Back to GatefoldIssue #2 (Vol 2) by Ed Ainsworth
Sept 2016 |
"Pull Yourself Together - Part Two"
“Janet!” Bill’s eyes narrowed as he watched his oldest surviving friend bounce off the membrane between realities. “JANET!”
Bills hand immediately shot down to his waist, grabbing the technology there and adjusting his size. While the other Avengers spiraled out of control and away from him, Bill’s size began to increase. He reached upwards towards her, his fingers popping through the dimensional membrane.
“Damnit, Foster!” Hawkeye yelled, “You can’t just leave us stranded in the little-verse!”
“It’s Microverse, you bloody imbecile!”
“Shut UP, Bloodstone!” Hawkeye replied.
“But…Janet,” Bill said. His body was already hurtling up towards the barrier, his mass having an inverse gravitational effect. He was becoming more dimensionally buoyant. “She needs me.”
“Doctor Foster, we need you!” Rocket Racer yelled. He hurtled closer to the surface of the planetoid below, faster than any of the others, quickly followed by White Tiger.
“Wasp has been here before. Being small is what she does, you colossal moron! Guide us around this miniature hell-hole!” Bloodstone screamed, hurtling past the others, the gem on her neck having more theoretical weight in the Microverse.
Foster reached downwards, his huge hand gripping Elsa’s legs tightly. She pulled him down towards the craggy surface below, teeming with microscopic life forms. Mostly entities without legs, eyes, or skeletons, just gelatinous blobs.
Elsa hit hard, exploding several blobs into impact based spattered shot. She coughed once, managing half a swear at Foster before she passed out. Fosters feet hit the ground, his size actually making him lighter in the Microverse. His feet barely touched the ground, despite having been pulled by the incredibly weighty Bloodstone. He spread his huge shoulders, and threw his hands up, catching White Tiger, Rocket Racer and Hawkeye in his hands, the momentum of their descent knocking him to the ground as well.
Foster hit hard, and rolled, throwing his arms in the air to protect his fellow Avengers. He lay on his back for a moment or two.
“Well,” Hawkeye said, dropping from the scientist’s massive hands, “That was not exactly what I was expecting.”
“Me either,” Tiger said, sitting on the edge of Foster’s huge hand, legs dangling over his forefinger. Her eyes went wide as she finally took in the scenery.
The sky was black, pock-marked with stars, billions of them, moving in a way which was deeply unsettling, but not anything Angela could put her finger on. The ground beneath them was purple, with huge globules of semi-alive stuff, bobbling away, moving and consuming the rock beneath them. Foster coughed and lowered Tiger and Racer to the ground.
“Janet,” he said, shrinking down to normal size, and staring up at the sky.
“Well,” Hawkeye said, leaning on his bow over the unconscious Bloodstone, “She is REALLY starting to get annoying, isn’t she?”
He turned to the rest of the team, a big grin on his face. Bill stared off into space, trying to map Janet’s trajectory with his fingers, while Tiger was slowly shrinking into a ball. Racer was looking despairingly at the remains of his board, which had exploded on impact, and was currently fifteen tiny independently moving fireballs, which defied Physics, logic and nature. Clint’s smile shrank back.
“Hell,” he said. He turned on his heels and walked to Bill.
“Foster,” he said, in hushed tones, “I appreciate that this is tough for you, but we’ve done this before.”
He gestured behind him, as he slipped a hand on Foster’s shoulder.
“These kids haven’t been to the Microverse. Tiger hasn’t even left the city in costume before, and now we’re doing microscopic cosmic stuff?”
Bill turned to look at the archer.
“I need you to get us back on track here, Doc,” Clint said, “I’m happy to take the reins while Tony isn’t here, or Jan, but you need to lead us to our way out. I do arrows, Doc, not cosmic.”
Bill closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“Angela, Robert,” Bill said, growing a few feet instinctively, “Help me gather up Elsa. We need to find a way back home.”
“Doctor Foster?” Robert said, after glancing around for a moment.
“Yes, Robert?”
“Where is Iron Man?”
Bill paused and looked around. He couldn’t see the armored Avenger anywhere.
“Did he make it?” Angela asked, wringing her hands together.
“I’m…sure he did. Tony is a founding Avenger, kids. I am sure he can look after himself wherever he is…”
Clint smirked, as the two rookies helped Bill gather the prone Elsa from the ground. His smirk melted away as he felt something through the rock.
“Guys,” he said, “We got incoming…”
“What?” Bill’s head snapped around. He instantly grew another twenty feet, towering above the other Avengers and feeling the dimensional tug once again to travel upwards. He knelt forwards and dug his fingers into the dirt.
“What is it?” Angela asked.
“Remember we said we were tracking Nega Energy and that we strongly suspected it was Captain Mar-Vell?”
“I feel an ‘I might have been mistaken’ statement coming along here,” Hawkeye said.
Bill looked down at Hawkeye and the rookies, and grit his teeth.
“I may have been mistaken.”
Back on Earth
Tony Stark stood in the centre of the lab, his colleagues reduced to motes of microscopic dust. He sighed and walked across the room, lifting his face plate up.
“Jocasta?”
“Tony,” her tinny voice responded in his inner ear.
“Get me everything we know about the Microverse.”
Citrusville Swamps, Earth
Man-Thing sat, like a brooding scholar, examining the tiny aperture in reality. It moved as though it were breathing, or a sphincter, stretching as the musculature around it pulled at ligaments. Occasionally, he would reach out towards it, pulling at the edges to see what lay beyond, but slowly, over a matter of hours, then days, the aperture opened to a size that could accommodate Man-Thing.
The aperture, floating over a small pool of brown, murky water, fizzled as it eventually touched the surface of the tiny pond.
His feet pulling up the roots they’d taken, and the frogs which had taken to resting on his back, leaping with surprise that their world was suddenly lurching, he stumbled towards it.
“Hey, Manny,” a voice said from the other side of the small, stagnant pool. “Watch out.”
A black raven landed on Man-Thing’s shoulder, cocking its head from one side, looking up into his eyes. Man-Thing, if he could, would have smiled, and pet the bird slowly, his huge, muck covered hand touching the back of the birds head.
The Raven closed its eyes, and bent a little under the weight.
“CAW.”
A second Raven, larger than the first, with a streak of blue down its back landed at the front of the aperture. It pecked at it quietly.
Man-Thing immediately turned his attention to the woman on the other side of the pond. Long blonde hair hung from underneath her winged helmet. She held a smirk on her face, and a hammer in her hand, and stood with cocky assurance. The damp swamp air didn’t appear to affect her body, and a slight chill and crackle of energy emanated from her body.
A solid foot planted itself through the hole, green toes digging into the dirt as it touched down gently. The hole suddenly doubled its size, then tripled, a female form tumbled through, balance lost from her single foot planted in the Earth.
“You better throw open the welcome mat, Manny. These’re Gods that’re coming through, and, well, a Nexus protector, like yourself.”
The first, a thin female held herself tightly, hands gripping her shoulder blades. She shivered, branches full of moulting leaves jutted from her head in odd places and angles. The leaves hit the swamp dirt and immediately melted into the detritus. She watched them with an odd look on her face. Offering a smile to Man-Thing, who knelt before her, touching her face with his extraordinarily long arms, and gently pressing his forehead, such as it was, to her own. The branches that ran along the top of her head met the top of his like a crown, and the hammer woman frowned, the two Raven’s landing on her shoulders.
“Yes, Vorgunus Koth. We are here.”
The Microverse
“Mistaken in what way, Doctor Foster?”
Bill looked down at Robert, who was attempting to salvage the remains of his board. He looked confused, physics no longer behaving in a way he could work with, he was left rudderless. A few elements of his board hung from his waist, clipping them into pouches.
“It isn’t Mar-Vell,” he said calmly, looking down at Hawkeye. The Avenger nodded and moved slowly and deliberately towards the verge, holding his bow tightly in his hand.
“Well, let’s be clear here,” Hawkeye said, “It is Mar-Vell, but he doesn’t look like any version we know of.”
Bill nodded, shrinking down again. He put his hand on Robert’s shoulder.
“This is serious,” he said, looking between Robert and White Tiger, “What appears to be an army is heading towards us.”
Angela swallowed loudly, taking a step back towards Bloodstone, who was just starting to wake up.
“Whasis? What’s happening?” she asked, rubbing her forehead softly, pushing grains of dirt and globules of gunk around her hairline.
Bill offered her a hand and pulled her up.
“You’re probably the most experienced with the weird in this little group,” he whispered. Elsa nodded, proud.
“We’re trapped in the Negative Zone and what we thought was a Kree distress signal has in fact turned out to be something far stranger and more dangerous.”
Elsa rolled her hand at the wrist.
“Yes, yes? Get on with it. This isn’t a novel writing synopsis session. What is this ‘strange and dangerous’ thing you’re talking about?”
A form came hurtling over the verge, a humanoid form, although much different to the Avengers. Long, lithe limbs that looked barely human. No skin to speak of, save for the starscape pattern dotting within it, forming features with clusters of stars, or groups of black holes. It opened its maw, a blast of radio static filling the Avengers ears, and nearly stumbling Hawkeye.
The first arrow pierced its throat, cutting the scream short. The second disappeared into the shape of the body, before it exploded, separating the right leg from its torso, and sending the creature into the ground below. Hawkeye delivered a final arrow to its eye before moving to recover them.
“Think we’ve been noticed.”
“Yeah, brilliant observation seeing-eye-avenger,” Elsa yelled, “What next? You’ll dazzle us with the ability to continue to breathe?”
Bill grabbed Elsa’s shoulder tightly, and pulled her attention back.
“Nega-Energy. Captain Mar-Vell utilized it to manipulate light, and fly through space. He also used it to swap places with things in the Microverse. Elsa, I don’t quite understand what is happening here, but there are hundreds of those things down there. What are they? Starscape monstrosities who’re using Marv’s abilities…God knows what they’re doing. Are they invading? Are they looking to colonise the Microverse? Earth? Our world?”
Elsa slapped him in the jaw and stared hard into his eyes. She kissed him tightly and pushed him solidly in the chest, knocking him over.
“Science is boring, Bill. You have a face built for pleasure, not for boredom. When we get out of this, come to my bunk. I’ll show you that science isn’t everything.”
She unholstered her guns, and drew them up to chest level, walking passed Hawkeye.
“What are you waiting for, trick-fingers, a bloody invitation? We’ve got some insects to…”
Elsa paused at the verge of the hill. Hundreds of humanoids, barely moving, in hundreds of different forms. Taller than buildings, or tiny swarms buzzing around. Some with limbs far longer than what could biologically support the weight from above. She swallowed audibly and turned to Hawkeye.
“Why didn’t you tell me about this?”
Angela pushed past Elsa and stood on the verge, drawing in a deep breath.
“He didn’t want to worry me or Robert,” she said quietly, looking across at him, “Did you, Hawkeye?”
Clint winked at her.
“Looks like you just took my codename, Angela. Way more observant than you need to be.”
Robert pulled himself towards the corpse of the fallen Warrior and pulled a strip of cloth from its chest. He held it up to the light and stared at it. He looked across at Bill, who was adjusting his belt.
“Is this…”
Bill grabbed it quickly and held it closer to his eye.
“It’s painted, yes, but…it’s Mar-Vell’s insignia. An eight pointed star. Does that mean he is…”
“Look,” Hawkeye interrupted, pointing to a man walking on air, in the centre of the starscape army. His costume was Crimson and Black, the crimson parts heavily scaled like Captain America’s armor. A huge red cape flew behind him, like a trail of floating blood. Three large maggots encircled his left leg, right arm, and his midsection, wriggling against his uniform.
He glowed. The symbol on his chest, a pentagram glowed, throwing out a huge amount of light. The bright yellow bands which practically spat energy on his wrists stung the edges of Angela’s eyes. It was then that she noticed, corresponding sparks from the insectoid peoples bands, including that of the warrior they had downed.
“Robert…are you able to make something from these?” she asked, looking back quickly at the on-coming army.
“Like what?” he asked, panicked, “I don’t work that fast and I don’t know what these are, Angela.”
Bill nodded quickly, putting his hand on Angela’s shoulder.
“No, I understand. Robert, I know you’re under pressure here, but we need you to make something that will turn the corresponding sparks from these bands…” he looked across to Angela and Hawkeye. Elsa was swearing at the oncoming warriors, “Into some sort of cloaking, or shield. I think…if there is some sort of carrier field..”
“Yes, OK. I get it,” Robert said, pulling up a limp arm and immediately regretting it, ichor leaking down his forearms, “We turn it into a bigger wave. Then we huddle inside its radius, like a really short wave radio.”
“Yes! Exactly. We can’t fight them all.”
“Can’t or won’t?” Elsa asked, “Because I’m going to see if I can. Defeatist American tits.”
She hurtled down the verge, guns blazing. A blast of energy sent her hurtling up the verge against, her clothes on fire, and her guns destroyed. Elsa, despite her hardiness, was once again unconscious.
A roar sounded below them, a scream of inhuman proportions.
“Who dares to attack the cosmic consciousness? Who would destroy a cosmic neuron? You are a goblet of sweat from my Father, Eternity! You are a menstrual waste product of my Mother, Infinity! You are dead, you are gone! YOU ARE OVER.”
“Well,” Hawkeye said, pulling and notching another arrow, “He seems nice. Not pompous at all.”
“Rob,” Bill said, “Get to work.”
Helicarrier Prison Command 5, Earth
“Tell me about the murder,” Kate said, leaning forwards on her elbows. Mark grinned.
“Well, we’d been arguing a lot and you wanted to move in together. Commitment makes me feel weird, so I had to call it off…”
“Not our relationship, Mark,” Kate said with a heavy, frustrated sigh, “Although, that is certainly a good reason to want to murder you.”
“Is that a threat, officer? I was actually referring to the murder of our relationship by your desire to be a control freak.”
“Answer the question,” Kate said, shifting restlessly.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Amalgam, Mark. You broke her neck. We found the body.”
Mark sighed, his eyes glazing over, and refocusing on the blood in the table. There was a face looking up at him from it.
“She wanted to be released from her prison, Kate,” Mark said, his voice flat and distracted “She was the spirit of the Earth from another dimension. Another world. It isn’t her fault.”
“Why did you do it?”
Mark looked down in the blood again. The face stared back. It blinked.
-Mark Diering, my Brother of Nature. Please. Find my Captain.-
“What?”
Kate slammed her hands on the desk.
“Why did you kill her Mark? You’re a murderer, as well as a serial offender. You put children at risk, you put the planet at risk, and you broke yet another poor girl’s heart because you’re such a…”
“Kate,” Mark said firmly. She stopped.
“You need to let me go,” he nodded to the blood on the table.
“Do I?” she said.
“Yes,” he repeated, “Gaia wants me to perform a mission.”
“You can do it from prison. I’m sure you can manipulate someone into doing it for you.”
Mark eyes stared at her, a blaze of anger behind them.
-Brother Nature, I have need of you. I need my Captains. I believe in them. I believe in you.-
“You need. To. Let. Me. Go.”
“No,” she said again, getting to her feet, “You’re staying here with me, Mark. That is the end of it.”
The side of the Helicarrier erupted into a blue energy blast, firing metal against the inside of the wall, and sucking the remaining parts through the explosive decompression. Kate initially hit the wall from the blast, but the air pulled her violently towards the opening.
Before she completely left the vehicle, Mark grabbed her arm, the chain down the centre of the handcuffs broken in half, the bracelets hanging around his wrists.
“You…”
“Don’t,” he said. He looked towards the hole. Floating outside of it was a Vindicator suit, complete with the Maple leaf pattern. Inside of it, however, was nothing. It was simply an animated suit.
“I told you I had a mission,” he shouted over the air flow, “Gaia wants me to gather her captains. Whatever that means!”
“I can’t let you go,” Kate yelled at him, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck.
“That’s always been your problem, Kate,” Mark replied. He threw her forcibly towards the wall, and rammed the table quickly into the metallic floor, jamming it in place. Kate hit the table and her descent into the ocean was halted immediately.
“I didn’t rape anyone, Kate! You know that. I didn’t break any laws either, international, or inter-stellar. I did, however, kill Amalgam. She wanted to die. Her presence on this planet was killing our own Gaia.”
Validator dropped away from the side of the ship, towards the ocean below.
“I thought that would put an end to any more suffering, but it didn’t. But, hey, everyone makes a mistake, right?”
Mark blew her a kiss and leapt backwards from the carrier towards the ocean below.
The Microverse
“Janet.”
Jan floated in the void above the Microverse and the Macroverse. An interstitial space where she could see nothing beyond dark and light. No matter existed, and yet she floated, unassisted.
“Janet?”
Jan began to move her body slowly. It reacted oddly to the void, as though she were moving in reverse, under water. Complicated movements were not happening and she felt violently unwell. Sweat beaded on her forehead, and her inner ear struggled to orientate her.
“Janet!”
“What?” she asked, casting her head about. Her eyes felt as though they were swimming in her head, shifting at an odd pace. She caught sight of what was calling to her. A tiny woman, only an inch tall, sat on her stomach. Janet swatted at her, but the woman leapt up and landed, heavily, on her chest. The wind escaped her lungs and she coughed, gasping.
“Janet,” the tiny woman said, “You have to calm down. You can’t survive long out here, not without my help. So listen.”
Janet offered a weak nod.
“We’re not going to shrink, and we’re not going to grow. At this point that could place us anywhere in the universe. We’re not going to invite entropy, are we?”
Janet shook her head, some air returning to her lungs.
“You might remember me,” the woman said, marching up Janet’s chest, to her shoulder, and sitting down, her legs dangling over her collar bone, “My name is Rita DeMara.”
“Yellowjacket,” Janet said, suddenly feeling a cold sweat breaking out over her body.
“Once,” she admitted, touching Janet’s neck, “But…some time travel happened. I got lost in the folds of space and time. Pym Particles really are amazing, Janet. Even thousands of years in the future nobody has ever really done anything with them the way you and Hank did.”
“And Bill,” she offered. Rita said nothing.
“Those particles are what pushed me through space and time, led me to here, so I can guide you. Are you aware of Shamanism, Janet?”
Jan pursed her lips and sighed.
“I don’t really subscribe to all that magic business,” she said, “Hank once said…”
“That it was undiscovered science. Hank also built a robot who has killed more people than any other Avenger’s mistake, so…Hank isn’t exactly always right.”
Jan tilted her head to one side in acknowledgement.
“You might be right…”
“Hank isn’t here, either,” Rita said, “But we are. You need to get your head sorted before we go and save your friends, because they’re about to walk into a whole world of trouble here, Janet. What do you know about Counter-Earth?”
Janet coughed, and tilted her head slightly to Rita.
“I appreciate you asking for my input,” she said, “But you’ve jumped from saving me, to Shamanism, to Counter-Earth. Isn’t my impending death slightly higher than asking questions?”
Rita offered a tiny laugh, and stood up.
“Magic is broken, Janet. Counter-Earth is broken, and now the Microverse is their staging ground. We need you to walk the walk.”
Janet shook her head quickly and balled her fists.
“You’re talking in stupid riddles, Rita. Tell me something useful.”
Rita pinched Jan’s neck and yelled upwards, directly into her ear.
“Walk, Janet. Walk along the membrane of the two worlds, and walk on Pym Particles, because that is the only way you can understand any of this…”
Janet sighed heavily, and began to move her legs in an approximation of walking. Flattened particles underneath her began to shift and move, creating a microscopic, atomic flooring for her, shifting under the combined weight of Rita and Jan.
“Walk, Janet Van Dyne, and save your friends. It’s time you became everything you needed to be.”
New York City, Earth
“Curzon,” Moon Knight knelt on the British detective’s back. Warren coughed and twisted his head slightly. He arched an eyebrow looking over his shoulder. The man bore down on him with no expression on his face, a blank, white mask clinging to his features, highlighting only his eyes, and a crescent Moon on his forehead. The sharp white suit he wore was tainted slightly with ash from Curzon’s cigarette and blood from his nose.
“Moon Knight? Just as batshit as ever, I see.”
Franklin grinned and patted the white-suited man on the shoulder.
“Off you get, Knight. This is the final member of our strange little group.”
The armored individual to their side stood stock still, arms crossed over his chest. Warren Curzon brushed himself off, and got to his feet, pulling his last cigarette from his pocket. It was bent at a strange angle.
“So,” Curzon said, lighting the cigarette and staring at the armored man, “Shit Iron Man, Beard-Guy and Bat-Shit Knight went to market and…”
“Got themselves an eminently experienced detective with whom they later go on to save the world. Two worlds actually,” Franklin offered a nod to the armored Man. “And they all lived happily ever after, safe in the knowledge that a man from the future came to prevent that future from coming to be.”
Curzon took a long drag on his cigarette and exhaled in Moon Knight’s direction.
“Nah,” he said, “I’m out. I don’t do superheroes.”
The armored man stepped forward, pinching the cigarette from Warren’s mouth. “Rebel...” the bearded man said, his tone warning.
“Curzon, my whole planet is going to die from rampant insanity. Franklin here tells me that you’re a key part of saving my home, and you’re saying no based on what? Some Prejudice?”
Warren pulled his cigarette out of Rebel’s hand and put it back in his mouth, relighting it.
“Mate, I’m British. Unlike you bloody yanks we eliminated racism years ago by being actually bloody nice to each other. Mind you there was that whole colonial period, but you bloody Freedom Mentalists took that all out, so we had to learn to do two things.”
“What are they?” Moon Knight asked, pulling imaginary fluff off his suit.
“Become completely complacent and apathetic towards the world, and be bloody honest. I’m not prejudice, I’m saying you superheroes play by your own rules, and you don’t need a bloody British detective when you have Moon Knight, Discount Iron Man and…who are you again?”
The bearded man smiled, and put his hands on Warren’s shoulders.
“My name is Franklin Richards, Warren. I’m from the future where we save the world, and you don’t live pay-check to pay-check drinking whiskey, smoking cigarettes and hoping that something would kill you inside out, rather than outside in.”
Warren cocked his head to one side.
“Yeah? What saves me, Mr. Time Travel?”
“Her name is Elizabeth Braddock. I believe you save her, and she saves you. Just as you did at the STRIKE Academy.”
Warren’s face drained of blood and he stared hard at Franklin. His mouth twisted and he punched Franklin in the stomach, doubling him over. Franklin looked up, as Moon Knight’s elbow mashed Curzon’s nose into a bloody flower. The detective hit the ground hard, and rolled on to his front.
“How did you know?” Curzon said, sitting up, “How did you know about Betsy and me?”
“How does anyone know anything, Warren,” Franklin said, crouching down on the balls of his feet, “You told me, Warren. In the future. In a rare moment when you weren’t drinking and feeling sorry for yourself. In a moment when you remember why you became a police officer, and why you moved to Britain. Because someone stabbed you in the shoulder, and when you fell forwards, Betsy was there to take him out.”
Warren stared hard into the ground.
“When you were bleeding out, she shattered his mind completely with her burgeoning powers, and explained it all to you while you lay waiting for the ambulance. Then you have to leave didn’t you?”
Warren nodded.
“Why did I leave.”
His face was steel, staring into Franklin’s eyes. Moon Knight looked across at Rebel, who was carefully removing the clasps at the side of his helmet. The face plate came off, letting the man’s long, brunette hair pour out.
“Because she is a telepath, isn’t she?” Franklin smiled, “She is a telepath and she found out that you’d loved her the moment you saw her, and when you looked into her eyes, and shared that moment, your blood pouring out of your back, you realized that she would never love you.”
Warren closed his eyes.
“And in the future, she loves me?”
Franklin nodded.
“We’re married? Children?”
Franklin smiled, a harsh, short smile.
“I don’t want you to have the surprise ruined.”
Warren nodded slowly, and got to his feet, wiping the blood off his face with the back of his hand.
“I’m In,” he said. Nodding to Rebel slowly, “I’m in.”
“Then let me explain to you about the state of Counter Earth, Warren. Let me tell you while my planet is trying to kill yours.”
Rebel clapped a metal hand on Curzon’s shoulder, leading him away from Moon Knight and Franklin.
“That wise?” Moon Knight stared at the pair walking away, imperiously. Franklin clasped his hands together.
“This whole thing isn’t wise, Marc,” Franklin said, “But it needs to happen to save the future.”
“Does she love him?” Knight asked, his vision fixed on Curzon’s back.
“After a Fashion,” Franklin replied, after a short silence, “It’s not romantic love, but she really does save him in the end.”
Moon Knight grunted and began to follow Rebel.
“Shouldn’t play with hearts, Richards.”
Franklin sighed and rubbed his forehead, his face breaking composure for a moment into tight emotion. His forehead bunched and his eyes closed.
“I know, Marc. They break too easily.”
Moon Knight stopped and turned to him.
“No, no,” Moon Knight said, “They’re like everything else, Franklin. Full of blood.”
Franklin looked up, as a smile spread underneath the mask of Moon Knight. It creeped him out, and he turned away.
“Good God,” he said, “He really is a lunatic. Alpha did warn me…”
Next Issue: Avengers hiding, or is that, Vs the Cosmic Consciousness! Where exactly is Yellowjacket leading Janet? What is the deal with Man-Thing, Thor and the others? More importantly, please tell me that Brother Nature isn’t going to be an Avenger! Please!
Bills hand immediately shot down to his waist, grabbing the technology there and adjusting his size. While the other Avengers spiraled out of control and away from him, Bill’s size began to increase. He reached upwards towards her, his fingers popping through the dimensional membrane.
“Damnit, Foster!” Hawkeye yelled, “You can’t just leave us stranded in the little-verse!”
“It’s Microverse, you bloody imbecile!”
“Shut UP, Bloodstone!” Hawkeye replied.
“But…Janet,” Bill said. His body was already hurtling up towards the barrier, his mass having an inverse gravitational effect. He was becoming more dimensionally buoyant. “She needs me.”
“Doctor Foster, we need you!” Rocket Racer yelled. He hurtled closer to the surface of the planetoid below, faster than any of the others, quickly followed by White Tiger.
“Wasp has been here before. Being small is what she does, you colossal moron! Guide us around this miniature hell-hole!” Bloodstone screamed, hurtling past the others, the gem on her neck having more theoretical weight in the Microverse.
Foster reached downwards, his huge hand gripping Elsa’s legs tightly. She pulled him down towards the craggy surface below, teeming with microscopic life forms. Mostly entities without legs, eyes, or skeletons, just gelatinous blobs.
Elsa hit hard, exploding several blobs into impact based spattered shot. She coughed once, managing half a swear at Foster before she passed out. Fosters feet hit the ground, his size actually making him lighter in the Microverse. His feet barely touched the ground, despite having been pulled by the incredibly weighty Bloodstone. He spread his huge shoulders, and threw his hands up, catching White Tiger, Rocket Racer and Hawkeye in his hands, the momentum of their descent knocking him to the ground as well.
Foster hit hard, and rolled, throwing his arms in the air to protect his fellow Avengers. He lay on his back for a moment or two.
“Well,” Hawkeye said, dropping from the scientist’s massive hands, “That was not exactly what I was expecting.”
“Me either,” Tiger said, sitting on the edge of Foster’s huge hand, legs dangling over his forefinger. Her eyes went wide as she finally took in the scenery.
The sky was black, pock-marked with stars, billions of them, moving in a way which was deeply unsettling, but not anything Angela could put her finger on. The ground beneath them was purple, with huge globules of semi-alive stuff, bobbling away, moving and consuming the rock beneath them. Foster coughed and lowered Tiger and Racer to the ground.
“Janet,” he said, shrinking down to normal size, and staring up at the sky.
“Well,” Hawkeye said, leaning on his bow over the unconscious Bloodstone, “She is REALLY starting to get annoying, isn’t she?”
He turned to the rest of the team, a big grin on his face. Bill stared off into space, trying to map Janet’s trajectory with his fingers, while Tiger was slowly shrinking into a ball. Racer was looking despairingly at the remains of his board, which had exploded on impact, and was currently fifteen tiny independently moving fireballs, which defied Physics, logic and nature. Clint’s smile shrank back.
“Hell,” he said. He turned on his heels and walked to Bill.
“Foster,” he said, in hushed tones, “I appreciate that this is tough for you, but we’ve done this before.”
He gestured behind him, as he slipped a hand on Foster’s shoulder.
“These kids haven’t been to the Microverse. Tiger hasn’t even left the city in costume before, and now we’re doing microscopic cosmic stuff?”
Bill turned to look at the archer.
“I need you to get us back on track here, Doc,” Clint said, “I’m happy to take the reins while Tony isn’t here, or Jan, but you need to lead us to our way out. I do arrows, Doc, not cosmic.”
Bill closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“Angela, Robert,” Bill said, growing a few feet instinctively, “Help me gather up Elsa. We need to find a way back home.”
“Doctor Foster?” Robert said, after glancing around for a moment.
“Yes, Robert?”
“Where is Iron Man?”
Bill paused and looked around. He couldn’t see the armored Avenger anywhere.
“Did he make it?” Angela asked, wringing her hands together.
“I’m…sure he did. Tony is a founding Avenger, kids. I am sure he can look after himself wherever he is…”
Clint smirked, as the two rookies helped Bill gather the prone Elsa from the ground. His smirk melted away as he felt something through the rock.
“Guys,” he said, “We got incoming…”
“What?” Bill’s head snapped around. He instantly grew another twenty feet, towering above the other Avengers and feeling the dimensional tug once again to travel upwards. He knelt forwards and dug his fingers into the dirt.
“What is it?” Angela asked.
“Remember we said we were tracking Nega Energy and that we strongly suspected it was Captain Mar-Vell?”
“I feel an ‘I might have been mistaken’ statement coming along here,” Hawkeye said.
Bill looked down at Hawkeye and the rookies, and grit his teeth.
“I may have been mistaken.”
Back on Earth
Tony Stark stood in the centre of the lab, his colleagues reduced to motes of microscopic dust. He sighed and walked across the room, lifting his face plate up.
“Jocasta?”
“Tony,” her tinny voice responded in his inner ear.
“Get me everything we know about the Microverse.”
Citrusville Swamps, Earth
Man-Thing sat, like a brooding scholar, examining the tiny aperture in reality. It moved as though it were breathing, or a sphincter, stretching as the musculature around it pulled at ligaments. Occasionally, he would reach out towards it, pulling at the edges to see what lay beyond, but slowly, over a matter of hours, then days, the aperture opened to a size that could accommodate Man-Thing.
The aperture, floating over a small pool of brown, murky water, fizzled as it eventually touched the surface of the tiny pond.
His feet pulling up the roots they’d taken, and the frogs which had taken to resting on his back, leaping with surprise that their world was suddenly lurching, he stumbled towards it.
“Hey, Manny,” a voice said from the other side of the small, stagnant pool. “Watch out.”
A black raven landed on Man-Thing’s shoulder, cocking its head from one side, looking up into his eyes. Man-Thing, if he could, would have smiled, and pet the bird slowly, his huge, muck covered hand touching the back of the birds head.
The Raven closed its eyes, and bent a little under the weight.
“CAW.”
A second Raven, larger than the first, with a streak of blue down its back landed at the front of the aperture. It pecked at it quietly.
Man-Thing immediately turned his attention to the woman on the other side of the pond. Long blonde hair hung from underneath her winged helmet. She held a smirk on her face, and a hammer in her hand, and stood with cocky assurance. The damp swamp air didn’t appear to affect her body, and a slight chill and crackle of energy emanated from her body.
A solid foot planted itself through the hole, green toes digging into the dirt as it touched down gently. The hole suddenly doubled its size, then tripled, a female form tumbled through, balance lost from her single foot planted in the Earth.
“You better throw open the welcome mat, Manny. These’re Gods that’re coming through, and, well, a Nexus protector, like yourself.”
The first, a thin female held herself tightly, hands gripping her shoulder blades. She shivered, branches full of moulting leaves jutted from her head in odd places and angles. The leaves hit the swamp dirt and immediately melted into the detritus. She watched them with an odd look on her face. Offering a smile to Man-Thing, who knelt before her, touching her face with his extraordinarily long arms, and gently pressing his forehead, such as it was, to her own. The branches that ran along the top of her head met the top of his like a crown, and the hammer woman frowned, the two Raven’s landing on her shoulders.
“Yes, Vorgunus Koth. We are here.”
The Microverse
“Mistaken in what way, Doctor Foster?”
Bill looked down at Robert, who was attempting to salvage the remains of his board. He looked confused, physics no longer behaving in a way he could work with, he was left rudderless. A few elements of his board hung from his waist, clipping them into pouches.
“It isn’t Mar-Vell,” he said calmly, looking down at Hawkeye. The Avenger nodded and moved slowly and deliberately towards the verge, holding his bow tightly in his hand.
“Well, let’s be clear here,” Hawkeye said, “It is Mar-Vell, but he doesn’t look like any version we know of.”
Bill nodded, shrinking down again. He put his hand on Robert’s shoulder.
“This is serious,” he said, looking between Robert and White Tiger, “What appears to be an army is heading towards us.”
Angela swallowed loudly, taking a step back towards Bloodstone, who was just starting to wake up.
“Whasis? What’s happening?” she asked, rubbing her forehead softly, pushing grains of dirt and globules of gunk around her hairline.
Bill offered her a hand and pulled her up.
“You’re probably the most experienced with the weird in this little group,” he whispered. Elsa nodded, proud.
“We’re trapped in the Negative Zone and what we thought was a Kree distress signal has in fact turned out to be something far stranger and more dangerous.”
Elsa rolled her hand at the wrist.
“Yes, yes? Get on with it. This isn’t a novel writing synopsis session. What is this ‘strange and dangerous’ thing you’re talking about?”
A form came hurtling over the verge, a humanoid form, although much different to the Avengers. Long, lithe limbs that looked barely human. No skin to speak of, save for the starscape pattern dotting within it, forming features with clusters of stars, or groups of black holes. It opened its maw, a blast of radio static filling the Avengers ears, and nearly stumbling Hawkeye.
The first arrow pierced its throat, cutting the scream short. The second disappeared into the shape of the body, before it exploded, separating the right leg from its torso, and sending the creature into the ground below. Hawkeye delivered a final arrow to its eye before moving to recover them.
“Think we’ve been noticed.”
“Yeah, brilliant observation seeing-eye-avenger,” Elsa yelled, “What next? You’ll dazzle us with the ability to continue to breathe?”
Bill grabbed Elsa’s shoulder tightly, and pulled her attention back.
“Nega-Energy. Captain Mar-Vell utilized it to manipulate light, and fly through space. He also used it to swap places with things in the Microverse. Elsa, I don’t quite understand what is happening here, but there are hundreds of those things down there. What are they? Starscape monstrosities who’re using Marv’s abilities…God knows what they’re doing. Are they invading? Are they looking to colonise the Microverse? Earth? Our world?”
Elsa slapped him in the jaw and stared hard into his eyes. She kissed him tightly and pushed him solidly in the chest, knocking him over.
“Science is boring, Bill. You have a face built for pleasure, not for boredom. When we get out of this, come to my bunk. I’ll show you that science isn’t everything.”
She unholstered her guns, and drew them up to chest level, walking passed Hawkeye.
“What are you waiting for, trick-fingers, a bloody invitation? We’ve got some insects to…”
Elsa paused at the verge of the hill. Hundreds of humanoids, barely moving, in hundreds of different forms. Taller than buildings, or tiny swarms buzzing around. Some with limbs far longer than what could biologically support the weight from above. She swallowed audibly and turned to Hawkeye.
“Why didn’t you tell me about this?”
Angela pushed past Elsa and stood on the verge, drawing in a deep breath.
“He didn’t want to worry me or Robert,” she said quietly, looking across at him, “Did you, Hawkeye?”
Clint winked at her.
“Looks like you just took my codename, Angela. Way more observant than you need to be.”
Robert pulled himself towards the corpse of the fallen Warrior and pulled a strip of cloth from its chest. He held it up to the light and stared at it. He looked across at Bill, who was adjusting his belt.
“Is this…”
Bill grabbed it quickly and held it closer to his eye.
“It’s painted, yes, but…it’s Mar-Vell’s insignia. An eight pointed star. Does that mean he is…”
“Look,” Hawkeye interrupted, pointing to a man walking on air, in the centre of the starscape army. His costume was Crimson and Black, the crimson parts heavily scaled like Captain America’s armor. A huge red cape flew behind him, like a trail of floating blood. Three large maggots encircled his left leg, right arm, and his midsection, wriggling against his uniform.
He glowed. The symbol on his chest, a pentagram glowed, throwing out a huge amount of light. The bright yellow bands which practically spat energy on his wrists stung the edges of Angela’s eyes. It was then that she noticed, corresponding sparks from the insectoid peoples bands, including that of the warrior they had downed.
“Robert…are you able to make something from these?” she asked, looking back quickly at the on-coming army.
“Like what?” he asked, panicked, “I don’t work that fast and I don’t know what these are, Angela.”
Bill nodded quickly, putting his hand on Angela’s shoulder.
“No, I understand. Robert, I know you’re under pressure here, but we need you to make something that will turn the corresponding sparks from these bands…” he looked across to Angela and Hawkeye. Elsa was swearing at the oncoming warriors, “Into some sort of cloaking, or shield. I think…if there is some sort of carrier field..”
“Yes, OK. I get it,” Robert said, pulling up a limp arm and immediately regretting it, ichor leaking down his forearms, “We turn it into a bigger wave. Then we huddle inside its radius, like a really short wave radio.”
“Yes! Exactly. We can’t fight them all.”
“Can’t or won’t?” Elsa asked, “Because I’m going to see if I can. Defeatist American tits.”
She hurtled down the verge, guns blazing. A blast of energy sent her hurtling up the verge against, her clothes on fire, and her guns destroyed. Elsa, despite her hardiness, was once again unconscious.
A roar sounded below them, a scream of inhuman proportions.
“Who dares to attack the cosmic consciousness? Who would destroy a cosmic neuron? You are a goblet of sweat from my Father, Eternity! You are a menstrual waste product of my Mother, Infinity! You are dead, you are gone! YOU ARE OVER.”
“Well,” Hawkeye said, pulling and notching another arrow, “He seems nice. Not pompous at all.”
“Rob,” Bill said, “Get to work.”
Helicarrier Prison Command 5, Earth
“Tell me about the murder,” Kate said, leaning forwards on her elbows. Mark grinned.
“Well, we’d been arguing a lot and you wanted to move in together. Commitment makes me feel weird, so I had to call it off…”
“Not our relationship, Mark,” Kate said with a heavy, frustrated sigh, “Although, that is certainly a good reason to want to murder you.”
“Is that a threat, officer? I was actually referring to the murder of our relationship by your desire to be a control freak.”
“Answer the question,” Kate said, shifting restlessly.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Amalgam, Mark. You broke her neck. We found the body.”
Mark sighed, his eyes glazing over, and refocusing on the blood in the table. There was a face looking up at him from it.
“She wanted to be released from her prison, Kate,” Mark said, his voice flat and distracted “She was the spirit of the Earth from another dimension. Another world. It isn’t her fault.”
“Why did you do it?”
Mark looked down in the blood again. The face stared back. It blinked.
-Mark Diering, my Brother of Nature. Please. Find my Captain.-
“What?”
Kate slammed her hands on the desk.
“Why did you kill her Mark? You’re a murderer, as well as a serial offender. You put children at risk, you put the planet at risk, and you broke yet another poor girl’s heart because you’re such a…”
“Kate,” Mark said firmly. She stopped.
“You need to let me go,” he nodded to the blood on the table.
“Do I?” she said.
“Yes,” he repeated, “Gaia wants me to perform a mission.”
“You can do it from prison. I’m sure you can manipulate someone into doing it for you.”
Mark eyes stared at her, a blaze of anger behind them.
-Brother Nature, I have need of you. I need my Captains. I believe in them. I believe in you.-
“You need. To. Let. Me. Go.”
“No,” she said again, getting to her feet, “You’re staying here with me, Mark. That is the end of it.”
The side of the Helicarrier erupted into a blue energy blast, firing metal against the inside of the wall, and sucking the remaining parts through the explosive decompression. Kate initially hit the wall from the blast, but the air pulled her violently towards the opening.
Before she completely left the vehicle, Mark grabbed her arm, the chain down the centre of the handcuffs broken in half, the bracelets hanging around his wrists.
“You…”
“Don’t,” he said. He looked towards the hole. Floating outside of it was a Vindicator suit, complete with the Maple leaf pattern. Inside of it, however, was nothing. It was simply an animated suit.
“I told you I had a mission,” he shouted over the air flow, “Gaia wants me to gather her captains. Whatever that means!”
“I can’t let you go,” Kate yelled at him, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck.
“That’s always been your problem, Kate,” Mark replied. He threw her forcibly towards the wall, and rammed the table quickly into the metallic floor, jamming it in place. Kate hit the table and her descent into the ocean was halted immediately.
“I didn’t rape anyone, Kate! You know that. I didn’t break any laws either, international, or inter-stellar. I did, however, kill Amalgam. She wanted to die. Her presence on this planet was killing our own Gaia.”
Validator dropped away from the side of the ship, towards the ocean below.
“I thought that would put an end to any more suffering, but it didn’t. But, hey, everyone makes a mistake, right?”
Mark blew her a kiss and leapt backwards from the carrier towards the ocean below.
The Microverse
“Janet.”
Jan floated in the void above the Microverse and the Macroverse. An interstitial space where she could see nothing beyond dark and light. No matter existed, and yet she floated, unassisted.
“Janet?”
Jan began to move her body slowly. It reacted oddly to the void, as though she were moving in reverse, under water. Complicated movements were not happening and she felt violently unwell. Sweat beaded on her forehead, and her inner ear struggled to orientate her.
“Janet!”
“What?” she asked, casting her head about. Her eyes felt as though they were swimming in her head, shifting at an odd pace. She caught sight of what was calling to her. A tiny woman, only an inch tall, sat on her stomach. Janet swatted at her, but the woman leapt up and landed, heavily, on her chest. The wind escaped her lungs and she coughed, gasping.
“Janet,” the tiny woman said, “You have to calm down. You can’t survive long out here, not without my help. So listen.”
Janet offered a weak nod.
“We’re not going to shrink, and we’re not going to grow. At this point that could place us anywhere in the universe. We’re not going to invite entropy, are we?”
Janet shook her head, some air returning to her lungs.
“You might remember me,” the woman said, marching up Janet’s chest, to her shoulder, and sitting down, her legs dangling over her collar bone, “My name is Rita DeMara.”
“Yellowjacket,” Janet said, suddenly feeling a cold sweat breaking out over her body.
“Once,” she admitted, touching Janet’s neck, “But…some time travel happened. I got lost in the folds of space and time. Pym Particles really are amazing, Janet. Even thousands of years in the future nobody has ever really done anything with them the way you and Hank did.”
“And Bill,” she offered. Rita said nothing.
“Those particles are what pushed me through space and time, led me to here, so I can guide you. Are you aware of Shamanism, Janet?”
Jan pursed her lips and sighed.
“I don’t really subscribe to all that magic business,” she said, “Hank once said…”
“That it was undiscovered science. Hank also built a robot who has killed more people than any other Avenger’s mistake, so…Hank isn’t exactly always right.”
Jan tilted her head to one side in acknowledgement.
“You might be right…”
“Hank isn’t here, either,” Rita said, “But we are. You need to get your head sorted before we go and save your friends, because they’re about to walk into a whole world of trouble here, Janet. What do you know about Counter-Earth?”
Janet coughed, and tilted her head slightly to Rita.
“I appreciate you asking for my input,” she said, “But you’ve jumped from saving me, to Shamanism, to Counter-Earth. Isn’t my impending death slightly higher than asking questions?”
Rita offered a tiny laugh, and stood up.
“Magic is broken, Janet. Counter-Earth is broken, and now the Microverse is their staging ground. We need you to walk the walk.”
Janet shook her head quickly and balled her fists.
“You’re talking in stupid riddles, Rita. Tell me something useful.”
Rita pinched Jan’s neck and yelled upwards, directly into her ear.
“Walk, Janet. Walk along the membrane of the two worlds, and walk on Pym Particles, because that is the only way you can understand any of this…”
Janet sighed heavily, and began to move her legs in an approximation of walking. Flattened particles underneath her began to shift and move, creating a microscopic, atomic flooring for her, shifting under the combined weight of Rita and Jan.
“Walk, Janet Van Dyne, and save your friends. It’s time you became everything you needed to be.”
New York City, Earth
“Curzon,” Moon Knight knelt on the British detective’s back. Warren coughed and twisted his head slightly. He arched an eyebrow looking over his shoulder. The man bore down on him with no expression on his face, a blank, white mask clinging to his features, highlighting only his eyes, and a crescent Moon on his forehead. The sharp white suit he wore was tainted slightly with ash from Curzon’s cigarette and blood from his nose.
“Moon Knight? Just as batshit as ever, I see.”
Franklin grinned and patted the white-suited man on the shoulder.
“Off you get, Knight. This is the final member of our strange little group.”
The armored individual to their side stood stock still, arms crossed over his chest. Warren Curzon brushed himself off, and got to his feet, pulling his last cigarette from his pocket. It was bent at a strange angle.
“So,” Curzon said, lighting the cigarette and staring at the armored man, “Shit Iron Man, Beard-Guy and Bat-Shit Knight went to market and…”
“Got themselves an eminently experienced detective with whom they later go on to save the world. Two worlds actually,” Franklin offered a nod to the armored Man. “And they all lived happily ever after, safe in the knowledge that a man from the future came to prevent that future from coming to be.”
Curzon took a long drag on his cigarette and exhaled in Moon Knight’s direction.
“Nah,” he said, “I’m out. I don’t do superheroes.”
The armored man stepped forward, pinching the cigarette from Warren’s mouth. “Rebel...” the bearded man said, his tone warning.
“Curzon, my whole planet is going to die from rampant insanity. Franklin here tells me that you’re a key part of saving my home, and you’re saying no based on what? Some Prejudice?”
Warren pulled his cigarette out of Rebel’s hand and put it back in his mouth, relighting it.
“Mate, I’m British. Unlike you bloody yanks we eliminated racism years ago by being actually bloody nice to each other. Mind you there was that whole colonial period, but you bloody Freedom Mentalists took that all out, so we had to learn to do two things.”
“What are they?” Moon Knight asked, pulling imaginary fluff off his suit.
“Become completely complacent and apathetic towards the world, and be bloody honest. I’m not prejudice, I’m saying you superheroes play by your own rules, and you don’t need a bloody British detective when you have Moon Knight, Discount Iron Man and…who are you again?”
The bearded man smiled, and put his hands on Warren’s shoulders.
“My name is Franklin Richards, Warren. I’m from the future where we save the world, and you don’t live pay-check to pay-check drinking whiskey, smoking cigarettes and hoping that something would kill you inside out, rather than outside in.”
Warren cocked his head to one side.
“Yeah? What saves me, Mr. Time Travel?”
“Her name is Elizabeth Braddock. I believe you save her, and she saves you. Just as you did at the STRIKE Academy.”
Warren’s face drained of blood and he stared hard at Franklin. His mouth twisted and he punched Franklin in the stomach, doubling him over. Franklin looked up, as Moon Knight’s elbow mashed Curzon’s nose into a bloody flower. The detective hit the ground hard, and rolled on to his front.
“How did you know?” Curzon said, sitting up, “How did you know about Betsy and me?”
“How does anyone know anything, Warren,” Franklin said, crouching down on the balls of his feet, “You told me, Warren. In the future. In a rare moment when you weren’t drinking and feeling sorry for yourself. In a moment when you remember why you became a police officer, and why you moved to Britain. Because someone stabbed you in the shoulder, and when you fell forwards, Betsy was there to take him out.”
Warren stared hard into the ground.
“When you were bleeding out, she shattered his mind completely with her burgeoning powers, and explained it all to you while you lay waiting for the ambulance. Then you have to leave didn’t you?”
Warren nodded.
“Why did I leave.”
His face was steel, staring into Franklin’s eyes. Moon Knight looked across at Rebel, who was carefully removing the clasps at the side of his helmet. The face plate came off, letting the man’s long, brunette hair pour out.
“Because she is a telepath, isn’t she?” Franklin smiled, “She is a telepath and she found out that you’d loved her the moment you saw her, and when you looked into her eyes, and shared that moment, your blood pouring out of your back, you realized that she would never love you.”
Warren closed his eyes.
“And in the future, she loves me?”
Franklin nodded.
“We’re married? Children?”
Franklin smiled, a harsh, short smile.
“I don’t want you to have the surprise ruined.”
Warren nodded slowly, and got to his feet, wiping the blood off his face with the back of his hand.
“I’m In,” he said. Nodding to Rebel slowly, “I’m in.”
“Then let me explain to you about the state of Counter Earth, Warren. Let me tell you while my planet is trying to kill yours.”
Rebel clapped a metal hand on Curzon’s shoulder, leading him away from Moon Knight and Franklin.
“That wise?” Moon Knight stared at the pair walking away, imperiously. Franklin clasped his hands together.
“This whole thing isn’t wise, Marc,” Franklin said, “But it needs to happen to save the future.”
“Does she love him?” Knight asked, his vision fixed on Curzon’s back.
“After a Fashion,” Franklin replied, after a short silence, “It’s not romantic love, but she really does save him in the end.”
Moon Knight grunted and began to follow Rebel.
“Shouldn’t play with hearts, Richards.”
Franklin sighed and rubbed his forehead, his face breaking composure for a moment into tight emotion. His forehead bunched and his eyes closed.
“I know, Marc. They break too easily.”
Moon Knight stopped and turned to him.
“No, no,” Moon Knight said, “They’re like everything else, Franklin. Full of blood.”
Franklin looked up, as a smile spread underneath the mask of Moon Knight. It creeped him out, and he turned away.
“Good God,” he said, “He really is a lunatic. Alpha did warn me…”
Next Issue: Avengers hiding, or is that, Vs the Cosmic Consciousness! Where exactly is Yellowjacket leading Janet? What is the deal with Man-Thing, Thor and the others? More importantly, please tell me that Brother Nature isn’t going to be an Avenger! Please!