ALL GOD'S CHILDREN

Ascension / Abandonment

Part III: Villainy Spreads Its Wings

the Twenty-Fifth Tale

written by Mark Bousquet

"You want me to what?!?"

Attumidunn the Valkyrie was not happy. When King Balder had called her to the Hall of Peace, she had assumed, mistakenly, as it turned out, that he was going to promote her to lead Valkyrie in the wake of Moonstar current state - that of being put into a coma by Bruunhilde, ex-Valkyrie and General of Thanos' Angelux.*

When she saw Logan, the Barkeep, standing beside her King, Toomi got the idea that this wasn't going to be what she hoped for. Logan repulsed Toomi to her core; a fat, dark-green robot who was perfectly content to let his parts run down and play the role of friendly innkeeper instead of using his abilities in the war grated on Toomi's nerves in ways that not even K'Zan managed.

"Logan tells me," King Balder had said to her as they stood in a small, nonceremonial room inside the Hall of Peace, "that Angelica hasn't come to work for several days. Do you know where she is?"

"No," Toomi answered honestly.

"Did you know she was missing?" Balder continued.

"I did not think it was worthy of your attention," Toomi gave as her response.

"I take it that is a 'Yes' to my question?" Balder's face darkened.

"Yes," Toomi answered, stung by the criticism, but determined not to show it.

"With all that has happened with Angelica this past month, at the hands of Franklin Richards and the revelation of her lineage, you did not think it important to inform the Council that she has disappeared?" Balder asked, his anger barely being held in check.

Toomi opened her mouth to answer, then stopped. She didn't know what to say. "If my lord wishes me to find her, I shall leave at once to-"

"Nay," King Balder answered seriously, "I will send others to find Angelica Osborn. You will perform a different task."

"Anything, my lord," Toomi answered, bowing, hoping her aqua-colored-skin prevented much blushing. It had been a long time since King Balder had taken her to task without the other Orphans being present.

King Balder sighed deeply, taking no pleasure in what he was about to do, "You will fulfill Angelica's tasks in her place, since she is not here to perform them, herself. You will report to Logan's at 3 this afternoon to begin work."

Toomi's head snapped up and the words were out of her mouth before she could stop them, "You can't be serious!" Logan didn't know whose face - Balder or Toomi's - turned the redder at the young Valkyrie's words, but Toomi recovered quickly and took the next word, "Apologies, my lord, but … I am a Valkyrie! To work as a … a … bar's maid … it is beneath my station, is it not?"

King Balder leaned back in his chair, tempering his anger, "You are right. To work as a barmaid is below a member of the Valkyrior." Beside him, Logan's face darkened, but he dared not speak. Balder came down from his throne to stand in front of Toomi.

"It is the will of King Balder," he said slowly, his eyes never leaving the young Valkyrie's, "that Attumidunn of Earth is, from this day until further notice, no longer a member of the Valkyrior. All privileges and powers associated with her position as a Valkyrie are, immediately, revoked."

Toomi's heart fell through the floor.

FROM THE STREAMED CONSCIOUSNESS JOURNALS OF ATU SUMMERS, the WITNESS

RECORDED: 27 APRIL 2005

CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY

I'm nineteen and my days are happy. The world sings songs of joy and relief to Henry McCoy, the member of the X-Men known as the Beast, who has recently revealed to the world that he has found a cure for the Legacy Virus. He's given me a copy for future generations to study in the hope that the world never again has the Legacy Virus to deal with.

ATTACHMENT: LEGACY CURE.doc

Normal / Mutant relations have never been better. Which isn't to say they're great - not by a long shot - but more and more mutants are outing themselves with each passing day. Things are improving; mutants have even become the "cool" thing for some kids to be, the way athletes and rap stars are. I even saw Jean Grey on television today doing a commercial for milk. Slowly, surely, the tide is turning - that's the important thing.

I have a girlfriend now. She's a few years older than me and she's corralled me into hanging out with her group of superfolk - the Liberty Squad. They've been around for just a few weeks, and their headquarters is an abandoned warehouse across the river in Jersey, so they don't really mind me hanging out. Let's see, for posterity sake, there's Cannonball and Siryn, our co-leaders (and romantic love-birds), Husk (Cannonball's little sis and my girlfriend - I really think you'd like her, mom), Ant-Girl and Tin Can - who I don't mind saying is a complete jerk. He's got this whole anti-authoritarian thing going on which he claims stems from the fact that he's got all of Dr. Doom's memories crammed in his head. Whatever. Guy's a jerk and if he ever speaks to Husk in that tone of voice again …

Well, I probably won't do anything. Still having problems with that whole violence thing. But Husk'd probably kick his ass.

"Liberty Squad! Report to headquarters!"

I sigh, roll my eyes and look to Husk, who just shakes her head.

"Report to headquarters?" Tin Can scoffs, his head the only piece of flesh we can see of him, the rest of his body covered in the dark grey suit of armor he wears constantly. "Is this a Saturday morning cartoon? Who does he think we are?"

"Oh, shut it, Vernard!" Ant-Girl - Cassie - waves her hands at him.

"Please," Vernard replies as we walk to the stairs at the end of this dusty, decrepit floor, "you're not buying into his whole 'up with team' concept, are you, Miss Lang?"

That's another thing - he calls us all Mr. Summers and Miss Lang when he wants us to realize how brilliant he is. He's not any older than the rest of us. We make our way downstairs where Cannonball and Siryn (Sam and Theresa) are watching a little vid-phone monitor that we're borrowing from Ben Grimm, their hands intertwined lovingly.

"What's up, big bro?" Husk asks Sam and he cringes. He's trying, I'll give him that. He really wants this Liberty Squad idea to catch on and do good things but … well, I hate to agree with Vernard, but Cannonball is a bit of a … I believe the phrase is, 'a Boy Scout'. Vernard also favors ‘rube,’ but I wouldn’t go that far.

"Look at the, um, monitor," he motions to the little screen sitting atop a flipped-over metal (and rusted) waste drum, embarrassed by the look he knows Vernard is giving him.

"What are we supposed to be seeing?" Vernard asks, not hiding his contempt. In another minute, he'll be telling us all - again - how much better things would be if he were running the team.

"Detroit, ye daft bastard," Siryn scoffs at him, not hiding her contempt, either. "AIM is attacking Detroit and it's up to us to stop him."

"Why us?" Ant-Girl asks, curious.

Cannonball coughs, "Because, well, everyone else is busy."

"Doing what?" Tin Can guffaws in disbelief.

Sam locks onto Vernard with what he's developed into a pretty serious stare, "Because villains are attacking major cities all across the globe as we speak. The Avengers are in Washington battling Yellow Claw. The Red Skull and Alpha Flight are going at it in Montreal. A group of non-affiliated heroes - Daredevil, Spider-Man, heck, even Ben Grimm - are trying to keep Manhattan from being overrun by-"

"And?" Tin Can asks, sighing loudly.

"And we drew Detroit. Any more questions?" Cannonball stares at Kristoff hard.

"Yeah," Tin Can answers, not backing down, "how are we going to get there? By bus?"

Angelica Osborn sat around a large, circular table with Tricolour, Sibearia and Spider, noticing how uncomfortable Spider seemed to be here, inside this bright building, with heroes that were beyond his street-level status.

"The third part of the Abandonment," Tricolour explained to Angelica, "occurs in 2005, a year after Reed and Sue Richards depart Earth for the last time. News of Reed and Sue's flight to the stars was actually taken well by the people of Earth, after the unfortunate suicide of their son, Franklin, folks wished them well in their journey. In 2005, the villains of the planet wizened up and started attacking cities other than New York. Really, it's amazing to me how easy the First Age heroes had it, with most of them able to live right in and around New York City."

"Unlike now, of course," Angelica offered, not knowing if she was trying to anger Tricolour or not.

"Of course," Tricolour responded cautiously, showing that she didn't know where Angelica was coming from, either. "By staying isolated in major metropolitan areas on the coast of the United States, there was little need for people in the central and southern sections of the country to think of the heroes as anything more than simple entertainment on their television screens."

"But when villains started not only attacking cities like Boston, Phoenix, Wichita Falls and Seattle, but decided to make them their permanent bases of operation," Sibearia continued in his deep, rich voice, "people were confronted head-on with the super-villains. This is one of the reasons why the acceptance of mutants sharply increases at this time."

"Why is that?" Angelica asked.

Spider answered, "Because the guy next door who can float twenty feet off the ground to wash his second-floor windows doesn't seem so creepy when the Scorpion and Shocker are tearing up the local mall every other week."

"Cities even competed with other cities to-"

"THERE IS A LEVEL 3 EMERGENCY IN WAKANDA," the Citadel's central computer broke in suddenly in a calm, female voice.

"Ignore," Tricolour replied with a wave of her hand.

Angelica sat there stunned, unsure if she just heard what she heard, "Excuse me, did you just tell the computer to ignore the emergency in Wakanda?"

"Yes," Tricolour sighed, not wanting the conversation that was coming.

"Why?" Angelica asked, stunned.

"Because Wakanda, or what's left of it, isn't a member of the United League of Nations and, as such, they don't receive any aid from the Saviors," Tricolour responded angrily.

"But-?"

Wanting to stop the argument before it started, Sibearia interrupted, "Please, Angelica, if it were up to us, we would go and fight whatever battle needs to be fought." The large bear shot Tricolour a look that told her to keep her mouth shut. "We are a funded program of the United League of Nations - the ULN - and are thus beholden to them for certain things. One of their regulations is that we can not interfere with the non-ULN nations. There was a time when we were allowed to stop them, but after a … tragic occurrence," Sibearia's head and voice dropped, "we have been forbidden. And with good reason, I'm afraid."

Angelica was about to ask about the tragic occurrence, her anger almost at the breaking point, when the computer interrupted them, again, "THERE IS A LEVEL 2 EMERGENCY IN CALANIA, SPAIN, SOVIET EUROPE."

"Display," Tricolour quickly asserted and the four assembled watched as a 3-D image appeared over the center of the table. Tricolour slammed her fist down on the marble table-top, "Damn him! The Black Knight!"

Angelica looked at the scene and saw what she knew to be an Iron Sentinel - a large, ULN sanctioned robot designed to look like the old red-and-silver Iron Man armor designed by Tony Stark that was used as a police force - being attacked by a man in what she could only guess was Medieval armor, riding a metal glider.

"Let's go," Tricolour said hotly. "Computer, alert the rest of the Saviors to meet us in Calania." She turned to Sibearia, "That rebel will not escape my watch like he escaped Empire's, Sibearia."

The large bear said nothing in response.

I have found a nice, safe building to stand in and watch the rest of the Liberty Squad do their thing and stop AIM. We flew here on a borrowed Fantasti-Car. The Fantastic Four really are non-existent right now, after last year's move into space by the four then-current members of the group: Reed Richards, Sue Richards, Quicksilver and Crystal. Our leader, Cannonball, was a member of the group for a while, and while he and Ben Grimm remain on pleasant terms, the Thing has shown little interest in reforming the group, preferring to spend his time with his wife, Alicia Masters, the world-renowned sculptor and their child.

What the other members of the Liberty Squad do not know, but I do, thanks to my all-seeing powers is that the Thing offered Sam the FF's Pier 4 headquarters to reside in as a base of operations, but Sam said no, preferring to make it on our own.

Yeah, that's the kind of guy he is. No thanks, Mr. Grimm, we need to find our own way in the world.

Sometimes I think Sam is purposely trying to sabotage this team.

I look over to the manufacturing plants where they assemble suits of the Guardian armor that are used in the prison systems to help control the super-powered criminals and see Cannonball and Ant-Girl battling with a group of AIM soldiers, their yellow uniforms leaving no doubt as to who we fight against. The greatest concentration of AIM soldiers is in that direction and I watch them, giving them help when I can.

"Tin Can," I say into my communication device, seeing Vernard battling a five AIM soldiers in downtown Detroit, "AIM reinforcements - seven soldiers - are three blocks away and approaching you from the west. Be advised."

"Never mind me," Tin Can snaps back, "just use your fancy sight-powers and find us the key to ending this threat."

I don't respond, getting back to my part of this little battle, glad I'm safe up here and not down there with all the battles and bloodshed. My mom - Rachel Summers, the Phoenix - tried to raise me to be strong, but … well, too much of my father in me, I suppose. I look around the city, trying to figure out just what it is AIM is after here. I can see almost anything, anywhere, with my sight powers, genetically bequeathed to me by my dad, Uatu the Watcher, but I still need to know where to look and what to look for. For instance, when I look at a building, I can see, at some level, everything in the building, but to bring it in to focus, I need to know what I want to see so my sight can zero in on it, or else I have to look room by room. It can be frustrating, especially when I'm looking for something small or unknown, but I'm learning.

It would help if I'd stop looking for Husk to see if she's okay, but, well, I can’t. What can I say, I'm in love with her. Right now, she's in the public gardens, trying to keep the public calm. I know it angers her that her older brother keeps giving her the least-dangerous assignments, but what can I say, I'm completely with him on this one.

I notice he’s given Siryn a pretty easy assignment this time, too, playing hit-and-tun. That’s not usually his style, but Theresa’s gone along with it this time.

Odd.

I go back to the warehouse where Sam and Cassie are battling the AIM troopers and look hard through the various buildings and rooms, looking to see if there's anything there that-

"Cannonball!" I yell, louder than I need to. "Four warehouses to your left, AIM is stealing what looks to be a prototype Guardian armor!" I turn my nose up, "There's some weird looking, um, head sitting in a chair and, um, his arms and legs are really skinny and I swear I haven't been taking any of that Cloud-Nine drug but this is the weirdest guy- er, thing-"

"It's MODOK," I hear Siryn say in my ear. "Liberty Squad, everyone to the warehouses, now!"

I just assume she doesn't mean me, too, so I stay right where I am.

As Dani Moonstar lies still in the coma that Bruunhilde the Angelux put her in, Captain America by her side, three of the other members of the Council - Ash'lin of the Shi'ar, Kovar the Accuser of the Kree and Empire of Earth - huddle quietly together in another section of the medical facility and discuss the recent events.

"No," Empire shook his head. "He did not fight. Not that I saw."

Ash’lin and Kovar exchanged glances, then turned to Empire. Ash’lin said quietly, as if she were worried the walls themselves could hear her, "We have long suspected Skrull 4 to be a traitor to our cause."

Empire frowned, "I can not answer to that, Ash’lin. I have not been around-"

"Not the Council, you fool!" Kovar snapped. "Or even this bloody Eternal War with Thanos1"

"Your voice, Accuser!" Ash’lin snapped, her voice a sharp-whisper.

Kovar brushed the Shi’ar Ambassador’s worry aside, "Why did you go to Olympus in the first place, Earther?"

"To tap the gold reserves to-"

"It is obvious, is it not?" Kovar folded his large arms across his chest.

"What?" Empire asked.

"Skrull 4 has long wanted that gold for himself," Ash’lin continued. "The Skrull ‘Empire’ is in shambles, dependent on the rest of the members of the Council for support."

"So he wants the gold to better help his people?" Empire asked. "That’s under-"

"Fool!" Kovar scoffed. "You Earthlings … almost as contemptible and pious as the blasted Asgardians. Skrull 4 is a Cosmic race - he knows that there is only one way to best serve the Skrull Empire."

"And that is?" Empire asked, his face grim.

"With the complete and utter destruction of the Kree and Shi’ar Empires," Kovar said flatly, his eyes locking on Empire’s.

"Oh, don’t take our word for it," Ash’lin moved toward the door, Kovar falling into step behind her. "You just watch and see where he turns up next and what he’s doing. My guess," she opened the door, "is that it won’t be anything peaceful."

From my safe vantage point across the city I watch the Liberty Squad battle furiously against MODOK. They battle hard, slowly coming together as a team. Tin Can may be a huge pain in the ass, but he’s a complete pro when it comes to the missions and Sam, to his credit, has rightly seen that Tin Can will be the key to defeating the monstrous head in a floating chair. (And people say the future is weird …)

MODOK tries various assaults upon the Liberty Squad, but with the combined side attacks of Ant-Girl and Husk, the frontal assaults of Cannonball, and the technological attacks of Tin Can, it seems apparent that MODOK does not have long.

But still, Siryn hangs above the city, peppering me for updates to inform her what’s going on.

To be honest, I don’t know why she’s not in there fighting - unless Sam has decided the quarters are too close for two fliers to battle. But I didn’t see Theresa object. Is something wrong? They’ve looked frazzled these past few days, but they seemed fine this morning. If Theresa were to leave the Liberty Squad, I don’t think we’d survive very long at-

"Hel-lo Wit-ness."

"Wah!" I jump a hundred (okay, maybe one-and-a-half) feet into the air and spin around at the sound of the low, feminine, screeching voice.

"MODOK?" I ask, trying to decide if I’m more scared or surprised.

"No MO-DOK, fool!" this second immensely large head floating in a chair spits at me as it lurches forward, its eyes bugging wide. "I am MO-DAM!"

MODAM flying chair propels towards me across the small room and I find myself unable to- "Ooof!"

"You will die, A-tu Sum-mers! You will die! And MO-DAM shall reap the re-ward your sev-ered head will bring!" MODAM attacks me again - psionically? - and my body is pushed across the room where … ouch … wall. "Diieeeeeee!" the voice screeches and I look up to see-

WHAM!

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

World … turning … black … I …

"That’s enough, MODAM!"

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiii!!!!!!!!"

I shake off the cobwebs only to find that they’re not cobwebs, but my own blood. I have to struggle to stay conscious because I’d really like nothing better than to just …

Siryn’s scream rocks the entire building. Glass explodes outward and MODAM’s chair start to spark and falter. "Nooo!" MODAM screams and fires two blasts of energy from her chair toward Theresa, who dodges them easily. "The Witness must die!"

"The Witness?" Siryn asks, looking to me. "Atu? Why would anyone-"

"Theresa!" I scream and lunge to my feet. MODAM’s blasts that she had moments ago avoided, now came back to haunt Theresa as chunks of the ceiling fall on her, slamming into her back and knocking her from the sky.

"Dieee!!!!" You’d think someone with such a big head could come up with some new material. MODAM screams at me and I feel my body tossed yet again.

This is going to- "Uff!" Ouch … that … really … hurt …

"You okay, Atu?" Husk asks, trying not to smile.

"Yeah, sure," I reply, holding my head in my hands.

We’re still in the same room where we defeated MODAM, who sits, deactivated, like some horrible nightmare of a children’s toy in the corner of the room. Vernard has been all over her, his lust for technology equaling mine for Husk.

"What can you see?" Cassie asks me as she helps me to my feet. Somehow this is less embarrassing than if my girlfriend helped me up. Why? I don’t know.

I shake my head and the throbbing just gets worse, so I stop and look around. What I see isn’t too encouraging. "The Avengers have saved Washington from Yellow Claw, but the rest … Montreal is on fire, Toronto’s not faring much better." I just stop talking and look around. "My god, the whole world is burning … what is this?"

Cannonball and Siryn come over to join us so they can hear what I have to say. Theresa doesn’t look to good, but not as bad as me. She’s holding her stomach and Sam actually has his arm around her to give support and she’s not brushing it aside. They really must be in love.

"Berlin, Moscow, Paris, London, Madrid, Chicago, Seattle, Milwaukee, Tokyo, Beijing, god, even small towns in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma … it just goes on and on … what is this?" I’m starting to panic. I know how the future is - decay, poverty, squalor … is this how it starts? "What the hell’s going on?"

"The villains just got smart." We all turn to Vernard, his modified Dr. Doom armor never looking more appropriate.

"What do you mean?" Sam asks.

Vernard holds up a chip he’s pried from MODAM, "They’ve decided the heroes can have New York. They’re going to start taking the rest of the world."

Yep. This is how it starts.

Sam coughs. "Guess this is as good a time to tell you guys as not," he says quietly, looking to Siryn.

"What’s up?" Husk asks curiously.

Siryn takes a quick look around, then takes a deep breath and lets us have it.

"I’m pregnant."

On the television set, the world watches Ben Grimm.

"- so I’ll just skip anything fancy and get right to it. Last year, when Reed, Sue, Pietro and Crystal left for space, that was the end of the Fantastic Four. I’m here to tell you today, that because all the bad guys couldn’t let me and my wife get any rest, I have reformed the Fantastic Four. Yeah, yeah, I know I actually reformed them back in August, but the Mayor thinks everyone will sleep better if I make this announcement. So here they are: Colossus, Shadowcat and Nightcrawler. Sleep better."

We sit in the waiting area of our new headquarters here in Detroit, only half-watching the Thing give his announcement. After the incident with AIM, the city moved pretty quickly to get us to stick around and make this our new home.

Hey, why not? Better’n living in that run-down warehouse. Things have been-

The door opens and we all turn out head to see Sam come out to greet us, a big smile on his face.

"Well?" Cassie asks. "Don’t keep us waiting!"

Sam’s smile could light the city tonight, "Theresa’s fine, the baby’s fine. It’s a girl." Sam’s sister moves away from him to hug her brother tightly. "We’ve named her Canticle. Canticle Cassidy Guthrie.

ASCENSION / ABANDONMENT to be continued …

They’ve decided the heroes can have New York. They’re going to start taking the rest of the world.

Y G G D R A S I L

send letters c/o biscuit022@go.com

-- Mark Bousquet …

Northern Bear Productions

28 January 2001