Hauzer/The Earth Dragon

Hauzer and Styro had been at it for a long time. Now, Hauzer's left leg was twisted slightly out of alignment, while his right arm hung dislocated. Blood dripped slowly from a series of cuts across his chest, and several of his teeth had been knocked loose, allowing magma to drip freely from the gaping holes left behind. The molten liquid scorched the earth under him, making him look less like a dragon or dinosaur, and more like a demon that had sprouted out of hell.

Styro stood across from him, standing in the rubble of a building. The yellow ceratopsid's scales had been scorched off in massive patches. One of his horns had been ripped out at some point, leaving the wound to leak blood down to drip off his horn. His clothes were gone now, armor stripped.

Hauzer glared at Styro. Styro, on the other hand, simply took deep breaths.

"...North."

Hauzer stopped glaring to blink in confusion.

"After this. Go north," Styro said simply. He stepped forward, almost stumbling, but somehow getting back to his feet.

Hauzer thought about that. For less than a breath. Then he roared, breathing a plume of fire. Styro watched the burst of red heat approach.

Then he ran forward, eyes narrowed against the intense heat. He dived into the intense heat with no regard for his safety. His scales, more durable than Kevlar, burned and peeled away. His muscles were charred. His wounds were sealed by the heat. And he ran forward before leaping up into the air, punching Hauzer in the face. As Hauzer stumbled back, Styro grabbed onto his opponent's shoulder and began to punch him in the chest. Hauzer, in response, twisted around to grab Styro's leg, teeth crunching into charred flesh, then pulled him around toss him into a building.

The Saur-Lord was no longer entirely yellow. Massive portions of his skin had been charred black. He looked like hell. And yet, his eyes still burned with fury.

Stryo, his burned skin ripping open, leaped forward head first, bashing his forehead into Hauzer's. Hauzer bulldozed forward as stars filled his eyes from the painful blow, ignoring the headache to run through a building with Styro on his held on tight as he was forced through several walls. He raised a powerful fist and punched Hauzer, the cooked flesh on his knuckles scraping off to leave a dark charcoal and blood mark across Hauzer's face.

Hauzer didn't stop running until they had based entirely through the building, leaving Styro to be thrown off of his nose. As Styro fell, Hauzer roared.

"SKREEEONGK!"

Styro landed on his back, bounced upward. Hauzer took his left arm in his mouth and raised him high before slamming him into the earth once more, cratering it. Styro punched him with his right arm with intense force, but Hauzer refused to let go. As Styro grabbed and pulled at him with desperate strength, Hauzer raised him up and smashed him into the earth again and again, sending shockwaves through the earth.

Styro didn't laugh. But as he fought, a sickening grin grew on his face, accompanied by the crackle of burnt flesh.

Hauzer's rage erupted at the sight of him smiling. With another horrendous roar, he let go of Styro and moved back, before leaping onto a nearby building, leaping two stories. Styro continued to smile as he watched Hauzer moving to finish him.

Hauzer leaped off the building, coming down towards Stryo like a several ton meteor. He breathed a plume of fire as he dropped, the immense flames surrounding him until he glowed red hot. Then he landed, talons first, on top of Styro. The flaming dragon's exploded on impact with Styro. The last thing Hauzer saw of Styro as he landed was his hated enemy's smile fading away. Then he slowly faded to ash before the immense heat. A taloned foot smashed into his corpse, sending the ashes flying about.

The flames continued to rage around him in the crater Hauzer had created. He stared down at where his enemy had once laid.

Hauzer was intelligent. He understood revenge quite clearly. And now he had it. Weeks of imprisonment, torture, starvation, forced to fight to the death. All with Styro watching calmly, taking pleasure in what he had done.

If anyone ever told Hauzer that revenge was unsatisfying, he would have laughed as only a proud dragon could. Revenge was wonderful. It filled him with a fierce and enveloping glee. It had been hard won, leaving him with bruises, shattered bones, massive wounds, his energy waning. But he had won. He had won!

Hauzer raised his head to the sky, staring at the moon above. He roared, the flames around him blown away by the volume of his cry, his throat vibrating with muscle as he let the world know of his dominance.

And everyone in the guard towers and shelters of the city cowered in fear.

Mahmoud Schahed/Dial

"What the fuck was that!?" Creel said as we walked along carrying Sauron.

The sound of Godzilla mixed with a supernova split the air for a long moment. The ground shook moments before that, with a small sun showing up in the distance before it faded, and now it sounded like Blitzwolfer, Echo-Echo, and Black Canary were having a shout-off mere feet from us.

I looked at Creel and Fantasma, wincing. "Oh yeah. I forgot about that… So. I made a friend. Well, ally. Of convenience, ya know?"

We continued walking for a while. Fantasma kept looking at me like I should explain further, but I decided to leave that alone. I had another issue on my mind.

I kept it to myself for now, simply circling the thought through my mind.

We soon had left the city entirely. The three (four with Sauron, who was peacefully lying in my vines), walked through the jungle for several minutes.

I felt tired. That was odd. I'd never felt tired in alien form, at least not to this point. But now, as Swampfire, I was a little weary. Physically I could probably continue to fight, but whatever my plant powers ran on, they had been strained. I'd regenerated myself from absolute destruction three times during Sauron's outburst, which hadn't been that much of a strain. But making an entire forest, trading blows with Sauron, blasting fire strong enough to match him, it all took a toll over time. The closest human equivalent was a long jog. Which, yeah, wasn't too bad, but still weird to feel that without just turning back into human form.

We finally entered into a clearing. I placed Sauron on the ground, then looked around. "Nobody else is here, huh?"

"The Quinjet is waiting to support us just in case," Creel explained. He moved over to a stump and sat down heavily. "But all of those guys you wanted us to save got out. Last I know, the charges were set."

"...blow them," I said at last.

"You sure?" Creel asked me.

"We cleared the arena, right?"

Creel turned away to press a finger to his ear, listening to the voice on the other side. Finally he looked up at me. "All the civilians either joined us or left. And the guards left the second the Quinjet cloaked. Apparently they're trying to hunt us down in the city."

He sounded amused. I couldn't blame him, since the image was kind of funny.

I hesitated for a brief moment. Creel and Fantasma watched as I turned to look in the direction of the city. Then, I nodded. "Blow them. Now. Take it out."

Creel pressed a finger to his ear again. "You heard the man. Light the fireworks."

In the distance, the charges set by me as Ball Weevil lay peacefully around the arena, hidden away. Then, the C4 I'd told the BRIDGE soldiers to lay as they fought began to explode. Those blew up the Ball Weevil plasma.

And so, in the distance, the sound of a series of explosions, almost puny compared to all the other noise of the night, was followed by the sound of a building crumbling.

"Not as massive as I thought it would be," Fantasma said softly.

"Demolition is precise destruction," I explained. "The arena had dozens of tunnels under it, so most of them have now collapsed, tearing apart the structure they had been supporting. The wood has ignited throughout the arena thanks to extreme heat. And the main arena is pretty much a crater. As of now, that big place is gone, in all the ways that matter… didn't even get to see it go," I mused to myself.

I turned to look at the two. My friends had complicated looks on their faces. I smirked. "I feel… well, pretty good, to be honest. I could use a fucking burger when we get home though."

Creel grinned, while Fantasma sighed in annoyance.

The trees parted nearby. And Hauzer stepped forth.

The instant his head popped from the trees, Creel had turned into vibranium, spinning up to face the dragon in a fighting stance, while Fantasma raised two magic shields.

"Holy shit!" Creel shouted, watching Hauzer slowly prowl forward.

I walked up to Hauzer. "Hey. How'd it go?"

Hauzer grumbled, huffing, before smirking down at me. The Omnitrix didn't translate his speech as words but as meanings. In this case, it was easy. He'd won, got his revenge, and was incredibly satisfied.

"He's very expressive," Fantasma noted, staring up at him in awe. Seeing that he wasn't attacking, she began to lower her arms. I subtly waved for her to keep her guard up, and she raised the mandala's again.

Hauzer noticed. He scoffed at the pair, then looked down at me. He wanted to know what happened now. Would I fight him as well? Try to enslave him, go back on our deal. Because it wouldn't end well if I did.

I shook my head. "I'm just respecting you as a possible enemy. But I don't want you as one. If you want, I can try to take you somewhere. But you can do what you want, Hauzer," he stared at me questioningly. "Hey, I got you your revenge, didn't I?"

That seemed to be enough. With a bark and a small roar, he turned to walk away. Before he did, he looked over his shoulder to growl something at me.

"...Don't know yet," was all I could say to that question.

He rolled his massive eyes, roared again, and lopped off into the jungle.

"What the fuck was that about?" Creel asked, sounding spooked.

"He said that revenge is sweet," I said softly, thinking about what the meaning of that statement was.

Hauzer headed north, leaving the three of us to awkwardly watch him go off.

Soon enough, the Quinjet dropped down to join us, landing in the clearing. The back opened, and I could see the inside was packed full of people.

"How the hell did you fit everyone in there?" I asked the BRIDGE soldier who came out to greet us. He came to a stop before me and smiled up at me.

"Well, it wasn't easy, sir," he said respectfully. "We had to use two Quinjets. And your rock friend taxed our engines a bit. Gotta say, sir, it's damn good to see you again."

I nodded at him in my Swampfire form, looking at the Quinjet, where Demi, Gresh, Gena, and a few others walked out to join us. I ignored them to look back at the forest, though I did hear it when Demi, on seeing Creel in his vibranium form, let out a small gasp.

Kraven came from the direction of the city next. He was dragging something behind him. It took me a second to recognize the corpse of Pter. Kraven was covered in cuts, bruises, grinning ear to ear through teeth soaked in blood.

Pter had a hole in his chest over his heart though, so Kraven looked pretty good in comparison.

"You have fun?" Fantasma asked her fellow Russian blandly.

Kraven chuckled. "Yes. And even in the end, so did he," Kraven tossed the body forward, letting Pter's corpse flop onto the ground. "The hunt is only worth the opponent. And this has been a beautiful hunt."

I ignored him as well. Instead, I watched X step out of the forest next. Everyone stilled as the android came towards us dragging a body as well. This one was breathing though.

Stend. His arms shattered, his tail bent oddly, blood pouring from his lips, his chest weakly rising and falling. He looked almost as dead as Pter was. Almost.

Not enough.

"Dial," X said, finally stopping in front of me. He dropped Stend, who didn't respond.

I looked him over. Still in very good shape. X had a few small marks, but nothing that couldn't be buffed out. "How'd it go?"

"He was not receptive, pardner," X said, his southern American accent a touch stronger than normal.

"Hn."

I moved to look at Stend. He met eyes with me.

And slowly, carefully, he tried to reach out. He gasped weakly, pain filling his eyes. But that pain was outstripped by the hatred. "-ill… ill. K-" he coughed. I got the gist.

"How pathetic is that?" I sighed. "You can't even… I cannot believe what a waste of time you ended up being, Stend," his hatred burned deeper in his eyes. His broken arms made clicking noises as he kept trying to reach for my throat, but could barely lift his arms.

I lowered down to his level. As I did, I transformed. From Swampfire, to human. I didn't pay attention to the reactions of those around me, just focused on him. I did note that my arms had healed, though they were still sore.

Stend and I kept our eyes locked on each other, him hateful, me disgusted.

"I can't even hate something as worthless as you anymore. Sauron, the guy you wanted to replace, begged me to save you, the weakest of his children he said," a lie. But a dig in with a knife. "And honestly, if I gave a damn…"

I raised a hand toward the BRIDGE soldier. "Knife, please."

He hesitated, looking worried. Then he took the blade from his belt and put it in my hand. I brought the blade to Stend's throat in a smooth motion, the blade cutting just a bit into his scales. Stend froze. Fear entered his gaze. A harsh and bitter part of me relished in that fear.

"I almost forgot who I was," I mused. I dug the blade in more. Blood spurted from the tip. "All the people you hurt. The way you stabbed me, choked me. Not knowing, in truth, that the petty amount of power you had was shit. Your way of living was shit. You, in fact, are shit."

I took the blade and tossed it back to the soldier, who seemed relieved. The Savage Landers, BRIDGE soldiers, and my fellow Avengers watched as I stood. "I'm leaving you here. Die, don't, I give less than a shit. But the next time you hurt someone, you don't get a day to regret it. I'll kill you. And it won't be personal, it won't be in a life or death battle. I'll come down from the sky, snap your neck, and move on with my life."

Stend hissed something at me. I gave less than a shit.

"Come on," I headed towards the Quinjet, ignoring Stend.

"Mahmoud," Fantasma whispered as I passed. I looked at her. She was staring oddly at me, worried. "You… you have scars."

I blinked at her, not understanding. Then, my Omnitrix let out a series of beeps. I looked down at the half-melted device to see the entire watch, not just the dial, but even the parts that had been melted, glowing green, with black striations through it like a circuit board. I stared at it in wonder as the watch began to shift and move, the Omnitrix growing across my wrist to change its shape.

I'd seen this in the cartoons. In Alien Force, when Ben put on the watch again, the Omnitrix had changed into a more streamlined version. Except, instead of becoming smaller, the Omnitrix was growing, coming up along my arm until it covered the back of my left arm like a bracer. Soon, I was standing in a loincloth, barefoot, staring down at an omnitrix that now extended across my arm, the portion with the actual dial that was my name sake covering the center. It finished to reveal a smooth texture, like armor out of a sci-fi movie.

Creel stepped forward, tapping the Omnitrix on the metal part. His arm changed to match the color, and he blinked in surprise. "It's… different. I mean, still made of the same stuff, but it's like the alloy has been modified somehow."

"Is that supposed to happen?" Fantasma asked me curiously.

The correct answer was, 'how the fuck should I know?' I wasn't even sure why it had done that in Alien Force for crying out loud, let alone why it had transformed for me. My best guess was that it was reacting to the initial damage it had taken from the Anti-Metal, and it did that by not just repairing itself, but turning into a form that was able to resist the effects.

But I could feel the eyes of the Savage Landers on me. They all looked awed at yet another miraculous event happening, before Gresh began to look up at me. I had to remember that these guys respected me. So I couldn't just admit that I had no clue what was happening. Better to pretend the Omnitrix changing forms was part of some big plan.

I only smirked and walked toward the Quinjet. "Yeah. Felt like a change."

Fantasma and Creel hurried to follow me. She was giving me a very bland look as she whispered. "You have no idea why it did that, do you?"

"Nope," I admitted freely.

I stepped fully into the Quinjet and looked back at everyone. "We made it out. But now you have a choice," I looked at Demi, Gresh, and the German Guy, stopping on Gena, whose single wing fluttered behind her, then at the group of around ten Savage Landers behind them. "You can go to your homes. Or you can come with us, and we'll make sure to help you. In fact… if you want, you can even join us."

God, I was bullshitting so much right then. I had no idea if Director Hill would be down to have the Savage Landers join BRIDGE's team in the Savage Land. But I was pretty sure having natives help with understanding the place and acting as guides could only help.

"How about it guys?" I asked the group, smiling widely while raising the Omnitrix and clenching my fist. "Come with us, and I'll introduce you to the wonder of guns, reality television, and badass superheroes."

"Can…" Gresh stepped forward, looking hesitant. He looked down at the 'A' symbol he'd painted on his chest. "Can we become Avengers?"

Huh. I'm getting pretty good at making speeches.

Later, after a shower, change of clothes, and some damn good food, I stood in front of a hologram emitter in the BRIDGE base, wearing a BRIDGE shirt, military pants, and steel-toed boots, the Omnitrix glittering in its new form on my arm. Director Maria Hill was being projected in almost picture perfect quality, with only a few glitches. I explained, in detail, as much as I could about the situation I'd gotten into, trying to stick to the facts the way Cap and Nat had taught me to deliver reports, but I think she noticed whenever I felt ready to punch something and had to calm down.

Still, I got through the whole tale soon enough. When I finished, Director Hill just eyed me for a long moment. Finally she spoke.

"First, Mahmoud. It's good to have you back," she smiled. "We were all worried. I had to have guards set on Ruby so that she wouldn't try to escape and find you, especially after she found X had done it."

That honestly surprised me. While Ruby had seemed to be more comfortable around me, she never struck me as particularly caring. I was more of a guy to grab books from at best. Then again, that might have just been a teenager being a teenager.

"Regardless, I'm glad I don't have to worry about any other Avengers or BRIDGE personnel chasing after you," Director Hill looked closer at me. "Are you really okay? I've never seen you with a scar before."

I touched my face. I'd forgotten that, during my battles, I'd ended up with several cuts. Now, the one I'd gained from when the Pterosaur-gladiator had sliced open my right cheek had 'healed' into an ugly mark. Another one went up next to my eye on the left side of my face, though it had healed as a much cleaner line. That would take getting used to.

Along with that, I had some claw marks across my abs, a stab mark in my shoulder, some in my chest. I'd had to stop before my shower to stare in shock at the mirror when I realized what I looked like. Since arriving in this universe and finally meeting the Avengers, I'd trained, fought, and eventually ended up here. Now, I was covered in new muscles I hadn't found before. I looked like… well, like a superhero. And my new scars made me look like Conan the Barbarian's bearded brother.

"I think that my scars were healing already. And when I changed into Swampfire, I just, well, finished the job," I explained to her, my fingers running over the portion of smoother than normal skin that had been left.

She quirked an eyebrow. "Hm. So you won't get anymore, as far as we know. Which means I can have it seem like you're more vulnerable than you really are."

"I'm pretty damn vulnerable," I said with a small snort.

"Not according to the rest of the world," Director Hill crossed her arms. "Dial. Mahmoud. I need to be frank with you-"

"I thought you were Maria?" I joked. She wisely ignored that.

"I was worried about your disappearance from the perspective of a friend. But I'm also the director of BRIDGE. So I had to think on what your sudden disappearance could mean on a larger scale. And I'll be honest. It wasn't good."

"Larger scale?"

"...I'm trying to figure out how to tell you this without giving you an ego big enough to rival Tony's."

That was enough to make any amusement I felt fade. She looked like she'd been dealing with a hell of a lot lately. I tried my best to joke anyways.

"Just hit me. I'm pretty sure one of the people I love will pop my ego soon enough. Especially Tony."

Maria nodded seriously. "The fact is, you've had an effect on the world. When the Avengers were formed, the world was changed. They suddenly realized that the universe was so much bigger than we thought. But we had heroes to protect us. Tony, Steve, Nat, they're not just heroes. They symbolize so much more now."

She shook her head. "And now, there's you… You and your aliens. Able to shift into one of dozens of beings. Mahmoud, you may not be as famous as the first Avengers team, but you're the most well known superhero out of the ones who followed. You came out of nowhere, and suddenly you have joined nearly every superhuman mission we've got. There's a Facebook group full of people who claim you saved them before you even showed up at the Triskelion battle."

The Director narrowed her eyes. "But that means our enemies know they have to worry about you. The Omnitrix gives you a level of unpredictability they can't account for. The only Avenger who really matches you in that respect is-"

"Iron Man," I finished.

She nodded.

I knew what she meant immediately. In terms of power, Tony and I shared a couple of things. Mostly because we both could just be as powerful as we needed to be. If we weren't strong enough, Tony could build a stronger suit, and I could become a stronger alien. If we weren't fast enough, we could become faster. Except, that Tony had yet to reach a level of tech that could match how fast the Omnitrix could let me adapt. We both were wild cards, but my deck was stacked.

"People have been trying to make counters… to me," I wasn't dumb enough that I hadn't considered the possibility, so Director Hill's nod didn't surprise me. Ben had faced the same problem. All heroes did. The second you became a hero, people wanted to find a way to match you. Either to beat you with something that could match your powers, or to be you. Hell, to list off the ones in this universe, we had Iron Monger, Abomination, Whiplash, Winter Soldier.

You could argue that was just comic book conventions. But the fact was, the second you realized your enemy had obtained power, the first thing you did was try to match them. If they used steel, you used steel. If they made guns, planes, and bombs, you did the same.

"How has that been going for them?"

"So far, about as well as most attempts to make arc reactors," Maria said dryly. "You were right. The Omnitrix is so beyond human science it might as well be magic. That doesn't mean people won't try to find other ways. The Avengers are the natural enemies of a lot of people. And a lot of them know that you can show up at the speed of sound."

"If you died, we'd have a lot of people ready and willing to help save everyone. I think we would be able to survive as long as someone doesn't literally make their own Omnitrix. But I have to admit, it'll be a lot easier to survive as long as you're around."

She didn't give me time to think about that. Instead, she waved a hand, and a rough photo appeared. "Now, Hauzer. The dragon, you said. He came from the Rio incident?"

"That's my best guess. He comes from a universe that is way different from this one. More than usual, I mean."

"Rio. That place is still a pain in my ass no matter how much we do to mitigate it…" she looked pissed. "Where is he now?"

"In the jungle, last I checked."

"Think he's smart enough to consider us allies?"

I chuckled. "I don't think he has allies. Just 'not enemies'."

"I know the type."

Thinking about the jungle reminded me of something. "By the way, where is Ka-Zar? I thought that guy would have shown up at some point."

"He was caught up in something else, apparently. While you were having your battles, Ka-Zar and Zabu ended up taking on the Saur-Lords when they tried to kidnap a small village. He took on someone named Anklyo and ended up chasing them off."

Well. Guess Ka-Zar could be forgiven.

"Going back to what you said before. About people getting ready to fight me. I think, after all this, I'm gonna take some time off to train. Not with martial arts or anything, but to get better with my powers. To master them on another level."

I'd been planning on that for a while, to be honest. To not just unlock new aliens in the Omnitrix, but to take the aliens I currently had and figure out new ways to use them. I'd done pretty well with that so far. But I never really made that my focus. Because why would I need to train in alien form? Each form was powerful in their own rights, the time limit made any training too slow to really work, I already had Ben's example to follow, some aliens just didn't have any real way to train with their powers.

But for some weird reason, almost dying ended up making me pretty eager to make the most of all the time I had.

"I can understand that. I'll make sure to give you some extra time off," Maria smiled. "On the plus side, now I don't have to worry about Jen beating me with my own arms because I lost you."

She cut out before I could reply. I smirked for a second. Then I scowled.

So. People were trying to figure out a way to take me down. To kill me. Granted, they had been from the start, obviously, but now I had guys making their own gear to try and counter the Omnitrix.

I had to plan for that. Not just for things that were possible, but the things that were impossible as well.

Training. Lots of training. And weapons creation. I'd need to prepare for everything and anything.

Stend, the Savage Land, and all I'd faced showed me I could be a hero, Omnitrix or not. I was willing to prove that to every other asshole who showed up next.