Avengers Without Consent

the Eighteenth Tale

by Mark Bousquet

ASGARD - THE FOREST OF EARTH

MIDGARD STANDARD YEAR 2200 / NOVEMBER

The red eyes had haunted her dreams since the last time she was here.* Glowing, aloof, they appeared out of the fog and pulled together vines, leaves and muck. The sounds were of slurping and sucking as the environment gave up it's appendages so that the Man-Thing might be born again.

* Back in AGC 7, Fragmented Balance, Part Two

He stood, a leafy, muck-filled creature, at the edge of a swamp bog, looking at her. Angelica Osborn stood her ground, looking back at it. She had no idea that the Man-Thing had been waiting for this moment since the day of her birth.

The Man-Thing didn't want as a person, or even an animal would. It had no real thoughts, no real emotion. It was like the Earth it was made from in that respect. It lived. It protected itself. It survived. It could sense danger coming as it sensed a change in the seasons. But it did all of this without emotion, without hate or love or envy or pride. It didn't yearn to hear the Allman Brothers Band play on the radio on a hot summer night, or have the urge to stomp on the accelerator in a 2053 Charger as the open highway laid bare before him.

It was one of the most important beings in all of creation. It, formerly a he named Ted Sallis, was a Guardian of the Nexus of Realities. When the Asgardians had built this Forest of Earth in Asgard, a swamp had appeared in it's center and in that swamp, the Man-Thing had taken up residence.

"I do not run from my pain, I go to confront them, like a child of Asgard, for it is Asgard who raised me, Asgard who loves me and Asgard who I will defend to the death," Angelica whispered, knowing that a raised voice meant nothing to the Man-Thing when it had you in it’s sights. Angelica had the feeling that all of her innermost thoughts were laid bare before this creature.

The red eyes grew in intensity.

"I seek to go to Earth," she spoke, putting on as brave a front as she could, "to Midgard. I need to confront my mother."

The Man-Thing simply looked at her, making no move. The last time she was here, Angelica had seen him draw two thin trees together to build the portal to Earth. Since she hadn't seem him do it, she knew that he was refusing her passage.

So she took a step towards it.

"I've no time for games, Man-Thing," she said, her confidence rising, though not yet at the level of her voice. "I need to get to Earth before I go crazy and turn into the Green Goblin and kill everyone or everything or … or maybe just before I kill myself." She took another step, bringing herself within ten of the Man-Thing. She had started to shake. "Truth be told, I don't know what I hope to accomplish down there, but I need to confront my mother, I need her to see that I'm not afraid of what I might become. That I'm willing to challenge her and fight the Goblin Legacy."

The Man-Thing turned it's red eyes away from her and two trees that grew on opposite banks of a narrow passage in the swamp were drawn together, forming an arc over the water. Their branches intertwined with each other and Angelica had a vision that this would be how trees made love, if they ever were inclined to do so.

She looked at him/it as his/it's head turned back around. The red eyes shone brightly as an arm came up to point at the arc. "Thank you," she breathed and made her way to the portal that would bring her to Earth.

Walking along the bank, she approached the Man-Thing, getting ready to jump into the swamp waters for the last few feet.

She never made it.

With a quickness she'd never heard it possessed, the Man-Thing suddenly shifted in front of her, blocking her path. "What -?" she started to say when the Man-Thing rose a hand into the air. Angelica reminded herself of what Beta Ray Bill had written in his Histories of the Marvels, "He who knows fear burns at the touch of the Man-Thing."

The red eyes bore into her soul. She tried not to be afraid as the green hand clasped her shoulder.

Angelica Osborn screamed as her right shoulder exploded in searing pain.

Her world went black.

SPACE

Captain America soared through open space, favoring the couple hours it would take him to get to Ondur'ra instead of the near instantaneous jump through the Surf. He needed time to think after his trip into the Fantastic Rocket, the tomb of Reed Richards.*

* In AGC 14 - 16, the Fantastic Mystery storyline

The truth was, he didn't know how he felt about his discovery of Reed Richards clones perpetrating themselves endlessly in the hopes, they said, of working behind the scenes to solve the Everything's scientific ills. Their answers were too exacting to his questions, their motives seemingly nothing but pure and yet … and yet, there had been 20 dead clone bodies that had been discovered throughout the Fantastic Colonies.

He'd wanted to further check out the Rocket, but he had a rare vision of Cosmic Awareness before passing out and when he awoke, he was back outside the Rocket with Saint. The FC Security Chief had told him that the four Reeds promised they'd take more precautions with the cloning procedures so no more dead bodies would turn up. Cap had wished he heard that promise himself, but there was nothing he could do at that point except burst back into the Rocket and demand answers.

Instead, he went back out into the Colonies and did some checking on the statements the Reeds had made and everything turned up without incident. He still wasn't 100% sure about their activities, but without direct evidence, he just had a hunch.

And with the amount of good the Fantastic Colonies were doing - saving millions, if not billions of lives annually throughout the Everything, working day and night to stop Thanos' mad genetic experiments - it was hard to make an incident over their results.

Before he left he made certain that Saint would keep him informed. Then, after that, he found Ahmad Elsani, the young man who'd alerted him to the dying clones in the first place, and made him aware of certain things to be on the lookout for and to tell no one but himself about it. The young man was very eager to accept Cap's "mission" and Steve had to smile at that. The young man must've played his share of spy games as a child.

It was unfortunate, he thought, as he arced upwards to get a better view at a passing comet, that he hadn't gotten a chance to spend more time with the crew of the Supreme Unintelligence, but once Grennan had let him know that a woman on Ondur'ra could tell him about the group of young kids who'd taken on the Avengers name without the Avengers approval,* he had to leave immediately.

* Who, once upon a time, were rumored to be held on Titan 3, which is why Cap was part of the raid there in AGC 1

He was looking for a woman named-

"Aaaargh!" his body blurted as someone crashed into him from behind. Whoever it was had his hands locked around Cap's waist and their shoulder driven into Cap's lower back. The force with which they hit the Cosmic Protector was severe enough to disorient him momentarily. Struggling, Cap tried to break free of the grasp, but was unable. The man's hands were locked tightly together.

"Today is the day I have my revenge!" the man yelled triumphantly.

"Ikaris," Captain America whispered, recognizing the voice.

"Yes, Ikaris!" the Eternal bellowed as he continued to drive Cap forward. "At long last the Eternals will have their vengeance on the man who damned their race! Many of my people would wish me to sink my fangs into your hide, Captain, and damn you for all eternity, but I am not many! I am Ikaris! I will have my vengeance with your head!"

Steve didn't respond. He wasn't going to argue this point again with Ikaris. He'd done it a thousand times over the centuries and the end result was never any different. Still unable to break the grasp, Captain America swung backwards with his elbows, trying to smash into Ikaris' head.

It didn't work - the Eternal had his head too low. "Nothing will save you today, Cosmic Protector!"

No matter how hard Cap squirmed, Ikaris held him firm. Deciding he wasn't going to break free of Ikaris' grasp with his current strategy, Cap calmed himself and directed his attention, for the first time since he was attacked, forward.

"Oh," he muttered, seeing why Ikaris wasn't letting go, why he kept driving him forward.

They were headed directly towards the passing comet.

It was, Cap figured in the five seconds before they hit it, roughly the size of Earth's moon.

They came down upon it from above and behind, hurtling through the void of space at an incredible rate of speed to catch the ice ball. Cap tried again to break Ikaris' grasp, but it was too late. The surface of the comet rushed up at him at a blinding pace. Instinctively, Cap placed his trusty shield before his face for protection. There was no stopping their descent, no way to avoid collis-

At some point under the icy crust, the Comet exploded, Captain America and Ikaris with it.

DARKNESS

Angelica Osborn, disoriented and heaving, awoke with a start.

The first thing she did was scream. The second was to attempt to focus her eyes on the sight before her. 'Not a good idea,' she thought to herself, quickly shutting them again. She concentrated on her body, letting it go limp, trying to ascertain what was happening to her. 'I'm on the ground,' she thought. 'I've made it to Earth and I'm going to be okay.'

She sat up and opened her eyes.

Wherever she was, it wasn't the planet Earth. Trying to regain her composure as quickly as she could, she shook the cobwebs from her head and stood up. The world did a quick spin around her, but she recovered with only a few more dry heaves. 'Thank Odin I didn't have any supper.'

Instinctively, as all her senses returned to her, she was aware of a presence beside her. 'Just not him, anyone but him,' she thought as she turned to see who, or what, it was. "It's you," she said with a sigh as the Man-Thing stood beside her, it's red eyes aglow, his finger pointing to the East. "Talkative," she sighed, following it's lead.

Below her (she noticed she was on a large mountain and the Man-Thing stuck close to a cropping of trees) was a sight that shocked the humor out of her. Skrulls, hundreds and hundreds of Skrulls, in chains. They worked on several wide open rocky platforms on the side of the mountain, from just below them down to the bottom. They wielded pick-axes and they struck hard into the mountain. They were mining for something.

"Is this … is this the Skrull Homeworld?" Angelica asked, knowing from Bill's Histories that the original Skrull homeworld was destroyed by Galactus two centuries previous, but that they had eventually settled on another planet. Not that many Skrulls lived there. During their time without a home they had scattered throughout the universe. Most had died, either from in-fighting, in battle with other races, or in slave pits. If the Council hadn't taken them in - that is, if Odin hadn't forced them into taking the Skrulls in - it was only one's imagination who could determine how few Skrulls would be left alive. She turned her eyes to the Man-Thing, realizing he wouldn't answer her question with words.

The creature moved his hand, pointing to a different area of the mountain.

"No …" she gasped as her eyes came to see a man with a whip beating the back of an elder Skrull. Not just any man, but a member of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard. She felt sick in the deepest recesses of her body and mind. This was in direct violation of the Council Treaty. If this got out …

"We have to do something!" she yelled, turning back to the creature that brought her here. The Man-Thing remained emotionless as it raised it's hand and clamped down again on her right shoulder.

Angelica Osborn screamed as her right shoulder exploded in searing pain for the second time today.

She fell again into darkness.

SPACE

Captain America felt the comet start to buckle and knew an explosion was coming. When it came, he was ready. His shield in front of him, as always, taking the brunt of any attack, held when the explosion slammed them backwards with incredible intensity. The comet still had an active core and the resulting destruction was more than either Cap or Ikaris had anticipated. The comet's blast-force was enough to weaken Ikaris' grip. Cap twisted free as unconsciousness sought to overtake him.

Drawing on the last of his reserves, the Cosmic Protector made a jump into the Surf, hoping to escape to Ondur'ra through hyperspace.

Ikaris watched his hated enemy disappear before his eyes, his body unable to move towards him, and screamed until he passed out.

KREE-LAR

Angelica watched Kree life style with shock and dismay. The Kree elite dressed in expensive looking garb, ate the finest of foods, drank the finest wines and laughed as if they hadn’t a care in the world. They lived in a shining city. Their scientists wanted for nothing as they performed experiment after experiment. Their military trained in glorious facilities.

They lived without regard to the Eternal War that raged across the Everything.

"What kind of people are these?" she asked the Man-Thing, who said nothing. In answer, he moved to the side and she glimpsed the other side of Kree life, the working class.

These Kree worked menial jobs, sacrificing their joy so the Elite wouldn't have to work. Women and children risked their lives keeping the machines running that fueled the city and built the warships. They had no education, no entertainment. They ate scraps after too-long days of hard labor. Few so much as smiled. They hadn’t the energy.

She felt despair at the sight before her and fear at the thought that these were their allies in the war against Thanos.

When the Man-Thing's hand touched her shoulder, she didn't scream, but it burned all the same.

SPACE - NEAR ONDUR'RA

Near the planet Ondur'ra, Captain America's unconscious body exited the Surf. He floated towards the planet, his limp body being pulled along by the large green planet's gravity. Had he opened his eyes, he would have seen the beautiful planet before him and thought that this was the kind of planet that Dani would have loved to live on.

He also would have stopped himself from falling.

His body rolled easily over onto his back as he began to fall through the atmosphere towards the planet's surface.

At that moment below, a young woman wrapped in a tan cloak that covered her upper body but not her athletic legs looked up to see the fiery descent of something come tearing through the atmosphere. She watched it as it fell with great interest. Ondur'ra did not get many visitors and as the burn faded she could see that it was, in fact, a man who had dropped through the clear sky.

Though the body was too far away for her to tell who it was, she was able to tell that it was covered by some kind of protective aura and despite the fact that it fell without signs of life, she thought it certain that he was alive. And something inside her told her the being would survive the crash.

Two miles away, the body careened into the ground as a warship might crash land in an emergency. It didn't hit the ground flat, but rather skimmed into the surface, causing a trench to form behind it.

She ran easily towards the body in a light jog, her swords bouncing on her back as she made her way over the grassy plains. Within ten minutes she was at the start of the trench, but she didn't stop jogging. Her goal was the man at the other end of this carved piece of this glorious field. From here, she doubted the Elders would have seen the body fall, though it was possible they'd soon be alerted. Even still, they were half a planet away and it would take weeks for them to reach her unless they broke Code and used a mechanical vehicle.

It was possible, but she couldn’t risk it, she knew, as she came upon the body.

With a gasp that would have brought her a week's silent prayer if the Elders had heard her, she saw that it was the Cosmic Protector himself.

THE PLANET SKRULL

Angelica wept openly. The conditions before her were … could any single word describe what she saw? Skrulls, emaciated, sick, living in squalor. They had no buildings but mud huts, loosely constructed. They had no animals for meat, and their gardens were dry as bone, the few live plants infested with bugs.

Flies landed on the Skrull bodies but no effort was made to swipe them off.

Their eyes were lifeless, resigned, it seemed, to the fate of Death.

Turning to see the Man-Thing, she was surprised to find him barely bigger than a sapling. There was no vegetation here for him to draw strength from. His thin hand reached out for her shoulder and Angelica, afraid for the fate of these Skrulls, cried out as contact was made. This time, however, she did not pass out from the pain. Whether it was because she was getting used to it, or because the intensity was lessening, she couldn't say.

Neither did she care.

This time she was aware of the jump through space (and time?) and she came to find herself on a planet with no Skrulls, no Kree and no Shi'ar. For that she was grateful.

That didn’t make it any easier on her when she saw Captain America kneeling before seven tombs, his head shaking as he read their inscriptions. Silently, without looking at the Man-Thing, she walked towards the Cosmic Protector.

"Cap," she called, her voice sounding like it was inside a dream, hollow and echoing.

He turned to her, in slow motion, every movement leaving a trail of images behind it. "Angelica?" he asked, as surprised to see her as she was him. "What are you doing- oh, I see," he said, looking behind her at the Man-Thing.

"What's going on here?" she asked, though it came out like, "Wwwwhhhhhaaaaaat's goinggggggg onnnnnn hereeeeeeeee?"

"I don't knowwww," Cap answered. "The last thing I rememberrrrrrr, I was fightinggggg Ikarisssssss and jumped to the Surrrrrrrrrrrrf. I thought I was dreaminggggg."

"Maybe you are?" Angelica responded with a question. "Whose gravesssss are these?"

"The Avengersssss," Cap said, his voice soft and mournful.

"The Avengersssss?"

"Not the Avengers we knowwww," he said sadly. "These were kidsssss who took the name on their owwwwwwn, without consent."

Angelica had heard Dani talk about these Avengers and how Cap had mourned for these unknown seven kids as much as he had his own friends when they perished. "The Avennnnngers were the greatest of heroessss Captain," she said softly. "They tooooooook the name in tribute."

"And look what it brought them," Cap said, his voice suddenly breaking though the haze, his hands gesturing to the tombstones. "Death at the hands of vicious attackers. This is all that ever becomes of the Avengers. Death in battle."

"The Avengers are an inspiration," Angelica spoke, feeling herself slip away.

"Not to me," Captain America answered sadly. "Not anymore. Not after … not after Ragnarok …"

ASGARD - THE FOREST OF EARTH

Angelica was back where she started. A shock ran through her body as she fell to the ground in front of the Man-Thing. Her right shoulder burned, the Man-Thing's hand permanently scarring her flesh.

Slowly, she rose to her feet and looked into his dark red eyes. He pointed towards the bent over trees that formed the arc that would take her to Earth. She looked at it and saw an image of an Earthen city at night. The arc was once again a doorway.

She was shocked to suddenly see the appearance of her mother, the Green Gobliness, in the image, screeching across the skyline, hurtling pumpkin bombs and laughing maniacally. Angelica gasped as she saw the Gobliness spin her goblin glider around. Impaled on the front of the glider was the dead body of Ben-Vell Parker.

The Gobliness flew directly towards the doorway then, looking right into Angelica's eyes and stopped, her mask making up the entirety of the image.

She laughed, hard and cold and wild.

The Green Gobliness reached up and pulled off her mask to reveal her identity.

It was Angelica herself.

Her eyes popped out of her head and she heard her mouth let loose, "No, no, no …" She turned to look at the Man-Thing. The message was clear. That's the future she had in store for herself. That was the Goblin Legacy. That was what she was going to Earth to confront.

She closed her eyes, a single tear dropping from each eye as the Man-Thing reached it's hand out and placed it upon her face. A voice inside her head remembered the words, "Those who know fear shall burn at the touch of the Man-Thing!" as the large muck-made hand fell across her face.

Angelica Osborn did not burn.

She was ready.

The hand of the Man-Thing fell away and she opened her eyes to see the Guardian of the Nexus of Realities fall back into the swamp. The two red pulsating eyes glowed bright once more, than faded dark. After a second, they, too, fell into the swamp, lost beneath the surface of the water.

Angelica turned to the doorway and walked into it.

She was ready.