CHAPTER SEVEN

PURSUIT

A.I.M. ISLAND was on high alert. Weapons were assigned, and some of the most brilliant—if questionably ethical—minds in the world went to work on the problem of retrieving their lost prize. Satellite feeds from around the world—those not affected by the pulse—were hacked for data. A.I.M. was skilled at finding shortcuts and covering their tracks.

* * *

“WE SHOULD have been better equipped,” Superia said. “Even if the thing was exponentially stronger than initially believed.” She surveyed the damage where the pod had stood. The bodies had been removed.

“Still, you have to admit…” she added, “quite a specimen.”

“Hmmm,” the uniformed man standing next to her responded. “And one worth retrieving.” As he did, a technician approached quickly and spoke to him.

“Scientist Supreme,” the newcomer said. “The tracking system has picked up the entity. It’s stopped in… in Perth, sir.”

“Of course it has,” the lead scientist replied. “Going where it believes it is needed—where the signal called it to.” Using a handheld device, the technician called up holographic screens that showed the violence taking place in the Australian city.

“Just look what it has done to these Avengers,” Superia said, a hint of glee in her voice. “What carnage. What potential! Breathtaking.”

“Indeed,” the Scientist Supreme agreed, and he turned to a group gathered around a device that boasted four large rings, mounted on end one after the other. “Doctors! Power up the Auger!” he said loudly.

“You’re certain this will work?” she asked.

“It has before,” the Scientist Supreme answered, remembering the screams of the human guinea pig. “In a certain manner.” Details of that particular test run had been very effectively squelched.

The assault team was ready to go within five minutes. If any members of the group had a problem with the idea of being sent thousands of miles in an instant, using highly experimental technology, they never shared their trepidation.

* * *

“IT’S ALL right,” Superia said, peering up at the huge red eye. “I just want to talk.” The towering figure, fully armored, didn’t respond. Didn’t move.

The scene to which they had arrived was even more impressive than the images had implied. Thor lay smoldering on the ground, his hammer resting against his hand. Hyperion was bruised and unconscious—she hadn’t thought that actually possible. Given different circumstances this would have been a gold mine of assets. The vivisection of an Asgardian would teach them so very much that was currently pure conjecture. Just to get her hands on Spider-Man for a few hours would yield a wealth of scientific data.

Even now Thor’s breathing was changing and Captain America groaned. They had been defeated but not killed.

Pity.

Still, the harvesting team would gather what they could, for further study. No sense in wasting a unique opportunity, after all.

Above them stood the target of her attention. The thing was magnificent. Organic, yes, but metallic. This was the sort of creation that would change the game, given time—as evidenced by how quickly and easily it had taken out the so-called “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.”

The thing’s head turned, and she assumed it was studying them, assessing their potential as a threat. Beyond that, the thing did not move, and she decided that was a positive. Carefully she held out a small holographic projector.

“I want you to see something,” Superia said, keeping her voice utterly calm. “I would have shown it to you as soon as you emerged, but you left in such a rush.” The image that floated in the air showed both the Earth, as seen from a distance, and Mars. “Best we can tell, this is what happened to you,” she continued.

“It started on Mars and spread to the Earth. Most people around the world thought it was an attack.” She nodded toward the fallen heroes. “After looking closely, we determined it was more like an infection—a way to modify our ecosphere. But it was interrupted.”

She walked closer. The head of the thing tracked her and focused, as near as she could tell, on the image she was projecting. Keeping its attention was important. Around her, the assault team shifted, the men and women moving slowly into position. She switched the hologram to show the pod as they had found it.

“When you hatched from your cocoon, it was into a world that didn’t really want or need you, and now you don’t know what to do,” Superia continued. “We can help you. We can teach you. It’ll just take time… and a more conducive…”

By her calculations, they would have exactly one chance to do this right. If they failed, the Avengers wouldn’t be the only ones lying on the ground, though she was convinced that any blasts the thing might let loose would be enough to vaporize ordinary humans like her.

That wasn’t going to happen.

“…work environment.”

The instant she uttered the keywords, the first team struck from behind and caught the creature unawares. The sole purpose of the light show was to keep its attention and, happily, it had worked. Their clamps locked onto the thing’s neck and arm, and sent low-amplitude electrical discharges through its body, set to a frequency that mirrored the creature’s assaults on the Avengers. The devices had been designed to use on Thor or the Hulk, and modifications had been easy enough.

The thing teetered, ready to fall.

Team Two did its part and signaled the Auger. Their prisoner disappeared in a flash, leaving the clamps empty.

“Did we get him?” she said into her comm.

“We have him,” the Scientist Supreme responded. “Translocation to the island was successful. Tunneling into trans-universal, also successful. There’s little damage it’ll be able to inflict there.”

Superia nodded to herself. Excellent. A.I.M. had found a space between dead universes, a nothingness they used as the ultimate storage facility. It also served as the perfect prison for a creature that could level all of the Avengers with ease.

“However, there’s still work to be done,” the scientist reminded her, and she bristled a bit at the condescension. “Are the harvesters ready?”

She looked at her team. “They’re collecting what they need now,” she responded. A.I.M. wasn’t just made up of testosterone-charged foot soldiers. They weren’t Hydra. It was a gathering of inquisitive minds who wanted to understand science in ways no one else could—and to profit from that information. “When they’re finished, we’ll need a redirection on the lure, to translocate us back to—”

“A machine? That’s what you use to teleport?”

She spun to face the newcomer.

“How adorable,” Manifold said.

“It’s Eden Fesi, ma’am,” one of the techs said. “He’s their teleporter. He’s—” The man’s words were cut off as Manifold’s spear pierced his shoulder.

“I don’t know what you’re doing to my friends,” Fesi said as he sprinted toward them. “I don’t even know what happened here, but it ends now.” One by one the A.I.M. personnel vanished in flashes of light. “It’s time for you guys to leave.”

More flashes.

“And I don’t care where you go.”

Only Superia remained.

“No!” she said. “Get your hands off—”

Her feet crunched on snow in a dark wasteland.

“—me,” she finished. “Damn.”

* * *

CAPTAIN AMERICA looked up and blinked at the glare above him. The last thing he remembered was being knocked senseless by a new attacker, another threat to the Earth. Now—as he rose to his knees and then his feet, grabbing his shield as he stood—he saw only Manifold.

The man looked to him and nodded. “I have bad news.”

“How bad?” Cap looked around and studied the other Avengers. They were breathing. There was that much at least. No fatalities was the best news he could have imagined at that moment.

“Very bad. According to Captain Universe, we have much bigger problems than we originally thought.”

That was exactly the sort of news he didn’t want to hear, but some things were simply inevitable.

Captain America listened, and then sighed.

Much bigger, indeed.