Chapter 6

June 11th, 2014

You’d think with all the bullshit we were dealing with, I wouldn't have a random mission pop up. But you’d be wrong.

“A wild man?” I asked Maria, befuddled.

“That’s what I said,” she leaned back in her seat in her office, rubbing her chin.

It was a day after I’d gone to the Raft to visit Lykos. I’d spent the morning training with Ares, so my legs were still shaking. He’d spent a lot of our training recently forcing me to move between Astrodactyl and Fasttrack form, moving as fast as I could while catching or dodging his attacks. I knew that catching arrows was possible. Theoretically, so were bullets.

Turns out, bullets are not easier to catch when they're bigger. They just make bigger holes in your hand. Ares was a damn sadist. So yeah, my morning had been exhausting before Maria called me in with a request.

“It’s a story that came up a while back,” she began to explain. “People in a set of Canadian woods are reporting a man in leather with incredible strength and speed is running around out there fighting off an unknown group of soldiers.”

“And you want me to track him down?” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Director, aren’t we kinda in crisis mode? I was working on my ship when you called me.”

“I know. And I wouldn’t have called you if it wasn’t for your contacts,” Maria leaned forward. “Dial, we need to wipe the slate as clean as possible before whatever happens with this Act happens. So I’m getting aggressive. Coulson’s team is tracking the Ghost Rider you mentioned down. The Grapplers are joining in an operation in China. I’ve got Bucky and Bobbi helping with the Luna, Crescent, and White Fox with rumors of someone trying to steal from Helen Cho. We’re dealing with a lot.”

“I know, Fitz-Simmons told me they ran out of tea from all the late-night building Tony has them doing.”

Maria continued. “So yes. I want you to go in, find out what’s going on, then come back. Thankfully you’ve got enough power that I can trust it will be nothing you can’t handle. And since it’s the Canadian wilderness…”

Ah. Yeah. That made sense.

An hour later

“And that’s basically when I called you,” I said while piloting the Quinjet.

“I guess that makes sense,” Logan, wearing a leather jacket and jeans, grunted from the seat next to me. “Don’t you have an alien that can track though?”

“Track, sure. But there is a difference between that and actually knowing the area. Plus, the reports of armed soldiers chasing whoever this guy is has me worried. With this registration act shit, I’m worried the Canadian government has some black ops groups that are getting a head start on shit.”

The glower I got at that told me he understood.

And yes, of course I grabbed Logan. I needed a guy who had run through the Canadian wilderness and he was the best backup I could get.

We flew low and tight over the forest in cloak, rushing over the snow frosted trees. I stared at the GPS coordinates of the last place that our… I don’t know, target? Call him a target I guess.

“So, you have any questions about alternate versions of you?” I asked Logan casually.

“You get a lot of those?”

“An unbelievably large amount when people find out I have seen their alternate selves. Usually they end after a while. It’s kinda the ultimate ‘what if I did “x” instead of’ game.”

“Then I’ll pass. I lived a solid life. I can let the other versions of me live theirs.”

I looked over at him. He was relaxed.

“...I have something I’m looking into that has to do with you, but I can’t tell you until after the mission.”

“Because it might affect me?”

“Yeah.”

“Leave it then, bub,” he scoffed. “Just focus on what we gotta do. Leave everything else for later.”

Damn. I forgot how self-assured Logan from the Evolution universe was. Still had some issues, but he was DadWolvie instead of SadWolvie. Like the later versions of him in the comics really.

A loud noise from the back of the Quinjet made me jump. We both shared a look. A pained look. A look that told me he knew exactly what that was.

“Don’t tell me…” I mumbled.

“Goddamnit!” Logan snapped to his feet and strode to the back, where the bathroom was installed. Yes, bathroom. It was an Avengers Quinjet.

“No Avenger is gonna hold it if I can help it.”

Yeah, Tony had weird lines in the sand.

I set the autopilot up and got up as well. Logan and I walked over in front of the bathroom. I tapped the panel next to the door. It slid open.

“Uh… like, heya?” Kitty Pryde waved her fingers awkwardly at us. She had her laptop on the sink counter.

I slapped a hand to my face. “Ms. Pryde.”

“Half-Pint, what the hell are you doing here?” Logan said with an odd combination of frustration and fondness.

“Well uh… I wanted some privacy?”

“And you choose my quinjet?” I asked, aghast.

“Yeah, cause Kurt always finds me in the Blackbird!” She got up quickly. “Like, I just wanted some peace and quiet! So I thought, if I hid in here for a little bit-”

“Why not tell us you were in here? I would have stopped and turned around.”

“I… didn’t want to get in trouble?”

“And what, half-pint, was your plan? To just stay in the bathroom until we went back?”

She looked between us. Then she shuffled awkwardly, looking down at the ground and rubbing her arm.

“Half-pint…”

“Leave it. You’re here. Now we gotta work with it. Kitty, put on, um…” I thought quickly. “Ruby’s suit. It’s bullet resistant, and she’s about your size. Her suit should be in the back of Black Widow’s locker.”

“What?” Kitty jumped in surprise, staring at me.

“What are you thinking, bub?”

From the sound of Logan’s voice, I needed to have a real good explanation.

“We can’t leave her in here,” I sighed. “There is no telling what’s out there in the woods, and that paramilitary group is running around.”

“Paramilitary!?” Kitty squeaked.

“Even under cloak, I’d rather make sure we are fighting together and not getting eaten separately.”

“Eaten!?”

“Calm down, I’m being overly dramatic,” I kept my eyes on Logan. He rubbed his face, grumbling. Then he looked down at Kitty.

“Like… do I have to?” she squeaked.

The shorter but much more dangerous man sighed. “He’s not wrong. This isn’t a regular mission.”

“Oh, so it’s the same as all our other missions.”

That little comment got a growl that made her wince. I held in a small smile. DadWolvie man.

“Like I said,” I pointed at the lockers. “Ruby’s costume should be in that locker. Go ahead and put it on so you’ve got some real protection, all right?”

“Y-Yeah!” She ran over to the locker and opened it up. Then she blinked. “Wow… this is Black Widow’s stuff?”

“If you take anything, she’ll know, and she’ll hunt you down in the shadows.”

“I wasn’t going to!” Still, Kitty was much more careful about reaching behind the widow suit and gear. She pulled out a dark red uniform and ran into the bathroom with it. Once the door was locked, Logan reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

“I need to tell Charles the sprout hitched a ride.”

“I thought you called her half-pint.”

“Right now I’m considering calling her ‘pain in my ass’.”

Grumbling, he sauntered off. I chuckled a bit. Internally though, I was thinking about the mission. Kitty being here was going to be… interesting.

In a bit, we were all standing outside of the cloaked Quinjet. Kitty was wearing Ruby’s suit, a red take on Natasha’s usual uniform. She didn’t have any of the weaponry, but she was putting Ruby's earpiece into her ear.

“First things first. Silence,” I told her as gently as I could. “As long as you mumble things, Ruby’s quantum earpiece will pick it up and send it, but keep the conversation to that. We don’t know what we’re hunting. We just know that some kind of black ops group is also after it. So stay close. Be ready to go intangible,” I need to introduce her to Ghost soon. “And be as quiet as you can. Stay between us so that a sniper hits Logan or me first.”

“Sniper!?” she shouted in shock. In the open air, her voice cracked across the snowbitten forest. Logan and I glared at her. She covered her mouth quickly, squeaking quietly. “Uh… sorry.”

“It’s fine. Just be careful. Logan?”

“On it,” he took a whiff of the air. Then he frowned. “That’s weird.”

I didn’t reply, letting him lead the way. We took a slow and careful pace, our boots crunching through the snow. I took in cold frosted breaths, and smelled the pine around us. If it wasn’t for the mission, this might have been relaxing.

He spoke softly, his voice going into our earpieces.

“It’s hard to track this guy. I can smell him, but it’s usually easier to get a trace than this. He smells like steel. Blood. Smoke. Sweat.”

Kitty pursed her lips in disgust.

“What about his pursuers?”

“Walking around like elephants, Half-pint. Might as well make this a learning experience. What do you see?”

Kitty swallowed at being put on the spot. “Um… like, can I get a clue?”

“You’ve been in forests. What doesn’t look like it belongs in a forest?”

“I haven’t been in a real forest.”

Logan closed his eyes, then opened them slowly. “You’ve seen them on tv. Make educated guesses.”

She looked a little freaked, but started panning her eyes around. “Okay. Tree. Tree. Snow… I mean, those branches are broken I guess.”

When she looked back at Logan, he was smirking. “What? Like, seriously? Broken branches?”

“Like, seriously,” he said sarcastically. He walked up to the branches and waved her over. Softly speaking, he panned his fingers across them. “Bear or deer might have done it, but there’s no tracks, no antler scratches, no claw marks. If you look carefully at the ground, what do you think you’ll see?”

“Um…” Kitty leaned down. I watched carefully, feeling a bit like a third wheel in this teaching exercise, but still enjoying the show.

Kitty slowly pouted. Her eyes were hard, glaring at the landscape.

“Calm down,” Logan patted her shoulder. “It’s not an enemy. Just take in all the details, half-pint. The forest is dangerous. But it’s fair. And it tells its story to you long as you’re willing to take it in.”

Her eyes softened. She looked a bit more. Then she sighed. “Okay. So, like. The branches are broken here. So maybe they were running?”

The grumpy older man didn’t reply. Kitty continued. “Chasing somebody. Over here maybe?”

She walked the perimeter and stopped in a spot of snow that looked lower than the others. I had a guess as to what she’d find. Group of paramilitary dudes, chasing someone? No way they didn’t-

“Bullets!”

Shoot at the guy.

“Nice job,” Logan walked over to take a hold of one of them. “I’ll teach you how to tell the difference between cartridges another time. But for now-”

“5.56×45mm NATO,” I cut in, cocking my head. “That could be used by a lot of rifles. I was hoping for something more specialized.”

“Are they like, really common?” Kitty asked us.

“Used by everyone from the US to the Swiss and much more. Including, of course, Canada.”

“Makes it harder to tell if this is one of those other countries or just Canada being Canada.”

“Wait, what does that mean?” Kitty looked between us, confused.

I decided to copy one of the catchphrases of an old friend of mine. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I don’t like the way you said that,” the young girl said.

Logan took a sniff of the bullet, frowning. “All well and good to use normal tracking skills. But from here on out, it’s up to me I think. The guy they're pursuing. He’s good. Almost as good as me. Reminds me of Sabertooth.”

“That doesn’t bode well.”

“Like, tell me about it!”

Logan tossed the bullet aside and started walking. “This way. Come on.”

We moved in his wake, quick, but not running. Just staying on the move. Kitty started to run towards a tree, but I pulled at her arm to make her dodge it rather than run through it.

“Hey, what gives?”

“Does going through things cost energy?” I asked pointedly.

She nodded, though she still looked confused.

“Then save it. We might need your powers later. Better that you’ve got a full tank.”

As we continued, I stared out at the forest. Miles of woods. Hundreds of them. Rivers, animals, snow, trees, all hiding secrets. I don’t think Kitty had really registered what it meant to find bullets in the woods. They weren’t just pursuing this guy. They were trying to kill him. Thing was, were we trying to help him? Or did he need to be taken down too?

I reached for the Omnitrix and flipped through the playlist of aliens. Speed. I’d need speed.

Kulan Gath

Within AIM, the thin and wrinkled man wearing a suit watched next to Lyle Getz as a group of men manipulated the cameras before them. Footage of soldiers moving in formation, holding guns, the cameras either flying on drones or attached to helmets.

“In some ways, technology is both inferior and superior to the magic available to me,” Kulan mused.

“How so?” Lyle asked curiously. “I can understand both perspectives, but I wish to hear your thoughts first.”

“Ah, a true intellectual,” Kulan felt a hint of amusement . Lyle Getz was an idiot. But better than most Kulan had to contend with. “Magic allows me to unleash the forces of the elements. Few are the men who can match me. Even your modern guns cannot match them. And yet, for my single august self, you can arm thousands of soldiers with those wonderful toys.”

He continued. “My spells let me not only see across the world, but to project my astral self so I may feel, smell, even affect things from miles away. But your cameras allow you dozens of different perspectives, perfect recordings, and continuing advancements to the clarity, right down to thermal imaging!”

Kulan didn’t hide his enthusiasm. “Oh yes. My powers are truly formidable. But I would be a fool to discount the lessons of this new world's great gifts.”

“That is good to hear. For a moment, I believed you thought me to be an idiot. Though, I suppose you still do.”

Kulan froze. He turned to stare at Lyle.

The scientist didn’t look at him, merely watched the screens. “I’m simply making an observation, Mr. Gath. Based on my interactions with you, I know you are far more familiar with this man than you led me to believe. In fact, he is your enemy. You kept this from me. I assume it’s because any information you share with us may reveal your true goals, even your weaknesses. Which leads me to believe you do not have our best interests at heart.”

“...And?”

“And nothing, Mr. Gath. After all, I cannot pretend I have your own best interests at heart. I am content to allow you to use us. As long as it is understood we are using you in turn.”

“How amusing. What exactly do you believe I can offer you, if I am as duplicitous as you say?”

“The keys to the kingdom. This is a world of monsters, myths, and super-science. AIM will not lose its traction. Not after its previous failure. We will become greater than ever before. If I must shake the hand of the devil, it will be worth it when we strike at the gods.

At that moment, Kulan’s estimation of Lyle Getz rose. “Strike at the gods. It makes this old sorcerer laugh, to know that blasphemies such as that are considered possibilities.”

Getz looked him in the eyes for the first time. Gath felt his heart swell at what he saw. Desperation. Madness. And pure obsession. How beautiful.

“I’ve seen gods bleed, Mr. Gath. I know they can be killed as well. AIM can rise higher than them one day. I plan to make that happen. Now. This man we’re hunting. How is he doing as much damage as this with nothing but a sword?”

At that, Gath’s new admiration of Getz turned into annoyance and rage towards their shared adversary.

“If I knew that, I’d have killed him long ago.”

“Fair enou- Wait!” Lyle snapped his hand at one of the cameras. “Who is that?”

The camera froze on the woods. There, Kulan and Lyle could see a single glowing symbol on an arm moving through the trees.

“Omnitrix,” Lyle hissed.

“Dial,” Kulan smiled. “Now that is interesting. What is he doing here?”

“No clue. We wouldn’t have known if that thing wasn’t glowing!” Lyle pressed a button on his watch. “All teams, avoid contact with Dial.”

“Are you afraid of him?” Kulan asked mildly.

“Yes.”

Kulan smirked.

“I am no fool, Gath. So far, every enterprise Dial has encountered has gotten shut down. He can turn into Godzilla damnit!”

“Is that supposed to mean something to me?”

To Gath’s annoyance, Getz ignored him. Gath watched him continue coordinating his forces. As he did, he stroked his chin. He’d already seen Dial in action. But perhaps…

“Oh Dr. Getz?” Gath asked, his voice sweet as sugar. “I believe I may be able to offer some assistance?”

Lyle looked over at him. The scientist and the sorcerer met eyes. Lyle finally nodded. “What do you need?”

“A cow will do. This summoning will require a sacrifice. Hahahaha!”

It was time to see how the Omnitrix dealt with magic. After all, Kulan was learning quite a bit about science. Now for an experiment or two.