Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel or DC, I do own Alex Winters, who appears in my story Planet of the Bravest
The version of the web warriors we see appeared in Exile037's Uncanny Spider-man, the character Jason Doyle is his and the character Noah Cross is G. 's, both are being used with their permission whilst Uncanny Spider-man and the stories of Exile's Spider-man and Ultimate Marvel shares the same continuity as my Multiverse.
The Redeemer
Chapter 24: Retaliation
Earth 610-A.R.M.O.R facility
Four months had passed since an interdimensional invasion, since another Thanos came and nearly wiped out most of the world's population. Heroes from another world had saved theirs, and for a while the thought of other world's interacting with theirs had been a possibility that no longer concerned them. A.R.M.O.R had been set up to monitor the patterns in other realities. It was a way to stay on top of any threat and responding to that threat based upon what had been seen in another reality. Jason Long, director of A.R.M.O.R. and a former member of the Fantastic Four/Future Foundation was on the front line of these 'interdimensional incidents'. Through a machine Reed Richards had built, he was able to view other realities, save for a few places that could only be described as blank pages. Those Earths were 616, an Earth designated Earth One, Earth Two, Earth 2 (written in numeral to avoid confusion with another Earth), Earth 0, Earth 16, Earth Three, Earth 3 (again given a numerical designation) Earth 1610 and two Earth's, one Jason had given the designated Marvel Universe and another Planet Brave.
His greatest concern was of course the possibility that these Earths had been wiped out by Incursions. Something that he, Fury and a select few would never tell the rest of the world, or the super hero community was that an Incursion had occurred on Earth 610. It had happened sometime during Terry Komori's adventure with multiple alternate versions of Spider-man. Another Earth had appeared in the same space as their own Earth, only viewable from what was called an Incursion point. Luckily the Incursion point had been one of the ruins left behind by Thanos's invasion, another lucky point was that it was a blue Incursion. Red Incursions involved two inhabited worlds clashing together, blue ones involved at least one uninhabited world, its population already wiped out by a type of creature. So far Jason had seen two types of 'purge' monsters.
One group were robotic based constructs known as Bridge builders, many of which served as forerunners to a more powerful machine called a Mapmaker. Typically they appeared as blue skinned monsters with metallic parts and glowing orange eye cameras. In other worlds they were called Sidera Maris, but they always had the same abilities, they could adapt to fight any kind of superhuman. Jason found them disturbingly similar to a robot he remembered S.H.I.E.L.D. once composing ideas for, it could mimic the abilities of other super humans. He was thankful the super adaptoid was never activated. A second group wasn't machine but organic in nature, or they at least seemed to be. Magic to Jason was another form of science, a flow of energy that could be diverted and altered, yet still it was unexplainable. He had seen the Black Priests, clad in their cloaks and gold helmets decimate the most powerful of super heroes and villains with simple words.
In order to stop the Incursion, Stark invaded the other Earth with his Iron man station, destroying most of the Mapmakers before detonating an antimatter bomb created by Reed Richards. Yet still there was the dread that someday, they may be forced to face a red Incursion, a world that still had heroes on it to defend it. Jason composed lists of items that could be used to prevent the clash of two worlds without destroying another. So far he had only the Infinity glove and the Zodiac key, the latter was being kept by S.H.I.E.L.D. and the components for the glove had been given to specific individuals. But they were only temporary solutions, Jason knew that these artefacts would disappear as soon as they were used. Only Fury could destroy an entire world, or so Jason hoped, he knew Nick would've happily endangered another Earth, as evidenced when he attacked the Squadron Supreme's world. But Jason knew no one else who could actually bring themselves to push the detonator, to blow a habited world away. So other options had to be picked, Jason composed two final resorts.
Resort one, compose a team filled with only the most powerful heroes, go into the Multiverse and find the source of the Incursions. A suicide mission into the unknown, to stop the destruction of the Multiverse. The final resort was essentially a life boat, an idea Jason had composed with other geniuses. Super heroes, builders, leaders, scientists of differing qualifications and a percentage of people from every country in the world would evacuate to Loomworld, a desolate place where a group called the Inheritors used to rule. Jason rubbed his eyes as he removed the flash drive that contained his contingency plans. Some days A.R.M.O.R was a wondrous job where he could behold marvels from across the multiverse, others it was a reminder of just how fragile the world was, and how in need of protecting it was. A knock came at the door he clicked his fingers, the signal he'd given his staff to come in whenever they wanted to talk.
"Sir, the bridge is active again," the A.R.M.O.R. agent said.
"Is it another Incursion or a Convergence event?" Jason asked.
"Neither sir, we were monitoring a variation of the world the Frightful four came from as you requested."
"It's all right, you can call them the zombie FF," Jason said as he and the agent walked along the corridors of the facility.
A few guards were running behind them in full combat gear. The bridge was a platform with a ring attached to it, Jason's friend David joked once that it looked like a Stargate, then he furthered the joke by saying A.R.M.O.R. was pretty much SG-1. Jason stood in front of the bridge, looking into it as it showed an image, like a reflection. Although it was a very different reflection, instead of his Future Foundation uniform he saw a black business suit with a white T on the chest. The dark skinned man was also very different, a fighter's build with sunglasses and ear studs.
"Cool," the 'T' man said.
"Fascinating," Jason muttered.
"I always wondered if someone was looking back at me, now I see its true," the unknown man said.
"I knew other realities were using their own bridges, but I had no idea two linked together would allow us to communicate, actually it seems pretty stupid that I didn't think of the idea before," Jason explained.
"The bridge? Is that what you call your Monitor?"
"Yeah, Monitor seems like a too literal translation but I suppose it works, are you the director of A.R.M.O.R?" Jason asked.
"No, my names Michael Holt but you can call me Mr Terrific," the man said.
"Mr Terrific...well I suppose we did have Mr Fantastic, I'm Jason Long, you can call me Lightning if you want," Jason said.
"What you're looking at behind me is Checkmate, we're a science and defence organisation independent of the government and even the Justice League," Mr Terrific explained.
"Justice over vengeance, the difference between worlds is fascinating but sometimes not at all different...sorry my scientific curiosity is getting the better of me, I need to ask you clearly Mr Holt, has your world encountered a Black Swan or an Incursion event, two Earth's threatening to collide together?" Jason asked.
A look of shock and horror crossed Mr Terrific's face.
"No, god no, we recently encountered a being from another dimension who called himself Dr Manhattan, but the Monitor was created largely to do what is says, monitor other worlds, are you saying that some kind of crisis is incoming?" Terrific asked.
"A crisis? No, this is an intelligent design, they're not disasters but attacks, coordinated and planned and certain Earths seem to be deliberately made aware of it whilst others aren't. I could only describe this as a war Mr Holt, a Secret War!"
The dark and frightened look across the young man's face was enough to convince Terrific of the severity of the situation. He clicked his Justice Society communicator, prepared to call in the cavalry if need be.
"Thanks for the heads up, but when you say other Earths what do you do to these other Earths?" Holt asked.
"We're prepared to use artefacts of near godlike power to reverse the Incursions, to evacuate our Earth or if need be...destroy the other colliding with ours," Jason lowered his head, feeling the man's eyes on him, judging him and the rest of his people.
"We'd never do that, I don't think so," Mr Terrific said with doubt in his voice.
"DIRECTOR LONG!" Jason heard one of his men yell.
He looked towards the man, usually one of the numerous agents who played a game on their computer (they all thought no one was looking) this time he had his monitor up.
"What is it?" Jason inquired.
"We have multiple incidents going on, an Incursion between Earth 4,290,001 and Earth 1986, it's a red style Incursion sir. Another Incursion is occurring between Earth designation Arrow and Earth 456, the population of 456 has been wiped out by Mapmakers."
"Damn, give me a reminder of the kind of heroes on the occupied Earths," Jason ordered.
"Earth 4,290,001 is protected by a group calling itself the Great Society, they greatly resemble the heroes seen in Mr Terrific's Earth but its apparently a variation of one of our Earths sir. 1986 is actually a variation of a world stuck in the 1980's, except it's the year 2016, George Bush got re-elected after successfully finding nuclear weapons in Iraq and a group called the Watchmen have been disbanded due to the rise of metahumans, their equivalent of mutants."
"Wow, those modern style costumes look badass and Silk Spectre's costume," Jason blushed as he looked away from the beautiful woman's leather suit.
"Finally Earth designation arrow is that Earth that's only recently begun to see superheroes in it," the agent finished.
"Director Long, we have other multiversal incidents, not Incursions but multiple rifts appearing in different dimensions. That Zombie world you wanted us monitoring, Earth 16 and...oh my god," the agent behind Jason looked at her screen in horror.
"What is it agent, report now," Jason ordered.
"They're in Mr Terrific's world sir, and a rift has appeared in our world sir, THEY'RE OUTSIDE OF THE FACILITY!"
Jason and Terrific widened their eyes as they felt the tremors shake their bases. Outside of their respective bases, their ill prepared security teams faced nightmare scenarios. They were against super villains for the first time. A half burnt coin landed in the hand of a burnt man and he raised his submachine gun.
"Its you're lucky day gentlemen, you get to keep your heads," Two-Face said as he fired several bullets. "Your kneecaps though, not so lucky!"
"So much better than working for the Crime Syndicate, finally opponents I can beat," Breakdance said as he fired a blast that scrapped one of the tanks.
Magik charged through the agents, cutting them down one by one with her soul sword. Reaper rotated his scythe around, using it as a saw blade to cut through the A.R.M.O.R. agents in droves.
"Remember our orders, we need to get to the bridge," The Ray said.
Jason ran through the corridors of the facility, putting his earpiece in and keeping in contact with the bridge but also establishing a secure line with S.H.I.E.L.D.
"COULSON! THE FACILITY IS UNDER ATTACK I NEED IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE!" he yelled.
He fired an electric blast, hitting Blockbuster and driving him away from several agents. Jason ducked as a force blast flew towards him, crumbling the wall next to him. Ronan raised his hammer, firing another force blast that knocked Jason into the cafeteria. Lightning quickly rolled out of the way of Magik's sword and pushed her back with a kick.
"Jason the Young Avengers are on their way," Coulson said.
"No Coulson, they're just kids, these are killers here, they have a Ronan with them," Jason said.
He jumped back, avoiding the crushing slam of Ronan's hammer. Lightning quickly grabbed the hammer, passing an electric current up the shaft and through Ronan's armour. The Kree Accuser stepped back, glaring at Jason as he raised his hammer.
'Okay, that just made him angrier,' Jason gulped as Ronan, Blockbuster and Magik surrounded him.
Mr Terrific's world had become something of a mirror to Jason's. Checkmate had turned into the sight of a massacre, Whizzer had already blown open the main gate.
"Death and destruction, death and destruction, I missed this," the resurrected Spider laughed as he hung several Checkmate agents with his webbing.
Red Scarab grinned as he shifted his hands into two sonic cannons. He fired a full powered blast that ripped several agents apart. Iron Maniac's armour seemed more like a symbiote as he impaled agents and even vehicles with tentacles on his back. Mr Terrific threw three explosive T-balls, drawing Mr Fixit's attention away from his agents. The T-Balls that floated around him began firing blasts at the Hulk, burning off his gangster suit. Blackfire threw a flurry of star bolts that Mr Terrific easily dodged. He jumped and threw his arm forward. The T-balls flew around Blackfire, hitting her with energy blasts in her back and sides. He then grabbed Blackfire's leg and threw her into America Chavez.
"Please don't kill me," one of the agents begged, looking up at Red Hood in fear.
The man raised his gun and fired a shot, hitting the spot on the floor inches from the agent's head.
"Get out of here, NOW!" he yelled.
Red Hood ignored the agents as he began walking through the carnage, non lethally disarming any agent who tried to attack him. Mr Terrific analysed his form and found it to be very similar to Batman's. He even fired a grapple line and pulled an agent into his clothes line.
"Maybe you should be focusing more on your life Mr T," Red Scarab said as he and Spider jumped towards him.
Earth 1986
Ozymandias was considered to be the smartest man in the world. It wasn't a title he enjoyed but today, the world needed his genius. In a way it had always needed his genius, the discovery of nuclear weapons in Iraq, Bush's re-election and his disastrous turn in office during the struggles between Russia and Ukraine. Even the presence of super heroes wasn't enough to stop the apocalypse to come. He had been preparing for months, bringing together scientists like him, weapons designers and physicists to create alternative energy sources. Instead he found himself breaking the very rules he said he wouldn't break. He had the Comedian killed to conceal his plans, ruined his best friend's reputation and turned his former colleagues into fugitives, all so that attention would be drawn away from him as he gathered what he needed to save his world.
'I will feel every death, every sacrifice I have made to save my world,' Ozymandias thought as he looked at numerous TV screens.
They showed his world, Paris, New York, Moscow, Sydney, numerous cities across the world that he swore to protect, even if it meant destroying them himself. He stroked the chin of his genetically engineered cat Bubastis and watched and waited. The cat purred despite the red tone the air around them took. Ozymandias had built his base on the predicted Inversion point. He could see the other Earth in orbit. But when Bubastis began to growl he made no attempt to calm her state. Instead he continued sitting and continued watching. Suddenly, the silver and black clad man jumped upwards, flipping in midair as another man dived at his chair, slamming into the TV screens. Ozymandias landed easily, grabbing another chair and throwing it at the second attacker. An energy beam cut the chair apart, but it was all the distraction Ozymandias needed to get in close and punch the man across the face. Then he kicked him, throwing him across the floor.
"Daniel, Rorschach," he said courteously.
Both men were dressed in costume styles that couldn't have been any different. The first to attack, Rorschach wore a brown coat with a white scarf across his neck, grey gloves, a fedora and his signature white mask. The black patterns across it continually shifted to match the man's mood and right now Rorschach was angry. Even his best friend and partner Daniel Dreiberg, AKA Nightowl II had some anger. Nightowl wore a black and brown suit with armoured padding. His weight was apparent as the suit showed his belly, but he was still a competent fighter. Fitting his name his mask had the shape of an owl's head.
"We followed the trail Ozymandias, we know what you intend to do, why?" Daniel asked.
"Because it's the only way, not just to save our world from extinction but war as well," Ozymandias said.
"How? By starting a war? Or the deaths of millions?"
Nightowl rushed at Ozymandias, only to receive a blow to his stomach, and then a kick to his head. Rorschach moved in, attempting to throw a punch. But Ozymandias quickly kicked him across the head, throwing him into the stairs.
"You killed the Comedian, drove Manhattan off of Earth," Rorschach snarled, running at Ozymandias again.
"Of course, the Comedian discovered what I was planning, and Manhattan wouldn't have approved if he knew what I was intending to do with his machines. The world needs a threat to rally behind, what better than an invasion from another planet, satellite imaging will confirm what I tell the world, the teleporter will dump the monsters I designed in key cities and the psychic backlash of its death will result in the deaths of those city populations," Ozymandias explained.
"We will stop you," Nightowl said.
Ozymandias dropped his stance and lowered his arms.
"Stop me? Daniel I'm not a comic book villain, did you really think I would tell you my master stroke if there was even the slightest chance you could stop me?" he asked.
"Actually, I think you sound just like a comic book villain!"
Ozymandias reached for the crown on his head, and was shocked to see it gone. His shock was amplified when he was suddenly knocked to the floor. More shockingly, the alien monster he had designed had been dropped in front of him, partly crushing Bubastis's legs. He looked up at his attacker and saw a young ginger haired man wearing a yellow and red costume. Beside him stood a woman wearing a red costume with a lightning bolt across the chest and a red helmet with a visor over her eyes.
"You can keep up really well Kid Flash," the woman said.
"Thanks Boundless," Wally grinned.
He found the later eerily similar to his mentor the Flash. In fact every member of the Great Society whom Virgil had tasked the team with working with was an analogue of the League. Upon arriving back at the base, another Incursion had started, prompting the team to leave Virgil with Batman and face the threat. Forson had already composed a means to stop the Incursion, one that would require the only super powered hero on that world to sacrifice himself. Ozymandias's plan however still needed to be prevented.
"How are things up there Courtney?" Wally asked over the comm.
"Tachyon bombs intercepted," Starwoman said.
She held one of the bombs with an energy ribbon and threw it into the sun. Supergirl and Sun God, the Society's leader (and Superman analogue) disarmed the bombs with their bare hands, whilst Dr Spectrum contained the explosions with her barrier. On the Society's Earth, Spider-Gwen stood with the Norn and the Rider, that world's Dr Fate and Batman respectively.
"There's nothing coming here on our end Kid, the Norn is ready with the Tachyon Emitter," she said.
"Explain to me again what we're going to do?" Scarlet Spider asked, standing on Mars with Jovian (the Society's Martian Manhunter), Silk Spectre and Dr Manhattan.
"Virgil had witnessed this Earth and many similar versions of it, in every version Ozymandias took it upon himself to end a war that wasn't going to happen," Dr Forson explained, standing in the command centre his men had set up.
"Nuclear war is always the nightmare scenario, I suppose that's why it's never really an option in real life," Supergirl said.
"Don't misunderstand Miss El, this world was heading towards war, it just wasn't going to be as destructive as Ozymandias thought."
"You hear that Veidht? You were going to murder half the population to stop a simple border skirmish," Rorschach said.
Dr Manhattan suddenly appeared in the Antarctic with Silk Spectre and Scarlet Spider.
"The Jovian's telepathy in conjunction with my own showed me the genetic connection between Laurie and..."
"Yes, yes we know, she's the Comedian's daughter and you've discovered a painfully obvious fact called the Thermodynamic miracle, congratulations you've discovered that life is precious, now what are you willing to do to protect both the existence of your own Earth and the Society's?" Forson asked.
"I know exactly what I have to do," Manhattan smiled as he kissed Silk Spectre.
"Jon," Laurie raised her eyebrows in confusion.
"I'm leaving this world Laurie, for one a little less bloody, activate your machine Forson!"
"He's ready, Wally, Gwen, everyone, come back to base," Forson said.
Dr Manhattan raised his hands as he floated off of the floor. Forson pushed a few buttons on his console and the men holding the Tachyon generator at the portal braced themselves. Energy rushed into both worlds, activating both machines, the one Gwen had placed in the Society's Earth and the other Veidt had at his facility. The Great Society and the Watchmen saw the beam of light chain their universes together. Jon Osterman let out a yell, feeling pain once again as his god like power was overcharged. Like a battery he overloaded and the resulting explosion threw both Earths away from one another.
"Incredible, on both variants, Jon Osterman left his worlds...could we have become part of a predetermined paradox, could we have sent a Doctor Manhattan to the Planet of the Bravest? This would be worth further study, after I've gotten permission from the new scientist supreme of course," Forson explained.
The very presence of the man made those Virgil had gathered feel uneasy, and reconsider their decision to join him.
Just like Virgil, on the Planet of the Bravest Alex Winters had gone under the wing of a super villain. He had no idea however if Lex Luthor knew who he really was, the Sentry, an armoured hero who also served as a herald to an even greater invasion of armoured beings. When A.I.M studied them with the Auger they theorised the technology of their armour was based upon the Mapmakers, due to the style of the armour being very similar and their adaptive abilities. The connection however seemed to be subtle and nonexistent to anyone who didn't have knowledge of the Mapmakers and their precursors the Adaptoids. Alex Winters however had much greater concerns than the origins of his armour.
"Your league communicator is going off Alex, there is an emergency in Europe," his armour's AI 'Rikai' said.
"I'm on my way," Alex said.
He opened the window of his hotel room and flew out. It was the dead of night so no one saw him turn into his alter ego, the Sentry.
"Batman, I'm answering the distress call from Checkmate, I should be there within a few minutes at top speed," Sentry said over his radio.
"Luthor had you in Europe?" the dark knight asked.
"Business trip again, I'll inform you at the next meeting, who can I count on to answer the call?" Sentry asked.
"Firestorm, Stargirl and Cyclone are on their way, the Bloodpack are already there, Robin and I are coming too," Batman explained.
Sentry increased his speed, expanding his wings and his afterburners. Within a few minutes he was at Checkmate's castle. There he found that Checkmate had already lost the fight. The members of Bloodpack hadn't just been beaten, they had been massacred. Gunfire had been impaled by Spider, and getting poked by his own staff.
"How cute, he called himself Gunfire and thought it made him a hero," the symbiote infused killer laughed.
Iron Maniac threw Geist and Ballistic's bodies over the edge of the castle wall. He approached the surviving members Argus and Anima. Suddenly, a bullet flew into his back. He turned, narrowing his eyes at Red Hood in fury.
"We've done what we came here to do Stark, the Monitor's damaged so let's go," Red Hood said.
"The boss didn't set a limit to how much damage we had to do, we could conquer this world and he wouldn't bat an eyelash," Maniac explained.
"I'm setting the limit now," Red Hood iterated his previous point and continued to hold his gun to the armoured man's head.
Sentry suddenly swooped in, picking up Argus and Anima, and delivering a kick to Spider's head for good measure.
"That was pretty funny," Red Scarab laughed at the boot print on the symbiote's face.
"Batman, please tell me that backup is here now," Mr Terrific said as he ran away from Fixit.
He jumped off of the roof of the castle and straight into a wind funnel. A red haired girl used a similar funnel to levitate off of the ground. She wore a silver suit with purple across her chest and arms. Beside her a boy in a black suit with red shoulder guards and fiery hair flew in front of Fixxit. Firestorm fired a blast that threw the hulk into the wall.
"We're dealing with beings from alternate dimensions, they're ruthless but a few have showed restraint," Mr Terrific said.
"The Bloodpack, are they dead?" Cyclone asked.
"I've got Argus and Anima, but the others weren't so lucky," Sentry said.
"Hey little girl, Captain America called, he wants his costume back," Chavez said as she raised her hand to Stargirl.
"I have no idea who that is but right back at you," Stargirl fired a blast from her staff that knocked the girl into Blackfire.
"This is getting out of hand, we need to get going now," Red Hood said.
"How can you do that?" a voice asked above them.
Red Hood looked up and widened his eyes at what he saw. A bat jet floated over the team, and two figures jumped off. One was of course Batman, in a more armoured costume than the one his Batman wore. The other wore a yellow cape, a red armoured vest with short green sleeves, padded green gloves and trousers and a red domino mask. It was a Robin, the costume was unique, but the aggression in his movements told Red Hood exactly who it was.
"Well, this is going to get weird," he muttered, raising his hands as the Robin swung a kick towards him.
Earth 16-The Quantum realm
The Multiverse was a game of choices, choices that resulted in the creation of alternate worlds. So often Noah wondered if there was another Earth Prime, an Earth Prime where he hadn't forever changed his life when he accepted the offer of a god like being. It offered him two jobs, one the protection of a prison of some of the deadliest villains a world had ever known and two, the chance to help protect Earth 16, to change events he knew was going to happen. In his world he was a comic book fan, he read quite a few and watched quite a few shows too. Young Justice had been one of his favourites, he'd even signed one of the blogs to renew it for a third season. Now he was finding out what would have happened if the third season did go on, and he couldn't do a thing to stop it.
First he'd been given the power of the Scarlet Spider. But when he failed miserably to prevent the deaths of several members of 'the team' as they were called, he slipped into a dark mindset. The innocence and joy of his multiversal adventures were gone, his failures had woke him up and he took on a new identity to symbolise his maturity. The Winter Soldier wasn't a super hero, he was an operative for an agency. Noah's right arm had been replaced by a metal one, it was a hybrid of the cybernetics Lex Luthor gave Arsenal, coated in an alloy that only looked like the metal of the real Winter Soldier's arm. His uniform consisted of a black suit with armoured padding in the vital places, green goggles and a retractable mouth guard.
Running a hand through his brown hair, he went over the time table of recent events. The team had gone missing, Nightwing was searching without success, whilst the League was facing super villains. Privately however they faced their share of crisis's. Bruce Wayne had to explain the disappearance of his adopted son Tim Drake, and the sudden arrival of a biological son. Superman had lost Superboy but gained Supergirl, discovering he wasn't truly the last Kryptonian. The Green Lanterns of Earth had been recalled to Oa, save for Guy Gardner and the inexperienced Lantern Kyle Rayner. Barry Allen was temporarily retired to raise his two twins and the league itself welcomed new members in the form of Godiva, Ice, Fire and Booster Gold. He looked at the holographic forms of each new player.
'They all kind of look like the New 52 fanarts you see on deviantart,' Noah thought, then shook his nostalgia for Earth Prime aside.
The biggest concern however, which made the disappearance of the team all too coincidental was Godfrey stepping up his smear campaign against the league. He was picking any subject, accusing Superman of lying about the fate of Krypton and saying a 'war of the Supermen' was upon them, accusing Batman of child abuse and criminal neglect, the same with anyone who had a teenage sidekick. The man had even begun praising the actions of the Red Hood in Gotham, his harsh execution of criminals, and the actions of a group called the Elite. But Noah knew that Godfrey was just another agent of Apokolips, someone trying to weaken Earth's defences for Darkseid's arrival.
"All this power, all this equipment, and I can't do a damn thing here without actual proof...I read it in a comic isn't exactly compelling proof," Noah said to himself.
Then there was the other incidents, the Incursions that Noah knew was happening. Yet strangely, some of the Earths had been saved. He could see those Earth's like markings on a piece of paper, his Monitor utilised the same technology as the Monitor race. But the technology was only half as powerful, he couldn't see into other worlds. The people who took him from his home however assured him that terrible things were happening in the Multiverse and that they would eclipse all of the events that had come before them. For now his priority was to continue containing his prisoners.
"Perimeter shell breached," his base's AI said as an alarm began to blare.
"Damn it, that is just bad timing," Noah said as his guard slid over his mouth.
He broke off into a run, stopping at the edge of one of the corridors. That's when he saw them, people he knew were definitely villains. He recognised the Gaslight Catwoman and the Spider-man and Black Cat of the Web of Shadows (or at least one of the endings of that game).
"So what exactly are we supposed to find here?" Catwoman asked.
"Imprisoned within this facility are people the boss has described as the greatest villains of their worlds, he wants us to add them to the ranks," the blue Hulk explained.
"And alls that's stopping us is a wannabe Winter Soldier from that bitch Superboy-Prime's world," Starman said.
"I'd love to see you say that to his face," Spider-man huffed.
The Winter Soldier looked at the palm of his hand and squeezed it into a fist. It immediately folded to reveal a blaster. With a determined gaze he walked quietly down the corridor. He may have been outnumbered, but he had no intention of letting the prisoners go without a fight.
A world had been living in peace for the past six years. It's greatest villain Thanos had already been defeated. Slowly, the Earth, the universe even had become a marvellous place to live in. Major conflicts were a thing of the past, there was still the occasional super villain crime spree and plot. But the heroes of the Initiative could always be counted on to save the world. No true crisis had come for that Earth since Thanos, until now. The greatest threat to the Earth came in the form of twisted monsters, fused versions of heroes and villains and monsters bearing corrupted forms of the world's greatest heroes. The Revengers and the black Legion had arrived, leading with them the altered cybernetic forms of the Marvel Zombies, turned into compliant and empty vessels known as Deathloks, and the robotic horde that had conquered their world and altered them. They began the assault on the world by crushing monuments. Giant-man bought the Eiffel tower down, the Black legion massacred Stamford, the Tri, Kilgore and Prime Sentinels crushed the Xavier institute, the techno-zombies and Ultron Phalanxes moved through major city centres and minor ones alike, even Genosha, Madripoor and Wakanda suffered damage. But the true declaration of their intent, if it already hadn't been made, came when they crashed the tri-carrier into the White House. The Revenger's Captain America stood at the front of the ruined monument, keeping both the president and Nick Fury on the ground.
"We are not your greatest heroes, we are not them, but feel free to blame them all the same...wallow in your despair, embrace your hatred of our symbols," Cap cast his shield to the ground and drew a pistol from his belt.
"Let it be known that in your darkest hour the heroes of the Initiative were not fast enough to save you, that for all their talks of organisation and unity they were as ineffective as they have always been," he placed the barrel of the gun on the front of the president's head.
The man quivered in terror, looking around for any trace of the heroes he had put so much faith in. Nick Fury however remained calm, but his eye reflected the defiance and determination one hero had passed onto him. The man in the Captain America uniform (he refused to acknowledge that the man was Steve) pulled the trigger, spreading the contents of the president's brain across the grass. Death was nothing to him, he showed no enjoyment or regret from the execution.
"I am the representative of the god of evil, not a mockery like Thor or Hercules, but a true god, let his power be known, fear him, hate him...be kept up at night by the mere thought of him torturing your family, let paranoia consume you, let greed, war, famine and death become your norm for daring to be happy," slowly he raised his gun, levelling it towards Fury's head.
Fury stood, he was not going to die on his knees. The man seemed to accept that, making no attempt to stop him but raising the aim of his gun as he stood.
"Or be defiant, fight us, claw at us if you have to, do whatever it takes to live but no this...you will fail, let this be the first example," he looked directly into Fury's eye.
"It ends for me, just as it'll end for you," Fury said.
'Goodbye Sven, I'll be waiting with Gravity and your father,' was Fury's last thought before the trigger was pulled.
Following the bang of the gun was the boom of mother boxes, and the rise of fire pits. Parademons rained down from the sky and three bulking figures landed on the field of battle. Their eyes glowed red as they marched to bring on the death and suffering their master craved
"My god," his voice was barely above a whisper.
Billy Braddock of Earth 833, a member of the Captain Britain Corps and part of the great web was in too deep a shock. Using the same technology the Corps used to survey other worlds, he had witnessed the great invasion of the Marvel Universe.
"Kalibak, Steppenwolf and even Darkseid himself, he's unleashed the forces of the Earth 0 Apokolips, the most brutal variation of that world that we've seen, and it's not even a quarter of the forces that he commands...I think, I think he intends to destroy that world and there isn't a damn thing the warriors of the web can do to stop him," Billy threw his helmet aside and put on his mask.
Stood with him, in Loomworld where the other warriors of the great web. Spider-Gwen had just come back from her adventure with Virgil's team. She clung to the Spider-man of her world in grief. Jason Doyle of Earth 65 draped his arm over his friend's shoulder, knowing she was thinking of her own counterpart on that Earth and the counterpart of her old boyfriend. Part of him wondered if there was a variation of him there, desperately and hopelessly trying to survive?
"He truly has declared himself the god of evil?" Paviitar Praphakar, the Spider-man of Earth 50101 asked.
"There's no declaration about it, all that force, it's pretty clear he deserves the title," Noir Spider-man said.
"All those people," Mayday Parker, the new Spider-woman of Earth 982 lowered her head and cried.
"I haven't felt like this before, not even the Inheritors made me feel like this," Spider-ham said.
"What is the point of this?" asked Rio Morales, the Arachne of Earth 624 asked.
"Retaliation, for what Virgil did," Ezekiel Sims of Earth 610 said.
Anya Corazon, the Spider-Girl of Virgil's Earth recalled his invitation and knew now the importance of his work.
"Indeed, spiders of the great web," a voice spoke behind them.
Within the centre of the eighteenth century styled hall was the great web. At its centre was perched the weaver, Karn of the Inheritors.
"Preventing not one but two Incursions without sacrificing another Earth, Virgil spat in the face of the god of darkness, so to retaliate he is showing so that his resources, his army, his wrath knows no limits, he easily converted the zombies of that other Earth into pawns for his war, now he is even willing to destroy a world with a version of himself on it," Karn explained.
"We'll need a whole army of web warriors," Spider-ham said.
"No Ham, you'll need more than just Spider-men!"
The warriors of the web turned to the entrance to the hallway. A dark portal opened, spilling purple smoke and bursts of static into the room. Simultaneously each of the spiders felt their spider senses scream.
"Oh god, the pain, it's never been like this before," Gwen said.
"BLOODY HELL!" Billy yelled.
"WE NEED TO GET AS FAR AWAY FROM HERE AS WE CAN NOW!" Rio yelled.
"It's too late," Karn said, feeling the web begin to shake.
Slowly he walked out of the portal, coated in dark energy. When the energy faded he revealed himself to the kneeling spiders.
"Is that Aeon?" Gwen asked.
"No, his darker half, Onyx, I should've known it was you," Billy snarled.
"Onyx," Karn said as the armoured man began to approach him.
He stepped on Spider-man Noir, crossing him to yell out in pain. Onyx raised his hand and a red crystal materialised in front of him.
"That crystal, my father Solas," Karn said.
"Yes," Onyx said before crushing the crystal. "Your family is dead Karn, in the end everyone of you was a pawn!"
Karn widened his eyes as Onyx grabbed his neck and ripped him off of the great web. Then with but a single touch, Onyx began to burn away the web. The warriors of the web across the Multi-verse screamed as their spider senses blared with an intensity they had never felt before. Suddenly the pain stopped and their fell unconscious.
"No, the great web, are you mad, you'll destroy everything," Karn said.
"The great rule and order of the Multiverse, do you want to know the number one rule of the Multiverse, its only rule?" Onyx asked as he touched another part of the web and burnt it away.
Karn looked at where the web was once said, not a single trace of it remained. He looked around, at his hands, at his warriors, expected something to happen. But nothing happened, nothing faded, nothing died and Onyx looked as if he had expected it.
"Rule number one of the Multiverse is that there are no rules!"
Next Chapter 25: Clashing universes
Some dark moments I know, there will be some light, but more darkness in the coming chapters I'm afraid.
Next time the CW Arrowverse faces an Incursion with unexpected saviours, Winter Soldier faces Onyx's forces, the Young Avengers of Earth 610 make their stand and its Red Hood vs Jason Todd on the planet of the bravest.