(General P.O.V)

Someone had arrived from the future.

The stark satellite Ultron had hijacked had features that not only scanned for spatial fluctuations but after a little altering, could scan for Temporal fluctuations as well.

The development wasn't unexpected. Ultron had anticipated someone to follow after him. His culling of the human race wouldn't go unnoticed after all.

Through the satellite's feed around the globe, the A.I managed to find out who the arrival was.

Had Ultron been capable of feeling fear like a biological life form, he would have definitely been terrified.

The arrival had short blond hair and a light beard. The blue body suit he wore had a four emblazoned on his chest.

Ultron instantly recognized him. He had expected someone- anyone, but not him.

He was problematic.

The A.I begun another subroutine. How to handle this?

The answer came in a second. He could use the countermeasure in place to deal with the Avengers once they returned, on Franklin.

With a few more upgrades, it would be ready to face even him.

Even Franklin Richards.

*******

Franklin figured out something was wrong the second he emerged out of the portal.

For starters, the portal was supposed to bring him to the exact location the teleporter signal originated from.

However, he had decided to break out mid-way through the transition process, once he couldn't sense 99% of all life on Earth.

"What happened here?"

He asked, staring down at a devastated New York.

There was smog everywhere. Blackened snow fell from the sky, casting the entire destroyed city in a thick layer of dark ice.

Franklin disappeared, teleporting above the planet.

"A nuclear war?"

The son of Reed Richards mused to himself, a frown on his face, as he got a full look of the entire globe.

There were no lights or noise.

It was too quiet.

The earth looked dead.

Then that meant...

He teleported away again, this time appearing above his home. A place he'd seen destroyed and rebuilt more times than he could count.

The Baxter building had seen it all. His family had seen it all. But now...

The entire block seemed to have disappeared. The Baxter building was nowhere to be seen.

(Elsewhere)

Rumbles sounded out as something heavy impacted against something tough.

The Thing's and Annihilus' fight tore off chunks of the ground due to the intensity.

They were fighting in the Negative Zone, the Fantastic Four having been pulled through by the Lord of the Negative Zone in a bid to exact revenge on them.

Despite that, the battle seemed evenly matched. Everyone avoided the zone around them. Mere shockwaves from the clash of the Thing's fist against the Cosmic Rod had liquified some of Annihilus' swarm.

After that, the rest learned pretty quickly to stay away.

Another impact rang out, almost louder than the buzzing of the Swarm's wing.

Hundreds of feet away, the swarm of bug like creatures flew towards a lone hill that jutted off the mostly flat ground in high speed.

A distance away from the hill, they were felled and roasted by a shower of orange flames launched by a figure wrapped in fire.

The figure darted through the sky with a certain experience and speed, maintaining a circle of flames around the lone hill that upon closer look, was actually the massive skull of a creature.

At the top of the skull stood Reed Richards. By his side was Susan Storm who was maintaining a defense barrier around the Skull.

"I don't think we can keep this up for long Reed."

Sue told her boyfriend who was fiddling a mechanical device.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Just a few more minutes. Once I can link this device to something on the outside then we can leave the Negative Zone."

Reed answered.

(Elsewhere)

Franklin was about to use his reality warping abilities to fix everything when the sky above lit up with multiple descending lights.

The lights turned out to be hundreds of towering robots.

Franklin's face twisted into a confused frown.

"More sentinels...are they responsible for all this?"

He wondered out loud.

(Billy's P.O.V)

Never had I imagined I would ever get to Hell or fight a Hell Lord for the possession of my soul.

Never had I also felt waaaay out of depth before. Mephisto was a monster. And I wasn't talking about the fact he's a dragon.

Very quickly, I understood how outmatched I was. I couldn't sense him yet the pressure he produced was suffocating.

It felt like someone was holding a sharp knife to my neck, about to slice through.

The darkness seemed to shift around me, a gigantic frame slithering across the floor. It's body bumped onto the sides of the wall, producing a distinctly unpleasant sound.

"You...little thief. Who are you?"

A voice cut through the silence, hot air rushing outward as it snorted.

My ears and eyes remained peeled, hoping to pin point his exact location.

"I know enough to understand giving a demon, a Hell Lord at that, my name is a stupid idea."

I responded, the ice cleaver held between my hands as I gingerly surveyed the surroundings.

"But if you insist, you can simply call me, your worst nightmare."

"Hahaha. A little thief with cheek."

Mephisto laughed, his voice echoing out from the left.

"No matter. I'll find out your true identity after I devour your soul."

There!

I spun towards that direction, swinging the Ice Cleaver and releasing an ice blizzard from its sharp edge.

The cold air left a trail of glowing ice on the floor, lighting up the zone enough that I spotted a shadow above me.

Something fast whipped out from the opposite direction. A black tail with hardened spikes. I turned around too late.

The tail smacked onto my ice unit's right side, the force of the blow slamming me away.

I bounced on the ground before digging through the walls of the sink hole with my back.

The chain linking Mephisto with the pedestal clinked. I widened my eyes, using my control over the ice to shift my form into water and flow out of the hole before reconstituting back into the Ice Unit.

A split second later, the jaws of a black Dragon bit into the hole I'd carved onto the wall with my body. This close and the difference in sheer size surprised me yet again.

One of his sharp teeth was the size of my entire forearm. His head was bigger than a small car and his neck was snake like- long and thick. Around it was an illusory gray chain, that blended with the color of his scales.

A red and yellow eye swept across the area looking for me, before I was finally spotted hanging off the wall with one hand stabbed a few inches in.

Mephisto hacked, trying to dislodge his teeth out of the hole when I saw my chance.

Herculean Strength poured into the Ice Unit's leg, allowing me to pounce forward with the Ice Cleaver chopping down at his extended neck.

The blade bit into the thick flesh of his neck, only for his entire body to change forms into smoke once more.

The chain disappeared along with his body, both blending into the darkness of the pit.

Knowing that staying in one place was the wrong strategy, I pushed off my feet once more, jumping off the wall. A breath of dragon flame struck the wall in my previous position, melting the rock side into red magma.

I sighed in relief, body arched in mid-air. That was close.

Good thing I flipped away before the attack melted the ice unit into nothing.

I didn't get time to celebrate my foresight as something grabbed me from the air

"And now you're mine!"

Mephisto yelled in glee, his sharp claws tightening across the Ice Unit.

The ice begun groaning, chips falling off as cracks appeared. If he exerted more strength, then the ice unit was going to shatter.

I couldn't let that happen.

Ice spikes with Hercule's destructive power jutted out across my frame like a hedgehog, stabbing into the inner flesh of his claws.

The dragon roared in pain, letting go of my body.

I plummeted towards the ground at neck break speeds.

'Gotta do something. Now!

Transfiguring the ice into water then reforming it into my ice unit just as I hit the floor, became the plan.

Unexpectedly, small shards of the ice unit broke off, turning into snow that spread out like a blanket below me, swirling in a fluffy cloud to catch me.

The Ice Unit had done that all on it's own.

Something told me there was more to this than met the eye.

I knew my own abilities and although I was getting good at Hydro-kinesis, this kind of control was not something I had before.

(A few Hundred feet above Billy)

(General P.O.V)

The chunk of Ice holding the soul pedestal, and wedged deep into the wall, pulsed out with a concoction of bright colors.

The light spread out before it reformed into two figures.

Two emanations floating in mid-air while observing the battle happening below.

"Will you stop enhancing his magic skills?! He's a man! He's supposed to fight with the power of his fists!! Yeeeaahhhh!!!"

Hercules yelled, pumping his fist in the air.

His colleague slapped the back of his head.

"Think, you muscle-bound idiot, if I withdraw my blessing, he will die."

Solomon sighed, slight concern marring his features.

"As it is, the ice manipulation skills I am pouring into his mind is the only thing keeping him alive."

"Then what are we still waiting for? Let's save the brat so I can start his training already."

Hercules said, smacking his fist into his palm.

"Not now, we are useless here. The others have yet to wake up after all. Our emanations are not powerful enough to make a difference. At least not without some...primordial intervention."

Solomon stated.

Hercules blinked.

"Oh, now I see what you're planning."

A savage smirk appeared on his face.

"I can't wait to punch that fucking Dragon on it's ugly face. Hahahahah!"

Even Solomon smiled.

"Yes. I think it will be quite cathartic indeed. In the meantime, I'll give our young champion some motivation."

Solomon's eyes glowed golden, immense power pulsing around his emanation. This wasn't magical energy. It was something else. An authority over an aspect of Billy's Shazam abilities.

The one thing distinguishing Billy from other Champions.

Billy had a...Divine Soul. And that meant, more than any other Champion, he could take in more than the God's legacy into himself.

He could even take on their mysteries.

It was why Posei-ptune's Trident had chose him.

It was why there was a spell matrix at the core of his consciousness created from Solomon's Mystery.

The bundle of spell called...The Shazam System.

"There."

Solomon said.

"That should give him enough incentive to keep fighting."

(Billy's P.O.V)

My landing was smooth.

I touched down and immediately all the snow around was sucked into the Ice Unit, fixing all the cracks and damage sustained from Mephisto's claws.

'Nice'

I thought to myself as I flexed my hands.

My control over the ice was getting better.

Maybe I did have a chance after all. And as if to second that thought, another surprise occured.

A blue box with electric energy buzzing around it's edges manifested in my vision.

~~~~~~~

(New Mission.)

(Stall for time until help arrives.)

(Reward: Removal of one Weakness from yourself.)

~~~~~~~

A mission. And one with such an interesting reward.

So, the system wants me to stall for time until help arrives, huh?

Fuck that, I'm slaying me a dragon.