ULITMATE AVENGERS
Based on the characters from Marvel Comics.
By
Patrick Moore
ISSUE # 1 of 6
"The Gathering of the Heroes- Pt. 1"
He knew it was a bad mistake when Clint Barton received an invitation to join a band of wannabe heroes calling themselves The Avengers. He heard a new superhero team was forming since the arrival of The Fantastic Four, and the mysterious Spider-Man.
"It's the new millennium, so I might as well join the ride," he said, as he spotted a huge mansion with a giant A on the ground. "This must be the place."
Clint walked to the door and rang the doorbell. The door opened and a butler came out to greet him. The butler's name was Edwin Jarvis.
"When did the Avengers needed a butler?" asked Clint.
"You must be Clint Barton," said Jarvis. "Dr. Pym and Mrs. Van Dyne have been expecting you."
"You mean Janet Van Dyne, the richest woman in the world?" asked Clint. 'When did she start forming a superhero group?"
"When me and my husband started becoming superheroes," said Janet Van Dyne, when she walked up to the front door. "You must be Clint Barton. I heard of you from my files."
"I paid for my crimes, Mrs. Van Dyne," said Clint, "but I don't know why you wanted me anyway. I was in prison for two years for being a thief, and I want to change my life."
"You were the thief the police called Hawkeye, because you dressed like an archer to commit your crimes," said Janet. "If you want to change your ways, Clint, you have to join the Avengers to survive."
"Do you want anything else, Mrs. Van Dyne?" asked Jarvis to Janet.
"That will be all, Jarvis," she said to the butler.
"As you wish," the butler leaves.
Janet turned back to Clint. "If you come with me, I'll take you to my husband's lab."
"Is anyone else joining this group?" asked Clint.
Janet just shrugged and smiled. "Anything can happen when you're an Avenger."
And the two of them went inside the mansion.
# # # # # #
"Welcome to Marvel Burger. Can I take your order?" said Marie to her customer at her job at Marvel Burger.
"I would like the Mega Marvel Burger Combo, and make the drink a diet coke," said the male customer.
Marie put her fingers through her bowl haircut shaped brown-white hair. "Is that all, sir?" she said.
"Yes," said the customer.
"That will be $4. 95."
The customer gave Marie a ten-dollar bill, and she gave him his change.
Just then, a man in a lab coat came into Marvel Burger. His nametag has the name Dr. Bruce Banner in black lettering on a white background. His face looked pale and sweaty as he walked up to Marie.
"Welcome to Marvel Burger. Can I take your order?" Marie said to Dr. Banner.
"I'll have just a Marvel Burger," said Dr. Banner.
"You just want one?" Marie looked at Dr. Banner's face. "It looks like you haven't eaten in days."
"I'm in a hurry, Miss," said Dr. Banner. "I'll just take my burger and leave."
"That will be $1.03, sir."
Bruce took out a five-dollar bill and gave it to Marie. "Keep the change," he said. "Sorry for what I look like, I was working on something in my lab."
"That's all right," said Marie, "You're not the only guy who looks like a mess come into Marvel Burger."
Bruce smirks.
# # # # # #
Hank Pym's lab wasn't like the labs Clint Barton broke into when he was a criminal, but this one was very different. Hank's lab was bigger than the others, but with more technology. Clint never knew that this lab was underground.
"Nice lab, Dr. Pym," said Clint, as he looked around the lab in a weird puzzlement.
"I didn't build this lab all by myself, Mr. Barton," said Hank Pym. "You should thank Tony Stark for his part on the lab."
"The billionaire?" Clint asked.
"Mr. Stark not only helped with Hank's lab, but he was the one who gave us the mansion for our headquarters," said Janet to Clint. "There were rumors that his bodyguard is going to be a member of the Avengers. You may know him as Iron Man."
"Have any of you know who Iron Man is underneath that metal armor anyway?" asked Clint. "I heard that he's just a robot working for Stark. If you ask me, I think Iron Man is nothing but a bucket of bolts."
"If I were you, Mr. Barton, I wouldn't say that in Iron Man's face," said a voice from the entranceway of the lab.
Clint and the Pyms turned around to see Tony Stark himself standing there carrying a suitcase.
"What brings you here, Tony?" said Janet to the billionaire.
"I just came in to see what the Pym family is up to," said Tony. "Stark Enterprises is working finishing up plans for extra Quinjets in case of new members joining up."
"Quinjets?" Clint was puzzled at the saying of that word.
"Superheroes need transportation to get we they want to go, Clint," said Janet. "Besides, we don't know who else will join our merry band of heroes."
"I need time for my people to finish the other project I've been working on," said Stark.
"What other project, Tony?" said Dr. Pym working on one of his inventions on the table.
"Just in case you-know-who make a surprise appearance," Stark answered.
# # # # # #
It was Marie's break time at Marvel Burger when Dr. Banner got his food and left. She sat outside to eat her meal at one of the benches. She spotted two employees at that same bench.
"This stinks," said Connie Peters, as she finished her burger. "I got this stupid job so I can pay for what I did to my dad's car after that little drive in it two weeks ago. What's worse is that he won't let me smoke my cigars in the house."
"When did you take up cigar smoking, Connie?" asked Marie, as she waved her hand at the coming smoke from Connie's cigar with the white tip at the end.
"Mom smoked them when I was ten, until Dad told her to quit the stogies," Connie answered. "Mom and I smoke in the basement when Dad's not in the house or one of his trips."
"Your dad's got a point there, Connie," said Cody Todd. "You and your mom shouldn't be smoking anyway. The cigar boom is over anyway."
"You anti-smokers are trying to kill us are you?" asked Connie, as she puffed on her cigar. "I can smoke my cigars anytime I want."
"We care about your health, Connie," said Marie. "As your friends we're begging you to give up the cigars, before you die young."
Connie took another puff from her cigar and crushed it on her remaining fries. "I know you guys care about me and all, but it's my life here, so leave me alone," she said, as she left to go inside.
Just then, Marie and Cody heard Connie scream as the two ran inside to see what happened. What they saw was shocking to them, no one would believe them. All the people inside the Marvel Burger were dead. Razor blade-like shrapnel pierced their bodies.
"What the hell just happened here?" Connie screamed in fright. "One minute we're taking our break outside, the next minute everybody's dead!"
"Calm down, Connie," said Marie. "We got to call the police or one of them superheroes I've heard about."
"We got to get out of here, before the lunatic who did this comes back for us," said Cody.
It was too late, someone or something came out of the back and spotted the three teenagers. It looked like that cybernetic Batman from the comics, but more dangerous. It lifted what looks like a gun and begins firing at them.
"Duck!" Marie shouted to Connie and Cody to get out of the way of what that thing was firing them with.
"All humans must die in the name of the machine," the cybernetic robot spoke. "The human race must be terminated in the name of Ultron."
"Who's Ultron?" Marie asked it.
The automation turned to Marie and said, "God."
Marie was shocked at what it just said to her. She felt that this Ultron is the machine's version of God himself. 'Why would a robot worship another machine as God?' she thought to herself.
"Death to all humans!" the automation shouted, as he began firing at Marie.
"Marie!" Connie shouted, as she saw the razor-sharp shrapnel pierce Marie's flesh, but Marie wasn't dead. The shrapnel went down onto the floor.
"You are not human," the automation said to Marie. "You should've been dead."
"I'm a mutant, metalhead," said Marie, as she pulled a piece of shrapnel out of her left arm. "Now am going to kick your metal butt back to the junkyard!"
# # # # # #
"Looks like trouble," said Hank Pym, as he heard the alarm.
"What's the problem, Hank?" asked Janet.
"There's a disturbance at a downtown Marvel Burger," Hank said, as he watched on the giant computer in his lab. "Somebody called the police saying that a human sized robot killed everyone inside except him and two female co-workers."
"We better get there and stop this thing, before those three inside gets hurt," said Janet.
"Suit up, people!" Hank said to Janet and Clint. "It's time for the Avengers to make their debut!"
"What can the three of us do against one killer robot?" asked Clint, as Janet gave him his costume. "Our first day, and our first villain is a bucket of bolts."
"Make that four people against one killer robot," said Tony Stark. "Don't forget, we have Iron Man on our side."
"That's what I'm afraid of," said Clint, giving a smirk to his face.
"I'll get Iron Man to meet you at Marvel Burger to help you," said Stark, as he began to leave."
"We need all the help we can get on this one," Hank said to himself.
# # # # # #
"Die, mutant freak!" shouted the automation to Marie, as she continued punching it.
"Don't you ever shut up?" Marie continued hitting the automation like a rock 'em' sock 'em' robot. "You murdered innocent people!"
"All human must die in the name of Ultron," the machine said. "Humans are nothing but worms and vermin that abused our kind for years since the birth of the first electronic computer. Soon my god will cleanse the world of your kind, and replace it with a new world order of machines."
Marie had had enough of what it was saying about the end of the human race and replacing them with robots and thinking machines, so she punched it a few more times knocking it into a wall.
"Thank goodness I called the police while Marie was fighting that metal moron," said Cody to Connie, as they got up from behind some tables. "I didn't know Marie was a mutant."
"I hate those mutants," said Connie, "they're nothing but trouble. You don't know what they're capable of doing. One minute they have the power to control our minds, the next thing you know one of them could be your best friend." She pointed to Marie. "Marie's been keeping this secret a secret so long that she finally reveals her true self right in front of us all this time."
Marie heard what Connie just said about her and her kind. She turned to them for about ten seconds and left to go outside.
Cody gave a frowned look at Connie. "See what your hatred for her kind had done, Connie?" he said. "I'm going to talk to her." Then he left.
Connie stood there looking at the mess Marie and the robot were doing during the fight. She took out another cigar from her purse and lit it. "Connie Peters, you screwed up big time," she said to herself, as she puffed on her cigar. "You better tell Marie you're sorry for what you said to her." So she left to join the others.
"It wasn't Connie's fault, Marie," said Cody to Marie outside. "We didn't know you where a mutant. Why didn't you tell us this?"
"Irene and Raven told me not to use my powers in public," said Marie.
"Who's Irene?" asked Cody.
"Irene Adler is my blind grandmother," answered Marie, "and as for Raven, she's my stepmother. Raven has been with me since after my dad's death."
"What happened to you original mother?"
"She died right after I was born into the world, and I've never even knew her."
Connie walked up to Cody and Marie and said, "I'm sorry for what I said in there about you, Marie. I acted like a total jerk. Will you forgive me, Marie?"
Marie hugged Connie.
"I'll forgive you if you do me a favor," said Marie.
"What's that?" asked Connie.
"Quit smoking those horrid cigars, Connie," said Marie, as she took Connie's cigar out of her mouth and dropped it on the floor.
Cody turned his head when he heard something coming from inside Marvel Burger. What he saw was that of the automaton that Marie just defeated coming out carrying it gun. Cody's jaw dropped when he saw the automaton head towards them.
"Look out!" he shouted to Marie and Connie, as the machine fired it's gun at them.
They dodged the shrapnel as the machine continued firing at them. Marie thought she destroyed that metal disaster inside, but she was wrong.
"In the name of Ultron, humans, the end is coming," said the automaton. "Prepare to be extinct."
As it was about to fire at the three teens, a blast coming from the sky hit it making it fall onto the ground. The three of them looked up to see a red and gold armored machine man land on the ground. The armored being turned to them and looked at them for a moment.
"I'm one of the good guys," it said. "I am Iron Man, and I'm on your side."
Marie walked up to Iron Man, but she can't touch it due to her other mutant power. "Are you a machine?" she asked.
"Sort of," said Iron Man. "I work for Tony Stark, he sent me here what was going on here. What was that thing anyway?"
"That thing killed innocent people inside of Marvel Burger while we were taking our break outside," said Connie.
Iron Man walked up to the now dead automaton. As he looked at it, he saw a blinking red light on it's chest. He saw one of these things before; either it was a call for reinforcements or it's boom time.
"GET OUT NOW!" Iron Man shouted to the three teens. "THIS THING'S A BOMB!"
All three did what Iron Man said and ran as far away from Iron Man and the automaton as they can. Iron Man looked at it more closely to see if he could disconnect it.
"If I don't find the off switch on this thing…" he said, as he continued looking. "If the others don't here in time and help me, the Big Apple will be called the Big Apple Core."
TO BE CONTINUED…
NEXT ISSUE: Can the Avengers get to Iron Man in time, before New York becomes ash? But first they have to confront a certain "Green Machine" named the Hulk. Plus, Marie and Connie make a shocking discovery about Irene Adler. All this in "The Gathering of the Heroes" pt. 2.
AUTHOR'S NOTE- Well, I hope you enjoy the first issue of "Ultimate Avengers." You may know that Marie is really Rogue of the X-Men, but in the Ultimate universe she's going to be one of the Avengers in the near future. You may also notice that Ultron is going to be the Avengers first villain in this mini-series. Look for Connie Peters to play a role in the mini as well. Let me know what you think. E-mail me at
