What's up guys :). Long time no see, hope you like the chapter :)
VI
"Who are you?" Miles repeated to the figure on the screens.
"I have done enough introductions today, you humans have wasted enough of my time," Warjin spat. "We are above your location, hand the crystal over or we shall take it by force."
"You really ain't got no manners huh?" Miles jived. "You look like you already got a fur cape or something, I don't think the crystal would do anything for your drip."
"I will not entertain any nonsensical banter! Hand it over, this is your final warning." Warjin growled, audibly losing patience.
"Damn, you're no fun," Miles scoffed. "Do the honours J."
Jake smirked and faced Warjin. "Go fuck yourself!"
Miles opened his palms that now both sparked with yellow electricity, before slapping them down on the computer interface, sending shocks through the system that blacked out all the screens in seconds.
"Okay, that was cool, but you got a plan right?" Jake said once Miles turned to face him and May.
Miles looked to the latter. "The tubes?"
"Still work perfectly." She nodded, and immediately pivoted as she led the boys to a corner of the cave.
The whole cave then shook violently as they approached what was instantly recognizable as a row of plastic tubes with metal plates.
"Where these lead to?" Jake inquired.
"Brooklyn." May answered as she typed in a code on the wall beside one the tubes, it slid open and the three of them stepped in right as the cave shook again.
"Let's go!" Miles raised as the hole for the elevator shaft on the cave-ceiling began sparking, seconds before it would inevitably pop open…
The tube slid closed and sunk into the ground with speed, taking the three occupants into the underground Spidey travel network, en route to Brooklyn.
"Can you guys hear us?" Blossom repeated, but she was now talking to a blank screen. She looked to Ben, who was already looking back at her, they pivoted in sync.
"You guys stay here and secure the base." Ben said to Manny and co.
"Got it." Manny nodded in unison with Alan and Helen by his side.
"Open the scuttle!" Ben called to the AI and the hole in the roof slid open right after.
Blossom was in the air first and flew up and out of the base, before a glow enveloped Ben and left Jetray in its wake.
"We won't take long." Came the alien's high-pitched voice as he opened his wings and flew up after Blossom.
Jake barely registered the ride until they came to an abrupt halt in what seemed like an identical tube holder, in a not so identical lab.
"Is this—"
"My place." Miles answered as the tube slid open. Him and May stepped out immediately and Jake couldn't help but notice how unaffected they were by the speedy travel, he shook his head a few times as he trailed them.
"I'm gonna get May to safety, you try to get the crystal to my friend Ganke."
May turned around sharply and grabbed Miles's hand atop her shoulder, it made him stop in his tracks.
"What is it?"
"Now dear, my bones don't work like they used to, but I can still run." She said with a beam, Miles wanted to object but she continued. "I'll be here with your parents, okay? I don't think you boys should split up."
Miles let out a silent huff, she was right, and he wasn't going to persuade her otherwise anyway.
"Go on, Spiderman." May said with a parting smile, turning to back Miles as she made for the circular section of the room with the Spider emblem on the floor. It lifted her off the ground immediately and gradually ascended her into where Miles knew was his own shed.
He smiled under his mask as her form disappeared out of his vision. He turned to Jake. "We're going to Visions University."
"Roger that." Came Jake's scaly grin.
Minutes later they were soaring through the air, gliding through the thicket of buildings at speed.
"I didn't know you could get this big!" Miles raised over the rushing wind.
Jake laughed, indeed he had manipulated his size to be roughly three-times larger, to make it easier for Miles to ride him, which he was embarrassingly bad at.
"I levelled up since we last saw homie!" Jake preened.
Miles looked ahead, crouched and loosely held onto one of the spikes on Jake's back.
"We're close."
As Spiderman, Miles should have expected The Forces to wait patiently for him to be on the brink of success before screwing him over, at this point he had a theory it came with the mask, because the instant he uttered those words, he got a spidey-tingle.
He looked up and widened his eyes.
"Way ahead of you man." Jake said, having noticed the orb-like structure that he guessed was a Lowardian ship, and there were two of them.
Warjin growled deeply from his position in the ship's door frame. The masked one had the crystal around his neck now, while the draconic creature—having noticed them—now tried to steer away from them.
"Hand me the Endothermac! And go after them!" he ordered as he received a thick, cuff looking device from a subordinate behind him, which he clamped around his right wrist before the ship dove down.
"They're too fast!" Jake said as he flapped his wings, which were nothing compared to level-9 engine thrusters.
Jake arced into another street, but the ships had already zoomed and caught up, in seconds they were at either side of him and Miles.
"I'm going down!" Miles yelled.
"We shouldn't split up!" Jake retorted.
"We're gonna to get pasted at this rate! I'll distract 'em, Ben Tennyson should be here soon." Miles countered, flinging himself off Jake the moment he heard him grunt in assent.
The wyvern bared his teeth at the ship to his left, seeing a Lowardian ready to jump after Miles, he darted towards the ship and roared out a torrent of flames. The alien jumped forward fearlessly, followed by two of his comrades, of which one got knocked back by the flames.
Jake grabbed one of the other two who'd managed to shield themselves and flung him into the side of a building, he made to dive after the last one but caught something in his peripheral.
He flapped his tail quickly and wrapped it around the leg of the Lowardian who tried to attack him from above, something glinted in his eyes and they widened briefly, before he shot out a hand to catch the hulking sword that was swung at him with his claws.
He roared again, using his other hand to strengthen his grip on the alien before ripping his weapon away, the Lowardian connected with a sucker punch but that barely phased Jake before he threw the alien down to the pavement with force.
Said alien whizzed past Miles on his way down, eliciting a laugh from the masked hero.
"This guy!" he laughed, in reference to Jake's rambunctiousness even during fights.
The humour dissipated right after though, as he stole a peek above him to count five Lowardians falling after him, one of them he recognized from the screens back in Queens.
As was second nature to him, he opened his hands and shot out a web, he was yanked up by the momentum as he swung forward, noticing they were near the university.
He had to lead them away.
Warjin growled and dove towards a building with his arms forward, his fingers dug into glass and gravel as he fell, before he managed to get a balanced hold and launch himself off the building towards Miles' swinging form, his team right behind him.
Miles arced around another building, looping around a streetlight before yo-yoing himself onto a building top. He rolled over and sprung to his feet, sprinting as the crystal-bearing necklace dangled around his neck.
He jumped off the building once he got to the edge, and barely had time to register a peeved Warjin flying at him from below.
Miles grunted as Warjin bulldozed into him, crashing both of them into an office building. The Lowardian commander tried to grab the crystal in their rough scuffle, but Miles being much more agile spun out of the alien's grip before kicking off on his face.
"Sorry for the intrusion guys," Miles said to the scampering office workers. "Can't take your pets anywhere am I right?" he said in reference to the tattooed creature who leaped at him with an irritated growl.
Miles web-slung out into the hallway where more people were running and hiding for their lives. Warjin rushed after him, tearing down the walls as he did so.
"Stop this nonsense! You do not know what you're fiddling with!" Warjin belted.
"Nobody ever taught you to share?! You got to admit it looks good on me!" Miles shot back sarcastically, angering Warjin even more.
Miles flipped over a tall handrail and descended to what looked like the reception, he felt himself get tackled in the back and 'oof'ed at the impact before he was tangled in another bundling mess with Warjin, who actually grabbed the necklace and tore it off before Miles could snatch it back.
They separated when Warjin forcibly pushed himself off the ground, returning the favour from earlier by kicking Miles in the face.
The masked boy pushed himself off the ground with his hands, using the momentum from Warjn's volley on him to stick a landing on the wall beside the glass doors, before looking up to face a smug looking Warjin as he held up the necklace in his hand.
"What are you happy about? COud work with silver, but gold necklaces lose half they sauce without pendants." The spider themed hero teased as he dropped down to the floor and began moonwalking to the doors.
Warjin hummed in confusion, then opened his palm to see the necklace, but it was—as Miles had just said—without a pendant, without the crystal.
He looked back to Miles—who now stood outside—with gritted teeth, seeing him cockily throwing up the crystal and catching it with a mask-hidden smirk.
"You nuisance!" Warjin said and barged after the hero.
"It says to push!" he said in taunting as Warjin crashed through the glass with his arms outstretched, but Miles had already leaped backwards on a car and sprung himself onto another building.
"Come on man, that glass cost like a thousand bucks." Miles laughed as he swung away, hearing Warjin roaring behind him.
Gotta lose him, can't put civilians at risk, hopefully Ganke's noticed what's going on and called for backu—
Miles's thoughts were cut by a Lowardian slamming into him from inside the building he swung beside. "Yo, I'm swingin here!" Miles raised as they both fell through the air.
The Lowardian reached out and grabbed Miles's wrist, but the hero was quick to react, using his falling motion to place his other wrist by the alien's face before releasing a web bomb.
The impact pushed the alien off Miles as he crashed onto a parked car.
Falling the other way, Miles carefully landed atop an... umbrella?
He looked down at it to see it was a small one, then looked behind him to see he was outside a coffee shop. He swept his eyes across the glass window to see people cowering in fear inside.
"It's okay guys I got this! They're just some fans from another plan—"
His spidey-sense warned him, and he'd even made the move to lean his head back to avoid the punch, but he was uncharacteristically too slow.
Warjin punted him square in the jaw, sending the hero flying off the placed-in umbrella. Miles hit the asphalt hard and rolled over roughly, picking up minor debris before he caught himself on his hand and backflipped onto his feet.
Damn, he thought to himself before lifting his mask up just enough to spit a wad of blood onto the concrete. He hits hard as hell.
He put his mask back down and looked up to see Warjin pacing slowly towards him, the Lowardian from before just behind him, ripping off the last of Miles's webbing from his face.
Two more seemed to spawn from nowhere, leaping down from buildings to join their comrades.
A loud screech made Miles whip his head back, where not two seconds after, he saw Jake's wyvern body crash though a high floor window, three Lowardians followed after, Jake visibly took a deep inhale and shot a large wave of flames at the aliens, nailing one of them head on.
He looked down and immediately dipped towards his friend, Miles turned to face his front right as Jake landed behind him, their backs to each other.
"Still got the crystal?"
"Yeah," Miles answered. "Why are you back to normal size?"
"Minimizing collateral." Jake answered, and he could almost feel Miles nod in response. "You got any idea how we get out of this one, these guys won't stop chasing us."
"And I've got a feeling if we keep evading 'em they're gonna start harming citizens." Miles assented as both sets of Lowardians drew in on them from both sides.
"You cannot win, hand the crystal over boy." Warjin said, nearing closer with each step.
"Hey, Ben Tennyson and the Powerpuff saw our connection cut off right? Back at the cave? You think they coming?"
And just like that, the two aforementioned heroes were finally given their cue.
Nobody really saw anything besides a pink flash, there was a cry from one of the soldiers behind Warjin, and he looked back to see Blossom standing where one of his men had been, his form flying thataway behind her.
"Wha—" another soldier blurted before he was rocked by Blossom's fist and sent careening into a building.
"Alright!" Jake hailed with an excited laugh.
Blossom faced the other two Lowardians and they instantly tried to tackle her, but she simply zipped out their line of sight, making them lose balance as they had to then try to halt before hurting each other with their weapons.
Blossom reappeared behind one the moment after.
"You guys make a great team." she said sarcastically, before nailing the fellow female alien in the back of her head, sending her pelting into her comrade, and both into the opposite building.
On the other side one Lowardian was using his massive sword to block the beam Jetray was shooting at him from his tail. A glow covered the winged alien and faded to reveal an insectoid looking alien with four crab-like legs and thin green wings, the omnitrix symbol placed where its eyes would be.
Perhaps even weirder, were the prehensile stalks attached to his head, he pointed said stalks the Lowardian below him and squirted a green, slimy liquid out of them.
The alien warrior was confused at the high-pressure slime, opting to simply block it with his arm.
A grave mistake.
The pressure was more than he expected, and he was pushed to the ground where his arm was now held firmly in place on the concrete.
"Stinkfly's still got it baby." Ben, or rather Stinkfly, said with a big grin.
The last two Lowardians jumped at Ben with furious battle cries, but he just grinned wider and seemed to suck in air, before all but belching out a huge wad of slime at the oncoming assailants.
They were both knocked back to the ground, held tightly by the already drying slime as if it was some kind of adhesive.
A glow enveloped Stinkfly, and in its wake, dropping to the ground was a familiar plasma bodied, rock covered alien.
"You guys want to see what happened when flames touch the slime?" Heatblast said as he crouched into a stance with his palms open in-front of each other. with what passed as a smirk for his rocky face.
The three struggling warriors could only watch as a fireball swelled into existence between Ben's hands, before he threw it, quickly followed by another one. The projectiles exploded upon impact with the slime, leaving the Lowardians burned and struggling.
Warjin gritted his teeth, tense at the situation before him, he quickly relaxed his jaw however and reached for a device attached to his belt.
Blossom noticed and moved to stop him, but he disappeared the moment she zipped towards him.
He reappeared in-front of Miles whose masked eyes widened in shock. "How did—"
Warjin grabbed his neck and reached for the device again with his other hand. Jake spun and grabbed Warjin's shoulder just before he disappeared again, along with Jake and Miles.
Blossom was yet again a fraction too late as she materialized where Warjin and the two heroes had been standing not even a second ago, she then sharply put a hand up as a fireball exploded in her face.
A tiny smokescreen formed briefly, wisping away to reveal a frowning—though totally unscathed—Blossom. Heatblast stood awkwardly with an arm raised, and his open palm pointed her way.
"Sorry." he winced.
Blossom got rid of the rest of the smoke with a wave of her hand and looked around. "They're gone, must have been some kind of teleportation device."
"Nowhere in the whole city?" Ben said as he walked towards her, the custom glow leaving him back in human form.
"I'd have to fly around to scan all of New York but they're not in Brooklyn anymore."
"Great," Ben sighed. "Well, at least we can take these guys in for questioni—", he started but was stopped as he turned to see his captives had freed themselves from their slimy hold and were... holding daggers at their neck?
Blossom saw the ones she thought she'd put down equally get up with daggers held at their necks, and with a unified echo, both sets of Lowardians bellowed...
"For the Great Blue!" and near-simultaneously slit their own throats.
Ben and Blossom's faces were overcome with shock as the aliens around them fell to the ground in a scattered pattern, audibly choking on their own blood.
The heroes continued to watch in horror as the aliens bled out, and in no time at all, they were all dead...
A silent beat passed before Ben heard himself whispering a...
"What the fuck?"
An explosion sounded above them then, and they turned to look at each other before Blossom flew up, Ben quickly joined her as Jetray again, and they both got up in time to see a massive, post-explosion cloud of flames, smoke and debris.
"Were those..."
"Their ships, they purposely crashed into each other." Blossom finished for Ben, still making sense of it.
"...come on." Ben said as he flew towards the aftermath, Blossom noticed some of the debris was falling and flew after him.
After making sure the citizens were uninjured and the debris hadn't done any significant damage to property, they flew above the city again, looking over it in silence a little longer before Ben turned to Blossom.
"If Spiderman's with the crystal, we should be able to trace him and the Wyvern with Gwen's crystal, let's get back to the Tower." he said through Jetray's lips.
Blossom nodded but didn't look at him, Ben equally gave the city one last glance, before flying off, the Powerpuff floated and stared a second longer, before zooming off herself.
FRIEDKIN UNIVERSITY, BELLWOOD, CALIFORNIA.
Friedkin University, the latest addition to the prestigious list of Ivy League universities in the United States. Academic excellence was synonymous with the school's name, matching its counterparts in that aspect, however, it was common knowledge that in the realm of social prestige, Friedkin was incontestable.
Not every university had the luxury of boasting the resources needed to run a course that taught the Arts of Magic itself. Having the late and great Gwen Tennyson as an outstanding former student did no harm to the school's reputation either.
After that, you could expect more of the same, a massive, well-oiled machine of an institution. Large campus, large buildings, obnoxious large offices.
One of said offices was located in the east wing of one of the academic blocks, belonging to an elderly man affectionately referred to as Professor Hex by his students, despite his constant efforts to get them to simply call him Hector.
His desk was littered with everything from antiques to literal scrolls with otherworldly looking language written onto them, just a regular pass time for him. He chuckled as his dull, grey eyes perused the pages of the novel he was reading, a classic from back home.
Hex could not deny the dexterity and poignance with which authors of Earth wrote, but the magic in the storytelling could not be compared to works from Ledgerdomain. Magic was a concept still not totally grasped by humanity despite all the strange things that had come to be seen as natural in today's world, so he supposed he couldn't blame Earth-based authors for not being able to capture its true essence no matter how hard they tried.
He chuckled again as he read, the edge of his mouth curling in a way that was uncanny as could be when you'd painted your face to resemble a skull.
His fellow teachers teased him more than a bit over his insistence to keep doing it, but it helped him connect with the magic, they wouldn't understand. Besides, Gwen—who'd seen him don this face on multiple attempts to take her life—had ironically told him she liked it once.
He would keep painting it on regardless of what anyone said.
The laugh that escaped his throat this time was a bit heartier, the book was a joke, he would definitely try to persuade Hope to read it when next she dropped by for a teaching session, or at least take it back home with her.
He wondered how she was doing.
The very second he put that thought into the universe, the answer manifested before his very eyes.
"What in the dark arts?" Hex came to as the very space in-front of him sucked inwards on itself and literally ripped open into a portal, a portal that spat out a bruised and tattered Charmcaster onto his marbled office floor.
"Hope? Hope!" Hex exclaimed, all but lunging over his desk to tend to his visibly injured niece.
Charmcaster coughed as she brought herself up on her elbows, wincing at the pain she triggered in doing so.
"What happened? Are you coming from the kingdom? Was there an attack?!" Hex questioned frantically, placing a hand on her back. "A miscast spell? And where's your staff?"
"Uncle," Charmcaster finally spoke. "Please stop."
Hex clamped it, then continued in a calmer manner, "I'm sorry, I'm just... what happened?"
The queen of Ledgerdomain managed to pull herself into a bent kneeling position. "It was Sunny."
Hex rose a confused brow. "What business does she have with you."
"She was looking for one of the crystals of Hamatis."
Hex's eyes widened at the mention of that magical item.
"Yeah, she's working for some alien overlord who wants all four of them." Charmcaster added.
"What for? There are only a handful of beings in the entire universe who can even mildly handle such power." Hex said incredulously.
"Clearly he thinks he's one of them." Charmcaster replied.
She coughed again, some strands of her messy hair sticking to her face.
"Shall I blend some herbs?" Hex said, back into uncle mode.
His niece managed a nod. "That and some rest should do me good, but there's no time to spare, I have to talk to Ben... and someone else."
ALBERTA, CANADA: WEST EDMONTON MALL
There was no time for Miles or Jake to process what had occurred in the last five seconds, one moment they were both trying to escape Warjin's hold, the next they were mid-air, falling towards an entirely new city.
The mall they'd crashed into was in total disarray, with people desperately trying to avoid the walking avalanche of a creature that was Warjin as he ferociously chased the two heroes, who'd again adopted the running method of Miles hitching a ride on Jake's back.
"We gotta get out of here man!" Miles yelled as he ducked under a bench that Warjin launched at him, and more followed.
They tore through the food court, with Miles quickly shooting out webs to forcefully push people out of Warjin's way if they weren't fast enough. Jake weaved through the halls as fast as his wings could carry him, Warjin not far behind.
Jake swerved into another hall as he managed to just dodge behind a...
Was that a person? Jake thought as he realized it was indeed a fully grown man who'd been hurled at him.
"Take the crystal!" Miles raised as he threw the crystal over his shoulder and jumped off Jake's back and over the railing to their right, following the five or so people who were now screaming as they fell to the bottom floor of the building.
Jake caught the crystal and turned to see Miles descending after the citizens, he made to dive after him but was immediately bodied by Warjin, the force sending him crashing through a restaurant space and into a soda machine as the various drinks poured down on him.
He groaned and shook his head clear of the coke pouring down on it.
"Is that no sugar?" he said, licking round his elongated jaw before quickly darting to the side to avoid Warjin's hammering fist.
Miles placed his arms by his side, shaping his body for more momentum. He used that same momentum to hold, twist and throw the people as he reached them, webbing them safely onto the walls of the halls as he whizzed by. He got everybody, except one.
The man who Warjin had thrown first screamed as his body neared the ceramic basin in the middle of a water fountain, looking set for a nasty impact...
Miles threw both hands forward, the two webbings latching onto the man as Miles hunched his shoulders and pulled, completely switching his and the man's motion. Said man released yet another cry of fear as he was yanked upwards, Miles thrust downwards right beside him.
The semi-seasoned hero easily stuck his feet onto the edge of the fountain basin, and immediately leaped off it to catch the now-again falling man.
He caught him perfectly, soaring into the first-floor hall and landing on a waiting bench. The man in his arms proliferated thanks and prayers to Miles as the latter dropped him down safely, he scanned the area around him to see people slowly creeping out of the stores they took cover in.
"Where's the monster?" Miles asked a group of teenagers by a phone store.
"Which one?" The only boy amongst them asked. Miles then realized that of-course, they would categorize Jake as a monster as well.
"Both." he replied, and watched the teens, along with everyone else present, point in one direction.
Miles followed their fingers to a gaping hole in the wall at the end of the hall.
"Oh, thanks guys!" he said and jumped off the bench to sprint towards the hole, fearlessly jumping through it once he reached.
The sight that met him was Jake—who was back in his super-size form—tackling an airborne Warjin to the ground.
Miles lost sight of them as he dipped below the surrounding buildings, before shooting out a web to swing upwards. He arced and landed on top of the building, opting to run towards them instead.
He leaped from building top to building top before finally jumping off into a space above a construction site, where he saw that Warjin now had a hold of Jake's tail.
"Jake!" Miles yelled as Warjin lifted the wyvern up and slammed him on the ground, then did it again, and again.
"Who do you think you are, to challenge me!" Warjin roared before flinging Jake away, watching him plough through a support beam before crashing into a concrete wall.
A wave of blue smoke swept over his form as he fell to the ground, leaving him back in human form, barely able to move as the crystal fell and rolled out of his hand.
"Finally." Warjin said as he paced towards Jake, avoiding the load jib of the tower crane as it fell to the ground, creating a small crater. He twitched as the debris flew up, turning almost in slow motion to see Miles scaling through a hole in the jib with his arm drawn back.
He couldn't block in time.
Miles socked him clean in the jaw, surprising Warjin who actually skidded back.
The alien commander took a moment to keep his eyes down to the ground, before slowly raising infuriated eyes to Miles who now stood in-front of him.
"Now we're even" Miles mocked as Warjin spat some blood out his mouth.
"You have an excruciatingly annoying mouth, boy," Warjin hissed. "Let me help you close it, permanently."
Miles scoffed as he bent into a battle stance. "Now you sound like my mom."
Warjin rushed forward ferociously, Miles watched carefully and ducked under a punch, then weaved to the side to avoid another one, before using Warjin's arm as leverage to flip and land a kick to his face.
The Lowardian took the strike head on and grabbed Miles by the ankle, twisting and pelting him at the jib where his body audibly and visibly dented it. Warjin didn't let up and rushed at Miles, but was caught off-guard when he... disappeared?
"What?" Warjin said, looking at the empty space where Miles had stood not two seconds ago. He swerved his head around fruitlessly, unable to locate the Spiderman.
He growled. "Show yourself!" he exclaimed and was answered instantly, sucker-punched from the side with a jolt of electricity. He was taken off his feet and into the opposite wall, where he recovered almost immediately to see Miles materialize seemingly out of thin air with his fist raised, sparks dancing around it.
"Pretty neat huh?" Miles taunted, pivoting with speed as he rushed towards Jake.
Warjin clenched his jaw, knelt on one knee, and dug his fingers into the concrete below him.
Miles faintly heard something whizz through the air when he was mere meters from Jake, he turned back to see a massive rock flying at him. He jumped instinctively, back-flipping over the projectile while simultaneously webbing the crystal and pulling it to himself as he landed.
He quickly dove to his left as another boulder came flying, then flipped one more time to avoid the last one.
"You're gonna have to do better than throw a couple rocks at m—" Mile stopped when he righted himself and looked forward. "Let him go!"
Warjin held Jake up by his collar, facing Miles.
"Give me the crystal, or your friend here shall die." Warjin said simply, drawing a dagger from his belt.
Miles gritted his teeth under his mask, trying to assess if he was actually out of options.
"Do not make me repeat myself."
Warjin's tone had changed, he was done fighting and Miles could tell, if he didn't give up the crystal...
"Perhaps you need some motivation." Warjin said, raising the knife to Jake's neck.
"Stop! Fine! Here, take it!" Miles opened his hand, where the crystal sat, glinting despite the darkening sky.
Still holding the knife at Jake, he began to pace forward slowly, Miles followed suit, until they were inches from each other.
There was a brief stare down between the two, with Miles mostly wishing his glare could singe Warjin through his mask.
In unison, Warjin pushed Jake forward as Miles threw the crystal the other way.
The brief second where both Miles's arms were occupied holding Jake, Warjin kicked the latter in the back, pushing both him and Miles into the jib.
He released a mocking chuckle as he looked as the crystal finally in his possession, something in the top of the Endothermac shone with a sudden red light the instant after.
The knock actually seemed to wake Jake up to the sound of Miles groaning.
"Miles... Miles! What happened?" he said to his equally knelt-down friend in-front of him.
"We lost the crystal." Miles groaned, Jake rose a confused brow and looked over his shoulder to see said crystal held between Warjin's fingers.
"This was an admittedly exciting warm-up, but I have to get this crystal to the rightful owner." Warjin said, reaching for the teleporter on his belt.
Jake's eyes bulged. "No—"
It was extremely quick, much like Blossom's entrance from back in New York, nobody present saw anything but a red-black flash.
Warjin stopped, the victorious grin falling off his face as he slowly looked to his hand, his now empty hand.
"You're the bad guy, right?" A new voice said.
All three present turned to the sound, finding the source leaning his elbow on another support beam, holding the crystal in his other hand.
He was blonde, looked around the same age as Miles and Jake, fully kitted in what was undoubtedly a superhero suit. A red, short-sleeved unitard with an orange belt, knee-high black boots, long black gloves, and a black eye mask.
Most prominent however, was the golden "I" insignia on his chest, surrounded by an orange-outlined black sphere.
"Who's that?" Miles asked.
"You the one who's 'posed to know the people in superhero suits man." Jake retorted.
Warjin had screamed in anger a few times today, but this was the loudest yet. "Enough!"
With more speed than either Miles or Jake had seen him exert today, Warjin closed in on the newcomer, who only smirked wider.
Warjin punched through half the beam, missing the boy completely. He grunted and turned to see the boy behind him, throwing the crystal up and catching it.
"Want to try that again?" he grinned, Warjin roared in response and unleashed a fury of punches on him.
At least, he tried to.
This time the blonde stranger did not run, he stood on one spot, and dodged every single punch the Lowardian threw at him, effortlessly.
He weaved one more punch and threw the crystal up right in of Warjin's face, momentarily stumping the alien, who immediately found out that even a moment, was too much time to give this opponent.
The blonde proceeded to throw his own punches, contrasting Warjin's onslaught as all his hits landed, thrown far too fast for the alien to even blink.
Briefly stunned by the sheer speed and force of the punches, Warjin was left helpless to the next attack as the boy looked to spin his hand rapidly until his very arm resembled a mini-tornado.
Warjin was lifted off the ground and sent pelting into next building.
The boy responsible laughed at his work, but his chuckles faded as heard some struggling behind the hole Warjin's body had formed. He titled his head at the sight, watching as Warjin slowly emerged, fists and jaw clenched.
"Sheesh, you're tough." he pouted.
Warjin—as was custom at this point—released a battle cry and sprinted towards the boy, he had nearly reached when he suddenly rammed into a... force field?
He looked around him to see he was now totally enclosed by a purple-tinged force field.
"Took you guys long enough," said the masked boy as he looked up. Miles and Jake followed his line of sight from behind him to see two other figures floating down towards the scene, encased in a force field themselves.
Miles squinted his masked eyes. "Wait..."
The figures landed in-front of the blonde as the force field around them dissipated.
One of them was a girl, she looked older than the boy from before despite being a few inches shorter. Her hair was a raven black, highlighted with a little purple and fell over the right side of her face. She wore a variation of the same suit the boy wore, except her boots were thigh length, the top of her unitard was sleeveless, giving room for her gloves to go up past her elbows, and there were black bottoms visible on her suit.
The boy beside her was taller than the blonde boy but looked younger. He was a classic, messy brunette, with a body that looked refined, but easy to know he was still growing into it. His own suit was long-sleeved, with that being the only difference between his and the blonde's.
Warjin blinked at the duo, the girl's raised hand suggested she was the one responsible for this field around him. The boy beside her, if he was anywhere near as troublesome as the other three, then...
Warjin bowed his head, then suddenly stomped onto the ground, leaving a small crater under his foot. The new arrivals were unphased by his outburst, he slowly rose his head to see Miles and Jake now standing to their feet.
"You will all pay for this, with your lives." he said before reaching to the teleporter, the brunette stepped forward, his eyes beginning to glow a bright green... then Warjin disappeared.
"Did he teleport away?" the brunette asked, in a voice that confirmed he was definitely the youngest present.
He relaxed his stance and his eyes faded back to the normal, the girl dropped her hand, dropping the shield along with it.
"Seems like he used some sort of device, if he resurfaces, we'll find him." she replied, then turned to face the blonde who had a wide beam on his face.
"Great teamwork." he said, and immediately had to back up from the girl's finger that was pointed in his face.
"That's not funny Dash! How many times have I told you no to go off on your own!"
"Seriously dude, remember last month?" the younger one said in support of the girl.
"I get tricked into getting stuck in quicksand one time and I never hear the end of it." The extremely fast boy now identified as Dash retorted with a frown.
"He came just in time."
The three turned to the interjecting voice to see Miles and Jake staring at them, the former continued.
"If that alien had gotten away with that crystal it would've been bad news."
"Really bad news." Jake emphasized.
"Ha!" Dash gloated while holding the crystal up in his fingers. The girl rolled her eyes and faced the New Yorkers.
"Are you guys hurt?"
"Been worse." they replied in unison.
"Yo, I'm really grateful for the intervention but like... I don't know who you guys are."
"Ï think I do." Miles followed Jake up, who then rose a brow at him.
"For real?"
"Yeah, but still, to be sure." Miles said and thumbed at himself. "Spiderman."
Jake blinked at Miles, then turned to the other three, who then blinked at him.
"Well, shit. Keep this a secret, okay?" he said as the familiar blueish smoke swirled around him before fading to reveal his draconic form. "Jake Long, Scarlet Wyvern."
"Woooaah," the young brunette sighed in awe.
"How are you of all people surprised by this?" Dash asked with incredulity.
"Interesting," the girl said, before smiling and following Miles's gesture to point at herself. "I'm Violet Parr, these are my brothers Dash and Jack-Jack." she finished, pointing to the blonde and brunette respectively.
"Wait, Parr? Ain't y'all..." Jake trailed off, Miles's lips curved in a knowing grin.
"We're The Incredibles."
Warjin reappeared in a snowy area, right in-front of the very ship he and his crew had come to Earth in.
There was a soft thudding of feet from around the pyramid shaped structure, revealing itself as an alert Lowardian with a spear held in-front of him. He dropped it the second he recognized it was his commander.
"Commander Warjin!" he greeted accordingly, then he looked around. "Is there an issue?"
"We are returning to Master Zavgath, I was unable to retrieve either crystal, but I have confirmation they are both here, as well as..." he paused, raising the Endothermac to his face, watching as what could be seen now as an orb integrated into the device glow a deep red. "...I am not leaving empty handed."
The second Lowardian nodded, then felt the need to ask, "And our brethren?"
Warjin lifted his eyes off the device and onto his subordinate, not uttering a word.
"I see," the warrior replied. "For the Great Blue." he finished with a fist to his chest.
"Prepare the ship." Warjin ordered, receiving a nod in response.
He watched his second walk back around the ship to make said preparations, while his eyes roamed back towards the device on his wrist.
A certain one-eyed, peach skinned alien burped as he swallowed the last of his food, he would never stop preening over how working in the surveillance unit was basically stealing a living from the Plumbers.
He wasn't complaining, obviously, but he felt fortunate enough to brag about his reality.
Perhaps he should have been humbler, because the high-tech monitor in-front of him began to beep aggressively then. He sat up in panic, just in time to undeniably see a pyramid shaped ship not even half a mile from the HQ's position.
However, just when he moved to contact a Deputy, a rift opened in space itself, right in-front of the ship as it was sucked in, and gone.
The beeping stopped, and the minute alien blinked. That ship was... leaving the star system? Meaning it had successfully snuck past him in the first place.
Another beeping emanated from the edge of his holographic screen, and he recognized it as an alert from his Deputy.
He felt his tiny neck nervously swallow a fat lump.
END.