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#1
DEC 08 |
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“Disassembled”
Tony Stark hung his head. The reporters in front of him fell completely silent as they watched the Chairman of the various Stark companies. Moments ago he had strode onto the stage, clad in the red and gold Iron Man armor sans helmet, an image that was associated with him far stronger than any other Stark product. Many had worn the armor in the past but none as frequently as Stork himself, although few actually knew that. The room continued to be silent as Tony attempted to choke past emotion and speak. Finally he looked up.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he repeated, the only words he’d attempted to get out moments before. “Thank you for coming today. You are all aware something happened at the Avengers Mansion forty-eight hours ago. There are a lot of rumors surrounding the circumstances of exactly what happened there. As Acting Chairman of the Avengers, I’m here to confirm those rumors.”
“Acting Chairman, Mister Stark?” the questioner was Ben Urich; the veteran Daily Bugle reporter was completely unphased by an unmasked Iron Man standing in front of him. “To my recollection, Captain America was the previous chair of the team?”
“Cap was injured in the events of the last forty-eight hours,” Tony said. “He’ll pull through fine, but I know he’ll still appreciate your prayers.” Tony sighed and swallowed hard. In the back of the room, Peter Parker raised his camera and took several shots of the Avenger. Stark seemed vulnerable and completely alone, something he’d never seen from Tony Stark in or out of the armor. That scared Peter.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Stark said, “I’m standing in front of you today to confirm…four Avengers are dead in an attack that leveled the Avengers Mansion at approximately eleven AM Tuesday morning. The assailant is still at large and completely unknown.”
Forty-Eight Hours ago, Avengers Mansion
Janet Van Dyne woke up alone. Jan sighed and checked the bedside clock. She chewed her lip for a moment, taking a moment to process the information. It was shortly after ten; she had nothing special to be up for today, unusual but welcome on a Tuesday morning. She rolled over and looked at the empty half of the king-size bed. She still missed him. Each and every day she missed Hank Pym, her husband, his warmth, his strength, his wit. She had always loved him and likely always would in some way, despite the dissolution of their marriage.
She sat up, gathering the sheet over her nude body. She needed to be up, showered and ready for the day, whether something was scheduled or not. Although the world didn’t need Janet Van Dyne today, they may need the Wasp and she needed to be ready for that. She slid out of bed and walked into her bathroom, turning the water on hot and looked at herself in the mirror. As steam filled the room, she carefully inspected her face, ensuring no blemishes or marks had appeared over night. She stepped into the shower and then soaped, shampooed, shaved and rinsed quickly. She stood under the hot water for several seconds, taking carefully measured breaths and placing her hand on her stomach. Although it had never occupied more than a stray thought in the past, thoughts of children had occupied her mind more and more each day. She still hoped one day soon to have a child and part of her hoped that it would be Hank’s.
Jan stood under the hot water for a few more moments before turning it off and getting out. It was time she got ready for the day. She toweled dry and dressed in comfortable clothes quickly; she left her uniform behind, knowing she could don her current spandex creation at a moment’s notice if needed. She left her room, leaving her hair wet.
She wandered to the kitchen where several other Avengers sat. Sam Wilson, the Falcon, was in full uniform, mostly likely having arrived from a patrol with Captain America a short time ago and stood in the doorway nearest the entry way, leaning slightly on the door frame. The Vision sat silently at the side of the room, his eyes shut and his fingers connected to a computer console, most likely maintaining a connection to the monitor room while still being social with his teammates. Wanda Maximoff sat at the table, attempting to hide amusement as her current paramour, Simon Williams, stood alongside Edwin Jarvis clad in a polo shirt and khakis instead of his usual suit, attempting to lecture Jarvis on the perfect omelet. Jarvis looked up at Jan and smiled.
“Mistress Janet,” he said. “Have a seat. A late breakfast will be complete shortly.”
“Thanks Jarvis,” she said. She looked at Sam and smiled. “Quiet day?”
“Yeah,” Falcon said. “Steve wanted to get a bit of a workout so he’s still running around on patrol, but I wanted to swing by, check in and the like.”
“I guess that’s a good thing,” Wanda said, her softly accented voice filling the room, even over Simon’s giggles at the stove top. “It’s always a good thing for the Avengers.”
“Unless it’s the calm before the storm,” said a new voice. Jan turned around to see Clint Barton entering the kitchen behind her, already clad in the black and purple he was known for world-wide.
“Which is all too common in our line of work,” Jan said. “Much too common.” Simon looked over his shoulder at Clint.
“Why the pessimism today, Hawk?” he asked. “It’s a gorgeous day. Wanda and I are even considered going out with Jarvis on his shopping trip today. Now, do you want the usual in your omelet?”
“I’ll pass this morning,” Clint said, slinging his bow over his shoulder. “I ate when I got up at six.”
Simon raised his eyebrow, but turned back to his skillet with a nod. “No worries then,” he said. “I’ll just use the mushrooms I was saving for you for myself. Want a couple slices of bacon at least?”
“Won’t pass that up,” he said.
“Me neither,” Jan said, “and I’ll just take a couple fried eggs, Simon.”
“Runny, soft or hard?” he asked.
“That’s what she said,” Clint muttered. Falcon snorted and Jarvis suppressed a sigh.
“Runny,” Jan said, ignoring Hawkeye’s crude joke. Wonder Man cracked a pair of eggs as Hawkeye slipped behind him and stole several slices of bacon.
“I’ll be back later,” he said. “I have a meet and greet with Iron Man in the Central Park Zoo at 11:30. One of those charity things.”
“Enjoy yourself, Master Clint,” Jarvis said.
“I sure will,” he said. He saluted his teammates and hurried in the general direction of the garage. Jarvis looked at the wall clock.
“Oh dear,” he said. “I must hurry to the fish market before it closes. I’m sorry, Master Simon.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Simon said. “I’ll get the dishes.” He turned and looked at Wanda. “Go ahead and go babe, I’ve got it and I’ll meet you in a couple hours.” Wanda raised an eyebrow.
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“Definitely,” he said. “I’ll just do Jan’s eggs, Sam’s omelet and then take care of the dishes. I’ll be out of here in a half hour.”
Wanda smiled. “Okay then,” she said. She stood and stepped to Simon’s side, stood on her tip-toes to kiss him on the cheek and then followed Jarvis towards the garage. Jan smiled after her.
“Thank you, Simon,” Jan said. He looked up at the Wasp, plated her eggs and shrugged.
“For what?” he said as he set them in front of her.
“Taking care of Wanda the way you do,” she said. “After her father died and Pietro elected to remain in Genosha…”
“Yeah, I totally get it,” he said. “Wanda’s special though.”
“You’re a good man, Wondy,” Falcon said, sitting down at the table. “You may not think it, but you are.”
Jan glanced at the Vision who had remained silent this entire time. She wondered what he thought of Simon and Wanda’s relationship. As she started to turn back to her other teammates, Vision lit up.
“Attention, all Avengers!” he cried. “Code Black!” The synthezoid disconnected himself from the computer and rushed to their sides.
“Code Black?!” Sam cried, jumping to his feet.
“An attack on the mans-” There was a sudden explosion above them, cutting Jan off, then a massive fireball rushed towards them from all sides. Time seems to slow around the four Avengers. Jan looked at the others in her last seconds and, just as the fire engulfed them, she thought she saw a fifth figure, then nothing.
Now, Stark Tower
Iron Man hovered high above New York City, just outside the newly built office tower he had funded. He had been mere seconds away from the Mansion with Hawkeye when the building had exploded. Steve had been closer, standing directly across the street, and a chunk of shrapnel had buried itself firmly in Captain America’s shoulder. By the time Tony and Clint had arrived, their teammate was starting to lose too much blood. He closed his eyes and turned away. The memory was nearly too much to bear.
“Any leads?”
Tony reopened his eyes and turned to the building behind him. “Hello, Peter,” he said. “Get any good pictures at the press conference?”
Spider-Man shrugged. “Yeah,” he said. “Jonah hated them, but Robbie paid me front page rates for all of them. Now that you’re done dodging the question…”
“No,” Stark said. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
“Damn,” Peter said.
“I know, but it could be much worse,” Iron Man replied. “Hawkeye and the Scarlet Witch had just left, and Captain America was just arriving. We could be looking at seven dead Avengers right now if the whole thing was timed differently.”
“And one dead butler,” Spider-Man replied.
“A butler that is a dear friend,” Tony stated firmly.
“Where do we go from here?” Peter asked.
Tony smiled under the mask. “We?”
“I’ve always told the Avengers that I’ll be available when you need me,” he said. “I’d say you need me.”
“I’d agree,” Stark said. “And from here we go inside.”
“Inside?” Peter asked.
“You’ll see,” Stark said. He fired the repulsor jets in his boots and shot up to the roof. Spider-Man easily kept pace and followed Iron Man inside. Tony opened the face plate of his helmet and led Peter through a lavish set of living quarters to a well-furnished conference room. A group of familiar heroes sat around the conference table: Hawkeye, Hank Pym, Beast, Scarlet Witch, Black Knight, Spider-Woman and a young blonde wearing the original Ms. Marvel outfit. Peter noticed Jarvis standing at the back of the room as he slipped into a chair next to the Ms. Marvel look-alike.
“Hi,” he said. “I’m Spider-Man.”
“Hey,” she said. “Ultra-Girl.”
“Nice outfit.”
“Carol gave it to me herself.”
“You’ll have to tell me that story later,” Spider-Man said slyly.
“Thank you all for coming,” Tony said, interrupting the pair. “I’m glad you can make it. You know what’s happened and I’ve brought you all here for a specific reason.” He leaned forward and rested on his fists on the table. “Our new headquarters will be operational in New York Harbor in less than twenty-four hours. The moment that base is operational, we are going to slam what is left of the Mansion. Someone killed four of our friends, severely injured Cap and frightened the entire city in a way we haven’t seen in years.”
“We’re Avengers, ladies and gentlemen. We’re going to find the asshole who murdered our friends, hunt them down and then we are going to do some avenging.”
Somewhere Else
She opened her eyes. At first, she felt, saw and heard nothing. Slowly, everything around her began to take shape and make sense. Her brain needed to catch up to what she was seeing. She kind of jumped as she saw the familiar face in front of her.
“Janet, are you well?” the Vision asked. Jan sat up and gasped.
“Holy crap,” she muttered. “I thought I was dead.”
“Join the club,” Falcon said. “I actually had my life flash in front of my eyes.” Sam crouched down and offered his hand to the Wasp, helping her stand. She looked around, processing their surroundings. They were in the middle of what appeared to be a desert, at the bottom of a hill. Simon sat at the top of the hill, while the others helped Jan steady herself.
“Where the hell are we?” she asked.
“Come up here and take a look,” Simon said. She looked at the others and hiked up the hill to join Wonder Man. She gasped as she saw the top of the Empire State Building not twenty yards away.
“Holy shit,” she muttered.
“Just wait until you see who saved our asses,” Simon softly replied.
“What?” she asked. Simon simply pointed to their left and she turned to see a familiar purple and green suit nearby.
“Kang,” she whispered. The time traveler strode through the sand to join them.
“Welcome back to the land of the living, Wasp,” Kang said. “Now we can get to work.”
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To Be Continued...
Next: In Avengers #2: The team begins investigating the attack on the Mansion, and several frightening facts lead them into direct confrontation with another team of heroes!
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