What the f*ck is going on?

Jessica Jones grimaces as she watches blurry footage on the TV in her crappy office, showing some caped lunatic tearing through New York's finest and then getting clocked by a glowing woman mid-air. She takes a long swig from a bottle of Wild Turkey before grabbing her leather jacket.

"Great. Another wannabe world conqueror leveling midtown. I need a damn drink."

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Across town, Matt Murdock tilts his head with a frown as he picks up the distant sounds of destruction - screams, crumbling cement, explosions. His radar sense gives him an impression of the chaos unfolding. With practiced efficiency, he opens his equipment trunk, donning the familiar red suit and billy clubs of Daredevil. It's going to be a long night.

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In Harlem, Luke Cage and Danny Rand watch the madness unfold on-screen at Pop's Barbershop, stunned.

"Man, homeboy dropped Falcon and Widow in two seconds!" Luke grimaces at the brutal Wing beatdown. "Might not wanna mess with that dude..."

"We shall see about that." Iron Fist retorts, eyes narrowed. "If he threatens more lives, we'll just have to knock some humility into him." His fist flickers with radiant Chi force.

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On Ryker's Island, Wilson Fisk watches the news intently from his detention suite, fingers steepled thoughtfully. Perhaps this violent interloper could be...manipulated if approached correctly. Used to remove some of the thorns in his side plaguing the city. A small, cruel smile tugs at the Kingpin's lips.

"Vanessa my dear...clear my schedule. I believe we have business uptown."

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In an alleyway downtown, Frank Castle also notes reports of the crazed killer's handiwork with detached professional interest while checking his ammunition stocks. If this bastard steps over the line, Castle will teach him the fucking meaning of punishment.

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....

..

"Who are these morons coming at me - Vought experiments? You one of them?" Homelander demands, wary but intrigued by Carol's power set. "I'll give that Shape bitch credit, this is one convincing act! The weird costumes, buildings...something's off, and where the hell is Maeve and Starlight?"

Carol shakes her head, realizing this could be an alternate reality visitor or imposter Skrull. Either way, aggressive diplomacy seems wisest.

"Look, whoever you are - stand down before this gets worse." Energy arcs warningly around her fists. "Doesn't need to go left if we talk first. That kind of collateral damage isn't how we operate here..."

Homelander considers incinerating this arrogant woman, but she DID swat him through a building just now. He opts to play along and probe for intel instead.

Fine, enlighten me 'Captain'." He air quotes mockingly, trying to mask his creeping uncertainty. "Some kind of twisted Vought experiment? New metas you cooked up?"

Homelander gestures at the colorful costumes and unfamiliar cityscape. "Clearly Stormfront's playing head games, she dropped me in a goddamn VR sim. She'll pull you all in too?"

Carol shakes her head, more convinced this bruiser's some anomaly. "Pal, I got no idea who Stormfront is. But threatening lives is where I draw the line."

She nods at the newly arrived heroes. "Stand down. We just contained two attacks this month. Don't wanna make this a third..."

Homelander eyes the towering green behemoth looming behind and the odd teenage wall-crawler. He can't shake the disturbing sense he's utterly lost in this quasi-familiar yet alien world. Swallowing pride, he opts for a more diplomatic tack to unravel this madness.

"Right...how about we talk then?" He straightens up, hands still raised. "Clearly some weird shit going on I need to be filled in on."

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....

...

..

.

Homelander half-listens with growing unease as the heroes brief him on the reality he's landed in - parallel worlds, superhuman proliferation, alien encounters, magic, and gods. This clearly isn't Vought's doing or any government plot.

He scowls, the massive scale of his displacement sinking in. "So you dumbasses keep letting villains run wild and beat you? Can't keep a damn city safe?"

Spiderman bristles at the insult. "Watch it, Mr. Murderpants. You turned officers into charcoal ten minutes ago!"

"I was provoked!" Homelander retorts. "You monkeys came swinging at me!"

Carol's eyes flare with building anger. "After you sent dozens to the ER and killed police! There are about 50 ways we could take you down if we wanted. So stand. Down."

"These prehistoric fucks opened fire on me WITHOUT hesitation! Fuck you for pretending that didn't happen!" He retorts in fury as his eyes glow a fearsome red. They all instinctively step back, everyone except the Hulk. Not wanting to escalate this further, Homelander takes a deep breath and stops.

The other heroes close behind her now have a reinvigorated confidence, and are ready to brawl. But Homelander came here to get back, not make more enemies. So...

He forces nonchalance, straightening his uniform. "Well then...you wanna be useful, blondie? Get me the hell back home so I can make heads roll for this crap."

The tension snaps. Spiderman webs Homelander in the face as Carol drives a photon blast into his chest, hurtling him down the block to crater violently.

"God complex asshole!" she yells in disgust. "You're going nowhere till you answer for the deaths today!" The heroes stride towards Homelander's impact site, ready to dig him out and slam the cuffs on.

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30 minutes ago...

Nick Fury glowered at the monitor, seeing the strangely attired assailant tossing his former SHIELD Avenger squad around like rag dolls. The second this maniac had burst through some anomalous energy portal downtown, alarms started going off in his specs. Several cameras wiped out, cars flattened, civilians hospitalized - what a goddamn mess. And Widow and Clint weren't exactly in the best shape after the last few tussles.

"Coulson, what other Assets do we have near Midtown?" he rapped out, while the uniformed maniac tore through the NYPD gunfire barrage on screen.

"Um...Spiderman reported in but Carol's squad was still inbound on the A train. ETA 2 minutes," Coulson reported nervously. "...It's not looking good for Hawkeye, boss."

Fury's cyborg eye kept carefully studying the ultra-violence unfolding downtown, as the shock trooper in red majestically freakin' torched a dozen remaining SWAT just for sport. He'd seen this level of bio-enhancement before under questionable management, all gussied up with nationalist patriotism for garnish. Of course, random muscle's first thought would be to laser kill those trying to contain the threat.

Fury had made that mistake once with Blonsky already. Wasn't gonna have Harlem 2.0 on his watch. Not to these kind of civilian killer psychos wielding WMD powers.

His mouth pressed into a grim line as the maniac stalked the broken Black Widow onscreen. Liming his targets wasn't SHIELD protocol - but Fury made the call.

"Fire on that fool, full force. Contain by any means...Protocol Maverick is now in effect,"

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Brushing concrete dust off his uniform, Homelander opts not to resist as Carol's reinforcements arrive - he's outpowered here. For now.

Spiderman bonds his hands with reinforced webs as SHIELD transports swarm the scene.

"You're coming with us, tough guy," the web-slinger quips. "Fury's got a nice sky cell for powered freakouts."

Grudgingly allowing himself to be shoved into an armored truck, Homelander fumes silently. He hates relying on anyone. But this bizarre world has him outmatched currently. Once he understands the players and power dynamics, he can regain the advantage.

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