Avenging Justice:
Two Worlds Collide
Part IX
Earth, California, Coast City
Hal Jordan admired the latest prototype jet being made by Ferris Aircraft Company. It was a new type of scramjet hybrid. Carol had told them their engineers had been trying to make a craft that could take off from Earth, travel out of the atmosphere, and then return back to ground. She had gone on about the contract, and how it would put them on the map. Apparently her engineers were really excited about the project too. Hal just wanted to see how it flew, he loved flying.
After Tony Stark came out as Iron Man, it was like the floodgates of imagination had been opened. In his display of using the ARC reactor to power his mechanical suit, what once was science fiction became science fact. Engineers had rethought all their assumptions, and went to work to replicate his genius. In the case of Ferris Aircraft, they came up with new radical ideas on propulsion.
"Do you like it?" Carol asked, knowing he loved anything with wings, and could break the sound barrier.
Hal smiled, "She's got good bones. Can't wait to see what she can do."
"You treat her right, Mr. Jordan!" Carol's mock outrage only made him laugh. "I'm just glad we got the government funding for her."
"I hadn't heard about that," he said, his interest only vaguely more than his imagination of putting the bird through her paces.
Carol elbowed him gently, "It doesn't take a detective. We were expecting to shoulder much of the development, but then men in black suits come. Next thing I know, we've got funding from half a dozen different companies I've never heard of. It's all shadowy, as if the CIA is bankrolling it. Wouldn't put it past it for SHIELD to be involved."
"I thought they were a myth, like the Men In Black," he shot back.
"Come on Hal, you love Will Smith!" he had left himself wide open for that one.
"I can never win, can I?" he asked.
Carol hugged him, "Only against the bad guys. So, what are your plans today?"
"I need to check up on that guy from yesterday," Hal said. "After that figure I'll jet around the moon, keep an eye out for space threats and then come back for a dinner with my lovely boss."
"Charmer! Go on, get out of here flyboy," Carol told him. "However, do not be late!"
Minutes later Hal Jordan, Green Lantern of Earth was flying over Arizona. He and his partner John Stewart switched between staying on Earth and patrolling the rest of their sector. At one time Green Lanterns had patrolled their sectors alone, but then came Sinestro and his rebellion. Other threats arose, so the Guardians had changed the rule. Now each sector had two, and former marine, now full-time architect, John Stewart had been chosen.
With them both being prior military, they got on better than expected. Not that John didn't tease Hal about the cushiness of the Air Force over the Marines. Their personalities were also slightly different, but worked well together. Hal liked to joke, was a little cocky, and pushed the envelope on his abilities. John was quiet, reserved, liked the think things out, and hit like a ton of bricks. There was one thing that they both shared, fearlessness.
Before Hal, a plume of fire rose into the air preceded by a loud explosion. A flash of light and he saw another plume. Green Lantern rushed down to see what was causing the ruckus. He was over the town where he had dropped the strange long haired man off at, and the last place he would have expected to see any fighting being done.
A beam of energy came at him, and Green Lantern managed to make a shield. The energy beam hit the shield, throwing it and Hal backwards. Catching himself, Green Lantern created a construct javelin. He threw it as the energy beam came back at him, aiming at the beam's origin. The next beam attack jerked, letting him know his attack had been successful. So, Hal went in for the kill.
He got close enough to see the attacker was a near nine-foot-tall robot looking thing. It moved with purpose and determination, with the speed of a tank. The beams also were coming from its face, as Green Lantern found out the hard way. A blast knocked him from the air and rolling across the hard asphalt of the road. Thanks to the quick ball construct he had made, Green Lantern was no worse for wear. Not that he was happy about being knocked out of the sky.
Beside him a building exploded, sending bits of brick, and pieces of surroundings flying into the air. Gravity being a thing, those same debris fell back, and towards fleeing people. He knew what he had to do. Hal created a construct in the form of a giant umbrella. Catching the debris, he dumped them harmlessly away from the fleeing citizens. He did this two more times as he raced towards the metal attacker.
Again the attacker blasted at him with its energy weapon. This time he dodged it by launching into the air. However, before he could attack, Green Lantern had to dodge again. This time it wasn't from an energy attack, but a flying hammer. He wasn't sure where that had come from, but he had other things to worry about.
The metal attacker had retargeted him, and all around him it darkened. Confused Hal realized that storm clouds started to swirl about. Lightning flashed between the clouds and in the center was a man in a red cape. He wasn't aware of Superman being able to do that, was it a new trick he had learned?
This wasn't Superman though, as the figure in the red cape was swinging a hammer. Hal recognized it as the hammer that had almost hit him. The man, as he got closer, he recognized too. It was the strange man from yesterday. Unlike yesterday though, his ring was telling him that this was an Asgardian, the heir to the throne. People on Earth knew him as the legendary God of Thunder, Thor Odinson.
"Is this a bad time to have a chat?" Green Lantern yelled out to Thor.
"Hold! I will deal with the Destroyer, and then with my brother!" Thor said as he took the gathered lightning and channeled it.
The Destroyer, a powerful Asgardian weapon was no match for the might and power of Thor. Pouring pure electrical energy into it, and with a mighty swing of his hammer, Thor destroyed it. Once used against the Asgard's enemies, it had been sent to destroy him, Sif and the Warriors Three.
Loki had feared what they would tell him, the truth. Odin was in the Odinsleep, with Loki all but taking over Asgard. His banishment wasn't permanent, but only till he was worthy of returning. His brother had lied to him, sent this weapon to kill him, and Loki would answer for that, guaranteed!
"Lantern, I must leave. Thank you for your aid today," Thor said as he landed. "You have a friend in Asgard."
Green Lantern quipped, "I know I'm late to the party, but what is going on?"
"My brother seeks to rule," Thor explained. "Apparently that means he wants me dead. I will return to Asgard and sort this out. I have something I need to do before I leave, take care, Lantern."
"Well at least my life isn't boring," Hal said.
Below them, two tiny heroes were about. Searching the rubble, they found those buried or hurt and attracted the attention of first responders. Wasp resized to her normal size, lifting a piece of wall off a man's leg. Ant-Man used his helmet to control nearby ants, and brought them under a fallen wall. Taking enlarging clips, he used them to make the ants to the size of a large dog. They made short work of clearing the wall, and the next two that had survivors under them.
As agents of SHIELD started to appear, Ant-Man reduced the ants and disappeared with Wasp. They had saved everyone that was in immediate danger, but little did they know, they had missed one. It wasn't till a SHIELD agent pointed to tons of rubble, that they realized what had happened. A lone child had been buried in the rubble of an apartment complex.
Janet went towards the rubble, shrunk down and went inside. Sure enough, there was a ten-year-old girl. She had covered up her little three-year-old brother, the boy was screaming his lungs out. The girl was crying, but silently. They both needed to get out, but Janet knew she couldn't lift all that weight. Could Hank's ants be able to clear it out in time? She couldn't leave them here alone to die.
Light broke through the massive debris, bright, illuminating sunlight. Like they were nothing, the huge debris were lifted over the head of a hero. On his chest was an "S" inside a shield. His red cape seemed to wave in the breeze, and he dumped the massive piece just as easily. It took Janet a moment to realize green hands were holding up the other parts, threatening to fall in. Mostly because when one saw Superman in action, he tended to leave you speechless.
Gently this man with the power beyond mere mortals, scooped up both children and lifted them out. He reassured them, speaking with a voice that was kind and comforting. Gingerly, he set the children down, allowing the first responders tend to them. The whole time the children and everyone's attention as on him. Well almost everyone.
Ant-Man and Wasp made their exit, resizing far away from the epicenter. Right in front of Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. Hank noticed just a fraction too late, and wasn't able to shrink down again. Black Widow had her electrical Widow's Bite to his neck, and probably could shock him before he could shrink. Wasp held her hands up, she wanted to deescalate things. She didn't want to be on the wrong side of Captain America.
"Relax, you won't be hurt," Steve said. "What do you know about what just happened?"
"Tell the assassin to get her weapon away from my neck!" Hank Pym demanded.
Janet knew she better get to talking, otherwise Hank was bound to get them into a fight. That was something that she wanted to avoid, not because she didn't like a good fight. She just liked fighting to have a reason, other than who had the bigger ego. What they did to keep his research out of the wrong hands, or to stop people from abusing their power.
"Let's all calm down," she said. "We just happened to be here when the robot and the flying man got into a tussle. I'm Wasp, and he's Ant-Man."
Behind Captain America, the man with the bow snickered. That wasn't going to help with Hank's temper. He hated being made fun of, especially by those who didn't understand the science behind his gear. The ability to shrink and enlarge things was supposed to lead to a new age for humanity, but quickly Hank had learned people would abuse it. He had grand ideas of removing humanity's tremendous need for energy and space, but everyone had just seen a way to take others out.
"Pleased to meet you both," Captain America held his hand out to Wasp. "If he promises not to run off, Black Widow will back off."
"You can understand why he might find that hard to believe," Wasp explained.
He nodded, "Absolutely, Black Widow, please let him go. We came looking for members of a new initiative, the Avenger Initiative."
Hank feeling Black Widow retreat, reached for his sizing mechanism, "We are leaving now, don't' follow us!"
Wasp sighed as he disappeared. Before she did the same, Captain America held out a card for her. She took it, looking over the information. It was a cell phone number, as well as an e-mail address. She looked back up, and he appeared sheepish.
"If you two change your mind, I can be reached at either," he explained. "There are threats out there, and together we'll be able to better handle them, than apart."
Janet smiled, "We'll think about it!"
She too shrunk down and flew off, rendezvousing with Hank back at their hideout. He would come around. The trick was to make him feel comfortable, and not worrying about his research being stolen. Either way, she could see the upside of taking Captain America up on his offer. Plus, she liked the idea of being on a team, of working together to fix things that went wrong. She just had to convince Hank now, good thing she didn't mind a challenge.
"Steve, we lost track of Green Lantern," Black Widow said.
He looked up from the horizon, "We still have Coast City. We'll head there. Chances are we can find him there, just got lucky he was here today."
"You're the boss," she said and walked back to where Agent Coulson was finishing up with the local authorities.
Back in Coast City, Carol was in her office at Ferris Aircraft. Most of her paperwork was taken care of by her assistants. She was grateful for that, she hated paperwork. She was great at getting funding, explaining concepts to investors and dealing with important visitors. The paperwork that went with it, akin to a root canal. She also loved flying, but she hadn't been able to do that in forever.
As she thought about how flying made her feel, free as a bird on wings lifted on currents of the air, violet light emerged. She felt horrible that she was jealous of Hal, being able to test out their new aircraft. She knew he was a great pilot, but he got to do what he loved, while she didn't. Her job was important, she knew that. She was proud that her father had felt confident enough in her to put her in charge. Carol just missed, terribly, being up in the sky with nothing but her skills and the plane.
Of all the things in her life, her two loves were Hal Jordan and flying. One she had been able to keep, though the legal department had several hissy fits about that. The other she had sacrificed for the good of the company. Every so often, Hal would take her up, had her take the controls too. It just wasn't the same, and she was able to do it so infrequently. At least Hal tried, even if not always successful, to make her feel better about it.
The violet light pulsed, gaining strength till Carol noticed it. Looking over, she saw the source was a ring with a violet star symbol etched on it. Floating before her, the glowing violet light enveloped her. She felt warmth fill every pore and bit of her being, similar to the first stirrings of passionate love.
A voice, warm and full of love spoke out to her, "Carol Ferris of Earth, You have great love in your heart. Welcome to the Star Sapphires."