//------------------------------// // First Contact // Story: The War of Champions // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// In the center of a barren wasteland a sphere of silver appeared, opening a rift between worlds that allowed the six champions to enter the land. Each of them stepped out one at a time and took in the area around them, some with confusion and others with interest. One of them, though, had to collapse to all fours and empty the contents of his lunch, which gained a look of amusement from Trixie. "Are you...allergic to magic?" she asked Ryan as he staggered back to his feet with a groan, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "I must admit that that is the first time I have heard of that kind of allergy." "Don't be ridiculous, I'm just throwing up at the thought of being back in Equestria again," Ryan wheezed out before he took in the barren wasteland in which they were all standing. "If this place can even be called Equestria. I've been to some weird versions of it, but never one that was so...devoid of anything." "This cannot be right," Batmare muttered while she pulled a gadget out of her utility belt and held it into the air, her eyes narrowing as the device confirmed her suspicions. "According to the map in my head and the map on my device, we should currently be standing in the middle of the Everfree Forest." "But that cannot be right," Trixie said as she walked up beside Batmare and looked at the map. Her eyes widened when she saw the proof for herself. "But there is no trace of the wildlife or the forest itself! How could the ponies of this world have gotten rid of it? Pony magic does not affect the forest the same way it does the other vegetation of Equestria." Hulk knelt down and placed his hand on the ground, a frown on his face as he searched for any anomalies. "They didn't use any form of radiation, I can tell you that much," he said as he stood back up. "All I feel is dirt." "Then, you're not feeling what I'm feeling," Marvel muttered as he closed his eyes, yet even with them closed he could sense what felt like all four kinds of pony magic burned into the ground, along with hints of a certain divine lightning that he knew all too well. "It's...strange, but I feel all four types of the ponies' magic, including the alicorns, here. And I also feel his magic. The magic of Black Adam. He's responsible for this." "Isn't that just like the mare? Drop us off in God-knows-where and not tell us anything. Let's figure out what happened to this place later. We're supposed to meet with Luna, so maybe she can tell us just what the hell happened here?" Ryan suggested with a shrug before turning left and right. "Welp, I tried. Any of you magic users want to conjure up some magic hocus-pocus and figure out where to go?" Both Trixie and Captain Marvel began to conjure up their magic, but then the Big Daddy let out a low roar that gained their undivided attention. When the group turned to look at him, he pointed up in the sky to a beam of light that coursed over their heads and off into the distance. "Anyone have any idea what that is?" Hulk asked the group. Marvel shot up into the sky and came to a stop next to the beam, placing his hand upon the constant beam of magic. The moment he did so the beam wavered, but he also felt something happen to his magic and he fell to the earth below. Twin massive green arms caught the falling Captain before he could hit the ground, allowing him a moment to regain his thoughts. "Ugh, it's definitely magic, whatever it is, but when I tried to touch it my powers got...disrupted," Marvel groaned as he floated back up when his power of flight returned to him. "It has to have been cast by Black Adam. He's the only one here with enough knowledge of our powers to be able to create something that would mess with them. I'll hit him twice as hard when I find him." "Did you see where the magic was coming from or going to?" Batmare asked him. Captain Marvel narrowed his eyes at her, more in confusion than any other emotion, like he was trying to figure something out. "If we know where it's going or where it came from, we might be able to deduce why it can mess with such...power." Marvel nodded before taking to the skies again, looking in both directions. And while he couldn't see where the magic was coming from, he definitely saw where it was going. "That can't be right," he began when he had floated back down to the group. "It looks like it's creating a shield around Canterlot, but Canterlot is on the ground at the base of the mountain instead of upon it. And I saw five other beams like it coming from multiple directions." Batmare and Trixie shared a quick look, like the two of them were trying to figure out something. Ryan, on the other hand, was looking the other direction with hands in his pockets and an annoyed look on his face. "When you guys are done trying to figure out your problem over there, come join me and I'll give you a new problem to work on." The tone of his voice got their attention and they followed his gaze to find three giant ships flying through the air towards them, quickly casting them all in shadow as the three ships began to circle them. "Gunships? In Equestria?" the Hulk asked in confusion while the three massive ships hovered to a stop over the three, spotlights switching on and all converging on the group. "How nice, a welcome party. Ten to one they shoot at us," Ryan snarled while he reached back and grabbed his baton out of his backpack and switched it on, flipping up his hood as the electricity crackled with power. "Relax there little man, maybe they see us as threats and are being cautious," Hulk reasoned as the sides of the ship began to open up. "If we explain what we're doing here, perhaps we can get out of this without the need to resort to force." "One: the silver mare said that Celestia's gone bat-shit crazy; that all of the ponies are crazy and that everything here will try to kill us," Ryan reminded him while armored ponies began to leap down from the ships towards them. "Second: why aren't you all Hulk smash and throwing yourself at the ships already?" "That's a part of my life I'd rather not recall." The conversation ended as the ponies slammed into the ground all around the six members of the group, none of whom knew what to think when they saw the kind of armor the ponies were wearing. It was a strange suit with a helmet that completely covered their heads, with three slits over the eyes that had a blue light shine through. On their backs were odd cylindrical weapons as well as a blue bar that went up their spines, giving them a very intimidating presence. "Halt! By order of the Queen you are to stand down and come with us!" one of them yelled while the group assessed the situation, finding themselves vastly outnumbered by the squadron of ponies. All of the cylinders on the backs of the guards unfolded to reveal a strange firearm, all of which pointed four sets of lasers at the group, covering them in blue lines. "Come quietly or there will be trouble." "Okay, I'd think this was seriously cool if they weren't pointing all of those things at us," Captain Marvel said as a number of the sights lined up on him, but then the guards let out a gasp and nearly all of the lasers switched over to him. "It can't be." "He looks almost identical." "Seriously. He's got the lightning bolt and everything." "Wait a moment, does that mean he's just as powerful?" "Shut it, you guys. Let's just focus on the mission at hoof. Alright you six, are you going to come quietly or are we going to have to resort to force?!" The Hulk let out a sigh as he seemed to get bigger, opening his eyes to show that they were far greener than they had been before. Marvel cracked his knuckles with a smile as the Big Daddy revved up his drill. Yet, only Ryan wore a look of concern, because his gaze had never left the armor that the ponies wore. "Alright, if that's the way you want it. Guards..." "Wait a minute, that looks like..." he began before his eyes went wide. "FIRE!" Ryan spun on a dime and tackled Trixie to the ground as thousands of blue rounds began to tear through the air. Hulk roared as the rounds slammed into his skin and fell harmlessly to the ground while Marvel was already gone, so none of the rounds even touched him, but Batmare and Mr. Bubbles were overwhelmed by the onslaught of firepower. Their armor kept any of the rounds from killing them, but with the speed and force of impact they found themselves being pretty much bludgeoned to death. "Trixie, get a shield up around the four of us!" Ryan yelled at Trixie as he kept her pinned to the ground, roaring in pain every time a stray shot caught him. Trixie nodded and with a flash of her horn created a majestic barrier of azure light that surrounded the four that were closest to her, shielding them from the hundreds of rounds that still flew through the air. "What in the hell were those?" Batmare groaned weakly as she struggled to shake off the pain, looking at her armor to find it dented and battered heavily. Mr. Bubbles roared with rage as he drove himself into the side of the shield with his eyes all glowing red, but for as strong as he was, he was unable to punch through the shield. "Batmare, he likes you so go tell him to calm down," Ryan said as he rose to his feet and offered Trixie a hand to help her up as well, looking out through the barrier to see the barrage continue. "Even with his armor, there's still enough firepower out there to bring him down. For you and me Trixie, if even one of those things were to hit us we wouldn't be getting up for a while. We need to stay in here and let the big guns handle this." Batmare slowly nodded and walked over to Mr. Bubbles, managing to get his eyes to change from red to yellow. "You sure know an awful lot about those guns," Trixie observed as Ryan knelt down behind a rock and continued to observe the fight going on outside. "Played through 'Two a number of times; found the pulse rifle really helped on the higher difficulties," Ryan responded to the utter bafflement of Trixie as he growled. "Dammit mare, you seemed to have left out another important detail. I don't know why I put up with you." Outside of the barrier, things were not going as well for the Hulk as he wanted. He lumbered up to a group of the guards who continued to hold down the triggers as he approached, yet he never registered the thousands of blue rounds that bounced off his skin painlessly. He raised both of his arms over his head in front of a large group of ponies and prepared to smash the ground beneath their hooves. 'Not too hard, Hulk, we don't know the full extent of their armor or how well it will protect them.' "Got it," Hulk replied as he brought his arms down and smashed them into the ground, causing the ground beneath him to crack and splinter with ease. Hulk looked up with a smile only to find that all of the ponies that had been right in front of him were now outside of the range of his attack. "What the...? How did they get over there so fast? Let's find out!" With a roar that shook the land, Hulk flung himself towards the armored ponies with both arms over his head, smirking as one of them threw a small wave of energy at him in a futile attempt to stop him. But to Hulk's shock, the ponies vanished with speeds of which he wasn't sure he could keep up, so the moment he slammed into the ground and created another shockwave they were already out of his range, peppering him with more fire from across the battlefield. "What's going on? Do they have super-speed built into their suits or something?" 'See if they can use it whenever they want. Try a thunderclap.' Hulk nodded before slamming his hands together, sending out a massive shockwave that shattered the ground on which he was standing. The ponies let out screams while the shockwave slammed into them and hurled them over their allies, Hulk narrowing his eyes at the sight. "That doesn't make sense. How can they be fast enough to avoid me, but not a shockwave like that?" Hulk asked as most of the guard began to focus fire on him, along with throwing more of the small waves of energy. Hulk roared and charged towards them, knowing that the blue energy didn't hurt him, but when it connected the ponies vanished from his sight again and from where the bullets were hitting him they had gotten behind him. 'It's those energy waves Hulk. Those are what's making them so fast.' "Alright, but how?" Hulk asked as the ponies stopped peppering him with rounds and started using more explosive attacks that did just as little damage. "How does that work?" 'Working on it, but keep trying to get to them. I'll figure it out.' With four of the team trapped behind a barrier; with at least fifty of the ponies firing upon them and Hulk trying to work out why he couldn't touch the ponies, only Captain Marvel was faring well in his battle with the gunships that hovered over the battlefield. Thousands of the blue rounds unloaded at him, but mere bullets could not keep up with the speed of Mercury. Marvel easily dodged the shots, laughing aloud as he slammed himself into one of the gunships, flying through it and tearing it to pieces before he erupted out the other side of it. "As cool as those ships look, they're nowhere near as tough as some of the machines that I've had to go up against!" Marvel said with a smile as the ship began to smoke and crash down towards the battlefield. Marvel was able to see the pilots in the cockpit screaming out in fear. "Hang on guys!" Marvel called out as he zipped underneath of the ship, catching it on his shoulders while pushing up. He hardly needed a fraction of the strength of Hercules to catch the ship, but he was still very careful as he lowered the smoking ship to the ground far away from the battling forces. "Alright, time to take out the other two," he said once the ponies inside the ship were safe, throwing himself back into the sky toward the other two. Both of the ships opened fire on him, but a smile crossed Marvel's face as he dodged the bullets with ease. But with his focus on the bullets, he wasn't aware of the blue energy that flew towards him until it caught him in the chest. "What the heck was that? It--" The Captain's words were cut short as the bullets tore at him insanely faster than they were before, some of them even striking him despite his best efforts to dodge. "The heck was that?!" Marvel asked as the bullets returned to their much slower speed, allowing him to dodge them easily again. "Okay, time to stop playing around! Nok der Shazam!" As he incanted the magical sayings, thunderclouds formed overhead and began to rain bolts of lighting into the ships before him, causing fires to break out along the top of them and sending them towards the ground. With his super speed he caught the ships and placed them gently down before returning to the battle. "Wait a moment..." he muttered as he watched the Hulk get struck with the same energy that caught him, marveling as the Hulk turned a lightish blue and slowed down to the point where he was barely moving. "So that's what happened!" he said with a frown as he flew down and plucked Hulk off the battlefield with ease, holding him above the battle until the energy that affected him wore off. "Marvel? What the heck is going on?" Hulk asked when he realized that he was no longer where he remembered being. "The energy that they throw out slows whatever it hits--down to super-slow speeds," Marvel informed him as he weaved left and right to avoid the hailstorm of bullets. "So, they were slowing me down, not speeding me up, huh? That makes sense," Hulk growled before looking up at Marvel with a smirk. "Hey Cap, want to take out all of those ponies in one go? Throw me in the center of them!" Marvel smiled before spinning Hulk around, taking up aim and hurling the green giant right into the ground in front of the ponies. The shockwave created by the gamma bomb blasted the ground apart and hurled all of the ponies away, Marvel catching any that were in danger. "Not bad, Cap," Hulk said with a smirk when Marvel landed beside him, punching him in the shoulder. "It's not every day that I get thrown in the 'fastball special'." "Come on, let's go get the others," Marvel said as he hurled himself towards the shield that was still under attack. Mercury's speed flowed through his veins as he quickly tore the guns off of the pony army, dumping them in front of the armored horses so they could see what he did to their weapons. "Anybody else want to try something?" "Dear Faust, he is just like Adam!" the ponies yelled as they all raced away from Marvel, who raised an eyebrow in surprise before shrugging and knocking on the shield. "Wow...just, wow," was all that Batmare could get out after seeing that kind of speed up close, while Trixie had nothing that she could say while she slowly lowered the barrier. "Don't look so impressed, I actually ended the fight," Hulk said with a smirk as he walked up. All six looked around at the wasteland that surrounded them, seeing the remains of the guards' firearms as well as a few guards who were left unconscious on the ground. "So, what do we do with them? I'm thinking bargaining chips," Ryan suggested as he nudged a guard with his foot, narrowing his eyes as he got a closer look at the armor, confirming his suspicions. "Are you kidding? That's not how heroes do things," Captain Marvel said with some heat as he crossed his arms. "We should take them to the nearest town and let the ponies there take care of them." "Hate to break it to you Marvel, but I'm no hero," Ryan said as he placed a hand on the bar that lined the pony's spine, seeing that it was now a yellow color instead of blue. "They're all pretty much fine and I think just out, so we don't have to do anything with them. What I want to know is, where the hell did ponies get their hooves on Dead Space armor in a supervillain reality?" The others were saved from any more of his rambling when all of them were blinded by more spotlights. The group covered their eyes and looked up to see a battleship, far larger than the three other ships combined. Despite the distance between them and the ship, the group could still make out four figures standing on platforms that extended from the ship, with a fifth holding himself in the air next to the ship. But with the spotlights shining down upon them, they could barely make out any details. "Are these the chosen foes that we were informed of who would oppose the queen ?" the massive dragon hidden in the darkness asked while each wing beat nearly knocked the weaker of the group off their feet or hooves. "They do not look like much of a threat. We should take them out here and now." "Attacking without thinking would be suicide. Take a good look at the one who flies in the sky," one of the armored ones with a long staff on its back said as it pointed to Captain Marvel. "He wears the symbol of the strongest in the land. We should not rush in without a plan." "Ugh, all of you are so fascinated with magic all of the time, whereas I seem to see a being there that is not fueled by magic but radiation instead," the smallest of the group said with a slightly mechanical voice as a dark chuckle escaped his lips. "I would love to dissect that green giant and see what makes him tick." "They should count themselves lucky that master Adam is not here himself to deal with them all, or else they would already be dead," the one who stood at the front said with a laugh, a cape upon their back blowing in the wind. Yet, there was something familiar about the voices. "We should not let them escape, though. If we stop them here and now, the mare won't have the chance to even begin her plan." "They've heard of us," Ryan muttered as the group began to argue with themselves about what they should do, while the fifth one silently watched the ground, standing the farthest away from the others. "And they know of the mare. What do you guys think, should we fight them here or fall back and wait until we know more?" Bubbles let out a moan as he took a step forward, but before either side could start something, a flash of lunar magic exploded in-between the two forces, gaining both sides' attention. For the pony standing in the center of the magic was... "Princess Luna?" four of the champions asked at once while Mr. Bubbles groaned in confusion. "The traitor!" the dragon yelled as it hurled itself towards the princess, but Marvel intercepted him and slammed his fist into the side of his head and hurled the dragon back. The shadowy four watched as the dragon was flung away from the battle before crashing into the ground miles away. "What said I? That it was suicide." "Are you the six that she spoke of?" Luna asked quickly while she raced over to the group, Marvel rejoining them as the shadowy four gave the orders to attack. Four of the group didn't know how to answer that as the forces began to fly towards them, but Ryan pushed himself to the front quickly. "Yeah, we are. For a better tomorrow," Ryan said as he slammed his fist over his heart. Luna nodded at the sign and activated her magic, casting all six of them within her spell and vanishing in an eruption of lunar magic just as the shadowy four reached where they had been standing. "Adam will not be happy about this," the one with the cape said with a shake of their head. "Quite contraire. We now know what the six of them look like, for the most part, aside from the two ponies, which means that we will be able to seek them out without confusion," the shortest one said with a chuckle as his six metal legs moved him over the ash remains of Luna's magic. "Or rather, he will seek them out." "So then, shall we take on how long they will last?" the one with the cape asked with a laugh as they turned to head back to the ship. "I give them a week at most. How about you, Tinker?" "I do not bet, not as you have won the last twelve we have done in a row!" Tinker roared as he six legs scurried him past the others and back to the ship. "And I swear, it is because you are cheating! How else could somepony as brilliant as me lose to a showoff like you?!" The cape shrugged and turned to look at the one with the staff standing to their left. "Alright, new bet. Which one do you think is the most dangerous? I think it is the one that looks like Adam." "Which one is the most dangerous? I cannot decide. Between him and green it is certainly tied," the staff wielder said with careful thought. "But the one in the hood I cannot read at all. And if we have an unpredictable element, we may be the ones to fall."