Five figures sat around a dark blue table that rested within the boundaries of the garden, while the sixth went over the information that he held within his hands again, typing into the computer in front of him as he added new information. The five talked amongst themselves, yet all of their topics were about the six champions and the rumors about what had happened in the battle with Adam.
"Such an amazing creature it was. I am so lucky that I sent one of my drones to watch the battle from overhead," Tinker said with sheer delight in his voice, while he flipped through the notes he had made during the battle with Adam.
"And that is what worries me," Spike said with a shake of his massive head. "This Captain Marvel was said to match Black Adam in every way. We know that we are no match for Black Adam when he toys with us in our sparring matches, so how can we hope to match somepony else who has his same power?"
"Not Captain Marvel, you dense reptile, I was speaking about the Hulk," Tinker snapped back as he showed Spike the drawings he had made of Hulk. "I care not for beings that get their powers from magic, but this creature, oh, this creature is something else! You said that you felt no traces of magic upon him, Master Adam?"
"No, there was no magic fueling his body. The strength of the Hulk, though not comparable to mine, was natural and was not enhanced with spells or words of power," Adam responded before snapping his fingers and bringing an image of the six before their eyes, based on what the five had seen of them, as well as Adam's encounters with them. "Enough talk. Time for us to see what we are up against." The other five gathered around the images that Black Adam had conjured, each of the six looking at one of the foes with interested eyes.
"So, let me start off this meeting by asking the question that needs to be answered," Trixie began, cutting in before anypony else could talk. "This...Captain Marvel. Is it true that he is your equal, because the reports that I read said that he was able to match you blow for blow?" Adam looked into each of the five's eyes; all of them wanted to know the answer to the question.
"In terms of strength and speed, yes, Marvel is my equal," Black Adam confirmed for them, causing nervous murmurs to break out between three of the members. "But underneath of that persona, he is no more than a child playing with power that he cannot comprehend. While he can match me in strength, I have five thousand years worth of experience. If it comes down to it, I shall defeat him."
"Forget the magical brat for a second and let us talk about the force of science that is the Hulk," Tinker butted in, hijacking the conversation to his favor. "You said so yourself that he had no magical enchantments, yet he was able to trade blows with you?"
"If you will all be silent, I shall inform you of what we know," Adam snarled at all of them, silencing them as he snapped his finger. The image of their six foes changed to just one: Captain Marvel. "As I have already stated, Captain Marvel draws his powers from a nearly identical source as myself, except he is empowered by the gods of the Greek Pantheon while my power comes from the Egyptian gods. Yet he is inexperienced and impatient, preferring just to rush into situations and overpower his foes with his strength. That will not work on me."
"Yes, but the rest of us mere mortals cannot hope to fight a foe such as him," the cloaked member of the five said in a deep, raspy voice. "What are we to do if we encounter such a foe?"
"He is a child and is susceptible to being tricked. Use your brains instead of your brawn, and you should be able to figure a way out of that predicament," Adam instructed before snapping his fingers again to show the green goliath that was the Hulk, as well as his human counterpart, that was a full two feet smaller. "This, as Tinker so rudely mentioned, is the Hulk, the strength to Banner's brains. The two of them seem to have a 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' relationship, except that these two can actually cooperate. Hulk is incredible, so strong that even I could feel his punches, yet when I fought him I could see that he was not at his strongest. That concerns me."
"He is mine," Tinker said when Adam paused, turning his grayish face towards all of the other members while glaring at them with his one good eye and his one red one. "I will find out how he works, what makes him so strong and how the two of them function as one unit. As a pony of science, I must know what makes him tick. He is an extraordinary specimen."
"And one that will pound you into the past if you are not careful," Spike added with a small growl, cutting Tinker off before he could build up a head of steam. "Again, this seems like another foe that only you can handle, Black Adam. What are we to do if we face him?"
"Pray that you do not. This...is what I can only assume is Batmare," Adam continued as he snapped his fingers again to bring up the image of the mare of whom he had only gotten a brief glimpse. "In my world, Batman is a master martial artist, detective and escape artist. If this mare is anything like him, she will be an annoying pest, but one that any of you should be able to defeat without my aid. Aside from her wings, it seems that she has no other powers, just like the Batman."
"I do not care about these few insufferable pests. I want you to show me the one I could not best," Doroca growled from beneath his helmet. Adam nodded while he changed the image of the Bat to the human in the hood.
"This is the one who confuses me the most. As I assume the Bat was trained by the one I know, I understand why she would be a member of the team, yet this one seems like nothing more than a regular human with a fake hand," Black Adam mused to himself, while Doroca narrowed his eyes underneath of his helmet, analyzing his foe's appearance and face. "But if he was able to overcome you Doroca, then maybe there is more to him than meets the eye."
"And that just leaves us with two," Trixie muttered while two more figures appeared on the screen, one of them being a pony who was masked in shadows while the other was a massive, metal titan with eight glowing eyes. "And I have no idea what either of them could be. One of them looks like a unicorn with good taste in capes, yet the other I could not place if my life depended on it. Any ideas Adam?"
"As for the metal titan I am not sure, yet the pony confuses me the most," Black Adam grumbled as he removed the metal titan from the screen and focused on the pony. "When victory over Marvel and Hulk was within my reach, the two of them were teleported out of my grasp. While I was not able to follow the magic, I was able to determine what...or who had cast it. The cast was you, Trixie."
"WHAT?!" Trixie roared leaping back, and her azure and purple helmet unfolded and covered her face, her armored horn glowing while she glared at the group. "Do you truly believe that I would do something so foolish as to betray my very allies and aid those fools who did not appreciate my talents?!"
"Have to admit, I never did like you," Tinker smiled as his six mechanical arms unfolded from his back. "Always thought if one of us was to go rogue, it would be you."
"Stand down, all of you," Adam ordered with the power of the gods in his voice, forcing the five to calm down with his tone alone. "If you would let me finish instead of overreacting as you always do, you would all know that it was not Trixie magic alone. I also sensed the magic of King Sombra mixed in with yours."
"But how can that be?" Spike asked. "You killed King Sombra nearly five years ago. How could he be back?"
"Multiverse theory," Black Adam responded, getting confused looks from some of the group. "What it means, is that there are an infinite number of ourselves across different realities. It is entirely possible that this is a Trixie or a Sombra from another reality, and I am certain that the silver one brought them here."
"So, now we know about five of the six that we must combat," the cloaked pony rasped as Adam brought all six champions back up before their eyes. "The six false champions versus the six Judges of Equestria. This seems like a tale from the stories of old. How...interesting."
"They are not our only threat," Adam said after a moment of silence, turning all heads towards him. Adam let out a sigh when he came to a decision before he spoke. "There is another threat. The Sphere of Destruction."
"What's that?"
"The Sphere of Destruction is the sister to the Sphere of Creation, two spheres that were placed under the care of the daughters of Celestia and my care. And with them no longer...I am the only one aside from Celestia and Luna who knows of them," Adam explained before shaking his head. "I believed that I had destroyed both of them five years ago, yet the Sphere of Creation came back in the form of the silver mare. And with Banner having mentioned that they are there to stop the one of destruction..."
"You believe there to be an underlying opponent that we do not know of?" Spike asked Adam, who sighed again before crossing his arms and shaking his head.
"I do not know, but I am looking into it. For now, we must focus on the task at hand before we can figure out if there is any truth to Banner's words," Adam said before snapping his fingers and removing the images before their eyes. "I want you all to be on alert, not just for the six false champions, but also for the possibility that there is another foe we must face. Pick your towers and guard them well, but keep your eyes open. If you see anything strange, you inform me or Celestia." Adam rose to the sky and floated off towards Celestia's chambers, leaving the five to speak amongst themselves.
"Six champions and six of us," Spike muttered as he clamped his hands and placed them beneath his chin, lost in thought for a moment. "That means one for each of us. Adam will take Marvel and Tinker says that he wants Hulk, but where does that leave the rest of us? Who will our foes be of the six? And can we beat them?"
"That, we shall discover when the time is right," Doroca said with a shake of his head when he turned to leave. "But now we must prepare ourselves for the inevitable fight."
S=H=A=Z=A=M
The wind felt refreshing upon the young child's face as he looked off into the setting sun with a small sigh. His mind was elsewhere, rather than on the beautiful sunset or that the doctor was writing into a small journal while resting on the grass across from him. Billy lay on the grass and stared at the reddening sky, feeling a bit of loneliness creep into his heart. To ease the pain, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, sitting up to get the best view of the photo as he could. A small smile crept across his face as he looked upon his friends and family, feeling the sorrow begin to disperse.
"So, how the hell did Applebloom get a black eye?" The sudden voice in his ear caused Billy to yelp and turn around, halfway through saying the magic word, when he heard an annoying chuckle and pieced together who had spoken. "And why does Twilight look somewhat nice in that picture? Seems like you got a better Twi than me."
"Ryan, how the hell did you sneak up on me?" Billy asked as he shook his head and went to put his wallet away, but in a blur of motion Ryan swiped the wallet and took a closer look at the picture. "Hey! Give it back or you'll see what getting hit by lightning feels like."
"I'm actually trained to be somewhat stealthy," Ryan replied with a smirk as he tossed the wallet back to Billy. "I have to have some skills if I want to survive by being a part of this team. So, why she got a black eye and why does it look like the two of you were going to prom in that pic?" Billy grumbled under his breath as he cast a quick glance at Banner, who was listening in despite trying his best efforts to hide it.
"Well, because we were going to her school prom together," Billy admitted with a shrug before thinking about how Ryan would react. Just as the human was getting out his first laugh, Billy muttered," Shazan." A smirk larger than Ryan's smile crossed the kid's face while Ryan hurled himself into the dirt away from Billy, standing up a moment later with a smirk of his own on his face.
"Okay kid, you got me. Now about that black eye?"
"That, she got from punching out Diamond Tiara during the crowning of the king and queen. Apparently, she didn't believe that me and Bloom deserved to hold such an honor," Billy said with a loud laugh, while his own words brought back memories of the stuck-up mare believing she could take on a pony who worked on a farm all her life. "Tiara got in a lucky shot and Bloom threw her into the punch bowl. Man that was a fun night."
"So, why didn't you pull them apart?" Banner asked, closing his book while not bothering to hide the fact that he was listening. "You could have easily stopped the fight with a word."
"Look, Captain Marvel might be the world's mightiest mortal, but even he knows that messing with a pissed off Bloom ends only in death," Billy said in a joking tone before his eyes fell and he looked down at the picture again with a small sigh. "I wish I could talk to her again. It's been too long already."
"Ryan, can you contact the mare and see if she can link them up?" Banner asked Ryan, giving him a cold glare that told Ryan that he knew.
"I'll try. Yo, you there, mare? Hello? Mare, if you're there answer. Are you ignoring me again or have you lost control again? Well, I don't hear any screaming so either she's not there or she's pissed at me for the tenth time this week," Ryan said with a shrug, yet he kept narrowed eyes on Banner the entire time, wondering how he knew so much about him. "Although I do have to question how wise it would be to open an interdimensional portal that might tip off Adam, just so Billy can talk to his...girlfriend? Marefriend? Fillyfriend? Why the heck you need to talk to her so badly?"
"I'm worried about her."
"We're fighting a god and an unstoppable army of Dead Space ponies, and you're worried about her?" Ryan asked with a snicker. "Get your priorities straight."
"It's called being a good friend, Ryan, something I am certain you know little about," Banner coldly said to Ryan, who shrugged in acceptance, before walking over to Billy and placing a hand on his shoulder. "Did something happen there before you left? Was your reality being attacked by Sombra or another threat?"
"No, it's...we lost Granny Smith to age a few months ago and ever since then Bloom's been shut off from the world, barely talking or eating with her friends," Billy said with a sad sigh as he pocketed his wallet. "She doesn't go to school or talk to Applejack anymore. She's been spending more time with me because of it, but that's just because I'm..."
"Dating a horse, which isn't super creepy." Ryan got a green-eyed glare from Banner for that.
"Technically, I'm an alien on her world, and since you seem to know so much about us, I take it you know of Superman and Lois?" Billy shot back with a questioning glare, getting another shrug from Ryan that told the kid he won that joust. "So yeah, I'm worried about her."
"Why? Shouldn't you be focused more on the problem at hand? She'll be fine."
"I already have the solution for this problem. That is to beat down Adam, beat down his judges, and then beat down whatever the heck comes after them. This problem is simple," Billy said with a hint of rage before he got a hold of himself. "But her problem isn't something I can solve by moving a mountain or throwing a star. All I can do to help is be with her and right now I can't do that. So, sorry if I'm feeling so down."
'Smash Adam and his armies, huh? I like this kid,' thought Hulk.
"Jeez, when did you get so mature? Aren't you ten?"
"I was, five years ago...sigh, I shouldn't be like this. I should be out there fighting and saving the day," Billy grumbled with a sad look.
"Billy, listen to me," Banner said in a comforting tone that turned both Billy's and Ryan's eyes to him. "I know things are rough right now and you feel like you should just fly in and fix all these problems, but sometimes things aren't that simple. This is a problem that you can't solve by flying in and punching some felons. But I promise, that we will get through this and that you will get to see Applebloom again." Billy gave Banner a grateful smile that was almost immediately ruined by Ryan.
"Uh-huh, sure. I bet you think we'll all make it out alive too," Ryan said with a smirk.
"You have something you wish to say?" Banner asked in a very controlled tone.
"Yeah actually, more of a question. If a human and a pony have a kid, will it be a human or a pony?" Ryan asked with genuine interest as he placed his hand under his chin and thought about it. "Or would it be half and half? Hell, is that where centaurs come from? Think I just solved a mystery here!" Banner took a quick look at Billy to see that his face was red, telling Banner that it was time to get rid of the annoyance.
"Okay Ryan, that's enough. Either you go in or the Hulk comes out," Banner threatened. Ryan's response was to throw his hands over his head in a defensive way before walking back into the hidden entrance to the base, leaving the two alone as the sun almost completely vanished behind the mountain. "God, I hate him sometimes."
"Then, why do you put up with him? I was about to call down some lightning," Billy said with a smirk, Banner smiling slightly while he pulled out his book again and began to sketch the image of the sun peeking out over the mountains. Billy snuck a peek at Banner's other pages to see they were also filled with sketches from various places.
"Well, he's annoying, but he isn't the worst I've had to work with. Sometimes you don't get to pick the partner you want for the dance, you just have to dance and hope they know the steps as well."
"Okay, now you sound like Applejack," Billy said with a chuckle. Banner let a small smile cross his face as he continued to draw. "...you ever have somepony...somebody special in your life Doctor Banner?" Billy asked.
"Yes. Her name was Betty and I did love her," Banner said with no emotion as he continued to draw, Billy turning to gaze at his hand as it moved back and forth across the page masterfully.
"Loved? What happened to her?"
"The Hulk happened. The Hulk you met wasn't how he always used to be. He used to be a monster of rage, one that could not be stopped and wouldn't stop until he had destroyed all that stood in his way," Banner said as his hand twitched, forcing him to flip the pencil over and erase the mistake made by his glimpse into the past. "And the Hulk was trapped within me, breaking free whenever I got angry or hurt, and whenever I took control again...I would see the results of that wrath."
"Geez, that sounds terrible. Can't imagine if the Captain had such a personality," Billy said as he rested his head on his knees.
"It was my fault. I treated the Hulk like a monster instead of a living being, so I constantly sought to destroy or erase him, and because of that and other reasons, the Hulk distrusted everyone and was always quick on the trigger if he felt threatened," Banner said sadly, setting down his pencil as the sun vanished behind the mountain so far off in the distance. "People either wanted to use him as a weapon or kill him, and by that extension...me. So, I was always on the run, always believing that I was cursed with a demon that I could not be rid of."
'Ouch, Doc, you know words can hurt.'
"But in reality I was just as flawed as him, if not more. I was the smart one who tried to contain the Hulk, but I was a coward...always running away from a problem and feeling terrible about myself," Banner said in a near whisper at this point. "Whereas the Hulk was prone to rage-fueled acts of destruction, yet he never backed away from injustice and always did his best to fight for what was right, no matter what happened to him. So over the years, we've learned from each other. The Hulk taught me to be courageous and to not always be so hard on myself. And in return, I taught the Hulk to control his rage and to not act like the monster that so many believed him to be."
"So, that is what keeps the Hulk from smashing Ryan into paste?" Billy smirked as he elbowed Banner in the ribs, Banner allowing himself to laugh at the joke.
'I might still do it if he doesn't shut up.'
"I suppose it is. Now, since I've told you my tale, how about I hear about how you got your powers and managed to end up in a war of the multiverse?" Banner asked, causing Billy to take in a breath as he gazed at the stars, weaving the tale that began with a single word.