The magical portal dissolved behind the two heroes, who were now standing on a patch of grey rock. Hawkeye looked up, gawking. "Boy, I thought the Negative Zone was just a rehab for depressed aliens." The purple-clad hero exclaimed dryly. "I've never seen anything like this, Wanda!"
"I know it's a lot to take in, first timer, but do keep your eyes in your head! Follow me, archer." Wanda said, the pair of them walking across the thin rock bridge. Underneath, the rock broke off, giving the illusion of tree roots torn from the ground.
"Don't look down…don't look down…don't look down…" Hawkeye repeated to himself under his breath. Finally, he indulged his inner voice and looked down to see the swirling green-blue of the Negative Zone's empty space, decorated with what looked like entire planets, mountain ranges, asteroids, moons, thick fog with extraordinary monsters lurking! Then, he looked up again, but there was no normalcy there. Just more vastness. "Hmph, and here I was thinking those Lifetime movies Jan watches went on forever…"
Later, within countless layers of fog…
"I'm just sayin', teleportation would be much easier on my feet!" Hawkeye joked, keeping up his sense of humour even amongst the perils of the Negative Zone. "Hush up, will you?!" Scarlet Witch asked, holding her hands to her head, her eyes glowing red. They flickered back to their usual brown and she continued through the mist. "I sense it, it should be right up ahead…there!" Wanda pointed to a structure floating in the immenseness of space. It was a grand structure, and took the spotlight even amongst the sublime scenery. Two thin points adorned with spheres and windows, connected by a large spherical section, with thin loading docks and landing bays all around. "Prison 42." Wanda stared up at the wonder of architecture before them.
"So, this is the Richards-Stark-Pym brainchild? I gotta say, even I'm impressed. A supervillain prison in a dimension devoid of all life?" Hawkeye gave an impressed scoff. He was so taken aback by Prison 42 that he didn't protest the fact that Scarlet Witch was carrying him bridal style as they flew up to one of the narrow grey landing strips, and even that was a dead giveaway that this was Reed Richard's doing! It looked like a piece of complex winding machinery, rather than a bland slab of steel.
"Devoid of all life? Now where'd ya hear that one, Barton? There's creatures in here, and us." A Southern accent sounded. "Agent Quartermain!" Hawkeye jumped out of Wanda's arms and slapped him on the back, giving him a quick hug. "When's the wedding, you two?" Scarlet Witch quipped. "It's good to see you, Clay, but we're on a time limit. I just don't know how long." Agent Quartermain nodded and straightened up. "I know why you're here." He said, a cocky tone in his voice, like he just performed the greatest feat in SHIELD history. "Follow me, somethin' I want ya to see."
The two heroes followed Agent Quartermain through the twisting, turning hallways of Prison 42. "Arc reactors?" Questioned Wanda as they stepped through into a long, dark hallway, illuminated only by the blue glow of an incredible amount of miniature arc reactors. "Shrunk by Pym Particles!" She chuckled. "Imagine Iron Man and Ant-Man bickering over how to keep this place afloat!" Hawkeye gave an exhaled chuckle. "Those eggheads bicker all the time!" Then, they came to a rather large, purple door with circuits going up and down it.
Quartermain put his hand up to the scanner, and the door opened with a hiss. Inside the well-furnished room with a twelve-level bunk bed, playing their instruments and eating Earthling snacks like potato chips, chasing each other around the room, were the Children of Ootah. Wanda's eyes widened and the knots in her stomach untied themselves when she saw that they were okay. "Children!" She exclaimed. One of the younger ones rushed up to her and hugged her. "You're okay!" The young girl exclaimed. Wanda pat her back and smiled warmly down at her, before whipping her head back to the SHIELD agent. "How did you find them?! I felt their presence, but I thought they were as lost as me!"
"Did you think all of them were actually children too?" Clint whispered to Clay. "Uh-huh." He whispered back, and looked at the Mutant sorcerer. "We heard a screech, all the way from here! It was sonic, so we tracked the waves and found them just in time. The monster's the newest inmate, but he refuses to give us his name. Probably because he can't talk." The agent smirked. "You're welcome, Scarlet Witch. They all went on about a lady in red and a wizard, and I knew it had to be you. Look at 'em, they're all happy to see you!" From the top bunk, one of the adults spoke up, looking up from his flute. "I'm not. You abandoned my people. You are no hero, Scarlet Witch, and neither is that Doctor Strange. You will pay!"
Scarlet Witch's face went red with anger. "ABANDONED YOU?!" She boomed. "We were tossed off into this disgusting place while defending you! God knows where Strange still is, and we abandoned you?! You ungrateful-" Her eyes began to glow red, but quickly returned to normal when Clint grabbed her arm, a concerned look on his face. "You'd know if I abandoned you." She concluded, and strode out of the room. "Sorry about that, some of 'em are a touch irritable. Where's the Doc? I thought he'd be with you, Avengers." Quartermain asked as they walked into the guards' room. It was a rather large room, decorated with computers everywhere, a blackish paint with green specks, and a SHIELD insignia on the floor.
"Strange is still lost somewhere in here, we're trying to find the poor guy." Hawkeye explained. "Yes, our powers are different here! We cannot teleport, we cannot perform our rituals for certain spells. I fear the worst has happened to Strange, I can't sense him anymore…" Wanda added. "I was floating here for days, but found the Avengers Mansion portal from this end. Clint pulled me out." She gave him a quick peck on the cheek. The archer blushed a deep crimson. Before Vision came along, he had been in love with the Scarlet Witch.
"This portal?!" Quartermain pulled a video up on the screen of the Avengers' portal. "The very same." Clint said in a faux-official tone. "Yes! We had to use my magic to get into the Negative Zone just now, we were going to use the mansion's, but it was…" On the screen, from the shadows, floated a yellowish green creature, with red clothes, boots, and gloves, and a green set of wings with green spiky shoulder pads fastened around its neck by a gold rod. "Destroyed." She finished. "Annihilus!" Quartermain and Scarlet Witch said together.
"Is someone gonna tell me what an Annihilus is?!" Hawkeye said, watching the villain on the screen hold up a golden staff with a red circle on top, and blast the portal, destroying it. "Annihilus is the ruler of the Negative Zone." Scarlet Witch began. The video now showed the Baxter Building's portal being destroyed just like Avengers Mansion's. "He's mad with power, trying to wipe out all life here, to return it to its original state. When the Negative Zone came into existence, there was nothing. Simply antimatter. The creatures that now inhabit the Negative Zone are mostly artificially bred, magical, or from Earth. Annihilus wants to wipe it all out, so only he reigns supreme!" Now, the footage showed the SHIELD Helicarrier's portal being destroyed.
Before Hawkeye could speak, a hidden door, the same color as the wall, opened. Quartermain kept his hand on his blaster, when two fresh-faced SHIELD agents stepped out of a dark corridor into the room. "Evenin, old man! We're here." One of them said. Quartermain shook the women's hands and chuckled. "Get to your sectors, agents. Tell Sitwell he can go home now." Wanda and Clint looked at each other, both clearly thinking the same thing. "Say, southerner, how did they get in? The SHIELD portal was destroyed. Don't tell me ya got Nightcrawler teleporting them in here!" Quartermain shook his head. "Hilarious, cupid. We've got a secret portal for emergencies like this. The other end is in the Pentagon. This corridor is secret for a reason, and in the heart of the prison. No one will ever find it." He said confidently. Then, his wrist communicator buzzed. "What is it, Jackson?" The blonde agent asked. A young voice sounded on the end. "We found Annihilus, he's back at his home, Arthros, sector 17A. He's got someone hostage. Blue clothes, red cape, correct me if I'm wrong but-" Wanda leaped up. "Stephen!" Her hope skyrocketed, as if she had just received a speech from Captain America. "Dock 6, GO, Avengers!" Quartermain said. Of course, in hero fashion, Wanda and Clint rushed out to find the ship.
In the next action-packed chapter of this superhero romp, see the two Avengers rescue the Sorcerer Supreme from the clutches of Annihilus! It'll be a battle for the ages, true believers!