Voided Light

        Jacob was sitting alone in an armchair, listening to Beethoven while drinking fine wine.  He smiled and thought back to his youth.  He remembered that awful party that ended rather well.  He still thoroughly remembered the countless adventures through the void and the friends he made.  He could thoroughly remember the intense training in Tartarus.  The man chuckled a bit, looking at his glass.

“What are you chuckling about?” said a voice in the man’s head.

Jacob responded in recognition of his old friend’s voice.  “Ah Hyde.  Just realizing that all this thinking about the past makes me feel like an old man.”

“You do realize that we are pushing seventy, right.  That’s not even counting the time in stone or hell.”  Hyde replied with a smirk.

“Yeah, I do.  I also know that I still don’t feel the effects of my old age.  Besides,” Jacob pulled out the mirror. “I don’t look a day over fifty.”

“As true as that may be, you still might want to be careful.  It’s not like we can rely on the armor all the time.” Hyde replied.

Jacob sighed.  “Yeah, I know.  We can get stuck on just one solution to a problem.”  Jacob looked to a corner of the room, where three katanas, a cane, and a pocket watch lay.  “It’s not like that is our only weapon.”

“True, true.” admitted Hyde.  Both Jacob and Hyde looked at a small picture that showed an Ursa minor and an Armored man hugging each other.  “They grow up fast huh?”

“This is Bubbles we are talking about.”  He sipped his glass. “We both know that she can’t be our little girl forever.”

“Yeah, yeah.” replied Hyde.  Both Hyde and Jacob froze as they heard a distress call that felt, odd for some reason.

The message sounded like it was being given by a teenage boy. “Attention displaced, If you are hearing this, I want you to help.  My world is being destroyed.”

The old man stood up and help out his arms.  “Jarvis, I’m going for a little errand, I’ll need the mark 50.”

“Understood Sir.” replied a speaker before pieces of armor flew from multiple directions and assembled them onto his body.

The aforementioned items fell through a portal to a pocket dimension to be used later.  A larger portal opened up and Iron Man flew through.

        Auric, or at least one of his alternates, looked up at Alex in shock, “How?” He gaped as his friend, a man with the power to kill immortals, died by her hands.

        “I can take powers,” Alex said, her form covered in flame, as she walked towards him,  “And now, I can kill you.”

        “No. NO. Please! What about Measured?” Auric yelled, scrambling back away from her.

        “I don’t care about some pony. You didn’t care about my world. None of you. Not even the original. However,” she unsheathed a sword, “He’s gone. I can’t reach him. So,” she grinned, her eyes giving her a maniac look, “You’ll just have to do.”

        Auric pushed himself back, preparing to use his powers, only for a sword to plunge through his throat. “DIE,” Auric’s form went limp and tendrils of gold flowed to Alex. She stepped back and wiped the blade on the dead man’s form.

        “Pitiful,” she spat, “I thought you’d be something of a challenge.”

        A portal opened up as a figure in red popped up and bowed to the murderer.  “Greetings, my name is Jacob, and I recently got a call from someone that sounds like a younger, r63 version of you.  Something about their world blowing up or something like that.  My apologies if I am forgetting things.”  His faceplate opened up to reveal a fifty year old man with a small smile and a look of peace.  “But this world looks like it is intact.  By the way, who’s that?”  The old man pointed towards the body of the alternate Auric.

        “You’re a thousand years off, and the wrong world, Iron Man or Jacob. This,” she glared at the body, “is some idiot. Auric Fulcrum or Frank DeFontaine, something like that.” Alex kicked the body away from herself before kicking the other one onto it.

        Seeming to either to not notice or ignore the malice in her, Jacob looked at the sword.  “That is a lovely blade, too bad it has a chip in the handle.  Other than that, where did you get that?”

        “That doesn’t matter. As for the chip,” she lifted the sword up, and grinned, “it’s proof of this battle.”

        “Ah, while we’re on the topic of blades,”  Jacob snapped his fingers as a long katana that seemed to both shine, and darken at the same time appeared from his hand.  The blade was four feet long and it had a red handle and sheath. “here is one of mine.  Seeing as how I saw yours, I figured that you should see mine.”

        “That’s an odd moral,” Alex said, examining the blade from a distance. “It’s well made.”

        The old man chuckled, “Thanks, crafted it myself. I even infused mystic gems into the metal alloy to give it various effects.  If you give me yours, I could fit it with similar properties.  Though, I am afraid that I only have ice and wind crystals on me.”

        Alex shrugged, “Why not? Will it take long?”

        “Depends, do you want love and care put into it, or a quickie?” replied the man before pulling a forge out of nowhere.

        “Does love and care take much longer than quickie?” Alex asked, before grimacing, “Odd choice of words.”

        “Indeed, the love and care method takes a week max, while the quickie takes an hour.  Then again, when you can time travel, time is relative to the individual.” The old man then took out the crystals and the blade.  “It will be free of charge of course.”

        “Then go for it,” Alex said, before turning around to look for other people, “Are you time traveling for this?”

        “Yes and no.” Jacob then teleported Alex five yards away, then made an orange field around himself. “Time stop sphere.”  A small flash happened as the bubble reappeared with Jacob holding the newly polished and glistening blade.  “Here you go.” When he gave her back the blade, Jacob slid the remaining crystals into a small pouch and put that in a safe, then put that in a pocket dimension. You gotta protect your stuff after all.

        “Thanks,” she sheathed the blade, “So. Why are you here, collapsing world aside.”

        “Simple, I was having a chat with a buddy of mine when I got a distress call from a teenage male.  I followed the trail and it brought me here.  By the way, has anyone ever told you that you make great company?” explained Jacob with a simple smile.  “I might even help you out with the planet thing, I just need the dimensional coordinates and the time.”

        Alex scratched her head, “I know the time, but the coordinates may be an issue…” She pulled out a small sleek black phone, typing a few things before a voice rang out.

Yes?

        “Essence? What are my world’s dimensional coordinates?” Alex asked.

Oh. Well it’s Apple-Apple-Five-Seven-Pineapple-Cat-Para-Nine.

        “Okay… You get that?” she looked to Jacob.

        “Hi Essence, long time no see.” Jacob laughed at his own pun. Alex raised an eyebrow.

Oh hello Jacob.

“How’re you doing?  I see that you are in the new phone form, it looks slimming for you. How thick is that, an inch? A centimeter? I think that you might want to try something larger.  I heard that that’s good for relaxation.”

        Essence laughed, Good joke. However, I am currently in Central, so… I’ll have to go soon.

“Ah, it’s been fun catching up,” said Jacob as Essence hung up the phone.

        The previously mentioned voice came back. “Dammit Jacob, I wanted to talk to her.”

“Last time I checked Hyde, you and her did not get along.” said Jacob to seemingly no one.

“It’s the principle of the matter!” wined Hyde

        “I’ll talk to you when you stop acting like a baby.” Jacob said in return before facing Alex.

        “Split personality?” Alex asked, returning the phone to her pocket.

        “More like a soul fusion but yeah.” shrugged Jacob.  He then tripped on a rock and fell.  “Ow, my back.”  as he stood up he muttered to himself.  “You just had to stay at this age Jacob.  While you do look wiser you still have old man problems.”  He stood back up and pulled out a cane.

“Not something I expected from Iron Man, but okay,” Alex shrugged.

        “Give me a minute.”  he took out a stopwatch with a glowing orange gem on the top.  “Age back.”  He stood taller, his snow white hair turned brown, he got a mixed look of wisdom and cheer in his eyes, his longer beard turned back into his usual facial hair, and his longer and the wrinkles were gone, “Yeah, thirty will work.”

        “Oh. That’s nice,” she murmured, “Not sure why I haven’t been aging.”

        “You can thank Essence later.” said Jacob as he tapped his cane on the ground to open a portal to a place very familiar to Alex.

        “Huh. Never I thought I’d see that place again,” Alex poked her head through, “Fair warning, there are evil Displaced on the other side.”

        Jacob chuckled. “This is actually one month before they start showing up.  Figured that I would put you ahead of the game.”

        “Nice,” Alex smiled.

        “There are most likely a few here and there as spies, but I’ll stop the rest from coming.”  He then pulled out a small device that said, “Void Bubble, for all your pesky invaders.”  Jacob pushed a button, it fizzled for a bit, then it turned invisible. “I’ll play a game of fly swatter in the void, see you later.”  He took out all three of his swords and went through a portal.  “Come and get the first true fight that you had in years, you dickless cowards!”

        “It’s time to win, time for me to take back my home!” Alex said, before jumping into the portal, cracking her neck.

        “Wait!” Called Jacob while he was breaking the Ice King’s crown. “I need you to stay there and take care of the ground forces.  Also, I got a present for you.”  He then threw Omniscience into the portal.