- Pronouns
- He
on one hand, I would have done the one below all nightmare , or shuma gorath
Dial (Ben10/Marvel Cinematic Universe SI)
- Thread starter DesertChocolate
- Start date
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
heres another quote that might be fitting.
i wonder why this is? and if there is a way around it?
perhaps its something that has to be learnt first?
I wonder if No-Name, Broo, and the other Benign Brood are around?
could be interesting to see, even if Dial might have forgotten about them.
Crystalwatcher
(Verified GM)
- Location
- Limbo
Literally the problem they ran into with End Game.
Huh? I thought the Chitauri are more like a hive mind if I remember? There should had not much individual thoughts and all that... but I'm not the guy downstairs so I dunno how that works.
Not just the whole galaxy fam, if it reached Quill, it reached Andromeda and probably even beyond.
Also a smol suggestion @DesertChocolate
OutcastXC007
(A Light Upon the River's Gloom)
- Location
- 21° 23' 59.99", -89° 30' 59.99" W
Is it weird that I expected Dial to remember that Galactus is a force of nature while he was reading their minds and then get a head pat from the big man before he goes back to eating the planet?
Hestia&theCourt
Turns out we're plural too.
- Location
- In transition
- Pronouns
- She/Her
That last scene with Quill was the perfect tension-breaker, gotta say. After the dark battle, the revelation of new enemies, and the cosmic horror, that was a much-needed palate-cleanser. And also, I totally want alien tourists coming to Earth, trying to meet He-Man.
Regarding Galactus... does he count as an alien? Could Dial turn into him if they ran into each other in person? I assume the answer is yes, given the existence of Alien X in Ben 10 canon, but Galactus is weird enough that there might be interference. And also it might not end up being the best idea, given the whole "a being that big probably has a sun-level gravity field" thing. Galactus knows how to control that, Dial probably doesn't.
Regarding Galactus... does he count as an alien? Could Dial turn into him if they ran into each other in person? I assume the answer is yes, given the existence of Alien X in Ben 10 canon, but Galactus is weird enough that there might be interference. And also it might not end up being the best idea, given the whole "a being that big probably has a sun-level gravity field" thing. Galactus knows how to control that, Dial probably doesn't.
Hestia&theCourt
Turns out we're plural too.
- Location
- In transition
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I feel like the main problem with that is "where is the energy coming from?" No matter what the plan is for dealing with Galactus, it's gotta be pretty energy-intensive, so unless they happen to have an Infinity Stone on hand when Galactus shows up...
And to be fair, they do have the Mind Stone as of this chapter, but I'm not sure that's the kind of energy that would be helpful for changing Galactus's physiology. Might be able to put him in hibernation, though, which is a fairly decent solution on its own since it buys time to work out something more permanent.
- Location
- texas
Oh just thought of something.
I've mentioned the holographic armor before, I think I mentioned the venom based symbiotic armor, there's another interesting possibility for including in this fic.
In Cosmic Ghost Rider (For non comic fans, Frank Castle becomes Ghost Rider and then Herald of Galactus) there's a Rocket Racoon who seemingly built an Iron Man inspired armor out of Groot.
Which has me thinking of an "Ironwood Armor" made from cloned Wildvine material.
I've mentioned the holographic armor before, I think I mentioned the venom based symbiotic armor, there's another interesting possibility for including in this fic.
In Cosmic Ghost Rider (For non comic fans, Frank Castle becomes Ghost Rider and then Herald of Galactus) there's a Rocket Racoon who seemingly built an Iron Man inspired armor out of Groot.
Which has me thinking of an "Ironwood Armor" made from cloned Wildvine material.
144
Chapter 144
I had never felt more tired in my life. The fight had been the worst I could remember. Not just the constant transforming, the fighting, the killing, but the final moments where I took Strucker on a whirlwind tour of the universe? I was DONE. All I wanted to do was lie down somewhere dark and sleep.
Unfortunately, that wasn't in the cards.
First, we had to begin counting casualties, so to speak. Doing some basic clean-up and such. Figuring out what was left, what wasn't.
Tony called the Avengers Tower. Luke, Jessica, Pepper, and Matt, with the help of the NYPD and military, had cleaned out the Hydra who attacked it a bit before the end of my fight with Strucker.
"I want to fly out there," Tony said as we walked side by side, Jen and Steve walking with us through the halls of the Behemoth, all in more casual clothes now. "Pepper says she's okay, but…"
He didn't make a quip. No sarcastic joke. He just looked worried as hell. Steve placed a consoling hand on his shoulder.
"She's not… perfectly fine," I said, drawing the attention of the others. "I did check in on her while I had the Mind Stone. She'll be okay for now. But she killed someone for the first time today. Same with Fitz. They'll need someone to talk to. But Pepper is strong," that was understating it. My brief brush with her mind led me to realize she had a lot more willpower to her than even she believed.
"None of that makes me want to relax," Tony said with a bit of heat.
"I know. But it's the truth," I sighed. When I stumbled a bit, Jen grabbed my arm, pulling me back into a standing position.
"You need to rest," she said sternly.
"So do you."
"I'm fine," she helped me walk with a scowl on her face. "I didn't fight a telepathic battle against a force of nature. Anything that happened to me out there, I can heal from."
Fair. Technically, my body was okay. But the mental exhaustion wasn't something a quick transformation could help with.
"What were you thinking, pushing us out like that?" Jen continued, grimacing. "We could have helped out against that bitch."
Yeah, I told them about Emma. No one was much of a fan of hers.
"Maybe. But I couldn't risk you guys getting hurt in there."
"I thought you died."
Ah. Well… fuck.
Steve and Tony shared an awkward look.
"I'm sorry," I mumbled. "I didn't have any options."
Jen growled, sounding like her larger cousin. Her hand clutching at me squeezed down just a bit, then relaxed. "Next time you pull shit like that, at least try to let me know you're alive. Okay?"
"I promise."
She kissed the top of my head, which led to me blushing. "Now. What are we going to do about the mutant thing?"
Ah. The gigantic elephant in the room.
"Leave it for now," I said.
"You should at least tell Maria," Tony said, looking almost surprised at his appeal for me to go to an authority figure.
"No. We leave it to the Avengers for now," I said firmly. "The Mind Stone is enough of a can of worms. If we add the mutant thing on top of that, without any information beyond existence, we don't know what might happen."
"And you're sure one of them wants to meet?" Steve asked.
I looked down the hall. A bald man stood there, watching politely as we approached. He looked a lot like Patrick Stewart. I mentally sent an acknowledgement to him. He nodded back before fading away into smoke.
"Yeah. He's willing to wait."
"Ooookay," Tony winced a bit. "Fuck me, that stings," he clutched at his shoulder.
"You all right?" Steve asked, worried.
"Yeah, yeah, just got hit by a laser," he said dismissively. "Anyways. Fine, we'll leave the mutant thing off the table until we can get a real read on them. But what about the Mind Stone? That thing is… powerful."
To say the least.
"What do you think we should do with it?" Jen asked. "Use it as a paperweight?"
"Funny," Tony said with a smirk. "Actually, I think we should study it."
"Study it?" Steve frowned. "Isn't that dangerous?"
"Maybe," I frowned. "I'm mostly worried about keeping it away from Thanos as long as possible."
"Thanos?" Jen asked. Oh right, hadn't gotten to explaining him to her yet. Or had I and we just both forgot about it? I was tired, sue me.
"Alien psycho in love with Death, wants to kill half the universe as a gift for her."
"Wow, a romantic, huh?" she said with all the sarcasm in her soul.
"Downright Shakespearean," I agreed. "Anyways, he needs six stones to do it. We now have one. I wonder where the others-"
"I know where they are," we looked up as we entered our destination. The hospital wing of the Behemoth was a damn mess. The ship had lasted pretty well against the alien spaceships, but it had still taken a fucking pounding, and the medbay had collapsed inwards. Thor and Ares stood side-by-side, both covered in ash and dust from helping lift out chunks of concrete, metal, and other debris.
Thor, the one who had spoken, had a very serious look on his face. "I have suspicions, at least."
"You think your father knows something?" Ares asked his fellow god.
"If he doesn't, he'll know who will," Thor said firmly. "I'll need to speak to Maria Hill. I believe when this is done, I'll be making my return to Asgard earlier than I'd planned."
Steve nodded at that, then continued walking, the rest of us following. Ares tapped me on the arm before I could leave entirely.
"You get two days to rest," he said grimly. "Then we reconvene. With all the new forms you've obtained, I will need to update your training. Also… well done."
He gave Jen and I something that wasn't quite a smile. "I saw you both fight. It was a worthy battle."
That may have been the best compliment he had ever given us.
"Thank you, Ares," I said, touched.
"Whatever," he waved a dismissive hand. "Go visit your friends. I'll want to talk to you afterward."
That sobered me up. Right. Not all of us had been completely safe.
------
In the main floor of the med bay, four people worked tirelessly.
First, Melati. The girl who would become Komodo in other universes was bouncing from patient to patient, bandaging, applying salves, injecting medicine, her tail waving gently as she moved, sometimes shifting to avoid another doctor or nurse passing by her. She didn't even acknowledge us as we entered, instead focusing on her patients.
Then, there were two surprise guests. Luna Snow looked up as we entered, smiling at Steve. The pop star was looking over a wounded man in a Chinese army uniform, his chest covered in a burn scar from alien plasma. As we passed, she released waves of black ice from her hands, covering the burn slowly. Despite me calling it black, it was closer to a dark-colored gem of sorts, just see-through enough that we could see burnt flesh stitching together.
"I simply don't understand how you could have such faith in that ability of yours," someone said to Luna. I looked over at him. Then I stared at him.
A… tentacle monster? In the middle of using multiple arms to do surgery, some with scalpels, some with syringes, more fluttering underneath the dark doctor's uniform he was wearing.
Oh wow, my weirdar was still working. I thought it broke after today.
"I've seen it work before," Luna said, sounding absolutely unfazed.
"You've seen the appearance of healing," the tentacle man said-wait, he didn't have a mouth. Just a big diamond of glowing light set into his strange head. Was… was the light his mouth? "I simply for the unseen side effects of your abilities. Using ice 'magic' to heal people. Who knows the potential complications that will arise from it?"
"Leave it alone, Tonic," Simmons, the last of the quartet of people dominating the art of healing, rushed past Tonic and Luna, still speaking. "Luna's power works, as do yours. We have too many injured here to quibble about methods, especially when you insist on doing open-heart surgery by yourself without a surgical suite."
His loud sniff of disapproval (how could he sniff? He had no nose!) went ignored by Simmons, who rushed over to us. "Right this way."
"How is he?" Steve asked, following Simmons quickly.
"He's alive and stable. He hasn't woken yet though. Thankfully we had enough blood on hand. He came close. Flat-lined once… but he's okay now. Unfortunately…" she brought us to a set of patient divider things, those curtains they were using to separate all the patients. She pulled it open.
Maria Hill and Bucky Barnes looked up at us. Maria was sitting next to the bed, hand holding tight to the patients. Bucky was standing awkwardly back, his arms crossed.
Maria was crying. Or she had just been. She had a pair of deep bags under her eyes and a bunch of scratches across her face and body. Her right cheek had a horrible bruise on it. I guess even the top commander on the field hadn't been able to avoid battle.
She didn't let go of his hand as we filed in. I gave her a small smile.
"...You look how I feel."
"Sucks to be you," she said snarkily, a tired smile following briefly. Then she looked down at Sam Wilson.
The Falcon was heavily injured across his body. Bruises, cuts, and burns across him had been treated. But the worst was his right leg.
It was gone. From above the knee down, his leg was gone. The stump was wrapped in clean white bandages. I looked up at Sam. He was awake and staring at his leg.
"Sam," Steve said softly, patting Bucky on the shoulder before standing at Sam's side.
"Cap." Sam said. His voice was raw, haunted. "We win?"
"You thought we might have lost?" Bucky said sarcastically.
Sam actually smiled a bit. Weakly, but still a smile. "You look like we lost, standin there all sad. Big crybaby."
Bucky glanced at Steve, who was hiding a grin, then smiled to himself. "Well at least you decided to join Team Cyborg. Get a fancy new leg of your own now."
"I'd rather the arm,' Sam snarked. "Get those super punches."
Tony frowned. "Wait, there's a Team Cyborg? Why aren't I invited?"
"You don't have robot parts," Jen pointed out, flipping her green-black hair back.
"I did for a few years! I had a robot heart! I should be in charge of it!"
"You got rid of it though," Sam said.
"Well if I'm not in charge, who is?"
"First off, it's not a real thing," I said, joining the conversation. "Second if anyone was, well… it would be-"
"Deathlok," Jen said.
"Mike," Steve said at the same time.
"Peterson," Maria added.
"Mr. Peterson, of course-" Simmons finished up before Tony spoke up.
"Yeah, yeah, figured it out when you all did," Tony said with fake annoyance before getting serious. "Seriously Sam. If you need a new leg, we can repair you. I'll even give you the Six Million Dollar discount."
"Do you take IOU's?" Sam said, then winced.
"Sam!" we looked up to see Rhodey enter the curtains. He was wearing his armor, facemask open. When he saw Sam's leg, he immediately snapped his eyes to Tony. "Tony-"
"Yeah, I'll make him a new leg. All the bells and whistles," Tony chuckled. "Should be fun. I can give you all sorts of cool things."
"Maybe just start with a working leg," Sam said in the voice of a man whose sanity was being tested.
"Spoilsport. Fine, no rocket jets or Rider Kicks."
Sam chuckled. "Well… at least I have more in common with a few of the other Vets…"
The way he said that spoke volumes. He was joking a bit, joining in. But you don't just lose a limb and be okay with it.
We all knew that, but you don't just spit something like that out.
Maria clutched his hand. "Hey. I got to go. But I'll visit in a bit, okay?"
"Okay," he leaned his head back, eyes closing.
Maria looked up at us, going from worried to Ice Queen in a moment. "Dial. Tony. Walk with me."
I stepped aside to let her pass, sharing a look with Jen. She nodded for me to go, but looked as worried as I did.
Tony and I followed Maria, who walked with a quick pace towards the exit.
"I've got dozens of analysts working on all of this. But none of us predicted the bucket of worms that Strucker would open. I now have three distinct species of aliens knocked out across the battlefield, alien technology left across the battlefield, allied nations with technology and powered humans none of us expected, a massive broadcast telling the whole galaxy we're open for business, and what you once told me was a fundamental portion of the universe sitting in X's pouch?"
The last was directed towards me. "Yeah. The Mind Stone, connected to the minds of every living sapient being in existence."
"Fantastic," she scoffed. She led us to the outside of the ship. Well, it had once been inside, but alien firepower had ripped off the walls until it became a makeshift balcony. "We should be good to talk privately."
"If you're about to hit on us, I have to tell you, I'm dating someone," Tony snarked.
"Same. And my girlfriend is both super strong and a lawyer," I added.
She clearly wasn't in the mood. "You two have been creating your own space program, right?"
Tony and I shared a look. "Yeah," I said. "You know that thou-"
"I need you to accelerate it," Maria snapped. "The Enterprise is space-worthy, but it can't be the only defense Earth has. Not with this being our second damn invasion in the last half a decade, this time perpetuated by a traitor to our species. BRIDGE needs to extend its reach. Start making ships of war, training our forces for battle on other planets if need be. "
"Doesn't the Outer Space Treaty sort of make that illegal?" Tony asked. "I mean, I'm all for big honking space guns-"
"The UN is going to have a meeting about that soon," Maria said. "The treaty isn't going to work when the threat comes from above. Ah, Thor, Ares."
Tony and I turned to see Thor come over to us, Ares just behind him.
"Thank you for coming. Have you thought about what I asked?" Maria said.
"Yes," Thor looked grim. "I'll send word to my father about your request for an alliance with Asgard."
"Don't hold your breath on my end," Ares snarked. "At most, my brothers or sisters might come along, but the armies of Olympus only move when Zeus is stirred by something other than his loins," Ares said with all the disappointment of a blood knight.
"As long as you try," Maria turned to look out at the battlefield. "Please. With Hydra gone, I can finally focus on the greater threats ahead of us. But we'll need help."
Tony looked a bit nonplussed. "Damn. You don't know how to take a break, do you?"
"Not when the world is on the line," she continued without missing a beat. "I'm going to be fighting on multiple fronts now. This battle simplified things in a lot of ways. Complicated others. I don't plan on sitting on my hands. So please. Accelerate your space program. And be ready for anything. I'll deal with the politicians currently screaming at me. Everything else? … that's up to the Avengers."
"...No pressure," I joked.
"Is that what you think? No, we're all going to be under massive amounts of pressure now," she chuckled a bit. "Beyond that though? Feels damn good to win," she said with a satisfied smile.
Then she scowled again. "As for the rest… we'll deal with it as it comes… Where the hell is Chernobog?"
"Chernobog?" I asked. "Last I saw him, he was chewing on one of my mental constructs."
"You haven't seen him since pulling him into your head?"
"No, he was out here."
"..."
Everyone stared at me. Tony spoke next.
"He was in the real world… eating one of your mental constructs?"
"It's Chernobog. I stopped questioning it," I sighed. Seriously, Chernobog was still chewing away at the SCP-106 I'd made. I'd have felt more sorry if it wasn't for the face the Old Man SCP is a massive piece of shit.
"Well-" Maria said, looking like her head hurt. "I wanted him to reach out to Svarog."
"Good luck with that," Ares said with a shrug. "He's even more reluctant to interact with the modern world than my father."
"It's still worth trying," Maria said simply. "With all the shit headed our way, it's time Earth's forces finally started consolidating."
"Be careful of that," Ares said warningly. "Many of Earth's powers would rather rule. You invite too many of them into your household, and some may use that as a way to obtain their former rule."
Maria chuckled, shaking her head. "Ares, you don't need to tell me that. I may not be a God of War, but I'm trained in it."
"I know. You are one of my sister's favored after all," he said kindly.
She scoffed, but still smiled. "We'll handle it-
"Man that old bat down in the infirmary is one scary battleax!" we turned to see Chernobog walk up to us. He was grinning, large shadowy face twisted into a macabre structure. "She even confiscated my snacks. Sheesh! Reminds me of Baba Yaga actually." The last was said with a fond sigh. "I should visit her soon. Miss that crazy bitch."
"Is that beer?" Tony asked, eyes nailing in on the six-pack the God of Evil was holding. "Because I could use a goddamn beer."
"Not just beer!" Chernobog held it up. "A six-pack of the purest Zlatý Bažant! I figured, since we won, we'd celebrate like kings! Don't worry Dial, I brought you something shitty and non-alcoholic."
"Chernobog…" Thor scowled, speaking the same way one would 'Satan'. Or 'Stark'. "I will warn you. Though you were a valuable ally on the battlefield-"
"Yeah, you weren't so bad yourself, sparky," Chernobog tossed Thor a can, the metal bouncing off Thor's armor before the God of Thunder caught it. Ares caught the next can and looked at it skeptically, while Tony and Maria were handed theirs. To me, Chernobog handed a can of something called Kvas. "Been a while since I've been in a war like that! We killed a LOT of people!"
"The point of the battle wasn't to kill people," Thor said, annoyed.
"Maybe not for you," Chernobog said. "But fine, be a do-gooder! We won, and I can smell more chaos on the horizon!" He laughed. "If I knew being a good guy would end in so many full bellies and dead men, I'd have joined you all years ago!"
Wow. Dude really knows how to kill the mood.
"Fine," Tony cracked open his drink, grinning. "I'll drink to a win. To kicking Hydra's collective asses!" he said with a salute to the battlefield.
"Uh, to beating a shit ton of aliens as well!" I said awkwardly.
"To a battle well fought," Ares chugged back his beer.
"To murder!" Chernobog added cheerfully.
Thor scowled at Chernobog, then took a deep breath. "To the heroes who sacrificed their lives to give us a tomorrow."
"...To the fights we'll win during that tomorrow," Maria said decisively.
We stood together, three mortals and three gods, looking out onto a destroyed battlefield while chugging back our drinks. And in the distance, the sun finally set down.
------
Agent Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD
Phil and Skye stood on one side of the small tent. May was on the other. The three of them stood in silence, a patient's bed sat in the center of the tent, the 'beep. Beep. Beep,' of the monitor slowly driving him crazy.
"...I should have been here," Skye mumbled. The young woman had taken off her armor some time ago. It was pitted by laser fire, broken by superhuman fists, but still good enough to repair. Skye herself had a long burn along her leg currently wrapped up in bandages. It was likely the scar from it would last the rest of her life.
"You were here," Phil said with a sigh. "All of us were. But it's war. We fought as best as we could, but we all knew there was no guarantees. Just be glad he's alive. A lot of people aren't."
Skye nodded slowly. Phil's heart tightened in his chest at the look on her face. Her eyes were baggy with exhaustion, but it was the haunted look that made him feel… well, horrible.
The tent slid open. Phil looked up to see Dial walk in alone. He looked around, nodding to Phil and May, then seeing Skye. The Arabian man didn't speak. He just walked over to her and stood next to her. After a moment, she leaned against him. Phil smiled, seeing the comfort she took in her friend coming to her side. Dial whispered to her, Skye nodding against him.
The tent opened again. Melati, her scales glimmering in the light, came in, her lab coat gone. Simmons came in next, her eyes even more blackened by exhaustion than Skye's, a ring around her mouth from hours of wearing a mask.
"Hey," Skye said, flashing a smile.
"Hey," Simmons said back, walking over and giving Skye a hug, who returned it gratefully.
"Is he okay?" Dial asked Melati.
"His spine was shattered to pieces, what do you think?" Melati glared at Dial, anger in her reptilian eyes.
He met her gaze calmly, not the slightest bit perturbed.
Melati growled a bit, but when Dial responded with nothing, she relaxed. "He's… well. He needs a lot of work. My serum did a lot for him, but I didn't want to overuse it. So he was in surgery for a good while… I don't know if-"
"It is nice to know," the patient said weakly. "That my prognosis is so reassuring."
"Otto," Phil stepped forward, walking around Simmons, only for her to join him. "How are you feeling?"
"Like my spine is shattered." Otto Octavius was looking around blearily, blinking a lot. "I… Simmons. How bad is it?"
"...Bad," she said sadly, taking his hand. "With everyone on hand, we think you'll walk again. But motor function will likely be heavily impaired. We did what we could, but-"
Otto shut his eyes tight. Simmons stopped talking.
"I-" he tried to speak, only to freeze up. His eyes squeezed, tears pouring out, and his fingers went white around Simmons hand. May took his other hand. He could barely move the fingers of that one. That realization led to fresh tears.
"We're here for you," May said.
As Otto cried in silence, everyone stood with him. "I… I can fix this," he said quietly. "I can fix it. I just need help-"
"You have it," Simmons said immediately. "All that you need."
Dial nodded, a strange look on his face. "Yeah. Everything we've got."
------
Army Brigadier-General Everett Buckler
Buckler watched as an M1 Abrams rolled past. The AIM weaponry he'd been given had done well in the field. He could even, with some deliberation, say it had done great. It had all worked perfectly. Too perfectly for experimental tech. It was suspicious.
But worse was the other tech he'd seen. Russian tanks fitted with electricity throwing weapons, zooming across the battlefield alongside their own version of the Avengers. Chinese super tanks that are more akin to moving fortresses. Alien ships dropping out of the sky to rain hell on humanities forces. Dial, already an immense threat, turning into a goddamn giant monster.
Buckler watched as people piled into the Behemoth. He noticed two people in particular.
Black Panther and Darkstar. A Wakandan in a black cat costume. A Russian girl with power over the strange energy known as the Darkforce. The two of them were chatting now, sitting against a jeep as soldiers streamed around them. They should have looked ridiculous. Costumed morons in a room of serious men and women. Darkstar with her black skin tight outfit highlighted with yellow boots, gloves, and a tiara. Black Panther in his own all black skin tight uniform, a pair of small cat ears on his head.
They should have looked stupid.
Except they didn't. The soldiers around them treated them with a sort of… awe. Eyes flickered constantly to them. Buckler couldn't blame them.
Black Panther stood with all the regalness of royalty, his stance strong. He spoke with a smooth and relaxed voice, his African accent giving his words an exotic tone. "-this is my first true war as well. I've only fought in small skirmishes before this. The experience was interesting, to say the least."
"I'm glad I'm not the only one," Darkstar sounded like a damn My Little Pony character. She reminded Buckler of his niece. Not in skin color of course, but they were the same sort of cute.
But moments before, Buckler had seen her floating overhead. Eyes glowing white, shadows coming alive around her, sending down waves of power that ripped through the ground, turned living men into wet piles of flesh. As she flew up there, Thor had joined her. She'd flown next to the God of Thunder. Lightning had joined the shadows she sent down. In that moment-
Buckler shut down that thought. She wasn't a goddess. Just a girl, woman really, with power.
"-we should chat sometime!" she said shyly, looking like any young girl meeting someone she found attractive. "I mean, we're both superheroes, we can, I don't know, partner up or something?"
Black Panther chuckled. "Yes, that would be worth looking into. Let me give you my number."
Such a normal conversation. So why did it worry Buckler? Because of the people having it.
A Wakandan man with invulnerable armor. A Russian girl with the power of gods. They were a small tip of a massive iceberg. The whole world was becoming insane. And the American military was at risk of being left behind.
Buckler turned away from them, pulling out his phone. He called a familiar number on his listphone. After a bit, the person on the other end answered.
"General Buckler?"
"Getz," Buckler said, walking as he spoke. "Your AIM tech worked well."
"I know! I saw the broadcast!" Lyle Getz, the leader of AIM, said excitedly.
Fuck you, Strucker.
"Do you have any idea what that broadcast is doing for us? The amount of information we got from it is going to be perfect for our research! Our weapons were able to take down alien aircraft, cause harm to Gamma Mutates, even contain them! And Tonic performed better than we'd ever ho-"
"It's not enough," Buckler said simply.
"E-Excuse me," Getz said, his enthusiasm shattering.
"Let me be clear. Your weaponry was good. Very good. And Tonic saved the lives of dozens of people, including an Avenger. But you saw what we're competing against."
"The aliens?"
"Damn the aliens!" Buckler barked loudly enough to scare those around him. He gave them a glare until they all ran for the hills, then focused on his call again. "The aliens were always a concern for us. But the damn Russians, Chinese, a Wakandan? BRIDGE has new weapons and tech, the Avengers have been recruiting. The United States Military is being left behind, Dr. Getz. And I won't have it. I'll push for your funding to be raised. But I need goddamn results. I need superhumans and weapons."
Getz was silent on the other end for a long moment. "...There have been some… interesting developments on our end. The experiment with Tonic was enough to get the ball rolling. And we did collect some new assets that might help us further-"
"Do it."
Buckler hung up. He took a deep breath, sighing.
For just a moment, he felt as though he'd made a deal with the devil. And he knew he had more devils to call before the day was done.
------
Dr. Lyle Getz/Director of AIM
Deep in the bunker of AIM's primary laboratory, Lyle stared at his phone for a moment. He'd been having such a good day as well… Then again, this was all technically still good news. More funding would be perfect for their latest projects into Nanotechnology. Their benefactor had shown them something very interesting. Something that might be able to compete with X and Jarvis, the androids the Avengers had working with them, as well as some tech that might be good cheap alternatives to Captain America and Iron Man. In the meantime though…
Lyle put his phone away and walked through the halls of his lab. He stopped before a door, taking a deep breath. Then he entered the room.
In the aftermath of the Rio Timequake, three people had appeared in AIM's laboratory. One, a savage wildman, had escaped. One, a redheaded woman, was just waking. The last, a thin bald man, had awoken some time ago. That was who Lyle was visiting now. One of the many refugees out of time from AIM's great experiment.
But he didn't act like a refugee. More like royalty.
Inside, a man stood tall, looking out the window. He was wearing a hospital gown and sweatpants, his bald head shining in the sunlight, peaceful in his stance. He looked over at Lyle, then back out the window. Outside were the loading and unloading docks. Trucks and forklifts moved about, shifting machinery and experiments. Some were sent out to military bases across the country.
The bald man standing at the window stared out at the moving trucks and machinery with avid interest.
"Still watching them?" Lyle asked as he walked up.
"I know. To you, such sights are mundane. But in my own time, such things were the product of wonders. I had thought, at first, that the loss of magic cheapened the world. Now I find it has only deepened your understanding of it," the bald man said softly. He looked over at Lyle.
Lyle fought the urge to swallow in fear. That look on the man's face… Under that large beak of a nose, his smile was rapturous. Lyle forced down the illogical emotion to focus. "Well, the world has moved on quite a bit. But magic still has a place in it."
"Oh, undoubtedly," the man chuckled. "That is why you're here, isn't it? To ask about the world of me and my companion?"
"Oh yes," Lyle chuckled along with the man. "We just have so many questions. If we could have your help, well… we could open entirely new avenues for our research-"
The door suddenly banged open. Lyle jumped, looking behind him.
Standing there was a redheaded woman. She was wearing a hospital gown and nothing else, the usually unflattering white clothes looking very good on her. The shortness of it revealed flashes of muscular legs, the tightness of it flowing close to her large bosom. Her face, framed by crimson locks of hair, was beautiful as well. The look on her face, on the other hand, chilled the blood within Lyle.
"You bastard," she hissed, stepping towards the man.
"Almati," he said calmly. "I see you have awoken."
"Awoken!?" the woman screeched. Behind her Monica came in, the black haired woman glancing at Lyle. "My kingdom is ash! Our world is gone! Replaced by-"
The man stepped forward and slapped her in the face. The blow echoed in the air as she fell to her knees. Lyle gasped in shock at the violence of the move. Monica took out a gun and pointed it at the man.
The man didn't even look at her, focusing on the woman on the floor. "...Have you regained your senses, Almati?"
She glared up at him. Her right cheek was bruising quickly. "You absolute bastard."
"Bastard, yes. But first and foremost, I am an opportunist," he turned and looked out the window. "Almati. Look out at this world. A world that has, at last, turned to logic as it's answer against the monsters among us."
"...A world where we no longer rule," Almati glared at Lyle. Lyle immediately spoke, seeing where this was going.
"Look. I'm sorry you appeared here. But we can help you find a good life! A better life."
"A life with indoor plumbing," Monica said dryly.
"Indoor what?" Almati said, nose scrunching with confusion.
"Every home of this country has a bath within it," the man turned with a grin. "All of them. And that is the bare minimum. Food, shelter, wealth, entertainment, all cheaply available to the poor and rich alike. Luxury isn't luxury anymore. It's a given."
"You like this world?" Almati said, stunned.
"I love it. And I believe we can do great things here," he turned and held out a hand to Lyle. "I accept your proposal, Dacter," the man said, mangling the word 'doctor' as he did. "I will do everything I can to aid you from here on. My magic is at your command. In turn, I ask that you teach me all your world has to offer!"
Lyle stared at him. On the surface, he seemed genuine. But underneath that… it was his eyes. Insane eyes. Eyes so deep they seemed to pull the world into them.
And yet… never again. Never again would Lyle allow himself into the depths of despair he'd once been in. He didn't care what it took. AIM would become the greatest scientific organization of all time. No matter what deals he had to make.
His hand was wrapped around the bald man's. He shook it up and down. The man grinned. "Yes… You have a deal."
"Good. Then, from now on," the man said with a deep rumble of amusement. "The magical power of Kulan Gath is yours to command."
------
At the same time, in a forest far away, a large muscular arm twisted a spit. A small rabbit was cooking over a fire, juices sizzling merrily. The owner of the arm looked up into the sky. He sighed just a bit, pulling the rabbit off the fire, the swords at his side glinting in the sunlight. While one was a modern machete, the other was a more traditional looking broadsword. And yet, both were well-cared for, oiled and sharpened carefully.
Dressed in nothing but fur around his hips, he seemed uncaring of the chill air, instead focusing on the meat before him.
He took a bite into the cooked rabbit, then sighed to himself.
"By Crom that's good," he said in the language of his time. Ancient Hyborian.
Conan, a barbarian pulled from his time, sat in the forest, devouring a rabbit. Unknowing of the storm that would soon follow him. But then, he was a barbarian. His entire life was a storm anyways.
------
Author's Note: Next, the final epilogue. I'll try to end that strong. But man, I wonder how many people guessed that Conan was the 'savage with blades'.
I was always planning on Conan and Kulan becoming things in this story, and revealing them at least is awesome.
One thing people might notice is that I avoided adding new elements to the story as best as I could. Everything in this and the epilogue are threats or allies that were always teased in this story and the MCU in general.
One other thing. While I'm saying the next chapter will be the Epilogue, it won't be the permanent end of Dial. Just of this general first Phase of sorts. Next phase, as I've said, will be based more on the Space stuff. Things on Earth will still develop of course, but the main point of that is to have a revolving storyline of Dial and select characters dealing with the greater universe. Should be fun!
Before I start the next phase, I'll also be doing clean up. Editing as much as I can, building a backlog of new chapters, and updating the timeline to account for all the new stuff that has happened. I'm also hoping to do some major changes to the first Hydra villainy arc, but that might be on the back burner.
Needless to say, Dial is gonna get a lot of work put into it. The Epilogue is already up on my Patreon, so I hope you all consider supporting me there, as I'll also put any updates on there, including a brand new story that is in the works.
Anyways, let me know what you thought of this chapter, and I hope you guys have a great day!
I had never felt more tired in my life. The fight had been the worst I could remember. Not just the constant transforming, the fighting, the killing, but the final moments where I took Strucker on a whirlwind tour of the universe? I was DONE. All I wanted to do was lie down somewhere dark and sleep.
Unfortunately, that wasn't in the cards.
First, we had to begin counting casualties, so to speak. Doing some basic clean-up and such. Figuring out what was left, what wasn't.
Tony called the Avengers Tower. Luke, Jessica, Pepper, and Matt, with the help of the NYPD and military, had cleaned out the Hydra who attacked it a bit before the end of my fight with Strucker.
"I want to fly out there," Tony said as we walked side by side, Jen and Steve walking with us through the halls of the Behemoth, all in more casual clothes now. "Pepper says she's okay, but…"
He didn't make a quip. No sarcastic joke. He just looked worried as hell. Steve placed a consoling hand on his shoulder.
"She's not… perfectly fine," I said, drawing the attention of the others. "I did check in on her while I had the Mind Stone. She'll be okay for now. But she killed someone for the first time today. Same with Fitz. They'll need someone to talk to. But Pepper is strong," that was understating it. My brief brush with her mind led me to realize she had a lot more willpower to her than even she believed.
"None of that makes me want to relax," Tony said with a bit of heat.
"I know. But it's the truth," I sighed. When I stumbled a bit, Jen grabbed my arm, pulling me back into a standing position.
"You need to rest," she said sternly.
"So do you."
"I'm fine," she helped me walk with a scowl on her face. "I didn't fight a telepathic battle against a force of nature. Anything that happened to me out there, I can heal from."
Fair. Technically, my body was okay. But the mental exhaustion wasn't something a quick transformation could help with.
"What were you thinking, pushing us out like that?" Jen continued, grimacing. "We could have helped out against that bitch."
Yeah, I told them about Emma. No one was much of a fan of hers.
"Maybe. But I couldn't risk you guys getting hurt in there."
"I thought you died."
Ah. Well… fuck.
Steve and Tony shared an awkward look.
"I'm sorry," I mumbled. "I didn't have any options."
Jen growled, sounding like her larger cousin. Her hand clutching at me squeezed down just a bit, then relaxed. "Next time you pull shit like that, at least try to let me know you're alive. Okay?"
"I promise."
She kissed the top of my head, which led to me blushing. "Now. What are we going to do about the mutant thing?"
Ah. The gigantic elephant in the room.
"Leave it for now," I said.
"You should at least tell Maria," Tony said, looking almost surprised at his appeal for me to go to an authority figure.
"No. We leave it to the Avengers for now," I said firmly. "The Mind Stone is enough of a can of worms. If we add the mutant thing on top of that, without any information beyond existence, we don't know what might happen."
"And you're sure one of them wants to meet?" Steve asked.
I looked down the hall. A bald man stood there, watching politely as we approached. He looked a lot like Patrick Stewart. I mentally sent an acknowledgement to him. He nodded back before fading away into smoke.
"Yeah. He's willing to wait."
"Ooookay," Tony winced a bit. "Fuck me, that stings," he clutched at his shoulder.
"You all right?" Steve asked, worried.
"Yeah, yeah, just got hit by a laser," he said dismissively. "Anyways. Fine, we'll leave the mutant thing off the table until we can get a real read on them. But what about the Mind Stone? That thing is… powerful."
To say the least.
"What do you think we should do with it?" Jen asked. "Use it as a paperweight?"
"Funny," Tony said with a smirk. "Actually, I think we should study it."
"Study it?" Steve frowned. "Isn't that dangerous?"
"Maybe," I frowned. "I'm mostly worried about keeping it away from Thanos as long as possible."
"Thanos?" Jen asked. Oh right, hadn't gotten to explaining him to her yet. Or had I and we just both forgot about it? I was tired, sue me.
"Alien psycho in love with Death, wants to kill half the universe as a gift for her."
"Wow, a romantic, huh?" she said with all the sarcasm in her soul.
"Downright Shakespearean," I agreed. "Anyways, he needs six stones to do it. We now have one. I wonder where the others-"
"I know where they are," we looked up as we entered our destination. The hospital wing of the Behemoth was a damn mess. The ship had lasted pretty well against the alien spaceships, but it had still taken a fucking pounding, and the medbay had collapsed inwards. Thor and Ares stood side-by-side, both covered in ash and dust from helping lift out chunks of concrete, metal, and other debris.
Thor, the one who had spoken, had a very serious look on his face. "I have suspicions, at least."
"You think your father knows something?" Ares asked his fellow god.
"If he doesn't, he'll know who will," Thor said firmly. "I'll need to speak to Maria Hill. I believe when this is done, I'll be making my return to Asgard earlier than I'd planned."
Steve nodded at that, then continued walking, the rest of us following. Ares tapped me on the arm before I could leave entirely.
"You get two days to rest," he said grimly. "Then we reconvene. With all the new forms you've obtained, I will need to update your training. Also… well done."
He gave Jen and I something that wasn't quite a smile. "I saw you both fight. It was a worthy battle."
That may have been the best compliment he had ever given us.
"Thank you, Ares," I said, touched.
"Whatever," he waved a dismissive hand. "Go visit your friends. I'll want to talk to you afterward."
That sobered me up. Right. Not all of us had been completely safe.
------
In the main floor of the med bay, four people worked tirelessly.
First, Melati. The girl who would become Komodo in other universes was bouncing from patient to patient, bandaging, applying salves, injecting medicine, her tail waving gently as she moved, sometimes shifting to avoid another doctor or nurse passing by her. She didn't even acknowledge us as we entered, instead focusing on her patients.
Then, there were two surprise guests. Luna Snow looked up as we entered, smiling at Steve. The pop star was looking over a wounded man in a Chinese army uniform, his chest covered in a burn scar from alien plasma. As we passed, she released waves of black ice from her hands, covering the burn slowly. Despite me calling it black, it was closer to a dark-colored gem of sorts, just see-through enough that we could see burnt flesh stitching together.
"I simply don't understand how you could have such faith in that ability of yours," someone said to Luna. I looked over at him. Then I stared at him.
A… tentacle monster? In the middle of using multiple arms to do surgery, some with scalpels, some with syringes, more fluttering underneath the dark doctor's uniform he was wearing.
Oh wow, my weirdar was still working. I thought it broke after today.
"I've seen it work before," Luna said, sounding absolutely unfazed.
"You've seen the appearance of healing," the tentacle man said-wait, he didn't have a mouth. Just a big diamond of glowing light set into his strange head. Was… was the light his mouth? "I simply for the unseen side effects of your abilities. Using ice 'magic' to heal people. Who knows the potential complications that will arise from it?"
"Leave it alone, Tonic," Simmons, the last of the quartet of people dominating the art of healing, rushed past Tonic and Luna, still speaking. "Luna's power works, as do yours. We have too many injured here to quibble about methods, especially when you insist on doing open-heart surgery by yourself without a surgical suite."
His loud sniff of disapproval (how could he sniff? He had no nose!) went ignored by Simmons, who rushed over to us. "Right this way."
"How is he?" Steve asked, following Simmons quickly.
"He's alive and stable. He hasn't woken yet though. Thankfully we had enough blood on hand. He came close. Flat-lined once… but he's okay now. Unfortunately…" she brought us to a set of patient divider things, those curtains they were using to separate all the patients. She pulled it open.
Maria Hill and Bucky Barnes looked up at us. Maria was sitting next to the bed, hand holding tight to the patients. Bucky was standing awkwardly back, his arms crossed.
Maria was crying. Or she had just been. She had a pair of deep bags under her eyes and a bunch of scratches across her face and body. Her right cheek had a horrible bruise on it. I guess even the top commander on the field hadn't been able to avoid battle.
She didn't let go of his hand as we filed in. I gave her a small smile.
"...You look how I feel."
"Sucks to be you," she said snarkily, a tired smile following briefly. Then she looked down at Sam Wilson.
The Falcon was heavily injured across his body. Bruises, cuts, and burns across him had been treated. But the worst was his right leg.
It was gone. From above the knee down, his leg was gone. The stump was wrapped in clean white bandages. I looked up at Sam. He was awake and staring at his leg.
"Sam," Steve said softly, patting Bucky on the shoulder before standing at Sam's side.
"Cap." Sam said. His voice was raw, haunted. "We win?"
"You thought we might have lost?" Bucky said sarcastically.
Sam actually smiled a bit. Weakly, but still a smile. "You look like we lost, standin there all sad. Big crybaby."
Bucky glanced at Steve, who was hiding a grin, then smiled to himself. "Well at least you decided to join Team Cyborg. Get a fancy new leg of your own now."
"I'd rather the arm,' Sam snarked. "Get those super punches."
Tony frowned. "Wait, there's a Team Cyborg? Why aren't I invited?"
"You don't have robot parts," Jen pointed out, flipping her green-black hair back.
"I did for a few years! I had a robot heart! I should be in charge of it!"
"You got rid of it though," Sam said.
"Well if I'm not in charge, who is?"
"First off, it's not a real thing," I said, joining the conversation. "Second if anyone was, well… it would be-"
"Deathlok," Jen said.
"Mike," Steve said at the same time.
"Peterson," Maria added.
"Mr. Peterson, of course-" Simmons finished up before Tony spoke up.
"Yeah, yeah, figured it out when you all did," Tony said with fake annoyance before getting serious. "Seriously Sam. If you need a new leg, we can repair you. I'll even give you the Six Million Dollar discount."
"Do you take IOU's?" Sam said, then winced.
"Sam!" we looked up to see Rhodey enter the curtains. He was wearing his armor, facemask open. When he saw Sam's leg, he immediately snapped his eyes to Tony. "Tony-"
"Yeah, I'll make him a new leg. All the bells and whistles," Tony chuckled. "Should be fun. I can give you all sorts of cool things."
"Maybe just start with a working leg," Sam said in the voice of a man whose sanity was being tested.
"Spoilsport. Fine, no rocket jets or Rider Kicks."
Sam chuckled. "Well… at least I have more in common with a few of the other Vets…"
The way he said that spoke volumes. He was joking a bit, joining in. But you don't just lose a limb and be okay with it.
We all knew that, but you don't just spit something like that out.
Maria clutched his hand. "Hey. I got to go. But I'll visit in a bit, okay?"
"Okay," he leaned his head back, eyes closing.
Maria looked up at us, going from worried to Ice Queen in a moment. "Dial. Tony. Walk with me."
I stepped aside to let her pass, sharing a look with Jen. She nodded for me to go, but looked as worried as I did.
Tony and I followed Maria, who walked with a quick pace towards the exit.
"I've got dozens of analysts working on all of this. But none of us predicted the bucket of worms that Strucker would open. I now have three distinct species of aliens knocked out across the battlefield, alien technology left across the battlefield, allied nations with technology and powered humans none of us expected, a massive broadcast telling the whole galaxy we're open for business, and what you once told me was a fundamental portion of the universe sitting in X's pouch?"
The last was directed towards me. "Yeah. The Mind Stone, connected to the minds of every living sapient being in existence."
"Fantastic," she scoffed. She led us to the outside of the ship. Well, it had once been inside, but alien firepower had ripped off the walls until it became a makeshift balcony. "We should be good to talk privately."
"If you're about to hit on us, I have to tell you, I'm dating someone," Tony snarked.
"Same. And my girlfriend is both super strong and a lawyer," I added.
She clearly wasn't in the mood. "You two have been creating your own space program, right?"
Tony and I shared a look. "Yeah," I said. "You know that thou-"
"I need you to accelerate it," Maria snapped. "The Enterprise is space-worthy, but it can't be the only defense Earth has. Not with this being our second damn invasion in the last half a decade, this time perpetuated by a traitor to our species. BRIDGE needs to extend its reach. Start making ships of war, training our forces for battle on other planets if need be. "
"Doesn't the Outer Space Treaty sort of make that illegal?" Tony asked. "I mean, I'm all for big honking space guns-"
"The UN is going to have a meeting about that soon," Maria said. "The treaty isn't going to work when the threat comes from above. Ah, Thor, Ares."
Tony and I turned to see Thor come over to us, Ares just behind him.
"Thank you for coming. Have you thought about what I asked?" Maria said.
"Yes," Thor looked grim. "I'll send word to my father about your request for an alliance with Asgard."
"Don't hold your breath on my end," Ares snarked. "At most, my brothers or sisters might come along, but the armies of Olympus only move when Zeus is stirred by something other than his loins," Ares said with all the disappointment of a blood knight.
"As long as you try," Maria turned to look out at the battlefield. "Please. With Hydra gone, I can finally focus on the greater threats ahead of us. But we'll need help."
Tony looked a bit nonplussed. "Damn. You don't know how to take a break, do you?"
"Not when the world is on the line," she continued without missing a beat. "I'm going to be fighting on multiple fronts now. This battle simplified things in a lot of ways. Complicated others. I don't plan on sitting on my hands. So please. Accelerate your space program. And be ready for anything. I'll deal with the politicians currently screaming at me. Everything else? … that's up to the Avengers."
"...No pressure," I joked.
"Is that what you think? No, we're all going to be under massive amounts of pressure now," she chuckled a bit. "Beyond that though? Feels damn good to win," she said with a satisfied smile.
Then she scowled again. "As for the rest… we'll deal with it as it comes… Where the hell is Chernobog?"
"Chernobog?" I asked. "Last I saw him, he was chewing on one of my mental constructs."
"You haven't seen him since pulling him into your head?"
"No, he was out here."
"..."
Everyone stared at me. Tony spoke next.
"He was in the real world… eating one of your mental constructs?"
"It's Chernobog. I stopped questioning it," I sighed. Seriously, Chernobog was still chewing away at the SCP-106 I'd made. I'd have felt more sorry if it wasn't for the face the Old Man SCP is a massive piece of shit.
"Well-" Maria said, looking like her head hurt. "I wanted him to reach out to Svarog."
"Good luck with that," Ares said with a shrug. "He's even more reluctant to interact with the modern world than my father."
"It's still worth trying," Maria said simply. "With all the shit headed our way, it's time Earth's forces finally started consolidating."
"Be careful of that," Ares said warningly. "Many of Earth's powers would rather rule. You invite too many of them into your household, and some may use that as a way to obtain their former rule."
Maria chuckled, shaking her head. "Ares, you don't need to tell me that. I may not be a God of War, but I'm trained in it."
"I know. You are one of my sister's favored after all," he said kindly.
She scoffed, but still smiled. "We'll handle it-
"Man that old bat down in the infirmary is one scary battleax!" we turned to see Chernobog walk up to us. He was grinning, large shadowy face twisted into a macabre structure. "She even confiscated my snacks. Sheesh! Reminds me of Baba Yaga actually." The last was said with a fond sigh. "I should visit her soon. Miss that crazy bitch."
"Is that beer?" Tony asked, eyes nailing in on the six-pack the God of Evil was holding. "Because I could use a goddamn beer."
"Not just beer!" Chernobog held it up. "A six-pack of the purest Zlatý Bažant! I figured, since we won, we'd celebrate like kings! Don't worry Dial, I brought you something shitty and non-alcoholic."
"Chernobog…" Thor scowled, speaking the same way one would 'Satan'. Or 'Stark'. "I will warn you. Though you were a valuable ally on the battlefield-"
"Yeah, you weren't so bad yourself, sparky," Chernobog tossed Thor a can, the metal bouncing off Thor's armor before the God of Thunder caught it. Ares caught the next can and looked at it skeptically, while Tony and Maria were handed theirs. To me, Chernobog handed a can of something called Kvas. "Been a while since I've been in a war like that! We killed a LOT of people!"
"The point of the battle wasn't to kill people," Thor said, annoyed.
"Maybe not for you," Chernobog said. "But fine, be a do-gooder! We won, and I can smell more chaos on the horizon!" He laughed. "If I knew being a good guy would end in so many full bellies and dead men, I'd have joined you all years ago!"
Wow. Dude really knows how to kill the mood.
"Fine," Tony cracked open his drink, grinning. "I'll drink to a win. To kicking Hydra's collective asses!" he said with a salute to the battlefield.
"Uh, to beating a shit ton of aliens as well!" I said awkwardly.
"To a battle well fought," Ares chugged back his beer.
"To murder!" Chernobog added cheerfully.
Thor scowled at Chernobog, then took a deep breath. "To the heroes who sacrificed their lives to give us a tomorrow."
"...To the fights we'll win during that tomorrow," Maria said decisively.
We stood together, three mortals and three gods, looking out onto a destroyed battlefield while chugging back our drinks. And in the distance, the sun finally set down.
------
Agent Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD
Phil and Skye stood on one side of the small tent. May was on the other. The three of them stood in silence, a patient's bed sat in the center of the tent, the 'beep. Beep. Beep,' of the monitor slowly driving him crazy.
"...I should have been here," Skye mumbled. The young woman had taken off her armor some time ago. It was pitted by laser fire, broken by superhuman fists, but still good enough to repair. Skye herself had a long burn along her leg currently wrapped up in bandages. It was likely the scar from it would last the rest of her life.
"You were here," Phil said with a sigh. "All of us were. But it's war. We fought as best as we could, but we all knew there was no guarantees. Just be glad he's alive. A lot of people aren't."
Skye nodded slowly. Phil's heart tightened in his chest at the look on her face. Her eyes were baggy with exhaustion, but it was the haunted look that made him feel… well, horrible.
The tent slid open. Phil looked up to see Dial walk in alone. He looked around, nodding to Phil and May, then seeing Skye. The Arabian man didn't speak. He just walked over to her and stood next to her. After a moment, she leaned against him. Phil smiled, seeing the comfort she took in her friend coming to her side. Dial whispered to her, Skye nodding against him.
The tent opened again. Melati, her scales glimmering in the light, came in, her lab coat gone. Simmons came in next, her eyes even more blackened by exhaustion than Skye's, a ring around her mouth from hours of wearing a mask.
"Hey," Skye said, flashing a smile.
"Hey," Simmons said back, walking over and giving Skye a hug, who returned it gratefully.
"Is he okay?" Dial asked Melati.
"His spine was shattered to pieces, what do you think?" Melati glared at Dial, anger in her reptilian eyes.
He met her gaze calmly, not the slightest bit perturbed.
Melati growled a bit, but when Dial responded with nothing, she relaxed. "He's… well. He needs a lot of work. My serum did a lot for him, but I didn't want to overuse it. So he was in surgery for a good while… I don't know if-"
"It is nice to know," the patient said weakly. "That my prognosis is so reassuring."
"Otto," Phil stepped forward, walking around Simmons, only for her to join him. "How are you feeling?"
"Like my spine is shattered." Otto Octavius was looking around blearily, blinking a lot. "I… Simmons. How bad is it?"
"...Bad," she said sadly, taking his hand. "With everyone on hand, we think you'll walk again. But motor function will likely be heavily impaired. We did what we could, but-"
Otto shut his eyes tight. Simmons stopped talking.
"I-" he tried to speak, only to freeze up. His eyes squeezed, tears pouring out, and his fingers went white around Simmons hand. May took his other hand. He could barely move the fingers of that one. That realization led to fresh tears.
"We're here for you," May said.
As Otto cried in silence, everyone stood with him. "I… I can fix this," he said quietly. "I can fix it. I just need help-"
"You have it," Simmons said immediately. "All that you need."
Dial nodded, a strange look on his face. "Yeah. Everything we've got."
------
Army Brigadier-General Everett Buckler
Buckler watched as an M1 Abrams rolled past. The AIM weaponry he'd been given had done well in the field. He could even, with some deliberation, say it had done great. It had all worked perfectly. Too perfectly for experimental tech. It was suspicious.
But worse was the other tech he'd seen. Russian tanks fitted with electricity throwing weapons, zooming across the battlefield alongside their own version of the Avengers. Chinese super tanks that are more akin to moving fortresses. Alien ships dropping out of the sky to rain hell on humanities forces. Dial, already an immense threat, turning into a goddamn giant monster.
Buckler watched as people piled into the Behemoth. He noticed two people in particular.
Black Panther and Darkstar. A Wakandan in a black cat costume. A Russian girl with power over the strange energy known as the Darkforce. The two of them were chatting now, sitting against a jeep as soldiers streamed around them. They should have looked ridiculous. Costumed morons in a room of serious men and women. Darkstar with her black skin tight outfit highlighted with yellow boots, gloves, and a tiara. Black Panther in his own all black skin tight uniform, a pair of small cat ears on his head.
They should have looked stupid.
Except they didn't. The soldiers around them treated them with a sort of… awe. Eyes flickered constantly to them. Buckler couldn't blame them.
Black Panther stood with all the regalness of royalty, his stance strong. He spoke with a smooth and relaxed voice, his African accent giving his words an exotic tone. "-this is my first true war as well. I've only fought in small skirmishes before this. The experience was interesting, to say the least."
"I'm glad I'm not the only one," Darkstar sounded like a damn My Little Pony character. She reminded Buckler of his niece. Not in skin color of course, but they were the same sort of cute.
But moments before, Buckler had seen her floating overhead. Eyes glowing white, shadows coming alive around her, sending down waves of power that ripped through the ground, turned living men into wet piles of flesh. As she flew up there, Thor had joined her. She'd flown next to the God of Thunder. Lightning had joined the shadows she sent down. In that moment-
Buckler shut down that thought. She wasn't a goddess. Just a girl, woman really, with power.
"-we should chat sometime!" she said shyly, looking like any young girl meeting someone she found attractive. "I mean, we're both superheroes, we can, I don't know, partner up or something?"
Black Panther chuckled. "Yes, that would be worth looking into. Let me give you my number."
Such a normal conversation. So why did it worry Buckler? Because of the people having it.
A Wakandan man with invulnerable armor. A Russian girl with the power of gods. They were a small tip of a massive iceberg. The whole world was becoming insane. And the American military was at risk of being left behind.
Buckler turned away from them, pulling out his phone. He called a familiar number on his listphone. After a bit, the person on the other end answered.
"General Buckler?"
"Getz," Buckler said, walking as he spoke. "Your AIM tech worked well."
"I know! I saw the broadcast!" Lyle Getz, the leader of AIM, said excitedly.
Fuck you, Strucker.
"Do you have any idea what that broadcast is doing for us? The amount of information we got from it is going to be perfect for our research! Our weapons were able to take down alien aircraft, cause harm to Gamma Mutates, even contain them! And Tonic performed better than we'd ever ho-"
"It's not enough," Buckler said simply.
"E-Excuse me," Getz said, his enthusiasm shattering.
"Let me be clear. Your weaponry was good. Very good. And Tonic saved the lives of dozens of people, including an Avenger. But you saw what we're competing against."
"The aliens?"
"Damn the aliens!" Buckler barked loudly enough to scare those around him. He gave them a glare until they all ran for the hills, then focused on his call again. "The aliens were always a concern for us. But the damn Russians, Chinese, a Wakandan? BRIDGE has new weapons and tech, the Avengers have been recruiting. The United States Military is being left behind, Dr. Getz. And I won't have it. I'll push for your funding to be raised. But I need goddamn results. I need superhumans and weapons."
Getz was silent on the other end for a long moment. "...There have been some… interesting developments on our end. The experiment with Tonic was enough to get the ball rolling. And we did collect some new assets that might help us further-"
"Do it."
Buckler hung up. He took a deep breath, sighing.
For just a moment, he felt as though he'd made a deal with the devil. And he knew he had more devils to call before the day was done.
------
Dr. Lyle Getz/Director of AIM
Deep in the bunker of AIM's primary laboratory, Lyle stared at his phone for a moment. He'd been having such a good day as well… Then again, this was all technically still good news. More funding would be perfect for their latest projects into Nanotechnology. Their benefactor had shown them something very interesting. Something that might be able to compete with X and Jarvis, the androids the Avengers had working with them, as well as some tech that might be good cheap alternatives to Captain America and Iron Man. In the meantime though…
Lyle put his phone away and walked through the halls of his lab. He stopped before a door, taking a deep breath. Then he entered the room.
In the aftermath of the Rio Timequake, three people had appeared in AIM's laboratory. One, a savage wildman, had escaped. One, a redheaded woman, was just waking. The last, a thin bald man, had awoken some time ago. That was who Lyle was visiting now. One of the many refugees out of time from AIM's great experiment.
But he didn't act like a refugee. More like royalty.
Inside, a man stood tall, looking out the window. He was wearing a hospital gown and sweatpants, his bald head shining in the sunlight, peaceful in his stance. He looked over at Lyle, then back out the window. Outside were the loading and unloading docks. Trucks and forklifts moved about, shifting machinery and experiments. Some were sent out to military bases across the country.
The bald man standing at the window stared out at the moving trucks and machinery with avid interest.
"Still watching them?" Lyle asked as he walked up.
"I know. To you, such sights are mundane. But in my own time, such things were the product of wonders. I had thought, at first, that the loss of magic cheapened the world. Now I find it has only deepened your understanding of it," the bald man said softly. He looked over at Lyle.
Lyle fought the urge to swallow in fear. That look on the man's face… Under that large beak of a nose, his smile was rapturous. Lyle forced down the illogical emotion to focus. "Well, the world has moved on quite a bit. But magic still has a place in it."
"Oh, undoubtedly," the man chuckled. "That is why you're here, isn't it? To ask about the world of me and my companion?"
"Oh yes," Lyle chuckled along with the man. "We just have so many questions. If we could have your help, well… we could open entirely new avenues for our research-"
The door suddenly banged open. Lyle jumped, looking behind him.
Standing there was a redheaded woman. She was wearing a hospital gown and nothing else, the usually unflattering white clothes looking very good on her. The shortness of it revealed flashes of muscular legs, the tightness of it flowing close to her large bosom. Her face, framed by crimson locks of hair, was beautiful as well. The look on her face, on the other hand, chilled the blood within Lyle.
"You bastard," she hissed, stepping towards the man.
"Almati," he said calmly. "I see you have awoken."
"Awoken!?" the woman screeched. Behind her Monica came in, the black haired woman glancing at Lyle. "My kingdom is ash! Our world is gone! Replaced by-"
The man stepped forward and slapped her in the face. The blow echoed in the air as she fell to her knees. Lyle gasped in shock at the violence of the move. Monica took out a gun and pointed it at the man.
The man didn't even look at her, focusing on the woman on the floor. "...Have you regained your senses, Almati?"
She glared up at him. Her right cheek was bruising quickly. "You absolute bastard."
"Bastard, yes. But first and foremost, I am an opportunist," he turned and looked out the window. "Almati. Look out at this world. A world that has, at last, turned to logic as it's answer against the monsters among us."
"...A world where we no longer rule," Almati glared at Lyle. Lyle immediately spoke, seeing where this was going.
"Look. I'm sorry you appeared here. But we can help you find a good life! A better life."
"A life with indoor plumbing," Monica said dryly.
"Indoor what?" Almati said, nose scrunching with confusion.
"Every home of this country has a bath within it," the man turned with a grin. "All of them. And that is the bare minimum. Food, shelter, wealth, entertainment, all cheaply available to the poor and rich alike. Luxury isn't luxury anymore. It's a given."
"You like this world?" Almati said, stunned.
"I love it. And I believe we can do great things here," he turned and held out a hand to Lyle. "I accept your proposal, Dacter," the man said, mangling the word 'doctor' as he did. "I will do everything I can to aid you from here on. My magic is at your command. In turn, I ask that you teach me all your world has to offer!"
Lyle stared at him. On the surface, he seemed genuine. But underneath that… it was his eyes. Insane eyes. Eyes so deep they seemed to pull the world into them.
And yet… never again. Never again would Lyle allow himself into the depths of despair he'd once been in. He didn't care what it took. AIM would become the greatest scientific organization of all time. No matter what deals he had to make.
His hand was wrapped around the bald man's. He shook it up and down. The man grinned. "Yes… You have a deal."
"Good. Then, from now on," the man said with a deep rumble of amusement. "The magical power of Kulan Gath is yours to command."
------
At the same time, in a forest far away, a large muscular arm twisted a spit. A small rabbit was cooking over a fire, juices sizzling merrily. The owner of the arm looked up into the sky. He sighed just a bit, pulling the rabbit off the fire, the swords at his side glinting in the sunlight. While one was a modern machete, the other was a more traditional looking broadsword. And yet, both were well-cared for, oiled and sharpened carefully.
Dressed in nothing but fur around his hips, he seemed uncaring of the chill air, instead focusing on the meat before him.
He took a bite into the cooked rabbit, then sighed to himself.
"By Crom that's good," he said in the language of his time. Ancient Hyborian.
Conan, a barbarian pulled from his time, sat in the forest, devouring a rabbit. Unknowing of the storm that would soon follow him. But then, he was a barbarian. His entire life was a storm anyways.
------
Author's Note: Next, the final epilogue. I'll try to end that strong. But man, I wonder how many people guessed that Conan was the 'savage with blades'.
I was always planning on Conan and Kulan becoming things in this story, and revealing them at least is awesome.
One thing people might notice is that I avoided adding new elements to the story as best as I could. Everything in this and the epilogue are threats or allies that were always teased in this story and the MCU in general.
One other thing. While I'm saying the next chapter will be the Epilogue, it won't be the permanent end of Dial. Just of this general first Phase of sorts. Next phase, as I've said, will be based more on the Space stuff. Things on Earth will still develop of course, but the main point of that is to have a revolving storyline of Dial and select characters dealing with the greater universe. Should be fun!
Before I start the next phase, I'll also be doing clean up. Editing as much as I can, building a backlog of new chapters, and updating the timeline to account for all the new stuff that has happened. I'm also hoping to do some major changes to the first Hydra villainy arc, but that might be on the back burner.
Needless to say, Dial is gonna get a lot of work put into it. The Epilogue is already up on my Patreon, so I hope you all consider supporting me there, as I'll also put any updates on there, including a brand new story that is in the works.
Anyways, let me know what you thought of this chapter, and I hope you guys have a great day!
Epilogue
Epilogue
All across the world, the aftermath of Hydra's death left echoes.
But I didn't focus on that. Too tired.
The night after the battle against Hydra, and the death of Strucker, the Avengers returned home.
We flew back to New York City in groups. Some of us went in Quinjets, others in the Enterprise and Behemoth.
When I got back, I crawled into my apartment, laid down in bed, and passed out. I felt like my head was going to explode. Hell, maybe it was, considering what I'd gone through.
I didn't dream. I took that as a blessing.
When I woke, someone was in my arms. I looked down at her.
Jennifer Walters, her brown hair laying against my chest, snored. It was adorable. I watched the part time-Hulk, current tiny human, for a good while, then reached out for my phone to check the clock.
I'd been asleep for 28 hours… fuck.
Groaning, I gently pulled my arm away from Jennifer, rising to my feet and walking over to the wall. I waved my hand at the wall, bringing up a holo-screen. Then I started typing.
About ten minutes in, I heard a groan behind me. "Uhhhhhg… Why are you awake?"
Jennifer's voice made me smile. "There's work to do."
"Oh shit, what time is it!?" Jennifer snapped to her feet. "Oh god, I was supposed to be at the office-!"
"No, you aren't. You fought in a war. We all get a break."
Jennifer froze behind me. "Oh… oh right."
She was silent for a moment. I sent an email off, then took a look at some blueprints. Goddamn, this would have been so much easier to read as Jury Rigg or Upgrade, but I needed a human perspective on the blueprints. Thank god Tony constantly ran me through mechanic lessons…
"You okay?" Jennifer walked up. "You look like hell."
I stopped, turning to look at her. I thought about it for a moment, opened my mouth, then closing it as I tried to figure out what to say. "At the end, when I fought Strucker? I don't know if you remember, but I dragged him across the universe. And I ended up taking that mental journey with him."
Jennifer curled up on the bed, looking up at me. "You saw everything he saw."
"I felt it. I stood in those places. I was in Hel-" Mephisto winked. I forced the memory back. "I saw a planet die," an impossible mind pressed against mine. "Felt… things…" Moist air crawling into my lungs.
I swallowed, then clenched my fists. "I look like hell. But… I'm also a superhero."
I grit my teeth and turned back to the holoscreen. "Superheroes. We don't run from horrors. We shut them down. Natural disasters don't scare us. They're Tuesday."
"Mahmoud, you can't just ignore what you saw with some kind of macho speech," Jennifer said sternly.
"I'm not ignoring it," I brought up another screen, the Omnitrix on my arm catching my attention. "I'm preparing to fight it."
The things I'd seen horrified me. The reveal of mutants and all the monsters that came with those memories, was… god.
But once the fear was acknowledged, I could get to work. Galactus, the Brood, Apocalypse, Thanos. They were monsters. But they had been driven off, beaten, even killed. If it could happen in other universes, it could happen here.
"I would win. We will win. No matter who gets in our way."
Another screen popped up to my side. A news article. 'Proposal for a Superhuman Registration Ac-'
"Let me take that," Jennifer walked over next to me, taking the article and pulling it to a holoscreen of her own. When I glanced at her in surprise, she scoffed. "Please. You aren't a lawyer. I'll figure this travesty of the constitution. You work your angle."
I grinned. "Thanks. I'll remember you when I need to sue Galactus."
She chuckled. Then she scowled at the screen in front of her. "Any enhanced individuals who use their powers to break the law (including those who take part in extralegal vigilante activities), or are otherwise deemed to be a threat to the safety of the general public, may be detained indefinitely without tria- Are you kidding me!? Jesus fuck man! That's, what, four amendments being ignored!? Wait, no, five now!? Who suggested this utter pile of--ugh!"
As my girlfriend raged at something that had been pissing off comic book lawyers real and fictional for decades, I added one more thing to my calendar.
'Tomorrow. Xavier's.'
------
In a mansion at 1407 Graymalkin Lane, Salem Center, located in Westchester County, New York, a bald man in a wheelchair stared out his window, a black woman with white hair standing behind him.
"When will they arrive?" she asked him.
"Tomorrow. Have the children prepare, Ororo," the bald man smiled. "I think they'll be unable to keep away."
"I'm sure they won't," the black woman said with some amusement. She became a bit more serious a moment later. "Are you sure about this?"
"It wouldn't matter if I was," he sighed. "I'm afraid that Emma took the decision out of our hands."
"...I hate that woman."
He smirked, unable to disagree.
------
Deep within his lair, the Leader held up a cup of wine. "To Strucker. May you burn for eternity, and look upon my works in-
"Are you toasting to someone by yourself in the dark?" the Leader jumped in surprise, turning in his seat to see Klaue staring at him skeptically. "That is creepy. Turn the lights on at least."
The Leader scowled at the ruined moment. "Damn you, Klaue. Is everything ready?"
"Need a bit more time. But we're on our way," he said. On Klaue's new arm, a silver disk with a glowing diamond 'antennae' sat.
"Good… then the Intelligencia will have its way with the world."
"Okay, I just want you to know, I hate when you put it that way."
"I know, it was on purpose this time," the Leader said with a grin.
Behind Klaue, two more people walked up. Red Ghost, a gorilla standing protectively with him. Next to him, a massive specimen of a man strode forward. He wore a skintight black uniform that clung to his muscles, with a red diamond symbol sitting on his chest, and a black feathered cape on his back. His handsome face was a pale white like marble, his head bald, but his ink black beard neatly groomed, his eyes a crimson color.
The Leader smiled warmly. "Mr. Essex. Thank you again for joining us."
"Oh, of course Leader," the man smiled. "I'm sure we will do great things together."
------
Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel
In another part of the galaxy, far from the place of her birth, Carol Danvers stood on a planet on fire. She had no idea of the events taking place on her homeworld. She'd been far from any place that could accept a signal. More importantly, she was extremely busy.
A fist smashed her in the face, adding another bruise to the many spotted across her skin, and sending her smashing through a skyscraper behind her. She landed on a spaceship that had been idling in a parking lot, the metal crumbling beneath her. She groaned in pain, stumbling to her feet with a gast. Carol wiped some blood from her lips, a broken finger bouncing off her nose.
Her Kree battle armor was torn across the abdomen, her left boot gone. Her helmet was ripped off long ago, leaving her hair burnt almost to the
"That… hurt," she mumbled, looking around.
Mydon had once been a garden world, a place full of millions of people. The Mydonians had been a normal civilization. Not entirely peaceful. Not entirely warlike. Just a planet like any other.
Now it was crumbling. Carol watched the skyscraper she'd been punched through fall to the ground. As it fell, the sky behind it could be seen. Far in the horizon, a large swirling portal could be seen in the night. It glowed an eerie magenta. Inside, a universe of strange planets could be seen. Every once in a while, another piece of Mydon ripped off and was pulled into the portal.
Carol swallowed. The planet was dying, bit by bit. And she couldn't stop it.
"Beautiful, isn't it!?"
Something crashed into the ground in front of Carol. She watched the dust fall, allowing the man who had landed to be seen.
He was hairy. Extremely hairy, with a large beard, fur across most of his body, all of it a deep gray, almost silver in color, the flames around them sending red light flickering across him. His armor was navy-blue, covering his torso, groin, and feet. One of his hands glowed with orange energy. His body was stocky and powerful, thick with muscle. The man looked down at Carol with a wide smile. He was bruised in some place. Cut in others. But he stood proud all the same.
"The Genesis Portal. Soon, this place will come home with me. My Cerulean Army will enslave these people and create a throne. A new throne in the Negative Zone, all dedicated to the wonder that is BLASTARR!"
As he laughed, Carol mentally sighed.
Mar-Vell, her old mentor, had once commented on how many bad guys they fought seemed to love their dramatics. And the names. 'Genesis Portal.' 'Negative Zone.' 'Cerulean Army.' 'Blastarr' for crying out loud!
Mar-Vell wasn't right about everything, but on this, he definitely had a VERY good point. Bad guys were way pretentious.
"How about you shut your mouth and fight?" Carol spat out. She staggered upwards, grabbing her broken index finger and painfully readjusting it. The glow of cosmic energy surrounded her. "I've got things to do. So come here and sign on the dotted line. I'm here to hand you your ass, delivered express."
Wow, she must have been more concussed than she'd thought.
Blastarr smiled, fangs flashing. "Yessss. When the Mydonians toil under me, enslaved in my great empire, they will remember your defeat as the beginning of the en- OOF!"
Carol shot him in the stomach. He stumbled back, then fired back at her. She was already flying around the blast, moving in on him.
In terms of power, they were fairly equal. Super-strength, energy blasts, durability. But in terms of experience, he had her beat. Carol had been at this since the 90's. Blastarr had hundreds of years of battle experience.
She didn't stand a chance.
She felt her fist crunch across his chin, then his knee smashed her in the stomach. Carol ignored the blood dripping from her lips to dig her heels into the cement, pushing him back, then hitting him with two punches enveloped in energy. He brought one fist down onto her head in a hammer blow. She gasped in pain, the ground cratering beneath her, then forced herself to uppercut him. As he stumbled back, laughing, she brought both hands up and let loose.
A blast of golden-blue energy hit him like a truck. Blastarr fell back a step. Then he raised his own hands. He blasted his own energy at her.
And she blocked it with her arms, pulling her feet up. The energy licked across her frame, biting at her skin. She grinned, a fatalistic grin. God, this hurt so fucking much. But it was working.
Blastarr blinked in surprise at the sight of his attack sending Carol tumbling through the air. At the apex of her flight, she twisted out of the path of the energy beam, then blasted upwards into the air, shooting up into the atmosphere. Blastarr fired again, the blonde superhuman dodging the attack by diving aside, but continuing to run.
He stared at her, confused. In their battle, the blonde had shown many things. Confidence, then, as he had beaten her to pieces, tenacity, an unwillingness to give any ground if she could help it. But not cowardice. So why was she-
Blastarr's eyes widened. He looked around.
The people. The Mydonians. Where were they?
He ran towards a nearby building, kicking the doors open. Empty.
Another door. Empty.
He charged through the buildings now, smashing through walls, desperate. No, nononono! Where were they!?
Blastarr roared, energy circling him like fire, then exploded upwards, shooting towards where Carol had gone.
He could see her in the distance. A tiny blonde dot against the atmosphere. And… a ship! A damn ship!
She'd tricked him. He'd been so focused on her, and all the while his army had been defeated somehow? How had they been beaten? Subterfuge?
The Mydonians had been gathered by his army, to prevent their escape! So how were they getting away!?
Blastarr snarled, clenching his fist as he rocketed towards-
Carol twisted in mid-flight. Blastarr raised his hands to attack.
A beam the size of a ship smacked him like a swatter hitting a fly. Blastarr gasped, physics working against him. In the moment he'd stopped blasting energy to fly, he'd become an easy target. He tried to reorient himself, but every blast he fired sent him spinning more chaotically. He might have been able to figure it out with enough time. But he didn't have that luxury.
He was sent tumbling through the vacuum of space, entering the 'Genesis Portal' as he screamed in furious rage. Carol floated in space, energy pooling around her, flickering in her exhaustion. She didn't gasp, not in the vacuum, but she was tired. She watched as Mydon was finally pulled into the Genesis Portal. Sent to the Negative Zone… as an empty planet.
Blastarr gained his throne. An empty rock, with none of the people he'd planned to enslave.
Carol felt the last of her energy flicker out. Blood from her nose floated off her face, freezing in the vacuum of space. She smiled.
'I got them out. I got them out. At least they'll be oka-'
Floating in space, she passed out, blood swirling about her like beautiful maroon trails, the blood vaporizing, then freezing as it left her.
Then a spotlight landed on her body. A ship floated towards her, a port opening in the side. She was pulled into it, landing on a metal floor.
A man ran towards her the moment the port closed. He started with pink skin with red feathers. Then, as he ran over to her, with worry on his face, he began to shift. Pink skin became green scales. Red feathers pulled into his body. And his flat muscular chest flowed, growing breasts and showing new curves.
By the time 'he' got to her, a female Skrull replaced him.
"Carol!" she got down next to her, looking her over. "Damn!" the woman looked over her shoulder. "Someone call Talos! Tell him Carol's injured!" the woman turned back to Carol, her eyes wide, pointed ears wiggling. She smiled shakily while pulling out bandages from a pouch at her side, hurriedly beginning work on putting the superhuman in her arms back together. "Damn it, Carol. Talos is going to lose his mind when he finds out you got hurt like this again."
A green hand wrapped around pink as the Skrull woman waited for help, and Carol began to breath slowly. Around them, Mydonians came from the shadows, surrounding them. Staring down at the woman who had broken herself saving them as a Skrull wrapped bandages around her, the medical wraps quickly soaking through. One Mydonian man moved forward, creating a splint for her broken arm, trying to help save her.
Beaten to hell, but still triumphant, surrounded by those she'd fought desperately to save.
Just another day in the life of Carol Danvers.
------
Even as one hero lay passed out on the floor, other important figures worked tirelessly.
They all made their plans. Heroes and villains alike, preparing for the future.
Gideon Malick stood before a stone portal, awaiting the arrival of his god.
Blackagar Boltagon sat in his throne room, watching as the armies of man fought off an alien invasion.
Erik Lensherr sat in silent contemplation within a room of steel.
And on an asteroid deep in space, a man stood. Dressed in armor of gold, he stared out at space, the purple skin of his face twisted as he thought of the footage he'd seen. Thanos, the Mad Titan, watched the stars. And all the while, he smiled.
------
And yet, of those conquerors, heroes, kings, and madmen, none were as important in the now as the event happening in a small laboratory within AIM.
Lyle Getz hadn't known about the lab. His underlings only followed orders. They set up the equipment as their instructions said. Installed the programs, put the technology together, and left it as asked.
While the Battle against Hydra had hit it's final moment, the machinery activated. A computer came to life.
On it, a program activated as well, with the name of the one who had approved the activation of the equipment.
'Dr. Salazar.'
There was no Doctor Salazar in AIM's directory. For three minutes. Then, in the blink of an eye, he existed. His file was made, with a history, schooling, job experience, and even a psychological profile. All slotted seamlessly into AIM.
The machinery began to work. On a slab in the center of the room, metal arms stretched out, picking up small metal pieces from crates about the room and fitting them together. They worked quickly, efficiently. Slowly, the skeleton of the body they were creating began to form.
On the computers the name 'Dr. Salazar' shone a bright crimson.
Across the universe, many worked.
But none as dangerous as this.
Dial's story was not over yet.
End of book 1.
------
Author's Note: Next Book of the Dialverse should be coming down the road. For now, I'm taking a small break from Dial. I've been writing this story for… god. For forever.
That said, I'll be back to it in a couple of months, and will keep working on it in the meantime. I love this story too much to ever want to really end.
My hope is that in my next book I can start focusing more on character moments, with the story much more nailed in on Dial. Essentially, stuff will still happen in the overall world of Dial, but he's the main character.
As for the actual content. Uh… Okay. Mutants, Politics, Inhumans, Space, Fantasma and Creel, Fugitive, Spies, Black Order, Big Monster.
There, that should do it as spoilers
Once everything comes together, it will be available on my Patreon ASAP. The people over there will forever have my thanks. After the fire, the move, all the other stuff that messed with this, you patron folks kept me, my family, and these stories alive. Thank you.
Oh, who is the final baddie at the end? Well, all the hints are there!
All across the world, the aftermath of Hydra's death left echoes.
But I didn't focus on that. Too tired.
The night after the battle against Hydra, and the death of Strucker, the Avengers returned home.
We flew back to New York City in groups. Some of us went in Quinjets, others in the Enterprise and Behemoth.
When I got back, I crawled into my apartment, laid down in bed, and passed out. I felt like my head was going to explode. Hell, maybe it was, considering what I'd gone through.
I didn't dream. I took that as a blessing.
When I woke, someone was in my arms. I looked down at her.
Jennifer Walters, her brown hair laying against my chest, snored. It was adorable. I watched the part time-Hulk, current tiny human, for a good while, then reached out for my phone to check the clock.
I'd been asleep for 28 hours… fuck.
Groaning, I gently pulled my arm away from Jennifer, rising to my feet and walking over to the wall. I waved my hand at the wall, bringing up a holo-screen. Then I started typing.
About ten minutes in, I heard a groan behind me. "Uhhhhhg… Why are you awake?"
Jennifer's voice made me smile. "There's work to do."
"Oh shit, what time is it!?" Jennifer snapped to her feet. "Oh god, I was supposed to be at the office-!"
"No, you aren't. You fought in a war. We all get a break."
Jennifer froze behind me. "Oh… oh right."
She was silent for a moment. I sent an email off, then took a look at some blueprints. Goddamn, this would have been so much easier to read as Jury Rigg or Upgrade, but I needed a human perspective on the blueprints. Thank god Tony constantly ran me through mechanic lessons…
"You okay?" Jennifer walked up. "You look like hell."
I stopped, turning to look at her. I thought about it for a moment, opened my mouth, then closing it as I tried to figure out what to say. "At the end, when I fought Strucker? I don't know if you remember, but I dragged him across the universe. And I ended up taking that mental journey with him."
Jennifer curled up on the bed, looking up at me. "You saw everything he saw."
"I felt it. I stood in those places. I was in Hel-" Mephisto winked. I forced the memory back. "I saw a planet die," an impossible mind pressed against mine. "Felt… things…" Moist air crawling into my lungs.
I swallowed, then clenched my fists. "I look like hell. But… I'm also a superhero."
I grit my teeth and turned back to the holoscreen. "Superheroes. We don't run from horrors. We shut them down. Natural disasters don't scare us. They're Tuesday."
"Mahmoud, you can't just ignore what you saw with some kind of macho speech," Jennifer said sternly.
"I'm not ignoring it," I brought up another screen, the Omnitrix on my arm catching my attention. "I'm preparing to fight it."
The things I'd seen horrified me. The reveal of mutants and all the monsters that came with those memories, was… god.
But once the fear was acknowledged, I could get to work. Galactus, the Brood, Apocalypse, Thanos. They were monsters. But they had been driven off, beaten, even killed. If it could happen in other universes, it could happen here.
"I would win. We will win. No matter who gets in our way."
Another screen popped up to my side. A news article. 'Proposal for a Superhuman Registration Ac-'
"Let me take that," Jennifer walked over next to me, taking the article and pulling it to a holoscreen of her own. When I glanced at her in surprise, she scoffed. "Please. You aren't a lawyer. I'll figure this travesty of the constitution. You work your angle."
I grinned. "Thanks. I'll remember you when I need to sue Galactus."
She chuckled. Then she scowled at the screen in front of her. "Any enhanced individuals who use their powers to break the law (including those who take part in extralegal vigilante activities), or are otherwise deemed to be a threat to the safety of the general public, may be detained indefinitely without tria- Are you kidding me!? Jesus fuck man! That's, what, four amendments being ignored!? Wait, no, five now!? Who suggested this utter pile of--ugh!"
As my girlfriend raged at something that had been pissing off comic book lawyers real and fictional for decades, I added one more thing to my calendar.
'Tomorrow. Xavier's.'
------
In a mansion at 1407 Graymalkin Lane, Salem Center, located in Westchester County, New York, a bald man in a wheelchair stared out his window, a black woman with white hair standing behind him.
"When will they arrive?" she asked him.
"Tomorrow. Have the children prepare, Ororo," the bald man smiled. "I think they'll be unable to keep away."
"I'm sure they won't," the black woman said with some amusement. She became a bit more serious a moment later. "Are you sure about this?"
"It wouldn't matter if I was," he sighed. "I'm afraid that Emma took the decision out of our hands."
"...I hate that woman."
He smirked, unable to disagree.
------
Deep within his lair, the Leader held up a cup of wine. "To Strucker. May you burn for eternity, and look upon my works in-
"Are you toasting to someone by yourself in the dark?" the Leader jumped in surprise, turning in his seat to see Klaue staring at him skeptically. "That is creepy. Turn the lights on at least."
The Leader scowled at the ruined moment. "Damn you, Klaue. Is everything ready?"
"Need a bit more time. But we're on our way," he said. On Klaue's new arm, a silver disk with a glowing diamond 'antennae' sat.
"Good… then the Intelligencia will have its way with the world."
"Okay, I just want you to know, I hate when you put it that way."
"I know, it was on purpose this time," the Leader said with a grin.
Behind Klaue, two more people walked up. Red Ghost, a gorilla standing protectively with him. Next to him, a massive specimen of a man strode forward. He wore a skintight black uniform that clung to his muscles, with a red diamond symbol sitting on his chest, and a black feathered cape on his back. His handsome face was a pale white like marble, his head bald, but his ink black beard neatly groomed, his eyes a crimson color.
The Leader smiled warmly. "Mr. Essex. Thank you again for joining us."
"Oh, of course Leader," the man smiled. "I'm sure we will do great things together."
------
Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel
In another part of the galaxy, far from the place of her birth, Carol Danvers stood on a planet on fire. She had no idea of the events taking place on her homeworld. She'd been far from any place that could accept a signal. More importantly, she was extremely busy.
A fist smashed her in the face, adding another bruise to the many spotted across her skin, and sending her smashing through a skyscraper behind her. She landed on a spaceship that had been idling in a parking lot, the metal crumbling beneath her. She groaned in pain, stumbling to her feet with a gast. Carol wiped some blood from her lips, a broken finger bouncing off her nose.
Her Kree battle armor was torn across the abdomen, her left boot gone. Her helmet was ripped off long ago, leaving her hair burnt almost to the
"That… hurt," she mumbled, looking around.
Mydon had once been a garden world, a place full of millions of people. The Mydonians had been a normal civilization. Not entirely peaceful. Not entirely warlike. Just a planet like any other.
Now it was crumbling. Carol watched the skyscraper she'd been punched through fall to the ground. As it fell, the sky behind it could be seen. Far in the horizon, a large swirling portal could be seen in the night. It glowed an eerie magenta. Inside, a universe of strange planets could be seen. Every once in a while, another piece of Mydon ripped off and was pulled into the portal.
Carol swallowed. The planet was dying, bit by bit. And she couldn't stop it.
"Beautiful, isn't it!?"
Something crashed into the ground in front of Carol. She watched the dust fall, allowing the man who had landed to be seen.
He was hairy. Extremely hairy, with a large beard, fur across most of his body, all of it a deep gray, almost silver in color, the flames around them sending red light flickering across him. His armor was navy-blue, covering his torso, groin, and feet. One of his hands glowed with orange energy. His body was stocky and powerful, thick with muscle. The man looked down at Carol with a wide smile. He was bruised in some place. Cut in others. But he stood proud all the same.
"The Genesis Portal. Soon, this place will come home with me. My Cerulean Army will enslave these people and create a throne. A new throne in the Negative Zone, all dedicated to the wonder that is BLASTARR!"
As he laughed, Carol mentally sighed.
Mar-Vell, her old mentor, had once commented on how many bad guys they fought seemed to love their dramatics. And the names. 'Genesis Portal.' 'Negative Zone.' 'Cerulean Army.' 'Blastarr' for crying out loud!
Mar-Vell wasn't right about everything, but on this, he definitely had a VERY good point. Bad guys were way pretentious.
"How about you shut your mouth and fight?" Carol spat out. She staggered upwards, grabbing her broken index finger and painfully readjusting it. The glow of cosmic energy surrounded her. "I've got things to do. So come here and sign on the dotted line. I'm here to hand you your ass, delivered express."
Wow, she must have been more concussed than she'd thought.
Blastarr smiled, fangs flashing. "Yessss. When the Mydonians toil under me, enslaved in my great empire, they will remember your defeat as the beginning of the en- OOF!"
Carol shot him in the stomach. He stumbled back, then fired back at her. She was already flying around the blast, moving in on him.
In terms of power, they were fairly equal. Super-strength, energy blasts, durability. But in terms of experience, he had her beat. Carol had been at this since the 90's. Blastarr had hundreds of years of battle experience.
She didn't stand a chance.
She felt her fist crunch across his chin, then his knee smashed her in the stomach. Carol ignored the blood dripping from her lips to dig her heels into the cement, pushing him back, then hitting him with two punches enveloped in energy. He brought one fist down onto her head in a hammer blow. She gasped in pain, the ground cratering beneath her, then forced herself to uppercut him. As he stumbled back, laughing, she brought both hands up and let loose.
A blast of golden-blue energy hit him like a truck. Blastarr fell back a step. Then he raised his own hands. He blasted his own energy at her.
And she blocked it with her arms, pulling her feet up. The energy licked across her frame, biting at her skin. She grinned, a fatalistic grin. God, this hurt so fucking much. But it was working.
Blastarr blinked in surprise at the sight of his attack sending Carol tumbling through the air. At the apex of her flight, she twisted out of the path of the energy beam, then blasted upwards into the air, shooting up into the atmosphere. Blastarr fired again, the blonde superhuman dodging the attack by diving aside, but continuing to run.
He stared at her, confused. In their battle, the blonde had shown many things. Confidence, then, as he had beaten her to pieces, tenacity, an unwillingness to give any ground if she could help it. But not cowardice. So why was she-
Blastarr's eyes widened. He looked around.
The people. The Mydonians. Where were they?
He ran towards a nearby building, kicking the doors open. Empty.
Another door. Empty.
He charged through the buildings now, smashing through walls, desperate. No, nononono! Where were they!?
Blastarr roared, energy circling him like fire, then exploded upwards, shooting towards where Carol had gone.
He could see her in the distance. A tiny blonde dot against the atmosphere. And… a ship! A damn ship!
She'd tricked him. He'd been so focused on her, and all the while his army had been defeated somehow? How had they been beaten? Subterfuge?
The Mydonians had been gathered by his army, to prevent their escape! So how were they getting away!?
Blastarr snarled, clenching his fist as he rocketed towards-
Carol twisted in mid-flight. Blastarr raised his hands to attack.
A beam the size of a ship smacked him like a swatter hitting a fly. Blastarr gasped, physics working against him. In the moment he'd stopped blasting energy to fly, he'd become an easy target. He tried to reorient himself, but every blast he fired sent him spinning more chaotically. He might have been able to figure it out with enough time. But he didn't have that luxury.
He was sent tumbling through the vacuum of space, entering the 'Genesis Portal' as he screamed in furious rage. Carol floated in space, energy pooling around her, flickering in her exhaustion. She didn't gasp, not in the vacuum, but she was tired. She watched as Mydon was finally pulled into the Genesis Portal. Sent to the Negative Zone… as an empty planet.
Blastarr gained his throne. An empty rock, with none of the people he'd planned to enslave.
Carol felt the last of her energy flicker out. Blood from her nose floated off her face, freezing in the vacuum of space. She smiled.
'I got them out. I got them out. At least they'll be oka-'
Floating in space, she passed out, blood swirling about her like beautiful maroon trails, the blood vaporizing, then freezing as it left her.
Then a spotlight landed on her body. A ship floated towards her, a port opening in the side. She was pulled into it, landing on a metal floor.
A man ran towards her the moment the port closed. He started with pink skin with red feathers. Then, as he ran over to her, with worry on his face, he began to shift. Pink skin became green scales. Red feathers pulled into his body. And his flat muscular chest flowed, growing breasts and showing new curves.
By the time 'he' got to her, a female Skrull replaced him.
"Carol!" she got down next to her, looking her over. "Damn!" the woman looked over her shoulder. "Someone call Talos! Tell him Carol's injured!" the woman turned back to Carol, her eyes wide, pointed ears wiggling. She smiled shakily while pulling out bandages from a pouch at her side, hurriedly beginning work on putting the superhuman in her arms back together. "Damn it, Carol. Talos is going to lose his mind when he finds out you got hurt like this again."
A green hand wrapped around pink as the Skrull woman waited for help, and Carol began to breath slowly. Around them, Mydonians came from the shadows, surrounding them. Staring down at the woman who had broken herself saving them as a Skrull wrapped bandages around her, the medical wraps quickly soaking through. One Mydonian man moved forward, creating a splint for her broken arm, trying to help save her.
Beaten to hell, but still triumphant, surrounded by those she'd fought desperately to save.
Just another day in the life of Carol Danvers.
------
Even as one hero lay passed out on the floor, other important figures worked tirelessly.
They all made their plans. Heroes and villains alike, preparing for the future.
Gideon Malick stood before a stone portal, awaiting the arrival of his god.
Blackagar Boltagon sat in his throne room, watching as the armies of man fought off an alien invasion.
Erik Lensherr sat in silent contemplation within a room of steel.
And on an asteroid deep in space, a man stood. Dressed in armor of gold, he stared out at space, the purple skin of his face twisted as he thought of the footage he'd seen. Thanos, the Mad Titan, watched the stars. And all the while, he smiled.
------
And yet, of those conquerors, heroes, kings, and madmen, none were as important in the now as the event happening in a small laboratory within AIM.
Lyle Getz hadn't known about the lab. His underlings only followed orders. They set up the equipment as their instructions said. Installed the programs, put the technology together, and left it as asked.
While the Battle against Hydra had hit it's final moment, the machinery activated. A computer came to life.
On it, a program activated as well, with the name of the one who had approved the activation of the equipment.
'Dr. Salazar.'
There was no Doctor Salazar in AIM's directory. For three minutes. Then, in the blink of an eye, he existed. His file was made, with a history, schooling, job experience, and even a psychological profile. All slotted seamlessly into AIM.
The machinery began to work. On a slab in the center of the room, metal arms stretched out, picking up small metal pieces from crates about the room and fitting them together. They worked quickly, efficiently. Slowly, the skeleton of the body they were creating began to form.
On the computers the name 'Dr. Salazar' shone a bright crimson.
Across the universe, many worked.
But none as dangerous as this.
Dial's story was not over yet.
End of book 1.
------
Author's Note: Next Book of the Dialverse should be coming down the road. For now, I'm taking a small break from Dial. I've been writing this story for… god. For forever.
That said, I'll be back to it in a couple of months, and will keep working on it in the meantime. I love this story too much to ever want to really end.
My hope is that in my next book I can start focusing more on character moments, with the story much more nailed in on Dial. Essentially, stuff will still happen in the overall world of Dial, but he's the main character.
As for the actual content. Uh… Okay. Mutants, Politics, Inhumans, Space, Fantasma and Creel, Fugitive, Spies, Black Order, Big Monster.
There, that should do it as spoilers
Once everything comes together, it will be available on my Patreon ASAP. The people over there will forever have my thanks. After the fire, the move, all the other stuff that messed with this, you patron folks kept me, my family, and these stories alive. Thank you.Oh, who is the final baddie at the end? Well, all the hints are there!
I knoew it! The final enemy... is J. JONAH JAMESON!...
wait no nevermind.
Kosjurake
The Wildest of Ronins
- Location
- Tokyo LOCCENT
They are from the Ben 10 side of things. Well technically they are from Generator Rex which had an official crossover with Ben 10. So they're from two settings over. I'd say more but I'm pretty sure we're not actually getting Dr. Salazar and this is just Alpha the AI thing that is involved with AIM creating a human guise for some reason.
You nailed it! It's Alpha, after his battle with Ben Tennyson and Rex Salazar.
Crystalwatcher
(Verified GM)
- Location
- Limbo
This sentence just cuts right off for me. I don't know if that's because it's missing punctuation, or if a chunk of what you were intending to write is gone though.
Dear god the nostalgia is strong in this one sentence. A-class cartoon right there boy!
Dial Book 1 Timeline Final
Book 1
- November 15, 2013- During the Convergence, Thor battles the Dark Elves, defeating them with the help of Jane Foster and other allies
- November 19, 2013-
- The day after a battle in an Irish Church between Coulson's Team and Norse Paganists, Coulson's Team has recovered the legendary Berserker Staff and helped an Asgardian named Elliot Randolph, who goes underground.
- Dial enters the Marvel Cinematic Universe after being pushed in by Professor Paradox, turning into Swampfire for the first time. His memories of the MCU are removed entirely due to the rules of the bet between Paradox and (UNKNOWN)
- The day after a battle in an Irish Church between Coulson's Team and Norse Paganists, Coulson's Team has recovered the legendary Berserker Staff and helped an Asgardian named Elliot Randolph, who goes underground.
- October 4th, 2013-Dial attempts to access his universe with a dimensional viewer, but only gets static and a blackout in his area for three days.
- December 18, 2013- Posing as a documentary filmmaker, Ten Rings agent Jackson Norriss visits Trevor Slattery in Seagate Prison and interviews him about how he became involved with Aldrich Killian. Killing the guards, Norriss reveals he has been ordered to take Slattery to the Mandarin (Really Xu Wenwu), who is a real terrorist leader and not a fabrication of Killian's as Slattery assumed.
- December 19, 2013- Dial makes a living in New York, fighting crime at night and working in construction by day, squatting in an old office building. Using Jury Rigg, he's created a supercomputer in the eccentric alien's style to monitor SHIELD and other groups.
- January 8, 2014-
- That evening, Captain America and the Black Widow join agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. subdivision STRIKE as they recapture the Lemurian Star and rescue the hostages.
- After fighting the pirate leader Georges Batroc, Captain America discovers the Black Widow extracting data from the ship's computers, an element of the mission he was not informed about.
- That evening, Captain America and the Black Widow join agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. subdivision STRIKE as they recapture the Lemurian Star and rescue the hostages.
- January 9, 2014-
- At the Triskelion (S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters in Washington, D.C.), Steve Rogers confronts Nick Fury about keeping certain parts of the rescue mission secret from him. Fury shows him S.H.I.E.L.D.'s latest endeavor: Project Insight, three Helicarriers connected to orbital satellites and designed to preemptively eliminate potential threats. However, Rogers finds this project morally questionable.
- Rogers goes to the Smithsonian Institution's Captain America exhibit and reminisces about his time in World War II.
- He then visits Peggy Carter, who is now nearly 93 years old, in a retirement home.
- Sam Wilson hosts a counseling session for war veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. Rogers attends and listens to the testimony of a veteran named Garcia and Wilson's speech.
- Deathlok critically injuries Felix Blake during the hunt for the Clairvoyant.
- Fury has a meeting with Alexander Pierce
- Nick Fury tries to read the data the Black Widow extracted from the Lemurian Star's computers, but to his surprise he is denied access. He informs Alexander Pierce of this, and requests Project Insight be postponed due to his underlying suspicions. Fury leaves the Triskelion and contacts Maria Hill to arrange a meeting. On the way to the rendezvous point, he is attacked by assassins posing as police officers. He evades them, but is confronted by the Winter Soldier, who shoots a Magnetic Disk Grenade under Nick Fury's SUV, forcing it to upturn. Severely injured, Fury escapes by using a "Mouse Hole" device to cut through the road and into the sewers.
- Steve Rogers returns to his apartment, where he finds Fury sitting in his living room. Fury manages to tell Rogers that S.H.I.E.L.D.has been compromised and gives him the USB containing the data from the Lemurian Star. From the adjacent building, the Winter Soldier shoots and appears to fatally wound Fury. While his neighbor (who reveals herself to be an undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. agent codenamed "Agent 13") gets Fury to safety, Rogers pursues the Winter Soldier, but fails to catch him. Nick Fury is taken to a hospital in a critical condition. His heart stops during surgery, and the doctors are unable to revive him.
- After he is pronounced dead, Maria Hill collects his body. Rogers hides the USB Fury gave him in a vending machine.
- At the Triskelion (S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters in Washington, D.C.), Steve Rogers confronts Nick Fury about keeping certain parts of the rescue mission secret from him. Fury shows him S.H.I.E.L.D.'s latest endeavor: Project Insight, three Helicarriers connected to orbital satellites and designed to preemptively eliminate potential threats. However, Rogers finds this project morally questionable.
- January 10, 2014-
- Believing Steve Rogers may be withholding information from S.H.I.E.L.D., Alexander Pierce questions him about the circumstances of Nick Fury's death. Rogers does not tell him about the USB or anything Fury said to him before he was shot. Pierce reveals that Fury hired Georges Batroc to hijack the Lemurian Star, and Romanoff's extraction of data from the computers was the real mission.
- On his way back to the hospital to retrieve the USB, Rogers is attacked by several STRIKE operatives in an elevator but manages to defeat all of them. He jumps out of the elevator to avoid arrest, drives away on his motorcycle and evades an attacking Quinjet. Pierce tells the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. that Rogers is now a wanted fugitive and must be hunted down. A high priority alert is sent across the world.
- Dial receives the high priority alert that Captain America has been called a wanted fugitive of SHIELD, officially quitting his job to focus on it.
- Rogers returns to the hospital, but the USB is no longer in the vending machine. Natasha Romanoff reveals that she has it, and explains who the Winter Soldier is. The pair go to a mall Apple store and use it to read the data on the USB.
- Dial uses the supercomputer Jury Rigg created to invade SHIELD's database and find out where Captain America is, planning to find the truth for himself. He finds footage of Natasha and Steve in the Apple Store, tracking their location as Washington D.C.
- SHIELD (really Hydra) immediately tracks the hack and assaults Dial. He fights off his pursuers as Diamondhead and escapes as Astrodactyl, flying towards Washington D.C.
- At the same time, Steve and Natasha have traced the creation of the program on the USB as a bunker in New Jersey. Stealing a car, they begin the journey there.
- Having to stop at the outskirts of D.C. to let the Omnitrix recharge, Dial decides to stop to buy equipment at a nearby Best Buy. While there, he is tracked down and ends up in conflict with Carl Creel, who was brainwashed by HYDRA. The two battle, destroying the Best Buy. Dial uses Jury Rigg and Rath to battle him, eventually winning, then escapes as Astrodactyl, using technology created by Jury Rigg to fly freely with no fear of radar tracking.
- Finding Captain America and Black Widow, the three agree to work together. They enter a bunker together.
- In the bunker, they find an old supercomputer, and, inserting the USB, they reactivate the preserved consciousness of Arnim Zola. Zola explains that HYDRA has continued to operate within S.H.I.E.L.D. since its creation in the 1940s, and several S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives including Alexander Pierce, Jasper Sitwell, and Brock Rumlow are actually sleeper agents for HYDRA. The information on the USB is an algorithm Zola produced for Project Insight. Before Schahed, Rogers and Romanoff can get any more information from him, Arnim reveals he has been stalling for a ballistic missile headed for them. Dial forces it to veer off with a device he'd created, then uses Jury Rigg to tear apart the Arnim Supercomputer, turning it into a small X-shaped device instead. They escape using Diamondhead's powers.
- Believing Steve Rogers may be withholding information from S.H.I.E.L.D., Alexander Pierce questions him about the circumstances of Nick Fury's death. Rogers does not tell him about the USB or anything Fury said to him before he was shot. Pierce reveals that Fury hired Georges Batroc to hijack the Lemurian Star, and Romanoff's extraction of data from the computers was the real mission.
- January 11, 2014-
- Needing a place to lay low, Steve Rogers leads them to Sam Wilson's home, the former Air Force soldier agreeing to take them in. Over breakfast, the group of four start to make plans on how to fight back, using the files Dial stole from Zola to decide on what to do next.
- The group steals the EXO-7 Falcon. To this day, none of them will explain HOW they stole it.
- Kidnapping Sitwell, he reveals to the group that Arnim Zola's algorithm will seek out any individual or group that poses a threat to HYDRA. The Insight Helicarriers will then eliminate the targets, placing a majority of the East Coast at risk. The Winter Soldier kills Sitwell and battles Rogers. Carl Creel arrives as well, battling Dial. During the fight, Rogers removes the Winter Soldier's mask and recognizes him as Bucky Barnes. Despite Captain America and Dial nearly defeating the Winter Soldier and Absorbing Man together, a S.H.I.E.L.D. team soon arrives and forces them to surrender by threatening Sam and Natasha. The team arrests Schahed, Rogers, Romanoff, and Wilson.
- Maria Hill, disguised as an escort, rescues Rogers, Romanoff, Schahed, and Wilson, and takes them to Nick Fury, who faked his death by means of an anti-stress serum created by Bruce Banner.
- Nick Fury notes that there is no reason to trust Dial, who has no paperwork, immense power, and came out of nowhere. Steve vouches for him. Leaving it for now, Steve calls Clint Barton, Tony Stark, and Rhodey Rhodes.
- Clint Barton arrives first on a motorcycle. He meets Sam and Mahmoud.
- Tony Stark and James 'Rhodey' Rhodes arrive next. After a brief interaction, Steve takes Tony aside and tells him about the truth of the assassination of Howard and Maria Stark
- The group suits up for battle, gathering weapons and gear, Dial himself getting armor, a gun, and a knife. They then make the plan for the battle. After some discussion, the group agrees to tear apart SHIELD and rebuild, working to expunge anything of HYDRA from it.
- Needing a place to lay low, Steve Rogers leads them to Sam Wilson's home, the former Air Force soldier agreeing to take them in. Over breakfast, the group of four start to make plans on how to fight back, using the files Dial stole from Zola to decide on what to do next.
- January 12, 2014- THE BATTLE OF THE TRISKELION/THE WAR AGAINST HYDRA BEGINS
- The group gathers at the Triskelion and begins their assault.
- Captain America, Falcon, and Maria Hill break in secretly, using X and Jarvis to invade the systems and take control. X sends a device called Hercules out to loyal SHIELD agents, allowing them to immediately track any HYDRA agent. Steve's message goes to every SHIELD base on Earth, revealing the truth.
- Dial uses Diamondhead to cover the Helicarrier hangers in massive crystal canyons, stopping the carriers from taking off. Iron Man, War Machine, and Dial engage one carrier each.
- Inside the Triskelion, Natasha and Clint, who both snuck in under the guise of Councilmembers, disable Pierce and his HYDRA soldiers, Nick Fury joining them.
- Falcon and Captain America help SHIELD Quinjets get into the air, Captain America engaging Winter Soldier to keep the Quinjets safe
- Fighting intensifies throughout the base, focusing in different areas.
- An airbattle between Falcon and SHIELD Quinjets and HYDRA Quinjets.
- A battle in the garage of the Triskelion in an attempt to allow more HYDRA soldiers inside the base.
- Iron Man, War Machine, and Dial attempted to down the three Insight Helicarriers
- An airbattle between Falcon and SHIELD Quinjets and HYDRA Quinjets.
- Iron Man finishes his Helicarrier off and goes to join the garage battle to help Captain America take in Winter Soldier
- Agent Grant Ward, on orders from the Clairvoyant, fights Phil Coulson and Victoria Hand, forcing them to kill him while Garrett escapes using Ward as a distraction
- Rhodey is engaged by Creel. After a brief battle, he succeeds in destroying his Helicarrier, later capturing Creel
- Dial kills for the first time. Afterward, he Jury Rigg's a device for Jarvis and X, creating a device powered by an Insight Helicarrier to give both AI enough power to flood every HYDRA device in the world, siphoning information, money, stocks, sending information to authorities across the world and sending the money to Mahmoud, Fury, and Tony's accounts. Using Hydra's own algorithm, they track down every HYDRA member and resource on Earth.
- Steve and Tony disable and capture Bucky
- Rhodey joins Dial carrying Creel. Creel escapes and attempts to kill Rhodey. Dial unlocks Upgrade, turning into him to join with the War Machine suit. Working together, they disable the last Helicarrier and capture Creel.
- Dial combines with a Helicarrier using Upgrade. Using the immense firepower afforded to him, he forces Hydra to surrender
- Wolfgang von Strucker and other HYDRA Cells prepare to fight back, gathering resources.
- Von Strucker flees to America, freeing Abomination and the Leader from their cells in Alaska in a desperate attempt to level the playing field.
- Sterns agrees to work with Von Strucker, using his gamma-enhanced intelligence to create communications that can circumnavigate Jarvis and X's search program. Strucker uses the comms to contact other cells, pulling them in to join him. Gideon Malick tells him where to find the Phase Harmonic Teleportation Device, a device that can be used to teleport nearly anywhere.
- General Hale, knowing that Hydra is finished, betrays HYDRA, joining SHIELD with her daughter, Ruby Hale, escaping the HYDRA Preparatory Academy. Strucker's forces invade the school, stealing the Phase Harmonic Teleportation Device and a captured Black Sky
- Sterns enhances Davida DeVito, von Strucker using the teleportation device to transport her and other soldiers to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Science and Technology.
- Von Strucker flees to America, freeing Abomination and the Leader from their cells in Alaska in a desperate attempt to level the playing field.
- More facilities are being fought over. SHIELD teams separate to continue battling HYDRA. Dial, Natasha, and Rhodey join a group to fight at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Science and Technology, where they encounter and defeat Davida DeVito, AKA Titania. Rath gets a crush on her, to Dial's chagrin.
- Later that day, Dial, as Jury Rigg, creates a device that can see into other dimensions, using it to explain where he came from without telling the group they are a comic book where he comes from. Only the original Avengers, Fury, and Hill are privy to this, and all swear to secrecy, the dimensional viewer destroying itself afterward.
- Meeting the World's Leaders, Fury and the Avengers convince them to rebuild SHIELD, beginning the process that will eventually lead to BRIDGE.
- The group gathers at the Triskelion and begins their assault.
- January 13, 2014-
- Natasha takes on the role of Dial's teacher in earnest, becoming his mentor for the remainder of the series.
- Strucker contacts John Garrett, one of the few survivors of SHIELD's culling HYDRA. On hearing Garrett plans to invade the Fridge, Strucker offers aid in the form of comms and Helen Feliciano.
- Garrett, with Helen and Deathlok helping, invades the Fridge, stealing weapons and gear and releasing several prisoners, including Marcus Daniels
- Strucker releases Abomination, making a deal with the monstrous creature
- Tony Stark nicknames Fitz-Simmons, calling them Ross and Rachel. This is important. He also forms a small 'think tank' with Fitz-Simmons, Dial, Bruce, and Skye. The first thing the group makes together is the Rescue Armor for Pepper Potts, the armor made for dedicated flight and shields.
- January 14, 2014-
- SHIELD is transformed into the Bureau of Reconnaissance, Intelligence, Development, and General Enhancement. Maria Hill is later announced as the Director of BRIDGE by unanimous decision.
- The Remnants of HYDRA join in Gideon Malick's campground. Wolfgang von Strucker takes control of HYDRA, knowing he'll have to watch for a knife in the back.
- SHIELD is transformed into the Bureau of Reconnaissance, Intelligence, Development, and General Enhancement. Maria Hill is later announced as the Director of BRIDGE by unanimous decision.
- January 15, 2014-
- Sterns designs gamma radiators, devices that project gamma rays directly at the subject, and tests them on HYDRA volunteers, finding that a certain 'gamma gene' allows some people to gain powers, while others are scarred by the experience. Rana Phillips gains her powers this way, becoming Aberration, while Benjamin Tibbits becomes Flux
- Strucker, on hearing his former mentor, Daniel Whitehall, is being attacked, decides to use the Scepter to watch the attack and attempt to discover the nature of it.
- Daniel Whitehall, formerly Werner Reinhardt, is captured by BRIDGE with the aid of the Avengers, who now include Sam Wilson, Mahmoud Schahed, Carl Creel, Bobbi Morse, Bucky Barnes, and Isabelle Hartley among their ranks. Wolfgang von Strucker, using the power of the Scepter, watches the capture, returning to his body and informing his allies of the details of the attack.
- BRIDGE reveals themselves to the general public, with Sam Wilson AKA Falcon announced as leader of a new team made up of Cark Creel AKA Alloy, Rhodey Rhodes AKA War Machine, Isabelle Hartley AKA Warrior, Bobbi Morse AKA Mockingbird, Bucky Barnes AKA Nomad, and Mahmoud Schahed AKA Dial (Who does not have a wiki page to link to). The team is called the Reserve Avengers for now.
- The Claytronics Object Creator is completed, later called the Claytronics Nanoforge, a name suggested by Arratra. With it, they create the Catom Armor, a precursor to Nanotechnology.
- Sterns designs gamma radiators, devices that project gamma rays directly at the subject, and tests them on HYDRA volunteers, finding that a certain 'gamma gene' allows some people to gain powers, while others are scarred by the experience. Rana Phillips gains her powers this way, becoming Aberration, while Benjamin Tibbits becomes Flux
- January 16th, 2014-
- General Hale makes a deal to have Ruby Hale taken in by BRIDGE
- Sharon Carter and Antoine 'Trip' Triplett are kidnapped by Aberration on their way back from visiting Peggy Carter.
- Jennifer Walters is kidnapped by Samuel Sterns
- In retaliation for the kidnappings, BRIDGE assaults several HYDRA compounds, the Reserve Avengers being sent to assault the Graveyard, a base in the Chihuahuan Desert where all HYDRA failed experiments are sent to. There, they find multiple animal and human experiments, robotics, and a large Wendigo, who Creel and Dial defeat. Dial also uses the Omnitrix to heal the failed living experiments, healing them of their painful mutations and also giving them 'cleaner' versions of their powers. At the same time, he unlocks Frankenstrike and Four Arms during the battle
- Jane Hartley, Isabelle's sister, is cured of breast cancer by Dial
- General Hale makes a deal to have Ruby Hale taken in by BRIDGE
- January 17, 2014-
- Frank Castle is recruited by BRIDGE.
- Operation Cerberus is uncovered. William J. Rawlins the Third and many of his co-conspirators are arrested. Billy Russo escapes
- Ruby Hale is taken under Black Widow's wing
- Dial goes to the Wakandan Embassy and meets King T'Chaka and Prince T'Challa with the Dora Milaje, (Including Ayo) watching on. Dial gives them the Panther's Trail, a device created to track Ulysses Klaue wherever he goes, and warns them that remaining hidden wouldn't be in the best interest of Wakanda
- Frank Castle is recruited by BRIDGE.
- January 18, 2014- Ava Starr, aka Ghost, is rescued from an assault of HYDRA Centipede soldiers by Dial and Hawkeye, her adoptive father, Bill Foster joining her.
- January 19, 2014-
- BRIDGE and the Avengers discover a defunct Air Force Base owned by HYDRA being used to refuel and resupply. A team is sent to break into the base and steal information, as well as destroy it.
- Another team is sent to deal a future attempted kidnapping by Marcus Daniels on a woman named Audrey Nathan he had been obsessed with.
- As the base is disabled, Marcus Daniels attempts to kidnap Audrey Nathan with the aid of HYDRA and another enhanced named Donald Gill, who was brainwashed by HYDRA. After several battles, both are defeated, Iron Man using armor based on concentrated light and the Melter Armor in combination with the power of Upgrade, and Audrey Nathan is free, though she later refuses all contact with Phillip Coulson. During the battle, Dial unlocks Snare-Oh
- BRIDGE and the Avengers discover a defunct Air Force Base owned by HYDRA being used to refuel and resupply. A team is sent to break into the base and steal information, as well as destroy it.
- January 20, 2014- BRIDGE VS HYDRA
- With the information from the base, BRIDGE finally discovers HYDRA's base, and immediately gathers to engage them. HYDRA makes moves to try and escape, and the battle begins.
- The Avengers engage forces around the large castle being used as HYDRA's base. Iron Man, War Machine, and Falcon aid in battling the enemy in the air, while Alloy, Captain America, Dial, Warrior, and Nomad invade the main castle, the other Avengers focused on taking on those outside.
- Captain America and Nomad engage two Gamma Enhanced, defeating themselves
- Rath engages Miriam Pouncy, Melissa Gold, and Wanda Maximoff, as part of a plan to fake a fight until they can group together to hunt down and capture Strucker, as well as free the hostages he had.
- Hulk engages Abomination and Aberration, the two HYDRA soldiers sharing pieces of the Berserker Staff to enhance their power.
- Strucker reveals that he knew the plan to capture him, and made plans in retaliation, convincing Garrett to kidnap Pietro and Helen to distract Rath, Poundcakes, Songbird, and Scarlet Witch.
- Thor arrives on the battlefield, helping to defeat Abomination
- While Dial, Poundcakes, Songbird, and Scarlet Witch attempt to save Pietro, Helen, and Jen, Coulson's team rush the Cybertek Manufacturing Facility, the location where HYDRA is holding many of their hostages, freeing them. Dial and Deathlok battle in the skies for dominance until Skye has Deathlok's son, Ace, send him a message. On hearing that Ace is free, Deathlok turns on HYDRA, helping BRIDGE in the battle. Thor and Dial stop the Quinjets in their immediate vicinity, though Strucker makes his escape. Dial unlocks Big Chill during the battle
- Sterns turns on Strucker, attempting to steal valuable tools and teleporting away, but Strucker, who anticipated this, replaces the valuable tools with bombs, blowing them up and injuring Sterns
- Alpha makes an arrival with the aid of (UNKNOWN), using the activation of the Rainbow Bridge to appear on Earth
- Dial gains a new Asgardian form from Thor
- With the information from the base, BRIDGE finally discovers HYDRA's base, and immediately gathers to engage them. HYDRA makes moves to try and escape, and the battle begins.
- January 21, 2014- Jennifer Walters is woken up from her cryosleep, in She-Hulk form, and practices with her new powers, excited by her new strength
- January 22, 2014-
- Tests are run on She-Hulk, the Graveyard Survivors, Dial's new Asgardian form, and the Grapplers, who have been reunited with Davida. The only Gamma enhanced left is a tiger, who seems to like Hulk and Dial. Dial nicknames the tiger 'Battle Cat'. Dial's Asgardian form is revealed to have some form of power over sand, later being named Sandráss, though the form has so much uncontrolled power that it forces an early timeout
- Klaue is captured by the Black Panther and the Dora Milaje using the Panther's Trail created by Dial
- Later that night, Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson agree to become Dial's lawyers, as well as to speak with Jennifer Walters about joining them. Dial gifts new armor and billy clubs to Matt Murdock when Foggy isn't around.
- Tests are run on She-Hulk, the Graveyard Survivors, Dial's new Asgardian form, and the Grapplers, who have been reunited with Davida. The only Gamma enhanced left is a tiger, who seems to like Hulk and Dial. Dial nicknames the tiger 'Battle Cat'. Dial's Asgardian form is revealed to have some form of power over sand, later being named Sandráss, though the form has so much uncontrolled power that it forces an early timeout
- January 23, 2014-
- Tony creates armor for Dial that remains engaged even when the Omnitrix times out
- Daredevil and Dial shut down a sex slavery ring
- Dial meets Stan and Joan Lee, receiving a drawing from them later
- Tony creates armor for Dial that remains engaged even when the Omnitrix times out
- January 25, 2014-
- Jennifer joins Foggy and Matt in their new offices, the three becoming partners
- Tony invites Dial, Fitz, Bruce, Skye, and Simmons for Project: Ultron. Dial suggests changing the name
- *(^!#@$*@&α ^#...!(*#&@*ω &!a finds it's way to Lyle Getz of A.I.M. while he speaks with Monica Rappaccini, giving him access to dozens and blueprints
- Jennifer joins Foggy and Matt in their new offices, the three becoming partners
- March 15, 2014- RIO TIMEQUAKE
- A time-quake hits Rio De Janeiro, cause by AIM's experiment into time travel and reality jumping. The phenomenon pulls in places, beings, and objects from across time and space into Rio for a brief moment, the immense forces involved destroying much of the city with a 9.1-10 earthquake, killing thousands. It also leaves many hostile elements, from dinosaurs to demons to wolves, which begin killing those remaining.
- BRIDGE and the Avengers arrive in the city and immediately begin helping with the evacuation, fighting to save as many as they can. Along with them are the Redeemers (Formerly the Reserve Avengers) and the Initiative, made up of the Grapplers, Ava Starr, the Maximoff Twins, and Deathlok. Together, they landed in Rio, quickly beginning to save as many as they can while battling hostiles
- Frank Castle kills demons with such brutality that the weaker hellspawn run at the sight of him forever after. It doesn't save them. The tougher ones begin to eye him...
- Ulik the Troll appears, battling the Avengers and defeating Dial. The battle ends when Ulik is sent flying over the horizon by an overcharged blast from Thor and Iron Man, heard laughing as he sent into the distant hills of Brazil
- The Council is told by the UN that various countries, including China, Russia, and the United States have demanded that BRIDGE leave Rio, citing several regulations that shouldn't really matter. Maria Hill agrees, only to use every trick in the book to STAY in Rio.
- A time-quake hits Rio De Janeiro, cause by AIM's experiment into time travel and reality jumping. The phenomenon pulls in places, beings, and objects from across time and space into Rio for a brief moment, the immense forces involved destroying much of the city with a 9.1-10 earthquake, killing thousands. It also leaves many hostile elements, from dinosaurs to demons to wolves, which begin killing those remaining.
- March 26, 2014-
- Dial discovers the Ulik form (Later called Grendel) has been absorbed into the watch, only to find one other, the Symbiote form (Later called Blight), quickly informing BRIDGE about the possibility of infection. At the same time, Eddie Brock, who has encountered a symbiote, is sent through an anomaly created by the time-quake to an unknown location.
- Lyle Getz and Monica Rappaccini continue AIM's experiments into time/reality transversal as *(^!#@$*@&α ^#...!(*#&@*ω &!a and (UNKNOWN) watch on, their experiments having pulled in a wild man, an old bald man, and red-headed young woman
- Dial discovers the Ulik form (Later called Grendel) has been absorbed into the watch, only to find one other, the Symbiote form (Later called Blight), quickly informing BRIDGE about the possibility of infection. At the same time, Eddie Brock, who has encountered a symbiote, is sent through an anomaly created by the time-quake to an unknown location.
- UNKNOWN DATE, BENVERSE: Professor Paradox has informed Azmuth about the use of an Omnitrix by Dial, Azmuth taking the cue to prepare for the threat from (UNKNOWN)
- April 19, 2014- Ulik the Troll frees a small village from the tyrannical rule of a biker gang, as well as gives a little girl an impossible goal on accident
- April 23, 2014- BRIDGE and the Avengers all return home, with plans to go back to Rio to continue to aid in the recovery processed
- April 24, 2014- Dial and Steve Rogers go shopping together to relax, visiting Forbidden Planet
- T'Challa tells Maria Hill about Wakanda's secret advanced nature, the two agreeing to begin exchanging knowledge, technology, and personal
- Fury tells Maria every secret he had ever hidden from her
- Shuri meets Simmons and Fitz for the first time
- Ulysses Klaue is released from Wakandan custody by the Leader
- T'Challa tells Maria Hill about Wakanda's secret advanced nature, the two agreeing to begin exchanging knowledge, technology, and personal
- April 26th, 2014- Bruce Banner and Thor meet Betty Ross, Jane Foster, Darcy Williams, and Leonard Samson once again.
- T'Challa reveals to Dial that Klaue has been broken out of prison, with neither knowing that the Leader is the one who took him. He asks Black Panther about the Wakandan Space Program, as part of Dial and Tony's drive towards advancing their own space program.
- Coulson finds out that Garrett has killed himself. Coulson visits his cell, only to see the Words of Creation. Not knowing that the Kree blood inside him due to Project Tahiti is connected to it, he begins carving the symbols within the Bus.
- Fitz-Simmons decide to join Stark Industries full-time.
- Among the most important events in history happens. Dial introduces Ruby to the Discworld by giving her Terry Pratchett.
- May 3, 2014-Dial meets back up with Sammy, the man who had his back during his construction days, and invites him to Tony's party on the 10th.
- May 4, 2014- Coulson meets Hank Pym, and gets nothing out of it, as the cranky old man ignores him.
- May 5th-Dial, Fitz, Shuri, and Tony head to the Stark Industries warehouse that, unbeknownst to them, would become the new Avengers Compound in another universe.
- May 10, 2014- The Avengers have a party, inviting people from all over. Asgardians, New Yorkers, heroes, lawyers, youtube musicians, all kinds of people show up. Drinks, food, and fun, with a food fight on an epic level at one point using powers, machines, and makeshift guns to hit each other. Fitz wins it.
- Dial strikes out with Skye
- Steve meets his old army buddies.
- The Warriors Three are introduced to Nintendo, Sif is introduced to Postmodern Jukebox
- Fin Fang Foom (Looking like a black haired Gordon Liu) reveals his presence in New York City, owning a restaurant called Gǔlóng
- After the party, X and Jarvis reveal that they now have new robotic forms. X, a robust combat unit, Jarvis, a support unit.
- March 11th-12th, 2014- Winter Guard Arc
- Dr. Bernard Kloss and Dr. Dana Bergstrom discover the Savage Land in the middle of Antartica
- Coulson, Simmons, Skye, May, Fitz, Dial, and Creel head out to Russia on the Bus to aid them in a superhuman threat, only to discover that the government is also using the request for aid in a propaganda bid to introduce the Winter Guard, their answer to the Avengers, to the world.
- The Winter Guard is composed of Vanguard (Nikolai Krylenko), Crimson Dynamo (Galina Nemirovsky), Fantasma, Kraven the Hunter, and Chernobog. The team secretly includes Ursa Major (Mikhail Ursus).
- Dial and Creel meet the group, with some initial friction.
- The mission turns out to be one to track down The Red Ghost (Ivan Kragoff), a genius turned revolutionary who has turned apes into cyborgs, and is trying to make the Russian government accept his technology in return for going to war for dominance with the rest of the world. Starting by killing a base of Russian military to prove the techs ability.
- BRIDGE, Dial, Creel, and the Winter Guard begin working on preparing to fight back. It's revealed by Chernobog that the formation of the Winter Guard was partly as a counter to the Avengers, with each member made to be ready to kill a specific member in case of a worst scenario.
- While the joint group is mobilizing to fight Kragoff, a Hydra team made up of Trip, Sharon, and Laura infiltrate a lab in China and steal a superadvanced computer chip.
- While flying towards Kragoff's base, he sends an army of monkey zombie servitors to attack them. While the group survives, they end up destroying the Bus, forcing the heroes to evacuate, Coulson taking Lola out.
- After Fantasma uses an overcharged spell to take out their attackers, Kragoff sends a servitor orangutan with a monitor within it, and gives the group an ultimatum. The Winter Guard are to pull back, or he will explode a nuke within range of civilians.
- Refusing his demands, they split into three groups. Team Alpha, consisting of Coulson, Galina, Skye, May, and Fitz-Simmons, heads out to infiltrate Kragoff's base and cut off his control of the servitor army.
- Team Omega, consisting of Dial, Fantasma, and Chernobog, head out to stop the nuke.
- Team Beta, consisting of Creel, Vanguard, and Ursa Major, head to intercept the army of servitors being sent out to kill more people, rendevousing with the Russian Military.
- Team Alpha infiltrates Kragoff's main base, with Galina staying outside to decimate the servitors guarding the outside.
- Team Omega make it to the facility containing the nuke, breaking through the army only to face a trio of specialized bots. Miklho, a gorilla, Igor, a baboon, and Peotor, a orangutan, reflecting the Super-Apes, with similar powers using advanced technology.
- Team Beta confronts the army, joining Russian military in battle.
- Dial turns into NRG for the first time, using it to devour the bombs nuclear material.
- While Team Omega manages to disable the bomb, they and Beta are still dealing with overwhelming numbers of servitors, depending on Team Alpha to shut them down.
- Team Alpha attempts to stop Kragoff, who reveals he's gained powers of intangibility. With little options, he escapes in a rocket, and Team Alpha shuts down the servitors, saving Russia before escaping Kragoff's base self-destructing.
- After Kragoff's escape and the shut down of his forces, the Winter Guard, Coulson's Team, Dial, and Creel, deal with the aftermath, deciding to have a meal together in Avenger's tradition.
- At the Golden Grizzly, a bar close to the base, the group meets up for drinks and food, revealing backstories on the various characters as well.
- Chernobog was released by the Rio TimeQuake, and bonded with a man named Alexsei, a bartender who was diagnosed with lung cancer before that. In return for his aid, the government allows him to devour the lifespan of prisoners like pedophiles, serial killers, and traitors to the state.
- Ursa Major was a former Red Room agent, who turned on his masters. His powers are due to an aberrant gene, which unknown to them, is the X-Gene.
- May 13, 2014- The next day, Fantasma leaves the Winter Guard to join the Avengers. Her replacements are Ursa Major, who joins the team officially, and Laynia Petrovna, aka Darkstar, the sister of Vanguard, who sounds like a Russian My Little Pony.
- At the same time, Kragoff, who has escaped, speaks with Miklho, Igor, and Peotor, bemoaning his losses. As he does, Klaue, who has met Kragoff in the past, knocks on his door, offering him a partnership with his boss.
- Trip, Sharon, and Laura return to Strucker, who has constructed his own version of the Satan Claw. Strucker takes the super-chip they stole and uses it to complete the construction of a new Arnim Zola AI, inhabiting the body of a robot with his face showing in the center.
- In the meantime, in New York City, Jessica Jones is drinking at Luke Cage's bar when a rocket from a group attempting to stop a van carrying illicit material instead blows up the bar. The group, led by Barracuda, attacks innocents in the street while stealing from the van, with Luke and Jessica intervening to save their lives. Barracuda escapes, but Luke and Jessica save the civvies.
- Dial and She-Hulk begin a relationship together.
- Fantasma gets a room in the tower, and a hatred of Tony when it turns out to be chockful of Harry Potter memorabilia and a note calling her 'Hermione'.
- May 14, 2014- Leopold Fitz begins work on transforming cars, and introduces Dial to Doctor Otto Octavius and Melati Kusuma AKA Komodo, the replacements for Fitz-Simmons on Coulson's team.
- May 15, 2014- Dial purchases the building he once squatted in, with plans to make it a secondary base of sorts, hiring Sammy and his other construction buddies to work on it. More importantly, he meets Luis, who proceeds to give a recap of Dial up to that point. Dial gives him his number.
- Maria Hill discusses the new appearance of several other superhuman teams across the world.Teams in Japan (Big Hero 6), China (Ascendants, Dynasty, China Force, S.P.E.A.R.), Canada (Alpha Flight), Greece (Ares),and Korea (Seol Hee, known as 'Luna Snow', Ami Han, AKA White Fox, and Dan Bi, called Crescent).
- With the rise of superhumans coming faster, Maria and Fury discuss the possibility of a Registration Act coming along, as well as their own counter-proposals to it.
- Army Brigadier-General Everett Buckler and Air Force Brigadier-General Glenn Talbot visit AIM, meeting with Lyle Getz, who demonstrates the Microwave Emitting Beam System and an Energy Containment Cell( Both secretely made based on the Broiler and Containment Tube, with blueprints from Providence Technology provided by Alpha.
- Dial meets Jen's father after eating with her, a man by the name of Morris Walters.
- Tony captures Vasily Karpov, the man behind the operation to kill Howard and Maria Stark, sending him to Russia with Mikhail, to be tried and sent to a military prison in Russia, a fate worse than death for a traitor.
- Dial, worried about his mortality, tells X the full truth of his origins, trusting the AI to take in the knowledge and carry it into the future in the event of Dial's death.
- Coulson's Team heads out to Citrusville to discover what happened to a SHIELD project there that disappeared, as well as reports of monsters.
- May 16, 2014-Steve and Tony watch Avatar the Last Airbender for the first time.
- May 17, 2014- Dial notes that organized crime has gone underground, noting that people like Fisk must be responding to the escalating superhuman heroes by hiding their activities better.
- Sir Magnus of the Danes, one of those left in 2014 by the Rio Timequake chooses to stay in 2014, joining the Vatican's anti-evil task force.
- May 18, 2014- Three Different Adventures happen at the same time. For simplicity, they'll be labeled separately.
- SAVAGE LAND ARC 1-
- Dial, Creel, and Fantasma head to the Savage Land in a quinjet, along with a few BRIDGE soldiers and scientists. Their mission is only to defend the scientists already living there, aiding them in their research where they can.
- While meeting with Bergstrom and Kloss, the scientists who discovered the area, the group are attacked by a group of six Mapusaurus. Dial turns into Blight for the first time, merging with Creel. With Fantasma and the BRIDGE soldiers, they defeat the group.
- Dial, in a moment of distraction, gets hit by a dinosaur that had been knocked out. The dinosaur, in a panic as it wakes, hits Dial with it's tail, sending him flying over a cliff. Before he can activate the Omnitrix, he's knocked out by a rock he smashes into.
- GIANT-SIZED MAN-THING ARC 1-
- Coulson's team, comprising of Phil, May, Skye, Otto, and Komodo, head out to Citrusville, Florida in a large truck. Their mission, to look into a SHIELD facility working on the super-soldier serum. that went dark during the Hydra Uprising. In the aftermath, rumors of a swamp monster arose.
- The team split up. May, Otto, and Komodo head to the facility. Coulson and Skye go to meet with the local sheriff's office to ask them for information.
- Coulson and Skye meet Deputy-Sheriff Daniel Nakamura, who tells them the sheriff is out for now. The Deputy tells them that the swamp was quiet for five months after the battle. Coulson, suspicious of Daniel, turns to leave with Skye.
- As they are about to leave, Sheriff John Daltry arrives. The man had no idea they were coming, putting more suspicion on the deputy. Daltry tells them that they found a 'Jane Doe' in the aftermath of the battle, who had half her face melted off and was found traumatized in the swamp, and was taken to the Citrusville Psychiatric Hospital to recuperate. With no other leads, the group goes to visit her, leaving the Deputy behind.
- May, Otto, and Komodo, head out to the facility in the center of the swamp.
- Phil and Skye meet the Jane Doe, discovering she is Barbara Sallis, formerly Barbara Bannister, who got together with Ted Sallis. After feeling ignored by him, she was convinced to give his research to Hammer Industries, convinced he'd focus on her again once the research was gone. One day, while stealing his research, Hydra was revealed by the Hercules App, causing SHIELD and Hydra to attack each other, with Barbara caught in the crossfire.
- As she tells her story, May, Otto, and Komodo enter the facility and discover the remains of the battle. Within, vegetation has grown at immense speeds, including plants non-native to the Everglades. Otto recovers the hard drives and takes them to the truck, playing footage of the attack while Barbara continues her story to Phil and Skye, explaining how she and Ted tried to escape. In the midst of running towards a pool that opened up into the swamp, Ted was shot and fell into the pool with the experimental formula for super-soldier serum. The combination changes him, turning him into Man-Thing. It places its hand on her face, burning briefly with it's power before she loses her fear.
- After her story, the group realizes that the Man-Thing might return and is a possible threat. Preparing to join together again, Otto notes that someone had also stolen the SHIELD weapons and armor with the facility.
- As the group attempts to regroup, armed men attack May, Otto, and Komodo, forcing them to defend themselves. While fighting the men, the high emotions caused by it draws Man-Thing, who kills the men and nearly kills Otto before he controls his emotions.
- At the same time, Phil, Skye, and Daltry are attacked by Deputy Nakamura, who had been part of the group that stole the weapons and technology from the base. The Deputy and his men attack, but underestimate Skye's advanced power armor.
- Marvel Team Up: She-Hulk and Punisher 1
- She-Hulk, now used to her powers, has gotten bored in her current day-to-day life, eager to get back into action and prove herself. She gets her wish when a BRIDGE agent calls her and informs her they require superhuman assistance on something.
- She's paired up with Frank Castle, in this universe still happy with an alive family. They're supposed to be joined by a BRIDGE agent specializing in investigation, but are forced to work on their own when the agent doesn't show up.
- Their mission is to investigate several incidents where superhuman strength or technology was used to break open several bank vaults. With little choice, the two take their alternate experiences (Lawyer and Soldier) and apply them to the current problem.
- While going over the evidence, a woman named Agent Ananastasia Rinaldi arrives from the FBI, claiming to be taking over the investigation. Rather than battle it out over jurisdiction, Jen and Frank head out alone to visit a witness, a guard who was beaten to near death.
- On arriving, dozens of paparazzi are there to film She-Hulk, despite the fact no one should know she's headed there, something she and Frank note.
- When they get to the hospital, the security guard (named Mr. Edgar Romero) is dead, murdered just before they got there. Jen, seeing the killer, gives chase, only to be waylayed by a redheaded woman with superhuman strength, who sucker punches her before running.
- The woman, Mary MacPherran, murders the killer after he had been seen by Jen.
- With little choice, Jen calls Jarvis and requests his assistance. Together, they find the man, one John Critic, and track down his friends, connections, and known associates.
- Mary wakes in her base, where it is revealed that Ananastasia is actually working with her, using her connections to keep the robbers out of trouble.
- Jen notes John has some high-class lawyers. Unbeknownst to her, they were hired by Wilson Fisk. Using footage of him, they track down the warehouse the thieves are using as a base and head out with two BRIDGE soldiers to capture/kill them if need be. However, by the time they get there, the robbers have moved on to the next job, forcing them to chase them down.
- At the bank, She-Hulk and Titania meet, battling. They land in Madison Square Garden, in the middle of a televised MMA fight, and ends up being filmed before She-Hulk wins, finishing off Mary with a final punch even after losing her She-Hulk form.
- Ananastasia kills one of the BRIDGE soldiers, Frank hunting her down in turn, killing her brutally. Ananastasia lands in hell, meeting the demons there and telling them about Frank, scaring a few who remember him terrorizing them in Rio.
- May 19, 2014-
- SAVAGE LAND ARC 2-Dial wakes up after drifting down a river, finding out that he must have encountered Anti-Metal, AKA Antarctic Vibranium, which has the ability to melt almost any metal by vibrating. His armor, sword, and more critically, his Omnitrix, are all damaged to the point of being non-functional.
- With his arm also being broken, Dial focuses on survival first and foremost, trekking through the jungle while using survival techniques learned from the Avengers and BRIDGE members he trained with, even killing and eating a giant scorpion.
- After fending off a pack of Velociraptors, Dial gets knocked out by a dart shot into his neck.
- GIANT-SIZED MAN-THING ARC 2-A day after the corrupt Deputy and his men are captured or killed, Coulson takes stock of everything. He speaks with Daltry, informing him (With Director Hill's permission) of the events that went down, namely Ted Sallis and his transformation into Man-Thing. He then explains that BRIDGE shouldn't capture him, as Man-Thing is required. Coulson doesn't tell Daltry why, but it is to defend the Nexus of All Realities, with plans to send others into the town to help Daltry and Man-Thing defend it.
- Marvel Team Up: She-Hulk and Punisher Conclusion
- Jennifer, still in her human form, and Frank are both debriefed by Maria Hill. Frank invites Jen to dinner with his family.
- At home, Frank receives the Micro CD.
- May 20, 2014-
- SAVAGE LAND ARC CONCLUSION
- Creel, Fantasma, and BRIDGE have been continuing their attempts to find Dial, to no avail. On Mikhail's recommendation, Maria calls Boris, requesting Kraven's assistance in finding Dial. Kraven, on hearing the details, immediately accepts. At the same time, X rockets off to the Savage Land as well, intent on finding Dial.
- Dial, after getting kidnapped, wakes in a cage, surrounded by others who have been captured, all in cages being pulled by ankylosaurs. On waking, he meets Stend, a Saur-Lord, member of a species of anthromorphic dinosaurs, in this case a Stegosaurus. Stend, a slaver, informs Dial that he is to become a slave and gladiator.
- The slavers and slaves reach a city made of stone, ruled by the Saur-Lords, and are told they will fight in the Arena.
- After an initial fight, Dial gets to know his fellow slaves. Gresh, a Saurian, a Rock Tribal Dial nicknames Demi, a Neu Deutschlanders who doesn't give his name, and an Aerian girl despondent after losing one of her wings.
- X reaches the Savage Land and begins tracking Dial's location, passing a shrine to Chtylok the Che-K'n Kau and finding the vein of Anti-Metal that damaged Dial's equipment. On finding it, he is forced to request help, as he can't pass with his android form. Luckily, Kraven has reached the Savage Land as well, and meets up with him. Together, the two continue the search.
- Stend pulls Dial aside, revealing a thirst for knowledge, knowing that his own species is incredibly primitive and wishing to advance them to match the outside world. He offers Dial a trade, information about the outside world for higher status. Dial requests that the slaves he was imprisoned with not be sent into the arena to fight to the death in return. Stend refuses, saying he needs people for the games 'You will work with me, alone. Or you will die.' Dial declines the deal.
- Dial, Gresh, Demi, the Neu Deutschlander, and the Aerian girl, as well as the other slaves, 27 people in all, some old, invalid, or children. With little choice, Dial rallies them together, planning to fight in the frontlines despite his broken arm.
- The group fight a much better equipped and healthier group of 20 Saur-Lords in front Stend and two of his fellow Saur-Lords, Styro the Second-in-Command of the entire region and Pter. Dial and his allies fight hard enough that the fight is called off, though ten of their number are killed in the battle.
- The next fight begins. The Red Devil is revealed to be Hauzer, who is forced to fight three Allosaurs. After killing them, Hauzer attempts to kill Styro, showing intense hatred for him, barely getting knocked out before he can engage him in battle. Dial, with his escape plan solidified, notes that his Omnitrix is beginning to repair itself.
- X and Kraven find the spot where Dial was kidnapped, heading out to find him from there, Kraven killing a T-Rex on the way.
- Fury meets with Agatha Harkness, officially bringing her into BRIDGE as a magical consultant and teacher.
- Back in the Savage Land with Dial, he learns that Hauzer was found in the ice of Antartica by Styro, who took him back to the Saur-Lord City to enslave as a fighting animal.
- Stend pulls Dial out of the cage and forces him into a cage with an unconcious Hauzer, demanding that Dial tell Stend all his secrets about the outside world or be left inside with a pissed-off super dinosaur-dragon when it wakes.
- Dial, knowing of Hauzer's intelligence, convinces the dinosaur to work with him. Together, the two escape, with Dial's Omnitrix repairing itself afterward. Dial transforms, turning into Ball Weevil.
- As the two rampage through the city, the master of the Saur-Lords reveals himself. Sauron, AKA Karl Lykos, an enemy of the X-Men. The two briefly battle with him, then make their way to the arena.
- X and Kraven reach the city, breaking in as Dial makes his escape. X brawls with Bronto briefly, beating him before reaching the Arena with Kraven.
- In the arena, Dial, in Ball Weevil form, breaks out the slaves while Hauzer runs to eat. On their way out, they meet X and Kraven. Together, they take over the Arena, turning it into a trap.
- Stend and Pter reach the Arena, shocked at the sight of Bronto, who they believed to be near-invulnerable, beaten to a near-pulp. Sauron joins them just as Dial sends out a prisoner to give them his terms. Release all the slaves, send in Styro and Stend. Non-Negotiable. He also names Sauron by his human name, intriguing him.
- The Saur-Lords meet with Dial and his allies in the center of the Arena. After a brief interaction, they split into groups to battle. Stend vs X, Pter vs Kraven, Styro vs Hauzer, and Dial vs Sauron.
- Dial and Sauron battle for some time before Fantasma and Creel join him.
- X dominates Stend in battle.
- Kraven and Pter battle in a garden, with Kraven killing Pter after a challenging duel.
- While they fight, Demi, Gresh, and the other former slave fighters defend the civilians as Saur-Lord guards rush in to attack. In the midst of fighting, a Quinjet drops in, shooting and killing the Saur-Lords with their guns, rescuing them.
- Dial, Fantasma, and Creel defeat Sauron, capturing him.
- Hauzer kills Styro, with the yellow man leaving with the words 'After this battle, head North'.
- Dial and the group meet up, with Dial letting Stend go as a broken man after X has beaten him half to death.
- The Omnitrix repairs itself completely, taking on a new form and gaining the ability to maintain forms as long as the user wants, as well as voice activation.
- The battle over, they leave the city, taking those who wish to come with them along.
- Dial has several new scars after the fight. Across his right cheek, close to his left eye, claw marks on his abdomen, a stab mark in his right shoulder, several lines acros his pectorals. The scars become a permanent fixture of his appearance, appearing on his aliens as well.
- He debriefs with Maria Hill, who informs that others are attempting to create counters to the Omnitrix, something she had to worry about as a possibility with his disappearance.
- While the battles were happening, Ka-Zar and Zabu were battling Anklyo in a village, one of the Saur-Lords that hadn't been in the city.
- Dial gathers Creel, Fantasma, Gena, the Anklyo-Saur-Lord that joined them, Demi, Dietrich the Neu Deutschlander, Ka-Zar, and Zabu. With the possibility of more threats on the horizon for the Savage Land, Dial announces that they will be forming an Avengers Team in the Savage Land.
- Later, Dial prepares to make a replacement wing for Gena. As he does, he finds that he now has an Aerian, Saurian, and Rock Tribal form, as well as all the Saur-Lords variations (Styro, Bront, Pter, Allo, Anky, T-Rex).
- Dial makes the device, then visits Sauron with Ka-Zar and Zabu. After finding out that a small village is sat atop a weapon of some sort (Nuwali technology) from Sauron, they promise to defend it. After, Dial uses Feedback to absorb Sauron's power, turning him into Karl Lykos.
- Hauzer heads North, where he finds dinosaurs and other megafauna gathered around a woman who calls herself Hag of the Pits. She asks him for permission to add his energy to the Fossilized Amulet in return for giving him the rulership of her portion of the Savage Land. The Hag of Pits speaks of the threats to come, and convinces him to allow it.
- Dial, Fantasma, and Creel head back home. As they do, they promise to begin training in earnest. They reunite with the Avengers and BRIDGE, resting at last. Dial meets with She-Hulk, who tells her about her recent mission after they exercise together, Thor and Nat joining them for breakfast in the middle of it.
- Back in the Savage Land, a drone picks up a sample of Anti-Metal, then enters a portal to get to Galvan Prime, returning to Azmuth, who begins experimenting with it.
- Dial tells Jen the full truth of his existence, right down to his origins. He also explains that he keeps a constant check on notable people, such as Peter Parker, Kamala Khan, and a few others.
- They end the night capturing Stilt-Man together with Creel and Izzy.
- GIANT-SIZED MAN-THING CONCLUSION
- Agatha Harkness arrives in Citrusville, acting as a magical consultant for Team SHIELD and Daltry. The group head to the swamp, with Agatha guiding them to one particular spot once she senses something there. She finds the Nexus, as Dial predicted.
- Agatha informs of the Nexus, explaining it's connection to the multiverse, as well as the dangers it poses, before Man-Thing reveals himself as its defender. With little choice, she sets up magical wards in the swamp to drive away the curious, with plans to set up a secret BRIDGE group to defend it as well.
- General World Events
- J. Jonah Jameson, his social media empire exploding thanks to covering the events of the last few months. As part of his show, he discusses the recent reveal of the newest superheroes and superhumans in general, and the fears tied to those reveals.
- On a happier note, in a home in Queen's, Peter Parker and Ned Leeds build a lego set together, at the same time talking about some of the memes around heroes.
- Kamala Khan, already an avid fanfic reader and writer, goes to eat dinner, with her mother thinking on Dial's mixed reputation among Muslims.
- Humberto Lopez finds the Fossilized Amulet as the Hag watches.
- Lyle Getz, desperate for his continued success, experiments with EVO, creating Tonic, the first Human EVO in the Dialverse.
- Laura is there with Josef while Strucker visits Zola, who has become more driven and erratic with his new form, even as he works to create his first Doughboy.
- Strucker, desperate to find new advantages, gathers the Confederacy, tricking them before using Loki's Scepter to control their minds.
- Stend gains his obsession for Dial, planning his revenge.
- May 24, 2014-
- Steve and Dial go on The Daily Show With John Stewart, where Dial turns into a Saur-Lord for the first time, this one a Brontosaurus. On the advice of the crowd, he names it Brontoroarus.
- Afterward, Dial and Steve head back to the tower. Dial heads to meet Agatha, meeting Scarlet Witch on the way, who has become an official Avenger. Fantasma joins them for her first lesson.
- Agatha Harkness meets Fantasma, Scarlet Witch, and Dial, taking on the former two as her new students. She then speaks to Dial, who trades information for help making a new sword, and she explains the concept of the shifting timescale of Marvel.
- Dial heads to Greece with Jen, Bucky, and Steve, to meet the latest recruit to aid BRIDGE and the Avengers. Assuming it to be Hercules at first, they're surprised to meet Ares instead.
- Creel begins training at Fogwell's Gym, with Matt.
- Dial asks Ares to train him, with Ares agreeing after a test. Jen joins him. Ares also gives him Khamsin, an adamantine scimitar named for a hot dry wind that runs across Egypt and Isreal.
- Fantasma begins her own training with Agatha.
- While Natasha tracks down Hydra, she also follows the trail of the Red Room.
- May 25, 2014-
- Dial and Agatha discuss various aspects of the Marvel Universe, including New Salem, Nicholas Scratch, Kamar-Taj, the Ancient One, Dormammu, the Mindless Ones, and more.
- Dial continues to work on his new base, calling it an Avengers Mansion.
- Dial and Pandora Peters, the new head of W.A.N.D., a division of BRIDGE dedicated to studying and countering magic, head to Citrusville, meeting with Sheriff Daltry. They head out to the Nexus, meeting with Man-Thing, who Daltry has nicknamed 'Manny'. In Swampfire form, Dial attempts to speak with Man-Thing, instead getting only emotions. Powerful, godlike, emotions, but only that.
- They arrive at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission: Citrusville Office, a front for W.A.N.D. Daltry, Peters, and Barbara Bannister become the first members of the new team.
- Dial flies back to Greece, only to turn into Swampfire, who is blossoming for the first time, giving Dial massive pimples in his human form for a brief time.
- May 26, 2014
- Within the newly named Nerd Hub, Dial and Shuri continue to work on the space program.
- May 27, 2014
- Dial, Sam, and Maria visit Luke and Jessica at Trish Walker's Apartment, inducting them to become Vigilantes
- June 1, 2014
- Fury meets with Karl Lykos, who has some established communication with one of the goblins captured in Rio. Karl has been writing letters to Tanya Anderssen and a single one to Charles Xavier. Fury makes a deal with Karl Lykos, the two agreeing to trade information for Lykos being able to, within reason, do experiments. Lykos also requests to speak with Dial.
- Maria, Fury, and Victoria Hand discuss the Raft, as well as the possibility of Rana Phillips joining the Grapplers. They also discuss AIM's odd advancements, Ulik the Troll's movements.
- Ulik the Troll has continued a campaign of war against the criminals of the Southern American countries, with Los Zetas being the latest to face his wrath.
- June 2, 2014
- Dial aids with some humanitarian work, giving a village in Africa fresh crops. He then goes to Ukraine, meeting up with Darkstar near Chernobyl with Grigory Plotnick. They head in with Dial in NRG form absorbing the radiation there. Dial and Darkstar run into two of the puppies of Chernobyl. Dial devours the Elephant's Foot, and they finish up cleaning Reactor 4.
- Dial and Darkstar adopt a puppy each. Dial names his puppy, a Caucasian Ovcharka, Nezuko. Darkstar names her puppy Boris.
- June 3, 2014
- Dial, Nat, and Wanda encounter Klaue in New York City, who is backed up by an army of Humanoids. While Dial and Wanda fight the Humanoids, Nat accidentally blows off one of Klaue's arms.
- The Leader contacts Bruce, making allusions to his plan to make a Gamma World.
- June 5, 2014-Hydra Final War: Opening
- Steve and Bucky visit Luna Snow, Crescent, and the White Fox, with Luna agreeing to join them on any missions where the Avengers need extra backup. With that, they head to London to meet the next recruit. They meet Pete Wisdom of MI13, who introduces them the recruit, Sir Benedict of Otherworld, a half-dragon and former Knight of the Round Table. Benedict reveals that Otherworld was also invaded during the Rio Incident, and Benedict was sent to the Mortal Realm to discover the source.
- While speaking, they're attacked by a group of Hydra Operatives, forcing them to fight back. While they defeat them, the operatives manage to steal something from MI13's files.
- Tony and Ruby head to a benefit together, only to realize an assassin has been sent after them. Laura, AKA Blood Diamond, attacks the pair, almost killing Ruby before she is forced to disengage.
- Dial is attacked on return to New York from a training session with Ares. He is met by Luke and Jessica, the three meeting his attacker, the fabulous, sexy, bootylicious, ever-awesome Dead-... er, Deadpool. Dial and Deadpool battle before Deadpool using a version of his teleport belt to escape while Luke and Jessica take down the mercs helping Deadpool.
- Jarvis reveals that the Hydra attacks are worldwide.
- Galina is attacked by Remorath soldiers with Chernobog helping her kill them.
- June 6, 2014-Hydra Final War
- With Hydra's attack, the gloves come off. BRIDGE gathers the allies they can and immediately leave for Siberia, the final location of the conflict. The Avengers prepare for the war to come.
- Everyone says their goodbyes. Then they fly off to war.
- The Combatants and Weapons of the War Are As Follows.
BRIDGE combatants and equipment Strucker's Allies The Avengers:
- Captain America
- Iron Man
- Black Widow
- Thor
- Hulk
- Hawkeye
- War Machine
- Falcon
- Dial
- Alloy
- Mockingbird
- Warrior
- Nomad
- Fantasma
- Scarlet Witch
- Davida DeVito
- Melissa Gold
- Pietro Maximoff
- Marian Pouncy
- Helen Feliciano
- Micheal Peterson
- Ava Starr
- Director Maria Hill
- Agent Phil Coulson
- Agent Victoria Hand
- Agent Melinda May
- Agent Skye
- Agent Frank Castle
- Fifty Graveyard Survivors and 100 BRIDGE soldiers having been turned into BRIDGE's new STRIKE teams
- Simmons (Medical Aid)
- Vanguard
- Kraven
- Chernobog
- Crimson Dynamo
- Ursa Major
- Darkstar
- Luna Snow
- Ares
- Sir Benedict
- X
- La Vent
- Detective Fantôme
- Black Panther (Identity Hidden)
- The Russian, American, and Chinese military forces
- Tonic (AIM Medic)
HYDRA's Loyal Superhuman Forces:
- Flux
- Josef
- Five Winter Soldiers
- Gamma soldiers
- Chitauri Armor Wearers
- Centipede soldiers
- Blood Diamond (Brainwashed)
- Trip (Brainwashed)
- Sharon Carter (Brainwashed)
- Flux (Pathetic)
- Zola (Kinda)
- Doughboy
- Bane Style-Soldiers, enhanced by Zola Serum
- Remorath Shock Troopers (Brainwashed)
- Kree Shock Troopers (Brainwashed)
Aircraft:
- The Enterprise and two other Helicarriers
- Quinjets
- Royal Talon Fighter
- F-35 Lightning II's
- F-22 Raptor
Tanks:
- Tesla Tank
- M1 Abrams given AIM MEBS/Providence Boilers
Spacecraft:
Tanks:
- The BRIDGE allied forces meet, the heroes meeting their counterparts.
- In a valley over Siberia, the BRIDGE army attacks Hydra's base.
- In another universe, Azmuth watches the war while dealing with one of his own, this one against alien forces similar to those from the X-Com universe.
- Across the battlefield, battles begin in earnest, with key figures duking it out.
- Jen defeats Flux, capturing him with the help of US Army soldiers carrying AIM tech.
- As the battle continues, with superhumans on botsides causing immense damage to the forces, Strucker calls Maria. He warns that even if Hydra dies, their ideals will continue through the governments of the world.
- When Maria is unwilling to listen, Strucker unleashes his final weapon.
- Up in space, Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Ben Grimm, and Johnny Storm, in an attempt to make history, test a engine meant to cut space travel nearly in half. While testing it, the Confederate Fleet flies in, forcing them to run, though the four get exposed to cosmic radiation before they crash land on Earth. They go ignored, as the fleet drops in to attack BRIDGE's forces.
- Dial attempts to take over one of the ships, only to discover it's defended by an insane AI, one of dozens defending the ships and attacking Jarvis, X, Tony, and the systems of the various ships in Cyberwarfare.
- China's forces, having been held up getting there, arrive, helping BRIDGE further in the battle.
- Dial, Creel, and Fantasma infiltrate Qovas' ship. Though they infiltrate the bridge, Qovas sets the ship to self-destruct in an explosion equal to 120 tons of TNT, enough to kill a majority of BRIDGE's forces. Dial, desperate, tries to transform into Diamondhead.
- Instead, he becomes an Antrosapien, a crystal being the size of Godzilla. Using the form, he begins fighting back, destroying the ships.
- Dial, Captain America, Black Panther, Iron Man, Punisher, Warrior, and Mockingbrid, infiltrate the Hydra base after Dial and Hulk break through the defenses.
- As they do, Strucker initiates an attack on Avengers Tower using the Fishhook. Pepper works to defend the tower in her Rescue Armor, joined by Daredevil, Luke Cage, and Jessica Jones. They are joined by Fitz, who uses a custom suit of Space Marine armor from Warhammer, something he made for fun, to aid them.
- Inside the Hydra Base, the infiltration team end up separated when the hallways they're in begin to shift due to Arcade's technology.
- Dial and Laura battle, Tony takes on Doughboy, Captain America and Bucky take on Trip and Sharon, Black Panther, Punisher, Warrior, and Mockingbird fight the Winter Soldiers.
- Laura leads Dial into a trap. Strucker forces him to stay in Diamondhead form using Laura as a hostage, then hits him with sonic weaponry, almost killing him. Hawkeye drops in and saves him, planning to kill Strucker as planned.
- Strucker, desperate, rips the Mind Stone out of Loki's Scepter, using it directly to dominate the minds around him. Dial turns into a new form, the Ethereal, a form taken when Ben Tennyson gets the same form while battling an alien war against a force similar to the X-Com races.
- Strucker and Dial, both now possessed of psychic power, engage in psychic battle on both the physical and mental plane, with Dial even summoning mental impressions of SCP's, including SCP-106, SCP-053, SCP-469, SCP-1048-C, SCP-082, SCP-058, SCP-076-2, and most importantly, SCP-173 and SCP-682.
- Using the SCP's as cover, Dial creates a mental construct of New York City, pulling Strucker into it. Using the laws of symbolism in the mind, he tricks Strucker into mimicking the situation from the first Avengers formation, allowing him to drag all the other heroes into the construct with that moment as an anchor, rather than them appearing in random locations.
- As Dial fights Strucker, an attack from the outside forces him to instead burn out the mental block placed on his mind at the beginning of his entry into the Marvel Universe. Desperate to keep them safe, he pushes out the heroes before he burns it out.
- On burning out the block, he discovers it was pushed on by Emma Frost, who did not place it, but did encourage it. After Strucker and he push her out, planning on dealing with the sudden memories of Mutants for later, Dial pulls Strucker across the universe to show him the other threats beyond them.
- Dial shows Strucker the Brood and Selene Gallio, appetizers of what's next, dragging Strucker slowly to force him to expend more of the Mind Stones power so he burns out faster.
- He takes Strucker to Chthon, the eldritch monster behind the Darkhold. Then Mephisto's realm, where Strucker will appear after his death. Finally, they visit Galactus in the midst of devouring a planet, with Silver Surfer leading him to it. This final revelation breaks Strucker once and for all, the Mind Stone and the physic stress shattering his mind.
- Fury kills Strucker.
- With Strucker dead, Dial takes the Mind Stone, using it to knock out any remaining Hydra forces, before passing it to X, who is immune to it's influence.
- With the battle, they discover that Hydra was broadcasting the war to the the entire galaxy using the Confederacy's network.
- In another part of the universe, Caligula Station, in a bar called The Broken Blade, Peter Quill watches the broadcast in shock, along with all the others at the bar. He bolsters himself with bravado, claiming He-Man is a friend of the Avengers.
- Hydra Final War Aftermath
- In the aftermath, the Avengers speak about the recent reveals. The Mind Stone, Mutants, and more, are all left for the next day. The clean up involves picking up the dozens of bodies, many of them alien or enhanced, and the machinery, much of it alien as well.
- Sam Wilson's right leg was destroyed. Otto's spine is shattered. Many others are dead or heavily injured. BRIDGE does what it can.
- Maria Hill notes that they have a new batch of worms to deal with, including the prospect of the rest of the galaxy becoming interested in Earth anew. She requests that Dial and Tony accelerate their space program to create new defenses for Earth. She also asks Thor and Ares to approach their fathers about the prospect of an alliance. She also thinks about having Chernobog ask Svarog, but has little hope for that.
- Buckler watches as Black Panther and Darkstar, two people with power of gods, talk, and worries for the world, calling Getz to request more weaponry and superhumans.
- Lyle meets with the man and woman who dropped in after the Rio Incident. The man is revealed to be Kulan Gath, and the woman is his 'wife' Almati.
- June 8th, 2014- Epilogue
- Dial, after a 28 hour nap, makes plans for the future. With one of them being to visit Charles Xavier. Jen takes a look at the proposal for the Superhuman Registration Act.
- The Leader gathers the Intelligencia, made up of himself, Klaue, Red Ghost, and Nathaniel Essex.
- Captain Marvel, aka Carol Danvers, a different person thanks to the changes to the timeline, has been fighting a life or death battle with Blastarr, defending a planet he plants to enslave. She manages to trick him and defeat him, at great cost to herself in terms of injury, with a Skrull ally aiding her.
- Gideon Malick stands before a stone portal, awaiting the arrival of his god.
- Blackagar Boltagon sits in his throne room, watching as the armies of man fought off an alien invasion.
- Erik Lehnsherr sits in silent contemplation within a room of steel.
- Thanos stands tall deep in space.
- Doctor Salazar, the hidden identity of Alpha, is created within AIM headquarters.
END OF BOOK 1
Finished the timeline. Working on the final bits of the first chapter. It'll be out on my Patreon by the end of the day, and once it's public I'll send the link for the new thread of it to you fine folks.
Have a good day.
Have a good day.
New Story
Dial: Call Resumed
New chapter of the new story above. Take a look, and let me know what you think. In the meantime, I'll have someone lock this thread. Thanks for the good times guys. See in the other thread.
New chapter of the new story above. Take a look, and let me know what you think. In the meantime, I'll have someone lock this thread. Thanks for the good times guys. See in the other thread.
Yeah, he counts, same way Upgrade or nanomech counts. Combination of Gene-therapy and cybernetic augmentation