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Ra could feel the build up of energy released. The Tesseract energy spiralled out of the broken staff, Ra set his stance, stabilizers locking. But Raiden and Samus where not so prepared, and they where knocked violently from there feet. Loki flipped back over the energy, scorching the end of his divine hair. It hit Ra like a tidal wave, but Ra was a stone, and the water bent around him.

''You fool, you ignorant, stupid fool!. You know not what you do, or who's plan you try to foil!'' Loki picked up the fallen bladed end of his broken sceptre, the power fading but still deadly sharp. Loki advanced with murder in his eyes towards the downed Raiden, stunned from the massive output of energy. Loki was standing above Raiden and brought the bladed stave down upon his throat. The Blade was stopped mere centimeters from Raidens throat, for it had been blocked by the long, thin blade of Ra's Maugetar. Loki looked up with rage in his eyes, and turned his attensions to the interfering reaper. Ra blocked frantically, never had he faced such a foe that battered all his defences at once as magical doppelgangers surrounded him. Ra was the eye of the storm, standing in place, turning frantically to block every strike coming his way with desperate skill and every so often lashing out at Loki, only for the shadow double to disappear. Ra needed help.

Azwraith, having finally worked out which realm he was meant to travel though, stepped out of the reflective waters of his fountain, and gazed up at his Ancient. He had often wondered what the exact purpose of defending and attacking rival Ancients was, although this was seemingly not the time to think those pseudo-philosophical thoughts. The pikeman stepped forward, and lifted his blade, and stepped forward, and out of the rubble that had once been a subway station. Steeling himself, he created a pair of phantoms, exact replicas of the true Phantom Lancer, to scout out the area ahead. Thankfully, they did not have to go far before discovering Atropos, placing Loki into his personal nightmare. The pikeman rushed forward, eager to ambush Bane while he was still engaged.

Authrix dispelled the energy around himself, clearing the swirling entropy to find the Phoenix Lord desperately trying to hold off a veritable swarm of Lokis. Without hesitation, he extended his Veil of Time, diving into combat beside the Eldar.
"Strike fast, that we might end this madness!" He blade whirled around, parrying away another clone as Ra cleaved another in two.
"Why do you assist, human?"
"You're useful. One of us dies, we all do." He fired his pistol into another Loki, which darted out of the bullet's path. "We'll return to our realm together, or not at all. Until then, I guess we're allies of convenience."

Megatron, having managed to keep Prophet pinned down from fire from his fusion shotgun and Thor firmly under his treaded boot, did not quite anticipate that John was able to overpower his pincer arm, actually forcing it back as he pushed against it, motors and actuators squealing as they struggled against divinely powered and rather lean muscles. "What are you?" The Decepticon Despot asked as he arm buckled and the teenaged boy actually forced him down onto a knee, continuing to push forward until Megatron's pincer arm was as far back as it could go.

"I'm the Heir of Breath. I'm John!" He said as he then sent forth massive coils and tendrils of blue wind, spiraling at impossible speeds as they grabbed megatron by his silvery armor and shoved him off the building, actually picking him up and carrying him before launching him as if he was shot out of a cannon.

Turning to Thor, he picked up his hammer and rushed at Loki, swinging Mjolnir in one hand to knock the wind out of Loki and hitting him with Vrillyhoo in the very next moment to bash him into the ground.

Before Loki could get away, the Hammer summoned a guilotine out of nowhere, which Loki was forced to bring his other staff around to protect his neck, throwing off the Guillotine as Samus got back up and cracked her neck.

Circling around him with incredible speed, her body adjusting to Gravity nine hundred times lighter than what she was used to, she fired off freezing rays of cold from her Ice beam as Loki tried to turn to deal with Authrix, sending forth a blue-white bolt at him before Prophet smacked him in the back of his neck, decloaking as he backed away and shot him in the back with a gauss round, the hypersonic bullet knocking him towards Rose to be stabbed in the gut and then rooted in place as a spell was cast to wrap the concrete around his feet.

Coming in from Nowhere was the Hulk and Senator Armstrong, the first grabbed Loki in his massive hands and threw him across the pavement with a mighty heave, sending him in a painful roll before Armstrong came in leaping from the other side to kick him into the middle of the group before he managed to pick himself up and stare down all the people attacking him.

"Enough! You are all of you beneath me! I am a God you dull creatures, and I will not be bullied b-ACK!" he said as the great green hulk just grabbed him and slammed him repeatedly into the ground, swinging him by his feet before tossing him to Armstrong who intercepted him with a fist to the God's face, then an uppercutting gut punch to send Loki upwards into the air before hitting him with a hammerfist to smash him into the ground.

"Puny god." Hulk scoffed as he went to look for a better fight, nodding at Armstrong.

"W...wha?" Loki said as Armstrong pushed up his glasses, News copters having followed him and caught the whole thing on Camera.

"Just saving America. Managed to tell the Hulk where you were and told him you were a good fight. Me? I wanted to see what kinda stuff gods were made of. I ain't impressed." Armstrong said with a feral grin.

Loki just let out a long wheeze as he managed to pick himself up, still groggy from the extreme beat down he received. Now was the time to finish him off.

Bane broke from his channel as Lancer moved towards him, the elemental snarling as he cast Nightmare upon the charging Lancer, before pushing back into the assault on Loki. Atropos pointed his crocked talon like fingers towards Loki and screamed as he tore into his essence and soul with his brain sap....

Authrix didn't hesitate, snapping off a shot at Loki's leg while he was dazed. The bolt round exploded, blowing his shin across the pavement. The god spluttered as the Dark Angel's boot landed heavily on his chest.
"Any last requests before I terminate this abomination?"

"You will all burn when they come from beyond the true void. Like a legion of nightmares they shall devour your realities. They are the" He said before some force started to make him choke, as if saying "their" very name was something that could not be allowed. Whatever they were, "they" had no small amount of power to be able to perceive and act upon someone attempting to reveal the full nature of their existence quite quickly.

Given the foaming at the mouth he was doing, it was probably for the best that he be put down as his body began to undergo fatal spasms. Death would be a mercy given the slow, painful shutting down of the body he was undergoing.

"Who are "They"?" Prophet asked, raising a question that many had on their minds.

"Whoever "they" are, they are capable of disguising themselves from the magic I use to pierce through the veil of obscurity, as well as my own divinely granted ability to perceive the golden road to the optimal path. All I can see are images of endless terror, screaming, and the deaths of whole realities." Rose said, briefly closing her eyes.

"That sounds...really heavy." John said with a frown.

''Allies of convenience maybe human, but I don't tolerate idiocy well. Lower your side arm, we need answers from him which we cannot do once dead.'' Ra walked as he talked, taking his time to put a single shurikan between the eyes of each dopple-Loki, everyone also on the ground, perfectly mimicking there master. ''Astates, bend time to your will, slow down what ever is happening to him. Rose, I need you to stabilize him, if what Loki says about you is true, I will need you to make him able to talk. Thor, you know him best, you need to make him tell us what is going on. Then say your goodbyes, when the veil ends, so does your brother.'' Ra spoke with finality of death, for he knew it well. They had to use what time Loki had to good use.

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:
''Allies of convenience maybe human, but I don't tolerate idiocy well. Lower your side arm, we need answers from him which we cannot do once dead.'' Ra walked as he talked, taking his time to put a single shurikan between the eyes of each dopple-Loki, everyone also on the ground, perfectly mimicking there master. ''Astates, bend time to your will, slow down what ever is happening to him. Rose, I need you to stabilize him, if what Loki says about you is true, I will need you to make him able to talk. Thor, you know him best, you need to make him tell us what is going on. Then say your goodbyes, when the veil ends, so does your brother.'' Ra spoke with finality of death, for he knew it well. They had to use what time Loki had to good use.

Rose nodded and did her best to use what healing magic she knew to keep the attempted nervous system shut down at bay, reversing it when she was able as time was being slowed down to keep it from advancing too far.

"Loki...whom do you speak of?" Thor said, tears in his tired eyes.

"Th-they go by so many...many names...Harvesters...Bey-beyonders...Ar'vakal...Hryvikal....but I called them...Ulutraxi...like locusts...vile courts and armies of the bewitched...coming...all of us...never...ending...unstoppable!" He said, starting to get less and less lucid.

Raiden finally awoke from his injury, the force of the blast had ripped him to shreds, but his body was on the mend. Lifting himself to his feet he carefully walked over to the fallen Loki, who had managed to lose his leg and was beginning to lose his life.

Raiden contemplated putting an end to his life then and there, but after looking at the warriors gathered around him like children at a dying grandparent's death bed, Raiden decided that killing him now, would probably cost him his own life.

''We are losing him, Thor. Make your peace with him, kinsmen deserve a finality my race was never granted.'' Ra turned away from the team, knowing there was no more to be gained from such a fractured mind as Loki's. But he had a lead, a trail to follow, that hopefully lead to Home, to Altansar. Ra stepped out of the bubble of distorted time, feeling his insides turn with the usual effects of temporal displacement. Ra saw the faintest flicker of movement, and raised the bladed edge of the Maugetar to deflect a sharp harpoon hurled at his face.

Yet another strange combatant, would this day never cease to throw trouble his way? Several identical creatures prowled towards the Darkness, Ra had had by far enough of doubles for one day. Bane swung curse and hex at the dopplegangers, but when he caught one he would simply step out of himself, creating yet another double to assail the him. Ra sighed heavily before casually pointing his massive fluted cannon towards the melee before announcing.

''Stop this at once. Bane has proven himself useful to me, to me getting home, and you will not endanger that. Lower your weapon and announce yourself, or you will make an enemy that is not wise to make an enemy of.''

Turning to him, Samus noted the damage to his system. "I could send you some Energy from my shielding, give your repair systems a boost." She said as Loki started to foam at the mouth. As his life started to fade, a beam reached down from above, piercing down from Asgard as Odin sought to reclaim his sons and save them from this nightmare world, with Prophet noting the broken scepter and moving to jab it into the portal beam issuing forth from the tesseract.

But as he did so, a piercing shriek went through the world. New portals opened up, showing a vast space station...well, vast by those who weren't from space faring civilizations, to the Imperials and Eldar it would be nothing special, but to it's inhabitants, whether they were aliens, keepers, humans, or the occasional shackled robot it was known only as....

...The Citadel...

However, some forces were then spread out across the mass effect galaxy as the portals dragged them in, though the newly formed group of heroes remained intact. Some of the forces remained on Earth behind them.

The heroes that had brought down Loki were brought to the citadel, while the villains were scattered about. Armstrong had been brought to that universe's Earth, and the Citadel found itself surrounded by Imperial ships now, along with a substantial number of guardsmen, now increased from before, along with U.S armymen, spread across it.

Furthermore, each and every person in this dimensional clash would feel, inexplicably more powerful, more potent than they were before in every way.

The people closest, a bunch of Turians, looked at the group and promptly dropped their drinks before backing away and running while the Guardsmen started to panic with so many xenos, worse yet, Xenos who lived with Humans in peace.

"What sort of heretical madness is this place!?!" One of the Guardsmen shouted as he warily pointed his lasgun at the aliens as Security forces were brought in.

Azwraith ducked, his phantom taking the brunt of the nightmare, as he summoned a doppel to take his place. The foul energies radiating from his phantom still had an effect, and so was powerless to stop himself being dragged into the portal behind Atropos.

“The nightmare begins, anew!”

Speeding into the crowded bar, Atropos cackled in joy as he shot a jolt of black lightning into the fleeing crowd. None seemed to be armed, or even vaguely aware of what was occurring as Bane sucked the life from some or sapped the strength from others. Alarms blared while the Elemental trailed his inky form outside of the bar, seeking more victims to fuel the nightmare.

Raiden was alone again. He had been transported to some kind of space station. He could see the stars from the small portal beside him that led into the unknown.

"I wonder if anyone else made it." He said, his body was still very weak from Loki's blast. His codec was silent for the moment, apparently Doktor was not so quick in following him this time.

Raiden slowly slugged along the corridors of the vessel for what seemed like an age, he appeared to be in the vast maintenance areas away from the rest of the crew, so for the most part he was entirely alone. Occasionally a small creature would come out of the blood and make themselves busy, but Raiden paid them no heed, as they seemed to be repairing parts of the vessel.

Raiden was oblivious to the mayhem that was occurring on other parts of the vessel until he heard a mysterious, but familiar noise. Raiden turned around, and was more than a little bit shocked.

Hulking behind him, slime drooling from his massive maw, was the same Carnifex that Raiden had defeated earlier. He had somehow managed to mend the damage to his leg, although he still appeared a little limp in the foot. Raiden was in no shape to fight him again, so he began to make a run for it. The rampaging Carnifex trundled after him like a runwaway train. Smashing down walls and buckling doors. Some of the small aliens got in the way of the beast, and the Carnifex crushed them as those they didn't exist. Despite all the speed that Raiden had in him, the Carnifex was blisteringly quick. Eventually though he seemed to outrun him, and Raiden paused for a while to catch his breath in a massive computer room.

But as luck would have it, the beast tore his way though the wall, running at Raiden with all his power. Raiden stood his ground, darting to the side just as the Carnifex was about to catch his prey. The great beast skidded until it ploughed deep into the computer. A massive electrically surge stunned the creature, and for the second time today he was out cold. Just as Raiden was about to breathe a sigh of relief, a noise could be heard over the speaker system.

"Warning, Life Support system disabled, life support is failing."

"Oh, crap." Raiden said as he looked at the wreckage of the life support system.

Having found most of his would be opponents unworthy, Skulltaker finally came across the Hulk lumbering away from the remains of Loki. "He'll do.", he thought to himself having missed most of the carnage already. He stepped down from his chariot and ran at the Hulk, plunging his sword into his back.

The Hulk, having settled down after Loki's defeat before, returned to a state of rage. With the Hulk's body flailing furiously, Skulltaker is thrown off but lands on his feet.

"Now that I've got your attention...", he said officially challenging the green behemoth, "...Let's see who's stronger."

"You won't like me when I'm angry!", replied the Hulk. The stabwound from Skulltaker's sword ignited with a daemonic flame. His face grimaced from the pain, but otherwise he didn't show any sign of weakness.

Skulltaker issued a sinister laugh. "On the contrary!", he said. "I like you so much more when you're angry!"

"Hey, donkey-cave" Savior's voice came from behind Skulltaker.Left hand on hip, and smirk on face.

"Why don't you pick on someone that can actually take you" She said,She put her hair out of her eyes

"Or are you a dog with no bite?" She said.

Without turning around, Skulltaker sighed and replied, "This is clearly not the time."

"The Hulk is already marked for death, but if you think you are more of a challenge, then I'll take you instead and leave him to my legion of daemons."

Savior smirked.

"I think the fact that I am an Angel, or Living saint where you come from, I think I'll be more then a match" She said, again cocky.

Finally turning around, Skulltaker replied, "'Angel' or 'saint' means nil in the eyes of the Blood God. Tell me, what color is your blood?"

Realising that Atropos had not yet transitioned into the Citadel, Azwraith returned to his Ancient in stricken New York, in search of Bane. He did not have to go far, before the pikeman located a bar, corpses (presumably) thrown through the window. He split five phantoms, to aid him in the coming battle. Seeing Bane gripping a hapless citizen in his Fiend's Grip he leapt forward, firing off his spirit lance as his phantoms did the same, landing next to Atropos, thrusting his spear forward into the Bane elemental's essence.

Savior.

"Ah, now that's more like it! We'll you'll have to see." She said. She drew her sword.

"Unguard?" She said.

Bane dodged the strike, spiting a curse of weakness upon the Phantom Lancer before striking with black lightning and fire. The elemental sniggered and hissed as he backed away, drawing runes and symbols in the air as he placed Lancer into a nightmare. Realising his time was short, Atropos abandoned the bar and moved further into the labyrinth structure.

The pikeman awoke, seething, and sent a wave of illusions after Atropos, into the labyrinth. Alas, the Bane Elemental was nowhere to be seen. Azwraith called his illusions back to him, and stalked quietly into the labyrinth.

His blade being engulfed in flame, Skulltaker ran forward.
Meanwhile, his retinue of lesser heralds rode up to continue the battle against the Hulk. The Hulk however, showed no sign of weakness as he continued to punch the daemonic champions around. Despite being outnumbering the Hulk ten to one, the Heralds were in for a tough fight.

Atropos's mere presence seemed to have an effect on the citadels inhabitants, their movements and actions were hampered by the sense of the Elemental gnawing at their minds, hungry for their fear. Bane had killed scores of these varied creatures, his form having fed on the fear he had harvested. That reminded him, where had 'Ra gone? Atropos thought to himself that he might as well try and find the closest thing to ally he had in this reality, and set off.

Ra dropped from service shaft above Banes head, leading bodily upon the ground with a distinct thud. Ra looked up at the service hatch and flipped a crystal stone upwards, tiny human hands darted out and caught it, before the duct rat scurried off.

''The depraved can be useful when they have nothing to lose. This place is like my home, yet so different. Aliens live together in peace like under the tyranny of the Tau ethereal caste, it is sickening. Life supports are failing, and I do not understand the technology. There has been no sign of the others and I am at a loss to comprehend these beings who are subservient to other races. So I guess that leaves us little room, but to stall, and enjoy the moment.'' Ra swivelled the Maugetar onto some fleeing aliens, some of them even tried to raise weapons at Ra, but they all fell silently as perfectly place shurikans severed there wind pipe. This may seem wanton and cruel, but there was a reason Ra was the 'Harvester of souls'.

welshhoppo wrote:
Raiden was alone again. He had been transported to some kind of space station. He could see the stars from the small portal beside him that led into the unknown.

"I wonder if anyone else made it." He said, his body was still very weak from Loki's blast. His codec was silent for the moment, apparently Doktor was not so quick in following him this time.

Raiden slowly slugged along the corridors of the vessel for what seemed like an age, he appeared to be in the vast maintenance areas away from the rest of the crew, so for the most part he was entirely alone. Occasionally a small creature would come out of the blood and make themselves busy, but Raiden paid them no heed, as they seemed to be repairing parts of the vessel.

Raiden was oblivious to the mayhem that was occurring on other parts of the vessel until he heard a mysterious, but familiar noise. Raiden turned around, and was more than a little bit shocked.

Hulking behind him, slime drooling from his massive maw, was the same Carnifex that Raiden had defeated earlier. He had somehow managed to mend the damage to his leg, although he still appeared a little limp in the foot. Raiden was in no shape to fight him again, so he began to make a run for it. The rampaging Carnifex trundled after him like a runwaway train. Smashing down walls and buckling doors. Some of the small aliens got in the way of the beast, and the Carnifex crushed them as those they didn't exist. Despite all the speed that Raiden had in him, the Carnifex was blisteringly quick. Eventually though he seemed to outrun him, and Raiden paused for a while to catch his breath in a massive computer room.

But as luck would have it, the beast tore his way though the wall, running at Raiden with all his power. Raiden stood his ground, darting to the side just as the Carnifex was about to catch his prey. The great beast skidded until it ploughed deep into the computer. A massive electrically surge stunned the creature, and for the second time today he was out cold. Just as Raiden was about to breathe a sigh of relief, a noise could be heard over the speaker system.

"Warning, Life Support system disabled, life support is failing."

"Oh, crap." Raiden said as he looked at the wreckage of the life support system.

The entire citadel was in panic as every effort was made to get the denizens away from the carnage. However, Raiden managed to receive a line from Samus. "You're not easy to track down, you know that right?" She said over the comms, somewhat playfully teasing him over how easy it was for him to get lost.

"I'm reading some major energy surges in your room...You alright?" Prophet said over the communications, having appeared with Samus and her small fleet of gunships along with John and Rose.

"From what I'm getting from S.E.C.O.N.D, this place is called "The Citadel", but it wasn't built by the people using it. They say it was built by a precursor species called the "Protheans". It's about forty four kilometers from end to end and currently there's a lot of havoc going down. The Imperial Guard is on edge, they're not happy that humans here live in peace with aliens and think that something has to be up." He said, looking over his data read outs.

Samus then entered the station and checked the damaged life support before looking at the Cyborg, a frown under her helmet.

"You know...this system, for something built by a precursor species, is actually quite primitive despite it's appearances. Give me a moment to fix it and keep anything that might also be lurking in here off my back." She said to Raiden as examined the system and had her ships drop off some parts, activating the cutting and welding function of her thermal plasma beam to enact repairs and weld in fresh systems.

Coming in soon afterwards was Prophet, who left the kids to guard the outside areas, apparently they could breathe in space...and talk too...that didn't make much sense to him but oh well.

Checking the armor systems of some of the dead crew members, his suit found some useful technology.

"Analyzing....Useful upgrades detected...designated, "Mass effect" system, "Kinetic barrier" system, "Gravitic weapon propulsion" system, "Omnigel" system, "Medigel" system, assimilating." His suit said as it's nanite systems actually started to eat parts of the armor suit, worming it's way into the useful technology, analyzing it, consuming it, and doing it's best to replicate it and add it into his suit.

"Kinetic barriers, added, new weapon modifications available, new nano-modules available, improved self repair and user health systems available, Omnigel and Medigel compatability, available." His suit droned.

"Samus?" He asked as she started welding.

"Already got what little was useful to me off of them. My suit's way ahead of their tech level." She said as her arm cannon lanced into the damaged systems, putting in new, repaired modules.

"Raiden, I think I could help you incorporate this new tech into your system...most of it's not at your level sure, but the kinetic barriers should be useful at least." He said as he rolled a shoulder.

"Anyway...looks like you need a top-up of energy...have this K-volt battery and their "Omnigel", it should help repair you." He said, throwing a canister of omnigel taken from a dead security chief and then a battery from his electric K-volt gun.

"Hey...did you feel any stronger when you got in here too?" He asked as he checked the perimeter for any unwanted surprises.

Raiden popped the omnigel in his grip and was glad to feel the energy surge through him. Red lightning crackled at his finger tips as his body returned to it's full power level.

"Curse Doktor for giving me a suit that is so reliant on outside energy. It was only supposed to be used for short term missions." Raiden said, he nodded at Prophet for the present.

"As for feeling stronger, well". Raiden braced his left hand and jabbed it into the wall. The wall burst away under his fist, leaving a gaping hole. "Definitely stronger, I feel like I could bench press EXCELSUS."

"But why are we here, is Loki still around?"

"Nobody has seen him." Prophet replied.

"I met some crazy people in my life, but he has to top the cake." Raiden replied.

A klaxon sounded and it was quickly followed by the sounds of footsteps. It looked like trouble had found them and was on the way to greet them now.

welshhoppo wrote:
Raiden popped the omnigel in his grip and was glad to feel the energy surge through him. Red lightning crackled at his finger tips as his body returned to it's full power level.

"Curse Doktor for giving me a suit that is so reliant on outside energy. It was only supposed to be used for short term missions." Raiden said, he nodded at Prophet for the present.

"As for feeling stronger, well". Raiden braced his left hand and jabbed it into the wall. The wall burst away under his fist, leaving a gaping hole. "Definitely stronger, I feel like I could bench press EXCELSUS."

"But why are we here, is Loki still around?"

"Nobody has seen him." Prophet replied.

"I met some crazy people in my life, but he has to top the cake." Raiden replied.

A klaxon sounded and it was quickly followed by the sounds of footsteps. It looked like trouble had found them and was on the way to greet them now.

"Think he was telling the truth about them? The Ulutraxi?" Prophet said as he kept watch with his nanovision.

"A species that harvests entire realities? It's rather far-fetched but quite possible...I can't see why they'd bring us together though." Samus said

C-sec burst into the room guns blazing, though unfortunately their weapons, while advanced for Modern Earth standards, were rather unsuited for taking on three super soldiers.

Samus didn't even notice as the bullets bounced off her shielding, or at least if she did, she simply ignored them as she continued to try and repair the life support system.

Prophet, with his new kinetic barriers, improved and multiplied from the versions used by the dead C-sec troopers, managed to tank some of the hits before getting into cover and firing away with his K-volt, sending electricity that completely bypassed their barriers into them and causing the Turians to flop to the ground dead.

"From what we can tell, they're supposed to be the good guys...but they're on edge. This mess has them spooked." He said as he got off some more shots.

"Their shields don't block energy attacks, and they all carry plenty of electrical systems and omnigel for you to use. Have at it." Samus said as she started to finish her repairs.