Percolation (Gerosha Chronicles)

Percolation is a fanfic of Marvel: Avengers Alliance by Playdom, taking place in a "What If?" spin-off of the Gerosha Gaming Universe of The Gerosha Chronicles of Dozerfleet Comics; and is an unofficial crossover with the Marvel Gaming Universe. It centers around explaining how Extirpon became an agent of SHIELD going by the moniker "Agent Opendi" for four months, while taking advantage of two Marvel characters that have yet to appear in the game by portraying them as having been recruited to SCALLOP. Since the story has no chance of ever becoming canon to Cataclysmic Gerosha proper (Earth-G7.0,) its Earth number is Earth-G7.2.1.

Plot
While experimenting with incursions, Dr. Doom accidentally unlocks access to a stray universe modeled after Cataclysmic Gerosha. He finds this new multiverse thread very intriguing, and sends Mystique in to explore. She manages to break into SCALLOP headquarters, taking Darius Philippine and other officials off guard and stealing an AI backvisor from the Project: Earwig experiment room. It was one of two. She steals some intel while disguised as a SCALLOP agent, then brings it back with her to share with Doom. She uses the stolen backvisor to take control of Dr. Strange, turning him into her minion. Darius eventually notices that the backvisor has gone missing, and video reveals that a shapeshifting imposter has been impersonating several agents to steal both the backvisor and intel. Darius sends out an immediate alert for anyone who can track down a shapeshifting spy.

However, Doom's toying with Gerosha fabric leads to a cosmic storm like the one that created the Fantastic Four producing a Zeran hole that bridges Doom's world with Darius'. As the Pulse hits Earth-TRN259, Nick Fury scrambles to assemble as many Avengers as he can to work with him and SHIELD to get to the bottom of it. A secondary burst of energy during the Pulse, however, creates a "percolation" that causes two Marvel heroes and two Gerosha heroes to swap universes. Extirpon suddenly finds himself in the middle of Hell's Kitchen, witnessing Daredevil in a battle and being very confused about it. He is soon joined by an equally lost and confused Isitoq Sundue, who has adopted his grandfather's moniker of "Anarteq." Arriving near Boston in Earth-G7.2.1 being equally confused are Jubilee and Daniel Ketch. Various Marvel meta sources latch on to Extirpon and Anarteq, acting as a substitute Marlquaan for them. Since Anarteq is a Phexo, he begins behaving as if he had the X-Gene. Jubilee finds herself behaving as if a Phexo or Marlquaanite, with no other difference in her abilities. Likewise, the Marlquaan latches on to Daniel Ketch as a substitute meta, allowing him and Zadkiel to become Ghost Rider in the Gerosha timeline.

Anarteq and Extirpon save Daredevil from a Sentinel, who has teamed up with the Hand. However, Mystique and Dr. Strange arrive. Extirpon nearly kills Mystique by feeding off her hatred and causing her to cough up spiders. She retaliates by sending Strange to fight Extirpon. The two of them battle, and Extirpon's negative battery is damaged in the fight. However, he manages to find and identify the AI backvisor controlling Strange. He correctly identifies it as being of Hebbleskin Gang origin. Destroying it, Extirpon allows Strange to regain his senses. Strange chases off Mystique, who is terrified of what Strange will do to get revenge. A very confused Anarteq flees to the ocean and swims back to Canada. He heads towards what should be the Sundue family's native village. However, Anarteq is devastated to find that nobody at the village settlement recognizes him. Namor catches wind of SHIELD sighting an unidentified underwater breather in Canadian waters, and so Namor goes to investigate. It doesn't take him long to catch up to Anarteq. The two have a discussion about Anarteq's predicament, and he is then redirected to SHIELD custody. Nick Fury promises to house Anarteq until they can find a way to return him to his home dimension.

Strange arrives shortly thereafter with an injured Eric Opendi in tow. He manages to repair the battery mostly; but Eric finds that he has a hard time efficiently charging when in a foreign dimension. Therefore, the healing of his battery and charging of his power are very inefficient, and that effectively limits the time he can spend as Extirpon. Nick Fury instead offers Eric a temporary job as an agent of SHIELD, dubbing him "Agent Opendi." Eric readily resigns himself to the post, feeling he has nothing better to do with his time until he can be sent home. As Eric is recruited to a team of heroes and embarks on missions, Anarteq suddenly realizes that Marlquaan percolations within Gerosha reality rarely transfer someone through time without causing a double displacement. One of Dereck Johnson's office assistants was sent back to the 17th century when John Domeck arrived in the 21st. Therefore, since time in Marvel is different from time in Gerosha, it stands to logic that an unwilling percolation worked both ways. Nick immediately contacts Xavier, who confirms that Jubilee has gone missing. Johnny Blaze suddenly reports in that Danny Ketch is nowhere to be found, making Johnny temporarily the only Ghost Rider in town. Phil Coulson and his team verify that there are no trace signatures of Danny or Jubilee anywhere in known TRN259 domains. Nick confronts Anarteq about this, asking if there is a counterpart to himself of any kind in G7.2.1. Anarteq shrugs, saying he doesn't know who that individual would be by name.


 * 1) Ghost Rider saves Jubilee from Microwave Mouth, who manages to escape.  He tries to continue down the road, when he notices that something about his environment feels very off.
 * 2) Jubilee finds herself in Boston, where she is forced to use her powers on a mob of Crooked Rainbow militants.
 * 3) Jubilee sees Icy Finger agents raiding a warehouse, when they spot her and come after her.  The Gray Champion arrives to help her out.
 * 4) Jubilee goes to see Hea Pang.  Hea redirects her to Darius Philippine and SCALLOP.
 * 5) Darius reaches out to her, but is confused that she is neither a Phexo nor Meethexo.
 * 6) Darius sends out SCALLOP agents to search for Extirpon and Ghost Rider, upon Jubilee's suggestion.
 * 7) Ghost Rider saves Navyrope, who then arranges for them to meet with Darius.
 * 8) Darius decides to house the displaced Marvel heroes, while searching for a way to contact Nick Fury.
 * 9) Seth Lambrelli, who has recently discovered a new Marlquaanite ruby, gives it to Darius for testing.
 * 10) With the ruby's help, Darius is able to set up an inter-dimensional signal.
 * 11) Nick Fury receives the call from Darius Philippine, and they offer to send each other's respective heroes back home.
 * 12) The Icy Finger launches a full-scale assault on SCALLOP.   The Gray Champion is recruited along with several Marlquaanites to battle them off.  Jubilee and Ghost Rider agree to pitch in.

Characters
The following characters are essential to the fanfic:

Dozerfleet characters

 * Darius Philippine: The half-Phaelite son of Stan Flippo and Insila Murtillo. He is the current acting director of SCALLOP, and has been monitoring the Gray Champion closely for purposes of creating a league of heroes in the future that would be monitored by his organization.  He takes a tremendous amount of pity on the displaced Marvel characters, showing concern for helping them get home.  However, he tries not to sound condescending in his dealings with them.  In spite his job being very similar to that of Nick Fury, he does not have the same intimidating demeanor.


 * Hea Pang: A pregnant teenager who is training to be a SCALLOP agent. She is best friends with the Gray Champion, and serves as a liaison between him and SCALLOP.  She decided to officially enroll after her boyfriend, Kyle Medsor, who was training for the same job, died battling Eqquibus.


 * John Domeck / Gray Champion: A Marlquaanite from the 17th century with phantom mimicry abilities. He has vowed to protect the city of Boston from Icy Finger and other terrorist threats, citing Genesis 18:32 as his rationale.  His mere existence has irritated the liberal mayor of that town, who has declared Gray an outlaw simply for being symbolic of an earlier time period in Boston's history - one that the Crooked Rainbow organization, whilst terrorizing Christians in town, finds "offensive."  Gray is unsure what to make of a being like Ghost Rider, but generally prefers to get him back to Earth-TRN259 as soon as possible.  Darius is monitoring Gray's activities closely, considering a future league of heroes that Gray would be ideal to join.


 * Janet Phillips / Microwave Mouth: A cousin of Ashley Phillips, who gets caught up in Icy Finger-related activities. She was hoping to start a fight with the Gray Champion.  She was not expecting Jubilee or Ghost Rider to appear.  Her abilities are on par with those of Christina Wade in Pilltar 3.


 * Seth Lambrelli: The reclusive, sickly owner of a very successful company called Lambrelli Labs. Seth is a some time collector of suspected Marlquaanite rubies, making him a target of the Icy Finger.  He is also working on a new prototype of neighborhood watch drone.  He regrets having had past dealings with Marl-Q Industries, not understanding that Dereck Johnson would become Eqquibus after going insane.


 * Vince Finton / Navyrope: A rogue vigilante with a love/hate relationship for the US government. He keeps his under-the-table dealings with Darius a secret, lest the mission of SCALLOP be compromised.  However, the FPB and FBI both assume the worst about him, after a lengthy propaganda campaign by the Obama administration to paint Navyrope as a terrorist due to nothing more than his anti-abortion views.  Navyrope is based in Oklahoma City, and teams up briefly with Ghost Rider.  This story is set before he recruits Tiffany Sterlie as his sidekick.


 * Eric Stanley Opendi / "Agent Opendi" / Extirpon: A powerful Marlquaanite of the Emoticell sub-class, and future member of the Sodality of Gerosha. He possesses the power to feed on the pride and other vices of the heart of others, with his "negative battery" becoming charged by being around the negative emotions of others.  Charging his "battery" allows him to warp the very fabric of reality itself, usually to punish the offender that fed him.  While he initially goes a little crazy from his power, he dials it back when he decides he doesn't enjoy killing his targets after some of his initial anger wears off.  He learns to control his anger to defeat Nematode.  When Dr. Doom creates an incursion that results in Marvel meta combating the Marlquaan, a Zeran hole is formed.  Extirpon and Anarteq III percolate through the Zeran hole to arrive in the world of Avengers Alliance, very lost and confused.  Extirpon saves Dr. Strange from being controlled by an AI backvisor that Mystique stole from Darius earlier.  However, the battle led to Eric's negative battery being damaged.  While it is eventually repaired, time spent away from his home world weakens Eric's ability to properly charge his negative battery without a substitute meta for the Marlquaan.  Therefore, his powers as Extirpon prove to be in short supply.  To avoid using them up, he is recruited by Nick Fury to SHIELD.  He becomes "Agent Opendi," helping various Marvel heroes as they get to the root of Dr. Doom's scheme and understanding The Pulse better.


 * Isitoq Sundue / Anarteq III: The grandson of Akiak Sundue and Rebecca Volstika-Sundue. He is the third Sundue from his Inuit tribe with the Phexo ability to breathe underwater, and third to carry on the "Anarteq" legacy named after the legend of a boy who turned into a salmon.  After he is percolated into Earth-TRN259, he quickly finds himself overwhelmed.

Marvel characters

 * Nick Fury: Director of SHIELD. The Avengers Alliance game by Playdom appears to have given him an appearance similar to his Ultimate Marvel and Marvel Cinematic Universe appearances, where he is based on Samuel L. Jackson.


 * Daniel Ketch / Ghost Rider: After everyman Danny stumbles upon an ancient scroll that was left near his motorcycle and reads it, a spirit similar in nature to Zarathos finds him. Just as with Zarathos on Johnny Blaze, the new spirit takes control of Danny and turns him into a Ghost Rider.  While the Blaze Ghost Rider was busy with the Special Operation mission "All Hallows," the Ketch Ghost Rider found himself stranded in Earth-G7.2.1.  He helps Jubilee defeat some Crooked Rainbow and Icy Finger goons that were terrorizing Boston, before being discovered by the Gray Champion and Hea Pang.  He is taken to SCALLOP headquarters and told to await word of when he can be sent back to his home dimension.


 * Jubilation Lee / Jubilee: A mutant with powers of generating energy globules to attack opponents with. It is explained that her exclusion from Avengers Alliance is due to her being stranded in Earth-G7.2.1.  If she does appear in the game later on, it will be explained that Nick Fury found a way to reverse the percolation that caused her to switch places with Anarteq.  The Sim version of her takes cues from her Earth-616, Earth-10005, and Earth-92131 incarnations.


 * Raven Darkholme / Mystique: An evil mutant who can disguise herself to look like anyone. She has become twisted by years of facing constant betrayal from others.  Upon joining the Hellfire Club, she uses Dr. Doom's incursion mechanisms to invade Earth-G7.2.1.  She steals an AI backvisor from the vault of those stolen by Darius Philippine from Duke Arfaas and the Hebbleskin Gang.  She then uses it to take control of Dr. Strange.


 * Dr. Stephen Strange: A powerful sorcerer within his universe. After Mystique takes control of him with a stolen AI backvisor, he is restored to his senses via battling Extirpon.  This comes at a price: he damages Extirpon's negative battery.  This leaves Extirpon without a way to charge his Marlquaanite abilities, causing his powers to become severely limited.


 * Dr. Doom: One of the main antagonists of Avengers Alliance. The incursions that led to Extirpon and Anarteq's percolation into Earth-TRN259 were the result of him getting carried away while he was initially experimenting with how far incursion could go.  He never expected he'd encounter a stray Geroshaverse, let alone one spun off from Cataclysmic Gerosha.  He was mildly amused, however, by the fact that Eqquibus once lived in it.  He grows mildly disappointed when he cannot find anyone else that is more of a true counterpart to himself.


 * Namor the Sub-Mariner: A native Marvel underwater dweller. He finds the very lost and confused Anarteq, and helps direct him to SHIELD for safekeeping.  It is unknown if Namor will ever appear in Avengers Alliance as a playable character.

Team-ups with Extirpon
The following additional Marvel characters in Avengers Alliance have either been recruited to Agent Opendi's team directly, have responded to distress calls, or have teamed up with him for specific missions:

&#42; = Have so far only been involved in team-ups.

&dagger; = Responded to distress call only.

Initial inclusion of Extirpon
Around August 28th of 2013, the Dozerfleet founder joined the Facebook app for the game Marvel: Avengers Alliance. He was curious what the customization options were for in-game avatars, and was hoping to perhaps be able to add custom characters into the game. Alas, custom sprites of other characters have yet to be made a possibility by the game's developers. Wishing to be a good sport, the Dozerfleet founder proceeded with entering the game anyway. And entire story would be developed to explain how "Agent Eric Opendi" became a character, but without featuring him utilizing any particular Extirpon abilities. The sprite customization options given were utilized as best as possible to ensure that the end result looked as close as it could to Eric's face and physique.

Why Ciem as not included
There were some considerations to put Candi in the game. However, there were issues with doing that. First off was the fact that none of the adventure would be canon. Following real life as closely as possible on the geological and archeological record unless otherwise noted, the Gerosha multiverse has a very Christian-based cosmology, with the Marlquaan as an exception to the normal rules. The Marvel multiverse has a very pagan cosmology. Reconciling the two would prove strenuous at any level for anyone that understands either. Candi would not necessarily be able to handle the cosmological / spiritual / psychological trauma of being in the Marvel universe. On top of that, there is no point where having Candi find herself in a Marvel universe could occur without causing significant damage to the Cataclysmic Gerosha timeline.

Official crossover legal considerations
Second, there would be significant legal issues to iron out before a Marvel-endorsed and official crossover with Dozerfleet could occur. That being said, game developers for Avengers Alliance have been proposing talks with DC to negotiate the rights to a DC crossover that would allow players for a limited time to invite DC characters into the game. This would, for starters, allow Superman to become unlockable. Dozerfleet is willing, if Marvel is willing to negotiate further, to discuss making the crossover official. This would mean that Anarteq III could become a character in Avengers Alliance. Or, based on the plot of Percolation, Navyrope could be allowed into the Marvel universe. Ciem would be left out, unless developers didn't mind her code being similar to that of Nightcrawler and Spider-Man. Likewise, Emeraldon would be excluded; since he was modeled after Meteor Man, and would therefore also seem redundant in a Marvel game. However, Mukade and Mapacha would be acceptable entries. The Gray Champion would be possible, but barely. Villains that could invade the Marvel timeline without much trouble would include Cupric, Don the Psycho, Rockpapsci, Microwave Mouth, and Milp. The Sapphire King could feature as either a villain or hero, but would more likely be a hero in this incarnation - even if he is more of an anti-hero.

In the mean time, Extirpon as "Agent Opendi" is as close as it gets to an official crossover. He is accessible to players in the "Player vs. Player" mode of Avengers Alliance, as the agent in charge of the Dozerfleet founder's team of heroes.

Continuity in casting choices
Of key importance to consider with any crossover is that characters do not impair their original nor their foreign host universe's timelines in any significant way through their act of visitation. This limited Gerosha options to Extirpon, Navyrope, and the Gray Champion; in a time period set between Freedom's Apparition and Extirpon 2. This means that founding elites like Ciem, Earwig, and Botan the Plant-Man are out of the loop. It also means no Sniperbadger. On top of this, Gray and Mapacha would be forbidden from meeting each other, so as to avoid negating the plot of Chillingworth's Revenge.

It also means that Extirpon cannot know about his Positive Battery, and that Hea Pang does not yet possess Hester's locket. Out-of-costume, there is a lot of visual similarity and personality similarities between Chillingworth II and Loki. Therefore, Chillingworth would both seem redundant and would break continuity if he appeared. Bosom-Serpent was introduced as being on Phaelon for Sodality: Battle for Metheel, and would be hard to fit adequately in a Marvel game that could already have serpentine villains of its own to choose from. The reason Percolation chose Jubilee and Daniel Ketch as the Marvel characters that invade Earth-G7.2.1 is that as of September of 2013, those characters have yet to appear in Avengers Alliance. Therefore, none of the game's missions would be in any significant way jeopardized by their absence.

DeviantArt
On September 8th of 2013, a promotional image of Percolation was added to the DeviantArt collection "Video Game Pitches." It is the same as this page's image, but cropped differently to allow for Marvel and Dozerfleet logos to show. It was marked a favorite by MRF Arts within minutes of upload.