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A new arc for the Avengers as a new threat emerges from the prisons of Avalon...
ImpurestCheese's forum posts
Avenger Headquarters, Harlem, New York
Curt Connors looked at the low dull building that sat at the end of the Harlem street he was standing on, the sounds of traffic and the junkyard over the road creating an air of industrial business. Silently he cursed himself for agreeing to meet his colleague Doctor Roland here, and was getting ready to turn back and hail a taxi to Empire State University when a car pulled up, and a serious looking dark skinned man in the uniform of a driver emerged from the front.
“Here we are Miss Morgan.” He stated as he opened the rear door and extended a ramp for the occupant sitting on the back seat to get out. Wobbling slightly, the young woman who had to be in her early twenties, walked out, a cane supporting her. Reaching the base of the ramp, the driver went round the back and removed a wheelchair from the boot before wheeling it round to his charge for her to sit down in. The woman herself was young, dark and dressed semi-casually in a white blouse and blue jeans.
“Thank you Carl, I’ll call you when I need to be picked up.” The woman stated as the driver folded the ramp up and closed the door.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to wait until the Avengers arrive Miss Morgan?” Carl asked, as he eyed Curt standing by the gate.
“I’ll be fine, I can take care of myself.” Morgan replied as she wheeled over to the gate, her passage followed by the eyes of the driver, a look of disgust, not at Curt or Morgan, but at the scrappy location he had delivered his charge too. “And its Rosetta, I don’t want to be reminded of my father and everything he did.” She added, as she wheeled round to face Carl before waving him away. Sighing the driver returned to the car and after a worried look shot at Rosetta, he drove off. Turning to Curt, Rosetta smiled “So are you an Avenger?” she asked.
“No” Curt replied with a small laugh. “Curt Conners, pleased to make your acquaintance Rosetta.” He added as he offered his remaining hand to her in a gesture of friendship.
“Nice to meet you Curt.” Rosetta replied as she shook his hand, just as a young man with a shaven head, dressed in a tatty hooded sweatshirt and baggy pants walked up, his hands in his pockets and a duffel bag slung over his shoulder. “A friend of mine asked me to be here.”
“So did one of mine.” Curt stated as the young man walked up to the gates of the building and pulled a tatty piece of paper from his pocket before punching in a ten digit code into the keypad.
“Excuse me but what are you doing?” Curt asked cautiously, his words causing the young man to look him and Rosetta up and down.
“You two are the brain trust right?” The young man asked. “The boss told me you were coming today to get the computers and lab up and running.” He added as the gates swung open. Walking in, he turned back to look at Curt and Rosetta standing in shock at what had just happened. “You coming or not?”
“Who are you?” Rosetta asked as she wheeled through the gates up to the steps of the building.
“Henry, Miss Maggie er I mean Veda is like my aunt in that kind of adopted way.” The young man answered. “The foundation she runs took me in when my dad killed my mum. She even stood up to him when he came crashing through the door and fended him off. This is before she got powers you know. Anyway she asked me how my engineering degree was going, I said not good, she then said come and be my engineer and moved me in a few days ago.” He stopped as he removed another scrap of paper and punched in a second code.
“So this building is the Avengers headquarters.” Rosetta sighed. “I was expecting more.”
“It’s better than it was, the last owners were this team of supers called First Line. They fought against the Skrulls here and between the two of them they trashed the place.” Henry explained as the door lock disengaged and opened up to reveal an open atrium complete with a broken fountain. “Lugh fixed it up okay before he went back to wherever he goes. Claimed he used to do carpentry of something back home.”
“Are any of the Avengers here?” Kurt asked, as Henry stopped at the base of some stairs before shaking his head.
“This is a problem.” Henry stated before looking at Rosetta’s wheelchair. “You ever thought about equipping a repulsor drive to the chair?” He asked, as he dropped his bag and removed a large metal green glove. “Give me an hour and I could hook the repulsor from one of Titanium Man’s gauntlets to the underside of the chair.”
“Where did you get Titanium Man’s gauntlet from?” Rosetta asked with a small chuckle at how ridiculous Henry’s suggestion was. “And where is the lift?”
“Oh that is over there, but the motor doesn’t work, we’re using crank power to move it up and down and if you haven’t noticed I’m wiry and lean, not muscly.” Henry joked as he handed the gauntlet to Curt. “Oh and Bits and Scraps, it’s a catalogue selling old super tech.”
“More like scrawny.” Curt mumbled, as he held the gauntlet at arm’s length as if it were a deadly serpent. “Which of the Avengers are here at the moment?”
“Well Veda is in a meeting as Stark Tower, Noir and Derecho work part-time and Lugh is elsewhere. Bagman is in, but he’s a jerk plus he stinks, something about not wanting to get his mask wet.”
“You’re kidding?” Rosetta gasped.
“I wish I was.” Henry sighed as a thin mist spread out from the fountain, followed by a flash of glowing light. As the fog faded, the muscular form of Lugh emerged, clad in leather armour holding a spear and sword, fresh woad tattooed up and down his arms.
“Lugh returns from the telling of the Sub-Earth-Man’s defeat.” The god stated as he looked down at the three people present in the atrium. “Tell me laddie, who are these cripples and what purpose could they have in this hall of heroes.”
“These guys are the support team Derecho mentioned would be arriving last night.” Henry told him, as Kurt handed the gauntlet back to him. “Computers and Science!” He spat as he pointed to Rosetta and then Kurt, the confused look lifting from Lugh’s face.
“Ah, then you have come to make adventures with us!” Lugh stated in mirth. “Come let me tell you about my latest adventures with my new mortal friends.”
“Enough with the adventures, everyone knows about the Sub-Earth-Man.” Henry sighed as Lugh looked to the elevator, before walking over to Rosetta. “I don’t understand why you are so keen to keep telling it.”
“Tales and Songs are strength for my people.” Lugh explained as he looked at the chair with some confusion. “Great deeds keep my people, the Tuatha De Danann, strong enough to maintain the wards on the entrance to the otherworld and keep the enemies of both man and god contained.” He stopped and bent down to look Rosetta in the eye. “My lady I apologise for my brutish manner when I arrived, it’s just in Avalon there is no one like you, all are healthy and hearty.”
“That doesn’t make me feel any better.” Rosetta replied, as Lugh got to his feet and walked over to the fountain.
“Yes my adventures are all that keep the Fomor from escaping.” Lugh mused as he sheathed his sword and placed his spear point down into the ground. “With the likes of the Alpha Black Dog, Balor the Giant, Morgause the Hag, the Conqueror of Breton and Columba’s Serpent contained, the adventures are the only ones keeping us safe. Especially from the worst fiend contained there, the traitor known as…”
**
Tara, County Meath, Ireland
“...Mordred the Magician, that’s who the client wants us to release.” The figure dressed in a yellow hazmat suit complete with an insectile helmet stated as he and comrades moved a small floating gun-platform up to the entrance of the barrow, its door locked shut. “Why I don’t know, magic is a load of old superstition.” He added, as another agent took up position on the gun and opened fire on the door, a beam of blue light revealing intricate symbols carved on the door.
“Get ready guys, there are Danann on the other side of that ward.” The agent of the gun stated, as the two men responsible for wheeling the platform forward un-holstered their handguns, with one throwing a smoke grenade through the ward into the barrow. Seconds later a hoarse roar sounded, and a warrior dressed in nothing but a kilt and woad on his chest came running out, an axe in his hand, before being cut down by the agents outside, each of their rounds causing massive blister like tumours to form on their targets skin.
“Looks like iron rounds work.” The first agent stated. “The steel dust infused in the smoke will likely have dealt with the rest.” He added, as the three agents darted through the ward into a massive chamber, dead or dying warriors laying all over the place, their skins blistered and thick toxic looking yellow froth spring from their mouths.
“Okay so anyone know how to read this console?” The second agent asked. “Because I didn’t take Gallic at school.”
“No one did, fortunately the client knows the setting and said the dial should point at the symbol that looks like a slanty cross.” The first agent announced, as another team entered the control room. After a little cursing, the room rotated to face a new direction and reveal a chamber emblazoned with the Celtic symbol for ‘m’ on the wall above the opening. “Let’s get what we came for.” The first agent announced, as his team walked through into the antechamber and came to another wall with the same symbol scratched into the rock. Removing what looked like a frame charge from the power-pack attached to his back, the unspeaking agent slid it onto the stone and stood back.
“Let the ‘magic chant’ begin.” He joked as he pressed the play button on the power-pack. As he did a scream sounded and a seven foot long arrow smashed through his ribs and out through his spine, sending him crashing to the floor. Returning fire, his allies brought down the Danann archer, his massive long bow skidding across the stones. Groaning in pain, the agent looked on as the stone wall collapsed and a man dressed in a flowing red cape overlaying a green tunic walked out, his ash white hair and eyes giving him an otherworldly look.
“Mordred?” One of the agents asked.
“Indeed mortal, I did not expect for your kind to release me, but then gods always underestimate the drive of man, and I am most grateful to be free.” Mordred replied in a powerful yet quiet voice tinged with an old English accent. “Now we free the others.”
“Uh we can’t, we need to leave before the Danann launch a counterattack, and Hendricks is injured.” One of the agents muttered.
“I see, I give you two choices; we hearty three leave now and escape, or we stay and save all but risk capture.” Mordred stated as he walked towards the command room, and the yellow clad agents waiting there.
“Sorry Hendricks.” One of the agents sighed before shooting his wide eyed teammate in the head. “Okay A.I.D.S* we are rolling out back to the jet!” He called, as the two surviving agents hurried after Mordred out of the barrow and back to the swept wing jet parked outside the barrow. As they arrived, a woman with long red hair dressed in green, her grey eyes sparkling in the darkness descended the stairs, a cold smile on her face.
(Advanced Ideas in Destructive Science - Impurest ‘Acronym’ Cheese)
“Mentira Addersfork of the Unseelie Court.” Mordred stated as he walked over to the woman and embraced her warmly. “I expected you but not these mortals and their science in my rescue.”
“They were necessary, even before the Danann began to regain their strength.” Mentira sighed in a voice that sounded like an autumn breeze flowing through a stand of pine trees. “And they managed to free you from your gall with relative ease.”
“And are expecting payment, the Scientist Supreme made it clear that nobody leaves without his fee being paid.” The agent stated, as the AIDS agents levelled their weapons at the pair of demi-gods.
“Of course, tell Mr Klaw that his support has been most appreciated.” Mentira replied as she handed the agent a chest made of bone and tanned human leather. “Depart and be well.” She added, as the AIDS members stood down and headed back to their jet. “There is much to talk about, your Uncle has returned to Earth and has begun the restoration of the houses of Avalon, it is why we could only rescue you…” She stopped as Mordred gestured slightly with his hand and a chunk of ironstone levitated up to throat level and shattered into a hail of deadly splinters, each one aimed at Mentira’s throat.
“That answer is unsatisfactory.” Mordred sighed. “If I am to fight Avalon single-handed I will need more reliable servants.” He added, only to feel a cold blade press against his own neck.
“Let my lady go magician.” A deep and powerful voice ordered, as a pair of glowing red eyes shone a whole foot and a half above Mordred, the faint glow of moonlight gleaming off the black blade the mystery figure held.
“Oh and you are?” Mordred asked as he clicked his fingers and the iron shards dropped to the floor.
“A humble servant in the war against the Danann and their mortal followers.” The mystery figure stated as he withdrew his blade from Mordred’s throat.
“And besides you don’t have to fight all of Avalon, you only have to kill one half god.” Mentira purred as she walked over to the shadowy figure and ran her hand across his shoulder, her skin blistering slightly before it healed back to its unblemished state. “Kill Lugh and you kill a Pantheon.”
@wildvine: Nice to go over old ground, especially old ground that is so well written. Will more come?
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