Ready to Attack II

"...Besides, you can always talk to us," I told Pietro. "Or X and Jarvis."

Pietro blinked, having apparently not remembered that.

"Who are they? More speedsters?" La Vent asked.

"No, AI. They think at light speed, so they can talk to speedsters normally."

La Vent looked like Christmas had come early.

I spoke to La Vent and Pietro in those moments between heartbeats for a bit before another contingent of newcomers drew my attention. As I walked away from La Vent, I saw a man in a trenchcoat pass by. A man with a head of ever billowing violet smoke pouring from under a brown fedora. I blinked at him.

"...I am a ghost. Detective Fantôme," the man said in a French accent to the question I hadn't yet asked.

"Ah. Well, I'm a part-time alien, Dial," I said with a wave.

"Yes, so I deduced," he said with a smirk. He sounded familiar. Oh! He sounded like the guy from Leon: The Professional! Dope. "Thank you, by the way. La Vent is a good man. He does not deserve his fate."

"No problem," I looked behind me, where La Vent was smiling happily and joking with Pietro. "...Who was the sorcerer that did that to him?"

"A mystery," the ghost said. "...When I solve it. I believe a man will die. But that is the business of the dead, in the end."

"Dial!" I turned to see Fantasma run up to me. When I looked back, the ghost was gone. Oh damn. I'd been ninja'd by a ghost. Ghosted, as it were. I turned back to Fantasma, who was smiling. "The Winter Guard are here! Are you coming?"

"Sure thing," I followed Fantasma, the witch looking pleased as punch. "Been a while, huh?"

"Yes," she said happily, giving me a small smile. "I've missed them… well, most of them."

"Fantasma, Dial," Steve said, walking over to join us, Frank Castle behind him. "You going to meet the Russians?"

"Yeah, you coming?" I asked.

Steve nodded. "I'm trying to meet everyone as they show up. I want to make sure we're all on the same page," he said with an earnest look on his face.

"And I'm making sure no one shoots him," Frank said with a glower.

"Wha- No Russian would shoot Captain America!" Fantasma said angrily.

Frank gave her a look. "...Well, they'd fail if they tried."

"Hm," Fantasma glared at him. "You aren't a pleasant man, Mr. Castle."

"Yeah, I'm a real bastard," he said without a care in the world.

Steve didn't speak. He just looked between them. After a moment, Castle sighed and nodded. "Sorry. Just watching his back. Had a bad fight with a Russian once."

"Hmm…" Fantasma glared at Castle, though she seemed slightly mollified.

We stopped before a set of elevator doors. And a big Russian stepped out, arms out. "Fantasma!"

"Mikhail!" she brightened in an instant, stepping forward and hugging her father figure tightly.

As Mikhail and Fantasma hugged, the others stepped out. I switched from Fasttrack to human form to give Laynia a grin. "Hey. Been a bit!"

"Yes, it has!" she said in her Twilight Sparkle-esque voice, looking glad to see me. "How is your puppy?"

"Fluffy as ever. Named her Nezuko. You?"

"He is now named Boris," she said with a grin. "The other Boris liked it."

As I mulled over the thought of the overweight handler of the Winter Guard eyeing a puppy that shared his name, Galina looked around, pushing forward a big cart full of materials. "Where are the technicians set up?"

"Over here, Galina!" A random tech guy ran over to us. "Hello, uh, Captain, Dial… big. Shadow. Monster?"

Chernobog stepped out of the Elevator, a wide smile. "Don't worry. You're not the meal I'm looking for."

The random guy didn't seem relieved to hear that.

"Just go," Galina rolled her eyes, pushing the man forward. "He ate something strange and now he's gotten all odd."

"He's always been odd," I grumbled, Laynia giggling while Fantasma chuckled.

Then, Vanguard stepped forward, standing before Steve. For a moment, the American super-soldier looked his Russian equivalent up and down. The blue garbed hero and red clad soldier faced each other.

"I like your suit," Steve said with a smile.

I don't think anything could have surprised Nikolai more. "You… do?"

"Yes. The red is really good, makes you seem aggressive. I didn't get to choose my suit," Steve sighed. "The acting company I worked with designed it. Still, it's grown on me. I like the fin on your head too."

He stared at Steve oddly, while Laynia grinned at her older brother.

Then, the sounds of alarms rang throughout the ship.

"All hands. Get to your stations. We're within sight of the dropzone."

"Hm," Mikhail mumbled. "Looks like we came just in time."

"What about the Black Panther?" I asked Steve, ignoring the questioning looks I got from all but Mikhail who seemed to recognize the name. The Wakandan team had the best weapons among us after all.

"He'll be in the second stage," Steve said. The joviality was gone. "Come on. We're all part of the ground forces."

Laynia bit her lip. I patted her back. "Don't worry. The hardest part is the one-liners."

She looked confused. "What?"

"He's right," Fantasma said with a fake stern look. "The one-liner. Very traditional."

"Is this the American need for snark, talking?" Mikhail sighed sadly. "Ah, their culture has infected you so!"

"Come on," Steve said, smirking. "Let's get ready for a fight."

Soon, I was standing on the front of the Enterprise's tarmac, looking out as we passed over the mountains. On either side of me stood Jen and Fantasma, Creel next to Fantasma, Sam next to Jen, and so on. Steve and the rest of the main six Avengers sans Natasha stood in the center of the line of heroes and soldiers.

Beside the Enterprise, two more helicarriers flew. One was the Behemoth, a former Insight Helicarrier that had been turned into a giant ass fortress of sorts. Granted, all the helicarriers were fortresses, but the Behemoth really looked like it, being a large blue-black tank the size of two helicarriers stacked atop each other. It was made to transport supplies, troops, vehicles, and medical personnel after all. It had weapons, but not on the level of the Enterprise.

The other was a regular old school helicarrier, with the turbines rather than any sort of repulsors. Kinda boring really, but the last Insight Helicarrier had been torn apart to build the Behemoth to completion at the last minute. Which, I guess, made it two of the Insight helicarriers at once.

The three flying ships flew gently down towards the valley. The chill around us filled my lungs. I took in a deep breath as we passed the snowy mountain tops.

"You ready?" Creel asked me over Fantasma's head.

"Hell yeah," I looked down at his boots. He was now wearing a pair of heavy metal boots, with large ports on the back. "Think you've got a handle on those?"

Creel smirked. "I guess we'll find out."

"There they are," Steve said, his voice carrying over the wind. We all looked. The valley below was covered in frosted forest, fields of stone covered in ice and snow.

In that icy valley, they waited. Chitauri armored soldiers floating up from the landscape, Quinjet's alongside them. Tanks rolled along the battlefield next to men in armor and hulking green men and women dotting the landscape at random. A few tanks looked massive, the size of buildings, and Steve and Bucky seemed to recognize them.

"Uber Tanks," Steve mumbled, while Bucky nodded.

Looking down, the army of soldiers began to rise towards us, taking shots. The Enterprise pointed her guns and returned fire, the sound of gunshots and lasers filling the air.

"Avengers! ASSEMBLE!" Steve roared. Quinjets screamed over our heads as we all began to jump into the forests below, protected by an onslaught of bullets and various superpowers.

I gave Jen a grin, the gammazon giving a devil-may-care smile. "I love you."

She blinked, then smiled. "Love you too."

With that, we jumped off the Enterprise together.

We headed down towards the forest as one. I could barely comprehend what was happening around me. Sam shot ahead of us, firing his twin machine guns, Rhodey close behind. Hulk smashed into the ground with a sound like thunder, while Thor smacked aside a Chitauri armored soldier withactualthunder.

More and more light and sound all around me. I reached for the Omnitrix, changing forms in an instant.

"Astrodactyl!"

Once again, I was an orange space Pterodactyl with green energy coming from my back and arms. My jetpack roared. I flew alongside Tony for a moment, the Scarlet Avenger giving me a look, likely grinning under his suit. "Hey kid! Bet I take out more!"

"You're a bad gambler, Tony, squawk!" I gave him a grin back, then we joined Sam and Rhodey in the hail of Quinjets and flying men fighting in the sky. Then I couldn't focus on anything but what I was doing in the chaos of war.

I whipped an arm out with a long line of green energy from my right arm, and spun the whip at high speed so it became a circle of green light, smacking a Chitauri soldier aside, then shooting him my left arm. The bursts of star energy sent him crashing to the ground, but I was forced to focus on a Quinjet spinning towards me. I rocketed towards it, tapping the Omnitrix on my chest just before impact.

"Diamondhead!"

In that blue-green form, I smashed into the quinjet like a meteor, slicing through the glass at sonic speeds, then coming out the other side. I tapped the Omnitrix again.

"Big Chill!"

As the Quinjet I'd shot through began to fall, I blew a wide blast of ice outward, freezing four men to ice before Rhodey shot them apart.

Still more. More chaos, all around us.

This was really going to be the fight of our lives.

I gritted my teeth, lifted up fists surrounded in icy mist, and went into the fray, Tony shooting a man in the chest as I passed.

Azmuth/Don't lie, you know who he is

In another universe, Azmuth watched on a viewscreen as a Necrofriggian with an Omnitrix symbol on his chest froze a man to the bone before kicking him apart. His brow was furrowed with sadness and worry. Again. Always, despite his best intentions. He was likely doomed to this. Doomed to his inventions used for war. And he couldn't even argue it wasn't for a good reason.

"Hey, Azmuth," a friendly sounding voice said. Azmuth's least favorite kind. Friendly meant casual, and casual meant no work getting done.

"Hello, Ben," Azmuth shut off the screen and looked over at Ben.

The tall man had gained a lot of muscle and height. While he still held the edge of youth, it was fading faster and faster.

"You called?"

"I did?" when Ben gave him a look of confusion, Azmuth remembered. "Oh, yes. The war."

"War," Ben said, frowning. "Is this about that invasion? From outside the galaxy?"

"Yes. They attacked with an army that was a mix of different species I've yet to encounter. They tried to infiltrate Sightra, the planet of the Opticoids-"

"Opticoids, like Eye Guy?" Ben asked.

Azmuth sighed, rubbing his eyes with old irritation. "Yes. Like 'Eye Guy'. The Opticoids are currently fighting them off, despite attempts from the invaders to infiltrate them. But they need help. This attacking force isn't too strong physically, and their technology is honestly amateurish compared to the natural abilities of an Opticoid, but their leaders... They have revealed themselves to be heartless monsters. As bad as Vilgax, in morality at least."

"Damn, for real?" Ben crossed his arms and pointed a thumb at himself. "Sounds like a job for a hero to take on!"

"It may be," Azmuth admitted. He raised a screen, displaying a screen in front of Ben. "Look at these people. Strong powers, great intellect. But their arrogance will see them all extinct the moment they poke the wrong damn species."

"Well. Guess I better make sure I help that species out, huh?" Ben said with a cheery confidence.

"Hmf," Azmuth sighed. War. All his tools, always used for war.

At least it was for the right reasons.