“See, you’re no challenge at all…” Kara floated above the ground, the Red-Skull’s neck in her grasp. A sigh pressed past her lips as she hurled the restrained man through the closest wall. “So, this is the space cube that Master Dan-EL wanted… it’s kind of like the All-Spark, but more unstable.”
Kara’s eyes flicked from the cube, to a fitted case beside its socket. This object was the top priority in their mission report, with Red-Face being less than a footnote. Her hand reached out, an inch from the blue glow when Cal’s voice cried out from behind.
“What are you doing!” He sped next to Kara and shooed her hands away, before he picked up a pair of tongs. “We’re not supposed to touch it with our bare hands, remember?”
Kara rolled her eyes and took a glance through the walls. The prisoners had gathered in the large vehicle depot with Bear to guard them, left without a battle to fight as they chipped a layer of ice from the various jeeps and hauled away frozen corpses. Her breath attack had put an end to the German resistance, with only the few guards within the base left to draw breath.
“Unhand the cube, child, its power belongs to Hydra!” The Red-Skull pulled himself back through the fragmented wall, his flesh ripped and torn. Madness filled his eyes, reason lost as he struggled to his feet. “I’ll say it again, the two of you are gods amongst men, join us and be treated as such!”
“Sleep…” Cal waved his hand and a rune appeared between the Red-Skull’s eyes. It flashed and the Hydra leader slumped to the ground. “Let’s wrap this up, Master Dan-El is waiting.”
“I had that,” Kara puffed up her cheeks as she slung the unconscious Red-Face onto her back. The man’s size was awkward, but his weight ment little. “Do we have to escort Mr. America back to his camp?”
“Cal can go with Steve and his men… the two of us will return to base with the cube and Shmidt, Bear can come to keep watch on the place,” Dan-EL drifted through the hole in the ceiling and took hold of the energy cube with his biofield. He looked to Cal, who bowed his head. “I want you to meet with Howard Stark and make friends with him and the rest of the Strategic Scientific Reserve… give Stark this data chip and communicator, he’ll contact us just to get his hands on more advanced technology.”
“What about us?” Kara floated forward, half lost under the grown man on her shoulder. “Can we visit a more interesting location once we’ve settled in the prisoner?”
Dan-EL shook his head as his biofield packed up the cube in its carrier. He plucked the Red-Skull from her grasp and moved toward the broken ceiling.
“Come on, you’ll see once we get there…”
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“Where are we going?” Kara frowned as she followed Dan across the Atlantic ocean. They had left the Red-Skull in a cell, while the fortress analysed and contained the cube. “I thought we’d be going off world, I want to visit a planet with some of the powerhouse you mentioned.”
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Dan shook his head and sighed. Kara’s view on humans was skewed, with only a bit of respect for the Mandalorians back home. The rest were seen as weaklings, not worthy of her attention. This trip was a planned learning experience for the ambitious young girl.
“We’re going to pay a visit to one of the most powerful humans alive in this time period. You might even get to fight him, if he’s in a bad mood,” Dan scanned the depths below, focused on the glimmer of civilization under the waves. “Namor isn’t much of a diplomat, even if he is a King.”
Dan dived below the surface before Kara could ask more questions, course set for the underwater city of Atlantis. He’d spotted this place on his way to pick up the cube, as well as Namor himself. This wasn’t the man from the movie, with an appearance more closely tied to the comics.
Namor’s strength would be a good way to judge the overall power of this universe. His peak was well below Dan’s current power, but both his iterations could bully around Kara without much effort. If his power was closer to the comic level, Dan would need to be very careful with his future actions.
As they approached the luminous city, a man with spiked pauldrons and skin tight green pants emerged to block their way. He frowned and motioned to the surface, before he turned his back and carved a path upward. Dan shrugged and motioned for Kara as he followed the Atlantian’s wake.
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“Goku, wait!” Anissa shook off the effects of phantom travel and blitzed after the young Saiyan. “Knowing Thragg, this is a trap… we can’t…”
“You are correct, traitor,” A deep grumble sounded from behind them, where Thragg floated in the limits of the atmosphere. He held a bloodied, half-conscious Allen in one hand, and a mangled Thaedus in the other. “It’s too late now, the bait has caught an extra fish and saved me the trouble of hunting you down.”
Blood soared through Goku’s veins as he stared at his wounded friends. Thaedus’ heartbeat was almost silent, even for his keen ears. They needed a healing pod, and the Viltrumite Emperor had to pay!
“Anissa, get Allen and Thaedus out of here, as soon as you can,” Goku’s face lost its normal levity, rounded features replaced by sharp lines. He reached for a part of himself that he seldom used, except in battles with Dan and Etrigan. “Lady May should be here soon, so you don’t have to worry about me…”
A ripple of light travelled under his skin as he channelled his ki down a little used pathway. It flowed faster and faster, until blue-white flames erupted from his pores. His biofield had awoken less than a year ago, but he seldom had reason to put it to any real use. His focus shifted from his broken friends, to the man that held them.
“I’ll make you pay for what you’ve done,” Goku’s eyes burned white, edged with flecks of blue. The symbiote under his skin sent out its own yellow ki, a rush that turned his aura forest green filled with pure white stars. “Now put them down and let’s fight!”
“You really left our Empire for this child?” Thagg ignored Goku, his eyes on Anissa. “He’s a mindless fool, his power is wasted on him.”
A flick of his arm and Allen spun in the air, halted by a vicious elbow. The air rippled under Thragg’s blow, a mighty crack that caved in the big alien’s spine. Thaedus was dropped, only to face a knee that collapsed his ribs. His twisted form slammed to the earth beside Allen’s, silent and unmoving.
“Allen!!!” Red edged his vision and Goku blitzed forward, fists raised as he speared toward Thragg’s emotionless face. The Viltrumite weaved back and forth as the Saiyan attacked, always just ahead of his blows. “Hurry up Anissa, get them out of here!”
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Goku’s words snapped Anissa into action, a blurr that snatched up the half-dead warriors. She glanced at the monkey tailed boy, who continued his full steam attack against the leader of her race. The weeks with him had been the best of her long, painful life, a balm for her wounded soul.
“I’ll be back soon, with reinforce…”
Air left her lungs, vision doubled as Thragg appeared an inch from her face. Grim disappointment, that was the look he gave her. Goku’s voice echoed in her ears, unintelligible against the high pitched tone that hammered at her mind.
“You had such potential,” Thragg ripped his hand from her chest and tossed aside her heart. “Unfortunately, this war has taught me that no traitors can be left alive.”
“ANISSA!!!” Goku’s cry whispered at the edge of reality, her body empty as she slid toward the earth. Darkness closed at the edges of her vision, colour lost from the world. “I’LL KILL YOU!!!”
A flash of yellow-green light filtered into her eyes, before the shadows swept her away.