The Champions
Earth-1, Dakota City, The Abandoned Gas Station Of Solitude: Virgil Hawkins AKA Static
On the outskirts of Dakota city there lay a gas station. It's foundations had rusted to a dingy brown, and it's pumps were cracked and rusty. The petrol they had once carried dried up long ago, and the puddles of fuel that remained were the color of regret. In short, it was absolutely worthless, a place to pass by and forget about. Virgil Hawkins, and Richard Foley called the place home.
Virgil was headed back to the gas station after a long day of school, sexual frustration, fighting bang babies, and generally being Dakota city's dopest superhero. He cruised the skies atop his electromagnetically levitated trashcan lid, his black trenchcoat flapping behind him in a most epic fashion. He came to a stop in front of the Gas Station Of Solitude and leapt off of his trashcan lid, tucking it under his arm carefully. It wasn't the Batmobile but it got him to where he needed to be.
He pushed open the door to the gas station, and stepped through the doorway. The interior was a small room with four walls that had once probably been a dark blue, time had faded them into a color Virgil was calling 'muted ugly'. Old oil cans had been pushed into a corner, and stacked into a pyramid, while stacks of tires served as chairs. It had it's charms though, Virgil had managed to find a sofa, and breakfast table that really tied the room together.
"Yo Virg, how was the patrol?" a young man with blonde hair and glasses was sitting at the breakfast table that saved the room. He was wearing a green and white sleeveless bodysuit. There was a high tech bicycle helmet sitting next to him on the table, and his feet were propped up on the table, while he was flicking through a comic book. "Anything interesting happen?"
"Oh you know, the usual." Virgil took the seat directly across from him, removing his mask and propping his feet on the desk. "Hotstreak was having a firefight with the cops, Ebon tried to plunge the city into total darkness, and Frieda still wont let me get past second base. So yeah, I've had better days. What about you Rich?"
"Backpack detected some weird radiation earlier, so I've got it running a full scan over the city to see if we can lockdown a source. We haven't gotten a ping yet, but it should be done scanning soon. Could just be Alva industries running a weird experiment, but better safe than sorry. And really Virg? Boo hoo, you're smoking hot girlfriend won't let you get past second base. My heart bleeds for you."
"Richie." Virgil tilted his head back and exhaled loudly, and looked across the table at his best friend. "I'm gonna be more worried if it is Alva Industries. Edwin Alva is like Lex Luthor with twice the hair and half the ethics. The second backpack gets a ping let me know." Virgil looked across the table and smirked raising his eyebrows. "What do you know about how hot my girlfriend is? You don't even like girls."
Richies put his elbow on the table, and it wobbled before he rested his chin on the palm of his hand. "Virgil. I'm gay, I'm not blind and Frieda is smoking hot, anyone with working eyes could tell you that, so take a minute to appreciate that you even got to second base, because dude? She is way out of your league." He adjusted his glasses and pushed them up the bridge of his nose. "It has to be the hero thing."
Virgil leaned forward putting his hands under his chin, lacing his fingers together and staring at his friend from behind the curtain of dreads that hung in front of his eyes. "Richard, are you implying that Frieda wouldn't be with me if I wasn't a superhero?"
Richie returned the glare full force. "Why yes Virgil, I am."
For half a second the tension in the room was thick enough slow down Barry Allen. Then the atmosphere was shattered by laughter, Richie and Virgil had tears in their eyes as they were doubled over in their seats."Ok yeah, you got me there. She is way out of my league, this superhero thing has some serious perks."
Richie's helmet started beeping, and Richie reached out for it taking it in his hands, and pulling it on. The holographic interface flared on and began projecting data in front of Richie, holographic chart and graphs appearing. "Backpack finally got a source on that weird radiation from earlier."
Virgil stopped laughing and leaned forward looking at his friend. "So where's it coming from? Is it Alva?" Virgil brought his hands together, absently making sparks of static jump between his fingers,
Richie looked over at him, uncertainty written across his face, "Virgil, it's coming from you."
The universe it seemed had an excellent sense of dramatic timing. The air was filled with the sound of loud crackling, and bolts of electricity began dancing across Virgil's skin. It hissed and arced across his body, surrounding him in a cage of lighting. It created an intense electromagnetic field around his body. and the stacks of old oil cans floated in the air around him.
"Geez Virg, Frieda's not too hot for you! It's not that serious, turn off the sparks!" Richie's belt began pulling him towards Virgil and the holographic display in his helmet began going haywire, Richie grabbed a tire and discharged the excess electricity out of his body"Virgil! Power down!"
"I can't Rich! It's not me!" Virgil concentrated on his power, and to no avail tried to power down. He closed his eyes, clenched his fist and began taking deep breaths. With each breath out he felt a pulse of energy leave his body, and with breath in he felt more of his power returning. He took deep breaths in and out, with each breath in he called back more of the power into him. He repeated the process till his eyes were glowing white with power, it was more energy than his body had ever held, and he knew he couldn't contain it.
Virgil gave his friend one last glance, and through it all he smiled, and waved turning to run out of the door. He called his trashcan lid to him and jumped on, Virgil surfed the electromagnetic waves ever higher, using his excess of power to propel him higher than he'd ever been. till he was part of the Dakota skyline. When he reached his apex all the power came surging out of him like a bolt of lightning. A massive blast of electromagnetic energy ripped through Dakota, and at the center of that blast Virgil Hawkins was no more.
Earth-616, Jersey City New Jersey: Kamala Khan AKA Ms. Marvel
"Hey it's Ms Marvel!"
"You go Ms. M!"
"We love you Ms. Marvel!"
Kamala couldn't stop the smile from blossoming across her face, and even if she could why on earth would she want to do that? As the red and blue clad heroine ran across the rooftops of Jersey City, the citizens called out to her from below. She looked down and waved as she embiggened her legs, to stretch across the gaps between buildings.
It had almost been a year since she started being Ms Marvel, and it was the most insane time of her life, first she got sprayed with Terrigen Mist, then she fought Thomas Edison while he was in the body of a giant anthropomorphic pigeon, and best of all she got to team up with Wolverine and Spider-Man! Sure it wasn't at the same time, but what were the odds she would get to meet the two stars of the superhero fanfic she was working on? No one was going to be able to say her characters were ooc ever again. Being Ms. Marvel wasn't the easiest job, but it was certainly the most rewarding.
If there was one thing though that Kamala loved about being Ms. Marvel more than anything else, it was that she got to help her city. Kamala loved the fun of being a hero, but it couldn't hold a candle to the warm and fuzzy feeling that exploded in her belly whenever she helped someone.
Which is why when Kamala heard a cry for help, she stopped running, and immediately looked for the source of the call, she embiggened her ears, quadrupling their size, and tuned into the sound. She followed her giant ears, taking giant leaps across rooftops with her embiggened legs, till she came to the source.
A little boy who couldn't have been more than six years old stood by himself on an empty street crying his little eyes out. In a moment of slipped professionalism, Kamala couldn't help but notice how cute and ugly the kid was. His hair was red enough that he could have been a host for the Phoenix Force, and he had the misfortune of having it styled (using the term loosely) into a bowl cut. He had big floppy ears that poked out from beneath the bowl of tomato bisque atop his head. (Seriously who does that to their child?), and it looked like his freckles were just thrown on his face by a god who was too tired to care..
The kid hadn't noticed her arrival, so Kamala took a knee in front of him, bringing herself to his eye level and asked "What's wrong little guy?" He looked at her with watery eyes, and a little nose dripping with snot.
"Ms. Marvel?" His teary eyes had gone wide, and he couldn't stop himself from squealing in glee.
"You know it." The kid had gone from a lowly sack of sadness to star struck in seconds, and Kamala openly giggled as he bounced around her in joy. He was asking her a million and one questions, about her powers, her secret identity, all questions that Kamala couldn't answer, before finally settling on one she could.
"Ms. Marvel can you help me?"
"That is what I do little guy, so why were you crying?"
"Because Eddie Blake told me I was ugly, then all our friends laughed me, except for my best friend Daniel, but he didn't say anything either. Now that you're here you can tell them that I'm not ugly, and then you can punch Eddie Blake right in the face!"
Kamala listened to him like he was Nick Fury, he had her full attention and when he was done she asked. "Do You think you're ugly?"
"No." He said looking at her with head tilted.
"Then that's all that matters." Kamala put a hand on his head and mussed his hair till it didn't look like a bowl of tomato bisque. "Sometimes people like making fun of other people because they don't like themselves, and sometimes they're just plain old mean. This kid sounds like a real comedian, so remember he's only using words. Don't let him see you cry, and if he says something mean again just smile, and say Ms. Marvel thinks I'm beautiful. Now go home, it's getting late."
The boy couldn't stop grinning, he hugged Kamala's leg, and ran off screaming in the late afternoon. "Ms. Marvel thinks I'm beautiful!" Kamala smiled, and before she could think about the success of her first after school special, she disappeared.
Earth-16, El Paso Texas: Jaime Reyes AKA The Blue Beetle.
Jaime looked up at the sky and watched as the sun dipped lower and lower into the west. He smiled as he thought of fireworks, in the night sky. He heard a sizzle and looked down at the grill, the ribs had just begun, to turn the right color, and soon they'd be ready for barbecue sauce
"Jaime Reyes, what is the purpose of this ritual?" Ordinarily when people heard voices in their heads it was cause for panic, but for Jaime Reyes it was what he liked to call, The New Normal.
It all started when an alien super weapon attached itself to his spine, after a cruel prank left him naked and abandoned in the middle of the desert, suffice to say it gave Jaime an ever expanding definition of normal, which went on to include having conversations with the aforementioned alien superweapon when no one else was around.
"The purpose of this ritual is to celebrate the day this country gained its independence." Jaime picked up his grilling fork as he explained, then flipped the ribs over to let them cook evenly, and as they sizzled, Jaime could feel the Scarab gently sending electrical signals along his spine, and to his brain.
"You celebrate your nation's independence by gorging yourself on the flesh of swine? Incomprehensible, you should gorge yourself on the blood of those you once called master and remind them of your freedom."
The Scarab was a living organism capable of logic and reason, even it's logic was particularly cold. In the heat of battle it always recommended to Jaime the most effective and usually lethal course of action. "You know something Scarab? I'm sure that there are a lot of people in this country who would absolutely agree with you like the KKK, Neo Nazis, Donald Trump, Vampires but we're the good guys, so we don't gorge ourselves on the blood of anyone but Christ, and that's just because I'm Catholic."
"I do not understand you Jaime Reyes. You use the power I grant you to protect those around you, your family, your community, your species. This is understandable. As an apex human it is only logical that you protect them so your species can propagate, but you always stop short. You allow your enemies to live, and leave the job incomplete. Your reluctance to kill is illogical."
There was a sizzle as Jaime turned over the pork, and drops of fat hit the burning charcoal beneath. "Scarab, life is sacred. It's a gift that no one has any right to take away, not me and certainly not you. I don't kill people, but that's because I believe in people, I believe in their innate goodness, Besides the good book is pretty clear on it, Thou shalt not kill."
"I too have familiarized myself with your good book Jaime Reyes. Ezekiel 25:17. The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.
"I'm impressed by your knowledge of scripture, but there's one problem, I'm not a lord."
"Then what would you call a man who can fly, and has the power to level mountains?"
"Superman probably." The screen door to Jaime's house opened behind him, and as the hinges creaked he could hear the light footsteps of his mother coming near him. He looked back over his shoulder turning his attention away from the grill, putting the fork down, and wiping his bronze colored hands on his apron.
"Jaime? Who are you talking to?" Her forehead was creased, and her eyes were glancing around the backyard, when they didn't find anyone they refocused back on her son. She stepped closer, and put a hand on his cheek reaching up to press a warm palm against his face.
"I was talking to the Scarab, things got a little theological." He had to tilt his head downward to look at his mother, but the strength of her gaze still made him feel like a very. small child. "It talks to me sometimes, well it actually almost never shuts up."
His mother's gaze didn't waver, but she did let out a long low sigh. "Jaime you really need to stop speaking aloud to it, Senora Ramirez thinks your crazy, which is a shame her granddaughter is really pretty, and thinks you're cute." Jaime cringed and shut his eyes and when he opened them a smirk played across his mother's lips.
"Mami." His voice lowered to an almost fearful whisper as he stared at the back door. "Y-you know I don't like girls."
His mother nodded her head right along as he spoke. "Si, but you make me keep it a secret from your father and the rest of the family, so I am going to tease you about it."
Jaime never bothered keeping the superhero thing from his family, and really who would? It made his life a lot easier, 'Sorry I'm late Mami, I had to stop Animal-Vegetable-Mineral-Man from stomping on the downtown mall, I got the eggs you wanted.'
That conversation was easy enough to have, but coming out of the closet? That was something else entirely, something Jaime wasn't ready for. His mother quite literally smacked him back to reality when her hand lightly, but firmly tapped the side of his cheek.
"Contrary to what you believe you have a family that loves you unconditionally, and nothing is going to tear us apart."
"Jaime Reyes. I've detected an anomaly. Tachyon Fluctuations emanating from our location"
There was a momentary surge of blinding blue light, a splash of barbecue sauce followed by the ruffling of an apron and Jaime Reyes disappeared from his mother's arms.
Earth-1610, Brooklyn New York: Miles Morales A.K.A The Ultimate Spider-Man
Miles had seen a lot in his time as Spider-Man, he'd fought a giant woman in an American Civil War, crossed a dimensional barrier, and dated a Hydra sleeper agent, but what he currently saw was beyond his understanding. There was a massive red T-Rex rampaging through Brooklyn, and it's eyes were on fire.
"Really? Are you actually serious right now?" Miles stood on the rooftop and looked at the creature It's head was tilted high in the air nostrils flaring sniffing the air, smelling around for something. The Dinosaur was taller than the two story building Miles was standing on, and it moved carelessly stomping on cars and causing a general panic.
"Somewhere in the next left life Peter Parker is looking down and laughing at me for being dumb enough to become Spider-Man." Miles leapt off of the roof and with a flick of his wrist released a web line, it anchored to a nearby building and brought Miles careening through the air towards the giant red dinosaur. He tucked his legs into his chest before letting them explode forward into the dino's jaw. The creature stumbled as Miles landed gracefully on the street in a low crouch. "You probably can't talk or understand me, but I'm gonna fill the silence with words, because I'm nervous and have never fought a big red dinosaur before, but you should totally stand down and surrender or face the wrath of my mighty web-shooters."
The Dinosaur turned it's head toward him before it roared, windows cracked and it's eyes came alight again burning literally burning with intense fire.
"You idiot."
Miles looked down and saw a little girl, dressed as… well he wasn't sure what she was dressed as, but his spider-reflexes took in all the details in a few seconds. She was wearing a bright yellow bicycle helmet, there was a tuft of dark puffy hair sticking out of a hole in the top of it tied up by a single barrett. Miles was immediately reminded of cotton candy.
The rest of her outfit made Miles think that she repurposed an off brand Minions costume. She had on yellow shorts held by matching suspenders, her arms and legs were covered in blue spandex or whatever the heck they made unitards out of. She had covered her eyes, in bright yellow goggles and wore a black t-shirt with the image of a full moon printed onto it. There was what looked like a utility belt strapped to her waist, a backpack and a boxing glove on her right hand.
Miles turned his head to the rampaging Dinosaur, and then back to the girl. In about two seconds he picked her up tucking her under his arm, like she was football and fired a webline swinging away. There was another massive roar followed by heavy thuds and the sounds of concrete splitting. Miles dared to look over his shoulder and he could see the Dinosaur chasing them down, before he felt a sharp jab in his side where he was carrying the little girl.
She wriggled in his grip squirming to get free, but he couldn't exactly squeeze tighter what with the proportionate strength of a spider he would have ended up cracking one of her ribs. So he tried reason with her. "Listen up kiddo, you picked a really bad time to play Superhero what with Clifford The Big Red Dino trying to eat Brooklyn. Hmm. You're probably too young for that reference, but my point is that I need to get you somewhere safe and then deal with Dinosaur over there so stop squirming."
The girl sighed, but actually stopped squirming, and then he heard her speak. "His name is Devil Dinosaur. He's chasing you because he thinks you're kidnapping me, he won't be eating anyone, and I'm not playing superheroes. My name is Moon Girl and I'm a superhero, put me down now Spider-Man."
Earth 1610- Brooklyn New York-Lunella Lafayette A.K.A Moon Girl...Has a pet Dinosaur.
Spider-Man set her down gently on the ground and took a defensive stance as the Dinosaur continued charging. "Hey. Moon Girl? Can you work whatever Vulcan mind meld you got with Big Red over there? I really don't wanna get eaten."
Lunella scoffed at Spider-Man, his little detour was going to make her work much harder. The Dinosaur continued it's rampage charging them down. She absently put up a hand while her other one rummaged through her bag. The Dinosaur came to a full stop and tilted its head at her before snarling at Spider-Man. "Sit, be nice, and don't eat him." The Dinosaur growled before doing as she asked thumping the ground with it's massive weight, it's tail wagged as it's intense yellow eyes stared at Spider-Man.
"Cool. Did you train him to roll over too?" Lunella held up a finger shushing him.
"You talk too much, so just listen." She pulled from her bag a Gameboy Color, it had been heavily modified and had an array of antenna and extra battery packs attached to it. "Devil Dinosaur and I have been tracking a series of anomalies, disturbances in our very reality. Something is tearing open the fabric the multiverse and snatching people out of it. Right before a person is taken there's a massive build up of tachyons at their location which suggest that people aren't just being ripped from space, but-"
"Time as well, which would in turn prove the theory of relativity." Spider-Man finished her sentence and she blinked for a moment before carrying on.
"Exactly. I've been tracking them all day, but they were all too far away and the nearest event was here in Brooklyn, before you carried me away I was right on top of it. Now I have no idea how far away I am." Her Gameboy let out a soft ping and she looked down at it. "Oh. The Tachyons are still here, and they're coming from you."
There was a pop, and Spider-Man Lunella and Devil Dinosaur we're all torn from their world leaving behind, nothing but property damage.
Location Unknown Identity Unknown AKA One Powerful Mama Jama
"Well, the pieces are all set. I even got a couple of stragglers, ah well that just makes it more exciting don't you think? I mean after all how often do you get to see a Red Dinosaur fight Spider-Man? Just wait till they meet the rest of them. It should be fun. Ah, but we need an audience, so do me a favor? Keep reading will you? I need spectators, makes my life easier I'd hate to rip you out of your homes, away from your soft comfy beds never to see your families again. I'll be watching and so should you. Tune in next week kiddies. Same Bat-Time! Same Bat-Channel!
NANANANANANANANANANANANANANANANANANANANANANA!
I'M YOUR GOD!