Thor, Iron Man, and the Hulk were surrounded by Hulkbusters. "This is your last chance Iron Man." The General said. "Get out of the firing line."
"Go." The Hulk said. "I can take care of myself."
"We're not going anywhere." Iron Man said. "Stand down Ross."
"Wait, I don't understand." Thor said. "Why are we fighting alongside the troll?"
"Because we're heroes." Iron Man said. "And we don't kill somebody when they're willing to do things quietly."
Thor thought about it. "Aye." He concluded. "'Tis dishonorable."
Ross gritted his teeth. "Fire." He told Trask. He nodded, and the cannons on the Hulkbusters all went off at once. Hulk jumped out of the way, followed by Thor and Iron Man. Thor swung his hammer at a Hulkbuster, knocking its head off and kicking it to the ground. He threw his hammer at one behind him. It flew straight into its Ion cannon, jamming it and blowing it up. The smoking hammer flew back to Thor hand.
Iron Man flew around one, shooting at joints, making it collapse. He shot a rocket t one of them, and it exploded and fell back.
The Hulk ran over and picked up a Hulkbuster by the leg. He swung it around like a robot baseball bat, knocking down every other Hulkbuster.
Ross growled. "Trask, get on the line with S.H.I.E.L.D. and tell them that as of now, Iron Man and Thor should be considered fugitives of the law."
Avengers Unlimited: Assembled, prt. 2
The two secret security agents stood at attention at their post guarding the White House's back gate. Suddenly, several people ran from the nearest street, screaming. The picked up a pair of rifles and readied themselves. But when the thing finally rounded the street, they couldn't believe their eyes.
An eight foot tall golden android was walking towards the white house.
The guards opened fire. After a couple of seconds of unloading bullets into the android, they stopped. The bullet holes healed up. The android looked at the guards and a golden orb came to its hand. The orb shaped itself into an exact replica of the guns the guards were holding.
The guards ran as the android began firing on them, and started walking towards the back gate. "We have a situation!" One of them yelled. "A giant robot is coming through the back gate! It is armed and dangerous!"
In the Oval office, the president's meeting was interrupted as six secret service agents ushered him out of the room.
Outside the front gate, the Thinker watched with joy as the chaos unfolded. Chaos to them... to him, it was pure predictable order. Order at its finest. He walked up to the front gate. "Excuse me sirs, may I come in?" He asked. As the guards raised their rifles, two shots rang out, and a pair of needles embedded themselves into their necks. They were fired from the roof of a nearby building, aimed and timed by the Thinker. "Thank you for your cooperation." He said.
He raised a device up to the gates. After a second, the device beeped and the gates opened. The Thinker walked through, utterly confident that nobody would bother him. He'd done the math after all.
He walked through the White House's front door. The tour guides were ushering the tourists out. He held his device up to a security panel, and it beeped again. When he left the room all the doors shut.
He walked calmly down a restricted hallway, stopping once to place a disc on the floor, then continuing on. "Hey, you can't be in here!" The Thinker didn't even turn around as the disc on the floor electrocuted the secret service agent behind him before he could even aim his gun.
The android walked down a hallway filled with secret service agents. "Freeze!" They yelled. He scanned them all. Then he scanned the wall. He walked through the wall, leaving a pile of rubble in his wake. The agents tried to shoot at him, without success.
The Thinker turned a corner, and an agent blocked his way. "Don't move!" She yelled.
The Thinker smiled, and took out a comb. "Showtime." He sang, running it through his thin hair.
The agent raised an eyebrow, then the white house shook, and a large section of the ceiling broke off and fell on her, knocking her out cold. The Thinker nodded to her limp body, and stepped around it, through the door she was guarding. "Ladies and gentlemen may I have your attention please!" He announced. The people there for the press conference stood up in their chairs and some started screaming. "Oh, please be quiet, I'm not here to hurt you." He said snidely. "All cameras on me!" He snapped his fingers. "Spit spot please, I haven't all day."
He stood at the podium in front of the painting of the white house. "Questions please! I know you have them!"
One hesitantly raised his hand. "Yes you! You are about to ask me who I am. You may call me the Thinker!"
Another. "You were about to ask me if I'm a mind reader. Not at all my dear woman, I can simply calculate the future through a complex mathematical formula the likes of which you could never understand."
He pointed. "Yes! I do, in fact, have a hand in the sirens you hear in the background. I am currently kidnapping the President of the United States of America!"
"Nobody can stop me! Not even Thor! Not even Iron Man! If my calculations are correct, they've defected to the other side of the law by now anyway."
"Yes, of course you can see proof. Just give me two seconds."
The room shook, and the android walked through the wall behind him. The president was over his shoulder. "Let me go!" He yelled. "I am the president of the united states! Whatever your goals are, kidnapping me will do you no good!"
"Of course they will." The Thinker said. "I did the math."
"You're mad! Mad!"
"Mad!" The Thinker roared. "If it's madness to simply think a little, then I'm the maddest thinker there ever was!"
The android turned around and began to fire at the Agents coming behind him. The Mad Thinker grabbed a hold of it and climbed on. "For the majority of you who missed this!" The Mad Thinker yelled. "Mr. McGee was the only one with sense enough to keep his camera rolling! Spread the word! I am the Thinker! I cannot be stopped!" He cackled as the android shot a hole in the ceiling and climbed through it to freedom.
Hank Pym was standing in front of a mirror. "I can make a helmet that can communicate with insect life." He said. "And yet… I just can't make a decent superhero costume." The costume he was wearing was too snug on him. He thought it was garish, and the cape itched. "I need a good tailor." He said.
Then he heard the television behind him. "In breaking news, the President of the United States of America had been kidnapped."
"What?" Hank moved closer to the television as McGee explained the news.
"A man so far known only as the Mad Thinker has just walked into the White House with a giant robot in tow." Footage of the President being hauled away by a golden robot. "The Mad Thinker claims he has the ability to calculate the future. As of now, the CIA has no comment on the steps being taken to retrieve the president. Neither Thor or Iron Man have been seen, and rumor abounds that they may have defected to the other side of the law."
"What?" Hank was shocked. "That's impossible..."
"Tony Stark is unavailable to comment on the state of his bodyguard Iron Man. The country waits with baited breath for something – anything – to save the day."
"And that's my cue if ever I heard one." Hank Pym stood tall. "America needs a hero. And Ant-man will answer the call!" He ran out of the lab.
He ran back into the lab and looked in the mirror one more time. He tore off his cape, and ran out again.
Barricades had been set up. Police forces had been beaten back. Cars lay abandoned. And in the midst of the wreckage, the Mad Thinker stood. Not a single scratch on him. His loyal android at his side, guns bristling from every point on its skin. The Enforcers brandishing their smoking weapons, Big Man holding his bleeding shoulder. The two of them were framed in the jumbotron as they admired the wreckage before them.
"Not half bad." The Mad Thinker said. "I didn't predict that one taxi driver with a gun, but at least you're alive, eh Big Man?"
"Yeah." He grunted. "And you'll keep our promise?"
"Undoubtedly." He said. "And look, here come our star players."
The S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier loomed over them. The Mad Thinker smiled. "They think this is going to be easy. They think that this will be their first test against a supervillain, and that they will pass. They are slightly unnerved, but they think, 'even if they're more powerful individually, we still have them out numbered'."
"Well, they do, don't they?" Fancy Dan asked. Big Man slapped his head.
The Mad Thinker smiled. "Not for long."
"Status report?" Nick Fury asked.
"He's just standing there sir." Agent Dugan said. "We can't get a shot off with the cannons though. The president is too close. The snipers are in place, but I doubt it would do much good."
Fury nodded. "Alright, so we play on his ego. We goad him along until he's exactly where we want him."
"Unfortunately Sergeant Fury, you're exactly where he wants you." The voice echoed through the helicarrier. Screens began to go blank, only to turn on again to a face. A face with a bright smile and green eyes. "Hello. I'm Quasimodo. I'm the Mad Thinker's A.I."
"I have taken command of the U.S.S. Valiant. All of your systems, all of your guns, are mine. All of your data, I possess. And my master the Thinker is silently laughing at you."
Suddenly a scream came. One of the computer technicians on the bridge began to curl up and gasp for air.
"My master has been planning this for weeks. His victory will be assured." The technician began to cry as a yellow substance flowed over his skin, engulfing him. "He has stolen self replicating nanobots from Pym industries, and I have reprogrammed them. They do not replicate in water, but they multiply by the thousands if they make contact with human blood. My master was able to smuggle several thousand nanobots into a bottled water plant. One nanite per bottle. Enough to transform an ordinary man into… something else entirely."
The man, now a solid gold android, got up from his desk and began to walk onto the bridge. Nick fury fired at it, but the bullets deflected off its shell.
"I still do not fully understand." Thor said. He and Iron Man were flying through the air, followed by the Hulk who leaped with his extraordinarily string legs. "First we fought the Hulk, then we helped the Hulk, and now the Hulk is on our side?"
"We have our priorities." Iron Man said. "I still don't understand whose side the Hulk is on, but if he can help us, then we should accept. The Mad Thinker is obviously very insane and very dangerous. He's turning innocent people into his army. We have to save them, and the president."
"Still, combat should be undertaken with people you trust." Thor said. "I do not trust the Hulk."
"Don't worry blondie." Hulk yelled. "Hulk may be a monster, but Hulk's an American monster!"
"That's not exactly comforting." Thor said.
T'Challa was in the middle of a street side café when people started turning into androids. He ran into an alleyway tore open his suit. A stylized picture of a panther rested on the fabric underneath.
He quickly changed into his royal battle garb and climbed a nearby fire escape to the roofs. He saw the Valiant, and that the golden army was heading towards it. He ran towards the center of the storm.
In New York, the streets were suddenly filled with crying people. First from the eerily glowing people, then from the ones running away from the golden army.
Wanda Maximoff sat in meditation. "But why can't I help?" She asked.
Dr. Strange looked out of the window. "It is not our place to interfere with the affairs of mortals." He said. "Our duty is to protect the Sanctum Sanctorum. Nothing more. The last time magic was revealed to the public, people were burnt at the stake simply for being left-handed."
"You sound like my father." She said. "People are ready for us."
"Your father may be a cruel man Wanda." Dr. Strange said. "But he is also wise. Keeping our existence a secret is the best option for all involved. Trust me."
"Sergeant Fury!" Agent Hill yelled from a corridor in the Helicarrier. "We are encountering unknown hostiles down here, do you copy!"
The comlinks seemed to be down. Agent Hill behind a barricade of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents shooting at agent Dan who had suddenly and inexplicably turned into a golden android. Bullets just seemed to bounce off of its shell, and it raised it's arms and fire black in golden energy blasts.
"Fall back!" She yelled. "Fall back!" Suddenly, three more androids walked up behind them.
Nick Fury was under fire by several of the androids as he and Dugan took cover behind the steering console. If they could get the droids to shoot that, they could keep the Valiant moving forward, then they could wreck the engines and crash it into the bay. Better wrecked then in the hands of the Mad Thinker.
"Oh no." The androids stopped blasting at them. "We're too clever to fall for that." The androids leaped over the console and began attacking Fury hand to hand.
Janet Van Dyne was sipping a creamy soy latte at her studio. Carribean music from her favorite band played in the background as a photographer took several snapshots of the company's newest model. "Keep it up M.J." The boss told the red-head. "You're on a cloud, you're at the beach, you're strutting your stuff for the man of your dreams."
Janet smiled at the realization that this was her world now. Soon she'd be the greatest fashion designer in the world. Suddenly, she heard screaming. "M.J.! M.J., what's happening?" As she watched, M.J. transformed into a shiny golden robot.
Suddenly, she felt a cramping in her stomach. She screamed. "Help me!" She yelled. "Somebody… help…" Her mouth filled with a metal golden wave. Her skin suddenly shone and then she was thinking at the speed of light. A voice filled her head…
I SERVE THE THINKER, I SERVE THE THINKER, I SERVE THE THINKER, I SERVE THE THINKER, I SERVE THE THINKER, I SERVE THE THINKER, I SERVE THE THINKER...
"No! No I won't!" She screamed. She felt hot, like she was in a tropical beach somewhere. And then…
She fell to the ground. "Ouch." She said, rubbing her seat. Then she realized where she was. She was in the same studio all right. But she was the size of a bug.
"Anomaly detected." She turned, and saw the robotic M.J. staring down at her.
"Oh my…" She tried to hide behind a gigantic coffee cup.
"Host body absorbing the nanobots." The android said. "Host refusing to be assimilated. Situation, unacceptable. Commence termination." She raised her hand and fired a blast at Janet.
"Woah!" She'd watched enough sci-fi to know what was going on. She dived out of the way… and off the table. She felt the coffee explode behind her and closed her eyes expecting to hit the ground. Except she didn't. Why wasn't she falling? She looked behind her and saw a pair of wings growing out of the back of her sweater.
She turned and saw M.J. readying another blast. "Oh no you don't!" She swerved through the air dodging the volley of golden shots. Her mind spun, and calculated trajectories and angles and speed. She felt like she was fighting the robot in slow motion. She raised her own fists and fired a shot. The android took a step back.
"I'm sorry about this M.J.!" She yelled, and then she shot her own volley at the android. Somehow, she instinctively new her shots weren't as powerful, but she shot faster than the android and it was too slow to retreat.
The android began to smoke, and it collapsed on the ground. Janet grew up to her regular size. "Assimilate that." She said triumphantly.
She examined her back. Nothing. No wings. She tried to blast the roof. Nothing. Suddenly, she instinctively knew that her powers would only work when she was small. "Jan!"
Her boss Cindy ran up to her. "Jan, what just happened?"
"I don't know." Janet said. "Don't worry. Just stay here, don't attract attention, I'll go get help."
She ran out of the room. Out of the window, she could see dozens of androids walking down the street. She didn't know why she didn't turn into one of them. She didn't know why she had such power. All she knew was that people needed her help… and that she would give it.
She grabbed some clothes from the rack. A black and red dress. Some knee-high shoes. Some black arm length gloves. And a mask. It was just her style.
"Isn't it glorious?" The Thinker asked.
The Golden army marched up to them, surrounding Times Square. "With this force at my command, we shall rule the world! Nobody will be able to stand against us!" He turned to the figure in the chair. "Isn't that right mister President?" He pulled the bag off of his head, and revealed his golden face.
"Boss?" Big Man asked, clutching his stomach.
"Yes of course. I haven't forgotten." The Thinker pulled a remote out of his belt. "Quasimodo?"
The face appeared on the screen. "Yes master?"
"Activate the Answer protocol."
Big Man howled and a swarm of nanobots covered him. They weren't golden like the others; these one were black. As the inky swarm overhwlemed him, a white mark appeared on his chest with the letter A on it.
"How do you feel?" Thinker asked.
"Like a new man." Big Man said. "Like I could do the impossible."
The Mad Thinker nodded. "Indeed. Now you can adjust yourself to answer any problem."
"I like that." He said. "Call me, the Answer."
"I will." The Thinker said. "You know, the chinese had a saying. If a man can catch an insect with chop sticks, he can do anything." He pulled a pair of chop sticks out of his suit and grabbed Ant-man out of the air. "Don't you think Pym?"
Pym grew out of the chop sticks and threw a punch at the Thinker. He was out of the way before Pym had time to adjust. The Answer grabbed the swinging fist and threw Pym over his head. Pym landed on his back with a thud. "You'll never get away with this."
"On the contrary." The Thinker said. "I already have gotten away with this. You just haven't realized it yet."
"Not if I have anything to say about it." Pym pressed his belt, and suddenly grew fifty feet. "Oh wait, I do."
The Thinker grinned. "Allow me to offer my rebuttal."
The large android behind him grew to match Pym's height. "Height manipulation abilities; assimilated." He stepped forward and gave Pym a royal uppercut.
"My amazing android can copy thinks at a molecular level." The Mad Thinker said with a smile, as the Android knocked Pym into the side of a building. A swarm of smaller golden androids emerged from the building's crater and held him down. "Anything you do, he can do." The android delivered a final resounding punch. "And it doesn't have a glass jaw."
The android touched Pym's belt and the two of them shrunk down. The Thinker's Quasimodo device beeped. "Master, there's been an anomaly."
"Not now Quasimodo." The Thinker said. "If I'm right, and I always am, three more heroes are incoming."
Iron Man, Hulk and Thor flew down main street. "I see him up ahead." Iron Man said. "I say we go in slowly. I'll distract him, while Thor…"
"No!" Hulk roared. "Hulk will smash him now!" He jumped ahead of the two of them.
"Hulk wait!"
Hulk landed in the middle of Time Square and the Awesome Android stepped between him and the Thinker. "Now Answer!" He yelled.
The Hulk threw a punch. Answer caught it. "Protocol: C5." He said in a metallic voice. "Power: The absorption of energy." Suddenly, the palms of the Answer's suit turned green. "That means you're not the strongest one there is any more big guy."
The Hulk roared as the Answer began draining the Hulk's powers. Green energy flowed from the Hulk and lit up the white sections of the Answer's suit.
"Get away from him!" Iron Man flew up, and blasted the Answer. The Answer just held up a hand and absorbed the energy blasts.
"Oh that's not good." A gun popped out of the Answer's arm, and he blasted Iron Man with a mixture of his own energy and Gamma energy. Iron Man slammed into a wall. "Ouch."
"Iron Man!" Thor stopped in his tracks. The Answer tossed the drained Bruce Banner aside and charged at him. "Villain! Have at thee!" Thor slammed swung his hammer at the Answer, knocking him down. "And now for you!" Thor advance on the Thinker, when a hand suddenly reached out and grabbed his ankle.
"I'm not done with you!" The Answer yelled. He lifted Thor by the ankle, and with the strength of the Hulk he slammed him back into the ground again.
"Quasimodo." The Thinker said calmly.
"Yes master." It said, understanding.
The golden army advanced, hands raised. Thor got up, knocking Answer away, but then got blasted by the collection of androids. "Aaaaargh!" He screamed. He managed to stand up while being blasted, picking up his hammer. "You dare… to strike… a son of Asgard!" He threw his hammer at the Mad Thinker. The Awesome Android stepped up to block it, only to be knocked backwards off its feet. The hammer returned to Thor's hand and he swung it in a circle, using it as a shield against the blasts from the golden army.
"And, now for my personal fat lady." The Mad Thinker said with a grin. The Awesome Android picked itself up, and then grew fifty feet tall.
"Odin's name…" Thor whispered, as a correspondingly sized hammer appeared in the android's hand.
"Hammer; electricity powers; strength; assimilated."
The android brought the hammer down. The golden army stopped firing. When the hammer lifted again, Thor was lying unconscious at the bottom of the crater.
"And now Thor's down!" McGee reported from a helicopter above the scene. "The last person who could have stood against the Mad Thinker, and he's fallen. This… is a dark day for America."
Dr. Strange lied on the floor, unconscious. "I'm sorry master." Wanda said, putting on a red cloak. "But I'm not my father. I can't ignore this." A ring of red magic surrounded her, and she was lifted off of the floor. She said goodbye to the Sanctum Sanctorum, and flew out the window.
Her magic cloak billowed behind her as she surveyed the scene. smoke billowed from the streets of New York. She heard a crash and went to investigate.
"Stan! Stan, snap out of it!" The Black Panther danced around one of the androids. "I know you're in there!"
The Scarlet Witch formed a hex bolt in her hand and threw it at the android. It lit up, before the gold armor dissolved, leaving nothing but a weak old man. The Black Panther caught him in his arms.
"What did you do?" He asked the Scarlet Witch.
"My hex bolts are made of pure chaos." She said. "It shortcircuited the robot. He should be fine."
"Ah, I see." The Black Panther set him down. "I am the Black Panther, and you have my thanks."
"I'm the Scarlet Witch." She said. "I came to help with these robots but... they're everywhere. I don't know how to stop it."
The Black Panther looked down at Stan. "We should move. If the androids are linked to each other, it won't be long before others come to investigate."
Iron Man and Janet flew around the Awesome Android, blasting him. "I'm sorry, who are you again?" Iron Man asked.
"Call me, the Hornet!" She yelled.
"Well, it's good to have you!" Iron Man said. "Especially since you seem to be actually hurting it!"
"I know!" Jan yelled. "I rock!" Suddenly, time seemed to slow down. She turned and dodged just in time to avoid the Answer's grasp. "Watch the hands buddy!" She yelled, blasting him as he fell down.
"This… was not expected." The Mad Thinker said.
"The anomaly I was warning you about master." Quasimodo said. "She seems to have absorbed the nanites into her system."
The Mad Thinker calculated. "Answer! Take out Iron Man! Let the Android deal with the girl!"
"Oh yeah?" Jan asked. "You want a piece of me robo?" She blasted him, and he recoiled.
Then he shrunk. "Wing-based flight; hieght manipulation abilities; assimilated." Suddenly, the Android was her size, and flying on a tiny set of wings. She kept firing, and a hammer grew out of its arm, spinning around to make a protective shield, deflecting her shots.
"That's cheating!" She yelled.
The hammer swung. After a resounding clang she fell out of the sky. Ox caught her and gave her to Fancy Dan who stuffed her in the suitcase with Ant-man.
"Hornet!" Iron Man flew down. "I'm coming!" The Answer ran right behind him, a mixture of yellow in with the green section of his suit. He leaped up, and swatted Iron Man out of the sky. One of his boots exploded, and he careened into the ground.
The Mad Thinker raised a gun, and fired a blast at Iron Man. He grunted, and the suit shut down. "Virus gun." The Thinker said. "You need better firewalls. Of course, some people don't have hindsight until it is hindsight."
Wanda watched from a nearby rooftop. She prepared to cast a spell, but a hand caught hers. "Wait." T'Challa said. "Whatever you're going to do, we need to wait."
"We have to help them." Wanda said. "I have magic."
"He has nothing but his mind." T'Challa said. "And with it, he has managed to transform an estimate of one seventh of earth's population into his personal army, and capture five super powered beings. Can your magic do that?"
Wanda hesitated.
"The best chance they have, is if we use our minds too." T'Challa said. "We need to get abord that airship."
The Golden Army walked forward and picked up the heroes. The Mad Thinker himself sat on the Awesome Android's head as it fired up repulsers similar to Iron Man's.
The Golden Army rose up into the sky. "Yes!" The Mad Thinker yelled into McGee's camera. "Tremble world! For a new age is upon you! Today America! Tomorrow the world! The Empire of the Thinker will engulf all!"
The people of the world shuddered as they watched the news. The ones in America looked to the skies and pointed. The Golden army flew. They flew over Sydney's opera house. They flew past the Eiffel tower. They flew across America.
To Be Continued…