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#2
MAR 09 |
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“Big Trouble in Little New York”
Earth #1983
Every person is part of a greater machine, a huge device known as existence. Few people realize that this machine has countless layers, more than most mortal minds could comprehend. They already feel insignificant within a single universe…how small would they feel if they realized they dwelled within a sprawling multiverse?
Some select individuals have transcended the layers and play a much greater role in the cosmic machine. The Exiles are one such group, traversing the multiverse, correcting timelines and staving off an apocalypse worse than any seen before. Though they sometimes have to get their hands dirty, they do so whilst maintaining their morals.
“Are you sure we have to kill her?” asked the Spider-Man of 2099 as he leapt through the air, avoiding a flying tombstone.
“She’s already dead, you pansy!” replied Sabretooth curtly.
For over a week, the Exiles had been rapidly repairing dramatic timeline damage in over a dozen worlds. The cause of the damage was a fellow reality hopper by the name of Axel Asher. Somehow the man had been blasted across reality, causing severe damage to a slew of realities which, if left unchecked, would lead to the collapse of the multiverse.
This mission was relatively simple: Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, had died in battle with the villain Morlun, only to be resurrected. After forming a cocoon of webbing, the half dead man had been consumed completely by the Venom symbiote, becoming the deranged madman known as Poison. After being rejected by his wife, Mary-Jane Watson-Parker, the creature had exhumed the corpse of his dead girlfriend Gwen Stacey. The symbiote spawned and the offspring brought the corpse back to some semblance of life, albeit as a zombie like monstrosity.
“Our mission parameters are clear, Dr O’Hara: put Gwen Stacey’s corpse back in the ground and subdue Poison,” stated Power Princess, who was in charge of this mission.
The purple armoured warrior woman charged toward the Gwen Stacey creature but was intercepted by Poison, who tackled her to the ground and enmeshed her in webbing. He would have ripped her throat out there and then if it hadn’t been for Longshot hurling a blade into the beast’s back. The villain wailed in pain and tried to reach the weapon, but it was embedded in his most difficult to reach spot.
Meanwhile, the feral mutant Sabretooth and Spider-Man were engaging Gwen Stacey. The dead woman was barely lucid and kept making bizarre rasping noises. Dr O’Hara presumed she couldn’t speak because her tongue and vocal cords were rotted away.
“I don’t remember seeing any of this in the job description,” he muttered.
The Crystal Palace. Nowhere, Nowhen.
Morph couldn’t help but smile at Miguel’s joke; it was a little cliché but he was coming along nicely in the humor department.
Things had been so hectic since their first encounter with Proteus months ago that the team had barely taken a break. The only real downtime they’d had was when they had to send the corpses of their former teammates home. When a simple mission like this had come along, Blink and Morph had jumped at the opportunity to stay behind in the palace with Heather for a brief rest. It also provided the three long-term teammates, who had been Exiles from the beginning (Heather was an honorary original in Morph’s eyes), to assess and discuss their newer comrades.
“Victor’s a loose cannon,” said Heather as the trio watched the fight on screen. There was no annoyance in her voice; it was a simple matter of fact.
“His rage does get the better of him sometimes, but we can rely on him, I’m sure,” replied Blink, the leader of the Exiles. She had spent most of her life with the man and was sure he wouldn’t let them down.
“Yeah, he really pulled through on that Silver Surfer mission,” Morph agreed, “though how he could have turned down those shiny new threads I don’t know.” To prove his point, Morph briefly transformed himself into an Oscar award in a reference to Creed’s golden Herald form.
As usual, Heather ignored Morph’s humor “Longshot’s a great aid to the team, but his naivety could cause trouble at some point,”
“My only concern with Longshot is the mullet and the leather. I mean this isn’t nineteen eighty five,” joked Morph whilst looking like MacGyver.
No one laughed. Blink didn’t understand the reference and Heather was too stressed after a week of watching her friends going on so many dangerous missions. On their very first mission repairing Asher’s damage, she nearly had to watch her teammates die at the hands of an enhanced Magneto. The extreme interference caused by the mutant’s power output had prevented her from teleporting the team out.
Morph refused to give in though. “Miggy’s fine. He’s learning the fine art of humor from yours truly, but Power Princess has got to go. I’ve tried all my best moves and she still refuses to lower the defences and let me rock her world. It’s clear that she wants me, so her flaunting it around in that skimpy Xena outfit just makes her a tease. I say she goes!”
Silence…and then the dams broke and both women burst out laughing. The sound was like sweet music to the shape-shifting mutant; laughter melts away the tension, which was a motto Morph had always stood by. Humor had become a real crutch for him ever since his mother died, but his jokes had increased greatly in the past few months ever since his two best surviving friends, Blink and Heather, had started acting odd around him. It wasn’t anything really obvious, but he had noticed the girls had become slightly more withdrawn from him lately. He suspected it was because he somehow reminded them of times when Mimic was still alive and so he had vowed to make the girls laugh everyday. It was hard work.
“Zarda’s an excellent warrior and tactician, Morph. She stays,” replied Blink when she eventually regained her breath. He noticed she dodged around the fact that Power Princess was incredibly bossy and annoying.
Heather looked back to the monitoring screen. “Aww, look, we missed the rest of the fight!”
The corpse of Gwen Stacey lay on the ground in flames, its newly born symbiote burnt to a crisp. Zarda had seemingly pulled a gas pipe from the ground and turned it into a makeshift flamethrower. Poison lay nearby, unconscious and ensnared in Miguel’s webbing, as the Avengers arrived to take him away.
“Wow, Luke Cage’s an Avenger on that world?” asked a surprised Morph. “I miss the old outfit though; not many guys can pull off a tiara like him.”
With a few fingertaps at the control station, Heather teleported their four teammates back to base in a dazzling flash of light.
“Weren’t you meant to be restin’ pup?” said Victor when he spied Blink by the viewing screen.
“Just channel surfing,” replied Blink with a cheeky grin.
The Med Bay, several minutes later
After every mission, Heather always insisted that the team have their vitals checked over in the med bay. She wanted to avoid causing a pan dimensional disease outbreak; enough damage had been caused to the multiverse already. Thankfully, the four were disease free and none had sustained any serious injuries during the battle.
“Any change with Asher while we were gone?” asked Creed as he sniffed the air suspiciously. He was sure the comatose man sleeping in the med bay was some kind of threat to the team, as trust wasn’t in his nature.
“We have brainwave activities, so it looks like he’s dreaming,” replied Heather. “Other than that, nothing. By all signs he should be waking up but he’s not. I’ve considered bringing in outside help, but after what happened to Doctor Strange here I’m a bit wary.”
“Our primary duty is to repair the damage this man caused, not playing doctor. We should focus on the task at hand and move on to the next mission.” Zarda was brusque as always; she clearly wasn’t here to make friends.
“Don’t you think you should rest first, Zarda?”
“That last mission only took half an hour, and two of the team didn’t even participate. I’m confidant we can handle it.”
“Who’s in charge again?” Morph whispered to Blink.
“Leave it, Morph, she’s right.”
In the blink of an eye the team was teleported back to the control room by the pink woman. One of the sovereign class Timebreakers quickly scurried out from wherever it was and activated one of the display screens, revealing an unremarkable picture of Earth.
“Earth three-two-zero-eight,” explained Heather. “This one needs some detective work; somehow, all the people on Earth have disappeared. We don’t know why and we don’t know how, that’s for you guys to find out. Once we have some more data the Timebreakers are confident they can work out your mission parameters. Good luck and be careful.”
Morph, wearing a red Star Trek uniform, gave her a salute. “Boldly going where no man has gone before.”
Earth #3208
Blooonk!
The team appeared on the lush green lawn of Avengers mansion. Heather figured that even if the premier superhero team was missing, they should have the resources to figure out what was going on. Seeing the extremely familiar building made Morph homesick; he couldn’t help but miss his old life. When given the choice he had remained with the Exiles but so much had changed since then; Nocturne was gone, Mimic was dead and now his two best friends were being distant towards him and he wasn’t sure why.
Eerily, Fifth Avenue was completely deserted. Empty cars sat abandoned in the street, many of which had collided with each other. It was as if everybody had been snatched away in an instant.
“I’d say some sort of mass teleportation technology, possibly alien in origin,” speculated Spider-Man.
“Let’s take a look at the Avengers computer before we…”
In a silent flash of green light, Blink disappeared before the groups eyes.
“Blink!” screamed Morph in shock. Sabretooth was next, followed by Power Princess, before he realized the source of the flash was a focused beam of light shooting down from the sky. He leapt aside at the last minute and the beam struck a nearby shrub, causing it to vanish. Spider-Man attempted the same move but whoever was firing the beam seemed to sense this and struck him where he landed.
It had all happened in a matter of seconds and then he was all alone. He jumped backwards to avoid the next beam but was too slow. An intense green light filled his vision, blinding him for a moment and surprisingly it wasn’t painful.
Upon opening his eyes he discovered he wasn’t dead and he certainly wasn’t locked away in an alien prison cell. A massive green structure rose up before him; it was tall and flat, with noticeable veins running up and down its surface. Looking around, he realized that the structures were everywhere, like a forest.
Realization dawned on him quickly: he had been shrunk! The giant green structures were blades of grass!
“Oh man, I’ve seen ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Kids’, so I know how this goes. I’m going to end up in some bug’s bowels,” he cringed.
Judging by how small he was a few feet could be miles. It could take him weeks to find the rest of the team, especially in this forest of grass. “Blink! Miguel!” he called. “Anybody!”
Blink! The rest of the team suddenly appeared before him; Blink had clearly been quick in rounding them up.
“Well, that didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would,” Blink said, relief washing over him.
“Are you ok?” asked Blink with genuine concern. The fact that Blink was worried about him warmed his heart. Perhaps there was a chance for their friendship to grow strong again.
“I’m great!” he transformed into Papa Smurf, even though Blink wouldn’t recognize the character. “Now let’s find us some smurfberries!”
This once again reminded him of the challenge the team provided him when it came to jokes. Blink and Victor never had a television, Power Princess probably thought TV was the devil, Spider-Man was from a hundred years in the future and, while Longshot came from a world psychotically devoted to television, he had no memory of it.
They all ignored the mutant’s antics and Miguel stated the obvious, “At least we know where all the people are.”
“What does Heather say we do, Sabretooth?” asked Longshot.
“I’m not getting’ a signal,” replied Creed, shaking the wrist that held the Tallus.
“Its possible the Tallus is too small now to generate an adequate signal,” speculated Miguel, “or the ‘shrink ray’ may have scrambled the circuits. It’s too hard to say.”
Blink took control of the situation. “Our size changes nothing. We still need to get into the Avengers Mansion and use their computer. Maybe once we get somewhere a little safer Dr O’Hara can figure out a way to get in touch with Heather. We’ll head in the direction of the path; it wasn’t too far from where we shrunk, so hopefully we can find safe haven along the way.”
With that the team began their laborious trek through the dense jungle that was the Avenger’s front lawn. It was a difficult task, pushing past grass blades the size of trees and climbing over boulder-like pebbles but it had to be done, as Blink didn’t want to risk teleporting at this size without a good line of sight. Eventually they reached a small ‘clearing’ of flattened grass, possibly created by one of their footprints when they were full sized.
Sabretooth burst forth with an audible sneeze, causing most of the group to jump in surprise. He looked rather sheepish for a moment as he sniffled, before scowling to hide his embarrassment. “There’s a strong acrid stench here that really burns my nose,” he explained tersely.
“What does that mean?” asked Blink.
“Ants,” replied Power Princess, but she wasn’t looking at Blink. She was looking across the clearing where a large black ant had just arrived. The insect was elephant sized compared to the tiny Exiles, but the team wasn’t concerned; they’d fought worse.
Their concern began to elevate when a second and a third ant entered the clearing, their antennae twitching wildly, picking up scents.
“Its ok,” explained Miguel. “Ants have pretty poor eyesight, so if we back away very slowly…look out!”
Another ant burst through the grass from behind them and lunged at Morph. Its mandible bit the man completely in half but thankfully, due to his putty like mutation, this was barely a flash wound. Power Princess retaliated by punching the creature directly between its dull black eyes, which seemed to stagger it somewhat.
“They’re tougher foes than I thought,” she stated, before punching the insect again, this time sinking her fist into its head up to the elbow. The creature charged off, oblivious to its surrounding or its imminent death; unfortunately the other ants joined the fray and they brought a seemingly endless supply of reinforcements.
“Pull yourself together, Morph!” yelled Victor as the first wave of ants attacked. The feral mutant leapt atop the nearest insect and slashed it with his claws, only to learn that their exoskeleton was much too tough. Groaning in frustration, he instead reached down and yanked both antennae from their sockets, causing the thing to thrash about wildly.
Meanwhile Longshot was hurling throwing blades and had quickly learned to aim for the soft leg joints, which he struck with uncanny accuracy. Blink, ever the pragmatist, was teleporting as many ants away as she could, but more of the beasts kept coming and she was tiring fast. Spider-Man’s webs proved useful in gumming up the ants legs and trapping them but more just took their place.
“You need to port us out of here, pup!” cried Sabretooth from the jaws of a nearby ant.
She was about to comply when several things happened at once; a large, red and white disc flew by her and severed the legs of an ant about to attack her, just as a winged man swooped down and snatched Victor to safety and a large tornado sprang up out of nowhere, sweeping up dozens of ants in its wake.
The tornado cleared out many of the ants but there were still enough to prove a challenge. Power Princess was surrounded by three of the beasts, when a giant man in red, about the size of a plastic soldier compared to everyone else, stepped through the grass and crushed one beneath his foot. At the same time he reached down and scooped up Power Princess before booting the other two ants away like footballs. Unsurprisingly, Zarda didn’t seem to appreciate being rescued; she leapt from the giant’s hands onto another ant and ripped the thing’s head clean off.
A shadow flew overhead and a man with large white wings dropped Sabretooth at Morph’s side. Morph, who had felt slightly useless through the battle, let out a whoop of triumph when Captain America arrived on the scene. The man was instantly recognizable: red, white and blue body armor, winged mask and a great big A on his forehead. He couldn’t help but feel the warm fuzzies when the Sentinel of Liberty dove past him, grabbed his legendary shield and smashed an ant’s mandibles. Nearby, the thunder god Thor was beating ants to a pulp with his divine hammer, Mjiolnir. He had fought alongside these guys, not these guys specifically but his world’s Avengers, and for a moment it was almost like he was back home again.
“We need to retreat!” shouted Cap as more ants scurried into the clearing.
“I’m on it!” replied Blink and in several very fast flashes of light both groups were transported from the clearing to the hard grey ground of the Mansion’s path. Their brave leader collapsed from exhaustion; it may have only been a few yards but it felt like miles to the young woman and after the battle with the ants she was drained.
Victor scooped her up in his large arms and eyed their new companions warily. Captain America, Thor, Giant Man and Angel…the quartet looked confused for a moment after the unexpected teleportation, especially Thor, but they gathered their wits quickly.
“We need to get to cover, it’s not safe out here in the open,” stated Cap.
He lead the group to the edge of the footpath where a large dead leaf lay, under which they all found shelter. Morph found himself distracted for a moment by the remarkable patterns found on the underside of the leaf; it was amazing what he never noticed at full size.
“Thanks for the rescue, Captain,” said Blink as Creed set her down gently.
“Have we met before?” asked a confused Captain America.
“Oh no, but everyone knows who you are, right?” she quickly covered. This seemed to placate the Captain and both groups quickly exchanged stories. Blink lied and said the Exiles were a newly formed team of heroes, inspired by the X-Men. Angel laughed at this, revealing that made them the seventeenth new X-team, which was one of the reasons why he left and joined the Avengers.
Captain America explained that the Avengers had been on the front lawn of the mansion for a publicity shoot organized by Tony Stark when the mysterious lasers struck. Hawkeye was the first to fall, crushed beneath the boot of one of his not yet shrunk teammates, and they had never found the photographers. For the past two days the team had been marching across the veritable jungle that was their front lawn towards the mansion, losing several more teammates along the way.
“Couldn’t you two just fly the other’s there?” Morph asked Thor and Angel. “It sure would’ve been faster.” A memory briefly flashed in his mind; he was soaring through the air on angelic wings and the rush of flying was amazing. As quickly as it came it was gone again, leaving him dazed and confused.
“Iron Man had the same bright idea,” replied Giant Man, who looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown. “He thought maybe he could get a better communications signal if he flew as high as he could go.”
“What happened?”
“A mighty dragon swooped down from the heavens and consumed him,” explained Thor grimly.
“A bird got him, a robin we think,” Angel translated. “Since then we’ve tried to stay below grass cover.”
Morph understood how bad that must have made the man feel; the Warren he knew loved the open sky and hated nothing more than being tied to the ground.
“Maybe if we get to higher ground we could get a signal to Heather,” Creed shook the useless Tallus.
Blink overruled him though. “Its too risky, Victor,”
“But it’s of the upmost importance that we communicate with Heather,” said Zarda. “We have no idea what our mission is.”
“Fine, but I’m not risking the whole team on this. I’ll teleport Victor and myself somewhere high, like the roof of the mansion. The rest of you stay here.”
Sabretooth lay a hand on the leader’s shoulder. “No, Clarice, you need to rest. Power Princess can fly me up there.”
If the Utopian was annoyed at Victor volunteering her she didn’t show it. “Creed ’is right, Blink, you need to conserve your strength. Wait here and we shall return shortly.”
She grabbed the large mutant beneath the armpits and lifted him effortlessly and unceremoniously into the air as the pair flew out from under the leaf and up into the air. The group watched them fly high, until eventually they were little more than a speck. All they could do then was pray.
“Hey ‘Giant’ Man, can’t you just make your self huge?” asked Morph, looking at Pym with a giant magnifying glass.
Pym laughed nervously as he rubbed the back of his head. “Nope. I tried, failed, tried, failed again, etcetera, etcetera. I can grow to a few inches high but that’s all, not really much use. Oh I can shrink too mind you, but I wouldn’t be game to try, not after what happened to Janet…eaten by a phage, a bacterium…” He seemed to trail off at this point, much to Morph’s relief; the man was clearly unhinged.
The rest of the group were too engrossed with Zarda and Victor’s progress, though at this point they couldn’t see the pair anymore. Morph elongated his eyeballs, essentially turning them into telescopes, which allowed him to see the two much more clearly.
“Ah, there they are, they’re almost to the roof. I hope P.P. washes her hands after this; Sabretooth’s pits are pretty rank. I tried to give him some lavender oil for it once, but instead of tanking me he tried to gut me! Pretty rude if you ask--”
Just at that moment a gigantic bird swooped in and swallowed the pair in mid flight.
The Crystal Palace. Nowhere, Nowhen.
“Victor, can you hear me?!” called Heather for what felt like the thousandth time before slamming her hands down on the crystal desk in frustration.
Almost immediately after arriving on Earth #3208 the team had vanished. None of the Timebreakers equipment could pick up a teleport trace which meant either team hadn’t moved from where they disappeared…or they were dead. Just when she had given up hope, the bugs detected a faint signal from the Tallus, only they could find no visual of the team. An amazingly frustrating picture of the Avengers Mansion was displayed on the large screen, apparently where the Tallus was.
Realization suddenly dawned on the scientist and she slapped her head for not realizing it sooner.
“Zoom the image in as far as you can go,” she said to the nearest Timebreaker.
With clarity unseen in any conventional Earth television, the image magnified until a very tiny Power Princess could be seen carrying Sabretooth through the air. Clearly the group had been shrunk, by what force she couldn’t say, but with the new data they should be able to calculate what path this world needed to take.
The Timebreaker’s worked quickly while Heather initiated conversation with Creed, “Victor, can you hear me?”
“I got y…eather…barely,” he replied.
“The Timebreakers are analyzing the probabilities as we speak and working out the mission. I need to you hold on until--”
She was interrupted by a blur of brown and red as a robin swallowed the pair whole.
Earth #3208
It was wet, it was dark, it stunk and Victor Creed was not happy. Finally he’d managed to get in touch with Heather Hudson when something had swooped in out of nowhere and swallowed them. His best guess was a bird, of course, which was downright logical considering they were in mid air but under the circumstances he had no time for logic. All he knew was something that smelled like bugs and worms was trying to push him down its gullet with an oversized tongue.
He sunk his claws into the tongue with a snarl and received a mouthful of bird spit for his efforts. In fact he was drowning in the stuff and could barely catch a breath of stinking warm air. Power Princess was nowhere to be seen, though what felt like her boot hit him in the face at one point.
Victor! Victor, are you ok?! Called Heather though the Tallus.
“Garrgggbbllll!!!!” was all he could gurgle in reply.
Listen…reverse the shrinking…has to be…
The life was quickly draining out of him at this point; even a healing factor wasn’t enough to protect him from suffocation. His thoughts were growing muddy and he felt the end was near when suddenly there was a terrible explosion. Somehow he was hurtling through the air but hardly lucid enough to understand how. All he knew was it was raining blood as he plummeted through the air.
Several minutes later; the Avengers Mansion front stoop
Morph watched on anxiously as Sabretooth regained consciousness. He wasn’t the biggest fan of the man but no one deserved to die in bird spit. Power Princess was already up and about, though she was drenched and stunk of bugs and birdseed.
“He’s awake!” cried Blink in relief as her father figure opened his eyes groggily.
“What’chya all fussin about, I’m fine,” he grumbled as the group looked down at him in concern.
Seeing Victor was okay, Blink returned to the mission at hand. “Did you manage to get through to Heather?”
“No…wait yeah, but only for a few seconds. She said we have to stop the shrinking,”
“Well that one’s a given,” Angel rolled his eyes.
“It appears your efforts were wasted,” said Captain America sadly. “With no new information for your mission control on the source of the shrinking, we’ll have to continue on to our computer.”
“What happened up there? I thought I was a dead man,” asked Creed.
“Some sort of small bird swallowed the both of you,” explained Blink.
“It was a Turdus migratorius, a Robin,” explain Miguel.
“Uh thanks,” Blink said, then continued on. “Thor here sprang into action and saved the both of you.”
The God of Thunder stood nearby, covered in Robin’s blood and picking bits of gristle from his armor. “Aye, twas a fine battle, but the beast has been slain.” The corpse of the bird lay in the distance, several feet away.
“You should have seen it man!” exclaimed Morph, unable to contain his excitement anymore. He transformed into a mock version of Thor and regaled Victor with the tale. “The bird ate you both and Thor leapt into the air all ‘verily’ and ‘wrath of Asgard’ and blew the thing’s beak to pieces as he flew straight through it!”
“Thanks, blondie,” was Victor’s curt reply of gratitude as he rose to his feet.
The group pressed on, passing easily through the gap beneath the mansion’s large oak doors. What stood before them was a cavernous room with hardwood floors and a ceiling almost too hight to make out at their size.
“Our main computer is in the subbasement, which we can access it via the elevator down the hall,” stated Dr Pym as he looked around nervously. Morph suspected the man expected an attack by rabid dust bunnies.
“This terrain is going to take some difficulty to cover,” stated Longshot grimly. Each floorboard would be easy enough to travel over but between each one was a gap they would have to leap across.
“I’m not wasting anymore time on this mission and I refuse to put anyone at risk again,” Blink was resolute. She had been horrified when she thought she had lost Sabretooth and felt guilt ridden over putting him and Power Princess at risk like that.
Before anyone could speak she teleported them all to the elevator. It was possible she could have blinked them all directly to the mainframe but without ever actually being in the Avenger’s basement before she didn’t want to chance it.
“Okay, so how do we get in?” asked Morph as the group stood before the massive sliding door.
“Like all elevators; you push the button,” explained Angel, pointing up at a button on the wall, seemingly the height of a skyscraper away. “This one has a code though.”
“I shall do the deed, if the fair warrior maiden would deem to aid me?” Thor grinned at Power Princess flirtatiously. Power Princess merely nodded in reply and soared into the air ahead of the god. As Thor leapt into the air after her, Longshot surprisingly jumped onto his back, ‘for luck’, he smiled.
The trio soared high into the air, reaching to electronic number pad more quickly than expected. By combining their strength, Zarda and Thor managed to push each button, entering the six-digit code. The door slid open with an audible whoosh and a computerized voice said, “Welcome, Avenger.”
The three in the air flew inside as Blink teleported the rest, to save having to leap across the large chasm between the wall and the elevator. Standing in an elevator bigger than a football field felt eerie to Morph, especially when the thing began its rapid decent to subbasement level one.
“Subbasement level one: war room, training facilities and mainframe,” stated the digital voice.
“The mainframe’s through the second doorway on the right. Can you teleport us there ma’am?” asked Captain America.
Without replying, the pink skinned teleporter blinked the group to the doorway Cap described and then into the room itself. Before them stood a massive computer, complete with a dozen different monitors and a very comfortable looking seat.
“Teletran One, eat your digital heart out,” whistled Morph.
“This is the mainframe, my pride and joy,” said Giant Man proudly, seeming almost lucid.
Miguel was in awe. “Amazing! This is the first Vision class supercomputer…this is a piece of history!”
Giant Man looked to him suspiciously. “How did you know about this…?” but Blink cut him off, teleporting the group up onto the computer.
“Such a way is not how a god should travel,” said Thor, looking a little sick after all the teleportation.
Cap placed a trusting hand on Dr. Pym’s shoulder. “Do what needs to be done Hank,”
Pym increased his size to two inches tall and shouted at the computer, “Mainframe! Activate!”
With a sudden onset of beeps and whirs, the computer sprang to life. Morph was impressed; he did have a degree in computer science after all.
On the large central monitor appeared an image of the Avenger known as Vision. “Greetings, Dr. Pym. How may I be of service?” came the cold, digital voice from the machine.
“Vision, every human being on earth has been shrunk to a thousandth of their natural size,” said Dr. Pym grimly. “Scan the global networks and learn the source of this epidemic.”
“Scanning, one moment please.” A loading bar appeared at the bottom of the screen.
“Even a supercomputer has loading time?” asked Morph, looking like a stereotypical nerd in thick glasses, suspenders and everything.
For a brief second Pym looked as if he wanted to squash the mutant beneath his giant foot but Angel spoke up, “It is scanning the entire world’s networks, Morph; give the thing a break.”
With an audible ping, the scanning was complete and Vision stated, “The source of the shrinking traced to the Guardian satellite network.”
“What’s that?” asked Blink.
“Due to the increasing hostilities with the Kree and Skrulls, and the attempted invasion by the Badoon last year, the American Government launched a dozen space-based weapons platforms in order to prevent another attack,” explained Vision.
Power Princess sneered in derision. “You foolish humans surrounded your own world with weapons?”
“The s…satellites are super encrypted to ensure they can’t be turned upon Earth. I did the encryptions myself,” explained Pym as his eye twitched.
“Oh that fills me with confidence!” exclaimed Morph.
Captain America ignored the in fighting. “Hank, can you use Mainframe to undo all this?”
“Of course, Steve,” he replied before his features turned dark, “but why would I want to?”
In one sudden movement he kicked out with his massive foot, knocking Cap over the edge. A split second later he slammed his fist down upon Morph, squashing him to a pulp.
“No so funny now are you!” he screamed at the squished mutant. Thankfully, the jovial mutant could survive worse treatment than that and was already beginning to reform himself. Meanwhile, Angel had leapt from the computer and saved Captain America at the last moment.
Another memory flashed into Morph’s mind at the moment; he was moving at incredible speed before slamming into something insanely hard. Not something, no…someone, a large caped man…Hyperion! Once again the memory faded away as quickly as it came, leaving him confused.
Thor stood stunned, confused by his friend’s actions, but the Exiles leapt in for the attack. Power Princess was swatted aside like a fly and, to make the metaphor even more poignant, she was caught by Spider-Man’s webs just before she would have slammed into the ground. Sabretooth suffered the same fate, getting kicked aside and slamming into the monitor’s screen with a bone breaking impact.
Before the others could reach him, the giant pulled a small vial from a pouch on his belt and threw the thing to the ground. The vial shattered and grew to the size of pepper shaker and from within spewed forth hundred of ants. From another pouch Pym removed a tiny silver helmet, which quickly grew to the size of his head. He placed the ant like helmet on his head and immediately the chaotically swarming ants charged towards the Exiles.
“Everyone always looks down on me! Now the whole world can see what it feels like!” screamed Pym madly as the ants swarmed over the Exiles like a black tide.
A red and white disc suddenly slammed into the side of the giant’s head, causing him to stagger. Captain America, hanging from Angel’s arms, dropped back down into the fight, collecting his shield along the way. “This is madness Hank, what the hell are you doing?” he demanded.
Giant Man laughed eerily. “Vision thought so too, but we couldn’t have that, could we? So I had to corrupt him with a virus,” he replied, more to himself than anyone else though. The image of Vision quickly changed into that of another machine: Ultron.
“You did all this?!” exclaimed Angel.
“I’m surprised you didn’t figure it out before, Warren. I designed the satellites with Stark and Fury, I encrypted them, and I invented shrinking for Christ’s sake. But no, little old Hank Pym couldn’t be behind anything so diabolical. We just pat him on the head and make sure he takes his special pills and ignore him until we need to solve a problem. Now I’m the biggest one of all!”
“Jeez, somebody’s got issues,” laughed Morph, as he reformed himself from a puddle on the floor, directly beneath Giant Man. With one upwards swing, he stretched his arm up into the air and inflated his fist to massive proportions. The huge fist struck Pym directly where no man wants to be hit and the mad doctor cried out in pain and stumbled to the floor, clutching his bruised manhood.
“Wow, it is true: the bigger they are the harder they fall!” joked Morph while looking like a heavyweight boxing champ. “Also, the bigger the balls, the bigger the target!”
“Ultron,” gasped Pym, “initiate satellite self destruct.”
The Crystal Palace. Nowhere, Nowhen
“What’s going on down there?!” demanded Heather, while the Timebreakers ran around wildly.
Now that she knew the group had been shrunk they had been able to keep better track of the Exiles. Unfortunately they still couldn’t establish communication. “Reroute all power from the Palace and use it to boost the signal!”
“Exile Heather Hudson, is that wise?” as one Timebreaker.
“No, but it’s the only option we have so do it quickly! The Exiles need to know they’re following the wrong orders. They need to stop the shrinking from being reversed!”
Earth #3208; Avenger’s Mansion, Subbasement level 1
Whilst Morph and the Avenger’s clashed with Giant Man, the Exiles were busy fighting off a horde of mind controlled ants. Sabretooth leapt to Longshot’s aid, sinking his claws into the fleshy joint behind an ant’s head. Longshot returned the favor by hurling a pair of blades into another ant’s mouth.
“There’s too many of them! I’m getting us out of here!” yelled Blink.
Suddenly Victor clutched his head and doubled over in agony. “Heather, stop screaming in my head!”
KRAKA-BOOM! A gigantic lightning bolt struck a cluster of ants, practically incinerating them.
“Vile creatures! Come test your mettle against the God of Thunder!” screamed Thor as he charged into the throng of insects. Blink took advantage of the situation to teleport the five Exiles away from the swarm; Thor could handle himself.
“Victor! Mr Creed, are you alright?” Sabretooth, was barely conscious with blood pouring from his nose.
“Pup,” he said weakly, “…have to stop the Avengers. They have to stay shrunk.”
“But thousands of people will die,” stated Longshot sadly.
“Heather…says its for the best. Trust her.”
Nearby, on the monitor, the robotic face of Ultron was counting down from thirty. All the Exiles had to do was prevent the Avengers from cancelling the self-destruct sequence.
The gigantic Hank Pym was slowly getting to his feet after recovering from Morph’s attack, but Captain America quickly put him back down again by slamming his shield down upon his head. His ant-controlling helmet shattered into a dozen pieces, sending the ants into a screeching frenzy.
“Thor! We need you!” cried the Captain. “Destroy the computer!”
The God of Thunder soared into the air at tremendous speed, creating an arc through the air and diving back down upon the massive computer. With the might of his hammer, Mjiolnir, he would surely smash through the machine’s circuit boards and end the countdown.
That was if the Exiles didn’t stop him. Just before he hit the computer, Power Princess collided with him, sending the pair hurtling over the edge onto the ground below. Everyone’s hair stood on end as the air filled with static electricity.
“What are you idiots doing?! This is our only chance to stop this thing!” demanded Angel.
“I’m sorry, but it has to be this way,” replied Blink sadly. With two quick hand movements, she teleported the two Avenger’s away to the ground floor of the Mansion.
KRAKA-BOOM! Zarda was flung through the air like a rag doll as she was struck in the chest buy a bolt of lightning. While her unconscious body fell to the ground, Thor flew back up to the top of the computer, his eyes wide with fury. “Traitors!” he screamed, hurling bolts of lightning down upon the group.
“Five,” stated Ultron flatly.
“Ummmm guys, what’s going on?” asked a confused Morph, while dodging a bolt of lightning.
“Four…”
Blink tried to teleport the god away but his wind vortex provided protection from her crystal javelins.
“Three…”
A massive bolt of lightning would have struck Blink dead if not for Longshot leaping to her aid, his luck field causing the bolt to strike somewhere else.
“Two…”
“Seriously guys, shouldn’t we be stopping this countdown?” asked Morph again.
“One…”
“No!” cried Thor. He slammed his hammer down upon the metal ground, sending out a shockwave which knocked everyone from their feet.
It was too late, though. “All Gaurdian satellites have self destructed.”
“You have condemned this world!” raged Thor.
“I’m sorry,” tears ran down Blink’s face.
Bloonk!
The Crystal Palace. Nowhere, Nowhen
“Tell me why we had to condemn a world to suffering and terror?!” demanded Blink of Heather, as soon as the group arrived back in the Palace.
“I know it must seem bad, Blink, but it really was for the best,” explained Heather. “In six month’s time, a Brood Armada will invade will invade Earth. Humankind at normal size would have fallen and every person on Earth would either become a Brood or lunch. At least at their reduced size, mankind will escape the notice of the Brood.”
“Oh, so that’s why we weren’t stopping the countdown, thanks for filling me in guys,” Morph rolled his eyes.
Both women looked at him uncomfortably, which just annoyed him even more.
“Look, I’ve had enough of this. Clarice, we need to talk.”
He led Blink aside while Heather saw to the injured Sabretooth and Power Princess. “Look, Blink, things have been strained between us for a while and I think I know why,”
“You do?!” Clarice looked worried.
“Yeah, and I understand. Calvin and I were both possessed by Proteus, but I survived and he didn’t.” He smiled sadly. “I understand that seeing me must remind you of him but you can’t blame me for that, ‘Rice. I just want us to go back to that friendship we used to have. Can we do that?”
“Oh…yes, of course,” she replied, hesitantly. “And you’re right: I have been a bit uncomfortable around you because of that. I’ll try my best to put it behind me.”
“I’m happy to hear it,” he smiled and the two hugged warmly, though of course Morph couldn’t see the look of concern in Blink’s eyes.
“Well, I better see to the others,” said Blink after breaking their hug.
A dozen thoughts were running through Morph’s head at that moment. He’d been thinking back over the time when Proteus had possessed him in the Maestro’s castle. He had no more memory from that time until he suddenly woke up on Counter Earth #616. But how had Proteus been defeated?
And, more importantly, why was he having memories that weren’t his own?
The Medbay
The man named Axel Asher lay in his bed, stunned and confused. For the briefest moment he hoped he was dreaming, for surely walls of pink crystal could not exist in real life? There was fogginess in his brain, like cobwebs in his memories, clouding his thoughts.
Suddenly, a memory came to him unbidden with such force it caused him to double over and clutch his head in agony. A gigantic monolith of dark black crystals, each one bigger than a planet, dominated his thoughts. The…thing radiated so much malevolence that he curled up into the fetal position and began to whimper.
“Its coming, its coming, its coming…” was all he could say.
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The End...
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