Disclaimer: I make no claims of ownership over these characters; and this story is intended simply as entertainment and a tribute. Please do not sue.
Issue Two
Valeria Richards fumed in impotent silence. These Skrulls had clearly done their homework before striking. They clearly knew of her affinity for technology and engineering; unlike all the others, her hands were bound. Some kind of super-strong polymer. It had resisted her every effort to pry away, cut, or abrade, and the force field didn't even affect it noticeably when she'd pressed into it. Which was a pity, because even in the sparely furnished cell she could identify at least half a dozen potential improvised tools; all of them useless to her without the ability to use her hands.
The oversight where Katie Power's dampener was concerned seemed odd, but other than that they had made no mistakes she could think of.
Well. Besides the obvious. Her parents would not rest until they managed to pick up these Skrull's trail, however skilled at infiltration and exfiltration their agent - almost certainly a specialized Super Skrull - might be. Her father was the greatest genius in the universe; he'd find a way.
She hoped.
Because from what little contact she'd had with her captors thus far, they did notseem to be suicidal. And surely, if they'd left any trail behind, this entire exercise was nothing but an elaborate method of suicide. And, well, they'd manged to sneak through the defenses and alarms of the Future Foundation to abscond with herself and her feckless but powerful brother undetected. Clearly, they had some skill to back up their bluster.
She stopped herself from sniffling. She was a strong girl, her father's daughter, and she would not cry. Her father would find them. Her shoulders shook in suppressed sobs, but she did not cry.
OoO
SHIELD had done its best to keep word of the mass kidnapping getting out, but perhaps inevitably, the news had spread across the unofficial information networks of the super-set. Captain Britian had called them, informing them that he and MI13 were throwing their own investigative might into the search, as well as offering to help co-ordinate them with the more conventional investigative agencies in Europe. Stephen Strange had vowed to do his best to scry the missing children, taking blood samples from the Powers, as well as Sue, to try for their missing kin directly. They'd gotten a call an hour ago from Utopia; the White Queen would be doing a full telepathic sweep for the missing children, probing to the fullest limits of Cerebra's range. Summers himself had delivered a Shi'ar database; in the hope that some of its information might help them find some sign of this mystery kidnapper.
He hadn't been able to stay, which was probably for the best, as shortly thereafter, Wolverine had pulled up on a motorcycle, offering his services as a tracker, another, slightly less up-to-date, Shi'ar database, and Henry McCoy. The mutant genius threw his efforts into aiding their searchers as Logan joined the teams himself, pausing first to offer words of comfort to the Power boys.
The tension was getting to everyone. Latveria was still a cauldron simmering away. No statement had been made, and the Latverians were barely even acknowledging the attention focused on them. The very lack of Doom's normal bombast was perhaps more unnerving than its presence would be.
The mood in the situation room was grim. As the first few reports came in - all negative - the fear, anger, and unease that permeated the crowd began to fester. Tempers frayed as the negative reports continued, or were re-confirmed by the follow-ups.
0oO
Logan was being as respectful as possible in the Power family home. He'd never forgotten that first thanksgiving that Katie had invited him to. Once the whole family was in the know, those invitations became an annual event, one he'd appreciated. Memories of them had gotten him through some dark days. He was trying to repay those good memories now, going over the apartment as a whole, and Katie's room in particular, with a fine-toothed comb.
And he was finding nothing.
The scents of the Powers were there. A faint touch of electrical smoke; residue either of Alex or James tinkering, or Jack using his energy powers. Oil paints, acrylics, thinners for the same. Food smells, carpet cleaner, the normal scents of a lived-in home. Nothing out of place. Nothing that might indicate who or what had done this.
The look on Margaret Power's face when he'd had to sadly tell her he'd struck out was going to be with him for quite some time, he knew.
As he loaded up with the SHIELD agents heading for the next location - one of the police-reported kidnappings - he resolved that whatever it took, he'd find the perps and make them pay.
Oo0
Molly Hayes was tugging at the collar again.
This was just... wearying. She was tired, bored, and hungry. Oh, she'd gotten to know some of her cellmates - swapping stories with Katie Power and Franklin Richards, who kept getting glared at by the weird Asian girl who had snarked at Klara earlier. Shehadn't said much since then, and spent most of her time doing what looked like martial arts warmups in her cell; while making the occasional acid comment on something Franklin or Katie said. She still hadn't given the rest of them her name.
Understandably, most of the others were really mad about the Skrulls, and a number of her fellow prisoners had declared the entire race to be horrible horrible creatures who were all totally evil, between this and their invasion a while back, and that all Skrulls ought to die. Franklin and Katie had objected, saying there were somegood Skrulls, talking about a lady Skrull named Lyja. They were shouted down by the others. Molly and Klara came to their aid, speaking of Xavin. They were shouted down, too (winning them a smug and cruel smirk from the Asian girl) but from what Molly could see, Katie had at least appreciated the attempt.
Katie had spent most of the day so far in her superhero costume; either staying ready for action or else trying to keep her PJs clean. Or perhaps just to keep from getting bored. Despite being the same sort of form-fitting thing her big sister wore (except Katie's didn't have the belly cut out of it) it seemed to have really deeppockets, from which Katie had produced a music player, a GameBoy, and some candy bars. She'd then glanced at herself and Klara, then put the candy bars back with a sort of apologetic look on her face. Personally, Molly wouldn't have begrudged her the snack, though the fact that she cared enough not to indulge while the rest of them went hungry was kind of noble of her.
There was a commotion down the corridor. Molly tried to look. Whatever it was, it was out of her line of sight for the moment, but it was slowly and steadily coming closer. Katie hadn't heard, it seemed, so she started waving frantically, trying to get her attention. It worked, and the other superhero stashed her goodies and changed clothes, craned her own neck to try and get a view of the commotion.
By leaning as close to the force field as she could without getting zapped, Molly could see the source of the activity: five Skrulls, all of them the lumpy, hulking masculine type. Four of them held guns, the fifth pushed a cart of food. It seemed they were taking no chances with their prisoners, holding guns on prisoners as they dropped force fields to hand in food. Oddly, for one cell they actually went inside, and lingered for a while. The two armed ones who stayed outside looked particularly nervous as they held guns level at the unseen occupant.
Two cells over, Franklin hissed, "What are they doing to my little sister?"
The nearer guard seemed to hear, turned his head right around and smirked. "Making sure she doesn't get her hands on any tools. Would you rather we didn't feed her at all?"
She heard the boy's teeth grind, but he didn't say anything more. The whole of the cell block seemed to come to the same conclusion, and they limited themselves to surly glares as the aliens delivered their 'hospitality.'
Oo0
The Avengers Mansion had an impressive workout facility. Mostly, it reminded Jack of the X-Men's Danger Room. Though the Avengers didn't have quite as much a tradition of everyone wrecking the thing at least once. Or the gym trying to kill them all, for that matter.
Dad was doing the Mad Science thing with Beast and Iron Man. Alex, science guru that he was, was assisting. Jack hadn't been accomplishing a damned thing. He didn't know science, he didn't know detective work. Art he could do, and he was a decent problem-solver in general situations, but this was beyond his scope. Rather than lose it amid all the people trying to solve the problem, he'd come down here to blow off some of his anger more or less safely. It wasn't helping as much as he'd hoped.
My little sister is in danger, possibly deadly danger, and I can do nothing.One of the remotes fired an energy blast at him. He caught the blast one-handed, absorbed it, and powerballed the remote for its efforts. He fried two more the same way, then one popped up firing beanbag rounds instead of energy. He dodged around the first few volleys, then got in close enough to lay a hand on the thing. Power crackled around his hands as he disintegrated it. The exercise continued, finally ended. Halfway charged and glowing faintly, he stalked out of the gym, feeling no better.
He'd gotten the glow more or less tamped out by the time he made it back to the situation room - not discharged so much as subsumed for the moment. Alex looked up as he entered, broke away from the central group. "Any luck, bro?"
Alex grimaced. "Mixed. Dad, Mr. Stark, and Dr. McCoy have a prototype of a new detector made, and Dr. McCoy is about to go test it out at Franklin's place. So we might have something there. On the minus, Logan couldn't find anything at our place, or the next one he checked. And the White Queen couldn't get a trace with Cerebra."
"Does that thing even have more range than Friday's sensors?"
Alex shrugged. "Either way, it scans in ways Friday can't." A sigh. "We're still trying, Jack. They're not out of ideas yet, and something might still break in our favor."
0oO
"What do you mean, you can't fully nullify the brat's powers?"
The Skrull technician dared not glare at his superior; a Super Skrull in the classic mode named F'klr; but he shot the larger being a look. "The Power girl is not a mutant, but rather imbued with superpowers by a Kymelian-"
"I know that. It was part of the briefing for this operation."
The tech resisted the urge to sigh. "Yes. It was. May I continue?" At a fractional nod, he did. "We have no first-hand data about Kymelian superpowers, simply some second hand data purchased from the Zn'rx."
"The Kymelians are a fallen people, and even at their height they never impinged on our territory." F'klr's tone had become less angry, more calculating. "Was the data they sold us wrong?"
The tech grimaced. "It was certainly... incomplete. If that was from malice or from simple ignorance - the Zn'rx are not noted for their complex science - I cannot say. Much of it seems derived from the mystics of the Wizard's World." A moment, and he gave a shrug. "I can't nullify Kymelian powers in general with the information I have, but I canlock down this density shifting by adapting some of the software. The rest can follow once we've studied these powers. Certainly, by the time we'll be ready to consider incorporating them into a potential Super Skrull, we'll be able to nullify them."
F'klr scowled. "And if the child can make use of a Kymelian Power Transfer herself?"
"So far as the data I have indicates, that particular ability requires direct physical contact. If we keep her away from the other prisoners, she should be unable to transfer to them."
"Didn't you just finish telling me that the data we have is incomplete?"
At this, the tech winced. "Well, yes... but sir... this facility's environmental systems are starship-grade. We've already seen that those density powers are not enough, themselves, to get out of a sealed chamber, and there are enough unstable molecules in the nullifier that they cannot simple remove themselves from it by reducing density."
K'klr grunted, conceding the point. "Well enough. How soon can you modify the nullifier?"
OoO
"I see. Well, it was worth trying. Thank you for trying, Doctor."
Luke Cage glanced up from the reports he'd been slowly reading. "That Doc Strange?"
Stark nodded. "No good news, unfortunately. They're either too far away, or warded."
Luke's eyes closed for a long moment, and he slowly exhaled. "Well. The man tried. I can't ask for more than that." Quietly, he added, "God, I feel so helpless."
Tony's hand gently landed on his shoulder. "I know. I don't like it much more. Nobodyshould be this good at hiding their presence from us. My tech, Reed's tech, SHIELD tech, stuff Hank brought with him, now the good Doctor..." He trailed off, for a moment consumed with his own bleak thoughts, then forced steel into his voice. "But we're not going to let them get away with it."
Cage nodded shortly.
OoO
Lunch sat poorly in Katie's stomach. The Skrulls had started dragging kids off, by twos, a while ago. The kids had all been... quiet when they got back, like they were even more scared than they had been. That worried her.
They'd brought some good news with them, though - one of those taken off had tried to break and run, and had spotted a glimpse of a window before being caught. Wherever they were, it was on a planet, not in space. Hearing that, Katie and Franklin had exchanged a single glance and nod; all they needed to confirm a plan. When her turn came, Katie would go cloudy and escape. If she went as fast and high as she could, surely she'd manage to clear the Skrull jamming. At that point, Friday and the cavalry were just a call away. Not a perfect plan, perhaps, but workable.
She dared not tell anyone about it, either. Someone might blab, in fear for their own safety, and it was also possible that their cells were being monitored. If so, the fact that her powers still worked wasn't a secret, but there wasn't anything she could do about that now. At the time, it had seemed a good idea.
The sound of boots came down the corridor again. Shortly, a pair of Skrulls stood at the entrance of her cell, guns trained on her as a third de-activated the force field. She followed the rifle's gesture into the corridor herself. Beside her, they opened up the next cell. She took her first look at the caustic-voiced Asian who'd been taunting everyone in earshot all day. Slim, athletic, wearing what looked like a martial artist's gi,with black hair pulled into a rough pony-tail and bronze-coloured eyes. Features that looked a mix of Asian and European, actually, suggesting hers was a mixed family. She gave their captors a look of bottomless disdain, perhaps believing in equal opportunity derision.
The guards marched them to the cell block's exit in silence. Katie noted the cell that Valeria was in, tried to give her a reassuring smile. The young genius' face remained impassive, as it always did, but she thought she saw at least some of the bleak weariness leave her. Further along, she saw two cells set up more like nurseries, each with a half-dozen or so cradles in it. She spared a brief glare for her Skrull escorts. And a moment of sympathy for the parents of those poor infants.
The Asian girl kept her face forward, appearing to ignore everything around them as she walked along. She seemed to be trying for aloof dignity. Katie was rubbernecking, planning both her escape and the inevitable breakout later. She didn't care if she looked dignified. She just wanted to pull it off and get everyone home.
Finally, after what felt like half a mile of random hallways, she spotted freedom: an open window, showing the way into what looked like a misty jungle. Katie took a breath. "Costume on!" Even as the unstable molecules swirled around her, she dissolved into mist, relishing the shouts of surprise from her Skrull handlers. An energy bolt flashed through her form, doing nothing but scorch the ceiling.
The Asian girl shot into motion herself, hands a blur as she tried to drop the Skrull closest to her, and the alien stumbled with a curse as one leg collapsed nervelessly. Katie threw a bubble field between her retreating back - confusion to the enemy - then raced for the window.
And promptly slammed into a force field, causing her to puff out in all directions.
Before she could get herself re-oriented, a Skrull voice shouted, "Power! You cannot escape us!"
Katie pulled herself back together - still cloudy, but a humanoid cloud - and looked to the source of the voice. A Skrull - no, make that a Super Skrull, he had the Thing's rocky hide, and one arm stretched out almost ten feet - held the Asian girl by the neck, lifted off the ground. She was trying to pry the rocky fingers away, mouthing what were probably curses at him, unable to talk with her throat held closed.
Katie found her voice. "Let her go. Let all of us go."
The Super Skrull smirked. "That, sadly for you, is not an option. You will all be our guests for the duration, as your people say." His expression turned serious. "There is no escaping us, girl. You are our prisoners, and you have a very great destiny. You, and your powers, are going to make the next generation of Super Skrulls. They will be our revenge upon your people." The eyes went abruptly hard. "There will be no heroic rescue coming. Co-operate, and you will live. Do not, and you will die."
"You sound awfully sure of yourselves. Do you seriously think a super hero loose in your base couldn't find a way to bring a rescue along?"
The Super Skrull looked thoughtful for a moment. "Perhaps you could." A pause, Katie smirked at his indecision. Then he continued in a chillingly matter-of-fact tone, "Well then, little super hero. Co-operate, or I will kill this girl." He lifted the Asian girl higher, and Katie felt her smirk vanish.
The girl's struggles redoubled; she managed to get her airway clear for a moment. "You would not dare- Do you have any idea who my father is?"
The Super Skrull's hand shifted, its grip choking off any further words and covering her face up to her eyes, fully cutting off her airway now. "I neither know nor care. Whoever he is, he cannot have any effect on our operation, because he has no way to find us until we are ready to strike." He looked up. "What will it be, little hero? Will you co-operate with us, or does she die?"
For a moment, Katie was frozen in horror. But ultimately, there was only one way she could respond. The clouds of her body swirled, solidified. "Let her go." There'll be another chance, I know it. But for now...
The Skrull smiled, dropped the girl. "Very good, little hero." He stepped over the gasping girl, and gestured. Another Skrull grabbed Katie from behind, shoved her roughly against a wall, as another came out of a niche, brandishing tools. They did something to her collar, then dropped her.
"And now that you are properly powerless, we can begin our experiment."
0oO
Jessica Jones couldn't bear to stay in the situation room. Not with the endless litany of 'nothing found' continuing. It was wearing on her nerves, far too much. She needed some space, she needed some air. She was out over the ocean now, trying to clear her head. Listening to the wind. Hoping for good news on her com-link. Trying not to obsess over it. Trying to stay collected.
Because once they knew where to go, they were going to land like a megaton of bricks on the bastards who did it.
A gentle touch on her shoulder brought her back to the situation. Turning, she saw Carol Danvers. "How you holding up?"
"I'm managing. Better when we find them."
"We will, Jessica. We won't stop until we do."
OoO
Julie Power almost deleted the voicemail unheard when she recognized the number. Right about now, she had no desire to make any kind of contact with her family. But something told her she'd regret it if she did.
The voice was instantly recognized; her mother. "Julie, there's been... something... Someone has kidnapped Katie. We don't know who yet; Alex and I are making some calls. Please, call us, or come home, or something. Your father and I are worried about you."
The words hit her like a thunderbolt, and she staggered back into a chair. Katie? Kidnapped? Again? Who? Why?
For a long moment, Julie Power stared at her phone, unthinking, indecisive. Then she took to the skies, rainbow light trailing behind her, and streaked towards a home she'd sworn
she'd never return to.
Oo0
The SHIELD scanner tech was making one last sweep over small room; a bedroom shared by three children in this poor French home. It was one of the last kidnappings called in to fit their M.O., and extra care was called for.
Because they'd found sweet fuck-all so far.
He had to believe that the kidnapper - or kidnappers, given the timeframe he either worked incredibly fast or had accomplices - slipped up somewhere. He had to; because if nothing broke in their favor, they'd never be able to save the kids. And that... That didn't bear thinking about. Forget the idea of anguished super-parents possibly taking out their frustrations on he and his, the sheer injustice of the kids being left captured and in terror was simply not worth thinking about.
Suddenly, his scanner gave a triumphant beep. He did a double take at the display, then whooped in victory.
0oO
"What do you have, Agent?" asked Tony of the man in the comm link.
"Several grains of pollen, Mister Stark. Several grains of pollen of a non-terrestrial origin, exotic enough that the scanner couldn't identify it immediately. We're heading back to the lab to get it identified now, sir."
Stark's expression took on a look of triumph mirrored by the agent. "Very good. This ought to be the break we needed."