CHAMPIONS ANNUAL #1
(Year Four)
Guest-Starring the Squadron Supreme
"Homeward Bound"
By Kell Carpenter
(plot and script assists by Mark Beaulieu)
The Champions:
Ant-Man, Batroc, Black Widow, Diamondback, Firebird, Flash, and Hercules.
The Squadron Supreme:
Dr. Spectrum, The Whizzer, Arcanna, The Skrullian Sentinel, Night Raven, Tom Thumb, and Amphibian.
PREVIOUSLY: The Champions, along with Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) and Access, returned from Badoon capture. The team headed west to go after A.I.M. In Arizona, they came face-to-face with Techno, who was desperately trying to escape being absorbed by NM-E. After successfully freeing Techno from NM-E's control, our heroes once again set out after A.I.M.
"Can't you go any faster?" Barry (Flash) Allen yelled over his shoulder as he raced across the desert.
Behind him, Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan replied "Sure! I just can't do it hauling these folks with me…" He jerked his left thumb back toward the bubble of green energy he was towing behind him.
Inside were Access, Hercules, Batroc, Diamondback, the Black Widow, and Cerberus the three-headed dog. Ant-Man and Firebird kept pace, the former riding a winged ant and the latter soaring via her magical flame powers.
Barry grinned at his old friend's reply. It had been too long since the two of them had worked together, and he had genuinely missed Hal's sense of humor. Extending the tether to the energy bubble, Hal flew forward to keep pace with his friend.
"I'm just as eager to take on A.I.M. as you are, pal, but have some mercy on my passengers, huh?" Hal said.
They both slowed a bit, looking back at the Champions, who looked, well…green.
"Why are they going so fast?" Access moaned as he clutched his stomach. "I think I'm gonna be sick…"
Batroc clapped Axel Asher on the back. "Don't worry, mon ami. Zee Green Lantairn would nevair give you zee upset stomach on purpose. Surely you undairstand why he wants to go aftair A.I.M., non?" Batroc twisted the ends of his outrageously long mustache as he awaited Access' answer. When Batroc saw that Access was going to remain quiet, he continued. "I remember ze time Machete' and I were on ze high seas and he got sick over and over again. Poor Machete', I miss you mon ami…"
Just then, Cerberus trotted over to Batroc and nuzzled the acrobatic Frenchman's leg with one of his three heads, distracting him from Access' plight.
"Thank God for small favors…" Access muttered under his breath. He tried not to look out at the countryside rushing around him, and saw Hercules walking toward him.
"Forsooth! I doubt I'll e'er grow accustomed to these large, green orbs friend Hal creates! The Lion of Olympus himself can take only so much of this odd manner of transport." Hercules looked at Access' gray face. "Zounds! Friend Access, you wear the mien of one who's been a guest of good Bacchus. Why, I remember one month-long revel that turned into one of Bacchus' famous vomiting parties. Why…" Hercules talked for several nauseous minutes about the joy of vomiting and wondered aloud why the mortals of the Twentieth Century hadn't embraced the concept of
vomitoreums before Natasha Romanov, the Black Widow, came over and took Access' arm.
Natasha steered Access over to where she and Diamondback had been standing. Queasily, Access thanked Natasha for intervening. Natasha held up her hand. "No need to thank me. Every so often, Hercules goes off on a rant about the 'good old days' with his buddy Bacchus…" She and Diamondback looked at each other and each made a distasteful face at the memory of these diatribes.
Access leaned against the outer wall of the bubble and closed his eyes. "It's only for a little longer; it's only for a little longer…" he repeated over and over in his head.
A.I.M. Headquarters:
Ares was growing tired of dealing with his mortal underlings at A.I.M. The pathetic ants had been in a panic since an undercover agent spotted the Champions in Arizona. While definitely brilliant and mostly evil, the one thing most A.I.M. members could not be accused of was courage.
Ares reached out and snagged one of the yellow-suited agents as he ran past.
"Pray tell, mortal, where goest thou? Surely thou dost not faint at the thought of encountering the Champions?" Receiving only stuttering mumbles, Ares pulled the yellow-clad man to within inches of his face. "Speak up, mortal! Ares cannot hear thine answer…"
Staring into the mesh visor of his trembling captive, Ares saw sweat pouring down the man's face. "S-Sir, it's not that we're not loyal agents of A.I.M. –" Ares bared his teeth in a menacing growl. "— or-or loyal to you, sir." The man swallowed nervously before going on. "It's j-just that we all more or less signed up to be scientists, and –"
Ares didn't allow the agent to finish his sentence. He threw the man across the room with a shout of anger that halted all activity around him. With all his agents focused on him, Ares made a pronouncement.
"Heed thy leader, agents of A.I.M.! Thou shalt taste the glorious spoils of victory this day. Ares hath decided that he shall lead thee into battle 'gainst the Champions himself! Thou art fortunate, indeed. Prepare thyselves for the glory of battle!"
All over the complex, A.I.M. agents looked nervously at each other…
Nevada state line:
The Champions finally had to stop. Access had lost his battle with nausea and the rest of the team had clamored for Green Lantern to stop so that he could clean up.
"Good God! What an awful smell! Can't you make an air freshener or something, Hal?" Scott Lang asked.
"Not quite, but I will give Access a bit of privacy to clean up. Let's all step over this way…" The team walked fifty feet away from Access as Green Lantern willed his power ring to make a bathroom for Access to use to clean up in.
As the rest of the team chatted amongst themselves, the Black Widow tapped Firebird on the shoulder. "Bonita? May I speak to you in private for a moment?"
Firebird looked at the rest of the team and then back at the Black Widow. "Of course, Natasha. Why don't I fly us over by that rock formation?"
Firebird grabbed Natasha under her arms and allowed her power to flare as the two women flew toward the rocks to talk.
"What did you wish to talk to me about, Tasha?" Firebird hadn't spoken to the Black Widow much since they became teammates. She wondered why Natasha felt like talking now.
The Black Widow looked down at the ground. She wasn't sure how to start this conversation. Firebird was one of the more powerful members of the team, but her concern for others had recently put the team in peril.
"Bonita, do you remember when we fought NM-E?*"
*(See Champions #33)
"Of course. For a second there I thought Hercules was seriously injured."
"That's exactly what I wanted to talk about. You flew off to check on Hercules when we needed you to fight NM-E."
Firebird started to sit down. "But Hercules was hurt. I had to check on him."
The Black Widow smiled at Bonita.
"Your heart is too big. While I envy you for that at most times, in the heat of battle it could get us killed. Any of us could've checked on Hercules. Before you took off I was going to send the Flash to check on him. He could've checked on him and gotten back to help us before you even got there."
"Why does it matter who checked on him. Either way Barry or I would have been taken out of the fight for awhile."
Natasha didn't understand why Bonita couldn't see her point. "You are our second most powerful member. With you and Hercules out of the fight, we lost our two most powerful members."
"The second most powerful…" Bonita stopped herself in mid-sentence.
"Just promise me you won't run off in the heat of battle again without checking with me first. Okay?"
Natasha planned to keep an eye Firebird from now on. There had to be a reason that she'd been holding back on her power levels. When she stopped talking just now, it was clear that something was wrong with Bonita.
"I'll try not to. But I don't know if I'll remember this conversation when one of us needs help. But I'll try." Bonita picked Tasha up and flew back to the rest of the team.
A.I.M. headquarters:
Ares had finally gotten his agents together. He had assembled the forces of his branch of A.I.M. in the large "war room" he had built to his specifications. He had based the room's design on the auditorium in which Patton had addressed his troops in the movie starring George C. Scott. Ares loved that movie…
Looking out over their ranks was like gazing across a yellow sea. Ares did his best to stir his troops into a battle frenzy, but the more he talked, the more uneasy they seemed to become. He just couldn't understand it.
The agents knew just what it was that made them uneasy: all Ares' talk of "the glory of dying in battle". And for most of the A.I.M. agents, dying in battle was definitely not glorious. Right about now, they were wondering exactly why they'd ever gotten involved with A.I.M. in the first place.
"This will be a battle for the ages; one that epic poems shall be written about!" Ares had succeeded in whipping himself into a frenzy, at least. "Men of A.I.M. – let us go forth into battle most glorious!!" With that, Ares led the hesitant, yellow-clad troops out to battle the
Champions.
Access had managed to clean himself up, and the Champions were planning their attack on A.I.M.
"No, Hercules, we can't just blast into the base and 'pound them'…" Natasha was beginning to lose patience. "We have to be subtle about this, or they'll know we're on the way. The element of surprise is our greatest weapon."
Hercules folded his arms like a petulant child and shook his head. "I say thee 'Nay', Natasha. The Lion of Olympus hath a reputation to uphold. What would the Olympian gods say ere Ares tell them the Prince of Power had skulked cowardly toward a battle? Nay, I say thee! A battle is a glorious gift, to be enjoyed in full, not to be gained by deception like some base coward!"
Green Lantern stepped between Hercules and the Black Widow before she could hurl an epithet in the demi-god's direction. "I think I might have a plan that will satisfy you both. Want to hear it?" Hal smiled with satisfaction as the two arguing teammates looked curiously at him.
He opened his mouth, but never got the chance to tell his plan, as the forces of A.I.M. began firing upon the Champions. The team split in several directions, seeking cover to either shelter themselves from the attack or to devise a way to counter-attack.
The only problem was that there wasn't very much in the way of cover out in the middle of the desert. Their best bet was the rock formation that Firebird and Natasha had used for their private conversation.
Noticing this, Natasha barked out an order for Hal to gather the team and use his ring to get them to the relative safety of the rock formation. Almost before the words were out of her mouth, the Champions found themselves in a green bubble, moving swiftly toward the rocks.
Access put both hands to his stomach. "Oh no, not again…"
Joe (Dr. Spectrum) Ledger and Stanley (Whizzer) Stewart were sitting in front of the television with Arcanna Jones and Lyja (the Skrullian Sentinel) when the TV-movie they were watching was interrupted by a news report.
"I thought that satellite television kept this problem from happening, Joe…" Stan teased.
Joe shrugged at his friend. "Yeah, well that's just the way it goes, buddy. Even though we're watching a west-coast station, we still get their local news breaks. Sorry…"
Their teasing stopped when they realized that this news break was about a battle between the Champions and A.I.M. The four Squadron Supreme members watched intently to the reporter's narration of the battle footage.
"…the team of heroes known as the Champions are in a heated battle here in the Nevada desert. What we know is this: the criminal organization A.I.M., which stands for Advanced Idea Mechanics, attacked the heroes not long ago. Spotted with the Champions are three unknown heroes, seen in this clip."
The image on the screen cut from the photogenic reporter to footage of Flash, Green Lantern and Access. The sound was just clear enough for these words from Access to be heard: "…I've got to return you to your world quickly, Green Lantern!"
The reporter's words went unheard as the four Squadron Supreme members looked at each other. Arcanna spoke first. "Did he say 'return you to your world', or was I hearing things?"
The other three said they had heard the same thing. Arcanna grabbed her signal device and sent an alert to all available members of the Squadron Supreme. "This may be our chance to actually return home…"
The battle was rougher than the Champions had expected.
The forces of A.I.M., despite their initial trepidation, had been stirred by Ares' aggressive strategy. Once they realized that they outnumbered the Champions by almost impossible odds, their confidence was bolstered further.
The Champions were barely holding their own; for every A.I.M. agent they took out of the battle, it seemed three more took his place.
Firebird and Green Lantern were in the air, taking out as many of the A.I.M forces as they could.
Flash was running interference for the ground forces, reflecting force bolts by altering the vibrational frequency of his hands in front of the beams' path. Behind him, Hercules and Batroc engaged the enemy face-to-face and hand-to-hand. Or, in Batroc's case, foot-to-face.
Cerberus was doing his part, too, parting the A.I.M. troops by snarling and snapping viciously with his three heads.
Ant-man had managed to infest one section of the troops with some fire-ants. The men were hurriedly removing their yellow jumpsuits and brushing at the painful insects.
With all their efforts, though, there were too many enemies for their small number to successfully hold off. They were further hindered by the fact that they were having to shield Access while fighting A.I.M.
The fast move in Green Lantern's power bubble was too much too soon for the man who moved between realities. He was incapacitated by nausea, and it was all the rest of the team could do to protect him.
"Things look bad…" Diamondback shouted to the Black Widow as they hunkered over the semi-conscious form of Access.
Natasha put her foot into the mesh-covered faceplate of an A.I.M. agent as she replied "I know, Rachel, but there's not anything I can do. This might be it…"
Suddenly, a purple-clad man dropped from the sky, landing on an A.I.M. agent that had circled behind the two heroines. "Hullo, ladies! May I be of some assistance?" came a voice with a British accent from behind the man's purple full face-mask.
While pleasantly offering his assistance, the man quickly and ruthlessly took three more A.I.M. agents out of the fight.
A stunned Diamondback managed to ask "Wh-who are you?"
The man in purple said "I'm Night Raven, and I brought the Squadron Supreme with me…" as he pointed toward the battle.
Natasha and Rachel looked in the direction Night Raven was pointing. They saw members of the Squadron Supreme joining in the battle against A.I.M., aiding the flagging Champions team.
Dr. Spectrum was side-by-side with Green Lantern, joining his multicolored power beams with Hal's emerald beams.
The Whizzer, after conferring with the Flash for a microsecond, joined the Scarlet Speedster's efforts in repelling A.I.M.'s force bolts.
Tom Thumb aided Ant-man in directing the desert insects against A.I.M., after quickly cobbling together a cybernetic control module of his own.
Joining Firebird, the Skrullian Sentinel took to the air and used her seemingly limitless array of powers to aid Bonita's airborne attack on A.I.M.
Joining Hercules and Batroc was Amphibian. His strength wasn't in the same class as Hercules, but years of time spent in the pressure of the ocean depths made him more than a match for the agents of A.I.M. that he now faced.
Ares was becoming angry. A.I.M. agents that he was leading were actually losing a battle. The seven costumed heroes who had come to the aid of the Champions were turning the tide of the fight, giving the Champions just enough confidence to stand up to the superior numbers of his troops.
The Olympian war-god smashed his fist against the console of the yellow hover-disc that he had used to watch the battle. As he was inspecting the damage his blow had caused he paused, a thought coming to him. He pulled out a pair of binoculars and scanned the rock formation the Black Widow, Diamondback and Access were hiding behind. After a moment of observing the actions there, he smiled to himself. Ares immediately sent a message to his forces. "Cease fighting until I give the command to resume. Repeat: all A.I.M. forces cease fighting until I give the command. Obey or you pay with your life!"
As Diamondback and the Black Widow watched the tide of battle turn against A.I.M., Arcanna slipped up from behind and moved toward Access…
Arcanna had grabbed Access and was dragging the moaning, semi-conscious young man away from the Black Widow and Diamondback.
Suddenly, something in Rachel Leighton's mind caused her to look behind her. Seeing Arcanna stealing away with Access she grabbed Natasha's arm, turning her to see what was happening. The Widow immediately communicated with the rest of her team. "CHAMPIONS! I think the Squadron is working against us!"
At their respective battle positions the Champions, though startled, accepted Natasha's warning. The A.I.M. forces had eased off for some reason just a moment before, and the Champions took advantage of the moment to move against the Squadron Supreme.
The Flash spun and grabbed for the Whizzer. Stan Stewart darted around Barry Allen's hands and the two became a red-and-yellow blur as the two speedsters raced after one another.
Green Lantern directed the emerald energy of his Power Ring against Dr. Spectrum. Joe Ledger brought a green beam of his own against Hal Jordan's as the two heroes became locked in a battle of wills.
Ant-Man directed one of his ants to grab Tom Thumb in its pincers. As the strong mandibles cut into Tom's synthetic body, he modified his makeshift cybernetic module and commanded Scott Lang's ant "steed" to buck him from his seat on its thorax. At the last moment, Scott grasped one of the ant's legs and held on for dear life.
Firebird turned in mid-air and blasted the Skrullian Sentinel with a
large fireball. Using her power of flight, Lyja darted away from the
blast, turning to fly directly toward Bonita at a high rate of speed.
Hercules grabbed Amphibian and Batroc leapt toward the captive hero. Kingsley Rice managed to kick Batroc in the head before he could land a blow, but Hercules increased the pressure on his foe.
The Black Widow hurled herself at Night Raven, while Diamondback ran toward Arcanna, hoping to stop her apparent abduction of Access.
As the two teams fought, Ares laughed triumphantly. The A.I.M. agents had gathered around him in their own hover-crafts, and watched with interest as their foes now fought each other.
Ares spun his vehicle to face his troops. "Dost thou now see why Ares led thee into this battle? The God of War hath turned our enemies 'gainst themselves. After this battle hath finished, A.I.M. shall win the day!!" A cheer came up from the amassed A.I.M. forces as Ares carried on about the glories to come in battle.
Hearing the cheer go up, Night Raven and the Black Widow looked to the skies. They ceased their dance of battle and studied what they were seeing, then went back to their battle. As they sparred they conferred briefly, then Natasha communicated surreptitiously with the Champions.
Suddenly the tide of battle between Dr. Spectrum and Green Lantern turned. Joe grabbed Green Lantern in a yellow force bubble. Helpless against the color yellow, Hal was unable to counter this move. Then Dr. Spectrum threw Hal toward the A.I.M. forces.
Spectrum's aim was true, and the yellow bubble landed at the feet of Ares in his hover-craft. The God of War smiled wolfishly at the turn of events. "Ah, Green Lantern. Again thou art at the mercy of Ares. And Ares hath no mercy…"
Just as Ares made to grab at Green Lantern, he was interrupted by the combined forces of the Champions and the Squadron Supreme as they mounted a unified attack on the A.I.M. troops.
Enraged at this turn of events, Ares maneuvered his hover-craft away from the battle front. "At least thou art still in Ares' grasp, Green Lantern. A.I.M. shall still win the…" The War God's words trailed off as he detected movement behind him. Turning, he saw Green Lantern free of his golden cage.
Ares paled at Hal Jordan's words. "You and I have some unfinished business, Ares…"
The tide of battle had now turned completely in the heroes' favor. The A.I.M. agents were scurrying around like chickens with their heads cut off. Dr. Spectrum, Hercules, and Lyja were pushing back the agents with ease now that the heroes were working together again.
Batroc and Amphibian stood back-to-back, hitting enemies high and low. Soon there were no agents around the Frenchman and the frogman. Batroc turned to Amphibian. "Do you remembair kicking me?"
"Yeah, sorry about that." Amphibian reached to shake Batroc's hand.
"None of zat, mon ami. Once ze battle eez ztarted, you must finish eet." Batroc then kicked Amphibian in the head. Kingsley Rice was new to the hero business* and was totally taken by surprise. Batroc landed three more kicks to the head before Amphibian could even react. "You are strong, but you will soon fall before Batroc ze Leepair!!"
*(See Squadron Supreme #7)
Diamondback threw a diamond between the Batroc and Kingsley. "Cut it out Batroc! We're on the same side!" Batroc glared at her. Diamondback glared right back. Meanwhile Amphibian held the side of his head.
"I'll be ready for your dirty tricks next time we meet you French b…"
"Hey, stop sulking and start fighting Amphibian! Your friends and mine are still fighting. Maybe you two can settle your grudge later!" Rachel ran by the two angry heroes and joined the fray.
Hal Jordan used his ring to grab Ares and throw him to the ground.
"Thou shalt not harm me! Thou art a hero!" Ares struggled to get loose, but without his full powers, he was pretty much helpless against the Green Lantern.
"You captured me, tortured me, and drained me of my power until I was close to death. You think I won't kill you? You're mistaken."
Hal Jordan willed the hands holding Ares to lift the god of war into the air. He slammed the god into the ground. A green baseball bat slammed Ares across the back, once, twice, three times before stopping. Ares lay bleeding and started to plead for his life.
"But, thou art… Please, I…. "
"Ares, I'm going to let you live. I'm going to let you live so that you can remember that I let you live. At any time I could have just killed you. You live because I chose to let you live. You'll carry that shame for the rest of your days. How does it feel? To plead for your life? To be at the mercy of someone else? Not too good does it?" Hal uses his ring to bring him and Ares face to face. "Just remember, I had you pleading for your life. You never broke me, but I broke you…"
Hal Jordan threw Ares to the ground once again and turned away with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Access, take me home now."
Access and Hal Jordan disappeared in flash of light. Ares sat on the ground glaring at the fading light. He thought to himself: "Thou shalt pay for what thou have done this day. Thou shalt pay dearly."
Arcanna turned to the Black Widow, "What about us? Why did Access leave us here?"
The Flash stepped over and said "Access told me that my body was attuned to the natural frequency of this world*. I bet that's why he didn't take you home..."
*(It happened in Champions #31)
Arcanna appeared crestfallen. "I guess it's just not meant for us to return to Earth-S." She sighed deeply. "I knew it before, but I still had that spark of hope that we'd find a way..."
The Whizzer stepped forward. "Flash, I just wanted to say that it was great working with you. Even if we did end up fighting for a while there..." He smiled sheepishly.
Barry Allen looked to Natasha, a puzzled look on his face. "Say, what made you call us off each other anyway?"
"Well, Night Raven and I both noticed that the A.I.M. troops had withdrawn, as well as the fact that Ares was enjoying himself immensely." She cast a dour glance toward the now-captive Ares.
Night Raven walked over, removing his helmet. "Yeah, the helmet told me* that it was very likely that, even though he's no longer a god, Ares probably still had the ability to...'influence' us into fighting each other. Once we realized that was the case, his power over us was broken."
*(Night Raven's helmet contains the magical Looking Glass, and can alert him to events surrounding him)
"Well, at least we know it wasn't really our fault that we fought, right?" Dr. Spectrum asked, a sheepish grin on his face as well.
Batroc folded his arms across his chest. "Hmph! Batroc ze Leepair still holds ze grudge against ze Ampibiain. Nobody begins a battle wiz ze Leepair and zen..."
Natasha smacked Batroc in the back of the head. "Ignore him, folks. He's always this way..."
Dr. Spectrum suggested the two teams find someplace to have a drink together. Hercules heartily concurred, slapping the colorful Spectrum on the back.
"Verily, thou art a fine man, indeed! Come, let the revelry begin..." Hercules led a suddenly very concerned Joe Ledger away.
Night Raven shook his head. "At least Hyperion didn't show up while the whole fight bit was going on - 'Big Red' seems to thrive on conflict..."
"Oh REALLY?" Came a voice from the sky. Everyone looked up to see Hyperion floating above the group of heroes. "What's this about someone who's able to get us back to Earth-S? And what kind of fight was going on...?"
Scott Lang rolled his eyes. "Oh brother! Here we go again...!"
The Ever-Lovin' End
This story continues in Champions #34…
EPILOGUE:
Earlier:
"I can't believe I'm finally going home." Hal Jordan smiled as he was
blinded by the light from Access' teleportation.
Note to readers (both of ya):
If you want to follow the further adventures of Hal Jordan, read TJ Burns'Green Lantern series over at Faux DC.
Note to TJ:
If you don't do right by Hal Jordan I'll take him back. :)
Baloo
Note to readers (part II):
Just a word of thanks to Baloo for allowing me to run amok in his Champions "playground". Hopefully I did his Champs
justice and you'll actually want to read his next issue... ;-)
Seriously, this was a joint effort (emphasis on effort) by Baloo and Ye Olde Writer. After many e-mails and a lost
story scare, we're both glad this is finished, I think. Since it was a joint effort, please give us some feedback!
You can send your comments to either Baloo or
myself.
Kell