FEBRUARY  YEAR THREE 439 "All Good Things Must Come to an End" by Adam Di Stefano, with 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!

Forge regarded the scene before him. He stood in a small room, most likely no more than 15 x 15. Three of the walls were lined with filing cabinets, the other, where the door had been, had been decimated. In the wall's place stood the Avengers, all with a glazed look in their eyes, and Dr. Amazing with a malicious smile upon his lips.*

(* Last issue -ADS)

The pain in his head from Dr. Amazing's psionic gun still had not completely gone away. Things were not looking good for Forge, or for the Avengers for that matter.

"What the heck is going on!?" Forge shouted the question in blind fury. He didn't appreciate being attacked on his first day of work.

Dr. Amazing regarded him quizzically. The eerie smile refused to leave the man's face. It was quite unnerving.

"What's going on, Forge, is that the Avengers are under my control, and soon, so will the world!"

Forge shook his head in an effort to clear the cobwebs. No use. Dr. Amazing was insane, crazy. However, it did seem very much like the Avengers were at his mercy.

"Captain America bring him to me," Dr. Amazing ordered.

The star-spangled Avenger moved forward, no particular trace of emotion on his features.

Forge fired an energy blast from his right arm, which Captain America easily blocked with his shield. Knowing he had absolutely no chance against all of the Avengers, Forge decided to make a hasty retreat. He fired another blast at the ceiling above the Avengers' heads. The structure came down upon them. Debris showered the room like a hailstorm. Captain America shielded himself from the falling debris with his shield while Quasar protected the rest of them with a quantum bubble.

Forge used the distraction to his advantage and blasted a man-sized hole through the wall nearest to him and quickly proceeded to jump through it.

Captain America turned to follow, but Dr. Amazing's order stopped him in his tracks. "Let him go. He's of no importance to our plans. Avengers, go and prepare a Quinjet for a flight to Washington, DC."

The Avengers each took off in a different direction in order to follow their orders. As Hank Pym rounded a corner, out of sight from the others, he stopped. He shook his head vigorously and the glazed look in his eyes vanished.

He clasped his head in both hands. He had been lucky. He had been suspicious and was not caught by surprise like the other Avengers. Because of that, he was able to fight off Dr. Amazing's mental powers.

Yellowjacket looked around the corner of the hall to ensure that no one was coming his way. He still needed a moment to collect his thoughts.

The Avengers were under mind control. They were heading for Washington, D.C. Hank Pym wasn't sure exactly what Dr. Amazing's plan was, but he was sure that if he knew, he wouldn't like it.

Yellowjacket steeled himself. It was him against the Avengers. There was only one thing that could tilt the odds in his favour, and it wasn't ready yet. He was going to need help, and at the moment, there was only one obvious place to look for it. He had to find Forge.

In the Avengers Quinjet bay, the Vision dropped through the hull of the famous airship. The Quinjet Bay was a hangar bay of sorts, large enough to store at least four full-sized Quinjets. At the present time, only two were in the hangar. The first had just been fueled up and was ready for take off, while the other had several panels ripped off and looked as though it had been undergoing minor repairs before it was rudely interrupted.

The room was of a grey-black steel on all four walls, ceiling and floor. The only objects in it were crates that stored spare parts stacked in the right hand corner of the hangar and toolshelves which were distributed along three of the four walls. The third wall opened to allow the crafts to take off into the New York sky.

"All is ready for take off," the Vision said in a voice even more mechanical than usual.

In a dark corner of the bay, Forge hid behind a crate. He was thanking whatever higher power there was that in his mind-controlled state, the Vision was not using his sensors the way he normally would, in constant sweeps.

Forge watched as the wraith-like figure of the Vision floated through the wall of the Quinjet bay, no doubt going to report that the craft was ready for take-off.

Forge moved out from behind the crate, and made his way as silently as possible towards the technological marvel that was the Avengers' Quinjet.

"Forge," he heard a whisper from behind him. He swung around bringing his blaster to bear on the place he thought he heard the voice come from. He saw nothing.

He stayed weary, ready to fire at the slightest hint of another presence.

He heard the voice again, "Forge, don't fire. We need to talk."

This time, the voice was accompanied with an odd phenomenon. A few feet in front of him, from seemingly nowhere, a yellow and black figure began to appear. The figure hadn't been visible to him until he began to grow. Now, he was slowly approaching full size.

When the growing had stopped, the Avenger known as Yellowjacket stood before him, hands in the air.

The look on Forge's face betrayed his confusion.

"I was able to shake off Dr. Amazing's mental commands," Hank Pym offered as an explanation.

Forge still looked skeptical.

"Forge, you saw the others, they're all moving slowly and they have a glassy, wide-eyed look. You don't see that in me, do you?"

Forge was still hesitant, but what the Avenger was saying made sense. "How come you were able to shake the mind control, but the others weren't?" he asked, his blaster still pointed at Yellowjacket's chest.

"I wasn't caught unaware the same way the others were. I had my suspicions about Dr. Amazing. I was able to prepare myself better - But that doesn't matter right now. Right now, we have to make sure the Avengers don't leave this mansion."

Forge seemed convinced by now. He nodded and lowered his blaster. "I think I can help in that."

He moved towards the Quinjet and dropped a hatch. Using his mutant ability to innately understand anything electronic or mechanical, he pointed his blaster at a specific circuit and fired.

"There. This bird won't fly until they replace about a hundred different parts."

Yellowjacket raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Forge asked next, "So, since you thought this was coming, I'm guessing you had a plan to stop it?"

Dr. Henry Pym nodded. "It's in the lab."

It was then Forge's turn to nod. He didn't like the situation at all. His first day with the Avengers and he already couldn't trust any of them. Now, he was being forced to truist one of them in hopes he could defeat the ones he didn't trust. The whole mess was making his head hurt. He wondered if his time as government liaison to the Avengers would always be this eventful.

The door to the Quinjet bay slid open. Dr. Amazing stepped into the room followed by Captain America, Ms. Marvel, Quasar and the Vision.

Mark Amazing was no longer wearing the malicious smile he had been before. His face was now expressionless and devoid of emotion. As he entered the room, he immediately noticed the hatch of Quinjet open. He moved towards it quickly and peered in. It didn't take him long to realize that an act of sabotage had been commited. His face still expressionless he looked to the other Avengers, who did not seem capable of independent thought.

"Forge has turned out to be a problem. We must find him. We will split into three teams of two and seek him out."

The Vision spoke up, "Designate Hank Pym is absent. Three groups of two is impossible."

Dr. Amazing's facial expression did not change. He merely looked through the door behind the Avengers.

Dr. Henry Pym burst through the door of his laboratory, the mutant Forge at his heels. He headed immediately to the workbench which still had the futuristic-looking gun lying on it.

"It's a psionic gun, similar to Dr. Amazing's," Pym began to explain.

"Only it's set to a counter-frequency of the one his operates on, and in theory should therefore have the reverse effect his has. In other words, a blast from this gun should 'unbrainwash' the Avengers," Forge finished for him.

Yellowjacket blinked in amazement.

"You seem to forget that my mutant power is to innately understand all machinery, Yellowjacket."

"I'm sorry," Hank Pym answered, "I just never realized to what point you could understand it."

"Apparently not," Forge said coldly. He took another look at the gun and said, "It's not finished yet, is it?"

"No. My field is biochemistry and although I have considerable experience in mechanics, I wasn't quite able to finish it in time."

"I believe I can help you."

"That's what I was hoping you'd say, Forge. Every tool you could possibly use is scattered around this lab, I'll assist you in any way that I can."

Forge nodded and set to work frantically, he grabbed a spanner and began operating on the weapon the way a brain surgeon would. His actions were incredibly precise and his knowledge of the weapon was unparalleled even by its inventor.

"We haven't had a chance to test it. I'm fairly certain it will work, but we may only get one shot," Hank Pym voiced his concern.

Forge nodded. He seemed more relaxed now. He seemed to be in his element. "Then we'll need to use it on the most powerful Avenger."

"If we're only going to get one pick from the other team, I'd say Quasar," Pym suggested.

Before Forge could make any response, the door to the lab was blown off its hinges.

The two men ducked behind the workbench, Forge the weapon in hand. He cursed under his breath. "We need more time."

Yellowjacket's eyes were set. There was only one chance for both of them. "I'll distract them. Just don't take your time," he said.

With that, Yellowjacket jumped to his feet, his bioplasmic stingers ready for action. He realized now that the door hadn't actually been blown off its hinges, it had been completely disintegrated along with a good chunk of the surrounding wall.

A slow moving Ms. Marvel walked through the hole with the Vision at her side. Ms. Marvel's eyes still had that glazed over glassy look, and Hank realized that she wasn't walking with her usual grace.

The Vision fixed Hank with a stare that seemed as cold as that he had seen when he had first met the Vision those many years ago. The jewel on his forehead began to glow and a bolt of solar energy seared the air as it flew towards Yellowjacket.

The bolt hit a stool that was behind Hank and incinerated it. Yellowjacket himself had shrunk to the size of his namesake and flew with incredible speed at his attackers, his stingers blaring. Normally, the stingers would not have had much of an effect against opponents as powerful as the Vision and Ms. Marvel, but since the fight against Nefaria, Hank had made a point of turning himself into a major contender. He had finally made up his mind that if he was going to be in the superhero biz, he wanted to be a big hitter.

The blasts hit both heroes square and caused them both to stumble backwards, caught offguard by the attacks. Yellowjacket pressed his advantage growing to ten feet tall with remarkable speed. He shrugged off the guilt of having to fight his teammates, and landed a heavey right cross whose arc was wide enough to hit both opponents.

Ms. Marvel was the first to recover, she flew straight towards her Yellowjacket and tackled him right through the length of the lab and then with a twist upwards made the ten-foot tall hero go straight the ceiling, landing him in the lobby.

Yellowjacket stayed stunned only for a moment. He fired his stingers at Ms. Marvel. At this size, the blast was much more powerful than at yellowjacket-size.

The blast sent Ms. Marvel through the outside wall of the mansion, landing her on the lawn. Shocked passer-bys stopped and their mouths fell agape.

By this time, the Vision had long since recovered and had passed intagibly through the floor behind Hank. Shifting his density to be incredibly dense, he unleased a twin-fisted uppercut. Yellowjacket was able to detect the movement from the corner of his eye, and rolled with the blow. The momentum was enough to send him over the couch, fifteen feet away.

Yellowjacket the nearest thing in his grasp, the couch. He threw the heavy object with one-giant sized hand. Normally the Vision would have been able to phase through the object with ease, but the mental control had slowed down all of the Avengers' reflexes. The couch collided with the Vision throwing him into the wall opposite the gaping hole Ms. Marvel had made.

Yellowjacket had to make a decision. This closed space was unpractical for fighting at giant-size and at yellowjacket-size he was ineffective. He had to take the fight outside. Making sure the Vision saw him, he deliberately made his way out of the hole. Once outside he was finally able to stand up straight.

That didn't last very long as one of Quasar's energy constructs hit him in the back and sent him flying, when he landed he made a thirty foot long trench in the ground. When he finally stopped moving and slowly made his way to his hands and knees he realized two things. First, the crowd just outside the mansion's gates had grown. Second, the rest of the Avengers had now arrived.

Captain America's shield hit Yellowjacket in the arm in richoted back towards the Star Spangled Avenger who jumped into the air in order to retrieve it. Captain America looked to be just out of Hank's reach, but suddenly the giant-sized Avenger became even larger, growing to 15 feet. His massive-sized hand closed around Captain America, who was unable to avoid the grab in mid-air.

"Sorry, Steve," Hank muttered under his breath as he slammed the Avenger head first into the ground. Cap fell limp in Yellowjacket's over-sized glove and was then released onto the ground.

Pym turned to face the other remaining Avengers when he was hit from three angle simultaneously. He felt the impact of the Vision's solar beam, Ms. Marvel's energy blast, and Quasar's quantum constructs hit him full force. The force drove the fifteen foot tall mammoth to the ground. He gritted his teeth and tried to regain his footing, but it was no use. Hank could see blackness creeping in around the edges of his eyesight.

'It's over,' he thought.

Suddenly, a maddened cry rang through the air coming from the direction of the mansion. The assaults ceased and Yellowjacket used his last bit of energy to look for the source of yell.

Forge ran through the hole in Avengers' mansion, the psionic weapon in hand. He leveled it at Quasar and prepared to fire.

Just as Forge's finger hit the trigger, the ground in front of him erupted courtesy of Ms. Marvel's energy blast. His aim was disturbed, and the beam of psionic energy hit Dr. Amazing instead of Quasar.

"NO!" Forge yelled, the ruined weapon smoking in his hand.

Yellowjacket's mind lost all hope. The beam was supposed to undo the effects of Dr. Amazing's psionic powers, but on the Doctor himself, it would have no effect.

Forge stood his ground. The end had come. Death at the hands of the Avengers. He would go and rejoin his Freedom Force teammates. He waited for the blast to come,eyes closed. It never came. He opened his eyes and saw the Avengers standing stock still. Yellowjacket had shrunk back down to his normal size and was struggling to get to his feet. Dr. Amazing looked as though he had gone mad. He grasped his head and was contorting himself violently.

"AAAHHHH!" Dr. Amazing's yell echoed through the New York air, and chilled the blood of the crowd of on-lookers.

He grabbed the psionic gun at his hip and turned it in his hand to point between his eyes, his thumb slowly exerting pressure.

Forge regained his wits and ran to stop him, but it was too late. The psionic gun went off and the beam struck Dr. Amazing in the head. An incredible explosion of vibrant pink psionic energy ensued. Forge had to shield his eyes from the glare.

The explosion lasted all of five seconds and then it was gone. All that remained was a charred piece of grass where Dr. Amazing had stood and the mad doctor was gone, nowhere to be seen.

The Avengers had finally come out of their trance, shocked looks on all their faces. They frantically rushed to the aid of their fallent teammates. Yellowjacket was helped to his feet and Captain America was roused.

"We have to get them to the infirmary, quick," Ms. Marvel shouted.

Henry Pym awoke in the infirmary to see a bunch of familiar faces surrounding him. He smiled at the look of awareness that was now present in their eyes.

He stopped at Captain America, whose head was bandaged.

"Cap, you okay!?" Hank exclaimed, remembering what he had done to his teammate.

Steve Rogers chuckled. "Not to worry, old friend, just a minor concussion. Nothing serious."

Hank let loose a sigh of relief, which he soon realized hurt, much like every part of his body.

"So, Hank," Ms. Marvel piped up, "Wanna tell us what just happened?"

Hank noticed that Forge was standing just outside the circle of Avengers, he had a look on his face that was not relief or happiness. 'Probably just made his first report to Washington,' Hank Pym thought.

"Well, it's a long story, and I'm guessing Forge probably already filled you in on part of it," Hank said, trying to make his way to a sitting position and then thinking better of it. "The short version goes like this. Dr. Amazing isn't who we thought he was, as most of you have already figured out. Every memory that we had of Dr. Amazing being with the Avengers from the very beginning were implanted by him every time he used his psionic gun to 'awaken our memories'. At the same time as he was implanting false memories, he was also cementing control over the Avengers."

"So then, how come you weren't affected?" Quasar asked.

"Well, I was, but not as strongly, so I was able to fight it off," Hank continued. "You see, I had been weary of Dr. Amazing from the very beginning and my paranoia took hold of me and I began taking precautions. For starters, I fitted my mask with psionic dampeners which the Beast was happy to provide for me. I also started work on the psionic gun that was supposed to undo the effects of Dr. Amazing's mind control. I wasn't able to complete it in time, though. Luckily, Forge was around."

Hank smiled warmly at Forge, who was contented to grunt in acknowledgement.

"There's still something I don't understand," Captain America broke in. "If the weapon you and Forge created was supposed to 'unbrainwash' us, what did it do to Dr. Amazing?"

"My only theory is this. Dr. Amazing himself was being mind-controlled. He had been fighting it all along, but wasn't able to win out. The blast from our anti-psionic gun gave him the edge in a long battle of wills. In the end, he came out on top."

"So, do you think he's -- ?" Wendell Vaughn asked, not able to complete the sentence.

"I don't know. And I'm not sure we'll ever know."