Marv? Can you hear me?

Oh, it’s you again.

Yeah, it’s me. Rick. Look, we’ve gotta get you back to Earth. Get back to the rest of the Avengers, see if they made it out okay.

I don’t even know what the hell you’re talking about.

Enough with the jokes, this is serious. Fly back to Earth now, okay? We don’t have time to waste. The Avengers may need your help. Half those supercriminals are probably still running loose down there.

Y’know… Rick is it?

Ugh… yes, it’s Rick.

Right, Rick. Listen, I’d love to help you out in whatever way I can, but I’m at kind of a loss myself.

And what would that be?

You see… the thing is I sort of can’t move.

…is this a joke?

Nope, no joke.

When you say you can’t move, you mean like your leg or your arm was injured in the explosion, right?

No, I mean I can’t move. Period.

You can’t move at all?

Nope.

Not even a little?

Nuh-uh.

Can you fly or anything?

I can’t feel anything. It’s like my mind has been shut off from the rest of my body. It’s like I’m trapped inside my own body. I’m sorry Rick (whoever you are), but I can’t help you.

Y’know… I just knew there would come a time when I would regret being molecularly bonded to you.

What’s that mean?

Oh shut up.

LOST

Part II: Search Party

By Logan Polk and Dino Pollard

The Vision hovered near the outer rim of Earth’s atmosphere. He remained stiff and rigid in midair, the wind blowing his yellow cape freely around the diamond-hard android body. His eyes were glowing and his cybernetic brain was trying to track any sort of beacon signal the escape pod may have given off. Unfortunately, he hadn’t had much luck.

A buzzing noise interrupted his search. The Vision recognized the familiar sound as an incoming call from his Avengers ID card. It was wired into his central processing unit, so he was able to access it without actually handling it.

“Go ahead, Colonel.”

{ You find anythin’ yet? } The voice belonged to Colonel Nick Fury, the Director of SHIELD.

“Unfortunately no, I haven’t,” replied the Vision. “I believe the interference of the beacons sent by Noh-Varr have scrambled some of the pathways. Most of the beacons I am receiving are calls for invasion forces to come to Earth. Apparently, they are still bouncing off the satellites and they’ve masked the ship’s beacon, which must be fairly weak by comparison. How goes things on your end?”

{ No luck contacting Richards. But since he’s in debt to SHIELD, that means I’ve got full access to his little toys. We’ll find a way to get Rogers into the Negative Zone, one way or the other. }

“Understood,” said the Vision. “I’m going to go further, just outside of Earth’s atmosphere, to see if I can widen the search, perhaps get past the static given off by the satellites.”

{ Keep us posted. Fury out. }

The line went dead and the Vision flew higher into the sky. The light blue of the afternoon sky began to fade away, giving to the darkness of space, dotted with millions of bright stars, twinkling billions upon billions of light years away. He saw the sun bright in the distance, providing a breathtaking source of light for him. He looked about at the moon and then the other nearby planets and he could not help but smile at the sheer majesty of it all.

The Vision’s thoughts drifted to his companions aboard the escape pod. Despite Namor’s pompous and arrogant attitude, the Vision found he had a great deal of respect for the monarch of Atlantis. He was a good man underneath his rough exterior, and he reminded the Vision of Fury in a certain way. The Vision had not had much of a chance to interact with Cannonball, but he knew of the young man’s record with the X-Men, X-Force and New Mutants and Sam had proven himself thus far as an Avenger. He seemed a bit shy, but the Vision imagined that had more to do with being thrust into a situation where he barely knew anyone. Still, the young man showed a lot of promise and Captain America certainly seemed to believe in him.

And then there was Warbird.

Not too long ago, her and the Vision went out on an afternoon date. A crisis called and they were forced to run off on Avengers business. As of yet, they hadn’t been able to find a time to reschedule, and neither had really made the effort to, either. The Vision found himself wishing he had. For quite some time, he was too concerned with pining over Wanda. But Wanda was gone now, moved on to a new life. Wonder Man certainly seemed to make her happy and the Vision couldn’t find reason to stand in the way of that. So he had tried to move on himself and at first, it was an attempt to make Wanda jealous. Now, however, the Vision discovered there was something he found very intriguing about Carol Danvers, something he wished to explore further.

Wanda on the other hand… she was missing, as was the rest of the west coast team. The Vision wondered what could have happened to them. Part of him wanted to fly straight to California and discover just what was happening there. But his place was with the east coast team, and right now, he had a task to complete.

He pushed through the static of the satellites, peering through the haze until eventually, he located a very faint signal. With a computer for a brain, the Vision was very analytical. He quickly determined the trajectory and direction of the pod and where it was headed. Once he discovered this, he immediately dove into Earth’s atmosphere.

“Vision here. I found the signal.”

{ Good, where are they? }

“Headed straight for the sun. We have to hurry.”

Inside the escape pod, Warbird continued to try to reactivate the ship’s controls. As a former USAF pilot, she was confident that if she could at least get the controls to work, then she could reverse their course, send them towards Earth or at least away from the destination that awaited them.

“You’re wasting your time, Danvers,” said Namor.

“Namor, why don’t you do everyone a favor and shut up?” said Warbird. “You’re not helping.”

“Neither are you, apparently,” said Namor.

“I’m doing the best I can, do you have any better suggestions? Because if you do, I’d love to hear them.”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” said Namor. “We accept our fate and make peace with our gods.”

“Never expected the high and mighty Namor to give in so easily,” said Warbird.

“I’m not ‘giving in,’ as you put it,” said Namor. “I just know when a situation is helpless. We have no way of communicating with Earth, the controls are damaged beyond repair, and not one of us is fit for space travel.”

“Doesn’t mean we stop trying,” said Warbird.

Namor glanced to the other side of the pod and saw Cannonball, the youngest Avenger, with his eyes focused on the ground. He hadn’t moved since they told him the situation and Namor imagined that the young man was in a state of shock.

“Obviously they don’t make Avengers like they used to,” said Namor, with his thumb pointed at Cannonball.

“Leave him alone, he was unconscious for a time after Ohmphalos exploded,” said Warbird. “He probably still hasn’t recovered from it.”

“This is what happens when Rogers recruits someone who couldn’t cut it as an X-Man,” said Namor. “His bleeding heart will get him killed one of these days. Always trying to give someone a chance. Like the time he invited that man with the revolting stench to join the team.”

“Yeah, and he obviously wasn’t firing on all cylinders when he asked you to join…” muttered Warbird.

“He asked me to join because he knew your team was ineffectual without me,” said Namor.

“As I recall, you weren’t much help during Noh-Varr’s attack and you bailed on us during the Luminstan mission, so I wouldn’t act like the second coming if I were you.”

“I’ve got an idea.”

Namor turned his head to look at Cannonball, then said, “so he speaks. Finally get over the shock? I suppose X-Force never dealt with something like this.”

“Actually, we dealt with worse, but that’s beside the point,” said Cannonball. “I wasn’t in shock, I was thinkin’ up a plan.”

“Wonderful, a plan,” said Namor. “You do realize you are here with two veteran Avengers, one of whom is the monarch of Atlantis, and neither of us could think of a plan. So what does that tell you?”

“That I should feel sorry for the people of Atlantis,” said Cannonball. Warbird chuckled and Namor’s face contorted with rage. Before Namor could muster a response, Warbird interrupted him.

“What’s your plan?”

“I’m not sure if it’ll work,” said Cannonball. “But if I generate enough kinetic energy, maybe I can contain all three of us in my blast field and give us enough oxygen to make it to Earth’s atmosphere.”

“That’s impossible, Sam,” said Warbird. “Can your forcefield completely seal us off when traveling through space?”

“I dunno, I’ve never tried it before,” said Cannonball. “But right now, it looks like it’s our only option.”

“Then you should probably get started on building up that energy,” said Warbird. “Our life support systems will barely last another hour.”

SHIELD Helicarrier

“I really hope I’m doing this right…” said Bill Foster. Once an assistant to Hank Pym, Foster’s body also contains the Pym Particles which allow him to change his size at will. For a short time, he operated independently as the superhero called Black Goliath. Since his retirement, he has been employed by SHIELD as one of their top scientific minds. He was hard at work trying to configure an interdimensional transport device to the Microverse.

“I’m sure you’re doing fine, Dr. Foster,” said Captain America.

“I appreciate the confidence, but I’m a biochemist, quantum physics isn’t my field,” said Foster.

“Right now, you’re the best we’ve got, Foster,” said Fury.

The door to the lab slid open and Iron Man stepped inside, his faceplate raised to reveal the face of Tony Stark. “I just received a message from the Vision, he’s located the pod and he’s on his way back to the Helicarrier.”

“Good,” said Captain America. “That means we just need to track down Genis.”

“I don’t like the idea of you doing this alone, Cap,” said Iron Man. “I should go with you.”

“Your place is here, Tony. I can take care of myself.”

“I know you can, but my scanners can come in handy when trying to locate Rick,” said Iron Man.

“I can manage,” said Captain America. “Are we ready, Doctor?”

“I hope so,” said Foster. “Again Cap, I have to stress that I’m not sure how this really works.”

“You’ve spent the past few months boning up on Richards’ research on alternate dimensions, right?” asked Fury. “And you’ve been messin’ around with that contraption, too.”

“That’s true, but there’s a lot I’m still not certain on,” said Foster. “Dr. Richards should really be here to help me with this.”

“The Fantastic Four have their own problems right now,” said Fury. “Christ, all the crap that’s happened to you supertypes lately makes a guy wonder what the hell’s gonna happen next.”

“Don’t jinx us, Fury,” said Iron Man.

Captain America checked the harness that was strapped to his torso. It was equipped with several sensors and circuitry, none of which he could completely understand.

“Are you ready, Cap?” asked Foster.

“Just making sure I have this thing on right,” said Captain America. “Is it working properly?”

“Let me check.” Foster stepped over to the computer console and scanned the readings on the monitor through his round-frame glasses. He held a thumbs-up. “The signal is coming through. With this harness, we’ll be able to transport you out of the Microverse once you find your friend.”

“Good,” said Captain America. “Are we ready to go, then?”

“Just give me a minute…” said Foster as his fingers danced across the keyboard on the console. The device was equipped with a large doorway and the open space between it began to glow brightly. “We’re set.”

“Anything else I should know?” asked Captain America.

“According to the files we have on the Microverse, all the sub-universes were melded together after a battle between Thanos and Baron Karza,” said Foster. “Because of this, pretty much any prior knowledge we have of the Microverse is useless. There’s no way for us to have any idea of what you may face in there.”

“Never stopped me before,” said Captain America. Without another word, he ran into the doorway and vanished inside the portal.

The White House

Footage from Noh-Varr’s recent assault on the planet flickered on a monitor inside the Oval Office. The President of the United States and his cabinet stood around the monitor, watching carefully. Many of them felt a sense of dread overcome them when they witnessed the Avengers attacking Washington, D.C. The Secretary of Defense held a remote in his hand and switched off the monitor.

“How much damage has been caused?” asked the President.

“We don’t have any figures yet,” said the Vice-President. “But it’s fairly extensive. We haven’t even gotten into the damage wrought on the various prisons that were damaged in the days preceeding the invasion.”

“And the Avengers themselves?” asked the President.

“Our attempts to contact them have failed,” said the Secretary of State. “They haven’t been seen since their attack. Their west coast team has been missing, presumed dead, for even longer.”

“And Fury?”

“He’s also been preoccupied.”

“Something has to be done,” said the President. “First the U.N. steps on our toes by declaring Avengers Mansion a sovereign nation and now this.”

“Let’s not forget the Luminstan crisis,” said the Vice-President. “Our attempts to maintain our foothold there have completely fallen through. The Prime Minister wants no American intervention.”

“So what do we do, John?” asked the President.

“We’re working on something right now, Mr. President,” replied the Secretary of Defense. “It’s a decision that may prove… controversial.”

“Tell me more,” said the President.

SHIELD Helicarrier

“I have an idea,” said the Vision. “Now that we’ve located them, we have to hurry to get them back to Earth, or to at least reverse their course. I should be launched into space.”

“That’s not necessary, I have armors capable of space flight,” said Iron Man.

“Not to this extent, Tony,” said the Vision. “And we haven’t the time or resources to prepare a shuttle and we all know it.”

“Kid’s got a point,” said Fury. “SHIELD’s efforts are too split between rounding up these crazies an’ we can’t get near the Baxter Building to use any of Reed’s equipment.”

“How do you suggest we do this, Vision?” asked Iron Man.

“I can only fly so fast under my own power, but if we equipped my legs with thrusters, that would be a different story,” said the Vision.

“Let’s get to it,” said Iron Man.