Universe-199999
New Asgard
All the heroes who received the Avengers signal finally gathered inside the Town Hall of New Asgard. They varied from newer heroes to the older former Avengers to the Fantastic Four and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Valkyrie, the queen of Asgard, was standing in the middle together with Loki, Sylvie, the Wasp and Ant-Man. Around them stood exactly 28 heroes.
The Fantastic Four: Mr Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch and The Thing.
The Guardians of the Galaxy: Starlord, Rocket, Groot, Gamora and Nebula.
Former Avengers: Thor, Captain Marvel, Hawkeye, Bruce Banner (Hulk), Korg, Okoye, Black Panther (Shuri), White Wolf (Bucky), Wong, Captain America (Sam), Spider-Man and Warmachine.
Lastly, heroes who were not affiliated with any of the groups above: Daredevil, Photon, Ms Marvel, Shang-Chi, She-Hulk, Hawkeye#2 (Kate) and America Chavez.
None of these heroes were even aware of the incursion that was about to happen between our universe and the other one. They were brought together for a very different reason. The only ones from our universe who currently knew about the incursion was Doctor Strange and Wanda.
Everyone was very confused over the prescense of Loki, mostly because he was thought to be dead, but also because in everyone's eyes, they only see the ruthless power hungry god of mischief that tried to destroy New York in 2012. The entire hall was filled with whispers, trying to figure out what's going on and why they were brought here.
The whispering was stopped when Valkyrie finally spoke up.
Valkyrie: Okay listen up people, you were brought here today because...
Loki: (Interrupts) The multiverse is in danger, someone is c...
Valkyrie: (Interrupts) Loki!
Loki: Sorry. You may proceed.
Valkyrie: There is a looming threat ahead of us, bigger than anything you can imagine...
Loki: (Interrupts) The threat is already here. The fate of our universe and the entire multiverse hangs in the balance.
Valkyrie: (Sighs) Okay I think it's better if Loki would explain this to you since he can't seem to keep his mouth shut.
Bruce Banner: The multiverse? Isn't that just a theory?
Spider-Man: The multiverse is very real, trust me.
Captain Marvel: Prove it.
Spider-Man: I met two other versions of Spider-Man during the Statue of Liberty incident, we fought against villains from different universes.
America Chavez: Wait, you're Spider-Man? Doctor Strange told me about you. I was expecting you to look a lot more... like a spider. Where is Doctor Strange anyway? I thought he would be front and center when the multiverse is in danger. Wong?
Wong: How should I know? It's not like I keep a leash on him.
Captain America (Sam): What I still don't get is how Loki is here. (He looks at Loki) I thought you were supposed to be dead?
Loki: It's complicated, listen, there is a war going on as we speak. A multiversal war. There are countless different versions of a very dangerous person. He calls himself Kang the Conqueror, they have armies that could take over entire Galaxies.
Ant-Man then spoke up to help further explain the situation to everyone else.
Ant-Man: We just came from the quantum realm, fighting in a war against one of these Kangs.
Loki: It was the very first Kang, he is the one who started it all. We believe he is on his way here.
Spider-Man: To do what?
Sylvie: There is a being on this universe. He's been searching for him for a very long time and he's finally found him.
Loki: We don't know who this being is other than the fact that he was the one who defeated him during the first multiversal war.
Wong: The first multiversal war?
Sylvie: We don't know much about the first multiversal war, we know it was the biggest, most horrific, most devastating war in the history of... well... everything that ever existed. We believe that Kang was almost successful in conquering the entire multiverse until this being came along and destroyed everything.
America Chavez: How can it even be possible to conquer the multiverse? What about incursions? If you go to another universe and leave a big enough footprint, it could destroy that entire universe and yours along with it.
Sylvie: We don't know how Kang did it the first time but this time he managed to create devices that would prevent any incursion from happening so he can take over everything in existence.
Wong: But if this being destroyed existence itself, how did Kang survive?
Loki: Kang managed to escape by exiting the timestream before this being could destroy him along with everything else. One of the other Kangs did as well, that Kang called himself He Who Remains.
Ms Marvel: If you say everything was destroyed, how are we still here?
Loki: This being that destroyed the multiverse changed reality to his will and created one single timeline which is the one we've been living in our entire lives. We have no idea why he did it, but it seemed to be for personal gain, not to stop Kang. Your whole lives are a product of his own creation. This being was the creator of the TVA.
Groot: I am Groot.
Starlord: Don't worry buddy, there's a little pee coming out of me right now too.
Bucky: I'm sorry, you're saying our entire lives were basically dictated by this being?
Loki: Not just dictated, our entire existence is a lie. None of this was ever meant to be.
Shang-Chi: Yeah I think I'm gonna need some fresh air...
Daredevil: You and me both. I can't believe my day went from fighting a bunch of thugs in a warehouse to whatever the hell this is.
Loki: The Kang who became known as He Who Remains seemed to be working with this being when he used the power of Allioth to control and isolate this single timeline, making sure the multiverse stays linear by pruning any branches that would form.
-He Who Remains:
Sylvie: At first we thought he who remains was the being that dictated our lives, but there was another, controlling him somehow. We didn't know why he who remains would work with this being until we found out he was a puppet, being pulled by his strings. Before the being altered reality, he made sure that the one timeline he created would remain the only one to exist, so he enslaved one of the Kangs in their own mind, thinking they were doing it through their own free will.
Loki: That was when the TVA, short for Time Variance Authority was born, through He Who Remains who was being manipulated by this being.
Sylvie was the one who killed He Who Remains because she thought he was the one who took her life from her, she thought he was the one that controlled everyone's fate. But upon discovering that he was merely a puppet to a higher master, Sylvie now secretly wants revenge on whoever this being is.
Warmachine: I'm sorry but can you please tell us how you know so much about whatever the hell is going on?
Hawkeye: Yeah and more importantly, how should we trust anything you say.
Throughout Loki and Sylvie's mission to try and prevent the new multiversal war (Loki Season 2), they uncovered many of its secrets. A lot of what they knew was told to them by He Who Remains before his death. The rest of the information was found in classified TVA files and ancient texts describing the multiversal war and prophecies of a being that would bring upon the end of everything.
Sylvie: We really do not have time for this. It's a very long story. Ask Thor, we already told him everything.
Thor: It really is a very long story, you see it all began when the Avengers went back in time to get the infinity stones.
Thor: Loki picked up the tesseract which was never supposed to happen.
Thor: Then the TVA arrested him for causing some sort of branch timeline...
Loki: (Interupts) Thor! We really don't have time for this!
Thor: Sylvie said I should tell them!
Sylvie: I didn't say you should tell them you idiot, I said they should ask you if it's a long story because you already know!
Rocket: By this point the entire multiverse will be destroyed before you could finish telling us what we should do to save it...
The Thing: Did that racoon just speak or am I goin crazy?
Human Torch: You're not going crazy Ben. You became kookoo a looong time ago.
Ben just growled at him, he has become somewhat used to Johnny constantly teasing him.
Loki: ... As I was saying, He Who Remains eventually died and a very big Nexus event rebirthed the multiverse when it caused this timeline to branch out into infinity. Giving birth to infinite new universes as well as infinite Kangs in the process, which sparked a new multiversal war.
This Nexus event was inadvertantly caused by Wanda Maximoff the moment she became the Scarlet Witch again (Wandavision finale).
The death of He Who Remains allowed for free will to exist once more, causing the branches created by Wanda to go past the red line. That meant the TVA was unable to stop it (Loki finale).
That also allowed for Doctor Strange's spell to go wrong which brought multiple Spider-Man villains and two other Spider-Mans to this universe (Spider-Man: No Way Home).
The purple cracks in the sky at the Statue of Liberty made Wanda discover the multiverse while she was corrupted by the darkhold. The brief opening between realities caused Wanda to hear her children from another universe.
That made her search for America Chavez and dreamwalk to universe-838 to find her children (Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness) which set the events in motion that caused the incursion that is about to occur between the two universes.
None of these heroes were aware of any of this, not even Loki. All they were worried about was Kang.
Captain Marvel: What about the original Kang? The one you fought.
Loki: The original Kang was still outside the timestream searching for this being. When the nexus event rebirthed the multiverse, he felt it. He was convinced that it was the being. He then finally found him on this universe. The being he is searching for, lives in this universe.
Kang never really knew who this being was other than just another person in the war.
With the single timeline being lost between trillions upon trillions of other timelines, Kang tried searching for the being throughout the whole multiverse. He scanned for energy signatures matching it, until he finally found him here.
Wong: Do you know what he plans to do once he gets to him?
Sylvie: Unfortunately not. But we do know that he would not hesitate to destroy this entire universe in order to get to him.
Loki: It is of most importance that we find him before he does.
Spider-Man: What will we do when we find him?
Thor: I'd say killing him would be the best option.
Loki: Precisely.
Spider-Man: Wait what? I'm sorry but we can't just kill him. If that is what I've been brought here to do, I'm walking out of here right now.
Thor was clearly angry at the idea that some mortal being was responsible for his entire existence. It made him feel like everything in his life was a lie. A lot of the heroes also felt the same but they kept quiet, stunned at everything Loki just told them.
Thor: Other than the fact that he basically created this entire timeline, dictating our lives without our knowing, Killing him could ensure the safety of the entire multiverse.
Wong: I agree. We can't let Kang get his hands on him, whoever he is.
Spider-Man: This is insane. Absolutely insane. Matt, what do you think about all this?
Daredevil: I'm sorry but I gotta agree with them on this one Spider-Man. Such a being is too dangerous to live.
Mr Fantastic: If what Loki said is true, he's been controlling all of our lives, he has the power to destroy universes, enslave countless lives, create new worlds as he chooses... He is way too dangerous to live. Who knows how many times he has altered reality before. This could've been the thousandth time and none of us would know it. He might as well be playing chess with existence and we are the pawns. Whenever he gets bored he could wipe us out and start all over again.
Bruce Banner: My only concern is how would we even be able to kill a being of this immense power? Is he even killable? Is he human? How would we even find him? What about Kang? Shouldn't we prepare for war? He is coming here right?
Loki: The being is most definitely human, we have no idea how a human came to be this powerful, but...
Sylvie: The positive takeaway is that he is killable. Just like a normal human. If we can manage to catch him off guard, we could end it.
Loki: The plan is to find him and kill him before Kang can get his hands on him. Who knows what a person like Kang would do if he gets all that power.
Sylvie: Once the being is killed, we can fight Kang and stop him once and for all.
Bruce Banner: I'm still waiting on the answer to my other question. How would we find the being? We don't even know who he is.
Loki: The same way Kang found him. By searching for his energy signature.
Bruce Banner: But we don't have his energy signature. We have literally nothing on him.
Okoye: Perhaps we could be of assistance. Wakanda's advanced technology records all kinds of energy signatures around the world.
Mr. Fantastic: But The problem is we don't know which energy signatures are his.
Black Panther (Shuri): That is very easy to find. A being with a power of such magnitude will leave a much larger footprint than let's say... Thor opening the bifrost. So all we need to do is cross refference all the large energy signatures that have appeared in the last decade or so, then see which ones are the largest of those, then cancel out the rest. Once we have that, we can see where he used his power most recently by looking at the date of when the signature was recorded.
While she was speaking, she was doing exactly what she told Bruce on a holographic screen that appeared out of her wrist. She instantly found many of the same large energy signatures that seemed to have appeared ever since 2014. Then Shuri removed all the others and kept the one that appeared most recently. The energy signature appeared to be somewhere over the atlantic ocean.
Bruce Banner: Man you are good! But how would we still know if this energy signature is of this being and not something else entirely?
Black Panther (Shuri): We don't. But honestly what kind of being has such a high level of CMBR? That's Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, radiation dating back billions of years to the birth of existence itself. This signature seems to be somewhere over the ocean, the coordinates are -62.531213,-43.839016 in the South Atlantic ocean. But according to the world map, there's just water, no land.
Loki: I will type in the coordinates on my TemPad (A device used by the TVA to open yellow portals shaped like doors that allows them to travel anywhere).
Loki types in the coordinates and opens a door shaped portal to the exact location where this being last used his powers.
Black Panther (Shuri): We will need a plan B though. If this is not the energy signature of this being and we do not succeed in finding him, the only other way is to wait for Kang to arrive. (Looks at Loki) You said Kang had his energy signature right?
Loki: I did. I don't know how he does it, 31st century technology is something else but he managed to lock on to his energy signature wherever he goes, meaning Kang knows exactly where he is at any given moment.
Sylvie: That's why it's so important that we find him before Kang arrives.
Spider-Man: But what if Kang's goal is also to just kill him? Why not just let him do the job?
Loki: Unfortunately we cannot take that risk.
Black Panther (Shuri): If we can't find this being, we will have to prepare to face Kang whenever he appears. We will be able to know whenever he arrives. If he steps foot out of the quantum realm...
Shuri quickly scanned for any anomalies that had to do with the Quantum realm.
Black Panther (Shuri): Hold on, I'm detecting a spike in Quantum Realm energy on the exact same place where this being is!
Wong: Does that mean we're too late?
Loki: Kang is here...
What they didn't know was that they were in fact detecting the purple cracks in the sky, where some of Kang's forces appeared over the Island and attacked Wanda and Vision. Kang has not arrived yet, but they thought so.
Captain Marvel: Okay, Thor and I will go with Loki and see what's on the other side of that weird door shaped portal while the rest of you prepare for the worst. If Kang is there, I will send out a signal.
Captain America (Sam): Since when are you giving the orders now, Captain?
Captain Marvel: You're welcome to add something if you want to.
Captain America (Sam): ...Touché.
Captain Marvel: Exactly. Be right back.
Loki, Thor and Captain Marvel went through the TVA portal and they arrived on the Island. The portal closed behind them. They were then shocked by the revelation of dead and unconscious bodies lying everywhere, TVA soldiers, no doubt. Captain Marvel was more awestruck over seeing living dinosaurs walking around like it's the pre-historic times.
Wanda's Island
Captain Marvel: Dinosaurs? Guys, there are literal dinosaurs here... How?
Thor: By Odin's beard, what happened here?
Loki: Wait, these are TVA soldiers lying here. Seems like they were no match.
Kang had a very powerful army once, just like every other Kang in the multiverse. He had an army that spread across the entire Galaxy, they could take over an entire planet in mere minutes. But his entire army was wiped out just like everything else in existence when Wanda destroyed everything and reshaped reality during the previous cycle of existence. Kang created his own version of the TVA to try and rebirth the multiverse by deliberately causing branches throughout different points in time.
But the actions of his TVA was countered by the other TVA created by He Who Remains. Kang also tried building up the TVA to one day have an army as powerful as his previous one again. He gave them advanced armor, exo-suits, weapons, tanks, drones and aircraft but the TVA was not even close to being as powerful yet.
Loki: The battle is already over. It seems like the being won. But he couldn't have beaten Kang that easily. Kang's too smart. He's also too smart to just blindly ambush the being like this. Something isn't right.
Captain Marvel then noticed a device that seemed highly advanced, something only Kang would use. This was the device that the soldiers used on Vision.
Captain Marvel: What's this?
Loki was shocked when he saw it.
Loki: That is one of Kang's devices!
Thor: You think the being killed Kang?
Loki: No, I think Kang sent these soldiers to do something, wether or not they succeeded is another story.
Thor: What makes you think that?
Loki: Well for one thing, there's no other parts of Kang's weapons anywhere else, and for another, this device is used to transport anything from one place to another from anywhere in the multiverse. I stole it from him once and used it on myself to escape his custody back at the TVA. So I think he either sent his soldiers to use it on the being, or there was something else of value here that he needed.
Captain Marvel: Thor, let's fly around the Island, maybe the being is still here.
Captain Marvel and Thor flew around and they discovered Wanda's cabin in the middle of the Island. But they had no idea that Wanda was in fact very same being they were looking for.
The food that was being cooked by Vision was still on the stove, but it had been burnt.
Thor: This may be where the being lives.
Captain Marvel: It seems like he was busy cooking something when they ambushed him. The food is completely burnt and the stove is still on.
Thor: That means he is no longer on this Island. Perhaps they took him.
Captain Marvel: From what I see outside, it seems like he defeated the ones who came here and fled the scene.
Thor: Either way this is very bad. When I get my hands on either of them, they will feel the power of Thor!
Captain Marvel: Easy there goldilocks.
Loki walked around the shore and saw one of the soldiers crawling on the ground. The soldier thought Loki was one of them since he had a TVA analyst suit on. Loki ran to the soldier.
Loki: What happened here?
Soldier: Kang sent us here *cough*, to ambush them.
Loki: Who's "them"?
Soldier: The being he is after, she had someone with her. Kang sent us to find him. *cough*
Loki: Her? The being is a female?
Soldier: Yes.
Loki: Where is she now?
Soldier: I don't know, I was knocked out. All I remember was that we pinned them both down... She... I've never experienced something so horrible in person.
Loki: What are you talking about?
Soldier: The person that was with her... He was pinned down she started crying so loud that it sounded like screaming. She begged us to let him go. Over and over again. It went on for I dunno about 5 minutes. Many of the soldiers felt bad about what they were doing, many dropped their weapons. Then suddenly someone attacked us from the sky (Magneto), that was when I got knocked out.
Loki was a bit relieved because he now knew that Kang has not arrived yet, but he was also confused as to how they were able to pin down a being as powerful as her.
The Quantum Realm
Chronopolis
Kang was sitting on his flying throne on top of the largest building in Chronopolis, satisfied that he managed to conquer the Quantum Realm. Vision was tied down in front of him, still alive but without his powers. The device that seemingly disintegrated him merely teleported him to the Quantum Realm. Kang was busy tampering with Vision's mind. Vision was in pain and could not move a muscle.
Vision: Who are you? What are you doing to me!?
Kang: I'm altering your brain functions to make you do my bidding. For a 21st Century machine, you seem to be quite fascinating.
Vision: What are your intentions!?
Kang: Revenge.
Vision: Revenge on who? Wanda? What has she ever done to you?
Kang had an unsettling angry expression on his face. It wad full of hatered. He was clenching his fists and gnashing his teeth.
Kang: So that's her name. Wanda... What has she ever done to me you ask? Everything!
Kang activated an electrical current that coursed through Vision's entire body. He screamed in agony. The electrical current was primarily being used to scramble Vision's mind so that Kang can upload a virus into his system that will make him do anything he says.
Vision: Why do you need me?
Kang: I want to make her suffer, I want to make her pay! Then after I finally broke her, I will take her power with a machine I spent years perfecting. Then I will use that power to enslave the entire multiverse. I will finally be the ruler of everything in existence!
Vision: Wanda is already broken. I don't think she can be broken any more than she already is. Why do you hate her?
Kang: She destroyed everything that I spent years to build! One day she just decided to wipe everything off the face of the universe and restart everything from scratch, by WHISPERING. Three. Single. Words! Through three single words, the entire multiverse was gone, along with my entire empire. The empire I built for over 25 years, gone. Through three single words.
Vision: What war are you talking about? When did this happen?
Kang activated the electrical current once again, torturing Vision further while sitting back and smiling.
This chapter had a LOT to unpack, you can ask me any questions if you don't understand something. What are your thoughts so far? Please don't be a silent reader, a vote or a brief comment is always greatly appreciated.
-MarvelDc_EU