Doctor Iris was pacing around the morgue.
Things had already been made clear: the facility was under attack. Doctor Iris knew why. And she was probably the only one that knew. No one would be stupid enough to attack the biggest legal research facility in the galaxy, unless the were looking for something worth dying for. Something that will change everything.
' the lost dimension key '
She brought it out of her lab coat. It was just a simple transparent white orb with a strange white mist inside of it that swirled as if it was sentient and pulsated like a heart beat. She would have kept it in her storage dimension, but the orb negated all kinds of magic and abilities. There were actually 12 of these orbs scattered all over the universe. The six white keys and the six black keys. The keys to open the dimension where....
"What the hell is that?" Tony asked.
Doctor Iris thought he was talking about the orb. But when she followed his gaze, she jumped up in fright. At the door was a giant gorilla with snow white fur, glaring at the orb.
She swallowed.
' oh...now I'm screwed '
Tony squinted, looking at the gorilla before him.
' is that thing smiling? '
"Hmm?" he turned to see Doctor Iris shivering like a leaf. He could sense her fear and regret.
"Hey Doc! Do you mind calming down?"
She nodded. But her fear was still there, and as a bonus, Tony could hear her heart race increase. If he could read minds, he would have heard: I SHOULDN'T HAVE TAKEN THE ORB!
The truth was Doctor Iris's family was one of the Protectors. The ones who kept at least one of the keys. But, with the help of her brother, she stole it, mainly for research purposes.
"All right you son of a bitch....scram before I pound you to the ground!" Tony said, punching his palm.
' okay.... '
He walked in front of Doctor Iris, shielding her from the Gorilla.
' alright basic undead powers: increased speed, increases strength, and stamina. I should have those right? '
"Careful Tony its at the peak of Legendary tier!" Doctor Iris warned.
Tony sighed helplessly.
"Your funeral"
He dashed towards the Gorilla.
' woah... ' He was so fast that everyone was surprised, including Tony himself. His eyes could only barely focus on the Gorilla. The rest was an art of blurriness. He covered over a hundred yards in barely two seconds. Then he threw out a punch. Bit the beast was fast and threw out a punch of its own. It landed perfectly, on Tony's jaw, sending the boy somersaulting and crashing into a wall. ' damn! I should have taken those Karate lessons '
Not one to give up, he immediately dashed towards the Gorilla.
' focus focus focus focus..... '
"ARRGH!!" He screamed as he threw another punch.
The Gorilla leaned to the side and then threw its own punch. But this time, Tony slightly bent down, dodging the blow. As he came back up, he threw an uppercut. And this one was too fast for the Gorilla to dodge.
The Gorilla's head jerked backwards as blood spewed out of its mouth. Next, Tony aimed for the neck. But the Gorilla summoned a wall of ice. The ice wall shattered immediately Tony's fist made contact. To Tony's surprise the Gorilla was not there.
He immediately spun on his heels. Just in time to see the Gorilla running towards Doctor Iris who was shielding the orb like it was a baby.
' oh no you don't '
In a flash, Tony was shielding Doctor Iris again. ' this speed is incredible ' he couldn't help bit think.
He knew it took years to master martial arts, but maybe because he was an undead he was special.
The Gorilla growled in frustration. The hostility Tony was sensing from the beast was too much.
At that moment, Tony looked down at the Gorilla's arms.
' oh shit...I wish I could do that ' he thought.
The Gorilla's arms were now covered in sharp ice, and it was extremely pointed at the end.
Doctor Iris involuntarily took a few steps back. It was then that she noticed that Tony was now taller and broader than before, and more confident. She even moved several more yards away from him.
Tony dashed towards the Gorilla, showing off his quick learning.
' I'm already getting the hang of this! ' he trembled slightly due to excitement.
When he was in range, the Gorilla threw a punch. Tony just leaned back and watched the giant icicle sail, just inches away from his nose. Then he twisted his hip and delivered a power kick to the Gorilla's rib, which sent back a satisfying crack. The Gorilla screamed, and more blood spewed out of its mouth. Enraged, it began to throw a fury of punches. Jabs, hooks, crosses and punches of all kind rained down on Tony. But the guy in question just dodged everything.
To Doctor Iris, this was just incredible. Tony's agility and strength were monstrous. She was sure that even Blake would have a hard time taking Tony down. She seriously wished she was recording this fight.
The Gorilla, on the other hand was just getting frustrated by the second. No single punch he threw connected with the target. What was even more annoying was the silly grin on the human's face. With all the pent up anger, it threw another well engineered punch. But all it touched was the after image of the boy.
Tony appeared behind the Gorilla.
' boy....this speed is amazing '
He punched at the Gorilla, but the Gorilla was quick enough to turn around and throw a punch of its own. So Tony changed his mind. He grabbed the giant sharp icicle, twisted his hip and threw the giant Gorilla over his shoulder.
The poor Gorilla flew head first into a wall, which collapsed on it.
He looked at both his palms, which were now cut open due to holding the sharp ice. A strange black substance leaked out. It was neither liquid nor gaseous , but somewhere in between. But surprisingly, he felt no pain. He was again half surprised when the wound began to close, because he was also half expecting it.
' being an undead is so cool '
He began to make his way towards where the Gorilla crashed.
Doctor Iris, seeing this, ran up to him.
"Tony, we have to get out of here. They're after this!" she said, pointing at the orb. No matter how strong someone was, without any armor, they won't be standing up anytime soon after crashing the way the Gorilla crashed.
Tony sighed.
He could sense the urgency. He could also sense the battle going through out the whole facility.
"Okay, first things first. What the hell am I wearing?" the atmosphere had been so tense that he hadn't even noticed what he was wearing.
Doctor Iris couldn't hold back her laughter when she saw the undignified white hospital gown he was wearing.
"Oh so its funny? You know what I give up." he said, feigning annoyance. On the contrary, he didn't feel embarrassed in the slightest.
"Tony....?"
"Hm?" he could sense her somberness and seriousness.
"I need you to protect this." she said, handing him the orb. "Take it to the planet known as Gulph" she knew that as a Protector, many people would be after her. Not many people could track the orb because it negates all kind of abilities.
"Why?" Tony asked, eyeing the orb.
The mist inside shook violently.
This didn't go unnoticed by Doctor Iris.
' could it be....? ' her eyes widened for a second.
"Look there are 12 orbs just like this scattered allover the universe, and people that know about it will get their hands on it. I need you to go to planet Gulph and ask for my family: the Sunborns. If you find the whereabouts of any other orb, retrieve it and return it to my family. Please" her beautiful puppy eyes wouldn't allow him to say no.
"What is it anyway?"
"Its a key. A key to open a dimension known as the Lost Dimension" by her tone, Tony deduced that she was a fanatic of the theory behind this orb.
"What's in there?" he asked. He was not quite certain what to do.
"Nobody really knows. But its something dangerous for it to have been locked up for centuries"
"You said there were 12?" that number gave him a headache. To find 12 of those things would either be a pain in the ass or an adventure.
"Yes Twelve!. Six white ones and six black ones"
"Okay" he said and grabbed the orb from her.
The orb shook violently immediately it came in contact with Tony.
' hmm? '
"Oh Tony thank you so much!" she exclaimed as she dived towards him and hugged him tight.
' wait a sec. Why am I taller? ' he observed.
He felt her breasts pressing tightly against his chest, and her hips rotating ever so slightly in between his legs, arousing him.
' ah. This feels nice '
"What can I say? Just you and me touring the Universe in search of magic balls"
' is he always this dumb? '
She withdrew from his embrace.
" I'm not coming with you. That's why I told you to go"
"No...." he wasn't willing to leave her behind.
"Tony please"
"I'm not leaving without you. We are surrounded by an army of beasts, there is no way I'm leaving without you"
"Tony please. I can't risk the orb getting into the wrong hands. They'll always come after me no matter what"
" I can take them" Tony said decisively.
This was no longer confidence. It was now over confidence.
Doctor Iris shook her head.
"Although you have grown quite strong in a short amount of time, you're still not strong enough. Besides, if you stay behind, we'll both die"
"And if YOU stay?"
"I'll only be captured and used as leverage. As a Protector, I'm really valuable to those who kink about the orb. In it her words, I'll be taken hostage and not killed. But if you get this orb and others like it to my family, they'll come to my rescue if I get captured.
Tony sighed helplessly. He had come to love this woman. Leaving her was going to be the hardest thing he had ever done. " But I can't go out looking like this!" whenever he saw the white gown he was wearing, his body would shiver in frustration.
Doctor Iris gave a silly grin.
"I can take care of that" she winked.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Where are we?" Iris asked, looking around.
They had all emerged from a small pond. They were surrounded by trees with healthy yellow leaves. The sky was dark, no stars and two moons.
"We're not on Earth that's for sure" Drake said.
"We're on a planet known as Caladio" Felix said. Hologram screens were revolving around him. "Hmn. Would you look at that?" he said, slightly amused.
"What?" Iris and Drake asked at the same time.
"Did you know that MHF is the biggest research facility in the Universe?"
" Oh...." Iris was mildly surprised.
Drake just shook his head.
"And here I thought it was something important"
Felix shot him a cold glare.
"How do we get out of here? Natasha can you get us out of this planet?". Drake asked.
Natasha just shook her head.
"It's too far"
"For that we'll need a ship. We'll just have to wait for things to calm down at the facility and go search for one" Felix said.
"So after we get a ship, what next? We'll go back to Earth?" Iris popped the question.
Drake shook his head. " I got nothing back on Earth. I'll probably just become a mercenary."
Mercenary guilds were everywhere. One just had to register under a guild and slowly climb up the ladder, by completing missions and getting stronger. The guilds even had a ranking system that is universally accepted. F rank being the lowest. Followed by E rank, then D rank, then there's C rank then the B rank and A rank and AA rank. One would think that AA rank was the strongest, but that isn't the case. An average man would probably be unable to go past the AA rank, but there were now people, stronger than average. Stronger than what could be quantified. They were very rare but after the AA rank was the S rank, Z rank and the X rank. It was even rumored that an X rank mercenary could take on a Mythic tier beast head on.
"I also want to be a mercenary,but I want to get stronger first. You would probably be a B or a C rank mercenary immediately your strength is evaluated. I'm not even sure I'll make the F rank cut" Felix said, with a sad smile.
"I have nothing to go back to On Earth. But I don't think I want to be a mercenary. I just want an adventure. One with purpose. Iris said. She loved this group.
Drake and Felix nodded. It totally made sense. Deep down, that's exactly what they wanted. They just thought being a mercenary would give them that.
"How about you, princess?" Drake asked.
"If I don't find the type of adventure Iris talked about, I'll just go home" Natasha replied blankly.
Felix chuckled. "All in for the adventure eh?"
"I mean that's what anyone would want, right?" Iris asked.
Everyone nodded in reply.