Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or Marvel franchise.

Chapter 7: The Rampage

3 weeks before the Triangulum event...
City of Adenapolis, Charum Hakkor
Sep 01, 62558 AD...

Charum Hakkor in the Hakkor system was one of Humanity's capital trinity along side Reach and Earth. This world has a rather bloody history.

Around 160,000BC, this planet was the center of the ancient human civilization. But then, their conflict with the Forerunners brought them to near extinction where they finally made the last stand and still lost after betrayed by their then allies, the San shyuum when they surrendered. Then that planet was turned in a lifeless ball of rock when a halo was test fired on there. But why would a planet become barren with the halo pulse? That's because the planet was artificially built by a primordial race of multiversal godly beings called the 'Precursors'. Charum Hakkor was created with Neural physics and filled with wealth of Neural Physics based artifacts. The planet is more alive in a different sense. As Halo uses phased neutrino pulse that destroys nervous systems, decimated the entire planet's ecosystem. But then the modern humanity found it and terraformed the planet and turned it even more magnificent than their ancient counterpart.

Modern humanity fortified the world with fleet of Juggernaut class supercarriers(for details, see chapter 1) and Orbital particle beam platforms.

"We are about to exit the slipstream, Commander. ETA 5 minutes" said one of the flight Lieutenant.

"Thank you Lieutenant" John-117 replied as he was seated inside of a Phantom class vessel that was cruising through the alternate dimension. That's when Cortana beeped through his wrist watch. Currently John was wearing an high ranking officer uniform, grey, full sleeved. John tapped the watch and Cortana's avatar popped up.

"So, what would the senate want with the humanity's military leader?" She asked with a jest.

"Can't think of anything but a fight" he replied neutrally.

"Ah! C'mon! You are soldier, not a barbarian. It's only been a week since your last mission in the Andromeda and here's another. UGSC needs to give you a break" she replied nodding her head disappointingly.

John was on a mission to stop a rebel alien faction from using a singularity bomb that could potentially wipe out the entire star system. But John led the fleet and ground forces to finish the hostile forces on the ground as well as the space and stop their evil plan. Then he ordered the UGSC military forces to arrest the survivors to get the information on who sent them. But till then John luckily had nothing to do to a point that he himself felt weird about that. So he took a week off to rest in his house he owns on the planet Heian. Actually, this is the first time John got to spend a week time without work and stress, so he did lot of meditation and target practice.

"We will know soon enough. Besides, I'm always glad when 'nature' calls!" he replied with a mild smirk. Cortana simply shrugged her shoulder, but then she was reminded of something.

"Just wanted to ask about one more thing. How do you feel now?" she asked blatantly to which the spartan shrunk his temples in confusion.

"I mean...you know-...the psychic stability ever since your encounter with-...uhh-...You know who" she stammered to bring up one of the painful memories, but John understood where she was getting at.

"That was generations ago. I am fine" he replied stoically. Cortana was about to argue but was cut by the comm.

"Sir, exiting slipspace in 3...2...1"

**ZZZZAAAPPPPPP**

The vessel exited the bluish white space vortex. John watched through the glass window to see the beautiful planet active as a day.

"Beautiful, ain't it?" John thought looking at the horizon of the planet where the star light's about to vanish from the place where his vessel his headed. That's when another comm opened.

"This is UGSC orbital particle station 'New Aalborg' to UGSC identified vessel 'Into the Light'. State your purpose of entry" came a female comm officer's voice.

"This is Lt. James, we have Commander 117 on board, en route to the senate tower" replied the pilot as he also sent an id tag. When it comes to worlds like Earth, Reach or Charum Hakkor, even friendly vessels would be thoroughly scanned for higher level security reasons.

"You are all clear, Lieutenant" replied the comm officer.

"Here we go!" he smiled as he took the vessel into the planet's atmosphere. John watched as the vessel descended into the planet as he watched the evening sky, the star light from the horizon, scattered by the air through Raleigh scattering effect. Down on the ground, there were buildings, malls, restaurants, bars and casinos lit up high like Times Square across the city. Adenapolis was one of the several metropolitan cities that always carry the day effect all the time. Civilian vehicles on the ground and air, it's so lively.

In another 5 minutes, the vessel reached the senate tower as it hovered a couple feet above the landing zone.

"You're good to go Commander" the pilot said as John got up his seat and walked towards the bay door. he door opened wide and a platform extended and touched the floor. John walked the platform and stepped out to feel the warm sunlight and cold breeze. For a moment John felt calm as his mind felt some sort of inner peace.

That's when he saw two officers loaded with Ion-Particle rifle. John walked up front as the two paved way and gave a crisp salute. John returned the gesture.

"Sir, President Hood is waiting for you. And so are the others" One of them spoke. John nodded as he walked towards the entrance door. He then made his way to the main hall. Along the way, everyone who saw him paused their activities for a second in respect. Then he entered the main hall which was filled with officers, Admirals and even flying drones and lots of hardlight displays etc., When John walked, One of the Admirals barked for everyone in the hall to hear.

"COMMANDER IN THE ROOM!" as everyone stopped moving and did a crisp salute. John saluted back and replied,

"At ease" he replied as things returned back to business. That's when he noticed two familiar faces approaching him, Doctor Halsey and Spartan leader Sarah Palmer.

"Great to see you John, though I suspect you wanted to be somewhere else than here!" she said with a jest. John let a mild smirk.

"You don't say, Doctor" he replied.

"John, I was just a doctor to you a really long time ago. But now, I thought with all that time passed, we were on first name basis" she said accusingly though she knew it wasn't gonna change anything.

"Sorry, habits" were his only response.

"Sorry for the rude interruption Commander, I would love to watch you two bicker at each other all day, but-...you know-..." Palmer said raising her eyebrows to which John gave a nod of approval.

"Yup, down to business. Let's get inside. President Hood is waiting for you" said Halsey as the three walked towards the conference room.

"Are the others here?" he asked though he suspected that wouldn't be the case.

"Well, they are not here. Especially, I heard one of them saying, 'John's always a step ahead of us and he always took care of before hand intel'...you know" Halsey shrugged. John knew who it could be, that's Kelly. He sarcastically castigated his team for getting him into these civilian chores, keeping themselves secure.

By that time, they reached the door that was guarded by two marines as they saluted and the door opened wide. The three entered the room only to be greeted by a man still looking in his 40s. Lord Hood, former leader of UNSC Security council, current president of the Inter-galactic Human federation. For many millennia, Hood played key roles in securing friendships with the other alien races in and out of the home galaxy. He's an exceptional leader and many people, including the former covenant races always held him high regards. He also played a key role in having the Spartan IIs lead the human military and John as the Supreme Commander, due to his trust in their abilities.

Also in the room, there were 3 more fleet admirals seated.

"Welcome back Spartan, aren't you a sight for sore eyes!" Hood said with a smile shaking hands with him, though John noticed weariness in his eyes.

"You sound so tired, Sir. Guess there's a problem that needs to be fixed?" he asked turning a little serious.

"You can say that again. Not a day goes by without chores to tend to" he responded.

"Well well! No chit chat-...no 'long time no see' fuzz-...getting straight to the point, huh?" Halsey asked raising her eyebrows with a smirk.

"I wish to join, but-...we got a situation. And-...*SIGH* this looks like a huge problem to everyone" he said, his voice sounded distressed. John, Halsey and Palmer shared a brief look, Palmer shrugged her shoulders.

John had never seen him so stressed, this was enough for him to get convinced that something was definitely not alright.

"Yesterday, we received this transmission on a forerunner emergency quantum channel" Hood said as he touched the glass top of the table which got highlighted with hologram and then a hardlight display popped up above. But it wasn't some screen but a projection of a monitor, a forerunner monitor that had purple eye glowing. John instantly recognized the monitor.

031-Exuberant Witness, monitor of the forerunner installation Genesis. John first got acquainted with the monitor with his blue team in search for Cortana back in 2559. That was a bitter journey for him as that was the time he learned Cortana was still alive after he thought she had gone forever after their bout with the Didact. Also the other fact being that the installation served as one of the many gateways to the Domain, an ancient Precursor repository of cosmic information that spans a 100 billion years. Ever since, he hadn't come into contact with that monitor.

Hood looked at John to get a note of his facial expression and then played the message. The monitor let it's girly, cheeky yet despaired voice echo the room.

"This is 031-Exuberant Witness, monitor of the installation Genesis to any and all of my allies, if you are hearing this message, then you need to know that we are running out of time. The UNIVERSE-...is running out of time. 5 hours ago, the domain has been activated by some unknown means, I have lost all controls of this facility, it's in total lockdown. I am seeing thousands of signals being generated in the forerunner battle net, that's was previously only used on our war with the flood. Signs of large scale attack, must be one that activated the repo. I am also seeing orders for massive force deployment not just in this galaxy but on thousands and thousands out there! There will be CHAOS and WAR! Please, stop it before it's too late and save yourselves. I am shutting myself down as per forerunner in-dispensation protocol to prevent unauthorized access or capture by the enemy..I-...I uhh-...good luck!"

With that, the message ended leaving everyone in the room silent for quite some time.

"What the hell was that? the Domain? asked Halsey feeling bewildered.

"At the same time, the Sanghelli scout ship detected activity in that very zone. Could it be a coincidence?" asked Palmer wondering the same.

"Coincidence or not, doesn't matter. Looks like we all got our hands full again. Some jerk is trying mess things everywhere" Hood was declarative.

John was still processing what this all could mean. He had faced a lot of worst things in the past that would give creeps to anyone's bones. But this time, he felt that this is entirely different from anything he has seen previously. He felt something sinistrical about this new so called threat. His spartan instincts kicked in response that reminded him of his sworn duty, to protect humanity and innocent lives. But once again, back to what Palmer mentioned.

"Sanghelli?" he asked shrinking his eyebrows.

"Yes, one of their scout vessel detected strange slipspace energy signatures around the Genesis system. Word is, that they were obliterated before they could escape. Also they made their last transmission-.." she said as she brought another hardlight display of a comm beacon.

"-...Something that referred to forerunner vessels" Palmer finished.

"There's a possibility that the forerunner vessels might be controlled by someone from the domain. After all, it can activate any technology, forerunner and Precursor alike. We've seen it's function before" Halsey added.

"Whatever it is, this needs to be stopped. If what the monitor says is true, anyone who gained the access to domain threatens every aspect of existence" John said in all seriousness which made everyone to look at him with concern. Of course, when he gets serious, then shit's getting real for real. Halsey who was standing near by him slowly held his arm in comforting way.

"John, we will. After all, we had been a lot and look at where we are. But this is the domain we are talking about. Last time we tried to mess with it, a whole galaxy was at war" she said pressing her tone regarding the gravity of the situation. In fact, she was referring to one of the splintered rampant personality of Cortana that used the domain to deploy forerunner guardians to subdue the galaxy. But that was a long time ago, back in 2559. But that war was also the culmination of one of the important milestones in humanity's history, that was the same time when they discovered path kethona(Large Magellanic Cloud) and utilized the resources to create their own counter offensive technologies to combat the forerunner weapons.

John was silent for a couple of seconds to process her statements. He knew deep down she was right.

"But that was many millennia ago. Why now after a long long time?" Hood asked frustratingly.

John was still trying to figure out the missing pieces to complete the puzzle. He firmly believed in one possibility, it wasn't someone new, but some old enemy, how? Because, not many knew about the domain. It's been a well kept secret, only a handful knew about that, which also includes some of humanity's ancient foes.

"It's not someone new, but someone old and familiar" said John that garnered everyone's attention.

"Care to explain, soldier?" asked Hood.

"Sir, the domain is a powerful information repository. It's influence spans the whole universe. That's how the precursors constructed it. No sentient being has the right mind to interface with out killing themselves. Last time, when I entered it to try and save Cortana, were it not for the monitor's intervention, it would have killed me in mere seconds. I was just lucky" he explained. This helped the others to narrow down the search.

"So that means, it's been accessed by someone powerful...or precisely someone with a powerful mind that can hold themselves against huge in and outflow of rogue neuroelectric data waves" Halsey concluded.

"Though at this point I suspect if there's someone out there that fits the description"

"The universe is a huge place, Palmer. We have explored only a proverbial speck of dust" John said to which Palmer nodded in agreement.

"Now how do we stop it?" Hood hit the nail in everyone's head with the final question. John was calculating the next steps.

"We need to go to the Genesis system and need to scan every interstellar space. Call on every battle group to scan for any slipspace transit carrying unidentified vessels. If the vessels are forerunner, they can cross only 5000 light years in a day. It's been 5 hours since this transmission. So we should be good to get a lock on them easily. Also the fortress fleet in the inter-galactic void needs to be alerted of this situation. Full permission to engage any and all hostiles" John gave his orders.

"I will relay those orders on your behalf, Commander" Palmer said as she was about to leave the room and all of a sudden,

**BAAAMM...BAAAMM...BAAAMM** the alarms went off.

Suddenly, John's watch beeped and Cortana appeared above.

"What is it Cortana?"

"John, I need you immediately! I am bringing labyrinth right now. We have detected anomalies in 18 galaxies and a few more outside our sphere of influence" she said rushing in tense.

"Holy crap! Has it already begun?" Halsey asked loud understanding that it had already begun.

"Cortana, we suspect that those could be forerunner vessels activated through the domain. Keep me posted of the situation" Hood said.

"Aye aye Mr. President" Cortana acknowledged his orders.

"I am gonna take care of the duties that needs to be done right now. I am gonna call the Arbiter. Most of the forerunner space are in the Sanghelli's control" Hood said as he left the hall.

"And I will ready the Spartan teams ready!" Palmer said as she too left the room. When the door opened, they could already hear multiple, distressing voices as the marines were pulling security.

"Roger that, Doctor, get to safety. I will meet you later" John said as he wanted to keep his mother figure out of harm's way.

"John, I am heading to Zeta fleet that's about to leave for the Genesis system" she said that stunned John.

"What? No, it's too dangerous!" he warned not wanting her to get to any harm.

"I am always curious than cautious and before you could talk me out of this, don't waste to your time" she sounded deterministic and John soon understood that she's too stubborn to listen to him, feeling her curiosity is getting the best of her, so he left to her decisions.

"Alright, but be careful" he said, still concerned, though at this juncture, he didn't have enough time to argue.

"Roger that Spartan, knew you would see it my way" she said with a smirk as they both left the hall.

"Alright, bring the ship here. I'll get ready. Where's our first destination?" he asked the AI.

"Right now, the sensors are already picking up activity in the the void near the M33 Triangulum. Must be the Atlantis sensors. We need to head there first" she replied, but as preparing for the bout, her face turned bleak all of sudden.

"What's wrong?"

"Can't believe this is happening. Do you truly think it's the domain. **SIGH** God I wished I never had to think of that place again" she said rubbing her arms like feeling cold. She had bad memories of that place and lot less to be desired. John knew exactly what she was referring and he himself was not pleased of those memories.

"Don't worry, we got this" that was all he could say, but enough for her to muster hope.

"Fine. Ghosts of the past, never leave us. See you inside" she said and vanished from his wrist projector.

There was only one thought in the spartan II's mind.

"Looks like the time for talk is over already!"

...

...

Present Day...
Avengers Tower, New York city...

"Cap, what do we got on sensors?" asked Tony as he entered the common room in the top most floor after Jarvis, his AI assistant warned him of an emergency situation.

"We got a problem" Rogers replied as he waved Tony to look into the screen that was reporting a news of a prison break. Tony after watching hte news feed had his face turned bilious. There were live feeds of screaming people, flying and crushed automobiles as a huge hulk like being in a red armor with hemispherical helmet, stomped the ground. There were military personnel that were firing at the being in vain. To the heroes horror, he trampled over the soldiers to their gory deaths.

"What the hell? Was it a few hours ago?"

"Yes Tony, Not really sure how did this happen"

All of a sudden, Nick fury's image popped up.

"Director Fury!" Tony acknowledged.

"Stark, Cap, Juggernaut has broken out of the vault prison by unknown mean. We are working on how the hell that happened. But meanwhile, we have to stop his rampage. Unlike previous times, we are reading unusual amount of energy from him. Something's not right" Fury said, sounding more distressed.

"We are on it Fury. I will have the Avengers get there and stop Cain Marko" replied Rogers.

"Thanks Captain. Spider-man and his team are on a different task, so sorry, you won't be getting assistance from my end. A few minutes ago, I also spoke with Xavier, a few of the X-men are also coming to assist you" he said.

"That's fine. We will head there and keep you posted. But before that, I wanted to ask you something. With this threat looming around, do you think our newcomer would show himself again?" asked Steve that made Fury rub his chin to ponder his question.

"I don't know cap, but something tells me we can expect his arrival. Either way, put an end to this menace before he turns Denver in to a graveyard" Fury said as he cut the comm. Rogers nodded in acknowledgement.

Then he turned to face Tony and sighed and he walked away to get himself dressed.

"How the hell did that red bastard got of his chains. My satellites should have gathered the data that I can check" he said as he contacted the other Avengers in the comm.

"Nat, gather the others. We are heading to Denver" Stark said.

"Planning for a vacation to the rockies?" Natasha asked Sarcastically to which he chuckled.

"Something of that sort. We need to stop a guy with big helmet" he said as he smirked and tapped his triangular chest piece. It then moved a couple millimeters in as the nanites started to flow around his body faster, finally wraping him up with the new badass Achilles armor. Stark raised his arm in front of his face and folded his fingers to get a feel for the new suit,

"Yeah baby!" he thought with amusement.

By the time, Rogers readied himself with the Captain America suit and the shield.

"I will get everyone on the quin-jet" Rogers said to which Stark nodded and they both headed to the exit launch pad.

Meanwhile in Denver...

**MULTIPLE PEOPLE SCREAMS**

**MULTIPLE VEHICLE CRASHES**

**BASH...BOOOMMM**

The city of Denver was in utter chaos when the unstoppable Juggernaut broke free from the vault prison and rampaged through the civilian zone.

"THAT'S IT PANSIES! RUN AND BOW BEFORE THE MIGHT OF THE JUGGERNAUT! I AM GONNA ENJOY ROLLING, TURN YOU ALL INTO BLOODY PULP!

The Juggernaut yelled as another taxi accidentally crash stopped near him as the driver was screaming in terror.

"AAAAHH!"

Cain Marko stomped the car's hood as it flipped up and towards his head. He then caught it with his one hand and threw it at a gas station that blew up the entire gas station. Unfortunately some poor souls died in the explosion. At least the cab driver got out before he could suffer the same fate.

"HA HA HAAA!" he let a maniacal laugh as he proceeded to walk.

"All units, prepare to engage hostile" one of the SWAT sergeant whose unit was sent from the vault prison security to restrain him. Also there were national security guard in the area assisting the SWAT unit.

**MULTIPLE GUN SHOTS**

**MULTIPLE EXPLOSIONS**

The bullets and grenades went flying towards the red being, but to no avail. His hard skin felt nothing but touch of fine sand grains.

"ASSHOLES! DON'T YOU GET IT? I AM UNSTOPPABLE!" he roared as he picked up pace and jumped high and fell to the ground like a meteor strike that leveled the entire zone as all the officers ran for their lives though not everyone where lucky to escape his wrath as some soldiers got trampled under the rocks.

He then walked and turned around to find battle tanks aiming at him.

"YOU NEVER LEARN...FINE!" he yelled as he started running towards the tanks. The tanks shot heavy energy explosive rounds.

**KABOOOMMM**

Unfortunately, the force field before him scattered the energy before it could even touch his skin. He picked up the pace and got near the tanks and grab hold of the cannon barrel, lifted the tank and ripped the whole tank in half. Then he lifted the other tank and threw it at high speed towards the civilian alley.

"Daddy! Where are you! DAAAAD" a kid, a boy was screaming for his father who he lost sight of in this mess. The poor kid was already having bloody scars in his face.

"SON!" suddenly he heard the kid heard his father yelling at a distance. The kid smiled in glory as he ran towards his father. But as he reached the man, his father was stunned to see a tank flying towards them.

"NOOOOO!' he yelled as he too tried to get his son as quick as possible. But when they both embrace each other,

**BOOOM**

the tank was suddenly stopped mid air as the son and the father felt a shadow and silence. Both slowly lifted their head upwards to find a certain huge green avenger standing in front of them holding the tank. They both smiled in joy to which the green avenger smirked in response.

"WHOA ! That was AWESOME!" the kid yelled in joy.

"Thanks for the help!" the father said in gratitude.

"No problem Sir. But now, you both need to get off this place to somewhere safe" came another voice, which was Captain America. And soon the other Avengers entered the scene, Hawk eye, Black widow, Ant-man, Iron-man, Scarlett witch.

He nodded as he left the place. Hulk then threw the tank back to Juggernaut's position that got his attention.

"HEY BIG UGLY RED! COME AND PLAY WITH HULK!" hulk yelled for the Juggernaut to hear and once could say he was clearly pissed off.

"AVENGERS! I WILL CRUSH YOU ALL!" he roared as he started pacing towards the Avengers.

"Hulk, try to get him out of the city. Even better, we can handle him in the Rockies with out worrying about casualties" Rogers said. Hulk nodded and leapt towards the unstoppable red being.

"Hang on, lemme butter things for ya!" Stark said as he too flew towards Juggernaut to help Hulk.

"Hawkeye, Wanda, Widow, help everyone in the town to get to safety. There could be a lot of emergencies, tend to them. Things are gonna be real messy. You help them while we distract Juggernaut out of the town" Steve ordered as they all acknowledged.

"On it Cap, make sure to join asap. Can't let you guys have all the fun" replied Widow with a smirk as she winked her eye. Then she and the other two scattered to help the civilians.

"Hulk, get him out of the town. We will follow you" Rogers said as he got back to the quin-jet to follow Hulk. Hulk nodded as he to paced towards the red monster.

Meanwhile...

"READY TO DIE BANNER!" Juggernaut was getting close.

"PUNY BANNER! I AM HULK AND I WILL SMASH YOU!" Hulk roared as he leapt with great force and pounded the ground at blinding speed that caused a tremor. The ground broke and Juggernaut slipped and fell down with his momentum carrying him a long way past him.

"Hang an Jolly green!" Stark said as he shot his repulsor cannons from his palms and from the back that knocked the helmet being to the ground with great force.

But he quickly got up, but this time he waited a few moments.

"RRRAAHHHH!"

Hulk started sprinting towards Cain only for him to pick up a sudden momentum in close quarters and hit the green behemoth with his helmet.

"But Stark came in between to stop the Juggernaut with the nanite assembled hammer that used ion beam propulsion to land a hard punch. But, Juggernaut's momentum was too much that the hammer force reverted back to Stark's arm and he went flying and crashing into the already burning gas station.

"AAHHH! Damn it! Even the Achilles couldn't hold him physically" But thanks to the superiority, the armor was just fine.

**BOOOOM**
The force of a rushing mountain then hit hulk's abdomen and sent him flying crashing through vehicles and buildings. Hulk was flat on the floor for 5 seconds and then he got up shaking his head to recover from the impact blur. Then he got up and gritted his teeth in anger.

"ALL THIS TIME HULK, YOU STILL DON'T GET IT! YOU CAN NEVER PICK A FIGHT WITH ME AND WIN! he yelled and once again sprinted towards the Hulk. Hulk had a plan this time,

He too started running towards him. But when they both only were a few meters apart, Hulk used his right leg to stomp the ground that lifted the road towards Juggernaut and he didn't anticipate this as the road underneath him lifted above and threw him in the air. Hulk instantly leapt towards him by force, bashing through his body, carried him on his shoulder as he flew towards the Rockies out of the town.

**AIR WHISTLES...AIR SCREAM...BAAAAMMMM!"

Hulk and Juggernaut crash landed on a huge boulder that shattered on impact. Both Juggernaut and Hulk grunted as they got to their feet from that pounding.

Hulk then swung his right arm to his face. Juggernaut blocked it with his left arm and did a right cross which he ducked under and gave a earth shattering uppercut to his face. Juggernaut was fazed for a moment.

**THOOOOMMM**

"ALRIGHT! I AM PISSED OFF!" he cursed as he suddenly held tight his fists as the crimson energy started to glow around him as he started to beef up a little and his eyes were glowing red and he got madder.

"RRRAAAHHHHH" he roared and was about to stomp through Hulk but then

**BOOOM**

A missile came hitting the Juggernaut on the back. Hulk looked up to find it was from the Quin-jet, As Natasha fired a SHIELD prototype RPG that was loaded with powerful EMP burst that temporarily shunted Cyttorak gem's energy for a couple of seconds. Then from quin-jet, Wanda, Hawkeye and Captain America jumped out. Meanwhile Juggernaut was back on his feet with rage as he leapt above and stomped the ground which created a tremor that made everyone dodge away. He was about to beat nearby Natasha, but as his fist reached the ground, she raised her legs upward and used his arm to thrust away from him as she fired a couple of electric stun discs but to no avail as the force field blocked it.

"Hey Jackass! Eat this!" Hawkeye yelled as he fired a Air burst tipped arrows which again were blocked by the force field.

"EAT THIS!" Juggernaut yelled and raced towards him.

"Oh SHIT! I am so screwed!" Hawkeye blabbered but Widow pulled him out of his way as Captain America threw the shield hard on the ground to make it bounce and hit Juggernaut's knee. Unfortunately the red being assumed he missed the aim so the force field was left open in his leg side which made the shield to hit his knee and make him slip.

"Nat, Clint! You guys okay?" asked Rogers concerned for his friends.

"Yeah, good. But how are we gonna stop him? he's worse than that mule headed Skurge!" Natasha said as she let a deep breath.

"Yeah, what's with everyone trying to break cities? C'mon, these assholes are way above my pay grade" Clint yelled in anger. of course, he is a man of many talents but not strong enough to face someone like Juggernaut. Soon the three saw up in the sky what appeared to be the X-jet.

"Looks like Charles was kind enough to send reinforcements to stop his dumb ass brother" said Rogers which made the two to chuckle.

Meanwhile Wanda and Hulk engaged the Juggernaut.

"Feel the power of the Chaos!" Wanda said her eyes glowed crimson red as she sent a red energy blast his way.

"BRING IT ON!" he said as the energy disintegrated by the force field, much to her dismay.

Hulk stomped the ground with his right leg to make huge piece of rock to fly to his arm and he threw it at great speed. It hit hard enough that even though it was shattered by the force field, it sent him a couple meters back. As he cleared the dust, Wanda once again used an even more bigger energy blast that only knocked him once again a few meters back.

"Damn! What would it take to beat this asshole!?"cursed Wanda and then suddenly a huge flash of light crossed her at luminal speed and dashed at the red beast. And then the light took a curve upwards and landed nearby Hulk and Wanda and exposed itself. It was Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel.

"Anyone requested for cavalry? You got it!" she said with a smile as everyone looked above to find the rest of the superheroes exiting the X-Jet.

"Good to see you Carol. Always welcome to extra hands" Rogers greeted.

From the jet, Gambit, Jean grey and Bobby of the X-men. Along with Ben Grimm, Susan Storm of the Fantastic four for additional assistance.

All the heroes assembled together and looked at the Juggernaut.

"Whoa! looks like Xavier's brother's all juiced up" Gambit commented.

"You don't say. People should call him the Jugger-nut. By the way, glad to see you all, guys!" Replied Bobby, greeting the other heroes.

"Alright enough. We need to stop him before he gets strong and wrecks havoc" Jean cuts the banter as everyone looked at the Juggernaut. That was when Tony Stark in his brand new armor appeared in front of them landing with a thump.

"She's right. There's something different with him. The energy field is so amplified than we knew before" Susan said as she used her cosmic powers to sense the power of Juggernaut.

"Hooh! There you are . Coming after we took a beating" Black widow Chided.

"Sorry folks. But I have been busy with some investigation" Stark replied as Ant man too popped up from being small.

"Yeah? Of what kind?" asked Ben Grimm and before he could answer, they saw Juggernaut roaring at him as he was about to go roller coaster on them.

Iron man instantly summoned his proton cannons as the nanites in his fists assembled to form a gun and 4 other floating energy projectors from his back appeared before him as they all fired a unified beam...

**ZOOOOOMMMM**

The beam was shot straight towards the Juggernaut and was powerful enough to knock him down with blunt force. Then the projectors went back to Tony's armor.

"Everyone, get ready! Susan's right about him. The Cyttorak gem is feeding off energy in unusual amount. Also he's getting stronger every once in a few minutes" Hank Pym explained.

"LIKE HULK!" Hulk said understanding his point clenching his fists.

"YOU WILL ALL PAY FOR THIS!" he yells as he clenches his fists tight as the crimson energy covered his arms. Then he did a powerful thunder-clap that sent the red energy shock waves that knocked the heroes on the ground as the others who can fly started to charge towards him. Those who have strength held themselves and additionally augmented by Susan's force field.

"Bobby!" called out Gambit and signaled him to attack from left. The Iceman created a huge boulder of Ice and threw it at him. Juggernaut punched and shattered the ice. But by then, Gambit was spinning his Bo staff at high speed to charge it up. Then he jumped nearby him and hit the end of the staff in the ground which leveled the place where he was standing causing the Juggernaut to lose his balance and fall down.

"Let me take care of the rest" said Jean as she used her telekinesis to lift Cain and throw him to a nearby huge rock that shattered on impact. But Juggernaut's recovery from every beating began to increase visibly as he responded by pacing towards them, this time with a lot of momentum that could tear through mountain like paper.

"Susan, Jean, Bobby! Create a barrier! others get ready to restrain him" Captain America ordered. Jean created a telekinetic shielding along with Susan's force field and Bobby created a hard ice wall.

"Tony, let's try to stop him from our end using energy blasts. Hulk and Ben can fight him if it gets outta hand" Carol suggested.

"Good idea. Let's go!" Stark replied as he, Danvers and Wanda got to the front line and shot a powerful energy blast of their own all converging on to the pacing Juggernaut.

"RRRRHHH" Juggernaut felt the combined energy slowing him down a bit and felt a great stress and grunted in response.

"Looks like this is working !" Wanda said as she focused more of chaos energy from her arms.

"Alright let's pour in more!" Stark said as the three increased their energy output. But Something weird started to happen. Juggernaut's force field started to absorb the energy and feed unto him increasing his strength. Because of this he began to pick up the pace steadily and reached a great speed with brute strength.

"Oh Shit! This isn't working!" Move out!" Carol yelled as they inevitably knew they cant stop him and moved out of his way. Juggernaut's size was a little bit bigger than before and was glowing in crimson energy as he finally reached the barrier and hit it with full strength. The force from his momentum and the extra energy he was letting out together shattered the barrier that Jean, Susan and Bobby made.

"AAHHH"

The three yelled in great pain as it took a heavy toll on their mental agility and suffered excruciating pain. They all were knocked back a few meters.

"JEAN!" yelled Bobby who was worried for her fellow X-Men as he went to check on her.

"SUSAN!" Ben went to check on his friend. She was breathing tough as she spoke with pain.

"Ughh...That was painful. The force could have created an earthquake!" Susan responded as Ben helped to get to her feet slowly.

"Juggernaut is getting stronger by the minute. That force cold send even the most powerful psychic to coma" Jean said as she got back to her feet.

As for the Juggernaut, his motion was not even stopped a bit as he continued to pace forward.

Black widow slid under his legs and threw stun grenades that didn't do anything. Hawkeye shot an arrow that turned into a rope and tied up around Cain's legs, but he moving with great peed and force now that the rope was cut easily.

"*SIGH*...Not sure how are we gonna handle this" Hawkeye started to worry.

"Alright nut crack. It's CLOBBERIN TIME!" Ben angered as he and Hulk ran to stop him. As the three bashed against each other. Juggernaut was stopped for a moment of time as Hulk and the Thing were holding him, but Cain's strength was too much as he was pushing them both as their feet started to dig through the ground in pressure. Then, all of a sudden, Juggernaut's strength increased 10 fold and pushed them both at great speed and bashed through the rock mountain with great force that knocked them down.

The others were stunned at the sight.

Captain Marvel raced to their position and shot a beam of photon energy and it didn't do a thing.

"C'MON NOW AND WATCH ME BLAST YOU!" said Juggernaut as he clapped his hands again letting a crimson energy shock wave that sent her flying back.

Iron Man and Captain America charged at him. As Juggernaut swung his right arm, he slid under his legs as Tony shot a continuous beam of repulsor that hit the Shield and reflected towards Cain's back and stunned him for a moment.

"Jarvis, Is there a soft spot?"

"Sir, The gem is feeding of energy in unusual amount. At a certain point in time, The energy would cause a massive electro chemical change in the Earth's Atmosphere. I don't think if we can stop him even if we have every available superheroes on this planet"

Meanwhile Captain America, Widow, Hawkeye and Hank Pym were fighting him.

Juggernaut tried a left hook which Natasha dodged by leaping upside down over his head as she fired two electric stun mines on to his helmet that shocked his head.

"RRRAA" he grunted, with Hawkeye firing three thermite tipped arrows in his head that created a huge explosion. As the smoke cleared, he was distracted and Rogers jumped high and hit the Juggernaut on his back of his head with full force, he was once again stunned but then swung his right arm back wards that hit Roger's shield and sent him flying back. Scarlet witch and Captain Marvel were firing energy blasts which he blocked with his both hands. Meanwhile Jean used her powers to lift a huge rock and throw it at him. She even was tempted to use the Phoenix force, but feared the devastation it would cause with no difference than what the red brute made. With everything pissing him off, his rage increased as the energy started to leak out of him and he roared with anger.

"RRRRRR-...DIEEEE!" as he extended his arm, the crimson energy in the gem blasted everyone back in a mile radius. Stark used his energy shield bubble to protect him and so did the others in their own means.

But then suddenly Ant-man grew up large to 30 feet and

"SHUT IT!" he yelled as he kicked Juggernaut which made him crash through a huge cliff .

"YOU DARE!" he yelled as he started running like hell towards him. Ant-man tried to use his hands to block him, but he was unusually fast for his size and to dodge. But the unexpected came when he suddenly leapt high and hit Ant-man in the knee with blunt force and Ant-man yelled in pain and fell down with a huge thump.

"AAAHHH...SHIT! The bastard broke my leg!" He cried in pain as he got to normal size.

"HANK!" the others yelled as they got to his position to help him.

"Hank buddy? stay with me! We will get you to safety" Gambit said as he lifted him up.

After getting him to safety, all the heroes assembled and looked at Juggernaut who was even more bigger then before and was getting mad with power.

"How are we gonna stop him man? We should have brought everyone!" Ice man said looking at the bleak situation.

"And we would still lose. Every time he's gaining power from our fight. Not sure, if there's even a way to defeat him right now" said Susan which further discouraged them.

"WHAT? TIRED ALREADY! PANSY! I AM STARTING TO ENJOY THIS!" Juggernaut yelled as he picked up the pace to do a stampede on the heroes as they began to prepare for a final stand.

"RRRAAHHH" he roared as he drew himself closer and that's when

**BOOOOM**

A powerful missile hit the red menace and exploded with the power of a nuclear bomb, just in a short range. Everyone watched a short lived flare that made them cover their eyes for a few seconds.

"What the hell?" cursed Steve Rogers at the sight.

"Holy Shit! Who was that?" asked Romanoff holding her arm. Then suddenly they heard a cruising alien jet.

"Up there! look!" Jean said as they all saw a alien fighter jet passing by with suddenly a huge dark silver armored being, towering over everyone landing in front of them to their astonishment.

"It's him!" Stark said for everyone to hear as they looked at him and then turn to face the being in awe.

"I remember him! It's the Spartan!" Said Ben Grimm. Of course, some had seen him face to face during the Chitauri attack, some only saw him on footage, so they knew either way. Some who were seeing him up straight for the first time were wary about him as he had proved himself too powerful in Newyork. Others still had trust issues as he was an enigma.

Some of the heroes walked to him.

"Good to see you Spartan...I guess!" Hawkeye said as he knocked the dust out of his torso.

"Well, not a great timing though. You are late. He's become unstoppable. Well, that's actually his specialty, but uhh...he's become super unstoppable now, if you catch my meaning" Iceman said sighing at the situation. The Spartan walked a couple of steps front and broke the silence.

"I know. That's why we need to finish this soon. The gem's power is being amplified by a power amplifier placed in his body" he replied which stunned everyone, but made sense. After a long and tough fight, Juggernaut was only getting madder and stronger much to their frustration and confusion.

"I think that makes sense. Every moment he was getting more powerful. Besides, I guess you got an idea on how to stop him." Susan added to their thoughts.

"It won't end with just stopping him. The energy output could have catastrophic effects on global ecosystem" John said as everyone saw the Juggernaut who recovered from the missile attack as she was violently shaking his body in response to high out flow of crimson energy.

"Wow! That's what my AI said too" Stark said wondering about the Spartan's analysis as same as Jarvis.

"Guns can't hurt him. But if I instantly drain his momentum, the force field will temporarily be shunted off" John said analyzing the enemy.

"And an opening for every one to kick his crimson ass. Great plan. But the momentum at-..."

"Wait, what did you say? Drain his momentum? You do realize that's only possible with absorbing the impact and nullify, which is not even theoretically possible!" Stark warned him not liking what Spartan meant.

"YOU DARE HIT THE JUGGERNAUT, ARMORED BITCH! I WILL RIP YOUR ASS OFF!" Juggernaut yelled as he threw a huge rock towards him. Iron man instantly responded by using his repulsor beams to shatter the rock.

John summoned his gravity hammer from slipspace container into his right palm which amazed the heroes.

"Wait, did he summon the weapon out of nowhere?" Wanda amazed with her eyes wide open.

The scientific minds in the team Stark and Hank wondered how that even worked as they had seen this during the invasion.

John instantly took a sprint which stunned those who are seeing him live for the first time. The X-Men members were simply mind boggled by his move.

"How the hell is he moving that fast with that kinda armor on him?" asked Gambit in his cajun accent looking at the racing Spartan.

"Even then, I'm not sure how he thinks he can beat the Juggernaut. We need to help him in what ever way we can!" said Carol Danvers to which everyone agreed.

But what they saw next was something from their wildest dreams.

John is a Spartan II, but he never underestimates his enemies. But at the same time, he never charges down without learning about them. He already did his homework about the Juggernaut.

Juggernaut was charging at the Spartan. John charged the hammer to full energy. As they closed each other, John ducked and slid under his right arm and shot a powerful energy stream to his back that shook him out of balance.

"AAHHH!" he grunted loud in irritation.

Then he turned back, once again to run over him. But John turned the hammer with the head facing the ground and hit the ground hard. The energy from the hammer created a tremor that broke the ground and made the Juggernaut to fall under the broken debris.

Captain America and Black widow were astounded with the progression of this fight. There were many heroes here and still they couldn't slow him down. But this Spartan was handling like it was nothing. It was like the tide of this fight was toppled all of a sudden.

"Can't believe he's holding his own against Cain Marko! How does he do that?" Natasha wondered.

"One thing I can say is that he's not new to these kinds of threat. He must be doing this for a long time" Rogers replied who was analyzing the fight.

Juggernaut once again broke the ground and let a huge roar that created a energy burst which violently pushed the Spartan back, as his armor boots dug the earth as he was pushed. John grunted in response to the effect of brute force. He has never felt this much energy emanating from someone.

"Time to end this" he thought as he mentally commanded the armor to activate infinite density which tightened the metaphysical bond between his mind and the Armageddon suit.

"FEEL THE WRATH OF THE JUGGERNAUT!" he roared as he began pacing at full speed towards the Spartan.

"Oh Shit! Why the hell he isn't moving?-...Hey Spartan! Unless you got death wish, get the hell out of his way!" Captain Marvel yelled in anxiety.

"He's planning to take it, but he won't survive. I will summon a force field!" Susan worried about about the worst case scenario.

"No Wait! I have seen this! I think I now know what he's planning to do" Rogers said, having previously seen a similar situation like this back in Newyork.

But when Juggernaut closed the distance and hit the Spartan square in his body,

***BBOOOOOOMMMM***

The sound of a nuclear weapon going hot could be heard throughout the continent. The shock wave hit everyone including the distant rocks and many were losing balance in the wave.

"DAMN!" Hawkeye yelled as he coughed and got back to his feet.

"My God! He's probably dead and now we gotta clean up this mess again!" Said Scarlet Witch as she readied her powers only to stop at the revelation when the dust cleared.

Every superhero there completely lost their sanity at the sight of what just happened.

"NO WAY! This is crazy! How's that even possible? That force would shatter a city!" asked Iceman puzzled at the reality he's been facing. But what they saw after the smoke cleared made them gaping like fish except the few.

Everyone saw the Spartan standing firm unharmed, but the same can't be said about the Juggernaut.

Juggernaut was fazed as he was lying on the ground blown to many feet away from the armored being.

"WHAT-...THE-...? THAT WASN'T SUPPOSE TO HAPPEN!" Juggernaut was confused as he slowly got up to his feet, his face slightly revealing a little amount of fear at his own momentary weakness.

"I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU DID THIS FREAK! BUT I CAN STILL KILL YOU WITH MY BARE HA-...AAHHHH!" Juggernaut spoke only to receive a punch from Hulk which sent him flying back and make him bleed for the first time with the helmet broken by force. Hulk then turned to face the Spartan who was so close to his height and smirked at him. John simply shrugged his shoulders.

The other heroes walked to him,

"I knew what you were doing, just like what you did with Skurge! But still, this is beyond anything I have seen" Rogers replied to which John nodded.

"I don't understand how you are not a squashed jellyfish with not even a scratch is beyond me. No one in this world had been able to survive that! Who are you and where are you from?" Jean grey asked peering at him.

"I will soon answer your questions. But we now have a criminal to prosecute" he responded in calmness.

"He's right. We need to stop him first. Now that the force field is down, we can hurt him like hell" Iron man said.

"Can't wait to do a rock slide on him" Ben said as he clapped his fist.

"Let's go Avengers!" Captain America said as he assembled everyone.

Juggernaut recovered from the faze as he got back to his feet wiping the blood from his face which made him angry.

"YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!" he roared as he sprinted towards the heroes.

Steve threw the shield so hard to his face that made him grunt in pain, Jean used her telekinesis to lift him mid-air with his momentum carrying on. Hank Pym was riding on an insect when he grew huge and punched him that sent him hit the ground and create a deep crater. Ben Grimm leapt high and stomped over the helmet being's body where he spewed some more blood in pain. But Juggernaut still had the strength as he raised his arm to punch Ben in his face that sent him flying.

Hank then used his helmet to communicate with the nearby insects to swarm around Juggernaut.

"AARR-...GET OFF ME!" he yelled as he tried to get rid of the insects when Black Widow and Hawkeye threw shot him with Air burst tipped arrows and stun grenades that knocked him down.

"EAT THIS!" Captain Marvel flew and landed a hard kick to his chest that sent him back a few feet and hit him with photon blast. Tony Stark created a make shift propelled hammer and beat him with blunt force that started to hurt him a lot. Juggernaut did a right cross which Iron blocked with both his arms still pushed back a few feet away. Once again he charged at him, but when Cain swung his left arm for a hook, he ducked under and gave a soaring uppercut that lifted him off the ground.

Gambit then charged his Bo staff and hit it's tip to Juggernaut's abdomen. The energy exploded and crash landed him to the ground. The unstoppable Juggernaut who was curb stomping the heroes couldn't believe he was getting his ass handed to him. All because of the Spartan who weakened him which gave the other heroes the opening they needed.

"I CAN'T...URRR-... BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING!" Juggernaut said as he took a look at the beating he received. For some reason, the force field didn't come up.

Juggernaut was bleeding everywhere.

"Don't you still get it? It's over Cain Marko. I don't know how you escaped the vault prison. But we are giving you one chance to surrender peacefully" Natasha warned him as the others got ready.

"NEVER!" he roared.

"As you wish!" Susan replied with a smirk.

When Juggernaut once again charged at the heroes, the Spartan hit his body with charged up adamantine hammer with sheer strength that knocked the breath out of him,

"GUHH-.."

Then a bash to his face that drew blood from his cheek as it exposed from the broken helmet.

Hulk then bashed his body with his shoulders that made him reel on the ground and then give two quick punches to his face and a kick followed by a thrown energy ball which the Spartan made in his left palm that exploded on him,

"BAHH-..."

One thing John agreed was that even after getting beaten up brutally, Juggernaut still has the endurance and stamina to pursue the fight. He then ran towards him to hit him again. Before the Juggernaut could see him John ducked under his swinging right arm while he summoned a huge energy sword in his right fist formed by telekinetically assembled photons and

*SHOOOSH*

The sword pierced his body making him bleed from his torso.

"AAHHH" Juggernaut roared in pain. John then dismantled the sword.

Ice-man then manipulated his arms into a big spiked hammer and hit him with all his strength that hurt him even more.

"Now is the time, remove the gem out of him!" John yelled,

"I got it. Everyone, MOVE OUT!" Stark yelled as he hovered above the ground and charged up his chest energy projector as his HUD was displaying the status. When it hit 100%,

"BLAST OFF!" he said as he shot a powerful beam that burned through Juggernaut as the gem got forcefully removed from him and the power amplifier burned out completely. Slowly the red energy was fading from him.

"NOOOOOOOOoooooooooo-...Please Stop!" Juggernaut who was unstoppable, slowly transformed back into human form gradually with the dress getting burned out and the helmet completely destroyed, where once laid the avatar of Cyttorak, now stands a mere human criminal, Cain Marko, the half brother of Xavier. Stark stopped the energy projection and dropped to the ground. While the show came to an end, it was not truly over for the Spartan as his armor picked up something weird.

When Tony fired the energy projector, John's augmented reality display in the helmet picked up quantum distortion around Tony's armor which made John to give wry look at the chest piece. John immediately scanned Tony's ARC reactor and the display revealed the information which made the stoic person to brood at the sight.

Scanning initiated 1 2...100
Complete...
Subtle quantum distortion detected...tracking source...
Distortion matching lattice shift of the previously known element...
REPORT: Forerunner crystal identified!

The last line blinked in red as John's eyes widened a bit.

"How that's-...How the hell can it be here?" John was stunned to the presence of an object native to his universe. John having been through humanity's best and worst times was not new to anything impossible. But the forerunner crystal, a forerunner object in another universe is not what he expected. This revelation here made him to question a lot of things, even about this universe and the forerunners themselves. But he knew he had to keep a calm head, so he decided to stow it for now. He then sent an encrypted message in SHIELD frequency.

The heroes surrounded Cain Marko as he slowly woke up to the sight of the heroes surrounding him armed. He was breathing as if feeling tired and sighed at the heroes.

"Can I have something to eat? I am feeling tired!" he said innocently.

"SHIELD would be happy to give you a nice hot meal in prison" Hawkeye jested with a smirk.

"SHIELD!? Please wait, NO! Listen, I didn't do it on my own. I was dragged in to this! I swear on my life! Please!" he started begging to the heroes.

"Yeah yeah, I know that. Who can break into Vault and help you out? We will find the ones behind this. We have no shortage of enemies" Black Widow said in stern voice.

That's when they heard the Triskellion hovering in the sky above them.

"We never called the SHIELD...not yet and how are they here on time?" asked Rogers in confusion after seeing the SHIELD forces in Rockies.

"I did" the Spartan replied to which the others looked at him.

With multiple drop ships landing on the ground and the SHIELD soldiers and prison guards setting up to quarantine the entire rockies.

"Huh, looks like the cavalry has arrived!" Danvers said with a laugh.

Then they all were greeted by a drop ship nearby them. The door opened as the SHIELD's director Nick Fury walked out with two soldiers escorting him. The one eyed man slowly approached the heroes as he looked at them one by one, then at Cain Marko and then at last at the Spartan whom he's meeting for the first time face to face. Fury was giving him a wary look.

"Fury, as always come to collect your souvenir?" asked Bobby drake flexing his muscles.

"I do, Ice man-...Take the prisoner" he ordered the guards, who then proceeded to cuff him with advanced hand cuffs designed to hold super criminals. Then he once again stared at the towering 7'10" armored being.

"So?...Spartan huh? You were one that sent the signal? Well, I managed to poke my eye into the fight from the sky. I should say, there is a reason why the world government and enemies fear your presence" Fury said without any expression.

"They have nothing to fear from me, unless they have any hostile intentions" he replied casually. For Fury, this seemed like a threat.

"Is that a threat, Spartan?" asked Fury shrinking his eyebrows.

"A fact" he gave a one line response. But Fury was truly impressed by his demeanor. He being a former soldier himself and having fought several criminal organizations and terrorists, including his own brother Jacob, his life and career has taught him a lot. He can easily differentiate friend and foe. But as for the Spartan, he has not yet decided, but he could see a soldier's discipline in him.

"At any rate. Thanks for your help" Fury said as he extended his hands. John shook hands with him.

"But remember this, the SHIELD's board of directors wanted an explanation from you. They wanted to hold a conference with you for formal interrogation. I hope you understand."

John for his part knew this was gonna be obvious. He was still an unknown but earned certain people's trust with his actions. But still this was all a long shot.

"I understand" he said.

"Well that's all lovely, but do we know how did Cain Marko escaped the vault?" asked Gambit to which Fury rubbed his chin. It was like he knew the truth still hesitating to tell everyone.

That's when a beeping sound kept repeating from Iron-Man's armor. Others looked at him in confusion.

"Gotta check who-...What the hell?"

"What happened Tony?" asked Hank

"I am receiving transmission in an unknown spectrum from eastern Europe" Stark said as he processed the signal to answer the call.

Then he opened his left palm when a huge holographic image of a man in a silver armor, green cape and a metal mask showed himself up to everyone's surprise and everyone displayed hostility towards the humanity's biggest enemy.

"DOOM! And why am I not surprised?" Susan scorned at him.

"Oh fair Susan. It is obvious that I am the puppet master of this show, ha ha" he said with no remorse.

"So you let Cain escape the vault and wreck havoc. Never one to care about casualties, huh?" asked Captain America in anger.

"You're right Captain. Besides, I do have a reason for setting this stage"

"So what tempted you to kill thousands today?" asked Fury in a castigating tone.

"Fury, You always mistake me. Well, I only wanted to see the abilities of the one who solely turned the tide of today's fight, the great Spartan" he said turning to look at the towering figure and everyone single person there was gazing at the Spartan. The feeling of fear and wariness can be seen in all the eyes. Of course, John proved himself to be dangerous. But then when he gets the attention of really bad guys, the tension in the air is sure to rise.

"So you are behind this, Victor Von Doom. You have zero disregard for lives and other's safety. you will be dead if you were here now. Consider yourself lucky" John said calmly yet the threat he carried in his words were heavy enough to garner everyone's attention. The other heroes felt that he wouldn't hesitate to do it and that he would take a life in a blink of an eye.

Doom himself was no fool, having witnessed his powers, he too would tread carefully on this one. But he didn't express it to the others.

"As petty as threats go, you sure do carry a huge arsenal of powers and technology with you, both here and as well as 'ABOVE'. I should say, your armor is highly intriguing. Surviving that impact is a feat beyond imagining". This made John to tense a bit as the last word was cryptic something which he didn't find amusing.

"I get it. So you are after his technology and powers. And then trying to make him join your filthy cause?" asked Tony folding his hands and tilting his head in scorn.

"I do have an offer to propose. I always have something in exchange for his knowledge. For now you passed the test! See you again! Besides, you will come to me" he said as he vanished. Everyone sighed in frustration. The idea of Spartan gaining attention of Doom didn't sit well with them.

"Doom did this all to get you" Fury said turning his head down. John felt this was all because of him and this whole mess was in his hands.

"I'm sorry Director Fury, This was unexpected" that was all John could muster up. But Fury could feel the sincerity in his words.

"No matter. It's not like Doom hasn't done that before. But we will always be ready. Anyways, thanks for your help" said Fury to which he nodded.

"We need to help the civilians in the town" Captain Rogers said.

'Don't bother yourself. SHIELD's medical team is already en route to the location. Take your off and rest well" Fury said. John was somehow felt interested with the way the director spoke to them. It's like as if he trusts them.

He then proceeded to leave the place as all the SHIELD officers boarded the drop ship and left for the Triskellion.

"You gotta be careful big guy. Doom's not someone to mess with. He's dangerous and cunning than that purple nutsack Thanos" Hawkeye said to which he looked at him in confusion.

"Who?" he asked with out a clue.

"Thanos, the mad titan, inter-galactic warmonger. He's so dangerous that we even hesitate to say his name" Captain Marvel replied as she recalled her earlier bouts with the titan. John made a note of this Thanos character as he didn't find any SHIELD files on him.

"But I gotta say, you got a pretty impressive hardware over there. No wonder you have been the talk of this world since the Chitauri attack. The Avengers could really use someone like you" Tony said with amusement.

"Oh god! Here we go again!" Carol covered her forehead and sighed.

"Tony, sometimes your excitement gets the best in you" she said.

"Hey Carol, I can't help but being curious. Besides I really meant well. He really could be a valuable member of our team" he replied as he retracted his nano-helmet.

"That's a tempting offer. But I do prefer to work alone. But should you need my help. You can always reach me in this channel" he said as he sent a network package to Stark's armor. Tony received a notification which he acknowledged.

"Well Well. That's interesting. I'm really looking forward working with you big man!" he said to which he nodded.

"Then we better move guys. I am feeling tired from fight!" asked Hawkeye shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head.

"Sure as hell we all are. Thanks for helping to sort this out. See you all later" Stark bid farewell with some as the heroes started to Disassemble.

John watched the Quin-jet and X-jet touching the ground for pickup. Then came the Fantastic-car at last.

"The offers still open up and if you need our help any time, make sure to call us" Stark shook his hand, though the Spartan's eyes were gazing at the Stark's chest piece.

"I will make sure to find everything's connected to it" he thought.

As everyone left, Susan and Ben grimm were the last to board their craft. But John stopped them in middle, calling them out.

"Ms. Susan, Mr. Grimm" he called out their names. Both Susan and Grimm were surprised to that, wondering why did he stop them both specifically, but she found him friendly from his tone and demeanor.

"Yes Spartan?" she asked un-nervingly looking at the towering figure with calm.

"Ya need help?" Ben added.

"I do. I take it your husband is one of the foremost expert in Multiversal science and your team has practical experiences with exploring alternate dimensions" he asked to which the duo looked at each other in bizarre. Susan was wondering why this man was asking questions on that specific topic. Of course, he was right on that regard, the team does have experience with alternate universes. Even managed to fend evil versions of themselves. Reed mentioned to Susan once that some of his evil versions had no moral scruple and that he never visited those places and was deeply traumatized by the experience for quite some time.

"Huh, you don't say. Can't imagine how many times we have done that" Ben replied vaguely.

"Is there a reason for asking that specifically?" she asked curiously. John found this was the right opportunity to seek their help.

"Yes, but I need an audience with your husband. I am aware that you are resided in the Baxter building. Just whenever he is free, I can drop by" he said. Both were thinking for quite sometime. They didn't know much about him, but he had helped against two biggest attacks and despite his stature, he doesn't sound hostile. So they decided to see this through.

"Alright, at weekends, he's easy to catch up. On the other days, he's little busy with thesis, lecture and research bla bla bla...soooo" Ben replied.

"I'm sorry, but in weekends, I have-...another commitment. Will I be able to catch him on Monday?" he asked. Susan raised her eyebrows and then shrugged her shoulders after making a decision.

"Sure, I will have him available on Monday. Deal?" she asked with a smile.

"Deal!" he firmly responded.

"Alright, then see you on Monday Spartan. By the way, Reed's gonna throw himself on the floor if he hears about this" She said with a jest as they both receded back to the Fantastic-Car. John watched as Ben pilot the craft as it slowly lifted of the ground with hum and leave the place.

"Cortana, I need a drop ship with supplies to help with recovery in the town side" he said.

"In a minute" She responded.

Then John went to the town to help with recovery as he helped the civilians, both wounded and those in deaths grip. There were also these SHIELD medical team. He also helped them with their assistance, the cops and strike teams that were severely wounded with his medical pack. The people there were astounded with the help they received as he helped everyone single handedly to make sure of full recovery. Some of the SHIELD's medical team amazed with the serums and medicines that John supplied that instantly healed severe wounds, burns and boils along with bringing some people from death with the recovery nanites. The media was already there with many reporters taking pictures of the massacre and the Spartan helping the people. There was also a chopper in the scene that took aerial video shoot. Then the construction repairs took place and the Spartan decided to move on.

"That went well. Now onto the other matters" he thought as he mentally sent a command to the translocation unit in his armor that teleported him out of that place into a yellow light instantly.

...

On Sakaar...

Thor was in a constrained circular hall where he was thrown down by Grand master's guards. He spent most of the time in isolation, even asking the inmates Korg and Miek to leave him alone for sometime. Thor had a rough time, losing his father, family, friends and now, the whole of Asgard. The one who calls himself King Hyperion invaded Asgard with the mindless ones. He even laid out the plan to retrieve the cosmic seed from the roots of Yggdrasil. Thor dreads for such an act would not only destroy Asgard but the entirety of 9 realms.

"Midgard! No!" he thought with anger and sorrow. The thought of Midgard brings memories of his time with the Avengers, the victories and losses he endured besides his brethren, his mortal lover Jane Foster. He misses them so much. But apart from that, he's the son of the elder goddess of Earth- Gaea, hence he has a natural fondness for Earth.

"I miss them so much. May the dead rest in the great halls of Valhalla! Feast in eternal joy!" he muttered just enough for another voice to raise behind him.

"Praying for the dead, huh?"

Thor immediately turned back to see no one but his brother Loki. He sighed and he sat on the floor leaning behind the wall with stoic expression in his face glaring at him with indifference.

"I should say, I miss them so much myself! But that's life I suppose" he said with a smirk. Thor was silent.

"Still, I have devised a plan to get away from this misery. But that depends on you. If you win this fight today somehow, the Grand master will be pissed and that's what we needed! The ensuing chaos will help me get us to steal a ship from herrreeeerrrannndddd..." he said and he progressed to wave his hands indicating that they would both get the hell out of that place.

But Thor was still silent which started to irritate the god of mischief.

"ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING!?" Loki gritted his teeth and pressed the words against him.

"I'm offering a chance to escape. Maybe even get back to Asgard to die try saving it from that mad man and you don't even flinch!" he said with little anger. The still ensuing silence from his brother made his sigh and give up as he nodded his head in disappointment.

"Fine, if you plan to stay and rot here, be my guest. I will do things by myself, like I always had!" he said trying to trigger an expression from Thor. But Thor simply chuckled and nothing.

"WHY DON"T YOU SAY SOMETHING. IS THIS SOME SILENT TREATMENT?!" this time he yelled a little louder. Thor took a deep breath as he decided to break his silence.

"What would you ask me to say? You trapped our father to his death which led Hyperion to ruin Asgard, kill our friends, families, innocent people and what not! And this all happened in just a few days, one of your glorious mischievous adventures that costed everything! Or would you rather have me go back further to list out everything!? Thor asked with silent raging anger. Loki was quite startled with his tone and was quite nervous. He had all reasons to be as he knew Thor was right.

"Okay, I accept everything you said about me. That's true. But now I wanted to change things, right the wrong!" he said though his voice didn't express 100% honesty.

Thor shrunk his eyebrows in confusion.

"Is this some newly found compunction? An urge to do the right thing?" he asked wondering if he truly meant those, though he wouldn't be surprised if not.

"Heavens No! I don't trust grand master to keep his word. There will come a time when he feels I'm no longer needed and he won't hesitate to kill me. Besides, if I am to rule Asgard, then I can't do it from here" he said to which Thor was disgusted, but at least acknowledged the honesty about his true nature.

"Still, escape is a long shot. Grand master is not someone to be trifled with. He's one of the elders of the universe and I don't see you succeed in outsmarting him!" Thor said pointing out the logic.

"Then we will use force to blast our way through" came a voice so familiar to Thor which made him to get up and turn to his left to see a red headed man, as muscular as him wearing some ornate native gladiatorial armor slowly walking towards him.

Thor's eyes wide opened in surprise, but at the same time overjoyed to see him, for he never in a million life time imagined he would come face to face with this man after a long time. This man is in fact an Eternal, the god of sun, his brother in arms and above all, a fellow Avenger.

His name is Marcus Milton a.k.a Hyperion, Son of Helios, an Eternal and the cousin of Thanos and his siblings. But Hyperion's own world had to be abandoned due to unstable geological activity caused by prolonged scorching of planet's natural resources. The sad part was that he was the sole Eternal survivor of his world and in the late 90s, he found earth after wandering the cosmos. Living under the guise of Marcus Milton until he joined the Avengers. Despite the superior technological advancements, his people couldn't escape the impending doom.

"Marcus?" Thor called him out and haven't yet recovered from the amazement.

"Greetings Thor, You look-...not so good. I mean-...you look quite beaten up! But what the hell are you doing on this god forsaken world? Thought you were still with the Avengers" he asked surprised to see the Thunder god here.

"I should ask the same thing to you. You were the first to leave the team to take care of some urgent business. What are you doing here?" Thor asked back.

Marcus's face turned despondent as he slowly walked towards the wall and leaned behind folding his hands. Loki and Thor shared a glance before listening to him.

"Why don't you tell me-...did he take over Asgard?" Hyperion asked which stunned Thor, though not sure what he was referring to.

"I don't understand your question"

"King Hyperion-...as he calls himself...Did he get Asgard?" he asked looking at him and both Thor and Loki were stupefied as they began to wonder if he's already aware of the situation.

"Wait, you knew all this time? Hah!...let me rephrase it...Did you know he was gonna invade Asgard already?" Loki asked in frustration.

"I do" he replied monotonically. Thor for a second felt anger and betrayed as he clenched his fists, but then he calmed himself down. Thor knew the sun god long enough that he's not the one to jest.

"Huh, why do you think I left the team months before you did?" Hyperion asked as he slowly walked towards them both.

"What happened?" Thor asked to which he instantly replied in growling tone,

"SHIT happened!" he then composed himself to tell the story. Thor and Loki understood something was not right from the beginning and decided to take this seriously.

"The Nova corps signaled me for my help. The Guardians of the galaxy were already on a different mission, so I was their only choice to help them. They said a planet was all of a sudden shattered to pieces in the Arcturus system, located hundreds of millions of light years across from Earth. That planet is in fact a Xandarian outpost. There was no transmission or distress signal during that event. Also a powerful gravimetric waves strong enough to knock a planet out of its orbit was scattered throughout. I was directly able to sense it. So I went to investigate only to find a broken planet and a dead body of a celestial being floating, severed in half, Exitar, the exterminator"

Thor and Loki now understood what were the events that transpired before.

"Now I get it. He told me that he killed a celestial to become more powerful" Thor responded rubbing his chin. Loki was all of a sudden feeling dreaded as he didn't knew that he had killed a celestial. He wondered what he could do to them.

"What happened next?" Loki asked though the mischief maker knew he would regret hearing the reply.

"When I neared the being to investigate, that's when-...I met him, King Hyperion, a brutal evil version of myself brought from another universe. I fought him for 2 days straight, but with his new found powers, I was no match for him. He made a quick work of me and knocked me out cold where I ended up here"

"Did he say anything I don't know already?" Thor asked. Hyperion once again recalled his memories regarding what he said.

"He said, he was brought back by his 'Master', the one who wishes to rule the multiverse, breaking the barrier and unite them all under one banner. Not sure what that pile of crap actually meant. And for that, he's on a mission to collect the most powerful artifacts for him. Starting with the Cosmic seed. That's how I figured out he was gonna attack Asgard first" Hyperion replied to which Thor and Loki were deadpanned. Thor walked a few steps away to ponder on everything he learned.

"So that is why he invaded Asgard with the mindless ones. We need to stop him. And this master of his, It's clear that there's someone behind all these playing an intricate game" Thor said to them. But what he couldn't understand is why would someone go so far to bring a being from an alternate universe.

"I do have a doubt though. You encountered him and you know this would happen. You could have escaped this place to warn everyone" Loki asked. Marcus knew this was an obvious question.

"That's because of this star. It's electro magnetic radiation lies in different spectral energy levels. The photonic matter has negated my powers. I am just an ordinary person. My Eternal physiology is what that holds me together, but I no longer have the cosmic powers. Do you think I am here willingly, Loki?" he asked with mild distaste for which Thor felt sorry. He could see that his friend Hyperion was on the same boat like him.

Of course, Hyperion's body absorbs a star's radiation and triggers nuclear fusion that gives him cosmic powers. But Stars of certain spectral classifications negates his abilities. But a blue giant star though augments his powers 10 times than that of class G star(Sun) like in one instance, he was nourished by one such star for just 10 minutes, he was strong enough to physically move away a 55 billion solar mass black hole that was about to destroy a star system in a distant giant elliptical galaxy occupied by a civilization who had just achieved space travel.

Though his biggest feat of strength was when he physically held a dimensional rupture whose force was equivalent to weight of a whole universe, during the time with the Avengers when he had to save everyone when Annihilus from negative zone was planning to destroy their universe. Though this act severely tired his body. Once his cells absorb enough energy, the nuclear fusion becomes self sustained such that he can stay isolated from star light for years. His atomic vision is as hot as Sun's core. Only few beings like Thor, Hulk, Shiar Gladiator can match his prowess.

Apart from that, he is also extremely intelligent and trained in martial arts. His brain is an assembled non-linear photonic array. His can do the most complex quantum mechanical calculations in micro-seconds and his mind works so fast that his memories and current perceptions are super-imposed.

"So, How do we get out of this place?" Thor asked.

"Loki has come up with an idea that I quite like it" Hyperion replied to which he was confused.

"Wait, you trust him?" asked Thor in dilemma to which Loki expresses displeasure in his face.

"Not sure, but Grand master's got him on a short leash. So he could be useful at least until we escape" He said with a smirk.

"Ha ha, very funny Marcus!" Loki chided to which he chuckled. And all of a sudden, the room's door opened and came two guards.

"The Grand master wants the lord of thunder to get ready. The match is about to begin" said one guard. Thor was irritated, but decided not to play balls.

"He will be there in five minutes" Loki replied and the guards left the room.

"Hey man, heard the match is about to start. Thor, hope you are ready for this bout. I have heard this champion is astonishingly savage!" Korg said smiling.

"I do my friend. Ready to kick whoever's arse gets in my way" Thor replied with fist bump.

"Once this is over, we all get off this place and free Asgard from that tyrant" Marcus added to which others nodded. Then they left the room. The day has just begun for them and there's a long way to go. And they can't do this alone.

...

On Asgard...

King Hyperion was walking restless in the great hall where Amora and Skurge were standing by as they share a share a glance. There were mindless ones and Chitauri guards standing in line nearby pillars.

"My King, I can see the events are bothering you, but we can set this right" Skurge said to which Hyperion's eye glowed in raging red. He instantly flew near him, staring face to face. Skurge was nervous to core and he already prepared for the worst he could do to him. But then he calmed.

"Huh, you got your ass kicked by that Spartan. Don't give me second thoughts about being scared!" he gritted as he slowly walked away from him.

"But Hyperion, you still succeeded in everything. You would have the cosmic seed just like you planned" said Amora, though her face was like something was going in her mind.

"That's not easy. I have under-estimated this Spartan. He alone repelled the whole invasion. He's so powerful just like he said" Hyperion said tensed.

"I don't mean to pry, but does this master of yours have a name?" Skurge asked. King Hyperion was confused.

"No, he didn't give me. He brought me here to help him collect the powerful artifacts of the cosmos"

"You are powerful enough to kill a celestial. It shouldn't have been difficult for you to go against being treated as a servant" Amora said which slightly irritated him, though she was citing logic.

"No, I can't even comprehend the powers that he carries. He's not even physical, just an abstract consciousness that was guiding me all this time. All he ever wanted was the artifacts to collect and that he can't do it by himself, he needed a proxy, which is me" he replied.

"What of this Spartan?" Skurge asked.

"I have no time for him. He said, he wanted to drag him from his place so that he is alone here and my master can kill him. He will take care of that. I'm already in due for getting him the cosmic seed" he said.

"One thing that bothers me is, why would any one go to such lengths in bringing just one person from another universe in the name of trap?" Amora asked for which the Hyperion himself was confused about.

"Because he said, as long as the Spartan is there, he's untouchable. He even said, in the future, Humanity under his leadership will conquer the universe and put an end to my master's schemes. Now that he's not there, He can use the artifacts I am collecting for him to break free of his restraints, enter our realm and bring his plans to fruition. Because of my nature, he trusts me and gave me this task and if I return empty handed-...huh-...I don't even want think about that. It's either victory or my own demise" he replied which shook them both. Amora was thinking what could possibly exist out there that even the King Hyperion, a Celestial killer, fears.

"And what if he's aware of this plot? That will make your journey even more tough" Amora said as she walked near him.

"I know. But that's my master's headache, not mine. I will complete my work and go on my way. Which brings me to my next question, when will I be able to extract the cosmic seed?" he asked now getting serious.

"It's not that easy. Odin's spell protects the tree from harm. My powerful magic potion will take time to break the spell. It will be over in two days and you will have the seed" she replied though wary of his intentions.

"Good! Once I'm done with this, I will hunt down the next set of artifacts. The Infinity stones!" he said with an evil smirk that stupefied both Amora and Skuge in fear. The infinity stones are objects of universal power that even one stone can cause unparalleled destruction.

"By the lords! What is he planning? What am I doing?" Amora for the first time worried about the consequences of his quest ever since she joined him for her own survival.

...

On Sakaar...

**MULTIPLE CHEERS...CROWD SCREAMING AND CHEERING IN THE ARENA**

There were multiple loud screams and noises around the arena cheering for the gladiator match that's about to happen. Loki was taking a spot in the front hall who took a glass of blue wine from a plate and had a seat near Grand master. Korg, Meik and Marcus Milton took the spot in one of the long windows usually reserved for the workers and other inmates.

Grand master stood out from his seat and used his powers to augment his voice so that it would echo the whole arena.

"Welcome everyone! I see you are enjoying yourselves!" he said.

**SCREAMS AND CHEERS**

"Now onto our main event, Let us first welcome our contender, he's an Asgardian and most of all the Lord of Thunder!..." he says as the door on one end of the arena opens and out comes Thor, in a battle armor(Avengers-Infinity war without cape and metal sleeves). Also the odd thing was, he's been given a haircut(MCU version). He came out only for the people of Sakaar to boo him.

"Thor with a haircut? Seriously? Gimme a break!" Marcus thought with a chuckle.

**LOUD JEERS**

"And now comes the most dreaded warrior of the universe, the one who have conquered worlds across realms in a fighting contest!" The Grand master said as the skies started to roar and flames started to cover the clouds. Thor for his part was wondering who could possibly be making such a grand entrance.

"He is the REIGNING! DEFENDING!..."

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, MY BROTHER! THE CHAMPION OF THE UNIVERSE!" Grand master finished as the sky once again crackled and all of a sudden,

**BOOM**

A being landed in the arena with an earth shaking force as the applause grew even more louder. But the opponent's name instantly startled both Loki and Hyperion.

"Oh MY GOD!" Loki thought as he was gaping his mouth like a fish, giving a quick glance at the grand master who was grinning like a madman and turned to look at Thor's pathetic state.

"SHIT! Thor's very much dead!" Hyperion thought not so happy. For Thor, he knew this Champion as he had already faced him before on Earth, but lost the match as he was an elder of the universe and was technically more powerful than him.

"You again!? I am already feeling tired of fighting clowns" Thor said as he nodded feeling disappointed, though wary as he knew Champion's powerful than him and also he was bigger.

"HAH HA! Look who it is? The Asgardian God of Thunder who got steam rolled on Earth the last time we met" Champion mocked which made Thor to chuckle as if he doesn't care about his boasts.

"Last time, you beat me. But this time, it will be different" Thor said.

"We will see that Thunderer!...RRRRAAAHHHH!" the Champion responded as he leapt high in the sky pounded the ground, but Thor ducked to his right. But was immediately met with reverse left arm swing, which he evaded and then a quick successions of left and right cross and right hook which Thor easily blocked and evaded with his equal strength. But then he was met with a reverse leg sweep which Thor countered with a back flip. Thor for his part was analyzing his fight pattern, being a warrior for thousands of years, he is an adept and agile fighter and is level headed when it comes to fighting superior opponents. After a leg sweep he connected it with a flip kick which he evaded simply by taking a couple steps back and that's when he saw an opening where Thor used his strength to punch his face hard with his right fist that sent him flying many feet back on the ground where he crash landed but used the momentum to get back to his feet.

Suddenly the entire arena was silent as Grand master's eyes shrunk in wariness. Loki was bug eyed at the sight of his brother punching the Champion. Hyperion was keenly watching the fight's progression.

Champion of the Universe or Tryco Slatterus as he is named, is one of the most powerful being in the universe having born billions of years ago and constantly grew in power by fighting. He is cold, ruthless and calculative and he has destroyed thousands of planets after their respective champions have lost in a fighting match with him. But there were those who pushed him to the edge in fight like Hulk, Thing, Hyperion, Gladiator, She-Hulk, Thor and Hercules. Though he respects those who provides a great challenge, but in the end, it never made any difference to him.

"You are impressive Thunder god! But not enough to impress me!" Champion says as he get ready and suddenly speed blitz to his side, which Thor was able to clearly see, but then a series of blitz movement in random direction began to confuse him and that's when he landed straight towards him delivered a powerful punch to his face that could have shattered a mountain. Thor flew and hit the other end of the arena with force that broke the wall.

**LOUD CHEERS** "HURRAH"

The Sakaarians cheered loud for the Champion. Thor for a moment was stunned, but still this was nothing.

"Do you think he will win?" Korg asked Marcus with worry. Marcus was wondering the same thing. He himself has faced the Champion and is well aware of his strength.

"*SIGH* Not sure Korg, but I think this will be interesting!" he replied honestly.

Immediately the Champion broke a huge rock from the ground and threw it at great speed towards him which he avoided being hit. Thor charged at him at great speed and leapt above and stomped the ground in inclined direction that sent a series of ground break that reached the Champion and was about to explode over him, but he evaded by jumping back and that's when Thor found an opening as he speed blitz towards the elder of the universe and delivered a thunderous uppercut sending shock waves that shook the entire arena.

"RRAHH!" the Champion yelled in pain as he flew upward. Thor immediately flew above him, raised both of his hands, holding his fists tight and delivered another pound on him.

*BOOM*

The Champion simply crashed to the ground. Thor then slowed landed on the ground to see if he stayed down. Though he wished he had his hammer as it would grant him abilities to finish this fight quickly. But what he saw next was not pleasing, but tensing.

Grand master on one hand was completely pissed off as he let the Asgardian beat him.

"ENOUGH SCREWING AROUND BROTHER! FINISH HIM!" he yelled. Thor on his part, even though lost his hammer, has complete control over Odin force.

"Time to end this, Champion" Thor said as he channeled the Odin force and his body was covered with blue ethereal energy. He clenched his fist tight as he charged with a force that cracked the Earth, towards the Champion. He raised his fists and was about to deliver a fatal final blow. All of Sakaar was watching it with tense, but when he tried punching him, the impossible happened.

*THUK*

Thor's fist was simply blocked by Champion's left palm. Thor was astounded at the move as he didn't expect this. Loki, for his part was having a nail biting moment and his face turned pale at the sight of this. He didn't like what the Grand master yelled to his brother and what was going on for his sibling. Marcus and Korg were glaring at the progression of this fight.

Champion's eyes glowed demonic red which stunned the thunder god.

"For billions of years, I spent my life fighting and getting stronger. You think a puny Asgardian can take me out?!" he said, this time his voice was growling. Then,

**BOOOMMM**

He delivered a soaring uppercut which knocked Thor out of balance and he was flying. But when he managed to land on his feet, Champion speed blitz near him and bashed Thor with his shoulder tackle that further sent him back

"GUHH...!" Thor grunted in pain as the Champion's hit were getting harder and harder.

Thor once again got back and delivered a series of jab, cross and left hook which he evaded and connected with a knee blow to Thor's face

"AAHH..." Thor grunted once again. He started to bleed. Even with the Odin force, the elder of the universe was powerful.

When Thor swung his right arm, Champion ducked under and did a left hook to his face. But Thor instantly used his left arm, which he blocked with his right arm and head butt him that stunned Thor for a second but that was all that needed as the Champion kicked him in the chest.

"GUH.." The force behind the kick was breathtaking.

Thor charged at him both were trading a series of punches and kicks which the Champion blocked easily. When Thor tried a right hook, Champion used his right arm to block with a bone breaking force.

"RRRRRHHH..." Thor's right arm became numb for a moment. The Champion immediately grabbed Thor's head and delivered a knee jab followed by a jab and cross. He was becoming fast as lightning by the minute. Thor missed another shot for which the Champion gave a powerful punch to his spine. Thor for his part, can't believe the beating he's getting. First it was the King Hyperion and then now this Elder.

"EHHAA..."

When all else was done, the Champion delivered another uppercut

**BOOM**

that sent Thor flying back and fall to the ground flat

**OHHHH** the Sakaaran people were voicing loud for every hit. When Thor fell, there was silence. Marcus for his part deeply regretted that he couldn't help his brother in arms and a fellow god. Thor was still breathing but battered.

Loki for the first time felt sympathetic for his elder brother as he got out of the couch to stand in disbelief.

"By the gods! What have I done!" he thought with a sigh as he looked at the Grand master who was still grinning.

"He did put up a good fight. But sad he won't make it!" Korg said to which Marcus said nothing but began to tense. He would have stopped it if he still had his cosmic powers.

'Time to die, Asgardian!" Champion growled as he leapt high and stomped over Thor that formed a crater.

**DOOOMMM...KRRRAAAKKK**

Then the Champion began to pound on him. He alternatively delivered continuous right and left punch that carried a force of a meteor impact at re-entry speed.

**BOOOMMM...BAAAMMM...DOOOOMMM...THHHAAAMMMM**

Thor's body was taking it but the beating was hellish and bloody,

**BOOOMM** Thor suddenly saw a vision of a white smoke like being...

**BAAAMMM** Now the vision was getting clear as the smoke began to take a form

**DOOOOMMM** The smoke began to enlarge itself and started to take a form of a ethereal human as a couple of ravens began to fly near the human figure.

**THHHAAAAMMM** The human took the final form of a boy with the two ravens sitting on his shoulders. The boy was smiling at him and then the vision blacked out.

When the Champion was about to deliver another punch with his right arm,

"RRRAAAHHH!" The Champion roared as his fist about to near Thor's face. But then,

**THUK** Thor suddenly raised his left arm and blocked his fist with the palm like nothing. The Champion was stunned for a moment and looked at Thor in shock. Thor after a couple of seconds, opened his eyes that was brightly glowing in ethereal lightning blue. Then all of a sudden, he raised his right arm and delivered an earth breaking punch to the Champion.

**BOOOMMM...KRRAAKKKTHOOOMM** the punch was connected by a lightning blast from his fist that threw him to the sky and then fell to the ground in the far end of the Arena.

Loki was gaping like a fish at the sight of that. Grand master was stunned to see the sudden turn of events. Marcus and Korg were looking at him in awe. The whole crowd started to raise murmuring noises. No one can believe what happened.

Thor slowly got to his feet directly from being flat on ground, just like that, his eyes still glowing in fury.

"How is this possible!?" the Champion asked confused..."But doesn't matter!" he yelled as he charged towards him. Thor calmly raised his right arm and opened his palm. Suddenly a invisible force field slowed down the Champion and halted his movement as he was floating in mid air. Thor then smirked a bit. Then delivered another lightning blast of a punch from his right fist that sent him crashing through the other end of the arena wall.

"AAHH" he roared in pain. Having defeated and destroyed countless worlds, this was totally an alien feeling to him.

The Champion got out and flexed his shoulders, "You think you can take me down!?" he yelled as he charged towards the god of thunder and what he did next was the most astonishing.

"Thor raised both his arms horizontally and moved it like splitting something apart. Suddenly the reality in the local spot got ripped into two. But this wasn't noticed by the Champion as he didn't knew what happened.

"What kind of wicked sorcery is this?" The Champion was confused as he was sure to be aiming Thor, but all of a sudden, he was standing behind him. Before he could turn around. Thor used his both arms to charge the Odin force lightning between his palms and strike his opponent with the blast. Champion was rag dolled around the arena and was quite weakened from the attack.

"no no NO NO! This can't be! What are you doing Brother? FINISH HIM!" Grand master yelled in rage. Loki let a mild grin at the new display of power. Hyperion was astounded.

"Thunder! Thunder! Thunder!..." Korg started the chant soon followed by everyone in his place. After picking up the sound of the chants the crowd in the arena began to slowly chant Thor's name.

"THUNDER! THUNDER! THUNDER!..." **CHANT CONTINUES**

Champion was clearly pissed off at this.

"HOW? HOW DID YOU DO THAT!" The Champion now asking at the Thunder god confused with the display of power. Thor who had been listening to people's chant took a step forward calmly to answer him.

"I was born to the most powerful Asgardian and an Elder Goddess. But my power doesn't come because of that. It is mine own will to stand up for the innocents, family and friends(he says as he thinks of his Avengers friends, Asgardian family and people and other innocent people he has helped). It is there I find strength, resolve to stand up for justice even unto my dying breath. Beings like thee will never understand that and was never in thy nature. In the end, you will simply fail!" Thor finished saying.

"Huh..HA...HA HA HA! That was a wonderful talk Thor. But I am an elder of the universe and your words don't mean a damn thing to me. Hmm, I hope you will be remembered" he said as he charged at full speed.

"RRRAAAHHHHH!"

But Thor ran at full speed as he leapt above and delivered a thunderous punch with lightning charged fist that spun him up side down and made him fall flat. The shock wave from the punch sent vibrations across half of the planet. The Champion lay unconscious before the might of the thunder god, fallen and beaten.

Thor then grabbed him and lifted him on his shoulders. He then hovered in the air and met the Grand Master face to face with fiery blue eyes. Grand master gritted his teeth though, he had to accept the fact, that he had got the job done.

"Uh Mark? What just happened man?" Korg asked in confusion.

"Thor won! It's fascinating" he replied with a smile. Korg was stunned to hear that as no one had ever defeated the Grand Master's Champion, yet he smiled.

"Perhaps I have under estimated you Thor. You have grown stronger than I imagined" Grand master said with bitterness, though something told him not mess with him. Loki was looking stunned at his brother who was carrying the unconscious Champion. Even he himself never thought Thor would come out in victory.

"We have a new Champion! Thor the Thunderer has won the gladiatorial fight! All hail the champion!" he said to which the crowd erupted in rejoice.

"HURRAH!" The crowd roars for the new champion.

**CHEERS CONTINUE**

"Now would you be kind to return my brother?"

"Your wish!" Thor replied as he held the Champion in both of his arms and did a mental chant and the Champion began to glow and all of a sudden, he turned in to a small stone statue which he held in his right palm.

"NO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?" Grand master asked in agony at the sight of what happened to his brother.

"Nothing, I have just turned him into a stone. After two days, he will become normal as ever. But you try to stab me in the back? That stone is what will remain of your brother!" Thor said with the grimness in his voice which even made the mischief god to become pale.

*GASP* Never before an Elder of the universe was threatened this way. Something in the Grandmaster's mind screamed not to try making a mess with this man. Also, the fact that his brother has been defeated fair and square for the first time in billion years.

He then allowed Thor to pass through to inside. Loki followed him in. Marcus and Korg who were till the end of the fight decided to go and meet Thor. Hyperion was curious to know what happened.

A few hours later, as Thor was in the main hall, Marcus and Loki came to see him.

"Brother!? That was the most terrifying thing I've ever seen. You never told me you knew rune magic?" Loki asked shockingly as well as surprised to see his Brother's new abilities.

"I didn't know either. We need to get the hell out of this place. We need to go to Earth!"

"Agreed on that part" Marcus un-nervingly agreed. As the three made their way to their chambers.

Back at the personal chambers, Thor washed his hands and Marcus and Loki were standing there ready to make a plan.

"So, how do we escape?" asked Thor. Marcus and Loki were confused.

"You're asking us? We thought, you could take us out! Your hammer can summon portals, doesn't it?" Loki replied in confusion.

"Yes, your hammer, I noticed you didn't have it before when we met here and I believe you had a very good reason to hide it. But now that you have won this match, bring your hammer" Marcus said who too was confused.

Thor's face turned despondent as he looked down and then at both of them.

"Mjolnir is destroyed. Without that, I can't summon a portal to Earth. Sorry to break the bad news and also with my new abilities, I am not powerful enough to transport us across the universe" he replied which stunned the two. Though Marcus vaguely assumed it's fate on a hunch.

"Lemme guess, he destroyed that too!?" Marcus asked to which Thor was silent which confirmed his suspicion.

"Damn! Now what do we do?" asked Loki, feeling defeated.

"Plan B. We need to steal a ship, capable enough to carry us to Earth" Thor replied.

"There is only ship in the hanger capable of that. Crew capacity - 1000, fitted with a warp drive. But only Grand Master has access to it...Hah! Its funny to note that Loki came up with this exact same strategy as backup, back when I told you he had a plan. Looks like this is it" Marcus replied with a laugh. Thor turned to look at Loki raising his eyebrows.

"Oh we are definitely getting out of this place!" Loki replied with a smile.

"I have access to the security codes to his ship. Only thing we need to worry about is how to get in there past the guards" replied Loki which relieved the two as he proved more useful.

"We can always talk with our fists" Thor replied in calm.

"Grand master's not stupid and not without plans of his own. He has some artifacts that he can use it against us. It will be collateral. Trust me, you won't like it!" Marcus answered.

"Agreed, we should sneak past or on the contrary, create a chaos in here, unpredictable even to the Grand master. We can use that time to sneak into the hanger" Thor replied then smiled at them both,

"I think I have an idea!" he said.

...

SHIELD Triskellion...

Director Fury, Phil Coulson and Maria hill were in their conference hall looking at the video footage of the fight with the Juggernaut. They saw how Juggernaut was growing powerful over time and feared the devastation he would cause should the heroes fail. Then the arrival of the mysterious armored being called the Spartan coming to their aid. Everyone in the room were astonished to see the Spartan taking the direct hit from Cain's momentum and survive as if it was nothing. Severely weakening the red menace and giving the heroes a chance to prevail.

"I must admit, he has garnered the world's attention. The powers and abilities he has puts him in a planetary threat" Hill voiced her opinion.

"Only if he's our enemy. The SHIELD's board of directors wants to interrogate him. Alexander Pierce is never one to swoon and I think he will do whatever it takes to keep him under control" Fury replied.

"What was his response, I do think he might have rejected" Coulson said.

"On the contrary. He's ready to have this meeting setup. For all the appeal he has, he doesn't sound hostile"

"You trust him?" Coulson asked in confusion.

"I don't. But at least we don't have to build contingencies and do something brash on an assumption" Fury replied.

"One other thing is his technology. He's got serums that can bring people from death, then his armor, his weapons...He's dangerous in my opinion!" Hill sounded concerned.

"To our enemies at least. I think we are getting ahead of ourselves too fast" Coulson voiced his opinion. To him, he feels this armored man is not hostile and it's already been a month. He didn't interfere much and only came when the situation worsened like with the Juggernaut.

"The question as of now is whether he's alone in this or does he have a base and bunch of people running an operation across the globe" Hill said to which both turned to look at her in acknowledgement. Fury has the same doubts, for a man who runs the biggest covert network, he finds himself in the dark.

"Besides, I would like to inform you that the vault security has been doubled and prison has been restored, Thanks to Banner" Coulson said.

"Good as it gets. Also we need to keep an eye on . Somehow he's got a special interest on this Spartan which I believe is not with good intentions" Fury said as he saw the image of Doom in the monitor.

"Reed said for some reason, There's been a lot of financial transaction activity between Doom and Hydra!" Hill said which confused Fury. He knew that Hydra and Doom never got along. Getting to see them together was quite troubling.

"Hydra and Doom? That's not right" Asked Fury shrinking his eyebrows.

"Yes, Doom had been buying some unknown biological weapon from Hydra. Thanks to Natasha, she bribed one of the Hydra's defected agent to learn that Doom had been transferring millions of dollars of cash up front. Some of the parts that Reed ordered for his experiments never reached him which were none the less stolen by Doom" Coulson replied. This didn't sit well with Fury.

"Why is he doing this? What the hell is he planning? Do we know anything about what he had been buying?" asked Fury.

"No. Doom's not only ruthless but also smart. It's only a matter of time before he realizes that we were keeping tabs on him and following his trail already. He's been very secretive about that. Not all of the Hydra agents knew anything about his plans" Hill said.

"Then we need to warn the Avengers and F4. If Doom and Hydra are working together, then we are in for real trouble. And I hope this is in no way connected to the Spartan" Fury said in grim tone, though his instincts tell him otherwise.

...

Aboard the Fortress vessel...

John had completed his mission in abducting the Juggernaut, though he wasn't pleased to hear that was involved in all of this. An even more distressing situation is that Doom was talking to him as if he knew something about him, secret of sorts.

Currently he was aboard the bridge where Cortana was doing routine checks, hardlight displays surrounding her. He was out of his armor in his civilian clothes.

"So John...How was your second bout? I saw the news, they are all over you. You have gained a massive public support with your actions" she asked, her eyes still focusing on the displays, also bringing up the news display.

"Its all the same, just doing my duty. But that's not the rest of the story. Can you bring me the 360 degree footage of the day when we fought the Chitauri fleet here a month ago?" John asked in his neutral tone though Cortana pushed aside the displays to look at him confused.

"Why do you even need that?" she asked in dilemma.

"I think I overlooked something" was his response and Cortana could understand John was serious about this.

"Okay!" she replied as she brought the footage of the Chitauri fight. John instantly walked towards it as he watched his ship blasting through Chitauri fleet. Then he pressed a few buttons on the right and then dragged the status bar to view the other side of his ship. There he immediately caught sight of a small object. He then highlighted it with his index finger which glowed and got separated from the display. Then he touched and expanded his fingers outward to zoom it only to see a crystal clear picture of a Satellite.

"So this is how he found out" he murmured to which Cortana looked at him and could clearly see he was worried. After seeing the image of a satellite, she wasn't surprised.

"A Satellite? It could have taken picture of our ship on that day when we were busy" she said running possibilities and scenarios on who could possibly have discovered its presence.

"Juggernaut's escape was Doom's plan...To lure me out" he said in grim tone. Cortana was stunned to hear that.

"Wha-..But why!?" she asked.

"He's got some ill interest in me. On that day, he had somehow identified our ship in orbit. He knows we are here" John said which didn't sit well with the AI.

"Then I'll make sure he can't do anything about it. Doom can never understand our ship's cyber security systems and weapons armada given the nature of our advancement" Cortana replied as she brought up the security displays.

"Never underestimate him Cortana. Give him enough time, he can give us a nasty surprise. Dr. Reed Richard's files on him says he's got access to extra-dimensional energy source and with it he's has developed pretty advanced technologies. Keep surveillance tabs on even a pinch of activity in Latveria, both in and around"

"I will also hide the ship with Trick Geodesics" she said to which he acknowledged.

Trick Geodesics is an alternate dimension that can be used to bend localized reality around an object that makes the object invisible in plain sight. In simple terms, it's a space-time camouflage. All Human ships except Phantom class vessels use this for cloaking.

"Don't worry I got this. Something tells me that he will once more try to get our attention. But we can't keep playing hide and seek. We need to put an end to this before he creates innocent casualties with his act" she replied with assurance. One thing she's certain is that John was always right when it comes to enemy assessment. Despite all the powers and advancements humanity had, John always goes a step ahead to assess the situation and make sure there aren't any mishaps that could even shake them.

"Agreed on that part. By the way, I have arranged a meeting with Dr. Richards coming Monday" John said with a smile.

"Really!? Wow, that's great. Finally we get to reconstruct our navigation charts and prepare our way home when we finish our mission here" Cortana.

"Yes. It's troubling that SHIELD has no lead on the Chitauri. Before we could form the team, I can talk with Reed to gather more information on the Chitauri before taking the next step. After all, the F4 and X-Men have some potential alien friends and thus access to highly classified information that we seek" he said with hope.

"The information we have and the formal conclusions drawn from my analysis are that the Chitauri were genetically engineered race and were bred solely for warfare. I have been lately using the ship's sensors to monitor any remnant signals as far as a billion light years but nothing" She said rubbing her chin.

"The trail's gone cold. But we still have one piece of information. The Chitauri were led by Skurge. Then it means, there's a chance we may find answers in Asgard" John said after analyzing.

"We can, but there seems to be a problem. According to the Asgardian legends, Earth is one of the nine realms that is connected to the roots of Yggdrasil, the world tree" she said bringing up the holographic image of the realms.

"These roots must be inter-dimensional pathways between the worlds, space-time tunnels" John replied.

"Exactly. But the pathways are disrupted, warped by unknown means. All the nine realms lost connection with the Asgard including Earth. The slipstream sensors can't triangulate the position of the eternal realm as of now" Cortana said in despondence.

"This is quite troubling. It means, Asgard itself is in danger. We have to do something about it. What about Thor? He's an Avenger and Asgardian" John asked.

"Thor and Hyperion a.k.a Marcus Milton are not with the team. No one knows where they are now. Both left the Avengers 4 months ago due to some emergencies" She replied. John was a little frustrated. Every time he believed he's found an answer only to be shunted by some annoyance. John never liked being kept in the dark. As of now, he feels that the whole universe is against his odds of success.

*SIGH* "Then we need to wait. No other way. There's also one other thing I needed to discuss" John said, after being reminded of one more important, quite intriguing subject.

"Sure, happy to help!" she replied cheerfully.

John then brought up another display and downloaded the sensor data from his suit. In a second it brought up multiple readings with images which Cortana gave a glance.

"These are ARC reactor sensor data from Iron-man's armor" he said. Cortana first scrolled through and was instantly flabbergasted by the results. She quickly turned to look at him gaping her mouth.

"John, this is-..."

"ARC reactor with forerunner crystal at it's core" John replied casually. Cortana stared at the image for a couple of seconds.

"Tracking Forerunner energy signature across the globe" she said as the sensor swept the whole world.

"Gotcha!-...hmm-...There is a crashed forerunner civilian transport vessel in Iceland. The ship's still intact, though life support systems have failed" she said as she obtained a clear terrain mapping of that zone without missing even minuscule details. The ship was medium sized, more like troop carrier.

"Can you access the ship's logs?" he asked.

"In a second-...got it! she said as she remotely hacked and an audio started to play. John and Cortana easily identified the voice as the ship's native ancilla.

"Ship's log-2504458903-Day 100 of our war with the parasite. Mendicant bias has defected to the flood. We are losing systems one by one...

...

WARNING! hull breach during the slipstream transit caused the passengers to vanish. Sub-light Engine integrity 35%, Life support systems failed-...*STATIC*-..Slipspace anomaly detected. Premature exit imminent-..*STATIC*-...*STATIC*...

The logs ended which made John and Cortana to raise their eyebrows.

"So, this vessel ended up here in an accident during the forerunner - flood war. Sadly, this is the only record we have. Stark must have found it and managed to access the engine room due to lost power supply there and got his hands on the crystal" John assessed.

"Looks like, no one knows anything about it. Must be ship's sensors hiding the trail" Cortana replied.

"No one should. Need to destroy the vessel with out raising alarms" John said firmly. He was right, since the forerunner technology was still too much for this Earth, he didn't want that to fall into wrong hands.

"I will hit the ship with a lower output disintegration beam which will dissolve the ship to nothing. No one will notice the hit since it's in the inhabitable zone" She said as she prepared to destroy the ship.

"What about the piece with Stark?" she asked curiously.

"I would have it destroyed too. But Stark hasn't weaponized it. So that's fine by me. But if the crystal proves too much for him to handle, I will destroy it without batting an eye" John said to which Cortana shrugged.

"You sure do. So, until then? What's next for the supreme commander?" she asked with a smirk. John sighed for a moment being reminded of his commitment. This was never his strongest domain, but he can adapt and besides, this could be a new experience to him, one that he may even find comfortable after seeing nothing but thousands of years of bloodshed and warfare.

"I have got a class in the Xavier's institute tomorrow. It's something new, but mean while I can keep myself busy"

"Glad you are doing this. Besides, this is also a good opportunity to make friends with them, build trust. They would be of great help in our coming ventures" She said folding her hands.

"You may be right. I will go and rest. Wake me when you need me" He said with a smile to which she nodded and smiled as these words reminded her of their time aboard the broken frigate 'Forward unto Dawn'. She then carried out her work as John left the bridge through the opposite door to his quarters.

...

In Latveria..

was looking at the holographic images of the fight with the Juggernaut. He watched how the Spartan paved way for easy victory. Tanking his momentum like nothing and survive is an incredible feat even to him.

"His armor is incredibly advanced and powerful to withstand this. Perhaps if I can capture him-..." he thought and that's when a voice appeared behind the displays.

"You know? Watching that in repeat mode isn't gonna get the job done"

A man with a monocle, looking like in his early 40s with an attire to that of an army general was walking towards him.

Baron Von Strucker, leader of the Hydra forces and one of the prime enemies of Captain America was grinning at him.

"Why don't you give me the status report and progress of our little project to bring the Spartan down. I didn't spend money for chit chat" Doom said as his voice was commanding. Strucker raised his eyebrows and proceeded to talk.

"We've 100 test subjects who've volunteered for our super-soldier serum designed and modified from original Erskine's formula. Now all we need is the extra-dimensional energy source which the cosmic cube can supply. Limited exposure will create abominations that will trample everything in their path, tirelessly" Strucker said in a grim tone grinning at his plan.

"What about higher levels of exposure?" Doom asked.

"Dr. Franklin Hall and Dr. Octavius are working on it. As a matter of fact, he himself has volunteered to be the test subject for maximum exposure. He's been so hysteric with his work ever since Fury stopped funding him and bagged him out of SHIELD. At maximum exposure, the serum's chemical reaction potential with the blood plasma will be 10,000 times more than the mindless creatures. He will be unstoppable. Not even the Spartan can stop him. You will have your prize! Ha Ha Ha" Strucker said with a maniacal laugh.

"But I need to ask you something. You've got enough power with you. You can easily subjugate this Spartan and take away his technology for whatever you wanted to do" Strucker said with a smirk, but Doom was not in the mood for jests.

"Then you are deeply misguided and you are dumbest person I've ever met!" Doom growled at him which stunned Strucker.

"What was THAT?" he asked, feeling irate at his verbal treatment.

"Did you truly think you can take out this Spartan that easily? You have no idea what he is capable of! The Spartan is able to channel energy from the Nexus, which makes him the most dangerous being" Doom raised his voice in anger.

"Nexus?" Strucker asked raising an eyebrow as he had never heard about that.

"A dimension filled with energy of trillions and trillions of universes. Even the gods of gods fear to use its power. The last time when I had to ally with my enemies to battle 3 celestial beings who about to destroy Earth, Jean grey of the X-Men decided to summon the energy from the Nexus using her Phoenix force powers" He explained.

"What happened then?" Strucker asked curiously.

"What do you think will happen? The Celestials retreated without any further attack. Such is the power of the Nexus. Even they knew that Nexus would be their doom"

"Mein Gott!" Strucker was astounded with what he heard.

"Then if this Spartan can do that? Then-..." he started to fear as his mind ran possible worst case scenarios.

"Fear not Strucker. From what I've seen in the fight with Skurge. He hasn't figured out to unleash it to full potential, not yet. That much is good news...-FOR NOW!"

"Then we must hurry!" Strucker finally agreeing that this Spartan is not someone to mess with.

"Yes, I don't trust the abominations, but I believe what is about to experiment on himself can stand a little chance against him. Just enough time to capture the armored man and study his armor and every technology he possess" Doom said which started to bug Strucker.

"You sound like you already know who he is! What is it that you aren't telling me?" Strucker asked demanding answers from the Latverian ruler.

"That is none of your concern! And I have paid you enough for your experiment. All I need is the result" Doom said it as a statement that left no room for argument anymore. Strucker didn't like his demeanor one bit, but he was right. He had to learn his place. Besides, it was Doom who funded is project and he didn't want to lose his support.

"Fine, I will leave now. I will let you know once it's completed" he said as he proceeded to walk out.

Doom was grinning under the mask.

"That's good Strucker. Finally I will get what I want, and I will stop the approaching storm that's coming to us!" He said as he clenched his fists, glaring at the display where it stopped playing as he was looking at the paused image of the Spartan and the second image of his humongous ship.

"I know who you are Spartan and how you got here. But sadly, this universe is mine to conquer and rule. Not you or your enemies!" Doom ran his thought in his mind.

...

At Baxter building...

Reed Richards was in his civilian clothes sitting in his chair before his computer looking at the footage of fight with the Juggernaut. Susan once returned debriefed him of the entire couldn't believe this was Doom's doing, but was not entirely surprised. But what really didn't sit well was he did this to attract the Spartan's attention.

"The Spartan! He came to aid us. And looks like the media is all crazy over it!" he thought as he saw the fight. Reed was astounded to see the Spartan's armor was able to tank the Juggernaut's momentum which was again augmented by the power amplifier that Doom placed. He can even begin to think of such a material that can with stand this.

"Not even Tony's Achilles armor can withstand such a blow. Huh-..Doom didn't care about casualties. He was willing to put the lives of thousands at risk to achieve his goal. So sick of that metal bas-...!" he gritted his teeth in anger as he was mentally feeling agony and just when he was about to swear, he was interrupted by his wife Susan.

"Reed? Oh...here we go again!" She said blatantly looking at her husband once again creaking his neck with the footage.

"Reed, one of these days, you are gonna make me put you up in an asylum!" she said with a smile but he wasn't in the mood for jests. She could see he was a little bit worried.

"I-...I'm sorry, that was but a joke!" she said still not garnering his attention.

"Reed, is something bothering you?" she asked with concern.

*SIGH* "Doom did this. It's good to see Marko back in prison. But this was all just to test someone? What kind of monster is he?" Reed asked feeling anger for his actions. Sue knew he was right on that regard. Even if any of the heroes wanted to do anything about that, Doom is a sovereign ruler of a nation and has diplomatic immunity.

"Don't worry too much. It's over, let's be back to normal. We knew this would happen eventually. That's what Doom does. Reed was not convinced, but she was right.

"I know. I was just-...just-...uhh...You are right. I need to let go of this" he said finally agreeing with her, not wanting to hurt himself in guilt for letting Doom do his immoral acts.

"Besides, What about the meeting with the Spartan? Did you give any thought about that?" she asked.

Reed was briefed on that part too and was quite intrigued and excited to meet the mystery man who helped to save the world twice.

"To say, I am excited. But why me. I feel there's some specific reason to for this meeting" he said rubbing his chin.

"Yeah, he said, he needs your help" Sue responded which made his eyebrows shrink a little.

"My help? He's got technologies that I can't even begin to would he need my help? But I think this is good. Finally, I get to learn who he is and where he is from" Reed said, his face glowing bliss.

"Okay, looks like I got you cheered up" she said with a shrug.

"But what concerns me is what Doom's really up to?" Reed asked seriously.

"What ever it is, we'll stop him together. But you need to rest. Remember, you got a conference to attend tomorrow at MIT" she said with a smile, changing the topic.

"You are right, this scientific paper will propel the understanding of quantum cosmology to new heights. T'Challa and Stark helped me with their rare and unique resources to conduct experiments, thanks to them" Reed said feeling proud of his work. Like Hank Pym, Reed always considered himself as a scientist before being a superhero.

"See, problem solved. Now lets go have dinner with the kids, Ben and Johnny and go to sleep. Tomorrow's gonna be a busy day" she said as the two kissed and began to leave the room.

...

A/N: And that's all folks! Man this was really a big chapter. As for chapter itself, John's completed his second bout and from next chapter on wards it will be more like Avengers - Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

As you all know, Thor is slowly becoming the Rune King, As for Marcus Milton, he will be saved by the Spartan in restoring his cosmic powers. John will meet Reed and he will start to grow personal with X-Men. Also as for the romance, I have decided it won't be Black widow. It will be one of the X-Men members. The battle for Asgard is about to begin. And yes, Doom knows the Spartan's background and with the next step to subjugate him, John's going to be pissed off and he will confront the Latverian ruler in his place. It will also be interesting about the way Doom knew the Spartan. Once the Asgard arc gets completed, it will be Infinity War and the story will have more cosmic side.

Until next chapter-...BYE!

Oh by the way, I am also planning a Justice League crossover.