Chapter 9: Dial's Travel Agent
July 19th, 2014
Mahmoud Schahed/Dial
The Defiant was done. And it was beautiful.
It wasn't the first ship we made. Not even the second really. We'd put out work into other vehicles, modifying Quinjets, testing standalone vehicles, even making Coulson a little surprise for him.
But this one was mine. Every layer of the ship, overseen and modified by me. Tony, Shuri, Fitz-Simmons, a few others, had helped, but beyond that it was all me… approving the changes.
Hey, I could change things as Jury Rigg and Upgrade, but my human self was just mastering the basics of mechanical repair. By the time we were done, I could fix the ship if needed, but fuck me if I understood how it all worked.
While Tony helped, X had backed me up with the financing. A lot of the money I got from his investments went into helping various organizations and causes, but that still left me with a nest egg. A much depleted nest egg. Literal billions had been spent on the ship.
I bought vibranium from King T'Chaka, and layered it in a thin alloy though the main living quarters, cockpit, and engine room. The hull was double-layered with a foam composite within made to activate on exposure to vacuum and seal any breaches.
The cockpit had windows made of something Fitz explained were called aluminum oxynitride. Three times as durable as steel while still transparent. If they did break, vibranium would snap into place to replace them before anyone could get sucked out.
For defense, there were plasma shields, ionized particles that were trapped by electromagnetic fields. There were also catoms throughout the ship made to repair the ship on the fly in case of damage. They'd immediately reshape themselves to fill any injuries.
For offense, repulsor turrets, of course, on the top and bottom of the ship, with the same variable power as Tony's gear. He'd made them himself, strong enough to rip through steel, but also able to go weak enough to knock someone out instead.
Tony had also taken a look at the laser weapons the alien ships had used during the final battle with Hydra, and redesigned them into turret nodes. They weren't as useful as the repulsors, for a variety of reasons like not having as much mass to their hits, but they were useful to destroy debris/floating trash, and could harass enemy shields.
Finally, railguns. Big honking electromagnetic railguns. They fired big chunks of various metals at immense speed. Repulsors and lasers were good. But the railguns were meant to end shit they fired at.
Tony was a little disappointed with the weaponry. He wanted to put in more, like the unibeam he'd been working on, but we made do for now. The ship was able to turn small asteroids into pebbles already, so I was satisfied.
Inside, comfort hadn't been sacrificed. Anti-Gravity was something we could do now, copying data from the spaceships we'd salvaged. It took some testing, but Fitz had managed to implement it using research from a Dr. Franklin Hall (Thank god that whole incident had resolved itself). Now we had gravity. It could be used to increase and decrease gravity.
Tony and Fitz had some ideas on how to use the same tech to increase maneuverability and speed, but that'd have to be added in later.
The inside of the ship also had a vertical farming and closed ecological system. With nothing but the fish and plants inside, the ship could last a full 3 years feeding and giving oxygen even without the air scrubbers. Probably more with Swampfire around.
Finally, the Garden. Fancy name for the 'kitchen'. Beyond normal cooking, it had a machine made by Jury Rigg that could take the base components of biological material to make basic bars of food or even full dishes. It sometimes fired the food out like a bullet, or gave them very bizarre tastes (Iron flecked with pine needles was one), but I couldn't do anything about that.
Beyond that, the works. Comfy beds, sofas, and hard drives full of as much music, movies, television, images of art, mathematical equations, philosophical learning, books. When we encountered other species, they'd learn about us in full. Good and bad.
Because yes, Twilight was in the hard drives. Ugh.
On the bottom floor of the ship, underneath the living quarters and cockpit, was the hanger bay, tech room, and prison.
The hanger bay was small, only big enough to carry a single vehicle that my assigned BRIDGE liaison would be bringing in.
The tech room was for X. He was designing a body for the journey, uploaded with all the data he would need, with the tech room holding enough to repair both himself and anything else we needed. It doubled for scientific analysis as well, if needed, and held several empty hard drives ready to download petabytes of data.
The prison was technically called the Containment Module. Based on a design Fitz-Simmons and Bruce had created, it was a white cube-like room with glass windows, a pale-white interior, and a small bed inside. It had four rockets, one on each corner, made to be able to fly upwards into the Defiant whenever we needed it to. It was made of poly-tectic adaptive materials.
No clue what those were without turning into Jury Rigg. I could basically program it to resist a variety of things. Shuri and Tony had given it an extra once over. Then I got shoved into it and told to break out.
NRG couldn't burn through it, Four-Arms couldn't smash, Feedback couldn't blast, Diamondhead couldn't slice. Any alien I shifted to, they adjusted the module to take it on. I doubted it could work on everything, but it was enough for me.
The ship wasn't perfect, since by definition that was impossible. But I loved it. It controlled like a dream. Taking it up to the ISS was easy enough, then I dived and ducked around the atmosphere, sometimes using the lasers to evaporate some more dangerous trash floating around the Earth. The ship was ready. I just needed a couple of people for my crew.
"Me?" Creel cocked his head to the side, amused. I'd found him boxing a bit with Matt, the Daredevil and Alloy trading blows in the old Fogwell gym. Matt was listening curiously, sweating just a bit, the two of them up in the ring looking down at me while I hung on the ropes.
"Thought you'd ask Thor or someone else first."
"First, you were always going to be my first choice."
Creel grinned, placing a hand on his chest. "Why Mahmoud! I'm touched."
"Asshole," I grabbed a water bottle and tossed it at him, bouncing it off his head. He was unfazed even as a portion of his skin went plastic. "I didn't invite you just cause I like you. Of all the Avengers, you're probably one of two that is as adaptable as me, with way more combat experience. I'd love to bring 15 members along. Considering I've only got room for a few, you're the easy choice along with my other one."
"I'm in then," Creel chuckled, smiling just a bit. "I'd be crazy to miss out on heading to outer space and fighting aliens. Well, more aliens. I mean, you guys figured out the kinks on space travel, right?"
"Yep. Granted, Tony is still making improvements. He thinks he can make a wormhole generator that will let us travel instantly between planets."
"Like in Stargate?" Matt asked, befuddled.
"He gets all pouty when we mention that," I said with a grin. "But yeah. He's using some of the principles of a viewer I made that could look into other dimensions along with alien tech for it. Hopefully it doesn't break New York."
"I hate when you say that kind of thing," Matt said, worried. "You sound way too cavalier about it."
"You get used to it," I looked at Creel. "So, how are you gonna tell Izzy that you might have to leave Earth for weeks at a time?"
Creel froze. I couldn't help but start laughing at the look on his face.
"I cannot believe you asked Creel virst!" Fantasma pouted, her Russian accent just a bit stronger on the last word. We walked through the Avengers Tower. "We ate breakfast together!"
"I would have asked you guys at the same time, but Agatha was checking her library to see if there were any books she could give you first," I explained, hands behind my head as I casually strolled behind the short witch girl.
"Why would that mean you couldn't ask me?"
"Because she didn't want to see you go out into space and accidently open a hole to the wrong alien hell."
Fantasma frowned, thinking about that. "Is that possible?"
"Hell if I know. Do you know how that conversation went? First, I don't know how the fuck she found out I was going to ask you, so that's weird. Second, she turned my reflection into her image while I was naked, then acted like I was the crazy one for trying to hide from her. Then she told me she'd rip the engine out of my ship if I brought you along without making sure you were safe."
I sighed. "Seriously, as though I'd ever hurt you."
She gave me a warm smile, before sighing. "She is, how do you say? Overprotective."
"Better than the alternative, I guess."
We entered the lounge area. Hulk was there in a giant robe, eating from his mega bowl of cereal while watching cartoons. Steve, Thor, Jen, and Natasha sat with him, all of them in their own robes and with their own bowls while they kicked back and watched together. Jen gave me a jaunty wave that made an involuntary smile sprout on my face.
"Where are you going, anyways?" Fantasma asked me.
"In the Tower, or in space?"
"Both, I suppose."
"For the Tower I'm mostly just waiting until Tony finishes with his StarkGate."
"StarkGate?"
"He refuses to call it a Stargate," I rolled my eyes. We reached the balcony, where we could look out on New York City as the sun shone down. I leaned against the railing, Fantasma doing the same in a somehow more elegant fashion. "But basically it's his machine to teleport between places instantly."
"Ahhh, yes, Stargate."
"Right? Anyways, he's making that thing. As for space… we're still deciding on that."
I tapped the Omnitrix, using its connection to the Avengers Tower database to bring up a digital map of the solar system.
"Why is it all in green?" Fantasma asked, poking at the asteroid belt.
"Still haven't figured out how to make colors on purpose," I brought the map between us. "So here we are, obviously. Earth. Then the solar system. From there, Jane Foster helped us use the data we stole from the alien ships, combined it with our own data, and we made this."
I extended the map out. And out. And out. Numbers, names, and orbs flew past, over and over, until Earth had disappeared entirely.
"Vo dayot…" Fantasma whispered.
"The number of places we can visit is kinda infinite," I said, looking around. "I know some places we should start with though. This planet," I zoomed in one in particular. "Is where the Nova Corp, an interstellar space corp, works from. We'll go there to make sure they know we aren't roaming around to cause trouble."
"And then?" Fantasma asked, fascinated.
"Probably to visit a nebula or two. See the sights. Maybe get in trouble… So. You coming?"
"Of course!" Fantasma said, cheerfully. "I cannot wait! Ah. I'll have to digitize my library, won't I?"
"Even with Anti-Gravity, every bit of weight we can drop helps."
"Are you calling me fat?"
"I'm too smart to answer that."
Before we could joke around anymore, Hulk called out.
"Dial!"
I looked over at him. Hulk was waving me over. He looked worried. Natasha had put down her bowl and had her Black Widow face on. Thor was more interested in the TV than before, and Steve glanced at me, gesturing his head towards the TV.
I walked over, Fantasma following. "What's up?"
The TV was on the news now. Natasha answered without looking away. "Maria told me to check the news. Said you needed to see it as well. News from Latveria."
"Lat-" My eyes widened. I looked at Jen, who gained the same worry I felt. "Shit."
I turned back to the news. An image of Latveria flashed on screen, the small nation on the borders of Serbia, Romania, and Hungary. A blonde woman took over the screen, the WHIH logo next to her name. Christine Everhart.
"After the death of the former ruler, King Fortunov, the new ruler has been welcomed with wide arms by the population of Latveria, despite rumors behind how he came to power.
Then the screen flashed to display a castle.
Hundreds of people were cheering in front of it. They were dressed in older looking clothes, patchwork and dirty in some cases. But they seemed genuinely happy. They looked as though they had woken up out of a nightmare. I could see some people holding their kids on their shoulders, a few people holding up signs cheering on the new ruler.
The man himself was striding through the cheering crowd like a benevolent god. His cape flowed behind him, a pair of robots stepping to his left and right. He was tall as hell, but his build was mostly because of his armor. Grey, imposing, and powerful looking.
He glanced at the cameras. A familiar visage forged of titanium looked at all of us, eyes bright with intelligence shining behind that mask.
"Dr. Doom." I whispered. "Fuck."
"How bad is this?" Steve asked, watching the screen.
"Victor Von Doom is one of the most dangerous and intelligent men in existence. If this one is as close to as intelligent, we're in trouble. If he isn't as arrogant, we're done for."
"We have to hope our latest big bad is an arrogant jackass?" Jen asked snarkily. "Boy, we really won the lottery with these guys."
I didn't answer, just watching as Doom's coronation continued. The new ruler of Latveria… But this might have been an opportunity.
"Let's invite him over."
"What!?" Natasha said, befuddled.
"You want to invite a guy named DOCTOR DOOM to dinner?" Tony asked me, befuddled and annoyed.
"Probably," I said, idly flipping through the Omnitrix's menu as Tony continued working on his StarkGate.
The StarkGate was large enough to allow a single person to pass through, with Tony's trademark red and gold metal making up the entirety of the round portal-like device. Circles are pretty damn good in making things that will take unknown stress. Not too much weird energy focusing on one part, like a corner or something.
"Didn't you say this guy was one of the worst villains ever?" Tony frowned at a part in his hand, then shrugged, tossing it aside.
"Potentially. Doom has nuance. And not every Doom has to be evil. Plenty of our friends are bad guys in other universes," I sighed. "Besides. I want to get a read on him. Doing it in Latveria is idiocy."
"As opposed to here," Tony scoffed. "Did you say the guy was almost as smart as me?"
"I said 'as smart', not almost," I teased just a bit.
"Impossible, I'm the smartest man alive."
"And the humblest."
"Truly, I am burdened with wonderful virtues. Come on kid. Seriously," Tony looked over at me. "You think it's a good idea to bring him here?"
I thought about it. "...Here, in New York City, we have the home field advantage. All our friends, tech, and allies are close by. Doctor Doom is dangerous, but he isn't a god yet."
"Yet?"
I ignored his befuddled comment. "We go to Latveria, we don't know what hornet's nest we'll have to deal with. If he's anything like the other versions, he's basically you and Agatha rolled into one."
"That's a terrifying thought," Tony shrugged, then installed another object into the StarkGate. "Tell you what. Give us about a month. Let me get some suits together. Then we can invite the dictator over for a barbecue."
"Hey, I wouldn't have invited him unless everyone agreed anyways," I looked out the window of the lab we were in. Fantasma and Jen were talking to Simmons, the redhead giggling. Fitz was at a computer connected to the lab. He looked confused about something. "So, when are you lighting this thing up?"
"Not for a few months honestly," Tony shrugged. "The principles it works on are a bit wonky. Analysis from the portal made in New York, the logs from the wormhole tech, studies based on gravitational stress factors, the maps we pulled from those idiot aliens, and the calculations we got from the Rio Timequake and Fishhook device."
"How much trouble could we be in?" I asked him.
"Ah, not much. It's a portal, not a bomb."
"Hey Tony!" Fitz said through the speakers in the lab. "Can you take a look at these calculations?"
Tony gave me a smirk. "See what I mean? Wonky." He rose to his feet and waved his hands sarcastically. "Why don't you take a look at this thing, give me your expert opinion?"
"What, you don't think I'm helpful?"
"If I need friends to punch things or watch tv with," he slapped me on the back and walked off.
I shook my head, looking back at the StarkGate. It was pretty cool looking. I lowered the Omnitrix and eyed it a bit longer. Huh. Lights were beginning to turn on.
"Mahmoud?" Tony said through the lab speakers. "Did you do something?"
I looked over at him. "What do you-"
BOOMSWISKUM!
The sound of glass shattering, water exploding, space imploding, like the world was being pushed and pulled, wrenches clattering against ice. I couldn't explain how the sound bounced against my mind.
Something threw me forward, smashing me against the windows of the lab. The glass cracked but didn't break, leaving me to fall to the ground.
"FUCK!" I twisted around, staring at the StarkGate.
Glowing blue. Like a star. A ball of energy, within the ring of the StarkGate.
"Tony, tell me this isn't as bad as I think!" I yelled. I ran to the door, reaching for the handle. Jen's fist lifted towards the window. Magic surrounded Fantasma in violet rings. Pieces of Iron Man suit flew towards Tony while he screamed.
"Get out of-" the ball of energy exploded again, sending everyone flying. Except for me. For some reason, something grabbed hold of me. Power like nothing I'd felt. I felt my body flicker. Fasttrack. Diamondhead. Big Chill. Four Arms. Upgrade. I reached desperately for the door.
Still I was pulled in. My feet were ripped from the floor. I shifted forms to Grendel and slammed back into the ground, just to get pulled up again.
My legs felt like they were on fire. I shifted to Blight. Then Ethereal, surrounding myself in a shield of psychic energy. It was shredded to pieces.
The last thing I saw before I was finally sucked in was Jen, Tony, and Fantasma smashing through the glass. Then the world was gone.
------
I fell into a void of blue lights. My body stretched into infinity. But it was also small as an atom. I had infinite understanding, and knew nothing. The feeling was intense. And familiar.
The pain of knives slicing me apart, before I was healed once more. I reached out with arms, tentacles, and claws. The Omnitrix blared with color. I screamed.
I flew into a brick wall in a flash of light. I fell to the ground.
And I lay there, gasping.
"What… what. What the hell!?"
Human again. I groaned, getting up as quickly as I could, trying to breathe. Everything ached, even though I hadn't been hurt. It didn't matter. I needed to focus. Get the landscape of things.
I didn't know where I could have gone. The StarkGate was meant to send people to other worlds. I could have been anywhere. Close by like Mars, or far, like Hala, Skrullos, or Spartax.
I looked up. And I was in New York City. 54th Street was in front of me, I could see the sign. Smell New York City too, a very distinct scent. But…
"...This is the wrong New York."
It was half a guess. Tony's portal was made to shift people between worlds. Maybe I'd just ended up a few blocks away, but I doubted it.
Still feeling on edge, I slowly walked out of the alleyway and into the sunlight. It was hot as hell. Humid too, the moisture clinging to me. Muggy is how Steve would describe it. New York City summers don't mess around.
I frowned when I saw an older looking car. Then another. And another.
They drove lazily past dozens of cars from the 70's and 80's. I wasn't a car guy, but Tony had me repairing enough of them to recognize them.
And then there was the fashion. People looked at me like I was weird in my now ripped apart t-shirt and jeans, while the women walked past with shoulder-padded jackets and bell bottom pants. A guy wearing black leather and a two-foot tall mohawk passed me by, his pants an obnoxious red. And all the clothes were like that, bright and colorful.
Then again, this was New York City, and I wasn't the most fashion conscious.
"...I need more info, clearly." On a whim, I opened up my comm. The quantum comm was supposed to be able to work anywhere in the universe. But here, I got nothing. Worth a shot.
Pulling back into the alleyway, I tapped my Omnitrix.
"Big Chill."
Immediate relief. Thank god. I hate heat. You can layer up and get warm easily in the cold, but hot weather is a bitch.
Floating upwards, I went intangible and invisible. Higher and higher, until I could see the whole of New York City. On instinct, I looked for the Avengers Tower.
And… Well, it was technically there. Just with a large 'Stark' sign on the side of it instead.
"Well. Unless I'm less observant than I thought, that's not quite right." There was more. More landmarks that I hadn't seen before. Like a random mansion I could see in the distance on Fifth Avenue, where I was positive an office building had been.
But hey. The Empire State Building was still there. And I could see the Statue of Liberty's green butt out in the harbor. Thank god. Having some familiar landmarks helped me feel better.
I looked around to see what else-
"... Oh."
They stood side-by-side in the distance. Taller than everything else around them. I could see a spire coming off of one of them. I floated there, staring at them.
When I was ten years old, I'd entered my parents room to hang out with my siblings and them. The TV had suddenly switched to breaking news. And I watched the planes hit. Even as a kid, I remembered being horrified. I didn't understand the implications. But the sight had shaken me.
But here, the Twin Towers, the World Trade Center, stood tall and proud. Large blocks of concrete and steel instead of the large crystal tower that was slated to replace them.
Yeah. I was a long way from home.
Okay. Same as last time. Find a library. Figure out how far I was from my set of folk. Then make/find a dimensional portal/time machine to get home.
Twisting in the air, I started flying. Just a bit over the buildings, enough to see the landscape. It was such a clash of the familiar and the new. Cities are living breathing things, and this version was no different. Construction was being done on buildings that I would one day defend. Others would one day be demolished. The sections of Hell's Kitchen where I'd worked in construction were still there.
And as I passed over the streets, a more familiar sound came in from the distance. People screaming in terror.
"Ah. Of course. Never a day off." I said in Big Chill's spooky tones. Damnit. I cartwheeled and tapped the Omnitrix. In a flash, I shifted. Blue insectoid to orange dinosaur.
"Astrodactyl!"
Star power exploded from the back of my jetpack, rocketing me forward. Big Chill was quick, but Astrodactyl was lightning. I blazed over the city, eventually reaching the fire.
The literal fire. A building was burning. Cars were in pieces. People were screaming.
As I flew in, a little girl was crying in the street, not seeing the chunk of building about to hit her. I flew in and grabbed her, noting the Iron Man shirt she was wearing while I zipped her off the street and to the side.
"EEEEEEE-" a woman started screaming at the sight of me. I ignored her, putting the girl down and turning to face the destruction, my eyes narrowing over my beak.
"Squaaaaawk. What happened here?"
And what was with all the… sand?
The grains were all over the ground. And as I watched, the brown grains began to bounce. Then shift around. I crouched, snapping out a whip of emerald star power from one hand while the other was ready to shoot. The sand gathered together, all of it. A figure about fifteen feet tall formed in the street.
"Aw. Well squawk."
A black and green striped sweater. Blocky head. And a body of sand.
Up above, a feathered man dropped down dressed in green with a white collar, his bald head shining in the light as he eyed me curiously. "Now what is this that you've found, Marko?"
"Some kinda… dinosaur?" the giant made of sand mumbled, looking confused.
"Squawk!" I raised one fist to point at them and cracked my whip. "Quick question. You guys behind all this?"
The Vulture (Come on, we all knew he was the Vulture just like we knew 'Marko' was Sandman) had a sudden gleam in his eyes. I bet he'd been planning to try and trick me. He was a cunning bastard.
He was foiled by Flint Marko's honest personality. "So what if we did!?"
I shot him in the chest. He blinked. Then stared down at the new hole in his pectorals.
"Just making sure!"
And with that, we started trying to kill each other.
Chapter 10: Kitty and Conan Interlude
Chapter 10: Interlude
Kitty Pryde
Kitty Pryde woke up screaming. Again.
She was in her room. It was pitch-black for a bit while she sat there, panting. She grabbed at herself, shivering a bit. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness as she sat there, breathing carefully. The door to her room opened and her breath hitched.
Logan stood there. He eyed her for a moment. Then he stood aside, waving.
She quickly got out of bed, following him.
Outside, Kitty took a deep breath of air. Logan and her sat on the roof, looking out at the mansion's grounds. Logan had a beer in his hand, while she played with a soda in hers. It was warm despite the time of night. She took another breath.
"So… the battle?"
"Yeah," Kitty sighed. "I keep dreaming about it. Those guys b-bleeding on the snow. And all those monsters."
"Mephits," Logan said. "Looked them up after Dial sent me the login for the Avengers servers. Weaker elementals."
"They were like, so freaky! And they tried to kill me!" Kitty swallowed. "I felt bullets go through me!"
"Had that happen a time or two." Logan took another sip of his drink.
"I had blood in my hair!" Kitty brushed at her ponytail, shuddering. "It was so sticky! I just… That was scary!"
For a moment, she felt embarrassed. 'Scary'. She'd seen people die. Soldiers had tried to kill her. Monsters had reached through her. And it was just 'scary'? She couldn't stop dreaming about it. It was easier at school. She could pretend things were still normal there, with Kurt and Jean. Even Rogue was sometimes talking to them now.
But then she fell asleep. And she dreamed about it again.
"Does it ever stop?" Kitty sighed. Her soda was still in her hand, ignored.
Logan shook his head. "I wouldn't know. Hasn't stopped for me."
"...Like… How do you deal?"
"Therapy."
Kitty glanced at him, surprised. Logan smirked. "What? The Professor knows what he's doing."
He finished his beer and placed it down. "I've been fighting a long time, half-pint. These kinds of things… They can stick to ya if you let them. It's like poison. You need to take antidotes."
Logan laid back against the roof. "Hang out with your friends. Talk to them. Talk to the Professor. Remind yourself about what's good in life."
"Don't you spend a lot of time alone?" She asked.
He chuckled. "I spend a lot of time in the woods. I walk out there, in nature. Hunt. Join wolf packs sometimes. It helps. I ain't one of those idiots that thinks nature is some one hundred percent peaceful thing. But it's simple. Beautiful."
Kitty looked at him. His eyes closed for a moment. He seemed more… peaceful, then she was used to. He huffed out a breath.
"...Can we stay out here a little longer?"
"Long as you need, half-pint."
Kitty smiled and looked up at the stars again.
Conan The Barbarian
Conan gazed out at the lands before him. Jungle as far as the eye could see. Warm, scented of sweet rot. On the cliff he stood on, he could see the whole of it. He closed his eyes and breathed in. He heard the stones behind him shift. Barely. Enough to tell him who was behind him.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
Conan turned to look at the two men who joined him.
Ka-Zar. Like Conan, he was a large and built man, wearing a loincloth, though his long hair was a sandy blonde rather than Conan's black locks. His massive cat followed in his shadow.
The other man, Kraven, wore a vest made from the skin of a lion. He was muscular as well, but his own hair was more tightly cut, a trimmed beard about his face.
Both men took a spot on either side of Conan. He looked behind them again.
There, the beauty of the jungle was marred by this world's modern technology. Large buildings, construction, the 'planes' of the modern age. Men carrying those 'guns' stood around guarding the mages and intelligent folk of this era.
Along with them, were the species of this land. Folk made of stone. Men and women with wings. Saurian and reptilian folks. They joined the modern folk, aiding them in construction, discussing a variety of things.
Not quite a village or city. But Conan could see the bones of one being formed.
He turned back to the jungle and nodded to himself.
That man, Dial, had suggested he join this endeavor. After Conan discovered how far from home he was, Dial had recommended the Savage Land.
Conan thought back to that moment.
"It's a place similar to your home, but BRIDGE will be there too. You can learn about the modern world while still living somewhere like your own world. Plus, they could use some good sword hands."
Conan and Dial stood inside a room within the building they called the 'Avengers Tower', looking upon a strange object that displayed images of the 'Savage Land'. It reminded Conan of some of the sorcerous magics he'd seen that displayed places, people, and impossible objects.
Of course, speaking of sorcerers.
"To say it is similar is a misnomer," Agatha Harkness walked around into Conan's view, her eyes on the screen as well. "At best, it is only a superficial similarity."
"Why is the witch here?" Conan growled. Agatha smirked at him.
"Because she's literally the only person we know who lived in your day and age," Dial said. "That's why you can speak English now too."
"I would have learned quickly," Conan said with complete confidence. It was true. He had always been good with languages. Given time, he would master this era's languages as well. Even though 'English' was one of the most inefficient ones he'd ever attempted to understand. Why did so many words sound different from how they were spelled?
As the barbarian pondered that, Dial continued.
"You don't have to stay there. But I figured it was perfect for you. Place with plenty to hunt and/or fight, a BRIDGE unit in place to teach you anything you like, and people who won't freak out at the sight of a man carrying a sword."
Conan pointedly looked at Dial's left side, where a longsword of modern design hung. Dial grinned back and Conan scoffed. He looked back at the map longer. FInally he said what he had been thinking for some time.
"Will there be women?"
Dial blinked. Agatha laughed, an old woman's bitter laugh.
"I mean, yes? I guess?"
"If there are not, I will come back," Conan said at last. "I like women."
When Dial looked as though he had no clue how to respond to that and Agatha chuckled, Conan decided to ignore them. He was a barbarian. He had no care for the strangeness of warlocks and witches.
"So then. When do I leave?"
Back in the present, Conan focused once more on the moment. This world had changed. But in many, it was still the same savage desperate land it once had been. And Conan could see more proof of that in the distance.
"Seems the convoy is going to be ambushed again," Ka-Zar said, kneeling down to look into the jungle. A line of wagons and modern vehicles were driving along a trail through the jungle. In front of it, they could see Saurian forces gathering, unseen by the drivers and guards of the convoy. "Haven't they learned from the last time?"
"They are a different set of bandits," Conan said. "More well trained. Equipped. They will be a tougher fight than the last ones."
"How wonderful," Kraven said, the man pulling out a hunting knife and briefly testing the edge. "There is no joy in a hunt that is too easy."
"A man should always reach for greater heights," Conan agreed.
Ka-Zar scoffed. Ironically, the man who had spent the least amount of time among 'civilization' was the most civilized of the three.
Conan glanced at Zabu, the saber-toothed tiger looking down at the incoming attack with a calm demeanor. Make that four.
"Should we move now?" Kraven asked.
"Wait until they are about to strike," Conan said. "No bandit is ready to be ambushed just when they launch one."
"Experience talking?"
"I have been a bandit a time or two," Conan said without repentance.
Ka-Zar shook his head, but smiled anyway. "Okay… let's go be good guys."
The four leapt down into the jungle, ready to unleash hell. Moments later, screams echoed out into the air, and the Savage Land proved its reputation once more.
Chapter 11: Res Ipsa
Flint Marko, technically William Baker, aka the Sandman. Adrian Toomes, aka the Vulture. Some of the first villains that Spider-Man had ever fought.
In my world, Flint was a low-level criminal that BRIDGE was keeping an eye on. Adrian was up to something that had Coulson ready to pick him up, but was otherwise not a priority.
Things had clearly taken a different path in this version of New York.
"Can I ask you something, squawk!?" I dived around a fist of sand, fired through a brick wall that tried to block me, then flew upside down to avoid a green blur. "Do you get itchy? Because you were human, now you're sand. Did you have to get over the human impulse to feel itchy around sand?"
"Stand still!" Flint Marko roared. "Why do I keep fighting smart mouths that keep moving around?!"
"Good question! Let's go over your life and find out where things went wrong! Squawk!" I blasted through a spiked mace of sand in a wave of blazing emerald light and came to a sliding stop on the asphalt. "What was your relationship with your father like?"
"GRAAAAGH!" Hearing sand roar is an odd experience. Like a scene from The Mummy with Brendan Frasier, the sand formed a giant face and rushed towards me with bladed weapons.
I rocketed upwards again to dodge the sawblade of sand, then twisted through the sky.
In the streets below, I could see civilians escaping. Good. The last thing I wanted was to have someone get hurt. Despite what you would think, I tended to prioritize saving people over having grudge matches with idiots.
Focusing more on the fight, I narrowed my saurian eyes at Vulture. He was swooping around pretty damn fast. Granted, not as fast as me, but he hit a sweet spot between my Astrodactyl fast and Big Chill controlled. His turns were quick and controlled, moving with a hell of a lot of agility for a septuagenarian.
Like Sam in his more recent Falcon suits. Which was insanely impressive.
Right. He had some kind of gravity harness. Probably explained a lot.
"Come here!" Vulture dive bombed me. I shut off my rocket, twisting around and firing it again to launch upwards. Before I could hit him with a blast from one of my gauntlets, he disappeared from my sight. A pair of booted feet smashed into my back. Vulture crowed. "Ha! Take that you simpleton!"
Simpleton, huh? What a classic insult. Better than people calling me an asshole or bitch all the time. Homophobic ones were popular too.
I smashed down onto a rooftop, rolling briefly. Before I could get up, sand surrounded me, wrapping about my body. Tendrils of grainy stones grinded against the scales of my arms, legs, and neck, squeezing and pulling all at once. Surrounded in a cocoon of sand, I squawked weakly, lungs squeezing for air..
"L-Let… GOOO!"
I fired off everything I had, blast after blast of emerald energy erupting from me as the sand was driven back.
Briefly.
"Not going to work!" the sandstorm crowed, Flint Marko's face surrounding me in duplicate across the sand. "Not for long! Die you-"
The second I had enough air, I roared. "GOOP!"
Flint had enough time to be confused before I flashed with green light. Orange scales, hardened bones, and the power within stars all faded away for the simpler form of a man made of green fluid.
Sand wrapped around me, then flowed uselessly through me. Flint made a motion that could only be described as the elemental equivalent of a stumble. "What the-"
I stared out at the sandstorm. The UFO part of me grabbed onto my body and I flowed out, flying in to merge with him.
From the outside, it must have looked like a tornado on a building suddenly gained a glimmer of glowing green through it. In terms of sheer mass, I couldn't match Sandman. He must have been collecting sand for days before this fight. But I was just as fast, and even more untouchable.
"I can't touch him!" Sandman called out to Vulture in alarm.
"Annoying fighting someone who isn't solid, isn't it?" I teased in my slimy sounding voice.
"Little pest-" Vulture was crowing as he swooped past, only to be cut off by an unholy sound.
A sandstorm screaming.
"RaaAAAarraGGGGGAAA!!!" the grinding sand squealed. "Wha-wha-?!"
"Acid!" Was all I said, almost smug. That's right. Goop had a whole host of powers. But one of the best was the ability to go full acidic. The sand that had been fruitlessly trying to grind me away began to melt. Flint tried to run, to float away, but I dived into and out of him, a spot of green in an ocean of brown.
I couldn't guarantee I could find and contain the single sand grain supposedly holding Flint's… consciousness? Soul? Whatever. But I could melt three hundred pounds of it at a time.
Sandman fought back, smashing into me with massive mace hands, blades, and walls. I was buffeted and battered, even briefly getting my UFO slammed into the roof by an errant hit to send me splashing across the sandy surface.
But I'd been hit harder. I reformed through him, over and over. Coming back no matter how many times he smashed and sliced me into paste, and each time I took a little bit out of him.
"S-Stoooop!" Flint screamed in pain as he desperately tried to fight me off, ironically only getting more and more of his sand melted every time he touched me.
"Marko you fool, let me help you!" Toomes shouted from outside our shrinking battle.
Too late. I punched and flowed until Flint was backed up against a wall. He shrank down to his human form, one hand raised in terror. "P-Please. Please, stop."
"I don't know," I said, staring at him in my fluid form. "I get the feeling you might try to attack me while my back is turned."
A… feeling, some kind of instinct inside me, was reaching out to Flint. I felt like I knew him? Or like… I knew more than I should have? What-
Something swooped down out of the sky. A claw wrapped around my UFO and pulled it hard, leaving my gelatinous half to splash on the ground.
"Ha!" Toomes shouted, sliding to a stop on the rooftop in the birdman version of the Akira slide. "You see, Marko! You should have realized the weakness of this disgusting creature sooner! It was practically advertising it! An anti-gravity device much like my own, yes, to control your gelatinous half? Simple enough to figure out."
"Nice deduction," my voice said from the UFO.
"Indeed! And an ingenious design, I must admit. I look forward to picking it apart and finding out how it works," Vulture said smugly. "But first, who are you? Why are you interfering in our work!?"
"Well to that, I have a strong response. Four Arms."
"Eh?"
A flash of green. The goo on the floor zipped back to the UFO and merged with it faster than light. My body shifted, ripping open Toomes' grip. He let out a gasp of sound.
"What-!?" He stopped and stared upwards. "The…"
I leaned down and smiled through teeth like pale-grey tombstones.
"Devil?" Toomes squeaked.
He spun around, ready to run. I grabbed his foot in my lower right hand as he took off, preventing him from flying off, while the left ones raised up.
BOOM!
Toomes passed out from a relatively light tap with two alien fists, merely knocking him out rather than turning the old man's bones into dust. I grabbed his gravity harness and ripped it off in a shower of sparks, crushing it in my hands.
"Now, Flint-" I turned, only for there to be no sign of him.
Gone. Just disappeared.
A quick look around had me spotting the lingering remains of some sand diving into a nearby storm drain before totally disappearing from sight.
"Damn," I muttered as I jumped down back onto the street with Toomes hanging limply from my arms. "Well, you gotta respect the instinct to cut and run when you know you're outmatched, if nothing else."
"You should have done the same!"
Ozone. Yellow light. And sudden pain.
"GRAAAAAGH!"
Lightning. It ran through me, hitting my nerves like knives through butter. I dropped Toomes and fell to my knees, screaming.
"Ha! Considering how big you are I was thinking I'd need to hit you with even more juice, but you're a total lightweight!" A very whiny sounding voice said as a pair of yellow boots stepped in front of me, electricity dancing off of them.
"Yeah, well, at least I'm not the one wearing stupid green and yellow PJs," I said through gritted teeth, which just earned me even more of a shock. "AHHHH!"
"Hahaha!!!" Electro (Come on, we all knew it was Max the second the electricity hit) gloated. "Come on, Adrian, you let this punk beat you!?"
I grit my teeth and whispered.
Electro leaned in. "What? I'm sorry, I can't hear you over me cooking your ass!"
I glared up at him. "NRG."
Green. Two arms disappeared, with my body replaced with a massive metal suit. My height shrank, but not by much, while my bulk increased massively.
More importantly, the lightning that had been cooking me instead flowed into my suit, hitting my true radioactive form instead.
I didn't even flinch. In fact it felt weirdly nice. Like a warm bath.
"What the-?! The hell are you?!" Max panicked and fired most electricity at me, which did fuck all. As I stood up and stepped towards him, he kept shooting. "And why aren't you going down?!"
"I am the Russian Nuclear Winter!" I said in NRG's accent. A single punch was thrown, Electro barely dodging it. He blasted me again, and backed off when it did nothing.
"Damnit!" Electro shouted. "We don't have time for this! Spider-Man-!"
"Is here!" A cheery voice. A flash of red and black. A spandex covered foot smashing into Electro's stupid yellow star faced mask. "Heya, Maxie! Look at you, fighting someone else for once! Are you trying to make me jealous?"
"Spider-Man!" Electro roared as he recovered from the strike and electricity blasted out of his body in anger.
"I thought we established that already," I replied, stepping forward to intercept the blast. "Jeez, Spidey, how hard did you hit him?"
"Hey, I don't know my own strength sometimes!" Spider-Man landed next to me.
That's when I noticed how different he looked. Red and black, rather than the blue along the arms and legs I knew. I'd said his foot was spandex covered out of habit, but the stuff actually looked similar to the BRIDGE gear Nat used. Tough, but still fairly flexible. More advanced.
Maybe he was an Avenger already? If so, props to you Peter, you deserve more.
"And it's nice to hear a Russian accent that doesn't belong to someone who's trying to kill me for once. How you liking the Big Apple so far, tourist? Enjoying our American energy system at work?"
"I am an American," I deadpanned in my heavy Russian accent, which just made Spider-Man look at me with what I was sure was a raised eyebrow underneath his mask. Wait, his eyes moved somehow? Cool.
"Uh, you sure?"
"It is complicated, comrade!"
"Oh for fuck's sake, there's two of them," Max mumbled.
"Truly a dire situation," another voice said.
Spider-Man dodged a final lightning bolt and landed on my armored shoulder. I lifted my fists, facing Electro as more people joined him.
The clanging of metal on concrete, tentacles crushing a car as they carried their passenger, a slightly overweight man with goggles over his eyes. Following him was another man, this one floating on jets of smoke, a purple cape fluttering behind him, the whole thing almost mystical. Except for the stupid fishbowl on his head, obscuring his face entirely.
Another man landed on a car nearby, large in stature but also lean with muscle. A very familiar man.
"I was wondering what was distracting Flint and Toomes," Dr Ock said in an annoyed tone of voice. "It seems we have an unwelcome interruption to our personal business with the arachnid."
"Ah, see! He is classy, knowing you are arachnid!" I commented.
"I always loved that about the Doc. Not afraid to get overly technical and scientific about things. I can respect that about him, which helps since I don't respect anything else he does," Spider-Man added.
"Dear lord, there truly are two of them," Mysterio grumbled beneath his fishbowl head. "And while I'm normally always up for an audience, this is an exclusive performance."
"No performance worth a damn is exclusive," I said. Mysterio seemed almost pleased by that response.
"I can't fry the big guy," Electro said, looking frustrated.
"Then we shall simply trade opponents," Kraven said, lifting a knife in a very familiar way. "I'll take the Spider."
"The arachnid is mine!" Doc Ock snapped, his bowl-cut vibrating. "I have worked too long to
simply-"
"We even waited till he was alone, damn it," Mysterio grumbled again, still sounding more pleased than irritated.
While they bickered over who got to fight Spidey, I eyed Electro. He was the most dangerous present in terms of sheer power. Even with my immunity, he could cause a lot of damage… So he was first.
I just wasn't fast enough to catch him. Spider-Man was fast enough, but he'd have trouble not getting zapped. So mix things up.
"Hey Spidey," I whispered to one of the greatest heroes in existence. "You don't suppose Electro is weak to wrecking balls, do you?"
Peter's bug-like eyes widened, then his face shifted under the mask. "Give me a sec."
"On it."
I raised my palms and blasted out beams of powerful energy. The radioactive power sliced through the air, forcing Electro and Kraven to dodge. The Russian hunter rolled to a stop by Doctor Octopus. Electro, on the other hand, stopped by a parked car.
A web landed on my suit, followed by something tugging me up into the air as I fired another pair of blasts. One disappeared into a burst of smoke thrown by Mysterio, fading away without a trace. (Okay, how in the hell did special effects do that?)
The other Electro intercepted with a lightning bolt, his faster projectile destroying mine and turning it into an explosion of fire, obscuring what Peter was doing to me.
A tug, a twirl. Inside my armored form I felt the very strange sensation of over a ton of metal being treated like a paperweight on a string as Peter brought me around then back.
The look on Electro's face when I came swinging out of the fire he'd made, fist raised. Priceless.
"I came in like a-!" I sang in NRG's exotic accent.
"NOOO!" Lightning splashed across my armor, errant bolts destroying the electrical systems around us.
"WREEEECKING BALL!" My fist slammed gently into Electro's belly. Gently for NRG thrown by Spider-Man, anyways. There was an explosion of power around him, saliva erupting from his mouth. I threw him back about twenty feet, leaving him to crumple against the ground.
"Dillon!" Mysterio called out.
"Damn you!" Kraven snapped. "Who are you!? We even waited until he was alone!"
"Well, sorry to ruin your attempt at group murder. I was going to say 'gangbang', but the internet has ruined the original meaning of that term-"
"The what?"
Kraven easily dodged a blast of radiation with a confused look on his face while a car smashed into me, thrown by Doctor Octopus and his tentacles.
"Kraven, stop messing around! We need to kill the arachnid before the jammers shut off!"
That explained the lack of cops then. The car that hit me crumpled. I ripped it off of me, thinking furiously.
NRG had been fine to negate Electro, but I just wasn't fast enough to deal with the rest. I could shoot at them more, but that would be a lot of radiation I'd have to clean up in the middle of a heavily populated area even with me holding back. These guys were too speedy. Almost like they'd spent a lot of time fighting a speedy fucker.
Spider-Man dived into the fray, briefly meeting Kraven in the center of the street. The two traded blows at insane speed, Spider-Man showing a lot more martial arts skill than I would have thought at this time. Still taking advantage of his natural flexibility and agility, but there was a polish there that Steve would have approved of.
Thoughts for later. I needed to be faster. Easy enough. Fasttrack.
I tapped the Omnitrix. It flashed green. My armor disappeared, replaced by blue fur stretched across a lean frame. I expected that.
What I didn't expect was the extra arms, eyes, and the tail.
In that busy street, mid-leap as I dodged through the two tentacles that tried to take my head off, I crowed out a new name.
"SPIDER-MONKEY!"
Webs shot out of my tail and wrapped around a pole, swinging me in to join the fight Kraven and Spider-Man were having. Mysterio shot out gas canisters, surrounding the three of us in a circle of pink.
Kraven, Spider-Man, and I started throwing fists. I bounced around a kick, Peter swinging around me to throw a punch. Kraven ducked that, only to block one of my punches, leaving him vulnerable to one of my lower fists.
Faster and faster, Spider-Man and Monkey moving in near synch, trading blows with Kraven. He kept slicing, kicking, dodging, but we kept at him.
Every once in a while, a tentacle would shoot from the smoke, trying to help him. I got tagged a couple of times
I leaped impossibly high to dodge a tentacle that shot out of the smoke around us, grabbing Peter's outstretched hand as he passed.
With a heave, I swung Peter directly down at Kraven. He fired a web back at me as he flew down, one of my hands grabbing it.
Peter slammed his fist into Kraven's face while pulling me in so I could follow up with two fists of my own. The two of us landed behind Kraven as he stumbled, spinning in unison.
"BAM!"
Three fists landed at the same time on Kraven's solar plexus, sending him flying into the smoke. He left a path through the smoke and rolled to a stop.
"You know, I should really be threatening to sue you for copyright infringement right about now," Spider-Man noted as he looked me over.
"It's cool, I'm a distinct property. Monkey, not man."
"But what is a man, if not a monkey with good hair?"
"A being who isn't afraid to show off their nice ass in public."
Our banter was cut off by a loud groaning. "Oh dear lord, there truly are two of them!"
"A shapeshifter of some sort," Doctor Octopus noted with interest as he walked into view. "One with a variety of forms and abilities to match any given obstacle it faces. Quite impressive and annoying."
"No matter," Mysterio said, his New York accent fading into that over the top dramatic voice he seemed to favor. I kinda liked it. Very 1950s movie villain. "For my formula will take effect soon enough."
"What do you-" Vertigo hit. All of a sudden, I could barely stand. I winced, dropping to all six limbs while looking around. The hell? "...Ah fuck." The smoke.
A hand grabbed my shoulder. I almost swung before the image of a spider calmed me.
"Don't listen to him," Peter said as he helped me up. "His helmet does something to his voice, makes it hypnotic."
"You have the weirdest villains," I grumbled.
"Hey, I don't ask these guys to-"
A beam of heat came out of the smoke. Peter pulled me out of the way, the laser almost cutting me in half. A metal fist came swinging at us before I let a web out of my tail to zip us away. My web was sliced mid-flight, leaving us to tumble before Spider-Man barely dodged a trio of blades.
When we came to a stop, I stared at the three who had attacked.
"Logan?"
Wolverine snarled at me, his stance low. Behind him, Cyclops stepped forth, his red visor glowing lightly. He was different from the one I knew. Older, much more muscular, with more frown wrinkles. Behind the pair, a massive man of metal smashed his fist into his palm. Colossus.
"Oh no, he found out about his motorcycle," Peter whispered in horror as Logan snarled at him.
"I doubt that-" before I could say anything, the three rushed us. I jumped out of the way of a laser blast the second I saw Cyclops charging a shot. And then I almost threw up webs.
Whatever Mysterio had done sucked ass. I felt like the Earth was upside down. Like I was sparring with Agatha in those weird maze rooms she made Fantasma and Wanda train in.
Colossus took the moment of confusion to hit me. Weakly. Well, not weakly, but weaker than I expected.
Still, it was enough to make me stumble. A laser blast joined, tossing me back. Instead of smashing me through three buildings. Cyclops' blasts were not that weak.
Still good enough while I was dealing with vertigo.
Spider-Man was doing better against Wolverine. "Wolverine, buddy, I swear, we put it back the way we found it! We just had to borrow the cycle for a day or two! The fate of the world was at stake!"
Logan roared, slicing madly at Peter. The arachnid avenger slipped around the claws, yelping just a bit. "Okay fine, it was to impress Firestar, but-"
Logan punched at Peter claws first. Peter's eyes narrowed before he punched the shorter buffer man first, moving with blistering speed. He fired webs at Logan, wrapping him briefly in the fluid. The Wolverine sliced at the claws. And I noticed that it took him way too long. He ripped at them, trying to get loose, while Peter stepped back.
"It's not the real ones!" I yelled.
"I figured that out when Wolverine didn't turn me to mincemeat in two seconds!" Peter shouted back. Then he stumbled.
Fucking vertigo. We had to deal with that. I thrust an off-balance punch at Colossus, denting his metal shell, then ran towards Peter. We needed a new edge. Peter was dealing with the vertigo better than I was. More used to it, or had some kind of answer to help him. So I had to have his back.
And I had a damn perfect way to do it.
I jumped towards him, almost throwing up at the sensation of my brain flipping through my head. Peter glanced at me, eyes wide. "Uh, what are you?"
"BLIGHT!"
Blue fur gone. And the black ooze appeared. In mid-air, I flowed outwards, slamming into Peter's chest. He yelped in shock. I entered through his suit. And we became one.
Our eyes opened. We stared at the world. We felt our bodies as one. I flowed into Peter's cells, enhancing and strengthening him. It was easy. Very easy.
"What-?"
Before Peter could finish, Not-Logan sliced his way out of the webs. Not-Colossus threw another punch.
We grabbed the fist and crushed it in our hand like a plastic cup, gears and servers popping out around our black and green fist. Our other hand punched the solar plexus of the Not-Colossus, ripping through it in a wave of black tentacles that grabbed Not-Cyclops on the other side, wrapping around him.
"What the heck is going on!?" Peter crowed in my mind. He sounded both elated and confused. "Why do I have goo tentacles!?"
Oh shit, this Spider-Man hadn't met Venom yet? That was going to make things weird in the future.
"It's a power of this form. I can enhance biological beings by joining them in a symbiotic-"
Before I could explain further.
The Not-Cyclops tried to shoot through the black ooze, briefly separating it from his face. The rest of the tentacles tightened around the bot then lifted it up, pulling it into the Not-Colossus. Together, we smashed the bots into the ground, then expanded the tentacles into spikes that shredded the steel.
Together, as the two robots crackled on the ground, we looked at Not-Logan. Poor bastard must have had horrible software, because he rushed us.
"I can make blades too," I said through the mental link I had with Peter.
"Do you also make Julienne fries?" Peter said back through the same link.
Not-Logan swung at us. Peter sent a signal through to me, and I responded in an instant. A single long blade erupted from our wrist, slicing through the metal claws of the robot, sending the trio of blades flying. Another swipe sliced the robot in half.
"I could get used to this!" Peter added.
"You say that now," I replied ominously. "This power doesn't come without drawbacks. Okay, you've got the pilot seat. I'll support you."
"Got it. Hold on tight."
I worked overtime, pumping the poison from the smoke around us out of Peter's body, keeping him at the top of his game. As one, we moved into the smoke. We could hear them. Sense them. Mysterio spoke, his voice echoing.
"So, you have defeated my meager replicas! Don't crow over your victory for long! Soon, my improved formula will intercept your mind, forcing you into a world of-"
We dropped in front of him. Mysterio spun around, raising his hands up and blasting us with gas.
We jumped up, avoiding the blasts. Peter had been hit by the stuff before. It interfered with his spider-sense. Landing behind Mysterio, we fired a web behind us, attaching to his fishbowl head. With a pull, we smashed his head into the ground, cracking the fishbowl. A single kick to his exposed face finished it.
"Five down!" Spider-Man shouted, Peter grinning in the mind we shared. "Just one-"
A single tentacle swept out of the sky, ripping up the ground when we dodged it. We glanced up. Doctor Otto Octavius stared down at us.
The most dangerous member of the Sinister Six. Not the most powerful. The most dangerous. The distinction mattered.
"Well, Doc? You finally going to do your own work?" Peter said. "Doesn't look good for you to just watch your goons get taken out."
"Goons isn't quite the word… though I admit they have proven as effective as them," Doc Ock snarled, his arms behind his back. "I must say, your new ally was quite above my own. But I suppose that means I can enjoy your death for myself."
"Try it, Doc, and I'll rip your arms off and beat you with them." Peter said. Damnit. I tried to tone down the increased aggression, but there was only so much I could do while still increasing his overall ability.
Doc Ock smirked. "Come and try."
Two arms lashed out. So did ours. Black tentacles erupted from our back, hardening as they clashed with the bad doctor's tentacles. Octavius immediately dropped to the ground, adding two more tentacles.
"I've got your back."
As one, Peter and I rushed in. Doctor Octavius rushed in as well. We met in the middle. His tentacles were fast. Immensely so. His control was impeccable as well, allowing him to match my own stronger symbiote flesh with applications of physics to counter them.
A single tentacle speared at us. We dodged aside and threw a punch that he blocked on a tentacle, before he grabbed our ankle and tossed us back. We webbed the building behind him and came swinging back. The next tentacle he swiped at us like a whip. We jumped up, tapping our fingers on it to flip forwards and kick at him. Two arms crossed in front of him, taking the blow. He still got sent flying back, two arms grabbing the concrete to bring him to a screeching halt.
We were already moving, webbed the arms he'd blocked with together. He pulled his arms apart only for the webbing to snap them back together. In that moment of distraction, we rushed in.
"Are you holding back?" Peter asked me.
"Do you want to catch him or kill him?" I asked back just as pointedly.
"Trust me."
Well. If you couldn't trust Spider-Man…
I let go. Everything I had. I pushed him to his limits.
The sudden burst of speed made Doctor Octavius' eyes widen behind his mask. One of the arms lashed out. We grabbed it and pulled, ripping him off his feet towards us. Another tentacle stabbed us, but we dodged with contemptuous ease while winding up the final blow.
Our fist flew towards Doctor Octavius' face. For a moment, just one, I worried about his future. About a man who, in the future, would be so brain damaged he would see nothing wrong with destroying the world in revenge for the problems he himself caused.
Thank god Peter was smarter than me. Rather than giving him his next concussion, our fist became a ball of goo that Doc Ock's face sank into. Controlling my form, I flowed down his chest and to his tentacles harness, removing the clasps there. Doc Ock screamed as we removed his tentacles, tossing them aside. Held in a black orb of goo, he screamed the last of his air out. The combination of our training let us choke him out.
Something tried to hit us. I grabbed it in the air with a tentacle, leaving Spider-Man to continue choking out Doctor Octopus.
The harness. It moved on its own. Three more arms lashed out, trying to smash us. I snapped out three more arms. On one side, Peter holding the doctor in a ball of goo. On the other, four tentacle arms with my Blight face poking out of Peter's back to hold the metal tentacles
When he was finally limp in our arms, along with his harness, we let him go.
"...So who are you, anyways?"
Oh boy. This was going to be a conversation and a half.
Flowing away from Peter, I separated our minds and tapped the Omnitrix. Back in Spider-Monkey form, I sighed.
"That is a long story. How about we wrap these guys in enough webbing to lock down a nuke and we can talk?"
"Sure," Peter said, still eyeing me with just a bit of suspicion. Then he looked around at the passed out villains around us, noticing one was absent. "Where's Sandman?"
"Uh… yeah, about that…"
Wrapping up the Sinister… Five in a combination of organic and synthetic webs until they looked like five heads poking out of a cotton ball, Spider-Man and I were hanging upside down from a water tower nearby roof while watching the cops finally approach to arrest the group.
Of course I was still in Spider-Monkey form. Felt appropriate. Peter had grabbed two cups of coffee for us along with donuts, and the pair of us sipped from them upside
"That explains the song," Peter said as I explained my arrival. "'Came in like a wreeeeecking ball'. I was wondering where you got it from."
"Yeah, it's a future Disney star gets weird kind of thing."
"Should you be telling me this?" Peter asked me. "I thought telling people about the future was generally a bad idea."
"First of all, if the future depends on how a Disney child star gets screwed over by life, we are already doomed. Second, based on what I've seen, I think this is a multiverse thing, not time travel. Kraven is a good-... a not evil… He's nominally an ally. Doctor Octavius is a member of our version of SHIELD. Flint is just a basic thug. It's a version of a possible future. The multiverse is a big fucking place, and nothing exactly matches up with anything else"
"What about your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man?" he asked with a grin. "Do I lead the Avengers?"
"Actually, you don't exist in my home universe."
"Aww man!" He slumped. I decided to stick with that technical truth. Peter was still a kid in my universe after all.
"Probably for the best," Peter chuckled. "I can't imagine dealing with alternate versions of me."
"Or clones."
"...That was way too specific of an example."
"Was it? Just saying, clones are a bad cliche. Always give yourself a way to make sure you aren't the clone."
"Do I get cloned?"
"We all do, that's the superhero life."
"Okay, but do I-"
Down below, a forklift was brought in, stopping the conversation for a bit.
"...Thanks." I looked over at Spidey. He was staring down at the group of wrapped up supervillains. "I usually have some friends to help me with big fights like this. I don't know how it would have gone down if I was alone."
"...You would have had some trouble. Then somehow get up and beat the living shit out of them."
He chuckled. "Hopefully."
"Definitely. Spider-Man doesn't give up."
"Thought you didn't have a version of me in your universe."
"Not yet," time travel was weird. "But I've seen others. You'd have been fine."
He still seemed unsure, but I was just happy. The goddamn Spider-Man dude! Finally! I'd wanted to meet him for so long! And I got to help him fight the Sinister Six! Once I got back home, this would be a fun story.
"Hm?" Peter looked around, his mask's eyes narrowing. "Something wrong?"
"Just realizing that it's gonna take a bit to figure out how to get back home. At least it won't be the first time I've ended up someplace out of reach."
"Well, I can help?" He said. "I know some guys. I mean, it would take a bit, but I can-"
He stopped, looking around. I knew what that meant. Spider-Sense. I dropped down to the roof, looking around as well. "What is it?"
"I don't know? Feels-"
Gas canisters landed on the roof. An older design. Or for this universe, a current one. They exploded, the gaseous substance filling the air.
"Move, move!" The door to the roof slammed open. Dozens of big guys in armor ran towards us. From the sky, a helicopter dropped in. I coughed, the taste on my tongue familiar. Tranquilizer gas.
"Run!" I shouted to Peter, grabbing him and throwing him before he could talk. "Ru-"
The sound of gas escaping again, followed by two bits of piercing pain. Then electricity zipped through my body. I felt webbing fire out of my tail along with the involuntary spasming.
The last thing I saw before I passed out was the symbol on their armored chests.
An eagle with stars. SHIELD.
Well damn…
Author's Note: Next chapter is being worked on with the help of the person I'm crossing over with.
In the meantime, stay safe, and consider supporting me on Patreon to see the next one early. Next is Neon Webs tho.