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Chapter 8 - Ground Zero: Horrific End

(General POV)

Location the New Earth, Chicago Battleground

Mao has just evaded Iron Man's uni-beam, and punched the Iron Avenger, across the face, making Tony grunt, as he felt the punch even behind the armor's helmet.

Not relenting Mao, kept beating down on Iron Man, seeing Tony in trouble, Captain America from a nearby roof, threw his shield bouncing off several points, to hit Mao from another angle, only for Mao to smile, and grab Iron Man and started to spin.

Resulting the vibranium shield to smack Iron Man, instead of himself, he may not be a skilled martial artist like half the cast of both Marvel and DC, Mao he was still a brutal and crafty fighter, cause of this the only way to protect oneself from a unpredictable attack...use someone else to take the blow, then Mao threw Iron Man into a building, smashing the Iron Avenger into said light orange painted building.

As Captain America, yelled for Iron Man and caught his shield again, Mao was on the move again.

A hellish fireball, manifested on the clawed-gautlets hands of Mao, tossing demonic fireballs at Captain America, seeing the danger coming towards him.

Steve, raised his shield, the diabolic fiery projectiles, causing a inferno.

Overheating Cap's shield, and even behind his shield he felt like his flesh is burning, along with spirit, he was in danger, as the fire kept raining down at him.

Hawkeye grappling onto far off building, climbing onto the rooftop, he saw Cap in danger, and he prepared to shot arrows at Mao, another grappling line of a green coloring came, and climbing up was Green Arrow also taking aim at Mao, saying in a deep voice, "Need some help?" Hawkeye in his usual manner, responded, "Only if your able to Robin Hood." and the two archers, started to fire a barrage of various trick arrows at Mao.

Mao, stopped his onslaught on Captain America, landing in front at the sizzling and smoking soldier, clearly in pain, Mao's hellfire might have not touched his body directly, but it didn't mean it didn't burn part of his spirit, in order to reach the soul.

Mao respected the Captain America of various iterations of Marvel, cause of his oldman, but...that won't stop him, from beating the shit of the First Avenger, using his super strength to beat down Captain America.

Making the Eternal Soldier, spit-up blood before he grab him by the throat, planing to throw him off the edge, and saw the arrows soaring towards him.

In response Mao took a little inspiration from Gaara of Naruto, and shrouded his body and the Captain's in shadows.

Making all exploding, frost, shock, splitting, and other type of arrows shot by Green Arrow and Hawkeye, insignificantly disappear from the mass of darkness that covered Mao and Cap.

This pissed Hawkeye, as he was about to shot another arrow, in desperate need to save his friend and teammate, but Oliver stopped him, making Hawkeye mad.

Looking at the Green Arrow, Clint, asked him what was his problem, and then Green Arrow, pointed to the streets below, a yellow lightning streak, was running towards Mao location.

Mao, already knew that the Flash was coming, all the fog that was still pouring and spreading from the geyser, and also where all Forsaken, were gathered, and all that enter or caress the whisp of his fog, he could sense.

Mao stopped covering himself in shadows, and spread out those shadows to attack the Flash, as he threw Captain America into the streets, below.

Flash, he ran up the skyscraper, as maws and claws of shadows were heading towards him, Barry, focused himself and started flashing through the shadows, dodging them and performing maneuvers that no normal human, without special powers could do...especially against gravity, as he continues to run up the building, aiming to take out Mao, and put end to all this chaos.

The reason he didn't go to save, Captain America, was...he wasn't alone, a red, blue, and slightly white wearing web-swinger, arrived, catching the falling Captain, his hand slightly uncomfortable from the heat, still on Steve's body.

Saying to the barely conscious, Captain America, "Don't worry Steve I got you. Yo Flash remeber to leave a piece of Mao for me, once I drop Cap, somewhere safe!!" Flash, laughed as he'd slide under another shadow maw, and responded back to Spiderman, "I'll try, as long as your not late for the epic last stand!!" and Flash speed-up, running straight at his target...who was looking down the side of the roof, with a smile and crossed arms.

Watching Flash, fast approaching at him, Mao, he sprouted his shadow wings and flew off the building, fully leaving the reach of the Scarlet Speedster.

Flying into the air, and turning to the building he was once on, still covered in his shadows, and lifting along with stretching out his right arm, his clawed-gauntlet equipped hand was quickly and hardly closed, making all the shadow crush the building, and impale it in several giant spikes.

Destroying the building, and platform that Flash was using to move, as the destroyed everything of the building, spikes nearly impaling him, several times, when he tried to speed jump onto another building, Mao would make a shadow construct to impede his movements, and without no other choice, Flash phased through the floor.

Running through the collapsing, breaking, and shadow covered building, in order to save himself.

Mao laughed as the Scarlet Speedster, was like a rat in a maze, with him getting closer and closer to catching the scarlet rat, when he was hit hard by the side.

A blue and red blur, knocked Mao out the sky and into a stadium nearby, without Mao commanding the shadow, Flash managed to escape, panting in relief, Mao smashed through some chair, and then was punched into baseball field.

All courtesy of the Man of Steel, Superman, Mao started laughing, he'll admit those punches and crashes hurt, but his devil physiology, and Superman unwillingness to use his full scope of his powers, save him.

Getting up with his cape-jacket fluttering in the wind, along with whisps of dark smoke, he watched Superman float down to the field, follow by Iron Man superhero landing off the side, the two archers rope slided onto the row of chairs, Spiderman web-swinged into the stadium, Flash flashed into the place as well, standing next to Green Arrow.

Then came Batman in the Bat-Bot, which is a special power armor, he'd designed for heavy, heavy hitters that he couldn't deal personally, Mao commented mentally that the Bat-Bot, was the same from the The Batman TV Cartoon.

The ones missing Hulk, Thor, Black Canary, and Black Widow, Mao even mentioned this, and scratching the back of his head, he said, "Let me guess, trying save everyone else?"

Mao laughed, making Batman twitched, as it was like Mao was the Joker, mixed with other monsters into one being, with all their most terrible and terrorfying qualities.

Mao he started to clap, as he said, "Always the selfless heroes...Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, Oliver Queen, Barry Allen, Tony Stark, Clint Barton, and Peter Parker." watching their reactions, shock and disbelief...well not much from Tony, since majority of Marvel Heroes, don't have secret identities.

A surge from fear, shock, anger, and despair made the Chaos System state, [Congratulations you've just earned 12500 CP.] kinda a let down, but since he wanted to torment these heroes, he'd needed them to have some semblance of worriness at his presence.

He'd thanked them for showing him, were he was weak against them, and for making this clash quite memorable, even if Mao, he didn't obtained the full attention of the Avengers, Justice League, and other heroes.

He'll settle for living inside their minds, rest free for a while, Green Arrow aimed a green colored arrow, and said, "And why are you sounding like you've won. Buddy, there's two groups of superheroes all around you, by you're own doing reminder. You're trap." Clark shimmed in, "Yeah the only place your and your Forsaken are going into the Phantom Zone. Unless you revert, what you do to the worlds, we'll let run back to your world." Iron Man, Hawkeye, and Spiderman were curious about this, "Phantom Zone", but they could spare Mao if did leave and reverted the world.

In response...Mao busted out laughing, like a mad man, like he has listened to the world funniest joke, after doubling over, and even opening black fog rifts, so his Forsaken can hear him, repeat what Superman spew at him, making them all laugh...except the burrowers and mutalisks.

This started annoying the heroes, as the Chaos System stated, [Congratulations you've just earned 20000 CP.] seems anger and hate, was easier to inspire than fear on the heroes, good to know.

Calming down Mao, addressed at the heroes inspecting his claws, "Why make you think I can fix what was made better? And who do think I am, Lex Luthor, Reverse Flash, Green Goblin, or maybe even Red Skull? I can't be bought..." as the skies started to blacken suddenly, "I can't be bullied..." red lightning started to surge, and thunder crashing onto the city.

Mao continues, "I can't be reason with...", the shadow all over Chicago started to take monstrous silhouettes, "I can't be moved..." black fog, started to burst out the subways, building, and cracks all over the city, as Mao tone became darker, and irattic, "I can't be stopped, or hurt, or bribed, or made to do anything I don't want!!! I'm not one or your silly rivals, that instead of destroying your personal security blanket, they need to satisfy their ego!!! I'm a monster, a real one!! And I want your despair..." a huge explosion of Black Fog, appeared from Mao, shrouding all the heroes in the baseball stadium.

But the black fog, didn't stop when Cyn, Nomu King, and Sabrewulf saw the black fog, covering every corner of Chicago, they ordered the Legions to dive into the fog, cause their fun has ended for now, burrowers tunneled away, the brown minions simply jump off into the fog from wherever they were, cheering and wooing, as did so.

The disassembly drones, spread their wings and dive into the fog, while the mutalisks flew into in swarms, people who haven't left Chicago on time, they were taken by the fog, Black Widow, and Black Canary were trying to everyone out the city, with just arriving SHIELD agents.

When they were swallowed by the black fog, the eerie mass was rising up to the highest skyscrapers, swallowing whole the entire city, as the SHIELD Helicarrier reached the city, they saw as Chicago was completely by this fog, the dark geyser still blasting out the center of the black dome of fog, the top of this dome, was surging in that strange red lightning, Fury tried to contact the agents still inside the city, but only received static.

Then he tried contacting Stark, nothing, then Romanoff, then Barton, anyone in the city, he was about to command his agents to try to reconnect with anyone inside the ground zero, then something started to emerge from the fog, it look in the screens of the Helicarrier deck, a giant arm of darkness, with a closed fist.

Pulling back and then opening it claw, like it just threw something, and soon the window of the deck was smashed, Fury and Hill leaped away as several individuals smash onto the station, it was Superman, Batman in his Bat-Bot, Iron Man, Green Arrow, Hawkeye, Flash, Black Canary, Black Widow, and Spiderman, all of them groaning and slowly getting up from the floor.

That's when the screens around the world, started to go haywire, like horrific images, just like before with Mao original self introduction, after all the images which included now a dead city filled with snow, in the end it didn't show Mao, but what seems to be Chicago in a eternal dark, with few light barely shining through on the damaged city.

A chorus of screaming people...men, woman, and children, runing from the monsters, chasing after them, then another view on the screens, people, SHIELD agents, and possibly some soldiers firing guns at the monsters in a desperate act to save the people.

Then the monitors, and screens showed as Cyn, or Nomu King, or Sabrewulf hunted down, and kill dozens of people, as Mao's voice started to talk over all the screams, thanking the heroes and agents for a fun first encounter in this long game, this made Superman, Batman, Spiderman, and other angry at the way Mao view life and suffering.

He told Fury, he'll take care of his agents, and to the rest of the world they'll have a moment of respite as Chicago and all its people were his and the Forsaken to do, as they pleased, their fates will be broadcast soon...he'd wished everyone a good day, and hope they'd enjoy the debut, as more things are yet to come, then the screens went white with some reddish white text on it, saying, [Poll: Which superhero do you want the identity revealed? Spiderman? Superman? Batman? Daredevil? Iron Fist? or None reveal?] even showing a counter of a time limit, [29. 729. 59. 59.]

This caused panic to many superheroes, especially those that originated from the previous DC-Earth, as the screens across the world went back to normal, it was clear to everyone, from the X-men, SHIELD, ARGUS, Avengers, Wakanda, Justice League, Teen Titans, and more, that Mao and the Forsaken are much more powerful and dangerous than original thought.

Plus Mao confessed that Cyn, Nomu King, and Sabrewulf weren't all that were under his command, Fury looked serious and said, "Hill. Coulson. I want a detailed report and data on these Forsaken. And a meeting with the president. If what Mao says is true, a lot things are happening cause two worlds, with billions of people were forced into one, we need to quell any uprising this might cause." Batman who got up, agreed with this man, as Superman said that he could hear some disturbances, Batman made his Bat-Bot, nod and Superman flew away in top-speed.

Then Fury addressed Batman, Green Arrow, Flash, and Black Canary, as he'd demanded to know who they are, and if they have any knowledge on whoever just took Chicago off the map!!

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