New Earth
Chapter One: Westward Ho!
October 2019
Hank set the last Pym Particle Relay Stave on a hill just north of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The first wave of Thanos' army was expected to reach Earth in three months, the latest Nova Empire transport ship would leave in two. A list of fifty cities from across the world had been made up and voted on, cities that had declined had been replaced with new candidates. A measly fifty cities chosen to be removed before the war came, to protect humanity's culture and history, to represent humanity's culture and history. A failsafe if the Earth didn't survive, the means of giving humans a head start on a new planet.
April 2018
Hank and Hope sat in the dining room pouring over maps of the cities on the second tier list. Paxton opened the door from the living room, "Anything Maggie or I could do to help?" he asked as the sound of the Late Show drifted in.
"Today the Canadian Prime Minister addressed the UN about the omission of any Canadian cities in the first fifty offered the Pym Option. His remarks were greeted with widespread shock… Who knew Canada had cities?
"Meanwhile Paris becomes the first capital city to vote to go. Their president reminded the world that Paris is not just a capital city but home to many famous monuments, the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, a center of culture and history for the world… Still France is bugging out, are we really surprised?
"Singapore, the Island of Mozambique and San Francisco are going, Hong Kong, Honolulu and Montreal are currently at the top of the list for Arc Shields. It's a good time to be an island or peninsula city… Or to be an Avengers' home city. Who doesn't think that there's an Arc Shield at the Stark Mansion in Malibu. That'll take care of what? His house and his three closest neighbors, right? L.A.'s purchased three Arc Shields but at the rate discussions are going the aliens will have been and gone before we decide where to put it. Well, this is one way to deal with the problem of urban sprawl- Let the aliens blow it up.
"And while many countries complain about European and US cities being over represented in the fifty cities being offered first choice about whether or not they want to leave the Earth as we go into the second round choices there are some who ask should we be saving our natural wonders rather than just considering the man-made ones. For example the Great Barrier Reef, isn't it more worth saving than Charleston? Now it's pretty clear that the people advocating this don't exactly see eye-to-eye with the groups worried about accidentally introducing non-native species to New Earth… I think we should look to our heroes for a solution to this debate: Let's round up representatives from both camps and dump them in an airport to duke it out… Or maybe a china shop, an airport isn't really fair given that the average person wouldn't be able pile up cars on each other like they were matchbox models or rip the wing off an airplane and use it as a bat."
Hank rolled his eyes. "I'm in for another round of explaining that we can't just go around shrinking and growing animals wholesale aren't I," he groaned. "Every single time I think I've got it settled, that everyone understands that we can take genetic banks of Earth's animals and hope gestation tanks don't stay science fiction but that is it! Then some idiot brings up Noah's Arc in the media and I'm back on the merry-go-round because some politician's constituency didn't understand why that won't work the last dozen times I explained."
"Don't look at me," Hope said. "I'm still arguing that we should fumigate or irradiate the shrunken cities to minimize the accidental introduction of Earth insects and vermin."
"And I say it's pointless to worry. We're importing humans, either we're going to give our new neighbors Smallpox or we're going to get their variant of it or both," Hank stated.
Paxton looked thoughtful, "The Nova Empire already includes dozens of different aliens right? I'd think they've either dealt with that or alien means too alien to share germs."
June 2018
"Hey Sam," Terry Ward whispered into his phone. He sat in his favorite quiet spot on the outskirts of the old Avengers Compound, now a training facility for new Enhanced.
"Terry, I thought you were starting to make friends," Sam said.
"I don't just call when something's wrong," Terry protested then flushed because he hadn't talked to Sam since he'd started feeling like he belonged at the Academy.
Sam didn't say anything.
"It's the New Earth thing," Terry admitted. "I want to go but everyone here is completely gung-ho about joining hero teams and defending the Earth. I don't want to fight, I suck at fighting. I can't possibly be on a team because anyone near me when I use my powers goes mental. I'm not a soldier, I'm a freaking anti-personnel bomb."
"So what's stopping you?" Sam asked.
"They're going to think I'm a coward," Terry sighed. "My friends'll hate me. The news never shuts up about how Enhanced are the Earth's only shot against Thanos. They've been showing clips of the Hulk versus the Army on constant repeat. Colonel Rhodes and Major Danvers have gone to the SHRA committee so many times to keep me at school instead of being thrown back in a prison, cause my control sucks and now I want to run?"
"Terry, you have to do what's right for you," Sam said. "Just because you have powers it doesn't mean they're the right powers for every battle, or even for any battle. Having powers doesn't mean that you have the temperament or inclination to be a soldier. Your powers aren't- You don't have to let them define you. Maybe you could talk to Vision, he chose not to use the Mind Stone's power, hasn't since-" Sam broke off before he could say, "Since he missed me and crippled Rhodes."
"Vision?!" Terry snorted. "Well, yeah, I guess they kept it out of the news but it's all over campus. Those Nova Corps guys? They tried to apprehend Vision. They're demanding he leaves Earth, because of the Mind Stone. They think it's too dangerous to have an Infinity Stone on Earth because if Thanos gets it he'll be that much more dangerous and there's two of them on Earth. No one knows where the second one is but the one in Vision's head is pretty hard to miss."
"What? What happened?" Sam demanded.
"Vision was working with Hall, Morley and Alisa on controlling their intangibility powers… So um when the Nova guys came, Vision had them all go intangible and well, he glared at them until they gave up and went away," Terry said. "So how can I talked to Vision about wanting to go when people are trying to drag him away to somewhere safe and he's not letting them?"
August 2018
"By executive order the United States joins the growing list of countries to make military service in the upcoming War for the World mandatory for all Enhanced..."
Rhodes glanced up at the knock on his door and Pepper let herself in, "You heard?" he said.
"I called Foggy and Matt, they're already in the process of filing an injunction," Pepper said.
"And I'll get Talbot and Everett Ross on the phone, hopefully they're not fully on board with this crap," Rhodes sighed.
"I don't see what your problem is," General Talbot said. "It just a draft."
"Not by my understanding of the term," Rhodes objected. "You're saying we'd exempt Enhanced Individuals from eligibility to immigrate to New Earth and that they'd all be required for military service until the threat represented by Thanos is eliminated? In this country a draft requires both an element of chance in who gets selected out of the population and the service cannot be indefinite. All the countries mentioned as having already implemented something similar already had a period of required military service for their citizens. They're moving enhanced individuals who are already in their military into specialized units. In some cases they're adding women who are enhanced to the population required to serve and they're talking about reactivating people who already completed their service if they're enhanced, which should run into legal issues. But by creating mandatory service, indefinite service for enhanced individuals, for a certain classification of people… Well, frankly that sounds less like a draft than slavery to me."
"The Avengers and other teams like them are needed," Everett Ross stated. "That's been shown time and time again. That's the underlying principal of the Sokovia Accords. Us normal people who went through all the regular channels: training, regulation, personality assessment, working through a chain of command or being elected, in order to be put in a position of deciding and enforcing laws? We don't like you. We don't like that, by virtue of genetics, experimentation or happenstance you- Well, not you personally Colonel, you actually did pay your dues. -But 'you' in the general sense of enhanced persons got to skip all that and outranked those of us who had done the work by virtue of existing. But the world needs you so we just have to suck it up and deal. Well right now the world needs you, all of you, so you're going to help keep this planet in one piece! I mean what other choice are they going to have when the Chitauri show up? Watch the Earth burn?"
"I don't know? Join Thanos because they hate us for not letting them leave?" Rhodes snapped sarcastically. "There is a mass migration going on if you haven't noticed. Okay the first two boats out had empty berths but you know we had to implement a lottery system for those choosing to emigrate this last time and it's only going to get worse as the threat gets more real for people."
"Not a simple lottery," Talbot pointed out. "We've reserved twenty percent of the slots for those with professions that are going to be needed to get New Earth up and running. And if there wasn't such a demand for unskilled labor that number would be higher. We're sending people needed to make New Earth a success, why wouldn't we keep the people needed to defend the planet here?"
"It's not right," Rhodes stated.
"The courts upheld a male only draft based on the military's needs for decades," Talbot pointed out, "I think this one will hold as well."
Rhodes scowled. "I might have a hard time leading the Avengers to enforce such a policy," he said. "I'm too busy training and supporting the people who have volunteered to defend the planet to waste time and inspire divisiveness by trying to build a new Berlin Wall."
The video appeared on YouTube only six hours after the Enhanced Draft was announced. The timing led to speculation about moles and telepaths but cooler heads suggested that the executive order might have been anticipated based on other countries which had already adopted similar measures.
In the video a young woman with vibrant red hair that flowed around her like a living thing and her solemn companion stood on a small hill, Mount Rushmore towered behind them. "We are Brian Bolt and Melanie Amaquelin of the Inhumans. We are here to say that we will not be conscripted into defending a planet that has never been other than hostile to us. We have been put on lists, hunted and experimented on. We have been pushed into the margins of society, criminalized for our abilities rather than our actions. When all we asked was to be left alone you dug us out of our sanctuary and brought death and destruction to the land we had built for ourselves. And now you need us and say we MUST come to your aid?
"We say to you 'No!' We will not fight you. We will not be held hostage on this planet the blessings of which have always been withheld from us. Our people wish to leave, we want our one and only city to take with us. If you refuse us… You will have a fight on your hands before Thanos ever arrives."
Her companion turned and spoke: "Release us." and the statue of Lincoln crumbled.
November 2018
"We won't give in to terrorist tactics," General Talbot thundered. "That Amaquelin girl? Her sister's in jail for ties to HYDRA."
"Six of the Academy students were pulled last week, their parents have all appealed directly to the Nova Corps to be allowed to evacuate. Their parents want to leave, are you planning on breaking up their families? Ordering the kids to stay behind because we need them to fight?" Rhodes demanded. "The oldest of the kids was fourteen and their parents are afraid you're going to make them fight a war. How many times have we told the kids that we wouldn't even train them to use their powers to fight until they were eighteen? How many times? Now we're telling them 'fight or die'?"
Talbot glanced away.
"The first wave of the armada will be here in sixteen months! What are you planning on doing? Holding them here until they're eighteen then throwing them into battle if the war's still going?" Rhodes continued. "You or Ross have raked me over the coals every single time I've let the kids help with humanitarian missions. You've insisted and, excluding Spider-Man who was grandfathered in, I've supported not even beginning training until they're eighteen so that they're old enough to be sure this is what they want to do before we induct them. I haven't even trained Harley to use Iron Man and he's Tony's hand-picked successor. But now you're telling me they don't have a choice, they have to fight in this war? Then I need to start training them yesterday. These kids aren't infantry, most of them need more than Basic before they're good to fight."
"Maybe there should have been more discussion about underaged Enhanced before the order was put in place," Talbot admitted.
"At this point immigrating to New Earth is essentially a reverse draft," Rhodey said. "The scale of what we're expecting, just staying on Earth during the fighting will mean being involved, even if it's just at the level of living in London during the Blitz. We're giving everyone else a chance to get out of the fighting, excluded Enhanced from that is just wrong."
"We've limited the berths allowed for police and members of the military because they are needed here," Talbot replied.
"Not to zero," Rhodey said. "As much as we need those individuals here, they're needed on New Earth too. Who's to say we won't need Enhanced as well.
"Besides, not every Enhanced is automatically more qualified than a trained soldier. I've got a seventeen year old girl who snuck into the Academy and put an arrow perfectly through half the targets in shooting range before the instructors managed to corral her. Not a damn thing Enhanced about her, but with a little training she could give Barton a run for his money. Meanwhile I've got an Enhanced kid, about the same age, but he's more of a bomb than a soldier. I send him out he'll do damage, but he's not the Hulk, odds are he won't come back. It's just how his powers work. What makes him essential to the war but not her?"
December 2018
Maggie Lang's mouth quirked up as Pepper ushered her into the Malibu mansion's front room and she got a look at the Christmas tree from the inside of the house. From the outside the tree was perfectly framed by the front window, clearly chosen and decorated by a professional. From the inside the expensive, perfectly spaced and complimentary ornaments had been taken down and replaced with a mishmash of school crafts and family treasures.
There was a collection of wooden nutcrackers with chipped paint and tiny angels with bent wings. A carefully preserved cutout of the nativity scene and a laughing Santa. A handful of crochet snowflakes made by Marlena's great aunt when she'd been a child and little bird with bright red feathers that Pepper had dug out of storage, nearly forgotten after years of Christmas parties that were about business connections not family. There were Hallmark event ornaments marking Harley's first Christmas in 2002, Mercedes' in 2007, a new house in 2003. And a brand new ornament for Nettie in 2017 along with retroactively created ornaments for Dum-E, 1987, U, 1990, JARVIS, 1994, Butterfingers, 1996, FRIDAY, 2011 and Vision, 2015. There were dozens of hand crafted ornaments from every year at preschool and then grade school for both Keener children and Nettie's handprint melted into a polished bell-cutout that Harley had helped the one-year-old make for her first contribution to the tree. U and Dum-E were stationed in front of the tree, each holding an ornament and if Maggie was reading their body language correctly, arguing about where they should be hung.
Cassie squeezed past her mother and ran over to hand Mercedes her and Nettie's presents before hugging the other girl. "I haven't seen you forever!" Cassie exclaimed.
Hank Pym and Jim Paxton followed carrying a stack of boxes for everyone else. "Hope called," Pepper told Hank. "She, James and Vision expect to finish with their mission later tonight, they should be here by the time we wake up Christmas morning."
Hank nodded, acknowledging Pepper as he nudged past the two 'Bots to deposit his load of gifts. Then he went to join Harley, Peter and the blueprints the two boys had spread over the coffee table. "I'm definitely seeing Cho's influence on the programing," Harley was saying as he wrinkled his nose.
"Come on, Harley," Peter scold the younger boy. "Amadeus isn't nearly as bad as you think he is and there's no denying that he's, by far, the best programer between the three of us. You aren't half as much of a pain about consulting Melati on the biological aspects."
"Kamala vouches for Melati, even if she's prickly," Harley muttered.
"FRIDAY and I vouch for Amadeus. He's a technical asset and there's nobody better to have quarterbacking missions," Peter said. Then he muttered, "Even if I'd rather he didn't call me S&M on the comms."
"I'm no more biased about my boyfriend than you are about your crush," FRIDAY chimed in.
"Who's going to be joining me for Midnight Mass?" Happy asked as he and May came out of the kitchen with trays of appetizers.
Mercedes' eyes lit up, "Does that mean we get to stay up until midnight? I wanna! Mom! Can we go with Happy tonight?"
"Will there be carols? I love Christmas Carols," Cassie chimed in.
That night, after the kids, including Peter to his vehement protests, had been packed off to bed, the adults set to work filling stockings for the morning while they kept an eye on the news and waited for the active Avengers to join them.
The CNN cycle included a segment on religious centers preparations for the coming war and Rome's decision to relocate to New Earth after a painfully close vote while most of the Middle Eastern cities had opted to stay citing their historic location as being as much a part of their significance as the cities themselves and something that would be lost if they left Earth. A decision that had been repeated in most religions: Most of the major religions wanted to move a center of the their religion to the new planet but many places that were significant for what had happened on that site didn't feel they could relocate and still preserve the sanctity of the place.
"They're not going to come back," Maggie said quietly.
The others glanced over at her, pausing in what they were doing.
"We talk about how we'll bring the people and cities back after the war," Maggie clarified. "But the journey's too big a hurdle. This is setting out on the Oregon Trail or the Mayflower. Maybe a few people will turn around and come back but for most once they leave they'll be past the point of no return, they'll be committed to making New Earth work and they won't come back."
"I know," Hank said. "I just want to be sure it is Plymouth and not Roanoke that we're founding out there."
October 2019
Hank set the last of the Reduction Staves then radioed Hope and Scott to make sure they were ready. "The Avengers made a last sweep of the city," Hope reported. "Everyone's out."
"This is it." Hank said. "I'm activating the relays." He triggered his relays and lightning crackled, through the Marin Headlands, cutting across the SFO airport and the Bay Bridge. Then the city vanished.
Hank sat down on the hillside near Battery Spencer cradling a miniature city in his hands. As the ocean waters rushed in to fill up the hole where San Francisco City had been Hank wept.
