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Ultimates Vol. 1 Arc 3 Part 1
Arc 3: Emergence
Part 1: Pomp and Circumstance
The Ultimates . . .
After facing down 9/11 most Americans thought they could persevere through it all but then disaster struck again in the form of a vicious super human known as Graviton and it was by sheer luck and overwhelming numbers that the black ops team known as "The Howling Commandos" had brought the immensely powerful man down. Almost immediately thereafter General Nick Fury had been tasked with forming a more public team to take care of threats like Graviton. With Uncle Sam's blessing Nick Fury trimmed down some of the excess programs and set about forming a super human team he had dubbed "The Ultimate Humans" or the more PR friendly "Ultimates".
The Story so far . . .
One of the excess programs that Fury had set to be trimmed was the recreation of the Super Soldier formula as it had failed to make significant progress in the over sixty years of its existence. Part of the program's resources was spent keeping the only successful super soldier in the history of the program, Captain America, in stasis until a cure for his unique heart condition caused by the Formula could be found. Fearing for the national hero's life a young scientist on the project, Bruce Banner, developed a formula to cure and awake the Captain and ran off with him.
Fury had to call in the Howling Commandos once more to recover Captain America and though the newly reawakened Captain fought valiantly for his new friend the Howling Commandos were eventually successful when Banner gave himself up to keep Captain America from becoming a fugitive. Banner was charged with community service and made to work for Fury's Ultimates program as a form of penance.
Fury quickly began to form his Ultimates around the newly aroused Captain America. He hired a scientist with the ability to grow exponentially, Hank Pym, and his shrinking girlfriend Janet Van Dyne. After a wealthy ex-weapons developer, Tony Stark, and his board of shareholders found a tropical paradise hidden in the mists of Antarctica and populated by dinosaurs Fury sends his new Ultimates with The Howling Commandos to investigate.
Joining them there is Iron Man, a high-tech bodyguard employed by Tony Stark, and they work together to rescue the lost board members. They are soon beset by raptors and then a strange creature that resembles a cross between a pterodactyl and a human male. The last nearly defeats them until Iron Man discovers the secret to its power and defeats it himself. However no sooner have they beaten it when a volcano erupts sending them all scattering and they return to the United States.
Dramatis Personae
General Nick Fury: A veteran of the previous Iraq war he has risen to the rank of General and has been tasked with forming the Ultimates.
Captain America: Steve Rogers, a National Hero of World War II he has been kept in stasis ever since his heart failed him in the final days of World War II. He has been cured and revived by Bruce Banner and is now a member of the Ultimates.
Hawkeye: Clint Barton, a young aggressive soldier and member of The Howling Commandos he has been operated on when he lost his eyes on a mission and now has cybernetic implants that enhance his already highly capable marksmanship.
Black Knight: Dane Whitman, a quiet and tough soldier that prefers a sword to a firearm, also a member of the Howling Commandos.
Black Widow: Natasha Romanov, a ex-Russian Super Spy. She is now a member of the Howling Commandos.
Bruce Banner: A scientist that used a modified super soldier formula to revive Captain America and temporarily turn himself into a powerful man-monster, a consulting scientist on the Ultimates project.
Henry Pym: A scientist who has found how to make himself grow exponentially. He has been hired on as a member of the Ultimates.
Janet Van Dyne: Girlfriend to Henry Pym, young and attractive she has also been hired on as a member of the Ultimates and has the ability to shrink, fly and fire small energy "stings".
Betty Ross: A scientist who was working on the Super Soldier program with Banner when she helped him revive Captain America.
Iron Man: An armored man who acts as Tony Stark's bodyguard and hero at once. He helped the Ultimates and Howling Commandos recover the members of Tony Stark's board in the Antarctic Jungle.
Tony Stark: A wealthy ex-weapons manufacturer, some believe he himself is Iron Man. He has a heart condition and has had a high-tech heart put in the place of his natural one. He was the man who discovered the Antarctic jungle.
Pomp and Circumstance
Times Square, New York USA
Camera lights flashed so rapidly it was enough to cause seizures. Nick Fury had a secret that he was letting the whole world in on. Many excited dignitaries and celebrities were arriving to partake in the event. Matt Damon had just walked past to several screams from nearby fans and now following him was billionaire industrialist Tony Stark. He had a model at his side as was usual for the known womanizer. Reporters practically screamed a rapid succession of questions at him, anything from how his vacation went to what new technologies his company was planning to release to the public in the upcoming months.
"My vacation?" Tony smirked. "You'll find out all about that at tonight's event."
"Mr. Stark!" one female reporter called out. "What connection do you have with General Fury's big announcement?"
"I can't say anything without spoiling the surprise, but let's just say that I got a sneak preview." And with that he was off still smiling, his date hadn't said a word during the short exchange. Not far behind him was General Ross, an older General that was now serving as an advisor at the White House. He grumpily refused to comment as he walked past the reporters.
It wasn't long before the red carpet was empty and everyone had gathered within the Invaders' Theatre, named for the World War II team of super humans who had been instrumental in helping win the war for the Allies. Captain America himself had worked with them on several occasions but had refused to become a member of their small group, though no one understood why.
Inside were large War-Time murals of the Invaders in action some of them were blown-up black and white photographs and others were paintings by several grateful artists painted after the theatre had gone. One of the old photographs even included a hard to make out Captain America.
The theatre had once been sold to make a private theatre but thanks to Giuliani it had been reacquisition and restored to its old glory. Now it was used for high-end shows and events. Whenever the President had a smaller event in Manhattan he came to the Invaders' Theatre. He was here now, sitting in a balcony covered in bullet-proof glass and swarming with secret service men.
A projector screen had been dropped down, covering the stage. The room rumbled with the curious voices of the elite that had gathered inside to witness what Fury had promised they wouldn't want to miss. Some sat back with their arms folded and scowls upon their faces while others sat forward and were so intent on the stage that they ignored those around them when they attempted conversation.
Entering from left stage came the grizzled but smartly dressed General Nick Fury. Upon seeing him everyone went quiet as he approached a microphone that had been lowered from the ceiling to the center of the stage. Someone coughed as Fury grabbed the microphone.
"Hello," he said almost awkwardly into the microphone. "I know you are all here to find out what your president has just given me a billion dollars for." Everyone chuckled good-naturedly. "Well I'm sure you're all in agreement when I say this video can tell it all much better than I." Another chuckle rippled through the audience. "Lights!"
With that the lights dimmed to almost pitch black, the small motor that withdrew the microphone could be heard. The screen lit up in front of the audience and General Fury was already out of sight. The screen was black for a moment.
"We all remember the terror of 9/11," a voice boomed from the surround sound speakers. Suddenly an image flashed on the screen of the first tower just before it fell. Screams issued from the speakers as the tower crumbled in a giant cloud of ash and debris.
"But the next tragedy that befell us was far more deadly," the voice reminded them. Images of planes suddenly weighing two-hundred times their usual weight plummeting from the sky and destroying cities flashed before them. A quick visual of a man with long black hair and glowing electric eyes flashed before them and several people gasped at the sight of him. His was a name that lives in infamy, Franklin Hall, otherwise known as Graviton.
"It was thanks to a small group of specilized soldiers that we were able to survive," the voice continued. There were shaky blurry images pulled from news stock footage showing a man leaping from a building and letting loose with several arrows, another man was dropping from a black helicopter, two swords in hand. Then the screen went black again.
"With every year the danger seems to grow with hurricanes, terrorists, and super humans growing more and more numerous. It is time for the government to do something to protect us from these new threats and the old methods they are used to using aren't going to work anymore."
Suddenly the screen lit up again, Antarctic snow flew below the camera and the title "Savage Land" appeared in icy blue letters. Several people murmured to each other in confusion, what did this all have to do with General Fury?
*
In a large sound-proofed room behind the screen sat General Fury and his team of super humans. Captain America sat on Fury's right, staring intently at the screen. He had never seen such a small color television as the one that sat before them displaying the same video that was being featured just outside the wall.
"Ok, as you can see on the laptop," Fury indicated the small television. "They've hyped up the video. All of that snow wasn't even filmed in the Antarctic, but up in the Arctic Circle."
"I know this whole Ultimates thing is important to you, but don't you think I'd do better staying with the Commandos?" Clint asked. He wasn't too thrilled about all of the publicity he was going to be getting. "I don't even have any super powers like Cap or the others."
"Neither do Dane or Natasha," Fury refuted. "You don't hear them complaining or asking to go back."
"I think Clint is right," Dane chimed in. He rubbed his shaved head, he had never been in the spotlight before and he wasn't sure he ever wanted to be. "The Commandos are the best at what we do, and we don't "do" superhero."
"Well boys," Fury told them. "It's time to learn. It's a little late to back out on me now. You're going to be going on stage in less than twenty minutes."
"Super powers don't make the man," Captain America told Hawkeye. "From what I've seen you're more than qualified to be on this team. I understand not wanting to be put at the center of attention but if that is how we can best serve our country then that's what we should do."
"Look," Hawkeye turned his attention to Captain America. "I know you're the symbol of America and all, but not all of us joined the military because we are rabid fans of our government."
Suddenly every sound but the laptop stopped. Everyone turned and looked at Hawkeye, looks of shock and disapproval clearly on their faces. The only person who didn't seemed angry or surprised was Captain America himself. In fact he didn't seem to be perturbed at all.
"The government isn't what makes America what it is," Cap replied. "You, me, all those people out there watching, they're what makes America what it is. I love this country because I love the people, not because I have any love for the government. You're a soldier, you should know what you are fighting for. And if you aren't fighting for the People then why DID you join the military?"
For a moment no one said anything, not even Hawkeye. Clint was looking at Cap, trying to figure the man out. Did he really believe all that stuff he had just said or was he really just an act?
"I'm sorry," Clint finally apologized. "I didn't mean to put your reason for doing this down."
"That's fine, Clint, but you never did answer my question," Cap insisted. "Why did you join the military?"
"Look I don't need my reasoning questioned, not even by you," Clint was angry again. "I've sacrificed plenty for this country. I lost my eyes on my third mission and when they replaced them instead of going home as they offered I stayed on. Do you know how bad it hurts to have your eyes poked out piece by piece just for the entertainment of some terrorists?"
"Clint," Captain America began. "I wasn't questioning your reasons for joining, but I want you to. I know what it is like suffering in war, believe me when I tell you, you don't want to hear what I have been through."
"Barton!" Fury finally barked. "That is enough! You're part of the Ultimates team, deal with it! We have to be out on the stage in just over fifteen minutes and I'm not wasting my time on your rebellious streak."
"Fine," Clint clenched his teeth. "Just remember that you owe me one, Fury. A big one."
Betty Ross' Apartment, New York
"Come on, Betty, they are about to introduce the team," Bruce called out. "You don't want to miss it."
"Already?" Betty called from the kitchen. "I thought they weren't going to reveal them for another ten minutes."
Bruce sat in front of the television, remote in hand. "You never know, they might introduce them earlier, come one, this is a team we helped get together. If it wasn't for us Cap might still not be awake."
"I wish they would give you more credit," Betty said, coming in from the kitchen with a beer in one hand for Bruce and a glass of white wine for herself. "They probably won't mention you at all."
"That's the life of a scientist," Bruce replied nonchalantly. "We make discoveries but rarely are we given the credit. At least with the Ultimates, once I am done with my community service, I will be getting paid enough to make up for it. Can you imagine two million a year?"
Betty giggled. "That's what you're getting because you were the one who cured Captain America. I'm not getting nearly that much."
"What?" Bruce turned to her in surprise. "How much did they offer you when they took you off the Super Soldier program?"
"One hundred eighty a year," Betty told him matter-of-factly. "And I am very satisfied with it."
"I'll have to talk with General Fury about that," Bruce told her, determined. "You deserve better."
"Please," Betty begged. "Don't do that. The general doesn't like us scientist very much. Maybe he'll dock your salary in retaliation, or not renew your contract when you finish your . . . service."
"Oh, Betty . . ." Banner began, but he stopped. The picture had changed on the television, and they weren't showing the Ultimates.
"Oh my God . . ." Betty gasped.
Invaders' Theatre, New York USA
"Weren't we supposed to go on a minute ago?" Hank Pym asked General Fury. The General glanced at his watch and frowned.
"You know how these damn functions can be, some idiot wants more attention and takes up all of your time," Janet said.
"That's alright," Hank smiled at her. "I didn't want to stand there in front of all those people for very long anyway."
"I'm going to see what's holding them up," Janet said, standing up. She walked over to the door. The room they were in was hidden behind the movie screen so once she opened the door she shrunk, there was no use in making a spectacle of herself if it wasn't necessary.
Suddenly the world was a hundred times bigger than it had been. The loud sounds of the movie was gone, but she wasn't sure if that was because it was over or it was because her shrunken ears couldn't handle the exact vibrations that brought such sounds to her ears. She flew with her insectoid-like wings behind the screen, it took her a lot longer than it would have if she could fly when she was normal size.
At the edge of the screen she flew out. No one could see her of course, she was about the size of a wasp and much less noisy. Her eyes adjusted to the light of the theatre and she nearly stopped flying. Without another thought she flew back to the room as fast as her wings would take her.
It was a good thing for everyone they had all been hidden in the room behind the cinema screen. She dodged a few giant pieces of rope thicker than she was tall. At her size she could easily see the individual fibers. She just hoped Hank hadn't followed her out of the door.
She flew into the small space where the door had been left ajar when she had left. She quickly grew taller and taller, she was glad they had invented a suit that could shrink with her, she didn't to appear naked in front of all of her teammates.
"That was fast," Hank noted as she grew.
"Shut up!" she whispered loudly. "The entire theatre is being held hostage, there are lots of men with automatic guns out there."
"Shit!" Fury growled. "They'll know I am supposed to be here, they're probably still looking for us."
"Time to show them what we're made of," Cap pronounced, standing up proudly, reaching for his shield. They all had their costumes already on and weapons ready, they had been planning to make a grand entrance.
"What are we going to do?" Hank asked, the fear evident in his voice. "Dinosaurs are one thing, but these guys have guns!"
"Jan!" Cap ordered. "I want you to go out in shruken form and cause a distraction, just don't grow big enough that they can shoot you easily. The rest of you, follow me and get ready for a fight!"
Everyone looked at Fury. "Well, you heard what the Captain said, you'd better get to it!" Fury himself pulled a pistol from a shoulder holster.
"How do you want me to distract them?"
"I don't care, you know what you can do better than I," Cap said. "Let's get moving, everyone!"
Jan went first, shrinking quickly into her smallest form, the rest followed right behind her. They could hear someone shoutinig, but the large white screen was muffling the sound and they couldn't make it out.
Jan flew out behind the screen. She buzzed her way over to the man that was standing on the stage shouting, but her smaller ears couldn't tell what he was saying, probably looking for Nick Fury.
"Hey, ugly!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. The man stopped yelling and looked about himself in confusion. She swooped in low and stopped in front of one of his eyes. He spotted her, but it looked like he didn't quite believe what he was seeing. He'd believe soon enough.
She thrust both hands forward and fired one of her "stings", which hurt more than the real thing, right into his eyeball. He screamed and for once Jan was glad that her ears had a hard time picking up sound at her present size.
The man's scream was signal enough and Captain America leaped out from behind the screen and tossed his shield at another terrorist that stood further back in the theatre. The shield connected and broke the man's arm at the elbow, his gun went flying. Before anyone else could pick it up, Tony Stark, who had been sitting in the audience, lunged forward and retrieved the automatic firearm.
Amazingly the shield returned to its owner as if it was a boomerang. Three more terrorists came running into the theatre room, guns blazing. Cap covered himself with his shield and ran forward. Hank stepped out from behind the movie screen at twenty feet in height. Hawkeye came out with bow drawn and fired at the terrorrists that were shooting at Captain America. Black Widow wasn't far behind him, firing her own gun. Dane and Nick Fury appeared together and fired their own pistols.
As Captain America charged one of the terrorists fell, arrows protruding from his chest. Another screamed as a bullet that had bounced of Cap's shield tore through his leg. They stopped shooting and withdrew knives and nadvanced on Cap. Steve easily blocked one knife thrust with his shield and kicked out with his foot at the other, catching him in the throat. The man gagged and fell to the floor.
Glass shattered from the display room above and fell onto the screaming crowd of civilians, most of whom were too scared to move. The remaining terrorist fell thanks to a bullet in the head courtesy of Black Widow.
It would have been easy had that been all of them but eight more in military fatigues came racing in. Learning from their dead compatriots' mistakes they quickly grabbed several hostages at the last row of the cinema and held guns to their heads. They weren't going down so easily.
All of the action came to a screeching halt. Cap stood before the terrorists, shield in hand. The rest of the Ultimates froze in place, they didn't want to do anything to get some innocent killed. Besides some whimpering and heavy panting there was no noise as the two groups stared at each other.
"Give up General Fury and Captain America and the rest of you can go free," one of the terrorists broke the silence with a heavy middle spanish accent.
"Why do you want General Fury and me?" asked Captain America, stalling for time to come up with a plan.
"America has commited many crimes, even a patriot like yourself can't be blind to that" the man spat. "Choose any one of them for the reason."
Cap had to stall for more time, there was no way for him to take out eight terrorist by himself before one of them fired a gun and killed someone.
Blam! The doubledoors that led into the theatre slammed open accompanied by a loud sound that sounded vaguely familiar to Cap. Iron Man plowed into the terrorists from behind as he flew into the theatre. The terrorists shouted as they were flung forward, a shot went off.
What was Iron Man doing here? There was no time to focus on that, Cap quickly smashed his shield forward, catching one terrorist under the chin. He kicked out again, knocking the gun from someone's hand. He could feel a quick stacatto burst of bullets pound into his shield. Most people's arms would have shattered at the force of the impact but thanks to the Super Soldier Formula Steven had no problem shrugging off the force and taking another terrorist out with a hard right hook.
Cap glanced for the next opponent, but was surprised to find that they were all laying on the floor. Tony Stark stood over one, still holding the gun that he had taken, there was a little blood on the handle. Iron Man hovered over two more the metallic gauntlets covering his hands glowed brightly. Another terrorist lay on the ground a single arrow sticking out from between his eyes. One was so riddled with bullets it would probably take the investigators weeks to figure out which had actually killed the hispanic man.
That left one. He lay struggling futiley under Hank Pym's foot, his gun several feet away.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Fury said loudly inbetween gasps for breath. "I give you, the Ultimates!"
A loud roar of approval overwhelmed Captain America's ears. It was then that he felt the pain in his leg. He looked down and saw blood leaking down his leg and dripping onto the floor. A bullet had penetrated his thigh. He had been so full of adrenaline that he hadn't felt it. He would be fine, it wasn't the first injury that he had received in the line of duty.