Avengers #4

Winter Soldier - Also known as Bucky Barnes, the former sidekick of Captain America
Ironman - Tony Stark, billionaire inventor and entrepreneur; Director of S.H.E.I.L.D.
Ms. Marvel - Carol Danvers, former US Air Force with a fusion of Human and Kree genes.
Wonder Man - Simon Williams, Ionic superhero possessing strength, speed, stamina, durability, agility, and reflexes.
Black Widow - Natalia "Natasha" Alianovna Romanova, former spy and S.H.E.I.L.D. operative.
Solo - James Bourne, former counter-terrorism operative, turned mercenary. Minor teleportation abilities.


S.H.E.I.L.D. Hellicarrier.
New York City.
23:00 Hours
Cell Block D


"Treason?!" Buck yelled in shock, "That's bull!"

"Is it? Really?" Stark replied, "Let's do the math real quick. You join up with an alien race that has acted hostile several times in the past, you broke into a S.H.E.I.L.D base. Helped a man wanted for murder on over one hundred counts, injured several operatives --"

"Technically, he didn't break in, he just did surveillance," Solo stated, in factual tones.

"Conspiracy to commit breaking and entering then--look it doesn't matter, you're both going to be locked up for a very long time," Tony said.

Solo and Bucky stared silently at him for a moment.

"Or....you can cut a deal," Stark offered.

"You already said you aren't interested in us giving up the HYDRA base," Solo said.

"I think it's safe to assume that's not HYDRA. They're all Skrulls," Bucky said.

"Oh," Solo mumbled, now not understanding what Stark was after at all.

"Giving us intel we already have won't do us much good. So instead, this is your chance to make things right. You work for S.H.E.I.L.D. and become Avengers. Prove you can play nice and the charges get forgotten. Give us a hassle and we can always add in murder to the charges," Stark said, folding his arms across his chest feeling he had won the negotiation duel.

"Murder?!" Bucky said, shocked and confused.

"Nick Fury," Stark replied, cocking an eyebrow.

"That was a skrull," Solo stated in defense.

Stark shot a grin at both of them.

"You're a piece of trash," Bucky said in incredulous tones, appalled that he had been had by skrulls and even more upset that he was now being blackmailed by Tony Stark, the director of S.H.E.I.L.D. and leader of the 'real' Avengers.

"Good. I'm glad we were able to cut a deal. We leave for China in the morning," Stark finished. He then turned and walked back down the dark corridor from which he had come. Two S.H.E.I.L.D. agents came and unlocked the cell. One removed the power suppressing collar from Solo's neck that had prevented him from teleporting.


The Quinjet cut through the clouds at alarming speeds, carrying Solo, Winter Soldier, and Black Widow. Wonder Man, Ms. Marvel, and Ironman flew outside of the jet. The morning sun had already risen and noon was nearing.

"So you want to invade a skrull base in the middle of the day?" Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, asked.

"The situation is bad enough as it is. We don't have time to wait and frankly it's not like night time will provide us any cover. I mean I am wearing bright shiny armor after all," Ironman replied to Bucky's voice, as he was able to hear it via the intercom in the cockpit of the Quinjet being relayed to the transponder in his helmet.

"Yeah, I always thought red and gold looked more like a high school football team's colors than actual iron," Solo commented.

"Hardy har har har har HAR ha haha ha. You're so very funny. And you wonder why you're called 'C-List'," Ironman retorted.

The Avengers made there way through Chinese airspace undetected and came within view of the HYDRA /Skull base.

"Engaging auto-pilot. Prepare for jump," Black Widow said.

The three left the Quinjet falling through the clouds. Wonder Man swooped down catching Winter Soldier and the two headed toward the base. Ironman caught Black Widow and followed suit. Solo fell through the clouds.

"Hello?" he said in a worried manner as he fell through the clouds.

"I should just let you keep falling," Ms. Marvel said as she swooped in, grabbing him by the wrist and turned quickly to follow after the rest of the Avengers.

"Please. Like you could go even an hour without me," Solo replied, doing his best to keep his voice calm and void of fear while, trying to catch his breath.

"What's the plan?" Winter Soldier asked in his headset.

"Bring down every single one of them. Find Fury. Try not to damage any alien tech we may come across," Ironman responded.


"AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!" Ironman shouted as the sextet crashed into the base firing every weapon at their disposal.

The Avengers invaded the hanger of the base and met an onslaught of HYDRA agents rushing at them. Wonder Man dropped Winter Soldier to the floor below and flew straight at a group of HYDRA agents.

"Hi!" he said smiling smashing into all of them sending them flying as if he were a wrecking ball.

The agents crashed into crates, ladder steps, work benches, and jets. They scrambled to their feet and Wonder Man's face went sour.

"Uh...guys," he said into his headset. Five of the skrulls hunched as they ran at him. Their muscles began to spasm and the agents grew in size.

"HULKS!! We got Hulks!!" Wonder Man yelled in fear.

"GRAHHH!" one yelled jumping at him bringing both hands together sending out a shock-wave flooring Wonder Man, causing him to slam into a stack of wooden pallets and a forklift.

"HELP!! HULKS!!!" he yelled.

"Got my own problems!" Ms. Marvel responded in her headset doing her best to fight off two dozen different versions of Howard the Duck, all of which were trying their best to use some odd form of kung fu on her.

More and more skrulls who looked like HYDRA agents poured out of what seemed to be everywhere at once.

Black Widow flipped through the air avoiding kinetic energy explosions as a green skinned version of Gambit threw an energized tire at her. "Stark, what were you thinking?! There's too many!" she yelled into her headset.

"OK, so maybe we should have done a little more investigation in regards to their man power," Ironman replied as he fired a repulsor blast sending what looked to be a HYDRA agent transforming into Spider-Man flying.

"If this is how you lead S.H.E.I.L.D., then this whole planet is screwed!" Solo yelled teleporting out of the way of a skrull who was posing as Wolverine.

"I've done a fine job of leading the Avengers for years," Ironman said back, offended and firing another blast.

Winter Soldier remained silent and ran toward the jets.

"THIS IS--" came Wonder Man's voice. He was sent flying backwards from a punch to the face by one of the Hulks.

"--GETTING--" Ms. Marvel yelled but was cut off as she fell to the floor out cold from a psychic blade to the head delivered by a Psylocke looking Skrull.

"Bad? Am I supposed to finish that with bad? I just want to know if--" Solo was cut down by a Skrull that looked like Solo.

"At least his jokes are over with. And here I thought Spider-Man was awful at comedy," Ironman said flying toward Black Widow.

Hundreds of skrulls rushed into the hanger, each shape shifting, form to form, appearance to appearance.

"Ironman look--" Widow tried warning Ironman. It was too late. A skrull leaped into the air onto Ironman's back, wrapping his arm's around the suit and shape-shifted into a green skinned Magneto. It unleashed a magnetic wave sending Ironman crashing into the hanger floor.

"BUCKY!! BUCKY! Where are you?! I need help. There's too-" Black Widow yelled before being tackled by a dozen versions of Hindsight Lad that quickly shape-shifted into The Blob.

Bucky Barnes climbed into one of the cockpits of one of the jets, and began turning on dials to start the engines.

NEXT ISSUE: AWAKENING!

Craig that was an incredible fight scene. I loved how you managed to work in two of the other titles on this site, for guest appearances. You have done a great job so far in making me think the story is going one way and then shifting into a different direction. Awesome job

So all Skrulls are the Super-Skrull now and can not only replicate shape but also super powers? How can they be stopped?

I like how you set up a lot of immediate action and intensity at the beginning to draw us in, but then quickly switch from that to revealing the REAL conflict that you're building up toward. The move from fast action (#1 and #2) to clarification in the reflection (second half of #3 and first half of #4) afterward is great and explains everything efficiently and clearly.

Side note: Great command of Iron Man's personality and dialogue.

Yes Nik, apparently Marvel, a few years back, decided all of the Skrulls could replicate any characters looks AND abilities. So yeah, they're all "Super-Skrulls". How can they be stopped? Well if a pack of Avengers that can't get along with each other won't work, then who knows?