Spider-Man and Power Girl
Chapter 15: The Negative Zone
Kara wasn't sure what to expect, she had heard things about this place, but she had never experienced it before. At the moment she was standing in front of a large portal machine as Reed was placing devices around their waists.
"Now you have to remember that Negative Zone effects people because of its very nature." He explained placing on the device to Thor. "These belts I've made over the years helps to withstand the effects, but they aren't permanent. Think of it like radiation shielding, they work up to a certain level but once too much is absorbed it will start to leak on through them."
"Well given that the state of the Negative Zone is anti-matter that's no surprise." Tony looked down at the device. He remembered the prison that had been built in the Negative Zone had massive field generators to keep the prisoners and guards safe from the effects. Although looking back on those days he regrated a lot and building a prison there might not have been the best of ideas.
What if the locals had attacked the prison? What if the fields had failed? That last one was something he didn't like to think about.
Kara looked at her device, she felt a little anxious, she kept having thoughts of the Phantom Zone, but she knew it wasn't the same thing.
"Okay, are we all set?" Captain America asked.
"Just point me at'em," The Thing stated as when the Avengers showed up to explain what was going on, the Fantastic Fout offered to help out, this was something Steve was grateful for. This team had explored the Negative Zone plenty of times and Reed was the world's expert on that realm.
Reed also had a large enough vehicle he had worked on previously that could fix everyone in it. He had it stored away thanks to some Pym particles that were loaned out to him so moving vehicles around in the Baxter building was a lot easier. Said vehicle was hex shaped flight vehicle with two small wings on the sides. It was a little bit bigger than an Quinjet, mainly it was longer since it was shaped to fly through the portal device.
"I'm just glad we found someone to look after the kids on short notice," Sue sighed. She hated leaving the kids alone while she went on adventures like this, but she couldn't take them along. The Negative Zone was no place for children, especially when they were going up again Annihilus.
"So just how well do these things work?" Clint asked checking over the belt.
"They should prevent most of the anti-matter and strange matter that exist in that universe from affecting your brain functions for several hours." Reed said matter of factly.
"Should?" Clint looked up.
"In science nothing is ever absolute when you consider in X factors into the equations," He replied.
"Greeeeat," Clint decided not to try and focus on that.
Everyone gathered up into the vehicle which they Johnny called the Void Runner, mainly because he thought it sounded cool even if Reed told him that it had nothing to do with 'voids' at all. Johnny maintained it still sounded cool and the name had just kind of stuck.
"So out of curiosity how many vehicles has Reed made over the years?" Peter leaned over to Johnny to whisper.
Johnny shrugged. "Honest? I'm not sure, he's always off inventing things, I wouldn't be surprised he had a room full of them shrunk down with Pym particles, like how Tony has different types of Iron Man suits."
Tony, whose helmet picked up on this gave him a thought. Transporting his suits was always an issue, what if he used Pym participles to shrink them down and just have a suit on him? Of course, there was the change it could easily be taken or lost but it was something to look into later he supposed.
They felt the Void Runner lifting off the ground as it soon flew through the portal in front of them. There was a bit of an odd sensation, like the universe had 'flipped' for lack of a better explanation as they arrived.
Kara could see outside, and she could hardly describe what she saw. It was like looking at a universe that had been compacted and bits and pieces floating around. She could see plants that were just floating around as if they had no orbits, bits and pieces of nebulas just existing as super condensed versions of themselves. And then it was the sensation, the feeling of just how alien everything felt.
Which yes, she knew how ironic that sounded coming from.
She was about to say something when she suddenly felt like every part of her body suddenly hit a wall. She felt a sudden sensation of being tired and sluggishness hit her.
Peter who was next to her placed a hand on her shoulder as he noticed it. "Hey, you okay?"
"Not sure," Karen shook her head. "I feel like my whole body is just in molasses or something."
"Reed, something's wrong with Karen," Sue got out of her seat who also noticed and was listening in. She took a medical scanner from the wall next to a medical kit and started a scan of her. Reed eventually joined them as Johnny took flight controls. Iron Man as leading him to the source of the area of where they figured Annihilus was working from.
Reed took a look at the results and while he wished he could do more tests he had a theory as to what was happening.
"So, Doc, what's the prognosis?" Power Girl asked.
"It seems Kryptonian physiology has an adverse reaction to the Negative Zone." Reed told her. "There is no yellow sunlight in this universe plus its 'negative' nature means that it's effecting your body on a molecular level."
"I thought these belts were supposed to suppress this kind of thing?" She-Hulk asked from her spot.
"They are," Reed stated. "Without it, if she arrived in the Negative Zone the effect would be much worse."
"Great," Power Girl sighed as she flexed her hand. "Doesn't seem too bad, it really caught me off guard. Feels like I got taken down a peg or two is all, like everything is heavier for me suddenly."
She was pretty sure she was still a heavy hitter, but this strange pocket universe was playing havoc with her body. She just hoped it didn't mess with her powers she didn't need them to go unstable again on her. That had been a pain when that happened, she still wasn't sure why they had acted up exactly. One theory had been because of her being from another reality and the universe itself wasn't sure what to do with her. She hoped that didn't happen staying in her new universe.
They soon came upon the area that they figured the invasion was coming from and in front of them was what looked like some kind of bug shaped spaceship.
"Is that one of the ships from the Annihilation Wave?" Captain America asks as he wasn't certain never seeing one in person himself only the reports about the incident.
"Looks like it," Reed Richards had notes on the events and had studied them when he heard about the whole affair, so he was much more familiar with the ships in case they had ever made it to Earth.
Power Girl looked at it curiously. "So, for those of us not caught up on this dimension's history?"
"Oh right," Tony said realizing her issue. "Okay long story short, he used an armada of ships like this among other things to basically invaded our universe and try to destroy everything. We weren't directly involved but mainly people like Peter Quill and the Nova corps were involved along other people out in space that stopped it before it got too big. He did to a hell of a lot of damage with that fleet, however it looks like they missed one and Annihilus has been using it for his next plan."
"Think of it like and army of giant space locus," Clint offered. "We only heard about it after the fact though, first time actually seeing one of these things. Call me crazy but does this kind of look modified to anyone else?"
Hawkeye knew he wasn't the braining type but what he was, was very observant. The ship had something about it's design that didn't seem to fit just right with the atheistic.
"I believe you are correct," Reed stated taking a look. The craft they were looking at looked like it had been damaged and rebuilt but in a different way in some areas. If he had to guess, then Annihilus had modified the craft for his new plan. Most likely it was a test bed for these cybernetic creatures he had created.
"So how many have actually faced this Annihilus guy before?" Karen asked.
"Me and Matchstick have," Spider-Man spoke up.
"The vile fiend has invaded my homeland, twice, there shall not be a third." Thor stated not pleased as it was a sore spot that he had chosen to invade while Oden was asleep and kidnapped him the second time.
"And we tangled with his bug guy plenty o'times." Ben grunted since the Fantastic Four had been the first to face him in the Negative Zone looking for a cure for Sue. It hasn't been a pleasant meeting then and every other time had been as nasty.
"So, what are we in for?" Power Girl asked.
"He's a formidable opponent," Reed spoke up. "He can fly and is an extremely strong opponent, also be weary of the cosmic rod he holds."
"Yeah, that thing can be deadly." Johnny nodded.
"So big strong bug boy with a toy, got it." Karen hadn't seen much information on this Annihilus as it seemed he might have stuck mostly to the Negative Zone.
That's when a beeping was heard from up front by Reed.
"We're being probed." Reed stated.
"Can we sneak in closer?" Steve asked looking over his shoulder.
Reed thought a moment. "If we turn off all but life support and 'glide' in under our momentum we might be able to appear as just random debris."
"And if it doesn't?" She-Hulk asked.
"Sue?" Reed asked his wife.
"On it." Sue created an invisible barrier around the ship as it vanished from sight. "I can keep this up at least long enough for us to get close."
Reed was already turning down the power to the minimal he could make it. To scanners they might appear as a sensor ghost or something insignificant, if they tried to look at the area with their eyes or cameras then all they would see is nothingness. You could feel the tension in the ship as they slowly floated forward towards the large insect shaped ship.
Reed kept an eye on the controls looking for any kind of sensor lock. There was a passive scan, but nothing focused on the ship. Soon they were under the belly of the ship as he used maneuvering thrusters to line them up. He had a magnetic seal on the bottom of the ship as there was a loud 'thunk' sound as they attached.
"Okay, Jonny you're up," Reed looked at his brother-in-law as he opened the bottom hatch.
"One blowtorch coming up," He stood by the open hatch as his hand burst into flame as he started to 'cut' into the hull of the ship.
"Need a hand?" Power Girl stated as she looked at the other end and used her heat vision. "Figured this would go faster with two of us."
"I'm not going to say no to help from a pretty lady," he smiled at her as he then refocused on the job.
Karen however felt strange, when she used the heat vision it was cutting the metal, but it felt weaker. She was sure she could have done it all in one go but her body still had this 'sluggish' pull to it. Her hearing felt like she was underwater, and her body also felt flushed from the heat they were generating. She had gone into space with barely a feeling a thing and yet now she felt like she was a normal person in a heated room. It was a littler worrying but so far it wasn't anything dangerous.
Suddenly her x-ray vision flicked on and off, her hearing went deaf and suddenly she could hear everyone's heartbeat and then back again. She felt her head spin as she stumbled back as she closed her eyes to make sure her heat vision didn't hit anything.
"Whoa, are you okay?" Peter asked catching her.
Karen shook her head feeling lightheaded. "Wow, something just hit me."
Reed took another scan of her quickly as Johnny finished up their work. He looked over the data. "I was afraid of this the Negative Zone is starting to impact your body."
"I do feel strange," She shook her head again as her body seemed to slowly get back to a more normal feel do it. "Okay, I'm feeling better."
Reed frowned at the readings. "I think it's sending your body into flux I don't think you should be in here any longer than you need to be. I'm worried about permanent damage to your body from the Negative Zone."
"Maybe you should sit this one out New Girl," Tony offered.
"No, I got this. Besides it will go faster with everyone and then I can get out. Me sitting in this ship won't fix things." She was not going to get benched just because this strange dimension was playing with her body. She could hold on if they needed her to. Although she was making future plans to never come back here after this. She really didn't like the way this dimension was screwing with her. The whole place was starting to make her feel sick and she didn't like it.
"Alright but let anyone know if something happens that you can't control." Steve told her as a Johnny said he was done. Everyone looked to see a cut circle around the hull of the ship, but it was just floating there.
"Uh, Johnny," She-Hulk said tilting her head. "You sure you cut all the way through?"
"Yeah, I'm sure." He said confused as Reed extended his hand and enlarged it pushing it 'down' and over like a manhole cover.
"The piece was stuck between the gravity of our ship and the main ship." He explained. "So, it has nowhere to go."
"Oh," Peter slapped his head. "The artificial gravity must be the same, huh, what are the odds of that? Normally when we do this kind of thing it either falls 'in' or back our way."
"Actually, that is an unlikely scenario," Reed thought about it. The odds of two ships being the exact same gravity was staggering. He was trying to calculate what odds there were when Hawkeye spoke up.
"As fun as the science lesson is," Clint spoke up. "The nerds can talk about this later."
"Right, let's get to it people." Captain America stated as one by one they entered the ship. It was a little disorienting going 'down' and suddenly coming 'up' through the ship but for most of them this wasn't the first time doing such a thing. Now with everyone in the hallway they could see the dimmer lighting and the inside of the vessel was just as insectoid as the outside in design.
Larger rounded corridors with pipes everywhere and it's dark green coloring gave it a hive type of feeling.
"Well, no alarms and no guards to check on why there's a hole in the ship." Iron Man scanned the vessel. "Guess they didn't have any sensors on the hull, good luck for us."
"That or they're set for larger damage," Reed offered.
"Or they know, and they have a silent alarm and a horde of the cyberbug monsters are coming right for us," Spider-Man shrugged as everyone looked at him. "What? It's best to be prepared just in case the worst happens because trust me, it can and most likely will happen."
"He's not wrong," Hawkeye shrugged.
"Kind of a dim view, isn't it?" Susan asked Spider-Man.
He just shrugged. "Life experience, hope for the best but plan for the worst."
"So, what is our battle plan to take on this vile creature?" Thor asked spinning his hammer in his hand. It was a little thing he did before battle, kind of a small thing he did to get himself mentally ready for a fight.
"Well, we can all go in as one, but we could split the party." Tony offered.
Spider-Man winced, "Oof, you never split the party, Tony."
Iron Man turned to look at the webslinger. "This isn't D&D, Spider-Man."
"Wait, you know what D&D is?!" Peter figured that Tony was way too high class to ever do that. Tony might be a genius, but he wasn't a geek genius, he was the rich genius type that could buy anything he wanted, flew in a private jet and dated super models he most likely didn't even know the names of type.
"Bruce tried to get me into a game, I got bored, and I tried to make a virtual environment to play it in, but he prefers old school pen and paper, whatever that means," He shrugged.
Peter was floored by that. "Bruce plays?"
"He's got a level ten druid at the moment," She-Hulk offered knowing her cousin got into the game as it allows him to dive into something and forget the world for a few hours at a time while having a good time. Although he was very picky about his groups given, he didn't want to go into stressful games for very obvious reasons.
"The Hulk plays a druid, now I heard everything." Peter commented.
"Anyways," Iron man continued. "One goes to the engine room and see if can't just blow this thing up while the other find the teleportation room and shut that down hard."
"We can't let him keep this ship intact," Cap said thinking it over. "Even if we destroy the teleporter, he can just rebuild it later, taking out the whole ship will make him start from scratch or look for a new plan."
"Total scorched Earth then," Johnny grinned.
"I should go to engineering," Reed spoke up. "I can most likely figure it out and how to overload the engines."
"Well looks like the FF are takin' the engine room." Ben cracked his knuckles as Sue and Johnny nodded.
"You want one or two of us to go with you?" Cap asked them.
"You might have more need of numbers where you are going," Mr. Fantastic thought about it. "The teleporter is where most of his forces will be nearest. You might need everything you can get."
"Alright then," Cap nodded. "Do we have a map of this place?"
"On it," Iron Man's suit had been scanning the ship and it was nearly done. Mr. Fantastic stretched out his arm through the hole back into the ship to grab a tablet from the ship to download that information from Iron Man.
"Here you go Reed," Tony said accessing the tablet with his suit and wireless transmitting the data. Reed pulled up the view.
"If we go down this passage," He pointed to their right. "We'll come to a junction and then we can split off from there."
Everyone got the plan sorted out as the group continued on in the ship. It was eerily quiet as only the constant hum of the ships systems was heard. The organic nature of the design made it hard to tell where they were going. Some of the more tech savvy members were wondering how engineers found anything, nothing seemed to be labeled and with the random layout of the halls they were wondering if there was even an order to anything.
Eventually they came upon the split as both teams gave each other their farewells and good luck. Kara meanwhile by this point was still holding on strong but her body was still suffering from the effects of being in this dimension. She was trying to figure it out, why was she so effected? The only thing she could come up with was how her people took in solar radiation. Her body took that in and converted it, maybe her body was taking in something toxic while being here?
It wasn't a pleasant thought to her, granted it wasn't as bad a say kryptonite poisoning, but she didn't want to see what the long-term effects where on her body if they stayed for too long.
Still, this was an important mission and while she never met this Annihilus in person, from everything she had seen and heard he wasn't one to talk things out with. Thankfully while dulled her senses were still sharp enough to hear something ahead of them.
"There's something ahead," She warned as everyone paused. "I can just make out some footsteps coming this way."
Peter felt his spider-sense starting to act up. "Whatever she's hearing it's getting close enough to set off my spider-sense now."
"Most likely a patrol," Thor readied his hammer.
"Okay Avengers, we take them down hard and fast," Steve told them as everyone else got ready. "We can't let them get a warning out."
Just then a patrol of several of the cyborg creatures that were marching eerily in step rounded the corner. There was a slight pause for them as their cyber brains registered them as intruders but that was moment of hesitation was all they needed. As one the Avengers acted, a shield slammed into the head of one of them as Thor's hammer hit another with such force that the creature flew into a wall and the wall dented with the shape of it.
Hawkeye already took one out with an arrow as Spider-Man webbed two up as She-Hulk and Power Girl quickly moved forward and with a mighty punch from each of them took down the tied-up creatures. Iron Man blasted the last one as there was a pause as though waiting for an alarm to go up.
"We good?" Hawkeye asked going to pluck the arrow out of the creature, he wasn't one to waste arrows if he didn't know when he could resupply, and it was still good to shoot.
"Well, my spider-sense isn't going crazy," Peter said. "So, I think we're still good."
"I'll take what we can get," Clint said readying an arrow. "How much further?"
Iron Man checked the schematics and sighed. "Still a way to go."
The Avengers continued on making their way through the ship, the internals of the ship didn't follow any type of logic, at least not human like logic. The bath ways twisted and turned, sometimes they went up only to take a turn back down and then up again.
"Are you sure you're reading that map right?" Spider-Man sighed after going in what felt like the wrong direction only to turn around on the next corner.
"Hey, I didn't design the internals of this ship like something from M.C. Escher." Tony explained as he too was getting frustrated with the design. "I mean seriously, how is this efficient?"
"I guess you have to think like bug to appreciate it," She-Hulk shrugged. "At least the Fantastic Four aren't in trouble."
Thor looked at her curiously, "How can ye tell?"
She-Hulk shrugged, "Well the alarm hasn't gone off yet."
"Oi," Peter sighed. "You just jinxed them, Jen."
"Oh, I did not," she rolled her eyes. There was a pause as she looked around. "See, nothing happened."
They took one more step before a screeking sound was blasted throughout the ship as Peter turned towards her.
"That is NOT my fault!" She pointed a finger at him.
-With the FF-
"This is NOT my fault!" Johnny said now in flames as he flew through the tunnel blasting fire at the ships crew.
"I told ya not ta touch it!" Ben yelled as his massive rock like fist slammed into the face of one the cybernetic horrors. "Stretch even told ya not to touch it!"
"I thought it was a door switch!" The Human Torch shot back.
"You two can argue later," Sue threw up invisible barriers that slammed into several of the creatures. "Reed, how close to the engine room?"
"At this rate it will take us even longer," Reed was currently stretched out both avoiding and attacking several enemies at once. "But we can get there faster if Ben wouldn't mind making us a path. Since the element of surprise is lost, I don't see the need to try and avoid detection now."
"On it buddy, just point," The Thing told him. Reed told him a direction and so Ben ran on. He crashed through the walls like they were made of cardboard. The former football player ran through like his old sports days. Wall after wall he crashed through until he crashed through one and had to stop as he nearly fell off the edge of a platform.
Looking around The Thing could see they were in a large hollowed section of the ship, out in the middle of the large space suspected from the ceiling was what looked like a beating organ of some king with cables and wires connected to it.
"What in Sam's Hells is that?" The man asked out loud.
"This ship is techno-organic in nature," Reed told him as the rest caught up. "It stands to reason the engine would be one large organ of some kind. Most likely a type of heart although I don't think it's as simple as that judging form how it looks."
"Well, this should be easy then," Johnny flew up and extended his arms shooting out flames at the thing. Only for a green energy field to stop it. He sighed at the sight of it, "Typical. So much for the easy way."
"When has anythin' ever gone da easy way wid us?" Ben asked him.
"Good point, Reed?" Johnny asked his brother-in-law.
"I might be able to take the field down," Reed looked across the large opening to what looked like might be a control center for it all. The only problem was getting there, first was the large gap in the room and next, they were quickly getting more and more of the cybernetic creatures that Annihilus had created showing up.
"I suggest we quickly make if over there," Reed told them. "I should be able to figure out how to disable it, but it will take time."
"Then we'll juts have to buy you time," Invisible Woman stated as she extended her arms as an invisible field encased them all but Johnny since he could fly. She floated them over as her brother started to shoot down the flying creatures as they came for them.
As they came over the area that looked like a control center Sue looked to Ben. "Clear the way?"
"Just let me at'em," Ben smirked as Sue opened the area in front of him, giving him a nod letting him know it was good to go.
"All right you bugs, it's clobbering time!" Ben jumped out as he landed on top of a couple of the larger warrior types. His landed shook the deck as he quickly smashing his fists into any and all the enemies he could get within range. Johnny was busy with the flyers, but he would send some fire to help out Ben when he could. As the last two members landed Reed went to the controls trying to figure out the alien systems.
Sue threw up a dome around them to give him cover and time to figure it out. "How does it look Reed?"
"This might take me a few minutes," He started to experiment with the controls. They were in a script he wasn't familiar with and the insect like mind that created it was something he was going to have to deduce. He knew many different types of systems so once he got a hang of this, he was certain he could send the engine into an overload, it would just take him time.
"Then we'll give you the time you need," Sue pushed back with her field slamming it into several of the creatures before pulling it back again. She had spent years learning and gaining experience with her power, it would take a lot more than this to shatter her barriers.
She just hoped that the Avengers were doing okay.
-Avengers-
Karen had to admit, she really hated the Negative Zone. It was her first visit, but she really hated it, it was messing with her more and more the longer she stayed here. Already she could feel the impact of her fists were making on the crew of this ship. Normally when she punched someone, she barely felt anything, like she was punching through a paper wall. Now it was upgraded to cardboard, and she was starting to actually feel the burn in her limbs from their use.
Normally she had to really push herself to feel muscle tension, also her senses would sometimes at random just either amp up or go muted. Even flying was starting to be affected as she would either fly faster or slower at random and sometimes it felt like she was carrying a weight on her while flying.
"I hate this place, the Negative Zone official sucks," Power Girl said to herself knocking one of the brutes back and scowled as she meant to hit it a lot harder. So, she did on her neck punch sending it into the wall of the ship this time.
"Yeah, you can see why it doesn't get much tourism," Spider-Man who was closest to her stated. Then he noticed something. "You, okay?"
"Mostly, why?"
"I've never seen you sweat before," He stated.
She paused as she wiped her brow seeing the sweat on her glove. She rarely did and not from something like this. Okay this place really was messing with her. "I should be still good to go but if there's an issue, I'll say something, promise."
He nodded his head. "Good enough for me, and hey look." He pointed to a large thick door. "That just screams 'important door, Evil Lair within'."
"Yep," Iron Man stated blasting one of the flying creatures. "The map says that should be where the teleportation room is."
"Then let us gain entrance," Thor gripped the side of the door and started to push.
"Let's give the big guy a hand on knocking," She-Hulk said to Karen as both women quickly joined him. With the three of them it was easily pushed off whatever mechanism kept it in place and locked as the sounds of tearing metal filled the air as the massive door was ripped off the wall and fell with a huge bang onto the floor before them.
The Avengers came into a huge room filled with technology, there were round disks along one of the walls with cables coming out of them. The room also looked to be in a state of repair as this had indeed been the room they had sent their attacks into from the last invasion. There were scorch marks and wrecked equipment still around on the far walls.
"Avengers!" Came the furious cry as they looked up at a catwalk to see a large insect like being clad in green and purple armor with green wings and holding a golden rod in his hands.
"I take it that's Annihilus." Power Girl stated.
"Yep," Peter nodded.
"Avengers!" Captain America yelled out. "Assemble!"
TBC…