Time, Space, Reality... These are among the essences that make up each universe in the Multiverse; a collection of different universes parallel to eachother. Some of these universes are similar to eachother; identical except for a singular divergent point that spins itself off into a different direction. Some have triumphs happen when tragedies were meant and some have tragedies happen when triumphs happen. Universes where even a single change or choice could lead to catastrophic consequences.
I am Uatu the Watcher; it is my eternal duty to watch over these universes never to intervene. I have observed countless stories among the infinite number of universes; one of which that I have already shared with you. A story of how what was supposed to be the happiest day of his life turned the armored Avenger Tony Stark into the very evil that he had fought against before. He had realised the error of his ways and had surrendered. While his reign of terror had ended; it wasn't without consequences. Tony Stark's misuse of the power of the Cosmic Cube caused damage in prisms that hold his Universe and all others in the Multiverse, damaging the barrier within them.
To tell the story that transpired after this one, I would have to first tell you of another Earth in the Multiverse whose prism was destroyed. A much darker world where the 'Superheroes' are manufactured arrogant glory hogs and the true heroes are the victims of their actions. A group known as the Guys...
Outside a Stark Industries building was a van and out came 3 figures as they called to their hacker David Lieberman known as Micro from inside the van that managed to jam the security cameras so they could sneak in through the roof and got inside. They got to a panel and the youngest member of the team Peter 'Petey' Parker (with a baby carrier backpack with a baby boy on the back) used his science skills to connect it to a machine so that they could hack right into it.
"Surprised the Mutie kid hasn't woken up yet." muttered Frank Castle in his shirt with a skull logo on it and his weapons yet. The baby in Petey's carrier was a 'Mutant', a child born from genetic experimentation in wombs to create possible future Superheroes and children. The unflattering nickname for them was 'Muties' used by the group known as the Guys.
"It's bad enough that you are making me bring Scotty here on a field missions but could you lay off the name? It's not his or the other Mutants fault that they were literally born to be pawns for Stark..." Petey whispered back angrily as Castle shook his head as there was the 3rd figure in crudely built together body armor painted black looking out for guards.
Petey saw on the wall was a movie poster for Spider-Man: Homeworlds with the man figure being someone in a mostly blue full body suit with a red area on the chest and a large blue spider logo along with a red full face mask with white lenses and black lining around it. Petey glared at it as he got a pen and started drawing a moustache and a goatee on it. Castle grabbed it from him and then drew a speech bubble and wrote 'My gadgets compensate for something'.
They both giggled quietly as Micro said to them "I shut down the defences to the power source and it seems that the intel that Petey's girlfriend provided was correct, it seemed to have come from outer space."
Petey smirked to Castle who shook his head saying "come on! Are we supposed to believe your super girlfriend when she said that Stark found a power source coming from space? Like that it's supposed to be an alien artefact; we all know the aliens and gods are only manufactured cover stories..."
"Not too surprising if you can humour my story about what I saw with my platoon, when we were fighting against the odds with the Iron Legion and Thor against us." Said the figure in armor who was former United States Sergeant Phil Coulson nicknamed Sarge who was the leader of the Guys.
"You saw something in space that looked like Iron Man fighting against a bald guy? You have been telling this story for years Sarge and you still expect us to humour it one day?" Castle asked sighing having long gotten tired of the story.
Then there was an alarm going off with Scotty crying on Petey's back as they became alarmed when they heard a voice on the intercom say "You really think Stark would have left this facility without proper protection? Trickshot here to hunt you fugitives down!"
They became concerned and Micro panicked as he began giving the most direct route to the power source and then Sarge activated the power source (crudely made from the power sources of destroyed Iron Legion drones) on his suit which would help enhance his strength and could give out blasts but would short out the power quicker.
"Remember Sarge; the power in your suit won't last long." Petey said as he and Castle were behind Sarge as he was punching guards down to the ground and his suit taking the firepower from their guns.
"It will last long enough Petey." Sarge answered him as they soon got to the lab but soon found the Iron Legion drones there guarding a containment cell with a glowing dark purple stone in the center of it with the scientists having evacuated.
They fired their repulsor blasts as Castle started firing at them and Sarge was throwing blasts at them, Petey relucantly got Scotty out from the carrier and hid in the perfect spot so that he could put up his little sunglasses firing laser beams from his eyes making short work of the Iron Legion drones.
Then they started having to dodge as there were arrows that exploded upon contact coming their way. "Here is the bad guys too boring looking to be marketed known as the Guys, Stark had better give me a raise for eliminating this problem!" said a figure that had a dark purple mask which showed his blonde hair, dark red goggles, a dark purple bodysuit with a white 'H' symbol with no sleeves, dark purple gloves and high tech bow with high tech arrows. He was Clint Barton known as Trickshot, a master archer who acted as a costumed assassin for Tony Stark while posing as a 'superhero' ally for his group known as the Avengers.
He was quick and dodged the shots from Castle's guns and Sarge's blasts and soon his suit was running out of power. A blast was close enough to Petey to send him flying to a wall as Sarge used the last of his suit's power to rip the cell open and pick up the stone. Thinking quickly he pushed the stone into the power source of his suit and was stunned when his suit was exceeding maximum power.
Barton then aimed for Petey when he was hit by a punch form Sarge sending him flying and crashing into the wall and moaned after he landed with a thud. Petey and Castle were stunned as Barton called for backup but Sarge grabbed his bow and ripped it in half and a punch to the face pretty much ripped his head off. Petey looked like he was about to be sick and Castle muttered in awe "Trickshot's kill count is in the hundreds and that stone allowed you to put him down no problem..."
Sarge then went and grabbed them saying to activate the suit's flying function, Micro's voice told them that the suit never had enough power to activate it but Sarge retorted that they do now. They reached the van but then there was a host of Iron Legion drones and a red and yellow armored figure put up his faceplate to show the stern face of Tony Stark the Iron Man before he put it down having his drones to hold their fire while Sarge had Castle and Petey stay behind him..
"So the famous Guys come here to my building and steal my property? I must say that I am glad to finally finish the job Sergeant Coulson that was years overdue!" Stark said to them as Petey looked terrified as he got Scotty ready.
"Thanks for presenting me with my property Mr Parker, sheesh I could see what Flash meant when he talked about how much of a wimp you are!" Tony said as he noticed how scared Petey was.
"Plus if it isn't the war hero who couldn't stop crying about his family!" Tony said facing Castle who was furious at the sight of him.
"There are others like us Stark who lost people thanks to you and your Avengers pretending to be heroes! You only bothered to learn about the victims related to us because we are taking a stand! So many people having lost loved ones or had their lives ruined for the theatrics and staged heroics you have put together Stark but we will end it you asshole!" Sarge said as there was a figure coming forward posing heroically in a dark blue suit with a white star logo along with small red and white lines and a dark blue mask with holes for his eyes, ears and mouth and a white 'A' on his forehead. He had a dark blue triangular shield with red lining, a black circle symbol with a white star on it.
"You really should watch your language!" the man known as Captain America said with a corny smile with a groan from the Guys and Stark, Captain America was known to the public as leader of the Avengers but he was more just a figurehead for Stark who really calls the shots.
Petey had Scotty fire at the Iron Legion as Stark wanted to watch the show as Sarge's armor powered by the stone was taking the punches coming from Captain America and then he punched back angering the 'good' Captain. "You know that growing up I idolised Captain America and I mean the real Captain America! You know what I mean Burnside?" Sarge snarked to the Captain who grew angry.
"I am Captain America, I am Steve Rogers!" Burnside shouted as Sarge dodge his anger blasts and then at great speed punched him hard in the face with Burnside's face bleeding and Stark grew concerned. He sent a blast to the van and Micro managed to jump out quick enough to avoid it as Castle got Petey and Scotty out of the way quick enough to avoid the impact.
"Legally yes you are Steve Rogers but you're William Burnside! You're just a Cap fanboy who was obsessed with Cap and tracked down the formula for the serum! I know about how you wanted to be Cap so bad you had plastic surgery and legally changed your name! The Korean War ended before you could enlist and you piggy backed on his reputation when the Cold War hit! You were out of control and it got you frozen in ice before Stark thawed you out to be his puppet! His dancing monkey!" Sarge told him as Burnside was enraged and went to strike with his shield but a simple punch shattered the shield and a final punch ended the life of Burnside to Stark's stunned face.
Sarge then picked up the remains of the van and threw it at Stark who only barely managed to blast it to pieces before it hit him, Sarge flew up and tackled Stark and a punched shorted out his Arc Reactor. Stark landed on the ground and his faceplate was ripped off by Sarge who savoured the moment as he got ready to punch.
Then the Guys looked up in the air and were stunned to see what looked like a portal and they saw a differently dressed Captain America with a hammer fighting Stark in outer space. "It's... Like what I saw years ago..." Sarge muttered looking up into the sky.
"I take back everything that I have said Sarge..." Sarge muttered as they then found themselves vanishing...
They reappeared and saw themselves in an alleyway and got themselves up, Sarge was stunned as he saw that his armor was without power and they helped Sarge out of the power and got a look at the stone. It looked like it was out of power, "Must have lost power in the trip and so are we in outer space?" Petey asked hesitatingly as they got out and noticed a news screen on a building watching as the Avengers came out of a Quinjet in front of a facility called the Triskellion. There was also...
President Tony Stark surrendering to the Avengers that included a still alive Captain America?
The Guys have found themselves transported to the Earth where our previous story had taken place; unable to figure out that the stone that they had acquire from Stark Industries was their Earth's Power Stone and was without power outside its own universe. Now I take you to the Avengers of their Earth a week later...
Stark Tower the home of the Avengers and in a meeting was a 24 year old blonde haired man in his Spider-Man suit with the mask off, he was Eugene 'Flash' Thompson better known as the youngest Avenger known as Spider-Man. It had been a week since Captain America had been murdered by the group known as the Guys (along with one of Tony Stark's assassins in costumes) and disappeared, Flash never liked the corny asshole anyway but the Guys including his old target Puny Parker had disappeared and he really wanted to be the one to bring in Parker.
"Look you idiot! I made my sad speech in interviews talking about how much I will miss the loser with the shield so I want to get back to discussing my next movies and the profits I get from it and the merchandise!" Flash shouted at the agent who just resigned to the disrespect that Flash gave him.
"Okay... Since the last movie you starred in was your highest grossing one yet and with the success of the spin offs, the studios wants to do more. They are considering one based on Nightwatch and perhaps movies based on your rogues gallery..." The agent said as Flash sighed thinking about how they paired Nightwatch up with him just to prop up some lame vigilante in a suit.
"Hey, as long as I get royalties regardless if I am in the movies or not and I am front and centre in what movies I do appear in, they could make a Stilt-Man or a Spot movie for all care!" Flash interrupted and the agent nodded.
"Now, you will be aware there is big hype after the trailer of Spider-Man: Homeworlds was revealed after its delay, so much that the merchandise was already starting to be released... The marketing department wants to discuss how we could give clues in the spin-offs' trailers as to tease the possibility of you appearing in..." the agent said as the door opened and there was an annoyed man in a suit going through the door, Harold 'Happy' Hogan the head of security for Stark Industries as well as personal chauffeur of Tony Stark.
Plus the unwilling handler of Spider-Man for when Stark was unavailable.
"Pardon gentleman but there is a meeting of the Avengers to be started soon and I have been asked to retrieve Mr Thompson." Happy said as Flash looked annoyed and was shooing him with a hand motion. "Let me clarify that Mr Stark specifically said that you I was to personally escort you there myself. There would be trouble if you are not in the meeting room in ten minutes." Happy said as Flash angrily got up and grabbed his mask to follow Happy out of the room.
"Unlike you, I am not happy with this!" Flash snapped at Flash as he followed Happy as they went up the stairs to the floor with the main meeting room. Their relationship was never anything positive.
"Thompson, I haven't been happy since the day that I met you..." Happy retorted as he opened the door for him.
There was Tony Stark at the head chair with a memorial statue for Captain America behind. Next to him was a large muscular man with long blonde hair, a beard, a silver helmet, a sleeveless Norse armor styled battlesuit with a red cape and a large hammer. He was Donald Blake a Norwegian male nurse who discovered that he had electric powers from early experiments creating Mutants from the days of Howard Stark. He came to Tony Stark and was convinced that he was the reincarnation of the Norse god of thunder Thor and he secretly helped create a battlesuit with a technological hammer made to look how Mjolnir would look in illustrations in mythology book in order to help him harness his powers to their full potential. He became a hero called Thor and was entirely convinced that he was Thor but they put up with the delusional nutcase due to being one of the most powerful of the Superheroes in the world. There were criticisms of his claims of godhood from Christians but he was popular with white supremacists who liked to co-opt Norse mythology.
There was a neurotic man in purple jumper, brown hair and glasses; he was Professor Bruce Banner who was a military scientist caught in a blast when testing an experimental gamma radiation bomb that made him capable of transforming into a hulking cannibalistic brute of a monster that was dubbed the Hulk. Stark helped tame him and managed to get Banner to work for him, his out of control rampages would be blamed on similar looking villains of his.
Then there was a beautiful stunning orange haired woman in a yellow eye mask, a yellow sleeveless leotard with silver stars a rain jacket over it (though it wasn't part of the uniform), yellow gloves and yellow boots. She was the latest actress and model to take the identity of Golden Girl who in the public story was a long lived partner of Captain America who didn't age. In reality Golden Girl was a role taken up by several actresses and models throughout the decades to act as a sex symbol in the Superhero community and the facade was maintained through plastic surgery.
Flash smirked as he walked up behind Golden Girl's chair touching her shoulders and she giggled as he said "you think that we can get it on after this meeting, now that the old fart isn't here to discipline us on having pre-marital 'canoodling'? We could even have it right here on the table in front of his statue..."
"Wow Thompson, it's amazing to me that you keep up this charade of presenting yourself as a hero." said a voice and there was a 22 year old woman glaring at him with a pink wig, a white sleeveless and strapless bodysuit with a dark blue line up at the top, dark blue globes and a dark blue belt with a dark purple jewel decoration on the belt. She was Jessica Jones who acted as the superheroine Jewel ever since she was 15 years old and in a car crash that killed her parents and brother, she survived and doused with chemicals from the truck that the car crashed into that gave her super strength and flight.
"Jones what a surprise, if you want you could join right in..." Flash said smirking but Jessica looked ready to punch him as she always hated whenever she had to team up with him.
"Settle down and Flash, I would please ask you not rile her up as you two will be working together more now." Stark said after an exasperated sighing catching Flash's attention. "I wanted to lead up to the announcement but as much as we mourn our good Captain America, he would want us to move on and so I have invited Jewel here to act as the new 6th member of the Avengers." Stark said before his face became more of a glare.
"Down to business but it has been a week since our 'leader' Captain America and my good friend Trickshot were killed by the group of terrorists known as the Guys, breaking into one of my facilities and stealing a power source that my company was studying. Somehow they had gotten away and all authorities in the world are on the lookout for them. How they even found out about the power source is a mystery." Stark said as Jessica stopped herself from reacting to the last bit.
"Yes Howardson, we shall avenge the loss of the Captain so that he may rest easy and enjoy his eternal reward in Valhalla!" Blake shouted as most looked like they were humouring him.
"If you will allow me Tony, I can go to the house of Puny Parker's aunt and uncle and make them talk! I am sure that he told them something and they want to be foolish idiots in trying to protect the coward!" Flash shouted with Jessica glaring at him, Ben & May Parker refused to give any comments or interviews about their nephew or say anything to authorities (without any proof that they knew anything about his involvement with the Boys). Stark in a PR stunt even arranged for them to have them in protective custody against mobs or those who wanted to harass them.
"Leave the Parkers alone Flash, I have managed to quell the rumours of you having bullied the kid in high school but if it got out that you 'interrogated' the Parkers then that is a PR risk that I can't take." Stark told him as Flash looked aghast.
"At least let me help with tracking them down, it would look god for me as I take over as the new leader of the Avengers..." Flash said as Stark started laughing.
"Thanks Flash, I really needed that. I don't think we need another figurehead leader, I will be making the official announcement that Iron Man will be taking over as head Avenger." Stark said as they continued on with the meeting. Afterwards Flash grabbed Stark by the arm.
"Come on Tony, let me see what the Parkers know! It's bad enough that I read those speeches that are written for me about how I am 'saddened' about what happened to the puny bookworm and pretend to wish his stupid aunt and uncle the best but the speech you gave me about mourning the old fart... You do owe me..." Flash said as Stark managed to get his arm out of Flash's grip as he looked at him sternly.
"I owe you? I owe you? If it wasn't for me taking you under my wing and convincing you to be a superhero, you would have gotten caught out using your fake ID to be on wrestling! Plus I got you home schooled and continuing on with your high school football career, one drug test and they would have seen your enhanced bloods thus having every trophy that you had won taken away from you and all the scholarship and sponsor offers would have vanished with no one wanting to talk to you ever again! You would have probably ended up in Juvie if I didn't convince you to reign in your behaviour in the public and I had spent time getting your old teachers to keep quiet about the fact that you retake a year twice! You are standing her a celebrity with a media empire with your persona on it thanks to my guidance you say that I owe you?" Stark snapped at him before leaving ignoring Flash's calls to wait.
Flash glared at Jessica trying to stop her giggles and then stomped off telling Golden Girl to meet up later, maybe finishing his meeting with his agent will help him calm down. He wonder where Puny Parker was right now...
In the other Earth, the Guys had found a closed down club to stay in and Petey and Micro used junk electronics o get it working along with access to the internet in a computer so they could do research. Right now Micro was attending to Scotty as Petey was looking at an old newspaper that he had found in a dumpster. There was a photo of his counterpart in the Spider-Man suit unmasked cradling his Aunt May during what was called 'H-Day'.
"Been a week but another Earth we are living on? Feels like something out of Star Trek or the Twilight Zone! Seeing someone with my face and name living the life of Spider-Man without my aunt or uncle... The name and identity of my worst enemy..." Petey muttered still in disbelief.
"Yeah the guy that got your old girlfriend killed." Castle said looking over his shoulder, "Plus your counterpart has a super girlfriend like you do but this one with her lifestyle seems like she would fight right in at our Earth." Castle said as Petey remembered how stunned he was when he saw the look of who his counterpart was with.
Sarge was at the TV watching a news report of Phil Coulson speaking to the United Nations as they had voted to allow the reconstruction of the SHIELD agency with him as director. Coulson vowed to help fix the world and everyone's trust in superheroes and in the US.
"Sarge, it looks like your counterpart decided to go into the spy business instead of the military." Micro commented as Sarge with a stern face turned off the TV.
"So what do you guys think, it kind of looks like the Heroes here are more legit and they stopped Tony Stark so that should be a good thing..." Petey asked as Sarge shook his head and Castle glared at Petey.
"Legit? Supposed magicians and aliens, just smokescreen like on our world. Your naivety never ceases to amaze me Petey. Seems that here Tony Stark decided to stop the pretence and made himself the ruler of the world with the Cap and the Avengers here taking him down to safe face." Castle retorted shaking his head.
"Even if they are legit and that's a really big 'if', then that just means that they are careless as well as incompetent. They allowed a terrorist organisation to destroy the country as well as most of the government allowing Tony Stark to become President and that alone makes it worse than our world. They sat back and allowed their Tony Stark to send his super powered attack dogs to bring the entire world under his heel. Now they are expecting everything to revert back to the status quo? No, the Avengers off this Earth are a problem and they must be dealt with!" Sarge replied shaking his head.
"How do we go about doing that Sarge? We are here somehow with less resources than what we started out with! To the world, we don't exist because we are from another Earth! Having Scotty as a weapon will only take us so far." Micro asked.
"Plus I must point out that your suit Sarge lost all its Arc Reactor power and the power source stone still isn't work, the tests that I have done makes it seem like it was never anything other than just a cool looking shiny rock that is otherwise normal." Petey pointed out as Sarge got on his feet.
"No reason to give up after all we have been through and all we have accomplished. Remember we all started out as underdogs against a giant machine that controlled the media as well as super powered freaks that the world loves once they have been dressed up in costumes. We are for normal guys who have all suffered losses with nothing but our special skills and our determination to stand up for the little guy that Stark and his Avengers have stomped on throughout all these years. Despite all the odds we killed Stark's main mascot and we were so close to taking care of Stark once and for all. Sure we lost the tools but given time we can find new tools that will allow us to take care of the Superhero disease that is plaguing this Earth like it did ours. The Avengers here will never have faced anyone as committed to their cause as us!" Sarge said trying to rally up his troops.
"I am in Sarge, those freaks got my nephew killed so I won't let them have the chance to do the same to another poor guy's nephew!" Micro said putting his arm in as Sarge joined in.
"These Avengers like their flashy big battle fights like the one that got my family killed on your Earth so there was no way in hell that I wasn't going to be in." Castle said putting his arm in as well but Petey looked hesitant.
"What do you say Petey, remember think of how Gwen got killed." Sarge told him as Petey remembered:
Petey and Gwen Stacy were holding hands together smiling while down the sidewalk, they held their hands together and smiled at eachother but then Gwen was taken by the collar by Flash dressed as Spider-Man who was out web-slinging after having gotten himself drunk at a bar. Gwen was screaming in the air as Flash dropped her trying to do a stunt by catching her with his web but his web missed and she was killed on impact with the ground from the great height much to Petey's grief and horror.
Petey sighed as he relucantly put his hand in the circle and they lifted them up in the air. "Remember don't be fooled by how this Earth looks better than ours since it's more similar if you really think about it. Spider-Man got Gwen Stacy killed, Tony Stark uses the Avengers as his superpowered attack dogs and he got Pepper killed..." Sarge said and they all knew how that last bit would sting for him. Sarge got out from his jacket pocket his wedding photo that he always keeped with him.
Simpler times with him smiling arm in arm with Pepper Potts-Coulson in her wedding dress.
Now you have seen how the group led by Sergeant Phil Coulson off another Earth have ended up in the one that we have come to know, ready to continue on where they left off. They will be only 1 off many problems that the Avengers will have to face in response to Tony Stark damaging the barriers in the Multiverse in the next year...
I hope that I didn't offend anyone who suffers from delusions as this is Flash just being a jerk.
Flash's Spider-Man suit is the Spider-Man Beyond suit that Ben Reily is currently using (appropriate since the premise of Spider-Man Beyond is that Ben is corporate sponsored), Trickshot uses the purple Ultimate Hawkeye suit and Burnside uses the HYDRA Cap suit. Punisher has inspiration from his self in the self indulgent Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe.
Thor in this verse has a combination of the Ultimate Look with the cape and helmet of normal Thor and his hammer looking like Mjolnir from the God of War games.
Golden Girl (the identity originally belonging to Betsy Ross an old love interest of Cap) is from issue #44 of What If which was What If Captain America Were Revived Today?