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!

MV1 Presents:
Iron Man!  The Vision!  The Scarlet Witch!  The Thing!  Mon-Dria?!  
Earth's Mightiest Heroes-- the AVENGERS!

.

In matching, blank, metal rooms, the Vision, Iron Man, the Scarlet Witch, and the Thing* battled different incarnations of the Super-Adaptoid.  Or so it seemed to each of them...

[* Hanging out at the mansion for a poker game, as seen last ish.  --Van]

In the Vision's room, the Adaptoid had assumed the appearance and powers of the Scarlet Witch--something that upset the Vision even further beyond the already-troubling situation.  Striking hard and fast, he had managed to grab the Adaptoid by the throat and now held it aloft, squeezing the life from it...

...the life...

...the life?

The Vision hesitated, his grip slackening a tiny amount, his razor-sharp mind working, working...

*     *     * 

Wanda, her throat being crushed by the robot, felt its grip suddenly slacken, and she raised both hands, her desperation unleashing itself in the form of a massive, disruptive hex sphere that expanded in every direction.  Too dazed to manage much control of it, and too near death to much care, she allowed it to simply run wild, expanding, expanding...

*     *     *

The walls around the Vision erupted in showers of sparks.  Smoke billowed out as electronics short-circuited and fried around him.

And he realized with a sudden, sick horror that he held his beloved ex-wife's throat in his diamond-hard hand.

*     *     *

Iron Man and the Thing were pounding away at each other when the room around them erupted in sparks and the pounding in their heads went away.

Picking themselves up from the floor, they looked at each other warily.  Old hands, both of them, they instantly understood.

"Somebody's gonna get it," Ben muttered as he advanced to one of the walls and began ripping massive pieces of metal away, looking for an opening.  "Somebody's gonna get it, big time."

"You've got that right, Ben," Iron Man agreed, going to work on the opposite wall.

*     *     *

The Vision looked up as the wall ahead of him was torn away from the other side, and Iron Man and the Thing shoved through the opening.  In his arms he cradled Wanda, who was gasping for breath but looked much better than she had a few moments earlier.

"You too, huh?" Ben said.  "That figures."

"Scanning... scanning," Iron Man said, his sensors reaching out in every direction.  He pointed.  "That way."

Wanda got to her feet, shaky but recovering.  "Thank you," she said to the Vision, realizing how upset he had been by what had happened, and how gently he had treated her, once her hex short-circuited the systems around them.

All four of them advanced in the direction Iron Man had pointed.  Ben ripped away another wall, revealing a third room adjacent to theirs.

Ben peered in, and wrinkled his nose.

"Aw, man... that's just not right."

In a seat at the center of the room, surrounded by computer monitors, sat Arcade.

He was resplendent in his immaculate white tuxedo.  His walking stick was clutched in his right hand.  And he was quite, quite dead.

"Welcome to Murderworld," came a robotic voice from the console before him.  

The four heroes tensed, forming a circle, awaiting any attack.

"Welcome to Murderworld.  Welcome to Mrwrlddd.  Wlcm tomurwlrmrlmzzzzzzt..."

Sparks sprayed from the console, and the monitors when dark.

Iron Man activated his chest light, providing illumination.

"Jeez," Ben growled.  "I think Arcade there wuzn't the only one what needed a warranty."

"I believe Wanda's hex blast did not agree with the electronics here," the Vision replied.

Iron Man nodded.  "But was this a rogue operation by his computer system, or something he set in motion before he died?"

"We may never know," Wanda replied.

"This computer should be disengaged and quarantined immediately, Iron Man," the Vision noted.

"Absolutely."  

He and the Vision set to work disconnecting the systems, while Ben and Wanda examined Arcade's corpse and the rest of the room.

Meanwhile, one remaining cable leading out of the chamber sparked with energies passing through it, out of the facility, momentarily, then went dead as well...

*     *     *

The next morning, in lower Manhattan... 

Mon-Dria watched the blond-haired form of Captain Marvel fly off into the sky.  Then she gazed down at the data crystal in her hand.

The former lieutenant of the Kree Starfleet-in-Exile, currently in self-imposed exile on Earth, sat back in her chair in the outdoor cafe in New York City and smiled a wry smile.  That was pleasant.  And-- He's not quite what I expected.  More formal than I'd been led to believe... but not so stiff and starchy as most of the officers in the Fleet.

She adjusted her large, floppy hat that concealed her mane of long, white hair, and replaced the sunglasses that at least partially obscured her lovely blue features.  So far, no one had noticed her--or, at least, no one had made a fuss about having an alien dining there.

Mentally she re-wound the past couple of hours and worked through them again.

Clearly, Genis-Vell had been preoccupied with a number of pressing concerns.  Despite that, though, he'd replied to her message and then agreed to meet, to have lunch, and to talk.

Originally she'd simply wanted to meet him.  He was, after all, the son of a living legend--if not necessarily a positive one, back home on Kree-Lar--as well as a man in the early stages of building his own legend.  The thrill of meeting him seemed enough, at least at first.  But...

...But once she'd met him, and they'd talked for a while, she realized that she'd truly missed having another Kree around to talk to.  In the time since her father had left her here on Earth,* she'd had no contact with others of her kind.  Overall, it wasn't a problem--she'd learn to adjust, sooner or later--but for now, it was nice.

*  In IRON MAN #381.  --Van

Which returned her thoughts to the data crystal Genis had given her.  She'd mentioned to him that she wanted to know more about Earth-- not just official stuff, but some of what he and his father had discovered, as Kree, on this world.  And that she also wanted to start contributing to this world--doing the sorts of things that Genis and his father had done, to help others.

Genis had smiled, nodded, and given her this crystal, along with the words, "Then take a look at this. The Avengers had it in their records, and asked me to investigate it,  but I haven't even had a chance to look at it.  Things are sort of hectic right now."

She'd promised to pass on any important information to him immediately.  He had no problem trusting me, she thought.  I guess that's good.  If I'm going to be a super-person on this world, it'll probably be helpful to start working with the locals.

Reaching into a pouch at her side, she drew out a miniature computer unit, and inserted the tiny crystal.  The picture flickered, then stabilized into the image of Mar-Vell, Genis's father, seated at a computer console, speaking into a microphone.

Mon-Dria gasped.  That's him!

Then she sat back, sipped at her coffee, and watched...

...

Avengers files update.  Captain Mar-Vell recording.

After discussing my experiences earlier today with Captain America, he has asked me to describe them for these records, in case they should prove significant later.  I have agreed.

At 700 hours this morning, I departed Titan alongside Eros, en route to Earth.  Along the way, we overheard an automatic distress signal originating from the surface of Jupiter's moon, Europa.  Assuming it to be new, we raced to offer what assistance we could.

Arriving at Europa, we found the signal to be emanating from deep beneath the ice covering that moon.  After much difficulty, Eros and I managed to extract a spacecraft--of unknown origin--from the ice.

This ship appeared very, very old.

Our best guess is as follows:  Apparently, the ship had been submerged beneath that ice for thousands--perhaps millions--of years.  A recent shifting in the moon's orbit caused the ice to crack, allowing the ship to rise and the signal to reach us as we flew by.

The ship was empty, and indeed began to crumble once we'd moved it.  All we were able to salvage from it was... this box.

As you can see, it appears to have stood up quite well to the passing of so much time.  Approximately two feet wide, one foot high, one foot deep; no markings to speak of.  And opening it reveals only this-- a smaller box inside, glowing a dull orange.

It does not appear dangerous in any way-- no radiation or other emissions detected at all.  I have probed it with my cosmic awareness, of course, but to no avail.  Tony Stark and Henry Pym have both looked it over, and neither could offer any insights, as well.

Still... I feel a strange sense of... foreboding... from this object.  Perhaps it's my cosmic awareness, and perhaps it's simple paranoia.  But, in any case, I will leave it here, at the Mansion, in the hopes that one day we will learn more about it.  The Avengers have agreed to store it with their other important artifacts.  I trust it will be safe here.

After arriving on Earth this afternoon, Eros and I became involved in a brief confrontation with the villain known as Klaw, and...

BZZT.  Record ends.  Next record:

Avengers files update.  Vision, recording.

...was some time during the night that Henry Pym discovered what had happened.  Noticing a fluctuation in the Mansion's power supply, he traced it to one of our storage rooms, where an object of unknown but certainly extra-terrestrial origin had been stored.  The object, a box of approximately two cubic feet in size, had somehow sprouted slender filaments which had, in turn, somehow tapped into the Mansion's electrical systems.  Examining this alongside Pym, I was troubled to see that the filaments had not only sought out and found the power supply feed, but were also apparently closing in on the trunk lines for the Mansion's computer systems.  It is impossible to hypothesize what might have occurred, had the artifact been permitted to tap into our systems.  Carefully removing the filaments, Pym and I restored the integrity of the Mansion's systems and performed a careful sweep to make certain all traces of the filaments were removed.  The box itself has been returned to storage, this time in a sealed container which should effectively prevent any further...

BZZT.  Record ends.  Next record:

Avengers files update.  Captain America, recording.

...that sometime during our recent battle with Kang, our storage facility was broken into by person or persons unknown.  Somehow, they were able to scramble our security cameras and other sensors.  A thorough cross-checking of our catalogue reveals that only one object was taken-- a box given to us for safekeeping by the late Mar-Vell.  Since we'd never managed to discover anything of use about the box, other than that one incident involving the house's electrical system, we have no real way of knowing why it was taken.  I'm not happy about this at all, but, for the moment, I don't know what else we can...

BZZT.  Record ends.

Mon-Dria paused the playback.  She sat back, biting her lip.

A box.  Filaments.  Computers.

It sounded so familiar.  Something...

Reaching into her belt pouch, she removed a tiny device and thumbed a switch on its side.  "Mon-Dria to Fleet.  Request database search and file download."  Then she entered the keywords and transmitted.

A pause-- the Fleet was quite far away, and the signal would have to bounce around a number of hyperspace shunts to reach it.  She sipped more coffee, but hardly tasted it.  Something here was really starting to bother her.

Impatient, she un-paused the playback on the crystal.

Avengers files update.  Ms. Marvel, recording.

...but the strange thing about the encounter was that Ronan seemed controlled the entire time-- he wasn't himself.  He seemed like a robot-- except that I would surely have sensed that, were it the case.  Anyway, after I gave him a few solid shots to the head, he seemed to wise up and beat a hasty retreat--until the next time we ended up clashing, which was, of course, the incident with... [BZZT  Deleted to save space by Captain America--resumes-- ]  ...the other strange thing about Ronan, now that I think about it, was that box he was carrying at the start of the battle.  It was about two feet wide, and seemed to glow.  After our fight, though, it had disappeared, and he seemed to be more himself again.  I don't know the significance of...

BZZT.  Record ends.

Personal note appended by Captain America follows.

Genis, as you can see, this box keeps popping up.  It's starting to worry me a little bit.  After Carol's latest report mentioned it, I went back and checked, and sure enough, it's been in and out of our business for quite some time.

Since your dad was the first to find it, and since it does seem to be alien in origin, I thought you might be the best one to look into it.  Let me know what you've found at earliest convenience.  Thanks-- Cap.

BZZT.  Record ends.

Mon-Dria sat back, her unease growing worse by the moment.  This... box... it struck a nerve for her, somehow...

PING.

Mondy looked down; the file she'd requested from the Fleet had finally arrived.  She actually found that her hand was shaking as she hit the playback.

**Kree Data File 93755635758346612

Cross-referenced search complete.

Keywords provided:  Box; filament; glow; threat; electronics; computer subversion.

Best matches: 1 total.

Subject:  Blight Myth.

Sub-headings:  Threat of the Blight;  Myth of the Blight; Legendary Menaces; Subversion Boxes.

Body of message transmitted in attached file.

**END Kree Data File 93755635758346612

Breathlessly, Mon-Dria grabbed the telephone and connected to Avengers Mansion.  One quick conversation with Jarvis later, a familiar voice came on the line.

"Iron Man here."

"Iron Ma--Tony!"

A pause, then, "Mondy?"

"Yes-- yes, it is me.  I-- I need help. Can you contact Captain Marvel for me?  Immediately?"

Tony's voice reflected his incredulity, and his annoyance.  "Genis?  Again?  Jeez, Mondy, I'm not your dating service.  What are--"

She cut him off instantly.  "No, it is nothing like that.  Please, you must listen."

Her frantic tone spoke volumes to Iron Man.  He listened.

"I think we have a problem, Tony.  A serious problem."

Another pause, then:  "What scale of problem?  Are we talking Porcupine?  Ultron?  Galactus?"

Her tone allowed no possibility for anything but truth.  "Bigger, I fear, Tony.  Much...much bigger."

Just above her, two forms circled slowly, keeping watch.  Ultra-high-frequency messages flashed in an instant back and forth between them and a remote computer system.  And then, moments later, everything recorded, they lofted away, unseen.

Mon-Dria had stumbled onto one of the biggest secrets in galactic history.  The only question was-- would she live to tell anyone about it?
  

NEXT ISSUE:   UNIVERSAL APOCALYPSE!

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!

Just a quick note to acknowledge that the final section of this issue is reprinted here from its original appearance in CAPTAIN MARVEL #100.  That was so long ago, and this part was important enough to the story, I felt, that it needed to be included in WORLD IN CHAINS.  

Okay, enough with the chit-chat-- let's have some mail from the readers!

--Van Plexico
Singapore, August 2005