Back to GatefoldIssue #1 (Vol 2) by Ed Ainsworth
Jan 2016 |
"Pull Yourself Together - Part One"
Bill Foster, bag over his shoulder and a loose, brown jacket tinted with a few rain drops, stood at the entrance to the Avengers Mansion. The iron gates that swung open before him, with a stylized “A” in the center, sent a wave of anxiety through his body, his stomach dropping out of him. He looked around the grounds and took a deep breath. Despite years of experience, as an independent hero, as a scientist, he still felt a tinge of anxiety build in his chest when he walked towards the huge, wooden doors.
He walked through them into the Foyer, normally filled with heroes, talking, arguing, eating, drinking and occasionally fighting. The pictures hanging on the wall represented the incarnations of the teams. He stopped and stared at the painted image of the first team. Before Captain America.
“Hank,” he said. He smiled gently and let his mind slip over memories, silently recalling their friendship, “Miss ya, Buddy.”
“Bill!” Tony slapped the fellow scientist on the shoulder, “What are you doing here?”
Bill cast a glance down to Tony, who looked up at the scientist. Bill had unconsciously increased his height by a few feet. His hair touched the ceiling. Tony, dressed in an immaculate suit, complete with sunglasses, flashed his best business grin at Bill.
“Tony,” he said, “Sorry. I always get a little bit…”
“Anxious?” Janet said, rounding the corner with a glass of water and a slice of watermelon.
“Bloodstone is attempting to cook, so I had to leave. She was instructing White Tiger on the finer details of gutting some kind of demonic shark…”
“Dire-Ray! Bloody Nora, woman, Rays and Shark are fundamentally different animals despite both being elasmobranches! Honestly…” Bloodstone yelled from the kitchen.
Janet covered her mouth conspiratorially.
“White Tiger is taking notes…”
Bill cast a weary glance towards Janet. She took a delicate bite from her watermelon and smiled.
“I see nothing has changed, then,” Bill said. Janet embraced him, holding the water melon out of the way. Tony smirked, and adjusted his sunglasses.
“I’m off to drive my car exceptionally fast, Bill. Would you like to join me?”
Bill shook his head, and looked back to Janet.
“I’m here for Science, and, “he paused, “For Janet.”
He hoped that didn’t sound as romantically optimistic as it did. In all their years together, as friends and colleagues, Bill had never found Janet attractive in that way. She was always a close friend, a sister almost.
“Ah, of course,” Tony walked back across the room towards the door, “Of course you understand that a team with two scientists is, ultimately, rendering one of them redundant.”
“Enjoy your retirement, Tony,” Janet said. Tony winced and let his shoulders hang loose.
“Congratulations, Janet, you wound me so. Here I thought that you’d be available for romance and fun. Play nice, kiddies.”
“Bill,” Janet said. She grasped his arms tightly. “It’s good to see you.”
He smiled, and took hold of Janet’s elbows.
“It’s good to see you as well,” he said, a big smile on his face, “I’ve missed you, and the evenings we used to spend with…”
Janet nodded quickly, trying to dispel the images.
“At any rate…” she continued, “We have…something of a problem? I’m not sure, but I thought I’d call in the expert on Pym particles and the microverse.”
Bill waved a hand through the air.
“I wouldn’t say expert, Janet, but I’ve dabbled. Tell me…what’s wrong?”
“Well…have you not noticed anything?”
Bill nodded. He cast a glance around the room.
“You appear to be putting less alcohol in your water these days,” Bill said. Janet smirked and punched him in the arm, “There’s been some…strange little…twists and turns in the Microverse? Yes. Pym particles aren’t reacting the way they should be, I also understand that.”
“I’ve not seen energy readings like this before,” Janet said. Bill swallowed.
“They are peculiar, but they’re also very familiar.”
“They are?” Janet asked. Bill gestured for her to follow, leaving the sounds from the kitchen to harrow the soul of any human being with an ounce of sense. An English accent screamed creative obscenities. Bill quirked an eyebrow.
“She’s a monster hunter and she’s creative.”
“She’s British,” Bill said, “I’ve never heard the term cock-womble before. What even is a womble?”
Janet smirked, the pair heading towards the lab. Bill swerved to the side and locked Janet’s eyes.
“Jan,” he began. He licked his lips, as though he were trying to phrase it correctly, “This energy. It is twisting up mass transfers, and it is creating little tears in the Micro and Macro verses. What’s more, this is energy we’ve seen in the past. Energy connected to the Microverse.”
“Is it the Kosmos?” Janet asked.
“No, Jan,” Bill said, “Its Nega-Energy. It’s Captain Mar-vell.”
# # # # #
Citrusville Swamps, Earth
Man-Thing shambled as it always shambled, one stumbling, limp-ankled step to another. Having moved silently through waist high water and taken root for three weeks, an energy spike in the world of the Nexus alerted it to its primary mission.
Man-Thing is the protector of the Nexus of Realities, the intersection between worlds. More importantly, Man-Thing is the only entity in the universe who could not use this Nexus for his own ends. A creature possessed of emotion, not intelligence.
Ordinarily, Man-Thing, reactive beyond words would engage in nothing beyond standing, looking intimidating and setting scared people on fire, but today, today the Vugurnos Koth shambled with a singular thing on its mind.
The Nexus, inert for months, yawned and shuddered.
Between the Water and Man-Thing’s outstretched hands, the air became pregnant with purpose.
# # # # #
Avengers Mansion
Janet Van Dyne sat quietly in a comfortable chair in the Avengers living room. The rest of the team, Tony Stark included, sat around her. She cupped a coffee and sniffed it softly. She added milk and dropped in four sugar cubes.
“Is that why they named you the wasp, Janet?” Bloodstone asked.
“Pardon?” Jan replied.
“Your namesake. Is it because you enjoy obscene amounts of sugar and people want you to get your little arse away from them?” Bloodstone, drinking a black tea gently, turned away from Janet and stared at Bill, who was stood up amongst them.
“Tall man, tell me. What is your hero name? Very Big Guy, following the heroic naming conventions of the Stark over here, or some sort of horrible play on your abilities, like, Empire State, like Wasp and Hawk-vision.” Bloodstone asked.
“It’s Hawkeye, damn it,” Clint said. Janet nodded to placate him.
“It’s Goliath,” Bill said, “You’re fortunate, Bloodstone, as I am testing out a new costume as part of this exploration. It’s sarcastic ablative armor, so you’ll forgive me if I don’t react.”
Bloodstone nodded in approval and sat back.
“Just don’t turn it on yourself, big-man,” Bloodstone said. Bill nodded, a small smile on his lips.
“Avengers,” he began, “New and Old.”
He looked across the room, Rocket Racer sat, board laid out across his lap. Bloodstone, leaning back in a sofa all to herself, tea sat in the center of her palm, and White Tiger, stood by a doorway, holding a mug of coffee close to her chest.
Tony sat with his hands in his lap, while Hawkeye paced behind the chair in which Janet sat.
“Janet called me here because of some…irregularities with the Microverse. As I am sure you’re aware, since Hank has been…gone…Janet and I are the…and I am hesitant to say, experts, in the Micro and Macroverses.”
“Question,” Rocket Racer said, “Microverse, I know. Anyone who’s read anything by you or Pym knows what it is, but Macroverse?”
“So,” Bill began, “Pym particles allow a user to shrink or grow according to the limits of natural scaling. 60 foot is the size we can grow to, and the size of an ant is the size we can shrink to according to the natural laws of our universe. However, if say, I need to get bigger, or Jan smaller, then we can access to Microverse to allow us to do things like...breathe and not die from massive internal collapses.”
“Cool,” Racer said, looking back down in his lap, “Not collapsing inside yourself is cool.”
“So, the Macroverse is the inverse of that, Bill?” White Tiger said from the doorway, “A place to store mass, perhaps?”
Bill inclined his head towards her.
“That’s right, if the Microverse is contained within the shell of a single atom, then the Macroverse is the opposite. A single atom is the size of our universe. It’s where the conceptual entities hang out, mostly. Galactus has accessed it, and Master Chaos and Lord Order. Those sort of huge cosmic entities that define our interactions with the universe.”
“Cool,” Racer said again. He lowered his eyebrows slowly and tried to digest what he’d just been told.
“It is a bit,” Bill conceded, “But the point is…something strange is happening to the Microverse and it appears to be happening because of massive Nega-Energy discharges. Clint, Jan and Tony know that can only come from one person.”
“Mar-vell,” Tony said, “So, he’s alive?”
“Well, there’s a possibility it is his Son, Genis, but I’ve called in a couple of favours,” Bill said, “And Genis is on Titan, spending some time with his Mother’s grave and Starfox.”
“That’s going to be education,” Clint said. He winked at Janet, who looked away. Tony grinned.
“I believe, well, Monica, is going to give us a better understanding when she and Suzie get back from Kree Space, but…I don’t think we have enough time to wait for them. I think we need to journey into the Microverse and get…”
“Excuse me,” White Tiger said. Bill stopped and looked over at her. She pulled her mask down, to reveal her inquisitive eyes, “Why is this a problem? Surely, you can stop using the Microverse and Macroverse for your abilities, until…Monica, was it? Until Monica comes back.”
Bill nodded, gesturing an open hand to the young girl.
“I haven’t used my abilities in quite some time anyway, but, Janet was the one who noticed the issues, and frankly, these irregularities will bleed into our world in one way or another whether Janet and I grow or shrink. We need to try and do something about this now. Which is why I am suggesting we go on an expedition into the Microverse.”
“Wonderful,” Bloodstone said, “Where do we vote?”
“This isn’t up for voting,” Janet said, getting to her feet. Rocket Racer followed her lead. “Suit up, and get ready. We’re leaving in an hour.”
# # # # #
Helicarrier Prison Command 5
“You really are a pathetic person, aren’t you, Mark?”
Brother Nature leant casually against the back of his chair, sniffing the air lightly. His hands cuffed behind his back and his face slightly bruised from the last interview with Kate Waynesboro.
“Probably,” he said, “Mind you, you’re hardly Princess Charming, are you?”
Kate flashed a twisted smile and sat down heavily, she sagged for a moment, tired.
“I have about fourteen international, inter-stellar and natural laws that you’ve violated in my hands, Mark Diering. You realise that you’re going to go to prison for this, don’t you? We can’t let this and your irresponsible, disgusting behaviour slide.”
“Even though you saved the Earth”, is the unspoken implication from the end of that sentence, Katie,” Mark said, grinning through a fat lip, “Of course, you’re just sore that SHIELD Environmental Division couldn’t hug the shit out of the Celestials instead of actually getting up off your…”
Marks words were cut short from a blow to the face with a night-stick. Mark grinned and spat some blood on the table. He looked at it intently.
“Yes,” Kate said, sitting down heavily, frustration written over her features, “You realise you’re going down for, what was it?” Kate looked down at her folder, “Nearly fifty different counts of rape.”
“Well,” Mark said, leaning forwards, letting some of the bloody drool drip onto the table, “Fifty counts of rape seems excessive.”
“I assume that means you don’t disagree with the charge on principle though?”
“Of course I do, but you’re SHIELD, you’ll make something stick. I never raped anyone.”
“Not physically,” Kate said, “But mentally? Chemically? You emit pheromones, Mark. You control people with your actions, and your body. Why do you think people follow, you, of all people?”
“Style and Charisma?” he said. Kate shook her head.
“No, you made them. You influence and controlled peoples actions, because you could. You did it to me.”
Mark leaned back and sighed loudly.
“Here we go, the old ‘I wasn’t in control of my actions’ chestnut. The complete inability to accept responsibility for your actions. I did not rape you, Kate. I did not control you. You wanted to sleep with me, as much as I did with you. Two people, lonely, physically intimate for a night…I control nature, but I don’t have pheromone abilities. We both know that.”
“It was three months, Mark,” Kate interjected, “I’m not the only one saying it.”
“And suddenly, when I move on to someone else, you’re all hurt because you didn’t want to do the things I wanted to do.”
“You’re a selfish, selfish man, Mark,”
“Yes,” He replied, looking down at the table, a tiny reflection of himself in saliva and blood, “I’m more than aware of that.”
# # # # #
Avengers Mansion
“Dr. Foster?”
Bill turned around from his duffle bag, pulling his costume from it. Despite everything, he still didn’t have the courage to use Hank’s helmet. Some alterations had been made to his own costume over the years, still white and blue, but with the Ant-Man insignia, a black circle in its centre, as well as a full head mask.
“Yes?” Bill said. He turned around to find Rocket Racer stood before him.
“Hi, sorry to disturb you,” he said, “But, would you mind?”
He thrust forward a sharpie and a paper.
“Would you mind signing this?”
Bill smiled and nodded. He examined the paper. It was an old scientific journal entry he and Hank had written in the early days of their friendship. Examining the potential for mental patterns to be stored on microscopic positronic arrays.
“You read this?”
“Well, yeah,” Racer said, “can you make it out to Robert?”
Bill nodded and signed the paper. He held onto it and sat down on the makeshift bed he’d been offered by Jan.
“What did you think?”
“Well, it was a bit misguided about the actual structure of the neuro-arrays, but fundamentally, it was pretty sound. I used it as a basis for the helmet on my board, so I can control it mentally as well as you know…with physical movements.”
Bill crossed his arms.
“So you’re a bit of an engineer then. Built that hover-board yourself?”
Robert waved a hand at Bill, dismissing the statement.
“Welcome to the future, Dr. Foster.”
Bill got to his feet.
“Thanks, Robert. Call me Bill, anyway. Look…we need to get…”
“Suited up, yeah. I know. Bloodstone and White Tiger are downstairs, and they’re…waiting with Ms. Van Dyne and Hawkeye. I don’t even know where Tony Stark goes. Quite frankly, those women terrify me.”
Bill sighed, and pulled the cowl of his costume over his head, leaving only his eyes and chin showing.
“Welcome to the future, Robert.”
# # # # #
New York City
The end of the cigarette burned brightly in the shadow.
Warren Curzon sucked on it steadily. His eyes narrowed, smoke pouring out of his nose. He didn’t even notice he wasn’t inhaling anymore.
He always got the short end of the stick.
First it was moving to America. Then it was dealing with a scientist who had a God complex. Didn’t they know that the British already thought that the American’s were bloody mad?
The cigarette, like the five preceding it, began to burn down to the filter. He flicked it into the drain and sipped some of the beer from the bottle he secreted in his coat. A brief flash of light on the roof gained his attention, and a man, dressed in a white suit, with a white mask pulled over his head stood on the edge.
Warren, pulling his camera phone from his pocket, began to take a number of pictures. He paused, noticing another figure stood next to the suited man. A figure dressed mostly in a black costume, with a blonde beard and long, blonde hair, tied in a pony-tail. It was clearly male. Next to him, another figure stood. A figure that resembled Iron Man, although a much chunkier and more bulky looking version of the tin-rocket man.
“Shite,” Warren said, looking up as the three figures looked down. He looked away and tried to keep his attention on the ground before him. He heard the engines fire from the roof, on what he assumed was the Iron Man counterpart.
“Oh, double shitty shite.”
Warren broke into a sprint and hurtled down an alleyway, with the Iron Man barrelling down the street towards him, quickly followed by the falling forms of the man in black and the man in white. Warren hoped the alley was narrow enough to prevent the Iron Man from attacking.
He pulled his gun from his coat pocket and risked a glance over his shoulder. The only good thing about America compared to Britain. Actual weaponry. The man in white was fast and Warren was full of years of nicotine and alcohol abuse. He stumbled over some wet carboard and went down.
“Godamned shitty America! Recycle, you environmentally moribund ball-heads.”
Warren, pulling back the hammer on the gun, fired off two shots. One ricocheted from the Iron Man’s helmet, and the other ricocheted off the Man in White’s crescent moon weapon.
“Detective Curzon,” the blonde man said, suddenly behind Warren, “Nice to see you again.”
# # # # #
Avengers Mansion
“Ms. Van Dyne,” White Tiger stood in the doorway, while Wasp made preparations with the Pym particles. Large canisters were in a circle around a metal dais. She flipped a few switches and looked over her shoulder, shooting the young woman a smile.
“Please, call me Janet,” Wasp said, adjusting a canister, “What can I do for you?”
“I’m concerned that...whatever these powers are, abilities, I guess, won’t be of use in the Microverse,” White Tiger said, “I’m not sure that I will be much use. I’m much better suited to the streets.”
Janet scoffed.
“Are you an Avenger?”
Angela nodded.
“Are you also part of a team with three experienced Avengers on it, including two founders and one idiot. Hawkeye, I mean.”
Tiger nodded again.
“You’ll be fine. Often, it is the heroes like you and me that make a difference, rather than the Thor’s and Captain America’s. We’re under-estimated. We’re lower powered, but you have an incredible mind, Angela. You have an incredible deductive ability. Bloodstone has the ability to irritate things to death, and Robert has a mind that Tony should be wary of, if not incredibly jealous.”
Tiger sighed and looked to the floor.
“I am street level, Janet. I fight people with martial arts and vaguely magical jade amulets. I don’t do dimensional travel and fighting mysterious energies. That…I’m just scared.”
Janet took Angela by the shoulders.
“We all are. You’re only not scared if you’re dead, or if you’re stupid. Well, everyone but Bloodstone is not scared because of her inability to process human emotions.”
Janet released Angela and thumbed over her shoulder.
“The others will be here in a minute, are you ready to go?”
The young woman nodded.
“As ready as I will be,” she said. Over her shoulder Bill and Robert approached. Bill laid a small bag by the side of the dais, and checked his belt.
“Everything ready, Janet?” he asked.
“I suppose so. Would you like to give it a once over?”
Bill smiled and shook his head.
“You’ve been doing this longer than I have, I don’t need to give it a once over.”
Angela coughed into her hand.
“I’d feel better if you did,” she said, quietly, “No offense, Ms. Van Dyne.”
Bill made a face and walked over to the equipment, giving it a quick look. Robert checked the underside of his board and avoided looking up as Bloodstone, Hawkeye and Iron Man entered the room.
“Well, as usual, you lot are taking far longer than is necessary with all this science business,” Bloodstone said, checking to make sure her shotgun is loaded, “You, thunder bollocks, can we get very small and shoot something now?”
Bill cocked an eyebrow at the inventive address and nodded in return.
“Not sure if I agree with your renaming me, Elsa, but, I think we’re ready to get going. Are you al prepared, it’s a little disorientating. I’d suggest we all take a moment and…”
“Bunch of tossers,” Bloodstone said, punching the red button in the center of the dais. Bill shot forwards, trying to stop her, but the gas flooded the room, obscuring the team’s vision.
“Being an Avenger doesn’t mean being an idiot, Bloodstone!” Hawkeye yelled. He wheeled about, his vision shifting subtly at first, before the room began to race away from him, or rather, he from it.
“Yeah, well, you’ve got that area cornered haven’t you, Bird-Face! Face the challenge, kill the challenge, become the challenge! I am Bloodstone, not, wait-around-until-we’re-all-properly-prepared-and-have-we-all-been-to-the-toilet-before-leaving-stone!”
“I think we can all agree you’re the challenge, Bloodstone,” Janet said. The feeling was more than familiar to her, but she kept her eyes firmly on the newbies. Bloodstone appeared to be unaffected, but Angela appeared to be on the cusp of a panic attack. Robert, on the other hand, was having the time of his life. The group’s bodies hurtled through the first sub-atomic barrier, their trans-dimensional speed growing exponentially.
“Wait,” Jan said. She felt a light tag at her ankle at first, and then a stronger pull around her midsection. The group was beginning to disperse.
“Bill!” she called.
“Janet!” Bill called after her.
He threw out his arm, trying to grab her. Instead their fingers slipped through each other.
“Wait!” Tony fired the thrusters on his boots, sending him hurtling out of control and spiraling past Janet.
“NO! No, Physics is wrong here! Stop!” Bill yelled.
“Yeah, this is working out really well, Bloodstone!” Hawkeye yelled.
“Shove it up your jaxi, arrow-brain.”
Janet watched helplessly as the Avengers pierced the Microversal membrane one-by-one, hurtling towards whatever awaited them. Jan closed her eyes, knowing she’d have her work cut out for her trying to gather them up on the other side. Her mind flicked to Angela, as she noticed the Microversal barrier approach.
She let out a breath. Jan had pierced the membrane between the Microverse and the normal universe many times she knew what to expect. Folding her arms across her chest she prepared for the feeling akin to slipping into thick water.
Instead of hitting the surface and sinking through, this time Janet hit the surface, and bounced.
TO BE CONTINUED
He walked through them into the Foyer, normally filled with heroes, talking, arguing, eating, drinking and occasionally fighting. The pictures hanging on the wall represented the incarnations of the teams. He stopped and stared at the painted image of the first team. Before Captain America.
“Hank,” he said. He smiled gently and let his mind slip over memories, silently recalling their friendship, “Miss ya, Buddy.”
“Bill!” Tony slapped the fellow scientist on the shoulder, “What are you doing here?”
Bill cast a glance down to Tony, who looked up at the scientist. Bill had unconsciously increased his height by a few feet. His hair touched the ceiling. Tony, dressed in an immaculate suit, complete with sunglasses, flashed his best business grin at Bill.
“Tony,” he said, “Sorry. I always get a little bit…”
“Anxious?” Janet said, rounding the corner with a glass of water and a slice of watermelon.
“Bloodstone is attempting to cook, so I had to leave. She was instructing White Tiger on the finer details of gutting some kind of demonic shark…”
“Dire-Ray! Bloody Nora, woman, Rays and Shark are fundamentally different animals despite both being elasmobranches! Honestly…” Bloodstone yelled from the kitchen.
Janet covered her mouth conspiratorially.
“White Tiger is taking notes…”
Bill cast a weary glance towards Janet. She took a delicate bite from her watermelon and smiled.
“I see nothing has changed, then,” Bill said. Janet embraced him, holding the water melon out of the way. Tony smirked, and adjusted his sunglasses.
“I’m off to drive my car exceptionally fast, Bill. Would you like to join me?”
Bill shook his head, and looked back to Janet.
“I’m here for Science, and, “he paused, “For Janet.”
He hoped that didn’t sound as romantically optimistic as it did. In all their years together, as friends and colleagues, Bill had never found Janet attractive in that way. She was always a close friend, a sister almost.
“Ah, of course,” Tony walked back across the room towards the door, “Of course you understand that a team with two scientists is, ultimately, rendering one of them redundant.”
“Enjoy your retirement, Tony,” Janet said. Tony winced and let his shoulders hang loose.
“Congratulations, Janet, you wound me so. Here I thought that you’d be available for romance and fun. Play nice, kiddies.”
“Bill,” Janet said. She grasped his arms tightly. “It’s good to see you.”
He smiled, and took hold of Janet’s elbows.
“It’s good to see you as well,” he said, a big smile on his face, “I’ve missed you, and the evenings we used to spend with…”
Janet nodded quickly, trying to dispel the images.
“At any rate…” she continued, “We have…something of a problem? I’m not sure, but I thought I’d call in the expert on Pym particles and the microverse.”
Bill waved a hand through the air.
“I wouldn’t say expert, Janet, but I’ve dabbled. Tell me…what’s wrong?”
“Well…have you not noticed anything?”
Bill nodded. He cast a glance around the room.
“You appear to be putting less alcohol in your water these days,” Bill said. Janet smirked and punched him in the arm, “There’s been some…strange little…twists and turns in the Microverse? Yes. Pym particles aren’t reacting the way they should be, I also understand that.”
“I’ve not seen energy readings like this before,” Janet said. Bill swallowed.
“They are peculiar, but they’re also very familiar.”
“They are?” Janet asked. Bill gestured for her to follow, leaving the sounds from the kitchen to harrow the soul of any human being with an ounce of sense. An English accent screamed creative obscenities. Bill quirked an eyebrow.
“She’s a monster hunter and she’s creative.”
“She’s British,” Bill said, “I’ve never heard the term cock-womble before. What even is a womble?”
Janet smirked, the pair heading towards the lab. Bill swerved to the side and locked Janet’s eyes.
“Jan,” he began. He licked his lips, as though he were trying to phrase it correctly, “This energy. It is twisting up mass transfers, and it is creating little tears in the Micro and Macro verses. What’s more, this is energy we’ve seen in the past. Energy connected to the Microverse.”
“Is it the Kosmos?” Janet asked.
“No, Jan,” Bill said, “Its Nega-Energy. It’s Captain Mar-vell.”
# # # # #
Citrusville Swamps, Earth
Man-Thing shambled as it always shambled, one stumbling, limp-ankled step to another. Having moved silently through waist high water and taken root for three weeks, an energy spike in the world of the Nexus alerted it to its primary mission.
Man-Thing is the protector of the Nexus of Realities, the intersection between worlds. More importantly, Man-Thing is the only entity in the universe who could not use this Nexus for his own ends. A creature possessed of emotion, not intelligence.
Ordinarily, Man-Thing, reactive beyond words would engage in nothing beyond standing, looking intimidating and setting scared people on fire, but today, today the Vugurnos Koth shambled with a singular thing on its mind.
The Nexus, inert for months, yawned and shuddered.
Between the Water and Man-Thing’s outstretched hands, the air became pregnant with purpose.
# # # # #
Avengers Mansion
Janet Van Dyne sat quietly in a comfortable chair in the Avengers living room. The rest of the team, Tony Stark included, sat around her. She cupped a coffee and sniffed it softly. She added milk and dropped in four sugar cubes.
“Is that why they named you the wasp, Janet?” Bloodstone asked.
“Pardon?” Jan replied.
“Your namesake. Is it because you enjoy obscene amounts of sugar and people want you to get your little arse away from them?” Bloodstone, drinking a black tea gently, turned away from Janet and stared at Bill, who was stood up amongst them.
“Tall man, tell me. What is your hero name? Very Big Guy, following the heroic naming conventions of the Stark over here, or some sort of horrible play on your abilities, like, Empire State, like Wasp and Hawk-vision.” Bloodstone asked.
“It’s Hawkeye, damn it,” Clint said. Janet nodded to placate him.
“It’s Goliath,” Bill said, “You’re fortunate, Bloodstone, as I am testing out a new costume as part of this exploration. It’s sarcastic ablative armor, so you’ll forgive me if I don’t react.”
Bloodstone nodded in approval and sat back.
“Just don’t turn it on yourself, big-man,” Bloodstone said. Bill nodded, a small smile on his lips.
“Avengers,” he began, “New and Old.”
He looked across the room, Rocket Racer sat, board laid out across his lap. Bloodstone, leaning back in a sofa all to herself, tea sat in the center of her palm, and White Tiger, stood by a doorway, holding a mug of coffee close to her chest.
Tony sat with his hands in his lap, while Hawkeye paced behind the chair in which Janet sat.
“Janet called me here because of some…irregularities with the Microverse. As I am sure you’re aware, since Hank has been…gone…Janet and I are the…and I am hesitant to say, experts, in the Micro and Macroverses.”
“Question,” Rocket Racer said, “Microverse, I know. Anyone who’s read anything by you or Pym knows what it is, but Macroverse?”
“So,” Bill began, “Pym particles allow a user to shrink or grow according to the limits of natural scaling. 60 foot is the size we can grow to, and the size of an ant is the size we can shrink to according to the natural laws of our universe. However, if say, I need to get bigger, or Jan smaller, then we can access to Microverse to allow us to do things like...breathe and not die from massive internal collapses.”
“Cool,” Racer said, looking back down in his lap, “Not collapsing inside yourself is cool.”
“So, the Macroverse is the inverse of that, Bill?” White Tiger said from the doorway, “A place to store mass, perhaps?”
Bill inclined his head towards her.
“That’s right, if the Microverse is contained within the shell of a single atom, then the Macroverse is the opposite. A single atom is the size of our universe. It’s where the conceptual entities hang out, mostly. Galactus has accessed it, and Master Chaos and Lord Order. Those sort of huge cosmic entities that define our interactions with the universe.”
“Cool,” Racer said again. He lowered his eyebrows slowly and tried to digest what he’d just been told.
“It is a bit,” Bill conceded, “But the point is…something strange is happening to the Microverse and it appears to be happening because of massive Nega-Energy discharges. Clint, Jan and Tony know that can only come from one person.”
“Mar-vell,” Tony said, “So, he’s alive?”
“Well, there’s a possibility it is his Son, Genis, but I’ve called in a couple of favours,” Bill said, “And Genis is on Titan, spending some time with his Mother’s grave and Starfox.”
“That’s going to be education,” Clint said. He winked at Janet, who looked away. Tony grinned.
“I believe, well, Monica, is going to give us a better understanding when she and Suzie get back from Kree Space, but…I don’t think we have enough time to wait for them. I think we need to journey into the Microverse and get…”
“Excuse me,” White Tiger said. Bill stopped and looked over at her. She pulled her mask down, to reveal her inquisitive eyes, “Why is this a problem? Surely, you can stop using the Microverse and Macroverse for your abilities, until…Monica, was it? Until Monica comes back.”
Bill nodded, gesturing an open hand to the young girl.
“I haven’t used my abilities in quite some time anyway, but, Janet was the one who noticed the issues, and frankly, these irregularities will bleed into our world in one way or another whether Janet and I grow or shrink. We need to try and do something about this now. Which is why I am suggesting we go on an expedition into the Microverse.”
“Wonderful,” Bloodstone said, “Where do we vote?”
“This isn’t up for voting,” Janet said, getting to her feet. Rocket Racer followed her lead. “Suit up, and get ready. We’re leaving in an hour.”
# # # # #
Helicarrier Prison Command 5
“You really are a pathetic person, aren’t you, Mark?”
Brother Nature leant casually against the back of his chair, sniffing the air lightly. His hands cuffed behind his back and his face slightly bruised from the last interview with Kate Waynesboro.
“Probably,” he said, “Mind you, you’re hardly Princess Charming, are you?”
Kate flashed a twisted smile and sat down heavily, she sagged for a moment, tired.
“I have about fourteen international, inter-stellar and natural laws that you’ve violated in my hands, Mark Diering. You realise that you’re going to go to prison for this, don’t you? We can’t let this and your irresponsible, disgusting behaviour slide.”
“Even though you saved the Earth”, is the unspoken implication from the end of that sentence, Katie,” Mark said, grinning through a fat lip, “Of course, you’re just sore that SHIELD Environmental Division couldn’t hug the shit out of the Celestials instead of actually getting up off your…”
Marks words were cut short from a blow to the face with a night-stick. Mark grinned and spat some blood on the table. He looked at it intently.
“Yes,” Kate said, sitting down heavily, frustration written over her features, “You realise you’re going down for, what was it?” Kate looked down at her folder, “Nearly fifty different counts of rape.”
“Well,” Mark said, leaning forwards, letting some of the bloody drool drip onto the table, “Fifty counts of rape seems excessive.”
“I assume that means you don’t disagree with the charge on principle though?”
“Of course I do, but you’re SHIELD, you’ll make something stick. I never raped anyone.”
“Not physically,” Kate said, “But mentally? Chemically? You emit pheromones, Mark. You control people with your actions, and your body. Why do you think people follow, you, of all people?”
“Style and Charisma?” he said. Kate shook her head.
“No, you made them. You influence and controlled peoples actions, because you could. You did it to me.”
Mark leaned back and sighed loudly.
“Here we go, the old ‘I wasn’t in control of my actions’ chestnut. The complete inability to accept responsibility for your actions. I did not rape you, Kate. I did not control you. You wanted to sleep with me, as much as I did with you. Two people, lonely, physically intimate for a night…I control nature, but I don’t have pheromone abilities. We both know that.”
“It was three months, Mark,” Kate interjected, “I’m not the only one saying it.”
“And suddenly, when I move on to someone else, you’re all hurt because you didn’t want to do the things I wanted to do.”
“You’re a selfish, selfish man, Mark,”
“Yes,” He replied, looking down at the table, a tiny reflection of himself in saliva and blood, “I’m more than aware of that.”
# # # # #
Avengers Mansion
“Dr. Foster?”
Bill turned around from his duffle bag, pulling his costume from it. Despite everything, he still didn’t have the courage to use Hank’s helmet. Some alterations had been made to his own costume over the years, still white and blue, but with the Ant-Man insignia, a black circle in its centre, as well as a full head mask.
“Yes?” Bill said. He turned around to find Rocket Racer stood before him.
“Hi, sorry to disturb you,” he said, “But, would you mind?”
He thrust forward a sharpie and a paper.
“Would you mind signing this?”
Bill smiled and nodded. He examined the paper. It was an old scientific journal entry he and Hank had written in the early days of their friendship. Examining the potential for mental patterns to be stored on microscopic positronic arrays.
“You read this?”
“Well, yeah,” Racer said, “can you make it out to Robert?”
Bill nodded and signed the paper. He held onto it and sat down on the makeshift bed he’d been offered by Jan.
“What did you think?”
“Well, it was a bit misguided about the actual structure of the neuro-arrays, but fundamentally, it was pretty sound. I used it as a basis for the helmet on my board, so I can control it mentally as well as you know…with physical movements.”
Bill crossed his arms.
“So you’re a bit of an engineer then. Built that hover-board yourself?”
Robert waved a hand at Bill, dismissing the statement.
“Welcome to the future, Dr. Foster.”
Bill got to his feet.
“Thanks, Robert. Call me Bill, anyway. Look…we need to get…”
“Suited up, yeah. I know. Bloodstone and White Tiger are downstairs, and they’re…waiting with Ms. Van Dyne and Hawkeye. I don’t even know where Tony Stark goes. Quite frankly, those women terrify me.”
Bill sighed, and pulled the cowl of his costume over his head, leaving only his eyes and chin showing.
“Welcome to the future, Robert.”
# # # # #
New York City
The end of the cigarette burned brightly in the shadow.
Warren Curzon sucked on it steadily. His eyes narrowed, smoke pouring out of his nose. He didn’t even notice he wasn’t inhaling anymore.
He always got the short end of the stick.
First it was moving to America. Then it was dealing with a scientist who had a God complex. Didn’t they know that the British already thought that the American’s were bloody mad?
The cigarette, like the five preceding it, began to burn down to the filter. He flicked it into the drain and sipped some of the beer from the bottle he secreted in his coat. A brief flash of light on the roof gained his attention, and a man, dressed in a white suit, with a white mask pulled over his head stood on the edge.
Warren, pulling his camera phone from his pocket, began to take a number of pictures. He paused, noticing another figure stood next to the suited man. A figure dressed mostly in a black costume, with a blonde beard and long, blonde hair, tied in a pony-tail. It was clearly male. Next to him, another figure stood. A figure that resembled Iron Man, although a much chunkier and more bulky looking version of the tin-rocket man.
“Shite,” Warren said, looking up as the three figures looked down. He looked away and tried to keep his attention on the ground before him. He heard the engines fire from the roof, on what he assumed was the Iron Man counterpart.
“Oh, double shitty shite.”
Warren broke into a sprint and hurtled down an alleyway, with the Iron Man barrelling down the street towards him, quickly followed by the falling forms of the man in black and the man in white. Warren hoped the alley was narrow enough to prevent the Iron Man from attacking.
He pulled his gun from his coat pocket and risked a glance over his shoulder. The only good thing about America compared to Britain. Actual weaponry. The man in white was fast and Warren was full of years of nicotine and alcohol abuse. He stumbled over some wet carboard and went down.
“Godamned shitty America! Recycle, you environmentally moribund ball-heads.”
Warren, pulling back the hammer on the gun, fired off two shots. One ricocheted from the Iron Man’s helmet, and the other ricocheted off the Man in White’s crescent moon weapon.
“Detective Curzon,” the blonde man said, suddenly behind Warren, “Nice to see you again.”
# # # # #
Avengers Mansion
“Ms. Van Dyne,” White Tiger stood in the doorway, while Wasp made preparations with the Pym particles. Large canisters were in a circle around a metal dais. She flipped a few switches and looked over her shoulder, shooting the young woman a smile.
“Please, call me Janet,” Wasp said, adjusting a canister, “What can I do for you?”
“I’m concerned that...whatever these powers are, abilities, I guess, won’t be of use in the Microverse,” White Tiger said, “I’m not sure that I will be much use. I’m much better suited to the streets.”
Janet scoffed.
“Are you an Avenger?”
Angela nodded.
“Are you also part of a team with three experienced Avengers on it, including two founders and one idiot. Hawkeye, I mean.”
Tiger nodded again.
“You’ll be fine. Often, it is the heroes like you and me that make a difference, rather than the Thor’s and Captain America’s. We’re under-estimated. We’re lower powered, but you have an incredible mind, Angela. You have an incredible deductive ability. Bloodstone has the ability to irritate things to death, and Robert has a mind that Tony should be wary of, if not incredibly jealous.”
Tiger sighed and looked to the floor.
“I am street level, Janet. I fight people with martial arts and vaguely magical jade amulets. I don’t do dimensional travel and fighting mysterious energies. That…I’m just scared.”
Janet took Angela by the shoulders.
“We all are. You’re only not scared if you’re dead, or if you’re stupid. Well, everyone but Bloodstone is not scared because of her inability to process human emotions.”
Janet released Angela and thumbed over her shoulder.
“The others will be here in a minute, are you ready to go?”
The young woman nodded.
“As ready as I will be,” she said. Over her shoulder Bill and Robert approached. Bill laid a small bag by the side of the dais, and checked his belt.
“Everything ready, Janet?” he asked.
“I suppose so. Would you like to give it a once over?”
Bill smiled and shook his head.
“You’ve been doing this longer than I have, I don’t need to give it a once over.”
Angela coughed into her hand.
“I’d feel better if you did,” she said, quietly, “No offense, Ms. Van Dyne.”
Bill made a face and walked over to the equipment, giving it a quick look. Robert checked the underside of his board and avoided looking up as Bloodstone, Hawkeye and Iron Man entered the room.
“Well, as usual, you lot are taking far longer than is necessary with all this science business,” Bloodstone said, checking to make sure her shotgun is loaded, “You, thunder bollocks, can we get very small and shoot something now?”
Bill cocked an eyebrow at the inventive address and nodded in return.
“Not sure if I agree with your renaming me, Elsa, but, I think we’re ready to get going. Are you al prepared, it’s a little disorientating. I’d suggest we all take a moment and…”
“Bunch of tossers,” Bloodstone said, punching the red button in the center of the dais. Bill shot forwards, trying to stop her, but the gas flooded the room, obscuring the team’s vision.
“Being an Avenger doesn’t mean being an idiot, Bloodstone!” Hawkeye yelled. He wheeled about, his vision shifting subtly at first, before the room began to race away from him, or rather, he from it.
“Yeah, well, you’ve got that area cornered haven’t you, Bird-Face! Face the challenge, kill the challenge, become the challenge! I am Bloodstone, not, wait-around-until-we’re-all-properly-prepared-and-have-we-all-been-to-the-toilet-before-leaving-stone!”
“I think we can all agree you’re the challenge, Bloodstone,” Janet said. The feeling was more than familiar to her, but she kept her eyes firmly on the newbies. Bloodstone appeared to be unaffected, but Angela appeared to be on the cusp of a panic attack. Robert, on the other hand, was having the time of his life. The group’s bodies hurtled through the first sub-atomic barrier, their trans-dimensional speed growing exponentially.
“Wait,” Jan said. She felt a light tag at her ankle at first, and then a stronger pull around her midsection. The group was beginning to disperse.
“Bill!” she called.
“Janet!” Bill called after her.
He threw out his arm, trying to grab her. Instead their fingers slipped through each other.
“Wait!” Tony fired the thrusters on his boots, sending him hurtling out of control and spiraling past Janet.
“NO! No, Physics is wrong here! Stop!” Bill yelled.
“Yeah, this is working out really well, Bloodstone!” Hawkeye yelled.
“Shove it up your jaxi, arrow-brain.”
Janet watched helplessly as the Avengers pierced the Microversal membrane one-by-one, hurtling towards whatever awaited them. Jan closed her eyes, knowing she’d have her work cut out for her trying to gather them up on the other side. Her mind flicked to Angela, as she noticed the Microversal barrier approach.
She let out a breath. Jan had pierced the membrane between the Microverse and the normal universe many times she knew what to expect. Folding her arms across her chest she prepared for the feeling akin to slipping into thick water.
Instead of hitting the surface and sinking through, this time Janet hit the surface, and bounced.
TO BE CONTINUED