Back to GatefoldIssue #4 by A. Crute
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"The Animal Kingdom - Part One"
The city of Xilario…
The city was an expansive one, stretching from when the sun rose to the sun set. It had survived the great storms and routine polar shifts of the planet for thousands of years. There was however one problem it was having difficulties with.
Yellowjacket was having to deal with the exact same problem at the minute as he hurtled through the air powered by the bio-electric flight powers of his suit. He had been spending a lot of time in the micro-verse and its various planets recently, after Psycho-Man’s recent attack.
He spiralled in the air to avoid a laser blast that was fired at him and circled around then darted sideways quickly enough to avoid a transmitter pole. He levelled his own blaster and let fly with a shot of concussive energy. It sailed underneath the vehicle.
“He’s coming up behind us quick boss!” screamed one of the green skinned creatures. The tentacles that lined the bottom of his face twitched as he growled. He raised his blaster which bore a remarkable resemblance to a Tommy Gun and unleashed another round of laser blasts.
Hank dodged them as best he could as he cast his eyes along the path of one as he heard a scream. It had struck a building rather close to a balcony where a group of the citizens had been standing for a better view point.
He activated his helmet and the familiar silver shape slid from behind his head to cover the top of his cowl. A number of symbols began to appear in his visual display. “Attention Cities! This is a Dungeons situation please return to your places of abode!” broadcast his new universal translator. It apparently still had a few bugs to be worked out.
“You’ll never take us alive, Copper!” barked one of the green skinned creatures. It appeared to be the one riding shotgun in the second car.
The problem with this world as Hank saw it was television or, rather, the television shows from Earth to be precise. This planet had only discovered television about a decade ago if the info loop which Hank had hacked into was to be believed. The big problem though was as soon as they turned on this transmitting device it began to pick up television broadcasts from Earth.
The signals apparently took time to bounce down to this universe, however, as they were just now getting TV broadcasts and radio signals from throughout history (though nothing after Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, oddly enough).
He was having a similar problem. The broadcasts of his communicator was taking about 4 hours to transmit from Earth through to him (he had managed to boost the signal to allow for this relatively short delay).
In any event, the television, this instant source of information, was met with religious zealousness and the population thought it was messages from the God’s. They believed the characters in the broadcasts were in fact Gods themselves.
The people of the planet, apparently predisposed to religion due to some specific wiring in their second brain, immediately began to adopt the characters and roles that they saw. There were now religions based around The Beatles, Star Wars, I Love Lucy, The Breakfast Club and who knew what else. The ones which were currently causing major problems on the once peaceful planet were those based around criminals, wars, Sci-Fi villains and so on.
Hank thought it strange that the planet had invented flying vehicles before they had invented radio and television, but he had always thought it truly bizarre that humanity had invented the Atomic Bomb before sliced bread.
This particular sect had come to worship the gangster movies of the 40s and 50s and were fully prepared to live up to their high examples. They had knocked over a bank and were currently making their getaway only for Yellowjacket to circle down into their chase.
Hank dove down closer to the street level. The blasts of his enemies were flying wildly and could do some serious damage. He needed to make them think he had peeled off the chase so they’d stop firing.
He picked up the speed when he was closer to ground level and quickly found himself underneath the vehicles and then began to rise. Several plans ran through his mind at how best to deal with these guys with no serious injuries. A smile slowly spread across his face; it was time to pull something ‘new’ out of the bag.
It had been a couple of weeks since he had managed to save the Earth and everyone on it from an expanding star which would have destroyed it and he had been spending a lot of time in the Micro-Verse. He had become slightly enamoured with the hero lifestyle again like when he had first started out; it was exciting, it felt new even though it was really old hat.
He did worry that he was just in an ‘up-swing’ and eventually he would reach a peak and then it was all down hill but he wasn’t sure. This felt good, it felt right again. He’d even lessened his meds to a level where honestly they’d be having next to no effect on him. He still felt great.
He had been planet hopping in the Micro-Verse quicker than Captain Kirk. He had been from planet to planet pulling his hero schtick. On some worlds they already had superheroes and he was met as a friendly alien hero (after the cursory misunderstanding battle); on others he was apparently the first of his kind and the media had been all over him. He had visited several planets more than once, and Xilario was one of them.
He had been relying mostly on his weapons and daring do to get the job done but maybe this was a chance to pull out another card from the old heroic bag. He began to increase his size.
The cars tried to swerve as this giant figure suddenly emerged from below them. His hands grabbed the cars, one in each hand, and he shook them violently. He moved his hands down rapidly and then let go, the cars buffeted in the air as they tried to gain their equilibrium back, a safety feature he was only too happy to exploit.
He dropped back down to the relative normal size and landed on the hood of one of the cars. He threw out both arms, the blaster in his right hand taking out the mobilizer on the other car so it wouldn’t be doing anything other than hovering.
He plunged the growing energy blade in his other hand into the engine block of the car that he had landed on. The guns which the hoods had trained on him were kept unfired, their eyes going wide in mild terror. All he had to do was break the energy flux within the engine and the car would be forced to spiral down to the streets below.
Hank smiled and leapt backwards from the car taking his energy sword with him. The car began to fall. He streamlined his body and shot towards the ground with the massive weight of the car coming down behind him pulled down by the force of gravity. He powered up his thrusters to speed his descent. He spun in the air, touched down gently and began to grow.
He bent his knees to take the weight of the car and then forced it down onto its side before twisting the metal of the side facing him shut. He smiled as he put his foot on the side of the vehicle and let out a breath like a hunter who had just taken down a bear.
It was only a minute or two before he was instantly surrounded by his adoring fans of this Earth all dressed in their various religious garbs from Teddy Boys to Hippies.
They all stooped their heads and averted his gaze. This was the first time he’d had real contact with these people and he had just realized they believed him to be a god. “Hank, they think you’re a God!” he warned himself, trying to think what to do next
“I say thee Nay!” He cursed himself mentally as his helmet translated his words. When he thought God he thought Thor “Don’t bow,” he shook his hands to tell them to stop. “You shouldn’t worship me, I’m just a normal man.”
“Jedi he is!” barked one robed man. The picture of his laser sword had apparently already been broadcast.
“No! He is an emissary of Flash! Here to protect us from the evil doings of Ming!” cried a man next to him with a motion to his laser blaster.
It took about a second for the disagreement of opinion to explode into a full on religious war. “Infidel!” screamed another Jedi as he launched to the defence of his comrade.
The Gordonite responded with a big right hook from his overly long arms which caught the Jedi right in the side of his head. Voices all around them began to bellow and shout as more fights broke out in the crowd.
“Stop please!” Hank tried to separate the people only to find some grabbing him and trying to speak very closely in his ears. They wanted to be close to him, to see him and hear him. He felt great pity for Jesus if he ever came back…not that he believed he ever existed.
He began to grow in size and, once he got to about 30 feet, the fights stopped. He realized after a second that feats beyond their understanding might not be the way of proving you’re not a god. They stopped where they were and began to drop to their knees. He shrugged; whatever worked, worked.
“I come to you in person to tell you do not witch the false Gods! They lie and beguile you! I am the true God and I preach Peace and Love to all!” Hank nodded and watched them to see if the words he was saying had sunk in.
“I shall keep an eye on you from above to make sure you are living well.” He smiled and took off into the air. He grew all the time until he entered a different phase of reality and faded from their view as he entered into the normal universe. He didn’t feel at all proud of himself for what he had just done but he thought it might have done some good in solving some of their problems. He was half way back to the ‘real’ universe when he communicator buzzed in his ear.
“Hank?…God I hate this thing, it’s worse than an answering machine!” Jan grumbled in a message that could have been done up to three hours earlier. “Anyway, Cassie and I are at your apartment; you were supposed to meet us here an hour and 10 minutes ago and we’ve missed the movie. Let us know that your okay…if you haven’t been saving some world you’re in big trouble.”
Hank had completely forgotten that he had supposed to be meeting Jan and Cassie. He had been so wrapped up in his work recently that he had been letting some things slip his mind. He was no longer just a hero on one world but on many, just to think he used to complain about the amount he had to do when he was just an Avenger.
Things had been going so well with Jan recently that he didn’t want to screw anything up. He’d even set a reminder on his portable computing device, and then he cursed himself as he remembered leaving it on his work bench where it was no doubt still buzzing away.
He soon reached the universe which he came from and found himself in the middle of a bank. There were several startled people as he sized up as if from nowhere. That was the big problem with micro-verse travelling. Having a universe smaller than the parts of a molecule meant you could enter it in your bedroom and then find it pretty much anywhere on the planet…or off planet by the time you come out.
He’d thankfully been able to work up a formula which would allow him to track the planets and universes he’d already been too and make sure he didn’t come back to his own universe within a solid object or in outer space.
He sized up his GPS and found he was only two blocks from his apartment. He quickly flashed a smile to the startled looking security guard and exited onto the street.
# # # # #
Elsewhere…
Saturday was Billy’s favorite day of the week. It crapped all over Monday to Friday when he had to be in school. He hated school with a burning passion, it just wasn’t for him. Sunday’s were for going to church and visiting his grandparents where he would sit in silence as they rambled on and on about something or other which he didn’t understand.
Considering people kept telling him how lucky he was to be young he wasn’t really digging it all too much at the minute. He liked Saturdays though, because this was the day of the week where he got to see his dad.
He got to see his dad and they did anything he wanted. His dad was busy taking a business call and then he’d come and see what he wanted to do. Until then he got to busy himself with Barney.
Barney was his puppy that his Dad had bought him primarily to annoy his mother but Billy didn’t care. Sure he only got to see the dog one day a week but both he and Barney really looked forward to it. He bounced the ball against the wall and the little Husky bounded after it and pounced.
Billy’s dad was busy inside closing a massive deal. He had been waiting for this phone call. He was one of the final two designs for the new public library and he was very excited about the project. He beamed and nodded. “Thank you very much, Mr. Brentwind. I’ll sign the contracts straight away and get them sent over then I will see you on Monday morning.”
He hung up the phone and let out a little woop of excitement and clapped his hands together. “Billy, your Dad has just landed…” he walked through the doorway to the sitting room. Billy was crouched with his back to his Dad, the floor was smeared with red. Barney lay a still on the floor.
“Billy?!” yelled his Dad and rushed towards him.
Billy turned around and snarled. The muzzle of his mouth was dripping in blood. The fur was sprouting out of his skin. He leapt towards his father barking.
Billy and his father were having a bad day but this was nothing compared to the pandemonium and bedlam which was happening at the zoo.
The people who had planned a relaxing and educational day were busy running for their lives. Things had gone terrifyingly wrong when the Baboons had escaped their enclosure…these however weren’t ordinary baboons.
They propelled themselves through the air on their flea like legs. Their mouth’s opening and closing at the mandibles lined with their sharp teeth while their massive compact eyes took in thousands of images.
The people who were trying to run had no chance as they bounced onto their backs and began to tear chunks from them. The pack of what seemed to be half dog half human creatures were also hunting, tackling everything which moved, whether it was person or baboon creature. The other animals were beginning to escape too. The winged lions soared from their enclosure and onto the walkways of the zoo where they began to attack people.
It was the same story across the city. The cockroach men and the rat people were swarming everywhere up and down the streets attacking everyone who got in their way.
# # # # #
Hank Pym’s apartment…
All of the bedlam of the city had so far gone unnoticed for Hank. He had taken to the air and flew straight to his apartment through the window of which he was now climbing.
Jan and Cassie were sat at the breakfast bar in the kitchen. Cassie’s eyes fixed on the wide screen TV on the wall while Jan flicked through some magazine or another. A small stack was piled up next to her.
“Late…3 hours and 40 minutes,” Jan flicked her eyes to Hank and then to Cassie. “I owe you $50.”
“You bet I’d be late?” Hank pulled back his cowl and gave Cassie a conspiratorial ‘how could you’ look.
“Actually, I bet you’d be under 4 hours later, so Aunt Jan’s the one who you should be mad at.” Cassie held out her hand nonchalantly to Jan.
“If I’d won would you have had any intention of paying me?” asked Jan as she half-heartedly routed in her bag.
“I could have asked my Dad for the money but he’d have probably just stiffed you,” Cassie smiled as Jan forced the money into her hand and then she swung in a circle on the stool. “So, what have you been up to Uncle H?”
“Y’know saving damsel…” he looked at Jan “…men in distress, big burly men. Fighting crime. I’m sorry.” He offered a weak smile to the two women. “I know I’ve been spending lots of time in the Micro-Verse lately and it’s really not fair. I’ve promised you I’d spend more time with you and Jan I know we’re just starting out again and already I’m neglecting you to…”
“One, Hank,” Jan held up her finger, “we are not starting anything, were seeing how it goes, and Two, I will never complain about being stood up by you if you’re saving a world…any world. I can put things in perspective….so, were you saving a world of just ‘Men’ in distress?”
Hank paused for a moment. “I may have saved them from starting a religion based on Friends when the broadcast eventually works its way down…though I may have just started up a cult with myself as deity. I’ll have to set a reminder to check on that.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” said Jan with a sigh and a half smile.
“Sooooo, Cass!” Hank offered as he walked in front of the TV. “What were you wanting to do today?”
Cassie at first tried to crane her neck to look at the cast of Twilight on the flickering box but then fixed her eyes on Hank instead. “Can we go and beat up Mole Man?” Hank shook his head. “Can we go back in time to see my Mom meeting my Dad?” Hank shook his head. “Can we…awww, what’s the point you’ll just say no.”
“What is rule #1 which me and your Dad agreed on? If you can’t remember he did generously offer to have it tattooed on both of us.”
“No Super-hero stuff, no villains, no near-death experiences and NO super-powers for Cassie.” She sighed “Fine, Aunt Jan promised me a tour of the newest season’s fashions anyway.”
“I take it because I’m late I have to come to that?” Hank asked with a raised eyebrow to Jan. She took a sip of her coffee and nodded slowly.
BUZZZZZZZ!
Hank reached to his belt. It was his Avenger communicator. The time of the alert was about 2 hours ago. It had taken its time to get through. “Jan?” He held it up to her.
“Mine hasn’t made a peep.” She tilted her bag to her and rummaged through. “Mine is…I don’t know where mine is!”
Hank blushed gently “Actually, this might be yours, I may have picked it up this morning. I think mine is next to my bed.” The two looked at Cassie who was doing her best to look like she didn’t know what was going on.
“It must be on the news by now,” she offered and flicked the TV channel.
THE NEWS…
An African American male reporter stood in the street of New York. His head was dodging from side to side as he looked at things off camera showing the least amount of professionalism.
“It’s absolute mayhem here in the city, people are transforming into animals and the animals seem to be merging together!” As if to hammer home the point, a winged rat flew through the shot making him scream out and duck away from it. “The heroes of the city like the Avengers and the Fantastic Four have been on the scene since this crisis first began.”
A video clip aired which seemed to have been filmed from a cell phone as a Gorilla in a dress rampaged down the street towards whoever was filming it. Captain America suddenly exploded into shot and drove his shield hard into the face of the monster ape.
A picture from the news helicopter played next as Iron Man fired energy blasts this way and that trying to disperse a huge flock of what looked like Pigeon men from swooping at the copter.
The feed cut back to the reporter. “This has met with varied success as we can see in the next set of images.”
The camera cut again to another video feed as the electronic feed across the bottom informed everyone that this was taken about fifteen minutes ago.
Iron Man and Spider-Man stood back to back with only a few feet between them taking on what looked like an orange stone gorilla and a flaming human sized cockroach. It didn’t take too much brain power to figure the two for the Thing and the Human Torch from the Fantastic Four.
The camera cut back to the sound of screaming and then the camera being dropped to the floor. The reporter was pinned down with what looked like a child mixed with a rat clawing and gnawing at his body. The camera man swung a boot into the creature only for it to turn and rush him. The camera went black.
“Oh my God!” Cassie gasped, she turned to find Hank and Jan already making for the window where Rover was hovering.
“Cassie, stay in here, I’m going to put the apartment on full lock down so you should be perfectly safe,” Hank’s communicator began to ring.
Hank looked down at it and pressed a button on it’s side. “It’s Reed,” he looked to the corner of the room where Reed’s face suddenly appeared on the television screen where it was being beamed.
His tongue slid out of his mouth and stretched around the side of his face before darting back in. “Hank, where have you been?! I’ve been trying to contact you for hours,” he exhaled sharply. He didn’t even care at this point. “It’s bad, Hank, I’ve already been infected. It’s some kind of pathogen which is…” his tongue darted out again as his eyes inched apart as they swung to the side of his head.
“Some Virus which is actively rewriting genetic coding, taking from one species to the next. I figured as much,” Hank nodded. “Have you any idea of its cause?”
“No, I’ve tried but I can’t even break the sequence to come up with an inoculation or anything…my brain is changing and I can’t stretch it enough anymore. Hank, I need you to stay in your lab and solve this.”
“I will but I need samples,Reed. I need something to work with.”
“Johnny and Ben are on their way, they’re bringing…” Reed trailed off as he saw the look on Henry’s face. “They’re not on their way are they?”
“Johnny is a cockroach and Ben is a Gorilla. It was on the news.”
“Were they alone?”
“They were fighting the Avengers but…oh my, Sue and the kids?”
“No,” Reed shook his head. “The kids are safe. The second I found out it was a virus I bumped them off to the moon...but Sue is infected; she’s also invisible somewhere and I don’t know where. You need to cure this, cure this and everything will be okay.” Reed suddenly hunched forward and Hank watched as his arms took up new positions on his body.
The screen suddenly went dead; no doubt Reed had wiped out the computer by accident.
“Reed?” Cassie spoke with a little worry in her voice. She looked up to Reed like an uncle also; her dad had once been in the Fantastic Four. “What about my Dad?”
“He was flying in from Denver today honey I’m sure they’ve just been diverted and are fine,” Jan lied; she had no idea when Scott’s flight was getting in.
CRASH!!!!
The window across the room suddenly shattered and four figures hurtled through it, slamming hard into the floor. Wasp’s fist glowed with energy as Hank summoned his blaster to hand and both pushed Cassie behind them.
“It’s the Ani-Men,” shouted Cassie. “My Dad fought them once.”
The two heroes inched forward towards the unmoving four piece villain group. Ape-Man was held in the massive taloned feet of Bird-Man. Frog-Man was held in the six arms of Dragonfly. Her mutation seemed to have furthered like the others. She had massive compact eyes and a set of gnashing mandibles which clicked together slowly as she lay on her back her head lolling from side to side.
Hank dropped to his knees and started checking pulses. “Yellowjacket,” gasped Dragonfly in a strange bug voice.
“Human Torch sent us…he changed too much, we need you….” she gasped.
“I can maybe do something but you were already a genetic experiment I don’t know…”
“We…we are the carriers. Patient zero.”
Hank swore aloud. He looked at the two women. “We might already be infected.”
The city was an expansive one, stretching from when the sun rose to the sun set. It had survived the great storms and routine polar shifts of the planet for thousands of years. There was however one problem it was having difficulties with.
Yellowjacket was having to deal with the exact same problem at the minute as he hurtled through the air powered by the bio-electric flight powers of his suit. He had been spending a lot of time in the micro-verse and its various planets recently, after Psycho-Man’s recent attack.
He spiralled in the air to avoid a laser blast that was fired at him and circled around then darted sideways quickly enough to avoid a transmitter pole. He levelled his own blaster and let fly with a shot of concussive energy. It sailed underneath the vehicle.
“He’s coming up behind us quick boss!” screamed one of the green skinned creatures. The tentacles that lined the bottom of his face twitched as he growled. He raised his blaster which bore a remarkable resemblance to a Tommy Gun and unleashed another round of laser blasts.
Hank dodged them as best he could as he cast his eyes along the path of one as he heard a scream. It had struck a building rather close to a balcony where a group of the citizens had been standing for a better view point.
He activated his helmet and the familiar silver shape slid from behind his head to cover the top of his cowl. A number of symbols began to appear in his visual display. “Attention Cities! This is a Dungeons situation please return to your places of abode!” broadcast his new universal translator. It apparently still had a few bugs to be worked out.
“You’ll never take us alive, Copper!” barked one of the green skinned creatures. It appeared to be the one riding shotgun in the second car.
The problem with this world as Hank saw it was television or, rather, the television shows from Earth to be precise. This planet had only discovered television about a decade ago if the info loop which Hank had hacked into was to be believed. The big problem though was as soon as they turned on this transmitting device it began to pick up television broadcasts from Earth.
The signals apparently took time to bounce down to this universe, however, as they were just now getting TV broadcasts and radio signals from throughout history (though nothing after Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, oddly enough).
He was having a similar problem. The broadcasts of his communicator was taking about 4 hours to transmit from Earth through to him (he had managed to boost the signal to allow for this relatively short delay).
In any event, the television, this instant source of information, was met with religious zealousness and the population thought it was messages from the God’s. They believed the characters in the broadcasts were in fact Gods themselves.
The people of the planet, apparently predisposed to religion due to some specific wiring in their second brain, immediately began to adopt the characters and roles that they saw. There were now religions based around The Beatles, Star Wars, I Love Lucy, The Breakfast Club and who knew what else. The ones which were currently causing major problems on the once peaceful planet were those based around criminals, wars, Sci-Fi villains and so on.
Hank thought it strange that the planet had invented flying vehicles before they had invented radio and television, but he had always thought it truly bizarre that humanity had invented the Atomic Bomb before sliced bread.
This particular sect had come to worship the gangster movies of the 40s and 50s and were fully prepared to live up to their high examples. They had knocked over a bank and were currently making their getaway only for Yellowjacket to circle down into their chase.
Hank dove down closer to the street level. The blasts of his enemies were flying wildly and could do some serious damage. He needed to make them think he had peeled off the chase so they’d stop firing.
He picked up the speed when he was closer to ground level and quickly found himself underneath the vehicles and then began to rise. Several plans ran through his mind at how best to deal with these guys with no serious injuries. A smile slowly spread across his face; it was time to pull something ‘new’ out of the bag.
It had been a couple of weeks since he had managed to save the Earth and everyone on it from an expanding star which would have destroyed it and he had been spending a lot of time in the Micro-Verse. He had become slightly enamoured with the hero lifestyle again like when he had first started out; it was exciting, it felt new even though it was really old hat.
He did worry that he was just in an ‘up-swing’ and eventually he would reach a peak and then it was all down hill but he wasn’t sure. This felt good, it felt right again. He’d even lessened his meds to a level where honestly they’d be having next to no effect on him. He still felt great.
He had been planet hopping in the Micro-Verse quicker than Captain Kirk. He had been from planet to planet pulling his hero schtick. On some worlds they already had superheroes and he was met as a friendly alien hero (after the cursory misunderstanding battle); on others he was apparently the first of his kind and the media had been all over him. He had visited several planets more than once, and Xilario was one of them.
He had been relying mostly on his weapons and daring do to get the job done but maybe this was a chance to pull out another card from the old heroic bag. He began to increase his size.
The cars tried to swerve as this giant figure suddenly emerged from below them. His hands grabbed the cars, one in each hand, and he shook them violently. He moved his hands down rapidly and then let go, the cars buffeted in the air as they tried to gain their equilibrium back, a safety feature he was only too happy to exploit.
He dropped back down to the relative normal size and landed on the hood of one of the cars. He threw out both arms, the blaster in his right hand taking out the mobilizer on the other car so it wouldn’t be doing anything other than hovering.
He plunged the growing energy blade in his other hand into the engine block of the car that he had landed on. The guns which the hoods had trained on him were kept unfired, their eyes going wide in mild terror. All he had to do was break the energy flux within the engine and the car would be forced to spiral down to the streets below.
Hank smiled and leapt backwards from the car taking his energy sword with him. The car began to fall. He streamlined his body and shot towards the ground with the massive weight of the car coming down behind him pulled down by the force of gravity. He powered up his thrusters to speed his descent. He spun in the air, touched down gently and began to grow.
He bent his knees to take the weight of the car and then forced it down onto its side before twisting the metal of the side facing him shut. He smiled as he put his foot on the side of the vehicle and let out a breath like a hunter who had just taken down a bear.
It was only a minute or two before he was instantly surrounded by his adoring fans of this Earth all dressed in their various religious garbs from Teddy Boys to Hippies.
They all stooped their heads and averted his gaze. This was the first time he’d had real contact with these people and he had just realized they believed him to be a god. “Hank, they think you’re a God!” he warned himself, trying to think what to do next
“I say thee Nay!” He cursed himself mentally as his helmet translated his words. When he thought God he thought Thor “Don’t bow,” he shook his hands to tell them to stop. “You shouldn’t worship me, I’m just a normal man.”
“Jedi he is!” barked one robed man. The picture of his laser sword had apparently already been broadcast.
“No! He is an emissary of Flash! Here to protect us from the evil doings of Ming!” cried a man next to him with a motion to his laser blaster.
It took about a second for the disagreement of opinion to explode into a full on religious war. “Infidel!” screamed another Jedi as he launched to the defence of his comrade.
The Gordonite responded with a big right hook from his overly long arms which caught the Jedi right in the side of his head. Voices all around them began to bellow and shout as more fights broke out in the crowd.
“Stop please!” Hank tried to separate the people only to find some grabbing him and trying to speak very closely in his ears. They wanted to be close to him, to see him and hear him. He felt great pity for Jesus if he ever came back…not that he believed he ever existed.
He began to grow in size and, once he got to about 30 feet, the fights stopped. He realized after a second that feats beyond their understanding might not be the way of proving you’re not a god. They stopped where they were and began to drop to their knees. He shrugged; whatever worked, worked.
“I come to you in person to tell you do not witch the false Gods! They lie and beguile you! I am the true God and I preach Peace and Love to all!” Hank nodded and watched them to see if the words he was saying had sunk in.
“I shall keep an eye on you from above to make sure you are living well.” He smiled and took off into the air. He grew all the time until he entered a different phase of reality and faded from their view as he entered into the normal universe. He didn’t feel at all proud of himself for what he had just done but he thought it might have done some good in solving some of their problems. He was half way back to the ‘real’ universe when he communicator buzzed in his ear.
“Hank?…God I hate this thing, it’s worse than an answering machine!” Jan grumbled in a message that could have been done up to three hours earlier. “Anyway, Cassie and I are at your apartment; you were supposed to meet us here an hour and 10 minutes ago and we’ve missed the movie. Let us know that your okay…if you haven’t been saving some world you’re in big trouble.”
Hank had completely forgotten that he had supposed to be meeting Jan and Cassie. He had been so wrapped up in his work recently that he had been letting some things slip his mind. He was no longer just a hero on one world but on many, just to think he used to complain about the amount he had to do when he was just an Avenger.
Things had been going so well with Jan recently that he didn’t want to screw anything up. He’d even set a reminder on his portable computing device, and then he cursed himself as he remembered leaving it on his work bench where it was no doubt still buzzing away.
He soon reached the universe which he came from and found himself in the middle of a bank. There were several startled people as he sized up as if from nowhere. That was the big problem with micro-verse travelling. Having a universe smaller than the parts of a molecule meant you could enter it in your bedroom and then find it pretty much anywhere on the planet…or off planet by the time you come out.
He’d thankfully been able to work up a formula which would allow him to track the planets and universes he’d already been too and make sure he didn’t come back to his own universe within a solid object or in outer space.
He sized up his GPS and found he was only two blocks from his apartment. He quickly flashed a smile to the startled looking security guard and exited onto the street.
# # # # #
Elsewhere…
Saturday was Billy’s favorite day of the week. It crapped all over Monday to Friday when he had to be in school. He hated school with a burning passion, it just wasn’t for him. Sunday’s were for going to church and visiting his grandparents where he would sit in silence as they rambled on and on about something or other which he didn’t understand.
Considering people kept telling him how lucky he was to be young he wasn’t really digging it all too much at the minute. He liked Saturdays though, because this was the day of the week where he got to see his dad.
He got to see his dad and they did anything he wanted. His dad was busy taking a business call and then he’d come and see what he wanted to do. Until then he got to busy himself with Barney.
Barney was his puppy that his Dad had bought him primarily to annoy his mother but Billy didn’t care. Sure he only got to see the dog one day a week but both he and Barney really looked forward to it. He bounced the ball against the wall and the little Husky bounded after it and pounced.
Billy’s dad was busy inside closing a massive deal. He had been waiting for this phone call. He was one of the final two designs for the new public library and he was very excited about the project. He beamed and nodded. “Thank you very much, Mr. Brentwind. I’ll sign the contracts straight away and get them sent over then I will see you on Monday morning.”
He hung up the phone and let out a little woop of excitement and clapped his hands together. “Billy, your Dad has just landed…” he walked through the doorway to the sitting room. Billy was crouched with his back to his Dad, the floor was smeared with red. Barney lay a still on the floor.
“Billy?!” yelled his Dad and rushed towards him.
Billy turned around and snarled. The muzzle of his mouth was dripping in blood. The fur was sprouting out of his skin. He leapt towards his father barking.
Billy and his father were having a bad day but this was nothing compared to the pandemonium and bedlam which was happening at the zoo.
The people who had planned a relaxing and educational day were busy running for their lives. Things had gone terrifyingly wrong when the Baboons had escaped their enclosure…these however weren’t ordinary baboons.
They propelled themselves through the air on their flea like legs. Their mouth’s opening and closing at the mandibles lined with their sharp teeth while their massive compact eyes took in thousands of images.
The people who were trying to run had no chance as they bounced onto their backs and began to tear chunks from them. The pack of what seemed to be half dog half human creatures were also hunting, tackling everything which moved, whether it was person or baboon creature. The other animals were beginning to escape too. The winged lions soared from their enclosure and onto the walkways of the zoo where they began to attack people.
It was the same story across the city. The cockroach men and the rat people were swarming everywhere up and down the streets attacking everyone who got in their way.
# # # # #
Hank Pym’s apartment…
All of the bedlam of the city had so far gone unnoticed for Hank. He had taken to the air and flew straight to his apartment through the window of which he was now climbing.
Jan and Cassie were sat at the breakfast bar in the kitchen. Cassie’s eyes fixed on the wide screen TV on the wall while Jan flicked through some magazine or another. A small stack was piled up next to her.
“Late…3 hours and 40 minutes,” Jan flicked her eyes to Hank and then to Cassie. “I owe you $50.”
“You bet I’d be late?” Hank pulled back his cowl and gave Cassie a conspiratorial ‘how could you’ look.
“Actually, I bet you’d be under 4 hours later, so Aunt Jan’s the one who you should be mad at.” Cassie held out her hand nonchalantly to Jan.
“If I’d won would you have had any intention of paying me?” asked Jan as she half-heartedly routed in her bag.
“I could have asked my Dad for the money but he’d have probably just stiffed you,” Cassie smiled as Jan forced the money into her hand and then she swung in a circle on the stool. “So, what have you been up to Uncle H?”
“Y’know saving damsel…” he looked at Jan “…men in distress, big burly men. Fighting crime. I’m sorry.” He offered a weak smile to the two women. “I know I’ve been spending lots of time in the Micro-Verse lately and it’s really not fair. I’ve promised you I’d spend more time with you and Jan I know we’re just starting out again and already I’m neglecting you to…”
“One, Hank,” Jan held up her finger, “we are not starting anything, were seeing how it goes, and Two, I will never complain about being stood up by you if you’re saving a world…any world. I can put things in perspective….so, were you saving a world of just ‘Men’ in distress?”
Hank paused for a moment. “I may have saved them from starting a religion based on Friends when the broadcast eventually works its way down…though I may have just started up a cult with myself as deity. I’ll have to set a reminder to check on that.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” said Jan with a sigh and a half smile.
“Sooooo, Cass!” Hank offered as he walked in front of the TV. “What were you wanting to do today?”
Cassie at first tried to crane her neck to look at the cast of Twilight on the flickering box but then fixed her eyes on Hank instead. “Can we go and beat up Mole Man?” Hank shook his head. “Can we go back in time to see my Mom meeting my Dad?” Hank shook his head. “Can we…awww, what’s the point you’ll just say no.”
“What is rule #1 which me and your Dad agreed on? If you can’t remember he did generously offer to have it tattooed on both of us.”
“No Super-hero stuff, no villains, no near-death experiences and NO super-powers for Cassie.” She sighed “Fine, Aunt Jan promised me a tour of the newest season’s fashions anyway.”
“I take it because I’m late I have to come to that?” Hank asked with a raised eyebrow to Jan. She took a sip of her coffee and nodded slowly.
BUZZZZZZZ!
Hank reached to his belt. It was his Avenger communicator. The time of the alert was about 2 hours ago. It had taken its time to get through. “Jan?” He held it up to her.
“Mine hasn’t made a peep.” She tilted her bag to her and rummaged through. “Mine is…I don’t know where mine is!”
Hank blushed gently “Actually, this might be yours, I may have picked it up this morning. I think mine is next to my bed.” The two looked at Cassie who was doing her best to look like she didn’t know what was going on.
“It must be on the news by now,” she offered and flicked the TV channel.
THE NEWS…
An African American male reporter stood in the street of New York. His head was dodging from side to side as he looked at things off camera showing the least amount of professionalism.
“It’s absolute mayhem here in the city, people are transforming into animals and the animals seem to be merging together!” As if to hammer home the point, a winged rat flew through the shot making him scream out and duck away from it. “The heroes of the city like the Avengers and the Fantastic Four have been on the scene since this crisis first began.”
A video clip aired which seemed to have been filmed from a cell phone as a Gorilla in a dress rampaged down the street towards whoever was filming it. Captain America suddenly exploded into shot and drove his shield hard into the face of the monster ape.
A picture from the news helicopter played next as Iron Man fired energy blasts this way and that trying to disperse a huge flock of what looked like Pigeon men from swooping at the copter.
The feed cut back to the reporter. “This has met with varied success as we can see in the next set of images.”
The camera cut again to another video feed as the electronic feed across the bottom informed everyone that this was taken about fifteen minutes ago.
Iron Man and Spider-Man stood back to back with only a few feet between them taking on what looked like an orange stone gorilla and a flaming human sized cockroach. It didn’t take too much brain power to figure the two for the Thing and the Human Torch from the Fantastic Four.
The camera cut back to the sound of screaming and then the camera being dropped to the floor. The reporter was pinned down with what looked like a child mixed with a rat clawing and gnawing at his body. The camera man swung a boot into the creature only for it to turn and rush him. The camera went black.
“Oh my God!” Cassie gasped, she turned to find Hank and Jan already making for the window where Rover was hovering.
“Cassie, stay in here, I’m going to put the apartment on full lock down so you should be perfectly safe,” Hank’s communicator began to ring.
Hank looked down at it and pressed a button on it’s side. “It’s Reed,” he looked to the corner of the room where Reed’s face suddenly appeared on the television screen where it was being beamed.
His tongue slid out of his mouth and stretched around the side of his face before darting back in. “Hank, where have you been?! I’ve been trying to contact you for hours,” he exhaled sharply. He didn’t even care at this point. “It’s bad, Hank, I’ve already been infected. It’s some kind of pathogen which is…” his tongue darted out again as his eyes inched apart as they swung to the side of his head.
“Some Virus which is actively rewriting genetic coding, taking from one species to the next. I figured as much,” Hank nodded. “Have you any idea of its cause?”
“No, I’ve tried but I can’t even break the sequence to come up with an inoculation or anything…my brain is changing and I can’t stretch it enough anymore. Hank, I need you to stay in your lab and solve this.”
“I will but I need samples,Reed. I need something to work with.”
“Johnny and Ben are on their way, they’re bringing…” Reed trailed off as he saw the look on Henry’s face. “They’re not on their way are they?”
“Johnny is a cockroach and Ben is a Gorilla. It was on the news.”
“Were they alone?”
“They were fighting the Avengers but…oh my, Sue and the kids?”
“No,” Reed shook his head. “The kids are safe. The second I found out it was a virus I bumped them off to the moon...but Sue is infected; she’s also invisible somewhere and I don’t know where. You need to cure this, cure this and everything will be okay.” Reed suddenly hunched forward and Hank watched as his arms took up new positions on his body.
The screen suddenly went dead; no doubt Reed had wiped out the computer by accident.
“Reed?” Cassie spoke with a little worry in her voice. She looked up to Reed like an uncle also; her dad had once been in the Fantastic Four. “What about my Dad?”
“He was flying in from Denver today honey I’m sure they’ve just been diverted and are fine,” Jan lied; she had no idea when Scott’s flight was getting in.
CRASH!!!!
The window across the room suddenly shattered and four figures hurtled through it, slamming hard into the floor. Wasp’s fist glowed with energy as Hank summoned his blaster to hand and both pushed Cassie behind them.
“It’s the Ani-Men,” shouted Cassie. “My Dad fought them once.”
The two heroes inched forward towards the unmoving four piece villain group. Ape-Man was held in the massive taloned feet of Bird-Man. Frog-Man was held in the six arms of Dragonfly. Her mutation seemed to have furthered like the others. She had massive compact eyes and a set of gnashing mandibles which clicked together slowly as she lay on her back her head lolling from side to side.
Hank dropped to his knees and started checking pulses. “Yellowjacket,” gasped Dragonfly in a strange bug voice.
“Human Torch sent us…he changed too much, we need you….” she gasped.
“I can maybe do something but you were already a genetic experiment I don’t know…”
“We…we are the carriers. Patient zero.”
Hank swore aloud. He looked at the two women. “We might already be infected.”