Infinity Crisis: The Return of the Rani

[Movie-Brat]

This one shot I published elsewhere on July 5th, 2022.

Author's Note:

Hello and once again, I'm stepping into the world of Infinity Crisis with a new shot but this time this one shot will lead to a full story of itself. This is just the set up. Think of it as like a prequel comic.

I have this done and another Infinity Crisis one shot that's mostly done that leads into a series of stories, different from this one.

As before, I'll give out fun facts at the end, hope you enjoy this one!

Disclaimer: Characters belong to their respective owners.

A new base. New headquarters.

"Those blasted Street Sharks!" A metallic gauntlet with a hook attached pounded on the keyboard. It belonged to a yellow and black colored technological diving suit with a dome around a man's head with the only other distinguishing feature being an eye patch around his right eye.

"Every defeat, every humiliation!" The mad scientist known as Dr. Paradigm shouted in anger.

"They had even finally managed to turn the public against me!" He added.

Paradigm then typed furiously on the keyboard.

"But, perhaps I may still have a trump card up my sleeve." He said as on the screen, diagnostics that resemble blueprints to a bomb.

"Yes..." He grinned evilly.

"Whatcha got there?" Asked Shrimp Louie as he eyed on the computer screen eagerly.

Paradigm gasped, startled. He replied as he was slightly annoyed with her minion,

"I am working on my ultimate plan to rid of the accursed Street Sharks and bring the world to its knees with my Genetic Bomb!"

"Yes, I had made a similar device with the DNA bomb before but with the Genetic Bomb, rather than one single city, it will be the entire Earth. I will make the world obey me with this weapon of biological destruction, the world will soon consist of mutations of various varieties under my control!" He further explained.

Paradigm continued to stare at the computer screen with insane glee. The blueprints were at an almost completed stage.

"Yes..." Dr. Paradigm said with satisfaction. "This is going along perfectly. I just need all the DNA in the world to-"

Suddenly, Dr. Paradigm was interrupted by the sound of a ruckus outside his laboratory. He had been so invested in his genetic bomb, he didn't even bother to check up on security or the like.

All he and Shrimp Louie could hear were screaming and shouting, complete with even the sound of laser blasts, punching and even bones cracking. Shrimp Louie thought he had heard the faint sound of a chainsaw being used for a moment. Finally, the noise had ceased.

But not before the doors blew up wide open. Out of the smoke, came a collection of inhumanoid creatures with gray rock faces, red eyes and metallic bodies with a Z on their chest.

All of them emitting a weird bubbly sound as they looked around their surroundings. Much of this was to the confusion of Dr. Paradigm, who could not believe what he was seeing. Confusion turned to anger and annoyance as he saw them dismantling his lab.

"What are you doing?" Dr. Paradigm approached one of the creatures as one of them were taking syringes and test tubes. "Put that down!"

"What is the meaning of this?!" He screamed as his teeth sharpened and his voiced to a higher pitch, his face transforming into his mutated piranha self.

Suddenly, he was zapped by an incoming laser. The mad doctor fell down, completely immobilized with only his face moving at all.

"Whoa! What was-?!" Shrimp Louie had his question cut off due to another incoming blast that managed to blow a hole into his chest.

Shrimp Louie comically fell over onto his black with a comically high pitched exaggerated groan.

Two individuals also stepped into the laboratory. A young woman with short blue hair in a dark blue and even downright black sailor fuku outfit and big, muscular gray and purple man with hulking muscles and long hair that resembled sharp quills and red eyes, both people surveyed the area.

Finally, an older woman dressed in a red futuristic outfit walked into the laboratory, wielding a laser weapon.

"Proceed stealing all this imbecile's plans." She said to the blue haired girl known as Dark Mercury as she referred to Dr. Paradigm lying on the floor.

"Yes, mistress Rani." Dark Mercury saluted the Time Lord as she proceeded to complete her orders.

"Lash, plant the explosives." The Rani gave Lash a bag containing the explosives.

Lash nodded in response as he went off to do the deed as planned.

The Rani then proceeded to approach Dr. Paradigm, still lying on the floor; immobilized. The Time Lord loomed over him like an eclipse as she stared at him.

"Overly designed, too complicated." The Rani examined the suit of the mad scientist, sounding very unimpressed. "It's almost as if some low paid toy designer made this."

"Who are you?" Dr. Paradigm demanded. "How did you get past my-?"

"Your minions?" The Rani cut him off sharply, still sounding unimpressed. "Fairly easy to dispose of once you find the best subjects to assist you."

"Of course, using a reverse mutagen ray helps" She added as she held a small pistol weapon to show off to the mad scientist. "Really, let's just say the lobster will make fine dinner. Maybe even the calamari. Not so much the swordfish and eel though." She shrugged casually.

Dr. Paradigm stared at her in shock and horror at the implications of what happened to his mutated subjects.

"But of course, I should introduce myself." She then said. "I am The Rani. Exiled from Gallifrey and quite infamous for my ambitious experiments. However my motivations are simply basic whereas yours as far as I observed in my stay in this universe are to be blunt, moronic and insipid. Uninspired even!"

"What?! How dare you?!" Dr. Paradigm screamed in outrage.

"Oh shut it!" The Rani spat as she rolled her eyes. "As far as I'm concerned, your research will benefit me only. After far too long, I will strike back once again and conduct my latest experiments."

"Admittedly, these gray faced creatures you took notice of, they're on loan from this odd couple named Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd." She added. "In exchange, I'll create them a monster. Not that it'll do them any good however, given their own track record. Though their excuse I understand."

"Wait!" Dr. Paradigm protested. "Wait, allow me to make a proposition!"

The Rani raised her eyebrow in skepticism.

"Do tell." She responded sarcastically.

"Why steal from me when we can team up? Surely you have an enemy who's the bane of your existence?" Asked Dr. Paradigm.

"His name is the Doctor." The Rani answered duly.

"And I have the Street Sharks." He continued further. "You seem to be a woman of high intellect. We could join forces and destroy our enemies!"

The Rani looked at Dr. Paradigm completely unimpressed with his proposal.

"The last time I worked with an insufferable intellect, he threatened to ruin my experiments and I was almost murdered by a dinosaur by the end of it all." The Rani said bitterly. "I narrowly escaped that."

She then added, "So forgive me I don't wish to endure that yet again."

"All data accounted for, mistress." Dark Mercury reported to The Rani. "We just need to take the rest of the necessary equipment."

"Excellent." The Rani said, almost satisfied before pointing to the main computer. "Did you take these plans?"

"Not yet." Dark Mercury replied. "You want it though?"

"As a matter of fact, yes." The Rani said, intrigued by what she was seeing. "This Genetic Bomb actually has promise. At least with a few alterations of my own. Take it all!"

Dark Mercury nodded, "Yes, mistress!"

"What?!" Screamed Dr. Paradigm. "You can't do this! That bomb is my creation! You cannot have it!"

"And what are you going to do about it?" The Rani mockingly asked the mad scientist. "Scream and whine like a child? Or did you forget your entire body has been compromised?"

She placed her foot onto his chest, as a gesture of domination.

"All I see is a failure of a man who ended up trapped in this ridiculous suit of his own undoing." The Rani smirked in smug superiority. "How you managed to get much people on your side for the time being is a miracle. Or you really counted on people being stupid."

The Rani removed her foot from his chest and began to pace circles around the mad scientist.

"My last encounter with the Doctor ended in failure. But upon my escape, I had discovered the Multiverse." The Rani said.

"The Multiverse?" Dr. Paradigm asked with a curious tone in his voice.

"Yes, the Multiverse." She repeated as she rolled her eyes before continuing.

"In any case, I had discovered multiple universes with multiple inhabitants with unlimited possibilities for my experimentations! But unlike you, my experiments have purpose. As such, I intend to create an army that will serve me one way or another and conquer the Multiverse. The Multiverse is my playground to dwell on, I have collected DNA of various subjects in secret from every universe. The Multiverse is far too complex for you to understand and frankly, you wasted your time investing in petty fights with these Street Sharks, you failing at every moment when you could have researched the boundless, unlimited possibilities of the Multiverse!"

"And for the record, the slang coined by your enemies, gene slamming, is ridiculous 90s garbage." She added further with a sneer.

Dr. Paradigm listened to her words helplessly and in distraught, either due to his ego bruised as he had been outclassed by someone superior or just the sheer fact his years of research and experiments were being stolen that easily.

"The transfer is done, mistress!" Dark Mercury said as she held a USB drive containing the plans for the Genetic Bomb.

"Thank you, my dear." The Rani said as Dark Mercury gave her the drive.

She surveyed the area again as she noticed the Putties finally taking the last of the lab equipment.

"Looks like that's everything." The Rani said to herself as Lash came into eye contact.

"Detonate the explosives set to one minute." She ordered Lash.

"With pleasure." He replied with a small grin as he pressed a simple button on a remote control.

"I wouldn't worry about the Street Sharks for the record." The Rani then said to Dr. Paradigm as Dark Mercury and the remaining Putties left. "I sent them on a wild goose chase with a simulated video threat thanks to Dark Mercury and even destroyed that ridiculous Clammando and his superior given they were stupid enough to tell me much about the Street Sharks. The former was kind enough to lend me his DNA however. Loyal to his master but also very stupid."

"But-but..." Dr. Paradigm stammered.

"No one is going to save you and that being the case..." The Rani then snapped her fingers.

To which in response, Lash loomed over Dr. Paradigm as he stared helplessly at the large Inhuman.

Lash grinned as he flexed his fingers and then cracked his knuckles.

"Wait, please!" Dr. Paradigm immediately began to beg, borderline screaming. "We can discuss this!"

As Dark Mercury and the Putties left the laboratory and home base as a result, and into outside with The Rani's TARDIS, now a wardrobe, parked next to it, they were startled by the sound of Dr. Paradigm screaming at the top of his lungs before the sound being silenced completely.

Soon, they saw The Rani and Lash depart the home base with Dark Mercury noticing a splash of blood on Lash's hand. She felt unnerved for a moment.

"I don't believe it!" The Rani heard an obnoxious voice.

She turned to see a yellow and black colored helicopter shining a light on her.

"This is Guy-In-The-Sky coming to you from what looks like full on murder of Dr. Paradigm given the big guy's fist! Is this the further destructive work of the menacing Street Sharks-?"

BOOM!

He did not have time to finish his broadcast over the radio as The Rani (after rolling her eyes in annoyance), fired the laser gun at the shock jock's helicopter, creating an explosion. Thus, giving him an untimely death as the destroyed helicopter crashed a few feet away from them and exploding again upon impact.

"I hate insipid grifters." The Rani sighed in annoyance as she glared at the destroyed helicopter.

"I hated his voice already anyway." Lash said in agreement.

"Let us depart." The Rani then said to her subordinates. "We got what we came for!"

Everyone went inside The Rani's TARDIS and the time ship soon dematerialized just as Dr. Paradigm's home base exploded, eliminating all traces of Dr. Paradigm and his research once and for all.

As the Putties scrambled around with the equipment in the Rani's TARDIS console room with Lash and Dark Mercury standing around next to the walls, The Rani herself took control of the control panel, sending them to their next destination with a large human sized case on a cart beside them.

"First, we'll get more subordinates to assist me and the both of you." The Rain told Lash and Dark Mercury. "And then, return to Earth 030122 to continue our operations."

"Where we found patient zero?" Asked Dark Mercury out of curiosity.

"Yes." The Rani nodded. "This particular Earth is of my huge interest."

"And speaking of," She added before shouting to the Putties. "Would you lot please put Patient Zero with the rest of the DNA samples in my laboratory I told you to do earlier?!"

The Putties complied as The Rani pointed to the case beside her and pushed away Patient Zero to the laboratory. The Time Lord gave an annoyed sigh as she stared at the Putties.

She then eyed on a collection of five folders she placed upon the console.

"Especially as I've chosen my first batch of subjects." The Rani finished as she read the files.

Each file containing the names and photos, an entire record history of Meilin Lee, Miriam Mendelsohn, Priya Mangal, Abby Park and Tyler Nguyen-Baker.

"I've already obtained the red panda DNA of Meilin Lee from the Skydome incident without any of them knowing." The Rani explained. "Amazing how much fur one can leave behind. Add in the DNA of patient zero and my experimental army can commence."

The Rani closed the folders and said to her subordinates, "Let's get to work!"

As I explained, this is a prelude to the main story. Before I work on the more ambitious ideas for Infinity Crisis spin offs and others, I thought this would be fun to work on especially what's to come in the story itself and after it given I have more surprises in store.

But now some fun facts:

- The idea was pretty random I admit but the more I thought about it, I wanted to write especially given the main story connected to this one shot, I wanted to try it out so much and given Infinity Crisis allows for more creative worlds, I decided to take advantage and go wild.

- Tackling Street Sharks especially Dr. Paradigm was always an idea from the start. Not out of my dislike even though I'm not a fan of the cartoon but The Rani stealing from him was something I thought would be neat is all.

- Regarding the designated Earth for Street Sharks, I'll call this one Earth-090794.

- Yes, Shrimp Louie is indeed a real character. Think Scrappy Doo as a 90s villain henchman. Hence why I killed him off.

- The chainsaw thing is a reference to a moment in Star Wars: Clone Wars, the 2D series,when General Grievous off screen kills off Clone Troopers and royal guards, you can hear for a brief second chainsaws being used which IIRC from the DVD commentary years ago, I think it was a joke sound editors or designers tossed in. So, I wanted to pay tribute to that.

- The idea of Putties being there, The Rani isn't above using random creatures as servants anyway so, why not?

- Dark Mercury is a nod to version who was turned evil in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon,the live action version. It's not the exact same character, she's from a universe where the Sailor Guardians are villains. Earth-112404 to be precise.

- Lash is from Earth-030165, not the same Lash from the comics or Agents of Shield.

- I debated with myself if I should use The Rani or Missy, the female incarnation of TheMaster, ultimately I decided on The Rani and really if nobody, not even on the Doctor Who show is going to use her again then, screw it, I'll write her myself.

- Yes, I do admit to using The Rani in this one shot making pot shots against toyetic shows and Street Sharks in particular.

- I referenced the events of The Mark of the Rani. Though I haven't thought of an explanation for how she escaped her predicament from Time and the Rani admittedly.

- The Genetic Bomb I didn't realize and had forgotten something like that happened in anearly episode of the series. So I hastily wrote in that whereas the DNA bomb Dr. Paradigm called it there where the explosion would be contained in one city, the Genetic Bomb would effect the entire world.

- The Genetic Bomb itself, a deliberate nod to the Genesis Bomb from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

- The Rani's comment about Dr. Paradigm if he was truly good at manipulating the public or counted on people being stupid was a comment I directly lifted from a Cartoon Clipshow video on Street Sharks.

- The entire mood I was kind of going for is the scene in Robocop where Dick Jones orders Bob Morton murdered even to the point of Dick Jones himself telling him off.

- The Rani doing a finger snap after saying "And that being the case" a deliberately taken from a scene with Nom Nom in the Viral Video episode of We Bare Bears.

- Originally I did think about The Rani casually mention she killed the Street Sharks but I felt that was much mean spirited, too try hard, edgelord stuff that I ultimately decided to left them live. But the death of Dr. Paradigm and his minions along with Clammando, I believe the mayor who has Clammando working for him and Guy-In-The-Sky I kept in service of this story. Plus, I thought the lobster comment was a nice bit of dark humor.

- Speaking of Guy-In-The-Sky, he's a minor character from the first couple of episodes of Street Sharks. He was a last minute addition I decided to have him killed off to add an extra bit of body count.

- The reverse mutagen ray is a reference to the weapon Shredder created in the 87 Ninja Turtles episode Shredded & Splintered. Despite being destroyed, you can assume The Rani stole the blueprints during her many Multiverse trips.

- Patient Zero, it's a surprise. You might never guess.

- Earth-030122 is named after the film premiere date for Turning Red before its widespread Disney Plus premiere date.

- Yes, the main story after this will have Meilin Lee and her friends as the leads in a multicrossover. Now, admittedly Meilin's friends turning red pandas isn't a new fanfic idea but my idea is very different enough that I'm not worried if someone had a similar idea.

That's about it, so, I hope you enjoyed this one shot and looking forward to the main story which I'm debating calling it Evolution of the Rani or The Wrath of the Rani.