JUNE   YEAR THREE  432 "Benchmark"  by Scott Harris

And there came a day, a day unlike any other, when Earth's mightiest heroes and heroines found themselves united against a common threat. On that day, the Avengers were born-- to fight the foes no single super hero could withstand! Through the years, their roster has prospered, changing many times, but their glory has never been denied! Heed the call, then-- for now, the  Avengers Assemble!

"Master Fury, Master Dugan, how good it is to see you again," Jarvis said, stepping aside as the three SHIELD agents entered Avengers Mansion. "I'm afraid I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you before, miss...?"

"Jarv, this is Danielle Moonstar, Moonstar, this is Jarvis," Fury said, nodding briefly at the balding butler.

"A great pleasure, madam. If you'll allow me to take your coats and gifts, refreshments are being served in the lobby." Jarvis smiled and, a moment later, burdened with coats and several packages, slipped out through a side door. Moonstar gazed about, impressed.

"This place is beautiful." Charles Xavier's mansion in Westchester, which she had called home for several years, was a wonderful old place but it couldn't match the opulence of Avengers Mansion. Fury didn't seem impressed, though; he snorted as he lit up a cigar.

"A bit gaudy for my taste," he said, absentmindedly. "Speaking of which, there's Thor. Excuse me, I have some business matters to discuss." Nodding at Dum-Dum, Fury wandered through the lobby towards the thunder god.

"Did he just make a pun?" Dum-Dum asked, arching his brow. But Moonstar wasn't paying attention, instead staring in surprise at the throng of people in the lobby. Dozens of people, some in casual dress and others in costume, filled the room, talking and munching on snacks arrayed on a long table. She took it all in, recognizing faces and costumes, seeing familiar and new, and shook her head. It had been a long time since she had seen this many heroes gathered together since...She cut off that line of thinking. It had been years since her team had been murdered by the Beyonder but she still didn't like to dwell on it.

"Dani!" Strong arms suddenly wrapped about her from behind. Defensive instinct screamed out a dozen retaliatory techniques but the voice shut them down. She turned and wrapped Cannonball in a bear hug. The two of them stood and embraced for several long moments, neither speaking. Finally they separated, Cannonball holding Moonstar out at arms length to get a look at her.

"You sure are a sight for sore eyes, Dani. Ah'm really glad you came."

"So am I, Sam," she said, linking arms with him. The two of them began to stroll towards the food. "I was very surprised to get your invitation. An Avenger! How'd that happen?"

"Ah'm still trying to figure that out myself, to be honest," Sam said, smiling. "It was kinda just a matter of being in the right place at the right time, ah guess. I'm not sure how it's going to work out yet, but we'll see what happens, anyway." The two of them reached the snack table and began munching.

"What are you up to these days, Dani? Ah heard you were mixed up with some Defenders throw down?"

"Yeah, Valkyrie business," a dark cast came over her; Sam frowned. He knew she didn't really like discussing that part of her life much. "Anyway, after that passed I decided to rejoin SHIELD for awhile, to get some more training and experience if nothing else. The school did a fine job teaching me how to use my powers, but there are other lessons, that I think might be equally important. I'm not entirely sure where this life is leading me..."

"Hey, guys! Let me introduce you to Captain America!" Sam and Danielle turned at the sound of Hawkeye's enthusiastic voice. Hawkeye and Cap were walking towards them, smiling at some remembrance just discussed. Danielle had met Captain America before, after the Beyonder and then again just after that when she was a member of the Hellions. But now, as she shook hands with him, she was surprised anew at the...presence he brought with him. Almost without realizing it he commanded attention, pulled eyes to him, demanded your interest. And, she had to admit, he was a very handsome man, in a rugged way. She put such thoughts from her head as Cap spoke, congratulating Sam on his performance in space.

"Ah was just trying to do my part, sir," Cannonball said, waving away the praise.

"Sometimes that's the hardest thing to do, son," Cap said, clapping Sam on the back. "And I've heard very good things about you as well, miss, from Nick Fury. Nothing but the highest praise. In fact, he says you're about the best archer he's ever seen." Danielle wasn't sure what to say, but was spared the need to say anything by the abrupt choking sounds coming from Hawkeye; his face turned red as he tried to shout indignantly and swallow a mouthful of crackers simultaneously. Cap laughed and turned.

"Nice to meet you, Cannonball, Moonstar," Cap said, "I'll talk to you later." Danielle shook her head slightly as Cap moved on to another group of heroes, chatting and shaking hands. She began to say something to Sam but stopped as an indignant Hawkeye finally cleared his throat and stepped between them.

"Alright, what's this about archery?" She blinked. This was going to be an interesting party.
 

"Jack, it's great to see you again," Cap said, shaking hands with Jack Flag. The other members of Team America stood around, gazing about them with varying looks of surprise, awe, discomfort and embarrassment. Most of them had met and occasionally worked with other heroes before, but never had they been so close to so many of the big names. Cap and Jack shot the breeze while the other members stood in a cluster.

"Jeez, that's Reed Richards!"

"I shouldn't have worn this dress, I look ridiculous. Why didn't you tell me we could wear our costumes?"

"Oh man, I hope the Human Torch isn't here. Or Firebird. Or Firestar. Or Pyro."

"Why the hell would Pyro be here?"

"Shoot, there's Thor! He's huge!"

"...anyway, keep up the good work, Jack. All of you, I'm very grateful for the help you've provided to me and the Avengers by handling the hotline calls. It's a tremendous service." With a nod, Cap disentangled himself and headed towards another group. Jack smiled to himself; Cap was happy with their work. He puffed up his chest and turned to the others, not even hearing their banter.

"Hey, isn't that Danielle Moonstar? Is she in your tribe?"

"Don't worry, your costume looks even dumber."

"Thanks, I...hey, shut up, jerk!"

"Is that Remo Williams?"

"No, I think that's Turk 182."

"I think I just saw Iron Man! Iron Man!"
 

  "Mon Capitan! Eet eez always the pleasure to see you, non? Though ze real pleasure eez seeing you prone at ze end of my deadly foot. Ha!" Batroc shouted, lashing out playfully with his left foot. In a blur of motion Captain America grabbed him, twisted him around and slammed him into the ground, pulling Batroc's arm behind him and forcing his head into the floor. Several other guests in the area turned with curious looks on their faces.

"Ah, capitan...?" Cap blinked, then shook his head and, smiling, helped Batroc back up.

"Sorry, old reflexes are hard to overcome." Batroc dusted himself off, then smiled.

"Think nothing of eet," he said, rubbing his shoulder and thinking to himself just how smart it had been to join the good guys. "Mon ami, have you said 'allo to ze rest of the Champions?" Batroc pulled Cap across the floor to where several of his teammates were hanging about.

"Cap, good to see you again," Black Widow said, giving him a nod a small smile.

"Likewise, Black Widow," Cap said, regretting the need for formality. Unfortunately not everyone at the party knew their secret identities, though Natasha hadn't spent much effort keeping hers a secret. Still, better safe than sorry. He turned, just as the Lion of Olympus noticed his arrival.

"What ho, good Captain! This is a bash the likes of which my family on Mount Olympus can but weep at the thought of missing! Ne'er have I seen so many noble warriors gathered in one venue! After the hor'dourves are finished I shall commence smiting everyone in most bold fashion!"

"Ah, if you're going to smite people, could you bring them to the training room first? The lobby is still recovering from your last smiting, Hercules."

"It shall be done!" Cap turned to hide his smile; everything with Hercules was an exclamation. He didn't think Hercules knew the meaning of "conversation".

"Um, hi Cap, how's it going?" Cap turned at the familiar voice; Diamondback, his one time girlfriend, stood nervously among the other Champions, who suddenly found other things to look at. Cap smiled at her.

"Diamondback, its great to see you. How have you been?"

"Oh, I've been okay St...Cap," Diamondback caught herself. "Keeping busy with the Champions, you know...So, I was wondering, um, are you..."

"Cap, hey, sorry to interrupt, Nick wants to talk to you," Cap and Diamondback turned as Ms. Marvel approached and slapped Cap on the back.

"Can it wait, I was..."

"No, go ahead Cap, I'll talk to you...some other time..." Diamondback said. Cap frowned and seemed about to say something, but Ms. Marvel flung her arm around his shoulders and drew him away, talking as they went. Diamondback watched as they walked away, despair and jealousy filling her. As soon as she got home she would have to call Mentallo; he could help her understand.
 

The Black Widow watched as Ms. Marvel and Cap walked across the room, her arm around his waist now, the two conferring closely. There was an easy intimacy between the two. She shook her head; perhaps some time down the road, when she had the time, she would persue things. For now, though, they both appeared too busy.

    Danielle Moonstar, talking with Nick Fury and Thor,  raised an eyebrow as Ms. Marvel and Cap approached. She wasn't surprised at their closeness; she had studied their files from when both had been expert SHIELD agents. It was generally regarded as too dangerous to form relationships with civilians, so there was alot of intermingling inside the ranks of SHIELD. Still, from what little she knew of Captain America, it was a bit unusual for him to indulge in any kind of public displays of affection, even just walking with his arm around someone. She laughed at herself; PDA. This wasn't high school any more. She pulled her eyes away from Cap and began speaking to Thor about the Valkyrie once again.

Spitfire watched as her old comrade Captain America joined some of his SHIELD friends across the room. She was struck by the resemblance of the blonde woman -- Ms. Marvel, she remembered -- to herself, back when she had been a little older physically. Back during the war. She felt odd and out of place here, looking younger than anyone else at the party but feeling so much older. Maybe coming had been a mistake, but she had wanted to talk with Steve again.

Namor watched as the woman he loved escorted Captain America across the room and he frowned.

"This is so bogus," Beast said, hanging from the chandelier by a toe. "Every chick in this place is ogling Cap like he's Valentino. How's a blue-eyed, blue-furred Beastarino supposed to get any play with this kind of audience?"

"You mean, you think you'd get play otherwise?"

"This coming from a man dressed in a spider costume. Spare me."

"Hey, one of us here is a desperate blue lint bag, and the other is married to a super model."

"...I am going to pretend that I think you are joking. In fact, this would be a good time for me to go use the communicator to find out why my fellow X-men haven't arrived. That is a good excuse, I think, yes. Pardon me." Beast bounced away.

"You're being awful careless about your secret identity, aren't you?" Daredevil asked, twirling his baton absentmindedly. There were several people he would like to talk to, but the crowd was throwing his senses out of whack, so he had moved to the side. Hopefully the people he wanted to talk with would come to him; in the meantime...

"Ah, Beastie Boy wont waste his time trying to figure out my secret identity," Spider-Man said, waving an arm carelessly. "Besides, if he did it would probably be for pretty good reason."

"Howdy, Ben," Daredevil nodded to Ben Urich, who raised an eyebrow, then a glass in toast as he approached.

"How did you two get in here? You with the catering?" Spiderman sighed; joining the Avengers hadn't gotten him any more respect than anything else had.

"Hey Marvel Boy, quit yer mopin and start partying already." Quasar blinked, pulled from his thoughts by the voice and looked around. It was the Thing. Quasar smiled and happily shook hands with his old friend; once upon a time, back when he had been working for Project Pegasus, Quasar and the Thing had almost seemed like partners.

"Ben, its great to see you again," Quasar said. "But there's a new Marvel boy, so be careful what you say. I think he's even here somewhere, with the Liberty Legion..." Ben waved Quasar's comments away.

"Whats with the long face anyways, junior? Epoch give you a wedgie? I'd think you'd be happy to get back on this mudball." Quasar lost his smile and sighed.

"That's just it, Ben. I love being here. Until you're gone, until you've lived with the knowledge that you'll never really see it again, you can't really appreciate your home. I never realized before how much I love this planet."

"So what's the problem?"

"The problem is the Presence. If I stay on Earth, he'll find out, and sooner rather than later. And when he does..." Quasar shook his head. "No, I'll have to leave. I just don't want to."

"Well..." Thing took out a cigar and lit it, then puffed a few times. "If you're only here for a while, you'd better at least enjoy yourself. C'mon, let me introduce you to some people that really know how to party." He pulled Quasar through the crowd, and despite himself, Wendell Vaughn began smiling. "Alright Quaze, this is Gordon Hunter..."

The sounds of laughter and conversation reached his ears, but didn't really register. It wasn't so much the insistent headache that had nagged him for days; that he was almost getting used to. No, the real reason Dr. Amazing was sitting alone in an Avengers lab while a party raged above him was because he was afraid he was going insane.

Ghostly images of strange creatures flickered in front of his eyes, then vanished. Shapes...arms, gesturing, perhaps beckoning for help? He shook his head again and licked at his parched lips. Maybe his confrontation with the wraiths had somehow injured him. He sighed and leaned back in his chair. There was a voice he wanted to hear but he couldn't remember the sound of it...

"Dr. Amazing?" For a second he thought his wish had come true, and he sat bolt upright. But a moment later, as he turned to the door, he realized it wasn't...whoever...but was, instead, Captain Marvel. Or, rather, Lady Merveille.

"Monica, its good to see you again." He smiled and crossed the room. It was funny she should show up now, when he was thinking about the wraiths; they had first met battling wraiths at Rom's side, then had gotten to know each other better during the Asgardian's siege of New York City...he stopped his wandering thoughts. "How have you been?"

"Oh, not too bad." She smiled at him, still surprised she could have forgotten him. "Being sucked apart by Doombots wasn't much fun, but I'll get over it."

"I heard. Reminded me of that time the Avengers battled Son Seven, remember the look on Devil Slayer's face when we appeared and freed him from those time-displaced Persian soldiers?" He chuckled, but Monica just frowned.

"I'm sorry, I don't remember that at all." Dr. Amazing frowned, then cocked his head.

"Not at all?"

"...No, I'm sorry Mark."

"Hmmm." He thought for a moment, then pulled out his psi-gun. "It's probably just a side effect from the psychic curse I was under. Do you mind?" She shook her head and a moment later he had fired, connecting them in psychic rapport. The two stood, seemingly entranced, for several moments, then both gave out a sigh and he cut the connection. Monica held her head for a second, then shook it.

"...ah...okay, now I recall." She laughed nervously for a second, then smiled. "I can't believe I forgot that. Devil Slayer was so embarrassed!" The two of them began laughing and started walking towards the party. The echo of a voice he had forgotten faded to silence within Dr. Amazing's mind.

"Sorry, Hank, we've got some kind of trouble brewing up here. I'm afraid we're not going to be able to make it after all." Bobby Drake, Iceman, had an unusually serious look on his face. Seated at the communications desk, the Beast frowned. Nobody had mentioned any problems when he had invited the X-Men to the party a week ago.

"What's wrong?"

"Well...don't get too alarmed, but there have been some reports through the Professor's underground that mutants here and there have been attacked."

"This is news?"

"It seems a bit more co-ordinated then usual," Iceman said, rubbing at his chin, "and there appear to have been some robots involved in some of the attacks." Hank felt himself go cold.

"...Sentinels?"

"Maybe, we don't know. Anyway, we're investigating now, the Prof. has us on full alert. So for the time being we're not going to be able to attend any social functions. Sorry." They continued talking for a while, then said goodbyes and Hank wandered back towards the party. But fun was the last thing on his mind now.

"Hank?"

Hank Pym turned and looked at his ex-wife and thought how beautiful she was. Life was strange. He had been married twice, two more times than he had thought likely when he was in school, and neither marriage had ended at all how he would have imagined. Still, even with all the pain he had suffered -- and caused -- he counted himself blessed. Blessed and old. And right now... he sighed.

"Hank, everyone down there is looking for you. Bill and Scott are here, Power Man and Iron Fist just got here with a bunch of gifts, Tigra and Firebird have both been asking after you, Dr. Strange has set up a special magical display of your past adventures..." Janet Van Dyne said, then stopped. Walking up behind his chair she threw her arms around his chest. "What's wrong?"

"I'm just thinking about the past. About the mistakes I've made...about Ultron."

"I read the reports, Hank, I..."

"I owed him more, Jan." He reached up and grabbed her hands, held them. "I should have done more."

"Hank..."

"No. It was wrong of me. I wasn't ready to be a father, you know, I wasn't ready for the responsibility. I just thought...I thought... I guess I didn't think."

"You can't blame yourself, Hank. Nobody else blames you."

"Ultron does."

"Ultron is insane."

"I'm not so sure of that anymore. Anyway, I've been insane myself from time to time and I never could have made it without you. Without my friends, the Avengers. Even if he is insane...who does he have? I should have been there to help." He sighed and held her hands to his chest, above his heart. They stayed like that for awhile, no longer lovers but loving.

Finally: "I looked through some of the cards and gifts you got. There's some really strange things that have been delivered. There's alot of homemade cards from kids, Jarvis is making a list so we can respond to them. Wanda sent a nice card as well."

"How is she doing?"

"She seems to be doing well. She apologized for not coming, but she's busy with her training and stuff. Anyway...someone did a velvet Goliath painting, its really hideous. I thought you'd like it hung in your lab. Oh, and some anonymous benefactor invited you and any number of guests for an all expenses paid trip to Disney World."

"...that's nice. Maybe we'll take them up on it?" He looked over his shoulder at Jan. "I could use a vacation, I think."

"I think we all could. I'll ask around and see if anyone else wants to come." They smiled at each other, then Jan pulled away. "You going to come down?"

"In a minute." Jan nodded and a moment later buzzed from the room. Hank Pym sighed and turned, looking at himself in the mirror. He prodded at his face for awhile, ran his fingers through his fading blonde hair.

"No doubt about it, you're getting old. Ollllllld." He sighed yet again and stood. Pulling his mask over his face he opened the door. Kang stood on the other side, his arms behind his back. Hank looked at him for a second, then closed the door.

*knock*

Shaking his head, Hank opened the door again and Kang strode in, glanced briefly about the room, then turned to face Yellowjacket. They looked at each other for a moment, then Kang spoke.

"You are probably expecting me to launch some sort of attack, which I understand is fairly customary at these kind of social gatherings. You have nothing to fear. I have not come to kill you or your teammates; there will come a time for that, I assure you, but it is not now."

"...why are you here then?"

"I am merely here to pay my respects. The Avengers are my greatest foes. Indeed, my only foes, for all others who have faced me, singly or in groups, lay crushed and forgotten among the eddies of time. Only the Avengers survive to fight, and for that I thank you. It was you who founded the team, and I assure you, in my empire, your name is legend. I have come to salute you." He paused for a second, then raised a fist.

"Happy birthday, my enemy." He finished his salute and slowly faded from existence. Hank Pym blinked, shook his head once, and left to join the party.