July 19th, 2014

Mahmoud Schahed/Dial

The Defiant was done. And it was beautiful.

It wasn’t the first ship we made. Not even the second really. We’d put out work into other vehicles, modifying Quinjets, testing standalone vehicles, even making Coulson a little surprise for him.

But this one was mine. Every layer of the ship, overseen and modified by me. Tony, Shuri, Fitz-Simmons, a few others, had helped, but beyond that it was all me… approving the changes.

Hey, I could change things as Jury Rigg and Upgrade, but my human self was just mastering the basics of mechanical repair. By the time we were done, I could fix the ship if needed, but fuck me if I understood how it all worked.

While Tony helped, X had backed me up with the financing. A lot of the money I got from his investments went into helping various organizations and causes, but that still left me with a nest egg. A much depleted nest egg. Literal billions had been spent on the ship.

I bought vibranium from King T’Chaka, and layered it in a thin alloy though the main living quarters, cockpit, and engine room. The hull was double-layered with a foam composite within made to activate on exposure to vacuum and seal any breaches.

The cockpit had windows made of something Fitz explained were called aluminum oxynitride. Three times as durable as steel while still transparent. If they did break, vibranium would snap into place to replace them before anyone could get sucked out.

For defense, there were plasma shields, ionized particles that were trapped by electromagnetic fields. There were also catoms throughout the ship made to repair the ship on the fly in case of damage. They’d immediately reshape themselves to fill any injuries.

For offense, repulsor turrets, of course, on the top and bottom of the ship, with the same variable power as Tony’s gear. He’d made them himself, strong enough to rip through steel, but also able to go weak enough to knock someone out instead.

Tony had also taken a look at the laser weapons the alien ships had used during the final battle with Hydra, and redesigned them into turret nodes. They weren’t as useful as the repulsors, for a variety of reasons like not having as much mass to their hits, but they were useful to destroy debris/floating trash, and could harass enemy shields.

Finally, railguns. Big honking electromagnetic railguns. They fired big chunks of various metals at immense speed. Repulsors and lasers were good. But the railguns were meant to end shit they fired at.

Tony was a little disappointed with the weaponry. He wanted to put in more, like the unibeam he’d been working on, but we made do for now. The ship was able to turn small asteroids into pebbles already, so I was satisfied.

Inside, comfort hadn’t been sacrificed. Anti-Gravity was something we could do now, copying data from the spaceships we’d salvaged. It took some testing, but Fitz had managed to implement it using research from a Dr. Franklin Hall (Thank god that whole incident had resolved itself). Now we had gravity. It could be used to increase and decrease gravity.

Tony and Fitz had some ideas on how to use the same tech to increase maneuverability and speed, but that’d have to be added in later.

The inside of the ship also had a vertical farming and closed ecological system. With nothing but the fish and plants inside, the ship could last a full 3 years feeding and giving oxygen even without the air scrubbers. Probably more with Swampfire around.

Finally, the Garden. Fancy name for the ‘kitchen’. Beyond normal cooking, it had a machine made by Jury Rigg that could take the base components of biological material to make basic bars of food or even full dishes. It sometimes fired the food out like a bullet, or gave them very bizarre tastes (Iron flecked with pine needles was one), but I couldn’t do anything about that.

Beyond that, the works. Comfy beds, sofas, and hard drives full of as much music, movies, television, images of art, mathematical equations, philosophical learning, books. When we encountered other species, they’d learn about us in full. Good and bad.

Because yes, Twilight was in the hard drives. Ugh.

On the bottom floor of the ship, underneath the living quarters and cockpit, was the hanger bay, tech room, and prison.

The hanger bay was small, only big enough to carry a single vehicle that my assigned BRIDGE liaison would be bringing in.

The tech room was for X. He was designing a body for the journey, uploaded with all the data he would need, with the tech room holding enough to repair both himself and anything else we needed. It doubled for scientific analysis as well, if needed, and held several empty hard drives ready to download petabytes of data.

The prison was technically called the Containment Module. Based on a design Fitz-Simmons and Bruce had created, it was a white cube-like room with glass windows, a pale-white interior, and a small bed inside. It had four rockets, one on each corner, made to be able to fly upwards into the Defiant whenever we needed it to. It was made of poly-tectic adaptive materials.

No clue what those were without turning into Jury Rigg. I could basically program it to resist a variety of things. Shuri and Tony had given it an extra once over. Then I got shoved into it and told to break out.

NRG couldn’t burn through it, Four-Arms couldn’t smash, Feedback couldn’t blast, Diamondhead couldn’t slice. Any alien I shifted to, they adjusted the module to take it on. I doubted it could work on everything, but it was enough for me.

The ship wasn’t perfect, since by definition that was impossible. But I loved it. It controlled like a dream. Taking it up to the ISS was easy enough, then I dived and ducked around the atmosphere, sometimes using the lasers to evaporate some more dangerous trash floating around the Earth. The ship was ready. I just needed a couple of people for my crew.

“Me?” Creel cocked his head to the side, amused. I’d found him boxing a bit with Matt, the Daredevil and Alloy trading blows in the old Fogwell gym. Matt was listening curiously, sweating just a bit, the two of them up in the ring looking down at me while I hung on the ropes.

“Thought you’d ask Thor or someone else first.”

“First, you were always going to be my first choice.”

Creel grinned, placing a hand on his chest. “Why Mahmoud! I’m touched.”

“Asshole,” I grabbed a water bottle and tossed it at him, bouncing it off his head. He was unfazed even as a portion of his skin went plastic. “I didn’t invite you just cause I like you. Of all the Avengers, you’re probably one of two that is as adaptable as me, with way more combat experience. I’d love to bring 15 members along. Considering I’ve only got room for a few, you’re the easy choice along with my other one.”

“I’m in then,” Creel chuckled, smiling just a bit. “I’d be crazy to miss out on heading to outer space and fighting aliens. Well, more aliens. I mean, you guys figured out the kinks on space travel, right?”

“Yep. Granted, Tony is still making improvements. He thinks he can make a wormhole generator that will let us travel instantly between planets.”

“Like in Stargate?” Matt asked, befuddled.

“He gets all pouty when we mention that,” I said with a grin. “But yeah. He’s using some of the principles of a viewer I made that could look into other dimensions along with alien tech for it. Hopefully it doesn’t break New York.”

“I hate when you say that kind of thing,” Matt said, worried. “You sound way too cavalier about it.”

“You get used to it,” I looked at Creel. “So, how are you gonna tell Izzy that you might have to leave Earth for weeks at a time?”

Creel froze. I couldn’t help but start laughing at the look on his face.

“I cannot believe you asked Creel virst!” Fantasma pouted, her Russian accent just a bit stronger on the last word. We walked through the Avengers Tower. “We ate breakfast together!”

“I would have asked you guys at the same time, but Agatha was checking her library to see if there were any books she could give you first,” I explained, hands behind my head as I casually strolled behind the short witch girl.

“Why would that mean you couldn’t ask me?”

“Because she didn’t want to see you go out into space and accidently open a hole to the wrong alien hell.”

Fantasma frowned, thinking about that. “Is that possible?”

“Hell if I know. Do you know how that conversation went? First, I don’t know how the fuck she found out I was going to ask you, so that’s weird. Second, she turned my reflection into her image while I was naked, then acted like I was the crazy one for trying to hide from her. Then she told me she’d rip the engine out of my ship if I brought you along without making sure you were safe.”

I sighed. “Seriously, as though I’d ever hurt you.”

She gave me a warm smile, before sighing. “She is, how do you say? Overprotective.”

“Better than the alternative, I guess.”

We entered the lounge area. Hulk was there in a giant robe, eating from his mega bowl of cereal while watching cartoons. Steve, Thor, Jen, and Natasha sat with him, all of them in their own robes and with their own bowls while they kicked back and watched together. Jen gave me a jaunty wave that made an involuntary smile sprout on my face.

“Where are you going, anyways?” Fantasma asked me.

“In the Tower, or in space?”

“Both, I suppose.”

“For the Tower I’m mostly just waiting until Tony finishes with his StarkGate.”

“StarkGate?”

“He refuses to call it a Stargate,” I rolled my eyes. We reached the balcony, where we could look out on New York City as the sun shone down. I leaned against the railing, Fantasma doing the same in a somehow more elegant fashion. “But basically it’s his machine to teleport between places instantly.”

“Ahhh, yes, Stargate.”

“Right? Anyways, he’s making that thing. As for space… we’re still deciding on that.”

I tapped the Omnitrix, using its connection to the Avengers Tower database to bring up a digital map of the solar system.

“Why is it all in green?” Fantasma asked, poking at the asteroid belt.

“Still haven’t figured out how to make colors on purpose,” I brought the map between us. “So here we are, obviously. Earth. Then the solar system. From there, Jane Foster helped us use the data we stole from the alien ships, combined it with our own data, and we made this.”

I extended the map out. And out. And out. Numbers, names, and orbs flew past, over and over, until Earth had disappeared entirely.

“Vo dayot…” Fantasma whispered.

“The number of places we can visit is kinda infinite,” I said, looking around. “I know some places we should start with though. This planet,” I zoomed in one in particular. “Is where the Nova Corp, an interstellar space corp, works from. We’ll go there to make sure they know we aren’t roaming around to cause trouble.”

“And then?” Fantasma asked, fascinated.

“Probably to visit a nebula or two. See the sights. Maybe get in trouble… So. You coming?”

“Of course!” Fantasma said, cheerfully. “I cannot wait! Ah. I’ll have to digitize my library, won’t I?”

“Even with Anti-Gravity, every bit of weight we can drop helps.”

“Are you calling me fat?”

“I’m too smart to answer that.”

Before we could joke around anymore, Hulk called out.

“Dial!”

I looked over at him. Hulk was waving me over. He looked worried. Natasha had put down her bowl and had her Black Widow face on. Thor was more interested in the TV than before, and Steve glanced at me, gesturing his head towards the TV.

I walked over, Fantasma following. “What’s up?”

The TV was on the news now. Natasha answered without looking away. “Maria told me to check the news. Said you needed to see it as well. News from Latveria.”

“Lat-” My eyes widened. I looked at Jen, who gained the same worry I felt. “Shit.”

I turned back to the news. An image of Latveria flashed on screen, the small nation on the borders of Serbia, Romania, and Hungary. A blonde woman took over the screen, the WHIH logo next to her name. Christine Everhart.

“After the death of the former ruler, King Fortunov, the new ruler has been welcomed with wide arms by the population of Latveria, despite rumors behind how he came to power.

Then the screen flashed to display a castle.

Hundreds of people were cheering in front of it. They were dressed in older looking clothes, patchwork and dirty in some cases. But they seemed genuinely happy. They looked as though they had woken up out of a nightmare. I could see some people holding their kids on their shoulders, a few people holding up signs cheering on the new ruler.

The man himself was striding through the cheering crowd like a benevolent god. His cape flowed behind him, a pair of robots stepping to his left and right. He was tall as hell, but his build was mostly because of his armor. Grey, imposing, and powerful looking.

He glanced at the cameras. A familiar visage forged of titanium looked at all of us, eyes bright with intelligence shining behind that mask.

“Dr. Doom.” I whispered. “Fuck.”

“How bad is this?” Steve asked, watching the screen.

“Victor Von Doom is one of the most dangerous and intelligent men in existence. If this one is as close to as intelligent, we’re in trouble. If he isn’t as arrogant, we’re done for.”

“We have to hope our latest big bad is an arrogant jackass?” Jen asked snarkily. “Boy, we really won the lottery with these guys.”

I didn’t answer, just watching as Doom’s coronation continued. The new ruler of Latveria… But this might have been an opportunity.

“Let’s invite him over.”

“What!?” Natasha said, befuddled.

“You want to invite a guy named DOCTOR DOOM to dinner?” Tony asked me, befuddled and annoyed.

“Probably,” I said, idly flipping through the Omnitrix’s menu as Tony continued working on his StarkGate.

The StarkGate was large enough to allow a single person to pass through, with Tony’s trademark red and gold metal making up the entirety of the round portal-like device. Circles are pretty damn good in making things that will take unknown stress. Not too much weird energy focusing on one part, like a corner or something.

“Didn’t you say this guy was one of the worst villains ever?” Tony frowned at a part in his hand, then shrugged, tossing it aside.

“Potentially. Doom has nuance. And not every Doom has to be evil. Plenty of our friends are bad guys in other universes,” I sighed. “Besides. I want to get a read on him. Doing it in Latveria is idiocy.”

“As opposed to here,” Tony scoffed. “Did you say the guy was almost as smart as me?”

“I said ‘as smart’, not almost,” I teased just a bit.

“Impossible, I’m the smartest man alive.”

“And the humblest.”

“Truly, I am burdened with wonderful virtues. Come on kid. Seriously,” Tony looked over at me. “You think it’s a good idea to bring him here?”

I thought about it. “...Here, in New York City, we have the home field advantage. All our friends, tech, and allies are close by. Doctor Doom is dangerous, but he isn’t a god yet.”

“Yet?”

I ignored his befuddled comment. “We go to Latveria, we don’t know what hornet's nest we’ll have to deal with. If he’s anything like the other versions, he’s basically you and Agatha rolled into one.”

“That’s a terrifying thought,” Tony shrugged, then installed another object into the StarkGate. “Tell you what. Give us about a month. Let me get some suits together. Then we can invite the dictator over for a barbecue.”

“Hey, I wouldn’t have invited him unless everyone agreed anyways,” I looked out the window of the lab we were in. Fantasma and Jen were talking to Simmons, the redhead giggling. Fitz was at a computer connected to the lab. He looked confused about something. “So, when are you lighting this thing up?”

“Not for a few months honestly,” Tony shrugged. “The principles it works on are a bit wonky. Analysis from the portal made in New York, the logs from the wormhole tech, studies based on gravitational stress factors, the maps we pulled from those idiot aliens, and the calculations we got from the Rio Timequake and Fishhook device.”

“How much trouble could we be in?” I asked him.

“Ah, not much. It’s a portal, not a bomb.”

“Hey Tony!” Fitz said through the speakers in the lab. “Can you take a look at these calculations?”

Tony gave me a smirk. “See what I mean? Wonky.” He rose to his feet and waved his hands sarcastically. “Why don’t you take a look at this thing, give me your expert opinion?”

“What, you don’t think I’m helpful?”

“If I need friends to punch things or watch tv with,” he slapped me on the back and walked off.

I shook my head, looking back at the StarkGate. It was pretty cool looking. I lowered the Omnitrix and eyed it a bit longer. Huh. Lights were beginning to turn on.

“Mahmoud?” Tony said through the lab speakers. “Did you do something?”

I looked over at him. “What do you-”

BOOMSWISKUM!

The sound of glass shattering, water exploding, space imploding, like the world was being pushed and pulled, wrenches clattering against ice. I couldn’t explain how the sound bounced against my mind.

Something threw me forward, smashing me against the windows of the lab. The glass cracked but didn’t break, leaving me to fall to the ground.

“FUCK!” I twisted around, staring at the StarkGate.

Glowing blue. Like a star. A ball of energy, within the ring of the StarkGate.

“Tony, tell me this isn’t as bad as I think!” I yelled. I ran to the door, reaching for the handle. Jen’s fist lifted towards the window. Magic surrounded Fantasma in violet rings. Pieces of Iron Man suit flew towards Tony while he screamed.

“Get out of-” the ball of energy exploded again, sending everyone flying. Except for me. For some reason, something grabbed hold of me. Power like nothing I’d felt. I felt my body flicker. Fasttrack. Diamondhead. Big Chill. Four Arms. Upgrade. I reached desperately for the door.

Still I was pulled in. My feet were ripped from the floor. I shifted forms to Grendel and slammed back into the ground, just to get pulled up again.

My legs felt like they were on fire. I shifted to Blight. Then Ethereal, surrounding myself in a shield of psychic energy. It was shredded to pieces.

The last thing I saw before I was finally sucked in was Jen, Tony, and Fantasma smashing through the glass. Then the world was gone.

------

I fell into a void of blue lights. My body stretched into infinity. But it was also small as an atom. I had infinite understanding, and knew nothing. The feeling was intense. And familiar.

The pain of knives slicing me apart, before I was healed once more. I reached out with arms, tentacles, and claws. The Omnitrix blared with color. I screamed.

I flew into a brick wall in a flash of light. I fell to the ground.

And I lay there, gasping.

“What… what. What the hell!?”

Human again. I groaned, getting up as quickly as I could, trying to breathe. Everything ached, even though I hadn’t been hurt. It didn’t matter. I needed to focus. Get the landscape of things.

I didn’t know where I could have gone. The StarkGate was meant to send people to other worlds. I could have been anywhere. Close by like Mars, or far, like Hala, Skrullos, or Spartax.

I looked up. And I was in New York City. 54th Street was in front of me, I could see the sign. Smell New York City too, a very distinct scent. But…

“...This is the wrong New York.”

It was half a guess. Tony’s portal was made to shift people between worlds. Maybe I’d just ended up a few blocks away, but I doubted it.

Still feeling on edge, I slowly walked out of the alleyway and into the sunlight. It was hot as hell. Humid too, the moisture clinging to me. Muggy is how Steve would describe it. New York City summers don’t mess around.

I frowned when I saw an older looking car. Then another. And another.

They drove lazily past dozens of cars from the 70’s and 80’s. I wasn’t a car guy, but Tony had me repairing enough of them to recognize them.

And then there was the fashion. People looked at me like I was weird in my now ripped apart t-shirt and jeans, while the women walked past with shoulder-padded jackets and bell bottom pants. A guy wearing black leather and a two-foot tall mohawk passed me by, his pants an obnoxious red. And all the clothes were like that, bright and colorful.

Then again, this was New York City, and I wasn’t the most fashion conscious.

“...I need more info, clearly.” On a whim, I opened up my comm. The quantum comm was supposed to be able to work anywhere in the universe. But here, I got nothing. Worth a shot.

Pulling back into the alleyway, I tapped my Omnitrix.

“Big Chill.”

Immediate relief. Thank god. I hate heat. You can layer up and get warm easily in the cold, but hot weather is a bitch.

Floating upwards, I went intangible and invisible. Higher and higher, until I could see the whole of New York City. On instinct, I looked for the Avengers Tower.

And… Well, it was technically there. Just with a large ‘Stark’ sign on the side of it instead.

“Well. Unless I’m less observant than I thought, that’s not quite right.” There was more. More landmarks that I hadn’t seen before. Like a random mansion I could see in the distance on Fifth Avenue, where I was positive an office building had been.

But hey. The Empire State Building was still there. And I could see the Statue of Liberty’s green butt out in the harbor. Thank god. Having some familiar landmarks helped me feel better.

I looked around to see what else-

“... Oh.”

They stood side-by-side in the distance. Taller than everything else around them. I could see a spire coming off of one of them. I floated there, staring at them.

When I was ten years old, I’d entered my parents room to hang out with my siblings and them. The TV had suddenly switched to breaking news. And I watched the planes hit. Even as a kid, I remembered being horrified. I didn’t understand the implications. But the sight had shaken me.

But here, the Twin Towers, the World Trade Center, stood tall and proud. Large blocks of concrete and steel instead of the large crystal tower that was slated to replace them.

Yeah. I was a long way from home.

Okay. Same as last time. Find a library. Figure out how far I was from my set of folk. Then make/find a dimensional portal/time machine to get home.

Twisting in the air, I started flying. Just a bit over the buildings, enough to see the landscape. It was such a clash of the familiar and the new. Cities are living breathing things, and this version was no different. Construction was being done on buildings that I would one day defend. Others would one day be demolished. The sections of Hell’s Kitchen where I’d worked in construction were still there.

And as I passed over the streets, a more familiar sound came in from the distance. People screaming in terror.

“Ah. Of course. Never a day off.” I said in Big Chill’s spooky tones. Damnit. I cartwheeled and tapped the Omnitrix. In a flash, I shifted. Blue insectoid to orange dinosaur.

“Astrodactyl!”

Star power exploded from the back of my jetpack, rocketing me forward. Big Chill was quick, but Astrodactyl was lightning. I blazed over the city, eventually reaching the fire.

The literal fire. A building was burning. Cars were in pieces. People were screaming.

As I flew in, a little girl was crying in the street, not seeing the chunk of building about to hit her. I flew in and grabbed her, noting the Iron Man shirt she was wearing while I zipped her off the street and to the side.

“EEEEEEE-” a woman started screaming at the sight of me. I ignored her, putting the girl down and turning to face the destruction, my eyes narrowing over my beak.

“Squaaaaawk. What happened here?”

And what was with all the… sand?

The grains were all over the ground. And as I watched, the brown grains began to bounce. Then shift around. I crouched, snapping out a whip of emerald star power from one hand while the other was ready to shoot. The sand gathered together, all of it. A figure about fifteen feet tall formed in the street.

“Aw. Well squawk.”

A black and green striped sweater. Blocky head. And a body of sand.

Up above, a feathered man dropped down dressed in green with a white collar, his bald head shining in the light as he eyed me curiously. “Now what is this that you’ve found, Marko?”

“Some kinda… dinosaur?” the giant made of sand mumbled, looking confused.

“Squawk!” I raised one fist to point at them and cracked my whip. “Quick question. You guys behind all this?”

The Vulture (Come on, we all knew he was the Vulture just like we knew ‘Marko’ was Sandman) had a sudden gleam in his eyes. I bet he’d been planning to try and trick me. He was a cunning bastard.

He was foiled by Flint Marko’s honest personality. “So what if we did!?”

I shot him in the chest. He blinked. Then stared down at the new hole in his pectorals.

“Just making sure!”

And with that, we started trying to kill each other.