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!  Jack of Hearts!  
The Thing!  Mon-Dria!  Kang?!
Earth's Mightiest Heroes-- the Avengers! 

.

Iron Man, the Vision, Mon-Dria, and the Scarlet Witch stood in the battle-scarred courtyard of Avengers Mansion.  Kang stood next to them--ignored, for the moment.  They gazed out at the receding forms of the Thing and Jack of Hearts, who pursued their attackers of mere moments before:  A sort of Lethal Legion comprised of Klaw, Whirlwind, and the Living Laser.

"They should come back," Mon-Dria was saying.  "They should let those three go."

"They had it, didn't they?  They were controlled by it.  This.. 'Blight.'"  Wanda looked at Mon-Dria sharply.  "Is it...contagious?"

Mon-Dria simply replied, "I do not know."

"It appears the Lethal Legion fell under its control somehow," Iron Man pointed out.  "But we just don't have enough hard data on it..."

"If it is contagious," the Vision pointed out, "it could quickly spread to the general population, if those criminals remain at large."

"You have a point," Iron Man said.  "The quicker we bring them into custody--into quarantine--the better."

"We must not fall under its sway as well," Mon-Dria said, "or all will be lost."

"We have to help Jack and Ben," Wanda said firmly.  She started forward.

Iron Man and the Vision nodded and hurried after her, Iron Man scooping her up in his arms to rocket along in the villains' wake, the Vision becoming ephemeral and moving at his top speed.

Kang watched them go, rolling his eyes.  "This is all so pointless," he muttered.  "They are too concerned with the general well-being to focus on the larger job at hand."

"Yes," Mon-Dria said.

Kang bit his lip.  "Perhaps I should have recruited the Thunderbolts."

Mon-Dria watched them go, as well, and breathed a Kree curse.  She glanced over at Kang. 

"I believe we are thinking along similar lines," she said.  "Still... We cannot afford to lose the Avengers."

Kang reluctantly nodded.

They started forward, after the others.

"But only because of you," Kang said.

"What?"

"You are the first anomaly in quite some time."

"Anomaly?"

Kang nodded.  "And thus, you give me hope."

Puzzled, confused, Mon-Dria shrugged and launched herself into the air, her golden wristbands and anklets drawing on cosmic energies to propel her like a missile.*

[*She acquired them in IRON MAN #372 and gained cosmic powers through them in IRON MAN #377.  --Van]

The battle had been rejoined approximately a mile from the mansion.  The Living Laser and Klaw stood atop an aging brownstone, unleashing violent blasts of light and sound energy at their pursuers.  Whirlwind spun about the periphery, diving in and out every few seconds, sending first Iron Man and then the Thing sprawling back in his wake.

As Mon-Dria approached, Kang just behind her, the villains relinquished their positions once more and fell back, retreating and then digging in, retreating and then digging in, over and over.  

"We've got 'em on the run," Jack of Hearts shouted, unleashing a blast of Zero-energy that brought Klaw to his knees momentarily.

"I'm not so sure of that," Iron Man replied.  He fired another volley of repulsor blasts, but Klaw recovered quickly enough to create a sound-barrier that deflected the beams, even as the Living Laser hit Iron Man with a massive bolt of coherent light.  

"Jack's right--let's nail these suckers before-- huh?"

Ben had climbed up the side of the building and vaulted over the edge, ready for battle, but once there he saw that the trio once again had beaten a hasty retreat, falling back to another rooftop.

"Aw, for the love a'.... You chickens!  Stay still and fight, before ya go and really make me mad!"

But even as the Vision swooped down on them and the Scarlet Witch crumbled the floor beneath their feet with a hex attack, the Lethal Legion backed off again.

"They're trying to draw us in, to lead us somewhere," Iron Man said.

"Of course they are," Kang replied.  

"That's fine wit' me," the Thing growled, leaping from one rooftop to the next.  "I'd just as soon take 'em down in their lair as in the open."

Deflecting another round of attacks, Klaw maintained a shield while Whirlwind and the Living Laser darted inside the ground-floor door of the building.  Then Klaw followed them in.

The heroes--more or less--looked at one another.

"What the hey?"  Ben shrugged and ran for the door.

The Vision, ephemeral, followed, with Jack of Hearts just behind him.

Iron Man was in the middle of probing the building with all of his sensors, but could determine little.  Something was blocking all of his attempts.  He could not even get a bearing on the heat signatures of the villains.  Reluctantly, he followed the others.

The Scarlet Witch did as well, with Mon-Dria right behind her.

Kang stood there, outside the building, considering.  Things had already gone somewhat off course.  Mon-Dria was new.  This "Lethal Legion" attack was similar to some of the ways his previous, initial meetings with the Avengers had ended, but the villains had never retreated like this, never so obviously led the heroes on a deliberate chase to a fixed position.  Usually their attack only marked the beginning of the general onslaught of the foe.  This seemed to have some more specific purpose behind it, beyond simply overwhelming his own forces with sheer numbers.

So--things were off course already.  Yes.

But, Kang asked himself, is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Weighing the possibilities, he sighed and strode purposefully into the building.

And into bedlam.  Utter chaos.

The building was hollow, and seemed somehow much larger on the inside than it had on the outside.  At the center of the open space, the Avengers and their other associates stood in a ring, fighting a slowly constricting circle of super-villains.

The Controller.  Crossfire.  The Wrecker.  Blacklash.  The Melter.  Electro.  The Blizzard.  The Shocker.  The Unicorn.  The Titanium Man.  The Ringer.  At least half of the Zodiac.  So many others, too, in addition to the three from before.  

And, joining them, a variety of individuals Kang had believed were heroes, now obviously under the mental domination of the Blight.   From the Black Knight to the White Tiger, and every shade of the rainbow in between.  They laid into the huddled heroes with maddened fury, their faces--where visible-- locked in a slack, unthinking expression.  It was horrifying.

Kang shrugged.  This part, at least, he had expected.

Iron Man's repulsors, the Vision's solar blasts, the Scarlet Witch's hex blasts, Mon-Dria's cosmic bolts, Jack of Hearts' Zero-energy blasts, and the Thing's fists all lashed out furiously, taking down villain after villain, hero after hero.  Yet still they came on.  And steadily the circle closed on them.

Kang raised both hands to shoulder-height and the air around his arms sparkled.  Instantly he held two gigantic firearms, which he immediately leveled at the hordes before him.

Kang's guns spoke, erupting in a barrage of devastation.  The villains fell, and some of the heroes, all sent sprawling by this sudden attack.

As those closest around the Avengers paused to look back at this new development, the Scarlet Witch seized the opportunity and directed her hex energies at the enemies in the direction of Kang, seeking to cut a corridor through to him, to link them up.  The others followed her lead and attacked in that direction.

Kang blazed away like a gunfighter in the old West, his enemies dropping all around him, his forcefield keeping them at bay.

And then suddenly he was sprawling, flying across the chamber.  Something very much like the Hulk's fists had hit him.

As it turned out, it was the Hulk's fists.

Kang's forcefield flickered, recovered.  He scrambled to his feet, only to be struck and sent backward again.  Now he could see the Hulk, in an even more mindless state than usual, advancing on him.  Kang scrambled back--his forcefield was preventing the blows from reaching him, but the sheer force of them had been enough, twice now, to overcome the dampeners and send him back.  This was nearly unprecedented.

"The Hulk," he muttered to himself.  "Well, that's new, too, at this stage.  And original.  Fine."

Then he realized he had backed into a corner. 

Raring up, the Hulk began pounding away furiously at Kang's forcefield.

And slowly, ever so slowly, it began to yield.

Something like panic hovered at the edge of Kang's perceptions, but he would not dare allow it any closer.  He took the time to glance quickly around--the others were not faring much better, after their momentary rallying.  They had been pressed back to the wall as well, by yet another wave of attackers that had apparently come in along with the Hulk.  Jack of Hearts was down, Iron Man was on the ropes, the Vision had become super-dense to defend Wanda as she struck back, but he was being swarmed over by a costumed group Kang did not instantly recognize.  Now Mon-Dria was down, too.  The Thing wrestled with a large number of attackers who clung to his limbs and battered at him, but--no, now he was down as well.

The pounding of huge green fists brought Kang back to his own predicament.  The Hulk, his features oddly relaxed rather than conveying their usual fury, rained down blow after blow upon Kang's forcefield, and in reaction, components of his belt erupted in showers of sparks.

"Damn."

The two guns vanished from Kang's hands.  In their place he summoned a small cube, about the width of a coin.  Then he shut off the forcefield, dodging quickly out of the way.

The Hulk stumbled forward, the resistance to his blows having vanished.

Kang darted behind him and attached the cube to the green behemoth's back.

The Hulk made a gurgling sound and collapsed.

"Very nice, very well played," came the voice Kang had dreaded hearing, followed by slow, sarcastic applause.

Then something unexpected hit him from behind and oblivion claimed him.

*     *     *

He awoke sometime later to a sight that chilled him to the bone.

He stood against a dark wall, unmoving.  His wrists and ankles were chained firmly, the chains of a metal he recognized from his own laboratories as not only nearly indestructible but also capable of nullifying any form of attacks made against it.  The room they were in now was much smaller, with a low ceiling overhead.  A dank smell pervaded the room.  Shadows dappled around them all, as from candles flickering.  All in all, it seemed to be a medieval dungeon.

He saw then that the Avengers and their associates were chained as well, in a row leading away to his left.

"Good of you to join us, Kang," the voice said then.  "You have awakened just in time for the inquisition."  

Torquemada strode out from the shadows, his new, crimson robes flaring out around him, his smile broad and evil.

"Followed, of course, by the burning."

 
NEXT ISSUE:  THE INQUISITION!

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!

Hola, Van.

It is so absolutely great to have you back on Avengers. (Now MV1 has not
only the best X-Men series in the world of shared-continuity fanfic, but
the best Avengers series as well.)

I, Kang #1-3 and Avengers #451-452 are, of course, fantastic - and
although I have read them online, I do intend to print them off so I can
read them a bit more slowly and thoroughly away from the comp - but,
alas, they do have a few faults.

They're WAY too short. C'mon, Van! You're back on Avengers, yay, woot,
let's bring out the twenty-one guns an' all, but... you've only come out
with five issues in a day, and they're only one-eighth of the length I
want. Get your act together, Plexico - I want fourteen issues, nine
times the length of these by tomorrow! Get cracking, you lazy sunuva...

Iron Man is so out of character. I mean, Iron Man: cool? When did THAT happen? He speaks like someone who I no longer wish to throttle with a large broom. His main character elements are still there (self-centered,arrogant and cheeky) but the dialogue you're using presents him in a way that makes him rather likable.

For shame, Van. I thought you of all people would realise how much Iron
Man sucks and should be presented as such.

I told you a few days ago that I, Kang #1 was among my five favourite
fanfic issues ever. Now, you've taken the other four spots as well. I'm
gonna be glued to these tales like Sam Everett's sister to, uh, just
about everyone and everything that ever breathed... (or didn't, for that
matter)...

Kick ass, Van. Kick ass.

Cheers,
Adrian Watts

(I'll send you a more in-depth critique once I've got the chance to read
them a couple more times. I'm afraid I missed something, but these
issues are bloody awesome regardless. Now get the sweatshop churning
again, because I want - nay, demand! - more. Oh, and *coughplugGotGcough*)

Yes, I admit it, Adrian-- I am slack.  So, so slack.  All those issues are too short, I admit it.  And, heck, half of 452 is basically a reprint.  I hang my head in abject shame.  But I don't feel too, too bad, because I'd like to think I'm trying to save the creative fires for what is to come-- there should be some major fireworks as this story goes along.  

Oh, and keep an eye on the mastheads-- they will be changing nearly every issue, as the roster... grows....   :-)

And speaking of the roster, it should get even more interesting as we go.  I'm going to try really hard to be fair to all of them, and not leave some of them as mere 1-dimensional backdrops.  The Vision in particular I'd like to do "right," though I haven't had much of a chance yet to go where I'd like to with him.  We shall see how I do as things proceed.
 
Thanks for reading.  And, as always, Avengers Assemble!

--Van Plexico
Singapore, August 2005