Back to GatefoldIssue #6 by A. Crute
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"The Animal Kingdom - Part Three"
Rover
Hank checked the settings on Rover. He’d been cruising for the best part of 2 hours in Quinjet ‘jump’ setting, meaning that he was now somewhere over France having passed Britain moments ago. It would take him roughly another 20 minutes or so to reach Transia and his final destination of Mount Wundagore.
The virus had spread far and wide by the looks of his scans. Rover was going faster than any commercial or military jet thanks to technology adapted from alien devices which only the Avengers and a few others had access to and, thankfully, so did the sensors.
All across Ireland, Britain and now France Hank looked down at the readings and video shots as wild animal people chased each other and the scant few remaining humans around the city and the countryside. The death toll must have been in the thousands, millions worldwide perhaps.
“Rover resume recording,” he commanded to the AI of his craft which he had programmed himself. One part Supercomputer and one part faithful dog…which also doubled as a jet.
“These are the research notes of Henry Pym…where did I leave off?” he mumbled to himself before remembering. “Inside of the subject I found and confronted what appears to be a sentient pathogen, part virus and part bacteria, capable of independent thought and action. It was also capable of putting up a pretty good fight.”
His mind drifted to the fight with the thing inside of Gorilla-Man’s body to see if there was anything particularly worth noting about it which could help. “As I struck the final blow, it gave one final dying cry which identified it as belonging to Wundagore. Depending on who is getting this broadcast, I am aware that records are sketchy but know this: the hidden city in the mountains of Transia is a heavily fortified kingdom populated by human-animal chimera’s who serve at the will of possibly the greatest mind humanity has ever produced. The High Evolutionary.”
“It is my belief that he is responsible for these events which have seen the majority of the human race mutated into chimera forms thanks to the DNA splicing pathogen. These forms, as I’m sure you’re aware, do not maintain the levels of human intelligence as do his New Men. I wonder if this was an error or oversight on his part or, as I fear, an all out act of aggression at a world which he has purposefully shunned for the better part of a century.”
Hank fell silent for a few moments as he re-plotted the course of Rover to take him around the back of the Transian mountains. The targeting display was displayed right inside his face-covering helmet and responded to both voice and eye-based control systems.
“I’m uploading this information along with all of the findings of both myself and Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four…who unfortunately succumbed to the virus…and beaming them out across all bands. If you’re hearing this then it worked. All active computers are downloading and playing this. You may be humanity’s last hope. You may be one of the few unaffected. If any of my friends are out there, any of the meta community or top class scientists who are in clean labs, I beg of you try and do something. I’m going directly to him but I don’t like my chances of defeating him.”
Hank sighed heavily; this was not the rousing speech he had planned on giving nor was it the attitude to take into any fight. That was something years fighting at the side of the Avengers, Captain America, Thor or any of the natural born warriors who he had crossed paths with had taught him. You always go in fighting not prepared for the worst.
“Humanity is too precious to go out like this. We cannot and will not let ourselves be snuffed out in some animalistic devolving… If you can hear me you are human. You hold everything in you which made Newton, Boudicia, Einstein, Mother Theresa and Ghandi. I know that somehow we will win and I only hope that I can do my part here today. All data from my instruments both on my craft and on my costume will be constantly streaming. I hope to hell someone out there it can make a difference. Hank Pym, signing off.”
Hank ended the transmission and sent it before standing up. Rover was on automatic control and was swiftly approaching the Transian citadel of science. He had things to prepare in his arsenal to make sure he did everything he could do to win this fight.
It took only a few minutes for him to make sure he had everything and to run his blood through a quick test to see if he himself had been infected.
“Master Pym, we are arriving” Rover informed him.
“Okay, I’m ready Rover,”Hank nodded as he re-sealed his helmet and made his way to the doorway of the craft.
Rover suddenly lurched sideways, tossing the Avenger clear across his interior. Hank only managed to get his arms up to protect himself at the last second. “Under fire. Conducting evasive maneuvers. Would you care to switch to manual?”
Hank reached out and grabbed an overhead bar as Rover spiraled through the air. He could see several laser beams arcing across the front cockpit window. The Science Citadel below span and twirled to his eyes as Rover moved.
“No! Open docking bay and wait fifteen seconds before reducing size to that of a humming bird, then maintain safe location within broadcast range…keep getting the message out from my equipment! Good bye, old friend!”
Hank launched himself across the length of the still shaking craft and hurled himself through the opening door.
He immediately kicked his flight suit into action. The laser beams now had two targets and he was perfectly aware he couldn’t move as fast as Rover. Maneuverability however was a different matter; he spun sideways, narrowly avoiding a beam and began to shrink in size rapidly.
He was within seconds the size of an ant and thankfully, as he had hoped, was now much too small for the sensor grid to pick up. Had he been wrong he would have been completely vaporized by any hit.
The jets of his flight suit cut out at his mental command; the neural interpreter worked on ion fluctuations and so worked fine at such a tiny size where normal circuitry, like Tony’s Iron Man suit, would just completely shut down.
Hank begin to time his plummet. He was dropping towards the city and he was calculating whether he could survive impact. Given his now much reduced mass he might have been fine when he contacted the solid mass below.
Now is probably not the best time to test it out, he lectured himself and stretched his arms out in front of him.
Shield generator,right and left, activate! Hank felt a tightening on his arms as the palm-held shield generators expanded out and raced up his arms before wrapping around his shoulders. They then began to do their job and a closed circuit was created and a malleable force field not unlike those of the Invisible Woman was created. It was shaped to a molecules width into that of a conical wedge.
Hank Pym had just become the world’s most perfect bullet. Stronger than titanium, possibly even stronger than Adamantium given the right situation.
He gritted his teeth and prepared for impact. He ploughed through the sheet of metal which was the roof like a knife through hot butter. After he was inside, he allowed his flight suit to kick in again.
The tiny ant sized man flew in an arc, discarding his shield generators as he went as they had served their purpose now. Chances are he bet that he wouldn’t even be able to get another use out of them anyway; they’d probably be overheated and explode soon.
Hank tried to replay the blue prints of this place which they 'd had in The Avenger’s computer. He had no doubt at all that the citadel had been remodeled several times since their last recon of the situation but it was the best he had to go on.
The tiny yellow dressed hero collided with a mass of a steel-like substance that bent and absorbed his kinetic energy, but it still felt like he had been struck with a steel bar.
His head swam and the room followed. He tried to move but found himself stuck hard.
Hank swore mentally to himself. He knew this would be dangerous, knew that he was risking his life on a fool’s errand, but he had not imagined that a spider’s web would be the source of his death.
“Will you come into my parlor said the spider to the fly,” hissed a voice from somewhere above Hank. He titled his head to look up at the figure.
It had 6 black hairy legs contacting the web, tiny hands working its way around the web as it moved. It’s front two appendages held two tiny blades.
Hank swore again. Why didn’t he think before this that the High Evolutionary probably had been creating all kinds of creatures like this before he managed to get down to bacteria. “I don’t suppose you’d consider talking about this, would you?”
The Spider creature moved towards him more quickly, spinning it’s blades around in circles as it approached him. “I really didn’t think so. Laser blade!” Hank thrust out his hand as the laser sword appeared in his hand and then burst into life.
He flicked his wrist and cut through the web like it wasn’t even there. “Gravity discs, boots, mode three!” Hank commanded. His boots fired into action and shifted their main source of gravity to the web. He stared up the vertical surface towards the spider; this was something he’d been working on since the first time he saw Spider-Man.
“How did you do that?” hissed the creature as it hurtled towards him. “Those strands are stronger than the strongest metal!”
Hank grinned as he span the blade handle in his hand. He had been through lessons with Dane Whitman and Clint Barton, both of whom were expert swordsmen, Clint having been taught by the Swordsman. He was by no means an expert but he thought he could hold his own. “It doesn’t matter how strong the metal is when you’ve got a laser sword…let’s see what it does to your blades.”
Hank leapt forward and slashed at the spider. The eight legged creature was quicker though,dodging out of the way of the tiny human quickly and, despite his taunts, stayed his blades from the attack. He instead angled his body and fired a strong blast of web-fluid into the chest of Yellowjacket, the impact knocked him flying backwards.
It also had the unpleasant effect of adhering him to the web again. His hand was stuck fast with the blade at a not-too useful angle.
“Silly little human,” growled the spider-creature. “I am the undisputed fighting champion of the New Mensects. All at our diminutive size bow before me as their liege.”
Hank rolled his eyes. He felt like an idiot. He began to grow in size. He was normal man sized by the time the spider had reached him. Hank swept his hand out sideways and felt the impact of the little black armored form batting him into the distance.
He turned quickly. The cameras in his helmet zoomed rapidly into a heat signature which was turning the corner. Hank didn’t even have time to react before the Tiger Man roared at him. It seems that his scent had more than given him away.
The tiger launched at him bounding on all fours and then pouncing up towards him.
Hank dropped to his back and let the creature's momentum carry it over him completely before jumping to his feet. He summoned his bio-blaster to his hand and aimed it directly at the tiger but it was smacked out of his hand by a swinging claw.
The superhero swore and dodged in the opposite direction. The Tiger turned on the spot and pounced at him again. This time Hank was directly under him and there was no way he could move out of the path of the superiorly designed creature.
“Grav disc 1 release!” he screamed and thrust both hands out in front of him. The glowing disc shot out of his hands and connected with the chest of the Tiger beast. The striped assailant had his gravity instantly cancelled and shot to the 10foot high ceiling like he had dropped through a 10 foot drop.
“That’s a little trick I picked up from the Wingless Wizard,” Hank gasped. He was quite pleased with himself, if nor with the man who'd inspired him.
“INTRUDER! Zero in on my location!” roared the tiger as he accessed the communicator on his lapel.
Hank wished he’d thrown in an EMP disc too now.
He turned and began to run. He wasn’t sure exactly where he was going but this was the general direction that the energy relays seemed to be flowing so he thought it was a good bet to reach the High Evolutionary’s lab.
He’d made it down two lengths of corridor before the one he was in began to vibrate. The founding Avenger turned to glare at the massive charging African Bull Elephant-Man. Hank turned and began to grow in size as he rushed towards the creature.
The two massive masses of being met in the middle of the corridor. They hit each other with the force of a small train crash. Neither gave an inch as they collided together. Hank was the first to budge backwards as they began to push into one another.
He was also however the first to ball his hand into a fist and slam it into the elephant’s eye. He took the wince of pain as an advantage and rolled his weight, carefully avoiding the tusk and tossing the Elephant-Man to his side.
The beast was up a second later and stampeded towards him. Hank braced himself for impact and felt himself being lifted into the air atop the creatures massive head. Hank balled his hands together and smashed them down across the back of the Elephant head.
The creature slammed on the brakes and Hank suddenly felt himself arcing through the air as the momentum of the creature sent him flying backwards. He began to reduce his size...to hit at that massive size would have probably shattered several bones.
He landed with a roll and instantly began to size up again, now getting bigger than he had before. He launched forward and found the side of the creatures head with his massive fist, sending it stumbling sideways.
He raised a massive knee and drove it into the creature’s throat. It tried to let out a roar of pain but instead gargled some useless noise as it tried to draw oxygen into it’s lungs but failed miserably. Hank launched forward and with a flick of the wrist drove a metal tube into the creatures neck, giving it a tracheotomy. “you’ll live, but get up and I’ll remotely shut the tube off,” he commanded the Elephant. It’s eyes fixed on him and then looked past him.
Hank turned to look to the end of the corridor where several New Men stood, including a Puma, two elephants and three rhino New Men. The hero let out a long sigh of air. “Okay, fine…this is probably easier anyway. I give up; take me to your leader.”
He held up his hands to show that he wouldn’t fight anymore as he walked towards them.
# # # # #
The Lab
Hank had been taken down three different levels before they reached the lab. The second he reached there the metal shackles which had been placed on his body magnetized and he was dragged across the expanse of the lab and adhered to the wall.
His helmet allowed him to see through the darkness of the lab. He was scanning it’s recesses looking for the High Evolutionary when the lights suddenly came on. He gave out a yell of pain as his eyes were blinded for a second until his visuals changed to normal.
He opened his eyes. He could see that he was not alone.
“High Evolutionary?” he asked in surprise. There next to him, pinned to the wall as well, was the High Evolutionary.
“Yes, Avenger it is I,” he nodded slowly. “I wondered how long it would be before your team made it here.” His voice was cold and robot like as always.
“Sadly, it’s just me Wyndham. The others are…gone.” Hank’s voice drifted for a second before he refocused. “I’m thinking I have to rethink my understanding of this situation….what exactly is going on?”
“What is going on, human, is I have finally asserted my right as supreme being over this planet.” The voice was a deep one with a slight growling rasp highlighting his words. Pym turned from the High Evolutionary to the figure which stepped towards them.
He was seven feet tall and was built of solid darkened muscle. His face was clearly not human and Hank recognized it well from the files. It was the High Evolutionary’s ‘finest’ creation.
“Man-Beast,” Hank said acknowledging the creature and figuring out mentally what exactly was going on. “The last I heard you’d been devolved back to your original wolf body.”
Man-Beast grimaced at him. “Quite. It seems, however, there are greater plans afoot for me. It was no time at all before I began to evolve again…this time without his assistance.” The Man-Beast glared at the High Evolutionary.
The creature had been created when a battle with Thor had left the Wolf-mutate in his evolution equipment for far too long. The creature which emerged was at the peak of it’s evolutionary capacity (something Hank, who had an excellent understanding of evolutionary bio-chemistry, had not even understood the concept of…there was no perfect peak. He just invariably took Thor’s word for it) giving it massive strength, intelligence and psychic abilities to rival half of the X-Men.
“It just proved what I had always known.” He smiled to himself “I was destined to rule the lower life forms.” His grin let Hank know that he was included in that little slur.
“First of all he just had to act out his little Oedipal fantasy and dethrone his father, the High Evolutionary spoke. His voice betrayed some hint of emotion, though Hank couldn’t be sure at all what it was though.
“Which is why the New Men serve him,” Hank nodded in understanding.
“Indeed. Even with their superior intellects, which by far surpasses most average humans, their nature lends itself to instinctual drives.”
“Pack instincts,” snorted Man-Beast. “In beating our father, I instantly subdued all who would dare oppose me.”
“So what about the virus? You’ve killed thousands and transformed the majority of the human race into mindless animals!” he growled at Man-Beast.
“Weren’t they always thus? That’s why Father had to hide away here where we wouldn’t be disturbed. All I’ve done is allowed them to finally give in to their baser instincts as they always wanted to do.”
“Please don’t patronize me. I don’t buy for a second this was all some moral crusade inline with his ideas.” Hank was buying for time and he knew it.
“The virus is a needed step. Within a generation or two, all knowledge of human history will be wiped clean and, when I am able to advance the chimera race to match the intelligence of the New Men, they will revere me as a God!”
“Ah that old chestnut…” Hank rolled his eyes. He had heard the same speech a hundred times before. This attempt, he had to admit, was going much better than most of those he’d foiled before but it was as if no one could come up with an original motivation for their villainy anymore. “...and may I take it that from this monologue that you think there’s not a thing I can do to stop you by myself so you have no fear of telling me your whole sordid little plan?”
Man-Beast eyed Pym and then snorted derisively. “The entire human race couldn’t stop me, let alone you.”
“Then I’m being kept around...because? It couldn’t be because you’re expecting me to tell you about my infiltration team or anything?”
“No.” Man-Beast knew fine well that Pym was alone. He had been monitoring his broadcasts. “I was thinking you would make quite a nice house pet as I wait my time in the spotlight.”
“You’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?” Pym smiled under his helmet “Do you remember any of that time? When you were nothing more than a beast, bringing your master his slippers and rolling over to have your stomach scratched?”
Man-Beast roared and launched across the room. His fists slammed into the wall on either side of Pym, crumbling portions of them to dust. He had more than once fought Thor to a standstill so the wall was little resistance against him. “I do have to thank you for one thing, Man-Beast: the virus was a genius piece of engineering allowing DNA to be spliced so easily, and predictably too, when you’ve worked out it’s pathogen strain…like this!”
Pym’s helmet flew open mere inches from Man-Beast’s face and the scientist’s mandibles separated. He glared at Man-Beast through his many faceted compound eyes as his antenna unfurled. It seemed he had been infected by the virus.
A large spear like spike thrust through the middle of his mandibles and jammed into the fleshy part just above the collar bone of Man-Beast and the wound was instantly filled with a toxin. Man-Beast rocked back,screaming in pain as he held his wound.
Hank suddenly lurched away from the wall, tearing his arms free with ease as large legs tore through his suit and carried his weight. “The Nicaraguan Paraponera is also known as the bullet ant because it’s tiny sting hurts so much people can only describe it as being shot…your little virus has allowed me to replicate it at human size. I imagine the pain is enough even to cause someone of your strength some discomfort.”
Man-Beast roared and lunged at Hank. The four giant legs on his back scuttled him sideways and he easily avoided the creature. “High Evolutionary! Can you reverse the virus or do I have to keep him conscious?”
“I can do it, it’s based on my own techniques after all.” The pink clad figure had barely stopped speaking before Hank crossed the room and, with a single pull, cleared him of the wall. The scientist dropped to the ground and began to cross the room.
“I’m guessing that by now you’ve discovered the paralyzing effects of the toxin.” He turned to Man-Beast who still lay on the floor, struggling to scream but his jaw was still and his lungs difficult to fill with air, leaving a garbled noise to drift out. “Frozen in long term pain...I can’t say I have any sympathy at all.”
“Wyndham?”
I have already reprogrammed the pathogenic vectors to undo the damage to the human genome. Since that is technically one being, the information should be propagated instantaneously. The people will change back rather rapidly; indeed, by the time you return to America everyone should be back to normal. There will of course, as I’m sure you’re aware, be some complications…”
Hank nodded. “Yes, some will be irrevocably changed in some ways. Some who possess that certain factor needed for the development of super powers may have a kink or two left in their genetic structure after this. I had thought of the possibility,” The antenna on his head were becoming atrophied and brittle and would soon crumble to nothingness. “Wyndham, you seem to know a little too much about this pathogen for my liking,” Hank informed him simply. I would hate to discover that it was in fact one of your knights and not some crazy creation of Man-Beast…I think you’d hate to find that too.”
The warning in Pym’s words was very clear to any who were listening. The High Evolutionary nodded his understanding and made a note to create a better security system on some of his files, though he had thought it already mpenetrable....
Hank sent the message to Rover and took a step through the hole he had created in the wall. He didn’t have the time to stand over the High Evolutionary and check his work; he had things to do.
It was only two minutes later he sat in the seat of Rover as it used its VTOL system to take to the skies. “Cassie? Can you hear me, Cass?”
“I’m getting you Uncle Hank…You did it! Aunt Jan is looking more like herself…bits have been dropping off... Uh, should I be worried about that?”
Hank smiled to himself. He noticed his lips moving and that his mandibles were gone. “No, that’s great, Cassie. I think we can chalk this up as one in the win column, human race saved and everything…I’m on my way home.
Hank checked the settings on Rover. He’d been cruising for the best part of 2 hours in Quinjet ‘jump’ setting, meaning that he was now somewhere over France having passed Britain moments ago. It would take him roughly another 20 minutes or so to reach Transia and his final destination of Mount Wundagore.
The virus had spread far and wide by the looks of his scans. Rover was going faster than any commercial or military jet thanks to technology adapted from alien devices which only the Avengers and a few others had access to and, thankfully, so did the sensors.
All across Ireland, Britain and now France Hank looked down at the readings and video shots as wild animal people chased each other and the scant few remaining humans around the city and the countryside. The death toll must have been in the thousands, millions worldwide perhaps.
“Rover resume recording,” he commanded to the AI of his craft which he had programmed himself. One part Supercomputer and one part faithful dog…which also doubled as a jet.
“These are the research notes of Henry Pym…where did I leave off?” he mumbled to himself before remembering. “Inside of the subject I found and confronted what appears to be a sentient pathogen, part virus and part bacteria, capable of independent thought and action. It was also capable of putting up a pretty good fight.”
His mind drifted to the fight with the thing inside of Gorilla-Man’s body to see if there was anything particularly worth noting about it which could help. “As I struck the final blow, it gave one final dying cry which identified it as belonging to Wundagore. Depending on who is getting this broadcast, I am aware that records are sketchy but know this: the hidden city in the mountains of Transia is a heavily fortified kingdom populated by human-animal chimera’s who serve at the will of possibly the greatest mind humanity has ever produced. The High Evolutionary.”
“It is my belief that he is responsible for these events which have seen the majority of the human race mutated into chimera forms thanks to the DNA splicing pathogen. These forms, as I’m sure you’re aware, do not maintain the levels of human intelligence as do his New Men. I wonder if this was an error or oversight on his part or, as I fear, an all out act of aggression at a world which he has purposefully shunned for the better part of a century.”
Hank fell silent for a few moments as he re-plotted the course of Rover to take him around the back of the Transian mountains. The targeting display was displayed right inside his face-covering helmet and responded to both voice and eye-based control systems.
“I’m uploading this information along with all of the findings of both myself and Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four…who unfortunately succumbed to the virus…and beaming them out across all bands. If you’re hearing this then it worked. All active computers are downloading and playing this. You may be humanity’s last hope. You may be one of the few unaffected. If any of my friends are out there, any of the meta community or top class scientists who are in clean labs, I beg of you try and do something. I’m going directly to him but I don’t like my chances of defeating him.”
Hank sighed heavily; this was not the rousing speech he had planned on giving nor was it the attitude to take into any fight. That was something years fighting at the side of the Avengers, Captain America, Thor or any of the natural born warriors who he had crossed paths with had taught him. You always go in fighting not prepared for the worst.
“Humanity is too precious to go out like this. We cannot and will not let ourselves be snuffed out in some animalistic devolving… If you can hear me you are human. You hold everything in you which made Newton, Boudicia, Einstein, Mother Theresa and Ghandi. I know that somehow we will win and I only hope that I can do my part here today. All data from my instruments both on my craft and on my costume will be constantly streaming. I hope to hell someone out there it can make a difference. Hank Pym, signing off.”
Hank ended the transmission and sent it before standing up. Rover was on automatic control and was swiftly approaching the Transian citadel of science. He had things to prepare in his arsenal to make sure he did everything he could do to win this fight.
It took only a few minutes for him to make sure he had everything and to run his blood through a quick test to see if he himself had been infected.
“Master Pym, we are arriving” Rover informed him.
“Okay, I’m ready Rover,”Hank nodded as he re-sealed his helmet and made his way to the doorway of the craft.
Rover suddenly lurched sideways, tossing the Avenger clear across his interior. Hank only managed to get his arms up to protect himself at the last second. “Under fire. Conducting evasive maneuvers. Would you care to switch to manual?”
Hank reached out and grabbed an overhead bar as Rover spiraled through the air. He could see several laser beams arcing across the front cockpit window. The Science Citadel below span and twirled to his eyes as Rover moved.
“No! Open docking bay and wait fifteen seconds before reducing size to that of a humming bird, then maintain safe location within broadcast range…keep getting the message out from my equipment! Good bye, old friend!”
Hank launched himself across the length of the still shaking craft and hurled himself through the opening door.
He immediately kicked his flight suit into action. The laser beams now had two targets and he was perfectly aware he couldn’t move as fast as Rover. Maneuverability however was a different matter; he spun sideways, narrowly avoiding a beam and began to shrink in size rapidly.
He was within seconds the size of an ant and thankfully, as he had hoped, was now much too small for the sensor grid to pick up. Had he been wrong he would have been completely vaporized by any hit.
The jets of his flight suit cut out at his mental command; the neural interpreter worked on ion fluctuations and so worked fine at such a tiny size where normal circuitry, like Tony’s Iron Man suit, would just completely shut down.
Hank begin to time his plummet. He was dropping towards the city and he was calculating whether he could survive impact. Given his now much reduced mass he might have been fine when he contacted the solid mass below.
Now is probably not the best time to test it out, he lectured himself and stretched his arms out in front of him.
Shield generator,right and left, activate! Hank felt a tightening on his arms as the palm-held shield generators expanded out and raced up his arms before wrapping around his shoulders. They then began to do their job and a closed circuit was created and a malleable force field not unlike those of the Invisible Woman was created. It was shaped to a molecules width into that of a conical wedge.
Hank Pym had just become the world’s most perfect bullet. Stronger than titanium, possibly even stronger than Adamantium given the right situation.
He gritted his teeth and prepared for impact. He ploughed through the sheet of metal which was the roof like a knife through hot butter. After he was inside, he allowed his flight suit to kick in again.
The tiny ant sized man flew in an arc, discarding his shield generators as he went as they had served their purpose now. Chances are he bet that he wouldn’t even be able to get another use out of them anyway; they’d probably be overheated and explode soon.
Hank tried to replay the blue prints of this place which they 'd had in The Avenger’s computer. He had no doubt at all that the citadel had been remodeled several times since their last recon of the situation but it was the best he had to go on.
The tiny yellow dressed hero collided with a mass of a steel-like substance that bent and absorbed his kinetic energy, but it still felt like he had been struck with a steel bar.
His head swam and the room followed. He tried to move but found himself stuck hard.
Hank swore mentally to himself. He knew this would be dangerous, knew that he was risking his life on a fool’s errand, but he had not imagined that a spider’s web would be the source of his death.
“Will you come into my parlor said the spider to the fly,” hissed a voice from somewhere above Hank. He titled his head to look up at the figure.
It had 6 black hairy legs contacting the web, tiny hands working its way around the web as it moved. It’s front two appendages held two tiny blades.
Hank swore again. Why didn’t he think before this that the High Evolutionary probably had been creating all kinds of creatures like this before he managed to get down to bacteria. “I don’t suppose you’d consider talking about this, would you?”
The Spider creature moved towards him more quickly, spinning it’s blades around in circles as it approached him. “I really didn’t think so. Laser blade!” Hank thrust out his hand as the laser sword appeared in his hand and then burst into life.
He flicked his wrist and cut through the web like it wasn’t even there. “Gravity discs, boots, mode three!” Hank commanded. His boots fired into action and shifted their main source of gravity to the web. He stared up the vertical surface towards the spider; this was something he’d been working on since the first time he saw Spider-Man.
“How did you do that?” hissed the creature as it hurtled towards him. “Those strands are stronger than the strongest metal!”
Hank grinned as he span the blade handle in his hand. He had been through lessons with Dane Whitman and Clint Barton, both of whom were expert swordsmen, Clint having been taught by the Swordsman. He was by no means an expert but he thought he could hold his own. “It doesn’t matter how strong the metal is when you’ve got a laser sword…let’s see what it does to your blades.”
Hank leapt forward and slashed at the spider. The eight legged creature was quicker though,dodging out of the way of the tiny human quickly and, despite his taunts, stayed his blades from the attack. He instead angled his body and fired a strong blast of web-fluid into the chest of Yellowjacket, the impact knocked him flying backwards.
It also had the unpleasant effect of adhering him to the web again. His hand was stuck fast with the blade at a not-too useful angle.
“Silly little human,” growled the spider-creature. “I am the undisputed fighting champion of the New Mensects. All at our diminutive size bow before me as their liege.”
Hank rolled his eyes. He felt like an idiot. He began to grow in size. He was normal man sized by the time the spider had reached him. Hank swept his hand out sideways and felt the impact of the little black armored form batting him into the distance.
He turned quickly. The cameras in his helmet zoomed rapidly into a heat signature which was turning the corner. Hank didn’t even have time to react before the Tiger Man roared at him. It seems that his scent had more than given him away.
The tiger launched at him bounding on all fours and then pouncing up towards him.
Hank dropped to his back and let the creature's momentum carry it over him completely before jumping to his feet. He summoned his bio-blaster to his hand and aimed it directly at the tiger but it was smacked out of his hand by a swinging claw.
The superhero swore and dodged in the opposite direction. The Tiger turned on the spot and pounced at him again. This time Hank was directly under him and there was no way he could move out of the path of the superiorly designed creature.
“Grav disc 1 release!” he screamed and thrust both hands out in front of him. The glowing disc shot out of his hands and connected with the chest of the Tiger beast. The striped assailant had his gravity instantly cancelled and shot to the 10foot high ceiling like he had dropped through a 10 foot drop.
“That’s a little trick I picked up from the Wingless Wizard,” Hank gasped. He was quite pleased with himself, if nor with the man who'd inspired him.
“INTRUDER! Zero in on my location!” roared the tiger as he accessed the communicator on his lapel.
Hank wished he’d thrown in an EMP disc too now.
He turned and began to run. He wasn’t sure exactly where he was going but this was the general direction that the energy relays seemed to be flowing so he thought it was a good bet to reach the High Evolutionary’s lab.
He’d made it down two lengths of corridor before the one he was in began to vibrate. The founding Avenger turned to glare at the massive charging African Bull Elephant-Man. Hank turned and began to grow in size as he rushed towards the creature.
The two massive masses of being met in the middle of the corridor. They hit each other with the force of a small train crash. Neither gave an inch as they collided together. Hank was the first to budge backwards as they began to push into one another.
He was also however the first to ball his hand into a fist and slam it into the elephant’s eye. He took the wince of pain as an advantage and rolled his weight, carefully avoiding the tusk and tossing the Elephant-Man to his side.
The beast was up a second later and stampeded towards him. Hank braced himself for impact and felt himself being lifted into the air atop the creatures massive head. Hank balled his hands together and smashed them down across the back of the Elephant head.
The creature slammed on the brakes and Hank suddenly felt himself arcing through the air as the momentum of the creature sent him flying backwards. He began to reduce his size...to hit at that massive size would have probably shattered several bones.
He landed with a roll and instantly began to size up again, now getting bigger than he had before. He launched forward and found the side of the creatures head with his massive fist, sending it stumbling sideways.
He raised a massive knee and drove it into the creature’s throat. It tried to let out a roar of pain but instead gargled some useless noise as it tried to draw oxygen into it’s lungs but failed miserably. Hank launched forward and with a flick of the wrist drove a metal tube into the creatures neck, giving it a tracheotomy. “you’ll live, but get up and I’ll remotely shut the tube off,” he commanded the Elephant. It’s eyes fixed on him and then looked past him.
Hank turned to look to the end of the corridor where several New Men stood, including a Puma, two elephants and three rhino New Men. The hero let out a long sigh of air. “Okay, fine…this is probably easier anyway. I give up; take me to your leader.”
He held up his hands to show that he wouldn’t fight anymore as he walked towards them.
# # # # #
The Lab
Hank had been taken down three different levels before they reached the lab. The second he reached there the metal shackles which had been placed on his body magnetized and he was dragged across the expanse of the lab and adhered to the wall.
His helmet allowed him to see through the darkness of the lab. He was scanning it’s recesses looking for the High Evolutionary when the lights suddenly came on. He gave out a yell of pain as his eyes were blinded for a second until his visuals changed to normal.
He opened his eyes. He could see that he was not alone.
“High Evolutionary?” he asked in surprise. There next to him, pinned to the wall as well, was the High Evolutionary.
“Yes, Avenger it is I,” he nodded slowly. “I wondered how long it would be before your team made it here.” His voice was cold and robot like as always.
“Sadly, it’s just me Wyndham. The others are…gone.” Hank’s voice drifted for a second before he refocused. “I’m thinking I have to rethink my understanding of this situation….what exactly is going on?”
“What is going on, human, is I have finally asserted my right as supreme being over this planet.” The voice was a deep one with a slight growling rasp highlighting his words. Pym turned from the High Evolutionary to the figure which stepped towards them.
He was seven feet tall and was built of solid darkened muscle. His face was clearly not human and Hank recognized it well from the files. It was the High Evolutionary’s ‘finest’ creation.
“Man-Beast,” Hank said acknowledging the creature and figuring out mentally what exactly was going on. “The last I heard you’d been devolved back to your original wolf body.”
Man-Beast grimaced at him. “Quite. It seems, however, there are greater plans afoot for me. It was no time at all before I began to evolve again…this time without his assistance.” The Man-Beast glared at the High Evolutionary.
The creature had been created when a battle with Thor had left the Wolf-mutate in his evolution equipment for far too long. The creature which emerged was at the peak of it’s evolutionary capacity (something Hank, who had an excellent understanding of evolutionary bio-chemistry, had not even understood the concept of…there was no perfect peak. He just invariably took Thor’s word for it) giving it massive strength, intelligence and psychic abilities to rival half of the X-Men.
“It just proved what I had always known.” He smiled to himself “I was destined to rule the lower life forms.” His grin let Hank know that he was included in that little slur.
“First of all he just had to act out his little Oedipal fantasy and dethrone his father, the High Evolutionary spoke. His voice betrayed some hint of emotion, though Hank couldn’t be sure at all what it was though.
“Which is why the New Men serve him,” Hank nodded in understanding.
“Indeed. Even with their superior intellects, which by far surpasses most average humans, their nature lends itself to instinctual drives.”
“Pack instincts,” snorted Man-Beast. “In beating our father, I instantly subdued all who would dare oppose me.”
“So what about the virus? You’ve killed thousands and transformed the majority of the human race into mindless animals!” he growled at Man-Beast.
“Weren’t they always thus? That’s why Father had to hide away here where we wouldn’t be disturbed. All I’ve done is allowed them to finally give in to their baser instincts as they always wanted to do.”
“Please don’t patronize me. I don’t buy for a second this was all some moral crusade inline with his ideas.” Hank was buying for time and he knew it.
“The virus is a needed step. Within a generation or two, all knowledge of human history will be wiped clean and, when I am able to advance the chimera race to match the intelligence of the New Men, they will revere me as a God!”
“Ah that old chestnut…” Hank rolled his eyes. He had heard the same speech a hundred times before. This attempt, he had to admit, was going much better than most of those he’d foiled before but it was as if no one could come up with an original motivation for their villainy anymore. “...and may I take it that from this monologue that you think there’s not a thing I can do to stop you by myself so you have no fear of telling me your whole sordid little plan?”
Man-Beast eyed Pym and then snorted derisively. “The entire human race couldn’t stop me, let alone you.”
“Then I’m being kept around...because? It couldn’t be because you’re expecting me to tell you about my infiltration team or anything?”
“No.” Man-Beast knew fine well that Pym was alone. He had been monitoring his broadcasts. “I was thinking you would make quite a nice house pet as I wait my time in the spotlight.”
“You’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?” Pym smiled under his helmet “Do you remember any of that time? When you were nothing more than a beast, bringing your master his slippers and rolling over to have your stomach scratched?”
Man-Beast roared and launched across the room. His fists slammed into the wall on either side of Pym, crumbling portions of them to dust. He had more than once fought Thor to a standstill so the wall was little resistance against him. “I do have to thank you for one thing, Man-Beast: the virus was a genius piece of engineering allowing DNA to be spliced so easily, and predictably too, when you’ve worked out it’s pathogen strain…like this!”
Pym’s helmet flew open mere inches from Man-Beast’s face and the scientist’s mandibles separated. He glared at Man-Beast through his many faceted compound eyes as his antenna unfurled. It seemed he had been infected by the virus.
A large spear like spike thrust through the middle of his mandibles and jammed into the fleshy part just above the collar bone of Man-Beast and the wound was instantly filled with a toxin. Man-Beast rocked back,screaming in pain as he held his wound.
Hank suddenly lurched away from the wall, tearing his arms free with ease as large legs tore through his suit and carried his weight. “The Nicaraguan Paraponera is also known as the bullet ant because it’s tiny sting hurts so much people can only describe it as being shot…your little virus has allowed me to replicate it at human size. I imagine the pain is enough even to cause someone of your strength some discomfort.”
Man-Beast roared and lunged at Hank. The four giant legs on his back scuttled him sideways and he easily avoided the creature. “High Evolutionary! Can you reverse the virus or do I have to keep him conscious?”
“I can do it, it’s based on my own techniques after all.” The pink clad figure had barely stopped speaking before Hank crossed the room and, with a single pull, cleared him of the wall. The scientist dropped to the ground and began to cross the room.
“I’m guessing that by now you’ve discovered the paralyzing effects of the toxin.” He turned to Man-Beast who still lay on the floor, struggling to scream but his jaw was still and his lungs difficult to fill with air, leaving a garbled noise to drift out. “Frozen in long term pain...I can’t say I have any sympathy at all.”
“Wyndham?”
I have already reprogrammed the pathogenic vectors to undo the damage to the human genome. Since that is technically one being, the information should be propagated instantaneously. The people will change back rather rapidly; indeed, by the time you return to America everyone should be back to normal. There will of course, as I’m sure you’re aware, be some complications…”
Hank nodded. “Yes, some will be irrevocably changed in some ways. Some who possess that certain factor needed for the development of super powers may have a kink or two left in their genetic structure after this. I had thought of the possibility,” The antenna on his head were becoming atrophied and brittle and would soon crumble to nothingness. “Wyndham, you seem to know a little too much about this pathogen for my liking,” Hank informed him simply. I would hate to discover that it was in fact one of your knights and not some crazy creation of Man-Beast…I think you’d hate to find that too.”
The warning in Pym’s words was very clear to any who were listening. The High Evolutionary nodded his understanding and made a note to create a better security system on some of his files, though he had thought it already mpenetrable....
Hank sent the message to Rover and took a step through the hole he had created in the wall. He didn’t have the time to stand over the High Evolutionary and check his work; he had things to do.
It was only two minutes later he sat in the seat of Rover as it used its VTOL system to take to the skies. “Cassie? Can you hear me, Cass?”
“I’m getting you Uncle Hank…You did it! Aunt Jan is looking more like herself…bits have been dropping off... Uh, should I be worried about that?”
Hank smiled to himself. He noticed his lips moving and that his mandibles were gone. “No, that’s great, Cassie. I think we can chalk this up as one in the win column, human race saved and everything…I’m on my way home.