BOOK ONE, CHAPTER 4

The Wasp flew through the night sky of New York City, heading for a destination that meant a great deal to her: Avengers Mansion. It would be a true homecoming, she thought to herself, because for all the good she had been able to do as a West Coast-er, it was the East Coast where she had been born and raised, and where she had, years before, co-founded the Avengers. It was where she belonged.

As she got closer, she saw smoke. No, she thought, please don’t let it be what I think it is.

But it proved to be just so. Avengers Mansion was a smouldering wreck. Yet such was her spirit that she refused to give up hope that her fellow Avengers lived and they could right the forces which had wrought this disaster.

She shrank to insect-size before entering, cautiously anticipating that the culprits were still inside the mansion. Strange voices coming from the master control room seemed to confirm what she had predicted.

Flying into the master control room, she saw the Avengers, some of whom she knew well, others who she hardly knew at all, each and every one lying unconscious on the floor in varying states of injury. And standing over them were their apparent assailants, a man and a woman. The man was imposingly tall and muscular, dressed in black with a red cape; the woman wore silver armor, had long raven locks which spilled out of her headgear, and carried a hi-tech weapon.

“...must not hesitate.” said the woman. “Time is of the essence.”

“Yes, quite literally.” said the man. “Open the slash/way while I retrieve our quarry.”

Smart enough to know she was out-numbered and out-powered, the Wasp made a 180 degree turn and prepared to fly away and seek help. Unfortunately, she was not fast enough. In the proverbial blink of an eye, she had been stunned by cosmic rays emanating from the man’s eyes. The Wasp spiraled to the ground.

“You should have let me vaporize her.” said the woman.

“No.” said the man. “I told you, no casualties. Now let us be off.”

The man stepped through a portal which the woman had opened, carrying in his arms the Avenger named Sersi. The woman followed the man into the portal, and, in a flash, they were gone.

The Wasp grew to her normal size and picked herself up off the ground. She took a better look at the fallen Avengers strewn across the room: the Vision, Hercules, the Black Knight, Crystal, the Black Widow, Quasar, a short-haired woman she recognized as Carol Danvers, the former Ms. Marvel, a blond man in leathers she recognized as Eric Masterson, who had deputized for Thor, and, finally, what appeared to be the real Thor himself, returned from otherworldly exile. It was he who the Wasp noticed was stirring and moaning. She ran towards him.

“Thor, is that you?” she asked. “Do you recognize me?”

“Indeed,” he answered through his pain, “I see that thou art my fellow Avenger, the Wasp. I bid thee welcome, and only wish the occasion could have been the happy one I didst anticipate when I returned earlier.”

“Tell me everything that happened,” said the Wasp, “from the beginning.”

Thor sat up on the floor, grinding his teeth as the pain increased momentarily before subsiding.

“Twas Hercules who did invite his friends Eric and myself upon hearing of my return and Eric’s transformation into Thunderstrike...”

*******

Earlier that day...

“Ho, fellow Avengers!” said the newly beardless Hercules as he led his friends into the master control room. “Tis a day of rejoicing, for we now have two noble warriors in place of one! I give thee Thor and Thunderstrike.”

Instead of the fanfare they had expected, there was an uncomfortable silence from the other Avengers.

The Black Widow, chairing the meeting in Captain America’s absence, broke the silence.

“It is good to see you again, Thor, and I’m sure I speak for everyone else on that matter. However, the occasion is not a happy one. It’s taken us weeks just to get the whole team together, and in the interim we’ve received news that the Avengers West Coast have disbanded in acrimony, over what happens to be the very subject we are addressing right now: should we retain the members who participated in the killing of the Supreme Intelligence? That, of course, includes you, Hercules, and you...uh...Thunderstrike.”

“Od’s blood!” exclaimed Thor. “The KILLING of the Supreme Intelligence? Tell me this is but a tasteless jest!”

“‘Fraid not, buddy.” said Thunderstrike sheepishly.

“Nay, friend Eric,” said Hercules, “thou did stay thy hand, and are not responsible.” He turned to the Black Widow. “Fair Natasha, a group of us did execute a mass murderer to prevent further atrocities from occurring. If that doth put me at any kind of fault, then so be it. I make no apologies.”

Thor put his hand to his face, and shook his head.

“There’s no point in going on about this.” said Sersi peevishly. “What’s done is done. And I make no apologies, either!”

Thor exploded. “Dost thee not have the wisdom accumulated over millenia that violence only begets more violence?”

“Maybe not,” retorted Sersi, “but at least I’m not in denial over the violent deeds I’ve committed over millenia! Can you say the same, Thor?”

The room exploded into loud arguments from several sides.

“I can’t believe this is happening.” whispered Carol Danvers to Quasar, “Not to the Avengers!”

“My sentiments exactly.” agreed Quasar. “If only I knew what we could do.”

“That’s enough!” belted the Black Widow authoritatively. “We will discuss this like civilized beings!”

Suddenly, a cosmic shockwave shook up the room.

Before anyone could wonder what had just happened, Sersi went off.

“Civilized? What do you know about civilization? I’ve been around longer than any of you! I’ve seen countless so-called civilizations rise and fall! And if this one’s moving toward the end of its cycle, so be it! That’s all you mortals are good for, anyway, fighting and...”

“Sersi,” said the Black Widow, “I’m warning you...”

“You dare,” screamed Sersi, “speak like that to ME??”

The next couple of seconds, time seemed to slow down to a crawl, as the Avengers, to their horror, saw red cosmic beams emerge from Sersi’s eyes and blast the Black Widow point blank. As their horror turned to anger, Sersi’s eye beams swept around the room in a 360 degree arc, knocking down each Avenger one at a time, until only Crystal and Thor were left standing.

Crystal, with a wave of her hand, commanded solid earth to erupt from beneath Sersi and encase her in a chrysalis of rock. Unfortunately, Sersi blasted through it with great ease, and then blasted Crystal. Thor, feeling the warrior madness threatening to overtake him, raised his mighty hammer, Mjolnir, but Sersi was quicker than him, blasting him with much more force than she had blasted the others.

As Thor’s consciousness faded to black, he saw Sersi contemplate her rampage and exclaim, “Great Zuras, what have I DONE??”, before clutching her head with both heads, letting out a bloodcurdling scream, and passing out on the floor alongside her victims.

*********

“...and that,” said Thor, “...is the last I remember. Even in her mad rage, Sersi did restrain herself enough not to kill us, for an Eternal can indeed kill even a god.”

“And now,” replied the Wasp, “those cosmic weirdos I told you about took her heaven knows where.”

Suddenly, a deep and sinister voice came from outside the room. “There are graver matters at hand, which require your immediate attention.”

Thor and the Wasp turned to see none other than Thanos, once an omnipotent villain and currently of ambiguous standing, enter the room.

“Come, come now!” he demanded. “This is no time for tarrying!”

The Wasp put on her bravest face and asked pointedly, “Why should we trust YOU??”

Another, softer voice came from outside the room. “He’s on the up-and-up. Take it from...” former Avenger Starfox entered the room, “...his brother.”

“And from the leader of the Eternals.” said the amazonian blonde Thena, who followed Starfox inside. “Explanations will be forthcoming, but for now you must accompany us. And bring your fallen comrades – we can easily heal them all, and we will need them all.”

Shortly, Thor and the Wasp and the other Avengers found themselves in the pull of a tractor beam, heading towards a gigantic spaceship, the leader of a vast armada consisting of the finest fleets produced by the Eternals of both Earth and Titan.

And inside the spaceship was none other than the sentient force of nature known as Galactus!

The Wasp sighed. No matter how long she was in the super-hero business, the adventures just got bigger and weirder.