Ethan's ultimate attack, the full-force Kamehameha, slammed into Captain Marvel and sent her rocketing into the dark forest. For a single, hopeful moment, he thought it was over. Then, a golden comet shot back out of the trees. She hovered in the air, her glowing aura barely flickering, her expression now one of deep annoyance rather than pain. She hadn't even broken a sweat.
"You can't even break her defense," he breathed, a cold knot of dread tightening in his gut.
The raw power gap was a chasm. He knew the main universe's Captain Marvel could fly through capital ships like they were made of paper. Even if this version, Maria Rambeau, was a little less powerful, she was still playing in a league he couldn't touch with his current template. Not even with Storm and Cyclops backing him up.
The others saw it too. A wave of despair washed over the X-Men.
"Kid, it's over. Stand down," Nick Fury's voice boomed across the clearing, devoid of any warmth. It wasn't a plea; it was a command. "Don't make this stupider than it already is. I give you my word you won't be harmed."
Ethan barely heard him. Bet his life on the word of a spymaster from a universe he didn't understand? Not a chance. His mind raced, discarding his failed plan and formulating a new one. If you can't beat the queen, take the king.
He exploded into motion, a blur of orange aimed directly at Nick Fury. If he could just grab him, use him as a hostage, he could force Maria to stand down. He could buy them enough time to get back to the jet and escape.
He never even got close. A golden streak intercepted him mid-stride, and he found himself hovering a foot off the ground, held fast by an unbreakable grip on the back of his gi. Captain Marvel held him up, her expression more disappointed than angry, like a mother who had just caught her son trying to steal a cookie.
"Kid, stop this, right now," she said, her voice firm but with an undercurrent of maternal frustration. "I don't want to hurt you."
"I don't think you understand what he'll do to us!" Ethan shot back, struggling uselessly in her grip.
"Maybe you're the one who doesn't understand," she sighed, a flicker of exasperation on her face. "He's my husband. You think I don't know my own husband?"
The words hit Ethan like a physical blow. His struggling ceased. His mind, which had been a whirlwind of tactical calculations, went completely, utterly blank. Husband?
The world tilted. Fury and Rambeau. A couple. He tried to make it make sense, his brain scrambling for context. Well… they're both Black. So that fits, I guess. And the Maria from the main universe got married and had Monica, she wasn't a lone wolf like Carol… so it's in character… and it explains why she's here, playing Earth's guardian angel instead of patrolling the cosmos. It was logical, but it felt insane. His entire plan had been built on the assumption that Fury was just a target, not the person his primary opponent loved most in the world.
He had to recalibrate. Fast.
"Triple Afterimage Fist!" he yelled.
He split into three identical images, forcing her to guess, and shot his real self upwards, past her head. His target wasn't her, but the small, glowing blue device on the side of her neck. Break the jammer, and Professor X can get in her head.
But she was too fast, too powerful. Her senses weren't fooled by the phantoms. As he slashed at the device, her hand shot out and caught him again, this time by the scruff of his neck.
"You are fast, kid, I'll give you that," she said, holding him at arm's length as he dangled helplessly. "But not fast enough." She glanced over at the main battle, where her teammates were methodically gaining the upper hand. "You're out of tricks, and I'm out of time." She raised her other hand, which began to glow with golden energy. "Since you won't listen, I'll just put you to sleep."
Faced with the glowing palm, with the utter finality of his defeat, a cold, primal part of Ethan's brain made a decision. There was one last move to make. One last, terrible, trump card.
I'm sorry, he thought, a silent apology to his teammates.
He focused his will on the tail coiled around his waist. It whipped out like a striking snake and knocked the ridiculous Mickey Mouse sunglasses from his face. He tilted his head back and stared directly into the cold, brilliant face of the full moon.
His heart didn't just beat. It hammered. DONG-DONG. DONG-DONG-DONG-DONG. It felt like it was going to explode, stimulated by the waves of Blutz radiation from the moon. Pain, white-hot and absolute, tore through him. He heard his own bones cracking, elongating, thickening. He felt his muscles shredding and re-knitting themselves into something monstrous. His jaw unhinged, and a roar ripped from his throat—a sound that was not human, not even animal, but something ancient and terrible.
Maria, shocked by his sudden convulsion, loosened her grip. It was a fatal mistake. He burst free as his body ballooned, the X-Men uniform and the orange gi underneath tearing away like tissue paper. Fur, coarse and brown, sprouted from his skin. His face distorted, his jaw pushing out into a feral, fanged muzzle.
"What is… happening to him?!" she yelled, rocketing backwards as the boy she'd held in one hand swelled into a fourteen-meter-tall Great Ape.
The monster's eyes were glowing, solid red. It beat its chest and roared at the moon, a sound of pure, unadulterated rage. A singular, overwhelming instinct flooded its brain: Destroy. Destroy. Destroy everything.
But deep inside that raging furnace, a tiny flicker of consciousness remained. It was Ethan. He was a pilot in a runaway nuclear reactor, his hands on controls that barely responded, screaming against the hurricane of mindless fury. He couldn't stop it. He couldn't suppress the rage. But maybe… maybe he could aim it. He fought against the red haze, focusing every ounce of his remaining sanity on a single thought, a single target. The glowing woman. Destroy the glowing woman.
The Great Ape slammed its massive fists into the frozen ground, shattering the earth and ice for fifty feet in every direction. It opened its fanged maw, and a torrent of violent, chaotic energy, ten times more powerful than the Kamehameha he'd fired earlier, erupted forth.
Numbers flashed through Ethan's screaming consciousness, an instinct from a life he'd never lived. Tao Pai Pai was 120… I was stronger… 140? Times ten… 1400… Raditz… This is Raditz's power…
BOOM!
The energy cannon slammed into Captain Marvel's hastily erected shield, the force of it throwing her back for miles. The monster didn't wait. It roared again, its powerful legs coiling, and launched itself into the air, a bounding, terrifying predator hot on her heels. It caught up to her as she righted herself, and putting its two massive hands together, it smashed her down towards the earth like a meteor.
The battle of gods had just begun.