DISCLAIMER: I do not own any Marvel/Disney characters.

Notes: This is my take on a Marvel Now Avengers book. I'm not saying it's better than the real ones, nothing like that, I'm not trying to fix anything. It's just for fun, and it's easier to write in established universes/continuities than ones you're trying to form yourself. Beware, there is a "Halfway" Original Creation of mine joining the Avengers... A new Hyperion. Also, White Tiger, Power Man and Nova are the latest versions of the characters, most notably from the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon, though Power-Man in this is obviously Victor Alvarez. The Nightmask in here will have a different origin. The same for Angela, kinda/sorta.

And yes, the roster is 25

AVENGERS NOW

Angela, Black Panther, Black Widow, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Captain Universe, Falcon, Hawkeye, Hulk, Human Torch, Hyperion, Iron Man, Manifold, Mockingbird, Nightmask, Nova, Power-Man, Psylocke, Quasar, Quicksilver, Spider-Man, Thor, Vision, White Tiger, Wolverine

1#

"Destiny"

Part I

The pitch-black jet with very faint purple trim, screamed through the bright blue skies. Catching up from behind at a seemingly impossible rate was a black and gold blur. None other than... The Invincible Iron Man. Stopping this un-manned drone was a matter of life and death, as he could clearly see with his suit's special enhanced vision that there were sophisticated explosives lining the entire interior. If hit in the right spot - maybe even simply touched - it may have very well been enough to level a city almost completely.

"Four suicide drones. Three Avengers in pursuit."

"Leave the extra one to me, P.E.P.P.E.R.," Iron Man answered his newest AI System, speaking through an established communications link.

"The drone is set to detonate upon impact. Explosion radius is currently unknown."

"It's gonna be big, make sure the other Avengers know to be careful," Iron Man responded while in flight, coming up on the drone, slipping underneath, "Gotta time this just right."

As careful and cautious as he could possibly be, Iron Man traveled at just the right speed while flying underneath the drone, and then began lifting it, re-directing its course far higher into the sky, up above the clouds, as high as needed to be sure. When the moment was right, Iron Man slowed down just enough to get behind it at a safe distance and then let loose his repulsor rays. Unexpectedly, pieces of debris began falling, big enough to cause damage or even hurt somebody below...

Thinking quickly and acting quicker, Iron Man blasted the bigger pieces of debris into smaller harmless bits, avoiding a possible disaster.

"One down," he said, "Now, where's the other?"

"Heading towards Times Square."

"On it," Iron Man kicked in to full-speed, using whatever bit of power he had in the armor, hitting a mph that could rival Quicksilver.

Momentarily, the Armored Avenger had his target in sight. Unfortunately, he had arrived just a few touches later than expected or desired. He must have misjudged exactly how far the drone had traveled. In fact, judging by one of his gauges, this drone was moving faster than the others.

Same look, same set-up, but nearly triple the amount of bombs. This one was going to be big.

"Closing in," Iron Man informed the AI, "How are the others doing?"

"Captain Marvel intercepted the drone targeting the west coast. Thor eliminated the drone targeting Texas."

"Good, I'm here, let's get this ov... NO!" Iron Man cursed, discovering a timer on the bottom of this drone, "It has a timer! Three seconds!"

Left with no other option, Iron Man blasted the drone in a massive explosion that sent him flying down and back through a tall building, two floors of said building, and out the other side. His armor was damaged, body a little sore, but all he could think of is if innocent New Yorkers were injured - or worse - by the explosion.

(Moments Ago)

:::Street Level:::

They said... Go to New York, your destiny awaits you there. That is what his guides told him after he returned to his home when his service with Nick Fury's Secret Warriors team finished. He wanted to stay home, rest, be with his family, but they wouldn't let him. They told him... Go to New York, your destiny awaits you there.

And, until now, until this very moment, Eden Fesi didn't believe them...

BOOM!

Directly overhead, Eden heard and saw a massive explosion. Thinking faster than he ever assumed he could, he raised his arms and pointed his hands towards the fiery blast as it hurled downward to the city below. That second, a flash of light was seen and the very fabric of time and space opened, swallowing the explosion whole, and closed.

The New York City citizens all looked at Eden, realizing it was he who had taken care of the explosion. He took a deep breath, suddenly feeling some stage fright, especially when they began applauding him, thanking him.

"Destiny, huh?" he said to himself as they cheered, "Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all."

"You," Iron Man entered the picture, hovering overhead in a damaged suit, "Where did you put it?"

Eden turned around, confused, "What are you talking about?"

Iron Man lowered to the ground, confronting the supposed hero, "You teleported the explosion. Where did you put it?"

"I don't know, man," Eden answered truthfully, "I stopped it from exploding here, that's the main thing."

"Do me a favor," Iron Man took flight, "Educate yourself about your powers. Just because that explosion didn't happen here, it still happened somewhere. And, if you didn't consciously put it somewhere, that means it erupted in sub-space or whatever the hell it's called these days."

"The sub-space between my portals is nothingness," Eden explained while Iron Man began flying away, "I know what I'm doing."

"Sure you do," Iron Man remarked before flying out of earshot.

:::::Somewhere Distant and Worlds Away:::::

It was dark and cold, the surrounding area appearing like a hornet's nest split in half. In the darkened sky, stars raced across, leaving behind trails of powerful white hot light. However, as one group of shooting stars happened to pass by, they collided with a raucous explosion that appeared literally out of nowhere. This caused an even bigger explosion that rocked the landscape, cracking the ground in half, allowing for an eruption of fire and light to spew into the air like a massive volcano.

The fire and light balled together in the atmosphere, spinning as it gathered bolts of electricity. Acting almost in the same fashion as an oven, the gathering examples of energy seemed to cook. But, once heated enough, the sphere couldn't contain itself anymore and burst outward, engulfing the entirety of this landscape in white hot explosive energy!

And then... There Was Nothing.

(Thirty Minutes Ago)

:::Texas:::

Cole Carson expected more out of his life. He always expected himself to venture further in life than a worker at a chemical plant. But, at the age of twenty-seven, there he was... Working a 9-5 at a chemical plant. The hours were good, the pay was good, and the people were friendly enough. But, still, Cole expected more from himself, so he wanted more for himself. He felt destiny had planned something greater, but had no clue on how he would fulfill that.

"Carson, didn't you hear the damn whistle?" Supervisor shouted from the catwalk of the plant, "Quittin' time, let's go. Second shift is comin' in, go home."

Go home to Nina. Go home to the girlfriend who was sticking by him, promised to through thick and thin. Go back to being her hero without ever actually being her hero. If that made any sense, that is.

Cole sighed and cleaned up his work area. After that, he started walking over to the lockers. He noticed a couple co-workers watching a television situated on the wall. He paid no mind at first, figuring it just local news, but then realized it was exactly that; Local news. Thing of it was, the local news tonight was far more local than anyone at the plant could have predicted when they woke up in the morning...

"Dude, check this out," a guy said, "Friggin' Avengers are chasing after some kinda jets, and one of them is flying over us!"

BA-BOOM!

Everyone was startled, but then quickly ran outside, discovering small flakes of metal raining down along with puffs of smoke floating high they saw a figure; The God of Thunder, Thor, soaring down to catch a larger piece of metal before it hit the ground. Of course, mission accomplished, and the Asgardian Avenger flew off into the distance, having saved yet another day.

"Damn, man," another worker mentioned, staring into the sky, feeling gracious, "That could've been us... Blown to bits. Thank god we live in a world of super heroes, huh?"

"No doubt."

Cole stood in silence. Maybe awe was a better word. Thor? the Avengers? Talk about being meant for greater things, fulfilling destiny. In a way, he was jealous. They knew what to do with their lives, they took hold of the greatness waiting for them. There was no chance they were returning home from a day of work, feeling the feeling of incomplete.

Cole sighed and waved bye to his co-workers, en route to his old pick-up truck. Time to go home. Time to give Nina a kiss then watch on TV a news report about how he almost died, yet had absolutely nothing to do with it. Time to continue being normal and underwhelming. Time to wait a little longer for destiny.

(Now)

:::Avengers Tower:::

The Drones were taken care of. That much was out of the way. However, where did they come from? Who built them, and what was the true purpose? Also, why were they so easy to find? At first blush, this plan seemed to be foiled easily by the Avengers. At a second glance, you had to wonder if it was meant to be easy? And, if so, exactly why?

The recently updated Core Avengers team had gathered at the newly built Avengers Tower. Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Black Panther and Captain Marvel aka Carol Danvers. Also, Vision was present at the meeting, as well.

"Myself, PEPPER and Vision couldn't hack into the drones CPU," Stark explained, minus the bulk of his Iron Man armor, merely wearing the inner layer, "Not to sound cocky, but that's saying something right there. A sophisticated firewall unlike anything I've ever come up against before."

T'Challa spoke while working with interactive holography, mask hanging down, "Judging by flight path and possible high priority targets; San Francisco, Ft. Worth, Times Square and Washington."

"A good ol' fashioned terrorist attack?" Hawkeye wondered the obvious.

"Maybe, but I'm not sold yet," Stark answered.

"Sounds like it to me," Captain America said, "What else could it be? Other than being big US Cities, what do these four places have in common?"

"Fort Worth, Texas," T'Challa brought it up on the interactive hologram, "The explosion took place directly above a chemical plant."

"Aye," Thor confirmed, "The machine was flying directly towards it."

"Times Square is obvious," T'Challa continued, bringing up each individual place on the map, "San Francisco has to be... The Golden Gate Bridge. Washington... The White House."

"So, just what kind of terrorism are we looking at?" Carol said, "Hydra and Leviathan are out of the game. The only one I see able to do something like this right now is AIM."

"I think we're looking at this wrong," Stark had a different idea, "I know that the signs all point to a terrorist attack, but I don't think that's what this is. The only 'terrorist' organizations left are AIM and what we're hearing of DEAD. AIM wouldn't attack like this, it's just not their style, especially after getting their own island nation. Yeah, they're assholes, but they're smart assholes, not dumb ones."

"DEAD is still upstart," Stark explained more, "Plus, they don't have a vendetta against America, so much as they just hate the whole world."

"If that's the case," Steve said, "Then what are we looking at?"

Stark looked over his shoulder to Vision, "Take it away, buddy."

Vision stepped forward, ready to drop a bombshell, "Following the battles between the Avengers and X-Men, SHIELD designed and developed four of what they refer to as... Zero Sites. One underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, one underneath Whedon Chemicals, one underneath Times Square, and one directly under The White House. Iron Man and myself have been able to uncover the locations, but nothing else."

The other Avengers unaware of this until now, all looked to each other, suddenly feeling distrustful of SHIELD's recent rebuilding. Tony Stark was the first to comment, though, following Vision's revealing, "So, the way I see it, we have two problems to deal with. One, finding out who the hell is responsible for the drones. Second, find out why the Avengers weren't made aware of SHIELD's Zero Sites."

Hawkeye sighed, "And here I was hoping things would be cool for awhile."

"We need to play this carefully," Steve took charge, "SHIELD's gained a lot of trust lately. For better or worse, we need to maintain that, at least for the time being. With that in mind, we need to find out what these Zero Sites truly are, and what their purpose is. And, we do this calmly. Maybe if we know more about the sites, we'll know more about the drones."

"A sound plan, Captain," Thor agreed.

"I'm good with that," Carol added.

"Me too," Clint followed.

It was settled. The Avengers would begin investigating SHIELD's Zero Sites, while at the same time, being mindful that possibly another attack could happen. With this decided; Captain America, Thor, Captain Marvel and Hawkeye all took their leave from Avengers Tower. Vision returned to his duties in trying to learn more as well, albeit from the central computer hub.

"Stark," T'Challa said before Tony left the room, "I meant to ask you; What happened to the last explosion? Reports have come in that it just disappeared?"

"Yeah," Stark answered, "Some rookie teleporter, I think he worked for Fury before. He took the blast away, but didn't put it anywhere. At least, consciously."

"That is un-wise," T'Challa said, "The explosion wasn't stopped... Only moved."

Tony shrugged, "What can we do now?"

T'Challa sighed, "I suppose you may be right. But, I think it would be in our best interest to speak with this man."

"Have Vision try to dig something up on him," Stark offered, the armor returning as a window opened, "I'm gonna pull a sweep, make sure there's no more little birdies flying around. See ya when I see ya, BP."

This didn't sit well with T'Challa. A massive explosion teleported, but not to a specific place? He instantly returned to the computer, trying to see if he could pull up anything about unexplained explosions. Oh no... His eyes went a little wider than they normally would... Something had happened in Texas just moments ago...

"Vision," he called out, "Contact any available Avengers in or around the Texas area. Send them the coordinates I'm now giving you."

(Fifteen Minutes Ago)

:::Texas:::

Driving along the highway, radio on, window down, just passing time on the road.

Until something sparked Cole's curiosity. As he was driving down the lonely stretch of road, nothing but empty fields and what you could call a couple small deserts, he saw something he had never seen before. In the open field, he saw an entire thunderstorm cloud. The rain only reaching one spot. Lightning crashing down, thunder booming, the rain heavy and violent. Just one lone dark cloud in one empty field. He had never seen anything like it.

Cole pulled his old pick-up truck over to the side of the road, watching closely. This wasn't normal. This... Something like this just didn't happen. At the very least, that he was aware of. Then again, he would have never called himself a weather aficionado, so who knows?

Enthralled by the event, Cole pulled out his cell phone while getting out of his truck, trying to get pictures and video. Only to have a bolt of lightning strike him down, throwing him back violently against the side of his truck. After the bone-breaking and metal-denting thud, Cole hit the pavement, body trembling uncontrollably, his breaths in steam, his hand severely burnt where he was holding the phone. The jolt was nearly enough to send him spiraling into cardiac arrest. He could feel his heart skipping beats, and then the pain as the beats made his heart feel like a pulsing anvil wanting out of his chest!

Before he could even attempt to try and move, another bolt of lightning struck the truck, causing an explosion that flung Cole through the air, right into the middle of the field where the storm was pouring down ferociously. He landed right in a big mud puddle, mind reeling, body wracked with an enormous amount of surging pain. Conceding that this was the end of his life, and unable to do anything about it in the first place, Cole gave in. He painfully rolled onto his back in the mud, staring up at the small yet monstrous storm.

So much for being destined for greater things. So much for destiny altogether. This was his grand moment, laying in a pool of pain, blood and mud, staring up at the end. The cat wasn't the only thing curiosity killed, huh?

A massive sphere of crackling power and energy sudden appeared out of the cloud, accompanied by a screaming whining sound and larger roars of thunder. Almost as if it was somehow alive, somehow sentient, it lowered down, hovering over the now unconscious Cole Carson. More screams and whines, tentacles consisting of the same energy as the rest of it, sprouted from the mass, moving mysteriously until a growl of thunder ripped through the air and the tentacles shot into Cole, raising him up, waking him up, imbuing him with power on a cosmic scale!

But, it backfired against the sphere. Suspended in mid-air, arms and legs outstretched, pain surging, Cole's eyes lit with golden energy that fired outward in two beams, straight into the portal this thing had come out of! In an instant, it began closing and the sphere was pulled back, losing its touch with Cole, more whines and screams. Cole dropped back to the mud puddle, eyes closing, breathing going back to normal, pain subsiding, bones moving back into place, heartbeat regulating.

Destiny.

::::::::::AVENGERS NOW::::::::::

This my last new fic for a good long while. People may see no point in me doing an Avengers 616 and reboot, but there are stories I can tell here that I can't tell in there, and vice-versa. Also... These stories will be more original than the ones in the reboot. Though, admittedly, this first is inspired by ideas presented in the real book. The OC Hyperion will figure heavily in the first arc, but don't worry, that won't always be the case.