ASTONISHING AVENGERS #12

By: Stephen Kelley

"Oh this is going be fun"falcon said sarcastically as Steve charged at them both showing little if not any emotion not even blinking his eyes, "I am afraid Sam that we are going to have to fight if we are to get Capt. America under control" "say what, T'challa please tell me that you're joking when you say that" "I am not" "will you do realize" "that he is a much more superior fighter to you or I possibly yes I'm quite well aware of that which is why rather than combating him fist to fist, try out thinking him"Black Panther suggested going blow for blow with cap.

Hearing the commotion Firestar rushed over and after assessing that cap was the one attacking panther and falcon, she jumped into the fray to help them but even all three of them proved little to almost no match for Steve Rogers so thinking outside the box falcon formed an idea but a risky one.

"I have an idea but I don't know if it'll work" "well it surely would be better than our current situation"Panther said sarcastically barely blocking a right hook by Steve when all of a sudden Sam threw Steve his shield this momentarily took Steve offguard allowing panther to jabbed him in the Adam's apple, unfortunately the gamble had little payoff as Panther barely scratched cap on the neck before getting pounded in the chest with the shield but then as if it had a mind of its own Steve and the shield flew forward with great velocity out the window as Erica started levitating and floated out the window.

"Did she just" "no"panther said cutting falcon off "no she is merely using high-density atmospheric pressures to cause Capt. Rogers to blacked out"vision stated as a minute or two later Erica floated back up with Steve's unconscious form before collapsing, "remind me never to do that again"she weakly said as Angelica helped her up while a now bandaged Tony came into the room "okay how, what, and why" "possibly while you were imprisoned, for the purpose of disbanding the avengers and taking us out potentially one by one, and the possibly dominate those she felt would be most useful"panther said in rapid order as he stared at the unconscious form of Capt. America.

When Steve Rogers finally came too he was in the medical bay of Avengers tower strapped to a gurney, "um why am I strapped to a gurney and why does the back of my head hurt" "for our protection and we had to remove an undesirable parasite living in your spine"Tony jested holding the nanobot in its techno-fluid container so it wouldn't destroy itself, "THAT THING was on my spine"Steve said cringing "oh yeah"Tony said with a Cheshire grin "but don't feel bad I had one too, seems our alien friends are trying to make people from the other dimensions their slaves or at least the ones that they deem useful, however bad par for the Queen I was able to backtrack and pinpoint some very interesting information"Tony said rapidly typing on a computer before flipping it around to show Steve after panther unhooked the straps on the gurney.

"See these data nodes"Tony pointed "these nodes are entire databases on all the worlds that they conquered and even some of the casualties but what's most interesting, is there being pursued by two groups of people one I couldn't get a lock on the information but the other is the time traveling group called the exiles" "the exiles, is in that were spider man's future self came from" "was"Tony corrected "he was only with the group because his secret identity was exposed but due to the changes in his part of the timeline no one ever knows his secret identity" "and you know this how" "I did a lot of reading when I was director of shield, quantum mechanics and string theory boring techie stuff for soldiers like you"Tony jabbed "you'd be surprised what an "old fart" like me knows"Steve equally retorted.

After they had all assembled Steve and Tony formulated the plan on how to get "the band"back together, "this isn't going to be easy"Steve stated dryly "surely though they'll listen to reason especially when it's a good one"Angelica retorted trying to be optimistic "I have no doubt Bill will listen and possibly Melissa but the others I am not so sure about"panther said trying to be equally optimistic but also realistic, "doesn't matter we still have to try"Steve said assertively "then perhaps maybe I can be of assistance"vision said stepping forward his robotic chassis finally fully repaired "I'll come too" "no" vision said putting a hand up to stop Erica "you must stay here and rest more I understand you do not want to feel weak Erica but according to my medical scanners you still are not medically clear nor strong enough to be very mobile, I am sorry"vision said trying to empathize regret to which Erica pouted but nodded her head laying back down as the team left.