Character Scramble 15 Finals: Don't Think Twice

[u/LetterSequence]

Click here to vote for who you think should win this season! Voting will last until July 2nd, 10PM EST. After which point, a new champion will be crowned.

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This is the final round! Our two finalists, /u/OddDirective and /u/TheMightyBox72, have come far to reach this point. And now… you can see the conclusions to their stories!

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The door has finally opened. As your team steps through the door, the climax of their journey stands in front of them.

The Keyblade Graveyard

A sickening battlefield. A reminder of the bloodshed required to get this far. Millions of weapons embedded into the ground, each a person who had dreams, aspirations, goals, someone who wanted Kingdom Hearts and failed to capture it, fools who fell along the way.

Of course, if your team thought they were alone, they were equally foolish. Three more individuals step forward. One lone figure stands in the distance. Somehow, someway, they also managed to make it this far. And yet, now that you’re here… Kingdom Hearts lingers in the sky, inactive.

That’s when you find out that for Kingdom Hearts to grant its divine blessing, something must be offered to it in return. The other team grips its weapons, ready to do what they must to feel its power.

Light and darkness will clash. Your team prepares themselves. To gain the strength of Kingdom Hearts, three hearts must be sacrificed to it. Then, and only then, will your team get everything they desire.

Will they be strong enough to overcome these last foes? Will they have what it takes to give up these sacrifices?

There’s only one way to find out.

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Scramble Rules

That’s Sora, Donald, and Goofy Too!: Every participant this season received three characters on their team, but many of them might not be a household name. To aid with readability, please give a brief summary of your characters, with enough information so the average reader can get excited for your team before starting.

Let Your Heart Be Your Guiding Key: Your write up will depict a scenario where your team is the victor. Even if your team has a one in a million chance of overcoming the odds, show what they’d need to do to come out on top against the challenge in front of them!

Unlocking Limit Form: Writers are allowed to make changes to their characters in their narrative to fit their story, such as allowing power stealers to gain more powers, teaching martial artists new techniques, or having characters gradually grow in strength between rounds. However, you are not beholden to following what your opponent is doing. When facing another team, you are only required to write their characters as they were submitted. This is to help with ease of research, and make things more fun for both sides.

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Round Rules

Guest Starring: Warriors! If someone has come this far, then their goal is obvious. They, too, want Kingdom Hearts. Are they a traveler like your team, who has lost their own companions along the way? Are they surviving in this world through sheer force of will, sent to test challengers to the throne? Maybe they’re just someone who has been chasing your team to the ends of the earth out of malice and hatred. Whatever it is, the reason they’re this far is up to you!

Setting: The Keyblade Graveyard. Perhaps the reason so few have gotten Kingdom Hearts is because they all perished on this battlefield. A never ending desert, where sandstorms assault those who venture too far off the beaten path. Thick stone structures that seem to shift and block off your path, as if to lock you into life or death battles. And most notably, keyblades. Millions of swords embedded into the ground, not by choice, but as gravestones. Dropped when the warriors who wielded them fell in battle. A permanent reminder of the death and despair that comes with trying to achieve your dreams. Lingering above this battlefield is none other than a heart shaped moon. Watching you. Judging you. Kingdom Hearts will choose who it blesses, who it deems worthy. Will it be your team? Or will you become another sword in the ground, for future travelers to look upon?

Key Points: The key points of the round are the following. Three “hearts” must be “sacrificed” to attain your ultimate goal of “Kingdom Hearts.” These terms are deliberately left loose for the writers to interpret as they wish. Otherwise, the main goal is to conclude your story in the field of battle!

Post Limit: It’s the grand finale! The only limit is your own imagination!

Due Date: Write ups are due when they’re done (If you’re reading this, they are probably done)!

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Flavor Suggestions

Be Careful What You Wish For: Kingdom Hearts will grant your team power beyond power. The strength to attain whatever they want in life. So… what is it? When your team stands victorious, what will they ask of Kingdom Hearts? What do they need strength to do that they couldn’t do before?

One More Grave Marker: The Keyblade Graveyard can shift its arena in specific ways, as if to lock you into a designated combat arena. Along with this, there are plenty of swords strewn about for anyone to use. There’s plenty of opportunities to use this battlefield to your advantage, so get crazy with it!

[u/TheMightyBox72]

"Once I get my shit," Majima had said. "I'll send you a message and go to 1101 HQ."

"Do you have any idea what you're talking about anymore?"

"Nah. But they gotta have a UN building somewhere, you know."

Toomes sighed. "They do."

"So just write down the universe number and I'll bring the evidence there."

"You understand what you're saying right, you want to go directly to the guys who run the multiverse and make a walk-in appointment."

Majima gave a sly smile. "They'll listen to me. They always do."

Lot swung wide. He wasn't anywhere close to Majima, but Majima didn't think he was stupid. He was doing something, so Majima went ahead and bent backwards to avoid whatever it was going to be.

What it turned out to be was a razor of wind that flew from the edge of his blade into the forest behind him. Wood splintered as trees were cut in half for at least a mile out.

"Hmm."

Majima lashed out with a low sweep kick, keeping Lot off balance immediately became priority number one. He stepped back, avoided the kick but started stumbling. Majima took a stutter step forward and launched a kick right into his chest, knocked him on his ass.

"You're the only person in this world, aren't you?" Majima said.

"The fuck are you talking about?" Lot said back.

"Everyone died but you, ringing any bells?"

Lot hopped back to his feet with a snarl. He swiped for Majima's head, he ducked, then slashed down to his ankles, Majima skittered forward on his toes.

Lot charged and slammed Majima with his shoulder, sent him tumbling to the ground. Majima rolled and came back up on one knee, Lot swung straight down and Majima leaned out of the way.

"Well?" he said.

"I mean yeah, the mages went and cocked everything up, apparently they missed a few though."

Majima slipped past Lot and swung his bat into the back of his head. Lot staggered forward, touched the sore area, felt blood.

Lot swung, Majima knocked the sword to the ground with his bat, planted it in the dirt and launched himself right towards Lot's chin.

Inches from connecting, Lot grabbed him by the ankle and stopped the momentum dead. With one hand, he swung him into the dirt like a sack of potatoes. All the wind was knocked out of his lungs and replaced with silt and compost. Then, with the flick of his wrist, Lot sent him spinning through the air, stopped only when his spine collided with a tree and he fell to the ground.

Lot pointed the sword at his throat.

"You're asking some strange questions," he said. "You know that? How'm I meant to be the last man alive when you're right here."

Majima frowned. "You never even met Stark, did you?" he said. "He just didn't give you the time of day."

"See, you're talking about more people now, so the question makes less and less sense. How about I start asking. Who are you? What do you actually want?"

Majima used the tree at his back to push himself back up. He put a finger on the sword, still leveled at his neck, and gently pushed it to the side.

"Like I said, I'm here to do business."

Lot scowled, but he was out of fight. So he stood back and listened.

"There're worlds out there full of people. With civilization, food that you ain't gotta peel off the ground, women that you ain't gotta make up with your hand, places to sleep, heating, plumbing, technology, we got iPhones and shit. I can take you there, I can get you in. Sound good?"

Lot looked at him, the tired lines under his eyes pulled at him.

"You fucking kidding me? No shit. I mean, no idea if you're lying to my face here, sounds like you are. But presuming you're not, I don't know who wouldn't jump for that."

Majima held back a chuckle. "Yeah. I just need you to do something for me."

"And what's that?" Lot folded his arms.

"Start at the beginning, you're saying some shit about mages?"

"Yeah. You know. The mages?"

"Pretend I don't know," Majima said. "Tell the story like you're telling your grandkids at bedtime here."

Lot massaged the bridge of his nose and let out a heavy sigh. "Alright. Dunno everything, Arthur was up on this shit, I- well Arthur innit here to tell it."

---

Mages and man have been at war since anyone could remember, there's not a generation alive who can speak of a time of peace.

The people believed that after the warlock Mordred's failed assault on Camelot, that the mages would have learned their lesson and retreated, that they would leave the world of man alone. One of their numbers even assisted the rightful king Arthur in dethroning his corrupt uncle Vortigern.

However, unbeknownst to man, the mages had retreated to their compounds and their hidden villages to devise a weapon unstoppable, a spell which would leave them the rulers of Earth. In a single instant, mankind would be wiped out in its entirety.

The reign of man grew fat and lethargic. King Arthur busied himself with trade, relations, the day to day politics of his kingdom, and was celebrated for it. In time, the world all but forgot about the threat of the mages.

Even the mages feared the power that a small sect had developed. A civil war brewed, led by the mage in King Arthur's court. The mage leaders recognized that the only way to consolidate the power of magocracy was to enact the plan now, that the others would have nothing to fight against once mankind was in the past tense.

It worked.

The lands of mankind were scorched in fire, man turned to dust in the time they could realize anything was wrong, and the mages became the only force left capable of dominion. Three stood against this force.

King Arthur and Sir Lancelot survived the assault, protected by the mageslaying properties of their divine swords. Standing by them, Arthur's own mage.

The three were fueled by fury and nothing more. There were no more people left to serve, no one capable of being saved, and so it was their determination to return the favor and wipe the slate clean. As powerful as they were, the mages were small in number. It was possible in one lifetime to end their race.

First fell the mage, stoned by her own people for insolence against the Magelord. With her died humanity's future.

Next fell Arthur. Once the legions of mages were decimated and the only one left living was the Magelord himself. In their duel, Arthur was disarmed and left vulnerable, his protection to magic gone, the Magelord vanquished him on the spot.

Lancelot gave a roar of anger as the last of his comrades fell, and ran the Magelord through. At great cost, the Magelord anticipated this move and ran Lancelot through as well. But there was not a force on Earth which could stop Lancelot and his rage, so the Magelord fell, and Lancelot was left alone in the world.

He spent two years and seven months in solitude, living among the ruins of Camelot, when newcomers arrived. Men appeared, as if from nowhere, and began to build, a structure larger than Camelot which could house a thousand more men. Lancelot approached the men, protested and questioned them, but was rebuffed on all accounts. When he attempted to make the altercation physical, he was accosted by strange magics that even Arondight could not protect against.

So Lancelot retreated to the forest of the damned, like a stray mutt with his tail between his legs. As the machine-men continued, they ate up more and more of the world around him, leaving Lancelot with less and less to sustain himself on. Hunting became scarce, trees died and left no children to carry their legacy. The river became black and foul and water had to be drawn from the old well which too, eventually, ran dry.

Lancelot resigned himself then to rot. He stole supplies from the machine-men, who carried them in abundance when needed, but he thought, perhaps, it would have been better if the world had remained dead.

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"Hmm," Majima stroked his chin. "Yeah, that'll do."

Lot, who'd sat down at some point in his story, leaned against a large rock. "That's all you needed from me, then?"

"No. What I actually need from you is you telling that story to someone else. Someone who'll do something about it. We just gotta..."

Majima paused, thought back to how he arrived.

The Stargate didn't come with him.

"Fuck!"

[u/TheMightyBox72 → u/TheMightyBox72]

There wasn't really anywhere to hide around the factory, the terrain was flat and featureless. Still, it had a front and a back, and if Majima didn't want to be seen, he'd go around the back.

He nodded towards the fence. "Can you get through this?"

Lot looked indignant. "You weren't listening to my story, were you?"

"Fine. I won't ask then. Cut the fucking fence."

Lot growled something and drew Arondight. The runes along the blade lit up a deep violet, wind exploded off of his form, and with one slash, the entire section of fence was demolished.

Lot then sheathed his sword and the two slipped inside, tucked away in a corner of the architecture.

"Alright," Majima said. "Here's the plan. I hit it off pretty well with the supervisor here, we'll go in through the back to avoid the welcome wagon I got last time, we stick together until I find Donewizc, then I'll ask him where the portal is."

"That what?"

Majima groaned. "The thing that'll get us where we're trying to go."

"Fine, whatever."

"You follow me while I'm being led there, then we go through the portal together. Make sense?"

"Not very complicated is it?"

"I only had the walk over here to think it up."

"Should we add in anything? Back alley deal, simultaneous break-in?"

Majima thought about it.

"Nah. Let's just stick with this."

Majima found a small door on the back side of the building and kicked it open. He fully expected to have to knock some heads before actually reaching the guy, just out of habit. Instead, this back area was completely empty.

He wandered deeper into the compound. Lot followed. They tried their damnedest to keep quiet, but there wasn't anyone around to hear them.

At first he thought that the workers just had no reason to be back here, but the further in he wandered the more he passed by machines, humming with electricity, but still with no one managing them.

The factory was designed with navigation in mind, they theoretically would bring on new hires who needed to go where they were supposed to go. For that reason, there were signs and markings directing vaguely towards where things might have been. That said, it wasn't a mall or a theme park, there wasn't a You Are Here map hanging around to tell them where to go, and for that reason the structure was still labyrinthian in its complexity. Majima and Lot wandered through narrow steam-filled hallways and spacious factory floors for over half an hour.

Majima found it on the third floor. And yes, he did make it through three floors without seeing another person besides Lot. There were no signs pointing towards it, only a plaque to the side of the door that read 'Transport'.

Majima pushed the door open. It wasn't looked.

It was a small room, oddly shaped. The back wall was taken up by a ditch in which sat something like a parking lot shuttle on rails. There was a control pad on the wall by it, but other than that, the room was largely empty.

Empty except for a folding chair set up in the corner, where sat Donewizc.

He stood when they entered.

"Hey." Majima waved, cordially, and was also already reaching for his bat. "Sorry, realized I needed a way home, was wondering if we could borrow yours. We'll be right out of your hair."

Majima moved for the machine. Donewizc moved to block him.

He gave a heavy sigh. "I got a call."

"Interesting, we'll have to hear about it some other time." He tried again.

Donewizc held out a hand. "I got a call from Stark. He said you're not leaving this planet."

Majima licked his teeth and tightened the grip on his bat. "Y'ain't gotta do this. Just stand aside and that's the last trouble you'll be in."

"You don't know a damn thing about what I went through, or about what he pulled me from, alright? All due respect, but you haven't got the guts to try and escape this life. It should be impossible. Stark gave me an out, men like me would kill for that opportunity."

Lot growled. "Interesting choice of words."

"I'll do what I gotta do," Donewizc said. "I owe him everything."

"You know what you sound like right now?" Majima asked.

Donewizc sneered. "What."

"Two-bit muscle."

Majima yanked the bat overhead and swung it down into Donewicz's head. He barely flinched, and the bat came away with a bigger dent.

Donewizc cracked his knuckles, the joints made the loud echoed clanging of iron on steel.

Lot drew his sword, the runes lit up. "Come on, man. It's two against one. I'm not trying to dull my blade here, and I'm guessing you're not trying to get nicked in the nads."

Donewizc responded with a clothesline rush. Lot slipped under the arm and swung at his back.

It cut. Not deep, but Majima could see the groove along his back underneath his shredded coveralls. For just a moment as Donewizc flew through the wall.

Majima watched the hole. "That it?"

"You were expecting an intermission? Maybe the girls come out and start dancing?"

Donewizc lunged from the dust cloud. Lot turned his head just in time to see it, as he was tackled to the ground by a metric ton of metal.

It was a rough pin, but it was effective. Donewizc got both of Lot's arms down by his side. His grip on the sword tightened, Majima could hear it humming with energy. Lot was able to shift Donewizc more than anyone else could be expected to, but he just didn't have the leverage.

Apparently Donewizc noticed, cause he slammed his head down into Lot's. The floor beneath them bowed under the weight.

Majima came up behind Donewizc and wedged his bat up under his chin. It took all of Majima's strength to bend Donewizc's windpipe even a little, but the automatic response still had him drifting back.

That was enough for Lot to wedge himself free. He yanked one foot up and kicked Donewizc, and Majima, across the room. Majima managed to flop to one side before landing. If Donewizc had landed on him, he'd have to be rolled back home in a wheelchair.

Majima was on his feet first. Donewizc refused to stay down, but that didn't exactly make him good at getting back up.

Majima's feet barely touched the ground, he swept up behind Donewizc like a vampire, the dust kicking at his heels the dark cloak of his ill intent. He brought the bat down into the top of Donewizc's skull, rapid-fire, like he was playing whack-a-mole with his frontal lobe. Eventually the hits started to add up, and Donewizc buckled and flinched under the force.

He exploded with a yell, shoved Majima back and knocked the bat out of his hands.

Lot was still armed, he swung the blade in his hands down onto Donewicz's back. Donewizc got his hands up, in a rough street fighter kind of block. Even being made of metal, that couldn't be enough.

He took a staggering step forward and then hopped. It wasn't a strong hop, he got no airtime off of it, but that wasn't the point. The point was that the moment the sword made contact, Donewizc was falling. He didn't meet Lot's swing with his strength, but his weight. And that weight was enough to shove the blade to the side.

Lot kept his grip, but he nearly lost his arm for it. The force of it dragged him away, sent him into a tumble onto the ground.

Majima staggered onto his feet into a run. He swiped his bat off the ground and closed in.

Nothing short of his hardest swings did anything to Donewizc, so his hardest swings were the only things he could give. His muscles tore, and the bat bent and dented into a shape it was never supposed to be in, as he brought it crashing down into Donewizc over and over again.

Only when the bat started to develop an identifiable angle did Donewizc finally find it in himself to block. The bat clanged against his arm and Majima bounced off like he hit a trampoline. Lot had just gotten to his feet, and already Donewizc turned to face him.

Donewizc wasn't skilled in the traditional way, but he knew what he was doing, keeping both Majima and Lot on their toes and denying them a team-up attack.

So Majima decided screw what Donewizc wanted and went for it anyways. He gripped the bat tight on the lowest point his fist could wrap around. Swung it forward with all his strength and let go. It spun through the air like a boomerang and slammed the back of Donewizc's head. He stumbled forward.

Lot caught the bat. In one fluid movement, he sliced his sword across Donewizc's cheek then slammed it with the bat. Majima thought he was hitting pretty hard, when Lot swung the bat it straightened back out in an instant.

Lot hurled the bat right back, and it slammed across Donewizc's face again. Majima took a running start as he snatched it out of the air.

One foot planted onto Donewizc's chest. The leg muscles tensed and coiled and Majima shot into the air.

Donewizc was still staggering, he couldn't do much more than look up as Majima held the bat high and started to fall.

It occurred to him, in the moments before impact, that he was actually using Donewizc's own trick against him.

Metal cracked against metal. Majima's bat gave up entirely and split down the middle.

Majima hit the ground hard and fell on his ass.

Donewizc stayed standing. For a second Majima was very afraid that this fight would keep going after his only weapon was broken.

But he didn't make a move. He took a few staggering steps that went nowhere, head swaying on his neck. His chrome eyes were already halfway rolled up his head.

Donewizc fell forward and hit the ground with the loudest thud Majima had ever heard in his life.

Majima let out a whistle of relief and got to his feet. He tossed the broken bat's handle over his shoulder and let it clatter to the ground.

"Alright," he said. "That should be the last of them."

He walked tiredly over to the control panel on the wall and typed in the universe number Toomes had given him.

1.

The hole in the wall opened to a pitch black tunnel that went for as far as he could see.

[u/TheMightyBox72 → u/TheMightyBox72]

Universe 1. Just the name hyped it up, when every other dimension had an index the size of a phone number. Just the 1101 seemed insanely exclusive with that context, it was hard to even comprehend universe number 1.

In that sense, it was a bit of a letdown actually seeing it, which in itself felt backwards because the sights and sounds were purely utopian. A blue sky shined overhead, softly warming the vibrant grasses along the ground.

They ostensibly exited the terminal into the middle of a city, and it was obviously a city, but the ground was covered almost completely in nature, grasses shrubs and trees that were clearly untamed, but seemed to respect the aesthetically pleasing boundaries that they aught to adhere to. Small animals, squirrels, songbirds, the occasional rabbit, hopped from one piece of foliage to the next.

Like the trees, towering buildings sprouted from the ground at even yet completely random intervals. Rather than by roads, these buildings were connected by a spider's web of skybridges and tunnel walkways that connected them dozens of feet above Majima's head. Stark Tower had been a marvel of engineering to crane your neck and look up at, here, every single building rivalled Stark Tower. That said, there was one spire, outlined only in glass windows that continued so far that they became scales on the hide of a dragon, which easily dwarfed all the others and may well have been the finger of God.

That's the one Majima went for.

If Majima was impressed with his surroundings, Lot was having his entire perception of the world torn apart. His eyes were wide, furiously taking in as much as he could.

"Christ in heaven," he said. "The fuck did I eat?"

Majima didn't wait for him to catch his bearings. He had to run to keep up with Majima's long-legged stride.

"Seriously, where the fuck am I?"

"Universe 1," Majima said. "Thought that was fairly obvious."

"Yeah but can you say it with some sense? The fuck's a universe?"

"Uh..." Majima scratched his chin and tried to figure out how he'd explain multiverse theory to someone from a world that just figured out plumbing. "Don't worry about it."

"Don't worry about it?" Lot grabbed Majima by the arm and forced him to stop. "Mate, what the fuck is all this?"

Majima frowned. "It's on a need to know. You don't need to know, you don't want to know."

"I don't want to know?" Lot asked. "I think I want to know."

"Trust me, you don't."

"Why the fuck would I trust you!?" Lot yelled. "I met you two hours ago! Like..." he took a moment to compose himself, "I was willing to go along with it. At first. Because what the fuck else am I going to do, and you're making some big promises. But you're taking me to some fucking... fairy realm, got the whole place looking like a fucking kaleidoscope." He centered. "Where did the people come from? Where did you come from?"

Majima spoke through grit teeth. "You don't want to know."

He tried to pull his arm back, but Lot's grip was unbreakable. "I really do," he said.

Majima sighed. "The last guy who came from a place like yours, when he was told about all this, it didn't treat him well."

Lot took that in, and he let go. Tried to brush it off with a shrug. "Yeah well, he ain't me is he."

Majima took a step closer. "What do you want from all this?"

"What do I want? I dunno. I wanna be with my mates, I wanna drink, sing, live. Go back to when there were people."

"The mages are all dead, right?"

"Yeah, pretty sure. Course I thought all the people were dead too, but."

"Alright," Majima said. "Let's walk and talk, huh. Kinda in a hurry."

He picked up the pace again and Lot fell in line. Majima chewed on his lip, he'd never met anyone who didn't get this shit, he was at a bit of a loss on where to start.

"You ever look back on your life," he eventually said. "And you notice one single point of 'Man, I really shoulda done this.'?"

"I mean, yeah. Think everyone does."

"Right. Well. Somewhere, beyond time and space, there's a world where you did do that. It's called an alternate universe, or another dimension, whatever you wanna call it. Now think about every choice every person has ever made. Think how many universes that would make. That's the multiverse."

Lot nodded slowly. "Huh."

"Now, at some point some eggheads from a universe far in the future figured out how to travel between them. That's what we just did, we went from your universe, where everyone's dead, to this one, where everyone's not."

"Then, that would mean-"

"It don't mean shit," Majima cut him off. "It's too fucking big, you'd have to spend a lifetime jumping from world to world to find one that's even remotely similar to your own. It's not worth thinking about, it's not worth considering. The multiverse isn't an answer to your problems and you're better off not even thinking about it after this."

Lot frowned. "Alright, then. Then why the fuck are we here?"

"Because, those people who set up the factory. They ain't from where you're from. Your universe was invaded, same as the guy I knew. Hero that I am, I've decided to put a stop to it. Then maybe I'll smack some sense into him when I'm done."

The tower grew very slowly as they walked, every time Majima thought it couldn't get any bigger and that they must be getting close to the base, there'd still be another minute of walking where it'd get bigger still. Damn depth perception.

Lot let out a heft sigh, his eyes were wide and unfocused. "Crazy. Crazy what you learn."

"Oy!" Majima snapped. "You wanted to know, you're not allowed to get weird about it."

His eyes did focus now, on Majima, in cross irritation. "Yeah, sorry, let me just move past this for you."

Finally, they reached a circle of concrete that marked the base of the tower. Come to think of it, as he looked back, the ground down here was completely empty. He wondered if anyone still used the ground, there weren't any walkways, they'd kind of just trudged through grass and dirt.

Automatic doors slid open for them, so clearly it was something taken into account. When they entered, the first thing to hit them was a wall of noise. While the outside was near perfectly still, the inside was bustling with movement. Majima could feel himself getting swept away in the current.

The room, for it was all just one big room, was the size of a city plaza, maybe larger, and it currently held several hundred people. People was being general, not all of them were human, most were but the ones that weren't stuck out. Full grown men and women as short as kids with the proportions of a kids cartoon waddled about right next to lumbering towers of mossy greens and blue suede skin.

The entire room was radial, circular paths connected the outside parts, spokes connected the outside parts to the inside parts, like being trapped in a nested roundabout.

In the dead center was a circular desk with a sign above that had about 200 different languages printed on it. Majima was, however, able to spot one he understood. 'Help Desk'.

Perfect.

He and Lot followed the flow of people towards the center. Didn't look like anyone was working the place at the moment but they could at least loiter, ding the bell until someone got annoyed enough to come help him.

Come to find then that the moment he stepped close a shimmering blue holographic woman appeared dead in front of him, right behind the desk.

<Hello!> she said. <Welcome to Democratic Peace-Keeping Coalition of One-Thousand One-Hundred and One Universes Business and Vacation Center! How can I help you today?>

Majima was about to say something when a dozen options popped up in front of his face. 'About' 'Tour Schedules' 'Disability Assistance'

"Directions!" Majima reached to touch it but apparently the computer lady heard him. The options shrank away and were replaced with even more options. He tried to scan it. There were seventeen tour options but no offices.

So with a frustrated grumble, he turned away.

<Have a nice day!> She disappeared.

[u/TheMightyBox72 → u/TheMightyBox72]

Majima put his arm around Lot's shoulder and started dragging him back into the crowd.

"What gives?" Lot said. "I thought you were an official."

Majima sputtered. "What the hell gave you that idea?"

"I dunno. You talk real important."

"Cause I am important. Just not official."

He moved for the elevators. There were four of them, forming a broad sense of the perfectly round room having corners. As they stepped up, the doors instantly opened for them.

Majima blinked, but stepped in.

The elevator had no buttons, instead another hologram popped up, same format, listing out the floors as options. The benefit of this was that, by flicking his wrist, Majima could scroll up and down. This was needed because there was well over a thousand floors in this buildings, hundreds above and hundreds below.

Lot's face sank. "Do you know where we're going?"

"Sure don't."

Majima started pressing buttons. He started from the bottom and went up, at random but roughly every 25 floors. As he pressed them, each button lit up, that is, until he hit Floor 431.

"Bingo," Majima said. "Now we know where they don't want us to go."

He then went down floor by floor, until finally Floor 425 lit up.

The elevator started going up. Majima leaned against the back wall with a self-satisfied grin. Lot turned his gaze out.

The elevator was made almost entirely of glass, and pressed against the exterior of the building. He could see as they floated upwards, smooth as can be but surprisingly fast.

The extra buttons Majima pressed didn't end up mattering much, the elevator stopped every few floors as people got on and got off. None of them paid the two of them any mind.

"You think uh..." Lot started. "There any w- worlds out there like mine?"

Majima turned to him.

"I know what you said, don't go expecting shit, right. What I mean is, you're saying I shouldn't look for a world where, Arthur and them made it right?"

"You hear horror stories about people who try and find shit like that. Best not to go for it."

"But is there somewhere even, a bit closer? This whole thing is all a bit... intense."

Majima had no idea what he was talking about.

"Oh," he said, as it clicked. "You mean somewhere low-tech. Yeah they got those, they're common enough. Just the other day we went to Count Dracula's castle."

Lot frowned, stared out the window, then looked to him. "Who?"

"Don't worry about it." He put a hand to his shoulder. "Just leave all of that to me."

The elevator door slid open. Not surprising, it had been doing that basically nonstop since they got on. But this was the 425th floor.

The room they stepped into could only be described as the waiting room of the future. The shape of the room was blobular, sanded off edges but not perfectly circular. Still, wide open as hell. Vaguely chair-shaped structures rose seamlessly from the ground in jagged rows, like a shark's teeth, all surrounding a cylindrical glass tube that rose up into the floors above it.

Majima approached that, clearly the centerpiece of the room, and the same holographic woman popped up.

<Hello! And welcome to the office of the Democratic Peace-Keeping Coalition of One-Thousand One-Hundred and One Universes! How can I help you today?>

Like a nightmare that wouldn't end, Majima was presented with a dozen more options.

There was one, at the very bottom, 'Speak to an officer.', that was what Majima wanted. He pressed that one.

<Okay! Please take a seat, a peacekeeping officer will be out to assist you shortly.>

Majima frowned. How soon was shortly.

"I wouldn't hold my breath," came a voice from behind. "They've had me waiting for about three hours now."

Majima turned, and saw possibly the last thing he expected to find here. That was Levi. And there he was, slouched in one of those chair-things as tired and bored as ever.

"What the fuck?" Majima said.

Levi stared back.

"You son of a bitch," Majima stalked over and put his foot between Levi's legs. His instinct was to tip his chair back, but these lumpy things were growing straight out of the ground. "Give me one reason I don't kill your ass right now."

Levi stared back up at him. "Can't figure why you would. What'd I do to you?"

"You betrayed me, asshole. They cut you up for that in the business."

"I'm not in your business." Levi stood up and pushed Majima back a step. "You weren't holding up your end of the deal, I found someone who was. Thanks for all the help, I don't need it anymore."

"Nah." Majima put his hands on his knees to got on his level. "Knowing what you're trying to do, I don't think you do."

"I'm here on business with one of the most respected figures in the multiverse. You're a criminal trespassing on 1101 property. If you try to get into the shit with me right here right now it won't end well for you no matter how hard you punch."

Maijma sneered, but backed off. "Fair point. I ain't here to fight you anyways." He turned. "Lot! Come on, we're moving."

Lot fell into step behind him. "Moving where? I thought the broad said to wait."

"Yeah, I'm not good at that."

The door to the side was barely distinguishable from the white wall surrounding it, like the engine room on a theme park ride. Majima tried the handle, obviously it was locked, so he kicked it open.

The space back here was a long hallway, dead on with only a slight curve to the left. A lot of the walls back here were glass, and showed dozens more globular rooms, mostly small offices and storage rooms. A set of stairs toward the back led to what was likely the more important locations, it was pretty dead down here.

There was an exception. In one of the smaller small offices, there sat a man, the kinda guy who looked like he was used to getting into scraps. This was evidenced, largely, by the ice pack he held to his head.

The door to his office was not locked, and he looked at Majima curiously as he came down the hallway and pushed in. It was hard to tell where his eyes were given the opaque goggles covering them up, but he perked up with attention.

"Oy," Majima said. "You work here?"

"...Yeah," the guy said.

"Good. I got something to report, and I ain't waiting for your stupid robot chick to tell me when it's okay."

"Uh... okay." That head injury seemed to be slowing him down. That was maybe the only reason he hadn't called security on them yet.

"Tony Stark is planning an invasion of a world that still has people in it, he's willing to kill them all to get what he wants, and he's done this kind of thing before."

"Okay..." The man shifted and sat up. The big 'A' on his chest stretched as he pushed out his back. "Which uh... which Tony Stark are we talking about here?"

Shit. How was Majima expected to remember these dumbass numbers.

"Uh," Majima let out a puff of air. "I think it started with a 1?"

This meant nothing to the guy, but he sank down in his chair a little with a sigh. "You don't mean 8929, do you?"

"Yeah. Yeah!" Majima said. "That was it! 3468929!"

"Weird. You're not the first people to tell me about this guy today."

He spun towards his desk and put the ice pack down. "I looked into the case myself, but... the universe he filed for colonization of is lifeless. All they have is an infestation of kind of... human looking monsters. And he meets the overpopulation requirements. Still."

"That's what I'm telling you. Those monsters, they are people, people who look like monsters that look like people."

"Right. I don't doubt what you're telling me but... Well I just need..."

"I got ya'!" Majima moved to the other side of the desk, got in close. "I have the proof you need, I just need-"

The guy straightened up. "Oh shit."

Majima looked where he was looking.

Those glass walls sure did come in handy. He could see Levi sprinting right towards him, shoulder the office door open, then leave the ground with a full body tackle.

Majima took it to the chest. He was pushed backwards, into the glass window against the building exterior. Even that buckled under the force and cracked.

Majima's back met air, his feet stumbled against nothing, and both he and Levi started to fall.

1200 meters above the ground.

[u/TheMightyBox72 → u/TheMightyBox72]

Toomes slammed the breaks as soon as he entered universe 1. He appeared in one of the mid-level skyrbidges connecting two buildings. Pulled to the side and turned off the Chevy.

He hadn't had time to pack the suit away properly, let alone to figure out how to integrate the Iron Man modules into its compaction, so he threw the whole thing to the top of the Chevy and gunned it. Now he clambered up to the top of the van to get back in.

The exo-suit sensed him and prepared for reconnection. The moment they did, he was blasted out of the air.

The wings moved to protect him, formed a barrier between him and the sheet of glass that he smashed through. Once clear, they caught the air and steadied him out, just as Iron Man flew down to join him.

"When are you gonna call this?" he said.

"When I get what I want." Toomes shot forward and grabbed him out of the air.

They wrestled in their flight, pistons and hydraulics strained and the two spun around trying to force any amount of leverage they could find. More than once, Toomes had to force them both out of the way of another skybridge.

"C'mon, Toomes," Stark said. "You've gotta be getting tired by now. Can't you save us both the time and give up, go to jail. Time, crime, etc."

"That's rich coming from you."

Toomes managed to wedge both his hands onto Stark's chest, his fingers flared and sent him blasting away.

Stark brushed the dust off his shoulders. "You want me to count it up for you? A dozen unsanctioned dimensional jumps, trespassing in a deadworld, trespassing in a sovereign world, possession of a doomsday device, assaulting an officer of the 1101, I could go on. I've done everything by the book, I'm the hero here."

Toomes flew up and punched him in the head, sent him hurtling towards Earth.

Stark shoved a wrist forward, a whipping cable sparkling with loose electricity fired from above his fist and latched onto Toomes. The electricity began overclocking his suit, shorting out systems, and the cable itself yanked him down to join Stark. Stark hit the ground on one knee, Toomes slammed into it with his shoulder.

Stark walked up. "And that's not getting into your terrestrial level crimes, destruction of property, grand larceny, that suit costs more than most painting in the Louvre."

He tapped a button on his wrist and fired a dart into Toomes' back. A feed of information sprayed across his visor before everything, the Iron Man suit, the exo-suit, the wings, everything, jumped from Toomes body and crashed lifelessly on the ground.

"And after all that," Stark continued. "I'm suing you for the lost income of dragging me all the way out here on a workday."

Toomes stared up, Stark leveled a palm at his head and splayed his fingers. Energy gathered in the crystalline structure.

His suit was gone, his gear was gone, in this moment he was just an old man on his knees. So he did the only thing he could do, he ran.

[u/TheMightyBox72 → u/TheMightyBox72]

Toomes scrambled into the brush to the repulsor blasts just barely nipping his heels and collapsed down once he reached a safe enough hiding spot. He didn't stop moving either, he crawled through bushes and waist high grass as twigs and thorns tried to tear at his jacket.

Eventually, when the blasts stopped and Toomes could rest, he fell to his keister and leaned against the trunk of a large tree.

He started taking inventory. There had to be a way out, smart guys always found a way out.

He had a backup smoke bomb disc, some burners, his pistol, and a screwdriver in his back pocket that he'd forgotten to put back in its box. That wasn't enough, that was a collection of couch cushion scrap that he'd use as tools to build better tools. Everything he'd thrown at Stark hadn't work, this wouldn't work.

There were options. There were always options. He was on the singularly most technologically advanced planet in the multiverse, the possibilities for weapons he could scavenge and cobble together were endless. But, on a more human level, he was in the middle of a 1101 sanctioned grass patch, with the nearest building a hundred meters off. He could get in, get something, get out, in thirty minutes, twenty minutes at least.

But that would leave Stark unattended. His job was to keep Stark distracted. If he left, ran off to find something better, this whole thing could feasibly go to shit.

Toomes thought about it some more.

Alright. He could do something with all this.

Granted, his best idea at the moment almost certainly involved breaking a few bones. Even if it all went well, this was going to be just an awful experience.

Well, none of it would happen if Stark got bored and flew off, so he didn't have time to sit around and anticipate.

Time to move.

Toomes burst to his feet and started running. He ripped a clump of moss and vines off of a tree as he passed it, started twisting it up into something close enough to a rope. Stark was circling overhead, scanning the massive stretch of plant life.

Toomes had maybe seconds before he was noticed, so he acted now. Closest tree he could find he took a running leap and grabbed onto the lowest branch. It was a bit of a process, pulling himself up, but he still had the body for it. Slowly, he clambered up into the upper reaches until he found a solid enough perch with a bit of cover.

From there, he made it easy on Stark, pulled his gun and shot at him. A lucky shot did ping off of his boot, but that did as much as it could be expected to do. It was the sound Toomes was trying to get his attention with.

Attention got, Stark immediately readied a repulsor shot, Toomes ducked behind cover. The shot went wide, knocked the top off of the tree, but Toomes was still good. He leaned out and took another shot.

Stark returned fire, this time he took the base of the tree out from under Toomes. The entire thing creaked, began to fall. Shit.

But Stark was flying in, probably looking to snatch him out of the air. That was good, that was what he needed. Toomes kept his balance, stood at the farthest end of the tree he could manage, then the moment it started going horizontal, he started running down the collapsing trunk.

Stark came into range, Toomes jumped.

The impact was rough, Toomes looped his makeshift rope around Stark's neck, it tore pretty quickly but it did enough that Toomes was able to grab onto Stark's back without losing his hands entirely. Felt like a cracked rib and a shoulder pulled ever so slightly out of its socket.

Stark looked back, more curious than mad, and started to roll to try and shake Toomes off. It was working pretty well too. Toomes clenched hard trying to keep his grip.

There was a moment, a moment where Stark must've thought he succeeded, because he stopped spinning and began to slow. That was when Toomes acted.

He slid down the Iron Man suit, moving from the back to the leg, gripped at an awkward side angle. He couldn't hold this position for long, that was certain. So he took out the smoke bomb and whipped it directly into the mechanics of Stark's boot.

The bomb went off, a collection of sparks and shrapnel and loud clangs fired from the back engine before smoke started lazily drifting out. The jet propulsion sputtered, then it started to die.

Stark went into a tailspin aimed directly towards the ground. Toomes fell back, not looking to be part of that crash, and rolled against the ground.

Stark hit significantly harder. He slammed into the ground and dug a trench some 20 feet out before finally stopping.

He got up, hand to his head, the wear was starting to show. Toomes thought maybe if he put his weight behind it, he'd be able to knock Stark to the ground.

He didn't, he clanged against the armor without managing to budge it, and Stark grabbed him by the wrist and lifted him off his feet before he even had the chance to hit the ground.

"You done now? I think we're past the point of being able to collect damages by now."

Toomes grabbed the screwdriver from his back pocket and stabbed it against Stark's chest.

"Great," Stark said. "And now you've scratched the paint too."

Toomes wasn't done. He stabbed at the chestpiece again, and again, until he was able to dig the flat of the head into the holder for the arc reactor and pry off the glass. In one motion, he slammed a small disc into the hole, over the reactor, and wedged the glass back in place.

The disc began to superheat. Not by much, it barely hit a 1500 degrees, but it'd be enough. Stark looked down at his chest in confusion.

"The fuck?"

His fingers tried to pry at the glass piece, but he couldn't get purchase, the metal just scraped off of itself.

Toomes didn't want to give him the chance either way. He pulled his pistol and shot, the bullet bounced off Stark's head.

He looked angry, he began to approach. Toomes fired off a few more shots. When the clip emptied, he threw the gun at his head.

Stark didn't stop, so Toomes turned and ran. He made it five steps, tripped on a root, and rolled to the side. As he did, there was a burst and Stark launched himself straight through the air where he had just been.

Stark turned on a dime to face him, Toomes scuttled backwards on his ass.

Stark's steps were slow, deliberate, an attempt at intimidation. It was working, but Toomes would never admit to it. He lifted a hand, flexed his fingers.

His steps began to slow. The light in his palm began to fade.

Stark looked at it, ate up more precious seconds trying to comprehend what was happening.

"The fuck..." his voice distorted as the speaker in his mask lost power.

Toomes got up, brushed the dirt off his pants, caught his breath and walked up.

"You made these damn things and you didn't know that high heat causes them to leak energy?" he asked.

"You mother- Get me- Get me out of this thing!" Stark started yelling. "Someone for God's sake get me out of the fucking tin can fuck!"

He shook in his suit, but couldn't budge it in the slightest. Toomes walked over to where his exo-suit lay. Couldn't speak to if Stark hacked it, but he could at least give the thing a manual reboot and see if that would help.

And, as a gift, he might as well go ahead and leave the Iron Man parts behind. They weren't his to begin with after all.

[u/TheMightyBox72 → u/TheMightyBox72]

Majima didn't fall 1200 meters, it was actually more like 6. His back slammed into the metal roof of one of the skybridges a few stories down. Wind was knocked out of him, his eye peeled itself open just to see Levi chasing him down.

Majima kicked up, flipped backwards and onto his feet just in time for Levi to crash right where he'd been. Majima didn't hesitate, he retaliated with a knee that Levi blocked but that pushed him back regardless.

Up above, Lot and the other guy leaned out the window.

"Hold on mate!" Lot called down. "I'll be down to get you."

"No!" Majima shouted back. "Both you stay up there! Lot, you tell him what you told me! Got it?"

Lot looked back. "You sure?"

Majima got tackled off the skybridge roof and slammed into the next one down.

Both he and Levi rolled to one knee. Levi drew his swords, there was no more foreplay, no more warning shots.

"Couldn't leave well enough alone, could you," Levi said. "You won't do shit for me, second I find someone who will you get mad."

"Trust me," Majima said. "I'm about to do the biggest solid of your life."

Levi cracked his neck. "You sure you can handle this old man?"

Majima let loose a vicious cackle. "You kidding? I've been dying to kick your ass since the day we met." With one motion, he whipped his coat into the air and let it fall a thousand feet to the ground.

"Finally," Levi said. "We agree on something."

Levi's hooks fired with the hiss of compressed air and the scratching of woven cords on steel. Majima rushed forward, his feet clomping heavily against the hollow metal shell beneath him.

Levi Ackerman

Levi swung wide and attempted to end this fight the moment it started, by lopping Majima's head off of his neck. Majima bent backwards and let the blades slide past his nose, then swung forward and brought his weight around. He slammed a fist into Levi's gut, quick combo'd into his shoulder and chin, then knocked him in the air with an uppercut.

Levi only needed a moment, he quickly wiped some of the blood from the corner of his mouth, and he was back in it. His hooks latched onto a skybridge overhead and he was airborn. At first it looked like a straight charge, Majima leaned into a haymaker to knock him out of it. Then he split to the side and swung around to attack from the ass.

Majima spun on his heel, just in time to avoid losing at as Levi went for his ankles. Majima danced back, high-stepping and back-pedaling to keep his grounding until his heels hit air and he found himself teetering back.

Levi went for the kill shot, he swung for the head. Majima opened his mouth and bit it.

Levi paused. Fortunately, Majima didn't come away from it with a cleft tongue. Unfortunately, the force of the swing pushed him back further still, his back foot slipped off the ledge.

Rather than fight it, Majima hooked his elbow onto Levi's forearm and pulled back. The two tumbled in the air, Levi tried to zip away but Majima's lock only grew tighter. The hand holding onto Levi's arm snaked down and gripped the back of his head, Majima's knee pressed down into Levi's back. He was fully willing to break Levi in half on this landing.

That wasn't what he wanted though. While keeping Levi in a falling armlock, he groped for the sword in his outstretched arm. He couldn't tear the blade from his grasp, the most he got was snapping a bit off the end.

Levi took advantage of Majima's fumbling and ripped his arm free. He slammed the hilt of the sword Majima was trying to grab into his nose and then zipped off. Majima held his nose, tried to stop the bleeding, until he hit the next skybridge.

Majima tried to roll, he ended up tumbling. These falls were kicking his ass far more than Levi was. When he came to a stop he was able to slip the piece of sword into his pocket. As he was getting up, Levi swung in for an attack.

Majima kicked his foot out and caught him in the chest. Spittle flew from Levi's mouth, sprinkled on the shoulder that Majima glared at him over. Levi flew back, shoved both blades into the metal underneath him to catch himself.

"You wanna talk about not letting go?" Majima got to his feet. "You're so egotistical that even the end of the world is on you."

He rushed in and through out a roundhouse kick, which Levi ducked. His foot stopped and snapped back, tried to catch Levi in the temple when he pulled back up. Instead Levi spun under it and sliced for Majima's thighs. He danced back, hopped on one leg then left his legs altogether to get over the slash, he planted one palm down into the ground and spun on it. His windmilling legs battered the unsuspecting Levi and knocked him on his ass. In one smooth motion, Majima slid back to his feet.

"I got firsthand experience on this now. If you could've killed all the Titans, you would have. You didn't, cause you couldn't, so why the fuck is it still on you!"

Levi growled something and zipped away. The other skybridges criss-crossing the sky around them served as perfect anchor points no matter which way he wanted to dodge to.

His approach was still linnear though. So long as he kept his eye on Levi, the man couldn't take him by surprise.

Levi darted back and forth a dozen feet away, feigning approaches and turning them into retreats. He used the freedom to slip right behind Majima, Majima knew that was going to be his move before he'd even made it. As Levi shot down for him, Majima turned on the ball of his foot and kicked up.

His feet left the ground and he flipped up into the air. An impenetrable wall of steel-toed boot protected Majima from any attack and promised to repel Levi again.

It would have, at least, had Levi attacked. Instead, Levi did a flip of his own. Curled up he skated just above Majima's foot and glided down alongside it. As Majima's flip finished and as his feet returned to the ground, Levi uncurled and attacked. Both swords swiped against his back, the cuts burned red hot and shoved Majima to the ground much more forcibly than he'd like.

Majima grit his teeth, refused to cry out. When he could finally open his eye again, he saw Levi flying straight at him. His knee crunched into Majima's face and sent him tumbling back. It was too much, he went over the skybridge, but grasping out blindly his fingers latched onto the edge at the last second and he slammed to a halt.

[u/TheMightyBox72 → u/TheMightyBox72]

Majima took the moment to catch his breath. He wasn't about to look down if his life depended on it.

Looking forward he was met with glass, transparent glass, through it he could see the cars moving along inside the tunnel without even noticing the two of them. He also, however, noticed the reflection staring back at him. Glare from the sun was enough to give him a visual as Levi shot himself directly towards Majima's back.

Majima began to clamber, his feet scratched the glass until he found enough purchase to push. He didn't climb up, instead he jumped. His body went horizontal while his fingers kept clinging to the side of the skybridge. In that exact moment, Levi landed, plunging his blades through the glass and into the space where Majima had been. His body began to swing back down, and using that momentum, he drove his knee into the back of Levi's head. The glass beneath him cracked, and when Majima's leg relaxed back, he fell down limp.

He'd be fine. For now, Majima pushed off the glass again and leaped into a backflip. With enough distance, he was able to cleanly land on the next skybridge down.

Levi recovered fast enough to get his hooks into it. He swung below the skybridge to slow his momentum, then landed on his feet more softly than Majima had.

"I ain't hollering just to hear myself talk, you know," he said.

"Might as well be," Levi said. "You're wasting your time. Killing the Titans is all I have left."

He took a step forward, his eyes had sunken so deep into his skull.

"It's literally all I have left."

With a running start, he leaped into the air and shot down to try and take Majima's head off. He rolled, smeared some of his blood against the cold steel as he did, and slipped just under it.

"Bull fucking shit," Majima said. "That 'all I have' shit, that's soldier talk, dumbass. They drill it into your head so you can follow orders, did the same to me getting up."

"We're not the fucking same!" Levi wasn't bothering with his grapples now, he flew at Majima with just his body in a flurry of swings that Majima couldn't hope to wade through and live. "I'm a soldier! You're a thug!"

Levi fired his grapples, looking to spear Majima through the chest. Majima stepped to the side and grabbed the cables. With one yank he pulled Levi in for a haymaker that put him on the ground. Majima then stomped him in the gut for good measure.

"I shoot people for my superiors, you wanna bomb out some guys who did you wrong. How the fuck are we different?"

Levi curled up on the ground. The eyes were shut tight and his teeth a vice, he was trying to force his muscles to do what he wanted.

Slowly, he managed to pull himself up to his knees.

"Why. Don't. You. Just. Die." Levi gasped between breaths.

"Take this one from me. The second you stop trying to serve the chain of command and live for yourself, a lot of this stuff clears away. Act like a human goddamn being for once."

Levi jumped lightning quick with a stab to Majima's stomach. He moved to the side and snapped off the rest of the blade with a stomp.

Levi gave a shout. Then a roar. He wasn't making words he was just screaming. The sound almost masked the hiss of air as he fired past Majima and took to the skies. He swung wide, built up momentum, then shot towards Majima, straight on, sword extended.

Majima reached into his pocket and pulled out the chunk of blade he had, slid it between his knuckles till it was dead center. He smiled. This was gonna hurt like a bitch.

Levi picked up another burst of speed, he only had one sword left so that's all he held out. Majima only had a fraction of a second to do this right.

He dropped and moved. Levi's blade slid across his cheek, a clean slice where he could feel the skin unzip. But that's all he caught, the cheek, maybe a nick on the jawbone. Majima, meanwhile, thrust his fist forward with all the strength he had left in the barrel. The fragment of sword dug into Levi's chest, pierced through his heart deeper than it cut into his hand.

Levi looked surprised, then confused, then frustrated as realization struck. All of his momentum was gone, and he hung in the air for just a moment like a duck who'd just been shot.

Then he started to fall.

No skybridge beneath to catch him, all the way down.

For a moment Majima was worried he'd fucked up somehow.

A blast of lightning struck from the open skies. Musculature exploded outward from the point of impact, rushing to fill out the space of a body that had yet to exist. Heavy banks of steam rose from the becoming form and the head itself formed. First a lumpy, misshapen skull with snarling teeth, covered over by loose sacks of muscle and fat until finally a pair of staring, milky white eyes filled into place, locking instantly on Majima.

The Nemesis Titan stood, face to face with the skybridge he stood on. And all of Universe 1 watched.

[u/TheMightyBox72 → u/TheMightyBox72]

The Nemesis Titan's teeth slid open and an unearthly howl erupted from deep within. The smell was noxious, Majima had to brace himself against the gale force winds.

He realized in that moment that this was the end of his plan. He actually had no idea what to do from here.

The Titan did not share this problem. Its plan was fully decided upon. A hand thrust forward and up and carved through the skybridge. Majima ran for the building closest to him, his ground crumbled just a step behind his heels. A few times he was pretty sure he'd started falling for half a second before finding his footing.

But, the two ends were still stable, they were anchored into the sides of the buildings they connected. Majima pressed his back against an office window. He watched as chunks of concrete fell to the ground below, sprinkled with tiny cars slowly spinning mid-air.

At some point all the cars straightened themselves out and flew off on their own, so that was good to see at least.

The Nemesis Titan roared in frustration that he'd managed to survive the attack. Or, at least, that's what Majima thought, this was granted that the attack in question was one swipe of the hand.

The Titan moved in, and Majima needed to get to a position where he wasn't cornered. He looked over, spotted the next skybridge down. It was a bit of a distance away, but he could make that. With a running start and a leap he launched himself into the air. All the while, the Nemesis Titan's eyes never left him.

He hit the metal ground, rougher than he meant to but still pulling off a roll to break the fall. He came out of that roll immediately sprinting, knees hitting chest booking it to the other end.

His thought for the moment that he aught to avoid drawing the Titan's ire to populated spaces. If he got a bunch of people killed over this then suddenly it didn't feel worth it. In the long term, Majima was still figuring that out.

In either case, the Nemesis Titan didn't give much of a shit about what Majima wanted or cared about. Majima had expected another run across a collapsing bridge. Instead, the Titan slammed its hand through the skybridge about ten feet in front of Majima's face.

Majima dug in his heels, skid for a bit and tried to turn and run the way he came. He made it a step. He just didn't have the momentum. The ground disappeared beneath him and he began to fall.

Yep. That was it. His arms windmilled to try and grab onto something, they didn't find anything. There was a sky bridge below him, but where the others had been a few meters down, this was dozens. And to top it off, the Nemesis Titan's hand was descending on him so if he survived, and that was a hell of an if, he would immediately get squished like a bug.

All in all, he reflected, not the brightest of his ideas.

When all of the falling future cars around him grew inflatable bladders and abandoned him and doom approached from every angle, the wind rushing in his ears seemed to, for a second, grow louder.

Majima didn't know what to make of it until a set of steel talons clamped around both of his shoulders.

In an instant he was yanked from between the two sandwiching surfaces and rocketed forward. Majima whooped and cheered and looked up into the comforting sinister green glowing owl eyes of Toomes' helmet. There weren't really words for the compassion he felt for their comradery in that moment, so he just hollered.

Toomes took him up, over the Titan's confused head and landed the two of them on a skybridge firmly out of its reach.

Toomes ripped off his mask. "What's going on, I thought we killed this fucker."

Majima looked between Toomes, and down at the Titan, like Toomes hadn't managed to figure it out yet.

"Toomes," he said. "That's Levi."

Toomes scowled, like he smelled some shit. "We've seen Levi transform, that's not what he- that's the fucking Nemesis."

"Well now that's what Levi turns into. Keep up, huh."

Toomes gave a sigh, an intense sigh that let show a deep anxiety. "You think we should book it? We got Stark, you got your guy to the 1101, this isn't our fight now."

Majima considered it. Cut and run with the bag, that's what he aught to do.

A smile creeped across his face. "Nah. Let's kick his ass."

Toomes didn't look convinced, but regardless he fixed his mask back into place. As he did, his gaze went skyward, and a small "oh shit" slipped out.

Majima followed his eyeline. Two figures descended down on them, silhouetted by the sun. Lot was gently carried down by that other guy. Toomes' hands went for a few of his pockets on instinct, when he didn't find anything he just raised his fists.

The 1101 agent put his hands out. "Easy, I believe you now." He turned to Majima. "Lot told me everything, now what are we dealing with?"

"And just who the fuck is this!" Toomes said to Lot.

Majima ignored him. "I told you man, Titans are people. They transform back and forth, but there's people inside them."

"So that's," the agent said. "That's the guy who was here earlier? Who attacked you?"

"Sure is. I'll show you, once we kick his teeth in."

"Majima," said Toomes. "I know running in half-cocked and full-mast is kind of your thing. But we barely took that thing down when we had a tool specifically for killing them. I've got nothing. You got nothing. We're both beat to shit. What do you think we're going to do about this?"

Lot stepped forward. "You're trying to kill that big motherfucker down there?"

Majima nodded his head indecisively. "More or less?"

"Shit bruhv, why didn't you just say that?"

He drew his sword, purple runes traveled down from the tip to the base. When they reached, a burst of wind exploded from Lot, and the glow extended to even his eyes.

Toomes motioned, confusion gave way to capitulation. "Am I supposed to know what this is?"

"Nope!" Majima said. "Toomes! Take Lot down for the kill strike. Lot, you need to get him in the nape of the neck," he pointed to his own neck to show him. "And you."

"Animal Man," said the agent, proudly.

Majima failed to hold back a laugh. "What?"

Animal Man pushed him over, and Majima's feet left the skybridge and he began to tumble through the air again.

He spent about two seconds yelling and flailing when Animal Man swooped around and grabbed him under the arms. Majima was used to this feeling by now, they were flying.

"So," Animal Man said over the rushing wind. "What are we doing?"

"Distraction," Majima said. "We gotta make sure Lot has the time to take him out. And preventing him from smashing everything up would be a nice bonus."

"Yes," Animal Man said. "Yes it would be."

Toomes and Lot got there first. Majima expected a passing swipe, maybe just from seeing Levi pull that maneuver so many times. Instead, Lot dropped like a brick and plunged his sword into the Nemesis Titan's neck.

Majima was confused, because Lot wasn't moving, and the Titan wasn't going down. Might as well trust the process though.

Animal Man dropped Majima off on another skybridge, about level with the Nemesis Titan's face but a good distance off, and he flew in.

Animal Man rubbed his hands together, rolled his neck, and got ready.

[u/TheMightyBox72 → u/TheMightyBox72]

Animal Man, Buddy Baker, had access to the combined conservation efforts and research facilities, in short every single animal, in the multiverse. Try as he might, though, they were finnicky to work with. He felt he could get away with the old reliables here, so it would be best to lean on those.

He coasted in^[1] and came to a hover^[2] in front of the Titan's face. Its giant milky eyes locked onto him, each the size of his whole body. No time to lose his nerve now, he had the entire Red behind him.

^{[1] Wandering Albatross [2] Common Blue Damselfly}

He got as close as he felt safe to and clapped his hands together at supersonic speeds,^[3] the sound caused by the cavitation made a pop that would blow out the eardrums of any man at point blank. The Titan roared and came close to leaning backwards. Buddy would just have to put on the pressure then.

^{[3] Tiger Pistol Shrimp}

He moved in closer and started raining fists down at 50 beats a second^[4] each one breaking the sound barrier on impact to create a shock wave^[5] that would further disorient the Titan's brain. He got results, the Titan actually took a staggering step back.

^{[4] Ruby-Throated Hummingbird [5] Pelagic Thresher Shark}

A faint purple glow started to emanate from the back of its neck, where Lot still had his sword plunged.

Buddy went all in, he flew in on top of the Titan's big bald head and grabbed on. He shoved a finger down, pierced the skin until he reached the outermost layer of muscly flesh, and let loose a torrent of some of the most lethal toxins he could get his hands on.^[6] The Titan's blood was incredibly hot, steam leaked from around his finger, but he could take it.^[7]

^{[6] Geographer Cone Snail [7] Pompeii Worm}

With his finger already in, he switched toxins, barbs forming on his finger to hook it in^[8] to try and overload the anatomy of even something this massive. To some extent it worked, the Titan's head began to lull and swing as it struggled to keep it up.

^{[8] Portuguese Man O' War}

Then it did, in a moment its head straightened up and its eyes locked onto Buddy. They were glowing purple, he hoped that meant Lot was making progress, and they were also furious in a way he didn't recognize of an animal intellect.

The Titan's hand came in fast, faster than Buddy was expecting. His instinct, unfortunately, was to block rather than dodge. He started pulling all of the standard defensive measures for a strike like this, hard shell armor,^[9] a layer of protective but pliable fat,^[10] and some shock absorption along the skull,^[11] and to top it all off increased the density of his bones all around.^[12] This was all necessary, and possibly not even enough, as the Titan spiked him into the ground like a volleyball.

^{[9] Giant Armadillo [10] Common Hippopotamus [11] Bighorn Sheep [12] Western Lowland Gorilla}

Buddy hit the ground hard, kicked up a spray of dirt and left his own crater trail. Unfortunately, what did him in was a very human trait. He remembered, as the world dimmed, hearing once, maybe in medical training, that the second concussion was always worse than the first. Cause that's when bruising tissue is most vulnerable.

On any other day, maybe Buddy would have taken that hit and got back up. Today, he was not. Here's to hoping Lot would be able to finish the job without him.

---

Well, Animal Man had been smacked out of the air and crashed somewhere in the forest below. What a useless piece of shit. Lot was glowing on the Titan's back, but he still hadn't moved. The Nemesis Titan was reaching to scratch at him.

Majima let out a deep breath, already charting out a running path to reach the Titan when Toomes swooped in from overhead.

"Good timing," said Majima. "C'mon, we're going."

"Figures," said Toomes. "All I'm good for right now is a damn taxi service. Where am I dropping you off?"

Majima climbed up on his back. "You're not."

Toomes' jets gave pause. "Huh?"

"We're getting right up in his face to look like as tasty a snack as we can. We ain't leaving until the job is done."

Toomes tensed and froze up. He started stammering out something or other.

"Does this look like the time to hemming and hawing? Let's go!"

Toomes took off, the two went airborn in a straight beeline for the Nemesis Titan.

Majima pushed himself up to stand on Toomes back. Those wings of his, they always stayed flat and level, a perfect platform.

He took in a deep breath and hollered at the top of his lungs.

"Oy! Shrimp dick!"

The Titan stopped what it was doing and turned to look at Majima.

"That's right short stuff, I'm talking to you!"

With every second, the Titan's form grew more and more impossibly large as the two men sped towards it.

"Now I don't know who I'm talking to right now, but I know that both of you have tried killing me at this point and both of you have fucked it up!"

Its eyes were locked onto Majima, it began to step forward, to meet him halfway.

"Levi, you survived for years in a world of Titans and I did your ass in with a razor? Are you fucking kidding me? And you, you're supposed to be the Nemesis, you saw me weeks ago and you still ain't caught my ass!"

On the word caught, as if it understood, a hand the size of a building reached forward. Majima muttered to himself, "That's it big guy, come on."

From his back, Lot started yelling. A full force full chest howl of energy. The winds started to pick up around him. The Nemesis Titan paused, its eyes left Majima.

To get his attention Majima started howling right back. There weren't any more words or petty insults, just a primal scream from the back of his throat.

Majima stepped forward and jumped. If the Titan was considering drawing back its hand, it didn't when Majima willingly put himself into it. Colossal fingers wrapped around his chest. Its grip was firm, uncomfortable, not breaking anything yet but not far from it either. The whole time, Majima didn't stop screaming, Lot didn't stop screaming, the Titan lifted him up and opened his mouth, possibly to scream along.

Above all the screaming was a very clear and distinct low thud. A flash of purple light erupted from behind the Titan's head.

It stopped.

Its grip loosened.

And it began to fall.

Now that the hand wasn't threatening to squish his grapes, Majima pulled himself out from its faltering grip and onto its hand. Horizontal was turning vertical so Majima ran, down the air, onto the back, and up to the neck.

The explosion had carved a complete sphere of flesh out from the back of the Titan's head. Inside of which, half-buried in burned muscle, laid Levi. Majima wasted no time in grabbing him by his shoulders and hauling him out of the pink meat. Tendons connecting the two bodies ripped as he was torn away.

Toomes flew around. He grabbed Lot in one claw and Levi in the other while Majima climbed onto his back again. Within moments they were clear of the collapsing body and landing gently on a clear patch of grass on the ground below.

Majima looked up, he still wasn't used to seeing these Titans from this level. It was just so unnaturally big. The corpse leaned up against one of the neighboring buildings, it wasn't heavy enough to crash through or break any more without effort, so it just slumped against it.

Toomes grabbed his knees, still breathing heavily. "Everyone alright? Everything accounted for?"

Lot nodded to him. "What's his problem."

Majima waved it off. "Eh. He's old."

Levi was still out of it, but slowly he started to stir.

Majima kicked him.

"Wake up ya' son of a bitch."

Levi winced and curled up tighter in the grass. A scowl passed over his face, accentuating the scars lined up under his eyes.

"Just let me go back," he said. "That's all I want. To go back."

"Ya know what? No." Majima squat down to get next to him. "I'm sick and tired of his self-loathing pity party you got going on. You want to rot in peace? Well I won't let you. You ain't going back, you're coming with me, so I can put you around people, so you can learn to act like a goddamn human again."

Levi forced himself up on his hands, looked Majima in the eye so he could see just how much he didn't like that decision.

"Excuse me," came a familiar voice from above. It was a voice that gave Majima pause. "On who's authority are you doing that exactly?"

The four of them looked up. Floating down to meet them was, unmistakably, Iron Man. And that voice, unmistakably, belonged to Tony Stark.

But this armor was different, instead of black it was a bright crimson red, more mechanical looking, with dents and scratches from head to toe.

Majima got ready for a fight. Stark didn't. He landed and let his helmet fold back.

Tony Stark

"Let me see if I've got this," Stark said. He pointed in turn. "Goro Majima, Adrian Toomes, Lancelot," he chuckled. "That's just fun to say. And you," he pointed to Levi, still angrily clenching his teeth. "You're... the other one who's involved in this somehow."

"What is this?" Majima had his fists up and was dancing on his toes. "You want another round or something?"

Stark looked at him blankly. Then it came to him. "Oh. Sorry, misunderstanding. You're confusing me for," he flicked a finger and the other Iron man armor flew up behind him. Frozen in place and held in a strange glowing blue field. Majima could hear Stark swearing from inside.

Majima blinked slowly. "So you're..."

Red Stark rolled his hand. "A different Tony Stark yes, you catch on fast. Now. We need to talk about all this. What was that," he motioned to the Titan corpse behind him, "who are you," he pointed to Levi, "what's it got to do with him," to Obsidian Stark, "and most importantly why in God's green Earth did you decide to bring it all here?"

[u/TheMightyBox72 → u/TheMightyBox72]

Everyone was brought into Red Stark's office, a small compartment on the 447th floor. Most of the clutter was confined to a bookshelf in the corner. His glass desk was small and one-sided. He hung up his Iron Man suit by the coatrack.

Majima and Toomes took a seat opposite him and began to tell the whole story, finding Levi, seeing the Titans, the assassination attempts, the collusion with the Tojo, the recruitment schemes, everything.

Stark nodded with his fingers steepled as he took it all in.

"So let me just ask," he said. "How did you end up in Levi's homeworld again?"

"Accident," said Toomes.

"Complete accident," said Majima.

"Must've been a glitch or something."

"While we were on the train."

Stark sighed. "Right."

"So," Majima leaned forward. "What's gonna happen to other you? We kinda got a vested interest in all this you know."

"First off, he's not me."

Majima frowned. "But he-"

"Dimensional variants, you can't treat 'em like they're the same person, cause they never are. He's a different person, we just share a name and a face.

"As for what's going to happen to him, I can't tell you. Bureaucracy is a long and messy process, what you've told me is enough to strip him of a lot of his liquidity, but, no doubt he's got good lawyers."

"And if he doesn't," Toomes said. "The board of directors will just pick a new CEO and business continues as usual."

"We..." Stark started. "Will see about doing something about Stark Enterprises. Maybe. No promises."

Majima spoke up. "What about Levi and Lot?"

"They will be sent back to their homeworlds, and those worlds will be marked as not dead. If they want to immigrate to a more populated dimension, they'll need to do so legally. That being said," he looked at the two of them very intently. "We won't be keeping an eye on them. Once they're home, they're not our responsibility."

Majima and Toomes both nodded.

"The attack on Stark Enterprises begins now. We'll need to do some research into the dimensions he's already colonized, in terms of solid proof there's a lot lacking here. But you've given us a jumping off point and a solid foundation. You should feel good about that."

Toomes crossed his arms and grumbled something.

"You'll probably be contacted in the coming years about testifying, since you were key witnesses to most of it. But, until then, you're free to go home. With no more concerns about assassination attempts." He considered that statement. "At least, not from this guy in particular."

Toomes stood, pretty suddenly, he looked like he wanted to say something.

He finally broke and stuck his hand out. "Thanks. For the help."

Stark took the hand and shook it. "Just doing my job."

Majima stood up and turned to leave.

"Uh, before you go," Stark said. "I just gotta ask. Are you from a universe where, I don't know, criminals and law enforcement swapped places? Or something?"

---

Bitcoin had crashed. It happened while Majima was busy with the Tony Stark business, so he hadn't had a chance to dump it at the peak. Still made a hefty profit, but he'd also lost half of what he could've gotten away with. He let out a sputtering sigh and looked up from his phone.

He sat in the comfortable leather chair at the head of the Tojo Clan's leadership meeting room. Saki had been taken in by the 1101 due to his work with Tony Stark. Nobody liked it, but everyone agreed that Majima was the most qualified to take the position. Even Mishima, who had grown a grudging respect from when Majima whooped his ass.

"Not much on the agenda today, boys," Majima said. "First things first, I wanted to ask if we're currently doing any work in dimensional ID's."

"Uh," Nakahara blew air and tapped his knuckles on the armrest. "We're in Japanese ID's and passports."

"That was a trick question," Majima said. "I knew that and I know we aren't. I want you to get into that. Got a personal favor I need to deliver, and I think there's gonna be money in it soon."

Nakahara shrugged. "Yeah, I'll see what I can do."

Next, Majima turned to Dongcheng. "How's our new recruit holding up?"

"He's a hell of a fighter," Dongcheng said. "Doing numbers in Purgatory. Not much in the way of social skills though. Don't mean to offend, but he's kind of an asshole."

"That he is," Majima laughed. "Start putting him on collection runs. He's here to talk to people, not kill them."

Dongcheng leaned back. "If you say so."

"Alright, good meeting," Majima stood up.

"Seriously?" said Nakahara. "You dragged us down here for that? You could've sent that over text. You don't want to go over our general figures or anything?"

"Sorry kid, I got business to attend to this afternoon. If you wanna be a real keener though, you can handle it yourself."

Majima left the HQ and took his car downtown. He stopped outside of an office building, went past the out of order elevator and down the stairs to Toomes' workshop.

The man himself was bent over a scrap of machinery with a welding torch. When he saw Majima come in, he stopped what he was doing and lifted his mask.

"Hey," said Toomes. "Wasn't expecting you till later. Still working on some upgrades to the flight suit."

"You'll be fine," Majima said. "When have those wings failed you before?"

"When Dracula ripped them off my back." Toomes put his tools down and started pulling on his jacket. "You wanna take the Chevy or the Stargate?"

"The Chevy," Majima said immediately.

Toomes looked confused. "You sure? I'll actually have the return mechanism with me so we can get back."

"Nah. We're taking the Chevy."

Toomes shrugged and got in the driver's side seat. He punched their destination in, flipped the levers, pulled the handle, and stomped the accelerator.

The van shot forward, aimed directly for the wall on the opposite side of the workshop.

Then, it was like blinking. And the whole world changed.