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| Issue #9 July 2010 |
"The Kansas Effect" Part Two Written By Thomas Deja |
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Previously: The Avengers have had a quiet evening disrupted by a hole opening up in the middle of the sky above Brand Park's basketball courts--a hole that has disgorged both a man in cracked armor and a strange figure calling himself The Omega Centurion...a figure that, by all indications, is a corrupted version of Nova!
Meanwhile, 'The Children' are out for revenge against someone named Jordan Boone....
Rich Ryder stood on the flat top of Brand Park's midcourt. Vance Astrovik, the powerful telekine who took the improbably grandiose name of Justice and his best friend stood to his left. To his right, his present team leader, a woman who could turn her body into a weapon of pure energy, stood ready to strike. And before him...
Before Rich was himself--but not the version of himself that looked back at him in the mirror, a strange and hateful version that seemed proud of the his own cruelty.
A version that claimed to have killed all of his fellow Nova Corpsmen in a bid to amass power for himself. A version that proclaimed himself a member of something called The West Dominion Avengers.
That's just....that's messed up.
The self-proclaimed 'Omega Centurion' hovered in the air, energy slithering around his arms. The full face helmet was intimidating, preventing Rich from reading his intentions...which, he suspected, was the point. His hands, crackling with a discharge bright enough to blind, were slowly opening.
And Rich knew one thing.
"He's going to fire," he said in an undertone to Photon.
Without even looking at him, Monica Rambeau let loose with a blast of brilliant white light. "Scatter and Clay 'Em!"
Rich dove, mentally triggering the biochemical reaction that turned him into a literal human rocket. He took to the air and circled the enemy. Not surprisingly, the Omega Centurion's head swiveled to follow his flight.
"It was you, I bet," Omega Centurion said with a base chuckle. The energy that has gathered around his hands surged outwards to hit Rich in the side. The pain was like a thousand needles being shoved deep into his flesh, but he gritted his teeth and focused on absorbing and processing the power. "Two brains, one thought, huh?"
"No, I think we like our Richard's thoughts better." The unmistakable Russian growl of Colossus was like music to Rich's ears. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the organic steel form of his teammate tackle the Omega Centurion to the ground. Richard pivoted in the air as Piotr Rasputin rolled away, allowing for a barrage of sonic hammers to pelt the marauder.
This was what was meant by 'Claying.' A reference to the great Mohammed Ali, of allowing one member to draw fire--the 'rope'--while the others switch off, grounding and pounding the opponents constantly--the 'dope'....and Rich, being one of the tougher and more mobile members, got to be the 'rope'...
Lucky me, he thought as he concentrated on assimilating the energy. He gained altitude, watching as Vance lifted the Centurion telekinetically and slammed him into the fence. Elsa immediately took off at a run, threading her fingers into the chain link and emptying her pistol into his doppelganger.
"Always the blunt object, Ellie," The Omega Centurion commented with an evil, muffled chuckle. He slammed his arms against either side of the fence, a coruscating luminesce running along his limbs. Once more Rich recognized the signature.
"Bloodstone--get off the fence!" he called out, changing his flight path to close in on his double. Once the discharge reached the wires, the air seemed to ripple as if someone skipped a stone over this reality...and Elsa suddenly shuddered and fell back.
A massive bioelectric pulse. Given the reaction of Rich's teammate, powerful enough to kill a normal human being.
...which meant that whoever 'Ellie' was, she wasn't as powerful as Bloodstone. Rich filed that away for future use. He continued his trajectory, intending on knocking Omega Centurion into the woods--
But Simon had beaten Rich to the punch. With an incoherent roar of rage, Wonder Man slammed into the Centurion with enough force to tear open the fence and collapse it. The two men skidded along the ground, digging a deepening ditch into the sod. The night air rang out with the sounds of Simon's blows. Rich followed the path to see his friend blasted into the air. Photon flew up and ahead of him on the right, her body shimmering as she changed the wavelength of her energy form. On the left, Songbird created a sonic cushion to catch Simon.
Like lightning, Monica passed through Omega Centurion, causing the man to shudder briefly. She took once more to the sky just as Colossus started closing in. Rich swung around behind his opposite self and blasted him. "Hey, bozo!" he called out. "You suck at being me."
The Omega Centurion turned and fired, driving Nova back into--and through--a nearby tree....just in time for Colossus to knock the man off his feet with a two handed smash. The mutant strongman stepped to one side just as Elsa leapt into the air, delivering an open palm strike to the Centurion's neck. The villainous version of Rich made to get to his feet, only for Vance to pull him back down with telekinetic chains. Bloodstone spun on her heels and kicked him once more in the chin.
Rich winced in spite of himself. "Stilettos...man, that's gotta hurt," he muttered before looking at Melissa. "We need to get that helmet off."
"Sounds like you have a plan," Photon commented as she shifted back into her human form and started pummeling her opponent with energy blasts.
"Plan? I'm just making stuff up!" Rich called back and circled the Centurion. He swooped in close, landing blows to where the helmet met with his other self's throat.
Songbird continued her song, generating a trio of hooks that slipped under the Omega Centurion's helmet and pulled. The Centurion put his palms down against the ground, creating a seismic pulse that shattered Justice's telekinetic bindings, then flipped over--thus creating some slack in Songbird's chains. He grasped hold of the three strands with both hands and pulled forward, throwing the young girl to the ground hard. Rich swooped in at great speed, punching his evil self in the back of the head.
"What you doing playing with the amateurs?" Rich taunted. He could feel the Centurion's eyes following him as he pulled back. For a moment, the mirror version of himself started to rise in the air--until Colossus positioned himself underneath the Centurion and pulled him down to the ground ahead of him.
"You think I don't know what you're doing, Ryder?" The Centurion roared before Simon planted his feet against the man's shoulders and tugged on the helmet. "I'll roast all your asses before the other Revengers even see this speck on their horizon!"
Elsa fell onto the Centurion's chest. "That's enough out of you, I'd think," she said, landing a series of chops to his neck.
Rich flew up besides Justice. Vance seemed stunned, steadying himself against the backboard. "Bud, remember when you got manipulated into fighting the Fantastic Four?"
Vance coughed. "By the Puppet Master, yeah."
A burst of too-bright light flashed across their vision, as the Centurion propelled the two heroes off of him. Rich tried to ignore the urge to fly over there. "Remember what the Invisible Girl told us she did to knock out the Hulk?"
"Yeah."
The Omega Centurion finally took to the air. He faced the rapidly approaching Photon. The air around his arms rippled as he fired, bringing the team leader to the ground. "Okay, this is where we're done."
Rich started heading back toward the battle. "The thing with my uniform is that once the helmet's off, the system is no longer closed....," he called out to Justice.
"So you want me to--"
"Yeah."
The Omega Centurion swung to face Elsa. As the young woman staggered to her feet, the Centurion blasted her to the ground. "You, Ellie--I shouldn't have let what you do to me keep me from squashing you. Here, you're just a bitch."
A rock the size of a small couch smashed against the Centurion's back. "Leave her alone!" screamed Simon.
If the attack affected the Centurion, he didn't acknowledge it. "I know you...inside out, Ellie,"
he told the young monster hunter. "You're not like the Golem or Power Man over here. Your heart may be hard, but your tissue is soft enough for, let's say, a massive gravimetric pulse to crush you."
Colossus slammed into The Centurion with a tree. The trunk shattered, splinters flying everywhere. Simon continued pelting the alternative universe Nova Corpsman with a rain of debris. And still Elsa struggled under the increasing mass of gravimetric force.
Rich increased the velocity of his flight. As he passed Songbird, he called out, "Mel, when I give the signal, do that hook thing again!"
Omega Centurion laughed as the barrage continued. "You guys are so lame. Now that I've anchored myself, there isn't anything you can do. And when my buddies get here, man are we going to burn Lost Angeles to the ground."
Rich closed in. A second before he collided with his opposite number's back, he willed all the stored-up energy from the Centurion's previous blasts to create a gravimetric field. "Raise anchor, butthead," he said as his field canceled out his mirror-universe enemy's, severing the anchor and allowing Rich to carry him up and away from his team.
Please be behind me, guys. Please be behind me.
Rich kept flying his opponent higher. His right hand slid over the Omega Centurion's collar. "You say you know what I'm doing, jerk," he whispered in the Centurion's ear. "Can you guess what I'm doing now."
And then he felt it--a tiny stud on the right hand side of his collar. Rich pressed it.
The lower part of the Centurion's featureless helmet slid up, revealing a heavily bearded face. "What are you--"
From all directions, pale rose hooks flew around them. They affixed themselves to the edges of the helmet and yanked.
The Omega Centurion's helmet was pulled off. Rich was shocked to see how much...older his doppelganger looked. The Centurion bore the deep lines that bespoke of serious hard living. In that face, Rich saw what he could have become if he hadn't found the New Warriors and all he had in his future was the hardship and drudgery of one menial job after another.
"Seems I don't think like you after all, 'Dick,'" Rich said with a smirk. Vance had flown up besides them and surrounded the Centurion's head in an airtight bubble. Panic filled the alternative universe Rich's face. He thrashed about, but Rich held his grip firm until unconsciousness took him.
Rich looked to Vance. "New Warriors still doing it for themselves."
"You know it."
It took a matter of moments for Rich to dismantle the Omega Centurion's uniform--not difficult given that the uniform was a variation of his own. He kept finding himself studying the countenance of his alternate universe self. What other path did this Rich Ryder take? What mistakes did he make?
Photon was more concerned with the other person who fell through the still-extant gate.
She strode over the man. "Alright, I know you've been through Hell and all," she said, "but we need to know what's what so we can respond to it."
The man was on sitting on the ground, head on his arms. Sweat seemed to cover his entire skin through what was left of his armor. He raised his head, eyes glassy, and murmured, "It's still here."
Slow realization dawned on Photon. She looked over her shouder to the dimple in the sky. It had not changed position--if anything, it seemed to have gotten slightly larger. "Did you do that?"
For a moment, the man scowled. It looked as if he was going to be as hostile as the Centurion. Vance Astrovik raised his hands in placation, told him, "It's okay. We're not accusing you of anything right now."
The anger dissipated slowly. The man's shoulders sagged. "Yes. It's a gift. I'm a mutant."
"A pretty powerful one," Photon said to herself.
"You got a problem with that?" the man snapped. The anger returned in the man's eyes.
"Not at all," Vance replied. "I'm a mutant. So's the big metal guy. So is my fiance'. The Avengers are very mutant friendly."
"Avengers....thought so." The man sat there for a moment, his breath coming ragged in the night air. "My name is Charles Little Sky--I sometimes go by the name of Portal."
Photon nodded. "I remember you...that incident at Liberty Island a few years back."
"Darkhawk mentioned him when he was a Warrior for a while," Nova offered. "Said he was a real bad ass."
The Amerind man looked from one to the other, his eyes briefly wide in confusion. But he finally nodded his head. "Yeah. I've been traveling through dimensions...met a lot of people. Fought a lot of those people, took some of their trinkets."
"Like counting coup," Photon suggested.
"Yeah...like that. But then my dimension hopping took me to their world. The Revengers. You guys try to be the good guys, but not them. By the time I had arrived, they'd sucked their version of Earth dry....and they had their eyes on another, and they saw me as a way to get there."
Charles Little Sky locked eyes with Photon. "They want to invade our Earth. And they want to smash it to bits."
"Simon!"
Simon Williams was studying the dimensional hole in the air when Elsa called out to him. The thing kept its position, shimmering irregularly--and was growing very slowly. Holes that grew, even slowly, worried him, at the very least because The Avengers Files indicated that dimensional rifts or gates or holes showing up were never any good.
He turned to face the blonde woman. She was coming toward him at a run and was actually...smiling. And Simon was unsure whether he should be pleased or terrified.
He looked over at where the other Avengers were gathering to talk with the man the Omega Centurion was chasing. "We should probably join them. Maybe we can find out what the Hell is going on...."
"In a moment, yah?"
"Elsa," he said with a sigh. "You're the only one with no experience in a team before--"
"Says you," the monster hunter replied sharply. Simon stopped, turned the answer around in his mind, considered the best way to attack the veracity of it...and then mentally shrugged and decided to move on.
"Part of being in a team is being part of that unified front, gathering the information and preparing to do whatever your part in the pla--"
Without warning, Elsa grabbed Simon by the collar of his flight jacket, pulled him to her and kissed him full on the lips. At first, Simon resisted, the surprise of the action overtaking him. But the heat of her body, the press of her lips--sensations he couldn't feel when he was fully ionic--caused him to soften, and he found himself returning her ardor.
It was a moment that stretched out in Simon's mind, even though he knew on some level it was only for a few seconds. But then it was over. Elsa pulled back, her eyes cast downwards, a gentle smile on her face that Simon found incredibly sexy. "That was truly sweet, retaliating against the Centurion after I went down."
Simon's brow furrowed. "You think my trying to pound that jerk....was sweet?"
The smile disappeared. Elsa locked eyes with him. "Don't ruin the moment!"
"Wouldn't think of it," Simon said. "Especially with what that smile does to me."
She once more averted her eyes, this time accompanied by a smile that just got wider and wider. "The things I'm going to do to you, Mr. Williams...."
"Later," he murmured and took her hand. "Now let's go see what the others have found out."
"So this thing was supposed to close behind you," Photon said.
"Then why isn't it closing now?" Melissa asked.
Nova glanced over to the anomaly hanging in the air. "I think I know."
"So share." Photon turned to Charles Little Sky. "These things, they do close after you make them usually?"
"The moment I pass through."
Nova pointed toward the energy window. "If we're right about that Omega Centurion loser, his suit and his power set are derived from the same source as mine--standard issue Xandarian tech. And one of the neater secondary functions is the ability to generate stargates through space and time. To get to trouble spots quicker.
If we're to believe this dip, he managed to channel all the abilities of all the Nova Corpsmen of his reality. Which means he can create stargates of unimaginable strength. I'm thinking what Not-Me did was force a stargate into the center of the warp, forcing it to stay open. But..."
"Another but," Vance said to himself. "I can't stand it when there's a but."
"The warp has been struggling to close--and that means it's expending more energy than it was meant to. And without anywhere for that energy to go..."
"It's going outwards, tearing the dimensional membrane further," Photon finished. "Got it. Can we finish this thing before, I don't know, dinosaurs or conquistadors or some other crazy stuff starts tumbling out?"
"Not from this end." Nova's eyes went once more to the warp. "It'll be like trying to hold close a bag that's busted open from end to end. But if I can reverse the gate at the source so that it collapses the warp into it...well, the Centurion and his pals will be there, and we'll be here, and never the twain will meet."
"Plus we can shut down these West Coast Revengers," Melissa said quietly.
Photon's mouth dropped open. "Uhhh....what now?"
The Transmuter sat in his lap, arms around him, nuzzling his neck. The Heiress brought him the first wave of orders from the presentation that resulted in the battle on top of the Capitol Building. It looked as if the start-up was going well...
But his attention was elsewhere.
The datastream his prototype Ultron Mark X was scrolling down the monitor screen. Adjacent to it, a flatscreen television played the footage the drone obtained during the fight. He took in the information with a startling rapidity--a talent that served him well when he was building armors in his garage right after he won the lottery.
And as he took in the information, he was already making plans.
Even though there were other possible targets, the West Coasters were the closest to him. It eliminated the need for cargo and freight, gave him proximity to his labs, and more importantly gave him access to one of his friends while also sending a message to the people who first exploited him. Yes, there was another team with another friend who could be crushed....but the thought of the people who condescended to him back East despairing when the latest iteration of that version of the Avengers ended up in boxes.
All he needed to do was to decide which of his weapons to uncrate next....
His hands reached up to The Transmuter's hair. Fingers dug into her ebon tresses, pulling tightly. The Transmuter gave a gasp of pain....but the gasp became a sigh, as her eyelids lowered. He kissed her hard, his other hand sliding under the red and black bustier...
This, he thought to himself as he tore open the fabric of The Transmuter's clothes, is the life.
Melissa Gold stood before her teammates, her posture getting straighter. Her eyes turned to Photon. "You've always made it clear that The Avengers are an ideal. We're the guys who band together to make sure that even the absolute worst thing that comes after humanity gets beaten. We've met one of those Revengers, and he's made it clear what they want from us...but what about the people whose lives they've already ruined? Don't we have an obligation to them, too?"
"But we have an obligation to these people first," Photon replied. "In particular, these people on the Pacific Coast."
"So that makes us isolationists?"
"Does that mean if there is a crisis in Siberia, or Beijing, that we will not respond?"
"Don't be silly, Colossus."
The young mutant stepped forward. "I do not think what Songbird has raised is silly. I serve with you proudly, not because of my nationality but because it is imperative for us to provide an example to the common man--and what example would we be giving if we turned our backs on people who are obviously downtrodden because they are not from this reality?"
"I've looked in the files. In our history, we've fought on behalf of the Inhumans, the Asgardians, the Eternals, countless alien races," added Melissa "that we have less in common with that the people who are suffering on the other end of that wormhole. We save people regardless of where they come from and what their situation is. So I say we don't just seal off that stargate."
The former Thunderbolt's gaze swept her teammates. "I say we take the fight to these Revengers...and liberate the people there."
"As do I," Colossus added, crossing his arms.
After a moment, Justice looked toward Melissa. "You sold me. I'm in."
Nova shrugged. "You should know me by now, Captain. Let's put those Revengers jerks away."
Photon glanced over to Simon and Elsa, who were finally joining the group. The way the two were closer together, the way their heads were down in close conversation worried her. But the die was cast, and the mission was clear. She sighed and said, "Alright. Let's do it."
The young Amerind in what was left of the piecemeal armor watched as The heroes came to a decision.
It was all going to plan.
He allowed himself a small, secret smile...and his eyes seemed to shine like an animal's.
Monica Rambeau watched as her fellow Avengers talked amongst themselves. Utilizing her communicard, she had already texted Captain America and K. Everett Ross alerting them of their intention.
But there was one more thing she had to do.
When Monica volunteered to try to open the West Coast Branch again, she was determined not to make this another oddity. She was insistent that this iteration of the Pacific Coast team would be her legacy, the thing the others would point to as her gift to the world. And that meant making sure there would be a constant West Coast presence no matter what happens.
And back when she and Sam Wilson first started laying the ground works for this branch, plans were made. Back up plans. Plans that she recently shared with another member of her staff.
She dialed the number quickly. Monica looked over her shoulder as the line rang to see Nova and Portal consulting with each other, most likely working out the strategy for entering this other reality.
"Hello?" Angelica Jones answered.
"Angel, it's Monica. Get Sekh to pick up the other line."
"You need to activate The West Coast Substitute Avengers."
Next: The West Coast Avengers go into the portal to seal it off--and not all of them will make it to the other side. Plus--meet the West Coast Substitute Avengers, and who are...The Power Corps? "The Kansas Effect" continues with "The Night The Lights Went Out In Hollywood" next issue!
