Chapter One: Falling Skies
"I have to go! I don't know if I'll be back this time, but somebody has to make things right…" said a voice as a whirlwind of dark energy turned the figure of a man to dust and in the blink of an eye all the turmoil went away, vanishing into the sky. Standing in the wake were Earth's Mightiest Heroes, feeling quite not so "mighty".
The alarm blared signaling the beginning of the day for Carol Danvers, better known to the world as Captain Marvel. She groggily walked from her bed to the bathroom, as she entered the lights turned on automatically. The brightness was irritating, but she was accustomed to it, after all a military life wasn't much for comfort.
She opened the warm water faucet on the sink and splashed water in her face. Feeling less groggy she grabbed a towel and dried her face. Carol stood in front of the mirror, gazing deeply into her eyes. With her mind drawing her back to that day, back when she wore black, back when she was known by another name. Back to the day when an avenger, a friend, gave his life to make things right. She was saddened by the memory, but that was four years ago, now her problems were more complicated.
During the last year alone, the Universe was brought back from the abyss by Reed Richards. The Terrigen cloud ensures that there will always be the possibility of an Inhuman threat; the same cloud also poisoning the world's dwindling population of mutants. The loss of James Rhodes, the man better known to the world as "War Machine"; but she knew him by another moniker, the man she loved. Not to mention the growing tensions in the superhuman community over the powers of Ulysses, the pre-cognitive Inhuman, whose mere existence plagued the superhuman community with the question: "Is it right to apprehend individuals for crimes they will commit in the future; if you know what, where and when those crimes will occur?"
The latter being her greater concern. She was a firm believer of crime prevention and passionately defended her stance. This fervor caused frictions with, who at one point in her life she considered a brother, Tony Stark. This great philosophical divide was reminiscent of the conflict over the Superhuman Registration Act; where she stood side-by-side with Tony, defending what she thought was right. This fact was not lost to her…
As the morning carried on Carol went about her usual routine. She exercised with weights few superhumans could handle, she ran in the high-gravity chamber, she sparred with training droids, and then she had breakfast by herself. After her morning shower, she changed into her iconic red, blue and gold outfit; and she headed towards the Triskelion's command center.
The Triskelion, island command center in the middle of New York Bay. This man-made island houses several facilities: the first being the Wakandan Embassy, the second is housing the ground crew for the Alpha Flight space program. The final, is the headquarters of Carol's team of Heroes "The Ultimates". A team whose sole purpose is stopping cosmic problems before they get to Earth.
As Carol went up the Glass elevator, she could see the entire New York Bay; from the busy streets of Manhattan to the imposing New Attilan, the island kingdom of the Inhumans. The view was awe inspiring to most who caught glimpse of it, but to Carol it was a somber reminder of the thin balance that exists in the world.
When Carol reached the command center she was greeted by an African-American woman sporting the trademark Alpha Flight red and white suit. "Good morning, Colonel Danvers. I have the daily threat assessments for you." Said the woman as she handed Carol a datapad.
Carol sorted through the data, she saw nothing out of the ordinary. It was a rather slow day according to the data. "Well it looks like things are finally quieting down, let's see how much that lasts." Said Carol as she passed the datapad back.
Carol walked around the command center looking at the several monitors with information regarding the Earth's safety. As she looked closely at all the information, she was interrupted by a familiar voice: "It's good to see you again Captain."
Carol turned around recognizing the voice, it was King T'Challa of Wakanda "The Black Panther". Carol smiled at the familiar sight of his comrade in full costume. "T'Challa, I didn't know you returned. How's Wakanda?" asked Carol as she shook hands with T'Challa.
"It is good Carol. I don't get to see her as much as I want to, but such is the life of the king. How are things going with the Ulysses initiative?" asked T'Challa in a friendly demeanor.
Carol shrugged and said: "Becoming more effective every day. So far we have stopped around 120 incidents, and the lives saved are in the thousands. But somehow that doesn't stop every Mary Sue from criticizing. Some say we are moving too fast others say too slow and then there's the ones saying we shouldn't be moving at all."
"Stark?" asked a quizzical T'Challa as they began to walk outside of the command center.
Carol took a deep breath and said: "Yeah… among others and if I know Tony things are gonna get worse. But somebody has to do the right thing" T'Challa gave a supporting nod and the two continued to the elevator.
Once they got into the elevator, T'Challa put his hand on Carol's shoulder and said: "That is a heavy burden to carry, but I feel that something else is bothering you Captain."
As the doors to the elevator closed and it began going down, Carol held the bridge of her nose and said: "You know that today, exactly four years ago, Jack sacrificed himself to save us. Then Rhodey died a few months back so we could stop Thanos and now Bruce… It got me wondering how many more of the people we care about are gonna be lost to protect this world? How much blood do we need to spill? But I know that with Ulysses we might be able to put an end to this cycle."
T'CHalla took off his mask to look at Carol in the eyes and said: "I know that if somebody can do it, you can Captain. Know that I wholeheartedly support you."
They both shared a comforting gazed and T'Challa put his mask back on. The rest of the elevator ride was silent as the two made their way to the Ultimates headquarters.
Stark Tower, Time Square NY
The streets of New York, below the massive tower, were filled with life. Up in the sky, the red and gold glint from Tony Stark's Iron Man armor caused some people on the street to stare up in awe at the sight. Inside his helmet Tony smiled, he always loved the looks on people's faces as he flew by them. Tony circle around the building a few times, he wanted to give people a show, he did have a famous ego to cater for.
After his "fly by" Tony landed in the penthouse balcony of Stark Tower, leisurely walking inside. Once he got inside he deactivated his armor, this caused the small hexagonal pieces that composed the armor to move and retreat towards his bracelet.
"Honey, I'm home!" exclaimed Tony as he stretched his arms.
"Don't call me 'honey', that's not part of my job description" said Tony's personal assistant, Mary Jane Watson.
Tony shook his head and said: "Is having a sense of humor part your job description? Because I think we might need to add it to your list of responsibilities."
Mary Jane gave him a coarse stare and retorted: "Yes. Put it alongside running your company while you gallivant across the globe, being in charge of all your non-profit organizations, occasionally saving your butt… Oh! And my recent personal favorite, dealing with the fallout from you kidnapping an inhuman." Then she proceeded to work on some documents in a data pad.
Tony rubbed the back of his neck and said: "It can't be that bad… The company basically runs itself, plus you have Friday to do the paper work. Speaking of which, Friday you there?"
The female voice of Tony's Artificial Intelligence replied: "Always Boss."
"Has Roman given you any news of the armor upgrades?" asked Tony as he sat down at a nearby chair.
"Not yet Boss. He hasn't answered any of the daily messages I sent him." Stated Friday.
Tony's face reflected he had some inquiries: "He hasn't answered 'any' as in several days? How long has he been in there?"
Mary Jane put down her data pad and interjected: "Last time I saw him was two days ago. He's been locked in his lab since then."
Tony stood up and jokingly said: "And none of you thought to check if he's still alive?"
Mary Jane shrugged and then she and Toney headed downstairs towards the lab. It took them a couple of minutes to get to the lab. It was an entire floor dedicated to research and development of technology with explicit Iron Man suit integrations.
Tony opened the door and was the first through it with Mary Jane tailing him by only a few steps.
The lab was cluttered with pieces of machinery and scrap metal. The floor and walls were decorated with more than a few scratch and burn marks. Suddenly an explosion occurred at the far end of the lab and Roman was sent flying across the room by the shockwave.
Roman Wright was a young man in his early twenties, recent graduate of MIT and prominent inventor who Tony had decided to take under his wing. This was a rarity for Tony, the eccentric playboy, billionaire philanthropist was not known for taking in apprentices.
When Roman finally landed his light brown hair was smoking and his face was covered with smudges from the smoke. Tony and Mary Jane approached him quickly. Roman was laying in the ground, eyes closed a solemn silence filled the lab.
"Hey kid, you alive?" asked Tony as he shook Roman's shoulders to wake him.
"Woohoo! That was awesome! Did you see that?" yelled Roman as he opened his amethyst colored eyes.
The sudden reaction startled Tony and Mary Jane, both followed their surprise with a sigh of relief after seeing Roman was alive.
Tony and Mary Jane helped Roman stand up and after dusting him off Tony said: "All I saw was you getting thrown across the room. I don't see what's so impressive about that. I do that like a couple times a week."
Mary Jane nodded and said: "Yeah you can get those same results from insulting Ben Grimm and it will probably have less fire damage, Tiger." Then she proceeded to rub his hair so it would stop smoking.
Roman looked at them a little annoyed and said: "Ha. Ha. Not funny and I definitely wasn't referring to me rag-dolling across the room. I just took a point blank explosion, without armor mind you, and escaped damage free. The personal kinetic shielding works!"
Tony looked at his recently landed protégé and jokingly asked: "What do you call flying across the room with your hair on fire then?"
Happily grinning Roman said: "Newton's Thirds Law in motion."
Tony gave a heartfelt laugh as Mary Jane shook her head.
"I'm glad you got the shield working kid. I am also glad you are not dead; I don't think Stark industries could handle the liability claims. I imagine you hadn't had a chance to check my math on that other thing, have you?" asked Tony as his mood change towards the end of his statements.
"Actually I have. I ran the numbers and cross reference them with the Creswell databanks and I came to the same conclusion you did; Ulysses brain is acting as a high-level possibility calculator. Although, I actually haven't been able to find an accurate margin of error."
"Me neither. There has to be something we are missing, there is no way he can accurately predict the future from just ambient data." Said Tony as he began to ponder the implications.
"But what if it does work 100 percent of the time? Lots of things work 100 percent of the time like the sunrise… and I just realized that you two are about to ruin the sunrise for me." Said Mary Jane as she interjected in the conversation.
"Well MJ, the sun will burn out in a large 10 based number of years. I'm pretty sure that will knock that perfect average by a bunch." Said Roman in a cheerfully.
Mary Jane pouted and said: "Yep… You ruined sunshine. But seriously, what's the worst that could happen if his powers do work as intended?"
"Besides the societal implications of arresting somebody who hasn't actually committed a crime yet? The implications of it failing are catastrophic and that's what I'm trying to get Carol to see. I thought that after Rhodey and Bruce she would have reconsidered, but no, she can be so thick headed." Said Tony as he started pacing around the lab.
Mary Jane didn't say anything else on the matter. She was well aware that loosing Rhodey hit Tony hard, probably harder than anything else in his life. She spent enough time around the Superhero community to know that Tony and Rhodey were more than friends, they were brothers.
Tony took a deep breath but before he could speak Friday interrupted: "Boss, reports coming in of a magnitude 8.2 earthquake hitting Europe. Preliminary analysis shows it was centered away from any major population center, minimum damage is expected to neighboring cities; but it caused an explosion at a regional energy plant. The UN is requesting Avenger assistance with search and rescue efforts, as the fire and also smaller subsequent explosions are not allowing their teams to go in."
"Thanks Friday. Send the call, we'll group at the penthouse then we'll take a quinjet there." Said Tony as he began activating his armor and walked towards the penthouse.
New Attilan, New York Bay
The Inhuman city was filled to the brim with people, both Inhuman and not. From the markets to the palace the streets were full and vibrant. Inside the palace Queen Medusa, the prehensile haired leader of the Inhumans, oversaw the meditation of Ulysses.
Becoming an inhuman changed Ulysses life forever, he went from being an average college student to becoming the controversial future seer that was tearing the superhero community apart.
Ulysses was in a deep trance as Medusa closely observed. Suddenly a bright flash engulfed them both, they found themselves in space, contemplating Earth from a distance. Then they saw, what looked like, an asteroid hurl to Earth. It was surrounded by a field of dark blue light; it did not look natural to them.
Then, abruptly as it began, the vision vanished. "That's strange. I never had a vision that wasn't on Earth." Said Ulysses as he pondered the implications.
Medusa placed her hand on the youth's shoulder and said: "It is very intriguing indeed. We should inform Captain Marvel immediately."
Alpha Flight Space Station
Stationed in a low-orbit space station in geosynchronous orbit above the Triskelion, Alpha Flight is Earth's first line of defense against extraterrestrial threats.
"Any luck on spotting our ominous space rock? I know it's not an easy task." asked Carol to the crew of twenty people dressed in red and white uniforms.
One woman interrupted: "Got it! It should be entering the moons gravitational orbit in about a minute or so. By the mass and dimensions it should get pulled into a loop around the moon and it should be within Earth's orbit in about 12 hours."
Carol took a deep breath contemplating her options: "Okay people, I need a trajectory and a point of impact. We need to know whether we are gonna have to evacuate people."
Another crew member answered: "Preliminary data has it making a water landing 20 miles of Anchorage. No damage projected from impact."
"We can work with that. Contact the US government and…" Carol said as she was interrupted by a an alarm followed by a crewmember: "Oh that's not good."
Carol turned to the crewmember and asked: "What's not good ensign?"
"The object isn't moving naturally. It just sped up and bypassed the Moon's gravitational pull. The impact projection just changed… by a lot." Said the crewmember as sweat dropped down his face.
Carol rushed towards the crewmember's station and asked: "How much is a lot?"
He replied: "At its current speed, 45 minutes and 30 seconds. Point of impact…Seul, South Korea. At its current velocity the impact will be the equivalent of a 35 megaton nuke."
"Shit! We don't have time to evacuate. I'm going out there, contact the Alpha Flight team and tell them this is priority ONE. Check if we have anybody in the area" exclaimed Carol as she began flying to the nearest open bay.
"Ma'am we have confirmation that The Ultimates are in Japan and are already inbound. Alpha Flight is in Brazil and they are also inbound." Said one of the crewmembers over the comms. This made Carol feel somewhat more confident.
When Carol got to the docking bay she didn't bother to stop and take one of the Alpha Flight ships; she just flew out the force field containing the oxygen inside and barreled as fast as her powers would allow her.
Carol knew that out of the available options she could take, the most viable one was going down to Seoul and alongside the rest of The Ultimates try to destroy the speeding asteroid.
"This is Captain Marvel, Ultimates brace for impact." Said Carol as she entered the atmosphere.
