Disclaimer: I make no claim to these characters and worlds. This story is intended solely for entertainment and to get my muse to shut up about it.

Issue Four

Perhaps predictably, it had taken only seconds for the blame-shifting to begin.

"How did they find this place?" asked Z'aadw.

"Clearly, you fouled up on Earth!" replied F'klr, angrily.

"If you hadn't insisted on that jamming field, they might have missed us, just flown on!"

"The jamming field was a necessity from a security standpoint!"

The argument threatened to turn violent; the scientist intervened. "Sirs, however they got here, they're here now, and they must be dealt with. Assigning blame is academic until we know we'll live long enough for the courts martial."

There were several seconds of charged silence.

F'klr broke it. "This discussion is not over. I'll drive them off."

OoO

Friday had landed as close to the Skrull structure as it dared. The Smartship had kept some terrain between itself and the base, after the first bolt of ground fire. Now, the team was crashing through the forest, making their way to the facility, and preparing for battle. Carol and Jack were airborn - either SHIELD's records on the Pack were incomplete, or none of the Avengers had read them; as that raised a few eyebrows - and the rest of them were tromping through the bush.

Left behind, Friday was on orders to button up and keep hidden. When the Smartship's sensors detected another ship breaking atmosphere - only the heat of its re-entry betrayed it's presence - Friday debated its response for 1.74 seconds, then attempted to transmit to Alex and warn him of potential company, reasoning that breaking radio silence was a lesser risk to the team's success than letting this surprise them.

As for its own safety, the Smartship figured it could just move if needed.

But the jamming, while unable to defeat its sensors, defeated its comms just fine.

0oO

Luke Cage was almost grateful when the first Skrull popped up and opened fire. He'd needed a fight for a few days now. Blaster fire bounced off of him. His fists gave back a great deal more. The first Skrull he reached went flying.

To his left, Jessica and Carol flew overhead. Jessica laid down covering fire as Carol swooped in, ignoring the blasts she took and crashing into the Skrulls among the trees. To his right, Ben Grimm was doing the same on the ground, while Sue held a pack of them at bay with a force field. A force field that was constricting.

There was a rainbow streak as Jack Power shot overhead, dipping down and snagging one of the Skrulls, then blasting upwards with a sonic boom and releasing the alien far overhead. The kid's madder than I thought,Luke thought with a grin. There was a startled yelp just behind him; spinning, he saw a Skrull pinned hard to the ground by some kind of energy field; trying to rise, but looking as if it was fighting to move a mountain.

Alex Power walked up, one hand shrouded by a similar energy field. "I've got this one pinned in a gravity field. Once we deal with the others, I bet he'll have some interesting things to tell us." They exchanged savage grins.

Wolverine was out of sight; which Luke put down to the mutant doing his ninja thing. Once this batch of Skrulls were dealt with, they'd be interrogating the one Alex had, and get themselves a shortcut to the facility.

Then the Super Skrulls arrived.

F'klr watched his fellow Super Skrulls crash into the superhero's ranks and stop their advance, at least for a moment. J'ofr, manifesting the powers of several X-men, grappled with the member of the Fantastic Four named the Thing, steel skinned fingers locking with orange stone ones. L'ran, another Super Skrull in the classic style, trailed flame as she began a deadly dance with Ms Marvel - damnthe Kree and their interference! - as another flyer raced after an unfamiliar flyer trailing rainbow light.

He began trading shots with Jewel; a delightfully evil smirk coming to his features as he tried to incinerate the mother of one of his captives. He was less sanguine about the presence of the Invisible Woman - many prior encounters between her and the Skrulls showed she was not to be toyed with.

But still, a dozen Super Skrulls, backed up by sixty of their lesser brethren. These heroes would not live to escape. They would have to relocate this base, of course, but that was a problem for tomorrow. They'd have to take one of the heros alive - learn how they'd been traced, but that would be ve-

A projectile pierced his side, and his world turned to pure pain.

Oo0

Wolverine had disposed of a handful of regular Skrulls before the Super Skrulls made their entrance, and had deftly avoided that dozen killers for a moment after they arrived. At the moment, he was stalking up behind one of the three Skrulls focusing on containing Susan Richards; his stealth skills being more than up to the task.

He was the best there is at what he does, and what he does isn't very nice.

After a few moments, he closed justclose enough, and burst from the underbrush, claws extended. Normally, he'd go for a heart-shot; but that was always dicey against shapeshifters. One set of claws punched into the Skrull's back, through the spine and into the guts, then ripped upwards as the other set decapitated it, then came around and sliced the head into three sections, which ought to be more or less enough to drop even a Super Skrull.

Then he darted back into the bush, before the other two could notice. Ganking a second one would be trickier, but not impossible.

Overhead, he saw one of the standard-model Super Skrulls take a hit and vanish in a flash of light. Then he heard a massively unexpected voice. "And to think, each of these creatures claim to be the equal of the Fantastic Four."

Victor Von Doom floated on thrust jets, a launch tube on the back of an upraised gauntlet trailing smoke.

OoO

Katie Power concentrated for a long moment, then one hand reached up and gripped her collar. Then that hand glowed gold, and the collar dissolved at her touch. She glanced across the hall, met Molly Hayes' gaze, and the two exchanged smirks. "Costume on," she said calmly as she walked to the open wall of her cell. Then Katie touched the force field.

For a long moment, the field lit up like it had been punched, but continuously rather than the usual brief flash. Then, abruptly, the field vanished, and Katie, now radiating golden light, stepped over the threshold. This time, she didn't touch the field, but the wall beside it. Another golden glow, and the force field holding Molly inside her own cell shorted out with a fat cracking noise.

"That's a neat trick - how're you doing it?" Molly asked.

Katie just grinned back. "It's kind of complicated. My siblings and I can all trade powers. And if we have to, we can take back the power we started with, even at a distance."

"So you went 'yoink?'"

"More or less." A softly glowing hand grabbed Molly's collar, and the metal band fell in pieces.
Molly's breath hitched. Her powers kicking back in was sucha rush. "Awesome. Let's bust everyone out."

So saying, she jammed both hands into the wall between her and Klara, purple fire blazing in her eyes, and tore the alloy like it was paper. Stepping through, she broke open Klara's collar.

"Danke, Molly." She, too, took a sharp breath, and seemed to relax as her powers kicked back in.
Back out in the hall, Katie was systematically disintegrating controls and knocking down force fields.

"Okay, everyone who can fight really well, follow me. We're gonna find the Skrull's ships and stuff, then come back for everyone else; especially the babies and toddlers."

Before anyone could reply, an angry shout in Skrull came from the end of the hall. Molly smashed back out there as Katie whirled towards it. Two Skrulls stood in the cell block's entrance, and they opened fire with blasters. Katie took most of the volley head on, her glow going from 'moderate' to 'near-blinding,' and then she blasted something towards them.

The glowing sphere went off like a small bomb, smashing the Skrulls back. Moments later, some kind of blast doors slammed shut, sealing the hallway.

Katie smirked. "Well, now they know they've got trouble. Who wants to help me give them some more?"

OoO

"What are you doinghere, Victor?" asked Susan Richards in a dangerously flat tone. The Super Skrulls were dead or subdued, and most of the regular ones had broken and run. Logan had ghosted into the jungle after a pack of them, a gruff, "I'll track 'em home," all he offered before vanishing.

"These creatures have wronged me, and for that, they will pay. I dothank you for leading me to them." There was an unusual quality to his tone, almost a wistfulness that none of the others could recall hearing in Victor Von Doom's voice before.

Luke Cage's reply was hard. "Well, I'm glad we could help you get even for whatever their invasion did to you. We're here for personal reasons, not business. If you'll stay out of our way, we'll let you be, but that's it." His eyes narrowed. "I'm here to get my little girl back. I don't much care what you do to them after."

"How unexpectedly generous of you."

Cage took a step towards the dictator. "You know damn well that I'm serious, Doom. Don't test me." A pause. "We both know I ain't scared of you."

There was a moment of silence, and the dictator seemed to be considering the array of heroes facing him. Jessica and Carol were both airborne glowering down at him. Ben Grimm stood ready, arms at his sides, hands in loose fists. Sue stood beside Luke, arms crossed, expression unreadable. The Power boys stood behind them and to the left, looking wary.

The dictator broke the silence. "I have no interest in hindering you. Indeed, I would cheerily work with you. I desire nothing from these creatures but their utter ruin."

Susan's eyebrow raised at the vehemence in Doom's tone at that last - vehemence normally reserved for his addressing her husband. "What's going on, here?"

"That is not your concern. For the moment, it is enough to know that our goals are in alignment."

There was a long silence, then, "We're wasting time. We need to move on them before they can hurt the kids."

0oO

Valeria Richards had elected to stay in the cell block and lead the defense - they'd found a toolbox - and most of the kids had elected to stay with her. Katie, in costume, lead Franklin(also in costume), Molly, Klara, and Cynthia. Katie had disposed of the assorted power damnpeners on Franklin, and he was gathering power as they walked; so long had he been tamped down that it was taking him a moment to get up to speed.

Molly had her powers back, a serious grudge on, and had backup from a girl who could absorb laser fire. She figured he'd have plenty of time.

She was slightly less sanguine about Cynthia, but at the moment, she'd give the snarky girl a little slack. Confident as she was, a little backup couldn't hurt, and Katie seemed to think she'd come in useful. The group made its way down the hall towards the Skrull's science lab. Given the alarms sounding, it was possible that the baddies were already clearing it out to get their 'build a better super skrull' plan to safety, but there was always hope they were slow off the mark. Either way, the kids intended to smash the place, then find their way to the control room or something and get a way out.

A Skrull brandishing a rifle popped around the next corner and fired at them. They'd learned - he didn't aim for Katie, but for Franklin. The kid held his hands out, and the beam sort of bent in front of him, blasting into the wall. Before they could reply, the Skrull jumped back around the corner. Katie put a hand to the wall, glowing gold, then sent a power ball into the chunk of cover the Skrull was behind. The boom hid him from view, but he let out what Molly guessed was a string of four-letter-words in Skrullish as she reached into her pocket. She'd grabbed some bolts out of that tool kit.
The smoke cleared, and she wound up like a pitcher. The Skrull was scrambling for his feet as she threw. The bolt shot down the hall and hit the Skrull's gun, then deflected into his shoulder, wrecking the laser and sending him tumbling again. Before he could get up again, a bubbly shield popped into existence around him, holding him tight.

Katie walked up to the Skrull, and the shield flipped him around to face them. In a voice so sweet it could give one sugar shock, she said, "Hey there. We're trying to find the control room, but it seems we've gotten a little turned around. Do you want to tell me how to find it?" A pause, and she gestured towards the others. "Or do you want to tell them?"

Molly took her cue, slammed one fist into her other palm with a sound like a gunshot and giving the Skrull her most evil grin. Beside her, Cynthia gave the alien a look that put her own to shame, and one hand was wreathed in flames. Molds grew from the floor and walls, spreading around Klara, who stood with arms crossed. Franklin just tried to glower, arms crossed.

The Skrull did what was probably the best thing to do under the circumstances. His eyes rolled back as he passed out. After a moment, Katie sighed, disappointed. "So much for getting a shortcut. Let's go find some scientists and smash the important stuff."

Oo0

The bulk of the soldiers and Super Skrulls had been dispatched to deal with the superheroes who had landed nearby. The remainder were trying to contain an apparent prison break. That left the scientists and techs to pack up all the samples they'd collected, upload the data, and get the hell out. They expected that two dozen Skrulls, most of them veterans, would be able to handle their collection of captives.

So when the main blast doors of the lab smashed inward, there was a noticeable uptick in the level of panic. It was made worse as a cloud of obscuring fog billowed into the room, and the sounds of breaking machinery began.

The floor grates began to bend upward with a metallic moan as various jungle life was suddenly supercharged, vines and roots snaring feet and labcoats. Four of the skrulls hit one of the side doors at the same time, tangling each other up and hitting the floor. As the scrambled to rise, bolts of flame began to fall among them. Another group went down as something threw a table into them.
One Skrull, overcome by panic and curling himself into a ball in a corner, cowered until the shouting and crashing faded. That did not register until he felt something poke him in the back. Whirling, he found himself confronted by five grinning children. "Hi there!" began the male. "How do we get from here to the control room?"

0oO

The last of the base's forces huddled together in the control room. Two Super Skrulls in the classic mold, and a dozen normals, watching their oncoming doom and controlling the bases' handful of defense emplacements to try and stave it off. It wasn't working - the facility's primary defense had been in the fact that it was secret- but they were doing all they could, to try and give the researchers time to pack up the data; that some good might come of this debacle.

They were grimly certain that they weren't actually going to manage to extract themselves - the heroes were close enough that they'd spot the runabouts, and if they saw anyone running for them, they'd surely be able to reach them before the ships could be ready to fly. But there was still a chance to save the data, and if none of them would live long enough to see their vengeance, well, they would know it was coming, and that was no small thing.

A low boom shook the building. "And that would be the never-to-be-sufficiently-damned Kree-powered woman taking out Battery Six," muttered one of the techs. Another boom sounded as Doctor Doom destroyed Battery Four. "Have the scientists finished packaging their experiment data?"

Another tech tried to page the lab. Then he switched a monitor. Then he swore viciously.
The two remaining Super Skrulls exchanged looks, then nods. "There's no more point in staying here. If you abandon all the safety checks, how long does it take to make one of those ships fly?"

"Only a few minutes; but do we have the time?"

"We are out of options. Our defenses are failing, and there are no truly defensible places on this base left. We can either try to escape or wait for them to kill us."

There was a moment of silence as the Super Skrull's words sunk in, then the techs stood, prepared to run. They drew their sidearms, shut down their consoles. "You're right," muttered one. "But it feels so... empty to just give up."

"I don't intend to just give up." The Super Skrull turned to the main console, punched in an access code. "Computer: increase the base's reactor fuel flow three-hundred percent and disengage all safeguards."

In a flat tone, the computer replied, Warning, that course of action will lead to a core overload and catastrophic failure. Estimated blast: two kilotons.

"Acknowledged. Proceed; safety override code Oscar, Mike, Foxtrot, G-"

Before he could finish the statement, the wall blew in. The heroes had made excellent time.

Lunging through the hole in the wall, Luke Cage shouted, "Avengers, Assemble!"

The Skrulls whirled, weapons drawing from their holsters as they made ready to fire-

The main door, sealed from the alert, blew inward in a gold-tinged blast. Katie Power stood in the doorway, shrouded in golden light and flanked by her fellow captives. "Power Pack - Attack!"

The melee rapidly descended into mayhem. One Super Skrull made a grab for Cage; quickly found itself caught between Cage, Grimm, and Danvers. Jewel blasted one of the normals. One of the normals got caught in a gravity field and pinned to the ceiling. The other Super Skrull sent a blast of fire at the five children; Cynthia moved as if to block and the fire deflected hard into a wall. Katie and Franklin blasted it; Molly rushed in with a punch that smashed it throughthe opposite wall.

Almost unheard in the rush, the computer said, Override code not accepted, overload canceled.

In moments, all of the Skrulls were dead or disabled; pinned together by an invisible force field. And the reunion began.

The three Power siblings met in the center of the room in a group hug. Franklin was swept up by his mother, his Uncle Ben moving in for a gentle but heartfelt hug. The other heroes gravitated to one group or the other, murmuring support and relief.

Unnoticed in a far corner, Victor Von Doom and Cynthia faced each other at an arms' reach of distance. For a moment, they stood in silence, then Cynthia lunged forward, wrapping her father in a hug. After another moment, Doom returned it, crouching down. Then they separated, standing.

After a few moments, Luke Cage ruffled Katie Power's hair and said, "Okay, glad you kids are fine. Where are they keeping the others?"

"Down below. I'll take you there."

0o0

Z'daaw breathed a sigh of relief as he entered the cabin of the runabout.

Designed to be a master of stealth, he'd made his way to the ships once it became clear to him that they were not going to win this one. He'd not been seen, it seemed. Therefore, it was not something I did that got us caught on Earth. Vindication.He sank into one of the control couches and began the start-up sequence. Time to get the hell out of here.

There was a sniktsound, and pain blossomed in one shoulder. As he began to cry out, a hand clamped over his mouth. "Hey there, Bub. You and me got businessto discuss..."

OoO

Danielle cradled in his arms, Luke Cage surveyed the surviving Skrulls. There were more of them than he'd expected, in some ways. But on the whole, he wasn't worried. They'd been thoroughly cowed. Perhaps especially the ones the kids had taken out during their breakout.

"All right, people, listen up." He spoke softly, but with his voice pitched to carry over the crowd.

"Consider yourselves lucky: all the kids you took seem perfectly healthy. Congratulations, you get to live." He paused, and let them mull that over for a moment. "Now. Here's what's gonna happen. We're gonna finish destroying every scrap of computer memory and every physical sample you took in this entire base, and then we're leaving. We're gonna take the bigger of your ships when we do, and we're gonna break the other one a little. Enough so you can't follow us too close."

His eyes hardened. "You get to live, and you get to go home. When you do, you're gonna make for damnsure that none of your people ever try to go after our kids again. If you decide to pull this stunt again, even if we get 'em back safe, there ain't gonna be any mercy for you and yours. That's the best offer you're gonna get: one more chance. For now, you all behave, or this offer goes away."
"You got me?"

There was a long silence, and then the crowd nodded as one.

Oo0

The return trip was crowded. They'd had to split their forces somewhat; Friday didn't have all that much capacity, and for all he'd helped, nobody was terribly eager to let Doctor Doom ferry any innocent kids home, nor had he offered; simply taking off once he was sure everything was ready.

Carol Danvers and Ben Grimm were working together to fly the Skrull runabout they'd confiscated; Luke, Jessica, and Danielle had gone with them, to help ride herd on the children. So were Sue, Franklin and Valeria; that family wanting to stick with their Uncle. In the end, the only adult who'd elected to join the Powers on Friday was Logan, acting as 'the voice o' adult responsibility' among the Power siblings, Molly, Klara, and Cynthia.

The trip was a happy one, jokes were told, tales were swapped. They'd managed to draw a few tales of her upbringing in a remote monastery that 'owed her father some favors' from Cynthia, though the girl remained reticent when it came to talking about her past and her family.

Eventually, the conversations died away. It had been a long and trying few days for the various heroes, and they were all ready for rest. The Smartship provided cots and bunks for its passengers, and all but three of them retired for a well-earned sleep.

The Power siblings, however, conversed quietly for some time after.

"You really think this is a good idea?" whispered Jack.

"I probably wouldn't have gotten out without them," replied Katie in like tones.

"Well, I understand that, I'm just not sure..."

The youngest sister crossed her arms. "It's no different than when we recruited Franklin."

That stopped the boys for a moment, and they exchanged glances. Then Alex replied, "Fair enough, but Molly and Klara already have teams, so-"

Katie cut him off. "Please. How many teams is Logan on? It's not like we'd be making them quit the other team. Just a sort of... solidarity."

The brothers exchanged a glance heavy with meaning and silent conversation.

"Okay, that works."

Oo0

Friday's internal manufacturing plant was more than up to making three new costumes.

"Are you trying to, I dunno, recruit us?" asked Molly.

"Well, there's a communicator built in. We could help each-other," Katie replied. Her brothers were letting her do the talking, waiting in the cockpit with a bemused Logan.

Klara was giving the fabric a critical eye. "What are they made of?"

"Unstable molecules, mostly. They're totally weatherproof, don't rip easily, and are generally good clothes."

"Do they all have magic pockets?"

"Uh-huh."

Cynthia, looking over the one she'd been offered, finally spoke. "Are they fireproof?"

"Yep. We found that out the hard way, once."

The daughter of Doom looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, "Well then. I accept."

That brought the other girls into agreement, and the three men turned away, finding space suddenly much more interesting.

After a long moment, Logan broke the silence at the bow. "You guys realise you just recruited Doc Doom's secret mutant love child into your team?"

"Yeah, we kind of figured that out," said Jack. "We're hoping he doesn't take exception to that."

"We'll try to be a good influence on her," said Alex. "Keep her away from team evil in the future and such."

"You can look now," came Molly's voice from behind them. The men turned.

Klara looked bemused, standing in a dark green costume marked with the sigal of a growing plant. Molly looked genuinely pleased with her own look, in a purple number marked with the symbol of a fist and a matching floppy beret. Cynthia wore a bright blue costume marked with a flame, and was running through a series of stretches, as if testing the freedom of motion of the costume.

"What do you think?" asked Katie.

"Welcome to the team."

0o0

Friday was slightly more nimble in hyperspace than the Skrull runabout following, and so they'd arrived back at Earth a few hours ahead of the main group. Molly and Klara had requested a drop-off in California, and they'd given it to them, Logan leaving them with his card ("I know you got friends an' support, but if you ever need a hand, give me a call, kids."). Cynthia had declined to help them find her monastery, saying she'd find a way home from New York.

Then they'd flown for New York, calling ahead. The Power family reunion was a happy one; and they'd given words of assurance to the other gathered parents, all awaiting the return of their own children. Logan did most of that talking, spending some time with a number of the gathered adults, as well as giving a brief report to the Avengers.

The main group finally arrived, and the mood, one of hushed hope, gave way to one of ecstatic joy as parents and children were reunited. The Powers stood together, a happy and content island in a sea of greater happiness, and for a short time simply watched.

Then they said their good-byes and headed home. This was a matter best celebrated as a family.

-End

Author's Afterword.

One day I shall set out to do one of these and life will not throw me a curve ball to screw up the production time. I swear to god, Odyssey cannot have been a one-off fluke. My excuse this time is job stuff - massive overtime followed by my hurting myself. I was on some seriously good painkillers for a week or so - good enough my ability to type coherently was more or less completely shot for a couple days.

Hammering this last chapter into shape took more tries than I expected, which surprised me a lot given that I had a fairly good idea what I wanted to happen beforehand. Paying off all the dancing around who Cynthia was, some good slam-bang hero fights, dramatic entrances, good cop/bad cop... the bones were there, but fleshing them out took way too much effort, and while I'm still not perfectly happy with how things stand, I figure it's good enough. I don't feel like letting this one sit any longer unfinished - I wasn't planning on putting this much time into it in the first place.

This story owes its genesis to a sort of 'superhero fantasy football' game two years back on RPGnet. The game was 'pick your own Avengers roster' with the lot of us going in random turns, and whoever picked a given character first was the only one allowed to use that character. Once teams were picked, we all gave a brief synopsis/story pitch for our plot idea.

Family Matters wasn't my Plan A. It wasn't my Plan B or C, either. But once the idea hit me, and I got Sue, Luke, and Alex, I knew I'd be able to actually get the characters to pull it off. The germ of the idea came out of that draft... and sat unused for two years, because I couldn't muster the mental energy to do anything with it. It's final form is tweaked from what I'd started with, since right now I'm not constrained by what characters I could and could not pick.

I haven't been following Marvel Comics all that close in the last two years. The first thing I knew about Julie being in Avengers Academywas a PM from a reader. I suppose, if one was to try and slide this into a point of continuity... well, after Johnny Storm died, but before Julie showed up in Academy, I suppose, though to be honest I'm not sure if those events don't overlap. Hell, it wouldn't be the worst contortion of canon I've ever inflicted.

The character of Cynthia came to me shortly after I settled on this story idea. What's the only thing the bad guys could do that's worse for them than deliberately pissing off a bunch of superheroes? Pissing off a major supervillain, since they have much less compunction about killing everything in sight. I couldn't think of any official kids of baddies who were in the right age bracket, and the idea of the Daughter of Doom more or less popped into my head then and there. The idea of the Pack more or less recruiting her (as well as Molly Hayes) flowed naturally.

Making said Daughter a DoomZula joke... hell, it's me. It'd be wrong if I didn't have some kind of crack in here.

The first attempt at this story, right after the draft, was in comic book script format, which I found amazingly hard to write in (and probably accounts for a lot of why the first attempt died in the cradle and the tale languished in my To Do list for so bloody long). A few bits that I feel ought to be preserved: once they got Frank's powers going, I'd intended to describe him as being surrounded by Kirby Dots whenever he tried something... and couldn't figure out how in hell to describe what that looked like in-character.

The two hero teams smashing into the control room, of course, was to be rendered as back-to-back splash pages. In the first draft, Molly was going to have found a sledgehammer somewhere, for effect. Her bolt throwing, I think, works better than the Vita joke would have.

Still, getting this down and done feels good. If I held it back until I thought it was perfect, it'd never get posted, so this'll do.

And yes, I'm still working on the Next Bit of the Grand Tour series. I have a Kunnin Plan, I'm just struggling with execution and trying to get some other stuff done too - my pursuit of something I can actually publish for money continues.

Hope you've gotten at least some enjoyment from this gang. Fly safe.