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By Jess Nevins
Stan Lee Presents : The greatest heroes of the post World War II era...Captain America, Sentinel of Liberty...The Whizzer, Fastest Man Alive...Miss America, Strong and Beautiful Heroine...Sub-Mariner, Prince of Atlantis...and the Human Torch, the fiery android...they are The All-Winners Squad!
PROLOGUE
We all think we know about the history of Earth. We think that what we learned in our grade school and high school classes - what they taught us about the events of twenty and fifty and a hundred and a thousand years ago, about the kings and emperors and explorers whose names are familiar to us - that these things are true.
They are, of course, but only in the same way that it's "true" that the Americans were the good guys in the American Revolutionary War. It's a valid statement, as far as it goes, but it omits any number of facts, and doesn't, when you come down to it, really tell you much about the Revolutionary War - certainly not anything useful.
It's the same with what we were told about the courses and causes of civilization. Yes, Charlemagne was important, and a central moment in the course of history was the formation and signing of the Declaration of Independence, and the defeat of Hitler was a triumph for all that is good.
But there is much that we don't know, and that we should know, about how we got to where we are today. And that is why I have set pen to paper, and why you are reading this book.
When Edward Gibbon finished his monumental Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, he went for a long walk in his garden, feeling joy at his freedom and a sadness at saying goodbye to his long companion. I'm no Gibbon; I'm just a newspaper reporter - on a good day, Winchell, on a bad day...well, not good enough for the scandal rags.
But when I started this book I couldn't help but think about Gibbon, and how his aims, and mine, were somewhat alike. And when I finished this book I, too, went for a long walk. I live in the Bronx, though, and gardens are few and far between, there. I went for a walk along the sidewalks of my home, looking around the blocks and trying to see the poetry there - for there is a poetry in the city, you know, a song in every brick, a story in every piece of blacktop, if you know where to look.
To be truthful, I didn't see much of that. What I did see was the rubble of what used to be Mama
Giannaro's supermarket. She'd built it up, back in the 1950s, with her late husband, and she'd managed it for the years and decades since. With the death of her husband and the departure of her children from the city, it was all she had left here.
And yesterday Atom-Smasher tried to hold it up, and the Wild Man showed up to stop him. They fought - don't they always? - and the Wild Man won - doesn't he always? - and the police came and took Atom-Smasher away. And Mama Giannaro was left with a pile of shattered bricks and ruined produce that used to be her supermarket.
Hell of a way to see in the Millennium.
Seeing Mama Giannaro picking through the ruin of what had been her life's work - seeing the crestfallen look on her face as she discovered something else she treasured that had been ruined in the fight - I was suddenly glad I'd finished the book you're holding in your hands, and pleased that it will be for sale in bookstores on December 1, 1999.. Not because it'll make a difference in the course of history, and not because it'll make me famous - but because people need to know what has really happened over the past thousand years, and what that means for the next thousand years, and they need to know this by the turn of the millennium. And people like Mama Giannaro need to know about the world they live in, and why so many of them, and us, are toys - play-things in the hands of the over-people. They mean us well, and many of them do right by us, but when it comes down to it, it's their world. We only live in it.
CHAPTER ONE
Forget about President Clinton. Forget about President Yeltsin. Forget about President Jiang. You see them on the tv and on the front page of the Times or the Post or CNN's web site, but they are not our leaders.
Oh, you voted for them, and they have some worldly power - they can set great armies in motion, and launch nuclear missiles if they so choose, and influence the world economy - but they aren't our leaders. Not really.
You see, a leader is not only someone who leads, but someone who controls. And those three, worthy men though they our, do not really control us. Not by a long stick.
There are Secret Masters of the world. And it is those figures who control us.
Don't be so quick to dismiss that sentence as crackpot paranoia. Admit it - something in you wanted to shake your head. You know what I'm talking about, don't you? Even if you're intellectually resistant to the idea, emotionally you agree with me.
You've felt that way the first time you read about or heard about or saw one of the Marvels. The first time you were told that the Fantastic Four had saved the US from Doctor Doom's control - the first time you read about the Avengers repelling an invasion by the alien Shi'ar - the first time you had your life saved by Spider-Man or Daredevil, who stopped the guy who was about to mug or knife or rape you.
They control our destinies. Not us. And not President Clinton or any other "world leader." When crime threatens our streets, and when terrorists threaten our cities, and when aliens threaten the world, we turn to the Marvels to save us. And they do.
You might think, if you're only 30 (or even younger), that this state of affairs is only about 10 or 15 years old - that it started when the Fantastic Four debuted, and startled us all with demonstrations of outlandish, but undeniable, superhuman powers. If you're a Baby Boomer, you might think that the Marvels have been out there for only about thirty years - that it started back in the 1950s, when Marvel Boy brought together the Avengers. And if you're of my generation you'll probably think that it started back in 1939, when the world was amazed to learn about an android who could set himself on fire, and life.
What you'll discover in this book, though, is that this state of affairs isn't 10 or 30 or 60 years old. The Marvels have been active for centuries. As far back as the dawn of humanity, as a matter of fact, and even beyond.
And saving lives and fighting supervillains isn't all they did. You know about the X-Men fighting Magneto in Australia; did you know about a group of SHIELD agents taking out Soviet supersoldiers in Havana, during the Cuban Missile Crisis?
That, my friends, is the true story of the Earth. And that's what I'm going to write about.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
December 14, 1945, is a date that won't mean anything to most of you. But to those in the know, who were either there or were told about it, it's a date that they will always remember.
That's when the world was conquered
It all started when--
On December 14, 1945, the vacuum around Earth was free of the thousands of satellites which would, in 1998, litter the void immediately around the Earth. Human governments and societies lacked the technology to properly send even the smallest machine into orbit in late 1945, much less scan the heavens, to detect if something was there.
Of course, humans weren't the only ones on Earth in late 1945, and certain...Others...had the technological wherewithal to know if a vessel or being from outside of the confines of Earth had come to visit, or simply had sent a signal of some kind. Had, say, one of the Shi'ar Volcano class cruisers arrived, on a standard Sentience Trawl, alarms would have rung in a ship buried deep beneath the Arctic ice, and in the inner chambers of the leader of a strange group of (mostly) humanoids on an island in the North Atlantic, and in a few millennia-old cities in Siberia and other locations around the world. The technology in each of these places was centuries ahead of 1945 Earth, and quite capable of detecting a simple starship.
Those detection devices didn't matter to the thing that arrived and assumed an asynchronous orbit around the Earth on December 13th, 1945; the thing was a g'k'r'll, and was full of the techno-magic of the Founders, whose wizardry with technology had never been surpassed. And the master of the g'k'r'll had traveled into Earth's far future and stolen much technology from the alien Haamin, who in that time (the 9600th century by old Earth reckoning) had conquered humanity's ancestral homeworld; the Haamin technology that the g'k'r'll's master had stolen made use of anti-tachyons, and was as far beyond the technology of even the most advanced societies of Earth as a 2190 Neo-Tokyo otaku would be over a Neanderthal.
The g'k'r'll, planet-sized but cloaked and shielded so that it exerts no gravitic pull, made three rapid orbits of Earth, ejecting a number of strangely-shaped satellites. After the third orbit around the Earth the g'k'r'll stopped and hovered 10 miles up over Washington, DC. The satellites flared and then exploded, momentarily covering several areas in a soft golden light: Langley, Virginia, New York City, Moscow, the entire island of Novaya Zemlya, a long stretch of swampland in Paraguay, and a few other sites.
Nobody saw the light covering those areas, and no one inside the sites was conscious of the light; the satellites had created a brief stasis field, and taken a number of figures from those sites and brought them on-board the g'k'r'll.
A few hours later the All-Winners woke up, to find themselves together, rather than in their bedrooms. They were in a featureless grey room, and were wearing what they'd had on when they finally fell asleep. Miss America was the first to wake up, and her gasp brought the Whizzer awake, and he immediately began inspecting the room, and the wind and noise of his passing woke up the others.
Captain America leapt to his feet, looked around the room and then at the other six All-Winners, and said, "I take it none of you know what's going on, either?"
Namor crossed his arms and scowled and said, "Obviously not, William. We none of us would indulge in such a childish prank."
The Human Torch left of surreptitiously eyeing Miss America, who was clad only in a peignoir, and said, "I'd have said you had the resources, Salmon Sam, but I thought this wasn't quite your style."
Namor shot the Torch a withering glare. "As usual, you fail to amuse, Torch. I am--"
The Whizzer, wearing only his boxers, said, "Quiet, you two. Cap, who could have done this? We've been captured - but how? And where are we? There are no windows or even vents in here - where are we getting our air from?"
Bucky looked at his pyjamas and said, "I don't care what creep did this to us, Whizzer. We gotta get outta here first - then we find out what Commie jerk did this, and teach him not to mess with the All-Winners."
The others looked at him with some surprise, and Cap nodded. "You're right. Good call, chum. Namor, you're the strongest among us - why don't you see if you can break through this wall?"
Namor nodded once. "Agreed." He walked to the nearest wall and ran his hands along its surface. He frowned and said, "Strange. It seems more smoother and...more resilient than I would have anticipated." He drew his fist back and hit the wall.
Nothing happened. Namor frown and pulled his arm all the way back and delivered a full-power blow. The wall bent inward slightly, then returned to its previous form.
Namor said, "Perhaps if I continue battering it...?"
Captain America shook his head. "We can come back to that. Let's try something else first, Namor. Torch, why not try to burn through it?"
The Torch instantly ignited and sent a blast of flame at the wall. He let the flame play along the surface of the wall for many seconds, and, seeing no change in the color of the wall, much less its material, finally flamed off.
He turned to the others to say that it was no good but stopped, shocked by what he saw. The other six lay on the ground, gasping violently and clutching at their throats. He ran to Captain America and then Namor; they were finding it hard to breath, but as he watched and futilely tried to help them they seemed to find it easier to draw breath, and after a few seconds they were back to normal, albeit looking pained. The Torch opened his mouth to ask them what happened when he heard the intake of breath behind him, and he turned to look at the source of the noise.
The wall of the room had transformed itself into a giant face, one that the Torch and the All-Winners well-remembered.
The Torch spat, "Future Man! Didn't we send you crawling away with your tail between your legs once already? Wasn't being beaten by us enough for you?"
The face smiled benignly. "A war has many battles, Torch, and you only won the first. You were foolish to think that that defeat was the end of me. But then, you're three-dimensional creatures who've never even been off your own planet, much less ventured into the chronoverse - how could you know of what I'm capable?"
The Torch raised one flaming fist and said, "I'll--"
Future Man raised his eyebrows and said, "Ah-ah! Remember what happened the last time you tried that!"
The Whizzer rose unsteadily to his feet and, rubbing his throat, said, "Felt like...we couldn't...breath..."
Future Man's face nodded approvingly. "That's right, Whizzer. That's because there's only enough oxygen in that room for you all to breath. If the Torch flames on, the oxygen gets used up, with rather...unfortunate results for the rest of you. This room is prepared for all of you, you see. If you--"
Namor said, "What do you want, Future Man? What possible reason could you have for kidnaping a Prince of the Blood? Do you not know what those of Atlantis shall do once they hear that their Prince has been abducted?"
Future Man smiled kindly and said, "Nothing, Namor. They'll do nothing. They'll be just another group of my subjects. You see, I'm here to conquer the world, as I told you last time we met. Only this time I'm prepared."
Miss America coughed and said, in a hoarse voice, "Where's your trampy assistant, Miss Death?"
Future Man shook his head. "She was no longer of any use to me, so I placed her on an Earth I conquered, several dimensions ago. I told you, I think, before, about my plans - of how I had returned here, to my past, to take over the planet, so that my people, from your future, could resettle this backward time? Well, I've succeeded."
Captain America clenched his fists and said, "If you think Americans will stand still and obey a foreign conqueror, you're--"
"--quite right, Captain; I think that, and I'm quite right in doing so. Yours isn't the first Earth I've conquered, nor the first to have initially defeated me. You'd be surprised how many Earths have superpowered defenders; there must be something special about this little planet of ours. When it isn't humans, it's Eternals, or dolphins, or even sentient dinosaurs. Once I've established my rule here I'm definitely going to have to investigate this."
The Whizzer said, "So you haven't conquered Earth yet, have you?"
Future Man's smile widened. "Well, no, not exactly. I'll be doing that later this morning. But with all of Earth's superbeings in my holding cells, I--"
Toro said, "What? You mean, you got--"
Future Man nodded impatiently. "Oh, yes. You, and the ones your government had working for them, and the ones Russ--I mean, the Soviet Union, and those strange ones on that island in the Atlantic, and those really grotesque ones from that city at the bottom of the sea-floor - all of you, in cells just like this one."
Miss America said, "But...how did..."
Future Man said, "Oh, that wasn't hard. I just transported you all directly into my g'k'r'll."
Bucky said, "Your gu-kack - what?"
Future Man said, "Nothing your little mind would understand, boy."
Captain America said, "Ignore him, Bucky. Future Man, what do you want? If you're so powerful, why are we still alive?"
Future Man grinned hugely. "To answer your first question first, Captain, what I wanted first was to find a fugitive from one of the other Earths I conquered. I believe you knew him - he called himself the Black Whizzer, or some such thing."
The Whizzer said, "You mean, the Dark Whizzer? But he--"
Future Man said, "Don't worry yourself about him, Whizzer, he's no longer any concern of yours."
The Torch said, "What do you--"
Future Man said, "Let's just say that it wasn't particularly painless. Okay, I lie. It hurt him. A lot."
Captain America said, "You murdering--"
Future Man said, "Oh, hush. As for what I really want - oh, come, Captain, isn't it obvious? A ruler needs bodyguards, after all, and, well, conquering Earth after Earth gets boring after a while."
Namor snarled, "We will never serve you, human! Not the All-Winners, and not any of the Atlantean race!"
Future Man shook his head with obvious amusement. "Oh, certainly you will, Prince Namor. Shall I tell you my plans, so that you'll see that resistance truly is futile, and that you should ally yourselves with me now, to save yourselves much agony?"
Toro whispered to Bucky, "Why do these guys always wanna tell us what they're gonna do?"
Future Man ignored Toro's words and continued. "The more powerful of Earth's superbeings will be converted into my bodyguards. No, don't bother to object, Captain, I'm from the future, and in my time we have ways of...persuading you that are quite beyond your ability to resist. The rest of you shall serve me, and amuse me...I'm considering, perhaps, setting you against each other - seeing if the All-Winners and the other American superhumans would have beaten the Soviet Black Hundreds, mayhap, or if skill really will defeat raw power. But first..."
Future Man paused, and his gaze fell upon Miss America. He looked her up and down, and she felt her skin crawl, and she started to shiver. "But first I shall inspect the women. You, Miss America...you'll do to start with. I'll have you tonight, and start in on the Soviet women tomorrow. Whichever of you pleases me the most shall be my consort. The rest...hmmm. Perhaps I should maintain a harem..."
The Whizzer said, "You'll have to kill me first!" and Captain America spat, "You'll never succeed, maniac!"
Future Man chuckled, "And how will you stop me? Each cell is designed to be resistant to your powers - the Torch's flame, Captain America's shield, Namor's strength - and what can the rest of you do to walls that can resist those? Tell me, Miss America, will you use your, heh heh, flight against these walls? And, Captain, I will succeed. I've done so dozens of times before. Take away a world's superbeings, and what's left? Do you somehow believe your little atomic bombs will stop me? Be realistic. Your time is done. Join me, Captain; you will be given a place of honor beside me. Miss America, come to me willingly; you will find making love to me quite pleasurable - and since I'm going to have you anyhow, you might as well try to enjoy the experience."
The Torch muttered, through clenched teeth, "You...sick...bastard."
Namor said, "The lord of Atlantis bows to no one, least of all a human."
Captain America said, "You know where to put your proposal, Future Man."
Future Man shook his head with obvious regret. "It doesn't seem to matter what world I'm on. The heroes never accept that offer. Ah, well..." And with that Future Man's face faded away, leaving the wall smooth again.
Bucky kicked the wall at about where Future Man's chin had been. "JERK!"
The Whizzer rushed forward and took Miss America's hand. "Oh, Maddy - we won't let him--"
Miss America, her face screwed up deep in thought, said, "Hush, Bob - just...let me think for a second, okay?"
The others looked at her as the seconds ticked by. She finally snapped her finger and muttered, "Got it." She looked at the Torch and at Toro and then at the others and said, "You know how I got my powers, right?"
Captain America scratched his head and said, "You were struck by lightning, weren't you?"
Miss America nodded and said, "Right. Somehow the electricity gave me these powers. And you know that I used to be more powerful than I am now, right?"
Namor nodded slowly and said, "Yes. We were reluctant to mention it, since you obviously did not wish to, but, yes, we were aware that your powers had diminished."
Miss America said tartly, "Well, thanks for trying to shelter my delicate sensibilities, Namor, but I could have handled it. But that's not important right now. What is is that we get out of here."
Captain America said, "You've got an idea, I take it?"
Miss America nodded and said, "I do. A lightning bolt gave me my powers before; they faded away after a while, but obviously electricity has some sort of strange effect on me."
The Whizzer said, "Uh, Mad, we don't have any electricity here."
Miss America shot him a look of annoyance. "I know that, Bob. But...I'm no scientist, but aren't heat and electricity sorta the same thing? I was thinking that if I get exposed to a lot of heat, maybe the same thing would happen to me."
Captain America said, "But where would--oh."
The Torch nodded slowly. "I think I understand. But...Maddy, if I turn the flames on, the oxygen in here will be used up."
Miss America said, "Could you project heat without flames, though?"
The Torch, taken by surprise, said nothing for a moment. Finally he nodded and said, "I think I can manage it." He drew in a deep breath and concentrated hard, finally pointing at Miss America. An orange-red beam shot out from his hand, emitting tiny bursts of flame. The beam struck Miss America in the stomach, igniting her peignoir and horribly burning her, and filling the room with the reek of burned flesh. She collapsed, screaming in pain and curling into a fetal ball on the floor. The Whizzer gave a cry and ran to her, followed by Captain America and Bucky and Toro.
The Torch swore vehemently and repeatedly under his breath, then stopped, his face suddenly hopeful. He looked at Namor, who looked at Miss America with sadness. Namor said, "Do not blame yourself, Jim; it was a brave attempt on her part. You had no way of knowing that it would not work."
The Torch hurriedly shook his head. "No, never mind that, fish--I mean, Namor. I have an idea, but I need your help."
Namor looked at him curiously. He listened as the Torch quickly whispered something in his ear, finally nodding. Namor looked at the Torch for a long moment, finally saying, "You are certain you wish to do this?"
The Torch said, "Of course I am - just do it, Namor, her life might be depending on this."
Namor nodded and said, "Your sacrifice does you credit, Jim." And he swung his fist forward, directly into the Torch's chest. Namor's fingers, powered by his mutant physiology, drove deep into the android body of the Torch. Namor grabbed two huge cables from inside the Torch's body, ignoring the Torch's agonized cry of "AAARRGHHskkkrzzzk" and the sudden way that his voice shut off and the light and life went from the Torch's eyes and body, and flew across the room, shoving the Whizzer and Captain America and the others away from Miss America's body. Namor jammed the two cables into Miss America's body, then collapsed.
Captain America turned, angry, to berate the Sub-Mariner, but saw that Namor was flat on his back, barely conscious, and ran to him. He said, "Namor, what...?" The Sub-Mariner whispered, in obvious pain, "Too much...electricity...even for me..." Captain America looked at Miss America. Her body was jerking and writhing about, and the Whizzer seemed frozen in place, staring at Miss America.
She suddenly gave a great yell and sat up. As the others looked on, half in horror and half in fascination, the burns across her waist and belly and chest and neck healed, the charred flesh flaking off and being replaced by healthy pink skin. Miss America gasped twice, then blinked and said, "What--? But--oh, I see. Obvious - I should have thought of that myself. I'll have to remember to thank Jim."
The Whizzer took her hand and said, "Oh, God, Maddie, I thought--"
She rose to her feet and kissed his hand and said, "I know, love - but that can wait. We need to get out of here, now, before my powers wear off." She smiled at Captain America, Bucky, and Toro, and said, "You can stop looking at me now, boys," and all three blushed and hurriedly averted their eyes, and Miss America and the Whizzer briefly exchanged amused glances. Miss America stood up and looked around the walls, murmuring, "No...nope...no...too thick...no...aha!" She walked up to a spot on the wall opposite the one on which Future Man's face had appeared, drew back her arm, and slugged the wall. It flexed inward slightly, and then seemed to flow backwards to its previous position.
The Whizzer said, "Maddy...Future Man said it was built to stand up to Namor. I don't think--"
She hit the wall again, harder, and another dent was made, this one somewhat deeper. She said, "Bob, I'm stronger, right now, than he is."
Namor, hearing her words, sat up, clutching his head, and said, "No...woman...will outmatch the pride of...Poseidon, my head!...outmatch the pride of Atlantis!" He made his way somewhat dizzily to the wall and began hammering it.
Together they made a larger dent, and then still larger and deeper, but when the pit in the wall was around two feet deep it stopped, and their blows seemed to have no further effect. The Whizzer said, "Damn it! And we were so close, too!"
Miss America's face twisted in anger, and she began hitting the wall harder and faster as she said, "Not yet, Bob, by God, not yet! This lunatic is going to take over the world and violate me only when we're finished, and I--"
wham
"--AM--"
whamwhamwham
"--NOT--"
whamwhamWHAMWHAMWHAM
"--DONE!"
WHAMWHAMWHAMWHAMWHAMWHAM
A web of cracks appeared and began spreading along the wall, and Miss America stepped up her pace, with Namor joining her, until the others were covering their ears against the thunderous noise of the blows.
The wall finally gave way with a loud CRACK, leaving a yard-wide opening. Captain America instantly snapped, "Whizzer! Recon!" and the Whizzer dashed through the gap in the wall, immediately followed by the others.
They found themselves in a long hallway, curving slightly to the left, with slight alcoves set in the walls on both sides at 20' intervals. The hallway was illuminated by a soft light whose source they could not see, and the air had an odd and not unpleasant scent to it that none of them recognized.
About a minute later the Whizzer returned. He said, "This place is enormous. I kept running for a while, but didn't come near an end - and it's just more hall, all the way around. It keeps curving around, but there's nothing else."
Captain America reflexively reached for his shield, frowned with irritation when he realized it wasn't there, and said, "Suggestions?"
Miss America looked at the walls and the ceiling and then down at the floor. She said, "I can see through the walls. Those recesses in the hall are in front of rooms like the one we were in. He's got...my God, he's got everyone here...there are hundreds of people..."
Namor said, "We must release them, to join the fight against Future Man!"
Miss America hurriedly shook her head as she continued to look around and through the hallway into the rooms and floors beyond and above and below. "No time, Namor, there's no time - when Future Man figures out we're loose, he's going to come after us, and we won't be able to stop him - he'll have got weapons...we have to find the controls for this ship..."
Captain America said, "Armory - find out where he's got his weapons hidden - we can use them against him."
Miss America said, "I don't see anything like...that...I'm looking for...no...damn it, this is all so strange, there's nothing here I recog...ah! Found him!" She turned to the other All-Winners. "Five floors down, about two miles that way," she said, pointing to the right.
Namor said, "How shall we get there, Madeleine?"
Miss America said nothing, instead punching the floor. It shattered, throwing large shards of a strange grey substance - solid, but seeming to ooze a sludgy black liquid - everywhere. She pounded it again, and it broke, dropping the All-Winners to the next floor down. The halls seemed to shudder somewhat. Miss America didn't wait for the others to regain their feet but instead immediately began pounding the next floor, yelling, "This place is alive! We have to get to the Future Man before he realizes what's happening!"
Over the next thirty seconds Namor and Miss America pounded through the other four floors, the All-Winners quickly learning to judge their falls and land on their feet. The more damage the Sub-Mariner and Miss America did, the more the walls and floor shuddered and shook, and when the All-Winners broke through into the fifth floor down a high-pitched keening filled the air and everything in the "ship" seemed to be shaking continually.
Miss America pointed to the right and said, "That way! Hurry! He's doing something with the controls!" She grabbed Captain America and Namor with one arm each and began flying down the hallway at a rapid pace. The Whizzer scooped up Bucky, and Toro flamed on, and they followed her as fast as they could.
They caught up to her just as she punched her way through a featureless stretch of wall and leapt through the hole she had just opened, closely followed by Captain America and the Sub-Mariner and then the other All-Winners.
They found Future Man standing on a sort of dais, growing from the floor, with his hands flying across a kind of control panel. In front of him, along a high, curving wall, were three large screens - like tv screens, only with a clarity and vividness none of the All-Winners had ever seen. The rest of the room was full of strange panels and objects, all protruding from the walls or floor or ceiling.
The Whizzer and Miss America raced forward, with Miss America reaching Future Man a few feet ahead of the Whizzer. She slapped a strange bluish blob out of his hand, and none too gently; she then began violently shaking him, saying, "You'll have me, huh? The only thing you'll have is prison grey and jail food, you animal! You--"
She realized that Namor and the Whizzer and Captain America and the Human Torch were trying to pull her off of Future Man, and she threw him to the floor with a noise of disgust and contempt.
Captain America said, "Your reign is over, Future Man. Give up."
The Whizzer glared at Future Man, picked him up and ran him to the dais at which he'd been standing. The Whizzer said, "Send everyone back, you scum. Send all the superhumans back to where you got them from. Now."
Bucky said, "Shouldn't we, y'know, do something to the Commies?"
Captain America said, "You don't really mean that, Fred. That'd be murder, and we don't do that. That's the difference between us and the Russians."
Miss America glared at Future Man and said, "Send them back, you son of a...send them back, and if anything happens to us I will kill you. No matter how fast you are, you aren't faster than me or Bo--or the Whizzer."
Future Man moved one trembling arm to the panel and started punching it, seemingly at random. After two minutes he looked up and said, "It's...done...they're back where they...should be."
Captain America said, "Good. Now show us how to work this...transport machine of yours, and then send yourself down to...what?"
The All-Winners looked at him, and saw that he was beginning to fade away. The Whizzer cocked his hand back, but before his punch landed he, too began to disappear. Future Man leaned against the dais and said, "Did you think you'd know what I was doing? That 20th century minds could encompass the technology of the far future? I sent the superbeings back, yes - but I can easily get them back again - and this time I'll do it without you!"
The last things that the All-Winners saw and heard was the Future Man, laughing, as they vanished.
Future Man watched them disappear, then collapsed against the dais and gasped, "Ship....medical repair...to Command Room #4."
A weirdly-echoing voice, from under him, said, "That won't be necessary, Future Man. I will see to your wounds."
Future Man scrambled away from the floor and saw a weird being emerge from it. He managed to gasp, "Vuh...Vision? Nooooo!"
A few seconds later the g'k'r'll vanished from its orbit around the Earth.
Author's Notes:
The time has come to say something about Miss America, I think. See, back during the Golden Age, in the original books, Miss America had a wide array of powers: flight, x-ray vision, "the strength of a thousand men," and the "wisdom of the ages." Roy "Hack" Thomas, for whatever reason, decided to strip her of those powers, and left her with only flight. (Far be it from me to imply that Thomas was a rank sexist who stripped her of powers just because he couldn't handle having the most powerful member of the All-Winners be a woman) (Actually, I don't really think Thomas was a sexist. I just think he was a lousy writer). And when Marvel put Miss America in the Official Marvel Handbook, they went along with Thomas' version of the character, rather than the original version. No explanation was ever given to explain away the contradiction (typical for Thomas, who rarely met a Golden Age character he couldn't somehow mess up).
Next issue: In Flanders fields the poppies grow....
