THE RETURN

By Anthony Crute

New York

Legacy. It’s a word I often think about. It’s hard not to when you’re a member of the worlds premier super team. The Mighty Avengers. We have a long and storied career; half of the Avengers have either gotten something whether it be powers, tech or an ideal from a predecessor in one form or another or have spawned others in their image. The War Machines, Wonderman, The U.S.Agents. Hank Pym alone is responsible for more superheroes and unfortunately villains than I like to think about. Then there is me. I am Warbird.

Carol slammed hard into the concrete and stone of the building. The steel running through it stopped her ploughing straight through the wall. It didn’t, however, stop her head slamming backwards into the building.

It’s at time like this I think of him. ‘Captain Mar-Vell’. He and he alone is the reason I’m here. I used to be a pilot and then head of base security at an air force test site, that’s how I met him. He was a soldier back then complete with a stupid uniform. He was sent to destroy us but instead chose to protect us. He then showed time and time again what it was to be a hero. Whether that was being there when people needed you and only you stood a chance, no matter how slim of helping them or turning your back on your entire species to do so…and we couldn’t even get his name right.

“Warbird are you okay?” Captain Marvel (III to be precise) asked as he bobbed in the air looking into the vertical crater Warbird had managed to create with her body as she was driven into the wall. He was the son of the original Captain Marvel. He wore the name with reverence and pride.

“Fine,” Warbird growled as she pushed herself free from the building. “How’s everyone else doing?”

“As good as can be expected, we should get back,” he turned in the air effortlessly and poured on the speed disappearing between the skyscrapers on the other side of the street. He had been sent to check on his team mate who had just been punched by their foe across three city blocks.

Through it all, I think of him. The poundings, the bruises, the burns… none of that even matters. The fights with super-villains from Scorpion to Deathbird to MODOK none of that matters in the grander scheme. Even the things which do matter, Raped by a man who then became my son, my history with Rogue…and all the monsters and horrors I’ve seen from The Brood to the depths to which man can sink that keep me awake at night. All of these things pale in comparison to the things he gave me.

Carol pushed herself away from the building. Her own body weight was held effortlessly by the air as she launched into self powered flight. She followed the example of Genis-Vell and poured on the speed.

There’s the flight, there’s always the flight. There isn’t a more wonderful thing in the world. There’s the strength, now not only can I know something is wrong, know something should be done but I can do it. This is why I do it, the knowledge that despite all of the monsters out there, we do the things we do because there are people out there who make it all worth it. People out there who make the fight worthwhile…and we couldn’t even get his name right.

Carol arched around the last row of buildings and instantly back into the fight.

The giant metallic structure gleamed in the morning light. Her team mates were tiny in comparison to the giant humanoid form.

Ultimo, the doomsday device built by some long forgotten and extinct species of alien (handily at the hands of their own doomsday device) which crashed to Earth before the turn of the last century. He’s a peculiar foe for any superhero. He was once controlled by The Mandarin into battling Iron Man but since then the giant robot seems to just turn up (even when it’s been dismantled) and goes on a rampage until someone puts it down. The someones this time were The Avengers.

Iron Man, the robot’s first earthly foe, rocketed through the air around its chest at a dangerous closeness. The blast of his repulsors fired across the length of its solid metallic body like twinkling lights…they seemed to do as much damage.

Namor unleashed the power of his blows against the hard metal of the ‘creature.’ He screamed aloud a long and powerful cry of anger. Even after all these years and all the fights he’s been involved in, he’s barely mellowed.

Cannonball AKA Samuel Guthrie. The mutant who has been both a hero and was once considered a villain when he led his team known as X-Force. He was once the Cyclops of the next generation, leading mutants to protect the world even if it was one who hated and feared them. He had since grown considerably in the superhero world, he was now an Avenger. The reasons adamantly clear as he slammed the entire force powered by his bio-kinetic force field into the giant robot, this actually managed to make the robot stumble. The first such piece of luck.

Captain America was their leader at this time. He was in the thick of the action below the feet of the monster saving the lives of those who needed saving from it’s massive weight while barking the orders and tactics to those heroes better able to deal with this situation.

Captain Marvel and Warbird were working in tandem in this fight. That was their role. The second she flew back into range Genis returned to the tactic Captain America had proscribed for him. He matched the angle and declination of Ultimo’s inhuman eyes or one of them at least. Warbird did the same.

The beams from the creature’s eyes were enough to destroy almost any manmade matter from human flesh to the hardest of metals. The two members of ‘the marvel family’ however had the ability to absorb and re-direct energy. The beams hurt but they weren’t fatal to the two heroes.

Vision was the last of their number on this mission and he was also their most valuable member at the moment. Ultimo’s hide was near impenetrable to brute force but thankfully not to intangibility so as the spectre of Vision drifted through his hard outer surface it was a good sign that this battle could be reaching an end.

The robot lashed out an arm again barely missing Iron Man but wiping out the top floor of a nearby building. Cannonball spiralled around the length of the outstretched arm and raced up directly for the head of the robot. It turned sharply to fire.

Warbird and Captain Marvel were caught unaware by the speed of the swivel. They were however already quickly diving towards their team mate unleashing all the energy they had been absorbing in hopes of slowing him down long enough.

It didn’t work. The beams of light exploded around the form of Cannonball. He continued on smashing his full power into the face of the robot causing it’s head to turn rapidly whilst still firing it’s beams.

Cannonball’s invulnerability had stopped him being harmed but the surrounding buildings were not so lucky.

That was the first time I saw him again. I turned to look at the destruction the robot had just caused and there he was. The rubble was still falling down and the flames were just starting to lick up, there wasn’t even any smoke at that very moment and there he was.

He was hanging in the air with The Sun behind him. He was first a silhouette and then he moved. He moved with a speed even now I find astounding and as he passed between Genis and myself I knew it was him.

His blond hair blew atop the top of his head. His square jaw was tensed as he gritted his teeth together in effort. The costume he wore hadn’t changed. The star in the centre pulsed with light or so it seemed for a second. The glittering trail he left behind him was all I could see then.

Captain Marvel slammed into the face of Ultimo seemingly unbothered by the blasts which the robot was still putting out. Then he stopped putting them out. The full might of Captain Marvel slamming into one eye and then the other.

In the split second he was there he had managed to see something we had missed. He had turned the battle in a second. Genis and I hung in the air watching in amazement. This amazing man who we had both been trying to live up to had seemingly reappeared…and he seemed stronger than ever.

Captain America was not so halted by the appearance. “Attack now!” he commanded, seemingly jarring Carol and Genis back into battle mode. Now that they no longer had to simply block the eyebeams two of the teams heavy hitters were back in the battle. The form that appeared to be Captain Marvel was also seemingly hanging around to dish out some damage to the robot.

The powerful blows of Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Warbird, Namor, Cannonball and…Captain Marvel? began to hammer into the form of the robot with rapid succession. They fell easily into a rhythm of strikes which meant he was always being hit by at least one of them while the others regrouped or re-angled for their own attacks.

The blows became more and more refined as Iron Man managed to detect the stress point on the surface of the robot. The point where it most likely would be breached. He barked out the order and fired a repulsor to mark the spot.

I don’t know if it was just sheer luck or some kind of destiny that he struck the final blow. The one who seemingly turned the battle ended it.

Captain Marvel or whoever he was supposed to be hurtled into the form of Ultimo. The metal cracked and splintered. He was still held back by its form though, the metal not yet at breaking point. He let out a scream and pushed himself forward with more power ploughing into the inside of the machine.

Ultimo seemed to pause for a moment turning his attention to the inside of his own chest then he spasmed seemingly losing all control of his functions. He tottered forward and then crumbled first to his knees and then face down into the centre of the street.

Captain Marvel hovered in the air. In his arms he held what looked like a tonne of wiring, circuit boards and metal. He tossed them simply onto a nearby roof and turned leaving just the trail of light behind him.

Genis and Carol exchanged one silent look with one another and gave chase despite Captain America ordering them back in their ears.

“I’d give it a rest Steve, they’re not coming back,” Iron Man spoke as he landed next to the Sentinel of Liberty.

The spectre of Vision drifted through the metallic form of Ultimo which they were standing near. “Did the first Captain Marvel just fly through me in there?”

The two Avengers turned to their teammate. All they could give him was a shrug.

Warbird and Captain Marvel hurtled over the city following the golden sparkling trail of who appeared to be The very first Captain Marvel.

“He’s fast,” noted Genis. He and Carol were both going near their top speed and he was nowhere to be seen in front of them. “Was he always this fast?” Genis despite being his son and successor had never met the original Captain Marvel. He only knew of him from the stories others had told him. Carol couldn’t blame him for not being sure, the way they all talked about his father she wouldn’t have been surprised if Genis thought Mar-Vell could turn water into wine.

“He was always fast.”

“This fast?”

“No,” Carol shook her head. “He seems a lot stronger now.”

“So looks like my Da…Captain Marvel.” He was silent for a second following his decision on what to call him. Carol noticed. “Certainly has that heart stopping effect people always told me about him but seems a lot stronger. Evidence for and against it being him.” Genis crinkled his brow, he wasn’t going to let hope in. He wasn’t going to start believing he was getting something he had always wanted. He wasn’t going to let some stupid villain plot tear his heart out. “Do you think it could be him?” He turned to Carol and spoke like a lost little boy.

“Only one way to find out,” Carol turned herself up to top speed and Genis followed a second later.

Tim Lee stared up from the street at the two human bullets who raced over the heads of the normal people like himself. “Normal?” he shook his head and continued to walk.

“With any luck by the time they get to the end of that trail and find it doubles back it’ll have faded completely and I’ll be long gone…who is this?” the voice which spoke in his mind spoke with his voice. It indeed felt like his thoughts but he couldn’t understand where it was coming from. He wasn’t some soldier or tactician thinking about covering his tracks, or was he?

He certainly hadn’t thought so up until about fifteen minutes ago. He was Tim Lee, local amnesiac and worker in the planetarium but that was the key part…the amnesia not the planetarium.

Months Ago

The night was cold and wet. It had been pouring with rain for the best part of a week and a half. It sometimes seemed like the rain wasn’t ever going to stop.

The night was a full moon but the thick black clouds had covered and hidden all of it’s light from dancing on the soaking wet flooring. Only the lights of the city gleaming up into the sky lit the streets tonight.

Those lights and the lighting. It crashed and roared (though that’s technically the thunder) overhead through the clouds like they’re made of million Van de Graaff generators rather than water droplets.

Only a fool would be out on a night like this…the streets of New York were fairly busy.

There was this one bolt. People had noticed it, seen it and stopped for a second to look at it again before being driven on by the pounding rain which had them soaked through to the skin. They had better things to do than look at something they probably imagined.

The bolt danced around the clouds in a way bolts don’t do. Sure it could have been different bolts just seeming to move around the clouds but it wasn’t…this wasn’t normal lighting not by any stretch of the imagination.

This was something quite different which merely masqueraded…quite by chance as lighting on this night. It was a ripple of energy, the type of energy seen in many cases and times as dimensions rip, time warps, teleports and who knows how many other events in the wild universe.

It crashed down noisily Kraka-BOOOOM! The litter in the street scattered taking with it scurrying rats and the cats stalking them. It landed with enough power to scorch the ground and flip over the dumpster which resided in the street.

He lay there at the edge of the alley on the street which was slowly becoming deserted. He was cold and soaked, his hair clung to his forehead and the water trickled from his face to the floor as he began to stand. He was reborn.

Now

“That was months ago and I’m no further on…” he stopped and corrected himself mentally. He went to the police and they ran him through the usual procedures, he couldn’t remember anything. There was nothing they could find medically wrong with him. He got put in a programme and found an apartment…’the rat palace’ he moved out of as soon as the cleaning position at the planetarium was upgraded to a tour guide when it turned out he knew just as much about the stars as any of the people there. He didn’t know how he knew what he did but he did…it was much the same way he suddenly understood tactics. He had came far in the past few months but he was not yet any closer to discovering who he was.

Well he hadn’t been up until about 20 minutes ago. That was when he saw it…saw them. Ultimo stamping through the city right past the way he was walking for the newspaper on this weeks day off. The Avengers buzzing him like flies.

That’s when it all came flooding back. These were his first glimpse of superheroes that this city was so famous for. It was like a door opened and he walked through. He stepped through into the light. When he stepped through the light he found himself not in his T-shirt and jeans but in his costume. That faded just as soon as he landed and decided he needed to hide.

He knew who he was, or more clearly who he had been. He thought.

He was born in the city of Rad-Nam on the planet Kree-Lar, in the Kree galaxy. He remembered his mother Lar-Nee and father Zor-Vell. He remembered the training academy where he was raised from the age of 8 to be a soldier in the greatest military institution the galaxy had ever known. He rememberd clearly his tours of the galaxy figthing the wars of The Kree.

Coming to Earth as a spy and then changing sides, fighting for the humans instead of against him. Finding a better way of life and something he believed in. Becoming a hero, finding hapiness doing the things he knew he should have always been.

His nature as the protector of the universe and his friends and enemies. The problem was it all got hazy near the end. An image of himself kept coming back. He was dying, he remembers dying…but not actually the death. Lying on his deathbed with his friends around him and then suddenly nothing. He remembers the feelings of confusion and lack of memory but now it seems so ridiculous. He should have always known who he was.

No sooner did he see The Avengers then it came back. This however raised another question to his mind. “Why did I run?” Once he knew who he was, knew his friends and was with them why did he feel he needed to get away.

The confusion in his mind answered the question for him. Whilst he knew who he was he didn’t. He was Tim Lee with the memories of Mar-Vell at the moment. The emotions and ideas of Tim Lee were the freshest and strongest in his mind. He felt like one man with the memories of another…and yet he was Mar-Vell. He knew it, he could feel it. He was Mar-Vell.

He had walked several blocks before he knew it. He’d wandered lost in his own thoughts and now he found himself outside his own apartment building. He began to climb the stoop to his front door lifting his head as he got there as the door opened.

Minnie smiled at him. “Hey Tim…you okay you don’t look to well?” Minnie was his next door neighbour. She lived with her daughter Susanne ‘Suzy’. She had beautiful dark hair and full dark lips. She was a doctor in the local ER. She was currently dressed casually so was obviously not on her way to work.

A second figure walked through the door pulling a jacket on. She was nothing like her mother. Well that was a lie, they looked similar and had the same full lips and startling blue eyes which made Tim think of ‘home’…which was strange for an amnesiac but it made him feel good. She had much fairer skin and her hair was as blonde as his. “Hey Mr Lee…Tim,” Suzy spoke correcting herself as he always told her.

“Morning, are you two off anywhere nice? Isn’t it a little late for the school run?”

Suzy shot a furtive look to her mother. Minnie waved her hand and smiled gently. “It’s terrible I know…especially for a doctor but I figured I’ve got this one day off in the next three weeks so Suzy and I should spend it together. She’s got someone picking up her assignments so where’s the harm really?”

Tim…Mar….He whoever he was smiled. “Hey I’m not the truant officer. I can’t blame you. Though with everything I know about the stars I’m betting I was a science geek,” he smiled. It was a disingenuous smile this time. Yesterday that would have been exactly like him but now he felt he was lying. He knew something about himself, he knew about his life but yet still that sentence rolled off his tongue.

Minnie seemed to notice his faltering. “You okay Tim?”

He shook his head slightly, a smile was spread across his face. “I’m fine. Just feeling a little foggy again, as usual. I should just lie down.”

“Don’t knock it, fog in amnesia can be a good thing. Something coming back slowly.” Minnie smiled as she patted him on the shoulder gently. “I’d put my feet up and try to get some sleep. I’ll check in on you when we get back.”

He nodded then waved the two women goodbye as they walked down the stairs and along the street. He went inside closing the door behind him and began to climb the stairs to his apartment.

He went through the door and dropped down on his sofa. He wasn’t planning on falling asleep. He’d only gotten up an hour or two ago and the fact was his mind was racing. Every couple of seconds he would get a new memory from his life back, they were all there but he was reliving them as if for the first time. Little snatches here and there. Still the second his head touched the soft back of the sofa cushion he was out for the count.

He dreamed. He dreamed for the first time that he could remember. He dreamed of the Magellan cloud of the Kree Galaxy the first time he saw it from a galaxy away. His home.

He dreamt of the first time he saw Earth…and a memory of leaving Earth. He looked down on it thinking it could be the last time he ever saw it. Was it? He didn’t know. All of that was still hazy and unreachable to him.

When he woke up the sun was setting. “Brilliant use of the day Mar,” he said to himself with a shake of the head. Then he realised what he had done, he had called himself by his name, his first name.

He found his memories no longer flooding back to him. They were just there in the back of his mind. He thought of himself as Mar-Vell of the Kree. That was who he was and he knew it.

He looked down at his T-shirt and closed his eyes. He felt the energy build within his body before he unleashed it. When he opened his eyes he caught sight of his own reflection. He was in his uniform.

He smiled at it. The red and the blue, the face mask. Even though to him it seemed like it was so recently (other than this morning) since he wore it he knew it hadn’t been. He remembered the last year he could remember clearly and he remembered what year it was now. Time had passed, it may have been years since he had done this.

One reason he smiled was he could see himself. This was the first time in a long time he could remember looking in a reflective surface without seeing the face of Rick Jones looking back. “Rick?” he queried, the memories of his friend suddenly at the forefront of his mind.

He closed his eyes and tried to access his cosmic awareness. It was this power which linked him to everyone and everything in the universe. It was this which allowed him to be the protector of the universe. There was nothing there, it felt like he was trying to grasp at something in a darkened room, something he knew was there but was suddenly just out of his reach.

“Eon?” he queried as he looked around himself half expecting his apartment to fade away to nothing at the presence of the being Eon. “EON!” he yelled as nothing happened.

“Where are you?” He queried to himself, Eon was essentially omnipotent. He should have been there within an instant to speak to his selected champion. This was disconcerting to him but yet it was just another thing which had changed.

He opened the window of his apartment and looked out at the city before drifting through it gently and into the air. He began to rise rapidly. He had never really bothered with a secret identity once he stopped being a spy but at the moment he felt he needed to hold onto Tim Lee, that identity was as much a part of him as Mar-Vell was.

He flew over the city. Everything had changed and yet nothing had. The city was the same as ever. There were however two major differences, the lack of one of his favourite landmarks which he could stand upon and see the whole city. The towers having fallen in between the time he stopped being Mar-Vell and becoming Tim Lee.

It wasn’t just the city he realised which had changed but himself just as much as the people in it. What had happened to him? So much of his memory had been obliterated…was he lost all of this time like Namor had once been.

He shook his head. That wasn’t right, he could remember it… lay dying. Had he been put in stasis? He knew from his experience with some of his own people put in a deep enough freeze that sometimes memories can be damaged. Was he still sick and dying now? He swore in Kree mentally, for all he knew he’d been pulled forward in time. The fuzzy memories could have simply been some sort of feedback of crossing his own timeline, did that mean he had to go back to die?

The Avengers themselves had changed. This was to be expected no doubt, they always had a fluid line up but in the fight he could have sworn he had seen Namor. The arrogant king of Atlantis, it was hard to imagine any turn around in that man which would result in him being allowed into their hallowed ranks.

The other Captain Marvel was also a surprise. He had heard the black skinned hero that as he hovered on the outskirts of the battle trying to figure out what this flood of memories meant. He wore a similar uniform to his own.

Carol or as he used to know her Ms. Marvel was a different case. They had always been close…if that was the word for what they had and her powers were derived in a round about way from him. Thanks to the Psycho-Magnatron which was Kree tech used on her by one of his enemies so her using his name and a derivative of his costume was understandable.

This other Captain Marvel however he had no prior knowledge of. What could have possessed him to take on the name and uniform were not something he could understand.

He touched down a building and looked across the battle scene he had been at that very morning. The area was still sectioned off by police, SHIELD and the fire brigade as they went about their various business cleaning up the area and dismantling the giant robot so it could be moved.

“It’s important to recon on unknown advanced alien tech in case it has any surprises waiting” his voice told him. Again it came like something he had learned regurgitated exactly how he had learned it.

He lifted off into the air again. SHIELD could handle the clean up, anything went wrong and he was sure they’d have the tech or the numbers of the superheroes to deal with the situation.

The city drifted by below him again as he slowly moved across the city leaving his golden trail of energy behind him.

He drifted through the air for several minutes his head swimming with thought and ideas. What he should do next and how he could find out the truth about his being here.

The thoughts like his breath were driven out of him as something slammed into his back and dragged him from his position high above the city down to the roof of a building where they both landed with a sickening thud before bouncing apart.

The two rose to face one another in almost perfect synchronicity.

The figure who had tackled him was a white male. He was athletically built and Mar-Vell would have guessed him being in his mid to late twenties. Despite this he seemed to be lacking all hair on his head. He didn’t look like anyone he could remember neither as Mar-Vell or Tim Lee. “Do I know you?”

“You should,” the man’s face screwed up into one of aggression before his entire skin seemed to shimmer and wave like the haze given off with heat. The figure of the white male faded to be replaced by a truly white figure which was a definite humanoid but lacked any real sex.

His form shifted as he saw his own uniform (but a white replica) form across the body of the ‘man’. It shifted to green as white stars began to form over his skin mimicking the look of the other Captain Marvel. “I hope this jogs your memory.”

Mar-Vell recognised him instantly now. He spoke his name as the figure began to charge a blast of energy from what appeared to be Nega Bands. “The Super-Adaptoid?!”

NEXT: “Captain Marvel” versus The Super-Adaptoid! Plus Warbird, Captain Marvel and trust me, a cliff hangar you’re going to want to read! Oh and we may find out some more about our lost hero.