Dial (Ben10/Marvel Cinematic Universe SI)

[Rogue Gemini]

Hm, good introductory course for the Defenders. Please, are you gonna make Danny at least somewhat likeable in this story?

 

[TimEd]

So why show him Wildmutt? Npt that it isnt cool, but whats the reasoning behind it?

 

[Rogue Gemini]

It was to show some lines of similarity/difference between the lack of eyesight and sensory abilities.

 

[Pinklestia]

Beware of the enemy who throws a bottle of perfume at you!

 

[Krazyfan1]

Brilliant as always!


...That Tiger is probably fully Sapient...isnt it?

 

[White Lantern]

When we got to the base again, Creel and Steve had shown up, and the Graveyard survivors had come out of the APC that had brought them so they could start their testing. Creel was standing by the door waiting for us when Thor and I dropped in. Thor put me down gently on the ground and we walked up to him. I looked between Thor and Creel for a moment, noting that Hulk was speaking with Marian nearby. In another universe, Creel: The Absorbing Man would be a bitter enemy of both Hulk and Thor. Here, Creel, known as the hero Alloy, was their ally. Heh. Alloy the Ally.

Creel nodded at Thor, then looked at me. "You guys caused a hell of a ruckus."

It was true. The once clean base was kind of a mess. Sand was everywhere, piled up in corners, soaked from the rain that had been falling, while bits of hail melted in the heat of the desert and turned the sand into mud.

"Sorry," Thor and I said in unison, both of us looking contrite.

Creel snorted, then turned and walked towards the section of the base set aside for the survivors.

The survivors who had volunteered that is.

Of the group the Omnitrix had healed, most of them had simply wanted to go home, to find some semblance of safety and peace after years of torture. Director Maria Hill had those people put into a program being developed just for that. For people who suddenly got powers and never wanted them, or wanted to make a life of their own. It was... complicated. A lot of the group were enhanced to be almost as strong as Steve and Bucky while others had limited versions of Creel's powers. The idea of them out in the world and causing trouble, or using their abilities for profit in unfair ways, was something that worried the people in charge. After all, what's the point of sports if you know the other team has a guy who can lift trucks over their shoulders and treat 10K's like light warmups?

That was still being discussed, but here on the base were those few who had decided they wanted to use their powers to join BRIDGE in one way or another. The section set aside for them was formerly the school for the children on the base, using the gymnasium for the main testing, the classrooms to organize everyone, and the locker rooms to give them somewhere to change into some sweats. Creel walked us into the gymnasium and everyone stopped to look over at us. For a moment, things were awkward.

Then, like something out of a movie, one guy started clapping. A few others joined in until a large portion of the room was clapping while looking over at us. Four of them, all wearing BRIDGE-issued workout clothes, walked over as Thor and I blinked in confusion, though he was apparently more used to applause than I was.

The people walking toward us were showing signs of their powers in some ways.

The oldest one was a tall and well-built black man, with piercing eyes and a steady confidence, his muscles piled on muscles as he walked towards us. He strode towards us and smiled at me.

"Surprised?" when I didn't say anything, he chuckled. "I figured. Not every day you get a standing ovation from the people you saved.

Well... shit. What was I supposed to say to that? That was a hell of an honor to be given. I kind of shuffled awkwardly, not knowing what I should do.

The younger black man behind him gave me a brooding look. He looked like the older man, if lither in size, but still built like an armored truck. He nodded respectfully but said nothing else.

A teenage girl waved timidly at us. She was tall and almost alarmingly skinny, right on the edge of looking unhealthy. Her purple hair had the look of someone who had recently dyed it.

The final woman looked like someone's mom, with white streaks in her hair, some wrinkles on her skin, and a slightly too big smile. She reminded me of a Korean woman I'd known on my world, with a similar nose and eyes with the same kindness.

"I'm Jamal," the older man introduced himself. "This is Mike," the young man nodded. "Abigail," purple hair shuffled nervously. "And Jung Moon," the oldest woman smiled at us. "We were the ones chosen to represent our little group."

"Nice to meet you all," Thor said kindly.

"Same from me," I added weakly as the clapping died down. I noted that none of their names were familiar. Not people from the comics. Civilians, who would have died nameless otherwise. Thank you, Omnitrix.

Creel spoke next. "So far, it looks like only the absorbers like me and the super-soldiers like Steve have powers. Only one gamma-enhanced being kept its powers, and it's an animal," I blinked at that, but he continued before I could question him. "Jung Moon, show them what you got?"

The older woman reached into a pocket and pulled out a piece of red stone. She clenched her hand around it and immediately shifted into a rock statue in a kaleidoscope of random colors. Jung Moon chuckled her lips the color of emeralds, and spoke in Korean. Thor chuckled as well.

"Indeed, my lady, you are quite beautiful in this form," he said kindly, getting the older woman to blush.

"You speak Korean?" Jamal asked curiously.

"A benefit of being Asgardian. I am gifted with the ability to speak in all Midgardian languages, as well as those of other realms," the God of Thunder explained.

I didn't say anything. I mean, the Omnitrix worked the same way with its universal translator, but it wasn't information I threw around. Never know when you might need to overhear something after all.

"Dial!" I turned to see Jennifer yelling towards me, the tall Gammazon attracting attention from the people working out. A guy who was bench pressing around five hundred pounds of weight near her started going really fast, probably to impress her, only to go faster when she rewarded his efforts with a wink. She turned back to me, ignoring the guy currently burning out. "Hulk wants you to see this!"

Steve walked up to join us from a group of people doing squats with car engines, sweating a bit.

"Any idea what that is about?" He asked.

"Who knows?" I ran towards She-Hulk, leaving the awkwardness of everyone staring at me. Technically, I had saved them. But only because I had a really cool watch. When you boiled things down, all of my victories were often the Omnitrix's victories with an assist from me. Getting treated as though I'd done something great when I did the alien tech equivalent of pressing a button just made me feel as though I was cheating everyone.

She-Hulk led me outside to a dirt field covered in sand and hail, with a series of pens set up. The place looked like a hastily set up zoo, the pens made of all thick metal and plastic spaced evenly to keep those within from escaping.

"Huh," I said as the cacophony of sounds surrounded me. "I forgot how many there were."

Dogs and cats were the common ones. One was familiar, and apparently, he remembered me, because the little guy started barking loudly and wagging his tail as I passed. I remembered him when he changed into a steel form, grinning brightly at me with sunlight reflecting off metal fur. We walked past him, and I noted a cat that was about twice as large as a normal house cat, with corded muscle underneath it's gray fur. A lady in a lab coat was in his pen trying to get the guy to do something with a rubber ball. With the typical sassy attitude all cats have, he cocked an eyebrow, rolled over on his muscular stomach, and went to sleep, the lady in his pen sagging in disappointment.

Past those 'normal' animals were the more wild fare. Monkeys with abs or the ability to change into different materials, a rhino with enhanced eyesight (according to a scientist studying the massive animal), and more.

We ended up at an eighteen-wheeler truck, where a large group was waiting nervously outside of it. Hulk stood nearby, his arms crossed and gaze steadily on the being within. The large truck was open at the back, with a familiar being within.

I walked over next to Hulk, who turned to look down at me. He nodded towards the truck, walking forward with me.

As men with guns watched us walk up, the being inside looked up at me. I reached for the Omnitrix and began flipping through the menu before smiling at the guy within. "Hey, buddy. I guess you're the only one who kept those gamma powers, aren't you?"

The tiger inside looked at me, green eyes blinking lazily. He rested in a massive pen with by far the thickest bars of any of the other cages. Even then, I could see that they had been bent outward by some powerful force. Clearly, that was the fault of the green and black furred guy inside. He was about as big as a small car and... you know what, let's not mince words.

"You look like Battle Cat," I said, moving deeper into the truck. The tiger blinked at me, then at Hulk when he joined me. "So what's going on?"

A scientist about thirty feet behind me yelled. "It doesn't want to move! Every time we get near him he freaks out!"

"Haven't you tried a steak or something to attract him?" I called back.

"He has enhanced intelligence! He stopped taking bribes about three days in, and he hasn't changed into a normal tiger since!" the scientist sounded like he was at the end of his rope. "We need to get him into one of the other pens so we can scan it properly! He's the only one who kept gamma powers, but he was recorded as lacking the Gamma gene!" the scientist yelled. He yelped when the tiger lazily yawned.

She-Hulk hopped in as well, looking over us. "So, what's the plan?"

"Hulk help kitty," goddamn, how did he manage to make that sound tough? He strode forward and the tiger slowly backed away as the shadow of the Hulk went over the cage. He reached out and grabbed the door to the cage.

"Uh, buddy, maybe we should-" I started to say.

"Raagh!" With a single pull, Hulk ripped the door off the cage.

"Or, sure, let's do that," I weakly reached for the Omnitrix, ready to transform as the tiger stared between the three of us.

"Is this a good idea?" She-Hulk asked as she stepped in front of me.

"I don't know, this whole thing took a direction I didn't expect at all," I admitted.

The tiger moved forward slowly. I began to press on the Omnitrix, ready for any random action that followed. If someone had sneezed, I'd have changed into Diamondhead immediately.

She-Hulk raised her hands up. Hulk was unmoved, his back to us as the tiger began to walk out.

Soon, a tiger about as big as the rhino outside was out of the cage. It looked around at us, focusing on me. Then it strode towards me. I reached for the watch.

"Stop," Hulk said calmly (well, as calmly as Hulk could), raising a hand. "Wait."

"For what, my throat to get ripped out?" I asked tensely.

The tiger went up to me and started sniffing. If you've ever had a giant super muscular tiger sniff at you, I'm sorry. Because damn, there is nothing like seeing the fangs of a tiger shine in your face as it's sniffing blows your hair back. It was that kind of primal fear deep down in your brain that stretched all the way back from the beginning of man dodging large predators in Africa.

After a bit, it surprised me by licking my arm, then moving to wrap around me and lie on the ground, going to sleep.

Hulk grinned as She-Hulk and I shared a look.

"I...I don't understand," I said slowly. I took a moment to try and remember if there was a precedent for a gamma tiger in the comics. Nothing came to mind. Guess even meta-knowledge isn't perfect. "Am..."

"Hulk good with animals," the big guys said in a satisfied tone.

I hesitantly stepped away. The tiger woke immediately and stood up, walking along with me. Trying something out, I moved out of the truck.

Walking out of the truck with the super tiger placidly following me was a weird experience. The personnel stared at him as he hopped out, his green fur almost glowing in the sunlight. Hulk and Jennifer followed, Hulk looking satisfied and Jennifer like she was seconds from laughing but couldn't because of how confused she was.

"Uh, sir," one of the scientists called out to me. "We need to study it! Do you think we can do some more invasive procedures if you can control him?"

I looked over at the tiger. He blinked lazily at me, looked over at the scientist who'd spoken, then back to me, his muzzle twitching. I rubbed the back of my neck. "Dude, I don't know what to tell you. He's kind of doing his own thing right now. Uh, Battle Cat, do you want to...?"

He growled in the back of his throat, the sound rumbling the ground.

"He says no," Hulk added helpfully.

"Cats. What are you gonna do?" She-Hulk said helplessly.

Not much else we could say to that I suppose. I walked towards the pens.

"Sir, we can't let you-" a soldier began to say.

I reached for the Omnitrix and pressed down on it. In a flash of green light, red armored skin grew across my body along with a pair of extra arms and eyes as I towered over all present.

"FOURARMS!"

The echo of my voice shook the area, the cacophony of animals petering out.

"Don't worry. I'll keep my eyes on the big guy. I think we need to figure out what the hell to do with him."

"Holy shit, you are big," She-Hulk mumbled, looking up at me with wide eyes.

I grinned. "You're one to talk, Shulkie."

"Yeah, I am, Rulk," she said with a grin.

I barked out a laugh for more reasons than one as we walked over to a pen with more soldiers surrounding us. Hulk gestured to the tiger, who walked inside with the austere grace of an emperor. Once inside, the pen closed up, and the tiger sat back on its haunches, tail sweeping back and forth across the ground.

Once inside, the scientists began tapping at screens, and Hand walked over, her eyes widening at the sight of my towering form, before looking at the tiger.

"What happened?" Victoria asked, crossing her arms.

"I think," I said hesitantly. "The Pet Avengers got their first member."

"...the what," Victoria said in the tone of voice a woman uses when she's slowly going insane.

"We've got a bunch of animals with superpowers, a lot of them more intelligent than they should be. I think people were going to talk about that soon enough anyway."

As Victoria sighed in annoyance at what she thought was a joke, I thought about the moon and a certain founding member of the Pet Avengers.

Going to have to look into that soon.

Even as I thought that Thor came out of the doors of the gymnasium and head towards us, apparently wondering about the commotion. "What-" he stopped, staring up at me. He noted the Omnitrix symbol and blinked.

"My. You're a big one."

"That's what she said," I noted, thinking of She-Hulk's reaction.

When the tittering laughter followed, I realized what that sounding like and groaned slightly, putting my lower right hand to my face. "That was an accident, I swear."

"That's what she said!" She-Hulk responded, laughing all the harder at the annoyed look I gave her.

"How strong are you?" Thor asked, rubbing his chin with a look in his eyes the Tetramand form I was borrowing knew all too well as the look of challenge.

"Don't," Victoria mumbled. "You two can spar later. Right now I need to rest."

Testing went well after that.
------

Ulysses Klaue

In another part of the world, a man by the name of Klaue walked through the bowels of his base, a shipwrecked and beat up old tanker.

He liked it for several reasons. First, because he liked the word 'bowels' under most circumstances. Heh. Bowels.

Second, because the atmosphere just fit so perfectly with what he was doing, damn it! He was an arms dealer, not some namby-pamby wanna-be mob boss. Who gave a shit if he was making more money than most kings off of the business, he was still selling guns. Why idiots like Sonny Burch worked out of fancy restaurants and penthouse apartments, Klaue never understood. If something did the job and did the job well, why spend extra money off expensive crap to replace that?

The tanker was solid, in the middle of nowhere, easy to defend, and cheap as hell, since, well, no one gave a crap about it. Which made it perfect to hide things like missiles and vibranium in, funnily enough.

Klaue strode through the tanker, walking past his men as they organized things for sale and storage. He had good guys, even if they were a little stiff sometimes. No taste for fun on the job.

He grinned with a flash of silver teeth as he walked into his office and looked out over his crappy little base, feeling a hint of pride at what he saw. Yep. Today was going to be a good day.

...Oh crap, he'd tempted fate.

Klaue waited for a moment. When nothing happened, he relaxed, going over to his desk and grabbing a piece of candy from a bowl.

Then the power in the boat suddenly shut off, leaving them in darkness. That's when the screaming began to echo through the boat.

"Fuck, I knew it!" Klaue grabbed the gun on his desk and ran out the door. Outside, his men were panicking. "Oh come on idiots, are you kidding!? Grab guns and shoot something!" Klaue grinned. "Get the big ones too, have some fun!"

Some of his men in the shadows yelled out affirmatives, and soon the sound of bullets filled the air.

Until another sound responded. The familiar sound of a sonic weapon finally made Klaue's grin fall away.

"Wakanda. Fuck," he turned and ran as more sounds filled the air, the darkness lit up with blue lights. Worse was the quiet sections. The moments when someone shooting a gun suddenly disappeared in the shadows without a sound. That could not have been good.

Klaue went deeper into the tanker, aiming for the back where a way out had been built. Except that as he ran across the catwalks, the sounds seemed to follow him with relentless ease.

"Damn it, damn it, had to happen today of all days!" Klaue spat out running along with his pistol tight in hand. He got to a door and grabbed at the wheel to unlock it, twisting hard and pushing it open with a bit of trouble. "Come on you damn... gragh!"

Pushing his way through, he cursed aloud when a sonic weapon hit a wall nearby. Adrenaline pushed him forward. He aimed his gun back as he ran through the halls, shooting his gun behind him at whoever it was that was following him. The bullet bounced off of the blue light, but he continued running despite that, his legs pumping. He could see the exit now, an opening leading to the 'garage' full of cars in the boat. Just needed to get in there, hop into one of the SUV's, then head to Johannesburg and meet with one of his people.

Klaue entered the garage and slapped a button on the wall, the gate at the end opening up and ran past some vehicles towards the SUV in question. Once inside of it, he grabbed the keys out of the middle compartment and put it in the ignition.

"Okay, no horror movie shit, got it?" Klaue twisted the key and grinned at the instantaneous sound of the car engine roaring to life. "There's a good girl!"

Pressing on the accelerator, the car rushed forward, heading to the gate. He passed through it at about fifty miles an hour-

Something ran at him from the side, slamming into the car like a missile. The car twisted at the hit, slamming into the edge of the gate as it left the tanker. The car spun out of control. Whatever had hit the SUV spun upward and grabbed the hood, a round object landing on the black metal. Whatever it was, the disc seemed to cause the car to lose power, leaving Klaue twisting at a useless steering wheel. The SUV rolled to a weak stop on the dirt. Klaue cursed, getting out of the car, only to have a black shadow separate from the SUV and rise in front of him.

"...Well, you're a sight better looking than your dah was, boy," Klaue said weakly.

Black Panther stood before him in the sunlight, dressed in the black armor and catlike helmet the represented the Panther Habit. He stepped forward and grabbed Klaue by the lapel, pushing him into the SUV. Behind him, explosions came from the tanker that had once been Klaue's home, a group of woman in red armor moving towards them from it.

"Damn it, you all really caught me at a bad moment," Klaue said to the Amazonian women striding towards him, giving them a roguish grin. "Tell you what ladies, let me get my makeup kit and my nice suit, you come back when I'm a bit prettier?"

The five women stopped and gave him looks like stone. Black Panther reached a hand back and received a syringe from one of the women.

"Okay, can you not?" Klaue said with a grimace. "I promised I'd stop with the hard stuff, took a program and everything."

Black Panther injected the syringe into his neck.

"Damn... I was going to get my three year... chip..."

As Klaue passed out, Black Panther let out a sigh of relief. "I wish my father had warned me he would talk that much."

------

Mahmoud Schahed/Dial

On returning to New York City, after all the rounds of testing had been done, I was left in my room, where I made a phone call. After ringing for a bit, the line picked up.

"Matt Murdock speaking," the man on the other end said.

"Hey Matt, it's Mahmoud. I got your email. You said you wanted me to call?"

"Yes… How do you know?" he said, as though he was asking a casual question and not one loaded with C4.

I took a moment to tap the back of my phone, a beeping signaling that X was keeping anyone from listening in. "About the fact that your sight was replaced with… I don't know, just insanely powerful everything else? Am I close?"

Matt was quiet on the other end for a bit. When he spoke, his tone was somewhat like Bucky's when he was seconds from punching a punk. "And?"

"I lived in Hell's Kitchen for a few, so I did hear about a 'Man in Black Mask' beating up thugs. I'm guessing that was you. Combined with working with a worldwide spy organization with access to every camera in existence..."

"Makes sense," Matt said. "So what do you want?"

"More good guys in the world," I said simply. "That's it. I'm a superhero now, I guess, but my powers mean I'm going to be called to help on a worldwide scale. I won't be able to always patrol in New York like I used to. So if there are some people willing to do the same, I want to help. That's all."

"...Who else knows?" Matt asked.

"Me… maybe some people in BRIDGE," I thought of a certain redhead who had mentioned Matt to me the other day. "But doesn't look like it for the most part, since your abilities aren't exactly flashy. But I'm not going to tell anyone. Anyone finds out, it's on their own."

He sighed in annoyance. I walked around my apartment in the Avengers Tower, going over to a window and looking over the city quietly.

"Well, your deal seems legit," Matt said at last. "And you say you want to help me?"

"How about we meet up and talk about it?" I asked. "We can make some initial plans, maybe show you that working together is the best way to protect New York? Beat up some assholes on patrol a few times together?"

Matt chuckled. "Sure, let's, uh, let's meet tonight."

After making plans, I looked out into New York again, thinking. I was personally one of the most powerful beings on Earth… when given the chance to press down on the Omnitrix. But I could still be killed. And Hell's Kitchen was dangerous before I became a household name, people might shoot from the distance to prove a point. Might need some protection.

Luckily, I had a friend with a room down the hall from mine.

------

Later that night, Natasha and I were walking through New York City together. She was wearing a leather jacket and red shirt, her red hair curly and long around her neck. I was wearing a Black Widow shirt, just to be funny, the sleeves golden and the rest of it black, with a red logo in the center sort of reminding me of the one I had on the Omnitrix, a red backpack swinging as I walked with the super-assassin. We were walking down West 44th street in Hell's Kitchen. If you've never been, I don't recommend it as a tourist site. It's basically every seedy part of New York all bundled into a couple of blocks, complete with a bunch of guys on all the street corner leering at people and making threats or crooning promises to 'show you a good time' to any girl with legs and a face. That wasn't to say there weren't any good people there, in fact there were more of those than there were assholes. It was a good town, at its core.

Even then, I don't think either Natasha or I were surprised when a trio of guys walked over towards us from down the street, ambling our way with a lazy confidence. Right up until Natasha carelessly flipped her hair and opened her jacket a bit.

The two small pistols revealed by the action were a mistake on her part, I'm sure, as was the long blade at her waist. Note my sarcasm of course, since I doubt much Natasha did was ever by 'mistake'. Same with the way her walk went from casual stride of a woman going from point A to point B, to the long and dangerous catwalk of a killer. The difference was subtle. See, the first was walking. The second was walking while seconds away from stabbing a punk in the heart with a smile on your face.

The three guys quickly found something else to look at, the vicious smiles turning into carefully neutral looks on their faces.

"I really need to learn how to do that," I told Natasha as we walked down the road, passing our would-be attackers.

"It's all in the hips," Natasha said with a smirk. "I'll teach you one day."

"Yeah, but I don't have hips as nice as yours," I quipped.

Natasha chuckled. "Should I tell Skye and Jen you're hitting on me?"

"If you want to, but I'll tell everyone about all the weird sexual encounters your alternate universe selves had," I nudged her with an elbow. "Like the one where you had sex with Tony."

"At least I had high standards," Natasha smiled before she frowned a bit. "Wait, is this the one where I turned out to be a traitor?"

"That's a stone every person we know can't throw," I admitted. "Even Steve had a HYDRA moment in one universe."

"Steve?!" Natasha said, sounding genuinely shocked. "That doesn't even sound real!"

"Yeah, it took a bunch of weird cosmic mumbo-jumbo for that to go down," I shrugged. Natasha was basically one of the few people I could talk about other universes without her going existential on me every few minutes. The others would likely spend a few days looking at the horizon, rethinking existence. Natasha rolled with it. The world was the world, and Natasha wasn't going to waste it comparing herself to other versions of herself. I had no idea if that was a healthy attitude, but I had to admire it. Considering I'd had a nightmare once of an Evil Ben tracking me down I mean. I focused on the street around us. "Where did they say we should turn?"

"Let's see..." Natasha looked around. "Bawdy, right down there," she nodded down towards a street a couple of blocks away.

"Right. Hey, thanks for this, Nat. I mean, keeping it secret and everything," I said gratefully.

"No problem," she looked at me. "You know you'll owe me after this though?"

"Owing the Black Widow seems like a dangerous prospect. By the way, how come you kept that name? Isn't it kind of... edgy?"

She laughed. "Yeah, I guess so. But apparently, the marketing people said that the image works for me."

We turned around the corner, walking down Bawdy. "Yeah, the whole dangerous super-spy thing must have been a stretch."

"You mention that a lot," Nat said, giving me a look. "Does it bother you? My history? I mean, you said you've seen everything all the alternate versions of me did. Do you worry about it?"

"I think we had this conversation before," I noted. "Come on, Nat. You're one of my mentors now. You know what I think of you."

We walked for a bit longer.

"You're painfully naive sometimes... Getting better. But still naive," she smiled at me. "Okay, Mahmoud. One thing I need to ask you as your 'mentor'. Did you even notice Ruby over there?"

I blinked, then turned. The petite teenager waved at me from where she was walking, an irritating smirk on her face. She was wearing a small black jacket and yoga pants that were slightly big on her, eyes glittering in the light as she twirled a small throwing knife in her fingers before throwing it. I had enough time to blink before Natasha caught it an inch from my right eye. "Holy shit!"

"You're fine," Natasha said with a grin as she put away the knife, nodding at Ruby, who turned into an alley. "We're going to be training you on counter-espionage soon though."

Heart still in my throat, I followed Natasha towards our destination. It was a bar called Josie's as the red neon sign on the right window and the gold lettering on the left window said proudly. A bunch of motorcycles were parked out in front, a few tough guys standing around the front wearing their gang's colors on the jackets, or sewn onto their jeans. Nat calmly walked up and opened the door, the bikers ignoring us, and we stepped in.

The place was full of people, from all walks of life. They were drinking. Because I mean, it was a bar after all. The place smelled like piss and alcohol, with a slight aroma of vomit joining in. Someone had hung an air freshener near the door, like a drop of water added to the desert in terms of usefulness.

"Hey, Dial!" Foggy yelled from the back, coming up to grin at me. He was wearing his shirt and tie, the sleeves rolled up and a pool cue in his hand. "How's it-urk?" he stopped, blinking at the sight of Natasha, then smiling. "Black Widow?"

"Nat, actually," she said with a smile. "And you're Mr. Nelson, right?"

"Foggy, please," the pudgy and good-natured man said with that wide grin of his. "I can't call an Avenger by her name and have her call me 'Mr. Nelson.'"

Natasha blinked at that, then smiled that lazy and smooth smile she seemed to save for the right moments.

Foggy coughed, then waved at the back. "Ah, right this way, 'Nat'."

She walked past him, leaving Foggy to look over at me. "You couldn't have warned me?"

"That I was bringing her along?" I said with a cocked eyebrow. "Well, things are sort of getting crazy in New York City. She's acting as my bodyguard."

We joined Matt in the back, who was hesitantly feeling at a pool table, gently making sure of the placement of each ball on the green felt, dressed much the same as Foggy was at the moment, sleeves rolled up and all.

"Matt," Foggy said as we joined him. "He's here. And he brought a friend."

"Oh?" Matt cocked his head, not looking at us. "Hello, Mr. Schahed. And your friend is..."

"Natasha Romanov," the Black Widow told the future Daredevil.

Matt smiled. "Matthew Murdock. You're an Avenger, right?"

"And a few other things," Natasha responded.

Matt chuckled. "Mr. Schahed, you could have warned us you were bringing company, we would have met somewhere more... classy."

"This place is plenty classy!" Foggy said. "I mean, look, my drink has something alive in it!" he raised a beer, showing the shadowy shape in the dark yellow liquid. "You can't get that sort of exotic flavor anywhere else!"

"You don't like it, get out!" a woman behind the bar yelled.

"It's all part of your charm, Josie!" Foggy yelled back. He turned back to us. "Seriously, I don't recommend drinking the water here."

Natasha chuckled. "Don't worry, I've been in worse places. There was a bar in Budapest I can tell you stories about."

"Okay, so," Matt strolled around, carefully following the pool tables edge with his hands. Some of the patrons avoided him with what looked like practiced ease, one big biker moving a stool out of his way without a thought. "You said you wanted to hire us. We agree with your terms. We'll be your lawyers from now on, Mr. Schahed."

I grinned. "Cool. Uh, there is one, unexpected thing. We recently got a new Avenger, a woman named Jennifer Walters. She's a damn good lawyer, just did some work on the West Coast. She's looking to continue her work in law, and she was hoping she could talk to you guys about it," I held up my hands before they could speak. "I know how it looks, me adding a lawyer to your group right after I gave you my word that I wasn't going to interfere, but I swear, this is just me asking on her behalf. I told her what you guys want to do, and she wants to meet you."

Foggy and Matt shared a look. After a bit, Matt sighed. "Mr. Schahed, you say she's already a lawyer, right? Why can't she simply rejoin her firm?"

I rubbed the back of my head. "Just take my word for it. Besides, she wants to move here, do some work in this city. Doing it on the side of being an Avenger of course. Just meet her?"

Natasha spoke up. "I do suggest it. She recently took down Nicholas Trask. It was a hell of a thing. We were going to have her join BRIDGE's group of attorneys, but she wants to work with you."

Matt smiled. "That seems like a good idea. That said," Matt walked over to a table with their jackets and bags resting there, taking a familiar folder out and walking over to me in a series of slow and careful movements. It was kind of annoying, considering I knew for a fact the guy was better without eyes than I was with them, but I still managed to wait patiently as he handed me the folder. "We've both signed. You are officially the first client of Nelson and Murdock."

"I'm the first guy to give you money," I corrected him, opening the folder and smiling at the signatures. In some worlds, I bet a signature from Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson would be worth a hell of a lot. I closed the folder again. "Your first client will be whatever person you guys actually help with a case."

"Eh, you count," Foggy said easily. "So, business is done, how about we play a game or two?"

Natasha cocked an eyebrow. "Two on two with a blind man on one team? Isn't that a little unfair? No offense, Mr. Murdock."

"Uh, none taken, Mrs. Romanov," Matt said.

"Nat," she corrected.

"Nat," Matt showed her a charming smile. "Tell you what, you can be on my team, and I might surprise you."

"Oh come on," Foggy grumbled under his breath, though he smiled good-naturedly.

"What?" Matt asked, sounding confused.

Foggy shrugged. "Oh nothing, just seeing a pattern in play. Ok, I'll take the other Avenger then. Rack 'em up!"

------

After thoroughly getting my ass kicked alongside Foggy in pool, the friendly lawyer said his goodbyes and walked off into the night. With him gone, Matt lost his good humor. We stepped out of Josie's, walked down the street until we got to 47th Street, then turned into a dark alley.

Once inside, Matt listened for a moment.

"Someone is coming," he said.

"That's Ruby," Natasha looked down the alley. "Come here. You should listen to this part."

Soon, a short assassin teen came around the corner, flashing me a smirk. In retort, I carefully flashed the Omnitrix, and her smirk faded.

She looked over at Matt and scowled. "How the hell did you sense me?"

"He's a special case," Natasha explained. "I'll train you to do better later."

Matt looked uncertainly at her but listened again.

"Okay, we're in the clear," he looked between us. "So. Does she…"

"I know," Natasha said simply. "When Mahmoud asked me to bodyguard him, I checked up on you. You really are blind?"

Matt nodded.

"Then you have a lot more agility and spatial awareness than even most people with sight, even better than people in my profession. You hide it well. But every time I came close, you couldn't quite hide the reaction you gave about knowing exactly where I was," she mentioned, sounding honestly impressed.

Matt stared at us hesitantly. "Is this you asking me to become an Avenger?"

"Not really," Natasha said. "This is Mahmoud's deal. He asked me to keep what I hear a secret and to back him up just in case."

"You're his backup?" Matt asked, lips twitching. "No offense, but I've seen what you can do on the news, Mr. Schahed. What do you need backup from?"

"Snipers," I admitted. "Ninjas as well, just in case."

"Ninjas? In New York City?" Matt asked, disbelieving.

"Yes," I said simply. Ignoring the look on his face, I removed the large red backpack I'd been carrying and put it on the ground between us. "So. I, officially, can tell you that BRIDGE is working with New York City on developing a program for superhumans to aid police officers on patrol, as part of a plan to make such programs more of a permanent thing, as well as upgrading officers to deal with superhuman threats on their own as needed. A group of secret warriors, if you will," I need to stop stealing names from the main Marvel universe. "So you'll get an invite if you want it, and Maria Hill is going to make sure those who join can have the option to hide their identities."

Matt seemed to sag in relief at that. "That... that would be really nice."

"It's something we're still fighting for, but it should come soon," I added. "There will be some rules, something you'll have to do on the up and up, all in the name of letting you help people without worrying about cops shooting at you or guys getting out of prison by claiming they were beat up by a random vigilante on the street. But, until that time, you'll need something to protect you. Something better than a black shirt and scarf around your face."

He laughed nervously, looking over at Nat and Ruby. The redhead and blonde smirked at him.

"They won't talk," I said with a smile. "Trust me, Nat is good people. And Ruby won't do anything to piss Nat off."

"Screw you," Ruby said to me without looking.

"Gain a few feet first, midget," I answered back, getting a disgusted scoff in return. Brat.

"Anyways, I made you this."

I tapped the top of the red backpack. The catoms that made up the backpack flowed up my arm, revealing what was held within.

A costume lay on the pavement before Matt, folded neatly on the ground. He kneeled down and put his hand against the helmet, blinking. "Is this-?"

"A suit, custom made for you," I answered. "I could give you any advanced gear you feel might be missing but of course nothing BRIDGE uses. But the suit is bullet, fire, and slash resistant. It'll take a lot of damage and leave you bruised at most, but it's also made to let you move with all the agility of, well, the three of you," I gestured at the three badasses around me, Ruby smiling proudly. "It's also got a feature to let you close off your hearing in case anyone tries to use it against you. Like I said, it's not the best we've got, but-"

"No," Matt smiled, lifting the suit to 'look' at it. The combination of dark yellow and red colors seemed to work well, a pair of small devil horns attached to the helmet. He briefly touched the clubs resting at the waist of the costume. "It's perfect. Thank you. And these clubs?"

"It's all in here," I tossed him a flash drive, which he snatched out of the air. "It's got a manual to let you know everything they can do, even has a printable version in braille for yourself. It ain't an Iron Man suit, but it's damn good... Daredevil," I started seriously. "There are some people, in Hell's Kitchen, that I want to check up on tomorrow night..."

"...Where should we meet?" Matt asked.

"In a minute, but before we go any further there is something I want to do and I think you would really appreciate it." I started to say and couldn't keep the huge grin off my face.

"Yeah? Any more toys for me? Sadly, state law says blind men can't drive, so I will have to turn down a devilmobile," he joked but still seemed interested.

"You'll like this better, this wouldn't be in the news but the forms I turn into are actually different kinds of aliens." Natasha made a noise of annoyance at me casually sharing such 'privileged' information since BRIDGE was keeping it under wraps under the excuse of worrying the public, despite the fact these aliens don't exist in this universe as far as I knew. I ignored her. "The one I'm about to use is one I think you will have an instant connection with," I said, and before he could respond to that I quickly activated the Omnitrix and pressed down the selection I had set beforehand.

In a flash of green I was covered in orange fur, standing on four powerful legs, had an impressive set of teeth, and of course, my eyesight disappeared even as my vision expanded more fully than my human senses could ever achieve. While everyone else looked away from bright flash Matt obviously didn't and was quick to 'see' the change I had undergone. He hesitated for a second before reaching his hands out and feeling around Wildmutt's head where the eyes would be on most other creatures before pulling back.

"No eyes, so that means…" Matt worked it out quickly and Nat answered for him.

"Wildmutt seems to rely more on smell than echolocation like you, but that doesn't mean his hearing is any lesser for it well," Nat said with what I assumed was a smirk from Matt's likely gobsmacked expression.

Ruby smelled annoyed as she spoke under her breath. "Why did my life get so weird lately…?"

Was it weird that Wildmutt seemed able to smell emotions? Likely worked better on other Vulpimancers, but I couldn't help but let out a series of barks that would be laughs with human vocal cords.

Click to shrink...

You better name the cat krypto

 

[Hunter2814]

I'm not the only one that noticed that the tiger's fur has the same color scheme as the Omnitrix right?

 

[Tobi]

Now that we have Battle cat, we need a sword a very large Excalibur one and Dial in his Asgardian form as he rides on Battle cat.

It shall be glorious

"BY THE POWER OF THE AZMUTH"

Dial sat upon his might steed Battle cat both posing triumph-ally atop a mountain as B.R.I.D.G.E personal watched on. There were mixed reactions.

"ROAR!!!!!"

"DIAL!!" An epic sound track played as the named was announced from all sides as the lighting changed and a rainbow appeared.

Off in the distance Natasha, Victoria and most of the sensible members are face palming.

"Why is my life getting more insane by the minute" Victoria had buried her head in her hands as she was reconsidering taking day of from the insanity which was an insane thing in of itself.

"You well get used to it.. well used to ignoring it all and just roll with the punches" Natasha patted her back in consolation.

Thor and Hulk are clapping their hands. "Such a majestic battle cry my friend"

"HULK WANT TO GO NEXT" Hulk had gone off the grab a large weapon while looking for another might beast to ride into battle

"He-man I got that reference" Steve congratulated himself as he crossed off another name on his list.

"What is that show Steve?"

"If Capt recreates the show with his shield I can guarantee you Coulson will watch it religiously" Tony was recording the entire thing. "Peeper can use this to make more marketing merchandise so the pet Avengers project will get more PR"

P.S I posted this in SB to and I feel like posting his here too. I kinda want to see this happen because I feel like this is a possibility.

Now on to the fun stuff next chapter, Matt is in the team now all we need is Jessica and Luke. Although we do need to find Danny too.

Side note I think we have seen two possible Pet Avengers now. Battle cat and the dog alloy

 

[TotallyNotEvil]

When you boiled things down, all of my victories were often the Omnitrix's victories with an assist from me

Click to shrink...

This is very unhealthy, and bullshit. It's like saying King Arthur had no real victories, it was all Excalibur's doing, with a little assist from him.

A lot of the group were enhanced to be almost as strong as Steve and Bucky

Click to shrink...

Do those two have other stuff besides Strenght? Speed, reflexes, senses, smarts?

Otherwise it makes them kinda bland,

Only one gamma-enhanced being kept its powers, and it's an animal,"

Click to shrink...

Please say it's the tiger.

The tiger inside looked at me, green eyes blinking lazily

Click to shrink...

Yessssss.

Uh, Battle Cat, do you want to..

Click to shrink...

That's not his actual name, or code name, right? "Battle Cat" is a mouthful and a half.

No casual address, and hard to say in battle.

Hell, it sounds like a Pokemon. "Battle Cat, use pounce!"

Pet Avengers got their first member."

Click to shrink...

Let's hope OTL!Glenn Chambers is on the ball for a better name.

But seriously, this is quite a silly dive. I really dig the idea of meta-animals being trained for combat and such. But Pet Avengers is cartoonish.

, a group of woman in red armor moving towards them from it.

Click to shrink...

Women.

The combination of dark yellow and red colors

Click to shrink...

What heresy is this? Yellow and red?

It's the Daredevil, not the goddamn Flash!

Dark red and black all the way!

 

[DesertChocolate]

Hm, good introductory course for the Defenders. Please, are you gonna make Danny at least somewhat likeable in this story?

Click to shrink...

I liked him in Defenders and Luke Cage, and his season 2 performance was a lot better. But I might reread the Iron Fist comics to understand him, maybe watch some Bruce Lee movies.

So why show him Wildmutt? Npt that it isnt cool, but whats the reasoning behind it?

Click to shrink...

Well, Dial mostly wanted to nail in Matt show him having Dial with hin would be useful, so any form that was nemorable to attack any of Matt's need to fight alone would work. But I'm also a nerd so I would for sure pick Wildmutt if I could.

You better name the cat krypto

Click to shrink...

A cat Krypto? Wouldn't it be Streaky?

This is very unhealthy, and bullshit. It's like saying King Arthur had no real victories, it was all Excalibur's doing, with a little assist from him.

Click to shrink...

It's something to move past, sure. Kinda understandable to. He's yet to have a victory that wasn't assisted by the Omnitrix or luck.

But he's planning to account for that with training and armor.

Do those two have other stuff besides Strenght? Speed, reflexes, senses, smarts?

Otherwise it makes them kinda bland,

Click to shrink...

Well, super strength is impressive under most measures, but they've got Omnitrix cured super serum, so like Steve, Bucky, and T'Challa, they have got the powers of everything as well. Whatever can be considered peak human in the MCU, they've got, brains included.

Let's hope OTL!Glenn Chambers is on the ball for a better name.

But seriously, this is quite a silly dive. I really dig the idea of meta-animals being trained for combat and such. But Pet Avengers is cartoonish.

Click to shrink...

It was Dial's nickname, remember? He's just calling it by the first name he knows.

The plan is more to use them like K9 units if possible.

What heresy is this? Yellow and red?

It's the Daredevil, not the goddamn Flash!

Dark red and black all the way!

Click to shrink...

Oh, I based it on his original suit from the comics! You know the one he wore in Daredevil: Yellow and the first issues. I also based it on a photo an artist did of what an MCU suit would look like.

 

[Tobi]

Desert chocolate, did he not kill someone on his own on the helicarrier. Would that not be considered a victory?

Also he was fighting without transforming when you guys attacking the hydra base with the wendigo so I think Dial does have victories of his own despite them being mooks.

 

[RichardWhereat]

I liked him in Defenders and Luke Cage, and his season 2 performance was a lot better. But I might reread the Iron Fist comics to understand him, maybe watch some Bruce Lee movies.

Click to shrink...

Oh, please do. Because Danny Rand from Netflix is just a shit character in comparison to his comics. The writers never even gave him a chance.

 

[Enmascarado]

I liked him in Defenders and Luke Cage, and his season 2 performance was a lot better. But I might reread the Iron Fist comics to understand him, maybe watch some Bruce Lee movies.

Click to shrink...

For me Iron Fist works better as part of a team or a duo with Luke.

 

[RichardWhereat]

For me Iron Fist works better as part of a team or a duo with Luke.

Click to shrink...

I prefer his solo adventures and the kun lun stuff. But his adventures with Orson Randall are alright.

 

[DesertChocolate]

January 23rd, 2014

Steve Rogers/Captain America

"Still no sign of him," Maria Hill said, walking back and forth through her office. Phil Coulson and Steve Rogers stood before her, both men sharing a look.

They stood in the Enterprise, which Maria was still using as her main base of operations. There had been plans to repair the Triskelion and return to it, but Maria said she simply found it easier to use the Enterprise as a mobile HQ. Considering the way her work was going, she really needed to be able to work in the field. Maybe one day the Triskelion would return to its former glory, though Steve doubted it.

For now, Maria stopped in the center of the room and looked between them. "The last record we have of Strucker, he was in Brazil, working from some old bases HYDRA had built during the time Nazis fled to the country after the war, but authorities and our own forces there found nothing but dead-ends."

"So either we can't find him, or he was never there at all," Coulson concluded, crossing his arms. The agent sounded frustrated and tired as he spoke.

"Looks like it," Steve agreed. He held back the anger he felt at the thought. Strucker still had Sharon and Trip. Two of their people, in the hands of HYDRA, likely getting brainwashed and experimented upon. It was enough to give anyone nightmares.

"On the plus side, other HYDRA bases have been falling apart. I have our people going over it and it looks like we have quite a few new resources. Quinjets, weapons, materials, fuel, even food we can shift to feed our soldiers."

Steve nodded at that. No matter what else had changed, wars were won by supplies as much as soldiers. It was common sense after all. "Just in case, maybe we should have Dial and Tony update the Hercules App? That might help with the search. Something to make sure that any items we pick up aren't booby-trapped would be good as well."

"Agreed," Phil said. "In the meantime, we have another issue."

"Hank Pym is still refusing to speak with us," Maria said simply.

Steve looked between them, confused. "Hank Pym?"

"A former SHIELD scientist," Phil explained. "He stopped working with us after an incident, but he's known as one of the most intelligent people we ever had. Worked on something pretty damn secretive. I think only Agent Carter knew the full details of it. He was also the founder of Pym Technologies before he was removed by a corporate takeover."

"So why are we talking about him now?" Steve asked.

Maria, in answer, waved her hand. Hologram emitters in the ceiling and floor activated, projecting a screen showing Bill Foster's lab. Steve held back a sigh at the sight of it. He hated most holograms. They never seemed to be as clear as the normal flat-screen tv's of the modern age were. Holograms Steve usually saw were fuzzy and all blue. They were also very tough to discern distance from. A few exceptions, such as the holograms Dial, Fitz, or Tony sometimes made, were much closer to reality, but the one Maria brought up was annoyingly tough to figure out. With a bit of squinting, he was able to follow along with the events of Ava's test, past the moment something went wrong and finishing when Bill asked Fitz to call Maria.

"According to Bill, Ava said 'Janet' was in her mind," Maria said with a quiet solemness. "We believe it's Janet Pym she's talking about, Hank's wife and a former SHIELD scientist. If she is somehow in the Quantum realm like Bill suspects, we need to talk to Hank Pym, but he won't speak with us."

"Let me try. I have a very persuasive personality," Phil said with a smile.

"Are you sure?" Maria asked. "I know you're still getting over... well. Everything."

Phil stilled. After a sad smile, his words came out with a deeply pained tone. "Audrey made her choice. I accept that. And in the end, Ava and Janet are the ones we need to focus on. I can take my team with me to meet with Hank, tell him about what we've found out."

Fury opened the door then, walking into the room. He no longer wore his long coat, instead wearing a blue silk shirt and white suspenders. He strode in and nodded at everyone. "You're talking about Pym?"

"Yes," Maria answered.

"I'd like to suggest not telling him about Janet," Fury said simply.

Phil frowned, Steve doing the same. Phil spoke, turning slightly to face Fury. "Why? Wouldn't knowing we might have information on her help?"

"What do we have?" Fury asked. "A woman who has been in constant pain since childhood, saying a name she might have overheard in the middle of a dangerous experiment with Quantum energy? Hank Pym is the sort of guy who will punch you in the face the second he hears that... come to think of it, maybe you should have May say it."

"Very funny," Phil said, getting a smirk from Fury. Phil sighed. "All right, I'll just go ahead. We need to visit California as is, so this works out."

"Alright," Maria said. "Then we come to your orders: Rogers, Fury."

The two old soldiers looked over at her. "As you know, we need a training facility for the superhumans we've been finding. Somewhere safe, where they can learn in peace and eventually either return to the world or begin working for us. I want you both looking at the old SHIELD bases and finding us a good location for that. Somewhere out of the way, with lots of destructible area around it for the more powerful superhumans we'll find. If it can survive Dial, Hulk, and Thor, you've found somewhere we can work with. Steve, you know the Avengers best, so find somewhere they can all use as a secondary base as well."

"Director for a short time and already giving impossible orders?" Fury asked with a slight smirk. "You really were the best choice."

Maria spared him a smile before waving for them to leave.

Steve walked out with the group, thinking carefully. A training base for superhumans. One that could survive most anything, had room, was out of the way, hidden, and was comfortable. Tough combination to figure out. Tony might have some ideas about that. For some reason though, Steve felt as though the Avengers and other superhumans would need something... specific. Something was calling him to make sure the base would be...

Best to keep that idea on a backburner. If it ended up being viable, he'd take it. For now, he turned to Fury.

"What do you think about asking Tony about financing the base?"

"I think he'll be an insufferable asshole about it. But sure," Fury said with a sigh of annoyance. "Let's go ask Tony Stark for money."

------

Mahmoud Schahed/Dial

In the gym of the Avengers Tower, in the boxing ring set aside just for the occasion, I unleashed a series of punches at my opponent. Skye ducked around them, swinging her leg to try and sweep me off my feet, but I managed to leap over the attack. I came down with a wrestler style elbow drop, so she dodged to let me hit the mat instead. She kicked at me and I blocked the blows on my shoulder, grabbing her leg in return. With a quick spin, I heaved her up and tossed her aside. She rolled with the toss, landing and facing me when I followed up with a cross punch. Ducking, she grabbed my arm, pulled it forward while twisting to bring her back to my chest, then flipped me over. I landed hard on my back, grunting at the pain, before bringing my legs up to kick at her. It was a rough attack but one that drove her to run back, allowing me to spin to my feet and follow by punching her in the gut. She backed off.

For a moment, Skye and I faced each other. Natasha, who was watching from the ropes with her arms crossed, simply eyed us.

Then a loud shout brought our attention to the doors. Ruby was brought in by May, the older woman pushing the tiny teen into the gym with the same sort of dismissive attitude one would use to shove an unruly puppy off a bed.

"Caught her, huh?" Natasha asked easily.

"She's getting better," May said, sounding almost reluctant. "Only realized where she was when the cardboard box moved."

"What, did she go all Metal Gear on you?" I asked, almost shocked.

"It almost worked," Ruby mumbled to herself, only scowling at the frown that comment got from May.

"Hey, aren't we still fighting?" Skye asked me.

"I've gotten my ass kicked by tiny badass women all day, give me five seconds," I grumbled in response.

"Aw, poor baby," Ruby said, the petite teen grinning at the scowl I gave her.

"Hey," Natasha clapped, getting out attention. "Focus. May, can you go over where Ruby went wrong with her?"

May nodded, turning to Ruby.

"In the meantime, Mahmoud, you're fighting both of us now," Natasha said, hopping into the ring.

"...This because I complained, isn't it?" I asked in despair.

"If you have to ask..." Natasha said in sing-song, moving in with Skye.

Together, the two women started to punch me like I was filled with sand and not gooey, bruisable insides and crunchy bones. I tried my best to fight back, but even with Skye as the weak link, I was getting beat up bad.

In the meantime, May spoke quietly with Ruby. For a brief moment, I could see the two talking, Ruby asking questions earnestly. Tough nut to crack, that one. She was confident, but in the way a lot of teens are. But also, she was like... well, an X-23 who actually wanted to be a killer. Raised her whole life to be the ultimate badass. If Skye was slightly above me in skill as a human, and Natasha might as well have been the sun, then Ruby was smack dab in the middle.

She was also an abrasive little brat.

I focused on fighting once more, my breath heavy, and sweat pouring from me as bruises covered my body. Natasha added to them with a kick to my thigh that forced me to drop to a knee. Skye followed that by punching me in the chest, sending me to my back. I rolled up and kneed Skye in the stomach. When I followed by trying to punch Natasha, she easily slid around the blow, shoved my head to the side, then wrapped an arm around my neck and twisted me around to toss me into the ground, where I crashed with a loud slap of flesh on the mat.

I lay there dazed, trying to understand just how much my ass had been kicked.

"Yeah, that's good enough," Natasha walked up to me, looking down. "You getting better. That was a good flying knee. But you aren't defensive enough. I think fighting as invincible aliens so often has you used to being able to take a hit."

"Can you blame me? Diamondhead and Rath can take a tank shell without a scratch. Well, maybe a small bruise in Rath's case, but he'd be okay with that," I rolled up to my feet as I said that, thinking about Rath. Yeah, he tended to see pain in combat as a reason to fight harder. Because Rath was badass.

"You need to remember as a human you can't survive a real beating from a skilled opponent," Natasha said, helping me up. "Thankfully you've at least got real experience in a fight. You can't beat anyone who really knows what they're doing, but you can at least fight off street thugs easily. With some more training, you'll get better. Also, this training will make fighting in your alien forms more effective."

She turned to Skye. "You're a little further along though. I can tell you've been trained by May... and Ward."

Skye flinched at that. "Y-Yeah. He was my SO. Before he turned out to be a traitor."

Natasha nodded. "Well, they trained you well... Now, I believe you guys have an appointment?"

"Right," I struggled to my feet and walked out of the ring. "See you in the lab, Skye!"

"See you there!" she said, heading to the women's locker room while I headed to the men's.

------

After a quick cleanup, I took my bruised form to Simmons in her lab. I was shirtless, to let her look over my wounds, leaving me in my jeans and boots with my Captain America t-shirt resting on the table beside me. I'd gotten into the habit of wearing merchandise based on my teammates lately. Funnily enough, I was pretty sure Tony was behind the suddenness of the others wearing variations of Omnitrix covered shirts in return since I'd seen Sam and Hartley doing it once.

"I really wish you wouldn't let yourself get this hurt," Simmons said disapprovingly, rubbing some kind of ointment on one of my biceps on top of a bruise.

"I don't 'let' myself do anything," I said, wincing at the feel of the cold ointment on my bruises. "I'm just trying to learn how to kick ass without, you know, getting my ass kicked."

"Well so far, you are doing a terrible job of that," Simmons shook her head with a smile, before sighing when I ended up wincing. "Stand still!"

"Always asking the impossible," I grumbled, before looking around at Simmons' lab, noting the many medical supplies and chemistry tools resting about. As a skilled 'everything to do with organic material you could think of' scientist, Simmons' lab also had some machines for reading blood samples and other such things.

"Man, I really wish I could figure this stuff out without needing to turn into an alien," I mumbled, looking at everything.

"I could always teach you?" Simmons offered cheerily.

"Teach me... medicine?" I asked, blinking. "Cause I'm fairly sure that will take a while."

"No better time to learn than the present!" Simmons voice was rather cheery. "At the very least some basic first aid. I always think that's important."

"True," I admitted. "Okay, I'd love to learn a few things. Going to have to add it to all the other stuff though..." I mumbled the last thing.

Seriously, my plate was pretty full these days. Training with Natasha, coding from Skye, engineering from Tony, tactics from Steve. All for the sake of becoming a better superhero, but it was all so damn exhausting. At this point, I was probably going to end up becoming some kind of Tom Strong even out of alien form.

Sounded kind of cool actually...

I saw Skye enter the area then, walking over towards us. She entered Simmons' lab and blinked at the sight of me shirtless with green ointment covering me across portions of my chest, back, and arms.

"Looks like you're finally getting those abs you wanted so badly," Skye said with a cocky smile.

"Avert your eyes," I quipped, covering myself up. "I'm a shy soul after all."

"I wouldn't call a guy who destroys castles 'shy'," she mumbled.

"All done!" Simmons closed the lid on the ointment she'd been putting on me, then turned to Skye. "Okay, I have the lab tests for you, Skye. They're... well, I'm not sure."

"That doesn't sound good," Skye noted.

I had to agree. We were here to talk about the oddity in Skye's DNA, to get some answers. I was still tempted to say Skye might be some sort of unknowing superhuman, but I'd rather figure out the truth as opposed to guessing it.

"It isn't bad!" Simmons said back, walking over to a computer. I hopped off my seat and walked over with Skye. "It's just confusing. See, at first, we believed that the GH.325 was the cause in some way. So I took an earlier sample I had from before that and studied it but..." she showed us two readings of DNA side by side, a dumbed-down version at least, one the screen. "It's not that. The GH.325 just healed you, nothing else. As far as we can tell, this has always been in your DNA."

"But what is it?" Skye asked, sounding worried, with good reason.

I stroked my chin, thinking. "Well... Skye? What's your name? Like, your real name?"

Skye looked at me for a moment, her eyes filled with... something. Something old, a pain I wasn't sure I'd be able to understand. Not in this life.

"I don't know. The name the orphanage gave me was 'Mary Sue Poots'," she said.

I coughed, trying not to show my thoughts on that. But still... Mary Sue? Damn, that is just a name with all sort of connotations.

She apparently took my sudden intense stare as me being bewildered. "Yeah, I know. It's a dumb name. I've been calling myself Skye just to keep from calling myself that. Why do you ask, anyway?"

I stared a moment longer, confirming that she wasn't some uber-perfect self-insert character but rather a normal, if very attractive, woman. Once I figured I could just check later if I was a character being mind controlled accidentally(only slightly joking), I focused on the topic at hand. "Well, I figured if we could find out... who you were, maybe find your parents, that might be a clue to whatever this is."

"You think this may be something she inherited?" Simmons asked.

"Worth a shot," I lied. In truth, I was banking on the idea that finding Skye's real name would help me use my meta-knowledge to know more. If she turned out to actually be named Cindy Moon, Laura, or something along those lines, I'd have an immediate answer. If not, it was at least helpful. Besides, while my knowledge was useful, it wasn't perfect, as the Grapplers being more morally grey and the Maximoff twins not running around with their dad had proven, among other things.

"I'm not so sure that will work," Skye said hesitantly. "If I have parents, well... they're probably dead."

"Then let's find out," I looked around the room. "Give me a few minutes, and enough machinery, and I can probably figure something out. It'll be a bit Jury Rigged though." I said the last part with a smug grin.

Skye and Simmons groaned in annoyance at the pun. I let that go to think further. "I'll have to wait for approval from BRIDGE's tech guys though..."

A consequence of technically working for BRIDGE was that I now had to follow rules and regulations. Not a terrible thing. But part of that was that my Jury Rigg tech was now something I needed to have approved, and with good reason. Jury Rigg was a genius, but he was a mad genius. Half the stuff he made had ridiculous booby traps for no reason other than to have them. And they were often bordering on cartoon physics in craziness. I'd seen some reports of HYDRA soldiers found with polka-dot skin and genitals that weren't their own. Products of bouncing off of Jury Rigg's Anti-Teleport device from when HYDRA had been teleporting their soldiers into the SHIELD science academy. It was wearing off but between that and the Claytronics Nanoforge randomly changing the hair color of anyone who stayed near it too long, BRIDGE now wanted to make sure they had some handle on what exactly the tiny red gremlin was making before they ended up with new body parts.

It was understandable but still annoying, I could not unlock Grey Matter soon enough.

"But... maybe there's another option?" Skye asked. When I looked up at her she explained further. "Well, I've been trying to do it on my own, find my parents by hacking old systems and tracking down information. But with the help of that armor you gave me, Jarvis, and X, I might find them."

"Any idea where to start?" I asked, thinking as quickly as I could.

"China," Skye said. "One of the villages. Give me some time and I'll be able to find my parents. Or... whatever is left of them."

"In the meantime, I'll keep doing my research," Simmons said, her accent on the word 'research' making me smile just a bit. "I've found a few of our own personnel with the same... quirk, as Skye's, so I can try and find out if there is something more to it."

"And I'll send in my idea to BRIDGE and get it approved," I clapped my hands. "In the meantime, I'm going to need the nanoforge."

------

I typed at the computer connected to the nanoforge in Tony's lab, trying to get my specifications right. While I had faith in my current armor, I wanted something more... sneaky, for my night out with Daredevil. As I worked, Tony was behind me, working on the arm gauntlet of a new piece of armor.

Making armor in the nanoforge was weird for me. Not surprising considering the fact that while making it, I'd been in Jury Rigg form or Upgrade form, with Fitz and Tony working alongside me. So while I was technically two of the four to make it, I was still a normal guy. Ask me about the Dresden Files or Mass Effect, hell, ask me about the Marvel Universe, and I probably had more information on those than you could believe, with only a few holes in that knowledge.

But working on the nanoforge, as easy as the interface was to use, was more akin to a computer developer from the Eighties suddenly given a supercomputer from the modern age. Sure, I had some idea of what I was doing, but it was clear that I was barely touching the surface of what could really be done with the nanoforge.

I looked over at Tony when he growled under his breath. "You alright?"

"Not really," he put the arm gauntlet down and looked over at me. "Can I borrow Upgrade?"

"Hmm?"

"By that, I mean, can you do that creepy thing where you mix your body with tech?" he asked.

"You could put it in a less weird and insulting sounding way," I grumbled, turning from the nanoforge to start flipping through my Omnitrix menu.

"I could, but I won't. Don't get me wrong, it's cool as hell," Tony said, ignoring the bright green flash of light that came with my transformation. "And combining with you to fight against Blackout was like wearing my armor for the first time again. But it's also kind of gross if you think too hard about it."

"Yeah, yeah," I grumbled in Upgrade form, moving to stand above him. "So, what do you want me to do?"

"...Okay, let me break this down," Tony turned and raised a hand, a holoscreen popping up. A good one, not the weird fuzzy one's BRIDGE was still using. A schematic of four armors showed up. The War Machine armor, the BRIDGE Catom Heavy Armor, the Darkforce Armor, and the new Hulkbuster armor.

"I've been working on nanite tech for a while. Some of the issues with that are pretty obvious, like getting the machines to work together in tandem, an AI that can work with the tech, all kinds of stuff," Tony said matter of factly.

"How about you write me a booklet on this stuff for later?" I grumbled.

"Sure, as soon as you finish your homework by Tuesday," Tony snarked. He grinned a bit when I grumbled again. "What, you don't like it? You were the one who said you wanted to learn about this stuff."

"Doesn't mean I have the head for this."

Tony smirked. "You're better than you think. Just keep it up, and stop being so mopey. Anyway, before you so rudely interrupted me," Tony gave me a mock glare before continuing. "Okay, so, nanite armor has been kind of a far-off idea for a bit. I probably could have made it work in a bit, maybe... six years from now? 2019, at the least, unless I'm underestimating myself. Which, I often am. Can't help but surprise myself with my own brilliance."

"Tony..." I said, giving him my best Upgrade smile, which was mostly twisting my 'eye' into a happy shape if that made sense. "Come on, man."

"Right," Tony tapped the holo-screen. "So, nanite armor. It was kind of a pipe dream. Until now," he gestured at the screen. "Upgrade has combined with two suits and a helicarrier, and blatantly ignored any laws of conservation of mass. I mean you weigh what, three hundred pounds like that? How does that much material manage to spread across a giant ass ship like that?"

He tapped at the screen, showing the catom armor and Hulkbuster. "Thankfully, I have a few answers, thanks to the catom. If I can study Upgrade's makeup further, I think I can make armor similar to him."

Tony thought that. I knew he could, considering the Symbiote suit and the Model Prime suit, both of them somewhat close to what Upgrade could do, if not as insane. Tony Stark in armor built by a combination of his genius and the Omnitrix tech aliens...

"Okay," I crossed my large black and white arms. "What do you need me to do?"

"First, I want to get some real scans of you combining with my suits," Tony said rubbing his chin. "With enough scans, we can find something out about how you do your thing."

I looked over at the clock. I had a few hours.

"Okay, sure. But help me with my thing after, okay?"

"Sure thing," Tony reached for a table and grabbed a rubber glove, turning around to put it on with a snap and grin. "Now, bend over and cough."

I narrowed my eye. "I swear, I will laser you right now."

"Sheesh, who killed your sense of humor?" Tony brushed a hand in the air, dismissing the holoscreen floating before him. "Jarvis, start it up."

"Of course, sir," Jarvis said, several scanning machines activating around me as Tony watched a suit rise up from a hole that opened in the floor. Without prompting, I flowed to meld with the suit, and the scans began to run across me.

For a few minutes, Tony and Jarvis scanned me as I moved around in his armor. Which was weird, being an empty suit shaped like a person in some way. Moving empty arms and legs was freaky. Once done with that, he had me use some of Upgrade's abilities to improve and change things: making extra weapons, new arms, separating and combining with the suit, connecting online to speak with Jarvis and X directly, etc.

Once done with all that, Tony seemed really excited. He was at his computer when I timed out, manipulating a hologram and desperately typing out mathematical equations as I walked over. When I came up to him, he grinned, a manic light in his eyes.

"Fanboy, do you realize how crazy advanced Upgrade is?" he asked, bringing up a model of the catom armor blueprints before tossing pieces from it into a holographic trash can that appeared. He also walked over to the nanoforge and typed at it before dismissing the screen. "By the way, I finished your new armor."

"Kind of," I asked, staring as he began to work faster and the nanoforge began to work. "Dude, that was like, five seconds of typing!"

"I'm just that good," Tony smirked at me, then looked back at the holograms he was summoning and dismissing with quick waves of his hands. "If I can make a suit even close to the kind of tech in Upgrade, I won't have to make another one ever again… which is kind of disappointing, but I guess I'll take up gardening or something. Cross that bridge when I get to it," he said. As if Tony Stark wouldn't just keep somehow upgrading anyways. He'd probably find a way to upgrade reality popping technology if given a chance. Didn't he make a suit that could kill Galactus in a video game or something…? While I pondered this Tony kept working, "Jarvis, bring up the scans from when he made that shoulder cannon."

"Of course, sir," Jarvis sounded… fascinated. Which made sense I guess. This universe was crazy, but as far as I could tell it hadn't gotten to the insane levels of the Earth-616 universe. Which meant Tony was getting a hell of a jumpstart to his understanding of technology. Thank you Azmuth.

"Sir, I must remind you that Mrs. Potts expects you at the fundraiser tonight," Jarvis said calmly. "It will take some time to compile all the data we have collected, I suggest you get ready."

Looking at the clock, I realized we'd taken longer than I'd thought. It was almost time for me to meet Matt. I walked up to the nanoforge and pressed a button to bring out my newly modified armor, which came out in a new form.

Tony blinked, looking torn for a moment. I rubbed the back of my neck, looking at all the holograms now floating around, dozens of notes written next to each one.

"Wish I could understand what these mean. I mean, I'm not dumb, but you make me feel like I'm walking through life drunk, stoned, and sleep deprived," I admitted.

"Careful Fanboy, your lack of self-esteem is showing," Tony said with a snort. "Besides, this is all just me rambling," Tony waved at the holograms around us. "I mean, yeah, I'm crazy smart, but Upgrade's tech is way above what I can currently make. I'll figure it out, sure. But it's still impressive."

I had to admire that about Tony. He knew he was smart, but he always gave other geniuses their due. Sure, he was still snarky about it, but I never saw him be dismissive towards Fitz or Bruce's suggestions. He was arrogant, with good reason, but also saw the value in the smarts of others. Not many people saw that, and I felt privileged to see that side of him.

"Anyway, Jarvis is right. I should let the data get all nice and sorted while I go party," Tony clapped his hands, then put an arm around my shoulder to lead me out. "Sure you don't want to come?"

"I got patrol," I admitted.

"Huh. I don't know if I envy you or feel sorry for you. I mean, on the one hand, you're going out to fight bad guys while I have to convince tight-fisted millionaires to pay for schools to get funding. On the other hand, at least I get to drink with a beautiful woman on my arm."

Hard to argue with that. Tony stopped us at the elevator and turned me around. "Okay kid, if this is what you want. But remember, you've got that press release day after tomorrow and the merchandise the bean counters want you to approve. So get some sleep in, got it."

"What are you, my dad?"

"Come back before the sun is up or you're grounded, young man," Tony grinned, then stopped. "Oh god, what have I become?" he sounded almost haunted. "I'm too young for that joke to be a thing!"

"You're like 40, right?"

"Ha! 44 actually!" he said proudly.

"Still old."

"Would you just...," he pushed me good-naturedly into the elevator as it opened, scowling at me as I grinned. "Go beat up some bad guys you little brat."

I laughed as the door closed on Tony's face.

------

That night, in the darkness of New York City, I stood on top of a rooftop in Hell's Kitchen, waiting silently. After getting scanned by Tony, I had a few other things to do. He apparently had a fundraiser that day, so we ended up separating earlier than I thought, but he'd managed to help me make my new suit.

Well, it was really just an armored chestplate and helmet, both hidden in the form of a black t-shirt and hat. They were a bit heavy, but it worked. I work a dark long-sleeved coat that stopped at my thighs and some shoes I could run in. Perfect for night patrols.

I looked out over the city. Man. When I was younger, I used to dream about being in New York. The city has a real hold on pop culture after all. Kinda interesting, the places life takes you.

On the dot, Daredevil appeared from the shadows. He'd apparently read the manual because the entire suit was now a different color. It matched with the color of the night sky above, not quite black, but enough to blend into the shadows with ease. Only his eyes were still red.

"Isn't it tough for you to figure out colors?" I asked him curiously as he walked towards me.

"The manual was very comprehensive," Matt said simply. " How are you, Dial?"

"I'm good, Daredevil," I tapped my long-sleeved shirt on the spot where my heart would be. Catoms shifted, and soon my chest was covered in dark colored plates of armor. My hat 'flowed' down my head to become a thin helmet with a segmented look matching my armor. The Omnitrix symbol rested on my chest, though it was only in matte paint and very dark green against the black background. My pistol rested on my hip. Daredevil gestured to it.

"What is that? I can't smell gunpowder coming from it, but it smells like the same metal they make guns from."

"BCW pistol, the new standard issue of BRIDGE, including ICER rounds to knock people out without killing them," I told him. "Although this one was made special for me," With that said, I raised my hand and grabbed my Omnitrix, twisting to bring up the menu.

Time to use a critically underutilized alien. I pressed down on the dial.

In a moment, I began to change. My skin went from flesh to paper in texture. My organs were gone, leaving only a husk filled with strange energy. I flexed my bandage-like body.

"SNARE-OH!"

"Why even put the armor on if you were just going to change into an alien?" Daredevil asked me, sounding amused.

"My new armor is automatic," I explained, shifting to look at him. "If I timeout early, it will be active already, no need to turn it on. So I'll have protection no matter what."

Something that had been an issue with the last model. Seemed like making catom armor work with the Omnitrix was tricky. But this new one was made just for that purpose, to be used in conjunction with the alien watch. Maybe one day I'd take it further, but for now...

"Where should we start?" I asked in my ghoulish voice.

Daredevil was silent for a moment. He shook his head abruptly. "Sorry, it's just… I know you can turn into aliens, but I don't think I understood what that really meant until now. You feel… strange, to me."

"Strange?" I asked, now curious. Snare-Oh was a weird alien after all, even compared to the others. What would he feel like to someone with the enhanced senses of Daredevil?

"Like you're flesh surrounding energy," Daredevil's mouth, the only exposed part of him, was twisted in an unusual grimace. "I'll get over it. Anyway…"

Daredevil walked over to the edge of the roof and pointed into the distance. "The docks. I heard something about 'cargo' being smuggled," he took the billy clubs on his hips and pressed a button on one of them. It flew out and hooked to a water tower. He looked over at me. "Can you catch up?"

"You tell me," I said smugly. Swinging an arm out, one of my bandages stretched out and grabbed another tower. "Let's go."

With that, we swung into the night.

 

[Pinklestia]

Spider mummy Spider mummy...

 

[DesertChocolate]

Spider mummy Spider mummy...

Click to shrink...

Radioactive Spider-Mummy!

Which, they kind of are, come to think of it.

 

[Tobi]

Does whatever a Spider mummy can

 

[Pinklestia]

Radioactive Spider-Mummy!

Which, they kind of are, come to think of it.

Click to shrink...

Does whatever a Spider mummy can

Click to shrink...

Spider mummy, Spider mummy
Does whatever a spider can.
Spins a bandage, any size.
Catches thieves- just like flies.
Look out! Here comes the Spider mummy.

Is he strong? Listen, bud.
He's got alien blood.
Can he swing, from a thread?
Take a look overhead.
Hey, there! There goes the Spider mummy!

In the chill of night, at the scene of a crime
like a streak of light
he arrives, just in time!

Spider mummy, Spider mummy
Scaring the neighborhood Spider mummy.

Wealth and fame? He ignores!
Action is his reward.
Look out! There goes the Spider mummy!

In the chill of night, at the scene of a crime
like a streak of light
he arrives, just in time!

Ehem anyway.

Do I find hilarious MCU Peter may grow having Dial as one of his favorite heroes? Yes I do!

 

[Dragonin]

... at least he can be a good mummy for his space moth babies.


I am not sorry

 

[Tobi]

... at least he can be a good mummy for his space moth babies.


I am not sorry

Click to shrink...

Why should you be it fits, with the badages he can make diapers and he can make new Arms to be everywhere at once. Snareoh is a good form to be a mother.

 

[TotallyNotEvil]

On the dot, Daredevil appeared from the shadows. He'd apparently read the manual because the entire suit was now a different color. It matched with the color of the night sky above, not quite black, but enough to blend into the shadows with ease. Only his eyes were still red.

Click to shrink...

Better

 

[serapheus]

Better

Click to shrink...

-hand waggle- Eh, at night red is pretty much black to the human eye anyways. Better to go with mottled colorations actually, rather than mono-color/shade outfits. More important to night stealth is to break the human silhouette. A dark human sized silhouette is more likely to be overlooked than a dark human shaped silhouette. Mottling helps with that.

 

[DesertChocolate]

Author's Note: Happy Halloween.
------
Web swinging (and yes, I knew I was using living bandages but this was a Marvel universe, so web-swinging is the word I'll use) had to be one of the most fun ways I'd ever used to travel in New York. Flying was fun, sure, but something about feeling gravity and momentum working together to send me past the buildings made me want to yell out for joy. I got the hang of it very quickly, going off my time playing Spider-Man and Batman video games to help.

Of course, the fact I was Snare-Oh helped me even further. At any moment, I could simply turn into scraps of bandages and shoot forward before changing back into my humanoid form, giving me even more mobility through the city. At one point, when faced with a massive building ahead of me, I simply rolled onto the ground, turned into long lines of paper, and shot upwards. Once at the roof, I turned back to my humanoid form, launched two bandages that attached to a pipe on the roof, pulled myself forward, and shot back into the sky, the material of my body giving me a bit of drag as I fell through the sky towards the lights of the city. It was exhilarating, even more than flying. I mean, it was awesome to fly, but when I was doing it to get from point A to point B, it was more boring, since I was essentially just moving in a straight line. This was much more involved, like parkour on speed.

Daredevil ran along buildings at a slightly slower pace, but not by much. He knew the city better than I did, even with all my patrolling, taking alleyways and shortcuts to match my pace. His new billy clubs helped, having been made to be as close as I could make them to the comics. I'd even included a variation on the Goop formula so it could attach to walls without needing to wrap around anything.

Heading over to the docks he'd indicated, we ended up near a warehouse. I landed on a water tower in a classic Spidey pose, Daredevil landing at the foot of it as we gazed at the dock. A bunch of large shipping containers lay next to the warehouse, at the edge of the water leading to the harbor. A man in a chair was near the shipping containers, clearly waiting for someone. More men milled around the area. In the darkness though, only the fact I was looking for them let me see where they were. I thought about changing to Wildmutt to try and sense if they were armed with guns, but I decided to leave that for later. After all, if I needed super-senses, I could outsource rather than expend Omnitrix energy.

"What have we got?" I asked, shifting my bright green eyes to look down at Daredevil. He stood still a moment, shifting his head from side to side and taking deep breaths. I imagined, like Wildmutt, he was smelling and tasting the air. Which, in New York City, was an extremely mixed bag.

"About ten guys guarding the area. Only three are armed with guns. One is drunk, smells like he had tequila at the Mexican restaurant nearby. One of them, the guy near the door, he's jittery. He's an addict, jonesing for a hit. Everyone else is bored though like they have a long wait ahead. I think we have some time before the 'cargo', whatever it is, shows up."

He cocked his head at me as I stared, dumbfounded. After a silence, he rubbed his chin. "I'm not sure how you're reacting with this alien form. Is that enough to go on?"

"Pretty sure it is," I said slowly. I stroked the mask bit where my chin would be, a raspy sound from my wraps rubbing together filling the air. "Well, we need proof of wrongdoing. Can't just rush in and attack a bunch of guys on a dock."

"So we wait," Daredevil said, moving to sit on the edge of the building.

I did the same.

For a few minutes, we simply sat in awkward silence together. Finally, unable to handle it, I turned to look at him and said the first thing that came to mind. "So, you, uh... watch movies? Play video games, read, any of that?"

He chuckled, sounding surprised. "Not, uh, not as much as I wish I could. I'm usually too busy. Can't remember the last time I did any of that. Plus, you know, not a lot of media for blind people," the last words teasing.

Oh crap, don't tell me I forgot! I was just trying to make the time pass, and that's such a stereotypical conversation starter! "Ah, crap, I'm sorry man, I didn't-"

"No, it's fine. I've, uh, read a lot. Since I can read the raised ink, its one of the only ways I can absorb media. I also like comic books."

"Really?" I asked, surprised.

"Well, if the ink is distinct enough, I can feel it and get an image in my head. It's easier to read regular books though. Nowadays, comics are a bit fuzzier for me."

"You should try manga," I suggested. "Their brushstrokes tend to be a lot more defined. So, what books have you read?"

"A lot of the classics," Matt said. "Lord of the Rings was good. I also liked... someone's coming."

In a smooth movement, Matt rose to his feet, while I shapeshifted myself to stand. Below us, a white van pulled onto the docks. Matt stiffened, and I looked over at him.

"What is it?"

"...screams," he said in a soft voice. A dangerous voice. "We need to get down there."

He swung his billy club out and attached it to the nearest crane on the docks, swinging across as the van rolled towards where the man in the chair was sitting. I followed, my mind slowly realizing what was happening, but still not quite processing it.

We landed on a shipping container as the white van rolled to a stop in front of an open container. As we watched, two guys got out, leaving the van's headlights on to illuminate the docks. A tall, thin, black man with a shaved head and groomed goatee walked up as the driver and passenger opened the back of the van.

More men walked up, helping to drag the 'cargo' out.

Eight of them, female, young, pretty, with makeup ruined from crying. All of them were wearing some variation of low-skirted dress, and they were different in many ways, from skin tone to hair color, to body type.

The clinical side of me noted all of this. The emotional part of me felt a cold chill in my wraps. I stared at the screaming and crying group of girls as they were dragged over to the open container, the men forcing them along uncaring.

"Okay," I said coldly, my ghoulish voice letting me whisper very easily. "I'll start with the guys on the edge. Point them out for me, please."

Matt pointed them out. I nodded. "Got it. Keep your comm open."

"What is the plan?" Matt whispered.

"I'll get rid of the guys around the area. You protect the girls from harm. Good?"

"Good," Matt flourished his billy clubs.

Down below, the tall black man was saying something about a bucket. He raised a baton and demonstrated the shock feature. When the girls panicked, he rolled his eyes and moved in to touch it against a girl.

I forced myself to move at the same time Matt dropped down. I swung up using the crane, moving towards a section on top of shipping containers that were triple-stacked. A guy was roaming back and forth on top of it. I turned into a bundle of bandages and dropped in front of him in that shape. He swore, stepping back in surprise, then blinking at the sight of me.

I didn't give him time to wonder where I came from. Instead, I leaped upwards, wrapping around his mouth as he tried to shout. My other bandages squeezed tight to the rest of his body, pinning his arms and legs together, bones creaking under my grip as I wrapped around him. I made sure to wrap around his throat extra tight as my head rose up. He screamed once more when his eyes met mine, air leaving his lungs. I took pleasure in the sight of his face turning red, the tears and fear in his eyes. He struggled, and I growled in disgust before letting go and gagging him. I hung him up Batman: Arkham Series style from a light post, leaving him wiggling with a silent scream against my bandages.

At the same time, Daredevil was giving the guys hell. He broke the nose of the tall black man, sending him flying. Another man tried to jump him from behind, so Matt backflipped over him before dropping down to slam his boots into his attackers back as he dropped, the man screaming on the ground as Matt ground his feet into his back. Another man grabbed the shock baton off the floor where the tall man had dropped it, swinging it to hit Matt in the head. He grunted at the impact on his helmet, then spun around with his billy clubs to hit the guy, sending blood and teeth spraying from the thug's mouth.

Damn. Matt looked… scary. He flowed around in a dark blur, seeming to blend in the shadows. His horns somehow seemed massively prominent, and his hands and feet smashed into people with hatred I couldn't fathom. The guy seemed unstoppable. Natasha and Bucky, as ruthless as they were, felt business-like in their combat. Matt was more like… like…

His horns stood prominently on his helmet as his red eyes glowed in the flash of the lights.

I left my own target on the top of the containers wrapped in bandages and jumped over to another guy.

------

Random Thug

He had no idea what was going. Today was supposed to be just another day on the job. Watch the docks in case of police, be ready for the shipment, watch it head out, then get paid. It was easy work as long you weren't arrested, certainly paid more than being a fast food worker.

Now here he was, his gun out as he ran in between the shipping containers. Apparently, according to the radio, some guy in a costume was attacking. One guy and he was kicking their asses. He needed to get over there, he needed to-

Something tall dropped down in front of him. He panicked, raising his gun at the tall figure in the darkness and shooting, hitting it in the chest several times. The figure froze. Then it walked forward.

He fired again, his bullet hitting it where the figure's heart should have been, but it kept walking forward. Then, it's arms seemed to… open, at three lines around the forearms on both. They glowed a bright green. A sickly green. A pair of lights joined in where his head should have been.

"What the fuck?" he said quietly in horror. "What are you?!"

In response, the figure seemed to stretch outward. Then it filled the alleyway.

"Oh my god!" he screamed, shooting over and over again. Something that smelled like sand and cloth wrapped around him, throwing him to his left hard enough to break his arm. He screamed again. The last he saw before passing out was a pair of green eyes in the shadow, his scream drowned out in a sea of rough cloth choking him.

------

Matt Murdock/Daredevil

Breathing hard, Matt threw a billy club, bouncing it off the pavement, then a shipping container, where it hit a man who had been reaching for one of the women, presumably to use as a hostage. The girls had huddled together as they watched, screaming and shaking with fear.

Matt caught the billy club when it returned, ducked under a punch from a tall pale skinned man with large muscles and came up in a backflip that smashed his boots into the man's chin, sending him back to the ground.

Someone cocked a gun, drawing Matt's attention. He tossed his billy club at the tall black man on the ground, knocking the gun out of his hand, then flipped over to kick him in the face.

He closed in on another man, sliding around a kick to close in. There was a terrifying brutality as Matt fought. As though all the anger and hatred a human could have suddenly moved through him, his hands twisting the man's arm to shatter his wrist, then fists flowing to break his nose. Matt growled a low inhuman sound that further scared the women watching, then twisted to throw the man against a shipping container with the brutal slap of pounds of flesh on metal. When the beaten man tried to struggle up again, the devil stomped on his head with just enough force to knock him out.

Two men, the last of those standing, rushed Matt at the same time. He stood his ground as they came, then slid around a kick to punch one of the men in the face.

Suddenly, the three men were in a melee, dodging, blocking, and attacking in a fierce blaze of blows. Matt's senses sang, the sound of fists and feet slicing through the air, the smell of sweat, the feel of vibrations through the pavement, the taste of blood in the air and on his mouth, all working together to create a world of flames. He navigated through the fire, taking a few hits on his new armor.

His new, and apparently very strong, armor.

It still hurt a bit to be punched, but it was nothing compared to before when his heightened sense of touch seemed to scream with every blow.

The fight ended in a single moment. Matt leaped up when one of the men tried to sweep his feet out from under him, twisting to kick his feet out in one direction while punching the other, savagely hitting both men in the head and sending them to the ground.

He twisted in the air and threw a billy club in the head of the tall black man, who was reaching for his gun. As the hardened steel sent teeth flying and shattered bones, Matt smiled just a bit. With that, he walked over to finish him off.

------

Mahmoud Schahed/Dial

I tossed that guy aside wrapped in my bandages, then flew towards a man coming around the corner. I decided against any fancy tricks. When he pulled out a knife and stabbed me in the chest, I simply ignored the knife to tackle him into a brick wall behind him, then wrapped him up, letting him lay there wriggling as all nine feet of me ran to the next guy.

It was almost sad. One guy tried to punch me in the face, only to scream in horror when I opened up a 'mouth' with 'fangs' of cloth and devoured him, spitting him out in bandages with all his fingers in his hands broken. I would have felt sorry.

But when I'd finished and rejoined Daredevil, he was finishing off the last of the guys, resting on the man's chest and punching him over and over in the face. I'd have stopped him if it wasn't for the fact I could see two things. The group of eight women and the container they would have been transported in.

I dropped down from the sky and landed, all nine feet of mummy standing tall over the devil beating a man. Matt and I must have made a terrifying sight, me with my strange appearance and glowing green eyes, Matt's fists sending up blood to fall across his armor and bare mouth under the lights of the white van.

One of the women screamed when I stepped forward. Thinking quickly, I tapped the Omnitrix, turning back into my human form in the armor I'd created. With a twist of my wrists, my helmet fell away, leaving me looking over at the group of woman. Matt rose next to me, panting hard.

"Ladies, please calm down," I told the group, feeling a little nervous. "I'm Dial, from the Avengers. This is Daredevil, one of the..." I thought fast, realizing he wasn't on a team. "Marvel Knights," Matt cocked his head at that. "We're heroes. We came to help."

The women began to calm down after hearing that. I twisted my wrists, bringing my helmet back up and looking around as my comms called 911, recording the call as well as bringing X in on the conversation.

"Daredevil," I said while the phone rang. "This was too-"

"Organized," Matt agreed immediately. "Think we should ask some questions?"

"This ends," I said harshly, breathing the words out hard.

Human trafficking. Slavery. My eyes panned back to the shipping container, with two ratty mattresses and a single blanket resting inside, no food or water. I looked at the ground, where a single bucket rested innocently on the pavement. Then at the women, who even now were crying.

I felt an impulse then, to turn into one of my brute aliens and smash the dock apart until I could forget what had been happening in my city. Sex slavery... No. Not anymore.

As the phone rang, I looked back at Daredevil, who was clenching his billy clubs tightly. "Going to be a late one. You okay with that?"

Matt smiled a slow and vicious smile. "Yes. Yes, I am."

"Good. Because we need answers," right on cue, one of the men Matt had beaten up groaned in pain. We looked over at him lying on the ground. He looked at us.

I'm not sure what he thought of us. Me in my strange plated helmet and Matt dressed like the devil while covered in blood. But he shuddered in fear, twisting on his stomach and trying to pull away.

I had just the alien for this. With a twist of the dial, I brought up my chosen alien. "X, can you let the police know what is going on?"

"Of course," the southern accent of my favorite AI said, sounding a bit distracted, but willing.

Looking over at my current partner, I played further with the Omnitrix, just out of habit.

"Daredevil, can you ask him questions? I won't be able to talk."

Matt blinked. "Then what will you be doing?"

I walked toward the man whimpering as he scrambled at the pavement, pulling himself away from me while I pushed down on the Omnitrix. "I'm playing Bad Dog."

"Don't you mean Bad… Oh," Matt said as the green flash ended, nose flaring. He shrugged, walking over to join me.

The man on the floor, with his tanned skin and leather jacket, looked up at me as his nose poured blood. His eyes widened, and he screamed.

I snarled at the noise, leaning in towards him. He surprised me by struggling quickly to his feet and taking three running steps. Curious as to how far he'd go, I began to chase him, roaring. My claws tore through the pavement to shoot me after him. He screamed in horror, reaching the van and getting in.

I jumped at the hood of the van, landing on it hard, and aiming my eyeless face at him as my drool poured down long fangs while I growled loudly, dripping against the windshield, his sweet fear scent filling my scent glands. He shrieked, scratching at his jacket, tears in his eyes. The animal in me reveled in the presence of prey. The human in me smiled at the knowledge of a scared monster.

Because what else do you call a sex slaver?

He finally got his keys out, reaching to put them in the ignition. I put my paw against the glass. Slowly, I pressed against the windshield.

He let out a wordless scream when cracks started to blossom beneath my paw. I smiled, fangs flashing. Daredevil walked slowly up, and I could hear the low chuckle he made as the thug in the van screamed.

The man finally got the key in the ignition, hands twitching and turning on the engine.

In a quick move, I slammed my other paw through the hood and ripped into the engine of the van, my claws treating steel like paper-mache. The smell of oil and the sound of an engine dying filled the air as I dug around in the car, then ripped it out of the hood, presenting over three hundred pounds of metal in one paw to him as I smiled at my prey.

"P-Please put that back…" the crying thug whimpered. My many fangs flashed as I tossed it aside. He broke down then, screaming and crying at the same time.

The windshield broke under my paw, and he lost it, going into the fetal position in the driver's seat as I leaned in, taking deep whiffs of his exquisite fear. God, you haven't lived until you found out how good a scared person you're hunting smells.

I barked loudly, getting another whimper, the man's snot dripping down his upper lip from his nose.

Then someone knocked on the window. The man looked over at Daredevil, who gave him a wide grin.

"You know, I can end this. Just answer some questions and, well, I might tell him not to eat you…"

I snarled, trying to convey disappointment, leaning forward and licking the man's face. Oddly not as gross or off-putting to my current mind as the action would likely be if I was human.

"OH GOD! Please, please, just get it away from me!"

"Oh, believe me, I want to. Seeing him eat is not pleasant," I bit the guy's hair and tugged hard, Daredevil knocking on the glass as though admonishing me for it. The guys screamed and sobbed, trying to push me away while also trying not to touch me.

"Pal, look at me," Daredevil said, sounding both chipper and threatening all at once. He switched up, taking on a smooth and calm tone. The devil offering a deal to the desperate and dying. "You can get out of this. All you have to do… is talk to me. You have a chance. What's your name?"

When he didn't speak, just kept sobbing, I slashed outwards, ripping his shirt off, then pressed my paw to his chest.

For just a moment, I hesitated. Then I thought of what would have happened to those women, and pushed down my humanity, dipping into the animal I was borrowing.

My claws dug slowly into his chest, blood beginning to be drawn.

"BRIAN! My name is BRIAN ROBERTS!"

"Brian. Okay, Brian. You have a chance here. Answer my questions, and we'll let you go. It's an easy choice, Brian. Aren't those nice? Say yes, and you get a great prize. Say no, and you get something… else," claws tore just a bit, followed by whimpers. "What do you say?"

"Y-Yes!"

I backed away from Brian, who sobbed with relief, reaching to pull his jacket over the claw marks in his chest. My scent glands flared at the scent of blood.

"Good. Now, what do you know about your bosses and their business? And don't lie, believe me when I say…"

Daredevil leaned in close and his eyes glowed red, from inbuilt armor systems, as his voice grew deadly serious.

"I'll know."

 

[TimEd]

Well, theh certainly make a pair.