Avengers #5

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.


Skrull Base
Mountains of China.
06:37 Hours
Hangar Bay

"BUCKY!!" Black Widow screamed squirming under the massive flesh of the Skrulls who had morphed into versions of The Blob, on top of her.

Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, sat in the cockpit of one of the jets in the hangar, having just started the engines.

"Come on!" he yelled.

Setting the controls to lift, the turbines began to turn ninety degrees. The engines shifted turning to lift the jet straight into the air. The jet began to rise.

"--the hell???" Solo muttered, slowly opening his emerald eyes.

The jet lifted into the air slamming into the high ceiling of the hangar bay. Bucky fell to the floor, having made his way out of the cockpit just in time. Everyone in the hangar stopped what they were doing and stared at the jet, somewhat confused.

The jet bounced off of the ceiling like a balloon filled with helium, and lifted again slamming into the ceiling a second time. Bucky ran toward Widow.

"Keep them on top of y--"

THA-BOOM!!!



"--zzzkk-- --struments onlinezzk-- --rerouting--zzkk-- --primary power sources rerouted. sixy percent until full capactiy--"

Ironman stood, smoke pouring from his body. Looking around the hangar, fires burned everywhere. Dead skrulls littered the floor, their bodies charred beyond any recognition.

"**cough**hack**cough**" Bucky spit out blood as he stood up from a pile of debris.

"ARE YOU INSANE?!" Ironman yelled.

"Not going covert was your idea," Bucky responded.

Wonderman limped toward Ironman. "Widow and Solo are both safe. Both of them are in an elevator shaft that goes down into the mountain.

"You're going to be locked up for years for this! As S.H.E.I.L.D. direct--"

"Oh shut up!" Bucky cut off Ironman, "It's over Stark! Your Registration Act is done! And it's flop means it's just a matter of time until your run as S.H.E.I.L.D. director is over as well. I am so sick of your--"

"Guys, Solo and Widow are waiting. We have to get Fury out of here," Wonderman interrupted the two.

Winter Soldier and Ironman stood face to face with each other, ready to come to blows.

"You really want to do this?" Ironman asked, in a cocky manner.

"Just promise me you won't rust up when I have you crying like a bi--"

"GUYS!" Wonderman yelled, cutting off Bucky and causing both men to look his way, "Widow and Solo are waiting for us. We have to get Fury out of here. The Chinese military are going to be wondering what the hell that explosion was. If they find us here we're going to have a lot more problems than which one of you has the bigger ego!"

"Fine. This isn't over though," Ironman said, walking away from the situation.

"That's right. Walk away. Turn your back. Just like you turned your back on Captain America," Bucky responded snidely.

Ironman stopped. "What did you say?"

"You heard me! This entire fiasco wouldn't even be happening, if you didn't turn your back on him and start your Civil War against all of us in the first place! If you could just get your own ego in check and not need to control everything he wouldn't be in a coma right now!" Bucky yelled back.

"YOU'RE DONE!" Ironman yelled flying at Bucky, slamming into him, both of them flying at blinding speeds out of the mouth of the hangar into open air.

"Ahhh crap," Wonderman sighed.



"I don't think they're coming," Solo whispered as he shimmied down the elevator shaft cable, and landing softly beside Widow.

"It doesn't matter. We get Fury, we get out, we get back to the States, we sort this all out there," Widow replied crawling on her hands and knees into an air duct in front of Solo.

"The mission is all that matters?" Solo said, more as a question rather than a statement.

"That's it," Widow replied.

Solo crawled right behind her on his hands and knees.

"I think I'm in love," he said.


"YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!" Ironman yelled as he flew through the air, holding Bucky with one hand, and slamming his fist into Bucky's face with the other.

"THIS HAS BEEN A LONG TIME COMING! YOU DIDN'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT ANY OF THOSE HEROES REGISTERING! ALL YOU CARED ABOUT WAS CONTROL! THAT'S ALL YOU'VE EVER CARED ABOUT!" Bucky yelled back, grabbing Ironman by the chin.

"THAT'S BULL! I DON'T WANT TO SEE ANYMORE SCHOOLS GET BLOWN UP BECAUSE SOME IDIOT TEENAGERS DECIDED TO PLAY SUPER-HERO DRESS-UP!" Ironman yelled back hitting him again.

Bucky brought his other hand up, while still holding Ironman's chin. He held a pistol and fired it into Ironman's face sending both of them plummeting.


"Love?" Widow asked stopping, while on her hands and knees, right in front of Solo.

"The mission is all that matters," Solo said, moving a ventilation grate and dropping down from the ceiling into a hallway.

Widow dropped down next to him.

"Wait, you said--"

"The mission," Solo interrupted her stalking off down the hall, pulling out a large knife.


BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

"STOP SHOOTING ME IN THE FACE!" Ironman yelled as the two fell through the air.

"STOP BEING SUCH A PRICK!" Bucky yelled back.

Iroman shot out forward sending the two toward the ocean.

"I DON'T GET IT! ALL I WANT TO DO IS PROTECT THE WORLD! WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM!" Ironman yelled.

"THE CIVIL WAR IS OVER! THE REGISTRATION ACT IS OVER! CAP MAY HAVE STOOD DOWN, BUT IN THE END YOU LOST! NO ONE IS SUPPORTING YOUR BULL AND YOU CAN'T GET OVER IT!" Bucky yelled back.

BLAM!

"STOP SHOOTING ME!" Ironman yelled.

KER-SPLASH!

The two hit the water of the ocean.


"Yes. He's what? Oh my God!" Ms. Marvel yelled, "Simon! Simon this is Carol! You're never going to believe this!"

Ms. Marvel flew through the sky toward where she had seen Ironman and Winter Soldier go.

Wonderman stopped, hovering in the air. He had been chasing after Ironman and Bucky. "What? Carol! Thank God, I couldn't find you! What's so important?"


The knife sunk in deep into his throat and slid back out quickly, twisting and slicing the second skrull across the bridge of the nose.

"So much for those two," Solo muttered.

"If you think I'm interested at all in you, you have--"

"I don't," Solo said, interrupting Black Widow and continuing down the hallway, his smile hidden from her.


Ironman and Bucky sat on the outcropping of rock near the cliff face.

"Did you really have to crash us in the water?" Bucky said, trying to wring the salt water out of one of his socks.

"You wouldn't quit shooting me in the face," Ironman replied.

"You wouldn't quit persecuting heroes," Bucky retorted dumping water out of his boot.

Ironman stood up in front of Winter Soldier, "Look, what do you want from me? Was it the best idea? No. But it was an idea. An idea to try to make the world safer. I don't claim to have the best ideas. Just the ones that usually work--"

"--and this one didn't." Bucky cut him off finishing his sentence.

The two stared at each other silently.

"**--zzzkk do you read? Ironman, do you read? Over.**"

"Go ahead Carol," Ironman said back into his transceiver to Ms. Marvel.


"Took you two long enough," Nick Fury said, rubbing his wrists. A pair of shackles lay on the ground beside him.

Black Widow stared at Solo, curiously.

Solo pretended to ignore her look, "The Avengers don't leave their own behind enemy lines, sir."

"Good to know," Fury replied.

"So how do we stop these Skrulls?" Black Widow asked, catching herself from staring too long at Solo.

"Stop them? Why would we stop them?" Fury asked.

"Green guys. Aliens. Trying to take over the world. You know. Their usual deal," So responded.

"These Skrulls work for S.W.O.R.D. Sentient World Observation and Response Department. S.W.O.R.D. is a counterpart of the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization. Since I was removed as director of S.H.E.I.L.D., relations between the two organizations have become strained. The head of S.W.O.R.D. is Special Agent Abigail Brand. Its primary command-and-control headquarters is aboard the orbital space station known as the Peak. We've had Skrulls working for us for years," Fury informed them.

"Wait....then why are they here and not in space? And why were you their prisoner?" Solo asked confused.

"Come on junior. Really? Skrulls posing as HYDRA agents? You really bought that crap? Why in the world would an alien race that hates humans pose as something humans hate?" Fury responded, lighting a cigar.

"I have some of the highest S.H.E.I.L.D. clearance there--"Widow started.

"Sorry toots. Had to play this one close to the vest. These Skrulls are here to keep an eye out for America's interests. Between tensions with North Korea, and China's economy booming like it is, the United Nations and the United States wants an eye as close to potential problem sites as possible," Fury informed them.

"Then why were you being held prisoner?" Solo asked again.


Stark Tower
New York City, New York.
12:48 Hours
War Room

"And so that's it. You were all considered candidates for the new Avengers Initiative," Fury said, taking a sip from a shot glass and grimacing.

"So this was all a test? S.H.E.I.L.D., S.W.O.R.D., the United States Government, and the United Nations wanted to find out who would make the best Avengers team???" Bucky asked, still confused.

"That's about right soldier," Fury responded.

"Wait," Ironman said, not quite understanding,"I'm the director of S.H.E.I.L.D. How did I not hear about any of this?"

"Son, do you really think the U.N. could do without me? I know too much. They'd have to kill me. And frankly they've failed way too many times trying. So they gave me a nice pay increase to lay low and put you in charge. Is it really that hard to believe? It's much easier having you in place. Someone they can control. When you started waging the Civil War during the Superhuman registration fiasco, who do you think set that all up? They did. They wanted control over the entire Super-Hero community" Fury answered.

"So who's behind it all then? Osborn? Shaw?" Wonderman asked.

"Have you not been listening," Fury said puffing on his cigar, "Sometimes kid, there is no big wizard behind the curtain. Sometimes it's just greedy men doing greedy things."

"If you knew all of this, why didn't you do anything to stop it? Why didn't you stop the Civil War?" Ironman asked standing up from his seat in anger and pointing a finger at Fury accusingly.

"When Scarlet Witch lost her marbles, the Avengers were devastated. While you and Captain America worked to try to rebuild the Avengers, S.H.E.I.L.D. and the U.N. were doing the same. What if you and Rogers failed? Better yet, what if you and Rogers had a falling out? Guess what. You did. The Civil War. We, being the U.N. and S.H.E.I.L.D. need the public on our side. It's politics. The public was pro-registration. So we weren't going to step in to try to stop you. The public, since Cap was shot, has become very anti-registration. So it's done. It's about the people and what the people want," Fury said.

"So we're all just pawn to what the U.N. thinks the people want from us?" Ms. Marvel asked, taking it all in.

"Welcome to the hero game babe," Fury replied.

"So where do we go from here? If this was all a test to see if how well we all worked together, which clearly some us don't, what happens to the Avengers?" Bucky asked.

"Well....I suppose that's up to him," Fury said nodding to the figure in the doorway who had just entered the room.

"It's time to re-create the Avengers," Captain America said.

NEXT ISSUE: Assemble!

To me, the Avengers just aren't the Avengers without Cap! Thanks for bringing him back. This whole story has had a very "Ultimates" feel to it, which I've enjoyed. I really like your tight writing style.

Yeah, I agree. Cap IS the Avengers. The HYDRA/Skrulls angle was hard to play off without giving it all away due to me not being able to really develop any sort of motive for why either would be stirring up problems. I was really worried it would come across as if the story was all over the place. Not sure if it came out that way or not. ALl I know is I'm excited for the next issue where Cap finally picks HIS team. ANYONE in the Marvel Universe is a candidate!

Holy Shit Cap is out of his coma. Awesome job Craig i did not see that coming. I loved the dialogue between Ironman and Bucky during their fight. You write banter really well. Great job Craig