Back to GatefoldIssue #11 by A. Crute
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"New York Giants - Part Two"
“Gentlemen this is an invasion,” Hank’s voice was confident and left little doubt in his fellow superheroes minds had any remained.
Reed Richards and T’Challa, standing a world apart, both leapt into action at the same time following the instructions from Hank. A series of giants had been discovered deposited around the world in at least nine locations. These nine giants were loaded with what looked like near human size insects...insects who were starting to stir.
The two genius scientists raced across their crash scenes barking orders to the scientists, soldiers and super-heroes who were present. “I need a freeze ray now!” barked T’Challa to his attendants. He skidded to a halt on all fours like a cat as the body convulsed.
It then ruptured. The same scene played out across the world. Hank watched on the video screens from his apartment. The scarred flesh of the giants puckered and then tore as huge mandibles ripped and tore their way out of the bodies
The insects, their black carapaces stained purple with giant blood, shone in the light of the sun on some of the videos before vibrating their wings and taking to the air where they began to hover and circle, awaiting for their fellow bugs. Laser blasts and gunfire instantly erupted towards them to little effect.
“They’re swarming,” said Hank as he took a step back from the computer screen. He turned quickly, shoving Jan and Cassie out of the way as he rushed across the lab to the window of his apartment. He could see what looked like drifts of smoke rising from the dock area. Smoke which he knew was actually the swarm rising into the air, circling and drifting before they did whatever they were here to do.
“What is going on?” Jan asked. She was already stepping out of her dress and shrinking slightly so that her Pym-particle doused costume expanded to cover her form. She was a founding Avenger and was ready for whatever she needed to do on the spur of the moment.
Hank moved quickly to his control panel and began to type. He was issuing an all bulletin alert to every Avenger and superhero he had in the databases. “It’s got to be a code red,” he said with a nod, “given the number and a brief look at their physiology.” He was more talking to himself than the others.
“Hank!” barked Jan.
He stopped in his tracks and looked at her, she clearly wanted some explanation. “Sorry, these creatures are from the Macro-Verse. It’s a dimension ‘above’ ours like we are above the Micro-Verse. These insects have hollowed out humanoids from that plane like a Trojan Horse and shrunk them to fit into our world. There are millions of tiny insects in each giant and now they’re growing. We’re about to angry giant insects with exoskeletons thicker than steel swarming across the planet...it’s a world ender unless we can stop them.”
He took a deep breath after the regain his composure. “And how do we do that exactly, Hank?” jan asked.
Hank looked from Jan to Cassie and back. “I don’t know,” he shook his head. “We can’t just fly in there and blast them with weapons until we whittle them down; we’re outnumbered by a ridiculous margin.”
“So what do we do?”
Hank threw off his jacket and sized up his bio-shock ray in his hand. “We fly in there and blast them until we whittle them down...whilst we think of something else.”
Jan understood what Hank was saying. It was once again going to be the Avengers (and anyone else they could find) flying into an unwinnable world-ending event with only a hope and a prayer...except this time there was no prayer. They basically had to hold the line until a better plan came along because, if they didn’t, people would die.
Same old same old really.
“Stay here,” Jan commanded as she kissed Cassie and crossed to the window throwing it open. Hank quickly crossed the room to hug Cassie. “We’ll be back with your dad as soon as this is all over”.
“You stay here too, Hank,” Jan commanded as she crossed back to him in a run. “I know you want to be in this fight but you can’t be, not if we’re going to win.”
Hank opened his mouth to speak. He wanted to be out there fighting with the other Avengers to save the entire world. “No,” Jan held up her hand to silence him. “I’m pulling rank. I’m former Avenger chairman, your ex-wife, girlfriend and anything else which puts you under my control. You are a super-genius who is one of the world’s foremost experts on insects who has thought his way out of more world ending situations than anyone I’ve ever known. Flying around blindly shooting insects won’t help anyone. We’ll fight them...it’s up to you to save us.”
Hank nodded. “Here,” he quickly added as he rummaged in his pockets. “I know you’re not a fan of it but take the size increasers. A giant Jan might be of some use.” She caught the small parcel of Pym particles, nodding.
Hank watched as Jan, the woman that he loved, the woman that he knew he would one day remarry, leaned forward and kissed him and then moved backwards to sit on the windowsill. She hurled herself back through the window and took to the air, heading towards the docks to fight the giants.
With the weight of his entire world on his shoulders he turned to look at Cassie. She smiled nervously taking the news that her entire world was about to end. “I can make you a cup of coffee if that’d help?”
# # # # #
Wakanda
Wakanda is an ancient civilization; one of Earth’s oldest with a clear lineage of stretching back nearly 10,000 years. Their people were living in cities and having civilized debates and negotiations while the European humans were still living in caves and acting out 2001: A Space odyssey.
One of the proudest facts in Wakandan culture is that their country had never been breached, they had fought off every invader who dared show their face before they had encroached on the core lands of Wakanda.
That is...until today.
T’Challa bounced off the back of a large beetle creature. It had grown to about the size of a rhinoceros. He landed as best he could in a roll and spring-boarded away. The praying mantis-like creature swung one of its four large red blades at him as it advanced.
There were millions of the things still swarming out of the giant creature. They began to grow in size once they were about twenty feet away.
The Wakandan defences were in full swing trying to keep them at bay. Energy cannons hummed with a charge before unleashing controlled bursts into the swarm. They missed as much as they hit as the swarm separated letting the energy cascade right through them.
T’Challa launched forward, slashing with the claws built into his ceremonial garb of the Black Panther. The carapaces of the insects was as solid as steel, but steel, luckily, was no match for Vibranium. His claws slashed through the arm of the mantis, severing two of them at the stem, but the third and fourth came crashing down giving him just a split second to dash sideways.
“Where is the air support!?” he barked into his cowl microphone, which was relaying his voice to needed military bases and personnel.
“ETA 15 seconds,” responded N’Traku, his go-to-man within the Wakandan Air Force.
The mantis reared up above T’Challa with a hiss and raised its blades. A spear jammed itself into its chest, followed by another and another, as a row of Wakandan soldiers unleashed their ceremonial vibranium weapons.
T’Challa’s assistance was removed a second later as a creature not unlike a centipede (but 16 feet long) collided with them, catching their bodies with its many thrashing legs. T’Challa delivered a straight kick to the thorax of the mantis creature to buy a few seconds and took off running toward the centipede. He pulled out his knife as he sprinted and launched at the beast.
He tackled it near the head and began to stab with his knife. He kept at it for a few seconds until he saw the mantis creature rearing up in his peripheral vision before he released it and let the mantis blades sink into its skin. It squealed in pain.
The roar of the jets suddenly filled the air. The Vibranium fighter jets were 100 times more manoeuvrable than any aircraft in the world as their hulls cancelled out all friction and G-Force meaning as they turned on a dime and unleashed their volley of missiles they were clear before the bugs could respond.
# # # # #
Buffalo
The team known as the Great Lake Avengers were much derided by the superhero community, the villain community, the media, their high school guidance counsellors and 1/3rd of their living parents but there is no doubt that they were true heroes through and through and today in Buffalo, New York the team were certainly proving it.
They had been making a personal appearance at the opening of a local grocery store (all proceeds going to charity) to a lukewarm reception when the dark cloud that were the insects poured across the sky. A large portion descended from the sky.
Mr. Immortal somersaulted after bouncing off the robust stomach of Big Bertha using their ‘trampoline fastball special’ before connecting with a double kick right to the stomach of one of the creatures. A scythe from the bug slashed along his leg, spilling blood and muscle in its wake. He let out a scream of pain.
He began to crawl away from the creature which was scuttling behind him and made sure he continued to give orders to his team. “Flatman, keep them boxed in! Don’t let them get to the civilians!”
The 2-D hero known as Flatman nodded to his leader’s command and stretched a little further across the street as best he could in order to protect the crowd of people who had collected behind him. A hundred of the creature bounced into his chest slashing with pincers, mandibles and scythes but thankfully his body simply absorbed their attacks bending with their sharp points.
“Doorman!” barked Mr Immoral. “I need to bleed out!” He sprung up as best he could, delivering a kick to some mosquito creature with a serrated face tube. The blow deflected the creature from its attack but it caused pain to race through his body.
The obsidian Doorman slid from the sky on his skis and plunged his ski pole through the back of the mosquito. He was a mutant with the power of portal-based teleportation but he was also a servant of death and worked as a Grim Reaper. He had the power in the right circumstances to bring death to people.
Mr Immortal was now one of these cases. He was wounded and, if he lost enough blood, could die. Doorman touched him and applied his power, causing his friend to die immediately. He then climbed up and raced on through the sky to attack more insects. Mr Immortal would resurrect in a minute or two, fully healed and fighting fit again.
Big Bertha bounded forward, crushing a small group of the insects underneath her mass, which was considerable. A thick sludge of goo complete with twitching legs stuck to her and the floor equally, causing a small wall of goop to appear as she stood up.
Squirrel Girl, as ever, was being the MVP of the team; she was bounding around and acting as bait for a large swarm of the insects which had locked onto her as a target. Her sharp claws slashed out at them at every chance she got.
The battle raged on, mutants against alien space bugs until Mr. Immortal took a deep breath and sat bolt upright. He had resurrected and was ready to fight again.
It was the same picture across the world as the superheroes and law enforcement of the world fought off the invaders as best they could. In France, La Peregrine was flitting through the air delivering quick blows to the insects as best he could to lure them away from people. He circled around one last building and then poured on the speed leading them right into the firing line of 100 armed police who let fly a hail of bullets. An ineffective attack.
Across every continent heroes and civilians fought tooth and nail to defend themselves. In Brazil an entire slum had taken to the streets with whatever they could find to gut as many bugs as they could; sadly hundreds of the poorest in the country had already been eviscerated.
In Japan, the Big Hero 6 and the forces of Xen were defending down town Tokyo from the majority of a bug swarm who were pouring out of the giant in the bay. This was the first team up between the two fighting forces and the media was going crazy. Photographers and TV stations lined the rooftops shooting footage much to the chagrin of both teams as they were having to spend time defending them rather than fighting in the most effective strategy. The Japanese Mecha-Defence Division were out in force, using their 60 building-sized fighting robots to swat and blast the insects. Japan, having plenty of experience with giant animal attacks, was prepared for this.
On Monster Island, not far from Japan, the giant creatures from different dimensions and the center of the Earth were only being mildly bothered by the insects. It was a sunny Tuesday and the monsters were simply enjoying a day of basking with some new friends. An island of peace in a world suddenly thrust into a war.
# # # # #
Boulder, Colorado
The three man team sat outside the coffee bar on an unusually warm day in Boulder. They were three members of the team known as ‘Capekillers’ and they’d been to the Rocky Mountain ridged state on a little recon mission.
“More coffee shops should have a licence!” said Eric O’Grady as he lifted the bottle to his lips and took a swig of beer. “This is something I could get used to, bagels and beer.”
Frank Payne, AKA the Constrictor, smiled and returned the sentiment with a raised bottle.
“God this place is dull,” sighed Joystick as she rocked back in her chair, balancing it on two legs and holding for as long as she could. “I mean, what do the norms do to keep themselves entertained”
“Beer, TV, read...” Frank said with a shrug as he took another drink. Honestly that didn’t sound like such a bad afternoon to him. He was a man of simple tastes at times.
“Sex?” Eric O’Grady asked with a raised eye to Joystick.
Janice paused for a moment causing the seat to wobble but not topple. “Not in my life time,” she grimaced.
“I think the expression is ‘not in your life time’” corrected O’Grady.
“If I died, god knows what you’d do to my body, you seem the type,” Joystick laughed. Constrictor let out a short hiss of laughter.
Eric was about to respond when a small group of screaming townspeople ran passed them. The three meta-humans looked at each other. Their attentions quickly turned back to the sky as the swarm of insects began to fill the air above the city.
They stood up quickly, their chairs tipping to the floor behind them. “Do we run or do we do the hero thing?” asked Eric. He was by far the least experienced in this sort of lifestyle.
Joystick sparked her staffs to life as they slid down her sleeves into her hands. “And I thought today was going to be boring.” She grinned as she dashed forward. The two men at the table exchanged glances and then stood to follow her.
# # # # #
Hank’s lab
Hank was working away manically at his computer. He was standing and would occasionally wander to the board to write something on the large electronic whiteboard which was on the wall next to the computer.
Cassie walked behind him to replace his coffee, untouched and now ice cold, with a new one. She doubted he would drink from it but she felt the need to be as helpful as she could. She returned to the stool further in the lab and sat watching him. He’d told her several times that she could go and do anything she wanted, she didn’t have to wait. She, however, wanted to; she was powerless to influence this situation the world found itself in so sitting, watching and waiting as close to someone doing the action which might.
Hank stopped and froze in front of the board before cursing. He flipped the board pen sideways and used it as an eraser. He paused and exhaled, frustration etched across his face.
“Cassie, talk to me,” Hank said as he took a step back and started to write again.
“Wont it distract you? I’m trying to not be distracting,” she was tentative.
“I’m hoping it will distract me just the right amount, I’ve got three plans...four plans!...three plans firing through my head and I’m trying to do math for all three and it’s getting confused. If you talk to me I’m betting it can keep my other thoughts on track.”
“What are the plans?”
“Plan A,” Hank moved sideways and circled a series of calculations in a red pen, “we shrink them down to normal insect size which will obviously be a massive help...but I need to find the right mix of Pym Particles in line with their own natural size altering factor. It could be that I shrink them and they simply grow back...or they might explode-slash-implode.” Hank paused and turned to Cassie.
“Four plans?” she asked.
Hank smiled and nodded. “Though the effects could be devastating to anything caught near them at the time.”
“Plan C then...formerly Plan B: I figure out the right translation matrix and override whatever communication form they have and basically command them to go away.”
“Like with ants?” Cassie nodded understanding Hank. It seemed like a great plan.
“The only problem...problems...with what seems to be the perfect plan is that these insects’ communication, if they are a sentient planning species, will be far too complicated for the current algorithms my tech and my mind can handle.”
“Could you use more minds? You, my dad...me? If we all put on Ant helmets?”
“It’s a possibility,” Hank Paused and quickly moved onto a new page to do some calculations. “We’d need calculation power of thousands of minds. See, I told you you’d be helpful.”
“Plan D?” Cassie asked inquisitively.
“I key Pym particles into the wave length of matter from our dimension and instead of affecting the bugs I use them on us. I take the entire planet and flee to the Micro-verse”
He turned to look at the stunned Cassie. “It’s a bit of a drastic plan.”
“That’s one way of putting it,” came a familiar voice from outside of the window as Scott Lang climbed in dressed in his Ant-Man costume, splattered with bug residue. In his arms he carried the corpse of a giant insect.
Cassie ran to embrace her father. He kissed her forehead before crossing over to Hank. “Your entree, sir.”
“Enough legs for the whole family,” Hank grinned before moving to his work bench. “Right, let’s see.” Hank set up a scanner over the insect and looked at the 3D model it threw up. He nodded as he prodded at the hologram. “The Ant-helmets should communicate easily enough...if I can get the processing power.”
“Let’s try one of the other plans,” He reached out and summoned the new batch of Pym Particles to his hand before pouring them into the creature. It visibly began to shrink before his eyes.
“Come on!” barked Scott as he grabbed Cassie in excitement.
“Wait for it,” she said, fully aware of the possibilities that had been suggested by Hank. In the time it took for them to blink the insect had reappeared, twice the size it had been, before it exploded, throwing Hank backwards.
When the smoke cleared there was nothing left but the smouldering mess of the workbench.
“Well, that’s something, right?” asked Scott.
Hank coughed. “It’s too violent a reaction...somewhat akin to Thermite. If we did this to all the insects out there I’m guessing the Earth would be uninhabitable to humans for about 30 years.”
“Plan C?” Cassie asked.
“Plan C,” Hank confirmed and moved over to the board whilst Cassie began to explain Plan C to her father.
Scott waited until she’d finished. “I’m here with a helmet at the ready. What else do we need?”
“A hundred thousand other people wired up to helmets,” Hank said with a sigh. He suddenly sat bolt upright and turned to his two companions, a look of shock on his face.
# # # # #
London, England
Joseph Chapman was the masked hero known as Union Jack. A blow had just sent him hurting into a set of bins at the base of the block of flats. It was the run down Ravensdale Estate on the outskirts of London, where 60% of the population within 10 tower blocks were unemployed and living on benefits.
He’d spent the last two nights patrolling the area looking for a suspected vampire. He’d been ready to pack up and go home when the insects descended. They were so far kicking his arse.
He jumped to his feet as quickly as he could and sprinted forward firing his gun with one hand and preparing his knife with his other. He was a dead shot when it came down to it and he was able to shoot the wings off of the insects back before targeting it’s eye. He plunged the knife as hard as he could into the face of the creature, the blade glanced off with nary a scratch. The beetle lashed out.
Joseph rolled with the blow and launched back to his feet in a run. He needed more room to fight and being stuck in a corner between two tower blocks was not ideal.
He was a consummate professional and not one to become easily distracted but he did marvel mid-sprint at what was going on around him. The citizens were fighting back. A gang of teenagers who no doubt were usually up to no good (judging by how easily they handled the knives and few guns which probably weren’t legal) were busy barricading the door to their tower block and fighting back against the insects which were trying to burst in.
Other residents were conducting a turf battle with the creatures across the car park and play park which sat amongst the blocks. There were casualties everywhere. “Run!” barked a shirtless man in his pyjama bottoms, tattoo of Joseph’s friend and ex-girlfriend Spitfire topless snaked up his arm. He held in his hand a Moltov cocktail.
He hurled it into the car park amongst the cars. Joseph made a sharp turn and B-lined through the car park, leaping over the bonnet of a now smouldering car. The insect was in close pursuit. He’d timed it just right and as a nearby Fiat Punto exploded, the force of which threw the beetle backwards and through the wall of some poor soul’s flat.
A few seconds later there was a pop and a small explosion. He knew the sound well, a vampire immolating on exposure to sunlight. Two birds, one stone, he thought to himself with a sigh. He took a breather for a few seconds then burst back into a run towards another insect down the length of one of the buildings. He stopped in his tracks, looking through the window of a ground floor flat where BBC News 24 was obviously covering the world wide invasion.
Their footage cut from London to an aerial shot over Birmingham, a city Joseph knew well, not far from his own Liverpool home. The city was alive with the bugs crawling across the whole city, buildings heaved and shifted with the insects crawling across them.
There wasn’t a human in sight, bodies that used to be people, yes, but no people. The tagline read ‘Birmingham destroyed’. He tightened the grip on his knife and prepared.
# # # # #
Hank’s lab
Hank was rooting through one of the storerooms in his lab structure. He rode a small segway-like device along rows of shelves and boxed items. Cassie and Scott followed behind on similar devices, trying to engage him in conversation. He seemed to mainly be having a chat with himself though.
On anyone else the behaviour would have been worrying but with Hank it was just part of his thought process that was usually seen just before a big breakthrough, and a big breakthrough is what they needed right now.
“Here!” he jumped down from his transport and found a solid steel box. “Okay, let’s go size up.” He gathered the three of them together and tapped at his wrist-mounted device, which teleported them back to the living room on top of the teleportation pad which sat on the coffee table.
The three began to grow until they reached their normal size. Hank dropped down onto the sofa and began to type into the keypad on the box.
“Do you want me to talk?” asked Cassie.
Hank looked to her and smiled. “Yes, both of you...I need your Dad up to speed with my plan, and I need his Avenger access code.”
“Mine too?” came a familiar voice as the red and green figure of the Vision phased through the wall into the sitting room. “I assumed this is why I was summoned, though I should have remained with the battle”.
“I should be there too,” commented Scott. He had argued with Hank but the scientist had forced him to stay.
“In time, soon even...but I need three Avenger override codes. And I need to explain,” Hank exhaled slowly and nodded as he prepared to explain. “You’ve both been out there and seen what is going on. They’re winning in New York, the center of superhuman activity on the planet, and the rest of the world isn’t fairing much better.” He pointed at the information system on his arm. “Birmingham in England has been reduced mostly to rubble, tens if not hundreds of thousands dead...millions killed worldwide. Billions will follow.” He nodded at the others to make sure they understood the severity of the issue.
“You’ve got an idea to stop all of this?” Cassie quickly asked. “Plan C?” Hank nodded.
“These aliens are insectoid in nature and seem to have similar structures as terrestrial insects.” He motioned to his head to make clear that he was talking about their brains and antenna. “I am confident that we can communicate and, if need be, control them but it’s far more difficult than it sounds. They’re clearly much more intelligent than Earth insects...possibly even meeting our definition of sentient...I trust we can choose not to deal with the ethical implications of mind controlling a sentient being at the moment?”
Scott exhaled heavily. “They invaded us, so I’m willing to break the telepathic Geneva Convention if needed, yes.”
“There are millions of them, some level of intelligence and sentience...the calculations and mind power needed to firstly communicate with them and secondly overwrite their will is phenomenal.” Hank shook his head as he considered the enormity of the situation. “Cassie correctly pointed out that more minds would find it easier, or more mind power...more than Cassie, Scott and I could manage...which is why Vision is here.”
Vision nodded, understanding the situation. “I am prepared,” he nodded his consent. He understood his purpose now, as his computer mind was capable of calculating far more than that of a human.
Hank sighed and then averted his gaze back to the box. “We need more...which is why I need you both to be on board.” He entered one final string of numbers and opened the box, reaching inside with both hands.
He lifted an object slowly. Vision, Scott and Cassie gasped in shock. Their horror was tangible.
Hank spoke slowly. “If the human race has any hope of survival, I need raw mental computing power.” He turned the head around to stare him in the eye. “We need to activate Ultron.”
One of the heads from his ‘son’ grinned back at him with his twisted smile.
Reed Richards and T’Challa, standing a world apart, both leapt into action at the same time following the instructions from Hank. A series of giants had been discovered deposited around the world in at least nine locations. These nine giants were loaded with what looked like near human size insects...insects who were starting to stir.
The two genius scientists raced across their crash scenes barking orders to the scientists, soldiers and super-heroes who were present. “I need a freeze ray now!” barked T’Challa to his attendants. He skidded to a halt on all fours like a cat as the body convulsed.
It then ruptured. The same scene played out across the world. Hank watched on the video screens from his apartment. The scarred flesh of the giants puckered and then tore as huge mandibles ripped and tore their way out of the bodies
The insects, their black carapaces stained purple with giant blood, shone in the light of the sun on some of the videos before vibrating their wings and taking to the air where they began to hover and circle, awaiting for their fellow bugs. Laser blasts and gunfire instantly erupted towards them to little effect.
“They’re swarming,” said Hank as he took a step back from the computer screen. He turned quickly, shoving Jan and Cassie out of the way as he rushed across the lab to the window of his apartment. He could see what looked like drifts of smoke rising from the dock area. Smoke which he knew was actually the swarm rising into the air, circling and drifting before they did whatever they were here to do.
“What is going on?” Jan asked. She was already stepping out of her dress and shrinking slightly so that her Pym-particle doused costume expanded to cover her form. She was a founding Avenger and was ready for whatever she needed to do on the spur of the moment.
Hank moved quickly to his control panel and began to type. He was issuing an all bulletin alert to every Avenger and superhero he had in the databases. “It’s got to be a code red,” he said with a nod, “given the number and a brief look at their physiology.” He was more talking to himself than the others.
“Hank!” barked Jan.
He stopped in his tracks and looked at her, she clearly wanted some explanation. “Sorry, these creatures are from the Macro-Verse. It’s a dimension ‘above’ ours like we are above the Micro-Verse. These insects have hollowed out humanoids from that plane like a Trojan Horse and shrunk them to fit into our world. There are millions of tiny insects in each giant and now they’re growing. We’re about to angry giant insects with exoskeletons thicker than steel swarming across the planet...it’s a world ender unless we can stop them.”
He took a deep breath after the regain his composure. “And how do we do that exactly, Hank?” jan asked.
Hank looked from Jan to Cassie and back. “I don’t know,” he shook his head. “We can’t just fly in there and blast them with weapons until we whittle them down; we’re outnumbered by a ridiculous margin.”
“So what do we do?”
Hank threw off his jacket and sized up his bio-shock ray in his hand. “We fly in there and blast them until we whittle them down...whilst we think of something else.”
Jan understood what Hank was saying. It was once again going to be the Avengers (and anyone else they could find) flying into an unwinnable world-ending event with only a hope and a prayer...except this time there was no prayer. They basically had to hold the line until a better plan came along because, if they didn’t, people would die.
Same old same old really.
“Stay here,” Jan commanded as she kissed Cassie and crossed to the window throwing it open. Hank quickly crossed the room to hug Cassie. “We’ll be back with your dad as soon as this is all over”.
“You stay here too, Hank,” Jan commanded as she crossed back to him in a run. “I know you want to be in this fight but you can’t be, not if we’re going to win.”
Hank opened his mouth to speak. He wanted to be out there fighting with the other Avengers to save the entire world. “No,” Jan held up her hand to silence him. “I’m pulling rank. I’m former Avenger chairman, your ex-wife, girlfriend and anything else which puts you under my control. You are a super-genius who is one of the world’s foremost experts on insects who has thought his way out of more world ending situations than anyone I’ve ever known. Flying around blindly shooting insects won’t help anyone. We’ll fight them...it’s up to you to save us.”
Hank nodded. “Here,” he quickly added as he rummaged in his pockets. “I know you’re not a fan of it but take the size increasers. A giant Jan might be of some use.” She caught the small parcel of Pym particles, nodding.
Hank watched as Jan, the woman that he loved, the woman that he knew he would one day remarry, leaned forward and kissed him and then moved backwards to sit on the windowsill. She hurled herself back through the window and took to the air, heading towards the docks to fight the giants.
With the weight of his entire world on his shoulders he turned to look at Cassie. She smiled nervously taking the news that her entire world was about to end. “I can make you a cup of coffee if that’d help?”
# # # # #
Wakanda
Wakanda is an ancient civilization; one of Earth’s oldest with a clear lineage of stretching back nearly 10,000 years. Their people were living in cities and having civilized debates and negotiations while the European humans were still living in caves and acting out 2001: A Space odyssey.
One of the proudest facts in Wakandan culture is that their country had never been breached, they had fought off every invader who dared show their face before they had encroached on the core lands of Wakanda.
That is...until today.
T’Challa bounced off the back of a large beetle creature. It had grown to about the size of a rhinoceros. He landed as best he could in a roll and spring-boarded away. The praying mantis-like creature swung one of its four large red blades at him as it advanced.
There were millions of the things still swarming out of the giant creature. They began to grow in size once they were about twenty feet away.
The Wakandan defences were in full swing trying to keep them at bay. Energy cannons hummed with a charge before unleashing controlled bursts into the swarm. They missed as much as they hit as the swarm separated letting the energy cascade right through them.
T’Challa launched forward, slashing with the claws built into his ceremonial garb of the Black Panther. The carapaces of the insects was as solid as steel, but steel, luckily, was no match for Vibranium. His claws slashed through the arm of the mantis, severing two of them at the stem, but the third and fourth came crashing down giving him just a split second to dash sideways.
“Where is the air support!?” he barked into his cowl microphone, which was relaying his voice to needed military bases and personnel.
“ETA 15 seconds,” responded N’Traku, his go-to-man within the Wakandan Air Force.
The mantis reared up above T’Challa with a hiss and raised its blades. A spear jammed itself into its chest, followed by another and another, as a row of Wakandan soldiers unleashed their ceremonial vibranium weapons.
T’Challa’s assistance was removed a second later as a creature not unlike a centipede (but 16 feet long) collided with them, catching their bodies with its many thrashing legs. T’Challa delivered a straight kick to the thorax of the mantis creature to buy a few seconds and took off running toward the centipede. He pulled out his knife as he sprinted and launched at the beast.
He tackled it near the head and began to stab with his knife. He kept at it for a few seconds until he saw the mantis creature rearing up in his peripheral vision before he released it and let the mantis blades sink into its skin. It squealed in pain.
The roar of the jets suddenly filled the air. The Vibranium fighter jets were 100 times more manoeuvrable than any aircraft in the world as their hulls cancelled out all friction and G-Force meaning as they turned on a dime and unleashed their volley of missiles they were clear before the bugs could respond.
# # # # #
Buffalo
The team known as the Great Lake Avengers were much derided by the superhero community, the villain community, the media, their high school guidance counsellors and 1/3rd of their living parents but there is no doubt that they were true heroes through and through and today in Buffalo, New York the team were certainly proving it.
They had been making a personal appearance at the opening of a local grocery store (all proceeds going to charity) to a lukewarm reception when the dark cloud that were the insects poured across the sky. A large portion descended from the sky.
Mr. Immortal somersaulted after bouncing off the robust stomach of Big Bertha using their ‘trampoline fastball special’ before connecting with a double kick right to the stomach of one of the creatures. A scythe from the bug slashed along his leg, spilling blood and muscle in its wake. He let out a scream of pain.
He began to crawl away from the creature which was scuttling behind him and made sure he continued to give orders to his team. “Flatman, keep them boxed in! Don’t let them get to the civilians!”
The 2-D hero known as Flatman nodded to his leader’s command and stretched a little further across the street as best he could in order to protect the crowd of people who had collected behind him. A hundred of the creature bounced into his chest slashing with pincers, mandibles and scythes but thankfully his body simply absorbed their attacks bending with their sharp points.
“Doorman!” barked Mr Immoral. “I need to bleed out!” He sprung up as best he could, delivering a kick to some mosquito creature with a serrated face tube. The blow deflected the creature from its attack but it caused pain to race through his body.
The obsidian Doorman slid from the sky on his skis and plunged his ski pole through the back of the mosquito. He was a mutant with the power of portal-based teleportation but he was also a servant of death and worked as a Grim Reaper. He had the power in the right circumstances to bring death to people.
Mr Immortal was now one of these cases. He was wounded and, if he lost enough blood, could die. Doorman touched him and applied his power, causing his friend to die immediately. He then climbed up and raced on through the sky to attack more insects. Mr Immortal would resurrect in a minute or two, fully healed and fighting fit again.
Big Bertha bounded forward, crushing a small group of the insects underneath her mass, which was considerable. A thick sludge of goo complete with twitching legs stuck to her and the floor equally, causing a small wall of goop to appear as she stood up.
Squirrel Girl, as ever, was being the MVP of the team; she was bounding around and acting as bait for a large swarm of the insects which had locked onto her as a target. Her sharp claws slashed out at them at every chance she got.
The battle raged on, mutants against alien space bugs until Mr. Immortal took a deep breath and sat bolt upright. He had resurrected and was ready to fight again.
It was the same picture across the world as the superheroes and law enforcement of the world fought off the invaders as best they could. In France, La Peregrine was flitting through the air delivering quick blows to the insects as best he could to lure them away from people. He circled around one last building and then poured on the speed leading them right into the firing line of 100 armed police who let fly a hail of bullets. An ineffective attack.
Across every continent heroes and civilians fought tooth and nail to defend themselves. In Brazil an entire slum had taken to the streets with whatever they could find to gut as many bugs as they could; sadly hundreds of the poorest in the country had already been eviscerated.
In Japan, the Big Hero 6 and the forces of Xen were defending down town Tokyo from the majority of a bug swarm who were pouring out of the giant in the bay. This was the first team up between the two fighting forces and the media was going crazy. Photographers and TV stations lined the rooftops shooting footage much to the chagrin of both teams as they were having to spend time defending them rather than fighting in the most effective strategy. The Japanese Mecha-Defence Division were out in force, using their 60 building-sized fighting robots to swat and blast the insects. Japan, having plenty of experience with giant animal attacks, was prepared for this.
On Monster Island, not far from Japan, the giant creatures from different dimensions and the center of the Earth were only being mildly bothered by the insects. It was a sunny Tuesday and the monsters were simply enjoying a day of basking with some new friends. An island of peace in a world suddenly thrust into a war.
# # # # #
Boulder, Colorado
The three man team sat outside the coffee bar on an unusually warm day in Boulder. They were three members of the team known as ‘Capekillers’ and they’d been to the Rocky Mountain ridged state on a little recon mission.
“More coffee shops should have a licence!” said Eric O’Grady as he lifted the bottle to his lips and took a swig of beer. “This is something I could get used to, bagels and beer.”
Frank Payne, AKA the Constrictor, smiled and returned the sentiment with a raised bottle.
“God this place is dull,” sighed Joystick as she rocked back in her chair, balancing it on two legs and holding for as long as she could. “I mean, what do the norms do to keep themselves entertained”
“Beer, TV, read...” Frank said with a shrug as he took another drink. Honestly that didn’t sound like such a bad afternoon to him. He was a man of simple tastes at times.
“Sex?” Eric O’Grady asked with a raised eye to Joystick.
Janice paused for a moment causing the seat to wobble but not topple. “Not in my life time,” she grimaced.
“I think the expression is ‘not in your life time’” corrected O’Grady.
“If I died, god knows what you’d do to my body, you seem the type,” Joystick laughed. Constrictor let out a short hiss of laughter.
Eric was about to respond when a small group of screaming townspeople ran passed them. The three meta-humans looked at each other. Their attentions quickly turned back to the sky as the swarm of insects began to fill the air above the city.
They stood up quickly, their chairs tipping to the floor behind them. “Do we run or do we do the hero thing?” asked Eric. He was by far the least experienced in this sort of lifestyle.
Joystick sparked her staffs to life as they slid down her sleeves into her hands. “And I thought today was going to be boring.” She grinned as she dashed forward. The two men at the table exchanged glances and then stood to follow her.
# # # # #
Hank’s lab
Hank was working away manically at his computer. He was standing and would occasionally wander to the board to write something on the large electronic whiteboard which was on the wall next to the computer.
Cassie walked behind him to replace his coffee, untouched and now ice cold, with a new one. She doubted he would drink from it but she felt the need to be as helpful as she could. She returned to the stool further in the lab and sat watching him. He’d told her several times that she could go and do anything she wanted, she didn’t have to wait. She, however, wanted to; she was powerless to influence this situation the world found itself in so sitting, watching and waiting as close to someone doing the action which might.
Hank stopped and froze in front of the board before cursing. He flipped the board pen sideways and used it as an eraser. He paused and exhaled, frustration etched across his face.
“Cassie, talk to me,” Hank said as he took a step back and started to write again.
“Wont it distract you? I’m trying to not be distracting,” she was tentative.
“I’m hoping it will distract me just the right amount, I’ve got three plans...four plans!...three plans firing through my head and I’m trying to do math for all three and it’s getting confused. If you talk to me I’m betting it can keep my other thoughts on track.”
“What are the plans?”
“Plan A,” Hank moved sideways and circled a series of calculations in a red pen, “we shrink them down to normal insect size which will obviously be a massive help...but I need to find the right mix of Pym Particles in line with their own natural size altering factor. It could be that I shrink them and they simply grow back...or they might explode-slash-implode.” Hank paused and turned to Cassie.
“Four plans?” she asked.
Hank smiled and nodded. “Though the effects could be devastating to anything caught near them at the time.”
“Plan C then...formerly Plan B: I figure out the right translation matrix and override whatever communication form they have and basically command them to go away.”
“Like with ants?” Cassie nodded understanding Hank. It seemed like a great plan.
“The only problem...problems...with what seems to be the perfect plan is that these insects’ communication, if they are a sentient planning species, will be far too complicated for the current algorithms my tech and my mind can handle.”
“Could you use more minds? You, my dad...me? If we all put on Ant helmets?”
“It’s a possibility,” Hank Paused and quickly moved onto a new page to do some calculations. “We’d need calculation power of thousands of minds. See, I told you you’d be helpful.”
“Plan D?” Cassie asked inquisitively.
“I key Pym particles into the wave length of matter from our dimension and instead of affecting the bugs I use them on us. I take the entire planet and flee to the Micro-verse”
He turned to look at the stunned Cassie. “It’s a bit of a drastic plan.”
“That’s one way of putting it,” came a familiar voice from outside of the window as Scott Lang climbed in dressed in his Ant-Man costume, splattered with bug residue. In his arms he carried the corpse of a giant insect.
Cassie ran to embrace her father. He kissed her forehead before crossing over to Hank. “Your entree, sir.”
“Enough legs for the whole family,” Hank grinned before moving to his work bench. “Right, let’s see.” Hank set up a scanner over the insect and looked at the 3D model it threw up. He nodded as he prodded at the hologram. “The Ant-helmets should communicate easily enough...if I can get the processing power.”
“Let’s try one of the other plans,” He reached out and summoned the new batch of Pym Particles to his hand before pouring them into the creature. It visibly began to shrink before his eyes.
“Come on!” barked Scott as he grabbed Cassie in excitement.
“Wait for it,” she said, fully aware of the possibilities that had been suggested by Hank. In the time it took for them to blink the insect had reappeared, twice the size it had been, before it exploded, throwing Hank backwards.
When the smoke cleared there was nothing left but the smouldering mess of the workbench.
“Well, that’s something, right?” asked Scott.
Hank coughed. “It’s too violent a reaction...somewhat akin to Thermite. If we did this to all the insects out there I’m guessing the Earth would be uninhabitable to humans for about 30 years.”
“Plan C?” Cassie asked.
“Plan C,” Hank confirmed and moved over to the board whilst Cassie began to explain Plan C to her father.
Scott waited until she’d finished. “I’m here with a helmet at the ready. What else do we need?”
“A hundred thousand other people wired up to helmets,” Hank said with a sigh. He suddenly sat bolt upright and turned to his two companions, a look of shock on his face.
# # # # #
London, England
Joseph Chapman was the masked hero known as Union Jack. A blow had just sent him hurting into a set of bins at the base of the block of flats. It was the run down Ravensdale Estate on the outskirts of London, where 60% of the population within 10 tower blocks were unemployed and living on benefits.
He’d spent the last two nights patrolling the area looking for a suspected vampire. He’d been ready to pack up and go home when the insects descended. They were so far kicking his arse.
He jumped to his feet as quickly as he could and sprinted forward firing his gun with one hand and preparing his knife with his other. He was a dead shot when it came down to it and he was able to shoot the wings off of the insects back before targeting it’s eye. He plunged the knife as hard as he could into the face of the creature, the blade glanced off with nary a scratch. The beetle lashed out.
Joseph rolled with the blow and launched back to his feet in a run. He needed more room to fight and being stuck in a corner between two tower blocks was not ideal.
He was a consummate professional and not one to become easily distracted but he did marvel mid-sprint at what was going on around him. The citizens were fighting back. A gang of teenagers who no doubt were usually up to no good (judging by how easily they handled the knives and few guns which probably weren’t legal) were busy barricading the door to their tower block and fighting back against the insects which were trying to burst in.
Other residents were conducting a turf battle with the creatures across the car park and play park which sat amongst the blocks. There were casualties everywhere. “Run!” barked a shirtless man in his pyjama bottoms, tattoo of Joseph’s friend and ex-girlfriend Spitfire topless snaked up his arm. He held in his hand a Moltov cocktail.
He hurled it into the car park amongst the cars. Joseph made a sharp turn and B-lined through the car park, leaping over the bonnet of a now smouldering car. The insect was in close pursuit. He’d timed it just right and as a nearby Fiat Punto exploded, the force of which threw the beetle backwards and through the wall of some poor soul’s flat.
A few seconds later there was a pop and a small explosion. He knew the sound well, a vampire immolating on exposure to sunlight. Two birds, one stone, he thought to himself with a sigh. He took a breather for a few seconds then burst back into a run towards another insect down the length of one of the buildings. He stopped in his tracks, looking through the window of a ground floor flat where BBC News 24 was obviously covering the world wide invasion.
Their footage cut from London to an aerial shot over Birmingham, a city Joseph knew well, not far from his own Liverpool home. The city was alive with the bugs crawling across the whole city, buildings heaved and shifted with the insects crawling across them.
There wasn’t a human in sight, bodies that used to be people, yes, but no people. The tagline read ‘Birmingham destroyed’. He tightened the grip on his knife and prepared.
# # # # #
Hank’s lab
Hank was rooting through one of the storerooms in his lab structure. He rode a small segway-like device along rows of shelves and boxed items. Cassie and Scott followed behind on similar devices, trying to engage him in conversation. He seemed to mainly be having a chat with himself though.
On anyone else the behaviour would have been worrying but with Hank it was just part of his thought process that was usually seen just before a big breakthrough, and a big breakthrough is what they needed right now.
“Here!” he jumped down from his transport and found a solid steel box. “Okay, let’s go size up.” He gathered the three of them together and tapped at his wrist-mounted device, which teleported them back to the living room on top of the teleportation pad which sat on the coffee table.
The three began to grow until they reached their normal size. Hank dropped down onto the sofa and began to type into the keypad on the box.
“Do you want me to talk?” asked Cassie.
Hank looked to her and smiled. “Yes, both of you...I need your Dad up to speed with my plan, and I need his Avenger access code.”
“Mine too?” came a familiar voice as the red and green figure of the Vision phased through the wall into the sitting room. “I assumed this is why I was summoned, though I should have remained with the battle”.
“I should be there too,” commented Scott. He had argued with Hank but the scientist had forced him to stay.
“In time, soon even...but I need three Avenger override codes. And I need to explain,” Hank exhaled slowly and nodded as he prepared to explain. “You’ve both been out there and seen what is going on. They’re winning in New York, the center of superhuman activity on the planet, and the rest of the world isn’t fairing much better.” He pointed at the information system on his arm. “Birmingham in England has been reduced mostly to rubble, tens if not hundreds of thousands dead...millions killed worldwide. Billions will follow.” He nodded at the others to make sure they understood the severity of the issue.
“You’ve got an idea to stop all of this?” Cassie quickly asked. “Plan C?” Hank nodded.
“These aliens are insectoid in nature and seem to have similar structures as terrestrial insects.” He motioned to his head to make clear that he was talking about their brains and antenna. “I am confident that we can communicate and, if need be, control them but it’s far more difficult than it sounds. They’re clearly much more intelligent than Earth insects...possibly even meeting our definition of sentient...I trust we can choose not to deal with the ethical implications of mind controlling a sentient being at the moment?”
Scott exhaled heavily. “They invaded us, so I’m willing to break the telepathic Geneva Convention if needed, yes.”
“There are millions of them, some level of intelligence and sentience...the calculations and mind power needed to firstly communicate with them and secondly overwrite their will is phenomenal.” Hank shook his head as he considered the enormity of the situation. “Cassie correctly pointed out that more minds would find it easier, or more mind power...more than Cassie, Scott and I could manage...which is why Vision is here.”
Vision nodded, understanding the situation. “I am prepared,” he nodded his consent. He understood his purpose now, as his computer mind was capable of calculating far more than that of a human.
Hank sighed and then averted his gaze back to the box. “We need more...which is why I need you both to be on board.” He entered one final string of numbers and opened the box, reaching inside with both hands.
He lifted an object slowly. Vision, Scott and Cassie gasped in shock. Their horror was tangible.
Hank spoke slowly. “If the human race has any hope of survival, I need raw mental computing power.” He turned the head around to stare him in the eye. “We need to activate Ultron.”
One of the heads from his ‘son’ grinned back at him with his twisted smile.