Meeting Maria Hill

Later, after a shower, change of clothes, and some damn good food, I stood in front of a hologram emitter in the BRIDGE base, wearing a BRIDGE shirt, military pants, and steel-toed boots, the Omnitrix glittering in its new form on my arm. Director Maria Hill was being projected in almost picture-perfect quality, with only a few glitches. I explained, in detail, as much as I could about the situation I'd gotten into, trying to stick to the facts the way Cap and Nat had taught me to deliver reports, but I think she noticed whenever I felt ready to punch something and had to calm down.

Still, I got through the whole tale soon enough. When I finished, Director Hill just eyed me for a long moment. Finally she spoke.

"First, Mahmoud. It's good to have you back," she smiled. "We were all worried. I had to have guards set on Ruby so that she wouldn't try to escape and find you, especially after she found X had done it."

That honestly surprised me. While Ruby had seemed to be more comfortable around me, she never struck me as particularly caring. I was more of a guy to grab books from at best. Then again, that might have just been a teenager being a teenager.

"Regardless, I'm glad I don't have to worry about any other Avengers or BRIDGE personnel chasing after you," Director Hill looked closer at me. "Are you really okay? I've never seen you with a scar before."

I touched my face. I'd forgotten that, during my battles, I'd ended up with several cuts. Now, the one I'd gained from when the Pterosaur-gladiator had sliced open my right cheek had 'healed' into an ugly mark. Another one went up next to my eye on the left side of my face, though it had healed as a much cleaner line. That would take getting used to.

Along with that, I had some claw marks across my abs, a stab mark in my shoulder, some in my chest. I'd had to stop before my shower to stare in shock at the mirror when I realized what I looked like. Since arriving in this universe and finally meeting the Avengers, I'd trained, fought, and eventually ended up here. Now, I was covered in new muscles I hadn't found before. I looked like… well, like a superhero. And my new scars made me look like Conan the Barbarian's bearded brother.

"I think that my scars were healing already. And when I changed into Swampfire, I just, well, finished the job," I explained to her, my fingers running over the portion of smoother than normal skin that had been left.

She quirked an eyebrow. "Hm. So you won't get anymore, as far as we know. Which means I can have it seem like you're more vulnerable than you really are."

"I'm pretty damn vulnerable," I said with a small snort.

"Not according to the rest of the world," Director Hill crossed her arms. "Dial. Mahmoud. I need to be frank with you-"

"I thought you were Maria?" I joked. She wisely ignored that.

"I was worried about your disappearance from the perspective of a friend. But I'm also the director of BRIDGE. So I had to think on what your sudden disappearance could mean on a larger scale. And I'll be honest. It wasn't good."

"Larger scale?"

"...I'm trying to figure out how to tell you this without giving you an ego big enough to rival Tony's."

That was enough to make any amusement I felt fade. She looked like she'd been dealing with a hell of a lot lately. I tried my best to joke anyways.

"Just hit me. I'm pretty sure one of the people I love will pop my ego soon enough. Especially Tony."

Maria nodded seriously. "The fact is, you've had an effect on the world. When the Avengers were formed, the world was changed. They suddenly realized that the universe was so much bigger than we thought. But we had heroes to protect us. Tony, Steve, Nat, they're not just heroes. They symbolize so much more now."

She shook her head. "And now, there's you… You and your aliens. Able to shift into one of dozens of beings. Mahmoud, you may not be as famous as the first Avengers team, but you're the most well known superhero out of the ones who followed. You came out of nowhere, and suddenly you have joined nearly every superhuman mission we've got. There's a Facebook group full of people who claim you saved them before you even showed up at the Triskelion battle."

The Director narrowed her eyes. "But that means our enemies know they have to worry about you. The Omnitrix gives you a level of unpredictability they can't account for. The only Avenger who really matches you in that respect is-"

"Iron Man," I finished.

She nodded.

I knew what she meant immediately. In terms of power, Tony and I shared a couple of things. Mostly because we both could just be as powerful as we needed to be. If we weren't strong enough, Tony could build a stronger suit, and I could become a stronger alien. If we weren't fast enough, we could become faster. Except, that Tony had yet to reach a level of tech that could match how fast the Omnitrix could let me adapt. We both were wild cards, but my deck was stacked.

"People have been trying to make counters… to me," I wasn't dumb enough that I hadn't considered the possibility, so Director Hill's nod didn't surprise me. Ben had faced the same problem. All heroes did. The second you became a hero, people wanted to find a way to match you. Either to beat you with something that could match your powers, or to be you. Hell, to list off the ones in this universe, we had Iron Monger, Abomination, Whiplash, Winter Soldier.

You could argue that was just comic book conventions. But the fact was, the second you realized your enemy had obtained power, the first thing you did was try to match them. If they used steel, you used steel. If they made guns, planes, and bombs, you did the same.

"How has that been going for them?"

"So far, about as well as most attempts to make arc reactors," Maria said dryly. "You were right. The Omnitrix is so beyond human science it might as well be magic. That doesn't mean people won't try to find other ways. The Avengers are the natural enemies of a lot of people. And a lot of them know that you can show up at the speed of sound."

"If you died, we'd have a lot of people ready and willing to help save everyone. I think we would be able to survive as long as someone doesn't literally make their own Omnitrix. But I have to admit, it'll be a lot easier to survive as long as you're around."

She didn't give me time to think about that. Instead, she waved a hand, and a rough photo appeared. "Now, Hauzer. The dragon, you said. He came from the Rio incident?"

"That's my best guess. He comes from a universe that is way different from this one. More than usual, I mean."

"Rio. That place is still a pain in my ass no matter how much we do to mitigate it…" she looked pissed. "Where is he now?"

"In the jungle, last I checked."

"Think he's smart enough to consider us allies?"

I chuckled. "I don't think he has allies. Just 'not enemies'."

"I know the type."

Thinking about the jungle reminded me of something. "By the way, where is Ka-Zar? I thought that guy would have shown up at some point."

"He was caught up in something else, apparently. While you were having your battles, Ka-Zar and Zabu ended up taking on the Saur-Lords when they tried to kidnap a small village. He took on someone named Anklyo and ended up chasing them off."

Well. Guess Ka-Zar could be forgiven.

"Going back to what you said before. About people getting ready to fight me. I think, after all this, I'm gonna take some time off to train. Not with martial arts or anything, but to get better with my powers. To master them on another level."

I'd been planning on that for a while, to be honest. To not just unlock new aliens in the Omnitrix, but to take the aliens I currently had and figure out new ways to use them. I'd done pretty well with that so far. But I never really made that my focus. Because why would I need to train in alien form? Each form was powerful in their own rights, the time limit made any training too slow to really work, I already had Ben's example to follow, some aliens just didn't have any real way to train with their powers.

But for some weird reason, almost dying ended up making me pretty eager to make the most of all the time I had.

"I can understand that. I'll make sure to give you some extra time off," Maria smiled. "On the plus side, now I don't have to worry about Jen beating me with my own arms because I lost you."

She cut out before I could reply. I smirked for a second. Then I scowled.

So. People were trying to figure out a way to take me down. To kill me. Granted, they had been from the start, obviously, but now I had guys making their own gear to try and counter the Omnitrix.

I had to plan for that. Not just for things that were possible, but the things that were impossible as well.

Training. Lots of training. And weapons creation. I'd need to prepare for everything and anything.

Stend, the Savage Land, and all I'd faced showed me I could be a hero, Omnitrix or not. I was willing to prove that to every other asshole who showed up next.