Rough chapter 1/Prologue to a Spoiler ridden Round Robin Mass Crossover
Premise: The heroes reward to reach paradise but something has gone wrong, so terribly wrong. Now (generic fantasy world) is riddled with Heroes. Those who died a true death act just as they had in life but others, those who returned to the land of the living, left something malformed behind.
Working title: Valhalla's Mistakes
Tony Stark opened his eyes.
That alone surprised him. He very clearly remembered dying. Cosmic energy ripping apart you from the inside out was a difficult thing to forget. But there he was, half naked in a poor excuse for a bed feeling like he went three rounds with Bruce without a suit.
He sat up, wincing as his body protested, and looked around the room. It wasn't much. His bed was just one of several in a long line inside a long wooden hall thick with the smell of burning herbs. He also noticed he wasn't alone. One of the other beds was occupied by a scrawny Asian man with a lightly bearded face, out cold and groaning in pain. But that was it, no nurse or other patients. Just them and an empty room.
"Hello!" He called out, his insides protesting with the shout. Not his ribs, not his lungs, his insides. As in everything from the windpipe down hated him for saying a single word.
Lucky for him that was all he had to say, a woman wearing a white frock and apron came bustling in at the sound of his voice. She smiled at him as she approached, "Good, you're awake, we weren't sure if you were." Without preamble or permission, she started to examine him. Taking his face in her hands and forcing his head in any which direction. "Pupils following me, seem to be dilating. That's good, means you meat didn't bounce around too much in there."
"Yeah," Tony said, grabbing her hands, "Stop that. Where am I?"
"The latest Endshire," She said, snapping her hands back and started to prod at his chest. "Welcome to the end of the civilized world. Now hold still."
Tony dodged her as best he could, body protesting with every twist and turn, "That doesn't help me at all, I have no idea where that is... Is this supposed to be limbo or something?" He asked, trying to make sense of what was happening to him.
She blinked at him, "What, no! We are very much alive, thank you serah." She paused for a moment, fingers reaching up and coming through his hair, "Maybe you do have a head injury. Oh, hold still. Stop being such a child."
"Then stop touching me!" He knew he was being a bit testy but he was supposed to be dead, not in the middle of wherever the hell 'Endshire' was. He was pretty sure he deserved the pearly gates after all he had done, get to shake hands with all the giants of the past and hug his mom after three decades.
"Fine!" She said, exasperated, throwing her hands up as she stood. "You don't seem to have any injuries so I'll just leave for the sheriff."
"What, am I under arrest?"
"Would you be in the Healing Hall if you were?" She snorted, "Just wait here and I'll get him. It's not too late in the day so he should still be nearby. He is very interested in you and your friend over there."
She pointed at the man on the other bed, the scrawny man that Tony had seen earlier. "I don't know him!" He shouted after her but was thoroughly ignored, as she left the room. Tony could only sigh, trying to sort out what he knew.
He was in some weird renaissance fair looking building with after dying, which he was pretty damn sure he did. He had felt his organs failing as he looked into his wife's eyes. As she whispered that everything would be fine, that they would be alright. He KNEW that was his end, he knew it was going to be as soon as he saw Strange raise his finger. He shouldn't be awake and feeling as in so much pain.
And that was another thing. How and why did he feel like he just fell off a cliff yet not have a single injury? Tony double checked the woman words, staring down at himself to see there wasn't so much as a bruise on him. No, more then that, there wasn't even a scar on him.
So, if he was to bring all his points together (Died, woke up in some old timey building, and was completely healed) he was left with a few options. One, the Asgardian afterlife was real and hanging around Thor got him a free pass in. Or, more likely, someone doused him with Extemis and was planning something weird.
Neither option much appealed to him or make much sense. He started to think it would be better to get up and leave. But even twisting himself around to get his feet to the ground felt like a marathon run. "I think I'll just lay back down for a bit," He mumbled. It wasn't like they were treating him badly yet outside of a handsy nurse. He had certainly been kidnapped with worse conditions before.
Besides, he could use more information before he went and tried running away. Well, crawling away at that rate.
Tony, by his guess, waited for around five minutes before the nurse came back. Behind her walked in a man that must have been the sheriff, the gold star on his chest was a big hint. Like her the man's clothes were old fashioned, a pair of leather pants and a thick red shirt under a metal breastplate. He approached Tony with purpose, his hand resting on a sheathed sword at his hip. "So, you're awake then?"
"Looks like."
The man frowned at Tony's tone, most people with authority did. "I have questions for you," He said none to politely as he sat on the bed next to Tony's, "Starting with 'Who are you'?"
He was tempted to say 'Iron Man' but reeled himself in, just a bit. "Ton Stark," He said, "Ever hear of me?"
The man gave a blunt "No" before leaning forward, "Why were you in the forest?"
"Your guess is as good as mine pal," Tony said, "I didn't even know I was in a forest. I just woke up here and I don't even know where here is."
"Endshire."
"See, that doesn't help. I mean, seriously, who names a place something like that?"
That man kept on frowning, staring at Tony in silence for a moment before reaching behind him. "What is this? A Mana Crystal of some kind? A weapon?" He asked, revealing the familiar shape of Tony's Reactor.
"That would be mine." He tried to reach for it, body protesting, but the man kept it out of his hands. "What's the point of showing it to me if you're not going to give it to me?"
"To see if you're a danger to my town." The Man said, leaning forward and keeping his arm stretched out of reach, "I don't know who you are, Tony Stark. I don't know ere your from. I don't know your intentions-"
"That I can answer for you," Tony interrupted, "I want to figure out where I am, how I got here, and how to get home. In that order. The first step for me to do that is in your hand, now hand it over."
The man snarled, actually snarled in response. "No," He said with force, "And do you know why? Because you're not the first man we've had arrive in our town as you did. You're the third. Each one of you found somewhere near the town. Unconscious with no injuries but groaning in your sleep as if you're in great pain. And what did the decent people of the land do when they found you? They brought you here, to the Healing Hall, to be treated and cared for. And do you know what happened?"
"I'm going to take a wild guess and say you'll tell me anyway."
The man ignored him, though his face clouded more, "When the first of you woke up, he disappeared. Twisted from existence with a pop is what the healers said. Not a day later people started dying. Two bodies a night, at minimum. A serial killer in a town that is just starting to grow. What's worse, not one of the victims were human."
"What?"
The man stood, hand gripping his sword. "I don't know what you supremacist assholes want or particularly care what you're planning but your causing problems. Unrest, enough that neighbors can't trust neighbors, and I don't like it."
"Not the first time I've been called a supremacist." Tony mused, "Not even the first time someone's said I killed someone I didn't. And just like every other time, I'll say this, 'It, wasn't, me'."
The man narrowed his eyes, "You will not leave the Hall without an escort. There will be a deputy stationed here for each one of you." He glared at the other bed, "And you will comply."
"Don't think I have much of a choice there big guy," Tony said, easing himself back into the bed. "But I'm going to want my reactor back."
The man shoved said item back behind him and turned to the waiting nurse, healer. "If he causes any problems you let me know. Same with the other one."
"Yes, my lord." She said, bowing as the man left. Once she was sure he was out of earshot she gave Tony a glare, "If I find out you're behind what's going on you won't have to wait for the Sheriff."
"Look, I have no idea what's going on." Tony would have raised his hands in defense but he wasn't sure if he could even lift his right arm at the moment. "I'm not behind whatever is happening in your town. Some of my best friends aren't human... And wow, did that sound better in my head."
The woman sighed, "For your sake, I hope you're telling the truth. Just, just rest for now." And with that, she left the room as well.
Tony let out a sigh himself, head banging against the wall as he leaned back. "Well buddy, it looks like me and you are in some shit."
The other man just groaned.
-0-0-0-0-0-
Across the town, in an alley not too far away from the temple graveyard, a blonde human approached a cowering elf. "Please," The man called out, "I didn't do anything! Please, someone help!" He yelled and screamed, his back pressed against the wall as the girl flipped a wooden stake in her hand.
"Y'know, back home the baddies back home usually up more of a fight," She said, rushing forward with a burst of speed and shoving her weapon through his chest. The elf gasped, hand fumbling at the wooden stump now hanging just outside his shattered ribs. His heart struggling, failing, to keep pumping life through his veins. He collapsed not a second later, "Not that I'm complaining. I kinda like the less work attitude going on here. Makes life easier."
Her blue lips smiled as she removed her weapon from the man's chest, wiping the blood off on his trousers as she stood. "Even the school work is easier!" She rambled, stowing the stake in the folds of her clothes as walked out of the alley, patting a whimpering black dog on the head as she passed. The dog shied away from her but she figured it was from the monster blood on her, which was icky and understandable.
She needed a bath, or a nice long shower. Too bad the town didn't have indoor plumbing yet.
As she left she never noticed how the large black dog's eyes never left her. Or how it padded over to the fallen elf after she left, nudging it with his nose for a moment and then letting out a long pained whimper.
A second later the dog was gone and a shaggy man knelt in its place, flipping the body onto it's back and gently closed the corpse's eyes.
"I'm sorry," the man muttered, feeling powerless and useless. He told himself that he could have done something, anything, that he should have. But fear gripped at him. Without his wand what could he hope to do against that woman? He was impotent but he had to do something.
He squeezed the dead man's shoulder before twisting away with a pop of air. Back to tracking the woman and wondering how he could stop her.
AN:
A bit rough but I think it sets things up decently. At least the first arc/challenge.
Anyway, like I said above, a generic fantasy land is suffering the consequences of someone or something messing with the flow of the afterlife. Now two groups of heroes are being reborn to the world.
Group 1 - The True (need a better name, suggestions), those who have well and truly died in their world/timeline. No resurrections or escapees from the afterlife need apply. These Heroes will have all the abilities they had in life, the same/similar personality to that they had, and whatever they had on them at the time of their death. They also have the nasty side effect of having the phantom pains of their death stick with them for a bit, the more painful the death the longer it last.
Group 2 -The Returned, those who were somehow brought back to life. These people would have arrived like the true if left alone, maybe they even were for a time, but then they were dragged back to reality. When they are the leave behind a copy,a snake skin, a pale imitation. These copies twist what made the heroes great (ex: Kill monsters to protect people/humans) and have some sign on them based on how they died (ex: blue lips from suffocation/drowning). They have all the abilities and determination of the originals but a twisted mind that thinks they are in the right.
Think Bizzaros. There can also be multiples of the same persons if they died and came back multiple times.
Not sure what to do with characters like Danny Phantom or Ichigo who are technically both alive and dead.
3 general arcs/events I can think of (but not limited to)
- The serial killer, clearing Tony and cos name while stopping her/exploring the setting
- A Returned gathering others like them together along with an army to unite the kingdoms and protect them from the inhuman. At the same time a True is gathering a following of her own and trying to set right what she sees wrong with the world.
- Fixing whats causing the afterlife fuck up.
The setting is completely pulled from my ass so other writers can alter things as they see fit.
What do you guys think? Good enough for a thread or nah?