Back to GatefoldIssue #4 by Ed Ainsworth
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"Entropy Legacy Dreamer"
The Florida Everglades
"Mmmm." Amalgam was wading into the deeper water of the Florida Everglades. All around her insects and animals paused their daily tasks to take notice of her. While this wasn't her time, it would always be her home. Her pale blue skin was an interesting contrast to the muddy green waters of the Everglades themselves, Alligators and Turtles surfacing, following her gestures to follow her.
Slowly swimming out further, it was clear she had nothing to fear from anything of this Earth. Which is exactly the problem that worried Mark the most. This Earth.
What if it was from another planet? What happens if it did originate on this planet but it wasn't of this Earth, if it was the work of man, and it was a beast that was bred to destroy. What if it was the Ultimate War Machine? Mark shook his head and looked across to his second and last travelling companion, Karima Shapandar.
Karima was having a hard time adjusting to the events of her life recently. Originally taking quite a while to process being an augmented humanoid robot, effectively a human scale sentinel, she was having trouble coming to terms with the fact her entire consciousness was downloaded into the data banks of the Conquistador, and being analysed by the flame headed Fuego while she was in Florida, hunting for something she was certain SHOULDN'T exist.
"Al right?" Mark asked, putting his hand on Karima's shoulder. It took her a second longer to recognise the pressure, as her brain no longer had the extremely efficient neurological systems that a normal human had, more of a slightly inferior machine facsimile. She sighed, and looked up at him.
"Not especially. I'm finding this all hard to bare. My mind split in two, there are huge gaps in my memory that I am actually aware of, and more importantly, the fact that I hold the key to all of this, when I don't even know it, scares the hell out of me," She looked down at the ground and sighed even deeper.
"I hate the fact I cannot touch the ground, and feel it the way I used too, I feel as though I have been disconnected from the world, and disconnected from my Deitys,"
Mark smiled, he knew what it was like to love the feelings of nature. He felt differently about it than Karima, of course. If he was disconnected from nature, or the natural world, he thought he'd go mad. With Karima, she couldn't feel it in the same way any more. Her nature had been altered.
"We can't help you get any closer to your Deity, Karima, but perhaps Serafina and I could whip up something that'd help you. Maybe we could create some sort of program that gives you those feelings?"
Karima smiled a slow, thoughtful smile, staring into the distance, watching Amalgam frolic with some birds and a crocodile.
"Yes, that would be lovely,"
Mark scratched his head slightly, and leaned into Karima.
"What Deity are you talking about, by the way, I've met...one or two," He said with a wry smile. It was true, he'd spent some time in Asgard, as well as travelling across Otherworld and they were both in the presence of one of the most powerful Gods on Earth.
"I am Hindu, Mark,” Karima replied, and Mark smiled.
“Hindu, eh? Lemme tell you about the time I almost met Ganesha...”
~~~~~~~~~~
A few hours later....
As the pair traipsed through the swamps and small areas of land born vegetation. A clearing slowly opened out. Within it stood a large crystalline structure, with what appeared to be a dark figure encased with in it.
"What is that?" Karima asked, pointing towards the construct, her arms whirring softly, and her brain searched her internal databases for information. Mark put his hand on her shoulder and gently turned her around.
"That, Karima, is our secret weapon. A former foe of the Thing and Man-Thing. He's very, very powerful. You know that room we have in the lower levels of the Conquistador? This is for him," He smiled a gentle, but careful smile. She could tell he was thinking heavily about what he had to do, and the weight on his shoulders was beginning to show for this decision.
"What is it?" She asked. Karima was a naturally curious girl, she wanted to, and needed to know the workings of things. It was what led her into the situation that led to her becoming a humanoid robot. A double edged sword that she worked to try and control every day. As the saying goes "Curiosity killed the Cat."
"Karima," Mark said softly, he tried to broach it without hurting her feelings.
"Mark," She said with a slightly more angry tone. "I don't like being kept in the dark. I've built the containment room for this thing - Nothing biological. Plexiglass made from skyscraper grade materials, cut off from the air supplies of the ship, artificial crystalline generators hooked up to the structural integrity of the plexiglass. It's all there. What is this thing?"
Mark shook his head and put his fingers to their lips.
"I can't tell you, Karima. Not until Fuego finishes his Analysis. You got information from the Gatherer, and Celestial's have technology beyond anything we could produce in the time our planets been alive. We can't risk them finding out what we've been getting up to, or what this is, in case they find a way to countermand it."
Karima's eyes narrowed, and she bore her teeth in anger.
"What was the point in bringing me then, Mark?" She asked, eyes full of rage.
"Well, you're a valuable member of the group, Karima. You create things that are beyond Sera's capabilities, and if they are watching, they know that we know and we're getting ready. They know that we're not fucking scared of any giant crap looking alien monster gods. They know that we're going to beat the shit out of them, and they know that you helped us do it,"
He smiled a wicked smile, something that gave Karima a sort of sick joy, at the knowledge that she'd be hurting these things, and a tiny, tiny feelings that she may be in the wilderness with a mad man and his weird mother figure.
She looked away, and gulped for a second. Maybe they were going to strip her down for parts?
"Okay. Amalgam? I want you to break down the Crystal, and Karima, be ready with your portable stasis field," Mark directed, crossing is arms, as the two women walked forwards. Karima gently placed a tiny finger at four points around the structure, leaving them in the dirt as she walked away. They formed a tiny energy net around the mineral, as Amalgam's powers began to kick in.
The crystal slowly melted away, transformed into mineral water that trickled down the limbs and body of the figure which had once been encased in it. Clad in black, torn cloth, it barely covered the figures emaciated body, covering his head casting his desiccated face in darkness, excluding the horrid red glow of its eyes. It stumbled forwards; Karima closed her eyes and threw up the stasis field around the creature. It gargled something incoherently before it pressed its hands against the energy barrier, electrical jolts locking it in place. The creatures movements stopped and its eyes last movement was to lock it's gaze on Mark. Mark narrowed his eyes holding the creatures gaze.
"Fuck." He whispered quietly, staring at the creature before them. "What the hell have we started here?"
~~~~~~~~~~
The Citrusville Swamps
From the distance of the Swamps, a pair of large, round, ruby eyes gazed at Mark, never leaving his form. The creature rumbled to itself, as moss and muck fell from its body, back into the swamp of it's origin. Citrusville was about to loose an important resident, something that the creature, along with Ben Grimm had attempted to stop before.
Without the aid of the being who originally captured the creature, the Man-Things simply brain was unable to wonder if the creature would break loose again and kill, or if it would be taken away so that the cruelty of humanity could once again create a weapon of mass destruction.
Unfortunately, all Man-Thing could manage was to bare witness to the extraction of this entity, and watching his "Brother" with longing.
~~~~~~~~~~
New York Rooftops
Mattie Franklin sat on the edge of a building. Her mask floated in the winds around the structure, hanging from her left hand, her right knee drawn into her chest. She was a woman with thin limbs, and short brunette hair. A former New Warrior, current solo defender of New York, along with all the other heroes. It was something she lamented. She didn't speak to the other warriors all that often. It made her sad to think of all the time they spent together, and how they just..drifted from each other.
She shook her head.
Pulling the mask over her face, she got to her feet, only to find two men stood before her.
"Whoa," She pulled her fists up, why hadn't her spider-sense alerted her to this? These guys came from nowhere. One was larger than the other. The man on the left was smiling a wide smile. He was an albino, covered in short, white fur, and a long pony-tail. The only splash of colour over his body were his large, pink eyes. His only clothing a pair of denim over-alls. He stepped forwards, hand extended.
"Hi Mattie, I'm Boost," His smile didn't change, as the man now stood behind him crossed his arms, and eyed the woman up and down.
"Mattie Franklin, right? Former new Warrior, current solo hero of NYC, and possessor of some serious Spider powers. You got everything Spider-Man has, and all the Spider-Women. Venom blasts, flight, extra limbs and most important of all Psionic Webbing," Brother Nature said, looking somewhat pleased with himself.
She took a step back from the men, surprised, before turning around completely, and sprinting towards the edge of the building, leaping off and spreading her arms to stretch the webbing underneath her arms and fly away from the duo. The Albino man turned to the Mark, looking up.
"Nice job there, Mark. You scared her off," Mark pursed his lips, and broke into a run, following Mattie, who was already scaling the face of the building across the expanse. Mark coiled his leg muscles and leapt the distance, landing with two tiny impact craters on the ledge either side of Mattie's hands, his arms slipping through the gaps between his lower limbs and latching onto her wrists, pulling her up onto the building ledge.
"Mattie, I don't want to hurt you. I want to offer you a job and.." Mattie swung upwards, both her feet hitting Mark under the chin. He released his grip on her arms, as he was sent flying backwards. He landed in the middle of the roof, as the somersaulting Mattie landed either side of him, and threw her hands down, shooting Venom blasts through his chest, burning the flesh and jolting him off the ground.
Mark gritted his teeth and grabbed her wrists again, pulling her to his left side and swinging his leg into the back of her knees.
"A job and a purpose, Mattie. With me and my team. What do you say?" He spat through gritted teeth, as she tried to wriggle out from his grasp.
"I don't know any of you, I don't know the Albino guy and I certainly don't know you, the guy who's holding me down on the ground after kicking me in the back of the legs!"
"You venomed me in the chest, for Christ’s sakes, did you want me to just offer you a card with my burnt skin?" He let go of her arms and got to his feet slowly. Mattie eyed him cautiously and got to her feet slowly.
"What job? What Purpose?" She asked, looking at him with a tilted head
"Save the world, Mattie, be the hero you always knew you could be,"
"Right," She said sarcastically.
"Al right. But it's free bed and board and we can train you to have an even greater control of your powers than before,"
"You're still not really selling this to me,"
"Which part of saving the world doesn't really give the impression of the magnitude of what we're dealing with here. The group of people I've been gathering is very, very specific. We need you, we really do need you and nobody else can fill your spot. You're potentially the thing that keeps this bound together. You're our nerve centre,"
"Nerve centre?" She asked, as Boost managed to scramble up the side of the building, putting his hands on his knees and bending over in exhaustion.
"That's right - Psionic Webbing, it's really the thing that everything else hinges on, Mattie. We need your webs to save the world, look if you follow me back to the Conquistador, I'll explain everything there. Promise we're not here to destroy you," Mark said, crossing his fingers in front of her and giving a sarcastic smile.
"Only me, by the feel of it," Boost joked, looking up at the other two, "What? Running is hard work when you're covered in fur. You try only being able to sweat through your tongue."
~~~~~~~~~~
Sharon rubbed her forehead gently, and looked across the table. The young man known as Monopole sat opposite her, holding his cards in his hands, as Mr Immortal looked at his. His wife stood behind him, her pink hands and membranous wings draped over his shoulders. She whistled excitedly and Craig shushed her.
“I can't bluff if you've giving the others tells, Dinah,” Craig said, his annoyed look breaking into a warm smile at the sadness on his wife's face. James stuck his tongue out and leaned back in the chair.
“You and me then, Sharon,” he said, a smile on his features. She sighed and laid her cards down on the table, face down.
“I fold,” She said, defeated.
“Hey, you okay?” James asked, laying his cards down and drawing the attention of the love birds.
“Yeah, I'm just a bit tired tonight,” Sharon said, leaning back in her chair. Craig nodded and pointed towards the sofa's in the large “living area”. A couple of rooms that had been knocked through to create a space for the group to live.
Dinah moved over towards the Sofa's and James finished his can of drink before getting to his feet.
“I'm going to turn in as well, I've got some research to do tomorrow morning. I need to understand Gravity wells a bit better.”
As James walked off into the distance, Craig stayed where he was sat.
“What's bothering you?” He asked, Sharon narrowed her eyes.
“What makes you think anything is, Craig?” She replied, her head cocked to the side.
“I'm not the worlds greatest hero, but I'm not an idiot, Sharon. You're obviously annoyed and upset, what's got your goat?” He replied, his tones hushed to show he was serious and he'd protect her secret.
“I'm just worried, Craig. Just worried. There are people out there with similar powers to me, and we need to try and find them. They're going to hurt themselves, or worse, they're going to hurt nature.”
(*More on this in Marvel Fanfare #70)
Craig offered a hand to Sharon, who put her large orange one in his. Palm to palm.
“We'll sort it together, Sharon. People like us always do, I think you should be more concerned with that Chrome guy. He seem's to have some mad on vendetta against you – That's something you should really watch out for,” Craig continued. Sharon sighed and pulled her hand away.
“You're sweet, Craig, but Chrome isn't anything to worry about for me. He'll change his mind eventually. I've just got a feeling about it,” She smiled a worried smile to Craig, who pulled his hands in close.
“A feeling or some knowledge?” He asked. A question that took Sharon by suprise.
“What do you mean, some knowledge?”
“Hey, we're Superheroes. Most of us know our fate before we get anywhere near it – Gives us a chance to try and right it before we fight it, you know?” He shot her a quzzical look before Sharon nervously got to her feet.
“I...I need to go and lay down, Craig. Thanks for the pep talk.”
Sharon charged out of the room, leaving Craig scratching his head. Dinah came walking over to time, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and planting little kisses on his cheek with her long, pink fleshy beak. He smiled and looked up at her big, round eyes.
“She's not telling us something, Dinah. I'm not sure what, but she's got some sort of inside knowledge on this thing, and that's the sort of thing that worries me. She's seen what happens to her, and that's the most devastating thing anyone could see – Trust me, I've seen myself in a few thousand years.”
Craig looked up at his wife, and sighed, taking his hand in hers. She looked down at him, puzzled, before he kissed her gently, and gestured towards the sofa.
“Lets watch one of those crap European films the Children have to take our mind off this, I liked that French one about the stop-lights.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Shi'ar Space
"I'm somewhat in awe of the fact that you just happened to have a star-ship capable of inter-stellar flight...lying around waiting to be used." David said. David was a former Spider-man villain who did his time and reformed into one of the worlds leading solar and photosynthesis specialist scientists.
"Yes, Necessity," Astra said, her tone short.
Darwin sat in silence, as Astra's fingers worked over time on the computer terminal before her. Whilst she found that there were a number of interesting elements to David's work on photosynthesis, she found his personality and his presence to be the biggest bore she'd suffered since she left educational work. It appeared as though David was a serial bachelor, moving from place to place causing women to implode from boredom. Luckily for Astra she knew she would not go unfulfilled on this journey. Darwin was still "sleeping" in her quarters, and David had noticed.
"Do we know who we're meeting?" David asked, and was once again met with stony silence and a glare from Astra.
"I honestly don't know why I took on this "opportunity," David muttered to himself, sitting down heavily and looking out the window. At least it would be a comfortable and interesting journey. He had decided, fortunately, to bring some of his new work with him. To stupid the effects of sunlight directly from the source on plants without the filtering of it's rays through the Atmosphere.
Originally, Astra had appeared to be interesting, but after twenty minutes of him talking, he'd noticed Astra had stopped listening and was staring at Darwin again. There was something very weird going on between them. Astra looked at him like he was a piece of meat to be played with, and then in the same gaze there was a soft sort of love in her eyes.
Very strange woman. Very strange situation.
As Darwin exited the sleeping quarters he had shared, noisily, with Astra, his head turned, and he looked out through the main viewing port.
"We're being approached by another ship," He said quietly. David got to his feet and put his hand over his forehead, to give his eyes some shade from the artificial lights.
"I can't see anything," He said, turning to Astra and Darwin.
"Modified Eyes," Astra said in a matter of fact tone.
"We've been hailed. It's Mentor. He wants to dock and discuss our "plans" with us," Astra turned to David and Darwin. "Let me do the talking, Okay? All we want is the Phoenix Shard, nothing else,"
After a few moments, and some relatively awkward manoeuvring, the two ships were docked together. Darwin, standing next to Astra, with David on the opposite side, watched as the doors opened, and three members of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard walk through the air lock.
Mentor, the green skinned bald man held a small, opaque containment cube, while the other men, a man with stars on his face and body wearing yellow boots and gloves, and a man wearing what appeared to be sunglasses and a white and black costume stood either side of him. They were both huge, muscular men.
"Mentor, pleasure to finally meet you," Astra said, ramping up the manners. Mentor nodded, and gestured towards his men.
"Neutron and Smasher," He gestured for his super guardians to come closer to him, to give him whatever protection he lacked. "Odd, I cannot read your minds, do you have working Psi-Shields?" Mentor asked, obviously he wasn't afraid to ask the big questions or go into people’s minds to find the information.
"No, We're all Mutants, you see," Astra began, sitting down at a table, and gesturing for him to sit as well. He placed the cube on the table’s surface.
"Mutants," Smasher snorted. He disliked mutants. Naturally given their powers through some fluke of nature, not earning them the way he did. The hours of training, the painful trials, the tests and the enhancements surgically grafted onto his body.
"A problem?" Astra asked, leaning forwards, her gaze meeting Smasher's who held it for a moment, before looking away. Astra was extremely intimidating, as well as being an incredibly convincing liar.
Darwin noticed this. As far as he was aware, Astra had no mutant abilities to speak of, and David was an augmented human, with plant traces, all of which had nothing to do with extra genes in their bodies. He remained completely silent and still, keeping his eyes on Smasher and Neutron, waiting for his body to react.
"Hrm. I've not heard of this resistance before; I've dealt with the X-men, you know," Mentor stated, obviously trying to show of, and relate some of his experience back to the "mere Earthlings" before him.
"You'll find they're much less evolved and trained than we are," Astra said, her tone flat, moving forward her hands clasped together.
"Now, the Shard?" She asked after a moment of silence.
Mentor nodded and placed the small cube closer to his midsection, narrowing an eye at Astra's eagerness.
"Why do you need to examine this shard, Astra of Earth? The Phoenix is sacred to the Shi'ar and to us by proxy,"
"Scientific curiosity?" She offered, before unwrapping her hands and taking a few steps backwards.
"I'm not sure I believe that, Astra. We thought that you were here truly for that reason, but it appears, that amongst being met with Psi-Shields you are not willing to give your true natures away. I do not trust your words any more than I trust the the sun will steal the moon. We are leaving,"
"Shit. Darwin. Sundown." She threw her hands forwards. David's costume blazed into place, bright light filling the area around him, as his skin turned green. Some changes had been made to his biological structure since he last powered up. Neutron came at him; his massive star-scape fist hurtled towards his face.
David threw up a palm, catching the Super-Guardians fist in his own and breaking the alien’s knuckles.
"I could bench press a planet with no atmosphere to prevent the rays from hitting me directly, Guardian. You're neutralised,"
Darwin twisted around as Smasher shifted through his Hyper-Goggles and launched into a flurry of super adaptive attacks. Super speed punches, followed by laser eye beams, explosive chemical sweat and finally a shield of hard air launched into Darwin.
An for every attack, Darwin adapted perfectly, allowing the guardian to offload himself into the Mutant. Darwin stood in place, as energy was absorbed by the newly formed ablative skin plates on his chest, or the speed was nullified by an aura of frictionless bioelectricity.
Armando smiled as David delivered an elbow to the back of the Guardians head and threw the two larger members of the Imperial guard through the air-lock. Shortly followed by Astra kicking Mentor in the genitals, and then in the face several times.
"That'll teach you to distrust me and make me look a fool!" She screeched before pushing him through the lock, shutting it's doors.
"We have the shard, now we need to try and outrun a star ship that's twenty five times the size of us. Not an easy task but I am sure we can do it..."
"Or Die trying." David said, expecting some sort of rallying moment. Darwin looked scared and Astra just tutted.
"Idiot."
FROM THE FILES OF BROTHER NATURE
Shapandar, Karima(Omega Sentinel) Karima's abilities stem from Indian Super-solider and technological implants. She's one of the most advanced cybernetic entities in existence. A former archaeologist, she was taken by the Indian Secret Service and experimented on. Now she possesses hundreds of different abilities. - I worry about Karima. She's really a very sweet girl, very devout and very intelligent, I don't think the life of a superhero is the life for her. She's very co-dependant, and I've noticed she seems to spend a lot of time with Fuego and Perro, as though she relates to them more. I need to watch out to make sure they're not influencing her.
Astra (Unknown). Astra is an incredible mutant scientific mind, she is able to turn her hand to the most high concepts of ideas, but is unusually unable to work well with already existing concepts, such as string theory, or other ideas. To maintain her knowledge base she spends many hours re-reading and trying to understand such complex ideas. - Astra's such an incredible Bitch. Her origins are unknown, and she won't even tell me. All I know is we have a long history from when I was wandering, and she hates me almost as much as she loves me. Her long standing rivalry with Katja is probably the only thing that's keeping her working with me.
David Lowell - (Sundown). David worked for Osborn until he was forced to work over time on his project under threat of unemployment. Testing the photosynthetic compound on himself to prevent it from getting into Osborn's hands Lowell found that he was able to absorb huge amounts of sunlight through photosynthesis and use it to power himself giving him incredible strength, energy projection abilities, and flight – Ear Marked for Space Mission; Useful in areas of high solar density. Very similar origin story to Will O’Wisp, perhaps they have more in common than they would imagine.
"Mmmm." Amalgam was wading into the deeper water of the Florida Everglades. All around her insects and animals paused their daily tasks to take notice of her. While this wasn't her time, it would always be her home. Her pale blue skin was an interesting contrast to the muddy green waters of the Everglades themselves, Alligators and Turtles surfacing, following her gestures to follow her.
Slowly swimming out further, it was clear she had nothing to fear from anything of this Earth. Which is exactly the problem that worried Mark the most. This Earth.
What if it was from another planet? What happens if it did originate on this planet but it wasn't of this Earth, if it was the work of man, and it was a beast that was bred to destroy. What if it was the Ultimate War Machine? Mark shook his head and looked across to his second and last travelling companion, Karima Shapandar.
Karima was having a hard time adjusting to the events of her life recently. Originally taking quite a while to process being an augmented humanoid robot, effectively a human scale sentinel, she was having trouble coming to terms with the fact her entire consciousness was downloaded into the data banks of the Conquistador, and being analysed by the flame headed Fuego while she was in Florida, hunting for something she was certain SHOULDN'T exist.
"Al right?" Mark asked, putting his hand on Karima's shoulder. It took her a second longer to recognise the pressure, as her brain no longer had the extremely efficient neurological systems that a normal human had, more of a slightly inferior machine facsimile. She sighed, and looked up at him.
"Not especially. I'm finding this all hard to bare. My mind split in two, there are huge gaps in my memory that I am actually aware of, and more importantly, the fact that I hold the key to all of this, when I don't even know it, scares the hell out of me," She looked down at the ground and sighed even deeper.
"I hate the fact I cannot touch the ground, and feel it the way I used too, I feel as though I have been disconnected from the world, and disconnected from my Deitys,"
Mark smiled, he knew what it was like to love the feelings of nature. He felt differently about it than Karima, of course. If he was disconnected from nature, or the natural world, he thought he'd go mad. With Karima, she couldn't feel it in the same way any more. Her nature had been altered.
"We can't help you get any closer to your Deity, Karima, but perhaps Serafina and I could whip up something that'd help you. Maybe we could create some sort of program that gives you those feelings?"
Karima smiled a slow, thoughtful smile, staring into the distance, watching Amalgam frolic with some birds and a crocodile.
"Yes, that would be lovely,"
Mark scratched his head slightly, and leaned into Karima.
"What Deity are you talking about, by the way, I've met...one or two," He said with a wry smile. It was true, he'd spent some time in Asgard, as well as travelling across Otherworld and they were both in the presence of one of the most powerful Gods on Earth.
"I am Hindu, Mark,” Karima replied, and Mark smiled.
“Hindu, eh? Lemme tell you about the time I almost met Ganesha...”
~~~~~~~~~~
A few hours later....
As the pair traipsed through the swamps and small areas of land born vegetation. A clearing slowly opened out. Within it stood a large crystalline structure, with what appeared to be a dark figure encased with in it.
"What is that?" Karima asked, pointing towards the construct, her arms whirring softly, and her brain searched her internal databases for information. Mark put his hand on her shoulder and gently turned her around.
"That, Karima, is our secret weapon. A former foe of the Thing and Man-Thing. He's very, very powerful. You know that room we have in the lower levels of the Conquistador? This is for him," He smiled a gentle, but careful smile. She could tell he was thinking heavily about what he had to do, and the weight on his shoulders was beginning to show for this decision.
"What is it?" She asked. Karima was a naturally curious girl, she wanted to, and needed to know the workings of things. It was what led her into the situation that led to her becoming a humanoid robot. A double edged sword that she worked to try and control every day. As the saying goes "Curiosity killed the Cat."
"Karima," Mark said softly, he tried to broach it without hurting her feelings.
"Mark," She said with a slightly more angry tone. "I don't like being kept in the dark. I've built the containment room for this thing - Nothing biological. Plexiglass made from skyscraper grade materials, cut off from the air supplies of the ship, artificial crystalline generators hooked up to the structural integrity of the plexiglass. It's all there. What is this thing?"
Mark shook his head and put his fingers to their lips.
"I can't tell you, Karima. Not until Fuego finishes his Analysis. You got information from the Gatherer, and Celestial's have technology beyond anything we could produce in the time our planets been alive. We can't risk them finding out what we've been getting up to, or what this is, in case they find a way to countermand it."
Karima's eyes narrowed, and she bore her teeth in anger.
"What was the point in bringing me then, Mark?" She asked, eyes full of rage.
"Well, you're a valuable member of the group, Karima. You create things that are beyond Sera's capabilities, and if they are watching, they know that we know and we're getting ready. They know that we're not fucking scared of any giant crap looking alien monster gods. They know that we're going to beat the shit out of them, and they know that you helped us do it,"
He smiled a wicked smile, something that gave Karima a sort of sick joy, at the knowledge that she'd be hurting these things, and a tiny, tiny feelings that she may be in the wilderness with a mad man and his weird mother figure.
She looked away, and gulped for a second. Maybe they were going to strip her down for parts?
"Okay. Amalgam? I want you to break down the Crystal, and Karima, be ready with your portable stasis field," Mark directed, crossing is arms, as the two women walked forwards. Karima gently placed a tiny finger at four points around the structure, leaving them in the dirt as she walked away. They formed a tiny energy net around the mineral, as Amalgam's powers began to kick in.
The crystal slowly melted away, transformed into mineral water that trickled down the limbs and body of the figure which had once been encased in it. Clad in black, torn cloth, it barely covered the figures emaciated body, covering his head casting his desiccated face in darkness, excluding the horrid red glow of its eyes. It stumbled forwards; Karima closed her eyes and threw up the stasis field around the creature. It gargled something incoherently before it pressed its hands against the energy barrier, electrical jolts locking it in place. The creatures movements stopped and its eyes last movement was to lock it's gaze on Mark. Mark narrowed his eyes holding the creatures gaze.
"Fuck." He whispered quietly, staring at the creature before them. "What the hell have we started here?"
~~~~~~~~~~
The Citrusville Swamps
From the distance of the Swamps, a pair of large, round, ruby eyes gazed at Mark, never leaving his form. The creature rumbled to itself, as moss and muck fell from its body, back into the swamp of it's origin. Citrusville was about to loose an important resident, something that the creature, along with Ben Grimm had attempted to stop before.
Without the aid of the being who originally captured the creature, the Man-Things simply brain was unable to wonder if the creature would break loose again and kill, or if it would be taken away so that the cruelty of humanity could once again create a weapon of mass destruction.
Unfortunately, all Man-Thing could manage was to bare witness to the extraction of this entity, and watching his "Brother" with longing.
~~~~~~~~~~
New York Rooftops
Mattie Franklin sat on the edge of a building. Her mask floated in the winds around the structure, hanging from her left hand, her right knee drawn into her chest. She was a woman with thin limbs, and short brunette hair. A former New Warrior, current solo defender of New York, along with all the other heroes. It was something she lamented. She didn't speak to the other warriors all that often. It made her sad to think of all the time they spent together, and how they just..drifted from each other.
She shook her head.
Pulling the mask over her face, she got to her feet, only to find two men stood before her.
"Whoa," She pulled her fists up, why hadn't her spider-sense alerted her to this? These guys came from nowhere. One was larger than the other. The man on the left was smiling a wide smile. He was an albino, covered in short, white fur, and a long pony-tail. The only splash of colour over his body were his large, pink eyes. His only clothing a pair of denim over-alls. He stepped forwards, hand extended.
"Hi Mattie, I'm Boost," His smile didn't change, as the man now stood behind him crossed his arms, and eyed the woman up and down.
"Mattie Franklin, right? Former new Warrior, current solo hero of NYC, and possessor of some serious Spider powers. You got everything Spider-Man has, and all the Spider-Women. Venom blasts, flight, extra limbs and most important of all Psionic Webbing," Brother Nature said, looking somewhat pleased with himself.
She took a step back from the men, surprised, before turning around completely, and sprinting towards the edge of the building, leaping off and spreading her arms to stretch the webbing underneath her arms and fly away from the duo. The Albino man turned to the Mark, looking up.
"Nice job there, Mark. You scared her off," Mark pursed his lips, and broke into a run, following Mattie, who was already scaling the face of the building across the expanse. Mark coiled his leg muscles and leapt the distance, landing with two tiny impact craters on the ledge either side of Mattie's hands, his arms slipping through the gaps between his lower limbs and latching onto her wrists, pulling her up onto the building ledge.
"Mattie, I don't want to hurt you. I want to offer you a job and.." Mattie swung upwards, both her feet hitting Mark under the chin. He released his grip on her arms, as he was sent flying backwards. He landed in the middle of the roof, as the somersaulting Mattie landed either side of him, and threw her hands down, shooting Venom blasts through his chest, burning the flesh and jolting him off the ground.
Mark gritted his teeth and grabbed her wrists again, pulling her to his left side and swinging his leg into the back of her knees.
"A job and a purpose, Mattie. With me and my team. What do you say?" He spat through gritted teeth, as she tried to wriggle out from his grasp.
"I don't know any of you, I don't know the Albino guy and I certainly don't know you, the guy who's holding me down on the ground after kicking me in the back of the legs!"
"You venomed me in the chest, for Christ’s sakes, did you want me to just offer you a card with my burnt skin?" He let go of her arms and got to his feet slowly. Mattie eyed him cautiously and got to her feet slowly.
"What job? What Purpose?" She asked, looking at him with a tilted head
"Save the world, Mattie, be the hero you always knew you could be,"
"Right," She said sarcastically.
"Al right. But it's free bed and board and we can train you to have an even greater control of your powers than before,"
"You're still not really selling this to me,"
"Which part of saving the world doesn't really give the impression of the magnitude of what we're dealing with here. The group of people I've been gathering is very, very specific. We need you, we really do need you and nobody else can fill your spot. You're potentially the thing that keeps this bound together. You're our nerve centre,"
"Nerve centre?" She asked, as Boost managed to scramble up the side of the building, putting his hands on his knees and bending over in exhaustion.
"That's right - Psionic Webbing, it's really the thing that everything else hinges on, Mattie. We need your webs to save the world, look if you follow me back to the Conquistador, I'll explain everything there. Promise we're not here to destroy you," Mark said, crossing his fingers in front of her and giving a sarcastic smile.
"Only me, by the feel of it," Boost joked, looking up at the other two, "What? Running is hard work when you're covered in fur. You try only being able to sweat through your tongue."
~~~~~~~~~~
Sharon rubbed her forehead gently, and looked across the table. The young man known as Monopole sat opposite her, holding his cards in his hands, as Mr Immortal looked at his. His wife stood behind him, her pink hands and membranous wings draped over his shoulders. She whistled excitedly and Craig shushed her.
“I can't bluff if you've giving the others tells, Dinah,” Craig said, his annoyed look breaking into a warm smile at the sadness on his wife's face. James stuck his tongue out and leaned back in the chair.
“You and me then, Sharon,” he said, a smile on his features. She sighed and laid her cards down on the table, face down.
“I fold,” She said, defeated.
“Hey, you okay?” James asked, laying his cards down and drawing the attention of the love birds.
“Yeah, I'm just a bit tired tonight,” Sharon said, leaning back in her chair. Craig nodded and pointed towards the sofa's in the large “living area”. A couple of rooms that had been knocked through to create a space for the group to live.
Dinah moved over towards the Sofa's and James finished his can of drink before getting to his feet.
“I'm going to turn in as well, I've got some research to do tomorrow morning. I need to understand Gravity wells a bit better.”
As James walked off into the distance, Craig stayed where he was sat.
“What's bothering you?” He asked, Sharon narrowed her eyes.
“What makes you think anything is, Craig?” She replied, her head cocked to the side.
“I'm not the worlds greatest hero, but I'm not an idiot, Sharon. You're obviously annoyed and upset, what's got your goat?” He replied, his tones hushed to show he was serious and he'd protect her secret.
“I'm just worried, Craig. Just worried. There are people out there with similar powers to me, and we need to try and find them. They're going to hurt themselves, or worse, they're going to hurt nature.”
(*More on this in Marvel Fanfare #70)
Craig offered a hand to Sharon, who put her large orange one in his. Palm to palm.
“We'll sort it together, Sharon. People like us always do, I think you should be more concerned with that Chrome guy. He seem's to have some mad on vendetta against you – That's something you should really watch out for,” Craig continued. Sharon sighed and pulled her hand away.
“You're sweet, Craig, but Chrome isn't anything to worry about for me. He'll change his mind eventually. I've just got a feeling about it,” She smiled a worried smile to Craig, who pulled his hands in close.
“A feeling or some knowledge?” He asked. A question that took Sharon by suprise.
“What do you mean, some knowledge?”
“Hey, we're Superheroes. Most of us know our fate before we get anywhere near it – Gives us a chance to try and right it before we fight it, you know?” He shot her a quzzical look before Sharon nervously got to her feet.
“I...I need to go and lay down, Craig. Thanks for the pep talk.”
Sharon charged out of the room, leaving Craig scratching his head. Dinah came walking over to time, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and planting little kisses on his cheek with her long, pink fleshy beak. He smiled and looked up at her big, round eyes.
“She's not telling us something, Dinah. I'm not sure what, but she's got some sort of inside knowledge on this thing, and that's the sort of thing that worries me. She's seen what happens to her, and that's the most devastating thing anyone could see – Trust me, I've seen myself in a few thousand years.”
Craig looked up at his wife, and sighed, taking his hand in hers. She looked down at him, puzzled, before he kissed her gently, and gestured towards the sofa.
“Lets watch one of those crap European films the Children have to take our mind off this, I liked that French one about the stop-lights.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Shi'ar Space
"I'm somewhat in awe of the fact that you just happened to have a star-ship capable of inter-stellar flight...lying around waiting to be used." David said. David was a former Spider-man villain who did his time and reformed into one of the worlds leading solar and photosynthesis specialist scientists.
"Yes, Necessity," Astra said, her tone short.
Darwin sat in silence, as Astra's fingers worked over time on the computer terminal before her. Whilst she found that there were a number of interesting elements to David's work on photosynthesis, she found his personality and his presence to be the biggest bore she'd suffered since she left educational work. It appeared as though David was a serial bachelor, moving from place to place causing women to implode from boredom. Luckily for Astra she knew she would not go unfulfilled on this journey. Darwin was still "sleeping" in her quarters, and David had noticed.
"Do we know who we're meeting?" David asked, and was once again met with stony silence and a glare from Astra.
"I honestly don't know why I took on this "opportunity," David muttered to himself, sitting down heavily and looking out the window. At least it would be a comfortable and interesting journey. He had decided, fortunately, to bring some of his new work with him. To stupid the effects of sunlight directly from the source on plants without the filtering of it's rays through the Atmosphere.
Originally, Astra had appeared to be interesting, but after twenty minutes of him talking, he'd noticed Astra had stopped listening and was staring at Darwin again. There was something very weird going on between them. Astra looked at him like he was a piece of meat to be played with, and then in the same gaze there was a soft sort of love in her eyes.
Very strange woman. Very strange situation.
As Darwin exited the sleeping quarters he had shared, noisily, with Astra, his head turned, and he looked out through the main viewing port.
"We're being approached by another ship," He said quietly. David got to his feet and put his hand over his forehead, to give his eyes some shade from the artificial lights.
"I can't see anything," He said, turning to Astra and Darwin.
"Modified Eyes," Astra said in a matter of fact tone.
"We've been hailed. It's Mentor. He wants to dock and discuss our "plans" with us," Astra turned to David and Darwin. "Let me do the talking, Okay? All we want is the Phoenix Shard, nothing else,"
After a few moments, and some relatively awkward manoeuvring, the two ships were docked together. Darwin, standing next to Astra, with David on the opposite side, watched as the doors opened, and three members of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard walk through the air lock.
Mentor, the green skinned bald man held a small, opaque containment cube, while the other men, a man with stars on his face and body wearing yellow boots and gloves, and a man wearing what appeared to be sunglasses and a white and black costume stood either side of him. They were both huge, muscular men.
"Mentor, pleasure to finally meet you," Astra said, ramping up the manners. Mentor nodded, and gestured towards his men.
"Neutron and Smasher," He gestured for his super guardians to come closer to him, to give him whatever protection he lacked. "Odd, I cannot read your minds, do you have working Psi-Shields?" Mentor asked, obviously he wasn't afraid to ask the big questions or go into people’s minds to find the information.
"No, We're all Mutants, you see," Astra began, sitting down at a table, and gesturing for him to sit as well. He placed the cube on the table’s surface.
"Mutants," Smasher snorted. He disliked mutants. Naturally given their powers through some fluke of nature, not earning them the way he did. The hours of training, the painful trials, the tests and the enhancements surgically grafted onto his body.
"A problem?" Astra asked, leaning forwards, her gaze meeting Smasher's who held it for a moment, before looking away. Astra was extremely intimidating, as well as being an incredibly convincing liar.
Darwin noticed this. As far as he was aware, Astra had no mutant abilities to speak of, and David was an augmented human, with plant traces, all of which had nothing to do with extra genes in their bodies. He remained completely silent and still, keeping his eyes on Smasher and Neutron, waiting for his body to react.
"Hrm. I've not heard of this resistance before; I've dealt with the X-men, you know," Mentor stated, obviously trying to show of, and relate some of his experience back to the "mere Earthlings" before him.
"You'll find they're much less evolved and trained than we are," Astra said, her tone flat, moving forward her hands clasped together.
"Now, the Shard?" She asked after a moment of silence.
Mentor nodded and placed the small cube closer to his midsection, narrowing an eye at Astra's eagerness.
"Why do you need to examine this shard, Astra of Earth? The Phoenix is sacred to the Shi'ar and to us by proxy,"
"Scientific curiosity?" She offered, before unwrapping her hands and taking a few steps backwards.
"I'm not sure I believe that, Astra. We thought that you were here truly for that reason, but it appears, that amongst being met with Psi-Shields you are not willing to give your true natures away. I do not trust your words any more than I trust the the sun will steal the moon. We are leaving,"
"Shit. Darwin. Sundown." She threw her hands forwards. David's costume blazed into place, bright light filling the area around him, as his skin turned green. Some changes had been made to his biological structure since he last powered up. Neutron came at him; his massive star-scape fist hurtled towards his face.
David threw up a palm, catching the Super-Guardians fist in his own and breaking the alien’s knuckles.
"I could bench press a planet with no atmosphere to prevent the rays from hitting me directly, Guardian. You're neutralised,"
Darwin twisted around as Smasher shifted through his Hyper-Goggles and launched into a flurry of super adaptive attacks. Super speed punches, followed by laser eye beams, explosive chemical sweat and finally a shield of hard air launched into Darwin.
An for every attack, Darwin adapted perfectly, allowing the guardian to offload himself into the Mutant. Darwin stood in place, as energy was absorbed by the newly formed ablative skin plates on his chest, or the speed was nullified by an aura of frictionless bioelectricity.
Armando smiled as David delivered an elbow to the back of the Guardians head and threw the two larger members of the Imperial guard through the air-lock. Shortly followed by Astra kicking Mentor in the genitals, and then in the face several times.
"That'll teach you to distrust me and make me look a fool!" She screeched before pushing him through the lock, shutting it's doors.
"We have the shard, now we need to try and outrun a star ship that's twenty five times the size of us. Not an easy task but I am sure we can do it..."
"Or Die trying." David said, expecting some sort of rallying moment. Darwin looked scared and Astra just tutted.
"Idiot."
FROM THE FILES OF BROTHER NATURE
Shapandar, Karima(Omega Sentinel) Karima's abilities stem from Indian Super-solider and technological implants. She's one of the most advanced cybernetic entities in existence. A former archaeologist, she was taken by the Indian Secret Service and experimented on. Now she possesses hundreds of different abilities. - I worry about Karima. She's really a very sweet girl, very devout and very intelligent, I don't think the life of a superhero is the life for her. She's very co-dependant, and I've noticed she seems to spend a lot of time with Fuego and Perro, as though she relates to them more. I need to watch out to make sure they're not influencing her.
Astra (Unknown). Astra is an incredible mutant scientific mind, she is able to turn her hand to the most high concepts of ideas, but is unusually unable to work well with already existing concepts, such as string theory, or other ideas. To maintain her knowledge base she spends many hours re-reading and trying to understand such complex ideas. - Astra's such an incredible Bitch. Her origins are unknown, and she won't even tell me. All I know is we have a long history from when I was wandering, and she hates me almost as much as she loves me. Her long standing rivalry with Katja is probably the only thing that's keeping her working with me.
David Lowell - (Sundown). David worked for Osborn until he was forced to work over time on his project under threat of unemployment. Testing the photosynthetic compound on himself to prevent it from getting into Osborn's hands Lowell found that he was able to absorb huge amounts of sunlight through photosynthesis and use it to power himself giving him incredible strength, energy projection abilities, and flight – Ear Marked for Space Mission; Useful in areas of high solar density. Very similar origin story to Will O’Wisp, perhaps they have more in common than they would imagine.