Chapter Four: Revelations

Triskelion

The fight between Team Tony and Team Carol was raging in full force. Powers and bodies were flying everywhere. The explosions could be seen from across the bay. The news had already begun reporting on the conflict. The public was unaware of the conflict brewing within the super hero community and they stood in awe as they saw them all come to blows.

At the center of the conflict, Tony and Carol were trading powerful blows. Tony was pushing his armors to its limits trying to defend from Carol's imposing energy blasts. Carol, relentless, charged forward landing a powerful blast across Tony's right side.

"STAND DOWN!"

"I know what this is, Lady. You're trying to control that which can't be controlled, and you're losing your mind trying."

Then Tony fired a blue bolt of energy at Carol, this way he could buy himself time for his armor to regenerate the damaged plates. The blast caught Carol by surprised but it did no damage.

"You're projecting Tony! And I'm a little surprised that, in this manic episode of yours, you forgot I can absorb energy and send it back at you!"

"I didn't forget."

As Tony finished talking, Carol began wrenching in pain as blue and white bolts of energy swirled around her.

"You don't think I know how this—AGH!"

The energy incapacitated Carol, giving Tony his, much needed, room so his armor could repair itself.

"I cooked you something special. See? I prepared for the future without upsetting the natural order of things or getting any avengers killed! Next?"

Alpha Flight Station

The battle raging below had triggered the safeties in place for emergencies. This locked the orbital elevator to keep any dangers from accessing the station. Meanwhile at the operations center of the Station, the crew ensured that everything was in order; they were being supervised by Abigail Brand, the Lieutenant. Commander of Alpha Flight. Brand walked passed a technician who was looking at a screen when he noticed an abnormality.

"Lieutenant Commander."

"Yes ensign?"

"It seems there's somebody coming up the elevator, Ma'am."

"Looks like somebody is violating security protocols, ensign contact the Triskelion and see if they know who is riding the elevator or if I should just open and airlock for them."

"Yes, Ma'am. Triskelion base, this is Alpha Flight control. We have someone riding the elevator against security protocol. Did you authorize transport? - - Alright then, understood. Alpha Flight control out. Lieutenant Commander, Triskelion base said it was Representative Philippe Beaulieu plus one; apparently, he was on his way here when the fight broke out and since he's a government representative they allowed his request for transport."

"Of course they did… Fine I won't open the airlock but I will have a few words with the Representative about abiding by security protocols."

Brand walked away from the control center and towards the orbital elevator platform at the center of the station. Her cold demeanor remained unchanged as she walked to the halls, every person stood in attention as she passed.

Brand arrived at the elevator just moments before Phillipe and his plus one. When Phillipe arrived, Brand saw who his plus one was; it was a woman she did not recognize. The woman had short black hair and a slim figure; by Brand's judgement she couldn't be older than thirty, and had very fair skin. This woman held a briefcase at waist level with both hands; a detail that did not escape Brand.

Brand was ready to question Phillipe and his guest; but before she could speak Phillipe started talking trying to disarm the Lieutenant Commander.

"Oh Lieutenant Commander Brand, so nice to see you. Quite the situation is brewing down there and, before you say it, I apologize for breaking security protocols but I have to coordinate with the Chinese representative about permission for Captain Marvel to operate within their borders. It seems that there was an important vision about an attack to a nuclear research facility; and since Captain Marvel is fighting so hard for the cause I couldn't just stay down there doing nothing."

Sufficient to say Brand was unmoved by Phillipe's words. She just kept a straight face as it was her usual demeanor.

"And her?"

"Oh, this is miss Alba Armstrong. She is my newly government appointed assistant; parliament decided to drop her on my lap this morning before I left for New York. Say Hello Miss Armstrong; don't worry Lieutenant Commander Brand doesn't bite."

Miss Armstrong took a step forward and extended a hand out to Brand. She gave a warm smile and began speaking with a French accent.

"It is a pleasure Lieutenant Commander Brand."

Brand remained unfazed, she did not shake Miss Armstrong's hand. She did. However, direct her attention back to Phillipe.

"Of course it is. Representative Beaulieu, this is a high security space station charged with the protection of Earth; not a common government office. Next time you decide to bring a guest, however inconvenient it might be for you, you will abide by the security protocols. You may be part of the oversight committee, but that does not mean that you are above the rules of this station."

"Right you are, Lieutenant Commander Brand. It will not happen again, I promise."

"Good."

After giving her ultimatum Brand left to go back to the operations center; Leaving Phillipe to walk to his office with Armstrong. The two walked side by side and began exchanging words amongst themselves.

"That went better than expected."

"Do you think she suspects something?"

"Brand? That idiot doesn't even trust her own shadow; of course, she suspects something. It would do that woman a lot of good to unwind; she's such a frigid bitch."

"I noticed. Where do we go now?"

"Firs to my office, then to the containment chamber."

"I can't wait to see The Envoy from the Divine."

"It will be a grand experience I promise you."

Stark Tower

Roman and Mary Jane were inside the Hall of Armors watching the action unfold on several different holographic screens. Most of the screens were mute but one broadcast could be heard.

"We are broadcasting live from the area around the Triskelion. Where most of America's super hero community seemed involved with some type of altercation amongst themselves."

"What about the non-super hero personnel that work at the Triskelion, any word on them?"

"Well, by what I can tell from here, it looks like they are slowly evacuating. This is probably due to the severe damage the building has taken from these heroes fighting each other-"

By this point in the broadcast, Mary Jane turned off the audio; she began tapping her heel on the ground out of exasperation. She turned around to find Roman not paying attention to the broadcasts. He was sitting on the floor looking at a different set of screens, these screens were projected from a data pad in his hands.

"Hey Roman, I'm heading out to coordinate with the Stark foundation. We need to be ready in case the fighting doesn't just stay in the Triskelion."

"Okay MJ."

New Attilan

Ulysses stood alone on a balcony gazing at the explosions from the battle. He felt helpless and distraught. Ulysses knew the fighting was because of him. He hated himself for having the vision that generated so much turmoil, destruction and even death.

The feelings overtook him as tears began streaming down his face. Then a strange sensation began bubbling inside; it was familiar yet different at the same time. It was as if he was about to experience a vision; but out of his body came glowing ribbons of light. He had never experienced the ribbons and they were causing him to panic.

"What's happening!?"

Ulysses yelled as if he expected the Universe to answer, but there was no answer, just more ribbons of light and they were moving towards the Triskelion.

Triskelion

The fight has been going on for a while now; lucky for everyone, most of the damage has been done to the Triskelion itself. Although, for Rocket Raccoon there was one casualty; his ship. The Guardian's ship was destroyed by a blast of energy from Vision.

The explosion was visible all around the bay, and what was left of the ship crashed onto the building. The crash put a halt to the buildings evacuation and created a small pause in the combat.

Suddenly, a blue portal opened in the middle of the fight. It was queen Medusa and a contingency of her Inhumans and her inner circle. The charge was led by Medusa's sister Crystal, Karnak, The Human Torch, Hank Mccoy and the Inhuman Hound Lockjaw.

Tony was amongst the first to see the Inhuman come out of the portal. This aggravated him to no end; the tables were turning against him.

"Oh, great. The Inhumans are here. Now her backup has backup. So it's okay for you to just barge into our business, but when I do it to you, you pull a building down on my ears! I'm actually glad to see you, Karnak. I have a bill for the building you tore down."

Then he began fighting with Karnak, but Karnak's abilities gave him the close quarters advantage. Karnak kept Tony at bay long enough for, a reinvigorated, Carol to land a punch at full speed on Tony's head. The blow was strong enough to crack his helmet and drive his head to the ground.

"Surrender, Tony!"

"Ow!"

"Last Chance!"

"Hold on."

"Hold on?"

"I'm getting some weird rea…"

"Shut up!"

As Carol landed a backhand on Tony's face, the ribbons of light began wrapping themselves around everybody in the Triskelion. Everyone became immobilized, no amount of struggling could free them, and they were drawn into a vision with Ulysses.

Alpha Flight Station

Armstrong stood by the door inside Phillipe's office; she still held the briefcase as she watched him work on his computer terminal. Phillipe's was diligently working on his terminal.

"How much longer, Phillipe?"

"Just a couple more seconds for the security bypasses to be in effect."

"Good. I don't know how much longer those idiots will be battling down there."

"Oh you worry too much. Nobody will take away your blessing; by the time we're done those idiots are still going to be punching each other over some immaterial argument about controlling the future with those visions. That stupid kid couldn't even begin to perceive what's about to happen… Oh look the bypasses are operational."

"Finally."

Without wasting a second, Phillipe and Armstrong left the room. They made their way towards the containment chamber. Once inside, Phillipe locked the door behind them; it was clear that Phillipe's bypasses had allowed him unprecedented control over the station.

As Phillipe made sure nobody would disturb them, Armstrong walked towards the containment cell where Jack's body was being held within the transport pod. As she walked closer to the cell, Phillipe opened the door; allowing Armstrong to walk next to the pod that contained Jack's body.

"Not as grand as I pictured him."

"Oh don't mind that. That's just the gooey center, if you will. The creature is quite impressive when it's armored and that unmistakable energy. The energy of the Divine. Are you ready for your destiny, Armstrong?"

"I am."

"Then let's bring forth the Divine, so we may cleanse this world and bring forth our paradise."

As Phillipe finished speaking, he opened the pod; revealing Jack's body completely. He motioned for Armstrong to open the briefcase. Once she did, it revealed glass injector containing a thick black liquid, with a few glowing red orbs inside.

Phillipe grabbed the injector, admired it for a moment then he stabbed Jack's chest. From the injection mark sprouted black, vine-like marks on Jack's skin. The marks spread across his body until they reached his head.

The marks on his head focused around his eyes. Suddenly, Jack's eyes opened; they were as black as the night. His mouth burst open, releasing a blood curdling roar. Then Jack's body began twisting and turning until it fell from the floating pod unto the cell floor.

Phillipe and Armstrong took steps back from the body; they were just staring at the flailing motions taking place before their eyes. Jack's body began to exude steam and heat could be felt radiating from him. Then a black, viscous substance began pouring from Jack's pores.

The black substance covered Jack's entire body, sharpening his fingers into claws. The bones on his spine began bulging, creating sharp ridges on his back. Then a segmented tail exploded from the middle of Jack's back; the tail ended in a sharp piece that resembled a double pronged knife.

"The transformation continued for a few more seconds; by the time it was done Jack's body was unrecognizable. His limbs had stretched, his fingers looked like daggers, and his face no longer had any recognizable features. Jack's body was radiating enormous amounts of heat; his skin was still oozing and now the outer layer had a deep crimson shine.

Armstrong and Phillipe were in awe by the transformation; they never expected what they saw. Phillipe turned to Armstrong and made a gesture as if he was presenting a pageant contestant.

"I give you The Envoy of the Divine."

As he said this, The Envoy began to slowly stand and approach the two. The Envoy tilted his head to the side, the lack of facial features was disturbing. Armstrong and Phillipe remained unmoved as The Envoy approached them.

Swiftly and without signal The Envoy grabbed both of them by their throat and lifted them up. They were struggling to breath, but Phillipe mustered the strength to pull something out of his pockets. It was a silver pendant with a crystal that reacted to The Envoy and he seem to react to it as well.

The Envoy lowered both Armstrong and Phillipe and took a step away. Phillipe took the opportunity to straighten his clothes and fix his hair.

"Well I'm glad we got that straighten out before things got out of hands. Now, Envoy of the Divine, we are followers of the same divine you form part. I am here to fulfill the Divine's return to our world."

The Envoy just tilted his head again, emitting no sound or any other visual cue. Phillipe knew that The Envoy did not care about anything he had to say and that the only reason he was not attacking them was because of the crystal. Phillipe then placed the pendant around Armstrong's neck.

"Okay, it is quite clear you don't care about what I'm saying; so I won't bother with the rest of the speech. Anyway, Envoy I bring on to you the Vessel upon which our Divine will come forth into this world. Armstrong, you can take things from here."

Armstrong stepped forward, keeping her head down.

"My name Is Alba Armstrong and I am the chosen vessel of the Divine. I am here to accept the blessing."

Then Armstrong placed one hand on the crystal; and from her hand she began transmitting some form of energy that made the crystal flash. The flashing seemed to lure The Envoy closer to her; he began caressing her head. Suddenly, The Envoy grabbed the back of Armstrong's head and jerked back; then he stabbed her in the chest with his tail. As his pronged tail sank deeply into her chest a glowing pulse of energy traveled from The Envoy towards Armstrong.

The pulses quickened as Armstrong convulsed from the pain. The pulsation became more and more frequent until an explosion of energy launched from Armstrong; the explosion was like the one that traveled from Jack's body a few days ago. It blew The Envoy away from Armstrong and towards a wall on the far side of the chamber. The crash broke pipes and cables releasing clouds of CO2 that fogged the room.

Phillipe was quick to catch Armstrong before she fell on the ground; it was clear that the explosion only blasted The Envoy away. Phillipe checked on Armstrong to see if she was still alive, she was, but had lost consciousness. Then he checked on her wound, there was a lot of blood on her clothes, but the wound had sealed. Then another blood curing roar coming from The Envoy; Phillipe knew that nothing would stop him now. Phillipe swiftly took Armstrong in his arms and made his way out of the room

"I'm glad that's over with. Now the fun part begins."

The energy released from Armstrong traveled through the entire station knocking out the main power to the station. At the operations center, Brand and the rest of the crew were scrambling to determine what was happening. By this point, the backup power had kicked in and they had control over a few systems. Brand was completely irate; she was pacing back and forth.

'Anyone knows what the hell just happened?"

"Some kind of pulse hit us and knocked out our power, Ma'am."

"That part I know, ensign. I meant the part of 'How'. This station is shielded against outside energy pulses."

"I don't know Ma'am. We are waiting for the system to come back online."

"I want a status report ASAP."

The ensign began operating his console, that recently turned on because of the backup power. He frantically searched for information regarding the condition of the station.

"Main energy reactor, offline. External shielding and sensors, offline. Communications, offline. Life support, online. Internal sensors, online. Orbital elevator, operational. Backup power at sixty-five percent."

"Well, at least we aren't going to suffocate. For this pulse to have done this much damage, it must have come from inside the station. Check the sensors and see if they have anything."

"On it, Ma'am. Sensors are reading a huge thermal spike in the containment chamber; it's too hot to be human."

"Get me visual."

"Can't, Ma'am. Surveillance is offline."

"Wonderful… Send a team in there. We need to know what we are dealing here."

The team Brand sent to investigate was compose of three people. They were equipped with full combat gear, helmets with a holographic sight and energy rifles. The trio swiftly made their way through the dimly lit hallways to the containment chamber. The station had switch to emergency lighting to conserve power.

When the team reached the door to the containment chamber, the posted themselves one on each side and one took point in the middle. The one in the middle signaled for the door to be opened; once the door opened they carefully entered the chamber.

The chamber was fogged up from the CO2 leaks, none of the emergency lights had turned on. The team was forced to use the lights on their rifles, giving them a limited area of vision. As they searched around, something moved in the fog. The team pointed their rifles at the area where they perceived the moment.

Suddenly, The Envoy's tail came from the floor and dragged one member of the team away, his screams quickly muffled. The remaining two began firing into the fog, to no avail. A moment later, the team member stumbled out of the fog and fell on the floor.

The other two quickly moved to check on their fallen comrade. They turned him over revealing a circular puncture wound on his abdomen. They check the injury, but there was no blood; only the viscous black substance with the deep crimson glow.

As they were checking on their teammate; a large, bulking figure stepped out of the fog. It was The Envoy, but his body had changed. His body became larger, spikes protruded from his body, is figure became thicker. The Envoy's head had transformed as well, no longer was it featureless, the jaw area turned into an elongated maw filled with sharp fangs, it resembled a dragon. The eyes were shining crimson orbs, void of pupils. The Envoy was almost eight feet tall; his imposing presence was only made more terrifying by the, now thicker, segmented tail that extended ten feet from his body.

The two remaining team members stood in front of their fallen companion and pointed their guns at The Envoy. As they readied themselves to fire, their companion slowly stood up; his hands had turned into claws covered by the black substance. He began moving in a spastic manner, this made his helmet fall. The noise from the helmet falling alerted the rest of the team who turned only to see the grim visage of their teammate's face.

It turned featureless, covered in the black substance. Then, without any warning, he opened his mouth; revealing crimson fangs, and he attack one of his teammates. The attack stunned the remaining team member and he was impaled by The Envoy's tail.

Meanwhile at the operations center, Brand and the rest of the control staff were trying to figure out what happened? They lost contact with the team in the containment chamber.

"What was that thing?"

"We don't know Ma'am."

"Check the recorded footage from the containment chamber before the pulse."

"On it, Ma'am. That's strange."

"What's strange?"

"The cameras were turned off for system maintenance ten minutes before the pulse happened."

"On who's authority?"

"By the looks of it… it was a manual override. Somebody used high priority access codes to put the containment chamber in maintenance mode…"

"Beaulieu. Where's that son of a bitch now?"

"Unknown, Ma'am… wait, system reports show that an emergency pod was launched using the same access codes. That was five minutes after the pulse hit."

"Damn it! He was a traitor and now whatever he left us is running rampant on the station; and all the power hitters are down there fighting each other…"

"Ma'am we have more thermal spikes."

"Let me guess, three more plus the first one that makes four."

"Negative, Lieutenant Commander. Eight thermal spikes across the station."

"Great… It's spreading. Alright, we got in station communications working, sound a station wide alert. We need to keep the situation contained."

"Ma'am, now we have thirteen spikes. They seem to be moving towards the…"

Before the crew member could finish speaking a hound-like creature dropped from the vents onto one of the consoles. The creature was black, with a crimson hue, with no eyes and its fangs looked like part of his skin.

The creature emitted an enormous amount of heat; it felt like a burning fire. It made a high-pitch screech and it lounged towards one of the technicians. But before it could reach, Brand stopped it by blasting it in the head with an energy rifle. Then she put the rifle down and nonchalantly continued talking.

"They seem to be moving towards where?"

"To-towards the center or the station, Ma'am"

"The orbital elevator! If those things get down there things are gonna get ugly. Lock the doors to the platform."

"We can't Ma'am, the controls aren't responding. The security controls for the platform have been overridden."

"That bastard! Then I'll have to go there and use the manual locks."

Then Brand grabbed a gun and made her way to the center of the station. When she got to the outside of the platform she quickly darted inside; but she was attack by another creature, this one was humanoid. The creature sliced through Band's gun and jumped on top of her. Brand was struggling to keep the creature from biting her.

Brand was forced to use her powers; she charged a flame-like energy into her hands and used it to slice through the creature on top of her. The creature was divided in two pieces that fell limp on the ground next to Brand.

Brand continued running to the platform, but she was too late to stop the creatures led by The Envoy. They used the elevator to go down to Earth. As The Envoy prepared to depart, he opened his mouth and a blast of black energy came barreling out towards the ceiling. The blast made the ceiling collapse, damaging the elevator's platform preventing anybody else from pursuing them to Earth.

As the pieces of debris from the ceiling fell, Brand used her physical ability to keep herself from being crushed. After rolling away from danger, she accessed the situation. Things did not look good and without the communications system the people at the Triskelion could not be warned of what was headed their way.