ASTONISHING AVENGERS #6 By:Stephen Kelley Meanwhile back in Wyoming bill and skaar were having a rough time with the wrecking crew, "I'll give you two credit" wrecker said breathing a little heavier "you're managing to hold your own but you're still not good enough"he said raising his enchanted crowbar. But then bulldozer came toppling into him after being thrown by skaar, "I grow tired of this" skaar said unsheathed his sword "I'll take your heads and be done with it but know this before I do, I wasn't even using my full strength" skaar said pointing his sword at wrecker before hitting the leader of the super villain troupe with a charging slash that looked straight out of a barbarian movie. "What are you doing"stated flatly "villains they may be but death is not yours to give them" "they are weak, if they cannot kill you or I then they deserve to be killed" skaar said as he almost severed piledriver's right arm had Bill not stepped in and deflected the slash "and I say nay to that decision" "get out of my way before you join them" skaar said getting in Bill's face both men intensely staring at each other, then both their communicators went off "skaar, Bill" caps voice echoed "we need you now, Tony and I just deciphered a distress beacon and well as you can imagine we might be having some company VERY bad company, Bill you'll get there faster then we can in the Quinn-jet will swing on by and pick up skaar if you want to scout ahead, but do not engage let me repeat that order if they fire on you do not engage retreat back to a safe distance understood" cap said in his usual stern tone, "aye captain, your order is as you say here on Earth "Crystal clear"" Bill said staring at skaar and pointing Stonebraker at him "this is not over, when the opportunity arises you and I will have words"Bill said his eyes narrowing angrily "and I'll look forward to not listening to whatever you have to say and crushing that beady little head of yours" skaar shot back bits of saliva hitting Bill in the face. Back at Stark tower all of the avengers gathered in the Quinn-jet and traced the signal pattern mapping out a GPS, however the avengers didn't get the chance to take off as a giant oval-esque ship landed right in the center of Manhattan over Central Park along with smaller ships, the beacons signal pattern started beeping loudly in the Quinn-jet. "Well looks like we don't need to search for it, it came to us"Ironman said "I'll know whether to look at that as a good thing or a bad thing" "I vote it's a bad thing Tony"Steve said with a been a concern in his voice "well duh, I mean giant F'N alien warships centered over Central Park along with smaller ships, no sir that doesn't spell alien invasion at all "Antman said sarcastically before taking an elbow to the chest from Songbird "shut up Eric, so what's the plan" "the plan would be to infiltrate, it appears whoever is controlling the ships left no sentrys, and scuttle-bug has stated that there's no heat signatures but all the same be on your guard"Bill crackled over the communicators "well people you heard the man let's board the ships and find out what's going on" cap said. Meanwhile walking through Times Square Chris Powell noticed the ships that had landed "oh hell that ain't good"he said finding a safe place to change, Chris then focused his mental thoughts into becoming darkhawk and in almost an instant, the alien armor had formed around him when he heard on the radio about seeing the avengers Quinn-jet raced towards the ships as well as beta Ray Bill "dammit I gotta warn them, those ships are bad news". DarkHawk said as the collapsible wings under his arms folded outwards propelling him up into the air as he swung around and headed for Central Park. Meanwhile inside the mothership the avengers split off into different teams, Antman and beta Ray Bill went one way, Ironman, falcon, and cap went another, skaar went his own way and firestar, Songbird, and Black Panther went into another corrider, "I do not like this"Black Panther said his eyes narrowing "we are too far out in the open, the enemy has a strategic advantage over us" "yeah well"Songbird said also feeling uneasy "not much we can really do about it" "your observation of the obvious is most compelling Songbird" t'challa said with dry sarcasm, "so far nothing is done this court or and if it wants to live, it will stay out of my way" skaar said over the communicators "you ever get the feeling that he'd just rather kill everyone and everything"Antman said with bitter sarcasm "aye Eric O'Grady he tried to kill the wrecking crew, and then dared to threaten me when I stood in his way" "wwhhoo, I'll give you credit Mr. Ed you got balls"Bill looked him unamused "what, it was a compliment" "so making a juvenile horse joke is a complement" "no that's just me complementing you but also insulting at the same time" "and storm breakers hilt will complement your smashed in face or anyone else's should I hear any more "horse" jokes today"Bill said agitated "all right all right calm down, so what exactly does cap hope will find"O'Grady said looking all around "I do not know but let us hope it is not something that we will have to fight but should it come to that, then we must be alert and ready". cap, falcon, and Ironman walked through a series a core doors they couldn't make sense of most of what was on the ship but when they came to a large circular obelisk like room Tony immediately figured out which room they were in "guys somehow through the miracle of not knowing where the hell we are, I do believe we ended up in the engine room" cap surveyed the room "agreed this doesn't look like all the other chambers that we passed through "yeah"falcon chimed in "the other ones look like a barracks, the med unit, and look like an office space in that one but this this is definitely an engine room even if it is alien"and a centerpiece of the engine room was a glowing egg shaped spiral column. At the same time Bill and O'Grady came to a chamber that had near zero gravity "okay, okay I realize that this is what astronauts trained for but I'm not a firkin astronaut"O'Grady said toppling head over heels in the near zero-g environment "do not fight the antigravity you will only make it worse, flow through it like water pretend you're swimming in one of your oceans"Bill suggested showing little to almost no trouble moving through the environment "okay pretend I'm writing waves that aren't really waves, right" Eric said still fumbling around but slowly finding his "center", by mere accident Eric shifted upwards in the room and what caught his eye made him holler for Bill "yo Bill, I think you need to see this kinda messed up" Bill shifted over to where Eric was and his face contorted in horror "by all of the nine realms and beyond"his eyes widened as the scene before him was horrifying a young woman in her mid-to late 20s was in a machine that clearly look like it was draining the life out of her. Bill looked around for consult when he found one he looked at the language and his expression of horror became one of triumph "scuttle bug"Bill commanded his personal ship "I'm placing a hacking unit see if you can decipher and break the code" "will do Sir"scuttle bugs automated voice said cheerfully as he began to decode the release mechanism, on the other side Ironman it finally figured out how to decode the egg shaped machine in the engine room so they could see the power source but neither Ironman, falcon, or even cap was prepared for the scene before them and the expressions on their faces was one that they never expected to have at the person in front of them, the power source for the alien mothership "vision" cap said his voice choking off from shock "help...me..." vision said weakly his robotic eyes staring at them with a near vacant look. To be continued in issue seven