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The Redeemer
Chapter 38: House of M Part 3
Cade Hunter knew of the things he had done, knew what drove him and the consequences of the choices he made. Yet sometimes he wondered, 'am I a good man?' That ran through his mind as he arrived on a new Earth. He arrived in the night, seeing the familiar land marks of Gotham city. Changing out of his armour, Cade walked the streets and purchased a paper from one of the magazines stalls. The Gotham Gazette gave him the details he needed to know, he was back on that other Earth, Waller had announced her 'Justice League of America' and sea levels were going back to normal. Aquaman had formed an embassy for Atlantis and declared a man named 'Garth' the ambassador. Throwing the paper onto the streets, Cade walked into the alleyway. His armour surrounded him as he took flight. With his eyes he tracked the swath of criminals that Batman had spent the night beating down, the informants he frightened and the 'right kind' of crooked cop that saw Batman and left him be.
When he found Batman he scoffed, the apartment of Chase Meridian was where Batman frequented the last portion of his night. He was embracing the blonde haired woman, kissing her tenderly. Every time Cade looked at Meridian though, he saw the white skin, the red and black hair and outfit of Harley Quinn and all the things she had done for Joker and Waller. When Batman and Chase separated, Cade followed Batman's glide to the streets below. Before Batman could climb into his car, Cade threw his scythe and imbedded it in the ground near the tire. The caped crusader quickly turned, drawing out a batarang from his belt.
"We need to talk," Cade said.
As Batman put his weapon away, he pushed a few buttons on his belt. It engaged the security systems for the car. Then he took out his grapple gun and 'jumped' to the adjacent rooftop. Cade followed, landing and turning towards Batman, who stood on the edge of the roof with his cape fluttering in the wind.
"How long have you been back?" Batman asked.
"Four hours at the most, so you and Quinn?"
"We're not here to discuss romance, you disappeared when an attack occurred in space. It hasn't been revealed to the media, but Waller has taken in a group known as the Starforce," Batman reached into his belt and folded out a photo.
He handed it to Cade, who took the photo and huffed.
"Danvers, her name is Carol Danvers," Cade said.
"She's identified herself, she helped to prevent a fight between our league and Waller's, we have in custody Atomica, a native of another Earth, one where the majority of its superhuman population have formed a criminal organisation known as the Crime Syndicate. She was attempting to frame Superman for murder, one of Danvers's allies Hank Pym though discovered her plot and incapacitated her. The Martian confirmed Atomica's origins, and Ray Palmer, who had recently returned from the Microverse confirmed that she wasn't one of his students," Batman explained, giving Cade more files and details.
Atomica's prison photo, the schematics of her size altering belt and the photo of Pandora's box.
"So this is the gateway to that other Earth?" Cade asked.
"Actually according to the Amazons and Diana, it's been altered somehow."
"I'll need to see it up close," Cade said.
"I assume you have a contact inside?" Batman asked.
"Two or three, one owes me a favour though," Cade said.
Another change, Starling city had become Star City. Rather than fly, Cade took the long road of a bus. As he sat on the bus, he met adulterers, racists and thieves. Not pick pockets but the sneaky kind of thieves who offered a service and didn't deliver, sales people and stay at home stock brokers. He ignored them, remembering that not too long ago he would have killed them as part of his new approach to promoting justice and purging evil. Cade acknowledged now that there wasn't all bad, even in those people he saw. An adulterer who loved their lover's children like their own, a racist who donated regularly to cancer research and a con artist who supported their struggling family. Good and evil were everywhere and Cade knew that despite Justice returning to him, he couldn't weigh any of it. His judge of a person's character though was jaded, not as good as Sven's, though his was naïve at the worst of times.
'We're both a little naïve though aren't we Sven? We both see the world as too simplistic,' Cade thought, tipping his hat over his head and going to sleep.
Elseworld
Aeon tilted his head in confusion as the Flash and Cyborg prepared the piece of machinery in the watch tower. Zatanna walked over, carrying her daughter with her.
"I think you two need to get reacquainted, Zanna, meet Aeon," the magician said.
Sven slid his visor back, smiling at the girl and taking her hand.
"Hey there, you look just like my sister when she was a kid, which means one day you are going to be one of the coolest women in the word," he said and the girl giggled.
"Go to uncle Oli and Aunt Dinah dear, they'll get you some lunch," Zatanna said, placing the girl on the floor.
"See you again not-daddy," Zanna waved over her shoulder before running to Green Arrow and Black Canary.
"Your son, he looks like you doesn't he?" Zatanna asked.
"He takes after his mother with his hair and some of his abilities," Sven said.
"We don't know whether our girl's a Meta, you and… Wanda? You're not together are you?"
"It's complicated but no we aren't, Zack wasn't exactly a natural conception, one thing Wanda and I have in common though is how much we love him," Sven explained.
"I understand, Svein would go far for our girl," Zatanna said.
"All right," Flash ran in front of Sven, presenting to him the cosmic treadmill.
"Still don't see how exercising is going to help me," Sven muttered.
"If I use the speed force, I'll be able to open a portal through the Multiverse, so long as you're focusing on your son then you should be able to get to where he is," Flash explained.
"Thank you, sorry again for this sudden arrival on your world," Sven said.
"Don't worry; what kind of heroes would we be if we didn't help out?" Svein asked.
Red lights suddenly began to blare, and a claxon roared through the corridors of the watch tower. The Justice League members turned to the portside and saw a great singularity appear over the Earth. Sven and Svein walked to the window and watched as ships emerged, immediately deploying bombs into the Earth's atmosphere.
"Those look like Kree ships from my Earth," Sven said.
"Damn, looks like this Multiversal war has come to our shores," Svein said.
His armour covered his body and he gathered with the other Justice League members. Much to their shock though, Sven went onto the platform too, transforming into Aeon.
"What kind of hero would I be if I didn't help you guys through this Crisis?" he asked.
"Yep, he's definitely your counterpart Svein," Kyle grinned.
The heroes travelled through the zeta-beam network, reassembling at the target for the Kree invasion. They appeared in Russia, where the Rocket Red Brigade engaged in aerial combat with the invaders. Eon and Aeon both glowed as their powers activated. Plastic Man and Green Lantern both glowed red and green respectively before turning into sprites. These sprites flew around Eon, changing his armour to a grid like pattern, quickly after that though, new shapes began to form on his armour. His helmet became a hybrid of Kyle Rayner's mask and Plastic Man's shades, his arms stretched and became lanky. The Green lantern symbol appeared on his chest and his bare legs instead appeared as green energy. Finally transformed into a fusion of the two heroes, Eon stretched his arms, wrapping them around several Kree rocket troopers. Spinning, he threw the troopers into other opponents. One of the Kree fighters came towards him, shooting energy beams. But Eon opened his arms, firing a green blast from his chest. The beam turned into a drill that took out the fighter engine.
Aeon watched Superman tear through the Kree craft, grabbing the pilots and crew inside. Despite this very much being a war, the League weren't killers. Martian Manhunter phased through the aircraft, pulling out the pilots and using his eye beams to destroy the engines. Wonder Woman flew between her opponents, using her fists and lasso in combination attacks, pulling with the rope and finishing them with punches. Deciding that he needed to throw himself into this fight, Aeon focused with his powers. His armour surged with gold and white energy, energy that surrounded Aquaman and Zauriel. Arthur Curry slashed a Kree soldier with his hook before he turned into a shining light. Zauriel cut down a rocket trooper and turned into a halo of energy. The light and energy merged with Aeon's back and arm. Suddenly, Aeon's armour flashed and he transformed. His right arm was covered by a grey shoulder guard that resembled Aquaman's chest armour, gold mail formed on his arm and a heavy green gauntlet covered his arm. A hook suddenly slid out of the wrist, just as a shoulder guard that resembled Zauriel's helmet appeared on his left arm. White armour covered his left arm with a black gauntlet that had a white hawk on it covered his wrist. The fins on Aeon's armour sharpened and white and gold lines glowed across the red of his armour. Gold wings burst out of his back and a fiery sword slid out of his left gauntlet. Finally in a burst of water, a golden trident appeared which Aeon grabbed with his right hand.
"It shouldn't take long for Flash to open a portal, in the mean time, thanks for the help," Superman said as he blasted several Kree fighters with electricity from his hands.
Aeon flew into the fray, cutting wings and stabbing through armour with both his new weapons. His enhanced perception and agility allowed him to fly across the sky, dodging the rifle blasts from the Kree warriors. A Sentry robot flew at Aeon, only for him split the machine open with his sword and impale its power source with his trident. As the robot exploded, Aeon flew through the smoke with the Rocket brigade, Superman and Eon behind him. Green energy, electricity and gunfire hit any soldier Aeon missed with his melee attacks. A black plane suddenly flew past him, firing of all things rubber rounds at the Kree rocket troopers, enough to knock them out and trap them in cables wrapped around miniature air balloons. Aeon looked towards the black plane, seeing Batman in the pilot's seat.
The dark knight looked towards Aeon and raised his hand in a thumbs up sign.
Earth 616
"So, what do we have?" Steve asked.
He sat with leaders of super hero teams, or squadrons put together in the aftermath of the incident in New York. Hundreds of heroes had disappeared in a boom tube, all the tactics of the one who was invading the Multiverse. Thor, Iron man, Captain Marvel, Yellowjacket and the Wasp, Bruce Banner, Cyclops, Captain Britain and Sunfire were all sat at the table.
"Warriors of Asgard stand ready to defend Midgard," Thor said.
As he spoke Sif had finished putting on her armour and stepped out of her tent to look at Valkyrie and armoured warriors of Asgard. Amongst them was Dani Moonstar, carrying a few rifles and wearing both her New Mutant's Uniform and an Asgardian head dress. Miles away in Russia, Red Guardian stood with the assembled heroes of that region, the android Vostok, giant bear Ursa Major, the mysterious hooded Red Widow, Powersurge, Slavic gods of thunder and chaos respectively named Perun and Chernobog, Crimson Dynamo and Darkstar. A portal opened in front of the Winter Guard and they were soon joined by the symbiote empowered Colossus and Magik.
Carol had formed her new Alpha Flight, men and women who could fight in space with the repurposed technology of S.W.O.R.D. With their network of satellites they coordinated the new international heroes. The Philippines had the Triumph Division, Big Hero 6 operated with the help of Sunfire in Japan, soon being joined by the mutant Whiz Kid in his new costume, a black and red coat with an X on it, and the self titled Power Ranger Tommy Oliver. In his Green Ranger form, he played some kind of tune with the flute on his dagger. Hiro went wide eyed in awe as a robotic dragon came out of the sea. The massive floating fortress that was home to the spy organisation S.P.E.A.R had deployed its own heroes, the Ascendant.
Jimmy Woo brought together other heroes in Asia to form a new Atlas team. Holograms of these heroes appeared at the table of the Avengers, the wind manipulator Aero, the teenage girl Crescent and her bear spirit Io, elemental and pop star Luna Snow, White Fox, Sword Master and Wave, with Shang-Chi and a semi-Hulk empowered Amadeus Cho joining them. A new team had formed in Britain under the name The Union, its members consisting of Britannia, Bulldog, Kelpie, Snakes and the Choir, former Captain Britains Lionheart and Psylocke joined these heroes, Betsy proudly wearing a Captain Britain helmet and armour.
This European branch of super heroes didn't just end with the Union or MI13, but a group of super heroes were brought together to form EuroForce. Led by Black Knight and his protégé Faiza Hussain, they assembled Sliver, Tiger, Tumult and a new Swordswoman. In New York, Ms Marvel and the younger Nova and Spider-man saw fit to bring together young heroes to form the Champions. The Inhuman Devil girl and her Devil Dinosaur joined them with the New Patriot, Red Locust, the new Falcon and the New armoured hero Ironheart. But not to simply let their name be used by a new group, these young heroes were surprised when their cause of equality and more active and inspiring heroism was endorsed by original champions Black Widow, Angel and Iceman.
"I've brought together who I can, but attacks are still happening against mutants," Cyclops said.
The gold armoured ally of Aeon, Albion stood with Emma Frost, looking at the team of X-men. Still infected with their symbiotes, Nightcrawler and Wolverine were ready with Rogue, Gambit, Storm, Beast, Jean Grey and Jubilee waiting for Cyclops to return.
"I found some people, people ready to do some Avenging," Steve said.
He brought up the holograms of his recruits, US Agent, the Irish hero Shamrock, Battlestar, Spitfire and Blazing Skull.
"I'm working on a way to reach the ones we've lost, but that doesn't mean I'll stop going out there, I can multitask anyway," Tony grinned, revealing his recruits
Rhodey stood as War Machine, but an earlier version of his armour had been given to his former partner Jake Oh and painted shades of military green. Pepper Potts took up her Rescue armour and brought the former Order members Anthem, Supernaut, Veda and Calamity with her.
"A few of my students at Avengers Academy have disappeared, but Aeon's protégé claims he has a means to rescue them," Hank said.
"Aeon vouched heavily for him, it's a big ask but I think he'll reward our faith," Carol said.
Hank simply pushed the button at his end of the table, showing the holograms of his recruits Death Cry, Scarlet Spider, Eric O'Grady, who had taken on the new name Fire Ant, Silver Claw and Magdalene.
"Scott, he was a student at your school, is Aeon-Boy? Kid Fusion…whatever name he's going by really that good?" Tony asked.
The heroes looked at Cyclops, whom so far had had his fingers crossed and elbows on the table. He remained silent for a moment; his visor concealing the fact that he had had his eyes closed reminiscing about the young man.
"The others knew him better; don't forget I was replaced by a Skrull. But from what Logan and Kitty were able to tell me Virgil was never a standout student, in fact a lot of people considered him boring when he first came to the institute. But he was eager; he almost seemed like a different person back then. His dream was to be an X-man, to use his powers to help people. He saw connections but he wasn't good with people, he was bright but not exceptionally intelligent and he never really had pride as a mutant or went into the whole mutant culture. As for his training squad, it was average at best, mediocre at worst and his control of his powers were stable, but he never really achieved anything extraordinary with them.
Some years ago-The Xavier School
Virgil got out of the taxi, hefting his duffel bag onto his shoulder. He walked towards the gates of the Xavier institute. As he walked he could see the children playing on the grounds, Hellion and Tag on the basketball court, Wind Dancer reading a book with Wallflower in the garden and Onyx and Rockslide showing off by having an arm wrestle. When he reported to the principal's office he was welcomed by Emma Frost and showed no real enthusiasm.
"Welcome to the Xavier institute Virgil," Emma said.
"Hope you survive the experience!"
"Shut up Bobby," Emma groaned.
"Hello," was all Virgil said.
She and Beast later sat in the Danger Room, watching the young man as wooden targets appeared in front of him. Hank was taking readings of his heart rate and also his abilities.
"Okay Virgil, don't worry, the despite its name this is quite a safe place, at least for you to cut loose a bit with your powers, go on, demonstrate them for us," Hank asked.
Virgil took a deep breath and raised his hand, a black and brown armoured material began to cover it whilst his hair turned white and his skin turned grey. Yellow energy gushed out of his hand and elbow, moving like a fog towards the blocks that Hank had set up. The fog of energy moved past the blocks and smothered the wall behind it. Virgil grimaced and tightened his hand into a fist, and the energy came back towards him. His body slowly returned to normal and Emma and Hank looked at the wall in surprise. The blocks were gone, as was the section of wall that the energy had covered.
Now
"Hank explained to me that Virgil's abilities weren't what a lot of the students sometimes believed, like my eye beams being mistaken for a type of heat vision or Kitty's powers getting mixed up with density manipulation…"
"You basically throw punches with your eyes and Miss Pryde phases her molecules through objects," Tony finished for Scott, grinning at his intellect.
"Change punches to freight trains Stark and you have the right comparison, even some of the teachers began to mix Virgil's abilities up with a form of energy generation and manipulation, but that isn't what it is at all," Scott explained.
"What are his actual abilities Scott?" Steve asked.
Virgil looked over his X-men costume, the gloves he wore resembled bandages wrapped around his arms. He then turned towards Wind Dancer, rallying those who would be joining him across the Multiverse. The young students of the Xavier institute stood in their full yellow and black uniforms, even X-23 had taken on a mask similar to Wolverine.
He then looked behind him and saw the A.I.M scientists, but they were under the command of Sunspot and Cannonball, with Smasher to support them. Then there was Batman and the Flash.
Having travelled across the Multiverse, the pair went about gathering a 'League' as Wally called it. He began with Earth 20 and Doc Fate, leader of the Society of Superheroes. As Virgil understood it, Wally once was possessed by the helmet of fate, so he turned to the Kent Nelson of Earth 20, a magician and fire arms expert and the first recruit that Wally wanted to claim. Then he went to Earth 22 and recruited the Dick Grayson of that world, a veteran hero called Red Robin. Going to Earth 6, he recruited both the Wonder Woman of that world and Salden, that world's Superman. In Earth 35 he found Starcop of the Super-Americans and then to Earth C, where he recruited Fastback. Finally Wally travelled to Earth 36, and brought onto his team Mer-man and Flashlight.
Wally nearly laughed with the others when their Bruce revealed his recruits. Charles Bullock, the Blackwing of an Earth two. Stingray of Earth 34, the Owl of Earth 35 and Iron Knight of Earth 36 were his following recruits. Then it became blatantly obvious what Bruce was doing. An Iron Batman of an Iron League on Earth 44, a vampiric Batman, a Batman in Victorian era clothing, an armoured Damian Wayne Batman, a gun wielding Dick Grayson Batman, the Jean-Paul Valley Batman and a Jim Gordon in a Bat-mech suit.
"Narcissism, thy name is Batman," Wally muttered.
"So what exactly is the plan?" Prodigy asked.
"We split; we'll go and rescue the other kid super heroes from Harvest and the Reach, Wally and Bruce and Roberto will support, helping them get back to their native Earths," Virgil explained.
"Forson was able to track them down, but we don't have the firepower to take out their ship engines," Sunspot said.
"Get me close enough and I can do it," Virgil said.
"Are you sure?" Hellion asked.
"I've always hated my powers, but right now, they're necessary to save people and that's all I really wanted to do," Virgil said.
"Iron Lad was arrogant, he believed children alone could save children," Bruce said.
"He didn't know his allies, he trusted a small team, but we're not small," Wally followed.
"So let's go and save those kids," Roberto smiled.
"Your man on the inside, is he going to help us?" Sam asked.
"He will, once we stop the ship," Bruce said.
A.I.M. had provided them with the extrapolators necessary to transport the team, and S.W.O.R.D. gave them the space suits they needed. Opening a portal in deep space, the army flew and made their way through fields of debris towards the Reach ship. Hellion flew the fastest, holding Virgil under his arms. Virgil closed his eyes, concentrating, feeling the shift in his face, the armour across his hands form and what he hated the most slither out of his finger tips. Following his intent, the cloud rushed towards the Reach ship, hitting the rockets behind hit. Virgil grit his teeth together as he dragged the cloud across the surface, consuming the cannons that tried firing at it.
As he did this, the other heroes looked in shock and on Earth, Cyclops faced the other heroes at the table with his revelation.
"Hank surmised this, from a young age Virgil had had a connection to Aeon's spirit realm implanted within him, as well as layers of armour that his father Heinrich Wallace had designed to turn Virgil into a type of artificial Celestial. Of course he would never be anywhere near that powerful, but his true power comes from his X-gene. Heinrich could create constructs and objects, it looked like crystal but it was actually raw matter," Cyclops explained.
Bruce realised it now, in that moment when Virgil held back the yellow ring and Shazam empowered blast from Damian Wayne, he wasn't matching the power, he was simply erasing it. Tony widened his eyes, realising what Cyclops was getting at.
"Mutants that share blood often develop similar or even opposite mutations, Sieg's mutation was similar to his father's (biological at least) and Zack has similar Hex abilities to Wanda but Virgil, he was the opposite wasn't he?" Tony asked.
The heroes of the rescue team and the patrolling Reach looked at the effects of Virgil's power in horror. Like he had done so many years ago, the cloud he generated had made the booster rockets and the guns disappear as if they had never been there.
"That is Virgil's power, though he was mediocre himself his power is one that is valuable, because he is capable of generating and controlling Anti-Matter," Cyclops said.
Ultimate Universe
Wanda looked at the young boy in front of her, at his silver hair, his rather short frame and the sword on his back. She had seen Siegfried Wallace before, but had never really spoken to him. What she had heard was that he was a polite boy and every bit Sven's son, even if they had no biological relation. The other version of Sven though simply looked at the boy in confusion, clearly expecting him to inherit his looks as many males in Sven's family did.
"What is going on here?" he demanded, levelling his sword at the Ultimates.
"Sieg please calm down," Wanda said.
"Why am I seeing two Scarlet Witches, and why is Tony Stark drinking when he's the poster boy for sobriety, why is Loki wearing Dr Strange's cloak, what happened to Thor's hammer and what happened to the wings on Cap's cowl?" Sieg asked.
The Ultimates blinked in confusion before shifting uncomfortably.
"Bet his Tony Stark isn't as cool as me," Tony grumbled.
"I like my hammer design," Thor huffed.
"Wings on my cowl, what next, swash buckling boots?" Colonel America asked and VooDoo and Wanda both exchanged smirks.
"I know things are strange and frightening Sieg, but you are amongst friends, except for him," Drumm tilted his head to Loki.
"Is this an alternate Earth? Wow…sir, I know it might not be accurate, but it's good to see you again," Sieg said as his sword disappeared.
"Should we call on Sven Reilly's spirit in that blade?" Loki asked.
"Better not, we can't afford too many details to leak out, the spirit would be a past version of Aeon not the one we know in the future," Drumm explained.
"Wibbly Wobbly timey wimey stuff, okay then, consider me a need to know party only. Suffice to say I kind of don't want to be away from home for long," Sieg said.
"We don't want you to be away either Sieg, we're sorry about this, but…it may not be entirely accurate but I'm glad I got to meet you," Wanda said, touching Sieg's shoulder.
"I never forgot all that you were able to do as an Avenger, you're still a hero in my eyes," Sieg said.
That put a smile on her face, glad she was meeting the more earnest, happier version of the man Sven considered his son. Still, he had been his student before that, and this young man still had no idea he had a brother out in the Multiverse, someone else whom had become the student of Aeon.
Virgil let out a yell, the Anti-matter surging out of his arms, he narrowed his eyes, drawing on every lesson Sven had passed to him about calm, about control and above all about himself. That was what he needed more than advice about his powers, or applications of his abilities or some puff speech about how he was the next step in human evolution and an extraordinary being. He had lost his faith in the X-men when they stopped fighting for that beautiful dream of Xavier's, he just wasn't convinced anymore. Time passed at a snail's pace for the team of heroes attacking the Reach ship. Time was the weapon of two allies of Onyx's forces, both of who occupied a separate plane of existence outside of the passing of time. One occupied a time sphere, sitting on the control chair and wearing a black body suit that had a red Z pattern on the chest. The dark skinned young man had half cut dreadlocks on his head and huffed, regarding the attack by Virgil as a mere annoyance.
"To think there exists an individual besides an Anti-Monitor whom can produce Anti-Matter, an impressive revelation, but ultimately useless," he said.
"If he was a sixth dimensional being, then he could perhaps transcend the limits of time, but he is not, even the Celestials that Heinrich Wallace designed his children to mimic, are bound by time," Iron lad explained.
The younger Kang floated outside of Lor's time sphere, his arms crossed as he looked at Virgil and the image of him slowly losing himself to his powers.
"You are doing the right thing Nathaniel, you cannot defy your destiny," Lor said.
"One could argue the same about your destiny Zod," Iron lad retorted.
"The House of Zod will rise again, Onyx has assured me of that, any path that the humans, that the House of El could have taken to stop me has been altered, but, there is one thing that across the Multiverse we are capable of altering, time, across many time streams we can now make the reality that we choose, Superboy will die on Mars, or perhaps he will never leave Cadmus…it matters not, we can make the reality we want possible, time is now malleable," Lor-Zod explained.
"Indeed, and my final curse to Virgil is to see how his time will pass, win or lose, he will see the dream of Xavier's be exposed for the lie that it is, he will see his faith in heroes be betrayed," Iron Lad stated, narrowing his eyes at Virgil. "Watch your destiny unfold, apprentice of Aeon!"
That feeling Zack had of being watched wasn't there anymore, but he still had the feeling that something was very wrong. He jumped and rebounded traversing the city of New York, seeing the advertisements of Spider-man films and mutant children playing on the street undisturbed. The world truly did seem like what Magneto wanted it to be or at least the pretty parts of what Zack had heard. He landed on one of the lampposts, looking over his shoulder just to make sure that the red guards weren't following him. Zack looked down and widened his eyes at what he saw.
"What are you doing in this part of the neighbourhood Flat Scan?"
Mutants picked fights with humans, and they were cops too, blue skinned or scaled cops looking down at the homeless. There was another individual there too, a tall man in a neat suit that contrasted the casual clothes of the seemingly homeless man. This man wore a pair of thick framed glasses and a fedora of all things.
"Vagrancy doesn't pay, and begging is banned in this area, you should know this," the cop said, picking the man up by the scruff of his collar.
"Blimey, sorry mate, I just nodded off that's all, I'm not poor or anything," the man said, his English accent seemed a little off.
"Listen here sir, that kind of rough treatment isn't warranted," the man with the glasses said.
Almost cartoonish in a way, then again Zack had seen Chamber and Psylocke so he was hardly an expert. The man with the glasses too seemed a bit too good to be true, the bumbling and pushing against his glasses, no one seemed that boring for lack of a better word. He continued looking down as the cops partner cuffed the homeless man.
"Hey, look if there's a toll to pay I'll pay it, I mean I don't have a job at the moment but I'll be happy to," the Englishman said.
"I'd be happy to pay, and sorry to say this sir, but we do have rights if there's something we are to be charged with you are legally obligated to make us aware of this crime," glasses man explained.
"All right Flatscans that's enough, what have you got in your pockets?" the cop asked.
He patted the man down as his partner gripped the man's shoulder.
"Listen there's no need for violence, I'll happily empty my pockets," glasses man did just that, but was grabbed by the other officer.
"This is high town, mutant territory only, stick to your shelter humans," Zack narrowed his eyes at the cop.
His hands shook a bit, and he was tempted to just turn away. There were things he needed to see, secrets he needed to uncover. Then he realised, this was one of those secrets. Jumping down into one of the alleyways, he removed his costume and began taking clothes out of the garbage. Of course they didn't fit, but they would do the job of giving off the impression he wasn't of the higher classes. His powers also weren't obvious, so perhaps he would get away with passing off as a human. The boy made his way to the police and tugged on one's trouser leg.
"Excuse me," he put on a hoarse cough as he spoke.
The officer turned, a look of annoyance crossing his face.
"You too Flat scan, you shouldn't be here either," he said.
"I'm trying to find mommy," Zack put on a pleading tone to his voice, thanking Mr Wagner for the acting lessons.
"Probably at the whore houses, I've heard that's where the human women tend to end up," the officer huffed.
"Now wait just a minute, this boy needs help, you're supposed to serve and protect, this boy's looking for his family and the other man is clearly unwell…"
"Such outdated human nonsense," the scaly cop huffed.
"Let's just get them back to where they should be," the other officer said.
"Kind of wondering where I should be myself," the Englishman muttered, his accent slipping, taking on an American tone.
"Come on, we're taking you all in, let's get these humans off the streets before the next Incursion hits us," the blue skinned officer shoved the Englishman to the car, whilst the other pulled on the hood of Zack's jumper and pushed the taller man to the car.
"I will happily comply officer, I have nothing to hide," he said.
They were dragged and forced into the cop car, not taking care to push the older man's head down so he wouldn't hit the roof.
"Ow, okay, don't think that's how cops usually treat people, well…kind of might be, sad realities of the Multiverse I suppose," the homeless man said.
His face seemed to change, becoming firmer and less nervous. He even winked at Zack, making the boy question just who his new companion was. They began a long drive, passing people going into their houses as an alarm began to blare.
"Damned incursions, I don't know why lord Magnus doesn't just send his red guard through the portals, take the fight to them," the driver said.
"You know the reason why," the scaly cop said.
"Actually about that, I'm sort of wondering what these whole 'Incursion' things are, you see, I woke up this morning in my bed, chain around my ankle…long story, I sort of got a sleep disorder. Then the next moment I'm waking up on the streets of what clearly isn't London, and what clearly isn't my New York, I mean I can't say I've been to any New York but…"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP FLAT SCAN!" the scaly officer yelled.
"Language sir," said glasses man.
"Did he seriously just say language?" Englishman asked.
"We need to get to the tunnel quick," the blue skinned officer said.
Zack pushed his head against the window, looking to the sky as he saw surges of blue and red energy crackling across it. Day suddenly became night and the tears began to appear. But instead of ships of Thanos's army, there came swarms of solitary figures, people.
"Okay, there are people just, flying, in the sky right there," the British man said.
"Those cannot be flat scans," the blue skinned officer said.
"No, they aren't human," the tone of the glasses man's voice changed, developing a sudden edge to it.
Red beams suddenly came out of the eyes of the people flying, hitting the Helicarriers.
"And now they're going full heat vision, that is frightening!"
"That's it, we haven't logged this guy yet, let's just leave the crazy human," the scaly cop said.
"Do you really want to risk stopping in the middle of this?" his partner asked.
Suddenly, the car was lifted off of the ground. Something was holding it, crushing the pipes underneath the car in a hold no kind of Earthling strength could achieve. 'Somehow' the man with the glasses belt came loose and he was thrown through the window, hurtling into one of the alleys on the streets. The car was suddenly slammed front first into the kerb, the airbags going off for the two cops. Zack and the crazy man were thrown back on their seats, Zack feeling the belt apply pressure to his ribs. The roof of the car was peeled back and a red glow swept over the remaining passengers. Above the car floated what seemed to be a human man, but he was wearing a scaled black suit with a symbol on his chest, the letter seemed alien but vaguely resembled a Z. His eyes were glowing red, and he sneered at the four inside the car.
"All shall belong to Zod," he said.
Something flew into the man, like plastic that wrapped around him. The yellow and red material threw him off, sending him rolling across the floor. All of the car passengers widened their eyes when they saw someone float out of the alleyway. He wore a tight blue suit, with bright red trunks, boots and a cape. His hair was styled with a slight S shape on his coif, and there was a symbol on his chest, a red shield with a yellow background, the red pattern on the shield resembled an S.
"That's enough," he said firmly.
"Who the hell is that?" the Englishman asked.
"Just a friend, also, language!"
Next Chapter 39: House of M to X
Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter