EXISTENCE END
Part Five: The Call
the 80th tale of agc
written and created by Mark Bousquet
THE BATTLE FOR EARTH
The Current State of Affairs:
New York City: The Olympians (Army of Doom) vs. The White Rider (The Third Army of Franklin Richards), witnessed by Michelangelo Stark (neutral)
Paris: The Angelux (AoD) vs. The Red Rider (Third), witnessed by Stephen Strange (Alliance)
Moscow: The Eternals (AoD) vs. the Pale Rider (Third) vs. the Black Knight (neutral)
Tokyo: Kree Separatists (AoD) vs. The Red Skull and Pumpkin King (Third) vs. Captain America and the Army of Ultrons (Alliance), witnessed by the Spider (neutral)
Hong Kong: Hela and the Snake Army (AoD) vs. Mandarin and the Defenders (Third)
Alexandria, Egypt: Daimon Hellstrom and the Demons of the Earth Underworld (AoD) vs. Apocalypse and the Avengers (Third)
Wundagore Mountain: Hawkeye and Crystal (neutral) vs. the Hellcat Regiment (Third)
The Florida Everglades: The Alliance of Asgard
2202 / JANUARY
THE OUT OF TIME DIMENSION
You sit and watch and wait and it is the hardest thing you have ever done. You have an Army. All they need to do is call.
And yet they won't.
Impatient is the man who waits for the Call.
TOKYO
Hitting the eject button in his small spacecraft, Captain America once again breaths the air of Earth. It is a foul air filled with pollution and chemicals, and the horrors of a devastated, burning city.
Steve Rogers cannot remember the last time he had ever smelled anything so sweet.
His parachute opened and he aimed for the top of a skyscraper. On the roof of that building stood the Red Skull. Cap had no idea why the Red Skull was here, or if it was the original Skull or a new man in an old suit, but, truth be told, he didn't care. When he and the Ultron Army had flown past the Moon, they had heard enough to know that the final Battle for the Earth was underway. They had not chosen Tokyo for any specific reason; it was simply the city beneath them as they entered the Earth's atmosphere.
The Red Skull had noted his descent and fired a machine gun at him. Steve couldn't remember the last time he had seen a mach-
Stop it, he scolded himself, fighting the nostalgia he could not help but feel. His shield deflected the bullets as he landed.
"Fitting that I should kill you here at the end of time!" the Red Skull raged at him and Steve knew that this was the original Skull.
Around them the Ultrons buzzed the city, making battle with the reanimated Nazi storm troopers and Kree Separatists alike. Cap advanced on the Skull, easily dodging or deflecting the Skull's bullets, and kept an eye on the robots. They were effective, but not the indestructible force he had hoped. It had been a long journey across space, hurrying to get back to Earth and avoid the collapsing of space behind them. The Ultrons were tired, the energy of Simon Williams that fueled them in need of a respite they were not going to get.
"I will kill you or die trying!"
Captain America reared back and slammed his fist into the horrific face of the Red Skull, staggering his long-time foe. Before Cap could strike again, an Ultron robot swooped in close and knocked the Red Skull off the roof.
Steve walked to the edge and looked down, and the Red Skull fell to his death.
He felt very, very old.
WUNDAGORE MOUNTAIN
"We travel all this way and we're back where we started," Hawkeye remarked with a grin as he and Crystal stepped out of the High Evolutionary's castle. Before them, the remnants of the destructed tower they had left not fifteen minutes ago as the Angelux had focused their attack on the tower.
Surveying the battlefield, Clint and Crys saw that the people of Wundagore were barely holding their own against the Hellcat Regiment. Bulls and bears and rams that walked and talked like men - all ancestors of the products of the High Evolutionary's work two centuries past - fought bravely against the screaming maidens.
A shadow passed across the moon and Clint raised his eyes to see a large chunk of the castle falling towards them. "Move!" he ordered Crystal as he reached for an arrow. Before he could notch the concussive arrow, a large man-beast pulled him clear.
"Sorry, good sir, but it is easier, at times, to take the path of least resistance."
Hawkeye picked himself up off the ground and looked up at the large man-bull. "Where's the fun in that?"
"Fun?" the man-bull asked seriously. "My good sir, my friends are dying. There's no-"
"Yeah, yeah," Hawkeye said, waving his hand. "My bad." He extended his hand. "Clint Barton. This is-"
"The Lady Crystal?" the man-bull asked, astonished. He dropped to one knee and was still as tall as Crystal. "It would be an honor to serve you, even in this, our most desperate times. My family has forever been in your service."
Hawkeye looked at Crystal, blinked, then fired a bolo-arrow at an Angelux rider who was charging from behind Crystal without taking his eyes off her. "Care to explain?"
Crystal reached down to raise the man-bull to his feet. "If I am not mistaken, this is a descendant of Bova."
"Bova?" Hawkeye asked, the name shooting him back across the years.
"Aye," the man-bull said. "My name is Bavo."
Crystal took Bavo's hands in hers. "Let us serve you in this time of need, Bavo. It would be an- oh." Crystal's face turned pale.
The three pairs of eyes looked down to Crystal's leg where an arrow had imbedded itself in her upper right thigh. A screeching voice approached. "I always hated you, Crystal." Bavo and Clint turned to see Hellcat, flanked by two of her soldiers, draw their swords and approach. "I do not know what you are doing here, Hawkeye," Hellcat growled, "but Wundagore shall be claimed for Doom."
"Never!" Bavo screamed and charged the short ten yards towards Hellcat. The Angelux general watched the man-bull approach, then leapt high into the air. Bavo was locked in on Hellcat, and his rage acted like blinders, preventing him from seeing the two Angelux maidens beside him send their swords hard toward his flanks. One imbedded itself hard just above his stomach, but the other sword clanged to the ground just before its owner did the same, thanks to the steel-tipped arrow that Hawkeye had sent through her heart.
Clint notched a second arrow quickly, and fell the second soldier. Before it had even reached its mark he was reaching for a third arrow. He felt the notches for the arrow he wanted and saw that he was out. His last bolo arrow would have to do. Drawing back the bow he fired at Hellcat who had risen to the height of her jump. The bolo encircled her arms, and while it wouldn't be able to hold the Angelux's arms to her body for long, it didn't need to.
Hellcat started to descend and was met hard by Bavo's more powerful leap. His large left horn split Hellcat's heart and he drove the Angelux down hard into the ground, where he mercilessly stomped the life from her body.
"I never dreamed we would live to see sights such as this," Crystal whispered, her eyes locked on the sight, as Hawkeye examined the arrow in her thigh.
Hawkeye said nothing. He could feel the tide of battle shift in their favor as the Angelux watched their leader fall. Clint heard some of them yell, "Why isn't Attumidunn here?" but he had no idea who that was and really didn't care. He looked to Crystal. "You'll be fine. Sit here, against the wall. Once the Angelux are finished, we can get going."
"Clint," Crystal asked, her thigh throbbing. "Just where is this 'place of power' we're going?"
"Attilan," he said without looking her in the eye. "You're going home."
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK CITY
THE GOLDEN CASTLE
Michelangelo Stark tried 100 more times to unlock the Fury Protocols, but could not break them free. "Blasted Vision Defense System!" he swore.
Wartoy, his assistant that lived inside his computer systems, laughed. "Foolish man," she cackled. "Blame your ancestors, not the Vision."
"What do you mean?" Michelangelo asked, angry and not really caring.
"Watch," Wartoy commanded, and upon the largest of monitors an image of the past played forth
27 DECEMBER 2022
WASHINGTON, DC - THE WHITE HOUSE - THE OVAL OFFICE
"I have come, President Stark. As you asked, I have told no one."
President Tony Stark placed his glass of tonic water onto the desk before him, and leaned back in his leather chair. "Thank you for coming, old friend."
"I have come as a favor to our friendship, which has seemed more and more a thing of the past this past decade." The Vision's stance was tall and rigid, his voice cool and monotone.
Stark wiped a hand through his salt-and-peppered hair. "I know," he said sympathetically. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all of this."
Vision's red eyes narrowed and expanded. "If you wish to dissuade me from boarding the ship that will send us to the stars, you will fail. We must go forth from the Earth and do our part in the greater cosmos."
Stark slammed a fist on the desk, and swore loudly. "Why? Captain America is wrong about this! Why don't you see it? Why don't any of you see it? Have you not looked around at the state of this world? How can you all abandon us in this, our time of greatest need?"
"The Earth has its heroes that can- huuurrrrrrkkkkkkk!" Vision's systems began to shudder and snap, as the immaterial hand of Karla Sofen plunged through his back.
"Hurry, Moonstone," President Stark ordered impatiently, glancing towards the curtains. He half-expected the damn Avengers to come crashing through them at any moment.
"I am finished," the former villain said with a smile. She withdrew her hand and the Vision returned to normalcy.
"You are, indeed, an old friend, Vision," President Stark said sadly, "but through it all, you are still a machine, and none alive know machines better than Tony Stark. Machines are the servants of man, and you are now my servant, Vision. Imbedded inside you are a series of instructions that you cannot help but follow when those files are executed. The rest of the traitors may abandon the Earth, but you will not. Oh, you will go with them, of course. You will leave in your silly little ship for one of Cap's idealistic exercises, but when the time comes you will return to Earth and serve the planet that gave you life."
The Vision said nothing.
"Go," Stark ordered, hating his actions, hating the smile on Sofen's face, but unwilling to change from this course of action. "Get out of my sight."
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK CITY
THE GOLDEN CASTLE
"Tony did this?" Michelangelo asked, stunned. "That is why the Vision returned to Earth and allowed himself to become the planet's defense system?"
Wartoy laughed gleefully.
"But the Fury Protocols were designed without Tony's knowledge," Michelangelo argued. "They were designed between Captain America, Nick Fury, and Bruce Banner. None but they-"
"Humans are so weak," Wartoy cackled. "There is nothing that you do that some machine does not spy. No one will unlock the Fury Protocols but the Vision."
Michelangelo slammed a fist onto his console. "But why hasn't he unlocked them? Surely the Earth is in need of them?"
Wartoy asked, "Who knows what foolish parameters President Stark encoded the Vision with? There is nothing you can do."
Michelangelo was already up and moving across the room, headed for an old laboratory.
"What?" Wartoy taunted, knowing where he was headed. "You don't mean to wear your ancestors armor do you? To become Iron Man?"
"No," Michelangelo answered. "There are other secrets hidden inside that tomb."
"Like what?" the screeching robot asked from within the machines of the Golden Castle, but Michelangelo Stark did not answer. He wondered if somewhere, out amidst all the reanimated heroes of the First Age, his ancestor walked the Earth once again.
ALEXANDRIA
Master Pandemonium was being ripped to pieces. Iron Man had thrown him hard to the ground and was stepping on his back, forcing Pandemonium into the sand. The Armored Avenger and former President reached down and grabbed Pandemonium's right arm and yanked it back hard, attempting to pull it out of the socket.
SHHHHHHHLLLLLLLUUUUUUCCCKK!!!
The arm ripped free and transformed into a demon, for Master Pandemonium was comprised not of a true human body, but of a magical body, formed from demons masquerading as human flesh.
Iron Man held the struggling, slimy demon aloft by the back of its neck as Deadpool walked up, sword drawn, and sliced its head from its body.
Below them, Pandemonium screamed, knowing his torment had just begun.
TOKYO
Moving through the streets of Tokyo, Captain America did what he could to save the lives of innocents. Innocents were always made casualties in war, and this battle was no different. The city streets were filled with civilians rushing everywhere and nowhere, trying to save themselves but not knowing how.
So they ran away from trouble and always into trouble.
Everywhere Cap looked there were Kree Separatists battling with Ultrons battling with Nazis and Tokyo itself was taking the hardest shots.
He rounded a corner just as Arnim Zola was pinned to a pile of rubble by spider webs. Steve looked at the source of the webs to see Spider-Man in his black-and-white suit? No, Venom, he corrected himself as the costume oozed and moved. Steve's first thought was that this was another First Age hero or villain returned to life to fight for Franklin, but why, then, was Venom fighting with Zola if they were on the same side?
"We will eat your brain," Venom hissed through the smoke.
"No!" Venom yelled, arguing with himself, as Arnim Zola screamed beneath the webs.
Cap could not help but interfere at the sound of that. He knew the Venom symbiote could attach itself to one who was unwilling to act as its host. "Hold your ground, Venom."
The large, wild white eyes of the Venom symbiote turned to face Captain America and it bared it's large, sharp teeth in anger. "The traitor returns home!" it hissed. "Shut up," the voice inside it said. "We should eat him, too." "No," the voice inside said louder. Venom's response was to slither off the body of Zed Brock and rise high above them. Zed fell to the ground with a thump, his paralyzed legs not allowing him to stand. Cap moved to assist him, but Zed waved him back.
"It's okay," Zed grunted, sitting up.
"Who are you?" Cap asked.
"Does it matter?" Zed replied with a question of his own before thinking better of it. "Zed Brock."
"You're the new Venom?" Cap asked scornfully.
"Kinda the new Venom and new Spider-Man both," Zed replied, staring hard at Captain America as the Venom symbiote slithered away. "Don't mind him," Zed said. "He's going to feed."
"I can't let him do that," Cap replied.
"Can't let him do that?" Zed asked. "Are you kidding? Look around you, we're in a war. People are killing each other left and right and you want to stop Venom?"
"If any innocents are harmed-"
"There won't be. Honest. Venom's morals may be twisted, but he won't take the life of civilians when there's all this Kree brain around. Says he misses it. He came from space, you know."
"I know."
Zed looked at Cap carefully. "You're really him, huh? The great Captain America? I've read about you in Peter Parker's journal. I thought you'd be taller," Zed said, wiping sweat from his brow. "Peter thought highly of you. Of course, he barely had a bad word to say about anyone."
"He was a good man," Cap said, remembering Peter much more as Spider-Man than the man outside the costume.
"Can I ask you a question?" Zed asked. "What the hell's going on? The whole world suddenly went crazy."
Cap shook his head. "It's not the world that went crazy, but there's no time now to explain everything."
"I want to help." Cap looked doubtful but Zed pressed his case. "You must know Angelica Osborn, right? I ran into her a few months back - helped her out of a tight spot. I don't know all that's going on, but I do know there's two crazy armies wrecking my planet. I want to help stop them."
Steve looked to the sky and saw an Ultron robot shot out of the sky. Help, it seemed, was something they would need. He looked to Zed and nodded. "Get the symbiote back. We're headed to find the Alliance - if there's any of them left."
PARIS, FRANCE
Bruunhilde laughed as she fell towards the ground, death awaiting her several hundred feet below. The leader of the Angelux could afford to laugh, knowing there was no chance her soldiers would allow her to ever hit that ground.
A raging scream blasted into her, pushing her down faster and faster. Bruunhilde turned around, placing her back to the Earth, to see the reanimated First Age hero Siryn letting loose her vocal powers. It was Siryn's scream that had knocked her off her winged steed, so Bruunhilde would have been surprised to see anyone else. Bruunhilde felt a rib crack inside her as the waves of sound beat onto her, but that pain was nothing to one such as her.
The Angelux general let out a smile as Siryn honed her attack. "I am all that she sees," Bruunhilde thought, "and that will be her doom."
Behind Franklin's life puppet, Bruunhilde's steed had regained its balance, and charged the former heroine, dropping its hooves hard onto Siryn's back.
At that moment an Angelux rider swooped in to catch Bruunhilde. The former Valkyrie took hold of one of her daggers and tossed it through the air, where it caught in Siryn's throat.
"Shall I move in for the killing blow?" the rider asked.
"No," Bruunhilde replied. "That dagger is stuck in her throat. She is unable to talk, meaning she is unable to scream, meaning she is unable to fly. Let us sit here and watch her fall to her death."
And that is just what they did.
MT. OLYMPUS
King Franklin watched the battles alongside Luna, the First Lady of the Engine. Eros was busy drinking or whoring or eating, and Warlock was off watching the battles play out himself. The rest of his allies had been sent to Earth to fight.
"We are losing Paris," Luna remarked cautiously, not wanting to anger her lover. "Though Apocalypse and the Avengers are faring well against the forces of Hellstrom."
Franklin nodded, stroking his beard. "Nothing is decided as of yet."
"When will you go to war?" Luna asked breathlessly.
Franklin shook his head. "Not now. I will wait until the time is right and then Doom and I shall meet and end this battle."
"What of Tokyo, my lord?" Luna asked. "What of the inclusion of the Alliance?"
"Feh," Franklin huffed, waving his hand. "They do not make Ultrons like they used to, apparently. Already one-third of them are damaged beyond immediate repair. The Alliance has no army. Doom saw to that on the homeworlds of Hala, Chandilar, and Skrullos 2, and we saw to Asgard."
Luna withdrew slightly. "There are other who oppose us, Franklin. Wakanda battles mightily against Magneto and all of England, it seems, is willing to fight against the troops of the Black Rider."
"Mere pockets of resistance," Franklin assured her. "Even if they could all somehow coordinate, there is not nearly enough troops to cause either us, or Doom, any worry. No, my lady, when it comes to the final stroke, it shall be me and Doom, as it should be."
Luna smiled and nodded, but she was no longer sure.
On the other side of Olympus, Warlock's thoughts (all three) were similar to Luna's.
"Look at this wonderful turn of events," Him said, pointing towards Alexandria. The faces of Him, Magus, and Adam all watched as Apocalypse ripped the head of Blackheart off his shoulders, and the Swordsman and the Wasp ended the life of Satannish. In the distance they could see Iron Man and Deadpool finishing off the last of Master Pandemonium's demonic parts.
"On the contrary, my younger self," Magus quickly added, "we have the situation in Paris, where the Red Rider himself is currently surrounded by the entire Mockingbird Regiment. And look, quickly, or else you shall miss- ah, it is done," he smiled. Bruunhilde had killed another, and the three faces of Warlock watched as the Angelux general kicked the spasming body of Sunspot off the top of the Arc de Triumphe.
The face of Adam coughed. "What are we to make of Tokyo, my other selves?"
"Tokyo?" Him and Magus asked cautiously, their eyes darting to see if King Franklin had heard Adam.
"Yes, Tokyo," Adam repeated as he replaced all of the images around them to show the battle in Tokyo. "Captain America and the Ultrons have won the city. The first victory in the Battle for Earth goes to the Alliance."
"Are you mad?" Him asked nervously.
"Franklin may hear you," Magus reminded him.
Adam said nothing, but did allow for a smile to cross his face. "Franklin has other issues to worry about," Adam said, his voice dropping low. "Have you not seen his actions when Luna's attention is elsewhere? Watch. Observe. Tell me what you see. There he goes "
The three faces of Warlock watched King Franklin as Luna nodded off to a gentle slumber on the green fields in the eastern quadrant of the city. The three faces watched as Franklin tried to bring back the fallen Sunspot, Cannonball, and Siryn back to life
And failed.
Adam, Him, and Magus watched as the lady Death appeared before Franklin, her purple robes torn, revealing the skeletal frame beneath.
"Stop this!" she commanded, righteous and indignant. "You cannot do this!"
King Franklin took a step towards Death and punched her in the face. "I can do whatever I want!"
"Insolent whelp!" Death roared back, slapping Franklin with one of her bony hands and knocking him off his feet. "You have made a mockery of life and death! I can still my words no longer! It is all going away, you pathetic little boy! Do you not understand the folly of your actions? You have made Death irrelevant by whimsically bringing back the dead to kill for you. You have unbalanced the balance of life and death. When your reanimated slaves die they are not coming to me! Do you know what this means?"
King Franklin looked partly appalled and partly righteous. Adam, Him, and Magus couldn't decide which was the more frightening option.
Death continued on. "Look behind you!"
Franklin turned to see a very weary looking Master Order and Lord Chaos hanging limply in the air.
Death's voice was cold and harsh and Franklin felt like a four year old again, being scolded for stealing one of his father's inventions. "Because of you, Franklin Richards," Death charged, "the Concepts are dying."
"Wh-what?"
Death reached down and slapped Franklin's face again, and as his head snapped to the side, the King was replaced by a little five-year-old boy.
"The Concepts are dying. Order, Chaos, Death we are rendered meaningless."
The three faces of Warlock watched as Order, Chaos, and Death faded into non-existence.
"What does this mean?" Him asked.
"It means there is no Hope," Adam answered sadly.
Him and Magus nodded and looked back to their screens to watch the final moments of existence come to an end
In London, England, the Black Rider wrapped his orange-rock hands around the neck of Reignfire, killing the young woman. Across the city, the White Queen of the Hellfire Club clutched a set of ancient texts nervously in her hands, somehow knowing this is what the Black Rider was coming to claim.
In Hong Kong, Luke Cage and Iron Fist doubled up in their attempt to slay the Norse goddess Hela.
In Moscow, Ikaris the Eternal killed the Beast at nearly the same moment Iceman killed Makkari.
"Where does the dead go when there is no Death?" Him asked.
In Wakanda, the Black Panther tossed the body of the Hobgoblin off a glider and claimed it as his own, all the while wondering how Magneto could be stopped.
"Look to Hong Kong," Magus said. "If Hope has died, not all would believe it."
Adam, Him, and Magus watched as Ben-Vell Parker appeared above the city of Hong Kong. At his back, five Kree spaceships and two Shi'ar vessels - all that was left of all the Kree, Shi'ar, and Skrulls who hadn't already escaped to Earth. Ben-Vell called to General Van'Rogg, who arced his five Kree ships to the northern edge of the city, slamming hard into the ranks of the Snake Army. The Shi'ar ships headed south, where the Mandarin stood waiting for them.
"The Alliance will find a way," Adam whispered, and somehow, in his heart, he believed it more than he had ever believed anything.
Magus mumbled, "Hope was always hard to kill. It is not surprising that it remains while the other concepts have passed into the Void. This is the scene where Captain America reveals some brilliant plan."
THE FLORIDA EVERGLADES
The focused mind of Captain America would not allow himself more than the briefest hug to his long-time love, Dani Moonstar. He shook no hands as the refugees of Asgard poured from the woods to stand in the small clearing before Brono's tent. The sun was just about gone, casting long shadows through the trees of the swamp. Steve took note of the small numbers, but asked no questions. He was glad to see Kovar, Ash'lin, and Skrull 4 were here. Even happier to see Eshir, K'Zan, and Angelica, who, true to Spider's words, greeted him warmly.
"Captain America," Brono said, a deep hurt in his voice. "I hath failed the Alliance. Gone is our strength, the homeworlds destroyed, our troops along with them. Between the Ultrons you have brought to us, and the survivors the Ben-Vell has found, we are vastly outnumbered. I beg of you to find an answer to the question that I cannot. What do we do? I fear the Battle for Earth will be fought and decided without us."
"You have done well, Brono. Do not fear." Steve pulled back his hood and looked around at the hungry, dirty faces of the refugees. "Yet we are not enough, as you say." He paused, and met the young King's gaze. "We know what must be done, Brono. You know it. Dani knows it. I know it. As much as we do not want to give the Call, we must."
"There must be another way," Brono said, desperation creeping into his voice. Steve looked to Dani and she held his gaze for only a second, before turning away.
"There is no other way," she said weakly, yet so still was the encampment that all heard her words.
"We are in need of an army," Cap said, his voice rising. "And though we loathe to do it, we must set aside pride for the benefit of all. There is only one who can help." He turned to look at the woods around them, and the sky above them. He spoke in a calm voice that seemed to penetrate time and space itself. "I know you can hear me. I know you are watching, always watching. The time is at hand. We call upon you for assistance. We need you in this, our most desperate hour." Steve looked to Dani, who, alone among them, knew how painful was the secret that Steve Rogers was about to reveal to the world. "There is one final Orphan yet unrevealed in this grand tale of the Everything. An Orphan who could not live up to the legacy of his father." Steve paused as the words nearly died in his throat. "Come forth, my son. Your father cannot win this war without you."
A rich voice came from within the shadows of the swamp before them. "Long have I yearned to hear those words, father. Your time is over. My time is at hand."
The Alliance turned to witness a striking figure break out of the swamp and into the clearing.
It was the arrival of Kang the Conqueror.
EXISTENCE END to be continued
Impatient is the man who waits for the Call.
YGGDRASIL
Comments to bousquet22@earthlink.net
Mark Bousquet
3 January 2004
Northern Bear Productions