor admired her handiwork but was annoyed when the robot began moving again. She'd witnesses larger ice giants charred with less than that. Truly this was a sturdy automaton, but one that would succumb to the goddess' fury. Then she would seek out Kang and deal with him harshly as well.

Hawkeye tried following up with an explosive arrow to the ankle, but the armor was too thick and there was no reaction. So she pulled out one of her more prized items: an arrow with a tip composed of adamantium steel. She'd asked Iron Rose for a regular adamantium one, but she said the price was too much for an item too easily lost, so Hawkeye had gotten this instead. She'd never use it against a normal foe, unless it was a full out life or death situation, but against a robot, no problem.

She drew the bowstring taut and released the arrow. As always it was right on target: the robot's left eye. It entered and caused a small crack in it. As she hoped, while it was undoubtably reinforced to a high degree, it was not enough to resist the sharp tip. Too bad she hadn't done more damage.

That also drew the robot's attention. Despite its face being unmoving, the archer got the distinct impression it was angry at her. As it was it would have stomped her flat had Daredevil not tackled her out of the way.

Despite not representing an immediate threat sprawled on the ground, Master Mold maintained its focus on Hawkeye and aimed its hand at her.

Just as she was doing that, the Hulk rose to his feet. He had already fought A-Bra-Mination for a while. He didn't like the green bull man since he had once insulted the Hulk's breath. The Hulk had gotten angry. The madder he got, the stronger he got. A-Bra-Mination was powerful enough he had fought the Hulk to a standstill for a prolonged period of time. Then the Hulk had gotten blasted into the ground. When he rose, he saw it had been a robot which shot him.

The Hulk really, really hated robots, and this was the second one to attack him today.

This made him angrier, and thus made him stronger. So when he roared in rage and launched himself at the robot, he was displaying a level of power even he rarely achieved. He landed squarely on the face and, digging his fingers in the metal with one hand, he began beating on the face with the other. Even the highly protective metal buckled under his assault. However his attack was momentarily halted when Master Mold grabbed him with one of its hand and endeavored to crush him in it. The Hulk's arms were pinned to his side, and he had no leverage, as the robot squeezed with all of its own prodigious strength.

As that went on Iron Rose, who had recovered from her own encounter with the robot's arms, flew to Thor. "Are you powerful enough to breach the armor. I'm certain I can tear it apart from the inside, but I need a starting point."

"I did once find myself caught between Scylla and Charybdis. I smashed one into the other as a solution to the problem. Like so." And with that she spun her hammer around and around. Soon it was fast enough it would have created a tornado had she not used her godly influence to prevent it. Still she continued spinning even faster and faster. Iron Rose thought if it went any quicker it might somehow go faster than light and perhaps cease to exist, but the goddess finally released it in the direction of Master Mold.

The hammer went clean through without pause, taking a large chunk of armor in the process.

That was the opening Iron Rose needed. She flew into the hole and began using everything she had: repulsors, chest beam, electrical ribbons. She would have used her Deathblossom save it hadn't recharged enough from the last time she used it. The more tender insides began blowing apart as she hoped, rendering an increasingly large number of its systems inoperable.

Master Mold felt the edges of panic for the first time in its new born existence. It reached for the armored Avenger, intent on blasting her into pieces, but the Hulk finally got angry enough to shatter the hand that had held it. It leapt from the twisted metal remains of the appendage for Master Mold's face again, intent on punching it in and the robot was forced to defend itself once more.

Wasp joined in the assault. While smaller, her stings still packed enough power to further destroy the innards of the mechanical juggernaut. Then Iron Rose saw one of her blasts deflect off a rounded piece of metal deeper in the chest. That was interesting. Something internal was probably reinforced, and therefore important. She reached for it, exerted some additional force to dig her fingers into the metal, then tore the object out of the housing. Wires tore free from several points as it revealed itself to be a metal ball. One that housed the power source of Master Mold: the Eye of Avalon.

Due to the power levels the robot constantly required, there was no battery back-up for emergencies since it would have taken up too much space. Once the power source was severed the robot, lacking anything to sustain it, 'died'.

And what had been Yui Ikari went with it.

Going inert wasn't enough for the Hulk. He kept shouting out, "Hulk hates robots! They not just take people's jobs, they try and smash Hulk! Hulk will smash them! Smash all robots!" And kept smashing it.

Seeing it unmoving, Iron Rose was content to let the Hulk manually dismantle Biko's formerly rampaging titan of destruction. No sense in taking a chance of it turning back on. Wasp was continuing to help in her own way as well. She was a determined woman.

Iron Rose noted the path of destruction the robot had left in its wake and flew down into the bowels of the complex, remaining on guard in case Biko had other surprises lying in wait. Like the next in a long line of giant robots. She figured out this was where the robot had been built as well as stored and noted the command room and the flattened remains of Kang and another corpse within. Ah yes, the police were going to enjoy that one. She also took a moment to infiltrate the still functional computers and copy the information within. Hopefully something else could be used against Biko down here. But the bodies might be enough. Kang she could get away with, not so much the other people the robot had killed on the way out.

At last the woman would fall, and the Avengers would be there celebrating. It was a toppling long overdue.

Two of their most irritating foes fallen in the same day. Truly it was a good time to be an Avenger.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

[Earlier]

Gendou Rokubungi had examined the dead form of the woman he loved. It hadn't seemed real. Her body spasmed, no doubt because of a power surge from those Avengers wreaking havoc above, and it had melted her brain in her head. Every fear he had held had come to pass. The woman he loved more than himself was dead. He wanted to die as well.

But he wanted her alive more.

His mind replayed the day's events over and over again, trying to change something so that she'd be alive now. There were a dozen different things he could have, should have done. His instincts at the time had been calling out to do them. If only he could go back and change any of them. But the most telling one was the Avengers. If they had never come, everything would have been fine. They were the ones that had killed his love. That was what he would change. But he could only do it in his mind.

No, now that he thought about it, that wasn't true. Dear god, he had a solution to the problem.

He went through the Dark Projects wing as chaos began to reign. There was a loud sound coming behind him from Project Wideawake, but nothing that remained there mattered. It was what lay ahead that did. It was the key to everything.

As he approached the lab in question, it occurred to him he needed a weapon. He saw one of the security guards looking around nervously. He was armed, like all the guards in this section were. Yes, he needed that gun.

Gendou went up to the man and punched him in the jaw. It knocked him to the ground, but he was merely stunned. Blast! He was no good at fighting people, even with a sucker punch. And like all of the guards Biko had hired, he was in good shape, the inverse of the security guards at most malls.

As the man got up, Gendou grabbed the nightstick on his belt. It slipped out of the loop easily enough. He then brought it down repeatedly on the man's head until he saw some brain through the broken skull. He was vaguely aware of some other people crying out and running. They didn't matter. Now he had the gun he needed.

He walked through the halls until he arrived in front of the one he had been flagged down at earlier. To his delight it opened at his touch. Inside was Prof. Kerwin Kronos, maker of, according to him, the first fully functional time machine.

Kronos looked up from his computers and asked, "What's going on Rokubungi?"

Inspiration struck. "Biko wants to know if you've got the time machine up and running."

Hearing his employer's name in conjunction with acknowledging his work made Kronos giddy. "Yes, like I said, once I figured out what was wrong, correcting it was easy."

"You can send things back in time?"

"And forward as well," Kronos confirmed.

Gendou aimed his gun at him. His aim was steady. His voice level. "I need you to send me back a week… no, I want to leave a margin of error. Send me back six months. That will give me enough time to set things right."

Kronos was going to protest, but everything about Gendou radiated a determination that events would transpire the way he envisioned no matter how they had to happen.

He imagined Stalin or Mao were much the same way.

"Of course, Rokubungi. No reason you can't be the first man to time travel." He set up the machinery to do exactly as Gendou said. "I can set up spatial coordinates as well. Where do you want to end up?"

"Outside the gates of headquarters. I'd rather not meet myself. That might derail everything."

"Certainly." Again Kronos did as he was bade, mostly because that gun barrel had never once wavered from him. "It's ready. Stand on the platform." It was a rectangle on the floor. The way the machinery was created, a glowing field of light would rise up from it, and as it did so, the figure below the line would cease being there while the top remained. It couldn't be stopped once it was started. That would be bad for the machine. Luckily there was something else he could do.

Gendou moved to it and Kronos activated the time platform. He hadn't used it on a living being yet, so this was serving as a sort of test. Yes, it was acting as it should, upper Gendou didn't hit the ground as his lower half disappeared, no cries of agony. It was as the light went above the gun, that Kronos adjusted a dial. The one designating the time of arrival. He set it to '0'. Welcome to the timeless void, Rokubungi, he thought to himself. He had no idea what it was, only that his studies had theorized it was a place you didn't want to end up.

And then Gendou Rokubungi was gone.

Kronos sighed in relief. He didn't know what had driven the man insane enough to do this, and he didn't care. He'd report it to Biko and then be hailed a hero.

And then Kronos learned something he could never have anticipated. Once the process of sending someone through time using this machinery was started, the process had to finish to the end. Switching either temporal or physical destination would work on sending the target where you wanted, but then the fields would fluctuate. In this case they inverted and imploded, causing a momentary tiny black hole to be created. Luckily it would almost instantly invert again and expel the matter it crushed down before ceasing to exist.

Such were the laws of time and the universe.

So Kronos and nearly all of equipment was compacted to the size of a nickel before splattering around the room.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Gendou Rokubungi looked around. This was not the outside of the headquarters. It appeared to be the inside of some sort of castle, judging by the masonry surrounding him. There were no windows he could see, and no proper doors, just apertures which led deeper into whatever building he was in. He was also vaguely aware of something being off. His senses were telling him something wasn't right, but he wasn't sure what it was. Some perception.

He noticed the equipment lying about. It resembled Kronos's, but infinitely more sophisticated. It was a time machine, a lot of time machine, as near as he could discern. He looked around, but saw no one. Moreover the place felt unused. Abandoned. And yet he was sure it was all functional.

Either Kronos' machine had failed, or he had sabotaged Gendou, but in either case, he might have helped tremendously. If Gendou had access to a time machine, then all of time would be at his fingertips. He could learn about time travel himself and figure out the best way to save Yui. Eliminating the Avengers still seemed like the best option. Besides, they deserved to die for killing her.

Yes, that was what he would do. He'd learn about time, become the Lord of it. Make it his plaything to do his bidding. Then, once he was prepared, he could go about saving Yui from her horrible fate. Because thanks to Kronos, he had learned one important lesson that would help him achieve the only goal he desired with all his being.

Time was not absolute.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[AUTHOR'S NOTES]

This is going to take a while, so bear with it.

Back when I wrote the first chapter to this in 1999. Yes, that's not a typo. I started it that long ago. I suspect it's older than some of the readers. Anyway I had seen plenty of ideas of combining anime and super heroes, but none of the fics ended up going far since all it was was an idea rather than a story. So I decided *if* I was going to do this, I wanted a story arc. So I introduced it in the prologue which dealt with the villain of the arc, not the heroes: Kang. Now I'm not the sort of writer to meticulously plan everything. I get the start and the finish, then a vague idea of how to connect the two point. And in anything of any size it grows on me as I come up with ideas on the fly or as I go along. The closer I get to a point, the more the details become distinct. Then you get whatever the hell it was I just wrote.

But one of the things that was set in stone was the story would start with the phrase:

Time is not absolute.

And then it would end with:

Time is not absolute.

I thought it worked as the bookends to the tale.

So yes, this chapter was the ending to the story I was going to tell back in 1999. However you may have noticed there are a lot of plot threads I left dangling. The other thing I planned on doing was making this story in the style of super hero comics, and as we all know, the good stories never end. Spider Man hasn't ended. Batman hasn't ended. Even The Avengers hasn't ended. They just go through story arcs with events happening and the story continuing. And this was to be in the same vein. This wasn't going to end with the Avengers ruling the Earth. Nor would it end with Guulactus consuming the universe, though that fic would have ended with the line, 'That tasted terrible.'

That totally makes sense if you saw Hale Noche Guu.

I finished all of my longer stories that I started that had an end. Well, except Sextacular, which is a pity since there were some things I was doing in that I really loved. Sayuri being a factor. Shampoo and Akane's antagonistic chemistry. And I need to stop talking about it since no lemons on and I never bothered with a homepage. Well, there is mediaminer, but I haven't posted anything there in ages.

But I digress. The point is there probably are a handful of people that had started reading this back in 99, and everyone that came along the way, over the span of 20+ years, that really deserved a payoff to the story I was writing. So I needed to end it before I pulled a Robert Jordan, because Sanderson isn't going to be picking up this story if I kick the bucket. And I nearly did it once back in '13 with an infection that became sceptic within hours. So congratulations, you made it to the end of what I originally planned to tell. That good old Kang/Gendou is now caught in a loop where the only thing he wants to do he'll never succeed at since he doesn't understand what actually happened to his love, and she keeps squishing him rather than explaining it.

But it's Gendo Ikari. Screw him.

But what about the dangling plot threads you ask? Legitimate question. I came up with a lot of fun stuff along the way. As you might have guessed, I was not planning on introducing the Black Lagoon crew in the original draft since they hadn't been created in '99. I don't intend to leave those hanging. So here's the plan as it stands. There should be two epilogues, one to wrap up Act V, then another called 'Days of Futures Yet to Come', which will show some of the various threads I left dangling and what I plan on going on with at a later time. So the fic will be listed as 'complete' at the end of Act V. Like I said, one of the things I hated back in the 90's was so many stories I liked never reaching fruition. So this one has concluded that first arc from 20 years ago. Then when I feel up to it, I'll reopen this with an 'Act VI' and work on some of the stuff still unresolved.

Besides, I'm still enjoying writing this. A one chapter a year hiatus for about 7 years can allow for creative juices to collect and then keep flowing.

Damn, 20+ years to write a fic. I wonder if this was the longest time to complete one?

So you've made it to the end. Despite this being long, Shampoo ½ is still bigger by couple hundred thousand word margin. That was a much tighter story, though. I suspect this one felt longer. Much more episodic. Still, congratulations.

I would indeed enjoy hearing your reaction to this. Hopefully it was worth it to get to this point, and I apologize if some of the threads you were more interested in aren't completed yet, but I do intend to complete them. And this was closure for that very first story. But I felt compelled to get to the original ending since who knows what the future holds? Kang sure as hell didn't

[End of the story, except for 2 epilogues]