Author's Note: What follows is a post-positive if you will. Post in the sense that it is a highly fictionalized rendering of the aftermath of Secret Invasion, which by now has yet to happen in the Marvel Universe proper, and positive in the sense that its hero and main focus does have good things happen to him, even if the benefits aren't awlays clear at first, and indeed opaque until almost too late to see. What I've done is go into this story with a few basic assumptions about the state of the MU, the state of nature (paging Thomas Hobbes), and a few other things: a little bit of Calvinist predestination theology and the utterly Lutheran idea of sola fidei--as well as the idea, which Bob personifies so well, that it's exceedingly difficult for a man, for any man, to get over his past--and that sometimes he doesn't, and sometimes that's not altogether bad.
I've thus hybridized (bastardized) the playout of Secret Invasion, and rather "gone from there." This latest installment finds us retreading familiar ground--the Marvel Universe and Robert Reynolds, The Sentry--as well as some new ground--romance, different from what I suppose is my usual downtrodden fatalism. Read through it and let me know what you think, like, or don't. And perhaps, by the time we're all said and done, the title, "In Through the Out Door," which is admittedly cribbed from Zeppelin, will make some sense to you--especially as you follow Bob's efforts to reconstruct his perceived failure of a life. Perceived, dear readers. Always perceived.
Happy reading.
It started with a flash in the sky, and an invasion that escaped the notice of Earth's Mightiest until it was too late to do anything but defend.
Alien beings intent on taking this world for their own stormed out of the heavens and started shooting. The ones that weren't on the frontlines were lucky. When it was over, New York was slightly more ruined than it had been under the Hulk's one-man war. The Avengers had unified, however briefly, to combat the threat, and when it was done they promptly resumed their old hostilities. Everyone blamed everyone else for not seeing the gravity of the situation sooner, for the deaths on every side of the equation.
For not doing 'enough.'
They blamed everyone, and nothing continued to get done. The world stagnated. Earth's Mightiest continued to stagnate. Even in the face of a massive threat from an alien power—and conquering that threat—they remained divided.
United by their distrust and their hatred. And how the whole thing had ended up
Nick Fury returned and took SHIELD back from the doldrums in which it had laid even before his departure. When the truth about Maria Hill became painfully clear, he put her back where she belonged.
Tony Stark seemed to come out on top of everything. The Initiative, the Registration Act…Tony had it all planned out and it was only afterwards, when the enemy had been neutralized, that he began to find redemption. Such as it was. There are still people that don't trust him, and I suspect they need to get over themselves.
No one suspected Billy Kaplan's rage—even when the enemy's champion had left his lover to die on the steps of the Baxter Building. When Billy took his anger out on people that deserved it, and almost single-handedly won us the war…no one judged him.
Everyone suspected Jessica Drew's treachery, but we didn't know how deep, and to whom it ran, until the very end.
It was an old-fashioned battle, fought with old-fashioned techniques over an old-fashioned objective. The enemy wanted this planet and they were stopping at nothing to get it. They had infiltrated and impersonated select heroes for years prior to the formal declaration of their intentions. And in our collective blindness we paid the clues, the subtleties in the world around us, no heed. We kept focusing on the trees for the forest.
Then Reed Richards, as always, devised a characteristic ace in the hole. He was the first one of us to beat them, and he was the one they wanted. When he strolled into their flagship alone, and strode back out an hour later with the thing aflame behind him, it seemed somehow characteristic and frightening at the same time. It made sense to everyone that he should beat them again.
And as quickly as it began, it ended.
They had struck at those nearest and dearest to us, and we struck back like nothing I've ever seen before.
When that happened, I left.
I just left.
Continued...
