Obligatory Disclaimer : I do not own anything (except maybe OC characters) all characters, places, worlds, universes…etc mentioned here belong to their respective owners and/or companies.

This is purely a work of fiction. Not meant to offend or incite, but to entertain and (maybe) inspire.

DOOM QUEST II

“I will not die.” I proclaim to whoever listens as the freezing snow engulfs my body. I don’t just feel death’s fingers, I can see the edges of her robe. I close my eyes, take a sharp breath and keep walking forward like I have done for the past four days. I am strong enough to withstand the biting chill, but even my new body has its limits. And for a so-called budding ‘god’ without a heart, those limits were getting closer by the second.

Once again, I push the bit of godforce in me – even though it’s still in a disarray from the actions of Mephisto, I am able to catch the droplets of power and externalize them, the snow melts and slides off my body, the droplets turn to ice that cling on to my bare skin. I am still naked, and the boost is dwindling. I drop to a knee, scooping up handfuls of the cold snow and shoving them into the cavity of my chest, the white snow begins to redden as blood soaks it. I rise and my steps continue, crunching endlessly through the billowing winds and the merciless cold.

Where was I? Right the boost. What boost you ask? Remember my first enhancement procedure, remember how I harvested exotic quantum energy beams to increase the potency of the super soldier serum? Remember how I said I still had latent exotic energy in my body? When I fell through the quantum realm, some of that energy seeped into me. Into those latent energy reserves, expanding the little that I contained, adding to my god-force. The energy boost allowed me to keep moving even when I didn’t have a heart. It gave me a temporary boost, which as I have mentioned is already running low. So basically I was an electric F1 vehicle running on solar charged batteries, but take away the sun and you have my situation.

I’m a dead man walking.

Tito had stopped functioning as soon as we made it through the time vortex. The little guy sustained extensive damage when it rescued me, made worse by the exotic energy fields we fell through going into the Quantum realm. What I don’t understand is why it came to rescue me, I could see hints of it’s soul, which might mean that I might have another awakened AI on my hands. But there was something oddly familiar about it.

How could I see souls? Mephisto formed a connection to my being through the blood in my body, it allowed him to do whatever it is he did to Eve. But that connection went two ways, and since I was used as a focal point for the devil, I too have gained things from him.

Not counting the extendable nail claws or night black eyes I possessed – I could tell from the massive improvement made to my vision. I’m talking physical and meta-physical. I’ve never been able to feel my soul this clearly before, I’ve never been able to feel the energy that suffused the earth, the ambient energy we all breathe in and spend our entire lives in. It isn’t as rich as that of Asgard’s but it’s something significant. My senses have been largely enhanced, and so has my knowledge. After all, I did trip through all those dimensions.

I stare ahead, the frozen tundra endlessly extending towards the horizon. The sun hanging dangerously low, I can feel the little heat in the atmosphere already begin to dwindle. I tune my enhanced senses to pick up any signs of life – I find nothing but the billowing winds, and an unreasonable cold.

Good thing is, the cold is slowing my metabolic rate. I’m not bleeding as much as I was days ago. Still don’t have a heart, remember.

I don’t even know what time period or place I’m in. I don’t spend time dwelling on that. What I’m doing is heading towards the largest energy blip on the scanner I made out of Tito’s remains. I kept its entire processor processor banks and operator circuits – I’ll put them together when I have the chance to – the other parts of it, I kept for future repurposing and retro-tooling.

I think more on what can create such a large blip on the scanner. It could be aliens, could be an active volcano, could be some magical effect even, this is the Marvel universe, let nothing be put past you.

One step at a time I advance on my journey. With each step I take, I feel a deadly pang in my chest. I hear the sound of my heart being brutally ripped out. I remember her face as she licks my blood, it is burned to the back of my eyes. That’s not my Eve. I saw through her programming – her soul. I saw the corruption.

Focus, Hammer, focus.

There are some things you can never prepare for, there are things you can only react accordingly to as you go along. One of them is coming face to face with a nine foot tall mountain of a gorilla. Why a Gigantopithecus Blacki – a gigantic gorilla that roamed the earth around a million years ago, they died out around hundred thousand Bc – is in such a cold region is beyond me, why its fur was as white as the snow it stood in, was even more so.

The beast began to snarl threateningly, huffing and puffing warm vapor from its flaring nostrils. I didn’t need to look into its eyes to notice the blood thirst being radiated from it, but when I did, I noticed a sinister intelligence within. This was a prehistoric animal that should only feed on fruits and plants, but as you’ve probably noticed around me, there was nothing edible here.

“Don’t look at me, I’m not on the menu.”

I’m in the past. One hundred thousand Bc? One million Bc? Probably. I pondered.

One thing is for sure, I am on an ancient earth.

Just like I fucking guessed.

The beast bound for me, all 2000pounds of it, moving with the ferocity of a hungry lion. In its eyes, I was a helpless prey frozen in fear.

“RaAARGh” Its roar tore through the atmosphere like thunder in a room. It leapt, fangs bared, fists balled and raised to crush me.

I imagine it pictured me a bloody paste under its hardened fists as the outcome of our confrontation. It was hungry, so was I. And in my eyes, it was the dead one.

I threw a punch. It was nothing special. Just an excess of 90tons of pushing force concentrated across the relatively small area of a balled up fist, moving with speeds similar to that of a speeding race bike, accurately delivered to a single point. First came the shock-wave, then came the blood shower followed by the clap of localized thunder, which was accompanied by the rain of tissue and bone.

It was gruesome, it was gloriously macabre. It was me not even exerting my full strength since I obtained it.

The gigantic gorilla rolled across the snow covered ground, dying so suddenly it’s internal systems were yet to catch up. Blood endlessly flowed from its headless corpse as it's heart futilely overworked itself, dying the ground in a steaming red. It twitched and squirmed as the final traces of its life faded away.

I didn’t appreciate the offensive stench of its excretion, but animals tend to shit themselves when killed. I walked up to the carcass, my kill. My fingernails lengthened to form natural claws, allowing me to easily tear through thick layers of fat and hardened flesh, obtaining succulent meat.

Anything can taste like chicken when you’re staved enough, the unexpected thing was that I could feel myself become flooded with strength from consuming it’s flesh. If you’re like me you should know that I take nothing for granted. This gorilla was mutated, and I had a fairly good guess as to the reason why. I’ll confirm it when I get to where I’m going.

I stared at its fur, and decided that it would fit me nicely. With black colored claws extended that made me look like a goth inspired rockstar, I went to work.

*.*.*.*.*

If you take away the scent of raw uncured flesh, my prehistoric, gorilla fur jacket was pretty damn cozy. Call me the chic ice-age man, all I need is some gold and fire and I’ll rule the world. Hah, like anyone would want to rule over cavemen.

Beep! I didn’t need the scanner to tell me I’d reached my destination. Even in pitch darkness, my sight was as clear as day. And this cave had something full of energy, pulsing within it.

I stepped into the tunnel and immediately felt the difference. This place was warm and pleasant, in a stark contrast to the atmosphere outside. Walking deeper I could see why.

Vibranium.

I found a Vibranium cave. Don’t get misled, I wasn’t in paleolithic Wakanda, I wasn’t even in East-Africa. Judging from the evidence of its formation, I could conclude that this cave just happened to be formed around a piece of Vibranium that had broken off the larger meteor that’d crash landed in East Africa.

Sitting in the center-most region of the tunnel was the glowing block of raw, unprocessed vibranium ore, one roughly the size of a human head. What, too gruesome a definition? When you go to the ice-age, do as they do.

Sleeping peacefully around that ore, basking in its warmth and cool glow was a...litter of gorilla infants, only one of which was as white as the giant one I fought earlier.

You thought it was going to be an even bigger gorilla didn’t you? Well, tough luck.

I looked around the cave, observing every minute detail, running mental simulations and calculations. All to reach a certain conclusion — I have the majority of the things I’d need to solve my problems, to build a new heart, and a way back to my time.

I’m gonna have to murder these adorable babies and repurpose them...

Judge me as much as you want to, but it’s not like these things can survive without a parent.

Well, better get to work.

*.*.*

One Million BC

Vibranium Cave

Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months and months blended together. The winter abated, its season coming to an end, followed by the birth of different seasons. The chirp of would-be extinct birds filled the sunny atmosphere with a unique serenity. The cries and calls of the various critters, accompanied the deep bellowing sounds of animals nested deep in the forest, to give the world a heartbeat. A pure heartbeat uninterrupted and untainted neither by the sound of zooming vehicles nor the incessant, never ending chatter and clatter of human activities, physical or virtual

This was earth without 21st century modernity. Without any of the pollution or the disturbance – this was a time when nature reigned supreme.

Through the heat, I breathed in the aromatic fresh air, free of pollution but still containing deadly microbes, particles and bacteria, a modern day man’s immune system had never encountered. I wasn’t just another man, I was more. My body adapted and I thrived.

Without the distractions, I went into month long trances. Without the over-reliance on computers, I realized just how stunning my intelligence was. When I was driven to forming tools out of nothing but sticks, stones and bones.

When all I had for company was me, myself and I, when my solitude eventually forced me to truly confront myself, I realized my strengths, I knew myself like I never thought possible. And as I knew myself, I conquered my being, the world would soon follow. I realized who my enemy was, I was to be victorious.

With legs crossed, I hovered above the blazing inferno sustained by my energy, unharmed at its scorching touch. Electric tongues of plasma emerging from the ends of the superheated flames licked at me with the excitement and enthusiasm of a delighted puppy. The intrinsic connection I had to the fire, allowed me full command over its entirety.

My fingers moved, gesturing through the rippling air, glowing lines etched themselves to the surface of reality. I smiled as the runes manifested, sustained by the extra-ordinary energy in me, the powerful buzz beneath my skin, my Doom-force – The name I had given to the god-force within.

With another gesture, the juvenile, snow furred gorilla – roughly the size and stature of a well grown man – restrained to a section of the cave, cried in agony, the magnetized clips holding the manufactured heart in place, beneath it’s rib-cage unlatched. The essential organ made from a mixture of mine and the vibranium mutated gorilla’s tissues, watered by my blood and magic, came to my hand.

The restrained white gorilla, trashed and roared, using it’s enhanced strength to try prying through the chains and clamps, only managed to break the nutrient delivery tubes lodged deep into its flesh. It served its purpose as an incubator.

I flicked a finger behind me, a tendril of flame shot out from the conflagration beneath me. What followed was the deep screeching cry and then silence, the scent of roasted meat filled the cave, all in a moment.

I focused hard on this part of the procedure. Drawing deep from the well of energy within me, I constructed the last rune. The magic symbol began to progressively flare up – each flare sucking up a significant amount of my energy, the fluid metal within the ceramic bowl in the center of the flames began to pulsate in turn. Even though the ceramic bowl was white hot, the metal remained visibly cool.

The flames turned a deep purplish-black hue, twisting and turning till they finally suffused into the metal fluid. Blatantly defying gravity, the fluid snaking upwards with the phantoms of flickering flames caged within the mystical metal, steadily ascending to the still beating heart, in my grasp.

―—Hmmmmmm

A deep hum emanated from the rune when the objects touched. The energy consumption quadrupled, my Doom-force continued to dwindle. The metal and the heart merged into one. The holy combination of enchanted flesh and blessed magical magical.

The heart turned a deep, glinting, matte black, unlike the first five of its kind, this one was more perfected. It did not possess the micro flaws the others did, even with it’s fleshy texture it shared vibanium’s strong points, all enhanced by magic.

The master architect within me applauded but still wasn’t satisfied. I build things better than they were, when I look at objects, I see ways to improve them – to rid them of their flaws.

The months of consuming vibranium mutated fauna and flora, have left me with a sense of balance both external and internal, spiritual and physical, that resulted in a side effect which compels me towards achieving perfection. An obsession in simple terms. One that I have managed to bring under control through sheer will and continuous meditation.

Perfection was a type of imperfection, I must always strive for an improvement. The master builder approved.

My immense strength coupled with my vibranium coated claws, allowed me to carve deep into my chest. Using my fingers to pry my re-knitting flesh apart and hold them seperate, I dug my hand into my chest with practiced ease, after all this was my sixth time doing this. I stifled a groan, pushing energy into the connectors, causing them to unlatch from the hybrid heart, letting me pull it out of my chest and stashing it to the side.

I reached for the sleek, new heart – while still flesh like, it was nothing as such – into the empty section past my rib-cage and between my lungs. The connectors rimmed onto all the major and minor blood vessels accurately latched to the heart’s ports. The glowing rune shrunk down and imprinted itself into the organ.

After the silence, then came the boom! of electricity suffused into my blood. I was on a high so strong, my vision went white for moments. The energy within me circulated without any noticeable obstruction, a circulation so efficient it resulted in a micro shock-wave as the excess bled off. This was better than my all organic heart and all first five replacements. This was on an entirely different level altogether. I felt more alive than I’d ever been in my two lives put together.

I imagined the ridiculous resultant energy output it would have should I introduce exotic quantum energy to my system, even if it was temporary, the output would be off the charts. To top it off, this heart would evolve with my body. Any qualitative change in my power level would be reflected in my heart. Plus, the organ was fully self sustaining.

It’s nothing special, I just created an infinite energy bio-machine a 100,000,000 years ahead of its time with my bare hands, performed extensive and advanced surgical operations with hand made tools, while single handedly teaching myself magic. Tony Stark can eat my dust.

Someone’s coming.

I spotted the figure drenched in blood running with such ferocious vigor at an astounding speed that would put the very best of Olympic track athletes to shame. I observed the female hominid dressed in well crafted – but still rough – fur garments, run head first into my cave. A bleeding bundle held in her hands.

A child. A grievously injured child.

With tears streaming down her eyes ― those very intelligent hazel colored eyes that contained a spark of something special, unlike those of her brethren – looked at me with sorrow, anger and hope. The coffee skinned cave woman prostrated herself beneath me, begging with a hoarse, strained voice as she held up the bundle of fur. The heart beat within was weak, and as of blood continued to soak the fur it was wrapped in, it got weaker.

I noticed that the cave woman looked more human than the rest of her tribe, more evolved. She hailed from a tribe that worshiped the white gorilla – the previous owner of the vibranium cave – and they would bring it offerings bi-monthly. Of course, the offerings were the weakest and aged amongst themselves, bound and wrapped in leaves.

When they found me in the cave with the gorilla’s white fur draped against my shoulders, they put two and two together (hah) and decided I was the new big bad. I disregarded their offerings and their worship. They interpreted it as me being weak.

As all things are in this primitive period, the fittest survived, the strong ruled the weak, might was right. To them my cave was too cozy to ignore, and I was seemingly too weak to take whole ownership of it.

They attacked me, I attacked back. They didn’t know what fire was, but they learnt of it’s terrifying might. It was enough to drive them away in fear, but apparently not enough to cause them to leave me alone.

The whole tribe came, clad in furs and armed with branches, they laid their weapons to the side and bowed right in front of my cave and refused to leave. I was too busy building and fabricating things, too lost in intricate math, too absorbed in art and science, to be disturbed. When I came out of the inventive trance, a quarter of them had died from starvation, exhaustion or both.

Now, I know I’m not the good guy. But I couldn't let these hominids perish right in front of my eyes, they were ancestors of the human race, how could I just leave them helpless when I was indirectly the reason for their predicament?

Give a man a fish when he is hungry and you feed him for a day, just know that he’ll come begging for another when he starves, but teach a man to fish and he will be fed forever, unless he is lazy.

I had no fish, but I had skills and knowledge, and the hominids weren’t lazy.

I taught them of fire and how to use it, and make tools from stones. Better than the ones they had.

It made them happy – they left me alone, which also made me happy. They didn’t stop with the offerings though, but at least it wasn’t human meat anymore.

“Ugahha Wagh sha. Uggah Wahh sha!” She cried, pushing the young child wrapped in fur at me.

Sigh, just do it. You’ve still got time.

I drew the all-speak rune. The one that allowed Asgardians to understand most languages, human or not. It went into effect in an instant. “Please, Lord! Please, Lord!!”

I wanted to know what happened, but trying to get a hysterical mother to speak of anything important, while her child bled to death in her arms was harder than tying a rope around the moon.

I took the bundle from her hands, pulling the boy tightly wrapped within the coarse blanket, at least now he had a lesser chance of suffocating to death. He had deep wounds running across his chest, ones that came from claws, deeper than the ones that scarred my face. His body was as cold as it was pale, his blood staining my hands.

Lucky for you, I’ve got multiple doctorates and magic.

I approached the stone shelf on the left side of the cave, the fire provided enough illumination for the child’s mother to see what I was doing. I felt her eyes scanning the various clay gourds and vials lining the shelf.

I picked the one marked R – the healing serum made from mutated herbs and diluted white gorilla blood. I emptied half it’s contents onto the child’s wounds – he hissed weakly from the pain – and the other half I poured into a bowl, adding water into the mixture.

I briefly caught my reflection in the fluid. Thin slanting claw scars starting above my left brow trailed downwards past the bridge of my nose to end just at the edge of my square jaw. I still feel phantom pains, every time I sleep I see those claws hovering right above my eyes. It’s a good thing I don’t sleep much anymore. Demon black eyes with rings of glowing gold coloring what used to be my pupils, stared back at me.

Man, when did I turn this handsome? I joked.

I pushed the bowl’s rim past the child’s lips, parting his teeth, I poured the fluid down. It must have felt like taking raw vodka for him. The fact that he wasn’t coughing yet meant the boy was too weak, even with his wounds shut, he’d lost a large amount of blood. I pushed a silver of my energy into his body, finally revitalizing him.

This kid has prodigious magical potential and talent.

“Waaah!” he cried as life returned to his body, also probably because he was filled with vigor. Intelligent green eyes stared deep into mine. I handed the boy back to his mother.

She showered the boy in kisses and held him close to her chest. “Thank you, Lord! I am grateful! Thank you! Thank you!” She repeated, bowing as low as she could physically, each time she spoke.

“What is your name?” I asked.

Her mouth widened in surprise, this was the very first time I spoke to them in the language they understood. “Oushtur, Lord. My name is Oushtur” she finally answered.

Hmm, I see.

“Oushtur, I want you to tell me what happened.”

“Lord, the tribe – my people, were all slaughtered and feasted on.” She said, stroking the child, as though to remind herself that he was alive.

“Was it done by an animal?”

She shook her head. “No Lord. Worse than animals, they are monsters,...”

I could taste the heavy bloodlust and malicious intent wafting through the air. I could hear their feet drumming the earth, their loud cries and harrowing calls which caused nature’s heart beat to quicken.

“...they are the Twisted ones” she noticed them approaching the mouth of the cave. Steadily she moved, holding her child close to her chest, Oushtur hid behind me.

I laid eyes on the twisted creatures that stood at the cave’s entrance, their shadows as unnatural as their forms. Beings so visually appalling, so very against natural order, that they carried a sense of wrongness with it. If demons were the perversion of the holy, these things were the perversion of all things natural.

This was an instinctual feeling I had in me — there could be no peace between our races, no chance at coexistence. They had to be ended. And deep within, I knew their names.

“Deviants” I stated and as if to respond, they began to cackle like excited hyenas. Serpentine tongues snaking through ridges of uneven, razor sharp teeth. The tension was palpable.

“Hold my robe,” I said to Oushtur, handing her the pristine white fur I wore “this is about to get very messy.” I smiled so wide my cheeks ached, shimmering hot flames wrapping around my clenched fists. The energy beneath my skin buzzed in anticipation.

Something’s going extinct today.