Infinite Justice: Beyond (Marvel,DC,DBZ X/Over, IC, Open)

[Charmera]

Julie
“Considering you’re about to set up a system which is very similar to that of the Green Lanterns, except without the experience of the guardians, or with any sort of galactic experience which would be key to the sort of judgement calls you’ll need to make, I’d say a ten year and running green lantern would be the bare minimum help you need. Heck I’d be asking for more help if I were in your position...” Replied Julie. She folded her arms, “Secondly, no offence, but you aren’t the most diplomatic person from what I’ve seen, so you really could use a PR person for all this.”

“Lastly, you need someone who isn’t afraid to tell you the truth. And I have a good track record with telling it how it is.” She then paused for a moment. “Also, considering our jobs and the fact that many of our identities are not secret, it’s a wonder that more of us aren't dead.”

Zaki
"Funny. A veteran of the builder war talks of how he's more concerned with the leader of a universe munching force rather than the hordes... Ironic don't you think?" Zaki remarked. Then sighed. "I am not worried without reason. I have seen far too many universes fall before the hordes of my people. I am trying to make a stand here, but if we don't stop them they will be no one left to fight back. And you are a key part of the defence."

The construct nodded slowly at Julie. "You're intelligent and not too prideful. Would you be willing to go through a series of trials to determine if you are truly as skilled as you claim? Should you pass, you will be introduced to the way the Throne works and added to its mechanisms as an authorized user."

---

"I see your point." The construct replied simply. "But the comparison to the War is flawed. Even then, I could destroy approximately three quarters of a standard Builder fleet in half an instant, and I had a fraction of the power I now wield. You are, indeed, not worried without reason- But I assure you, I will stand with the others in the Universe's defence when the time comes, and I will fight with all my might. Should I yet fail, I know of a way for me to increase my power even further- Your former Queen will fall, if not to my strike, then to Valka's, or Otis', or another's."

"Trials? Alright, Though if they involve a written exam, then I'm out of here." She joked, then wondered if he would take her seriously. She wondered if he was always like this or it was just acumulation of power which changed him. Then again, she was talking to a fragment too, so this piece could be missing something "But yeah, I'm up for whatever you have to throw at me."

---

"The situation is still comparable. Except this time there's less bodies, they're just far bigger." Zaki remarked. "Asgard was a teaser of what's to come. A glimpse. The Xyrixma we will fight make the ones we fought look like ants." She remarked. "But... I have faith that this universe can stop them. Which is why I've decided to humour you for the time being, even if I am certain this will end badly. I'm just hoping... Not too badly. And that you might actually surprise me Manifest." She spoke.

"I suppose I should take my leave. Most of the other beings I brought have now left." She remarked. "Anything else before I leave...?"

---

[The Silhouette of Adventure]

The construct nodded slowly at Julie. "You're intelligent and not too prideful. Would you be willing to go through a series of trials to determine if you are truly as skilled as you claim? Should you pass, you will be introduced to the way the Throne works and added to its mechanisms as an authorized user."

---

"I see your point." The construct replied simply. "But the comparison to the War is flawed. Even then, I could destroy approximately three quarters of a standard Builder fleet in half an instant, and I had a fraction of the power I now wield. You are, indeed, not worried without reason- But I assure you, I will stand with the others in the Universe's defence when the time comes, and I will fight with all my might. Should I yet fail, I know of a way for me to increase my power even further- Your former Queen will fall, if not to my strike, then to Valka's, or Otis', or another's."

"Trials? Alright, Though if they involve a written exam, then I'm out of here." She joked, then wondered if he would take her seriously. She wondered if he was always like this or it was just acumulation of power which changed him. Then again, she was talking to a fragment too, so this piece could be missing something "But yeah, I'm up for whatever you have to throw at me."

---

"The situation is still comparable. Except this time there's less bodies, they're just far bigger." Zaki remarked. "Asgard was a teaser of what's to come. A glimpse. The Xyrixma we will fight make the ones we fought look like ants." She remarked. "But... I have faith that this universe can stop them. Which is why I've decided to humour you for the time being, even if I am certain this will end badly. I'm just hoping... Not too badly. And that you might actually surprise me Manifest." She spoke.

"I suppose I should take my leave. Most of the other beings I brought have now left." She remarked. "Anything else before I leave...?"

---

The fragment chuckled, then continued. "Your first trial. Find me." It suddenly vanished, leaving behind a trail of nearly invisible energy. If Julie was creative, she would be able to use her ring to track its path through the Throne. When and if she found it again, it would be in the centre of a room about a quarter into the Throne, after winding through many twists and turns and vast rooms. The room she would find it in would be full of hundreds of amorphic blobs of metal, each about the size of a bus. The plaque for this room read "Training Room 01 - Enemy Replication."

---

"Hmmm." The fragment considered what she said, then shook his head softly. "Nothing else, visitor. If you need me..." It raised its hand and a small device, similar in shape and size to the Orb of Cognition, appeared in front of her. "It has two functions. Touch it- If you want it to compact itself or return to normal size, think that. If you want it to contact me, think that."

[Charmera]

"Trials? Alright, Though if they involve a written exam, then I'm out of here." She joked, then wondered if he would take her seriously. She wondered if he was always like this or it was just acumulation of power which changed him. Then again, she was talking to a fragment too, so this piece could be missing something "But yeah, I'm up for whatever you have to throw at me."

---

"The situation is still comparable. Except this time there's less bodies, they're just far bigger." Zaki remarked. "Asgard was a teaser of what's to come. A glimpse. The Xyrixma we will fight make the ones we fought look like ants." She remarked. "But... I have faith that this universe can stop them. Which is why I've decided to humour you for the time being, even if I am certain this will end badly. I'm just hoping... Not too badly. And that you might actually surprise me Manifest." She spoke.

"I suppose I should take my leave. Most of the other beings I brought have now left." She remarked. "Anything else before I leave...?"

---

The fragment chuckled, then continued. "Your first trial. Find me." It suddenly vanished, leaving behind a trail of nearly invisible energy. If Julie was creative, she would be able to use her ring to track its path through the Throne. When and if she found it again, it would be in the centre of a room about a quarter into the Throne, after winding through many twists and turns and vast rooms. The room she would find it in would be full of hundreds of amorphic blobs of metal, each about the size of a bus. The plaque for this room read "Training Room 01 - Enemy Replication."

---

"Hmmm." The fragment considered what she said, then shook his head softly. "Nothing else, visitor. If you need me..." It raised its hand and a small device, similar in shape and size to the Orb of Cognition, appeared in front of her. "It has two functions. Touch it- If you want it to compact itself or return to normal size, think that. If you want it to contact me, think that."

Julie followed the trail walking through the winding path, a little annoyed with the sudden twists and turns, and when she came to the room, she saw the plaque. "Enemy replication..." She muttered, then frowned as she walked into the room, awaiting the next challenge.

---

"Rather nifty a device. I tend to rely on magic, but this works too." she remarked, and then smiled. "Well then, I suppose this is goodbye for now." She spoke, and then disapeared.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

"Miri, how long until we reach Earth?" Necromancer inquired with a slightly impatient and somewhat sleepy voice. He was lying on his stomach with his hands supporting his head, his legs bent at the knee and moving back and forth as he watched a pair of small armies of enslaved souls fighting each other single-mindedly, each individual soul seeking the destruction of the enemy with no concern for said enemy or for its own safety. The souls whose wills had been overridden prior to their participation in this crude, improvised attempt at self-entertainment were, for the most part, souls that belonged to people such as purist alien militants, prepotent conquerors and short-tempered soldier types. In short, they were people who, upon dying and thus falling into the hands of the boy who strolled beyond life and death, had been very rude and unbearably impolite towards Necromancer, who, as a result, stowed them away after some well-earned torture, only bringing their souls back out to play sadistic games with them or to continue inflicting unbearable pain upon them for offending him like that. He was, however, not too entertained with the miniature war anymore, his eyes slightly narrowed.

"My child, we departed from a world outside the Milky Way Galaxy not too long ago. Even at the greatest speed I am capable of reaching, it will take us a few more hours or perhaps more to reach the world of Earth as per your wishes." Answered the voice of the ghastly Gray Dragon Mirikkalis, which echoed throughout the whole area on which Necromancer lay, an area that happened to be the back of the very same dragon. Necromancer pouted in response.

"But I'm boooored! Can't you get us there faster?" The boy asked of the World-Dragon's soul, the innocence of the expression on his face only slightly diminished by the bright, fearsome azure glow surrounding his right eye. "Like, with a portal or something?"

"I could, of course, create a gateway through the Dragon Force, but I am ignorant to the effects such an action might have on this stolen soul. I have, however, begun to use sporadic teleportation in order to severely diminish our estimated time of arrival. We should not take much longer to get there. In the mean time, I am certain you can find a way to distract yourself. The universe is presently in a state of turmoil, after all." The dragon replied.

"Aww..." Necromancer sat up, obliterating all the battling souls with a wave of his hand only to reform them and seal them away the following moment. Mirikkalis was right, the universe was going haywire at the moment. He could feel millions of souls surging through the universe to the several pantheons, afterlifes and resting places reserved to the dead, only to inevitably end up in his hands as he effortlessly violated and raided those realms for fun on a regular basis. Souls that spoke of a terrible explosion. Souls that spoke of a hole in space. Souls that spoke of a ruthless conqueror walking towards Earth. Souls that spoke of a war across the cosmos, which ended prematurely. Souls that spoke of a fearsome huntress. Souls that spoke of a myriad things.

But none of that interested him too much.

Suddenly, however, he had an idea, a wonderful idea, in fact. Smiling gleefully like a child who was given the toy he asked for Christmas, Necromancer snapped his fingers, and then, in front of him, appeared one creature who had led to his hands so many souls that he treasured: the former lord and master of Apokolips, Darkseid. "Darkseid! Or should I say Uxas? I'm not really sure- Oh, I caught that bit of information from your soul, you know, because I know everything you know, because I own your soul and stuff now, it's complicated stuff, I won't bore you with the details. Anyway! I was thinking 'hey, now that he's dead, maybe he feels a little lonely, maybe he wants to be part of the family', right? I know, I know, you don't have to admit it yet if you don't want to, I understand. But anyways, what do you say I introduce you to everyone? There's lots of people for you to meet here!" The boy who called himself Necromancer stated as he smiled widely, outstretching his arms as he finished for added effect and dramatism.

A fist soon sped towards his face, but it was naturally stopped reflexively with his own power over souls. The boy scratched his head.

"Oookay, we obviously didn't start on good terms so I'll try again. I'm Necromancer. Nice to meetcha!" He said with a goofy grin as he offered Darkseid his hand.

But the hand was swatted aside. "Silence, foolish child. I must reclaim Apokolips from the pretender and search for the Anti-Life Equation. I have no time to waste playing with the likes of you." The Dark God spoke. Necromancer cast down his head, remaining silent for several moments until a chuckle echoed throughout the barren scales of the back of the Gray Dragon. It was, however, a quiet and disheartened chuckle, completely devoid of mirth.

"It seems that thick skull of yours hasn't let the gravity of your situation settle in just yet." The boy said. However, he had changed. His voice was cold and emotionless now, and his eyes seemed completely hollow. He did not smile anymore. "You do not have time to play, is that it? Very well. I will speak to you on a serious tone now." He said as he raised his hand and clenched his fist. Suddenly an unbearable, excruciating pain surged throughout Darkseid, of such quality that even the Dark God himself was forced to scream in agony, despite the well-known rumors of his unparalleled strength and his even greater cruelty and ruthlessness. He was but a soul now, and souls belonged to the boy, to be played with at his whim. "You are dead. Therefore, you do not belong to yourself anymore. The one chance you had to do what you wanted, you lost it. The one chance you had to choose how to live, you lost it. The one chance you had to pursue your goals and act in accordance to your own free will, you lost it. You are only a soul now, Darkseid, worth no more than the remnants of all those worlds you conquered. You belong to me, do you understand? You have become my plaything. You will speak when I say so. You will act when I say so. You will be destroyed when I so desire, and you will be recreated perfectly to be toyed with again as soon as I feel like it. I gave you the chance to be nice. I gave you the chance to be my friend, to avoid going down the same way as all the others, but you chose your path, Darkseid. Now face the consequences of your actions, and suffer." The boy said in a monotone as he tortured the soul.

"However, I will not simply destroy you, or continue feeding pain to your soul until you lose all reason. No, that would be far too simple. Your punishment must be more severe." Necromancer stated, finally giving the Dark God a respite from the pain, or so it seemed, but suddenly, from Darkseid's perspective, the boy seemed to grow, soon turning taller than himself and by the end becoming truly gigantic. In fact, what had happened was simply that Necromancer had forced Darkseid's soul to shrink a great deal, further accentuating how defenseless he was. He also did not seem to be able to speak at all anymore, likely due to the boy's tampering with his soul.

"And the first step in that punishment... is making you assume a form more fitting with your current position." The boy said. He snapped his fingers, and then, Darkseid's soul was gradually twisted until it had become utterly impossible to recognize, visually speaking. Those familiar with the presence of his soul would of course be able to tell that this was the same person that had once ruled Apokolips with an iron fist, but the form into which he had been forced was one far different from his previous visage. He was now smaller. Weaker. The very image of defenselessness.

Necromancer smiled again.

"I think I'll call you... Darksey." He stated, giggling. "Yes! That's perfect! That's what I'll call you!" He said gleefully.

"Darksey the Daisy!"

---

---

The ship crashed suddenly, and without warning. It slammed into the crust of the world it had arrived to, exploding shortly afterwards, razing everything in a generous radius around the center of the explosion and sending burning chunks of metallic debris flying everywhere. The crash was, and any observers as well as anyone with the slightest idea of how spaceship trajectories work would agree, completely intentional. The ship had come from outer space, at an angle perpendicular to the center of the planet, and had not made any attempt at changing its course ever since, as if the person who had been piloting the ship was attempting to commit suicide, or to spread ruin across the surface for seemingly no reason at all.

Or, perhaps, trying to kill not himself, but someone else aboard.

Suddenly, one of the many shattered remnants of the spaceship seemed to move. It did so several times until, finally, it was lifted and then pushed aside with quite a bit of aggressivity, and from underneath emerged a red-haired Hadrian huntress, eyes full of cold fury. "You're pathetic, Glast. Your men were pathetic, your battle was pathetic and this sad attempt at keeping me away from your precious captain was the most pathetic of all. Whatever respect you might have earned from me is gone." Seriskira spoke angrily as she looked in the direction of the crash, staring at the burning wreck that was her transport. It was, incidentally, the only way she knew to get back to the Hadrian Dominion in Adai, but she paid no mind to the obvious difficulties presented by Glast's suicide stratagem for the time being. She would find a way to get back once her mission here was done, she thought to herself, and even if she couldn't, she had left one of the three ships outside Tarashkar; her fellow Hadrians would either study them to recreate the technology or simply take it and go looking for her, as she was completely confident that they would not dare lose their champion.

With that in mind, she turned her attention away from the ship, looking straight towards the horizon now. The planet she had landed on was completely desolate, and yet, she knew that it was here where she would find the rest of the Sunstorm Pirates, as well as the person who led them, the one that Glast had called 'Captain Black Nova'. Her displays of strength had by the end managed to terrify Glast enough that it was unlikely he had led her anywhere else, and if he had turned on her, it was only because he saw the opportunity as they approached the planet, not because he had planned it all along. Thus, as far as the Champion of Adai was concerned, Black Nova was here, somewhere. She just had to find and annihilate the captain and any pirates who dared to stand in her way, and then she would be able to go home, confident that the message had been sent for the universe not to mess with the Hadrians, and relaxed knowing that Adai would not be targetted by these stupid pirates again.

Slightly wounded not by the flames but by the force of the explosion and some shrapnel that had managed to stab into her flesh, the Hadrian trudged on, walking tirelessly towards the horizon, ignoring the pain from her multiple injuries as she scanned the landscape constantly for any sign of where Black Nova and the Sunstorm Pirates might be hiding. She could, truth be told, see nothing in these barren lands, nothing but the constant, monotonous gray color of the desolate, windswept plains of that dull planet. After a while, she realized that she couldn't even see the wreckage in the distance anymore, having gone so far that, when she turned back, she was no longer able to spot the burning beacon that marked her landing spot.

Despite this, she continued pushing on. Time passed, she was not sure of how much, as the sun was nowhere to be seen so far, but she was certain that it had been quite a while. Hours, undoubtedly; she wouldn't have been surprised at all if she later found out that she had spent entire days walking aimlessly through the barren monochrome plains. But eventually, fate smiled upon the prodigal warrior of Adai once again, as she soon spotted a mountain in the distance. Excited to have found a new landmark, and harboring within herself the hope that, if Black Nova was nowhere to be seen there either, then at least the mountain would provide an excellent vantage point, Seriskira hurried towards it, rushing towards the peak as she traversed the ground with her claws, and then unfurling her wings and soaring towards the sky in order to reach the mountain's summit.

And once she was there, atop that great mountain in the midst of nowhere, she smiled, for she saw something in the distance at last. It was a settlement of sorts, and flying high above the buildings was an enormous flag, with a peculiar symbol on it. On the flag, one could see two bones crossed beneath the skull of an alien creature, all of this contained within the ominous image of a black sun. Seriskira grinned at the sight of such an unmistakeable symbol.

"Black Nova." She whispered.

---

---

On the contrary, Kirisvala did not seem to find the silence between herself and Mars to be unpleasant or awkward in the slightest, as she quite enjoyed his company, even if neither of them had a lot to say to the other, and, sure enough, despite the lack of sound within the room, the smile she wore never faded from her face. Even so, she listened to her friend as he attempted to dispell the silence, and giggled in response to his suggestions. "Do you really expect me to go and rest after falling asleep for several hours? It's not even past six, dummy." She said cheerfully. She had taken to calling Mars 'dummy' from time to time when he said something counter-intuitive. She always made sure that it was clear she was not insulting his intellect, though, never saying it in front of the others either, and, in any case, always saying it affectionately, just like in the present moment.

"I'm not tired at all. I feel much better after talking to you, Mars, and I probably have to get used to whatever this is, so I think it would be better if I experimented with my new powers a bit. I'll leave you to your work now, but..." She said as she stood up, trailing off at the end. Before she turned around and walked out of the laboratory however, she took a step towards Mars and then quickly leaned towards him and gave him a little peck on the cheek before leaning away, blushing brightly now. "...thanks again!" She concluded before turning around and hastily making her way out of Mars' little laboratory, her tail rapidly drawing circles in the air as she walked away, fully intending to begin testing out her new powers as the 'Goddess of Names', but mostly just wanting to get away after what she had done. She was embarrassed about it after all, but also very happy.

---

---

"Sam, are you really asking me that question?" Sarah responded to her younger sister with a bit of a grin on her face, her confidence practically oozing from her despite how tired she actually felt inside. Concentrating, she looked straight towards the two guards stationed on the door. She knew that time was short and the bomb would explode if they did not defuse it quickly, so, it was clear there was no time for finesse or for showing off. With that in mind, Sarah caused the shadows beneath the two guards to envelop them completely, from head to toe, giving them no time to scream at first and then containing their screaming within the shadows in such way that no one could have heard a thing. After a few moments, they were released from the shadow cocoons and gently deposited on the ground by the shadows themselves, the thugs knocked out cold thanks to her blood powers.

"See? Without alerting anyone. Now let's get that bomb, sis." Sarah said to her sister.

---

---

Garnet shrugged upon hearing the Kitsune's words, flashing a small smile at the other woman. "Don't worry about it, Masami. You've already lent me a hand in the past, it's only fair for me to help you out in return. That's what friends are for, right?" She said as she placed a hand on Masami's shoulder, pausing briefly to marvel at how quickly they had become close friends. Strictly speaking, they had met not too long ago, but already she could feel a strong bond with the Yokai. "Besides, if there's anything I'm any good at, it's this, so I'm not really going to complain... even if it means I have to put up with your aunt for helping you." She said with a bit of a grimace. Azami was not particularly friendly towards her, after all, always acting all high and mighty and showing disdain towards humans when she was a human as well.

"Whatever." Garnet thought idly. "I don't care about what some bitter old lady has to say about me." She told herself, before looking back at Masami. "Say, that thing's really bothering you. I can carry it, if you want." She offered, referring to the black sword Masami was carrying in a scabbard, which seemed to affect the others just with being close to them, though it didn't seem to do anything to her, which was all thanks to the influence from all the cursed amulets that she already bore, though she of course did not know this.

Akihiko, meanwhile, glanced at the portal with a frown on his face, before turning to the group. "I'm afraid I can't go through with you lot. I have to go back home, mo-I mean, my friends are probably wondering where I am and I don't want to scare them any more than necessary." He said, awkwardly attempting to hide his slip-up. He then sighed and began digging through his pockets for something. "That said... I do owe you guys - err, girls - for helping me out. You did free me and practically save my life." He admitted, his voice making it clear that he was not too proud to recognize it but was nonetheless not willing to avoid admitting it. "So... you know, if you're still in Japan and you need some help with... whatever it is you girls do with killing oni and stuff, well, just give me a call with this." He said as he pulled out a small device and placed it on a nearby table. "I don't mind if it happens really soon or whatever. I just really gotta go right now. Thanks again, see you around." H said to those present before running off. His mother was likely worried sick about him and it was probable that he'd get a decent scolding, but that would only become worse if he didn't get home soon.

Garnet glanced at the device on the table. "I'm not carrying that one." She remarked nonchalantly.

---

---

"Tsk, tsk. You couldn't even be bothered to give me something other than the pre-recorded speech? You won't convince too many people of your purpose with that approach, Manifest, people prefer to be persuaded in less impersonal ways, believe me on that. I have gazed into trillions of mortal minds and by Infinity, some of them have rubbed off on me." The Black Dragon commented after hearing the speech that Manifest had given Julie, Lisa and Chorus earlier. She shook her head at Manifest, but then simply chuckled and flashed him a smile, evidencing that she was simply joking. For the most part anyway. It was true that contact with mortals often helped shape the personality of a World-Dragon, but that was neither here nor there.

"Now then, onto a more serious topic..." Hadrimmelis spoke, and then sighed, placing a hand on Manifest's shoulder as she looked at him. "Charles, I am a World-Dragon. My first and foremost instinct, hard-coded into my being, is to protect life, and even I consider that the universe you describe is something utopian, little more than a dream or, being generous, a very distant future." She said to him, no longer speaking as the Goddess who kept watch over the universe and who had unleashed her wrath over the Builders and had undone the damage they had caused. Now, she was simply speaking to Manifest as Manifest's friend, and this was evident by the concern in her voice, which suddenly sounded remarkably human.

"This task that you have imposed on yourself, my friend, it is a heavy burden. Others have shouldered it before, and they have not fared too well. And there is also that blade of yours to consider. The fact that both its power and that of a New God converge within your body makes me worry about you." The World-Dragon stated. She was well aware of the power of the blade, and more importantly, of its influence. It was indeed worrisome that Manifest wished to monitor the universe while wielding such a power. "You helped my people in their time of need. You are my friend, and I trust you. I would not hesitate to give you this 'blessing' you ask for if the safety of the universe was the only thing I was concerned about. But there is also your own safety to consider." She said, placing her other hand in his other shoulder and then looking at him straight in the eye. "Will you be alright, Charles?"

[Confederation of imperial states]

Gotham City

The Knight Grappled up and glide landed safely on the roof of one of the Highest Towers in Gotham, Wayne tower. Lawbringer grunted as she grabbed onto the building edge, then pulled herself up. "Why *wheez* exactly did we have to go... *pant* up here?". The Knight gazed down at the City Lights of Gotham, "Secluded area, safe enough to talk and discuss". There was a tone in The Knight's Voice, Lawbringer caught onto this, He was hinting at something. "And what would you liek to talk about, now that we're 2 or so miles out of earshot?". The Knight turned back slightly to Lawbringer, "Oh It wasn't Something I needed to discuss with you". Lawbringer raised an eyebrow, "then, Who?". The Knight gestured back with his shoulder, "The Batfamily affiliate who's been Stalking us for the Better part of an hour". Lawbringer gave a slightly suprised face as The Knight turned 180 twoards the Shadow covered room. "Come On Out, We aren't Hostile". The person chuckled, the Out stepped none other than Nightwing, in his blueclad suit.

"You're good", The Knight turned towards Nightwing, Lawbringer stepped beside The Knight, "You have to be When you're tasked to Defend an Entire City". Nightwing walked over to a large ventilation box and leaned against it, We'd recieved a Report of a VTOL Landing in Gotham, and Two Masked Figures who'd exited headign towards Gotham's Grande Avenue. Bats Sent me to overwatch, See if you were friend or foe, after You uncovered Black Mask's proxy gang war in chicago and apprehended him, I'd say You're a friendly if I Ever saw one. May I have the pleasure of Knowing your names?". "I'm The Knight, Based in CHicago City, The Young Lady to my Right is my associate/partner". "I'm Lawbringer, Chicago City as he said". Nightwing nodded in response, "well B-man told you if You ever need some help in Gotham, Just Give 'em a whirl". Nightwing took out a strange call device and tossed it to the Knight, who caught it in his left Hand, Nightwing walked towards the edge of the skyscraper, "I've Gotta Go, Good luck in Chicago" night wing said as he jumped off the egde with a flip, the Sound of a Grapple was heard afterwards.

The Knight took one more look at the Device before handing it over to Lawbringer, "Keep an Eye on this, We'll have the contact frequency synced into the Knightcomputer when we get back". Lawbringer took the device and placed it in her belt, "Sure thing. Isn't It cool that BATMAN Of all people noticed us". The Knight walked towards the edge of the skyscraper as he typed something in on the keypad on his gauntlet, "I'd appreciate it if you Didn't turn into a Batfamily Fangirl". Lawbringer was a bit stunned at the accusation, "what? I'm not Fangirling!", "it Seems you just did", "No I didn't", "whatever Makes you Sleep at Night sunshine". Lawbringer sighed as the VTOL started to fly in their Direction, "Just Have to be Cynical, Don'tya?", "I believed That was Humor". The VTOL Landed as The Knight and Lawbringer climbed in, "It's probably best to Leave the Interrogation and 'Larynx crushing', and not Humor on you Resume, For Future Refrence". The Knight pressed a Button and fired up the VTOL Thrusters, "probably for the best, Yeah" The Knight commented as the VTOL Hatch closed.

[Charmera]

---

Garnet shrugged upon hearing the Kitsune's words, flashing a small smile at the other woman. "Don't worry about it, Masami. You've already lent me a hand in the past, it's only fair for me to help you out in return. That's what friends are for, right?" She said as she placed a hand on Masami's shoulder, pausing briefly to marvel at how quickly they had become close friends. Strictly speaking, they had met not too long ago, but already she could feel a strong bond with the Yokai. "Besides, if there's anything I'm any good at, it's this, so I'm not really going to complain... even if it means I have to put up with your aunt for helping you." She said with a bit of a grimace. Azami was not particularly friendly towards her, after all, always acting all high and mighty and showing disdain towards humans when she was a human as well.

"Whatever." Garnet thought idly. "I don't care about what some bitter old lady has to say about me." She told herself, before looking back at Masami. "Say, that thing's really bothering you. I can carry it, if you want." She offered, referring to the black sword Masami was carrying in a scabbard, which seemed to affect the others just with being close to them, though it didn't seem to do anything to her, which was all thanks to the influence from all the cursed amulets that she already bore, though she of course did not know this.

Akihiko, meanwhile, glanced at the portal with a frown on his face, before turning to the group. "I'm afraid I can't go through with you lot. I have to go back home, mo-I mean, my friends are probably wondering where I am and I don't want to scare them any more than necessary." He said, awkwardly attempting to hide his slip-up. He then sighed and began digging through his pockets for something. "That said... I do owe you guys - err, girls - for helping me out. You did free me and practically save my life." He admitted, his voice making it clear that he was not too proud to recognize it but was nonetheless not willing to avoid admitting it. "So... you know, if you're still in Japan and you need some help with... whatever it is you girls do with killing oni and stuff, well, just give me a call with this." He said as he pulled out a small device and placed it on a nearby table. "I don't mind if it happens really soon or whatever. I just really gotta go right now. Thanks again, see you around." H said to those present before running off. His mother was likely worried sick about him and it was probable that he'd get a decent scolding, but that would only become worse if he didn't get home soon.

Garnet glanced at the device on the table. "I'm not carrying that one." She remarked nonchalantly.

"Fair enough, though I do sometimes feel like I'm asking rather a lot of you." Remarked the Yokai, and then when she was asked about the blade, she frowned, and then looked at it. She wanted to keep it. For some reason she wanted to hold onto it. "Doesn't matter too much, I'll be giving it to Azami soon anyway. So no need." She smiled, perhaps a little more toothy a grin then she intended, showing off her sharp canines. She then shook her head swiftly and then walked to the portal.

Akari looked over to Akihiko and frowned, then turned back to Garnet. "Garnet. I'm going to be a little while. I can always teleport to you two anyway, so don't worry... or at least tell Masami not to worry." She spoke. Then smiled. "I'm going to go see if curiosity really does kill cats. Again, so sorry if I end up leaving you in a lurch or something." after she made the cheesy joke, she scarpered off towards The half Oni, trailing him from the darkness. Shadow to shadow.

Masami inhaled and then exhaled as she went up to the portal. "You coming Garnet?" She clutched the blade in the scabbard, tightly.

[Tomia]

Cora
Cora watched as Magneto raised his hand and she got ready for an attack that was clearly coming her way but Katie stepped in front of her and stopped the attack. Cora felt a rush of admiration and love for Katie as she stood up for her and threatened Magneto if he tried anything against the android. It was becoming clear that a fight was unavoidable when suddenly another large mutant came flying into the building and was staring at Cora quite uneasily. Cora had no idea why all these people were suddenly breaking into their tower but it started making her really mad. This was their home and she wouldn't let these strangers hurt their tower anymore than they already had. She turned toward the stranger, her fist clenched, "Who are you? And what do you think you're doing breaking into our home like this? We don't take kindly to intruders, so I suggest you just leave now." Cora said, energy starting to flow around her as a clear indication of her anger.

At the Convention
Mars had arrived at the convention that Craig had invited him too and was in awe of the company that he was currently in. He didn't speak much at the beginning of the conference, merely taking in the words and ideas of the great minds around him. He thought their conversations about war was quite fascinating, and Mars found himself wondering about whether or not they had the right to enforce rules in order to ensure peace. However he was broke out of this thought as Craig suddenly collapsed onto the ground, claiming to hear a voice. Mars looked quite concerned and stood up, wondering what was wrong with Craig and clearly worried about his new friend's health.

Nico
Nico was sure he was about to get shot when suddenly Cat grabbed the gun away from the criminal and smashed into pieces before knocking the shooter to the ground and grabbing a nearby enemy and throwing them to the ground as well. Nico was truly amazed at his sister's ability. He stared at her almost in awe. "Wow sis that was amazing. You saved my life. I'd be dead without you. Thank you." He said to her sincerely before hearing near by footsteps as it became clear that the police were finally able to breach the bank and were coming in to seize the criminals. Nico turned to Cat. "We should get going sis. We don't want to be on the news or anything." He said to her, quickly heading toward the back entrance of the bank. However on his way out Nico noticed one of the criminal's phone spilling out of his pocket. Nico paused, maybe this could be an opportunity to learn a bit more about who these robbers were. After all, they were all very well and uniformly equipped. This couldn't have been a random robbery. Nico picked up the phone and slipped it into his pocket before he ran out of the back door before the police could arrive inside the bank.

Mars
Mars gave a small bashful smile when Kiris called him dummy. That had almost become like a pet name for him by her. Normally he would be angry at being called that because he was quite sensitive about his intelligence, but with Kiris he understood it as a term of endearment. He was about to say goodbye to Kiris when she suudenly walked toward him and kissed him on the cheek. Mars flushed brightly and seemed almost frozen as Kiris ran off out of the lab. Mars wasn't even able to say goodbye as she left, but after she was gone his hand slowly went to rest on the place on his cheek where Kiris had kissed him. Now that his immediate embarrassment had begun to fade, Mars started to feel quite happy. He wasn't sure what that kiss would mean for his and Kiris' relationship, but he was excited to find outt. He felt like he had finally found a true friend in Kiris, and the rest of his team as well. Xyria, Rin, and Vera were like his family now, but with Kiris it felt different. He wondered if Kiris felt the same way about it, but had no idea how to talk to her about things like that. Because despite his incredible abilities and intellect. At the end of the day Mars was really just a shy nerdy guy who didn't really have much experience interacting with people. He had always been closer to machines than people, but Kiris and his teamates were slowly changing that, and he was struggling with how to reciprocate, with how to show them affection and how much the Young Blood family was starting to mean to him.

Disney
Roy was in awe when Sarah summoned shadows to essentially swallow up the enemy guards and then relinquish them in their unconscious state. "Wow, can you teach me that?" Roy asked sincerely. He had never met another person who could manipulate shadows before, and so never really had someone to teach him how to control his powers. Sam grinned at her sister's comment. "Never doubted you sis, now come on. I know where the bombs are." She said, leading them inside the large castle as they walked through the staging area of the theme park attraction. They were suddenly met with a large cluster of explosives lined across the wall. "Wow, that's a lot of bombs." Sam said as she placed her hand on one of them as she moved along the stream f wires to find the sight of detonation. Sam soon found it was about to disarm it when suddenly a voice interrupted her.

"Not so fast." Called a young man's voice as the heroes' attention was drawn to a nearby tv screen were thye could see the face of Anarky staring at them. Soon a number of armed thugs came running into the room, pointing their automatic weapons at Sam, Roy and Sarah. "You heroes are so predictable? Can't you realize what we're doing here is necessary? No, you just follow the law like lamb to slaughter. Well if you're not with us, you're against us. And you won't be making it out of here alive."

[The Republic of Atria]

Xander was shocked. Otis was one of the strongest guys he knew. Whoever did this to him wasn't screwing around. His first guess had to be Thanos. "I gotcha..." He said and helped Otis to his feet. "You have a bad habit of getting yourself nearly killed."

"What can I say? I'm a magnet for trouble." Otis replied as Xander laid him on a bed. "I was gonna go to Asgard, but I panicked. Anyways the guy who did this to me-" He was cut off by an alarm. A proximity alarm, a projectile was headed to Earth at an absurd speed. Xander flew off to intercept it. However, when he got to the object, it turned out not to be an object at all. Rather, it was none other than Thanos. Which was very confusing. He stopped Thanos from hitting the ground. At his speed, it would have wiped out the better portion of a large country. More confusing yet, Thanos was in the same shape as Otis. Hurt. Badly. As much as Xander wanted to just drop him in the Mariana Trench, both he and Otis being in this condition was a cause for alarm. He dropped the smoldering, unconscious Titan on the floor. By the time he Got back, Otis was on his feet.

"I can walk... Mostly. Head's still a bit dizzy- Is that Thanos? Holy shit he got Thanos too? I'm starting to think this guy has it out for us. He probably went to Apokolips because of that spat we had..." Otis said getting noticeably shaken by that thought. "Okay, enough of the pronoun game. If you'd sit still for half a second, Yuga Khan. Apparently he's Darkseid's daddy. And he's really pissed off."

"Darkseid has a living father? Wonderful." Xander said and rubbed the side of his head. "That's okay. I've been fifty steps ahead. We've got enough firepower to wipe out the next 4 galaxies. I'll get Valka and Manifest on the line and we'll go beat some sense into this guy-"

"It will not save you..." Thanos grumbled as he got back on his feet. Xander got ready to fight. "Stand down human. I have no quarrel with you at this moment. And it would better serve both of us better to not waste time on such nonsense."

"You're pretty banged up and I'm more than ready to finish what he started. I'm sure the universe would be better off without you."

"How 'bout we find a way to punch our mutual bad guy?" Otis suggested before the argument escalated. "Thanos. For the record. We all don't like you and you don't like us. Everyone in the universe is an asshole from everyone's perspective. No question about that, but if this Yuga Kahn is a bigger asshole, then us smaller ones need to work together. We don't have to like eachother. What did he do to you by the way."

"I arrived at the world you brought into this star system to seek revenge on you. However, you were not there. Yuga Kahn believed me to be an ally of you, and then he threw me through your sun and at your world."

"Wait wait, what what WHAT?" Otis said. "He threw you. Like. A ball?"

"Correct. And as much as it pains me to admit, I much preferred Darkseid. This Yuga Khan is nothing short of demonic. And as much as I would revel in him burning this insipid mudball to ashes, he is every bit a threat to me as he is to you. For the time being, I will assist you and destroying this Yuga Khan."

"Yaaaaaay." Xander muttered sarcastically and twirled his finger in the air.

[Siliarba]

Mars

Rin Tarla

After enough modifications the room seemed to have been made soundproof, nothing from the outside managed to get inside, at least from the sounds that had been made so far, which should be enough but no harm in stress testing. Create a sound right at the room itself and make it loud enough that it is reaching the point where it would start causing damage to the structure of the wall or floor. If the room remains soundproof after that then I'll call it a success. Problem is only source of such a sound without it being something harmful, is either a really powerful stereo system, or me. Hmm, guess it would be a simpler and better idea for me to be the stress test and someone else to be in the room. Ooh, I'll get Mars, he doesn't ask questions when he notices I'm not comfortable answering.

Heartbeats, heartbeats, heartbeats, ah found his, and Kiris, man they're together a lot. But she's leaving him alone, best time to ask. A small run downstairs to where he was located and just as I heard there he is, with Kiris just having left. "Hey Mars, I need you in my room for some testing, it involves screaming, see you there, thanks." Okay, now to see how those walls handle me screaming until I hear the floor braking. And just like that I ran back upstairs, assuming Mars would follow soon enough.

[New Rnclave]

Hiroshi:

"Well, have fun with him Arctico!" Hiroshi called out, twisting in the air as he blasted forward, a shockwave of energy in his wake. It wasn't that he was leaving Arctico on his own, but at this point he had hope that the Acrosian could handle himself, and if not, at least wear him down for Hiroshi's return.

Looking forward, Hiroshi could see the second large power he'd felt revived, a ginger haired man in particularly fancy attire as far as the Super Saiyan was concerned. But no amount of false confidence could assure him this would be an easy battle. Demons were supposed to inspire fear, a gut wrenching terror, and simply put, even staring at the demon gave the him a weird feeling in his gut. Clearing his head of the encroaching thoughts, Hiroshi stalled his flight, appearing before the demon in the blink of an eye, his once golden hair having fallen to onyx once more.

Narrowing his eyes, Hiroshi inspected the demon.

" So who are you? And why are you helping that nitwit back there?"

[Tomia]

Mars
Mars had barely recovered from the kiss that Kiris had planted on his cheek when Rin suddenly came down to his labs to ask him a favor. He was surprised as Rin's request, and he wasn't exactly sure why it would make sense for her plan to involve screaming, but she said she needed his help so he decided it'd be best to play along. "Sure I guess. I can help." Mars said to Rin as she turned and walked away. He soon followed up and went up the stairs and headed towards Rin's room where he found her. "So, what is it you want me to do exactly?" He asked her a bit curiously. He had been helping Rin with her sound proofing project, and it seemed like it was going along pretty well based on the way the room was structured. He was starting to understand why screaming was going to be necessary, though he wasn't sure how excited he was to be right.

[Siliarba]

Mars

Rin Tarla

"Awesome, you came!" Rin smiled as she guided him in to the center of her room "Ok, you just stand here and after a few moments you tell me if you can hear a sound, I'm going to stand outside and cause the sounds. Have fun, warn me if it's not working at all sooner rather than rather, I'd rather not explode your blood vessels." And with that said I left the room and closed the door shut. With that done that room should be completely soundproof. Perhaps a bit of sound would be audible when I go to maximum but if that's what it takes for a bit of sound to come through then nothing short of a crisis will stop me from hearing. And if there's a crisis going on I might as well hear it anyway.

First listening to be sure where the other members of the tower were, they'd probably all hear my screaming considering where they are but none are in range to be damaged by it, normally, don't know alien resistance to sound that much. Regardless, scream time. And just like that I started screaming, constantly louder and louder until I could begin to hear small cracks in the walls and floor. Keeping it at that level for about 15 seconds and that should be enough of a stress test.

With that done, let's check if I didn't kill Mars, that would suck, "So Mars, did you hear anything, still alive?" I said a bit jokingly as I opened the door back to my room.

[Mavorpen]

A Tale of Life and Death: Prelude IV

Sacrosanct

A blue sphere appeared in the middle of a demolished city on the homeworld of the Universal Church of Truth. Inside of it, teleported the rest of the Guardians -- including Groot, Rocket, Drax, Star-Lord, Moondragon, and Bug. "Wow, I love what they've done with the place." Rocket said, looking at all of the decimated and burning buildings.

"Wasn't Sacrosanct, like, the homeworld of the Universal Church of Truth? I thought it had a population of, y'know, a gazillionty billion?" Bug said.

"Well, I'm reading zero life signs so far." Rocket said, scoping out the place.

"Moondragon, you picking up anything?" Star-Lord asked.

"Nah, don't need no target scanner or telepathic probe..." Drax said, scowling. "I can taste him. Like ashes at the back of my throat. How can he be back?" Drax gripped his head and fell to his knees, beginning to sweat. "Killing him was the only thing I ever had to do in my life, and I pulled it off. What am I supposed to do, rip his heart out again?"

"Dad.." Moondragon said, walking up and putting her hand on his back.

Suddenly, an explosion occurred off in the distance. "Woah! Well, there's our confirmation that somethin's alive, at least." Rocket said. Star-Lord rushed forward and the rest of the group followed him. "Yep, I'm picking up life readings alright!"

"Alright everyone, lock and load and prepare f-- WOAH!" Star-Lord abruptly stopped just before he ran into the other group of Mantis, Cosmo, Gamora, and Major Victory.

"Peter?" Mantis said, with a surprised look. She quickly rushed in and hugged him. "Oh, thank goodness. This One missed you all."

"You guys... you're really alive!" Star-Lord said, returning the hug.

"Everyone, we can catch up later." Gamora said. She turned to Drax. "Drax, you can feel it, can't you? He's back." Drax nodded.

"Gamora... what about Phyla? I haven't heard from her mind since she sent the distress message." Moondragon said.

"I'm sorry. She was the first one killed." Moondragon began to break down crying. "Guys, we really should reloca--" Suddenly the ground exploded. Thanos emerged, wildly firing energy from his eyes and both hands. He roared and punched the ground with his right hand while continuing to indiscriminately fire on the surroundings with his left.

"Fall back!" Star-Lord called out, as the group scattered. "We need to corral him, now!"

"He's gone feral! The Church reanimated him and he's become a mindless animal!" Mantis said. "We've been trying to contain him ever since he started to run amok, but-- Oh, no!" Mantis stopped running and quickly turned around, prompting Star-Lord to do the same. Thanos was approaching Moondragon and roared.

"Go ahead! You monster, took took away the love of my life! You're do nothing but destroy and make everyone in the universe suffer!" Moondragon shouted, tears streaming down her face. Thanos roared and fired beams from his eyes. She barely blocked it with a telekinetic shield, but then Thanos punched the shield, obliterating it. Thanos brought his fists down upon her, only to be blocked by Major Victory's holding his shield in front of her.

Thanos was then bombarded by lasers from weapons fired by Drax, Groot, Star-Lord, and Rocket, allowing Moondragon and Major Victory to gain some distance away from him. They waiting to see the results of their bombardment, however, once the smoke cleared, Thanos merely stood unscathed with a scowl. He then roared. "Okay... new plan, RUN!" Star Lord said. Thanos fired energy from his hands at the group, and the group split into two, each barely dodging to the left or right of the beams.

"I am Groot!" Thanos was then smacked by a large metallic structure that Groot had picked up. He then brought down his fist on Thanos only for Thanos to uppercut him and send him flying into the air. Thanos then turned around and went back destroying the city.

Rocket walked up to Groot and set a hand on his head. "Nice try, pal. Thought you had him there for a sec. You okay?"

"Groot am...ow." Groot responded weakly.

"We got to take him down and kill him once and for all!" Drax said, from behind a hiding spot made of the remains of a wall of a destroyed building.

"Drax... he's invincible." Gamora said. "My blade is meant to be able to kill anything, even Gods. And it broke on his skin. I don't think it's possible to kill him anymore. I'm not sure what the Church did, but it's like he's come back indestructible."

Drax gritted his teeth. "No! He dies!" He jumped over the remaining piece of wall and punched Thanos in the face.

"Drax, you idiot!" Gamora said. Thanos roared and a beam of energy fired out of his mouth and knocked Drax back.

Star-Lord watching the fight from behind his own hiding spot, next to Bug and Mantis. "Okay, so Drax isn't doing too well. Maybe we should start cheering for him."

"Peter!" Mantis said.

"Okay, okay. Bug, go get Gamora and see if you guys can take some of the heat off of Drax. And try not to die." Star-Lord turned to Mantis. "Alright, so Thanos is back. We know that the Church is responsible for it, but the question is why? What has Adam Magus got to do with Thanos?"

"Magus had already left by the time Thanos had been reanimated. I don't think this was what was intended." Mantis said.

"Clearly. So, what do you think about some TK power? Can we get Thanos's brain in a mindlock?"

"Is not much of option, Comrade Quill." Cosmo said through telepathy, approaching the two. "Mantis and I are tryink our best to contain Thanos before you arrive. Is very tough. His mind not respond, like it is shielded to telepaths."

"Dammit, three of the most powerful telepaths in civilized space and Thanos and yet..." Star-Lord walked from behind the hiding spot and began walking over to Thanos, who was pretty much mopping the floor with Gamora, Bug, and Drax. "Okay, I really didn't want to have to do this, but..." Star-Lord reached into his pocket and took out the Cosmic Cube. "Hey, Thanos! Over here, big fellah!" He raised the glowing Cube for Thanos to see.

Thanos turned around and groaned, his eyes widening and staring at the Cube like an infant staring at a pair of jingling keys. He began moving slowly towards the Cube, completely entranced.

"That's right, come on. You know you want the unbelievably powerful Cosmic Cube. A wish granting device that twists reality. You had one before, right? You might be mindless, but you can feel it, can't you? When Kang gave it to me, it was pretty banged up. Thought I used up all the juice when I blasted Magus. Turns out though, I didn't actually use it. It was just an illusion." Thanos was mere inches away and he slowly reached out for the Cube. "That's right. I got one last shot." Star-Lord turned away as the blinding light of the energy released by the cube hit Thanos point blank. "Bang."

Star-Lord turned around once the light show was done to see Thanos on the ground on his back. To his surprise, Thanos' body was relatively unscathed, though for now it seemed as though he was no longer a threat. "You...forced me to live again... For that... E-Everything dies." He muttered, with his eyes closed.

"So... Star-Lord for the win?"

"You shattered whatever was protecting his mind." Mantis said. "We have Thanos comatose and contained in a mindlock."

"Wait a minute!" Gamora shouted, walking up to Star-Lord. "You had a Cosmic Cube all this time? You could have become a God!"

Star-Lord nervously looked to the left. "W-well, I don't need it. I'm already pretty amazing mys--" He was cut off by a fist to the face courtesy of Gamora. "Okay, I may have deserved that one." Star-Lord said, gripping his nose. "Still,it's just a cosmic paperweight now..." They looked at the Cube, it's power-filled glow gone.

---

Unknown...

"Okay... so, let's go through this to make sure we're on the same page." Jamal said, looking around at Reed Richards, Black Bolt, and Carol Danvers. It was night, and they were sitting around a campfire, in the middle of what seemed like an endless desert, at night. Behind Jamal was a host of tents that were occupied by other people. "We're all from different points in time. And you all, like me, found yourselves suddenly in this desert on what we presume to be Earth."

"That is correct." Reed said. "According to the information that I've gathered, we have been brought to the Valley of the Kings, sometime in the 1920s. However, that is not the frightening part. We have been brought here by a powerful reality warping entity known as Anath-Na Mut, AKA the Sphinx. Jamal here has much more experience with this cosmic being than I. Isn't that right?"

"Yeah. We fought in the past when I was a part of a human based team. His abilities essentially makes him separate from any single timeline. He's a non-linear creature, I guess. We can wonder all we want about why he brought us here, but there's really no way to know." Jamal said. Suddenly, Black Bolt looked up and pointed to the sky. The rest of them looked up as well, seeing Darkhawk flying down.

"Chris, what did you find?" Jamal asked, as the group stood up.

A metallic eagle landed on his arm and a beam fired out of its eyes. A projection of an Earth-like planet, but shaped as a star popped up. "This isn't the 1920s, people. We aren't even on Earth."

"Fascinating! This isn't a planet at all, it's a magical construct!" Reed said. Suddenly, the sky grew dark and clouds began to gather.

"The locals... they're shouting... something's coming." Jamal said. Red lightning began pouring from the sky, and a red portal opened up above a distance pyramid. Outside of it poured out the Sphinx himself, backed up by an army of giant insects. The group took action and began fighting off the insects. "He... he looks a lot younger though."

"He's a pan-temporal being, Jamal. His apparent age has no true bearing on anything." Reed said. The Sphinx began firing beams of energy at the civilians below.

"He's attacking his own people!" Jamal said, blocking one of the beams with a gravimetric shield.

"I don't think they were ever actually people, Jamal." Darkhawk said, as the civilians who were hit with the beams turned to sand.

"Guys, we need to get to cover! To the pyramid!" Jamal called out, leading the group into the pyramid. "Your majesty, now would be a good time--" Black Bolt knew what he was going to say next, and with the rest of the group behind him, Black Bolt released a whisper than decimated the closest wave of a thousand or so insects.

"Good work, sir!" Jamal said, as they entered the pyramid. "I'll try to hold them back with a gravimetric shield!" Jamal turned around and placed a shield blocking the entrance to the pyramid. They continued down the path in the pyramid until they reached a door.

"The passage is blocked." Reed said. "I'm trying to translate the glyphs. There's definitely a power source here, but it might be magical in nature, which is, frankly, outside of my ex-- AGH!" The door released a feedback of energy that sent Reed reeling back.

Darkhawk then approached the door and moved his hand closer and closer to it. "Chris, be careful!" Jamal said.

"Jamal,this thing, these symbols... it's setting my amulet off! It's like it knows me, and it's whispering something along to the data-song of my Raptor Suit. I--" Suddenly, the door opened and the group was sucked into it. They were sent spiraling through a red void of seemingly nothingness, and within seconds, they were all unconscious.

Jamal groaned as he awoke, looking around at the group, watching them also awake and begin standing up. "Where... where ar-- Oh... Wow." Jamal's eyes widened as he looked around at their surroundings. They stood on a slab platform between the front of legs of a Sphinx and looked up to see another Sphinx on the opposite side.

"Approach..." A voice said behind them. Jamal recognized the voice and immediately turned around, prepared to attack.

"Sphinx? What happened to you?" Jamal looked upon the Sphinx before him sitting on a large stone throne, however he was, well, old and decrepit. Numerous tubes were connected to different parts of his body.

"What are you..." The Sphinx grimaced in pain. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be out there, winning this battle for me!" His voice was sickly and weak.

"What battle?" Jamal said, gathering some of the Nova Force into his right hand.

"No... no time to ex--"

"Wrong answer!" Jamal raised his hand and aimed at the Sphinx. "What's this about? Tell us, now."

"I... fine." The Sphinx gripped his forehead with his hand. "I recruited you all. I have been dying for a long time. I manipulated.... I manipulated time for my own ends so often that it began to poison me. A temporal cancer ate away at me. The past and the future were closed off to me. Then... this Fault occurred. It presented me with an opportunity and I constructed this arcane site as a place where I would heal myself and purge my timeline of the... the temporal diseases polluting it. I sought to choose an alternate path so that none of this would have occurred, so I brought my 'younger self' here. Showing him the ultimate futility of the six thousand year old life ahead of him, he would wipe my lifespan clean. I would use his future to reshape my past and escape this fate."

"Strangely..." A voice said from above. They looked to see the younger version of the Sphinx floating above them. "I decided not to be used in such a way. I refuse to sacrifice myself so a pathetic older version of myself could stave off death for a few more centuries. He's wrong, by the way. His death will ensure my life continues forever. There can only be one Ka stone, the very souce of my powers, within a single universe. Except here, in the neverness of the Fault. So, I will take his stone, ascend to an even grater existence, and remake the universe in my image.

"Begone! You... you will not usurp my power!" The older Sphinx said, and fired a blast of magical energy. The younger Sphinx paid back in kind, and their energies clashed. "Our energies are closely matched! That is why I brought you all here. You must tip the balance of this battle in my favor, or else he will tear Eternity asunder!"

"Ha! These mortals are your champions? Two can play at that game." A portal appeared behind the younger Sphinx, and five individuals emerged from it. The two teams gathered on either side of the platform between the forearms of the giant sphinx statue. The two Sphinxes floated above each of the forearms, looking down at the 'champions' like chess pieces -- older Sphinx taking the appearance of himself in his prime. "My first choice is Moonstone!" The younger Sphinx said, gesturing at the blond woman wearing a helmet.

"And my first is the one called Nova!" The older Sphinx responded. Jamal and Moonstone were teleported and found themselves in the middle of a basketball court, to the surprise of a bunch of high school students who were playing a game.

"Clear the court!" Jamal shouted at the civilians before turning around, putting up a gravity shield to block a charging attack from Moonstone. The windows of buildings for miles shattered due to the shockwave. "Moonstone, stop!" Jamal fired a gravimetric pulse at her, sending her into the fence surrounding the court. "You're being controlled!"

Moonstone waved her hand at Jamal, and the fence pulled itself from the ground and constricted into a compact ball of metal, hitting him straight on. Then, it wrapped around him like a snake. "Sorry, but I'm gonna win this and get back to my timeline."

...

Back in the Fault, only the two Darkhawks remained. "Soon this Eldritch Ceremony will be complete, and I will be the one blessed by its magic!" Younger Sphinx said.

"Nonsense! Sorcery is all-powerful, but it's laws... must be perfectly observed!"

"Do not lecture me as though I am a lowly apprentice in the court of the Ramses! I was the Pharaoh's Master of Magic! I know well enough that rituals must be performed with the most scrupulous precision!"

"Then... Why have you broken the ordained ceremony of this ritual by fielding five champions for combat?"

"I... Five? FIVE!?" Younger Sphinx shouted in disbelief. "Oh, Gods, how could I have made such an error! Demons of the air and darkness will consume my living soul! You... you!" He pointed at the older Sphinx. "I only brought five because you did, you senile old fool!"

"What?" Realization dawned upon older Sphinx's face. "What is this creature -- this Darkhwak!? I... I did not being him here! Only now do I even notice his presence!"

"Is age rotting your brain, old man?! Gyre of the Raptors, finish this!"

"Darkhawk, defend me!"

...

Jamal was slammed hard into the building next to the basketball court. His opponent was a troublesome one. Her powers were gravitational based, similar to his own. And she was throwing it around wildly -- it flowed out of her like water. It didn't help that Jamal truly didn't want to harm her, as they were both merely pawns.

Jamal was slammed into the ground, and he felt the weight of increased gravity crashing down upon him. "130 S.G.U... 150..." Moonstone muttered as she stood over Jamal.

"I... I gotta say, you pack a heavy punch. Unfortunately for you, y-you lack finesse. You have no finer control over your a-abilities." Jamal gritted his teeth.

"What are you talking about?" Moonstone asked in an annoyed tone.

"I mean, l-little tricks like..." Jamal raised his arm and fired a single bolt of gravimetric energy from his index finger, hitting Moonstone square in the forehead, instantly knocking her out. "A compressed grav pulse!" Jamal was then teleported back to the Fault, standing next to the rest of the group, except for Black Bolt and Gyre.

"That makes three victories!" Older Sphinx said. "I am triumphant!" The younger Sphinx fell to his knees behind his own defeated champions.

"Why didn't Black Bolt return?" Reed asked.

"The Inhuman King died. He failed... in his trial!" The older Sphinx said. Suddenly, Darkhawk walked over to the younger Sphinx and ripped the Ka Stone from the center of his headdress. The younger Sphinx fell unconscious, and Darkhawk then began walking over to the older Sphinx.

"Chris, what are you doing?" Jamal asked.

"So strange." Sphinx said. "This Darkhawk is here by accident. I did not select him, but he has proven especially useful to me. A rogue element, ungoverned by the ritual. And because he wears one of the Ancient Crystals, and now that I am aware of his existence, he is remarkable easy to control." Darkhand held out his hand and presented the Ka Stone to him.

"Chris, no!" Jamal shouted as everyone, including the opposing team members who were still conscious rushed Sphinx. They were all pushed back by a surge of energy as Sphinx took the second Ka Stone. "Two Ka Stones. A guarantee of Godhood, and dawning the Age of The Sphinx!" Sphinx began growing in size as magical power began emanating from him, creating powerful winds that began breaking up the sphinxes they stood upon.

"And how was the world made? There was Nun, the water, and Amun, the air, and Kuk, the darkness, and Hauhet, eternity. And from these Primordial Forces came Ra, in the form of a blue lotus. And from Ra, the Earth arose. Ra was worshiped as the creator of the world. So how will they revere me... because I can make worlds and unmake them?"

Darkhawk snapped backed to his senses and looked up at Sphinx. "Oh, damn. I gave him the Ka Stone, didn't I? We've got to stop him!"

"Yeah, no kidding." Jamal said. "Honestly though, it seems a little too late with that. The Sphinx was nearly unbeatable with only one Ka Stone, and now he's got two." Jamal looked at everyone brought forth to fight for the Sphinxes, and could tell that they were prepared to fight together. "Alright, hit him with everything you've got!" Everyone attacked Sphinx at once, not doing a lick of damage at all to him.

Sphinx merely turned to them and fired a blast of magical energy that immediately incinerated the group called forth by the young Sphinx, save for Moonstone, while everyone else was knocked back by the sheer force. The young Sphinx began stirring and awoke. "He's still alive!" Jamal rushed over to him and knelt down. "Tell us how to stop him!"

The older Sphinx laughed. "You don't. I have mastered paradox magic and used it to bypass the fundamental laws of the universe." Now towering over the group the size of a three story building at least, he reached down and grabbed the younger Sphinx with his right hand. "Admittedly these changes are happening quite fast. Frankly, they're a little hard to swallow." He opened his mouth and dropped the younger Sphinx into it, consuming him alive. "A little bitter, but also quite sweet." He smiled. He began growing even larger and turned away from the group, looking up at the Fault.

"This is fucking insane!" Jamal shouted. "First Black Bolt died, now Sphinx has two Ka Stones. Black Bolt can't be dead here, or anywhere else the Sphinx sent him since he died only a few weeks ago at most during the Kree-Shi'ar War."

"Jamal, don't tell me that! Any information about the future that I learn could damage the timeline!" Reed said.

"Is this really the time to be worrying about something like that?!" Moonstone said.

"He doesn't even see us anymore." Reed said, watching Sphinx completely ignore their existence." We apparently no longer matter in his cosmic view. We're like ants to him -- bacteria of zero significance." Reed said. "Hold on..." He turned to Jamal. "You said Black Bolt died a few weeks ago. You... you remember the event? That means the timeline has yet to be altered. Perhaps this is our one window of chance."

"What do you mean?" Jamal asked.

"The Sphinx built this whole world. It's a magical construction, a place where he can accomplish his plans. He set it inside the fault, where time and space has been damaged and broken apart. He needed a place where the impossible could become the possible." Reed explained. "It's a little like the concept of Schrödinger's Cat. The Sphinx has done something here that can't happen anywhere else. He obtained two Ka Stones, and he killed Black Bolt, which did not alter the actual timeline where he still exists. I postulate that The Sphinx is currently acclimating to his new power levels and learning to use the two Stones in conjunction. When he reenters the universe, this magical structure will collapse and he will literally remake the universe so that the impossible will become the possible: he will be able to use two Ka Stones within our universe." Reed explained.

"Okay, then so we need a plan." Jamal said, trying to wrap his head around all of this. Thankfully, one suddenly dawned upon him. "I got it! Doctor, I'm gonna need you to do some calculations for me."

"Entirely within the scope of my abilities. If you can distract him for long enough..." Reed said.

"Can do. I hope." Jamal said as he flew off into the sky straight at The Sphinx's head.

The Sphinx looked down at Jamal and scowled. "Don't think I can't see you. What can you hope to achieve now? Go away, the end is upon you." Jamal said something, but the Sphinx didn't react.

"Okay, he can't hear me." Jamal said to Reed, who was back on the ground listening through a transceiver provided by Darkhawk. "A shame, and I put so much effort into that witty retort. He must be just aware of me, but can't hear me, like a mote of dust. Doctor, you got those calculations?"

"Your faith in my computational abilities is touching, but I am nowhere near as fast as this Worldmind you've told me about." Reed said, carving some calculations into the stone ground beneath them.

"Well, she isn't picking up, so you'll have to do. Make with those mass/energy conversion calculations any time you like. No rush at all-- Shit!" Jamal shouted and swerved hard right, narrowly avoiding a blast of magical energy from the Ka Stone in Sphinx's hand. Jamal flew around him as the Sphinx fired at him, however the beams were rather easily avoided. "I think he isn't used to finely controlling the Stones yet."

"Well, that's good. However, the bad news is that I'm still getting used to being a supercomputer. These quantum calculations are extraordinarily complex."

"I have total faith in you, sir. I-- NGGHHH!" Jamal put up a maximum gravimetric shield in front of him just before he was bombarded by a powerful blast of magical energy from one of the Ka Stones.

"Jamal? Respond. Please, respond." Reed said through the transmission. No response. "Oh, no."

"Guys! I'm okay!" Jamal's voice said through the transmission.

"Nova?" Reed asked.

"Somehow, I'm just about holding his blasts back! Nova Force is at maximum! Without Worldmind here to hold back the amount of Nova Force I can access, I'm using it at a greater level than I ever have before! I'm holding off a God with the power to remake the whole damn universe!" Jamal said through gritted teeth. "I ain't gonna last long though, I've got about 10 more seconds left before my shields fail. Doc?"

"Here are the figures you need, Jamal."

"Thanks. Opening Stargate." Jamal said.

"What are you doing? Are you attempted to escape?" The Sphinx laughed. "I assure you--" The Sphinx paused and scowled. "Oh... You cursed being." Jamal went straight through The Sphinx and sent him through the Stargate. He screamed in defiance as his form disappeared and the magical energy of the Ka Stones dissipated.

Jamal rushed to the ground and landed next to the remaining group of Moonstone, Reed, Darkhawk, and Carol Danvers. "Brace yourselves people. I don't think we've got long. Looks like everything's coming apart at the seams." He was right, too, as the sphinx structures began dissipating beneath their feet even faster.

"Reality is normalizing, finding equilibrium. This magical landscape is disintegrating. Which means, we return back to where we came from." Reed paused. "I think. Either that or we disintegrate with it." Suddenly, everyone began fading away. Reed smiled at Jamal. "Goodbye, Jamal. It's been an extraordinary--" He disappeared, leaving only Jamal and Darkhawk.

"See you on the other side, I gu--" Jamal began before everything went black.

"[Attention. It is critical that you pay attention at this time. You have been recovered from the ruins of the planet Shard. You may be injured. We are running biomedical diagnostics on you.]" Jamal opened his eyes to see Ruby's head floating above him. He jumped a bit, forgetting for a second about Worldmind's recent change in personality, but was reminded by the Nova Prime helmet she wore.

"H-hey, Worldmind." Jamal said with a grin, sitting up in the medical bed he was on.

"[Welcome back, Nova Prime.]"

---

Knowhere...

Most people at some point in their lives ask themselves, "Who am I?" and/or "What is my purpose?" Right now, at this very moment, I find myself asking myself these very questions. When I bonded with the Quantum Bands, I became Quasar, protector of the Universe. At least, that's who I think I am.

I died, not too long ago. My death was... atypical. I mean, being killed by a demented bug warrior named Annihilus is definitely not a typical cause of death. Then, I came back. But I was turned into pure quantum energy, so I don't really understand what I am anymore. And I certainly don't know what I'm supposed to be. Today, I am being given a chance to prove myself and show the universe that it can still count on me to protect it.

"Penny for them?" Star-Lord said, with his helmet in his hand, approaching Quasar, who was staring outside of one of Knowhere's windows into the chaotic landscape of the 'edge' of the universe. To this day, he remained baffled that the Guardians of the Galaxy were using a floating head of a Celestial as a headquarters.

"Just gathering my thoughts, and convincing myself that my decision to go in first is the right one. Though it is a great risk, my energy form should give me greater protection against the Fault's storms." Quasar said, as the two walked to a meeting room inside of Knowhere. In the room, sitting around a desk, were most of the Guardians, including Groot, Rocket, Bug, and Drax. Also present were holographic projections of Jamal and a man by the name of Doctor Gruenwald -- a good friend of Jamal and Quasar as well as the head scientist at a well-resourced research facility, Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S.

When Star-Lord and Quasar entered the room, Doctor Gruenwald was in the middle of speaking. "--In terms of security along, we need more information about this event and quickly. Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. isn't in the league of you Guardians of the Galaxy, or yours, Nova, so we appreciate you guys playing ball with us. Any data you can give us will be of vital importance."

"I'l make the first scouting trip. No arguments." Quasar said, raising his hand. "I mean, I've already died once before. No big deal. You all can monitor my quantum link and keep track of me."

With that, Quasar was teleported out of Nowhere near the Fault. He then did something that no entity had yet to do: he flew straight into it. The levels of turbulence and distortion inside the fault were astronomical. The currents and gravimetric pressure of countless parallel galaxies and timelines overlapped each other. They grinded against one another -- shrapnel and debris from countless realities were pulled into it. Quasar figured that it was a matter of time before it all came collapsing down.

As he flew further into the fault, he saw worlds torn loose from the galaxies that sired them, tumbling into the maelstrom. He heard timelines creaking as they slid past each other. He heard light fracturing and matter combusting. At this point, he began to start wondering whether the Fault even ended... or if it merely went on forever. These thoughts were cast aside as a bright yellow light engulfed him and then, everything suddenly went black. Someone else's reality had decided to swallow him whole.

The next thing he knew, he found himself teleported in the middle of a city. The city, however was covered in what appeared to be the remains of organic material spliced together and attached to long abandoned buildings and streets like tumors.

"Uh, Doc? Doctor Gruenwald? This is Quasar on the Quantum Link. Nova? Star-Lord? Anyone receiving me?" Quasar descended to the ground and began walking around. "I feel like I've changed, somehow. I apppear to have recomposed my physical form from traveling through the Fault. I th-- My God." Quasar's mouth opened as he saw before him, collapsed and laying on its side in pieces, the Stature of Liberty. "I...I'm back on Earth? No, this can't be my Earth."

All of a sudden, the ground began shaking beneath him. "Now what?" The ground exploded and from beneath it, a grotesque monster emerged. "Holy!" Quasar flew off the ground and fired a beam of energy at the being. "What the hell are you?" He asked as the monster reached for him and tried to wrap its tentacles around him. He blasted the tentacled, severing it. Quasar began feeling sick as he began tasting raw gamma rads and some other toxic exotics. Even worse was that the thing reeked of lost aeons and long dead stars. It was the sort of stench he'd only sensed in the most dark and distant corners of the universe. It scared him.

The monster picked up a piece of the ground and hurled it at him. He simply flew through the object, shattering it into pieces. "So... maybe we got off on the wrong foot. How about we start over? My name is Wendell Vaughn, the protector of the universe. Including this one, I suppose." Wendell said as he once again blasted the creature. He was aware that he was babbling, despite the creature showing no signs of even understanding him. He couldn't help it though. He was trying to keep himself from thinking about the primal fear he felt. The monster smacked him with a tentacle, sending him into the ground, and he was reminded of his physical form.

And then, Quasar something that completely baffled him. Even moreso than anything so far had done. Help had arrived in the form of what appeared to be the Avengers, but they were clearly not his Avengers.

"Alright, let's contain this, now!" Alt!Captain America ordered.

"Good job keeping it occupied, Quasar. Thought we'd find Manhattan flattened by now." Alt!Captain Marvel said, stopping to check on Quasar as the rest of the group attack the monster.

"I... Manhattan?! Everything is so changed!" Quasar stammered.

"What are you talking about? This is the usual. He got out again. Must have sensed something and it set him off. He completely broke through his Wards and went berserk!" Alt!Captain Marvel said.

"He? He who?" Quasar asked.

"What the hell is wrong with you? And why are you back so so-- Wait..." Realization dawned upon her as her eyes widened. "You're not Quasar!"

"No, he is not." Alt!Scarlet Witch said. "He is from somewhere else. Somewhere long and far away."

"Guys, we can investigate later!" Alt!Captain America said. "We need to contain this now! Thor? Bring the hammer down."

"The Odinson will take great pleasure in--" The monster smacked Alt!Thor into the ground. Alt!Thor stood right back up and his face began morphing, his appearance becoming that of a monster himself. "Misbegotten by-blow!" He shouted as lightning crackled around his Mjolnir. He brought down Mjolnir hard upon the monster, sending lightning through it. The monster began changing and shrinking. It shriveled up and within seconds, it's form changed to that of a man in purple shorts.

"Finally! Banner's down!" Alt!Captain Marvel said.

"B-Banner? That... thing was the Hulk?" Quasar said.

"Of course." Alt!Captain America responded. "Clearly we've given him enough chances. He's far too dangerous and unstable to have around in the current crisis. Anthony?"

"Wait!" Before Quasar could stop him, Alt!Iron Man ripped out Bruce's heart. He once again felt fear rushing through him as the Alt!Avengers collectively looked at him, their eyes glowing a bloody red. Quasar froze, unable to move. At first he assumed that it was his fear, but he realized that a hex had been placed upon him by the Alt!Scarlet Witch.

"So... you're not our Quasar. Interesting. What do we do with him?" Alt!Iron Man said. Quasar felt as though his heart was about to explode, wondering whether he was going to be killed. To his relief though, they simply brought him to a facility in an unknown location. They called it 'The Trapezohedron.'

They then shoved him into a large spherical prison, just large enough to fit him, that floated above the ground. It was strange. He felt as though he was submerged underwater, but the prison was clearly not filled with any sort of actual liquid.

"Where am I?" Quasar asked.

"Earth." Alt!Iron Man stated. "Though, apparently not your Earth."

"Your powers... how...?" Quasar asked.

"Gifts from the Many-Angled Ones. In return for our adoration." Alt!Giant-Man said.

"I know the Avengers. Everything about this place is wrong. You're all wrong. This universe...it reeks of corruption." Quasar said.

"Hmph. So far, you've been the one asking the questions." Alt!Iron Man scoffed. "Maybe you could help enlighten us about something. We've become aware of a massive space/time fissure. It interests us."

"The Fault." Quasar said.

"...An apt name as any, I suppose." Alt!Captain America said.

Quasar then realized something that he should have realized from the start. Unfortunately, he was too gripped by confusion and fear. "This Earth... it's what's at the end of the Fault."

"From your perspective, yes." Alt! Iron Man said. "Which proves beyond a reasonable doubt that there is a far side to this Fault. You see, the Many-Angled Ones have filled this universe, but they're still hungry. There is no more room left for them to grow and expand. Understand? I will employ any and every method I can to find new territories for our Gods to walk upon. And you've just confirmed that out there, a new universe is just waiting to be conquered. A restoration of the Angles of Etheric Harmony."

"Our Quasar went to find out if this Quasar lead anywhere." Alt!Captain America said and pointed to Quasar. "The possibility exists that you killed him. We'll cross that bridge later, but tell us, how do we get to this Earth of yours?"

"So let me get this straight..." Quasar said. "You see the Fault as a opportunity to trade up from your overcrowed universe and move into some other real-estate you're interested in?" Quasar couldn't help but laugh. "What the hell makes you think I'm going to help you? I've see the way you are. There's no way I'm going to lead you back to my home."

"Insolent little--!" Alt!Giant-Man said.

Suddenly purple energy appeared above them, and from it emerged Alt!Scarlet Witch. "He doesn't have to help us. I've examined his structure using the Leng Lens. Turns out he's made of Quantum-Phasic energy. It's distinct. And we can find it and use it to track out a path to his origin world on the far side of the vault."

"No! God, no!" Quasar cried out.

"I'm sorry." Alt!Scarlet Witch said, glancing at Quasar. "I will need a few hours to plot the Quantum Link in detail. I've sent Thor and Captain Marvel to begin the public Hecatomb and I need to prepare a Yot-Soteric Enchantment to transfer out planet out of our reality and safely assert its dominance over his. Now, could you please clear the room? I'd like to be able to concentrate."

"We'll get to work." Alt!Captain America said, leading the group out of the room.

"What does assert mean?" Quasar asked Alt!Scarlet Witch.

"It... it means that this world will be securely anchored back in reality, with the doors of Eternity open once more to receive the Benediction of the Outer Gods. In simple terms, your Earth will be obliterated."

"You... you said you were sorry back then when you told them how to use me. You sounded like you meant it." Quasar said. "They scare you, don't they?"

"Of course they do." Alt!Scarlet Witch, looked down with a pained expression. "I shudder to contemplate the... things that we have allowed to reside within us... that we've allowed to snatch our bodies and enslave our minds. I may be sorry, but it was necessary. Tony Stark and Hank Pym are geniuses, and would have eventually figured it out and realized that I had kept it from them. The terror I feel when I see them would have then been truly justified." Suddenly she grabbed her head and groaned in pain.

""What's wrong with--" Alt!Scarlet Witch collapsed to the ground as a humanoid figure came out of her back. However, her body remained intact somehow, even though it should have been ripped open. Once the object fully emerged however, Quasar understood why.

"Vision...? Is that you?" Quasar asked in disbelief.

"[There is very little time, Wendell Vaughn. I had concealed myself in my wife's body for years so as to observe the Activities of the Avengers. I hoped to eventually engineer a cure, however, I could not bring myself to stand by and let this happen.]" He reached out towards the controls for Quasar's prison and phased his hands through them, disrupting their circuitry. "[The only beings in this universe capable of opposing these nightmarish creatures are individuals of pure science. Our numbers are few, and our war is hopeless. However, I refuse to allow you to perish. Flee, quickly!]"

Quasar fell as the bubble prison disappeared from around him. Unfortunately, Alt!Captain Marvel had entered the room, seeing Alt!Vision assist Quasar's escape. "What the ftaghn!? I'll rip your soul in half for this!"

Quasar formed a quantum shield construct in front of him and barreled through her. He then proceeded to fly out of the facility. "Star-Lord? Nova? Doctor Gruenwald? I don't know if any of you can hear me. The Fault isn't just a rip. It's a tunnel, and there's something at the far end of it. Another universe, another Earth, twisted in ways I can't even begin to described. It's surrendered itself to ancient creatures too terrifying to contemplate. I-- One sec..." Quasar turned to see Alt!Iron Man hot on his tail. Quasar fired bolts of energy at him, however he dodged them.

"You are far too precious to lose. We are going to drag you back -- even if we have to rip your arms, and those Quantum Bands, from your body." Alt!Iron Man said.

"Pitiful Welp!" Quasar heard from behind, and turned to see Alt!Thor flying at him, his hammer prepared to smash his face in. Quasar was boxed between the two, and would have to pick his poison. The choice was obvious, as one direction led back to their base. Making the split decision, he created a hammer construct of his own and hit Alt!Thor in the jaw. Alt!Thor lost his grip on Mjolnir and grabbed his head in pain. Quasar immediately made a beeline away from the planet, paying no mind to the threats and profanities spewed by Alt!Iron Man.

"Sorry, was a little busy there." Quasar continued. "Listen, I need you to know that this place is here. And sooner or later, it will be coming. I'm going to use all of the power at my disposal to boost the message. I'll have to pull something risky..." Energy poured out of Quasar as he transformed into a form made of pure Quantum Energy. It was a gamble, as he wasn't sure if he would even re-coalesce afterwards. But he had to try.

His eyes widened as he left Earth's atmosphere and entered deep space and witnessed an indescribable horror straight out of a Lovecraftian book that stretched out as far as the eye could see. "Oh, God. I see it now. I see it all! Their universe... a disgusting abomination! Pulsating with corrupt life! One giant, twisted organic mass. The whole d'ast universe is a deathless corpse. A cancer trying to metastasize in our reality! They're coming! Doc, they--!"

Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S., Upstate New York

"Quasar? Quasar, come in! This is Gruenwald! We've lost your signal!" Doctor Gruenwald shouted at the monitor in front of him. He stood in a room with numerous other of the facilities top researchers as they watched a looped feed of Quasar entering the Fault. "Boost the damn link through the quantum arrays!"

"We're trying, doctor!" One of the other researchers said.

"Someone get me the playback on his last transmissions and wash them through a signal scrubbers. I could barely make out more than something about another universe!" Doctor Gruenwald said. Suddenly, a yellow bubble appeared in the center of the room. Once it was gone, Quasar was in its place, kneeling down.

Doctor Gruenwald rushed to his side and began helping him up. "Wendell?! Speak to me. You actually made it back, man! Are you okay? Wait, you're flesh and blood again! What happened, exactly?"

"I...I'm fine, Doctor Gruenwald. It was touch and go, for a moment. But, well, there's no place like home." Quasar grinned, his eyes glowing red for a split second.

...

"So, the facility is on lock-down?" Jamal asked as he walked through the Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S facility with Quasar.

"Yes, but only as a precaution. We wanted to be sure that I hadn't brought anything nasty back with me from my scouting trip into the Fault." Quasar responded. "You know, nothing alien, bacterial, or even quantum. Better safe than sorry."

"I understand. That puts me at east. I was worried when I called and all I could reach was a recorded message saying that P.E.G.A.S.U.S was sealed under further notice. Still, you didn't find anything in the Fault? No useful data at all even on its structure?"

Quasar shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. I was hoping the tests they ran on me would come up with something. I was hoping to be useful, you know, and contribute something -- anything -- to sealing the Fault."

"Don't worry about it." Jamal said, taking out his helmet from his waist. "By the way, I'm happy you got your body back. Since you came back to life, I was wondering whether you'd ever get it back. You remember coming back from the dead, right? You shared your powers with me to take down Ego."

"Of course."

"We were inside of each other's heads then. It's the kind of empathic bond you never lose. Probably a Quantum State thing, I imagine. You'd know better than me." Jamal said, putting on his helmet.

"And?"

Jamal stopped and turned to Quasar. "Nothing, it's just good to see you. How did you return to us, anyway?"

"I figure the exotic energies of the fault helped me to re-cohere my quantum form." Quasar answered.

"Funny. That just so happens to be exact what Quasar said when he called me from the Shi'ar Homeworld. Last night." Jamal said.

Suddenly, Quasar's face morphed, and he grew spikes that protruded out of his face down his jaw. "Ftaghn s'geht, you know!" He screamed as he fired a blast of quantum energy at Jamal, who, anticipating the attack, blocked it with a gravimetric shield.

"Yep, that's right, whatever the hell you are, I know. No more lies!" Jamal fired a gravimetric beam from his fists at Alt!Quasar, flinging him straight through the wall behind him. Jamal flew through the hole formed slowly, scanning through the dust and debris formed. "Darkhawk, it's Nova. Tell me you're in position, because I just blew our cover!"

"I've reached sub-vault 77. I'm right on top of the mysterious energy source that Worldmind detected." Darkhawk said, as he approached a large sealed door.

"Alright, so spill, what's in--" Jamal was cut off as Alt!Quasar flew into and clotheslined him.

Darkhawk blasted the door to the vault. "Nova, you okay? I---I'm not sure what I'm looking at, but it can't be good." Darkhawk said as he entered the room and saw a giant circular device at least 40 feet tall. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know that it was a portal, as a monster began to exit through it. "I can feel it... primal fear radiating out of it like heat. This definitely doesn't belong in our universe."

"Distressing, isn't it?" A familiar voice said. Darkhawk turned to see Doctor Gruenwald.

"Director Gruenwald. It's okay, I'm here with Nova. That fake Quasar's going to get taken of and we're going to stop whatever it is he made you guys do. Darkhawk said.

"He's seen too much." Doctor Gruenwald said, his eyes glowing red. "Kill him."

"Darkhawk, you're breaking up. What's going on down there!?" Jamal said as he knocked Alt!Quasar away with an uppercut. He then noticed one of the researches that he recognized lying on the ground and getting up, and sped over to her. He leaned down from behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Doctor Necker, you need to active the emergency exit drills while I contain Quasar! Do you know what he was trying to do here?"

"Of course. I know exactly what he's trying to do." She turned around, her eyes also glowing red.

"Dammit!" Jamal said as he became surrounded by the facilities armor equipped guards from all sides. They collectively fired at him and he deflected each of the attacks one by one. "All of you? He got to all of you for fuck's sake?" He was then slammed from behind by a green tentacle construct formed by Alt!Quasar.

"Really, when you came bumbling in here, did you have any sort of plan at all?" He said, with a devilish grin. Alt!Quasar and the guards proceeded to collectively fire upon Jamal.

Jamal thankfully managed to put up a hemispherical shield around him. "Plan, you say? Well, it's not much, but I happen to be friends with the previous security chief of Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. That means I get special priveleges. Like the override codes for the guardsman suits. Worldmind?" Immediately the guards became frozen in place, unable to attack or move.

"What are you doing? Keep shooting!" Alt!Quasar commanded before being hit by another gravimetric beam.

"Keep shooting? Gladly." Jamal grinned. After putting down Alt!Quasar, at least for the moment, Jamal turned to Doctor Necker and encased her in a gravimetric bubble. "You're coming with me, doc." Jamal took off and began racing through the facility.

"Let me go! Let me out!" She shouted, banging on the bubble. "You will release me! Submission is inevitable! Life will find a way! The Undying Lord is fast approaching to bestow the gifts of the Many-Angled Ones have granted him! F'taghn! Ch'thaakgh! Gth'klth!"

"Sorry, I don't speak gibberish." Jamal said and right as he finished talking, Doctor Necker collapsed inside of the bubble and began convulsing and foaming at the mouth as though she was having a seizure. A small creature then detached itself from her neck and fell down on the bubble. "There we go. I figured that this little bugger was behind it and controlling you guys like puppets. I just needed to cut you off from the master string-pullet long enough with a grav bubble."

Jamal released the bubble and caught Doctor Necker, while the creature fell to the ground. He set her down gently and then incinerated the creature with a gravimetric beam. "Oh, God, it was in my head! They just... made me do whatever they wanted me to!"

"It's okay." Jamal said, hugging her. "Worldmind, patch me through to Darkhawk. Jamal heard a few seconds of static, Darkhawk's voice, and then more static only for it to abruptly cut off. "Dammit, we lost him again, Worldmind. No time to reconnect." He lifted Doctor Necket by her legs with his right hand and supporting her back with his left, he rushed off to where Darkhawk while carrying her. "So, have any idea what Quasar was doing down there?"

"He calls it the Horrorscope. It's... it's some sort of detection instrument. We have no idea what he was looking for. It was almost like he couldn't tell us. In other words, it's something he was afraid of." Jamal reached sub-level 77 and slowed to a stop. He set her down and led her to the entrance of the room containing the Horrorscope, seeing two guardsmen standing with their hands in front of them as though they were aiming at something. "Chris must have used the same trick I did to disable their suits."

Jamal heard Doctor Necker scream as the mind controlled Doctor Gruenwald lunged out at her from behind. Jamal quickly turned around and caught him in a gravity bubble. "Got him! Hopefully after a few minutes in there, that thing should detach from his neck like it did with yours."

"Jamal!" Darkhawk shouted from inside of the room.

Jamal rushed through the door and saw the creature coming through it as Darkhawk blasted off tentacle after tentacle. Jamal joined him and together they aimed for the center of the beast. "It's tougher than I expected." Jamal said. Before they could react, both of them were blasted from behind by Alt!Quasar.

"Why do you persist your futile attempts to fight us? We've already won." Alt!Quasar grinned, watching Jamal struggle to stand. "In my universe, your vaunted Nova Corps lasted a grand total of 47 minutes against my Undying Lord. We are by our very nature invincible. The Horrorscope has found what I was looking for, and I will bring that news to my Undying Lord in person. You can stop me. But of course, that will leave the Many-Angled Gatekeeper free to devour your world. Your choice." Laughing, Alt!Quasar burst through the ceiling, fleeing the facility.

Jamal was prepared to chase after him, but he needed someone to deal with the invading creature. "Darkhawk, I need you to-- Chris?" Jamal turned to see Chris in his human form completely unconscious.

"Jamal, he's badly hurt! I... I think he's dying!" Doctor Necker cried out.

"Dammit!" Jamal cursed. "Worldmind, direct everything to my cuff emitters." Jamal pointed his fists at the creature and fired powerful gravimetric beams at it, incinerating most of it and setting the rest ablaze. "And stay out." Kneeling down next to Darkhawk, he checked his pulse. "He's alive, but his suit went into repair mode. Get him to the medics. Gruenwald and the others should be fine with the gate shut and that creature dead. Get P.E.G.A.S.U.S back up and running. I'm going after Quasar." Doctor Necker nodded and Jamal chased after Alt!Quasar.

"Worldmind, track this fake Quasar and intercept course." Jamal said as he passed the Earth's upper atmosphere and entered deep space.

"[Routing the intercept to your visor. The false Quasar is rapidly accelerating away from us.]"

"He isn't outrunning us. Send out an 8X8 distress. Warn everybody that the Fault is a priority extra-dimensional threat. Oh, and tell them that I am responding."

[The Republic of Atria]

"Speaking of Manifest. Don't ruin my house." He said half to Otis and half to Thanos. With a gesture of his hand, the walls retracted to allow Manifest inside. "Welcome back Manifest. Judging by that look I assume you're here for the same reason these two are." He said and motioned to Thanos and Otis. "I know what you're thinking, but if this really is as bad as these two have implied, than we're gonna need all the help we can get." He said motioning him to come inside. "I'm about to call Valka and get her down here. She's gonna be a big help. One of the biggest guns we have. I presume you've alerted SHIELD, SWORD, the League, and the Avengers? All hands on deck for certain. I want to hear plan A's and Plan B's."

"So..." Otis said kicking his feet in the air. "How're things on your end?" Was trying to make small talk with Thanos a bad idea? Probably in most situations. But Otis was never one to let common sense get in his way. "I mean minus the whole me and you beating each other up and the Yuga Khan thing. Cause on my end, they could be going better. By the way, I'm almost sorry for what happened."

"Irrelevant. Petty vengeance will only serve to get us killed." Otis almost apologized for what he did? Were he anyone else, he would've been killed. But he was more than capable of holding his own against him. "I am still wondering how you, a child-" Otis rolled his eyes, grumbling as he was called a child yet again. He was legally an adult! "-Was able to put an end to Darkseid."

"Luck, broken bones, blood, spit, adrenaline, rage, backup and a weapon meant for gods." He said and pulled out his motherbox. "Love this thing. Blows the hell out of my old smartphone." He said and pulled up the video of him killing Darkseid on Youtube.

Apokolips

After kicking Thanos off of Apokolips, Yuga went back into the throne room which was damaged from Otis' prior hissy fit. With a wave of his hand he restored it to it's original state. "Desaad. Begin moving Apokolips to this... Earth. I will do what my son failed to do for the longest time."

"Neato." Came a voice that to Yuga was akin to driving nails into his ears. "I've got front row tickets to a cosmic punch up. Love me some cosmic punch ups. Can't believe Darkseid went out like that." The blue man said. "I remember when I had to fight him. Pain in the ass. My. How things change." As he was talking Yuga blasted him with no effect. "Is that how you're gonna greet me every time I visit you? Cause if so, I'm thinking about taking you off my Christmas card list."

"Are you going to stop me?" He said and looked the glowing man in the eyes.

"No. Thought about it, but decided to let you do what ya want. This Earth has a fucking track record and a rep sheet a mile long. This is gonna be good. Touch my son though, and so help me the Source won't be able to save you. He's not on Earth. He's with his mother way over in that direction." He waved off in space. "But my word stands tall."

"You dare threaten-"

"I can and will. I won't stop you from having your way with this universe, cause rules and all that jazz. But you will leave my son out of this. I am as far beyond you as you are beyond them. Don't forget that Yogi Bear. I am everywhere. I am everything. I don't get angry very often. But unless you want to see what happens when I do..." Khan backed down. "I thought so. Now don't mind little ole' me. Go have your fun. I brought popcorn! And I hate popcorn."

[Charmera]

Cora
Cora watched as Magneto raised his hand and she got ready for an attack that was clearly coming her way but Katie stepped in front of her and stopped the attack. Cora felt a rush of admiration and love for Katie as she stood up for her and threatened Magneto if he tried anything against the android. It was becoming clear that a fight was unavoidable when suddenly another large mutant came flying into the building and was staring at Cora quite uneasily. Cora had no idea why all these people were suddenly breaking into their tower but it started making her really mad. This was their home and she wouldn't let these strangers hurt their tower anymore than they already had. She turned toward the stranger, her fist clenched, "Who are you? And what do you think you're doing breaking into our home like this? We don't take kindly to intruders, so I suggest you just leave now." Cora said, energy starting to flow around her as a clear indication of her anger.

“I am Apocalypse. I need no further introduction, nor an excuse to take what should be rightfully mine.” Spoke the bulky man. “So you are in possession of the energies Darkseid released upon death. Elevating you… but you don’t even realise it do you? Or how you would use it if you did? A pity. The ignorant do not deserve power. Only those who wish for it.” Apocalypse stepped forward. “A shame too, that we are so similar.” He raised his hand, charging a bolt of energy.

“So you two are the the ones we sensed…” Remarked Magneto. “My request to join has become a command. Regardless of your opinions on the matter, you cannot fall into the hands of someone who could use your powers to wipe us out. I will not allow our enemies to capture you, but I will give you a chance to surrender willingly.”

“Not going to happen Magneto.” She turned to Cora. “You deal with Big and bulky, I’ll deal with Magneto. Sound like a plan sweetie?” She asked mentally. Suddenly she saw a metal chair heading her way. She quickly dodged out of the way. “Oh HELL no. My friends will kill me if this happens. If we’re doing this, we’re doing this outside.”

“As you wish.” Magneto then sent a magnetic field which repelled Katie’s, sending her flying backwards through the hole Apocalypse had created, quickly using her own electric powers to ride down the building safely. She reformed at the bottom and then looked at Eric.

“By the way, the point about your friends may become moot.” He remarked. “I will try not to kill you, as I owe that much to your family. But I may very well have no choice…”

Family…? I’m going to have to talk to mom about that. Katie unleashed a bolt of lighting at Magneto, which he managed to deflect with his magnetic shield. “I’ll try my best not to die then.”

Nico
Nico was sure he was about to get shot when suddenly Cat grabbed the gun away from the criminal and smashed into pieces before knocking the shooter to the ground and grabbing a nearby enemy and throwing them to the ground as well. Nico was truly amazed at his sister's ability. He stared at her almost in awe. "Wow sis that was amazing. You saved my life. I'd be dead without you. Thank you." He said to her sincerely before hearing near by footsteps as it became clear that the police were finally able to breach the bank and were coming in to seize the criminals. Nico turned to Cat. "We should get going sis. We don't want to be on the news or anything." He said to her, quickly heading toward the back entrance of the bank. However on his way out Nico noticed one of the criminal's phone spilling out of his pocket. Nico paused, maybe this could be an opportunity to learn a bit more about who these robbers were. After all, they were all very well and uniformly equipped. This couldn't have been a random robbery. Nico picked up the phone and slipped it into his pocket before he ran out of the back door before the police could arrive inside the bank.

“Hey!, Wait up!” Cat spoke as she followed her brother. She suspected that they would probably be on the news anyway, or they might not. Heroes stopping bank robberies weren’t exactly the most rarest thing nowadays, but she supposed it didn’t really matter too much. Part of her didn’t want the attention, but the other kind of did. “What’s on that phone? Why did you Pocket it?"

[Charmera]

Disney
Roy was in awe when Sarah summoned shadows to essentially swallow up the enemy guards and then relinquish them in their unconscious state. "Wow, can you teach me that?" Roy asked sincerely. He had never met another person who could manipulate shadows before, and so never really had someone to teach him how to control his powers. Sam grinned at her sister's comment. "Never doubted you sis, now come on. I know where the bombs are." She said, leading them inside the large castle as they walked through the staging area of the theme park attraction. They were suddenly met with a large cluster of explosives lined across the wall. "Wow, that's a lot of bombs." Sam said as she placed her hand on one of them as she moved along the stream f wires to find the sight of detonation. Sam soon found it was about to disarm it when suddenly a voice interrupted her.

"Not so fast." Called a young man's voice as the heroes' attention was drawn to a nearby tv screen were thye could see the face of Anarky staring at them. Soon a number of armed thugs came running into the room, pointing their automatic weapons at Sam, Roy and Sarah. "You heroes are so predictable? Can't you realize what we're doing here is necessary? No, you just follow the law like lamb to slaughter. Well if you're not with us, you're against us. And you won't be making it out of here alive."

Just then they heard a bloodcurdling roar. The amount of goons dealing with Sarah and Sam meant there was less left to deal with the frontal assault. And Hannah had ploughed through them. <"We're not heroes buddy. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. For you that is."> Her dragon face contorted in a scowl as she charged through the thugs surrounding her sisters. Ready to sheild them from harm. She formed firebals in her hands and then turned to the goons, unleashing another savage roar, which promised fire and pain to anyone who would touch her sisters. She was a little more phased than before, thinking less clearly and an urge to burn was forming in her mind.

[Charmera]

-Snip-

Mind Divided: Spirit Animals

"So wait, aren't you going to explain any of this?" Katie asked Wolf. The two of them were now high up in some mountains. Mist prevented her from seeing the world around her, but the darkness was starting to fade to a dim light. One which allowed her to see properly her surroundings for once. Hannah had to hold on tight as Wolf jumped from ledge to rock to ledge, scaling the face of the mountains with some skill. He did not hesitate, though was not reckless, merely in tune with his instincts.

"Grrr..." He growled. "Be patient welp! We will be at the top soon, there I will be able to explain much better." Spoke the wolf, which annoyed Hannah, but since she had no way to force the wolf into compliance without dropping from his back, she reasoned waiting until he stopped moving would be best.

"At least tell me your name."

"My name is Wolf. I told you already.

"That's not a name..."

"It's mine, welp."

"Stop calling me that!"

"Stop irritating me and I'll consider it. Right now I'm regretting saving your stupid hide."

Hannah sighed, and then realised they had gotten to the top. She could see the mists were now gone and... she could see everything.

Firstly she could see a massive forest at the base of the mountain, trees of varying sizes and shapes. She could see it expand and cover the land before her like a lush green blanket over the world, embracing it with a similar warmth. She could see a point where the forrest became an equally lush jungle with little rhyme or reason, but it did not distract from it's equal lushness. Then she saw volcanoes poking out of the world like grand flaming giants, no scientific logic or reason to their placement yet again, though she saw what she thought were winged creatures flying above them. Then the occasional large cave, mountain or other rock formation, never far from a stream or river. All the while, this was looking very familiar. All except a darkness surrounding all this natural beauty. All this lushness was surrounded by an aberrant, consuming darkness.

"Impressed?"

"Oh..." Hannah paused, "Yeah... I mean how could you not?"

The Wolf seemed to... smile? Hannah didn't know he could do that. Then he returned to a serious expression. "This used to expand forever. Beyond the darkness and intersect into other worlds... Wonderful places too,.. That was until..." He paused.

Hannah frowned. "Until what?"

"Until the Demons came." Spoke a voice. Hannah turned to see a massive bear, huge, bigger than any bear she had seen. She made elephants look dwarfed, and yet she seemed to exude a calming aura, one of comfort and assurance. She would be there. She would protect. Yet there was a sorrow in her voice.

She sat, causing what Hannah could have sworn must have been a tremor. She seemed to have absurd strength. "The demons came not too long ago. They came and corruptedmany of our kin." She remarked. "There used to be more spirit animals here, but they were taken from us by the demons."

Hannah thought, then paused. She tried to get her brain around this, clutching her head. Where the heck was she?

"Perhaps I can explain more." Spoke the bear. She smiled and put a paw on Hannah's shoulder. She seemed to shrink just small enough to bring her into tender embrace. "This may seem like another world... but..." She searched for the words to explain...

Then Hannah thought. She felt something. A memory?

"Wait... Are we... Are we in my head!?"

The Bear smiled. "Yes! We're within a mindscape that is your mind..." Hannah went blank and the bear laughed easily. "Don't worry. All you need to know is that you are not... you... at least not you."

"You see, your mind was invaded by a force stronger than you could fight at the moment, so you were forced into remission. You... as you were before this happened was destroyed. Shattered and then whatever they couldn't tear apart then placed within a dungeon which you couldn't escape. At least... until now."

"But... if this force is so strong, and destroyed me. How could I have reformed myself."

The bear's smile widened, as if this was the best part. "Because you're stronger than you realize Hannah. They couldn't break you because of that," She paused and her smile weakened slightly. 'Though, honestly I'm not sure what caused your personality to repair itself." She smiled again. "But just because you're back, the world is beginning to heal itself of the demons. You've torn their darkness enough to gain some breathing room."

Hannah nodded. She understood everything the bear said. It made perfect sense. It reminded her of when Sarah explained things back when she was young. Perhaps she took on more from her sister than she realized. She had to thank her or something when she saw her. She had forgotten how nice it was to have someone like her around.

"So... what does that make you guys? If this is my head?"

The bear thought, again trying to explain things. "We're spirit animals, aspects of your being. Parts of yourself represented. Though we're also spirits in our own right." She spoke. Seeing Hannah was getting a little lost. "It's hard to explain, but we're what give you power. There used to be loads of us, but then the darkness attacked. Of course the most powerful were me, Dragon, Wolf and Panther. But since they've been corrupted into... demonic creatures."

Hannah was about to ask another question, but then the Bears features darkened. "Enough questions for now though, we need you to do something for us." She spoke. "You need to reconnect with your four spirit animals. To do so, you need to go through trials which will test exactly what we're supposed to represent." The bear put a hand on her chest. "I am your desire to protect. Your compassion and your love. I am strong, but I can be slow." she spoke. "Wolf is your natural instincts, your tenacity and intuition." She pointed to the jungle with a paw. "Panther is your wits and your smarts. She is your mischief and sense of humor." She pointed at the volcano. "Dragon is your imagination, your hope, your confidence and your sense of fun."

Bear stood and took Hannah by the hand. "Your first trial will be the trial of the bear." She spoke, leading her to a cave. "In order to save yourself, you need to reconnect. Then you will have the strength to find your final and most powerful spirit animal, and then defeat the infestation of your soul." She spoke. She saw Hannah's look of nervousness all of a sudden. She was now entrusted with saving her own soul. Quite a big responsibility.

Then came Bear's widest smile yet. "I know, quite a lot to do. But this honestly needs to be done. No buts or ifs about it. This is the only way." She spoke.

"Right... And if I fail."

The Bear frowned. She shook her head. "Don't as me to answer that." She said simply. "Instead, if you succeed in my memory..." She then smiled scandelously. "Well, lets just say theres some nice memories in store."

Hannah had little time to wonder what that was about before the bear slapped her back gently, launching her into the cave. Then a stone seemed to cover the entrance. "Ow..."

"Could have at least told me what this trial was..." She paused. "And what the heck does she mean by nice memories!"

---

"You don't think she'll make it?"

The wolf grunted. "She's still not the same as when she was defeated. Not as strong. She will loose again." He grumbled. "She failed us once. She's more likely to do it again than not."

Bear kept her smile, then stroked Wolf. "Perhaps." She spoke.

"But besides pure faith, I know that she will not give up, she will bear any burden it takes, she will claw her way to victory if that is what it takes." She spoke. "Hannah is a fighter. And she will need a lot more than a crushed soul to stop fighting."

"Hmmph..." Wolf remarked, then sighed.

"Do you think she'll keep fighting..." The wolf spoke. "If she finds out the truth..,?"

[Mavorpen]

A Tale of Life and Death: Chapter I

This is a simple story about life and death.

It is a story that features an unlikely hero's desire to right a cosmic imbalance and please his one true love. This hero was destined to forever be branded as an outcast -- as one meant to be feared and reviled. This was proven to hold true even at the very moment of his birth, when his own mother looked upon him in disgust and attempted to murder him. Despite this, he was a stringent pacifist during childhood, perhaps out of sheer spite, as a tactic to prove everyone else wrong. Eventually, however, he became disillusioned. Quite the antithesis of a backstory typical of a "hero," he became fascinated by nihilism and death. He became infatuated with the physical embodiment of death herself, Mistress Death, to the point of slaughtering his family in Her name. This is a Tale a Titan obsessed with Death.

It is a story that features a man and his struggle to come to terms with the balance between life and death. This is a man with a simple background who was compelled to become something more when thrust in the middle of a universal threat. The weight of a responsibility that should ideally be forced upon no one person has allowed him to make new friends and new enemies at the sacrifice of his individuality. Haunted with thoughts about his inevitable end, he has trudged through life projecting his own desire to live onto others. When faced with that inevitable End, how will he respond? This is a Tale of a Man obsessed with Life.

This is a Tale of a Titan obsessed with Life, and a Man obsessed with Death.

Cancerverse: Part 0

I remember the moment of my death. Not so much the pain of having my heart ripped out of my chest, but the sweet satisfaction of dying. Who am I? How dare you, you miserable insects... I am Thanos. And I am dead. The so-called Drax, the Destroyer killed me. My murder was, quite literally, his sole purpose in life. Bah. Took him long enough. I doubt he felt anything more than numbness when he was done. To be quite honest, I envy that.

I am dead. And I remember that very moment. Slain during the final hours of the Annihilation War. Therefore, your question should not be who I am. But, what am I? A mere ghost? A revenant? An undead wretch dragged back to the pernicious realm of light? For what purpose, I ask you?

After my death, the Annihilation Wave was obliterated, and the galaxy swept clean. As my very soul evaporated from the cosmos ever so slowly, I witnessed this. Releasing my final, dying breaths, I watched as Adam Warlock found my drifting corpse. Driven insane by the screams of the souls in agony upon being destroyed in the great obliteration, he had to enter a deep slumber and restore his mind.

On some instinctive level, he undoubtedly understood my importance as a part of the cosmic tapestry. He understood that I was one of the very few things that had ever counterbalanced his evil half, the Adam Magus. And so, he placed my body in a cocoon, which was found by others... Templeships of the insufferable Universal Church of Truth. The fools mistook the cocoon for that belong to their beloved Celestial Messiah. They took me back to their homeworld -- a world I ravaged when I was dragged back to this cursed existence. Oh, how I enjoyed tearing through their precious planet.

For the entire span of my sorrowful existence, I have been in conflict with others. From my birth on Saturn's moon, Titan, to my Death. I stood as a God when I obtained possession of a Cosmic Cube. Many opposed me: first and foremost the Kree champion Captain Mar-Vell. He was allowed the sweet release of death, yet I still live. A cruel, ironic joke that the then Avatar of Life attained Death before I. There have always been those who would interfere with my goals. My dreams.

Only one thing remains true, as it always will: My love and devotion to Milady Death. And... that has now been forcibly taken from me. My dream had been accomplished. I was at rest in emptiness and something woke me! I was at peace and yet something brought me back to once again feel the unbearable pain of life. This is more than poor Adam Warlock's misguided attempts to ward off the Magus. These are down to the machinations of something far more powerful... more sinister. Again, insects, you ask what am I? What I am is angry. What I am is insane with rage. What I am is...

"...THANOS!" The Mad Titan roared, bound by vibranium shackles. The purple beast was being held deep within the prison of Knowhere, the headquarters of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Naturally, they kept him in a secluded section of the prison and gave him his own cell.

"Perhaps we must stop telepathically probing his mind for answers. We are merely provoking him." Mantis said, having jumped at the sudden outburst from Thanos.

"To be honest, I don't really care how he feels about it." Moondragon said, with a scowl. Clearly, she had yet to get over her the death of her lover, Phyla-Vell, at the hands of Thanos.

"Moondragon very correct." Cosmo the dog agreed through telepathy in his thick Russian accept. "Is vital we find out why Thanos has returned to the land of livink. Is havink great bearink on everyone's future plans."

"I am not arguing the importance of what we do, but ever since rebirth, Thanos has been little more than a mindless berserker. He is barely a sentient being. Combined, our minds are keeping him in check, but probing him too deeply only precipitates his rage." Mantis said.

"He's only upset because he's alive again. He's like a spoiled child who has had his toys taken away." Moondragon spat. "I wouldn't be surprised if he did this to himself."

"But why do something that goes against everything he has wished for?" Mantis asked.

"He has a great intellect and is cunning beyond measure." Moondragon said. "The most dangerous thing about Thanos is not necessarily his physical might -- though great as it may be -- it is the complexity of his intent. He is insane, and it is impossible to truly understand him enough to stop him before his plans come to fruition. Perhaps he has concealed his plans from his own mind, being aware of the fact that the Guardians have powerful telepaths at the ready to pluck the information from his mind." Heather hesitated for a second before looking down. "We should kill him."

"Heather!" Mantis said.

Moondragon turned on her heel and began walking out of the cell. The two followed her, naturally. "I know what you're thinking. This has nothing to do with Phyla. My recommendation is based entirely on the welfare of the universe. Thanos is evil incarnate. Outside of the likes of Darkseid, you would be hard pressed to find a being so wicked and vile. And he's growing stronger by the minute. Should we not, as the Guardians of the Galaxy, learn from the past and make the tough choice before Thanos' strength becomes to great to contain?" Mantis and Cosmo stopped, glanced at each other in concern, and then watched Moondragon continue to walk away.

Moondragon entered a room where the team typically met to hang out and have a drink with each other. The very first thing she heard was Rocket shouting at the top of his lungs as he sat on a table in front of Star-Lord, both of them looking at the Cosmic Cube they used to take down Thanos. "USELESS FLARKING PIECE OF TRASH!"

"I take it you've had no luck with the Cosmic Cube?" Moondragon asked, knowing full well the answer to her question.

"D'ast thing's dead." Rocket sighed. "Had enough juice in it to daze Thanos long enough for us to bag him, but that's it. It's all used up."

"You need something?" Star-Lord asked.

"I need Thanos dead." Moondragon bluntly stated.

"Hey! I understand why you're saying this, but we can't just kill Thanos!" Star-Lord said. Moondragon raised an eyebrow, as if to ask "why?" Star-Lord sighed. "Because!" Moondragon then glanced at Rocket and raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, don' look at me. I got no qualms. I'd happily frag the guy myself, but Thanos is a necessity. He's Death's Avatar. He's a part of the cosmic game the likes of Eternity and Oblivion play. We're little people. We can't just off him until we understand the consequences. What if... what if everything from the Phalanx Invasion to the revival of Magus and the emergence of the Fault is because Drax killed Thanos?"

"That so?" The voice of Drax asked. Drax entered the room, a weapon in hand. "So you want to keep him alive? If so, you're the crazy one. I'm with Heather. It's time you guys grew a pair and decided to do your d'ast job!"

"Drax, we're screwin' around with large-scale cosmic mysteries--" Rocket protested.

"Zip it!" Drax said. "I'm the only one here that's an expert on this. I was created to destroy him for a reason. He's a monster. Every time Thanos shows up, he takes us closer to the brink. Sooner or later he's gonna tip us right over. I'm not going to let that happen and see my handiwork go undone."

...

"--I say again, this is an 8X8 emergency signal! This is Nova Prime in warp pursuit of an impostor who has taken the form of the galactic hero Quasar. We are exiting the Earth system. The imposter is heading towards the Fault, and all data indicates that's where he came from -- and where more like him are waiting. It is absolutely vital that he be apprehended before he reaches his destination!"

Surrounded by the energies of the edge of the warp space, Jamal reached out for Alt!Quasar, who was, at this point, no longer even attempting to hide his true appearance. "Worldmind, can you give me any more speed?"

"[Nova Force is maxed out, Jamal. The false Quasar's Quantum powers are every bit as potent as the real deal. Speaking of which...]"

Jamal then heard the voice of Quasar through his helmet. "Hey, Jamal, I got your message."

"Wendell, where are you!?" Jamal asked.

"On a Shi'ar flagship. At the head of the fleet. We are moving to support you at the mouth of the Fault. The alarm you sent out's pretty much woken up everyone to the fact that this Fault is bad news." Quasar said.

"Bad enough that it's a vast tear in space and time." A familiar voice said. Gladiator. "Quasar has brought back a warning that a twisted, rival universe exists on the far side of the tear. I've managed to rally as much support as I can through the Galactic Council -- including the Spartoi, Rigellian, and I even managed to convince Blastaar to relay a call to arms to the Negative Zone's current Queen. Plus, of course, Queen Medusa and the Kree." Gladiator paused. "By the way, Quasar has left to assist you, Nova."

"He'd better make it fast." Jamal said as he exited the Stargate. "We just dropped back into real-space. "Oh no." Jamal muttered as he saw a countless number of Templeships sitting before the Fault. "Guys, we got a problem. There's a whole Universal Church fleet stationed right at the mouth of the Fault!"

A new voice was heard from within his helmet. "This is Queen Medusa with the Inhuman Royal family and the Kree's stellar armada. We are currently 12 light minutes away from your location, Nova. Are you positive that the Church of Truth has already taken position at the Fault?" Medusa asked.

"Positive." Jamal answered.

"Then they will BURN!" Blastaar interjected.

"Blastaar!" Medusa said. "If you are going to get involved in this, you will observe discipline and keep your vessels in fleet formation! This is not some Negative Zone tribal feud! And do hurry in contacting the Negative Zone's Queen."

"Whatever Queen Medusa desires..." Blastaar said sarcastically.

"[Attention, Jamal. The Templeships are brimming with Belief Energy. And the levels are still building. The cruisers must be completely packed with worshipers. They're definitely preparing for something big.]"

"Fake Quasar's heading for the lead ship!" Jamal said, still on the tail of Alt!Quasar. The ship's weapons began firing on Jamal, and he put up a gravimetric shield in front of him to block the attacks. "Aw, I feel unwelcomed. Guess they really don't want me to catch him." Jamal reached Alt!Quasar and grabbed him. "Too bad!" The two crashed through the rose window in the front of the church.

They went hurling to the floor bouncing numerous times, causing Jamal to lose his hold on Alt!Quasar. Both of them immediately rose to their knees and Alt!Quasar scowled. "You really followed me all the way here from Earth?!"

"Sorry, it's just that I've grown rather attached to you." Jamal said as he punched Alt!Quasar. He then blasted him point blank in the chest, forcing him to the ground and holding him there under the weight of increased localized gravity. "You took Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S apart to search for something. What was it? Tell me!" Jamal commanded.

"[Attention! Attention!]" The warning came too late, however, as Jamal was blasted in the back.

"Something our masters asked him to find." Jamal fell to his knees and turned his head to see Magus. "I don't believe we've met yet. I am Adam Magus. Pleased to meet you."

"[Warning! Warning! The impostor is a significant threat to your safety, but this new beings exceeds him in a power to a degree that is impossible for me to measure. You need to flee, NOW!]"

"No! There's too much at stake!" Jamal protested as he dodged to the left of an incoming magical blast from Magus. Unfortunately, he only ended up moving directly into the line of fire of an energy blast from Alt!Quasar.

"Yes, finish him, please. I'd rather not get blood on my clothes. Our masters will be here soon, and I want to look nice." Magus snickered.

Alt!Quasar charged at Jamal to deliver the final blow, however he was grabbed by something that flew through the rose window and into the room at speeds far exceeding that of light. "Get off him!" Quasar said and threw Alt!Quasar away. "And kindly stop looking like me."

"This is a sacred place! You are not welcome here!" Magus snarled as he threw a punch at Quasar, one that Quasar barely dodged. Jamal fired a gravimetric beam at Magus, but Magus deflected it. "This is supposed to be a beautiful moment of transcendence! A sacred beat in the heart of the universe as everything stands still and changes! You will NOT spoil this!" Magus fired beams of magical energy out of both hands at Jamal and Quasar. The two blocked the attacks by combining Jamal's gravimetric shield and Quasar's quantum energy shield.

"Jamal, look!" Quasar pointed to the opening where the rose window once was before it was destroyed as a bright blue light poured it. "Are those...planets!?" And indeed, about a dozen planets of varying sizes where suddenly occupying space in front of the Fault that was previously empty. "Dear God, the Magus hasn't just brought over the Templeships, he's brought converted worlds!"

"That's right!" Magus exclaimed with a grin as he threw Jamal and Quasar off of him. "You feel it, don't you?" Magus floated up before the window, looking out of it at the numerous planets, spreading his arms apart as though he was nailed to a cross. His smile grew even bigger and more sinister. "Trillions of true believers, all converted in preparation for this one act. All chanting the same incantation. It's so beautiful. I just can't wait any longer! One spark. From darkness, light. Ignition." And thus, the planets all exploded simultaneously, the fiery and molten remains spreading throughout the region in front of the Fault.

"On my God, the Church worlds have all been detonated!" Quasar said.

A blinding white light spread all across the system. Even those still light minutes away from the fault had to shield their eyes from the deceitfully Holy light that washed over them.

"Report!" Gladiator said, covering his face, along with everyone else on the bridge.

"Massive detonation at the mouth of the fault, Majestor! Great Sharra! It's ripping open!" One of the Shi'ar captains said.

"Shockwaves!" Karnak called out. "Everyone, hold on!"

"Karnak, what about the rest of the fleet? What about the Shi'ar!?" Queen Medusa asked.

"The sensors are down, my Queen!" Karnak replied.

"No, No! We're getting something! Look on the viewer!" Ronan pointed at the screen that projected everything occurring outside of their ship. "Something is coming through the Fault!"

"No... please, tell me that's not possible." Crystal whispered.

"Quasar, we need to get clear!" Jamal shouted, as he and Quasar were engulfed by the pure white life. Mysteriously, only they were hurled outside of the Templeship, and they watched as one second they were next to Magus and Alt!Quasar and the next they were light years away. It was as though God himself had appeared and rejected them from a Holy site as unbelieving heretics.

...

"AGH!" Mantis said as she gripped her head.

"You felt that too?" Moondragon said.

"Bozhe moi! Like a bullet through the head!" Cosmo the dog exclaimed.

"Mantis, what's going on?" Star-Lord asked.

"Something very bad just happened." Mantis replied, concern plastered all over her face.

"Everyone, RUN!" Major Victory shouted, entering the room. Before Star-Lord could ask him what the problem was, Thanos burst through the wall with massive roar, his shackles still around his arms, legs, and throat, but the chains having been ripped from their support.

...

"They're coming." Alt!Quasar whispered, his voice filled with anticipation. "You can hear the Angles of Space adjusting as dimensions realign. You smell that? It smells like Blood."

"No, life. Oh ftaghn! It's here!!" Magus said as he turned to see a figure approach him from behind. Alt!Quasar immediately knelt before the figure and bowed his head, and Magus followed suit. "My Lord. Welcome to a new universe."

"It smells stale." The figure stated. "Cold. Unhealthy. Vaughn. Have you located the site?"

"Yes, my Undying Lord. I built a Horrorscope and divined the precise location." Alt!Quasar stated.

"And you, Adam. Have you eliminated the Avatar?"

"Almost." Magus smiled. "The Avatar of Death has proven to be elusive, but we should have him shortly. We were a little busy arranging this invocation."

"So..." The figure's voice grew cold and menacing. "You mean to tell me that Death still lives here?"

Magus' smile faded and fear became to be evident on his face."Yes... b-but as I explained--" Warlock cried out in pain as a bright light washed over him. The light blinded Alt!Quasar and forced him to cover his eyes with his arm. When he uncovered them, absolutely nothing remained of Magus save for some scald marks on the floor.

"A universe where things can still die." The figure chuckled. "That will take some getting used to. Summon our finest agents. Assemble the Revengers. Our first priority will be cleansing this pitiful universe of Death." Alt!Quasar once again knelt and bowed his head. The figure placed his hand on the kneeling Alt!Quasar's shoulder.

"Yes... Lord Mar-Vell."

[Mavorpen]

A Tale of Life and Death: Chapter I
Cancerverse: Part I
Previously... The Annihilation War

"I'm beginning to think that I hate space." Jamal said, staring up at the night sky of one of the few planets in the galaxy capable of fighting against the front-line of the Annihilation Wave. Waves of various colors swirled through the sky as the planet's own aurora borealis painted the sky with a mixture of blues, greens, reds, you name it. "Years ago I would have just gazed at the colors and admired how beautiful it looks. Now I just think about how it's just dirty radiation flushing incinerated organic matter through the upper atmosphere."

"There's a beauty in War like there's a beauty in nature, Jamal." Star-Lord said, sitting on a wooden box in front of a campfire, watching various alien slug around supplies and clean up debris from the previous attacks launched by the invading Annihilation Wave forces. "Life and death, locked together like a fight and a dance."

"Who the hell are you and what have you done with Peter Quill?" Jamal said turning around and taking off his helmet.

"Huh?" Star-Lord stated as he watched Jamal walk over to take a seat at the box on the opposite side of the campfire.

"That sounded like some New Age thinking your old space hero self used to peddle." Jamal stated. At this point in time, Peter Quill had given up the name of Star-Lord for various reasons and thus lacked his signature helmet and instead sporting a bionic left eye due to his real one having been lost.

Star-Lord chuckled. "You saying old Pete Quill is getting jaded? You want me to go back to being the hopeless romantic Star-Lord? I'll think about it. Then again, a little cynicism never hurt anyone. Jamal... you're just a kid. You've been thrown into the deep end. We've both seen worlds burn—you've seen all of Xander die around you and leave you as the last Nova Corps member standing. This war's gonna force you to make some tough decisions. It's gonna toughen you up. You're gonna be a big shot and you aren't gonna be considered a lightweight Earth boy by the end of it."

"If I live that long, that is." Jamal said, looking down at his helmet between his hands.

"Well, yeah, there's that. Problem is, with wars out here in the stars, it gets pretty big. You know shit really hits the fan when the Abstracts get involved." Star-Lord said, picking up a cup of coffee and taking a sip.

"The what now?" Jamal asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The great cosmic embodiments. Y'know, the universal constants. Eternity, Death, Oblivioin. All that jazz." Star-Lord explained.

Jamal chuckled. "Ha, yeah, I'm sure Oblivion's gonna come up to me in pants and a hat. Death is totally gonna run into me on the streets and—" Jamal was interrupted by the sound of incoming attack ships and looked up into the sky to see an Annihilation Wave squadron approaching to take another crack at killing them all.

Jamal put on his helmet and Star-Lord grabbed a weapon. Both of them stood up and began running in the opposite direction, doing their best to avoid the incoming fire of the invading squadron as the resistance's anti-aircraft guns fired at the incoming ships. "You know, I hope you'll never have to understand, kid. I hope you never have to experience an event like that. But if you do... if Death comes your way and won't let you pass... you make sure you scream right back in his face."

Currently... Knowhere

Star-Lord screamed out as he was grabbed his neck was grabbed by and he was hoisted into the air. Between Thanos's mighty roar and his own indiscriminate firing of his weapon into Thanos's chest—to no effect, of course—he couldn't even hear those screams of his. It had been roughly three minutes since Thanos escaped captivity, and the Guardians had been simply plowed through.

Star-Lord was slammed against a metal wall, and Thanos once again roared. Star-Lord, between his desperate gasps for air as his throat was being crushed by Thanos, released a cry for help. The plea wasn't to anyone specific, as behind Thanos, what appeared to be his entire team lay on the floor unconscious. Well, all except one, thankfully.

"Let Star-Lord go, Thanos." Rocket commanded, piloting a giant mech suit just as large as the hulking Thanos himself. "Let him go. Now."

Thanos turned and released a inquisitive groan as if to say, "Really? That the best you got?" Thanos then turned around to face Star-Lord again, ignoring Rocket.

Rocket pointed the mech suit's weapons at Thanos. "I said, drop him! I get that you might be a little slow on the uptake right now, but you at least understand speech, don' cha? THis is a rampart arms phasic cannon. Cold fusion. The 20 megawatt range. Powerful enough to melt your face off."

Thanos growled at Star-Lord and pushed him further into the metal wall. "Rocket!" Star-Lord called out.

"Listen to me, Thanos!" Rocket snarled. "We probed your minds. We know you've just hatched out of that freakalicious regenerative cocoon that brought you back to life. You ain't at full strength yet to take a hit off of this baby at full blast. But see... I've set it to a quarter power. It'll paralyze you long enough for us to seal you in a cryogenic pod and drop you into a gravity sink. You understand!? We understand perfectly well you're not afraid of death. That's why I ain't threatening you with death. I'm threatening you with life." Rocket began charging up the weapon and bared his fangs. "Endless life. Let. Him. Go." Rocket demanded.

After a moment's hesitation, Thanos scowled and released Star-Lord. Star-Lord fell to the ground and began taking deep breaths, gasping for air.

"Guys, a little brain-tickle?" Rocket said as the rest of the Guardians, now conscious again, stood up.

Mantis, Moondragon, and Cosmo collectively sent a combined telekinetic assault. "Psionic mindlock restored. Thanos is contained again... for now." Mantis said as Thanos fell to the ground.

"W..." Star-Lord coughed. "What the hell set him off like that in the first place? Something made him go nuts and snap to the degree where it overrode the psi-clamps." His answer came when Gamora spoke him through their transmission system.

"Star-Lord? This is Gamora in the monitoring room. We're picking up numerous emergency data transmissions from the Kree and Shi'ar. The fault's just... I have no idea what just happened, frankly. It just sounds bad. I'll just route the transmissions directly to you..."

The Fault

"8X8 emergency! 8X8 emergency! Uni-stream message to all civilized cultures! I repeat, this is an 8X8 emergency transmission from the Imperial Kree flee to anyone that can hear us! Adam Magus has opened the Fault! He has opened a gateway into our universe. He somehow transported planets filled with devoted to his worship into the Fault Zone and then detonated them as some sort of beacon of belief-energy to summon those that dwell on the other side. This is Queen Medusa of the Kree, sending this from an expeditionary force of allied warships at the Fault Zone. Help us!" Medusa's ship violently shook.

"We can't take anymore hits like that!" Ronan shouted, looking at the screen in front of Karnak, who was monitoring the Fault visually. A mass exodus of arc-like ships resembling that of the Universal Church of Truth's Templeships emerged out of the Fault, as the Fault grew a bright yellow and began expanded from a narrow rift to a gaping hole.

"Supper pressurized matter. The building blocks of an entirely separate universe venting into ours. It is as if the other universe was too full, overstuffed to the bursting point." Karnak replied. "And when the Fault opened, it squirted like a lanced boil. Wait, contact from the Shi'ar flagship!" A screen popped up with Gladiator's face on it.

"Queen Medusa! Our shields are failing! There are living things coming through our hull. And they are annoyingly hard to kill!" Gladiator said, turning to see a creature tearing through his troops. Gladiator lunged at the beast and tore through it with his heat vision. "Imperial Guard! Evac order Kydrath! Zero-G Drill! Clean them off the hull, now!"

"Queen Medusa, we're getting more and more reports that the extrinsic entities are significantly kill or disable than would first appear. They absorb at least six times as much as what we could consider lethal force before perishing." Ronan said. The ship shook and they turned to see a host of creatures breaking into the ship. "They're in! Repel them! For Hala! For Attilan!" Ronan commanded the troops.

Light years away from the Fault, a figure watched it rapidly expand into a gaping hole that dwarfed entire solar systems. The figure, via its vast cosmic power and awareness, listened to the desperate cries to help. It heard the final screams of soldiers as they died gruesome deaths. He listened as some ships, in an act of desperation, had their self destruct systems initiated in the hope that they would take some of the abominable creatures with them. Light years away was a figure standing on top of a surfboard, light glistening off of his silver, metallic-like skin. And he knew what he must do.

Universal Church of Truth Starship: Eternal Sin

"The Jet Mirrors of Shoggor have been arranged so that you may observe the initial combat, my Undying Lord." Alt!Quasar stated. He stood behind Alt!Mar-Vell, who was looking down into a large golden bowl—filled with a purple liquid—held up by two kneeling statues resembling Atlas holding up the sky beneath it. In one hand, he held a flask filled with said purple liquid, and in the other he held a golden chalice. The walls of the room were decorated by several mirrors roughly six feet tall, and above them stood several statues. The roof above was supported by pillars made up of what appeared to be skulls.

"There is combat?" Alt!Mar-Vell asked.

"We expected resistance, as we detected a significant armada to oppose us has been gathered in front of the Fault by this reality's natives."

"And how is that going for them?" Alt!Mar-Vell asked with a grin.

"They are dying, Lord Mar-Vell."

Alt!Mar-Vell chuckled. "Ah, death. I still garnish amusement from the novelty of that confounding concept. It feels odd having stepped into a universe that still smells of mortality—where Death has yet to die. Though, I suppose I should view this as a blessing. The very reason why there is room that will allow the Many-Angled Ones space to once again grow is because there is Death. I can feel them murmuring... filled with excitement." Alt!Mar-Vell took a sip from his chalice. "Make no mistake though, while Death provides a brief amusement due to its unfamiliarity, we cannot be distracted from the fact that it cannot be allowed to persist."

"Indeed. The site for the Necropsy has been located and verified through the Horrorscope, my Lord. Magus may have failed to obtain this reality's Avatar of Death, but I shall not."

"Yes... I know you won't. For your sake." Alt!Mar-Vell approached one of the mirrors and gazed into it. The form of Mistress Death Herself appeared for a brief moment, and he chuckled, placing a hand on the mirror "Can you not sense Her fleshless hand in this, Vaughn? Do you feel how adamantly She attempts to delay Her own inevitable extinction by clouding the minds of those under Her sway to conceal Her champion? Unfortunately for Her, we have our own means of finding our target." Alt!Mar-Vell turned to face Alt!Quasar. "The Avatar will read as an anomalous figure—charged with esoteric or non-local properties and energies. You will need the very best we have to help you with this."

From behind Alt!Quasar approached the Revengers. "Naturally, Lord Mar-Vell... the Revengers have already assembled."

Knowhere

"So... what's happening, exactly?" Star-Lord asked as Thanos, who was now restrained once more, screamed out in pain and began convulsing.

"Whatever is happening at the Fault is violating his psychic field. We cannot get inside his head." Mantis said.

"You know what, to hell with Thanos!" Major Victory said. "The apocalypse has just unleashed at the Fault! Our universe is being invaded! We're the Guardians of the Galaxy. Shouldn't we, you know, be deployed there on the front lines?"

"Okay! I get your point. Just, let me think." Star-Lord sighed. "Whatever's happening at the Fault has to be connected with the warning Quasar brought back. Something about a rival universe—where Life had 'won' and that it filled its own dimension to the busting point—on the far side of the rip. He called it a Cancerverse. In other words, it's trying to metastasize into our reality."

"So what do you propose we d—" Moondragon began. "Oh. Oh, please don't tell me you're thinking what I can see you're thinking."

"You give it the one thing it hasn't got..." A deep, gravely voice stated. The group collectively turned to a sweaty and exhausted Thanos, whose eyes glowed red as he smiled. "Me."

"Huh. First thing you've said that I actually agree with." Star-Lord said with a grin.

...

"You have charted pathways into this rival universe already?" Thanos asked, manipulating the screen projection in front of him. Floating a few feet away from him was a large, glowing, blue sphere. Their location was the Continuum Cortex, a room built into the brain stem of the Celestial's head. The room could lead to anywhere in the universe as well as to any time, thereby allowing the Guardians of the Galaxy to teleport wherever necessary.

Said Guardians watched Thanos go to work. "We conducted some missions, set up navigational boosters, and basic recon. Now it seems like prudent planning. By the way, nice to see Knowhere's clothing fabricatiors came up with the goods."

"Indeed, this garment will serve." Thanos glanced back at the Guardians and scowled. "It is unnecessary for you to join me in my journey."

Gamora laughed. "Ha! You're getting an escort team, whether you want it or not. I'm not missing this for the life of me. It sounds like a fun trip."

"I will restate my strenuous objections to even talking to this monster." Moondragon said.

"And I will reinstate my strenuous objections to your very existence Moondr—" Thanos grimaced and released a pained grunt. "We must hurry. The encroachment into our dimension of this life-pollution is increasing."

"The rest of us will be heading for the front like with the Luminals. Good luck, you guys." Major Victory said. Then, Drax entered the room, carrying a large gun half his size in his hand and three other guns, as well as ammo for them all, strapped to his body. "You know, I don't think you have enough weapons." Major Victory remarked.

"That purple thing's not going anywhere without a Destroyer shadowing it." Drax remarked, walking up to Thanos.

He and Thanos stared each other own before Thanos spoke. "I... I wanted to thank you. I wish your efforts to kill me had been permanent."

"There's always next time." Drax scowled.

"Isn't that the unfortunate truth?" Thanos replied.

"Alright, you two lovebirds!" Rocket interrupted. "Everyone, activate passport bracelets." The group consisting of Star-Lord, Thanos, Drax, Cosmo, Rocket, Gamora, and Mantis, then teleported, traveling through the fault along the path mapped out using data gathered via Quasar's incursion into the Cancerverse. When the teleportation was complete, they found themselves in the broken and decimated Manhattan of the Cancerverse's Earth. "Well, I ain't gonna lie... this is pretty much how I expected things to look, and yet I still can't believe what I'm seeing."

"Drax, Gamora, take our flanks. Let's ease up the—" Star-Lord began.

"Peter, we have a problem!" Mantis called out to him from behind. Star-Lord turned to see Thanos collapsed on the ground. "Thanos is— I don't know, the pain of just being here in a universe filled with so much life shut him down.

"Guys? We have another problem..." Gamora said, drawing her sword and pointing her gun ahead of her, aiming at a team—consisting of Alt!Dr. Strange, Alt!Namor, Alt!Valkyrie, Alt!Hulk, Alt!Nighthawk, and Alt!Hellcat—tasked with defending the Cancerverse against any potential invaders. "And it's a little more immediate..."

[Illica Falki]

Vera walked in to the command center carrying a German Shepherd puppy in her arms. "Hey Guys, look-" she says before realizing no one was in the room. Letting off a sigh, she stepped out and headed up to the room outside of her hideaway, as started setting up it's bed and other supplies. It didn't occur to her that she should tell ADAM about the pup she found on patrol, but aside from mission specifics and debriefings she tended to not talk much with the AI.
Vera let it get use to the room while she set up a bet and some bowls for the puppy as well as setting up some chew toys so it doesn't chew on her things. Once finished setting up for her puppy, she decided to do a small write up about it in her journal, she doesn't know why but it felt like she needed to do a write up of the events that occur outside of the YB Tower. She makes note of where she got the pup, what it was doing and how she plans to train it, as well as writing about the set up it has. The only thing has hasn't written in the journal was what she has decided to name the pup, because in all honesty, she doesn't have a name for it yet. Like all of the entries in the journal, This one is very formal, organized and cleanly written.

[Confederation of imperial states]

Knight's Domain
The Knight and Lawbringer

2:30am

Marcus sat at the Knight computer, Typing code and new Contingency plans for worst case scenarios. Next to the Knight Computer was a large Plexi Glass container, in it was an Armor Stand with a New Knight Suit that Marcus' father developed for him. Marcus was typing a new Contingency plan, one Marcus Never thought He'd be prepared to write, nor needed to write. Marcus called the Contingency plan "Knightfall", It would act as a 'Just in case' Contingency plan incase Marcus were to Die. Marcus took a deep breath, and began typing, Writing exactly what Sanza would enact and who would take the Heir to the Armor.

8:30am

Marcus Stood in the Knight's Domain training room, Wearing the new Suit of Armor, adjusting the gaunlets to Marcus' frame aswell as other pieces. Anna was in her trainign gear, practicing fighting aganst a training dummy, practicing mostly Unarmed combat with a bit of staff play here and there. Marcus finally Adjusted the suit, He pulled over the Durable Mask and pulled over the Hood, the Mask had excellent Ventilation, an Undeniable Intention by Marcus' Father. Marcus pressed a button on the suit's Gauntlet, "Bring out a test android, Lead pipe". an Android was dropped from a hatch in the ceiling, carrying an L pvc pipe, the Android stood up and took a swing at Marcus. Ma4rcus blocked the swing and quickly broke the android's grip on the pvc pipe, then thrusted the pipe in it's stomach knocking them off focus, then finished him off by jabbing an elbow down into the Android's back. Marcus nodded, then noticed Anna was watching from the end of the Training area.

"Can I help you?", "I Like the new suit". Marcus pressed a button and a robotic arm came and dragged the android and the pvc pipe into a hatch in the floor. "much ablidged", Anna slid under the ropes seperating the training area and droped onto the floor, "so, Where we headin' next boss?". Marcus took off the hood and mask part of the armor and gestured Anna to follow, they arrived at the Knight computer and Marcus pulled up a map of Chicago, various Red dots on several building and back alleyways.

"I have a Mission i need you to take care of Anna", Anna gave a suprised face, "wait, you mean me?, alone?", "yes. I need to Investigate the person who Paid Black Mask a handsome sum of 500,000 Dollars to Purge Chicago of Heroes. Currently All readings show the Industrial District, need to do this alone. While I'm off I need you to Patrol and Look over Chicago...". Marcus stood up and extended a hand to Anna, "can you undertake this for me?". Anna responded, grabbing Marcus' hand. "You can count on me Marcus". Marcus nodded, putting on the mask and hood and becomign the Knight.

"I'll be off, feel free to Use the VTOL's Autopilot TO get around much easier" Marcus said walking up the stairs and exiting the Domain.

---

Manhattan Island, New York City
Sony

Sony jumped and landed mildly hard on a large Building in Manhattan, He'd so far had been taking a more quiet approach to get through New York. Sony cracked his neck a bit, looking around at the skyscraper filled New York City, He marveled at how expansive it all was. "It has to be around here somewhere" Sony said, walking towards the edge of the building he was on, the NYC Breeze catching him in the face. Sony looked about, and remembered the Address that kept circling around in his mind, 219 West 47th Street, Sony inspected the street "west 47th street, Now where is.." Sony cut himself off when he saw a large Building with a SHIELD Insignia on the front walkway leading to it. Sony gave an internal Sigh, 'Couldn't be any less Concpicuous, could you Fury', Sony walked over to a Large drainage pipe attached to the side of the building and slid down, being careful to disptribute his weight so the pipe wouldn't be damaged to much.

Sony reached the ground level, After about a good 5 minutes of waiting and sliding, Sony let go of the drainage pipe and entered the busy street. Few people paid attention to Sony, possibly due to the world they'd live in with flaming people, aliens from other planets, and Hulking green radiation monsters becoming a normality. Sony followed the crowded streets to get accross the Busy Manhattan avenue over to the Shield HQ, Whilst walking up to the Large Building Sony gazed at the Large colored Insignia carved into the ground. Mentally scoffing at the Insignia He walked through the automatic doors and over to the Receptionists Desk, Sony asked kindly, "Hello, I'm here to see Nick Fury, Could you tell me where his office is?" the Woman glanced an eyebrow before asking, "High Classified members of SHIELD are allowed to be meet by SHIELD Membe-" Sony handed her an ID card, one of the Scientists who worked at the Facility Sony was held at. the Woman took the Id card and slid it through a scanner, it passed, "one moment please". the Woman said. a SHIELD Security camera zoomed in on Sony as he waited at the desk, Hands in his pockets. a greenlight showed up on the computer.

"alright just head through the elevator, scan your ID card. You'll be taken up to the High offices to meet Mr Fury". Sony took the card and gave a nod before walking over to the Elevator, the Shield Security camera still following him. as Sony Scanned the Card at the Elevator and TOok the Elevator up, Sony had one thought on his Mind. 'Fury Knows I'm here, He'll be waiting for me at the top'. Sony snapped back to Reality just as the Elevator doors opened to a hallway on the top level. Sony exited the Elevator and followed the Hall to a large set of metal double doors, with the SHIELD Insignia on it, the Doors opened up to Reveal Nick Fury, with 6 Armed Guards behind him.

"Nice to Finally meet you, Sony".

[Jorliefstreiken]

Standing above the small alien city on a world within the Moraz system the Antibios watched its inhabitants moved along with their daily lives. They were building large towers with incredible speed, almost able to seemingly make them appear like bolts of lightening. The people seemed at a technological equivalent of earth. It was a shame that Bios would have to destroy them. Charging a world destroyer blast he drained half of the world population of there life force before something slammed into his side, sending him off into the Darkness.

Straightening himself he saw a man floating before him. With short hair shaved on the side like a human soccer player known as Ronaldo the man also wore a white suit with a black logo emblazoned on his chest. Running it through his translator he saw the crest for what it was, the personal shield of the Kryptonian house of Em. It seemed today would be fun after all. Flying incredibly fast at the kryptonian Bios blinked as the kryptonian punched at him. Grabbing the aliens arm and draining it of power, Bios slammed it on his leg snapping the bone before ripping off the limb below the elbow. The kryptonian screamed and flew backwards before another kryptonian wearing red with the white crest of Mere emblazoned on her chest appeared. Firing an ion beam at the boy Antibios blinked again grabbing the girl by her throat and draining her of her power slowly, so she could feel the pain. He looked to the boy who was floating through space now, his body burned. Antibios couldn't help but feel joy. That kryptonite certainly was a useful upgrade.

The girls final throes were weak before her body lost the last bit of heat and life that kept the universe moving. Throwing it aside Bios flew baclt to the planet and blasted it, full force, with a ion beam, vaporizing its core. As the piece of rock exploded into millions of tiny red hot pieces, Antibios decided he needed purpose back in his life besides destroying world after world. He needed to assault Earth once more.

[Tomia]

Disney
The guards suddenly turned around in shock when they heard the loud roar behind them. There was now a huge dragon like creature standing before them, speaking some unknown language and holding up fire balls menacingly. Roy himself was also quite shocked, not by Hannah's form but by how angry and hostile she seemed. He was a bit worried that she'd do something that she would regret. Still she gave them a perfect distraction and he wouldn't waste it. He created two spheres of dark energy around his fists and fired them at two of the guards who were knocked to the ground while the other guards began to respond with gunfire, but the bullets were blocked by a large wall of ice that was summoned by Sam. Then John came running forward behind Hannah and struck a number of the thugs with hard punches, knocking them to the ground. Once the enemies were dealt with Anarky's image reappeared on the televise screen.

"Useless henchmen, well I grow tired of this. Come to the throne room heroes. And that's where we can settle our business, and I can end your meddling in our liberation." He said before the screen went blank once more. Roy went up to Hannah and took her dragonoid hand softly, looking up at her. "Hey, are you okay? I just want to make sure you know everything is alright and we're safe." Roy said softly hoping to calm Hannah down so her beast side didn't take over fully.

Mars
Mars waited inside Rin's room as she walked outside and closed the door, wondering what exactly was about to happen. Suddenly Mars heard a harsh noise that rattled around in his brain as he winced in pain and fell to his knees as he staggered to keep on his feet. He wasn't seriously injured, just in pain when Rin came back into the room. Well... The walls still need some work." He said, still wincing a bit as he spoke to her.

Cora
Cora nodded to Katie's mental sign and was startled when she was thrown out of the window but was relieved when she heard her voice and knew she was okay. She then turned to Apocalypse and went after him at high speed, tackling outside the already broken window. She threw him toward the ground where he landed with gentle ease. He then raised his hands and sent huge blasts of blue energy Cora's way, which she returned in kind with her own yellow blasts. Cora had clearly become much stronger and was going toe to toe with the Egyptian villain. She wanted to make sure Katie was okay, but she needed to focus on her own fight and couldn't get distracted otherwise she'd put herself in danger.

Nico
Once they were far enough away from the bank Nico turned to his younger sister when she asked about the phone. "I haven't looked yet, and as to why I took it... I'm not sure. I just had a feeling is all. He then clicked the home button on the phone and was met with some serious encryption, not just your average four digit lock. "Wow, whatever is in here, that guy did not want people to find it. We have to figure out a way to get into it. Maybe we can figure out who hired them to do the job." Nico didn't say it, but he was hoping he would find a link to his parent's criminal organization, so he could finally prove to Cat that he was telling the truth.

[The Starlight]

-snip-

-snip-

"You know," a voice said conversationally from above, as Valancy seemed to walk down a tree. "I was having a nice nap and everything. For the last few days, I've been cleaning up the Russians' oil messes, and when I got back here, all I wanted to do was sleep. But of course, not even. When I first saw you fellows, I was considering letting Katie and Cora handle it themselves, these girls can kick your butts any days of the week, but, I decided to get in too. Didn't like Darkseid, nor do I like the idea of anyone dying, but I won't complain about getting new powers, though Mother could have told me before bestowing her powers on me. But anyway, enough of my rambling."

Apocalypse's mouth opened, in almost anger. "You became a New Goddess? You?!!"

"Yup. So let's reevaulate the gravity of the situation here," she said, crouching now on the ground. "I'm a nature manipulator who just got a major upgrade, though I'm not sure I like the idea of calling myself God. And you're all standing on some good earth, my territory, with lots of minerals, a little taste of pollutants, and a pretty low concentration of heavy metals in the soil. And what does this all mean?" she asked rhetorically.

"Something is about to rumble," she stated, dropping another hint at what she planned to do. "Oh, and you're toast. So let's get down to the punching, shall we?" she said cheerfully, placing her bare hand on the soil, shaking it with her powers, creating a localized earthquake that was precisely limited in scope. The trees and plants seemed to stretch toward the Demi-Primordial, and while the Earth shook, she leaped in a powerful bound of her legs, changing her body to wood and covering her fists in a layer of rock before bringing both of them down upon Apocalypse.

[Confederation of imperial states]

Knight's Domain

1:30pm

The Knight grappled up to a Large Pipe leading between two Factories, The Knight climbed up and crouched down upon the Two pipes, peering down at the Large amount of workers and factory employees moving about. The Knight looked at the Area of the Industrial yard, It was bustling with factory workers, repairmen, and Trucks moving in and out of the mechanical gate. The Knight thought back to when a Chicago gang attempted to smuggle in Bombs through the trucks moving through the Trucks moving in and out. The Knight kept low and moved along the Pipe towards the eastern factory, The Location of the High Manager's office. Back when The Knight stopped the Bomb smuggling at the Industrial District, the Head Manager promised The Knight of favir if he needed it. The Knight denied the offer, however with the circumstances of the situation, The Knight knew he needed to call it in. The Knight reached the end of the pipe and lightly dropped down on the outcropping of the stone windowsill, and lightly knocked on the window.

The Manager walked up to the window and opened the blinds, staring mildly suprised at The Knight. after 5 seconds of awkward silence, The Knight said said, "Arthur Reed?", the manager nodded, "2 years, 5 months, and 16 days ago You ofered me a favor if I ever needed it. I denied it then, BVut I'm going to need to call it in now". the Manager simply opened the window as The Knight quietly entered the office. The Manager took a step back, "what can i do for yah Knight?", "An Anonymous Dealer in Chicago had recently offered Black Mask half a million dollars to purge Chicago of criminals, the Same man has also made anonymous dealings with the Chicago Industrial Sector". The Manager's eyes widened, "hey Knight, I had No idea 'bout this, You gotta believe me". "I do, however I need to look through the Anonymous Dealings with the Chicago Industrial district to try and find any connection". The Manager gestured to the FIling cabinet behind The Knight, "it's all there, If you need anything just ask".

The Knight nodded, then crouched down and began inspecting the Files in the Bottom drawer listed "john Does". The Knight found Only Two files, one which He immediatley Wrote off with the Pentegon's Stamp of approval, and Which only mentioned One name, One that stuck out to The Knight. "Stahl?" The Knight muttered under his breath, The Knight took an Image still before standign back up. the Manager asked, "You need anything? Copy? Extra information about soem of our other contacts?". The Knight shook his head, "No, Thanks for Your help Mr reed". the Knight opened the window, he stopped before saying, "I was never here". The Manager nodded as The Knight climbed out, closing the Window behind him, and grappled off.

---

Elsewhere....

Gotham City

Black masked opened the Door to his penthouse, his Suit ruffled after just beign released from Blackgate with Bail. Black mask sighed as he reached over to flick on the Lights, before he did a Voice from the Leather lounge chair near his Furniture called 'that Won't be necessary Mr Sionis, DO leave the Lights off". Black Masked lowered his hand as he peered at the figure, covered in shadows. "And who may you be?" Black Mask asked in an irritated Tone of voice. "The Man Who paid you a large sum of money to Purge Chicago of heroes, Also the same man who paid 330,000 Dollars to bail you out of prison". Black mask remained Silent, the Figure gestured to a Couch to the right of him, Black mask ablidged and sat down at the couch, staring at the shadow covered figure.

"So, I'll assume you have another Job for us?", "Indeed. Our Last Operation failed because the Real source from stopping us from expanding Into Chicago Isn't the common rabble of Vigilantes, it's this hero, This Symbol. The Knight". Black Mask exhaled, he reached over and poured himself a glass of Whiskey, "The Knight is Far more effective than the Batman, he cleared our crime faster than the bat ever did to chicago, even came all the way here to hand me into the slammer". The figure nodded, "exactly why we need to stop using the common rabble of these Gang members, and Hire much more experienced personal". Black Mask peered back over, after taking his shot of Whiskey. "What do you propose?", The Figure placed both his hands infront of him. keeping them in a pyramid like shape. "We need to place a High bounty On The Knight, One of which will attract men and Women who will be more than glad to purge our Problem". "how much?", "25 Million dollars, And we need to limit how many Enter The Knighthunt, You don't want it getting too crowded". Black mask nodded, "alright, I'll have the Bounty placed, Black Mask turned his head towards the figure, "can i atleast get your name?". The figure leaned over to his right, and turned on a lamp on a small end table.

"My Name is Stahl"