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Issue #6 by Hunter Lambright
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“CHANGING SHAPE - Part One: I'm Not Who You Think I Am”
The Altman Residence
New York City
“Right, and that’s why, when you plug in the x-values, none of them will cross the asymptote, because if you divide by zero, well, your head will explode.” Billy Kaplan looked up from the math book to the tousle-haired boy in the desk chair next to him. “Of course, by the time I get done with algebra, my head usually feels like it’s going to explode whether I divide by zero or not.”
Teddy Altman grimaced. “Yeah, tell me about it.” He put his pencil down to the graph paper. “Where were we at, with the x-values? Or did we start with the asymp-thingy?”
“Start with the asymptote,” Billy suggested. “It makes it easier to tell if something’s going wrong later when you try to calculate the y-values. If it makes you feel any better, I hate quadratic functions as much as the next guy.”
“You mean there are people who don’t hate them?” Teddy asked with a wry grin.
Billy shrugged. “Only math teachers…and super-villains,” he added as an afterthought.
“All this time I thought they were one and the same,” Teddy said.
Billy laughed, and then took a look at his watch. “Crap, crap, crap,” he muttered. “Is that right?”
“Is what right? The time?” Teddy asked. “It’s a quarter after four. What’s wrong?”
“I have, uh, job training at 4:30,” Billy said. “If I go now, I can make it, but…” His voice dragged off as his eyes drifted toward the incomplete math assignment.
Teddy shrugged. “It’s not like you’re required to help me out. I’ll work out what I can and then call later, if I can? If you don’t mind, I mean…”
Billy nodded. “That’s fine, of course. I feel bad enough leaving you as it is. Got my number?”
“Yeah, I’ve got it,” Teddy said, double-checking his contacts list. “And Billy? Thanks for doing this. This is probably the only thing still keeping me afloat in Mrs. Creighton’s class.”
“No problem. Glad to help, really.” He packed up his backpack and headed for the door. “Sorry for having to split. Talk to you later!”
Teddy nodded and watched the door long after it had slammed shut.
# # # # #
The Hideout
“Iwanttogetthereontime…Iwanttogetthereontime…” Billy opened one eye and felt his cheeks grow red with the heat of embarrassment. “Hey, guys. I made it.”
“What took you so long?” Kate asked, peering at him over her purple-tinted sunglasses. A high-tech bow sat in a harness on her back, stretching up over her head.
Billy rolled his eyes. “I was helping my mom’s friend’s son with algebra and lost track of time. I made it on time, though, right?”
“Technically,” said Michael. The wheelchair-bound boy rolled up next to Kate. “I mean, you’re even in costume. It’s just that everyone else was here, like half an hour ago in anticipation for the first day on patrol or whatever.”
“Sorry,” Billy said. “I just didn’t want to bail on a prior commitment, you know?”
“It’s fine, guys. Lay off him,” said Eli Bradley, the Patriot. “I was just worried about trying to explain it to Mr. Lang, whenever he gets here.”
Bryon, the Young Avenger, stifled a laugh. “Mr. Lang and Cassie have been here for about ten minutes now watching everyone bicker.”
He gestured toward the air duct that tapered down into the space of the Hideout. What had once been a headquarters for a World War II era teenage hero group had been modernized for the new generation of heroes that had come to call it home. From the air duct there came a buzzing noise. Then a pair of flying ants came into view. One carried Scott Lang himself. The other carried Cassie, his daughter. Together, they dismounted their insect steeds and grew to normal size.
Eli, in his frustration, turned to Bryon and said, “Man, who even says ‘bicker’ anymore?”
“Glad to see everyone made it,” Scott said quickly, removing the polished Ant-Man helmet and setting it on the table. He looked at Billy. “Teleportation has its uses, eh?”
Billy’s ears grew redder. “Sorry, sir.”
“Don’t worry about it. You made it. That’s what counts,” said Scott. “So do you guys know why I had you meet here today?”
“Presumably you’re going to tell them anyway,” said a new voice. It came from a misshaped shadow that hung on the wall, hovering just inside the darkness that made it invisible.
Scott wasn’t put off by the shadow. “I have to admit that you have a point. I guess I thought that I’d been running you guys hard enough already, especially knowing that you all have some kind of experience. I thought you might want to take a little bit of patrol today.”
“Patrol?” Billy asked. “Are you kidding me? I can’t believe we’re actually going to feel like super-heroes!”
# # # # #
Two Hours Later
“This is patrol?” Billy sat with his chin propped up against his hands. The rooftop that he had been assigned had been quiet. He looked at Cassie. “Did your dad ever tell you how boring it is?”
Cassie looked up. “Dad never built it up to be anything it isn’t. It’s just about being out and about in case you’re needed. Usually New York’s streets are protected by the bigger names out there, but it was a nice thought that they might actually need us for once.”
“I guess,” Billy said, sighing. “Has anyone else gotten any action yet?”
“The last thing we heard was that Bryon and the shadow had tagged a hit on some nobody trying to blow out the screens in Times Square, but nothing else besides that,” Cassie said.
Billy grimaced. “It’s not fair. Bryon has the most experience in doing this under his belt, so he gets to take on the bad guys? This isn’t what I signed up for.”
“You didn’t sign up for it,” Cassie reminded him. “Your parents did. And be careful, or you’ll start sounding like Eli.”
“Speaking of Eli, if I’m this bored, then can you imagine how bad it has to be right now between him and Kate? I wouldn’t leave them alone for twenty minutes, but two hours…” Billy’s voice drifted off.
Cassie nodded. “Yeah, I doubt even Dad could hold off a fight between those two.”
# # # # #
“You owe me twenty dollars now. Want to go for another?” Kate asked, prying one of Eli’s throwing stars from the wall. “Or do you still think you can win it all back?”
“That’s not fair—you’re cheating somehow!” Eli said, his face contorting underneath the red domino mask.
Kate pretended to take offense. “Me cheat? Eli, you wanted to see who could hit your target better. You even made me stop using my arrows and start using your stars. You still keep losing. How am I cheating?”
“You—you rigged it somehow! You knew I would do this,” Eli said, but his voice got quieter as he realized how pathetic his argument was.
“Give up yet?” Kate asked.
“Yeah, but only because we’re wearing the points off my stars,” Eli muttered.
“Right, and not because I was kicking your butt,” Kate said, putting her hands on her hips. “Are you going to give me my twenty now or later?”
“Later,” Eli grumbled.
Kate paused. “You hear something?”
“No, like what?”
“Screaming.”
Kate peered over the edge of the building and then ran for her bow and quiver of arrows. “Fire escape, now!”
“What’s going on?” Eli demanded.
“Some dude in a metal suit is attacking people for some reason!” Kate replied, her voice almost drowned out as her footsteps clanked down the iron fire escape. The metal contraption shuddered with each of their footsteps, even more so as Eli joined the mad rush down the building. They reached the end of the escape and leaped down, sprinting out of the alleyway and toward the insanity.
A man in a copper-colored metal suit fired energy blasts into the crowd of scattering people. Wires ran up the collar of the suit and against the back of his bald head and neck. “Finally!” he shouted, eyeing Eli and Kate. “Superheroes have come to challenge the might of Carapace!”
“Carapace? Who the hell calls himself Carapace?” Eli asked, watching as one of Kate’s arrows glanced off the metal-costumed man’s suit. “I’m going to make my money back before you know it!”
Carapace’s face reddened. “You’re using me to make bets?” Then he shouted, letting loose a guttural, animalistic noise of rage.
Kate drew an arrow back in her bow, but Eli tackled her to the ground. A split-second later, the energy blast that Carapace had been charging up ripped across the concrete where she had been standing. “Uh…thanks,” Kate said, trying to brush off what had just happened.
Carapace hovered over the pair, forming a large ball of sizzling orange energy between his hands.
“Not so fast,” the shadow hissed. Its form fell over Carapace’s eyes, blinding him. The man took two steps backward, as if backing away from the shadow would clear his vision. His left leg flew out from under him as the Young Avenger kicked his knee out from behind
There was a loud ringing noise as Carapace’s armor vibrated on impact with the ground. The energy ball flew harmlessly skyward. The shadow retreated from Carapace’s eyes even as he realized that, from his back, he could not get up. The shape of his armor left him with no leverage whatsoever. Bryon put his foot on Carapace’s chest as Kate and Eli moved to secure each of his energy-spewing palms to the ground.
“You looked like you guys needed a hand,” Bryon said, hopping off Carapace’s chest. “Good thing we were around.”
Kate scowled. “We could’ve handled it.”
“Yes, you were handling the energy blast that was about to scorch your face off,” Bryon said, smirking.
Eli’s shoulder connected with Bryon’s roughly as he walked past. “Dude, cut us some slack. Some of us haven’t been doing this for awhile like you have.”
“Sorry. Maybe Ant-Man was wrong and we just aren’t ready,” Bryon replied.
Eli’s ears flared with blood. “How else are we supposed to learn if Ant-Man decides we’re not good enough to go out on our own?”
“Idle threats,” said the shadow. “Ant-Man makes the decisions, not Bryon—something he would take care to remember.”
Bryon glared at the shadow. “I know that. I also know that this was the work of new heroes. So does every villain who sees this on television. If you come across one of those bad guys, good luck. You’ll need it.”
Then he stalked off into the alleyway. When Kate and Eli reached the mouth of the alley, Bryon was already gone.
# # # # #
High above the city sat a lone figure, clad in a red and blue bodysuit accentuated with a large, yellow star on the chest. Blond hair spiked out of the top of his head. The man did not move. He simply hovered, using the senses bestowed upon him to survey the city below.
Humans, he thought. Humans disgust me.
As he floated, his skin slowly transformed from Caucasian to a sickly green. Notches dug themselves out against his chin as it jutted out. His ears grew to a sharp point even as they changed color with the rest of his body.
They hate us because they fear us. They believe that we are disgusting because of the way we are able to hide ourselves among them. They fear us because we change shape, because we hide behind facades. They make me laugh.
Do they truly believe that Skrulls are the only creatures who wear masks? My time among them, hiding, staking them out and learning their beliefs…it has all been for nothing. All that it has done is prove to me exactly what I told the high council: They are exactly like us. Humans, hiding behind their masks without changing shape. They think that it makes them better, that they can get away with doing the harmful things they do against others, just because they lie.
They don’t understand what it means to be a true liar, changing in shape as well as face.
And they do not understand that the ones they see as fearsome creatures from the stars have been living among them for years, even if they do not know it.
Tonight, that changes. Tonight, my sleepers will awaken…
# # # # #
The Hideout
The wheels of Michael’s wheelchair creaked as he rolled from one computer station to the next. The setup that the Avengers had helped finance was nothing like their supercomputer, but it was still an amazing piece of technology. They had linked several separate terminals, which wasn’t necessarily high-tech, but it was something that Michael had only seen done and never something he had dealt with.
From the computer, he could tap into the city’s traffic cameras (although he certainly hadn’t had any Avenger help in hitting that little legal snag). This was his primary use now that he’d lost the use of his legs. He could find out where trouble was and send his friends to it, and everything would be hunky-dory, right?
He’d caught the painful fight between Eli, Kate, and the man who called himself Carapace. That wasn’t what had his attention now. He pulled out a cell phone and dialed up Cassie. “Hey, it’s Michael.”
“What’s going on?” Cassie asked.
“About two, three blocks from where you and Billy are, some nut job calling himself the Squid is robbing a liquor store or something. He’s claiming to be ‘totally evil,’ and there aren’t any other heroes on the scene. What do you think?” Michael said, poring over the data coming in on three separate screens.
“We’re on it,” Cassie said, “as soon as I can get Billy to stop complaining, I mean.”
Michael shook his head. “Go for it.”
He put his hands on the wheels of his chair and forced it to swivel to the next screen, where police reports were buzzing in and out, transcribed by the programs the Avengers had installed. It made it easier than struggling to listen to the static reports.
A flashing orange box lit up at the far-right edge of his task bar. Michael’s eyebrows narrowed as he clicked on it. A messenger window popped up.
Unknown User: MICHAEL?
Michael was curious now. This was the first day that the system had been live and already someone out there was trying to contact him. Their intentions were, as always, dubious, but he’d had enough internet contact in his life to play it safe.
ChibiSwordsman: Yes?
Unknown User: I’LL MAKE THIS SIMPLE. I CAN HELP YOU.
ChibiSwordsman: I’m not sure I need any help, thank you.
Unknown User: DON’T DECLINE YET. YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M OFFERING.
ChibiSwordsman: Then tell me.
Unknown User: I CAN MAKE YOU WALK AGAIN.
At this, Michael froze. For a few minutes, he stared blankly at the screen, not knowing how to respond. Finally, his fingers flew across the keyboard.
ChibiSwordsman: Okay, you have my attention. Talk.
# # # # #
Bottles of wine flew everywhere as the Squid’s green-tentacled body flung bottle after bottle into the streets. Shattered glass skittered across the pavement and the street began to run red with spilt wine.
“Where’s my father? Send me my father!” the Squid growled, a guttural noise made almost unintelligible by the ruckus he was causing.
“So is this the ‘I-know-I’m-gonna-get-caught-so-might-as-well-do-something-stupid’ reaction?” Billy asked, floating down to street-level. “Because really, I thought the Rhino had the market cornered on that. I’m gonna have to consult my intellectual property lawyer.”
The Squid stared up at Billy with hatred in his lime green eyes. “You! You’re not my father!”
“Well, duh. Unless I’m a time-traveler,” Billy muttered. A bottle of wine shattered against his hip. “Ow! Dude, what the hell?”
“Stop mocking me! Take me to my father!” the Squid shouted.
Billy floated higher in the air. “Somebody has daddy issues,” he muttered. “Iwantthewinebottlestoturntostyrofoam… Iwantthewinebottlestoturntostyrofoam…”
As he spoke, blue lightning struck each wine bottle, turning to the glass to white Styrofoam. That didn’t say much for the contents, though. Each Styrofoam bottle exploded with wine on contact with Billy. Red liquid splashed into his eyes, momentarily blinding him.
The Squid lifted its tentacles, wrapping them around Billy’s struggling body. “Now you’ll pay for making fun of me!” he shouted.
Billy crashed to the pavement as the Squid passed out on the street. Cassie stood behind him, almost ten feet tall. “Sorry it took me so long. You can’t imagine how far it is to run around behind the bad guy when you’re only six inches tall,” she muttered, shrinking down to her normal height. “You okay?
“Yeah, yeah,” Billy said, picking himself up off the ground. He winced as he touched the scrapes on his left arm. “Gonna be fun explaining this one at school tomorrow.”
“I don’t know how Spider-Man does it,” Cassie said, rolling her eyes. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’ve been kinda…dramatic today.”
“I’m fine,” Billy said. “Can we get out of here before the cops show up?”
“Mind giving me a lift?” Cassie asked. She shrank down again and Billy lifted her up to his shoulder. Then he used his powers and began to fly once more.
Floors passed by rapidly as they ascended. “So, does that mean we’re calling it a day?” Billy asked as the rooftop came into view. He touched down on it lightly and helped Cassie to the ground, where she promptly grew to full-size once more.
“Yeah, I guess,” Cassie said. She pursed her lips. “Are you sure nothing’s wrong?”
Billy’s eyebrows narrowed. “I’m sure, okay?”
“Look, if it’s about how the patrol went, then I’m sorry,” Cassie said. “I know it’s not what any of us expected, but I think Dad’s just trying to ease us in. He doesn’t want to overwhelm us and then have to scrape our bodies up after a fight with the Rhino or something.”
Billy laughed. “It’s not that, Cassie. Sorry I’ve been snappy. It’s just something personal.”
“Fine, don’t worry about it,” Cassie said. “Wanna head back to the Hideout?”
Billy shrugged. “Sure. I’m ready for a tongue-lashing from your dad.”
Cassie rolled her eyes. “Surely the others didn’t do that badly.”
# # # # #
“That was pretty bad,” Ant-Man said. “I was above the scene the entire time and ready to intervene when Bryon did instead. The thing is, Carapace was ready to fry you guys. I’m not so sure you’re ready to be in the field—at least not alone together.”
Kate crossed her arms and glared at Eli, who responded with a whispered, “Just as much your fault as mine.”
Billy put on a mock documentary narration voice. “You can almost feel the sexual tension as the leader of the pride is put off by the lioness…” He was cut off as he was forced to put up a magical shield when an arrow and throwing star came his way. “Joking! Jeez!”
Ant-Man glared in Eli and Kate’s direction before continuing. “That said, Bryon and our mysterious acquaintance performed brilliantly. You two bring a level of experience to this team that it really needs.”
Bryon nodded. “Thank you, sir.”
He turned to Billy and Cassie next. “You two handled the fight that you came across well, but not to the best of your capabilities. Billy, you’re so unbelievably powerful, yet you chose to use it as a distraction. Why didn’t you cause the Squid to fall asleep instead? It would’ve left less property damage, and it would have saved you in dry cleaning bills.” He gestured to Billy’s wine-drenched costume that was slung over a chair.
“And Cassie, while the element of surprise is something that you can use to your advantage as a size-changer, it’s not something that you need to use every single time. A full frontal assault from someone four or five times his size would have caused. Judgment in situations like this isn’t always natural. It’s learned. We’ll…we’ll work on that,” Ant-Man said. Cassie’s face paled at the public criticism from her father.
“No team comes together on its first time out, not cohesively,” said the shadow.
“Yeah, unless you’re the Avengers,” Eli muttered.
“I live in the shadows because I have to,” the shadow replied. “Why do you force yourself into the shadow of the Avengers?”
Eli stood up and slammed his card chair back. The metal folded up and crashed to the ground with a clang. “I don’t have to take this crap. See you guys later.”
Kate was next. “I hate to say it, but I agree with Eli. This was enough for me for one day.”
“I’m staying at Mom’s tonight,” Cassie said. The trace of a tear on her cheek.
“I’m not done for the night,” Bryon said. “You guys can stop if you want, but there’s too much going on in the city for me to bother just giving up and going home after some deserved criticism. You with me, shadow?”
“Someone has to watch your back,” the shadow replied. They, too, left the Hideout.
Ant-Man sighed. “We’ll work on this next week,” he said, shrinking down. Soon, Billy heard the buzz of a winged ant as it carried Mr. Lang out of the headquarters.
That left Billy and Michael in the Hideout. Michael had been surprisingly silent since their return from the patrol. “You okay, man?” Billy asked, despite his own set of churning emotions.
“Sure,” Michael muttered. His fingers skittered across the keyboard as he filed through separate search engines and databases. “I’m going to be here for awhile. I’m working on something.”
“Oh, okay,” Billy said. “Do you know if we have any plastic bags? I, uh, I can’t carry a sopping super-outfit home like this, you know?”
“Should be in the cabinet,” Michael said, pointing in the cabinet’s direction without looking away from the computer.
“Uh, thanks,” Billy said. Then he packed up his costume in one of the plastic bags and made his way into the busy city evening.
# # # # #
Khn’nr maintained his position in the sky high above the city. Then, he began to emit the message to his brethren.
The time that you have been waiting nearly twenty years for is now. We will take over this planet beginning with their most celebrated city. We will defeat their heroes and topple their towers. We must prepare this planet for our colonists. You, my warriors, will be the first. You will be the ones to whom they build monuments in the years to come.
Rise with me and claim the planet Earth for the Skrull race! Rise and show the humans that they cannot continue to oppress the rightful owners of this planet! And forever, brothers, unto death, remembers this:
He loves you.
# # # # #
Billy missed his bike. He’d left it at the bike rack at Teddy’s building and was tempted to go back and get it. Still, that would mean being around Teddy, and that wasn’t something that Billy was sure he wanted to do right now. Something about Teddy scared him, but he wasn’t sure whether that fear came from something about Teddy himself or from something within Billy instead.
Wine dripped from the plastic bag, and Billy wondered how he was going to explain this one to his parents. They’d think he had become an overnight wino. His mom would want him in a twelve-step program by the weekend. He groaned. Wasn’t there some kind of dry cleaner who did stuff for heroes without asking any questions? At least that way he wouldn’t have to take the costume into his own house. Plus, if they ever fought someone that caused his costume to get ripped or whatever, his mom wouldn’t want to see the cuts.
Billy groaned. That reminded him that he hadn’t done anything to hide the scrape. Great, just great, he thought.
The musical score from Wicked echoed down the sidewalk. Billy scrambled for his cell phone. Butterflies scattered throughout his stomach as he saw Teddy’s name show up on the caller i.d. “Hello?”
“Billy? I need help,” Teddy said. His voice was strangled with fear.
The bottom dropped out of Billy’s stomach. “What’s wrong?”
“How fast can you get here?” Teddy asked.
“I can be there in a few minutes. I was just on the way home.”
“Good good good. I’m freaking out right now. I was eating dinner with my mom and, oh god, please just get here…” Teddy begged.
“See you in a minute,” Billy said, hanging up so that he could run. Even as his pace quickened, he began to chant, “IwanttobeatTeddy’shouse…”
The world shifted and he found himself in front of Teddy’s apartment. He dumped the plastic bag with his costume in the dumpster and then sprinted back to the front of the building and up the stairs, banging on the door. He heard a muffled “Come in!” and stepped inside.
“Where are you?” Billy asked, walking into the kitchen.
“My room,” Teddy said. Billy stopped in Teddy’s doorway. His friend stood in the darkness against a mirror, but it was too dark for Billy to see anything. “My mom, at dinner…she turned green, Billy. I didn’t know who else to call. I…I don’t know anything anymore.”
“What do you mean, she turned green?” Billy asked.
“I-I think she might be a Skrull,” Teddy said. He turned around and Billy gasped. Teddy’s skin was now a dark shade of green. He held his arms out, shaking, as if he couldn’t stand to look at his own skin.
“And I think I might be, too…”
TO BE CONTINUE...
New York City
“Right, and that’s why, when you plug in the x-values, none of them will cross the asymptote, because if you divide by zero, well, your head will explode.” Billy Kaplan looked up from the math book to the tousle-haired boy in the desk chair next to him. “Of course, by the time I get done with algebra, my head usually feels like it’s going to explode whether I divide by zero or not.”
Teddy Altman grimaced. “Yeah, tell me about it.” He put his pencil down to the graph paper. “Where were we at, with the x-values? Or did we start with the asymp-thingy?”
“Start with the asymptote,” Billy suggested. “It makes it easier to tell if something’s going wrong later when you try to calculate the y-values. If it makes you feel any better, I hate quadratic functions as much as the next guy.”
“You mean there are people who don’t hate them?” Teddy asked with a wry grin.
Billy shrugged. “Only math teachers…and super-villains,” he added as an afterthought.
“All this time I thought they were one and the same,” Teddy said.
Billy laughed, and then took a look at his watch. “Crap, crap, crap,” he muttered. “Is that right?”
“Is what right? The time?” Teddy asked. “It’s a quarter after four. What’s wrong?”
“I have, uh, job training at 4:30,” Billy said. “If I go now, I can make it, but…” His voice dragged off as his eyes drifted toward the incomplete math assignment.
Teddy shrugged. “It’s not like you’re required to help me out. I’ll work out what I can and then call later, if I can? If you don’t mind, I mean…”
Billy nodded. “That’s fine, of course. I feel bad enough leaving you as it is. Got my number?”
“Yeah, I’ve got it,” Teddy said, double-checking his contacts list. “And Billy? Thanks for doing this. This is probably the only thing still keeping me afloat in Mrs. Creighton’s class.”
“No problem. Glad to help, really.” He packed up his backpack and headed for the door. “Sorry for having to split. Talk to you later!”
Teddy nodded and watched the door long after it had slammed shut.
# # # # #
The Hideout
“Iwanttogetthereontime…Iwanttogetthereontime…” Billy opened one eye and felt his cheeks grow red with the heat of embarrassment. “Hey, guys. I made it.”
“What took you so long?” Kate asked, peering at him over her purple-tinted sunglasses. A high-tech bow sat in a harness on her back, stretching up over her head.
Billy rolled his eyes. “I was helping my mom’s friend’s son with algebra and lost track of time. I made it on time, though, right?”
“Technically,” said Michael. The wheelchair-bound boy rolled up next to Kate. “I mean, you’re even in costume. It’s just that everyone else was here, like half an hour ago in anticipation for the first day on patrol or whatever.”
“Sorry,” Billy said. “I just didn’t want to bail on a prior commitment, you know?”
“It’s fine, guys. Lay off him,” said Eli Bradley, the Patriot. “I was just worried about trying to explain it to Mr. Lang, whenever he gets here.”
Bryon, the Young Avenger, stifled a laugh. “Mr. Lang and Cassie have been here for about ten minutes now watching everyone bicker.”
He gestured toward the air duct that tapered down into the space of the Hideout. What had once been a headquarters for a World War II era teenage hero group had been modernized for the new generation of heroes that had come to call it home. From the air duct there came a buzzing noise. Then a pair of flying ants came into view. One carried Scott Lang himself. The other carried Cassie, his daughter. Together, they dismounted their insect steeds and grew to normal size.
Eli, in his frustration, turned to Bryon and said, “Man, who even says ‘bicker’ anymore?”
“Glad to see everyone made it,” Scott said quickly, removing the polished Ant-Man helmet and setting it on the table. He looked at Billy. “Teleportation has its uses, eh?”
Billy’s ears grew redder. “Sorry, sir.”
“Don’t worry about it. You made it. That’s what counts,” said Scott. “So do you guys know why I had you meet here today?”
“Presumably you’re going to tell them anyway,” said a new voice. It came from a misshaped shadow that hung on the wall, hovering just inside the darkness that made it invisible.
Scott wasn’t put off by the shadow. “I have to admit that you have a point. I guess I thought that I’d been running you guys hard enough already, especially knowing that you all have some kind of experience. I thought you might want to take a little bit of patrol today.”
“Patrol?” Billy asked. “Are you kidding me? I can’t believe we’re actually going to feel like super-heroes!”
# # # # #
Two Hours Later
“This is patrol?” Billy sat with his chin propped up against his hands. The rooftop that he had been assigned had been quiet. He looked at Cassie. “Did your dad ever tell you how boring it is?”
Cassie looked up. “Dad never built it up to be anything it isn’t. It’s just about being out and about in case you’re needed. Usually New York’s streets are protected by the bigger names out there, but it was a nice thought that they might actually need us for once.”
“I guess,” Billy said, sighing. “Has anyone else gotten any action yet?”
“The last thing we heard was that Bryon and the shadow had tagged a hit on some nobody trying to blow out the screens in Times Square, but nothing else besides that,” Cassie said.
Billy grimaced. “It’s not fair. Bryon has the most experience in doing this under his belt, so he gets to take on the bad guys? This isn’t what I signed up for.”
“You didn’t sign up for it,” Cassie reminded him. “Your parents did. And be careful, or you’ll start sounding like Eli.”
“Speaking of Eli, if I’m this bored, then can you imagine how bad it has to be right now between him and Kate? I wouldn’t leave them alone for twenty minutes, but two hours…” Billy’s voice drifted off.
Cassie nodded. “Yeah, I doubt even Dad could hold off a fight between those two.”
# # # # #
“You owe me twenty dollars now. Want to go for another?” Kate asked, prying one of Eli’s throwing stars from the wall. “Or do you still think you can win it all back?”
“That’s not fair—you’re cheating somehow!” Eli said, his face contorting underneath the red domino mask.
Kate pretended to take offense. “Me cheat? Eli, you wanted to see who could hit your target better. You even made me stop using my arrows and start using your stars. You still keep losing. How am I cheating?”
“You—you rigged it somehow! You knew I would do this,” Eli said, but his voice got quieter as he realized how pathetic his argument was.
“Give up yet?” Kate asked.
“Yeah, but only because we’re wearing the points off my stars,” Eli muttered.
“Right, and not because I was kicking your butt,” Kate said, putting her hands on her hips. “Are you going to give me my twenty now or later?”
“Later,” Eli grumbled.
Kate paused. “You hear something?”
“No, like what?”
“Screaming.”
Kate peered over the edge of the building and then ran for her bow and quiver of arrows. “Fire escape, now!”
“What’s going on?” Eli demanded.
“Some dude in a metal suit is attacking people for some reason!” Kate replied, her voice almost drowned out as her footsteps clanked down the iron fire escape. The metal contraption shuddered with each of their footsteps, even more so as Eli joined the mad rush down the building. They reached the end of the escape and leaped down, sprinting out of the alleyway and toward the insanity.
A man in a copper-colored metal suit fired energy blasts into the crowd of scattering people. Wires ran up the collar of the suit and against the back of his bald head and neck. “Finally!” he shouted, eyeing Eli and Kate. “Superheroes have come to challenge the might of Carapace!”
“Carapace? Who the hell calls himself Carapace?” Eli asked, watching as one of Kate’s arrows glanced off the metal-costumed man’s suit. “I’m going to make my money back before you know it!”
Carapace’s face reddened. “You’re using me to make bets?” Then he shouted, letting loose a guttural, animalistic noise of rage.
Kate drew an arrow back in her bow, but Eli tackled her to the ground. A split-second later, the energy blast that Carapace had been charging up ripped across the concrete where she had been standing. “Uh…thanks,” Kate said, trying to brush off what had just happened.
Carapace hovered over the pair, forming a large ball of sizzling orange energy between his hands.
“Not so fast,” the shadow hissed. Its form fell over Carapace’s eyes, blinding him. The man took two steps backward, as if backing away from the shadow would clear his vision. His left leg flew out from under him as the Young Avenger kicked his knee out from behind
There was a loud ringing noise as Carapace’s armor vibrated on impact with the ground. The energy ball flew harmlessly skyward. The shadow retreated from Carapace’s eyes even as he realized that, from his back, he could not get up. The shape of his armor left him with no leverage whatsoever. Bryon put his foot on Carapace’s chest as Kate and Eli moved to secure each of his energy-spewing palms to the ground.
“You looked like you guys needed a hand,” Bryon said, hopping off Carapace’s chest. “Good thing we were around.”
Kate scowled. “We could’ve handled it.”
“Yes, you were handling the energy blast that was about to scorch your face off,” Bryon said, smirking.
Eli’s shoulder connected with Bryon’s roughly as he walked past. “Dude, cut us some slack. Some of us haven’t been doing this for awhile like you have.”
“Sorry. Maybe Ant-Man was wrong and we just aren’t ready,” Bryon replied.
Eli’s ears flared with blood. “How else are we supposed to learn if Ant-Man decides we’re not good enough to go out on our own?”
“Idle threats,” said the shadow. “Ant-Man makes the decisions, not Bryon—something he would take care to remember.”
Bryon glared at the shadow. “I know that. I also know that this was the work of new heroes. So does every villain who sees this on television. If you come across one of those bad guys, good luck. You’ll need it.”
Then he stalked off into the alleyway. When Kate and Eli reached the mouth of the alley, Bryon was already gone.
# # # # #
High above the city sat a lone figure, clad in a red and blue bodysuit accentuated with a large, yellow star on the chest. Blond hair spiked out of the top of his head. The man did not move. He simply hovered, using the senses bestowed upon him to survey the city below.
Humans, he thought. Humans disgust me.
As he floated, his skin slowly transformed from Caucasian to a sickly green. Notches dug themselves out against his chin as it jutted out. His ears grew to a sharp point even as they changed color with the rest of his body.
They hate us because they fear us. They believe that we are disgusting because of the way we are able to hide ourselves among them. They fear us because we change shape, because we hide behind facades. They make me laugh.
Do they truly believe that Skrulls are the only creatures who wear masks? My time among them, hiding, staking them out and learning their beliefs…it has all been for nothing. All that it has done is prove to me exactly what I told the high council: They are exactly like us. Humans, hiding behind their masks without changing shape. They think that it makes them better, that they can get away with doing the harmful things they do against others, just because they lie.
They don’t understand what it means to be a true liar, changing in shape as well as face.
And they do not understand that the ones they see as fearsome creatures from the stars have been living among them for years, even if they do not know it.
Tonight, that changes. Tonight, my sleepers will awaken…
# # # # #
The Hideout
The wheels of Michael’s wheelchair creaked as he rolled from one computer station to the next. The setup that the Avengers had helped finance was nothing like their supercomputer, but it was still an amazing piece of technology. They had linked several separate terminals, which wasn’t necessarily high-tech, but it was something that Michael had only seen done and never something he had dealt with.
From the computer, he could tap into the city’s traffic cameras (although he certainly hadn’t had any Avenger help in hitting that little legal snag). This was his primary use now that he’d lost the use of his legs. He could find out where trouble was and send his friends to it, and everything would be hunky-dory, right?
He’d caught the painful fight between Eli, Kate, and the man who called himself Carapace. That wasn’t what had his attention now. He pulled out a cell phone and dialed up Cassie. “Hey, it’s Michael.”
“What’s going on?” Cassie asked.
“About two, three blocks from where you and Billy are, some nut job calling himself the Squid is robbing a liquor store or something. He’s claiming to be ‘totally evil,’ and there aren’t any other heroes on the scene. What do you think?” Michael said, poring over the data coming in on three separate screens.
“We’re on it,” Cassie said, “as soon as I can get Billy to stop complaining, I mean.”
Michael shook his head. “Go for it.”
He put his hands on the wheels of his chair and forced it to swivel to the next screen, where police reports were buzzing in and out, transcribed by the programs the Avengers had installed. It made it easier than struggling to listen to the static reports.
A flashing orange box lit up at the far-right edge of his task bar. Michael’s eyebrows narrowed as he clicked on it. A messenger window popped up.
Unknown User: MICHAEL?
Michael was curious now. This was the first day that the system had been live and already someone out there was trying to contact him. Their intentions were, as always, dubious, but he’d had enough internet contact in his life to play it safe.
ChibiSwordsman: Yes?
Unknown User: I’LL MAKE THIS SIMPLE. I CAN HELP YOU.
ChibiSwordsman: I’m not sure I need any help, thank you.
Unknown User: DON’T DECLINE YET. YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M OFFERING.
ChibiSwordsman: Then tell me.
Unknown User: I CAN MAKE YOU WALK AGAIN.
At this, Michael froze. For a few minutes, he stared blankly at the screen, not knowing how to respond. Finally, his fingers flew across the keyboard.
ChibiSwordsman: Okay, you have my attention. Talk.
# # # # #
Bottles of wine flew everywhere as the Squid’s green-tentacled body flung bottle after bottle into the streets. Shattered glass skittered across the pavement and the street began to run red with spilt wine.
“Where’s my father? Send me my father!” the Squid growled, a guttural noise made almost unintelligible by the ruckus he was causing.
“So is this the ‘I-know-I’m-gonna-get-caught-so-might-as-well-do-something-stupid’ reaction?” Billy asked, floating down to street-level. “Because really, I thought the Rhino had the market cornered on that. I’m gonna have to consult my intellectual property lawyer.”
The Squid stared up at Billy with hatred in his lime green eyes. “You! You’re not my father!”
“Well, duh. Unless I’m a time-traveler,” Billy muttered. A bottle of wine shattered against his hip. “Ow! Dude, what the hell?”
“Stop mocking me! Take me to my father!” the Squid shouted.
Billy floated higher in the air. “Somebody has daddy issues,” he muttered. “Iwantthewinebottlestoturntostyrofoam… Iwantthewinebottlestoturntostyrofoam…”
As he spoke, blue lightning struck each wine bottle, turning to the glass to white Styrofoam. That didn’t say much for the contents, though. Each Styrofoam bottle exploded with wine on contact with Billy. Red liquid splashed into his eyes, momentarily blinding him.
The Squid lifted its tentacles, wrapping them around Billy’s struggling body. “Now you’ll pay for making fun of me!” he shouted.
Billy crashed to the pavement as the Squid passed out on the street. Cassie stood behind him, almost ten feet tall. “Sorry it took me so long. You can’t imagine how far it is to run around behind the bad guy when you’re only six inches tall,” she muttered, shrinking down to her normal height. “You okay?
“Yeah, yeah,” Billy said, picking himself up off the ground. He winced as he touched the scrapes on his left arm. “Gonna be fun explaining this one at school tomorrow.”
“I don’t know how Spider-Man does it,” Cassie said, rolling her eyes. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’ve been kinda…dramatic today.”
“I’m fine,” Billy said. “Can we get out of here before the cops show up?”
“Mind giving me a lift?” Cassie asked. She shrank down again and Billy lifted her up to his shoulder. Then he used his powers and began to fly once more.
Floors passed by rapidly as they ascended. “So, does that mean we’re calling it a day?” Billy asked as the rooftop came into view. He touched down on it lightly and helped Cassie to the ground, where she promptly grew to full-size once more.
“Yeah, I guess,” Cassie said. She pursed her lips. “Are you sure nothing’s wrong?”
Billy’s eyebrows narrowed. “I’m sure, okay?”
“Look, if it’s about how the patrol went, then I’m sorry,” Cassie said. “I know it’s not what any of us expected, but I think Dad’s just trying to ease us in. He doesn’t want to overwhelm us and then have to scrape our bodies up after a fight with the Rhino or something.”
Billy laughed. “It’s not that, Cassie. Sorry I’ve been snappy. It’s just something personal.”
“Fine, don’t worry about it,” Cassie said. “Wanna head back to the Hideout?”
Billy shrugged. “Sure. I’m ready for a tongue-lashing from your dad.”
Cassie rolled her eyes. “Surely the others didn’t do that badly.”
# # # # #
“That was pretty bad,” Ant-Man said. “I was above the scene the entire time and ready to intervene when Bryon did instead. The thing is, Carapace was ready to fry you guys. I’m not so sure you’re ready to be in the field—at least not alone together.”
Kate crossed her arms and glared at Eli, who responded with a whispered, “Just as much your fault as mine.”
Billy put on a mock documentary narration voice. “You can almost feel the sexual tension as the leader of the pride is put off by the lioness…” He was cut off as he was forced to put up a magical shield when an arrow and throwing star came his way. “Joking! Jeez!”
Ant-Man glared in Eli and Kate’s direction before continuing. “That said, Bryon and our mysterious acquaintance performed brilliantly. You two bring a level of experience to this team that it really needs.”
Bryon nodded. “Thank you, sir.”
He turned to Billy and Cassie next. “You two handled the fight that you came across well, but not to the best of your capabilities. Billy, you’re so unbelievably powerful, yet you chose to use it as a distraction. Why didn’t you cause the Squid to fall asleep instead? It would’ve left less property damage, and it would have saved you in dry cleaning bills.” He gestured to Billy’s wine-drenched costume that was slung over a chair.
“And Cassie, while the element of surprise is something that you can use to your advantage as a size-changer, it’s not something that you need to use every single time. A full frontal assault from someone four or five times his size would have caused. Judgment in situations like this isn’t always natural. It’s learned. We’ll…we’ll work on that,” Ant-Man said. Cassie’s face paled at the public criticism from her father.
“No team comes together on its first time out, not cohesively,” said the shadow.
“Yeah, unless you’re the Avengers,” Eli muttered.
“I live in the shadows because I have to,” the shadow replied. “Why do you force yourself into the shadow of the Avengers?”
Eli stood up and slammed his card chair back. The metal folded up and crashed to the ground with a clang. “I don’t have to take this crap. See you guys later.”
Kate was next. “I hate to say it, but I agree with Eli. This was enough for me for one day.”
“I’m staying at Mom’s tonight,” Cassie said. The trace of a tear on her cheek.
“I’m not done for the night,” Bryon said. “You guys can stop if you want, but there’s too much going on in the city for me to bother just giving up and going home after some deserved criticism. You with me, shadow?”
“Someone has to watch your back,” the shadow replied. They, too, left the Hideout.
Ant-Man sighed. “We’ll work on this next week,” he said, shrinking down. Soon, Billy heard the buzz of a winged ant as it carried Mr. Lang out of the headquarters.
That left Billy and Michael in the Hideout. Michael had been surprisingly silent since their return from the patrol. “You okay, man?” Billy asked, despite his own set of churning emotions.
“Sure,” Michael muttered. His fingers skittered across the keyboard as he filed through separate search engines and databases. “I’m going to be here for awhile. I’m working on something.”
“Oh, okay,” Billy said. “Do you know if we have any plastic bags? I, uh, I can’t carry a sopping super-outfit home like this, you know?”
“Should be in the cabinet,” Michael said, pointing in the cabinet’s direction without looking away from the computer.
“Uh, thanks,” Billy said. Then he packed up his costume in one of the plastic bags and made his way into the busy city evening.
# # # # #
Khn’nr maintained his position in the sky high above the city. Then, he began to emit the message to his brethren.
The time that you have been waiting nearly twenty years for is now. We will take over this planet beginning with their most celebrated city. We will defeat their heroes and topple their towers. We must prepare this planet for our colonists. You, my warriors, will be the first. You will be the ones to whom they build monuments in the years to come.
Rise with me and claim the planet Earth for the Skrull race! Rise and show the humans that they cannot continue to oppress the rightful owners of this planet! And forever, brothers, unto death, remembers this:
He loves you.
# # # # #
Billy missed his bike. He’d left it at the bike rack at Teddy’s building and was tempted to go back and get it. Still, that would mean being around Teddy, and that wasn’t something that Billy was sure he wanted to do right now. Something about Teddy scared him, but he wasn’t sure whether that fear came from something about Teddy himself or from something within Billy instead.
Wine dripped from the plastic bag, and Billy wondered how he was going to explain this one to his parents. They’d think he had become an overnight wino. His mom would want him in a twelve-step program by the weekend. He groaned. Wasn’t there some kind of dry cleaner who did stuff for heroes without asking any questions? At least that way he wouldn’t have to take the costume into his own house. Plus, if they ever fought someone that caused his costume to get ripped or whatever, his mom wouldn’t want to see the cuts.
Billy groaned. That reminded him that he hadn’t done anything to hide the scrape. Great, just great, he thought.
The musical score from Wicked echoed down the sidewalk. Billy scrambled for his cell phone. Butterflies scattered throughout his stomach as he saw Teddy’s name show up on the caller i.d. “Hello?”
“Billy? I need help,” Teddy said. His voice was strangled with fear.
The bottom dropped out of Billy’s stomach. “What’s wrong?”
“How fast can you get here?” Teddy asked.
“I can be there in a few minutes. I was just on the way home.”
“Good good good. I’m freaking out right now. I was eating dinner with my mom and, oh god, please just get here…” Teddy begged.
“See you in a minute,” Billy said, hanging up so that he could run. Even as his pace quickened, he began to chant, “IwanttobeatTeddy’shouse…”
The world shifted and he found himself in front of Teddy’s apartment. He dumped the plastic bag with his costume in the dumpster and then sprinted back to the front of the building and up the stairs, banging on the door. He heard a muffled “Come in!” and stepped inside.
“Where are you?” Billy asked, walking into the kitchen.
“My room,” Teddy said. Billy stopped in Teddy’s doorway. His friend stood in the darkness against a mirror, but it was too dark for Billy to see anything. “My mom, at dinner…she turned green, Billy. I didn’t know who else to call. I…I don’t know anything anymore.”
“What do you mean, she turned green?” Billy asked.
“I-I think she might be a Skrull,” Teddy said. He turned around and Billy gasped. Teddy’s skin was now a dark shade of green. He held his arms out, shaking, as if he couldn’t stand to look at his own skin.
“And I think I might be, too…”
TO BE CONTINUE...