Banner worked silently and alone in a large room near the bottom of the rebellion's secret base. Luna gave him the place so that he could work on dissecting the weapons and armor that they captured from Celestia's army. While Banner was supposed to be reverse-engineering them, he was instead hard at work putting the telekinesis modules that had been taken to good use.
"Hey Doc B, what's going on in here?" the voice of Billy called from behind Bruce, who was slightly surprised that he hadn't heard the child enter the room.
'Then again, I was hard at work,' Banner thought to himself as he arose from where he was working. He nodded to Billy while grabbing hold of a towel, wiping his hands free of grease while Billy looked over the two white and blue spheres on which Banner was working. "Hello, Billy. Is there a reason you came in here despite the sign saying 'do not disturb'?"
"Sorry, but I just figured that you would want to know that I'm going to be gone for a day or two," Billy said with a questioning look on his face before he moved it closer to the two spheres, looking over them with interest. "My turn for a question. What the heck are these things and why are you building them?"
"Those are spheres created with the modules that allow the ponies to use telekinesis. I've modified the telekinetic field within them, so they are now nearly a thousand times stronger than they used to be," Banner explained to Billy as he flipped one of the spheres on. "Please transform into Captain Marvel."
One lightning bolt later the red and gold champion stood before the good doctor, a smile on the man's face as Banner picked up one of the spheres and pointed it at Captain Marvel's arm. The telekinetic beam shot from a blue spot on the circle and consumed Billy's fists, getting the hero to raise an eyebrow.
"Please try to move your arm," Banner instructed. Billy did so with ease, causing him to flash Banner a look of confusion. "It may not seem like much now, but I am fairly certain that even you could not break through that field with physical strength alone. Of course, when the second part of this project is done, then these spheres' real power will come into effect. My turn. Where are you going?"
"He will be escorting a number of my soldiers and a number of supplies to a meeting place, where one of our more remote forces will be waiting," Luna said as she walked into the room, her silver battle armor shining despite the little light within the room. "Now, it is my turn for a question Doctor. Why are you building such a contraption when we need to know how Celestia's weapons work? Despite it being five years, we have not yet found out how to build them."
"This is a list of all of the weapons and how they work, along with some improvements I might tinker with when I have the time," Banner said as he walked back to his desk and pulled up a sheet of paper, one that Luna took from him with her magic before quickly reading it with a nod. "As for these spheres...call them insurance--just in case. Billy, may I speak to you for a moment?" Billy called down the lightning and walked over to Banner as a child once again.
"The reason that you volunteered to escort these ponies to the rendezvous wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and a certain Applebloom are going to be there, would it?" Banner asked Billy, but when Billy saw into Banner's eyes he already knew that Banner had figured it out. "Billy, I don't know how I feel about you spearheading this by yourself."
"Relax, Banner, Billy has shown that he is strong enough to fight Black Adam and defeat any of the judges," Luna said with a confident smile while she placed a hoof on Billy's shoulder. "I trust him with the mission completely."
"Power does not equal maturity. I am sorry Billy, but as valuable a teammate as you are, you are still a child," Banner said--not to insult Billy, but to prove a point. "I am fine with you fighting so long as one the other champions is with you, because we can use our experience to help you if needed."
"But you don't believe that I can handle it alone, despite having these powers and fighting evil for nearly six years?" Billy challenged as he crossed his arms with some heat, but a look from Banner shut him up.
"This is a war, Billy. Saving the day, stopping criminals and fighting supervillains is one thing. Overcoming those challenges shows you are a hero, and I have no doubt that you are a great hero. But fighting criminals and fighting a war is different," Banner said from experience, but this time his eyes were locked onto Luna before he turned back to Billy with a smile. "However, seeing as this is a small mission, I am willing to give you the chance to prove me wrong. Go keep them safe, and be mature." Billy raced out of the room with a smile on his face, while he headed to where the ponies had gathered before they left for the rendezvous, leaving Banner to turn a far colder look to Luna.
"Is something the matter, Doctor?" Luna asked in a dry tone, not liking the look the human was giving her.
"I have been meaning to talk to you for a while, but with recent events I have not found the time. However, I feel that I should inform you, that when we are done ending this war and saving the world from this being of destruction...I will be keeping Celestia in power." The look Luna gave Banner was priceless, but he kept his composure while fury broke out on Luna's face.
"Are you INSANE?! My sister showed that she was not fit to rule when she allowed a madman and a murderer to stay and "protect" the ponies of this land!" Luna roared with her full fury, yet Banner did not flinch in the face of her wrath. It paled compared to the wrath and rage he housed within him. "Every life that Adam takes is upon her hooves! The Elements! Discord! Chrys-"
"And how about the lives that are gone because you decided to wage war with your sister?" Banner quietly struck back, but his blow was a piercing one. "Because you believed that the only way to stop her was to wage war; that you had to split a nation in two and ask ponies to kill each other. She has shown herself the far more reasonable ruler."
"She gave a man who deserved to die a slap on the wrist and placed him back in a position of power!" Luna roared with rage, and for the first time Banner noticed that her eyes were far more slit-like than he remembered. "And I am going to bring her down and restore peace to this land! And if you try to get in my way-"
"No, Luna. You won't." Banner's words filled Luna's heart with ice when his eyes flashed a vibrant green, turning her rage into fear within a second as Banner glared into her eyes. "The other champions and I will end this war without losing any more lives. We will find a peaceful way to help the nation heal, and then we shall deal with those that seek to cast the world into destruction and death."
"And how do you possibly think you can accomplish this?" Luna asked with cold scorn in her voice while Banner's eyes returned to normal.
"Because we are all heroes, Luna, who put the lives of others above our own," Banner said as he turned and walked back over to his desk, sitting down while he began to work on the spheres again. "And that is why you are not one of the chosen champions, and that is why you will not be able to heal this land. You only seek to get revenge on your sister and to get revenge on a man who you believe is purely evil. And because of it, you threw this land into a war. Now, if you please Moon, leave my lab and allow me to continue working."
Luna wished to say more, but her fear of the giant only allowed her to spit on the floor before she left the room, allowing Banner to continue working alone.
S=H=A=Z=A=M
Billy's eyes reflected the bright blue sky, while he lay upon his back with a piece of hay sticking out of his lips. His head rested on his arms with his body sprawled over the top of a crate that was being pulled along by a number of unicorns and earth ponies. Beside him with the map sat one very annoyed Applebloom, who made sure not to make eye contact with the kid while she instructed the ponies where to go. Two more crates were being pulled along in carts behind them, but Billy's biggest concern was keeping an eye out for trouble...and trying to get AB to talk to him.
"Fer the last time, if ya don't shut yer yap ah'm chucking ya off this crate!" she snarled at him when he had tried to make conversation with her for the fourth time in under half an hour, ticking the earth pony off every time.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry if I'm bothering you, but I really want to know more about you guys," Billy said defensively as he rolled over to his side to wave down at Sweetie and Scootaloo. Sweetie politely waved back while Scoot's smirked, and he rolled back over to see the fuming Bloom. "Alright, if you don't want to talk about yourself then how about we talk about what we see in the clouds?"
"Ah see water and fluff. Now shut up," Bloom growled at him, getting Billy to sigh again as he rested his head back.
'But Bloom always loved that game,' Billy said with a sad sigh that only got him another order to shut up. He went back to looking up at the clouds while he began to hum to himself, and from the snarl from Applebloom he could tell he was getting to her. He snuck a look to see that she had the annoyed look on her face that he found to be so cute, before he sighed again and stopped his humming. 'I shouldn't torment her like this to make myself feel like I'm at home. This is a different world and different ponies Billy, so you have to treat them as strangers. But that doesn't mean that you can't try to be friends with them.'
"We're here." Billy sighed as he figured he wasted his only chance to actually make friends with this world's CMC, but when he sat up he found the carts parked in the middle of an open field, with hills all around them. But what was missing was the other ponies, something that put Billy and his group of ponies on guard immediately.
"We are a half hour early," Sweetie reminded the group, but none of them lowered their guard while one of the soldiers gave the order that they would rest for thirty minutes...and not a minute more. The pony had just gotten done saying this when hundreds of laser sights lined up on all of the ponies, all heads snapping around to look at the roughly one hundred armored ponies lined up on the hillside.
"All of you stand down! You are all under arrest by the order of-"
"SHAZAM!" With the same speed of the lightning bolt that struck down from the heavens, Captain Marvel turned into a gold and red blue, the guards wondering what was happening before they all looked at each other, to realize that their weapons were missing and their stasis and telekinesis had been destroyed by bolts of electricity. The blur came to a stop as Marvel finished dumping the weapons in the middle of the field, before giving a quick wink to the jaw-dropped CMC. "And that's why I'm here ladies. Alright, now it's your guys turn to surrender or else-"
A fist the size of a bus slammed into his back from behind and slammed the champion into the dirt beneath him. Marvel dug a trench with his face before he slid to a stop. He groaned as he picked himself out of the dirt, wondering what had hit him, and why he had felt something not-quite-right about the earth while he had slid through it, before he spun around to gaze upon a massive stone titan that towered over one of the hills. Beneath it stood a cloaked pony that Billy recognized as one of the Judges, before the titan let out a ferocious bellow as it swung its fist towards the champion again.
"Oh no, you do not!" Marvel growled while he caught the fist with his hands, his heels digging into the dirt as his godly might stopped the titan's blow. Marvel then brought back a fist of his own and slammed it into the one he was holding with his other hand, laughter escaping his lips when the force of his punch spun the titan and caused it to fall upon its face. "You're going to have to try harder than titans! I stopped an entire invasion of them in my world with ease!" he called out as he floated into the air.
The cloaked pony nodded before a black circle appeared at the base of the titan, which sunk into the dark depths before the circle closed up behind it. Captain Marvel narrowed his eyes while he looked down at the cloaked pony, who seemed to tilt his head as he looked at the red and gold champion. He clapped his hooves together, this time crafting a circle above Billy. A monstrous bird-like monster burst out from the depths of the circle and slammed into the champion, driving both of them downward.
"Oh yes, I know you. You're here for the shock therapy!" Marvel yelled while electricity coursed through his own body, getting the feathered monster to roar in pain as the godly magic burned into its skin. Marvel slammed a fist under its beak that knocked the bird back into the air, where he grabbed hold of one of its three tails. He spun it around like a top before chucking it at the cloaked pony, only to frown as another circle appeared to swallow the beast. "Enough hiding beneath your monsters! Face me yourself!"
The cloaked pony silently chuckled to himself before shaking his head at Marvel, getting the child to snarl before Marvel raced forward in a burst of speed to grab the pony by the throat. The Captain hoisted the pony into the air and went to pull back his hood, but the pony and the cloak erupted into a swarm of butterflies that startled Billy.
"What the heck is this guy?" Marvel asked as the butterflies reformed into the pony, who shook his head once again at Billy with what looked like a smile beneath the hood. "Okay, you want to play with magic? Then let me show you my tricks!" Marvel pressed both hands to his chest and let the lightning from the bolt empower his hands, making his job a little easier while he tried to recall the spells Twilight had taught him.
Anemoi Thundara!" Marvel roared before casting both his hands to the sky, causing streams of lightning to thunder off into the sky above them. Dark storm clouds descended within seconds to block out the sun and began to cast down flashes of lightning towards the cloaked pony as the light illuminated the darkened battlefield. The mysterious pony flickered as the bolts struck around him or on the spot where he was standing, though never striking him directly. Captain Marvel ceased the lightning storm by clasping his hands together when he saw that it wasn't working, snarling at the cloaked pony.
"My turn," a raspy voice said from beneath the cloak. Marvel was able to see a mouth opening under the hood before a horde of locusts burst forth from the pony's mouth and swarmed into the sky. The horde of locusts surrounded Marvel within seconds and attacked him in any way they could, crawling over his body while trying to get into his nose and eyes.
"RRRAAAGGHH!" Marvel yelled as a column of lightning burst forth from his body, incinerating the insects within seconds and allowing Marvel to rocket back down to where the pony was to slam a very restrained fist into his face. The pony crumpled instantly, but to Billy's increasing frustration he found that when he struck the pony, he burst into fireworks that illuminated the sky as they rocketed off. "COME ON! STOP USING THESE TRICKS AND FIGHT ME!"
"BILLY!" Marvel felt his heart erupt with hatred when he recognized who was calling out for his help, and he slowly turned to see that the cloaked pony was now standing behind Applebloom, an arm wrapped around her throat as he gazed up at Marvel from beneath the cloak. AB struggled as best she could, occasionally elbowing the pony in the face, but the cloaked figure did not react at all to the assault. Marvel, on the other hand, was reacting badly.
"Let me put this in terms that you can understand. If you...so much as harm a hair on her mane," Billy began coldly, before his face vanished under the darkness of his hood, until his eyes erupted with lightning and the white teeth of his snarl could be seen. "Then you will feel the lightning of the gods. Now. Let. Her. Go."
Marvel wasn't sure if the pony smirked or not, but in the next instant a blade erupted from Applebloom's shoulder. The mare howled in pain while the cloaked figure withdrew the knife and went to stab her again, but in that half second Marvel had already drove his fist through the pony's cloaked head, causing insects to burst out of the back of it. With his foe down, Marvel appeared at Applebloom's side, horrified as he looked down to find that the dirt was already soaked with blood.
"Hold on, this is going to hurt," Marvel warned her while he electrified his hand and held it against her shoulder, blocking out her screaming as best he could as he cauterized the wound. The moment he had made sure that the blood had stopped flowing, he turned with the wrath of Zeus flowing through his eyes. He spotted the cloaked pony back on his hooves again, almost looking like he was smiling at Marvel.
"You. Are. Dead." With another yell Marvel hurled himself into the pony and took them both into the skies, where he delivered a jaw-shattering left and right to the pony's face before dropping an elbow that could crack continents. The force of the blow rocketed the pony towards the ground, but Billy caught his leg and began to spin, building up enough speed to vacuum in the nearby clouds, before he hurled the pony into the dirt. Despite his fury, Marvel restrained himself to the point where the pony wouldn't die, but he was fairly certain that it would never walk again. That was until the cloaked pony stood up.
"Why don't you stay down?" Marvel snarled while he glared down at the pony. The pony smirked up at Marvel before slowly turning his head to look at the downed Applebloom. "DON'T YOU DARE!" Marvel bellowed from above, but his anger only seemed to fuel the pony even further as he began to walk towards Applebloom. Marvel howled with rage while he clasped his hands together and began to incant, not caring how he strung the spells together as long as they were destructive and powerful.
Applebloom grunted as she struggled to push herself away from the pony who was advancing towards her, looking into his cloaked face to see that his entire face seemed to be moving. But then, illuminated by the lightning spell being cast over head, her eyes spotted a small bit of metal sticking out of the ground by the pony's hooves. A piece that looked an awful lot like a bomb.
"FALL!" Marvel yelled as he sent the lightning bolt crashing down onto the pony, watching with a roar as the lightning consumed him. Marvel assumed that since the cloaked one had survived all of his other attacks that he would survive this one as well, if only barely. But then everything vanished in a massive explosion. The explosion came out of nowhere, yet there was enough power within it to hurl the champion of magic across the sky, where it took him a moment to catch himself. But when he did, the sight that greeted his eyes caused him to trade his anger for fear.
"No..." There was only silence after the thunder that Billy had cast down upon the pony, the sound that Billy never wanted to hear after unleashing that much power. But as ice slowly began to encase his heart, he descended into the crater that used to be the field where all of the ponies had been standing, with the green grass being replaced with black ash. With lightning-like speed, he surveyed the area in a desperate search for survivors, but only emptiness greeted him. He was about to call out for the ponies, when he spotted a small object half-covered in ash.
"No," he sobbed as he floated to the object and knelt down, scooping the burned ribbon into his shaking hands. Tears began to fall onto the ribbon as the weight of what he had just done crashed down upon his shoulders. Within moments, the silence had been replaced by his choked sobs, the skies above letting loose the rain as if to cry with him. 'No...no...why didn't I listen to Banner? Why did I do this by myself? I got angry...used too much magic and now...now they're all gone...'
Unbeknownst to the broken champion, a small number of insects covered in pieces of a cloak scurried off from the battlefield, mortified by what they had seen done by the champion. Being reduced to such a small number meant nothing to them, because they had survived far worse in the past and could always reform a new body if needed, but they still shook with fear since they knew how close to death they had come. But they also knew that Black Adam would wish to hear of what they had just witnessed, and what happened to the guards that had been sent to capture Luna's forces.
Adam would want to know how over a hundred ponies had been killed by Captain Marvel--just as Star-Swirl had planned.