Code Avengers: Cosmic

by lyokoMARVELanime

Sequel to Code Avengers. The Lyoko Avengers are back with all of their friends and allies, and this time, they're taking on new dangers, villains, and challenges, because after saving the universe from being destroyed, how can you really expect any less? Alien invasions, tests of trust, and more will await our heroes as they soar on to new levels of adventure like never before!

13. Avengers Recruit: The Giantess

Hulk: Yeah, guess you never thought I'd be the one to open things up here, but there's a first time for everything. Besides, we're going after someone who's almost as good at smashing as me, and that same person is family, so who better to smash open the start of this chapter than me?

AN: Not another one of our special guests in the main story, I'll tell you that much.

Aelita: Sheesh. What's your problem?

AN: Read the main story and you'll find out.

Ulrich: Oh-kay. Well, should we answer the reviews, or just get right into the action? I mean, since it's been so long, we're sure to have gotten a lot right?

Tony: Hang on. I'm still having JARVIS scroll through them to see which ones we can or can't answer, or even if we have reviews that would require an answer at all. From the look of things though, it seems like the only things that these reviews have been lately are requests on characters that specific reviewers want to see or other similar things like challenges and such.

AN: Because they are. Let me clarify right now, that while some of those requests were already going to happen in this series' continuity, a good majority of them will not be for quite a while. It'll be like third story at least for some of them, but at least one or two things that were asked about will happen in this story. I'm not going to say what because, obviously, revealing that kind of information falls into major spoiler territory.

Aelita: Said the guy who posted a holiday one-shot for this series that reveals a great deal about what happens to us in the future, along with a trailer about what will happen in the second half of this story.

AN: That's completely different in comparison. Look, it doesn't matter. Just start the chapter, please.

Hulk: With pleasure. AVENGERS, SMASH INTO THE CHAPTER!

AN: Close enough...

I do not own anything from any of either of the Code Lyoko or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.

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Chapter 13: Avengers Recruit: The Giantess

Another day in New York can mean a great many different things for a lot of different people. For some, it's just a daily run to the office, or school, or some other location that you need to be at. For others, it's going to meet up with a friend or a group of friends that you may not have seen in a while, or that you just enjoy spending time with in any number of activities. Sadly, this saying also includes what is done by the less savory individuals of the Big Apple, and those folks will tell you that what qualifies as another day in New York would be making some big score in any variety of criminal activity, whether it be robbery, mugging, protection rackets, or whatever else you can think of, all while trying to avoid the cops, Spider-Man, or any other superhero that lives in the city. At this very moment, a small gang of crooks were exercising their very idea of a day at the office, and their target turned out to be a familiar, young blonde woman who had just been walking down the street on her way to meet up with her friends.

"Hey, whaddya doing here, little girl," the first thug questioned as he advanced on the girl. "This is Rolling Sevens turf. You want to get through, you gotta pay up."

"Look, I'm just passing through. I don't want any trouble," the blonde said in an attempt to resolve things peacefully, for all the good it would do.

"Yeah, then you better pay up," the thug snarled as he moved closer, until he finally just shoved her down onto the ground of the alley way.

"Hey, hold up man. Isn't that Captain Stacy's kid," the thug's friend asked, having felt that the blonde was familiar the minute he saw her face.

The thug that had just pushed the blonde back took another look, and after a minute, he chuckled, "Hey, I think you're right. The captain's little girl, all on her lonesome without daddy to protect her."

In truth, Gwen was both frightened by the fact that these creeps recognized her, and a little annoyed by it as well. Sure, she was a police captain's daughter, and she hated how that tended to put a target on her back a lot of times, but she also did not like the fact that it gave the impression that she needed her dad's help to stay safe. Though to be fair, she was the one who had stupidly decided to cut through this alleyway in an attempt to make it to the movie theater where her friends were waiting for after she had overslept, so maybe she did need a little extra help in that department. She was not going to give these guys the satisfaction of knowing that though, and she proved it when she sprang up and attempted to ram her first attacker as hard as she could.

Since he was not expecting it, the thug was a little caught off guard, and Gwen easily managed to knock him to the ground. The minute he was down, Gwen leapt at him and began starting to pummel him as hard as she could, but she was pretty sure that she was hurting her hands more than she was bruising the other guy's face, and the thug's friend must have thought so too, judging by his mocking tone when he spoke. "Hey, look at this! Little Stacy's a fighter after all," the crook laughed. The next thing Gwen knew, she was being pulled off the thug she was attempting to beat down and got thrown into the nearby wall by the same crook who had just been laughing at her. "Too bad it's the last fight you're ever gonna be in."

"Take…Take your best shot, coward," Gwen spat with a glare.

"And that right there, would be your last mistake, bitch," the first thug growled, clearly a little upset by how he was just beaten up by a girl, even if it was not by that much.

Gwen was more than ready for whatever amount of pain came next, even if she was scared of the idea that it could include her getting killed, but what no one expected was that help would arrive to save the daughter of Captain Stacy before either crook could lay so much as another finger on her. The first sign of this help's arrival came when the thug that had shoved Gwen down earlier was suddenly blasted away from her by an energy blast, but it was the second that really got Gwen's attention, because seconds after the energy blast had struck the first creep, a familiar, pink-haired Avenger came swooping down, delivering a kick to the second thug as she landed and retracted her wings. The crooks were not alone though, because another five seemed to file into the alley only seconds later, and that drew a tired, yet still angry glare from the Lyoko Avenger who had stepped in to save the day.

"Does it seriously take this many guys to rob one girl who looks like she's only just finished high school not too long ago, or did you guys have some less than savory intentions to go along with it? Because either way, this whole thing just ticks me off," Angel Guardian questioned while she began to take down Gwen's gang of attackers.

Like Gwen, Aelita was heading for the movie theater, planning to meet up with Peter, the blonde in question, and the rest of Peter's friends, seeing as it had been quite a long time since Aelita had really hung out with the friends that Peter had outside of his hero life. Unlike Gwen, Aelita had not overslept, but she was currently running a bit late. This was mainly because the pinkette had picked up her boyfriend's habit of stopping a few crimes while on her way to various different places, assuming she did not simply decide to travel like any other New Yorker and walk, or take the bus or a cab. As such, Aelita had already been forced to stop and prevent a few crimes from taking place, and was now running just as late as Gwen, but that might have been a good thing, considering that she would probably not have known this was happening if circumstances were any different.

Since these crooks were not supervillains or members of either AIM, HYDRA, or some other group that wore very strong, protective armor, Aelita had to make it a point to try and hold back a little, because she knew that normal criminals were much more vulnerable to serious harm from her energy fields if she did not mind how much energy she put into them. So, with that in mind, Aelita made it a point to use mostly hand-to-hand combat to take down these creeps, and with her enhanced strength added to the small bit of martial arts training that Ulrich had given her, Aelita proved that she was certainly a force to be reckoned with. The added protection of her Lyoko suit definitely helped as well; otherwise, she was sure that the few good hits that these thugs managed to get on her probably would have hurt a lot more than they did while she was powered up.

With a couple last, low-power energy fields, and an assist from her wings to help her gain a little more altitude over the crooks, Aelita had managed to take down all of the thugs in no time at all. The only thing left she had to worry about was checking to make sure that Gwen was all right without doing or saying anything that would risk revealing her secret identity to Peter's friend. Not that she was too worried, but Peter had insisted that Gwen was almost as smart, if not smarter than he was, and even though the two girls had not hung out all that much, Aelita knew that it was probably still enough for Gwen to put the pieces together if she was not careful. Then again, Gwen was still in the dark on the fact that Peter was Spider-Man, so maybe she was just worrying too much about that detail.

"Are you okay, Miss," Aelita asked while holding out a hand to help Gwen up again.

Gwen just stared up at Aelita in awe for a few seconds; apparently still processing what had happened just now, but her brain did seem to eventually start up again, at least to the point that she was able to realize that Aelita was offering her a hand up. Upon accepting said hand and standing again, Gwen was sure that a wide, ecstatic grin was plastered onto her face as she vigorously shook the pinkette's hand. "I-I don't believe it," Gwen gasped a few seconds after she had accepted the hand being offered. "You're…You're Angel Guardian! You're the Angel Guardian, one of the youngest founding Avengers! You're the Lyoko Warrior, Angel Guardian! You're the Lyoko Avenger, Angel Guardian!"

"And probably a dozen other choice titles and/or adjectives that people have come up with since my brother and I first showed up," Aelita calmly finished with a small chuckle, slightly amused by Gwen's little fan-girl freak out moment. She quickly calmed herself down again as she stated, "Listen, Miss…"

"Uh…Stacy. Gwen Stacy. You probably don't remember this, but you met my dad once, and he asked you for your autograph. I still have it in a frame on my nightstand," Gwen eagerly replied. She then cringed a bit while finally drawing back her hand and saying, "And I just realized how weird and embarrassing that is to say out loud."

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with admiring your heroes. Don't ever let anyone tell you different," Aelita reassured Gwen, though she was a little creeped out by the admission. She shook it off though, and picked up where she had left off. "But look, Gwen, that was really brave of you to try and fight those guys off on your own, but next time, maybe you should leave fighting bad guys to the pros, okay?"

"Well, yeah sure, I've got no problem with that," Gwen reassured Aelita, and the pinkette thought that was the end of it, so she prepared to take off again. At least she was until she heard Gwen's next question, "But what if there aren't any pros around? I can't just stand there and take it, you know."

That got Aeltia's attention, and she knew that she had to say something that would discourage the blonde girl from doing anything incredibly reckless, so she turned back to Gwen in order to do just that. "Well, you can't just go around trying to take on people that are twice your size and likely a lot stronger than you," Aelita started to advise, only to realize that she was probably sounding like a hypocrite by saying that. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I do that kind of thing all the time with the Avengers, my brother, and Spidey, but when I do it, I have…"

"Oh! Like that time when you fought Mandarin with Spider-Man, Iron Fist, Hulk, and Hawkeye? That was so awesome," Gwen referenced with great fondness.

"And it's also a great example," Angel Guardian stated. "If the other guy's bigger, and likely heavier and tougher, you gotta be quicker. Find a way to use his size against him, and then try to trip him up."

"Yeah, that's easy for you to say. Sorry, but I just can't do what you do," Gwen disputed, though it still sounded like she was giving Aelita a lot of props.

Even so, Gwen's words seemed to strike a bit of a cord with Aelita, and she knew just how to help Gwen get that idea out of her head. "Do you know any self-defense moves, Gwen," Aelita asked.

"Huh? Well…Not that much, really. Just stuff you see in movies and television. I'm not usually the type to try and punch my way out of things," Gwen admitted with a shrug.

"Alright then, put 'em up," Aelita commanded as she strolled over to Gwen, already starting to assume a simple fighting stance.

"Seriously," Gwen asked in disbelief. Was this actually happening right?

"Yeah, come on," Aelita encouraged, easily answering Gwen's unasked question. When the blonde was standing in front of her with her fists raised in a her body holding a very amateur fighting stance, Aelita began running through some basics that Ulrich had given her when he first started teaching her how to fight without her powers. "First thing, don't let the adrenaline get to you. Breathe slow, breathe deep, and relax. Hips square to your opponent, and let them make the first move."

Gwen did as instructed, taking a slow, deep breath to calm her already rising nerves. Not that you could blame her, considering she was about to take fighting lessons from an Avenger, and not just any Avenger, either. This was her hero, Angel Guardian, so Gwen was determined to take this seriously. After squaring her hips, Gwen just nodded to show she was paying attention, and prompting Aelita to continue. "Now use your feet…and when they go off-balance…look for an opening. Boom!"

Seeing Angel Guardian raise one hand over her arm, Gwen slowly threw her fist into the waiting palm, and asked, "Like that?"

"Yeah! Yeah, that's it," Aelita lightly cheered in encouragement, making Gwen smile a little as she drew back. "Okay, now this time, just let me have it. Right on the jaw, okay?"

"Are…are you sure," Gwen asked, now a bit worried that she might hurt Angel Guardian if she did that.

"Yeah, don't worry," Aelita shrugged. "I can take—URGH!"

"Oh shit," Gwen quietly cried out, because she had just slugged Angel Guardian in the face, and since she was not fully expecting it, the punch had ended up knocking the pinkette a little off-balance before she turned back to the blonde in surprise. "S-Sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to…"

"No! No, no, no, don't worry about it," Aelita reassured her, actually impressed by the amount of power that was behind Gwen's punch. "That's actually really good. You keep that up, and you'll be just fine." Having said that, and seeing the smile that had been brought to Gwen's face when she did, Aelita felt that she had done good here, and turned to leave once more, as she said, "All right, lesson's over. Gotta fly."

"Hey, uh…Angel Guardian," Gwen called out before Aelita could take off. She then pulled out her smartphone and asked, "Would you mind if I…take a quick selfie with you before you go? I just…I want to be able to prove to my friends that I met you, and…uh…be able to wake up tomorrow and convince myself this wasn't a crazy dream, you know?"

"Sure thing," Aelita nodded with a smile. A minute later, the two huddled up alongside one another, grinned widely at the camera lens of Gwen's phone, and after taking one or two pictures, just to make sure Gwen did not end up with any where their eyes were closed, the pinkette turned to leave again.

"Hey uh, thanks, Angel Guardian," Gwen called out.

"Anytime. Be safe now," Aelita promised, and with that, she spread her wings and leapt into the air, flying off in a random direction until she was at a point where she would be out of Gwen's sight well enough so that she could circle back around to her destination later without tipping the blonde off.

Gwen just watched the Lyoko Avenger go for a few minutes in awe, grinning widely all the while, before looking down at her phone, which was currently displaying an image of one of the selfies she had just taken, and whispered, "I just got a few selfies with Angel Guardian…Oh my god, I just punched Angel Guardian! I actually met Angel Guardian! Oh, MJ and the others are never going to believe this! Well…maybe Peter will, seeing as he takes Spider-Man's pictures, but still…Best. Day. Ever!" She then noticed the time on her phone, and said, "Aside from the fact that I'm definitely going to be late now."

With that last realization, Gwen immediately spun around on her heel and took off for the movie theater, hoping that she would not keep her friends waiting for too long, and eager to see the looks on their faces when she told them about what just happened. She did not have to wait for too long, because the theater was just a few blocks away from where she was, so she managed to get there in little time after the whole thing, and she spotted her friends waiting for her outside not long after. She did notice with a bit of surprise that Peter was already there waiting for her as well, while his girlfriend was nowhere to be seen, and Gwen could tell that he was getting a little antsy about the fact that Aelita was not there yet from the way he was fidgeting in place.

Just seconds after she had ran up to them, Mary Jane had taken notice of the blonde, and immediately smiled as she waved her over. "Hey Gwen," the redhead greeted. "We were beginning to think your dad had locked you up for giving him the look one too many times."

Gwen just rolled her eyes at her friend in good humor, though it was mainly because she did not have it in her to get upset. Not after what had just happened a moment ago. "MJ, Pete, Harry, you guys are never going to believe what just happened," Gwen started to say, only to pause part way through when she noticed an unfamiliar face among their number. "Who's this?"

"Oh, he's a friend of Peter and Harry's, and my 'date' for today," MJ casually replied, getting a blush to form on the face of the younger, dark skinned boy. "Gwen, meet Miles Morales. Miles, this is…"

"Gwen Stacy, right," Miles interrupted with a kind smile.

"Yeah. How'd you know," Gwen asked as she accepted the boy's handshake.

"My dad's an officer at NYPD under your dad, and he's taken me to visit the station a few times, so I've seen you around when you visited," Miles explained.

Gwen nodded in return, smiling a little at the fact she was meeting another cop-kid, and the minute she did, Miles could not help but blush once again, this time a little more noticeably. Gwen did not seem to notice it that much, but Harry sure did, and he quickly returned their attention back to what his girlfriend was saying before. "Uh Gwen, what was this thing you were saying that we wouldn't believe?"

"Oh, right," Gwen exclaimed, her mind now back on her original topic of conversation as she dug into her purse for her phone. "Guys, I actually met Angel Guardian!"

"What?! No way," Mary Jane dismissed, but from her smile, it was clear that she was getting excited about what Gwen was implying.

"Sorry babe, but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to call bullshit on that," Harry denied with a small smile.

"Oh really? Then check this out," Gwen countered, flashing her phone towards the group upon locating one of the selfies she had taken earlier with said Avenger.

"Whoa," the other four all gasped in awe, though Peter had a bit of something extra in his voice. It went widely unnoticed though, since the others were very wrapped up in the pictures on Gwen's phone and her tale of what had happened a moment ago.

She had just gotten about halfway through her impromptu training session with the pinkette when Aelita finally came bounding in from around the corner, panting in slight exhaustion as she did. "Hey! I'm here! Sorry I'm late," Aelita called out as she skidded to a halt before the group. "I missed my bus and couldn't get a cab to save my life afterwards."

"Why didn't you just get a lift from your brother," Harry questioned.

"He's busy with something for work," Aelita immediately replied. She then noticed how everyone was crowding around Gwen, and that there was now a new face to Peter's circle of friends that she did not recognize. Having heard from Peter about a bright kid that had recently started volunteering at the homeless shelter Peter's aunt was now working at, one name immediately came to Aelita's mind, and she quickly said, "Oh, hi there. You must be Miles, right?"

"Yep, that's me," Miles confirmed.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Peter's girlfriend, Aelita," the pinkette nodded in return. Hearing that made Miles give Peter a nod of smiling approval, the kind that made Aelita roll her eyes a little in good humor knowing what it likely meant before she turned her attention to the other thing she had noticed. "So, what were you guys all talking about before?"

"Just the fact that Gwen finally met her big hero, Angel Guardian, in person," Mary Jane replied, and not more than a moment later, Gwen was rushing over to show Aelita the selfies.

Naturally, Aelita was not entirely surprised by the revelation, but for the sake of both hers and to some extent, Peter's secret identities, she made an effort to pretend otherwise. "Oh wow! That's so cool," Aelita exclaimed in her best show of acting. "Hey, did you happen to ask her if that's her natural hair color? I've always been a little curious about that."

"Sorry, but it never really came up. I was a bit wrapped up in the excitement of just meeting her and then learning a few things about how to fight from her," Gwen shrugged.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I was just wondering," Aelita shrugged in return.

"Hey if anything, we should be worried about you, Aelita," Harry teased. "I think Peter's chronic tardiness is starting to rub off on you. Either that, or you two just switched internal clocks today, seeing as he's on time while you're slightly late."

Some of the others did laugh a little at the joke, especially when Aelita pouted a little in response to it, but they were surprised to see that Peter was smirking humorously along with the rest of them in an attempt to not laugh as well. Needless to say, that got his pink haired girlfriend a little annoyed. "Peter," Aelita scolded. "That's not funny!"

"I-I know! I'm sorry, but you have to admit that…" Peter started to argue, only to stop short when Aelita came closer to him, right to where he could feel her breath on his ear.

"You say one more word, and you won't get to see me naked again for a month," Aelita whispered in warning, and from the cute yet oddly devious smile on her face, Peter knew she was serious about that.

Peter blushed a little bit after he heard that, but any laughter of his still came to an end upon hearing her remark. As a result, he quickly jumped to his girlfriend's defense and stuttered, "Uh…You-you have to admit that it just means that she wouldn't be waiting for me to show up for our dates, since I would be just as late, if not later."

When Peter turned a pleading look to her, clearly praying that would appease any of her previous annoyance, Aelita made it a point to let things hang in the air for a minute, just to make him squirm a bit. Some would think that this was not something Aelita would normally do, but she would easily explain it off by saying that seeing Peter so nervous like that was kind of cute. Finally, she put an end to his misery by kissing his cheek and then whispering, "You're off the hook…For now."

The laughter of the others had become much quieter at that point, but now it was turned on Peter and how whipped he clearly was. Peter knew that they were making fun of him for the fact, and part of him wished that he could explain his reasons for being slightly scared of Aelita's devious and angry sides just so they would stop at least a little bit. Thankfully, someone did end up taking pity on him, as Miles stepped forward and said, "All right, enough funny stuff. Let's get in there already. I don't care if we miss a few previews, but I've heard that this movie is supposed to be really great, and I don't want to miss a minute."

"I'm with you there," Mary Jane agreed, and just like that, she and the other girls were leading the boys inside the theater.

They all breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that the line at the concession stand was not too long after getting their tickets, and since there was usually twenty minutes of previews before the actual movie started, they did not bother trying to race up to the greeter stand once they were all set. As they were approaching the young, dark brown haired man dressed in the all-black theater uniform, with a red undershirt slightly visible underneath the collar of his shirt, and glasses with thick, black frames, Gwen could not help but wonder, "Hey Aelita? Just what is it that your brother's doing for your work right now, anyway?"

"Let's just say that it's part of a…recruitment drive that the job's been holding recently, and he and another coworker had to go out of town to look into a potential prospect very early this morning," Aelita explained.

"What do you and your brother do, anyway," Miles asked, making Aelita freeze a little upon hearing that question. "Peter never really explained that when he brought it up."

Aelita was not sure how to answer, since she never really came up with much more of a solid cover story for her and Ulrich when hanging out with Peter's friends, or any of their other non-superhero friends. She figured that she could say that she worked for Tony Stark, but that came with the risk of her secret identity being a little more easily exposed. In addition to that, there was also the problem that Tony was not really talking with the Avengers after that whole fiasco in the mansion that followed his and Ulrich's meeting with Fury, so that would made it even more of a bad cover. Thankfully, she was saved from answering by the greeter who was waiting to tear their tickets, and she quickly handed hers over along with the others'.

"Alright folks…Hop a carpet and fly to another Arabian night in theater seven," the greeter smiled as he tore the tickets and returned their stubs to them, getting a good laugh out of the group upon hearing the line.

"Do they tell you to say that," Mary Jane could not help but ask.

"Nope. I'm just supposed to tell you what theater your movie's in. Everything else, namely the clever catchphrases, is all me," the greeter chuckled in return, clearly proud of his work and happy with his job.

"Cool," Aelita nodded in approval. She then took a quick glance at the greeter's nametag, making a note to mention him in any online reviews she made about this place later, and then followed after the others as she said, "Well, thanks a bunch, Dave."

"You're very welcome, Miss," Dave grinned in return. "And enjoy the magic."

The group could not help but smile in good humor once again as they continued on their way to the designated theater. Still Peter could not help but glance back at Dave for a few seconds and then asked Aelita, "Does that guy seem at all familiar to you? I feel like I've seen him somewhere before."

"Hmm…He does seem kind of familiar, but I can't really put my finger on it," Aelita shrugged. She then lowered her voice a bit more so that the others could not overhear and said, "But then again, we both do save a lot of people when we're out on patrol, so maybe he's someone we saved at some point or another."

Peter had to figure that she was right in her guess, and just left it at that for the moment. Right now, he was more interested in the movie they were about to see, like the rest of his friends. Aelita on the other hand, while focused on the movie, was also a bit concerned about her adoptive brother, because considering who his partner for this latest recruit hunt was, there was no telling what Ulrich was going to be getting into, or just who they were going to meet.

---

With the sun beating down on him, the wind in his face, and the scorching hot sands and small mountain ranges in the distance every few miles or so, Ulrich could not help but feel a little nostalgic right now. Not that you could blame him, because it had been a long time since he last raced across a desert landscape on his bike while in the midst of an important mission. The only things that were preventing him from having a full blown case of déjà vu was the fact that the Overbike 2.0 had two wheels as opposed to the one, and the loud booms and roars that came every few minutes or so with Hulk's landings and subsequent take-offs as the gamma giant jumped to their destination. Ulrich was a little worried that Hulk would get tired of traveling like that after so long, but the big guy had insisted that he would be fine getting to where they needed to go with his usual method of travel. In fact, Hulk had even insisted that they would not need to take a Quinjet to get there, but after crossing half the country and all the way into New Mexico, Ulrich was now sure that he should not have listened to the big guy, both for Hulk's sake, and that of his bike, considering that, even with all of the advanced tech in it, he did still need to refuel the Overbike 2.0 every now and then.

"Hey, are you sure you don't want to let Banner take over so you can ride with me," Ulrich asked once again over his visor's comm. device, knowing that the big guy would hear him.

"Yes, I'm positive," Hulk immediately replied as he reached the peak of his most recent leap forward. "Besides, we're almost there anyway."

"That's what you said ten miles back," Ulrich reminded him.

"And I meant it, but this time when I say it, I mean it even more," Hulk retorted.

Ulrich just rolled his eyes a little before muttering, "Note to self, never let Hulk be navigator again." He then fixed his eyes on the road ahead of them, and continued diving in silence for a moment or two. When he next spoke up, it was only to ask the other question he had not been able to get a real answer for ever since Hulk told him about how they were going to get this next recruit. "So can you tell me who this person we're going after is now?"

"No. I don't want to spoil the surprise," Hulk repeated once again, and making Ulrich's worries grow a little more just like the last few times. Normally when Hulk had a surprise, it usually involved smashing something, and while no one on the Avengers complained too much, given that it was usually an out of the way area that would not result in anyone getting hurt, there were times when it got them into trouble. Ulrich could still remember the last time that he was dragged along for one of Hulk's surprises. To make a long story short, Ulrich had lost any taste for seafood for a long time after that day, so he could only hope that this one ended with much better results.

A few hours later, Hulk finally stated that they had arrived, and the two came to a stop just on the edge of what Ulrich could only assume was a movie set, given all the large light stands and cameras that were set up around the area, along with a few stunt doubles and some movie stars that he vaguely recognized. After looking around for a minute and not seeing anyone that could be their guy, Ulrich finally turned to Hulk and said, "I think you might be a little lost, Big Guy. Unless the director is a big name in Hollywood who can give the Avengers a huge movie that'll make the bad guys give up their evil ways just because they think the movie is so great, I don't think we'll find any possible recruits here."

"Well, yeah, of course these guys aren't going to cut it," Hulk shrugged like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Then why are we…" Ulrich started to ask, until he heard the tell-tale sounds of a plane coming in very fast for a likely crash-landing.

Turning to the sky to see a burning plane that was falling fast, Ulrich just missed the small smile on Hulk's face as they watched the jet came flying in and then slammed into the hard, sandy ground. A second later, the canopy of the cockpit was forced open, and someone in a full-body pilot suit climbed out, with flames covering several points of their body, even as they finally dropped to the ground. If Ulrich did not know that they were watching professionals on a movie set, he probably would have raced in to try and put the fires out so that he could help the pilot, but he was really worried when he noticed that most of the crew did not appear too concerned about their enflamed coworker. Even with the director called cut and told someone to put the stuntman out, he did so like he was just talking about the weather, and Ulrich was now starting to think that he should take action. At least, until the pilot finally stood up and waved off the man who was approaching with the fire extinguisher.

"It's okay. I've got this," the pilot reassured the crewman in a very distinctively female voice. A minute later, she spun around really fast, and put all the fires on her out in a move that you would normally only see a speedster pulling off, surprising Ulrich quite a bit.

"Oh no! Uh-uh! We've already filled our quota on speedsters, and I've got enough to deal with just from the few encounters and calls I've shared with Quicksilver," Ulrich soon insisted after getting over his shock and drawing up the first conclusion that came to mind after that.

"What makes you think she's a speedster," Hulk questioned, his smile never once fading.

Ulrich would have replied had he not noticed that the woman had pulled off her gloves, revealing the very green hands underneath, and then watched as she removed her helmet to uncover her head, shaking her head so that her jade-colored hair could flow freely from its previous confinement with a smile. "Whoa," Ulrich gasped in awe, barely aware of what he was saying before it had escaped his mouth. "Never thought I'd see the day that I'd find someone with green skin to be so hot." When he heard his friend growling at him in warning, Ulrich could only shrug in return before his mind finally started catching up to him, and he started to put a few pieces together. "Wait a minute…Are you…Is she…Did you bring us out here to recruit your sister or something?"

"Close, but not quite," Hulk corrected, and he then turned back to the green woman when he saw that she had a break from her conversation with the director. "Jen!"

Hearing the big guy's loud roar, a lot of the set's crewmembers could not help but jump a little in fright, making Ulrich narrow his eyes at them from behind his visor. Hulk on the other hand, paid them no mind, as he was more focused on the green woman who was now beaming at him so brightly, you would think that her smile was the sun itself. "Hey big guy," Jen practically cheered before pouncing on Hulk with a massive hug that only two Hulks could share with each other. "How's my favorite cousin?"

"Uh…cousin," Ulrich repeated in his dazed and confused state. His mind was quickly turning to mush at what he was seeing and hearing.

"Been good. Smashed some bad guys here, saved the world there, and there was also the fact that I helped save the whole universe recently," Hulk shrugged like it was no big deal.

"And you're just not going to bother mentioning that you now work with the Avengers," Jen asked, almost making Ulrich think she was scolding Hulk had he not seen her smile. "Seriously, how do you not think to call and tell me about that?!" When Hulk just shrugged again in response, Jen merely shook her head at him, ultimately finding Ulrich in her line of sight when she did. "And speaking of which, it looks like you brought one of the cute ones along with you," Jen noted as she walked over to Ulrich, with Hulk right beside her.

The minute she started drawing closer, Ulrich had to both strain his neck and make a very conscious effort to keep his eyes on her face, because it quickly became clear that she was definitely a giant of a woman when he noticed that he only came up to her chest. That must have earned him a few favorable points, because he could have sworn that Jen smiled a little more when she and Hulk reached him again. Too bad that it also had the side effect of rendering him unable to properly form a sentence right away. "Um…Hi, I'm Ul—I mean, Sprint Samurai, Hulk's friend and teammate. Well, I also consider him to be like family too, but I didn't think he had other family. I mean, I knew he must've had family somewhere, but he never really talks about it, and I didn't think he had family like you. N-not that there's anything wrong with you, I just meant like, family who was…was…"

"Hulked out," Jen finished for him, saving Ulrich from feeling like he was digging himself into a very, very deep hole. "Yeah, that's a bit of a long story. Short version is, I got into an accident a while back, Bruce had to give me a blood donation to save me, and then next thing I know, I'm taller, stronger, and a lot greener in the literal sense than before."

"Oh…Cool," Ulrich sighed, glad to have gotten the answer to that question without having to worry about asking it in a way that she might have found offensive. He then found a little more of his usual confidence again, and held out his hand to shake as he said, "Well, it's nice to meet you, Miss…"

"Walters, Jennifer Walters. My friends call me Jen, and most other people, be they fellow heroes or bad guys, call me She-Hulk," Jen filled in while grasping Ulrich's hand as lightly as she could. Not that it made much difference, given that Ulrich still felt like his hand was being crushed, but that was to be expected from someone with gamma strength. Upon releasing Ulrich's hand, and suppressing her chuckles at seeing him shake it a little to regain feeling, Jen turned to her cousin and asked, "So what brings you guys out here? You come to be in the movies, or are you just here to hang out with family?"

"If only that were the case," Ulrich muttered to himself.

"There's some big trouble on the horizon, and the Avengers have recently become really short-handed," Hulk explained, taking the reins of the conversation. "We've gotten some new recruits on board, but I figured that it wouldn't hurt to have a few more folks that were Hulk-sized, or at least close to my weight class. You interested?"

"Are you kidding? Hell yes," Jen cheered.

"Wow that was quick. Are you sure you don't want to at least think about it first? I mean, from what I can tell, you'd be leaving a pretty big career in the movies if you join up with us, and that's without accounting for the fact that you'd be likely to run into stuff that's even given Hulk a hard time," Ulrich cautioned.

"Dude, it's not as big as you think. I'm just a one-woman stunt team here, and honestly, this is far from the life I ever imagined for myself," Jen waved off, making it clear how little she thought of her job. "I mean, who would want to be a walking, talking crash-test dummy? But when you're a six-foot-five, indestructible, green-skinned woman, your career options are…limited, to say the least."

"Hey come on. They can't be that bad. I mean, you did finish that law degree of yours despite what happened," Hulk tried to reassure her, but from what Ulrich could tell, there was an undercurrent of guilt in his voice that easily told him the big guy's feelings on his cousin being gamma-ed up like this.

"Sure, but how many practices do you know of that would hire me," Jen countered. She then saw the downcast expression that was starting to fall on Hulk's face, and quickly said, "Hey, I'm not saying that it's all bad, and you definitely shouldn't blame yourself for what happened. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't even be alive right now, so if there's a setback or two, I'm more than happy to run with it."

Ulrich had to smile at hearing that, and from the fact that he had now met another person who definitely saw past the poor image others had tried to pain the Hulk with. Sure, it may have been a family member that was in the same boat as him, but that actually made it better in his eyes. Ulrich was sure that there were more than a few people out there who would hate the person responsible if they were in Jen's place. "So, I guess that means you're in? No hang-ups of any kind or problems that need to be resolved to worry about before we go," Ulrich then asked, breaking up the family moment before it got too deep.

"Nope. Not unless you count the paperwork that'll likely be involved with the movie producers and director to officially signify that I'm done working for this show," Jen shrugged, a little surprised by the last question. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason. It's just that every time we've gone out looking to bring in a new team member lately, there's always been some kind of catch or hoop that we've had to deal with before we could get them on board with us," Ulrich shrugged. Unfortunately, it turned out that the Lyoko samurai had spoken too soon, because barely more than a few seconds after he had spoken, an explosion went off somewhere nearby, and people were all quickly scattering to either get into cover or as far away as possible. "Please tell me that's just part of whatever movie these guys are filming?"

"Urgh, I wish," Jen groaned as she eyed the helicopter that had just come roaring in from overhead.

"You know what's going on, Jen," Hulk asked, but his answer came not from his cousin, but from a very high-pitched, irritating voice that made Hulk growl in a way that Ulrich normally only heard when he was annoyed with either Thor or Hawkeye.

"Yoo-hoo! Watch me, Mommy! Watch me," the person in question shouted before he dropped down from the helicopter, earning a groan of misery from She-Hulk, another growl from Hulk, and a look of confusion from Ulrich. The person in question who had appeared was a lanky looking man ("Hey! I am not lanky!"), in a full body suit that was colored red and black, honestly making Ulrich think of Spider-Man's suit, just minus the webs ("Oh please! Spidey wishes he looked as good as me!"). Strapped to his back on a large harness, were a pair of swords, while a set of guns were holstered on either side of his belt, and the pose he struck while yelling at the sky, only made Ulrich grow more and more confused with every passing minute, even as the man continued to speak so that he could finally introduce himself. "And now, at long last, making his big debut in the main story of a lyokoMARVELanime fanfiction, the one, the only…Dead—oh, look at you."

The last part of what this…person was saying was the only thing that Ulrich really got, and that was only because the mystery man was looking at him when he said it. "What about me," Ulrich questioned, not noticing the silent signals that the two Hulks were giving him to not respond.

"I just…thought you'd be taller. Or at least a little more buff. You know, break the whole 'runner's build' thing that all speedsters seem to have, since you fight in a way that isn't just running around punching bad guys without them noticing. Oh well, it's not like it matters since this is just a written story and not a movie or TV show, am I right," the man chuckled.

"Yeah…You had me, and then you lost me again," Ulrich informed the obvious nutcase. He then looked to the other two and asked, "Do either of you know who this guy is?"

"WHAT?! Who am I? WHO am I," the crazy man repeated in disbelief. The next thing anyone knew, the masked maniac was on Hulk, and overacting a sense of sadness. "Oh Hulk, don't tell me you and Logan haven't been telling your friends about me! Why, I'm hurt! Sad! Heartbroken! And a little hungry, but that's not your fault. It's the author's for making me come out here while I was in the middle of eating supper. I told him that he couldn't just pull me out here whenever like he seems to with you guys, but apparently, my schedule really doesn't matter all that much, and this is coming from a guy who plans to expand this little universe into…"

Anything more he was going to say was cut off when Hulk finally tore the man off of him, and growled, "What did I say about you touching me?"

"…To only do it if you looked like you needed a hug? Because you like warm hugs? Just like that snowman from Frozen," the crazy man with an obvious death wish eventually replied.

Hulk's corresponding answer was to toss the psycho up a little and then punch him as hard as he could, sending the man flying away and Ulrich into a state of gaping surprise. He had never seen Hulk punch someone like that so carelessly, and from what he could tell, the guy did not possess the same level of fortitude, strength, or invulnerability as most of their enemies. "Hulk, did you just…" Ulrich started to ask.

"Wait for it," Jen tiredly interrupted.

"Okay, that's fair," the psycho's voice suddenly stated from somewhere next to Ulrich. The samurai hero immediately spun around and saw that somehow, the guy was already back and standing right next to him. "I suppose comparing you to Olo is a little mean, but hey, he's a favorite character from the movie. Just like I am in my movie, and like how I should be in this series, assuming the author wasn't a total hater. Luckily I finally bribed him into letting me show up here."

(To be clear, he didn't bribe me. I just got sick of him bothering me so much. To be more accurate, I told him I would let him appear in one chapter if he would go away and not bother me in this or any of the other stories, or at the very least the ones that weren't Marvel related ever again. I'm not so sure if he will stay away from all of them, but since a good majority of the stories these days are not all Marvel-based ones…Yeah, I think you can see where this is going, right?)

"Hey! Making a weird, fourth-wall breaking expose in the middle of a serious story is my thing, Author! Don't steal my thing," the nut-job suddenly shouted to the sky.

"Seriously? Who is this guy," Ulrich asked once again.

"Samurai, meet Deadpool. The Merc with a Mouth, and the biggest headache you'll ever have to endure," Hulk finally revealed.

"He says he's an anti-hero, but the honest truth is that he'll only do anything heroic if he gets paid for it, and it isn't always in the typical sense," She-Hulk added on, her scowling face giving Ulrich a very good indicator of what those "other methods of payment" were.

Shaking the unsavory thoughts from his head, Ulrich then asked the next obvious question. "Okay, so…Who is he talking to?"

"No one knows. It's just some weird thing he does," Hulk sighed.

"I'm honestly starting to think he doesn't even know," She-Hulk muttered. "Any other questions?"

"Yeah, how is he…" Ulrich started to ask, only to be interrupted when Deadpool suddenly appeared next to him again.

"Back from that flight across New Mexico already? Teleporter belt, baby," the merc answered. "Just one of many cool things that come with being as awesome as me, and for the record, Author, Spider-Man wishes he could be this cool!" Barely seconds later, Deadpool's phone rang, and he did not hesitate to answer it. "Hello? Oh hey lyokoMARVELanime! We were just talking about…What? What do you mean I wish I was as awesome as Spider-Man?!...Well what does the number of movies and video games have to do with…Okay, fine, so he's in the MCU and I'm not. Big deal. I'm gonna get there eventually…No, it's not going to be next century around the first week of Neveruary! But it is gonna happen! You just watch…Oh! Oh, you wanna go there?! Well, I've got a grenade with your name on it, Mister…" Just before Deadpool could say the other person's name, his helicopter finally crashed into the mountain, proving that the merc had not set the autopilot before jumping out like the idiot that he is. To be honest, everyone was more surprised that thing had not crash-landed on top of him not seconds after he had jumped out than they were that it had just randomly crashed somewhere that was surprisingly close to his position. "Touché, Writer Boy. And I guess I probably deserved that for nearly saying your real name out loud. Fine. Have it your way," Deadpool conceded before hanging up the phone and then grumbling to himself. "You know, you could've just had me 'yelling at the sky' if you wanted to have a conversation with me, and responded with more of that bold text in parentheses like you did a few paragraphs ago." He then finally turned his attention back to the only real heroes that were in the area ("Hey!"), and asked, "Any other questions that you would like to ask me, kid?"

"You mean aside from the one about how you're even still alive," Ulrich asked.

"Oh right, well that's easy," Deadpool shrugged before spreading his arms wide like he was making a grand presentation. "Mutant baby! Or mutate, the author didn't really specify for this story, but the point is, I got me a healing factor like Wolverine's, only mine's better."

"So…You're like some secret X-Man or something," Ulrich guessed.

"Ohoho…No," Deadpool immediately denied, wagging a finger in Ulrich's face as he did, and starting the process of fraying Ulrich's nerves as well. "No, no, nononononono, no. I am not an X-Man, but I really should've been in more of their movies. Maybe then some of the newer ones wouldn't have been such flops, kinda like my second one was…Wait a minute; my second movie wasn't a flop! Why did I say that?!" Deadpool then looked to the sky again and shouted, "Hey, Author! If that was your doing, I will be replacing your bed sheets with live grenades!"

"Ooo-kaaaay," Ulrich droned under his breath, starting to get why Hulk and Jen were apparently ignoring every other thing that came out of this guy's mouth. "Just one last question: what are you even doing here?"

"I'm glad you asked, Mister Stern," Deadpool cheered, ending his latest rant at the sky.

"Wait, how do you…" Ulrich began to question, only to be interrupted before he could finish.

"I read the earlier chapters. Didn't bother with the first story because I thought it was unimportant, you know, since I wasn't in it," Deadpool answered. "You see, I'm basically here so that I can stop Shulkie over there from ever moving in on my territory."

"Still don't know what the hell you're talking about, maniac," She-Hulk shouted.

"Um, duh! The Fourth Wall Breaking," Deadpool snapped.

"The what," Hulk and Ulrich could not help but ask.

"The Fourth Wall Breaking," Deadpool reiterated. "You see, I'm known for my constant breaking of the fourth wall, and yet somehow, the oversized, green Amazon of a 'lady' is the first Marvel character to do it?! Well, maybe in some continuities, but not this one, and I plan on making sure that She-ra over there never gets the chance."

"Okay, ignoring the insults to Jen, and while there's still a chance to keep Hulk from tearing you in half," Ulrich started to say, eyeing both Hulks as their tempers obviously rose more and more with each insult that Deadpool made against She-Hulk.

"For all the good it'll do," Jen muttered.

"How exactly do you plan to prevent…whatever it is you were talking about?"

"Oh easy. I'm gonna un-alive her," Deadpool stated as simply as you please.

"Un-alive her," Ulrich questioned, having never heard something like that before.

"Hey, we're owned by Disney, so I'm pretty sure we can't really curse or say the actual word that is the opposite of alive, or it could be that the author's just writing my dialogue that way in an attempt to make it seem funny, despite the fact that I'm not," Deadpool shrugged, only to turn an angry look at the sky again. "I AM TOO FUNNY!"

That was when his meaning clicked into place for Ulrich and he immediately activated his Lyoko suit before drawing his sabers. "Yeah, that's not going to happen," Ulrich insisted, while Hulk cracked his knuckles, and Jen shed the rest of her flight suit to reveal her white and purple, sleeveless top and shorts that were underneath. "If you think we're going to let you kill anyone, then you've got another thing coming."

"I'd watch yourself, Sword Boy. Deadpool's infamous for killing everyone and anyone if they're even slightly in the way of his target, even if it's just a civilian who happened to be in the area," Hulk warned him.

"Yeah, I got that from his earlier entrance," Ulrich whispered in return, while trying to ignore the way Deadpool was eyeing his sabers and his suit.

"Oooh, shiny! How'd you make it do that? Are you actually from one of the Kingdom Hearts stories? Oh, or maybe from that RWBY series? No, wait, they can't make clothes and weapons change and appear like magic, except for that cute Neo kid. Now that's a murderous little sweetheart. Is it some weird Inhuman thing then," Deadpool questioned.

"Some weird what," Ulrich asked, letting his guard down a bit.

"Oh, right, that's not something the story's gotten to yet. Never mind. Guess I'll just un-alive you and the two mountain kids now," Deadpool shrugged, whipping out his swords and rushing at them before anyone knew what was happening.

Ulrich was at the forefront in an instant, blocking Deadpool's wild swings with his own sabers, but with the way that the masked nutcase fought, Ulrich could barely keep up. Sure, he had fought against people that did not use a specific style of combat before, but Deadpool's was not just wild and random, it had absolutely no pattern to it at all! It was like he was fighting some wacky cartoon character ("Aw, he's giving me props!") (Okay, you need to stop that, or I'm kicking you out of the story with zero chance of coming back). Thankfully, Ulrich had more than just his skills with his blades going for him, and a few quick bursts of super sprint was all he needed to even the playing field out and get the drop on Deadpool, a point that was emphasized when the Merc with a Mouth had his feet kicked out from under him by Sprint Samurai himself.

"You know, I've really gotta ask, why did you settle for Sprint Samurai? I mean, I know for a fact that at least one reviewer for the last story thought that you and the pink haired babe that you've decided to make your sister instead of your new love interest coulda done better. What, was the author lazy or something, or did he just pick one name and think it worked best," Deadpool questioned like he did not have a saber pointed at his throat. "Seriously, why make her your sister and not your new girlfriend, or at least do the bedroom tango with her? I can think of quite a few fellas that woulda tapped that."

"Dude! What is wrong with you," Ulrich snapped, honestly disgusted that the possible mutant would suggest something like that about Aelita alone, never mind him and Aelita.

"Well that's actually a pretty long list, not counting the fact that I kill a lot people without really caring, how I pretty much objectify every woman I've ever known or at least seen, how I kill a lot of people without caring, the fact that the stuff Weapon X did to me made me completely insane, and of course the fact that I kill a lot of people without really caring. Just so you know, the author's the one who's making me mention the killing stuff, even it is true," Deadpool shrugged. He then glanced from side to side and asked, "But seriously, are you really okay with missing out on your chance with her before she apparently decided that Spider-Twerp was gonna be her new f…"

"Okay, that does it! I'm leaving you to get smashed," Ulrich interrupted before Deadpool could finish his sentence.

"Wait, do you mean smashed as in incredibly drunk, 'cause uh, I can't get drunk. Like I said, healing factor that's better than Wolverine's. Like better as in he'd be really jealous of how good it is if he didn't absolutely hate me and want to gut me at every opportunity, kinda like how he and Sabertooth did in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Yeah, now that's a movie we don't really like to talk about in great…" Deadpool started to ramble again, until he noticed the two large shadows that had fallen over him after Ulrich had stepped away. "Oh…You meant that kind of smashed."

"Like there's a better one," She-Hulk shouted from up above the two.

"HULKS SMASH," the original gamma hero roared as he and his cousin came crashing down on top of Deadpool with all of their might.

Even with all the dust in the air, Ulrich was sure that would shut up Deadpool for a while, and he only grew more certain when his two green friends came leaping out from the dust cloud. That would probably explain why he suddenly felt the need to deliver a small quip after they had landed next to him. "You just gotta love these family bonding moments," the samurai joked, earning him an odd look from both Hulks. "Sorry. I think I might've been hanging out with Hawkeye and, to some extent, Spidey a little too much lately."

"Hey, nothing wrong with the latter," Deadpool suddenly commented, much to all three heroes' surprise. Then again, considering what they knew he had survived up until now, Hulk and She-Hulk probably should not have been too shocked by his recovery. "I mean, I may rip on the kid, but I do admit that he's got some impressive qualities to him. Nobody came make me laugh like he can, and that's not just the author making me say that, it's just as much me admitting that Spider-Man is the superior hero between the two of us…Okay, that last bit was the author, and now I feel dirty since I've basically quoted Doc Ock's last line at the end of that whole Superior Spider-Man thing in the comics. Another thing that the author and I can agree on, that whole thing was a nightmare just from the fact that Doc Ock was wearing the Spidey suit."

"Okay, now what're you going on about," Ulrich questioned.

"Nothing that you need to worry about, since that plan's never going to happen. Well, at least not in this continuity, but it is at least going to be referenced when…" Deadpool started to explain, only to stop short when something burst out from under the ground behind him. The three heroes and the maniac all turned their attention towards the thing and were left rather stunned at the sight of an enormous beast unlike any they had ever seen. If they had to choose any words to describe the monster though, they would have to have simply said that it looked like one, big nasty worm. "Wow. Even when I'm in the actual story, the author still finds ways to stop me from giving spoilers," Deadpool could be heard muttering. (Damn right I do, and I'm gonna enjoy this next part) "Oh, so when I do that it's bad, but when you do it, it's okay?! Not cool, Author!" (When I do it, it's necessary. By the way, enjoy the ride) "What ride?"

Ulrich was right about to ask once again who Deadpool was talking to when suddenly, the monster worm came crashing down on top of Deadpool, seemingly swallowing him whole and then slithered off back into the hole it had crawled out of. Luckily, no one was hurt by its retreat, but it still left a big matter to address. "What was that thing," Ulrich questioned.

"Not sure, but it did us a big favor," She-Hulk grinned, happy to finally have that nutcase off of her back. "Now, who's up for some burgers before we hit the road?"

"Hang on. Shouldn't we go after it? I mean, what if there's more down there just waiting to come up and attack innocent people," Ulrich pointed out. "And besides, we should probably try and save Deadpool, too."

"Should we," both Hulks practically whined.

"Yes! That's what heroes do! We save people, even if we don't like them," Ulrich reminded them both.

"Okay, but…must we," She-Hulk countered. "I mean, Deadpool's gotten blown up by God knows what time and time again, and somehow, he's always popping back up again later on like nothing ever happened. Getting rid of him for good for most people is like Elmer Fudd actually getting Bugs Bunny."

"Yep. No one can ever really get rid of that guy, so if that thing's going to keep him busy for a while, I say we leave him to it," Hulk agreed.

"Well sure, we can do that, and basically be like the monster that people all stupidly think you are, Hulk, or we can be the bigger men…and woman, and save him from a horrible fate," Ulrich continued to argue. When the two Hulks both huffed and crossed their arms in refusal, he decided to try playing a different card and pointed out, "You know, going after him would mean that we wouldn't have to listen to those movie guys ranting at us about how their set's more than likely been messed up by the whole thing like Jameson often does about Spider-Man, so there's also that."

At that point, Hulk and Jen finally took notice of how much damage and destruction had been inflicted on the surrounding landscape, including to the movie set that Jen was just working on, and true to Ulrich's word, the film crew did look very upset about the whole thing, even though they were all still alive and relatively unscathed. Not that it mattered to the movie stars, but from what Ulrich could tell, they were the stereotypical Hollywood stars, so he was sure that they were going to throw up a fuss about sustaining even the smallest scratch, and from the look on Jen's face, that was probably a safe bet.

"Okay, let's go save the idiot, perverted mercenary and likely stop an invasion of worm monsters from destroying the world," She-Hulk quickly decided, taking the lead in jumping down the hole as fast as possible.

"Wait up, Jen," Hulk called as he followed after her.

"Hey! You know, if you should wait up for someone, you should probably wait for the guy who convinced you to go along with this whole thing, or at least wait for me to grab my bike so that I'll be able to get back out again without needing one of you to carry me," Ulrich shouted, looking between where his bike was parked and the hole in an attempt to decide whether or not he would need it that badly. In the end, he just settled for running after the two gamma heroes without the bike, knowing that it would be likely to end up destroyed if they had to fight those worm monsters, Deadpool, or both, and besides that, going for the bike also meant having to pass the angry film crew, and that was not a battle Ulrich was really up for getting into.

---

Words cannot describe how thankful Ulrich was that the tunnel that the worm monster made was not a straight drop all the way down. If that had been the case, he was sure that even the protection his suit provided would not have been able to handle the stress. Sure, he might not have ended up with any broken bones upon landing, assuming he did land correctly, but that did not mean he would be feeling a great deal of pain in his legs for several hours afterwards. Considering that his main method of fighting normally involved a use of his super sprint, it was pretty obvious to anyone why that would be something Ulrich would want to avoid, just like the reason why he was so glad that the drop had become a steep, downwards slope that turned much steadier as time went on.

The only real complaint he had was how he had to put in a little bit of his enhanced speed in order to keep up with the jade cousins that had so much of a head-start on him, but that was nothing compared to how he had to listen to the two grumble about what they were doing when he managed to finally catch up and keep pace without the extra boost. Now, don't misunderstand, Classic and She-Hulk had no problem with saving lives and making sure that the worm monster was not going to be a threat to anyone, but in regards to rescuing Deadpool, it was a wonder that they had not smashed Ulrich when he first suggested it. Even after that brief encounter he had with the maniac, Sprint Samurai definitely had a firm grasp on why they disliked the man so much, especially after listening to his comments about Aelita, but no matter how much someone annoyed you, it was still their duty as heroes to help the person in question. Of course, Jen seemed to think that he would change his mind the next time they saw Deadpool when he mentioned that point, and Ulrich knew better than to try and argue with the original Hulk. He did not want to think about what would happen if he got on She-Hulk's bad side, so he kept quiet after the most recent bit of insistence.

When their descent finally came to an end and flattened out onto even ground, the three began to take a little more notice of their surroundings, and quickly spotted what looked like old cave drawings. Some were of the worm monster that had apparently swallowed Deadpool, and even went further to show that there was apparently more than one, while others depicted several human-like figures with spears. It was hard to really tell how old the drawings were, but when they started to hear a faint rumble that sounded a lot like chanting, the two gamma heroes and their other dimensional friend started to think that they were pretty recent. That hunch grew more and more as they got closer to the sounds, which soon grew clear enough to be registered as a massive, cheering crowd that it was chanting, and when a faint glow of lights started to illuminate the cavern, Ulrich began to think it would probably be a good idea to draw his saber, just in case whoever they ran into was hostile.

Right when his hand had brushed the hilt though, She-Hulk motioned for him to stop, making him look at her oddly. "I've heard these kinds of sounds before back when I was working with the Fantastic Four. If I'm right, then it may be better to not go in with weapons drawn and ready," Jen revealed.

"You worked with Grimm and his team," Hulk growled.

"Technically, I replaced Grimm for a bit. It was a whole thing. I'll tell you about it later," Jen promised with a proud smirk.

Hulk gained a very honest smile when he heard that, proud of the fact that Jen had actually worked alongside the Fantastic Four at one point, and even prouder over how it was to act as a stand-in for Thing. Ulrich on the other hand was still a bit hesitant about not arming himself, but if She-Hulk said that it would be better to go in without looking like they were there for a fight, then he would take her word for it. So far, she did seem like she held a bit more reason in her than Hulk, and that was honestly the most surprising thing for him out of everything else.

"You know, for a Hulk, you sure don't really act like one," Ulrich could not help but mention aloud without thinking. When he realized that he had said it, he quickly looked to both his newest friend and his fellow founding Avenger and said, "Uh, no offense, to either of you."

"None taken," Jen reassured him while Hulk just huffed in response. Thankfully, Ulrich had known Hulk long enough to know that was just the jade giant's way of saying the same thing as Jen, so he had no problem focusing on what She-Hulk was saying without worrying about the big guy possibly smashing him sometime in the near future. "To be honest, I do feel gamma rages like my cousin, and I do get stronger when I get angrier, but unlike him, I was almost fully in control of myself when I first changed, aside from a minor freak out over the fact that I had changed. I still do retain that same level of control, so I can confidently say that I'm not as prone to blind bouts of rampages that make it seem like I'm a monstrous, super strong toddler throwing a fit, unlike some Hulks."

"Hey," Hulk snapped in retaliation for the remark, proving his cousin's point a little and drawing a bit of laughter from both her and his friend when he did. Of course, he soon got over it and gained a slightly humored smile of his own, knowing he had walked right into that with Jen's teasing, but all smiles and laughter ceased when they finally came into their destination, and became silenced by what they saw.

"Look, Author, there's no need to explain the place. I'm pretty sure it's obvious to everyone by now that we're in Subterranea," Deadpool could be heard shouting, and they all looked up to see he was tied to a stalactite with what looked a lot like webs, while the strange-looking people all around the room all either cheered loudly over the fact he was stuck there, or just jeered at the psycho as they threw rotten food at him. "More like what passes for food down here, which is things like bugs, earthworms, and all kinds of other stuff that you see monsters eat in horror movies and just straight up monster movies."

"Still you prattle on in your constant babbling and insults, you wretched interloper of a harbinger," someone shouted from across the vast chasm that the heroes all realized was a small part of the underground world known as Subterranea. Ulrich had heard about this place before from stories that some of his teammates had told him, the files in stored in JARVIS's memory banks, and even from members of the Fantastic Four from time to time, but actually seeing the place and the people who lived here, known as Moloids was an entirely different story altogether. Never mind the man who ruled over them that was sitting on the throne above all of them in his usual green robe and purple glasses.

"Mole Man, I presume," Ulrich shouted from where he stood, placing all of the attention onto him and his friends.

"That would be an accurate guess," She-Hulk whispered while tightening her fingerless gloves like she was getting ready to hit something at any moment.

"Who dares to enter my domain," Mole Man roared in anger. He seemed to settle down a little though when he took in the individuals that stood before him. "Ah, She-Hulk. It's been a long time since we last clashed. Though, I was under the impression you were now working with Richards and his little band of merry men."

"That was more of a temporary gig, Mole Man," She-Hulk shrugged.

Mole Man did not seem to really care about the excuse, and soon turned his attention to the others. "And as I live and breathe; the original Hulk, standing before my people, along with a fellow Avenger. Dash Ninja, isn't it?"

"Sprint Samurai," Ulrich corrected evenly.

"Eh, close enough," Mole Man waved off. Before Ulrich could correct him on the matter, Mole Man had already pressed on with what he was saying. "Now, what brings you to my domain? Have you come seeking to finally exterminate the Moloids as I've known the surface dwellers would for years?"

"No, we're just down here tracking a giant monster that nearly attacked and killed several people up top," Hulk clarified, doing a very impressive job of keeping a level head. "You know anything about it, then tell us, and we'll be on our way."

"Ahem," Ulrich coughed, a pointed look on his face as if to remind Hulk about something.

Hulk just groaned before he conceded, "Oh, all right. And we're here to get Deadpool back too, but we're going to throw him in another hole as soon as we…"

Before Hulk could finish his sentence, the Moloids all suddenly went into an uproar that made all three heroes nervous, and they had a feeling they knew who was to blame for this. "Who? Who's to blame for it? Is it Spider-Man? I mean, how can we be blaming him for something when he's not even here," Deadpool questioned the sky, before everyone just looked at him like he had grown a second head. "Oooh! You meant me. Hey, wait a minute! How is this my fault?!"

"As if you didn't know! You're the reason why those beasts are now threatening to destroy both our home and the surface world," Mole Man roared in anger, pointing his staff at Deadpool as if he intended to use it as a weapon on the maniac at any minute.

"Okay, one, can you pick another word to describe me with besides maniac, Author? And two, I think I'd remember ever seeing something that ugly before," Deadpool retorted. "Wait, this is going to be one of those things that happened 'off-camera' and is just in here for plot convenience, isn't it?"

"Ignoring the obnoxious peanut gallery, what exactly are you talking when you say that Deadpool's responsible for that monster," Ulrich questioned, taking a page from Hank's book and hoping that they could still talk this out before it got any messier than it already was.

"It's quite simple," Mole Man explained, already jumping into what could likely be a villain monologue. "When the interloper came here, we all thought him a harmless fool. Yes, he was armed to the teeth, but with his prattling, it was hard to really take him seriously."

"Yeah, people seem to make that mistake a lot in a first encounter with Wade," Jen mumbled.

"Assuming they haven't heard of his reputation," Hulk corrected, earning a nod of agreement from his cousin.

"A reputation that we were unaware of until after he had ransacked our homes, destroyed whatever form of weapons we had, and then left with multiple, stolen Larvae-Beasts eggs," Mole Man revealed. "For many ages, the Larvae-Beasts had threatened our city, destroyed our crops, and devoured Moloids by the hundreds, until we found a way to keep them controlled and contained. Unfortunately, the mouthy interloper destroyed any method we had of keeping them back, and stealing those eggs only served to anger the queen into resuming her attacks on us with a new viciousness like none it ever had before."

"Okay, I get that you guys are now facing a huge problem, but how could the surface be affected by this too," She-Hulk questioned.

"The Larvae-Beasts picked up the interloper's scent in their attacks, and now, we believe that the only way to keep the surface from facing their wrath is to keep the idiotic fool here. At least that was the plan, until we discovered that he had already destroyed the queen's eggs by the time he was finally brought back," Mole Man growled, angrily glaring up at the restrained psychopath.

"Well, it's better than maniac," Deadpool muttered, once again talking about something that no one really knew about.

"Okay, so then, we stop the worms, we save the world, and then we'll take Dumbfool to face justice up on the surface, sound fair," Ulrich offered, ignoring the indignant shout that Deadpool made when he intentionally got the mercenary's name wrong.

"No! It is not good enough! The harbinger must face justice for his crimes against the Moloids, and there is but one way for him to do so while simultaneously eliminating the problem of the Larvae-Beasts for good," Mole Man snapped in certainty. He then moved to a large lever that was near his throne and placed a hand on it so that he was ready to pull at any second. "We must sacrifice the harbinger to the Larvae-Beats' queen, and pray that she will take enough satisfaction from ending the thief herself to leave us in peace."

"Uh, I don't know if you weren't paying attention earlier, but I already explained that you can't kill me, since I've got a healing factor that's better than Wolverine's, meaning I can survive stuff that he can't, like dying from the adamantium that's slowly poisoning him from the inside out. I mean, that was a thing in the comics, but I'm not sure if the author's going to do that here in this series, so…" Deadpool called down, obviously not caring that he was making the situation worse every time he opened his mouth.

"No!" Ulrich cried out. He did not know if Mole Man's device was going to summon the Larvae-Beasts or drop Deadpool down to them, and he knew that the psycho could likely survive no matter what the case was, but at that moment, he was just reacting on instinct. All it took was one burst of speed, and Ulrich was clear across the cavern, racing up the walls with a saber drawn. Once he had reached just the right height, Ulrich rebounded off the wall, his saber ready, and sliced through the ropes that were restraining Deadpool, letting the Merc with a Mouth drop down while screaming like a little girl ("Why do you keep saying that I scream like that?!"), until he finally hit his teleporter belt to zap himself away from the surrounding Moloids and over to where the two Hulks were.

When the Jade Giant and Giantess both growled at him, Deadpool gave one of his rare displays of sense and slowly backed away from the two, only to stop short when Ulrich came back to stand with them, already moving to draw his second saber since he knew that they were likely about to enter a fight with Mole Man and his subjects. At least he was until Deadpool suddenly jump-hugged him while letting out a girlish-squeal of relief ("Seriously, stop saying I sound like a girl!"). "My hero! You saved me," Deadpool cheered, either not noticing or not caring that Ulrich was trying to shove him off. "You know what? I actually like you now! We're gonna be best friends forever, and ooh, we can be sword buddies! You know, 'cause we both got two swords and all that fun stuff! And hey, I'm thinking you, me, and White Tiger in an epic—."

That was the point when Ulrich, thankfully got an arm free enough to punch Deadpool off him, and he happily did so while fixing the crazy man with the most heated glare he could muster at that moment. "Touch me or suggest anything remotely like that again, and you'll need to change your name to something like Lady Deadpool, got it," Sprint Samurai growled, his already drawn saber glowing with a slightly red tint as he made the threat.

"Yeah, I got it. Don't want to end up like some of the guys you'll be fighting for information on a certain bad guy in the second half of the story, or just like the ones you'll be gunning for after you find out that Savage Artillery is really…" Deadpool's wild ramblings were suddenly cut off when he felt several somethings pierce his back, and actually jolted a little from the impacts. He then glanced over his shoulder and asked, "Are there arrows in my back?"

"Yep," both Hulks replied, simply.

"You dare to interfere with the ritual that may be our best hope for survival," Mole Man shouted in anger.

"I have to agree with him, Samurai. I mean, you do remember that Deadpool wouldn't have actually died from that, right," She-Hulk pointed out.

"Jen, how could you be so cruel to me?! Callously tossing me aside to fall victim to such a cruel fate," Deadpool fake sobbed, only to do a one-eighty not ten seconds later. "Okay, you know what? I'm actually cool with it, but not by that much. I mean, sure, I wouldn't have died-died, but it still would've hurt for a really long time."

Ulrich rolled his eyes behind his visor and sighed, "Look, I get that he could've taken it, and it probably would be preferable to let him since it would mean someone would've shut him up, but I couldn't help it. I just reacted on instinct, and my first instinct is always to save someone in need."

"Awww, you care about me! Gimme a hug, Sword Buddy," Deadpool cried out happily, only to be stopped short by Ulrich's fist colliding with his face. "Okay, no hugs, but how about a fist-bump? We can even do the Baymax version."

Once again, everyone was ignoring Deadpool, but this time, it was only partly because of his annoying mouth. The main reason was because the Moloids had grabbed whatever weapons they still had and were slowly marching forwards to attack the heroes and mercenary. "You really don't want to do this, Tiny," Hulk cautioned Mole Man, even as he cracked his knuckles in preparation for a fight and as a way of intimidation.

"But we must," Mole Man insisted, and he was about to give the order to attack, when the cavern started quaking. Just like that, a Larvae-Beast suddenly came blasting through the walls, roaring angrily, with several more coming out of the other walls around them. "NO! It's too soon! The sacrifice isn't ready!"

"Again, pretty poor sacrifice, considering its Deadpool," She-Hulk muttered to her fellow heroes while jerking her thumb in the direction of the merc with a mouth, who seemed to be talking to himself again.

"Okay, readers, you guys all know that I'm talking to you and not myself, right? Right. Anyways, if I were Spider-Man, this would probably be the part where I'd give you some little exposition on why this went from bad to worse, and if we were to take it a step further and say this were that Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon, it'd be with some funny little animations just for laughs, but let's face it, this whole thing is insane, even without me being here. Okay, maybe not that bad, but still, it is pretty insane, as you could probably tell," Deadpool said as he stared off into space. He stopped short from continuing on when he noticed Hulk glaring down at him. "Oh, sorry. Am I interrupting our impending demise at the hands of a bunch of ugly bugs? 'Cause, I think the answer to the whole problem is simple." He then reached into his belt and pulled out a massive can of bug spray, while shouting, "I GOT ME SOME RAID!"

"Where did he get that from? It's way too big to have fit into his belt," Ulrich questioned in disbelief. The others just kept silent, so Ulrich took that as a sign of this being another thing that was just typical of Deadpool, which he should avoid questioning if he wanted to keep some semblance of sanity. All the while, they were watching as Deadpool sprayed the Larvae-Beasts with the oversized can of bug spray that somehow managed to drive them away.

"He's got something of the right idea though," She-Hulk then stated.

"He does," Hulk, Ulrich, and Mole Man all shouted in disbelief, with the Moloids letting out sounds of similar belief.

"I do," Deadpool asked, pausing in his excessive spraying for a minute before he went right back to work like nothing had happened. "I mean…Of course I do! See guys, I know what I'm talking about!"

"No, you really don't," She-Hulk dismissed. "I mean, that if we want to get rid of these bugs, then we need to squash 'em all, and how do you get rid of an infestation?"

"You take out the nest," Ulrich answered with a slightly savage grin.

"We can't! The Larvae-Beasts are a vital part to our way of life," Mole Man protested.

"How? You said it yourself that they've done nothing but hurt Subterranea and the Moloids," Hulk pointed out.

"Eh…Good point," Mole Man conceded. "All right, I will personally show you where you can find the Larvae-Beasts' nest, but be warned, the queen will be guarding it more vigilantly than ever after the interloper's crimes against her."

"You do remember I have a name, right," Deadpool asked, only to be ignored once more. "Hey! Quit that! You can't ignore me forever!"

"We know, that's why we're enjoying the moments where we can ignore you for as long as they last," She-Hulk admitted.

"Okay, hold on. Are we really just not going to question this," Ulrich suddenly asked. "I mean, we went from a peaceful talk to ask She-Hulk to join the team, to dealing with the biggest psychopath I've ever met, to attempting to stop what was likely going to be a war between the surface and Subterranea, and now we're all working together to stop a bunch of overgrown bugs? How does any of this make any logical sense?"

"Simple, this is a day with Deadpool. Things are all over the place all the time the minute he shows up. You just gotta learn how to roll with it," Hulk shrugged, and he then turned to follow Mole Man and She-Hulk out of the cavern to wherever the Larvae-Beasts' nest was.

"He's right, Sword Buddy," Deadpool confirmed as he leaned on Ulrich's shoulder. The Sprint Samurai quickly proceeded to follow his friends, letting Deadpool drop after losing the support he had from leaning on Ulrich, and proceeded to ignore more of Deadpool's prattling while mentally chanting that he would not let the maniac get to him. "So, assuming that you and White Tiger don't last forever, I think I know a few folks that would love to see you banging Quake, or maybe even Black Widow. I mean, I know that Quake seeing that Static-wannabe, Lincoln right now, and that Widow's a bit older than you, and of course that this story's not rated M, but I'm sure that with a little time and persuasion, we could make some stuff happen. Plus, you've still got a whole 'nother story to make magic happen, and who's to say that any time skips between this story and that one won't…"

Yeah, it was going to be a very long trek for Ulrich. One that would test his patience beyond anything that even Odd or Sissi ever had.

---

It did not take long for the group to reach the nesting grounds, and the three heroes had to wonder why Deadpool would take eggs from this place. The things looked disgusting, to put it mildly. ("Hey, I don't know why I would either, Author. You're the one writing the story like this.") (KNOCK IT OFF!) Thankfully, there did not appear to be any Larvae-Beasts guarding it, but like the old saying goes, appearances can be deceiving. A lesson that many had to learn time and again, as evidenced by how all five members of this rag-tag group were caught by surprise when the Larvae-Beast queen came crashing through the walls, hissing and roaring loudly as she glared down at the heroes.

"Now that is what I'd call a monster bug," Sprint Samurai muttered as he gazed upon the massive, insectoid beast. "Where's Spider-Man when you need him?"

"Weren't you paying attention earlier? He's on a massive group date with your sister and a bunch of his other friends," Deadpool answered. He then cupped his chin and wondered aloud, "Or were you not supposed to know that until later?" It was barely even a microsecond before he shrugged it off and pulled a huge bazooka out of his belt, much to Ulrich's jaw-dropping disbelief, and decided, "Oh well. Not important. TIME TO KILL THIS BUG! YIPPE-KAI-YAY, MOTHER…"

The rest of Deadpool's words were drowned out by the cartoonish amount of rockets he fired from his bazooka exploding against the Larvae-Beast Queen, but the others paid it little mind as they joined in on the attempt to end the queen. Not that it seemed to do too much damage, because no matter how hard either Hulk or She-Hulk hit it, how many times Ulrich slashed at it, how much stuff Deadpool shot it with, or what Mole Man did to attack it, the queen was able to shrug off a good deal of it. That is not to say nothing they did worked, because there were definitely some signs of their attacks getting through the Larvae-Beast queen's tough exoskeleton. Still, the only thing that they really accomplished was getting some new Larvae-Beasts to hatch from their eggs a bit early, while the already matured ones came crawling back to attack. Mole Man and She-Hulk quickly broke off from the group to deal with the new arrivals, the former of which actually surprising the group with his impressive display of combat ability, but even with the biggest guns hitting the queen with everything they had, it made little difference how many of the overgrown worms they stomped.

"Yeah, and I'm hitting this thing with some pretty big guns," Deadpool suddenly said to the sky as he continued firing off the minigun he seemed to have pulled from thin air.

While making a point to keep as far away from Deadpool and his very erratic line of fire as possible, Ulrich continuously scanned the queen with his visor, along with the surrounding environment in the hopes of locating something that they could use to exterminate these bugs a little more quickly. Just because he was not a mega genius like Aelita and some of his teammates, did not mean that Ulrich was stupid by any means, but he was running low on ideas and options on what they could do to try and end this threat. It did not help that when he did try to call Hank and see if he could lend a suggestion or two, the signal was unable to get through, proving that they were apparently too deep underground for their communications to get through to anyone.

As he continued dodging the queen's acid spits while slashing away at any worm that got too close to him, and the queen on more than a few occasions, Ulrich finally began to take notice of just how warm it was in this cavern, and of how he was building up a bit more a sweat than he normally did after running at super speed for a short time, or even at all. Thinking about this for a minute, Ulrich broke off from the fight with the queen to run into the middle of the nest where all the eggs were, and noticed that it was noticeably warmer there than anywhere else in the cavern, and that's when he was finally struck with a new idea of his own.

"Hey, Mole Man! I think the eggs were placed here for warmth, and this cavern is pretty hot in the area I'm standing in right now," Ulrich shouted over to their guide of the underground. "Any ideas what the source might be?"

"Incubation, of course! Why didn't I realize this before," Mole Man quietly cheered to himself after flipping away from a Larvae-Beast that had nearly flattened him like a pancake. He then turned to the Lyoko samurai and suggested, "There must be a lava tube under the floor."

"Ooh! I like where this is going," Deadpool admitted while tossing aside his minigun, and then pulling out an inhumane amount of explosive devices. "Anyone care to turn up the heat in an explosive way?"

"Only if you want to burry us alive, at best," Hulk growled before he punched the queen as hard as he could, driving it into a wall behind the overgrown bug. "Now put those things away before…"

"No wait! Don't do that," She-Hulk protested. "If you want to use them, then use them to force the queen into the middle of the room with all the rest of the eggs. Sprint Samurai, think you've got a few tricks to help him with that?"

"Do I," Ulrich smirked in response. He had a pretty good idea what Jen was thinking, and he immediately raced off to where the queen was before using his triplicate to create his usual number of copies of himself.

While Deadpool was throwing explosives at the queen with Ulrich slashing at three times as fast as he had been before, Jen looked to her cousin and said, "Mole Man and I will get as many of the other Larvae-Beasts into the middle of the room as we can while helping the other two. Think you can turn up the heat, Cous?"

"Humph. Just say the word," Hulk replied, and he immediately moved to the middle of the cavern in one mighty leap.

With their plan in motion, She-Hulk and Mole Man began droving more Larvae-Beasts into the center of the room where Hulk was, while Ulrich and Deadpool continued trying to force the queen to join the rest of her kind and her eggs. Once she was sure that Mole Man could handle the remaining stragglers, She-Hulk joined in on forcing the queen to where they needed her, and made the struggle that much easier with a few powerful, gamma strength blows. Ulrich could not help but watch Jen fight this time, mostly because he had two clones of him to pick up his slack, and as he did, he actually noted that She-Hulk's fighting style was a bit different from Hulk's. Where the original jade giant fought like a street brawler, Jen seemed to have a bit more form to her attacks, as she spun around in various flips before punching, and many times kicking her opponents as hard as she could. It was a little odd to see a Hulk using a fighting style that was a little more refined than just simply punching something over and over again, but it did help reassure Ulrich of Jen's claim to being a little more level-headed than her cousin. After all, you needed to keep a calm head to practice martial arts, and Ulrich could not help thinking that Jen might have practiced a few either before or after her gamma transformation.

Sprint Samurai returned his focus to the fight soon after he had finished his quick observations, but only because the Larvae-Beast queen was nearly in position, and all it took from that point on was a few more hits. Ulrich took the lead on making those hits, but delivering a powerful triple-slash with his duplicates' help, followed She-Hulk kicking the overgrown bug with enough force to almost break a building in half, and it all finished up with Deadpool blasting it with a huge cannon that he had seemingly pulled from his belt again. No one bothered questioning where he had gotten it from since they were more focused on the fight at hand, and upon seeing that Mole Man had kicked the final Larvae-Beast into the pit once their work was done, Jen looked over to her cousin and gave him the signal that he was waiting for.

"HULK, NOW," She-Hulk shouted.

"Time to SMASH," Hulk roared, bringing both fists down on the hard ground, opening up the lava tube underneath so that the cavern could be flooded with molten rock.

Hulk had immediately jumped clear of the lava as it poured in, while the others all scrambled to get back out again, but Mole Man could still see a really serious problem on their hands, even as he listened to all of the Larvae-Beasts wailing in pain as they met their end. "How do you plan to keep the lava from reaching Subterranea, exactly," the ruler of the Moloids questioned.

"How about with the big explosive things that I placed at all the entrances a few seconds ago," Deadpool offered as he presented a bomb trigger to the group.

When they all turned back to the cavern entrances, including the one that they had just fled through, they were surprised to see an excessive amount of bombs around each opening into the cavern, primed to go off the minute the trigger was hit. "How in the world…" Ulrich started to demand, only to catch himself before he finished the question. "You know what? Never mind. Just set the things off and seal these things in so we can all go home and forget this whole day ever happened."

"Sure thing, Sword Buddy," Deadpool agreed, and everyone had to groan very loudly when he next spoke, mainly because he did so with a bad Arnold Schwarzenegger impression. "Hasta la vista, baby."

Everyone made tracks from the Larvae-Beast caverns after Deadpool hit the button, and no one would have blamed any of them for praying that they would outpace the numerous explosions that followed in their wake afterwards. Nor would they have blamed any of them for kissing the ground afterwards once they were sure they were safe. After all, it was Deadpool who had set up the explosives, and as evidenced by the whole day…Deadpool was beyond certifiably insane.

---

With the Larvae-Beasts dealt with and Subterranea safe, the three heroes all took their leave with a tied-up Deadpool being carried over Hulk's shoulder. "Wait, why am I tied up again? I helped you guys save the world," Deadpool protested, though it was hard to tell if he was questioning the heroes or this "Author" person he kept referring to.

"Let's start with the hundred dozens of accounts of murder that you're charged with and guilty of, along with all the other crimes that you are most definitely guilty of and go from there," She-Hulk replied.

"Oh come on! I get the murder, but name one other crime I've ever committed," Deadpool challenged.

"Reckless endangerment, grand theft, breaking and entering, somehow hacking and stealing from government intelligence agencies, and several accounts of many other charges that I'm sure that would not be overlooked even you were to take an insanity plea," She-Hulk easily listed.

"I said one crime, not one list crimes," Deadpool grumbled.

"Either way, you're not getting away this time, Deadpool. It's time to answer for everything you've done," Hulk stated, making it clear that no one was budging on that stance.

"Oh all right, fine. Take me to prison and throw away the key, but then you'll miss out on the big information that you guys would need to know, like why so many people have access to weapons and information on how to hurt Ulrich over here and his sister," Deadpool stated, making Hulk pale a little when he finished talking.

Before anyone knew what was happening, Ulrich had snatched Deadpool off of Hulk's shoulder, and held a saber at the maniac's throat while he viciously glared at him. "Start talking, now," Ulrich snarled. He did not really care how the guy knew his real name at the moment. All he cared about was how Deadpool seemed to know something about how people were getting weapons and info on things that could hurt him and Aelita while they were suited up, and he was not going to let this chance slip away, even if the information was coming from someone as crazy as this loose cannon. "What do you know?!"

"Weeeeeeell…." Deadpool started, drawing out that one word for all it was worth and not caring about the glowing red saber at his throat. The reason being, he was using the time to cut himself free, and he quickly teleported away from them, free as a bird. "Sorry, can't tell! Too big a spoiler, and I actually don't want the author to hurt me any more than he already has! Bye-bye, and have fun with catching up with your old buddy when he finally appears again, Sword Buddy!"

"Don't let him get away," She-Hulk shouted, prompting both boys to give chase with her.

"Yeah, that's not going to work out for you, because now, I summon my powers of a second helicopter and a chicken," Deadpool declared, pulling out a fob and a rather large, rubber chicken from his belt. The latter he threw at the ground, make Hulk trip over the thing and serve as the start of a pile-up of heroes, while the former he pressed to call in a helicopter that was identical to the one he had crashed a few hours ago.

"Where does he keep getting this stuff from," Ulrich demanded.

"See ya, kiddies," Deadpool waved as he was lifted up by the rope ladder hanging down from his helicopter. He then looked off into space, and declared, "And this folks, may very well be the last time you ever see me in one of lyokoMARVELanime's stories, so I now bid you all ado. That's all folks!"

"WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO," Ulrich shouted from the ground, even as Deadpool flew away, likely unable to hear him.

"Let it go, Ulrich," Hulk soothed as he patted his friend's shoulder as gently as he could. He made a note to question Ulrich later about why his sabers were changing color like they had been today, hoping that it was not something they needed to worry about, and then said, "We've got what we came here for, saved the world, and are still sane despite having to deal with Deadpool. I'd call that a win."

"Yep. So, let's get on that fancy plane of yours and fly back to Avengers Mansion. I could really use a nap," Jen agreed. That's when she finally noticed that the only vehicle that Hulk and Ulrich had with them was Ulrich's bike, and she could not help but ask, "Uh…where is the jet? Did you guys drive, or in Hulk's case, jump all the way out here from New York?"

For the first time in his life, Ulrich saw the Hulk turn sheepish in response to something someone other than Aelita had said, but he could not find himself able to enjoy it, because now, he was just really annoyed. Both from having to deal with Deadpool, and from the fact that he was right about how they should have traveled out here. Pulling out his ID card with a barely repressed sigh, Ulrich called up the mansion and said, "Hank, send a Quinjet to our location, please? We've got our new recruit, but after the day we've all had, we want to get back fast as possible, and that's not going to happen if we take the method of travel Hulk insisted on using when we left."

"I'm guessing that it's also because you just found out you were right in thinking that it would've been better to take the Quinjet to wherever you are," Hank asked, having picked up on Ulrich's irritation.

"Among other things that I'd really rather not talk about over the comm.," Ulrich grumbled, and the three quickly found a place to sit down and rest at while they waited for their ride back to New York.

---

A few hours later in Malibu, California, namely on a sea-side cliff along the coast of the city, Tony Stark was hard at work in his personal mansion, trying everything he could think of to accomplish one simple goal: creating a scanner that would reveal the location of the Skrulls. He was not aiming to create something that would find the shapeshifting aliens anywhere in the world, but so far, his attempts at making something that could find them anywhere in the United States was proving to be quite futile, and Tony had been at it for a little over a week now with little to no rest. He was also still wearing the armor he had on when he confronted the other Avengers after his and Ulrich's meeting with Fury and Coulson, save for the helmet, which was currently on another desk alongside his Avengers ID card. Despite what had happened between him and his former teammates, Tony could not bring himself to destroy the device or even simply throw it away, knowing what it meant to him. He may claim to not be sentimental, but even Tony did like to hold on to certain memorabilia from a specific time in his life. That was not to say that his time with the Avengers was over indefinitely, but he could not help but hope that they would forgive for what he did that night, or what he was currently doing now.

As his latest attempt at creating the scanning system for the Skrulls ended in failure, a voice spoke out from the shadows, almost making him ready a repulsor to attack were it not for the fact that he recognized the voice in question. "You know, even the greatest genius in the world needs to take a break and sleep every now and then, otherwise the results they get from their experiment could end up suffering," Aelita observed as she stepped into the light. Her nose then crinkled a little after taking a whiff of the air, and she soon added, "And last I checked, personal hygiene was also still a very necessary thing. When's the last time you even showered, Tony?"

"I can't afford to take the armor off for even a second if there's a chance the Skrulls make their move while I'm unprepared," Tony insisted, dodging the question like he had been any calls from most of his friends. "Are you here for an update or to give a report?"

"A report," Aelita replied, getting serious again. While Tony may not have showered in a while, Aelita definitely felt really dirty about what she was doing with Tony and her brother, but as she recalled how she heard about what Fury had revealed, she came to admit that it was probably necessary.

---

Moments before the Confrontation…

The Avengers had just finished gift wrapping Griffin, and were now flying back to the mansion, exchanging playful jabs with each other along the way as they laughed about the whole event. As she was about to fly into the mansion's sublevels with the others, Aelita suddenly paused for a moment when she picked up on Ulrich's voice, apparently calling out to her as softly as he could while he was running at super speed. "Aelita, don't react at all. There's something you need to know about right away, and we can't risk the other Avengers finding out about it," Ulrich stated.

While she did flinch a little at the sudden call, the others were all too busy to notice it, and Aelita soon moved to the back of the group as discreetly as she could, even as they all came to a stop inside the mansion garage. Taking out her Lyoko Cell, Aelita quietly sent a text to let her adoptive brother know she was listening, and just like that, Iron Man was speaking up in the same manner as Ulrich. "We're on our way back to the mansion from a meeting with Nick Fury. Practically right outside the front door now, as a matter of fact, and we've learned something really big."

After that, Aelita found herself exercising every manner of self-control that she possessed as she listened to the two recounting the events that had taken place during their meeting with Fury. Everything from the information about the Skrulls, their secret infiltration, how she and Ulrich were the only people who could not be replaced by one of their agents, and about how one of these shapeshifters was among the Avengers, pretending to be one of her family members. If it were not for the fact that she knew they were not with her as she boarded the elevator up to the main levels of the mansion, Aelita probably would have been shouting out a protest or two about how it was impossible for Hawkeye to be a Skrull. Of course, that need was further squashed when she heard what the two said next.

"After we left, I filled Tony in on what we've noticed about Cap lately, and given what we've learned, we both agree that he's a more likely suspect than Hawkeye," Ulrich revealed.

"The only problem is we can't let that information out, because the disguise is so convincing. Even I never noticed anything was wrong with Cap until Ulrich said something, and I doubt any of the others have either. Plus, if we try to confront the others about this now, there's no telling what might happen. It might split up the team, or it might allow the Skrull to slip away and talk his people into moving up their plans so that they come for us sooner," Tony reasoned. "Until I come up with a way to expose their spies in a way that is undeniable, everyone around the three of us is a suspect. Hell, for all we know I could be the Skrull and not even know it. So, if we're going to get to the bottom of this, then we've only got one option open to us: We need to break up the team."

Aelita was surprised that she had not let out any reactions to that last line, but she chalked it up to the fact that she knew Tony's plan probably had more to it than that, and she was not disappointed. After listening in for a few more minutes, she had to agree with what the other two had in mind, and so, she had no problem with sending another secret text message to say that she was in just seconds after the elevator came to a stop. Now she just had to put her acting skills to their ultimate test, and let out a small laugh or two as she caught the tail-end of what Hawkeye had said about Griffon's teeth.

"I don't know. I mean, he's still got the large wings, and his claws might still be…slightly sharp, so maybe…" Aelita tried to argue, but in the end, she just could not do it, and ended up giggling at the memory of how the guy had turned out at the end. At least, that was what it seemed like, but it was all merely a façade for her to discreetly check and see if the other two were in position, and from the glimpse of Ulrich's shadow in the hallway that she caught, she assumed it was a safe bet. "Nope, you're right, Clint. No one's ever going to take him seriously like that," she continued from there, acting like nothing was wrong at all.

'And now, for the show to begin…' Aelita thought to herself as she waited for the moment when Tony and Ulrich came forward with their big reveal, hoping that she would be able to handle the pain that would come from what would follow, even if it was a ruse.

---

Thinking back, Aelita still had a hard time stomaching the fact that she had gone along with the ploy that had broken up the Avengers, and she was sure that they would have a hard time forgiving her, Ulrich, and Tony for the deception, but considering what was at stake right now, they could not afford to be worrying about feelings too much. The Skrulls were already going to create a lot of bad blood between people all on their own, regardless of whether or not their plans succeeded, but unlike the Skrulls, Aelita and her friends did regret what they were doing, and believed that it was very likely they would be forgiven one day. She finally came back from her trip down memory lane when Tony repeated his request for her report on what had been going on recently.

This was another part of the plan that Tony and the Lyoko Avengers had come up with. While the Skrulls believed that Tony was no longer interested in the Avengers, to say the least, he would have Ulrich and Aelita acting as his own inside men regarding the team's activities. He knew all about the attempts that the team had made thus far to bring in new blood, and he definitely approved of the notion. In point of fact, he had admitted to thinking about increasing their ranks for quite a bit after what happened during the Kree Invasion, and some of the people that had already been added onto the group were on his list of possible candidates as well. The only thing he found surprising was how adamant Aelita was about not adding Spider-Man to the team, because he felt that the web-head would make for a perfect Avenger, if not as a full-time member, then definitely as either a part-timer or reserve member. Still, that was not a matter that they would be discussing today, as Aelita soon made clear with her report.

"Daredevil's now onboard as a part-time member, and earlier today, Hulk and Ulrich brought in another new one as well," Aelita revealed. "We've been doing our best to keep an eye on Captain America, but he's definitely taken extra care of being aware of his actions lately. Still, that didn't stop us from noticing when he snuck in and out of the mansion the other night. Ulrich tried to follow him, but he lost the trail somewhere around Midtown."

"Well, at least you've got another piece of evidence against Cap," Tony sighed. He honestly hated thinking that a man his father never stopped talking about while he was growing up may have been an alien spy, but the evidence against the super soldier was just too strong. "I just wish we had a way to expose these alien freaks, or at the very least expose the one in our own ranks."

"It'll happen, Tony. But like you said, if we do expose him, and he gets away, we could force the Skrulls to speed things up, so we have to keep playing it close to the vest," Aelita reassured him.

"Speaking of which, how is it that you and Ulrich have been able to slip out without anyone noticing so far," Tony questioned.

"I've been practicing a bit with my creativity, namely in being able to use it without the need to sing, or at least without singing loudly or noticeably," Aelita shrugged, filling Tony in with just that bit of information. In short, Aelita and Ulrich were just leaving behind duplicates to take their places in case someone came looking for either of them while they were gone, and when they got back, it was easy to switch out with the duplicate with no one the wiser.

After nodding along to that bit, Tony then asked the big question. "Just who was it that Ulrich and the big guy brought in, anyway?"

"Hulk's cousin, Jen, aka She-Hulk. You know, when I was joking with Jan the other day about meeting a Hulk with a law degree, I never thought there actually was one," Aelita revealed with a small laugh. She stopped short though when she saw that Tony had gone a little pale. "Tony? What's wrong?"

"Uh…Did you say She-Hulk? As in Jennifer Walters She-Hulk," Tony nervously asked.

"Yeah, why," Aelita asked, thinking that it might not have been a good idea to bring in Hulk's cousin if Tony was this worried. Her concerns were quickly abolished though when Tony revealed his reasons for being nervous.

"I might have had a bit of a thing with her a while back," Tony admitted with a nervous grin. "I mean, I wouldn't say we were together-together, like seriously dating, but…"

"You broke her heart, didn't you," Aelita deadpanned.

"No! It was a mutual…break-up…thing," Tony stuttered. He then quietly murmured, "That may or may not have something to do with why she'll want to punch my face in the next time we see each other."

What Tony forgot was that Aelita was able to hear anything he said no matter how quietly he said it, so it was no surprise that Aelita was slapping her forehead after she heard that last part. The only question she did have was how he ever got into a relationship with She-Hulk like that in the first place. Even for a billionaire playboy like Tony, that seemed pretty crazy in her mind, but in the end, she decided that she did not want to know. She did what she came here to do, so it was time to make her exit. Before she left though, she did give Tony one little piece of advice.

"At least try to get some sleep, Tony. If the Skrulls do attack before you finish this thing, you should at least make sure you aren't liable to fall asleep in the middle of the fight," Aelita advised, and with that, she disappeared into the shadows, with Tony only registering a the flash of her wings spreading from somewhere outside the mansion before she flew back to New York.

Tony only pondered Aelita's advice for a minute before he told JARVIS to start running some new ideas for him and then stood to get into the bed he kept in his garage. He may not have changed out of his armor, but that did not do anything to stop him from going out like a light the minute he had laid down.

---

AN: Okay, so let's go over what you all just saw here. Yes, that opening scene was heavily inspired by Insomniac's Spider-Man for PS4, namely the scene where Miles Morales met Spider-Man, only this time around, I replaced Miles and Spidey with Gwen Stacy and Angel Guardian. Part of the reason why I'm going to be having this scene kick off the next chapter is because we haven't really seen or heard anything from any of Spider-Man's supporting cast, or at least this series' iteration of them, in a very long time. I mean, the last time we saw any sign of Gwen, Harry, or even MJ existing in this story was...what? That one chapter in the first story? Plus, I do have plans to develop more of Spider-Man's story in this fanfiction, because I wouldn't have him involved with one of the main characters if I didn't plan to give him some more development, and this was the perfect way to do that.

Now, I'm sure you all remember how in the last story, Gwen's dad did indeed get Angel Guardian's autograph for Gwen, and this seemed like a great way for that to come back up again, while simultaneously showing what it would be like for Gwen to meet her favorite Avenger. Of course, it also serves another purpose as well, which, if you all know your Spider-Hero multiverse as of late, I'm sure you can probably guess. Here's a hint: it goes by the name of Spider-Gwen. So yeah, you can bet that this won't be the last time we see Gwen, and that she is starting out on her big road to hero-hood, but don't think we're going to show things like that every chapter now. It may be quite a few more chapters before we see Gwen getting her spider legs.

Continuing on with matters on the Spidey front, we've also seen the addition of another famous face from the Spider-Man universe: Miles Morales. Just to clarify, while Miles is younger than the others, he's not just finishing middle school or anything like that. If anything, he's only like one or two years Peter's junior. He's still in high school while Peter and the others are either about to start college or enter their big careers of adulthood, but he's not 13. If anything, I'm placing him at being a high school junior, so I'd say he's around 16 or so at this point, give or take. And yes, we will see Miles again later on. Make no mistake about that, but it will be quite a while longer for him to gain his spider legs than it will be for Gwen.

Now, on the main subject of today's chapter, the whole thing with She-Hulk and how we introduced this continuity's...Dumbfool.

Deadpool: HEY!

AN: No you, HEY! We had a deal, and you're not allowed to be here anymore. OUT!

Deadpool: Oh come on! At least let me stick around to defend myself against anything you have to say about...[suddenly has every single defensive system, hero, and villain training weapons on him in a silent dare to continue ignoring his part of the deal] Oh, all right, fine. Your way of introducing me in this chapter sucked anyway.

AN: I think it was pretty spot on. Ahem, yeah, I put Deadpool in this chapter. My reasons, aside from what I had mentioned while he was breaking the fourth wall...I literally could not think of any other way to make this chapter exciting. Yes, I probably could have brought in Juggernaut so that we could reference the thing She-Hulk once had with him in the comics, but that would've just been a lot more mindless smashing than necessary, and there did not really feel like much more of a plot to work with than the two duking it out while arguing like an old married couple, while Hulk and Ulrich just sat back, grabbed some popcorn, and watched. Sorry if this chapter was not what you all were hoping, but this was literally the best I could come up with. I thought I could introduce Subterranea a little better in this chapter, but at the same time, having Mole Man as the big bad in this chapter was...well, look at the guy and consider everything else about him. Not exactly what I would call a big deal when it comes to supervillains. So, I had no other choice but to add in Dumbfool. And yes, that's what I'm gonna call him from now on.

Janet: Here's hoping he doesn't come back to get payback on you for doing so.

AN: Weren't you paying attention earlier? We had a deal for him to stay away if I let him show up in the main story of one of these adventures.

Hawkeye: I'm pretty sure he's only going to keep his word on staying out of the ones that do not have some Marvel-based elements in them.

AN: A guy can dream, can't he? Just let me have this, Clint. Ahem, anyways...I think I've covered everything that can be addressed from having Dumbfool in here. Really? What else do you need to say besides what was already said? Oh, and that whole thing I was doing whenever Deadpool and I broke the fourth wall, namely when stuff was written in parentheses well, that's just something I was experimenting with for whenever stuff like that happened in the future. Be honest, do you guys think it worked well?

Now then, that final scene at the end is actually something that draws back to what was mentioned in an earlier chapter about Tony's freak out still happening like it did in canon. Well, guess what, it was all a ruse that Tony and our favorite Lyoko Avengers put on to throw the Skrull off their trail, and now, Ulrich and Aelita are working as spies for Tony so that he can know what's going on, and if he needs to take more drastic measures in dealing with the Skrulls or not. Plus, having it here also gave us a chance to mention that Iron Man and She-Hulk were a thing once, giving us a little bit of humor as well. So I guess you could say that both Ulrich and Aelita got to share the spotlight this chapter.

Aelita: Next chapter's going to be different though, since I'll be taking point again.

AN: Too true, sister, and it'll be for quite the adventure. Here's a hint on why. Abracadabra, Onto the Preview!...

On their way home from another date, Aelita and Peter are swept up into a very crazy experience when they find strange creatures appearing in the city after passing through what look like odd tears in the air. The Avengers are all ready to respond, and it takes even less time for Spidey to suit and try to join in, despite Aelita's protests for him to only stick to helping civilians, but the couple ends up being part of the team that goes for the source of the problem. The one taking point on this expedition may prove to make a valuable addition to the Avengers team, assuming that the two survive this strange encounter with the ultimate master of the mystic arts. Things are getting strange in a much different way next time in…Chapter 14: Avengers Recruit: The Sorcerer.

Yeah, you gotta know who's going to show up next time without me spelling it out for you, and it'll also lead to a serious upset for the Skrulls plans after its all over.

Please read and review, and I'll see ya next time, fellow true believers!