There was a deep rumbling from the ground, as though there was an earthquake. But Black Bolt knew better.
"What's going on?" Wanda shouted.
"He's begun to move the Moon!" Black Bolt shouted.
"But he couldn't have done that without--" Vision began.
"Oh god!" Wanda looked at him with her jaw open and eyes wide,."Jack!"
"He's reached the Omega Machine!" Black Bolt realized. "We cannot beat him now!"
"Not while he's still got my daughter!" Quicksilver snarled. "Not while I'm still standing!"
The five reached the throne room where they expected to meet Graviton. They only found Medusa waiting for them. She rushed to them.
"My King!" she yelped and she threw her arms around Black Bolt. "What are we to do now?"
"We can do nothing," Black Bolt said. "We are helpless."
"What?" Quicksilver shouted and ran immediately up to his father-in-law's face. "That's it? You're going to give up? Your own planet, your own kingdom, your own flesh and blood is in danger and you are just going to stand here?"
The Vision stepped between the two.
"Your highness," Vision said, "I believe I speak for us all when I say that we will not stand idly by and watch Earth and the Moon be destroyed by a madman."
"Father!" Crystal went up to Black Bolt and touched his shoulder. "Please, do not give up hope."
"I never said that I was giving up," Black Bolt said simply. "Nor did I say I had no hope. I said that we cannot defeat him. And we cannot."
"What do you propose, my King?" Medusa looked deep into his eyes. Black Bolt returned her gaze.
"That I call for help."
At that moment, the roof to the throne room was ripped off. In the sky, the Avengers could see a lone figure sitting in a throne, a small child floating with him.
"Good to see you made it, Black Bolt!" Graviton yelled. "Allow me the pleasure of killing you a second time!"
Medusa looked at her husband in the quick instant before she was forced to the ground. She couldn't move. Graviton had pinned her. She moved her eyes and saw that the Avengers had been as well. Her eyes met her husband's and she saw Black Bolt do something he hadn't in a very long time. He opened his mouth.
No sound came from it, nor any destruction. But Medusa knew something had happened. She knew that Black Bolt had done something. She closed her eyes and grinned as much as she could. Black Bolt had called for help.
Jupiter was beautiful. Such destruction, such chaos taking place on the planet and yet, from a hundred thousand miles away, it was possibly the most breathtaking sight he had ever seen.
That was, if he needed to breathe.
He had been staring at the planet for approximately thirty-nine hours now. Why he kept thinking in the time units of Earth was unknown to him. Maybe the humans had a more profound effect on him than he realized. No, he did realize it. The simple idea of beauty that he was experiencing was evidence enough that humans had affected him. He also realized that he would return to the planet one day. Why? Well, that he didn't realize.
Suddenly, his ears were flooded with an intense pain. He fell to his knees and grabbed the sides of his head. If there had been air to fill his esophagus to create sound, he would have screamed. For about fifteen seconds, the pain kept repeating the same message:
"Help me. You're the only one who can."
When the pain subsided, he rose to his feet once again. There was only one being in existence who could create such power and pain with the sound of his voice. If Black Bolt needed help, then the danger must be great. The slab of silver on which he stood began to turn and with another thought, the Silver Surfer was flying toward what humans would call their Moon.
"I hate calamari."
Tigra's backflip was as graceful as she was orange. She landed by Ka-Zar's side on the deck of Parnival Plunder's yacht.
"I don't think he's too fond of you either," Ka-Zar smirked.
"Must've seen me at the Red Lobster last week," Tigra sighed.
The giant squid continued to gain a grip on the yacht. Once it did so, it would pull it to the bottom of the bay and crush it and everyone on board. Tigra couldn't let that happen; if there was one thing cats didn't enjoy, it was being wet.
But, honestly, she didn't know what she could do. It wasn't as if she or Ka-Zar could do anything. Sure, Ka-Zar looked great whenever he flexed that back of his to launch an arrow, and Tigra herself loved digging into the squid's tentacles, but they weren't making much progress.
Hell, the two of them couldn't even evacuate the ship's staff. The Wasp was doing that.
Tigra looked back at the head of the squid and saw Warbird flying and dodging the tentacles of the squid herself. Even the Avengers' most powerful weapon at the moment, Carol Danvers, wasn't able to pierce the squid's hide.
And things were about to get worse.
There was a rumbling and a bubbling from under the bay. Rising quickly from the bay was a giant, black frog. Tigra slumped her shoulders. She felt like she was watching a 1950's horror film marathon on TV.
"You cannot defeat me, Avengers!" Mole Man cackled from the shore. Tigra noticed that tubby guy's shrill voice could carry quite a distance. "Now I can get you, Ka-Zar and that blasted Parnival out of the way all at once!"
"I knew my brother was working with him!" Ka-Zar grimaced as he jumped from a tentacle.
"You know," Tigra smacked her forehead. "I just remembered why I rejoined! I get to beat the hell out of such interesting people and struggle for my life through such interesting experiences."
Tigra started off like a dart toward the edge of the boat. Yeah, she hated getting wet but there were times when exceptions had to be made. A giant squid and black frog counted as exceptions.
Wanda tried with all her skill to repel Graviton's force. She knew she had the power to do so but Graviton and that damn machine were just too strong for her. Wanda looked next to her and saw the Vision. He opened his mouth to speak but didn't say anything.
"Now, where's the fun in this?" Graviton chuckled as he hovered lightly in his chair over his captives. "This was too easy. I've defeated the king of the Moon and Earth's mightiest heroes with one thought. How droll."
He looked at their faces and saw how they were struggling. It was the greatest thing he'd ever had the pleasure of witnessing.
"You can't even talk," he laughed again. "You can't even beg for mercy. But what about your people on Earth? I bet they're begging right now, as their shores begin to digest them and their storms begin to shatter their lives. Aren't you lucky?"
There wasn't an answer; Wanda couldn't even squeeze out a tear, the force was so great.
"Hell," Graviton said. "I might as well get this over with."
Wanda saw the Vision lifted into the air as though he was on a whip. Then she felt herself pulled into a standing position, along with the rest of her teammates. She saw that the Vision was higher than all of them and being held face to face with Graviton in the air.
"Feel happy," Graviton laughed at him. "I've chosen you to die first."
With a motion of his hand, Graviton threw Vision high into the sky.
"No!" Wanda shrieked, "Don't!"
"So, now you beg?" Graviton looked at her. "Good. Now, I can ignore it."
He brought his arm down, along with the Vision. In front of them all, the Vision hit the ground of the palace with a strong, cracking resonance and a crater that went twenty feet deep.
"Vision!" Wanda shouted.
They could only stare in horror at what they saw. At the bottom of the crater, the Vision lay. His body was completely shattered.
Warbird wiped the sweat from her brow. This was more work than she had time for. This was unacceptable. There was a situation on the moon, teammates possibly in peril in Africa and she was the leader of the Avengers. She should be in control of this situation. Her team was outnumbered, exhausted and, not to mention, down a man since Wonder Man hadn't shown up. Completely unacceptable.
And now there was a giant black toad menacing Ka-Zar and keeping the Wasp from evacuating the crew. She looked down at the squid and then over at the Mole Man, who was now rolling on his back with laughter.
"Oh!" the Mole Man cackled. "This is priceless! You're all more fun than Reed Richards!"
Warbird's look turned from frustration to snarl. It was one thing to send a giant squid and a giant toad at her. It was one thing to keep the Avengers from saving the moon. It was another to laugh at them. That was unacceptable.
She began to build the energy in her body again. She could feel it flowing through her like electricity through a wire. She dove for the squid.
The squid saw her coming. With a sudden lash, the squid's tentacle grabbed Warbird's torso and drove her into the depths of the bay, before the squid itself engorged into the bay after her.
"Warbird!" Wasp yelled.
"She'll be fine!" Ka-Zar shouted up to her. "Just keep those people moving!"
Wasp frowned at the squid, which kept tearing at the ship with its remaining tentacles, but she knew what she needed to do. She turned around and looked for more people to move. There was only one left: Parnival Plunder. He had a gun and was trying to hide from what was currently taking place.
Jan jumped into the air and flew at him. Parnival saw her and started firing her way.
"Get away!" he shouted up at her. "You're heroes! You can't hurt me! I'll sue! I'll--"
Jan grabbed him from under his arms and took him high into the air with her and flew over to the frog. She flipped him over the monster, dangling him at his ankles.
"What--what are you doing?" Parnival yelled.
"You're the one responsible for giving the Mole Man that android, weren't you?" Jan growled.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Parnival snapped back.
Jan let go of one foot.
"Ahhh! Don't! All right! All right! I did! I sent a team to look for him and when they found him I told him that I would give him a monster and the Savage Land if he were to just get rid of my brother for me!"
"What about these eruptions?"
"They're natural! I swear to God! When my scientists told me about them, it was the perfect time to strike! Please, that's all! I don't know what these other things are!"
Jan flew to the shore and dropped Parnival there. She circled around and back to the yacht where Ka-Zar was dodging both the giant toad and the squid's tentacles. She threw a few of her stinging blasts to cover him before she landed.
"Well, I got a confession from Parnival."
"Did we need one?" Ka-Zar laughed.
"Good to cover all the bases," Jan told him. "It looks like it's just us. Where's Tigra?"
"Taking a swim," Ka-Zar ducked a tentacle.
"Wonderful."
Suddenly, a shadow cascaded over Wasp and Ka-Zar. They looked up to see that the giant toad had actually leapt up into the air and there was only one place for it to come down.
"Uh-oh," Ka-Zar said.
Jan grabbed Ka-Zar by the arm and flew up into the air in a flash. The toad came crashing down and took half of the yacht with it to the bottom of the bay. Then it turned its attention to the sky and leapt after them.
Wasp tried to dodge it but it was too quick. A wave of its arm and Wasp was heading to the beach and bringing Ka-Zar with her.
Tigra burst from the Lorelei River and immediately shook off what water she could from her orange fur. She hated that wet feeling. Now, she needed to find the Mole Man and take her frustration out on him.
She didn't have to go far.
In front of her were at least twenty small, pale-skinned men with bulging slits for eyes. She knew they were the Mole Man's henchmen, but they looked even punier to her in person. They were standing in a circle, with the Mole Man's bulging figure clearly seen in the middle. And they were dancing. Dancing. Tigra couldn't believe it.
"Hey!" she called to them. "We're not dead yet!"
They all turned around to her. She could see the Mole Man shake with anger. It reminded her of a bowl of Jell-O during a roller coaster ride.
"Kill her, my minions!" the Mole Man shrieked.
"Minions?" Tigra leapt at them. "You're trying to kill the Avengers and all you can muster for minions are twenty guys that look like Abe Vigoda on crack?"
Tigra swatted away the first four that jumped at her but, before she could ground herself again, she had two around her ankles. She tried to kick up but then another was on her back. They were pulling her to the ground.
"How embarrassing," she mumbled as she was pulled to the dirt.
"Fear not!" a voice called from above her. She recognized it. Oddly enough, she was happy to hear it.
The minions all backed off Tigra for a moment and looked to the trees. Even the Mole Man put up his hand to block the glare of the sun as he turned upward.
Using his best Tarzan yell, Mister Immortal swung from the trees on a vine. A thin vine. A vine that broke halfway through his swing. The Mole Man put down his hand and tried to shuffle away from the falling, yelling hero but it was no use. The two collided and hit the ground together.
"You've got to be kidding me," Tigra snorted.
She looked at the Mole Man's minions and they looked up her. In a quick movement, she smacked five of them to the ground, delivered a round-side kick to take out three and launched herself at three more and tackled them to the ground. As she sprung back up, she saw the minions running off into the forest away from her. At least ten were trying to drag the Mole Man.
As the Mole Man's jiggling figure disappeared into the foliage, she made an effort to go after him but instead turned to the figure of Mister Immortal. He wasn't moving. Tigra knew he was probably going to be all right but he did just save her from a major ass-kicking. She could at least repay the favor.
"You okay, bud?" she called to him.
"Eh," he lifted his arm and waved without turning to her, "a couple broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder but other than that...the day is saved, right?"
"I hope so," Tigra said. "I'd hate to think I got soaking wet for nothing."
"You bastard!" Quicksilver yelled as he saw the Vision's remains.
Graviton simply looked down at them all with a grin so bright it rivaled the glowing Earth behind him.
"And to think," Graviton chuckled, "that was only a mere twist of my wrist! I assure you all, I will put much more effort into killing the rest of you!"
At that point, Pietro felt the pressure on his back decrease. He was able to stand and he did so quickly. He looked to his side and saw that Black Bolt and Medusa and Crystal were all standing as well. Then he looked at his sister.
"What is this?" Graviton shouted, his grin gone from his face. "What's happening? Why can I not feel this moon any longer? Why do I not control you?"
Wanda's body was completely engulfed in red. Red energies flowed from her body and, for a moment, Pietro thought she was covered in blood. Her eyes were black and the energy that surrounded her began to form into a funnel over her head.
"The moon!" Black Bolt shouted through their minds. "She's nullified the Omega Machine! She's done it! We can stop him!"
"Then let's not waste the opportunity!" Medusa shouted back to him.
Quicksilver didn't need to be told twice. Jumping as fast and as high as he could into the air and swinging his increasing inertia, Quicksilver flipped at Graviton. He hit his mark and Graviton plummeted from the chair of the Omega Machine.
On his way back to the ground, Pietro saw Medusa's flowing crimson locks snatch Luna from where Graviton had her. Looking back toward Graviton's falling figure, he saw Black Bolt run to him. As soon as Graviton landed on the ground, Black Bolt's antennae shook with electrical anger. Graviton's eyes were wide as the fist impacted on his chest and he was sent flying backward.
"Medusa!" Quicksilver shouted at his mother-in-law. "Take Luna! Get her away from here!"
But Medusa was ahead of him. She ran off with her granddaughter, taking large strides with her locks as she ran.
Pietro looked back at his sister. She was shaking violently and muttering strange verses under her breath. Pietro reached out to her but Black Bolt's voice stopped him.
"She is losing herself!" Pietro's father-in-law yelled. "We must act quickly! Her power was only able to disrupt the flow of the Omega Machine! Not stop it! Soon she will not be able to hold it back!"
"What's happening to her?" Quicksilver yelled and he ran up beside Black Bolt. "What is she doing to herself?"
Black Bolt looked to where Graviton landed and then back to Pietro with a grave stare.
"She's giving her life for us."
The Surfer saw the Earth's moon increasing in his sight. In the corner of his eye, however, he saw something blinking. He curved his path and stopped at the object. He was surprised to see it was...human.
The human was bald and naked and half his body seemed to have been scarred black. The only distinguishing mark on that side of his body was the red mark of a heart over his eye. And immediately, the Surfer recognized him.
"Jack!" Surfer's mind was racing as he uttered the name of a friend he hadn't seen a long time.
He reached for his fallen ally, bringing Jack from the emptiness of space and onto his board. Surfer placed his hands on Jack's neck and felt a pulse, along with also feeling the intense, raging zero energy that was running unchecked through his friend's body. Surfer didn't know what happened to Jack, but he did know that Black Bolt's plight had to be involved.
Slowly, Surfer cupped his hands along the sides of Jack's face. His hands began to glow as he concentrated a fraction of his cosmic energy into Jack's body. In an instant, Jack sat up with red zero energy bursting through every pore of his body.
"Graviton!"
"We've gotten reports of mass flooding, sir!" a courier told the American ambassador. "The Nile, the Mississippi, the Yellow, the Rhine! They're all overflowing too fast to be controlled! We haven't even gotten reports from the coasts, sir! The flooding has knocked out all communications!"
The noise was overwhelming. Every ambassador was yelling at Hank and Gyrich at the same time. Questions, demands and threats were all being thrown. The two of them couldn't even hear the other right next to him.
"Where are the Avengers?"
"Why aren't they helping my country?"
"They're supposed to be heroes!"
"Typical American lies!"
"Call off the Avengers! We must negotiate!"
Hank had enough. He was starting to grind his teeth and his eyes were bulging. Gyrich put his hand on Hank's shoulder. They did not need an incident.
They got one.
The ambassadors were all quieted quickly as they saw the figure of Hank Pym grow steadily larger. And larger. And larger. Until Hank was as wide and as tall as the room. The ambassadors stared in awe, if not fear.
"That is enough out of all of you!" Hank boomed and he watched the ambassadors cover their ears. "The Avengers are handling the situation and we have lost communications with them! There is nothing else I can do!"
There was a silence as all the ambassadors looked at one another, to Gyrich and then back up to Hank's gigantic figure.
"Well then," the Chinese ambassador yelled up to Hank, "what would you suppose we do?"
Hank looked down at Gyrich, who was already looking up for a glimmer of hope from Hank. Hank turned back down to the ambassadors and slowly began to shrink himself to his normal size.
"We can only hope...and pray."
"Prayer will only get us so far, Mister Pym," the French ambassador quipped.
"It will get us far as we can go," Hank spat at him.
There was a slight chattering after that, but all the ambassadors took their seats. Gyrich and Hank took theirs as well.
"You think they're alright, Hank?" Gyrich leaned in and whispered to Hank.
"No, Henry." Hank looked down at his hands, "I don't."
To Be Continued...
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