Dial (Ben10/Marvel Cinematic Universe SI)
- Thread starter DesertChocolate
- Start date
- Location
- Ottawa Canada
If it's a med-tent then it would likely have both. Green for medic, red for non-combatant protected by the Geneva convention.
If it's just logistics or something similar, it would just be the red cross.
- Location
- Argentina
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It can't be red because BRIDGE has no cared to get Red Cross International approval to use a red cross. What with coming from an Agency that used to be secret and BRIDGE being too new and busy with troubles to care about minor stuff like that.
It can't be red because BRIDGE has no cared to get Red Cross International approval to use a red cross. What with coming from an Agency that used to be secret and BRIDGE being too new and busy with troubles to care about minor stuff like that.
- Location
- Brazil
At some point someone will notice she has actual super powers.
I mean, dropping Geralt on a bunch of monsters isn't too sporting, is it?
58
X
X watched silently as Frank carried the soldier to safety. Frank Castle was on Dial's list of people to watch, right next to Matt Murdock and others, despite being a normal soldier.
X was still compiling data as to why, but it was worth noting that Frank had none of the reactions his fellow soldiers showed. No fear, no surprise. He hadn't frozen for even a moment, and had killed his opponent with brutal quickness.
X switched his focus from one body to another. That body was currently doing a makeshift repair on a walkway bridge spanning over a street. Rebuilding it would allow for faster transport to the beach for those escaping the chaos.
Making careful calculations, X carefully used the laser built into his arm to carefully attach one of the struts to another, supporting the bridge the other arm and floating in the air on repulsor boots.
His sensors tracked an object flying towards him. With the speed of thought afforded to all AI, he registered the object, then planned.
The object had seemed bipedal in shape from far away, but was clearly not human from the shape of its body. It was possibly organic, though beings like Diamondhead and Goop left the other possibilities open, and it also had a stooping shape to it.
The creature was laughing now as it stretched it's massive arms out to grab X. X, in a split second, noted the thirty foot leap the creature had made and the speed of its approach, then twisted his arm around to fire a repulsor at the top of its arc. The blue beam splashed against the creatures face like water, doing nothing. Surprising, X had been hoping to force the creature off-balance, but it was unharmed, not even diverted.
Which meant it was going to impact this body soon.
X moved quicker, sacrificing efficiency for speed. By the time the being had slammed into him, X had finished the bridge, or at least, did a rough repair job on it.
Then the creature hit his body, fingers ripping through metal, and tore him apart in a smooth pull.
X would have sighed in annoyance if he could have. While the drones were meant to be expendable, it was still a waste. Still torn in half, X let his legs fall to the floor while his top half used the repulsor in one hand to float and the other to shoot at the being over and over. The being gave him a surprised look as it fell to the ground, giving X his first clear look of the creature.
It was hairy. Very hairy. With a red beard and locks flowing down his back, even hair on his shoulders. The being was also big, only a head shorter than the Hulk, with massive muscles bunched beneath brown skin. He wore an armored vest that X recognized as being made of uru metal, with a large metal skull over the abdomen, and two large uru knuckles wrapped around his fists. The creature had three fingers and two toes, and analysis of the air told X he was giving off odd odors.
The creature landed on the ground and leaped up again, finally destroying X's body, but by then he had already left it.
------
Tony Stark/Iron Man
In another part of Rio, Tony and Thor were working together.
"Yep that way," Tony said as he floated over the many people currently walking down the street. "Ignore the big guy tossing the bus aside."
Right on queue, a large blue metropolitan vehicle went flying overhead. Thor walked up with a wide grin, giving a nod to the amazed Brazilians and tourists as they walked past, then looked up at Tony with a frown.
"So much destruction... I've been in few places where death like this had happened," he said solemnly.
"Same," Tony said quietly, thinking of his time fighting in Afghanistan.
"Do we have any idea what was this cause of such devastation?" Thor asked grandly.
"Not yet," Tony shook his head. "Bruce and the geeks have some theories, but so far everyone is drawing a blank. Besides, first priority is saving the civvies," Tony shrugged. While his movement was nonchalant, he still shuddered. And beneath his mask, looking at all the people he hadn't been able to save, a thoughtful look came to his face.
An alert came in two minutes later just as the last of the civilians headed off.
"Tony, Thor!" Maria said through their comm units. "We have an enhanced in the field, covered in uru metal!"
They stiffened, Thor straightening up a moment later.
"Asgardian?" Thor asked.
"Not unless some of you only have two toes," Maria replied.
"Those who have lost them in battle," Thor admitted. "Or bets. Where are they?"
"Coming your way from the west. I'm sending in some support, but you're on your own for a bit."
"We will not need it," Thor snarled, the sound of a rhythmic booming sound heading toward him not fazing the thunder deity.
Tony grinned savagely, moving to float next to Thor. "Think it's one of yours? Someone responsible for all this?"
"I am not sure, Stark," Thor spun Mjolnir in his fist. "But we will have our answers either way, this I swear!"
The last boom was followed by a giant being landing before them. The second he saw it, Tony felt his smile fade.
Shit. This thing was Hulk-sized. Abomination-sized. And hairy as hell, not to mention smelly.
"Oh... oh crap."
Tony blinked. Then he looked at Thor, who was staring at the creature with a nervous look in his eyes.
"Uh... you know this furball?" Tony asked, looking over at the big (Man? Creature? Dude, dude worked) dude rising out of the crater it had made.
"Ulik," Thor gulped. Thor actually gulped!
"And he is?" Tony asked.
"Big trouble," Thor said almost softly, nervousness fading into resolution.
"...Jarvis, send in Veronica."
"Already on the way, sir," Jarvis replied.
Tony brought his hands up as the creature, the big man, blinked at the sight of them.
"Thor!" The creature laughed. "Yes! I found you, my friend! Now we can finally kill each other! Truly, this is a magnificent day!"
Tony blinked. "Not... what I expected."
The monster sped forward suddenly, with that impossible velocity every giant monster from Hulk to Four Arms seemed able to do. Tony spun out of the way and blasted the monster as it passed, but Ulik just ignored him.
When the repulsors hit him though, the monster stumbled, looking surprised.
"Oh! You are a far mightier foe than the last! Might there be a man within that shell?" Ulik grinned at Tony.
"Uh... yeah?" Tony said weakly. "You want a piece, sasquatch?"
"Indeed I do! For it has been some time since mankind has been able to deliver such a blow to I, Ulik the Troll!"
"Have at thee!" Thor swung his hammer then, rushing forward and slamming the mystical weapon into Ulik's face.
The troll stumbled back, shouting happily, then swung one of his fists into Thor's stomach. Thor gasped, growled, then punched the troll back.
Tony flipped into the air to shoot him, only for his repulsors to miss, Ulik lept up to grab Tony out of the air. A desperate blast to the eyes loosened the grasp of the troll and allowed him to escape, Tony followed with right cross that sent Ulik slamming back to the ground. Tony blinked at the sound of metal snapping, giving his right fist a look.
The gauntlet, formed from gold-titanium, one of the strongest alloys ever made, had cracked.
Tony took his eyes off of it to look at Ulik. "Well great, you broke my armor. You know how much this costs?"
Ulik, rubbing his chin, frowned. "My apologies, but I do not have knowledge of the worth of Midgard metals and equipment. Regardless, we are in combat! The damage of weaponry is simply a part of that."
Iron Man cocked his head. "Huh. Logic from a troll. The internet didn't prepare me for this."
Then he blasted him. Ulik took two hits to the head, roared in anger, and blocked the next repulsor blast with his uru knuckles. Tony twisted his hand around, trading repulsors for a pair of lasers, the red hot blasts of red light smashing into Ulik's face. He shouted in real pain, blinking his eyes rapidly. Tony didn't let the fact that his high impact lasers apparently only irritated Ulik bother him too much. He stepped aside when Thor came flying in hammer first, Mjolnir smashing into Ulik's stomach with a booming sound that shook the area. Then Veronica came down, flowing around Tony to encase him in the Hulkbuster suit as Ulik grabbed Thor by the cape and tossed him aside. Thor flipped around and landed on his feet, spinning to punch Ulik in the face.
"Damn you!" Thor shouted, spitting blood.
"Yes!" Ulik shouted joyfully. "Let us shake the world, old friend!"
A crater began to form beneath them, the two punching each other again and again. Shockwaves flew out with the impacts and buildings across Rio began to shake.
"Guys, we need to contain this guy!" Tony yelled, flying up in his full Hulkbuster form as the helmet slammed down, blasting falling rubble away from fleeing civilians as fast as he could.
"He's tearing apart the whole city!"
------
Mahmoud Schahed/Dial
Across the city, before all the fight even started, I was digging out another group of people, using my suit instead of the Omnitrix this time. Ghost popped out of the rubble nearby, watching me for a moment. I pulled the last chunk of stone off an older woman. I pulled her up, Ghost speaking to her in gentle tones as the woman weeped silently. I tried not to look the sight of her dead family behind her. I tried to memorize exactly how many there were. I tried not to look at the torn stuffed animal on the rubble.
I looked down at my red glowing Omnitrix, then at Ghost as she watched the poor woman walk away. We stared at each other for a moment.
Then we just looked away. With everything going on, being angry at her just seemed so... stupid. And I guess she felt the same way. We looked out over the destroyed city. It was almost peaceful, Ghost and I standing there in full armor, looking on that image of an apocalypse.
Then the ground shook, the both of us stumbling. We gave each other looks.
"Another quake?" Ghost asked frantically.
The ground shook again and again. I scowled. As someone who had lived in Cali, I'd felt earthquakes. They didn't have an almost rhythmic pulse to them.
A loud crack suddenly filled the air. Ghost and I turned towards the sound. A building shook with each shake, large cracks spreading across the cement, glass shattering to fall toward us, one of them taller than I was. I raised my hand and created my shield hastily, shouting when the glass pane slammed into my tower shield, while Ghost went intangible to let the razor sharp shards sliced through the air.
The shield wasn't going to help for the next part though. The building collapsed toward us. I was about to run when the Omnitrix beeped loudly.
"Move!" Ghost shouted at me.
"On it!" I twisted the Omnitrix, bringing up a moth-like being, then pushed it down.
Then the building slammed on top of us.
For a moment, things were quiet. Then I moved up through the building, clutching Ghost's arm. I had no idea what the physics were that let Big Chill and Ghost touch while still being intangible, but I took advantage of it, floating over the city. The building, hundreds of tons of stone, metal, and glass, sent up debris into the air, the sound of the thing landing like the fist of an angry giant.
"Right in the nick of time," I mumbled in Big Chill's spooky voice. "You okay?"
"Yeah," Ghost responded, sounding a little freaked. "What is going on?"
"I don't-"
"Avengers!" Maria said over the radio. "We have an enhanced in the field! Get civilians out of the combat zone and backup Thor and Iron Man!" What followed next were the coordinates of where the fight was taking place and orders to other BRIDGE personal.
"On it!" Ghost said, looking up at me. I looked down at her as I held her there. "Put me down."
"...It's faster if I carry you."
She hesitated, staring at me for a moment through those weird 'eyes' in her mask. "...Damnit. Do it."
I twisted and flew over the landscape, Ghost practically grumbling.
Considering our powerset, both of us took the express route, diving directly through the buildings in front of us. We went through an office, a set of apartments, and finally a swimming pool, which froze over the second we went through.
Below us, a streak of silver sped past, followed by short shouts from civilians as the blur grabbed and moved them out of the way.
"Damn he's fast," I mumbled, before focusing on the loud noises ahead of us.
In the middle of a street, a crater was being created by the three beings duking it out.
Any other day, I'd have dived into that mess immediately.
Instead, I focused our orders. Drones were floating around the windows of a building on the brink of collapse.
Drones on almost every floor. Dozens of civilians. And it wasn't the only building.
I took one and dived into the window. As I did, I dropped Ghost, who fell through the floor to help the people beneath us.
There were three people, two women, and a man, all in suits torn up and dusty. They screamed when I entered. Mothmen aren't reassuring figures.
I ignored that in favor of raising my hands up to fire beams of ice at the collapsing ceiling. Blue ice grew from the points of impact, creating makeshift support for the ceiling. I didn't fire them for long, only enough to keep the people safe. The second I was done, I dived in and made to grab all three of them.
One of the women, in a blazing spin, kicked me in the face.
I stepped back, more surprised than anything. I spoke, the Omnitrix translating for me. "Really? I'm an Avenger damn it, I'm saving you!"
The woman who'd kicked me blinked. The ice above cracked.
I dived forward, grabbing the three in my arms, then dived out of the nearest window, clutching the three to my chest. Ice fell from the ceiling, dust and chilled air flying about.
We hit the Rio sunshine. Below me, I could see Falcon flying out from another floor with two more, then She-Hulk from a floor above me. A building nearby exploded outward, followed by Marian and Hulk leaping out of the roof, Hulk carrying several people while Marian protected him.
In the center of it all, Thor was shouting in pain, reeling from a punch to the face. Tony kicked the guy in the face. The guy they were fighting laughed, slammed fingers deep into Tony's chest and pulled away a massive chunk of the Hulkbuster chestplate.
"Holy..." The Hulkbuster was made to withstand blows from damn near everything. What the hell was this guy?"
I carried the three people to the evac point nearby. "Go! Go now!"
A stone slammed into my back, sending to the ground with a grunt. The three people I'd saved ran for it.
I twisted up, pulling my wings around me, then floated up.
A massive fist flew through my head. Only Big Chill's natural stoic attitude kept the scream from erupting, my intangible form saving my life.
"Oh?" the big hairy man blinked then smirked. "That is quite interesting. Do it once more!"
He punched through me again. I winced in shock when his knuckles passed through me, a tingling feeling following the movement through my torso. His fist was surrounded in ice once it passed through. He responded to that with a laugh and a shake to get the ice off him.
I blasted him in the face.
"Yes!" The crazy guy laughed, his beard and face frosting over then cracking with every move. "This is what I wanted! Ah, like the brisk mornings of Jotunhein!"
"Yay for you," I said sarcastically. I snapped my wings open and floated up, continuing to fire away. Thor and Tony landed nearby, blasting away with lightning and repulsor beams.
For a moment the three of us seemed to almost have him on the ropes, or beams of power holding him in place. Until he finally had enough.
Then he slammed his uru knuckles together.
A wave of orange energy flew out from the impact, reminding me of something similar I'd seen from Wonder Woman the movie. I went intangible. Thor raised Mjolnir. Tony created a shield.
The next thing I knew, I was sent flying back.
"Fuuuuck!" I hit a wall behind me, falling to the ground. Tony's armor was stripped off, my fellow Avenger landing beside me. Thor grunted in pain, but stayed standing.
"...oh my god," I blinked slowly, stars in my eyes. I tried to move, only to feel immense pain. Wings were the same. I tried to get up, raising a hand up. Clearly Big Chill wasn't cutting it. Time for another round.
The giant guy was above me. He watched as I slammed the Omnitrix on my chest.
My skin turned red and armored. A pair of arms grew out beneath more normal ones. I narrowed four eyes at the guy as I rose to my feet and towering over him. In my full Four Arms form, I snapped out two arms to punch, ignoring the pain I still felt across my body.
The big guy stepped back to let my punch whiff, then lashed out with his own punch.
"Ahhh!" I staggered back. He stepped forward and started to punch me with incredible speed. Shockwaves erupted with each blow to my ribs, face, and stomach.
I blocked one of his punches, trying to ignore the blood in my mouth and the fact both my right eyes were swollen shut. The feeling of fur against my knuckles, then iron hard skin, then bone, his head snapping back. I punched him again and again. He barely shifted at all. In the end, my blood was still dripping, including a bit from my now split knuckles.
The guy was laughing.
"Damn you!" I shouted. The bastard was still laughing! I was in my strongest form, punching him with more power than I could remember, shaking the entire area with my blows. And he was acting like he loved it!
I drove him back, straining to block his own blows. Our feet dug into the asphalt, the hairy guy finally ending up with his back against a wall. I grabbed his beard and pulled him down, then pushed him back, smashing him through the wall. As the concrete fell I grabbed two massive blocks in my four hands and smashed them into him.
"RAAAAAGGHH!!!" Right and left, I smashed him in the face. I finished by grabbing him, lifting him up, then throwing him at a nearby building. The jerk was grinning as he disappeared through the wall.
Thor landed next to me as I leaned over to rest my palms on my knees. My breath came out fast and hard, burning from my lungs. "That guy… is strong."
Thor nodded, looking tired. "Ulik the Troll is a formidable opponent."
"Ulik?" I blinked. Oh yeah. Random Thor villain. Actually, not that random, he was a pretty big deal. And a troll? Damn, so many good insults could be made from that.
The sound of rocks shattering was followed by Ulik landing in front of us. I grit my teeth and stood up, clenching my fist while Thor stepped next to me. The troll was nodding, looking somewhat serious.
"Good. Good! Humanity has become strong and has gained strong allies. I can see why you spend time with them, Thor."
Ulik didn't speak for long. He jumped toward us. Thor and I did the same, the thunder master moving faster than me to meet Ulik in the center Mjolnir first. The troll raised his right knuckle, an explosion following the massive impact. I ran in next to Thor, ducking under a punch from Ulik, then uppercutting him, my upper arms smashing into his chin while my bottom arms hit him in the chest. Ulik twisted with the blows, but Thor followed up with a literal hammer blow across his face. I followed up to hit him in the gut, then uppercut him again.
Ulik slammed into the ground. He grumbled something before spitting out red. As we watched, he reached into his mouth and rummaged around for a moment before pulling. Holding up a tooth as large around as a thumb, he grinned. "Shapeshifter. You throw damn good punches."
Then he sprung to his feet, grabbed my face, and lifted me up before smashing me to the ground, smashing his foot down onto my chest.
"Ahhhhhh!!!" I screamed, punching Ulik over and over as he held me down.
Ulik punched Thor into the sky, then raised his uru knuckle wrapped right fist. It came down with immense speed as I grabbed his leg, struggling to lift him off. His uru knuckle glowed orange. The last thing I heard was a loud cra-
X watched silently as Frank carried the soldier to safety. Frank Castle was on Dial's list of people to watch, right next to Matt Murdock and others, despite being a normal soldier.
X was still compiling data as to why, but it was worth noting that Frank had none of the reactions his fellow soldiers showed. No fear, no surprise. He hadn't frozen for even a moment, and had killed his opponent with brutal quickness.
X switched his focus from one body to another. That body was currently doing a makeshift repair on a walkway bridge spanning over a street. Rebuilding it would allow for faster transport to the beach for those escaping the chaos.
Making careful calculations, X carefully used the laser built into his arm to carefully attach one of the struts to another, supporting the bridge the other arm and floating in the air on repulsor boots.
His sensors tracked an object flying towards him. With the speed of thought afforded to all AI, he registered the object, then planned.
The object had seemed bipedal in shape from far away, but was clearly not human from the shape of its body. It was possibly organic, though beings like Diamondhead and Goop left the other possibilities open, and it also had a stooping shape to it.
The creature was laughing now as it stretched it's massive arms out to grab X. X, in a split second, noted the thirty foot leap the creature had made and the speed of its approach, then twisted his arm around to fire a repulsor at the top of its arc. The blue beam splashed against the creatures face like water, doing nothing. Surprising, X had been hoping to force the creature off-balance, but it was unharmed, not even diverted.
Which meant it was going to impact this body soon.
X moved quicker, sacrificing efficiency for speed. By the time the being had slammed into him, X had finished the bridge, or at least, did a rough repair job on it.
Then the creature hit his body, fingers ripping through metal, and tore him apart in a smooth pull.
X would have sighed in annoyance if he could have. While the drones were meant to be expendable, it was still a waste. Still torn in half, X let his legs fall to the floor while his top half used the repulsor in one hand to float and the other to shoot at the being over and over. The being gave him a surprised look as it fell to the ground, giving X his first clear look of the creature.
It was hairy. Very hairy. With a red beard and locks flowing down his back, even hair on his shoulders. The being was also big, only a head shorter than the Hulk, with massive muscles bunched beneath brown skin. He wore an armored vest that X recognized as being made of uru metal, with a large metal skull over the abdomen, and two large uru knuckles wrapped around his fists. The creature had three fingers and two toes, and analysis of the air told X he was giving off odd odors.
The creature landed on the ground and leaped up again, finally destroying X's body, but by then he had already left it.
------
Tony Stark/Iron Man
In another part of Rio, Tony and Thor were working together.
"Yep that way," Tony said as he floated over the many people currently walking down the street. "Ignore the big guy tossing the bus aside."
Right on queue, a large blue metropolitan vehicle went flying overhead. Thor walked up with a wide grin, giving a nod to the amazed Brazilians and tourists as they walked past, then looked up at Tony with a frown.
"So much destruction... I've been in few places where death like this had happened," he said solemnly.
"Same," Tony said quietly, thinking of his time fighting in Afghanistan.
"Do we have any idea what was this cause of such devastation?" Thor asked grandly.
"Not yet," Tony shook his head. "Bruce and the geeks have some theories, but so far everyone is drawing a blank. Besides, first priority is saving the civvies," Tony shrugged. While his movement was nonchalant, he still shuddered. And beneath his mask, looking at all the people he hadn't been able to save, a thoughtful look came to his face.
An alert came in two minutes later just as the last of the civilians headed off.
"Tony, Thor!" Maria said through their comm units. "We have an enhanced in the field, covered in uru metal!"
They stiffened, Thor straightening up a moment later.
"Asgardian?" Thor asked.
"Not unless some of you only have two toes," Maria replied.
"Those who have lost them in battle," Thor admitted. "Or bets. Where are they?"
"Coming your way from the west. I'm sending in some support, but you're on your own for a bit."
"We will not need it," Thor snarled, the sound of a rhythmic booming sound heading toward him not fazing the thunder deity.
Tony grinned savagely, moving to float next to Thor. "Think it's one of yours? Someone responsible for all this?"
"I am not sure, Stark," Thor spun Mjolnir in his fist. "But we will have our answers either way, this I swear!"
The last boom was followed by a giant being landing before them. The second he saw it, Tony felt his smile fade.
Shit. This thing was Hulk-sized. Abomination-sized. And hairy as hell, not to mention smelly.
"Oh... oh crap."
Tony blinked. Then he looked at Thor, who was staring at the creature with a nervous look in his eyes.
"Uh... you know this furball?" Tony asked, looking over at the big (Man? Creature? Dude, dude worked) dude rising out of the crater it had made.
"Ulik," Thor gulped. Thor actually gulped!
"And he is?" Tony asked.
"Big trouble," Thor said almost softly, nervousness fading into resolution.
"...Jarvis, send in Veronica."
"Already on the way, sir," Jarvis replied.
Tony brought his hands up as the creature, the big man, blinked at the sight of them.
"Thor!" The creature laughed. "Yes! I found you, my friend! Now we can finally kill each other! Truly, this is a magnificent day!"
Tony blinked. "Not... what I expected."
The monster sped forward suddenly, with that impossible velocity every giant monster from Hulk to Four Arms seemed able to do. Tony spun out of the way and blasted the monster as it passed, but Ulik just ignored him.
When the repulsors hit him though, the monster stumbled, looking surprised.
"Oh! You are a far mightier foe than the last! Might there be a man within that shell?" Ulik grinned at Tony.
"Uh... yeah?" Tony said weakly. "You want a piece, sasquatch?"
"Indeed I do! For it has been some time since mankind has been able to deliver such a blow to I, Ulik the Troll!"
"Have at thee!" Thor swung his hammer then, rushing forward and slamming the mystical weapon into Ulik's face.
The troll stumbled back, shouting happily, then swung one of his fists into Thor's stomach. Thor gasped, growled, then punched the troll back.
Tony flipped into the air to shoot him, only for his repulsors to miss, Ulik lept up to grab Tony out of the air. A desperate blast to the eyes loosened the grasp of the troll and allowed him to escape, Tony followed with right cross that sent Ulik slamming back to the ground. Tony blinked at the sound of metal snapping, giving his right fist a look.
The gauntlet, formed from gold-titanium, one of the strongest alloys ever made, had cracked.
Tony took his eyes off of it to look at Ulik. "Well great, you broke my armor. You know how much this costs?"
Ulik, rubbing his chin, frowned. "My apologies, but I do not have knowledge of the worth of Midgard metals and equipment. Regardless, we are in combat! The damage of weaponry is simply a part of that."
Iron Man cocked his head. "Huh. Logic from a troll. The internet didn't prepare me for this."
Then he blasted him. Ulik took two hits to the head, roared in anger, and blocked the next repulsor blast with his uru knuckles. Tony twisted his hand around, trading repulsors for a pair of lasers, the red hot blasts of red light smashing into Ulik's face. He shouted in real pain, blinking his eyes rapidly. Tony didn't let the fact that his high impact lasers apparently only irritated Ulik bother him too much. He stepped aside when Thor came flying in hammer first, Mjolnir smashing into Ulik's stomach with a booming sound that shook the area. Then Veronica came down, flowing around Tony to encase him in the Hulkbuster suit as Ulik grabbed Thor by the cape and tossed him aside. Thor flipped around and landed on his feet, spinning to punch Ulik in the face.
"Damn you!" Thor shouted, spitting blood.
"Yes!" Ulik shouted joyfully. "Let us shake the world, old friend!"
A crater began to form beneath them, the two punching each other again and again. Shockwaves flew out with the impacts and buildings across Rio began to shake.
"Guys, we need to contain this guy!" Tony yelled, flying up in his full Hulkbuster form as the helmet slammed down, blasting falling rubble away from fleeing civilians as fast as he could.
"He's tearing apart the whole city!"
------
Mahmoud Schahed/Dial
Across the city, before all the fight even started, I was digging out another group of people, using my suit instead of the Omnitrix this time. Ghost popped out of the rubble nearby, watching me for a moment. I pulled the last chunk of stone off an older woman. I pulled her up, Ghost speaking to her in gentle tones as the woman weeped silently. I tried not to look the sight of her dead family behind her. I tried to memorize exactly how many there were. I tried not to look at the torn stuffed animal on the rubble.
I looked down at my red glowing Omnitrix, then at Ghost as she watched the poor woman walk away. We stared at each other for a moment.
Then we just looked away. With everything going on, being angry at her just seemed so... stupid. And I guess she felt the same way. We looked out over the destroyed city. It was almost peaceful, Ghost and I standing there in full armor, looking on that image of an apocalypse.
Then the ground shook, the both of us stumbling. We gave each other looks.
"Another quake?" Ghost asked frantically.
The ground shook again and again. I scowled. As someone who had lived in Cali, I'd felt earthquakes. They didn't have an almost rhythmic pulse to them.
A loud crack suddenly filled the air. Ghost and I turned towards the sound. A building shook with each shake, large cracks spreading across the cement, glass shattering to fall toward us, one of them taller than I was. I raised my hand and created my shield hastily, shouting when the glass pane slammed into my tower shield, while Ghost went intangible to let the razor sharp shards sliced through the air.
The shield wasn't going to help for the next part though. The building collapsed toward us. I was about to run when the Omnitrix beeped loudly.
"Move!" Ghost shouted at me.
"On it!" I twisted the Omnitrix, bringing up a moth-like being, then pushed it down.
Then the building slammed on top of us.
For a moment, things were quiet. Then I moved up through the building, clutching Ghost's arm. I had no idea what the physics were that let Big Chill and Ghost touch while still being intangible, but I took advantage of it, floating over the city. The building, hundreds of tons of stone, metal, and glass, sent up debris into the air, the sound of the thing landing like the fist of an angry giant.
"Right in the nick of time," I mumbled in Big Chill's spooky voice. "You okay?"
"Yeah," Ghost responded, sounding a little freaked. "What is going on?"
"I don't-"
"Avengers!" Maria said over the radio. "We have an enhanced in the field! Get civilians out of the combat zone and backup Thor and Iron Man!" What followed next were the coordinates of where the fight was taking place and orders to other BRIDGE personal.
"On it!" Ghost said, looking up at me. I looked down at her as I held her there. "Put me down."
"...It's faster if I carry you."
She hesitated, staring at me for a moment through those weird 'eyes' in her mask. "...Damnit. Do it."
I twisted and flew over the landscape, Ghost practically grumbling.
Considering our powerset, both of us took the express route, diving directly through the buildings in front of us. We went through an office, a set of apartments, and finally a swimming pool, which froze over the second we went through.
Below us, a streak of silver sped past, followed by short shouts from civilians as the blur grabbed and moved them out of the way.
"Damn he's fast," I mumbled, before focusing on the loud noises ahead of us.
In the middle of a street, a crater was being created by the three beings duking it out.
Any other day, I'd have dived into that mess immediately.
Instead, I focused our orders. Drones were floating around the windows of a building on the brink of collapse.
Drones on almost every floor. Dozens of civilians. And it wasn't the only building.
I took one and dived into the window. As I did, I dropped Ghost, who fell through the floor to help the people beneath us.
There were three people, two women, and a man, all in suits torn up and dusty. They screamed when I entered. Mothmen aren't reassuring figures.
I ignored that in favor of raising my hands up to fire beams of ice at the collapsing ceiling. Blue ice grew from the points of impact, creating makeshift support for the ceiling. I didn't fire them for long, only enough to keep the people safe. The second I was done, I dived in and made to grab all three of them.
One of the women, in a blazing spin, kicked me in the face.
I stepped back, more surprised than anything. I spoke, the Omnitrix translating for me. "Really? I'm an Avenger damn it, I'm saving you!"
The woman who'd kicked me blinked. The ice above cracked.
I dived forward, grabbing the three in my arms, then dived out of the nearest window, clutching the three to my chest. Ice fell from the ceiling, dust and chilled air flying about.
We hit the Rio sunshine. Below me, I could see Falcon flying out from another floor with two more, then She-Hulk from a floor above me. A building nearby exploded outward, followed by Marian and Hulk leaping out of the roof, Hulk carrying several people while Marian protected him.
In the center of it all, Thor was shouting in pain, reeling from a punch to the face. Tony kicked the guy in the face. The guy they were fighting laughed, slammed fingers deep into Tony's chest and pulled away a massive chunk of the Hulkbuster chestplate.
"Holy..." The Hulkbuster was made to withstand blows from damn near everything. What the hell was this guy?"
I carried the three people to the evac point nearby. "Go! Go now!"
A stone slammed into my back, sending to the ground with a grunt. The three people I'd saved ran for it.
I twisted up, pulling my wings around me, then floated up.
A massive fist flew through my head. Only Big Chill's natural stoic attitude kept the scream from erupting, my intangible form saving my life.
"Oh?" the big hairy man blinked then smirked. "That is quite interesting. Do it once more!"
He punched through me again. I winced in shock when his knuckles passed through me, a tingling feeling following the movement through my torso. His fist was surrounded in ice once it passed through. He responded to that with a laugh and a shake to get the ice off him.
I blasted him in the face.
"Yes!" The crazy guy laughed, his beard and face frosting over then cracking with every move. "This is what I wanted! Ah, like the brisk mornings of Jotunhein!"
"Yay for you," I said sarcastically. I snapped my wings open and floated up, continuing to fire away. Thor and Tony landed nearby, blasting away with lightning and repulsor beams.
For a moment the three of us seemed to almost have him on the ropes, or beams of power holding him in place. Until he finally had enough.
Then he slammed his uru knuckles together.
A wave of orange energy flew out from the impact, reminding me of something similar I'd seen from Wonder Woman the movie. I went intangible. Thor raised Mjolnir. Tony created a shield.
The next thing I knew, I was sent flying back.
"Fuuuuck!" I hit a wall behind me, falling to the ground. Tony's armor was stripped off, my fellow Avenger landing beside me. Thor grunted in pain, but stayed standing.
"...oh my god," I blinked slowly, stars in my eyes. I tried to move, only to feel immense pain. Wings were the same. I tried to get up, raising a hand up. Clearly Big Chill wasn't cutting it. Time for another round.
The giant guy was above me. He watched as I slammed the Omnitrix on my chest.
My skin turned red and armored. A pair of arms grew out beneath more normal ones. I narrowed four eyes at the guy as I rose to my feet and towering over him. In my full Four Arms form, I snapped out two arms to punch, ignoring the pain I still felt across my body.
The big guy stepped back to let my punch whiff, then lashed out with his own punch.
"Ahhh!" I staggered back. He stepped forward and started to punch me with incredible speed. Shockwaves erupted with each blow to my ribs, face, and stomach.
I blocked one of his punches, trying to ignore the blood in my mouth and the fact both my right eyes were swollen shut. The feeling of fur against my knuckles, then iron hard skin, then bone, his head snapping back. I punched him again and again. He barely shifted at all. In the end, my blood was still dripping, including a bit from my now split knuckles.
The guy was laughing.
"Damn you!" I shouted. The bastard was still laughing! I was in my strongest form, punching him with more power than I could remember, shaking the entire area with my blows. And he was acting like he loved it!
I drove him back, straining to block his own blows. Our feet dug into the asphalt, the hairy guy finally ending up with his back against a wall. I grabbed his beard and pulled him down, then pushed him back, smashing him through the wall. As the concrete fell I grabbed two massive blocks in my four hands and smashed them into him.
"RAAAAAGGHH!!!" Right and left, I smashed him in the face. I finished by grabbing him, lifting him up, then throwing him at a nearby building. The jerk was grinning as he disappeared through the wall.
Thor landed next to me as I leaned over to rest my palms on my knees. My breath came out fast and hard, burning from my lungs. "That guy… is strong."
Thor nodded, looking tired. "Ulik the Troll is a formidable opponent."
"Ulik?" I blinked. Oh yeah. Random Thor villain. Actually, not that random, he was a pretty big deal. And a troll? Damn, so many good insults could be made from that.
The sound of rocks shattering was followed by Ulik landing in front of us. I grit my teeth and stood up, clenching my fist while Thor stepped next to me. The troll was nodding, looking somewhat serious.
"Good. Good! Humanity has become strong and has gained strong allies. I can see why you spend time with them, Thor."
Ulik didn't speak for long. He jumped toward us. Thor and I did the same, the thunder master moving faster than me to meet Ulik in the center Mjolnir first. The troll raised his right knuckle, an explosion following the massive impact. I ran in next to Thor, ducking under a punch from Ulik, then uppercutting him, my upper arms smashing into his chin while my bottom arms hit him in the chest. Ulik twisted with the blows, but Thor followed up with a literal hammer blow across his face. I followed up to hit him in the gut, then uppercut him again.
Ulik slammed into the ground. He grumbled something before spitting out red. As we watched, he reached into his mouth and rummaged around for a moment before pulling. Holding up a tooth as large around as a thumb, he grinned. "Shapeshifter. You throw damn good punches."
Then he sprung to his feet, grabbed my face, and lifted me up before smashing me to the ground, smashing his foot down onto my chest.
"Ahhhhhh!!!" I screamed, punching Ulik over and over as he held me down.
Ulik punched Thor into the sky, then raised his uru knuckle wrapped right fist. It came down with immense speed as I grabbed his leg, struggling to lift him off. His uru knuckle glowed orange. The last thing I heard was a loud cra-
- Location
- Argentina
The Ommitrix getting damaged in a fight would take something like a world destroying nuke. Is way easier to damage it by messing with it like Ben did.
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
Was thinking more, Dial is the one who cracked
- Location
- Argentina
Eh, only bad if it's the head. Otherwise he can turn into Swampfire to heal.
Last edited:
More likely, Ulik cracked his skull. That knuckle strike was, as far as I could tell, aimed at his head.
- Location
- Home
What the hell happened in Slovakia?
I meant to say the sokovia accords
- Location
- Argentina
Now that would be fun AU.
"What the hell happened in Slovakia?"
"Tony took Bruce Banner and certain ex Winter Soldier bar hopping, then AIM, new HYDRA and Aliens got involved... by the way I think the Hulk married an alien princess."
"What."
"Yeah that was my reaction too. Thankfully Dial wasn't there or it would have been worse."
"Talking about that, were is he?"
"He and certain big headed guy are having a talk about cloning Dial aliens."
59
Tony Stark/Iron Man
Tony coughed, blood filling his mouth. The aftermath of that massive wave of unknown energy had knocked him down."Jarvis, what the hell was that?"
"Unknown sir," Jarvis responded. "Some sort of energy wave, one that managed to injure Big Chill despite his intangibility."
"The kid?" Tony twisted his head around. He stopped at the sight of Dial on the floor lying in rubble, open wounds across his body. A scan revealed fractured bones and internal bleeding. "Mahmoud."
"Medical support is on the way," Jarvis said firmly.
Tony rose to his feet, groaning and cursing slightly. His armor slowly reformed itself, catoms flowing. "Jarvis, I need basic armor form. No Hulkbuster, it isn't fast enough to fight this guy."
Jarvis didn't respond, but the catoms from the Hulkbuster flowed to fill in cracks and rebuild sections of his usual armor as the Hulkbuster fell away.
Thor was still battling the monster, Ulik or whatever his name was. Tony flew in, blasting the guy in the face. As he did, some indicators on his HUD lit up. He ignored them to fly over the pair, firing again and again. His shoulders popped up, missiles flying out to slam into Ulik's back. When it was over, the guy was on fire, his hair burning.
"Hahaha!" Ulik smashed his knuckles into Mjolnir, the two weapons screeching aloud with the impact. "Your friends have such power, Prince Thor! Killing them will be an honor!" then he seemed almost abashed. "Actually, I would like a moment to finish off the shapeshifter if you don't-"
"Never!" Thor shouted. He grabbed Ulik's beard and headbutted him, then rose into an uppercut with his hammer, lifting Ulik into the air in a burst of lightning.
"Someone get over here and help!" Tony shouted over the comms.
Bobbi Morse, the Mockingbird, responded through the comms. "We're on our way!"
Tony winced, raising his hands to blast Ulik again. "No offense, but I was hoping for some heavy hitters."
"Well, they're carrying civilians away or fighting all the other crap around the city. Me and Bobbi will be there soon," Hawkeye said. The sound of an engine could be heard as he spoke.
Tony stopped firing to think. In truth, Hawkeye opened up possibilities. If he could get a solid shot in, with some help from Thor... and the extra arc reactors from the Hulkbuster armor lying on the ground.
"Okay then, Barton. I've got a plan."
------
Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver
Moving as fast as he could, Pietro carried a small Brazilian man and his muscular wife at high speed. Granted, everything he did was usually at high speed, but that was beside the point. Stopping in front of a tent, he placed the couple on the ground, ignoring their loud cries of thanks in favor of stumbling over to a foldable table with bottles of water all over it. He grabbed one up and practically forced himself to drink it, one palm against the table to support him. Pietro crushed the bottle when he was done and gasped, pulling at his collar.
He kept taking long gulps of air, the ocean nearby giving the oxygen a salty taste as it passed over his tongue. Looking around, he took stock of everything. Dozens of people roamed around him, giving the super-speedster a wide berth. BRIDGE soldiers and other personnel were either defending the area or helping people, putting refugees onto Quinjets and doing first aid.
Pietro stared for a moment at the many body bags piled in one area. Then he looked away.
After another few gulps of water, Pietro was running again, ignoring the soreness in his legs. Within moments he was out of the camp and back in the city. Pietro breathed hard as he followed the trail of one of the drones, hopping over a pile of rubble, sliding under a metal pole, then taking an alleyway, hopping to run along the wall, then taking another spin as he hopped off of the wall, landed on a railing, then out towards a street. For one moment, Pietro was in the air, ten feet above the strewn rubble. With a sense of familiarity, he looked around the war-torn street, a heavy feeling his heart, blood pumping at high-speed through his limbs.
A loud howl, then a scream, filled the air just as he landed, in that split second where he wasn't going faster than sound. Pietro's feet ground into the asphalt, and he leaned forward until he was almost lying down on the ground. In the brief moment when gravity began to pull at him, he began to sprint. Pulling off a 'drift' at that speed was easy if you ignored the strain it put on even his superhuman form. Gritting his teeth, Pietro focused on his destination.
By the time he'd reached the place, the wolves had already begun to attack. A small group of people, about five, wearing fine clothing and carrying heavy luggage, screaming as they tried to run through the jagged metal rebar and concrete rubble remains of a skyscraper, like the bones of some giant. The wolves were the real showstopper.
Pietro gaped for a moment. They were massive, covered in grey fur and smelling distinctly animal, the way all predators did, a heavy and enveloping scent. There were three wolves, each about as large as a small car. He could easily imagine the blood-soaked beasts hunting mammoths in the ancient world.
One of the wolves was in mid-leap, teeth extended, eyes savage. He was aiming to kill a woman in mid-fall.
Pietro sped forward. No time to be gentle. He watched carefully as he sped forward, grabbed a piece of metal rebar out of a pile of rubble, and raised it like a spear as he met the wolf at the point it was about to bite into the woman.
Running at three hundred miles per hour, Pietro stabbed the metal 'spear' in his hand deep into the wolves eye. Metal sliced through flesh, bone, then flesh again. Pietro twisted to slam his shoulder into the wolf's side at the same time, using his speed and mass to send it flying. It rolled for a moment before slamming into an office desk half poking out of debris, shattering the furniture with its mass.
Everyone stilled, staring at Pietro as he looked at the woman he'd saved. He felt a bit of annoyance at how long the woman was taking to realize she'd been saved. Damnit, why was the rest of the world so slow?
"Run already!" he shouted at last. The woman screeched, then hurried up to her feet and sprinting to meet the rest of her group. Scowling, Pietro looked at the two remaining wolves. The two beasts blinked at him. "What?" he smirked darkly. "You didn't see that coming?" The wolves leaped at him on cue.
He spun away from the first, slapping it on the snout, then ducked the other, letting it pass over him. Feeling mischievous, he waited until the wolves hind legs were above him. Then he unleashed dozens of punched into the spot just between the wolves hind legs.
When that wolf landed, it was with a screech of sound akin to a loudspeaker that had broken. Alive, but devastated, it hobbled away, eyes wide. His fellow wolf gave Pietro a look of similar surprise, then began to run.
"Ha!" Pietro chuckled. Then he was running again.
------
Bruce Banner/Hulk
In another part of the city, Hulk was leaping from building to building, trying to get to his friends as fast as he could.
"Hulk!" A BRIDGE operative said through the speaker in his armor. "We need to help civilians in a department store nearby! They're getting attacked by something, and you're the closest one to it."
Hulk scowled. "No! Hulk help friends!"
Whoever was on the other side paused. "Sir, I understand, but these civilians are in danger. We need to-"
Within the mind of Hulk, Banner rose. "They're right. Thor and Tony can fight, but those people can't. If we don't help, they might die."
Hulk waited for more. For the insistence, the annoying yells, Puny Banner shouting at him, chaining him.
Banner said nothing.
Hulk scoffed, then nodded. "Hulk go to people. Where?"
The person on the other side paused again. "O-Oh, that's great! Here, I'll send the coordinates to your armor."
Hulk landed on a building, ignoring the sound of glass shattering that followed. For a moment, it was quiet. Then his armor began to blink on the right gauntlet. He spun to his right, then back to the left as the blinking light got brighter. Once facing the right direction, the light stopped blinking to glow steadily.
The green titan shot into the sky. It took twelve massive jumps, shooting through the sky over a destroyed city, hair blowing in the wind as he closed his eyes, taking some joy in the sunlight. But deep within, another emotion always bloomed. With every smashing landing, with the way, his hands unconsciously kept clenching. One emotion always swelled within him.
And when he reached the department store to the sound of loud roars and screams, he let the emotion explode outward. No subtlety. He smashed through the roof like a meteor.
Falling for three stories, Hulk landed in what could have once been called a clothing department. Now, it was a swamp.
Hulk landed in the middle of a stinking lake of murky water, his impromptu cannonball sending waves out everywhere. The disgusting water made him crinkle his nose in disgust, the eight-foot behemoth up to his knees in green and brown filth.
He looked up. People were running away screaming. He was used to that. He was less used to the sight of dinosaurs.
Well, one dinosaur. Standing in the middle of the clothing department turned prehistoric swamp, the tall dinosaur stood over the landscape. It held half a dead corpse in one hand, the other half in its mouth. It stared at Hulk with predatory fascination, long tail swinging back and forth behind it.
"T-Rex?" Bruce asked, stunned. "No, it's too big. And why doesn't it have feathers? Look at those arms, they're too long! How did it... And this swamp! Did it get pulled in along with its environment?"
Hulk didn't have as many questions. Instead, he roared.
So did the dinosaur, dropping the corpse in its hand. The massive beast ran towards Hulk, jaws sweeping down to devour him. Hulk grabbed it's jaws as the creature came down, roaring as he was forced back by the massive bulk of the dinosaur. With a twist, Hulk pulled the beast around, the creature growling in surprise as it was tossed aside, smashing into a pillar. Dazed, the creature spun around. A loud snapping sound followed the tail's passing through the air before the tip hit Hulk in the chest.
"Right, I remember that T-Rex's can apparently break the sound barrier with their tail swings," Bruce mused as Hulk was sent through the air like he'd been shot out of a cannon. "Although I guess this isn't a real dinosaur. There's so little information on them of course, so I suppose-"
"Stop talking!" Hulk grumbled loudly as he smashed through a window, glass falling around him followed by rubble. "Help fight!"
"Right, sorry," Bruce said, voice tightening. "I'll get out of your way."
Hulk rolled to his feet, brushing glass off his shoulders. He glared at the dinosaur that had sent him flying, then leaped forward, flying through the hole he'd created. "HULK SMASH DINOSAUR!"
The T-Rex's reptilian eyes widened moments before a green fist smashed into its jaw, sending bloodied teeth flying in a spray of blood.
"GWAAARRR!" Spinning back with impressive fortitude, the dinosaur headbutt his opponent. Hulk roared, wrapping his arms around the head smashed into his chest.
"SAURIAN SUPLEX!" Holding onto the dinosaurs head, he lifted and pulled. In complete defiance of physical laws, the dinosaur was lifted off the ground. Taloned feet twisted through the air, green skin of two vastly different hues bunched up with muscle, and an eight-foot green man suplexed a dinosaur.
Cratering the ground with a crunch of bones shattering against the stone, the T-Rex died on impact surrounded by the corpses of the humans it had eaten. Hulk spun to his feet to stare down for a moment, making sure the creature was dead.
"Rath is a bad influence on you," Bruce noted within his other half's mind.
"Rath is good influence," Hulk scoffed.
He leaped out of the building, heading out to aid his friends once again.
------
Thor Odinson/God of Thunder
Thor swallowed blood, and spat to the side, glaring. Once the shock had worn off and he was actually in combat, Ulik's grinning face was a callback to far simpler times. As a younger man filled with grand thoughts of honor and glory, before the events of the last few years.
Twisting Mjolnir in his palm, the handle mystically clean of any sweat or blood, Thor ignored the sound of Tony landing beside him, focusing instead on the voice in his ear as it explained everything. At the same time, he spoke.
"Ulik. There are people who need help here. People I must aid," Ulik's smile faded slightly. "I don't have time for this fight. Please. Stop fighting and let me help them."
Ulik sighed. "I understand. But I have seen that your allies have aided many during our battle. We are clear to fight as we wish, and let your worthy allies save everyone else," he grinned. "So do not worry Thor! We can fight as much as we want and your allies can join in after! Our battle will shake this land and be told in the tales of Midgard for eternity! Come, my friend! Let's race to Valhalla!"
"Is it weird that I can't tell if I like this guy or not?" Tony asked, sounding lost. "I feel like I'm fighting the Warrior."
Thor turned to look at Iron Man, blinking. "Well, he is a warrior, but I don't-"
"Yeah, yeah, not familiar with Earth culture. Get a new thing, big guy," with that, Iron Man raised his gauntlets and fired at the ground in front of Ulik. The blasts threw up enough dust to obscure Ulik's vision. Thor flew into the dust, smashing Mjolnir into Ulik's chestplate, more gauntlet blasts from Iron Man sending up dust and making it hard to hear. Ulik grunted, smiled, and reached for Thor's cape. The moment Thor felt the cape tug, he reached up and unlatched the cape with two swift hand motions. Ulik pulled hard, only to face no resistance, thrown off-balance. Thor ducked under a desperate punch then uppercut Ulik in the face with a clap of lightning. The dust around them flew apart.
Then Thor got out of the way.
Ulik's eyes widened as the dust cleared to reveal the next stage of the plan. A blue convertible sports car with the top down drove towards him at high speed, its roaring engine having been masked by Tony's gauntlet blasts.
Hawkeye stood with one foot on the driver's seat and the other inside the steering wheel, holding his bow lazily as he guided the car with the grace of pirate captain at the helm of his ship. Mockingbird stood on the hood with her feet set. The pair leaped off the car just at the point of impact.
The sports car smashed into Ulik, the explosives set inside exploding at Mockingbird's command. Ulik was sent stumbling slightly but kept in place for Hawkeye and Mockingbird. Hawkeye pulled and fired his bow four times mid-flip, two of the arrows hitting the concrete and send catoms to devour the stone, briefly leaving Ulik about to fall into the hole created. Two more arrows hit the hole and exploded with massive concussive force, joined by Mockingbird tossing flashbangs that exploded in Ulik's eyes. He shouted in pain and confusion.
Hawkeye and Mockingbird landed and rolled out of the way as Thor and Iron Man struck next in the brief millisecond where Ulik was in the air. Standing side by side, Thor swung his hammer at high speed over his head, lightning striking the metal over and over. Iron Man had the remains of the Hulkbuster backplate strapped on with haphazard regard for safety, his center arclight alight with power. The two struck, Unibeam and Thunderblast smashing into Ulik.
The troll could barely be seen laughing joyfully as he was tossed in a haphazard arc across the battlefield. And up. And up. And up.
Thor blinked, surprised, as a laughing Ulik was sent into the horizon, disappearing in a flash of light. "I... did you do that?"
"Uh... maybe?" Tony asked, sounding shocked. "Jarvis, we calculated for how much power the extra arc reactors from the Hulkbuster would give to the Unibeam, right?"
"Yes sir," Jarvis said. "But we didn't account for the effect Thor's own powers would have on the arc reactors. Combined, both blasts had quite a bit more force than we calculated."
"I'll say," Hawkeye walked up, his helmet pulling apart to show his confused face. "I thought I was supposed to surround him in Goopgel the second he landed? You know, the super-adhesive and breathable stuff I held onto to keep big superhumans captive? Or was the plan to send the guy over the horizon?"
"I mean, you both could have opened up with that," Mockingbird noted.
"We didn't even know we could do that!" Thor admitted.
"I'm sorry, do you sound proud?" Hawkeye asked incredulously.
"..." Thor and Tony shared a look.
"It was a hell of an awesome attack," Tony finally said.
"Indeed, likely matched by few," Thor agreed, fighting a proud smile with a frown.
"You two are ridiculous!" Mockingbird said incredulously. "Jarvis, where did that guy land?"
"Unknown, ma'am."
The entire group blinked and spoke in unison. "Crap."
------
Maria Hill/Director of BRIDGE
"You lost him?" Maria asked crossing her arms and staring at the main screen of her helicarrier, shaking her head. "This guy just laughed while fighting two of our heavy hitters and knocking out a third, and you guys tossed him out of the city!?"
On the screen, Tony Stark stood sans armor in a medical tent. Behind him, the unconscious form of Dial lay on a bed being looked over by a doctor while Thor, Hawkeye, and Mockingbird stood next to Tony. The billionaire chuckled nervously. "You uh, you did hear the part where it was an accident, right?"
"You accidentally sent one of the most powerful beings we've ever seen into the outskirts of a city full of a demons, wolves, and from what Hulk tells me, dinosaurs?"
"Wait, dinosaurs!?" Tony and Hawkeye asked, sounding delighted.
"Focus!" Maria barked. "Jarvis, X?"
"Nothing miss," Jarvis admitted. "It may be interference from the event or some consequence of the beings composition. But he's gone."
Maria spat out a curse. She closed her eyes, ignoring the flinching group of techs around her, then turned to Victoria Hand. "Get our people working with every information asset we have to find out where the hell that thing landed. We might be able to handle the rest of the forces here but-"
"The Council is asking to speak with us," Victoria interrupted. Maria clapped her mouth shut. Her eyes searched Victoria's face. The woman shook her head, looking worn and aggrieved. "The UN and the Brazilian government have something they want to tell us."
"...Hand, do as I said, and work with everyone else to finish up the evac."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Tony, get Dial to the helicarrier. The rest of you, save the other civilians," she swiped a hand and the screen swiped over. For a moment, the sound of a signal connecting came from the screen. Then it flashed, Steve Rogers appearing. "Steve, I'm going to speak with the Council. Hand is in command."
Steve blinked. "The Council. Director, what's going on?"
"Politics," with another swipe, she swept the screen closed, then turned and walked away.
------
Entering her office, Maria was greeted with the visages of the Council, sat in the room in the form of crystal clear holograms. It wasn't surprising to her that they all looked angry. What was surprising was their first words.
"The UN has just made a massive mistake," Rockwell said, the aging American man practically growling the words out.
Maria had to hide her surprise at that. "What happened?"
Councilwoman Hawley sighed, leaning back. "They have demanded that we pull you out."
"Are they insane?!" Maria shook her head. "Councilmembers, Rio has faced an event unprecedented in human history! The amount of damage done here dwarf's everything from the Chitauri Invasion to the battle in London!"
"Believe me, Director Hill, we agree implicitly," Councilman Yen said, the Chinese representative shaking his head. "The Brazilian government and many nations of the UN are terrified, Ms. Hill. And certain... elements, within our governments, are claiming that having the Avengers and BRIDGE there might make things worse. That you all-"
"What? That we attract danger?" Maria rubbed her forehead. "That makes no sense."
"Politicians aren't always logical," Rockwell said sarcastically. "In fact, they rarely are."
Maria scowled. BRIDGE was not an independent organization. In the end, they were beholden to the UN in a very real and tangent way. In funding and in duty, they worked for the nations of Earth first and foremost.
"There is more to this, isn't there?" Maria asked.
Councilwoman Hawley and Rockwell spoke at the same time. "Ye-/The govern-"
The pair stopped awkwardly, Yen taking over, his accented voice calm over the hologram. "We aren't sure of the full politics involved of course. But from we can tell, various nations have been working to create teams of enhanced individuals of their own. And at least some of the reasons for BRIDGE being demanded to pull out is due to that."
"It was a close vote," Councilman Singh said, speaking for the first time. "But you have your orders. BRIDGE must pull out of Rio."
Maria scowled.
"...BRIDGE. BRIDGE has to pull out of Rio," Rockwell continued, smirking. "The organization BRIDGE, and no other group."
Maria's scowl faded, somewhat. "...It'll take us a few days as well. With how entrenched we are."
"I suppose that's understandable," Councilwoman Hawley agreed. "After all, we still need to evacuate the civilians."
The Director of BRIDGE smiled. "I'll let my people know."
------
Mahmoud Schahed/Dial
When I woke up, it was with a powerful headache. I was lying in a cot, trying to figure out where I…
Oh. Oh right.
I stared up at the familiar ceiling of the rooms of the Enterprise, just…
The door opened. I looked at it to see a doctor walk in wearing a lab coat.
"What happened?" I asked her.
The black woman blinked. "Oh, you're awake!"
"What happened?" I asked again. "How long was I out?"
She blinked, then sighed. "You woke up a couple of minutes after you were knocked out, but you were apparently worn out enough to pass out again right after. Although some of the scientists have been saying that the 'troll' may have had something to do with it."
I scowled. Ulik. Ulik had beaten me. Damn it.
The door opened before the doctor could say anything else, and Skye walked in, wearing the armor I'd made her. Usually, I smiled when I saw that. Right now I was fighting a headache. She stopped and blinked at the sight of me. Just behind her, Jen walked in, followed by Creel.
"Hey," Skye said, her armor clinking open to let her step out of it. She left it standing in the center of the room, walking over to my bed. "You look like shit."
Jen grinned, while Creel huffed out a chuckle of his own. I didn't laugh.
For some reason, they seemed surprised by that. Creel stood at the head of my bed, while Jen and Skye stood on my left and right sides, respectively. I shifted in the bed, grunting, then looked at my wrist. The Omnitrix sat there, glowing yellow. For some reason, it seemed to glow a little brighter than usual, but that might have been my headache.
"Goddamnit," I grunted.
"You okay?" Jen asked, surprised.
"I lost," I leaned up, scowling. "The guy took everything I had and kicked my ass. Damnit, I should have gone Goop. Or maybe I could have used Snare-Oh? Shit, maybe Frankenstrike could have worked together with Thor, or I-"
"Okay, don't," Creel grunted, my bald friend, shaking his head. "I've done that before. You keep going over the fight in your head like that, all you'll do is obsess uselessly man. Just learn from it and move on."
"Creel, I can't just…" I growled to myself, not knowing how the hell I felt. I decided to just focus on something else. "Well, what's next?"
Jen answered. "Well, BRIDGE is being told to pull out in the next few days."
"What?!" I snapped up from the bed, then cursed when my headache intensified. "What for? People still need help!"
"Yeah, we know," Skye crossed her arms, looking pissed. So did Creel and Jen. "The UN is telling us to get out. Well, BRIDGE, at least."
Jen grinned at my confusion. "Yeah, we found a loophole. Since we're independent contractors, technically, the Avengers don't fall under BRIDGE's rules, so we can stay. Well, except Skye, I mean."
"Yeah, turns out actually joining BRIDGE has its disadvantages," Skye scowled. "We still have a few days before that though, so we'll do what we can."
"And all us former cons have to return too," Creel said, crossing his massive arms. "Since we technically work for BRIDGE as part of our 'community service'."
"What about Cap and Nat?" I frowned, feeling my headache slowly fade. "And Hartley. And Clint. I mean, you get my point."
"Yeah, Cap's fine butt has to go," Skye said.
"So fine," Jen said wistfully.
"So fine!" Skye agreed.
"Guys, seriously?" Creel asked with a grunt.
"Look, back to something other than the who's who of finest butts in the Avengers-" I said.
"Nat," everyone said at once. Including the doctor. I sighed.
"Doc, when can I fight again?" I asked.
"I have no idea," the doctor said.
We all stared at her. The black woman sighed. "Usually I'd say no. But you're on the borderline between human and superhuman. I can't say if transforming will heal you or not."
Yeah, that was fair. I had no idea if it would either. I seemed to remember a few times where Ben had been just fine, but then there was the time he'd got a cold so severe even Heatblast had gotten it. I wasn't sure.
Plus, the Omnitrix was still glowing yellow. No idea if it could work while absorbing DNA really.
"Worth a shot," I decided/answered, twisting the dial. Thinking carefully, I brought up one of my favorites, if lesser used, aliens.
"Aw, man!" Jen, Skye, and Creel said at the same time when they recognized the alien hologram in question, reaching hands towards their noses.
I ignored them to push down the Omnitrix. Flesh shifted to plant material in a flowing movement.
"SWAMPFIRE!" I shouted joyfully. Getting out of my bed, I grinned down at my arms. "Ah, much better! Not a single headache."
"Yeah, for you maybe," Creel mumbled while holding his nose against the smell of Swampfire's natural emissions.
I curled my fists. I realized I'd forgotten something. "What happened to Ulik?"
Creel coughed. "Right. About that."
------
We didn't have time to go over much. The second I was declared able to fight again, I was sent out with the others. I stayed Swampfire when we landed back in the city. I'd have changed back, but a small team was fighting off an attempted incursion when we were about to leave, so I simply landed as the green plant alien. Er, the one with fire powers as well I mean.
Fighting a group of armored knights yelling and calling me a monster in the middle of a modern city while in Swampfire reminded me painfully of Alien Force.
"Shut up," I told a man who'd called me a demon again. I lifted the armored knight and tossed him into the air, ignoring Skye's repulsor blast knocking him out of the air. "...Where is Ulik now then?"
Jen, the closest person next to me, looked over, confused. She held another knight in her left hand, his chainmail curled in her fist. The guy was screaming, stabbing at her over and over with a dagger, his sword in his other hand having crumbled when She-Hulk had grabbed it. I could still see her fingerprints embedded in the iron if I looked closely. "Really? We're fighting medieval knights and you're still focused on that."
I barely kept my immediate response from passing my lips. He beat me. What a childish thought.
Another man rushed me, this one wearing leather armor and carrying a spear. "Die, beast!" With that triumphant cry, he stabbed me in the chest.
I looked down at him. His smile faded. I wrapped a hand around his neck and lifted him up before turning to Jen, who punched her guy in the face. "I just… it's been a long day."
Jen smiled just a bit. And I suddenly felt really selfish. Jen looked exhausted. She was covered in sweat and dust, her hair had been pulled up into a rough ponytail, and her clothes were ripped. Even with her superhuman physiology, the green-skinned gammazon looked how I felt. And her eyes were so worn.
We stared at each other for a moment, ignoring the guy I held struggling in the air. I sighed after a moment. Jen did the same.
With that, I wrapped the guy in vines and tossed him onto my shoulder. Jen did the same with her guy. We looked at the destroyed city around us.
Something had caused this. And I was pretty sure we were going to end up confronting it soon.
And I was less than certain I was ready.
Tony coughed, blood filling his mouth. The aftermath of that massive wave of unknown energy had knocked him down."Jarvis, what the hell was that?"
"Unknown sir," Jarvis responded. "Some sort of energy wave, one that managed to injure Big Chill despite his intangibility."
"The kid?" Tony twisted his head around. He stopped at the sight of Dial on the floor lying in rubble, open wounds across his body. A scan revealed fractured bones and internal bleeding. "Mahmoud."
"Medical support is on the way," Jarvis said firmly.
Tony rose to his feet, groaning and cursing slightly. His armor slowly reformed itself, catoms flowing. "Jarvis, I need basic armor form. No Hulkbuster, it isn't fast enough to fight this guy."
Jarvis didn't respond, but the catoms from the Hulkbuster flowed to fill in cracks and rebuild sections of his usual armor as the Hulkbuster fell away.
Thor was still battling the monster, Ulik or whatever his name was. Tony flew in, blasting the guy in the face. As he did, some indicators on his HUD lit up. He ignored them to fly over the pair, firing again and again. His shoulders popped up, missiles flying out to slam into Ulik's back. When it was over, the guy was on fire, his hair burning.
"Hahaha!" Ulik smashed his knuckles into Mjolnir, the two weapons screeching aloud with the impact. "Your friends have such power, Prince Thor! Killing them will be an honor!" then he seemed almost abashed. "Actually, I would like a moment to finish off the shapeshifter if you don't-"
"Never!" Thor shouted. He grabbed Ulik's beard and headbutted him, then rose into an uppercut with his hammer, lifting Ulik into the air in a burst of lightning.
"Someone get over here and help!" Tony shouted over the comms.
Bobbi Morse, the Mockingbird, responded through the comms. "We're on our way!"
Tony winced, raising his hands to blast Ulik again. "No offense, but I was hoping for some heavy hitters."
"Well, they're carrying civilians away or fighting all the other crap around the city. Me and Bobbi will be there soon," Hawkeye said. The sound of an engine could be heard as he spoke.
Tony stopped firing to think. In truth, Hawkeye opened up possibilities. If he could get a solid shot in, with some help from Thor... and the extra arc reactors from the Hulkbuster armor lying on the ground.
"Okay then, Barton. I've got a plan."
------
Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver
Moving as fast as he could, Pietro carried a small Brazilian man and his muscular wife at high speed. Granted, everything he did was usually at high speed, but that was beside the point. Stopping in front of a tent, he placed the couple on the ground, ignoring their loud cries of thanks in favor of stumbling over to a foldable table with bottles of water all over it. He grabbed one up and practically forced himself to drink it, one palm against the table to support him. Pietro crushed the bottle when he was done and gasped, pulling at his collar.
He kept taking long gulps of air, the ocean nearby giving the oxygen a salty taste as it passed over his tongue. Looking around, he took stock of everything. Dozens of people roamed around him, giving the super-speedster a wide berth. BRIDGE soldiers and other personnel were either defending the area or helping people, putting refugees onto Quinjets and doing first aid.
Pietro stared for a moment at the many body bags piled in one area. Then he looked away.
After another few gulps of water, Pietro was running again, ignoring the soreness in his legs. Within moments he was out of the camp and back in the city. Pietro breathed hard as he followed the trail of one of the drones, hopping over a pile of rubble, sliding under a metal pole, then taking an alleyway, hopping to run along the wall, then taking another spin as he hopped off of the wall, landed on a railing, then out towards a street. For one moment, Pietro was in the air, ten feet above the strewn rubble. With a sense of familiarity, he looked around the war-torn street, a heavy feeling his heart, blood pumping at high-speed through his limbs.
A loud howl, then a scream, filled the air just as he landed, in that split second where he wasn't going faster than sound. Pietro's feet ground into the asphalt, and he leaned forward until he was almost lying down on the ground. In the brief moment when gravity began to pull at him, he began to sprint. Pulling off a 'drift' at that speed was easy if you ignored the strain it put on even his superhuman form. Gritting his teeth, Pietro focused on his destination.
By the time he'd reached the place, the wolves had already begun to attack. A small group of people, about five, wearing fine clothing and carrying heavy luggage, screaming as they tried to run through the jagged metal rebar and concrete rubble remains of a skyscraper, like the bones of some giant. The wolves were the real showstopper.
Pietro gaped for a moment. They were massive, covered in grey fur and smelling distinctly animal, the way all predators did, a heavy and enveloping scent. There were three wolves, each about as large as a small car. He could easily imagine the blood-soaked beasts hunting mammoths in the ancient world.
One of the wolves was in mid-leap, teeth extended, eyes savage. He was aiming to kill a woman in mid-fall.
Pietro sped forward. No time to be gentle. He watched carefully as he sped forward, grabbed a piece of metal rebar out of a pile of rubble, and raised it like a spear as he met the wolf at the point it was about to bite into the woman.
Running at three hundred miles per hour, Pietro stabbed the metal 'spear' in his hand deep into the wolves eye. Metal sliced through flesh, bone, then flesh again. Pietro twisted to slam his shoulder into the wolf's side at the same time, using his speed and mass to send it flying. It rolled for a moment before slamming into an office desk half poking out of debris, shattering the furniture with its mass.
Everyone stilled, staring at Pietro as he looked at the woman he'd saved. He felt a bit of annoyance at how long the woman was taking to realize she'd been saved. Damnit, why was the rest of the world so slow?
"Run already!" he shouted at last. The woman screeched, then hurried up to her feet and sprinting to meet the rest of her group. Scowling, Pietro looked at the two remaining wolves. The two beasts blinked at him. "What?" he smirked darkly. "You didn't see that coming?" The wolves leaped at him on cue.
He spun away from the first, slapping it on the snout, then ducked the other, letting it pass over him. Feeling mischievous, he waited until the wolves hind legs were above him. Then he unleashed dozens of punched into the spot just between the wolves hind legs.
When that wolf landed, it was with a screech of sound akin to a loudspeaker that had broken. Alive, but devastated, it hobbled away, eyes wide. His fellow wolf gave Pietro a look of similar surprise, then began to run.
"Ha!" Pietro chuckled. Then he was running again.
------
Bruce Banner/Hulk
In another part of the city, Hulk was leaping from building to building, trying to get to his friends as fast as he could.
"Hulk!" A BRIDGE operative said through the speaker in his armor. "We need to help civilians in a department store nearby! They're getting attacked by something, and you're the closest one to it."
Hulk scowled. "No! Hulk help friends!"
Whoever was on the other side paused. "Sir, I understand, but these civilians are in danger. We need to-"
Within the mind of Hulk, Banner rose. "They're right. Thor and Tony can fight, but those people can't. If we don't help, they might die."
Hulk waited for more. For the insistence, the annoying yells, Puny Banner shouting at him, chaining him.
Banner said nothing.
Hulk scoffed, then nodded. "Hulk go to people. Where?"
The person on the other side paused again. "O-Oh, that's great! Here, I'll send the coordinates to your armor."
Hulk landed on a building, ignoring the sound of glass shattering that followed. For a moment, it was quiet. Then his armor began to blink on the right gauntlet. He spun to his right, then back to the left as the blinking light got brighter. Once facing the right direction, the light stopped blinking to glow steadily.
The green titan shot into the sky. It took twelve massive jumps, shooting through the sky over a destroyed city, hair blowing in the wind as he closed his eyes, taking some joy in the sunlight. But deep within, another emotion always bloomed. With every smashing landing, with the way, his hands unconsciously kept clenching. One emotion always swelled within him.
And when he reached the department store to the sound of loud roars and screams, he let the emotion explode outward. No subtlety. He smashed through the roof like a meteor.
Falling for three stories, Hulk landed in what could have once been called a clothing department. Now, it was a swamp.
Hulk landed in the middle of a stinking lake of murky water, his impromptu cannonball sending waves out everywhere. The disgusting water made him crinkle his nose in disgust, the eight-foot behemoth up to his knees in green and brown filth.
He looked up. People were running away screaming. He was used to that. He was less used to the sight of dinosaurs.
Well, one dinosaur. Standing in the middle of the clothing department turned prehistoric swamp, the tall dinosaur stood over the landscape. It held half a dead corpse in one hand, the other half in its mouth. It stared at Hulk with predatory fascination, long tail swinging back and forth behind it.
"T-Rex?" Bruce asked, stunned. "No, it's too big. And why doesn't it have feathers? Look at those arms, they're too long! How did it... And this swamp! Did it get pulled in along with its environment?"
Hulk didn't have as many questions. Instead, he roared.
So did the dinosaur, dropping the corpse in its hand. The massive beast ran towards Hulk, jaws sweeping down to devour him. Hulk grabbed it's jaws as the creature came down, roaring as he was forced back by the massive bulk of the dinosaur. With a twist, Hulk pulled the beast around, the creature growling in surprise as it was tossed aside, smashing into a pillar. Dazed, the creature spun around. A loud snapping sound followed the tail's passing through the air before the tip hit Hulk in the chest.
"Right, I remember that T-Rex's can apparently break the sound barrier with their tail swings," Bruce mused as Hulk was sent through the air like he'd been shot out of a cannon. "Although I guess this isn't a real dinosaur. There's so little information on them of course, so I suppose-"
"Stop talking!" Hulk grumbled loudly as he smashed through a window, glass falling around him followed by rubble. "Help fight!"
"Right, sorry," Bruce said, voice tightening. "I'll get out of your way."
Hulk rolled to his feet, brushing glass off his shoulders. He glared at the dinosaur that had sent him flying, then leaped forward, flying through the hole he'd created. "HULK SMASH DINOSAUR!"
The T-Rex's reptilian eyes widened moments before a green fist smashed into its jaw, sending bloodied teeth flying in a spray of blood.
"GWAAARRR!" Spinning back with impressive fortitude, the dinosaur headbutt his opponent. Hulk roared, wrapping his arms around the head smashed into his chest.
"SAURIAN SUPLEX!" Holding onto the dinosaurs head, he lifted and pulled. In complete defiance of physical laws, the dinosaur was lifted off the ground. Taloned feet twisted through the air, green skin of two vastly different hues bunched up with muscle, and an eight-foot green man suplexed a dinosaur.
Cratering the ground with a crunch of bones shattering against the stone, the T-Rex died on impact surrounded by the corpses of the humans it had eaten. Hulk spun to his feet to stare down for a moment, making sure the creature was dead.
"Rath is a bad influence on you," Bruce noted within his other half's mind.
"Rath is good influence," Hulk scoffed.
He leaped out of the building, heading out to aid his friends once again.
------
Thor Odinson/God of Thunder
Thor swallowed blood, and spat to the side, glaring. Once the shock had worn off and he was actually in combat, Ulik's grinning face was a callback to far simpler times. As a younger man filled with grand thoughts of honor and glory, before the events of the last few years.
Twisting Mjolnir in his palm, the handle mystically clean of any sweat or blood, Thor ignored the sound of Tony landing beside him, focusing instead on the voice in his ear as it explained everything. At the same time, he spoke.
"Ulik. There are people who need help here. People I must aid," Ulik's smile faded slightly. "I don't have time for this fight. Please. Stop fighting and let me help them."
Ulik sighed. "I understand. But I have seen that your allies have aided many during our battle. We are clear to fight as we wish, and let your worthy allies save everyone else," he grinned. "So do not worry Thor! We can fight as much as we want and your allies can join in after! Our battle will shake this land and be told in the tales of Midgard for eternity! Come, my friend! Let's race to Valhalla!"
"Is it weird that I can't tell if I like this guy or not?" Tony asked, sounding lost. "I feel like I'm fighting the Warrior."
Thor turned to look at Iron Man, blinking. "Well, he is a warrior, but I don't-"
"Yeah, yeah, not familiar with Earth culture. Get a new thing, big guy," with that, Iron Man raised his gauntlets and fired at the ground in front of Ulik. The blasts threw up enough dust to obscure Ulik's vision. Thor flew into the dust, smashing Mjolnir into Ulik's chestplate, more gauntlet blasts from Iron Man sending up dust and making it hard to hear. Ulik grunted, smiled, and reached for Thor's cape. The moment Thor felt the cape tug, he reached up and unlatched the cape with two swift hand motions. Ulik pulled hard, only to face no resistance, thrown off-balance. Thor ducked under a desperate punch then uppercut Ulik in the face with a clap of lightning. The dust around them flew apart.
Then Thor got out of the way.
Ulik's eyes widened as the dust cleared to reveal the next stage of the plan. A blue convertible sports car with the top down drove towards him at high speed, its roaring engine having been masked by Tony's gauntlet blasts.
Hawkeye stood with one foot on the driver's seat and the other inside the steering wheel, holding his bow lazily as he guided the car with the grace of pirate captain at the helm of his ship. Mockingbird stood on the hood with her feet set. The pair leaped off the car just at the point of impact.
The sports car smashed into Ulik, the explosives set inside exploding at Mockingbird's command. Ulik was sent stumbling slightly but kept in place for Hawkeye and Mockingbird. Hawkeye pulled and fired his bow four times mid-flip, two of the arrows hitting the concrete and send catoms to devour the stone, briefly leaving Ulik about to fall into the hole created. Two more arrows hit the hole and exploded with massive concussive force, joined by Mockingbird tossing flashbangs that exploded in Ulik's eyes. He shouted in pain and confusion.
Hawkeye and Mockingbird landed and rolled out of the way as Thor and Iron Man struck next in the brief millisecond where Ulik was in the air. Standing side by side, Thor swung his hammer at high speed over his head, lightning striking the metal over and over. Iron Man had the remains of the Hulkbuster backplate strapped on with haphazard regard for safety, his center arclight alight with power. The two struck, Unibeam and Thunderblast smashing into Ulik.
The troll could barely be seen laughing joyfully as he was tossed in a haphazard arc across the battlefield. And up. And up. And up.
Thor blinked, surprised, as a laughing Ulik was sent into the horizon, disappearing in a flash of light. "I... did you do that?"
"Uh... maybe?" Tony asked, sounding shocked. "Jarvis, we calculated for how much power the extra arc reactors from the Hulkbuster would give to the Unibeam, right?"
"Yes sir," Jarvis said. "But we didn't account for the effect Thor's own powers would have on the arc reactors. Combined, both blasts had quite a bit more force than we calculated."
"I'll say," Hawkeye walked up, his helmet pulling apart to show his confused face. "I thought I was supposed to surround him in Goopgel the second he landed? You know, the super-adhesive and breathable stuff I held onto to keep big superhumans captive? Or was the plan to send the guy over the horizon?"
"I mean, you both could have opened up with that," Mockingbird noted.
"We didn't even know we could do that!" Thor admitted.
"I'm sorry, do you sound proud?" Hawkeye asked incredulously.
"..." Thor and Tony shared a look.
"It was a hell of an awesome attack," Tony finally said.
"Indeed, likely matched by few," Thor agreed, fighting a proud smile with a frown.
"You two are ridiculous!" Mockingbird said incredulously. "Jarvis, where did that guy land?"
"Unknown, ma'am."
The entire group blinked and spoke in unison. "Crap."
------
Maria Hill/Director of BRIDGE
"You lost him?" Maria asked crossing her arms and staring at the main screen of her helicarrier, shaking her head. "This guy just laughed while fighting two of our heavy hitters and knocking out a third, and you guys tossed him out of the city!?"
On the screen, Tony Stark stood sans armor in a medical tent. Behind him, the unconscious form of Dial lay on a bed being looked over by a doctor while Thor, Hawkeye, and Mockingbird stood next to Tony. The billionaire chuckled nervously. "You uh, you did hear the part where it was an accident, right?"
"You accidentally sent one of the most powerful beings we've ever seen into the outskirts of a city full of a demons, wolves, and from what Hulk tells me, dinosaurs?"
"Wait, dinosaurs!?" Tony and Hawkeye asked, sounding delighted.
"Focus!" Maria barked. "Jarvis, X?"
"Nothing miss," Jarvis admitted. "It may be interference from the event or some consequence of the beings composition. But he's gone."
Maria spat out a curse. She closed her eyes, ignoring the flinching group of techs around her, then turned to Victoria Hand. "Get our people working with every information asset we have to find out where the hell that thing landed. We might be able to handle the rest of the forces here but-"
"The Council is asking to speak with us," Victoria interrupted. Maria clapped her mouth shut. Her eyes searched Victoria's face. The woman shook her head, looking worn and aggrieved. "The UN and the Brazilian government have something they want to tell us."
"...Hand, do as I said, and work with everyone else to finish up the evac."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Tony, get Dial to the helicarrier. The rest of you, save the other civilians," she swiped a hand and the screen swiped over. For a moment, the sound of a signal connecting came from the screen. Then it flashed, Steve Rogers appearing. "Steve, I'm going to speak with the Council. Hand is in command."
Steve blinked. "The Council. Director, what's going on?"
"Politics," with another swipe, she swept the screen closed, then turned and walked away.
------
Entering her office, Maria was greeted with the visages of the Council, sat in the room in the form of crystal clear holograms. It wasn't surprising to her that they all looked angry. What was surprising was their first words.
"The UN has just made a massive mistake," Rockwell said, the aging American man practically growling the words out.
Maria had to hide her surprise at that. "What happened?"
Councilwoman Hawley sighed, leaning back. "They have demanded that we pull you out."
"Are they insane?!" Maria shook her head. "Councilmembers, Rio has faced an event unprecedented in human history! The amount of damage done here dwarf's everything from the Chitauri Invasion to the battle in London!"
"Believe me, Director Hill, we agree implicitly," Councilman Yen said, the Chinese representative shaking his head. "The Brazilian government and many nations of the UN are terrified, Ms. Hill. And certain... elements, within our governments, are claiming that having the Avengers and BRIDGE there might make things worse. That you all-"
"What? That we attract danger?" Maria rubbed her forehead. "That makes no sense."
"Politicians aren't always logical," Rockwell said sarcastically. "In fact, they rarely are."
Maria scowled. BRIDGE was not an independent organization. In the end, they were beholden to the UN in a very real and tangent way. In funding and in duty, they worked for the nations of Earth first and foremost.
"There is more to this, isn't there?" Maria asked.
Councilwoman Hawley and Rockwell spoke at the same time. "Ye-/The govern-"
The pair stopped awkwardly, Yen taking over, his accented voice calm over the hologram. "We aren't sure of the full politics involved of course. But from we can tell, various nations have been working to create teams of enhanced individuals of their own. And at least some of the reasons for BRIDGE being demanded to pull out is due to that."
"It was a close vote," Councilman Singh said, speaking for the first time. "But you have your orders. BRIDGE must pull out of Rio."
Maria scowled.
"...BRIDGE. BRIDGE has to pull out of Rio," Rockwell continued, smirking. "The organization BRIDGE, and no other group."
Maria's scowl faded, somewhat. "...It'll take us a few days as well. With how entrenched we are."
"I suppose that's understandable," Councilwoman Hawley agreed. "After all, we still need to evacuate the civilians."
The Director of BRIDGE smiled. "I'll let my people know."
------
Mahmoud Schahed/Dial
When I woke up, it was with a powerful headache. I was lying in a cot, trying to figure out where I…
Oh. Oh right.
I stared up at the familiar ceiling of the rooms of the Enterprise, just…
The door opened. I looked at it to see a doctor walk in wearing a lab coat.
"What happened?" I asked her.
The black woman blinked. "Oh, you're awake!"
"What happened?" I asked again. "How long was I out?"
She blinked, then sighed. "You woke up a couple of minutes after you were knocked out, but you were apparently worn out enough to pass out again right after. Although some of the scientists have been saying that the 'troll' may have had something to do with it."
I scowled. Ulik. Ulik had beaten me. Damn it.
The door opened before the doctor could say anything else, and Skye walked in, wearing the armor I'd made her. Usually, I smiled when I saw that. Right now I was fighting a headache. She stopped and blinked at the sight of me. Just behind her, Jen walked in, followed by Creel.
"Hey," Skye said, her armor clinking open to let her step out of it. She left it standing in the center of the room, walking over to my bed. "You look like shit."
Jen grinned, while Creel huffed out a chuckle of his own. I didn't laugh.
For some reason, they seemed surprised by that. Creel stood at the head of my bed, while Jen and Skye stood on my left and right sides, respectively. I shifted in the bed, grunting, then looked at my wrist. The Omnitrix sat there, glowing yellow. For some reason, it seemed to glow a little brighter than usual, but that might have been my headache.
"Goddamnit," I grunted.
"You okay?" Jen asked, surprised.
"I lost," I leaned up, scowling. "The guy took everything I had and kicked my ass. Damnit, I should have gone Goop. Or maybe I could have used Snare-Oh? Shit, maybe Frankenstrike could have worked together with Thor, or I-"
"Okay, don't," Creel grunted, my bald friend, shaking his head. "I've done that before. You keep going over the fight in your head like that, all you'll do is obsess uselessly man. Just learn from it and move on."
"Creel, I can't just…" I growled to myself, not knowing how the hell I felt. I decided to just focus on something else. "Well, what's next?"
Jen answered. "Well, BRIDGE is being told to pull out in the next few days."
"What?!" I snapped up from the bed, then cursed when my headache intensified. "What for? People still need help!"
"Yeah, we know," Skye crossed her arms, looking pissed. So did Creel and Jen. "The UN is telling us to get out. Well, BRIDGE, at least."
Jen grinned at my confusion. "Yeah, we found a loophole. Since we're independent contractors, technically, the Avengers don't fall under BRIDGE's rules, so we can stay. Well, except Skye, I mean."
"Yeah, turns out actually joining BRIDGE has its disadvantages," Skye scowled. "We still have a few days before that though, so we'll do what we can."
"And all us former cons have to return too," Creel said, crossing his massive arms. "Since we technically work for BRIDGE as part of our 'community service'."
"What about Cap and Nat?" I frowned, feeling my headache slowly fade. "And Hartley. And Clint. I mean, you get my point."
"Yeah, Cap's fine butt has to go," Skye said.
"So fine," Jen said wistfully.
"So fine!" Skye agreed.
"Guys, seriously?" Creel asked with a grunt.
"Look, back to something other than the who's who of finest butts in the Avengers-" I said.
"Nat," everyone said at once. Including the doctor. I sighed.
"Doc, when can I fight again?" I asked.
"I have no idea," the doctor said.
We all stared at her. The black woman sighed. "Usually I'd say no. But you're on the borderline between human and superhuman. I can't say if transforming will heal you or not."
Yeah, that was fair. I had no idea if it would either. I seemed to remember a few times where Ben had been just fine, but then there was the time he'd got a cold so severe even Heatblast had gotten it. I wasn't sure.
Plus, the Omnitrix was still glowing yellow. No idea if it could work while absorbing DNA really.
"Worth a shot," I decided/answered, twisting the dial. Thinking carefully, I brought up one of my favorites, if lesser used, aliens.
"Aw, man!" Jen, Skye, and Creel said at the same time when they recognized the alien hologram in question, reaching hands towards their noses.
I ignored them to push down the Omnitrix. Flesh shifted to plant material in a flowing movement.
"SWAMPFIRE!" I shouted joyfully. Getting out of my bed, I grinned down at my arms. "Ah, much better! Not a single headache."
"Yeah, for you maybe," Creel mumbled while holding his nose against the smell of Swampfire's natural emissions.
I curled my fists. I realized I'd forgotten something. "What happened to Ulik?"
Creel coughed. "Right. About that."
------
We didn't have time to go over much. The second I was declared able to fight again, I was sent out with the others. I stayed Swampfire when we landed back in the city. I'd have changed back, but a small team was fighting off an attempted incursion when we were about to leave, so I simply landed as the green plant alien. Er, the one with fire powers as well I mean.
Fighting a group of armored knights yelling and calling me a monster in the middle of a modern city while in Swampfire reminded me painfully of Alien Force.
"Shut up," I told a man who'd called me a demon again. I lifted the armored knight and tossed him into the air, ignoring Skye's repulsor blast knocking him out of the air. "...Where is Ulik now then?"
Jen, the closest person next to me, looked over, confused. She held another knight in her left hand, his chainmail curled in her fist. The guy was screaming, stabbing at her over and over with a dagger, his sword in his other hand having crumbled when She-Hulk had grabbed it. I could still see her fingerprints embedded in the iron if I looked closely. "Really? We're fighting medieval knights and you're still focused on that."
I barely kept my immediate response from passing my lips. He beat me. What a childish thought.
Another man rushed me, this one wearing leather armor and carrying a spear. "Die, beast!" With that triumphant cry, he stabbed me in the chest.
I looked down at him. His smile faded. I wrapped a hand around his neck and lifted him up before turning to Jen, who punched her guy in the face. "I just… it's been a long day."
Jen smiled just a bit. And I suddenly felt really selfish. Jen looked exhausted. She was covered in sweat and dust, her hair had been pulled up into a rough ponytail, and her clothes were ripped. Even with her superhuman physiology, the green-skinned gammazon looked how I felt. And her eyes were so worn.
We stared at each other for a moment, ignoring the guy I held struggling in the air. I sighed after a moment. Jen did the same.
With that, I wrapped the guy in vines and tossed him onto my shoulder. Jen did the same with her guy. We looked at the destroyed city around us.
Something had caused this. And I was pretty sure we were going to end up confronting it soon.
And I was less than certain I was ready.
RichardWhereat
Feanor did nothing wrong.
- Location
- Australia
That was as a good chapter as ever, but it feels like it was missing something. Some passion. Perhaps a short break is in order? And Saiyan in Brockton could update?
Still, I hope the Dinosaurs get put onto an uninhabited island with drones recording them for viewers online. Also, I wonder what Ulik will do now, if he'll consider the fight done, or come back for more.
Finally, the Warrior? Like, one of the Seven who are One?
Still, I hope the Dinosaurs get put onto an uninhabited island with drones recording them for viewers online. Also, I wonder what Ulik will do now, if he'll consider the fight done, or come back for more.
Finally, the Warrior? Like, one of the Seven who are One?
- Location
- Argentina
*"SWAMPFIRE!"*
Called it.
I mean Goop could have the mini Ufo damaged but Swampfire has healed out of almost anything.
I bet the one doing this is certain Time Traveler Conkeror.
Called it.
I mean Goop could have the mini Ufo damaged but Swampfire has healed out of almost anything.
I bet the one doing this is certain Time Traveler Conkeror.
They're seeing inhuman beings within a ruined city with architecture they don't recognize (and most likely in a completely different climate from where they were) and grew up in Medieval Europe.
They probably think they've been transported to Hell- and are trying to bring as many of Satan's minions down as they can before they perish.
They probably think they've been transported to Hell- and are trying to bring as many of Satan's minions down as they can before they perish.
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The wrestler. I like the idea that Ulik sounds a bit like a polite Rath.
- Location
- Chile
It think he just meant that Goop could have tanked that.
I mean, it partially does for the most case. But that energy wave that Ulik sends out is weird. I based it on the one from Wonder Woman in the DCEU, which has been shown to effect god-level beings.
Ulik can be beaten by Thor, if the God of Thunder has no need to worry about the surrounding area. And Thor can survive the heat of stars. He's a damn tough dude.