Cosmic Treasure Hunt
The Director's Cut

Disclaimer: The following characters belong to Marvel Comics and DC comics. No profit is being solicited for this story.

Author’s comments: The following story is what the authors sort of expected from the Marvel vs DC crossover that took place a couple of years ago. A lot of characters have changed since then. This story is intended as entertainment reading of some of our favorite characters. Please enjoy.

Though I am no longer in contact with the original co-author of this piece, I humbly hope that were he to read my Director’s Cut changes and additions, that he might be proud at the improvement over a piece that we both agreed to and loved creating.

--Alex Soto (Mystic)

<Part XIX>

"So what do we do now, Surf?" asked Captain Marvel, previously calling himself Legacy.  Genis’ perplexed look betrayed his naiveté at being a super hero.  

"We do what we must," the Silver Surfer responded as he attempted to scan the area for energy fluctuations.

"I forgot.  You can scan a sand spec a galaxy away," replied the novice, still attempting to fill his father’s shoes.

"A crude interpretation of my abilities.  Nonetheless, very true...I believe I have located the infinity gem.  And something else..."

"Then let's go!" Genis quickly replied beginning to power the bands, previously belonging to his father on his wrist.

"Well, well. If it isn't the Silver Surfer and his handsome partner!" a voice purred from behind a tree.  A moment later, a flimsy figure stepped forward from the shady area and revealed herself.

"My!  My!" Genis replied as he walked over to her mesmerized.  "You have got to be the most gorgeous woman I have ever seen!"

"Genis!  Wait!" yelled the Silver Surfer.  The warning fell on deaf ears as the Enchantress caught him by surprise, leaned over and kissed him on the lips.  Genis’ mouth opened wide in amazement as his eyes roll back and fell backward toward the ground into a coma.

"And you thought they'd be hard to deal with," the Enchantress smiled looking behind her.  "This situation just needed a woman's touch."

"Well done," were the words uttered by Loki as he approached the area.  "I wouldn't have expected such a tactic. You have crippled this team without a fight.  'Tis a deed worthy of the God of Mischief himself!"

"What have you done to him?" the Surfer asked as he walked over to his partner.  He bent over and raised his friends' head up with his hand.

"Can thou not give a compliment without boosting thyself?" the Enchantress replied still looking at Loki.

"What have you done to him?!" the Surfer demanded in a deeper tone.  He rose to his feet as he begun clenching his fists and powering his hands.  His form of behavior indicated he would not ask again.

"Save your energy for him," the Enchantress said turning around.  "If you want to save him, you will have to do it quickly!  The poison on my lips is very quick and by now circulating throughout his body. You will have to purge every cell in his body if he is to survive."

Without another word the Enchantress walked away leaving her back turned to the Silver Surfer, confident he would do nothing.  Loki caught up to her chuckling to himself as the Silver Surfer powered his hands down and knelt besides his partner.

"I cannot leave an innocent man to die," he justified to himself as he placed his palms on Captain Marvel's chest.

Loki and the Enchantress were out of sight by the time the Surfer began the process.  He began to glow and spread his aura around Genis as he focused his full energy and concentration on the healing process. Several minutes later the process was complete, and the Silver Surfer fell back and fainted, exhausted at the expenditure of all his energy.  With the smell of flowers in the air, and the soft chirp of the birds, Genis' condition changed from being in a coma to being asleep, as the music of the jungle played on.

<Part XX>

Vril Dox and Braniac-5 re-materialized into a darker portion of the forest. 5 pointed straight ahead at the gem engraved within a tree.  Suddenly, the gem began to glow and the area around them became a big blur.  When the blur faded, they were surrounded by humid air with a green mist and knee high in swamp water.

"Traveler?" Dox questioned.

"Most likely," 5 responded.

Realizing that the gem was more important than the conditions around them, both men walked toward the bauble now sitting on a toadstool, floating toward a half-buried cave within the swamp water.

"I'm picking up a high energy presence coming from within the cave," Braniac-5 said more to himself than out loud as he continued to tap buttons on his hand-com.

"Could it be the energies from the gem?" Dox asked.

Suddenly, a similar but older voice, with a more evil tone was heard from behind them.  "A question you will not have the time to discover the answer to."

The two Colulans turned around to see two more Colulans behind them.  One was an older man standing, and the other an infant hovering in a high-tech crib.

"The technologies you have in that chair are remarkable, grand-son," Braniac remarked.  "It is good to see that my vast intelligence shall be carried on even if it did skip a generation."

"Well, I know my father well enough that we'd get to the gem easily just by following him.  Copying their teleportation sequence was...childs' play."

Vril Dox's eyes narrowed with hatred.  "I don't know who I hate more…my father or my son?" Dox said as he lunged forward.  "Right now, I don't bloody care!"

Vril Dox, despite 5's hand motion to wait, lunged forward toward Lyrl Dox, who was hovering in his air-crib but he was stopped by a force blast that shot from Braniac's forehead.  Vril Dox was sent into a tree and was knocked out cold, face-down in the swamp water.

"I guess you’re mine to kill," Lyrl Dox said as he flew his crib toward Braniac-5.  A pair of red parallel laser beams fired from the top front of Lyrl's crib attempting to end the life of Braniac-5. Lyrl’s confidence immediately vanished as Braniac-5 pressed a button on his belt and a force shield formed around him absorbing the blasts.  5 then let down his shield.

"Little boy, go away," he said as he placed an anti-gravity disk to the bottom of Lyrl's crib. The crib rebelled against gravity as it turned upside down, allowing its occupant to fall out. Only Lyrl’s kicking and screaming tantrum kept him afloat.

"I take it you're a Dox heir from the future," Braniac said as he walked through the swamp toward his foe. "It is good to know that my family tree will still be preserved for a long time to come."

Braniac was stopped in his tracks as 5 slipped his right hand behind his back and immediately presented a futuristic laser pistol pointed toward Braniac's head. "I wonder if I were to kill you and the infant now, would I cease to exist," 5 said with a cold stare.

"An interesting thought to ponder," Braniac said sarcastically.  "I see you have my son's interest in science, if not his built-up resistance to me." Braniac smiled and 5's eyeballs rolled into the back of his head as he lost consciousness.  His hand dropped the gun and he collapsed face-first into the swamp water.

Vril Dox began to recover as he picked his head up from out of the water coughing and gasping for air.

"The gem!" Braniac said.  So intrigued by his greed, he failed to notice the large shadow coming from the cave in front which covered the gem.

"The high energy patterns," Dox said as he saw Braniac approaching the gem.  "Braniac, NO!" he screamed.

His warning went unheeded.  About to take the gem, his attention was diverted by an 8 foot semi-transparent energy monster that grabbed him by the shoulders.  Braniac reacted firing a force blast at the monster with little effect.  The blast penetrated through it, hitting the back wall of the cave. Smoke rose from Braniac's body as the creature grabbed him and began discharging incredible amounts of energy. The creature then let go as Braniac's body fell into the swamp and he and Lyrl Dox disappeared.  The creature re-entered the cave as the gem began to teleport away.

<Part XXI>

"This time I believe it is my turn," Loki replied as he pointed to his partner the team approaching from the side.

"Be my guest!" the Enchantress replied as she turned and returned a wryly smile.  "Let me know if you need any help," she chuckled.

"Help, indeed!" Loki began mumbling as he casted a spell of invisibility.  "I am the rightful prince of Asgard!"

"Watch out!" yelled the Vision as he saw a creature about to grab Cyborg from behind.  Without a moments’ hesitation, Vision fired a beam from the solar gem on his forehead.  The holographic creature disappeared as Cyborg turned around and was hit by Vision's beam.  The unexpected hit sent him to the floor.

"What's your problem?" Cyborg yelled standing quickly to his feet.

"It appears my sensors were in error," Vision replied with an unexpected non-chalantness that infuriated Cyborg.

"That's funny.  My sensors are acting up too!" Cyborg replied as he turned his fist into a laser pistol and fired.  Vision quickly turned intangible and the laser beam passed through him hitting a tree and knocking it down and several others in the process.

"It is not in our best interest to fight each other," replied the Vision.  "I was merely trying to protect..."

"You think you will cripple me and have the gem all to yourself?" Cyborg screamed almost delusional. "Well you will find I'm no ordinary machine."  Cyborg transformed his other arm into a laser machine gun and began firing incessantly at the Vision where he stood.

The Vision, still intangible, began walking forward toward Cyborg.  "If I cannot make you see reason, then I must detain your insanity. Your disruption will no doubt attract attention," Vision coldly calculated as he reached Cyborg and extended his intangible arm into him.  He began partly materializing his hand to disrupt Cyborg's circuitry.  Cyborg resisted, and remained standing.  Vision then placed his entire body into Cyborgs' and partly materialized.  He yelled out as Cyborg's circuitry overloaded and fell to the ground attempting to recuperate.  Vision was unexpectedly partly damaged himself as well as he fell to his knees drained of energy.

"Now for the finishing touch," replied a mischievous voice in close proximity.  The Vision attempted to ascertain where it came from.  A quick spectral wave analysis told the Vision the voice originated from the immediate area but the person must be shielded in stealth form, perhaps about to offer hostility. Before he could run his pattern-matching algorithm to the voice, a dark cloud began to fall into the area. Day became night as the cloud absorbed all light entering before it. The Vision realized, as his algorithm confirmed, that it must be Loki behind this. He also realized that he must escape the cloud created by Asgardian magic so as not to run out of energy. The sun entering his jewel on his forehead was what powered him.  And although he had reserved stored power, the dark magic cloud around him was sapping him of that strength also.  He tried levitating, believing to escape the cloud, but the cloud followed him everywhere.  Soon he fell to the ground attempting to conserve the little energy he had for minimal life consumption.

"Heh!  Heh!  Heh!  ‘Tis not much unlike a Midgard cockroach, eh?" the God of Mischief proudly asked the Enchantress.

"You are cruel!  At least I defeated my opponent with class," she said as she turned and walked away.

"Bah!  Ungrateful wench!" he mumbled to himself as he pulled and wrapped his cape along his arm. "Most artists are never recognized in their own time."  With that said, he lifted his head up and walked away.

<Part XXII>

"I was wondering when we were going to run into you," replied Thanos as he and Warlock abruptly walked into an open field and encountered Darkseid and Orion, surrounded by mountainous rocky regions.

"It would be foolish of us to continue without dealing with the riff raff brought in by the Traveler," Darkseid answered with a smile.

"Then dispense with the children so we adults can do business," Thanos returned looking directly at Orion.

Orion, angered by such a statement, charged at Thanos.  "You cannot speak to a true warrior in such a disgraceful manner!" yelled Orion angrily and emphatically.

"Orion, wait!" yelled Darkseid.  Before a response was made, Thanos fired a plasma blast from his eyes and Orion was sent flying back, the rocky cliff on the East breaking his unexpected flight.  The blast left Orion disoriented.  Without hesitation, Warlock threw his staff at Orion as he tried to stand up, knocking him off his unit rider.

"Impetuous fool!" yelled Thanos as he powered his fists.  "You think to defeat Thanos of Titan?"

"Not he," a voice boomed in return, "but I who will defeat you!"

A series of bombardments began back and forth between Thanos and Darkseid.  Each plasma blast either met in the middle, or missed the target completely.  The two began circling each other as they approached closer and closer.  With both their fists clenched and powered, both began trading blows.  Darkseid began by a shot to the face.  Thanos retaliated with a punch to the stomach.  The sound of a sonic boom crackled as one fist struck another.  Both were sent reeling back by the resultant explosion of the enemies' discharge.

Meanwhile, Warlock began his fight with Orion by evading his blows.

"Fight like a man, golden one!"

"A clear mind allows one to be more attentive to their situation," responded Warlock as he delivered a blow with his fist to Orion's chin.

"You will need a lot more than that to defeat me!" Orion snarled back hiding the pain of Warlock's delivery.

Warlock levitated to the air as he fired beams from his staff.  Orion evaded them and rushed toward Warlock.  He jumped to the air and brought him down on his back.  Warlock kicked his foot up and threw Orion off of him.

Thanos ducked under Darkseid's plasma shot as he backed off.  His back hit Warlock, just having just thrown off Orion and now standing. They both turned to face Darkseid as he circled around in front of them.

"The cliff at your back will not allow you to escape," Darkseid replied with his eyes glowing. "Your only escape is death!"

"I've met her before," replied Warlock, "and am not particularly interested," he replied nonchalantly. Both he and Thanos exchanged a glance as Darkseid grew angrier.

Orion yelled to Darkseid, "Wait! Not yet!" The plea fell on deaf ears as Darkseid unleashed his Omega beams above toward the cliff behind Thanos and Warlock.  The resulting explosion caused the cliff behind them to crumble over the two.  The entire mountain collapsed as the thundering sound was heard across the entire continent.  Several minutes passed before the resulting smoke of dust clouds began clearing up.

Orion searched emphatically through the debris searching for their remains.  "No father!" he yelled angrily.  "They have insulted us and I want them to pay!" he snarled, his teeth grinding against each other.

"You did your part well," Darkseid complimented.

"It was very dishonorable," Orion yelled back giving up on his quest to dig them out. "Your plan to maneuver them together under the cliff was not the way a warrior should have fought this fight."

"With no room to maneuver and evade, they were caught like guinea pigs in a cage," Darkseid smiled in return.  He turned to see Orion unimpressed and staring at him. "Did we not win?" he responded beginning to raise his voice.

"It was cowardly!" Orion retorted.

The two stared at each other for awhile, each waiting for the other to make an aggressive move.  Darkseid finally broke the silence. "Unless you plan to attack me, I suggest we move on.  We still don't have the gem!"

Orion stopped grinding his teeth and backed down.  A nod indicated he concurred as they both began walking again.  "Motherbox indicates the gem is now South of us."

"Very well, then that is where we shall head."  Darkseid began walking South as he casually exclaimed, "The golden one was correct.  You let your impulses control you."

Orion did not answer quickly as he picked up his unit rider and mounted onto it.  "Detain me from defending my honor again and YOU will pay the price!" Orion answered still in a somewhat agitated tone.

The moment was quiet as they headed South.  With their goal in mind, Darkseid chose to let Orion calm down in hopes that he would be ready for any new challenges awaiting them.

Concluded in Cosmic Treasure Hunt #6