Author's Note: Hey this is Green Gallant, back with my second Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes fic. Getting pumped for season two which will premier next month. This is something I've wanted to do for a while. Its a spinoff of my first AEMH fic The Avengers Crusade. Kind of beat my head against a wall trying to think of how to write this fic. I hope you guys enjoy it. And today's my birthday. :D

Avengers Crusade: Beginning of the End

Chapter 1

He had predicted that Captain America would one day betray them all, that his presence in the 21st Century would lead to the destruction of all…. they thought him a liar. No one would ever believe that Captain America would be responsible for such an atrocity. Whether he knew it or not, none of the Avengers believed Kang the Conqueror's lies.

However being from the future and having witnessed the destruction first hand, Kang wasn't so easily swayed. History said so, and history doesn't lie. He had showed them what the Kree/Skrull War would do to Earth, and to their sun, a mere ten years into the future. And somehow according to history Captain America's existence would be a key factor in deciding the Earth's fate. They refused to accept it. Undeterred Kang decided that he would save the Earth himself by invading it and providing it with the defenses needed to repel the Kree and Skrull if only to save his own timeline from the wave of entropy that the Captain America time paradox presented. In the end the Avengers defeated Kang's forces, but it was ultimately the Wasp that turned the tide by sympathizing with Kang and offer to save his dying wife using the best their century had to offer. The bargain was deemed acceptable and Kang surrendered to the Avengers.

Even though the war for Earth was won, Kang was still convinced that Captain America's presence would ultimately mean their destruction. No one would have ever guessed or at the very least believed he was right. Captain America was the pinnacle of goodness and virtue, and would never betray anyone. Or hurt someone that didn't sorely deserve it. However no one knew that he had been replaced by one of the shape shifting aliens known Skrulls until it was too late.

The Skrull blasted Cap in his quarters after helping the Avengers save Asgard, and by extension the universe during Loki's assault. The laser blast knocked him unconscious, allowing the Skrull infiltrator to take his place on the team. The Skrull wore a slightly different costume, with two smaller stars on his shoulders, which Steve wrote off as an update of his classic costume. The Skrull was given the mental engrains of Steve Rodgers allowing him to act without suspicion amongst his fellow Avengers. As well as allowing him to copy the skills and tactical command of the man he kidnapped. There were a few times however when he acted out of sorts, such as taking pleasure in beating a criminal almost to death. Steve would shrug it off and say that he got carried away a notion that troubled his teammates. Leading Iron Man to finally talk to Steve when his erratic behavior increased and started to exhibit sociopathic tendencies, including nearly bludgeoning a man to death with his fists and shield.

Worrying that Steve's time in the glacier, along with his wartime experiences had given him posttraumatic stress. Iron Man ordered Steve to take some time off from heroics, causing Rodgers to defy him. It was the first time any of them had seen him act out infront of them, culminating in a verbal argument before Steve started choking him causing the others to intervene with Thor finally pulling the Super Solider off Iron Man. Being imprisoned in the SHIELD helicarrier and interviewed by their psychologists, seemed to confirm the Avengers' suspicions. That the world's greatest hero was no longer fit for the field of battle. Though the Skrull was a genuine sociopath, realized that this little inconvenience would derail their master plan. And pretended to accept the psychological help afforded to him by doctors and seemed to make a full recovery.

Agreeing to take some time off, he retired from heroics and offered to take up a position within SHIELD. Since Steve had shown massive improvement since the incident he was declared competent and was allowed access to SHIELD's top-secret information. Though no one in the organization was initially aware of it. In time the Skrull found the vital information he needed and sent out the call to begin the invasion.

The Skrulls were quick and without mercy, having disabled SHIELD satellite defenses, along with every nation's. And didn't know till they were in the atmosphere. Millions of Skrull troopers descended on Earth's cities, the likes of which hadn't been seen since the Kang invasion. And while the Avengers responded along with every available superhero on the planet; Captain America returned to the field of battle for the first time in months. Only to reveal to their horror that he started it. The Avengers were dumbstruck as Wasp, Thor and Iron Man all demanded to know why he did it. The Super Solider flashed an insane grin before revealing himself as a Skrull to his teammates. Kang's prophecy had at last come true; the greatest of them all had betrayed them.

Enraged Iron Man, Hawkeye, Hulk and Thor all lashed out at the impostor leaving Wasp and Ant-Man standing there. The Captain was able to successfully combat all four Avengers simultaneously while wielding the true Captain America's legendary shield holding up to the Hulk's thunderous fists and Thor's lightning blasts before sending it back at him. The vibranium in his shield had somehow been altered allowing him to do such a thing, making Iron Man's repulsor blasts just as useless. As this was going on Ant-Man tried to shake Janet out of her shell shock over Cap's betrayal even as the Skrull invasion went on around her. But Wasp was trapped in her own world, completely and utterly shocked that Steve had been a Skrull. Eventually Hank's cries pierced through her mind filling her with rage as she realized what was happening around him and drove her to attack the impostor.

Though the Avengers put up a valiant fight against him, they were forced to break off the attack to deal with the thousands of other Skrulls that had invaded New York. The Captain America Skrull withdrew from battle with a sinister grin with Iron Man yelling that this wasn't over.

The world over the superhero community scrambled to defend the planet. Soon other superhero teams such as the Fantastic Four and X-Men joined the fight. But wasn't near enough spreading the teams incredibly thin and were soon joined by the entirety of SHIELD, along with the world's militaries. While Thor called on assistance from Asgard and was joined by his friends the Warriors Three; Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg. Along with his close friends Balder the Brave and Sif. The gods were able to turn the tide in one nation using their combined powers to destroy the Skrulls invading Germany.

With one country liberated the Asgardians began the process again. But with millions of Skrulls battling the world over this task was daunting even to the gods. It seemed as though Earth was in its darkest hour, while Mr. Fantastic sought a way to identify the Skrulls who had remained hidden and were now copying Earth's heroes to further confuse them and turn them against each other. Due to the overwhelming numbers, Ant-Man is forced to convince several villains to fight alongside them for Earth's survival. The majority of villains ultimately refuse, despite him trying to appeal to their better halves. Or as it put it so bluntly there need of self-preservation. Guaranteeing that if the Earth goes, so do they.

The imprisoned villains refused the call, while others took advantage of the latter if only to escape their cells. He knew Tony and the others would give him hell about it later, but saw little other option. Those that weren't captured however didn't need as much convincing when Spider-Man approached his own enemies and told them to fight alongside him. Doctor Octopus, Shocker and Rhino accepted, with Ock forcing some of the others to repel the invasion of New York. Even having the erstwhile Venom defend the city, along with Spider-Man's old friend Harry Osborn using the Goblin serum and costume to help fight.

An unforeseen complication was that Harry's Green Goblin costume made him difficult to distinguish from the Skrulls almost getting himself killed several times. Forcing him to abandon his mask mid battle. Letting loose a barrage of rockets and pumpkin bombs from his Goblin Glider. While across the globe the heroes started repelling the Skrulls in other countries, destroying their ships and forcing them to retreat. A final showdown was instituted in New York with the return of the alien Captain America, and his team of Skrull Avengers to face his former teammates. Each one wearing the costumes of their counterparts with green skin and the Skrulls' trademark ridged chins and pointed ears. Another member however wasn't a Skrull and had orange skin and an almost horse like face taking on the form of Thor, and even wielding a copy of his mystic weapon Mjolnir.

The battle was hard fought, as all of the Avengers wanted a piece of the star spangled doppelganger while still having to contend with their own. While this was going on, several of the other heroes invaded the Skrull ships looking for their allies and the one true Captain America. And was eventually found on the Skrull Queen's ship. For the past six months, he had been a prisoner of Veranke a prize of the Skrull Queen as Earth's most perfect specimen. The rescue team comprised of Wolverine, Hawkeye, Black Panther and Captain America's former sidekick Bucky Barnes now called Winter Solider.

The team faced Veranke in her command center with their weapons pointed at the Skrull Queen before the royal guards intercepted them with laser rifles forcing a stand off. There were ten guards, each of whom they could take out individually and make short work of the guards. Unbeknownst to them a fifth interloper had followed them onto the ship. The rescue team went on the offensive as the guards opened fire on them. Wolverine slashing two of the guards' chests and weapons in moments. While Hawkeye took out two with his arrows and Black Panther nailed the other two with his violet vibranium blades. While Winter Soldier ducked to the right and opened fire on them with his assault rifle, taking a few seconds longer before hitting each of them in the chest leaving the queen defenseless.

Queen Vernake stood up impressed at their skills as they turned their weapons back at her. The fifth stowaway remained hidden in the shadows. Black Panther being the diplomatic member of the team orders the queen to surrender. Vernake however isn't convinced and asks him on what grounds she should surrender, noting as she came towards them that her side has already won. Panther however continues to speak with her, telling her that this could end peaceably and that no more lives have to be lost. But Vernake assured in her victory would have none of it and continued on as though nothing had happened. Remaining even toned with a hint of arrogance as she casually sat down to the left of them infront of Wolverine trying his patience.

The mutant growled and jammed his outside claws around her neck with his middle claw tucked safely within his wrist threatening her life. The Skrull Queen was frightened but didn't bend to his will while Black Panther did his best to calmly convince Logan not to kill her yet. While Hawkeye tried his hand to convince her by leveling an arrow at her head, saying that even if Wolverine was bluffing, he wasn't. And reminded the Skrull Queen that he doesn't miss. A tactic that didn't sit well with the Panther, but nonetheless worked as Vernake agreed to surrender if only to get out of the death grip the two had him in. The mutant retracted his claws as they gave the queen some breathing room with Black Panther wanting to discuss the terms of surrender.

It was of course a ruse however as Vernake activated a fail safe in New York turning the Skrull Ant-Man into a bio-bomb, growing him to giant size through tainted Pym Particles. The Skrull grew to 60 feet in agony as his body was being converted into a suicide bomb that would take out half of New York along with all the Avengers present. The rescue team threatened her again this time with Logan pulling no punches injecting his outside claw into her left shoulder. The Skrull Queen cried out in pain as he pinned her down against her throne telling her to undo the process. But Vernake told him that there was no off switch and their friends and teammates were going to die.

Winter Solider tried radioing the Avengers alerting them to the situation which Iron Man sardonically said they were well aware of. As the Giant Man Skrull contorted in pain and was pressed to explode. Hank Pym grew to his maximum size to try and contain the blast himself, Thor intervened telling him the only way to contain it was to get it off planet with he and Giant Man doing just that, and elevated the Skrull bomb high above the Earth's atmosphere pushing past the escaping warships. Outside the planet's reach, Hank threw his doppelganger beyond the moon. Sadly saying he was sorry as he shrank down with Thor standing behind him and watched as the Giant Man Skrull blew up taking out several Skrull ships with it as the pair returned to Earth.

With her last ditch plan defeated, the Skrull Queen stood before the assembled heroes at a loss for words. Uncertain of what the heroes would do to her. Before another word could be spoken, a gunshot rang out hitting Vernake dead center in the forehead killing her. Startled by the attack the others whirled around to see Norman Osborn standing behind them with a smoking barrel.

"Let's see them recover from that." the villain stated stunning the assembled heroes as Black Panther pulled up his mask.

"You didn't have to do that." he said.

"Sure I did, they wouldn't have quit until she was dead. You should be thanking me. I saved you the trouble of doing it yourselves." Osborn replied stoically, and then snapped a picture of the dead Skrull Queen along with the heroes and smirked before walking off the ship.

In the next few months Osborn would be credited with winning the war after assassinating the Skrull Queen. And was later commended by the president earning the Medal of Freedom. The highest honor given to a civilian, though the superhero community was outraged knowing full well his past as the original Green Goblin. Norman of course milked it for it was worth and held a press conference after receiving the medal saying that he was a changed man. And resolved to make big changes in the next few years to make sure that an invasion like the Skrulls or Kang never happened again. And to his credit was given command of a new supervillain amnesty initiative called the Thunderbolts. An idea originally brought forth by Dr. Hank Pym to rehabilitate supervillains and use their powers for good. Norman graciously accepted the offer and vowed to restore honor and trust to those in his care.

Three months later SHIELD is given an executive order to disband, with Osborn who has been lauded since taking command of the Thunderbolts initiative to be the head of the government's new successor organization to SHIELD which he dubs HAMMER. With Osborn now in charge of the counter intelligence organization, the Avengers were once again asked to join HAMMER. But the team as they did with SHIELD refused to align with HAMMER knowing Osborn's criminal past. But Osborn holding power over them as the highest authority in the land gave them an ultimatum. Join HAMMER or be ordered by the government to disband. With mounting pressure from the public, and the rise of Norman Osborn, Tony Stark took his offer and blew it in his face. Be it pride or prudence the team remained firm in their stance and refused to align with him and his organization and chose to disband. However Norman would not be denied and instead created his own team of Avengers to replace them. To the public they were well known superheroes, but behind the scenes were really members of his Thunderbolts team posing as the newest Avengers.

Wolves in sheep's clothing, these Avengers were supervillains handpicked by Norman Osborn to carry on and/or corrupt the legacies of real superheroes. As the team's archer and posing as Hawkeye, was the psychopathic assassin known as Bullseye. Long time arch nemesis of Daredevil, Bullseye has an uncanny ability to turn virtually anything no matter how mundane into a weapon.

Their resident wall crawler was another familiar face, sporting an all too familiar costume. A tall, slender man in a jet black costume with a broad white spider symbol across his chest and back. Eddie Brock poses as the new incarnation of Spider-Man, better known as Venom. And disguised as the black suited web slinger.

A lesser known hero had joined their ranks claiming to be the new Captain Marvel despite bearing little resemblance to the original and was noticeably shorter with the blue skin of his predecessor with a shorter fin on top of his head that was probably an inch tall. And wore a silver full body suit with two medium blue streaks going from his shoulders to his abdomen in a V formation ending with a belt and cape. He was perhaps the only one amongst them that wasn't a known criminal, and appeared as a Kree teenager named Noh-Varr.

His counterpart shared the codename of another newly established superhero Ms. Marvel. Unlike Carol Danvers, the new Ms. Marvel wore a red leotard with black shorts and a gold six point star on her chest, with black gloves and boots, and a black domino mask exposing her bright blue eyes and had orange-red hair. Whose true identity is amoral psychiatrist named Dr. Karla Soften, and second-string supervillain called Moonstone and previously faux superheroine Meteorite.

A more familiar face was added to their roster taking on the mantle of Wolverine. In truth he was a Japanese mutant terrorist by the name of Daken Akihiro. Possessing claws similar to his predecessor, with two claws on top and the third one on the underside of his wrist and wore a black and brown variation of Logan's uniform.

The final two members of Osborn's team were newcomers as well to the superhero game. The first of which was the war god Ares having no other name. And was dressed in a black sleeveless shirt with a white skull on his chest, black pants, brown boots and wore a black battle helmet with a white Mohawk adorning it. And wielded an enormous battleaxe.

With the penultimate member being an actual superhero named The Sentry. The Sentry was said to be a superhero that was forgotten to the world at large and had only reappeared recently, no one in the superhero community was certain why he joined though speculated that Osborn recruited him to give his new team some credibility. The Sentry's costume was a gold colored bodysuit with a blue cape, and wrestling style belt with a glowing crescent 'S' with black wristbands and boots, long blonde hair that came down to his shoulders and blue eyes.

And finally revealing himself, as the leader of the new Avengers team was none other than Norman Osborn himself. Having shed his Green Goblin identity, Norman has reinvented himself and proliferated one of Tony Stark's armors and naming himself as the successor to both Iron Man and Captain America. And became the Iron Patriot. Wearing a replica of Tony's latest armor, the Iron Patriot had a red upper chest, with a star shaped arc reactor in his chest plate, blue side panels, alternating red and white stripes on the torso, blue armor plating on the hips and thighs, and red armor plating on the knees, shins, calves and feet, with a similar color scheme on his arms, and repulsors in the hands and feet and a red and silver Iron Man helmet.

After Norman revealed his own team of Avengers, the real team naturally didn't take this lying down. And despite orders to disband came to challenge the new team for the right to call themselves Avengers. The original team however was faced with heavy opposition from HAMMER agents, and facing arrest. Norman however was amused by the Avengers' tenacity asking Tony why they would show up despite the risk? Iron Man answered him.

"Because your trash that needs to be taken out. Avengers! Take him!" Tony ordered.

The two sides clashed, as Iron Man was the first one out of the gate as he flew toward Iron Patriot, Norman retaliated with a repulsor blast as Tony came at him. Iron Man intercepted the blast with his own repulsor blast as the beams connected and held Iron Man at bay at first. The two seemed evenly matched, with neither beam yielding to the other at first till Iron Man powered through the blast through his sheer will and flew at Osborn with his left repulsor gauntlet drawn back over Osborn's head.

Norman shielded himself using his opposing gauntlet to deflect the blast but Tony beat him to it and fired in his face point blank blowing him back into a rock wall. Electricity crackled from his left shoulder as he struggled to get up as Iron Man walked towards him. The Iron Patriot fired a repulsor blast as Tony leaned to his right dodging it and fired several tiny shoulder rockets at Osborn hitting him in the chest and body with tiny explosions that had a big effect. Osborn groaned as his armor short circuited a little bit from the damage and fired a second repulsor blast from his hand at Tony, who deflected it with his own blast and fired a stronger one that disrupted Osborn's systems further.

"Face it Norman, I've got more experience in this armor than you do. Which you stole, that's very original by the way. Hijack one of my suits and claim it as your own." Tony commented.

"Shut up!" Osborn yelled firing from the Arc Reactor in his chest. Iron Man threw up his arms and effortlessly deflected the blast without retaliating. A fact that shocked the usurper. The white energy blast faded moments later leaving Iron Man unscathed.

"By the way those modifications you made to your arc reactor. Specifically the star on your chest, it lessens the Unibeam's effectiveness idiot. Here let me show you." Iron Man said crossing his arms and unleashed a Unibeam blast against Osborn plowing the villain through the rock wall and tumbling cross the ground a hundred feet away.

"And that's not even at full power." he added walking towards him.

"You've got a lot to learn about how my technology works. But you wont have the opportunity. I'm taking my armor back." he said standing over the Patriot.

More arcs of electricity sparked as the Iron Patriot struggled to get up and Tony held his repulsor gauntlet over him.

"It's over Oz, I'm going to make sure you're removed from power and behind bars were you belong." Iron Man stated.

"You assume a lot Stark. Have you even bothered to see how your teammates are doing?" Osborn asked still on the ground causing Iron Man to look back.

"They look pretty evenly matched to me. Oh but your flunkies cant beat the real article. Its not possible." Tony said looking away. The sudden glow of light caught his attention to see Norman aiming both repulsor gauntlets at him point blank and fired knocking Iron Man back.

The Iron Patriot got to his feet shortly afterward though the damage to his suit meant that he couldn't continue. Osborn ever the opportunist still had enough juice and the audacity to blast Tony a second time at close range directing all his power into the repulsor gauntlets and Unibeam projector in his chest as he stood over Iron Man.

"You really should know better than to turn your back on an opponent. I'm going to enjoy killing you. Say good night Tony." Norman stated with his weapons ready and fired.

"Good night Tony." He said narrowing his eyes and used a full powered Unibeam blast against Norman, disintegrating his triple beam attack and sent the Iron Patriot skyward with Norman screaming as he sailed into the air. Leaving Osborn's evil Avengers stunned at his defeat.

The high powered beam dissipated as Iron Man stood up and turned to face the other Dark Avengers having blasted their leader into the next state. Causing Clint Barton, the original Hawkeye to whistle in awe.

"He's not Iron Man for nothing." Wasp stated.

"All right so which one of you guys is next. You've seen what I've done to your boss and I have more than enough power to send you his way. So what's it going to be?" Iron Man asked. The faux Hawkeye sneered as he glared back at Tony and the other Avengers.

"You got lucky this time." Bullseye stated.

"Luck has nothing to do with it. I'm just the best at what I do." Iron Man told him.

"If SHIELD wasn't disbanded we'd have you arrested." Captain America told him.

"You know what? Why wait? I'm sure there's a police force that would love to take you guys in." Iron Man added.

Hawkeye however and the other Dark Avengers took this opportunity to retreat, while the more noble Sentry was confused by this turn of events. As was his younger teammate Captain Marvel as the real Avengers allowed them to leave, despite their desire to arrest them.

"This is going to be a long battle, I can just feel it." Iron Man muttered to himself.

Author's Note: All right so what'd you think of that? This is something that I put alot of time, thought, effort and frustation into. Basically like The Avengers Crusade, this is an adaptation of the recent Dark Reign storyline from the comics. This is obviously going to be a little different. The reason I did this fic was because I thought the orignal story was too complicated for me to continue so I figured it'd be easier to do a spinoff to continue the story. If anyone had seen the last ten seconds of the season one finale. They might be a major spoiler where Cap had been replaced by a Skrull. Anyway I spent all day on this, and I had alot of fun writing it. I especially had fun writing Tony's lines.

As I stated earlier, today is my Birthday. I'll be 26 today, so please review and leave me a birthday greeting if you wish. :)

Please review,

The Green Gallant.