A lone Blackbird glides across the edge of the sky, too low to be picked up on standard radar but high enough to avoid steeples. In its belly, six figures plan their next move. With his three-fingered grasp, Kurt Wagner, the mutant known as Nightcrawler, moves the pointer across the map on the bolted down table in the middle of the cargo hold. The map is of the state of Georgia, covered with red and green pins. Most of the state is peppered with red - a few green pins are yet left on the map - including their destination, Atlanta.
"How are we supposed to stop him?" Lemar Hoskins, Battlestar inquires, "The last time I checked, he's pretty far outside of our firepower league."
"And so we should just let him go then? Maybe until the Circus of Crime is ready for their next rampage?" John Walker, the USAgent smirks, "Sure, it's Terrax, a former herald of Galactus. Maybe we ARE outgunned here. But someone has to stop him."
"I wasn't saying we don't try. I was just noting..."
"I know man." John said, putting his hand on his former sidekick's shoulder, "But I think we all know that. Don't we?" he looked around the room. Nightcrawler had his game face on. Stern, confident. He was in control of the situation, even if no one really knew what the situation was. Shadowcat was smiling at him. John felt the Kitty's smile from across the hold. It warmed him, made him able to do more, to be more. What did that mean? He wasn't quite sure yet, but he knew he wanted to learn. The Black Cat stood at Battlestar's side, as had become customary in even the short time that the group had found themselves together. John mentally shook his head, whatever there was between Battlestar and the Black Cat still made him uneasy. Was it jealousy? Or something more?
She gives him a cat-ate-the-bird smile as she notices his eyes lingering. He
forces his eyes on to the last member present, Madcap. He hunched himself over
the map the minute he saw it, studying every inch, committing it to memory.
Whatever happened during that brief jaunt into the light* had changed the madman
into something different...in so many ways he was now something much more
frightening.
* During Issue 0 - GD
And yet, here he was, along with the rest of them.
"I'm talking to myself here as much as anyone else" John confides, "I would be lying if I said that the thought of taking on someone like Terrax wasn't scaring me shitless. But the way I figure it, it comes with the uniform."
"True" Kurt mouths, his thoughts drifting back to the day he and his fellow
X-Men charged up the hill to their certain deaths to buy time for other heroes
to stop the world-eater Galactus himself*. After doing that, after taking on the
dark incarnation of what they all had thought to be their friend Jean Grey**, or
battling the Beyonder*** - one more herald of doom just was another herald of
doom.
*Back in the original Secret Wars series
**The Dark Phoenix Saga
***Secret
Wars 2 - GD
It DID come with the uniform. It was just another part of the great responsibility he always spoke of. He glances over to Madcap, who looks up for the first time when Kurt's eyes fall upon him. Maybe this was another part of it.
"I just want to point something out here" the Black Cat says, as she leans on the table, instantly commanding the attention of all the men present with her low cut trademark uniform. "We don't actually KNOW that's it's really Terrax out there. What he's doing doesn't match anything that ANYONE has ever heard him being involved in. Going town to town destroying COMIC BOOK STORES?!? This isn't exactly the usual kind of crime one associates with former heralds of Galactus. Members of the Christian Coalition - maybe. Bringers of doom and destruction? Not likely."
"I resent that comment" Madcap states, without even looking up from the map.
"Excuse me freak?" The Black Cat exclaims in shock, putting her hands to her hips and looming over him defiantely.
He shifts his gaze upward. "I said, I resent your comment about the Christian Coalition. They're good people who simply believe differently than you do, and to make the type of comments that you just have debasing their character shows your level of hypocrisy."
"MY WHAT!" The Black Cat's jaw drops as Battlestar quickly grabs her arms before she can leap at the motley clad man.
"Can we keep these discussions civil?" Katherine Pryde, Shadowcat, asks, with more than a bit of an edge as she steps into the space between the Black Cat and Madcap. "You made a very good point" she says, indicating her fellow feline, "We DON'T know that it's really Terrax. It could be just about anyone. We can't go in with the narrow mind-set that we're tackling Terrax and get our butts handed to us for roling out other possibilities." her gaze shifts to Nightcrawler and the pointer in his hand, "On the other hand, we need to make sure we're prepared in case it IS him. It's a thin line, but we have to walk it."
John smiles, watching her take control of the situation. "Walking thin lines
is what we do best." he replies with confidence, after all, isn't that why we're
the
#2 - Screaming on the Inside
"THE MURDER, Part Two"
By Gary Dreslinski
Nightcrawler shrugs with a devilish smile, "Who knows? That's as good of an explanation as I'VE heard!"
Everyone chuckles, with an uncomfortable edge. After all, they all know, joking or not, he's also right.
Elsewhere
Jesse Crow, the Native American hero known as the Black Crow, wakes to find himself naked and in the middle of a small clearing, completely surrounded by large trees, each wider than a redwood with individual leafs larger and more distinctive than a maple.
"He wakes" one voice caws.
"He wakes" the chorus responds.
Jesse Crow severs his connection with the earth, rising to meet whatever challenge awaits him in his new surroundings. It takes him a minute to realize what he has done. He stares down at his legs in wonder as they continue to hold his once lame body upright. "Who is there?" he demands.
"He speaks" one voice caws.
"He speaks" the chorus responds.
"He questions" one voice caws.
"He questions" the chorus responds.
"In the name of the Earth Mother I ask you to stand revealed before me."
"He uses the Name" a voice caws.
"He uses the Name" the chorus responds.
"He has changed." a voice caws.
"Grown" the chorus responds.
"Has he Become?" a voice caws.
The chorus does not answer.
Instead it takes to flight.
Jesse hears the fluttering of wings before he actually sees it, rising up out of the branches, a sudden influx of darkness that blocks out all light from the sky. He hears the flapping, he knows that they ARE the darkness. But no one form can be singled out. They move as one, they are one.
When they land, they swarm to the ground, surrounding him, crows all, as black as night.
Jesse Crow takes a step back, only to nearly run into another grouping behind him. He feels his pulse race. With as much time as he has spent in the form of his namesake, his totem, never before has he been in the presence of so many of them. It should be comforting. Instead, he feels a knot in the pit of his stomach that can only be the root of fear.
Richmond, Virginia
Shockhoe Slip is burning. From the trendy shop at the top, all the way down to where the flames danced dangerously close to catching the Frog & Redneck ablaze.
A young man, dressed in rainbowed colored garb swoops down and snatches yet another potential victim from the carnage, setting her on the multi-hued slide of light, where she passes over the flames and to safety.
"More! More!" a couple of the younger children cry, having been thusly saved.
But the young man known as the Rainbow Boy doesn't have time to do more than a smile and a wave, fearing that even that much self-indulgence may spell the doom of others. He gets back to work, back to trying to save those caught in the middle of what seems to be Richmond's first terrorist attack.
Fortunately, he notes, as he locates yet another victim - the sounds of battle raging in the Bottom were indications that those responsible were being brought to justice by the forces of Invaders Incorporated taskforce.
Shockhoe Bottom
Hydroman looks over to the blazing slip. His thoughts drift to "He's over there. Right over there." before going back to the task at hand.
There were still a dozen or so foes appeared to be mini-Mandroids, heavy grey battlesuits they enhanced their strength and firepower, but didn't do much for their speed. Of course, they *were* deceptively fast, as the Rock had found to his misfortune. He was still laying in the spot where they had dropped him, still not moving.
"Not a good sign" Hydroman notes and blasts his foes with a mega-hose worth of hurt. It wasn't like the old days, but then again, neither was he. He had changed, evoluted perhaps, into something more, or less than human. It depended on the day. Some days it was a blessing that allowed him to fully merge into a watery state, some it was a curse that cost him his humanity. It gave him greater access to his powers though, access that he was now using the same tired ways the villain of the same name so often did.
Perhaps it was simply a matter of getting lazy, or falling into a routine. Whatever it was, he knew he didn't like it.
He cut off the waterhose effect that was bursting forth from what had been his hand, reforming his digits in the process.
The foes he had just been pounding, took a second to react to the sudden ceasing, but quickly pitched themselves toward him hoping to press whatever advantage fate had decided to grant them.
He feels them approaching, reaching out with his senses and feels the water moving in their bodies.
"They're human" he speaks into the link that he shares with the rest of the team, to keep them connected during the heat of battle.
"Thanks for the heads up" Shock Gibson's voice responds.
Hydroman mentally grabs ahold of the link with the water in the bodies of his fast approaching foes and twists it. Not enough to do any internal damage, although it would be certainly easy, it is not the time of thing that a real hero would do, but just enough to make them collapse inside their suits.
One after another, the group of armored foes unfortunate enough to be drawn by Hydroman clank to the ground.
Maymont
"They're not doing very well" Andreas says as he watches the screen on his cell phone.
"I never expected them to." his sister, Andrea responds, "They were sent out to test the mettle of whoever or whatever is out there. Once we've seen the enemy, we can figure out how to beat them."
"Or more importantly..."
"Or more imporantly if Fenris should even waste our precious time and resources on them. If they have the Spear in their possession though, we need to know what we're up against. Whoever has it, after all, was good enough to beat Rathcone."
"He was a fool."
"Of course he was, but he was a fool with the Spear of Destiny. A fool's triple the threat in a situation like that."
"You're right as usual."
"Of course I am my dear brother. Of course I am."
He goes back to watching as the one known as Shock Gibson finishes off the last of his foes with a series of "lightning punches". Andreas looks up at his sister, shaking his head.
"Well, that's game." he shrugs, matter-of-factly, and pushes the numbers 543 on the cell phone.
Andrea nods with approval to her brother, as they hear the sounds of the exploding armor, and agents, in the distance. Failure, however well-planned, was it's own reward.
Atlanta, Georgia
"Atlanta International Airport coming up" the intercom barks. John Walker
opens his eyes with a sigh of relief. He was back to his... strange dreams, the
kind that had been haunting him for the last few nights.*
* As seen in Captain America #9 - GD
The kind that...
"Still bothering you?" Kitty asks, putting her hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah"
"It'll work out" she reassures, remembering her own dreams of late,
"These things usually do."
She turns to the rest of the team, who have been resting up in their own ways through the latter part of the journey, "Let's get ready for landing." she says, moving through the bay to strap herself in.
As the others follow suit, she smiles at John beside her. She takes his hand in hers, "It'll work out" she repeats to herself, knowing in her heart that they rarely do.
Atlanta, Georgia
Hours pass without incident, each of the team keeping to their schedule. One after the other, going from bookstores to comic book speciality stores, to the Atlanta Apparel Mart that holds the once a year "comic book convention". The next one wouldn't be for several months, but as Kurt had put it, it was better to err on the safe side.
"Maybe he's given up and gone home" Battlestar mutters into his link after another place checked out clean.
"He's here. I can feel it." Kurt responds, "All units - Finish your sweep and meet me back in Centennial Park for debriefing."
Kurt looks back toward the Atlanta Convention Center, at the edge of the park. What if he had been wrong about Terrax's next move? The former herald of Galactus, shows up out of literally nowhere and starts destroying comic book stores in Georgia - wasn't the next logical stop after Savannah and Macon for him to go for Atlanta? Was he over thinking the problem? Why not go into Florida next? Or South Carolina? Why not show up on Pluto and start randomly destroying craters? It made the same amount of sense when you got right down too it.
Kurt shakes his head and reviews the facts in his head. No, Terrax, or whoever was trying to make them think he was Terrax, was coming to Atlanta. It was just a matter of time before...
"Got him!" a voice answers via the link.
"Who? Where?" Nightcrawler requests, all doubts that were creeping up like a second skin vanishing," Is that you Madcap?"
"Affirmative." the voice responds. "He's just entered the shop. I'm going in after him."
"Be careful" Kitty's voice of concern pipes in, "We'll be there as soon as we can."
"I didn't know you cared." Madcap replies as he cuts off communication.
Kurt takes a deep breath and teleports to the far edge of the park, to his rental car. Of all the people to encounter Terrax on their own, Madcap was the worst, and yet the best choice. Worst in that no one really knew how deeply the changes in him went. Would he revert at the worst possible moment? He was the best for much the same reason. After all - taking on Terrax the Tamer solo was the stuff madmen were made of. In that light, Kurt concluded as he raced down the street, he might have been tailor-made.
Elsewhere
"Justify" one voice caws.
"Justify" the chorus responds.
"Justify WHAT? " Jesse brings up the courage from the pit of fear and anger in his gut, "I've been brought here by unknown means, for reasons I don't understand. What the hell do *I* have to justify?"
"He has not become" the voice caws.
"Become" the chorus answers.
"No comprehension" the voice caws.
"Become" the chorus answers.
A single crow emerges from the murder to wander toward Jesse. He takes to the air and lands on Jesse's shoulder. Jesse tries to hold himself still, to not show the fear inside him, to not flinch away from the bird as it lands on his shoulder.
"Justify" the voice caws into his ear.
"Become" the chorus seems to urge in response.
Jesse feels the effects of the coming transformation before it actually happens. The crow stays on his shoulder, with the merest bit of flutter, as if it were completely natural.
"Perhaps it is" Jesse muses, as he casts a glance at the groupings of crows that surround him.
He feels the change within him, and allows his body to completely submit to it.
The fog lifts up from the ground until it completely consumes his body, parting only when the transformation is complete.
The Black Crow emerges from the disipating fog, with the crow yet on his shoulder. He looks around, wondering if the crows themselves had a part in his transformation, or if they are part of the danger to the Earth Mother that summoned forth his alter ego.
"Justify" the voice caws.
"Justify" the chorus responds.
The Black Crow was about to repeat Jesse's words. He was able to say that he didn't know what they were talking about. But, suddenly, he did
The crow on his shoulder flies off to rejoin the murder as Jesse felt himself starting to talk in a language he did and yet did not understand. He had never heard it before, and he surely had never spoken it before. And yet, the Black Crow speaks it as a native - and the crows seem to comprehend every word.
Somewhere over Denver, Colorado
He feels free. For the first time in ages, he feels free. Ironic then that he knows himself to be more trapped than he's ever been. More responsible. After all - he's cost so many people so much.
Now is his chance to make up for everything... if only he could...
But Rick Jones had asked him not to. After all - it would bring up too many
questions, complicate too many things. But then again, when he and Jones had
talked to Jesse Crow, things had gone well.* Perhaps others would be as
understanding.
* Last issue, what did you *think* they were talking about?*g* - GD
But then again, Jesse hadn't been told the WHOLE truth, he didn't know of the true reason that Rick Jones had, once again, had his life essence bounded through the nega bands with the one bearing the name Captain Marvel.
Jesse didn't know the price they all had to pay. All of them.
It was unfair in the extreme, he knew that. But it was one of the many things he and Jones had agreed not to talk about with the other Sentinels of Liberty. If they knew what they had done - what they might be called upon to do again - they might not be able to rest easy ever again.
For now though, he had to be content with the little freedom he had. The freedom to travel at pre-arranged times, to take control of the form he shared with Jones for a little bit and cut loose. He practiced his barrel-roll, and laughed. It wasn't exactly the most useful thing in combat situations, but it sure was fun.
Besides, it wasn't very likely that he was going to see combat anytime soon.
Jones had been rather clear about that.
He sighed and cut loose with some more speed. By the time he stopped, he was nearly in the same place he'd started. Just a flash across the surface of the world. moving too fast to get a clear bead on. That was the way things would work now.
It was still better than the alternative, he supposed. It was certainly
better than what had happened to his counterpart from this reality.* Still...
* In a certain graphic novel you might remember - GD
From somewhere down below a woman was screaming.
He feels Jones slumbering in the back seat of his mind. Maybe he should ask - find out what Jones' thought should be done. Perhaps... perhaps Hell... The man who was Captain Mar-Vell was on the ground in the blink of an eye.
He disarms the woman's attacker's in one seamless. It feels right. Feels natural.
He returns to the sky with a feeling in the pit of his stomach that he hasn't felt in quite some time. Pride. He starts scanning the area for more crimes to stop. Jones would just have to learn to deal with it. So would anyone else Jones had said might have a problem with his "return". He was a hero again. He was Mar-Vell. And fighting the forces of darkness was what heroes did best, no matter what.
Atlanta, Georgia
"Just my luck to go south, only to have to drive in snow" The Black Cat mutters as she pulls into the parking spot. "What kind of super-team rents cars anyway?"
"The kind that wants to get around I guess" Battlestar chuckles as he gets
out of his own rental. "Beats taking the MARTA* I guess."
* Atlanta's mass transit system - GD
USAgent walks up from the behind them. "Actually, it got me here before the two of you."
"What's the story? The storefront looks fine, and no signs of either Madcap or Terrax anywhere." Battlestar reviews as he looks back to the comic store in the middle of the strip mall.
"I'm not sure myself. I've been trying to reach Kurt or Kitty to get some idea of how to progress. But they're not responding. Madcap seems incommunicado as well."
"Tried the trace?" Lemar asks, the concern showing on his face.
John nods. "Nothing."
"Shit" Felicia mutters, "This is JUST what we need isn't it? One psycho MIA with the some sort of world devourer lackey..."
"Alleged" Lemar corrects with a smile.
"Of course, alleged," Felicia smiles, remembering her own earlier point," to be a word devourer lackey. Our two "leader types" MIA with who knows what..."
"And the three of us" Lemar adds, "Freezing our butts off in the parking lot in the middle of nowhere."
"Not exactly nowhere" John quips, "Stone Mountain isn't THAT far away."
"Doing your cracker soul proud huh?" Lemar puts his hand on his old companion's shoulder.
John finds himself smiling, despite the circumstances. "As a matter of fact, it does. It's good to see some good ol' fashion Southern pride, even if it's on the side of a mountain."
"Richmond not enough for ya?"
John shakes his head, "The Capitol is wonderful, she does a Southern man proud. But Atlanta - it's some else entirely. Sort of a phoenix syndrome, a city rising from the ashes into something new. It's fascinating."
"Excuse me" The Black Cat interrupts, tapping on the hood of the car where she's been idly making lines in the window frost, to get their attention. "As much as I enjoy your good ol' boy enthusiasum for the makeup of Southern cities or the lack thereof, being a bit of a New Yorker myself I like to cut straight to the chase. We have a situation here. Members are missing that won't simply 'pop up' during a history of the effects of Southern architecture on cotton mutations. There's some sort of threat out there who may or may not be one of the most powerful beings on the planet right now and we can't just sit here and engage in idle chatter."
"Ignoring the obvious points of offense," John prefaces, before moving on, " What is it that you want us to do?"
"Go - find them."
"Find them - how exactly? We've already tried the trace on their links and come up with goose egg. If you've got a better plan than that, I'd like to hear it."
"We've got to..." "Find them - I know. What's your plan."
"Not cool man" Lemar steps up to John, putting his hand on his chest cautioning, "Why don't you lay off a bit. After all, she's right."
"I know she's right man, "John says, with an edge to his voice, "But it doesn't help matters any to complain if you don't have a better plan." he looks pass Lemar to where Felicia is standing, "If you have something we can work with, I'm all ears. Otherwise, we wait here for the moment."
"Brilliant..." Felicia mutters, outlining a smiley face on Lemar's rental car's passager window. "What's next, sending out for pizza to stop Thanos?"
John was about to respond when the proper words struck him. Kitty had once again said it far better than he could, "This will work out" he repeated, "These things usually do."
"Truer words were never spoken" a familiar voice said.
They turned as one to see Madcap standing in the now opened entrance of the comic book store. "Sorry to keep you waiting, but I've been sort of busy."
"What happened..." USAgent starts, as the three sprint to him, eager for the news.
"He's been talking to ME." Terrax the Tamer says, emerging from the store.
The three heroes assume battle positions.
"I should have known" Black Cat mutters as she prepares to strike out at Madcap.
"Stand down guys. I think you'd better listen to what the man has to say before hauling off and getting all Clobbering time on him." Madcap says, holding his hands straight out in front of him, pleadingly, and placing his body in front of Terrax's in a defensive position.
"And what possible reason does he have to go around destroying comic stores?" Battlestar sneers.
Madcap starts to speak, but Terrax silences him with a massive hand on his shoulder. "Let me tell them." he says, and moves Madcap aside with a simple yet gentle motion. "Call it self defense." The being known as Terrax the Tamer, former herald to Galactus and bearer of the power cosmic says sincerely.
"Self defense?" USAgent shakes his head, "What sort of ..."
"Easily believed, for one such as you. Your exploits are your own. Mine though - and those of the larger names of the cosmos - who have encountered groups such as the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, we are the ones in far greater danger."
"You've lost me here" the Black Cat says, moving closer.
Terrax either doesn't notice her encroachment, or pays it no mind. "Their true life adventures are made into these tomes called 'comic books' - their deeds captured onto the four colored pages."
"And..." Battlestar asks impatiently.
"And" Madcap interrupts, "Every time they print an issue featuring someone *real* - everytime someone READS an issue, that person becomes less real."
"And so you're going after the comic stores because..." Black Cat begins, taking an astonished step backward.
"They are stealing our very essence," Terrax declares, "Our eternal souls,
and they must be stopped before it is too late for us all."
Next:
The danger of comic books comes to the fore as the group must decide what to
do with Terrax's motivations, and his goal. Will they stop him from his
vengeance - or join him? What happened to Shadowcat and Nightcrawler? What is
Black Crow saying, and what will it mean for the team? What's next for Rick
Jones/Captain Mar-Vell? And what will happen when the Invaders Inc. start
tracking down the terrorists! All this...and more!
Author Notes
The danger of comic books comes to the fore as the group must decide what to
do with Terrax's motivations, and his goal. Will they stop him from his
vengeance - or join him? What happened to Shadowcat and Nightcrawler? What is
Black Crow saying, and what will it mean for the team? What's next for Rick
Jones/Captain Mar-Vell? And what will happen when the Invaders Inc. start
tracking down the terrorists! All this...and more!
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Battlestar
Black Cat
Black Crow
Captain Marvel
Fenris
Madcap
Mandroids
Nightcrawler
Rainbow Boy
ShadowCat
Terrax
USAgent