AVENGERS

# 449 – October, Year 4

Power Loss, Day Two: Boomerang

written by Mark Bousquet

original conception of PowerLoss by Scott Harris

EARTH 1000 – NEW ARK, JERSEY

The Secret Scientific Society strode to the surface of their suddenly alive world. All around them, people milled about, their bodies imbued with power gained from the alternate Earth.

"They’re panicking," Atom 9 said, looking at the chaos.

"They will learn," Atom 8 remarked calmly. "All they need is discipline."

"But who will teach them discipline if we leave?" Atom 2 asked.

"That," Atom 8 smiled, "is an excellent question. Surely, though, someone will rise to power. There is always one lion amongst the sheep."

"How exactly are we going to make it to that alternate Earth?" Edison Bell’s father asked, thinking about his son’s dying body in the underground cavern beneath them.

"The same way I was able to place the golden spheres on that world," Atom 8 explained. "But first, you need to be touched by the bolts of energy that descend from the sky. Gifts from the alternate Earth, brought here just for you. We shall return these gifts once you have been blessed with them, but we shall return them as a boomerang returns to its master, with force and rage and destruction on its mind."

As the SSS worked through the city of New Ark, Atom 7 crawled from the tunnel and into the light. She took several steps, then looked back, debating the best course of action. One hundred meters before her, a bolt of yellow and blue energy slammed down into Atom 12’s body. Enraged, Atom 12’s hands lashed out, slamming into a car that was sent flying.

Atom 7 blinked. A car was just sent flying at the hands of a forty-five year old woman who, not six weeks earlier, needed help walking up a set of stairs.

Without further debate, Atom 7 turned around and headed back down the tunnel.

MARVEL EARTH – AVENGERS MANSION – EVENING

Captain America, Henry Pym, Dani Moonstar, Carol Danvers, and Thor stood on the roof of Avengers Mansion alongside Dum Dum Dugan and watched as the golden sphere ascended through the roof of the Mansion and upwards towards the night sky. With dread, their eyes took in the sight above them, of the honeycombing of the skies above New York City gaining strength with every passing moment. Nearly two-thirds of the sky was now blocked out by the honeycomb columns of energy that poured down into the ground once the five sides of the individual honeycombs were filled.

"What do we do?" Dani asked. "Carol, Henry, and I have no powers. Thor can’t use his because every time he does, it gets sucked down the drain. And Deadpool … who knows where he’s ended up."

Captain America eyed the Avengers carefully, double-checking the plan he’d formulated. "We’re not out of this, yet, Moonstar. Henry, head over to the Fantastic Four’s headquarters at Pier 4 and coordinate with Reed. Carol and Dani, track down Stephen Strange. If we’re lucky, magic can provide some assistance. Dugan, head to the docks with Henry and coordinate the relief effort with Namor. Thor, when you were above the honeycomb, were you affected?"

"Nay, Captain," Thor replied. "Only when I didst send the lightning hurtling down was I affected, but so long as I stayed at a reasonable distance above the ‘combs, I was safe from the pull of their power."

"Good," he nodded. "I want you to get into the upper atmosphere and get back to Asgard. If Henry is right and people are pulled down to their natural forms, Asgardians will be able to assist us greatly."

"Captain," Thor said gently, "what of your powers?"

Steve shook his head, "I don’t seem to be affected."

"I believe it’s because his powers don’t generate energy," Pym offered. "Mutations such as Dani’s generate energy when they’re activated, and that draws the attention of the golden spheres, same with my Pym Particles. But Steve’s doesn’t have powers so much as he has abilities. His body is what it is; it’s not like the super soldier serum is constantly at work. Then again … maybe it is," Henry mused. "We’ve thought for awhile the serum helps keep you young. Perhaps over the long term, you will begin to age quicker-"

"Questions to answer at a later time," Cap announced, waving Pym’s thoughts aside.

"Where are you going, Steve?" Carol asked.

Cap turned to one of the golden columns that descended from the honeycombs, knowing his destination would lead him inside one of the columns. "To check on Stark," he said. "Let’s move."

"Steve, wait," Carol said, reaching out to grab his arm. "What about the injured? We’re sure to run across those who need help."

Cap set his jaw. "Help those who are in terminal situations. All others will have to wait. If we stop and help everyone …"

Ms. Marvel nodded, "There might not be anyone left to save."

EARTH 1000 – NEW ARK, JERSEY

"Fascinating," Atom 8 remarked as Atom 12 was hit with a second blast of energy.

"What?" Mrs. Bell asked. She was half-happy she hadn’t yet been hit with a blast, and half-saddened she still remained powerless.

"Atom 12 has taken a second blast of the alt-Earth energy. I wonder … it appears that each body has a certain capacity for power and the oncoming energy from the alternate world will seek to fill out everyone to that capacity. Fascinating."

"You’ve yet to be hit," she remarked.

"Oh, I won’t be hit with the energy," Atom 8 replied.

"How do you know that?" her husband asked.

Atom 8 smiled, "Haven’t you noticed, Mr. Bell? I am the only one here who’s--"

BOOM!

Mrs. Bell screamed and three of the SSS vomited. Not ten meters from them, a small child had exploded.

Atom 8 arced an eybrow. "Nitro, perhaps?" he asked himself in a whisper. He looked around at the SSS, "Come on, let us move quicker. There is a particular platform hidden in a nearby building that we must get to."

The SSS picked up their pace, unaware that they were being watched. Deadpool stood on the third floor of an office building, watching, gathering intelligence. Being the only center of calm in the entire city, the SSS stood out.

"Well," he said to himself, "that and the fact they’ve got big dorky numbers on their chest and uniforms geeky enough to get X-Files fans wet."

The merc looked down at his arm. When he was knocked through the café window, he’d cut himself. The cut was now completely healed over, which meant his healing factor worked here. Whatever energy drain was going on back home, it wasn’t happening here.

Looking back along the path the SSS took, Deadpool watched a lady in red latex drop into a subway tunnel.

"Hrm … let’s see, I can follow a group of evil looking folks gaining power with every step, or I can follow what looks to be a hot babe in tight red latex down a subway tunnel?" Deadpool slapped himself in the head, "Geez, the fact that I even made it all the way through that question without running after Latex Lady tells me I’ve been hanging out with the Avengers too long. Who knows what kind of moral monster I might be if I last two weeks?" Reaching for his plasma guns, Wade blasted the glass window in front of him and leapt out the third story window, hot on the heels of hotness.

MARVEL EARTH – THE DOCKS

Henry Pym and Dum Dugan skirted the edge of a golden column. "Ever seen anything like this?" Dugan asked Pym.

"Not on this level," Henry said, shaking his head, "but we have so many unfathomable missions that they all kind of blend together after a while. Just last week I was talking with Dane Whitman, arguing over whether or not Tiger Shark was involved in the Siege of Avengers Mansion. Dane kept telling me it was Mr. Hyde I was thinking of. I kept telling him it was Tiger Shark. We went on for about ten minutes before – wait, who’s that?"

Dugan jumped back into an alleyway to hide from view as his eyes followed the path of Pym’s finger. They could see a man waking away from them and towards Pier 4, wearing a green cloak. "Looks like … Mister Hyde?" Dugan asked.

"No," Pym said. "See his hands? Those metal claws? It’s the Owl."

"Does he have any powers? Or is he ability based?"

Pym shrugged, "No idea. Don’t you SHIELD guys know all of this stuff?"

Dugan shook his head. "Not anymore. There was a time when we had all of the locals pegged, but as AIM, Hydra, Ultimatum, and the rest of the terrorist groups go international, we’ve had to divert resources away from recon of the street heroes."

Pym looked over his shoulder at Dugan. "Villains."

"What?"

"You said you’ve had to divert your resources away from recon of the street heroes. You meant to say ‘villains’."

Dugan shrugged, "Slip of the tongue."

"Sure," Pym shot back. "Come on, let’s take him out."

Pym started to move across the street, but Dugan put out a hand to stop him. "Take him out? A hero without any powers and an overweight stud like me are going to walk over there and take out a maniac like the Owl. I don’t think so."

Pym pulled himself out of Dugan’s grasp roughly. "We can’t let him roam free."

"Who said anything about letting him go free?" Dugan reached down to his belt and removed a pistol. Before Pym could protest, the Avengers’ liaison raised his arm and fired a shot at the Owl’s back. The Owl went down in a thud.

"What the hell, Dugan?!" Pym blared. "You can’t just kill someone! Even if they are a menace like-"

Dugan holstered the gun, "Do me a favor, Pym. Active some of them particles of yours just long enough to unbunch the panties yer wearing. I didn’t kill him. I shot him with a stun pellet. He’ll be out for hours. Now, come on, let’s get you to Richards so I can go help Namor."

MARVEL EARTH – GREENWICH VILLAGE

"Stephen Strange lives in Greenwich Village?" Dani Moonstar asked as Ms. Marvel landed an Avengers Sky-Cycle on the street. "How cliché."

Ms. Marvel smiled as they exited the Cycle. It had taken them longer than they wanted to make it here – navigating around the honeycomb’s golden columns was like being in a maze with a clock running.

"Carol Danvers, you should not have come."

The two Avengers looked up to see Stephen Strange exiting his front door, nearly collapsing onto the street.

"Doc, what’s wrong?" Carol asked, stepping in to hold him upright.

"This … power loss … I am useless against it," the Doctor explained as Carol and Dani helped him back inside his house. "Every spell I cast is instantly drawn to the golden spheres and sent to an alternate Earth. I have tried nearly every manner of spell I know and none has any effect."

Ms. Marvel helped Strange to a chair, looking to Dani as she did so. The look of concern on the younger woman’s face mirrored her own – this was not the news they wanted to hear. "Are you certain it’s being siphoned off somewhere specifically?" she asked.

"Yes," Strange replied. "I was able to trace several spells to a specific alternate Earth. Earth 1000 or 1001, I believe."

Dani said, "We’ve got to get him to Richards. Maybe together they can-"

"Explaining takes too much time," Ms. Marvel replied, hoisting Strange to his feet. "Let’s get him out of here."

The two women each took one of Strange’s arms and hoisted him outside. "This is not good," Dani said.

"Thanks for that," Ms. Marvel replied, turning to look around them at the golden columns that had completely boxed them in.

EARTH 1000 – SECRET SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY HEADQUARTERS

Deadpool walked up behind Atom 7 and placed a gun to the back of her head. "What the hell’s going on here?"

Atom 7 raised her hands. She wasn’t more than fifteen meters away from the gasping body of Edison Bell.

"Is this the guy responsible for stealing the power away from my world?"

Atom 7 couldn’t conceal her surprise. "Your world? You’re from that other place? How did you make it across?"

"Save your questions until I’m done," Deadpool ordered, letting his blaster push forward against her head.

"Okay, okay," she said. "Fifty years ago-"

"I don’t need to hear the life story of Henry Pym, lady, just give me the Cliff’s Notes version."

"Our world had no power. We used Edison here to jumpstart our world, freeing the power that our government had taken from us. We were fooled. A traitor in our midst planted devices that enabled him to drain the power away from your world. Now he plans on journeying to your world and enslaving it." She paused, then added, "That fast enough."

Deadpool removed the blaster. "I think I’m in love."

"Spare me," Atom 7 snapped, moving over to Edison. The young man’s body was twitching and gasping as a white energy oozed out of him with every jerk of his body.

"How does this contraption work?" Deadpool asked.

"Edison’s power was fed out into the world along a set of relay stations. He smashed into the State Computer, freeing the trapped energy. We needed to return power to the people in order to stave off an intergalactic invasion."

Deadpool cocked an eyebrow. "Intergalactic invasion? Geez, doesn’t anyone just rob a jewelry store anymore?" Wade looked at the young woman, then to the man, then back to the woman. "Can we reverse the process? Send all of your power back into my world?"

Atom 7 nearly spat on him. "Why would I want to do that? Didn’t you hear me? Our world-"

"Intergalactic invasion yadda yadda yadda," he shot back. The merc drummed his fingers over his chin, "Can you work the machine?"

Atom 7 shrugged, "I don’t know. It doesn’t matter, though. I just told you I wasn’t sending your power back."

"What if I promised you help if you did?"

"What kind of help?"

"Enough to take care of an intergalactic invasion."

"How can you promise such a thing?"

"Er … back where I come from I’m, uh, the President?"

"I hate politicians," Atom 7 snorted.

Wade sighed loudly, "This would be a lot easier if you would just play along."

MARVEL EARTH – STARK TOWER

Captain America made his way up the back, private staircase of Stark’s office building. He was equally glad and angry at the thought of Stark having a private staircase built that only he knew about. On the one hand, it made climbing to the top of the building that much easier. On the other hand, there were an awful lot of panicking people trying to get out of this building and an extra staircase could help release some of that pressure.

Steve pushed the thought out of his mind; he could talk to Tony about it later.

Reaching the penthouse level, Cap pushed open the door to find Tony laying on the floor, panting loudly. "Steve!" Tony panted. "My heart."

Steve approached quickly and saw that Tony had plugged his chest plate into the wall. His right hand cranked a manual handle.

"It’s … the only … way I can … keep it beating …" he gasped.

"You can’t be moved?"

Stark shook his head. "But … Steve … before this I … there’s a set of … computations on my desk … take them to … Reed."

Steve glanced over to the desk, noting the mess of papers. He looked down to Stark, "Is there anything I can do for you before I go?"

Stark grinned, "Yeah … send me a … pretty lady to … help me …"

Steve smiled despite the gravity of the situation. "I thought you might say that. Help is on the way up. Don’t worry."

Tony laughed. "You’re a good … man, Charlie … Brown."

Assembling the papers in a stack, Steve glanced out the window and over the city. "Don’t thank me yet."

Stark groaned, "You didn’t send … Deadpool, did … you? God … help me."

SSSSSSSZZZZZZZZZZZ-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!

"What was that?" Stark asked, turning his head away from the large flash of light.

Captain America walked to the window. "Good news and bad news. Good news, some of the completed honeycombs just blinked out."

"Bad news?"

"Bad news is a new set of bad guys just showed up."

Before them, Cap could see a group of super-powered people floating over the city on a platform. They looked like an amalgamation of various heroes and villains. Stark rolled over, letting his hand fall off the manual crank that kept his heart beating to get a look. "Steve … tell Reed I … was right … someone stole … our powers … to give them … to … someone else … whoever is behind this … targeted our world and our superhumans specific-nnnnnng!"

Steve’s head whipped around to see his old friend’s hand go to his heart. Leaping across the room, Steve rolled Stark over and began to turn the crank. After a few nervous seconds, Stark’s eyes fluttered open.

"PEOPLE OF EARTH!" a voice boomed from the platform that flew over the city of New York.

Steve and Tony exchanged a glance; things had just gotten worse.

"YOU WILL BOW BEFORE YOUR CONQUEROR OR YOU WILL PERISH! SUCH IS THE WORD OF KANG!"

Power Loss to be continued …