Before the Alien Assault

Dr. Jemma Simmons

Jemma had gone to work from the moment the Behemoth reached the battlefield. First, in getting her fellow doctors ready. Then, in leading them when the casualties started coming in.

“Dr. Simmons!” someone shouted. She took one look at the patient, who was screaming, a portion of her arm scarred and burnt, then started yelling.

“Get her to the other burn victims and get the poultice on him to cool down her wound. Have Helen Cho take a look if he’s too far gone. Soldier, can you fight?”

“Fucking stop me!” she spat out, the blonde woman’s eyes filled with rage.

“Then put her on the list to be sent back out as soon as she’s cleared, go!”

Simmons didn’t have time to think about that. On healing someone just to send them back into battle. She had more people to help.

“Dr. Octavius, Dr. Kusuma!” Simmons ran over to the portly doctor and the reptilian genius. “We’ve got more coming in from the front, can you open up some more beds?”

“I’m on it,” Melati said, grabbing a chart and flipping through it.

“Dr. Simmons, we can’t simply send these people out-” Octavius began to say.

“We have to, Dr. Octavius,” he winced but nodded. “Mrs. Harkness!”

“I’m here, dear,” the older sorceress was walking over to her imperiously. Under her feet, a single mandala of magical energy was spread out across the ground. “What is it you need of me?”

“We’re having trouble dealing with the flood that is coming in,” Simmons said sadly. “I need you to stop treatment on the most far gone cases. Please focus your powers on those who have the best chance of surviving.”

Agatha smirked, a hard and bitter quirk of the lips. “Very well.”

“Dr. Simmons,” Octavius said sadly.

“We have to, Doctor,” Simmons said with her eyes closed. “Can you-”

“I’ll help,” he nodded firmly, though he still looked saddened.

“Simmons,” Melati said carefully. “I know it was a last resort. But some patients who know about it have been asking for my serum.”

“And you informed them it would make them look like you, even with all the advancements you made?”

“I did. And they didn’t seem to care.”

Simmons thought about that for the furious moment of a heartbeat. Melati was the product of two things. Her experimental serum, which had regenerated her injuries, and the Omnitrix, which had stabilized her mutations. Melati had managed to create an upgrade to her serum that could heal injuries like hers… but it still turned people into less extreme reptile hybrids, according to their simulations.

“I’ll allow it if the choice is that or death,” Simmons grimaced. “Any chance of it causing mental instability?”

“They’ll want red meat a lot more,” Melati said with a wry smile. “I’ll avoid using it, but it’s an option.”

“We will have-” Agatha was about to say. Then her eyes widened. She raised her hands. “Get close to me!”

Red light surrounded them. The Behemoth began to shake. Simmons staggered and the ceiling caved in on top of Octavius and Melati.

Mahmoud Schahed/Dial

They appeared from the sky like mountains dropping down from heaven. I had been looking upward in Fasttrack form, ready to fly up to rejoin the fight in the sky only to freeze. Pietro and La Vent came to a stop beside me.

“Merde…” La Vent whispered.

“Боже мой,” Pietro mumbled.

“Fuck me in the ass,” I grumbled.

The spaceships were shaped differently from each other. One looked like a scorpion. Another, a pointed brick. Another like a giant pair of boomerangs with a tower connecting the top to the bottom. Six total. But they were all big. Like cities hanging in the sky. A series of guns lowered to point at us.

“Get everyone you can clear, now!” I screamed. A yellow, silver, and blue blur rushed forth.

And the ships all started shooting. Energy blasts smashed into the forest. Missiles exploded against the Enterprise’s shield, the Behemoth’s armor, and tore through the normal helicarrier, which began to emit flames as the other two ships tried to fight back.

Quinjets, F-22 Rapters, and the flying heroes charged for the ships, who responded by disgorging fighter vessels.

Fantasma and Wanda brought up giant mandalas, screaming.

I ran with all the speed I had. I grabbed a soldier by the arms and pulled him hard. His shoulders dislocated, but it was better than the missile that smashed the ground where he stood. I sped to a clearing and dropped while backflipping as I tapped the Omnitrix.

“Diamondhead!”

I shouted the name as loud as could, echoing it to the sky. Still flipping through the air, I fired crystals everywhere I could, forcing them to grow and grow, becoming giant crystal walls across that section of forest.

As I landed, I tapped the Omnitrix again.

“Blitzwolfer!”

I opened my four-pronged muzzle. “GET TO THE CRYSTALS, NOW!”

The trees shook with the echo of my voice, hopefully spreading the message far and wide. Tapping the Omnitrix again, I shifted into Astrodactyl and blasted upwards before tapping it again to turn back into Diamondhead again. I fired as many crystals as I could. They stabbed into the stone, trees, and dirt, growing as fast as I could make them. I forced them to become as large as I could as I dropped to the ground. A few alien fighters twisted towards me as I fell.

They were so strange, like big bulbous and pitted tumors with wings. The Omnitrix flashed yellow as they approached, scanning the lifeforms inside. I’d take a look once I got a breath, try to see if I recognized the species.

I cartwheeled through the air for a moment, raising one arm and shifting the limb into a triangular shield. Energy blasts bounced off the shield. My other arm raised up and fired crystals into the head fighter, blowing it apart. Seeing that, another fighter decided to go for a ramming run at me. I got ready to be sent flying. Then the whine of repulsors came from behind me.

“Dial!” War Machine flew in, grabbing me under my arms and lifting me up over the ramming ship. I lengthened my right leg into a long blade, which sliced through the right wings and back engine of the ship with a single kick.

The fighters spun around to come at us.

“Coming from the left!” I yelled.

“I see ‘em!” Rhodey’s chaingun spun around to shoot at one of the fighters, the bullets bouncing off for a bit before sheer volume pierced the windshield and riddled the pilot full of holes. “Who are these guys!?”

“Aliens! Let’s shut them down! Drop me!”

Rhodey let me go. I tumbled for a bit before tapping the Omnitrix and rocketing upwards towards the big ship in Astrodactyl form.

“All forces, squawk! I’m taking the frontmost ship!”

“Then I’m going for the boomerangs,” Tony said.

“I’ll stay out here and focus on the fighters!” Rhodey joined in.

“Verily, I will join you in that!” Thor barked.

I flew forward, desperately focusing on my target and not the missiles and energy blasts that may be killing my friends. I fired starbolts as I flew, sending a whip lashing out to grab a passing Chitauri-Armored soldier, spinning around to toss him at an alien fighter. On the ground, fighter ships began dropping to the ground and disgorging soldiers, who joined Hydra in battle. Over the comms, I heard Captain America making call outs. Natasha said something, and I reflexively told her I was headed to one of the ships.

Just before smashing into it, I tapped the Omnitrix. In a flash of green that illuminated the underside of the scorpion-like ship, I changed.

“Upgrade!”

I hit the bottom of the ship and attached like a spitball. I spread out, sending my nanite body into the ship. I felt the technology of the ship. In terms of advancement, it was among the most powerful machines I had ever melded with. I spread out, entering the softwar-

“GET OUT-26 15 12 1 3 15 4-Follow PATH-5 4 5 12 5 20 5 5 14 5 13 25 1 9 16 18 5 [email protected]#$!!%%#^&%$&*-Sickophact-5 14 20 1 19 19 1 21 12 20 4 5 6 5 14 4 7 15 4 19-Remove the FAITHLESS!-20 18 21 3 11 5 18 7 15 4 8 25 4 18 1 7 15 4!”

I couldn’t understand it. It was a mix of computer code, alien languages, simple words shifted to numbers, all fed to me by insane minds. I felt him/her/them {Push/Pull/Challenge/DIE} screaming like a lunatic against me. I fought against it, trying to understand/stand/under-

“YAAA!” My electric voice crackled while I was fighting inside the construct of the ship. This wasn’t a fight of fists. It was as close to a telepathic battle as I could imagine, a war of wills. An enemy AI, no, several of them, smashed into me like crazed animals. I went against them as best as I could. They made firewalls, tried deleting me. I went against them, my digital mind challenging them. I could sense their origins. Some alien. Some Hydra. Both types were insane and broken.

I did what I could. I spread to the guns and held them back, the sounds of screeching filling the air as my body fought. Some fighters began shooting at the portions of me that took over the ship, blasting.

I had to hold. Against the AI and the fighters, I held, my mind cracking. But I didn’t know how long I could last. I pushed myself, pointing guns at the other ships, messing with targeting systems, deleting AI. But if I was a super-soldier, then the enemy AI were a bunch of crazed skinny junkies on meth. I could take them in droves, but enough numbers were going to take me down eventually.

“G-Guuuuys!” I shouted. “I could use some backup!”

“Join the club!”

------

Tony Stark/Iron Man

Tony had been flying free as a bird one moment, scanning the boomerang ship to find the best place to enter it. He’d found a place, what looked like a maintenance hatch or something on the top. Then his armor started screaming at him. The blue hue of his HUD flickered red, then green, alien symbols he didn’t understand bouncing across.

“Jarvis!?” Tony shouted into his helmet as his HUD continued to go haywire.

“A-An unknown AI is attacking your syst-ems,” Jarvis stuttered.

Jarvis never stuttered.

Tony faltered in the air over the boomerang ship he was flying over, dropping until he was skating just over the metal surface of the ship. “J, talk to me!”

“They are attempting to hack into every system available,” Jarvis said. “I am doing what I can to fight them off. A large portion seems distracted battling Dial and X as well.”

“G-Guuuuys!” Dial’s voice came through the comms. He sounded like he was being tortured. “I could use some backup!”

“Join the club!” Tony shouted, his mind racing.

Okay. Enemy AI was something they’d planned for. But if Jarvis, X, and Dial were all having trouble with them, then Tony needed to lighten their load. That meant having Jarvis back out of the armor. Meaning Tony would be left with just the systems that could be run on power alone, no AI allowing for quick changes or adjustments.

Tony didn’t hesitate.

“Jarvis, you need to focus on holding off or deleting those AI. Switch me to hardware mode, put the 44 and 45 on standby, then disconnect from the armor on my mark!”

“Are you sure sir?” Jarvis asked. “If I disconnect, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to get back in a timely manner while fighting these rogue AI.”

“I trust ya,” Tony stopped above the ship, floating on his boot repulsors. On the back of each of his hands, a section of gauntlet popped open, both glowing red. “And we made hardware mode for a reason. Ready?”

“Yes sir.”

“Mark!” Tony fired the high-powered lasers on his arms. As he did, his HUD faded. His armor shifted a bit, catoms flowing to change the eyeholes on his armor to allow him a larger field of view. Then the repulsors on his boots shut off.

The twin lasers smashed into the ship he’d been floating over, slicing through the metal over the ‘maintenance hatch’. He dropped down into the circular hole he’d created. He fell for several feet before landing in a three-point position in a large room.

Three men stared at him, shocked. They all had… Oh wow. Tony barely had to try for the joke.

“Hey, Blue Man Group!” Tony rose to his feet, smirking under his helmet. “Any chance I can hire you guys to do my wedding?”

“Das't!” one of them said, grabbing what looked like a metal staff tipped with a plastic axe.

Tony knew better than to underestimate it though. The angry blue alien ran at him swinging the axe, moving just a hair slower than Steve could, and even faster than Natasha. Enough to take down a man who didn’t have any training. Hell, even Tony, who took a few combat lessons over the years, would have been hard-pressed to fight back. And now he didn’t have a handy AI to help direct the numerous systems of his suit.

When the blue man reached him, Tony blocked the axe on his arm.

Then he punched him so hard the blue man shot back like he’d been shot out of a cannon.

Yes, he didn’t have AI help. But that was the point of hardware mode. No missiles, no hacking, scanning, or anything else. Just strength/speed-enhancements… and the party favors. He raised his right hand and fired a single repulsor blast.

The shot pierced through one of the blue men. He stared at the hole, looked at the other blue man, then collapsed.

“Too bad,” Tony said, clenching his other fist. “Feels like I’m beating up some cultural icons.”

The sound of footsteps running towards them was followed by two doors opening. Dozens more men with blue skin and bald heads came in. They were also holding laser guns.

Tony sighed. Okay. This might be a little tough.

The Blue men started shooting. A few blasts hit his armor, and he felt the heat even through the advanced materials. Tony leapt sideways into the air, his boot repulsors pushing upwards, and fired back.

“Fellas, I know it’s frustrating, living a life with blue balls, but there are better outlets!”

“Das't!” a man cursed as a repulsor blast sent him flying, his armored vest apparently tougher than the last guys. His friends shot back, three subsequent blasts sending Tony tumbling to the ground. He spun on the floor, metal on metal sending up sparks, before rolling to his feet and blasting with both hands, taking down two men before ducking behind cover.

“Smurf you too!”

Tony hid a grin. Even outnumbered by a bunch of superstrong aliens with laser guns, he was still a master of snark.

------

Steve Rogers/Captain America

“Get to the crystals!” Steve tossed his shield. The spinning disk smacked into the face of a Centipede soldier, went spinning to the left where it snapped into the face of one of the blue men who had joined Hydra, then got back to Steve, who caught out of the air in time to block an axe from one of the other one.

“Filthy human!” he roared in a deep voice. “Weak, useless-”

Steve swung his shield out, easily overpowering the alien. As the soldier staggered back, Steve kicked his knee, snapping his leg back in a sickening crack.

“YAAAA!”

He finished him with an uppercut, then looked around. “Back, now!”

“You heard the captain!” Frank Castle shouted, shooting his rifle while pulling a female soldier from where she’d stabbed a Centipede soldier. Another explosion came nearby as the airstrike from the ships above them continued. “Fall back to the crystals!”

Steve blocked lasers on his shield as they got behind one of the crystal structures Dial had made before he disappeared. Missiles from above smacked against the structures, shaking them and loosening the dirt they were dug into, but they would hold for now. Steve tossed his shield again, then grabbed a gun from a wounded soldier and lifted it. Frank and the female soldier took positions alongside Steve, and the three fired into the forest, screaming in unison.

The Hydra soldiers and their alien allies came charging in. Stever reached a hand out and caught his returning shield in time to protect Frank and the woman from attack.

Another soldier behind them fell to the ground, a portion of his head removed. Steve kept shooting, protecting who he could with his shield, even as more men died. Frank let out a sound like a vicious demon, bullets flying into the tough blue aliens before they overwhelmed them.

Then, the sound of thunder. And Thor smashed into the ground between the two groups. Lightning crackled around him, his eyes glowing white. He rose to his feet and swung Mjolnir. Electricity snapped outwards, hitting Hydra and the aliens in-front of him.

“FOR MIDGARD!” Thor roared.

Steve stepped out, shooting his gun again, then threw his shield. “Thor!”

Seeing the shield coming his way, Thor twisted around and smashed Mjolnir into Captain America’s shield. A shockwave of force, directed by the invincible shield, smacked Hydra and their allies aside like leaves in a storm.

“Any clue who these guys are?” Steve asked Thor, catching his shield.

“Kree,” Thor said. “A warrior race, very strong.”

“How did Strucker get these guys?” Steve said, reloading his gun and tossing his shield. As the disc flew through the air, Steve shot at it, the bullets bouncing off it to hit several men around him at impossible angles.

“The Scepter,” Thor scowled. “I will need to deal with this.”

Swinging Mjolnir around, Thor shot up into the air. Frank ran up to Steve, who gave him a nod.

Captain America and the Punisher ran back into the war.