I am The Watcher. I am your guide through these vast new realities. I observe all that transpires here, but I do not, cannot, will not interfere. Follow me and dare to face the unknown, and ponder the question...
What if?Earth-257
Halloween, 1999
Nevada
The Blue
Doctor Bruce Banner. In this reality, like many others, he is half monster, half man - a brilliant scientist trapped in the prison of his own mind. In this reality, it was not Rick Jones he tried to save from a tragic accident, but Betty Ross. She died. His efforts changed him, mutating him and transforming him into the Incredible Hulk. While the Hulk, he gained exponential strength and durability, but his anger left him as little more than a mindless beast.
Hunted down by those who would use the Hulk as either a weapon or a science project, Banner fled to the land of lawlessness that was the Blue. He tried to keep a low profile - but love finds a way. In late 1999, Doctor Banner became a father to a young girl, whom he named Lana. To keep her safe, he was forced to make the ultimate sacrifice - to send his daughter into the unknown, only hoping that one day she may find her way back to him.
"Be brave, baby girl," Doctor Banner whispered, holding his hand up against a pod. He was in an abandoned research facility that had once been called Area 51. Tears slid down his face as he stepped away, even as the baby inside the pod screamed and cried for her father. He walked up to a console, gave the pod one last look, and pulled a switch. Without any sort of brilliant flash of light, the pod then vanished.
"Come home one day." She never did.
"You can feel it coming too, can't you?" Luminous asked. A creation of the High Evolutionary, she was the perfect merge of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch's DNA, with her powers exceeding those of her genetic parents. Her long silver hair had chunks of blue in the middle and her skin was extremely tanned, but her most prominent feature was the fiery defiance in her eyes - the certainty that she was better than everyone else in this world.
"Pfft, as if some second rate sorcerer such as yourself could notice it before the likes of Doom," he scoffed. Victor von Doom, enemy of the Fantastic Four, former ruler of Latveria (now a region in Serbia), master scientist and sorcerer, was clad in prison garb. He had been permitted to keep his metal mask to conceal his scarred face and nothing else.
"Unevolved trash," Luminous muttered.
"And to think, I was considering helping you." She then turned away from him - their cells were facing each other, on opposite sides of their hexagonal prison.
"I do not need your help!" Doom snarled, before suddenly there was a gigantic
BOOM! The kevlar-like polymer that the cells were made out of shattered instantly. The restraint collars, designed to keep enhanced prisoners from using their powers, were completely fried. The cell block was bathed in an eerie red glow, pulsing from the red flashes of emergency sirens. And in the middle, there was a swirling
something - a cosmic anomaly.
Doctor Doom reached out, his hand trembling slightly.
"A universal doorway..." he muttered, his eyes widening with glee and delight. Distantly, he could hear the screams of guards, trying to subdue other prisoners - guards were doubtlessly rushing to their block right now. And he didn't know how long the doorway would remain open. But if there was one thing Doctor Doom was an expert in, it was
power. A deliciously evil scheme hatched in his mind - a way that he could have it all... in this world and countless others - Doom, supreme. He then plunged himself into the swirling chaos and vanished, only to be followed a second later by a trail of silver.
5:00 AM November 13th, 2021 - the Raft
S.H.I.E.L.D. had called in its finest, the Secret Warriors, to investigate the anomaly connected to the disappearance of two high profile raft prisoners - Victor Von Doom and Luminous. It was definitely more a job suited for the Fantastic Four, but Bonnie understood why Directors Fury and Hill had asked them to give it a try first. It'd be embarrassing for S.H.I.E.L.D. to have to beg the Fantastic Four to help them catch someone the Four had entrusted S.H.I.E.L.D. to keep secure in the Raft. It'd be better for the agency to be able to save face and handle this internally.
It also helped that the Secret Warriors had experience with Luminous, the psychotic speedster.
The team had been taken to the Raft, a secure underwater prison. All other prisoners had been relocated to the Cube, just in case the anomaly spread. They each were dressed in protective suits, designed to keep any potential radiation exposure to a minimum. But really, it was complete guesswork. No one knew what that
thing was. It was like a hole in space-time, surrounded by a swirling red haze.
"I've never seen anything like this," Bonnie admitted. She had an art pad with her, perhaps not the most traditional tool for an investigation, but she was busy drawing details of the anomaly - it had resisted photography. It wouldn't show up in any photographs.
"It's clearly some sort of swirly science thing," Amelia said. She didn't really know why she had been asked to help with this part. Flying them to the Raft had made sense, but what did they expect her to do, blow on the thing? Maybe it was dangerous or they expected Doom and Luminous could pop up again, so then her presence made sense. However, it then occurred to her that she was there because she was fully a member of this team now - and it made her heart warm. She had to resist the urge to audibly go
aww.
"Mhmm," Bonnie agreed.
"It's.... Yeah, I've got nothing," Raynor said, shaking his head.
"It's not Asgardian. And it's not the Quantum Realm. And whatever it is, it isn't light, since then I'd be able to manipulate it..." His voice trailed off. He could feel that there was something
familiar about the anomaly, but he couldn't place it. It was like the more he tried to think about what it was, the most distant it seemed.
"Maybe it's magic?" he asked.
"Do we have anyone here who knows magic?" Amelia then inquired.
"Could we give the Prez a ring maybe, see if he knows some special words to get rid of it? Or maybe we just need to find a wand or something and do it like Harry Potter ourselves, with a swish and flick?" She wasn't super clear on the different scientific expertises of the team, but she was vaguely aware that Bonnie's stuff had to do with the human body - and that didn't look biological at all to her.
"Nope," Raynor said, before glancing at Sparky. He wished that she would've stayed home with Zarina, but she had insisted on coming.
"Is it electrical?" he asked her.
"Niah, can you see anything?"
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