A/N: Hello there. I am Just Q. So admittedly, this will be my first time writing this type of crossover. I was mainly a Ben 10 writer but I wanted to expand my horizon and not limit myself.

While yes, the main protagonist of this title shall be an OC, I am completely aware of the pros and cons of original characters. I promise to not make the main character too OP or a Gary Sue. I will also promise not to make the focus entirely on him as that would mitigate his supporting cast and just relegate them to being extras or accessories for him, which is insulting.

No pairings for now. I don't want that to hold back the story.

With all that said, please enjoy.

"With blood and rage of crimson red,

We fill men's souls with darkest dread,

And twist your minds to pain and hate,

We'll burn you all—that is your fate!"

The words echoed in his head once more before his alarm started blaring loudly. In response, he reached out of his torn, blue blanket and slams his fist onto the snooze button on his digital clock, which is currently alarming at 6:50 am in a Sunday morning. But instead of simply snoozing his clock, he ends up breaking it, causing it to turn off on its own. He peeks from his blanket, slowly revealing his bleach blonde hair and blue eyes, only to see the state of his broken clock. With a sigh, he pushes his clock aside and off of his drawer near his bed, causing it to safely fall on his thick, red carpet.

"...Damn it... Gonna have to rent another one..." He spoke in a groggy voice as he pushed away his blanket to reveal his bare naked physically fit torso filled with scars on his abdomen, chest, back and his right arm.

But a very significant piece of him is what seems to be a red ring with a strange rune on it slung on his middle finger on his right hand.

He moves from his bed and gets up to reveal he also wore blue jogging pants and his feet is completely bare until he slips them into his black slippers on his carpet, just a few inches away from his clock that he unintentionally broke... but intentionally pushed off his drawer out of annoyance.

As the man yawns before stretching his arms to fully awaken himself, he moves his right leg slightly to the side, only for his foot to come into contact with something soft and furry. He stops yawning as he looks at what his foot touched to see a grayish-bluish Russian Blue cat on the carpet, sleeping.

"...You're still here?" He said to the sleeping cat, who finally opened its eyes before giving the man an annoying side eye, as if it was angry at being awoken. But instead of going back to sleep, the cat lifts its head up to fully look at the man. "What?" The man asked the cat, seemingly just as annoyed as the feline.

The cat strangely narrows his eyes at him before meowing, as if trying to say something, before getting up on all fours, shakes around to get rid of any dirt on its fur, before suddenly walking over to the man's nearby table, jumps on it then proceeds to leave the room through the window nearby.

"Every morning with you..." The man muttered under his breath as if trying to speak to the cat that had already left, before grabbing a nearby towel hanging on his chair near the table the cat had just jumped onto earlier then heading to his bathroom just to the right of his bed.

After a brief shower, he steps out of the bathroom with a towel covering everything below his waist, with him holding his boxers and his pants earlier before tossing it in the laundry basket just beside the door of his bathroom, with this new pair stacking up on his other used, dirty clothes. He takes the time to look at his nearly full laundry basket as he realizes something before saying, "I really need to get these washed."

After looking at his laundry-stencial crisis, he takes off the towel around his waist before opening a nearby closet to grab underwear, white socks, navy blue jeans, a white shirt and a navy blue jacket with a cream colored fur collar.

"This will do." He told himself as he puts on each piece of clothing one by one.

Once he's done, he looks at himself on the mirror that's part of his closet's door. From bottom to top, he eyes himself before telling himself, "...I really need better clothes."

He finally closes his closet before grabbing a nearby backpack, place the slings around his shoulders and leaves his house, closing his room door and locking it, placing the key in his pocket afterwards.

Taking a deep breath, he walks away from his door to his apartment room and heads to nearby stairs, heading down to leave through the apartment's entrance. But just before walking out, someone at the reception desk called out for his name.

"Ivan." The female receptionist said out loud to him. "Pay your rent. It's long overdue. Either you pay up now or you get evicted."

"Ugh... Whatever." Ivan, the man we have been following, responded before taking out a 20 dollar bill from his pants' left pocket and gives it to the receptionist. "Keep the change." He added as he is about to leave through the front door once more.

But the receptionist takes the cash she was handed to by Ivan before waving it around and yells out at him, saying, "Keep the change? Excuse you, your rent is 40 bucks. You didn't pay last week's rent."

"I'll pay the other half later!" Ivan yelled back before finally taking his leave.

In a little lonely store named "24/7's" downtown this early morning, a lone, old man of Chinese descent, wearing eyeglasses, is inspecting several of the store's merchandise, like some junk food comprised of several chips and popcorn, as well as soft drinks in the fridges, and some home essentials like deodorants, tissues and shaving razors.

Upon checking the "food" section on the paper of his clipboard, he hears the door to his store open signaled by a bell ringing upon the door pulling on the string connected to the bell's clapper, and causes the old man to turn and see Ivan enter, backpack on tow.

"Oh! Ivan! Glad you're here! I'm just about done checking." The old man comments to Ivan's arrival, with a very slight but still noticeable accent.

But it's something Ivan has gotten used to after working for this man for such a long time. "Glad to be here, Mr. Ling. I set my alarm earlier this time. How's Lei?" Ivan asks his boss, named Ling, or at least, his last name, as he heads to a door behind the cashier counter.

"Oh she's doing fine. It will be her recital today!" Mr. Ling responded to his worker and places his clipboard on the counter. "She kept asking for you to come but I told her you're busy."

"I'll try to come later if I have time, Mr. Ling, but you and I both know why I'm early today." Ivan replies as he comes out of the back room having discarded the clothes he wore here and replaced it with the uniform for this small little shop comprised of a white polo shirt, black pants and a blue apron with the symbol of the store, the numbers "24/7", on the belly area.

"Yes, yes. So I can come to her recital and not skip a single minute and for you to watch over the shop for me. Sorry I have to keep you busy like this." Mr. Ling replies, hands on his hips and shaking his head.

However, Ivan simply gives off a small smile to his boss and places a hand on the shoulder of the old man. "I told you, Mr. Ling. It's okay. Your family's more important. I'll watch over the shop for as long as it takes."

Mr. Ling gives his attendant a small chuckle as he takes off his glasses and gives Ivan a grateful nod. "Thank you. I owe you so much, Ivan."

"I'm always here, Mr. Ling. Better a get a move on, though. Lei might get cranky again." Ivan jokingly tells his boss.

The store owner gives off a hearty laugh, all while patting Ivan on his shoulder. "Of course, of course! I'll see you tomorrow, Ivan." The old man responded to the young man as he gives him a sweet, fatherly smile before taking his leave, causing the door to ring the bell once more.

The shop ran silent once the bell stopped ringing as Ivan watched his boss head off through the glass pane of the door. Once he sees the old man get in his car and eventually drive off back home to get dressed and take his daughter to her recital, Ivan drops his smile and takes a silent but incredibly deep sigh as he walks over behind the cashier counter with his back slouched and his face expressing his disbelief.

"I'm gonna be stuck here all day..." Ivan complained once he now knows his boss is gone.

He meant no offense to Mr. Ling, though. He owes the old man his job that he has right now and how he even got an apartment in this crappy town. Not once did Ivan ever think of badmouthing his boss. What he's mad about is the fact that it's hard to refuse a request from him, as Ivan still feels like he hasn't paid Mr. Ling back enough for all his help, so when the old man asked if he could stay and watch the shop all day, in a Sunday no less, so he could go watch his young daughter's recital at their local church as part of a choir performance, Ivan could not refuse.

He's so mad at himself for being too nice to this person who is also too nice to him, but deep inside, somehow, it felt like the right thing. At this point though, his only problem is being unable to go home early than usual. His usual shift on week days is merely in the morning, then another fellow employee of his would and take over his shift from after lunch until night. But this Sunday, he just signed himself up for a very long, whole day shift on a day no one comes to their store at all.

He can't do anything now but internally complain as he pulls up a nearby wheeled stool and sits on it, leaning on the counter as he prepares to waste the next 11 hours of his life.

The next 5 minutes of his waiting was spent in silence as he thought of several things all while giving the cash register a thousand yard stare. First, he made mental notes of when he'll have to eventually get his laundry cleaned soon. Then, he starts thinking of making list of other possible side jobs he could do once he does his shifts in the morning. He notes to himself the hypocrisy of this idea considering he was just complaining to himself earlier so he puts this idea on hold for now. Next, he began thinking of saving up to buy a radio to get some music and news reports in his room. He doesn't own a television so a cheap but functioning radio will do. He also noted to himself to also save money for a new alarm clock after had just committed his previous one to it's death by falling. And finally, pay up the rest of his rent once he gets back home so that bitch at the front desk would shut up.

He takes a deep breath once he was done taking mental notes before resting his chin on his right hand as his elbow leans on the counter. He takes another 10 seconds to wait for nothing to happen...

...until he spots his very bright, red ring on his finger from the corner of his eyes. He stops leaning on his right hand before stretching it out in front of him to look at the red ring more.

The more he stares intently at this peculiarly designed, circular band around his index finger, the more he sees how strange this rune on it looks really eery. It's shaped as two straight lines going up that eventually curve in opposite directions before continuing to go straight up. In addition to that, it has a big circle between both lines down at the bottom middle.

He's worn this strange ring for as long as he can remember in his time here in this place. He also had to learn how much this thing could help him, but he still doesn't know anything about it or how he came to be in possession of this ring.

Every time he looks at it, the more it starts to feel... vile. Like something inside is waiting to burst out at anytime, but he is just hypnotized by this ring. The longer he stares, the more it feels like he's burning up inside.

And every time he does, those "words"... The ones he always hears in his nightmares where there's nothing but a bright white light around him and the words echoed in his mind.

With blood and rage of crimson red,

We fill men's souls with darkest dread,

And twist your minds to pain and hate,

We'll burn you all—

That

is

your

FATE!

*CLING!*

He was snapped out of his trance when the bell to the store rings, signifying that someone came in. He felt like he had been staring at his ring for almost a lifetime, but one look at the shop's own wall clock and sees that he had only been doing it only for a whole minute. He shakes his head to be rid of his headache as he stands up from his stool to see that his new customers are two, teenage boys wearing sweaters, one green and one blue, and they're currently looking around the store. The green sweater wearing kid is wearing a green beanie on his head to match the rest of his get-up.

The one in blue looks at several magazines at a rack right beside the doorway while the one in green starts looking around at the rest of the shop. For simplicity, he made mental notes to himself to call the one in blue simply as "Blue" and the one in green, is of course, "Green".

Blue continues looking at the magazines and found a comic book. From the cover alone and the colors used, Ivan knew what the comic book was since his long time working here. Something called "Rage of the Reds by Geoff Johns". Ivan has never read it himself but apparently it's one of the best selling ones in this store. But it's not exactly much of a stretch, considering their shop is small and only a handful of people come every day anyway.

Still, Ivan doesn't care much. If Blue will buy the book, then its more money for the store and Mr. Ling's business.

However, his attention was caught when Green comes up to him and slams a pack of cigarettes onto the counter. "I'll take this." Green says to Ivan and hands two 1 dollar bills, a 10 dollar bill and 85 cents, a total of 12.85 dollars. "You got any pills too?"

"Okay kid, ID first." Ivan responds to the young man, crossing his arms in anticipation for Green's identification. "We don't hand cigarettes and pills to minors."

"Come on, man. Just look the other way." Green insisted before pulling out an extra 5 dollars from his sweater's pocket and places it on the money he had previously put down a payment. "Here's an extra. Come on."

Ivan takes a deep sigh and shakes his, disappointed at the youth standing before him as he takes the cigarette pack away from Green. "ID or you're not getting this." He insisted, staring directly into Green's eyes.

"Give him the fucking cigarette."

Ivan could only make a small grunt when Blue was suddenly beside Green...

...holding a .9mm pistol in his hand, directly aimed at Ivan's face.

The way Blue was holding to the pistol, his hand not shaking even a small bit, means he knows exactly how to use it, which internally disappointed Ivan at the fact someone as young as him knows how to use a gun. The more he analyzes the situation, the more he found it harder to do anything other than comply. The gap created by the counter between him and the two teens means it'll be hard for him to disarm the young man and risks getting himself shot. It doesn't help that the kid most likely knows how to use the gun, as he observed. And with Green beside him, they could possibly take him on...

...if he were an ordinary human being.

For a brief moment, it looked like Ivan's eyes started glowing red. As red as the ring he has that began glowing as well. In a few brief seconds, Blue and Green look terrified as this man started looking less like a human more like a monster...

...but Ivan knew if he did this, the store would be in jeopardy. He doesn't want Mr. Ling to loose his business over a pack of cigarettes, and it's not worth wasting it on a bunch of kids seeking something to smoke and whatever they'll use the pills for.

When he blinks, his eyes return to their usual blue hue as he sighs and his ring stops glowing. He hands the cigarettes to the kid before taking a small pack of pills from under the counter and hands them to the two kids. "Keep your money. And don't ever come back here." He warns the two, with Blue giving a victorious smirk as he puts away his gun and Green takes both items he purchased.

The two then run off and out of the store as Ivan sighs before sitting back down on the stool. "Fucking hell..." was all he could mutter to himself as he wipes his forehead with the back of his left hand. He didn't even realize he had been sweating the whole time until he felt his hand on his wet forehead. It seems the fear of death is still existent to him, despite telling himself it no longer is. He internally notes to himself that it's probably just him unintentionally trying to act cool even when no one's around.

Later on, he spent the next 3 hours wasting time again, sitting on his stool while the shop's wall-hanging television is playing several Spanish soap operas that he doesn't really have any interest in but it's better than the shop staying quiet.

But much to his own dismay, in the next 2 hours, he actually found himself watching the soaps rather than just letting it play in the background. He is so incredibly disappointed in himself, but it's completely overshadowed by the fact that he's now eating 3 hotdogs he bought nearby, watching Mariah reveal to her boyfriend, Alfredo, that she was his sister the whole time. Truly, such a shocking plot twist than genuinely surprised Ivan.

But by next 2 hours and 30 minutes, he's turned off the TV to make sure he doesn't get addicted to his new guilty pleasure show. But now, he's left with more hours to waste until he needs to go home at 6 pm.

Just as he thought he's about to go insane from boredom, the sound of the bell ringing caught his attention again.

He raises his head from the counter after laying it down along with his arms and is surprised, honestly very happy, to see an old friend.

"Goddamn. Thank Christ, you're, Luke." Ivan finally let out to his friend, Luke, a 6 foot tall, bald, African-American man with magnificent beard and a muscular body, wearing a yellow shirt with sleeves reaching up to his elbow, black pants with a brown belt complimented by a silver belt buckle, black fingerless gloves and black boots.

Luke gives a big chuckle as he approaches Ivan at the counter and once they're near each other, bump their fists with one another as Ivan takes a sigh of relief. "Figured you'd be here somehow, Ivan. You're not exactly someone who goes out for fun. Swung by your apartment and didn't find you there, so I figured you'd be here, and lo and behold." Luke spoke to the bored shop attendant in a deep and smooth voice.

"You have no idea how much I needed some company. I've been bored out of my skull for the past 7 hours and a half." Ivan let out all his stress as he complained, sitting back on his stool as Luke started looking around the shop. "How's Jess and Dani?"

Luke makes another chuckle as he looks over the snack section, checking out some marshmallows and potato chips. "Well, Jess just got hired to investigate another case and Dani's at home with her uncle Danny." Luke responded, taking the marshmallow with multiple flavors on it and the spicy potato chips. He passes by the fridges and takes out 3 sodas. "How about you? The apartment holding up? Ditkovich still on your ass?" Luke added upon reaching the counter and places all his purchase on it.

Ivan sighs at the mention of that name as he stands back up from his stool and starts using the barcode scanner connected to the register on the items Luke intends to bring home with him. "That old fart needs to keep his daughter in a leash. She won't stop bitching about my rent." Ivan let out and finished scanning Luke's items. "That'll be 9.45 dollars, by the way."

"Eh, you'll be fine. Don't let her keep you down. She ain't nothin' but dirt on your shoe. You'll get over her." Luke attempts to console his friend as he pays up while Ivan places all of Luke's groceries into a paper bag. "I mean, unless this is because you're not getting paid enough to earn money for yourself?"

"Don't remind me..." Ivan responds, while Luke grabs his groceries from the counter and Ivan hands him the receipt. "Luke, you're my bro. Just as much as Danny is to you too. But I told you. Heroes For Hire? Not my style."

"Dude, you'd totally fit right in." Luke insisted with a small chuckle while talking, putting his receipt inside the paper bag.

"There are two problems when joining you guys. One, the waiting whenever we need a new job. Why hire heroes when there are cops and actual super freaks that will help you for free? And two..." Ivan counter argued to his friend until he suddenly stops talking, taking a deep, longing sigh. "...I don't fit the... 'Hero' part."

"Alright. Just give it some thought. I know you respect old man Ling, and to be honest, we all do. But if you ever reconsider, our door's always open. You know you got my vote, along with Danny and Misty. Heck, Jess too, but she's too prideful to admit it in your face." Luke encourage his friend. "See you around, brother."

"You too, Cage. Don't be a stranger." Ivan responds before performing a brotherly fist bump with his friend.

Luke takes his leave through the door as the sound of the clock in the shop ticking made Ivan realize something once again.

He's alone again. And it's going to be boring as hell for the next couple of hours.

Hell's Kitchen truly lives up to it's name.

Eventually, closing time finally came at 6:55 pm as the bright white Moon shines from above and the dark blue sky gives the city an ominous feel, with the light, night fog seeping through the streets.

Having closed the shop, locking all the doors from the front to the backdoor, as well as turning off all the lights inside and outside, and getting dressed back up in his casual attire from earlier, Ivan takes a big sigh of relief and finally gets the chance to relax, even if just for a few hours before he has to come back tomorrow morning for his shift. He adds "asking Mr. Ling for a day off" to his mental to-do list as he heads down an alleyway that leads to a bus stop he'll take to get back to his apartment. And hopefully, he takes the bus alone. Hell's Kitchen isn't the friendliest neighborhood in New York and the last thing he wants is trouble.

Now that he mentioned it in his head, however, Ivan realized, and now hopes, that the bus drivers themselves aren't crooks looking for fights or an easy victim to rob from.

As he kept walking around, he yawns while passing by two, homeless folk that he decided to give spare change to on their empty coffee cups. But he didn't bother looking at them at all. It's not out of disrespect, lack of pity or outright being an asshole. He's just eager to go home now and he's content enough to know he gave those people some money.

He starts stretching and popping his neck to get rid of his fatigue while taking a left around a corner through this alleyway made by being in between two buildings. But upon taking this turn...

"You shouldn't have taken the job, missy. Now you caught the Big Man's attention, and it ain't the good kind of attention."

Ivan suddenly heard voices nearby. From the tone and pitch of the voice, it sounded male with a very thick southern accent. He takes the next turn to the right, where, coincidentally, leads to where the bus stop actually is. Upon doing so, he sees a group of people that he assumes is the cause of the commotion he felt and heard.

Three men surrounding a lone woman. The men are all wearing matching uniforms, complete with masks and transparent eye lenses to protecf their eyes. However, each of them have different colored suits.

One is wearing completely red outfit with grey outlines starting from his ankle going up to his sides and armpit. He has strange, metallic boots on his feet, with glowing green circles on both sides of each boot.

Another is, to Ivan's surprise, is a 7 foot tall, top heavy man with muscles bigger than even Luke himself. His uniform is blue instead, with the grey outlines found on his chest instead, with a big grey X marking in his back as a much smaller detail. He has strange pipes attached to a gasmask-like device on his mask's mouth are. The rest of the pipes are connected to a small tank of sorts attached to his back, just above his butt.

And finally, the last man is almost similar to the one wearing the red suit, except not only is his yellow, but it has several criss cross designs on it that make them look like fishnets atop his yellow suit with red outlines. In addition to this, he has strange and very large mechanical gauntlets on his arms with very similar green circles found on the red one's boots.

The woman herself is simply in an informal business attire while holding a briefcase in her left hand and hanging a purple coat over her right arm. She has very unkempt brown hair that, despite being tied into a ponytail, is still messy and frizzy, like she had just gotten back from work or she had just woken up and forgot she was wearing a ponytail the whole time. She also very beautiful fair skin and hypnotizing hazel eyes.

From Ivan's perspective, this looks like a group of supervillains are mugging a tired woman.

"Look boys..." The woman suddenly spoke as she slowly takes off her glasses with her free right hand before letting out a loud sigh of discontent. "I'm really tired after that first meeting. Can we do this tomorrow morning? I'll even let you hit me first as a headstart. How about that?"

The woman was speaking so casually, Ivan was genuinely convinced that either she's so extremely tired that she can't be bothered to feel threatened... or she's oblivious to the danger in front of her. Either way, this doesn't look like it won't bode well at all.

"No can do, doll. See, sticking your nose into the Big Man's business by helping your client in trying to sue him. Once we're done with you, your precious little customer ain't gonna be walking, or even talking, ever again. No one fights the Big Man without missing every shot and leaving the range alive." The one in yellow and wielder of the gauntlets spoke in a southern accent, which indicates that he was the one speaking earlier.

But instead of feeling threatened, the woman yawns instead and trails her eyes elsewhere to stop listening to the assassin until she eventually spots Ivan, to which, this time, actually surprises her. "Hey! You!"

Ivan only made a small grunt in response as all three men turn to look at him after the woman called for him. He mentally slapped himself for not even thinking of hiding at all to listen closely. He just outright walked into trouble despite telling himself he doesn't want it.

Goddamnit...

Ivan cursed to himself in his head as, out loud, he let out a very annoyed sigh. One could swear his ring glowed very, very slightly as he did so. "What do you want?" He asks the woman calling out to him.

"Can you leave? This could get bad and I wouldn't want you to get involved." The woman suddenly asks of Ivan, which honestly surprised him even more of how much this woman is taking the danger she's in very lightly, but has enough integrity to tell what she believes to be an innocent bystander to stay out of this situation.

"Yes, kid, go on home." The one in yellow actually agreed with his victim as the one with boots crosses his arms and the large man simply nods. "You keep walking, you tell no one and we don't attack you too, gotcha? Cause no one's gonna believe a damn thing you'll say anyway if you talk. It just gives us a reason to take you out with this woman here."

Ivan raised a brow from this criminal's offer. It's good to be true and had he been a normal person, they could easily kill him anyway and find a way to hide his body, with no one being the wiser.

Of course, he had never been ordinary ever since he awakened.

Internally, he's telling himself not to get involved. He owes this person nothing and these three look like they're connected to someone called the Big Man, which he has heard of somewhere before and from what he learned, this Big Man is a pretty big deal here in Hell's Kitchen. The risk of attracting a crime boss by saving this complete stranger is too high and endangers several lives. It's stupid to fight these stooges...

...But for some reason, he couldn't stop himself from speaking. It felt like he lost control of his mouth and his tongue and his brain just froze for several seconds, as words escaped his lips that he really wished he didn't say at all. "How about you leave that lady alone and I don't break all your noses and send them sideways?"

"Whoa." escaped the woman's mouth upon hearing Ivan speak, her face showing genuine surprise as her eyes are wide and her lips slightly agape.

"The hell? Don't you see we got you outnumbered AND outgunned?" The one in red spoke in retaliation, which only made Ivan internally wince more at suddenly putting himself in this situation.

What the hell was that? He really didn't want to be involved at all, but suddenly felt like helping her? There's no time to think this over, he told himself, as he's out of the frying pan and into the shit now.

Seeing talking this over being tossed out of the window by his OWN fault, he just takes a sigh, takes off his backpack, drops it on the ground and pops his neck. "Let's get this over with. I'm not made of time–"

But he could not finish his own sentence when suddenly, a large blast of vibration is shot at him and erupts upon contact, shooting him off the ground and knocking him back into the wall behind him so hard, it creates a very large dent on it shaped like his body, with several cracks forming from the epicenter of his collision with the hard surface. The attack had caused his forehead to begin bleeding as smoke seems to be coming out of the man in yellow's right gauntlet, aimed at Ivan.

"Ah, crap... He should've ran..." The woman mutters to herself while men continue to stare at Ivan.

"How's that for 'getting it over with', boy?!" The man in yellow mocks what he assumes is now Ivan's dead body as his giant companion chuckles while the one in red outright laughs at Ivan's incompetence. "Don't mess with folk you don't know about." He added with a little scoff for added insult before he and his crew begin turning around to face the woman yet again.

"Then you should practice what you preach, rodeo clown..."

All three villains were astonished upon hearing Ivan's voice and caused them take an about-face but it was too late as a blast of red energy hits the man in yellow directly in square in the chest, sending him flying into the street out of the alleyway they're in. As the two other villains recover from their shock of seeing their leader get knocked away like a rock hitting an empty plastic bottle, they turn their attention back to the assailant as Ivan lifted himself off of the wall he was embedded into.

The most peculiar part of this image of the young man, however, is the fact hat he's raising his right hand into a fist in front of him as his red ring is glowing bright that it's overpowering the dark alley and is actually providing enough light to show even the literal dark corners of this place. Not only that, but it's smoking very dark smoke like ones coming from very hot flames, unlike the man in yellow's gauntlet earlier, which is only comparable to a fired gun's smoking barrel.

Before the giant of a man, the one with ridiculous metal boots and the lone woman could even say anything else, all of a sudden, Ivan's clothes start changing color while his ring flashes once. His cream colored fur collar turned into a very dark black alongside his navy blue jacket turning black as well. His navy blue pants adopt the same color as his shoes change from a simple white into a very blood red pigment. He gains black gloves all of a sudden with blood red fingers similar to his shoes and his normally blue eyes turn red as well.

The final change to his appearance came when his pure white shirt changed into the same blood red as his other red features, but only this time, a symbol of sorts forms on his chest that resembles the emblem found on his ring: the strange, crimson lantern-like sigil inside a big circle.

"You don't know anything about me either." Ivan finally spoke after his brief transformation, his current audience of criminals and the woman only staring at him in surprise that Ivan is a superpowered individual this whole time.

"Shocker?" The man in red spoke out loud to their leader, all the while the woman continues to watch the situation, her surprised expression transitioning into a very curious smile.

"Well... This took a surprising turn of events." The lady tells herself just as the man in yellow, now identified as someone called Shocker, stand up from his spot on the road after being blasted by Ivan.

"Ricochet, Ox, don't just stand there! Restrain 'im and kick his behind!" Shocker ordered the man in red, Ricochet, and the giant man, Ox, as he starts shooting out his shockwaves from his gauntlets, intended to kill Ivan as they are fired at maximum power.

However, Ivan simply projects a bubble of red energy around him and the shockwave does no significant damage at all and simply pushes Ivan back at the wall, replacing his man-shaped crater with a much bigger, ball shaped one, the shockwave from Shocker's gauntlet digging him deeper into the wall, and by extension, the building it's a part of.

Just when Shocker thought he's gotten the upper hand, Ivan roars like a wild animal with incomprehensible rage as he starts pushing back the beam by simply walking forward with the bubble shield still around him. The vibration inducing villain could not do anything but keep his beam of shockwaves going and grunt as hard as he is pushing back, but Ivan seems to only grow stronger the angrier he gets as the pace of his walk grows faster and is receiving less resistance before he discards his bubble shield and was fast enough to create a stronger, much bigger, red energy beam that clashes with Shocker's attack before eventually overpowering it, pushing and outright piercing through Shocker's move and hitting him again in the chest, knocking him into a building on the other side of the road instead.

Watching Shocker knocked around like an unwanted doll caused the woman to smile further as he watches Ivan work.

With their leader temporarily immobilized, Ricochet takes center stage and jumps onto a wall to his left. Just as Ivan tries to blast Ricochet, the acrobat suddenly creates a small shockwave from the sole of his boots that are against the wall he jumped onto and bounced to a different wall, causing Ivan to miss his attack and strike the wall Ricochet used to be on instead. When he spots Ricochet on another wall, he tries to blast him again only for Ricochet to, of course, bounce into a different wall, leaving the wall he was initially on to get blasted apart by Ivan again.

However, once he lands on another wall, he did not wait for Ivan to attack again for him to bounce a third time as he takes another leap into another surface. And another. And another. And another until he kept going and going to the point that all Ivan sees is a series of blurs that look like a big spider's web made of Ricochet's afterimage after each bounce.

This guy's name isn't just for show...

He noted as his opponent is bouncing everywhere, true to his namesake.

But things only got confusing to very bad real fast for Ivan as for each bounce that Ricochet passes by the red ring slinger's path, Ricochet strikes him with a punch, a karate chop or a kick, and Ivan could not even react fast enough to block any of them. Ricochet isn't slowing down, either, and his nonstop barrage of bouncing attacks is getting on Ivan's nerves, which is only serving to get him angrier and angrier, clouding his thoughts slowly, preventing him from thinking straight little by little.

However, Ivan's rage fueled mind began thinking again once he sees a pattern. Ricochet had actually been doing the same 6 bounces the entire time, and he always starts and ends on the first wall he bounced off of before repeating again. Not only that, but he had been striking Ivan on the same spots on his body for each bounce. From the first bounce, Ricochet punches him on his chest, followed by the second bounce attack aimed at his left shoulder before the third strike hits him on the back. Next, his right shoulder is struck at the fourth bounce before finishing it with a kick to his left leg in the fifth bounce. The only one without a follow up attack is Ricochet's sixth bounce, where he takes this time to recover so he can bounce on the first wall.

This was enough for the red ring slinger to pinpoint Ricochet's next move and predict where his attack will land next. He just needs to wait as he eyes the villain's movements as best he can.

One bounce.

Two.

Three.

Four...

The fifth bounce! On his left leg!

Once Ricochet strikes Ivan's leg, he was very much surprised and terrified when he stopped moving and fall straight on the ground. When he looks behind him, he is very, very scared of what he found: Ivan caught his right leg just before he could get to his sixth bounce!

Ricochet could do nothing else but pray to whatever deity he believes in as the enraged superpowered man starts flailing and spinning Ricochet around above his head before tossing him into an open garbage bin near a wall behind Ivan. The force of Ricochet colliding with the bin before falling straight into it caused the bin's lid to fall and close shut atop Ricochet like literal garbage.

The woman Ivan is "rescuing" could not help but chuckle at the sight of someone treating a villain like garbage and throwing them away like one.

Ivan takes several deep breathes of exhaustion after trying to figure out Ricochet's pattern, but he had no time to rest at all when a shadow loom over him that caused his field of view to darken. He had no time to react at all when Ox gives him a big and tight bear hug from behind. Ox's grip was so tight that the red ring slinger had no leverage at all, his arms being forced to his sides as the stoic giant began tightening his hold on him and starts squeezing him like a lemon on a hydraulic press.

Ox was not letting up and Ivan is forced to experience pain all over his body as he's starting to feel his bones beginning to crack, to the point that he can almost hear them beginning to do so. This immense pain is enough to make him start screaming in pain for first time in this entire fight.

This did not escape the woman's sight and hearing as Ivan screaming and struggling was starting to worry her. So, unknown to Ox, the woman suddenly dropped her purple coat and brief case on the floor before gently placing her glasses atop her dropped case.

One could swear her eyes change from hazel to a bright, glowing green.

Ox continued to quite literally squeeze the life out of Ivan, who kept struggling as he tries his best to move his arms, but to no avail. It doesn't help that being in this position has slowed down the flow of blood to everything below his chest, including his arms, so he can't even feel his hands anymore. He has think of something, or else he's about to pop like a water balloon filled with blood instead.

Wait... Blood...

He thought and suddenly remembered one of his abilities. One he hates the most purely for being absolutely disgusting... and being incredibly effective. But he has no choice now. Whatever happens to this Ox guy, it's his fault.

So he takes an incredibly huge breath, to the point of raising his head and looking up at the sky with puffed cheeks, much to the confusion of the giant man. And once he's done, Ivan does something Ox will never be able to forget his entire life, if he ever survives this.

Ivan starts vomiting dark red blood from his mouth and spews them all on Ox's arms. This blood vomit is so intense, it's actually emitting black smoke, similar to a bright, burning flame. And before Ox knew, he himself began screaming in bloody murder as he releases Ivan from his tight grip as the burning blood on his arms started melting through his suit like napalm. And judging by how fast it's burning and how hot the blood actually is, it may very well BE napalm!

Once dropped by his foe, Ivan could only sprawl on the floor as he coughs up his own blood from the vomit he had just done to Ox while trying desperately to move. With his arms out of commission for a while and his legs slowly gaining blood flow, all Ivan could do was crawl as he watches Ox flail his burning arms around. When he could not find anything to put it out, he ignores his pain in favor of at least finishing off his enemy as Ox lost all his stoic attitude and grabs a nearby car, lifting it over his head and was about to throw it at the still-recovering red ring slinger...

...until Ox felt something grab him by the back of his suit. He could not turn around in time as he suddenly gets pulled away and tossed into the building Shocker got knocked into.

As if on cue, Shocker had just recovered and was about to get back up, until he sees Ox coming at him at the speed of sound and the large brute collides with his leader, knocking them both out in the process.

Ivan could barely register what had just happened as he eyes the unconscious Ox on the other side of the street, but his train of thought was derailed when a big green hand suddenly appears before him, offering him help to stand back up. Once he could feel his arms and hands again, Ivan takes the hand, but instead of getting back up, he is instead lifted upward and sees before him such a beauty.

A magnificent woman wearing the business suit of the woman from earlier, this new person is a 6'7 tall, slender but still very toned and muscular amazonian beauty with long flowing dark green hair, green eyes and such a lovely face that any straight man can fall for. Her grip on Ivan's hand is tight but not enough to crush it, and feels so tender the longer she held him. She has a very prominent bust accentuated by her outfit revealing part of her cleavage that seemed to have caused several of the buttons on her outfit to burst.

"You put up quite a show, hotshot. A big 'A' for effort, but a 'B+' on execution. You almost looked like my cousin there." This emerald, amazonian maiden tells him before gently dropping him back on his own two feet.

The more Ivan looks and observes her directly, the more he starts to realize who this is. Those clothes, the fact that the woman earlier is missing and now this new person is here, the woman's casual attitude of being in danger and this woman matching, and maybe even surpassing, Ox's super strength... She's...!

"You're that woman earlier! You... transformed!" Ivan deduced as he points at the giant woman, who only gives him a cute chuckle before offering her hand for a handshake.

"Jennifer Walters. Attorney at Law." says the Sensational She-Hulk.

/
—To be continued—-
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End - A/N: And that's it for now. What did you guys think? I hope I didn't make Ivan too annoying or anything. I wanted to add some very subtle traits about him that justifies why he has a Red Lantern ring. Of course, the true reason behind this will eventually explored but not right now. It's too early for that. I wish to keep it a mystery for now and keep readers guessing.

As for the setting, I chose Hell's Kitchen on purpose. It barely gets any love these days. And don't worry! The rest of the Heroes for Hire and Hell's Kitchen's heroes and villains will appear! I promise!

As for what continuity I'm crossing this over, it's not in a specific one but just my own original Marvel verse that's inspired by others before it, like the MCU, the actual comics, several cartoons like Spectacular Spider Man and Earth's Mightiest heroes, and some works of my other Fanfiction friends. Shout out to CaptainRex75! So like I said, this continuity is a bit of a composite of several inspirations, so sometimes I'll be taking a few liberties in some characters but not too much that it detracts from their actual characterization.

So for now, please leave some reviews and honest criticisms so that I may know what to add or improve upon the story to your liking!

Hope to see you all again on the next chapter! As Ganthet once said...

In fearful day, in raging night,
With strong hearts full, our souls ignite,
When all seems lost in the War of Light,
Look to the stars- For hope burns bright!