“We’ve got a problem,” Jim Hammond announced himself with these dire words. As the party had died down, most of the visitors had left as well. Now only Avengers members: Vision, Angel, Black Cat, team associate Jack Frost and Jarvis were to be found.
“What is it? Warbird and Rhodes are out right now but we can raise them on the comm if you need,” Angel replied.
“Let’s wait and see. Darkstar, you should tell the team about the situation,” Hammond said.
“Da, but first let us to the basement. I want to make sure that we are not being watched.”
As the team hurriedly ambled down to the basement conference room they bade Jack Frost and Jarvis to accompany them.
“There is a rotten core in modern Russia that very few are aware of. When this… ‘super-hero exchange’ program came up and Photon and I traded positions between the Avengers and the Winter Guard, the controlling force in Moscow made me do it, to spy on you all. However, as my previous associations with western heroes could attest, I knew this team would be perhaps my best way of eradicating the problem,” Laynia spoke mournfully for her country and the circumstances she was under.
“What is it, Darkstar?” the Vision asked after his teammate trailed off.
“My father, the Presence, has secretly taken control of my home country. The Presence is a vastly powerful man, a living nuclear reactor…all the destructive power of Chernobyl in one man. He had been exiled to the Forbidden Zone in Russia, an area tainted by radioactivity and devoid of life. However recently he has begun to expand the Forbidden Zone with his powers, somehow threatening to encompass towns and cities…for whatever reason I do not know. One town tried resisting. Their crops and livestock were poisoned and tainted by his radioactive touch. Within thirty days the entire town was radioactive ash.” Her voice trailed off, she was visibly affected.
“Tell them what you did,” Jim said, his hand resting on her shoulder. He wasn’t angry anymore, he was just looking for transparency within the group.
“Mephisto had used places in Russia as his base of operations and he had even used an old Russian military program as a possible weapon. Jim’s father and creator Phineas Horton had devised a way to solidify water without freezing it. The molecules bind up and quit moving, similar to being frozen, only like I said, temperature doesn’t play a role. It requires a solvent that decelerates everything into this state. I don’t understand how it all works, I’m sorry, but a key ingredient in this solvent is Jim’s blood. In D.C. I managed to take a small sample after pretending to accidentally scratch him.
“I don’t know how those devils got a hold of the solid water but the Presence had plans in motion to utilize it for awhile now. I only hope he was not in some agreement with them. For some reason he allowed Mephisto to gain control of the hardwater project, now undoubtedly he has it back in his own possession. We need to stop him and free my country. Please.”
“Warbird’s not here, and I don’t mean to swindle my way into some leadership role but I think I can speak for everyone when I say we will help. This is our job and a grievous atrocity is in the making. We’re going to stop it,” Hammond said.
=====
A Bowling Alley somewhere in New York City:
Jim Rhodes felt like a man adrift, he was losing his mind and his body. Bits of metal and plastic jutted out of his skin. A long dormant tattoo, the “mandala”, that his old alien armor had marked him with had reappeared and it felt like it was on fire now. The alien power prism that he had been using as an Avenger was flaring up as well. He felt like his mind was caught in the middle of some monstrous psychic war between the two powers. His body was paying a toll as well. Bits of the Eidolon armor manifested, forming enough of the armor for it to engage its propulsion systems and take off.
Crashing headlong through the bowling alley, the power prism erected shields around Rhodes automatically to keep the destruction from hurting him. As he flew out and burst through the roof, Warbird immediately leapt into action and flew after him.
“Jim! What’s going on?” She yelled out to him, accelerating and pulling up next to him in the air.
“Begone, half-breed!” Alien armor grew around one of Rhodes’s arms and fired a plasma blast at Warbird, knocking her from the air, through a building and into the concrete below them.
Flying into Bedford-Stuyvesant at break-neck speed, Rhodes’s form came to a halt over an alleyway. Prism light illuminated the alleyway where several men scuffled and one woman knelt down, terrified. Two gangsters were being dealt with by the local hero, Hybrid. Streaks of hard prism light lashed out from Rhodes’ form and subdued the criminals, one more launched from his chest and wrapped itself around Hybrid.
Bringing the symbiote-clad hero closer, a terrible, dissonant alien voice came from Rhodes’s mouth.
“I could smell you from across this filthy city, symbiote. Tell me how you got here and take me to your ship. I need to get offworld and to a warpgate.”
“We don’t know what you’re talking about! You’re that Avenger right?” Hybrid said.
“This form was. Krimonn and myself the War Machine Eidolon are in control now. Our host form encountered you some time ago and though I was not in control at the time, I was aware of my hosts actions. I knew you were a symbiote and that you must have arrived on earth somehow,”
“We—the symbiotes—were born here, our ancestor was tortured and forced to procreate. We were brought to term and extracted, we bonded with this man. Our ancestor was transported here through some alien means, we have no ship,” Hybrid’s symbiotes reported.
“We know your kind possessed genetic memory. You didn’t simply appear here. How did you get here?”
“We don’t know.”
“Or you won’t say? You’re coming with us. Eidolon systems were created and engineered to fight off symbiotes originally, we can sniff out your kind anywhere. We’ll use you as collateral to make the others tell us.”
As the Eidolon suit used its sensors to sniff out another symbiote, Warbird managed to track Rhodes’s form down, coming up on him just as he kicked in his propulsion system and flew off.
“Carol to Avengers,” Warbird spoke into her Avengers communicard, “we’ve got a situation.”
“That’s funny, I was just about to say the same to you,” Hammond replied over the comm link “What’s yours?”
“Rhodes has gone crazy or something all of a sudden, he’s flying around, I think he’s got someone else with him now, but he blasted me out of the sky awhile ago.”
“We’ve got a radioactive despot about to destroy Russia. Possibly the world. It’s Laynia’s dad, he’s been pulling her strings for awhile,” Hammond replied.
“This is a real two-for-one shit-special. What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know, Carol. With Rhodes gone and all the visitors from our latest adventure gone it’s down to the rest of the core seven. We’re six Avengers with two big problems. You think 3 people can take down Rhodes?”
“I don’t know, Torch. Worth a try. Give me Angel and Cat. Rhodes is a little above their power scale but Felicia knows this city pretty well and Rhodes is zipping all over the place, plus she fights dirty which I think we might need. Plus I want a good aerialist and flyer and Warren’s the best in the business.”
“Sounds good to me. Laynia and I have to go and I wanted the Vision too,” Hammond replied.
“Have Angel and Black Cat track my communicard and meet me out here. Good luck in Russia. Warbird out.”
=====
Avengers Mansion:
Back at the mansion the Avengers scrambled to put their plans into motion. The Vision phased through the ceiling and up to the third floor hangar area to prep a Quinjet for the flight to Russia.
Soon he turned to one of the Avenger’s sky-cycles. If Warbird, Angel and Black Cat were to be chasing Rhodes around the city, it would be easier for Black Cat to use one of the small flying vehicles.
A few seconds later the elevator finally arrived, heralding the remaining four Avengers.
“The Quinjet is ready to take off. Moscow is eight hours ahead of us and the flight will be around three hours at our top speed. That puts us in Moscow at noon. We can use the flight to arrange our plan of attack on the situation. I have also prepared a sky cycle for the Black Cat to use. Carol made it sound like there would be a lot of travel involved in the chase for Rhodes. I thought the sky cycle might prove beneficial. I’ve already set its onboard computer to track Carol’s communicard. Good luck,” the Vision finished his impromptu briefing of the team.
“Same to you guys,” Angel replied.
Darkstar and the two synthezoids boarded the Quinjet, a massive pneumatic jack raised the Quinjet up on a platform as the roof opened above. The powerful engines came to life and in what seemed like no time at all the incredible aircraft was soaring over the Atlantic.
The Black Cat got onto the sky cycle, she slid her Avengers card into a slot on the small dashboard area. The machine promptly came to life and lifted her into the air. She steered it through roof opening and Angel flew out behind her.
After a few minutes she had mastered the intuitive controls of the small flying craft. The two Avengers took off into the night.
“The signal is reading near Bed-Stuy, birdman,” Felicia said with a wink, “This is a pretty sweet getup. I should have joined the Avengers back when Vision asked me years ago!”
“That’s what I’ve been thinking, I got the chance years ago but never took it. Don’t really know why, I did that Champions gig, I palled around with the Defenders. They offered Iceman a spot too and we were partners in crime for awhile out in the general superhero community. It just didn’t seem right. I think part of me didn’t want to contribute to a legacy that I hadn’t made. I was an original X-Man. I was the first class that would always be looked up to. As an Avenger…I would have been just another face. Now it feels different,” Angel replied.
“I know what you mean. I was so busy back then, Spider-Man and I were partners, I don’t think I really had a handle on what I wanted to do or who I wanted to be. I know I’ve flirted with the law, but I’m a good girl now and the Avengers feel right to me.”
“I’m glad we joined together,” Angel said with a smile which the Black Cat returned.
Off in the distance a flash of multi-colored prism light went off, Black Cat and Angel swerved their flight paths. Another bright yellow flash went off—the telltale energy signature of their team member Warbird.
They soon arrived at the scene. Rhodes was engaged in a battle with Warbird who had finally caught up to the renegade Avenger.
By now the Eidolon Warwear had fully recovered and completely encapsulated Rhodes’s body. It appeared like a futuristic version of his classic War Machine armor. The lines were less bulky like the Stark armor had been, it was streamlined, black and white with glowing green eyes and track lighting along some of the joints. A prism field was perpetually erected around him like a second skin.
“This doesn’t concern you. Once we get out you can have him back,” the Warwear said
“Who’s that?” Angel asked the Black Cat.
Rhodes held onto the limp form of Hybrid. None of the Avengers were familiar with the symbiote hero and they remained puzzled.
“Get away from us!” A bright radius of light expanded around Rhodes, forcing the other three Avengers away. “We’re getting close,” Rhodes flew off again.
“What was that about, Carol?” Angel asked.
“I’m not sure, but he’s been darting around like that since I called you. He’ll stop for a minute and look around, the prism lights pulse for a second and then stop and he’ll fly off again. He keeps mentioning ‘another.’ I think he’s looking for something,” she said, floating effortlessly in the air.
The three Avengers took off again, the glowing Rhodes made an easy target to follow.
Rhodes suddenly zipped down into an alleyway. A few seconds later they heard a loud explosion. Rhodes flew out of the alley backwards, his Warwear gauntlets unleashing plasma bursts into the alleyway. Someone or something in the alley threw a large dumpster at the crazed Avenger.
Warbird picked up some speed and flew higher into the air to catch the dumpster, she let out a sigh and dropped it off on a building top, glad to get away from its filth and grime. Charging up her fists with energy she got ready to go after whatever had thrown it.
Angel sped forward through the air. He dipped down picking up speed and activated the photonic sword he’d taken up (left behind by the Black Knight). He swooped in to take a swing at Rhodes.
The energy blade cut across Warwear-Rhodes’ form. It didn’t draw blood or cut through his armor, but the blade caused severe neuro-feedback, making the crazed Avenger scream.
Warbird saw that Angel was somehow keeping the powerful Rhodes busy, she flew down into the alley, intent on finding out just who it was that had decided to throw the dumpster at her currently insane team-mate.
A monstrous black hand reached out and swatted at Warbird, knocking her into the alley’s brick wall.
“We don’t want any trouble, but keep it up and we’ll be happy to feast on your brains, gorgeous,” a strange, dissonant voice growled.
Warbird looked up, the large black form hunched over and roared, baring its sharp pointed teeth and absurdly long tongue. The lethal foe of Spider-Man snarled. Warbird had no idea what was going on. What did Rhodes want with Venom?
to be continued...