Avengers

The Moon, in it's proper place, shown beautifully through the dark clouds that hovered over the bright lights of New York City. Tigra looked from the shining rock and over to the man sitting next to her. Then she peered over her shoulder and down the high arch of the Brooklyn Bridge.

"You know," Tigra said as she grinned to herself, "that was a pretty classy thing you did tonight."

"Hmm?" Wonder Man looked over to her and she saw that there was a grin on his face too. Only it was much bigger.

"Don't even!" Tigra nudged him with her elbow, "You know exactly what I'm talking about!"

"Oh yeah." Simon laughed, "Well, I mean, yeah. What else was I supposed to do?"

"Well, you didn't have to do that." Tigra laughed with him, "Did you see the Wrecker? He had spewed out half his daughter's medical records before he even got in handcuffs!"

"He did seem pretty elated." Simon smiled, "He wasn't the only one."

"That's awesome, Simon." Tigra leaned her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah." Simon said, "And that's what it's all about, Tigra. Through all this business with high-powered criminals and giant monsters, through every alien invasion, all the insanity I've seen as an Avenger, that was what it's all about. That little girl...she was so helpless."

"Well," Tigra stood up and stretched, "thanks to you, she won't be for long. What do you say we get back to the mansion? As great as this night has been, I am going to be sore in the morning. I better get some sleep."

Simon was still quiet, looking out over the water.

"Simon?" Tigra pushed him slightly.

"Hmm?" Simon looked over at her, "Oh yeah. Sure. Let's go."

Tigra wrapped her arms around Simon's neck and he flew off the Brooklyn Bridge toward Avengers Mansion.

"So Flatman looks up at the Juggernaut and says 'That's not exactly what I meant'!" Craig laughs as he and Carol walk through the front of the Avengers Mansion.

And Carol laughs with him. Actually, she had never laughed so hard in her life. The entire cab ride from the bar where the two had met and danced was just one hilarious story after another about Craig's exploits in the Great Lakes Avengers. She would have collapsed from laughter on the way up the walk to the door, but, luckily, she had her arm hooked in his.

"God, that must have hurt." Carol said, actually she didn't really say them as much she coughed them out in-between laughs.

"Hey, I haven't even told you about the time we ran into the Living Laser at the Super Wal-Mart!" Craig laughed, "You'll never guess what he was buying!"

Both of them had to stop walking and hold their sides as soon as they got through the massive oak front doors of the mansion. They both were on the verge of tears and Carol had to lean on Craig for support. After a while, they both finally regained control of themselves. The two stood, looking at each other for a second before Craig let go of Carol's arm.

"Well," Craig said, "I should probably go...eh, I still have stuff to unpack."

"Oh." Carol replied, looking at the floor, "You moved in pretty quickly."

"That's about all I've done." Craig told her as he lightly scratched the back of his head, "My stuff just came today actually. Can't say there's too much to unpack, really."

"Well, do you need any help or anything?" Carol asked, "I mean, I'm pretty adept at moving heavy objects..."

"Yeah, I'll say." Craig laughed and rubbed his ribs, "You pack a mean punch...for a girl, I guess."

"Watch out!" Carol playfully shoved him, "You don't know how mean my punches can get!"

She kept sportingly shoving and poking him backward, laughing with him as she did and ignoring Craig's playful cries for her to stop.

"Alright!" Craig said, "I've had about enough of that!"

He grabbed Carol's hands from their attacking gestures and pulled Carol in closer to him. He knew full well what he was doing, knowing that Carol, with the heavy punch she carried, wouldn't have let him get this far if she didn't want him to. Even as the two looked into one another, their bodies perilously close, neither of them moved closer. So Craig pulled himself away.

"Like I was saying," Craig looked from Carol and to the clock on the wall behind her, "I should probably unpack some stuff before I hit the sack."

"I'll help you, you know, if you need it." Carol also backed away from him.

"Well," Craig said, "I'm probably not going to unpack alot of stuff anyway tonight. And, besides, if you were to come with me...who knows what might happen?"

Carol looked back at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Craig," she said, "We're both mature people here--"

"We're also teammates. We're also Avengers." Craig interrupted her and placed his hands on her shoulders, "So, don't you think we need to get our sleep?"

Carol was quiet after that. She didn't like it when she was wrong and, actually, she didn't think she was. But, Craig wasn't exactly wrong either.

"Then you owe me another dance." Carol looked at Craig with a smile.

"Ha!" Craig's face lit up like a candle, "You got a deal."

Craig brought up his hands and cradled Carol's face in them before lightly kissing her forehead. Then, he let go of her and walked casually and briskly away from her and down the hallway.

"Now get some sleep, fearless leader!" he called to her and then he disappeared around the corner.

Carol smiled and laughed to herself all the way upstairs to her bedroom. When she got there, she kicked off her shoes and jumped onto her bed. She hadn't done that since she was sixteen. While she was lying there, Carol realized just how tired she was. She crawled underneath the covers of her bed and switched on the television. The local news was on.

On the screen was the sight of a partly demolished building. There were construction crews and ambulances all around the place; their lights illuminating the grim structure. There were large bold letters at the bottom of the screen that read: Hospital Damaged In Superhuman Combat--Six Injured.

"Witnesses have confirmed that most damage had been caused by the superhumans known as Wonder Man and Tigra, who are also currently on the confirmed roster of Avengers, Jim." the news correspondent said as she stood in front of the rubble, "In apprehending the costumed criminal, the Wrecker, the Avengers apparently used any force necessary. Construction crews hope to have the rubble cleaned by morning so commuters can have a safe drive to work. Back to you in the studio, Jim."

Carol switched off the television and got out of the bed.

"Dammit, Simon."

Wanda Maximoff looked toward the Earth and smiled. She was floating atop the highest tower of the Attilan palace and reached for the Earth like it was a long lost sister.

"Wanda?" a voice chimed from behind her. It was exactly the voice she wanted to hear.

"Surfer." Wanda said, "I'm so glad to see you again."

"I have an urgent matter I must discuss with you." Surfer sounds impatient but Wanda doesn't seem to notice, "It regards Jack of Hearts."

Wanda didn't say anything. She continued to look at the Earth and gaze down upon the bright lights of the Inhuman capital city. But, finally, Wanda turned around and showed her smile to the Surfer.

"What did you do to me?" Wanda asked him in almost a playful voice.

"Wanda," the Surfer, upon his board, glided closer to her, "you are feeling the after-effects of brushing with cosmic awareness. Please do not let it distract you from your duties as an Avenger. As I have said, I fear that Jack--"

"Jack is slowly losing control of himself." Wanda finished for him, still with a casual and lax pace in her voice, "I saw the two of you on the mountain. I could feel Jack when I was moving the Moon. Just like you can feel his power all the time."

"Please, Wanda." Surfer said, seeing in Wanda what he had feared, "Listen to yourself. The power cosmic is not yours to handle. Even a mere brush with it has made you disregard your teammate when he was in dire need of help. Again, please, Wanda, get a hold of yourself."

"Get a hold of myself?" Wanda turned to the Surfer with eyes wide with excitement, "Don't you understand? I'm seeing things clearly for the first time. Jack's powers will burn him away. It's inevitable. And it's acceptable. The zero energy within Jack was never meant to be contained like that. It needs to live free and wild like life was supposed to in the first instant it was created. Jack is the least of my concerns now, Surfer."

The Surfer glided even closer to Wanda, so he could be sure that she could see into the vastness that he knew was in his own eyes.

"You are not thinking clearly." Surfer said slowly and desperately, "The power cosmic was never meant for a human. And it was never meant for me either. You must move past this."

"Surfer, why would you want to move past the beauty that surrounds you, that lives within you?" Wanda asked, still smiling and gently running her hand down the Surfer's cheek.

"It is not beauty. You are mistaken." Surfer said grimly and he took Wanda's hand from his face.

"To deny your power is to deny your existence!" Wanda yelled joyously, "I know that now. If I have the power to put the Moon in it's proper orbit with merely a thought, what else could I accomplish? The safety of an entire planet? Perpetual motion? The creation of life itself? How can you deny these possibilities? You have the power! Together, we can do anything!"

The Surfer glided backward as she said that and swiftly turned from her and crouched low on his board. Wanda followed him, briskly gliding on air, until she knelt next to him on his board. She wrapped her arms around him and put her face into his shoulder.

"Everything you are saying, Wanda," the Surfer said, not moving, "is everything that I had to deal with when I first became a herald of Galactus all those years ago."

"Then you know I am right." Wanda whispered.

"I came to the same conclusion that you will, Wanda." the Surfer stood and Wanda stood with him.

"I've already come to my conclusion." Wanda said quietly, still grasping the Surfer's chest.

"You will come to another." the Surfer said, looking down at Wanda and now returning her smile, "But for now, you need to rest."

"What?" Wanda's smile faded.

Then, there was another blue flash, not unlike the one that the citizens of Attilan had seen before when the Surfer diffused Jack of Hearts, except that this was in a small instant. Then Wanda fell into the Surfer's waiting arms.

Wonder Man gently set himself down on the massive second floor balcony and Tigra swiftly leapt from his back to the cold marble surface. As soon as she landed, Tigra arched her back and stretched with a loud purring noise.

"Oh!" Tigra smiled, "This kitty needs her nap. I'll see you in the morning, Simon."

"Definitely. I'm making pancakes." Simon smiled, "So be ready for some good eatin'!"

"Yeah." Tigra laughed, "I'll be up early with the fire extinguisher."

"Right." Simon laughed along with her, "Jarvis'll probably have a heart attack by the time you get down."

"Ha! No doubt. Good night." Tigra said and she walked back into the mansion, "And, really, Simon, that was a great thing you did tonight."

"What was?" a voice yelled at them from behind.

Tigra and Simon both turned around and saw Carol leap from the garden below and onto the balcony.

"The devastation of one of the most important hospitals in the New York metropolitan area?" Carol asked as she landed in-between them, "Or maybe injuring helpless civilians in an impulsive attack on the Wrecker?"

"What?" Simon was taken aback. He moved farther from Carol, trying to make sense of what she was saying.

"It's all over the news, Simon!" Carol yelled at him, "Do you realize what kind of damage you did to that hospital? Do you know how bad the traffic is going to be in the morning for the people of this city? For the people who have to work and care for patients in that hospital?"

"Carol," Tigra said from behind her, "Simon and I were as careful as we could be! When you're dealing with people like the Wrecker, you can't really focus on too many things other than taking him out!"

"You are an Avenger, Tigra!" Carol turned around and spewed at her, "The people come first, the villains come second! You should know that if you're here!"

"The Wrecker wasn't going to stop, Carol!" Tigra continued her pleas, "There were only two of us anyway! We did what we thought was best! You weren't there!"

"I should have been!" Carol stepped, "This is a team, Tigra! It doesn't matter how massive or dangerous a foe you're fighting, the Avengers are a team! If you had even bothered to alert just two more of your teammates, then perhaps nobody would've gotten hurt!"

"You can't expect us to--" Tigra stuttered.

"The people of this entire planet expect us to keep them safe, no matter what." Carol said, trying to keep her anger under control and failing badly, "If one person is injured then we haven't done the job we've needed to!"

"If that's what you expect from your team," a voice from behind Tigra surprised her, "then you won't ever accomplish anything."

Tigra turned around and stepped to the side so Carol could see clearly who had just spoken to her. She saw the speaker and immediately, her shoulders slumped.

"We may have powers beyond those of your average hot dog vendor, Carol," Craig continued, "but that doesn't change the fact that we're human. If anything, it only makes us more vulnerable."

Carol couldn't say anything. Craig walked to her with an air of righteousness and determination that she had seen before but she merely blew away. But, now, that wasn't going to work. She knew him.

"With the responsibility that we carry around in our tights," Craig's face was close to hers now, "don't you think that a day where the world is still turning with six billion people on it is a good day?"

"No." Carol said loudly, right into his face, "We should expect more from ourselves. We should never settle anything but what the people of this world want. And they want perfection. One mistake could cost the lives of millions! You want me to just sit back and say 'Oh, well, that's alright. We all make mistakes'?"

"Of course not!" Craig yelled right back at her, "I'm asking you to take each situation for what it is! You can't just head into every confrontation with a standard idea of what should be done! Every situation develops differently! If millions of lives were at stake tonight, Carol, don't you think Tigra or Simon would have called us? I do. But, no, it was just the Wrecker! A villian that the Avengers have handled plenty of times!"

"That doesn't make him any less dangerous, Craig!" Carol shouted, "Do not undermine my leadership."

"I'm not trying to undermine anything here." Craig said, taking a few steps back, "What I'm trying to say is--"

"Enough!" Simon finally yelled from behind all of them.

Tigra, Craig and Carol all turned around and saw that Simon had flared up into the blazing purple form that they all knew him by. Red energy stretched from his eyes.

"This is unbelievable!" he yelled, his eyes so full of energy that none of them could tell who he was yelling at, "Every time I get involved with the Avengers, I think to myself that maybe I can make a difference! I'm a hero so why shouldn't I be an Avenger? And whenever I leave, I always think to myself that it's shit like this that doesn't make it worth it!"

"Simon--" Tigra tried to reach out to him but he flew backward off the balcony.

"No!" he yelled down at them, "I don't need to deal with this anymore!"

He kept flying backward but the flaring red from his eyes kept glowing brighter and brighter. The 'W' on his chest was waving and pulsing like a flag of war. Two words were audible before he finally faded from their sights.

"I QUIT!"

"Well," Henry Gyrich said with a smile, "There's someone I never thought I'd see here."

Hank Pym looked over his shoulder and stifled a groan. Gyrich pulled up a seat next to him at the bar. Hank looked around and saw the shady bartender, the smoke filled atmosphere, the old, single men who loosened their ties a bit more after every drink, and the jukebox which was the brightest source of light in the whole place. Gyrich was right. This was not Hank's kind of place.

"So what are you doing here?" Gyrich repeated.

"Don't flatter yourself, Henry." Hank looked over at him grimly, "I didn't come for your company."

"Ouch." Gyrich said with same snide tone that he'd had with him ever since Hank met him, "Rough day at work? That can't be it, since we have the same job."

Hank's face became even more grim and he finally asked Gyrich a question that had been on his mind since the first time the two of them sat down as the Avengers' co-liasons to the United Nations.

"What's the matter with you?"

"Huh?" Gyrich looked seriously puzzled, "What do you mean?"

"Ever since you left your job at the Commission on Superhuman Activities and started working with me," Hank continued, "you've been...different."

"Oh." Gyrich took off his glasses and shined them with his tie, "How so?"

"Henry, during my first encounter with you," Hank said, sipping his drink, "you basically blackmailed the Falcon into joining the Avengers. Come on. You're different."

"Ah, okay." Gyrich started to laugh as he put his glasses back on, "Well, I have to admit, I haven't been feeling too much stress lately. Of course, by the looks of you, I'm the only one that can attest to that."

"Why?" Hank turned to him, "Why are you so happy right now?"

"You should know, Hank." Gyrich said to him, smiling, "I mean, for years I admired you for it."

"What are you talking about?" Hank said.

Gyrich brought his hand from his lap and onto the table. He waved it for a second in front of Hank's face before Hank finally realized what Gyrich meant. There was a golden band around one of his fingers.

"You got married?" Hank yelled, not believing what he was seeing, "You're kidding!"

"Remarried, actually." Gyrich almost looked embarrassed, "Remarried to the now former ex-Mrs. Henry Gyrich."

"I didn't even know you were married before." Hank sighed, looking down at his drink.

"Contrary to popular belief," Gyrich chuckled and he patted Hank on the back, "I am human."

"Aren't we all?" Hank said darkly, not looking at Gyrich.

"Alright, what's the matter with you, Hank?" Gyrich said, waving his hand at the bartender for his usual Sam Adams.

"Nothing. Just the job, you know." Hank muttered.

"Right." Gyrich rolled his eyes, "Look, you got no one else here to talk to, and I'm not going anywhere."

Hank looked over at him, hoping to give him a stare that would flake Gyrich's skin off. It didn't happen. Hank looked back at his drink as he realized that he was never good at showing anger. Jan had always told him that.

"It's...Jan...again, I guess." Hank said not looking at him.

"Of course it is." Gyrich did not sound surprised, "Most of your problems seem to stem from your relationship with her, no offense."

Hank turned a cocked eye at Gyrich and wondered how he was supposed to not take offense to that. Maybe he was the same Gyrich underneath after all.

"Alright, alright." Gyrich raised his hands, "Sorry. But I have a point, right?"

"No, you're wrong, Henry." Hank said, showing real anger now, "It's never Jan. I can never be what she needs. There's always been the Avengers or...my problems that get in the way."

"Well, maybe you need to take a break from it all." Gyrich said, "Some vacation time for the two of you. I'm sure I can manage both our jobs for a little while---"

"That's not it, Henry." Hank continued, "It's not what she wants anymore. But it's all I've got."

"What is?" Gyrich asked, leaning over to Hank so he could hear Hank's mumbling a bit better.

"She doesn't want the Avengers anymore." Hank said slowly, "She just wants me."

"Now you're really not making any sense." Gyrich laughed, "A rich, beautiful woman wants to spend the rest of her life with you. Please tell me what's wrong with that."

"Because the Avengers has basically been what's kept us together." Hank said, turning to look at Gyrich, "It's all I know. I don't know if we could survive outside of this. I don't want to lose her. Not again. I really don't think I could take it."

Gyrich placed his hand on Hank's shoulder and looked like he was about to reply but he couldn't. He was interrupted by an annoying beeping that emanated from his jacket pocket. It was his cell phone. Gyrich sighed, took a swig of his Sam Adams and answered.

"This is Gyrich." he said into the phone, "What do you mean? How could they? Are they there now? How long before they are? Hold on. Let me get back to the Avengers Mansion and you can fax me the details there."

Gyrich slapped his cell phone together and put it back in his jacket before standing up from the bar stool.

"What's going on?" Hank asked him.

"We've got a situation in Texas." Gyrich said quickly, "We've got to get the Avengers assembled."

"Where are they?" Quicksilver asked, "I thought they wanted to get back to the mansion tonight."

"Pietro, quiet." Crystal told him from across the room, "With all that Jack and Wanda have been through, I think we can give them some extra time to get ready to leave. I mean, the Vision isn't coming back with them, you know."

"But we are." Quicksilver turned around and then, in a blur, he was standing right next to her, "If I'm going to be a part of the Avengers again, I think we should be more efficient with our time."

Crystal just rolled her eyes and scratched the massive head of Lockjaw, who sat at her side, looking up at her lovingly as she pet him.

"They don't know that we're coming back with them, yet." Crystal said, "That's something else that might take a little time to explain."

"We don't need to explain to them." Pietro said, "It's our business. There are two open roster slots and we're going to fill them. With our history, it won't be a problem."

"The Avengers are under a UN mandate now, Pietro." Crystal told him, "They might have a big problem."

Suddenly the doors to the common room opened and in flew the Silver Surfer, slow and monotone, on the surfboard that matched his skin. Behind him were two beds and, on them, lay the Scarlet Witch and Jack of Hearts.

"What happened?" Quicksilver yelled and he rushed over to the Surfer in half a second, "Explain yourself!"

"Please calm down." the Surfer said, looking to both Quicksilver and Crystal, "They are merely asleep. However, I must admit that I am the one who put them there."

"Why?" Crystal asked, walking over to her husband and slowly squeezing his shoulder.

"Because of positions that I have put them both into." the Surfer told them, "It is hard to explain to you right now. I will tell you as soon as we arrive on Earth."

"You're coming with us?" Crystal asked as the Surfer floated past her and over to Lockjaw.

"Yes." the Surfer turned around and looked at her, "I am going to join the Avengers."

To Be Continued...

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